Seattle Newspaper for the People by the People

Author

Admin - page 25

Admin has 366 articles published.

What Redesigning Your Life and Traveling the World Really Means

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while. I had recently read a piece about location independent living that said most bloggers were getting it wrong… living anywhere wasn’t the point, it was how you live. He was right about the last point. His solution? Create as much wealth as possible. On this, he was dead wrong. It’s the same trap that keeps you treading water in a 9-5, wishing but never acting on your so-called “dream” life. To me, it’s about creating a lifestyle that is balanced.

The whole “travel-the-world” thing sounds great, and it is. But you will get burned out. You will become jaded. You’ll seek novelty, but find none. You’ve done it all (or so it seems). Travel for it’s own sake is a short term solution and if you don’t find something else to create meaning in your life, you won’t be happy. Part of what makes travel so alluring and magical is it’s scarcity. Ask anyone who travels 365 days a year and their perspective is decidedly anti-travel. A vacation for them? A whole week in their house, napping on the couch, watching TV and ordering pizza. I’m sure there are some travel writers (especially the guide book variety) that think that sounds just like heaven.

So why do I write so much about travel? For me, it was the spark. It’s the idea that got me out of bed in the morning, energized about my future plans and motivated to take the leap. I probably love travel even more than I did before, back when I had no clue what the world looked like, and even less about what a long term traveling lifestyle would entail. It has opened doors for me, and shown me more about myself and human nature than I might have learned in 10 years at home. But at the end of the day, it’s not the travel alone that makes my lifestyle work, it’s the lifestyle redesign to get there that I cherish most.

I don’t write about these things often, maybe because it opens up the inevitable discord from those not where they want to be. But I think it’s important for anyone who’s planning on taking the leap to keep the bigger picture in mind. We quit our jobs, we redesign our lives for one reason only: freedom. For me, that freedom means being able to travel when I want, and to stop traveling when I’m tired. It means being able to help a family member fix up their house for three months (last fall). It means being pregnant and getting to take 3 hour naps every day if I want (which I did the entire first month). It means spending my days writing, playing with techie blog things and taking pictures (three things I love).

It means never having to do something I truly loathe.

In fact, I’d probably be a much wealthier, more successful and better published writer if I did do things I didn’t like. But I don’t care. I have enough money, I have my flexibility and somewhere along the line, I made the decision that it simply wasn’t worth it to me to write certain kinds of articles or to embed SEO keywords into my posts or to take on clients that would make me unhappy.

I’m not the only one making this work. In fact, I know one blogger who actually loves the SEO stuff and makes a good portion of his living off of this knowledge. It’s not about what path you take, just that you’re putting quality effort into whatever you do. Say it with me, “You don’t have to do stuff you hate”. There’s always another way.

Even as I write this, I can hear the cries of, “Well I have XYZ responsibilities, must be nice, but for me….” I know! There are compromises. I don’t buy new stuff for myself. I live as cheaply as possible. Sometimes when I travel, I’ll stay in a hostel, sleeping in a dorm bed with a dozen strangers in the same room. I saved before I left. I save money now. These are all things I have no problem doing, because they’re not that big of a deal to me. You might have other preferences. You might prefer to travel in more luxury and as a compromise you work more hours. Our paths might be different, but the outcome should be the same.

I’ve been working on my non-traditional lifestyle for two years now. If you’re just starting out doing this, you’re justifiably cynical. The point is, the goal should always be to do something we love everyday. If you’re redesigning your life to travel, but you’re funding it with stuff you hate, you’re missing the point. If you quit your job only to start a business that bores you to tears, then we have a problem. If you have to work 100 hours a week, and you can’t just blow everything off for a month, then what’s the point? We have been taught rules: all paying work must involve things we strongly dislike, dragging yourself out of bed each day is proof you’re an adult, and no one is allowed to be happy without paying their dues. Don’t buy into it.

The key to redesigning your life is eliminate everything that doesn’t add value or saps your ability to act independently. It’s the mindset of the surly teen… “How do I get out of doing this?” It’s a process. You get rid of the soul-sucking job, but then you add back in soul-sucking clients. You weed them down to the good ones, and then you try your hand at a small business. You might find a good balance, but then panic because a high profile project comes along (if I pass, maybe I’m making a huge mistake) only to find yourself digging your way out of 6 months of tedious work. You get better at trusting you instincts and things like cash and high-profile gigs can’t draw you in anymore. You’ve found something more valuable.

So I write about travel, because to me that represents the big fat someday. It’s the common dream we all share, but in reality we’re all folding different hopes and expectations in. For some people travel sounds like a vacation, napping in a hammock on the beach, with a cold beer at your finger tips. For others it’s pure excitement, the fast paced, seat-of-your-pants ride through another country, into another culture. And for others it’s about giving back, or learning, or solitude or self discovery. Travel is the metaphor that helps us understand the shared intent: the freedom to spend our days doing what we’d like. It’s an insanely simple idea. In hindsight it’s stupidly simple to implement (although it never feels that way). The hard part? Giving yourself permission to be wildly, irresponsibly happy.

Should You Adapt When You Travel?

Five guidebooks, each covered with pictures of golden temples and vivid spices, gave me the same advice: when I go to Southeast Asia and India, I should use the right hand to eat and gesture because the left hand is considered unclean. I do not know what these guidebook writers would have thought of my left-handed cousin, who was born and raised in North India, and always used her left hand even when accepting the offerings of Gods at temples. Her left-handedness was important to her and she was not willing to sacrifice it merely to satisfy the whims of strangers.

We travelers get this type of advice all the time, that is, advice on how to fit in to the community to which we travel. I have been advised to wear black clothing and designer jeans in Italy, to speak exclusively Spanish in Spain, and to dress modestly and avoid speaking with men in Middle Eastern countries. But, though I may try my best to adapt, I will never be mistaken for a local. And, even if the subterfuge of changing my dress, language, and mannerisms would be enough to mark me as a local, do I want to give up my heritage, culture, and predispositions merely because I have crossed borders?

The Problem With Adaptation
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species

The traveler who adapts to foreign customs is most likely to manage the hassles and pressures of travel. Though I was born in Philadelphia, spent most of my life in Alabama, and speak Tamil poorly, my skin color and features instantly define me as a person of Indian-descent, so I wear salwar kameez when I travel in India to avoid being stared at or hassled by the local touts. We adapt not only to avoid the irritations of the foreign nation but also to show respect for the culture and customs of the people upon whose country we descend. At Ayers Rock, when the aborigines asked us not to take pictures of their sacred sites, we complied even though we saw other Westerners pressing their flash buttons.

As with all things, there are people who take adaptability to the extreme. When we were in Ireland in 2003, we met Americans who slapped Canadian stickers on their backpacks, not because they were ashamed of their country but rather because they did not want to be questioned and antagonized about American policies and the Iraq war.

No matter how we adapt, whether simply changing our clothing or deceiving others about our origin and nationality, we lose a bit of our authentic self through the process. Some will argue that these changes are good and by adapting, we become more broad-minded about ourselves and the world around us. I hesitate on that point. Middle Easterners argue that adaptation to Western society is killing their culture and customs, as children are exposed to shocking sexually suggestive lyrics from musicians and nudity on television. In the same way, I wonder why I voluntarily set aside my beliefs in feminism by acceding to the wishes of conservative nations and cover my head, shoulders, and legs while traveling through those nations.

This is the problem of adaptation. Though our attempts to change ourselves may assure our survival in a foreign land, we may not be happy in merely surviving.

The Problem With Authenticity
Then, let us reintroduce the self – like my left-handed cousin who refused to use her right hand at temples, I decide which beliefs are important to me and I place a strangle hold on them, refusing to adjust or alter them despite foreign customs to the contrary.

A good example is my vegetarianism. I was raised vegetarian in a South Indian household and remained vegetarian even when my brother and cousins started eating meat because I did not wish to consciously harm an animal by my actions. Traveling as a vegetarian is undoubtedly a challenge. I lived in Spain for two months, where roast pigs and beef hang from every second storefront, and never tried paella; I spent a month in Australia and ate mostly pastas and French fries; and I have lived my entire life in the United States and never tried a McDonald’s hamburger or a thick cut steak. I refuse to eat meat because vegetarianism is part of my world view though many cultures do not understand that viewpoint.

The extremists, who refuse to adapt at all, do exist as well. This is the stereotypical “obnoxious American traveler” who sees the country through the window of a tour bus and demands McDonalds everywhere, without interest or desire in meeting the citizens whose country they seek to visit. Recently, for example, one couple advised us that when we go to Egypt, we should not step out of our hotel or tour group or try to meet the local people because of the chaos and unsanitary conditions. Even world-renowned traveler Rick Steves may fall into this category with his advice that travelers should abandon learning foreign phrases and instead use “Special English,” by speaking like a “Dick and Jane primer,” while in Europe.

The problem with remaining true to our principles while traveling is that we may sacrifice opportunities. Though Saudi Arabia is incredibly beautiful, I do not plan to travel there because I would be embarrassed and suffocated in a place where I could not enter a restaurant or drive a car because of my gender. I do not criticize the Saudi Arabians for their beliefs but recognize that mine are different and that I do not want to alter my beliefs in feminism just to satisfy my curiosity about their culture and country. Similarly, because I am vegetarian, I miss many important cultural experiences, such as eating fresh caught sushi, Argentinian barbecue, and French foie gras.

The Balance
The hardest part of travel is finding the balance between authenticity and adaptability. Though I do not eat meat, I eat everything vegetarian, including oddities like sweet potatoes cooked in geothermal steam and durian. We have seen girls wear shorts in India yet immerse themselves in the local culture and cuisine. We have Sikh friends who speak fluent English, eat American food, but wear their beard long and a turban wrapped around their head.

All humans an intrinsic desire to fit in to their surroundings, yet, no matter how much we try to mimic the language, patterns, practices, and customs of another country, as Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” We bring our customs, our beliefs, and our lives with us when we cross borders and, in doing so, educate others about our own country. The question every traveler faces is which beliefs and habits to give up and which we should hold on.

Is It Time to Retire ResearcherID?

A ResearcherID profile for a predatory journal.

ResearcherID is a unique, persistent identifier for individual researchers set up by Thomson Reuters. ORCID, which came later, has made it mostly obsolete. Moreover, ResearcherID is also being colonized by predatory journals, who are registering as if they were individual researchers and polluting the database with spam.

It appears that Thomson Reuters’ successor, Clarivate Analytics, is not maintaining the integrity of the ResearcherID database.

Part of a spam email claiming a predatory journal is “indexed” in ResearcherID.

Moreover, predatory journals, such as the bottom-feeding International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology (IJIET) are using their ResearcherID numbers to make themselves look legitimate to unsuspecting researchers.

In the screenshot from a spam email above, the journal says:

Thomson Reuters ReseacherID indexed Journal

ReseacherID: P-8165-2015

All Published papers will be indexed on Thomson Reuter ReseacherID with above reseacherID

This is complete nonsense. ResearcherID is not an academic index, and it was never intended that journals register for a ResearcherID number.

If you see a journal advertising its own ResearcherID number, — or any other identifier designed for individual researchers — let this automatically disqualify the journal from all consideration.

The use of ResearcherID numbers for journals is deceptive and wrong. The best solution to this abuse may be to retire ResearcherID altogether.

Hat tip: Dr. Kathryn H. Jacobsen

Appendix: Selected additional journals that also advertise using ResearcherID
o Journal of Biospectracal
o International Journal of Advance Computing Techniques and Applications (IJACTA)
o International Journal of Advance Foundation and Research in Computer (IJAFRC)
o International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biological Science Archive (IJPBA)
o Journal of Biological Sciences and Medicine (JBSM)

By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow on Twitter
Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:
John says:

December 29, 2016 at 9:23 AM

Scopus has also provided an ID for researchers and in many cases, researchers’ articles maintain different IDs but Scopus team will merge them if authors inform them. This article ID like ORCHID can be used for author identification but has nothing to do for publishers to receive credit.

Wim Crusio says:

December 29, 2016 at 9:30 AM

One thing ResearcherID does that ORCID doesn’t do (yet?) is provide a citation analysis for a researcher. I would say that the best solution for the moment would be for Clarivate Analytics to start curating their database and delete such spam accounts. Should not be too difficult to search for accounts like that “search words could be “journal”, “reviews”, “essays”, “international”, etc).

Mr Hobbs says:

December 29, 2016 at 1:23 PM

If you say that “Clarivate Analytics, is not maintaining the integrity of the ResearcherID database” – what will then happen to Journal Citation Index (aka ISI) in the future? Perhaps one day OMICS and Co. simply buy the real impact factors instead of faking them…money rules the world. And science will be completely busted.

davidl53 says:

December 29, 2016 at 2:51 PM

ORCID has potential but I struggle to understand the organization’s priorities. Today, a search on my first and last name brings 19 results. 12 of these have no additional information that could be used to disambiguate one from the other. Only 5 of these (my record included) provide any information useful for disambiguation. I’m disappointed that the ORCID identification string isn’t useful for indexing.

Further, The ORCID ID is a subset of the ISNI author database. However, ORCID did not allow me to register with my ISNI number. So, now, I have two identifiers within the ISNI record format.

ORCID discourages multiple registrations under the same name. However I know someone who has three ORCID IDs. She didn’t make note of her earlier ID and the ORCID interface didn’t make it easy to know which of the more than 30 ORCID records with her name so, to submit a manuscript, she simply registered again. (I pointed out that she could have looked up her publication and found her ID but she didn’t think of that.

Another problem is that the system to enter publication metadata allows free-text entry and entering structured metadata isn’t really possible. The system for metadata entry is still (after several years) so unfriendly that one stray character outside a field closes the entire entry box and data entry must begin again.

ORCID membership is expensive and there are many powerful supporters. Unless my arithmetic skills fail, the annual budget is quite large. Yet, it is clear from their staff list that their emphasis is not on LIS because of the 20 employees only one has a LIS degree and her job description doesn’t include much other than web design and user interface work for connecting with WordPress and Drupal.

My organization was an ORCID launch partner. I had high hopes for its success. I still have hopes but those have been tempered by my experience. I have offered not only suggestions about fixing problems but also the programming time to implement the solutions. I volunteered to serve on advisory committees but was told that the current ORCID priorities — improving the interface with ResearcherID, Scopus, and CrossRef — are not in line with mine (which were structured metadata, duplicate work identification and record merging, alignment with the ISNI database, and protections against authors with duplicate ORCID IDs. I offered that, because I was offering actual code, not merely suggestions, that their priorities and my improvements were quite compatible.

John says:

December 30, 2016 at 7:05 AM

David

Could you please tell me what would be the advantage of ORCID against Scopus ID? Good and motivated researchers could refine their Scopus ID by cooperating the Scopus team and manage to have an ID which shows citation, h-index, etc.

ORCID is not a non-for-profit organisation since it charge alot for subscription.

Wim Crusio says:

December 30, 2016 at 9:49 AM

?? As far as I know, ORCID can be used free of charge by any researcher.

davidl53 says:

December 30, 2016 at 5:34 PM

There is no cost to an author to get an ORCID ID.

ORCID _should_ be “the best thing since sliced bread” (if that is a good thing). ORCID hasn’t yet reached that height.

I desperately want to love all things ORCID but so far I’m disappointed. Like Christie’s Miss Lemon I dream of a filing system that allows a perfect author search system. I fear that ORCID is going to be focused upon its organizational needs for quite a while and that its author-disambiguation role is slipping away. I hope that things improve soon.

Bonbon says:

December 29, 2016 at 3:13 PM

ResearcherID is dead. ORCID killed it.

It should be retired (for reasons completely unrelated to predatory journals). It just doesn’t serve any purpose anymore.

Fake “Institute” Has Fooled Many — Even Harvard

One of their four broad-scoped journals, each with a fake impact factor.

The Institute of Research Advances is a backward open-access publisher based in Chandigarh, India. Like the Clute “Institute,” It’s not really an institute in any honest sense of the term. Instead, it’s a sole proprietorship aimed at separating researchers from their money.

This fake institute publishes four open-access journals, listed below in the appendix. They are all broad in scope, typical of greedy OA publishers seeking to generate as much revenue as possible from researchers.

Each journal sports a bogus impact factor, false information that fools some people needing to publish in impact factor journals.

This publisher’s marketing trick involves trying to make itself look legitimate by claiming association with numerous legitimate organizations and scholarly services. Its main page displays dozens of logos from respected organizations. Part of this display is here:

Stealing legitimacy from others.

One database that the publisher has managed to penetrate is Harvard Dataverse. This service is supposed to be an open-access data repository, but in the case of the Institute of Research Advances the “datasets” are just PDFs of the articles previously published in its four paltry journals. You can access these “data” files on their website.

Why on earth would a data repository sponsored by Harvard re-publish and archive articles from a predatory publisher based in India? Is there some political reason? A personal connection?

Moreover, this fake “institute” is profusely spamming, mentioning Harvard Dataverse in the emails’ subject line:

From: International Journal [journal1@research-advances.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2016 7:35 PM
To: [Redacted]
Subject: Harvard Dataverse archived Journal

I have the bogus Institute of Research Advances included on my list of publishers to avoid. This publisher leeches status from other organizations, to improve its stature and attract fees for its pay-to-publish journals.

Given that Harvard Dataverse is re-publishing all this “institute’s” papers, I find it questionable as well.

Hat tip: Fiona A.E. McQuarrie, Ph.D.

Appendix: List of Institute of Research Advances journals as of 2016-12-05:
1.IRA International Journal of Education and Multidisciplinary Studies
2.IRA-International Journal of Applied Sciences
3.IRA-International Journal of Technology & Engineering
4.IRA-International Journal of Management & Social Sciences

By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow on Twitter
Source: Scholarly Open Access

Rocket Scientist, ScientificSpam DNSBL says:

December 13, 2016 at 4:33 PM

Predictably, listed as a spammer by ourselves under the domain names scholarlyresearch.org, research-advances.org, irajournal.org, researchref.org.

Wolfgang Muß (= MUSZ or MUSS) says:

December 13, 2016 at 7:28 PM

Rather intriguing, fallacious(?) and time-consuming work to go into detail by looking into most of the URL’s that are provided …. Institute of Research Advances as well as Harvard Dataverse.

Concerningthe given “Mailing Address [of:]
Institute of Research Advances, Opp. Sector 22C Mini Park, Sector 22C, Chandigarh, UT-160022 India. Email: editor@irajournal.org Web: http://www.journal.research-advances.org” See/cf:

https://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=RESEARCH-ADVANCES.ORG. (same as for: journal.research-advances.org):

Registrant Name: Registration Private,
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC.

“The whois info on the site comes back with Domains by proxy. About the only time a company hides their ownership is when something nefarious is going on or doesn’t want to be directly associated with it such as porn sites and so on” [cited from: https://plus.google.com/+JeffJarvis/posts/ZBqENFQTJ2x
in this thread find (in „previous 28 replies“) the post of :
George Hayes 06.09.2014 ].
BTW:

There exist a lot of (Google) search results concerning:

Wolfgang Muß (= MUSZ or MUSS) says:

December 13, 2016 at 7:31 PM

continued: There exist a lot of (Google) search results concerning:Complaints, reviews, scams and fraud reports about address 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309. Scottsdale -Arizona -85260 – USA

kpmitton says:

December 13, 2016 at 10:07 PM

Reblogged this on Biomedical Research Laboratory: Ken Mitton, PhD and commented:
A fake set of journals that has evened fooled a database at Harvard.

Sharada Tupkere says:

December 14, 2016 at 6:19 AM

I am Dr Sharada Tupkere and I am a regular follower of your post. I am one of the editors of a recently launched journal and we are five editors, with all of us five editors believing in being moral. Hence I, along with my colleagues, commend you on the wonderful job that you have been doing.
But posting your data online serves no purpose, as most of the authors hardly go through posts. The notice of predatory journals, needs to be widely and loudly publicized, in order to prevent the crores of innocent authors from being cheated of their money. In India,the postgraduate students are at the mercy of their professors. They force the students to publish their substandard articles in the journals for – Dental Council of India points, Their refusal to do so, results in their failure during the final exams. So you can understand the pressure in publishing articles, in any random journal, within their 3 years of postgraduate course.

behalbiotech says:

December 14, 2016 at 8:27 PM

First of all we must support “Something is better than nothing”. So this blog is serving good cause. Main problem in India is that universities adopted Academic Performance Index and a parameter that journal should have ISBN/ISSN number, which every fake journal in India get easily. Both are leading to increase in use of predatory journals. Students are not aware how to check quality of journals and at same time their supervisors are also either unaware of it or want to increase number of papers. Even Indian PhD students are never taught about publication process.
If dental Council has made it mandatory to publish then Dental association can have their own journal(s) to publish papers of their own student and issue them proper guidelines. Just one notification can start solving problem. A good start can lead to more ideas, improvement and good future..

*Visitor Submitted Content – Opinions & Reviews do not necessarily represent the views of the Emerald City Journal.

Cash Me Out in Seattle – Your Ugly Home Buyer!

Seattle ugly homes cash me out

Real estate in the Seattle area is booming and prices are soaring. The prices in Seattle are climbing steadily since the market crash in 2008 and the market has rebounded in a way that has surprised many people. The median home price for Seattle real estate was an astounding $420,500 during the second quarter, compared to the national average of $239,167. Seattle real estate is selling at a record pace. This means that people who want to sell their homes, now is the time. It is a sellers market but sometimes moving quickly enough to get your home market ready can be difficult. Whether is be because you don’t have the money or the time, selling your home can be quite daunting.

Owning a home can sometimes be a huge financial burden. For some people being able to keep the house that they currently have can come at too huge of a financial cost to either themselves or their families. It can either be because they lost their job, or a divorce has them in financial dire straights, or maybe because they inherited a house that they don’t want to keep. For whatever reason unloading a troublesome property can bring about an enormous amount of relief. As of July 2016, there are currently 1,316 properties in the Seattle that are in some stage of foreclosure and this could have been prevented if the property was sold in a timely fashion. But sometimes selling a piece of property can be time consuming or tiresome. It can be expensive to update and renovate the house. People do not always have the money to make the necessary repairs to the house to attract buyers quickly enough. Most people do not want to move into a house that needs a ton of work. No seller wants their home to sit on the market for longer than a month especially when they need to recoup financially. Sellers do not realize that there are solutions available that can help them sell their home in a very short time frame.

The solution to this problem is easy. Cash Me Out Northwest has been serving the Seattle are real estate market for over a decade and has been the answer for homeowners looking to unload their burden quickly and efficiently. Their motto is “Keys for cash, no hassle!” which means that they offer stress free property liquidation. They will buy your property even if your house has zero (or even negative) equity. If your house has the following issues: poor condition that no bank is willing to finance any potential buyers, liens, code violations, legal problems attached to it, Cash Me Out Northwest will still buy it “as is.” There is no renovating or updating that you will have to do to the house. Cash Me Out Northwest will buy the property regardless of condition. Home owners can rest easy knowing that when it comes time to sell their homes, Cash Me Out Northwest will take care of the whole process from start to finish with little effort on the owners part.

The first step in the process is calling Cash Me Out. Make sure to schedule about 20 minutes for a conversation on the phone with a home buying expert. They will ask qualified questions about your home and your situation in order to get a better of idea of how they can help you to sell your home quickly or help you decide if the company is the right fit. This is also an opportunity for you to ask any questions you might have regarding the process. Ask as many questions as possible. Educating yourself is an important part of this process and the Cash Me Out experts will be able to answer your questions and put your mind at ease. The second step is a home consultation. An expert visits you at your home and will complete a walkthrough of both the inside and the outside of the property. Do not be concerned about the condition of the home. Once again, there is no judgment and Cash Me Out will buy the home regardless of condition. They will also leave you with a professional Market Analysis so you can know how they decide on a sales price. This will also be a useful tool if you decide not to sell with them and wish to use a traditional real estate agent instead. Based on that evaluation and that market analysis, a cash offer will be made within 24 hours. There is no haggling or hidden fees or costs. The offer amount is the total amount that you will net from the sale of the home. You can either accept the offer or reject it.

There are many reasons to use Cash Me Out Northwest especially if you are trying to sell a home in the Seattle market. It is a very competitive market right now and for people who need quick cash for their home, using this company can help expedite the process. Now is the time to sell, and it never hurts to contact them to at least know where you stand with your home. Cash Me Out has even been able to help clients sell the most unsellable properties on the market. They can help you get the maximum amount from your property with absolutely no effort on your part. Do not hesitate and contact them to get the most value out of your property.

Call them now: (206)202-9682
Cash Me Out Northwest serves all of Washington State.

How to Host a Kickass Beer Tasting Party

Seattle Beer Tasting

Next time you’re thinking of inviting friends over for a gathering, kick it up a few notches by hosting a beer tasting party. I guarantee you will have more fun than another normal get-together of casual conversation. This Thirsty in Seattle article has you covered.

Step 1 – Plan
Guests: 6 guests are ideal, but you can easily go up to 12. I wouldn’t go any higher.

Type of Beer: Let everyone choose what beer to bring. It’s much more fun and rewarding to let each guest do some research (can be as simple as asking for recommendations from their local bottle shop). You will be surprised how diverse of a lineup you have even with no coordination. Visit our Hall of Fame for inspiration. Another option is to focus on specific styles or a region. True beer geeks will likely want to have each guest bring a “whale”, a rare, hard-to-find beer.

Blind Tasting? Hell, yes! It’s the best way to go. It helps each guest better think about the flavors of the beer, without any preconceived notions about a style or brand clouding their judgment. For a blind tasting, each guest should bring their beer(s) in a brown paper lunch bag cinched near the top with tape.

Amount of Beer: Specify to your guests how much beer to bring. Plan on a 3-4 oz. taste per person.

6-8 guests: Have each guest bring 2 different bottles (Bottle size: 22 oz. bomber OR a larger 750ml bottle, the common size of Belgian beers). This will provide the group with a tasting of 12-16 different beers, depending on the number of guests. Example: Joe brings 1 bottle of Stone Ruination IPA and 1 bottle of La Fin du Monde

9-12 guests: Have each guest bring 2 bottles of the same beer (either 22 oz. bombers OR larger 750ml bottles, the common size of Belgian beers). This will provide the group with a tasting of 9-12 different beers, depending on the number of guests. Example: Joe brings 2 bottles of Stone Ruination IPA.

The reason I recommend a different approach for 9-12 guests is that the same quantity of beer per guest will be needed, but sampling 24 different varieties in one evening is far too many from both a time and palate perspective.

This is meant as a rough guide. You can tailor the amounts based on how much your crew drinks. Also, guests may need to adjust the amounts a bit if they are bringing a beer of a smaller size (such as a 12 oz. can of Ten Fidy or a 16 oz bottle of a German beer like Aventinus) or a larger size (such as a growler).

Food: Decide if you will provide all the food, or if you want to save money by having each guest bring something to share. I prefer to take care of all the food so the guests just need to select their beer(s), but either way works fine.

Plan on plenty of palate-cleansing foods, such as popcorn and crackers. Make sure to serve plenty of heavier food as well to help soak up those high gravity brews. Here’s a sample menu from my last beer-tasting event:

–Popcorn
–Crackers with several cheeses
–Hot pretzels with assorted dipping sauces (cheese, honey mustard, etc.)
–Fruit
–Blue cheese and bacon sliders
–Dessert

Step 2 – Invite Guests
Set the date and time and send out your e-vite invitations. Due to the nature of a beer tasting party, encourage guests to arrive on-time so you don’t have to start the tasting without them. Let the guests know what they should bring and tell them to place each beer in a brown paper lunch bag cinched near the top with tape.

Step 3– Prep for Party
Print Beer Tasting Scorecards: Print our beer tasting scorecards for each guest.

Glassware: Always use glass; never plastic. I like to use Belgian beer glasses or snifters, but large, red wine glasses work just fine. You will want nice, wide glasses to smell each beer.

Set up Table(s): I highly recommend having enough table and/or bar space to accommodate each guest. With all the food and beer, along with the tasting scorecards, this is not easily done on couches. Set each place at the table with a plate, napkin, utensils, beer glass, water glass, tasting scorecard and pen. Place a couple pitchers of water on the table so everyone can mix that in between beers. Include a bowl in case folks wish to rinse their glass between beers.

Determine Beer Order: The beers ideally should be tasted in order of alcohol content (high-hopped beers should also be a factor). Create some general “zones” on the counter or table with post-it notes. For example, you could have a zone for fruity/5% ABV; 6-8% ABV; 9+% ABV; IPAs; Russian Imperial Stouts/Barley Wines. This doesn’t need to be perfect science, and it won’t considering it is a blind tasting. You just want to make sure you’re not wrecking your palate with an Imperial IPA for the first beer.

Have each guest place their beer(s) in the appropriate zone when they arrive. Once all guests have arrived, mark each beer with a unique letter (A, B, C, etc.) and place them in the fridge. The higher alcohol beers, particularly Belgians, should be served around 55°F. When you get toward the latter half of your lineup, just pull the next beer out of the fridge whenever you open a new selection, so it has 20 minutes to warm.

Step 4 – Party and Have Fun!
Put on some music, open the first beer and get the party started! Have fun trying to describe each beer and guessing what it is. Record your notes on your tasting scorecard. Eat, drink some water. Repeat.

The Reveal
Wait until the end of the party to reveal the beers. I also highly recommend tallying everyone’s scores for each beer and averaging them (have a calculator on hand). It’s interesting to see the stack ranking of beers at the end of the night.

Only one question will be left at this point is – Who is going to host the next beer tasting party!

Hyderabad, India — City of Corruption

Hyderabad India

Hyderabad, India is one of the most corrupt cities on earth, I think. It is home to countless predatory open-access publishers and conference organizers, and new, open-access publishing companies and brands are being created there every day. All institutions of higher education, all funders, governments, and researchers should be especially wary of any business based in Hyderabad.

The tacit rule of thumb of Hyderabad-based businesses is: Use the internet to generate revenue any way you can.

There are numerous internet-based businesses in this over-crowded city, many located in a special enterprise zone called HITEC City, which some refer to as “Cyberabad.” The city is the home OMICS International, a notorious publisher I have been following since 2010 that has exploited, abused, and victimized countless researchers, as I’ve documented here on my blog.

I have been told that OMICS treats its employees as poorly as it treats researchers. Accordingly, many have left the company to start their own scholarly publishing houses, with most copying the malevolent business practices pioneered by OMICS.

At this point, it’s too late, and the publisher refuses to withdraw the paper unless a fee is paid. The authors are then left with the choice to either pay a fee to withdraw the paper or pay a fee to publish it. The publishers know that you cannot submit a paper to a good journal when it’s already been published in a bad one.

Given the city’s poor reputation, many businesses based in Hyderabad lie and claim to be based in Western countries. They use the addresses of virtual office companies or mailbox rental firms. OMICS International does this, deceptively claiming offices in Henderson, Nevada and Foster City, California.

Again — be very careful with any online-based business that originates in Hyderabad, India. Corruption is the rule in Hyderabad, and businesses based there are world leaders in ripping off honest consumers, including researchers.

Starting a new online business — such as a publishing operation — costs very little, especially in India.

Typically, the newly-launched predatory publishers use spam email to solicit manuscript submissions to hastily-launched, broad-scope journals. They quickly accept submitted papers, skipping peer review. Then they send an invoice to the surprised authors, who, realizing the journal is fake, request that the article be withdrawn.

At this point, it’s too late, and the publisher refuses to withdraw the paper unless a fee is paid. The authors are then left with the choice to either pay a fee to withdraw the paper or pay a fee to publish it. The publishers know that you cannot submit a paper to a good journal when it’s already been published in a bad one.

Given the city’s poor reputation, many businesses based in Hyderabad lie and claim to be based in Western countries. They use the addresses of virtual office companies or mailbox rental firms. OMICS International does this, deceptively claiming offices in Henderson, Nevada and Foster City, California.

Again — be very careful with any online-based business that originates in Hyderabad, India. Corruption is the rule in Hyderabad, and businesses based there are world leaders in ripping off honest consumers, including researchers.

By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow him on Twitter

A Pakistani Publisher to Avoid: Academic Research Publishing Group

Keep a safe distance.

Whenever an open-access publisher uses the phrases “Academic Research” or “Publishing Group” in its name, researchers should be very wary. Here’s a low-quality, rent-seeking, open-access publisher that combines both phrases: Academic Research Publishing Group. I recommend keeping a safe distance from it

The publisher is based in Pakistan’s Punjab Province. It publishes 11 super-broad-scoped journals, publications that duplicate the scope of hundreds of pre-existing subscription and open-access journals. For example, one of their journals is called Scientific Review, and it will publish pretty much anything.

Their journal cover images are uniformly amateurish in appearance, all adorned with pirated images.

No review.

In addition:
o ARPG spams and promises a fast peer review.
o They charge for “Modification/After Publication,” a practice that disincentives the correction of errors in papers.
o The journals claim to be indexed/abstracted in SlideShare, which is not an academic index (not even close).
o The published articles do not bear any licensing statements, and the author guidelines don’t say how the published articles will be licensed, a sign of an unsophisticated publisher.
o The publisher is not associated with any standard digital preservation services or organizations.

Conclusion

Academic Research Publishing Group is a rip off. Authors pay to publish their papers, but the services provided are way below standard. The publisher has managed to trick researchers from many regions, including Scandinavia, into publishing in their quick, easy, and cheap journals. I recommend avoiding all of this publisher’s substandard, third-rate journals.

Appendix: List of Academic Research Publishing Group journals as of 2016-11-02:
1.Academic Journal of Applied Mathematical Sciences (AJAMS)
2.Academic Journal of Computer and Electronics (AJCE)
3.Business, Management and Economics Research (BMER)
4.English Literature and Language Review
5.International Journal of Economics and Financial Research (IJFER)
6.International Journal of Healthcare and Medical Sciences (IJHMS)
7.International Journal of World Policy and Development Studies (IJWPDS)
8.Journal of Agriculture and Crops (JAC)
9.Research Journal of Education (RJE)
10.Scientific Review (SR)
11.The Journal of Social Sciences Research (TJSSR)

By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow on Twitter
Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:

Keith says:

November 8, 2016 at 9:54 AM

Impressive – my university’s Internet security service has already blocked the website of “Scientific Review”.

si says:

November 10, 2016 at 4:21 AM

Academic Research Publishing Group recently start new publication company with the name of Noble Academic Publisher: Please click on that link: http://napublisher.org/?ic=info&id=1. The 4 journals title are as follows:
1. Noble International Journal of Economics and Financial Research
2.Noble International Journal of Social Sciences Research
3. Noble International Journal of Business and Management Research
4. Noble International Journal of Scientific Research

The aim & scope, and Author Guidelines just copy from different websites.

*User submitted. Statements do no reflect the views of the Emerald City Journal.

*Note: First Amendment Right of Freedom of Speech – paragraph 4(c)(iii) of the overall Policy.

The Academic Research Publishing Group or napublisher.org are own their respected trademarks.

Bogus British Company “Accredits” OMICS Conferences

Accreditation for sale.

Notorious open-access publisher OMICS International operates a scholarly conference division called Conference Series LLC. I learned recently that a London-based corporation called The CPD Standards Office has “accredited” all of OMICS International’s exploitative conferences.

Euro-trash.

A linked logo now appears on all of OMICS’ conferences. The logo reads “Accredited CPD.” Clicking on the logo brings one to a page like this one [PDF] called the “CPD Standards Factsheet.”

In actuality, the facts are that OMICS has paid this firm to accredit its bogus conferences. Any accreditation agency that grants accreditation to OMICS International or its divisions has no value as an accreditor.

This is confirmed by the CPD’s website which says,

“The CPDSO accreditation services do not have a pass / fail philosophy, our friendly assessment team will work with you to achieve CPDSO accreditation successfully.”

Indeed, all a firm has to do is pay, and the accreditation is granted. If this agency accredits OMICS and its conferenceseries.com brand, then surely it will accredit anything.

Now we get it.

It is clear why OMICS International / Conferenceseries.com wants to emblazon its conference websites with the bogus CPD logo. It tricks people and universities into thinking the conferences are authentic, when they are really just a predatory means of exploiting university travel funds.

In fact, this is how CPD markets its automatic accreditation services to conference organizers such as OMICS.

I recommend that researchers avoid all journals published under the OMICS International umbrella and avoid all conferences organized by conferenceseries.com.

Moreover, I recommend strong skepticism towards anything “accredited” by the CPD Standards Office.

By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow on Twitter
Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:

Manfred Raida says:

October 13, 2016 at 7:51 PM

Just checked “conferences” starting in 3 days have no program up, no speakers, quite late. Many photos of speakers are presented in an offending way, either stretched or squeezed, same people show up again and again. Some “conference” are run in parallel, great if organizers can do this :-). Universities should be warned not to allow spending money for these bogus events.

Lalitha Pasam says:

October 14, 2016 at 1:30 AM

Jeff,

what about CME and CE accredits for OMICS events???

PS: http://diabeticmedications.conferenceseries.com/
http://www.dentalcongress.com/europe/

Thanks
Lalitha

Jeffrey Beall says:

October 14, 2016 at 6:26 AM

Good question.

The Philosopher says:

October 15, 2016 at 4:33 AM

Dear Beall – “INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RESEARCH IN BASIC ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY” http://www.ijarbest.com – SCI indexed ?

Jeffrey Beall says:

October 15, 2016 at 5:01 AM

You yourself can check here. I do not see it appearing in SCI.

Marco says:

October 18, 2016 at 9:08 AM

The (sad) thing is that CPD is a genuine organization that has done some useful stuff and actually has an important role in continuing professional development.

Somewhat interesting, however, is that according to the CPD Standards Office, conference series LLC “…is currently under CPDSO investigation”
https://www.cpdstandards.com/?sfid=690&s=Conference+series+LLC

Jeffrey Beall says:

October 18, 2016 at 9:53 AM

Thanks for the link. I am happy to see they are re-considering. However, an accreditation agency should not make such blunders. They are supposed to be the experts and do proper vetting. It appears they completely fell asleep at the wheel here, or the prospect of earning money to “accredit” the many hundreds of OMICS conferences was too much for them to resist.

Marco says:

October 19, 2016 at 10:03 AM

Remember that this is OMICS. It is possible they never accredited any OMICS conferences, but rather that OMICS requested it, and CPDSO is still investigating. Just like people who have been asked to give a presentation or be part of the Editorial Board have seen themselves listed as presenting or Editorial Board member well before they responded (or after, and even if their response was negative).

tekija says:

October 18, 2016 at 12:41 PM

Good grief, I did not know that Finland has annexed Texas and UK

http://www.conferenceseries.com/finland-meetings/

Marco says:

October 19, 2016 at 10:06 AM

All your base are belong to Finland!

Wolfgang Muß (= MUSZ or MUSS) says:

October 20, 2016 at 7:02 AM

‘LONDON, Finland’
( to be found below the header-line(s)

Upcoming Finland Conferences
Finland Conferences 2017 )

for sure only was a unique “misspelling [ Freudian slip] for “Helsinki” ! (:-))

Conference Series Ltd
19th Nano Congress for Next Generation
August 21-22, 2017 Helsinki, Finland

missrosalindh says:

October 20, 2016 at 4:55 AM

I wouldn’t say the CPD Standards are a bogus company personally – Google are actually partnered with them and one would think the ‘owners’ of the world wide web would be wise to a scam! Perhaps an oversight to support Omics on the part of CPDSO?

MC says:

October 24, 2016 at 2:05 PM

Yes, google owns the internet. Finally, a reasonable comment on this blog.

Ed says:

October 21, 2016 at 5:52 PM

I think you might want to write about the ConferenceSeries event that accepted in three hours a gibberish paper generated with iOS auto-complete, and perhaps contact Christoph Bartneck of the University of Canterbury, NZ, who “authored” the work. Two relevant references:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/22/nonsense-paper-written-by-ios-autocomplete-accepted-for-conference
http://www.bartneck.de/2016/10/20/ios-just-got-a-paper-on-nuclear-physics-accepted-at-a-scientific-conference/ and per

Allied Academies: Bad Business Decisions, Misdirected Blame, and a New Name

New name, same old poor management.

The owners of Allied Academies have made some truly incompetent business decisions, including associating with the notorious Indian publisher OMICS International — which is freely using Allied Academies’ name in its business dealings. You may have heard that OMICS is currently under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.

The owner of Allied Academies refuses to take responsibility for the mismanagement and is distributing an “open letter” that basically denies responsibility for the sorry state the publisher is in and blames me for damaging its reputation. This accusation is unprofessional and false.

The letter says,
As you may have heard, Allied Academies was added to Beall’s list of possible predatory publishers earlier this year. Without going into too many details, Jim Carland, [sic] signed a contract with a publishing company last year that was offering to give us website and copyediting support. That contract enabled them to post other journals to the Allied website, which we did not think would be an issue. Most of the newly added journals are in the field of science, which we thought would give Allied Academies a broader appeal. However, most of these newly added journals are open access, and Beall’s list consists of open access journals that employ a specific type of publication process that he deems to be unethical.

Here the publisher is being non-transparent and only telling half the story. Allied Academies stupidly signed a contract with OMICS International, a known predatory publisher. Why did they sign a contract with OMICS? Because it benefitted them financially. What respectable publisher would knowingly agree to let a predator add journals to its website?

The letter continues:
In the meantime, Beall’s list has created some permanent damage to the name Allied Academies, and we are contractually obligated to keep the open access journals on that site. Therefore, we have created a new site to move the business journals to: Allied Business Academies.

They blame me for the incompetent business decisions. If any publisher should be able to make competent business decisions, it is a publisher of scholarly business journals.

So Allied Academies’ “solution” is to create a new branding (Allied Business Academies) and a new website for its original journals. The publisher now has two websites:
o Allied Academies = http://www.alliedacademies.org/
o Allied Business Academies = http://www.alliedacademies.biz/Public/Default.aspx

Allied Academies was never a top-tier publisher. In fact, over the years, I have regularly received emails asking me why it wasn’t on my list and suggesting that I add it. However, its journals weren’t open-access, so I resisted (the OMICS journals on the site are OA, and after they appeared there I added Allied Academies to my list. This was in December, 2015).

Here are some of Allied Academies long-term weaknesses (before their affiliation with OMICS):
1.Coercive membership: According to their website, “All authors of manuscripts which are accepted for publication must become members of the appropriate Academy prior to publication of the manuscript. Membership fees are currently $75 per year, payable online at the Join an Academy page.”
2.The publisher offers a fast-track peer review option:

To be eligible for Accelerated Journal Review (AJR), at least one author must have registered for physical or Internet participation in one of our four regularly scheduled Conferences each year. Instructions for Accelerated Journal Review submission are emailed to Conference registrants when the registration fee is paid.
3.Like the Clute Institute, Allied Academies holds its “conferences” in popular tourist spots. In fact, its next three scheduled conferences will be in these places:

Las Vegas
Jamaica
New Orleans

Candler, North Carolina, home of Allied Academies (Courtesy Google Maps)

OMICS’ Use of Allied Academies’ Name to Offer to Buy Other Publishers and Journals

OMICS is using the Allied Academies name to make offers to buy other journals. Here is an email following up on one such offer, with the victim journal’s identifying information redacted:

——– Forwarded message ——–

RE: Proposal for “[Redacted]”
Date: 2016-09-26 [Time redacted]
From: Kevin Jace
To: [Redacted]
Dear [Redacted],

Greetings!

Thanks for getting in touch with Allied Academies!

I am Kevin Jace writing to you on behalf of Allied Academies. Our executive Mr. Peter, with whom you are in communication earlier has left the organization and had passed on all the responsibilities to me which he used to take care. So, from now on I will be the authorized person to take this conversation further.

We are happy to see you get interest inclined towards this collaboration. I am now elaborating the brief proposal with which ALLIED ACADEMIES appeared along with the benefits that it carries. Kindly go through its content below:

Complete Acquisition:

On opting this: The entire ownership of the journal will be transferred to Allied Academies after which the entire responsibilities of the journal will be taken care by Allied Academies.

To gain entire ownership on the journal, our evaluators will look after few key parameters.

Key parameters:
o Indexing of the journal
o No. of volumes
o Publication start year
o Scope of the journal
o Total no. of articles published.

After evaluation, Allied Academies would pay a fixed royalty amount as a onetime payment for its complete acquisition (including the website in which the journal is being hosted).

Benefits after post acquisition:
o [Redacted] will gain support of extensive network of readers/authors that cling to Allied Academies.
o Definite increase in quality work as Allied Academies follows a stringent peer-review process giving the quality its first priority.
o Huge and strong marketing network of Allied Academies will help in enhancing the visibility of the journal globally.
o Promotion of the journal through Allied Academies’ marketing activities.
o Promotional activities through conference partners.
o Use of Editorial Manager tracking system for smooth running of the journal.
o Protection of the journal from plagiarized manuscripts
o Support and encouragement of millions of readers around the globe.
o Quality oriented team work and better visibility of the journal.
o Allied Academies would strive for better indexing of journal along with its maintenance and it’s up gradation.

Additional benefits:
o We will conduct editorial board meetings; special discounts to staff and editorial board members of the journal to attend the conferences.
o Conferences organized on the specific journal topic.
o Special issues released periodically.

In addition to this we will promote your website on the journal homepage.

Editorial board details:

The editorial board remains the same. For the betterment and global expansion of the journal we may add few more editors to the editorial board. It is to the discretion of the existing board members to remain with the board or not.

We coin some special issues for the journals and Editors have a benefit to earn about 25% of the revenue generated on the special issues for those articles which are contributed by the editors i.e., based on their contributions we pay them 25% share from the amount generated.

If you are interested in selling the journal to us, I shall soon come up with the price for complete takeover along with the website on which the journal is being hosted. On mutual terms agreed by both the parties, we shall draft and send the agreement to you. The agreement which is send to you should be duly signed by the owner of the journal. Once the agreement is signed, we will be paying you 20%-30% of the amount as a part of first tranche and remaining should be paid once we receive all the archives, Website credentials etc. as a part of second tranche. It solely depends on how fast you will send the files to go for remaining payment.

Please feel free to write to me if you have any further queries.

I will be glad to receive a positive response from you.

Thanks & Regards,

Kevin

This is the same strategy OMICS International used in Canada this year. It bought a publisher and then made subsequent offers to buy journals using the publisher’s name. The reputation of OMICS is so bad that it has to hide itself to do business with other publishers.

Conclusion

Referring to the Allied Academies’ journals, the open letter states:

They continue to be double-blind, peer reviewed and now have an acceptance rate of 15%. The journals have actually had a 15% acceptance rate on average for the last few years and we neglected to update it until now.

For years, Allied bragged that its journals had the same acceptance rate for all its journals: 25%. Now, they are claiming that the acceptance rate for all journals has magically dropped to 15%.

This is pure bunk. It is statistically impossible for an entire suite of journals to have the exact same acceptance rate and for that rate to drop to 15% simultaneously for all journals.

Who do they think they are fooling?

By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow on Twitter
Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:

Derek says:

October 11, 2016 at 10:16 AM

I agree that Allied Academies is a questionable publisher, to say the least. However, with regard to “Coercive membership”, I don’t think this is uncommon for even legitimate professional associations. For example, the Canadian Journal of Economics requires that at least one author be a member of the Canadian Economic Association when submitting a paper: http://economics.ca/cje/en/submissionfee.php I have also seen associations give a submission fee discount for members equal to the cost of joining, which amounts to the same thing (you might as well join and get the journal).

Batuhan Akben says:

October 13, 2016 at 3:25 AM

I have submitted some manuscripts to Biomedical Research Journal published by Allied Academies. They have rigorously evaluated by reviewers. Even, some of them have been rejected. Reviewing period is about 2-3 months. Publishing period is about 4 months after acceptance. In addition, acceptance rate of the Biomedical Research is about 15% (I think it is not high). If they publish the articles for only money the publishing period would not so long. So, I can say that the Biomedical Research Journal is quite quality.

You made all of Allied Academies Journals suspicious by adding only publisher name in to your list. I think you should list the suspicious journals of Allied Acadimes instead of publisher name.

Philip says:

December 6, 2016 at 8:37 AM

While I have no love for OMICS, this blog is clearly written in a way that manipulates the reader. For example, the Allied Academies letter states that “The journals have actually had a 15% acceptance rate on average” but the blog author then says “It is statistically impossible for an entire suite of journals to have the exact same acceptance rate”. That statement twists what the letter said. Saying the journals have an AVERAGE of 15% doesn’t mean that all the journals individually have a rejection rate of 15%. There’s lots of other examples of misleading statements in this blog. If you want to fight predatory publishers, don’t stoop to their level by being misleading and manipulative in your own blog.

1 … 23 24 25 26 27 … 37
Go to Top