By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS When a doctor she’d never met walked into Cathy Aumack-Bandy’s hospital room and told her husband that she had severe heart failure and should get her affairs in order, she initially thought he was in the wrong room. After realizing the diagnosis was hers, the […]
The post Aumack-Bandy felt she was being sent home to die, but resources helped her learn out to live appeared first on News on Heart.org.
In the good old days – I turned teenager in 1961, and 18 in 1966 – we had a generally accepted process for establishing truth. First, we generally distinguished opinion from fact. Second, when fact was in doubt, we turned to evidence. And evidence, once presented, was accepted. Evidence ended arguments. But data killed that, politics killed data, and now poets predict politics.
The decline of truth started with data. Huge masses of overwhelming and conflicting data forced us to choose truth from streams of incoherent evidence. For example: Is margarine is good for you? Eggs? Coffee? Those are just three simple cases, regarding food. We have ample streams of evidence on either side. We can find data to support any answer. And those are just easy food and health arguments, not nearly as controversial as, say when ISIS started, who supported what war and when. Evidence doesn’t end the argument because we’re overwhelmed with conflicting evidence.
And then came talking points. First, the overabundance of conflicting data undermined the weight of evidence. After that, political strategists discovered that repetition of well-packaged spin, half truth, and lies could be taken as truth. And now we accept political talking points as truth, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Millions of people firmly believe absurdities in the face of clear and unambiguous evidence to the contrary.
Somewhere around 1790 William Blake wrote The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. That lengthy and sometimes bewildering work includes a section called the proverbs of hell, which includes the following:
Everything possible to be believed is an image of truth
No I’m not suggesting Blake foresaw or forewarned us. But what he says there does fit today’s reality. Right? We’ve got wide ranges of diverse and discordant images of truth. Of course, Blake included that in the section framed as proverbs of hell, not heaven, so maybe he mistrusted its direct meaning. But in the poem, he likes hell, so who knows. I suggest it here as food for thought, nothing more.
And then there is this, written 100 years ago by William Butler Yeats in a short poem called The Second Coming. It seems disturbingly like what we see around the world today:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
That’s towards the opening of the poem. It gets even darker as it closes. Sadly, that too sounds a lot like mainstream politics today. Did you watch that debate on Monday?
The post Data, Politics, Poets and Truth appeared first on Planning, Startups, Stories.
By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS Judy Strnad was preparing to host friends at a Super Bowl party when she “decided to die on the couch.” That’s according to her wife, Pat Mikos, who was in the kitchen when she heard a sound from the other room. “I called to Judy […]
The post Party plans interrupted by cardiac arrest appeared first on News on Heart.org.
By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS As awareness of health issues caused by excess sodium grows, so does the number of food giants that have stepped up efforts to lower the sodium content in their food, including many of the nation’s favorite pre-packaged staples. Instant noodles, frozen pizza, canned vegetables, and […]
The post Awareness resulting in reduced sodium in pre-packaged staples appeared first on News on Heart.org.
By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS Monk Yunrou’s family is full of innovators in cardiovascular medicine. Yunrou is making his mark on heart health, too. As a third-generation heart-helper, he promotes healthy lifestyles based on ancient Taoist philosophy and the smooth, flowing movements of tai chi. He teaches about the mind-body […]
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How about limited edition putters?
If you answered yes to either of those questions stick around, because today we have something really cool for you.
Today, MyGolfSpy is going to be giving away the very first (#001) Limited Edition Sentio Century Edition Putter.
If you are one of those golfers who like something unique something, not cloned directly after an Anser style putter you will love this. Not only is this one of the more unique putters we have seen hit the market in quite some time, it also was a Top 10 finisher in our 2016 Most Wanted Putter Test. After a test of over 9,000 putts it was one of the only blade putters in golf for 2016 that showed a positive SG18 score (meaning it would lower your scores).
The winner will be walking away with the very first model produced, the #001 model of a limited run of 100 available. Each putter is individually numbered. Each Century Edition has a back section fully CNC milled from a billet of 303 stainless steel and finished with a durable, low-glare black/bronze PVD coating. The soft green durometer core provides a supple feel while the precision MIM 304 stainless steel face provides a crisp contact. The two-tone finish helps to heighten the perpendicular alignment formed by the face and rear alignment line.
“We wanted to commemorate our company’s launch with something special” explains Jim Varney, President of Sentio Golf, in early testing that a lot of our better players liked a darker finish and a softer feel, so we created this special run to their preferences.”
Sentio’s unique construction which separates the entire stainless steel face from the rest of the putter head with a vibration-dampening thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) core, through a process called insert molding. A proprietary TPE formulation bonds the two metal parts permanently together while keeping them separated from each other without any contact.
PUTTER FEATURES:
Customers can specify their preferred shaft length at checkout. Other special requests may be possible.
Entering is super simple. You just have to do the following (must be follower to win):
Whether you’re someone who can fire off ideas in your sleep or someone who has to work long and hard before you settle on a good one, you’re still going to need to figure out if you’ve got a good business idea or a dud.
In this article, you’ll find some of our best idea-related resources on Bplans, including links to articles that list dozens of business ideas.
If you don’t see what you’re looking for, be sure to let us know and we’ll point you in the right direction.
How to Generate Hundreds of Business Ideas
For some people, coming up with a new idea for a business is easy; for others, not so much. This article will walk you through how to come up with your own business ideas. You’ll learn more about what great ideas are, and about the perfect state of mind for ideation.
6 Tips for Coming Up With Your Million-Dollar Business Idea
How did other entrepreneurs come up with their business idea? In this article, you’ll find helpful advice from those who have been there and done that.
How to Start Inventing Things and Get to Market
If you’ve got an idea that you think is going to make you a killing, you need to know how to get it to market. This comprehensive guide will walk you through finding a problem worth solving, market research, prototyping, protecting your idea, manufacturing, and licensing. Start here if you’re an inventor in the making.
Online Business Ideas You Can Start With No Money
Short on cash or shop space? No problem—start an online business instead. Beyond making sure you’re registered as a legal business entity, all you really need to get going is a good internet connection and a bit of space to call your own—even a home office will do.
The 10 Best Side Businesses to Fund Your Startup (Plus One Unexpected Suggestion)
If you think you have to rely on a business loan in order to get started, think again. In this article, you’ll get some great ideas for side businesses you can operate to give you the cash you need to fund your startup.
17 Eclectic Businesses You Can Start From Home
What could be better than starting a business from the comfort of your own home? In this article, you’ll learn more about a number of business options you may want to look into—and some are stranger than others. Golf ball diving business anyone?
Money-Making Subscription Services (That You Can Start Too!)
The subscription business model has become increasingly popular in recent years, and it’s no wonder (who doesn’t want recurring revenue?). If you think this is something you’d like to pursue, have a look through this list of subscription businesses—there’s something for everyone!
26 Businesses You Can Start for Free
Here are 26 free—or virtually free—businesses you can start as soon as you’re ready. None of the businesses on this list require fancy equipment, a lot of materials, space, or products, or expensive training and degrees. So, if you’re looking for a quick route into owning your own business, start here.
How Do You Know If You Have a Good Idea for a Business?
Whether you’re a bootstrapped startup or using credit cards to fund your new business, figuring out which ideas are worth spending time and money on is really the hardest part of getting started. After all, you want to know you’re investing in the right thing! Palo Alto Software COO Noah Parsons will guide you through validating your business idea in this article.
6 Creative Ways to Figure Out If You’ve Got a Good Business Idea
So you think you’ve got a good business idea? The thing is, how do you know it’s really a good idea? Is it one people will invest in? Is it one people will buy? We talked to six successful small business owners to find out more about how they figured out whether or not their idea was any good.
Is Your New Business Idea Worth Pursuing?
If you’re already running a business and are thinking of pursuing a new idea, how do you decide which new ideas to pursue? The best ideas are a strategic fit with your existing business and will help to grow it.
A Bplans Checklist: How to Tell If You Have a Good Business Idea
This checklist will walk you through validating your business idea. If you think coming up with a good business idea is all down to clever guesswork, think again. Use this step-by-step guide to help you sift through your ideas.
How to Really Protect Your Business Idea
Part of figuring out whether or not you’ve got a good business idea is running your idea by your intended target audience. But, how do you do that when you’re worried someone might steal your idea? Business planning expert and angel investor Tim Berry weighs in on this topic. If you want to know how to protect your idea, read this.
Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks, and Trade Secrets…How Do You Protect Your Creations?
When you know how to legally protect your creations, you have a much better chance of retaining ownership of them against someone claiming them as their own, modifying, or selling them. This article will give you a primer on all you need to know to get started.
If you’re looking for more information on coming up with a great idea, be sure to check out our new Business Ideas Guide Page. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook!
So you have a brilliant business idea that will be very successful. My congratulations to you. Now read all ideas are brilliant and nobody is going to pay you for your ideas. Are you still sure? All right then, let’s continue. And – this is important – do not even think about getting investors yet. Do a lean business plan.
Can you execute on the brilliant business idea yourself? That does happen. For example, take your browser to KiddoLogic.com. That’s a venture built by one very smart woman, on her own. She used her own money and paid the providers she needed, to get going. If you can do that yourself, without help, then I applaud you. Go for it. Forget investors; just do it. You don’t need them.
For the rest of us, your next step is to gather a team of people who have the skills and experience you need to get going. Look for people different from you who can do what you can’t and who know what you don’t. If you don’t know anybody, or don’t know the right people, that’s a damn shame; but it’s your problem to solve. If you can’t solve it, then keep your day job. Other people have solved that problem millions of time.
If you can find suitable people, then you have to convince them to join you. If you can afford to pay for their services with your own money, then maybe you don’t have to convince them of the idea. Just pay them. This puts you in the category of the smart person on your own. Just do it. You’re special, the sole entrepreneur with a great idea and the means to execute. Skip to the next section.
However, if you can’t afford to pay people, then you need to convince them to join you as co-founders and work on this idea for free. Don’t feel bad about that; that’s what most successful entrepreneurs had to do. And if you can’t convince the right people to join you, then get a clue. Your idea was one of the many ideas that seem brilliant but won’t work. Keep your day job. Revise your plan. Focus on a subset you can do yourself. Or give up.
Get your people together and revise that early plan. Bring it up to date with what you’ve learned while gathering the team, and what your team members were able to contribute to the plan. Remember that plans are made to be reviewed and revised and kept live and up to date.
You have a team and you have a plan. Execute on it. Follow your plan. Go as far as your team can take you towards early website, product prototype, discussions with potential buyers or distributors, so-called minimum viable product. Maybe you go on Kickstarter or one of the other sites for pre-launch selling. Get traction. Prove to yourself and future investors that you idea will work. You’ll have to know what that means in your specific case. It’s different for every business.
Don’t go for investment unless you really need it. Never bring in investors unless you need them to address an huge opportunity that makes sharing your business ownership with outside investors good for you and them. Read the startup sweet spot.
Furthermore, don’t go for investment if you’re not going to get it. Only a few businesses are good investments. Read this self assessment will you get angel investment, 10 things angel investors ask about your plan. And be aware that the advice in those two posts applies to the U.S. market only. The realities of angel investment are vastly different in other markets.
(Note: I have no association with Kiddologic. I saw her pitch for local angel investors and was very impressed.)
The post How to Make Money on Your Brilliant Business Idea appeared first on Planning, Startups, Stories.
By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS Researchers have known for some time that Hispanic and Latino adults in the United States are overall less likely to smoke cigarettes than their white and black peers. But federal data show that one Hispanic group is more likely to smoke than all of them: […]
The post Why Puerto Ricans smoke more than any other U.S. Hispanic group appeared first on News on Heart.org.
Por AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS Por varios años, investigadores han sabido que los adultos hispanos y latinos en Estados Unidos tienden, en términos generales, a fumar menos que sus pares blancos y negros. Pero estadísticas federales muestran que un grupo de hispanos fuma más que los demás: los puertorriqueños. Según […]
The post Por qué los puertorriqueños fuman más que otros grupos hispanos en EE UU appeared first on News on Heart.org.
Current driver design is largely focused on two goals: saving weight and moving weight. A recent patent filing by Acushnet (Titleist) focuses on the latter.
There's no denying that in the golf equipment space, who invented what is often a matter of great debate, with more than one party often trying to claim ownership of an idea or technology. With that in mind, it shouldn't come as any real surprise that while some of what's disclosed here does appear different from anything else on the market, some looks to fit within been there, done that category. As with most anything else, reality is nuanced, and any actual innovation may be unclear to the naked eye.
In this case, the key phrase might be this: One aspect of the present technology is the realization that position of weight elements in existing golf club head designs are not easily adjustable.
Are existing methods of moving weight around really that complicated?
If nothing else, the patent application which was filed on June 3, 2016 (as a continuation from a patent application from 2014), and published on September 22nd, and lists Stephen S. Murphy and Darryl C. Galvan as inventors, provides some insight into Titleist's R&D department while highlighting a couple of potentially interesting ways to move mass around a metalwood head.
Here is, in part, how Acushnet summarizes the field of its invention:
The systems, methods, and devices described herein have innovative aspects, no single one of which is indispensable or solely responsible for their desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of the claims, some of the advantageous features will now be summarized.
One aspect of the present technology is the realization that position of weight elements in existing golf club head designs are not easily adjustable. Thus, there exists a need for an improved golf club head. The present technology is directed to a golf club head incorporating a position adjustable weight system. The position adjustable weight system provides the ability to fine tune the performance characteristics of the golf club via manipulation of the position of an adjustable weight, thereby manipulating the location of the center of gravity and the moment of inertia of the golf club to suit the golfer's preference and increase the club's playability.
As noted, a cursory glance suggests that many of the ideas contained within already exist in the marketplace. That said, you never know what kind of fresh spin can be placed on existing technology, and with its 917 series, Titleist has shown an ability to bring something different to the market. Perhaps there's more still to come.
Do you see anything in the drawings that gets you excited about potential future Titleist offerings?
By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS Dan Merritt was trim, healthy and active, happily dividing his time among golf, gardening and grandchildren – the kind of person most people don’t think are at risk of strokes. But he had at least three strokes, along with a few minor incidents, that doctors […]
The post Unexplained health mysteries solved through determination appeared first on News on Heart.org.
By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION NEWS Over the weekend, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that will require CPR training for a majority of the state’s high school students. Although the California law falls short of the American Heart Association’s efforts to get states to provide CPR training to all […]
The post California to provide CPR training for most students appeared first on News on Heart.org.
Does the way you perceive a putter's looks impact its performance?
The majority of you believe it does. A putter has to look good, to perform well. Am I right?
If a golfer doesn't like the way his putter looks, he's going to miss a comparatively higher number of putts. For many of you, that's the undisputed gospel truth.
In a recent survey we posted on Twitter, 78% of respondents told us that a putter's looks absolutely impact how the putter performs.
Seventy freakin' eight percent. That's massive. It's a huge number to overcome, but hopefully, we can convince some of you that this particular perception might not be reality. Accepting as much could open your eyes to an abundance of putters you may not have considered. Who knows, your game might end up better for it.
At the beginning of this year's putter tests, we asked each participating golfer to rate the looks of each putter in the test on a scale of 1 to 10. At the conclusion of testing, we compared the aesthetic ranking to the actual performance of each putter. The goal was to better understand what, if any, impact Looks (or the perceptions thereof) have on performance.
Do golfers really putt better with putters they believe are better-looking? Here's what we found out.
The chart below compares the five top-rated putters for Looks to the actual performance rank for those selections. Rankings include all golfers who participated in this season's Most Wanted Putter tests. It should be noted that these rankings include both blades and mallets.
In the chart below we examine the average Looks rankings for our Top 5 performing putters of 2016.
The chart below lists the putters selected as the best-looking by each tester. The bar graph reflects the actual performance rank for that preferred putter. For example, Tester #1 felt the PING Ketsch Heavy was the best-looking putter in this test, however; with regards to actual performance, it ranked 11th overall for Tester #1.
The chart below lists the Top-Performing putter for each of the 20 testers in this season's test. The bars reflect the Looks ranking each tester assigned to his best performing putter. For example, The Odyssey White Hot RX 2-Ball was the best performing putter for Tester #1. However, he ranked the putter 22nd overall for Looks.
When we look at the averages across all testers and all putters, the answer is a definitive no.
4 of the Top 5 performing putters of 2016 were rated in the bottom half of the field for looks. As a group, our testers ranked the #1 performing putter from the 2016 test 38th for looks. Furthermore, three of the Top 5 rated putters for Looks finished outside the top 20 for performance.
While it's true that five testers did putt best with their top choices for Looks, in the majority of those cases, the putter chosen as best-looking on an individual basis was one that performed well across the entire test pool. Simply put, the putters performed well for testers who loved the way they looked as well as the testers who didn't.
In fact, where there is some suggestion of correlation, the individually top-rated putter for Looks finished inside the Top 10 for Performance across all testers.
As the chart shows, it was not uncommon for an individual's top-performing putter to be ranked well below the average for Looks.
In those cases where performance and the perception of good looks appear to align, it's almost certainly a coincidence, not causation. Those putters didn't perform well because individual testers found them visually appealing; more accurately, some testers happened to like the looks of what were proven, by the larger group, to be very good putters. It's also true that many testers gave low aesthetic marks to the mallets that proved to be among the very best performers this season.
We know. Nothing we've shown you today has changed your mind. You remain convinced that looks absolutely matter. You believe that you can't play well if the putter doesn't look good. And despite the fact that year after year we find no significant correlation between the perception of good looks and the reality of good performance, some of you will continue to insist otherwise.
Golfers believe plenty of things that have little basis in reality. That's fine. It's your game.
But have you, even for a moment, considered that you might be wrong? Maybe the best putter isn't the one whose looks you love. Instead of a perfect 10, why not consider an 8, or even a 7. With an open mind and some quantitative data, the results may very well surprise you.
