For small business owners, invoicing and payments are necessary, but time-consuming.   Getting paid on time can be challenging and put stress on cash flow.  QuickaPay helps small business owners to spend more time in the business, and less time in the books.  It offers invoicing, card payments and BNPL with lots of easy tech options like shareable payment links, QR codes, SMS messages and emails.  Plus it’s integrated with Shopify and WooCommerce.  For easy reconciliations, there is a single overview of all paying customers and exportable CSV files. Customer refunds can also be processed directly through the platform.https://www.quickapay.com/

The team from the University of Colorado Boulder is saying that they are working on the self healing concrete which can heal itself of the cracks and damages. This concrete is made up of sand, gel and bacteria, which is also named Living Concrete as it is capable of self-healing and is more environmentally friendly than concrete – which is the second most-consumed material on Earth after water.It “heal their own cracks, suck up dangerous toxins from the air or even glow on command”.source: https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/future-technology-22-ideas-about-to-change-our-world/

Grattan Institute publication points the way to clearing the reform path:   “Institutional changes to ministerial adviser roles, to processes for appointing and dismissing senior public servants, to ministerial influence over government contracts and grants, and to controls over political donations, campaign finance, lobbying, and post-politics careers would all help to break the gridlock in policy reform. These changes would also promote the emergence of champions who are usually crucial to the prospects of reform.”   “Without institutional changes, Australian governments will not deliver many of the policy reforms that would.”"Gridlock: Removing barriers to policy reform"  John Daly     https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Gridlo

In this week’s issue of ‘Pearls and Irritations’ Andrew Podger AO, retired Australian senior public servant and Professor of Public Policy at ANU, calls for serious reform of our democracy:   https://johnmenadue.com/andrew-podger-our-democracy-needs-serious-reform/?mc_cid=af92e21ba9&mc_eid=ff9389eb5b   Podger highlights the way the Australian government shows “so little appreciation of the principles of responsible government and the institutions which protect them.” He lists five ways to fix this.   A roadmap for ways of improving how our democracy works can be found at:    

The tennis champion – who is turning 40 – has smashed the sport’s early-retirement trend, winning Grand Slam titles deep int

Sculpterra doesn't just grow grapes on the Central Coast of California. This winery makes agriculture and art into a new type of tourist destination for all ages.On the property  there is iron sculpture, photographic art, vineyards, manicured gardens but something even cooler.  There is a  display of  huge historical photographs from the 1800's until present that includes pioneers, outlaws such as  local legend Jesse James, Indians, American soldiers and present day owners.  The property also includes world class sculpture featuring John Jagger's larger than life bronze and granite artworks of animals and mythical creatures, a museum and wine tasting room.