arunlal: August 2013

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Disneyland behaviours everyone ends up doing

By Ken Y-N ( August 11, 2013 at 14:24) ? Filed under Polls, Rankings

It?s now the holiday week in Japan, and that means that Disneyland and Disney Sea will no doubt be packed to the gunwales with tourists. (That reminds me, I must find some statistics on the most popular tourist attractions in Japan!) So, this survey from goo Ranking looks at what people who go to Disneyland tend to end up doing.

Demographics

Between the 31st of May and 3rd of June 2013 1,069 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were female, 24.8% in their teens, 24.9% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.4% in their forties; there was no-one older than 49 in this sample. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Here?s someone doing a number 6, I suspect.

Tokyo Disneyland

Note that buying souvenirs (and other general Disney tat) features very heavily. Despite living 500 kilometers away from The Magic Kindgom, it seems, for instance, that almost every teenage schoolgirl I see has a Duffy bear doll hanging off their schoolbags.

And before you ask, no, I don?t know the difference between number 2 and number 7!

Ranking result

Q: What do you tend to end up doing when you go to Disneyland? (Sample size=1,069)

Rank ? Score
1 I wave like a madman at the characters on the parade floats 100
2 I choose souvenirs based on the cuteness of the container 97.6
3 Since I?m there, buy lots of stuff and end up overeating 94.1
4 In order to ride as many attractions as possible, I set up a precise plan 86.5
5 I make a mad dash for the Fast Pass tickets as soon as the park opens 80.3
6 I photograph even the characters I don?t recognise 69.6
7 I choose souvenirs based on the cuteness of the packaging over the contents 67.5
8 As I hate to leave, stay right until the park closes 64.4
9 Even though I think it will be crowded then, do my souvenir shopping just before the park closes 54.3
10 I ride the same attraction multiple times on the same day 52.9
11 I get all excited queueing up waiting for the park to open 49.1
12 I end up buying more souvenirs for myself than for other people 46.0
13 I yell out character names at the top of my voice during the parade to try to get them to look at me 39.8
14 I get completely engrossed in trying to find hidden Mickeys 34.6
15 My friends and I end up buying all the same kinds of souvenirs (eg Mickey, Minnie, Donald, etc headbands) 31.5
16 Although I came with a group, we split up and all do our own things separately 22.8
17 I wear my Mickey Mouse ears, etc, all the way back to home 22.1
18 As I get on rides, I wave to the people waiting 21.8
19 At the photo spot on rides, I make sure to put on a good face, pose 18.0
20 As soon as I enter the part, I make a mad dash to buy the souvenirs I definitely must have 16.6

Read more on: disneyland,goo ranking

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WhatJapanThinks/~3/hUti54StbTQ/

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DeKalb teen stays with bikers to help tornado victims

DeKALB ? It may be the middle of August, but 17-year-old Isaac Truckenbrod isn?t preparing to go back to school.

Truckenbrod, who is home-schooled, is readying for a three-month stay with a group of motorcyclists in Oklahoma. He will pick up where he left off last month with recovery efforts after tornadoes ravaged part of that state.

?I was talking to my parents and decided that I would rather help the people down there than sit in DeKalb,? Truckenbrod said. ?My parents said that as long as I could maintain my studies, it would be fine with them.?

Boy Scout Troop 33, which is based out of the First Lutheran Church in DeKalb, returned from a week?s worth of recovery efforts near Moore, Okla., on July 7, but it left Truckenbrod behind for an additional two weeks.

When the group, which included eight boys and two adults, first reached Oklahoma, its members found they could have the most effect away from the Moore area that garnered the most headlines. A tornado the day before had deeply hit a mobile home neighborhood called Steelman Estates near Shawnee, Okla.

?Out of 94 homes, 83 were destroyed,? Scoutmaster Cliff Golden said. ?... All the agencies came to their aid, but then the very next day the Moore tornado hit, and everyone left because they needed to. ... Whatever we did, we wanted to do something that would have the most impact. That was definitely the place.?

The Scouts met up with a motorcycle group called the U.S. Defenders that had set up a relief camp.

?We drove up, and they applauded our arrival,? Golden said. ?I was surprised by that. ... They were expecting a semi very soon, and until we got there, they didn?t have a crew to unload it.?

The troop handed out gift cards to those in need, helped demolish homes using safety gear donated by 3M and assisted with cooking duties. Not long into their stay there, the bikers took Truckenbrod under their wing, and two days before the Scouts were to depart for home, the Defenders asked Truckenbrod to stay.

?In a day?s time, I managed to convince my parents that it would be safe for me to stay with a group of bikers in a disaster zone,? he said. ?It?s not usual to leave a Scout behind 800 miles from home.?

The bikers took to calling Truckenbrod by his new nickname ? Scout ? and tasked him with cooking to help feed between 50 and 200 people daily, unloading trucks and various odd jobs.

Golden said his troop has never thought twice about traveling to help others. Members of his troop have taken trips to help after Hurricanes Ike, Katrina and Sandy.

?Typically you think of Boy Scouts as out backpacking, climbing mountains or scuba diving ? those things,? Golden said. ?And we?ve traveled a thousand miles or whereever to do those things, but we thought, well, if we can travel to do those things, then we can travel to do these things.?

There are 34 hours, 44 minutes remaining to comment on this story.

Source: http://www.daily-chronicle.com/2013/08/09/dekalb-teen-stays-with-bikers-to-help-tornado-victims/afbspnh/

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The man who gave us 'Dufnering' leads at the PGA

Jason Dufner lines up a putt on the eighth hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Jason Dufner celebrates after a birdie on the 11th hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Jason Dufner reacts after missing a birdie putt on the 17th hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Tiger Woods hits from the fairway on the first hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Tiger Woods reacts to his shot out of the rough on the second hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) ? Jason Dufner is that guy who was caught on camera slumped against a classroom wall, gazing straight ahead with a blank stare, arms rigidly by his side.

"Dufnering," they called it.

He became an Internet sensation.

Maybe by the time he leaves Oak Hill, Dufner will be known as something else.

Major champion.

Dufner teed off Saturday with a two-stroke lead at the PGA Championship, coming off a record-tying performance in the second round. He shot a 7-under 63, becoming just the 24th player to go that low in a major championship.

"To join history, to shoot 63 in a major, that's pretty unbelievable," Dufner said. "To be leading the tournament, even better."

Adam Scott, Jim Furyk and Matt Kuchar were the closest pursuers, while eight other players were lurking within five shots of the lead.

Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods were nowhere close on a warm, sunny day in western New York.

Lefty, who won the British Open just three weeks ago, was in a next-to-last place among the 75 players making the cut after an ugly 78. He had a triple-bogey at the seventh, then a double-bogey at the 14th when he chipped in through the green twice before finally getting one to stick.

Coming off a seven-stroke victory at the Bridgestone, Woods turned in another mediocre round (73) that ensured another year without a major title. He walked off the course a staggering 13 shots behind Dufner before the leader even teed off.

Woods will climb to 0-for-18 in the majors since his last win at the 2008 U.S. Open.

While the wind picked up and the course seemed to playing tougher than the first two days, there were still chances to go low. Dustin Johnson shot a 65. Kevin Streelman signed for a 66.

For Dufner, the weekend provided a chance to shake off the low point of his pro career, when he squandered a four-stroke lead with four holes to play at the 2011 PGA in Atlanta.

After losing to Keegan Bradley in a playoff, Dufner didn't seem too upset. He said matter-of-factly that he expected to get more chances on the major stage.

"What's happened in the past with me in majors is in the past," Dufner said. "I'm still trying to chase it, still trying to learn from the mistakes I made in prior majors."

There weren't many mistakes on Friday. Dufner holed out from the fairway for eagle, rolled in a putt across the green for par and kept making birdies ? five in all ? until he stood 12 feet away from a shot at the lowest score in the 153 years of championship golf. He didn't give it a chance, coming up 18 inches short and acknowledging a case of the nerves for the first time all day.

"You couldn't have a better putt for a chance at history on the last hole," Dufner said. "I just didn't quite hit it hard enough."

Dufner tied the 36-hole record (9-under 131) at the PGA, a mark he now shares with six other players. His 63 broke the course record at Oak Hill held by Ben Hogan, Curtis Strange and Webb Simpson, who shot 64 about five hours earlier Friday. Dufner became the 24th player to shoot 63 in a major ? Greg Norman and Vijay Singh, both in the Hall of Fame, did it twice.

Dufner's popularity has grown since April, when someone took that photo of him during a charity event as the teacher taught children how to relax and concentrate.

He embraced the craze, which seems to fit perfectly with his laid-back approach.

Scott, playing in the final group Saturday with Dufner, was in the hunt on the weekend for the fourth time in the last six majors. Furyk and Kuchar in the next-to-last group joined Scott at 133. Henrik Stenson, a runner-up at Muirfield, and U.S. Open winner Justin Rose were at 134, only three shots behind. Steve Stricker and Robert Garrigus were another shot back.

After his historic round, Dufner gave up his cap, shirt and glove to the PGA for its museum.

The prize he really wants is the Wanamaker Trophy.

"I'm looking forward to a good weekend," Dufner said, "and maybe closing one of these out."

___

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-08-10-PGA%20Championship/id-ff56f928c28f42dba89e60ac0ee38073

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Saturday, August 10, 2013

China encourgages more moms to breastfeed, with recent safety scares related to infant formula

How many infant formula crises do we still need to convince mothers and policy makers that breast is best?

By DIDI TANG

BEIJING ? With her 1-day-old son propped against her in a hospital bed nursing, Qi Wenjuan says she has no desire to feed her child with infant formula.

"I don't trust baby formula," the first-time mother said, lying in the maternity ward of Beijing's Tiantan Hospital. "There are too many quality problems."

Qi, however, is in the minority in China, where most newborns are fed ? sometimes exclusively ? with infant formula within the first six months of their lives.

China's rates of breast-feeding are among the world's lowest. But health workers and the government are trying to revive the practice, and a drumbeat of safety scares over commercially produced milk is giving them new leverage.

Visitors to Internet forums for new parents are posting comments about the benefits of breast-feeding and the potential hazards with formula.

"The risks of formula feeding are increasingly clear to the Chinese public," Dr. Robert Scherpbier, chief of health and nutrition for UNICEF China, said in a recent email.

His comment came after China's government ordered a recall of formula imported from New Zealand because of contamination fears.

"How many infant formula crises do we still need to convince mothers and policy makers that breast is best?" Scherpbier said.

Only about 28 percent of Chinese infants younger than 6 months are breast-fed exclusively, well below the global average of about 40 percent, according to UNICEF China.

China's Cabinet has announced a goal of raising that to at least 50 percent by 2020. Official initiatives include a joint effort by UNICEF and the government's National Center for Women's and Children's Health to encourage Chinese employers to add rooms for new mothers to breast-feed in hopes of encouraging the practice.

"Breast-feeding is safe, universally available and free," Scherpbier said. "So there is no reason why mothers should use infant formula when they can breast-feed."

Health experts say breast-feeding is the best source of nutrition for newborns, increasing babies' immune systems and reducing their chances of obesity in adulthood. They also say breast-fed children have higher IQs and are less likely to have chronic diseases such as diabetes.

Breast-feeding rates in China began to drop in the 1970s with the introduction of baby formula and hit a low in the '80s, according to a study by Dr. Colin Binns of Australia's Curtin University and his Chinese colleagues published in the International Breastfeeding Journal in 2009.

"Probably because of aggressive marketing of imported baby milk powder, people thought the baby formula was more nutritious," said nurse Yang Xiaoping, a 24-year veteran of Tiantan Hospital's maternity ward.

China's exclusive breast-feeding rates might have declined in recent years, Scherpbier said. However, data that would make the trend clear are not available.

Many Chinese workplaces give new mothers no way to nurse. Urban mothers usually get no more than four months of maternity leave. Women from the countryside who move to the city to work leave babies with grandparents who have no choice but to use powdered formula.

Tiantan Hospital encourages breast-feeding by putting mothers and their newborns in the same room instead of putting infants in a nursery. The nurses' station has pamphlets promoting breast-feeding, and diagrams on the walls of patient rooms show postures for nursing. Each morning, nurses using dolls show mothers how to breast-feed in one-on-one sessions.

"No mother can get it right on their first try, so our nurses always adjust postures by hand to make sure they do it right," Yang said.

Elsewhere, many Chinese hospitals fail to encourage breast-feeding.

Dairy companies energetically promote formula. Free samples are widely available in maternity wards despite laws prohibiting the practice. Advertising encourages parents to see it as helping children become stronger and smarter.

A report this year by Save the Children, a British charity, said 40 percent of the Chinese mothers it interviewed had been contacted directly by salespeople for baby food companies.

Rising rates of obesity among Chinese children also might be linked to use of infant formula, said Binns.

"They are bombarded with baby formula ads, and the mothers want the best for their children," he said.

China's infant formula market has grown from about $1 billion in 2002 to $9 billion this year, according to UNICEF. That is forecast to rise to $13 billion by 2015.

Parents who could afford it switched to more expensive imported formula after six babies died in 2008 and thousands were sickened due to Chinese-produced milk that was tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

But confidence in foreign supplies was shaken the week of Aug. 5 after Beijing ordered a recall of formula from Fonterra Co-operative Group after the New Zealand supplier said it might be tainted with bacteria that can cause botulism.

The recall has sent shockwaves through New Zealand. The dairy industry is a key part of the country's economy, and China is its biggest milk export market.

Use of wet nurses ? women who breast-feed other families' children ? also is on the rise. These women are sought out by young mothers who don't want to use formula but cannot produce enough milk of their own or worry about the impact of nursing on their figures.

"It's been growing at 20 percent every year," said Jia Xixian, an agent in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen who helps clients find wet nurses.

In Beijing, Qi breast-fed her baby for the first time shortly after birth.

"I let him find the nipple, and he found it instinctively," Qi recalled. "There was a little pain, but I could take it. It was an oddly nice feeling, and all of a sudden I felt like a mother and that I could not be separated from the child."

A tiny bolster propped up the newborn as Qi described what she saw as other benefits of breast-feeding: It saves money and will help her recover from childbirth, and she believes it will help the baby to grow better.

But Qi, an intensive care nurse at the same hospital, worries about what will happen when she returns to work about four months from now.

"I think it will be more troublesome to feed him after that," Qi said.

Source: http://www.masslive.com/living/index.ssf/2013/08/china_encourgages_more_moms_to_breastfeed_with_recent_safety_scares_related_to_infant_formula.html

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Terror alert spreads to Israel

Published on Aug 8, 2013

The global alert on terrorism has now extended into Israel, which briefly closed an airport Thursday after fears terror groups in Egypt could fire rockets across the border. http://wj.la/15gjBLi

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Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3GIVlnGLd0&feature=youtube_gdata

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Friday, August 9, 2013

8 Amazing Uses For Metamaterials, the Tech Behind Invisibility Cloaks

Metamaterials are a mind-bending class of matter. Broadly defined as manmade materials with unusual properties not found in nature, this category of materials is probably most famous for serving as the building blocks for a Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak. But so much more is possible.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Whitehouse Station Procurement Director - IT Transformation Job ...

Procurement Director - IT Transformation-COM000197

Description

Merck is a global health care leader with a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines and consumer health products, as well as animal health products. Today, we are building a new kind of healthcare company ? one that is ready to help create a healthier future for all of us.

Our ability to excel depends on the integrity, knowledge, imagination, skill, diversity and teamwork of people like you. To this end, we strive to create an environment of mutual respect, encouragement and teamwork. As part of our global team, you?ll have the opportunity to collaborate with talented and dedicated colleagues while developing and expanding your career.

The Procurement Director of IT Transformation will lead major projects across IT, driving both sourcing and technology led transformation. The lead will have a strong IT background across hardware, software, outsourcing, mobility, cloud, big data and new emergent technologies. The lead will take on a business partnering role, acting as a key interface to IT partners. The lead will develop and maintain strong relationships with key leaders across the IT function and will shape the relationships with key strategic suppliers ensuring alignment between business strategy and sourcing execution. The role reports to the Executive Director of Global IT Procurement.

Primary activities include, but are not limited to:

1. Leadership - As a key leader of a category of spend, he/she will be responsible for the development and implementation of the sourcing strategy, ensuring alignment, compliance and delivery of required business performance.
2. Procurement Leadership - Provide the leadership, strategy and policy for the category, building a high performance engagement model with the business and regions.
3. Organizational Development ? Supports the building of a core team of high quality procurement professionals who have direct responsibility for sourcing and projects.
4. Process - Realize sourcing management, supplier value management, risk management and supplier diversity as core sustainable processes and enablers of delivery.
5. Performance - Deliver ongoing savings as required, as well as meeting the stakeholder business requirements.
6. Relationships - Build outstanding relationships with stakeholders which are tailored to meeting their business needs.
7. Change Management - Adopt high quality change practices with customers and stakeholders. Building and implementing an organization which is sustainable and acting as a personal champion of the Merck Leadership Standards.
8. Global - Ensure that the approach adopted is aligned with and supports the Merck global procurement strategy, Global Category Management and Ways of Working.
9. Diversity - Actively supports diversity, both within Merck and externally, growing relationships and spend with our Diverse Suppliers.
10. Supplier Value Management - Implements supplier value management with the key suppliers in this category to foster innovation, manage supplier performance, establish a Governance Model and ensure continuous improvement.

Qualifications

*LI-AS2

Educational Requirements:

? Bachelor?s Degree

? Graduate degree preferred.

Experience Required:

? 10 years procurement, business management or IT specific experience.

? Technical ? A strong background and subject matter expertise of IT (Software, Hardware, Services), outsourcing and externalization of IT.

Our employees are the key to our company?s success. We demonstrate our commitment to our employees by offering a competitive and valuable rewards program. Merck?s benefits are designed to support the wide range of goals, needs and lifestyles of our employees, and many of the people that matter the most in their lives.

Search Firm Representatives - Please read carefully:

Merck is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. Please, no phone calls or emails. All resumes ted by search firms to any employee at Merck via-email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of Merck. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Merck as a result of the referral or through other means.

Merck is an equal opportunity employer, M/F/D/V ? proudly embracing diversity in all of its manifestations.
Former Military, Transitioning Service Members, National Guard & Reserves - We value your past and present service.

Job: Commodity Procurement

Job Title: Dir, Procurement

Primary Location: NA-US-NJ-Whitehouse Station

Employee Status: Regular

Travel: Yes, 15 % of the Time

Number of Openings: 1

Shift (if applicable): 1st

Hazardous Materials
: No

Nearest Major Market: New Jersey
Job Segments: Manager, Procurement, Risk Management, Cloud, Buyer, Management, Operations, Finance, Technology

Source: http://jobs.merck.com/job/Whitehouse-Station-Procurement-Director-IT-Transformation-Job-NJ-08889/2779358/?utm_source=J2WRSS&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=J2W_RSS

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