Arguably the hottest item among Tour professionals this year hasnt been the latest driver or longest ball. In fact, this product doesnt even help golfers hit their shots. But, it does make them better players and more-focused competitors. The WHOOP Strap 3.0 has been on the wrists of several Tour winners this year, as well as throngs of other pros -- none of whom get paid to wear it. Think of it as an ultra-advanced, state-of-the-art fitness tracker.

What started as a performance monitoring tool solely for elite athletes began catching on with the worlds top golfers three years ago. As they travel from one event to the next which in itself can take a tremendous toll on their bodies -- Tour pros perpetually seek an edge to improve their games and stay ahead of the competition. Gushes one top player: Right from the start, I realized WHOOP was an unbelievable tool to evaluate my process and help me prepare each day.

Thankfully for you, WHOOP is now also available to the masses. So, how exactly does it work?

Where other wearables monitor the basics like step count and heart rate, WHOOP goes well beyond -- giving insightful feedback through its Bluetooth-paired smartphone app on how your mind and body are adapting to external stressors. Among other things, stress can manifest itself in sleep quality, heart rate and heart rate variability . WHOOP tracks these physiological phenomena and translates that data into actionable recommendations.

Lets start with sleep. If yours is lacking, its almost certainly affecting you on the golf course. WHOOP evaluates your sleep quantity, quality and efficiency, then coaches you to a better nights rest by suggesting how much time you need to spend in bed. After all, chronic sleep debt reduces your mental and physical capacity that in turn lowers your performance level. Additionally, WHOOP tracks your sleep cycles and stages nightly, telling you how much time you spend in each. Tour pros using it aim to get 40-50 percent of their total sleep in deeper stages, so they can fully leverage physiological and psychological capacity in competition.

WHOOP also measures strain -- the cardiovascular load you put on your body. It opens a window into how quickly or slowly youre using up the proverbial fuel in your tank, and lets you know the exertion level you should aim to achieve each day. Managing strain and understanding how it builds is paramount in reducing any uncertainty around your performance levels. On the WHOOP app, you can see your live strain measure, heart rate and caloric burn all in real time, and even share performance analysis with your coach or swing instructor.

The thing that really sets WHOOP apart -- and the metric that many Tour pros find most valuable -- is the daily recovery score. Taking into account your previous strain, sleep and a number of other key physiological factors, it gives you a percentage from 0-100 (broken down and color-coded as red, yellow or green) indicating exactly how ready your body is to perform that day. Using the WHOOP recovery metric as a training guide enables golfers to ensure theyre in the green when it matters most.

Ultimately, WHOOP is an information portal to your body that lets you know ahead of time when youre primed to swing the club effortlessly, zero in on all of your targets, and think clearly out on the course. By taking your most advanced biometric data and presenting it to you in uncomplicated language and easy-to-understand graphics, its like having a personal trainer right on your wrist.

Click here to sign up for a six-month membership using promo code GD15, and WHOOP will send you the device for free. Then youll see why two of the worlds top four Tour pros rely on it -- and how it can transform your game, too.

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WHOOP: WHY ITS TAKING THE TOUR BY STORM, AND WHAT IT CAN DO FOR YOU - GolfDigest.com

LAWRENCE, Kan. Kansas swimming and diving opened up the first day of the Kansas Classic with not one, but two record-breaking performances in the five-event meet.

It was a team effort in the 400-yard medley relay to close out the night, as the team of Manon Manning, Kate Steward, Elizabeth Amato-Hanner and Jenny Nusbaum broke not only the Kansas Classic record but also the Kansas school record in the event with a final time of 3:37.37. This was a record that had stood in the program for 10 seasons before tonights performance.

Steward not only contributed to the record in the relay, but she also set her own individual record on the day as well in the 200 individual medley. Her final time of 1:59.21 was not only a personal best, but it set the Kansas Classic meet record as well in the event.

"Really good start to the meet. We were solid really from the first race on. How we ended the night was really strong. Our medley really was really good and broke a 10-year-old school record and Manon Manning had a lifetime best in her 100 back. Kate's 200 IM, the way that she finished that race, her best events are yet to come. So this was a great way to start the meet and we hope to keep up the momentum heading into tomorrow."

Through the first five events of the teams midseason meet, the Jayhawks currently sit in the lead with 350 total points. Iowa State currently holds second place with 217 points and Miami (Florida) rounds out the top three with 160 points.

Meanwhile, in Columbia, Missouri, the Kansas divers finished out the final day of the Tiger Invite with the platform dive events. Peri Charapich finished atop the Jayhawks leaderboard with a score of 182.10. She was followed by Amanda Fingerut with 146.00 total points and Alison Grass with 123.20 points.

"Overall, two victories and three top-12 finishes among our best competition to date. We're certainly happy with the outcome. But our divers also gained invaluable knowledge about where they are and what it will take to be even more successful going forward."

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Jayhawks Have Record-Breaking Friday Kansas Jayhawks - Kansas Jayhawks

ShotTracker's 'enabled' basketballs

ShotTracker

"If you don't shoot you don't score," entrepreneur Davyeon Ross recently told CNBC.

For Ross, that isn't just a clich it's a mantra that's helped him use his love of basketball to secure more than $25 million from investors including NBA legends David Stern and Magic Johnson.

Ross is the co-founder of ShotTracker, a start-up developing new technology to help basketball players, coaches and fans track individual and team performance on the court. The system, currently being used by more than 60 college basketball programs, incorporates wearable devices, "enabled" basketballs and on-court sensors to instantly feed more than 70 statistics such as shot count and points won to its users.

Raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Ross came to the U.S. on a basketball scholarship in 1996, studying for his math and computer science degree at Benedictine College before landing a job as a software engineer at Sprint.

"After that, I traveled while working in software but I always had a love for basketball," he told CNBC in a phone call. "My current partner called me one day to ask how I used to track my performance when I was playing at college. He was trying to measure his son's performance to help him improve his game."

The call prompted Ross to look at what was available on the market, which he remembers as "a painful process" and that gap in the market led to the birth of ShotTracker in 2013.

When it comes to securing investment, Ross told CNBC that every start-up founder must to be willing to bet on their own idea.

The founding team launched ShotTracker at the annual technology show CES in early 2016, self-funding to create a physical product they could show to would-be investors. The gamble came with no guarantee of securing additional investment.

"We put our money where our mouths were," Ross said. "You have to find ways to show you believe in your idea and that you've valuated it. That was a big, big investment, but it's paid its dividends."

Being fully behind your product or service as a start-up founder is "very powerful," he added.

"A lot of the time entrepreneurs' effort goes into telling people about their ideas, but for me it's about execution," Ross said.

Stern, former commissioner of the NBA, and legendary player Earvin "Magic" Johnson became investors in ShotTracker in October 2016, and both also act as business advisors. The amount they invested remains undisclosed, but their investments were part of a $5 million seed round for the start-up.

In May last year, Stern led a Series A funding round in ShotTracker, raising $10.4 million and taking the total invested in the company up to $21 million. To date, the team has raised around $27 million.

ShotTracker isn't Ross' first foray into starting a business. He started his first company, Digital Sports Ventures, at the age of 27, developing a platform that organized video and other college sports media.

His partner, Bruce Ianni, is also a seasoned entrepreneur, having founded Innovadex, a company Ross describes as the "Google for chemists," in 1997. Both co-founders sold their first companies to corporations for undisclosed amounts, but Ross told CNBC that their "decent exits" were enough to get ShotTracker off the ground.

Despite its success, ShotTracker has faced its fair share of challenges Ross told CNBC. Among other things, the co-founders struggled with deploying aspects of the technology, scaling the company, and even adapting to the changing nature of how people practice basketball.

"Setbacks are mandatory experiences that come with entrepreneurship," Ross said. "Start-ups are a learning experience. You try to go down one path and learn it's not the most optimal path, so you find a better one."

Looking forward, the company's growth strategy aims for ShotTracker to become to basketball what "wifi is to coffee shops," he added, with a view to expanding to other sports.

Technology focused on sports and fitness is a rapidly growing market.

Earlier this year, research firm MarketsandMarkets estimated the global sports tech industry would be worth $31.1 billion by 2024, with researchers valuing the market at $8.9 billion in 2018.

Big tech is helping to drive that growth, with Apple and Samsung investing in fitness tracking technology, while Alphabet's Google announced this month that it was acquiring Fitbit for around $2.1 billion.

In 2015, U.S. athleticwear brand Under Armour bought Endomondo, an app tracking users' performance while running, for $85 million.

Speaking to CNBC over the phone, Pete Giorgio, head of Deloitte's U.S. Sports Practice, said sports technology fits into two categories, depending on whether it's intended for professional or personal use.

"It's only going to continue to grow on both sides teams are becoming more and more comfortable with the information these things produce, and more adept at analyzing and gleaning information from it," he said.

"I think you'll continue to see an increased sophistication of the devices, but they already are pretty sophisticated. On the personal or non-professional side I think it will grow as well, but this will be less around increased sophistication and a little more around simplification."

However, companies would be challenged to somehow consolidate the overwhelming amounts of data people were given as more devices and systems flooded the market, Giorgio told CNBC.

"It's starting to become a little bit too much in some instances," he said. "If you have multiple devices and use different ones in different situations, one of the things we'll see is how those can create a collective view of all that information versus individual views of different devices."

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How this basketball start-up raised millions of dollars from investors including David Stern and Magic Johnson - CNBC

By Tom Meek Thursday, November 21, 2019 Trey Edward Shults on the set of Waves with actor Sterling K. Brown.

The films of Trey Edward Shults are haunting in their immersive ambience and enigmatic narratives, but theyre also to date deeply personal, if not autobiographical. In his debut, Krisha (2016), Shults explored the effects of addiction on the family surrounding the user, reflecting how Shults immediate family had been affected by addiction and alcohol abuse over the years; even his near post-apocalyptic chiller It Comes at Night (2017) was a means for Shults to work out the grief of losing his father to pancreatic cancer.

Themes of addiction and struggles with an estranged and dying father are also part of Shults latest, Waves, in which young African American wrestler Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), in a tumultuous romantic relationship in addition to struggling against his controlling father, Ronald (Sterling K. Brown), turns increasingly to drugs after an injury that threatens to sideline his promising athletic career and shot at college. Meanwhile, Luke (Lucas Hedges), another wrestler on the team, struggles to reconnect with his his dying, distant father.

Im both Tyler and Luke, Shults said in an interview with the Day, and [their] girlfriends are something like my girlfriends. The parents are somewhat based on mine primarily Lukes dad but Brown brought a lot to the role of Ronald.

The story revolves primarily around Tylers family members, who happen to be black. I wanted to tell a tale that was both universal to what all families go through, but also show the challenges a black family faces that white people dont, said Shults, who is white, and wrote in collaboration with Harrison Jr. At one juncture in the film, Tylers dad tells him that because they are black, they need to work 10 times as hard to take a step forward, and then theres the one lone hateful drop of the N-word just one, but it resonates.

I just knew I wanted to work with him again after It Comes at Night, Shults said of Harrison Jr., whose experiences described in long mini therapy talks between the director and actor helped Waves take shape. Harrison Jr., who was also in Luce earlier this year, delivers a nuanced and complex performance that is bound to elevate his stock.

Shults, on his third film at only 31, got into filmmaking somewhat by happenstance when visiting his aunt, Krisha Fairchild yes, the star and title character of his debut in Hawaii, where she got him a job working on commercials. That led to an encounter with Terrence Malick, who was there filming his documentary Voyage of Time (2016); Shults, just 18, stepped in as a film loader for the shoot. Seeds for Krisha were sown quickly.

That film changed my life, Shults said. After Krisha won the Grand Jury and Audience awards at South by Southwest, buyer and distributor A24 was was hungry for more. I had a version of It Comes at Night before I shot Krisha, and A24 wanted to know what else I had.

As for what comes next, Im not sure, Shults said.

Maybe live a little? I put everything I had into this film, he said, and now Im just a blank slate.

Waves opens today at Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Kendall Square.

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The three-film secret of Trey Edward Shults: Keep it personal, even during the apocalypse - Cambridge Day

Editors note: This feature originally appeared in theNovember issueof MReport.

Personalization in marketing campaigns mattersa lot. Delivering the right engagement, to the right person, at the right time, with the right message means marketers have to get a lot of things right.

When done correctly, marketing campaigns soar with success, and it makes the loan officers jobs a lot easier. When done generically, its not necessarily a failure, but the results are nothing to brag about, and much of the success of converting a prospect into a customer is based on the loan officers talents. When done wrong, the wheels completely fall off and its hard to recover with those prospects. In that case, many of the top-performing loan officers will begin to seek a new company to call home.

Great marketing is difficult for a variety of reasons and is a constant work in progress. Implementing personalized marketing automation campaigns at scale and across multiple platforms requires a lot of energy and focus given the amount of detail required, but it will pay dividends for years to come. The result can be an experience that is unique for each consumer. Personalized experiences make people feel like they are being marketed to by someone who knows them and cares about them as an individual.

People like doing business with those that care, are empathetic, confident, and treat them with respect. They dont appreciate being sold or feeling like they are just another number. But the care given doesnt start and end with the loan officer. Marketing plays a vital role in this relationship, more so than most realize. Many times, marketing can make or break a deal based on the level of personalization of campaigns. When marketers have the tools and data to create personalized engagements, and care about getting every detail right, that is when it all comes together seamlessly and harmoniously, and the consumer feels like they matter to the lender. On the other side of the coin, when marketers are sloppy and throw marketing campaigns together, consumers assume the lender doesnt care about them and will seek financing elsewhere.

Marketing Gone Wrong

Weve all seen mistakes in marketing, some small and others large. Consumers reject lenders who make mistakes in getting the marketing details right because its a reflection of what they can expect throughout the process where a mistake can be costly. Here are some examples that negatively impact a lenders conversion.

Email/Text Campaigns:

Outbound Dialing Campaigns:

Marketing Campaigns Gone Right

The best marketers have moved away from lead-based marketing and have deployed a more personalized, one-to-one engagement strategy called people-based marketing, using an omnichannel approach. In other words, the consumer is receiving an engagement message and cadence across multiple channels (phone, email, direct mail, sms, digital ads, etc) that is unique to them.

For example, when Mike Smith fills out an online inquiry, hell receive an immediate phone call with a voicemail left by a real person. Hi, Mike. This is Lauren at XYZ Mortgage, and I just received your inquiry about a mortgage. Its Tuesday at 1:40 p.m. and Im sorry to have missed you. Please call me back at your convenience. I look forward to helping you.

Then, a text message and an email are sent automatically, appearing to be personally written by Lauren. If Mike responds to the text, that is flagged as his preferred contact method moving forward. If Mike goes stale for a month and the marketer is informed by a third-party data vendor that Mike is back in the market for a mortgage, then the timing is right to re-engage. If the vendor indicates Mike is interested in a home equity loan, then future marketing messages are scheduled for home equity or cash-out, messaged to improve click-thru performance.

Lenders who use dialers often get excited to use the automated voicemail feature that will leave a pre-recorded message for all consumers at specific points in the funnel (e.g. all dial attempt five consumers will get the same voicemail). However, performance improves greatly when voicemails are genuine and unique. Let the loan officers leave a well-scripted first-dial voicemail that uses the consumers name along with referencing the time and day. For subsequent voicemail in the calling cadence, consider using the same pre-recorded voicemail that the loan officer recorded that morning referencing the day or date. Consumers will recall the first dial voicemail and assume subsequent voicemails were personalized as well.

Text messaging and emails should be coordinated with the call cadence and should be synchronized with one another and appear to be written by the loan officer personally. How do lenders know when theyve won at creating a winning text and email marketing campaign at scale? When the consumer sends a response that appears as if they are responding to the loan officer directlyHi, Lauren, happy Friday to you too. Thanks for texting about my mortgage. Im swamped and cant answer my phone now. Does tonight at 6:30 work? SUCCESS!

How to Leverage First- and Third-Party Data

Gaining a clear picture of your prospects through the use of third-party data will greatly improve your ability to personalize your marketing and increase win rates. When consumers submit a quote inquiry or complete a lead form, basic contact and loan scenario information is received. Name, address, phone, email, loan amount, property value, loan type, etc. can all be used in personalization. However, some data-as-a-service providers offer more information about the consumers you care about enabling you to create a high-quality people-based marketing strategy with far superior results. Knowing exactly when specific consumers are actively visiting mortgage comparison websites throughout their mortgage shopping journey would allow you to deliver timely one-to-one engagement, substantially improving the performance of those engagements.

Generic, lead-based marketing strategies have quickly lost momentum due to declining performance. By combining a lenders first-party data with third-party data from data-as-a-service providers, marketers can create better strategies and market to consumers as if they know them. Each engagement attempt a marketer attempts should be done in a thoughtful and meaningful way since each failed engagement attempt means a lower chance of successfully converting that consumer.

Link:
Mortgage Marketing With the Personal Touch - The MReport

On the day that it became clear that Robert Moreno wouldn't take Spain to Euro 2020, he led La Roja to an excellent performance in a 5-0 win over Romania.

As if the players wanted to pay tribute to him, they performed above their recent level.

Gerard Moreno, Robert's personal bet, responded to the faith shown in him by scoring, while Kepa Arrizabalaga made a great save in goal.

The bomb dropped before the game that Robert Moreno wouldn't continue on the bench, and that seemed to drive Spain on in the first half, showing their best minutes under him.

In his time on the bench he led Spain to European Championship qualification and has shown that they are on the right track.

Gerard Moreno took advantage of his chance. His one goal didn't reflect how good he was against Malta, but he made up for that by scoring twice against Romania.

The Villarreal forward was one of the players the coach really backed since taking over, and his response has been outstanding.

Santi Cazorla continues to amaze and in the sixth minute he performed a PlayStation play, expertly controlling and spinning on the ball before striking the crossbar.

Sergio Ramos had one of the quietest international breaks of his career against Malta and Romania, and he was afforded rest in both games after an hour. He was again received with applause at the Wanda Metropolitano.

Only 36,198 turned up in Madrid, less than half of the possible attendance for a game that saw a dominant Spain. There were too many empty seats, and that wasn't helped by the cold Madrid weather.

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Spain save their best performance for the day Robert Moreno's exit is decided - MARCA.com

Organizations are unknowingly harming their own growth and success with these three outdated ... [+] practices.

Despite having a seat at the table, most organizations still see HR as a cost center instead of a value-added business partner. Consequently, the fight for an increase in budget remains their next big battle. An organization that fails to invest in their HR department hinders the growth and success while diminishing its overall attractiveness. Whether organizations realize it or not, HR is a reflection of the company as a whole.

In order for HR to be successful in their role, they need to be supported. Investing in HR goes beyond their personal development. It includes the resources they use to recruit, develop and retain talent. A high-performing HR team brings a wealth of benefits to an organization with a key function focused on developing leaders from within.

Unlike HR, most hiring managers lack formal interview training and management skills. As a result, they make poor hires and contribute to employee turnover. HR is largely responsible for shaping a companys culture, promoting innovation and introducing new ideas to invigorate current practices. However, if an organization doesnt see value in investing in their development to broaden their knowledge, they perpetuate outdated practices.

Here are three outdated human resource practices that are holding companies back from achieving their highest level of success.

Limiting Diversity In Recruiting

Culture fit is a buzzword that has become outdated and is used as an excuse for hiring managers to hire people most similar to them. Since the new generation of workers entered the workforce, companies have been prioritizing a culture-driven workplace. Their goals is to hire candidates who buy into their vision and fit into their current culture.

Catie Brand, senior director, international HR & talent acquisition at General Assembly, believes culture fit is outdated and promotes inequality and bias in the workplace. She adds, organizations that promote diversity, equality and inclusion focus on culture add, not culture fit.

Cultural fit not only contributes to organizational monoculture, but it can create a toxic environment for those who dont fit in. Furthermore, it prevents organizations from being innovative, disruptive and creative. Diversity is what helps organizations thrive and outperform their competitors. According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), organizations with diverse leadership teams are more innovative and have 19% higher revenue.

To measure the current teams behavior and understand blind spots, organizations can conduct a team assessment such as Predictive Index or TTI Success Insights to understand for which skills they need to hire. During the interview process, hiring managers should focus on how a candidates individuality and differences will add to the company and make it stronger. This will help them to hire the right people to close the skills gap and complement the team instead of resemble them.

Measuring Employees On Their Past

The value of reference checks remains a hotly debated topic across business. Most employers rely on them to make their final decision before hiring a candidate while some have them in place for no other reason than protocol and others believe theyre a waste of time. According to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), four out of five employers use reference checks as a formality in their recruitment process. Therefore, this results in them eliminating 21% of candidates after speaking with their professional contacts.

Monster, the global employment website, broke this down to see what information hiring managers hope to gain when conducting a reference check. They found:

36% of hiring managers want to learn more about a candidates past duties and responsibilities

31% are interested in learning about their strengths and weaknesses

11% want confirmation of dates of employment and job title

8% want to know about workplace accomplishments

7% want a sense of their preferred work culture

7% are unsure of what theyre looking for

This indicates a majority of employers use reference checks to find out information they should be asking during the interview. An interview is the time when hiring managers should dig deeper into a candidates background, experience and character to evaluate if they would be a good fit for each other.

When done correctly, reference checks uncover caveats about a candidates skills and background. If a candidate seems hesitant to release information, provide references or maintain a consistent story, reaching out to references can be a valuable asset that helps reveal the pieces theyre not telling. However, due to labor laws becoming more restrictive, most companies will only verify employment and provide the dates the candidate was employed.

Many organizations have restructured their interview process to thoroughly test if a candidate can do the job, how they interact with others, whether they have a positive or negative attitude and their eagerness to learn. Today, a typical interview process consists of a pre-employment assessment, a mix of behavioral and situational based questions and a case interview. Some organizations incorporate an all day onsite interview where the candidate interacts and works with the team.

A Not-So-Progressive Discipline Plan

The once effective progressive discipline policy has become one of the most relied upon tactics to push an employee out of an organization. The reality of someone surviving a performance improvement plan (PIP) is little to none.

Patty McCord, former chief talent officer for Netflix, spoke at Ceridians Womens Network Summit last month and declared its time to retire the PIP. She says, nothing is more crueler than putting someone on a performance improvement plan with the goal of getting rid of them. McCord went on to say organizations use PIPs as a way to signal to people theyre employment is coming to an end instead of working with them to figure out the root cause of their performance.

At that point, organizations commit themselves to creating a paper trail of evidence to prove their case and prevent potential litigation against them. Not only is this demotivating, but it instills fear in the employee making them cautious about their every move. McCord says this canhave negative consequences on the overall morale of a team.

Kevin Darn, relationship advisor and author, agrees and believes PIPs are used as a warning that an employee will be let go. He said very few employees are of the belief that performance plans are instituted for their benefit. When a performance improvement plan is genuine and used to help someone grow and succeed, the impact can be overwhelmingly positive.

Instead of relying on PIPs, Ben Crudo, CEO and founder of Diff Agency, suggests managers help employees work through failures and turn setbacks into stepping stones. Managers who invest in nurturing their current talent help transform them into loyal and engaged employees. While this isnt always the case, most times when employees are struggling its due to poor leadership or a bad hire.

Employees arent receiving the feedback, development and coaching they crave. Managers should be having difficult conversations on a real-time basis and working with HR to provide resources that help employees understand what they need to improve with an action plan on the results they expect. Its vital managers and HR come together with a strategy that best utilizes their tools and resources so they can best support the people they hire and set them up for success.

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Why Culture Fit And These 2 Other HR Practices Are Hurting Your Business - Forbes

When first reading Tom Perrottas 2017 novel, Mrs. Fletcher, Kathryn Hahn was struck by what proved to be a telling choice by the author.

It was the dual stories that really intrigued me and that fact that she was written in the third person and the son was written in the first, Hahn said. There was something very interesting in that to me, the fact that this was something [Perrotta], a man, would want to dig into: the interior life of this woman.

The authors book, which formed the template for HBOs critically acclaimed limited series, switches perspective with each new chapter. The story starts in Eve Fletchers perspective, as the single mother packs up her only child, Brendan, for college, but its told through a disembodied narrator: Eve cried most of the way home. All shed wanted, from the moment she opened her eyes in the morning, was a chance to let Brendan know what was in her heart.

The next chapter starts in the first person, literally with the first word: I was a little dazed when we headed out to dinner, Brendan says, and everything that follows is from inside his head: Id been dreaming about the ability to do what I wanted; my mom; four of us. But for the show, both Perrotta and Hahn knew they needed to balance out those two viewpoints.

If we could figure out getting from Eves third person in the novel if we could squirrel it into the first person together that was going to be a really interesting collaboration and journey, Hahn said.

That was a real concerted effort and very much a focus of Kathryn and the directors: It is a show about this womans intimate life and there a lot of sex scenes, often solo, and it was just really important to say, This is not a show thats going to cater to a male gaze. Theyre sexual scenes, but theyre not sexy or titillating,' Perrotta said. I was totally on board with that, but I think in terms of what those scenes actually looked like, they were really figured out between Kathryn, the director, and the intimacy coordinator. And I was pretty much like, That sounds great.'

Kathryn Hahn in Mrs. Fletcher

Sarah Shatz/HBO

The author and actor quickly earned each others trust, meeting over lunch to discuss the part I remember all I kept saying to her when we met was like, I know what you can do. I know that youd be great at this. I just wanted to know that she wanted it! Perrotta said and each growing more excited about the adaptation through the others engagement.

I was enormously bolstered by his curiosity, Hahn said. I knew he was aware that [the production] needed to be surrounded by a lot of women and a lot of diverse voices. Knowing how aware he was, I was enormously bolstered by that. [But] because hed written it, I was very excited by his curiosity.

Hahn also had confidence in herself. At a time when awareness of whos writing womens roles is at an all-time high, the actress wasnt worried about Eves story stemming from a mans imagination.

It wasnt [a concern] to me because I knew that if was cast in it, then it would be me as the person, she said. I knew by the time it got to my [characters] personhood, it would be a collaboration. So I wasnt worried about that. I knew I would take care of myself. And at that point, I knew Nicole Holofcener was around to direct the pilot, and I also knew there was going to be an incredible group of women writers.

Also a producer on Mrs. Fletcher, Hahn worked closely with her directing team (including Holofcener on the pilot and Liesl Tommy, Carrie Brownstein, and Gillian Robespierre helming the other six episodes) and the predominantly female writing staff to focus Eves perspective in each scene. As Eve becomes more curious about the wide world of internet pornography and starts to put her wants first in the bedroom, Hahn made sure the scenes showing her characters porn habit were purposeful and clear.

Kathryn Hahn in Mrs. Fletcher

Sarah Shatz/HBO

We wanted to make sure what the porn was giving her was landing in a specific way into the real world; how were they releasing out into the world in a specific way, what she was gaining in specific ways, or what they were teaching her how they were moving her forward or into new paths, Hahn said. Its such a personal relationship with porn that one has, usually. Sometimes theres a partner who you can share it with, but usually its such a deep and personal path, and for her it really was. It was something that was so taboo and something that she thought she was never allowed to look at; it was such a Pandoras box to open up, so a lot of it was digging into what that relationship actually meant.

That started with Eves first glimpse of it, as she lays in bed, mindlessly scrolling for ideas of what to do with all her new free time, and she accidentally clicks on a porn site.

Thats such an important moment because its the first moment for her on this path, and that was definitely Nicole and I playing with [her reaction], Hahn said. [Its] not like Eve is turned on, but more like shes drawn in to this light. It was a new world of possibility more than it was [just porn]. It feels a little bit more existential to me. Porn is such a jumping-off point for her search for authenticity or just who she is underneath it all. So a lot of those scenes of her by herself, the thing that was imperative to me and all of us, that it was just her finding pleasure for herself and not anyone else. I was very proud of that.

Through thoughtful consideration like this and her astute attention to emotional details, Hahn has made Eves journey into more than just a mid-life sexual awakening. Her instincts lead her to make new friends, go after new opportunities, and expand her appetite for life, not just sex. In quick, addictive, half-hour episodes, Hahn and the team around her build incredible empathy and excitement around a personal, internal story. The interior life of Eve Fletcher is as fully realized as they come a first-person experience that everyone can share.

Mrs. Fletcher airs new episodes Sundays at 10:30 p.m. on HBO.

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Mrs. Fletcher: Kathryn Hahns Brilliant Performance Stems From a Key Change to the Book - IndieWire

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CollegeNET, Inc., a leading provider of web-based on-demand technologies for higher education, today released the 2019 Social Mobility Index (SMI), a data-driven analysis that ranks four-year US colleges and universities according to how effectively they enroll students from low-income backgrounds and graduate them into well-paying jobs.

Schools with Strong and Sustained Social Mobility Track Records

As in 2018, public universities in California both the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems dominate the 2019 SMI rankings, accounting for more than half of the Top 20 spots this year. Four of those schools (California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; California State University, Fresno; California State University, Long Beach; and California State University, Stanislaus) have ranked in the Top 20 for six consecutive years.

The CUNY system in New York City placed five schools in the 2019 SMI Top 20, including Baruch College, which continues to hold its #1 ranking for the fifth consecutive year.

Winston-Salem State University, in North Carolina, has ranked in the SMI Top 20 for five of the past six years.

Advancing Social Mobility on Campuses from Coast to Coast

In addition to the top performers above, other schools advancing social mobility include:

Rutgers University, Newark (Top 30 ranking for the past three years and #12 ranking in 2019); Wichita State University (Top 10 percent ranking for five of the past six years); University of California, San Diego (Top 10 percent ranking for the past five years); Notre Dame de Namur University, in Silicon Valley (Top 20 percent ranking in 2019); Old Dominion University (Top 10 percent ranking in 2019); New Mexico State University (Top 20 percent ranking in 2019); University of California, Santa Cruz (Top 10 percent ranking in 2019); University of California, Irvine (Top 5 percent ranking in 2019); and University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Top 20 percent ranking in 2019).

The 2019 SMI now benchmarks 1,458 schools.

The Top 20 SMI Schools, 2019 Rankings

CUNY Bernard M Baruch College

California State University, Los Angeles

California State University, Fresno

CUNY Queens College

California State University, Channel Islands

California State University, San Bernardino

California State University, Long Beach

California State University, Stanislaus

CUNY Brooklyn College

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

California State University, Northridge

Rutgers University, Newark

Texas A&M International University

CUNY Lehman College

California State University, East Bay

CUNY Hunter College

California State University, Bakersfield

California State University, Fullerton

California State University, Monterey Bay

California State University, Dominguez Hills

Read more about the 2019 SMI rankings and methodology here.

Redefining the Notion of Prestige in Higher Education

Founded on the principle that growing economic disparity in this country is the most pressing problem of our time, the SMI seeks to redirect the attribution of "prestige" in our higher education system toward colleges that are advancing economic opportunity and social mobility.

Unlike other college rankings that are aimed primarily at helping students select a college, says CollegeNET President Jim Wolfston, the SMI helps families and policymakers determine which colleges are addressing the national problem of economic mobility. Administrators have a better chance to help strengthen US economic mobility and the promise of the American Dream if they can identify and learn from colleges that are skilled at doing this.

Given that the US is now the least economically mobile among developed nations, says Wolfston, it is irresponsible to say an education institution is better because it has a huge endowment, or because it admits students with higher SAT scores which are most tightly correlated to family income. It is irresponsible to say an institution is better because it drives up admissions application counts, turns away more students and then boasts about selectivity. In todays world, where the American Dream is threatened, real prestige must accord to universities that educate and advance all motivated students, regardless of their economic background. This is the prestige that the Social Mobility Index seeks to promote.

Higher Educations Vital Role in the Learning Age

Higher Education is the most important asset in the Learning Age, adds Wolfston, who recently delivered a keynote address at Old Dominion Universitys Social Mobility Symposium. If we can distribute this vital asset across the economic spectrum, we can optimize our nations human capital development, prepare the next generation for citizenship and ensure social and economic opportunity. Most importantly, by rejecting the current trend toward on-campus economic homogeneity, a higher education institution can offer its students the chance to encounter a more challenging mix of people with diverse ideas, perspectives and backgrounds. Collisions with the unexpected and unfamiliar are what best sharpen and prepare innovative minds. Thus, economic inclusion is not only a solution to a social justice issue, it is an optimizing strategy for training tomorrows innovators.

Acknowledging Institutional Excellence

CollegeNET acknowledges schools that are advancing social mobility through innovative programs. CollegeNET presents the annual Social Mobility Innovator Awards to student success leaders from US colleges and universities at the Social Mobility Summit an annual forum on economic inclusion and best practices for student success held in Portland, Oregon, each summer. CollegeNET recently published an e-book that describes best practices from student success professionals pioneering innovative programs that support underserved and underrepresented students academic, personal and financial needs. Further, CollegeNET sponsors regional conferences to debate and discuss social mobility issues. Recent on-campus events have been held at the University of California, Irvine; the University of California, Santa Cruz; the University of California, San Diego; Wichita State University; Winston-Salem State University; and Notre Dame de Namur University. CollegeNET-sponsored student success events are scheduled to take place at Rutgers University, Newark and New Mexico State University in 2020.

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Sixth Annual Social Mobility Index (SMI) Highlights Performance and Pitfalls as Attention to Social Mobility Grows Among US Colleges and Universities...

As PC gamers we're used to running into big problems with our games: crashes, freezes, conflicts, game-ending bugs, and major performance issues. But sometimes it's the little problems that irritate us the most. A minor issue can pop up and, over time, turn into a major headache in what is an otherwise fun and enjoyable gaming experience.

It could be something as simple as a small issue with a game's audio, loading screens that just take a bit too long, or a tiny, occasional hiccup in your framerate that nags at you like a persistent mosquito, slowly stressing you out until you're a seething ball of rage. And sometimes we spend more time trying to solve this one little issue than we do playing the game, leading to even more frustration.

Which brings us to our question this week: What minor issue completely ruined an otherwise great game for you? You'll find our answers below and we'd love to see yours in the comments.

I had a lot of fun goofing around Remedy's Kafka-does-the-X-Files spookhouse, or at least I did until it was undone by the true enemy: persistent stuttering. And before anyone jumps in with their voodoo fix, trust me, I tried them all. Some helped a little, but none eliminated the periodic microstutter that left me never able to trulyrelax into the game's rich stew of telekinetic combat and bonkers conspiracy lore.

In the end I had to switch down to DX11, saying goodbye to all the fancy (and frame-rate-hogging) ray-tracing. And still it wasn't smooth. Eventually I found myself holding my breath waiting for the next hitch. The stutter haunted me like Poe's Tell-Tale Heart heart but in the form of an unignorable performance issue. I know that the problem is really with me. That a normal person would be able to overlook such a small issue and appreciate the overall experience. But reader, I am not wired that way. And I suspect neither are you.

I was really excited for this game, but when I finally got my hands on it, all the dialogue in cutscenes was just a second out of sync. It may seem like not that big a deal, but as any student of comedy knows, when it comes to gags, timing is everythingthis bug totally ruined that. It bothered me so much that I ended up putting the game down completely shortly after the first mission.

For months I kept an eye out for patches, loading up the game fresh each time one installed and finding to my disappointment the problem persisted. As I recall I even made some angry posts on theSteam forums, raging about the devs cruelly failing to fix this obviously crucial bug.

Of course, it turned out to be my fault. My PC at the time was overclocked, and somehow that was making the game run slightly faster than the audio could keep up with. I turned down my settings and it worked fine. Sigh.

I used to play games on a 486SX that ran at a whole 25 MHz, so I have a high tolerance for performance issues. That said, I won't play any of the modern Total War games on a PC without an SSD. The loading times are ridiculous otherwise, and there's a lot of loading when you're switching back and forth between the campaign map and individual battles.

At the end of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, the narrator tells the tale of how you saved the world and what happened as a result of the choices you made. But something went funky with my audio when I reached the endgame, so all I got was a roaring static noise, and since there were no subtitles I had no idea wtf happened. My moment of triumph, stolen away by a loud:

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"Ruined" is probably overstating it, but man, I was pissed.

So it's not a performance issue with the game itself, necessarily, but a problem with the invisible logic of existence, a personal performance issue. There was a period of time in which I was pretty damn good at Mortal Kombat. MK9 roped me back in, and as a fresh college graduate, I had a bit of spare time to practice. It was this whole thing, a void of time suddenly open to me, the first opportunity to think about and practice anything besides school: I'll get good at a fighting game, I thought. I watched all the YouTube tutorials, studied professional matches, practiced combos on a fancy arcade controller. I was good.

But my friend's nephew dragged my ass through the dirt, the button masher from my worst nightmares. I've loved and lost, I've trippedand busted my head on the pavement, I watched my dog die. Nothing really feels as bad as an 12-year-old kida voice cracking, next summer's acne invisibly vibrating in the air around him, a tiny head on a pile of long and thin limbs, their stupid fucking facebeating you, no sweat, at a fighting game. Kid just mashed. All my practice, wasted. You can't predict the devil's next move. I knew that I could take my skills to a grounded competitive scene and have fun, feel validated. But just knowing all it takes is an open-palm slap to undo months of work? Nah. Fighting games are over for me.

In playing the Witcher 1 Enhanced Edition years ago I was constantly at odds with its skills screen. Every time I had points to spend on upgrading Geralt's abilities I might as well have rolled a die to find out if I'd get stuck in the game's menu. At least 1/3 of the time I tried to level up or meditate I'd find everything on the screen unclickable. The Witcher would refuse to respond as if the game itself were roleplaying as its stone-faced protagonist.

Eventually I'd either force quit to desktop or click furiously enough times that the menu would wake up and remember its one job. Times when I could open the skill menu and have no trouble at all were so few and far between that I remember being actuallyexcitedthat it worked. It didn't ruin the entire game for me, but if you ask me about The Witcher on any given day I can guarantee this is the first thing I'll mention remembering about it.

Not a performance issue, but a design one. I would get put into the game map every time, a slaughter farm-esque arena with generators and big meat hooks dripping with blood. There wasn't a way to select which map you wanted to play outside of a private match. It's totally random, or supposed to be anyway. (Actually, I last played Dead by Daylight so long ago, I don't think there were many maps to begin with.)

The first several times I played a match I got put into the same map, which got old real fast. The game has evolved since then, adding new maps as DLC content, but the only way you can increase your chances of getting a certain map is to use an offering, which are specificobjects thrown into the campfire to convenienceThe Entity to give you what you want. Cool concept, but there's still an issue with getting the same map over and over again,even when you use an offering and have all the DLC content. I'm not sure how the game's matchmaking process works, but it seems like if you get matched with someone who only has the base game, you're going to get put into the same map no matter what.

So, long story short, I stopped playing Dead by Daylight because it got repetitive in a not-so fun way.

For a while, while playing Destiny 2's framerate would, for lack of a better word, hiccup. This wasn't performance-related either: no matter where my character was, or what I happened to be doing, the frameratewould hitch every few seconds, but would still register as 60 FPS. I think I even nuked my windows installation from orbit in an attempt to rectify the situation but to no avail.

This is admittedlyone of the larger caveats of PC gaming, as you can spend just as much time trying to rectify some minor issue as you can actually spend with the game itself.

I'd truly love to spend more time in GTA Online, but the process of joining a session is always a frustrating one for me. It'll seem like I'm in but I'll get that overhead view of the city and the camera will just hang there for ages as it continues searching for a session. Eventually it'll give up and kick me into singleplayer mode for maybe one whole secondjust enough time for the camera to find Michael in the cityat which point it will yank me back up to the sky again and then deposit me in GTA Online properly. Once I'm in, it runs great and I have a good time playing, but the long wait and brief dump into singleplayer mode is excruciating.

I don't know why it happens. I don't know why it can't find a session until the very moment it gives up looking and stuffs me into Michael, but it happens nearly every time and it's the main reason I rarely even try to play GTA Online.

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What minor issue ruined an otherwise great game for you? - PC Gamer