We rafted down the Kenai River today near Soldatna, Alaska. I took about 375 shots with my Canon 30D. Most were bad—out of focus, overexposed, poorly framed. But this one, of a flying adult bald eagle, came out all right. It’s my One Shot post for today.

Special thanks to all my friends at the Kenai Birding Festival, and especially to our drift-boat guide Ed O’Connor of Advantage Angling.

Online processing consulting firm, Alliance Charge, announces its recent hiring of additional technical support employees to meet demand. Recently the consulting firm announced it has hired 10 information technology employees.
 
Leading online processing consulting firm, Alliance Charge, recently announced its hiring of 10 savvy professional, friendly IT employees.

“Alliance Charge is committed to offering professional, full-service, helpful services, in order to do so, we needed additional technical support employees who could answer all our customers’ questions and concerns,” said Paul Skinner, Alliance Charge Spokesman.

The full-time technical support positions were filled by knowledgeable, experienced IT personnel, said Skinner. The new IT personnel will provide Alliance Charge customers with answers to questions regarding use and troubleshooting of online programs, as well as answers to any other technology related questions.

“Alliance Charge is happy to be able to hire additional staff and further grow as a family, we hope to continue growing and offer top-notch services,” said Skinner. “Alliance Charge is always on the hunt for the best solutions and employees,” said Skinner. “We simply want the best for our customers.”

Alliance Charge was formed in 2007 to play a bigger role in the online interactive and content management systems business. In addition, Alliance Charge provides payment consulting services as well as content management systems development. Alliance Charge specializes in serving companies that require reliable online payment processing solutions. In addition, Alliance Charge focuses on providing solid solutions for companies that want to leverage their payment processing capabilities.

More About Alliance Charge
Online processing consulting firm, Alliance Charge, is a subsidiary of Myroxon Holdings Ltd, a European based company. Alliance Charge provides a proprietary payment gateway directly linked to the banks across the globe, the company processes credit and debit card payments, verifies and processes e-Checks online, and more. Alliance Charge is considered an innovative global online processing consulting company. Alliance Charge was founded in 2007 to play a bigger role in the online interactive and content management systems business. Alliance Charge provides payment consulting services as well as content management systems development.

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For additional information, interview, and image requests contact:
Paul Skinner
PR Manager
Alliance Charge

Joe Pasternack, previous head coach of the University of New Orleans’ men’s basketball team, will be the new assistant coach for the University of Arizona’s men’s team.

In his high school career, which took place in Metairie Park Country Day School, Pasternack played four years of high school basketball. He graduated from Indiana in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing.

Prior to his coaching career at the University of New Orleans, Joe Pasternack was a manager for the Indiana basketball team for four years under coach Bob Knight and was an assistant coach at California.

He is known for his passionate and workaholic approach to all of his given positions.

I know a lot of you read this because you write, and want to write better.

Go and have a look at this: http://tinyurl.com/bqz5zw8.

John, the speaker, is one of the best writers I know. David Ogilvy thought very highly of him.

I shall be doing seminars with John in October in Australia, all being well. He is so damn good I am downright frightened at being compared to him.

If you either a) are unlikely to be in Oz then or b) can’t wait that long to write better – well, here’s a suggestion.

David Ogilvy also thought highly of two other writers who are running a copy seminar in Bristol in a couple of weeks.

I think I may have mentioned that before.

On the day I shall be analysing all kinds of copy and trying to explain – maybe not as well as John – what makes it work (or not).

And Steve and I will work with you in your copy for an hour and half.

You can bring stuff in for comment if you like.

Between us I hope we can do a pretty good job for you. It will certainly do you a lot more good than the Jubilee which follows immediately afterwards.

Just click here.
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Meanwhile, Paul Dooley sent me this. It is called the Dead Horse Theory. I’d seen it before, but a surprising amount of the content reminded me of the current Euro chaos.

The Dead Horse Theory

The tribal wisdom of the Plains Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.”

However, in government more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

1. Getting a stronger whip.

2. Changing riders.

3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.

4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.

5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.

6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.

7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.

8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.

9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance.

10. Employing consultants to do a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance.

11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.

12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.

And, of course…

13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position

In 2007, Joe Pasternack, then assistant coach at California, was offered a job as the University of New Orleans’ men’s basketball team’s (‘The Privateers’) head-coach, and he accepted it. Going back to his home-city in order to help rebuild the team after it was ruined by Hurricane Katrina seemed like the right thing to do. During his first year as head-coach, he lead ‘The Privateers’ to finish 19-11, their best record since 1997. “I thought we had turned the corner,” he said. Unfortunately he thought wrong.

With only a year left to his own contract as, Joe Pasternack, had to face the challenge of finding an entirely new team by the time the school year began at the end of August. The big problem, though, is that he needed to recruit players who were willing to enroll to the university and play for ‘The Privateers’, UNO’s basketball team, without receiving athletic scholarships. This is due to the fact the the university has, without too many choices, decided to move its athletics program from Division I to Division III because of major financial issues that they were experiencing as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Pasternack did everything that he possibly could in order to find the best players for the new team, who would also be able to afford paying for their own tuition. He attended a two-day scrimmaging camp, in order to find and invite the best players to the university’s basketball skills camp which takes place only a few weeks before the school-year begins. He was able to gather 40 players for the university’s basketball skills camp. “I’m sure a lot of you know our situation,” Pasternack told attendees. When he finishes explaining UNO’s plight, he says, “What that means is, we have a lot of spots open.”

By the end of the long and odd recruiting period, Joe Pasternack had a new team in front of him that he would need to build. “We started with one kid,” he says, “and finished with 19.”

Founding Partner of R & N Property Investments, Naftali Feig, recently marked the company’s seventh year in business. R & N Property Investments is a Cleveland-based real estate investment firm that purchases bank-owned homes and sells or rents them after renovation and home improvement work.

Naftali Feig founded R & N Property Investments in 2005. The Cleveland-based real estate investment firm purchases bank-owned homes, prior to releasing the properties to the market, Naftali Feig and his team renovate and repair the properties.

Since first establishing the real estate firm, Naftali Feig has been in charge of performing all due diligence on investment opportunities, job costing, designing and implementing property improvements, developing company growth strategy, hiring and overseeing professional tradesmen for projects, negotiating service contracts, cash-flow forecasting, bank reconciliation, budgeting, financial reporting and more.

“I completed a whole range of tasks,” said Naftali Feig. “I am a team player with strong leadership skills and a unique ability to see the larger picture while remaining detail oriented”

Since Naftali Feig recently relocated to Israel, he has handed over day-to-day operations of R & N Property Investments to his business partner.

Recently Naftali Feig marked his 12th year in the business profession. Naftali Feig, a native Israeli resident, moved to the United States with his family when he was seven years old. While living in the United States, Naftali Feig attended various American schools and education establishments.

In 2000, he graduated from Touro College with a Bachelor of Science in Finance. While a student at Touro College, Naftali Feig specialized in international financial markets, international bond trading, security analysis and options trading. Most recently, prior to his move to Israel, Naftali Feig graduated from Cleveland State University with a Masters of Business Administration.

Over the years, Naftali Feig has worked for a number of organizations, including Integrated DNA Technologies, Progressive Fashion Warehouse, Progressive Foods and most recently R & N Property Investments.

Naftali Feig is currently residing in Israel with his family and is seeking job opportunities in the business arena.

More About Naftali Feig
Naftali Feig, a native Israeli resident, holds 12 years of business and finance experience under his belt. Naftali Feig attended undergraduate and graduate school in the United States. Naftali graduated from Touro College with a Bachelor of Science in finance, recently he graduated from Cleveland State University with a Masters of Business Administration. Naftali Feig is a results driven business professional who is highly skilled at increasing revenue for organizations. Naftali Feig’s specialties include project management, accounting, strategy, planning, finance, real estate, and cost cutting. Naftali Feig is currently searching for challenging employment in Israel. Naftali Feig is married and has three children.

Sean Miller, head coach of University of Arizona’s men’s basketball team, has hired University of New Orleans’ head coach, Joe Pasternack, as his new assistant coach for the Arizona Wildcats.

Coach Miller also considered former University of Arizona player Damon Stoudamire for the job, but Pasternack’s impressive reputation and previous coaching experience lead Miller to decide that Pasternack is a better candidate.

“I want to thank UNO and my players for the opportunity over the last four years,” Pasternack said. “It is very difficult to leave the city of New Orleans.” He explained that he could not pass up on the opportunity for working with top coach Sean Miller in one of the elite basketball programs in the country.

In 2010, the New Orleans Saints earned Super Bowl victory. This victory meant a lot and was a big deal for the city after the terrible and unfortunate experience they had to go through in the event of Hurricane Katrina. Together with the entire city, Joe Pasternack, the then-head-coach of the men’s basketball team, ‘The Privateers’, at the University of New Orleans, who was born and raised in the city, celebrated. Mixed with the happiness, though, Pasternack also felt very worried. “I grew up here and I’m a huge Saints fan,” Pasternack said. “I couldn’t be more excited. But everything here is not rosy. Not at all. Our university is struggling mightily still.”

When New Orleans’ beloved sports team celebrated its best moment, its university’s athletics department was undergoing a nightmare. During that time, the University of New Orleans announced that it will, without a choice, have to move its athletics programs from NCAA Division I to Division III status due to major financial problems which arose as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

“This is our flagship school – the University of New Orleans,” said Vanessa Pappillon, whose godson Charles Carmouche is the Privateers’ leading scorer. “To not have a Division I sports program at the university that belongs to the whole city, to every socioeconomic level, is inexcusable. We have a lot of wonderful distractions happening in this city but how can you say we’re entirely healed with what’s happening to our university? We’re not.”

When Joe Pasternack accepted the coaching job at the university, he knew that things will not be easy for him there. But he is a hard and dedicated worker, as well as a New Orleans native. He did not only think that he could make it work, he also wanted to make it work. “This was a dream job for me,” he said.

Pasternack did many good things for the university’s basketball team. During his first year as head-coach he helped secure a $1 million donation from former Privateer Gabe Corchiani and his business partner, John Georges. Also during his first year, he lead ‘The Privateers’ to finish 19-11, their best record since 1997.

Since then, though things have only gotten worse for the university and for Pasternack’s team. During the following year was when the university decided to drop its Division classification. Joe Pasternack was told that he could not offer athletic scholarships to his team players anymore. At the end of that season he had to place his own players on other teams. Teams that would be best for them to play for. “I understand what the chancellor was up against and I suppose Division III is better than nothing, but I feel so badly for the kids,” Pasternack said. “These kids wanted to be here.”