0 Comments - Four Seasons Hotels and Resort

Ethan and Cameron?s eyes are as wide as saucers. The doors to the (complimentary) Kids For All Seasons* club in Langkawi have been thrown open, and in front of them are the makings of little boys? dreams: video games of every persuasion. Craft tables filled with possibility. Staff ready to play any game?for hours on end. It?s no wonder they barely said good-bye to us when they flew out of our room after a late breakfast.

It?s true that Four Seasons Resort Langkawi, Malaysia has plenty to offer. As a family, we toured the mangroves, shared an evening picnic under the stars I won?t soon forget and spent hours together just lazing around and being close.

But for a good hour or two? or three? every day, the boys?Ethan, nine, and Cameron, seven?disappeared. ?Going to the kids club, ma!? they?d yell as they bounded out the door and across the sand. And inevitably, we?d get a call from staff a within half an hour with the message that the boys wanted to stay longer. Was it ok? It was.

Kids? clubs come in all stripes. There are the ones that avoid any sort of 21st century video game play. There are the ones that give kids only that. What this kids? club did?and why I think the boys enjoyed it so much?was offer a little bit of everything, with a dedicated staff who was genuinely happy to engage. The boys were all smiles when they headed out, and all smiles when they came home. And when the kids are happy, parents are happy.

The club is free to all guests, so cost is never an issue. It gave Ish and I some time to ourselves?a rarity on our around-the-world trip. It gave the boys a feeling of independence and accomplishment: to be able to go on their own, stay as they liked, order their own snacks and play all day. We grew to trust the staff, who called to check when the kids begged to stay longer, let us know what to expect and where to find them on the property throughout the day.

Although it was all fun and games, there was a lot of learning, too. The boys came back knowing a few phrases in Malay, or the Bahasa Melayu language. They made batik paintings that will hang on their walls back home. They had fun playing everything from Lego video games with willing playmates to making a holiday scrapbook.

And with some of their little boy energy spent at the club, they?d come home to parents who were ready to hang out, distraction-free, as a family. Vacation Success.

*Kids For All Seasons (KFAS) is a Four Seasons complimentary recreational and educational program for children of resort guests. Most KFAS clubs are designed for youth four to 12 years old, and open daily from 9 to 5. (Younger children can often join KFAS with a nanny or parent, or resorts can arrange for babysitting.) But details vary from property to property, so check the resort?s website for more information.?

Kids can go all day or just for an hour or two. Activities inside and out include games, sports, music, treasure hunts, swimming, arts and crafts, cultural education, environmental preservation work and yoga. Not your average camp, the VIP offerings are pretty extraordinary?for example, at Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora, kids can help the resort?s marine biologist graft coral in the lagoon sanctuary.

Read more about Langkawi in Four Seasons Magazine.?

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Source: http://family.fourseasons.com/2012/09/boys-quickly-comfy-at-malaysias-four-seasons-langkawi-kidss-club/

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Real Estate Agents: 5 Must Have Marketing Skills ? CT Homes LLC

Do you have the ?5 must have marketing skills? it takes to win as a real estate agent?

Realtor.com recently briefly touched on what it calls these 5 must have marketing skills for real estate agents who want to survive and thrive in the current market and they can also be capitalized on by those selling a home themselves and active real estate investors.

So what are they?

1. Good Content
2. Managing the Lead Pipeline
3. Social Media
4. Measuring Marketing Results
5. Technology

Any industry professional from real estate agents to investors and mortgage brokers need to realize that content is now their most important marketing weapon and most valued asset. This can range from videos to Tweets to website copy and blog posts. You can?t afford to skimp here, enroll help when you need it but stick to a regular publishing schedule and focus on quality.

Social media makes up a large part of content marketing for real estate agents today and is a sound investment which will keep feeding your business for the long run. It is important as a personal branding tool but it is also being leveraged as an incredibly powerful and fast lead generation tool by others as well, though of course this requires a lot more than posting a few random messages.

Unfortunately many real estate agents are still resistant to new technology but at the same time those who are leading in sales and income are those who are embracing it the most. It?s here to stay, get over it, learn to love it and it will make your live easier and income better. This doesn?t mean you have to go out and grab the new iPhone 5 or join the 83 million who purchased an iPad by June this year but you need to know how to connect with those who are using them.

Whatever marketing you are choosing to use from in person networking to direct mail to print advertising needs to be tracked and measured. If it isn?t, you have no idea what is really working and where your investment is paying off and best put.

Finally, recognize the challenges of the different parts of the sales process and get better at pushing it forward. You can?t just focus on the one next deal and hope it closes. You need to be constantly loading your pipeline with new contacts every day, know where deals commonly get stuck and find ways to push more of them through.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2012 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Home Selling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.cthomesllc.com/2012/09/real-estate-agents-5-must-have-marketing-skills/

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One Direction Releasing 'Live While We're Young' Weeks Early

After video leaks online Thursday, boy-banders push up release of their lead single and clip off Take Me Home.
By Jocelyn Vena

One Direction's Liam Payne, Niall Horan and Harry Styles
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1694155/one-direction-live-while-were-young-release.jhtml

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Friday Favorites ? Surprise Baby Shower | my kitchen addiction

I?ve been taking a bit of a break from my Friday Favorites lately? My regular Friday Favorites will return later this fall (post-baby!). But, lately I just haven?t had the time and energy to get through my RSS reader each week. I suppose being close to 9 months pregnant is a good excuse, but I do really miss reading everyone?s posts each week.

This week, however, I had to put together a quick post to say thank you to all of the amazing bloggers who pulled together to throw me a surprise virtual baby shower yesterday. I?am so lucky to have so many great friends out there, and I was certainly reminded of that fact as I read through everyone?s blog posts!

My day yesterday started pretty normally? Yellowdog decided to throw a tantrum about 30 minutes before the alarm was going to go off because she wanted attention??And breakfast.? Yes, having a yellow lab is good preparation for having a baby in the house.? So, when we couldn?t ignore the whining any longer, the hubby and I?pulled ourselves out of bed, got the doggy her breakfast, and then took her for her morning walk. I had left my phone on the dining room table when we left for our walk, so I picked it up to double check to make sure I didn?t have any missed calls or text messages when I got home. That?s when I saw all of the tweets.

I scrolled through all of the notifications on my phone and finally realized what was going on? There was a virtual baby shower? For me! I was floored. I wasn?t expecting it at all, and I couldn?t believe how many people had taken the time to write a blog post?to celebrate the little baby that will be here soon. I started to tear up a bit, and immediately ran (ok, waddled?) to turn on my computer so that I could read through everything on a?regular-sized screen.

As I went through all of the posts, more and more tears came? I was blown away by all of the sweet words, well wishes, and fabulous recipes. I have always loved the?way the food blogging community is so tightly knit, and, much to my surprise, I was suddenly the one on the receiving end of all of the love.?I spent the morning reading everyone?s posts?and trying to find the words to appropriately describe how I felt.? I never quite found the words, and I still haven?t.

The best I can do is to extend my heartfelt thanks for everyone?s love and support. I never expected that my little food blog would lead to all of this, and I am blessed to have so many great friends as a result.? So, today I wanted to pass along the links to all of the blog posts that were a part of the virtual shower. I hope that you will help me in extending my thanks? Plus, there are a lot of great recipes that you won?t want to miss!

Bluebonnets & Brownies | Raspberry Lemon Fruit Dip
Sugarcrafter | Sweet Potato Cake with Honey Buttercream
My Baking Addiction | Mini Pumpkin Pies
Simple Bites | English Eccles Cakes
Stetted | Roasted Red Pepper and Caramelized Onion Dip
Food for my Family | Homemade Pear Italian Sodas with Cardamom Cream
eat. live. travel. write. | Goat Cheese and Tomato Tartlettes
Gimme Some Oven | Creamy Caramel Apple Dippers
Dessert For Two | Caramel Apple Cookie Cups
Bake at 350 | Soft Sugar Cookies for a Baby Shower
A Thought For Food | Fingerling Potato Salad
TidyMom | Apple Pomegranate Spritzers
i am baker | Advice to a New Mommy
Healthy Green Kitchen | Guacamole with Pistachios
Tracey?s Culinary Adventures | Caramelized Onion, Gruyere and Bacon Spread
What Megan?s Making | Apple Spice Muffins
Cookin? Canuck | Gorgonzola Cheese Cups with Pear & Hazelnut Salad
Bellalimento | Frozen Berry Shortcake
Shugary Sweets | Caramel Apple Truffles
GoodLife Eats | Coconut Lemon Banana Bread

Source: http://www.mykitchenaddiction.com/2012/09/friday-favorites-surprise-baby-shower/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=friday-favorites-surprise-baby-shower

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IFTTT Has Actually Been In Violation of Twitter?s API For Months, Today?s Move Unrelated To 1.1

So today, IFTTT sent out an email to users letting them know that they'd be dropping support for certain services due to Twitter's API restrictions. That's a correct statement, but the timing is very odd.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vg_wp0FJqDU/

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Goldman names new CFO, heralding end of an era

REUTERS - Goldman Sachs Group Inc has named senior trading executive Harvey Schwartz to replace David Viniar as chief financial officer, the latest in a series of executive shuffles as the investment bank prepares for a change in top management.

Schwartz, 48, is among a small group of executives who are considered potential candidates to take over as chief executive when Lloyd Blankfein eventually steps down.

When Schwartz starts his new job at the end of January, he will replace the longest-serving CFO on Wall Street.

"He is incredibly qualified for the position," said Jason Graybill, a senior managing director at Carret Asset Management, which owns Goldman bonds. "These banks are not in the go-go growth modes they were in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s."

"It's a merit-based promotion and sort of a next-generation promotion," said a Goldman source who knows the top executives at the firm. "Harvey's definitely on the short list of people who could be CEO one day," said the source, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Blankfein's eventual departure as CEO has been a subject of speculation for months. Over the past year, Goldman has been cutting staff to manage costs while moving younger bankers and traders into senior roles.

Goldman President Gary Cohn has long been viewed as a favorite for the job, but other executives including vice chairmen J. Michael Evans and Michael Sherwood, investment banking global co-head David Solomon and Schwartz have all been mentioned as possible contenders.

Blankfein has said that while he has no intention of stepping down in the near-term, he already has a candidate in mind to take over his job.

Viniar, 57, will join Goldman's board of directors as a non-independent director after the transition.

The bank currently has 10 directors including Blankfein, Cohn and Stephen Friedman, who ran Goldman while it was still a private partnership. Goldman said it also expects to name independent directors to its board soon.

SUBPRIME SHORT SELLER

Schwartz joined Goldman in 1997 after a stint at Citibank. He was named managing director in 1999 and partner in 2002.

Two other executives, Pablo Salame and Isabelle Ealet, share the title of global co-head of securities with Schwartz. Ealet was promoted to that position in January when previous co-heads David Heller and Edward Eisler retired.

Roger Freeman, a bank analyst with Barclays Capital, said Schwartz has been more visible with analysts and investors in recent months. His position as co-chair of Goldman's Steering Committee on Regulatory Reform will mesh well with Schwartz's new responsibilities as CFO, he said.

Sources familiar with the matter said Viniar had been planning to retire for at least two years, but stayed with the firm during various government investigations and high-profile controversies including the public resignation of an employee in a newspaper op-ed in March.

Viniar, known as one of the most shrewd risk managers in the business, was instrumental in developing Goldman's strategy to short subprime mortgages in 2007. It helped the bank avoid the multi-billion-dollar losses that felled rivals, but led to an avalanche of public criticism.

He is also known for having been virtually unflappable in the face of investigations that followed.

At a Congressional hearing in 2010, Viniar was asked about an email describing in a vulgar way a trade Goldman structured for clients. He did not show regret about the substance of the message, but instead responded, "I think it is very unfortunate to have that on email."

Viniar is among the best-paid executives on Wall Street. He earned $15.8 million last year and held 1.8 million shares of Goldman as of March 26, according to a proxy filing. (Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra and David Henry in New York; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/goldman-names-cfo-heralding-end-era-024427932--sector.html

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Two bionic ears are better than the sum of their parts

ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2012) ? Cochlear implants -- electronic devices surgically implanted in the ear to help provide a sense of sound -- have been successfully used since the late 1980's. But questions remain as to whether bilateral cochlear implants, placed in each ear rather than the traditional single-ear implant, are truly able to facilitate binaural hearing. Now, Tel Aviv University researchers have proof that under certain conditions, this practice has the ability to salvage binaural sound processing for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

According to Dr. Yael Henkin of TAU's Department of Communication Disorders at the Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions and Head of The Hearing, Speech, and Language Center at Sheba Medical Center, and her colleagues Prof. Minka Hildesheimer, Yifat Yaar-Soffer, and Lihi Givon, the brain unites incoming sound from each ear at the brainstem through what is called "binaural processing." "When we hear with both ears, we have an efficient auditory system," she explains. Binaural processing provides improved ease of listening, sound localization, and the ability to understand speech in noisy surroundings.

In their study, the researchers looked at children who had lost their hearing at a young age and were not born deaf. Those who were provided with bilateral cochlear implants exhibited true binaural processing, similar to that of their normal hearing peers. In contrast, deaf-at-birth children who received their first cochlear implant at young age and their second after long delay, did not exhibit binaural processing.

The research was recently reported in the journal Cochlear Implants International.

Pairing up

More than a matter of symmetry, our two ears function together to create a whole picture of the sound that surrounds us. The integration of information from both ears not only saves neuronal energy, it is the key to different aspects of hearing, such as locating the source of individual sounds and being able to differentiate between different sounds in a noisy room.

Dr. Henkin and her fellow researchers set out to determine if bilateral cochlear implants were able to restore some binaural processing in the brain. Their study included three groups: children who had lost their hearing as toddlers due to illness and received bilateral cochlear implants soon afterwards; children who had been born deaf and received their first implant at around the age of four and a second approximately six years later; and a control group with normal hearing.

The researchers measured the brainwave P300, associated with auditory discrimination, while participants were asked to listen for the syllables "ta" and "ka" and were told to press a button when they heard the syllable "ta." The sounds were delivered in turn to the left ear, the right ear, and both ears at once. By comparing the P300 brainwaves identified when both ears were stimulated to the sum of brainwaves identified when each ear was stimulated separately a binaural interaction component was identified.

The researchers found a binaural interaction component in participants who had not been born deaf and had received bilateral implants at a young age. This suggested that "auditory experience prior to cochlear implantation is critical for binaural processing," says Dr. Henkin. But in the children who had only one implant for many years, the researchers found no evidence of binaural processing. It appears that the auditory deprivation that results from a long delay between implants may render the system incapable of restoring itself, explain the researchers.

Synchronized technology?

This study adds to the body of literature on how brain function is impacted by both deafness and rehabilitation, says Dr. Henkin. Currently it is not possible to coordinate the operation of separate bilateral implants, but in the future these implants may be designed to synchronize with each other, providing the hearing-impaired patient with the cues required for binaural processing, she says.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Friends of Tel Aviv University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Yael Henkin, Lihi Givon, Yifat Yaar-Soffer, Minka Hildesheimer. Cortical binaural interaction during speech processing in children with bilateral cochlear implants. Cochlear Implants International, 2011; 12 (1): 61 DOI: 10.1179/146701011X13001035753182

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/nrhxfgHYaTg/120920120416.htm

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