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Demens GIF!
Hosted on nimga and 640px
Hosted on Tinypic and 300px
A non-Doctor's guess at Demen's injury: Torn UCL
So I'm not a doctor, I'm just going off of personal experience and the picture that Kenny tweeted.
Based on the above picture (Thumb in a cast, other fingers free) and the fact that he'll be out 4-6 weeks I'm guessing Kenny has either a chip fracture at the base of his thumb or an Ulnar Collateral Ligament Tear. An x-ray would show which one it is. I have had 2 partial tears of my UCL and they hurt. (There is an Ulnar Cruciate Ligament, that's in the elbow and baseball players mess it up a lot). This injury is often referred to as skier's thumb because the method of injury happens a lot to skiers. It happens a lot to football players too. My first injury was when I tackled someone. Look at the back of your hand and pull your thumb down and towards you - that's the motion that the UCL prevents and how you can damage it. If Kenny slightly missed on a tackle - his thumb connecting with a shoulder or something but the rest of his hand didnt - and his thumb got bent back, that would lead to a UCL tear (my guess).
Depending on severity and if he needs surgery 4-6 weeks is a typical recovery. It's a joint that is easily taped and depending on his repair/recovery he should have no lasting effects. I had partial tears (no surgery or repair) and wasn't diagnosed for about 8 weeks after the first injury. My only medical restriction is that I'm not allowed to put my thumb in a bowling ball - all other sports and stuff are fine. Kenny's at Michigan, was diagnosed on sight and has some of the best medical care in the world. I'm sure he'll be fine come the fall. Here's wishing him the best during his recovery.
Tough break for Kenny Demens [ED-April Fools Day Sucks]
his tweet says it all
Kenny Demens@kdemens25
Out for the season with a hand injury. Hope all uofm still support the maize & blue. http://pic.twitter.com/WFX8poQm
Denard Wins Team MVP (Winners of Other Team Awards Inside)
The team awards were handed out tonight and I know you're all probably shocked but Denard won the Bo Schembechler Most Valuable Player of the Year Award for the second year in a row.
Other winners:
Dr. Arthur D. Robinson Scholarship Award (Leading Senior Scholar): Will Heininger
Hugh R. Rader Memorial Award (Top Offensive Lineman): David Molk
Roger Zakoff Award (Best LB): Kenny Demens
Robert P. Ufer Bequest (Senior who has demonstrated the most enthusiasm and love for Michigan): Split between Ryan Van Bergen and Kevin Koger
Richard Katcher Award (Best DL): Mike Martin
I just want to give another shout out to the Senior class who dealt with so much and fought through it all. This team wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't for those guys. They're true Michigan Men.
TT: Mattison vs. GERG Cage Match
Tackling Technique: 2011 vs. 2010
Greg Mattison vs. GERG. Cage Match.
It has been the opinion of many that the defensive woes were a perfect storm of inexperience, tweener athletes and GERG.. with the resulting picture of our defense against a B10 offense resembling something like this.
The underlying problem last year was that we couldn't tackle for shit.
While scheme was a huge factor, even when we did end up in the right spots we had severe issues bringing down the ball carrier. Enter Greg Mattison.
This off-season there was interview after interview that stressed fundamentals and technique, and nothing is more fundamental or technical on defense than tackling. It is the quintessential ability that a defense is trying to incorporate, ending up in the right spot and smashing the ball carrier to pieces.
Good Tackles look like this:

And Bad Tackles with poor form look like this:

The basic analysis follows these formul
- Tackling Efficiency = (Made tackles – Missed Tackles) / (Bad Form Tackles + 1)
- Bad form tackles account for terrible form (bad angles, too high, getting shook etc)
Tackling % = Made tackles / Made + Missed
Chart? Chart.
Tackling Efficiency - 2010:Blue WMU: Maize ND: Green
Tackling Percentage - 2010:Blue WMU: Maize ND: Green
Tackling Percentage is up for almost every player from last year through the first 2 games this year. That indicates to me that they are being taught better technique. There is the factor that some of these guys had a year in the weight room, but that alone is not the only indicator of success (See Barwis Wolves)
While this is a limited data set, this seems to suggest that we are getting better at tackling AS A TEAM. Decreases in Tackling Efficiency by some of the bigger names are accountable by there being a relative spreading around of tackling.
- This is not to suggest that our defense is not essentially anchored by Kovacs in the secondary, Demens in the backers and RVB/MM up front. We are.
- Kovacs is a manchild werebeast. He is easily the most accountable player on the field, always in the right spot to make a play. If he had the athleticism of Marvin Robinson he might be one of the best safeties I have ever seen wear the uniform at this point in his career.
- Demens is a sure tackler, but it seems he is lacking in making tackles for loss. Don't take this as criticism, as his role is to stop the ball carrier after 1-2 yds consistently between the OTs, not make occasional TFL's.
- Craig Roh. I think people are being too harsh here. He showed some flashes on plays, and I am going to assume that the decreased production is due to illness. It also seems that Roh is best suited to be at the SDE slot, as trying to keep contain all by himself on the WDE side is testing both his play-reading ability and athleticism. When he is allowed to pin his ears back is when he is best.
- Jake Ryan is your Freshman breakout contributor. No real shocker here, but this kid is everywhere. Cannot wait to see his development in the future.
- Certain diaries have suggested switching Roh to TE, that is ridiculous. Brink and Heininger make very little contribution to the position.
- Morgan makes decent reads but is not physically ready to play at this level yet.
- I am not as excited about Hawthorne as some, however he does seem to blitz with absolutely no regard for blockers or his well-being. Think non-heat seeking missle. If he learns to blitz this way and then get under control once past blockers he will be a special player. Also, he is solid in coverage.
- Jibreel Black is a playmaker, and it seems that more and more he resembles the 55 of yesteryear.
- While I cannot praise the pass coverage ability of Marvin Robinson, I am pleasantly surprised by his change in technique. He has abandoned his "DESTROY" technique, and instead looks for big hits when he can but more often than not wraps up.
- It seems that BWC seemed to improve as the game went on against ND. I hope that this trend transitions into the proverbial light turning on, as he made some good stands against double teams on short yardage runs. However, he is still a liability on pass rush.
- I would like to see Blake Countess get some PT opposite Avery in the coming 2 weeks, because JT Floyd is not a reliable answer for us on fast and physical WRs. He cannot press on the line, and this hurts him immensely.
- Mattison: All in all, I am more impressed this year with our defense. While there are definitely things to correct, we are not missing 2 or 3 tackles on the same play like last year. I think this is the greatest effect on coaching change that is easily apparent. Secondly, players are FLYING to the ball. Gone are the one on ones that result in a shook player and then a 5 yard gain. Finally, while sacks have been hard to come by, there is no question the opposing QB is feeling more pressure.
LB Scrape/Contain and moar DEMENS!!!
Table of contents:
I. Basics of scraping/link to Brian's thoughts
II. Mouton
III. Demens' Pass D.
IV. Demens scraping
V. Final thoughts
[this is for people who might not know what scraping is or want another opinion. If you understand scraping/contain feel free to move on]
On How UM has lost contain:
On how this can be fixed:
For the second one notice how Kovaks tells Floyd to get up to the LOS and Floyd says "Yeah, I'm gonna F*#K this play up." He does, because he takes the outside shoulder of the lead blocker. However, that is not enough; Demens also scrapes to the play. In the first play Mouton doesn't contain (even though Demens scrapes) and it gets a…TD. [For a more full discussion see the links above. Many much smarter people than I have well thought out ideas there.]
My belief is that a large amount of us here think Mouton might have issues playing with Demens because he had to play to tackle instead of play his assignment when Obi was in. Well, playing to tackle instead of your assignment sure sounds like someone who will lose contain. Also, see this. So, here's that nice little chart:
|Loss of Contain
|Picture paged
|Failed scrape
This is only one half, but it should become clear that Mouton has had trouble holding contain. I'm sure someone could do a much better analysis on this, and I would applaud any such investigation. However, with the data at hand, we've shown that Mouton is not that good at holding contain. The small # of bad contain plays wouldn't be an issue, except that Iowa got 35 yards on them! [after looking back, that's not outstanding, but it is a first down each time.
This failure to contain is not a "who is around me" problem. It is a fundamentals problem. It doesn't matter who is around you, you still need to know your fundamentals. If Ray Lewis were playing Mouton would still need to tackle. This is no different. Contain is just something you need to do, regardless of who is around you.
- There might be other issues about him playing with Demens instead of Obi, but I just can't see any. What most people have been saying is that Mouton plays to make the tackle instead of doing his job. That sounds a lot like missing your contain assignment to me.
III. Demens Pass D:
Because this seemed to be the issue for Demens, I figured I'd make the anaylsis on his coverage. This will be a combination of 2 things: Brian's UFR on Iowa, and my Iowa "Demens UFR".
+1 for pass break-up. (4th play)
+.5 (12th play)
(no +/- but on this picture paged play Brian gives Demens credit)
+.5 (18th play)
+.5 (25th play)
-1 (38th play)
-1 (35th play)
+1 (37th play)
Total: +1.5 Not terrible. Was this the thing that was holding him back?
My Iowa UFR:
+1 (4th play. Blasts the receiver after the catch to break up the pass.)
+1 (The touchdown play at 3:05. Knocks the TE down as Avery derps up.)
+1 (starts at 3:20. Demens comes up on the bootleg. Notices the RB blocking and gets on his horse. Brian gave a +.5 but I believe that because Demens came in so fast, he knew exactly what his assignment was and played it fully.)
-1 (at 4:10). Demens leaves his TE open, even tho the pass goes over his head.
-1 (at 6:39) Missed the RB/drop-down read coming out of the backfield late.
-1 (9:00) Bit on the PA. He did this again on the next play, which was the same play-call. I'm not sure if he's just biting a lot or if it's his job to do that? Is this some new Defensive thing?
+1 (on that play where Avery missed the 3&8 tackle, which effectively ended the game) Demens was all over his guy when the pass happened.
Noticed that they put in Roh on a few downs at MLB. I'm assuming this is to get more speed on the field against the pass.
+1 total. Well, I'm more negative than Brian. Told you.
Overall: nothing really bad here. I don't believe this was what held him back. He should be at least acceptable in pass D. Dispell all rumors.
Based again, off of the multiple UFR from Iowa and previous games.
Iowa: +3 on scraping, although I'm a negative guy.
Penn State: +2 on scraping.
When I find a better way to format, I'll add in the plays too. Still, this is at least decent, which is better than Obi was playing. More analysis at bottom.
Demens is a good scraper. Obi obviously wasn't. An upgrade in playing ability and potential for next year, when we will return a decent starter, instead of a player who would have had no experience.
Contain is a huge issue. When Mouton lost contain he gave up a first down every time. This is a momentum killer for a few, rather obvious reasons.
- 1.) It allows a first down on a third and ten draw.
- 2.) it destroys team fatigue.
- 3.) It just sucks. Nuff said.
Can we fix this? How long will GERG coach this and how long until it's fixed? I don't know, but I'm sure the debate will continue. Mouton and Obi were in the system for 3 years and they didn't scrape/contain this year. However, Demens is a RS Soph (3 years) and learned how to do it. Contrary evidence=I don't know.
What does this mean for next year? I don't know. Really. It depends on the aforementioned "Can we fix this." I think we'll be better because we'll have Demens instead of Obi, but if Mouton outplayed the other guys, doesn't that mean we regress in that department. I'll assume that Cam Gordon (who might take Mouton's old spot?) is faster than Mouton which might help, but I really just don't know. Debate away.
The other thing that I'd notice about Demens is that he bites a lot. Those PA are going to kill him. Just wait, OSU and Wiscy are going to have fun with this. Let's hope he gets better by that time.


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Legal historians interested in foreign relations/international affairs should consider presenting your work at the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foriegn Relations. The deadline for proposals for the 2007 meeting is quickly approaching: Dec. 15. This is a superb scholarly meeting. I benefitted immensely from presenting at SHAFR while writing Cold War Civil Rights.
** There is funding for some graduate students presenting papers at the meeting.**
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting
June 20-24, 2007
Marriott Westfields Conference Center, Reston, Virginia
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) invites proposals for panels and individual papers at its annual conference, June 20-24, 2007, to be held at the Marriott Westfields Conference Center in Reston, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Although proposals for individual papers will be considered, proposals for complete or nearly complete panels are encouraged and will receive higher priority. In order to receive full consideration, proposals should be submitted no later than December 15, 2006.
For more, go here.

subset: commoncrawl


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Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba says he was not disappointed to see Manchester United lose to Real Madrid on Tuesday.
The Red Devils were edged out 3-2 on aggregate by Jose Mourinho's side after a controversial Nani red card led to a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford, and Pogba rubbed further salt into the wound by suggesting he was not sorry to see them depart the competition.
"Did I watch Manchester United yesterday? Of course I did. Was I sorry to see them lose to Real? No," he told reporters at Juventus Stadium.
A goal apiece from Alessandro Matri and Fabio Quagliarella saw the Bianconeri overcome Celtic and book their place in the last eight of the tournament, and Pogba insisted his side are aiming to go all the way this season.
"We are pleased. It was a very difficult game and we played the right way," the 19-year-old went on. "There is a great confidence within the team and the staff, and we will try to win the Champions League because we are Juve.
"I know the fans always expect me to score, but today it didn't matter because the most important thing was to win. The game was not as easy as it seemed tonight.
"I just want to play and win, that's all. The coach believes in me, and I'm glad I came here to play."


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General Comments: Futures were lower in New York on speculative selling tied to ideas of big Brazil and Colombia production. London was higher on some short covering to end the week, but remains in down trends due to ideas of big supplies from producers, mostly from Vietnam. London futures appear oversold as well. Arabica cash markets remain quiet right now and roasters in the US are showing little interest in buying. Buying interest could appear with this latest move lower. There is talk of increasing offers of Robusta from producers as they apparently did not sell when prices were much higher. Most sellers, including Brazil, are quiet and are waiting for futures to move higher. Buyers are interested on cheap differentials. Brazil weather is forecast to show dry conditions, but no cold weather. There are some forecasts for cold weather to develop in Brazil at the end of next week. Current crop development is still good this year in Brazil. Central America crops are seeing good rains now. Colombia is reported to have good conditions.
Overnight News: Certified stocks are little changed today and are about 2.746 million bags. The ICO composite price is now 116.22 ct/lb. Brazil should get dry weather except for some showers in the southwest on Sunday. Temperatures will average near to above normal. Colombia should get scattered showers, and Central America and Mexico should get showers. Temperatures should average near to above normal.
Chart Trends: Trends in New York are down with objectives of 116.00 July. Support is at 121.00, 119.00, and 116.00 July, and resistance is at 125.00, 127.00, and 130.00 July. Trends in London are down with objectives of 1765 July. Support is at 1770, 1740, and 1710 July, and resistance is at 1810, 1845, and 1865 July. Trends in Sao Paulo are down with no objectives. Support is at 147.00, 144.00, and 140.00 September, and resistance is at 155.00, 159.00, and 161.50 September.
General Comments: Futures closed sharply higher on what appeared to be short covering from speculators. Everyone talks about the big supplies, but reports of renewed demand interest helped rally the market today. July was higher as short speculators start to pull out of positions before the contract stops trading at the end of the month. There was no other real news for the market. The price action overall remains weak and implies that further losses are coming down the road due to coming Brazil supplies. Traders remain bearish on ideas of big supplies, especially from Brazil. Traders in Brazil expect big production as the weather is good. Demand is said to be strong from North Africa and the Middle East, but starting to fade now as needs are getting covered.
Overnight News: Showers are expected in Brazil. Temperatures should average near to above normal.
Chart Trends: Trends in New York are mixed. Support is at 1680, 1665, and 1650 October, and resistance is at 1730, 1760, and 1790 October. Trends in London are mixed. Support is at 469.00, 465.00, and 463.00 October, and resistance is at 477.00, 480.00, and 487.00 October.
General Comments: Futures closed lower on what appeared to be a lot of speculative long liquidation. There was not a lot of news for the market, and price action reflected this. It looks like the buying was based on the charts as New York futures could not move to new lows and in fact have held at an important area on the charts. But, ideas of weak demand after the recent big rally kept some selling interest around. The weather is good in West Africa, with more moderate temperatures and some rains. The mid-crop harvest is moving to completion, and less than expected production along with smaller beans is reported. Malaysia and Indonesia crops appear to be in good condition and weather is called favorable.
Overnight News: Scattered showers are expected in West Africa. Temperatures will average near to above normal. Malaysia and Indonesia should see episodes of isolated showers. Temperatures should average near normal. Brazil will get mostly dry conditions and warm temperatures. ICE certified stocks are lower today at 5.084 million bags.
Chart Trends: Trends in New York are mixed to down with objectives of 2210 July. Support is at 2240, 2220, and 2190 July, with resistance at 2300, 2340, and 2380 July. Trends in London are down with objectives of 1405 July. Support is at 1460, 1430, and 1420 July, with resistance at 1490, 1500, and 1520 July.


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Car news
Range Rover Evoque gets more power
Evoque 'Autobiography Dynamic' gets 281bhp and sporty tweaks in time for Geneva
Maybe it's the arrival of the 'SUV sports car' that is the Porsche Macan. Maybe it's mere coincidence. Whichever way, Land Rover has revealed a hotter Range Rover Evoque for the Geneva show.
Named the Evoque Autobiography Dynamic, it's had its 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine turned up to 281bhp and 400Nm - an increase of 60Nm and 44bhp over the most powerful model currently available. The nine-speed ZF automatic 'box has also been slightly re-jigged for added sportiness.
The Evoque has always driven like a (slightly tall) hot hatch, but this new model is set to be yet more honed. LR's engineers have sharpened up the steering, upgraded the suspension geometry, added firmer spring rates and recalibrated its adaptive dampers. This, apparently, is all to increase the Evoque's agility and turn-in response, which was hardly rusty before.
The sporty jargon doesn't end there. Land Rover's 'Active Driveline' system, which seamlessly couples and decouples the front and rear axles, has been made standard, and fettled for maximum traction when 'on it'. The brakes have also swollen to 350mm at the front to handle the extra power, and now incorporate a torque vectoring system to reduce understeer.
Visually the Autobiography Dynamic gains a new grille, fresh chin design, and 'jewel-like' head and taillights. You can have it painted in some shiny new colours, and sit it on a different set of 20-inch alloys.
Interestingly, it seems the guys in Gaydon have listened to Captain Slow's extensive feedback on the Evoque. Though James praised Victoria Beckham's techy Terrain Response, he wasn't impressed by the entertainment system. Lucikly, for this new model, LR has introduced a new system dubbed 'InControl', allowing you to download special apps to your smartphone, which are then mirrored on the Evoque's touchscreen.
No word yet on pricing or performance figures for this warmer Evoque, but expect modest upgrades on the figures of the current hottest Evoque - the Si4 - which makes 240bhp, and does 0-100kph in 7.1 seconds. Which will plunge the Evoque Autobiography into serious competition with the entry-level Porsche Macan, the petrol 'S'. That car has 335bhp, and does 0-100kph in 5.2 seconds. Discuss.
We'll see Evoque Autobiography Dynamic with our actual eyes at the Geneva show in a few weeks. But until then you'll have to make do with the pictures on the right.
So baby Porsche or baby Rangie? What would you go for? Let us know below.
Tags: range rover, geneva 14, evoque autobiography dynamic, range rover evoque


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Sonia by Sonia Rykiel Resort – The Sonia by Sonia Rykiel woman fully embraces color for the line's resort 2014 collection. An outing of rich sky blues, emerald greens and bold yellows set the tone for a youthfully dynamic season. Resort is all about femininity from full-length knit dresses to even pants adorned with whimsical 'Kiss Me Henry' prints. The colorful palette gets grounded with black and white separates such as pleated skirts, collared shirts and simple knits.
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A magical looking film, "Epic" might not be as "epic" as the filmmaker's intentions and it might not have the lasting effect that other animated films have had, but it is a well-made piece of entertainment that will appeal to kids and socially conscious adults equally.
Directed by Chris Wedge ("Ice Age"), the film is a sort of combo "The Borrowers" and "Ferngully." Based loosely on co-writer William Joyce's book "The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs" as well as an idea Wedge and Joyce developed out of an exhibition of 100-year-old fantasy paintings they saw, "Epic" tells the story of a girl named M.K. (Amanda Seyfried) whose mother has recently passed away and is now forced to live with her eccentric father Professor Boombah (Jason Sudekis of "Saturday Night Live").
He's eccentric, you see, because he has long held the belief that there are tiny humans living in the wilderness that keep the balance of nature alive. Of course, M.K. thinks he's nuts and would rather not be living with a crazy person, but that all changes when she is witness to same strange goings-on herself. When she is off searching for her missing dog, she stumbles into the middle of a battle between the well-meaning Leafmen and the terrible Boggans - forces of Evil bent on destroying the forest. There, the benign Queen Tara (Beyonce Knowles) materializes and not only tasks M.K. with saving the forest, but also shrinks her down to their size. Suddenly dad's crazy notions don't seem so whacky and before you know it, M.K. is having a life or death adventure where the balance of nature is up for grabs.
The film deftly moves between the normal-size world and the "unseen-world" as it tells two stories at once until they converge. Both hold our interest and have characters that are engaging and fun. But it's that special world that Wedge and Joyce have created that is truly spectacular and the 3D enhances this experience well. The innovative way that the small world co-exists in secret with our world is both clever and beautiful, and there are a number of stunning sequences (and worlds) throughout the film.
The only real problem is that about two-thirds of the way into the film, the narrative becomes predictable and the action becomes more common. That said, there are many scenes of humor and adventure that will delight forest-dwellers of all ages.
The voice work here is exceptional.Seyfried is almost unrecognizable as the petulant teenager who opens her eyes to a larger world. Colin Farrell commands his Irish brogue into a stalwart presence as Ronin - a Leafmen commander who is in love with Queen Tara and who had become a father figure to an orphaned teenage boy named Nod (Josh Hutcherson). Nod, like M.K., is trying to find his place after losing someone he holds dear as well, and it is this common ground that sparks their romance. Rounding out the cast are the hilarious Chris O'Dowd and Aziz Ansari as Grub and Mub, two slugs that are tasked with watching over pods that hold the key to the forest's future. Party bug and keeper of the magic scrolls, Nim, is played by Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler, while the evil Mandrake is portrayed by Christoph Waltz with his trademark devilish wit. Beyonce does seem to stand out here as her voice is fairly recognizeable, but it is an ethereal performance that befits the character. It's also nice that an African-American character takes center stage as the one who keeps the forest alive and blooming.
The real magic to this film, though, are the visuals by Blue Sky. An enchantingly detailed world of invention and whimsy, it truly is a feast for the eyes. The story falters here and there and the message may get muddy, but it's an eye-popping journey just the same and is sure to please kids of all ages.


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Why Me?May 14, 2012 at 08:31:12 AM
Rabbi Henry Harris of the Aish Center in Manhattan shared with me this beautiful story:
A woman in our neighborhood recently passed away after a long struggle with cancer. Her husband spoke at the funeral and shared that when his wife was diagnosed with cancer over seven years ago, she decided that she did not want the disease to take over her or her family's lives.
She kept things a secret from her young children and put her best foot forward every day while battling, struggling, and dealing with a lot of pain.
Finally her doctor told her that she did not have much more time. She decided that she was going to tell her youngest son (now 13) when he came home from camp at the end of this past summer.
When the boy came home, he could immediately tell something was wrong, and his mother proceeded to explain. Her son's response was simple but powerful. He said "Why you?" She has always been a model mother and citizen, a giver, a powerful and positive force in her community and in the world... so the question was very real... Why??
Here was her answer: "When I first started dating and immediately found the love of my life, I didn't ask 'why me?'. When I became pregnant in the first year of marriage when so many of our friends struggled for years to conceive, I didn't ask 'why me?'. When I was fortunate enough to never struggle financially as my husband was blessed to be making a good living, I didn't ask 'why me?'. When my older children got married with the same ease and started their own beautiful families, I didn't ask 'why me?'. So I'm not going to start asking now!"
Such faith and clarity in the face of adversity is rare and very special. In a moment like that, who can blame a person for breaking down? Instead she stood strong and true. I know how impactful this one story of her life was to me. I can only imagine how she affected those around her in her lifetime through those positive choices. A true inspiration. May her soul be elevated.


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The power game: electricity's winners and losers
As energy prices continue to soar, it's not easy to know who to back.
The way electricity prices are surging, there should be some high-voltage returns from power companies.
Well, you'd think so.
But the generators are struggling with - you're not going to believe this - falling wholesale prices.
So it must be further down the wires where the money is being made.
How about the companies that bill you, then? A few are listed: Australian Power and Gas , ERM Business Energy and Infratil.
But on their recent form it can't be them, either. One runs at a loss and the already modest profit of the other two is falling.
They're getting their power supply more cheaply except there's, uh, a leakage. Thanks to ferocious competition for customers, what they gain on the swings, they lose on the roundabout.
That leaves the network - the companies with the transmission towers and wires strung from them - and there's the rub.
Most of them aren't in private hands, but are government owned. Bummer.
The only listed stock that is mostly an electricity network supplier is SP AusNet, although it also sells gas.
It's the biggest holding of fund manager Allan Gray, but even that's due to the dividend, not the prospect of a price surge.
Yielding 7.7 per cent, it comes with a small tax break as it's one-third franked.
So if you bought the stock at its current price, the pre-tax yield would be about 8.7 per cent - way above what you'd get on a term deposit.
"It's a stable, basic business that does nothing fancy. It seems to do quite well," Allan Gray's Simon Marais says.
A senior analyst at Morningstar, Adrian Atkins, says SP AusNet "looks modestly undervalued".
One reason it's been marked down is litigation over the 2009 Victorian bushfires, which will probably be covered by insurance but might not be counted by the regulator in setting its return. As you'll see, rules and regulations for the electricity industry are in a world of their own, with often bizarre consequences.
No, the real money is in the two network giants of Origin Energy and AGL Energy, and running an electricity network isn't even their biggest business.
They operate under some very odd rules set by the states that control how much they can earn. Or, at least, they are supposed to.
One idiosyncrasy is that lower interest rates should cut profits in the view of the regulator. This is by stint of a revenue allowance based on how much they'll be spending. So lower interest requires less revenue. Get it?
Naturally, the way around regulations that penalise lower costs is to erect more towers and wires so more revenue is needed and so a higher tariff becomes essential. Should you ever get up close to one of those towers, not that I recommend you try, let me know if it's gold-plated with platinum wires.
There are more than 1300 pages of rules, the 51st version in six years, set by a Beijing-sounding Standing Council on Energy and Resources along with separate state and federal regulators who would only agree what day it was purely by coincidence.
Not even the banks have their return regulated, as you've probably noticed.
A plethora of government reports and inquiries, along with mounting pressure from politicians, suggests the rules are going to change eventually, though goodness knows in which direction.
'The challenge will be the massive asset base they work with," the chief executive at Lincoln Indicators', Elio D'Amato, warns.
As the biggest power supplier, Origin Energy is loved by super funds because it does everything from producing gas and electricity to connecting customers.
Here's the bad news. The shares have slumped to a five-year low on a forecast fall of 10 per cent in its underlying profit for 2012-13 after Queensland played hard ball over power prices.
If you've got your head around falling wholesale but rising retail power prices, you're ready for what's next. If you haven't, just try to keep up.
It turns out that rising retail prices aren't good for the power companies.
The reason is that demand falls as a result, and selling power is all about volume. In fact, demand has been falling for a few years, due to rooftop solar panels, the dollar gutting manufacturing and miners generating their own power.
Oh, and because of the higher prices, turning the airconditioner down does wonders for the household's cash flow.
So the more politicians control electricity price rises, the better for Origin and AGL.
Even if nothing changes - and the states and the feds have to agree - Marais says Origin at its current price of just above
$10 "may start to look interesting". Morningstar senior research analyst, Gareth James, values it at close to $16 a share.
"The market has attributed no value to Australia Pacific LNG [the Queensland coal seam gas-to-LNG joint venture]," he says.
It doesn't seem impressed by AGL buying out the Loy Yang coal-fired generator next year. But James argues this is a good buy because brown coal-fired generators are the cheapest to run even with a carbon tax.
It's also a bet on wholesale prices rising again. That seems inevitable considering some generators are already closing because of the oversupplied market.
AGL also has wind farms, and the mandated growth in renewable energy is the other reason for rising power prices. Analysts value the $13.70 stock between $14.60 and $15.60 a share. At least a change in regulations could work in their favour.
The federal government's energy white paper wants tougher (and presumably additional) rules to go with the 1300 or so pages of them already there, as well as some acknowledgement of consumers, and for the states to be "encouraged" to show "greater commercial efficiency and discipline" (good luck there).
Even with the existing rules, costs, volumes supplied and borrowings can all be tweaked so they're more profitable than the regulator assumes in setting tariffs.
In the meantime, you could always consider an energy company with all bases covered.
One of two likely candidates is Duet Group, which also supplies smart meters and gas.
But Atkins warns "the combination of an aggressive distribution payout ratio, high gearing and lower returns at future [regulated price] resets could see distributions cut again in a few years".
He says gas supplier APA Group is better because two-thirds of its revenues are from the unregulated energy sector.
The other dual electric and gas stock is Spark Infrastructure, worth considering just for the name.
It yields 6.6 per cent unfranked. It has the advantage that its indexed tariff isn't reset until 2015. And it doesn't have heavy investment spending because it's a trust that invests in other companies that do.
There's also a myriad of renewable energy stocks, the penny dreadfuls of power generation that mostly lose money but could one day strike it rich.
Because renewable energy is expensive, and needs a carbon tax to look remotely competitive, it's the other main cause of rising electricity prices for households.
Wind and solar will struggle while wholesale prices and consumer demand are falling, even with green energy targets and government subsidies.
The biggest wind farm stock is Infigen Energy. But falling prices have left it, uh, blowing in the wind.
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Robin van Persie inevitably found the next against Arsenal in his first meeting with the Gunners since leaving the club, as Manchester United claimed a comfortable victory at Old Trafford.
It was the first time Arsenal had been away to Manchester United since last season's 8-2 drubbing, and a similar scoreline looked achievable when they went 1-0 behind in two-and-a-half minutes.
Van Persie scored the opener, while Wayne Rooney missed a penalty before half-time, while Patrice Evra doubled United's advantage shortly after the hour mark.
Jack Wilshere was sent off for Arsenal in the second period, while Anderson had a late goal ruled out for offside, before Santi Cazorla netted a late consolation from 18-yards.
Van Persie took less than three minutes to turn the screw on his former club following his summer transfer, with the Dutchman making the most of a Vermaelen mistake.
Vermaelen, who succeeded Van Persie as Arsenal captain, got his feet in a muddle when trying to clear his lines, and Manchester United's No.20 fired neatly first-time past Vito Mannone with his right-foot.
Arsenal could hardly muster an effort on goal in the first period, and were lucky to repel a to enter into the break only one goal behind.
Rooney had the opportunity to double the advantage moments before the half-time interval after a Cazorla hand ball and provided Manchester United with a penalty.
But the 27-year-old failed to find the target from the spot; firing wide of Vito Mannone's left-hand post to hand Arsenal a reprieve when he could have struck a significant blow.
Van Persie almost made up for Rooney's error mere seconds after half-time but he was unable to find the net for a second time, and his miss sparked Arsenal into life.
Giroud hit the post as the Gunners began to play with more confidence and flair, with Wilshere and Cazorla beginning to have a greater influence on proceedings.
But, just as Arsenal began to look dangerous, Evra stole in at the back post to beat Vermaelen to the ball and head Manchester United into a two-goal lead.
Arsenal's misery was compounded when Wilshere saw red for a deserved second yellow card on only his second appearance in the Premier League in 18 months, which extinguished any minscule hopes of a Gunners comeback.
Cazorla did ensure United failed to keep a clean sheet once again when he fired into the top corner from the edge of the box, but the Spaniard did so with the virtually the last kick of the game.
Three points took Manchester United top of the Premier League table, with Chelsea not scheduled to play until this afternoon, while Arsenal are now nine points behind the leaders.
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AMD today announced the opening of a new design center in Hyderabad, India featuring world-class lab facilities dedicated to furthering both software and hardware innovations at the heart of AMD's popular Accelerated Processing Units (APUs.) In a ceremony held today, the new design center was inaugurated by Rory Read, president and chief executive officer at AMD.
Located at Raheja Mindspace, HITEC City, Madhapur, in the heart of Hyderabad's technology hub, the new facility features 175,000 square feet of world-class engineering labs, equipment and office space for the hundreds of engineers who work there to deliver world-class, differentiated System-On-Chips (SOCs) for AMD and its global customers. AMD also has a design center in Bangalore, as well as sales offices in New Delhi and Mumbai.
"AMD is committed to providing our customers with innovative, tailored technology solutions that empower people and deliver exceptional experiences," said Read. "Our Hyderabad Design Centre will play an important part in that mission as the team works in concert with our other design centers around the world to deliver AMD's next round of innovative products."
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Mitt Romney's choice for running mate was announced through a phone app. He and Paul Ryan appeared together as candidates for the first time in Norfolk, Va.
Romney mistakenly introduced Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan on Saturday as the next president of the United States. Ryan, of course, has been tapped to serve as Romney's vice presidential nominee.
A sheepish Romney puts arms around Ryan and clarified his mistake before Ryan took the microphone.
The Saturday morning appearance at the Nauticus Museum is the kickoff of a four-state bus tour to introduce the GOP ticket to the nation. Berthed at the museum is the USS Wisconsin -- which offered an early hint about Romney's choice.
Ryan is a seven-term congressman from Wisconsin. At 42, he is a generation younger than the 65-year-old Romney.
Speaking at the museum, Ryan attacked President Barack Obama for what he calls a "record of failure."
"No one disputes President Obama inherited a difficult situation. And, in his first 2 years, with his party in complete control of Washington, he passed nearly every item on his agenda. But that didn't make things better," Ryan said. "In fact, we find ourselves in a nation facing debt, doubt and despair."
The Obama campaign fired back, with a written statement from campaign manager Jim Messina.
"In naming Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has chosen a leader of the House Republicans who shares his commitment to the flawed theory that new budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, while placing greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, will somehow deliver a stronger economy," Messina wrote.
The VP candidate called his new running mate a stronger leader.
"Mitt Romney is a leader with the skills, the background and the character that our country needs at a crucial time in its history," he said. "Following four years of failed leadership, the hopes of our country, which have inspired the world, are growing dim; and they need someone to revive them. Governor Romney is the man for this moment; and he and I share one commitment: we will restore the dreams and greatness of this country."
Ryan heads the House Budget Committee and is author of a House-passed budget that would slash federal spending and overhaul entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.
"I am committed, in mind and heart, to putting that experience to work in a Romney Administration," Ryan said. "This is a crucial moment in the life of our nation; and it is absolutely vital that we select the right man to lead America back to prosperity and greatness."
Full text of Paul Ryan's speech:
Thank you Governor Romney, Ann. I am deeply honored and excited to join you as your running mate.
Mitt Romney is a leader with the skills, the background and the character that our country needs at a crucial time in its history. Following four years of failed leadership, the hopes of our country, which have inspired the world, are growing dim; and they need someone to revive them. Governor Romney is the man for this moment; and he and I share one commitment: we will restore the dreams and greatness of this country.
I want you to meet my family. My wife Janna, our daughter Liza, and our sons, Charlie and Sam.
I am surrounded by the people I love, and I have been asked by Governor Romney to serve the country I love.
Janesville, Wisconsin is where I was born and raised, and I never really left it. It's our home now.
For the last 14 years, I have proudly represented Wisconsin in Congress. There, I have focused on solving the problems that confront our country, and turning ideas into action; and action into solutions.
I am committed, in heart and mind, to putting that experience to work in a Romney Administration. This is a crucial moment in the life of our nation; and it is absolutely vital that we select the right man to lead America back to prosperity and greatness.
That man is standing next to me. His name is Mitt Romney. And he will be the next president of the United States
My dad died when I was young. He was a good and decent man. I still remember a couple of things he would say that have really stuck with me. "Son you are either part of the problem or part of the solution."
Regrettably, President Obama has become part of the problem,...and Mitt Romney is the solution.
The other thing my dad would say is that every generation of Americans leaves their children better off. That's the American legacy.
Sadly, for the first time in our history, we are on a path which will undo that legacy. That is why we need new leadership to become part of the solution – new leadership to restore prosperity, economic growth, and jobs.
It is our duty to save the American Dream for our children, and theirs.
And I believe there is no person in America who is better prepared – because of his experience; because of the principles he holds; and because of his achievements and excellence in so many different arenas – to lead America at this point in its history.
Let me say a word about the man Mitt Romney will replace. No one disputes President Obama inherited a difficult situation. And, in his first 2 years, with his party in complete control of Washington, he passed nearly every item on his agenda. But that didn't make things better.
In fact, we find ourselves in a nation facing debt, doubt and despair.
-This is the worst economic recovery in 70 years. Unemployment has been above 8 percent for more than three years, the longest run since the Great Depression. Families are hurting.
-We have the largest deficits and the biggest federal government since WWII.
-Nearly 1 out of 6 Americans are in poverty--the worst rate in a generation. Moms and dads are struggling to make ends meet.
-Household incomes have dropped by more than $4,000 over the past four years.
Whatever the explanations, whatever the excuses, this is a record of failure.
President Obama, and too many like him in Washington, have refused to make difficult decisions because they are more worried about their next election than they are about the next generation. We might have been able to get away with that before, but not now. We're in a different, and dangerous, moment. We're running out of time -- and we can't afford 4 more years of this.
Politicians from both parties have made empty promises which will soon become broken promises--with painful consequences--if we fail to act now.
I represent a part of America that includes inner cities, rural areas, suburbs and factory towns. Over the years I have seen and heard from a lot from families, from those running small businesses, and from people who are in need. But what I have heard lately troubles me the most. There is something different in their voice and in their words. What I hear from them are diminished dreams, lowered expectations, uncertain futures.
I hear some people say that this is just "the new normal." High unemployment, declining incomes and crushing debt is not a new normal. It's the result of misguided policies. And next January, our economy will begin a comeback with the Romney Plan for a Stronger Middle Class that will lead to more jobs and more take home pay for working Americans.
America is on the wrong track; but Mitt Romney and I will take the right steps, in the right time, to get us back on the right track!
I believe my record of getting things done in Congress will be a very helpful complement to Governor Romney's executive and private sector success outside Washington. I have worked closely with Republicans as well as Democrats to advance an agenda of economic growth, fiscal discipline, and job creation.
I'm proud to stand with a man who understands what it takes to foster job creation in our economy, someone who knows from experience, that if you have a small business—you did build that.
At Bain Capital, he launched new businesses and he turned around failing ones – companies like Staples, Bright Horizons and Sports Authority, just to name a few. Mitt Romney created jobs and showed he knows how a free economy works.
At the Olympics, he took a failing enterprise and made it the pride of our entire nation.
As governor of Massachusetts, he worked with Democrats and Republicans to balance budgets with no tax increases, lower unemployment, increase income and improve people's lives.
In all of these things, Mitt Romney has shown himself to be a man of achievement, excellence and integrity.
Janna and I tell Liza, Charlie and Sam that America is a place where, if you work hard and play by the rules, you can get ahead.
We Americans look at one another's success with pride, not resentment, because we know, as more Americans work hard, take risks, and succeed, more people will prosper, our communities will benefit, and individual lives will be improved and uplifted.
But America is more than just a place...it's an idea. It's the only country founded on an idea. Our rights come from nature and God, not government. We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.
This idea is founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise, self-determination and government by consent of the governed.
This idea is under assault. So, we have a critical decision to make as a nation.
We are on an unsustainable path that is robbing America of our freedom and security. It doesn't have to be this way.
The commitment Mitt Romney and I make to you is this:
We won't duck the tough issues...we will lead!
We won't blame others...we will take responsibility!
We won't replace our founding principles...we will reapply them!
We will honor you, our fellow citizens, by giving you the right and opportunity to make the choice:
-What kind of country do we want to have?
-What kind of people do we want to be?
We can turn this thing around. Real solutions can be delivered. But, it will take leadership. And the courage to tell you the truth.
Mitt Romney is this kind of leader. I'm excited for what lies ahead and I'm thrilled to be a part of America's Comeback Team. And together, we will unite America and get this done.
Thank you.


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As the region's three largest cities struggle annually to balance their budgets, they receive sharply differing amounts of help from the nonprofit colleges, hospitals and other institutions mostly exempt from paying local property taxes.
Wilkes-Barre gets more than twice as much money from its nonprofits in payments in lieu of taxes than Scranton even though a smaller percentage of real estate is tax exempt in Wilkes-Barre.
Hazleton, with half the tax-exempt land of Wilkes-Barre, gets nothing in lieu of taxes from nonprofits.
The disparities highlight a long-standing problem cities face as they try to meet their annual costs. The state constitution lets the General Assembly exempt nonprofits from real estate and other taxes. The General Assembly set up rules for tax exemptions, but never accounted for what that would mean for cities, which generally host the largest percentage of tax-exempt properties.
"And real estate tax is (a) leading source of revenue in communities," said Rick Schuettler, executive director of the Pennsylvania Municipal League, the lobbying group for cities. "It's a problem everywhere ... If the state is going to mandate that these properties be exempt, then the state has an obligation to compensate for the unfunded mandate."
Efforts to compensate cities for nonprofits with state money or change the tax-exemption rules have gone nowhere in the state General Assembly.
Few dispute the value nonprofits bring to cities. The people who work for them pay income taxes and their employees — and in the cases of colleges and universities, their students — spend money that supports businesses. Their buildings are generally well kept and just their appearance can make an area look livelier and more attractive while also producing offshoot businesses that generate taxes.
"It's not like they're just coming and leaving and not doing anything here," Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton said.
"Many of these nonprofits offer vital services to their communities and are real assets in the community," Mr. Schuettler said. "The problem is, because of the reliance on the property tax, it becomes very much a focus. Everybody, everybody has to pay a fair share, period."
In Scranton, about a third (33 percent) of the city's assessed real estate value is tax-exempt. If the city could tax all that land at its present millage rates, it could raise $11.5 million.
Wilkes-Barre is about a quarter (26 percent) tax-exempt, which could mean almost $3.5 million more.
About an eighth (12 percent) of the assessed value of Hazleton real estate is tax-exempt, which costs the city about $594,000.
Of course, not all tax-exempt land could ever be taxable. Much of it is owned by the cities themselves or state or federal governments, but the amounts of other tax-exempt land in the cities far exceeds that of most surrounding boroughs and townships, officials said.
There is a reason for that.
"Cities were the centers of commerce and the centers of activity going back to the creation of boroughs and cities from townships," said Gerald Cross, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Economy League's Central Division. "They were centers for the population, so the uses of property that became nonprofit uses actually occurred in the cities, unless they were churches. Every village had (churches). In order to take advantage of where the people are, you locate your nonprofit service where the people are."
After World War II, as more city residents moved to suburbs, the nonprofits stayed in the cities, unable to move either for economic reasons or believing it was unnecessary.
New nonprofit hospitals and colleges were rarely built in most surrounding towns, which never added the level of tax-exempt properties found in the cities.
"Let's face it, our cities are obviously the heart of education, they're the heart of government, they're the heart of health care," said state Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald.
By and large, the local educational, government and health care institutions are nonprofits.
On top of that, the universities and colleges — almost always the largest nonprofits — expanded dramatically.
From one-building schools, King's College and Wilkes College in Wilkes-Barre and Marywood College and the University of Scranton in Scranton grew. Wilkes and Marywood became universities, and consumed ever-larger amounts of land, which became tax-exempt.
Over the last 80 years, as local cities shrank in population, their tax bases shrank proportionally, even as the amount of tax-exempt land grew.
Not all land owned by nonprofits is tax-exempt. Nonetheless, nonprofits remain largely tax-exempt so cities have sought a substitute — payments in lieu of taxes.
City officials ask officials at local non-profit institutions to contribute something to city coffers to make up for the taxes lost because the nonprofits are tax-exempt. They argue the cities still provide the services — police, fire, roads — while getting nothing from the non-profits.
The results of their requests vary.
Wilkes-Barre does best.
Its $42.7 million, 2014 budget includes about $437,000 from payments in lieu of taxes, down about $200,000 from several years ago, largely because of the privatization of Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. As King's College grew in recent years, it upped its contribution from about $61,000 to $72,000, city spokesman Drew McLaughlin said.
"We did this voluntarily recognizing that as we grow, so does our need to help in some way to fund city services," John R. Loyack, King's vice president of business affairs and CFO, said in an email. "King's is inseparable from the city and we are doing all we can to provide resources to ensure a safe and inviting downtown for our students, employees and the community that supports us."
In Wilkes-Barre, payments in lieu of taxes have been around for a long time. When Mr. Leighton took office as mayor in 2004, he went to the nonprofits to ask for more money. He got it, he said. The payments are part of the culture in Wilkes-Barre, Mr. Cross of the PEL said.
"I think it's a cultural expectation, an understanding by the nonprofits that they're valuable members of the community, they get valuable services and they're willing to budget every year for those services," Mr. Cross said. "It's getting that ball rolling that's difficult... It's difficult when the city demands money because the city has bills. Well, we all have bills. That's no basis to deny money. It's much healthier when the city says, 'Look, we're providing you with an entire city around you, you would think that's worth something to you.' And if the college believes that's worth something they budget for it."
Scranton hasn't had nearly as much success convincing nonprofits to contribute.
The city is budgeting a hopeful $300,000 this year, hopeful because last year the city budgeted $1.3 million and collected less than $200,000 — $175,000 of that from the University of Scranton.
Mr. Cross said Scranton should look at Wilkes-Barre.
"Wilkes-Barre does it quietly. For example, I don't remember Wilkes-Barre pounding on the council table demanding money, holding them hostage," he said, referring to criticism of local nonprofit institutions by the former Scranton City Council majority led by Council President Janet Evans. "I don't remember Wilkes-Barre ever having unfriendly conversations with a college saying, 'You can't buy the Ramada (Inn in downtown Wilkes-Barre as King's did) because we will do everything in our power to sue you, slow you down and prevent the expansion. As if they were some sort of parasite ... You punch someone in the mouth, it's hard to get the conversation off that initial note."
Asked if he agrees with Mr. Cross's comments, Gerald Zaboski, the university's vice president for external affairs, said in an email, "We believe that the health and well-being of the city of Scranton and the university are intertwined. We have and will continue to approach the city in a spirit of partnership and collaboration."
Scranton Mayor Bill Courtright said he plans a subtler approach.
"Our plan is, once we get some of the financial issues out of the way, ... is to go to the nonprofits and ask them for help," he said. "Whether it be a donation or doing a project or buying a fire truck, something they could see a direct result from their money. We haven't decided how we're going to approach that yet, but it's something that we've been talking about quite a bit ... We'll certainly look at how Wilkes-Barre is getting more money than we are ... We want to partner with them (nonprofits). We don't want it to be adversarial."
Hazleton does worst of the three Northeast Pennsylvania cities. The city gets no money from nonprofits.
Mayor Joseph Yannuzzi said he tried. In September 2012, he wrote nonprofits asking for help.
"Nonprofits are members of the city like everybody else, and do receive the services that other residents have," Mr. Yannuzzi said. "Yet they don't pay for them. So that actually is a contribution to nonprofits from the city. And that's something that we can't afford."
His lone response was from a priest "who said we don't do anything for him," Mr. Yannuzzi said.
So, he said he had no choice. The city imposed a stormwater management fee that everybody pays.
Contact the writer: email@example.com


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Submission + - Herbert estate forces Paramount to make Dune soon 1
bowman9991 writes: "Paramount's 'Dune' movie adaptation is in trouble, with the Herbert estate forcing Paramount to get the production up and running by May 2011 at the latest. If not, Paramount will no longer be able to adapt Frank Herbert's novel for the big screen. The threat comes as Paramount reveals that they are again looking for a director after Pierre Morel moved to an executive producer role. Morel had replaced Peter Berg who has left to direct 'Battleship'."


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Mitel enables Compassion Australia to collaborate more, while spending less.
- Faced with an increasingly unreliable and expensive telephone system, Compassion Australia needed a new solution to enhance its call center effectiveness, offer voice and video conferencing, and free it from cost restraints.
- Mitel UC solution comprising 150 ShorePhone® IP 230 and IP 560 telephones, ShoreWare® Operator and ShoreWare Personal Call Manager, integrated workgroups, voice presence management, calendar integration, and visual voicemail.
- $100,000 in savings over three years
- Single system for worldwide collaboration
- IT timesaving of 20 hours per week
- Savings of $10,000+ by eliminating third-party services
Rising costs impede charity's goals
Faced with increasing phone traffic, Compassion Australia's IT Manager Michael Macarthur noticed that the organization's phone system was severely limiting in its ability to support the widespread level of communications across the organization.
Increasing costs at the expense of helping children in poverty
Compassion Australia is an international Christian child development and advocacy ministry committed to the development of children living in extreme poverty. The organization sponsors more than 1 million children in 25 developing countries across Africa, Asia, Central America, and South America.
Restrictions on phone usage were impeding its work. Since the organization is rated in the top ten for "Bang for Your Buck," with 80 percent of finances going to help children, it could not afford to pay more for communications. In short, every minute spent managing the phone system meant less time assisting children in need.
"We had an IPBX system that was an application trying to be a phone system — as is the case with many other early IP systems," explains Compassion Australia's IT Manager Michael Macarthur. "We incurred unanticipated fees to scale and an increasing amount of non-budgeted, day-to-day operating expenses for tasks like adding features and expanding options. Equally frustrating was the voice system's lack of reliability."
In short, the IP phone system was difficult to use, and IT had to spend a lot of time trying to repair and upgrade the system. Given the rising costs and the frustrating use of resources, Compassion Australia approached IT services and solutions specialists Davicom to help them find a more practical and cost-effective solution to meet the needs of its busy offices.
Competitive pricing and attractive licensing model separates Mitel from its competitors
Macarthur recognized that the organization needed an IP telephone system that would be cost-effective, while simultaneously providing services among its offices. He was also interested in a solution that allowed the staff to stay connected and collaborate effectively with the company's overseas partners through voice and video conferencing.
"We are a progressive organization and recognize that technology can help us reach more people and spread the message about child poverty issues strongly and clearly," says Macarthur. "We needed a solution that improved our communications and relationships without breaking the bank."
Together, Compassion Australia and Davicom evaluated and researched several of Australia's leading IP telephony providers. They immediately identified the Mitel UC solution as the most reputable and highly rated provider among its competitors.
"We decided on Mitel because it has the rich features needed in a corporate IP system, including presence management," remarks Macarthur. "Plus, its competitive pricing and attractive licensing model meant that it stood out for affordability as well."
Compassion Australia chose a Mitel UC system with 150 ShorePhone® IP 230 and IP 560 telephones. Other features of the system include ShoreWare® Operator Call Manager, integrated workgroups, voice presence management, calendar integration, and visual voicemail. ShoreWare Personal Call Manager was also installed, which enables staff to forward their voicemail to email, and consolidate all messages for the most convenient and efficient access.
The organization also is using Mitel Converged Conferencing for collaboration across its offices. "We were able to eliminate more than $800 per month that was spent on an external third-party conferencing service," explains Macarthur. "We have recently upgraded to ShoreWare Professional Call Manager, and are in the process of deploying video calls to our regional staff and integrating other features that will improve collaboration across the organization."
Michael Macarthur, IT Manager
Compassion Australia
The staff and volunteers at Compassion Australia were also excited about the intuitive features in the Mitel UC system, which include the ability to answer and easily transfer calls to any location.
With the assistance of Davicom, the Mitel system was easily deployed and implemented on-site in Compassion Australia's workrooms. The entire system was deployed over a weekend, and training took place in the previous week with easy-to-follow instructions for all employees. With on-site support and configuration, the system switchover took less than two weeks.
Cost savings and ease of use from day one
Aside from ease of installation, Compassion Australia saw immediate cost benefits. With the savings, the organization implemented a national private network, linking each of Compassion Australia's offices internally, so communication among the offices is completely free.
The organization has experienced long-term cost benefits as well, estimating $100,000 savings over three years, compared to their previous system.
Macarthur was impressed with the capabilities of the Mitel Converged Conferencing solution. "Mitel Conferencing has radically changed how we do work and involve our staff," he says. "We no longer have to fight for budget allowance, and the ROI on the entire system was less than a year."
"Mitel's temporary licensing agreements allow for one-off system requirements to be installed for special events. So when we hold events and telethons, which may require new phone configurations for a limited timeframe, the Mitel system can deliver. By allowing us to purchase licenses on a temporary basis, the costs of running such an event are greatly reduced," he adds.
The Mitel UC system has met Compassion Australia's needs for a reliable system that improves call center effectiveness, and provides a modern conferencing system among offices. For Macarthur, Mitel also has provided a robust platform for growth: "An IT professional's job is never done, and the team is already looking forward to future plans and adding functionality," he says.
Compassion Australia is running a trial program with ShoreWare Mobile Call Manager on all of its BlackBerry mobile devices. Once fully installed, the software will enhance off-site connectivity and voicemail access, and enable Mitel's office anywhere features for workers who need to be on the road or working remotely.
The organization is also looking to integrate Mitel's UC solution with Microsoft Exchange 2007 and Office Communications Server. With this upgrade, staff will be accessible through many types of methods, including voice, video, conferencing, chat, and email.
"Our staff is now a huge fan of Mitel, and I have no doubt that Compassion Australia will continue using this system for many years to come," concludes Macarthur. "Mitel provided communications reliability and alleviated budget constraints, and most importantly, they have enabled us to focus on our important core mission – building relationships and improving children's lives."


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WHO / WHERE - Dual Enrollment Option 3 allows high school students to enroll in one tuition free online class per semester.
COST - The tuition for the course is waived, but the student is responsible for any applicable fees and the cost of the textbook. IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THE TUITION WAIVER, STUDENTS MUST CONTACT MS. CINDY WELLS (firstname.lastname@example.com) or 601-403-1374 EVERY SEMESTER.
HOW - In order to participate in Option 3, the student must provide the following to the Office of Extended Education & Instructional Design:
- A completed Option 3 Dual Enrollment Recommendation Form
- PRCC Application
- Student/Parent Agreement Form - This form is to give permission for Pearl River Community College to provide the final course grade(s) of the student to the high school if the student is receiving Dual Credit. (Dual Credit is arranged by the high school and must be aligned according to state guidelines.)
- Official High School Transcript - Ask the high school to mail the transcript to:
Pearl River Community College
General Education and Technology Services
101 Hwy 11 N
Box 5419
Poplarville, Mississippi 39470
When you bring your completed information to the Office for General Education and Technology Services, personnel will assist you in completing the registration process (Business Office, registration, textbooks, etc.). If you have any questions, contact Cindy Wells at email@example.com or 601-403-1374.
If the high school wishes to use the College course as a Dual Credit course, then the high school coordinator must complete the following steps:
- Articulation Agreement
- Designate a contact person at the high school or in the central office.
- Provide a complete list of the Option 2 Dual Enrollment students to whom the Articulation Agreement applies to the Office for General Education and Technology Services. For assistance, contact Martha Smith at email@example.com or 601-403-1209.


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THE PRODUCERS of "The Animation Show," Robert May and Rebecca Moline, are aware of a certain stereotype about cartoon fans.
"Animation is typically deemed to be either for children or perverts," May says, only half-joking, from his office in North Hollywood. "We are firmly in the middle. Our show is for adults, based mostly on mature subject matter, but I wouldn't call this 'Fritz the Cat.' "
No kittens canoodling, to put it demurely, but this year's program of two-dozen-plus independent short films definitely takes a ribald tone. "The Animation Show," which has put together three previous feature-length collections, started in 2003 with Mike Judge of "Beavis and Butt-head" fame and Oscar-nominated animator Don Hertzfeldt curating, but this year finds Judge solely in control. Hertzfeldt, creator of the short "Rejected," is working on TV projects.
After last year's somber program, or, as May called it, "a dozen shorts on death," Judge and the producers wanted the show to play lighter and faster.
"This year we tried to focus more on comedy," Judge wrote in an e-mail. "This tour is like the midnight shows I loved to watch [at the International Tourneés of Animation] with a good mix of comedy and shorts that are visually amazing to look at on the big screen."
The sensibility for "The Animation Show 4," opening at the Nuart on Friday with Judge in attendance, is indeed very Judgian. Steve Dildarian's six-minute deadpan short, "Angry Unpaid Hooker," is a throwback to the "Beavis" days of crude animation, with ink-scratched hair and squawking mouths. No silky computer 3-D here.
"I drew 'Angry Unpaid Hooker' with a Bic pen, and then my girlfriend [Leynette Cariapa] added color in Photoshop," Dildarian said from his home in San Francisco. "I wanted it to look raw and wrong. It didn't look like someone who knew animation was involved."
Dildarian, who has worked extensively as a copywriter, most notably creating Budweiser's lizard and donkey ads, is now neck-deep in production on "The Life and Times of Tim," his animated HBO show debuting in September.
But even with a bigger budget and HBO's image as an arbiter of classy TV fare, Dildarian is preserving his messy, naive style. "We tried to hire people who don't have animation experience. . . . Once they start drawing too well, the perspective gets too accurate; it loses its soul."
It's relatively hard to get play for animation outside the festival circuit. But there is one exception: the Internet, where anything that whittles off two minutes of one's workday can turn into a sensation, given enough clicks.
"All of these new media outlets have made the short form incredibly popular again," Judge wrote. But a thumbnail image with tinny sound through earphones can't compete with the virtuosity of the theater. "Nothing replaces seeing this work on the big screen. . . . These films play differently when you see them projected with an audience."
'THE ANIMATION SHOW 4' WHERE: Landmark's Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles WHEN: Mike Judge and Steve Dildarian in attendance, 7:30 and 9:50 p.m. Fri.; runs Fri.-next Thu. PRICE: $10 INFO: (310) 281-8223, landmarktheatres.com


text:
The Amarillo Bulls lost a heartbreaker on the road, as the Texas Tornado rallied from a 2-1 deficit to take a 3-2 win in overtime Friday night in North American Hockey league action in Frisco.
The Tornado's Andrew Mayer scored an unassisted goal at 3:50 of overtime to defeat Amarillo. With the win, second-place Texas (25-10-1, 51 points) gained a point on the second-place Bulls (26-3-4, 56) in the NAHL South Division race.
Amarillo led 2-1 after the first period, thanks to goals from Matt Sieckhaus and Mike Davis. Sieckhaus found the back of the net at 7:30 of the first on a play assisted by Joe Grabowski and John Rey. Scott Conway scored at 9:40 for Texas to even the teams at a goal apiece. Davis answered less than a minute later on a goal assisted by Garret Peterson and T.J. Sherman.
After that, Tornado goaltender Hunter Leisner shut the door on the visitors. Texas knotted the score again in the second with a goal by Mitchell McPherson. After a scoreless third period, the teams went to overtime.
Leisner stopped 30 of 32 Bulls shots and improved his record to 21-9-0. Bulls goalie Paul Berrafato stopped 32 of 35 shots and dropped to 17-1-3. Both netminders were effective against the power play, as the teams went a combined 0-6 with the extra skater.
The Bulls will get a chance for payback when the division rivals will face off again at 7 p.m. Saturday in Frisco.


text:
Northern Hip Hop/Rockers, Equal Xchange play their original music live on The PlayList. The band has Rain Elfvin singing lead vocals and includes Jesse Hoheisel, Jason Kokal, Mat Milinkovich,& Brad Fernholz.
Equal Xchange, Basketball Joke
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Funding for this program is provided by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Click here for more information or visit the Minnesota Legacy website.Clean Water, Land & Legacy Amendment


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|2007-01-25, 12:48
|Link #1
Seeker of Power
Wangan Midnight
Wangan MIDNIGHT
Genre: Shounen, sports (auto racing)
Mangaka: Kusunoki Michiharu (楠 みちはる)
Production: OB Planning
Release date: June 9th, 2007
Website: http://www.ppvj.co.jp/anime/0706wanganmidnight/
Channel: ANIMAX (PPV)
The story gets its roots from actual racing that takes place on a stretch of Tokyo's Shuto Expressway called the "wangan" (literally: bay side), which is the longest and straightest run of road in Japan. Racers who choose to run the wangan are met with traffic, high-speed accidents, and blown engines.The ongoing manga has been serialized in YOUNG MAGAZINE since 1993, with a total of 36 volumes currently in print. An anime adaptation was announced in YOUNG MAGAZINE in November according to an ANS article. It was not specified if the anime would air on Spring or if production would begin in Spring. Wangan MIDNIGHT has spawned several arcade and console games, with the newest PS3 version slated for a 2007 release; a little-known series of live action movies is also loosely based on the manga.
The manga is currently unlicensed and being scanlated by New Comer of Wangan.
OP: 「lights and any more」 - TRF
ED: 「Talkin' bout good days」 - Mother Ninja
I think it's probably a good thing that the series is being broadcast on a PPV channel. Racing anime does not exactly equal popularity for the general otaku public. It'll boil down to people who are waiting for more Initial D and people who play the CS/AC games. I'm hoping that great care is given to the car designs, as well as the exhaust notes and other various automotive sounds (the Devil Z's blow-off valve as heard in the games is very distinctive). I was happy with these things in ID 4th Stage, so my hopes are high.
Last edited by the.Merines; 2007-05-22 at 10:50. Reason: added OP/ED song info
|2007-03-08, 08:41
|Link #3
Seeker of Power
So, as NeoSam has noted, WM was listed on this Kodansha page sometime yesterday but has since been removed. MOONPHASE now lists this anime as starting on 06/08. However, I'm taking this news with a grain of salt since the webpage was taken down.
|2007-03-23, 07:09
|Link #4
Seeker of Power
Double-post, sorry, but I'm the only person here interested in this.
The anime is now confirmed via the TAF2007. Production will be by OB Planning, who also did the Initial D anime. This is both good and bad... The CG cars in Initial D 4th Stage were very nicely done with pretty realistic-looking physics, but it's a well-known fact that the character designs weren't the best.
|2007-04-01, 07:36
|Link #6
Seeker of Power
Some staff info lifted from ANN.
Reiko Suhou as Reina Akigawa
Shinichiro Miki as Tatsuya Shima
Shun Oguri as Akio Asakura
Director: Tsuneo Tominaga
Series Composition: Nobuaki Kishima
Screenplay: Nobuaki Kishima
Music: Atsushi Umebori
Original creator: Michiharu Kusunoki
Character Design: Hisashi Kagawa
Art director: Michiko Morokuma
Mechanical design: Hideaki Yokoi
Director of Photography: Masaki Nakamura
Art Setting: Satoru Kuwabara
Color setting: Michiyo Iriomote
Editing: Shinji Kobukata
Editorial Supervision: Keiichi Tsuchiya (Hot Version Editorial Dept.)
Sound director: Masafumi Mima
Theme Song Performance: TRF
A lot of these people also worked on Initial D at one stage or another, and seeing the name of legendary Dori-dori Keiichi Tsuchiya on an anime staff listing aways makes me smile.
|2007-04-01, 16:20
|Link #7
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Not to sound too ignorant, but how does this differ from Initial D in terms of story? I know both cover the same subject matter, but I'm hoping that it'll be different enough to not feel like a rehash.
I do know the arcade game's soundtrack is quite awesome, using trance instead of eurobeat...
|2007-04-01, 22:34
|Link #8
Seeker of Power
I don't know the long-term plot lines since the manga's only been translated up to chapter 10 or so, but I'll try to sum up the beginning.
Main character
Initial D: Takumi has been driving the touge since he was 14 (or whatever) and has developed a skill for it through much practice and whatnot. He drives his dad's old car as a delivery driver, but doesn't let it interfere with his school life/work. He's not really competative (at first).
Wangan Midnight: Akio has his own car, a Nissan Z31 (1983-1988 300ZX). He races as much as he can on the wangan. He misses class often enough that he is held back a grade, and he's fired from his job as a waiter as well. One day he encounters and races a legendary car/driver and loses big time. Akio is extremely competitive and immediately goes out to find more go-fast parts, leading him to find the Devil Z.
Initial D: the Takahashi brothers. They are legends; rich playboys who are dead serious about their hobby.
Wangan Midnight: Tatsuya Shima, medical doctor. Driver of the Porsche 964 Turbo known as the BlackBird. His street racing is just a hobby and nothing more, but he's extremely competitive, especially towards the Devil Z.
|2007-05-28, 01:26
|Link #12
Senior Member
Well, I am hoping that there will be something different in terms of music, hearing Eurobeat in this anime would sound a little too strange (got too used to WMMT2's trance-style music).
|2007-06-08, 14:29
|Link #13
GT-R Fanatic
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Toronto, Canada
Age: 28
To prepare for the premiere of Wangan Midnight, Best Motoring has come out with this:
That's right, a track test of 5 replicas of WM cars, specifically the Devil Z, Blackbird, F512M, JZA80, and R32.
That DVD also includes a track test of the new Civic Type-R plus 2 different batles at Maze Circuit (Stock CTR vs S2000 and then SPoon CTR vs J's Racing S2000 vs Seeker S2000) and the latest on the 2007 season of the Super GT championship.
|2007-06-10, 06:38
|Link #19
Join Date: Feb 2006
Age: 34
Fansub TV forums.
On another note, not sure if I like the look of this show after flicking through episode 1. I had high hopes for Oguri Shun's 2nd anime appearance, but I'm not sure based on episode 1 if this series is going to deliver.
|2007-06-10, 20:49
|Link #20
Senior Member
I understand what do you mean. It doesn't feel like 'being at 300km/h' at times, but give them time, this is entirely something new for OB Planning (even if they worked on racing animes before).
|racing, seinen
|Thread Tools


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WILKES-BARRE — Robert J. Powell wore a wire to help federal agents nail two corrupt Luzerne County judges. Now the former Butler Township attorney wants those judges, who are serving lengthy prison terms, to testify on his behalf in a class-action suit stemming from the infamous kids-for-cash case.
Powell, the former co-owner of two for-profit juvenile detention centers that generated kickbacks for former judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan, wrote in a letter to a federal judge this week that Ciavarella and Conahan are "crucial to my defense" against civil claims filed by former detainees at the centers. Powell is seeking to delay a trial in the civil case, scheduled for April before U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo, in part to secure the former judges' testimony.
"Getting these witnesses to trial will take significant effort given the Bureau of Prisons policy regarding the transportation of prisoners," Powell wrote.
Ciavarella, 63, is serving a 28-year sentence in a federal prison in Illinois after being convicted on racketeering and other counts in a trial that featured prosecution testimony from Powell. Conahan, 61, is serving 17½ years in a federal prison in Florida after pleading guilty to racketeering.
Powell, 54, testified that he paid $770,000 to the judges, who were instrumental in closing a county-owned juvenile detention center and directing juvenile defendants to his private centers. Powell testified that Ciavarella, the county's juvenile court judge, threatened to cut off the flow of juveniles if he was not paid.
Powell served 18 months in prison for failing to report a felony in the case.
Despite Conahan's guilty plea and Ciavarella's admission that he violated tax laws while denying other charges, Powell wrote to Caputo that "there is no evidence that either of them has ever admitted to any wrongdoing in this case," Efforts to reach Powell were unsuccessful Tuesday.
Powell wrote to Caputo seeking the trial delay after his attorney, Jane Sebelin, asked to withdraw from the case, saying Powell did not have the financial capability to pay for representation.
In his letter, Powell asked for time to secure a new attorney and to give that attorney time to become familiar with the case. The letter also notes that Powell is seeking to have his legal representation funded by the companies that owned and operated the detention centers.
Powell relinquished his interest in the firms to his partner, investment banker Gregory Zappala, in 2008 after the federal kids-for-cash probe became public.
Zappala was never charged in the case. His companies have agreed to a $2.5 million settlement with hundreds of former juvenile defendants who appeared before Ciavarella and are plaintiffs in the class-action suit. Powell is seeking to stall the settlement, which has yet to be finalized.
Another kids-for-cash figure, developer Robert K. Mericle, who built the detention centers and paid the two judges more than $2 million, reached a
$17.5 million settlement in the class-action suit. Mericle also testified against Ciavarella and pleaded guilty to failure to report a felony. His sentencing has been on hold pending his expected testimony in an unrelated public corruption case.
email@example.com, 570-301-2178, @davejanoski


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Skip to comments.Petition to recall LA Senator Mary Landrieu
Posted on 01/08/2010 3:16:20 AM PST by Scanian
The blog And So It Goes in Shreveport notes that a petition to recall Senator Mary Landrieu has been accepted for filing by the Louisiana Secretary of State. Citizens have 180 days to file enough signatures to get this on a ballot:
"Via Caught Him With a Corndog, there is an active petition to recall Senator Mary Landrieu:
'On Dec. 29, a recall petition was filed by Ruben Leblanc of New Iberia, for the recall of Mary Landrieu. Sec. of State Jay Darden stated that he WILL accept the filing.'
Kinda like chicken fried bacon, this limited time offer won't last. Citizens have 180 days starting Dec. 29 so get with it today if you would like to see Me-ry 'Louisiana Purchase' Landrieu hit the bricks before her service is up.
Go here for details and here to see the case for a recall.
If the story reported by The Dead Pelican this weekend holds true, that she used her vote for Obamacare to bargain for national democratic support for her brother's mayoral campaign, I'd say more than a recall is in order. We're keeping our eyes on that story and will update accordingly."
The blog Caught Him with a Corndog first broke the story and has a follow up to it :
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I would speculate that it is not enforceable. There is no provision within the 17th or within the Constitution that allows for voters to recall an elected Senator.
The United States Constitution expressly establishes the exclusive qualifications for congressional office, sets the specific length of terms for Members of the House and for Senators, and places the authority within each House of Congress to judge the elections and qualifications of, and to discipline and remove, its own Members. These provisions of the United States Constitution, with respect to federal officials, have supremacy over State laws and provisions, and State laws in conflict with such constitutional provisions have been found by the courts in the past to be invalid. Although the language of some State recall laws might be broad enough to include Members of Congress, or might even explicitly include such federal officers, such statutes would not appear to be effective in overriding the provisions of the United States Constitution with regard to terms of office, elections and removal of Members.
I believe that it varies by state.
I am not so sure. However, I do agree with you that it probably would not be enforceable. However, The Seventeenth Amendment does not affect the restriction in Article I, § 4, cl. 1, which prohibits the Congress from exercising a power to "make or alter" state regulations of elections in order to determine where Senators must be chosen.
If recall isn't specifically prohibited, one would think that it's up to state law and Lousiana's citizens to determine who represents them in the Senate.
Oh, forgot to mention. Legal or not, it's probably not enforceable. Democrats brazenly violate the law and retain their seats, as it it's an entitlement. Shall I list a few names?
wrong, SOS said it cannot be done, have to go to court.
Congressman Billybob, any insights into this? There must be SOME constitutional way provided for voters to remove non-representing representatives.
"These provisions of the United States Constitution, with respect to federal officials, have supremacy over State laws and provisions, and State laws in conflict with such constitutional provisions have been found by the courts in the past to be invalid. "
That conflicts with the 10th amendment, and the 10th hasn't been rescinded. Looks like another fairy tale interpretation by the marxists in black robes. Time for states to exercise their nullification option.
It's up to the individual State. New Jersey has a recall provision and a recall petition is just getting under way there.
I agree - the exercise is worth it. If these recalls spring up around the country, it will send a message to the critters in DC. Who knows, some state may luck out and get a friendly judge on the challenge.
Members of Congress cannot be recalled even if state law allows for recall petitions. Other than being voted out of office the only options are resignation or being disbarred by Congress itself. However, it might be possible to pressure for a resignation by declaring a jihad on local Democrats. If the state Democratic party is looking at extinction because of a member of Congress they might pressure their Congress critter to make an exit.
Its too bad all states don't have recall petition amendments.That would cut down on senators getting elected to screw their voters for 5 years before having to worry about being held accountable.
How d'ya suppose Ben Nelson would do about now?
The petition was rejected by Jay Dardenne in the same vain that the petition to recall Congressman Cao was rejected. It was filed on Monday, Jan. 4, 2010 and rejected on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010 by Dardenne.
See story at this Gannett link. Can't post excerpts:
"Its up to the individual State. New Jersey has a recall provision and a recall petition is just getting under way there."
**REALLY?** I live in Jersey first I heard of it..Who we recalling?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


text:
You assume that the code isn't generated directly from the model. Given that there are many tools that do just that (Rational Rose, et. al.), I'd say that the parent is correct. We've simply moved our correctness requirements up one level of abstraction.
Once I went to a talk about applications of model checking to the verification of software. A programmer was constantly changing a state-based algorithm for call setup in a telephone switch, and was having trouble keeping it correct. Enter model checking. Two people wrote temporal specifications of call setup, and every night or so, they'd grind the model checker on the latest version of the code. No, that didn't prove the code was correct, but it did catch an enormous number of bugs in a tricky piece of concurrent code.
Oh. The programmer was Ken Thompson. The people applying the model checker were Gerard Holzmann (the designer of SPIN) and Margaret Smith.
I'm not saying the technology is applicable everywhere, but you gotta give Clarke, Emerson, and Sifakis a lot of credit for opening a good door.
That said, you do have a point that formulating the models is not justified for a lot of routine code. Furthermore, in practice, as I understa
The program became little more than a different expression of the formal specifications, such that it would be possible not only to check that a program had no "errors" and followed the specification exactly, but it would also be possible to have an automated process translate the formal specification into a program directly.
That depends on the problem. I can specify a square root finding algorithm: the output multiplied by itself must be equal to the input (within some epsilon error tolerance). I doubt you can extract any useful implementation from that. A slightly more complicated example, I can specify a sorting algorithm: the output must have all the same elements as the input, and for each index i of the ouput the ith element must be less than the (i+1)th element. Trying to translate that (or its more formal equivalent) i
You just cannot write a program that will answer the question on an arbitrary other program.
That was kind of my point, but I guess jokes about the halting problem and undecidability are a little over this crowd.
PS: Good news, guys: psychology has lots of female students, so we might solve two problems in one blow.
not only that, it would provide psychology students with steady stream of abnormal personalities to study
Things are not as simple as they seems at first. - Edward Thorp


text:
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Dec. 14, 2012 05:46 PM
SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 12/14/12 -- The San Diego American Marketing Association (AMA) is hosting the 15th Annual AMA Cause Conference on March 20, 2013. The conference brings together both for profit and nonprofit professionals at the largest cause partnership event on the West Coast. The theme for the 2013 conference is "Creating Pathways to Sustainable Value" and will focus on the intersection of purpose and profit and how creating meaningful partnerships between nonprofit and for profit organizations leads to sustainable value.
The conference will feature multiple speaker sessions and workshops between 8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. on March 20, 2013. The conference takes place at the Corky McMillin Companies Event Center in the NTC Promenade at Liberty Station (2875 Dewey Road, San Diego, CA 92106).
The AMA is seeking session proposals from experienced speakers and individuals with unique insight and expertise in the following areas:
Interested professionals are encouraged to submit session proposals online at www.sdama.org/cause-conference no later than January 6, 2013. Proposals must be relevant to the mission of the Cause Conference (i.e. cause marketing, nonprofit development, nonprofit and for profit collaboration, fundraising, and sustainability).
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Edmonton, AB (SportsNetwork.com) - Cam Talbot stopped 26 shots for his third shutout of the season as the New York Rangers dominated the Edmonton Oilers, 5-0, on Sunday.
New York is now two points ahead of Philadelphia for second place in the Metropolitan Division, as the Flyers dropped a shootout decision to Boston earlier on Sunday. However, Philadelphia does have two games in hand on New York.
Mats Zuccarello had two goals and an assist, while Rick Nash scored twice and Derrick Brassard also scored for the Rangers, who have won six of their last seven.
"On some nights you need some bounces and we got a couple tonight," Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault said.
Ben Scrivens allowed all five goals for the Oilers, who have lost four of five.
"We have to find a way to manufacture some offense and it's something that we're going to have to look into this summer as we add and subtract," Oilers head coach Dallas Eakins said.
New York scored with 3:30 left in the first period as Anton Stralman threw a shot on net from the high slot that Zuccarello tipped in for a 1-0 lead.
It was a 2-0 game at 4:38 of the second, as the Rangers scored on the power play when Brassard threw the puck towards the slot from the right boards, but it took a bounce off an Edmonton stick and sailed into the net.
Nash scored his first of the game at 9:07 of the second when he banked the puck in from the right side of the net, and added a shorthander four minutes later as he finished off a shorthanded break with a wrister from the left side.
It was another shorthanded goal for the Rangers at 3:49 as Zuccarello took a pass from Derek Stepan in the slot and flung it in for his 17th of the season.
Talbot finished off the shutout with 10 saves in the third period.
Game Notes
It's the fourth straight 40-loss season for the Oilers, who have allowed a league-high 13 shorthanded goals this season ... Edmonton has been shut out nine times this season, while New York has posted eight shutouts ... The Rangers plays in Vancouver on Tuesday ... Edmonton plays at San Jose on Tuesday.