Power company takes blame for Super Bowl outage

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? The company that supplied electricity to the Super Bowl took the blame Friday for the power outage that brought the big game to a halt, explaining that a device designed specifically to prevent a blackout failed and plunged the game into darkness for more than half an hour.

The device called a relay had been installed as part of a project begun in 2011 to upgrade the electrical system serving the Superdome in anticipation of the championship game. It was supposed to guard against problems in the cable that links the power grid with lines that go into the stadium.

"The purpose of it was to provide a newer, more advanced type of protection for the Superdome," Dennis Dawsey, an executive with Entergy Corp., told members of the City Council. Entergy is the parent company of Entergy New Orleans.

Entergy officials said the relay functioned with no problems during January's Sugar Bowl and other earlier events. It has been removed and will be replaced.

All systems at the Superdome are now working, and the stadium was to host a major Mardi Gras event Saturday night, said Doug Thornton, an executive with SMG, the company that manages the stadium for the state.

The relay was installed in a building near the stadium known as "the vault," which receives a line directly from a nearby Entergy substation. Once the line reaches the vault, it splits into two cables that go into the Superdome.

Sunday's power failure cut lights to about half of the stadium for 34 minutes, halting play between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers and interrupting the nation's most-watched sporting event.

Not long after Friday's announcement, the manufacturer of the relay, Chicago-based S&C Electric Co., released a statement saying that the blackout occurred because system operators had put the relay's so-called trip setting too low to allow the device to handle the incoming electric load.

The equipment was owned and installed by Entergy New Orleans.

"If higher settings had been applied, the equipment would not have disconnected the power," said Michael J.S. Edmonds, vice president of strategic solutions for S&C.

In a follow-up statement, Entergy said that tests conducted by S&C and Entergy on the two relays at the Superdome showed that one worked as expected, the other did not.

Entergy spokesman Mike Burns said both relays had the same trip setting.

Entergy's announcement came shortly before company officials were to answer questions from a committee of the City Council, which is the regulatory body for the company.

During the committee hearing, council member Susan Guidry asked Entergy executives whether they were "fairly certain" that the relay was faulty.

"That is correct," Dawsey said.

However, when asked if the outage was caused by the design or a defect in a part of the equipment, Entergy New Orleans CEO Charles Rice said that had not been determined.

"The equipment did not function properly," Rice said. "At this particular time, based upon our analysis, we cannot say definitively that there was a defect in design. What we do know is that the equipment for some unknown reason, at this particular time, did not react the way that it should have."

Asked if Entergy and SMG still plan to hire a third-party investigator to get to the bottom of the cause, Rice said that possibility remains open.

"We'll work closely with SMG, and if there is a need for a third-party investigation, we will do that," Rice said, adding that Entergy was also working with the relay manufacturer.

Shabab Mehraeen, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Louisiana State University, said relays are common electrical fixtures in businesses and massive facilities such as the Superdome.

"They are designed to keep a problem they sense from becoming something bigger, like a fire or catastrophic event," he said.

The devices vary in size. Mehraeen, who was not familiar with the relay at the Superdome, said he "wouldn't be surprised if it was bigger than a truck."

The reasons the devices fail are the subject of much academic research into the interaction of relays with the complex electrical systems they regulate.

"It's not unusual for them to have problems," Mehraeen said. "They can be unpredictable, despite national testing standards recommended by manufacturers."

Entergy and SMG had both upgraded lines and equipment in the months leading up to the Super Bowl. Rice said the new gear, with the faulty relay, was installed as part of a $4.2 million upgrade by Entergy that included a new power line dedicated solely to the stadium.

In a separate project, SMG replaced lines coming into the stadium after managers expressed concerns the Superdome might be vulnerable to a power failure like the one that struck Candlestick Park during an NFL game in 2011. That outage was blamed at least partly on a transformer explosion.

Thornton stressed Friday that the dome was drawing only about two-thirds of its power capacity Super Bowl night. He said typical NFL games in late August or September can draw a little more.

City officials had worried that the Super Bowl outage might harm New Orleans' chances of getting another NFL championship game.

But NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell downplayed that possibility, saying the league planned to keep New Orleans in its Super Bowl plans. Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the city intends to bid for the game again in 2018.

___

Associated Press Writer Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/power-company-takes-blame-super-bowl-outage-204931867--spt.html

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Watson's medical expertise offered commercially

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) ? Dr. Watson is accepting new patients.

The Watson supercomputer is graduating from its medical residency and is being offered commercially to doctors and health insurance companies, IBM said Friday.

IBM Corp., the health insurer WellPoint Inc. and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center announced two Watson-based applications ? one to help diagnose and treat lung cancer and one to help manage health insurance decisions and claims.

Both applications take advantage of the speed, huge database and language skill the computer demonstrated in defeating the best human "Jeopardy!" players on television two years ago.

Armonk-based IBM said Watson has improved its performance by 240 percent since the "Jeopardy!" win.

In both applications, doctors or insurance company workers will access Watson through a tablet or computer. Watson will quickly compare a patient's medical records to what it has learned and make several recommendations in decreasing order of confidence.

In the cancer program, the computer will be considering what treatment is most likely to succeed. In the insurance program, it will consider what treatment should be authorized for payment.

Watson (actually named for IBM founder and not the Sherlock Holmes' friend, Dr. Watson) has been trained in medicine through pilot programs at Indianapolis-based WellPoint and at Sloan-Kettering in New York.

Manoj Saxena, an IBM general manager, said the supercomputer has ingested 1,500 lung cancer cases from Sloan-Kettering records, plus 2 million pages of text from journals, textbooks and treatment guidelines.

It also learned "like a medical student," by being corrected when it was questioned by doctors and came up with wrong answers, Saxena said in an interview.

"Watson is not making the decisions" on treatment or authorization, Saxena said. "It is essentially reducing the effort for doctors and nurses by going through thousands of pages of information for each case."

The lung cancer program is being adopted by two medical groups, the Maine Center for Cancer Medicine and WestMed in New York's Westchester County. Saxena said it should be running at both groups by next month.

WellPoint itself is already using the insurance application in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin. It will be selling both applications ? at prices still to be negotiated ? and will compensate IBM under a contract between the two companies, an IBM spokeswoman said.

WellPoint said using Watson should not increase insurance premiums because of savings from waste and errors

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-02-08-Doctor%20Watson/id-9a58ab228f1541f3b89491bff7bd6145

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Islamic summit backs Syria dialogue

This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows smoke and fire billowing from an explosion in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013. Heavy fighting erupted in Damascus Wednesday as government forces tried to hold back a new rebel effort to push the civil war into the heart of the Syrian capital, activists said.(AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows smoke and fire billowing from an explosion in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013. Heavy fighting erupted in Damascus Wednesday as government forces tried to hold back a new rebel effort to push the civil war into the heart of the Syrian capital, activists said.(AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows smoke and fire billowing from an explosion in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013. Heavy fighting erupted in Damascus Wednesday as government forces tried to hold back a new rebel effort to push the civil war into the heart of the Syrian capital, activists said.(AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

This image taken from video obtained from Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows smoke and fire billowing from an explosion in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013. Heavy fighting erupted in Damascus Wednesday as government forces tried to hold back a new rebel effort to push the civil war into the heart of the Syrian capital, activists said.(AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

CAIRO (AP) ? Leaders at an Islamic summit on Thursday urged a dialogue between the Syrian opposition and regime just as a new initiative for talks proposed by an anti-government leader appeared to be unraveling.

Like previous diplomatic initiatives on Syria, opposition chief Mouaz al-Khatib's call for talks made less than a week ago appeared doomed to failure. And with troops and rebels clashing for a second day around Damascus, frustrated Syrians dismissed the calls for dialogue as empty talk.

"All of this does not concern us," said Iyad, a Syrian fighter on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, which has witnessed heavy fighting in the last two days.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose country is Syria's closest ally in the Middle East, attended the summit and said at a news conference Thursday that he supported dialogue. He added that Egypt, Turkey and Iran were moving toward cooperation on Syria. But he also defended Bashar Assad regime, warning against meddling in the domestic affairs of other countries.

The Syrian civil war is largely at a stalemate, with neither side making significant battlefield gains likely to bring about a military victory any time soon.

But the international community has been at a loss for ways to end the carnage, with both sides showing no real interest in a political settlement.

At the end of a two-day summit in Cairo, the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation urged Syrian opposition forces and members of the regime whose hands are not tainted by violence to hold talks on resolving the nearly 2-year-old conflict.

In the final statement of the conference, they called for concrete efforts to reach a settlement "that would preserve the rights of the Syrian people and ensure the unity and the safety of their land."

The statement did not specifically refer to the recent dialogue offer by al-Khatib, who has said he would be willing to sit down with regime members on condition they release 160,000 political prisoners.

His offer sparked criticism from fellow opposition activists who say the regime has killed too many people to play a role in the conflict's solution.

On Thursday, al-Khatib appeared to be backing away from the offer. He demanded that the regime release all female political prisoners by Sunday or he would scrap his initiative.

"The regime has until Sunday to begin releasing detainees, especially women. This should be the introduction of prisoners' release," he told BBC Arabic in an interview.

Al-Khatib's offer followed meetings he had held separately with Russian, U.S. and Iranian officials on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich last weekend. Russia and Iran are Syria's two closest allies.

The government has ignored his offer. But one lawmaker said the talks should be without preconditions.

Many of al-Khatib's colleagues in the Syrian National Coalition say President Assad must step down before there can be any negotiations.

Participants at the Cairo summit did not call on Assad to step down, but the meeting exposed conflicting views among Muslim and Arab nations about the Syrian civil war. At past summits, many nations, including Egypt, demanded that Assad go.

Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, elected after an uprising ousted his authoritarian predecessor Hosni Mubarak, sharply criticized Assad's embattled regime in his address to the summit. But he did not directly call for him to go as he had in the past.

He said the Syrian government "must read history and grasp its immortal message: It is the people who remain and those who put their personal interests before those of their people will inevitably go."

The summit's final statement also stressed support for a working group proposed by Morsi last year, made up of the leaders of Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia to address the Syria crisis.

But Saudi Arabia only attended the quartet's first meeting several months ago and Saudi Crown Prince Salman, who was heading his country's delegation to the OIC summit, left Egypt just before the mini-summit was held Wednesday.

Egyptian officials insist that the Saudis have not pulled out, and an Egyptian presidential spokesman said Salman left because of other, personal engagements. The Saudi foreign minister stayed to attend the OIC summit.

But it is widely suspected that the kingdom has quit the group because they could not see the point of working with arch rival Iran, Assad's most ardent backer.

Ahmadinejad was asked to comment about the Saudi stance at his news conference in Cairo.

"We don't know why they left and we are not in a position to speak for them," he told reporters. "But, I am sure that our brothers in the kingdom (Saudi) will be happy and welcoming if we take positive steps toward a solution in Syria," he added.

Ahmadinejad said he was "alarmed by what Syria is going through" and called for dialogue.

"Egypt, Turkey and Iran are moving toward cooperation (on Syria) but no one has the right to interfere in the domestic affairs of others," he said. "Instead we must encourage a national dialogue there. War is not a good thing. War always breeds war," he added.

"Any government that comes to office through war cannot bring about a lasting peace. Only free elections and national dialogue can bring about security and a lasting peace."

The fighting in Damascus subsided significantly on Thursday, a day after the heaviest clashes in months.

Clashes were inching closer to the heart of the city, but still were focused in outlying neighborhoods such as Qaboun, Jobar and Zamalka in the northeast. Government troops beat back rebels who had tried to take over Jobar.

Fighters in rebellious suburbs of Damascus have made several attempts to overrun the heavily guarded center of the city, but failed. As in other parts of the country, the fighting has reached a stalemate.

"The work is being done here by us," said Iyad, the fighter who gave only his first name for security reasons. "The rest is just empty talk," he said of the calls for dialogue.

State-run television said rebels fired two mortar rounds at a bus station in the Qaboun neighborhood of Damascus, killing six people including three children and a woman. The TV, quoting an unnamed Interior Ministry official, said others were wounded in the attack.

The Observatory reported clashes and shelling between troops and rebels near Qaboun, saying several shells hit the neighborhood. It said the fighting occurred near the highway that links Damascus with the central city of Homs, Syria's third-largest.

In other areas, the Observatory reported heavy clashes between troops and rebels near the northern town of al-Safira, where there have been heavy clashes over the past weeks.

Al-Safira, south of the northern city of Aleppo, is home to military production facilities. The rebels have failed to advance in the area after weeks of intense clashes.

___

Karam reported from Beirut.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-07-Syria/id-eeac831bdf294685bdec59c683f884fd

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North Azerbaijan: Orbital-built Azerspace/Africasat-1a ...

North Azerbaijan: Orbital-built Azerspace/Africasat-1a Communications Satellite Successfully Launched

BayBak, Azerbaijan | 29 mins ago | Saturday, 9th February , 2013 , 00:03 [am] | Azerbaijan

---

Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world?s leading space technology companies, today announced that the company-built Azerspace/Africasat-1a commercial communications satellite was successfully launched into orbit on February 7, 2013 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. Lift-off took place at 4:36 p.m. (EST) and the satellite successfully separated from the rocket?s final stage approximately 37 minutes into the mission.

?Today is an historic day for the people of Azerbaijan. We?re proud to be the first among the South Caucus states to have a telecommunications satellite that will provide important communications services to Azerbaijan, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa,? said Elin Suleymanov, the Azerbaijani Ambassador to the United States.

Orbital designed, built and tested the Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellite for the Azercosmos Open Joint Stock Company of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

?This satellite illustrates the important commercial relationship between U.S. industry and the Azerbaijani government. We appreciate the cooperation between The Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the U.S. Import-Export Bank, and Orbital Sciences Corporation throughout this nearly three-year process. I would also like to thank the hundreds of Americans who worked to put this satellite in space. We look forward to working together on future projects as Azerbaijan continues to strengthen its communications infrastructure,? Ambassador Suleymanov concluded.

Commenting on the early status of the mission, Mr. Christopher Richmond, Orbital?s Senior Vice President of Communications Satellite Programs, said, ?The launch of Azerspace/Africasat-1a was flawless, and so far, the mission is operating smoothly. This is one of ten GEOStar-2 satellites that we are building and delivering to customers around the world over a two-year period, and the 30th such satellite the company has produced for commercial operators in the last 15 years. Global satellite operators continue to recognize us for our excellent track record of superior reliability and outstanding customer service. It is an honor to support Azercosmos with this satellite, which will expand Azerbaijan?s communications infrastructure and enhance its connectivity with other parts of the world.?

Over the next few weeks, Orbital will work with the Azercosmos engineering team to conduct in-orbit testing to verify all subsystems are operating as planned. Once testing is complete and the spacecraft is positioned at its 46* East Longitude orbital location, Orbital will turn over day-to-day operations of Azerspace/Africasat-1a to Azercosmos.

Satellite command and control operations will be carried out at control centers in Baku and Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. These facilities were designed and built by Azercosmos to support the installation of the ground control systems provided by Orbital, including ground antennas, radio-frequency electronics, computer platforms, and the software used to command, monitor and control the satellite.

Orbital designed, built and tested the Azerspace/Africasat-1a satellite in Dulles, VA at its satellite manufacturing and test facility. With an anticipated service life of 15 years, Azerspace/Africasat-1a is based on Orbital?s flight-proven GEOStar-2 platform. The hybrid C- and Ku-band satellite generates approximately five kilowatts of payload power and carries 36 active transponders, providing communications services to Azerbaijan, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Central Asia. It will operate from 46* East Longitude through an arrangement between Azercosmos and MEASAT Satellite Systems of Malaysia, which owns the rights to the orbital slot.

About Azercosmos

Incorporated in 2010, the Azercosmos Open Joint Stock Company of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan is the premier satellite operator in both Azerbaijan and the Caucasus region. It will provide satellite-delivered communications services and highly reliable satellite platforms to broadcasting, broadband and government customers with the launch of Azerspace/Africasat-1a and other forthcoming satellite projects. More information can be found at [1] www.azerbaijans.com/content_528_en.html

About Orbital

Orbital develops and manufactures small- and medium-class rockets and space systems for commercial, military and civil government customers. The company?s primary products are satellites and launch vehicles, including low-Earth orbit, geosynchronous-Earth orbit and planetary spacecraft for communications, remote sensing, scientific and defense missions; human-rated space systems for Earth-orbit, lunar and other missions; ground- and air-launched rockets that deliver satellites into orbit; and missile defense systems that are used as interceptor and target vehicles. Orbital also provides satellite subsystems and space-related technical services to government agencies and laboratories. More information about Orbital can be found at [2] www.orbital.com.spaceref

, Voice of a Nation

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Source: http://en.baybak.com/north-azerbaijan-orbital-built-azerspaceafricasat-1a-communications-satellite-successfully-launched.azr

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9-Year Old Girl Gives Birth in Mexico

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/9-year-old-girl-gives-birth-in-mexico/

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Guinness Ghana says six-month net profit jumps 115 pct

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Chris Pratt has scored one of the lead roles in Marvel Studios' "Guardians of the Galaxy." The "Parks & Recreation" actor will play Star-Lord, the leader of a group of intergalactic heroes, an individual with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap. Marvel and parent company Disney hope that "Guardians" can be a comic book franchise to rival the $1.5 billion grossing "The Avengers." James Gunn ("Slither") is directing the film, which is scheduled to be released on August 1, 2014. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/guinness-ghana-says-six-month-net-profit-jumps-123557381--sector.html

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Creative Chaos HR: Tiffany Kuehl - The HR Interview

Tiffany Kuehl is a Human Resources practitioner that's been on the edge of my radar for a while. I've seen her tweets and other social media content, but it wasn't until she started blogging (at the multi-contributor blog, Performance I Create) that I got a clearer sense of her. Smart, funny, and creative--these are qualities I admire. I took a risk (we knew of each other but hadn't really talked) and asked her to be a part of the 'HR Interview' series. She graciously accepted, and after a lengthy phone conversation we put her thoughts--on HR, social media, and blogging, amongst other items--on the blog.

Ladies and gentlemen... Tiffany Kuehl.

---

State your name. rank, and serial number (aka who you are and what you do). My name is Tiffany Kuehl, and I am a daughter, sister, friend, wife, mom, Minnesota Twins fan and volunteer! All roles I enjoy, take seriously and have fun with.

When I am on the clock, I am a Staffing Leader for Honeywell, based in the Automation and Control Solutions (ACS) global headquarters in Golden Valley, MN. In this role I am responsible for all things staffing for three lines of businesses within ACS. This involves managing the relationships we have with our recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider for direct hires and our managed service provider (MSP) for contingent labor, and partnering with the businesses to understand their staffing needs and provide them with solutions to meet those needs.

Additionally, I am an active member of the Twin Cities Human Resource Association (TCHRA), an affiliate chapter of SHRM. I have volunteered with TCHRA since 2002, holding various roles and currently serve as the association President.

How do you help the organization reach its strategic objectives?

There are two things that are critical with supporting my clients - building relationships with them and understanding their business. When I start a new role, or get introduced to new customers one of the first things I do is ask them to tell me about their business, what is the product or service they offer, how is it made/delivered, what is the structure of the organization and/or team and ask what expectations they have for me and my team - then agree on expectations and how we'll partner going forward.

I have regular meetings with my customers to review status on projects as well as review staffing metrics and performance. What my recruiting team and I do is in part dictated by our clients' objectives, they help set our direction for day to day activities. I help clients reach their strategic objectives by understanding their business, listening to them and incorporating the needs of the business into mine and my team's objectives. If we're successful, our customers will be successful too.

What is the #1 misconception people have about your role or Human Resources in general?

The #1 misconception of HR is that we are the police and only around to tell the business "no".

How do you overcome that?

To overcome the misconception, I try not to just flat out say "no". When a client comes to me with a question or concern I ask questions to gain an understanding of the situation and what they are trying to accomplish. Usually, they're coming to me because they want validation they're doing the right thing. So we talk through their issue and together determine an appropriate direction. If the answer is "no", I explain why and we either agree to an alternate route or simply call it a day. The important thing is having the conversation and explaining the why or why not. Simply telling the client "no" only lends truth to the misconception.

Of all the roles you?ve occupied in a HR capacity, which have you enjoyed the most?

Recruiting! It is the most important role in HR. Without the right people in the right roles and the right time, organizations will have a hard time reaching their objectives!

In recruiting, I have the opportunity to positively impact people through job offers. I've had candidates who've cried tears of joy, screamed excitedly, and hugged me when I've informed them they were being offered the job. That is just cool!

What?s your top 3 business concerns at this moment?

1. Finding candidates to fill critical roles within the businesses I support.
2. The weather! (Weather drives/dictates many segments of Honeywell ACS' business).
3. Uncertainty about the economy - many companies holding back on purchases, contracts, partnerships, etc. With uncertainty in the economy, organizations are not as willing to invest.

How did we meet?

Twittersphere!

What prompted you to get involved with social media?

It started with LinkedIn, as a way to get connected with other professionals. The natural progression from using LI to connect to using it to recruit occurred, not only can I connect with other professionals, but I can find candidates!

I started using Facebook for similar reasons, to get and stay connected with friends and family. What I found was that as people realized what I do for a living, they would reach out to me for job search advice, or ask if I know anyone who....which often led to getting connected on LinkedIn and so on. Bonus!

Twitter is relatively new to me, I've been active there for just over a year. I checked it out just to see what it was all about, and have found that it is a great way to get connected to others and information. In fact, prior to heading to the SHRM National Conference in June 2012, I had a list of people I'd seen on Twitter that I wanted to meet IRL (in real life). I was able to meet several folks and put names with avatars and have had the pleasure of building relationships with several of my Tweeps!

Bottom line for me, social media is an essential way of staying connected and getting information.

How does it feel to be a blogger?

This is a new endeavor for me. I am blogging as a contributor through Performance I Create with a great team of people who have a bit more experience in this arena than I. This group, Chris Ponder, Steve Browne, Melissa Fairman, Chris Fields, Justin Harris, Jay Kuhns, Dave Ryan, Buzz Rooney, has been extremely supportive so I have no doubt I'll be able to hone my writing skills.

I had a couple posts in December and the feedback has been great. It's fun to have people read what I've written and not just comment on it, but get so much out of what I have to say that they share it with others.

Is social media savvy a necessary skill set for Human Resources professionals?

Being social media savvy is a necessary skill set for HR.

Social media isn't just about staying connected to other people, it helps people stay in tune with what other businesses and organizations are doing and what's going on within the industry and what customers and employees are saying about all of the above. It's about being connected AND informed!

Where is the HR profession headed? How do you feel about that?

The HR profession is headed to graduate school! It seems there are both more schools offering graduate degrees in HR and more HR people seeking graduate degrees in HR or MBAs. This is good news! It adds to our credibility as business partners.

As we seek advanced degrees, we're also graduating from administrative paper pushers to true business consultants. While this transformation started years ago there are many business owners leaders that have yet to embrace the change. I've had the pleasure of working with some incredibly bright HR professionals as well as interact with many HR students and young professionals and am confident we will continue to become trusted advisors to the business.

What are some of the ways in which you keep up with current business or HR related news and info?

Networking! I do this in real life at work and through my volunteer work with TCHRA - daily. In addition to networking, there is reading. I read articles online and blogs - typically via LinkedIn and Twitter.

What?s the next challenge for you, professionally speaking?

Blogging. I am just getting started so I am sure I will make a mistake or two. This, like any new opportunity, will give me the chance to look at my work, skills and industry from a different vantage point and allow me to develop and grow in my profession.

Source: http://www.victoriomilian.com/2013/02/tiffany-kuehl-hr-interview.html

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