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Clifford Stone
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Sergeant Stone tells an amazing story about the history of UFO's and extraterrestrials dating back to the early 40's and probably before. General Douglas MacArthur organized a group called the Interplanetary Phenomena Research Unit back in 1943 to study this issue and it continues to this day. Their purpose is to recover objects of unknown origin particularly those that are of non-Earthly origin. They obtain field intelligence information and pass it on to those who are the "keepers of this information." Stone says that even Project Bluebook had an elite investigation unit, which was outside of Bluebook. This unit was thought to be working in conjunction with Bluebook but in fact was not. Stone has seen living and dead extraterrestrials in his official duties on an army team that retrieved crashed ET crafts. He thinks that the extraterrestrials will not permit us to explore the depths of outer space until we've learned to grow spiritually and that they will make themselves known soon if we don't first acknowledge their presence. On February 26th, 1942, commonly called the Battle of Los Angeles, we find that there are some 15 to 20 unidentified craft flying over Los Angeles. We immediately responded by trying to shoot these objects down. The 37th Coastal Artillery Group expended 1,430 rounds. We immediately set out to try to find out if there was some hidden base belonging to the Axis from where these planes could come, some commercial airport that they could have had these aircraft housed. None of this bore out. Every search effort we made turned out to be fruitless.
At the same time in the Pacific they were experiencing the same phenomena, the so-called Foo Fighters. General MacArthur directed his intelligence people to find out what was going on. I have reason to believe that in 1943 MacArthur found out that in fact we had things not of this Earth and visitors from some other planet visiting our planet that was actually observing that world event we call the Second World War. One of the problems that he had was that, should this be the case, and should they prove to be hostile, we knew very little about them and we had very little means to defend ourselves.
MacArthur organized what was called the Interplanetary Phenomena Research Unit. [See the testimony of Buck Sergeant Leonard Pretko regarding MacArthur's involvement in the ET issue and his knowledge of the retrieved spacecraft and ET's from the New Mexico Crash. SG]
It would later be taken over by General Marshall. And it continued all the way through to present day. Names have been changed and records still haven't surfaced. The Army tries to state that it was not an official organization effort to try to investigate UFO's. But it was organized by a General, it bore a fruit, it came to conclusions that were not popular, i.e., interplanetary spacecraft. And they continued to do exactly what they do today and that is to be part of a multi-intelligence operation in the recovery of objects of unknown origin particularly those that are of non-Earthly origin. Their purpose is to assess that information, get raw field intelligence data, and process that data into some type of useful intelligence product to disseminate to the field- to those people who have a need to know and those people that are, shall we say, the keepers of that information.
One of MacArthur's Air Force generals, an Army Air Corps General at the time, came back to MacArthur and told MacArthur "what we have is something not of this Earth". I would suggest that by this time even the Germans had uncovered evidence that we were being visited and had some type of physical evidence. MacArthur definitely had physical evidence. From the documentation I saw [while working this issue in the Army], I was not able to ascertain exactly what that physical evidence consisted of but it was there.
The one thing I find quite unique is that the Germans may have tried to back-engineer one of these objects. We definitely tried to back-engineer it. But we find that your technology has to be on par with the acquired technology in order to back-engineer it…
In the 1950's, the United States Air Force had an elite unit to investigate UFO's outside of Bluebook. Even though Bluebook felt that this unit was working with them, they were not. This unit was initially organized as a 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron. Among its peacetime missions was operation Blue Fly. Operation Blue Fly was to recover objects of unknown origin that fell to Earth. It is very important that you remember these were specifically objects that fell to Earth- because we didn't have any spacecraft up there at this time. As a result of this, they had monitors right there at Wright Patterson that when UFO reports came in they were looked at very closely to see if there was any possible necessity of sending out teams to recover any of this fallen debris.
The Air Force states they never used them. I'm telling you I know they did. But the intent of the Operation Blue Fly peacetime project was to go out and recover objects of unknown origin that impacted with the Earth. Later it would be expanded in 1957 to cover all objects of unknown origin meaning spacecraft too. And it would become part of what they would call in the October of 1957 timeframe, Project Moon Dust.
Project Moon Dust is the overall field exploitation to recover only two items: First, objects of non-U.S. origin that survives re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere and impacts with the Earth and objects. Naturally, we would be interested in those items from a technical, scientific intelligence basis to determine, or try to ascertain the technical capabilities of any potential enemy since our known enemy of the U.S., the USSR at that time that was launching space vehicles into space.
The other area of interest was objects of unknown origin. Now we find that there were quite a few objects of unknown origin that did not correlate with any known space launches, impact times, or any known space debris falling back to Earth.
In short, under [Project] Moon Dust and under Blue Fly, we have recovered alien debris not of this Earth.
The degree of classification that we have now has changed over the years. Back during the time of the Second World War all the way up to, say 1969, you may have had as many as 11 classifications. Now there are three: confidential, secret and top-secret. However, if you have information that is highly sensitive that requires protection above and beyond the norm of what is provided for those classifications, that's when you have the Special Access Programs. You do not get that type of information out into public domain unless it is officially sanctioned.
During the discussion of UFO's, the question ultimately is going to come up can any government keep secrets let alone the U.S. Government? And the answer to that is unequivocally yes. But one of the greatest weapons the intelligence community has at their disposal is a predisposition by the American people, the American politicians, and the debunkers- people who wish to try to debunk UFO information. They immediately come out and say oh we can't keep secrets, we can't keep secrets. Well, the truth is, yes we can.
The National Recognizance Office remained secret for many, many years. The mere existence of the NSA remained secret. The development of the atomic weapon remained secret until once you exploded one you eventually had to tell some people what was going on.
And we are conditioned by our own paradigms not to accept the possibility or probability of a highly advanced intelligent civilization coming here to visit us. You have evidence in the form of highly credible reports of objects being seen, of the entities inside these objects being seen. Yet, we look for a prosaic explanation and we throw out the bits and pieces of the evidence that doesn't meet our paradigm. So it is a self-keeping secret. You can conceal it in plain sight. It is political suicide to go and start hitting up intelligence agencies to get this information released. So most of your members of Congress, and I know I've worked with a lot of them along that line, will balk and try not to do it. I can name you three members of Congress that were point blank asked to have a congressional inquiry on what happened here at Roswell.
One of the most ridiculous statements that I got was that a person would have to be a chairperson to do that. So I asked a senator from Mississippi if he'd do it and without any hesitation, he said no. I said, would you give me that in writing? I got that in writing but I'm hesitant to release it. I will show it to you but I'm hesitant to release it simply because I made a promise not to.
We have got to get the documentation as it exists in the Government files. We have got to get it released before it ultimately is destroyed. A good example is the Blue Fly and Moon Dust files. I had classified documents the Air Force acknowledged. When I got members of Congress to help me open up more files they were immediately destroyed and I can prove this.
Somewhere along the line they may see that material and realize there is some very highly sensitive information that would have a damning effect upon the national security of United States should it become compromised. It needs to be further protected to insure that there is only a limited access to that information to a small number of people. So small you can put them on a list of paper, on a piece of paper, and list them by name. Thus you have the Special Access Programs. The controls that were supposed to be put on the Special Access Programs are not there. When Congress did their review of the way we protect documents and the way we go ahead and implement our secrecy programs they found that you had Special Access Programs within Special Access Programs -- that it was essentially impossible to keep control of them all by Congress. And I'm telling you right now; it is essentially impossible to keep control of them all.
When it comes to UFO's the same criteria applies. Therefore, only a small nucleus within the intelligence community numbering less than a hundred -- no, I'd suggest less than 50 -- control all that information. It is not subject to congressional review or oversight at all. So Congress needs to go ahead and ask the hard questions and convene a hearing.
There would be quite a few missions to describe but simply put, yes, I was involved in those types of operations to retrieve crashed ET objects. A lot of people think that you are just in your unit waiting in the rafters, just waiting for the next UFO crash, a landing where there is going to be debris. It doesn't work that way. You have a real life. You have a real job in the military. However, if you are in an area where an event takes place and you are one of these people that they can go ahead and call upon in your field of expertise, then you are called in.
Now, in order to prepare me for this, very early on in my career they sent me to NBC School at Fort McCullen [sp], Alabama. It's a three-week school. It's for NBC personnel, NBC meaning Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical. And it would always be in the context of an NBC unit that I would be involved in UFO retrievals. You would go ahead and deploy as though it was a nuclear accident. There are procedures already established on nuclear or biological or chemical accidents. So you would proceed in that way. If you could get in there and do recoveries, if you could go in and extract the debris that are there quietly behind the scenes and no one knows, you'd do it. If you needed an officially sanctioned deception program to come into play, such as a bogus news release, you could do this also.
For example, if you have an airplane accident we have standard procedures on how we handle that. Those same procedures are utilized when you do a recovery or extraction of a crashed ET spacecraft or debris thereof. And I have to stress debris simply because these are highly advanced technical machines. There were not that many crashes. They are flawed because they are made by an intelligence that is as mortal as you or me. Being mortal, we are subject to error.
Now, we are talking about a highly intelligent civilization, not a highly incompetent civilization. We take steps and they take steps. But at the same time, when you go out, you make a recovery. And when you make that recovery, you handle it the same way you would as if you were out there on an airplane accident or you have a hazardous material type situation, because it works. It is all set up. The only problem you have is that you have people out there that are very quickly going to realize that this is not something of this planet. To be sure, with the Blue Fly recoveries [ET craft], you do what is called an on-site analysis.
In short, you have experts out there who know what missiles are, who know what aircraft are. They are looking at this material. They are telling you what it isn't. This leaves you to only one possible conclusion, something that did not originate on the face of this planet. That was the intent of the Blue Fly teams. It was very critical to do an immediate on-site analysis. Now, the way you package the material if it is just debris is handled the same way you would if it was hazardous material. You took precautions. If you had a whole craft, you took very serious precautions because while I still state the ET's are not hostile, you still could cause some serious accidents, which would result in death. I'm not going to get into how it was with the family when I had to leave on these operations because you get a little emotional because you think about what could happen…
Of course, you try to conceal the material, particularly if you have a large craft and it is disc shaped or say, wedge shape -- which is a very good shape that we get from time to time. And you take precautions particularly if you have to go ahead and put it on a truck to bring it in. If you have to put it on a truck to take it to a safe haven area, we track that truck. The truck has an 800 number so if there is a breakdown they can secure the vehicle and stay with it. But they have a number they can call and immediately get assistance out there to move that vehicle to a safe haven area. And there are procedures outlined in this. As a matter of fact, you have a shipping document. And that shipping document has the number right on it to call. So you use a code word -- I'll give you one that we used all the time: Tabasco.
In the case of an ET craft, you are going to get a specialized team out there that knows what to do should there be a biological component. One of the big concerns we had was biological due to contamination as a result of this being truly of alien origin.
I am prepared to state that I have been at locations where craft of unknown origin that did not originate on the face of this planet were there. I am prepared to state that while I was there, we saw living and dead bodies of entities that were not born on this planet. I am prepared to state that we had what they referred to as "interfacing" with those entities. I am prepared to state that they have a school to try to indoctrinate people. I never went to that school. I always refused. I am prepared to state that when I got out of the service in 1990, that they held me for two months so that I might better reconsider to stay in and not get out. I am prepared to state that I had orders that stated that I was supposed to get out on December 1st of 1989, and that they revoked those orders. Once again, in violation of law they held me for two months pending approval of my retirement, which had already been approved. The purpose of that was to try to convince me to stay in.
We have contact with aliens not originating from some foreign country but from some other solar system. And I have been a party to that. I've worked it. I've been there. And I know some of the things we do is really, really, really, really terrible. They are not hostile toward us. We are the enemy in this instance -- but we are the enemy, I like to think, for the good reasons. We are concerned about what some other country might do. I have concluded that I am fighting against the clock. That I have but a short time to try to convince people that we are moving down an avenue where we are going to militarize space. Once we militarize space we will have a whole new avenue of technology open up to us.
NASA says it is going to take another 1,400 years before we achieve what we call interstellar travel. I'm telling you by the end of this century we will be doing that. If we do nothing to grow spiritually -- and this is a hard thing for me to state -- but if we do nothing to grow spiritually we will not achieve interstellar travel. They will stop us. What's worse they will make themselves known to an unsuspecting people on this planet.
We want to acquire this technology. We want to make this technology part of our own technology. Within the next 25 years we are going to militarize space. As a result of militarizing space, we are going to acquire new technologies and we are going to evolve new technology that is going to lead us into interstellar travel. As a direct result, we will become a threat to them unless we spiritually grow also. But I feel that if we do not grow spiritually we are forcing the situation where the entities will eventually make themselves known. And they will make themselves known. And no power on Earth can stop that from happening. The ET's will do this in order to stop us from going out into space as a threat. If this should happen, it will happen to an unsuspecting world population and that can create some very serious problems.
[See the testimony of Dr. Carol Rosin regarding Wernher Von Braun's concern over our weaponizing space. SG]
But this doesn't deal just with the United States. It is a truth that the entire world has to be informed about. And that truth is that man is not alone, that we have people from other planets, from other solar systems coming here.
I believe that the intelligence community had good intentions when they classified information dealing with UFO's. I believe that they asked some very serious and hard questions: What impact would it have if the peoples of the world knew that they were no longer alone in the universe, that they had intelligence that was visiting this planet? And I think that the intentions were good there. As intelligence agencies among nations, naturally you want to go ahead and acquire the technology for military application. So you want to try to keep some of that knowledge as confidential as possible by classifying it as high as you possibly can- keeping the information open to only a small handful of people thus, Special Access Programs. However, I believe that while it was full of good intentions in keeping this information classified, it is [now] hurting people.
I do not believe that any government has the right to try to make individuals who merely see UFO's look crazy. I do not believe that any government has a right knowing that the psychology of specific individuals may ultimately lead to a tremendous amount of mental depression, ultimately, leading in many, many cases to suicide or self destruction. When we see these types of things coming about, we have an obligation to reconsider our thoughts and positions. I would suggest [that] we need to break down the walls of secrecy, that we must be responsible in getting the truth out. We must be responsible in how we get that truth out. And we must be truthful.
And it is not a scary story. You will learn that the ET's have a perception of God. You find they have families. You find they have cultures. You find that they have likes and dislikes. You look for those things that are similar among us, not the differences. And that is the way you start on the path to truth. The problem that we have right now is that we look at them as something to talk about; something to marvel at and be amazed at.
Well, back to my own story, we had just finished the training that I took to be an NBC NCO. And a friend of mine brought me back to Fort Lee, Virginia. He was going to Fort Meade, Maryland and says, come on, I'll give you a ride to your base. And we discussed UFO's on the way to Fort Lee.
Several weeks after I got back to Fort Lee, I got a call from this person and I was going to visit him at Ft. Meade. When I got to Fort Meade where he was supposed to be, they said, well, he is going to be tied up we'll talk to you later about his situation as soon as he gets free. This person says, by the way, have you ever been to the Pentagon? Well, at that time I had never been at the Pentagon. So they said, well, it is really a unique place. Why don't we go ahead and give you the twenty-five cent tour. So we went on over. We went in. I had a little badge that was given to me, no picture on it. But the guy that was with me, his had a picture and he'd just tell the guards he is authorized to come with me. And he'd always be the one to get me in. Finally we got to a place that has an elevator. We went down on it- I don't know how far down we went. I can't tell you if there is one flight under the Pentagon, two, or fifty. But we went down. When we get out there, there are two monorails there. I mean, there are monorails under the Pentagon. They look like big tubes, rather thick in the center, one on each side. So you had these little monorails with cars that look like a bullet, where you could seat two people in front and two people in back. We got on the one monorail and started to go, it seemed like maybe 20 minutes, but I'm guessing at that because I don't know for sure.
When we got out, he says, well, let me show you some interesting sites down this corridor here. So we are going down the corridor and it looked like there was a door at the far end of that corridor. As we got closer and closer to that door, my guide turned to me and stated, you know, things aren't always as they seem to be. He says a lot of people don't know about these underground locations underneath the Pentagon. Only a few know that the Pentagon has underground monorails that connect up to other locations. He says, it is just like the walls here -- they don't all seem like walls. And I said, what do you mean they are not walls? I said, what are you talking about? I thought, you know, he was trying to make a joke. At that time he says, no, it is like the wall behind you. I look and it looks like a wall to me. There are no seams or anything I can see. Then he pushes me. I try to grab myself but there is actually a door that opened.
Well, when you go through the door there is like a field table there. And behind the field table you had this little entity. The entity was a little bigger than the 3, 3 1/2 foot tall entities that are a lot of times reported. But there were two men on either side of the table slightly behind the creature. When I turned around, I looked right into the eyes of this little creature. And you know, it's like you are seeing it but everything is being pulled from your mind-he was reading my whole life. It is hard to describe what I really felt there- your life up to that point goes by in seconds. And I mean you were feeling everything.
I remember going down and grabbing a hold of my head like this and falling to the floor. The next thing I remember I wake up and I am back in my friend's office [back at Fort Meade]. And when I'm back in Jack's office they told me nothing happened that I had been there the whole day. But I knew better.
I will go this far to state that there is an interaction between entities and certain Government agencies within the U.S. Government. I will not go so far to state that they are giving us technologies to kill ourselves. They are not along that line. Their purpose in being here is for scientific purposes and for humanitarian purposes.
We have been very foolish in how we have done certain things and we have harmed ourselves. We now realize that we have harmed ourselves and we are trying to take corrective action. And that right there is the one thing that the ET's are checking on. There is the biosphere that's been damaged. They are not coming here to repair that. They are coming here to see how we handle it. But a government can't be the one that shoulders all of the responsibility and shoulders all the knowledge and all the understanding. The whole situation is that we have to work in unison as a people, a united people. We must go ahead and start preparing ourselves to where we ultimately will take that giant step to where we are going to be visiting other planets out there in other solar systems. And we have to, once again, I'll use the word, grow spiritually as a group of people, the people representing mankind on planet Earth. Yes there is some type- and I don't know to what extent- but there is some type of dialogue that is taking place between our visitors of all species, because there is more than one, and the various governments- not just the U.S. Government, but of the worlds. Primarily, these are the more developed nations of the world because at present space faring nations represent the greatest threat to them.
Another early experience I had was an accidental viewing of something I was not supposed to see. We were in a facility and a friend and I went to a balcony area looking down over the briefing room. They had a Plexiglas window that separated the balcony and what was going on downstairs- you couldn't hear what was being said. But we started to notice that they were running a film. And the film showed various types of what we would call UFO's, today. It showed various types of alien creatures some that looked very much like us some that looked like us with marked differences. We were not aware of the fact that there were people now up there with us. And they said, what are you guys doing up here? And we told them, well you know we are just sitting up here eating our snacks because we didn't want to go to the snack bar. They said, you need to come with us and you need to come with us now. So I mean they pushed us grabbing us by the nape, the shirt, and pushed us down the stairs.
Once they got down the stairs, they pushed us on out the doors and into a van. The van was right there waiting, a panel van, where they pushed us in and shut the door. And then they drove us off. We don't know where they took us to but the location where we finally got out was a one-frame military style building. They took us in there, put us into this room. The room had the military cots there. It had one table with a light. And we were sitting back trying to figure out why are they doing this? Why is this going on?
On the fifth night, I got out and they drove me back to my billets. I reported in and went to bed because I was dead tired and all I wanted to do was get some sleep. The next morning, which was a Saturday morning, I am awakened by the CQ, that is, Charge of Quarters. And he says, I want to see you. Well, I was taken to see two men; one guy was acting like a good guy. The other guy went ahead and said, I told you we shouldn't trust him. Let's just take the so and so out. Let's just end this. Let's shoot him. And the nicer guy says, no, no, we'll discuss this. And he sent the guy that was supposed to be the bad guy out- we use that technique sometimes in security- good cop, bad cop. The one that was supposed to be the bad guy, he went to get some food.
The good guy says, listen, he says, you like working with this UFO stuff. And I'm saying, no, I don't. And he says, well, you know, you have experience with it. You've had some involvement. He says, and those were not phony pictures up there. He says, would you like to work with it? Would you like to work with us? I said, no I wouldn't like that at all. Eventually he goes ahead and says, look, you like working with, you'll get to work with it, you'll get to learn more about it, he says. He says the whole situation is that by the end of this year we are going to release everything we know. But here again the world is not a safe place. We have to know more from a technological viewpoint and a military standpoint than potential enemies of this country know. So I'm asking you -- work with us. Well, I thought about it. And you know, I was young. And I thought this is something that I've actually been involved with all my life, that it'd be fun, that I could go ahead learn certain things, answers to the questions I had, actually get a better understanding of events in my life.
I do believe that, one, they wanted me in the military; two, they wanted me involved in this program; three, there wasn't really concern about, if at some later date, I started to talk about it. They were only concerned what I might have to prove: If I had some little slivers of proof, what impact would that have on my story. But I know they did not want me out of the military. I know they wanted me to stay in. I know they wanted me to go ahead and go to what they referred to as The School. But I would never commit myself to go to what they were referring to as The School.
I was told that if you go to the school it will open up a whole new world for you, a whole new avenue. But I had to agree to it. And I had to go ahead and sign specific papers to go to it. And I was not prepared to go to that school. I had seen people who were involved with the program that had gone to that school and let me just say I didn't like their personality. I did not like the idea that by you going there it made you something special, it made you a prima donna, if you wish. That was not the way it was supposed to be. I felt that one of the greatest things you can be is a servant and not vice versa.
So some of these people, I did not like their disposition. I did not like their attitudes. And I did not want to become like them. And one of my fears was if I went to the school it would change me the same way.
Now, there are events, there are recoveries [of ET craft]. But the recoveries are few and far between. One of the events that took place in 1969 was a recovery of a craft that was a wedge shape craft and took place in Indian Town Gap. Now, I know it was cold and I believe it to have been in the winter but there was no snow. We were on a field training exercise, the 96th Civil Affairs Group. I was part of the 96th Civil Affairs Company. I was the NBC Non-Commissioner Officer in Charge. We were notified that they had an incident involving a downed craft and we needed to assist in recovery. The persons that showed up knew exactly where we were going and we went to our staging area. From there we went to another location in Indian Town Gap. We didn't have any problems about civilians or curiosity seekers or anything like this. The situation is, we did the recovery. I realized that what I was seeing was not of human origin.
When we got there, there was already a team set up. Floodlights were always set up around the object. I was asked to get closer and closer to the object to take readings with the APD 27. As I did this, I realized what I was seeing was not of an Earthly origin. I'm hesitant to go into it too much, because I don't want to get emotional about it…
Bentwaters is another very interesting case. With Bentwaters, we went there to digest some of the information. As far as the physical evidence, there were photographs. There was film footage. There was evidence of a higher than normal background radiation. Not all that high, but above normal. We found that there were some abnormalities in the area we referred to as the impact point. We also noticed that the trees had been leveled off at the top. When we got there, it was late December, I want to say December 28th was the day that we arrived there.
[See the testimony regarding this event from Larry Warren, Nick Pope, et al. SG]
We gathered up the materials. We took these materials back to Lindsey Air Force Base, all the hard evidence that we could get, all the documentation that was there. There were sightings that were picked up on radar. Both the British Government and the U.S. Government were aware of these sightings. The hard evidence that we had was taken back to Lindsey Air Force Base. There it was digested to where there was some type of information that could be put out to brief Shape Headquarters [NATO]. And I don't know who in Shape Headquarters was briefed. But I do know that we did have to do that. The information was then put with the special courier. I believe it was coming back to an air base close to the Washington, D.C. area and that the materials transferred on to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, headquarters at the time of the U.S. Air Forces Special Field Activities Group, Air Forces Field Activities Center. They then took this material, did whatever they did with it, and came up with the finalized intelligence product.
The reason it went to Lindsey was because the U.S. Air Forces Field Activities Center had detachments in the field. The closest detachment in the field to Bentwaters would have been Lindsey Air Force Base. They were the ones that got the material. They were the ones that were charged with safeguarding it until it got back to the U.S. They were asking questions, hard questions, critical questions. They were asking technical questions of technical people that were involved. I know for a fact that some of the radar operators, both British and U.S. were questioned. I know some of the people were out there on two different nights and they were questioned.
I was also involved with the Belgian UFO events in June, July of 1989. We were assessing information, gathering data on the UFO over flights of Belgium. The UFOs also went all over Germany. We had one incident there on the border near the Soviet territory. We saw that the Soviets were pretty upset because this was a huge object. It was triangular shape about three football fields on either side of the triangle. It flew over what we call No-Man's Zone. As it flew over there we all were getting jittery.
It was, I'd say summer, about August. You could feel your hair standing up on end. It was more than just, you know, getting shivers because of fright or something like this. There was some type of physiological effect taking place. Once this incident subsided, we put fighters on alert. We notified them that we may have a Soviet craft coming across the gap and we were going to intercept it. The Soviets did the same thing. It went back over the Soviet airspace and they scrambled fighters to try to intercept it. It wasn't traveling fast at all. But on this particular night no one fired at it.
There were pictures taken. There was consultation with the Soviet Union. With this going on, everyone was taken in and briefed. People were informed that what they saw was nothing more than a Russian MIG 27 that had strayed across into the area far enough into the No-Man's Zone to create a problem and cause some alarm. But it was no MIG 27. We knew exactly what we were looking at. You have flashcards which are silhouettes of the various craft of the Soviet Union and even our own.
So we knew precisely what we were looking at. What we saw was a craft that was of an unusual origin. It was not aerodynamically sound. And when I state it was not aerodynamically sound, I mean it had no means of staying aloft like that without some visible means of aerial support like a helicopter. That wasn't there. It was perfectly silent not making any noise roughly three stories high. This was one of the incidents that got me a little concerned, made me think about wanting to get out and come back to the family, to have some family life. We had the incident escalate. We had it escalate to where the Soviet Union filed an official protest through the Belgium Government to the U.S. Government stating that they were very concerned about the Belgium authorities along with several other countries letting us fly stealth aircraft on reconnaissance missions into the Soviet Union. We notified and discussed it with the Soviet Union. We briefed at least the Soviet Military Liaison Mission Groups that this had nothing to do with our involvement of sending stealth aircraft into their territory.
The Soviet Union was alarmed about what was going on. They even alluded to it being our craft. They were reassured that it wasn't. We reassured the Belgium authorities that it wasn't. The Belgium authorities had their own UFO sightings. We have seen this on TV. What you don't know about those sightings is that there was a tremendous- I don't want to call it a cover-up- there was a movement to keep specific information about those sightings under wraps. There were some efforts to go ahead and alter the film footage of the radar screens to the point where it showed the UFO going underground, which it did not. I think it was supposed to have gone 600 feet into the Earth. That did not happen. It was visible. People saw it. The pilots saw it. The pilot's aircraft locked on to it. But these were things that would create more questions that we were willing to answer. So we decided to keep this out of the press. And we were successful at it.
[See the government documents related to this event and the following. SG]
Another case we were involved with was the Iranian incident of September 19th, 1976. Both fighters were taken apart to try to find out if there was any way we could explain what really happened to those fighters which were having malfunctions at the same time. There was a situation where we had some anomalies picked up out where the sighting was- where one of the Air Force pilots saw the UFO go down to the ground. We recorded those anomalies with audio devices. We took film footage of the area and there were some strange things that showed up on that film footage. Everything that took place there at the landing area, I am not privy to. I don't have all the information. It wasn't something I had to be involved in. But I can tell you this much, whatever took place there had people out there for two to three weeks.
In 1986, I believe it was, we fired at a UFO on two occasions. The UFO took off like nothing happened. In '86 you had the incident where you had 20 or more UFO's flying around Brazilian aircraft, flying rings around them. These documents are important.
Not more than two-dozen UFOs had been retrieved by 1969 when I was briefed first. We were informed that there had only been a couple dozen tops- that there were several in the '40's and the early 50's. And to make it perfectly clear about those events that took place then, it sounds crazy but our radar wreaked havoc on the ET guidance systems and they had to make adjustments to their guidance systems for that.
How many bodies had been recovered? Don't know. How many crashes have occurred in which we only got debris because the ET's came and did their recovery before we got there? Don't know but it has happened. It has happened. When they had problems, just like we send out a distress call, they send out a distress call, which is something that a lot of people don't think about; it's a question that's never asked. But here again we think of them as something intangible like that stuffed animal there. But they are living, breathing creatures as mortal as you and me. They think, they have loves, they have likes, they have dislikes, they have social culture.
This is so important to try to make people understand that that is the case. I want to put the human factor back into UFO's. And when I say the human factor, I mean that these are real people. You can call them entities. You can call them creatures. But you sometimes find yourself wondering: who are the more real people, them or us? And these are things that really need to be brought out- the fact that they are just like you and me. We need to seek out the similarities, not the differences and come to a greater understanding. Because eventually, in the not too distant future, we are going to have that final contact that is going to open new doors…
A lot of people sit back and say, well, they don't have bases here. Ah, yeah, they do.
We were involved in a major engagement in 1970 in one of their bases in Vietnam approximately seven miles from the Cambodian border. If you want to know more about that, I did an audiotape on that. And I'll make you a copy of the audiotape. I will apologize for actually trying to hold back from some of the stories simply because if I start talking about some of the stories you start reliving them. And you don't understand, I mean, you really don't understand…


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Find or become a child care provider.
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A great way to find a child care provider is often through your friends.
Child Care Jobs
Find available jobs in your city.
Caring date-night babysitter available!
Experienced child care Mon-Friday 5:30pm-12am
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Babysitter and/or animal sitter
Love kids and photography😌

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I am attempting to basically re-create one of the example StarterWare projects - the enetEcho example in CCS5. I get to the point of linking, then a bunch of symbols are not found. From Project Explorer, the projects look almost identical, Includes listed, paths etc. I do notice that some basic settings are different - the menu in Project>Properties lists ARM instead of TMS470 (I am targeting the Beaglebone).
Anyhow, I started to just link to all the source files necessary and have removed most of the link issues (unresolved symbols). My question then is - is this the proper way to build a project that is not an example? I am ending up with all the starterware source files listed in my project, and hence this looks nothing like the enetEcho example. I have played around with all the path and project settings I can find to no avail. Is there some common place to have the linker find the starterware object files or something?
Hi Edward,
it sounds like you might be missing some libraries. Have a look at this wiki topic
Typically when moving away from an example to start your own project you may inlcude some libraries or library projects.
Please keep us informed whether this helps you further.
Best Regards,
In reply to Lisa TI:
Thanks for the fast reply! If I was missing libraries would the project build? It mostly works - I get debug messages on the USB serial port indicating that an IP was set from the DHCP server, so most of it is working. I also am not changing a single setting or line of code and just doing a rebuild.
In reply to Edward Francy:
HI Edward,
could you send screenshots or something a bit more descriptive so that we can better help you?Best REgards,
just thought I would check for any updates with your enquiry.
Best Regards,Lisa
Sorry for the delay. I've been able to rebuild and get things mostly running on the beaglebone. I was unable to get DHCP to work, though.
Still slogging thru.
Hi Ed,
glad to hear you are past that hurdle, thanks for the update. All the best with development and always feel free to post here or the device forums.
I wanted to do the same as you, recreating "enetecho" project. but I could not succeed.
do you know where can I link source files in the CCS setting?
I added Third_party folder in my project but I had many errors. could you please help me?


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CD (Compact Disc)
Label: NINJA TUNE
Release date: 12/06/2012
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Catalog no.: ZENCD0000187
Item ID: 372289
Lorn returns with a new full-length album, his debut on Ninja Tune, and its a huge stride forward since 'Nothing Else' (released on Brainfeeder, June 2010). Listening back to his first album, Lorn says it now seems "cold and strict". 'Ask The Dust', on the other hand, is "haunted, oily, smeared," and with this description he captures something of the intensely felt, visceral aliveness of the music.
Also available: ASK THE DUST (2LP) (LP).
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text:
- BA (Hons) Professional Floristry and Floral Design
- BA (Hons) Professional Floristry (Top-up Year)
- Foundation Degree (FdA) Professional Floristry
- Certificate of Higher Education in Floristry
- Certificate of Higher Education in Professional Floristry
- Certificate of Continuing Education in Professional Floristry
Essential equipment and materials for new students
Equipment & Materials
The BA (Hons) Professional Floristry degree and FdA at Writtle provide students with the specialist theory and practical skills required to become a florist within the industry - primarily in a supervisory or managerial capacity.
Floristry encompasses a wide range of skills and attributes. The courses enable students to create bespoke designs with a high level of skill for a variety of occasions; to understand the design process, as well as botanical details about the care and handling of cut materials. An introduction to business and marketing are other important topics covered, enabling students to branch out into business later on.
Students on the floristry courses are able to draw inspiration from our picturesque campus and beautiful landscaped gardens. Our florists also enjoy full access to a purpose-built floristry building, allowing them to design and create in an appropriate environment. Our floristry team have a wealth of industry experience and they convey this knowledge to our students in order to enhance their learning.
Recent floristry graduates at Writtle have opened their own businesses or progressed onto a wide range of careers including freelancing for a range of floristry businesses, which specialise in wedding work or corporate events. Others have continued with further study, managed retail floristry sections within other businesses or worked in international floristry organisations including flower schools and hotels.


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Discover Vision Centers is a world renowned eye care practice known for being at the forefront of refractive surgery (LASIK Laser Vision Correction). Previous campaigns highlighted doctors and featured the tagline "Leaders in Eye Care, Experts in LASIK." As marketing/creative director, I played a key role in reshaping the brand message across traditional and digital initiatives. The new campaign featured LASIK patients in their chosen environment discussing how life has changed with clear vision.
Campaign Deliverables:
TV / radio commercials, web videos with short Q&A, responsive testimonial website used as a landing page, print advertisements, and waiting room / in-clinic posters.
Created New Brand Voice & Tagline — Candid testimonials provided strong brand statements. Compelling stories discussed how vision correction has literally changed the way customers view life. I crafted the new tagline that pulled the common thread together: "Discover the difference." The key insight was that LASIK surgery helps you enjoy the details at home, work and play.
Designed / Launched DiscoverVision.info — A second website was created used as a landing page for digital advertising. I created the wireframe concept, established the site architecture for the site, and crafted all content. Hired and managed freelance developers to build and launch the responsive website.
Managed Freelancers & Production Team & Built Testimonial Library of Video & Photography — Captured several videos and photographs with each patient building a large stock photo/video library. Videos were used for several different purposes: 1) TV Ads in :30 sec commercials, YouTube: more in depth Q&A answers, Social: Bite Size Videos.
Marketing Collateral — I designed brochures, booklets, and flyers for internal marketing, print advertisements for local publications, and digital ads for online campaigns.
Example Customer Stories:
"As a young mom and an on-call nurse, I needed to make every day demands in my life easier. LASIK gave me the freedom that I needed."
"Before LASIK, I couldn't read the alarm clock or street signs...now my friends tell me I have MAGIC eyes."
"I'd worn glasses and contacts for 20 years. After LASIK, my life literally changed in 24 hours."
"LASIK helps me enjoy all of the little things in my life."
"LASIK has been life-changing for me. I see the world through different eyes...literally."
"I'm a wife, a mom, and a runner. LASIK gave me freedom and more time back into my schedule."
Slalom is a $500M global consulting company with over 2,500 employees, regularly recognized among best places to work. Analyzing feedback, the career development team knew they needed more emphasis on the paths available to its consultants.
Worked as extension of in-house team to provide brand coherence and style guide alignment. Collaboration included design strategy paired with content creation, design and development of internal marketing collateral including PowerPoint presentations, SharePoint assets, and graphic design for motion graphics videos.
Established Brand for Career Development — Worked closely with the team to build a brand called Slalom Grow for the onboarding and development programs. Developed style guide and vision board to portray the philosophy behind loving your career at Slalom.
Content Messaging & Graphic Design — Slalom is a company that doesn't get hung up on titles. Consultants typically enter the company with a Consultant title and may never change. Helped the team answer the question "How am I growing if I never move up?" Collaborated on messaging to convey paths for growth and created names and illustrations for high level career maps.
Internal Videos - Worked with team to create design content for company wide culture video. Video utilized footage with CEO in combination with motion graphics video that addressed performance review process. Designed assets for motion graphics as well as storyboard for animator.
Summary: Viracor-IBT Laboratories specializes in delivering the latest diagnostic solutions for immunology, infectious disease and allergy testing. This project involved an entire rebrand after a company merger between Viracor and IBT Laboratories. Worked as an extension of in house marketing team to design and develop brand identity package. Ongoing projects have included everything from marketing and sales collateral, email templates, corporate brochure, welcome kit, event / booth displays, infographics and more.
Project: Two companies merged in 2009 to form a leading specialty diagnostics laboratory focused on immunology, infectious disease and allergy testing. Partnered with marketing team to develop brand identity for 1) Corporate and 2) BioPharmaceutical Services divisions.
Solution | Corporate: Developed design that incorporated the "Halo" from the company's logo with an abstract double-helix wireframe, which then became the framework of all marketing material. Designed corporate brochure, folders, assay templates, business form templates, tradeshow exhibit displays, e-blasts, invitations, and more.
Solution | BioPharma: The BioPharma team was in need of leave behind material for their interaction with doctors and clinicians. Designed a booklet which showcased the history and innovation of the company and highlighted the broad range of services and tests that are now available. Designed BioPharma folder with inserts, case studies, and test menu. Also created various material for tradeshows with the BioPharma theme, including e-blasts, 1-page slicks, booth exhibits, podium wraps, template for research posters, pull-up banners, promotional giveaways, etc.
Design Themes: "Accelerating Medicine. One Result at a Time.", "Accelerating Medicine. Bench to Market."
Project: All Kids Fit
All Kids Fit is a Denver, Colorado company that promotes fitness and a healthy lifestyle for kids. Their focus is on building strength, flexibility, and coordination, not just sports. The owner wanted a look that was simple, clean and fun -- something that kids and parents would be proud to wear whether it was on a T-shirt or a stocking cap.
I designed a look that emphasized thick lines and geometric shapes while also giving a nod to the classic stickman. We created several different color combinations for the team to be stretched across a range of apparel.
Wielding a presentation clicker and talking to an audience is a huge responsibility. It's no longer good enough to present slide after slide of text and bullets. The fact that 65% of us are visual learners speaks to the idea that your audience wants and desperately needs to be engaged. There are also better ways to display information than pulling in clip art. Even Microsoft ditched their clip art gallery (read more on Microsoft Closing Image Gallery here).
I believe every audience is unique and the information you share with them should be engaging. It's about telling a story and taking them along for the ride. Presentations should wow and woo your audience, inviting them in and giving them a reason to stay.
These are just a few examples of Before and After slides.
Examining touchpoint opportunities inside the clinic, there were several areas to improve internal marketing efforts for current customers wearing contact lenses and eyeglasses who are potential LASIK candidates.
Created Internal Marketing Assets to Support External Campaign: Using the same patient stories we created for the Lifestyle Brand campaign, I designed a series of posters, brochures and one-page slicks that were displayed throughout the clinic. The internal marketing assets supported external advertising and allowed us to A/B test messaging for testimonials, financing, and other call-to-action prompts like "schedule a free LASIK exam."
Campaign Deliverables:
Internal marketing
GeekWire.com Opportunity:
GeekWire's biggest event of the year occurs every December celebrating the region's tech community, nonprofit groups and startups. More than 1,000 attendees grace the fun filled event where GeekWire recognizes Newsmakers of the Year. Cofounder Todd Bishop wanted to create something unique and memorable.
Our collaboration resulted in a custom identity with a huge fun factor and an original font design. The characters depicted diverse geeky hipsters in celebration mode. How often do you get to illustrate tuxedo tees and anchor tattoos? The new GeekWire Gala identity was carried across main website, event page, digital ad sizes, email marketing and the event itself.
The logo was so well received that it has since become the official logo of the GeekWire Gala.
Continued collaboration includes strategic consulting on sponsor partnership kit, web UI/UX and leveraging video as a marketing tool.
Water is something I'm passionate about. It's essential to life. Yet, more than one-third of the world's population lack access to sanitation facilities and safe water. I created this infographic to create awareness because the statistics are staggering. The ripple effect of living without sanitation leads to illness and death. For those who are surviving, they're still burdened with diminished opportunities, particularly for girls. Girls are often denied education because schools lack sanitation facilities required for them to attend. Instead, they spend the majority of their day collecting and carrying water (Source: unicef.org). In fact, it's estimated that women in these countries spend 200 million hours a day collecting water...just to live (Source: water.org).
To learn more about the water crisis and affordable ways you can help, ($20 can help build a safe water well through charitywater.org), check out one of these websites:
water.org or water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/
Info source used for infographics: water.org
Lab Week is an annual celebration of the 300,000+ laboratory professionals who work behind the scenes with little recognition but play a key role in clinical health care. Each year, these lab professionals perform and interpret more than 10 billion tests that contain life changing information.
Viracor-IBT wanted to recognize these super hero rockstars with an attention getting postcard & magnet. The request was to create a superman symbol with "LAB HERO" inside.
Designed the LAB HERO symbol in a superman-like emblem. Went above the original ask and created a lab hero character to truly resemble a super hero. The design exceeded expectations and was met with rave reviews by senior and executive team members.
Project: In 2010, the Stage Right Arts Foundation was formed to provide financial support to students in need, giving them the opportunity to shine through arts education. This was a great opportunity to support a project that I was passionate about. I knew the founders and was personally tasked to come up with an ad campaign that would help them fundraise and tell their amazing story. Donations help the foundation to award scholarships to eligible students covering the cost of tuition for musical theater summer camps and show choir programs during the school year.
Deliverables: Creative Direction, Video, Photography, Design, Content & Print Ads for Fundraising Campaign
Results: I worked with the foundation to capture heartfelt stories from students in the program whose lives had been transformed by their experience with the arts. Some were quiet and reserved and generally felt like they didn't belong until they found their creative outlet. Being involved in a supportive environment helped students find their voice--a stronger voice. Inspired by the similarity in their experience, I created a campaign called "Be Vocal" that spotlights what the arts mean in the students' own words. I took on the role of creative director to create videos, ads, web and social media assets.
To learn more about the foundation visit stagerightperformingarts.com. Donations provide direct financial support to students who might not otherwise have the ability to experience the performing arts.
7 Reasons Every Digital Marketer & Business Professional Should Participate in Hackathons
1. Time quilting - this concept was introduced to be my Chris Brogan and if you don't follow his blog, check it out here. Focus your energy on being more productive with free time that was once overlooked. Have the same Saturday routine? Mix it up and sign up for something that challenges yourself.
2. We live in a mobile age. Apps and other technology driven software is being developed so quickly it's hard to keep up. Working with a team to implement a product from start to finish helps you learn more about every stage of the mobile process including UI / UX, screen flow, version 1 features versus version 2, roadmaps, etc.
3. Keep up with the learning curve. Working with developers to build something, often in 24 hours or over the course of a weekend, teaches you things that longer projects can't. Sitting in close proximity to creative, tech and biz dev allows you to learn the very latest trends in developing and designing for mobile.
4. Perspective. As a productive team member, it's up to you whether you stay in your lane of expertise or explore new paths. Doing a little of both isn't uncommon. Rolling up your sleeves to do whatever the work requires gives you perspective into how your role effects everything else.
5. Perfect your pitch. Coming up with an idea and pitching it to a crowd you don't know takes guts. But even if you don't pitch on stage, shopping around ideas in an informal network setting is a great way to perfect your elevator pitch.
6. Meet new people from different industries. There's something to be said about working with perfect strangers toward the same goal. It creates synergy and can lead to amazing connections and friendships down the road.
7. Fail quickly. When you're developing a product under tight timelines you have to fail quickly. Rapid prototyping helps you discover failures in your gameplan so that you can listen, learn and adapt. Failure forces you to be creative so that you can innovate and move forward.
Worked with a renowned IT services company that provides strategic solutions to global businesses in vast industries. The client was holding an important partner summit with executive presentations pertaining to industry knowledge, company specific topics and sponsorship opportunities. They were seeking "an expert communicator with professional deck creation experience, familiarity working with video integration, presenting it in a seamless, creative way."
PowerPoint Presentations for Executives including CEO
Design, Layout, Icons, Infographics, Transitions
Condensing large amounts of data into consumable content
Partnered with marketing team to build and design PowerPoint presentations for the CEO and other executives. The goal was for the presentations to reflect their modern approach using icons, infographics and more compelling visuals to tell their story. I collaborated with the team offsite through various emails and all-hands conference calls. The day of the event I was onsite to assist with preflight, presentation practice, and to make any last minute changes needed.
Pandora is now the number one radio station in the Kansas City market. Unlike static digital ad display, Pandora users may or may not actively view the app screen. For example, if listening on mobile, the phone may be in the user's pocket.
A/B tests are used to continuously optimize ads. I have selectively placed ads that can't be skipped and also utilize premium display options to prompt higher interaction.
Brand Lab was created to apply the hackathon concept to businesses facing design, development or marketing challenges. The mission is to connect local business with local talent to create or enhance a local brand. The benefits are two fold: businesses receive direct access to local creatives; participants apply their expertise to a real case study while showing off their skills and competing for cash and other prizes.
Screenland Theatres, a blend of unique Kansas City theatres, was the first Brand Lab project. The purpose of the event was to help build a great local brand for "Screenland's Famous Popcorn," a new gourmet product offering. Screenland's goal was to sell their gourmet popcorn throughout the year during the corporate / gift-giving seasons.
The event drew design guru Aaron Draplin, Draplin Design Co., as a guest speaker and judge, as well as Danny O'Neill, founder, owner and "Bean Baron" of The Roaster Coffee Co.
Go above and beyond the typical photography logo, avoiding camera, shutter or other imagery.
The owner is a photographer AND an artist who has a very distinct look. I illustrated his self portrait to create a memorable logo with a more modern, artistic approach.
It's difficult to be the new kid on the block in an area like the notorious River Market in Kansas City. It's even harder to take over the space that was once the River Market Brewery. When Opera House Coffee & Food Emporium opened its doors they needed help letting the neighborhood know what to expect.
I worked with the owners to create more awareness through content that was fun, concise and to the point. I designed a post card and series of coasters that played off of song lyrics which were also the names of specialty coffee drinks, smoothies and shakes they offered (Pina Colada, Raspberry Beret, Sweet Emotion, Crazy on You). To be more cost-effective to the budget, Every Door Direct Mail via USPS was used to target certain zip codes. Also advised on social strategy as well as claiming google, Yelp and other local page listings.
Evaluate current positioning and messaging for vision correction candidates.
Conducted patient data analysis which revealed age shift in target market from Baby Boomers to Gen X / Gen Y. Partnered with local DJs to promote the first of its kind "Text for a LASIK Quote" campaign. Endorsements consisted of three key messages: 1) Affordability, 2) Convenience and 3) Text to receive a quote without talking to anyone. Resulted in $90,000 increase in first quarter sales.
Ask a doctor the average age of their LASIK patients and most will tell you that "the sweet spot is 40." This statistic was true from the time the procedure was approved by the FDA in 1995 until ~2005. However, after studying patient demographics from 1995-2010, the average age had significantly reduced from 40 to 35 years old. The target market was no longer limited to Baby Boomers. In fact, the fastest growing demographic was actually 18-29 year olds or primarily GenX and GenY-ers.
30-45+ market: Continued current message which discussed experience, excellence and expertise of the surgeon. Traditional advertising methods used consisted of Network TV, Cable TV and Radio targeting this age demographic, as well as professional level print ads in local Business Journal magazines.
19-29 market: Worked with external agencies to develop a mobile media and texting campaign partnering with local Radio DJs of the top 10 stations to deliver a personalized testimonial. Spots had 3 key components which discussed: 1) Affordability, 2) Convenience and 3) Call to Action–just a Text Away. Also placed print ads in local magazine with younger demographic.
A customized dashboard measured LIVE progress of each broadcast throughout the day. Sophisticated tracking methods offered management the ability to remove under performing stations or negotiate advertising costs more aggressively with each station. During the 6 month campaign, thousands of leads were generated, as well as increased Website traffic, interactive web forms, and online appointment requests.
"Leaders in Eye Care, Experts in LASIK Surgery", "Text [keyword] to [number] for your FREE Quote"
This was a test concept in producing affordable videos to supplement social media content utilizing stop motion photography. Integrating print campaigns with video for holidays or other messaging can be easily and affordably implemented.


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It's been almost a week but I am still processing the succession of outfits that appeared on the great and good at the recent Sun Valley conference. The annual gathering of media and tech executives offers possibly the most concentrated examples of how moguls dress when they dress down.
You know that saying about "dress for the job you want"? Well, for anyone who wants to look like a power player not just in the office but out of it (or while pretending to be out of it but still thinking about it), Sun Valley provides a primer in what to wear. Which is what? According to Forbes's style file, "attendees wear luxurious, casual, low-profile attire, but still aim to look stylish". Serial participant Diane von Furstenberg, who also has a small pop-up shop during the conference, says: "Everyone makes a point of being as humble and as laid-back as possible. We get some T-shirts and sweatshirts and most guests wear them."
"Point", of course, is the operative word here. In the same way that women are said to be dressing for men, moguls here are dressing for moguls – as well as those on the outside looking in (yes, dear readers, that would be most of us). They aren't dressing for their families, the way they do on vacations or on private yachts where no one else can see them. It's a bit of a peacock situation but instead of displaying their fanciest colours, they are displaying how far they can go in the opposite direction.
Presumably, this was part of host Herb Allen's point in keeping the dress code "relaxed": to send a covert suggestion, not just to participants but to those who watch the participants, about just how cool masters of the universe can be when they are with their peer group. In both cases, what they wear has a purpose, and that purpose is related to communication. Which means it's worth observing.
Not that it's easy – the no-press rule, geared towards making guests relax and start a dialogue, means there are fewer pictures available from the inner sanctums for the rest of us to parse. However, the outer sanctums are fair game for the power paparazzi. And what has come back contains a few clear lessons.
There was none of that silly David Cameron-dictated "I'm wearing-a-suit-without-a-tie-ain't-I-relaxed?" dress code of the recent G8 meeting in Northern Ireland, which underscores the truth that if you're going to dress down, you have to fully commit. Otherwise you risk seeming like a faker, and given that part of the purpose of the Sun Valley gathering is to facilitate high-level dealmaking, disingenuity is the last message you want to send.
Rather, under their conference-branded uniform of red fleece vest or navy fleece jacket, often it seemed as though the power players were trying to outdo each other in the non-fancy dress sweepstakes – at least those who normally dress up (those like Mark Zuckerberg, who as a rule wears T-shirts and jeans, or Tim Cook, who tends to polos and chinos, are an exception). It's a form of reverse power play: who can appear to care the least?
And even more than that: who can seem the most unguarded – suits being armour, and Sun Valley being an opportunity to present yourself as completely unprotected, the most potentially open to an approach. Who is the least insecure about displaying imperfection? After all, as Nikki Finke wrote in New York Magazine, "nowhere else are so many knobby knees exposed in one place at the same time."
That said, there were still various levels of reveal happening in Sun Valley – and interestingly they had nothing to do with generations or professions as one might assume (OK, as I might assume). On the most conservative end, for example, were those who donned blazers either with button-down shirts or polos; see Lachlan Murdoch, Sony chief executive Kazuo Hirai and former chairman Howard Stringer, News Corp's Joel Klein and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter to name a few.
Slightly more relaxed was the button-down shirt, no-blazer crowd, which also broke down to those who wore dress shirts (Rupert Murdoch, Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey) versus those who wore more obviously off-duty plaid (film producer Brian Grazer, Facebook's Dan Rose), as well as one extreme outlier: Liberty Media's John Malone, who showed up in a Hawaiian shirt. But given that the fate of cable was one of the hot topics of the gathering, choosing to stick out may well have been a strategic move.
Then there was the plain polo shirt brigade – Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong – and finally the shapeless T-shirt, over shorts or trousers: see IAC's Barry Diller (pictured), Hollywood agent Mike Ovitz, Zynga's Mark Pincus, and Twitter's Dick Costolo. In the pyramid scheme of sartorial relaxation, that equals the summit – which was, by the way, almost entirely male, with women such as Hewlett-Packard's Meg Whitman sticking to the blazer-and-polo look, and Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg opting for bright tops and thin gauge sweaters – understandable, given that certain newspapers would embrace the opportunity to publicise a long-range snap of them looking schlubby in a way that they never would with someone such as Ovitz. Women in business, even in a "safe" environment such as Sun Valley, can only let go so much.
Which underscores the reality that none of this would be notable were it not for the fact that it is such a departure from how most of the people in question normally look. It's the statement of no statement. And it is loud.
More columns at www.ft.com/friedman


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{{else}} {{/if}} {{/if}}42 year old woman | Sheboygan, WI, United States | Seeking men 34-50 within 25 miles of Brattleboro, VT
I am new to the Brattleboro VT area. I want to meet new people and maybe find someone special.
I am a single divorced mother of three boys ages 13, 11 and 8. My ex-husband and I are cordial and there is no drama to worry about. I recently lost over 70 pounds and I am still going strong. I would love to meet someone who loves the outdoors and wants to help me continue my goal to be healthy and active. I love Geology and nature so I tend to spend a lot of times outdoors. I want to learn to snowboard and tubing is always a welcome activity in the winter. I love music of all kinds (maybe not rap or much hip hop but the rest is great), animals have a huge spot in my heart and I love all kinds I tend to have more cats because they are so self sufficiant but currently I am pet free. One deal breaker is a cat hater, its ok if you like dogs more but if you're one of those "I hate cats they should all be killed' kind of people just move on. I also like live concerts and plays, museums, national parks, amusement parks, movies, yard sales, flea markets and auctions, traveling, learning new things, camping and fishing, computers, reading, bowling and mini-golfing, and so much more! I am currently re-reading the Lord of the Rings books and other works by J.R.R. Tolkien. I am not too sure about this whole dating site thing but what I hope to find is some new friends and maybe that special someone for me. I know that with three kids my package is a little full, but my kids are amazing and I would never trade them for the world. If I sound interesting and you would like to get to know me better send me a message and lets see if we connect.
Camping , Coffee and conversation , Cooking , Dining out , Fishing/Hunting , Gardening/Landscaping , Hobbies and crafts , Movies/Videos , Museums and art , Music and concerts , Exploring new areas , Performing arts , Shopping/Antiques , Travel/Sightseeing , Video games , Volunteering
Aerobics, Billiards / Pool, Bowling, Cycling, Dancing, Other types of exercise, Skiing, Swimming, Tennis / Racquet sports, Walking / Hiking, Weights / Machines, Yoga
I exercise 3-4 times per week.
I like Birds, Cats, Dogs, Fish, Horses, Other
I like all pets butI love cats and think people who do not like cats are evil so don't message me if you hate cats.
I love Disney World and amusement parks, Boston Museum of Science, I want to travel but haven't had much of a chance.
I like reality tv and crime shows like bones and svu but I don't watch tv much. My favorite movie is Empire of the Sun and the Lord of the Rings movies and surprise those are also one of my favorite books. I love ethnic food and trying new foods.
I love museums, hiking, live concerts and theater, movies, drive-ins, antique stores, taking drives, learning new cultures, reading, tons more...
I am rereading the Lord of the Rings book right now. Before that it was World Without Us about what would happen to the Earth if mankind just disapeared.
Her | What she is looking for | |
Appearance | ||
Height: | 5'5" (165cms) | 5'1" (154cms) to 6'11" (210cms) |
Body type: | About average | No preference |
Eyes: | Blue | No preference |
Hair: | Dark brown | No preference |
Lifestyle | ||
Smoke: | No Way | No Way |
Drink: | Social Drinker | Never, Social Drinker, Moderately |
Occupation: | Student | No preference |
I am currently back in school to become a nurse. |
Income: | I'll tell you later | No preference |
Relationship: | Divorced | No preference |
Have kids: | Yes, and they live at home (3) | No preference |
Wants kids: | No, but it's OK if my partner has kids | No preference |
Background | ||
Ethnicity: | White / Caucasian | No preference |
I am German and native american in ancestry. |
Faith: | I'll tell you later | No preference |
Religious Attitude: | I'll tell you later | No preference |
Languages: | English | English |
Education: | Some college | No preference |


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Today | Friday | Saturday |
Snow 40°/30° | Partly Cloudy 41°/17° | Clear 47°/28° |
Lone Mountain Sports is a dedicated alpine ski shop located directly at the base of Big Sky's slopes in the Arrowhead Mall. Accessible from Big Sky's Ram Charger chairlift, LMS is committed to making skiing as fun as possible offering the widest variety of alpine gear and the most experienced staff in Big Sky. During the ski season we are open 7 days a week for all of your retail and rental needs. Please contact us for more info or CLICK HERE to make a rental reservation.


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TaxAct Review
TaxAct Free Edition is more flexible than competing products. It supports investment, rental, and self-employment income, for example. Paid phone support detracts from its appeal, but a wealth of free features and low prices for e-filing and upgrades make this company a category standout.
- Adjusted gross income of $52,000 or less, and
- 18-58 years old
- Supports all common forms
- Free state e-file in AR, AZ, DC, GA, IA, ID, IN, KY, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, and WV
TaxAct Free Edition
- No income or age requirements
- Supports all common forms
TaxAct is rapidly gaining popularity as an affordable option for do-it-yourself tax filers. In a TaxAct review, a tax specialist writing for Reviews.com notes that the online software provides plenty of guidance, no matter which version you use. PC Mag gives this year's Deluxe edition the Editors' Choice award, largely because the company handles more than the usual array of forms and schedules, and does so at more competitive prices, than its rivals. Although the graphics aren't as spiffy as other products, some reviewers find TaxAct easy to navigate.
In other quarters, support for TaxAct is more restrained. The Motley Fool says it's a solid choice for straightforward returns, but having to pay for telephone support is a downer. Product recommendation site The Wirecutter notes that if you don't buy the $19.99 Deluxe edition, you'll be confronted with plenty of pop-ups prompting you to upgrade. Some user reviews at Consumer Affairs gripe about a circuitous and cumbersome input process and indifferent customer support. Others warn about alleged system errors that created nerve-wracking or costly problems with the IRS.
The Free Edition includes federal e-filing at no cost and charges $14.99* to electronically file a state return. It can handle itemized deductions, investment gains and losses, and dividend income. This free platform also can be used by business owners and landlords. Similar offerings from major competitors cost as much as $80.
TaxAct's streamlined format minimizes data entry by pre-filling information entered in previous sections and transferring data from federal to state returns. Users can import last year's returns prepared with TaxAct, TurboTax, or H&R Block At Home (importation of a W-2 and investment information from select sources is available only with an upgrade; prices start at $12.99). TaxAct is one of the only tax prep software providers that offers a FAFSA (free application for federal student aid) worksheet at no charge. Note that tax help and technical support is available to all users via email, but phone support is offered to paying customers and requires a $7.99 add-on or upgrade to the Deluxe Edition ($12.99).
The Free File edition available through the IRS has restricted eligibility and no added value in terms of features but does offer free e-filing for residents of 20 states and the District of Columbia. Both versions include audit assistance, in the form of tax professionals who can help explain common IRS notices and the audit process. If you want someone to represent you during an audit, you'll need Audit Defense ($39.95).
Refunds can be collected through direct deposit or allocated toward the purchase of U.S. savings bonds in increments of $50. TaxAct also offers a Visa debit card, which isn't such a good deal; it carries a $10 initiation fee and $5.95 monthly maintenance fee.
For taxpayers with multistate returns and more than the simplest tax situations, TaxAct is a top choice. There's value to be had in free access to the common tax forms, even at the cost of a state e-file and phone support if necessary.
*Prices subject to change.


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Results 1 to 10 of 10
Thread: SpongeBob the Guinea Pig
SpongeBob the Guinea Pig
My friend at work had to get rid of a guinea pig and my sister's neighbor wanted it, so i have to be the middle man to get it from here the whole way to them. My friend brought him in car to work yesterday an hour before i left (we are opposite shifts) and put him in my car for me so when i left i was all set. Today i take him to his new home. But while i had him i had to test everything to make sure he was suitable for a home with children.
Doesnt bite? Check. Healthy? He has severe hair loss but im told its from using newspaper shreddings instead of cedar. Otherwise, check! He is active but will stay still if hes in a lap? Check. Potty trained? Surprisingly check. He didnt go the whole hour i had him out this morning but ran to his corner when i put him back. He also is relatively still when picking him up/putting him down, so i think hes pretty much good to go!
Here's some pics i took of him during his short stay with me:
He only came with a 10gal tank! O.O So i had put him in here so he had more room. I later filled it with all his cedar. I didnt want to waste it but i was told they have some so its all good so now its bedded down.
My cat loves him. They are buds. Pigs are friends, not food! The dog doesnt understand this...
I couldnt resist the opportunity to have piggy back rides. XD10gal Betta Tank - Skye the crowntail and Squiggles the deformed albino cory
10gal Tank- Glofish
75gal- Everything
0He looks so cute! Your starting to have a mini zoo at your house, even if the guinea pig is a short term resident!
0I'd be concerned about that hair loss and get a skin scrape test at the vet before letting him near your cat. He could easily be carrying mites or have a mange/scabies infection. Wash your hands very throroughly before and after handling him until you get this checked out by a professional.
That tank is no where near big enough in my opinion. Guinea pigs require excellent ventilation (which you won't get in a glass tank - a large cage/hutch is better) and plenty of access to fresh grass, hay (very important in the absence of grass) and a variety of foods. Fresh vegetables are a must as guinea pigs cannot manufacture their own Vitamin C - they must have fresh veggies daily.
Get some large tubes for him to hide in. Guineas are shy and skittish (especially if kept alone) and will thank you for lots of cover and hidey holes. Could you get him some company? Is he neutered?
I used to feed mine apple slices, carrot, cabbage leaves, grapes, apple wood (branches from apple trees - they eat the bark off them), hay, fresh grass, dandelion leaves, as well as a complete food for guinea pigs.
I hope this information helps He's very cute.
0I know everything u said firefly, i used to have guinea pigs. But like i said, i only had him for two days. His old owner left him in a poor empty 10gal tank for his entire life, i decided to put him in my 36gal for the two days he was here so it was at least bigger, but i still kno he needs a lot more space. My sister's neighbor has a very large flat cage ready and my sister's experience will help them with knowing what to do with him otherwise (the tubes and house and veggies. When he was with me he was eating celery and carrots because the owner gave me barely enough food to feed him for one day. :(
I miss Sponge Bob already. He was a nice guinea pig. I tried hinting at my grandma that i could keep his 10gal and hook up my giant 5 story hamster paradise and get a beautiful calico hamster i saw in store... I was shot down, crashed, and burned. She says we are not a zoo and she only let me have guinea pig those two days because she knew he would be gone soon and she didnt have to deal with him. Someday im sure i can convince her. Hamsters are so low maintenance i really dont see why not...
Also the hair loss is from chemicals in the newspaper shreddings they were using. They had him checked out for that, so hes safe with my cat. Thanks for your concern tho!10gal Betta Tank - Skye the crowntail and Squiggles the deformed albino cory
10gal Tank- Glofish
75gal- Everything
0Remember that wheels are not substitutes for a suitably sized enclosure... especially for guinea pigs. Their spines do not bend that way like hamsters and other rodents.
0He's pretty cute! I hope he does well in his new home and his hair grows back.
Nice of you to arrange for transport!55 g Goldfish Tank - 3 Fancies, 2 Comets
25 g Tropical Tank - Celestial Pearl Danio/Mixed
0The cat looks quite unimpressed about having the pig hitch a ride on him!
Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn. ~Chuck Clark
0yup. he just loooved it. lol jk. at least he didnt jump and throw the pig off.
my sister says that Spongebob is really enjoying his new home. Im told he now has a large appropriate guinea pig cage, a bigger food dish, proper bedding, a house, and he seems to love the neighbors kids as they let him roam house all the time. Sounds like a little piggy heaven. :) She also told them to get vitamin supplements for his water and yogurt drops and give him carrots and lettuce. I hope she remembered that it cant be iceberg... Better call her about that.10gal Betta Tank - Skye the crowntail and Squiggles the deformed albino cory
10gal Tank- Glofish
75gal- Everything
0He could of won a car if he had of been able to hang on for 8 seconds!
Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn. ~Chuck Clark
0:( He only made it like 6. So close! Lol.
10gal Betta Tank - Skye the crowntail and Squiggles the deformed albino cory
10gal Tank- Glofish
75gal- Everything


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The Tripuri food is the type of cuisine that is mostly served in the northeast Indian state of Tripura. The Tripuris are essentially non vegetarians and hence the main courses are mainly prepared using meat, but with the addition of vegetables. Dishes prepared with fish and rice top the menu of Tripuri cuisine.
Popular Tripuri Recipes / Dishes:
It goes without saying that Tripura culture is noted for unique gastronomic delights. The traditional Tripuri cuisine is known as Mui Borok. Tripuri food comprises of a key ingredient called Berma i.e. a dried and fermented fish. Moreover, this food is very healthy as it is prepared without oil. Flavor wise, Berma is more on the sour side. Tripuri food such as delectable bangui rice and fish stews, scrumptious bamboo shoots, fermented fish, local herbs, and fascinating meat roasts are extremeky popular within and outside the state.
Widely Used Ingredients in Tripuri Food:
Pork, chicken, mutton, turtle, crabs, frog, fish and prawns are the hot- favorites and hence top the list of ingredients used in Tripuri food. A section of Vaishnavaites savor main foods like Chakhwi, Mwkhwi, Muitru. Among the vegetables, Khaklu, Chakumura, pumpkin, Siping, brinjal, Belso are common, which are cooked plain or in combination with meat. Most of the Tripuri household serves genuine Bengali Food too.


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Those birds appear to be having a joyous morning!
The birds are ecstatic that it's not snowing white-out conditions here with snow piled up to the handlebars. Me too.
Great pics man. I really love your near banner pic too.
Thanks RANTWICK, I call it my luscious banner.
Please feel free to comment here, almost anything goes, except for obvious spam or blatantly illegal or objectionable material. Spammers may be subject to public ridicule, scorn, or outright shaming, and the companies represented in spam shall earn disrepute and ire for each occurrence.


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Not long ago, the idea of flashing subtitles on the news stories on television screen for viewers to read was put into action. Similar to many TV screens in Hong Kong where Chinese characters translated from the news presenters, interviews and even soap operas, news stories are better understood by the audience.
/>Just when I tuned in late to ATV News for its "Main News" at 7:30 in the evening, I was able to hear Nick Waters sort of bidding goodbye to his loyal "Main News" audience for the past ten years on his presumably last assignment as a newscaster. I am not sure if he is leaving the company, but for him to stay ten years at ATV, providing an English voice to a predominantly Cantonese news airwaves of Hong Kong was a relief for a foreigner like me.
/>He joins Chris Lincoln, Anne-Marie Sim (Water's partner in the Main News), Regina de Luna, Joe Kainz, Yonden Lhatoo and other prominent English-speaking reporters all of whom have been accompanying me in keeping in touch with the latest stories of Hong Kong and beyond.
/>When a reporter leaves his post, televiewers like me sometimes think where have they been: Did they leave their post? Were they assigned to another timeslot? A few will know until formal announcement is given and is a rarity in the industry.
/>I like watching the ATV World's Main News or News at Seven Thirty over at TVB Pearl because both of them feature local stories: government plans and reports, accidents and crimes as well as peculiar stories from around Hong Kong. These segments have a local feel not found in morning news feeds like the World News Tonight or Sky News. It's like preferring to read South China Morning Post's City section over the headlines or sports news.
/>I have been fascinated by Asia which is why I was so fond of the defunct Focus Asia as well as BBC's Asia Today and Football Asia.
/>Another TV feature that sends me little shiver is Earth Live. Seeing places on television that I have been to (example shown on Earth Live was Vienna, Dusseldorf and The Hague) projects a special feeling in me.


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Matthews Library Free eBooks and Audiobooks
There are many sites offering free, downloadable eBooks and Audiobooks. Below you will find links to some of these sites. Many of these sites offer both eBook and Audiobook downloads. While many of these links offer downloads of works in the public domain, some offer downloads of up and coming authors looking for new audiences.
Click here to go back to Matthews Public Library home page.
Just English's list of links to Free Books (this blog post provides 100 links categorized by genre for free, legal downloads of eBooks.)
Project Gutenberg ("the first producer of free eBooks," offers thousands of free eBooks downloadable in different formats; thousands more eBooks are available from the sites on their list of international partners and affiliates, so be sure to check that out too if you're looking for something different.)
Lebanon County eLibrary Powered by OverDrive (you can borrow eBooks and Audiobooks in multiple formats; there is also a link to Project Gutenberg on this page.)
Noisetrade: eBooks and Audiobooks (offers free downloadable eBooks and Audiobooks from up and coming authors; go to Noisetrade to download free music!)
Lit2Go (hosted by the University of South Florida, this is a collection of books and poems in mp3 format that are downloadable by chapter; pdf's of the text each selection are downloadable as well and can be used as supplemental material. This is a great site for teachers!)
Librophile (this site offers thousands of free audiobooks and eBooks available for download; these are works that are in the public domain.)
Storynory (offers free illustrated audiostories for children! Stories include popular fairy tales as well as original stories written especially for the site!)
Internet Archive: Audiobooks (this site offers audiobook downloads as well as lists of audiobooks available for download on other sites; go to the Internet Archives home page to search for eBooks.)
OpenLibrary (Free eBooks are available to download and there are also over 200,000 eBook titles available for Pennsylvania residents to borrow from the lending library because the Commonwealth is participating in their eBook lending program.)
Lendle (an online community of readers who lend and borrow Kindle books for free; you can also join book clubs and interact with the Lendle community; no Kindle required!)
eBookDaily (for kindle users: sign up to receive daily emails from this site of lists of free Kindle downloads that are available for one day only; the site will tailor your list to your reading tastes.)
Book Lending (use this site to borrow and loan out your ebooks; you can borrow a book free of charge or loan one out–the site matches you up with the user who'll be loaning out or borrowing.)
Click here to go back to Matthews Public Library home page.


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Women's Metallic Sailor's Knot Stud Earrings
Add a nautical twist to your collection with kate spade new york's petite stud earrings. Inspired by sailor's knots, they add charm by the boatload. Crafted in 12k gold-plated mixed metal or rose gold-tone mixed metal. Approximate diameter: 1/2 inch. Disclaimer: Photo may have been enlarged and or enhanced. Color: metallic


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New York Fed's Potter Says QE3 Purchases Going Smoothly
Caroline Salas GageSimon Potter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's markets group chief, said the central bank's purchases of government and housing debt under its third round of quantitative easing aren't causing market disruptions.
"The purchases have gone smoothly so far, and market liquidity seems to be holding up well," Potter said in the text of remarks delivered at the district bank's annual meeting with primary dealers today in New York.
The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee in January affirmed its plans to keep buying $40 billion in mortgage bonds and $45 billion in Treasuries each month. Several participants said the central bank should be ready to alter the pace of the purchases as it monitors the state of the economy and weighs the program's benefits and costs, minutes of that meeting showed.
"So far, there seems to be little evidence that the current pace of purchases is straining the market's ability to deliver securities to us," Potter said.
The Fed's Treasury purchases comprise about 25 percent of monthly gross issuance of coupon securities, he said. The Fed has been buying about half of monthly gross issuance for mortgage securities since its latest bond-purchase program began last year, including reinvestments, he said.
The central bank's ability to purchase mortgage bonds is "somewhat more difficult to gauge, given the uncertainty around future mortgage origination," Potter said. "As the pace of MBS issuance evolves, the desk will continue to watch" market functioning indicators.
Open-ended Program
Potter said the "predominant" impact of the Fed's latest quantitative-easing measure on interest rates is probably from expectations for the program's total size and duration, even though policy makers have left both open-ended.
"One feature of the current program is that market participants' expectations of the total amount and composition of securities that the desk will purchase -- and thus, the amount of monetary policy accommodation -- will evolve over time, along with incoming information about the economy, as well as considerations about policy efficacy and costs," he said.
The Fed's 21 primary dealers trade government securities with the central bank and are obligated to bid in Treasury auctions.