Michael Bay's casting choice is 'an absolutely brilliant move,' industry observers tell MTV News.
By Josh Wigler
Mark Wahlberg
Photo: JB Lacroix/ Getty Images
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1697083/mark-wahlberg-transformers-4.jhtml
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Have you been battling unwanted garden pests?
For three years now deer have been camping out in the wooded area behind my home. The first year I was so pleased to be able to witness their beauty. But slowly they wore out their welcome as they ate their way through my yard like a gang of famished teenagers. There's a myriad of deer repellents on the market, but which ones really keep deer out of the garden for good? Through the years I?ve tested many store bought and homemade remedies and have found only a few truly work on my stubborn deer. I thought I?d share my successful picks with you.
Homemade remedies are easy to make and are the least expensive, so in your battle to save your garden, I recommend you start here. Unfortunately, I have to report none worked on my deer! Homemade repellents contain strong, perfume or spicy scents which are offensive to the deer's highly sensitive sense of smell (Irish Spring soap, Bounce Fabric Softener or chili powder). Another method is to use predator scent, such as the territory markings of a dog or the use of human hair. The final home remedy is a rotten egg or hot pepper spray, both of which render the plant snacks repulsive to the taste.
If you don?t want to mess with homemade remedies, you can purchase ready made sprays that leave the plants distasteful to the deer. Many gardeners say this spray works well for them, however, I found after a few days my deer didn?t mind the smell, and they developed the taste for putrescent eggs solids. This most likely will work for you unless your deer are as stubborn and determined as mine. Two things I did not like about the spray: the smell and the residue. You?ll notice the gag-worthy smell lasts a day and if you spray heavily, you?ll have a white residue on the plant leaves.
Out of frustration, I purchased an air horn but used it only once. It really did the job! Trouble is, it?s much too loud to use in my neighborhood early in the morning when the deer do the most damage.
I did find two gadgets that have helped tremendously. The first is a small, inexpensive solar powered laser that seems to frighten the deer. At night it shoots out a red beam across the yard similar to a high tech security system. The deer sense a predator and scram. I move my laser gadget to different sections of the yard to keep the deer guessing.
The second gadget is a motion sensitive sprinkler that senses the deer from many feet away and shoots a quick burst of water in their direction. The random shots of water really spook the deer. I've used this for the entire summer and for the very first time, my flowers are growing back. I was hesitant to purchase this because I didn?t want to waste water, but I have discovered it is very efficient.
I still have deer visitors but they do mind their manners and stay out of the sprinkler vicinity. They seem to be afraid to enter that portion of my yard even when the sprinkler isn?t set up. So, after a battle of nearly 3 years and many, many experiments, I?ve finally found a way to save my garden from the deer. The sprinkler can be set to activate with small garden pests such as rabbits, racoons and cats, too. If these gadgets worked on my stubborn pests, they'll help you keep deer out of your garden too.
Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/gardening/keep-deer-out-of-garden-for-good
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It really is not so hard to start investing in commercial real estate. You should be sure to research your options before making a move. This article teaches you helpful advice so that you can make the most out of your experience.
Eliminate as many definitions of default (i.e., actions that constitute default) as possible before beginning to negotiate a lease with a new tenant. So a tenant can?t default on a lease they sign with you in this type of situation. A default is frustrating and costly.
You will need to have all of your financial information if you want to procure a commercial real estate loan. Without financial statements, a bank cannot verify your income and will not allow you to borrow money.
Your investment may require a large amount of time to begin with. First, you will need to search for an opportunity and purchase the property, as well as perform any repairs that are required. Do not give up because this process takes too much of your time. The rewards will show themselves later.
Focus on a single investment each time. Your center of attention should be placed on a specific investment, whether it is an office building, land, apartments, retail, etc. You can?t be successful if you try to focus on more than one type of real estate investment at a time. Choose one type of investment and put all your attention on making it successful. It is always more advantageous to be great at one thing than sub-par with many.
Borrowers have to order appraisals with commercial loans. Your bank will refuse the appraisal if you try to submit it. Make sure you have all your paperwork in order before you even apply for your loan.
Use your digital camera to take pictures of the property. The picture needs to show defects like carpet spots, wall holes, or discolored sinks and tubs.
Get the credentials of any person who will be doing an inspection on a property you are trying to buy. Pay particular attention to the credentials of any pest-control experts because many of them are not licensed. This can help you avoid headaches after the sale.
To find a trustworthy real estate firm, inquire about their methods on how they make a lot of their money. The representative?s answer should be open and honest and should make it clear whether or not the interests and principles of the firm are in line with yours. You should understand how they will look out for your interests, and when they might shift their focus to their own profit.
As you already no doubt know, smart commercial real estate investing takes time and research. This article has provided you with a good foundation for you to use in your deals, but continue to learn more and keep up with new opportunities in your area.
Source: http://www.davidstanleyredfern.com/property-overseas/how-to-buy-or-sell-commercial-real-estate-2
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Nick Leopard, 32, on the roof of Accordion's office in downtown Manhattan
FORTUNE -- Pam Hendrickson needed reinforcements. Recently the chief operating officer of the Riverside Co., a private equity firm that owns more than 80 companies on four continents with combined sales of $3.2 billion, was trying to deliver a five-year budget for all of Riverside's operations. She found herself shorthanded -- one key employee was on maternity leave, another had just left -- and the task required masterful financial modeling skills. In a bind, she turned to Nick Leopard. Says Hendrickson: "Anytime we need analytic help, Nick is my first call."
Leopard, 32, is the CEO of Accordion Partners, a financial services consulting firm that he founded in late 2009. Leopard and his team of 25 bankers act as a sort of rapid-response unit that can drop into a private equity firm or one of its portfolio companies and fix problems of all kinds -- temporarily expanding management's capacity, as the name Accordion suggests. "As much as private equity firms push, the management teams at their portfolio companies often can't build extremely complex forecasts," says Leopard. "So then there are surprises that no one saw coming." Leopard specializes in minimizing those unwanted surprises.
MORE: Private equity's golden hangover
A former lacrosse goalie at Saint Joseph's University, Leopard began his career at the commercial lender CapitalSource (CSE) in 2002 before moving to investment banking at Bear Stearns in 2005. In 2007 he joined the investment team at BHC Interim Funding, a $200 million mezzanine debt fund. Along the way he formed a network of future clients like Providence Equity Partners and Riverside.
As the financial crisis unfolded in 2008, Leopard concluded that Wall Street was going to change: Headcounts would shrink, dealmaking would slow, and buyout firms would have to hold on to portfolio companies longer. He sensed an opportunity. "You could see that the buyout firms were going to get strapped but would still want to give their portfolio companies extra help when the economy slowed," he says. Leopard has purposely kept Accordion's business model flexible. For example, his team can advise on M&A transactions like an investment bank. But unlike a bank, which makes fees on completed deals, Accordion bills strictly for its bankers' time. The firm is paid even if the deal doesn't get done, so there's no built-in incentive to push for a bad transaction.
In September, Accordion launched a new practice called CFO Leadership Services. The idea is to help companies manage investor relations, risk management, compliance, and crisis situations. Leopard says he sees another void in the market in those areas. And he's ready to fill it.
This story is from the November 12, 2012 issue of Fortune.
Source: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/10/30/accordion-nick-leopard/
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ReutersRams coach Jeff Fisher, who has lost to Bill Belichick by a combined score of 104-7 in their last two meetings, addressed the media on Tuesday, touching on a variety of topics.
On the question of whether multiple pass interference penalties against St. Louis cornerback Bradley Fletcher were justified, Fisher was surprisingly candid.
?He?s grabbing,? Fisher said. ?He grabbed. When you grab and the ball?s in the air, it?s pass interference. When you grab and the ball?s not in the air, it?s defensive holding. So, in each case, there was hand contact. Sometimes those aren?t called, but I can see what they saw and why they called them.?
Fisher then took a right turn while answering the question, offering up criticism of some calls that went against the Rams.
?I did think that we had a potential offensive pass interference on the ball in the end zone,? Fisher said. ?I was a little disappointed ? they also missed three roughing the passer calls on our quarterback. Those are 15-yard penalties and they keep drives alive. But, as I said, it?s a difficult game to officiate and they?re not going to see everything, but I?d like to have seen [referee Walt Coleman] do a better job of protecting our quarterback.?
Fisher pointed to three specific non-roughing calls ? a hit from Pats linebacker Dont?a Hightower on quarterback Sam Bradford, and then two more occasions on which Bradford was ?hit in the face.?
There?s a chance Fisher will be hit in the wallet. The rules in this regard aren?t always clear.? Just like the rules regarding roughing the passer.
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I recently completed delivering a training session at a client site that took me nearly fully across the country. Using the opportunity to visit friends I don?t get to see too often on the West Coast, I extended the trip to permit me to double up on prospecting with clients in the Pacific time zone and spend some time with my friends. As my friends picked me up at the airport, we immediately fell into the pattern of catching each other up on our businesses, personal pursuits, families, etc. It was during a conversation about the power of the relationships that exists between sales people and their prospects and customers that we both came to a common insight ? loyalty is as fragile as the next interaction?s success.
Training?s Failure
The relationship between customer and sales is critical.
My friends shared that in their business, it is not unusual for sales people to just ?drop in? and try to catch a meeting when and where they can in between other commitments and appointments. In those hurried and harried impromptu discussions, the following invariably happens:
1. The sales person follows some ?script? that is designed to get ?Yes? answers from their prospect (simplistic and obvious questions like, ?is profit important to you and your business?? ? that are guaranteed to get a ?Yes? in response).
2. The sales person makes reference to the friend?s child or family, personal interests, or some other pursuit based on an overheard conversation, photo in the office, or eavesdropping in an attempt to ?build rapport? ? but without any real (or invited) prior discussion between them.
3. The sales person assumes that the friend is prepared to share their needs, wants, desires for the business in a first meeting with a virtual stranger.
The reality is that many sales people never advance past the first meeting or are only given cursory attention when they ?visit? ? and don?t realize that it is because they are following the sales process they have previously been told to use. Because they are so focused on the steps of their training ? they are losing sales opportunities. What is happening is that my friend (and nearly every business owner) is feeling the disconnect that occurs when they are treated as a bit player in someone else?s play. The prospect is expected to read their lines as if a Director and Scriptwriter had staged the interaction with the expectation that there be no variation or deviation. Except, the prospect views it more like an improvisation and is not beholden to the confines of a script. My friend bristles at being expected to comply with an expectation she did not help create nor agree to; and often ends the meeting as soon as she sees the above occurring.
What Does Work
However, in the course of the discussion with my friends; one example did shine through in discussing a particular sales person?s efforts to differentiate from competition. The company this sales woman represented was holding a promotion for end-user customers that offered a rebate if the customer were to purchase a year?s worth of product at one time. A customer of my friends? business complied and made a purchase only to not receive the expected rebate check within the stated timeframes. In pursuing why the rebate was not offered, it seemed the company claimed all sorts of excuses and used various stall and delay tactics that infuriated the customer.
When the rebate was finally released, the customer was dissatisfied and wanted additional compensation for their trouble in securing the original rebate. The requested compensation far exceeded the value of the original rebate and was in no way reasonable; though the customer was clearly frustrated and angry by the series of events that had transpired and was not without reason for expecting some additional customer service efforts.
It was at this point, that the sales person from that company and my friends had a discussion that illuminated the reality of the situation. Here is what the two of them came to recognize as a result of this unfortunate exchange between the end-user and the company:
My friend?s perception:
? The product being sold is interchangeable or nearly the same as many other commercially available products and does not have a unique status or compelling competitive advantage.
? The company supporting the product has no marketplace differentiation that creates a reason to do business with it (and may actually be at a disadvantage if this episode is indicative of how they treat the customers of my friends? business!).
? There is no price, service, logistical, or other business variable that gives the nod in the company?s favor over other competitors.
? The sales person is the ONLY reason that my friends? business continues to do business with the company.
The sales person?s perception:
? The value of the relationship between my friends? business and her company was worth saving and working on (or even improving).
? If the relationship was damaged in any way by the way the company had handled the end-user customer?s situation, then the sales person was prepared to ?make good? on it in any way that the two of them could agree.
? If, in the estimation of my friends, the request by the end-user customer was appropriate (or even if it was inappropriate, but would salvage the relationship between my friends? business and the company), the sales person was going to authorize/find a way to approve the request in an effort to maintain harmony between their businesses.
While my friend and the sales person negotiated what they felt was ?fair compensation? as an offer to the end-user customer among themselves ? what they really were negotiating was their relationship and the strength of loyalty to each other. The end-user customer represented a microscopic amount of business to the sales person?s business, but the relationship with my friends? business was deemed important enough to absorb any additional expense in an effort to make the end-user happy.
My friends further shared that should this sales person leave her current position and be replaced by another sales person, the goodwill generated by this sales person would not transfer to the replacement. Loyalty has to be re-earned with each new relationship or interaction and is constantly set back to zero when an event occurs that calls that loyalty into question.
Source: http://blog.ctnews.com/zahn/2012/10/27/loyalty-customer-service-and-sales/
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Randy Florke--a Country Living contributor who has also been featured in the New York Times and on the Today show--presents the most accessible (and easiest) decorating primer ever created. His beautiful and affordable heartland sensibility, which he refers to as "anti keeping up with the Joneses," is irresistible.
Interior decorator and Country Living contributing editor Randy Florke hails from Iowa-and his inviting design style captures the warmth and homey appeal of heartland America. Every beautiful color photograph here presents real-life examples of rooms that radiate charm and practically invite readers to step inside and make themselves at home. Using a friendly, personal approach, Florke explores what he calls the "three muses" of design: comfort, economy, and color. Comfort resides in line-dried quilts and overstuffed sofas. Economy means items chosen from flea markets, thrift stores, or grandmother's attic. Country color is the faded blue of crockery and the pale shades of damask tablecloths. Anyone hoping to transform a home from ordinary to extraordinary will find thrifty and stylish ways to design. A Selection of the Homestyle Book Club.
Having traveled the world as a model, Randy Florke takes great pleasure in mixing his far-flung influences with those from his boyhood days on a Midwestern farm. His busy life includes a growing family and homes in New York City, Larrabee, Iowa and Sullivan County, New York.
Source: http://today-cooking.blogspot.com/2012/10/country-living-your-house-your-home.html
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