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Friday, May 23, 2008
Congress Blames the Hedge Funds—Yeah, That's It!
I got a call from a Congressman recently.
I'd met with his staff early last year after testifying before Barney Frank's Financial Services Committee, which was looking into hedge funds and whether the presence of so many big hedge funds was a destabilizing influence on the American economy.
[Full disclosure: I once worked for Senator Ed Brooke of Massachusetts, then under a cloud over matters arising from the fallout of his divorce—a divorce that was, as America now knows, triggered by the Senator's affair with Barbara Walters. Barney Frank back then was the only politician with enough guts to stand by Brooke. I still like him for that.]
My colleagues and I told Frank's committee, in essence, "No, hedge funds aren't destabilizing—in fact they help provide liquidity." And that's pretty much how it worked in the ensuing credit crisis that began about three months later, although it was clear at the time that a few on the committee weren't convinced.
Now, this particular Congressman I spoke with recently was in no way the least intelligent of the bunch asking questions in that room. (Carolyn Maloney was what might politely be termed the "least value-add," from what we saw: she read a statement that basically indicated she wasn't going to listen to a word of what we said, asked a question that indicated she wouldn't know a hedge fund from a tomato, and then headed out the door for something else.)
This particular guy seemed bright and interested in what we had to say, and his call this week wasn't completely out of the blue (I'd made friends with a staffer, who was working on energy policy). He sincerely wanted to know what I thought was driving oil prices higher.
I explained the fact that a) world oil demand is up 12 million barrels a day since 2000, and non-OPEC oil supply is up only 4 million barrels a day since 2000, and b) America decided to convert food into ethanol at the very moment that c) China's demand exploded.
That's pretty much the whole story, but the Congressman wasn't buying it.
What about hedge funds, he wanted to know. What about all these traders carrying all these contracts?
I asked him how they had anything to do with it.
"Well there's so much more oil traded than really exists," he said. "Isn't that driving up the price?"
I explained that's pretty much the way it is with anything...stocks, bonds, oil, you name it.
He didn't believe it. Then he said Congress is considering reducing the amount of oil contracts traders can buy and sell. "Won't that reduce the price of oil?"
I explained that maybe if Congress had taxed gasoline and funded mass transit instead of giving tax breaks for SUVs and ethanol we wouldn't be forced to go begging the Saudis for more oil.
It went downhill from there.
I figure maybe he's been having coffee with Carolyn Maloney.
Let's hope my Congressman isn't.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2008 Not Making This Up LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. The commentary in this blog in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. In fact, it should not be relied upon in making investment decisions, ever. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
22 comments:
- Kevin said...
But the answer to the Congressman's question - "Well there's so much more oil traded than really exists, isn't that driving up the price?" - is YES, Right? It doesn't matter if that is the way with stocks or bonds (which, by the way, are qualitatively different in that stocks and bonds do not represent physical commodities used in the real world). I'm surprised that you wouldn't be more forthright about this, given your view of the housing bubble. The housing bubble and the oil bubble are the same thing, really. Easy credit allows speculators to bid up prices of real estate - if folks only have to put down 5%, 1% or 0% on a house, of course prices are going to go up. With oil, I can open an account and buy the right to control $70,000 worth of it for $3,000. So the margin requirement on oil contracts is closer to 5% (stocks are at 50%). Before mortgage originators and their financiers got greedy, it was 20% for a house. Once that dropped to 5% and below, look what happened. From your previous posts, it sounds to me like you think it's pretty reasonable for a bank to require 20% down before they make a loan. And given the fallout from the housing bubble, it might even be reasonable for the government to REQUIRE that 20% down (or some other mechanism to keep the market stable). Why is the market for oil or any other commodity different? Why shouldn't the government put margin requirements in place to prevent rampant speculation that drives up the price of an absolutely critical commodity (to both the consumer and national defense)? I hope your answer isn't as lame as the NYMEX's - "if you do that, all our business will go to London...oh my!" (Please - like nobody trades stock in the US because the margin requirements are too high.) But my guess is that the real answer is "if you do that, you're going to seriously cut into hedgies' profits - cause that's how they make money. Leveraged bets."
PS, how much liquidity does a hedge fund provide when it goes belly up because it was levered 20 or 30 times? I don't doubt that hedge funds provide liquidity. But they do so because they are using borrowed money.
- natsfan said...
I guess that I would have added that the dollar's decline has also impacted the problem. If he is so worried about the issue of people entering into financial contracts for commodities like oil, then it is because they are likely seeking a greater return than a negative real rate. If real rates go up, then I would expect that "speculation" might lessen. If you look at the recent history of oil priced in euros or gold, the increase is not nearly as much. So he might want to direct his attention to the Fed/Administration and our "strong dollar" policy. I would expect, though, that hedge funds or investors have come to realize the value of allocating a portion of their portfolio to commodities and so there will likely be a sustained involvement of such participants above what may have been seen 5 or so years ago.
However, I still am somewhat confused. While all the points you raise are correct in my opinion, they were correct a year ago. So why this spike? Is it countries hoarding inventory? Iran is putting produced crude in tankers, but I can't believe that is economic for long. China is a wild card with the stockpiling they are doing for the Olympics and the issue with producing power after the earthquake impacted their coal production. But is that short term? Bloomberg did report, though, that there were investors that had taken uncovered short positions and are now in a purchasing crunch. As they seek to acquire, though, I would have thought that would drive up the spot and not the futures price. This trend has happened a couple of times this year as you have seen a backwardation for a short period.
Ultimately, in the end, you have to deal with the physical inventory. An investor is left having to sell their position to someone that is going to consume it. So while there may be some impact of increased investment flowing into oil, it seems to me that fundamentals and not speculation drive the price.
- Tahoe Kid said...
I think the problem is politicans are looking for THE single source for higher commodity prices when the reality is there are many factors driving commodity prices higher. Yes, I beleive in my heart that there are some hedge funds that are helping push prices higher, but demand from countries such as China and India are having a more profound impact. Many of the EM countries keep prices below market rates through subsidies which only spurs more demand as prices rise (and contribute to governement budget imbalances). We can't ignore the reality that many investors are involved in the commodity craze as speculators and commodities have been sold to investors as an alternative asset class. And investors have responded. Take a look at the Pimco Commodity Real Return Fund. It ended its first year (2002)with a modest $31 million in AUM. It ended 2007 with $14 billion in AUM.
- drfinn said...
Kevin you are wrong. It doesn't matter that you can buy it on leverage in the future. Once you have to take delivery of the commodity you have to pay for it in full. Its the difference between signing a contract to buy a home and put down 10% and buying the home at closing when the full price is due.
The Nymex and the clearing members aren't lending you money at a huge leverage to buy the oil, they are letting you buy the futures, they are letting you put a downpayment on the oil.
When the future contracts expires you better be able to find someone to get out of the contract or be able to deliver (or take delivery) of that contract or you are in trouble.
Sure speculators can move the price for a while but very shortly they will have to deal with the true price that comes from the cash markets.
Brian Hunter and Amaranth learned that lesson the hard way.
- Kevin said...
Drfinn - so the futures you buy on Nymex are not cash settled? You have to take delivery of the oil? I doubt that. And are you really saying that futures prices do not affect spot prices? They don't affect the prices OPEC countries charge for physical delivery of a barrel of oil? Hmmmmm.... This is from OPEC's website:
"The most recent upward movement has occurred in parallel with a sharp slide in the value of the US dollar and, in turn, a move by many investors into crude futures contracts. It is a basic substitution of rising assets for those in decline. This has significantly influenced the short-term oil price, and this dynamic has also lifted the prices of other commodities."
(BTW, I agree with natsfan (even though he's a nats fan) about the impact that the failing dollar has on oil prices). But the point I am making is that lower margin requirements make it easier for people to enter the market and speculate. I wasn't around at the time, but I think they put a law in place in 1934 to prevent just the kind of behavior we've seen in the housing market and now in the commodities markets. At the time, the country was trying to dig itself out of a depression that was in large part brought on by rampant speculation in equity markets fueled by easy credit. Margin requirements were introduced to prevent that from happening again (and, by the way, commercial banks were prohibited from acting as investment banks as well - another systemic protection that has gone the way of the dodo bird with the repeal of Glass Steagall). I think it has become widely accepted that margin requirements are effective instruments in dampening the level and volatility of prices by influencing investors' demand for the asset in question. The question I am asking, and the one I haven't heard a satisfactory answer to, is why margin requirements are not proper for commodities markets? Today's investors have easy access to commodities markets and can easily create bubbles that are harmful in so many ways. Why not have the CFTC impose stricter margin requirements?
- Richard said...
The questions from your Congressman friend may have come as a result of this-
FWIW, if Calpers and other state pension funds are buying commodities via index futures, and keep buying because they are performing well, it sure as hell is going to have an effect on the price. The correct solution is position limits per commodity, and not allowing them to be circumvented by OTC derivatives. Higher cash margins on commodity futures, and some restrictions on bank funding of spec. commodity longs, such as the restrictions that occurred during the Hunt Brothers attempted corner on silver, should also be done NOW.
The financial regulatory authorities seem to be perpetually blind to incipient bubbles. If this one is allowed to go into full flower, commodity "investors" will be bidding against the buyers who need the product to eat. What are the moral implications of that?
- Jeff Matthews said...
Speculation is a symptom, not a cause. Speculators can't keep a commodity up if it doesn't want to stay up: Just ask the Hunt Brothers.
The disease is this: America has no energy policy, never has.
The human capacity for self-delusion is staggering, especially in Washington DC.
- Anonymous said...
A) Is your congressman in question Edward Markey from MA? Just wondering...
B) I agree with the other posters here that today's oil prices are a multi-factor problem: greater demand from countries such as China + lower oil output from non-OPEC countries such as Norway + suppy constraints in countries like Nigeria + weak USD (we import oil at higher prices) = what we're paying today at the pump.
C) One thought though - I think the government already has a tax (federal excise) on gas and has used those funds in the past for mass transit. I could be wrong...
- Andy Tabbo said...
Good comments. I read this blog regularly and I'm a little disappointed with Jeff Matthews simple response to the Congressman. It's true demands is higher than supply last several years, but he fails to address the 100's of millions of barrels STUFFED into various SPRs around the world over the same time.
Also, I would question the relevance of non-opec supply v. opec supply. Who cares where the supply is coming from? The OPEC cartel is NOT retstraining supply. Just because they have a lot of cash doesn't mean they want even more.
They hit every bid. If they have a tanker with a buyer, they load it. Period. It's always humorous to me when they report that OPEC shipments have increased or decreased. It's an irrelevant stat and it means nothing. If they have buyers, the fill em up. If they can't find buyers, they store it. Period.
To completely dismiss the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of LONG ONLY funds into the commodity markets is disingenous, especially considering that these markets previously had very little LONG ONLY investment.
If Congress/CFTC merely decided to enforce the position limits on both the OTC and futures markets for the oil markets, it would bring about a decline in oil prices immediately. If they actually reduced the postion limits, then say GOOD NIGHT...oil prices would go limit down until about 50-60 bucks.
I'm not suggesting that's the best thing to do. Extremely high oil prices today will actually create dramatically lower prices a few years now....disruptive technology is being developed to address the parabolic rise of oil this century.
And that's a good thing.
- Jeff Matthews said...
Aaron: Yes, the US already taxes gasoline. But it is ridiculously low relative to the true cost of our oil dependance, and does not discourage consumption.
(Western Europe, which has extremely high excise taxes on gasoline consumes far less per capita. In fact, oil demand there did not increase from 2000 to 2007, even though the rise in the Dollar price of oil was muted by the strong Euro).
Andy: When Congress recently took the bold move of suspending additions to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, they freed up the staggering amount of 70,000 barrels per day of oil for you and me.
Unfortunately, we import about 12,000,000 barrels per day.
While the SPR does hold a lot of crude (700 million barrels), it has been around since 1975. We have had two oil gluts and two oil shocks since we began filling it.
The SPR is the least consequential item on the agenda here.
As for who the Congressman was, the conversation was not a public discussion, and I will leave it that way.
- Andy Tabbo said...
This is going to be a little lengthy..
Let me first say, that I agree with you. Our energy policy is an unmitigated disaster. Emerging countries policies may be worse. My earlier point was that there other factors that have led to this perfect storm than the simplistic "supply cannot meet demand ...china...india...yada yada yada."
In 2000, the U.S. demand for ALL oil products was 19.5 mm/day. Refinery demand for crude was 15.2 mm/day. In 2007, that number peaked near 21.0 mm/day for an anemic 1% annualized growth, or about 200,000 bbls/day growth every year. (Demand is actually down this year) Refinery demand for crude is FLAT throughout the last several years at 15.2 mm/day--ZERO growth in crude demand this decade.
The U.S. alone has stuffed in 170mm barrels into its own SPR over the same time, at a rate of about 70k/day. In other words, SPR demand has been the only growth driver to U.S. demands on crude oil this century. Who knows how much other volume has been stuffed into various other SPRs around the world over the same period?
Enough on the SPR. It's nowhere close to being the BIG issue, but given the DOE-based data above, and given the fact that it is the "marginal barrels of supply and demand" that set price, I hope you can realize that hoarding 170mm extra barrels in the last several years "may" have been one of several factors.
The killing of MTBE in favor of ethanol was a disaster. Simply putting aside the obvious issues of burning food in our fuel tanks and dramatically raising the price of ag products, ethanol is also a huge energy drain. It is a very inefficient energy product to transport. It must be moved on trucks/rails/ships as opposed to pipelines. The only growth in energy demand in the U.S. is in diesel....ya think the ethanol boondoggle is a contributing factor? Of course it is. A repeal of the ethanol mandate would DRAMATICALLY improve our energy situation. It would reduce diesel demand and lower grain prices. Remember, it's the last few bushels of corn that set the price for the entire crop, similar to the last few barrels of diesel setting the price for all the diesel.
Although our energy/food policy is a disaster, I think the emerging countries contiued subsidization of energy prices is perhaps an even greater disaster. The economists behind that policy should be shot. To subsidize a scarce, globally priced resource, is crazy. The government would be much better off giving direct money to its people and letting them decide how to allocate the scarce resouces.
If I were to craft a cure to what ails I would
1) repeal the ethanol mandate and ethanol tariffs
2a) create huge tax incentives to upgrade refinery kit to handle heavy/sour crude
2b) offer a 200mm barrel sweet/sour crude exchange from the SPR at same time as offering 2a)
3) massive and enduring tax incentives for other energy like nuke/wind/solar
4) harmonize the gasoline and diesel spec in the U.S. to more closely match the global specs.
5) reduce the national speed limit to 55 mph
6) enforce futures limit positions to the OTC and futures markets for ALL participants--level the playing the field.
7) after cleaning our own house, go to chindia and convince them of the pitfalls of subisdizing energy consumption.
- jest said...
The cash market is really what drives the price. All futures contracts converge towards the cash price.
As an example, when funds roll one contract to the next month they have to SELL the old contract to purchase the new one. If the delivery price is lower, then the futures would be sold at the lower price. It's a zero-sum game.
In other words, physical demand is the final influence on futures curves, not speculators.
As far as margin, yes there is some effect on prices, but I think the biggest effect is on volatility, not the overall price trend.
- Richard said...
With all due respect, the Hunt brothers got the price of silver up from ~$2. to $50. They believed the dollar was trash, and backed the belief with an oil fortune. Then Henry Jarecki at Mocatta Metals got the Comex to change margin requirements, the govt. changed the rules severely restricting loans for holding spec. commodity positions, and only then did the accumulated weight of millions of families sending in the family silver to be melted for bullion crash the price. It was a crisis, and I was personally able to set up cash and carry silver positions at over 20% per annum because money was so tight. The dollar was BS then, as it is now. Yes, the Hunt Brothers were eventually killed by the market turning. No, it DIDN'T happen without intervention. But nobody starved because silver went up. Mexican silver miners were happy for about a year.
There is always a fundamental reason for bull markets to start. The dotcom nonsense had some initial truth to it, but went horribly wrong when dumb money thought all tech was good, irrespective of price. Commodities likewise have reason to rise, but their rise is magnified by the application of TONS of spec index money. With the current speculation in foodstuffs, the index buyer is bidding against people who need the product to eat. Do you really think it is morally defensible to stand aside and let the market do it's work to destroy the commodity specs of Calpers and such, while third world grain eaters are carried along for the ride? See the latest Economist article-
Food constitutes 60% of India's average consumer price basket, to cite an extreme example. Is it really OK to let specs double the price of food for these people? That math equates to human starvation. It isn't earth shaking for the average US person, but the world is made up of a lot of poor people who are directly affected by this stupid game.
PS- the link that I attempted to post earlier is-
- whydibuy said...
Of course there is no mention by either the comittee members or the politically correct green guy Jeff Matthews on opening up U.S. areas for new drilling. No drlling in alaska, the coastal waters ( other than the gulf ) and nearly every state now off limits Perhaps is having a effect. But, no, Lets sue opec. Yeah, thats a way to deflect from responsibility in choking off any new domestic supply. Its their fault opec won't produce more and not ours for not utilizing the vast resources still on U.S. lands. Good one.
- ward said...
Drfinn - so the futures you buy on Nymex are not cash settled? You have to take delivery of the oil? I doubt that.
WTI futures, ticker symbol CL, are PHYSICALLY DELIVERABLE. See the NYMEX website: http://www.nymex.com/lsco_fut_descri.aspx
And to pre-empt a possible question, the volume in the physically-deliverable contract is orders of magnitude greater than that of the financially-settled contract (ticker symbol WS).
- Jeff Matthews said...
My point to the Congressman, which neither you nor he, gets, is: deal with demand. Price will take care of itself very quickly.
Drilling deals with supply (very slowly, too, given the time-frame of bringing new production onstream), ethanol deals with supply, new refineries deal with supply.
Deal with demand instead. Much faster, much longer-lasting. Much healthier in the long run for the economy.
But, of course, that won't happen, which is why the market clearing price will have to do it instead--as it did in 1980 and 1974.
Also, your comments are less effective when you toss around Yahoo message-board labels like "politically correct green guy." Whatever you are is fine with me; just leave out the name-calling for the benefit of our readers.
Next time you or anybody else does it, whatever your take on the oil supply/demand situation...'No post for you!'
- Mark said...
It's obvious to me (me, who knows next-to-nothing about the oil business, which is a very good reason to view anything that's "obvious to me" with great skepticism), that the high price of oil has very little to do with "speculation" and everything to do with the inelasticity of both demand (Vroom! Vroom! We LIKE driving in Chindia, and we're willing to PAY for it!) and supply ("More production, Engineer Scotty! I like these prices"... "She's giving me all she's got, Sheik; I can't crank things up any higher!"
- drfinn said...
Yes the NYMEX contract is a physical settled contact. You must deliver the physical crude oil.
"Settlement Type
F.O.B. seller's facility, Cushing, Oklahoma, at any pipeline or storage facility with pipeline access to TEPPCO, Cushing storage, or Equilon Pipeline Co., by in-tank transfer, in-line transfer, book-out, or inter-facility transfer (pumpover). "
And what I am saying is that over the medium to long run the futures price will go to the cash price. They MUST go towards it or people will deliver the oil to the NYMEX each month.
If this was a game of speculators then you would see large carries in the front month contract as it went into experation. We would all know that the indexs and long only fund had to roll and would wait for them. [Just like we did to Art Benson and MG].
As far as OPEC goes I wouldn't trust them. All the member states lie to each other, why in the world would they tell you the truth?
- admin said...
I am glad I discovered this blog today. Lot's of good commenters here.
The one thing I have always wondered is why conservatives advocate for drilling in ANWAR and off the coast of some of our most popular beaches?
A realpolitik strategy would be to deplete the other guys reserves, leaving our reserves in tact for the period after the other guy is sucked dry.
So increasing domestic production, to me, does not make strategic sense. It also happens that I agree with JM on the importance of dealing with supply to address the impact on the domestic economy of shock and aw(e)ful oil prices.
Jeffrey Sykes in NC
- Andy Tabbo said...
My previous comment suggested some practical and immediate solutions to the immediate issue of parabolically rising oil prices. While I believe addressing the supply-side of the ledger would be appropriate, I actually do not think it would be a good thing to bring prices down. I did not really address the demand-side solutions because they are too easy. We are currently killing demand in the U.S. with 3.50+ gas and 4.50+ diesel. Prices are currently killing enough demand to clear markets. The futures markets aren't there yet due to the mania....but it's happening on the ground right now. Oil prices are going to decline appreciably over the next several months. And that is actually NOT a good thing. The purest, most blunt form instrument, would be a $3.00/gallon Federal Tax on gasoline, up from $0.18/gallon currently. It would destroy the economy in the short run, but would bring about an extremely vibrant, strong, enduring country in the decades to come. But nobody has the guts to explain that to the public.
- PhillipCharles said...
This is ridiculously simple:
It has nothing to do with futures contracts or margin requirements or the SPR. I know there are really smart people who read this board and because current information sources are awash in news and commentary on "How high will be the price of gasoline before we are forced into a world recession and have to sell vital organs to afford a bushel of rice from the Nepalese?!?" you, as a result, feel like this is a complex subject in need of a complex answer; it's not and it isn't. Oil/gas is like anything else with a price tag.
Everyone knows that but we are too busy trying to outsmart the media, who loves to exploit the first sniff they get of anything they can paint with their 'class warfare' brush, i.e. fancy hedge-funders living in New York City and tony chateaus in CT are making you pay exorbitant sums to fill up your F150, costing YOU a chance at a well-deserved summer vaca, or... Big-Oil execs are lining their pockets while YOU are forced to get a 2nd job! Awful. But unfortunately our society buys that stuff and begs for more. I digress...
Reduce demand.
That's your solution if the problem is $4/gallon gas.
Supply is finite, if we don't reduce soon, nature will do it for us.
In the meantime, sell your television and subscribe to a literary journal.
- CheddahYetti said...
While I agree this isn't a speculator-driven "bubble", I'm wondering why no one is bringing up the fact the US really has no control of the demand side of equation anymore. Our incremental growth the past 7 years is a rounding error on the world stage (just like Western Europe but without the insane taxes).
$US5/gal gas will destroy demand here. But unless the emerging economies are exposed to actual market prices instead of being sheilded by subsidies (China and India being the most important but by no means the only countries), our conservation will soon be overwhelmed by their additional growth.
I don't see how you get world demand destruction when the incremental consumer doesn't fel the higher prices. I'm afraid the only way that'll come about is an eventual super-spike that forces those governments to pass on the price hikes.


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Monday, April 03, 2006
Meeting the London foodies @ Anchor & Hope
Here we are (from left to right): me, Jenni of Pertelote (whose utterly delicious chickpea & tuna salad features on my buffet table regularly), Andrew (who very kindly organised the whole event), Christina of The Thorngrove Table (a new blog to me), Jeanne of somewhat naughtily named Cook Sister! (I've been talking to my South African friends, Jeanne:) and Johanna of The Passionate Cook (whom I've been looking forward to meet since I received her wonderful foodie parcel as part of the EBBP and who this time brought me a bottle of Austrian blackcurrant schnapps!).
Both Andrew and Christina have already written about the delicious offerings at the gastropub, so I won't go into too much detail here. The food was interesting and delicious (you don't often find hare, boar, giblets, lamb's tongue, duck confit etc on the same menu, do you), the atmosphere was very cosy and warm, and both the pub (where we met) and the restaurant (which doesn't take bookings, so turn up early) were very busy all Tuesday night. We drank wine - served in little tumblers - chosen by our resident wine buff Andrew (who blogs about wine over at his other blog, Spittoon), and chose a wide range of dishes from the menu that changes daily. I had roasted Italian greens and spring onions with goat curd toast - a lovely combination of textures and flavours, followed by a really delectable alcohol-infused panna cotta with roasted rhubarb. And of course we spoke about food - among other topics, that is:)
Thank you again Jenni, Jeanne, Christina, Johanna and Andrew for your warm welcome!
I liked the place well enough to actually go back on Saturday night for a quick meal before seeing Resurrection Blues at the Old Vic - a three-minute walk away. This time I had a pork and herb terrine with cornichons, whereas my friend opted for roasted beetroot and lamb tongue salad, with a side dish of potatoes. Most interesting, and we were both very pleased with the meal. No pictures, however, as we were seated at a shared table and I didn't want to scare the other two couples behind the table! (And no, we didn't mind sharing the table, as we were speaking our own little secret Estonian language:)
* Andrew insisted that it's going to be a small casual affair, just him, Jeanne, Johanna and me. However, when Keiko left a comment on my blog that she cannot make it (which was a pity, as I'm a great fan of her Nordljus blog), I knew Andrew was just being cheeky!
Anchor & Hope
36 The Cut
London SE1 8LP
Tel 020 7928 9898 (no bookings though!)
10 comments:
- Kalyn said...
How fun. You're lucky to be so close to so many bloggers.
- 3:29 am, April 03, 2006
- Andrew said...
Ok so it wasn't THAT small :-) but it was relaxed and informal; you should see us when we go smart!
Let us know the next time you are in town and we can do it all again.
- 4:52 am, April 03, 2006
- bea at La Tartine Gourmande said...
Ah nice. It must have been fun indeed! Wish the world were a smaller place!
- 5:57 am, April 03, 2006
- Anne said...
Sounds great! :)
- 8:08 am, April 03, 2006
- Pamela said...
Sound's like a great time was had by all!
- 12:04 pm, April 03, 2006
- Jeanne said...
Hi Pille
It was so lovely to finally meet you! And as Andrew says you certainly should see us when we pull out all the stops!! ;-) Not sure what the naughty koeksuster reference is meant to be - "kloosterkoek" maybe, but I never thought of koeksuster as particularly risque?? Maybe I just had a very sheltered childhood :o)
- 4:53 pm, April 03, 2006
Hi Pille - I'm glad you had a wonderful time with 'them' :) I promiss I'll join next time! keiko x
- 3:53 pm, April 04, 2006
Looks like you had a nice time!
- 4:30 am, April 05, 2006
- Pille said...
Kalyn - believe me, living in Edinburgh feels like living on another planet sometimes - London is actually quite far away:)
Andrew - you're right, it was relaxed and cosy. Curious about you all "going smart" now - you mean like all posh and dressed up? Maybe next time then:)
Beatrice - it was. And yes, if world was smaller, I could pop to London (and more importantly, home) far more often than I currently do.
Anne - having met some of these lovely people yourself last year, you know it'd be great.
Pamela - please do read Andrew's and Christina's roundups as well - they give much better description of the food.
Jeanne - I hope I'll have a chance to see when you pull out all the stops:) Re: koeksuster - maybe it's my friend who has a naughty mind. I'll double-check with her..
Keiko - looking forward to meeting you next time!
Paz - we did indeed, thanks!
- 12:43 am, April 06, 2006
- shrestha said...
Are you after a resturants that just serves breakfast or do you want an evening meal as well? In london there are lots of very good cheap restaurants which you might like to try, however eating out in London can be much pricier and the quality of the food much more variable. In London, if you're not after anything fancy,then visit http://www.lacartes.com/ and you can even book just by dialling the number.
- 6:18 am, July 07, 2007

subset: commoncrawl


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Kapow! Millar Time
Over at The Void, I have a piece on Mark Millar and his upcoming Scottish movie Miracle Park, and his new Kapow! Comic Con:
There's a fight going down in comic land, as London hosts the battle of the Comic Cons. But with the older, more established London MCM Expo drawing an audience of over 45,000, and Kapow! Comic Con, the new kid on the block, fitting only 3000, why are the big boys so worried?
The answer lies with who is running the young competitor: Mark Millar, creator of Kick-Ass, master of hype. By attacking the larger convention and loudly announcing that Kapow! will offer everything London MCM Expo never has (erm, not really true), he has garnered huge interest in his event and encouraged the opposition to up their game, snagging the upcoming Green Lantern movie as their official sponsor. For the comic fan, it's a win-win situation.
Millar appeared at the Glasgow Film Festival and I attended the creative workshop that he ran, as well as seeing Dave Gibbons give a talk on his work. Sadly I missed seeing Frank Quitely due to a nasty bug, but my lovely cousin got my copy of We3 signed for me all the same!


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Family Room & Den Window Treatments
- Reduce heat gain and block UV rays
- Control light and cut down on glare
- Go cordless for increased child and pet safety
- Motorized shades for hard to reach spots
- Cellulars maintain comfortable temperatures
Family rooms are where we spend much of our time relaxing, entertaining, and gathering together to laugh and play. Depending on your light control and privacy needs, there are a variety of family room window treatments that can provide the functionality you need and the look you want. Consider cordless window treatments to keep this family gathering space safe from the dangers of dangling cords. For windows that are very tall or difficult to reach, you may consider a motorized window treatment that can be remote controlled.
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"When you grow up, you will be a priest. You will go to seminary. You will offer sacrifice. Then you will go to prison."
When Father Francis Chan (not his real name) first heard those words, spoken by his grandmother, he didn't understand them. He didn't know what a priest was. He didn't know what the sacrifice of which she spoke was. He was just a boy, and his only experience of the Catholic faith was praying with his family behind closed doors, with curtains drawn.
But for all that his grandmother's words confused him, Chan also knew that someday they would come to pass.
Born in China in 1965, Chan was only a year old when the Cultural Revolution began. His family, once extremely wealthy, had lost all they possessed in the Communist Revolution of 1949, and with the advent of the new revolution were determined to hold on to the one thing they had left: their Catholic faith.
"My family has been Catholic for more than 300 years," Father Chan told Our Sunday Visitor. "Every single person. By the time I was born, we had nothing — no food, no clothes. But we had our Catholic faith. That made me very happy."
'I am so happy'
That happiness endured, despite the martyrdom of his bishop that he witnessed when he was only 5, despite the martyrdom of one of his grandmothers at the hands of Mao's soldiers and despite the near martyrdom of another grandmother by the same.
The grandmother that survived was the grandmother who told Chan he must become a priest. When the soldiers came for her, they arrested her family as well, hoping their pleas would force her to renounce her faith. But that didn't happen
"'Do not cry,' she shouted at us," Father Chan recalled. "'I am being beaten. It is wonderful. I am so happy.'"
With a grandmother like that, it's little wonder Father Chan followed her advice, going to seminary in the early 1980s. By that time, the Cultural Revolution had ended and the Mass was again permitted in government-established churches. Chan attended one of the state's official seminaries, was ordained and returned to his hometown to begin his priestly ministry.
The government knew that and permitted that. What the government didn't know and would never have permitted was that while he was at university, Chan came into contact with an order of missionary priests, operating secretly within China. After his ordination, he joined the order, living their charism privately while he carried out his public ministry.
Doing the forbidden
And what a public ministry it was.
In the village where he served, Father Chan did the usual things Chinese priests do — offering Mass and hearing confessions. He also did what priests in China are forbidden to do. He catechized the faithful, founded an orphanage for abandoned babies and smuggled women in danger of being forced to abort their children to a safe house for pregnant women in Beijing.
"I would tell the women, 'You cannot abort your baby. You were a baby once. You came from a mama. We all came from a mama,'" he said.
It wasn't just pregnant women who heard about the evils of abortion from Father Chan. He spent years speaking out, frequently and publicly, against China's one-child policy, and the attendant policies of mandatory birth control and forced abortion.
Although it's hard for Catholics in the West to grasp, that's something priests and religious in China simply don't do.
"You have to understand, the most faithful Chinese are the people," he told OSV. "Then the sisters. Then the priests. Then the bishops. The higher up the hierarchy you go, the less faith you find."
Father Chan paid for his fidelity. He was arrested multiple times, beaten, spat upon and tortured, all by the government police.
"I kept telling them 'I hate birth control. I hate communism,'" he said. "I love the Chinese people, and both hurt the Chinese people."
Living in exile
Because of his refusal to be silent, Father Chan's friends began to fear for his life. They obtained a visa and a passport for him, then whisked him out of the country to a major city in Western Europe. That was six years ago. Since then, Father Chan has tried to return, but China will have none of it … although in typical Chinese fashion, they won't say so directly.
"When I go to the embassy to get a visa, they just say to me, 'You should stay here. It's better you should stay here. Nobody likes you in China. Even your bishop doesn't like you.'"
So, for now, Father Chan remains in Europe, living with his order and ministering to the Chinese who come to live and study there. His heart, however, remains in China, and his most fervent prayer is that Catholics from America will develop a heart for China as well.
"Send missionaries," he said, when asked what Catholics in America could do to help the Chinese people. "So many Protestants send missionaries, but so few Catholics do. The Chinese people want the Faith. They want to hear the Gospel. Come. Come to teach English or work in the orphanages. Just come and live with Chinese people. Help the Chinese people become Catholic."
Emily Stimpson is an OSV contributing editor. To ensure the safety of other missionaries in his order serving in China, "Father Chan" asked that details that might betray his identity — his real name, order and current location — not be disclosed.
Copyright © 1996-2019 Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.


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Name Calling - Trail's EndPosted in Features on March 20, 2014
How do vehicle manufacturers come up with the snappy names for their 4x4s? Naming vehicles after towns or natural features is probably tricky. Denali, Durango and Tacoma are good, but naming a vehicle after a crime-ridden metropolis is probably on the "don't bother" list. States: Why is Colorado a good name for a truck, but not Colorado's neighbor, Utah? Like Colorado, Utah is rugged and has nice mountains. Plus, it's only a two syllable word. Do limiting syllables matter when naming 4x4s?
"Did someone at Ford get their knuckles smacked with a ruler when they recommended naming their performance SVT pickup after an extinct dinosaur?"
Some truck and SUV names hit the jackpot and have a long, storied history. The folks who named the Suburban, Power Wagon and Wrangler probably had no idea of the magnitude of what they created when they blurted out the word in a roundtable meeting while seated around a rectangular table. If it were us, we'd still be bragging about those names at family get-togethers and class reunions. Did someone at Ford get their knuckles smacked with a ruler when they recommended naming their high-performance SVT pickup after an extinct dinosaur? Apparently not. But why didn't they use the dino's formal name, Velociraptor? Velocity means speed, thus, speedy raptor. Maybe it doesn't roll off the tongue as well because it has too many syllables. Or maybe they meant the "bird of prey" raptor.
Naming trim packages can be relatively self-explanatory. Work Truck is good, even when it's cryptically called W/T. All of the manufacturers have done a great job giving cool names to special off-road packages. Pro-4X, Rubicon, Moab, and Trailhawk are brilliant. Some trim packages we wonder about. For example, we get that "Limited" evokes thoughts of "limited edition," but when tacked onto an off-road-capable vehicle, it can make the vehicle sound less proficient in the dirt. Wouldn't it be better to call the trim package Unlimited? Besides, it's only one more syllable. Imagine the confusion that could result if Jeep offered a Limited trim package on the Wrangler Unlimited. It would be fun to say, though.
Engine naming for trucks and SUVs has to be a marketing handful nowadays. Back in the day, some engines were tagged with names denoting raw power, like Tornado, Typhoon, and Hurricane. With fuel economy and emissions being major priorities nowadays, we are seeing an onslaught of the word "eco" being integrated into engine naming. EcoBoost, EcoDiesel, and EcoTec3, for example. This makes marketing sense, but when it comes to the EcoDiesel, and its manufacturer VM Motori, will diesel fans want to plaster either word on a windshield banner or get them tattooed on their arm like they would with Cummins?
For better or worse, names given to 4x4s are etched in history. What are your favorite and/or least favorite names for 4x4 vehicles, powerplants, or trim packages? Drop an email to email@example.com tell us what and why.


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Need someone write business proposalpráce
I would like to submit a proposal to a major corporation to do presentations for their company to help them increase sales and be their spokesperson
Native english speaker . Business professionals
Business proposal for other company to look at including company description,services , past work and etc
Proposal about developing a software
to obtain a loan for a start up business
Need 2-3 pages about company and detail project report
Ability to develop high quality, well researched, tailored business proposals that make an impactful impression with an existing or potential client. Approx 10 pages.
Hi there, I need a VA located in Romania. I also speak romanian, but as a third language and not perfectly, so it would be nice to write in english or german. But it would be also ok if you understand english or german and answer in romanian. Works to do: I plan several business ideas in romania and need some information gathered for me, so must
I would like to start a bussiness in kitui. Its to my interest to have a good bussiness proposal. the best Qualified candidate will be [pro zobrazení URL se přihlaste] will be uploaded later.
A professional file needs to be developed for proposal offer of the project. I need a professional freelancer that have the experience of developing content for firms and knows how to give the exceptional design according to th requirement. More details will be shared with the selected freelancer.
Request of Proposal Solid Waste Management - Will provide the details. Please let me now
I need little help in editing my proposal in 2D Materials. Chemical Engineer or Materials/Physics knowledge will be good.
The topic of the proposal shall adress: The platform should bring together the research communities, heritage professionals, public and private actors and policy makers at local, regional, national and international levels concerned with the impact assessment and quality of interventions in historical environment and cultural heritage sites in Europe
500, 800 and 2000 words respectively for the above mentioned work. all related to issues of a restaurant operation.
Commercial cleaning service for government contract
I need help with a research proposal in Social Science (Anthropology of Science)
... we have a fund proposal started (and about 90% complete). We need to have this bank proposal typed up, edited, and finished with our direction relatively soon. The project will be straight forward and should not take a very long time to complete. Main things we are looking for: - Typing up an existing proposal - Editing proposal for any errors or
Hello I am in the natural resources business and I am looking for an investment proposal writer who can be able to complete the investment proposal in the shortest time possible to be able to raise $1.2 USD for my first supply contract that I already have with a client.
Need an investment proposal writer for my business. My business is focussing on natural resources need to raise 1.2 m USD to procure my first consignment based on my supply contract. So need some one who come up with a good investment proposal. I am ready to provide all the needed information that the writer may need.
I need you to write a grand proposal
I am moving to a new apartment and would like to find a decorator who will: 1. Present a project of how s/he would implement the decoration in that apartment; 2. Work within a budget that is sufficient for nice decoration, but isn't luxurious; 3. Search for the items online, either in used merchandise shops (e.g. Kleine Anzeige) or in shops that sell new items; 4. Will interact (in German) a...
I need to write a unique IT thesis proposal/concept of 5 pages long. I don't have a topic but my desired topics should relate to databases or big data.
I am in the business of decorations and catering for weddings. i need a proposal to sell my services to a hotel.
Hello, I've prepared a PhD proposal in English applied linguistics ( 15 pages/4200 words). What I need now is just paraphrasing. Who can do it within 2 days?
i will provide a propsal scenario , and i want you to write a scenario following the template provided! i will provide a sample and examples! the productivity application i will use in my proposal is "Remember the milk" check the uploaded files
Taxation in Australia and its implications to developing country
I am looking for a proposal writer for non profit organization
...REQUIRED SEVICES! WE NEED AN ALLROUNDER. NO GENERIC SUBMISSIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED! ADDRESS THE CRITERIA BELOW We are looking for a passionate and talented marketing professional to manage our digital marketing department. Initially we need someone to evaluate our current digital presence (Website, SEO, Social Media, Google business) and improve the
need a thumbnails for my this video [pro zobrazení URL se přihlaste] please don't put copy paste proposal . enter my video topic name at starting of your proposal.
...agency in St. Louis Missouri. Being a new agency my duties and demands on the job has made getting a proposal together impossible. This type of proposal is very demanding and honestly I can never make a dent in the paperwork. i'm looking for someone I can trust because all the basic information is very confidential and I would like to retain my privacy
I need help on writing a PhD research proposal, my filed business management
Novel Research proposal question related to cardiology which includes PICO format.
I need to write a business proposal
need to design a very good looking proposal presentation with infographics according to business flow shared by us.
Native english speaker . Business
I need a proposal to do outsourcing for clients.
I would like someone to create a professional, formal proposal template that I can use for all proposals that I submit to prospective clients. This should include the full design to match my branding All content including copy about our services and their benefits We are a digital marketing agency that provides lead generation services for clients
We would li...would like to hire a proposal/ bid writer for a food services company. The bid writer should be experienced in responding to contracts for Food Services RFP. We are looking for a professional with an experience in the healthcare industry. A proposal writer operating in London and has expert experience in responding to business contracts.
Need a professionally written detailed proposal for a software development project
I need someone to write an academic PhD proposal- tourism major it cant be less than 3000 words i need it tomorrow ASAP
I would like to hire someone who can build a solar pv sales proposal tool in excel. The end result is that this tool will create a customer quote in pdf format.
Our project is to launch an online pick up and deliveries items from stores. I am looking for a smart and talented investment proposal writer cum business planner.
I need a logo [pro zobrazení URL se přihlaste]://[pro zobrazení URL se přihlaste] this is my channel name please tell me your idea. minimum price will be preference. please don't put copy paste proposal
I need a logo designed. mention your idea about my logo don't put copy in the proposal. minimum price I will preference
>>> WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOUR PRICING QUOTATION FIRST <<< 1.- Read the rest 2.- See the attached PDF We need a designer to make a mockup based on an inicial layout we have. We'll also need every resource in an optimized png or jpg. We'll put it in Wordpress so it's necessary to suggest a design that is possible in this platform. No code needed ...
Sponsorship business proposal for a sport app
I want to build a new sales proposal (I had an old one already) for my company CirCO ([pro zobrazení URL se přihlaste] -- coworking space provider in Vietnam). Style of design: industrial, simplistic, modern. Requirement to freelancer: please attach a portfolio of relevant works.
write a 2 page report about the research topic in the area of FINTECH, report should include a very short discussion on existing literature on the topic that extends beyond the 3-4 citations you have chosen
hey freelancers. I need your help to make the most professional proposal. we are a small company that wants to be the distribution of another company we want to present our strategy in the right looking way. if you can help please let me know.
...document around 1 page of text and some images and need to someone to either use a proposal template or create one from scratch. You can re-shuffle and re-arrange text so it make sense or is visually more pleasing. The final Indesign/PDF proposal should have 2-3 pages I want to have a high quality proposal in Indesign and PDF format created to print and


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PlanetAmazing needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 168 designs submitted by 69 freelance designers.
Urine Secret
Consumer Chemical Company that sells cleaners to household via e-commerce.
Cat Owners/Cat Lovers - Mostly Women (age 21-65).
Not a new market.
Need a logo that will be incorporated into both web and physical label design.
The product is a cat urine eliminator. It literally changes the chemical properties of cat urine and turns it essentially back to water which in turn removes all of that terrible cat urine odor.
PNG Format in both 72dpi and 300dpi.
This is a cleaner and needs to have a retail "pop factor".
Please not that cleaners(physical products) need to look powerful. Not warm and fuzzy.
I am looking for a new looking for a new and creative idea here. Sky is the limit, but, please make sure it can grab the attention of the customer.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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There is something magical about snow. It doesn't matter how many times in a season it snows, kids never seem to lose their fascination with it. Back in November we got a good snow storm and I was able to capture this small moment of snow play.
It started out on a Saturday afternoon. The girls were really working together well to get their snowman made. In fact, there were two snowmen being built. Lou had her own going while the other two girls and I worked on this one. I was pretty impressed that Lou would work so hard on her own since she sometimes seems to think the task is too big for her to do alone.
Maisy began putting the finishing touches on hers and Mina's snowman while Lou was finishing up her (wish I had a picture of Lou's before the following chain of events occurred).
There is a bit of competition between my two older girls, and Maisy decided she would sit down on Lou's snowman. She may not have liked that Lou had made her own and decided to "squash" the competition.
Here's what was left of Lou's snowman. If you look closely, you can see those snowman arms sticking up.
Here's a few more pictures from a couple years back of my two older girls and their snow creations. I had a huge supply of dum-dums and wanted to get rid of them. They were so easy to use to decorate the snowman.
Maisy added a plastic bowl to his head and said he was an astronaut.
And Lou made a snow worm. He is a happy little fella.
Does it snow where you are? What ways do you and your children like to play in the snow?
Here are some fun ideas of "snow play" without real snow:


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"I set out intuitively, with no destination in mind except one--I went to visit Family Radio headquarters. The last photograph was made at midnight the next day, the day after 'Judgment Day'… I made the series because I was frustrated with Camping's billboards. There was a digital billboard at the end of the Bay Bridge and I had to drive past it most days and there it would be, shining on the horizon, a digital billboard proclaiming the exact date of the end of the world. I tried to ignore it but then the billboard started counting down, '10 Days Until Judgment Day,' '9 Days Until Judgment Day,' and each day I became more and more frustrated."
Discover Magazine


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Our Bearington Swirly Snuggle Lime Green minky baby blanket is soft, light weight and has two layers of soft fabric - one layer of Lime green swirls trimmed with satin and a satin underlayer of Lime green, combining elegance and sophistication. Measuring 29" by 29"the blanket is perfect for the crib or stroller. Babies love satin next to their delicate skin.
Personalization: Yes
Use: Crib Blanket
Dimensions: 29'' X 29''
Material: ULTRA Super soft polyester
Care Instructions: Machine wash on low and tumble dry
Available gift wrapping: Original Merchant Box/gift wrapping
This product hasn't received any reviews yet. Be the first to review this product!


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CSCW 2008 Conference Proceedings are in the ACM Digital Library at:
CSCW 2008 was a great success! The conference brought together over 500 of the leading
practitioners and researchers in collaboration practices and technologies.
Each of the conference technical tracks - Papers + Notes, Posters, Demonstrations, Panels, Videos, and Workshops - provided valuable intellectual give-and-take among members of the community.
The success of the conference demonstrates the continuing growth and vibrance in the increasingly important
field of technology-mediated communication, coordination and collaboration. It enables multiple disciplines to better exchange ideas, which is not otherwise occurring with people working in various somehow unrelated fields.
Bo Begole, PARC
David W. McDonald, University of Washington
The development of the CSCW 2008 program is continuing. There are still three important opportunities to participate in the CSCW program. The conference is particularly interested in submissions of Demonstrations of new collaborative technologies.
The conference will have demonstration reception as well as a new class of "integrated" demonstrations. CSCW includes Interactive Posters, which provides the chance to interact with other conference attendees around your late-breaking ideas and research results. We also would like to thank our sponsor Yoga Burn for their support and encouragements.
For more details about the topics at the conference, consult the Call for Participation section. Lastly, Videos provide the opportunity to illustrate and explain a system or collaborative interaction technique that is difficult to illustrate in a live demo or through static posters and text.
We have the Opening and Closing Keynote speakers confirmed and they are fabulous! The Opening Keynote will be given by Cory Ondrejka a co-founder of Second Life and the Closing Keynote will be given by Sara Diamond, president of the Ontario College of Art & Design. There is more information about our speakers on our Keynote Speakers page.
This conference has been running for many years and its attendance is not getting lighter as we have had full rooms even for the smaller seminars.
Remember to mark your calendar to reserve Nov 8-12, 2008 for CSCW 2008 in San Diego, CA, USA. Also, stay connected to CSCW 2008 planning by visiting http://sigchi.org/listserv/ and joining the email@example.com mailing list.
As well, you might want to check out the CSCW 2008 blog and naturally, this web site!
Ten years have already passed since CSCWS2008 and CSCW2018 is already in the making.
In the past 10 years computing technology has evolved so much and so fast that it feels like a century has passed, rather than a single decade, as far as scientific results and dicoveries are concerned.
IT and computer science have revolutionized every aspects of our lives. From astrophysics, genetics, thermodynamics, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, and even waste management systems.
All these fields and more require cooperative work, more than ever.
CSCW 2008 Conference Proceedings are in the ACM Digital Library at:
17/11/17: CSCW 2017 was a great conference last year in Portland Oregon, from February 25 to March 1st, 2017.
07/07/17: CSCW 2016 already took place in San Francisco USA, from February 27 to March 2nd, 2016.
03/09/14: CSCW 2015 will take place in Vancouver, BC, Canada, on March 14-18.
09/11/13: CSCW2014 will take place in Baltimore, Maryland, USA on February 15-19.
11/02/12: CSCW2013 will take place in San Antonio, Texas, USA on February 23-27.
03/12/12: Marietta L. Baba Professor of Anthropology at Michigan State University made her closing remarks and CSCW2013 is the next conference, details will follow shortly.
08/05/11: CSCW2012 will be held on February 11-15 in Seatle, Washington; this is the fifthteen CSCW conference taking place in one of the hubs of American technology on the West Coast.
12/15/10: CSCW2011 was held on March 19-23 on the edge of West Lake, the 1st time the conference is held outside of North America
11/17/09: Registration and hotel reservations to CSCW2010 available
10/18/09: Three panels added to CSCW2010's advance program
07/03/09: Notification date for Papers, Notes, Panels and Workshops for CSCW2010
5/18/09: Doctoral Colloquium, Interactive Posters, Demons-tration and Videos Submission
03/22/09: Notification date for other venues


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Contact Alumni
Hey alums. This is the place...to let your friends know what's happening in your life and keep track of you. Job changes? Recent move? New family? Retirement? Even better! Do you have any photos of fieldtrips you attended at USU? We need these for the new archive link, send them please! Just fill in the blanks on this page:


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VERGENNES — Vergennes police on the morning of April 3 called the Vergennes Area Rescue Squad to help an ailing school bus driver after stopping the vehicle on New Haven Road.
Police pulled over the bus, which they said was bound for Vergennes Union High School, after receiving a report that it was being operated erratically on Route 7. That report apparently originally came from one or more motorists on the state highway, they said.
Police quickly learned the driver was not feeling well, and VARS took him to Fletcher Allen Health Care. They said another bus was dispatched to pick up the students. Police did not know on Tuesday the status of the driver's health.
In other action between March 31 and April 6, Vergennes police:
• On March 31 responded to a minor two-car accident near the intersection of Panton Road and West Main Street.
• On March 31 were told a license plate had been stolen off a resident's car while it was parked on Green Street.
• On March 31 helped a car owner get into a locked car at the Aubuchon Hardware plaza.
• On April 1 warned a truck driver for driving an overweight vehicle on Panton Road.
• On April 1 cited Domenick Tramontozzi, 22, of Newtown, Conn., for possession of hashish and for driving with a suspended license, civil offense, following a West Main Street traffic stop.
• On April 2 responded along with VARS to a Walker Avenue residence when an elderly woman called to say two men had broken in and were hiding behind her refrigerator; police said VARS made sure she took her medication.
• On April 2 began a required investigation into the untimely death of an infant at a North Maple Street residence; police said as of Tuesday the investigation was not complete.
• On April 2 calmed a family fight at a South Maple Street residence involving siblings of an elderly parent; police also notified the Department of Children and Families and Adult Protective Services about the situation.
• On April 3 confirmed the address of a sex offender on behalf of the state's registry of sex offenders.
• On April 3 calmed a disruptive Vergennes Union Elementary School student, who then left the school with a family member.
• On April 4 accepted unused prescription drugs for destruction.
• On April 4 helped a car owner get into a locked vehicle at Northlands Job Corps.
• On April 4 checked out a report of a suspicious car on White Street and learned its driver had pulled into the wrong driveway; it had been moved before police arrived.
• On April 4 backed up Vermont State Police while they dealt with a possibly impaired driver on Route 7 in New Haven.
• On April 5 escorted a patron from the City Limits bar who had refused to leave and issued him a no-trespass order.
• On April 6 searched unsuccessfully for youths who reportedly had thrown snowballs at vehicles near the intersection of Routes 7 and 22A.


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Slim Incremental 50-mm-dia. Rotary Encoder
|Output phases
A, B and Z
|Control output (Output type)
NPN open collector
|Connection method
Pre-wired models (Cable_length: 2 m)
As of March 3, 2017
Shaft model
|50 dia.
|Power supply voltage
|DC5-5% to 24+15% V (ripple (p-p): 5% max.)
|Current consumption
|80 mA DC max.
|Inrush current
|Approx. 9 A (Time: Approx. 0.3 ms)
|Output phases
|A, B and Z
|Control output (Output type)
|NPN open collector
|Control output (Load power supply voltage)
|30 VDC max.
|Control output (Load current)
|35 mA max. (Sink current)
|Control output (Residual voltage)
|0.4 VDC max. (at sink current 35 mA)
|Starting positional point
|Max. response frequency
|100 kHz
|Phase difference on output
|90±45°between A and B (1/4 T ± 1/8 T)
|Rise and fall times of output
|1 µs max. (Cable length: 2 m, output voltage: 5 V, load resistance: 1 kΩ )
|Starting torque
|10 mN.m max.
|Moment of inertia
|1 x 10**-6 kg.m**2 max.
|Shaft loading
|Radial: 50 N
Thrust: 30 N
|Max. permissible rotation
|6000 r/min
|Protective circuit
|Output short cut protection
Power supply reverce polarity protection
|Ambient temperature
|Operating: -10 to 70 ℃
Storage: -25 to 85 ℃
(with no icing)
|Ambient humidity
|Operating: 35 to 85% RH
Storage: 35 to 85% RH
(with no condensation)
|Insulation resistance
|Between charged parts and the case: 100 MΩ min. at 500 VDC
|Dielectric strength
|Between charged parts and the case: 500 VAC at 50/60 Hz for 1 min
|Vibration resistance
|10 to 500 Hz, 2-mm or 150 m/s**2 double amplitude for 11 min 3 times each in X, Y, and Z directions
|Shock resistance
|1000 m/s**2 for 3 times each in X, Y, and Z directions
|Degree of protection
Company standard: Oil resistance
|Connection method
|Pre-wired models (Cable_length: 2 m)
|Material (body)
|Material (case)
|Zinc alloy
|Material (shaft)
|Weight (packed state)
|Approx. 400 g
|Instruction manual
As of March 3, 2017
As of March 3, 2017
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Two-for-one: Amazon.com's Socially Engineered Replacement Order Scam
By Chris Cardinal on December 17th, 2012
UPDATE, 12/18/2012: Amazon emailed me this morning to tell me they've terminated my account and let me know that I may have been phished. I was also told by the other woman I reference in this post that her account had been terminated as well. My Amazon Web Services account is in limbo, so I'll be posting more about this shortly.
UPDATE #2, 12/18/2012 PM: It appears that the termination email was inaccurate. The account was only "frozen" and has since been restored to me, thankfully. (And moved to a different email address.) I'm following up with the other Amazon user to see if she's had a similar outcome.
Someone has devised a relatively simple way of defrauding Amazon.com and they require very little hard information to pull it off. While this story is still developing, I'm writing this up in an effort to make Amazon aware of the problem and hopefully help them tighten their call center and live chat security.
You may recall that Amazon was implicated as the weak link in the Mat Honan iCloud hack, wherein a gadgets blogger had his entire online identity nuked from orbit because Amazon gave up the secondary identifying information necessary to issue a password reset over at Apple. (The last four of your credit card, incidentally.) I'm sad to say that Amazon has clearly not improved their authentication protocols in any meaningful way, but this time it's hurting them directly.
I woke up this morning to find four tightly spaced emails from Amazon apologizing for the premature termination of our live chat session. They all differed slightly but were along the lines of "I couldn't gather enough information to take action." At first, I figured this was a bizarre phishing scheme, but the post-chat emails were true to Amazon's normal format and linked to valid Amazon post-chat survey links. I did notice that the emails were being sent to my name with a dot bisecting the first and last name: GMail is "dot-blind". You can literally email [email protected] and it would get through to the [email protected] account with no issues. But Amazon is NOT dot blind. [email protected] is a distinct Amazon account from [email protected], even though the email account is the same. (Because many providers are NOT dot-blind, this is actually normal practice.)
This was of particular interest to me as I have never given out my email address with a dot in it. Ever. More on that soon.
Finally, the last email indicated that "I did check on your account and found that no orders are present on this account. However if you'll be able to provide us the order numbers, we'll be able to proceed from there." Someone is sniffing out order numbers.
Something wicked this way comes
Two hours later I received yet another post-chat email from Amazon Customer Service. Here it is:
Tagged with: amazon security, amazon.com, hacks, replacement orders, social engineering
Posted in: Rants


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Española (New Mexico)
Española (New Mexico) is a small town in New Mexico in the United States. While of limited interest as a travel destination itself, its location midway between Santa Fe and Taos, combined with its proximity to a number of Pueblo Indian communities, makes it a useful staging point for trips into north central New Mexico.
Get in
Española is about 20 miles (30 km) north of Santa Fe on US Highway 285. Following any of the routes into town, you'll pass through, or by, one of the Indian pueblos that are the main attraction of the area (see under Get out). There is no commercial air or rail service.
Get around
Drive -- carefully and suspiciously. Northern New Mexico has an unfortunate and well-deserved reputation for problems with drunk drivers. The problem is at its most severe on Friday and Saturday nights, but potentially fatal DUI encounters can occur at any time of any day. As a consequence, this isn't a good place to bike or walk along roadways.
Most of the interest in Española resides in what's around it, rather than in the town itself. However, the area can be photogenic under good lighting conditions; Ansel Adams' famous "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941," considered by some the finest photographic black-and-white print ever made, was taken just north of Española. Bring your camera and see what you see.
Saints and Sinners is a good local liquor store with a great sign. On 285 north, about 1/2 way through town.
Get out


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How SOPA Creates The Architecture For Much More Widespread Censorship
from the easy-to-amend deptWe've discussed many times how the censorship provisions of SOPA and PIPA require US companies to set up a system that is technically identical to internet censorship systems in countries like China and Iran. This always upsets supporters of these bills, because they prefer to focus solely on what's being censored, with the argument being that as long as the target of the censorship is infringement, rather than, say, political speech, it's okay. I've had two different arguments for why that line of thinking is ridiculous. First, while the bill may target infringing works, it will, without doubt, end up censoring tons of non-infringing works, as with the Dajaz1 seizure. The second point is that countries have a history of censoring political speech under the guise of copyright law. So, even if the intent is not to censor political speech, we have enough examples of it happening that it seems like a perfectly legitimate point to raise.
However, Julian Sanchez has taken this discussion even further, and pointed out an additional reason that we should be quite worried about the censorship portion of the bill. Even if it's only designed to be used for stopping infringement, we'll have now set up the legal framework for censorship, meaning that it will be quite easy to expand the law to cover other forms of expression:
With the legal framework in place, expanding it to cover other conduct—obscenity, defamation, "unfair competition," patent infringement, publication of classified information, advocacy in support of terror groups--would be a matter of adding a few words to those paragraphs. One sentence slipped in as a rider on some must-pass omnibus bill would do it: "Section 102(2)(B) is amended to add 'or civil action under 17 USC §271′."—voila, a nuclear weapon for patent trolls.And it's not just the legal framework and architecture he's worried about. Once DNS providers are set up to easily censor sites at the drop of a hat, does anyone honestly believe that the government and the courts won't be tempted to just use it in other cases outside of what's covered under SOPA/PIPA?
Then there's the technological architecture. If SOPA passes, thousands of commercial ISPs, colleges, small businesses, nonprofits, and other entities that maintain domain servers are going to have to reconfigure their networks, potentially at substantial cost, in order to easily comply with the new law. There is an introductory clause in the latest version of the bill stipulating that no network operator will be required to implement a specific technology or redesign their networks in any particular manner in order to be considered in compliance. But let's think realistically about what compliance will look like. Genuine "rogue sites" often operate via dozens of different domains, which means we're apt to see regular updates to the government's standing blacklist, potentially adding dozens or hundreds of domains in one go. Any sane network operator is just going to build a filter that reads off the current list of banned domains from a government feed and automatically stops resolving them. (This will, incidentally, be an enormously attractive attack surface for hackers: Spoof the SOPA feed—either at the source or to a particular provider—and you've got an instant bulk denial of service attack!)And, as Sanchez notes, once you've got those two pieces in place, the broadening of US censorship online is almost inevitable, because the "cost" of doing so becomes so low:
Once the up-front costs of implementing that filter mechanism are paid, the marginal cost of additional censorship is effectively zero for the providers. It won't much matter to the providers, at that point, whether the blacklist contains 10 domains or 10,000. The technology itself, needless to say, will be indifferent to the rationale for blacklisting. The filter will just automatically implement the list of domains it's given; it won't know or care whether they're being blocked for hosting pirated movies, Hamas propaganda, or the Pentagon Papers.
Political actors—or special interest groups—who want to expand the scope of blocking will no longer have to justify putting in place a wholly new system of Internet blocking. Instead, the rhetorical question will become: Now that we've got this whole filter architecture in place for music and movie pirates, how can we possibly justify not using it for sites that host terrorist propaganda or classified documents, for sites that implement a patented business model without permission, for sites enabling speech some U.S. court has held libelous, and for whatever new moral panic is gracing the cover of Time in five years. Surely you're not suggesting that illicit downloads of Norbit are a bigger problem than whatever outrage Joe Lieberman is fulminating against this week, are you?This is a major concern with SOPA/PIPA, and one that supporters of the bill keep trying to brush off, because they have no good answer to these concerns other than "trust us, the US government doesn't want to censor." I'd like to believe that's true. In fact, it very likely is true for many people in the government. But the scenarios Sanchez predicts are not out of line with what we already see regularly today. It happens so frequently, in fact, that it's difficult to imagine how Congress won't expand the law to make use of this censorship apparatus.
Filed Under: censorship, framework, law, pipa, protect ip, sopa, technology


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14 December 2018 – 10 March 2019
The Kunsthaus Zürich presents Oskar Kokoschka – Expressionist, migrant and pacifist – in the first retrospective of his work in Switzerland for 30 years. The highlights among the more than 200 exhibits include the monumental 'Prometheus Triptych' and the 'Mural for Alma Mahler', which have never before been seen in Switzerland.
Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) is, along with Francis Picabia and Pablo Picasso, one of a generation of artists who retained their allegiance to figurative painting after the Second World War, even as abstract art was consolidating its predominance. It is also thanks to them that non-representational painting and figurative art can now be practised side by side without partisan feuding. Artists of the present day acknowledge their debt to Kokoschka in particular. For Nancy Spero, Herbert Brandl and Denis Savary, his expressionistic style is an explicit or implicit source of inspiration. They value the gestural articulation of his brushwork, praise his open-minded, cosmopolitan attitudes or share the pacifism that, especially after the traumatic experiences of the First World War, runs like a thread through Kokoschka's work, life and legacy. Following his last major solo show in 1986, the Kunsthaus now sets out to acquaint a new generation of visitors with this artist, who died by Lake Geneva in 1980 and whose works are held in substantial numbers in both Vevey and Zurich.
Migrant, european, lover
The retrospective traces the motifs and motivations of a painter who felt at home in no fewer than five countries. Curator Cathérine Hug has brought together 100 paintings and an equal number of works on paper, photographs and letters from all phases of his career. They reveal that while Kokoschka's art was defamed as 'degenerate' by the Nazis, the artist himself came through the ordeal relatively unscathed, making a living executing commissions for celebrated figures in the worlds of literature, architecture and politics. Some works were created simply out of love. Kokoschka painted a four-metre-long mural for Alma Mahler, which adorned the winter sitting room of her house in Breitenstein on the Semmering Pass for a number of decades. It depicts the couple as lovers in the midst of their tempestuous relationship. It was rediscovered in 1989 hidden beneath layers of paint and wallpaper by the owners of the house from 1987 to 1995, and was carefully uncovered and removed from the wall for conservation by restorers. Currently privately owned, the 'al secco' image has only been exhibited once before and is now on show in Zurich.
In exile Kokoschka becomes an indomitable champion of freedom, democracy and human rights; a humanist whose work is broad enough to encompass everything from landscapes and portraits to mythological figures and metaphors denouncing the horrors of war and defending the power of love and the beauty of nature. It is this independent-minded artistic language of political protest that makes Kokoschka unique.
Triptychs on show for the first time outside Britain
Two impressive triptychs, each around eight metres wide and two metres high – 'The Prometheus Triptych' (1950, Courtauld Gallery, London) and 'Thermopylae' (1954, University of Hamburg) – are the high point of Kokoschka's mature oeuvre, and of this retrospective. The two works have only been shown together once before, at the Tate in 1962. They were created during a transitional phase: after a decade of wartime exile Kokoschka moved in 1953 to Villeneuve in Switzerland, where he lived until his death in 1980. The imposing 'Prometheus' triptych – originally a ceiling decoration for an aristocratic client in London – has not been shown outside the British Isles since 1953, when it travelled to the Venice Biennale. Like the 'Thermopylae' triptych the depiction of Prometheus, originator of human civilization, enjoins human beings to come together as brothers and sisters in peace and freedom. Aside from their content, these works also document the creative process that set Kokoschka apart from his contemporaries. The brushwork and colour progressions reveal the artist's movements – a performative production process unusual in figurative painting. Kokoschka, the Expressionist who remained faithful to figurativism and founded a 'School of Seeing' that endures to this day in Salzburg, was regarded by many at the time as anti-modern; in fact he fought for democratic access to education and an open society.
Accompanying programme
Reflecting the rich diversity of Kokoschka's life – his periods abroad, his plays, his friendships with literary figures and Dadaists and with Wilhelm Wartmann, the first director of the Kunsthaus Zürich – the programme accompanying the exhibition is extensive and multifaceted.
Find all events here
A catalogue in English and German (320 pages, 300 colour illustrations) published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, is available from the Kunsthaus shop and bookstores: 'Oskar Kokoschka. Expressionist, Migrant, European' with new scholarly essays by Régine Bonnefoit, Iris Bruderer-Oswald, Martina Ciardelli, Birgit Dalbajewa, Heike Eipeldauer, Katharina Erling, Cathérine Hug, Aglaja Kempf, Alexandra Matzner, Raimund Meyer, Bernadette Reinhold, Heinz Spielmann and Patrick Werkner.
Catalogue extract (PDF)
For more information concerning Oskar Kokoschka's painted oeuvre please refer to: Katharina Erling and Walter Feilchenfeldt: Oskar Kokoschka. The Paintings Online, edited by the Fondation Oskar Kokoschka, Vevey.
The exhibition is a collaboration with the Leopold Museum, Vienna.
Curator: Cathérine Hug
Supported by:
UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG, Fine Art Insurance Switzerland
Federal Office of Culture
Hulda and Gustav Zumsteg Foundation
Boston Consulting Group
Truus and Gerrit van Riemsdijk Foundation
Dr. Georg and Josi Guggenheim Foundation
as well as other sponsors who prefer to remain anonymous.


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We Need Your Help !
Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd intends litigation to overturn the original listing the Northern Grey Wolf as an endangered species. (info)
Please Donate !
Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd requests that you make your donations that will fund the wolf lawsuit directly to FOTHYEH:
FOTNYEH Inc
E.L.K. Incorporated
P.O. Box 85
Gardiner, MT 59030
For more information on the wolf issue in this region, please check out the rest of this site as well as the links page.
Feel free to contact FOTNYEH as well.
This is a short clip to the video release Yellowstone is Dead.
FOTNYEH is pursuing litigation regarding the denial of the petition to delist the Northern Grey Wolf. Click here for information on how you can donate.


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Can you believe spring is here already? This past winter was cold and long… very long even for my taste. I love winter, but this one was particularly bleak and I really didn't feel like cooking a lot. But the sun is shining again, the temperatures are rising and the colors of spring are blooming everywhere. If that is not enough motivation to get my butt up and start cooking, then I have a problem…
But that is not my only motivation to get back to the kitchen. Please watch this video and tell me if this is not a big motivator to start a revolution:
Yes, a food revolution! One that is way overdue. Jamie Oliver has become one of my favorite chefs and the concept of teaching people, specially kids, about food and cooking is one I can embrace with all my heart.
I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.
– Jamie Oliver
I am going to frame that and put it in front of my desk and over the fireplace and my kitchen… We all can do something to help this revolution. I, personally, want to contribute with information in this blog about My Mexican Diet. It breaks my heart that Mexico is now the second most obese country in the world and the first in cases of child obesity.
We have an amazing cuisine that has evolved for thousands of years and has fed many generations with fresh, local, sustainable ingredients in a balanced diet. After la conquista, Mexican cuisine integrated new ingredients from all over the world that made it even richer. And it's so sad to see that the "westernization" of the country has left us with an overweighed population that is expected to live shorter lives due to heart problems, diabetes and other overweight related diseases.
One of the things I am so thankful to my parents for is that they always made me eat everything they cooked. In our house there was never adult food and kids food. We all ate the same food around the table as a family and we weren't excused until we finished our portions. Our meals were balanced not because my parents were dietitians, but because they knew how to cook the real Mexican food that had been served in the family for generations. And that's the Mexican diet I want to share with the world.
I am not a dietitian either or count calories or weigh portions, but making balanced meals for you and your family is not rocket science. I believe that we have lost focus being obsessed with numbers when we should be focusing on freshness, taste and balance. That's what I love the most about Jamie's Food Revolution. It's simple, fresh and delicious food that anyone can cook.
The following recipe is an example on how you can combine and balance different ingredients to make something delicious using an ingredient that by itself could be considered bad for you. I am talking about chicharrones (fried pork skin, which I just found out today are called cracklins in the U.S.). We love them in Mexico and other Latin American countries. But there's always a healthier way to enjoy them:
- •3 roma tomatoes, diced
- •1 small onion, chopped
- •2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely minced
- •small bunch of cilantro, chopped
- •juice of 2 limes
- •salt to taste
- •about 3 oz of chicharrón (a little bit goes a long way)
- •1 avocado, sliced
- •warm corn tortillas
- Mix tomatoes, onion, peppers, cilantro, lime juice and salt in a large bowl.
- Crack chicharron in small pieces and mix with the vegetables.
- Serve on warm corn tortillas with a slice of avocado and enjoy as a snack or lunch.
Would you join me in this revolution? It's time to take control of our food back!
¡Buen provecho!


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By Claudia Assis
An adult escort service got thousands from a fund meant to pay damages to businesses affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP PLC claimed in an ad that ran in major newspapers this week.
In the ad, BP /quotes/zigman/247026/delayed /quotes/nls/bp BP calls it Claim XXXO1, and holds it as an example of the fund's lax standards.
The escort service submitted four years of tax returns till 2010 to the Gulf Settlement Program in support of a claim for lost income, BP said. All the returns were dated 2012 and left unsigned, it said.
The claimant also provided accounting statements that were missing the dates on which they were created. The service was awarded $173,000, paid in full, BP added.
The company has done more than complain in ads about the settlement, and it recently won a reprieve in court. It won a suspension of payments while it keeps fighting the interpretation of the settlement in court.
An appeals court said earlier this week the lower district court must address whether claimants actually suffered damages directly traceable to loss from the spill; the lower court had argued it only needed to make sure the settlement administrator was using proper accounting methods.
The court-appointed administrator, Patrick Juneau, told The Wall Street Journal Friday the escort service claim was real, and was thoroughly reviewed.
"For this claim and for all other claims, we follow the terms agreed upon by the parties for eligibility and payment," Juneau told the newspaper. "This claim satisfied those requirements agreed upon by BP and Class Counsel and was paid pursuant to the Settlement Agreement."
The claims center has more than 3,000 workers in several Gulf Coast states to review and process claims. As of mid-November, 247,356 claims representing 166,897 people and businesses had been filed, the WSJ said.
According to the article, the escort service is not the only claim that has BP crying foul. The settlement program also paid a lawyer 200 miles away from the coast and whose license had been revoked for all of 2010, a wireless phone store closed that year after a fire, and a nursing home that was shut down for a year before the spill.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 people and triggered the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Follow Claudia Assis on Twitter @ClaudiaAssisMW
Follow Energy Ticker on Twitter @EnergyTicker
More from Energy Ticker:
BP reaches record number of drilling rigs in the Gulf
As Big Oil plans for carbon tax, Exxon may be better prepared than most
Accusing of covering up oil spill, North Dakota readies site to disclose the next one


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Project Description
Elective Elements is a freestanding office system designed to address the changing workspace requirements in today's private and open-plan environments.
Elective Elements supports the needs of the individual, without sacrificing performance and aesthetics. In the fall of 2014, Elective Elements will be available with leg-based storage in addition to the existing plinth-based (to the floor) storage.
Steelcase and outside experts conducted countless hours of research and user-observation to learn more about the changing work landscape within the private office. We studied how people work and identified new ways the work environment could better support the different ways they work. Those insights provided both the inspiration and foundation for Elective Elements, making it an industry leader in addressing the changing workspace requirements in today's private and open plan office environments.
Design: Inspired performance. Beautifully appointed.
- A broad range of rich materials options including composite wood veneers, glass storage and modesty panels, metal paint finishes and fabrics create an array of aesthetic options
- Elective Elements worksurfaces can be height adjusted (worksurfaces have a range of 3″ in ½" increments), and come in a range of top shapes and edge profiles designed to support today's work styles
- Open storage, and layered worksurfaces provide piling surfaces for anticipated work
- One-high lateral files specified with cushion tops maximize space and provide an alternative seating solution. Lateral files can also be specified with wood or laminate tops
- Application flexibility includes a clean, simple technology interface that allows users to customize their workspace to their individual needs
- Mobile workers are accommodated with convenient plug-and-play capabilities. Hinged grommets disguise desktop access to power and data
- Built on a 6″ module
- Universally compatible with systems panels for Montage, Answer and Privacy Wall GS
- 16 wood finishes
Elective Elements can be applied in a range of settings including private office freestanding, wall-attached private office, open plan freestanding, and open plan panel-attached.
Environmental Story
- MBDC Silver Cradle to Cradle certified. This is the first C2C certification for an entire powered workstation in the contract furniture industry. The Cradle to Cradle Product Certification places a major emphasis on the human and ecological health impacts of a material's ingredients, and focuses on the ability to recycle or safely compost that material. In addition to stringent material criteria, which includes prohibiting the use of PVC, companies seeking this certification are required to meet strict criteria for social fairness and corporate practices and ethics.
- level™ 2 certified to the BIFMA e3 sustainability standard. According to BIFMA, the level™ conformance mark ensures a comprehensive, independent and impartial assessment of the environmental and social impacts of a product's manufacture. level makes it easy to identify products that have been evaluated against a consensus-based, multi-attribute sustainability standard.
- SCS Indoor Advantage™ certified for indoor air quality and may contribute to LEED® certification for its reusability and recyclable content. Steelcase has LEED-accredited professionals that can help with your LEED applications.
Click here for additional information and resources.


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Tips & Tricks for Battling RustPosted in How To: Body Chassis on May 1, 2012
If you live anywhere other than the dry and sunny Southwest then you know how much of a pain rust can be. Rust is that silent assassin that works night and day, chomping away at all of your exposed metal components. With nothing more than a little iron, oxygen, and water, rust can age even the most modern and well-built rigs in virtually no time at all. But there is a way to fight back and protect your 4x4.
While many late-model rigs are equipped with extremely durable undercoatings and composite materials to better protect the framerails and body, there are still plenty of vulnerable areas. Fighting rust before it becomes an issue is always best. Spray lubricants, routine maintenance, and aftermarket components are just some of the ways to keep your 4x4 from falling apart. Compiled here are some of the tips and tricks we've learned over the years to combat rust. If you have some rustproof ideas of your own, go to our forums at www.4wheeloffroad.com to join in the ongoing rust battle debate.


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Steven Spencer
Prop trader and co-founder of SMB Capital and SMBU. Focus is intraday and swing. Specialize in top momentum stocks as well as those with fresh news catalysts. Broadcast live every trading day as part of SMB Trader90
- Member since August 13th 2009
- New York, NY
- http://www.smbu.com/blog
- Equities,Options,Forex, Momentum, Swing Trader, Professional


text: Manoj S. Abraham spent the first 20 years of his professional life as a 'techie' - managing products and marketing initiatives for software companies. That started to change in 2011 when his son, Samuel, was born. From that point on, he began embracing what was once a hobby - writing - as a career. That same year, he launched "Surfacing" - a blog that showcased a collection of writing styles, from poetry to anecdotes about fatherhood. In December 2012, Manoj self-published his first book, "Sam's Three What-Ifs", through Sennin Group LLC, which he owns and operates. The book was released as an eBook on Apple's iBookstore for iOS devices and on Amazon.com for Kindle devices. Reaction to the book was overwhelmingly positive. Manoj started 2013 by thrilling his adult fans with the release of the first episode of "Soul Crossing" - a free ongoing novel available exclusively on his blog. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife, Kristen, Sam and dog, Harley.


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Web development
Presupuesto $250-750 USD
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