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Even within the eclectic world of alternative rock, few bands were so brave, so frequently brilliant, and so deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips. From their beginnings as Oklahoma weirdos to their pop culture breakthrough in the mid-'90s to their status as one of the most respected groups of the 2000s, the Lips have ridden one of the more surreal and haphazard career trajectories in pop music. An acid-bubblegum band with as much affinity for sweet melodies as blistering noise assaults, their off-kilter sound, uncommon emotional depth, and bizarre history (packed with tales of self-immolating fans and the like) firmly established them as true originals.
The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma City in 1983, when founder and guitarist Wayne Coyne allegedly stole a collection of musical instruments from an area church hall and enlisted his vocalist brother Mark and bassist Michael Ivins to start a band. Giving themselves the nonsensical name the Flaming Lips (its origin variously attributed to a porn film, an obscure drug reference, or a dream in which a fiery Virgin Mary plants a kiss on Wayne in the backseat of his car), the band made its live debut at a local transvestite club. After progressing through an endless string of drummers, they recruited percussionist Richard English prior to recording their self-titled debut, issued on green vinyl on their own Lovely Sorts of Death label in 1985.
When Mark Coyne soon departed to get married, Wayne assumed full control of the group; in addition to remaining its lead guitarist, he also became the primary singer and songwriter. Continuing on as a trio, the Lips released 1986's Hear It Is, followed a year later by Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips. While touring in support of the Butthole Surfers, they played Buffalo, NY, where they were befriended by concert promoter Jonathan Donahue; after a jam session with Donahue's nascent band Mercury Rev, he and Coyne became close friends, and Donahue eventually signed on as the group's sound technician.
After recording 1988's difficult Telepathic Surgery, English exited, reducing the Lips to the core duo of Coyne and Ivins; after adding drummer Nathan Roberts, Donahue adopted the name Dingus and became a full-time member in time to cut 1990s stellar In a Priest Driven Ambulance while simultaneously recording the brilliant Mercury Rev debut, Yerself Is Steam. Following a series of hopeful phone calls to Warner Bros., the company signed the band in 1991, and in 1992 their oft-delayed major-label debut, Hit to Death in the Future Head, appeared to little commercial notice; Donahue soon exited to focus his full energies on Mercury Rev, followed by the departure of Roberts.
With new guitarist Ronald Jones and drummer Steven Drozd, they cut 1993's sublime Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, which they supported by playing the second stage at Lollapalooza and touring the nation in a Ryder truck. Initially, the album stiffed; however, nearly a year after its initial release, the single "She Don't Use Jelly" became a grassroots hit, and against all odds the Flaming Lips found themselves on the Top 40 charts. They took full advantage of their requisite 15 minutes of fame, appearing everywhere from MTV's annual Spring Break broadcast to an arena tour in support of Candlebox to a memorably surreal lip-synched performance on the teen soap opera Beverly Hills 90210, where supporting character Steve Sanders (portrayed by actor Ian Ziering) uttered the immortal words, "You know, I've never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!"
After the 1994 release of a limited-edition sampler of odds-and-ends titled Providing Needles for Your Balloons, the Lips returned in 1995 with Clouds Taste Metallic, a strikingly mature and diverse collection highlighted by the singles "Bad Days" (also heard in the film Batman Forever), "This He re Giraffe," and "Brainville." Despite the inclusion of the remarkably melodic "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles," "Christmas at the Zoo" (rumored to be under consideration for inclusion on an upcoming John Tesh holiday record), and the epic "Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World," the album nonetheless failed to live up to the commercial success of Transmissions, and the band was once again relegated to cult status.
In 1996, the Lips' world went haywire; first, Jones disappeared to undertake a spiritual odyssey from which he did not return, then Drozd's hand was almost needlessly amputated after he was bitten by a spider. At about the same time, Ivins was the victim of a bizarre hit-and-run accident after a wheel came off of another vehicle and slammed into his car, trapping him inside. Ironically, Coyne was having car problems of his own when rumors of his latest sonic foray -- conducting an orchestra of 40 automobiles, all with their tape decks playing specially composed music at the same time -- prompted fan discussion of his possible psychological collapse. "I would try to tell people what I was doing and found that I couldn't explain it very well," Coyne later remarked about the project, dubbed the Parking Lot Experiment. "Plus, I had a sore on the side of my tongue for a week and it made me talk kind of weird. I'm sure they thought I was retarded."
By the following year, the Flaming Lips (who continued as a trio, opting not to attempt to replace Jones) were back in the studio, recording an album that, according to Coyne, would be "so different and exciting it will either make us millionaires or break us" -- in short, 1997's Zaireeka, a breathtaking and wildly experimental set of four discs designed to be played simultaneously. A previously unreleased track, "Hot Day," also appeared earlier that year on the soundtrack to Richard Linklater's film SubUrbia. A Collection of Songs Representing an Enthusiasm for Recording...by Amateurs, a retrospective of their Restless label material, followed in 1998, and a year later the Lips returned with a breathtaking new studio effort, The Soft Bulletin. After a three-year absence from the shelves, 2002 brought several new releases, including the new record Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and a two-volume retrospective of the Restless years. Yoshimi won the group even more popular and critical acclaim than The Soft Bulletin, which the group maximized by spending half of 2002 appearing with Beck on his Sea Change tour as both his opening act and backing band. The Lips kept busy over the next two years by touring in support of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and working on their movie Christmas on Mars. They returned to the studio in 2004 and spent much of 2005 recording; that year, the Flaming Lips documentary The Fearless Freaks and VOID video collection were both released, whetting fans' appetites for the band's 2006 album, At War with the Mystics. In 2008, the band's long-awaited, seven years in the making film Christmas on Mars made its debut at that spring's Sasquatch Festival in George, WA; that fall, the movie and its soundtrack were released as a CD/DVD set.
- Jason Ankeny, AMG


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An edgy and compelling story of Henry McAllen and his wife Laura as they try to build a living out of the muddy fields in the Mississippi Delta in 1946. Henry loves the land but Laura has to endure the hardships of living with no indoor plumbing or electricity and extreme isolation when it rains and the bridge to town becomes impassable. All this might even be bearable if it wasn't for Henry's hateful racist father who lives with them. There are reverberations of the Second World War when sons return home with demons of their own. It is the friendship of these brothers-in-arms that sets the stage for tragedy and the brutality of prejudice in the deep south. The story, told in riveting personal narratives, had me hooked immediately ( it starts off with the digging of a grave) and I had a hard time putting it down. My only criticism would be that the characters are static and don't develop much. The stuff that happens just happens, there is little growth because of what the characters go through.
Barbara Kingsolver, a well respected author, endorses the book and was a support to Jordan in the writing of it. This was Hillary Jordan's first novel. It was written in 2008 and I don't know how it never came across my radar before. She wrote another in 2011 called 'When She Woke' which reviewers have called provocative and a good choice for book club type discussion. I do look forward to reading it and hope to post on it soon.

subset: commoncrawl


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Pentagon, Regional Staffs Growing Despite Orders to Trim Personnel | Military
Title (Max 100 Characters)
Air Force Times
The size of the Pentagon's vast oversight organizations grew by more than 15 percent from 2010 to 2012, despite efforts to pare down the US Defense Department's bureaucracy, a Defense News analysis has found.
On Aug. 9, 2010, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon needed to cut staff sizes. He made this task part of his efficiencies initiative - an effort to save hundreds of billions of dollars through better business practices. The military services' incentive for accomplishing these tasks was that they would be able to get back some of that money to reinvest in other priorities.
"Constraining the personnel available is one way to force this painful but necessary process to take place," Gates said then. "Therefore, I am directing a freeze on the number of OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense], defense agency and combatant command [COCOM] positions, at the FY10 levels, for the next three years."
But almost three years later, staff sizes within OSD, the Joint Staff and COCOMs have grown, prompting a new round of calls from senior Pentagon officials and defense observers to truncate the so-called "fourth estate."
The Joint Staff, for example, grew from 1,286 people in 2010 to 4,244 people in 2012, a 230 percent increase.
"The problem is the bureaucracy is more resilient than even the most powerful secretary," said Arnold Punaro, a retired Marine Corps major general, consultant and member of the Defense Business Board.
Unlike prior efforts to cut back staff positions, however, DoD officials have more of an incentive to do so now, experts say. Since DoD's budget is capped and with more defense spending cuts on the horizon, maintaining staff size means reducing spending in other areas, such as training, research and weapon procurement.
Even though staff sizes grew over the past three years despite efforts to freeze or reduce them, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has made reducing this type of overhead a major priority.
Hagel signaled the rise in overhead costs during his first major policy speech in early April at National Defense University. He said DoD needs to "pare back the world's largest back office.
"Prior efficiency campaigns yielded substantial savings from the services, and some from the DoD elements known as the 'Fourth Estate,' which consists ... of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the combatant commands and the defense agencies and field activities - the Missile Defense Agency as well as those that provide health care, intelligence and contracting support," Hagel said. "We need to relook at funding for these activities, which won't be easy."
The Growth
Between 2010 and 2012, OSD, the Joint Staff and COCOMs added about 4,500 positions, according to a Defense News analysis of multiple DoD personnel documents and interviews with experts. More than 65 percent of the staff size growth was within the Joint Staff, the organization at the Pentagon that oversees the uniformed military and global operations.
The staff sizes do not include the thousands of contractors working within each organization.
The majority of the growth within the Joint Staff stems from the closure of US Joint Forces Command (JFCOM), which promoted and organized training between the military services. Gates ordered the closure of JFCOM in 2010.
That year, the Joint Staff had just shy of 1,300 military and civilian positions. In 2012, that number rose to more than 4,200.
About 2,500 of these positions were directly attributed to absorbing Joint Forces Command's duties and responsibilities, Joint Staff spokesman Lt. Col. Larry Porter said.
"They say they closed JFCOM," Punaro said. "They did not close ... they added them to the Joint Staff."
This year, the Joint Staff has cut more than 1,000 positions and has about 3,100 military and civilian billets, Porter said. And more cuts are on the way as another 100 positions - possibly more - are marked for elimination in 2014.
Collectively, the Joint Staff and COCOMs are planning to cut 400 headquarters staff positions over the next five years, which the Pentagon says is part of a nearly $900 million overhead savings plan, according to DoD data within a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
OSD is authorized to have 2,540 positions, said a Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Tom Crosson, slightly down from 2,665 in 2012.
But when contractors are included, that number is much higher. When Punaro looked into Pentagon staff sizes for Gates, he found about 5,000 people - civilian, military and contractors - working at OSD.
"They need to bite the bullet in their own backyard if you are the secretary of defense and you want the rest of the Pentagon to tighten their belt," Punaro said.
Trimming the Fat
DoD operates six COCOMs that oversee military operations in different parts of the world. Each of those commands is supported by a subordinate, service-specific command. For example, Army Pacific, Marine Forces Pacific, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Air Forces are the service components of US Pacific Command.
Experts say DoD can trim more fat there by eliminating redundant positions across the COCOMs and the subordinate service commands.
In a May report, GAO - the nonpartisan, investigative arm of Congress - found significant overlap between the service-supporting commands and the COCOMs. Overlap is common in a variety of positions, such as collecting intelligence, coordinating operations, performing strategic planning and policy and supporting communications.
"Even though the combatant commands rely on the service component commands' personnel to support their missions and operational requirements, they do not have oversight or visibility into the service component commands' authorized manpower or how the components determine the size and structure of their staff to support the combatant commands' missions," GAO said. "Based on our analysis of data that we gathered, in fiscal year 2012, there were 7,795 authorized positions at the headquarters of the service component commands, which was more than double the 3,817 authorized positions at the headquarters of the combatant commands."
Moreover, the COCOMs do not have clear information regarding personnel assigned to the supporting service commands.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, civilian positions at the COCOMs - not including US Central Command - almost doubled from 2,370 in 2004 to 4,450 in 2012, according to GAO. However, the number of authorized military positions decreased about 9 percent from 6,250 to 5,670 across that same period.
The headquarters support costs, including civilian pay, contract services, travel and equipment reviewed by GAO at the COCOMs, more than doubled from $500 million in 2007 to $1.1 billion in 2012. Contract services and civilian pay were the primary drivers of the increase, GAO said.
During a budget-cutting drill conducted by four Washington think tanks - the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), Center for Strategic and International Studies, Center for New American Security and American Enterprise Institute - teams from each cut DoD's nearly 800,000 civilian workforce by between 82,000 and 263,000 people.
"I think that that's remarkable, given the range in strategies, the range of view of people [participating] that they had so much agreement in this area in particular," said Todd Harrison, a CSBA analyst who helped organize the drill.
The Pentagon also estimates it has more than 700,000 contractors working alongside its civilian and military workforce, but the exact number is unknown.
"They cannot really tell you, [and] Congress is frustrated," Punaro said.
Estimates peg the number of contractors as high as 700,000, around the same size as the Pentagon's entire civilian workforce.
"In business, if you cannot control your headcount, you are doomed," Punaro said. "So, they do not control their headcount, and they do not have mechanisms to control the headcount. There ought to be someone that owns headcount, and you cannot increase it without higher authority."


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I used Photoshop Elements and Fuzzimo for the images. Frame, corkboard, push pins and post-it note.
It was a busy weekend around here. I scored some great finds in garage sales and I worked on a project I hope to share with you this week. But a good chunk of my time was spent helping Sun Kissed Boy #1 with his first school project. The topic was Rosa Parks.
He had great ideas on what to research on the internet and how to translate it into a written report.
The project also required the students to make an informational poster. This was what he came up with.
I was so proud of him and his enthusiasm to take on the project. Specially since it can be difficult to concentrate around here at times.
How did you spend the weekend?
Pin It


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Excellent Choice
Central Market
Baby Spinach & Baby Kale
85 g
Health Tip
Only 1 out of every 10 Americans eats enough fruits and vegetables each day. Are you that 1 in 10? Aim to eat 3-5 servings of veggies every day (frozen counts!). Get hints and tips on adding more veggies to your diet when you join the ShopWell community. It's free!


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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Chris Harris Jr., the tape review shows, had just one substandard game this season, and it was against New England. In that late-November Broncos loss, Harris, Denver's best cover cornerback, frequently drew the unenviable matchup with Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. Gronkowski caught seven passes for 90 yards and a touchdown that day, giving the NFL a fleeting glimpse of what the Pats' offense looked like at full strength.
Blink and you missed it.
That matchup, it turns out, is symbolic of the Patriots-Broncos rematch that will take place in Sunday's AFC Championship Game. Gronkowski already has undergone surgery to repair the torn knee ligament that ended his seasonin Week 14. Harris, meanwhile, will soon follow Gronkowski under the knife; on Monday, the Broncos announced that he, too, has a torn knee ligament, suffered in Sunday's divisional-round victory over the Chargers. The loss of the Patriots' best offensive weapon and the Broncos' best defensive player this season has provided what will be widely billed as a battle between the two greatest quarterbacks of their era with a more sobering subplot: the fight against attrition.
"I don't think this whole (year), we have had a consistent starting lineup," Broncos defensive tackle Terrance Knighton said.
GMC Never Say Never Moment
Pats coach Bill Belichick's facility for dealing with injuries -- he covets versatile players, and those who have played for him have said he cultivates and develops backups as if he is managing a farm team while also coaching the big-league squad -- has been tested this season by an avalanche of loss. It began when Wes Welker left in free agency and Aaron Hernandez was arrested, and it continued even into last week, when linebacker Brandon Spikes was placed on injured reserve just before the Patriots beat the Colts in the divisional round of the playoffs. It is why the opponent the Broncos will face on Sunday looks more like a vintage Patriots team -- circa 2001, featuring a power running attack -- than the more recent pass-reliant incarnations or even, remarkably, the opponent Denver lost to less than two months ago.
This is a "through the looking glass" moment for the Patriots, who are one game away from making their sixth trip to the Super Bowl in the Tom Brady era while largely taking the ball out of Brady's hands. In that Week 12 victory over the Broncos, Brady completed 34 of his 50 pass attempts for 344 yards and three touchdowns. Against the Colts on Saturday? Brady completed just 13 passes, and all six New England touchdowns came on the ground. In fact, the Patriots rushed for 234 yards, completing a two-game stretch in which they ran an astonishing 63 percent of the time.
The Broncos' injuries have been less heralded but no less trying -- left tackle Ryan Clady, defensive tackle Kevin Vickerson, cornerback Champ Bailey and linebacker Von Miller have missed significant chunks of the season (Miller was suspended for the first six games, then was lost with a torn ACL in late December). Harris going down, though, feels like a tipping point -- and could present a temptation for the Patriots.
Harris played more defensive snaps than any other Broncos player in the regular season, and his versatility -- he could play on either side, outside or in the slot -- gave Denver tremendous flexibility in how to deploy others. For instance, Bailey, limited by a foot injury, had worked mostly in the slot; he is now one of the candidates to move outside to replace Harris.
Harris' importance to the Broncos was obvious from the moment he was lost midway through the third quarter on Sunday. Suddenly -- and not coincidentally -- San Diego's Philip Rivers began throwing and connecting, targeting Harris' replacement, Quentin Jammer, who admitted later that mental mistakes led to his poor play. The Chargers scored 17 fourth-quarter points, including two touchdown passes to Keenan Allen.
"It was obvious," Broncos safety Mike Adams said. "When Chris went down, things started to unravel a little bit on the back end. Jam -- I'm not worried about him. He gave up a big play, but he could bounce back. He's been in the league a long time. We've all had bad games before, and we've all slipped up and done something to give up something before. He always bounces back. So I'm not worried about that. It's just little things, little technique things that he can fix. He hadn't been getting reps all week -- and to step into that role is huge. Jam, I'm not worried about at all."
Whatever the Broncos decide to do about covering for Harris' loss, the Patriots will have a decision of their own to make. Do they have enough confidence in their receivers to revive their aerial attack against an anemic pass defense that has, in less than a month, lost its best pass rusher in Miller and its best coverage man in Harris? Or do they stick with a running game that has worked well for a month -- but which simply might not be able to produce enough points to stay with the Broncos' offense?
FedEx Air & Ground Players of Year
Peyton Manning set new NFL single-season records for passing yards (5,477) and touchdowns (55). Was it the best performance for a quarterback in 2013?
In a more routine season, that question would be laughable. After all, Brady and Peyton Manning are largely responsible for cementing this as the most pass-intensive era in the history of football. This is true in terms of both their play and the rule changes that were enacted because of their styles, like the prohibition on defensive players lunging at a quarterback's legs (after Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury) and the emphasis on penalizing downfield contact against receivers (after Patriots defenders mauled Colts receivers in the first AFC Championship Game between Manning and Brady).


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Jerky Seasonings
Nesco® Jerky Seasonings are well liked for making homemade beef jerky and/or venison jerky. Choose from the several mild or bold Nesco® jerky spice flavors that we offer. Not sure which jerky flavor to choose? Try our Nesco® Variety Jerky Spice Pack or one of our 2 packs of jerky spice and cure.


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Wildfires Threaten Summer Rocky Mountain Tourism
Colorado is having its worst wildfire season in a decade, with more than a half dozen forest fires burning across the state's parched terrain. Some hotels and campgrounds are emptying ahead of the busy Fourth of July holiday. And some vacation hotspots far from the flames worry they'll be affected, too.
A blaze near Colorado Springs, at the base of Pikes Peak, grew to more than 6 square miles Sunday, prompting evacuation orders for 11,000 residents and an unknown number of tourists. Many were allowed to return by Monday, but smoke and haze at times obscured Pikes Peak, the most-summited high-elevation mountain in the nation and inspiration for the song "America The Beautiful."
Meanwhile, the resort town of Estes Park near Rocky Mountain National Park was recovering a quick-moving blaze that destroyed 22 homes, many of them vacation cabins.
A few guests at the Blue Skies Inn at the base of Pikes Peak had already canceled when they saw plumes of smoke on TV Saturday. The remaining nine rooms had to be emptied after midnight Sunday, the bed-and-breakfast's first evacuation in 15 years.
"We just went room to room, knocked on doors and said, 'We need to boogie now,'" said manager Mike Dutcher. The inn was back open Monday when the evacuation was lifted, but Dutcher said his business is still in danger — from edgy tourists who may avoid Colorado because of the fires.
Dutcher remembers a brutal wildfire season a decade ago, when a former governor famously told news cameras "all of Colorado is on fire." The governor was referring to a blaze that was many miles from Pikes Peak, but Dutcher said the effect was immediate.
"The phones didn't ring for three days during the height of the season, and when they started ringing again, it was cancellations," Dutcher said. "It's something that needs to be handled carefully. Tourism is a big business in Colorado, and if you hyperventilate when CNN shows up, it hurts a lot of people."
Even while other large fires burn across the West, Colorado's blazes have demanded half the nation's firefighting fleet, according to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.
In a signal of how serious the nation's fire threat has become, the U.S. Forest Service asked the Air Force to activate four C-130 cargo planes equipped to drop water or fire retardant. The Forest Service is allowed to request the planes only when all private tanker planes already are fighting fires or are unavailable for use.
The C-130s are expected to be ready by Tuesday but officials haven't said where they would be deployed. Two are from the Wyoming Air National Guard in Cheyenne, Wyo., and two from the Colorado Air Force Reserve at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.
Also over the weekend, residents of a subdivision near the northern Colorado city of Fort Collins learned that 57 more homes in their neighborhood had been lost to the High Park Fire, which already had claimed 191 homes, authorities said.
The High Park Fire is the second-largest wildfire and among the most expensive in Colorado's history. It has scorched more than 130 square miles and was just 45 percent contained.
Elsewhere, firefighters were hoping lighter winds would assist make progress against wildfires in Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and California.


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|Crabbe Sr.
|Biographical information
|Blood status
|Marital status
|Physical information
|Skin colour
|Family information
|Family members
Slytherin (possibly)
- "Welcome, Death Eaters! Thirteen years it's been, and yet, here you stand as if it were only yesterday. We are still united under the Dark Mark then! Or are we?"
- —Voldemort greeting his Death Eaters in the Little Hangleton graveyard.[src]
Crabbe Sr. was a pure-blood wizard, a Death Eater and the father of Vincent Crabbe. Crabbe fought at the First Wizarding War. He didn't search for Lord Voldemort after his downfall, but this was forgiven in 1995, after Voldemort's return at the Little Hangleton graveyard, in which Crabbe was present. Crabbe fought at several battles of the Second Wizarding War, including the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, after which he was imprisoned in Azkaban. Crabbe possibly escaped in 1997 and fought at the Battle of Hogwarts, during which his son, Vincent, was accidentally killed by his own Fiendfyre. After the battle, Crabbe was presumably killed or imprisoned in Azkaban.
Early lifeEdit
Mr. Crabbe was born into the Crabbe family, possibly as a relative of Irma Crabbe, member of the House of Black.
At an unknown time, Crabbe joined the Death Eaters.
First Wizarding WarEdit
Crabbe was a Death Eater during the First Wizarding War and was loyal to his master up until his downfall. Around the downfall of Voldemort, Crabbe and his wife had a baby boy, Vincent Crabbe, who would be educated at Hogwarts from 1991 to 1998, and he became friends with Gregory Goyle and Draco Malfoy. Crabbe then declared that he had been under the Imperius Curse to avoid Azkaban after his master's downfall.
Second Wizarding WarEdit
Crabbe was one of the few Death Eaters who returned to Lord Voldemort when he rose to power again in 1995. Voldemort was displeased when he learned that Crabbe didn't attempt to find him, but he forgave him.
Battle of the Department of MysteriesEdit
- "We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary..."
- —Lucius Malfoy gives orders to the group of Death Eaters[src]
During the Second Wizarding War, Crabbe participated in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in 1996, and was paired with Rabastan Lestrange during the pursuit of the six D.A. members, and was likely imprisoned in Azkaban, but escaped in 1997.
Battle of HogwartsEdit
During the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, Crabbe's son Vincent (who had also become a Dark Wizard) died by the effects of his own Fiendfyre curse. Crabbe's reaction over his son's death is unknown. Crabbe fought at the Battle of Hogwarts too.
Crabbe was presumably imprisoned in Azkaban after Voldemort's final defeat.
Behind the scenesEdit
- It is not specified if Crabbe attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
- In the film adaption of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Crabbe may have been played by Philip Rham, but as he is only credited as "Death Eater" this isn't known for sure.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) (Mentioned as 'dad')
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (Appears as a generic Death Eater)
Notes and referencesEdit
- ↑ See this interview; "Samantha: Was snape the only death eater who could produce a full patronus J.K. Rowling: Yes, because a Patronus is used against things that the Death Eaters generally generate, or fight alongside. They would not need Patronuses."
Lord Voldemort
|Death Eaters:
Alecto Carrow | Amycus Carrow | Antonin Dolohov | Augustus Rookwood | Avery (I) | Avery (II) |
Barty Crouch Jr. | Bellatrix Lestrange | Crabbe | Evan Rosier | Gibbon | Goyle |
Jugson | Lestrange | Mulciber (I) | Mulciber (II) | Nott | Rabastan Lestrange | Rodolphus Lestrange | Rosier | Selwyn | Thorfinn Rowle | Travers | Walden Macnair | Wilkes | Yaxley
|Death Eaters who Defected:
Draco Malfoy | Igor Karkaroff | Lucius Malfoy | Peter Pettigrew | Regulus Black | Severus Snape
|Category:Death Eater allies:
Vincent Crabbe | Golgomath | Gregory Goyle | Fenrir Greyback | Narcissa Malfoy (defected) |
Quirinus Quirrell | Scabior | Dolores Umbridge
|Other affiliations:
Dementors | Giants (Golgomath's control) | Muggle-Born Registration Commission | Snatchers | Werewolves


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U.S. and coalition forces have attacked Libya's military capability to attack civilian and rebel forces. Moammar Khadafy and his repressive regime is getting the message that his people desire freedom.
He will no longer be allowed to kill men, women and children so he can remain in power.
The people of Libya and the rest of the Middle East are demanding the rights of all people which includes life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hope and pray that Libya truely achieves a true democracy.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Glen Oaks Villag


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Teammates Denny Hamlin (L) and Matt Kenseth: fast Toyotas, fast drivers. But will Sunday's California 400 feature great racing and a big crowd? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
Good grief!
What's Denny Hamlin up to now?
He's on the pole for Sunday's California 400....yet another way to make headlines this spring.
The new stock car racing season is barely a month old and Denny Hamlin has gotten in trouble and out of trouble how many times now?
Is this Charlie Brown, or Dennis the Menace?
Let's see:
At Daytona Denny was going at it hard with Carl 'Bad Luck' Edwards off the second turn in their 150, and side-by-side simply didn't work over there.
Hamlin managed to finish 14th in the single-file 500, and afterwards griped about Joey Logano, his former teammate, messing up the low line during the race.
That complaint would prove to be more than idle bickering....
Then at Phoenix Hamlin, with a good pit call by crew chief Darian Grubb, rallied to finish third, missing by only a foot on a daring pass for second on the apron the last lap.
Afterwards Hamlin griped about the Phoenix tires being too hard, and tossed in a comment -- obviously valid, based on his victory at Phoenix last spring, and his second place run at Phoenix last fall -- about how the new 2013s aren't quite as good as the old COTs. NASCAR executives took umbrage, blindsided Hamlin with a $25,000 fine, and raised an amazing storm of fan protest.
Hamlin did okay in the Las Vegas 400 three days later, in the hunt for the victory until foiled by a late caution.
Which led into Bristol.....where a conversation between NASCAR CEO Brian France and Hamlin was aimed at defusing that controversy.
Joey Logano is none too happy with getting walled by former teammate Denny Hamlin at Bristol (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
Then, just a day or so after 'winning' that war in the court of public opinion, Hamlin squandered some of his 'winnings' in Sunday's 500 when he put Logano into the wall while they were both chasing for the lead.
Logano, naturally, didn't take kindly to that. After the race he charged over to Hamlin's car to make that clear.
Not so much, in the grand picture of NASCAR history. But as lackluster as the season has gone so far, it will have to do.
Tony Stewart won last spring's California 400, but the race was marred by rain and ended early, much too early, just past halfway. How much effect might that rain-shortened event have on this weekend's crowd in the key Los Angeles market track? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
Now California:
"I told my crew I could pretty much guarantee the pole had we qualified anywhere 20th or later," Hamlin says. "I knew our car was just ridiculous fast in qualifying trim."
And Joe Gibbs' Toyotas have been fast this season, for sure.
However reliability is still something of a cloud over the Toyota camp: several engines lost at Daytona, and several engines lost at Bristol.
Now how believable Sprint Cup drivers can be, in the wake of all those heavy-handed NASCAR penalties, is up for debate. Daytona officials seem to like their drivers 'plain vanilla,' for some reason.
Still, here's what Hamlin is saying about the flat two-mile California Speedway layout:
"I love this race track. A lot of the reason is because it's bumpy and worn out, and we got tire fall-off, like three seconds between the beginning of a run and the end of a run. That always makes for good racing.
"If you polled the drivers, this is one of the favorite race tracks that we go to."
This track has put on some of the most boring NASCAR racing ever since it opened in 1997. The banking is much too flat (14 degrees, versus 18 degrees at Michigan, a similarly designed track), and the speeds are much too fast, well over 210 mph into the corners.
No wonder the track, despite all the amenities provided by Gillian Zucker, has such a problem drawing a crowd, despite its prime location at the junction of the I-15 and I-10, two of the busiest interstates in the country.
And the new 2013s are even faster than last year's COTs, which has even NASCAR pondering a possible cut in horsepower sometime this season. However that may come too late to save Sunday's 400.
Why the Daytona-NASCAR Frances have steadfastly refused to add banking to this track, as some have suggested, seems inexplicable. How many times has Homestead-Miami been redesigned?
After all, the Los Angeles market is the biggest market that this sport plays in, and it's one of the world's most important -- and diverse -- cities.
In fact, for a cash-strapped sport like NASCAR racing, the Los Angeles market, and economic engine, should be prime: only Tokyo and New York City generate more pure capital.
NASCAR's repeated failures in this key market should point directly toward poor management right at the top.
Of course if Denny Hamlin, or any other driver, were to say that, he'd be dinged with a big fine.
The San Gabriel Mountains make such a grand backdrop to NASCAR's Los Angeles anchor track. But the racing itself almost never lives up to what it should be, and sometimes it appears that Daytona-NASCAR executives have simply written off this market -- even though it's one of the three most important economic markets in the world. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
I dont know about you and everyone else but i've been a die hard Nascar fan since 2004 and I love Auto Club Speedway! Yeah some banking im sure will come when they repave this track in the near future but they get good crowds... They only have tarp on one side of the stands this year... There will be a good 80,000 people there today! CALI LOVE
Call me new school but I like the bigger tracks 1.0-1.5-2.0 and so one more so than the short tracks!
My top 3 favorite tracks
Auto Club (CALI)
I have been watching NASCAR since about 1970. Very good racing occurred on the 1.5 to 2 mile tracks in the distant past.
I watched a race in person at Michigan in 1978. Good racing at these tracks probably ended in the 1980s. It can happen again if NASCAR ever gets its act together.
14 degree banks are not ideal for high speed Nascar tracks. California needs more banking or no banking. Several years ago Ms. Zucker floated the idea of much steeper banking and plate racing at Cali, it fell on deaf ears at Nascar. I think another plate race would be cool. Lowering the banks would be good too, ala Pocono. Something needs to change about Cali, one way or another. Another great article by Mike, keep 'em coming, you are one of the best writers!
I feel ISC can't operate Fontana at a loss, and it is going to be sold. I feel there's no NASCAR Energy (See Atlanta) in a hardcore market and worse, I want Irwindale in my future or Kern County for Cup. Fontana ain't doing us good. A change to Nashville, North Wilkesboro, Atlanta and Birmingham will do us good.
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A 33-year-old Kelowna teacher will not have to return to Chetwynd, where she had lived during a short marriage, to ensure her ex-husband has access to the couple's daughter, the B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled.
The decision overturns a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that gave Heather McIntosh custody of the child, but ruled it was in the child's best interest for her to return to Chetwynd — where her ex-husband Stephen Kaulbach resides — so he could have easier access to their child. The girl is now two years old.
The B.C. Supreme Court judge had also noted that both parents could maximize their earnings working in Chetwynd.
The woman had been earning $69,000 a year working as a math teacher in Chetwynd, a figure that dropped to $40,000 a year when she moved to the Okanagan.
The ex-husband was working as a mine electrician at the time of the earlier trial, earning $95,000 a year working two weeks on and two weeks off.
McIntosh had argued that since the judge initially ruled she should have custody, it was not open to him to order her to relocate.
The Court of Appeal agreed. "While a court may prohibit a parent from relocating a child, or a court may make a custody order that indirectly limits a parent's mobility, 'a court cannot indenture an individual to a community.' "
The Court of Appeal also ruled the father can still have parenting time with his daughter for five consecutive nights during each of his 14-day rest periods from work. But he must travel by air and is not at liberty to take her to Chetwynd from Kelowna, or return by road.
In addition, if he fails to take up his parenting time during one of his rest periods from work, he cannot make up for that missed visit.
He must also give the mother seven days notice on whether he plans to exercise his parenting time during one of his work rest periods.
The cost of all travel to see his daughter is his responsibility, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled.
B.C. Court of Appeal overturns divorce ruling that forced mother to move
A 33-year-old Kelowna teacher will not have to return to Chetwynd, where she had lived during a short marriage, to ensure her ex-husband has access to the couple's daughter, the B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled.


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matchstick is offline
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5800 not what Nokia expected ?
(This is all idle speculation, just some random thoughts I had last night while tromping through the snow with my dog.)
I think Nokia has actually messed up with the 5800.
When I first heard about the 5800 I was a little surprised they weren't rolling out an N Series device as the first phone to use the touch screen.
Then came the pricing announcement from Nokia.
Not only was the 5800 going to have touch and a decent hardware spec, it was going to be affordable.
That's not what we normally expect from Nokia. Previous new technology (wifi, GPS) has been rolled out in N series devices first and with a serious price premium and only filtered down to the ordinary people's phones later
But I have a theory that might explains this new direction- The Nokia 5800 wasn't meant to be very good.
However much S60 Touch may be an evolution of the traditional OS it's still very new and Nokia realised it's going to take alot of work to get it sorted and I suspect they thought they were pretty unlikely to get it right with their first handset.
If the first touch device they released was a buggy N series handset with a high price and high expectation they would be rightly slammed for any problems that were encountered.
But if they released it as a non-N series, budget-priced smartphone, the reviews could point out that the OS isn't actually production ready but the novelty and low price would ensure enough were sold to make it worthwhile and much more importantly Nokia is getting lots of great feedback on how people want to use touch devices.
Feedback that could be ploughed into the second generations of phones like the N97 which (I suspect) is the phone Nokia expected to really sell the touch interface.
The mistake I think Nokia made is that the 5800 worked. Worked REALLY well. It isn't the almost unusable mess that many people (including me to some degree) were expecting. And as a result of this (and the agressive pricing) it's sold extremely well.
Which leaves Nokia in a dilema. The 5800 is eating the N97s (and N95/96's as well) market and in the middle of a recession how on Earth do you sell an N series phone that's probably going to cost twice as much as the cheep and cheerful 5800.
If the 5800 was no better than a beta test platform, good for generating a buzz about the Touch interface "Once nokia get it working properly it'll be great" and getting feedback then the N97 could concentrate on taking the fight to the iPhone, palm Pre and Windows Mobile devices.
How much are people really willing to pay extra for a slide out QWERTY keyboard and myfacespacebook widgets on the standby screen ?
Not that much I suspect so unless Nokia can match the 5800s budget pricing with the N97 then I fear the upcoming N series device may have already lost to it's little brother.
It'll be interesting to see what Nokia do.
Can they afford to abandon the 5800 (as they have so many other phones) in the hope that not releasing more firmware will drive people to the N97 ?
Will they pitch the N97 as a budget N series device maybe £50-100 above the 5800 price and if they do what effect would that have on other N series devices and the N-series brand itself ?
Or will Nokia not look a gift horse in the mouth and put real marketing and R&D effort behind the 5800 and push it as their "iphone killer" in the mass market, perhaps really supporting the CWM idea in the process (I suspect this could be an absolutely killer CWM phone)
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Richdog is offline
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Very interesting post with some very accurate observations...
Personally I think with the 5800 it's simple, they want to steal the market. An awesome little touch-based handset priced like this is unheard of... and the 2 million sold so far will only be the beginning. If every contract is giving these babies away for next to nothing then soon EVERYONE is going to be wanting one of these, they could quite literally revolutionise the market. However as you say this has to affect sales of higher end phones, and I think Nokia will have to price them more than a little competetively in order to get people to upgrade.
The N97 could be a dream machine if they upgrade the CPU and add GPU acceleration. I'll probably buy it anyway though. Wonder when it's due for release... i'm thinking maybe March. Either way if it's priced well and performs to spec i'll be buying one as I just can't face buying a 5800 and using that god-awful camera for my impromptu vids and snaps that I take on many occasions. If it had of had a Xenon flash i'd have been in heaven, mnissed opportunity there I feel.
It will take a special device to upgrade my N82, a device that I feel is among the best ever produced not only by Nokia but by any manufacturer ever. Not only is the device speedy and stable, but the camera is fantastic (for a mobile), the GPS is rock solid (it's my primary navigating device), and I must have dropped it about ten times and while it's a little scuffed, it never skips a beat.
Roll on the new touch-based N series...
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Tzer2 is offline
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However much S60 Touch may be an evolution of the traditional OS it's still very new and Nokia realised it's going to take alot of work to get it sorted and I suspect they thought they were pretty unlikely to get it right with their first handset.
Yeah, I think that's pretty much what they might have thought.
They're a company that brings out lots of models a year that gradually evolve, they don't do distinct generations.
But I think it's a fair enough bargain, the 5800 is pretty darn good for the price. I can't think of any other phone that even comes close for that kind of money.
The N97 is probably going to be their first real shot at getting an "iphone killer", I've never thought the 5800 was such a device because it's aimed at a totally different audience.
Will they pitch the N97 as a budget N series device maybe £50-100 above the 5800 price
No they won't, the N97 will probably cost about twice as much as the 5800 (and the iPhone also costs about twice as much as the 5800).
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iPhone killer I really dislike that comparison.
Nokia has built what I believe to be a device with really wide appeal, a good example is my colleague in the office he said "wow that's nice" as soon as he saw it and he is NEVER impressed with phones! He is now checking with O2 to see if he can get one.
The 5800XM will appeal to loads of young music conscious consumers who do not want the costs associated with the iPhone (And even more importantly their parents who will be buying it!)
The N97 is a business orientated device the iPhone is a non technical consumer orientated device they are not IMHO chasing the same customers.
I say the 5800XM is NOT an iPhone Killer it IS a market winner!
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bartmanekul is offline
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Very interesting post indeed, though I feel perhaps theres a few things different.
I don't think the 5800 will take much away form the N97. The N97 is going to be a hefty price, and I feel it's going to attract a different type of users, mainly due to cost, size (it's ruddy huge) and having a slide out qwerty.
However, what it could well have done is kill anything inbetween the N97 and 5800. Something a bit better specced than the 5800, but presumably a lot more expensive (especially if its N series).
5MP cam, and FM transmitter being a few.
But who would pay for that if they already have the 5800? Dispite really wanting the FM transmitter (I loved it in the brief time I had a N85), I don't think I am prepared to stump up an extra £100 odd, for those specs and a few widgets.
Just goes to show you don't really need the huge advertising. I hear there is now adverts on TV, but it had already sold a huge amount before they came on.
But I imagine your right. I suspect very few, if any at Nokia expected sales like this. The thing is flying off the shelves, and rightly so. It's a damned good device.
The 5800XM will appeal to loads of young music conscious consumers who do not want the costs associated with the iPhone (And even more importantly their parents who will be buying it!)
I have to say, while your right in one respect, it's certainly not only those who are interested. I myself am keeping this phone, and I use it for work also. Mail for exchange, and various other boring worky things. I am certainly not into music like most people. I know of many people like me that feel phones like the N97 are just far too big.
I think it's an amazingly good device, sure it could do with some tweaks - the one/two tap consistancy, being able to change options on the drop down media menu from the top button, more use of screen real estate, but nothing huge.
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macwhu is offline
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Originally Posted by
nitro fan
The N97 is a business orientated device the iPhone is a non technical consumer orientated device they are not IMHO chasing the same customers.
not at all E series is business orientated
N series is very much consumer focused.
just the more demanding / get it free on contract market.
N95 sold by the skip load to people that use 5% of its ability.
5800 is the budget contracts / PAYG market.
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kuliand is offline
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Yes it will be interesting to see what nokia do with pricing the n97 compared to the 5800 i just can't see what they can add to take the sim free past £400 which would be around £150 more than the 5800 will people really want to pay that much more just for the keyboard plus slightly bigger screen etc? i guess the sort of people who use the forum might but the general public won't understand most of the differences.
Also on a slight side note i could of seen the n97 doing better than it will if it had a different operating system to the 5800 e.g. symbian OS 10 which would be nokia's rival to palm's webOS.
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Rafe is offline
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I do know what you mean, but I think you have to recognise that they are more different you may realise. The materials of the N97 feel a lot more like a high-end device (though this is a matter of taste). I also would not under estimate the form factor difference - they keyboard makes it a very much more flexible and capable device. Then there's the 5 megapixel camera, bigger screen size, FM transmitter, extra 40 GB of memory and multimedia software extras. And it runs a faster processor. Has N-Gage etc etc.
I think a lot of this is to do with the fact that the 5800 is out now... I mean I might compare the 6220 or even the 6120 to say the N95 8GB and that would be a valid comparison to 5800 to N97.... However its different this time because the 5800 is the only S60 5th Edition device. Would something like the 6220 have sold like hot cakes if it came out before the N95? Its not quite a valid comparison, but hopefully you take the point.
Yes early adopters may stick with the 5800, but honestly I'm not sure how many people that would apply to. This is the sort of person who will happily buy the 5800 SIM free and then use their contract to get an N97.
That said the price point will be very interesting, but I reckon market segmentation will win out. However I do think the 5800 might driver greater overall sales. In others words it will expand Nokia's addressable market for smartphones.
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DougWeller is offline
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Rafe, how does the 5800 compare in feel/materials to the Nokia Navigator?
And how does it compare in size?
The N97 sounds great, especially for navigation, with its large screen, but then I realised how huge it will be compared to my Navigator.
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skagen is offline
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Originally Posted by
not at all E series is business orientated
N series is very much consumer focused.
just the more demanding / get it free on contract market.
N95 sold by the skip load to people that use 5% of its ability.
5800 is the budget contracts / PAYG market.
E series is pure business. There is nothing else to say on it.Honeslty. There is no other reason for its existence. In fact Nokia recently cut their budget in this area, makign these devices even more narrowly focused.
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EvenOlder is offline
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Non-power user view
Another perspective:
My wife and I simply use a phone for calls, showing pics of our kids to other people, surf the net casually. We are very comfortable with computers.
We represent the vast majority of phone users in terms of phone needs.
Me and the wife hate itunes, and thus the iphone is frustrating. We won't be early adopters of unproven G1, Android stuff, etc.
The 5800 is the iphone killer, but in a way nobody talks about. It is a pocketable, cheap, familiar phone. The touch screen is "cool." The end.
I've come to love my 5800. It does everything I want, which isn't much. It's small and light enough to throw in my pocket (or wear around your neck for you southern europeans). If I drop it in the toilet while brushing my teeth- eh, no big. And it's fun to hand to other people to "flick" through the funny pics i take of my kids.
So while conversations exist about camera megapixels, bulky keypads, fm transmitters, etc- only a fairly small part of the cellular phone market actually attaches monetary value to those features.
And that's why it sold like it did in the UK, and that's why it will sell in the asian markets- all of which is surely a surprise for Nokia. I agree with whoever said the 5800 was a giant beta test for Nokia's touch interface. It just happened to hit a very big nail on the head, and will outsell the N97 10 to 1 over the next couple of years.
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biggruss is offline
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I think it's a freat little phoen for the price. It has a lot of the features people want from hish end phones, without the cost, or complexity.
I was looking for a while, basically I wanted something with a good sized sceen, plenty of storage space for music, an ok camera and good for browsing web.
It ticks every box.
I considered iPhone, but the cost and lack of basic phone funtions, as well as my hatred of iTunes and reports of bad battery life put me off
Looked at HTC touch HD, but again costs put me off, and was an early adopter of windows mobile and the bad experiance and reports of soemtimes awkward integration with touch flow and custom gui put me off.
samsung omnia again cost too much and based on windows mobile, with bad integration put me off
samsung pixon as a close competitor, but higher price, lack of memory and lack of wi-fi put me off. if i was more botherd about camera i may have gone for it
basically i think the 5800 is an excellent phone, if you look at it in context. It is a high spec low end phone, a bit of a contradiction i know, but i think that is why it works.
it's good for the average joe that wants a little extra
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neilhoskins is offline
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Originally Posted by
(This is all idle speculation, just some random thoughts I had last night while tromping through the snow with my dog.)
Interesting stuff, but my take is slightly different. Having touchscreen is nice, and I could never figure out why Nokia didn't use them on the Communicator, so that it would have been just a Psion with comms. Web-browsing, spreadsheets and some other tasks are really difficult
a touch-screen. I think that now they have touch technology, that's the route they'll increasingly take.
touch, though, I find an utter PitA. The 5800 is a fantastic media player, but personally, for an all-round device I'd always want a keypad and/or qwerty keyboard as well. The touch-only thing is a niche market; a fashion that will die out as soon as Apple take the paradigm-shifting, revolutionary step of adding a "keypad" to the iPhone. That's why Nokia took the approach of making the 5800 a lower-range, maybe/maybe not, not-particularly-important device. They were dead right, IMHO.
The N97, on the face of it, satisfies all my requirements, but I suspect is going to be over-priced given the hardware limitations (OMAP 2, no graphics acceleration, etc). They also need, as you point out, to consider the recession; I, for one, am unlikely to get clearance from The Lady Wife for one of those at £400+ in the current climate.
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In The Campaign, last year's hilarious, potty-mouthed political romp with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, the Motch brothers (modeled of course on the Koch brothers) shovel piles of cash onto the campaign of Galifianakis's character Marty. Why? They want to build factories in his North Carolina congressional district, where they will employ Chinese workers at Chinese … [Read more...]
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Millions living along the northern Mississippi River as well as other nearby rivers face high or above average chances of flooding this spring as a thick snowpack starts to melt, the National Weather Service is warning.
"We expect significant flooding when this snow begins to melt," Lynn Maximuk, central region director of the National Weather Service, said in a statement Friday.
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"Areas of greatest concern include the Red River of the North in North Dakota and Minnesota, Devils Lake in North Dakota, the James River and Big Sioux River in South Dakota, and areas along the Upper Mississippi River including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri," the service said in a report on spring flood risks.
The Mississippi River is at risk for moderate to major flooding from its headwaters in St. Paul, Minn., all the way to St. Louis, the service stated.Story: Fargo-area flooding certain, records possible
For the Red River, and cities like Fargo and Grand Forks, it's the third consecutive year when moderate to major flooding has been predicted.
Here's a look at key cities:
- Fargo, N.D., "has about a 95 percent chance of exceeding major flood stage of 30 feet where portions of downtown Fargo begin flooding and temporary dike construction is necessary; and a greater than 20 percent chance of reaching or exceeding the 40.84-foot record set in 2009."
- Grand Forks, N.D., "has a greater than 95 percent chance of exceeding major flood stage of 46 feet and near a 10 percent chance of exceeding the 54.35-foot record set in 1997."
- St. Paul, Minn., "has about a 95 percent chance of exceeding major flood stage of 17 feet where secondary flood walls are deployed to protect St. Paul airport; and a 15 percent chance of exceeding the record 26.4 feet set in 1965."
"Any above normal winter/spring precipitation will elevate this flood risk," the service warned. "The magnitude of flooding will be determined by the amount of snow yet to fall and the weather conditions during the melt. Spring temperatures will determine the rate of snow melt and the effects of ice jams, which can both greatly alter the level of risk."
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text: My name is Nenad Arsikj , I am born 1985 and my greatest passion is the Art of drawing and painting. Since my earliest age, whenever my parents would ask me: "What do you like for a birthday present?", I was always saying: sketchbook, various paints – water, tempera, wood, oil..., different brushes for painting, collage and various accessories that would help my imagination transform into sketchbook, paper or canvas reality. My image for myself, since I can remember, is: sitten on the table, with the sketchbook in front of me, sloping and truly focused on my activity – drawing and painting. When I turned 18, without the slightest doubt, I knew where I see myself in the future. That is why I wanted to apply on the Art Academy, where I could upgrade myself, improve, modernise, update and excel my artistic spirit. Unfortunately, because of lack of funds, I wasn't able to sign myself in the school of Art (Art Academy). However, despite my invidious situation, my dream, my strong desire and passion of art did not die, on the contrary, it just grew, so I continue to paint with more intensity, with fervor and zest that is only known by the human who have an artistic soul, with big stubbornness, spite and rebellion to become better than I have been ever, to outstand my talent and to pull out "The Thing" that lies deep in me – "The One and Truly Thing" that my spirit obeys on. I did not have enough finances to study Art on the Art Academy, but I did have enough funds to attend private classes of Art. I started working in a business firm that was producing art equipment and materials so my funds for the private Art classes came from there. Hole year, three times a week, I was going on those private classes that were managed by one Macedonian professor of Art. These Art lessons (theory and much more practise) enriched my spirit, liberated my creativity completely and shaped and polished my artistic talent. Those classes upgraded my technique and skill of drawing and painting, they deepened me in terms of using the painting and art utensils, but, also, those lessons utterly masterful united my artistic talent with the technique of making Art. Even if I don't have an Art degree, I must say that I am great experienced and talented artist with endless passion and energy for creating artwork. I draw and paint in Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter (digital art). Also, I am creating artwork in the form that is known as Traditional way of painting – oil on canvas. These traditional form of art creating was my faithful companion from my high school days till now (and it will be for the rest of my life journey). The new, modern way of creating art – digital, is my friend for one year and a half. Regardless the relatively short period of unity with the digital form of creating art, I managed to lift our bond to the point of closest relationship that can never ever end. If I should describe myself, if someone asked me: "Who are you? Tell me something about yourself...", I would say the following: "I love to paint, I love to draw, I want to produce, construct, I like to create, I want to bear my soul on canvas!" – These words are tightly interwined with my personality, they are my reflection in the mirror, they are A PRIORITY in my life.


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Ronald J. Sider
Professor of Theology, Holistic Ministry & Public Policy, Palmer Theological Seminary
Ph.D., Yale University, B.D., Yale Divinity School, M.A., Yale University, B.A., Waterloo Lutheran University,
Ron Sider is known worldwide for providing leadership to the movement of evangelicals who recognize not just the spiritual, but also the social and political implications of a high view of Scripture. His book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger was lauded by Christianity Today as being among the top 100 books in religion in the 20th century and the seventh most influential book in the evangelical world in the last 50 years.
Dr. Sider has published 30 books in addition to Rich Christians, including Evangelism, Salvation and Social Justice; Christ and Violence; Cry Justice: The Bible on Hunger and Poverty; Completely Pro-Life; Good News and Good Works: A Theology for the Whole Gospel; Living Like Jesus; Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America; The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?; The Scandal of Evangelical Politics: Why are Christians Missing the Chance to Really Change the World?; and I Am not a Social Activist: Making Jesus the Agenda.
In the 1970s, Dr. Sider played a key role in the drafting of the historic Chicago Declaration, which helped set the direction for evangelicals concerned about the Bible's social implications. He is the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA), which for more than three decades has provided an organizational outlet for Christians committed to holistic ministry. ESA is now a part of the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy at Palmer Seminary.
An ordained minister in the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ Churches, Ron has lectured at numerous educational institutions, including Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Oxford.
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As I mentioned the other day, I've been leveling my priest up to level 80. Having stepped down from leading the optional 10 man raids on our off nights, I now have all this free time again! In this free time, I've pulled Earenn out of her hiatus and perma-position in Dalaran as my enchanter. I've had some interesting experiences with her so far, so I thought that I'd share!
My current state in priesthood has me at level 76. For 76 levels I have been shadow, and for 76 levels I have remained a terrible shadow priest. No, seriously! I'm not making this up! It makes leveling a snap, sure, but I just cannot get the grip of shadow priesting. I'm so terribly horrid at it that I've thought about completely dropping the spec altogether on her once I reach 80.
I have paired back up with Brade's warrior. Brade has a very…er, set way of leveling. He's got his patterns, and is basically a machine. While it means he can reach max level very quickly, it also means that sometimes he forgets I'm tagging along and leaves me bumbling along on my own. And let's be honest here, most of the time that is exactly what I am relegated to…the sidekick that can't keep up and is always getting into trouble. Sometimes it's highly annoying to feel like I'm constantly just chasing him down. But, because I can effectively melt faces on my own, it's less troublesome than before because I don't feel dependant on someone else to kill my shit.
I have a few other irks that I have about the priest, none of which are actually related to priesting! Actually they are all related to the BoA heirloom items…that I'm not eligible to use! Even though I have 4 other 80s to my name, because my priest is on my second account I do not have access to the heirloom goodness that would be available to me otherwise. I've had a number of people in the guild go "just pay and transfer her to your other account!". Well, I don't want to and I shouldn't have to! I mean, my accounts are merged on Battle.net. They log in under the same log in, why can't I just send my priest items like I can all my other twinks?!?!
Ok…I know why, and I know that I've read that they are hoping to have BoA items available to linked Battle.net accounts at some point in the future, but it doesn't take the pain of having to run around everywhere again away! Or is it really that painful?
One of the things I did with Earenn was to avoid as much of the content that I've already done numerous times as I could. I still had to do one of the starter zones (I opted for Howling Fjord), but after that I was free to take my pick of a number of areas to continue my journey. I left Howling Fjord just under 73, but instead of going to Borean Tundra (zzzz) or Dragonblight, I opted instead to partake in the questing in Grizzly Hills again. I'd only done the zone once on Beru, and it really is a beautiful place to quest.
Of course…there are those who would say "it's a horribly inefficient place to level, especially without being able to fly". But to those I say…I really enjoyed it! I got to take in the atmosphere as it was meant to be, it was a chance for me to stop and smell the roses, if you will. Sure, I could have leveled with more speed somewhere else, but I wouldn't have been able to run through to woods, and enjoy much of the rich lore that Grizzly Hills present. We actually made it through all of the Grizzly Hills content on Saturday, taking a bit of a lacsidasical, play when we want, approach. We are now tackling Zul'drak, another lovely zone, full of lore, that I've only done once as well.
So…on second thought, perhaps I rescind my complains about not being able to fly around everywhere already!
Because it's very easy to find groups, even for leveling instances, with a tank and a healer combo, I have a discipline off-spec. I shoot shiny beams of light at things, I give them glowing orbs of love, and I throughly enjoy myself! I really am enjoying the spec immensely, and the healing is a lot of fun. Actually, more fun than I thought it would be. I am also infinitely better at it than I am at melting faces. Yes, that is right. Yellow Lazor Beams > Purple Lazor Beams! *ahem*
Behold the Failpug
Of course…no leveling story would be complete without a recounting of a failpug adventure, and this one is dedicated to Tamarind.
Because Brade has the BoA items that up his XP, he is almost a full level ahead of me. As a result, I try to run instances when I can if he is busy doing something else, to try to catch up on some of the XP. Generally this is done via PuG, and generally it's not so bad. This past weekend Brade wanted to finish up the new Robert Jordan book that had come out during the week, so I was left to my own devices. I had decided to join the LFG channel and look for a Drak'Tharon Keep PuG, since I hadn't done the instance yet.
Sure enough, after not too long, I was asked if I wanted to join a group for the zone, to which I happily replied that I would love to! I joined in the group, and was the lowest one there at level 73, but of the 4 of us was the only party capable of healing. I figured that I'd be healing and they would pick up a 5th DPS, and we'd be on our way. Alas…that isn't quite how it worked out. The fifth member that was picked up was another priest, level 76, who was only discipline.
The leader asked me if I would mind DPSing, to which I warned him that I would probably be poor DPS and was a bit low to DPS the bosses, but had no issues giving it a whirl. So off we went to the instance.
We wiped twice in the first 5 pulls of the zone. After this point, I spent more time helping heal that I did melting faces, just so that we wouldn't wipe again. I noticed that this priest cast exclusively flash heal. Curious, I inspected him to see how he was speced, and noticed that he did, in fact, have the last tier discipline talent, penance. Oddly enough, he didn't have the 3 talent points that increased the power of flash heal.
Finding it odd that he didn't cast penance once, or PW:Shield once, after our next wipe I shot him a quick (what I felt was friendly) tell asking him "Have you thought about trying Pennacnce?". His response led me to frett about the success we were going to have in the zone, "why would I, my flash heals heal for more". Uh…what? I assumed that he didn't understand that penance consists of a number of ticks, but is all considered one heal. So I try to explain to him how it works, and why he might want to experiment with using it.
"You don't know what ur talking about my flash heal heals for 8k". Seesh! "Well, I'm just trying to give you some pointers where it seems you are struggling a bit to help, you don't have to take them if you don't want". "Who says I'm struggling?!!?"
At this point, I probably should have just shut my yap. I wasn't trying to be a know it all, honest. I was just trying to save him…and anyone he groups with in the future a lot of wiping. I also wasn't trying to tell him how to play, just attempting to give him gentle encouragement in the proper direction. So, I politely responded to him "Well, the two wipes where you didn't use anything but flash heal, and no shields, would indicate that maybe you could use a few more of the spells in your tool kit to your success". I really think the guy was a 14 year old kid. This was solidified by his next actions.
"Earenn can fuckin heal, I'm done. Those wipes weren't even my fault, u guys suck". 76 priest has left the group. Oops.
It was certainly not my intent to chase the kid off. I was really just trying to help him out 😦 I had thought that I made proper suggestions, in a polite way, not forcing it on him but trying to open the door to the thought process that goes "ohhhhhhh…is THAT what that spell does and/or is for?!". Alas…I failed.
But, I mean…c'mon! If you don't want advice, at least make a little effort to learn what your class can do. I am certainly not claiming to be any sort of paragon of priest healing, and I am more than aware that I am still learning, but I at least make an effort to know what my shit does! Why, dear god, would you spec into something and then not even know how it works?!?! Why would you not make an effort to play with all of the tools that you have? All it would take is one shield for "Borrowed Time" to pop up. The first time it happened to me, I was like, "huh…I wonder what this does" and went and read the tool tip! All it took was one time for grace to pop up on the tank for me to wonder how it got there so that I could make it happen again!
At this point, the party leader asked me if I'd mind healing to which I said not at all. Although it's not as if I had a choice…after having run off their other healer. The rest of the run went smoothly, and we didn't have another wipe for the remainder of the instance. As I was leaving I apologized about having run the first guy off, but they all admitted that they were glad he left, as they didn't think we would have gotten very far with him. I guess this made me feel marginally better. Kinda.
I learned three things this night. 1) Help offered, no matter how polite, isn't always help well received; 2) Disc Priests can heal almost anything, no matter how bad the tank/group may be; and 3) Priest 76 had just shot himself in the foot as far as I was concerned, I won't group with him again if he is healing, and I certainly hope he doesn't get it into his mind to app to my guild upon reaching 80. Yes priest 76…I will remember you!


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If the xx's brand of hypnotic and soulful groove-making is best heard on a pair of headphones or privately in a dark bedroom, then the British trio that visited the sold-out Fillmore Miami Beach on Tuesday night performed a set that was anything but intimate. In fact, the show was a bright, grandiose, reverberating affair, and at length felt like the great unraveling of a long relationship, or perhaps a bitter, protracted divorce, piecing heartfelt material evenly between the band's self-titled debut album and last September's sophomore release, "Coexist."
This apparent contradiction is rooted, of course, in the band's knack for recording melancholy notes teased out with ambient electronic sampling, and from bassist Oliver Sim's and guitarist Romy Madley Croft's insistence on a quiet, unbothered lifestyle in the U.K. But throughout the night, Sim and Croft, along with producer Jamie Smith, defied the bright, grand stage they stood on and the hollering capacity crowd of mostly twentysomethings by doing what they do best: retreating to the darkness.
Spending their brisk 75-minute set cloaked in shadow and fog, or half-masked in the twinkling neon-greens and purples of the footlights, or imprisoned under twin spotlights set far apart on the stage, Sim and Croft traded off melodies of love and torment starting with their opener, "Angels." (Yes, the trio wore all-black clothing, too.) The light show was part of the gimmick, strobing out to Smith's deep kick drums or flashing in sync to Croft's guitar-plucking. None of this is to say the xx's set wasn't short of poignancy: Croft, with her side-swept bangs, and hair terminating in dagger-shaped sideburns, delivered heartfelt lyricism in "Sunset" near the concert's halfway mark ("It's like the sun set in your eyes and never wanted to rise"). Sim's solo on "Fiction," also from the new album, rang out with all the sing-speak urgency – which is to say, none at all – of a '70s Lou Reed, back when Reed actually wanted to sing.
In a set that hopscotched between both albums equally, the xx saved their most-mellow tracks – the elegiac, filled-with-lover's-remorse "Shelter" and "Swept Away" – for the show's midpoint, with both sounding like a slow march to a funeral. Croft's lyric, "Maybe I said something that was wrong/Can I make it better with the lights turned off?" was stamped with enough emotion that the Fillmore's audience swooned to the refrain, and at least one person actually flicked a Bic near front row (they still do that?).
The jaunty beat-making in the xx's second-act closer, "Infinity," was undercut, however, by Sim's and Croft's scarce onstage charisma, who each swapped vocals with a glassy-eyed gaze and rarely looked at each other, save a longing glance during "Chained" early in the set. Missing from the show, really, was that big burst of charisma needed for the live setting, as opposed to the reclusive, soft-spoken trio we know from our headphone-listening. There was little interplay between the pair, who are best friends in real life, and even less from Smith, who held court in the background, mostly in silhouette, showing fleeting signs of life with occasional shoulder-popping behind his long table of samplers, drum machines and keyboards.
The xx encored, to no one's surprise, with "Intro," the two-minute chill acoustic hit, and closed with "Tides" and "Stars," the latter being their debut album's closing track. In between, Sim, raising a hand to silence the crowd, said, "We're bewildered that you guys continue to love our music."
And, perhaps as a perfect counterpoint to the band's stoicism all night, the crowd cheered in response.
954-356-4364, @philvalys or firstname.lastname@example.com


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Glass is usually described as a hard, usually transparent substance that shatters easily.Glass plays an indispensable role in various scientific fields and in industry. It is used throughout the home, at work, and often in play. For centuries glass work has been attractive form of art. Below are some pieces of glass art.
These glass candles !!!!


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Robinson's Juice Will Make You A Child Prodigy
Damn! If we had Robinsons Juice in elementary school like the kids in the commercial do, we're quite sure we'd doing something a bit more accomplished and grand than writing an ad blog. OK, it is a pretty successful blog and a lot of people read it. It's got a well known brand name and people like to stop us at conferences and tell us how much they enjoy reading it. People send us stuff. We get to travel a lot and hang with a lot of cool people. And we get to be our own boss.
Yea, yea. So who needs Robinson's Juice Anyway
Topic: Commercials, Good


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The Benefits of Staying Put in Retirement
Pulling up a lifetime of stakes and retiring where it's warm and sunny may be a tempting prospect. But think again.
I like reading stories on the "best cities" in America to retire in. I always learn something new about different cities as I peruse the lists, such as Kiplinger's 10 Great Retirement Cities in the U.S. But I'm usually seeking ideas for places to visit sometime -- not necessarily places to live.
QUIZ: Are You Really Ready for Retirement?
One reason these lists are so seductive is that they reflect popular visions of the "good life" of retirement: An aging worker says goodbye to her workmates for the last time, sells her home and moves hundreds (if not thousands) of miles away to a new abode -- preferably in a temperate climate.
The retire-and-move ideal became commonplace during the post–World War II decades: the 1950s and '60s. Poverty rates among the elderly had plummeted thanks to the advent of Social Security in 1935, and Medicare gave retirees' wallets a boost in 1965. Many retirees enjoyed a monthly check from their employer's defined-benefit pension plan. Older Americans had enough financial independence to develop a distinct lifestyle as they migrated en masse from Snowbelt cities to Sunbelt communities, inspiring the vision of retirement as a leisurely life of golf in the morning and cocktails on the patio in the evening. "In the past, such an experience of retirement was limited to the wealthy few that could afford it," Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Dora L. Costa wrote in The Evolution of Retirement. "Now, it is an option available to the majority of workers."
But is it really a widely available option anymore? Reality is increasingly diverging from those popular images of the good life. Americans of all ages -- including the elderly -- are relocating less following the steep decline in home values after the housing bubble burst in 2006. A mere 11.6% of U.S. residents moved between 2010 and 2011, the lowest rate since 1948, according to the Census Bureau. Migration among aging Americans to classic Sunbelt magnets Phoenix and Las Vegas is down as well.
The number of older Americans continues to grow, but they are increasingly "aging in place." For instance, Georgia's senior population -- those age 65 and older -- will swell by 40% between 2010 and 2020, a handful of scholars from the Brookings Institution predict in Getting Current: Recent Demographic Trends in Metropolitan America. All but 4% of that increase will come from seniors aging in place, they say.
The shift toward staying put runs even deeper than the depression in home values. The leading edge of the massive baby-boomer generation has reached the traditional age of retirement of 65. The youngest boomers will cross that age milestone in 18 years. Boomers in the aggregate have accumulated little savings, especially after the devastating financial impact of two bear markets and two recessions in less than a decade (with the prospect of another economic and financial bust looming if the European sovereign debt crisis spirals out of control). The savings dearth is the impetus for the standard retirement advice these days: Work well into your traditional retirement years.
Yes, you may be ready to say goodbye to full-time employment. Enough is enough. But keeping a part-time job or a less stressful full-time position would allow you to delay tapping your retirement savings and harness the power of compound interest for a few more years. More important, you could wait to file for Social Security. The Social Security benefit increases every year you wait to file between ages 62 and 70. Between ages 66 and 70, the boost is an inflation-adjusted 8%. That's a tough hurdle for even the best Wall Street money managers to match.
If you work longer, that will probably influence where you retire. For most people, it makes sense to stay where they are because they can more easily find jobs and volunteer opportunities by tapping their established network of nearby friends, family members and acquaintances. A cottage industry of academic research convincingly shows that some 50% or more of all jobs come through informal channels -- connections to friends, families and colleagues. Experience tells us that having such a network makes it far easier for a soon-to-be-retiree to get a part-time consulting contract, an opportunity to use hard-earned know-how at a local business, or a chance to draw on a private-sector background to help out a nonprofit venture.
The drawback to taking the traditional route in old age from the Twin Cities to Orlando; Los Angeles to Phoenix; Washington, D.C., to Winston-Salem; and so on is that valuable community networks are suddenly useless.
It's always possible to create new networks, but that takes time -- a scarce commodity among the aged. From a "work longer" perspective, it often pays to stay put and tap your resources.
So staying local during the traditional retirement years benefits you financially in two major ways. First, nurturing the different networks in your community is truly a critical investment -- the way stocks, bonds and other types of financial savings are important to a secure old age. Second, you have a good vantage point for researching ways to improve your current home, rather than looking into possible digs in far-away climes across the country. For instance, do your bathrooms need remodeling for safety as you age? How about the kitchen? Or would it be smarter to downsize to a nearby condo or even a continuing-care community? What's the local place where you can best see yourself working, living and aging gracefully?
It's striking how many communities across America are embracing a "local" sensibility, from local food and locavore diets to local entrepreneurs and buy-local movements. As aging Americans work longer -- out of financial need or simply to remain engaged -- their networks should be added to that list of local benefits.


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Among recent enforcement actions taken by the SEC were a nonprosecution agreement with Ralph Lauren Corporation in a bribery case; a court action to secure the return of investor funds in the wake of an immigration scheme; charges against a former executive for insider trading; and charges against Capital One Financial Corp. and two executives for understating losses.
Ralph Lauren Corp. Gets Nonprosecution Agreement in Bribery Case
The SEC announced that Ralph Lauren Corp. has consented to a nonprosecution agreement (NPA) in connection with bribes paid by a company subsidiary to government officials in Argentina from 2005 to 2009. The agreement was reached, rather than charges being brought in connection with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), because the company swiftly reported the misconduct itself after discovering it in an internal review.
According to the SEC, the promptness of the company's action in reporting the bribes, as well as the completeness of the information it provided and its extensive cooperation, resulted in the NPA rather than charges. The NPA is the first for the SEC that involves FCPA misconduct.
The NPA provides additional details on the occurrence, which it says took place before the company had meaningful anticorruption compliance and control mechanisms over its Argentine subsidiary, which paid bribes to government and customs officials to win importation of the company's products into Argentina. The bribes were intended to avoid paperwork, inspection of prohibited products, and inspection by customs officials, and totaled $593,000 during a four-year period.
The company terminated employment and business arrangements with the parties involved in the bribery; it has since ceased operations in Argentina. It has also put in place compliance training and stronger internal controls and procedures for third-party due diligence, as well as conducting a worldwide risk assessment to uncover any other potential compliance issues.
The agreement specifies that the company will disgorge more than $700,000 in illicit profits and interest it received as a result of the bribes. A separate NPA with the Justice Department in parallel criminal proceedings will result in the company paying an additional penalty of $882,000.
Investors to Receive Return of Principal after Immigration Scheme Stopped
The SEC announced that a federal district court judge has ordered that all investors in a fraudulent investment scheme that offered foreign investors a way to become citizens will receive their money back.
Two months ago the SEC charged Anshoo Sethi, and two companies he created, with misleading Chinese investors on a scheme he devised to sell securities in a nonexistent hotel and conference center near O'Hare Airport in Chicago. Sethi sold more than $145 million to the investors, who had been told that with their investment they would be participating in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Pilot Program, which offers a path to citizenship for foreign investors.
At the time, the SEC also got an emergency court order to freeze investor assets. Sethi consented to return the funds, which were being held in escrow, and on April 19 U.S. District Court Judge Amy St. Eve modified the asset freeze order to direct that the money be returned.
The SEC is not finished yet with Sethi; litigation is ongoing and additional penalties are being sought.
Former Exec Charged in Insider Trading on Info from Professional Group
The SEC has filed charges against Mark Begelman, a former corporate executive in south Florida, for insider trading based on information he received as a member of the World Presidents' Organization (WPO), a global professional group of business leaders who are current or former executives at major companies.
Begelman, in violation of a specific WPO policy against disclosure of discussions of a confidential nature, bought stock in Bluegreen Corp. before BFC Financial Corp. announced publicly that it was acquiring the company. He made almost $15,000 in illicit profits on the deal.
Begelman had been a member of WPO since 1991, when he was president and COO at Office Depot. He went on to serve in other executive positions, as an officer at BankAtlantic Bancorp and as vice chairman of the board at Canyon Creek Food Co. Within WPO, Begelman was part of a small elite group of members called Forum 91, and got the merger information at the smaller group's annual retreat in the Florida Keys from Nov. 1–Nov. 3, 2011. The information came from a fellow member who was a high-ranking executive at both Bluegreen and BFC.
Begelman emailed his broker on Nov. 2 to issue a buy order for 25,000 shares of Bluegreen stock. The two spoke by phone the next day, and within minutes of the call the broker had placed the buy order. News of the merger was made public on Nov. 14, when the stock rose almost 46%; at that point Begelman sold all 25,000 shares for profits of $14,949.34.
Begelman has agreed to settle with the SEC without admitting or denying the charges. He will pay $14,949.34 in disgorgement, as well as prejudgment interest of $377.22 and a penalty of $14,949.34.
Capital One Charged with Understating Auto Loan Losses
Capital One Financial Corp. and two senior executives, Chief Risk Officer Peter Schnall and former Divisional Credit Officer David LaGassa, have been charged by the SEC with understating millions of dollars in auto loan losses incurred during the months leading into the financial crisis.
According to the SEC, Capital One's Q2 and Q3 2007 financial reports did not account for higher losses than originally forecast when its car loan business losses rose more than anticipated. Its profits came primarily from subprime consumers, and as the credit markets deteriorated, loan loss expenses rose. However, Capital One failed to properly incorporate changes in its internal assessments and as a result understated its loan loss expenses by 18% in Q2 and 9% in Q3. It failed to report any of Capital One Auto Finance's (COAF) "exogenous" losses—those driven by outside factors, such as the deterioration of the credit markets—in Q2, and only a third of them in Q3.
Schnall and LaGassa were found to have caused the understatements by failing to follow established policies and procedures. The former failed to properly document exogenous losses or communicate them adequately to the senior management committee in charge of ensuring that the company's allowance was compliant with accounting requirements. The latter failed to incorporate exogenous losses into the COAF loan forecast and failed to ensure that exogenous treatment was documented according to policies and procedures.
Neither the company nor the executives admitted or denied the SEC's findings, but agreed to settle the charges. Capital One agreed to pay $3.5 million; in addition, Schnall agreed to an $85,000 penalty and LaGassa a $50,000 penalty.
Read SEC Enforcement Roundup: Sister Charged With Illegally Tipping Off Brother on AdvisorOne.