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Hi everyone, I've just joined the forums today.
I'm am, well was a computer science student studying in Australia. I completed my honours (pre-PhD) research project last year, with most of my work and focus being on using the JDI to create some cool visualisations of running Java applications. I also work as a demonstrator and occasional tutor at my university so hopefully I'll be of as much use to other members of the Java community as you all will be for me. My key interests in the language is interface development- I have a lot of experience with all aspects of the Swing library and a strong theoretical background in good interface design.
I'm still quite a young programmer by most standards, but I'll try my best to help out where I can.


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Earlier this week, I wrote about a couple of stocks showing accelerating sales growth, a key metric for which I screen when I'm building portfolios.
Most of the time -- and this week is no exception -- these revenue scans yield a number of small- and mid-cap names that show the best growth rates. Larger, more mature companies typically grow more slowly. That's fine, and it doesn't mean I'll necessarily pass up a steady large-cap in favor of a smaller company in high-growth mode.
But when I'm looking for the elements that make up a diversified equity portfolio, I like to know where the growth potential lies. So in today's column, I'll drill down and look at some of the mid-caps showing the best rates of sales growth in recent quarters.
Online travel was in the news this week as Liberty Interactive (LINTA) acquired a majority stake in TripAdvisor (TRIP). Last month, Priceline (PCLN) said it would acquire fellow online travel firm Kayak (KYAK) for $40 per share in cash and stock.
One established name in the category is Expedia (EXPE). The stock has had a terrific 2012, with the price more than doubling this year. It closed Wednesday at $60.57, 5% above its 50-day average, and below its Nov. 29 high of $62.80.
Expedia goes ex-dividend Thursday. Typically stocks decline on the ex-div date, and roughly by the amount of the dividend. Expedia's dividend is $0.52 per share. Any temporary, dividend-related decline does not affect my longer-term outlook for the stock.
The company's growth has accelerated in the past three quarters, from $787.1 million to $1.2 billion most recently. In the current quarter, analysts expect a top line of $929.33 million, which would mark a gain of 18% over the prior year, as well as continue the trend of earnings-growth acceleration.
Because the stock had such a rapid rise in 2012, at this juncture it would be constructive for the shares to pull back to the 200-day moving average. The stock has not fallen beneath that line for more than a year, so a retreat to flush out some weak holders seems somewhat overdue.
Another mid-cap that registered on my revenue-growth scan was Web-content optimizer Akamai (AKAM). This is an interesting case, because the stock is making something of a technical comeback. Shares tumbled 32% in 2011, and only gains in November and December of last year rescued it from an even worse decline.
This year, Akamai has rebounded with a gain of 23%.
Year-over-year revenue has accelerated in the past four quarters, climbing from $281.9 million to $345.3 million. In the current quarter, analysts have pegged sales at $381.21 million, which would be an 18% year-over-year gain.
The stock cleared a two-month consolidation Wednesday, closing at $39.97. Wednesday's trade also brought a 52-week session high of $40.61. Current levels are a bit frothy, but the stock could offer a new entry point on the next pullback to a short-term moving average.
The stock got 200-day-line support earlier this month, a good signal that institutional investors were regaining confidence in the stock, rather than bailing out.

subset: commoncrawl


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John Joseph Adams launched Lightspeed Magazine just a couple years ago, and so far it's gotten some great buzz as well as plenty of award nominations.
Top image: Elena Bespalova, via Lightspeed Magazine
Now the magazine's owner, Prime Books, is spinning it off, and Adams is taking over ownership. He's also going to be the new owner of the long-running Fantasy Magazine. Here's the press release with all the details:
ROCKVILLE, MD, NOV. 7-Prime Books is pleased to announce the sale and transfer of ownership of their acclaimed online magazines Lightspeed (www.lightspeedmagazine.com) and Fantasy (www.fantasy-magazine.com) to John Joseph Adams. Adams, the current editor of both magazines, will officially assume the role of publisher starting with the January 2012 issues.
"With the continuing expansion and success of Prime Books, my attention and time is increasingly consumed by book publishing," publisher Sean Wallace said. "With John already doing a terrific job as editor, it simply made sense for him to take over as publisher as well. We're really thrilled that this has worked out for both John and Prime."
New publisher John Joseph Adams says he is delighted at the prospect of taking over the magazines and looks forward to the challenges ahead. "It's an exciting time to be involved in publishing," he said. "Models are changing and so is the readership, and online magazines have a better shot at sustainability than ever have before. I believe the possibilities for growth are tremendous, and I look forward to staying in the vanguard of this new frontier."
Fantasy Magazine was established in 2005, and has been edited by Sean Wallace, Paul Tremblay, and Cat Rambo, with Adams taking over as sole editor earlier this year. Lightspeed-published by Wallace and edited by Adams-debuted in June 2010 and was a 2011 Hugo Award nominee. Numerous stories originally published in Lightspeed and Fantasy have been reprinted in best-of-the-year anthologies, and Lightspeed and Fantasy stories have been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, and others. Lightspeed's first year of fiction has just been published by Prime Books in the print anthology Lightspeed: Year One (ISBN: 978-1-60701-304-4).


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Ever since the February 11 2011 Nokia event cheekily tagged as #NoWin and known colloquially as The Elopocalypse, I've struggled to cover Nokia's present and abandoned strategies here with equal care. Don't be misled by my attempts of objectivity over Linux and Microsoft activities, though– it hasn't been easy. I've been moderating an internal conflict between a growing invasion of open source love versus a legacy of Microsoft development experience combined with strong curiosity. Neither side has a clear advantage over the other for me and therein lies a conundrum.
I could have very easily avoided the whole controversy at the start. When I assumed responsibility for Maemo internet tablet quality in the North American market, I could have taken the easy route and stuck to the basics. That meant developing test plans, training auditors and inspectors, hosting Finnish and Mexican product teams, and making sure CES 2007 was supplied on time with 200 pristine N800s. Nothing more.
But no. I'm a device nut. An admitted hardware geek. As I've shared many times, laying eyes on the Nokia 770 tablet changed everything for me. It put what I saw then as the future in my hands, literally and figuratively. I could not just treat this product line as I did the various and sundry cell phones I also touched. I took tablets personally. Continue reading


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Cubs beat Brewers 5-3.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella turned 64 on Tuesday, and he wanted just two presents. "I want to get (Alfonso) Soriano back and get a win," Piniella said in the afternoon. The first part was easy. The National Central-leading Cubs activated Soriano off the disabled list before Tuesday night's showdown with Milwaukee. He had been on the disabled list for the first time in his career after he hurt his right quadriceps on Aug. 5. The second part wasn't so easy -- at least not until after the seventh-inning stretch. Minutes after Brewers announcer/baseball legend Bob Uecker was booed throughout his rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" and many Cubs fans re-sang the song, the North Siders erased a 3-1 deficit with a four-run outburst to claim a 5-3 victory in front of a Wrigley Field crowd of 40,884. The Cubs (67-63) sent Milwaukee (65-66) into third place in the division, and the Brewers fell to 2½ games off the pace. St. Louis (two games back) moved into second place with a 7-0 victory over Houston. Jacque Jones' two-run double in the seventh brought home two runs to knot the game at 3-3. Ryan Theriot hit a high bouncer that relief pitcher Scott Linebrink (4-6) had to jump to field. The ball went off Linebrink's glove for what was ruled an error and Jones scored the go-ahead run. Setup man Bob Howry put runners at first and second in the eighth but got out of the jam when he induced pinch-hitter Gabe Gross to line out after a 12-pitch battle. "That was a very dramatic eighth inning," Piniella said. "Gross was fouling off a lot of pitches. I was thinking to myself, 'I've had enough fun tonight.' '' Ryan Dempster's appearance was not so dramatic, much to Piniella's liking. Dempster pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 22nd save and 10th successful conversion in a row. Starting pitcher Rich Hill, who struck out the first four Brewers he faced, improved to 8-7 after giving up three runs and fanning nine in seven innings. He won his second straight decision. It's the first time he's won back-to-back decisions since winning three straight April 6-24. Hill added an RBI single to put the Cubs on the board in the fifth, two innings after he struck out trying to bunt with runners at first and second. "He's a better hitter than bunter," Piniella cracked. It was the Brewers' 34th loss of the season in games they held leads. They are 16-27 since the All-Star break. Soriano finished his first night back 0-for-4 with two flyouts and two groundouts. Craig Monroe replaced Soriano in left in the ninth inning and Piniella said he was going to do that to ease the burden on Soriano's leg. Before the game, Soriano admitted he was at about "90 percent" with his leg and didn't plan on attempting any stolen bases until next week. With Theriot (who entered the night with a team-high 22 stolen bases and owned a .351 on-base percentage) filling in nicely for Soriano at the leadoff spot, some thought it might make sense to keep the shortstop batting first and put Soriano in a power slot, such as fifth. "That's where he likes to hit," Piniella said. "Why try to invent the wheel in August?" Piniella said Soriano can still run effectively. "If we need to send him (when the count is) 3-2, we'll send him 3-2," Piniella said. "Are we going to ask him to steal bases? Probably not. At the same time, I thought about where to put him in the lineup and it always came back to the one-hole and that's where he's going to be." Theriot was moved to second in the lineup on Tuesday. "Whatever is best for the team," Theriot said. "Obviously he's a dangerous hitter and has done well at leadoff. Why mess with that?" The Cubs are now the lone team without a losing record in this weakened division. But Mark DeRosa is not apologizing for it. "I'm sure St. Louis isn't going to give their (World Series) rings back after going 82-80 last year," De Rosa said. "Apologize for nothing. We're in first place in our division with 30-some odd games left." More Cubs news is at www.dailysouthtown.com/sports.


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Christopher Boadt via Crowdrise
January 16, 2013
EVENT: Lawyers Feeding Illinois
More than 1.9 million people in Illinois are facing hunger. It's true – and it's unacceptable. Our state's lawyers are stepping up to the challenge.
Thanks to the leadership of Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) President John E. Thies and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the legal community is mobilizing to raise a million meals to help our state's hungry families.
Your support goes a long way. Because of the incredible efficiency of the Feeding Illinois food bank network,
every $1 we raise will provide 5 meals.
And because of a generous gift from Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund (ATG), all processing fees for online donations are covered. So
thanks to ATG, 100% of every gift will be passed through to your regional food bank! Learn more about the food bank serving your area here.
Anyone may donate at any time to help us reach our ambitious goal. Spread the word far and wide!
How it works: Lawyers Feeding Illinois Begins February 18th, 2013 and ends March 1st, 2013. Teams of lawyers, firms, law schools, and other legal organizations will compete for points by collecting monetary and food donations during the campaign. At the end of the campaign, winners will be declared in several award categories.
Here how points will be awarded: (Learn more about why we award points this way.)
- 1 point is given for every pound of food collected.
- 5 points are given for every dollar raised.
- 100 points are given if an organization registers by December 17.
100 points are given as a onetime bonus if your organization delivers your collected food to yourdesignated drop-off location.
How to get involved: Click REGISTER to sign up for the event. Or, just donate! If you aren't starting a team and wish to make a contribution, click DONATE. You will have the option of designating your gift to a participating team. Check to see if your team has already been registered. If it has, join it! If not, create a new team. When you're finished with the registration process, you'll receive a confirmation email containing the following:
- A link to your unique fundraising page. You can share this link with anyone you like to support your local food bank.
- A link to your Team Toolkit, which includes marketing materials, contact information, comprehensive instructions for collecting and reporting food and fund donations, and other important materials.
Check back here occassionally for an update on our progress toward our goal and to see who else has signed up. In the meantime, recruit your colleagues to join in the fun!
Click for more information on the Illinois State Bar Association or Feeding Illinois.
The Team: $15,120 TOTAL RAISED SO FAR
Donor Comments
Lake County Bar Foundation
The Lake County Bar Foundation is pleased to match every donation made by a member of the Lake County Bar Team. Congratulations Lawyers Feeding Illinois, we are proud to be a part of this campaign. 7 years ago


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Staying healthy is one of the biggest concerns and challenges for people of all ages, races, and Nationalities to accomplish, but staying healthy for those who are overweight is an even bigger challenge. Men, women, children, and teenagers alike are becoming more overweight than ever before. Why? Is the answer simply because they over eat or is it a much bigger more complicated problem than we realize. Whatever the case, the problem and the solution are one in the same, eating habits.
How does one approach or even know where to begin the battle of the bulge? For many it is an overwhelming feat which often ends before it begins. Finding the right weight loss program or diet plan is best described by using the old cliche', "It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack". There are literally a plethora of diets to select from; low carb, high carb, low protein, high protein, low fat, high fat, low this, and high that; no wonder so many people just decide to stay fat, miserable, and confused; furthermore, the average hard working family man or woman does not have the time or probably the money to spend on expensive weight loss programs which require you to buy separate meals prepared specifically for the program. What about the other members in the family...heaven knows most children and especially teenagers will not touch anything that even remotely smells or looks like diet food; therefore weight loss programs are not a practical choice for the average person who has a spouse and children.
weight loss products, rapid weight loss diets, herbal weight loss,
A much better choice for the average person wanting to lose weight and improve their health and physical appearance is a fat loss program. It is a good alternative because most people want something simple and realistic to do; after all losing weight is all about gathering information and applying it on a day to day basis. Education through information and a lot of dedication is the secret to fat loss as well.
The challenge, however is obtaining the correct information in order to obtain the desired results, and this kind of information is readily available to anyone who is willing to purchase it at a fraction of what a weight loss program would normally cost. Learning how to burn the fat and feed the muscle in your body is a simple, but personalized process designed for each specific body type. All diets cannot and will not work for every person, because every person has unique factors which affect particular body functions such as metabolism, and fat storage, etc. By focusing on fat loss rather than just weight loss, you can accomplish more permanent results and eating habits that you can continue to live with.
The cost of weight loss programs is steadily rising, and the average family is on a budget and usually on a pretty tight schedule; therefore being involved in a long drawn out weight loss program is not a good fit. Real people want a real plan that will work. Exactly what type diet plan would appeal to the average person or typical family member depends on so many factors, and before you can begin a weight loss program you have to take a serious and realistic look at all the following:
1. The Cost of the plan
2. The Length of the plan
3. Does this plan involve going to the gym
4. Do you have to take diet pills or special shakes
5. Do you need to report a personal coach
6. How will this plan affect my family life
7. How will this affect my job
These are just a few things to consider when choosing a weight loss program or diet plan; but what if you could lose fat and weight without having to worry about all the factors mentioned above. Losing fat really can be a simple process and that is what most people are searching to find right? People want something simple and realistic to do, after all losing weight in any program is all about gathering and documenting various information on the participant. Stop for just a moment, this is where you come in and the plan changes and you take control. This same information can be obtained by you, and the best part is much of it is free and the rest is available for a fraction of the cost of most weight loss programs, and the results are more permanent because the weight is lost through a method that teaches people to burn the fat and keep the muscle which is a natural process the body will not reject. This information has been tested and proven to work for many, many people.
Anyone can lose weight if they have the correct information and are willing to apply that information as instructed. Stop struggling with your weight and open your mind to new techniques and fat loss strategies which use your own body as a guide to success. Make the decision to take charge of your own life and set realistic goals in a program that is personalized just for you. You can lose weight the same way you gained it, by eating, the only difference is making the necessary changes to your diet and eating habits. Every person's body is different and burning fat successfully depends on learning your own body and what it responds to. Don't even consider having to take diet pills, energy drinks or shakes, or killing yourself at the gym just focus on burning the fat and feeding the muscle, and this is absolutely a simple, feasible, affordable way to burn the fat and feed the muscle in your body so you can accomplish your weight loss goals.
You maybe asking, is losing weight this way possible for anyone. Of course it is, and it has been proven successful over and over for thousands of people just like you. You can achieve the results you want by learning to eat the right foods. Your body naturally responds either in a positive way or negative way depending on what you put into it. The information and tools are right at your fingertips and you can learn from an average person who struggled with his weight for many years and won the battle of the bulge, and now is a professional in teaching others how to do the exact same thing. You can look and feel healthier without having to turn your life and your family's lives upside down.
If you like to read and are serious about your health, then the burn the fat feed the muscle program will and can work for yo if you just apply the information available. Make a commitment and a resolution to lose weight and regain the self esteem and confidence you once had about your physical appearance. Face it, everyone wants to look and feel good about themselves. Whether you set out to make a million dollars or to lose 50 pounds, you have to develop a plan and stick to it in order to reach your goal.
Remember, education through information and dedication is all you need to burn the fat and feed the muscle and see a new you again! Come on try this unique but very personalized fat loss system, what do you have to lose, except a few pounds.


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This climate climate zone covers from about 44°N to 50°N latitude mostly east of the 100th meridian in North America. However, it can be found as far north as 54°N, and further west in the Canadian Prairie Provinces and below 40°N in the high Appalachians. In Europe this subtype reaches its most northerly latitude at nearly 61° N. Areas featuring this subtype of the continental climate have an average temperature in the warmest month below 22°C (22°F). Summer high temperatures in this zone typically average between 21-28°C (70-82°F) during the daytime and the average temperatures in the coldest month are generally far below the -3 °C (27°F) mark.
The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Dfb". (Warm Summer Continental Climate).
The average temperature for the year in Batavia is 47.0°F (8.3°C). The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of 70.0°F (21.1°C). The coolest month on average is February, with an average temperature of 24.0°F (-4.4°C).
The highest recorded temperature in Batavia is 103.0°F (39.4°C), which was recorded in July. The lowest recorded temperature in Batavia is -28.0°F (-33.3°C), which was recorded in February.
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Batavia is 31.9" (810.3 mm). The month with the most precipitation on average is May with 3.1" (78.7 mm) of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is February with an average of 2.2" (55.9 mm). In terms of liquid precipitation, there are an average of 62.6 days of rain, with the most rain occurring in May with 6.2 days of rain, and the least rain occurring in October with 4.4 days of rain.


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Next time you whiff on a curveball, blame it on your brain. Visual scientists recently applied the functions of foveal and peripheral vision to baseball, proving the curveball's sudden and severe "break" is a trick of the eyes. The graphic will occupy you for hours. Plus, it's science. [Illusion Sciences]
More from Deadspin


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Prince George — as much as it would wish not to be — has the unfortunate distinction of being the eastern terminus of the Highway of Tears. It knows too well the stories of murdered women.
For a city its size, it also has the usual problems with drug abuse, alcoholism and prostitution. Those problems often overlap.
Last year, in hoping to address those problems, an organization called the Northern Supportive Recovery Centre Society announced plans to open a women's addiction treatment centre in the former Haldi Road elementary school.
The school, which has been closed for about a decade, sits on a 10-acre property in a semi-rural neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city. There are about 250 families in the neighbourhood, many of them living on sizable properties.
And many of them — at least, the most vocal of them —are against the treatment centre opening there.
They cite fears of increased crime and drug use. They fear a decrease in property values. They complain that the area's roads and the building's sewage and water systems are not up to handling the demands of an institution of that size.
They are also angry with what they feel was the city government's and proponent's arbitrary handling of the issue.
"It got off to a very bad start," said resident Jack Nylund, who lives on a six-acre property in the area. "People (in the neighbourhood) felt very strongly they were being pushed into this. It wasn't just a matter of whether we wanted the treatment centre or not. It became a question of abuse by the city."
"In the first meeting we had with the proponents," said resident Janice Sevin, "we were told that (the centre) was coming whether we liked it or not."
Residents so opposed the centre that they pooled their money and, under Sevin's name, challenged the city's rezoning of the school property in B.C. Supreme Court. The city had rezoned its previous rural-residential designation to accommodate the centre.
In August, the court agreed with Sevin that the rezoning was inconsistent with the city's Official Community Plan and contrary to the Local Government Act.
The city was back to square one. It countered by moving forward with an amendment to the OCP that would see a site-specific rezoning to the property. A public hearing on the rezoning is scheduled for January. If it goes through, and the rezoning passes, the society feels it can have the centre up and running by summer.
The area residents, resigned to what they feel is a done deal, held a community meeting on Wednesday to consider separating from the city government and joining the regional district government. The district government, they feel, would be more sympathetic to their semi-rural concerns.
In effect, they want a government that will do what they tell it to do.
But governments everywhere often make decisions that anger residents immediately affected by those decisions. And those decisions are made in what the government hopes is for the common good.
We aren't strangers to this in Vancouver. For example, in September, the Dunbar Apartments, a 51-room, four-floor facility for the homeless opened at 16th and Dunbar. Its clientele includes those with addiction and mental problems. It was the only social housing facility of its kind in the wealthy neighbourhood, and when it was first proposed by the city, it was greeted with exactly the same opposition as that in Prince George — worries about increased crime and drugs, and lowered property values.
The city, though, wanted it in Dunbar for exactly the same reason the Recovery Society wants its centre outside of downtown Prince George: to remove those in need of its services out of the milieu where their addictions and problems arose.
This is an eminently sane and humane thing to do, and the residents of Dunbar should be proud of having the facility within their midst, not fearful of it. They are doing their part in what is a citywide problem, and demonstrating that even the very wealthiest of neighbourhoods should carry some of the social welfare load.
So far, according to Robert Westendorp, vice-president of the Dunbar Residents Association, fears of drug abuse and increased crime have come to nothing. And when I last looked, I still couldn't afford a home in Dunbar.
As for fears of the same in Prince George? Dr. Michelle Sutter, a general surgeon, is chairwoman of the board of the Recovery Society. Of residents' fears of an increase in crime, she said:
"This is absolutely not going to happen. The property will be fenced, there will be security cameras and security personnel. We'll operate on a strict abstinence policy. If clients lapse, there will be no second chances. If clients want to leave because they feel they can't follow the rules, they will be given escorted transportation back into Prince George to wherever they want to go."
Sutter could not help but see the irony in the issue coming to a head the same week Wally Oppal released his missing women's report. Oppal said we should be doing a better job helping the forsaken, including those along the Highway of Tears: But here, Sutter said, was an organization trying to do exactly that, and being forsaken in return.
To be fair to the neighbours near the proposed treatment centre, and to be fair to Nylund and Sevin, both of whom sounded reasonable on the phone, the city probably could have done a better job of allaying their fears.
I doubt, though, that it would have ultimately changed their minds. As Nylund and Sevin both said, they weren't against a treatment centre, or helping women in need, they just felt it should be situated in a more proper setting, such as in a remote area away from a residential area.
"It changes the nature of the community," Nylund said. "If you're going to have an institution put into a community, will it not change the nature of the community?"
God, I hope so.


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Not that Finance Minister Matthais Cormann would admit it, but there's been quite a back down involved in reforming Arthur Sinodinos' reform of the Coalition's FoFA reforms.
Senator Cormann says it was never the government's intention to reintroduce commissions – but that only makes one wonder why the government let Sinodinos try to do it.
Congratulations are in order for the finance minister then.
Yes, the other reforms – the ones Cormann as the relevant shadow minister took to the election - remain in place, but they don't make as much difference as much as the Opposition claims.
It was the big banks' desire to keep pushing product via the time-worn and now-disgraced commission method that posed the most risk.
That has been at the heart of the most of our obvious scandals, from the CBA's own "financial planners" to the Timbercorp and Great Southern managed investment schemes.
The FPA, fighting the good fight to professionalise their profession, is chuffed with the outcome as there's no wriggle room in the minister's statement:
"The government is moving to put this absolutely beyond doubt by prescribing that any payment related to the provision of general advice cannot be an upfront or trailing commission," Cormann says.
Real estate reality check
However, there remains another commission-driven investment scandal affecting superannuation that has not been tackled: the real estate spruikers tipping self-managed super funds into dubious and geared investments.
While financial product providers and financial planners from now on can't be led astray by suspiciously fat commission rates, others are free (or expensive) to use all the tricks of the dodgy salesperson's trade, promising anything and disclosing nothing.
There's a new housing estate outside a Queensland mining town substantially owned by geared SMSFs thanks to the diligence and sales drive of real estate spruikers.
The value of the housing has fallen by 30 to 40 per cent and rents are plummeting as well.
There is no requirement the real estate sales types, complete with get-rich-quick seminars, have to take any account of individuals' needs and financial circumstances, no warnings they have to give or risks that need to be explained.
There is more oversight and care involved in buying a $20,000 life insurance policy than in borrowing $500,000 for SMSF real estate speculation. All the tub-thumping and dire warnings issued by various worthies has come to nothing.
But there was an intriguing addendum to Senator Cormann's announcement today: the promise of a regulatory hit squad to whack any financial engineers who step outside the intent of the new legislation.
The immediate reaction to that could well be: "Yeah, you and who's army?"
Given ASIC's massive failure to deal with matters of existing fraud and failure that's been happening under its nose, it's hard to imagine the glacial speed with which new developments might be tackled.
Yet the minister seems to be quite a determined sort of man. So here's hoping he comes back for the rest of the shonks and charlatans.
Michael Pascoe is a BusinessDay contributing editor.
Michael Pascoe is a BusinessDay contributing editor. He comments on companies, markets and the economy.


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I had to stop and take pictures of this cemetery when I was in the Charleston area for the NGS conference. To me it was so odd to see the cemetery on such a busy street. It was beautiful with all the old trees throughout. An investigation was in order. So after Jenn Woods (from Climbing My Family Tree) and I got our fill of pictures on Folly Beach one morning, we stopped off to investigate the cemetery.
The cemetery was beautiful. Everything in the Charleston area was beautiful. My concern would be that if the cemetery was showing this kind of deterioration and potential neglect, it would only be a matter of time until tombstones could be lost completely. I sincerely hope that the church works to sustain and repair it's cemetery. These are the honored dead of that parish and should be cared for and cherished in their eternal sleep so others may come to pay their respects.
As I attempted to find additional information on this church/cemetery I came across a website that inventoried the graves back in 1984.
"Here Rest
The Body of
Who died 3rd of May 1820
Aged 33 Years, And 3 Months
AND her Infant SON.
Who died in October 1812
Aged 3 Years, And 9 Months."
Better known as
Born 1889
Died 1924
The inspiration for
DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy
and later the opera
"Porgy and Bess"
By Heyward and Gershwin"


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Tony W has not received any gifts yet
I moved to Rancho Bernardo recently in October and dying to get on courts.
I'd say I am 4.0 Intermediate/Wanna be Advanced. I played for UCSD club tennis in my senior years. I like to play sets.
Please let me know if you are interested to hit on weekends/ weekday evenings.
What can you do here? At Tennisopolis, you can:
- network with your tennis friends. Invite your tennis friends and build your network now. - meet new players. Here's a primer on how to find partners.
- join a Group. Members have started over 250 Local Groups (and other types of Groups too.) Search for one in your area, or start your own.
- follow the pros. There are over 1100 blog posts on Tennisopolis. Have a good read, or write your own.
- improve your game. Get tips in the Forum and check out video lessons.
- post your own Videos and add your own Photos.
To get started, please upload a photo or avatar for yourself (if you haven't already.) Whether it's of you, your dog, or your racquet it doesn't matter, but it helps people remember you. You can also personalize Your Page with pictures, links, RSS feeds, colors and more here.
Thanks to everyone inviting their friends, we now have over 16,500 members and we're growing by 80 new members a day. Invite yours too!
If you need any help, let me know.
© 2020 Created by Mark / The Mayor. Powered by


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|Rick and Cherie Cayemberg
On April 29th, 2000, just 11 short years ago, my husband and I were married at Nellis Chapel on Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. We actually married 7 months earlier in a civil ceremony, but needed to make it right with the Catholic Church (and I think our families appreciated it too!).
My husband and I were both in the Army. He was from Wisconsin and I was from Pennsylvania, so the question was, where would we have the wedding? Going to either place seemed to slight the other family (in our opinions) so we decided to have the church ceremony on Hawaii where we were living. After all, it was a chance for our families to come out to the islands and enjoy themselves!
It was a wonderful time having family out there, especially all at once! My aunt and uncle, retired Army officers, actually lived on Oahu and were generous enough to have the rehearsal dinner at their beautiful home. This was particularly challenging for my aunt who broke her feet stepping on a dog-toy as she came down a short set of stairs in her home just days before the wedding! In fact, it was the day my mother arrived at the airport. When we told her why her sister wasn't there to greet her she thought we were joking! The photographer was a friend of my aunt's and she did a great job hiding her feet under the train of my gown!
|The hubby and I with our parents
It was a simple wedding. We had a mass, but no limos or anything fancy like that. When we arrived at the church there were old fashioned WWII era military vehicles set up along "General's Row" just down from the chapel. You could actually see many of them from the front of the church. Most of us took a quick glance to see them before heading into the church.
During mass Father Olczyk jokingly said that if we heard the sounds of bombing during the ceremony to not be worried. Hollywood was there and would be filming scenes for a movie that day. Which movie was being filmed outside the chapel that we were being married in on our wedding day?...Pearl Harbor, starring Ben Affleck (although he wasn't there...just camera crews)!
I walked down the aisle to "All I Ask Of You" from Phantom of the Opera and had both my mother and father give me away. Leis were given to the mother of the bride and groom, and instead of a veil, I had one of the wonderful ladies at the Honolulu Airport (Martha) that we had been buying all our leis from to make a head-leis for me to use instead of a traditional veil. I loved it (and it only cost me $20.00)!
We looked around at various places to have the reception and everything was so expensive and formal. Formal isn't exactly what Hawaii was all about either, so we opted to rent a small pavillion at Bellows AFB beach at Waimanalo. We bought a keg and grilled...now that's the way to have a reception. Even our priest, Fr. Olczyk showed up with some Green Bay Packer's gear on. As it turned out he was originally from Wisconsin like my hubby and was my priest when I was stationed in San Antonio. Such a small world!
|The families of the bride and groom
During the homily in mass Fr Olczyk kept talking about having babies, so much so that after mass many of the guys from my unit asked if I was pregnant. Ironically, I would be one month later!
Happy Anniversary to the best husband a woman can ask for...oh and good luck to William and Kate! It's a great date for a wedding!
|My matron of honor & sister, Aimee, and me
|So excited to have a picture of me I didn't hate!
|Some of "the guys" outside before the wedding
|Finally convinced the guys to come in the church!
|Our leis-lady, Martha, at the Honolulu Airport


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• tornado •
tor-nay-do • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A violent whirlwind, a rotary windstorm forming a funnel that sucks objects upward from the ground when it touches.
Notes: Today's Good Word is eerily apropos in light of the horrendous trail of tornadoes that recently swept across the southern US states. We wish all the best to those who lost their homes in this catastrophe. You may form the plural of this word with or without an E; tornados is just as good as tornadoes. The scientific world uses the adjective tornadic when an adjective is needed, as tornadic weather or winds. Others have used tornadoish, though not often.
In Play: Today's meteorological term usually refers to a severe storm with spinning wind patterns that literally suck large objects up from the ground: "Tornadoes wreaked havoc across several states, killing over 200 people and destroying small towns." Since the aftermath of a real tornado is a ravaged landscape, this word is often used metaphorically to refer to things in complete disarray. What mother hasn't said this more than once to her child: "Your room looks like a tornado struck it!"
Word History: he origin of today's Good Word would seem to be Spanish tronada "thunderstorm" from tronar "to thunder". The best guess is that English borrowed tronada, then subjected the R and O to metathesis either under the influence of Spanish tornar "to twist, turn" or English turn. Spanish tronar comes from Latin tonare "to thunder". The same root that produced this word produced English thunder (from Old English thunor) and German Donner. English blunderbuss is a revision of Dutch donderbuss "thunderbox", based on the Dutch word donder "thunder" from the same source. (Let us all thank Chris Berry, a Grand Panjandrum in the Alpha Agora, for suggesting today's Good Word and wish him a tornadoless life.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
Come visit our website at <http://www.alphadictionary.com> for more Good Words and other language resources!


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The search found 217 results in 0.01 seconds.
Flawed forensics and overstated claims make scientific evidence tricky at trial.
Randol Contreras' drug-robber respondents were not born criminals or torturers, so how did they become "stick-up kids"?
Although research has established a very strong relationship between the presence of a psychiatric disorder and victimization in prisons, some gaps remain in our understanding. This study considers the importance of gender differences in this relationship. Estimates based on the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities show that psychiatric disorders have a stronger relationship with victimization among male inmates than among female inmates. Yet the size of the gender difference varies greatly depending on the specific disorder.
A growing trend in the criminal justice system is the move toward problem-solving courts, including mental health courts. Using case studies of two mental health courts in a West Coast city, this article seeks to explore how mental health courts may operate by reducing stigma among clients. From observations of the court process in mental health courts and qualitative interviews with mental health court professional staff and mental health court clients, ritual process emerged as a powerful theme that underscores the management of social stigma.
This article is about behavioral variation in genocide. Research frequently suggests that violent behaviors can be explained by or treated as synonymous with ethnic categories. This literature also tends to pre-group actors as perpetrators, victims, or bystanders for research purposes. However, evidence that individuals cross boundaries from killing to desistance and saving throughout genocide indicates that the relationship between behaviors and categories is often in flux.
The purpose of this paper is to move research on racial attitudes away from studying intraindividual attitudes toward studying broader structural factors that contribute to the attitudes and feelings of U.S. citizens. We focus on how interest groups and elite actors play a role in shaping the discourse on immigrants and the immigration debate in the twenty-first century. Herbert Blumer posed that over time, the dominant group develops certain feelings toward subordinate group members and that these feelings form the basis of racial prejudice.
Prior U.S.-based research examining the collective remembrance of racially charged events has focused on the black-white binary, largely bypassing such remembrance among U.S. Hispanics. In this article, I ask how a group of Mexican-origin Hispanics in an historic Houston barrio remember two racially charged events as well as whether and how these events are publicly commemorated. Additionally, race and collective memory research has often highlighted the role of collective memory in shaping race relations.
This article describes a class project designed to develop students' abilities to use their sociological imagination to better understand the structural sources of racial inequality. The event consisted of a memorial reading of the names of more than 4,000 documented lynch victims in the United States. Authors conducted a pretest and posttest on racial attitudes in large Introduction to Sociology courses. Posttest responses evidenced less support for "colorblind" ideologies and greater support for structural sources of inequality.


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BillGuard Launching New Platform to Make Settling Card Disputes Easier
For the sake of all that's right and good in the world, BillGuard should become wildly successful.
The service alerts credit and debit card holders to fraudulent and deceptive charges, smoking out the bad guys through crowdsourced flagging and some novel big data science.
And today, it's unveiling a new platform to make settling those disputes even easier.
Everyone raved about the Israeli and NYC-based company when co-founders Yaron Samid and Raphael Ouzan launched at TechCrunch Disrupt last May, and the company is now amply funded with $13 million total from a tier one cast including Khosla Ventures, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors and seed backers Bessemer, SV Angel, IA Ventures, Founder Collective, and Social Leverage.
Here's a web service that solves a very real problem (who checks their charges as carefully as they should?), with a slick and intuitive UI and massive target market. At launch, Samid and Ouzan presented a freemium model, intending to charge cardholders for BillGuard protection beyond their first card.
But soon after, following feedback from panel judge Fred Wilson and others, the founders decided to remove all user friction and focus on what Samid referred to on Quora as "BillGuard's multi-billion dollar opportunity... in the backend with banks and merchants." For the revenue model at least, it was goodbye consumer web service, hello enterprise software for large financial institutions. Bigger stakes, but that's also a radically different sales cycle.
Now, it's clear that BillGuard really does ultimately belong on the bank point of the card customer-merchant-bank triangle, since banks hold all the essential transactional data and real authority in card transactions.
In truth, BillGuard is the type of anti-fraud service that card issuing banks should have produced on their own, long ago. But the very reason why they never did so is what presents a massive challenge to BillGuard at this stage: retail banks are lumbering, reactive beasts that simply don't function in anything resembling a consumer-centric or collaborative manner.
Just the opposite - they're manic about protecting customer data from competitors, and right now are frantically trying to raise the number of little niggling charges they can sneak by their customers in an effort to compensate for billions in lost revenue from new regulation on their overdraft and swipe fees.
That means the banks' own charges would likely get caught in BillGuard alerts... and you want they should install it on their servers?
I visited BillGuard's Israeli R&D center this week to talk with 24-year old Ouzan, a veteran of Israel's intelligence unit and a Davos 'Global Shaper', about how they've been tackling this over the past few months. He and Samid, who's based in New York, bring the right story when pounding the pavement to card issuing bankers - they address the banks' own pain points.
So while Ouzan himself describes their company to me as "writing the book on consumer centered risk management" and is convinced the only way online security can succeed at scale is "to react fast through collaborative, collective vigilance," the banks don't hear all that people power stuff first in BillGuard pitches.
Rather, Chase, Capital One and their ilk receive detailed spreadsheets illustrating how much they can save in call center costs by replacing their expensive teams fielding dispute and nuisance calls with BillGuard. Then the banks hear how BillGuard will greatly improve their currently abysmal user engagement, since - unlike their own missives - BillGuard emails actually get opened by appreciative customers.
Ouzan acknowledges that a shift toward customer-centered, collaborative data sharing requires a whole new way of thinking for the banks, but he's convinced there are enlightened souls there who are coming around to it, and believes BillGuard has now found the key to nudge them forward.
The company soon plans to launch BillGuard Resolution Center, a lightweight platform that largely removes the bank from the dispute process, placing the bewildered card holder directly in touch with merchants for a first attempt to resolve charge queries. If the merchant doesn't give the cardholder satisfaction, the cardholder can still turn to her bank to adjudicate a dispute, but BillGuard claims, convincingly, that in the great majority of cases queries should be settled far more efficiently by directly linking merchant and cardholder.
The bank can therefore rid itself of much of the painful and expensive middleman role without ceding ultimate control over the transaction. Upstanding merchants should also love it, since they're currently charged even for banks' complaint investigations and suffer heavy fees for breaching a certain threshold of chargebacks (usually 1%). BillGuard Resolution Center, applied at scale, should drastically lower all chargebacks.
Another big plus if BillGuard can get banks onboard: they currently use Yodlee to scrape customers' transactions from card issuers' sites, which can create massive integration and data normalization headaches, but if the banks themselves join the platform the company would gain direct access to clean transaction data.
So are the banks actually biting, choosing cost savings, transparency, data sharing and customer love over everything we've come to loathe them for? Ouzan tells me that in fact they are - that BillGuard's in "very advanced stages" of inking deals with multiple card issuers, and that we can expect announcements on these partnerships over the course of this year.
If that does actually happen with multiple card issuers, it would be the fintech biz dev deal of the decade, signaling a sea change in how banks view their customers and data, and a big win for consumers.
While BillGuard is betting card providers are capable of this kind of radical reform, Dowalla and other upstart mobile payment providers are convinced that credit cards are fundamentally broken due to card providers' intransigence. These companies hope to cut the intermediary bank out entirely from a next-gen payment process. It's a fix from within, fix from without type of disagreement and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
BillGuard calls itself "antivirus for your bills" - a terrific and accurate tagline - but when you extend the metaphor it raises a question. Card issuers today are like a cartel of Microsofts in the late '90s, dominating their market with a deeply flawed product that regularly exposes their users to malicious threats.
Why didn't Microsoft acquire a serious antivirus software company like Symantec or McAfee in the late '90s or early oughts? Because it was easier to release reactive patches to Windows than it was to accept full and immediate responsibility for their product's safety. Only when Mac and Linux seriously eating into Windows market share did Microsoft begin bundling a (lame) antivirus solution directly with their product.
Can BillGuard do for Bank of America and Chase what nothing could do for Microsoft? For the millions of cardholders out there with daily exposure to credit and debit card fraud, let's hope so.


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New funding opportunities for entrepreneurs in Cape Coast, Ghana
The Projects Abroad Microfinance Project in Ghana will be moving from Akuapem Hills to Cape Coast in April 2017 to provide support to entrepreneurs at a leprosy camp and empower business women in a local fishing community.
The Microfinance Project has had a busy few years, and in 2016 alone 80 beneficiaries in Akuapem Hills were given financial support and training so that they would be able to start their own businesses. Owing to the sustained success of the business owners and the community as a whole in Akuapem Hills, the Projects Abroad Microfinance Project will now be shifting its focus and activities to support other communities in need in Ghana.
One of the communities selected is a leprosy camp on the outskirts of Cape Coast. The village-like camp is home to people struggling with leprosy, as well as their families. Leprosy is a chronic, curable disease that affects the skin and nerves and is transmitted through close, repeated contacted with an untreated person. "Despite progress being made about its transmission, there remains a stigma around leprosy in Ghana and many people still believe that those who were affected are still highly contagious, or that they have a bad omen, so they are shunned from society," says Jenny Puyo, the Projects Abroad Head Office Coordinator for Ghana. It is because of this belief that they continue to live life as outcasts, receiving very little care and support.
Members of the camp are eager to be more self-sufficient and many have started their own businesses. However, as leprosy is considered a disability, these entrepreneurs struggle to access loans that are needed to grow their businesses.
Projects Abroad is the only organization that offers financial support and business training to this marginalized community.
John, the leader of the leprosy camp, has been the voice of this community for the past 30 years. He knows the struggles they face and the community welcomes assistance from Projects Abroad. "Most of these people really need the help and the Microfinance Project is going to be one of the best things for them as getting a loan is challenging. Living here is difficult and the project will help people put food on the table, which is something they struggle with every day," says John.
Life can be a struggle in the camp and there is little help from the government, charities or aid organizations. This means that members of the community need to find ways to help themselves. Beneficiaries of the Projects Abroad loans are doing everything they can to help their situations and improve their lives in the camp. With the loans, these business owners will have the opportunity to buy more raw materials and stock so they can improve their business prospects. The people in the leprosy camp will also benefit from their hard work, according to James, an art shop owner on the beach. "Whenever someone buys a piece of artwork from my shop the profits are divided. I give a percentage to the leprosy camp to put food on people's tables and at the same time, it helps me."
Projects Abroad is not only providing loans to local business owners. The Projects Abroad Medicine Project in Ghana has also been trying to raise awareness about leprosy and volunteers are helping fight the disease by providing access to free medical treatment. By offering free health care this project is able to limit the damage and impact of this disease on members of this community.
Beyond the leprosy camp, Microfinance volunteers will also be working with a group of women in Abukem village. Fishing is the main source of income in the village but it is a seasonal business and is dominated by men, so the women want to start businesses of their own. Local women often do not have access to proper education so volunteers will focus on teaching basic numeracy, literacy and English language skills alongside running business skills workshops. Projects Abroad loans will be allocated based on the attendance, performance and progress of applicants at these workshops.
The main aim of the Microfinance Project is to give people from underprivileged communities the chance to secure a sustainable future for themselves and their families, through small scale businesses. "This is a great way to create new employment opportunities and empower the locals. In the long run this will encourage entrepreneurialism and help develop and uplift the communities and the future prospects of its people," says Jenny.
Find out more about our Microfinance Project in Ghana to see how you can contribute, or take a look at how you can make a difference at one of our wide range of Microfinance Projects around the world.


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Bank of America 500: Breaking down the lineup
CONCORD, N.C. -- At least the start will be good for Hendrick Motorsports fans Saturday night in the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
All four of the Hendrick cars will start in the top-six, including Jeff Gordon from the pole.
-- Gordon first in qualifying | BOA 500 qualifying results | Beloved drivers | Charlotte picks | Odds
Here's a look at the lineup for the only night race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the fifth event of the 10-race Chase:
1. Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet -- Has points leader Matt Kenseth still in his sight, which is better than what most other Chase drivers can say. Better yet, he'll have everyone in his mirror at the start of the race Saturday night.
2. Kevin Harvick, Richard Childress Racing No. 29 Chevrolet -- Big win last week got him back, a little, in championship contention. Needs to prove this week that will be the norm the rest of the year instead of a rarity. Qualifying was a good start.
3. Greg Biffle, Roush Fenway Racing No. 16 Ford -- He's been looking for something positive. Best starting spot in last 26 races would rank as something positive.
4. Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet -- Considers himself lucky to salvage a strong finish last week as engine went sour in waning laps. Says it was in the valve train and believes issue has been resolved.
5. Kasey Kahne, Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet -- Has his big "5 Kahne" charity run Sunday. Probably a hilly up-and-down course to go along with his year. And maybe kinda ironic that the No. 5 is starting fifth.
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet -- Solid qualifying on his 39th birthday as he prepares for his 500th start at the same track where he made his first. That would make a good storyline for a win, wouldn't it? Then again, any Earnhardt Jr. win is a good storyline.
7. Ryan Newman, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 39 Chevrolet -- Team might feel out on an island as Martin struggles and Patrick learns. Not sure how much different that was than when Stewart was there.
8. Juan Pablo Montoya, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet -- Can't accuse him of giving up on NASCAR after that qualifying lap.
9. Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota -- Will have a better weekend this weekend than last, when he wrecked three times. At least he better hope so.
10. Kurt Busch, Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Chevrolet -- Seventh in the standings thanks to gritty performances. Expect another one Saturday night.
11. Aric Almirola, Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford -- Stoked after 10th-place finish last week at Kansas. Would be really stoked if he could post first back-to-back top-10s since April.
12. Joey Logano, Penske Racing No. 22 Ford -- Has finished third and fourth in past two races. And he's 10th in points. That's gotta stink.
13. Paul Menard, Richard Childress Racing No. 27 Chevrolet -- Had a strong day at Kansas last week with a seventh, his eighth top-10 of the season.
14. Clint Bowyer, Michael Waltrip Racing No. 15 Toyota -- Bowyer admitted he kind of lost his mind a little when he, in frustration, ran into Almirola postrace. Hoping to get the finish he believes he deserves this week.
15. Carl Edwards, Roush Fenway Racing No. 99 Ford -- His fifth last week was just his third top-five in last 14 races.
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Roush Fenway Racing No. 17 Ford -- Announced Thursday that Zest will be back as a primary sponsor for handful of races next year. He's got to like the smell of that deal.
17. Martin Truex Jr., Michael Waltrip Racing No. 56 Toyota -- Still no update on his 2014 plans but has other concerns this weekend as his best finish ever at Charlotte was seventh and his average finish is 18.1 at the track.
18. Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota -- Best part of Charlotte weekend is it was the first weekend of pro basketball exhibition games so he has something to distract him.
19. Brian Scott, Circle Sport Racing No. 33 Chevrolet -- Scott making his Cup debut in this RCR-prepared car. He hopes to do 5-7 Cup races next year while returning to an RCR Nationwide car.
20. Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota -- Dude now has his own Citizen watch that is for sale to general public. Only way world gets better for him would be a second Cup championship. That's quite possible.
21. Kyle Larson, Phoenix Racing No. 51 Chevrolet -- Both Larson and Scott posted great qualifying results considering they're making their Sprint Cup debuts.
22. Mark Martin, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Chevrolet -- Can he have just one or two good races before Stewart gets healthy? Martin won't be in the car next week at Talladega (driver's choice) as Austin Dillon will take over the wheel.
23. Brad Keselowski, Penske Racing No. 2 Ford -- He doesn't know what intentional wrecking is so he had to ask at the prerace drivers meeting? He must be new to the sport and didn't grow up around it.
24. Bobby Labonte, JTG Daugherty Racing No. 47 Toyota -- Still looking for 2014 ride probably hoping this won't be his last race at Charlotte.
25. Jamie McMurray, Earnhardt-Ganass Racing No. 1 Chevrolet -- McMurray right now the "best of the rest" at 14th in the series standings. Wouldn't be surprised if he stays there.
26. Jeff Burton, Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet -- Says he has something close to lined up for next season but leaving the destination a mystery. Apparently not Swan Racing, Phoenix Racing nor Wood Brothers.
27. Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip Racing No. 55 Toyota -- Actually gets a weekend off next week as Michael Waltrip gets in the car for Talladega. After that qualifying run, Vickers might wish he'd get an extra day off Saturday night.
28. Casey Mears, Germain Racing No. 13 Ford -- Has been 23rd in the standings the past two weeks, his best since the eighth week of the season.
29. Marcos Ambrose, Richard Petty Motorsports No. 9 Ford -- Was ninth at Kansas last week. Was 10th last time at Charlotte. Things looking up? Maybe until his qualifying lap.
30. David Ragan, Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford -- Has to be excited for next week at Talladega, where he won the last time Cup raced there.
31. Cole Whitt, Swan Racing No. 30 Toyota -- Hoping to make the most out of the chance in this car.
32. Landon Cassill, Mike Hillman Racing No. 40 Chevrolet -- With Brian Scott in the No. 33 car this weekend, Cassill gets in the No. 40 car this week.
33. Josh Wise, Front Row Motorsports No. 35 Ford -- Best starting spot in last five weeks, for what it's worth.
34. David Gilliland, Front Row Motorsports No. 38 Ford -- The three Front Row cars were 30th, 33rd and 34th in qualifying. They appear equal.
35. Danica Patrick, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Chevrolet -- Here's something to take to the bank: Her race Saturday night should be longer than last Sunday.
36. David Reutimann, BK Racing No. 83 Toyota -- Not been a great season but this qualifying a little worse than normal for him.
37. Michael McDowell, Phil Parsons Racing No. 98 Ford -- Likely will be a short night for this team, that has start-and-parked for most of the year.
38. Joe Nemechek, Nemco-JRR Motorsports No. 87 Toyota -- His real race is Friday night in the Nationwide Series.
39. Dave Blaney, Tommy Baldwin Racing No. 7 Chevrolet -- His big pink-ribbon decal on hood among those for breast cancer awareness his weekend.
40. Timmy Hill, FAS Lane Racing No. 32 Ford -- Hill was the top rookie in the race at Kansas. What's even bigger is he finished on the lead lap. Solid run for newcomer.
41. Travis Kvapil, BK Racing No. 93 Toyota -- Probably not all that concerned about the qualifying lap after his arrest on domestic violence charges two days earlier. Said he was embarrassed by his arrest and thanked team for sticking behind him.
42. JJ Yeley, Tommy Baldwin Racing No. 36 Chevrolet -- Wife and daughter decked out in pink racing suits Thursday as wife was competing in charity race. They win the cute award for the weekend.
43. Blake Koch, Leavine Family Racing No. 95 Ford -- He had never been in a Cup car until Thursday. So it will be a learning experience Saturday in his first career Cup race.


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Let's not kid ourselves, there's truly nothing like the sweet rhapsody of eight cylinders as you're rowing through the gears. And when it comes to the C5 Z06, we'll be the first to say that The General did a remarkable job with the factory pipes. Especially when you take into consideration that this was the first production exhaust to feature titanium construction. If you didn't already know, this was part of the Z06's weight reduction program. The tone is bit throatier over the standard C5, but after a bit more seat time, we started craving a system that would kick up the decibel factor slightly, better representing the stout LS6 powerplant.
In deciding on what setup to go with, it came down to several factors. We contemplated a complete exhaust system, beginning with a set of long-tube headers for all out performance; however, reality kicked in and directed us to a package that that would still allow us to pass our stringent California smog emissions. The only viable option was to upgrade to an axle-back system, keeping the factory catalytic converters in place.
As mentioned earlier, we knew we wanted something to tickle our ears, but we certainly wanted to avoid upsetting our neighbors during the occasional early morning commute. Above all, we also wanted to stay clear of any unwarranted drone. If you're not familiar with this, it's when the exhaust frequency is constant at a certain rpm; this can get a tad annoying on long drives and makes it difficult to interact with passengers.
The exhaust system that addressed all of our concerns was Granatelli Motor Sports (GMS) LS6 axle-back exhaust system. This system features a complete T-304 stainless steel construction, a straight-through muffler design for maximum flow, and quickly bolts on with minimal effort. Net gains to the rear wheels were very respectable and showed immediately on the chassis dyno, but you're going to have to read on to see those numbers. When it came to road testing, we took a 600-plus-mile round trip up to NorCal and came back with one simple verdict: we have a winner.
Quick Notes
What We Did
Swapped out the factory exhaust for a Granatelli Motor Sports axle-back system
Bottom Line
Gained performance and a sweet sound
Cost (Approx)


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This is the last of a three-part "series" on the Radium Girls, the young workers who painted luminous watch faces during the 1920s - and unknowingly became some of the first human test subjects on the dangers of radiation exposure.* I told my version of their story in my book, The Poisoner's Handbook, but it's worth revisiting here. It remains a cautionary tale of radioactive elements, the slow recognition of their danger, and the risks of scientific over-confidence - that rings remarkably true today. *
The bones, removed in 1928 from a five-year-old grave, belonged to an Italian-American woman. Her name was Amelia Maggia and she'd died just after she'd turned 25.
Before her death, Maggia worked at the U.S. Radium Corporationfor four years, faithfully painting watch faces with luminous paint, lip-pointing her brush to create the fine point needed for the work. In her last year at the factory, 1921, she'd started abruptly losing weight. Her joints started to ache; she found herself moving, she told her doctor, like a tired old woman.
The following year, her dentist discovered that Maggia's jaw was splintering apart; almost all of it was removed. But she then developed a horrifying anemia; she bled constantly from her mouth, and she'd died in September 1923. Her death certificate read: "ulcerative stomachitis."
Medical examiner Harrison S. Martland, of Essex County, N.J., had found Maggia on a list of former dial painters. He was deep into his investigation of radium as a possible poison and he suspected that the diagnosis was, well, completely wrong. The symptoms read like textbook radium sickness to him. He didn't blame the attending physician; he'd been shocked himself to realize how wicked the element could be. His first report on the dial painters was simply titled "Some Unrecognized Dangers in the Use and Handling of Radioactive Substances".
But how deep did those dangers run? How deeply did the radium settle into the bones of these workers? How long did it stay there, spitting radiation? He had Maggia's body exhumed –to check his theory that she'd died of radium poisoning – and to get a better measure of the element's destructive power. For help, he contacted the New York City Medical Examiner's Office, asked if its brilliant toxicologist – Alexander Gettler– could figure out a way to find the rattle of alpha radiation in a dead woman's bones.
Martland's red flag of a report had been published earlier, in 1925. That same year the U.S. Radium Corporation was sued by a small group of former dial painters. There were only five of the Radium Girls – as the press liked to call them – in that action. A few had already settled; more were afraid to take on a big corporation; sure that they'd lose the jobs they held now, that they'd lose in the courts anyway.
And the doubters were right about one thing. The company had no intention of making this easy. It took three years of legal wrangling to even get a trial date set in 1928. And coincidentally – and with what would turn out to be very bad timing for the U.S. Radium Corporation – that coincided with the decision by Martland to contact the New York City Medical Examiner's Office about those ragged bones.
The New York City scientists methodically set about figuring out how to testan aging skeleton for evidence of a little understood radioactive element. They scraped away the shreds of remaining tissue from the bones; they burned those scraps into ash. They boiled a selection of bones - skull, five cervical vertebrae, five slices of rib, both feet, femurs, the right tibia, the right fibula - for hours in a solution of washing soda. The bones were scrubbed, air-dried, the larger ones sawed into two inch pieces.
The prepared bones and the tissue ash were then taken into a darkroom and placedonto x-ray films wrapped in black photographic paper. Then, for comparison, they went through the same process with pieces of washed bone and tissue from a normal corpse. The bone, tissue and film packages were left to sit for ten days in a sealed darkroom with the idea that "If radioactive, the bones and the tissue ash would emit rays, and the beta and gamma rays would penetrate the black paper and affect the photographic film."
The published photographs – those of the dial painter's bones - showed a dazzle of pale spots, starred against a black background, as unmistakable as the glitter of a constellation on a dark night. By contrast, "Those (films) on which normal bones were placed are not shown, because they did not show any impression." But from Amelia Maggia's remains, "every piece of bone, as well as every tissue ash that we examined, showed radioactivity by the photographic method." And if a dead woman's bones still sparked with radiation, they had no doubt that the same could be said for the bones of the still living dial painters.
As the lawsuit dragged on, the Radium Girlsbecame sicker and sicker.
Two of them, Quinta MacDonald and Albina Larice, were sisters of the dead woman whose bones had provided so much evidence in Gettler's laboratory. Both of Quinta's hips had fractured; Albina was bedridden, one of her legs was now four inches shorter than the other; Edna Hussman could barely shuffle across her room; oddly, years after leaving the factory, her hair still glowed in the dark; Grace Fryer now worked in a bank; with a metal brace from neck to hips to support her spine. Katherine Schaub's jaws were starting to break apart; as she told her lawyers, she hoped the money – they were asking $250,000 each – would pay for her funeral. "If I won my $250,000, mightn't I have lots of roses?"
Thirteen other dial workers, including Schaub's cousin, had died in the three years since the lawsuit was filed. And the company lawyers, even now in the spring of 1928, had found another argument for dismissing the complaint. This time they proposed that the statute of limitations had run out on the plaintiffs' injuries. The workers should have come to court when they were actually exposed to radium, not now, years later, when they no longer had jobs with the U.S. Radium Corporation.
It was true that several of them were unemployed because they could no longer walk or talk or had had most of their faces removed due to bone necrosis. And it was true that legal maneuvering had delayed proceedings but, the company asserted, the case had lost all validity. New Jersey law required court action within two years of an injury. Some of these workers had left the factory long before the 1925 filing of the lawsuit. And so much time had passed since then, the corporation lawyers argued, it was a matter of law that the Radium Girls' time had come and gone.
The response for the attorneys for the injured women came legal came right out of the research of Harrison Martland and Alexander Gettler.
The plaintiffs' lawyer replied that radium was a different kind of poison; like arsenic or a mercury compound, those old fashioned poisons with their simple, direct toxicity. This wasn't a matter of a one time exposure, but rather a permanent one. These women were still being poisoned; poisoned every day by a radioactive element that never left, simmered in the body, bubbled in the bones.
Yes, the suit was three years old, and, yes, the women had left those dial painting jobs years earlier. But this minute, even, all five were still exhaling radon gas, and the radium in their bones was still killing them.
The judges in Newark's chancery court found the plaintiff's argument, the image of those irreversibly radioactive bones absolutely plausible. And appalling. The court dismissed the corporation's motion and set the trial, at last, for June 8 in federal district court in Manhattan.
The following day the company agreed to settle the case - $10,000 in cash for each woman, a $400 a year pension, and the guarantee of complete medical care, to be covered by the U.S. Radium Corporation and its insurers.
It was less than the dial painters had hoped for – but they had made their point, proved their poison, and started the country on a path to regulating radioactive materials (with both Martland and Gettler involved in that crusade). And the Radium Girls, well, they were glad to get the money while they were still alive to use it.


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Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, under pressure after a fatal crash involving one of his electric cars, went on Twitter Sunday to say he's working on another "Top Secret Tesla Masterplan." He said he hoped to publish details this week.
The tantalizing message echoes an August 2006 blog post, titled "The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me)," in which Musk unveiled the cars that became the Tesla Model S four-door family car and the Tesla 3 sports sedan.
Federal officials are investigating a May 7 crash in Florida that killed a man after his Model S cameras failed to detect a turning tractor-trailer and did not automatically activate the brakes.
Palo Alto-based Tesla also said last week that shipments to customers fell in the past three months.


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Law School Admissions / Re: Is it true that only the top 30 law school grad can make a fortune?« on: August 26, 2011, 02:22:41 PM »
I know I am not a T1 material, I am a big time sucker for LSAT: I have been studying for it for a year, and I just can't put up to 160. So I am planning to go to a T3 or T4 schools, probably CUNY LS since it's cheap. From my research, I notice that only ppl who go to top 30s LS can come out making $160k (median starting salaries for lawyers). Is that true?
You'll be fortunate if you can find a job out of law school that will pay you $40-50K and provide you with good experience. Nobody should go to law school (minus students at the truly elite law schools) if you can't live with this as a realistic possibility. If money is your driver, go find work with a company that will pay for you to get your MBA.


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Most popular midsize pickup.
Editor: New Car Test Drive
$16,365 Base Price MSRP
$30,635 As Tested MSRP
Model Lineup: Toyota Tacoma Regular Cab 2.7-liter L4 5-speed manual ($16,365); with 4-speed automatic ($17,265); Access Cab 5M ($19,655); with 4A ($20,555); Double Cab 4A ($21,865); PreRunner Access Cab 4A ($21,315); PreRunner V6 Access Cab with 5A ($22, 750); X-Runner V6 Access Cab 6M ($25,735); PreRunner L4 Double Cab 4A ($22,515); PreRunner V6 Double Cab 5A ($23,950); PreRunner Long Bed V6 Double Cab 5A ($24,450); 4WD Regular Cab L4 5M ($20,220); 4WD Regular Cab L4 4A ($21,350); 4WD Access Cab L4 5M ($23,490); 4WD Access Cab L4 4A ($24,390); 4WD V6 Access Cab 6M ($25,045); 4WD V6 Access Cab 5A ($25,925); 4WD V6 Double Cab 6M ($26,145); 4WD V6 Double Cab 5A ($27,025); 4WD V6 Long Bed Double Cab 5A ($27,525)
Standard Engine: 4.0-liter dohc 24-valve V6 with VVT-i
Engine Options: 159-hp 2.7-liter dohc 16-valve inline-4 with VVT-i; 236-hp 4.0-liter dohc 24-valve V6 with VVT-i
Standard Transmission: 6-speed manual
Transmission Options: 5-speed manual; 6-speed manual; 4-speed automatic; 5-speed automatic
Basic Warranty: 3 years/36,000 miles
Assembled In: Fremont, California
Model Tested MSRP: Toyota Tacoma 4WD Access Cab V6 6M ($25,045)
Standard Equipment: air conditioning, 16-inch steel wheels, removable tailgate, tie-down cleats, power windows and door locks, cloth seats, AM/FM/MP3/CD/SAT 4-speaker sound system, tilt-telescoping steering wheel
Options As Tested: TRD Sport Package ($3555) including Bilstein shocks, 17-inch alloy wheels, hood scoop, power mirrors, smoked headlamp trim, sliding rear window with privacy glass, 115V deck outlet, foglamps, remote entry, cruise control, variable speed wipers, overhead console with compass and temperature gauge, cloth sport seats with driver lumbar support, leather-wrapped steering wheel with audio controls and shifter, backup camera on inside mirror, TRD graphics; Tow Package ($650); Carpet floor mats ($179); Security system ($479); tube steps ($459); hood protector ($119); iPod interface kit ($299)
Standard Safety Equipment: dual frontal air bags, seatbelt pretensioners and force limiters, anchors for child safety seats; ABS, EBD, Brake Assist, tire-pressure monitor, side-curtain airbags, Vehicle Stability Control with Traction ControlDestination Charge: $800
The 2011 Toyota Tacoma gets new grilles on all models, along with a number of package changes, with air conditioning now standard on the regular cabs. However, the mechanicals are unchanged for 2011. Three manual-transmission PreRunner models have been dropped, and no less than five new four-cylinder models with automatic transmissions have been added to the 2011 Tacoma lineup.
All models and trim levels of the Tacoma receive as standard equipment Toyota's Star Safety System, which includes anti-lock brakes (ABS), Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), Brake Assist, Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) and Traction Control (TC). An Automatic Limited-Slip Differential (Auto-LSD), which uses brake intervention in place of a mechanical-type limited-slip to help reduce wheel-spin, is standard on all Tacoma models with the exception of those fitted with TRD Off-Road packages, like our test model; those will have a separate locking differential.
The audio systems all come satellite-radio ready. The optional Premium JBL six-CD system is Bluetooth-compatible and has an integrated satellite radio system that includes a three-month trial subscription to XM Satellite Radio.
For those who drive hard, there is a dealer-installed TRD Big Brake system developed by engineers with the Toyota Technical Center and Toyota Racing Development to provide effective braking performance under sustained heavy use. It improves pedal feel and substantially reduces brake fade from repeated high-speed applications.
The Tacoma offers a comfortable cab, a refined ride, and quality construction. Its on-road handing is responsive, its off-road capability is proven. The Double Cab delivers more rear-seat comfort than most of the competition, with enough room to rival a small sedan. Properly equipped V6 models can to tow up to 6,500 pounds.
Models range from a basic work truck with a four-cylinder engine and 2WD to a loaded V6 4WD Double Cab Long Bed. The base model is among the few regular-cab pickups still available, as the market has moved to extended-cab and crew cab styles; it excels at durability and reliability. Our test model was a 4WD V6 Access Cab with the TRD package.
Tacoma PreRunner models can make you feel like you're practicing for the Baja 1000, while the sporty X-Runner may make you feel like you're preparing to take it sports car racing.
Compact pickups aren't what they once were. For one thing, they have not been compact for many years, they're midsize. Nor are they uncomfortable. They're more comfortable and more capable than ever before.
The 2011 Toyota Tacoma is available in 20 different configurations, including Regular Cab, Access Cab (extended cab) and Double Cab (crew cab) body styles. Regular and Access Cabs come with six-foot beds; Double Cab comes with the choice of a shorter five-foot bed or a standard-size six-footer. The base engine is a 2.7-liter inline four-cylinder mated to a five-speed manual transmission; a four-speed automatic is optional ($900). A 4.0-liter V6 is standard on Double Cabs and optional ($1,435) on 4WD Access Cabs. It is paired with a six-speed manual or five-speed automatic.
Tacoma Regular Cab ($16,365) comes standard with cloth upholstery, AM/FM/CD four-speaker sound system, tachometer, digital clock, two 12-volt powerpoints, fuel warning light, tire-pressure monitor, service reminder indicator, dome lamp, rear mudguards, 15-inch steel wheels and a full-size spare tire. And now air conditioning, which was previously optional.
Tacoma Access Cab ($19,655) and Double Cab ($21,865) L4 models add more standard features, including functional consoles for the floor and ceiling. Double Cabs come with upgraded seat fabric, plus power windows, mirrors and door locks. Access and Double Cabs also get satellite-ready six-speaker audio systems, and offer an in-dash six-CD changer; Access Cab and Double Cab models offer a premium JBL system (that's wrapped into other packages) with CD changer and amplified subwoofer. Both audio upgrades feature steering wheel controls.
Tacoma PreRunner models are 2WD, but feature the high stance and general appearance of a 4WD truck. (Desert racers use this style of truck to scout or pre-run the course before the big race.) The Regular Cab PreRunner was discontinued, so now the four-cylinder Access Cab with 4-speed automatic transmission ($21,315) is the entry-level PreRunner. The V6 is optional ($1,455) on PreRunner Access Cabs and standard on Double Cabs ($23,950).
Four-wheel-drive is available throughout the line, in Regular, Access and Double Cabs. Four-cylinder and V6 engines, along with manual and automatic transmissions are available, including a 5-speed manual and 6-speed manual, or 4-speed automatic and 5-speed automatic.
Tacoma X-Runner ($25,735) features unique styling cues and a chassis tuned for on-road performance. Its name refers to the additional X-shaped brace added to stiffen its frame against high cornering loads. X-Runner is offered only in the Access Cab style, and only with the V6 and 6-speed manual.
Tacoma SR5 packages bundle styling and comfort features, including color-keyed overfenders and front bumper, chrome grille surround and chrome rear bumper, bucket seats with center console, and other upgraded interior features and trim.
The TRD Sport Package starts with SR5 Package 2 equipment and adds or substitutes P265/65R17 tires, sport-tuned suspension with Bilstein shock absorbers, sport seats, overhead console and power point, plus a hood scoop, lots of body-color trim, and its own graphics package. The TRD Sport is available on any Tacoma V6.
The TRD Offroad Package starts with the SR5 Package 2 equipment and adds or substitutes BF Goodrich P265/70R16 OWL tires, locking rear differential, off-road suspension with Bilstein shock absorbers, engine skidplate, sport seats, overhead console with compass and outside temperature, heavy-duty front tow hook, 115v/400w deck-mounted powerpoint, and unique TRD graphics. TRD Offroad is available only on V6 models, but not on Double Cab Long Beds.
Options for the Tacoma include a tow package ($650) for V6 models that comprises a 130-amp alternator, heavy-duty battery, transmission oil cooler, and a Class IV hitch with seven-pin connector.
Safety features that come on all models include anti-lock brakes (ABS) with Electronic Brake-force Distribution, Brake Assist, Vehicle Stability Control with Traction Control, and the Automatic Limited-slip Differential. Models with automatic transmission also include Hill-start Assist Control, and TRD Offroad models add Downhill Assist Control. In addition, front airbags, front seat side-impact airbags, and side-curtain airbags are standard on all models.
Walk Around
The Toyota Tacoma is an attractive truck, more conservatively styled than the stylish Nissan Frontier and Dodge Dakota. Big headlights and a bold grille, new for 2011, highlight the Tacoma's front end. Flush rear surface glass and flush surface structures between the bumper sides and body give it a polished look. PreRunner and 4WD models are distinguished by bold overfenders.
Overall length of the Tacoma varies by body style: Regular Cabs are the shortest and most maneuverable, measuring 190.4 inches overall on a 109.4-inch wheelbase. Access Cab and Double Cab short-bed models have a 127.4-inch wheelbase and 208.1-inch overall length. Double Cab long-bed models are quite long at 221.3 inches overall on a 140.6-inch wheelbase. All models have six-foot beds except the Double Cab short-bed, which has a five-foot bed.
How to choose? Regular Cab models pack lots of cargo space in a relatively small package, good for maneuverability in the big city. Regular Cab PreRunners and 4WD models also have the best break-over angle due to their short length, and therefore offer the best capability off road. Access Cabs feature large dual rear auxiliary doors, not good for people but very good for gear. Double Cabs have long, conventionally hinged rear doors that open 80 degrees for ease of entry or loading gear. Double Cabs offer the people-carrying comfort of a sport-utility. Long-bed Double Cabs can carry more stuff but are unwieldy in tight places.
The Tacoma comes with a composite inner bed, lighter than steel yet tougher and more durable. The bed features two-tier loading and an integrated deck rail utility system with four adjustable tie-down cleats. The rails are compatible with numerous Genuine Toyota Accessories, including cargo-bed cross bars, a fork-mount bike rack, and other useful items.
All of the latest-generation midsize pickups have decent interiors, but the quality of Toyota's interior materials seems just a little better. The lower dash and console are a lighter color than the main upper dash, brightening the interior. Trim rings surround the three clustered gauges, the cloth upholstery is decent and the seats look nice. The manually-adjustable seats include lumbar adjustment but no adjustment for seat height or the angle of the seat bottom. Overall, the Tacoma provides the driver with a good driving position, and big mirrors afford a good view to the rear. Excellent grab handles on both A-pillars.
Our test model had the upgraded seats and interior that come with the TRD package, and it was nice, if costly. The metallic-tone instrument panel trim, a plastic dashboard face with the texture of an aluminum golf ball, left something to be desired; but at least the black leather dashboard panel and gray leather door trim was classy. The sport bucket seats with driver lumbar support were made of a sturdy gray fabric and had excellent bolstering. There was an overhead console with compass and temperature gauge, as well.
Cup holders are provided in the center console area. On models that don't have sport seats, the front passenger's seatback flips down to form a tray table or to make room for long objects, a handy feature. The switchgear is easy to operate, and everything is where you expect it to be. Big rotary knobs make it easy to adjust cabin temperature even with gloves on; the knobs are electronic, so they're easy to twist. The radio is fully integrated into the upper center stack and it's easy to operate. CDs sound good through the JBL speakers. Models with automatics come with a foot-operated parking brake, while the manual transmission models use a pull-out handbrake from the past that we weren't thrilled with, on our test model. However we were totally thrilled with the air conditioning, which blasts real cold real fast, according to our notes.
The rear seats in the Tacoma Double Cab are particularly comfortable for the class, offering good legroom and shoulder room and decent headroom. The seatback is angled back slightly, making it more comfortable than the overly upright rear seats in some other compact pickups. In a back-to-back comparison test, we found the back seats of the Tacoma more comfortable than those in the Nissan Frontier. A younger person should be okay to ride across the state back there, and even adults won't complain too much on short trips. The rear windows even go all the way down.
The rear-seat area in the Double Cab is also good for carrying cargo. The seat is split 60/40. Flip the seat bottoms forward and fold the two sections down to form a flat platform for gear. It takes two hands to do this, and you first have to remove the headrests, which is a hassle, though Toyota has at least provided a place to store them. The backs of the seatbacks are hard, and form a sturdy cargo floor. It's not a bad spot for a dog, better than the bumpy floors in the Nissan Frontier and Dodge Dakota, but still a big jump down. Our experience has been that none of the trucks in this class is particularly good for dogs.
The Access Cab has rear seats, with the access coming on the passenger side only, but there isn't enough room for adults. The two kids we sentenced to the rear of our Access Cab are 5-feet and 5-feet, 5 inches tall, and they were okay back there for a short ride, but would rather have ridden in the bed with the dog.
Driving Impressions
The Toyota Tacoma drives well and cruises nicely. It offers plenty of power from the V6. It handles well and feels relatively refined. Off-road models offer commendable capability over rugged terrain and good ride comfort, as well.
The 4.0-liter V6 engine uses dual overhead camshafts and variable valve technology (Toyota calls it VVT-i, for Variable Valve Timing with intelligence) to optimize power and torque over a broad range of rpm. In action, the V6 feels refined and delivers responsive performance. It is rated at 236 horsepower and a strong 266 pound-feet of torque.
Toyota's 4.0-liter V6 works well with the 5-speed automatic transmission. And that's our first choice for this truck: The V6 and automatic. Its MSRP is only $1435 more than the 4-cylinder with 4-speed automatic. The automatic is super smooth and very responsive, quickly downshifting when you mash the throttle, and it offers five ratios to better keep the engine at its most efficient rpm. For its part, the 6-speed manual transmission is easy to shift, but first gear is a very low ratio, leaving a broad stretch to second. The automatic even delivers better gas mileage, according to the latest EPA estimates, with 17/21 mpg City/Highway; vs. 15/18 for the V6 and manual with 2WD and 14/18 for the V6 and manual with 4WD.
Our test model was a 4WD V6 Access Cab with the 6-speed manual transmission and the TRD Sport Package, which stiffens the ride and handling with a suspension that's more firmly tuned, mostly by the Bilstein shocks. But it's not too firm. And it's not as much of a hot rod as the X Runner, however. After the shocks, 17-inch alloy wheels and wider profile tires, which definitely improve cornering, the TRD package contains mostly cosmetic things. TRD stands for Toyota Racing Development, but if you expect extra speed you'll be disappointed. The V6 engine has the same good power. It's easy to peel out and lay down a chirp when upshifting to second gear, even with the wider tires that come with the TRD package. And the excellent torque makes it easy to cruise in 5th and 6th gears, without needing to downshift to accelerate.
The 6-speed gearbox the same long throws, which take downshifts well. It's a good, solid truck transmission, without a lot of room for error; you have to press your foot all the way to the floor when shifting gears or you'll hear a crunch.
The 2.7-liter four-cylinder engine gets better mileage and runs on regular gas. As with the V6, the four-cylinder benefits from VVT-i and dohc, which means it's a modern, sophisticated engine. It is rated at 159 horsepower and 180 pound-feet of torque, which is about average for the class. EPA estimates are 20/26 mpg with 2WD and the 5-speed manual, and 19/25 mpg for 2WD with the 4-speed automatic.
Handling is quite good on curvy roads. The Tacoma feels steady in sweeping turns and suffers from surprisingly little body roll, or lean, in hard corners. The Tacoma feels big on the road when compared with older compact pickups and, in fact, it is relatively large. It's wider and longer than previous-generation models.
Size can be a detriment when parking, and a long-bed Double Cab can be a challenge in tight parking situations due to the amount of space it requires to turn. The Tacoma Double Cab long bed requires 44 feet to complete a circle, while a Double Cab short bed needs a little over 40 feet. For this reason, we recommend the short bed unless you really need to carry something that won't fit in it. A base Tacoma Regular Cab boasts a turning circle of less than 37 feet.
On pavement, the 4WD and TRD Off-road models seemed smooth and refined. Off-road, a 4WD TRD model is smooth and highly capable. The TRD suspension is excellent on rough, rugged terrain. It handles well on rough dirt trails, something we learned while charging up a ski run at Alyeska. It never bottomed on the rough terrain even when we pushed it well beyond socially acceptable standards. The Tacoma TRD also easily handled an off-road course that featured steep ascents and descents, moguls, and a log step. In short, we'd feel comfortable tackling just about any terrain in a Toyota Tacoma. And it doesn't just get there, it does it in relative comfort. The Tacoma doesn't seem to generate as much head toss as earlier 4WD compact pickups, an important consideration when driving long distances over rugged terrain, because you don't want to arrive to your backcountry camp fatigued from driving.
Switching into 4WD and 4WD Lo is as easy as twisting a rotary knob. It works very well, for the most part.
The Tacoma's brakes are smooth and easy to modulate, and they can bring the truck to quick halt without drama. The rear brakes are drums, however, less desirable than the rear disc brakes that come on some of the other pickups in this class. The available TRD Big Brake system uses floating 13 x 1.25-inch directionally vented rotors, forged aluminum four-piston fixed calipers, larger pads with higher coefficients of friction, and braided steel brake lines.
The X-Runner is a lot of fun to drive and handles like a sports car. It corners flat and generates lots of grip in the curves. We pushed it hard up a hill climb and were not able to reach its cornering limits. It tracks well and is very stable in tight corners even when spinning the inside rear tire under full throttle. The ride is firm, but the X-Runner seems to ride better than our recollection of the Ford SVT Lightning. However, we didn't care for the feel of the clutch pedal, the steering was vague on-center, and there was that aforementioned inside rear-wheel spin. Wind noise seems higher in the X-Runner than in the other models. But much of this is nitpicking. This is a tight, sporty truck, and probably the best of the genre. There's no cowl shake. The exhaust sounds cool. If you want a truck that can hang with a sports car, the X-Runner is the ticket.
The Toyota Tacoma is among the best of the latest generation of midsize pickups. The Tacoma features a comfortable cab trimmed with quality materials. The 4WD models offer crisp handling, a nicely balanced ride quality, and excellent off-road capability. The TRD Offroad models are terrific trucks for rugged terrain. The X-Runner drives and performs like a sports car.
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