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Back in May, Noah wrote about the amazingly good deal that is the PhD in economics. Why? Because:
- You get a job.
- You get autonomy.
- You get intellectual fulfillment.
- The risk is low.
- Unlike an MBA, law, or medical degree, you don't have to worry about paying the sticker price for an econ PhD: After the first year, most schools will give you teaching assistant positions that will pay for the next several years of graduate study, and some schools will take care of your tuition and expenses even in the first year. (See Miles's companion post for more about costs of graduate study and how econ PhD's future earnings makes it worthwhile, even if you can't get a full ride.)
Of course, such a good deal won't last long now that the story is out, so you need to act fast! Since he wrote his post, Noah has received a large number of emails asking the obvious follow-up question: "How do I get into an econ PhD program?" And Miles has been asked the same thing many times by undergraduates and other students at the University of Michigan. So here, we present together our guide for how to break into the academic Elysium called Econ PhD Land:
(Note: This guide is mainly directed toward native English speakers, or those from countries whose graduate students are typically fluent in English, such as India and most European countries. Almost all highly-ranked graduate programs teach economics in English, and we find that students learn the subtle non-mathematical skills in economics better if English is second nature. If your nationality will make admissions committees wonder about your English skills, you can either get your bachelor's degree at a—possibly foreign—college or university where almost all classes are taught in English, or you will have to compensate by being better on other dimensions. On the bright side, if you are a native English speaker, or from a country whose graduate students are typically fluent in English, you are already ahead in your quest to get into an economics PhD.)
Here is the not-very-surprising list of things that will help you get into a good econ PhD program:
- good grades, especially in whatever math and economics classes you take,
- a good score on the math GRE,
- some math classes and a statistics class on your transcript,
- research experience, and definitely at least one letter of recommendation from a researcher,
- a demonstrable interest in the field of economics.
Chances are, if you're asking for advice, you probably feel unprepared in one of two ways. Either you don't have a sterling math background, or you have quantitative skills but are new to the field of econ. Fortunately, we have advice for both types of applicant.
If you're weak in math…
Fortunately, if you're weak in math, we have good news: Math is something you can learn. That may sound like a crazy claim to most Americans, who are raised to believe that math ability is in the genes. It may even sound like arrogance coming from two people who have never had to struggle with math. But we've both taught people math for many years, and we really believe that it's true. Genes help a bit, but math is like a foreign language or a sport: effort will result in skill.
Here are the math classes you absolutely should take to get into a good econ program:
- Linear algebra
- Multivariable calculus
- Statistics
Here are the classes you should take, but can probably get away with studying on your own:
- Ordinary differential equations
- Real analysis
Linear algebra (matrices, vectors, and all that) is something that you'll use all the time in econ, especially when doing work on a computer. Multivariable calculus also will be used a lot. And stats of course is absolutely key to almost everything economists do. Differential equations are something you will use once in a while. And real analysis—by far the hardest subject of the five—is something that you will probably never use in real econ research, but which the economics field has decided to use as a sort of general intelligence signaling device.
If you took some math classes but didn't do very well, don't worry. Retake the classes. If you are worried about how that will look on your transcript, take the class the first time "off the books" at a different college (many community colleges have calculus classes) or online. Or if you have already gotten a bad grade, take it a second time off the books and then a third time for your transcript. If you work hard, every time you take the class you'll do better. You will learn the math and be able to prove it by the grade you get. Not only will this help you get into an econ PhD program, once you get in, you'll breeze through parts of grad school that would otherwise be agony.
Here's another useful tip: Get a book and study math on your own before taking the corresponding class for a grade. Reading math on your own is something you're going to have to get used to doing in grad school anyway (especially during your dissertation!), so it's good to get used to it now. Beyond course-related books, you can either pick up a subject-specific book (Miles learned much of his math from studying books in the Schaum's outline series), or get a "math for economists" book; regarding the latter, Miles recommends Mathematics for Economists by Simon and Blume, while Noah swears by Mathematical Methods and Models for Economists by de la Fuente. When you study on your own, the most important thing is to work through a bunch of problems. That will give you practice for test-taking, and will be more interesting than just reading through derivations.
This will take some time, of course. That's OK. That's what summer is for (right?). If you're late in your college career, you can always take a fifth year, do a gap year, etc.
When you get to grad school, you will have to take an intensive math course called "math camp" that will take up a good part of your summer. For how to get through math camp itself, see this guide by Jérémie Cohen-Setton.
One more piece of advice for the math-challenged: Be a research assistant on something non-mathy. There are lots of economists doing relatively simple empirical work that requires only some basic statistics knowledge and the ability to use software like Stata. There are more and more experimental economists around, who are always looking for research assistants. Go find a prof and get involved! (If you are still in high school or otherwise haven't yet chosen a college, you might want to choose one where some of the professors do experiments and so need research assistants—something that is easy to figure out by studying professors' websites carefully, or by asking about it when you visit the college.)
If you're new to econ…
If you're a disillusioned physicist, a bored biostatistician, or a neuroscientist looking to escape that evil Principal Investigator, don't worry: An econ background is not necessary. A lot of the best economists started out in other fields, while a lot of undergrad econ majors are headed for MBAs or jobs in banks. Econ PhD programs know this. They will probably not mind if you have never taken an econ class.
That said, you may still want to take an econ class, just to verify that you actually like the subject, to start thinking about econ, and to prepare yourself for the concepts you'll encounter. If you feel like doing this, you can probably skip Econ 101 and 102, and head straight for an Intermediate Micro or Intermediate Macro class.
Another good thing is to read through an econ textbook. Although economics at the PhD level is mostly about the math and statistics and computer modeling (hopefully getting back to the real world somewhere along the way when you do your own research), you may also want to get the flavor of the less mathy parts of economics from one of the well-written lower-level textbooks (either one by Paul Krugman and Robin Wells, Greg Mankiw, or Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok) and maybe one at a bit higher level as well, such as David Weil's excellent book on economic growth) or Varian's Intermediate Microeconomics.
Remember to take a statistics class, if you haven't already. Some technical fields don't require statistics, so you may have missed this one. But to econ PhD programs, this will be a gaping hole in your resume. Go take stats!
One more thing you can do is research with an economist. Fortunately, economists are generally extremely welcoming to undergrad RAs from outside econ, who often bring extra skills. You'll get great experience working with data if you don't have it already. It'll help you come up with some research ideas to put in your application essays. And of course you'll get another all-important letter of recommendation.
And now for…
General tips for everyone
Here is the most important tip for everyone: Don't just apply to "top" schools. For some degrees—an MBA for example—people question whether it's worthwhile to go to a non-top school. But for econ departments, there's no question. Both Miles and Noah have marveled at the number of smart people working at non-top schools. That includes some well-known bloggers, by the way—Tyler Cowen teaches at George Mason University (ranked 64th), Mark Thoma teaches at the University of Oregon (ranked 56th), and Scott Sumner teaches at Bentley, for example. Additionally, a flood of new international students is expanding the supply of quality students. That means that the number of high-quality schools is increasing; tomorrow's top 20 will be like today's top 10, and tomorrow's top 100 will be like today's top 50.
Apply to schools outside of the top 20—any school in the top 100 is worth considering, especially if it is strong in areas you are interested in. If your classmates aren't as elite as you would like, that just means that you will get more attention from the professors, who almost all came out of top programs themselves. When Noah said in his earlier post that econ PhD students are virtually guaranteed to get jobs in an econ-related field, that applied to schools far down in the ranking. Everyone participates in the legendary centrally managed econ job market. Very few people ever fall through the cracks.
Next—and this should go without saying—don't be afraid to retake the GRE. If you want to get into a top 10 school, you probably need a perfect or near-perfect score on the math portion of the GRE. For schools lower down the rankings, a good GRE math score is still important. Fortunately, the GRE math section is relatively simple to study for—there are only a finite number of topics covered, and with a little work you can "overlearn" all of them, so you can do them even under time pressure and when you are nervous. In any case, you can keep retaking the test until you get a good score (especially if the early tries are practice tests from the GRE prep books and prep software), and then you're OK!
Here's one thing that may surprise you: Getting an econ master's degree alone won't help. Although master's degrees in economics are common among international students who apply to econ PhD programs, American applicants do just fine without a master's degree on their record. If you want that extra diploma, realize that once you are in a PhD program, you will get a master's degree automatically after two years. And if you end up dropping out of the PhD program, that master's degree will be worth more than a stand-alone master's would. The one reason to get a master's degree is if it can help you remedy a big deficiency in your record, say not having taken enough math or stats classes, not having taken any econ classes, or not having been able to get anyone whose name admissions committees would recognize to write you a letter of recommendation.
For getting into grad school, much more valuable than a master's is a stint as a research assistant in the Federal Reserve System or at a think tank—though these days, such positions can often be as hard to get into as a PhD program!
Finally—and if you're reading this, chances are you're already doing this—read some econ blogs. (See Miles's speculations about the future of the econ blogosphere here.) Econ blogs are no substitute for econ classes, but they're a great complement. Blogs are good for picking up the lingo of academic economists, and learning to think like an economist. Don't be afraid to write a blog either, even if no one ever reads it (you don't have to be writing at the same level as Evan Soltas or Yichuan Wang); you can still put it on your CV, or just practice writing down your thoughts. And when you write your dissertation, and do research later on in your career, you are going to have to think for yourself outside the context of a class. One way to practice thinking critically is by critiquing others' blog posts, at least in your head.
Anyway, if you want to have intellectual stimulation and good work-life balance, and a near-guarantee of a well-paying job in your field of interest, an econ PhD could be just the thing for you. Don't be scared of the math and the jargon. We'd love to have you.
Update: Miles's colleague Jeff Smith at the University of Michigan amplifies many of the things we say on his blog. For a complete guide, be sure to see what Jeff has to say, too.


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Posts Tagged 'state library'
UNYG Readers Attention!- You Can Help Save the Library of Michigan
The State of Michigan is in a budget crisis. What a shock. What state is not? The myopic view of the current state administration is to do away with the State Library
You can help stop this idiocy by signing an online petition, it does not matter what state you live in, sign it anyway. An interesting note is that when I just signed it there were only 393 signatories. It would seem that 300 thousand would be more impressive. Please sign the petition, do not put it off.
From an announcement by Dick Eastman at www.eogn.com the following in part:
In meetings held during the Federation of Genealogical Societies/
Arkansas Genealogical Society Annual Conference in Little Rock this past
week, the Records Preservation and Access Committee (a joint committee
of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National
Genealogical Society) has initiated a petition drive in support of the
Library of Michigan.
Genealogists from within and without Michigan are encouraged to sign the
online petition. You are encouraged to sign this online petition NOW.
You can read more at http://www.fgs.org/rpac.

subset: commoncrawl


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Comment Letters2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | Show more years
Ms. Jean A. Webb
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Three Lafayette Centre
1155 21st Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20581
Re: Proposed Rule 41.42 - Treatment of Customer Funds; Applicability of CFTC and SEC Customer Protection, Recordkeeping, and Bankruptcy Rules and the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 to Accounts Holding Security Futures Products
Dear Ms. Webb:
National Futures Association (NFA) is a registered futures association under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and a limited purpose national securities association under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), as amended by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA). NFA appreciates this opportunity to comment on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) proposed rules regarding protection of customer funds that were proposed jointly with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).1 NFA is filing a comment letter with the SEC that contains identical comments.
The Commissions' proposal provides customer protection against insolvency losses while giving firms that are fully registered as both futures commission merchants and broker-dealers (Full FCM/Full BDs) the flexibility to meet their business needs. NFA commends the staff of both Commissions for their excellent work in crafting this proposal.
For background purposes, this comment letter will begin with a general discussion of the differences and similarities between the methods for protecting customers from insolvency in the securities and futures industries and the outstanding track record of each. It will then address specific issues raised by the proposed rules.
Insolvency Protections
The futures industry's primary protection against customer insolvency losses is the CEA requirement that futures commission merchants (FCMs) segregate customer funds from their own funds.2 Moreover, although an FCM may commingle funds belonging to separate customers trading on U.S. futures exchanges, it may not use the funds of one customer to margin or guarantee the transactions of any other customer. As a result, FCMs must gross up customer funds by adding their own funds to segregation to cover customer debits and deficits. Furthermore, since futures markets are highly leveraged and volatile, FCMs that carry customer funds must calculate their segregation requirements daily and add additional funds, if necessary.
The segregation requirement also prohibits FCMs from commingling customer funds used for trading on U.S. futures exchanges with customer funds used for other transactions. For example, funds used for futures trading on foreign exchanges must be kept in a separate account, subject to a separate calculation (known as the secured amount) for the amount of funds that must be maintained.3 Since these funds are sent offshore and are subject to the vagaries of foreign insolvency laws, separating them from segregated funds ensures that a loss in the secured amount does not endanger the funds of customers trading in U.S. markets.
Special provisions in the bankruptcy laws work with the segregation requirement to give customers a priority in the funds in segregation.4 As a result, as long as funds are properly segregated, customer funds are protected against insolvency losses.5
The segregation requirement was developed to meet the particular needs and characteristics of the futures industry, including daily settlement, rapid swings in the value of open positions, predominantly institutional customers, and small insolvency losses. The gross up and daily calculation requirements help protect customers against the possibility that trading losses incurred by one customer will draw down the funds available to another customer. It also makes up for the lack of SIPC-like protection, which would be inefficient in the futures markets, where only 6% of the volume and 3% of the equity comes from retail customers6 and the amount of losses actually covered could be dwarfed by the administrative expenses.7
On the securities side, there are two primary protections for customer funds that are designed to complement each other. One of these protections is the reserve requirement adopted under Section 15(c)(3) of the Exchange Act.8 Like the segregation requirement, the reserve requirement is designed to ensure that broker-dealers do not use customer funds to fund their own business and trading activities. However, there are two significant differences between the reserve requirement and the segregation requirement.
The first difference is the calculation itself. While the segregation calculation requires FCMs to gross up the funds in segregation by adding customer debits and deficits, the reserve requirement formula nets the obligations to customers against the obligations from customers. This means that, given the exact same population of accounts (and assuming that at least one account contains a debit or deficit), the segregation requirement would be higher — and could be substantially higher — than the reserve requirement.
The second difference is in the frequency with which FCMs and broker-dealers must make the calculation and maintain the funds at that level. Most broker-dealers are required to make the reserve calculation and adjust the funds in reserve on a weekly basis (although some may do so monthly), as opposed to the daily segregation requirement for FCMs.
By itself, the reserve requirement does not provide as strong a protection as the segregation requirement. When the reserve requirement is combined with Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) coverage, however, the protections in the two industries become equivalent.
SIPC is a nonprofit membership corporation that provides coverage for insolvency losses by securities customers of its members, which consist of most broker-dealers.9 SIPC has two primary functions. First, if customer funds appear to be at risk, SIPC institutes a proceeding to liquidate the broker-dealer. This includes getting a federal district court to appoint a trustee or, under certain circumstances, SIPC may pay customer claims directly. In either event, SIPC is involved at all stages of the proceeding.10
SIPC's second function is to provide coverage against customer insolvency losses. SIPC provides coverage up to $500,000 per customer, except that claims for cash are only covered up to $100,000. The reserve requirement ensures that most customer claims be can paid from the broker-dealer's assets, with SIPC paying the shortfall up to its coverage limits.11
Like protections in the futures industry, the protections in the securities industry were developed to meet that industry's particular needs. Most securities do not create the rapid swings in value that occur in the more leveraged futures markets, allowing securities firms the luxury of netting the amount in reserve and doing the computations weekly. Furthermore, because of the larger losses (in absolute terms)12 and the fact that more of the equity is in retail accounts than in the futures industry,13 SIPC coverage provides a valuable adjunct to the reserve requirement.
The customer protections in the futures and securities industries work very well. As the following discussion shows, both industries have excellent track records for protecting customer funds from insolvency losses.
Since 1975, when the CFTC began operations, insolvency losses for funds required to be segregated have amounted to $11,085,000, for an average of $426,000 per year.14 Seventy-three percent of these losses occurred between 1978 and 1980, when the CFTC made a concerted effort to close down firms that engaged in various fraudulent activities, including using customer funds for their own purposes.
One of NFA's first actions after it began operations on October 1, 1982 was to take a Member Responsibility Action to suspend an FCM that had used most of its customer funds for its own purposes.15 Since then, there have been no insolvency losses due to fraud by an FCM, its principals, or its employees. The few insolvency losses did occur were all due to customer defaults based on large trading losses. In fact, there have been no insolvency losses in funds required to be segregated since 1989 — over a decade ago.16
Insolvency protections in the securities industry have an equally impressive history. Since SIPC began operations at the end of 1970, it has paid customers $257 million from its Fund which, when added to the funds recovered from broker-dealers' estates, resulted in total payments to customers of approximately $3.8 billion. More importantly, SIPC estimates that 99.9% of eligible investors have been made whole, with total insolvency losses of approximately $36.8 million for claims in excess of SIPC coverage.17
In summary, the futures and securities industries use different methods to protect customer funds from insolvency losses. Although the methods differ, the goals and the results are the same, and the two methods provide equivalent protection against customer insolvency losses. Therefore, the Commissions have taken the correct approach in trying to draft rules that do not favor one method over the other.
Specific Comments
NFA fully supports the Commissions' overall approach. That approach is generally designed to be protection-scheme neutral and to give Full FCM/Full BDs maximum flexibility while ensuring that customer funds remain protected against insolvency losses.
Customer protection should be — and clearly is — the Commissions' primary objective in drafting these rules. As long as that objective is met, the Commissions' secondary objective should be to provide Full FCM/Full BDs with flexibility to meet their business needs. The Commissions' approach appears to meet both those objectives. Since the two protection schemes provide customers with comparable protections, applying either protection scheme to customer accounts meets the first objective, and allowing the Full FCM/Full BD to choose how it will determine which scheme applies meets the second objective.
The Commissions' proposal provides Full FCM/Full BDs with maximum flexibility to tailor their operations and procedures to their own situation and needs. For example, one firm may decide to take advantage of the operational efficiencies involved in using only one system, while another firm may prefer the customer-relations value of offering customers a choice. Similarly, customers who are given a choice may make different elections based on their different needs. A customers who already does a significant amount of futures trading may choose to place its security futures transactions in its existing futures account, while a customer who trades stock options may choose to place its security futures transactions in its securities account. Or a particular retail customer may prefer to have the guarantee provided by SIPC coverage, while an institutional customer whose account exceeds the SIPC limits may feel more comfortable with the protections provided by segregation.
Whether or not customers have a choice, they should have a basic understanding of the protections that apply (or do not apply) to their account. The joint release mentions that industry representatives are developing a disclosure document for security futures products. NFA is an active member of this group and one of the principal drafters of the document. The uniform disclosure statement contains a section comparing the customer account protections in the two industries, and we will work to modify it in whatever manner is required to satisfy those disclosure requirements that are not firm-specific. Furthermore, NFA and NASD rules will work together to require firms to provide all security futures customers with a copy of this document before their accounts are approved to trade those products. Therefore, we believe that firms should not be required to provide separate disclosure regarding the nature of the protections in the two industries or the fact that only one protection scheme will apply.
A uniform disclosure statement cannot, of course, provide firm-specific information regarding which protection scheme will apply to a customer's account or inform a customer if it has an election (and what will happen if the customer does not make an election). Obviously, this information will have to be provided in a separate document, and, since the information is firm-specific, the rules should not mandate exact language. Furthermore, we agree that customers should be fully informed when a firm chooses to change the protection scheme. We also believe that customers who are given a choice should make that election in writing.
On the other hand, NFA does not agree that customers should be required to acknowledge receiving any of the required disclosures, including firm specific information. There are a number of acknowledgement requirements in the futures industry, with the most significant ones relating to the receipt of the risk disclosure statement required by CFTC Regulation 1.55 and the disclosure document for a commodity pool or trading program required by CFTC Regulations 4.21 and 4.31. NFA has had considerable experience with these requirements, both when auditing firms and when prosecuting cases. Although a few audits do show instances where some acknowledgements are missing, these instances tend to be recordkeeping lapses rather than actual failures to provide the risk disclosure statement or disclosure document. Additionally, we have prosecuted a number of cases against Members for misleading customers by making statements that are inconsistent with the information in those documents, but we cannot think of one instance where either the existence or absence of a written acknowledgement made any difference to our case. In fact, our experience is that even the less reputable firms have an incentive to provide the relevant documents — with or without an acknowledgement requirement — since the fact that the disclosures were given can often be used as a defense against liability. Furthermore, requiring customers to sign an acknowledgement does not ensure that customers have read and understood the relevant document; as the old adage says, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.
The proposed acknowledgement requirement appears to be swimming against the tide in both industries. As we understand it, requiring written acknowledgements is not a standard regulatory practice in the securities industry. And the trend at the CFTC has been to ease its acknowledgement requirements — reducing the number of signatures and eliminating many of the acknowledgements for sophisticated customers. While firms may choose to receive acknowledgements for liability purposes, we believe that should be a business decision rather than a regulatory one.
NFA recommends that the CFTC make an additional amendment to CFTC Regulation 1.55 to exempt FCMs and IBs from providing the regular futures risk disclosure statement to customers only trade security futures and carry those positions in securities accounts. NFA and NASD rules, when taken together, will require all FCMs and IBs to provide security futures customers with a uniform disclosure statement for security futures products. That disclosure statement will contain all of the disclosures currently required by 1.55 as they apply to security futures products. Therefore, providing the regular 1.55 disclosure to customers who trade these products in securities accounts will be duplicative and unnecessary.
NFA believes that firms should be allowed to change the type of account in which customer security futures positions are held, with some restrictions. Allowing firms to change the account type provides firms with maximum flexibility for responding to customer needs or new developments in operational technology without losing the operational efficiencies of using only one type of account.
On the other hand, customers should be given adequate notice so they can move their accounts or positions to another firm if they do not want to change account types. Furthermore, firms should not be allowed to change the account type on a regular basis or for potentially fraudulent purposes (e.g., because the firm is in danger of being undersegregated due to the security futures positions in its segregated accounts).
NFA supports the proposal to match the recordkeeping requirements to the account type. This approach ensures that Full FCM/Full BDs are not subject to duplicative recordkeeping requirements.18 We believe that both monthly and confirmation statements should also follow the account. While CFTC Regulation 1.33(b) does not spell out the information that must be provided for futures transactions, FCM's invariably provide, and customers expect, the following information in the confirmation statement: the date of the transaction, commodity and delivery month, exchange the contract was executed on, transaction price, buy or sell, and quantity. Although commissions and fees may not be included on the confirmation for an initiating trade that remains open overnight, they are always included on the purchase and sale (P&S) statement that customers receive when the position is closed out and on the monthly statement. 19
SEC Rule 10b-10 requires several additional pieces of information that are not generally included on futures confirmations and would require programming changes to the automated systems that generate futures confirmations. Although three of those requirements could be met by adding legends to the confirmation form, NFA does not see any reason to require the programming changes that would be necessary. Rule 10b-10(a)(1) requires the confirmation to include the time of the transaction or a notice that the time of the transaction will be furnished upon written request and Rule 10b-10(a)(2)(i)(A) requires the confirmation to include the name of the person on the opposite side of the transaction or to state that the information will be furnished upon written request. CFTC Regulation 1.35(a-1) requires exchange member FCMs to record the time the order reaches the floor (or the trade-matching system) and, in practice, FCMs also record the time the fill is reported back from the floor. Similarly, CFTC Regulation 1.35(c) requires exchange member FCMs to record the opposite floor broker or trader and the opposite clearing member. Customers already have a right to obtain this information and do not hesitate to ask for it if they think they need it. Rule 10b-10(a)(9) requires the confirmation to state that the broker-dealer is not a member of SIPC if that is the case. The spirit of this requirement is met by the Commission's proposal that firms disclose the protections that apply to the type of account being used. Therefore, requiring the confirmation to include these three legends does not provide any additional protection to a security futures customer who carries its trades in a futures account.
The larger problem is the transaction-specific information in Rule 10b-10(a)(2), which requires the confirmation to state whether the broker-dealer is acting as principal or agent. With limited exceptions, the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Regulations require all futures transactions — including security futures transactions — to be agency transactions.20 The exceptions are transactions under exchange block trading rules, exchanges for physicals, and principal-to-principal transactions between eligible contract participants. The first two exceptions require the customer's consent, and Rule 10b-10 would not even apply to the third exception since no customers are involved.
Applying SEC Rule 10b-10 to security futures transactions held in futures accounts would create an operational and programming burden that does not provide corresponding benefits. Therefore, NFA encourages the SEC to adopt a rule that exempts security futures transactions carried in futures accounts from Rule 10b-10.
NFA supports the SEC's proposal to exempt notice broker-dealers from Exchange Act Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4. As noted in footnote 17 of this letter, applying these rules to notice broker-dealers would create additional burdens without providing a corresponding benefit. We also support exempting notice broker-dealers from the SEC's requirements to file FOCUS reports, maintain records within the U.S., and send telegraphic notifications to the SEC, which are duplicative of similar CFTC requirements, and from performing quarterly securities counts to verify positions, which is unnecessary given the fact that notice broker-dealers may not engage in any other securities business requiring registration.21
Obviously, security futures margin and positions should receive protection under only one insolvency scheme. Therefore, NFA supports the CFTC's proposed amendments to its Part 190 rules to exclude margin and positions in securities accounts from the definitions of "specifically identifiable property" and "customer property." In light of In re Griffin Trading Company,22 we also urge the CFTC to seek corresponding amendments to the Bankruptcy Code.
NFA recommends two technical changes to proposed CFTC Regulation 41.42. First, we assume from the discussion in the release and from the SEC's corresponding changes to SEC Regulation 15c3-3(o)(1) that the CFTC meant the written policy requirements of CFTC Regulation 41.42(a)(2) to apply only to Full FCMs/Full IBs. Therefore, we believe that section should refer to futures commission merchants "registered pursuant to Section 4f(a)(1) of the CEA." Second, we suggest that section (d) specifically identify the CFTC's recordkeeping rules in order to eliminate any possible confusion as to what is or is not a recordkeeping rule.
Finally, in keeping with the general principle that differing CFTC and SEC regulatory requirements should follow the account, NFA believes that the CFTC should exempt security futures transactions in securities accounts from CFTC Regulation 166.5 and Section 14 of the CEA.23 NASD and the securities exchanges already provide effective forums for resolving these disputes. Furthermore, those sections of CFTC Regulation 166.5 that prohibit the use of predispute arbitration agreements as a condition of doing business are inconsistent with the longstanding and accepted practice in the securities industry.24 If the CFTC does not exempt securities accounts from that regulation, full broker-dealers will be placed in the untenable position of having to decide whether to apply the CFTC requirements to all transactions in the account — including traditional securities transactions — or to use a "two-tiered" agreement that treats the transactions in the account differently depending on whether they are security futures or traditional securities.25
If you have any questions concerning this letter, please contact me (312-781-1413, email@example.com) or Kathryn Camp (312-781-1393, email@example.com).
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas W. Sexton
Vice President and General Counsel
cc: Elizabeth L.R. Fox, Esq. (Office of the General Counsel)
Lawrence B. Patent, Esq. (Division of Trading and Markets)
166 Fed. Reg. 50786 (Oct. 4, 2001).
2See Section 4d of the CEA (7 U.S.C. � 6d) and CFTC Regulations 1.20-1.30 and 1.32 (17 C.F.R. �� 1.20-1.30, 1.32).
3See CFTC Regulation 30.7 (17 C.F.R. � 30.7).
4See Sections 761-766 of the Bankruptcy Code (11 U.S.C. �� 761-766) and Part 190 of the CFTC's Regulations (17 C.F.R. �� 190.01-190.10.).
5Historically, FCMs have been undersegregated in two situations: where an FCM has fraudulently used customer funds for its own purposes or where sudden large market movements have left one or more customers in a deficit position that draws down the funds in segregation beyond the FCM's ability to add additional funds. As discussed below, however, these losses have been infrequent and small.
6NFA, Survey of the Customer Base in the U.S. Futures Industry (Dec. 31, 1996). Although approximately half of futures accounts are held by retail customers, most of the equity is in institutional accounts that are far larger in size than the SIPC coverage limits.
7The average annual loss of $426,000 since 1975 is less than 10% of SIPC's annual expenses, which averaged $5,746,551 over the last five years (not including expenses attributable to individual customer protection proceedings). See SIPC, 2000 Annual Report, pg. 32 (Appendix III).
815 U.S.C. � 78o(c)(3). See also SEC Rule 15c3-3 (17 C.F.R. � 240.15c3-3).
9See the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 (15 U.S.C. � 78aaa, et seq.).
10Sections 741-752 of the Bankruptcy Code (11 U.S.C. �� 741-752) govern bankruptcy proceedings involving stockbrokers. However, Section 742 (11 U.S.C. � 742) essentially provides that SIPC proceedings take the place of proceedings under the Bankruptcy Code.
11Both FCMs and broker-dealers must also meet capital requirements designed to ensure that they will have adequate assets to cover their liabilities in normal circumstances. These capital requirements also provide protection against insolvency losses. In fact, since NFA raised the capital requirement for FCMs in 1990, there have been no insolvency losses in funds required to be segregated.
12SIPC has paid an average of $8,567,000 a year from its fund, with unpaid claims averaging approximately $1,227,000 a year, which would have created annual insolvency losses of almost $10,000,000 without SIPC protection. See SIPC, 2000 Annual Report, pgs. 6 and 17 (Appendix I). This compares with approximately $413,000 in annual losses in the futures industry since 1974.
13Approximately 40% of the amounts outstanding in corporate equities were held by the household sector as of the end of the second quarter of 2001. See Table L.213, lines 5 and 6, of the Federal Reserve's Z.1 report dated September 18, 2001.
14Information for 1985 and earlier is taken from NFA, Customer Account Protection Study (Nov. 20, 1986). Subsequent information is taken from various sources.
15In re Traders International Inc., NFA Case No. 82-MRA-002 (Dec. 29, 1982). The CFTC also took an injunctive action against the firm. Customers ended up losing $300,000.
16The 1998 bankruptcy of Griffin Trading Company left a shortfall of $4.7 million in funds held in London for foreign futures and options accounts, and some of these funds may not be recoverable. However, the company was fully segregated for customer transactions on U.S. exchanges, and the separation of those funds from the funds for foreign transactions ensured that no segregated funds were lost.
17SIPC, 2000 Annual Report, pgs. 6 and 17 (Appendix I).
18The SEC's recent amendments to Exchange Act Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4 were designed, at least in part, to enhance state regulators' ability to enforce state securities laws. Furthermore, the remaining provisions of those rules are similar to current CFTC and NFA requirements. Since all futures — including security futures — are preempted from state regulation, applying the SEC's amended rules to futures accounts would create additional burdens without any corresponding benefit.
19CFTC Regulation 1.35(b) (17 C.F.R. � 1.35(b)) requires FCMs to maintain all of this information.
20See Section 4b(a)(iv) of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 6b(a)(iv)) and CFTC Regulations 1.38 and 155.2(a)-(b) (17 C.F.R. �� 1.38 and 155.2(a)-(b)).
21We assume that notice FCMs and IBs are similarly exempt from the CFTC's requirements to file Form 1-FR-FCM or 1-FR-IB and to send telegraphic notifications to the CFTC since the CFTC has included these requirements in its financial rules rather than its recordkeeping rules. The CFTC may want to consider explicitly exempting notice FCMs and IBs from these requirements.
22245 B.R. 291 (Bankr. N.D. Ill. 2000).
2317 C.F.R. � 166.5 and 7 U.S.C. 17.
24NASD Regulation 3110(f) requires NASD members to highlight the predispute arbitration clause and to include disclosures designed to ensure that customers are aware of the consequences of signing the agreement.
25Similarly, while NFA arbitration will be available for any security futures dispute against an NFA Member regardless of the type of account, we do not believe that the CFTC should mandate that the Member give the customer the option of arbitrating at NFA if the transactions are in a securities account, especially since most transactions in that account may involve traditional securities.


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|Reconstruction of Permian Forest from Inner Mongolia (Jun Wang et al. 2012)
OK I'm back after a long hiatus due to extensive travel (yay) and work (boo) commitments. There have been a few things to cover over the next few weeks, but in the meantime, something a little, . . . umm . . . younger than we're used to here on Ediacaran - but there is a link.
Working out how fossil organisms interacted is very difficult as they are usually found singularly or in small groups. Certain things, such as predation for example, can be worked out using single of small groups of fossils, but community interactions require large scale preservation. Such ecological-scale preservation is rare, but some do exist, for example Cretaceous dinosaur footprints, and Devonian fish. A new find from China has added to this small list.
Now part of a coal field 8km west of Wuda, Inner Mongolia, the Taiyuan Formation has revealed a wealth of exceptional preservation, but also a wealth of ecological information. The site has allowed approx. 1000 square meters of Permian swamp to be uncovered and systematically investigated. It has allowed the reconstruction of Permian plants, and has also provided information on the relationships between the plants growing at the time.
At the site, six groups of plants make up the vegetation, and an examination of the relationships shows several areas of distinctly different plant occurrences, as well as a number of patterns of co-occurrence. These allow for detailed reconstructions of the original forest, one of which is the photo at the start of this entry.
Some of the exceptional preservation is shown below.
So, what has this Permian deposit to do with the Ediacaran?
Well, this ecologically-focussed investigation has also been undertaken for the Ediacaran fauna. There are a couple of examples of such eco-related investigations.
The first is from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland. At Mistaken Point, the beds outcropping along the coast dip at shallow angles, which means that tennis court-sized areas of old sea floor are exposed along the cliff. Abundant Ediacaran fossils have been found on these surfaces . These fossils include spindle forms as well as the more familiar Charnodiscus disc-shaped forms. The relatively large expanse of uncovered old sea floor allows some interrelationships to be looked at.
Interestingly (and in another link to the Permian find above), preservation here is different to that in South Australia. Here, fossils are found on the top surface of the bed. This is because the organisms and sea floor was covered by an ash falls from volcanic eruptions some time around 565 million years ago. As in the Permian example, ash covered everything and subsequently preserved a snapshot of life at the time.
|Ediacaran fossils from Mistaken Point, and the ash layer which has preserved them (photo credit)
The second example comes from South Australia. In the Flinders Ranges, several Ediacaran locations occur in low-lying hills with gentle slopes. As the beds erode out of the soil, they move down slope. As the area is remote, there is little disturbance, and so it is possible to roam the slope picking up pieces of distinctive layers and reconstructing the Ediacaran sea floor.
|Reconstructing Ediacaran sea floors from South Australia, both in the field, and at the South Australian Museum (photo credit 1, 2)
The difference here is that the fossils are found on the underside of the bed, not on the top surface, which is normally contains ripple marks caused by current and wave action (as seen in the photo from the South Australian Museum above).
The ability to look at whole communities, rather than individuals provides a much better understanding of what was going on in the past which makes sites where you can actually do that very important.
Jun Wang, Hermann W. Pfefferkorn, Yi Zhangc, and Zhuo Feng. (2012) Permian vegetational Pompeii from Inner Mongolia and its implications for landscape paleoecology and paleobiogeography of Cathaysia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, Published online before print, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1115076109


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The crown jewel of the South Pacific
The 15 islands that make up the Cook Islands – more fondly known as the Cooks – are each their own version of tropical heaven. First inhabited by Polynesians who arrived via Tahiti in the late ninth century, the islands were then named after Captain Cook who sighted the archipelago in 1770. After occupation by the British followed by New Zealand, Cook Islanders voted for independence in 1965.
Covering an expanse of ocean the size of Western Europe, the islands are today a combination of traditional meets modern. Rarotonga, the largest, is a mix of rocky mountain peaks, wild jungle and vast stretches of white sand making it the perfect base for first timers. Aitutaki – the second most-visited island – sits by one of the world's largest coral lagoons and is perfect for snorkelling and diving. For those seeking the road less travelled, Atiu's limestone caves, coffee plantations and bush-beer will take you on a journey into the heart of Polynesian culture.


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Jeff Swanson was in the market for a new car just a few weeks ago. Then the stock market went crazy.
So Swanson, 25, decided to keep his 10-year-old Pontiac Grand Prix for at least another year. Gyrations in stocks and talk of a weakening economy rattled Swanson's confidence about taking on another payment, even though his new job running a home for mentally disabled people seems to be secure.
"Everywhere you turn, other people are saying 'Oh, I lost my job this week. I lost my job last week,'" says Swanson, who works for a non-profit that gets money from the state. "I want to be a little bit financially set in case something like that happens."
It's an increasingly common reaction among would-be car buyers that has dealers and automakers worried. In May, many believed sales would reach a healthy 13.5 million this year — halfway between their peak in 2005 and their 30-year low in 2009. Now, such forecasts seem overly optimistic. Analysts say the swoon in financial markets and economic uncertainty could reduce auto sales by a few percentage points, shrink earnings and delay hiring in an industry that has been a recent leader in job creation.
"If it keeps going this way, yes, it's going to hurt business," says Jerry Seiner, who runs a group of dealerships in the Salt Lake City area that includes General Motors, Nissan and Kia.
Any reduction in sales would be especially painful for Toyota and Honda dealers, who are just starting to restock their showrooms after months of shortages brought on by Japan's earthquake.
In a sign of how sensitive buyers have become to stock swings, showrooms are active on days the market is up, but empty when it's down, Seiner says. The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen 10 percent since July 22, with wild swings up and down along the way.
Gilbert Baldwin, 66, a retired auto worker from Ypsilanti, Mich., decided to wait for the market to stabilize before replacing his 2002 Ford Explorer. He was shopping for a new car last month, but now he's worried about higher gas and food prices and the possibility of Social Security cuts as Congress looks for ways to cut the deficit.
The lack of confidence isn't what car dealers want to hear, especially in August, usually a strong sales month as dealers clear lots of 2011 models to make room for 2012 cars and trucks. Carmakers report August sales in the U.S. on Sept. 1.
In the Washington, D.C., area, which is likely to be hit by government spending cuts, sales at Tammy Darvish's chain of about two-dozen dealerships fell by more than 2 percent in early August. She's worried the slow pace could continue for the rest of the month.
But dealers say sales likely won't collapse in the second half of 2011, as they did in 2009. That's because banks are lending more freely, and lease deals, which went away during the recession, are making a comeback. Also, older cars will still need to be replaced. The average age of a car in the U.S. is 10.6 years, up more than a full year from 2008, according to the research firm Polk.
Indeed, the turmoil in financial markets isn't scaring off everyone.
Jason Ashton, 38, of Shelby Township, Mich., plans to trade in his 2006 Dodge Ram pickup for a roomier SUV that will fit his wife, two kids and equipment.
"You've got to have room for the family," he says, trying to swing a deal for a Durango at Van Dyke Dodge in Warren, Mich.
But Ashton, who installs software for auto companies, will buy only if he gets a price low enough to keep his monthly payment steady. He also won't spend as much on options as in the past, forgoing leather seats, for example.
J.D. Power and Associates cut its 2011 sales forecast last week by 2 percent, to 12.6 million new cars and trucks. It cut its 2012 forecast by 3 percent, to 14.1 million. Ford Motor Co. is sticking with its sales forecast of around 13 million for the year.
"We're not getting back to what was considered normal or healthy as quickly as possible, but it's still a pretty strong progression," says Jeff Schuster, executive director of global forecasting for J.D. Power. Sales bottomed at 10.4 million in 2009.
Since that year, the U.S. auto industry has grown remarkably, adding jobs faster than the economy as a whole. The industry has added about 77,000 jobs since June of 2009. That's an increase of 12 percent, compared with a rise of 0.2 percent for the economy overall.
People looking to buy a car later this year could benefit from any reduced demand today.
Carmakers are likely to roll out sweeter deals, Schuster says, "just to keep buyers active and give them another reason to come in."


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When you visit Joel Ewanick, CMO of GM, in his offices in Detroit, the first thing you notice is that unlike most C-suite executives, he's not on the 39th floor of GM's Renaissance Center headquarters (the highest floor). Instead, you exit the elevators on the 24th floor, less than two thirds up the building.
The second thing that strikes you is the floor itself – it's bright with natural light, sports an open plan bustling with energy, and features a central video wall sporting constantly updated feeds reflecting consumer sentiment about GM and its brands – Facebook wall postings, Tweets, news stories, and the like.
Before meeting Ewanick, I stopped in front of the wall and read the updates as they streamed by. It only took a few seconds to realize that the feeds were unfiltered: a complaint from a new SUV owner expressing severe buyer's regret was was prominently featured.
I mentioned that post to Ewanick when we met, and he confidently responded that someone would answer the complaint by the time our meeting was over, if not before. (I didn't check, as our meeting went long, but a quick study of GM's Facebook page bears this out quite dramatically – see image at upper left).
As someone who has spent many years visiting CMOs in tall buildings, I can tell you, this is nothing short of a revolution, and it's happened in what amounts to an eyeblink in our business. And while Ewanick has made a point of illustrating this shift in a visual way on his 24th floor, I can tell you what he's doing under the surface is not an isolated case.
In the normal course of business over the past two weeks, I've met with half a dozen Fortune 500 CMOs – men and women running massive marketing businesses for some of the best known brands in the world. Every single one of them now takes the idea of "conversing with customers at scale, leveraging technology" as a north star. It's an extraordinary shift.
I recall meetings just two or three years ago where senior marketing executives told me they couldn't possibly allow engagement with customers – it was too dangerous, and far too costly. And yes, there are still holdouts that have yet to convert their approach to the market or who are still far too tentative in their embrace of what I call "conversational marketing" (I'm looking at you, United Airlines).
If you've been reading this site for a while, you might recall that I've been on about "the conversation economy" since 2006. It was going to be the name of my next book, till I decided to go all meta and take the ideas behind it and blow it up into a much bigger tome, one I've yet to finish. Since 2007, "The Conversation Economy" has been one of the most populated categories in my site, along with "Joints After Midnight" and "The Web as Platform." And it's at the heart of the company I started in 2005, which gave voice to and popularized the idea of "conversational media," a platform that empowers consumers and would, I predicted, force brands to "have conversations with customers at scale."
So here we are, just six years later, and the idea has taken root and is now at the heart of a spectacular string of successes in our industry – from the sale of Buddy to Salesforce, or Virtue to Oracle, to the rise of Sponsored Stories on Facebook or Promoted Tweets on Twitter. Companies are thirsty to understand how best to converse with their customers, and I'm thrilled this shift is occuring. When major enterprise software companies see "social" and "consumer engagement platforms" as the next big thing, you know something's in the air.
So now what? What's next? Well, I'm going to wager we're entering an era of confusion and information overload. It's great to respond to customers, to drive learnings from those interactions back into your enterprise, and to try to be "more social" in your marketing efforts. But the infrastructure to execute at scale in conversational media is still being built, and both consumers and marketers are uncertain as to how they might best converse – witness the ongoing questions about whether Facebook is an advertising medium, for example. What's happening in marketing at the moment isn't merely a technological shift. It's a deep, organizational rewiring of How Things Get Done, a response to the platform power that consumers have harnessed through the Internet.
Just as like the music industry still wishes for the days when it controlled its own production and distribution, the media and marketing world still yearns for the silver bullet of the thirty-second spot on Seinfeld, even as it knows those days are over. Someday soon, we'll realize that we've figured out a new kind of bullet, but not before enterprises reorganize how they operate – on every level, from product design to management to marketing. If Ewanick's 24th floor is any indication, the work is certainly underway. Just 38 floors to go….


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Why my Sony Xperia M C190 feel slow and laggy?
Why my Sony Xperia M C190 feel slow and laggy?
There are several things you can do to improve your Sony Xperia M C190s performance.
Check the following:
Available RAM and phone memory Begin by checking how much available RAM and phone storage you have. If these memories drops low the performance may be affected. We recommend that you have at least 10% free phone memory. You can check your Sony Xperia M C190 memory by going to: Settings > Storage.
You can free up some phone memory by moving supported apps to SD card or internal storage.
Disable apps This feature is available in Android 4.0 (ICS) and later versions. You can disable both third party and most preinstalled apps so they dont run in the background. You can do this by going to: Settings > Apps > All > Select your app > Disable.
Live Wallpaper Do you use any Live Wallpaper? These generally consume a lot of RAM memory making the Sony Xperia M C190 feel slow and laggy depending on available RAM of course. Try to use an ordinary wallpaper if you want to improve performance.
Widgets Having many widgets active on the home screen will also use a lot of RAM memory. So reducing the amount of widgets on home screen will speed up the UI performance.
Up time When was the last time you rebooted your Sony Xperia M C190? You can check this by going to: Settings > About phone > Status > Up time. It doesnt hurt to reboot your Sony Xperia M C190 every now and then.
Task killers We dont really recommend you using task killers if youre not sure on how to configure them. By default most task killers are set to close all applications running in the background which can cause problems with applications, widgets and also drain battery since many preinstalled applications will automatically start running again.
If you have an Xperia phone with 512MB of RAM memory and plan to update to Android 4.0 (ICS) you should be aware of that Android 4.0s hardware requirements are more advanced than previous softwares so your phones performance may be affected.


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Old Flat Top presents
plus special guest
"…the finest concert of acoustic guitar I have ever seen" John Shand – Sydney Morning Herald
Lulo Reinhardt is one of the foremost authentic and distinctive musical voices in Gypsy music today
, he is from a long line of musicians; the great-nephew of jazz legend Django Reinhardt and also the nephew of the gypsy violin master Shnuckenack Reinhardt. Lulo comes from a lineage peppered throughout with highly talented musicians. He first showed an interest during his formative years. By the age of five Lulo was already being handed down the guitar tradition through his father Bawo Reinhardt and has devoted his life to music ever since.
By the time he was 12, he was performing with his cousins in the Koblenz-based Mike Reinhardt sextet. Over the years, Lulo expanded his musical horizons as he delved into the music of other cultures. Today, Lulo continues to explore and perform a fusion of styles, including flamenco, Latin, and Brazilian jazz. He combines these with his own artistic stamp, and always with a nod to his Gypsy influences.
After traveling all over the world and playing with musicians from Brazil, Spain, Africa, he defined his own style of playing which he called Latin Swing – it is not traditional gypsy jazz because the band has a drummer and a piano player. More and more gypsy jazz guitarists today are incorporating this style of music which Lulo founded. His name and style have achieved international acclaim.
Critics and fans agree that it is not solely because Lulo is the great-nephew of world-famous musician extraordinaire Django Reinhardt, it's about Lulo's unique musical genius, and his ability to make it appear so utterly effortless. "The audience sometimes expects me to play exclusively in the style of Django Reinhardt, but I have found a style of my own, and I am happy and grateful that the people love it" states Lulo.
The Lulo Reinhardt Latin Swing Project has an extensive international touring history. In addition to touring in Australia since 2008, they have played in China, Japan, France, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Scotland, the Czech Republic, Bucharest, Morocco and in and around their home base in Germany. Lulo also performed as a soloist with the International Guitar Night quartet in 2009 and 2011, traveling to the UK, United States and Canada. In 2012 The Latin Swing Project headlined the inaugural USA tour titled In The Footsteps of Django, a multi-artist Gypsy Jazz show.
In April 2013, Lulo performed as a soloist for the first International Roma Day conference and private reception held at Harvard University. Later in 2013, Lulo Reinhardt Latin Swing Project completed a highly successful release tour throughout Germany, England and Scotland for their new CD titled BAWO. The new CD – BAWO is dedicated to his late father Bawo Reinhardt and it produced eleven new songs that were recorded in two days. The CD clearly highlights Lulo's musical mastery, the blending of cultural influences and that of his illustrious, richly cultured career teamed up with a world class band. BAWO, takes the listener on a magical journey of history and exploration of worlds far away as interpreted by this master guitarist and composer. The launch of Lulo's online shop and the release of his family's documentary Newo Ziro were also some of the highlights of the year.
Today, the Lulo Reinhardt Latin Swing Project features, Daniel Weltlinger (violin), Christoph König (violin), Jürgen Schuld (Percussion,) Uli Krämer-Ragusi, (Drums), Harald Becher, (Bass) and Winfried Schuld (Piano).
€18 available online from WAV Tickets [Lo-Call 1890 200 078] (50c per ticket service charge applies on phone or creditcard bookings)
Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required.
8Radio "Music We Like" – Live interactive DJ set every Tuesday from 11pm til late – tweet requests to@8radioireland | FREE ENTRY


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CRS: America COMPETES Act: Programs, Funding, and Selected Issues, October 17, 2008
From WikiLeaks
About this CRS report
This document was obtained by Wikileaks from the United States Congressional Research Service.
The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.
Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.
This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.
For other CRS information see: Congressional Research Service.
For press enquiries, consult our media kit.
If you have other confidential material let us know!.
For previous editions of this report, try OpenCRS.
Wikileaks release: February 2, 2009
Publisher: United States Congressional Research Service
Title: America COMPETES Act: Programs, Funding, and Selected Issues
CRS report number: RL34328
Author(s): Deborah D. Stine, Resources, Science, and Industry Division
Date: October 17, 2008
- Abstract
- This report provides an overview of the America COMPETES Act provisions, summarizes its legislative origin and the origins of some of the new programs it authorizes, analyzes selected America COMPETES Act programs that are the focus of appropriation discussions, and provides a comparison of the President's budget, congressional appropriations, and America COMPETES Act authorization levels for FY2008. Appendix A provides an overview of the act's legislative history. Appendix B provides a summary of all the provisions of the act.
- Download


text: The Wall Mount Bracket is designed specifically for housing a Philips HeartStart defibrillator and its accessories. The defibrillator's carry case can be tethered to the Wall Mount Bracket with a breakaway Secure-Pull Seal (M3859A) to discourage tampering. A broken seal indicates that the defibrillator has been removed from the Wall Mount and accessories may need to be replenished. The Fast Response Kit (68-PCHAT) tucks neatly behind the Defibrillator. 10.5" W x 8" H x 6.9" D. Each.


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Mystery Senator Blocks Obama Pick to Head Key Mining Office
When President Obama nominated Joseph Pizarchik to head the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, critics blasted the choice, charging that Pizarchik has a history of favoring coal industry interests over the well-being of local residents. Still, it appeared Pizarchik would sail to confirmation this week—until an unknown senator placed a hold on his appointment. Here's why the mystery senator might be worried that Pizarchik is the wrong man for the job.
Pizarchik has served as the director of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Mining and Reclamation since 2002. The office, a division of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, oversees mining permits and the enforcement of environmental rules related to mining and waste disposal. And residents of Pennsylvania mining areas are so unhappy with his performance that they're organizing to oppose the nomination. Under Pizarchik's watch, the bureau developed new policies for the "beneficial use" of coal ash, including allowing it to be dumped in old surface mining sites—meaning, essentially, that power plant waste could be left in unlined pits around the state.
The hazards of coal ash contamination attracted national scrutiny last December when an earthen dike owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant broke, spewing 1.1 billion gallons of dark grey coal slurry into Tennessee homes and waterways. A 2007 study by the Clean Air Task Force found that 10 out of 15 Pennsylvania mine sites where coal ash had been dumped tested positive for arsenic, lead, cadmium, selenium, and other hazardous materials. The study criticized the role that Pizarchik's office played in allowing this practice to continue.
Pennsylvania residents have also expressed concerns about longwall mining, which has expanded in the state in recent years. This coal extraction method involves burrowing underground, and has wreaked havoc on both the water systems and property in the state. Residents say Pizarchik did not enforce existing regulations as the head of the office, and that since 2006, the department has made it considerably more difficult for residents to comment on mining permit applications. Public meetings are less frequent and often held during work hours, they say.
The Mountain Watershed Association, Friends of the Earth, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Alliance for Appalachia, Environmental Integrity Project and Appalachian Voices are all stoking opposition to the nomination. In addition, the Citizens Coal Council recently filed suit against the Office of Surface Mining, accusing it of allowing the Pennsylvania office that Pizarchik headed to commit "chronic and deliberate violations" of surface mining regulations. "He's unacceptable," said Aimee Erickson, coordinator of the Citizens Coal Council.
If appointed head of OSM, Pizarchick would not only oversee coal ash disposal, but also the regulation of other mining practices such as mountaintop removal, the controversial method in which mountains are blown up to extract coal and the remaining waste is dumped in valley fills. In his confirmation hearing on August 6 before the Energy and Natural Resources committee, Pizarchik was asked to explain his views on this practice, which is not common in Pennsylvania but is a contentious issue in other Appalachian mining states. Pizarchik's responses were extremely vague, sometimes even incoherent. When questioned about his views on the Obama administration's new policies for mountaintop mining, which would require tougher scrutiny of environmental impacts and which the Office of Surface Mining would be directly involved in implementing, Pizarchik said he would have to "learn more about the facts." He added:
"We would think that the head of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement would be someone who wouldn't have to be educated about mountaintop removal coal mining," says Bill Price, an organizer with the Sierra Club environmental justice program. "We need to have someone who...understands the significant impacts of it."
Although several senators on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee expressed concerns about Pizarchik, only two senators voted against him at an October 8 meeting: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). "Transitioning to a new, clean-energy economy requires people who are willing to break free from the inertia of doing things the way they have always been done," said Menendez in a statement. "I do not believe Mr. Pizarchik is willing to look at these issues with a fresh eye."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), another member of the committee, also cited concerns about the nomination in a written statement, though he supported the nomination with the caveat that the committee should take a more active role in overseeing the office. And committee chair Jeff Bingaman acknowledged in the meeting that Pizarchik's nomination "has proved controversial," adding that his office had received several hundred e-mails and letters from coal-field residents opposing the nomination. However, he planned to give Pizarchik the "benefit of the doubt":
Bingaman makes a fair point that many existing laws, both federal and state, have enabled harmful mining practices. Yet Pizarchik seems to have allowed environmentally problematic practices to continue, and in some cases, become more prevalent. And his testimony before the Senate did little to allay concerns about his record or his awareness of the issues his office will deal with.
It's unclear which senator moved to block the floor vote on Pizarchik 's appointment, although a spokesperson for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmed the hold was based on concerns about the nominee, not an unrelated matter (as is often the case with holds). Sanders' office has denied preventing the vote. A spokesperson for Menendez said on Monday that the office does not generally comment on anonymous holds.
So far, the Obama administration is standing behind its pick. A spokesperson for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued a statement last week stating that Pizarchik is the "right man at the right time" for the job who will "help move the department forward with coal production in an environmentally responsible way."
Copyright ©2009 Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress.
|Photo © Paul S. Hamilton


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Launching Brands in Public
I was talking with a senior marketer at one of the most famous brands in the world last week. She said, "executives keep coming to me with stuff they find on the internet, stuff they find on YouTube about us, and say, 'take it down!' Of course, I have to explain that I can't take it down. No one can."
If your brand has any traction at all, people are talking about you. Of course, they've always talked about you, but now they're doing it in writing, in video and in public.
Today, Squidoo (a company I founded) is launching Brands in Public. It's a neat idea and I wanted to give you an overview and a first look.
You can't control what people are saying about you. What you can do is organize that speech. You can organize it by highlighting the good stuff and rationally responding to the not-so-good stuff. You can organize it by embracing the people who love your brand and challenging them to speak up and share the good word. And you can respond to it in a thoughtful way, leaving a trail that stands up over time.
But how?
Over the last few months, we've seen big brands (like Amazon and Maytag) get caught in a twitterstorm. An idea (one that's negative to the brand) starts and spreads, and absent a response, it just spirals. Of course, Amazon can't respond on their home page (they're busy running a store) and they don't have an active corporate blog that I could find, so where? How?
Enter Brands In Public.
[see update at the bottom] Squidoo has built several hundred pages, each one about a major brand. More are on the way. We'll keep going until we have thousands of important brands, each on its own page (and we'll happily add one for you if you like). Each page collects tweets, blog posts, news stories, images, videos and comments about a brand. All of these feeds are algorithmic… the good and the bad show up, all collated and easy to find.
Of course, these comments and conversations are already going on, all over the web. What we've done is bring them together in one place. And then we've made it easy for the brand to chime in.
If your brand wants to be in charge of developing this page, it will cost you $400 a month. And once [we build] the page, the left hand column belongs to you. You can post responses, highlight blog posts, run contests or quizzes. You can publicly have your say right next to the constant stream of information about your brand (information that's currently all over the web–and information you can't "take down" or censor). You can respond, lead and organize. If a crisis hits, your page will be there, ready for you to speak up. If your fans are delighted, your page makes it easy for them to chime in and speak up on sites around the web.
If you have the tools and wherewithal to build a page like this on your own site, you should consider that. The challenge is getting it done, regardless of where the page lives.
There are already monitoring tools online (like Radian6) that allow big brands to watch from behind the scenes. That's great, but what are you doing in front of your audience? Is there a low-cost, easy way to let one of your non-technical marketing people lead and engage with people who are already in the conversation?
We have beta-testers like Allstate and Molson and Home Depot that see the value of showing up where the conversation is happening. My guess is that other significant brands will discover that they can't just rely on a static home page, nor is it sufficient to post an ephemeral response in a feed somewhere. Brands in Public isn't the first, nor will it be the last place brands need to be to coordinate and organize the conversation. People (your customers) will find these pages, point to them, link to them and talk about them, creating a new circle of interest online. If you know a brand that needs to hear about this, there's a short ebook (download) about the project.
It's worth saying that we care a lot about keeping this simple for your organization. A Brands in Public page for your brand requires no development team, no ad buys and no deep pockets. While you control the left-hand column and can pepper it with good stuff, it's still part of a larger site, not "your" page. That means that the number of meetings you need to go to for approvals and permissions is going to decrease. It means that it's not behind your firewall and not something that has to fit into the larger über-corporate strategy. More like a tradeshow and less like your home page. It's in public. It's simply a place for your brand to see and be seen, to organize and to respond.
I'm guessing that big brands are going to need to be in dozens of places like this going forward, because media has shifted from top down, "here's what we say, we're putting on a show, watch us!" to, "oh, you're here, you're talking, hi."
The first 100 brands that sign up will benefit from a share of the $500,000 in house ads Squidoo will run across the site promoting the service and the first partnering brands. Sales are handled by BzzAgent, so you'll be in good hands–please give them a call if you have any questions about the service. If you've got a brand that people are talking about, I hope you'll give it a try.
[UPDATE: We're now offering free pages to chosen charities. If your non-profit organization is interested, please fill out this form. We'll choose a bunch each month, set them up and then the page belongs to you.]
[UPDATE: Our intent in building sample pages and letting brands see
them in action was misunderstood by many people, and I can understand
why. As a result, to clear the air, we're going to be taking these 200
sample pages down today. The only pages that we'll be posting are those
from our sponsors, we won't be building any others. Thanks to those
that let me know about their concerns, and I'm sorry for the confusion.]


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Welcome (back) to mmm-yoso!!!, the food blog. Kirk and ed (from Yuma) are busy anticipating a time to relax. Cathy found that time and is sharing a food adventure today.
A few weeks ago, The Mister and I drove North on Highway 101 along some of the 60 miles of San Diego County coastline, enjoying where we live.
We had worked up an appetite while getting in some walking and stopped when we got to the Encinitas sign.
We had parked just across the street from the restaurant which provides my favorite San Diego County Fair food fix-
I've posted that this was the one booth we must stop at every year.
This year, we did go to the Fair several times and got both the falafel burger ...
as well as an artichoke sandwich. Both of these sandwiches are on the menu at the Restaurant and the price is the same as at the Fair!
We stepped into Roxy's just before it started to get crowded and chose a table on the North half of the restaurant.
After reading the mainly vegetarian menu (some dishes are made with chicken, squid or fish) I decided to try a cup of the 'everyday' soup ($3)- Bean Soup, made with lentils, soy and pinto beans. The spices made this taste like a good chili and I really liked it. The soup was served with a piece of toast...the same bread that's used for the Fair sandwiches. (I found out it is The Baker's Wife from Bosch Baking bread brand, made in San Marcos and available at some of the weekly farmer's markets and sold in the grocery part of the Tip Top Meats store.)
I selected the avocado burrito ($7.99). A very large whole wheat tortilla with cheese, onion and olive melted onto the tortilla,
which was then filled with at least two smashed avocadoes, lettuce and tomato. This was served with a good, spicy salsa and a very large lettuce, spinach, cabbage, tomato, broccoli and cauliflower 'side' salad. So very fresh, tasty and filling.
The Mister ordered the Fish and Chips, one of the white board specials that day ($7.99, regular $8.99). This was four large pieces of excellent fried fish (probably tilapia) served on top of a pile of quite memorable, thin cut, perfectly cooked fries with an absolutely wonderful house made tartar sauce.
On the South side of the restaurant is a small area where ice cream is sold. It is Niederfrank's, a National City based company (which I posted about in 2007). I can foresee taking another few drives on the 101 before the 2013 San Diego County Fair to try out more of the menu at Roxy's.
It's Friday! Enjoy your weekend.
The Roxy Restaurant 517 Highway 101, Encinitas, CA 92024 (760) 436-5001 Mon-Sat 11:00 a.m.-10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Website


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DENVER – New York Yankees infielder Chris Nelson is looking forward to his return to the Mile High City this week for a three-game series against the his former team, the Colorado Rockies.
He was a member of the Rockies until nine days ago, when he was designated for assignment to make room for prized prospect Nolan Arenado. Nelson was then traded to the Yankees for a player to be named or cash.
Asked what he misses about Colorado, Nelson said, "My teammates. Great fans. The mountain view is beautiful. Just a nice place."
Nelson is 0-for-7 to start his Yankees career. But Coors Field could be as good of place as any to break out of his mini-slump, considering he's a lifetime .316 hitter at this park.


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Substation Fires Advanced Safety Info Home< BackNext >
Let it burn. Burning electrical equipment is already ruined and will be replaced. Contact the local utility and wait for them to arrive.
Evacuate the area. Keep people at least 300 feet away. Protect exposures to prevent fire from spreading.
If an equipment fire must be suppressed, utility personnel and your incident commander will tell you how to proceed.
Successful Response to Substation Fire
A circuit breaker containing 20 gallons of mineral oil caught fire and exploded at a rural electric substation. Flames and smoke shot 200 feet into the air. Firefighters evacuated nearby residences within 300 feet, set up a 100-foot perimeter around the substation, closed the nearby highway, and let the fire run its course. Thanks to proper response procedures, no one was injured.


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The recent rise in gas prices has unsurprisingly become a salient issue this election season. Republicans are predictably haranguing the Obama administration's "outrageously anti-American" energy policy, as the national average price of gas nears $4 per gallon and oil trades above $100 per barrel. Political economists and energy experts have warned that higher gas prices could curtail the already anemic economic recovery, as beleaguered consumers endure diminished purchasing power and trim household spending in other areas, reducing aggregate demand and inducing further economic contraction. Businesses that depend heavily on transport have also had to reduce expenses due to persistent price volatility, typically to the detriment of their workers.
Part of the problem is that rather than recasting the national "energy security" issue as part of the much larger and longer-term problem of climate change, politicians have opted instead to feather their own nests. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has insisted that "Wall Street profiteering, not oil shortages, is the cause of the price spike," referring to the financial speculators in the commodity futures market, the analysts and investors who now manage approximately 70 percent of oil traded worldwide, up 40 percent from just over a decade ago. Geopolitical tensions in oil-producing countries like Iran, Libya, Syria, Nigeria, and South Sudan, as well as steadily diminishing global refining capacity, present opportunities to fear monger over supply-side concerns and reap considerable profits.
Under pressure to act, the White House announced last Tuesday that it would crack down on speculation contributing to high gas prices. But this simply reaffirms a previous broken promise. The Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group that the administration formed a year ago to investigate and prosecute financial chicanery in oil markets has, as George Zornick of the Nation reports, held only a few meetings during its tenure and has nothing to show for its efforts (it never issued a report to the public). This shouldn't come as much of a surprise, since the oil speculators in question look much like the Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Citigroup financiers who occupy the President's gilded administration.
But that's not the crux of the matter. The problem is that no U.S. politician on either side of the aisle would dare to publicly praise the spike in gas prices. That would be a political death sentence, causing a popular backlash and further validating the public perception that politicians appease the interests of capital and producers, not labor and consumers.
But extolling high gas prices is precisely what's needed. Artificially low gas prices spur wasteful consumption and are a disincentive to green research, development, and deployment. In Venezuela, where low gas prices are ensured by generous government subsidies, a driver can fill up a thirty-two-gallon tank of a Hummer for roughly $3. No electric vehicle manufacturer, high-speed rail project, or clean energy alternative on the planet can compete with that. Artificially low gas prices also produce unreasonable expectations about the cost of energy, as evidenced by the recent violence in Nigeria after the government repealed similar federal gas subsidies.
The higher the national average price of gas (and the better the government policies to reduce the costs of renewables), the sooner an economy reaches "grid parity," or the point at which the average market price of renewable energy sources becomes equal to or cheaper than fossil fuels. This would allow clean energy start-ups to meaningfully compete with fossil fuel monopolies for market control. Some countries, like Italy, Australia, Japan, Spain, Germany, and Denmark, are well on their way to achieving grid parity. The contribution of renewables to their total energy supply has more than doubled in the past decade. In the United States, by contrast, the high price of gas and other fossil fuels is little more than a headache-inducing re-election concern.
THE PRESIDENT outlined his "all of the above" energy plan in his January 2012 State of the Union address, fleshed out in greater detail in the White House's FY 2013 budget proposal. The document promises oil magnates unfettered access to 70 percent of U.S. coasts for exploratory offshore drilling, even though the United States harbors less than 2 percent of the world's crude oil reserves. In fact, the number of drilling rigs in U.S. oil fields has more than quadrupledsince Obama took office. But the most troubling part is that President Obama's appeasement to Big Oil didn't even need to go so far: the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Natural Resources are already institutionally designed to ensure these kinds of outrageous land grabs take place without any public scrutiny.
The back-door, lobbyist-filled deliberation process that determines which bills get past the committee stage is largely unknown to the public, since mainstream media reporters rarely cover it. But we have seen the recent results: in January 2011 Congress destroyed the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming after its three-year stint. That year, Congress managed to win the award for "Worst Environmental Record of Any Congress": out of a total of 770 legislative roll call votes, more than 20 percent were anti-environment, with 114 anti-EPA votes, twenty-seven to block action on climate change, 105 to block clean air and water protections, and forty-seven to weaken protections of public lands and coastal waters.
President Obama will have you believe, therefore, that Congress is the culprit, and he has a point. But the relevant regulatory body within the White House, the little-known Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has, during more than 500 interest group meetings under Obama's watch, watered down, delayed, or eliminated more than 80 percent of the EPA's emissions regulations at the request of fossil-fuel influence peddlers. Moreover, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), responsible for supporting the basic functioning of all other federal agencies, reduced its purchase of hybrid and electric cars last year by 59 percent, despite President Obama's 2011 speech tour touting new efficiency standards for automobiles, an increase in the purchase of alternative-fuel cars, and the goal of adding 1 million electric cars to the country's roads by 2015.
Perhaps most tellingly, President Obama's performance at international climate negotiations has been dismal. At both Copenhagen and Durban, Obama arrived with embarrassingly low emissions targets compared to other countries, effectively destroying the Kyoto Protocol, and repeatedly dismissed calls to place a deadline to establish a global, binding deal on climate change. The president's ostensible detachment prompted more than a dozen environmental groups and over 1,200 business leaders and activists to endorse a letter arguing that, with his lack of leadership on the issue, "America risks being viewed not as a global leader on climate change, but as a major obstacle to progress."
On the domestic front, Obama has intimated that he might be willing to eventually concede approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, even as environmentalists saw the delayed decision as a major victory. He has already established that TransCanada may reapply for the permit after accepting an alternative pipeline route. As a Cornell study has persuasively shown, Keystone XL is chiefly designed to boost export trade from the Gulf of Mexico and yield enormous profits for oil companies and their financial subsidiaries, not create jobs or reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
According to a comprehensive Brown University report, there has been a demonstrable shift in President Obama's rhetoric since taking office regarding "climate change" and "global warming." "These terms are stunningly absent from the political arena," writes Graciela Kincaid, a co-author of the study. President Obama simply refuses to throw any red meat to the Republicans, though they always manage to find some to devour anyway.
WE SHOULD, to be fair, at least look at the more agreeable stipulations in the president's budget plan. One might point to the $2.3 billion it allocates to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and the $350 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) initiative. Or one might highlight the proposed $4 billion in eliminated fossil fuel subsidies and the six-year, $47 billion plan to develop our long-overdue high-speed passenger rail corridors. These are certainly bold and commendable ideas in dire need of implementation.
But the president's energy budget plan is pure electioneering. The administration knows very well that it will never pass Congress. As President Obama admitted fatalistically in the State of the Union, "The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change." In the meantime the Democratic political elite feel they can string along the environmentalist base with their seemingly good intentions. It seems to be working: most liberals continue to buy into the myth that the administration has been bereft of spine on climate change simply due to unforeseeable and unavoidable beltway gridlock.
President Obama's overzealous supporters are not doing him any favors. Steadfast apologists accept the doctrine of diminished expectations and condescendingly belittle those who don't, especially when re-election concerns are paramount. The intolerable game of bait-and-switch becomes the norm for presidential contenders. But environmentalists should not apologize for a president that speaks with a forked tongue on climate change each election year. As Obama said back in 2008, "Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences too serious."
If the more militant wing of the environmental movement starts to gain more global traction, it'll be because those in power have been forced to eat their own words by a political system in dire need of overhaul.
Dissent is a quarterly, left-liberal magazine of politics and culture.
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FX 2 Disc Women's Stagger is a stylish hybrid bike with a classic stepthrough frame geometry that's easier to mount and dismount. Train, commute, or ride for fun with the wide range of speeds, reliable disc brakes that let you stop on a dime in any weather, and touchpoints designed to provide a better fit and feel to women from the start.
It's right for you if...
You want a single bike you can use for fitness rides, commutes, and cruises, and you value the confidence that comes from the superior all-weather stopping power of disc brakes. Like 60% of women, you prefer the fit and feel of a bike that has touch points made specifically for women.
The tech you get
A lightweight Alpha Gold Aluminum frame with step-through geometry that's easier to mount and dismount, hydraulic disc brakes for all-weather stopping power, a Shimano drivetrain with 24 speeds and a wide range of gearing so you're never pedaling too hard or too soft, and mounts that make it easy to accessorize your ride!
The final word
FX 2 Disc Women's Stagger is a stylish, versatile hybrid bike that performs on training rides, trips to the market, or your morning commute. It has endless options for accessories, but what really sets this model apart is the disc brakes, which provide great stopping power in all weather conditions.
Why you'll love it
- The step-through frame makes it easy to hop on and go, and hop off when your ride is over
- More confident braking means bad weather doesn't have to keep you from enjoying your ride
- The cables are routed internally, which protects them from the elements and adds to the bike's sleek look
- It's easy to accessorize with racks, a kickstand, fenders, lights, and more!
- Like every Trek hybrid, it's backed by a lifetime warranty and supported by a wide network of retail partners
|Alpha Gold Aluminum, stagger top tube, DuoTrap S compatible, internal cable routing, flat mount disc, rack & fender mounts, 135x5mm QR
|FX Alloy, flat mount disc, rack mounts, 405mm axle-to-crown, ThruSkew 5mm QR
|1-1/8'' threadless, sealed cartridge bearings
|Bontrager Connection, alloy, double-wall, 32-hole, schrader valve
|14g, stainless
|Bontrager H2, wire bead, 30 tpi, 700x35c
|Forged alloy w/chainguard
|Front Derailleur
|Shimano Tourney TY710, 34.9mm clamp, top swing, dual pull
|Rear Derailleur
|Shimano Acera M360, long cage
|Cassette/Rear Cogs
|Shimano HG31, 11-32, 8 speed
|Shimano Altus M310, 8 speed
|Bontrager alloy, 31.8mm, 15mm rise,
|Bontrager Satellite
|Bontrager alloy, 31.8mm, Blendr compatible, 7 degree
|Tektro HD-R280 hydraulic disc, flat mount, 160mm rotor
|Bontrager Satellite City pedal
|Bontrager Sport Women's
|Seat Post
|Bontrager alloy, 27.2mm, 12mm offset, 330mm length
* Subject to change without notice.


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In some of his research into PHP and Windows recently, Cal Evans has come across two surprising things about the (usually dismissed) combination of the two:
- It actually runs well if setup properly
I don't have a spare computer so I'm not going to discuss performance or show benchmarks. I am talking about ease of use in getting things setup. [...] No, I'm not nearly ready to give up my Linux servers in production and despite Sam Ramji's recent pleas to their open source vendors not to compete on price but compete on value, I can still fail fast and cheap using open source software and operating systems.
- A lot of open source developers just don't trust Microsoft, just because.
I am, however, willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I am part of the slim majority on the above poll who thinks they are sincere. The reason I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt is not because I believe that the core of Microsoft has changed in any way [...] but because I believe that inside of Microsoft, there are pockets of brilliance.
Check out more of Cal's thoughts on the matter and the results of his "unscientific" polls he mentions in the rest of the post.