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In the LAPD, the Cream Rarely Rises to the Top
The next time you watch a movie or television show about the Los Angeles Police Department in which the key figure in an investigation, the real brains of the operation, is depicted as a captain, youŌĆÖll know the writer didnŌĆÖt bother to learn much about the LAPD.
I occasionally receive email from exasperated colleagues in the LAPD. ŌĆ£Dear Jack,ŌĆØ they write, ŌĆ£my commanding officer is . . .ŌĆØ┬Ā And there then follows one or more descriptive terms from a list that includes the following: a drunk, a philanderer, an egomaniac, a moron, a lunatic.
What suddenly strikes me as I compose this column is that some substantial number of LAPD officers, perhaps even a majority, will read the above and be certain that I am talking about their own commanding officer. And, just as striking, not a single one of the commanding officers who reads it will entertain even a suspicion that I might be talking about him. Self-delusion: itŌĆÖs not something thatŌĆÖs taught to the LAPD command staff, it just seems to come naturally to most of them.
I am now in the twilight of my police career, having been around longer than only a few dozen of my fellow officers. For reasons I will explain below, I have not risen far in the organization, and from my vantage point near the bottom of the chain of command I have watched as some of my contemporaries and some of those who followed me rose through the ranks to become captains, commanders, and deputy chiefs. I recall with some embarrassment the na├»vet├® I displayed when, as a young cop back in the early ŌĆś80s, I assumed — as you may also — that one had to be possessed of above average intelligence and keen law enforcement skills to ascend to the lofty levels of the department. It didnŌĆÖt take long before I was disabused of this notion.
I spoke with a colleague not long ago, a man I had worked with in an earlier assignment and whom I knew to be an outstanding police officer and a first-rate field supervisor. He had taken the lieutenantŌĆÖs exam, and I asked him how he had fared when the final list for promotion was published. ŌĆ£Not well,ŌĆØ he said. ŌĆ£I probably wonŌĆÖt make it on this list.ŌĆØ When I asked him where he thought he had stumbled in the process, he just shrugged and said, ŌĆ£I guess IŌĆÖm not in the Club.ŌĆØ
ŌĆ£Ah yes,ŌĆØ I said, ŌĆ£the Club.ŌĆØ Within the LAPD, the Club is the informal society to which anyone aspiring to rise into the departmentŌĆÖs command ranks must belong. There is no roster of the ClubŌĆÖs members, there is no clubhouse or headquarters, and as far as I know the members do not greet each other with some secret handshake. But, as in any exclusive club, each member knows all of the others, and they take great pains to limit the membership to those who share their views and experiences. Only rarely does some interloper manage to sneak through the various levels of scrutiny to the point that he can join the Club and cause trouble.
If you were to draw a Venn diagram of the Los Angeles Police Department, with a large circle representing the entire department and smaller ones depicting the various entities within, you would see the following: If one of the smaller circles represents the brightest and most capable police officers, detectives, and field supervisors, and another, larger, circle represents the administrative bureaucracy, the members of which in their daily duties have only tangential connection to real police work, you would see that the circles barely, almost imperceptibly intersect. And if another small circle represents the command staff, i.e. the Club, you would see that it broadly intersects with the bureaucrats while barely touching the one containing the best cops.
How can this be, you ask. DoesnŌĆÖt the cream rise to the top?
No, it doesnŌĆÖt. Not usually, anyway.
Like most organizations, perhaps like your own workplace, the LAPD is governed by the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of the work is performed by 20 percent of the personnel. With only the rarest exception, it is from the other 80 percent that the command officers are produced. The reason for this is simple. The police officers in that 20 percent, the best the department has to offer, enjoy doing police work and prefer to continue doing it for the duration of their careers. And the farther one rises in the command structure, the more removed one becomes from actual police work. Of that hard-working 20 percent, only a very few advance beyond the rank of lieutenant, for it is above that rank that the ŌĆ£climberŌĆØ completes his inexorable transition from cop to that lowliest species of police fauna, house-mouse. But for the uniform, badge, and gun, he becomes indistinguishable from any other office-bound bureaucrat.
When they graduate from the police academy and have worked the streets for some time, members of the Club learn that they are not and will never be part of that 20 percent, for they simply lack the skills that mark the best police officers. What they find they are skilled at, however, is learning the esoterica of the police bureaucracy and taking tests by which such knowledge is measured. And in the Los Angeles Police Department, the term ŌĆ£esotericaŌĆØ is stretched to almost unfathomable lengths. For example, there once appeared on an LAPD promotional exam a question about how long the lights should be allowed to be kept on in an unoccupied room. (Yes, there is a section in the LAPD manual that governs such things.) You wouldnŌĆÖt want to work for the person who got that question right.
Problems inevitably arise when commanding officer positions are filled with people who know everything about when to turn the lights off but very little about how to arrest and prosecute a lawbreaker. The LAPD is broken up into 21 patrol areas and several specialized divisions. Each patrol area has two captains, the area commanding officer and the patrol captain. The specialized divisions each have a single commanding officer. If an area C.O. is one of the truly talented captains on the department, chances are the patrol captain of that division is somehow deficient. The problem is that there arenŌĆÖt enough outstanding captains to balance out all of the deficient ones, with the sad consequence that some areas are burdened with two lackluster people running the show.
Such an arrangement might not result in disaster if the areaŌĆÖs lieutenants, sergeants, and senior detectives are squared away. But if two ineffectual captains are left in place for too long, their most talented subordinates seek transfers to more desirable assignments. And when all the good mid-level supervisors have gone, the cops on the street, even the 20-percenters, take it in the neck and start begging for transfers too. So what ends up happening is that the weakest captains get shuffled around quite a bit, seldom remaining in one place long enough to cause lasting damage to morale.
Another way the LAPD tries to minimize the impact of incompetent leadership is by placing some of the weakest captains in specialized divisions, where lieutenants and senior detectives in effect run the operation while doing their best to ignore the current drunk, philanderer, egomaniac, moron, or lunatic who happens to occupy the C.O.ŌĆÖs office. The lower-ranking personnel at these divisions, many of whom have devoted years and years to their specialization, are more inclined to suffer fools gladly (or at least silently), so they are less likely to bring about the disruptions that accompany mass requests for transfers. You can hear these people muttering to themselves in the hallways: ŌĆ£This too shall pass.ŌĆØ
Many years ago I was offered an opportunity to join the Club, the acceptance of which would have required me to work in some dank cubicle on the 6th floor of Parker Center, the old LAPD headquarters building, where I would have daily contact with all the departments mucky-mucks. Had I accepted the offer I might be a mucky-muck myself today, a captain or even higher, but I turned it down. I have no regrets. I liked being a cop, and I still do.


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I've recently jumped on the overnight oat bandwagon. And I'm having a pretty awesome ride.
I know I'm late the game. Don't judge my inability to stray from my favorites! It's pretty hard for me to try new things. Especially when I'm super comfortable what I'm already eating.
Slap me. Because I forgot to take some pictures yesterday. Mostly dinner. But you'll understand my dinner when I explain it.
Breakfast- 9 am
I prepped some overnight oats kind of different Monday night. I put 1/2 cup of oats in a bowl with chia seeds, flax and 1/3 cup almond milk. This made them super thick in the morning! I added a bit of almond milk and put them in the microwave for 45 seconds. I put a large scoop of plain greek yogurt on the bottom of the jar, 2 tbsp of honey peanut butter, tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 sliced banana. I put the warmed up overnight oats on top and DUG IN BABY. Oh it was yummy.
Workout- 10:15-12
I ran 3 miles on the treadmill at a fast but comfortable pace, right around an 8 min mile. I hopped off to complete a heavy lifting session for my back and biceps. My favorite one today was the bent over barbell row. It was difficult, but I could really feel it working a bunch of different muscles!
Snack- 12:30
Didn't take a picture. I ate a handful of honey roasted nuts. I guess I like honey flavored nuts??
Lunch- 1:30
Oh yeah. Lunch was amazing. I warmed up a La Tortilla Factory wrap, spread some homemade guac on it and scrambled up 1 egg and 1 egg white with mushrooms and added broccoli slaw at the end. I added some to the tortilla and kept some on the side. I spread some shredded mexican cheese and spicy brown mustard on top and literally ate it in 4 minutes. I did some work around the apartment. Changed litters (yuck, I know), vacuumed, windexed (because Windex works on everything) and then relaxed a bit while watching Hitman (YES).
I went for a short 1.5 mile run at 3 and came back home to get ready for training at my new restaurant.
Snack- 3:45 pm
My favorite apple: honeycrisp! They always feed us at training. But not usually until later. Training was 5-10 last night.
No food last night. Bummer. I came home starving. At 10:30. I wanted to go to sleep so a big meal wasn't a good idea. I made quesadillas on Monday and there was a quarter of one left. I ate that and a bowl of maple, chia and quinoa granola clusters with almond milk and banana slices. Not the best. But at least I didn't go to bed hungry!
And there's my day of eats! Full of goodies :)
What is your favorite thing you've eaten this week???
Related articles
- Recipe: Overnight Oats (mileswithstyle.com)
- Wiaw: 10/16/13 (savorlifesflavors.com)
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Banana Breakfast Cookie (cleaneatingveggiegirl.com)
- WIAW # 19 Odd numbers are weird (itsallaboutmefitness.com)

subset: commoncrawl


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Although the cliff dwellings are the most spectacular and the latest ruins of the Mesa Verde, it has long been known that earlier, though less spectacular, ruins exist. In 1891, Nordenskiöld suspected earlier cultures were present because of crude pottery found in Step House Cave (Nordenskiöld, 1893, p. 82). In 1926, Nusbaum, digging in the south end of Step House Cave, found three early seventh century pithouses under a deep layer of trash left by the 13th century occupants of a cliff dwelling in the north end of the cave.
Thus, in a single cave, were found the extremes in the architectural types now known for the Mesa Verde. The builders of the early pithouses were considered to have been ancestral to the people who built the cliff dwellings, so it was obvious that other ruins should be present in the Mesa Verde that would show the architectural progression from pithouses to cliff dwellings.
In 1919, Linton excavated one of the early pithouses, Pithouse A, on the mesa top near Square Tower House (Fewkes, 1920, p. 58). Thus it became evident that the earlier ruins were present in the Chapin Mesa area where they might be made accessible to visitors. During the past 10 years an effort has been made to excavate ruins in the proper sequence along the Square House-Sun Temple Road to show the various stages in architectural development in the Mesa Verde.
Pithouse A, excavated by Linton, was in a poor state of preservation, so, in 1941, the senior author excavated an excellent pithouse, Pithouse B, in the same area (Lancaster and Watson, 1943). This ruin produced tree-ring dates indicating a construction date of about A. D. 600. In 1947, O'Bryan excavated 2 pueblo ruins in the Twin Trees area, 1 mile beyond Pithouse B on the Square Tower House-Sun Temple Road (O'Bryan, 1950). One of these, a slabhouse village, dated at approximately A. D. 840, while the other, a small unit pueblo, dated at about A. D. 950. These pueblos were in an excellent position for use in the interpretive scheme, but a long gap, both in time and architectural type, existed between the pithouses of A. D. 600, and the slabhouse village of A. D. 840.
In order to bridge this gap, a ruin dating about A. D. 700 was excavated in 1950, and this ruin, now referred to as the "Deep Pithouses," is the subject of this report. Approval for the excavation was granted by the Director of the National Park Service on February 24, 1950, and the work was done by the senior author and two Navaho laborers in June of that year.
Selection of the Twin Trees Site
Previous excavations have indicated that during the latter part of the seventh century and the early part of the eighth, pithouses of a characteristic type were common in the Mesa Verde and surrounding areas. Three of these pithouses had been excavated in the Mesa Verde but none were so located that they could be used in the interpretive program. One was excavated in 1939, after it had been cut by a pipeline trench (Smiley, 1949, p. 167). This pithouse gave tree-ring dates at about A. D. 700. A second was excavated by O'Bryan in 1948 (O'Bryan, 1950). This ruin, located one-fourth mile south of the Twin Trees Site, gave tree-ring dates at about A. D. 664. A third pithouse of this type was partially excavated by the senior author in 1948, when it was encountered under the edge of the pavement at the Twin Trees Site during road widening operations.
Although none of these pithouses were suitably located for interpretive use, they indicated that at the end of the seventh century deep pithouses of rather uniform type were more or less common in the Mesa Verde. Since these deep pithouses were a distinct advance in type and time over the shallow pithouses of the Pithouse B type, and were definitely earlier than the slabhouse villages, it was decided to excavate one if it could be found in the proper location on the Square Tower House-Sun Temple Road.
Because of the need for fitting the ruin into the interpretive scheme it was necessary to find a suitable pithouse in a very limited area. The most desirable location would be near Pithouse B, or near the slabhouse village at the Twin Trees Site. If a suitable pithouse could not be found at either site, a location anywhere along the road between the two would serve almost as well.
The first testing was done in the Pithouse B area. Six shallow pithouses of the Pithouse B type were found but no deep pithouses were located. Testing in the Twin Trees area revealed nine shallow pithouses and finally, a deep pithouse. Preliminary testing indicated that the latter was of the desired type and charcoal from the burned roof beams gave dates in the latter part of the seventh century. Since this pithouse seemed to meet the requirements as to type, age, and location, it was selected for excavation.
Location and Physiographic Conditions
The ruin is located at the Twin Trees Site, 2-1/2 miles south of park headquarters (map, p. 1). The site is so named because two large pinon trees growing nearby have formed a natural graft. The slabhouse and unit pueblo ruins excavated by O'Bryan in 1947 are located at this site and the "deep pithouses" are 200 feet south of these ruins (O'Bryan, 1950). The Twin Trees Site is readily accessible to visitors and the 3 ruins are less than 100 yards from the Square Tower House-Sun Temple Road, at a point one-fourth mile east of Square Tower House.
The Twin Trees Site is on the highest part of Chapin Mesa in an east-west line, the elevation being 6,885 feet. At this point the mesa is 1 mile in width and the heavy concentration of ruins indicates that it was a favorable area for the ancient people. A dense pinon-juniper forest covers the mesa except for small areas that were cleared of trees by a forest fire about 100 years ago. These cleared areas now support a dense growth of sage, a positive indication of rich soil. The mesa top is covered with a deep layer of heavy, red soil and with the average rainfall of 18 inches and a long growing season there can be little doubt that it was a favorable area for agricultural people. In the nearby canyons are a number of springs and it may be assumed that there were as many, possibly more, in ancient times.
Excavation Methods
Preliminary testing had indicated the nature of the fill and it was evident that nothing was to be gained by removing this fill in a series of thin layers. The structure had burned and as a result the floor was covered with the burned roof materials. The rest of the fill was made up of ashes and trash with some red earth near the top. Since the structure had burned, it was obvious that all artifacts which were in it at the time of destruction would be on the floor and bench or immediately above them.
The upper fill was removed in one operation until the burned roof materials were encountered at an average of 1 foot above the floor. This material was removed to a point 3 inches above the floor. This last layer was then removed and all artifacts found in actual contact with the floor and bench, or slightly above them, were considered to have been in the structure when it burned. The three layers were designated as upper fill, lower fill and floor contact.
When excavation started, it was assumed that the ruin consisted of a single pithouse. It was further assumed that the pithouse would be similar to others of the same period which had been excavated previously and would consist of a large main room with a smaller southern antechamber. As the excavation progressed and the ruin was outlined, it became evident that it varied radically from this plan. Instead of a large pithouse with a small antechamber, the ruin seemed to consist of two rooms, a very large one on the north, and a second room, almost as large, adjoining it on the south (pl. 2, 3, and 4).
When the floor features were finally exposed, the picture immediately became clearthe ruin consisted of 2 pithouses instead of 1. The evidence for this will be presented after the architectural features have been discussed.
The north, or earlier, pithouse is the larger of the two. It is a D-shaped room, measuring 18 by 23-1/2 feet, with an average depth of 4 feet. Around the east, north, and west walls is a bench averaging 18 inches in width and 30 inches in height. The walls are of native red earth with the face of the bench and the floor heavily plastered with gray clay. The walls and floor show the effects of intense heat.
When the second pithouse was constructed, its north wall cut the south wall of the first for a distance of 8 feet, removing all evidence of the antechamber and connecting passageway. Remaining traces of the south wall indicate that it was straight and that the room was D-shaped. The floor features; wingwalls, bin, firepit, deflector, sipapu, pot rests, floor cist, and post holes are typical, for the most part, of those commonly found in structures of this age and type. For details of the features see plates 2 and 3.
The second pithouse measures 13-1/2 by 18-1/2 feet, with an average depth of 45 inches. It was also D-shaped with a bench, averaging 23 inches in height and ranging from 15 to 30 inches in width, on the east and west walls. No bench was present on the north side. Seven sandstone slabs had been erected along the north wall where this room cut into the first pithouse. It is probable that these slabs were installed to hold back the loose ashes and fill of the burned structure. If the north wall originally had a bench it is possible that it disintegrated because of the loose, unconsolidated ash fill on which it rested. The walls are of native earth and no traces of plaster were found. Only the west wall shows evidence of burning and this is very slight.
The ventilator which enters the south room in the center of the south wall is a tunnel 18 inches wide, 2 feet high and 20 inches in length, which opens into a circular pit, 32 inches in diameter. The ventilator probably served also as an entrance, although the small deflector slab, which stood only 10 inches in front of the tunnel opening, constricts the space.
Floor features of the second pithouse are similar to those in the first but are, in general, less elaborate. For details of these features see plate 2 and 3.
One Pithouse or Two?
As has been indicated above, it was not until all floor features had been brought to view that it was realized the ruin consisted of 2 pithouses instead of 1. During the early stages of excavation it appeared that the pithouse varied radically from others of the same age which had been excavated in the park. The three previously excavated had consisted, in each case, of a large pitroom with a small southern antechamber, or entrance-way. This ruin, on the contrary, appeared to have a southern room almost as large as the main room. When the excavation was completed it was immediately evident that the ruin consisted of 2 pithouses, 1 built a short time after the destruction of the other.
As shown in the ground plan (pl. 3), the two rooms have a duplication of certain features that previously has not been found in any pithouse and its antechamber. These duplicate features; firepit, deflector and sipapu, together with other important characteristics, make it impossible to consider the structure as a single unit.
As far as is known, all pithouses that have been excavated in this region have contained firepits. Equally as definite is the fact that a firepit has not been found in a southern antechamber. In some of the earlier pithouses the antechambers were very large, sometimes almost as large as the main room itself. Certainly these large antechambers provided an abundant amount of extra living, work and storage space, but no case is known where the antechamber was provided with a firepit.
The same is true for the deflectors (pl. 3, b). These were obstructions, at this stage usually stone slabs, set in front of the tunnel entrance to the antechamber or ventilator, which served to break the draft of air that came into the main room. During cold weather the deflector, no doubt, was a most important fixture. The fire burning in the central fire pit would have sent a large volume of smoke and warm air out through the smokehole in the roof. This would have, in turn, drawn a considerable draft of cold air in through the tunnel entrance to the antechamber. The deflector, standing directly in front of the tunnel, not only would have kept this draft from blowing directly on the fire, but would have kept the cold air from sweeping across the room to the discomfort of people sleeping on the floor. The deflector in the north room indicates that this room originally had an antechamber or ventilator of its own.
Each room also contains a sipapu (pl. 3, f), a small hole in the floor that in many modern Pueblo kivas serves as a ceremonial entrance to the underworld. No cases are known in this region where sipapus have been found in antechambers. The fact that each room contains these three features, firepit, deflector and sipapu, indicates that each was a complete unit.
Even more conclusive evidence that the two rooms did not exist at the same time is offered by the benches (pl. 3, j). The benches of the 2 rooms are radically different in height, that of the southern room being 7 inches lower than that of the northern room. The north room, or first pithouse, was destroyed by a fire that generated intense heat. As a result the surface of the bench and the walls below it were heavily burned. The south room, or second pithouse, burned only slightly and the bench and walls show only slight evidence of heat. Being lower, the bench of the south room cut through the bench of the north room and at this point the difference is radical. While the bench and walls of the north room show intense burning, the adjacent portions of the bench of the south room present clean, unburned surfaces. It is obvious that the south room was not in existence when the north room burned.
Further evidence of two separate pithouses is offered by the locations of the artifacts, other than potsherds, found in them. On the floor and bench of the north room were found 21 stone and bone artifacts. This large number of artifacts may indicate the structure burned while still occupied. In the south room only two artifacts, a broken stone knife and a small bone awl, were found in contact with the floor and bench. This probably indicates that the structure had been cleaned out and deserted. This pithouse showed evidence of only light burning. No large pieces of charcoal were found and there were no charred posts in the four postholes. Also, 7 sherds were found at the bottom of 1 post hole, indicating that the post had been removed before the structure burned. It is entirely possible that the four roof supports and the larger roof beams had been carried away for use elsewhere and that only the small sticks and brush of the roof cover remained when the burning occurred.
Final evidence for 2 separate pithouses is the row of stone slabs between the 2 rooms (pl. 4). At each end of this row of slabs are small portions of the original south wall of the first pithouse (pl. 3, g). The north face of these portions shows intense burning while the south face is only slightly burned. The seven slabs, ranging in height from 9 to 16 inches, were erected in a curving line across the north wall of the second pithouse. When the second pithouse was being constructed the builders no doubt encountered the loose ashes and fill of the burned pithouse to the north and in all probability the slabs were installed to hold back this loose material. The south face of several of the slabs shows evidence of burning while the north face does not. This indicates the slabs were not in place when the first pithouse burned. No evidence of a bench was found above the slabs. If one ever existed it had disintegrated, probably because of the loose, unconsolidated ashes on which it rested.
When the ground plan of the 2 pithouses is studied (pl. 3), one cannot but wonder what circumstance caused the north-south alinement of the 2 to be so nearly perfect. It is entirely possible that the first pithouse had a large antechamber and that the second was merely an enlargement of it. Earlier pithouses often had antechambers of considerable size. That of Pithouse B, which was built about A. D., 600, measured 9 by 12 feet, while that of Pithouse C, of the same date, was 10 feet in diameter (Lancaster and Watson, 1943). If the first pithouse had a large antechamber it is possible that the second pithouse was constructed merely by enlarging this room.
Tree-Ring Dates and Construction Sequence
In September 1950, Dr. Edmund Schulman, of the Tree Ring Laboratory, University of Arizona, visited the park and made a preliminary inspection of a large number of fragments of charcoal from the pithouses. The datable specimens seemed to represent only eight different trees and when they were studied at the laboratory, the following dates were obtained (Schulman, 1951, pp. 28-29; Smiley, 1951, No. 88x, p. 23):
Note: ppith ring present; coutside ring constant along outer face of specimen, probably few or no lost rings; voutside date variable, probably several rings lost; vvoutside date very variable, probably many rings lost.
Since the outer ring of specimen MV490 was constant, a cutting date of A. D. 674 probably is indicated, unless it was a dead timber. Specimen MV491 had lost a few rings and MV493 had lost even more, so a construction date somewhat later than 674 is suggested.
During occupation the roof was remodeled, for two sets of post holes were found in the floor (pl. 3). In this operation the four main roof supports were taken from their holes and the holes were filled with earth and plastered over at floor level. A new hole was dug beside each original hole, the distance between the new and old holes ranging from 5 to 11 inches. In each case the new hole was closer to the outer wall of the room and it was in these holes that the burned posts were found during excavation. Whether the two sets of post holes indicate a mere remodeling of the roof, or whether the entire pithouse was enlarged, could not be determined.
After a period of occupation, probably rather short, the pithouse burned and the presence of the artifacts on the floor and bench may indicate that it was still in use at the time of its destruction. The surface and face of the bench, as well as the floor, show the effects of intense heat.
Sometime later the second pithouse was built, its north wall cutting the south wall of the first. A construction date for this structure can only be estimated. The two pithouses are similar in type and all artifacts found in them were of common types which were in use over such a long period of time that they do not aid in exact dating. It appears, however, that the second pithouse was built shortly after the first was destroyed by fire. The floor of the first was covered with charcoal, ashes, and fire-hardened adobe from the burned roof. Above this, the fill consisted of ashes and trash and there was no evidence of water-laid clay. It is not difficult to imagine that the occupants of the second pithouse dumped their trash in the shallow pit which remained after the first pithouse burned.
In all probability, the entire site was not occupied for any great length of time and the second pithouse presumably was built only a short time, not more than a few years at most, after the first one burned. The entire occupation of the site may have occurred within the last quarter of the seventh century.
Roof Construction
No pithouse of this type, or of any similar type, has been found with the roof intact. Reconstruction of the roof is, therefore, conjectural, but actually it is not too difficult. When the roof of the first pithouse burned, many of the roof timbers were turned to charcoal and were found where they had fallen. From their arrangement, the design of the roof can be reconstructed with fair accuracy.
The roof was supported by four upright posts set in holes in the floor (pl. 5). In all probability, the tops of these posts were forked, and four stringers, resting in these forks, formed a square framework. Additional stringers were placed across this framework to support the roof above this section. Support for the sloping side walls was provided by a number of slender poles, the lower ends of which rested on the bench, while the upper ends rested against the square framework. Eleven of these poles were found where they had fallen, and the space between poles ranged from 12 to 15 inches. The lower ends of these poles were not buried in the bench as has been found elsewhere (Martin, 1939, p. 380). They merely rested on the bench, several inches in front of the back wall.
After the framework of the roof was completed, it was covered with a layer of small sticks and brush, and to this was applied a covering of adobe, several inches thick. No evidence of the smokehole was found, but it was, no doubt, above the firepit. In all probability, a ladder was placed in the smokehole and it served as an entrance. The ventilator tunnel from the antechamber served as a second entrance. The height of the roof is uncertain, but it would seem safe to assume that the rectangular section between the four posts was high enough to clear the heads of the occupants. Reconstructions of the roof are shown in plates 5 and 6.
Objects of Stone
Objects of stone recovered from the 2 pithouses numbered 26, all being of types common to the period. Of these, 23 were found in the first pithouse and 3 in the second. Their locations as summarized here, strengthen the belief that the first pithouse burned while still in use, and that the second pithouse may have been cleaned out and deserted before it burned.
Details of the objects are given in table 2, and all, except the 2 metate fragments, are pictured in plates 7 to 13.
Table 2.Stone ArtifactsPithouses
Objects of Bone
Only two worked bone objects were found, a bone awl and a perforated toe bone of a deer.
Bone awlThis awl was made from the split metatarsal of a young deer: the head had separated from the shaft. The head end was unworked; the other end was sharpened. Length, 2.7 inches. See plate 13, bottom. row, right.
Perforated boneThe hole in this deer toe bone was made, not by drilling, but by grinding across the sides of the bone until the thin shell was perforated. The edges of the holes were bevelled by the grinding action. Plate 13, bottom row, left.
Unworked Bone
Fifty-one fragments of mammal bone, 2 bird bone and 4 pieces of deer antler were found on, and just above, the floor of the first pithouse. The two bird bones were turkey tarso metatarsi. The mammal bones were too badly burned and too fragmentary for identification, but they appear to be from a large mammal, probably deer. The bones were unworked and probably were food bones which were in the pithouse when it burned.
Perishable Objects
As this was an open site and, since in addition, the structures burned, no perishable objects could be expected. However, 1 small fragment of charred fabric, amounting to about 1 square inch, was found on the bench of the first pithouse.
The fragment appeared to be a portion of a finely woven sandal, and, since Mr. Earl H. Morris has studied basketmaker sandals extensively, it was submitted to him for analysis. His findings are so revealing they are quoted in full:
"The charred fragment of textile is from the forward end of a Basketmaker III cloth sandal. The remaining bit of selvage is part of the somewhat scalloped toe margin. Relatively heavy, stiff warps and much finer, softer weft threads, well exhibited in this specimen, are typical features of all better varieties of Basketmaker III footgear. These warp weft proportions, strengthened by the doubling of the warps, provide sufficient evidence to establish the identity of the object, because in no other known class of contemporaneous textiles do double warps occur.
"An excellent reconstruction of the steps of manufacture of the double-warp toe has been given by Kidder. 'The warps were first laid out side by side, or more probably were suspended in such a way that they hung parallel to each other, with the proper intervals between them. Then, at the place where the toe of the finished sandal was to be, there were run in ten rows of twilled over-two-under-two twined weaving. . . . Thus was produced a strip of web not quite one-half inch wide running across the warps near their upper ends, and holding them firmly together at the correct distance apart. The doubling now took place. A two-ply yucca cord of about the same weight and stiffness as the warp strings was laid across the middle of the strip of web on what was to be the under side of the sandal and the strip was closely creased over it, thus bringing the shorter end of each warp into parallel juxtaposition with its longer end. . . . The twilled over-two-under-two twined weaving was now continued, but instead of being over pairs of single warps, it took in the doubled warps and so bound the turned-down shorter end firmly to the longer ones. Where the doubling took place there was left running across the toe of the sandal, a narrow tunnel or tube in the fabric. In the tube there remained the yucca cord over which the crease was made. In the dissection of the sandal this cord was found still in place, closely clipped off at either end of the tube. I think there is little doubt that the cord was originally a long one whose free ends served to attach the growing sandal to a rigid support in order that there might be something to pull against while the weaving progressed. I also think it possible that the curving or scalloped form of the toe is due to the pull of this string during the first stages of the weaving' (Kidder, 1926, pp. 618-632).
"In the present specimen, the end of the suspending cord lying in the tunnel of the folded fabric may be discerned at one corner of the selvage. As far as can be determined without picking the wisp to pieces, the warp is not twined as in Kidder's specimen, but seems to be done in simple over-under stitch. This difference need be no cause for concern because examination of a large series of Basketmaker III sandals shows that the weavers of the time used the twining and under-over techniques rather indiscriminatingly, even in a single specimen. Thus is dispelled the generally accepted notion that all Basketmaker III sandals have twined wefts. The fact is that both twining and over-under treatment are found in the early sandals, whereas in Pueblo III cloth sandals from the Aztec Ruin and Pueblo Bonito, the wefts are, with out noted exception, twined" (Morris, personal communication, Mar. 21, 1953).
During the excavation of the 2 pithouses, 1,322 sherds, 1 unbroken jar (pl. 16, left, and table 3), and crushed fragments of an unfired mud platter were found. These divided into seven named types, plus a small number of unfired sherds which could not be typed. Of the named types, probably only 3 were made by the original occupants of the pithouses; the other 4 types are generally considered to be later and they no doubt came from nearby later sites. Sherd counts and percentages are in table 3.
Table 3.Sherd Types and PercentagesPithouses
The predominant pottery was Lino Gray. This is a convenient catch-all for it includes not only Lino Gray sherds, but unpainted sherds of Lino Black-on-gray and La Plata Black-on-white, body sherds of Kana-a Gray, and sherds of Lino Fugitive Red from which the color has disappeared. These plain gray sherds comprised 91.5 percent of the pottery from the site, but because of the fact that the plain sherds of the various types cannot be separated, the figure has little meaning.
The sherds show the usual variations found in Lino Gray pottery. The thickness ranged from 1/8 to 1/2 inch; color from light to dark gray. Temper consisted of crushed rock with minor amounts of sand in some specimens. Mica flecking was present in all sherds and tempering materials probably were crushed diorites and andesites, common local rocks which were widely used as temper during this period (Shepard, in Morris, 1939, p. 251). In this respect, the pottery differed from the published description of Lino Gray which gives sand as the tempering material (Colton and Hargrave, 1937, p. 191).
Surface finish varied from very rough through all degrees of scraped, to some which were smoothed and, to a certain extent, polished. Sherds which indicated the greatest degree of smoothing were from bowls, and in each case, it was the inner surface which was smoothed. Some of this smoothness on the inside of bowls may well have resulted from long use. In the surface finish, some sherds approach Twin Trees Plain, a pottery type described by O'Bryan in 1950 (O'Bryan, 1950, p. 91), but in this group of sherds it is not possible to draw a line of demarcation. It is easy to select the roughest examples and equally easy to select those which show the highest degree of smoothing or polishing. Between these extremes, however, the variations are so imperceptible that no two people would divide them in the same manner, and it is extremely doubtful if one person could divide them twice in the same manner.
Fugitive Red, which is simply Lino Gray pottery to which a red wash was applied after firing, accounted for 1.6 percent of the sherds. The 13 unfired sherds (0.9 percent) were roughly made of gray clay and contained no temper. They may well represent a child's first efforts at pottery making. Fragments of a crushed vessel of unfired, vegetable-tempered clay were also recovered but were not included in the sherd count as they had, for the most part, disintegrated into innumerable tiny particles. Crudely made, unfired platters and bowls, tempered with plant fibers, occasionally were made even after superior pottery was being produced.
From the Lino Gray rims that were found, it would appear that the common shapes were bowls, globular jars, commonly called "squash pots," and globular jars with short necks. Two vessels were partially restorable, a large, small-mouthed water jar (pl. 14) and a crude miniature bowl (pl. 16, right). Five handles and one possible handle were found and are pictured in plate 15.
Two small vessels with lateral spouts were found, one in each pithouse (pl. 16, left and center). These unusual vessels appear to have had a wide distribution during Basketmaker III times, Roberts having found them in the Chaco (Roberts, 1929, p. 117), and Morris in Canyon del Muerto, at Red Rock and along the La Plata (Morris, 1939, p. 147). The two found during the excavation are small, globular vessels, each one having a small mouth and a lateral spout (pl. 16, left and center). In each specimen the spout is broken so the original length is unknown.
The spouts are perforated, but the perforations in the two specimens are radically different. In one specimen the spout diameter is one-half inch while the perforation is one-eighth of an inch in diameter. This spout appears to have been made by molding the clay around a smooth stick, or reed, which was then withdrawn, leaving a smooth hole. The bowl of this vessel was about two-thirds full of tiny charred seeds, which probably are of some local species of Sophia (Mustard). This charring could have occurred when the first pithouse burned as the vessel was sitting on the bench. The entire vessel, inside and out, was heavily smudged.
The spout of the second vessel is so short that it is difficult to reconstruct. Where it joins the vessel, the spout is seven-eighths of an inch in diameter and the perforation has a diameter of five-eighths of an inch. This perforation probably was formed by a simple molding of the clay. Above this perforation and parallel to it, is a second perforation, three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. This small hole was formed by molding the clay around a slender stick, as described above. Whether the two perforations extended the full length of the spout cannot be determined. This vessel was not smudged, either inside or out.
The use of these vessels with the lateral spout is unknown, but it has been suggested that they were pipes or cloud blowers. The first vessel described above, because of its heavily smudged interior and the small bore of its spout perforation, suggests this use. However, the smudging of the interior may have been occasioned by the charring of the seeds it contained. It is difficult to see the second vessel as a pipe. The interior is not smudged and the spout with its two perforations does not suggest a pipe stem. It is entirely possible that this specimen represents one-half of a double vessel, a form occasionally found in this area at a later date. In these double mugs the 2 halves were joined together by 2 short rolls of clay, 1 or both of which was perforated to allow passage of liquids from 1 side to the other. The vessel under discussion may represent an early form of these double mugs.
The only decorated pottery which can be considered, without doubt, to have been made by the occupants of this site was La Plata Black-on-white, which accounted for 4.3 percent of the sherds (pl. 17). This type has the same basic makeup as the plain gray pottery described above. In having crushed rock temper it varies from the published description of La Plata Black-on-white which gives coarse sand as the tempering material (Hawley, 1936, p. 23). The paint is inorganic, probably iron, with the color ranging from black to rusty brown. It is surprising that no Lino Black-on-gray, a similar type but with organic paint, was found. In a nearby, similar pithouse of approximately the same age, O'Bryan reported Lino Black-on-gray pottery, but no La Plata Black-on-white (O'Bryan, 1950, p. 92).
Some sherds show considerable smoothing, even polishing, on the inner surface, but none meet O'Bryan's specifications for Twin Trees Black-on-white, which is described as being "highly polished, inside and out" (O'Bryan, 1950, p. 91).
The remaining four types of pottery recovered from the pithouses probably do not date from the occupation, as they are considered to be later and probably came from nearby, later sites. La Plata Black-on-red is considered a Pueblo I type, although Morris considered it also as terminal Basketmaker III in the La Plata district (Morris, 1939, p. 156). Only 6 sherds were found, 5 of which were in the ventilator shaft of the second pithouse. This hole no doubt remained open for some time as no roof debris fell into it, and the sherds probably came into this position at a later date. Kana-a Gray is diagnostic of Pueblo I, although it no doubt had its beginnings late in Basketmaker III, as suggested by Morris (Morris, 1939, p. 145). The nine sherds of Kana-a were in the upper fill so probably were of later origin. Kiatuthlanna Black-on-white is a Pueblo I type and corrugated pottery is characteristic of Pueblo II. The presence of these later types is not surprising, for only 200 feet north of the pithouses are 2 ruins which were excavated by O'Bryan in 1947. One is a Pueblo I ruin; the other, Pueblo II (O'Bryan, 1950, pp. 28-43).
The two pithouses, which are the subject of this report, were excavated for the dual purpose of providing an interpretive exhibit showing the architectural style of about A. D. 700, and to gain additional knowledge of the period.
From the interpretive angle the ruins are good, although the story is somewhat complicated by the fact that the second pithouse cut into the first, destroying its antechamber. At first glance, the uninitiated visitor does not realize that the ruin consists of two individual pithouses. Both pithouses are excellent examples of late seventh century structures and serve to bridge the gap between the shallow pithouses of A. D. 600, and the slabhouse villages with deep pitrooms, of about A. D. 800. The deepening of the pithouses is an important step in their development into kivas, as has been set forth in detail by Brew (Brew, 1946, p. 203).
Except for potsherds, few artifacts were found and most of these were river pebbles which were used, without altering their natural shape, for pounding, rubbing, and polishing.
In considering the results of this excavation, and other excavations of ruins of the same period, the following points can be drawn:
1. At the end of the seventh century it appears that the prevailing structures being built in the Mesa Verde were pithouses, 4 to 5 feet in depth.
2. Isolated, slab-lined storage cists, such as have been found in some areas and which later developed into slab house villages, have not been found associated with any of the Mesa Verde pithouses of this period.
3. The pithouses were noticeably deeper than at A. D. 600, and certain features of the later kivas; bench, sipapu, deflector, and ventilator were well established.
4. The southern antechamber was much smaller than in earlier pithouses. In the second pithouse of this report, the antechamber was merely a slight enlargement of the end of of the ventilator-entrance tunnel.
5. The dominant pottery of the period was Lino Gray. Decorated types were Lino Black-on-gray and La Plata Black on-white, although the former was missing in the present excavation.
6. Lino Gray and La Plata Black-on-white pottery recovered in this excavation vary from published descriptions of these types, indicating the need for an intensive study of Mesa Verde pottery.
Last Updated: 19-May-2008


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North Hall cross country runner Nolan Clark doesn't let anything get in between him and running.
If Gainesville High softball coach Jeremy Kemp was looking for a nickname to fit his team, the Cardiac Kids would do just fine. The Lady Red Elephants strung together seven runs in the bottom of the seventh en route to an 11-10 win against Gilmer in Region 7-AAA's tournament play-in game on Monday at the Lanier Point Softball Complex.
If Gainesville High softball coach Jeremy Kemp was looking for a nickname to fit his team, the Cardiac Kids would do just fine. The Lady Red Elephants strung together seven runs in the bottom of the seventh en route to an 11-10 win against Gilmer in Region 7-AAA's tournament play-in game on Monday at the Lanier Point Softball Complex.
I never thought the day would come when the passing offense in high school football would become so popular in our area.
The East Hall JV softball team won the JV softball tournament on Saturday at Chestatee and North Hall.
Jefferson has the inside track to the Region 8-AA title after its 47-20 win against Riverside Military (4-2, 3-2) on Friday night in Jefferson. The Dragons are looking for the first region title for the school since 1977. It's been noted that Jefferson (6-0, 5-0) is dangerous on offense, hard-hitting on defense, and takes advantage of any opportunity it's given.
West Hall's boys cross country team finished in second place in the 28-team, all-classification field at the Westover Invitational meet Saturday.
Johnson was unable to pick up its first subregion win, falling 43-7 to Creekview on Friday in Canton.
ATHENS -- Third-ranked Athens Academy defeated Commerce 19-13 on Friday night at Slaughter Field in their third consecutive victory over the Tigers.
The victory was the Spartans' sixth in the last eight years over Commerce.
"Pound the rock."
JEFFERSON - The Region 8-AA title race was summed up best by Jefferson High football coach Bill Navas after its 47-20 win over Riverside Military on Friday night at Jefferson Memorial Stadium.
"All roads go through Jefferson now," Navas said.
CUMMING -- Experience vs. change has been a popular theme this election year.
Based on Friday night's result at West Forsyth, you can score one for experience, at least in Region 7-AAA.
CLEVELAND -- In a game that featured a combined 10 turnovers, it was only fitting that the outcome was decided by an interception.
BUFORD -- The Buford High football team didn't produce a massive amount of offensive yards in its 49-7 win over Avondale on Friday.
But how the Wolves scored, and how they kept their opponent from scoring, made the win just as impressive.
It's new school against old school.
OAKWOOD - It took Flowery Branch less that five minutes to put the game out of reach Friday night at Spartan Field in Oakwood.
Kayla Montague, Madison Oliver and Kayla Street each had two hits and two RBIs for the Lady Red Elephants in a 13-1 win against Salem on Tuesday in Gainesville. Abby Smallwood also had two RBIs.
Emily Crocker's love for softball began at the age of 4. She was watching her brother's baseball team and saw girls playing.
The North Hall softball team defeated Lumpkin County 6-2 on Monday night.
Emily Crocker pitched a perfect game in the Buford softball team's 10-0 five-inning victory over Monroe Area on Thursday in Monroe. The senior struck out five batters and improved her record to 3-0 in the circle this season.
Steffanie Redmon had three hits to pace East Hall's 4-3 Region 7-AAA victory against Fannin County on Wednesday.
Buford's Kennedy Kotula pitched her third complete game of the season Tuesday night in a 12-0 shutout of White County.
East Hall volleyball coach Ted Deppe saw a number of frustrated faces when he looked at his bench during a timeout.
The Flowery Branch softball team picked up an 11-0 Region 8-AAAAA victory against Cedar Shoals on Monday.
The East Hall Lady Vikings won the Rally on the Ridge tournament at Fannin County High on Saturday and improved their record to 31-6.
The Gainesville softball team defeated West Hall 12-1 in six innings on Saturday.
Two Buford pitchers combined for a no-hitter against Johnson on Thursday evening as the Lady Wolves topped the Knights 16-0 in a region matchup.
For Gainesville football coach Bruce Miller, it feels like it's been ages since his program had the opportunity to play on its home field at City Park Stadium. That long wait finally comes to an end Friday night, when the Red Elephants (0-1) open Region 8-AAAAA play against Winder-Barrow (1-1, 1-0 Region 8-AAAAA) in Gainesville.
Bailey Mason led Chestatee with three RBIs and a run scored in her 2-for-3 performance as the Lady War Eagles overcame Rabun County 4-3 on Tuesday.
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Posts tagged "doc marten"
Wear It Three Ways: The Adelina Suede Jacket
We are just days away from Coachella, and mere weeks away from the best music festivals of the year! There's no better time to for you to max out on all that is vintage! This week I'll show you 3 stylish ways to rock a vintage suede jacket, perfect for dancing your way through the...
My Miss KL Wishlist: Ashley
Our Miss KL copywriter/blog editor, Ashley, shares her punk-chic wishlist for this holiday.


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Monday Mar 12 2012
Source: independent.ie
Alexa Chung has recalled being told she did "looking like a man really well".
The British model is one of 100 people photographed by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld for an upcoming Chanel book celebrating the iconic black Chanel…
Just go with it Alexa! I do love dungarees. We love you


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Enjoy the 2012 Olympics on the go with your mobile phone or tablet
Summary: The 2012 Olympics kick off in London this week, with the first football games starting up today. You can follow all the action on your smartphone or tablet with one of several available applications.
The official opening of the 2012 Olympics in London is Friday, but today we actually see the US Women's National soccer (aka football) team kick things off with a game against France. Given the large time zone difference between London and Seattle, I won't be around a TV for most of the Games so I started looking at my options on mobile devices. You can check out the screenshot image gallery of apps for the iPad, Nexus 7, Android smartphones, Windows Phone, Symbian, and BlackBerry.
NBC is where you can catch the Olympics on TV and if you visit the NBC mobile page you will see there are two main applications for iOS and Android; NBC Olympics and NBC Olympics "Live Extra". I downloaded and installed both of these apps on my new Apple iPad and Google Nexus 7 and so far they perform very well and will be my primary "go to" apps. I couldn't test live video since the Olympics haven't started yet, but will be carrying both of these tablets with me for the next couple weeks. You can also visit nbcolympics.com into your mobile browser and I personally found this to be the best alternative for Symbian.
Also read: Why the 2012 Summer Olympics might melt the Internet
The other main cross-platform free application I found is the London 2012 Results and Join In apps sponsored by Samsung. This app is available for Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone, but unfortunately the current Android version keeps crashing on my Nexus 7. I like the "clean" look and fast performance of this Samsung-sponsored one on my Galaxy S III and Nokia Lumia 900 and will probably use this on my phones with the official NBC one on my iPad.
There is a very basic Symbian Olympics application, Olympics App, that looks to give you some basics. However, I found the NBC mobile page for the Olympics in Opera Mobile to be a better solution.
There look to be a few other choices, including some paid applications, so feel free to chime into the discussion and let us know which apps you plan to use for following the Olympics on your mobile device.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.


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Derivatives as the Mathematics of Transcending, Used to Handle Changing Quantities
one of the most useful areas of mathematics, is the study of continuous
change. It provides the language and concepts used by modern science to
quantify the laws of nature and the numerical techniques through which
this knowledge is applied to enrich daily life. Using the mathematics
computer laboratory, students gain a clear understanding of the
fundamental principles of calculus and how they are applied in
real-world situations. Topics: limits, continuity, derivatives,
applications of derivatives, integrals, and the fundamental theorem of
calculus. (4 credits) Prerequisite: MATH 162


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Home > SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING > NXP Semiconductors Announces Fourth Quarter 2008 Results ...
Mar 3rd, 2009
NXP Semiconductors Announces Fourth Quarter 2008 Results
Q4 Highlights
*) Excluding USD 47 million subsequent wafer sales to ST-NXP Wireless JV in Q4
**) Excluding USD 120 million sales in July 2008 of the divested wireless business and excluding USD 38 million subsequent wafer sales to ST-NXP wireless
***) Including USD 400 million drawn down from NXPs revolving credit facility
NXP Semiconductors announced fourth quarter sales of USD 979 million, a comparable decrease of 21.9% over the third quarter of 2008 and a comparable decrease of 25.6% over the fourth quarter of 2007, reflecting difficult and deteriorating market conditions towards the end of 2008. Adjusted EBITA in the fourth quarter was USD 41 million. Adjusted EBITDA showed a loss of USD 84 million this quarter compared to a profit of USD 148 million in the same period last year and a profit of USD 15 million in the previous quarter.
Considerable advances were made in the fourth quarter towards the execution of the redesign plans announced during the third quarter of 2008 on September 12.
The cash position was USD 1,796 million at the end of the fourth quarter, which includes USD 400 million drawn down from NXPs revolving credit facility. The Q4 cash position compares with USD 1,535 million at the end of Q3 2008.
Outlook: our ability to give guidance on our expected first quarter revenues is limited, due to the unusual conditions prevailing in the semiconductor industry. However based on overall consumer sentiment, recent order book development, and expected future trading levels, we now foresee a 30% to 40% sequential sales decline in the first quarter on a business and currency comparable basis.
Visibility of sales for the year ahead is even more limited. In particular, we are unable to determine when the current severe downturn in the semiconductor industry will abate. However, our current expectation is that our 2009 revenues will be lower than our 2008 revenues, and the size of this decline could be significant. A decline, combined with the large cash cost of our Redesign Program, would lead to reduced liquidity at the end of 2009.
The full Q4 report is available on the NXP website (www.nxp.com/investor). Please note that we will not be holding a conference call this quarter due to legal restrictions relating to the private exchange offer announced earlier today.
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Yole Développement: Le Quartz, 75 cours Emile Zola, 69100 Villeurbanne, France. TEL: (33) 472 83 01 80 FAX: (33) 472 83 01 83 E-Mail: info @yole.fr


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Items Tagged with 'budget'
GVSU tuition increases 2.8 percent
Increase is lowest in 10 years, thanks to meeting performance guidelines.
Current and future Lakers are looking at the lowest tuition rate increase in the last 10 years. Read More
Local groups respond positively to Snyder's budget plan
Reinstatement of county revenue sharing earns plaudits.
Gov. Rick Snyder's budget proposal for the 2014-15 fiscal year is getting a thumbs-up from local leaders. Read More
Street Talk: Now, about that Grand Rapids income tax vote …
Food fun.
Gov. Rick Snyder's budget proposal for FY2015 sounds like maybe the state, at long last, will loosen the purse strings and share some funds with GR — which would be great for fixing Furniture City's streets that are now more pothole than pavement. Read More
County getting ready to adopt a budget
Spending will be up for improvements and veterans' needs, but down for farmland preservation.
Kent County commissioners will adopt a general fund budget next week for the upcoming fiscal year that starts Jan. 1. Read More
County likely to spend more on upgrades next year
Information technology is targeted to get bulk of Kent's CIP funds.
The Kent County Finance Committee agreed last week to spend a bit more on capital improvements next year, largely because a panel chose to dedicate 0.25 mills from the operating millage to the budget instead of the 0.2 mills assigned this year. Read More
Kent County budgets for capital improvements
The Kent County Finance Committee is beginning its annual effort to whittle down $10.8 million worth of requests for capital improvement projects to a more affordable $4 million, which will make up next year's CIP budget. Read More
Kent County changes budget provisions
Kent County Commissioners made a few changes to the guidelines they will follow in putting the general operations and capital improvement budgets together for the coming fiscal year that begins Jan. 1. Read More
City Commission OKs budgets and new millage tax rate
Millage request for parks funding also approved for ballot.
Last week Grand Rapids city commissioners adopted a new fiscal-year budget, approved a host of other city-related spending plans, established a new millage rate for the 2014 year that begins next Monday, and gave a green light to a new millage request voters will see this fall. Read More
Unfinished state budget heralded for early completion
The press releases, photos and video streamed non-stop to editors across the state, hailing Gov. Rick Snyder's signing of the 2013-14 budget of almost $49 billion last Thursday. Read More
DDA approves new annual operating budget
Board will receive more revenue from its parking lots the next two years.
Members of the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority approved the budget for the 2014 fiscal year last week, a spending plan that has taken on a new format to reflect that the agency will be an integral component of Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. Read More


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Temperatures on Monday broke record lows in southern Utah.
With temperatures descending to -12 degrees Monday morning, Kanab reported an all-time low not just for Dec. 9, but for the entire month of December, the National Weather Service reported. It was the fourth-coldest reported temperature since weather records have been kept, back to 1902, said Christine Kruse, NWS forecaster.
No heat, no school »
A malfunctioning furnace forced Ogden's Highland Junior High School to close Monday. The Ogden School District said a heating coil in the furnace serving the school's nearly 900 students at 325 Gramercy Ave. had frozen overnight.
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Tuesday will be a few degrees warmer, but much of Utah will remain in a deep freeze as warm air aloft traps colder, and increasingly polluted air to the region.
In issuing a Hazardous Weather Outlook for the western two-thirds of the state through Sunday, the National Weather Service said inversions will mix fog with worsening valley urban smog — and keep overnight temperatures in the single digits and daytime highs well below freezing.
That also means the Tuesday morning's commute will once more be frigid and slick.
On Monday, following a weekend of snowfall and subfreezing temperatures, the region's interstates and highways began the day as vehicular skating rinks.
The Utah Highway Patrol warned that treacherous driving conditions prevailed in valley and mountain locations alike. However, the northern Utah mountain routes, particularly Interstate 80 through Parleys Canyon and Interstate 84 east of Ogden, had troopers especially vigilant.
Interstate 15 southbound from Davis County was so icy that traffic was stop-and-go along a stretch of at least 10 miles during much of the Monday morning peak drive-time.
About 8:30 a.m. a trooper's car was involved in a crash on I-15 near Orem, but no one was injured. UHP Sgt. Todd Royce said the trooper was outside of his car, investigating another crash, when a pickup truck slid into his cruiser.
Otherwise, drivers seemed to take extra care; only a handful of other non-injury crashes and slideoffs were reported.
Still, unusually cold southern Utah — St. George was in single digits again Monday morning — was on the UHP's weather radar, too. Gusty winds throughout Monday were expected to cause trouble, blowing accumulated and new snow into flurries on I-15 along Black Ridge, which runs between St. George and Cedar City.
Highway 18, between St. George and Beryl Junction, and Highway 143 in the vicinity of Brian Head were also on the UHP's watch list.
A frozen fire sprinkler line burst at the Weber State University student union building Monday afternoon, forcing students to evacuate a second-floor lounge after water started coming from the ceiling.
The Wasatch Front looked for a few degrees of warming on Tuesday with temperatures rising to the mid-20s, up from Monday's forecast highs in the upper teens. Overnight lows, however, were to once again dip into the 5-10 degree range.
Southwestern Utah, meantime, could breath a slightly less misty sigh of relief with highs Tuesday expected to climb into the mid- to upper 30s with overnight lows 15-20 degrees — a 10-15 degree swing for the better from the low single-digits over a chilly weekend.
For more extensive forecast information, visit the Tribune's weather page atsltrib.com/weather.
Copyright 2014 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Sources close to News Center 11 say trial for a 21 year old accused rapist will not take place, and instead Marcos Camacho will enter into a plea deal with prosecutors.
Camacho is charged with a single count of First Degree Sexual Assault, an Unclassified Felony offense that carries a maximum 99 years in jail.
Camacho is accused of assaulting a female student January 28, 2012 at a school-sanctioned UAF dance at the Wood Center on campus.
Attorneys representing the Satterberg Law Office are handling the case.
They say the woman consented to the sexual act, and that she "gave Camacho various signs by the way she danced with him, and other forms of alleged affection."
It's not known what Camacho will plead to, or how much jail time, if any, is involved.
He's currently free on bail release conditions.
Further hearings in the case are set for next week.


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1987 – Happy 25th birthday to Indiana Pacers guard Ben Hansbrough (@bhans23) who is in his rookie season in the NBA. He and his older brother Tyler come off the bench for the Pacers as a part of their deep rotation. Although the Hansbroughs attended different colleges, it is fun to see them on the same professional team.
For more NBA coverage, follow King James Gospel and Adam Lowenstein on Twitter: @KJG_NBA and @StatsAdam
Tags: Ben Hansbrough Indiana Pacers


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September 20, 2014
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Separating fact from misconception -- Rebecca Newhouse, president of the West Virginia affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, spent much of Friday on conference calls and social media sites -- trying to do just that.
"We really are not in a situation where Planned Parenthood funding has been an issue," Newhouse says. "There's a misconception, somehow, we would be taking funding from Planned Parenthood. Nothing could be further from the truth."
Funding in West Virginia doesn't have to funnel through Planned Parenthood to get women a mammogram.
Nationally, The Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity on Friday abandoned plans to deny funding to Planned Parenthood. The startling decision came after three days of criticism that resounded across the Internet, jeopardizing Komen's iconic image.
"We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives," a Komen statement said.
As first reported Tuesday by The Associated Press, Komen had adopted criteria excluding Planned Parenthood from future grants for breast-cancer screenings because it was under government investigation, citing a probe launched by a Florida congressman at the urging of anti-abortion groups.
Komen said it would change the criteria "to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political."
"We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants," the statement said.
"The Komen Foundation doesn't provide us with direct funding" says Kira Miskimmin, public affairs director for Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Inc. in West Virginia.
Miskimmin says lost in this nationwide controversy is the tact that both organizations have about saving people's lives.
"Everyone should care," Miskimmin says, "because anytime women's health is politicized in the manner we've seen over the past week, that harms all of us, particularly women who are most vulnerable."
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Lower the bar: How to enable more students to 'pass'Far more North Carolina students now are performing at or above grade level. That's the good news. The bad news is that under the established standards, students may correctly answer as few as one-third of the math questions and 40...
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Texas (TX) e-services enrollment
This article describes the procedure to enroll in Texas electronic services. The state agency that processes the enrollment request is the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).
You have an active Intuit Online Payroll or Intuit Full Service Payroll account.
We have received your request to enroll in TX e-services. However, because you are currently set up to file directly through the TX TWC online system, complete the following steps so that we can process your enrollment:
Log on to your Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) account at https://services.twc.state.tx.us/UITAXSERV/security/logon.do
Click the User Admin tab.
On the left side of the page, click Applicant List.
Under Action, to the right of PAYCYCLE's name, click Review.
On the Review Applicant List page, click Approve. This displays the menu of possible permissions.
Select Make Payment and Manage Wage Reports. (Do not select any other permissions.)
Click Submit.
You will see a confirmation of the options you have selected. The page will read:
RESET USER PASSWORD: No
MANAGE USER MEMBERSHIP: No
MANAGE USER PERMISSIONS: No
FILE REPORT: Yes
MAKE PAYMENT: Yes
MODIFY EMPLOYER DATA: No
VIEW EMPLOYER DATA: No
Once you have completed these steps, please contact us so that we can proceed with the enrollment process.


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I've decided to start experimenting with wordpress's themes in order to get a different look from the other math blogs. What do people think of this one? There's a few others that I've been considering as well, and I may continue experimenting throughout the month.
April 8, 2008
ThemesPosted by Charles Siegel under Uncategorized
[14] Comments
14 Responses to "Themes"
April 8, 2008 at 7:27 pm
The theme is too dark. Posts and comments are easy to read, but the the sidebar (the about section especially) is hard to read.
It does save electricity however…
April 8, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Dear Charles,
white on black makes for very unpleasant reading.
Please, don't keep that feature.
April 9, 2008 at 1:53 am
Nice blog, I read it when ever you post!
I like the theme, though the "select category drop down seems too big to fit in the colum in Firefox 18.104.22.168 (gutsy) ubuntu
April 9, 2008 at 7:07 am
Very pleasant appearance.Thanks.


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Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 27
27 this question intend to include plans for video surveillance In general, onboard surveillance appears to have become in all new station designs. far more common since a 2001 TRCP synthesis. Yet direct comparisons are difficult because of the dissimilarity in TABLE 3 the population surveyed. In that study, Electronic Surveil- DO ALL NEW STATION DESIGNS INCLUDE PLANS FOR lance Technology on Transit Vehicles, Maier and Malone VIDEO SURVEILLANCE? (2001) queried 32 agencies. Although 14 of the 30 largest Video Surveillance? No. U.S. transit agencies participated, only 16 were rail agencies (6 operated heavy rail and 11 provided light rail service). Yes 35 In addition to those that reported having onboard surveil- No 3 lance, some agencies were planning to install it; others were in test mode and the systems were not yet operational. Of the agencies that responded that they had surveillance onboard ONBOARD RAILCARS vehicles, 11 of 23 indicated that less than 25% of their rail- cars were equipped with this technology and only 3 reported The second most frequent area where surveillance is that between 76% and 100% of vehicles had cameras. At that employed is onboard railcars, an issue that was addressed time, both BART and the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) by three survey questions. Respondents who indicated they indicated that all new vehicles would be equipped with sur- used surveillance onboard vehicles were asked to specify veillance systems but they did not specify whether these whether this was in passenger areas, in the operator/cab would include cameras in operator areas/cabs. area, or in both. They were also asked to indicate what per- centage of their vehicles had surveillance devices. In replying to the current synthesis questionnaire, BART was less definitive as to whether all vehicles would be so Of the 33 agencies that reported having onboard surveil- equipped while CTA continued to indicate that it anticipated lance of passenger areas, 11 indicated it was also employed installing surveillance in passenger and operator/cab areas in operator/cab areas. There are considerable differences of all new vehicles. The length of time between the two stud- among modes in the availability of onboard surveillance. ies may account for the change in BART's response but also Only two agencies with heavy rail vehicles indicated that indicates that multi-year implementation plans may change more than 76% of their railcars had video surveillance; an as budgets change or as new priorities develop. additional agency reported that new cars would include cameras. Six agencies with commuter railcars indicated that Overall, the number of agencies committed to equipping more than 76% of their railcars were equipped with video all new railcars with surveillance technology had increased surveillance, while 16 light rail systems indicated that more substantially since the earlier study (Table 5). Although vehi- than 76% of their LRVs had surveillance cameras (Table 4). cle manufacturers are now able to routinely accommodate orders for onboard surveillance, fewer agencies reported that their plans called for surveillance on new vehicles than those TABLE 4 reporting the same for station design plans. AGENCIES REPORTING MORE THAN 76% OF RAILCARS ARE MONITORED BY VIDEO SURVEILLANCE TABLE 5 Type No. WILL ALL NEW VEHICLES INCLUDE SURVEILLANCE Heavy Rail 2 VIDEO ONBOARD? Commuter Rail 6 Surveillance Onboard? No. Light Rail 16 Yes, Plans Call for Surveillance: 29 In passenger areas only 13 Passenger areas and operator/ cab areas 14 It is difficult to account for the vast difference among modes without further study, but some conjecture is pos- No, Plans Do Not Call for 10 Surveillance sible. Heavy and commuter rail, with a few exceptions, are generally older systems located in larger cities. Older sys- tems are more likely to have railcars that were purchased Onboard surveillance systems have a longer history on before onboard surveillance was readily available prein- buses than on railcars; many of the systems that pioneered stalled by vehicle manufacturers. The costs of retrofitting their use on railcars were multimodal agencies that expanded these vehicles could be too high and may not be cost-effec- surveillance to railcars after successful applications on tive depending on whether there are plans to purchase new buses. For instance, the Bi-State Development Agency in vehicles. It is more likely that newer agencies, which most St. Louis, Missouri, had installed surveillance systems on often are light rail systems, obtained LRVs with preinstalled both buses and its LRVs primarily to curb disruptive behav- surveillance capabilities. ior by juveniles. Because Bi-State's MetroLink security staff


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Health Thanksgiving Tips from Kira Bishop, Fitness Coordinator at our ASYMCA Family Center in Copperas Cove.
Thanksgiving is next week, signifying the beginning of the holiday season. This means we are about to be surrounded by temptations, and remembering to make smart, healthy choices when it comes to food can pose a challenge.
Follow a few healthy tips, however, and you can still enjoy your favorite holiday treats without the extra calorie guilt.
Don't go hungry. Do not show up to Thanksgiving dinner starving, ready to eat everything in sight. We tend to eat faster and more when we are hungry, so make sure you don't skip a healthy breakfast and lunch just to end up overeating during dinner.
Practice portion control. Enjoy your favorite Thanksgiving dish, but take a smaller portion. Choose only the foods you really want and keep your portions moderate.
Don't go back for seconds. Be mindful and make only one trip to the buffet table. Take a look at all of your options before making your final food choices, and make sure all the calories you consume are worth it. Then remember to eat slowly and chew your food well.
Exercise. Keep up with your exercise routine. If your gym is closed on Thanksgiving, think of another way to get your exercise in on the big day. Go for an early morning jog, or do a circuit routine of body-weight movements. This is also a great time to start a new family tradition. After eating do not just move from the table to the couch. Do something active as a family. Play a game of bocce ball in the yard or go for a post-meal walk together.
The best thing to remember during the holidays is to eat less and exercise more. This is the only way to truly prevent gaining extra weight during the holiday season. Most importantly though, have a great time with family and friends making it an enjoyable, healthy holiday!


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Posted September 1, 2011 at 7:40 pm
by Chris Kimble
I understand if you are thinking "NO WAY" after reading the title of this post. Odds do seem very low that this could happen. So why say such a thing?
The chart here covers a 30-year time frame for both the Swiss Franc and Gold.
When the Swiss Franc has hit resistance line (1), gold has traded flat to down for years to come. How interesting that multi-year resistance is coming into play for both of these at the same time that GLD has become the largest ETF in America.
Crowded trade?
[ Source: Advisor Perspectives ]
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Posted July 28, 2011 at 3:54 am
by Joshua Brown
Is gold money?
That's the question Ron Paul famously asked Dr. Bernanke on the Hill last week and the question on many of your minds. Bernanke's answer, presumably inspired by a late-night viewing of Fiddler on the Roof, was that gold's value is basically "tradition". That answer was hilarious, btw.
I have a few smartass remarks to make here about gold, and before you guys howl at the moon and come after me, please understand that I've had gold as a part of the portfolios I manage for over four years now via ETFs and active managers with big allocations toward the precious metals.
Anyway, gold has, at times, been more like a drug than like money. The Spaniards in the 16th Century were like meth addicts for gold; their lust driving them across the oceans to slaughter millions of people in an endless quest to melt down as much of it into the shape of a cross that they could. And like all the best drugs, gold (and the pursuit of more gold) deluded the conquistadors into a sense of invincibility.
You've heard of "Beer Muscles", the phenomenon during which an intoxicated man is convinced that he can fight the entire bar? Well Gold Muscles enabled Francisco Pizarro, a very ordinary campaigner, to march a starving, bedraggled army from Panama to Peru. Upon his arrival in 1532, with only 180 men left and a handful of horses, Pizarro's gold muscles led to his conquest of 30 million Incas in half an hour – they take Emperor Atahualpa hostage and demand that the Incas bring them every shiny object in the kingdom (the entire west coast of South America) that's not nailed down.
And when that ransom is paid, they kill Atahualpa anyway – drunk on gold, high on silver.
These days, gold has morphed from being a drug into being a religion. I'm long but not religious about it. To me it's a trade. Gold is an ETF. So long as the uptrend is intact, I'm happy to be a part of it all, but I'll lose my religion faster than Michael Stipe should it feel "over-ish". Gold is a trade, a "play", a tool to express a popular theme.
Not money, but a means of getting more money [continue]…
Filed Under: Investing
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Posted July 26, 2011 at 10:34 am
by Wade Slome
Ask any average Joe off the street what investment category is at or near record all-time highs, and a good number of them will confidently answer "gold," as prices recently eclipsed $1,600 per ounce. But of course this makes perfect sense, right?
The Fed is printing money like it's going out of style, the dollar is collapsing like a drunken sailor, inflation is about to sky-rocket to the moon, and China is on the verge of becoming the world's new reserve currency. Never mind that Greece, Portugal and Ireland are in shambles with the Euro on its death bed.
Or Japan has achieved a debt to GDP ratio that would even make U.S. vote grubbing politicians blush. A sub-3% 10-Year Treasury Note doesn't appear to discourage fervent gold-bugs either.
No Respect
While gold has experienced an incredible sextupling in prices over the last decade and hit new-all time highs, believe it or not, there is an unlikely asset class that is reaching new historic highs and has outperformed gold for almost 2.5 years. Can you guess what asset class star I am talking about?
If I said U.S. "stocks," would you believe me [continue]?
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Posted July 7, 2011 at 1:36 am
Massive sovereign debt issues will drive gold prices through 2011-12 making gold and gold miners a strong buy Shayne Heffernan said today.
The sovereign debt challenge, now the top priority for many advanced economies to tackle, is broader than in the euro area, said Christine Lagarde, the newly- appointed managing director of the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) on Wednesday.
"The issue is broader than in euro zone," Lagarde said at her first press conference as the new head of the 187-member international financial institution, citing that the debt crisis in Europe, particular in Greece is "immediate" and "pressing".
Moody's warned that Lisbon could not meet the reform requirements of its first 78-billion-euro (112 billion U.S. dollars) IMF-European Union bailout and would need a second rescue package.
Meanwhile, Greek fiscal condition remains in danger. The European Union and the IMF are in intensive talks about the rescue plan.
Ireland, the other euro zone country to have received a bailout, said on Tuesday it may have to make additional spending cuts next year to meet deficit reduction targets in its 85 billion euro bailout plan due to economic slowdown.
These European countries' fiscal deterioration could come to test the IMF's commitment to eurozone stability.
"Those issues can not wait," said Largarde. "A lot should be done by economy players."
In the most recent International Monetary Fund projections, Italy's headline debt will reach 120 per cent of national output this year, and then decline only slightly to 118 per cent by the end of 2016.
Italian bonds last week yielded about 4.9 per cent, with the spread over German bonds widening to about two full percentage points (in contrast, the Greek-German spread is now about 13 percentage points). Further increases in interest rates could push the forecasts for Italy's debt toward Greek levels.
Italy, though, has close to 2 trillion euros in debt outstanding. It's inconceivable that Germany or the IMF could provide a rescue to protect its creditors. Such a package would have to involve loans and guarantees of at least 500 billion, and possibly 1 trillion, euros to impress the markets. This would be a significant fraction of Germany's gross domestic product of about 2.5 trillion euros. With a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 80 per cent, Germany's ability to take on new debt is limited.
She noted that debt issue is a wide challenge for many other advanced economies, including the United States, which is also at the risk of default if the country could not lift its borrowing limit in time.
Shayne Heffernan oversees the management of funds for institutions and high net worth individuals.
Shayne Heffernan holds a Ph.D. in Economics and brings with him over 25 years of trading experience in Asia and hands on experience in Venture Capital, he has been involved in several start ups that have seen market capitalization over $500m and 1 that reach a peak market cap of $15b. He has managed and overseen start ups in Mining, Shipping, Technology and Financial Services.
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Posted July 5, 2011 at 2:50 am
Another Wealth Wire post that takes some level-headed and sensible air out of "gold bug" land is here.
Now, onto Peter Brandt:
Owning bullion is a fool's game, unless society as we know it morphs into absolute economic and social chaos — at which point I would rather own orange juice, canned soup and toilet paper than bullion!
I know all the story lines given by bullion bulls. Just some of them include:
Let's assume for a moment you are a Gold…Silver…Platinum bull. Let's assume that all the bullet points above prove to be spot on. Let's assume that being a bullion bull is the smartest thing going.
If… when… the day of judgement comes, is a person better off owning bullion or the companies that produce that bullion?
Putting aside for a minute the argument that the world will return to a barter system of commerce (in which case we would all have bigger problems than where to hide our bullion), let's allow history to guide us on whether buying bullion or buying the stock of bullion producers is the better speculation or investment.
Full article…
Filed Under: The Wealth Wire
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Posted June 23, 2011 at 1:14 am
James Turk of the GoldMoney Foundation speaks about currency devaluation and the rising gold price. He also explains why gold should be considered money and not an investment.
"When you're looking at gold, it goes into the bottom part of your portfolio, the liquidity part of your portfolio. And when you're evaluating whether you want to own gold, you evaluate it against other currencies of the world, other monies of the world," he said.
Watch the 14-minute presentation here…
Filed Under: Investing
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Posted June 15, 2011 at 3:55 am
by Alexander Schachtel
The US dollar continues to sway in trading this week, down big against the Euro today after posting substantial comparative gains through most of last week.
Gold (NYSE:GLD) and Silver (NYSE:SLV) prices, which are generally thought to move inversely with the dollar, have shed some value in trading in that span of time.
Combine indicators signaling a possible slow-down in the Chinese Economy and an increasingly likely Greek -default scenario in Europe and you may see the dollar continue to rise against two of the world's leading currencies.
So if the dollar finally starts to gain significant momentum, do the gold-bugs have reason to seek cover and latch on to other commodities? George Soros, the investment tycoon and philanthropist, recently sold the large majority of his funds' holdings in Gold, having opined that the gold market is officially in a bubble.
As QE2 nears its end expect more inflationary pressure on the dollar to be lifted leading to further appreciation in the value of the greenback. It is starting to look like Soros is on the money once again.
All told, the future market prices for Gold (NYSE:GLD) and Silver (NYSE:SLV) may hinge more on the success of the current economic recovery than anything else.
Dollar prices will be more swayed by…
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Posted June 12, 2011 at 7:45 pm
by Nicholas Larkin
via June 3rd Bloomberg Article
Dennis Gartman, the economist and editor of the Gartman Letter who correctly forecast 2008's commodities slump, cut his gold position by half today and said yesterday's drop makes him "nervous" that it may keep falling.
The metal fell as much 1.3 percent yesterday after earlier this week trading within 1.8 percent of the all-time high a month ago. Gartman cut his gold holdings in all currencies. Gold in euros and British pounds rose to records since last week.
"For the first time in a very, very long while, we are a good deal more nervous than we have been about the trend," Gartman said in his Suffolk, Virginia-based Gartman Letter. "We fear that yesterday's sharp break that took gold down to $1,520 in the veritable twinkling of an eye was the harbinger of even more severe weakness that might soon develop."
Gold may fall "swiftly" to about $1,480 an ounce as early as the next few days, he wrote. Gold for immediate delivery dropped $6.27, or 0.4 percent, to $1,527.30 an ounce by 1:07 p.m. in London.
Gold has gained 7.4 percent this year and touched a record $1,577.57 an ounce on May 2 as faster inflation, Europe's debt crisis, a weakening dollar and unrest in the Middle East and north Africa boosted demand for a protection of wealth. European Union and International Monetary Fund officials today complete a review of Greece's plan for 78 billion euros ($113 billion) in asset sales and austerity measures as they prepare the nation's second bailout in little more than a year.
Full article…
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Posted June 9, 2011 at 11:10 pm
Here is a key excerpt from one of the most elaborative, smart, and level-headed (non-ideological) articles available online about gold — its price movement, it' purpose in an investment portfolio, its history, and why if you should even care.
With respect to the price prospects for gold itself, it needs to be said up front that nobody knows where it will sell next month, next year or ever. Gold is a commodity; a very special one, but a commodity nonetheless.
As such, its price tends to be volatile. If stocks and bonds generally were trading at more attractive prices relative to estimated future cash flows, we might have little or no interest in owning gold as an investment.
But those two traditional asset classes are, in our opinion, somewhere between expensive and very expensive. We invest in stocks very selectively when we find well-run businesses at attractive valuations.
Our core belief as capitalists is that the two most effective ways for citizens of free countries to cope with the risks of currency manipulation by the monetary establishment are:
- To support the election of candidates most likely to pursue sober and transparent fiscal and monetary policies.
- To invest their savings in global, prudently managed, legal businesses. Business, we think, is in the best position to contend with weak currencies and other threats to prosperity.
We have a saying: "Businesses can adapt, bonds cannot". So, our philosophical bias is toward equities. We regard gold as a defensive holding that is sometimes necessary… now is one of those times.
As to the specific challenge of valuing gold bullion, James Grant, one of the truly elite money mavens, (www.grantspub.com) puts it well, we think:
"You can't value a non-earning asset, even though you can pretend to. Gold's valuation takes the form of a fraction: 1/n, where 'n' is the world's confidence in paper currencies and the mandarins who manipulate them." He goes on to say that, "Regrettably, 'n' is not quantifiable."
In a way, that is the essential mystery of gold, isn't it. There is no dependable metric for gold's valuation comparable to a P/E ratio for a company's stock or the "real" yield on a sovereign bond.
The total value of investment gold is, as we have seen above [see link to entire article below], tiny compared with traditional asset classes, and gold's physical supply tends not to respond very much to price changes the way other commodities do.
So, what we have is an asset whose price can change rather dramatically in response to shifts in "currency confidence" which is impossible to quantify.
[ Details / Source: Above is our hand-picked KEY excerpt(s) from this full article: "GOLD—Relic or Real Money?" ]
Filed Under: High Jinks
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Posted June 7, 2011 at 1:17 am
by Emily Knapp
This year, market-guru George Soros dumped around $800 million of Gold (NYSE:GLD). Now people are wondering if it might be time to jump ship. If Soros is getting out now, what does that say for the future of the gold market?
While it's true gold (NYSE:GLD) has been bullish for a 12-year run now, and that one should expect the floor to fall out at some point, that's unlikely to happen before it hits its blow-out phase, when share prices will go through the roof. Until that happens, there is still more money to be made.
In July 1999, gold (NYSE:GLD) hit a 20-year low at $252.80 an ounce, but since then it has steadily recovered, reaching a record high of $1,575.79 an ounce — that's a 623.23% increase in value over 12 years.
If you bought in in 1999, maybe you're ready to sell as you kick back on your yacht in the south of France and fan yourself with crisp hundreds. Selling too soon at least avoids the risk of selling too late.
For gold (NYSE:GLD) to move into bubble territory, we'll have to see a…
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