As the holiday season approaches, there are several inevitable occurrences that will try our patience.

Outstanding means being superior, striking, exceptional, clearly noticeable—essentially, to stand out. People are attracted to outstanding organizations. They want to buy from them, sell to them, invest in them, volunteer at them, and work for them.

(EAGLE Registrations: Dayton, OH) -- EAGLE Registrations Inc., a third-party certification body that audits businesses to international standards, has published a new book, Management System Standards and Certification… The Basics 101.

(Eriez: Erie, PA) -- Customers can virtually attend material X-ray tests in real time with Eriez’s interactive online X-ray testing.

Education seems to be a never ending problem for the United States. The drop-out rate in some major cities is 50 to 60 percent, or even more.

Most car drivers enjoy road tunnels without giving a second thought to the years of patient effort that go into the construction.

(Cognex: Natick, MA) -- Cognex Corp. announces VisionPro 6.0, a new release of the company’s popular, hardware-independent vision software. VisionPro 6.0 has more acquisition options, higher accuracy calibration, and expanded ID reading capability. 

(Qioptiq: Rochester, NY) -- Qioptiq announces the introduction of a new line of high-performance vision metrology systems designed for streamlined user interface and maximum productivity in noncontact dimensional measurement.

(IQPC: New York) -- The sixth annual "LSS & Process Improvement Canada" summit, to be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Feb. 22–24, 2010, will feature in-depth presentations, case studies, perspectives, and conversations on how to: