Minnesota Employers: Aveda

Aveda, a Minnesota-based business, was begun in 1978 by Horst Rechelbacher. He was born in Austria, and his mother was an herbologist. When Horst grew up, he became a stylist with an interest in whole-self care, including natural and balanced hair and skin care products. He was a very successful hair stylist in his 20s, and then begain to have interest in Ayurveda and yoga.


Ayurveda followers believe the mind and body are connected, so if one is healthy, then the other will be also. The word literally means "life science."

Ayurveda also has the component of yoga as a way to balance yourself naturally, since yoga can reduce stress hormones in your body.

 

When Horst launched his line of products, he chose to name it 'Aveda' as a tribute to Ayurveda.
The company was bought by Estee Lauder in 1997. It currently has 9000 spas and salons worldwide.
Company headquarters are located in Blaine, Minnesota. Their philosophy is to provide calming and healthful products and services that treat the entire person.

 

• Aveda also supports the Yawanawa tribe in Brazil, working to help sustain the rain forests that are crucial to the tribe's survival
• This company does not test its products on animals
• Aveda products are organic
• Aveda was the first company to produce a non-aerosal hair spray
• Aveda helps to fund wind turbines in needed areas
• There are Aveda spas in locations across the U.S. and in Canada

 

Careers with Aveda include:

• Salon or spa owner
• Leadership positions
• Event planners
• Management
• Instructors
• Sales
• Cosmetologists
• Stylists
• All large corporations need Accountants, Marketing, Administrative, Human Resources, and Maintenance staff

https://www.aveda.com/careers-landing-page

Words, Words, Words

Improving your vocabulary can help you understand what you read better and express yourself better, assist you in doing better on an SAT or ACT test, and hopefully, help you spell better.


Basics:

• Learn a new word often
• Look up a word you don't know
• Read!! Read a lot!!
• Be sure you understand how to pronounce the new word
• Write it down a few times
• Use the word in a sentence when you speak to someone
• Look up the meaning or origin of the word
• When you write, use the thesaurus to find a different word than you usually use
• Challenge yourself with word games
• Listen to the lyrics of a song: What do they mean to you? Why?
• Learn a word in another language. In Hawaii, 'Shaka' translates to "hang loose," or "take it easy." This is the hand symbol for Shaka:

The first dictionary was published in 1806 after 26 years of compiling words.
Currently, there are 171,476 words in the Oxford English Dictionary. Each year up to 1000 new words are added. This is often due to use in social context or to technology terms that didn't exist before. How is it decided which words make it into the dictionary? https://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq-words-into-dictionary

Great tips here to really learn words and retain them:
https://wordcounter.net/blog/2014/01/22/1027_25-ways-to-improve-your-writing-vocabulary.html


Here are words for the next 30 days, and thanks to Just Colleges, where you can find lots more http://justcolleges.com/college/sat-the-top-100-vocab-words/:

1. abstinence: (n) the act of refraining from pleasurable activity, e.g., eating or drinking
2. adulation: (n) high praise
3. aesthetic: (adj) pertaining to beauty or the arts

                                                          What do you think of the aesthetic of this picture by Leo Valdez?
4. amicable: (adj) friendly, agreeable
5. anonymous: (adj) nameless, without a disclosed identity
6. asylum: (n) sanctuary, shelter, place of refuge
7. benevolent: (adj) friendly and helpful

8. camaraderie: (n) trust, sociability amongst friends

9. censure: (v) to criticize harshly
10. clairvoyant: (adj) exceptionally insightful, able to foresee the future, having psychic abilities

11. condescending: (adj) possessing an attitude of superiority, patronizing
12. demagogue: (n) leader, rabble-rouser, usually appealing to emotion or prejudic
13. empathy: (n) identification with the feelings of others
14. ephemeral: (adj) momentary, transient, fleeting
15. frugal: (adj) thrifty, cheap

16. hackneyed: (adj) cliched, worn out by overuse
17. haughty: (adj) arrogant and condescending
18. integrity: (n) decency, honesty, wholeness
19. intrepid: (adj) fearless, adventurous
20. lobbyist: (n) person who seeks to influence political events
21. mundane: (adj) ordinary, commonplace
22.nonchalant: (adj) calm, casual, seeming unexcited

           They tried to get Timmy interested in Game of Thrones but he remained nonchalant...he is quite precocious, too. He already plays the kazoo with great skill.


23. precocious: (adj) unusually advanced or talented at an early age
24. pretentious: (adj) pretending to be important, intelligent or cultured
25. procrastinate: (v) to unnecessarily delay, postpone, put off
26. querulous: (adj) complaining, irritable

                                                          Ever had to deal with a querulous instructor?
27. sagacity: (n) wisdom

                                                     No one doubts the sagacity of Yoda

28. spurious: (adj) lacking authenticity, false
29. surreptitious: (adj) secret, stealthy
30. tactful: (adj) considerate, skillful in acting to avoid offense to others


What are some new words you've learned recently?

Earth Day 2018: Using Less Plastic, and Videos to Make You Think

Earth Day was started April 22, 1970. This year, we continue to celebrate the gifts of the Earth, our home, and try to be less careless about how we treat it.This year's theme is End Plastic Pollution. Consider...

• Re-usable cloth bags for shopping mean less plastic in landfills or recycling
• Use a washable and re-usable cup or water bottle instead of using disposable plastic ones
• Re-think that six pack of pop with the plastic ring device holding them together: They choke birds and animals when found in landfills or water
• Wash and re-use a glass container rather than buying something new in a plastic container
• Wrap sandwiches in butcher paper  or waxed paper instead of a plastic sandwich bag

• Donate to Goodwill...but buy from them as well, instead of getting something new
• Dispose of that last bit of paint at a waste-disposal location, don't throw it in the trash
• Challenge yourself to create less trash and recycling
• If you see garbage in the street (or anywhere), pick it up
• And don't simply toss something out a window or throw it on the ground. Throw it away!
• Use it up, wear it out, or do without 

Here are some videos that may make you think about what you can do to pollute less and cultivate more.

 

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=earth+Day+2018&&view=detail&mid=BBCE723B88468D68B0BBCE723B8846AB8D68B0&&FORM=VRDGAR

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=earth+Day&&view=detail&mid=651D5DA904BE91E4F269651D5DA904BE91E4F269&
Give Earth a Hand:  https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=earth+Day+hands&&view=detail&mid=6230388156EF924AC7CA6230388156EF924AC7CA&&FORM=VRDGAR

Attorneys

If you have considered being an attorney, here are some facts for you.

 

Education-How do you become an attorney?

• First achieve an undergraduate/bachelor's degree. This degree does not have to be in a particular major; in fact, some say it's wise to choose a major you are passionate about in case you do not wind up being an attorney after all. Knowing a second language can always help as well. 

An exception to this is if you choose to practice property law. In that case, your major must be science-related such as Computer Science, Engineering, Math, or Biology.

• Next, pass the LSAT, the exam to be admitted into the law school of your choice.
• Once you have completed law school, you're granted a J.D. (Juris Doctor) degree. Law school can take up to 3 years to complete.
• You must then pass the MPRE, the Multistate Professional Responsibilty Exam
• The next step is to pass your bar exam. This is a difficult exam; on average, 70% of applicants pass it the first time. In order to be an attorney, you must pass the bar exam.

Here is the University of Minnesota pre-law website: https://www.law.umn.edu/admissions/minnesota-pre-law-scholars-mpls-program
University of St Thomas: https://www.stthomas.edu/law/
Mitchell Hamline:  https://mitchellhamline.edu/

What's the difference between a lawyer and an attorney? Most people use the term interchangeably, although technically, a 'lawyer' is someone who is educated in law, but an 'attorney' has achieved his or her J.D. and passed the bar exam, so is qualified to give advice on legal matters.

Not every attorney practices courtroom or trial law. There are a large number of specialties in law:

• Corporate law, or In-House Counselor, for a company
• Civil Rights
• Personal Injury
• Probate (these attorneys handle the legal matters of deceased people for their families)
• Public Defender (an attorney assigned to defend someone accused of a crime when the accused cannot afford to pay his or her own attorney)
• Criminal Prosecutor
• Worker's Comp attorney
• Family Court (dealing with divorce and the welfare of children)
• Lobbyist (one who promotes a cause)
• Drafting legislation (you would write new laws)
• Law professor
• Bankruptcy attorney
• Working for a non-profit organization
• Judge
• Attorney for a government agency
• Patent attorney: If you have an invention and need to see if it's been invented already, and if not, to protect your rights to produce the product
• Trademark law
• Entertainment industry, involving contracts, copyrights, and liability issues
• Medical attorney: for example, who holds the rights to frozen embryos if the donors don't?
• Internet law: What constitutes an invasion of privacy online? What rights to people retain to things they've shared online?
• Advertising law

A good amount of information about becoming an attorney can be found here:  http://legalcareerpath.com/becoming-an-attorney/

You may be interested to read about the Innocence Project. Attorneys and investigators working with this project help overturn wrongfully-convicted people by use of DNA evidence. https://www.innocenceproject.org/


*Did you know? We say someone has a law 'practice' or a medical 'practice' because they are continually working to know all they can about their field. Thus, they are practicing, much as you keep practicing to learn an art or play an instrument: you're never fully done learning it.

Online Privacy: You Know I Love Ya Facebook, but.....

You may have read lately about Cambridge Analytica, a company that 'mined' information from Facebook accounts in an attempt to influence voting in the last presidential election. More on that here: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/facebook-data-influence-elections/

                                                                        Interesting profile page...

I think we're clear about sharing questionable pictures or getting into heated fights or slandering someone on a Facebook page (I hope so, anyway), and we're aware that potential and present employers and college admissions people can see what we post unless we have our privacy settings set up right... But just how 'safe' is your personal information online?


It's good to remember that anything you post online in any way, is permanently out there, with the potential of any number of people or companies finding and using what you share for whatever reasons they might choose.


When it comes to ''mining'" data from Facebook, what information was helpful to those who wanted to influence the election?

• Ages of people
• What ethnic background these people have
• Where they live
• Whether they tend to share posts that have a liberal or conservative 'lean' to them
• Their support of organizations that also indicate their preferences
• What posts they share
• Who their friends are on Faccebook
• Which apps they use

• When people click the 'Like' button, and about what
• When their Facebook friends click a 'Like' button and about what
• Where they work
• Their incomes
• What their religious beliefs are
• If they have had health issues
• What schools they attend or have attended
• After-work activities they enjoy
• Possibly, pictures that indicate a political preference
• Whether they have children
• Ways in which they volunteer

A lot of information is shared when you do a quiz: Remember how often it will say: This app (or this game) needs access to your... and then you have to check that it's ok? That might be a lot of information you're sharing to see what type of dog you'd be if you could.

 

Why? Because all of these things are thought to influence the way a person votes in an election..

Here's someone who, as an experiment, 'liked' absolutely everything he saw on Facebook for just two days, and the results were remarkable. It really is an interconnecting web: If he 'liked' one thing, Facebook suggested something related, then something else related to that, then something else.... (note: There may be topics or words that offend you in his article): https://www.wired.com/2014/08/i-liked-everything-i-saw-on-facebook-for-two-days-heres-what-it-did-to-me/

 

So, what can we do to avoid sources mining our information?

• How to tighten up your privacy on Facebook:  http://www.winknews.com/2018/03/22/use-facebook-privacy-settings/
• If you want to delete your Facebook account, it can be done, but it's not exactly simple. Facebook has two options, delete or deactivate. Here are steps to completely, 100%, delete your account. https://mashable.com/2014/07/02/how-delete-facebook/#pHFaaLpb5OqW

Some people dropped their Facebook accounts and are now only using Instagram, but be aware: Facebook owns Instagram as well.


If you're unsure about closing your Facebook account, remember, you do have some control over it on a daily basis.

• You can choose who sees what you post: choose specific people only, Public, Acquaintences, Friends, Close Friends 
• You can create a 'Restricted' list of people who see nothing unless you allow it. You could use this for people you're not comfortable 'unfriending' just yet.
• You can change these selections with every post if you want to.
• You can un-follow people who post things you don't want to see, and re-follow if you want to give them another chance.

• You can create a 'blocked' list of people you don't even want to find you on Facebook, and add to it whenever you want.
• Remember, it's your account, you can set it up the way you want it.
• Also, consider who you allow to be Facebook friends with you: do you know the person well, and trust him or her? If not, perhaps don't be Facebook friends. People sometimes 'friend' absolutely anyone that asks, and wind up with several hundred of them. The maximum amount of friends and pages you follow is currently 5,000. There may be times when a business page merits that many, but truly, how many 'friends' do you actually have? You can always weed out your list and un-friend a batch that you barely know.
• When all is said and done, it's just Facebook.

Your information, pictures, anything you've posted, is 'out there' forever, so be selective and smart with what you share and with whom.