Dandara supports local writer with historic book about Walberton Parish

Arts & Culture, Books

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowIndependent housebuilder Dandara is celebrating the rich heritage of West Sussex by sponsoring a chapter in a new historical book about the villages of Walberton, Binsted, and Fontwell.Published by Blisham Books, the book highlights the history of these villages through a collection of images and brief descriptions.As Dandara’s Fontwell Meadows development is located in Fontwell, the company has sponsored the chapter, supporting author Brian Allsopp with printing and production costs. Brian has gathered an extensive collection of historic photographs and facts for the six-part book, documenting the evolution of Walberton, Binsted, and Fontwell over the last 234 years. Brian, author of “Moments in Time- A Visual Journey of Walberton Parish History”, commented: “Working on this book has been an incredibly rewarding and fascinating journey. I’ve had the chance to explore the rich history of our community in pictures and witness just how much it has evolved over the years. Book about Walberton“It’s been wonderful to see the new developments, along with the people and businesses that have come to the area. Dandara’s support for the Fontwell chapter has been invaluable, and I’m thrilled with how the book has turned out. I can’t wait for it to be available to the community, in early November.”Zoey Rampton, Head of Sales at Dandara Southern, commented: “It’s an honour to support such a significant project for the local community. This book will become an important part of the history of West Sussex villages, and we’re proud to have supported its Fontwell chapter. We’re looking forward to reading the full book upon its release.” Continue Reading

Grow Faster And Smarter With Data-Driven Business Decisions

Business News

Volodymyr Dudas is a mentor and fractional CTO at Techstars and founder and CEO at CodeLions.

The well-known proverb “He who controls the information controls the world” becomes very helpful in the business context. The point is that data isn’t an asset anymore—it’s a source of competitive advantage.

In 2022, Forrester researchers found that leaders of advanced insight-driven companies believe they grow by at least 20% more annually compared to competitors that are considered “beginners” in insight capabilities. That’s because they test various revenue sources and occupy a unique position.

However, many organizations still live in the past, relying on descriptive reporting instead of predictive analytics. This is disappointing, as advanced data analysis reveals real-world, actionable information about trends and possible outcomes.

Given the significant benefits of an insight-driven culture, this article explores how to implement one in your business. I’ll also discuss how it drives rapid company growth, along with the challenges and opportunities.

Why A Data-Driven Approach Matters
Decision-making centered on data isn’t just about numbers, figures and calculations. Specifically, companies can shift their focus to strategic planning and creative approaches to problem-solving.

When you tap into the power of data insights, the transformation can be remarkable:
• Seeing The Bigger Picture: Data allows you to understand your customers deeply—what they need or want and how they behave. It helps you spot critical trends and predict future outcomes, giving you a strategic edge.

• Informed Decision-Making: With data insights, making informed decisions becomes easier. Data helps optimize processes, reduce costs and improve products, ensuring that resources are used effectively.
• Staying Ahead Of Competitors: An insight-driven mindset opens up new ways to innovate, paving the way for exceptional customer experiences. By staying plugged into real-time data, you can adapt as quickly as the market changes.
Many companies have already implemented data-driven strategies into their decision-making processes. For instance, by leveraging data analytics to fine-tune its supply chain, Amazon ensures that products are where customers need them and when they want them. As a result, it not only slashed delivery times but also boosted customer satisfaction—a clear win in the competitive retail landscape.
Simple Steps For Integrating Data Analytics Into Your Business
Integrating data analytics into your business processes can drive significant improvements. Here’s how to approach it:
1. Define your goals. Identify what you want to achieve with data. Whether it’s increasing customer satisfaction, improving operations or boosting revenue, clear objectives will guide your data strategy.
2. Evaluate your data infrastructure. Assess your current data situation. Understand what’s lacking and what’s needed to achieve your goals. Select the best tools to support your business growth.
3. Build a skilled data team. Ensure your team has the necessary skills to leverage data analytics tools effectively. Invest in training on data manipulation, advanced analytics techniques and specific software features.
Building A Data-Centric Culture
Based on what I know, data culture isn’t just about adopting the right tools—it’s a change in the business. But what are the main steps?
First, secure commitment from the top. Managers who encourage using facts in making decisions create a strong culture. In fact, an IDC study shows that organizations with strong leadership support for data-centric initiatives are 4.5 times more likely to base major decisions on facts.
Then, consider investing in data literacy programs. It’s beneficial for everyone in the team, regardless of seniority, to feel confident working with facts. The goal here is to integrate an analytical approach into work processes across the company.
However, data is only as valuable as its quality and accessibility. So, make sure to check if there are systems in place to maintain its integrity.
Challenges And Solutions In Data-Driven Decision-Making
Implementing data-driven decision-making comes with challenges. Here are the main ones and their solutions:
• Poor Data Quality: The primary cause of poor decisions and business failures is outdated or inaccurate data. Conduct regular data quality checks to ensure information is reliable and up to date.
• Delayed Insights: Even top-quality data is useless if it’s inaccessible when needed. Use real-time data processing tools to ensure timely insights, enabling faster decision-making in a dynamic market.
• Complex Data Visualization: Overly complex dashboards can be confusing. Choose intuitive visualization tools that make it easy to extract the most important insights.
• Talent Gap: Data analysis requires specific skills that not all teams possess. Build a skilled in-house data team or leverage AI-driven tools to bridge this gap, ensuring that data is actionable.
Real-Life Lessons Learned
As CodeLions’ projects grew in scope and complexity, so did the challenges we faced. So, we asked ourselves, in what ways can we deliver a successful product to our clients while still managing to provide high-quality services and meet deadlines?
The answer was found in how to make data work for us. Here are the strategies that helped us to be more data-centric:
• Data-Driven Planning: We used data from past experiences to focus on those activities that would be most beneficial to the clients.
• Predictive Resource Allocation: This allowed us to match the team’s strengths with the requirements of a project and avoid wasting resources.
• Agile Practices: Following Agile practices was quite helpful to us and ensured that we were consistently on track for the next project phase.
Conclusion
In summary, leveraging big data transforms how organizations operate, optimizing processes and strengthening customer relationships. But the true power of data lies in its ability to transform vision into reality. Companies that embrace data-driven strategies are more likely to not only survive but thrive, turning data into value and challenges into opportunities.
As the importance of data continues to grow, leaders who understand its potential are positioning themselves in a different league. Now is the time not just to plan for the future but to actively shape it.
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The Business Cost Of Political Tension At Work

Business News

Gabriella Rosen Kellerman, MD is BetterUp’s Chief Innovation Officer and leader of BetterUp Labs.

All day, every day, geopolitical news updates filter in through our devices as a low buzzing in the background. Important political events like elections, terrorism and war, however, thrust this ambient noise to the forefront, even at work. These moments of turmoil create a myriad of challenges for a diverse workforce and for organizational leadership.

In anticipation of the upcoming U.S. election, our team at BetterUp Labs studied the impacts of these events on the workplace—and what organizations, managers and individual workers can do about it. In a series of articles here in Forbes, I’ll share key findings to help leaders prepare for the election and for geopolitical events to come.

The Effects Of Political Tension
We all know that the infiltration of politics at work can feel uncomfortable or even painful when conflict becomes overt. And it seems logical that this would impact performance. Until now, no one has quantified this impact, a data point that will prove useful in advocating for efforts to alleviate tension.

In search of this data, our lab analyzed performance data from 246,000 employees during the U.S. elections of 2020 and 2022 to see how they compared to the baseline. We looked at two key measures: 1) productivity, a self-rating of how productive people feel at work, and 2) well-being, a self-rating of their current well-being compared to how they usually feel.

As you can see in this data, both employee productivity and well-being decreased significantly in the week before the election compared to the baseline. Note that because this was the week prior to the election, this doesn’t reflect the outcome of the election; it reflects the anticipatory stress. Productivity decreased by 2% that week, while well-being decreased by 5% versus baseline. These decreases started and resolved gradually as tensions rose and then declined from late summer to winter over approximately a six-month period.

How This Trend Impacts The Bottom Line
This was not unique to previous elections. Over the past few months, we surveyed an additional 1,200 U.S.-based full-time workers across several time points to assess the current state of political discourse and divisiveness in the workplace and identify how organizations and managers can prepare for major global macroeconomic events. Negative impacts are on the rise this cycle, too. From June to July 2024, for example, we saw the share of people reporting negative effects of political talk on work outcomes—including focus, a sense of belonging, team cohesion and mental health—increased by 16% to 37%.

How does this translate to dollars? Using insights from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and well-known research by Brant Hamar and colleagues to answer this, we found that for a workforce of 10,000 employees, the decrease in productivity and well-being due that week before the 2020 election cost an organization approximately $900,000 per week. That equates to many millions of dollars when amortized across the gradual rise and fall of the six-month period analyzed in 2020.
Protecting Your Business From Political Disruption
Not all organizations absorbed this hit, however—and we think we know why. We compared dozens of cultural, leadership and organizational factors to figure out why some companies saw higher election-week drops in productivity compared to others. The three things that served to protect organizations most strongly against this dip were:
1. Investment In Employee Development: Organizations that spend time and energy helping colleagues grow felt fewer ripples of political turmoil in the last two election cycles. When employees feel a strong sense of belonging and receive well-being support from their organization, they experience approximately 30% less politics-related stress (among other issues) compared to employees who lack these resources. In addition, an organizational culture that supports personal development buffers employees’ well-being and productivity dips during elections.
2. Development Of Coaching Skills: Companies that provided resources to help employees develop a coaching mindset (think asking thoughtful questions, listening deeply, attending to individual motivations) were protected from the negative impacts of external political noise. Members at organizations with low scores in this area saw twice the well-being impact in the 2020 and 2022 elections.
3. Recognition And Reward For Collaboration: Finally, organizations that reinforced collaboration and knowledge sharing among colleagues saw dramatically better productivity outcomes around the last elections.
Conclusion
Navigating workplace political tension seems to grow more stressful every year—and at key moments, it costs companies nearly $1 million per week. The good news is that there is a lot that organizations can do to avoid this impact going into the remainder of the election season and beyond. Essential protective factors include investment in employee development, a coaching culture and a collaborative environment.
In my next column on this research, I’ll cover our findings on what managers, specifically, can do to help protect their teams from political tension at work. Of all the factors we looked at—organizational, individual, managerial—it turns out that managers matter most. Stay tuned.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?

2024 World Science and Technology Development Forum Focuses on Technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction, Promoting Global Cooperation for a Resilient Future

Science and Health

2024 World Science and Technology Development Forum will convene in Beijing from October 22 to 24, under the theme “Science and Technology for the Future.” During the forum, a thematic meeting titled “Global Cooperation Opportunities in International People-to-People Exchange in Science and Technology for Building a More Resilient Future,” will be held.This session will focus on the “Technologies for Disaster…

2024 World Science and Technology Development Forum to Establish a New Platform for International People- to-People Exchange in Science and Technology

Science and Health

2024 World Science and Technology Development Forum will convene in Beijing from October 22 to 24, under the theme ‘Science and Technology for the Future.’ This forum aspires to serve as a vital platform for fostering global people-to-people dialogues in science and technology. The forum will gather over 400 participants, including high-ranking officials from the United Nations and various countries, leaders…

Muscatine showing to offer sneak peek of new Collins movie

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Just in time for the holiday season, acclaimed writers Barbara and Max Allan Collins have slipped into the director’s seat for a movie sure to thrill fans of “Knives Our” or “Murder She Wrote.”On Nov. 1 and 2 at the Palm 10 Theater, “Death by Fruitcake,” the story of a mother and daughter amateur detective duo from the award-winning Trash ‘n’ Treasure mystery series, will premiere. The movie stars Emmy award winning broadcaster Paula Sands as antique store owner and theater diva Vivian Borne. Midwest pop star Alisabeth Von Presley, who has been featured on American Idol and American Song Contest, plays her daughter and reluctant assistant.

Death By Fruitcake, a new movie by Barbara and Max Allan Collins, will premiere Nov. 1 and 2 at the Palm 10 Theater in Muscatine. 

David Hotle

“We’ve been doing a series of novels – Barb and I – writing under the name Barbara Allan, for almost 20 years now,” Max Collins said. “It’s kind of a comic mystery series. It’s a murder mystery but its lighthearted.”

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Set in picturesque Serenity, Iowa — based on their native Muscatine — the books deftly balance a puzzling whodunit with the travails of divorcee Brandy, her eccentric mother Vivian, and furry little shih tzu Sushi. The duo operate out of their Trash ‘n’ Treasures antique shop as they continually upstage local chief of police Tony Cassato, Brandy’s gruff love interest.Death by Fruitcake adapts a novella of the series. Vivian invites a Hollywood star to perform in her play ‘The Fruitcake that Saved Christmas.” During the play, the unpleasant star is murdered. The star’s long history with the other members of the cast becomes the clues as the amateur sleuths work to find out whodunit.The movie was shot in and around Muscatine at the end of August. While the movie isn’t scheduled to be widely marketed until Christmas 2025, the Collins’ wanted to have a special treat for the people of Muscatine with an advanced screening of the film. The movie begins at 7 p.m. both nights.Max Collins said some of the background is in Wildcat Den State Park, but most of the movie was shot in the New Era Church in Muscatine.“I hope they (the audience) have a very good time,” Barbara Collins said “It is very funny. Murder is never funny but this has lots of laughs in it. Paula is a wonderful comedian and so is Alisabeth and the writing is top notch. It was a real pleasure for us to shoot.” Subscribe today and support local journalism!Last year, the couple released “Blue Christmas,” a hard-boiled blend of “A Christmas Carol” and “The Maltese Falcon.”Max Collins, a Muscatine native, was named a Mystery Writers of America “Grand Master” in 2017. His graphic novel Road to Perdition (1998) became the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks. Max Collins has written and directed seven features, including the Lifetime movie Mommy; and he scripted The Expert, an HBO World Premiere. His Quarry novels were adapted as a 2016 TV series by Cinemax for which he wrote two scripts.The latest novel in the Trash ‘n’ Treasures series, Antiques Slay Belles, will be published Nov. 5 by Severn House and is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com and other national booksellers.
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Experience the life behind the lyrics. Marisa Abela is Amy Winehouse in #BacktoBlack, only in theaters May 17.
The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s early rise to fame from her early days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black that catapulted Winehouse to global fame. Told through Amy’s eyes and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film explores and embraces the many layers of the iconic artist and the tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time.
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A look at the Oscar best picture nominees ranked by box office totals

“Black Panther,” $700 million

This image released by Disney shows a scene from Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther.” On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, the film was nominated for an Oscar for best picture. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24, 2019. (Matt Kennedy/Marvel Studios-Disney via AP)

Matt Kennedy

“A Star Is Born,” $204.8 million

FILE – This file image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Bradley Cooper, left, and Lady Gaga in a scene from “A Star is Born.” The film may be the lead nomination-getter Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, when nominations to the 91st Oscars are unveiled. (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP, File)

HONS

“Bohemian Rhapsody,” $202.4 million

This image released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Gwilym Lee, from left, Rami Malek and Joe Mazzello in a scene from “Bohemian Rhapsody.” On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, the film was nominated for an Oscar for best picture. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24, 2019. (Alex Bailey/Twentieth Century Fox via AP)

Alex Bailey

“BlacKkKlansman,” $48.6 million

This image released by Focus Features shows Adam Driver, left, and John David Washington in a scene from “BlacKkKlansman.” On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, the film was nominated for an Oscar for best picture. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24, 2019. (David Lee/Focus Features via AP)

David Lee

“Green Book,” $42.3 million

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Viggo Mortensen, left, and Mahershala Ali in a scene from “Green Book.” On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, the film was nominated for an Oscar for best picture. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24, 2019. (Universal Pictures via AP)

Universal Pictures

“Vice,” $39.5 million

This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Christian Bale as Dick Cheney, left, and Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush in a scene from “Vice.” On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, the film was nominated for an Oscar for best picture. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24, 2019. (Matt Kennedy/Annapurna Pictures via AP)

Matt Kennedy

“The Favourite,” $23 million

This image released by Fox Searchlight Films shows Olivia Colman in a scene from the film “The Favourite.” On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, the film was nominated for an Oscar for best picture. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24, 2019. (Atsushi Nishijima/Fox Searchlight Films via AP)

Atsushi Nishijima

“Roma,” no figures available

This image released by Netflix shows Yalitza Aparicio in a scene from the film “Roma,” by filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron. On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, Aparicio was nominated for an Oscar for best actress for her role in the film. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24. (Alfonso Cuarón/Netflix via AP)

Image by Alfonso Cuarón

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Book Review: Re-Engineering the Kitchen

Arts & Culture, Books

Re-Engineering the Kitchen

by Alin E. Steele

Genre: Nonfiction / Cooking & Food

ISBN: 9798989347537

Print Length: 406 pages

Reviewed by Jaylynn KorrellAn engineer takes a thoughtful approach to gaining more control over how we eat.In a world obsessed with diet culture, Alin E. Steele addresses our relationship with the kitchen. It affects so much of our lives. In Re-Engineering the Kitchen, she shifts the focus onto improving nutrition and discussing how finances and environmental impact play a role in consuming and purchasing food. With our fast-paced lives flying by, it’s common for people to feel out of control when it comes to how their kitchens operate. Steele suggests that it just takes a bit of re-engineering to get us all back on track. Is it a simple solution? I’d say yes and no. While Steele doesn’t attempt to make this look like a cake walk, she does a tremendous job of breaking down the thoughts and ideas that go behind people’s actions in the kitchen and provides the answers on how we can change things with just a little more intention and the right tools on our side. Re-Engineering the Kitchen is a standout among food & nutrition books, offering a logical solution to the problems that create our bad eating habits. You’ve probably heard of the saying “You are what you eat.” Steele doesn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel by disputing that claim. She does, however, challenge us to think of our food in a new way when she says “…you eat what you buy.” Simple, yes, but it speaks to so much. Another feature islearning how to tackle and control food waste. Labeling foods as preferred foods and paying attention to food longevity can be the building blocks to avoiding the dreaded bag of uneaten greens at the end of the week. She also dives deeply into getting daily nutrients through fresh foods, which is not something that is often accomplished. Then she provides the stats you’d need to attain those goals. Using herself as an example, she goes into detail about how to accomplish your food goals and ensure that you’re eating the foods that will pay off the most for your health. What I liked most about this book is that Steele doesn’t just stop at suggestions in her book but works to provide readers with ways to take action. She’s not shying away from the monumental task she’s asking readers to do: address their hopes and fears about how they run their own kitchen. But she also provides readers with the information they need to do better, and that comes in the form of nutritional facts as well as worksheets and new information in a simple and digestible way. Speaking of digestion, one of the great additions to this book is that it doubles as a cookbook. Steele introduces the idea of Agile Recipes too, a term she coined to describe her streamlined recipes and cooking instructions. Unlike your favorite food blogs, this recipe doesn’t come with a long intro about what this meal means to her and her family or any funny quips about how she’s failed a million times to finally land on this perfect recipe. It gives you only what you’re looking for: the instructions, the ingredients, and the measurements. She throws in a picture or two for good measure but gets right to the meat of the task at hand: providing people with the simplest way to make food that aligns with their goals.High nutritional content, low waste, and cost efficiency are at the top of Steele’s priorities, and she nails them with over 100 Agile Recipes in this book. It’s a nice break-up to the informational portions of Re-Engineering the Kitchen.Re-Engineering the Kitchen is a book that will help you feel more in control of your kitchen and, perhaps, the rest of your life. Thank you for reading Jaylynn Korrell’s book review of Re-Engineering the Kitchen by Alin E. Steele! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

Informative Research Brings its Mortgage Verification Platform to the Dark Matter Technologies Exchange Service Network

Technology

GARDEN GROVE, Calif., Oct. 22, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Informative Research, a premier technology provider delivering data-driven credit and verification solutions to the lending community, today announced it has made its Verification Platform solution available in the Dark Matter Technologies (Dark Matter) Exchange℠ service network to streamline verification of income (VOI) and verification of employment (VOE) for more lenders.Verifying borrower income and employment is time-consuming and costly for mortgage lenders. Informative Research’s Verification Platform solution addresses these pain points by automatically cycling through multiple VOI and VOE report providers until borrower data is successfully verified. Lenders can configure the Verification Platform with Informative Research to optimize costs by ordering reports starting with the least expensive provider. Additionally, the solution allows lenders to do business with multiple providers without juggling several vendor relationships.The efficiency gains of Verification Platform are further amplified when paired with the Empower® loan origination system (LOS) and the Exchange service network, allowing for information to flow from the loan into Informative Research’s system of record, ensuring that a record of the order and response is captured in the Empower LOS. The Empower LOS’s integrations with automated underwriting systems also ensures that any representation & warranty relief obtained by using Informative Research can automatically be pulled into the loan. On top of that, the integration with the Exchange service network makes Informative Research’s platform offering available to other LOSs such as Blue Sage and other systems such as ICE’s MSP® Loss Mitigation™ solution.
“The biggest benefit of this integration is the enhanced efficiency and reduced manual workload for lenders. By making our advanced verification services available via the Dark Matter Exchange service network, lenders can achieve a seamless, automated experience that significantly reduces the need for manual intervention,” said Informative Research IT Manager – Integrations Ryan Kaufman. “We’ve seen substantial positive impacts with our partners adopting this product. By automating the verification process, lenders can avoid unnecessary orders and ensure that verifications are performed with the right controls, thus mitigating the risk of automation errors.”“Informative Research is doing wonderful things to revolutionize the verifications space by offering their clients a unique blend of platform services that cover every use case,” said Dark Matter Managing Director of Partnership Products Jennifer Miller. “We are happy to welcome their product to the Exchange service network and support its adoption by the Empower LOS users. We look forward to Informative Research’s continued innovation as they bring new products and solutions to the market.”About Informative Research:Informative Research, a Stewart company, is a premier technology provider delivering data-driven credit and verification solutions to the lending community. The solutions provider currently serves mortgage companies, banks and lenders throughout the United States. The company is recognized for streamlining the loan process with its straightforward service model, progressive solutions and cutting-edge technology. To learn more, visit https://www.informativeresearch.com.About Dark Matter Technologies:Operating with the nimble nature of a startup and the disciplined maturity of one of the industry’s leading providers, Dark Matter Technologies delivers cutting-edge technology, unparalleled automation and relentless innovation to leading mortgage lenders and companies nationwide. For more information, visit https://dmatter.com.