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Those round blobs in this image are the chondrules. In a later post I’ll give more information about this particular chondrite.
Carbonaceous chondrites are the rarest of all the meteorite specimens. Like most meteorites, there are composed of a matrix and chondrules. The matrix is basically the body of the meteorite. In the case of the carbonaceous chondrite, it’s composed of soft minerals very similar to serpentine or montmorillonite (John A. Wood, The Solar System, 1979). Due to it’s composition, very few of these meteorites survive the entry into the earth’s atmosphere. Those that do face further weathering damage at the surface of the earth.
The chondrules are the rounded minerals that are studded into the matrix. They are mostly composed of olivine and orthopyroxene and are generally rounded in shape (like the picture shows). However, not all CC’s have chondrules. Some have these irregular inclusions that are composed of uncommon minerals such as spinel and grossular. These minerals have been enriched in “calcium, magnesium, aluminium and titanium relative to silicon” (Wood, 1979).
During a trip to San Francisco we were amazed by how convenient and fast things happen. Whether it's taking an Uber from the airport or checking in in your hotel, everything runs smoothly. Often there's a lot of technology involved to increase convenience. But what's more important is that the human connection isn't lost in the process. This is important to keep in mind, because customers will always want to be treated as human beings first. So even though they can easily book a cab on their phone, they still want to have a pleasant conversation with the cab driver too.
Convenience and the human connection are interlinked. When you focus on extreme convenience for your customers, it also becomes extremely convenient for your employees to offer the best possible customer experience. Convenience opens up space mentally and in the timetable for your employees to forge a human connection which improves CX. But when everything happens as frictionless as possible, your employees will be happier in their jobs and they'll be happy to talk to their customers.
And as we all know, happy employees = happy customers!
If companies want to change for future success, they have to cater to the needs of the modern customer. Who is this modern customer, and how can companies respond to their wishes and needs?
The modern customer is not to be put in a box or can't be segmented. This is Generation C. They are breaking through barriers of demographics. Gen C isn't an age group, it's a mindset defined by creation, connection and community.
In light of this, companies need to 'unlearn' everything they have learned in the past. Since customer profiles are changing, old adages will not cut it anymore in the future.
Customer Experience is the true engine of innovation. The customer should be the starting point for any changes companies wish to make. Start from understanding and really knowing, then reverse engineer.
If they really want to understand their customers, it's important for companies to get out of the bubble. Many organisations design experience and map journeys within their bubble without speaking to a single customer. That simply doesn't make any sense, since your customers are your prime source of information when it comes to customer experience.
3. AI + Humans = recipe for success!
Artificial Intelligence still tends to scare a lot of people. But underneath the layer of 'magic' lies a system that can improve our lives drastically. More than anything AI can automate a lot of work, predict with insane precision and most importantly it can help humans in doing their work better and more efficiently.
DigitalGenius has amazing expertise on how AI is already helping organizations win in creating amazing customer service. Their AI learns from former conversations in a customer service department. This enables the platform to understand incoming chats and mails, to automatically handle it with bots (limited for the time being) and to suggest answers to the real reps.
There's an evolution going on in AI as well. It used to go from human to digital, but it's getting more human again as AI helps companies cater to the needs of their customers. It gives organizations an in-depth insight into customer conversations to improve customer experience.
Let's make one thing clear. Retail isn't dead and people will not disappear from it either. It will become more digital, but feel more human. Retailers however will have to adapt to the changing landscape if they want to stay relevant.
We see a lot of juxtapositions these days. Ecommerce versus retail, omnichannel versus multichannel. The solution is not to think in terms of digital and physical as separate markets, but to blend the two together.
Whether they buy something online or in a store, customer understanding remains key. Design your service and experience around them. Make sure you understand everything about them, what drives customers in real life? E.g. discounters need to understand that a large part of their audience is people living from paycheck to paycheck, which requires a different approach.
Keep in mind that in retail customer journeys are changing as well. In-store experience probably constitutes only 30% of the entire journey anymore. You have to improve the befores and afters if you want to deliver the most complete customer experience.
If you want to reach customers through advertising, there are some rules of thumb to keep in mind before you spend any budget on it. Pereira & O'Dell, a famous advertising and content agency advises to focus on compelling storytelling. Why?
People hate advertising, but they are willing to engage in amazing content.
Therefore advertising must bring value for customers as they are willing to spend their time on it.
Authenticity is probably the most important aspect of your advertising. Show the good, the bad and the ugly. When companies aren't afraid to show that they're only human as well, customers will be able to relate.
Include clever and compelling storytelling that moves away from old advertising.
If you are interested in how Hello Customer can help you transition to a truly customer-centric company, don't hesitate to reach out!
badging, or using graphics and text to call shoppers' attention to a promotion for a specific product. It's time to ring in another holiday season and for eCommerce stores that also means ringing up sales. No more searching through pages of posts to find the coupon or the deal. Available for all plans. Other axe holiday gift set coupon restrictions and exclusions may apply. Here's one way to capture those lost sales this holiday season: An effective Abandoned Cart recovery email can help you recapture up to 18 of these lost carts. And 90 say they make up their minds after reading 10 reviews making this the recommended benchmark if you want to appeal to the largest group of shoppers. How To Do It: Create your own coupons in just a few steps with the Coupon Builder. Love shopping at Kirklands? Offer Gift Cards Sales of eGift cards are expected to reach 15 billion in 2017. Not valid on Harvest, Halloween, or other holiday items.
That's a lot of gift giving! Among consumers, two-thirds say they quickly form an opinion about a business after reading one to six reviews. Click into any template to begin customizing your email (the templates will be removed after the holidays). Territories, International locations, Alaska, Hawaii or PO Box addresses. Retail eCommerce sales will grow about 20 during the 2017 holiday season, reaching up to 114 billion, and there are plenty of opportunities for eCommerce sites and stores to make the most of this holiday windfall. Choose enable, then select timeframe, then choose customize email. Or what do you do when an outstanding, but pricey, deal is posted and you want to save it for discussion with your significant other? Title the page "Sale" and use the Categories Element to drag and drop your "On Sale" category directly into the page. Advertise your coupon codes using Header or Section Elements. Finally, increase the column number (optional) and text element. Providing a great checkout experience for this important customer group is a great way to increase holiday sales.
Lebanon, Missouri has long been home to an oft-traveled trail along the edge of the Ozarks, beginning when the Wyota and Osage Indians roamed the area. During the Civil War, the trail became known as the “Wire Road” because of the telegraph lines installed along it between St. Louis and Springfield. Then, in the late 1920s, Route 66 was born and roughly followed the same path the Indians had marked. Today the “trail” is called I-44.
The first white settler in the area was a man named Jesse Ballew in 1820, who built a log cabin on the east side of the Gasconade River. When Laclede County was formed in 1849, the settlement of Wyota, named for the area Indians, became the county seat. Later a highly respected minister requested the name be changed to Lebanon, after his hometown of Lebanon, Tennessee. Soon, a courthouse was erected on the town square of the newly formed county seat. Early settlers were mostly hunters and farmers from Tennessee, but word soon spread about the region, its rich farmland, plentiful game, rivers, and springs, and people from the east began to migrate to the new settlement.
In the 1850s The Academy was built, which offered higher education to the area’s students and soon became the center of the town’s cultural activity.
By the time the Civil War began, Lebanon remained a small secluded settlement. Though Missouri declared itself as a neutral state, its population was primarily from the South and therefore sympathized with the Confederate forces.
During this time, Lebanon saw division among its people, even among families. In the 1860 election, Abraham Lincoln had received only one vote. The Lebanon people obviously did not consider themselves “neutral.” The town was occupied by troops for the entire length of the war. Except for six months in late 1861 when the Confederates were in control, the occupation was by Union troops. When the war ended, the town worked together to rebuild the community and officially incorporated in 1867.
When the railroad began its expansion west, the short-sighted town of Lebanon refused to provide land for a railroad depot. As a result, the railroad tracks were built one mile away from the existing settlement. Later the commercial area of the town moved closer to the railroad, and the original site became known as Old Town. Eventually, even the old town square disappeared. In 1882, the Lebanon Opera House opened and along with other buildings in town, helped to establish the town as a popular place to gather for meetings. Then a discovery was made in 1889 that helped to attract even more visitors to Lebanon. When water well was dug for the community, they discovered that the water had magnetic properties. The locals began to drink and bathe in the water, believing that it had healing properties.
The magnetic water led to the building of the Gasconade Hotel, the grandest structure ever erected in Lebanon. Having the capacity to house up to 500 guests, the hotel also provided a ballroom, restaurant, reception rooms, and a bathhouse next to the magnetic well. Sure that people would flock from all over the country to partake of the healing waters, its builders were sorely disappointed when the hotel was not successful. Soon it became and sanatorium, but that was also short-lived. Next, it was used for community events and there was talk of turning the beautiful structure into a college. However, just ten years after it was built, the Gasconade Hotel was totally destroyed by fire in October 1899.
Lebanon continued to thrive as a small community, catering to travelers along the edge of the Ozarks. But the town really saw a change when Route 66 was born in 1926. Lebanon, the largest town between Rolla and Springfield, Missouri became a major stop along the Mother Road. Quickly providing road services, one of the first motels along the highway was Camp Joy, which opened in 1927 as a tent camp at a rate of 50 cents a night. Later, cottages and a combination gas station/grocery store were added. The Spears family ran Camp Joy for 44 years in Lebanon and even named one of their daughters after the business. In 1931 Arthur T. Nelson built his 24-room hotel at the intersection of Route 66 and Missouri Highway 5. The Nelson Hotel and Dream Village soon became one of the best-known spots along Route 66 between Chicago and Los Angeles. Each room featured a private bath and kitchen facilities, renting for $2-$3 a night. Across the street from the hotel, Nelson built his “Dream Village,” so named because the layout appeared to him in a dream. Twelve units of native Ozark stone surrounded a courtyard which featured a very special fountain. In the evenings it became the centerpiece of a light and music show. Cars would be lined up for blocks to see it. Nelsonville, as it was called by the locals, passed into history when Route 66 became I-44.
Route 66 in Lebanon was also was the site of some interesting restaurants. Perhaps the most unique was Andy’s Street Car Grill. It was housed in an actual street car, brought in from St. Louis, and its featured dish was “Andy’s Famous Fried Domestic Rabbit.” Alas, Andy’s is long gone. Up until just recently, you could still get a great plate of home fixins from the Bell Restaurant; but, unfortunately, it too has closed.
Another Lebanon landmark along Route 66 is Wrink’s Market, which opened in June 1950 and continued to operate up until owner, Glenn Wrinkle’s death in March 2005. This was a one of kind vintage market, where you would not only see groceries, but also collectibles, dry goods, and Route 66 memorabilia. However, the main attraction was always Glenn Wrinkle himself, who could astound the Route 66 traveler with his stories covering more than a half a century along the Mother Road. Alas, the road lost yet another paragraph in its history when Mr. Wrinkle died in March 2005 and the family auctioned the contents of the store. His son briefly resurrected the market as a convenience store, but, it closed in 2009.
Located in south-central Missouri on the edge of the Ozarks, Lebanon straddles Interstate 44. Today this small town of some 12,000 souls, though nestled among flowering trees, cool streams, and rolling hills is growing quickly. Still though, wonderful peeks of vintage America can still be found among the thriving franchise operated strip malls and hotels.
If you are looking for a story about cheerful youngsters spending a jolly time at boarding school, look elsewhere. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent and resourceful children, and you might expect that they would do very well at school. Don’t. For the Baudelaires, school turns out to be another miserable episode in their unlucky lives. Truth be told, within the chapters that make up this dreadful story, the children will face snapping crabs, strict punishments, dripping fungus, comprehensive exams, violin recitals, S.O.R.E., and the metric system. It is my solemn duty to stay up all night researching and writing the history of these three hapless youngsters, but you may be more comfortable getting a good night’s sleep. In that case, you should probably choose some other book.
great after being stuck in this loop Snicket has had us in of repetitiveness and obscurities and abuse. The leap is not as far as you would like but you do get a lot more new story before it reverts back to the same old stuff. Again Snicket ruins the ending fairly early on but by now you are just in it for the story, not for the suspense or mystery. Having said that book five is where he decides to add some proper mystery.
There are good parts to this story, the siblings finally get some friends their age who try and help them solve all their problems. The Quagmire triplets (of which there are only two it seems) use their own skills to help with these problems that arise. By introducing new characters Snicket finally manages to progress in this saga as some questions begin to be answered. Well, no. More questions are asked and revealed and only snippets of information and clues are revealed which is the beginning of the mystery.
With Snicket changing things up a bit it certainly takes these books in a new direction. There is the first sign of a real cliffhanger, not dire, but certainly one that makes you want to read the next in the series. Where before we just hopped from place to place with Olaf and his idiotic schemes, there is a hint of a greater mystery unfolding. With so many books to go whether this is solved in the next one or dragged out we don’t know.
Oh, and for once we can give some kudos to some sensible, albeit dull, adults and Mr Poe tries his best to come through for the children. In a rare moment for him he actually tries. Maybe this is a turning point for the banker.
Aaron Vanek is the Vice-President of The Game Academy, a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to creating and utilizing role-playing games for education. He has participated in role-playing games and live action role playing (larp) for over 30 years. He is the former editor of Larp World Magazine, a co-creator of the Larp Census, and has designed interactive and game experiences for the Girl Scouts of America, the West Hollywood Book Fair, Sanrio, Inc., the UCLA Game Lab, the Paul Biane LIbrary in Rancho Cucamonga, and the San Diego Public Library, most recently an ARG for their First Folio Exhibition. He created 17 edu-larps for schools and consulted for Texas State University for their nursing simulation program. He currently teaches analog game design to middle school students at the private Kabbalah Children's Academy in Beverly Hills. He is a regular speaker at game and fan conventions such as San Diego Comic Con, Games for Change Festival, and many more. Visit Aaron online at www.thegameacademy.org.
April Hawley is the master of fun and games. This is a skill that she uses liberally as the owner of American Tiger Martial Arts & Fitness where many homeschooled students have trained and earned their Black Belt. American Tiger is on many Charter School vendor lists and offers early afternoon classes. April also homeschooled her own two offspring who have launched successfully into adulthood.
Brian Mansfield has a career in medical imaging and has been a lifelong geek. His stepdaughter (now an adult) has been homeschooled since age 12, and his 5 year old son will be homeschooled as well.
Brian was first introduced to Role Playing Games around 1980 at the age of 8 with the original Dungeons and Dragons and has been a gamer of all types since.
Carlos Angeles is a a native Spanish speaker from Mexico City with 22 years of experience teaching Spanish as a second language. Carlos has homeschooled his son for four years and currently teaches and tutors Spanish for children, teens and adults. Carlos also teaches a Bilingual Science class at Viva Homeschooling Co-op and has taught Mathematics through board and card games with Great Educational Experiences (GEE). Until November of last year Carlos lead a Strategy Games Club in partnership with the Palos Verdes Library District. Carlos believes that there is no subject that can’t be taught through games, especially for children.
Jamie Heston is an active veteran homeschooling mom of two teen boys, the HSC Phone Line Coordinator, a moderator for her local homeschool group as well as very involved in her local homeschooling community hosting teen events, mom's nights out, hikes and nerf battles.
Kristin Shepherd is a homeschool mom of one bright, energetic and creative 8 year old. In her past life, she was a classroom teacher of 32 'gifted' fifth and sixth graders. Her teaching experience taught her that children come with an endless variety of personalities, experiences, interests and talents and that through self-directed play they can have many of their individual needs met. In 2015 she began studying the value of play at the University of Gloucester in England (Play isn’t taken very seriously at most US Universities) and earned her Master’s in Play and Playwork earlier this year.
Kristin believes that free play with loose parts can help us learn, have fun and develop resilience. She is now the director of the non-profit organization, Recess Revolution, which brings a free play with loose parts program to groups of children and families all over Southern California. For more information, see www.recessrevolution.org.
Roya Dedeaux is a grown homeschooler who lives in Southern California with her husband and kids Wyatt and Lilyanne.
Roya has a M.S. in Counseling and a B.A. in Recreation and Leisure Studies. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, with a private practice in Los Alamitos, and long-distance counseling for homeschoolers. Her therapy website is royadedeaux.com. She is also a professor in the Recreation and Leisure Department at California State University, Long Beach, and loves getting to teach classes about play and leisure! She believes strongly in the importance and power of play for all ages, and has spent the majority of her personal and professional life inspiring others to become more playful.
Roya specializes in art therapy, and has spent most of her life crocheting, knitting, making journals, collaging, and following other artistic pursuits. She is a regular columnist in The Homeschooler magazine (http://www.hsc.org/magazine.html) and keeps herself playing with yarn through her monthly yarn subscription business www.yarnofthemonth.com!
Zach Foley is proof of that anyone can make games. Without so much as asking permission, he made games for the web, for mobile, on kickstarter, and even for Las Vegas casinos. He even went so far as to win an award for making games in his job as a senior game designer at Gamblit Gaming. And now he’s got the nerve to lecture his fellow homeschool families about how to make their own games? Well, at least he’s got cool hair. We’ll give him that.
Events where I plan to show art provides motivation to create new pieces.
‘Deer Creek Bridges’ was created for the 2018 Nevada County Fair photography competition.
The ‘Pine Street Historic Bridge’ piece was made for display and sale during the 2018 Fall Colors Open Studio Tour.
This video was created for the blog post, Native Plants for Healing the Land After Fire. It was produced a few weeks before the Redbud Chapter of the California Native Plant Society conducted their annual Native Plant Sale. It helped tell the story about the importance of native plants in the Deer Creek Watershed and promote the event.
Since most of my work is digital, time and hydroelectric generated power (as well as computing hardware) are the main production resources involved in making these creations.
As I do background research for posts, I also generate an art piece. At the time of this writing, 62 designs are in the Life on the Creek collection.
While I started with graphic designs involving text, Latin names, and waves, several recent posts inspired a new layout direction.
Pony Express help wanted advertisement.
‘Pony Express Riders’ is a blending of a public domain map and a help wanted advertisement. This came about after discovering that Joaquin Miller, Poet of the Sierras (and a mining camp cook who developed scurvy for the post Scurvy in California’s Food Capital) was also a Pony Express rider.
The extinct and disrupted Life on the Creek designs are from the posts Grizzly Entertainment and California Bear Extinction, and Dammed Disrupted Salmon.
*In the newer designs, you may notice an absence in the ” wording at the bottom of the Following Deer Creek logo. These pieces were created after I moved the website from a free site to a paid site in an attempt to reduce unwanted advertising clutter.
FineArtAmerica.com hosts my artwork online and produces made-to-order prints and household items.
At my Open Studios Tour booth (#30) October 13th and 14th, I will have a number of these pieces on display.
Prominently featured will be Space Invaders – Invasive Species pieces that will be donated to Sierra Streams Institute (SSI).
SSI will be using them as incentive gifts for community Scotch Broom pulls that they will be organizing in the fall.
Art for a cause…while attempting to lessen resource use…is very satisfying!
Is Google Changing Search Forever?
Search engine marketers monitor the movements of Google like stock brokers monitor the Fed. As a result, when anything happens with the global search behemoth, people take notice. That’s why I was interested to detect a significant change on a search engine results page the other day, as the change could represent a seismic shift in the very nature of Google from purely content brokers to, essentially, simple content providers.
I refer to Google as a content ‘broker’ because, (at least up until now), Google’s singular focus as a search engine was to serve users the most relevant possible results. ‘Relevance’–writ large–is the coin of the realm over at Google, if my interactions are indicative. It’s the one thing they always return to; Google changes constantly, but their stated reasoning has to do with providing relevant results that satisfy a search.
Due to their unmatched success at this, (Google has now become–not unlike Xerox or Kleenex–a corporate entity so culturally dominant its name has become interchangeable with the product or service it provides; in the case of Google, including as a verb), millions of users allow Google to act as the middleman for virtually all of their interaction with the web. Google’s ability to present relevant content that answers peoples’ queries has enabled them to gain better than two-thirds of the total U.S. search market in 2014.
Is Google Stealing My Content?
…naturally, it gets my attention.
What you’re looking at is, basically, a blurb from an already-published piece of content, provided by a top-positioned website that Google finds to be both credible and authoritative on the subject. The excerpted section would answer a basic query at a high conceptual level, such as, ‘what are money market funds’…and just possibly end your curiosity right then and there.
While certainly being time- and labor-saving for a great many Google users in many and varied instances, (how many times have you simply wanted to know the number of Super Bowls the Miami Dolphins have played in, or how old is William Shatner?, etc.) the implications of this could be far-reaching in the digital marketplace.
So Who Gets It In the Neck?
Whenever Google changes their fabled search algorithm or tweaks how they present content, there are often losers. Usually these losers are the grey- and black-hat SEO types trying to cut corners and game the system for temporary advantage, (think keyword-stuffed articles or ubiquitous ‘Top 10 Whatevers’ posts). Sometimes, Google makes changes specifically to make those ‘bad actors’ into losers, as they’re trying to outsmart Google and hurt their users’ experiences.
However, this change isn’t merely to check the malefactors in the search world, but to fundamentally alter consumer behavior.
One area directly impacted will likely be the kinds of websites that exist to provide educational content–either for altruistic purposes (such as the donation-funded, ad-free Wikipedia), or in order to service search clientele that may eventually transact business after learning about a topic via proprietary blogs and websites that furnish them with educational or editorial content that satisfies curiosity, builds trust, and finally generates leads or sales.
Is Google Creating a Clickless Search?
These sites, in my calculus, stand to lose a large quantity of clicks by becoming, in many cases, second-class search citizens; losing out on people’s primary searches. After all, people are seeing the answer right there on the Google SERP; why would they need to waste their time and click anything else?
It’s a little like giving the milk away for free–why would users buy the cow with an extra click and waste of their time if Google can just answer them directly? Think of the paradigm inversion this creates — these sites were all competing to answer the term the user searched for, and Google just made that competition, to some degree, academic.
Strangely, in this new search model, the original content producers themselves become de facto middlemen, larding up the process merely by being there.
You might ask: but wait, doesn’t Google sell ad space through AdWords as a major revenue stream? Don’t they want, speaking reductively, more and more clicks, to display the viability of Google as a dynamic and potentially highly lucrative ad market businesses should pay to play in?
Google Now Optimizing for Advertisers?
Ironically, one potential reason for this experiment might actually be designed to appeal directly to those pay-per-click advertisers. I handle a number of PPC clients at Kaleidico and I can attest that it’s a daily battle to fend off a glut of unwanted clicks that drain budgets; users looking for purely academic reasons of research with no real intention of buying anything, now or in the near future.
With Google just answering those people themselves, user clicks on ads or content may be fewer, but may also be, more or less, pre-screened, increasingly monetized, and motivated to buy.
That prospect makes PPC guys like me wide-eyed with possibilities.
We live in a PPC World where a two-percent clickthrough rate is a triumph and conversion rates of 1-in-10 can be massive success. What happens when the market is reduced to fewer people with more inherent value to advertisers? By pre-screening this traffic–satisfying less lucrative searches and winnowing out “less serious” searchers, one could imagine an increase in the average cost-per-click (CPC) for desirable terms.
If Google Constricts Traffic, Who Benefits?
Well, not to be a cynic, but who is paid when an AdWords CPC goes up? Ah, as the plot thickens the clarity improves.
Now, before anyone starts panicking or even accusing me of belonging to the tinfoil hat crowd, I should point out: circled in green on that screenshot above is the word ‘feedback’ — so this is in a Beta stage and it’s possible I may be putting the cart before the horse. Google may simply be doing their typical mad scientists thing, experimenting with more and better ways to achieve perfect relevance.
The only problem is, those who used to provide the most relevance with the least monetary interest may feel the squeeze.
If this is the shape of things to come, PPC managers and content producers better have an adaptable strategy to live in a hugely changed world of search.
Are you prepared to live in a clickless SEO world, or a hyper-charged Google buying environment? Sign-up for more thoughts, updates, and digital marketing insights.
The 10th Republican debate is set for tonight just five days before Super Tuesday.

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