text:
The American economy has some really quirky corners—places so esoteric or tucked away we hardly notice them. In 1998, Drew Greenblatt bought one of those corners—a company called Marlin Steel that specialized in a single product: wire bagel baskets, which bagel stores use to display their wares. Marlin had the market to itself. "You had the guy who made baskets for the doughnut stores, Dunkin' Donuts and the like," Greenblatt says. "You had the guy who made the metal chafer stands that buffet serving dishes sit on, with the cans of Sterno. And you had us, doing the bagel baskets." Marlin's customers were the big chains: Einstein Bros., Bruegger's. "Once in a while, we'd edge into each other's business," he says. "The doughnut guy would try to get some bagel stores. But mostly we did our own thing."
Marlin was based in Brooklyn then. Greenblatt, who was 31 when he bought the company, moved it down to Baltimore, near his hometown, along with nine families who wanted to stay with Marlin. It was really just a metalworking shop: 18 employees, most at minimum wage, using hand tools to bend and weld metal, with $800,000 a year in sales. Marlin didn't own a fax machine, and most of the equipment was from the 1950s. Purchase orders arrived by mail. The pace was methodical and unhurried—each employee made 15 or 20 baskets a day. Still, says Greenblatt, make no mistake: "We were the King of the Bagel Baskets."
But not for long.
Within five years of buying Marlin, Greenblatt was getting killed. Chinese factories suddenly started making bagel baskets. Marlin sold its baskets for $12 apiece and with 36 baskets to equip a typical bagel shop made $450 when a company added a location. Chinese factories were selling baskets for $6 each. Marlin's customers were switching to save $200 a store. And Marlin would never be able to match its Chinese competitors on price. "My steel was costing me $7 a basket," says Greenblatt. "We were going to go extinct." It would have been smarter for him to buy bagel baskets from China for $6 each and sell them for $6.50.
Marlin's crisis came at an interesting moment in the history of making stuff. The bad news about U.S. manufacturing has been stark and recited relentlessly. The United States has 6 million fewer factory jobs today than in 1998, a decline of one-third in 15 years to just 12 million, the fewest since May 1941. Yet U.S. manufacturing is not dead or even moribund. Indeed, part of the job loss springs from growth in productivity. U.S. factories are relentless efficiency machines. The typical American factory worker today produces one-third more than in 2000, which is why manufacturers have been able to increase output while cutting employees. The United States still makes more stuff, by dollar value, than any nation in the world except China, which moved into the top spot only in 2010.
And the United States still has hundreds of thousands of factories. The ones we notice are big—GE, Toyota, Whirlpool—but most are small, like Marlin Steel. The average U.S. factory has just 40 employees. Many such factories get trampled on price alone and disappear without notice, taking a steady trickle of jobs with them.
Marlin saved itself by facing a truth that few threatened manufacturers can stomach: It was failing because it had gotten everything wrong. It had the wrong customers; it had the wrong products; it had the wrong prices. Greenblatt realized—just in time—that even wire baskets could be innovative. The simplicity of Marlin's technology is not what we typically associate with innovation—there's no algorithm, no microchip, no touch screen. Instead, Marlin learned how its products could help its customers, providing the quiet innovation that can give a fellow U.S. factory a critical edge and help keep jobs in the United States.
Today, a decade later, Marlin Steel is outcompeting not just Chinese factories but German ones as well. Its sales are six times the 2003 level, and it has almost double the number of employees. The staffers have health insurance and 401(k) accounts (five employees are on pace to be 401(k) millionaires) and an average wage four times what it was a decade ago. The little Baltimore factory runs double shifts. Most remarkably, Marlin is still making wire baskets—just not bagel baskets. Or at least not very many.
The job that rescued Marlin Steel was small—20 baskets, a $500 order. Greenblatt was handling sales in 2003, so he took the call himself. "It was an engineer from Boeing," he says. "He didn't think I was in the bagel-basket business. He just needed custom wire baskets." The Boeing engineer, who had seen a Marlin ad in the Thomas Register, a pre-Internet manufacturing directory, wanted baskets to hold airplane parts and move them around the factory. He wanted them fast. And he wanted them made in a way Marlin wasn't used to—with astonishing precision. For bagel stores, says Greenblatt, "if the bagel didn't fall out between the wires, the quality was perfect." The Boeing engineer needed the basket's size to be within a sixty-fourth of an inch of his specifications. "I told him, 'I'll have to charge you $24 a basket,'" says Greenblatt. "He said, 'Yeah, yeah, whatever. No problem. When are you going to ship them?'"
What got Greenblatt's attention in that phone call wasn't the need for speed or even the quality standards. It was that Boeing was completely unconcerned about price. "I'm trying to sell a basket for $12, the bagel shops are saying, 'I'm not paying more than $6.' I'm ready to jump off a bridge, and here's a guy who just shrugs at the outrageous sum of $24. I was like, Wow. He's price insensitive."
That epiphany marked Marlin's rebirth. The company would keep bending heavy-gauge wire to make baskets, but instead of going to Bruegger's to hold bagels, the baskets would go to the factories of Toyota and Caterpillar, Merck and GE to hold everything from microchips to turbine blades.
Greenblatt almost didn't make the leap. "Actually," says Andy Ratner, one of Greenblatt's office staff, "Drew's first reaction was: This is totally not what we do." Greenblatt adds: "The Boeing guy needed a plus-or-minus tolerance on the wires. We weren't used to that at all. We just used a tape measure."
But Greenblatt had to try something new. On top of the competition from China, the bagel business was collapsing after a period of wild overexpansion in the 1990s. Einstein Bros. and Bruegger's went from 303 stores in 1995 to 1,044 stores in 1997—together opening 30 new bagel outlets a month for two years. Just three years later, Einstein Bros. filed for bankruptcy protection and closed 200 stores. Bruegger's scaled back fast enough to avoid bankruptcy, closing 225 stores in the process. Bagel chains closing stores don't need new baskets.
So when the call came from Boeing, says Greenblatt, "we were in a horrific position." Filling the Boeing order involved a clumsy, painful process of trial and error, and Marlin had to throw away a lot of poorly made baskets. "It was not an elegant initiation to the world of precision," says Greenblatt. Boeing was prickly, demanding, unforgiving. An aerospace assembly line was waiting for the baskets. That's why they had to be perfect and why Boeing needed them fast—and why the price didn't matter. The cost of the baskets was trivial compared to the cost of not making airplanes.
The lesson for Greenblatt was that the wire basket was only part of his product. To Boeing, he was selling engineering, precision, and speed, too.
In a small glass display case at Marlin headquarters is a pile of recipes for the baskets the company made in the 1990s and early 2000s, showing the type of wire and measurements in inches, handwritten in black ink on the kind of memo pad that used to be common before email and smartphones. The pages bear the logo of Colonial Steel Corp., Marlin's old Bronx steel supplier. Marlin didn't even have its own stationery. "This was the intellectual property of the firm," says Greenblatt. "No blueprints, just slips of paper."
After the Boeing job, Greenblatt did a little poking around, and he made two discoveries. Factories have a huge appetite for wire baskets, which they use to stage parts for assembly; a single big factory has thousands of them. And in the United States today, factories outnumber bagel stores by a hundredfold—333,000 to 3,100. "The bagel-basket business is a teardrop," says Greenblatt. "Factories are an ocean."
Getting 20 baskets to Boeing was one thing. Remaking Marlin so that companies like Boeing became Marlin's core customer was another. "It was a wrenching process," says Greenblatt. "We needed better equipment. We had to retrain our people. We had to improve our engineering. We really had to up our game."
Marlin also had to learn a lot about its customers' businesses, as it did three years ago with Delta Air Lines. Delta has a jet maintenance facility in Atlanta, where it refurbishes the turbine blades from its own jet engines and those of other airlines. "They use heat on the blades," says Kash Alur, a design engineer at Marlin. "They use chemicals. They can't touch the blades with their hands. And they need a basket that holds the parts in a specific orientation."
Alur flew to Atlanta to see what the baskets had to do every day. "Delta did have baskets, but they were falling apart," he says. "I took measurements. I took notes. I took pictures." Turbine blades are heavy but delicate. The baskets had to be durable. They had to be stiff—Delta didn't want any flex at all. And they had to be interchangeable, able to hold all kinds of turbine blades. "They didn't want nine different kinds of baskets for nine different kinds of blades," says Alur. In essence, Delta wanted a high-tech dishwasher rack.
A revamped design process helped give Delta what it wanted. Alur's designs are in Marlin's computer system. He can email them to Delta, share them with the four other design engineers at Marlin, or tweak a design and instantly see how the changes work. "They've reordered a couple of times," he says.
Even in the much more unforgiving world of high-tech factories, Marlin is earning a reputation for quality that is unusual for manufactured products today. Tom Salvador is a senior manager with Power Systems Manufacturing, in Jupiter, Florida, a small division of the $20-billion-a-year global energy conglomerate Alstom. PSM reconditions gas turbines for large commercial power plants, and it needed wire baskets to hold finished parts during a demanding inspection process. The baskets had to be made of stainless steel and able to withstand high temperatures and hot water. "It's a manufacturing environment," says Salvador. "We don't baby the baskets."
Marlin's goods held up where the competition's didn't. "There are a lot of welds on these baskets," he says. "We haven't had a single weld on a single basket cut loose. Not one. I'm actually shocked." Salvador has placed two orders with Marlin in five years but doesn't need any more now because, he says, "I can't seem to break them."
Early in Marlin's reincarnation, Greenblatt learned the benefit of saying yes to every customer. That sort of flexibility helped Marlin win a job this year from a longtime German supplier to a U.S. auto-parts factory. The order was for baskets that are more like trays, about the size of the ones in a cafeteria, but weighing more than 10 pounds and made of stainless steel, with thick wire props in the middle. The baskets hold heavy auto parts so they can be washed, treated, and presented to robots for assembly. "Because you're staging parts for the robots, the parts have to be in exactly the right place," says Greenblatt—within three-thousandths of an inch in all three dimensions. The baskets, which will hold parts that go into Chrysler cars, cost $200 apiece. And the supplier needed 1,000 of them—a $200,000 order. "The German vendor had made this style of product for them for over 20 years," says Greenblatt, "and quoted them four months to make the new version." Marlin said it could do the job in four weeks. And it delivered. "If a car company doing a model-year changeover can get the assembly line going faster, the value of that extra three months of production is enormous," says Greenblatt. "The baskets are paid for in a couple hours."
Although it was a big order for Marlin, the auto-parts company considers it a sample—it's testing Marlin. "It's a big deal for a company like that to jump vendors," says Greenblatt. "But once you do that quality of work that quickly, they come to expect it."
Drew Greenblatt is both a success story and an eager storyteller, and as a result, he's become a celebrity talking head—testifying before Congress on trade policy and small business, and attending manufacturing events at the White House. He sits on the board of directors of the National Association of Manufacturers alongside the CEO of Caterpillar, and he has appeared, with his chubby-cheeked smile, on CNN, CNBC, and PBS NewsHour. "I'm talking about motherhood and apple pie," he says. "I'm a little guy. I'm crisp. And I call it like it is. I'm not a policy wonk. I have a payroll to make every two weeks."
In person, Greenblatt is a little frumpy and utterly unprepossessing. He often wears a pullover sweater with his sport coat, his hair is unruly, his shoes have holes in the soles. But people listen. This April, Greenblatt spoke at manufacturing conferences in Denver and San Antonio. The airplane maker Cessna and the chemical giant DuPont—both Marlin customers—have flown Greenblatt to events to talk to their staffs. Timothy Geithner, the former Treasury secretary, made a pilgrimage to Marlin's factory during a Baltimore visit in May 2012. (Greenblatt deputized his father to host Geithner; he happened to visit on the day Greenblatt was off at Cessna.)
Marlin Steel is not gigantic. The manufacturing floor would fit on half a football field, and the office space could not be more austere: whitewashed wallboard, zero-tuft gray carpet, few adornments, except for some wire baskets on display in a few places. When the stamping machines are running full tilt, the banging penetrates every corner of the facility.
Marlin's revenue is modest, too, even though it makes a lot more baskets than it did in the old days—250,000 last year versus 67,000 in 2003. The company had sales exceeding $5 million in 2012, and Greenblatt hopes to reach $7 million in 2013—which would be the eighth consecutive year of sales increases. (For the record, the big U.S. steel company Nucor does $7 million worth of business every three hours.)
But in some ways, Marlin's smallness makes its success more surprising. Greenblatt had no manufacturing experience before buying the company. His chief of manufacturing design, Tony Witt, is 25 years old, and the job is his first after earning a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Maryland. Andy Croniser, 33, Marlin's production manager, started in 2007 as an entry-level production employee.
Greenblatt has slowly accumulated smart machines to go with his smart staff, starting in 1999 with a $200,000 piece of gear that does wire bending and butt welding. (Incredulous Marlin workers likened the purchase to using a howitzer for killing mosquitoes.) Marlin now has $3.5 million worth of computerized industrial robots—a couple that can pull and bend hundreds of feet of wire a minute; an automated router; an automated welder; a steel-punch press; a cutting laser. These aren't the kinds of robots you see on newscasts about assembly-line work; they don't have jointed, anthropomorphic arms wheeling in every direction. They're really just highly automated, highly computerized, and very fast manufacturing machines. Greenblatt nods at one of them. "I could have had a yacht instead of that," he says, though Greenblatt isn't really a yacht guy.
The automated machines have helped make Marlin Steel possible, letting it produce quickly, in small batches, with great precision—and economically enough to compete, even against China. Marlin recently won a job from a Chicago company for 160,000 metal brackets a year, each one smaller than the palm of your hand. The manufacturer had been buying the parts from a Chinese company. Even though Marlin's salaries are 10 times higher than in China, the labor costs in Baltimore are actually lower.
One Marlin staffer earning $25 an hour can tend a massive punch press that turns out 2,000 perfect parts an hour. In China, one worker earning $2.50 an hour uses basic tools to make 75 brackets an hour. Even though you can hire 10 Chinese workers for the cost of one Marlin worker, together those 10 workers are making only 750 brackets an hour. So the labor cost of producing 1,000 brackets in Baltimore is $12.50, versus $33.40 in China—60% less.
The danger now is that China could once again undercut Marlin. The little factory in the scruffy industrial park doesn't look like it would be that hard to replicate. And that vulnerability explains why Greenblatt is always thinking about how to build "the moat"—a metaphor he borrowed from Warren Buffett to describe his competitive edge.
Speed is part of the moat, the willingness to do a job as quickly as a customer needs it. Quality is part of the moat too. Scattered around the factory floor are "check fixtures"—simple wooden boards with the outline of a wire part etched into the surface. To see if the part is made correctly, a worker slots it into the outline on the board. If it's made right, it fits.
Often three nearly identical images of a part are etched into the same check fixture. The one on the right is the customer's requirement—say, a tolerance of 0.12 inches. The one in the center is Marlin's "okay to ship" standard, always better than the customer request—say, a tolerance of 0.06 inches. The one on the left is the "Drew" standard—perhaps a tolerance of 0.03 inches—four times the precision of the customer's spec. "If we send them that left one, they will never leave," Greenblatt says. Toyota—legendary for its obsession with quality—was so impressed with Marlin's exactitude that in addition to baskets, it also buys check fixtures from Marlin.
But for Greenblatt, the most important element of the moat is what Marlin didn't have before Boeing called: engineering and design. No one at Marlin designs baskets on slips of notepaper today. Five of 28 employees are degreed mechanical engineers. "We give people slick, elegant designs that make it worthwhile to use us rather than a commodity-part supplier from China," says Greenblatt. More to the point, says designer Alur, "people come to us with a problem and we try to solve it." Marlin has taken something utterly pedestrian and turned it into a tool of innovation—for its customers.
The final line of defense for Marlin lies in the customers it targets: Greenblatt wants the toughest ones, the kind who make his competitors roll their eyes. "What I realized is that the customers who are a pain in the neck are really the great customers," he says. "Some people might say, 'Those guys [at Marlin] are crazy expensive.' But we find the people who appreciate that. I've never sold anything to Walmart."
What those customers realize is that baskets aren't interchangeable commodities. Zoetis Pharmaceuticals, a recent spin-off from Pfizer, is the world's largest maker of animal medicines and vaccines (including the popular canine arthritis drug Rimadyl). The company was facing a nagging, expensive problem. It has pumps that feed medicine into a machine that fills ampules, and the pumps kept locking up. The pumps are small—10 inches long—but expensive. When one breaks, repairs cost $4,000, and the only place to get the work done is from a company in Germany. The lead time is two months.
Zoetis figured out that the pumps kept breaking because some of the parts were delicate and prone to damage when the pumps were moved around the factory to be cleaned. The company didn't have a container for transporting them. Workers would pull the pumps and dump them in a bucket or a bin. Sometimes they would move them around in plastic tackle boxes.
The problem had some urgency. Zoetis needs to have four pumps up and running at all times, and they were breaking so often the company tried to keep four spares on hand, figuring that another four would be out for repair; often that number was higher. The solution was clear: The pumps needed a container that would cradle them safely and that could withstand the cleaning solution and the temperature and pressure of a sterilizing autoclave.
Lewis Ferguson, at the time a Zoetis reliability engineer, looked at medical equipment makers but struck out. "I thought about calling my pals from the space program at Boeing and Lockheed"—his previous job was at NASA—"but I didn't think we could afford that," he says with a laugh. Then he stumbled upon Marlin Steel's website, where he saw baskets that looked close to what he needed. He talked to someone at the company and agreed on a basic design. Then he asked Marlin to add handles. "They said, 'Okay, handles are no problem,'" says Ferguson. Then he decided the baskets needed a lid. "The folks at Marlin said, 'Okay, a lid, we can do that.'" Then he asked for higher-quality steel. "They said, 'Okay, that's a stretch, but we'll see what we can do.'"
Zoetis ordered 12 of the baskets, each about the size of a shoebox; they arrived in four weeks. "It took them half the time to make the baskets and deliver them as it takes to get one pump refurbed," says Ferguson. The baskets cost $4,000, or $333 apiece, almost 30 times what a bagel basket used to cost. In fact, the baskets are cheap. They'll pay for themselves if Zoetis sends just one less pump to Germany. The company has another five or six pieces of gear with similar problems. It will look for similar fixes.
So Marlin's story is a little more potent than it first appears. Greenblatt reinvented his company—both the products it sells and how it creates them. Now Marlin's baskets are doing the same for its customers: driving innovation in how they make their own products. "We have this myth that innovation is something that happens with CAD machines and scientists in a lab, drawing algorithms on whiteboards," says John Shook, a manufacturing expert and CEO of the Lean Institute, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which helps companies use "lean" principles in their factories. "The lightning bolt strikes, and everything else is easy. That's not the way it works. Product and process innovation go hand in hand."
The relentless improvements in U.S. factory productivity are a rough measure of that kind of innovation, with whole industries slowly transforming the way they make things and the quality of what they produce. If a little company like Marlin can turn a simple wire basket into a competitive advantage, facing down both low-cost competitors from China and high-quality producers from Europe, then there's hope for whole swaths of American manufacturers.
Drew Greenblatt isn't doing anything close to what he imagined when he bought Marlin Steel in 1998. He thought it would be an easy annuity; all he would have to do was modernize things a bit, beef up the marketing and sales, and, as he put it, "be a gentleman to the customers."
Instead, after almost losing his investment, he's running a high-performance manufacturing facility, thinking about markets and moats, management strategies and employee incentives. (Marlin awards bonuses in each pay period, based on performance—and bonuses were paid in 14 of 26 pay periods in 2012.) Greenblatt's ambitions are expansive. He thinks Marlin's annual sales could reach $50 million in five years—more than seven times this year's projected revenue. "Would I have figured it out without the call from Boeing?" Greenblatt asks. "No. I was clueless."
Marlin's raw material—spools of wire, each as heavy as a car—hasn't changed. But everything else is different.
Or almost everything. A few loyal bagel stores still buy their metal baskets from Marlin.
"It's about one-half of 1% of the business," says Greenblatt.
When Lou Gerstner became CEO of IBM in 1993, most people expected that the best he could do was break the company into pieces, some of which might survive the tumultuous tech world that IBM had helped invent. IBM was devoted to selling mainframes and couldn't see beyond big hardware.
Gerstner laid off 100,000 employees and forced IBM's disparate divisions to work together both to woo customers and to service them. And he refocused IBM on delivering services and software instead of hardware. IBM figured out it was in the computing business instead of the computer business.
When Gerstner left in 2002, revenue was $81 billion and earnings $3.6 billion (the company lost $5 billion the year before he arrived). Today, two CEOs later, revenue is up 25% and profit up 360%, and IBM looks nimble no matter how fast the tech landscape changes.
In 1998, Kodak had 74% of the U.S. film market, and it was a pioneer in digital cameras and home printing. But the film business disappeared more quickly than anyone anticipated, and Kodak never became a leading force in digital cameras, which themselves were swept aside by smartphones with decent lenses.
Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. The legendary company that invented photography as we know it no longer exists: It makes neither cameras nor digital picture frames nor consumer film, and it no longer even has a website for uploading and sharing photos.
The company is expected to emerge from bankruptcy sometime this year as a provider of commercial services. As recently as 2012, the Kodak name still adorned the Los Angeles theater where the Academy Awards are held, but host Billy Crystal welcomed guests to "the beautiful Chapter 11 Theater."
The glassmaker is renowned for the technologies it has invented over its 160-year history. But one of its greatest talents has been reinventing itself. Corning made the first lightbulbs for Thomas Edison; it hasn't made lightbulbs for decades. It created the technology to make color TV picture tubes affordable; the business no longer exists. It invented the optical fiber that connected the world, sending revenue from $4.7 billion in 1999 to $7.1 billion a year later; that business crashed too, and by 2003, revenue was down to $3 billion.
Corning isn't exactly happy about that sort of roller-coaster performance, but it has plenty of practice surviving. Today, display glass is the biggest part of Corning's business—from LCDs for flat-screen TVs to the Gorilla Glass screens in most iPhones. And it has at least one safe harbor: Corning makes the guts of catalytic converters and diesel engine filters for cleaner vehicle emissions.
OmniGuide Surgical
Before OmniGuide even got going, it faced the Marlin bagel-basket problem: an overpriced product in a shriveling market. The company's founders, scientists at MIT, had invented a new kind of optical fiber. It was hollow, so light traveled through air, not glass, boosting efficiency by a factor of 10. But making the stuff in miles-long reels proved too hard, and no one wanted pricier fiber anyway, no matter how efficient. So the scientists sought a market that might need superfast, but short, fiber.
They found medicine. Surgeons had developed the CO2 laser scalpel, which uses light from CO2 molecules to cut without damaging nearby tissue. But it lacked a flexible medium; standard optical fiber absorbs CO2 laser light. The OmniGuide fiber transmits the light exactly where the surgeon wants it. OmniGuide now has more than $25 million in revenue and 150 employees—and manufactures its products in Massachusetts.
(Ed. note: A previous version of this story stated that Kodak no longer produced any type of film. In fact, Kodak does continue to produce professional, motion picture film.)
[Illustrations by Mike Pfaltzgraff]
Charles Fishman (email@example.com), a longtime contributor to Fast Company, is the author of The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water.
Flag sculpture by Kyle Bea; photos by Mitch Payne; Melissa Golden (Greenblatt)
A version of this article appeared in the July/August 2013 issue of Fast Company magazine.


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text:
The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before it Manages You
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- Brief Synopsis:
- The Hamster Revolution is a timely solution to both the widespread problem of email overload as well as most people's inefficient (or nonexistent) systems for categorizing and storing email messages.
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I believe that it is common knowledge that the Internal Revenue Service is the world's most powerful debt collection agency. If you don't know that, learn it now.
The IRS has many enforced collection tools at its disposal to ensure that a tax debt owed by a taxpayer that has not obtained tax relief pays the tax debt owed. One such tool is a bank levy. The IRS has the ability to issue a bank levy on an account that bears not only the name but also the Social Security number of a person who owes the IRS a tax debt. If you've set money aside for your child's education and your Social Security number is on the account, the IRS can seize that account if you owe back taxes.
When the IRS decides to take enforced collection action via bank levy, a notice of levy is sent to the taxpayer's bank and it attaches to all accounts in the name of the taxpayer whether a sole or joint account. The bank is then legally obligated to honor the levy. Once received, the levy freezes the funds on deposit in the account. So that no one has access to those accounts, some banks actually remove the funds from the account and place them in an escrow account pending resolution. The bank will not allow anyone access to the frozen funds for 21 days from the date of receipt of the levy unless released. This 21-day holding period allows time to resolve any issues about account funds ownership and collectability. After the 21 days have elapsed, the bank will send the money plus interest, if it applies, to the IRS if the levy has not been successfully released. Therefore, if you do not want the IRS to take the money in your bank account, you will need to seek a tax relief practitioner before the 21st day since your bank received your bank levy.
Luckily for taxpayers that have timely sought tax relief before their funds were remitted to the IRS, the IRS has implemented procedures for taxpayers to request a reimbursement of the fees charged by a bank against a taxpayer for processing a bank levy when the bank levy was issued erroneously by the IRS. Reimbursements are limited to $1,000 and must be claimed within one year of being incurred. The banking fees recoverable are the fees customarily charged by the financial institution for the financial institution's compliance with the levy's instructions. Fees may also include the bad check fees or overdraft fees incurred because of the freeze on the account incurred due to the levy, and are also subject to a successful reimbursement request.
An "erroneous" levy is one that properly seeks to capture a taxpayer's property, rather than a third party's property, but nevertheless is served prematurely or otherwise in violation of an administrative procedure or law. A claim that a taxpayer has been erroneously levied requires a factual analysis and timeline to demonstrate that the IRS's issuance of the levy was a mistake.
The IRS must also make a determination that the taxpayer did not contribute to the continuation or compounding of the IRS's error. This one is difficult to prove. By not responding to the many letters that were sent prior to the levy did the taxpayer contribute to the error?
Successful reimbursement requests may be paid to taxpayers via an electronic funds transfer. Such payments may require disclosure of the taxpayer's banking information needed to complete the transfer. Therefore, the IRS can also send successful claimants their reimbursement payment via check, to avoid disclosure of the taxpayer's bank information. An experienced tax practitioner will be able to recoup funds distributed by an erroneously issued IRS bank levy.
Colorado Tax Solutions specializes in assisting taxpayers with past due tax filings as well as payment. If you've received. a notice of levy you should contact us as quickly as possible so that we might be able to save you some grief and aggravation and maybe get your money back into your bank account.


text:
We are all aware of the tragic devastation that has occurred in the Philippines recently, and our hearts go out to all those who have suffered losses and who continue to struggle in the recovery effort there.
To help the people of the Philippines who have been left vulnerable after the devastation, Pingo is supporting the efforts of the American Red Cross Society and other not-for-profit organizations. The American Red Cross Society, which has been assisting the Philippines Red Cross, was among the first humanitarian aid agencies that launched relief operations after the disaster to help more than four million people in need of emergency support.
The initial relief efforts focused on helping with disaster assessment and logistical support, food, shelter, sanitation and water and other essential services. However, there is still significant need for humanitarian aid because of the magnitude of the damage. The typhoon left behind extensive destruction to property and infrastructure. Thousands were left homeless, and the lack of infrastructure continues to present a major challenge to relief and recovery efforts. Thousands of families were also disconnected by the disaster, and many natives of the Philippines abroad have not been able to reach their loved ones. In its efforts to reconnect families, the American Red Cross Society has established a service to help families locate their relatives.
Pingo is working hard to improve the voice quality of calls made through its network with the aim of providing customers with a reliable way to communicate with their family and friends across the globe. Pingo uses an established network that is capable of handling billions of minutes in long distance and international calls at some of the lowest rates in the market. The service offers a quality guarantee and flexible call options, including land-line, mobile and a "soft phone" service that enables Pingo customers to make calls from a computer with an Internet connection, which may be more widely accessible than a traditional phone line or mobile signal. The Pingo calling service can be accessed from any carrier and from more than 30 countries around the world. Pingo's parent company, iBasis, one of the world's largest international wholesale carriers, also made a donation to support Telecom Sans Frontieres ("Telecom without Borders"). Telecom Sans Frontieres is a non-governmental organization that is providing telecommunications support to facilitate communications among those affected and to enable humanitarian relief agencies on the ground to better coordinate their efforts.
* Image Sources
1. https://onepercentclub.com/en/#!/projects/emergency-aid-fundraiser-for-our-direct-colleagues-families-in-the-philippines
2. by Jarkko Mikkonen/Finnish Red Cross http://www.redcross.org/news/article/Red-Cross-Sends-Support-to-Philippines-for-Typhoon-Response


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TripAdvisor ratingRead reviews
Rosen Shingle Creek
This vast resort – with its own award-winning golf course – is set against the beautiful backdrop of Shingle Creek, yet offers easy access to Orlando's theme parks.
Set in the Everglades National Park, Rosen Shingle Creek is ideal for the nature lover, with trails for walking and spotting birds. The resort is located on a quiet street, with Orlando's attractions on its doorstep - Walt Disney World, SeaWorld and Aquatica are all just a few minutes' drive away.
The golf course at Shingle Creek is world-renowned and was designed by David Harman, who has also created courses for legendary golfers Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. It was voted in the top ten of Florida's toughest courses and has its own school, the Brad Brewer Golf Academy.
There is an excellent spa and salon at the resort, with many treatments available. From relaxing massages and body therapies to hair and nail services, there is something for everyone. The spa also features a state-of-the-art fitness centre.
There are also two fine dining restaurants available, A Land Remembered and Calla Bella Italian Bistro, both serving magnificent seasonal food.
Accommodation details
Address:9939 UNIVERSAL BOULEVARD
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Sleeps 4
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Big Buddha Jenny Slouchy Hobo
Sorry, this item is sold out!
Looks like you've got more shoe shopping to do - have fun!
Looks like you've got more shoe shopping to do - have fun!
Item # 286205
The Jenny slouchy hobo is a bag you will love. This sassy handbag from Big Buddha can go with you to work, school, out at night or anywhere you like!
- Faux leather shoulder bag
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- Dimensions 12" x 7" x 11"
- Imported
- View more Big Buddha Handbags
By: merkaty
Location: Houston, TX
February 07, 2014
Handbag Love
"I LOVE my Big Buddha Jenny Slouchy Hobo handbag in Black. The material is sturdy - this bag will endure my wear! It fits comfortably on my shoulder and carries all my essentials with ease. I adore the gold hook the hangs over the top for a faux closure. The liner is colorful and pretty as well. This is my second Big Buddha handbag and I'm a fan for life!"
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February 05, 2014
Perfect Bag
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By: Catness
Location: Saylorsburg, PA
January 21, 2014
My catch all
"This bag gets no complaints from me. The only thing I do want to point out is that the decorative hoop on the front enclosure makes a heck of a sound when you open your purse. Otherwise, I have found that it holds up well. Colors from coats or such do rub off onto the purse, but with a baby wipe, come off rather easily."
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Skip to comments.Widescale Biodiesel Production from Algae
Posted on 05/25/2004 4:28:06 PM PDT by ckilmer
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Enough talk. Do it.
Makes use of existing waste. Don't have to grow anything new
Enviros will never let it happen. They will declare the Sonora desert "pristine" and that's all she wrote.
Next idea.....
"SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!! Next they'll be breeding us like cattle!"
"While no one plans to put people into a thermal depolymerization machine, an intimate human creation could become a prime feedstock. "There is no reason why we can't turn sewage, including human excrement, into a glorious oil..."
Now that's a load of......
Great idea. This will be huge.... as soon as it costs less than regular diesel.
Algae floats. Why not just fertilize the ocean far away from land? It would also feed lots of new sea life we could eat, and suck massive amounts of carbon dioxide right out of the air, allowing everyone to drive around in SUVs, not just John Kommy's family.
Exactly. They whine about geothermal in the Great Basin, and that doesn't even involve paving huge areas with big vats, just sticking a pipe in the ground every 20 acres or so and running them all to a small turbine and pumping station. And with pretty high power output so you get a lot of bang for your buck.
They won't be satisfied until the entire world only uses Invisible Happy Magic Power(tm).
"If a 175-pound man fell into one end , he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water."
Double those figures for Micheal Moore, and what a lovely idea!
They wont be happy until the U.S looks like Afganistan.
I missed the part where they specified the price they need for a gallon of biodiesel to make this proposition pay a positive return on investment.
Don't laugh--they call it Zero-Point Energy.
For most alternative "Green" fuels, you get overcharged because it costs a lot more to produce than conventional, crude-based fuels. The only reason you are not overcharged even more is there are usually tax credits (taxpayer subsidies) attached to these materials.
There are plenty of other alternative sources that can be converted to diesel fuel, including natural gas and coal. Both of these resources would lessen the near-monopoly that OPEC currently enjoys in crude oil. Unfortunately, for the time being nothing can compete with the cost of lifting Saudi oil out of the ground.
I think the best we can do is diversify our energy sources. Hopefully this would put an upper limit on how much crude would cost.
Apparently they don't suck up all that much oxygen till they die, then they take so much that the fish have none left. There is much less oxygen in water than in air to begin with, and it can't be replenished fast enough. The problem is often solved in lakes around here with oxygen pumps into the water for the fish.
But how much can you bring price down when you're farming billions of gallons at a time?
Cool! I could create my own fuel in my shower stall!
Very interesting, and nothing to say that it couldn't use algae as its feedstock. We could grow algae in the desert and export oil!
Anything Into Oil 1may03
"We will be able to make oil for $8 to $12 a barrel," says Paul Baskis, the inventor of the process.
What word on this that's less than a year old??
They've already done successful experiments by seeding the oceans with iron to grow algae to suck up CO2.
If this really is such a good idea the venture capitalists would have already done it. My suspicion is this paper was written by hippies smoking too much dope.
Hey, this is the first logical exposition I've seen in a long time. Hydrogen has soooo many problems.
You are, of course refering to India and China.....;-)
Right you are. The enviroscum aren't about keeping the environment clean, they're just another bunch of commies.
Hmm. Build a new refinery? Good luck.
You were wondering about alternative fuel sources. Here 'ya go--Soylent Oil.
Soylent Oil is people! It's peeeeeople!
Here's a reference to a paper presented at some conference earlier this year. (unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago someone else referenced it and I called it "pedantic". oh well)
Check some of the footnotes. It appears to be a going concern.
I don't think so.
Here's their website.
There are no references evident to "Investor Information".
Yeah, well what pisses me off is that none of these damn hippies would last a day in genuine high desert wilderness, and most have never even seen it in person or comprehend the vastness of it. On the other hand, I've rescued hippie f**kwits who managed to get themselves stuck in the Nevada wilderness on no less than five different occasions when offroading in the vast expanses of mountains around my very remote ranch on business of one type or another.
I have no patience for those idiots. I very nicely enumerate the long list of things they did wrong and then basically tell to never show their faces out there again unless they can discard their neurotic fantasy about what the real wilderness is actually like. Maybe it is the fact that I have a pistol on my belt that they just nod and say 'yessir' to whatever I say; I've met a number who are apparently unaware that gun in the western wilderness is about as essential as your boots. Never mind the stupidity of running off 40 miles into the random wilderness without backup or adequate equipment. Those bloody twits think Central Park in Manhattan qualifies as wilderness. They can't even conceive of being 100 miles from the nearest pavement.
Feh. I am as cosmopolitan as they come, but my roots are in the extremely rural west. Nothing yanks my chain like a bunch of city slicker blowhards who think they know something about the wilderness.
My rough estimate....it costs half the cost of oil to grow the algae (say $15/barrel, from article) plus $12/barrel to turn it into oil (TDP process) plus an unknown amount to seperate the algae from the water and concentrate it into an appropriate input. Further, it requires specialized refineries. So somewhere north of $27/barrel there is a little bit of money to START covering the costs of the investment necessary. Not economically feasible at this point. But it could be useful either if oil actually goes and stays high and it could be used to chill out the environazi 'we're running out of oil' scaremongers.
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We could talk for days
on how our group's hobbit snuck up behind a troll and instantly killed it by
impaling his magic short sword in his lungs. Or, our warrior monk character
once did back-handsprings over to a group of orcs, then kicked one in the groin,
and as it keeled over, the character swept the feet out from underneath the
second orc, leaving only the third. The first went into shock, the second smacked
his head on a rock causing 4 rounds of stun and was bleeding 2 hp per round.
The third was finished by our mages waterbolt spell and it's skeleton was reduced
to a gelatinous pulp(with the added comment: "Try a spatula"). The fun was in
seeing all of our hard earned skills put to action! Each skill was developed
separately, from acrobatics, to ambush, to aiming the waterbolt. Well, for those
of you who have a great imagination for that kind of realism and skill development,
and you don't have the time to sit in Denny's rolling dice, I present Bethesda's
Daggerfall is essentially part 2 of Bethesda's original hit game: Arena. Arena was one of the best PC role-playing games of all time. There are only two reasons why it didn't make it bigger in the PC games market. The system requirements were pretty heavy for it's time and the graphics couldn't match that of Doom (and everybody wanted Doom). The memory hungry Arena demanded a lot; even from the new PC standard at that time(486 with 8 MB of RAM). The graphics were only part of the whole picture. Behind this innovative first person fighter was a game of power, levels, skill development, and interaction. Following in those footsteps, Daggerfall gives you all that and more! The graphics are great and the gameplay is better than ever.
When you first play Daggerfall, your going to need a character. First you choose from one of eight different races, male or female. Then you choose between nineteen different character classes or create your own. From there, you must choose special abilities and/or disadvantages. All of this, including character generation, may be done by answering questions or if you prefer, control all of it yourself. Choose a face, name and finally, you distribute points to your starting statistics and skills. I created my own character (since I thought I knew what to expect from playing Arena) and it took under 15 mins for all the character detail I could ask for in a game. Later, I created another character and changed my skills. There was much more to this game than I expected!
After you watch the opening scenes and get an idea of your first goals, you're ready to begin. Daggerfall has an in-depth storyline and history. In the beginning of the game, the Emperor calls you to his chambers to perform a special quest. He tells you of a Noble's ghost haunting Daggerfall at night. He asks you to find out what is going on, and solve the problem. Then he tells you of a note that he sent to the Queen that never reached her and asks if you could investigate that also (This takes place years into the history of the game).
Traveling to Daggerfall, your ship is wrecked and you take refuge in a cave offshore. A well placed avalanche traps you and this turns out to be your first dungeon. It was designed to help you practice your skills and learn the controls. From there you search, talk, kill, steal, and cast all in the name of survival. You are the main story line hereafter in Daggerfall. What you do and how you go about it effects the people around you in either a positive or negative way. There are no rights or wrongs in Daggerfall. You must use skill and wit to accomplish the goals YOU set out to complete in the name of fame, fortune, or fun...
The game controls are a
lot easier than they look at first. You can look up or down and move in a similar
fashion to other first person action games. At the bottom of the screen are
energy bars for HEALTH, FATIGUE, and MAGICKA. There are also bars to access
your SPELLBOOK, use a MAGIC ITEM, WALK/RIDEHORSE, CAMP, ready WEAPON, MAP, INVENTORY,
and INTERACTION. The INTERACTION icon, when clicked, changes between PICKING
FINGERS (to steal, pick locks, etc.), the GRABBING HAND (grabs items, levers,
touches), the EYEBALL (examine), and a WORD BALLOON (begin conversation).
While you journey through the lands of Tamriel, you will frequently click these icons in order to use various skills. All of which are calculated separately. As long as you use a skill, successful or not, there is a chance that it will increase after 6 hours of rest. Whether it be swinging a morning star, speaking dwarvish, climbing a wall, or running; there is always the possibility you'll get a little better at it. The more you use the skill, the better the chance.
Your level is determined by how well you've increased in your Primary and Major Skills (a total of 6 determined by character class or character generation). The more a thief picks pockets, backstabs uses stealth, uses short bladed weapons, climbs, and picks locks, the higher these skills will rise. This will eventually rise him/her a level. Aside from the main 6, you also have 6 Minor Skills(these are like secondary skills) and anything not listed among the main 12, is kept track of in your Miscellaneous skills. A grand total of 27 skills. The best part is that you do not have to ever worry about them after initial character generation. Once a level is gained, you are given a random number of points to add to your main statistics (STR, INT, WIL, AGI, SPD, END, PER, LUC). These in turn help with character skills and so on....
The mapping system was probably the best I've ever seen. On the Dungeon Map, you can choose between two viewing modes. Top Down is an arial view which you can name areas or click the floor to see through it. Perspective view allows you to turn the 3D map 360í¯Â¿Â½, move away from it, or move below it, etc. On the World map, you can see huge continents to travel across. Click on one of the Kingdoms and see a closer view. You can change the Map Bar to display colored dots representing Dungeons, Houses, Towns, Taverns or all the above. Right click to zoom in on an area and see more(And let me just say that there are thousands...) Luckily you can use the Find button to get fast and specific results.
To get a good perspective
on the graphics, let's say that they fall somewhere between Doom and
Quake. As for the sound effects and music,
they are not phenomenal, but not terrible either. Like any game, after a couple
of hours, you want to turn off the BGM and play your stereo instead.
The magic and combat systems are great! Spells have a variety of appearances as they lash out at the enemies. You can buy spells at select guilds or join the Mages Guild and make your own. There you can also learn how to create magic items and weapons. Or maybe you'd prefer to spend time creating potions for the long travels ahead. You have total control.
When faced with inevitable combat, each character has strengths and weaknesses. A Sorcerer may elect to Levitate upward and cast Ice Bolts from above. A Monk can jump at a foe and kick him. Then use his Hand to Hand skill punching and kicking to defeat the enemy. While a Nightblade might choose to cast Shadow Form, use Stealth to sneak behind his foe, and finally Backstab the unsuspecting beast with a poisoned blade. All the aiming of spells, weapons, and martial arts are accomplished through the mouse. By holding down the right mouse button and sliding the cursor in different directions, your character can do increased damage with a penalty to hit. Or increased hit bonus with damage penalty. There are four possible combinations in all.
Daggerfall has Guilds for Fighters, Mages, Thieves, Assassins, Knights and specific Temples to worship at. A character may join almost any of them as long as he/she meets the requirements set by the group. Some, like the Dark Brotherhood(assassins) are secretive while others are recognized by everyone in the land. Once a member, you will advance in ranks and gain benefits like Potion making or free healing. Most guilds provide some training in skills like weapons, magic, dodging, critical striking, etc. But only to their members. Join as many as you can and don't get kicked out!
In my opinion, Daggerfall is one of the BEST role-playing games in history (so far). If you're tired of shotguns and chainsaws and need to play a game that takes brains, strategy, character development, role-playing, magic, and much more, BUY DAGGERFALL NOW!!!!! You are guaranteed hours of excitement in a constantly changing world.


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|Posted by al on May 14, 19100 at 19:34:17:
|In response to Re: Making toilets stop rocking on unlevel floors
: We have installed a new tile floor and our contractor installed toilets that rock a little because the tile is not exactly level he says. So he put little wedges under the edges of the toilets that stick out and look awful. Is there no other solution?? My toilets are TOto and tile is Porcelin ungrouted. Please help--those wedges look awful.
|Replies to this post
|There are none.


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Lot 26: Peter Max Mixed Media Painting of Bono on Canvas
Durham Collection of Contemporary Art
by Cleveland Auction Company
October 16, 2010
Cleveland, OH, USALive Auction
Peter Max (1937) Please Register/Login to access your Invaluable Alerts
Looking for the realized and estimated price?
Description: Peter Max (German-American, b. 1937), "Bono", mixed media acrylic painting on a canvas of the musician and social activist Bono, on a predominantly red, purple and blue ground, signed in the upper left "Max", inscribed on the verso "For Tim Love Max 2003", framed. Numbered #95550. 25 1/2" x 21 1/2". Condition: very good, no damage or repair.
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The to-do list
Robin Brownlee
December 18 2008 01:06PM
If I was King of the World, or better yet, Daryl Katz, and could snap my fingers and shape the Edmonton Oilers until they fit my vision of what a hockey team should be, there would be changes. Brother, would there be changes.
With the Oilers sitting at 14-14-2 through 30 games after Wednesday's 4–2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks, some fans are frustrated beyond words with the performance of a team coach Craig MacTavish deemed in pre-season as a contender for a Northwest Division title.
Then again, despite the inconsistencies -- like playing one of their best games of the season in a 3–0 win over the Canucks last weekend before getting their backsides handed to them without a whimper in a 9–2 loss to Chicago Tuesday -- optimists might peruse Western Conference standings today and insist, "It isn't that bad."
Well, it is that bad, at least in my mind, and I didn't even like the make-up of this edition of the Oilers as much as some fans did when the season began. I picked them to be in the mix, as usual, but to finish ninth.
What would I do?
Ain't Rocket Surgery
Let's first state the obvious -- it's infinitely easier to sit in front of a laptop and pontificate about what must be done, who should be traded and who should be acquired, than it is for GM Steve Tambellini or president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe to pick up the telephone and make it happen in the real world. Duh!
That said, here's my list of things to do -- in order of importance -- based on what I've seen and heard, what I know and what I think. And, yes, much of it is Master of the Obvious stuff that has already been suggested by people smarter than I...
1. PICK TWO GOALTENDERS. Three doesn't work. Never has. Never will. I don't care which two, as long as one of them is Jeff Deslauriers because I'm not willing to lose him to waivers for nothing at this point.
- With no takers via trade right now, I'd send Dwayne Roloson to the AHL, even if he's played better than Mathieu Garon at this point. Roloson's a pro and he gets his full salary in the minors. He'd be a mentor to Devan Dubnyk.
- It's time to find out if Garon can regain his form of last season and prove he's a legit No. 1 starter. If Garon can't do that by starting, say, seven of the next 10 games, I shop him. If he doesn't move, I send him to the minors, recall Roloson and ride Deslauriers the rest of the way.
- In any case, Roloson's gone after this season. What I want to know is if Garon or Deslauriers is my starter next season or if I'm diving into the trade and free agent pool to get a stopper.
2. SORT IT OUT UP FRONT. And, for crying out loud, stop trying to force square pegs into round holes, as was the case too often with MacTavish early this season when he tried to make a center out of Fernando Pisani and a left winger out of Erik Cole.
- Keep Dustin Penner, Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky together as the first line. It's working.
- Cut your losses and trade Cole. He's not producing. He's not re-signing in Edmonton as an unrestricted free agent. Get what you can for him -- picks, prospects, a bag of pucks. The sooner the better.
- Consider going with three offensive lines instead of the traditional two scoring lines, one checking line and an energy/grinding line format. Is there enough talent on the second and third lines with Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, Robert Nilsson, Gilbert Brule, Pisani and Rob Schremp or Marc Pouliot in the mix as your second six? While I've said before I'd rather not have more than four "small" forwards on the roster, I'd look at this group for 10 games to find out.
- Establish a fourth line. For me, it's going to be captain Ethan Moreau on left wing and Kyle Brodziak at centre every game. The right winger is Zack Stortini or Steve MacIntyre, when he's healthy again.
3. FIX THE PK. Stop the presses!
This season's miserable showing by the penalty killing is a bit of a mystery to me because the personnel up front -- Horcoff, Moreau, Pisani and Brodziak -- has proven capable in the past, although it's obvious the Oilers have lost too many face-offs leading directly to goals and aren't blocking shots like they have in past seasons.
- Given that I'd move Cole and would like to at least look at the mix of the seven forwards mentioned above as components of secondary scoring lines, I'd be looking to move No. 26 for a proven face-off man who can kill penalties. If that took Cole and, say, Pouliot, Nilsson or Schremp, so be it.
- Add a tough-as-nails-mean-as-hell defenceman (not named Jason Smith) capable of clearing the front of the net like a D9 Cat with a jammed throttle. See below.
4. TOUGHEN UP THE D. On paper, having a back end loaded with puck-movers makes sense -- and it certainly works for the Detroit Red Wings -- but the Oilers have sacrificed grit and shutdown capability with the personnel in place now.
- Keep any three from the group of Denis Grebeshkov, Tom Gilbert, Sheldon Souray and Lubomir Visnovsky and trade the odd-man for a proven veteran who can play a shutdown role.
- In my mind, the likeliest candidates to go are Gilbert and Grebeshkov because both are relatively soft and I'm not willing to give Grebeshkov a long-term contract to keep him. Besides, not many teams will take Souray's contract, despite a great start, because of his age and injury history.
- If I've got, say, Souray, Visnovsky and Gilbert as my three offensive D-men plus a shutdown guy for whoever I trade, then I'm keeping Staios and Smid as my fifth and sixth guys for now and Strudwick as my swing man.
5. TAKE STOCK. Who's who and what's what?
- Decide once and for all by the trade deadline if Brule and Schremp fit in the long-term plans. If they don't, move them.
- Get a read and make a call on whether Theo Peckham is ready to play in the NHL next season. How about Taylor Chorney? Any chance Jordan Eberle is ready for 2009–10? If he is, does that make one of the small forwards on the roster available as trade bait?
- Does Dubnyk factor into the goaltending picture at the NHL level next season? I'm guessing not, but my scouting staff has to be all over him for the rest of this season to find out if it's a possibility.
6. THE BOTTOM LINE. Pink slips for failure.
- If the Oilers miss the playoffs this season after tweaking and tinkering from the 40-game mark to the trade deadline, MacTavish and assistants Charlie Huddy, Bill Moores, Kelly Buchberger and Pete Peeters are sacked, fired, gone. No questions. No song and dance. Gone.
December 18 2008, 04:07PM
Big Deal wrote:
I haven't got a clue what Huddy does (nor does anyone else).
Huddy runs the defense. We've written about it at OilersNation as recently as this summer.
Jonathan - or any of you guys - who coaches the PK?
Robin - Fantastic article. Makes me kinda sad in a way that this won't make it to print. Thanks very much for your insight. Its great to hear from a guy who actually knows what he's talking about and has a ton of first-hand experience versus the usual horde of couch GM's and coaches. I'd be very interested to hear what Jason thinks in contrast.
One more thing. As far as the pink slips goes, I have very little doubt that MacT would step down himself if we didn't make the second season this year.
December 18 2008, 04:50PM
David S wrote:
Jonathan - or any of you guys - who coaches the PK?
I don't know - I was hoping one of our actual journalists would fill in the blanks.
Based on the sudden drop-off, I'd guess Buchberger; a coaching change would be the most logical explanation for the unit's poor performance, yes?
This post sounds like was written by Dwight Schrute expressing his love for the Oil.
December 18 2008, 07:03PM
I agree with most, but why are all these assistants being sacked? At most, fire whichever assistant was in charge of the penalty kill.
@ PaperDesigner: Huddy and Moores are long-time assistants hand-picked by MacTavish. If you're of the mind there's a long-time problem of the team under-achieving under this head coach, it follows his assistants had a hand in it. Buchberger is also hand-picked by the head coach.
A new head coach would want to pick his own staff, no?
December 18 2008, 10:34PM
Interesting Robin... you don't see this kind of stuff in the rags else they scolded!! Couple things... The critical 20 game stretch you talked about a couple weeks back is now 5-5 and heading for the ditch. Not even the slightest chance of getting 28 or more points now. After 30 games do we honestly think this is a championship calibre team? No, I don't think so either so I would humbly suggest we do a mini blow up now and rid some cap crap and then blow the whole thing up at the trade deadline. Honestly, there are only 4 or 5 untouchables and the rest are along for the ride. The cap is going down probably for the next 2 or 3 years and we're paying too much dough to these guys to be in 14th place. Be nice to be down to a commitment of between $30 - $35 Mil by year end and give us some room to work in the summer FA market. And finally Robin I realize you probably can't or won't say it but you CANNOT let Kevin Lowe continue down this obviously wrong path. He's the architect of this mess and he has to go. If Katz keeps him then he is as big a loser as the rest of this (mis)management team.
I thought I wrote this before I fell asleep but RB's list should really begin with an improvement for the PK.
If they don't address that, nothing else will matter.
And, yes, Lowe is hand-shaking these days, when his hand isn't up Tambellini's a$$, but I find it interesting that Brownlee would have basically everyone fired except for Lowe.
December 19 2008, 07:00AM
@ Dennis:
Because Lowe would have to be the one doing the firing....
RobinB wrote:
Cole is NOT re-signing here next season.
Is this just your sense of the situation, or is this based on something you've heard?
I agree that he's going to go, but just wondering if you've heard anything.
@ Dennis:
For a guy that seems to fancy himself the smartest guy on the planet I would think you would have picked up on the pre-text of Robin's column.
You know the part where he effectively says what he would do if he had Tambellini and Lowe's job.
How do you fire a guy that isn't in a position to be fired?
@ Rick: Dennis pisses and moans about the PK, the lack of a defensive forward and a shortage of shot-blocking to no end, but when I suggest trimming a goaltender and sorting out the forwards -- which would make it easier to acquire players with those skills -- he bitches because I listed the PK third in my priorities instead of first, even though the three are obviously connected.
By the way, Dennis, you've written countless times about the PK, even in threads that had nothing to do with it, saying "When are you going to mention this and that, blah, blah, blah . . . " I get to that issue as part of a larger look at things and you still whine.
Smart? No so much.
@ RobinB: I asked you further up but I don't know if you missed it or just didn't have an opinion.
But since you and Gregor were talking about leadership in the room again last night I figure I will ask again.
From what you see in the room, how does Rollie fit in to the leadership hierarchy, if at all, and does that factor in to which goalie to move when looking at salvaging this season?
@ Rick: Roloson has been very professional and what players and coaches like to call a "good teammate" since arriving. Several of the other veterans are solidly in his corner and have nothing but good things to say about him.
While Roloson has occasionally been prickly with the media, I haven't heard anything about him being a disruption in the room. I think his actions alone provide what we call leadership.
I'm sure that factors into the equation, but I can't say for certain to what degree.
December 19 2008, 09:40AM
I am agreeable on most of this, Robin.
Particularly because I think the Oilers are actually going to NEED to lose some dead weight through waivers, because really, no one is going to trade for Roli or CERTAINLY Garon (maybe like a 6th rounder, that the brain trust will use on Hayley Wickenheiser because they have 'this feeling, and she has hockey smarts').
The one thing I would say on D- it's going to have to be a Grebeshkov, because there are 29 GMs across the league laughing at $4mil for Gilbert.
Nice article Robin - I pretty much agree with your take.
After the 40 game mark the brain trust has to decide if we are a contender or pretender - the closer we get it looks more like pretender. I think it will be tough for them to run with JDD & more kids, but the fans would like it more.
Rick: Katz has the power to fire anyone; Lowe included.
RB: You can still acquire penalty killers without a major re-shuffling.
Anyone who doesn't know that should be looking inward and not outward.
Unless you want to spend a lot of money on shotblocking and faceoff prowess; which is something I've never really advocated in the first place.
I've always said you can pick up two guys for the 4th line and penalty killing and they don't need to play top nine. For example, let's call Stortini and Reddox as 11th and 12th and now we'll replace them with guys making around a mill who can do the dirty work and - SHAZAM - you don't need to make all these moves. At least if you think the PK is a big problem.
Smartest guy on the planet, Rick? Not close.
But smart, RB and Rick? You ******* betcha:)
Anyway, RB and I will be at loggerheads and that's cool with me. I took the initial shot when I said he's been kissing Lowe's can for lo these last 8 seasons and that wounds the big fella so he comes back with a whining allegation. And I'm sure I make the occasional whine:) and I'm certainly sure that Brownlee continues to pucker up!:)
@ Dennis: Who is this arrogant little Dennis King prick and why does he feel the need to come over here from another Oiler website with no other real intention than to piss people off?
Last reaction from me, Dennis. You're done.
December 19 2008, 04:40PM
100% agreed!
What does that even mean? Hired goons?:)
Have a good one!


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Boys' convertible puffer
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size & fit
Product Details
It's a jacket...it's a vest...it's both. Filled with our warmest-ever down to keep tots toasty on the deep-freeze days of winter, the sleeves unzip to make a lighter layer on warmer days. Fleece lined with an interior powder skirt (to keep snow out) and elastic trim at the hood and interior cuffs—it's a winter wonder. Contrast details at hood and zip. Zip closure. Hits at low hip.


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We interrupt our regularly scheduled hockey column for some thoughts on pro basketball. I know, crazy isn't it? The fancy Miami Heat have made it to the 3rd round of the NBA Playoffs and record ratings are being reported for their Game 1 loss in Chicago. I looked in on that game and have done the same at other points during then playoffs. There is a curiosity, even for an admitted very casual basketball fan, in seeing what the Heat can accomplish. I have not stayed with it and am just now starting to realize why.
Generally speaking, I like to watch great players be great. Lebron James joining superstar Dwayne Wade and star Chris Bosh has left such a bad taste in my mouth that the only thing left to do is root against him. I can't really enjoy watching sports like this, rooting for the best players to fail. I thought maybe when the three stars got together in Miami that it would get me to watch more basketball. It hasn't worked out that way. I thought my wanting to see them lose would get me there but instead, wanting them to lose has left me interested only in the result. If James had stayed in Cleveland I would still be rooting for him and the Cavaliers to win. When James scored 48 in the Conference Finals against Detroit in 2007 I was captivated and really looking forward to watching the next star in the NBA do what so many had done before him. Grow with his team into a champion. Instead, what we ended up with was a couple more playoff appearances and then "I'm taking my talents to South Beach."
Surely this is working for lots of fans as the ratings indicate. My failing to really plug into this likely has as much to with there being other things on that I want to watch more. Sunday that would have been Red Sox /Yankees and Sharks/Canucks. I probably don't like basketball enough. I do still like it as much as I have at any point in the last decade. I just feel pretty much like a jerk tuning in to see if James and his teammates fail. Rooting against teams that I and my favorite teams have a history with is one thing. Rooting against one star player because of a noxious departure takes a little more work.
This is not a final ruling on all of this. There is still plenty more basketball to be played. Game 2 for the Heat and Bulls is tomorrow night. Maybe Derrick Rose will win me over and I'll have someone to root for, not just root against.


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Braking W-FIX Brake Rotor - Front
Braking W-FIX Brake Rotor - Front
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Q: How big is this rotor? I need it to fit my Acerbis front rotor guard. Needs to be under 270mm?
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A: This Braking W-FIX Brake Rotor (SZ01FID) for your 2013 Yamaha YZ250 would be 250mm.
Q: I was wondering if the red circle on this rotor is a magnet? I have a Honda XR650R with a TrailTech speedometer installed on the stock rotor now.?
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A: No, you will need to use the magnetic rotor bolt provided by Trail Tech.
A: The red circle is simply the Braking logo, it doesn't have a function.
Location: Pottstown, PA, USA
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A: This rotor is designed to utilize the entire brake pad surface evenly and eliminates the need for lightening holes that weaken rotors. It is also designed to be able to with stand heating up without warping. This rotor should also maximize braking power. So yes, the rotor itself should be stronger than your stock rotor and you should also notice an improved stronger feel when braking with this rotor installed on your bike.
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Have you seen this bridge?
The Landscape Change Database is full of photos that have been described, keyworded, and located. However, there are some photos – like the one above – that come to us without a lot of information. If you know where this bridge is let us know. If you have a story about it, even better! We love to hear how structures on the landscape have affected Vermonter's lives.


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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine President Cristina Fernandez was being released from a hospital on Sunday, five days after undergoing surgery for a cranial blood clot, but doctors said she needs another month of rest.
Doctors at the Fundacion Favaloro hospital issued a statement saying she should be in "strict repose" and should avoid air travel for 30 days. Still, her spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro said she was recovering well and is "in excellent spirits."
That period of rest would keep her out of the campaign for legislative elections on Oct. 27. Polls indicate that her party could suffer losses.
Supporters cheered and chanted slogans as her official car drove out of the hospital under heavy guard.
Fernandez, 60, underwent surgery on Tuesday to drain a blood clot that was pressing on her brain and causing pain. Officials said it was caused by a previously unreported blow to the head that she suffered on Aug. 12.
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Earlier this week my colleague Alice Wiggins noted the strong alignment between the new Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) program and the Common Core State Standards for ELA & Literacy. Drawing on decades of cognitive science research, I made the case for a totally new approach to reading instruction in The Knowledge Deficit. It is heartening not only to see CKLA come to life, but for it to do so just as the nation is ushering new standards that support stronger, more research-based reading instruction.
I would hazard the guess that, because of its deep foundations in linguistic and cognitive science, CKLA has no peer among early literacy programs. Whenever students in CKLA have been accurately paired with a control group using another program, the CKLA students came out ahead on reading tests. The CKLA program is designed to optimize the use of time by students and teachers alike.
There is every reason to expect the superiority of CKLA to become more pronounced as students stay in the program and continue on through the elementary grades. Why? Because with each passing year, CKLA students will know more, have larger vocabularies, and be able to comprehend better what they read.
To explain the science behind Core Knowledge's generous use of listening in its reading program, it's necessary to distinguish decoding from reading. Let's call decoding the sounding out of words from written marks, and let's strictly reserve the term "reading" for understanding what those words mean. Using the term "reading" to mean comprehension is common usage anyway. The whole education field, and much of the general public, has been mired in the overlap between these two senses of the word "reading"—decoding and comprehension. But "comprehension" is just too cumbersome a term to keep inserting. We really need only two distinct terms: "decoding" and "reading," where the second term always means "understanding what one has decoded." Please tolerate this preliminary defining of terms. It's essential for gaining clarity about what's needed in a good literacy program.
The proof that decoding is not comprehension is easy: One of the best ways of testing decoding fluency and accuracy is to present nonsense words, such as those Lewis Carroll famously wrote:
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
A second grader should be able to sound that out acceptably, but none should be able to say confidently what it means.
What about the connection between listening and reading? Shouldn't we make a careful distinction there? Less distinction than one might think. If decoding goes with sounding out and therefore with "hearing," then "reading" goes with "listening." Let's take the term "listening" to mean comprehension too.
And this brings us to the nub: in the early grades, when the immensely difficult task of learning to decode is paramount, there is not much time left in the language arts block to improve general knowledge and verbal comprehension—especially for disadvantaged students who enter school with subpar knowledge and vocabulary. That's why CKLA divides decoding and knowledge building into separate segments of the school day. CKLA is comprised of two strands: a Skills strand that teaches all the skills and mechanics of decoding and writing (or encoding), and a Listening and Learning strand that builds background knowledge, especially in history, science, and the arts. It's the Listening and Learning strand that is really unique. Most reading programs are aware of the research showing that background knowledge is essential to comprehension, but then—misunderstanding the implications of that research—they think texts must stick with familiar topics like friends and pets. CKLA is carefully designed to expand students' background knowledge, enabling them to read about their world, past and present, fiction and nonfiction.
CKLA's main vehicle for building knowledge, as you may have guessed from "Listening and Learning," is read-alouds. Why? Many years ago, the researcher Thomas Sticht discovered the important fact that reading does not catch up with listening until late middle school or early high school.
Source: T. G. Sticht and J. James, "Listening and reading," in P. Pearson, ed., Handbook of Research on Reading. New York: Longmans, 1984. (1984)
It would be quite remarkable if this were not the case. In the early grades, so much of the "channel capacity" of the mind is taken up with the arduous process of learning and applying decoding that there is little mental space left over to process new or difficult meanings. Decoding in the early years is a barrier to progress through the written word. Hence the ideal structure for an early literacy program is to foster progress in decoding by the most efficient means, and to foster knowledge and vocabulary by the most efficient means. For knowledge, the most efficient means is through listening (along with heavy doses of watching, questioning, etc. as described in Alice's post). Another finding of Sticht and his colleagues is that early listening ability predicts reading ability many years later. Learning to listen at a high level is closely connected to learning to read at a high level.
Some educators may think that listening is too passive an activity. It can be physically passive, but it is anything but mentally passive, as shown by brain scans that Dr. Bennett Shaywitz of Yale (and others) have done while people are listening. These scans prove that listening is very active indeed—which is unsurprising, since all language comprehension is a highly active process involving active predictions, inferences, and guesses. Listening can be downright tiring.
Another connection between listening and reading is the now-established fact that reading is itself a form of listening. The old debate about whether silent reading has an active, internal auditory component is over. Reading—even skimming—is indeed accompanied by "subvocalization." Although some teachers use this term to refer to children whispering to themselves as they make the transition from reading out loud to silent reading, researchers use this term to refer to the internal voice we all hear while we read silently. We use an inner voice and an inner ear. Reading IS listening. Gaining expertise in listening thus transfers rather directly to expertise in reading. And since in the early years students learn through listening much faster and more extensively than through reading, systematic listening is the fastest route to progress in reading during the early years.
Want still more information on listening, reading, and learning? See "Why Listening and Learning Are Critical to Reading Comprehension."


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Dockmate Ultimate Mooring Whips
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Airwise/Airlite Air Purifiers
in your home or workplace
Why Airwise?
Airwise uses photocatalysis, a purification process so effective it's FDA approved for poultry processing (destroys salmonella), pork processing (destroys E. coli), and is also widely used to remove pesticides from fruits and vegetables. It not only kills bacterial cells, but also decomposes the cell itself. It has been tested in both medical and industrial settings, and has proven successful at eliminating odors and impurities caused by chemicals, viruses, and bacteria.
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