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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government is considering filing civil charges against SAC Capital Advisors over an insider trading case as regulators tighten the screws around Steven A. Cohen, the $14 billion hedge fund's founder and one of the industry's most famous traders.
Cohen and a top SAC executive told investors on a 20-minute conference call on Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission recently had issued a formal warning called a Wells notice to the firm indicating charges are likely, according to two sources, who listened to the call.
The move by the SEC comes a week after federal prosecutors and regulators charged one of SAC Capital's former employees with running one of the most lucrative insider trading schemes ever. Authorities have not charged Cohen with wrongdoing but they contend he signed off on the trades.
For years, Cohen and SAC have been dogged by allegations that the firm has relied on insider information to deliver an average annual return of 30 percent since Cohen founded it in 1992. Until this point, the SEC had taken no steps toward bringing a civil complaint against the hedge fund.
The sources said Cohen, 56, spoke briefly at the beginning of the phone call. Then, he let his top deputy, SAC President Tom Conheeney, handle the remainder, which one of the two people who listened in described as "carefully scripted." Callers were not able to ask questions.
People familiar with the potential civil charges against SAC Capital said the charges appear to be related to last week's arrest of Mathew Martoma, who worked for CR Intrinsic, a SAC Capital division, until 2010.
Last week the SEC filed civil charges against Martoma and sought disgorgement of profits from CR Intrinsic, but did not mention SAC Capital by name. Securities lawyers said regulators may be looking to file civil charges against SAC Capital since it is entity that controls CR Intrinsic.
The possibility the SEC could now file civil charges against SAC Capital might further unnerve investors in the hedge fund. Martoma is the fifth person once associated with the hedge fund to be charged with insider trading.
Over the past week, SAC Capital has been reaching out to its biggest investors and held a staff meeting last week to allay fears about the firm's future. The sources on the call said it appears the firm had been aware that the SEC was considering this move for some time.
A SAC Capital spokesman reiterated the statement the firm made last week following Martoma's arrest. In that statement, the firm said: "Mr. Cohen and SAC are confident that they have acted appropriately."
On the SEC's investment advisory website, where all hedge funds must now register, SAC Capital recently updated its filing to note that the SEC had named CR Intrinsic, the unit where Martoma worked, as a defendant in last week's civil complaint. The firm, however, did not update the online filing to show that it had received a Wells notice.
Authorities charged Martoma with using illegally obtained information from a doctor about poor clinical results at two healthcare companies - Elan Corp Plc and Wyeth, which is now owned by Pfizer Inc - to recommend that SAC eliminate a big position in their stocks. This recommendation kept the firm from incurring millions of dollars in losses, the government said.
Cohen has not been accused of wrongdoing.
Some on Wall Street applauded SAC Capital for saying it had received the notice, a fact not always disclosed by investment firms who get them.
"The best way to run a money management business, especially post-Madoff, is to let your investors know as much as possible, almost as if you're in a glass bowl. The more transparency you can provide, the better," said Jason Ader, a former Wall Street gaming analyst who now runs Ader Investment Management, which invests in hedge funds.
While 60 percent of SAC's $14 billion in assets belong to Cohen and his employees, the fund's strong and steady returns have made it popular with outside investors as well. Blackstone Group LP has been a long-term investor.
With so much of the money in SAC coming from wealthy investors, the firm may not suffer from the kind of redemptions that a fund dependent on pension fund money might.
How investors will react to this news, however, is still far from certain, people familiar with SAC said.
One key may be what Blackstone Group's big fund of funds does, as it once had up to $500 million in SAC and is something of a bellwether in the hedge fund industry. Blackstone's investors include smaller and midsize endowments that might get itchy about SAC's Wells notice and pressure the fund of funds to pull its money from the firm.
A spokesman for Blackstone did not return a call seeking a comment.
On the conference call, Conheeney, SAC's president, again told investors that the firm would bear all costs of defending itself against any legal action, the source said.
Conheeney also said the SEC had questioned Cohen about this matter earlier this year and that he had been responsive to all the government's questions.
The FBI has been investigating SAC on and off since 2007.
Despite SAC's outstanding returns, the firm's reputation as a rough-and-tumble trading shop has sometimes prompted advisers to tell clients to get out or steer clear of the hedge fund.
Todd Petzel, chief investment officer of Offit Capital Advisors, said he had never invested with SAC because of a lack of transparency, even though he knows of the firm's "incredibly demanding culture" through interactions with Cohen and former SAC employees.
"SAC will tell you that they have incredibly rigorous compliance process," Petzel said. "I'm sure if this ever comes to court, they will demonstrate in court all the training that every one of their portfolio managers goes through."
On the other hand, he said Cohen probably protected himself by distancing himself from day-to-day activities.
The SEC usually issues Wells notices to give firms plenty of warning that legal action is coming.
In the last year, hedge fund manager Philip Falcone and his Harbinger Capital Partners said they had received such notices.
"Certainly the Wells process and the public disclosure that there is a Wells process with respect to a hedge fund is something that is very challenging for the management of the hedge fund," said Stephen Crimmins, a partner in law firm K&L Gates in Washington.
Cohen and his top-flight legal team will probably work around the clock to try to negotiate a resolution and avoid a civil lawsuit, Crimmins said.
"It's a period of intense activity," he said. "It's a period that usually doesn't last that long, so we should expect some more news from SAC."
Additional reporting by Emily Flitter and Sam Forgione; Editing by Matthew Goldstein, Lisa Von Ahn, Andrew Hay, Jan Paschal and David Gregorio


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Someone needs to explain the concept of "emergency" to Paula Abdul.
Following a fight with her boyfriend this past Valentine's Day, the former "American Idol" host frantically dialed 911 claiming she was being detained against her will.
According to 911 transcripts, Abdul claims ""I want out of this car and he won't let me."
The latest news from around North Texas.
Less the a minute later, Abdul reveals that the offending lover is, in fact, dropping her off per her request, then the call cuts off.
A few days later, a representative for Abdul made a statement saying that "everything had been worked out."
OK, everyone. You can breath again.
Selected Reading: The Daily News, People, Huffington Post

subset: commoncrawl


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The first thing the Sharks did was the last thing they wanted to do. For the fifth time in 14 games this season, Worcester gave up a goal on the first shot of the game. Last night, Rob Klinkhammer got it for Portland at 1:08 of the first period.
The first thing the Sharks did was the last thing they wanted to do.
For the fifth time in 14 games this season, Worcester gave up a goal on the first shot of the game. Last night, Rob Klinkhammer got it for Portland at 1:08 of the first period.
The Sharks have surrendered the game's first goal 10 times already this season, and that is generally a formula for disaster, although Worcester has been a pretty good comeback team. What is notable, though, is how often and how early those first goals have been.
Last night's marked the fifth time it has been in the first two minutes. One other time, it was scored at 2:07. In their three games against the Sharks, the Pirates have scored at 1:52, 1:02 and 1:08.
Bracken Kearns is off to a hot offensive start, sparked by five power-play goals. He had nine power-play goals last season in scoring 22 overall for San Antonio.
Kearns has yet to score a conventional goal this season, with the teams playing five-on-five. His lone even-strength goal was in a four-on-four situation.
The injured list has one new entry, forward Jon Matsumoto. He has an undisclosed injury, but coach Roy Sommer called it short-term. Brodie Reid, however, is ready to rejoin the active roster and could play in the Sharks' next game.
Matsumoto had played in every game before last night, while Reid has yet to play a game this season. Worcester still has nine players on the roster who have skated in all 14 games.
Nick Petrecki (hand), Mikael Tam (ankle) and Frazer McLaren (groin) did not play. McLaren's injury misfortune is in its third season. He missed 20 AHL games last year and 23 the year before due to injury. Last night was his seventh game on the injured list this season.
The Sharks' next game is at 7 p.m. Saturday at the DCU Center against their nemesis opponent, the Connecticut Whale. Worcester lost to the Whale last Saturday, 6-2, and is just 8-14-2 against Connecticut all-time on home ice.
Retired Patriots star Kevin Faulk will be at the rink to sign autographs, the session running from 6 to 8. He will take a brief hiatus to drop the ceremonial first puck at game time.
The seventh annual Worcester County Sheriff's food drive is also being held Saturday. It benefits the Friendly House of Worcester. Fans who donate a canned food item will receive a voucher for a ticket to the Sharks game against Hershey Jan. 16 at the DCU Center.
This was the second in a batch of four games the Pirates and Sharks play against each other this month. Portland visits the DCU Center on Nov. 24, then the Sharks are back in Maine on Nov. 30. However, that game will be played at the more familiar confines of the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland.
Goalie Al Stalock won his seventh straight decision. It is the second-longest streak of his Sharks career. He and Thomas Greiss are tied for the single-season winning streak record at seven. Stalock's other streak was from Nov. 21 to Dec. 6, 2009.
Greiss won seven in a row from March 16 to April 11, 2007, but the first victory in that streak was a relief appearance.
The franchise record of eight straight wins by a goalie is held by Taylor Dakers, who won his final three appearances of the 2007-08 season, then his first five in 2008-09. All were starts.
There was no rematch of the Jimmy Bonneau-Joel Rechlicz bout of last weekend, although both played. Matt Pelech and Mark Louis took care of the almost-required fisticuffs in the first period. … Neither Daniil Tarasov nor Marek Viedensky were in the lineup. … General manager Wayne Thomas took the bus up with the team. … After not being called for a penalty in his first 19 games as a pro, Matt Tennyson has been to the box in both of his last two. … Curt Gogol played one period but was ill and did not return.


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LUKE DONALD, THAT UNASSUMING, polite Englishman, humbled the world's 63 best golfers in the wind, cold and hail on the southern Arizona desert. The former Northwestern University golfer was a one-man bracket buster at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Now he's ranked No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking, just behind fellow Brit Lee Westwood.
I'm still processing Luke's victory at Dove Mountain. I didn't fully realize how dominant it was until I read some of Donald's stats at Geoff Shackelford's blog.
Luke set a record for fewest number of holes played to win the event: 89. That's in six matches, folks, or a possible 108 holes. None of Donald's matches reached the 18th hole. Only one reached the 17th. He made 32 birdies on his 89-hole romp, hitting 74 percent of the greens. He one-putted 46 times.
Scores of Donald's six matches: 6 and 5. 2 and 1. 3 and 2. 5 and 4. 6 and 5. 3 and 2.
Any questions?
"Kind of one of those weeks where a lot of things went my way," understated the one-putting machine.
If he keeps playing like he did last weekend in Tucson, we might want to call Luke "The Donald" instead of Trump. Or Sir Donald. Or, as some have already suggested, Cool Hand Luke.
That fits. Especially considering the way he rolls it on the greens. Tell me you wouldn't bid on that stroke if it was auctioned on eBay.
−The Armchair Golfer
(Photo: Courtesy of Polo Ralph Lauren)
Tuesday, March 1
The Stats on Luke Donald's Desert Romp
3 comments:
What is truly amazing are Luke Donald's stats prior to his domination of the Match Play Championship. For the past 3 years he has hovered around 185th place in Total Driving and his ranking is GIR is almost as low (155th place or so). Relatively speaking, this short & inaccurate player just sliced through the world's best players.
Hey, there may be hope for all of us!
- The Armchair Golfer said...
I heard the commentators talking about Donald's previous driving stats during the final. Definitely not impressive.
- Essex County Golf Green said...
I'd bid on it for sure on ebay haha.
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Once you import the views and convert them to tables, delete the views. What you are left with is a bunch of tables prefixed with T_ . Now right click on the relational model in the tree and choose Change Object Names Prefix.
This is a simple dialog, much like a search and replace. Enter the old, the new, and what object types it applies to and everything is back to the base names you'd expect in a diagram.
The end result is a model of all the APEX_ views for 4.0.
Oracle Application Express Views


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Services on Demand
Related links
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South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences
On-line version ISSN 2222-3436
Print version ISSN 1015-8812
ESTERHUYSEN, Ja'nel; VAN VUUREN, Gary and STYGER, Paul. The effect of stressed economic conditions on credit risk in Basel II. S. Afr. j. econ. manag. sci. [online]. 2011, vol.14, n.2, pp.122-137. ISSN 2222-3436.
The robustness of the Basel II accord in protecting banks during volatile economic periods has been challenged during the ongoing credit crisis. In particular, advanced approaches to measuring and managing credit risk have drawn criticism for being both irrelevant and too complex. Despite accusations that the accord was largely responsible for the crisis, this article explores which of Basel Il's credit risk approaches were more successful in allocating capital. It was found that, in general, compliance with Basel II actually protected banks during the crisis, with simpler approaches enjoying greater success than more advanced ones in protecting banks against credit risk.
Keywords : credit risk; loss and frequency distributions; credit crisis; Basel II.


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Torino's Pizza Bar Custom Design
Held by: Gene Roumell (groumell)
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Tuto aplikaci vytvořil TubePress LLC
Partner obchodu s aplikacemi na Wixu
TubePress LLC provides the world's leading video gallery software for the web. Our eponymous flagship product, TubePress, makes it easy for our customers to integrate beautiful video galleries into their websites. Our products and consulting services are trusted by customers around the world to deliver millions of video galleries every day. We are a US firm based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Please visit us at http://tubepress.com!


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It looked to me that, by default, the d3d1x wasn't compiled into mesa. And now, even if you specifically use the d3d1x build flag to compile it in, it won't?
It just seems a little early to be killing this off when Wine still hasn't got around to doing decent DX10/DX11 support and most open source graphics drivers are still struggling with OpenGL3.X..
Of course, it will still be a while before d3dxl1 is used as it is based on DX10/DX11 which depends on decent OpenGL3.X support.
Even if Wine doesn't want to touch d3d1x with a 10 foot pole, I'd think it would still be useful for demos/testing.... Or at the very least, couldn't it be used to make porting Direct3D Games to Linux *without* rewriting the whole engine to use OpenGL and *without* having to use Wine? I'd think that would be important for Linux gaming as it could significantly reduce porting costs.
The code might be a little stale, but it's still code for hardware that, for the most part, Gallium hasn't even gotten around to supporting well yet. It just seems to me that completely disabling it like that is pretty much a guarantee that it will very quickly fall into a state that it will be a lot of work just trying to get it to compile at all.
I don't mean to be a "backseat driver" but when I see stuff that could hurt the future of gaming on Linux, I always have to make a comment, that's all.


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Canada and the U.S. have ambitious targets for technology consolidation — and very different approaches.
After years of talk about cutting costs and eliminating waste, U.S. and Canadian federal governments are making good on those promises as leaders in both countries attack ambitious IT consolidation projects.
Last August, Canada announced the creation of a centralized IT agency, Shared Services Canada, which will consist of personnel taken from 44 federal IT departments. The new agency will try to reduce the number of government-run data centers from 300 to just 20 and combine about 100 email systems into one, while serving as the sole IT provider for the federal government. The Canadian government anticipates that the move will save $4 billion out of an $80 billion program budget.
Though the U.S. consolidation efforts don't include a centralized IT agency, they do target a much larger set of equipment. The U.S. federal government has more than 3,000 data centers that range in size from a couple of computers sitting in a closet to a 195,000-square-foot Department of Homeland Security facility in Alabama scheduled for closure by the end of 2012.
In all, the U.S. Data Center Consolidation Initiative, launched in early 2010 by the Office of Management and Budget, anticipated closing 740 data centers by the end of 2012. Repeatedly finding themselves ahead of schedule, federal officials have adjusted their targets and now aim to close 1,200 data centers by the end of 2015. Some estimates put energy savings at more than 12 billion kWh and cost savings at $5 billion.
Consolidation efforts in both countries are aimed at cutting operating costs and improving quality of service, which they do by reducing duplication and increasing hardware optimization. Efforts to eliminate acres of unneeded data centers and email networks are moves toward embracing industry trends, such as server virtualization and cloud computing. Consolidation plans also point to reduced energy consumption and real estate costs.
The U.S. and Canadian federal governments are each taking their own path to prepare for the future of IT. Both programs have, however, faced criticism and doubts that they will be successful.
Hardware consolidation saves money in the long run by reducing the costs of power consumption, real estate and personnel. But the process of consolidating is costly, and some U.S. agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, have faced budget cuts in their consolidation programs, which could hamper progress. And with no centralized agency charged with overseeing IT, there are concerns that a change in management could derail consolidation efforts in the long term.
But for now, things are going well, said Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel. "It's amazing, especially on the data center side, to see what's come out of this," he said. The cost savings in data center consolidation are great, and the U.S. is working on email consolidation too. The Department of Agriculture combined 21 email systems into one and reduced operating costs by two-thirds, VanRoekel said.
Besides cost savings, these consolidation efforts offer flexibility for adopting future technology such as cloud computing, VanRoekel said. The U.S. wants to change how applications are delivered, promote shared services between agencies, and ensure the strongest possible security, he said. Efforts to consolidate data centers aren't isolated from the rest of government — the idea is to make all of government work more efficiently through better IT practices.
To develop a consolidation plan, the U.S. looked to other countries like Canada and England, individual U.S. states, and the analyst and vendor communities, VanRoekel said. But unlike Canada's approach, a centralized IT plan was never in the works for the U.S. government. "We definitely looked around everywhere at best practices," VanRoekel said. "We had never considered the notion [of centralizing IT] for reasons that are beyond the cost-savings aspect. We do a great service to the American IT industry through our purchasing." A centralized IT agency would hurt the economy too much, he said.
While the U.S. won't go so far as to create a single email system for the entire federal government, which Canada is attempting, VanRoekel said the current progress is encouraging. When the project began, many data centers were operating at less than 10 percent efficiency; now many are operating at 20 percent, VanRoekel said. The tentative goal is to reach at least 60 or 70 percent usage through consolidation, server virtualization and the adoption of best practices. "We think we can go pretty far," he said.
But a survey last year of federal government IT professionals found that the complexity of consolidating U.S. data centers may undermine some projected savings of the plan. The study — conducted by MeriTalk and commissioned by IT vendor Juniper Networks — indicates that as the number of federal data centers shrinks, the remaining facilities will need to grow larger and accommodate more systems. Survey respondents, who estimated that their computing needs would grow by nearly 40 percent over the next five years, worried that the cost of managing larger and more complex data centers would significantly reduce overall benefits from consolidation.
The Department of Defense (DoD), which has nearly 800 data centers — far more than any other government entity — represents the largest portion of the federal government's consolidation initiative. The DoD plans to close 148 data centers by the end of 2012 and is meeting all of its targets, said DoD spokesperson April Cunningham via email.
So far, consolidation has meant cost savings, Cunningham said. "This translates to good stewardship of taxpayer dollars while investing in our nation's defense. In some cases, IT consolidation allows for the repurposing of labor to other mission-critical activities. It also alleviates some of the work force from 'additional duties' to focus on their core competencies," she said.
The DoD works with the consolidation initiative's task force to share its experiences with and learn from other agencies, she wrote. The DoD is on track to announce success come the end of 2015, according to Cunningham.
Up north, Shared Services Canada (SSC) represents a different type of consolidation initiative. The new agency will combine IT staff from 44 federal agencies to form a centralized IT department. Modernization of the nation's email system, data centers and networks is planned to take place during the next eight years. Canadian officials argue that the status quo of decentralized IT management is unsustainable.
"We simply cannot persist in maintaining the duplication, inefficiency, low interoperability, suboptimal economies of scale and fragmentation that arise from each department managing its IT independently," said Liseanne Forand, president of Shared Services Canada, during a speech about the consolidation last fall.
Canada's technology infrastructure, she said, is aging and uncoordinated. In one government complex alone, there are nine different networks.
SSC is not like any other shared services center that has come before, Forand said. One big difference is that usage of the new agency's IT services will be mandatory. Another important differentiator is that the agency has the authority to run on an appropriations basis, rather than through cost recovery, Forand said. Third, the agency will be in position to procure IT resources to align with long-range goals.
Eventually the aim is to make SSC a center of excellence, she said.
But it's a long way from plan to practice. Shared Services Canada already has riled the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), one of the largest labor unions in the country. The PIPSC has for the past six months expressed concerns that Shared Services Canada isn't cooperating with the union, which represents about 80 percent of the staff to be assigned to SSC.
After a meeting last year between PIPSC President Gary Corbett and Forand, Corbett repeated his concerns in a letter addressed to SSC. "The Institute supports in principle the creation of Shared Services Canada if it is created properly, but [I] caution that the agency will not succeed without consultation with the Institute and the cooperation and support of its members," Corbett wrote.
He characterized the current strategy to create Shared Services Canada as "naïve." "Our position is: They're not ready," he said. "We don't think they can achieve what they think they can achieve. A lot of what they are expecting are drastic changes."
A centralized IT agency for Canada isn't a bad idea, Corbett said, but it's a large project that needs a detailed business plan — something that's lacking at this point. "The politicians made this decision, then they threw together Shared Services Canada to make this happen. They kind of make it up as they go," he said. "The government basically decided to do this and expect the puzzle pieces to fall into place."
The problem is that there are employees with contracts who have been promised various things by the government, he said. Combining all these employees into one agency creates all kinds of new issues that must be addressed, he said. For example, employees competing for job promotions now find themselves in a new agency where their seniority or past achievements may not matter. "You're talking about 12,000 to 13,000 people's lives," Corbett said.
Corbett compared the project to the failed seven-year initiative for shared services in western Australia that cost the Australian government $372 million before it was abandoned last year. "When the [Canadian] government stepped in to do this, they didn't prepare the ground. In six months, we haven't seen any progress."
In Ontario, a similar project was relatively successful, and the success was partially due to a no-layoff policy, Corbett said. "In the end, if our members aren't happy, there will be a natural push back."
Treasury Board President Tony Clement attempted to assuage layoff concerns in an interview last August on the Canadian TV program Power & Politics. On the show, he said the centralization initiative "won't reduce necessarily the number of people working for the federal government, but it'll actually find some savings. […] This is primarily about getting back to a balanced budget, reducing the deficit to zero. […] But it's also about managing better internally." Any layoffs would be through attrition," Clement said.
Shared Services Canada has engaged PIPSC in workshops and formed subcommittees to work on staffing issues as the transition, according to a Shared Services Canada employee.
"With respect to SSC's relationship with bargaining agents, we recognize the importance of transparent engagement with bargaining agents who represent SSC employees and the important role that bargaining agents can play during this transition process," the Shared Services spokesperson told Public CIO in February.
Although the consolidation projects in both countries are significant, Canada's could be more far-reaching, said Gartner analyst Massimiliano Claps. "What the Canadians are doing is potentially more impactful, but much more challenging," Claps said.
Centralization of IT means a stronger commitment to consolidation, but the U.S. hasn't necessarily made a mistake in not centralizing, he added. "If you look at it from an execution perspective, it's good that they're taking it one step at a time. From a strategic standpoint, it's not necessary to go all the way to the centralization that the Canadians are doing."
Shared Services Canada's creation was partially driven by the fact that Canada does not have many vendors in the cloud market it can draw from, Claps said. "The cloud market in the U.S. is much more mature."
While states like Michigan, Indiana and Utah led successful consolidation programs, states like Texas and Virginia struggled, Claps said. There is a right and wrong way to do things. "The jury is still out on what the Canadians will be able to do." And it's still too early to tell how the U.S. data center consolidation will ultimately affect budgets. "You need a three- to five-year time frame to measure consolidation," Claps said.
Ideally the next step after consolidation is to spread the efficiencies gained in IT into all other areas of government, said Gartner analyst Jerry Mechling. It's long been surmised that technology is a vehicle for progress that will allow organizations to work faster and more efficiently — this is the change everyone is talking about. "The Canadians have been pursuing that dream a little more persistently," he said. "They have a fairly long tradition of using IT for providing services."
"There are two major barriers between here and there," Mechling said. "Confusion and conflict." Confusion stops progress, because people don't pursue things they don't understand. And conflict is the real killer — if government work forces don't want to do something, they won't, Mechling said. "A lot of times you'll see good policy but no implementation," he said. Centralized IT is the equalizer. Officials may come and go, but a permanent body dedicated to running the government efficiently through IT services means a permanent change in how things get done.


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For each of the past 16 years, dozens to hundreds of visitors have meandered at night through a two-thirds-mile-long walking path at Severson Dells in Rockford dotted with 400 cut-down plastic milk jugs containing lighted candles.
For each of the past 16 years, dozens to hundreds of visitors have meandered at night through a two-thirds-mile-long walking path at Severson Dells in Rockford dotted with 400 cut-down plastic milk jugs containing lighted candles.
And there's never been a safety problem that Don Miller, executive education director of the Dells' Nature Center, can remember. No one's been burned. No fires have started. Miller is expecting more of the same at the next Silent Lights Luminary Walk Dec. 8.
Jean Homan, who lives in the Tullocks Woods subdivision in Rockford, can't recall any fire trouble either with luminarias at her home. She and her late husband displayed them along their driveway and in front of their property for more than a dozen years when their kids were young. And for the fourth year, she'll display a luminaria at her home on the same day others in her subdivision do, also Dec. 8.
Miller and Homan say proper handling of luminarias can avoid problems.
"We put just enough sand (1 to 1.5 inches) in the bottom to weight down the jug so it doesn't blow over, and just enough to hold the candle," Miller said. Severson uses votive-size candles that burn for up to five hours.
Homan uses plastic containers as well, and fills each with two inches of water, which is a little less than halfway up the candle she puts in the container. Many others in her subdivision buy paper bags for their luminarias through the Tullocks Woods Association, which she said pays for the sand residents need to put in the bottom of the bags. Cost is $3.50 for 10 bags and 10 candles, she said.
Miller and Homan advise finding a level place to set the bags or containers and not placing them anywhere near flammable objects. Watch out for the windy conditions, too, that can cause bags to tilt and burn.
Why bother with any of it? "It makes the area look so peaceful," Homan said.
Time to go light-seeing
Let us know about your luminaria by e-mailing the details to firstname.lastname@example.com.
River District Luminaria Display for the East Side of the River, 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, from the 500 block to the end of the 200 block of East State Street, Rockford, free, 815-871-7585.
Seventh annual Memorial Luminaria, 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Fitzgerald Funeral Home & Crematory, Riverside Chapel, 3910 N. Rockton Ave., free, 815-226-2273.
Luminary Lighting and Blessing Ceremony, 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 5, OSF Saint Anthony Atrium, 5666 E. State St., Rockford, 815-395-5333.
Luminaria Display, starting at dusk Saturday, Dec. 8, Tullocks Woods subdivision, Owen Center Road and Central Avenue, Rockford, free, 815-962-8137.
Silent Lights Luminary Walk, Refreshments and Song, 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, Severson Dells Nature Center, 8786 Montague Road, Rockford, free to stroll the path, musical entertainment free for members and $3 for nonmembers, 815-335-2915.
Calvin Park Boulevard Association Luminaria Display, 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 16, Calvin Park Boulevard, Rockford, free, 815-397-6941.
Luminaria, 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 16, Wesley Willows, 4141 N. Rockton Ave., Rockford, 815-316-1512.


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Sparrow's Michigan Athletic Club • East Lansing, MI
"Grease" may have been the word in popular youth musicals several decades ago, but now the Disney Channel's "High School Musical" series is the last word on what's cool for school.
Sparrow's Michigan Athletic Club (MAC) in East Lansing, MI, created its own version of the popular series to generate awareness for its youth dance program and create a short-term revenue project.
"I didn't realize how popular the 'High School Musical' series was when we started, but the music itself is quite catchy, and the kids knew all the words to the songs before they even got to camp," says Tracy Holtzer, MAC dance coordinator. "It's the new 'Grease' for them — a generational musical that will stick with these kids for many years to come."
Holtzer and the MAC staff put together a three-week summer camp program called MAC School Musical based on the Disney series for kids aged 6 to 12. Each week featured a different play with acting, singing and dancing opportunities for campers.
The highlight of each week was a final performance for parents, complete with school-themed costumes and props. Holtzer stresses that prior planning was imperative for a successful camp.
"We put a lot of effort into planning the camp. We wrote the scripts, created props and choreography appropriately for each age group," Holtzer says. "Prior planning equals quality results. There was a great energy and atmosphere created at camp."
As campers memorized lines and choreography, they also enhanced their team-building skills and self-esteem, she says. Organizers were careful to split up the musical's parts to ensure that each child had a role.
"Each child was given an equal opportunity at camp, and the parents really appreciated that because in this day and age, the most talented kids always get the most roles," says Holtzer. "But when you're 6 years old, how do you really know what your talents are yet?"
Each successive week of camp grew increasingly more popular. Week two saw a 20 percent increase in enrollment, while week three enjoyed an 86 percent jump in attendees over the first week.
Cost for a week of camp was $80 for members and $100 for nonmembers. Week one brought in $995 in revenue, week two earned $1,265 and week three earned $1,735. The earnings exceeded the club's revenue projection, which was $600 for the first week.
MAC created posters to advertise the camps throughout the club, as well as fliers for the service desk. In addition, it ran free newspaper ads in the community events section of the paper and sent an e-mail blast to former students with this year's camp dates.
The camps proved to be a good draw for the club's year-round youth dance program. Of this summer's 47 participants, nine of those students enrolled in multiple camps, and 13 became regular dance program participants. Holtzer says younger siblings of this year's campers are excited to be old enough to attend next year.
"We continue to have parents ask what other classes they can enroll their kids in after the summer is over," says Holtzer. "Initially, we weren't sure what to expect, but when the parents would bring their child into the club every day, they'd communicate about how excited the kids were to come. They said the kids were more excited about it than any other camp they'd been to."


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Supercomputer makers used to stuffing processors and networks into machines to build clusters or shared memory systems have to adapt their machines to take advantage of various kinds of compute accelerators that offers cheaper flops, and Silicon Graphics is no exception.
To that end, the company has reworked its high-end UV 2000 shared memory supers and its Rackable hyperscale machines to borg the latest Intel Xeon Phi and Nvidia Tesla coprocessors.
SGI has been good about absorbing accelerators and other kinds of processors into its machines, and this is not the first time SGI has gone off the beaten x86 cluster path. Two years ago, at the SC10 supercomputing conference, SGI rolled out the "Project Mojo" Prism XL hybrid CPU-GPU clusters, which had a server sled that could host as many as four GPU coprocessors or Tilera Tile64Pro accelerators for deep packet inspection and other network workloads hanging off Opteron 4100 processors.
The Mojo design put InfiniBand clustering and Ethernet management switching in a center rack and put a rack of the Mojo blades (which SGI called sticks) into two racks, one on each side. The whole shebang could hold 500 single-wide GPUs and 126 single-socket Opteron 4100s driving them.
The system was designed to scale up to 36 cabinets and around 14 petaflops using AMD 9370 or Nvidia M2050 GPU coprocessors and burning somewhere around 50 to 60 kilowatts per compute rack.
Obviously, if you moved to Xeon Phi or Tesla K20 accelerators in this machine, you could cram a lot of compute into a compact space. For the three-rack base Prism XL system, it would be on the order of 505 teraflops peak theoretical double-precision floating point in a three-rack configuration using the Xeon Phi 5110P passively cooled x86-based coprocessor from Intel, and around 655 teraflops peak DP for the top-end Tesla K20 GPU coprocessor from Nvidia.
The Prism XL machines are still being sold, Bill Mannel, vice president of product marketing at SGI, tells El Reg, but they were not part of the accelerator love-in at the SC12 supercomputer conference last week.
Instead, SGI focused on getting the latest coprocessors from Intel and Nvidia into its UV 2000 "big brain" shared memory supercomputer, which marries SGI's NUMALink 6 interconnect with Intel's Xeon E5-4600 processors to create a shared memory system. SGI also rolled out support for the two classes of coprocessors in its Rackable systems rack machines, and rolled up some preconfigured ceepie-geepie starter kits as well.
To add accelerators to the UV 2000 machines, SGI has created a single-socket blade that puts the accelerator and main memory for the CPU on a motherboard and the single Xeon E5-4600 processor on a daughter card that plugs into this motherboard.
This mobo has a full-length, double-wide PCI-Express 3.0 slot and not only does it support the passively cooled Xeon Phi, Tesla K20, and Tesla K20X coprocessors, it will also allow companies to slide in Nvidia's Quadro graphics cards which are actively cooled.
Accelerator nodes for the UV 2000 sporting Xeon Phi and Tesla coprocessors
Initially, SGI is allowing for up to 32 of these accelerator blades to be added to a UV 2000 system. In an all-Xeon setup, the UV 2000 can support a maximum of 256 single-node processors for a total of 2,048 Xeon E5 cores and 64TB of memory. What would be even more interesting is for SGI to push the NUMALink 6 to its full 512-socket theoretical limit and offer a 256 CPU by 256 accelerator configuration.
That 32 accelerator limit is not a hardware limit, Mannel explains, but a software limit and he concurs with El Reg that a more interesting configuration would be 64 Xeon E5s paired with 64 accelerators, but stopped short of making a commitment that this was in the works.
SGI is taking orders for accelerated UV 2000 blades now and will have them generally available in January 2013.
The Rackable side of the house is also getting the Xeon Phi and Tesla K20 and K20X coprocessors in various nodes, thus:
Where SGI is plugging in Xeon Phi and Tesla K20 and K20X accelerators
SGI is offering a ten-node starter kit for hybrid CPU-GPU machines, which are available now. These starter kits take the Rackable C1004G-RP5, which is a 1U Xeon E5 rack server, and puts two accelerators into and uses it as a head node in the cluster.
Another nine of these nodes are added as compute nodes, again with your choice of Xeon Phi or Tesla K20 accelerators. The starter configuration has a 36-port QDR InfiniBand switch to lash the nodes together and a 24-port Gigabit Ethernet switch for node management; both switches come from Mellanox Technologies.
The cluster runs Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 and comes with SGI's Performance Suite and Management Center cluster management tools as well as Altair's PBS Pro preloaded. List price for the starter kit is under $200,000.
The UV 20 four-socket Xeon E5-4600 rack server (which does not have the NUMALink 6 interconnect) can also use the Xeon Phi and Tesla K20 coprocessors, but not the K20X for some reason. ®


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The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday that Congress could retroactively impose a higher liability cap on BP to pay for the damage from its growing oil spill, and the company would likely lose if it challenged the higher cap in court.
"Our view is that there is a strong chance to defeat any constitutional plaintiff if Congress were to lift the caps," U.S. Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli told a Senate committee hearing on the oil spill.
Current law imposes a $75 million liability cap on economic damage. Since the BP spill in late April, legislation has been introduced in Congress to raise the cap to $10 billion.
U.S. & World
Some lawmakers and legal experts have questioned whether Congress could make the higher liability cap apply to the BP accident. BP has also said it would pay all legitimate claims and was not bound by the existing cap.
Perrelli told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee "we believe that we have strong arguments to defeat any retroactivity argument."
Some lawmakers are worried that raising fines would boost insurance costs so high that smaller companies could not afford to search for offshore oil.
That would lead to the United States relying on more foreign oil and creating fewer high-paying offshore drilling jobs for U.S. workers.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Interior Department told the Senate panel that Congress should increase fines and prison sentences for individuals and energy companies that violate the federal law covering offshore oil development.
Since the law was enacted in 1978, the criminal penalty has remained unchanged with fines of no more than $100,000 per day or imprisonment of up to 10 years. The current maximum daily civil fine is $35,000.
"We believe it is appropriate to consider thoughtful increases in the amount of both civil and criminal penalties," U.S. Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes told the committee.
Perrelli refused to tell the committee whether the Justice Department had found any negligence yet by BP or others involved in the oil spill.
President Barack Obama will visit the U.S. Gulf Coast region on Friday to inspect efforts to combat the massive oil spill, an administration official said.
- Slideshow: Scenes From The 2010 Gulf Oil Spill


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Advanced Technology
>Full-scale Introduction of SmartphoneInteroperable Functions making use ofSmart Access
>Proposing "Smart Cockpit"Comprehensive System as an In-VehicleSystem Provider
>Launch of World's First Full-Digital Speaker System "01DRIVE"
>Development of Original Sound Processing Technology "Intelligent Tune"
>Increasingly Advanced Camera Systems for Cars (Camera Application Products)
>Innovative UI (User Interface) Revolutionizes In-Vehicle Equipment
>Eco Driving with the Global Environment in Mind
Superb Technology Creating a New Style of Automobile Society.
Full-scale Introduction of Smartphone Interoperable Functions making use of Smart Access
Proposing "Smart Cockpit" Comprehensive System as an In-Vehicle System Provider
Launch of World's First Full-Digital Speaker System "01DRIVE"
∗1 Dnote: Registered trade mark of Trigence Semiconductor. This is a technology to reproduce voices by feeding modulated audio signals directly into multiple speaker units or voice coils.
∗2 Power consumption about 1/8: comparison with our products
Development of Original Sound Processing Technology "Intelligent Tune"
Superb Technology Creating a New Style of Automobile Society
Increasingly Advanced Camera Systems for Cars (Camera Application Products)
Our latest Overhead View Monitor goes beyond augmenting the driver's field of view around the vehicle. Combined with image recognition technology, it is able to detect obstacles approaching from any direction and send a warning to the driver.
Innovative UI (User Interface) Revolutionizes In-Vehicle EquipmentOur abundant know-how in the in-vehicle equipment field, coupled with a fresh perspective that can see beyond conventional wisdom, allowed us to create a totally new connection between person and machine. Evolution of the next-generation in-vehicle information system continues to accelerate with this revolutionary new UI, worthy of becoming the gateway to a new world.
"Smart Access" App: In-car top menu
Eco Driving with the Global Environment in Mind
Searches for most fuel-efficient route based on various criteria
● Ups and downs requiring frequent acceleration?
●How congested?
● Distance to reach destination? etc.
For example…
Expressway: Can reach destination fast but is long way
around and is sometimes congested.
Mountain road: Shortest travel distance but lots of ups/downs
require frequent acceleration/deceleration.
Surface street: Slightly longer distance but flat, with less
congestion to reach destination faster.


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- 4 Beds
- 4 Full, 1 Half, 1 3/4 Baths
Property TypeResidential – Duplex
SubdivisionArrowhead At Vail 10
Listing Date08/12/19
Year Built1989
Lot Size0.30 Acres (13,068 SqFt)
Parking2 Car Garage
Property Description
Completely remodeled mountain modern sunny duplex located on the golf course with beautiful open mountain views, large patio and outdoor cook area. Gourmet kitchen with imported Italian cabinets and hearth room. Main floor master with fireplace and stunning master bath. All new mechanical, plumbing and electric. Air-conditioned, added mudroom and coat closet plus new entrance into 2-car garage.
Presented By
- Golf Course
- Golf Course
- Mountains
- Golf Membership Option
- Health Club Membership
- Hiking/Pedestrian Trail
- Pool
- Private Fishing Rights
- Tennis Courts
- Air Conditioning
- Dual Flush Toilets
- Fireplace - Gas
- Multi-Level
- Patio
- Steam
- Vaulted Ceilings
- Club Membership Avai
- Pets
- Pool
- Shuttle Service
- Tennis
- Cable TV
- District Sewer
- District Water
- Electricity Avail.
- Natural Gas Avail.
- Phone Available
- Snow Removal
- Trash Pickup
- Natural Gas
- Radiant
- Zoned AC
- Dryer
- Washer
Financial Information
About Arrowhead
Around the corner from Bachelor Gulch, the final village of Beaver Creek Resort is Arrowhead. Homes range from slope-side condominiums to elegant single family houses. Arrowhead has a charming village and ski lift base, private Jack Nicklaus golf course at the Country Club of the Rockies, and private access to the pristine waters of the Eagle River. Arrowhead offers an appealing alpine environment in a private gated community with convenient access to the rest of Beaver Creek and the nearby town of Edwards.
Area Market Data
6 Beds 9 Baths
5 Beds 4 Baths
We get asked this question a lot. Below is a tool that gives you the ability to see what the market is like in your community. Find out what homes like your own are selling for right in your back yard. Simply enter in your address, choose the proximity of the search and find out market data for other homes that are selling near you.
While we'll provide you with plenty of information, this is a snapshot of your market data and there are real people behind the high-tech and automated tools. If you would like more detailed information or help in understanding the results we are here to help.
Until then, enjoy the tools!
The data relating to the real estate for sale on this website comes in part from the Internet Data Exchange program of the Vail Multi-List Service, Inc.
Copyright © 2020 Vail Multi List, Inc. (VMLS). The information displayed herein was derived from sources believed to be accurate, but has not been verified by VMLS. Buyers are cautioned to verify all information to their own satisfaction. This information is exclusively for viewers' personal, non- commercial use. Any republication or reproduction of the information herein without the express permission of the VMLS is strictly prohibited.
Listing courtesy of Slifer Smith & Frampton/Arrowhead


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A little too close to home
Earlier this week, my sister-in-law sent this photo, with the quip "A new look for my office." A recent storm -- probably a tornado -- damaged one of the buildings of the oilfield supply company where she works in Spivey, Kansas.
Spivey is a wide spot on Highway 42, about 45 miles southwest of Wichita. My brother and sister-in-law live about five miles from there.
Kathy wrote that the grade school roof was also damaged. Parts of it blew into an old house across the street and broke out windows. She said that the path of damage suggests a tornado touchdown.
The damage to the Jayhawk building, etc., occurred later on the same night that a tornado threw a car off the road near Cunningham, KS, just 20 miles or so northwest of Spivey. The young couple in the car was killed. That tornado was "¾ of a mile wide, stayed on the ground for 48 minutes and traveled 21 miles," according to Channel 12 Eyewitness News (link above.)
The night before, another storm took off the entire roof of the old high school building in Spivey, which had been used as a truck stop until a few years ago. Kathy wrote that the roof landed in the highway and against a light pole.
Dwight and Kathy have a good storm shelter, and I hope they are using it when these wild storms are hitting so close to home!
Related post:
Close Call With a Tornado


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Belarussian authorities said Wednesday that they have caught and extracted confessions from three people accused of detonating a powerful bomb that killed 12 people and injured more than 200 in a Minsk metro station Monday.
President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been Belarus's undisputed leader for the past 17 years, took to the airwaves after the arrests to announce that he has ordered security services to spread an even wider net as part of an investigation that is already leading to widespread crackdowns on opposition groups.
The head of Belarus's KGB security service, Vadim Zaitsev, said one of the suspects had confessed to planting the remote-controlled device, and the other two admitted to involvement in the plot. Their identity or whether authorities are aware of any motive has not been released. The main suspect, said Mr. Zaitsev, is a young man who is "not only unhealthy in his psychological state, but also unhealthy in his ambitions."
Human rights activists in Belarus were reporting Wednesday that several opposition politicians had already been summoned for questioning by the KGB in connection with the bombing.
Mr. Lukashenko said the aim of the crackdown is to catch not only the "fifth column" opposition members who he implied had ordered the attack, but also anyone spreading unspecified "rumors" about the terrorist attack, those who foment protests over food prices or currency devaluations, and people possessing unregistered firearms.
"Today the crime was solved," Lukashenko said. "The most important thing is that we know how and by whom the terrorist attack was committed," although the suspects – two of whom are factory workers – have not yet divulged the names of any accomplices, he said.
"I have given instructions to review all statements by [opposition] political leaders," Lukashenko continued. "We are looking for accomplices and those who ordered [the act]. These figures from the so-called fifth column may reveal their cards and indicate who ordered it…. Everyone should be brought in and questioned, and we shouldn't worry our heads with any questions of democracy, or the moaning and wailing of foreign bleeding hearts."
Viktor Ivashkevich, a leader of the Belarussian Choice opposition group, says that many of those arrested after protesting against alleged vote-rigging in December parliamentary elections that brought Lukashenko back for a fourth term, reported being tortured by the KGB security police, which leaves him deeply worried about today's announcement.
"Who knows what methods were used to get those confessions," he says. "Lukashenko indicated that he believes it was the opposition that ordered the terrorist act, and he said that the struggle against terrorism will now be expanded to include rumors about food shortages, with no more concerns over human rights. What we see is that the threat of terrorism will be used to reduce civil freedoms and crush any protests over inflation."
The state-funded Russia Today network reported Wednesday that Belarussian authorities have begun shutting down critical websites, including the human rights group Charter 97 (though its English page is still up).
In what sounded rather like the declaration of a state of emergency, Lukashenko went on to urge Belarussians to tighten their belts, work harder, and complain less. "Looseness, slovenliness, lack of strict discipline and organization are inadmissible today. All this talk about democracy and democratization that is being imposed on us has nothing to do with the genuine democracy and the government of people that are and should be in our country," he said.
"From now on every Belarussian must understand that without drastically changing their attitudes to themselves, their lives, their jobs, families, and children, to people around us we will not reach the intensive development goals that we aim for. Only the strictest order, organization, and efficient work are the foundation of our future survival. And our nation is ready for that," Lukashenko said.
Some Russian analysts say they are skeptical of the speed with which the terrorist suspects were apprehended and made to confess.
"I understand that Belarussian special services are from the old Soviet school, and their republic is small, but such rapid results are difficult to understand and hard to believe," says Alexei Vlasov, an expert on the post-Soviet region at Moscow State University. "Unfortunately we haven't got enough information about [the suspects] to make any conclusions."
On the other hand, he adds, "it is clear that Lukashenko is very upset about panic and rumors. He can't do anything about what the foreign media is reporting, but in his own country he wants to introduce some sort of 'wartime rules' to put an end to all that."


text:
So what else happened during the info-skirmish?Was a week long wonder, or something else?
Resume,Songs, My new blog, NeX-6, My facebook page
Orgs I like
The EFF - keeping free speech in the world
Musical stuff I like
Jeff, Rick, Ardour, Jack
Prior Rants - Some notes from the infowar Practiciing safe hex The new social contract wikileaks investigations from overseas Wikileaks reduced to an IP address overseas Will no one stand up for wikileaks? P/2010 A2 Working on a new blog - NeX-6 Who invented the embedded Linux based wireless rou... Is marriage a survival trait in the North?
Best of the blog:
Uncle Bill's Helicopter - A speech I gave to ITT Tech - Chicken soup for engineers
Beating the Brand - A pathological exploration of how branding makes it hard to think straight
Inside the Internet Mind - trying to map the weather within the global supercomputer that consists of humans and google
Sex In Politics - If politicians spent more time pounding the flesh rather than pressing it, it would be a better world
Getting resources from space - An alternative to blowing money on mars using NEAs.
On the Columbia - Why I care about space
Authors I like:
Doc Searls
Where's Cherie?
Jerry Pournelle
The Cubic Dog
Evan Hunt
The Bay Area is talking
Zimnoiac Emanations
Eric Raymond
Unlocking The Air
Bob Mage
BroadBand & Me
Selenian Boondocks
My Pencil
Transterrestial Musings
Bear Waller Hollar


text:
New England Tech has been a member of the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) for many years. Recently, NEIT became one of only five schools in the country to fulfill the requirements to become an ABYC Marine League of Schools member.
To achieve this distinction, NEIT's curriculum had to meet ABYC standards and ABYC certification had to be made available to NEIT students. ABYC certification is a recognized standard of achievement in the marine industry and sought by employers.
To become Marine League of Schools certified, NEIT instructors had to gain ABYC certification in the areas they teach. Our Marine Technology faculty did one better when they all became Master Certified Marine Technicians. To achieve this status, each faculty member had to pass the certification exams for electricity and electronics, marine systems, and a third area of their choice. All full-time and part-time instructors passed the three exams with high marks and are currently studying for a fourth exam.�
New England Tech is the only Marine League school to have all Master Certified instructors. Our goal is to be the only school with all of our instructors certified in every ABYC area! Great job, everyone!


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When Should You Conduct A Member Survey?
By Brian McBain
July 10, 2006
Brian McBain is president of Club MarketVision Inc., a market research company over the last 15 years focused on the club industry that conducts customized member surveys, focus groups and former member surveys in addition to marketing plans and consulting. He can be reached at 480-361-8263.
The quick and easy answer to the question of when should a club conduct a member survey, of course, is whenever you want to know what members are really thinking. In reality, there are many answers to this question. Here are a couple of the more important ones.1. When it's important to know whether or not the club is getting better at creating satisfied members. A satisfied member is a member who is more likely to stay a member. Nothing is more disconcerting to the sales staff than to see members quitting or not renewing faster than they can sign up new ones. "We work like dogs," they say, "to get new members and you can't keep them. We're doing our part. How about you doing yours?" In the worst of all possible worlds, the word begins to spread that the club promises everything but delivers nothing. So unless clubs know that members are not satisfied, they will assume everything is alright and do nothing about it, or worse, they'll lower prices assuming that that will stem the tide of defections.A satisfied member will recommend the club to friends. A very satisfied member will actively recommend the club to friends. A deliriously happy member will proseletize for the club. It sounds like an ad we've all heard, "A satisfied customer is our best salesman." In fact, it's true and it costs you nothing. If just 25 percent your members actively recommended your club to friends and associates, you could slash your marketing budget to almost zero. In many of our member surveys we find that, on average, members say they know three to four friends who could be members of their club; yet an average of more than 70 percent, on average have not contacted the club to bring in a friend as a guest. The math is truly frightening — or heartening— depending on your point of view.A satisfied member will purchase more non-dues-covered goods and services. This is almost a no-brainer. If more members buy more merchandise in the pro shop, smoothie drinks or additional fee-based special classes and personal training, it's a win for the club and a win for the member.Increasing member satisfaction is an effective basis for judging and rewarding employee performance. Many of our client clubs do exactly this. They base any increased compensation on changes in performance noted in their annual member surveys. Department heads and employees anxiously await the results of the annual member survey to see not only how their departments have improved but, equally importantly, to get ideas for improving their departments for the next year. In fact, some clubs hold informal contests among departments to see how many of the members' written suggestions they can implement — many such suggestions require little or no cost. 2.When a club is considering a major renovation or expansion. To inject new life into a club, to attract and accommodate new members or simply to retain old ones, some clubs believe that spending a lot of money on an expansion or a major renovation will be needed. In many cases that will be effective. But what to do? Do we really have to spend that kind of money? Are we sure that it will do the trick? To answer these questions, we have suggested that clubs "float trial balloons" in their member surveys.
For example, a large multi-sport club was considering creating an outdoor water park addition. The addition would feature a beach-entry pool, a large slide, other water-powered amusements and so on. When we asked members about it, they rejected the idea out of hand. The most commonly written comment was that they wanted fewer kids — not more — around the club and didn't want the club to take on an "amusement park" personality.
Moreover, what members were really concerned about was the cleanliness and condition of the locker rooms, and they wanted more help on the fitness floor. They wanted the club to designate a member of the fitness staff (or a personal trainer) to walk the fitness floor and offer encouragement and help with the proper use of equipment. For far less capital investment than creating an outdoor water park, the club had answers to their slipping retention.3.When competition is entering the marketplace. To be sure, when a new club makes it known that they are going to enter the market, you will lose members. However, the question becomes, how to minimize the loss? Better still, how do we limit the loss to those members most able to be lured by cheaper prices? And while we are at it, how do we make our club more attractive to new members in the community whose interest may be peaked by the flurry of publicity surrounding a new entrant?
One of our client clubs was faced with a competitive incursion and conducted a member survey. The most striking finding was that members had a very low opinion of the club's price/value equation. The survey highlighted a number of things the club could do to change member's perceptions of the club's price relative to its perceived value.
We recommended that the club tell members what changes the club had made in the past year in its physical plant and its programs and services and that the club regularly tell members what changes the club would be making in the future. We recommended that they made sure members knew about staff changes and staff qualifications in the newsletter and on the Web site. We also suggested that the club build value into the membership by occasionally providing fruit with a "Take One" sign at the front desk or that they do a deal with a local bottled water company to provide free bottles of water on occasion.
As a result of implementing these and other recommendations aimed at building membership value, the club minimized the impact of the new competitive club and, better still, members' ratings of the club on price/value rose considerably — to acceptable levels achieved by other similar clubs in our database — on the next year's member survey.
Many clubs find themselves in a kind of malaise where retention is slipping steadily, new member sales are lagging and the club just seems to be in a rut. On the surface there is nothing really wrong, but if things were to continue, there would be problems. In these circumstances the clubs need a "tune-up" and mid-course corrections before minor irritations become bona fide challenges.
Member surveys give clubs an excellent diagnostic evaluation of most of the important aspects of a club's health and well-being. These surveys provide members' evaluations of the physical plant such as the amount and quality of fitness equipment, the club's upkeep and cleanliness and overall appearance and appeal. Member surveys provide penetrating insights into staff effectiveness including management, fitness staff, reception staff, program and service staff, personal trainers and maintenance staff. They give an incisive read on the club's important services and programs from pool-related programs to group fitness programs to Pilates and Yoga programs.
With survey findings in hand, clubs are equipped to make major changes and minor course corrections to get the club back on track to success and profitability.
Much of what a club needs to do to fix problems and improve on their strengths is to communicate more effectively with their members. Members need to know that they are not being taken for granted and that what they think and feel is important to the club. And there is no better two-way communication tool than a member survey.
Clubs that get the most value from their member surveys take the time and trouble to merchandise the findings back to their members and to implement as many member suggestions as possible. They do it on a "We asked, you told us, here's what we are doing about it" basis.


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Fenway International Inc. Fundamental Company Report Including Financial, SWOT, Competitors and Industry Analysis
(Coronavirus Impact Assessment - Special Edition)
COVID-19 impact is taken into consideration during the analysisFenway International Inc. Fundamental Company Report provides a complete overview of the company's affairs. All available data is presented in a comprehensive and easily accessed format. The report includes financial and SWOT information, industry analysis, opinions, estimates, plus annual and quarterly forecasts made by stock market experts. The report also enables direct comparison to be made between Fenway International Inc. and its competitors. This provides our Clients with a clear understanding of Fenway International Inc. position in the Industry.
- The report contains detailed information about Fenway International Inc. that gives an unrivalled in-depth knowledge about internal business-environment of the company: data about the owners, senior executives, locations, subsidiaries, markets, products, and company history.
- Another part of the report is a SWOT-analysis carried out for Fenway International Inc.. It involves specifying the objective of the company's business and identifies the different factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective. SWOT-analysis helps to understand company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and possible threats against it.
- The Fenway International Inc. financial analysis covers the income statement and ratio trend-charts with balance sheets and cash flows presented on an annual and quarterly basis. The report outlines the main financial ratios pertaining to profitability, margin analysis, asset turnover, credit ratios, and company's long-term solvency. This sort of company's information will assist and strengthen your company's decision-making processes.
- In the part that describes Fenway International Inc. competitors and the industry in whole, the information about company's financial ratios is compared to those of its competitors and to the industry. The unique analysis of the market and company's competitors along with detailed information about the internal and external factors affecting the relevant industry will help to manage your business environment. Your company's business and sales activities will be boosted by gaining an insight into your competitors' businesses.
- Also the report provides relevant news, an analysis of PR-activity, and stock price movements. The latter are correlated with pertinent news and press releases, and annual and quarterly forecasts are given by a variety of experts and market research firms. Such information creates your awareness about principal trends of Fenway International Inc. business.
About Fenway International Inc.
Fenway International, Inc., a Nevada corporation was incorporated in the State of Nevada in 1984 for the primary purpose of developing mining properties. The Company plans to develop and construct two large commercial grade cement production facilities in the Philippines. The necessary permits and environmental approvals for a proposed facility on the island of Negros Oriental (the Negros Project) has already been received. The Company is required to participate with local corporations in the Philippines in order to commercially exploit Philippine mineral claims and, therefore, the company has incorporated two Philippine corporations.
The Negros Project: In July, 1998, the Company entered into an option agreement (Option Agreement) with Negor RR Cement Corporation, an independent Philippine corporation, for the purpose of forming and operating a Negros mining company (NMC) and a Negros cement manufacturing company (NCC).
The Palawan Project: The Palawan Project has been under development by the company for more than five years in association with local Philippine mining and development interests. The Companys predecessor company, Fenway Resources Ltd., a Delaware corporation, acquired mineral rights to 10,296 hectares in 1992 and 3,200 hectares in 1995 in three contiguous claim blocks on the west central portion of Palawan Island near Scott Point, Municipality of Sofronio Espanola, Palawan, Philippines.
The Company is negotiating with Krupp Polysius to provide the cement plant equipment and with Bilfinger + Berger to engineer and construct the Palawan Project.
Products: If the company develops and constructs its cement manufacturing facilities, the company anticipates producing commercial quantities of Portland cement. Portland cement is a finely ground processed material that, when mixed with sand, gravel, water and other minerals, forms concrete. From the Palawan Project, the company anticipates producing 2.5 million metric tonnes of Portland cement per year.
Marketing and Sales: The Company anticipates that initially the Portland cement produced by the Negros and Palawan Projects will be marketed exclusively in the Philippines, with expanded capacity providing cement to foreign markets, such as Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam and Indonesia (collectively, the Target Countries).
The Negor Corporation (in which the company holds a 90% equity interest) has mineral claims on the island of Negros Oriental in the Philippines, which include significant reserves of limestone and shale suitable for the manufacture of Portland cement. Limestone mineral claims lie near the coastal towns of Guihulngan and La Libertad on the island of Negros Oriental.
The above Company Fundamental Report is a half-ready report and contents are subject to change.
It means that we have all necessary data in our database to prepare the report but need 2-3 days to complete it. During this time we are also updating the report with respect to the current moment. So, you can get all the most recent data available for the same price. Please note that preparation of additional types of analyses requires extra time.
1.1. Key facts
1.2. Financial Performance
1.3. Key Executives
1.4. Ownership and Major Holders
1.5. Company History
2.1. Business Description
2.2. Major Products and Services
2.3. Markets and Sales Activities
2.4. Locations, Subsidiaries, Operating Units
3.1. Overview
3.2. Strengths
3.3. Weaknesses
3.4. Opportunities
3.5. Threats
4.1. Financial Statements
4.1.1. Income Statement
4.1.2. Balance Sheet
4.1.3. Cash Flow
4.2. Financial Ratios
4.2.1. Profitability
4.2.2. Margin Analysis
4.2.3. Asset Turnover
4.2.4. Credit Ratios
4.2.5. Long-Term Solvency
4.2.6. Growth Over Prior Year
4.2.7. Financial Ratios Charts
4.3. Stock Market Snapshot
5.1. Fenway International Inc. Direct Competitors
5.2. Comparison of Fenway International Inc. and Direct Competitors Financial Ratios
5.3. Comparison of Fenway International Inc. and Direct Competitors Stock Charts
5.4. Fenway International Inc. Industry Analysis
5.4.1. Industry Snapshot
5.4.2. Fenway International Inc. Industry Position Analysis
6.1. News & PR Activity Analysis
6.2. IR Corporate News
6.3. Marketing News
6.4. Corporate Events
7.1. Experts Consensus
7.2. Experts Revisions
9.1. Political Factors
9.2. Economic Factors
9.3. Social Factors
9.4. Technological Factors
9.5. Environmental Factors
9.6. Legal Factors
10.1. Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix
10.2. External Factor Evaluation Matrix
10.3. Internal External Matrix
Fenway International Inc. Annual Revenues in Comparison with Cost of Goods Sold and Gross Profit
Profit Margin Chart
Operating Margin Chart
Return on Equity (ROE) Chart
Return on Assets (ROA) Chart
Debt to Equity Chart
Current Ratio Chart
Fenway International Inc. 1-year Stock Charts
Fenway International Inc. 5-year Stock Charts
Fenway International Inc. vs. Main Indexes 1-year Stock Chart
Fenway International Inc. vs. Direct Competitors 1-year Stock Charts
Fenway International Inc. Article Density Chart
1 – Data availability depends on company's security policy.
2 – These sections are available only when you purchase a report with appropriate additional types of analyses.
The complete financial data is available for publicly traded companies.
Fenway International Inc. Key Facts
Management Effectiveness
Income Statement Key Figures
Balance Sheet Key Figures
Cash Flow Statement Key Figures
Financial Performance Abbreviation Guide
Fenway International Inc. Key Executives
Fenway International Inc. Major Shareholders
Fenway International Inc. History
Fenway International Inc. Products
Revenues by Segment
Revenues by Region
Fenway International Inc. Offices and Representations
Fenway International Inc. SWOT Analysis
Yearly Income Statement Including Trends
Income Statement Latest 4 Quarters Including Trends
Yearly Balance Sheet Including Trends
Balance Sheet Latest 4 Quarters Including Trends
Yearly Cash Flow Including Trends
Cash Flow Latest 4 Quarters Including Trends
Fenway International Inc. Profitability Ratios
Margin Analysis Ratios
Asset Turnover Ratios
Credit Ratios
Long-Term Solvency Ratios
Financial Ratios Growth Over Prior Year
Fenway International Inc. Capital Market Snapshot
Fenway International Inc. Direct Competitors Key Facts
Direct Competitors Profitability Ratios
Direct Competitors Margin Analysis Ratios
Direct Competitors Asset Turnover Ratios
Direct Competitors Credit Ratios
Direct Competitors Long-Term Solvency Ratios
Industry Statistics
Fenway International Inc. Industry Position
Company vs. Industry Income Statement Analysis
Company vs. Industry Balance Sheet Analysis
Company vs. Industry Cash Flow Analysis
Company vs. Industry Ratios Comparison
Fenway International Inc. Consensus Recommendations1
Analyst Recommendation Summary1
Price Target Summary1
Experts Recommendation Trends1
Revenue Estimates Analysis1
Earnings Estimates Analysis1
Historical Surprises1
Revenue Estimates Trend1
Earnings Estimates Trend1
Revenue Revisions1
SWOT Analysis
SWOT, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, is an analytical framework that identifies the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable for a company.
Enhanced SWOT Analysis
Enhanced SWOT is a 3×3 grid that arranges strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats into one scheme:
- How to use the strengths to take advantage of the opportunities?
- How to use the strengths to reduce likelihood and impact of the threats?
- How to overcome the weaknesses that obstruct taking advantage of the opportunities?
- How to overcome the weaknesses that can make the threats a reality?
Upon answering these questions a company can develop a project plan to improve its business performance.
PESTEL Analysis
PESTEL (also termed as PESTLE) is an ideal tool to strategically analyze what influence different outside factors – political, economic, sociocultural, technological, environmental and legal – exert on a business to later chart its long term targets.
Being part of the external analysis when carrying out a strategic assessment or performing a market study, PESTEL gives an overview of diverse macro-environmental factors that any company should thoughtfully consider. By perceiving these outside environments, businesses can maximally benefit from the opportunities while minimizing the threats to the organization.
Key Factors Examined by PESTEL Analysis:
- Political – What opportunities and pressures are brought by political bodies and what is the degree of public regulations' impact on the business?
- Economic – What economic policies, trends and structures are expected to affect the organization, what is this influence's degree?
- Sociological – What cultural and societal aspects will work upon the demand for the business's products and operations?
- Technological – What impact do the technological aspects, innovations, incentives and barriers have on the organization?
- Environmental – What environmental and ecological facets, both locally and farther afield, are likely to predetermine the business?
- Legal – What laws and legislation will exert influence on the style the business is carried out?
IFE, EFE, IE Matrices
The Internal Factor Evaluation matrix (IFE matrix) is a strategic management tool helping audit or evaluate major weaknesses and strengths in a business's functional areas. In addition, IFE matrix serves as a basis for identifying and assessing relationships amongst those areas. The IFE matrix is utilised in strategy formulation.
The External Factor Evaluation matrix (EFE matrix) is a tool of strategic management that is typically utilised to assess current market conditions. It is an ideal instrument for visualising and prioritising the threats and opportunities a firm is facing.
The essential difference between the above mentioned matrices lies in the type of factors incorporated in the model; whilst the latter is engaged in internal factors, the former deals exceptionally with external factors – those exposed to social, political, economic, legal, etc. external forces.
Being a continuation of the EFE matrix and IFE matrix models, the Internal External matrix (IE matrix) rests upon an investigation of external and internal business factors integrated into one suggestive model.
Porter Five Forces Analysis
The Porter's five forces analysis studies the industry of operation and helps the company find new sources of competitive advantage. The analysis surveys an industry through five major questions:
- What composes a threat of substitute products and services?
- Is there a threat of new competitors entering the market?
- What is the intensity of competitive rivalry?
- How big is the bargaining power of buyers?
- How significant is the bargaining power of suppliers?
VRIO Analysis
VRIO stands for Value, Rarity, Imitability, Organization. This analysis helps to evaluate all company's resources and capabilities and bring them together into one aggregate table that includes:
- Tangible resources
- Financial
- Physical
- Technological
- Organizational
- Intangible resources
- Human
- Innovation and Creativity
- Reputation
- Organizational capabilities
The result of the analysis gives a clear picture of company's competitive and economic implications, answering the questions if the resources mentioned above are:
- Valuable?
- Rare?
- Costly to imitate?
- Organized properly?


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Salaam and Greetings of Peace:
An interview I did some time ago was just published on the Islam and Science Fiction website about the writing of Master of the Jinn. To read it on the website, click HERE:
Or, read it below:
Aurangzeb: What attracted you to writing fiction in the first place?
Irving: I was not attracted to writing fiction, having written only poetry and articles before getting the idea for Master of the Jinn. The beginning and the end came to me fully formed during zekr, the Sufi meditation, and over the years as I filled in the middle story, I came to the inescapable conclusion that the book was writing me.
Aurangzeb: What are the main themes that inform your work, Master of the Jinn?
Irving: Master of the Jinn is really a Sufi novel, and so the main theme is the Sufi path of Love. The story and characters, by expressing through their words and deeds the courtesy, manners, and loving-kindness of the Path, drive the narrative. Of course, since it also involves the Jinn, those legendary creatures of living fire that have been a part of Arabian myth since pre-Islamic times, there is a fantasy component to it.
Aurangzeb: Are you currently writing or planning to write more novels?
Irving: I am currently working on the sequel to Master of the Jinn, entitled Tale of the Jinn, which will continue the story of the main characters and also present the unknown cosmology of the Jinn race. I am also working on two non-fiction books which I cannot discuss yet.
Aurangzeb: Any thoughts on the connection between Science Fiction and Fantasy?
Irving: I was at one time the publisher and editor of Fantastic Films magazine, which covered Science Fiction and Fantasy films and television, and have come to think that Science Fiction and Fantasy, though they are often grouped together, are two distinct literary forms that may often have the same audience. Good Science Fiction is not fantasy, and good fantasy is not Science Fiction.
Aurangzeb: Any possible foray into Science Fiction by Irving Karchmar?
Irving: Possibly, as I have been considering a First Contact type of novel and may write it eventually.
Aurangzeb: Do you have any favorite Science Fiction author or a favorite novel that you would like to share?
Irving: Indeed! My favorite Science Fiction author is Frank Herbert, the brilliant creator of the Dune series of books. He really is a first rate writer, as well as having a unique and fertile scientific mind for both science and fiction. And of course, J.R.R. Tolkien is unsurpassable in fantasy literature, and its Sword and Sorcery sub-category. Between those two, I am particularly fond of Robert Heinlein and his Lazarus Long books, as well as Stranger in a Strange Land. They are books that I reread every few years, which is the mark of a favorite.
Aurangzeb: Do you think the current political climate effected portrayal of Muslims in fiction?
Irving: Of course! How could it not? Even before 9/11, the only portrayals of Muslims in books and films were mostly of the Palestinian terrorist type, or Arabic or Iranian men who married Western women and ran off with their children to Muslim countries. Until there are positive portrayals of Muslim heroes in fiction, both novels and films, there will only be the Western notion of Muslims as either terrorists or abused hijabis. And it is up to the Muslim author to write the novels and stories that portray Muslims and Islamic culture in a positive light, without the bigoted nonsense of Holocaust denial, or Jewish and Christian Crusader conspiracy theories.
Aurangzeb: What advice do you have for young and burgeoning Muslim authors who may be interested in writing Fantasy or Science Fiction?
Irving: My only advice is to write what you know, and for Muslim authors it would be to write from an Islamic viewpoint, and to not try and emulate Western thinking and writing styles. The Muslim voice is unique in the world, and so should it be written. Science Fiction has few interesting Muslim characters, besides the Fremen of Dune. That is unfortunate, but testifies to the fact that Muslims consider fiction, whether Science Fiction or fantasty, as a form of lying, and so have no history of writing fiction. That has always struck me as ridiculous considering the vast history of Islamic storytellers, from the Arabian Nights to the Sufi teaching tales. Inshallah, it is slowly changing, thanks in part to such organizations as the Islamic Writers Alliance. I would recommend any Muslim author to join it and not be discouraged by the lack of Muslim publishing companies or Muslim literary agencies. Those too will come in time. And I would add that Master of the Jinn has been translated and published in eight languages, all through my own efforts in online marketing and networking, and you can do it too. Never despair, and trust in Allah, and the way will be made clear in His good time.
Ya Haqq!


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Planning Documents
Master Environmental Impact Report (MEIR)
Corridor Studies
Corridor Studies provide guidance and standards for improvements within the street right-of-way, and for development of private properties that have frontage along the corridor.
Design Guidelines Documents
The Neighborhood Compatibility documents consist of two parts: Neighborhood Compatibility Guidelines and Multi-Family Residential Design Guidelines.
General Plan / MEIR
In California, the General Plan has often been described as a "blueprint for future growth" or a "constitution for future development" of a community. The General Plan for Modesto is best described as "a set of instructions on how to build a city."
Specific Plans Documents
View complete documents for Specific Plan areas.
Urban Growth Review Documents
To ensure that Modesto's growth is handled in a fiscally responsible manner, the Modesto City Council adopted an Urban Growth Policy on March 25, 1974.
Zoning Code (MMC - Title 10)
The City of Modesto Zoning Code is contained within the Municipal Code as "Title 10." The Zoning Code sets forth the allowed land uses, site development standards, parking requirements, signage, and other regulatory provisions associated with each zoning district.


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|"Jerusalem Famille Juive" by Charles Chusseau-Flaviens (Credit: George
Eastman House, circa 1900)
It bears the caption "Jerusalem Famille Juive" -- a Jewish family in Jerusalem.
From their dress, we presume it is a Sabbath or Jewish holiday, and some of the shops are shuttered in mid-day. Their walking in the middle of the street suggests that they're in a Jewish neighborhood and are not worried about carriages or horses. And they're walking down an incline.
|Google "Street View" looking up Malchai Yisrael Street in Jerusalem
Over the course of 100 years buildings have been torn down, second stories added, and streets widened.
Are they walking down Jaffa Road toward the Old City? We checked, and the store on the right is not the Ma'ayan Shtub shop.
Perhaps they're walking through the Romema neighborhood on Malchei Yisrael Street toward Meah Shearim and the Old City beyond. Thanks to Google's Street View program, we offer the possibility that the building is this shop with the distinctive rounded window and the two story building behind it with the unusual stonework on the edge of the walls.
We welcome readers' suggestions.
And don't forget to subscribe to www.israeldailypicture.com by entering your email in the box in the right sidebar.


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CABO SAN LUCAS , Mexico, April 4 (UPI) -- Amanda Bynes was spotted having fun under the Mexican sun as she enjoys her first vacation from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising where she began classes in January.
According to TMZ, the recovering actress, who turned 28 on Thursday, took to Cabo San Lucas for spring break.
Bynes was spotted looking fit in a bright green bikini as she spent some time poolside. The trip was reportedly a gift from her parents, who also traveled with her as chaperones.
OMFGG amanda bynes looks so good now pic.twitter.com/v7BLlqvrLZ— ayyjay (@ayyjay_haines) April 4, 2014
TMZ claims Bynes owes her toned figure to her rehab doctors, who reportedly encouraged her to work out daily as part of her new balanced way of living.
The actress' vacation comes a few days after her mother, Lynn, told People magazine that Bynes was "doing extremely well" following her rehab stint at a Malibu treatment facility last year.


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Fringey trio: Three locals featured in D.C. theater festival
Three Charlottesville-based artists are among the line-up at this year's Capital Fringe Festival, a prestigious multi-week assemblage of the performing arts in Washington D.C.
They are Stevie Jay, who performs a monologue about life, love, sex, and death (and bearing those words as its title), Adelind Horan with a one-woman piece about mountaintop removal, and Joel Jones, who calls his 37-minute drama Life Insurance.
Jones plans to give Charlottesville audiences an admission-by-donation preview this Sunday, July 10 at Vivace restaurant on Ivy Road at 8pm and 9:30pm.
"One-person shows bear a kindred spirit," says Stevie Jay, "a longing to tell one's personal stories in a way that reminds audiences of the universal joys and struggles we all share as human beings."
Stevie Jay, who has performed extensively in Northeast theater and on college campuses, says he's always glad to take his show on the road.
"Frankly," he adds, "I've always regarded Charlottesville's embrace of my work as a fluke– one for which I'm eternally grateful."
The Festival runs July 7 - 24.Read more on: stevie jay
2 comments
Great mention. Thanks Hook! and thanks Stevie Jay. Might I mention, for Cry of the Mountain, which is also going to the Edinburgh Fringe in August, if you come from Charlottesville to the Capital Fringe, we'll give you cookies and we'll buy you a beer in the Gypsy tent.
And Charlottesville is well represented:
Joel's show opened tonight. I'm sure great reviews will follow.
Yes, Thanks to TheHook and also Ray for helping spread the word about Life Insurance at Capital Fringe.
DCTheatre Scene review is here: Life Insurance:http://dctheatrescene.com/2011/07/14/life-insurance/
Washington City Paper here: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/fringe/2011/07/14/hip-shots-lif...
"This doesn't feel like a personal piece, as with so many one-person shows, but rather a beautifully structured and written short story, performed aloud. And one week into this year's Fringe, it's my favorite thing that I've seen so far."
Congrats to Whole Theatre's Cry of the Mountain, a Pick of the Fringe at DC Theatre Scene, and to Stevie Jay for a 5 star review on Maryland Theatre Guide!