Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, & Marc Quiñones Honor Allman Brothers Band With Stripped-Down “Midnight Rider” Cover
With the help of producer Tony Succar, Allman Brothers Band percussionist Marc Quiñones paid tribute to his former band and its late leader Gregg Allman with a touching rendition of “Midnight Rider”. Recruiting former ABB bandmates, guitarist Derek Trucks and Oteil Burbridge, this stripped-down trio version features the Bronx-born Quiñones on lead vocals and congas.The song was recorded down in Florida at Unity One Studio in Miami and Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi‘s home studio in Jacksonville. Let’s hope these guys get together to bless us with some more beautiful music sooner rather than later. Check out their version of the classic Allman’s number below.“Midnight Rider”:[via Tony Succar]
This post is co-authored by Youssef Serghat, a Solution Architect at Dell Digital Business ServicesPaving the way for an integrated and coordinated Health Information Exchange system following the VA modelWhen it comes to quality, cost-effective and evidence-based treatments, U.S. Veteran’s Administration (VA) healthcare system rarely comes to the mind of most Americans. In his book “Best Care Anywhere,” Phillip Longman describes why VA, contrary to the public perception, today is considered the safest, most effective and integrated healthcare delivery system in the world.Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), is a bundle of thousands of programs that were collaboratively developed and integrated by doctors and programmers in VA healthcare facilities across the country. Today, VistA is open source software, considered the most comprehensive Electronic Health Records (EHR) application in the U.S., and embraced by many countries around the world. What makes VistA effective is its obsession on delivering the best-value care, with a focus on long-term patient care. This focus prevents medical errors and follows a best-in-class model for medical studies. VistA accomplishes this coordinated care through interoperability and the use of its unique and highly integrated EHR system.The successes realized by the VA integrated IT model were objectives of the Health Information Exchange (HIE) initiatives. However, these HIEs came short in creating a truly integrated and interoperable electronic health information exchange that is focused on improving efficiency and cost in both the delivery process and patient outcomes. The complexity of HL7 standards and failure to use EHR systems in a more meaningful way are two main factors for HIEs shortcomings.New government incentives and Meaningful Use requirements, along with HL7 FHIR standards and open source technology are designed to support the creation of a truly integrated Health Information Exchange (HIE) ecosystem that follows the VA healthcare model.Meaningful UseMeaningful Use (MU) is one of the key features of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH), which is part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2009. The goal of MU is to encourage the use of EHRs in a more meaningful, coordinated and integrated way. In their book “Hacking Healthcare,” Fred Trotter and David Uhlman describe MU as “an attempt by the U.S. government to define the baseline for what a clinician using EHR should be able to accomplish.” They also describe how Meaningful Use will be “at the heart of healthcare reform in the United States for the next several decades.”Before the creation of Meaningful Use requirements, the VA healthcare system accomplished most of the goals set in the three stages of Meaningful Use using its common integrated EHR system, coordinated and shared among all VA facilities around the world. Hospitals within the digitized VA system can deliver more services because their common digital records allow doctors and clinics to better-coordinate complex treatment regimens throughout the life of their patientsOpen API-driven FHIR redefines interoperability and integrationThere are more than 1000 certified EHR systems in production today, most of them proprietary. Developed over the last 20 years, these EHR systems have been — and are — supporting a number of HL7 standards including V2, V3 and CDA. However, these standards are complex and difficult to integrate. A broader and widely accepted, simple yet powerful standard was required to address the fast growing need for seamless information flow in the healthcare ecosystem. Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is the new HL7 that is intended to address this gap and simplify health information exchange. FHIR considers implement-ability as its most fundamental precept. It defines a flexible framework for interoperability, and leverages open source development and common web technologies including HTTP, REST, XML and JSON and simplify healthcare information exchangeFHIR enables a granular way to exchange data by using RESTful style approach. FHIR solutions are built from a set of modular components called “Resources.” Data Access Framework (DAF) leverages HL7 FHIR, C-CDA and existing IHE standards to standardize access to Meaningful Use data located in EHR or in other systems of records.FHIR is simple, easy to understand, easy to implement and has wider applicability than all the standards that we had in Healthcare so far for integration and interoperability needs. FHIR is expected to help providers achieve meaningful use in a more efficient manner. FHIR and REST APIs are actually much beyond enabling interoperability; they are also expected to revolutionize healthcare ecosystem by fueling innovation and digital health and enabling creation of “smart apps.”An implementation approachAn important and major step in the FHIR and REST APIs implementation process to support HIE is the data mapping from the EHR and other systems of record. It’s important to select tools or implement generic and extensible mapping interfaces and avoid being locked in a proprietary or rigid framework in this step.FHIR is not a security protocol, and it does not define any security related functionality. OAuth is well recognized open standards for authentication and can be integrated to support security access to FHIR RESTful APIs.Figure 1, shows steps involved in implementing FHIR RESTful APIs based on DAF Profiles and OAuth for supporting Health Information Exchange.Armed with HL7 FHIR standards, DAF Profiles, RESTful APIs, and other open source technology, organizations can join an ecosystem that supports standard Health Information Exchange, adapts to the implementation of Meaningful Use, and facilitates the creation of clinical and smart apps.Figure 2: Health Information Exchange powered by FHIR, DAF standards and open source technologyA moving targetThe success of the VA healthcare model is the result of its continued focus on implementing efficiency in the delivery process and improving patient outcomes through coordination and the use of its integrated EHR system.Meeting Meaningful Use (MU) regulations requires digital innovation in data interoperability, security and accelerated time-to-value. MU is a moving target, and its requirements will keep evolving to improve medical care, reduce cost and create opportunities that can only be possible when healthcare providers, researchers, clinics and patients can share data easily. In his book The Creative Destruction of Medicine, How the digital revolution will create better healthcare Dr. Eric Topol describes how “Medicine is about to go through its biggest shakeup in history.” Dr. Topol lays out a vision for how technologies, including wireless sensors, genomics, imaging, health information systems, the Internet and social networks, will converge to create new, individualized medicine. MU will certainly evolve with this new individualized medicine. The integrated healthcare system will increasingly become a cornerstone of healthcare delivery transformation driven by information and digital technologies. To achieve a truly integrated healthcare, FHIR and open APIs are a critical next step.About the co-authorYoussef Serghat is a Solution Architect at Dell Digital Business Services. He has led and contributed to a number of enterprise and cloud integration solutions supporting customers in telecommunication, airline, e-commerce, aerospace and healthcare industries. He started his 20 years IT career when CORBA was the standard and the facto in enterprise integration and today he is using SOA, ESB, and APIs, to solve enterprise and cloud integration unique challenges.
I continue to be inspired by the progress we’ve made at Dell Technologies and the opportunity we have to lead the industry towards change and driving human progress. While we have a long way to go to balance the workforce and our society, more can be done when we commit to taking action together.I look forward to continuing this important conversation, and I invite you to join it with me by following @womensday on Twitter and using the hashtags #IWD2019 and #BalanceforBetter. Today at Dell Technologies, we join the world to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD)! This global celebration is all about how we can collectively work together to recognize women’s achievements, raise awareness against issues like bias, and create a more gender-balanced world.Gender balance is essential for economies and communities to thrive, which is why the theme of this year’s IWD is “Balance for Better.” When we invest in women, they invest in their communities. This presents an economic opportunity, as well as breaks existing barriers to put the wheels of cultural change in motion.At Dell Technologies, cultivating an inclusive culture is a top priority. We see underrepresentation as a critical issue, given job roles in technology are exponentially growing as we simultaneously face a severe talent shortage. By the year 2024, there will be 1.1 million technology-related job openings in the U.S.; however, the current candidate pool will only fill less than half of these jobs. Expanding the pipeline and bringing in traditionally underrepresented groups – including women – is critical for business and closing the future skills gap.Our collective efforts are our biggest opportunity for change. Many of our customers have also taken big steps to hire women, put more women in leadership roles and eliminate bias in their organizations. I am proud to say these collective efforts across the industry are paying off. Today, 20 percent of the Fortune 500 global CIOs are now women (according to Boardroom Insiders), compared to about 16 percent the year before. Hiring of women among top tech companies has also reached 34 percent, up from 29 percent the year before.While we’ve certainly made progress, let’s not forget – there is still much work to be done. According to IDC, 56 percent of women feel underrepresented in STEM fields. So, what can be done to make progress, bring in underrepresented groups and address the talent shortage?Here’s how we’re making #balanceforbetter real at Dell Technologies:Investing where it matters: Over the last five years, we’ve invested nearly $70 million in STEM.Focusing on breaking specific barriers: We’ve joined coalitions such as Reboot Representation which seeks to double the number of women of color graduating with computing degrees by 2025 and the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, which addresses key barriers to entry for underrepresented groups.Leveraging technology for progress: Our team is exploring ways to use artificial intelligence to eliminate personal bias from recruiting and hiring, ensuring we can fill unmet job requirements and create the best possible workforce.Having candid conversations to get to the root issues: Our Many Advocating for Real Change (MARC) training engages leaders in candid conversations about the role of gender and diversity in the workplace, as well as topics such as unconscious bias, privilege and inclusive leadership. We have set a goal to have all 145,000 team members complete our MARC unconscious bias program by the end of 2020.
Student Senate had its last meeting of semester on Wednesday evening. Marisa Olsen and Louis Bertolotti, directors of the First Undergratuate Experience in Leadership (FUEL), presented their concerns about the new traditions associated with the Celtic chant during football games.According to Olsen, the freshmen on FUEL are concerned by the “negative representation” of Notre Dame when students chant expletives directed towards Zahm on national television.“The chant does not reflect well on the Catholic University and the strong tradition in faith that we have here,” Bertolotti said. “We are one family and this is something that we can change to better the University.”Olsen and Bertolotti suggested using Frosh-O as a way to change the cheer. FUEL suggests simply teaching different words to chant during the Celtic Chant to avoid cursing at football games.“This isn’t necessarily a tradition as it only began two or three years ago,” Bertolotti said. “But we most definitely want to keep it from becoming a tradition.”The group had mixed opinions about the issue at hand. Michael Wajda, co-chair of Hall President’s Council, said he was totally unaware of the chant and had never heard it been used before. Olsen and Bertolotti encouraged the group to step up and make this change happen.“We want you as student leaders to project the changes to the student body to bring us together as a family,” Bertolotti said.Senate also focused on the discussion of student safety on campus. Vidal said during his meeting with local law enforcement on Dec. 10 to discuss off campus safety, the police gave good tips for securing off campus homes during break.“We are going to post a webinar link soon so that students have the opportunity to ask the law enforcement questions live about campus safety,” Vidal said.As the meeting was the last of the semester, Senate plans to continue the 29 for 29 initiative and the discussion about campus safety during the spring semester.
“The Color Purple,” Cynthia Erivo View Comments “The Bitch of Living,” Daniel Durant “My Shot,” Lin-Manuel Miranda Hamilton “I’m Here,” Cynthia Erivo “The Room Where It Happens,” Leslie Odom Jr. “Vanilla Ice Cream,” Laura Benanti Related Shows
“Totally Fucked,” Austin McKenzie (Photos: Matthew Murphy & Joan Marcus) “Satisfied,” Renée Elise Goldsberry From brand-spankin’ new musicals to revivals that have had fans shouting “hallelujah,” Broadway’s 2015-2016 season has been music to our ears. When it comes to spontaneously breaking into song in public places, wearing out cast albums or trying to master choreography in our bedrooms, we’ve all been guilty ones this year. Of the many Main Stem musical numbers that have kept fans oh-em-geeing over high notes and dance breaks, we cannot forget those that left us at a loss for words. Here are the top 10 show-stopping numbers that left you speechless this season! “She Used to Be Mine,” Jessie Mueller “Burn,” Phillipa Soo from $149.00
Students and families are encouraged to participate in the second annual Great Georgia Pollinator Census on August 21-22 coordinated by University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.About 4,500 participants documented more than 131,000 insect sightings as part of the inaugural census in 2019, and more than 100 events related to the project took place around the state. This year’s count may look a bit different with social distancing recommendations in place, but organizers are encouraging participants to plan on counting pollinators at home, whether solo or with their families.Census takers are asked to count pollinators on a favorite pollinator plant with abundant insect activity for 15 minutes each day using the provided observation sheet.“The goals of the project are to gather data on pollinator insect populations, foster pollinator habitats and increase entomological literacy about these insects,” said Becky Griffin, UGA Extension school garden and pollinator census coordinator. She modeled the program on the Great Backyard Bird Count, a citizen science program run by Cornell University that asks people to count the birds they see in their backyard.If you can’t tell a honey bee from a bumble bee, don’t worry. An Insect Counting and Identification Guide gives detailed instructions on counting and photo examples for classification, which is helpful, since there are more than 500 bee species reported in the state. Insects are categorized into one of eight categories during the observation period:Bumble beesCarpenter beesSmall beesHoney beesWaspsFliesButterflies and mothsOther insectsThose interested in counting should visit ggapc.org to sign up and subscribe to the monthly newsletter about pollinator gardening and insect identification. The project’s Facebook group, Georgia Pollinator Census, has grown to nearly 1,500 members and includes many educational resources including videos and files available for teachers to use in the classroom like “Honey Bee Roles.”“Schools doing STEAM projects are also welcome, and the census can be administered remotely for teachers whose schools are meeting virtually,” explained Griffin. An educator page, including lesson plans for download, is also available at ggapc.org.For more information including publications on recommended plants to attract pollinators, visit extension.uga.edu/topic-areas/timely-topics/pollinators.
As noted in the last update, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) has finalized a new Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) rule that raises the minimum salary threshold required to qualify for a “white collar” overtime pay exemption to $47,476 per year, which is $913 per week. The current threshold is $23,660/year ($455/week). This salary threshold must be met regardless of whether an employee’s job duties satisfy a particular exemption’s requirements. The threshold will be adjusted to automatically increase every three years based on a formula set out by DOL. The new regulation also allows employers to use nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments (e.g. commissions) to meet as much as ten percent of the new required salary threshold. A new threshold salary for the highly-compensated employee exemption is set at $134,004 annually (currently set at $100,000 annually). No changes were made to the various exemption job duties tests. Employers must comply with the new DOL rule by no later than December 1, 2016.Tips on Dealing with New DOL Overtime Exemption RegulationsOne legal commentator has suggested that employers take five steps to deal with the new FLSA overtime regulations. First, “review work classifications” to determine which jobs will remain exempt (with salary increases if they pay less than $913 per week) and which will be reclassified as non-exempt. Second, “bolster training” as needed, for example newly-reclassified employees will need instruction on how to record all their hours worked. Moreover, supervisors will need to be reminded on legal requirements related to any of their newly-reclassified employees. Third, “rethink telecommuting and travel policies” because previously-exempt travelling employees must be paid differently once they travel as non-exempt employees. Fourth, “plot out employee conversations” because formerly exempt employees may feel demoted once you reclassify them. Finally, “consider a compliance audit” because while FLSA is on your mind, it is not a bad time to ensure your overall FLSA compliance. continue reading » 11SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr
With a strong economy and an increase in jobs and wages, consumers have more confidence when it comes to their spending habits. These spending habits have impacted the number of loans that lenders are offering to borrowers. While this opens up opportunity for more business, it also increases the risk that lenders face.For lenders, collecting on delinquent accounts can be an expensive proposition. Especially since, as we know, the more delinquent an account becomes, the smaller the chance you’ll be repaid at all. Statistically speaking, financial institutions will see repayment from only 20% of accounts that have been delinquent for more than 180 days, according to The Credit Research Foundation. Your state decides on the amount of time your credit union may use to pursue collection of a debt before you must stop reporting it as an asset and write it off as a loss, often giving up hope of collecting anything at all.Unexpected Costs of Collecting on Past-Due AccountsUnfortunately, when it comes to collecting on delinquent accounts, the unpaid debt is not the only cost that lenders incur. Here are some other expected costs of having to collect on a delinquent account:Reduced (possibly zero) reimbursement for lossesLost interest and fee incomeLost future deposit, investment, and loan relationships from debtors in defaultVendor costs for collectionsAttorney and court feesBackground check fees as the institution works to avoid risky debtors in the futureCredit unions that are unsuccessful at collecting on an overdue account have a few options:Employ an outsourced collections vendor for assistanceSell the debt to a debt buyerPursue a legal judgment in courtReport the unpaid bill to credit bureaus to warn others of the debtor’s historyThe Benefits of Outsourcing Your Collections Activity Lenders must be prepared with a well, thought-out plan to collect on delinquent accounts. While many lenders opt to keep their collections efforts in-house, there are numerous benefits to outsourcing collections. Outsourcing collections allows credit unions to shift their previously committed focus to:Expand on areas with potential growth and focus on the overall strategy to increase their bottom lineEliminate resources focused on back-office processes and utilize that time on efforts that build and grow customer relationshipsAllow employee growth by opening more opportunity to focus on specialized areas other than collectionsOutsourcing collection efforts can be a game changer for many credit union. Whether it be all or a portion of their collections, outsourcing allows lenders to increase their productivity and reduce costs. It can cost a third-party collections team five to 10 times less to collect a dollar than it would cost your credit union.When weighing the benefits of reducing collections costs and still meeting your goals of reducing delinquency and charge offs, consider comparing the costs and benefits of in-house vs. outsourced collections strategies with our collections comparison guide. 8SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr,Jonathan Barkley Jonathan Barkley is a Client Relations Manager for SWBC, responsible for developing new relationships with financial intitution clients, overseeing the day-to-day client interactions, and working with account management teams to … Web: www.swbc.com Details
The statement came at the end of the forum’s second meeting in Windsor, UK. On behalf of supervisors and regulators in 16 jurisdictions, the SIF pinpointed four ways they played a role in supporting the uptake by companies of the recommendations.These included raising awareness of the TCFD and supporting “appropriate aspects” of its advice as a best practice to be considered by insurers in their financial disclosures.The SIF also proposed “working with market actors to build capacity and share tools, including for the development of scenarios and metrics”, and “incorporating relevant insights from climate disclosures into routine supervisory activities”.In the statement, the group described climate change as one of the most serious long-term challenges for the insurance sector and the wider financial system.The signatories said that as risk managers, risk carriers, and investors insurance companies played “a cornerstone role” in the management of climate-related risks and opportunities.Dave Jones, California Insurance Commissioner, said: “As a financial regulator, I believe it is important that financial institutions, including insurance companies, recognise and address potentially significant climate risks facing their investments in coal, oil and gas, and utilities.” Insurance regulators and supervisors from 16 jurisdictions around the world have jointly backed a set of recommendations on how companies in the sector should disclose the climate-related risks affecting their businesses.A statement from the Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF) – an international network of insurance supervisors and regulators – welcomed the recommendations and guidance from the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).At the end of June, the task force released its final recommendations report – a voluntary framework for companies and investors to report climate-related information in their financial filings.This week, insurance supervisors belonging to the SIF – including De Nederlandsche Bank, the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority, and France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Resolution – said a “growing number of insurance supervisors are now taking action to respond to climate-related risks to the sector, with disclosure being a core focus”.
Washington Post 27 January 2015If you thought everyone in the LGBT community wanted gay marriage, you would be wrong. It’s much more nuanced than that.A new chart from Pew, based on 2013 data, shows that 7 percent of LGBT Americans said they oppose same-sex marriage. And another 18 percent said they favor it, but that they didn’t feel strongly.Perhaps most striking, 39 percent of the LGBT community said the marriage fight was taking focus off other issues of import to them.Opposition to gay marriage in the LGBT community, such as it exists, is driven by three groups: LGBT blacks, LGBT Republicans, and bisexual Americans.While 12 percent of the black LGBT community opposed gay marriage, nearly one in five (19 percent) Republicans did, too. Only 45 percent of LGBT Republicans said they strongly favored gay marriage — the lowest of any group. Fifty-eight percent of LGBT blacks said they strongly favor it.http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/01/27/meet-the-lgbt-americans-who-oppose-gay-marriage/