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Transitioning from a private partnership to a global public company gave Accenture the opportunity to create an ERP strategy from a clean slate and lay a new IT foundation. At the time, Accenture made the strategic decision to create a single global SAP® system instance and undertook a journey to leverage this instance and determine how to operate on it.
From the beginning the approach was less about the technology and more about how Accenture wanted to operate its business. Accenture made decisions that have served it well and gained valuable insights along the way. Today its ERP operations are better, faster and more cost-effective than ever. Accenture passes its insights along to others who seek to take a similar journey.
A look back at Accenture's journey to creating a single global SAP system instance reveals several key guiding principles that continue to steer the company today.
Accenture decided that it would need to align and operate its IT in a globally consistent way and to enable IT to provide the applications to support the business.
Accenture then defined its ERP strategy to be flexible to evolve with future changes and to operate Accenture's business with a single global SAP system instance.
Accenture's governance structure closely mirrors the way the company works and aligns with how overall governance functions within the company. Business leaders involved are responsible for strategy, planning, programs and projects, and operations.
Rounding out the governance model is a cross-operations team composed of business process and IT resources. They work across three support tiers to track service level agreements, measure production support effectiveness and monitor benefits.
Over 18 months, business processes were rigorously standardized across business units and countries to arrive at a set of global business processes and global data model to enable the single-instance ERP.
The resulting standardization has driven consistency across the diverse internal functions that use the SAP system today. And it provides much greater visibility into the business at a greater level of granularity. Standard processes also facilitate more rigorous internal control procedures.
Accenture strives for a "theme of one" in every area of SAP applications and operations. Less is always more, and one is always preferred.
Rationalizing applications enabled a single source of the truth, as opposed to multiple applications with different data. Wherever feasible, Accenture standardizes, consolidates and strives to come as close as possible to a single instance of every technology tool it uses.
Accenture's guiding principle is to minimize modifications to the core SAP code. Minimization provides benefits, including reduction of operating costs, faster and cheaper upgrades ensuring Accenture is keeping its solution current, and greater flexibility to support the dynamic nature of Accenture's business.
Initially, Accenture deliberately chose to be a fast follower of SAP versus leading edge. This was done to manage risk by waiting until new solutions were tested and proven before implementing them.
Today, with the fast pace of technological change and Accenture's growth, Accenture has chosen to be leading edge in implementing SAP capabilities.
Now, Accenture often breaks new ground in implementing SAP solutions, such as moving SAP Business Warehouse on SAP HANA® to Microsoft Azure and upgrading to SAP S4/HANA®.
Accenture treats SAP as an asset, and looks at the power that a single global SAP system instance can bring to bear to successfully operate and manage the business.
Accenture views an upgrade as a key step on its SAP strategic roadmap—an opportunity to deliver value to the business and to establish new capabilities sooner than the competition, while maintaining full security at all times.
The way in which Accenture designed its ERP system and business with standard structures, toolsets and business processes leveraging standard SAP application functionality wherever possible produced benefits by driving efficiencies.
Even though Accenture has added significantly more capability and increased usage of the SAP system over time, IT costs have been reduced by reducing the number and size of support team.
In addition, about 70 percent—an industry-leading average—of the support team is drawn from cost-efficient locations across the Accenture Global Delivery Network.
Organizations are challenged in deciding when and when not to use an ERP for the business. One size does not fit all. There are times when a single instance is a fit and times when a multiple instance is a fit.
Whichever is the case, it is important to have the organization's instance strategy aligned to its business strategy. Different business situations drive the decision.
"Many organizations believe that attaining a single instance involves making significant trade-offs," says Dan Kirner, Executive Director of Accenture's SAP Program. "But Accenture's experience has shown that we can attain high flexibility, quality and performance at a low cost. Today, we are able to position Accenture for the future better, faster and cheaper."


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A few months ago, Microsoft and Google had a brouhaha over YouTube and Windows Phone. Microsoft appeared to play by Google's rules in making an app for their customers, but Google said it wasn't good enough. Despite the differences, Microsoft famously released the app anyway to see what would happen. As it turns out, Google was none too happy and remotely killed the app through its access key.
Fast forward to today, October 7th and the app has finally been updated to version 3.2. Unfortunately, the app has reverted back to its old web-player days, meaning if you click a YouTube link in email, MMS messages, etc. it will open YouTube in the browser. In fact, tapping the installed YouTube icon on your phone will simply redirect you to m.youtube.com for that not so premier experience.
No more downloads, no more account management (without logging in), no notifications—just the barebones experience.
Google locked out Windows Phone users
From the looks of it, any discussions between Microsoft and Google may have broken down. As a result, we're getting the most generic YouTube experience you can imagine on a mobile platform: a web player. If Microsoft is working on an official app, it may have to be in that HTML5 form that Google so desperately wants for Windows Phone (but not for iOS or Android). If that is going to happen, it could take months before we see it land on the Store, if at all.
For now, Windows Phone users are urged to use some of the excellent third-party options like MetroTube, myTube or PrimeTube to get a premium YouTube experience.
Head here to the Windows Phone store to get YouTube version 3.2, though we honestly don't recommend it.
Thanks, Kevin B., for the tip
Everything we know about 'Xbox Series S' Lockhart
The Xbox Series X is getting a baby brother in the form of a console codenamed Lockhart, most likely to be called Xbox Series S. Here's what we know so far.
Amazon Prime Video for Windows 10 is now live and working
Last week, we reported that Amazon Prive Video was coming to the Microsoft Store. While the app could be downloaded, it did not yet work for customers. Today's app update, however, fixes that, and you can now stream (or download) all your Amazon Prive Video content to your Windows 10 PCs.
Grab one of these great CPUs for your custom PC
No matter what level of performance you're looking for, there's no doubt a processor (CPU) out there for your custom PC. And we've rounded up the best options right here.
10 must-have apps for any new PC
You just purchased a new PC and set it up, and now you're looking for some great apps. Look no further. These are the best apps for your new Windows 10 PC.

subset: commoncrawl


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IN-THE-DARK DISHES: When you think of movies and food, you likely think of edibles you don't need to look at while they're being consumed. You don't need to see your movie food after you pick it out in the case and purchase it. You don't need to admire its shape and color as you pop it in your mouth. And you don't need to talk about it with your companions. In fact, talking about your popcorn or choco mints with the person next to you is certainly a no-no. Which is one reason we're enamored of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Film Feast. Nope, we're not knocking popcorn, but Film Feast is about enjoying gourmet tasting menus outside of the theater, where the food can be savored and discussed with other people. Of course, you may also want to talk about the movies you're taking in and the stars you've spied, since SBIFF draws the high-wattage types.
DATES: The film festival is on from Jan. 26 through Feb. 5, which just happens also to be the run time for Film Feast. Local wineries and restaurants participating in the tasting menu deals include Aldo's Italian Restaurant, Bacara Bar, and The Harbor Restaurant. There are several spots, in fact, on board, so bet whatever part of the city you're in during the fest a movie-related dinner deal'll be nearby.


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Year of publication
- 1998 (4) (remove)
Document Type
- Preprint (2)
- Article (1)
- Periodical Part (1)
- English (4) (remove)
The dispersions of dipolar (Damon-Eshbach modes) and exchange dominated spin waves are calculated for in-plane magnetized thin and ultrathin cubic films with (111) crystal orientation and the results are compared with those obtained for the other principal planes. The properties of these magnetic excitations are examined from the point of view of Brillouin light scattering experiments. Attention is paid to study the spin-wave frequency variation as a function of the magnetization direction in the film plane for different film thicknesses. Interface anisotropies and the bulk magnetocrystalline anisotropy are considered in the calculation. A quantitative comparison between an analytical expression obtained in the limit of small film thickness and wave vector and the full numerical calculation is given.
Annual Report 1997 (1998)
The first observation of spatiotemporal self-focusing of spin waves is reported. The experimental results are obtained for dipolar spin waves in yttrium-iron-garnet films by means of a newly developed space- and time-resolved Brillouin light scattering technique. They demonstrate self-focusing of a moving wave pulse in two spatial dimensions, and formation of localized two-dimensional wave packets, the collapse of which is stopped by dissipation. The experimental results are in good qualitative agreement with numerical simulations.
We report on the exchange bias effect as a function of the in-plane direction of the applied field in twofold symmetric, epitaxial Ni 80 Fe 20 /Fe 50 Mn 50 bilayers grown on Cu~110! single-crystal substrates. An enhancement of the exchange bias field, H eb , up to a factor of 2 is observed if the external field is nearly, but not fully aligned perpendicular to the symmetry direction of the exchange bias field. From the measurement of the exchange bias field as a function of the in-plane angle of the applied field, the unidirectional, uniaxial and fourfold anisotropy contributions are determined with high precision. The symmetry direction of the unidirectional anisotropy switches with increasing NiFe thickness from [110] to [001].


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Thanks are extended to all who've allowed their material to be played on this site. Due Copyright is acknowledged to all those owners. The playing of content within this site is purely for demonstration purposes.
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I remember the time when I was really scared to start gluten-free baking because it seemed so complicated, so many types of flour, so easy for things to go wrong, for the baking to fail. A couple of weeks ago, I baked some muffins (if you can call them that) without following any gluten-free recipe book and amazingly, the product was edible!
All I did was to try a direct substition of wheat flour with a gluten-free flour blend in my original basic muffin recipe. Yes, the very first basic muffin recipe, which I subsequently stopped using when I found basic recipe no. 2 gave better results. Basic muffin recipe no. 1 is so easy that you can easily by heart:
2 cups flour
1 cup milk/liquid
1/4 cup oil/butter
1 egg (2 , if you prefer)
1 tsp baking powder
other ingredients of choice – e.g. 1 chopped apple, handful of nuts/dried fruit etc.
I used exactly those quantities together with a few large chunks of tinned pears, and made up the 1 cup liquid with half milk and half pear juice from the tin. Apart from the pears and pear juice, no added sugar. (If you are avoiding salicylates, remember to choose pears in syrup as commercial pear juice contains the peel which has salicylates. Of course if you are on an anti-candida diet, the syrup is probably worse!)
The gluten-free flour blend is the one I described earlier:
8oz/225g brown rice flour
8oz/225g tapioca starch
8oz/225g soy flour
No xanthan gum, no gelatine.
The batter was extremely wet, but I decided to go ahead without adding extra flour. The consistency (and eventual effect) reminded on a crazy improvisation attempt when I dumped a load of mashed pumpkin into a gluten-free sponge cake recipe, thereby completely altering the ratio of liquid to other ingredients — a crazy attempt which I did not blog about because I can't even remember exactly what I did (brain must have gone on strike, hence giving rise to the mad improvisation to begin with); started out being utterly disappointed with the result and subsequently very pleased when put aside my preconceptions and realised the texture was quite appealing and the taste pretty good.
The result:
It looked beautiful at the end of baking, but collapsed as it cooled after coming out of the oven, just as this gluten-free bean bread did. I've discovered the quick bread gluten-free recipe that doesn't sink is this one that uses gelatine as well.
Taste-wise, I was very pleased although visitors to my home who tasted a bite responded only with a grimace masquerading as a polite smile :). Texture-wise, I'll repeat what I've said in my other gluten-free baking entries; it reminds me of Southeast Asian kueh or steamed cakes, soft and very close-textured, no 'crumb', kind of squishy.
The overall effect of the non-wheat taste and texture is certainly very reminiscent of local desserts, so perhaps if I dropped names like 'muffin' or 'cake' and called it kueh, people would have different expectations and not react so negatively towards my gluten-free baking!
Filed under: anti-candida diet, Asian snacks, baking, food culture, food intolerance, gluten-free, recipes, Southeast Asian, sugar-free, wheat-free | Tagged: baking, brown rice flour, cake, gluten-free, kueh, muffin, pear, pears, recipe, salicylates, soy flour, soya flour, tapioca flour, tapioca starch | 2 Comments »


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Thank you for visiting.
Friendship Circle dramatically benefits children with special needs by bringing friends into their lives and enhancing their social skills. It provides hope and sorely needed respite for families. It changes the lives of teen volunteers by showing them the impact they can make on their community.
This cause is very dear to me, and I appreciate all the support you can give! Together we can make a difference!
Thank you,
Team Sarah


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We could not find products for categories Wine and varietal Pinot Noir and vintage 2014
Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 750mlThis wine is deep garnet in color, exhibiting aromatic layered notes of dried fig, blackcurrant, black pepper, wet gravel, and dried basil. Mouth coating flavors of blackberry preserves, tobacco, anise, cocoa, and nutmeg develop on the palate. With a full spectrum of tannins, the wine is powerful, chewy, and round in texture integrating into a long smooth finish.
- v91
- ws90
$59.99 $50.99
Justin Isosceles 2016 750mlDark ruby/purple core, lighter in color toward the rim. Moderate plus viscosity with slow forming, slightly stained tears. Highly aromatic with ripe black cherry and cassis fruit, vanilla and cinnamon spice with cedar, graphite, dried autumn leaf and licorice notes over an attractive toasted oak background. Dry, full-bodied with ripe, complex black fruit of cherry and blackcurrants layered with baking spice on the entry. The mid palate has continuing ripe fruit with savory dried leaf elements, cedar, anise, camphor and a bit of cocoa surrounded with firm, chewy tannins and sweet spice notes that add complexity as the palate evolves. Sustained fruit, spice and savory elements mix through a very long, complex and fresh finish with lingering tannins. The 2016 Isosceles is full-bodied, complex and balanced and pairs well with rich, full-flavored dishes. If you can, try cellaring some of your 2016 Isosceles to better experience the added complexity and finesse that only time can bring to this exceptional wine. Try the 2016 Isosceles right now with rich, full-flavored dishes like braised beef short ribs over polenta as easily as it does with a classic New York steak simply seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled over an open fire.
$69.99 $59.49
Austin Hope Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 750mlDeep ruby in color, the 2018 Austin Hope Cabernet Sauvignon expresses aromas of fresh black currants and cherries accompanied by subtle smoky notes and dried spices. On the palate, this lavish powerful wine is layered with juicy blackberry, ripe cherry, vanilla bean and brown butter. It's full-bodied and rich, balanced by a touch of bright acidity and firm polished tannins.
$49.99 $42.49
Duckhorn Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 750mlLush, energetic and intense, this gorgeous Cabernet begins with aromas of blackberry, huckleberry and chocolate, as well as hints of mint, cardamom, clove and graham cracker. On the palate it displays lovely brightness, with firm, resolved tannins framing flavors of boysenberry and black currant. As it evolves in the glass, subtle sweet and savory notes are revealed, carrying the wine to a long, focused finish.
$59.99 $50.99
Belle Glos Las Alturas Vineyard Pinot Noir 750ml
$39.99 $33.99
Venge Silencieux Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 750mlOur 2016 Cabernets on the whole are beautifully concentrated, powerful wines and not to be missed by the collector and enthusiast alike. Fresh roasted coffee, sweet cassis and aromatic blue fruits lead the way to full bodied delicious-ness. Much like the 2013 vintage, 2016 is dense and compact, with firm tannins that fully support the cascade of mouth coating flavors. The finish is remarkably lengthy and complex. This wine is approachable upon release and cellar worthy in proper aging conditions. Best now through 2028.
- jd94
$59.99 $50.99
Grgich Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 750mlOur Napa Valley Cabernet entices the senses with layers of complex flavors that continue to evolve in the glass and on the palate. Aromas of black currants, violets, and plums dance in the glass, creating a new experience with every taste. The wine is artfully crafted, well-balanced and lingers on the palate with a silky mouthfeel leaving you craving for more. It pairs perfectly with barbecued ribs, a rack of lamb or ratatouille.
- we92
- ws88
$59.99 $50.99
Austin Hope Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 750mlDeep ruby in color, the 2018 Austin Hope Cabernet Sauvignon expresses aromas of fresh black currants and cherries accompanied by subtle smoky notes and dried spices. On the palate, this lavish powerful wine is layered with juicy blackberry, ripe cherry, vanilla bean and brown butter. It's full-bodied and rich, balanced by a touch of bright acidity and firm polished tannins.
$49.99 $42.49
Hall Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 750ml
$24.99 $21.24
JNSQ Rosé 750mlDry, with refreshing lemon-lime citrus fruit and subtle floral notes on the entry. The mid-plate is crisp led with fresh citrus, melon and tropical fruit matched by subtle savory herbal notes and a mineral texture. The finish is a crisp, delicate interplay of lingering citrus and floral notes, complexed by savory herbal and mineral elements that leave the palate refreshed and clean.
$29.99 $25.49
Protégé Napa Valley Red 750ml
$29.99 $25.49
$15.99 $13.59


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#1 How easy is it to download your CD's to the 'Pod
#2 How do you play the thing in the car? Is it some sort of weird contraption that was available when portable CD players were ahead of the in car stereos (mid 90's)
I've been looking into iPods for a while now, and just recently decided to start saving up for the 15GB model So, now that the 15GB is no more, I guess I'll go for the 20GB at the $300 price....
The two issues I have/had with the iPod which kept me from buying were:1. The battery life (up to 8 hours, usually more lke 6-7) didn't seem like enough for long trips2. The battery is not replacable without sending it to Apple or taking it to an Apple store for repairs/replacement
Currently, most iPod rechargable batteries wear out after 1-2 years depending on use, and cost $100 to replace!
You're getting 5GB more for the same price that you would have paid for the 15GB--isn't that a good thing?
Ouch! Didn't know that. And I guess the only way to charge these things up is by hooking it up to your computer? Or is there a separate AC (or DC) adapter that's available?(Pre-emptive edit: Looks like there are extended batteries and car adapters available for the iPods: http://www.apple.com/ipod/accessories.html )
Double ouch! Of course, if your battery dies two years from now, you could spend the hundred bucks on a replacement, or you could take that hundred bucks and buy a fifth-or-sixth-generation iPod instead. I'd probably rather do that than buy a new battery for an outdated model.replace!
1. - can't upload or download to ANY PC but yours. Your iPod is keyed into a specific software copy. In other words, you can't upload music from your friends docking station and PC.
2. - can't upload a song unless you have the music "key" on your PC. In other words, not all music you download off the internet can be uploaded to your iPod. ONLY music you uploaded from a CD/CD-ROM and/or purchased from a valid on-line music store (Apple, Real, Sony, etc, Napster).
3. - Fragile cases. I've read a lot of stories where the iPod was basically wrecked after dropping it off a counter, falling only a few feet.
It's good to get 5GB more at the same price, but I was hoping that they'd have kept the 15GB version and dropped it's price too! I know why they didn't, because at $200-250 it would have competed directly with the smaller iPod mini. So, I'm sure that's why they ditched it.
Some people want to use the iPod to share music between multiple computers. You can, but it's not easy. Syncing to iTunes is possible with only one machine. But there is an unattractive alternative. We were able to copy MP3 files from the iPod to a second computer's hard drive in Windows by turning on "View hidden files and folders" and browsing the iPod's internal directories in My Computer until we found the music. Mac users can do the same thing if they install ResEdit. However, when we reconnected the iPod to the primary machine, the device wouldn't mount as a drive until we reset it.
OK...I'm an idiot when it comes to iPods in general...two simple questions.#1 How easy is it to download your CD's to the 'Pod#2 How do you play the thing in the car? Is it some sort of weird contraption that was available when portable CD players were ahead of the in car stereos (mid 90's)
The battery for the iPod was my concern when I picked mine up last year. I ended up purchasing mine at Best Buy, where I ensured that if/when the battery needs replacing during my extended warranty period, they would cover the cost of that. It's the first time I've ever gone for the extended warranty option on electronics. I bought 4 years of coverage at either $40 or $50.
Apple unveils new-generation iPod New high- and low-capacity players with longer battery life nearly $100 cheaper than current models.
Mmmm. . . fascinating.George Lucas to Direct Again
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Home » Measurement »
Survey Research
Survey research is one of the most important areas of measurement in applied social research. The broad area of survey research encompasses any measurement procedures that involve asking questions of respondents. A "survey" can be anything form a short paper-and-pencil feedback form to an intensive one-on-one in-depth interview.
We'll begin by looking at the different types of surveys that are possible. These are roughly divided into two broad areas: Questionnaires and Interviews. Next, we'll look at how you select the survey method that is best for your situation. Once you've selected the survey method, you have to construct the survey itself. Here, we will be address a number of issues including: the different types of questions; decisions about question content; decisions about question wording; decisions about response format; and, question placement and sequence in your instrument. We turn next to some of the special issues involved in administering a personal interview. Finally, we'll consider some of the advantages and disadvantages of survey methods.
Copyright ©2006, William M.K. Trochim, All Rights Reserved
Purchase a printed copy of the Research Methods Knowledge Base
Last Revised: 10/20/2006


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GO YAMADA, Nikkei senior staff writer
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi
TOKYO -- The new government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 63, and his Bharatiya Janata Party has gotten off to a reasonably good start. With the unveiling of the fiscal 2014 draft budget on July 10, the government's work to put the economy back to a rapid growth track went into full swing. Now, with the help of powerful aides, Modi is tackling a laundry list of other tough issues, a task made all the more urgent by rising oil prices, a weakening rupee and below-average monsoon rainfall.
Some of these aides are elite bureaucrats who have passed India's notoriously difficult exams and built their career at various ministries and regional governments. Others are politicians who have worked with Modi for many years.
Because he became prime minister without any experience in central government, Modi has few connections with national-level political players. But this has allowed him to remain free of entanglements and handpick talented people as his allies. A look at his appointees can provide a glimpse of the future course of Indian politics.
Cream of the crop
Modi appointed Nripendra Misra as principal secretary, the top administrative post at the Prime Minister's Office. Now 69, Misra joined the Indian Administrative Service, the premier civil service in the country, in 1967. He worked as state principal secretary under Mulayam Singh Yadav, leader of socialist Samajwadi Party and chief minister of India's largest population state, Uttar Pradesh.
Misra has years of administrative experience in telecommunications, commerce and agriculture. He also had stints at the Indian Embassy in Washington and the International Monetary Fund. Between 2008 and 2009, he was the head of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or TRAI. The government's expectations for Misra are so high that it went to the effort of revising the TRAI law, which banned former heads of the authority from taking up senior posts in the national government.
He has been criticized as ambitious and attention-seeking, since most top bureaucrats in India stay behind the scenes. He and Modi had never worked together, but the prime minister is believed to have high praise for Misra's career and personality.
Pramod Kumar Mishra, who joined the IAS in 1972, has assumed the post of Additional Principal Secretary. The 65-year-old served as principal secretary of Gujarat State between 2001 and 2004 and supported Modi, who was the state's chief minister at that time. He then became the secretary of the Union Ministry of Agriculture between 2006 and 2008 and achieved record grain stocks. He returned to Gujarat in 2008 to take up the post of chairman of the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission. He streamlined power transmission and distribution and reformed fee systems to drastically improve electricity supply in the state. He helped bring about robust economic growth that has since been dubbed the "Gujarat Model."
Among younger aides is the joint secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, Arvind Kumar Sharma. The 52-year-old bureaucrat joined the IAS in 1988. He became Gujarat's joint secretary immediately after Modi became chief minister. He was promoted to secretary in 2004 and served as CEO of the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board. He took charge of Vibrant Gujarat, an investment promotion event that attracted many foreign companies. He always accompanies Modi in his overseas trips and meetings with business leaders and is said to have won Modi's trust by regularly standing up to formidable state legislators and other politicians.
The Prime Minister's Office public relations officer is Jagdish Thakkar. The 70-year-old former journalist was Gujarat's PR official from 1989, and he has long been called "Modi's shadow."
Security shift
Ajit Kumar Doval, 69, has become the national security adviser, in charge of the new government's security policy. He replaced diplomat Shiv Shankar Menon, who had close ties with China. The choice of the former police officer for the post indicates that the Modi government will adopt "aggressive" national security policies.
Doval, who joined the Indian Police Service in 1968, is a former National Intelligence Bureau director with a near-legendary reputation as a "spy boss." During the 1984 siege of the Golden Temple by Sikh militants, Doval reportedly disguised himself as a Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agent and sneaked into the temple to find out what was going on. When Islamic militants hijacked an Indian Airlines passenger plane, he led negotiations to secure the release of hostages. More recently, Doval secretly flew to Iraq after members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria detained 46 Indian nurses this July. He gathered intelligence from Saudi Arabia and other countries to ensure the release of all hostages.
His high profile reminds some people of the late Brajesh Mishra, a high-level diplomat who became the first national security advisor when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee created the post. Mishra, who died in 2012, worked hard to improve India's relations with China and Pakistan, and went on to become a powerful figure in the government.
Longtime ally
Modi's right-hand man, though, is not an elite bureaucrat. Amit Shah has worked with Modi for years. The 50-year-old led the BJP's campaign in Uttar Pradesh in the general election held between April and May. The state had long been an unassailable stronghold of a local party. But under Shah's leadership, the BJP won 71 of its 80 seats. The election success earned him BJP presidency in July.
Shah joined India's largest Hindu nationalist group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and became acquainted with Modi, who had joined RSS in the early 1980s. He joined BJP in 1986 and was elected to the Gujarat state assembly in 1997. Since 2002, he held such positions as state minister of home affairs, transport and justice under Modi. He was appointed BJP's general secretary in 2012.
But Modi's closest aide is also one of his most controversial. While he was state home minister, Shah was arrested over his alleged involvement in the killing of Islamist activists. The trial is pending.


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Land Cruiser
On loan courtesy of
Mike Bradshaw
On loan courtesy of
Mike Bradshaw
This HJ47 is on loan to the museum. It was imported from Australia and features the 2H, inline 6-cylinder diesel engine with a 4-speed manual transmission.
After achieving an international reputation with the J2/J3, Toyota embarked on a redesign process that resulted in an iconic look that would define Land Cruiser for the next two decades. Initially, the J4 offered a slightly different wheelbase than the previous production model.
By the end of the production run, the J4 models boasted four different wheelbase lengths. There was a "short" length, similar to the original model and typically sporting a soft top. The "medium" model was used for a short-lived station wagon model that was replaced by a different model after a few years. The "long" wheelbase model also had a short life as it was supplanted by the wildly popular "super long" wheelbase. The "super long" started out as a troop transport, but became popular in rural areas throughout Africa, Australia, the Americas and Asia, where they were used for camping, public transportation, and more. Most people who fell in love with the Land Cruiser fell in love with a J4.


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v 2.5.13
So what is MyAlbum ?
Screen shots
Version history
So what is MyAlbum ?
A free picture cataloger for building easily digital photo albums.
Runs under Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP and Vista.
Build self-running "all-in-one" albums.
Supported picture formats JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, animated GIF, TIFF, TGA, PCX and WMF files.
Supported video formats AVI, MOV (QuickTime), MPEG (all the video formats supported by the Windows Media Player).
Other format : HTML (IE 4 or above needed).
Comment and keywords can be added to each picture.
Searching on file name, comment or keyword.
Full screen display, zoom, unzoom, fit to screen.
Manual, automatic, random and multiple slideshow with background music and transition effects.
Easy printing of the thumbnail pages and the pictures.
Poster printing on several sheets of paper.
Build contact sheets and HTML pages (online demos: Film strip, Automatic slideshow (IE 5.5+) and Metal).
Easy convert, resize of the pictures.
Special features for building CDROM album.
Extracts information from images taken with digital cameras.
Integrated script tool (VBScript, JavaScript, Perl,...).
Screen saver to play albums when PC is unattended.
|Screen shots
Application main window (104 KB)
Printing a poster (110 KB)
Finding similar pictures (108 KB)
Running a script (15 KB)
Screensaver configuration screen (17 KB)
|Free Downloads
MyAlbum The standard international version of MyAlbum (2.24 MB)
MyAlbum Unicode edition Version of MyAlbum supporting the Unicode character set (2.26 MB). Caution: Can only be used with Windows NT4/2000/XP/Vista.
Demo Album A demo album showing most of the capabilities of MyAlbum (381 KB)
Larger Demo Album A larger demo album (1.32 MB)
Plug-ins and Scripts... MyAlbum plug-ins and scripts to download
Plugins for using a scanner, controling the slideshow with a standard infra-red remote control,...
Unleash the power of MyAlbum with more than 100 scripts to download!
Download the MyAlbum wallpaper (JPEG 1280x1024 - 154 KB).
MyAlbum and stereoscopy Download the special MyAlbum 3D-Stereo version (Windows NT4/2000/XP/Vista)
French version French speaking users / Utillisateurs francophones, téléchargez la version francisée.
Language files (Translated user interface) - To be downloaded with the international version.
Help Wanted ! Want to have MyAlbum speaking your own language? You can help the MyAlbum project by translating its user-interface into your mother-tongue. Just send me an e-mail to get the language development kit!
Online tutorials on the Graficalicus.com web site:
- Getting Started with MyAlbum. - Adding keywords & comments, and running a slideshow in MyAlbum.
- Creating Contact Sheets with MyAlbum.
- Generating web pages using MyAlbum.
- Creating an autorun CD album.
TechTV - Call for Help: Become a Master of Technology - March 23, 2004
"Whether you're just looking for an easy way to get all of your pictures into one place, or a way to create albums you can send off to annoy -- er... share -- with your family and friends, MyAlbum is the perfect tool."
MyAlbum is the Most Downloaded freeware in the Image Cataloging category for the year 2002 at WebAttack.com.
Emazing.com Download of the Day (January 12, 2001)
"Could you use a software photo album that can display nearly all image file formats and most video files? If so, you should investigate MyAlbum. MyAlbum does it all. It comes in English or French, and it's free. However, if you really like MyAlbum and would like to get free update announcements and extra support, you can register for $15 (or 15 Euros).
This is probably all the slide show software you will need for quite some time."
(Refers to 1.42 version)
Yippee (jul-2000)
"MyAlbum is a simple (in look) graphic viewer but loaded with features. (...) Perfect for the home or even professional photographers. Supports a wide range of graphic formats."
PC World (June 23, 2000) Capture the Perfect Image (Selection of image editing tools)
MyAlbum was also selected as the (12/28/1999)
Agfa Net (march 2000)
"Simple Image Cataloger and Slideshow" - that's the modest way French program author Pierre Meindre describes his MyAlbum image archiving software. In truth, however, it supports an outstanding range of powerful functions that go way beyond classical image collecting and categorizing.
ZD Net (Reviewed on 29 fevrier 2000)
"MyAlbum is a handy image program that puts a number of commonly used utilities into one easy-to-use package. (...) There are a number of very useful options for exporting your albums as HTML pages or even plain lists. All in all, MyAlbum may replace several other image utilities you may be using with its range of features and options."
PC World Australia (janvier 2000)
Put your photos on the Web
"Several Windows apps can help you assemble Web photo albums, but MyAlbum, despite a few quirks, is a freeware standout. Once you learn your way around its somewhat confusing interface, you'll find that MyAlbum is pretty darned powerful, and it will save you hours by automatically creating thumbnails and Web pages for your images."
(23 fevrier 2000)
"Here's a freeware alternative to all those photo albums out there. The inferface isn't perfect yet, but it's got all the options you need in a photo album for absolutely $Zilch. It puts several shareware and commercialware packages to shame."
PC-Online (German) (octobre 1999)
Pinsel zum Nulltarif : Die besten Download-Tools für Web-Grafiker
|Version history
Version 2.5.13 (May-10):
|Older versions: Click here
|Web design by:
Updated: 2010/05/21
Pierre MEINDRE


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Epiglottitis is inflammation of the leaf-shaped lid of tissue
(epiglottis) that is located over the opening to the large breathing tube
leading to the lungs (trachea). This flap of tissue closes when a person
swallows to prevent food and fluids from getting into the trachea.
Epiglottitis can be life-threatening because the inflamed and
swollen epiglottis can rapidly block the trachea and make breathing difficult.
Epiglottitis generally begins suddenly, without a previous upper respiratory
Symptoms of epiglottitis may include:
In the past, most cases of bacterial epiglottitis in children were
caused by Haemophilus influenzae. This infection can be
prevented with the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)
vaccine. Epiglottitis in children caused by Haemophilus influenzae is now very uncommon because of the vaccine. In adults, the
cause is usually a strep infection.
A child with epiglottitis appears very sick and in distress. If a
child has symptoms of epiglottitis, seek emergency care.
Last Revised:
December 21, 2011
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
William H. Blahd, Jr., MD, FACEP - Emergency Medicine & David Messenger, MD
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
With a wind and water resistant membrane and a breathable mesh lining, the Two Fisted Fleece Vest is the ideal fit for working outside. In addition, the vest also features three layers of fleece with a 14 oz. 100% polyester shell. Durability is created with the Cordora inserts on sleeves and shoulder.
- Ability to store important documents in back pocket
- Full length zipper up to collar with full hook-and-loop flap provides a secure fit
- Zipper breast pockets and side front pockets provide storage for small items
- Durability in the main wear points is provided with the Cordura inserts on the sleeves and shoulders
- Constructed of three layers of fleece with a 14 oz. 100% polyester shell, water resistant membrane and a breathable mesh lining
In The Box
- One (1) Two Fisted Fleece Vest


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Having read the help files, I'm not too sure on my strategy for training power.
I had some U-19 NT guy tell me my player won't play as his power's too low. I personally don't see that I should be training an U-19 in power as it trains slower at a younger age, whilst other skills train quicker at U-19.
Just wondering if anyone is training Power in their Youth team? Also, what is the best age for Power training? What are your targets for Power for batsmen, seamers and spinners?
Any tips would be welcome. Pretty sure I'm missing a trick here.


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WASHINGTON - NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star. Estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter's mass, the planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish." Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting ever since an excess of dust was discovered around the star in the early 1980s by NASA's Infrared Astronomy Satellite, IRAS. In 2004, the coronagraph in the High Resolution Camera on Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys produced the first-ever resolved visible-light image of the region around Fomalhaut. It clearly showed a ring of protoplanetary debris approximately 21.5 billion miles across and having a sharp inner edge. This large debris disk is similar to the Kuiper Belt, which encircles the solar system and contains a range of icy bodies from dust grains to objects the size of dwarf planets, such as Pluto. Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkeley, and team members proposed in 2005 that the ring was being gravitationally modified by a planet lying between the star and the ring's inner edge. Circumstantial evidence came from Hubble's confirmation that the ring is offset from the center of the star. The sharp inner edge of the ring is also consistent with the presence of a planet that gravitationally "shepherds" ring particles. Independent researchers have subsequently reached similar conclusions. Now, Hubble has actually photographed a point source of light lying 1.8 billion miles inside the ring's inner edge. The results are being reported in the November 14 issue of Science magazine."Our Hubble observations were incredibly demanding. Fomalhaut b is 1 billion times fainter than the star. We began this program in 2001, and our persistence finally paid off," Kalas says."Fomalhaut is the gift that keeps on giving. Following the unexpected discovery of its dust ring, we have now found an exoplanet at a location suggested by analysis of the dust ring's shape." The lesson for exoplanet hunters is: "follow the dust" said team member Mark Clampin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Observations taken 21 months apart by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys' coronagraph show that the object is moving along a path around the star, and is therefore gravitationally bound to it. The planet is 10.7 billion miles from the star, or about 10 times the distance of the planet Saturn from our sun. The planet is brighter than expected for an object of three Jupiter masses. One possibility is that it has a Saturn-like ring of ice and dust reflecting starlight. The ring might eventually coalesce to form moons. The ring's estimated size is comparable to the region around Jupiter and its four largest orbiting satellites. Kalas and his team first used Hubble to photograph Fomalhaut in 2004, and made the unexpected discovery of its debris disk, which scatters Fomalhaut's starlight. At the time they noted a few bright sources in the image as planet candidates. A follow-up image in 2006 showed that one of the objects is moving through space with Fomalhaut but changed position relative to the ring since the 2004 exposure. The amount of displacement between the two exposures corresponds to an 872-year-long orbit as calculated from Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Future observations will attempt to see the planet in infrared light and will look for evidence of water vapor clouds in the atmosphere. This would yield clues to the evolution of a comparatively newborn 100-million-year-old planet. Astrometric measurements of the planet's orbit will provide enough precision to yield an accurate mass. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2013 will be able to make coronagraphic observations of Fomalhaut in the near- and mid-infrared. Webb will be able to hunt for other planets in the system and probe the region interior to the dust ring for structures such as an inner asteroid belt. Visit Hubble Space Telescope Home Page
Read Interstellar Travel
Read Planet Venus, second from the Sun
Read The Universe Reality and You Read Planet Earth where are You?
Read Basic Gravity 101 (easy to understand) Read Roswell, Aliens, and Mankind!
Read the Asteroid Threat to planet Earth! Read UFO's the Alien Point of View.
Read The Birth & Death of our Sun. Planetary Statistics and Pictures


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[Baltar] comes into a room and he hears music and it's a recognizable Earth-tune ... It was Jimi Hendrix was playing, actually, and he goes, "God, I recognize that." And then somebody- or somebody s- a voice says, "You recognize that?" And he says, "Yes." And he turns and it's Dirk Benedict. (Laughs.) And Dirk Benedict said, "Hi. I'm God." And you just cut. We just cut out on that. ... that was gonna be the end of that whole storyline and at the episode. I liked it. I thought it was wacky. I didn't quite know what it meant. I thought- I was looking for a surprise.I was still infatuated with Galactica when I watched this episode and listened to the podcast, and even so Moore's words gave me pause. I was troubled by the realization that he could so cavalierly discuss introducing such an absurd plot twist without knowing its meaning and resolution, and even more so by his willingness to jeopardize the integrity of his invented universe for the sake of a metafictional gag. At the time, I told myself that it was wrong to judge Moore by the crazy notions his hyperactive imagination spun out. He had, after all, dismissed the idea--his better impulses and the people around him had talked him out of it. The bullet had been dodged. Two seasons later, it seems to have swung around and hit us*.
The massive plot twist at the end of "Crossroads II" differs from both of the cliffhangers preceding it. It is not, like Boomer shooting Adama in "Kobol's Last Gleaming II", an organic extension of previous events. Neither is it, like the 'One Year Later' title card in "Lay Down Your Burdens II", a massive perspective shift, a moment in which, as Dan Hartland put it, the show eviscerates itself (although as it turns out Dan vastly overestimates the consequences of the leap forward in his essay. The third season wasted very little time in restoring the status quo, and the aftereffects of both the Cylon occupation and the year spent on New Caprica have been only fleetingly and half-heartedly explored). If these two previous cliffhangers had the audience going 'Oh no!' and 'Wow!', respectively, the end of "Crossroads II" is more likely to have elicited a 'Huh?'
The return of Starbuck is only surprising in that it happens so soon after her 'death'. The less said about the incongruous musical choice, the better**. Plenty of people are scratching their heads at the identity of the Cylons revealed--two of them decent, morally upright people; one of them a violent, self-destructive drunk; two of them serving at the respective right hands of the two most powerful people in the fleet; one of them older than the Cylon race; one of them a parent; three of them major characters; one of them a virtual non-entity; all of them key members of the New Caprica resistance movement--but I can't help but feel that we'd have a easier time accepting Tigh, Tyrol, Anders and Tory as Cylons if we had a better idea of what, exactly, a Cylon is.
I'm going to say this again because it's just so mind-boggling. At the end of Galactica's third season--if rumors are to be believed, three quarters of the way into the show's run--we have no idea what a Cylon is. What little information we've been given about them is spotty and contradictory. Cylons are biological, but they can interface directly with fiber-optic cable. Cylons can breed with humans, but their blood has a different molecular structure than ours. Cylons have a psychology similar to humans--they can be tortured and fall in love--but they have only a rudimentary grasp of individuality and can tailor their perception of reality to suit their moods and protect them from the harshness of the real world. Moreover, Tigh and the others aren't garden variety Cylons. They're Final Five Cylons, whatever the hell that means. Within this fog of uncertainty, the only thing we can safely say is that these four characters are not what we thought they were, but we might as well have discovered that they all have a rare blood type, or a supernumerary toe, for all that we can understand the ramifications of this discovery, much less of their choice not to let biology--or mechanics--determine their destiny.
At the risk of sounding like one of these people, I've been toying for a while with the notion that Galactica is not, in any meaningful way, science fiction. Most narrative genres take place in a universe that operates according to a set of rules. The difference between naturalistic and fantastic fiction is that, in the latter, the universe is not our universe, and the rules are not our rules. Nevertheless, they exist, and are comprehensive and coherent. When it comes to Battlestar Galactica's fantastic elements, I'm beginning to wonder whether there are any rules. For more than a year, I and a host of other Galactica fans have been screaming to high heavens about the show's shoddy worldbuilding. Halfway through the second chorus of "All Along the Watchtower", I started to think that maybe Ron Moore isn't incapable of creating a coherent alternate universe. Maybe he just doesn't want to. Maybe a story that I've been reading, with ever-increasing frustration, as fantastic is actually surreal.
I'm not saying this to let Ron Moore and his writers off the hook. There's a vast gap between Battlestar Galactica and Twin Peaks, and let's not lose sight of the show's failures on the character level, or when wearing its other genre hats--the action adventure and the political thriller. Surrealism eschews coherence and linearity for the sake of ambience, but when it's done badly--and sometimes, even when it's done well--that ambience can fail to materialize. The audience, in cases like this, is jettisoned out of the story, and left with no emotional hook other than a bewildered amusement. If I'm right, and Ron Moore is prioritizing the gestalt effect of his story over any of its individual elements, then he is tragically out of step with the vast majority of his audience, and likely to lose more and more of them as his show sinks further into weirdness. All that said, I've often wondered about the thought processes of the surreal artist. When the only purpose of the work's details is to come together into a certain kind of whole, how do you know which details to use when? How do you decide that the backwards-talking dwarf goes here instead of there? I imagine that the process must be largely intuitive--perhaps along the lines of a writer who thinks that Dirk Benedict as God is a good idea.
As far as I'm concerned, there was only one question that "Crossroads II" needed to answer--is there any reason for me to come back to this show in January? If the rumors turn out to be true and the fourth season is confirmed as Galactica's last, I suspect I will. I want to see what Ron Moore comes up with as an ending, because at this point there is no doubt in my mind that it will be absolutely deranged. I guess you could say that "Crossroads II" is the episode that broke me--at this point, I am no longer interested in analyzing this show or pointing out the faults in its worldbuilding. In fact, I find myself dangerously close to the 'but it's not supposed to make any sense' mindset that keeps people watching 24 and Lost. In my defense, I just want to see whether or not I'm right. I think Moore is going to slide into the realm of metaphysics and go completely insane and I want to be there when it happens, not because I think the end result will be moving or awe-inspiring or even any good, but because I think it's going to be really, really big. At least, I'd like to believe that it will be. There must be some kind of way out of here.
* Which, in a way, is fitting. Why shouldn't the ghosts of the first season's aborted plot twists cap off the third season, which in the general shape of its plot progression resembles nothing so much as the second season's deformed twin? Both seasons start with the main cast divided, several of them stranded on a planet and in need of being rescued from the Cylons. This situation persists for several episodes, at the end of which order is restored--the fleet is reunited, Roslin and Adama are reinstated in their old roles and relationship--just in time for the mid-season two-parter to challenge it by positing a thorny moral dilemma. Once that storyline is wrapped up, in a wholly unsatisfying manner, the season devolves into a sequence of tedious and ill-advised standalone episodes which, in their turn, give way to a finale revolving around a momentous public decision--which turns out differently than any of the characters could have reasonably expected--and is then capped off by a shocking event.
** According to the show's composer, Bear McCreary, this choice doesn't imply "that Bob Dylan necessarily exists in the characters' universe, but that an artist on one of the colonies may have recorded a song with the exact same melody and lyrics," and if this is true then I can only say that the episode misses its mark by a wide, wide margin.


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Among recent enforcement actions taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were charges against a man who was high school dropout and a phony "investment advisor" who spent his clients' funds on drugs and gambling; charges against a group of former high school buddies who were engaging in insider trading; and charges against the operators of a Ponzi scheme purporting to be a secret European trust.
Phony 'Advisor' Who Was High School Dropout Charged With Fraud
Stephen Colangelo, Jr. was charged by the SEC with defrauding investors whom he convinced to invest in his startup businesses. Instead he spent their money on illegal drugs and gambling. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced criminal charges against Colangelo.
The SEC alleges that Colangelo repeatedly misled investors while raising $3 million in investments for four startup companies he created. He also persuaded three other investors to let him act as their investment advisor and they gave him more than $1 million to invest in the markets on their behalf.
Colangelo boasted a phony professional and educational background and hid his past criminal activities from potential investors, and he falsely claimed to have historically achieved extremely high returns buying and selling securities.
According to the SEC's complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Colangelo's fraudulent scheme began in 2009 when he induced investors to invest more than $750,000 in the Brickell Fund LLC, a pooled investment vehicle that he created, advised and controlled.
In March 2009 when the Brickell Fund did not have any investors and Colangelo was not buying and selling securities on behalf of the fund, he sent numerous e-mails to potential investors boasting phony information. For instance, one e-mail claimed, "BEST TRADING DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!. . . . Up over 400% and documented. Mind boggling to say the least." In reality, Colangelo did not make any trades that day.
Meanwhile, Colangelo siphoned off at least $1 million in investor funds to pay such unauthorized personal expenses as his federal income taxes, illegal narcotics, gambling, cigars, and travel for him and his family.
The SEC alleges that after spending or losing all of the money invested in the Brickell Fund, Colangelo continued to fraudulently raise funds from investors for three other startup businesses he created: Hedge Community LLC, Start a Hedge Fund LLC, and Under the Radar SEO LLC. Some individuals provided Colangelo with funds directly to invest on their behalf. Colangelo continued to use investor funds for a variety of purposes that weren't disclosed to investors, namely personal expenses and unrelated business expenses.
According to the SEC's complaint, Colangelo created a profile on the LinkedIn website used for professional networking and misrepresented that he had studied finance at Nyack College from 1986 to 1989. Colangelo provided a link to his profile to potential and existing investors in one of his startup companies. His representations to investors were false because he never attended Nyack College and has not even graduated from high school.
The SEC's complaint charges Colangelo with violations of the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws, and seeks permanent injunctions, financial penalties, and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest.
Former High School Buddies Charged With Insider Trading
On Monday the SEC charged three health care company employees and four others in a New Jersey-based insider trading ring, who had been friends in high school, generating $1.7 million in illegal profits and kickbacks by trading in advance of 11 public announcements involving mergers, a drug approval application, and quarterly earnings of pharmaceutical companies and medical technology firms.
The SEC alleged that Celgene Corp.'s director of financial reporting John Lazorchak, Sanofi S.A.'s director of accounting and reporting Mark Cupo, and Stryker Corp.'s marketing employee Mark Foldy each illegally tipped confidential information about their companies for the purpose of insider trading. Typically the nonpublic information involved upcoming mergers or acquisitions, but Lazorchak also tipped confidential details about Celgene's quarterly earnings and the status of a Celgene application to expand the use of its drug Revlimid.
The SEC alleges that Cupo's friend Michael Castelli, along with Lawrence Grum, who attended high school with Castelli, were the primary traders in the scheme. The other two traders charged are Lazorchak's high school friends Michael Pendolino and James Deprado, who now live in New Hampshire and Virginia, respectively. The others live in New Jersey. In a parallel criminal action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey announced criminal charges against Lazorchak, Cupo, Foldy, Castelli, Grum and Pendolino.
According to the SEC's complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the scheme began in late 2007 when Lazorchak and Cupo, who were friends and colleagues at Sanofi, discussed Lazorchak's new position at Celgene where he'd have access to nonpublic information about mergers and acquisitions. Lazorchak told Cupo that he was initially working on Celgene's possible acquisition of another pharmaceutical company, Pharmion.
Cupo discussed Lazorchak's position with Castelli, a friend with whom he attends winemaking club meetings. Castelli brought in Grum, who he considered a sophisticated trader with knowledge of the securities industry. Castelli and Grum devised the scheme in which Lazorchak tipped Cupo with nonpublic Celgene-related information. Cupo, as the middleman, tipped Castelli and Grum so they could illegally trade. Castelli and Grum paid Cupo for his tips, and gave Cupo money to pass along to Lazorchak for the initial tips. Lazorchak never knew the identities of Castelli or Grum, but was aware that Cupo was passing confidential Celgene information to other traders.
The SEC alleges that Lazorchak's high school friend Foldy entered the scheme in 2007, when Lazorchak tipped him with confidential details about the impending merger between Celgene and Pharmion, and Foldy illegally traded on the information prior to the public announcement of the deal. Lazorchak and Foldy devised and used code phrases while conversing to identify instances when Lazorchak was passing inside information or Foldy was seeking more details.
After the illegal trading occurred and Foldy obtained illicit profits of $14,500, Lazorchak repeatedly demanded that Foldy compensate him for the inside information. Foldy ultimately paid Lazorchak at least $500 and later returned the favor with illegal tips of confidential information about a tender offer involving his employer, Stryker Corp. Lazorchak acted as a middleman and did not trade, instead tipping Pendolino so he could trade on the nonpublic information. Pendolino in turn tipped Deprado, who also traded. Lazorchak additionally tipped Cupo, who did not trade but acted as a middleman and tipped Castelli and Grum, who both traded.
The SEC alleges that Cupo began tipping inside information about his employer in late 2009, when he learned that Sanofi was planning to announce a tender offer to acquire another pharmaceutical company, Chattem Inc. Cupo learned of the imminent tender offer a few days prior to the public announcement; he tipped Castelli and Grum with the confidential details, and they both traded on the nonpublic information.
The trading was carefully orchestrated so there was usually someone acting solely as a nontrading middleman who received the nonpublic information from the insider and tipped others. They hoped to avoid detection with no direct connection between the insiders and the traders, and the insiders were later compensated for the inside information with cash payments made in installments to avoid any scrutiny of large cash withdrawals.
Among the ways Castelli and Grum tried to hide their illegal conduct was by compiling binders of research to serve as a false basis for their trading. They actively traded in Celgene securities to create a pattern of long-standing positions in the stock. Grum reassured Cupo that discovery of the scheme and consequent legal action was unlikely due to limited government resources to police insider trading activity. Grum said, "At the end of the day, the SEC's got to pick their battle because they have a limited number of people and a huge number of investors to go after."
The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, financial penalties, and officer and director bars for Lazorchak, Cupo, and Foldy. The investigation is continuing.
Bank Schemers Charged, Emergency Freeze Order Sought
The SEC charged the operators of a long-running prime bank scheme with defrauding investors who were promised sky-high returns on loans to a secret European trust. It also is seeking an emergency court order to freeze the operators' assets for the benefit of investors.
The SEC alleges that Billy McClintock, who lives in Florida, and Dianne Alexander, a former Georgia resident who now lives in California and is also known as Linda Dianne Alexander, raised $15 million from at least 220 investors in more than 20 states, primarily Georgia. McClintock portrayed himself as the "U.S.director" of a secret European trust that had the power to create money and claimed to have appointed Alexander as a "U.S.regional director" for the trust.
According to the SEC's complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, McClintock and Alexander began conducting the scheme by at least 2004 and misrepresented or omitted facts about investment risks, expected returns, and how investor funds would be used.
McClintock and Alexander led investors to believe that they could receive 38% annual interest on loans to the trust, provided they abide by the trust's strict rules requiring secrecy. However, investor money was instead used to merely pay other investors, the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme.
The complaint charges McClintock and Alexander with violating the securities registration, broker-dealer registration, and antifraud provisions of theU.S.securities laws and a related SEC antifraud rule.
The SEC's complaint also names as relief defendants two entities that McClintock controls—MSC Holdings USA LLC, and MSC Holdings Inc.—and another entity controlled by Alexander—MSC GA Holdings LLC. The SEC believes the three firms may have received ill-gotten assets from the fraud that should be returned to investors.
The investigation is continuing.


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Former Hofstra softball standout Olivia Galati was one of just 29 female spring sports student-athletes to receive a NCAA postgraduate scholarship, it was announced today.
Galati, who was the 2013 Colonial Athletic Association Pitcher of the Year and a second-team All-America selection by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, was one of just 11 softball players that earned the $7,500 award.
To qualify, student-athletes must excel academically and athletically, be in their final year of eligibility and plan to pursue graduate study. Student-athletes must also maintain at least a 3.2 grade-point average and be nominated by their institution's faculty athletics representative.
In May, Galati was named to the Capital One Academic All-America softball team, The Academic All-America recognition was the first of Galati's career. The West Babylon, N.Y. native is a two-time Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Scholar-Athlete of the Year for softball, earning those honors in 2011 and 2012.
Galati, a physical education major with a 3.60 GPA, Galati posted a 40-12 record with a 1.42 ERA while striking out 395 batters in 341 innings. Named as the Colonial Athletic Association Pitcher of the Year four times, she currently lead all Division I pitchers in wins and shutouts (22). Galati is currently playing professional for the New York/New Jersey Comets in the National Pro Fastpitch league, where she was second overall selection in the league's draft.
Created in 1964, the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships promote and encourage education by rewarding the Association's most accomplished student-athletes. Similar awards are given each season to fall and winter student-athletes, totaling 174 individual winners.


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airplane image png
You can get acquainted with the presented collection of airplane image png to choose suitable ideas for your business or design interface.
Today we have 10 cliparts and vectors for this category.
Advice on how to make a good presentation
Check the equipment before the presentation
So, you feel you are prepared to make this presentation, you did your best, rehearsed, memorized and your slides are on point too. But there is one last question that remains: how will you present in front of your audience? Here's a few questions you need to clarify right on time before you get started:
- You need to be aware how your presentation will be shown to the audience: with a projector, with the help of a white board or in what other way?
- Do you get technical assistance to make sure your presentation is shown and you are aware of how to use everything including the remote control?
- If you don't get tech support you need to make sure you learn all the basics so that you can effectively connect your laptop with the projector and make it work all by yourself.
There is nothing more annoying then starting a presentation facing technical issues. Be sure you are aware of all the above technical aspects well before getting started.


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Tag Archives: earthjustice
House Appropriations Bill Weighed Down by Amendments
77 What does that number mean to you? Right now, it's the big bad number for the environment. Did you know that, in addition to working on raising the debt ceiling, Congress is also working on next fiscal year's budget? The House of Representatives is debating and voting on appropriations bills, and here's where the … Continue reading House Appropriations Bill Weighed Down by Amendments


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"I saw someone characterize our profits the other day in terms of $1,400 in profit per second. Well, they also need to understand we paid $4,000 a second in taxes, and we spent $15,000 a second in cost," Tillerson told ABC News' Charles Gibson. "We spend $1 billion a day just running our business. So this is a business where large numbers are just characteristic of it."
"We can't drill our way out of this problem, just like we can't conserve our way out of this problem, just like we can't alternative fuels our way out of this problem," he said. "There is no one solution to this; there's an integrative set of solutions. And you have to undertake them all. So when the whole debate focuses around we have to choose this one solution or that, people are missing the point."
Here's a little refresher on profit margins again (cause they are the numbers that matter):
I'm for the 'all of the above' approach. How 'bout you?


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Hello Gregory,
I would like to take the opportunity to welcome you to the UAMCC. We are very excited and happy you have joined our association. As a UAMCC member you have a wide range of excellent benefits and discounts awaiting you. The following links will take you to our exclusive discounts and benefits; as well as to our events site. Again on behalf of myself and the UAMCC family welcome aboard!
Thank you,
Alex Hennessey
Events Click Here
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Associate Discount Program Click Here
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Monday, August 22, 2011
My Bloggers' Choice Fat Quarter Bundle
The piecing, quilting, and binding? ... yeah, that stuff gets done mostly out of necessity.
I was flattered to be asked by Kimberly at the Fat Quarter Shop to take part in their newest program, the Blogger's Choice Bundle series. This series features fat quarter bundles, made up of 12 prints and 3 solids each, selected by several different quilt bloggers. After browsing the site for some inspiration I began gravitating towards this mix of navy blue, dark forest green, teal and white, with charcoal grey as my solid of choice -- quite different from many of the brighter quilts I've been seeing made lately. I think this somewhat masculine mix of colors would make a really great quilt for a boy's bed.
I was VERY excited to receive one of my bundles recently, and I'm trying to decide what kind of quilt to make with it. What do you think? Do you like it? What type of project would suit it best? For a few more days, you also have the opportunity to win one of my bundles! Head on over to the FQS' Jolly Jabber blog and leave a comment for your chance to win.
Oh, and while you're there, can you let me know what type of quilt I should make? I listed a few early thoughts in my post over there, but can't decide ...
21 comments:
Great picks - fantastic colors! I especially love the solids you chose!ReplyDelete
BRILLIANT choice of fabrics, John!ReplyDelete
My hubby tends to think that my choices are too sweet-ishfor out little son (almost 2 years now), and I really feel it is time for him to have a handsome 'little boy' quilt.
I do believe this bundle would stand the test, and I am already on my way to FQS to grab a pack!
I love your selections, John!!! Fantastic bundle! I've had it in my cart over at the FQS a couple of times - haha! I'm going to see if I'm the lucky winner over at the Jolly Jabber blog first, though :) I think "Swoon" would look amazing in this fabric bundle. 'Can't wait to see what you make with it!ReplyDelete
Nice, nice. I have never shopped at the Fat quarter Shop ... guess it might be time!ReplyDelete
Just catching up as I haven't visited you for a while and have been a little slack on the comments. I love your half square triangle pillow and the points are sooo perfect. Your blogger's choice bundle is great for males. I particularly like the rich blue on the bottom with 4 leaf clovers and seahorses (or chess knights - depends how you view it!). It's sort of a 'beach and bush' or 'rest and relaxation' pack of fabrics :D.ReplyDelete
Yo John....Love what you picked....especially the solids as such I think your quilt needs to be something simple but fun. I vote for a Zig Zag alternating those solids with the the prints.ReplyDelete
Green,print, grey, print, navy, print, green, print, etc...in the exact order that they are in the top photo.
Makes me drool just thinking about this finished quilt!:)
Bow Ties! That's what my next quilt is going to be.ReplyDelete
Great colors. I'd go for a modern log cabin quilt.ReplyDelete
Your choice of fabrics is my choice. I love it!ReplyDelete
I tend to gravitate towards blues and greens so you know I will be picking up this bundle asap! I have an idea/inspiration for what you could do with your bundle. I had fabric that I really wanted the fabric to be the main attraction on the quilt so I did this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/81899061@N00/5637713661/in/photostream -- This is on my photostream, but I am really not trying to toot my own horn, I just really love the offset squares, the uneven frames... basically I just LOVE this quilt. You could try something like that. ?? Good luck!ReplyDelete
Soo great fabrics!ReplyDelete
For my two littles boys a new Quilt for his little bed....:)
Regards, Rita
Pretty, pretty fabrics! I like the garden arbor pattern you mentioned in your Jolly Jabber post. I think it would do a great job of showcasing the fabrics!ReplyDelete
I love your fabric bundle. The hardest part of the quilting project for me is selecting the fabrics. You have a gift!ReplyDelete
LOVE IT! Reminds me of Springtime & Rainy moors (Dartmoor, Devon, England)ReplyDelete
Ooh great choices. Love the japanese-ish wave pattern near the top of the stack. I used a similar print in the first quilt I mad for my mom - a somewhat fussy log cabin. And I just cut up a bunch of those Tula Pink circles last night. Well done!ReplyDelete
How about a tumbler quilt? I just love them! It would look great with the pops of solids!ReplyDelete
Maybe my idea wasn't a great one, my word verification is 'cringe'.
- AnonymousAugust 24, 2011 at 9:50 AM
I really adore these colours! I look forward to seeing what you come up with. I'd do some sort of chain with pinwheels in the alternate blocks, because I am leaning toward traditional blocks lately. I'm sure you'll come up with something infinitely more interesting and I can't wait to see!ReplyDelete
I love the fabrics and the colors are my favorite combos. I would make a rail fence with random solid blocks. I made a small version of this but a larger version would be more appropriate with the scale of the fabric. here is my idea - http://mycreativecorner3.blogspot.com/2011/08/little-rails-tutorial.htmlReplyDelete
Fantastic colors! Great choices.ReplyDelete
Nice choice of fabrics and congratulations for being chosen for this project! I'm sure you're going to make up a new pattern for this colour-combo ;o) Something very John-ish. LOL. Good job!ReplyDelete
AND ... And ... and ... They are even better in person! Mine arrived today. I am just going to look for awhile ...ReplyDelete


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Charlotte GRC Round 8 photo gallery
Tanner Foust
Global Rallycross Championship Round 8 featured plenty of crashes and the usual mayhem Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Tanner Foust's car flipped over after he was knocked into the barriers during his heat. Foust was unhurt, and his crew got his car ready to race again in the last chance qualifier heat. Browse through our gallery for more from the day's races.
Ken Block Fans
A couple of young fans of Ken Block show their support in the seating area Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway before the Global Rallycross Championship Round 8 began.
Toomas Heikkinen
Toomas Heikkinen had to go through the last chance qualifier heat but he still made it to the finals by finishing third in the LCQ on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Joni Wiman
Joni Wiman continued his dominance in the Lites class with another victory Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, his fifth in a row out of five this season.
Toomas Heikkinen, Steve Arpin
Steve Arpin holds a slight lead on Toomas Heikkinen in Heat 2A at Sunday's Global Rallycross Championship Round 8 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Ken Block, who is behind Arpin, went on to win the heat.
Bucky Lasek
Bucky Lasek finished second in Heat 2A, earning a spot in the final Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Lasek finished sixth in the Global Rally Championship's eighth round.
Brian Deegan, Tanner Foust
Olsbergs MSE teammates Tanner Foust, front, and Brian Deegan jostle for position in Heat 2C at Charlotte, N.C. Deegan won the heat, but Foust didn't finish because of his rollover.
Pat Moro
Pat Moro drove the Chevy Sonic in its GRC debut Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Moro finished third in Heat 2C and fifth in the last chance qualifier.
Front Row Start
Scott Speed jumps out quickly at the start on the front row of the GRC Round 8 main event ahead of Brian Deegan, center, and Ken Block, back.
Ken Block
Ken Block keeps going despite losing a front tire during the GRC main event Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Block finished seventh.
Charlotte Podium
Toomas Heikkinen, left, reached the podium yet again Sunday with a third-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Scott Speed won and Brian Deegan, right was second.
Check, Please
In addition to the season title, Toomas "Topi" Heikkinen won $20,000 and the inaugural Sylvania SilverStar zXe Global Rallycross Cup for earning the most points at the races at Loudon, N.H., Bristol, Tenn., Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C.
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Posted by Editoress on 07/31/09
After raining all morning, the precipitation backed off for the Downhill and 4-Cross qualifying on Friday afternoon. The courses were still wet, but solid construction by the organizers meant that the quality of racing was not compromised.
The women's downhill saw a bit of an upset when World Cup leader Sabrina Jonnier (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain), the winner of the last five events, only managed to finish fifth after a tentative run. Tracy Moseley (Trek World racing), the winner of the first world Cup of the year, took the top spot, 14-hundredths of a second in front of Emmeline Ragot (Suspension Centre), who is racing on a broken ankle. Floriane Pugin (Iron Horse-Kenda-Playbiker) was third at 5.64 seconds. The top Canadian finisher was national champion Claire Buchar (Chain Reaction-Intense) in sixth place.
On the men's side, it was two-time world champion Fabien Barel (Subaru) finishing first, half a second in front of last week's winner Sam Hill (Monster Energy-Specialized), with the Santa Cruz duo of Greg Minnaar and Steve Peat less than one and a half seconds back. Steve Smith (Evil Bikes) was the top Canadian finisher in seventh place.
For the 4-Cross, Jill Kintner (Red Bull/Intense/Crankbrothers) took 0.63 of a second out of Fionn Griffiths (Norco World Team), with World Cup leader Anneke Beerten (Suspension Centre) third at 0.74 seconds. The battle between Kintner and Beerten is far from over. Anne Laplante (Xprezo) was the only Canadian qualifier, in ninth place.
On the men's side, Jared Graves (Yeti Fox) had a rare off day, finishing fourth behind Romain Saladini (Sunn), Quentin Derbier (France) and Roger Rinderknecht (GT Bicycles). Graves has already mathematically won the World Cup title, with five wins. Two Canadians qualified for the final tomorrow night - national champion Hans Lambert (Norco) in 16th place and Matt Zdriluk in 22nd. Alex Brancier missed by nine-hundredths of a second and one spot (33rd) making it through to the final round.
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This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Legislature is being called into special session Wednesday by Gov. Gary Herbert to clarify issues surrounding the new House committee created to investigate Attorney General John Swallow.
"We did everything we thought we could do," House Majority Leader Brad Dee, R-Ogden, said Friday of the unprecedented special session of the House on July 3, when representatives voted 69-3 to begin an investigation into Swallow.
Dee said legislative leaders realized last week a special session of the full Legislature would be needed to enact some changes in statute necessary for the committee, established by House rules rather than by law, to operate.
Those changes, Dee said, are ensuring the depositions and testimony taken by the committee are public record under the state's Government Records Access and Management Act, and that the counsel hired by the committee can practice law in Utah.
Dee said because Swallow is being investigated by the Utah State Bar, the lawyers hired to represent the committee cannot be admitted to the state bar. Bids are currently being sought from firms around the country to serve as legal counsel.
"I'm not sure it's cleanup. It's clarification," Dee said of the issues lawmakers will deal with Wednesday, the day of their monthly interim meetings. Unlike last week's House session, there should be no additional cost for holding Wednesday's session.
In his proclamation calling for the special session issued Friday, the governor stated lawmakers can consider changes related to legislative subpoenas, the provision of testimony and evidence, "including the grant of immunity to a witness."
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The proclamation also allows lawmakers to deal with "provisions related to the work of legislative investigative committees," including which records may be protected and when meetings may be closed, as well as the legal counsel issue.
Herbert had previously said he would be "more than happy" to call lawmakers into special session to establish the committee, but House Speaker Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, said at the time she believed the House had the power to handle it.
Had the House started impeachment proceedings against Swallow, the statute changes that will be dealt with Wednesday would not be necessary, Senate President Wayne Niederhauser said.
But there were apparently not enough votes among House Republicans to investigate as part of a possible impeachment, so representatives decided to create a new committee.
Senators, who would sit in judgement of Swallow should he ultimately be impeached by the House, have been advised to avoid commenting on Swallow's situation publicly.
Niederhauser said he did not believe participating in the special session would compromise the Senate's position since the allegations against Swallow likely won't come up.
The few and very narrow exceptions carved out for this special investigative committee appear to have been specifically tailored to the special investigative nature of the process.
–Paul Edwards, Deseret News Editor
The Senate leader said those changes would give the House committee investigating Swallow the same "protections they would have inside an impeachment process."
He said he expected little, if any, opposition to the changes by senators.
Utah Democrats, who have already pressed for greater representation among the yet-to-be selected members of the House committee, called Friday for openness in the investigation.
Matt Lyon, executive director of the Utah State Democratic Party, said Democrats are hoping lawmakers "will not create loopholes that allow the investigation to occur in the backrooms of the Republican caucus."
Deseret News Editor Paul Edwards said legislative leaders were prudent to consult with a coalition of print media outlets about possible exceptions to GRAMA and the Open and Public Meetings Act.
"The few and very narrow exceptions carved out for this special investigative committee appear to have been specifically tailored to the special investigative nature of the process. They don't make any changes to GRAMA itself," Edwards said. "And we have good reason to believe that future use of this kind of extraordinary committee will be a rare. The exceptions seemed reasonable and justified."
Swallow is the subject of federal, state and local investigations into a number of allegations, including that he helped broker a deal for an indicted Utah businessman seeking to stop a federal investigation into his company.
Swallow has denied any wrongdoing and said he will cooperate with the House investigation.


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WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Steven Chu is ending his tenure after four years and three months. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman will serve as acting secretary beginning Tuesday and serve until a successor is sworn in.
President Barack Obama has nominated physics professor Ernest Moniz to succeed Chu. A Senate vote on Moniz's nomination could come as soon as this week.
Chu, who won a Nobel Prize in physics, announced his resignation in February. As energy secretary, he was credited with boosting renewable energy such as wind and solar power, but was criticized for his handling of a half-billion-dollar federal loan to solar panel maker Solyndra, which later went bankrupt, laying off 1,100 workers.
Poneman has been deputy secretary since 2009. He also serves as the department's chief operating officer.
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LeBron James sticks nose into Kevin Durant's MVP party
- Miami Heat forward LeBron James outshined Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant in big victory
- James %2833 points%2C seven rebounds%29 had slipped behind Durant in MVP conversations%2C but no more
- %22I don%27t think it was a message%3B that%27s LeBron James being LeBron James%2C%22 Heat star Dwyane Wade said
OKLAHOMA CITY — Before the Miami Heat's regular-season revenge was even over, you just knew the narrative that surrounds the Oklahoma City Thunder would be like the wind that comes sweeping down the plain.
Russell Westbrook was finally back from his latest knee surgery, and Kevin Durant suddenly was struggling in a 103-81 loss at Chesapeake Energy Arena that was some of the best NBA action you'll find in the middle of February. Still, correlations about the Thunder's dynamic duo would be made by fans and some media because, well, that's how it's been since these two young talents (yes, they're still young) joined forces in 2008.
People forget the Thunder were 21-4 with Westbrook in tow before his 27-game absence began on Dec. 27. But they also will forget the rustiness that came with this reunion when Oklahoma City gets back on its winning ways down this pivotal home stretch. Even with Westbrook's return, this was about the Heat and where they're headed — more specifically, where LeBron James, Dwyane Wade are about to take them.
This was one of those classic Big Three kind of nights, with James, Wade and Chris Bosh combining for 81 points and the leader of this lot making it abundantly clear that the MVP race isn't over just yet. Anyone who thinks James, who had 33 points, seven rebounds and four steals, is ready to roll over and yield what could be his fifth Maurice Podoloff Trophy simply hasn't been paying attention. There's no better sign of that than his recent comments about a hypothetical NBA Mount Rushmore and who should be on it.
There's no better way to start proving that, as James said, he will eventually be among the game's top four players of all time than by winning a fifth MVP crown. James would become one of four players all time to reach that mark (the others being Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Bill Russell), all while maintaining his spot above the present-day mountain of this league if the Heat are able to three-peat.
As Wade would say afterward, this MVP thing ain't over yet. And he would have to say it on James' behalf. James didn't speak to the media because of a nose injury that took him out midway through the fourth quarter and left him with cotton swabs shoved up each of his nostrils.
"Oh (the race) is not decided," said Wade, who had 24 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. "I don't think it was a message (to Durant). That's LeBron James being LeBron James. ... No, the MVP race is a long, long ways from over."
Said Bosh, who noted these teams were now even after the Thunder dominated the Heat on their home floor back on Jan. 29, "We know what (James) is capable of. And when he's playing at a high level like that, we feel like we have an extremely good chance of winning a championship. But it's a work in progress. We have to stay on him to continue to play at a high level. He's just playing good, consistent basketball right now."
James looked capable of doing more than that Thursday, scoring 14 of the Heat's first 16 points during a 16-8 start that included nary a shot from Durant. He finished the night in emphatic and bloody fashion, throwing down a Blake Griffin-like dunk over Serge Ibaka and leaving the game for good after the Thunder's renowned shot-blocker nailed his nose with the back of his hand. Cue the instant social media jokes about how all the blood proved James was human after all, and you get some sense about how he was wowing the crowd in this latest time out.
"(Finishing that dunk) takes more than resolve," said Bosh, who 24 points and eight rebounds. "It takes extreme athleticism and strength. I mean that was Serge Ibaka going up with him. He got hit in the face, and then he goes up and still finishes. But he's the best, biggest, strongest athlete in the league. Only he can do that."
The Thunder have their elite athletes and special talents too, though, and history tells us that they'll find their way in the coming weeks. Coming back off of an injury after nearly two months off is always tough enough, let alone against the defending champions who are clearly still capable of playing elite defense.
"I thought Russell looked just as explosive as he always has," Wade said. "Obviously he's been out for a while, so it's going to take time to get that rhythm back, that chemistry, because everything has been having Kevin Durant and Reggie Jackson doing a lot, but they will get that rhythm back. I thought he individually, he looked great.
"Yeah, it's tough (to return against the Heat). We're an Eastern Conference team where we really focus on halfcourt defense, there's not much of an open game. There's moments when it's open, but we try to make you see all five defenders, so for that to be your first game back it just wears on your body a little bit. Like I said, he's going to continue to get better. Like I said, he had moments when it was like, 'Man, this guy. Did he miss any time?' "
As for the Heat, who are now 1½ games behind the Indiana Pacers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference and who have won seven of their past eight and 12 of their past 15 games? It's starting to feel like their time may not be over just yet.
"You can see the resolve, you can see the chemistry," Wade said. "You can see a team that's gearing up for the second half of the season as well and understands go-time."