Sunday, December 29, 2019

People in these countries work the longest hours. What about yours

People in these countries work the longest hours. What about yoursPeople in these countries work the longest hours. What about yours Do you feel like you work really long hours? And probably harder than anyone else? Unless youre Mexican, the chances are youre probably wrong.That is, if new data from the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) are anything to go by. The OECD found that the average Mexican spends 2,255 hours at work per year - the equivalent of 43 hours per week.That doesnt sound like too much, right? After all, most of us work 40 hours weeks. Or at least, thats what we tend to believe.But then again, lets take a look at Germany, Europes leading economy. The average German only puts in a comparatively meagre 1,363 hours.Yet, no one in their right mind would accuse Germans of slacking off. Or the Japanese, for that matter, who only do 1,713 hours per year in average. (The Japanese even have a word for overworking yourself to death)Working more hours doesnt mean higher productivity.How do Germans keep their economy going in spite working fewer hours? In part, they owe it to their ability to maintain high productivity levels.Take productivity into account and youll find Mexico and Germany on the opposite sides yet again.Germany ranks among the top 8 most productive OECD countries, together with countries like France or the United States. Mexico ends up dead last, just behind Russia.In other words, employees in the more developed countries are able to produce more wealth than others despite working less.But wouldnt that mean that Germans simply work harder? And Russians and Mexicans are just lazy? leid at all.OECD Productivity LevelsProductivity doesnt work the way you think it does.If you want to understand whats really at play here, you need to know how productivity works and how its measured.Put simply, productivity is how much youre able to produce.But then again, there are many things that influence how much youre able to pr oduce, other than worked hours.Lets say you need to paint three identical walls. The first one is difficult but then you learn a more efficient brush technique. You have the second wall painted in no time.And then you find a larger brush Suddenly youre able to paint the third wall even quicker. It looks nicer too.In this situation, knowing how to do things efficiently and having better tools helped you become more productive.Along the same lines, you could say that Germans are simply more experienced at painting walls. They also have a collection of huge, high-tech brushes. Whereas Mexicans do not.Working long hours is almost always bad.But ultimately, working long hours is almost always bad. Moreover, it doesnt affect productivity in any significantly positive way. Especially not today, when peoples ability to focus is more precious than ever.Just try to concentrate when youre overworked and have only slept 6 hours.Its no accident that most countries that enjoy the best work-life b alance work less than 1,500 hours per year. These are the countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, or Germany.And finally - working long hours can seriously damage your health.It makes you fatter, increases your heart disease risk and risk of death from any cause. It can also give you diabetes, and make you stressed and depressed.Just something to think about the next time you feel like staying overtime for a bit more cash.Tired of your old job? Maybe its time to quit. Check out these5 signs you should quit your job as soon as possibleShare Your Feedback or Ideas in the Comments

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

What to Know Before Choosing a Career in Music

What to Know Before Choosing a Career in MusicWhat to Know Before Choosing a Career in MusicIf you love music and know you want to make it your job, the hardest part might not be committing to going for it but choosing your perfect music career. There are tons of different ways you can get involved in music and lots of different music jobs you can do. This guide should help you narrow down your list a little and figure out which part of the music business suits you best. Below youll find some common music careers and the pros and cons for each that you should consider before making the leap. Youll also find links to more information about each career. The Pros of Running a Record Label Running a record label, you never have to work with music you dont love or a band that drives you crazy.You can get a hand in every step of the process, from choosing the releases, picking a release date, planning the promotion, working on tours, and so on. The Cons of Running a Record Label Re quires an upfront investment. Someone has to pay for that first release.It can be a very long time before you make any money - just as you get to have a hand in every part of a release, you often have to pay for most of those part, so juggling cash flow is a challenge.Requires good organizational skill, and you must be able to self-motivate. The Pros of Working for a Label Learning the ropes of record labels without taking any of the financial risks yourself.A chance to sample different aspects of the music industry, to help you figure out where your strengths are.The pay may not always be great, depending on the size of the label, but its still better than footing the bill yourself. The Cons of Working for a Label You dont get to pick the music, so you may not love every album youre working on.At larger record labels, you could essentially end up doing office work instead of working closely with music. The Pros of Being a Music Manager As a music manager, you get to hav e involvement in every aspect of a bands career, and thus, you get a hand in many different parts of the music business.You get to work with music you love. The Cons of Being a Music Manager If you work independently for up and coming bands, payday can be a long way off - and you may have to spend some money up front.Band/manager relationships can get dicey.Can be very stressful - managers shoulder a lot of responsibility, and when things go wrong (and they will), youre in the crosshairs.Requires organization, self-motivation, and you have to be willing to speak up and ask for the things you want. The Pros of Being a Music Promoter Being a music promoter is the perfect job if you love live musicPulling off a great show is thrillingYou get to work with bands you love.Can pay well, depending on what kinds of shows youre doing. The Cons of Being a Music Promoter If you work independently, in small venues and with smaller bands, can cost you a fortune - breaking even can be a good night.Tons of responsibility - show day can be very stressful.Can be one of the most thankless jobs in music. To some bands - if the show is good yay us If the show is bad boo youPromo is hard work, and it could all be for now - you cant MAKE anyone write about the show or come to the gig. The Pros of Being a Music werber Another good job for people who love live music.Gives you the chance to work with managers, bands, promoters, and labels.Lets you have a hand in putting shows together without being on the front lines like promoters. The Cons of Being a Music Agent Can be hard to break into - it can take a long time to get established as an agent.Unless you get lucky and get a job at an agency right off the bat, you may have to work for little to no money while youre building a name for yourself.Requires good organizational skills - there are lots of moving parts when youre booking a tour.When a band is on tour, youre on call. The Pros of Being a Music Distributor Get to hear all of the new releases before anyone else and are always the first to know when new albums are coming out.Get to work closely with record labels and record stores.Can be a reliable paycheck. The Cons of Being a Music Distributor Often have to sell releases that you dont likeSome jobs at distribution companies can go far from the music - packing up boxes, dealing with freight companies, etc.Unless you have deep pockets, not a job for someone who wants to run their own music-related business.Can be stressful - labels miss release dates, stores dont pay on time, and so on. The Pros of Being a Sound Engineer Get to take part in the excitement of live showsMay get to go on tour with bandsGreat for people who like the technical side of music The Cons of Being a Sound Engineer Pay can vary greatly, depending on what kind of shows you are doingYoull need to roll with the punches of working on the best sound desks to the worst and still make it sound goodLike promo tion can be a bit thankless. If the band sounds great, theyll congratulate themselves. If the band sounds bad, they like to blame the sound engineer. (Well, not EVERY band, of course, but it happens often.) The Pros of Being in Music PR Get to closely with the mediaYou get to see the payoff for your work quickly when something youre promoting gets reviewed or played on the radio.Can pay well. The Cons of Being in Music PR Very hard work - just getting people to answer your phone calls is a job in itself, and it can take a long time to build up media contactsSometimes, despite your best efforts, you cant generate any buzz for a record, which puts you in the crosshairs of the band/labelLots of repetitive work - calling X, Y, and Z for the 100th time, re-sending promos youve already sent, and so on.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Heart-on-a-Chip Could Speed Drug Tests

Heart-on-a-Chip Could Speed Drug Tests Heart-on-a-Chip Could Speed Drug Tests Heart-on-a-Chip Could Speed Drug TestsMany promising new drugs never make it to menschenfreundlich trials. They may damage the heartand researchers cant take that risk.In response, several labs have created heart-on-a-chip technology that can cut the length of new drug trials and reduce animal testing. The chips are essentially a very small model of the human heart on an engineered chip.In May, for example, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA, unveiled its own heart-on-a-chip. Researchers recorded electrical signals and cellular beating from normal human heart cells grown on a multi-electrode array developed at the lab.The platform allows researchers to do high-throughput screening of pharmaceutical drugs and predict their effects on the heart, says principal investigator Elizabeth Wheeler. On that chip, drug researchers can measure the effects of drug exposure to the heart by recording how the signals, the heartbeat, and the cells change in response to medicine introduced into the array.The heart-on-a-chip uses human cardiac cells cultured for up to nine days on the engineered chip.To create the heart-on-a-chip, researchers introduced human cardiac cells into a culture on the engineered chip. They let them grow for around nine days. The cells spontaneously grew into a two-dimensional heart tissue that contracts or starts to beat after two days in culture, Wheeler says. Her team then exposed the tissue to norepinephrine, a stimulant drug used to treat low blood pressure and heart failure. Both the electrical signal and the beating increased in the cells, mimicking what would have happened to a human heart after a person ingested the drug.The national laboratorys chip technology isnt the first of its kind, though its the first heart-on-a-chip array that can map both the electrophysiology and the contraction frequency of the cells, Wheeler says.The ability to record those two functions is useful for pharmaceutical companies because they could alert drug manufacturers to cardiac problems caused by a drug early in the process before testing reaches the clinical trial stage, she adds.Cardiotoxicity is a frequent side effect of many new drugs and often contributes to their ultimate failure to gain FDA approval. Other frequently prescribed drugs, such as chemotherapy agents, are also known to be cardiotoxic. Research using the heart chip could provide experimental information about how the drugs work. With that information, new compounds could be designed that avoid known issues, says Fang Qian, a Lawrence Livermore staff scientist who also worked on the array.Heart problems can be caused by a lot of different reasons, Qian says. It could be due to abnormal electrical signal conduction throughout the heart, such as arrhythmia, or weakened contraction force of heart muscles, like cardiomyopathy. Or both.A platform that only reads out a single functio n cannot tell us exactly what is wrong. Qian adds.Kevin Healy, a bioengineering prof at the University of California at Berkeley, believes these chip platforms will move beyond preliminary drug testing in coming years. Ultimately, these chips could replace the use of animals to screen drugs for safety and efficacy, Healy says.In early 2015, his team demonstrated a network of pulsating cardiac muscle cells housed in an inch-long silicone device that modeled human heart tissue. They tested its viability as a drug-screening tool by testing it with cardiovascular medications.And in October of 2016, Harvard University researchers created what they said was the first entirely 3D printed organ-on-a-chip that includes integrated sensing.Built by an automated, digital manufacturing procedure, the 3D-printed heart-on-a-chip can be quickly fabricated and customized, allowing researchers to collect reliable data for short-term and long-term studies, says Johan Ulrik Lind, a researcher at Harvar ds Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.His teams approach may one day allow researchers to rapidly design organs-on-chips that match the properties of a specific disease or even an individual patients cells, Lind says.Lawrence Livermore scientists caution that more testing is needed before heart-on-a-chip platforms act as stand-ins for humans during drug trials. But theyre optimistic about the technologys future.With high-throughput, high-content screening you could test many drugs at the same time and get a lot of data at once, Qian says. Its staggering how much money and time is involved in getting drugs to the market. This could speed up the process.Jean Thilmany is an independent writer. For Further DiscussionIts staggering how much money and time is involved in getting drugs to the market. This could speed up the process.Prof. Fang Qian, Lawrence Livermore Lab

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Goldman Sachs Books Record High Earnings, But Sets Aside Rec

Goldman Sachs Books Record High Earnings, But Sets Aside RecGoldman Sachs Books Record High Earnings, But Sets Aside RecIt was so good in fact that the firm with the Midas andeutung reported record net earnings of $13.4 billion on revenues of $45.2 billion. Which, of course, means its ranks will receive big and beautiful bonuses this year- but not as big and beautiful as they couldve been.Amid all the public criticism heaved Goldmans way in anticipation of the firm passing out huge incentive checks not long after the U.S. government helped them and others through a very rough patch, the firm decided to set aside just a measly $16.2 billion for bonuses, or about 36 percent of revenues. Sure, $16.2 billion is no bag of coal, but Goldman couldve gone higher. Consider that in 2007 the firm set aside $20 billion for bonuses and in 2008 the percentage of revenue devoted to incentive compensation equaled 48 percent.What hasnt been announced yet is how much CEO Lloyd Blankfein will bank for his efforts in 2009. We do know that he (and other Goldman top executives) will only be receiving a stock bonus (no cash), but seeing how Goldman killed it this year while its competitors still struggled (Citigroup booked a monstrous loss for the year and Morgan Stanley booked its first annual loss in history) Lloyd should get close to the record $68 million he made in 2007.

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

The Ultimate Handbook to Format of Resume

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Thursday, December 5, 2019

What Is So Fascinating About Writing Resume Help?

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