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Soaring Salaries: It's Payback Time
Seven-Day Workweeks. Eighteen-hour days. Labor shortages. Brutal competition. There's got to be a silver lining to the entrepreneurial lifestyle, and, apparently, high-level small-business execs are finding it in their pockets. Fueled by the tight labor market, the growing demand for tech-savvy executives and by competition from Corporate America, the salaries for key executives at the nation's smallest companies are reaching record levels, say compensation experts and small companies. Entrepreneurs, in some cases, are compelled to fork over double-digit increases--as much as 40% to 60% for new hires--and beef up the packages of execs already on board.
The problem is widespread. The National Federation of Independent Business says that in August, 29% of small businesses surveyed had to hike salaries--slightly less than the record 34% tally in May. Another recent study, commissioned by Sage Software, of Irvine, Calif., reports that 61% of the 200 small businesses surveyed have recently increased salaries.
"Professional managers are being paid a lot more competitively than ever before, because these companies want managers with proven track records," says Mark Meltzer, head of the compensation practice at the Segal Company, a benefits, actuarial, and compensation consultancy in New York. Pushing pay higher, he adds, is the fact that many new hires come from large companies, where they leave behind stock options, bonuses, and other incentives.
Bartholomew Broadbent, for example, recently went shopping for a new chief operating officer for Broadbent Selections, his eight-employee San Francisco-based wine import and distribution company. To attract a new candidate, he had to offer an annual base pay of $100,000--67% more than he was paying his former COO, who left to form her own company. On top of that, he threw in a $60,000 signing bonus. He didn't have much choice. "The rising wage bill is one of the major problems we face," laments Broadbent, whose company's revenues have grown by 50% in each of the past two years. "Our profits are three times lower from last year, and I can't think of anything other than salaries that could have caused it," he says.
It's not just the CEOs and COOs who are raking it in. While chief information officers are commanding some of the highest compensation packages, non-execs are also receiving sizable wage hikes. In addition, they're getting generous signing bonuses--and often hefty increases in noncash benefits, such as longer vacation time, flexible hours, and child-care assistance. Broadbent is also searching for an executive to join his accounting department. He's budgeting $50,000 a year for the position, up from the $30,000 he paid the last person.
In some industries, nonexecutive positions, such as Internet designers, are commanding stratospheric salaries rivaling some executive salaries, says Meltzer. "There is a perception in high-tech companies that the creative people, not the techies, are the ones in the greatest demand," he adds. "And they need to be attracted with the richest pay packages."
Today, the CEO of a $3 million company earns an average base salary of $159,543, plus about $30,000 in cash incentives, while a CEO leading a $10 million company has an average total compensation of $268,092, according to the Economics Research Institute (ERI) in Redmond, Wash. For chief financial officers, company size isn't quite as significant. The CFO of a $3 million company makes an average of $126,918, vs. $141,272 for a CFO at a $10 million company.
Traditionally, small companies have increased salaries in response to rising corporate pay. But it's often a losing battle when you try to outbid your larger competitors on compensation alone. Lucky for you, say compensation experts, many employees are choosing to work at smaller outfits over large corporations because of the flexibility and opportunity for decision-making, not to mention lifestyle perks such as casual office dress, flexible hours, and telecommuting options. Or workers are attracted to small businesses by generous incentive plans tied to company performance.
In any case, you'll still need to figure out just how much to pay your employees--without overpaying in this seller's market. In general, compensation is influenced more by your industry and company size than where you're located--with the exception of a few very high-cost cities, such as New York and San Francisco, notes ERI director Briana Bennit. A chief human resources officer in Atlanta, for example, makes an average salary of $90,041, according to ERI data, while the same job in Boston fetches $98,528 and $104,132 in San Jose.
In general, ERI's data shows, the smaller the company, the less compensation is tied to risk. That means the base salary, rather than stock options and other incentives, will comprise a bigger chunk of the total package. As you would expect, the CEO is likely to have more of his or her salary tied up in incentive programs than, say, the chief human resources officer.
In most cases, the biggest winners in the salary sweepstakes are the outside CEO, who's hired by the founder to run the company, and the much sought-after chief technology officer. "It's not uncommon for CTOs to get more in cash than founder-CEOs in the early stage of a company," says Dee DiPietro, CEO and principal analyst of Advanced-HR, a human-resource-consulting company based in Saratoga, Calif.
For instance, when Randy Cohen, CEO of TicketCity.com, formed a company to develop new real-time software for ticket brokers, he was shocked to find out what he'd need to pay a candidate for the CTO slot. "He was asking for $350,000, plus an equivalent sign-on bonus and equity stake," marvels Cohen. Instead, Cohen opted to outsource the job to a technology firm for $750,000 a year. From a cost perspective, it's essentially a wash, "but this way the project is not entirely dependent on one person," he says.
Cohen also gave Zach Anderson, his vice-president of marketing, a 15% raise this year on the heels of a 40% hike last year. "Raises are one of the few most important factors in determining if you stay with a company," says Anderson. In addition an "aggressive" benefits package and perks like free tickets to events and a company retreat for employees and their families "show us that the company cares," he says.
Meanwhile, Cohen gave his CFO of six years a 15% raise and also ponied up for 15% bonuses to each of his 32 employees. "You have to be able to share the wealth to just stay competitive," says Cohen. "But if you have a bad year, all of a sudden you can't say you're going to take back the wealth."
Sometimes even that's not enough. Cohen recently lost a prized employee to a major competitor, even though he offered a 20% raise, fully paid family vacations, and other benefits. "I was heartbroken because he was an excellent employee and had tremendous upside potential," he says.
Perhaps an even knottier decision than what to pay your staff is what to pay yourself. Chances are, you'll be sacrificing your own rewards in the early days, so you can offer better salaries to your key employees. "It's an early-stage practice," says DiPietro. "Once they get venture funding, they tend to pay themselves more," she says. For outside, nonfounder CEOs, the greater the base pay you offer, the smaller the equity stake is likely to be, says Meltzer at the Segal Company. CEO base salaries and bonuses tend to reflect the value of the company and the potential value of its stock.
So now you've trimmed back office expenses, decided to put off buying yourself a new car, and squeezed blood out of the proverbial stone to afford these salaries. Is that enough? Probably not. Linda Jacobsen, CEO and president of 19-employee St. Louis-based Global Vision Strategies, which conducts cross-cultural training for company executives, says she uses noncash benefits, such as flexible work hours, to attract and keep people. Recently, she agreed to give a valuable new hire, eight weeks of paid vacation, in return for a $5,000 pay cut from her previous job. But that doesn't mean Jacobsen is exempt from salary pressures. Just recently, she had to pay 25% over budget to hire someone for a project, resulting in a loss on that contract. "The needs of the client had to be met," she says. "And we can't raise prices suddenly, so we just had to take the loss."
What about the basic benefits? Employees at all levels are demanding more generous packages, and small employers are responding. According to Dun & Bradstreet's 2000 Small Business Survey, 54% of the companies with 100 employees or less that were surveyed this year said they offered health insurance in 1999, up from 40% in 1998. Another 27% offered retirement benefits, vs. 19% in 1998. Most of the growth in retirement plans came from companies with 25 to 100 employees, says D&B.
Some small businesses are enhancing the basics, says Howard Edelstein, of the Todd Organization in Cleveland, focusing on three areas: preretirement death benefits, where a spouse, upon the death of an employee, receives the retirement benefits he would have been entitled to; special supplemental disability insurance for highly compensated employees; and employer-sponsored long-term care insurance.
Which benefits you choose to offer will depend, in part, upon the demographics of your workforce, notes Taylor Macdonald, vice-president of partners development at Sage Software. "So if the workforce is younger, there may be education benefits, and working moms may have flexible schedules," he says. By the same token, your older employees will likely care most about retirement and health-care benefits.
While incentives are routinely part of executive packages, the trend increasingly is to offer them to lower-level employees, as well. "Formerly bonuses, incentives, and stock options were things only owned by the top," says David Leach, national director of compensation consulting at Buck Consultants, a human resource consulting company. "This has all been pushed lower down in the organization now." He points out that since most small private companies have to compete for employees with public corporations many small businesses offer the right to participate in "phantom" stock programs. These are designed to give employees many of the benefits of stock ownership as a form of deferred compensation.
Of course, you still have to keep your base salaries competitive and be conscious of the fact that many employees will be adverse to taking too much risk, says Macdonald.
But if you're lucky, a good incentive program--one that makes employees feel like they have a real stake in the company's performance--can sometimes substitute for hefty wage hikes. "It's pretty hard to get a raise out of us," admits Susan Lyon, managing director of Lyon & Associates Creative Services. The 12-employee design firm, based in Encinitas, Calif., will boost employees' salaries only if they can demonstrate they've increased their value to the company by taking on new responsibilities or learning new skills.
Nevertheless, Lyon wants to keep her employees highly motivated. So she offers them a full-scale profit-sharing program, where 20% of the company's profits get divided equally among everyone who works full-time and has been employed by the company for a year or more. "Our philosophy is that if you want more money, just help the company make more, and you're guaranteed a chunk of it," she says. In addition, Lyon's employees get annual bonuses of 5% to 10% of their base pay.
Of course, there are limits to a small company's ability to cope with exploding compensation packages. One solution, however unpopular, is to make do with fewer employees.
Apart from that, you might just be the one skipping the raise this year.
Click Online Extras at frontier.businessweek.com for regional data on small business compensation
Click Online Extras at frontier.businessweek.com for regional data on small business compensation


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Finman --Is this the same chemical you use?
I wouldn't want to trickle when it's cold and the bees are clustered .........
You don't think that trickling when the weather is cold and the bees are clustered would harm them? Being wet when they are cold sounds like a bad idea to me. But I've never tried it.
Is it possible to use a spray bottle or would that take too long to dispence the oxalic acid? David
Just to clarify Finsky - you only do this once per year correct?

subset: commoncrawl


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Navy Spaghetti Tank
Meet The ZigZag Stripe Models
Our models at The ZigZag Stripe are every day gals. They are moms, school teachers and working professionals that give their spare time to helping show other women just how good you can look and feel when you wear The ZigZag Stripe brand.
At The ZigZag Stripe, we design clothes for women with curves. With that, the good news is that we are not a junior fit, but a fit that will work for every woman, every style. Our sizing chart is below. If for any reason you need additional help, please feel free to contact our customer service team at email@example.com.
We do advise you to read the descriptions on each item, as there are a few occasions that items may run big/small and the sizing has been adjusted.
Layering Pieces
Return Policy
Here at The ZigZag Stripe, we know that ordering online can be tough sometimes. As women, we vary in our sizes depending on the fit and we want to make sure that you are satisfied with your purchases. With that said, we've broken down our return policy so it's as easy as possible.
Retail Return Policy
When returning an item, please note the following information as we remain very firm on our return policy with all of our customers.
- Returns are issued in store credit only in the form of an online gift card.
- There will be a $5 flat rate restocking fee on each RMA sent back. (does not apply to damaged product) This will be reflected on any RMA submissions starting March 20, 2017.
- Due to the volume of orders and items selling out quickly, we are not able to process an exchange.
- Shipping is not reimbursed and is the responsibility of the customer when shipping back an item (unless stated as a damaged product or shipping error - see below)
- Online purchases may only be returned to the warehouse. You CANNOT return merchandise to our store locations.
- Returned items must be unused, unwashed and in the same condition as received for store credit to be issued.
- If an item has stains, smells of cigarette smoke, perfume or deodorant, has animal hair or any appearance the garment was worn, the return will be rejected.
- Items MUST be returned with the original packaging. If being sent back due to damage, we will review the item/packaging on arrival prior to approving. Items cut while opening a package are not considered damaged. Please do not send an item back if you know you damaged it while opening the product. It will be denied.
- Returns must be post-marked within 14 days of the date you receive your shipment. Any returns postmarked after that date will be rejected.
- All rejected returns will be charged shipping to be re-shipped to the customer.
- Once your return arrives to our warehouse, please allow our returns department up to 7 business days to process your return and issue store credit to your account.
- Due to the high volume of orders coming in without correct information, if you send a return/exchange to us without the correct info included, it will be denied. Items that have been denied and not claimed within 30 days will be donated to the local women's shelter.
Wholesale Return Policy
All orders placed as a WHOLESALE customer are FINAL SALE. If you receive a defective or damaged item or our warehouse department has shipped you the wrong item, we will gladly replace that item for you. If we are unable to replace the item, a refund will given. Please inspect your items closely upon receipt, we must be contacted within 7 days if you received a damaged or mis-shipped item.
Cancellation Policy
Due to expedited processing of orders, once an order is submitted, cancellations are not available. If you have a concern, you can reach our customer service department at 682-587-4241 Monday-Friday 8am-5pm CST.
Clearance Items
If you have purchased something in the last 7 days at full price and the item goes on clearance, please contact email@example.com and we will issue you store credit for the difference.
Sales & Final Sale Items
All Sale items, #Bosslady Favorites, Flash Sales, Birthday Sales, End of the Year Blowout Sales and anything listed on the site marked down 30% or more are all FINAL SALE. Other items that are final sale include: all jeggings, all One Size Fits Most leggings, camisoles, cami dresses, undergarments (such as lace extenders), scarves, headbands, hats, belts, purses and jewelry. BOGO Sales are NOT final sale but if returned; you will only receive a 50% credit for each item returned.
Coupon/Discount Policy
Offers and coupon codes are valid online only. Please visit each store's Facebook page for in store promotions. Coupon codes received via email are one use per customer and only good in the month issued unless otherwise stated. Only one coupon per purchase. Coupons are not valid on clearance items, shoes, previous purchases, or in conjunction with any other offers unless otherwise stated.Loyalty Reward coupons may be used up to one year from the date of issue (one per purchase).
Gift Certificate Policy
Gift certificates purchased from The ZigZag Stripe online are valid online only. Gift cards are available in the stores for use at any of our brick and mortar stores. Online gift certificates are sent to the email address requested, however, The ZigZag Stripe is not responsible for failed delivery due to receiving email servers or misspellings. In the event your gift certificate is not delivered, please contact email@example.com to request your gift certificate code.
Defective or Damaged Merchandise
Please inspect your order immediately upon receipt. If you believe you have received defective or damaged merchandise, please snap a picture with your smartphone and immediately email our returns department at firstname.lastname@example.com. You must contact our returns department within 3 days of receipt for replacement. NO EXCEPTIONS. If we do not receive notification that you have received a damaged or defective item within 3 days of receipt, your return will be rejected for replacement, store credit or a refund. The ZigZag Stripe will refund up to $5.50 in shipping per damaged/defective items you receive or order errors on our end.
Our Spaghetti Tank is the basic tank you have been looking for to go with your favorite palazzos and layer under your favorite cardigan, blazer, or vest!
- Scoop neck
- Non-adjustable spaghetti straps
- Model Crystal is 5'3, a size 8 and wearing a medium
- Model Rebekah is 5'3, a size 8/10 and wearing a medium
- Color(s) depicted online may differ in person than when viewed on computer screens/mobile devices
- Items will fit differently depending on your body type
- Hand wash
- Made in USA
- Fabric Content: Polyester/Spandex


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Home >> 220V 170W 55mmx30mm Heating Element Band Heater 2pcs for Plastic Injection Machine
- It is mainly used in the heating devices of solder machine stuffing container.
- Reasonable structure, attractive appearance, stable performance, quick heating, fine insulation performance, high pressure resistant.
- Features: Rust resistant steel sheath, stainless steel clamp type lock-up, notched sleeve allows installation, flush with nozzle he, mica insulation.
|Country of Manufacture
|Stainless Steel, Mica
|Net Weight
|Package Content
|2 x Heater Band
|Main Color
|Silver Tone, White
|Max Voltage
|Cable Length
|10cm/ 4"
|Total High
|15cm/ 6"
|Band Size
|55 x 30mm/2.2" x 1.2" (Inner Dia*H)
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- $11.66
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713-213-4286 email@example.com
Join the UST community for fun, food and a snapshot of downtown Houston with 2013 UST Family and Alumni Weekend. Invite your family from Oct. 17-20 and experience everything UST has to offer, including classes, athletic events, musical performances, a visit to local museums, weekend Mass and a giant carnival celebration. Register for all events today. See below for details and the full schedule.
A Day in the Life of a UST Student
Kick off Family and Alumni Weekend with a mingling of parents, staff and professors all day beginning Friday morning. Invite your parents to class for a chance to introduce them to how professors encourage students to think critically and communicate effectively. Students should ask professors for permission prior to bringing parents to class.
After class, join the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist for coffee, homemade goodies, door prizes and a discussion on how students can integrate faith, academics and life at Augustine Without Walls from 2-4 p.m. at Clare Hall, 1210 Graustark.
Immediately following, come out to test your luck and participate in the long-time honored tradition of Bingo, sponsored by UST Student Activities Board.
At 5:30 p.m., don't miss the opportunity for food and a chance to meet with the Deans of UST during Dogs and Deans.
Friday evening, relax during the Hispanic heritage Celebration with Latin band Mango Punch!, led by UST alumnus Walter Suhr '89. Mango Punch! is a six-time winner of "Best Latin Band" in the Houston Press Music Awards. The band performed in prominent concerts and events including the pre-game show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, along with Willie Nelson, Toby Keith, Aerosmith and Beyoncé. The free concert will take place on the Campus Life Mall and is open to the public.
Saturday afternoon, experience the downtown museum district with your family between 2-5 p.m. Limited transportation for the museums will be provided.
Athletic Events
Cheer on your fellow Celts as the men's soccer team take on Huston-Tillotson on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at Houston Amateur Sports Park. Reserve your seat today as limited transportation to the game will be provided.
Save your voice for the first basketball game of the season as you support the men's basketball team in its scrimmage against San Jacinto College on Friday, Oct. 18 from 3-5 p.m. in the Jerabeck Gym. Both games are free and open to the public.
Saturday Celebration
UST Residence Life staff will sponsor the annual St. Augustine's Birthday Celebration and Carnival on Saturday morning from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Campus Life Mall. The carnival will feature free food, music, carnival games, a cake walk, prizes, inflatables and much more!
Saturday evening, UST Alumni relations will sponsor a movie drive-in experience on the Campus Life Mall, including dinner and Monsters University at 6:15 p.m.
Family Weekend Mass
Don't miss out on the opportunity to experience the finest hour at the University of St. Thomas during Mass in the Chapel of St. Basil with you family and loved ones. The Saturday vigil Mass will be from 5-6 p.m., with two Sunday Mass times at 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Library Book Sale
The University of St. Thomas Doherty Library will host its annual book sale during Family and Alumni Weekend. The sale will feature a wide selection of interesting and unique books – from fiction to academic titles to general interest reading. Book lovers can find hardbound books for $2 and paperback books for $1.
Book sale hours for the public are:
• Thursday, 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
• Friday, 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Sunday, 1:30 to 11:30 p.m.
Educating Leaders of Faith and Character
Copyright © 2017 University of St. Thomas. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Clery Act | Title IX | Consumer Information
Please select one of the options below: Apply Now, Schedule Visit, or Request Info.


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Yikes! But if it ends with a date- who cares.
Okay, so you know that part in Home Alone when the dude slides all the way down the iced up steps to the basement? Yeah that happened to me today. That part of the movie is no longer funny.
I told a buddy I'd pick him up and take him to work this morning. I was supposed to pick him up at 11:20. I woke up with my alarm blaring at 11:45. Called him and told him I was on the way. I threw on some sweatpants and a hoodie, washed my faced, told the pup I'd be right back, and ran out the door. Now our apartment is a townhouse, and we take up the 2nd and 3rd stories of our building. The front door has steps that go down to the ground, we have a private deck on the back of the 1st floor (which is really the 2nd floor), and I have a deck on the back of my room that has three sets of steps that go down to the parking lot. I decided to take the fast way out the back from my deck. I sprinted down the first two sets of steps, and as I was rounding the corner onto the 3rd, it occurred to me that it was cold out, and I noticed after the 1st step that the standing water on the parking lot had frozen over. I decided to put on the brakes but it was too late. My left foot hit the 2nd step and I went down, flinging my wallet, cell phone, and keys into the air. I thought it would just be a solid thud and I'd get back up. No...my ass landed square on the corner of the 2nd step, and I proceeded to slide all the way down on my side. It SUCKED. I landed on my feet standing at the bottom and started to grin, but then the pain really sat in. My left ankle was completely scraped up, my left ass cheek felt like it had been ripped clean off, my entire leg was in a world of pain, and I was lucky I missed this nail that needs to be hammered down another 1/4" to get the head flush with the wood. It would've sliced my leg wide open had I hit it. My cell phone now looks like it went through a cement mixer, and somehow the D-ring that holds all my keys together got opened and my keys were all over the place.
Bad start to a horrible day. I got nothing accomplished, felt like crap, but at least when I went to my 7 o'clock class this incredibly cute girl I invited to go camping with me next week for spring break asked me what to bring camping. So I guess she's going. This is not the girl that I took shooting the other night...that girl sits a few seats back in the corner. Oh well, at least this one is way cuter, not in a sorority, and has the greatest personality ever.
Yikes! But if it ends with a date- who cares.


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All Day
24 HourContact Details
Also known as the Little India in Bangkok, Phahurat is the largest Sikh community in Bangkok, located right next to the Chinese community of Yaowarat. Named after a daughter of King Rama V, the area is regarded as one of Bangkok's largest textile market you find everything involved in cloth making, from yarns of silk to costume jewelries to faux fur as well fabrics in various styles from Thai silk to Indian saris. Hidden behind the market is the sparkling gold dome atop a giant structure of Gurdwara, the largest Sikh temple in Thailand. (Learn more about Gurdwara at www.thaisikh.org/sikhism/gurdwarabangkok.php)
Getting there: Bus no. 7,25,40, 53, 56, 507


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Brian Hayes
Part I of this article, in the January-February issue, discussed some very large structures that can usefully be looked upon as mathematical graphs. In this context a graph is a set of vertices (which are usually represented as dots) and a set of edges (lines between the dots). One large object that can be described in this way is the World Wide Web; its 800 million pages are the vertices of a graph, and links from one page to another are the edges. A second example comes out of Hollywood: The vertices are 225,000 actors, and an edge connects any two actors who have appeared in a feature film together.
Although graph theory has a history of two centuries and more, only in recent years has it been applied routinely to structures like these, with many thousands or millions of vertices and edges. Studying such enormous graphs is by no means easy. The Hollywood collaboration graph just barely fits in the memory of a large computer. The Web, a few orders of magnitude larger, requires all the resources of the Internet to keep track of its tentacles. Certain other graphs are even bigger. The human acquaintanceship graph, with a vertex for every person on earth and edges linking all those who know each other, may never be recorded beyond a few small, sampled regions.
Even when the vertices and edges of a large graph can be catalogued in full detail, gaining a deeper understanding of the graph's structure still calls for something more. What's needed is a mathematical theory or model. Typically this takes the form of an algorithm for generating new graphs that share certain properties of the graph under examination: You understand the original graph by building structures that resemble it. Part II of this article looks at a few such models.
The various gigantic graphs that have lately attracted notice share other properties besides sheer size. In particular:
They tend to be sparse. The graphs have relatively few edges, considering their vast numbers of vertices. In a graph with n vertices, the maximum number of edges is n(n-1)/2, or roughly n2/2. (I consider here only "simple" graphs, as opposed to multigraphs, where more than one edge can join a pair of vertices.) In large real-world graphs, the number of edges is generally closer to n than to n2/2. For example, the Hollywood graph has 13 million edges connecting its 225,000 vertices. That sounds like a lot, but it falls far short of the 25 billion edges in a "complete graph," or "clique," where an edge joins every pair of vertices.
They tend to be clustered. In the World Wide Web, two pages that are linked to the same page have an elevated probability of including links to one another. Likewise among friends, if two people both know you, there's a higher-than-normal chance they also know each other. Thus the edges of the graph are not distributed uniformly but tend to form clumps or knots.
They tend to have a small diameter. The diameter of a graph is the longest shortest path across it, or in other words the length of the most direct route between the most distant vertices. Diameter is finite only for connected graphs—those that are all in one piece. A connected graph must have at least n-1 edges, and its largest possible diameter is n-1. At the opposite extreme, a complete graph, with n2/2 edges, has a diameter of 1, since you can get from any vertex to any other in a single step. Graphs nearer to the minimum than the maximum number of edges might be expected to have a large diameter. Clustering could increase the diameter further still, since edges used up in creating local clumps leave fewer edges available for long-distance connections. Nevertheless, the diameter of the Web and other big graphs seems to hover around the logarithm of n, which is much smaller than n itself.
Graphs with the three properties of sparseness, clustering and small diameter have been termed "small-world" graphs, after the familiar cocktail-party experience of making a new acquaintance in a distant city and discovering you have a friend in a common. The name was introduced by Duncan J. Watts and Steven H. Strogatz of Cornell University, whose 1998 paper in Nature discussed the Hollywood graph and several other examples. Watts, who has since moved on to the Santa Fe Institute and MIT, describes the graphs more fully in a recent book titled Small Worlds.
In trying to understand very large small-world graphs, two simplified models serve as useful points of reference.
The simplest of all graph models are lattices—highly regular graphs in which every vertex is joined to a few neighbors. The term lattice brings to mind a two-dimensional square grid, but a lattice can have other geometries. The minimal lattice is a one-dimensional structure, like a row of people holding hands. Bending this linear lattice around and joining the two ends creates a ring lattice, or cycle. A nearest-neighbor ring lattice with n vertices has n edges, and every vertex has degree 2, meaning that two edges meet there. When edges extend both to nearest neighbors and to next-nearest neighbors, the ring has 2n edges and vertices of degree 4.
How does the ring lattice perform as a model of small-world graphs? Not terribly well. It is suitably sparse, with just n edges in the nearest-neighbor case, and there is a sense in which it is highly clustered, since all the edges are "local." But the diameter is not small. The only way to travel in a ring is to go from neighbor to neighbor; the lattice is like a railroad line without an express track. The diameter of the nearest-neighbor ring is n/2, which is much larger than log n.
Whereas a lattice is a very orderly graph, the other benchmark model is maximally random. The graphs in this class were first studied around 1960 by the Hungarian mathematicians Paul Erdos and Alfred Rényi. To build one of their graphs, you start with a collection of n vertices and no edges. Then you make a sweep through the graph, considering every possible pairing of vertices, and in each case you either draw an edge with probability p or do nothing with probability 1-p. The outcome of this process is easy to predict in the extreme cases: If p=0, the graph remains edgeless, and if p=1, the graph becomes a clique. Between the extremes, you can expect the graph to have about pn2/2 edges, placed randomly and independently.
Erdos and Rényi proved a number of interesting results about these graphs. Most of the proofs are statements about "almost every" random graph; this sounds like a strangely vague manner of speaking for mathematical discourse, but it has a precise meaning. Saying that almost every random graph has some property Q means that as the size of the graph n goes to infinity, the probability of Q approaches 1. For example, Erdos and Rényi showed that if the edge probability p is greater than a certain threshold, then almost every random graph is connected. This doesn't mean you can't construct disconnected graphs if you set out to do so, but the random process has no chance of producing them when n approaches infinity.
As a model of small-world networks, the Erdos-Rényi random graph has some strengths. It can be made as dense or as sparse as necessary just by adjusting the edge probability p. And the diameter tends to be small (in some cases too small). But Erdos-Rényi graphs show no tendency to form clusters. They cannot, since the edges are placed independently, and neighbors of neighbors are no more likely to be linked than any other randomly chosen vertices.
It's not really surprising that the lattice model and the Erdos-Rényi model fail to reproduce some features of networks such as the human friendship graph or the World Wide Web. After all, these real-world networks are neither entirely regular nor entirely random. People generally know their neighbors, but their circle of acquaintances is not confined to those who live next door, as the lattice model would imply. Conversely, links between pages on the Web are not created at random, as the Erdos-Rényi process requires.
Watts and Strogatz deal with these failures by a strategy that seems perfectly obvious once someone else has thought of it: They interpolate between the two models. They begin with a regular lattice, such as a ring, and then "rewire" some of the edges to introduce a measure of randomness. Each edge in the original lattice is examined in turn, and is either left in place or else is redirected to another randomly chosen destination. The decision to rewire an edge is governed by a probability p, which can be adjusted over the range from 0 to 1. If p is equal to 0, then nothing happens; the lattice is unchanged. If p is equal to 1, the lattice is transformed into a random graph much like a product of the Erdos-Rényi procedure. The interesting range lies between these extremes.
In their analysis of the rewired graphs, Watts and Strogatz examined not the diameter—the shortest path between the most distant vertices—but the minimum path length L averaged over all pairs of vertices. They observed an abrupt transition in L as the rewiring probability increased. L is at its maximum in the regular lattice, but it falls steeply when just a few of the edges are rewired.
As a measure of clustering in their hybrid graphs, Watts and Strogatz defined a coefficient C. To calculate C, list all the neighbors of a vertex, count the edges that link those neighbors, and divide by the maximum number of edges that could possibly be drawn among the neighbors; then repeat these operations for all the vertices, and take the average. In contrast to the path length L, the clustering coefficient remains high until the rewiring probability is rather large. Hence over a wide range of p values, the graph is dominated by local connections between nearby nodes, but the few shortcuts provide efficient long-distance connections.
Watts and Strogatz tested their model against the Hollywood graph, which has L=3.65 and C=0.79. They created a rewiring model with the same number of vertices and edges and the same average degree. The model has an L value of 3.9 and a C coefficient in the range from 0.61 to 0.84, in good agreement with the actors' graph. The Erdos-Rényi model cannot do nearly as well: The path length of L=2.99 is reasonably close, but the cliquishness score, at C=0.00027, is too small by three orders of magnitude.
Watts and Strogatz suggest several more applications of their model to natural or technological graphs, including a part of the U.S. electric power grid and the nervous system of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Again, model and observation are consistent, although the agreement is not as impressive as it is with the Hollywood graph. More recently, Lada A. Adamic of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center has shown that the Web also fits the small-world model.
As it happens, Watts and Strogatz were not the first to explore the effect of short-circuiting a ring graph. In the 1980s, Fan R. K. Chung (now at the University of California, San Diego), in collaborations with Michael R. Garey of AT&T Laboratories and Béla Bolob?s of the University of Memphis, studied various ways of adding edges to cyclic graphs. They found cases where the diameter is proportional to log n.
Although randomly rewired connections can dramatically shrink the diameter of a lattice, the shortcuts are not much use if you don't know where they are. Without an aerial view, how do you find the best path to an unknown destination? The question has recently been taken up by Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University. His answer leads to a refinement of the Watts-Strogatz model.
Kleinberg describes his model in the context of the social-network experiments carried out by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. These experiments gave the first clear evidence of a small-world structure in the acquaintanceship graph. Milgram prepared envelopes addressed to a person in the Boston area and asked volunteers in Nebraska to pass the envelopes along to any acquaintance who might be able to get them closer to their destination. Many of the envelopes reached the recipient after passing through the hands of just a few intermediaries. What is surprising about this outcome is not that short paths exist but that people were able to find them so easily.
Kleinberg's model of this process begins with a two-dimensional square lattice, where each node is joined to its four nearest neighbors. Then long-distance interconnections are added, but not purely at random. For each vertex, all the possible destinations of a shortcut link are assigned a rank based on their distance from the source vertex. The probability of choosing a vertex at distance d is proportional to d-r, where r is an additional parameter of the model. If r is set equal to 0, then destinations at all distances are chosen with uniform probability, and the model is just a two-dimensional version of the Watts-Strogatz model. If r is large, then only nearby destinations have any appreciable chance of being chosen, and the original structure of the lattice is hardly altered. The crucial parameter value turns out to be r=2, where the probability obeys an inverse-square law.
Graphs with r=2 are easy to get around in not because they have the smallest diameter (they don't) but because an algorithm exists for finding a short path through them. The algorithm is a simple "greedy" one. If you are asked to find a route from node a to node b, list all the edges emanating from a, and choose the one that takes you closest to b, as measured by lattice distance; then repeat the same procedure from this intermediate point, and continue until you reach the destination. Kleinberg proves that this algorithm is at its most efficient when the spectrum of edge lengths is determined by r=2, and also that no other algorithm performs better at any other value of r. When r=0, paths with fewer steps exist, but there is no way to find them; at large r, the optimum route is unlikely to be much shorter than a path following strictly local lattice links.
Is there any evidence that graphs we meet in everyday life have the convenient properties of a lattice augmented with inverse-square shortcuts? The success of Milgram's experiments might be taken to suggest that the acquaintanceship graph has such a structure, but the data are scanty. And the model is not easy to adapt to other contexts. It requires that a graph have a geometric substrate—some way of measuring distance other than counting edges in the graph itself. This kind of metric does exist in Milgram's experiments: People in Nebraska know which of their friends are nearer to Boston. Many other graphs, however, have no such geometric structure. The Web offers few clues to proximity; when you go searching for a site by clicking on links, you seldom know whether you're getting warmer or cooler.
Sparseness, clustering and small diameter are not the only distinctive properties of large real-world graphs. Another trait that has attracted notice is the degree sequence—the number of vertices with each possible number of edges from 0 to n-1.
A lattice has a simple degree sequence. All the vertices have the same number of edges, and so a plot of the degree sequence consists of a single sharp spike. Any randomness in the graph broadens this peak. In the limiting case of an Erdos-Rényi graph, the degree sequence has a Poisson distribution, which falls off exponentially away from the peak value. Because of this exponential decline, the probability of finding a vertex with k edges becomes negligibly small for large k.
There is evidence that real graphs such as the Web behave differently. The distribution of degrees is described by a power law rather than an exponential. That is, the number of vertices of degree k is given not by e-k (an exponential) but by k-γ (a power law, where the power γ is a positive constant). The power-law distribution falls off more gradually than an exponential, allowing for vertices of very large degree.
Several research groups have independently discovered this property of the degree sequence. A group that includes Kleinberg and several workers from the IBM Almaden Research Center found evidence of a power law in the Web, and so did Adamic and Bernardo A. Huberman of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Michalis Faloutsos, Petros Faloutsos and Christos Faloutsos observed power-law relationships in the hardware substrate of the Internet.
Still another group that recognized a power law in the statistics of the Web consists of Albert-László Barabási of Notre Dame University and his colleagues Réka Albert and Hawoong Jeong. Barabási, Albert and Jeong set out to estimate the diameter of the Web (or, strictly speaking, the characteristic path length), and found that two randomly chosen pages are about 19 mouse-clicks apart. In the course of this analysis they tabulated the degree sequence, observing that the probability that a page has links to k other pages is approximately k-2.45; the probability that k pages point to a given page is k-2.1.
To explain the power-law degree sequence, Barabási, Albert and Jeong have proposed a new random graph model. They argue that other models fail to take into account two important attributes of the Web. In the first place, the Web is continually sprouting new pages, but most models are static: Although edges can be added or rearranged, the number of vertices never changes. Second, both the Erdos-Rényi and the Watts-Strogatz processes assume uniform probabilities when creating new edges, but this is not very realistic either. Barabási and his coworkers note that Web pages that already have many links are more likely to acquire still more links.
Like the Erdos-Rényi model, the Barabási model starts with n vertices and no edges, but the evolution is different. At every step the graph adds a single new vertex and m edges; all the new edges link the new vertex to some of the vertices already present. The probability that a given vertex will receive a new edge is proportional to the share of the total set of edges that the vertex already owns; hence the well-connected become still better-connected. After t steps, the graph has n+t vertices and mXt edges. Growing according to these rules, the graph attains a statistical steady state: The shape of the distribution of node degrees does not change over time. The distribution is described by a power law with an exponent of 3; in other words, the probability of finding a vertex with k edges is proportional to k-3.
Barabási and his colleagues have tested their model on several large graphs, including those discussed by Watts and Strogatz—the Hollywood graph, an electric power grid and the neural network of C. elegans. They find that both of the novel features of the model are essential to its success; eliminating either growth in the vertex set or preferential attachment of edges impairs the model's performance.
The straightforward way that the growth of a Barabási graph mimics the growth of the Web gives the model strong intuitive appeal, and yet the correspondence of theory and observation is not quite as close as one might hope. As noted above, the actual γ exponents for the Web are about 2.45 for outward links and 2.1 for inward links, significantly different from the model's prediction of 3. For some other graphs, such as the C. elegans network, the discrepancy is even greater. Various adjustments could tune the model for a better match, but they inevitably sacrifice some of its simplicity.
The entire class of random graphs with a power-law degree sequence has been analyzed by Chung, William Aiello of AT&T Laboratories and Linyuan Lu of the University of Pennsylvania. Their model organizes all such graphs according to the values of two parameters, α and β.
When the degree sequence of a power-law graph is plotted on logarithmic scales, it forms a straight line. The parameters α and β specify this line; α is the point where the line intercepts the y axis, and β is the line's slope (or rather the negative of the slope). Thus α is the logarithm of the number of vertices of minimal degree, and β is the rate at which the logarithm of the number of vertices decreases as the degree increases. More formally, if y(k) is the number of vertices of degree k, then the family of graphs defined by the model consists of all those graphs that satisfy the equation y(k)=eα/kβ, subject to the constraint that both k and y(k) must be integers. For any fixed values of α and β, y(k) specifies a finite set of graphs; a random alpha-beta graph is simply one chosen with uniform probability from this set.
The alpha-beta model is somewhat different from the models discussed above in that it does not directly specify the size of the graph in terms of n, the number of vertices. Another difference is that multiple edges between vertices are allowed, and so are "self-loops," or edges that start and end on the same vertex. (Both of these features are present in some natural graphs, such as the Web.)
Aiello, Chung and Lu explore how the properties of alpha-beta graphs vary as a function of β. A larger value of β corresponds to a steeper slope in the power law and hence to fewer nodes of large degree. If β is greater than a threshold value of approximately 3.4785, almost every alpha-beta graph consists of many small, disconnected components; there are not enough edges to hold the graph together. If β is greater than 1 but less than 3.4785, almost every graph has a giant component—a single large, connected piece that includes most of the vertices and edges in the graph. When β is less than 1, high-degree vertices are so abundant that almost every graph consists of one connected piece.
Aiello, Chung and Lu developed their model with a specific family of real-world graphs in mind, namely "call graphs" recording long-distance telephone traffic. As described in Part I, a call graph has telephone numbers as its vertices, and an edge is drawn between two vertices whenever a call is placed between the corresponding numbers. Analysis of an actual call graph shows that the degree sequence is not quite a perfect power law, and yet the model captures important features of the graph. The best approximation has parameter values of roughly α=17 and β=2.1. Since β lies between 1 and 3.4785, the model predicts that the graph is not connected but does have a giant component.
It may seem remarkable that the abstract and austere formalism of graph theory would prove useful in explaining such worldly phenomena as the architecture of the World Wide Web or the casting of Hollywood films or patterns of telephone calls. But graph theory is a branch of mathematics that has never been afraid to get its hands dirty with applications. Early on, it had close and fruitful encounters with organic chemistry and electrical engineering.
In another sense, though, the sudden blooming of graphs—the tendency to see them everywhere we look—is indeed new and noteworthy. For a long time, science has preferred to see the world through a grid of Cartesian coordinates, organizing everything around us according to row and column, rank and file, latitude and longitude. Although there have always been exceptions to this rectilinear prejudice—notably the treelike structures of taxonomists and grammarians—the simplicity of lattices has been hard to resist. And both lattices and trees have a convenient property that physicists call locality. The only way to move through a lattice or a tree is to crawl from one node to the next. There is no action at a distance; there are no secret wormholes connecting distant parts of the universe.
Graphs are a generalization of both lattices and trees. They admit more-flexible arrangements and less-regular connections in the way the world is put together. In graphs the principle of locality can be violated, as the shortcuts in the Watts-Strogatz model make explicit. Such subterranean channels make the world a harder place to comprehend, but perhaps a more interesting place to inhabit.
© Brian Hayes
You can find this online at http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/num2/graph-theory-in-practice-part-ii/5
© 2016 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society


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|Topic Review (Newest First)
Re: Alternative to Solar
In order to understand the market needs one would need to first define the market. If that is recreational sail (not power) boaters, have your friends yet found out how many boats in each size range there are? How many existing, how many added each year?
Then since the "box" can't be a miracle, one would need to define the size, weight, and output of "the box" or a range of boxes, to ask the boaters if that device would be of any interest to them.
Tell me a shoebox that weighs 20 kilos will reliably give me 50AH at 14 volts over the course of 24 hours at anchor in a calm anchorage and I will be interested. Tell me it will be four times the size, twice the weight, and product only 10AH at 14V over the course of 24 hours in rough water, and I won't be interested.
But unless I missed something so far you are only asking "Would you like a box that makes electricity?" and I was promised that around 1960. They promised us home nuclear generators, each the size of a home hot water heater (about 2' in diameter and 5' tall) that would provide all the power a hungry American single-family home would need.
I'm still waiting.
Re: Alternative to Solar
Originally Posted by Allmayer-Beck View Post
Thanks a lot for the different Ideas! I am actually consulting two inventors from the technical university of catalunia (UPC - Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya), who are also part of the company SMALLE. They are very tech savvy and passionated about their product but don't really know if their product could be useful for sailors, so I am trying to find out how the product . The company itself is researching a lot in the field of renewable energy.
It would be very interesting to design a boat from scratch with the intend of being as green as possible. There is a German company, which is focusing on electric motors and they are working on a project which is called Deep Blue Hybrid. Check out the video, I really like the idea!
I am not able to post the link here but the company is called Torqeedo and under products you will find the deep blue hybrid!
See invention here:
HOLLOW RING TORUS MAGNET GENERATOR - Patent application
Basically your inventors are trying to do the same thing (based on the pictures I saw) but in a linear motion which would work if you have about 24 of these devices to produce 12v total @ whatever current (efficiencies). The device would work by using the forward/stern and port/starboard motion of the boat... but this would produce far less electricity than a 12v 200 watt solar panel... many of these devices pop up with energy claims where the gas motor is to be shelved but in reality it produces far less efficiency and or claims are not what they really are.
Most of these use setups no different than this (there is no spring as shown... it is just showing the movement of the magnet oscillations graphically):
or more elaborate such as this:
Frankly I prefer the toroid coil generator as it makes energy is all axises.
Re: Alternative to Solar
Thanks a lot for the different Ideas! I am actually consulting two inventors from the technical university of catalunia (UPC - Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya), who are also part of the company SMALLE. They are very tech savvy and passionated about their product but don't really know if their product could be useful for sailors, so I am trying to find out how the product . The company itself is researching a lot in the field of renewable energy.
It would be very interesting to design a boat from scratch with the intend of being as green as possible. There is a German company, which is focusing on electric motors and they are working on a project which is called Deep Blue Hybrid. Check out the video, I really like the idea!
I am not able to post the link here but the company is called Torqeedo and under products you will find the deep blue hybrid!
Re: Alternative to Solar
Just curious Allmeyer-Beck are you an engineer/inventor or data mining ideas here?
|Brent Swain
Re: Alternative to Solar
I once read about an engineer crossing the Atlantic who used a larger copy of the mechanism in a self winding watch to charge his batteries. It was so powerful that he had to disconnect it most of the time, to prevent over charging. I was thinking of a pendulum device to generate such power ,but along came LED's reducing my power needs to microscopic . Then my neighbour gave me his old solar panels ,capable of generating far more than I will ever use.
As no two boats will use the same amount of power, some will use only lights, others will have every kind of electric gadget they can buy, I suggest you offer your product in a series of different sizes , starting small. As there is no shortage of wave energy at sea, and in some anchorages ,I think you are onto a great idea.
Good luck!
Re: Alternative to Solar
I think it would be an awesome device to incorporate into a sailboat design intended to have an electric motor. Going green all the way. Then you could make it really heavy and place it close to the keel where it would do most good. Have you tried talking about it to any active sailboat designers? There has to be a market for it. If I was wealthy I would love to have a boat like that.
Re: Alternative to Solar
That is completely right! I am sorry. We are working with 12V batteries, since they are commonly used in most of the sailboats in Spain.
Re: Alternative to Solar
" of course the average output of 36Ah "
But 36 Ah is not an output or output rate. It is just gibberish unless you say "36Ah at 14 volts over a 24 hour period" or something similar.
Output power needs to be expressed in watts, as a constant or average. It would be interesting to know how big and heavy the device has to be, to have what output power over what time period.
Absent that? Meaningless gibberish.
Re: Alternative to Solar
Dear community,
thanks a lot for your very detailed and technical answers.
There was a long discussion wether to put the device on the top of the mast or outside the boat. We tried these two approaches already and learned that the mast option is not commercially feasible. Furthermore the out-side approach could cause damage to the boat so we rejected both of these ideas. (The device is actually designed to produce more energy when sailing!)
Moreover, it is quite obvious that the power output goes down when the boat is moored, but still the device is also capable of producing energy although there is only a small movement.
In general I have to say that of course the average output of 36Ah does not fully meets all the needs of a sailor but it helps. So for me it would be interesting to know if people would actually value the additional amount of energy they can consume with this sort of device.
Finally, a few people posted that the size/weight would really matter, so could a possible option be to install a device that generates 120-200 Amp. (for instance) which ways between 100 and 200 Kilo? (the price for such a device would be around 1500-2500 Euro)
Thanks a lot again for all the constructive feedback. It is really helpful to talk to this community and I am continuously trying to improve the technology.
kind regards,
Maximilian Allmayer-Beck
Re: Alternative to Solar
Here's an inherent difficulty of tidal generators: you know how a tide chart is basically a sine wave, showing min/max peaks every six hours? There's another sinusoidal graph about 90 degrees out of phase with that chart representing speed of the water. Its peaks coincide roughly with the midpoints between high and low water. Like tossing a ball into the air: it's moving max speed when it leaves your hand, then it slows and slows until it nears its peak, then it stops and seems to hang there for a bit, then it begins accelerating until it reaches its initial speed as it passes your hand. If you were standing on a cliff edge and the ball were on a bungee cord, it would perform the same trick downward: max, fast, slower, slow, stop, slow, faster, fast, max....
Why does that matter? It means in a location prone to 5kt tidal rips, the water will spend almost all its time moving slower than 5kts. Most of its time moving much slower than 5kts. Power available in a moving fluid is the cube of the fluid's velocity -- air moving half as fast has one quarter the kinetic energy and one eighth the power. So when that tidal rip is below its peak (moving 2.5 kts, say), it just doesn't have very much power in it for you to gather, by any means you can think of. Output falls off very steeply as fluid speed diminish; and as mentioned above, tides spend most of their time moving slower than peak speed. A tidal generator will spend 1/3 of its life doing nothing at all, 1/3 doing a little bit, and 1/3 cranking like a sumbitch. Will that last third make up for the other 2/3rds?
That's why you need to ignore peak output on wind turbines (or the OP's device). Don't be too impressed by that instantaneous amp meter reading as the turbine maxes out in 25kt winds or the Magic Box pendulum achieves peak acceleration. What really matters is output over time in a given regime. How much power will the Magic Box generate in a moderately sheltered anchorage in 24 hours of normal swell? How much juice will the wind turbine generate over one month in a location with mean wind speeds of 10kts?
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By Rob Kelly
Arsène Wenger insists he has still not decided whether to try and sign Thierry Henry on a short-term loan in January.
The Arsenal manager admitted earlier this week that he was considering bringing the Club's all-time record goalscorer back to Emirates Stadium.
But after further questions about the 35-year-old, Wenger said he had not come to any definitive conclusions.
"I just spoke about that because people asked me," he said. "I said I don't rule it out because he's in good shape but I haven't made up my mind yet.
"I haven't spoken to Thierry about it. I just answered a question honestly that I have not completely decided how I will sort it out in my head.
"We are maybe looking at a striker because Gervinho is going to the Africa Cup of Nations."
Wenger believes that short-term loans from Major League Soccer are becoming increasingly attractive for Premier League clubs.
"They become more and more popular because the players move into championships that are played through the normal year and are then available at the beginning of the year for European [leagues]," he said.
"It's good for the European teams but I personally believe that the whole of football, all over the world, should be played from January until November."Copyright 2017 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source


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The open floor plans so commonly seen in homes' public living spaces in recent years are finding their way into private areas as well. Master suites in particular are shedding their distinct bed, bath, and closet borders and morphing into single, seamless spaces. Robert M. Gurney, FAIA, continues the trend with this Washington, D.C., remodel.
Cool marble flooring signals the transition from bedroom to bathing/dressing area, setting the stage for multiple lush materials that "bring warmth and life to the entire space," Gurney says. Front and center in this opulent bath is a white oak soaking tub with an ergonomically curved interior tucked into a boxy package. The tub's rectilinear lines are echoed in the rectangular column that encloses the pipes and connects the tub to a square shower. A trough sink links dual wall-mounted faucets, and a long, linear mirror reflects rays from the slot skylight above the vanity.
Gurney used the room's rigorous geometry to articulate circulation paths and establish a relaxing sense of order. Repeating the same rich materials throughout the room underpins the calm ambience. The white oak tub, for example, takes its cue from the sleeping area's oak floors, which match oak panels behind the vanity's floating mirror. The marble vanity matches the bathroom floor, and its wenge cabinetry reappears across the room in floor-to-ceiling wardrobes. "We transformed the way the whole master suite works," Gurney says, "and it makes all the spaces feel better."
architect: Robert M. Gurney, FAIA, Alexandria, Va.
general contractor: Horsman Homes, Frederick, Md.
cabinetmaker: Burgers Cabinet Shop, Herndon, Va.
resources: bathtub: Agape; ceramic tile: Dal-Tile Corp.; fittings and accessories: Vola A/S; light fixtures: Artemide U.S.A., BEGA/US, Lightolier, Tango Lighting


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Daniel Lew is a professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and of Genetics at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. His research program focuses on cell cycle control in yeast, and how the cell cycle interacts with cell polarity.
Yeast cells may look simple, but inside every little single-cell package lurks an intricate creature that senses and responds cunningly to its surroundings. Dr. Lew has uncovered many of the secrets of the tiny yeast, and since yeast bear a striking resemblance to human cells, some of these facts could help us eventually conquer our own problems with the cell cycle, including cancer – a kind of cell division gone wild.
In this interview, I talk with Dr. Lew about how a yeast cell knows when to say "when" during budding, why he studies yeast at a medical school, and where his hard-to-discern accent really comes from (hint: it's not a North Carolina accent).
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WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo, CA) on July 19 introduced legislation she called the "Wasteful Presidential Coin Act of 2011" that would halt the production of the Presidential dollar coin series.
The measure proposed by the California congresswoman has not yet been assigned a bill number. | SEE DRAFT
The U.S. spends an estimated $300 million a year to store more than 2.4 billion unused, unwanted dollar coins in federal vaults, Speier said. She asserted that "...minting coins we don't use...[is] the glaring type of government waste that rightfully infuriates taxpayers. We should put a stop to it immediately."
The stored $1 coins represent more than half of all U.S. dollar coins in existence, Speier said. The U.S. Mint began issuing commemorative Presidential dollar coins in 2005 and will continue issuing them until 2016 unless Congress orders a halt to the program.
Speier's proposal states that if reserve levels of the coins drop below 10%, the Mint can resume production -- but not otherwise.


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The Canisius College women's lacrosse team announced its team award recipients last week. The 2013 team earned its third consecutive MAAC title last season.
Morgan Leonard was named Offensive Player of the Year. In her senior campaign, Leonard earned MAAC Midfielder of the Year Honors, and was a unanimous selection to the All-MAAC First Team. She was also selected to participate in the IWLCA/Under Armour North-South Senior All-Star game.
The Sykesville, Md. Native recorded 71 points in 2013, netting a school-record 59 goals to go along with 12 assists. She finished the season ranked first in the nation with 3.37 ground balls per game, and second nationally with 2.68 caused turnovers per game.
After just two seasons at Canisius, Leonard finished her career 10th in program-history with 110 points, eighth with 88 goals and third with 91 caused turnovers. Leonard also earned MAAC Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2012.
Earning Defensive Player of the Year honors was goalkeeper Kayla Scully. Her 7.81 goals against average in 2013 was good for a program-record and earned her MAAC Defensive Player of the Year honors. Scully was the first underclassman since 2006 to earn the honors.
The Rodman, N.Y. native finished the season ranked second in the nation in save percentage with .515, she also ranked ninth in the nation in save percentage.
Rookie of the Year honors went to Ashley Bull, who helped anchor the top scoring defense in program history last season. The Griffs allowed just 8.47 goals per game in 2013, which ranked 13th in the nation.
Bull earned All-MAAC First Team honors for her play last season. She started 18 games in 2013 and finished the year with 37 ground balls, seven caused turnovers, eight draw controls, one goal and one assist.
Midfielder Maria Kotas is the 2013 recipient of the Kathy Fiore Memorial Award. Kotas, who earned First Team All-MAAC honors last season, finished the year with 42 goals and 25 assists. Kotas was also named to the All-MAAC First Team.
Midfielder Lindsey Morgan was won the Iron Griff Award. It was the second year in a row that the Lancaster, N.Y. native earned the honor. An all-conference selection in each of the last three seasons, including first-team honors in 2012 and 2013, Morgan recorded 50 points, 38 goals, 12 assists, 49 ground balls, 36 caused turnovers and 15 draw controls in 2013. The senior finished the season ranked 12th nationally with 1.89 caused turnovers per game.
Morgan Leonard's outstanding season also earned her the Golden Griffin award, the program's legacy award. Leonard finished her standout career ranked among the best in the school's record book in a number of categories. She is tied for seventh in the program's history with 130 career points, while ranking sixth with 104 career goals and third with 91 career caused turnovers.


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I like the tool tray. I keep my eyelets in a jar and inevitably knock it over on occasion just because I have nothing better to do than pick up eyelets :evil:
Robo, I usually dump me a small pile of eyelets on the workbench before I get started. It saves me the trouble and suspense of wondering when I will knock them over... :laugh: Plus, eliminating that "step" makes the process much more efficient. :-D
Ya, same here. It is amazing how that little pile gets easily dispersed and can find sawdust to mingle with :-P


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The Opus 654 set is ideal for performers that need freedom of wireless and a high quality vocal microphone that will stay in place. The TG H54c (condenser, cardioid) neckworn microphone features a rugged, adjustable neckband and flexible ear loops that can be shaped for personal comfort to ensure a secure fit. SET COMPONENTS
The Opus 600 wireless system is recommended for stage performances and small installations (hotels, sports halls, churches etc.). It meets all technology and transmission quality requirements while still being very reasonably priced. The Opus 600 wireless system is equipped with the automatic frequency setting function, has 16 pre-programmed UHF frequency settings and can be operated with up to 16 channels per frequency range (depending on environment and specific national regulations), simultaneously and with no interference. The latest true-diversity technology, pilot signal detection and adjustable squelch ensure reliable transmission and noise-free reception. FEATURES NE 600 S
FEATURES MCE TG H54c
Please refer to country regulations before using.
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beyerdynamic GmbH & Co. KGTheresienstr. 874072 Heilbronn - GermanyQuestions regarding Orders, Payment & DeliveryPhone: +49 7131 617-444Product AdvicePhone: +49 7131 617-440Contact us per e-mail:proaudio @beyerdynamic .com


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Carolina Castanos, Ph.D
Marriage and Family Therapist
3711-A West Market St, Greensboro, North Carolina 27403
Parenting is not an easy task and sometimes it becomes a burden when our little ones act out. Children do not act out randomly, there is something that bothers them and is hurting them. Children, as all of us, need to feel cared for and important in the lives of significant others. When they act out, they most likely do not get the best out of their caretakers, feeling unimportant and not cared for. It is crucial to help them express their feelings and help them relate with others in a more positive way. When I work with children I always involve parents and, if applicable, school to help create an environment that nurtures change and the child's strengths.
Marina Ervin, MS, LPC, NCC, BCPCC
Licensed Professional Counselor/National Certified Counselor
502-N East Cornwallis Drive Ste. B, Greensboro, North Carolina 27405
I work with children as young as two or three years of age if they are verbal. In addition, I work with the family system to make the changes needed to help them work as a family unit or team. Play therapy is the avenue that allows children to express themselves or to work through situations or issues that are creating stress for the child. Hands-on activities, therapeutic games, exercises, puppets, roleplays, sandtray, and bilbliotherapy are some of the strategies I use to help the child find healing, to help them learn to make good choices, and to be effective problem-solvers and leaders.
Juan Santos, M.S., CRC, LPC
Licensed Counselor
3300 Battleground Avenue Suite 303, Greensboro, North Carolina 27410
When working with children my specialities are adoption, mood disorders (such as anxiety - depression - anger), and ADHD. I offer children and parents a safe, welcoming and "child" friendly environment. Your child more often then not is already feeling tense, unsure, and a bit nervous of the counseling setting. My first job will always be to relate with your child and work to help him/her feel entirely comfortable as - progress is entirely based upon your child's relationship with me. You may find that our sessions are on the floor around a board game rather then on the chair. Give me a call to book your first appointment - I also welcome you to simply call with questions to see if we are a good fit.


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Your only source for Omnivore Blade-Works edged tools, and other essential gear selected and tested by Jared and Chris Corry.
Obviously, we make edged tools. We also take on Cerakote jobs for local customers, do some Gunsmithing, and a little bit of carpentry. Selling retail items from other manufacturers is a new concept for us, but if we can stand by the product, why not help others get their hands on good stuff?
IOR Optics, Laser Ammo training cartridges, Silky Saws
Cool Bot: Trick a wall air conditioner into being a refrigerator!
Because we have tools in our shop, and trees in our woods, we can make things from free materials. If we had an infinite amount of time to work with, then we could do anything!
Self Reliance Essentials Inc. is all about quality and performance. Our product showcase includes tools and equipment that we have tested ourselves, and believe to be either best in class, or just the best period. Jared and Chris have a cumulative 100 years of experience with all kinds of tools, construction equipment and weapons. Please enjoy reading our information pages and looking at our hand made edged tools from Omnivore Blade-Works.


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Does this sutta mean monks cant eat food that has been chanted over?
Then Kasi Bharadvaja, having heaped up milk-rice in a large bronze serving bowl, offered it to the Blessed One, [saying,] "May Master Gotama eat [this] milk-rice. The master is a plowman, for the Master Gotama plows the plowing that has as its fruit the deathless."
What's been chanted over with verses
shouldn't be eaten by me.
That's not the nature, brahman,
of one who's seen rightly.
What's been chanted over with verses
Awakened Ones reject.
That being their nature, brahman,
this is their way of life.
Serve with other food & drink
a fully-perfected great seer,
his fermentations ended,
his anxiety stilled,
for that is the field
for one looking for merit.
http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/acces ... .than.html
I thought they had to eat whatever was given them


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Breaking the chains of 'same as it ever was'
My 9-year-old daughter Mirano, a Linux Chick in training, is pretty astute when it comes to matters relating to GNU/Linux. For example, she is working on a review of Tux Paint, and she's the one that pointed out that Iceweasel is the opposite of Firefox (ice opposite of fire, weasel opposite of fox). I'm convinced she gets her brains from her mom — from me she gets an innate sense of irony augmented by generations of cutting sarcasm for which the Cafiero family is historically known, but I digress.
Anyway, I bring up Mirano because after reading Carla Schroeder's blog about an mysogynistic ad — yeah, let's call it what it is: mysogynistic (but see for yourself here — that ran in Linux Journal, I have to say that this is my first encounter with sexism in the FOSS realm; not to mention a disturbing one at that.
Apparently and unfortunately, however, this seems not to be a singular incident, but rather a business-as-usual attitude for both the publication, as well as — depending on who you ask — an acceptable "behavior" in male geekdom.
Case in point: Caitlyn Martin writes in a blog item that the August Linux Journal ad is not new behavior for the magazine. Martin's blog is a good read, but more immediately it points out a Linux Journal column by "Gnull and Voyd" — a man and wife team where the "woman" writes the column but the "man" is the one with all the answers on Linux issues "because he's the smart one."
Another case in point: A blogger named Mackenzie (and perhaps, like Sting or Cher, she doesn't have a last name, but I'd be willing to bet she does) posted a blog item that deals specifically about the fact that women who program are not at events for boys and men who program to hit on.
[An aside: Tux Magazine's Mango Parfait, who is drawn like a Japanese manga comic book character, is also a bit much.]
I'm the last person to pull out the PC card (political correctness, not personal computer), but ads, columns and behavior like this insults women in general, insults women programmers/digital professionals directly and insults me indirectly as a male member of this widespread digital community.
The explanation in all cases, apparently, is "they do it because they're nerds, and that's okay" or "this is typical male geek behavior." Unfortunately, that doesn't cut it anymore; and — hey, you guys who think with the organ between your ears — you're as embarrassed as I am by being painted by the same stroke of this brush used to deservingly illustrate our less-sensitive bretheren, no?
The point here is simple: Women and men — both in the realm of the digital field as well as outside in society as a whole — should be treated equally and with respect. How that is even an issue among intelligent people in this field continues to be a mystery.
But the Linux Journal ad: Fail. Some of the Linux Journal and Tux Magazine columns mentioned above: Fail. Guys who turn into Pavlov's dog at the mere sight of a woman at any computer event (and the computer industry entities that foster this behavior): Fail.
My wife Kyoko and I left Japan, in large part, because we didn't want to raise a daughter in a culture that, for all its advantages, still had a very low glass ceiling — to say nothing of second-class attitudes — for girls and women (to say nothing of societal norms in Japan that are still, to put it diplomatically, systematically and structurally stacked against women being treated as equals to men). While the U.S. isn't perfect on a plethora of levels (and don't get me started here . . . ), it does provide for more equal opportunities for women than a place like Japan.
And what about in the digital world? Well, as if that needs saying, I certainly am not going to stand by and let the same attitudes hold her back in the digital realm.
(Larry Cafiero, editor/publisher of Open Source Reporter, is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)


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|2013-2014 Estimated Cost of Attendance
The cost of attendance for a student is an estimate of reasonable educational expenses a student should anticipate for the enrollment period. A student's cost of attendance generally is the sum of tuition, mandatory student fees, books, supplies, room and board, and student loan fees. Students with dependents other than a spouse may include reasonable childcare expenses. Students with disabilities may also include expenses related to that disability. Below, you will find the estimated cost of attendance for full-time undergraduate and graduate students:
A student cannot receive more than the Cost of Attendance from any combination of federal, state, institutional or private funding source.
The costs are subject to change without notice.


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It is with great pleasure that I recommend Tamara Garris for re-election to City Council to represent District 4. I have known her for 11 years.
This letter is in response to Mary Reid's letter, "Ability to vote is a privilege," in the Sept. 23 edition of The Lancaster News.
Liberals continue to believe ideas known as lies that are contradicted by the evidence in history for ideological reasons. They prove that they are so selfish they will jeopardize the public good just to keep from admitting they are wrong.
For the first time anyone can remember, we get two choices for sheriff in the Nov. 6 general election – Barry Faile, our current sheriff, and Scott Case, a police officer from Great Falls.
This is in response to Shannon Catoe's letter, "Catoe defends her facts," in the Sept. 30 edition of The Lancaster News.
Ms. Catoe, you may have read the health-care act, but obviously you did not read my letter. In it I stated that I have not talked to doctors, etc.
I stated that I would like the newspaper to do an in-depth report and get facts, not just opinions and tell the whole story.
As you have all heard, I lost my soulmate due to a hit-and-run or a very brutal attack on Sept. 8, 2012. This was not only a devastating loss for me, but also to my nine innocent children.
Do you know children are a gift from God – a gift many people do not have the joy of experiencing. However, I am blessed. Great Falls is one awesome little town. Whoever says anything different needs to come speak with me.
Mary Reid, who wrote the letter, "Ability to vote is a privilege," in the Sept. 23 edition of The Lancaster News, is correct in saying that we should vote. She tries to blame the problems on former President George W. Bush. When Democrats took over full control of Congress in January 2007, unemployment was 4.6 percent and the debt just over $6 trillion.
Within a year, both numbers escalated rapidly and have worsened ever since, including the subprime mortgage meltdown and resulting foreclosures.
The spirit of Van Wyck was evident at the annual Celebrate Van Wyck Festival, held recently in that beautiful corner of the county.
The two pictures in the Sept. 30 edition of The Lancaster News were just examples of the variety of activities for children. As our cars were being parked by the state guard based in Lancaster, my sister and I could see the children at play and hear their laughter, and the music of Lebo Blackmon and the Soul Reviers.
I would like to briefly respond to Linda Adam's Sept. 26 letter, "Newspaper should check facts in Catoe's column," about my Sept. 19 guest column, "New law compromises health care for everyone," regarding the Affordable Care Act.
Ms. Adams, with all due respect, you "debunked" my facts by using the IRS website. We all know how the IRS has our best interest at heart.
When you sell your vote you sell your dignity. We have to remember the generations before us who fought so hard just for the right to vote and have our votes be counted.
And today, we are hearing that people in our neighborhoods are selling that hard-fought right for pocket change. What would our ancestors think?
What would our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers – who braved lynchings, dogs and Jim Crowe tactics – think if they saw us today? Would you trade your vote for a mere $20? We are told that there are those among us who do.
Vicki Campbell's letter, "Religious beliefs have no place in political views," in the Sept. 19 edition of The Lancaster News was a blow to me as a Christian. Shame on you. As I understand the Bible, God declares that he forms a baby in the womb, (Jeremiah 1:5.) Psalm 139:13 says "For you created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb." That's what separates abortion from other medical practices.
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