A little-known bit of world history about a rag tag group of sailors stranded for years in the Suez Canal at the center of a war.

Great Bitter Lake Association

There are symbols all around us that we take for granted, like the lightning strike icon, which indicates that something is high voltage. Or a little campfire to indicate that something is flammable. Those icons are pretty obvious, but there are others that aren't so straightforward. Like, why do a triangle and a stick in a circle indicate "peace"? Where does the smiley face actually come from? Or the power symbol? We sent out the 99PI team to dig into the backstory behind some of those images you see every day.

Ubiquitous Icons: Peace, Power, and Happiness

In the 1930s, Lester Gaba was designing department store windows and found the old wax mannequins uninspiring. So he designed a new kind of mannequin that was sleek, simple, but conveyed style and personality. As a marketing stunt, he took one of these mannequins everywhere with him and she became a national obsession. “Cynthia” captivated millions and was the subject of a 14-page spread in Life Magazine. Cynthia and the other Gaba Girls changed the look and feel of retail stores.

Mannequin Pixie Dream Girl

Make your mark. Go to radiotopia.fm to donate today.

The weather can be a simple word or loaded with meaning depending on the context -- a humdrum subject of everyday small talk or a stark climactic reality full of existential associations with serious disasters. In his book The Weather Machine, author Andrew Blum discusses these extremes and much in between, taking readers back in time to early weather-predicting aspirations and forward with speculation about the future of forecasting, including potentially dark clouds on the horizon.

The Weather Machine

The Anders CARES Act Team, made up of Anders advisors across different departments of the firm, has teamed up with KSDK 5 on Your Side to answer questions from viewers about CARES Act benefits. From stimulus check updates to SBA loan eligibility, Anders will be answering questions individuals and businesses need to know. To submit...

The post Anders CARES Act Team Answers Viewer Questions on KSDK appeared first on Anders CPA.

Some small business owners are finding themselves in yet another predicament as they try find new ways to keep their businesses open and comply with Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness – workers are taking unemployment over returning to work. In some cases, employers are offering to match or even exceed the unemployment amounts to...

The post Businesses Get a Break on Employees Taking Unemployment Over Returning to Work appeared first on Anders CPA.

What does returning to business look like in a post COVID-19 world? Join us on Thursday, May 14 at 10:00am CDT for a webinar discussing the state of the world after we reach the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. You’ll learn about: Economic impact from COVID-19 Best practices for moving your business forward How to...

The post WEBINAR – The Great Viral Recession: Light at the End of the Tunnel? appeared first on Anders CPA.

Take Action: Tell the Senate to Vote on NECA-Supported Cadillac Tax Repeal!

1. NECA Wins in Year-End Funding Bills

On December 17, 2019, Congress passed two funding bills, H.R. 1158, FY2020 Consolidated National Security Appropriations Package and H.R. 1865, FY2020 Consolidated Domestic and International Assistance Package, both resulting in big wins for NECA contractors.

NECA’s Look Ahead: In addition to ensuring the full operation of the federal government for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2020, several of NECA’s top legislative priorities were included:

• Full repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) 40 percent “Cadillac Tax”

• Allowing 529 savings accounts to be used for costs associated with Department of Labor (DOL) registered apprenticeship programs

• Seven-year reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program

• Extension of the National Flood Insurance Program

• Full repeal of health insurance tax (HIT) and the medical device excise tax

• Seven-year authorization of the U.S. Export-Import Bank

• An extension of 179D energy efficiency tax deduction retrospectively from 2017 and prospectively through 2020

• $1 billion for Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grants

Summaries of the package can be found below:

Full Package Summary – H.R. 1158

Full Package Summary – H.R. 1865

Division Q – Summary (Revenue Provision Amendment)

2. USMCA Passes the House

On December 19, 2019, the House passed, in a 385 to 41 vote, the NECA-supported United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), H.R. 5430, to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

NECA’s Look Ahead: Now that the USMCA has passed the House, it will move to the Senate. Under the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), the bill procedurally spends up to 15 legislative session days in the Senate Finance Committee. Then, there are up to 15 session days for the Senate to vote on the floor. With Impeachment Articles passed from the House taking precedent, USMCA is unlikely to see a Senate vote any time before late February.

3. Impeachment Update

On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives took up impeachment procedure and  passed H. Res. 755 – “Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors” by a vote of  230 – 197, 1 for Article I and by a vote of 229 – 197, 1 for Article II.

NECA’s Look Ahead: It remains unclear when the two articles of impeachment will reach the Senate. When they do arrive to the Senate, it is expected that the Senate will begin the trail immediately.  

On December 19, 2019, members of NECA’s Penn-Del-Jersey chapter attended a holiday event in Philadelphia with Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.). Pictured with Penn-Del-Jersey Chapter’s Aaron Kelley with Rep. Dean.  

NECA's Government Affairs team wraps up 2019, check out the year-end review.

On February 11, 2020, members of NECA’s Penn-Del-Jersey Chapter met with Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.)

1. Hearing on Expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act

On Tuesday, February 11, 2020, the Workforce Protections Subcommittee held a hearing to discuss the issue of paid family leave. This hearing examined the different ways that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) could be updated to best benefit employees, employers, and the American economy. Among suggested updates are expanding eligibilty under the FMLA, reducing exclusions, promoting tax cuts to businesses that provide paid leave, and increasing employee access to additional paid leave options.

NECA’s Look Ahead: NECA will continue to monitor this issue as different solutions to paid family and medical leave are presented, working with legislators to reduce the impact on the electrical construction industry. 

2. President Trump Releases Budget Proposal to Congress 

On March 11, 2019, President Donald Trump released his budget proposal to Congress, “A Budget for America’s Future”. The budget and detailed summaries are found here. 

NECA’s Look Ahead: The President’s budget in its current form will not be passed by Congress to become law. The budget is largely seen as a political document. Regarding government funding, the House is expected to introduce the twelve appropriations bills in Subcommittee by the end of April, with the full committee hearings expected in May. The goal is to pass the twelve bills through the House by July. The Senate is expected to pass their version in June.

3. Your Vote Counts!

The 2020 state primary elections are coming up, so be sure to make your vote count! NECA contractors are uniquely positioned to play an important part in our nation's electoral process. NECA is a diverse organization comprised of many voices and election day is your opportunity to make your voice heard.  

NECA’s Look Ahead: Be sure you are registered to vote in your state before election day and research the candidates on your ballot to see where they stand on issues important to you.

On February 16, 2020, members of NECA’s East Tennessee Chapter met with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.)

Congress Continues Work on Coronavirus Phase IV Legislation

Congress has returned home to their districts for recess until April 20, 2020, but staff has continued working on Phase IV of the coronavirus response legislation. NECA Government Affairs has been in constant contact with congressional staff to ensure our contractor’s concerns are voiced, and needs are met. As the efforts to support the economy and the American people continue, NECA is working to secure the inclusion of infrastructure investment and multiemployer pension reform, along with several other issue areas, in any upcoming package.

Take Action: Tell NECA what legislative provisions will provide the most relief for your company. NECA will compile our asks and communicate those with Congress to ensure our collective voice is heard. Please send your comments to NECAGovtAffairs@necanet.org by April 8, 2020.   

Google has added an Undo Send feature to Gmail. Now you can finally unsend an email, although you have just a short time to unsend it.

Read more on howtoweb.com

Google Maps has added a sharing feature. You can track your favorite places and share them with your friends.

Read more on howtoweb.com

Tripwire Interactive is looking for a lead gameplay engineer to help shape its engineering team. ...

In this 2020 GDC Virtual Talk, Pixel Reef's Clement Duquesne shares how they crafted the detailed systems that breathe aural life into Paper Beast's animated creatures and dynamic landscapes. ...

As we trudge through a time of working from home utilizing various isolation strategies, more employees are getting familiar with the technology tools their employers have deployed to help them do their jobs. Having a better understanding of these tools… Read More

The post Microsoft Teams vs. Zoom: Which Tool Should I Use and When? appeared first on Anders CPAs.

The Anders CARES Act Team, made up of Anders advisors across different departments of the firm, has teamed up with KSDK 5 on Your Side to answer questions from viewers about CARES Act benefits. From stimulus check updates to SBA… Read More

The post Anders CARES Act Team Answers Viewer Questions on KSDK appeared first on Anders CPAs.

We're currently working on an unannounced PC/console title (with an exciting pedigree), and need help bringing the game world to life. If you love building levels and bringing worlds to life for players, read on!Responsibilities Creating interesting, lived-in worlds with clever world building in Unreal Engine. Placing environment assets, VFX, lighting, and so on Establishing and maintaining technical requirements for environment assets and levels Working closely with designers to iterate on and finalize level layouts Utilization of 3DS Max or Maya, Photoshop, and other related tools to author environment assets Working with art leadership to review, critique and iterate on work Required Familiarity with the usual tools of the trade: modeling tools, game engines, source control, and so on. A keen willingness to adapt work as design iterates or evolves A do-whatever-it-takes mindset: flexibility to learn and grow to fill the needs of a small team Good understanding of how to create believable and visually memorable levels Good understanding optimization needs and other technical requirements regarding performance 5+ years of experience, demonstrating the above responsibilities in action Must be immediately eligible to work in the United States Pluses Titles shipped using Unreal Titles shipped across major platforms Affinity to learning new tools and techs Proficiency creating hand-painted textures Please note, due to a high volume of applicants we cannot reply to each individually. Only those in consideration for a position will receive a reply. Thank you!

Quality Assurance Manager We’re looking for a QA Manager who has a passion for shipping games and an eye for detail. Your responsibility will be to organize and track the team’s QA process, including playtesting feedback, bug tracking, localization & platform certification. We’re looking for someone who can catch and address problems quickly and effectively, can communicate with anyone on the team to get results, and has a deep understanding of our production process. Come help us build better things! Your Role   Consistently playtesting our levels and helping keep builds updated and maintained Organizing external playtests and tracking resulting bugs and feedback Working with remote QA teams and managing bug-tracking software Managing & tracking localization & platform certification tasks Communicating with project leads to address the QA task backlog Creating and managing tasks while also identifying, tracking and addressing risks Work with the publisher to ship the game on multiple platforms Requirements Experience with bug-tracking systems (such as DevTrack, JIRA or BugZilla) Experience shipping at least one game on PC and/or console Experience with localization & platform cert processes Previous QA experience on games - at least 2 years on PC or console Experience with milestone tracking Knowledge and familiarity with Agile and Scrum development framework Strong reading, writing and spelling skills Strong technical aptitude A passion for games - third person action and platformer games particularly Ample experience with current generation of gaming consoles Excellent organizational skills Independently motivated Excellent communication skills and assertive attitude Authorized to work in the US Currently local to the Los Angeles area, or willing relocate Bonus QA experience in a large team environment Any additional and related skills in games (illustration, modeling, writing, production) Experience with Unreal 4   To apply Send your application to jobs@heart-machine.com with the title "QA Manager".    Please include specific skills you would bring to a new project, as well as any links to current and/or past projects and your resume.

Tripwire Interactive is looking for talented, dedicated, and passionate individuals to join the Tripwire Interactive family! Tripwire Interactive is an independent video game development and publishing company, famous for shooter titles like Red Orchestra and the wildly popular Killing Floor series. With its next project poised to blow previous projects out of the water, Tripwire has solidified its spot as one of the brightest rising stars in the games industry.  At Tripwire Interactive, we pride ourselves in our ability to move to the beat of our own drum. Our existence as an independent studio and publisher means we are able to develop games on a schedule that reassesses what has become the status quo in the industry as a whole. We’re located in Roswell, GA just north of Atlanta; where cost of living is relatively low and opportunities are high. So if you’re looking to work in an environment that changes the game in more ways than one, look no further than Tripwire Interactive. *Note: During this unprecedented time, we are looking for individuals who are able and willing to work from home until all restrictions have been lifted in relation to COVID-19. At such time, the position will be located on site. Responsibilities: Utilizing your technical skills, you will collaborate with designers, artists, audio designers, and various other specialists to design and develop best-in-class game experiences Exemplify and promote standards for code, design, development, debugging, optimization, reviewing goals, testing and documentation Interface between multiple departments with varies approaches to game development. You are responsible for translating creative intent into code tasks Help to lead development teams to meet high-level project goals. Understand the intent of the creative direction and translate it into actionable descriptions of work Participate in hiring process to grow our engineering team with an ever-rising quality bar Identify technical and developmental risks/obstacles and generate solutions to overcome identified risks Design and Implement engineering solutions in many areas of game development such as procedural generation, game mechanics, AI, animation, physics, rendering, localization and UI Keep up to date on state-of-the-art software engineering methods, practices, and technologies Write well-architected code with an eye towards performance and re-usability for multiple experiences. Evaluate other engineers code to make sure it meets the department’s expectations Empower and guide the career(s) of your direct reports to promote their growth as engineers. You are responsible for providing feedback for your team to assist in their growth Establish workflow pipelines and cost/time analysis required for taking a game from early prototype stages all the way through to pre-production, production and release  Qualifications:  BS (or higher) in Computer Science or similar discipline Minimum 6 years game industry experience with 3+ shipped titles Excellent C++ programming and systems design skills Experience with implementing network gameplay, AI, or physics Ability to judge feature quality in relation to other current competing games Adept at working with designers and artists to implement gameplay features Experience in reviewing code and work to provide critical feedback used in career management Benefits:  Profit Share Medical, Dental, & Vision 100% of premiums for the family covered by Tripwire Up to 30 days of PTO 16 paid Holidays Short Term Disability & Long Term Disability 401k Match Flexible Spending Account Flexible Hours Employee & Family Team Building Events Volunteer Days   Preference to applicants with:  Significant Unreal Engine experience Passion for first person shooters Proven ability of tackling challenging projects Experience in full software development lifecycle of shipping a game Excellent written and verbal communication skills Ability to work well under pressure, flexible, positive and focused    

Tripwire Interactive is looking for talented, dedicated, and passionate individuals to join the Tripwire Interactive family! Tripwire Interactive is an independent video game development and publishing company, famous for shooter titles like Red Orchestra and the wildly popular Killing Floor series. With its next project poised to blow previous projects out of the water, Tripwire has solidified its spot as one of the brightest rising stars in the games industry.  At Tripwire Interactive, we pride ourselves in our ability to move to the beat of our own drum. Our existence as an independent studio and publisher means we are able to develop games on a schedule that reassesses what has become the status quo in the industry as a whole. We’re located in Roswell, GA just north of Atlanta; where cost of living is relatively low and opportunities are high. So if you’re looking to work in an environment that changes the game in more ways than one, look no further than Tripwire Interactive. *Note: During this unprecedented time, we are looking for individuals who are able and willing to work from home until all restrictions have been lifted in relation to COVID-19. At such time, the position will be located on site. Responsibilities: Manage publishing production staff supporting external developers as well as serving as primary point of contact between internal stakeholders and external teams. Developing schedules with internal and external teams, evaluating schedules with executive management and then managing projects to schedule, highlighting task priorities, departmental inter dependencies, resource issues and risks. Assist publishing leadership in creating and maintaining product roadmap and in performing product evaluations. Assist in producing and maintaining related budget and cost forecast for publishing projects. Responsible for production-led planning for all project deliverables including milestone review, external build creation and marketing/PR needs. Identify and offer solutions to production issues to solve the resulting schedule, cost, and scope conflicts. Maintain communications with all team members, team leads, and executive management; both internally and externally. Understand and contribute to company goals and core values while bringing a positive and collaborative approach to all project related activities. Suggest and lead process improvement initiatives. All other duties as assigned.  Qualifications: Project management experience, including Scrum, Kanban, and traditional waterfall methodologies and tools, as well as the ability to prioritize and solve problems. Strong communication and inter-personal skills, leading to a demonstrated ability to work within a team structure. Attention to detail and the ability (and desire) to handle potentially stressful development environments. Minimum 5 years production experience including 2+ years as Senior or Lead Producer. Expert level knowledge and ability to mentor staff on project management principles, practices, tools and techniques. Understanding of game development process including demonstrated experience with first party submission requirements and ability to clinically evaluate milestone submissions. Strong resource planning experience; skill in organizing resources and establishing priorities. Minimum 2 shipped product with production credit. Demonstrated ability to maintain focus across multiple concurrent projects.  Benefits Profit Share Medical, Dental, & Vision 100% of premiums for the family covered by Tripwire Up to 30 days of PTO 16 paid Holidays Short Term Disability & Long Term Disability 401k Match Flexible Spending Account Flexible Hours Employee & Family Team Building Events Volunteer Days  Preference to applicants with: Significant Unreal Engine experience Passion for first person shooters Proven ability of tackling challenging projects Experience in full software development lifecycle of shipping a game Excellent written and verbal communication skills Ability to work well under pressure, flexible, positive and focused    

Members of our small business community have tips for transforming your business in 2020.

Presentation management puts a strategic workflow process around presentation files, such as: PowerPoint, video, images, PDFs, and any other file types you use in business

With the inundation of big data, enterprises are constantly on the prowl for advanced solutions such as AI-based cognitive search platforms that significantly help cut down on time and cost

How an organization responds to CCPA and future-proofs itself against additional laws will dictate how well it will perform for years to come

The old paradigm for supply chain networks has run its course, and the future is in multi-enterprise, or multi-party business networks

Companies have a difficult challenge breaking through to the most advanced levels of digital maturity

When deployed separately, robotic process automation and digital process automation technologies add immense business value, but when they are strategically combined, an entirely new level of business optimization is possible

It seems important to me that devs spend a lot of time on nurturing their game community before launch. But many can't or don't. Here's advice on how you can do a better job! ...

So your game has a lot of Steam wishlists, but then it launches... and it doesn't sell many copies! What happened? We try to delve into it within... ...

Analysis of a secure, cloud-based electronic health records dataset of more than 30,000 patients will help uncover hidden trends that will lead to new treatment strategies

IBM helps CHO create provenance record for olive oil from grower to consumer

Hospital network moves finance, procurement, human resources, and supply chain applications to the cloud to increase efficiency and improve business insights

PD Ports develops more than 20 applications on K2's intelligent process automation platform to optimize business efficiency for mission-critical processes throughout its organization

Verint Community Cloud helps Ounce of Prevention Fund accelerate launch of online community amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Collaboration between Delighted, a Qualtrics company, and Amazon Business empowers organizations of all sizes to listen, understand, and act on customer feedback in real-time

The COVID-19 Research Pass (CPR) program provides direct access to more than 26 million articles

The new 21% corporate tax rate allows C corporations to pay federal taxes at a significantly lower tax rate than the 35% top rate in prior years. While the new tax rate took effect beginning in 2018, this new benefit… Read More

The post Fiscal-year Corporations Subject to Blended Tax Rates Following Tax Reform appeared first on Anders CPAs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is taking a new direction with the Medicare Shared Savings Program, established by the Affordable Care Act. The new ruling, called Pathways to Success, is meant to encourage Medicare’s Accountable Care Organizations… Read More

The post CMS Creates Pathways to Success for ACOs Starting July 1, 2019 appeared first on Anders CPAs.

Some health care organizations believe that increasing the number of patients walking through the doors is the surest way to see an increase in revenue. While this is one way of increasing profit, there are several actions your organization can… Read More

The post Optimize the Revenue Cycle to Increase Profit without Adding Patients appeared first on Anders CPAs.

Senior health care consultant Merella Schandl, MHA, CPMSM, CPCS is speaking at the Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants (MOCPA) Healthcare Industry Conference on Thursday, October 17. The day-long conference will dive into how legislation, consumerism and value-based care are… Read More

The post Merella Schandl Speaking at MOCPA Healthcare Industry Conference appeared first on Anders CPAs.

The health care industry is one of the biggest targets for cybersecurity attacks. In 2018 alone, nearly 300 data breaches affected 11.5 million patients, according to a Bitglass report. Cybercriminals see health care organizations as the perfect victim due to… Read More

The post Data Breaches in Hospitals are on the Rise – How Health Care Organizations Can Prevent Cybersecurity Attacks appeared first on Anders CPAs.

The key to deterring fraud is to understand how and why people commit fraud. Knowing the “how” helps managers and business owners create policies and design internal controls to reduce the occurrence of fraud. The “why” is much more complicated,… Read More

The post The Fraud Triangle: Three Conditions That Increase the Risk of Fraud appeared first on Anders CPAs.

Clay M. Kniepmann, JD, CPA, CFE, Kevin P. Summers, JD, CPA/ABV/CFF, CVA, CDFA, CEPA and Thomas E. Hilton, MSF, CPA/ABV/CFF, CVA, CGMA are speaking at the Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants (MOCPA) Fraud & Forensic Accounting Conference on November… Read More

The post Forensic and Litigation Services Group Speaking at MOCPA Fraud & Forensic Accounting Conference appeared first on Anders CPAs.

Cognitive/AI technologies for customer engagement are white hot. No wonder professionals, who had removed AI from their resumes, are scrambling to add it back in!

I am a firm believer in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey. If you've not read this book, it is worth the time. I mention this because my focus at BA Insight is around Covey's second habit, which is, "Begin with the end in mind." Seems simple, right? Well it is, but it's also quite rare. When approaching any enterprise search project, at any phase, I always try to come back to this idea. What is success? When are we done? What does finished look like? These are all different ways of saying, "Make sure you have goals!"