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There are a large number of statistical methods that have been developed to help study basketball. Most of these can be learned from context, I believe. However, there are a few methods that I feel are vital for the understanding and continued advancement of the studies of the game. These are the Possession Scoring System, a simple way of recording what happens in a basketball game; points per possession ratings; and floor percentages.
The basis for a large number of the methods used herein is the Possession Scoring System, a method I developed for recording what happens in a basketball game. Although most readers can understand all articles presented in JoBS without reading the full description of this scoring system, they will find it much easier to expand upon results by understanding this system. Also, use of the system is important for developing better analysis tools and for increasing the data available for analysis. Finally, since many of the established analysis methods were derived from this scoring system, they will be easier to understand if the Possession Scoring System itself is understood.
The other two methods I referred to are ones that are derived from this scoring system: points per possession rating and floor percentage. A points per possession rating is exactly what it sounds like: points divided by possessions. It can be used for teams or individuals. If you want to know more, you can read about it below or by using the index in the frame to your left. A floor percentage will not be familiar to many people, but it is simply the percentage of possessions on which there is a score (of 1 point, 2 points, or more). It, too, can be used for teams or individuals. If you want to know more, you know what to do.
Other methods used here are similar to those fould in the analysis of baseball, particularly those of Bill James, whose work popularized the study of statistics in sports because it was scientifically solid and entertaining to read.
First, the definitions and corresponding formulas, if applicable, then discussions on the subtleties, implications, and/or derivations of each term and the theory behind it.
(from the article A New Scoring System and A Binomial Model of Basketball)
(A good example of how this method can be used to replay a game is this excerpt from Game 4 of the 1997 Finals.)
The new scoring system we developed is not designed to replace traditional scoring methods, which are quick and efficient for tabulating cumulative statistics. This scoring system, known as the Possession Scoring System, was designed to collect as much information as possible about the game, which means giving up the simple tabulating techniques. All that is really needed to score a game using this system is something to write with, four sheets of lined paper (both sides will likely be used), and a decent understanding of basketball scoring rules. The NBA usually has several people working to keep official stats, but this method only requires one person. That one person, however, must work fast.
The System is very simple. It focuses on the player with the ball, following the ball from player to player until the ball is turned over to the opposition through a shot attempt or turnover. For example, a scoresheet for part of a Detroit-Los Angeles Lakers game might look something like this: [Editor's Note: In the original document, many of the following symbols were in subscripts or superscripts.]
23 LA 32D 4 42 4 32 ++B 22 D 11D 4D 53 ++L 24 LA 45D 32D 42 F10(2) xo 25 D 4D 40 11D +Y3pt 24 LA 32D 42D 4 21 -X 27 D 10R 4D 23 ++R FB 27 LA 32 45D 32D 45 32D -2 32R +L F40(1) o TIME 1:13 27 D 11D 53 11 15 TRVL TO 27 LA 32D 4D 42D -R BK22 27 D 11RD BP TO 29 LA 4STL D 32D 4++R FB 29 D 11D 4D 40 -A 11R +3 29 LA 32 -Y END 1Q
This brief section of a hypothetical scoresheet shows the end of the first quarter between Detroit and Los Angeles. The opening page of the scoresheet would note certain information about the teams, such as which is the home team, their starting lineups, who is favored, the game time, and any other relevant information. For instance, if it was Game 6 of the NBA Championship Series, it would be noted.
On the left is the running score of the game. On the first line, the number 23 appears to the left of 'LA', meaning that the Lakers ended the possession with 23 points. The numbers to the right of 'LA' or 'D' on each line correspond to the jersey numbers of the players as they touch the ball. For example, the first line shows that the Lakers' number 32, Magic Johnson, dribbled (32D), then passed to Byron Scott (number 4), who passed to James Worthy (number 42), who passed back to Scott (4), back to Johnson (32) who made a jump shot on the assist from Scott (4 32 ++B). [The complete Laker possession: 32D 4 42 4 32 ++B] A flat line (-) next to a number indicates that the person with that number shot the ball. If the flat line is crossed vertically (+), then the shot went in. If a second vertical line is present (++), then an assist - officially defined as a pass that "directly leads to a basket" - is credited to the player whose number is listed previous to the one who made the shot. The subscript next to the symbol indicating a shot is a shorthand for where the shot was attempted on the court. In this case, the subscript B means that Johnson took the shot from between the free throw line and the three point line in the middle of the court. All the regions of the court are seen in Figure 1.
On the second line, Detroit has the ball. Isiah Thomas dribbles (11D)
up the court, then passes it to Joe Dumars (4). Dumars dribbles (4D)
then finds James Edwards for a layup from the left side (53 ++L)
for the Pistons' 21st and 22nd points.
[The Detroit possession: 11D 4D 53 ++L]
Next, Los Angeles has the ball again. A.C. Green (45) this time dribbles
the ball up (45D), gives it to Johnson who then maneuvers for
a pass into Worthy. Worthy is fouled by Dennis Rodman, his second (F10(2)),
which sends Worthy to the line for two free throws. He misses the first
(x) and makes the second (o), giving the Lakers a 24-22 lead over the Pistons.
[Laker possession: 45D 32D 42 F10(2) xo]
Then it's Detroit's turn. Dumars dribbles up, passes to Bill Laimbeer
(40), who then gives it up to Thomas. Thomas dribbles around, then takes
and makes a three point shot from straight-away (11 +Y3pt).
No assist was credited, so there is only one vertical line. Detroit leads
[Detroit possession: 4D 40 11D +Y3pt]
Johnson brings the ball up for the Lakers next possession and passes
to Worthy. He dribbles, then finds Scott, who swings it to Michael Cooper
(21). Cooper misses his three point attempt from the left side (21 -X).
[Laker possession: 32D 42D 4 21 -X]
The missed shot is rebounded by Rodman (10R), who outlets
to Dumars streaking up the court. Dumars hits Mark Aguirre on the right
for a fast-break (FB) layup (4D 23 ++R FB).
[Detroit possession: 10R 4D 23 ++R FB]
The Lakers get the ball, down 27-24. Johnson hands the ball to Green
to bring up the court. When Green reaches the front court, he finds Johnson
and Johnson dribbles around. He gets the ball back to Green so that he
can get himself free. Green gives it back to Johnson, who drives to the
basket and misses a shot from the middle of the lane (32D -2).
Johnson gets his own rebound (32R), puts it back up and in with
a foul on Laimbeer to help complete a three point play (32R
+L F40(1) o ). This ties the score at 27 and time
is called (TIME 1:13).
[Laker possession: 32 45D 32D 45 32D -2 32R +L F40(1) o TIME 1:13]
Detroit's Thomas has the ball when play resumes. He dribbles up, passes
to Edwards, who passes it back to Thomas, who finds Vinnie Johnson. Johnson
travels and turns the ball over (15 TRVL TO). The ball goes back to the
Lakers with the score still tied at 27.
[Detroit possession: 11D 53 11 15 TRVL TO]
The Lakers' Johnson brings it up, finds Scott, who then dribbles trying
to free himself and/or pull the defense off Worthy. Worthy gets the ball
from Scott and puts it on the floor going for the layup, but John Salley
is there to block it away (42D -R BK22).
A wasted possession for the Lakers.
[Laker possession: 32D 4D 42D -R BK22]
The ball goes back to Detroit via a Thomas rebound, who starts dribbling
up court looking for another break (11RD). He tries to sneak
a pass past Byron Scott, but instead turns it over on the bad pass (BP
[Detroit possession: 11RD BP TO]
After Scott's steal (4STL ), he dribbles up looking for a
Laker break. He finds Johnson, who then returns the favor by assisting
on a Scott layup (or dunk). The Lakers go ahead 29-27.
[Laker possession: 4STL D 32D 4++R FB]
Detroit comes back looking for the last shot. Thomas dribbles up and
passes to Dumars. Dumars sees the clock running down and drives, kicking
it out to Laimbeer for a jumper from the left side. It misses, but Thomas
is in the right place at the right time for the rebound. He throws up a
high arcing shot from just outside the right side of the key and it falls.
Tied at 29.
[Detroit possession: 11D 4D 40 -A 11R +3]
Magic Johnson throws up a length-of-the-court shot to end the first
quarter. The score remains 29-all.
[Laker final possession: 32 -Y]
In this scoresheet, we tried to demonstrate most of the common situations in basketball. Some other common situations and how they are denoted: Jump balls are simply noted by the word 'Jump' and the numbers of the two players involved. Rebounds that go out of bounds are denoted by ROB. Sometimes it is necessary to note who is inbounding the ball; for instance, if number 22 inbounds the ball and commits a turnover on a bad pass: OB22 BP TO.
Recording all this information during a fast-paced basketball game is not easy, but it becomes fairly routine after practicing a few times. Often during the heat of a game, it is easy to forget to note things like fast breaks or blocked shots, but the fundamental structure of the system - noting who touches the ball and whether they shoot it or pass it - is not difficult to maintain.
An important thing to notice in this demonstration is how teams alternate possession during a game. In this example, the Lakers would score, commit a turnover, or not get a rebound, then Detroit would get the ball. For each opportunity that the Lakers get to score, the Pistons also get a chance. By getting an offensive rebound, a team is seen as 'keeping its opportunity to score alive' rather than 'creating another opportunity'. By scoring this way, possessions are equal for both teams in a game. Just as each team has the same 48 minutes in a game to outscore its opponent, each team also has the same 100 or so possessions in a game with which to outscore its opponent. [Note: This is the same way Albright (1978) defined possessions, but not how Manley (1988) defines them.]
One result of using this scoring method is that we can calculate probabilities of scoring for both teams over an equal number of trials. [Note: In a non-overtime game, it is possible that one team will have as many as two more possessions than its opponents. It appears unlikely, however, that any one team will consistently have more or fewer possessions than its opponents over the course of an 82 game season.] A scoring possession is defined as a possession on which one or more points are scored. A floor percentage (floor%) is then defined as the ratio of scoring possessions to total possessions. Over the course of a season, we can estimate the offensive floor%, ps, and the defensive floor%, pds.
The period of play between when one team gains control of the ball and when the other team gains control of the ball.
FGA=Field Goals Attempted OR=Offensive Rebounds
TO=Turnovers FTA=Free Throws Attempted
This possessions formula is for teams (there is a separate definition for individuals). When applied, a team's offensive and defensive (its opponents' offensive) stats are both run through the formula, then the average is taken. Almost without exception, the two estimates are within one percent of each other at the end of the season, making the averaging a safe procedure.
Without a doubt the most important term to understand thoroughly is possessions. There are two meanings of the term used in this business and it is often difficult to tell which one is which in normal conversation. One meaning is the one given here and the other is the following: "A team is said to have possession when it has uninterrupted and complete control of the ball. A possession ends when a field goal is attempted, when there is a turnover, on a jump ball, or after a free throw that is not the first of two."
Though the definitions are similar, there is one key difference. Under the former definition, teams alternate possession, while under the latter definition, a team can have consecutive possessions by getting an offensive rebound or by winning a jump ball after being tied up by the defense. With the former definition, opposing teams in a game will always have the same number of possessions (or be within two of each other), as happens with the Possession Scoring System. With the latter, a team that gets a lot of offensive rebounds will have more 'possessions' with which to score than their opposition if the opposition doesn't get many offensive rebounds.
The definition to get to know is the former one, which I'll call Definition A. In retrospect, I suppose that I could have done my research with the latter one (Definition B), but I did not and I believe it would have been less valuable as a tool.
The benefits of definition A become clear when using possessions to rate offenses and defenses, an invaluable exercise in getting to know basketball. Picture the two following situations: 1) A player brings the ball upcourt, takes a twenty foot jump shot and makes it. 2) A player brings the ball upcourt, takes a twenty foot jump shot and misses, but a teammate rebounds, misses the stickback, then gets his own rebound and finally puts in a layup. The first situation involves one scoring possession and one total possession regardless of which possession definition is used. The second situation has one scoring possession and one total possession using Definition A for possessions. Using the other meaning, the second situation involves one scoring possession and three total possessions.
Which situation represented the better offense? An offense's job is to score as many points as possible before the opponents take control of the ball (go on offense). If you can agree to that, then situations 1 & 2 represent offenses with equal efficiency. Both times the offense came away with two points before the opponents played offense. Looking at it another way, in the first situation, the offense did one 'good' thing (made one shot) and nothing 'bad'. In the second situation, the offense did three 'good' things (one field goal and two offensive rebounds) and two 'bad' things (two missed field goal attempts), netting one 'good' thing. Looking at end results ("the end justifies the means" is a great expression in this case), it can't be disputed that the situations represent offenses of equal quality.
Using the strict definition of floor %, scoring possessions divided by total possessions, efficiencies can be calculated for each situation for both meanings of possession. In the first situation, either definition of possession yields a floor % of 1/1= 100%. In the second situation, floor %= 1/1= 100% using Definition A of possessions and floor %= 1/3= 33% with Definition B. Agreeing above that both offenses are equal, floor % is not a useful measure of quality with Definition B possessions. As a matter of fact, it would be difficult to come up with a stat that used Definition B possessions in any way to truly measure quality. Therefore, you can forget Definition B possessions. All references to possessions hereafter are meant as Definition A possessions.
Any possession on which at least one point was scored.
There are a few methods:
I generally calculate individual scoring possessions and sum them up, though this isn't practical if you need a rough first approximation.
Scoring possessions divided by possessions. The percentage of a team's possessions on which it scored at least one point.
There are a few ways:
This is complicated and I will be adding the full details soon.
Floor %, as already mentioned, is used to measure offensive efficiency. The not so obvious reason it can be used that way is because almost all scoring possessions for all teams involve two points being scored, not one point or three points. A normal game might have one team scoring on 58 of 100 possessions and the other scoring on 53 of 100 possessions. The team scoring on 58% of its possessions will win 99% of the time (that's an educated guess not based on scores of hundreds of games). The only ways the team with the 53% floor % will win is by making enough three pointers and/or by having several of the 58 opponent's scoring possessions be worth only one point (making only one of two free throws). A typical score for this game would be 116-106. It might be 114-108 or 117-105, but any difference smaller than about six points or larger than about fourteen would be very unusual.
It was originally intended to be an approximation to a team's floor percentage. Now it is only defined by its equation.
Floor %= (FG+OR)/(FGA+TO)
Scoring possessions divided by possessions minus offensive rebounds. This serves as an estimate of how well a team scores if they never got an offensive rebound.
Play %= [FG+0.4*FTA*(FG%*FG%+2*FG%*(1-FG%))]/(FGA+0.4*FTA+TO)
Points divided by possessions times 100. Also called simply "Rating". A related term is Adjusted Points per Game
Points per possession= Points scored or allowed/possessions
This is complicated and will be explained here soon.
Points per possession is the best way available to measure the quality of offenses and defenses. The method takes into account points scored, field goal percentage, turnovers, offensive rebounds, and free throw percentage - everything (except for assists and, maybe, fouls) that can justifiably be looked at in measuring offensive or defensive quality. Possessions, as they were defined previously, make such a complete measurement possible. Repeating what is so important: When a team has the ball, its whole purpose is to score as many points as possible before it becomes the defense. If it were easily accomplished, teams would try to get fouled every time, miss the last free throw, get the offensive rebound, try to get fouled, miss the last free throw, etc., never having to play defense. Score lots of points in a possession and you are not giving the opposition a chance to catch up. The most common way to do that now is to score two points every time down the court. Points per possession shows which offenses do it best and which defenses stop it best.
In practice, points per possession (the number), is rarely used. Numbers like 1.071, which result by dividing points by possessions, are troublesome to handle with three numbers after the decimal and a leading 1. The overall rating (also called the study rating and points per 100 possessions) just multiplies points per possession by 100 to get aesthetically more normal numbers. It is often used in comparing offenses or defenses from different seasons. Adjusted points per game multiplies points per possession by the league average for possessions per team per game to reflect both the quality of the team and the average game pace in the league for that season.
As an example, the best offense of the '73-74 season was Milwaukee's with an offensive rating of 99.3, meaning that the Bucks and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar scored 99.3 points per 100 possessions. A normal NBA game in '73-74 had each of the opposing teams using 110.0 possessions to score their points. In such a normal game, the Bucks would score about 109 points (109.2 to be more exact) against an average defense. The Bucks actually employed a very slow pace that season, averaging only 107.9 possessions per game, meaning that they normally didn't score 109.2 points in a game. There were so many teams that had faster paces than the Bucks that seven teams scored more total points. But the Bucks did it better. Milwaukee led the league in field goal percentage and assists and did well in offensive rebounds. The Bucks' 99.3 rating, though it led the league would now be among the worst in the NBA. New Jersey had an offensive rating of 99.9, which was second to last in '87-88. Because the pace of the game is so much slower now, the Nets adjusted points per game rating was 101.7, much lower than the Bucks' 109.2.
Adjusted PPG is just points per possession times the league average of possessions per team per game. This scales its yearly average to be the same as the league average for PPG.
Adjusted field goal percentage is just a real simple modification of field goal percentage that gives proportional extra credit for making three pointers. It has special uses for three point specialists and also helps to identify where a problem might be in a team's offense.
An adjustment made to field goal percentage giving three-halves credit for three point shots made. It adjust field goal percentage by the weight of three pointers to two pointers.
Adj FG%= (Total FG+0.5*3ptFG)/Total FGA
A method that gives an expected winning percentage using the fact that the ratio of a team's wins and losses is related to the number of points scored by the team raised to some exponent, which is usually taken to be 16.5. Other methods use 13, 16.1, or 17.
Expected Winning %=(Pts scored)^(16.5)/[Pts scored^(16.5) + Pts allowed^(16.5)]
The Pythagorean 16.5 Method was derived from the corresponding method in baseball used by Bill James. 'Derived' may not be the proper word because I'm not sure if I knew what I was doing when the formula came out. You see, the corresponding baseball formula is identical to the basketball formula except that the exponents are 2's instead of 16.5's. What the derivation entailed was estimating average margins of victory for both sports and playing around with the logarithm button on a calculator. The number 16.76... came up on the first try. My expectations were for something between 13 and 20, so 16.76 was originally rounded up to 17 and tested as a valid possibility. It was then replaced by 16.5 after a more thorough empirical study. Martin Manley looked into this issue and came out with 16.1 as the exponent. I saw someone else use 13 as the exponent. I use 16.5 through most of JoBS, but that will be changing due to the development of the Binomial Method for doing the same thing as this does.
The principle behind the method - that a team's won-loss record is closely related to the number of points it scores and allows - should be no surprise. It just makes sense that teams that win 60 games outscore their opponents by more than teams that win 50 do. However, one of the things that the Binomial Method has added is that consistency also plays a role. Teams that win 60 games do not have to outscore their opponents by more on average than teams that win 50. They just need to be more consistent from game to game.
On the other hand, luck resulting from 'well-timed scoring' is a weak force in the NBA. It doesn't separate the good teams from the bad teams; it just separates two teams of similar quality. Taking the luckiest and unluckiest teams in the NBA, we usually find a total deviation of 10 to 13 wins. Luck has a place in basketball, just as the weather has a place in football and as Wrigley Field has a place in baseball. Each has an effect on the game, but, in the long run, the better teams win with or without the advantage or disadvantage of such factors. (In the short run, like the playoffs, luck can be pretty important. Witness the 1995 Houston Rockets.)
Occasionally luck plays a major part in a team's season. The '85-86 Clippers won 32 games, while their point totals led to an expectation of only 21 wins. A third of their victories (!) came out of the Twilight Zone. The '86-87 Clippers came back to reality, going through a pitiful 12-70 season in a daze. The '86-87 Warriors exceeded their Pythagorean projection by eight games, winning 42 instead of 34 games. They, too, crashed the following season, winning only 20. Both the Clippers and Warriors lost key personnel in their follow-up seasons, but neither ever showed any signs of life anyway. This sort of collapse can be seen throughout the history of basketball, but it's also seen in baseball (and probably other sports). The baseball people called this the Johnson Effect. It's the same effect in basketball so it gets the same name.
This is a very useful method for determining how often Team A, with a winning percentage of X, will beat Team B, with a winning percentage of Y. It can be modified to account for other factors, such as home court advantage, etc. (This all comes from Bill James' Baseball Abstracts.)
In a 0.500 league, i.e., where all we have are the overall records and no information about home court advantage, etc.:
Win%A_B = [Win%A*(1-Win%B)]/[Win%A*(1-Win%B)+(1-Win%A)*Win%B],
where Win%A_B is the chance that A will beat B, Win%A is A's winning percentage against the league, and Win%B is B's winning percentage against the league.
In a non-0.500 league, things are different. For example, if Team A is the home court team and Win%H is the percentage of times the home team wins, we have
Win%A_B = [Win%A*(1-Win%B)*Win%H]/[Win%A*(1-Win%B)*Win%H+(1-Win%A)* Win%B*(1-Win%H)]
For example, say the Lakers are 8-2 and the Celtics are 5-5 and they are playing on the Lakers' court. The league's home court teams win 60% of the time. Then, ignoring the home court advantage, we estimate the Lakers' chance of beating the Celtics as (0.8)*(1-0.5)/[0.8*(1-0.5)+ (1-0.8)*0.5]=0.8, or 80%. Incorporating the league home court advantage gives the Lakers' chance of winning as (0.8)*(1-0.5)*(0.6)/[0.8*(1-0.5)*0.6+(1-0.8)*0.5*(1-0.6)]=0.857, or 85.7%.
This method approximates the winning percentage of a team (and an individual, eventually, I hope) using a binomial distribution and its properties. A basic outline of the concept is in this paper. A second and more recent application of it is the Bell Curve Paper.
A baseball (sabermetric) term that has applications in basketball. It states: "The tendency of teams that exceed their Pythagorean projection for wins in one season to relapse in the following season." (From The Baseball Abstract)
The tendency for teams that improve or decline by a significant number of games from one season to another to rebound in the original direction the following season.
An integer estimate of a player's value, making no fine distinctions, but, rather, distinguishing easily between very good seasons, average seasons, and poor seasons. There are two ways to calculate approximate value (AV). One uses rules and is explained below. The other is based on a statistic devised by Martin Manley called credits. Both methods produce essentially the same results.
The formula for credits comes from Martin Manley. It is very similar to other linear methods, such as Tendex, HoopStat Grade, and all the other flavors of linear weights floating around, some using the name Tendex (poor Dave Heeren). I would suggest that we can modify any of them for use in my AV method, but I haven't done it. Nor will I likely do it since I think they are all approximations and any argument for or against any of them having to do with accuracy is pointless.
Credits= PTS+REB+AST+STL+BLK-FG MISSED-FT MISSED-TO
AV= Credits^(3/4)/21
Before the '73-74 season, steals (STL), blocks (BLK), and turnovers weren't kept as official stats. In the credits formula for player seasons before '73-74, those stats are just omitted as they tend to cancel each other out to some degree when included anyway.
If a player makes first team or second team All-Defense, then one point is added to AV.
The Value Approximation Method was a major task to come up with, taking me about two months to finally arrive at satisfactory results. The plan for the method was to end up with a scale of integers between 0 and about 20 rating players, with 10 representing an 'average' player. It was to be based upon several standards a player was to meet in order to gain points of approximate value. The whole thing was modeled on Bill James' Value Approximation method for baseball. As James did, I assigned verbal descriptions to ranges of scores in order to see if the method produced results that matched general descriptions of players. Those descriptions are as follows:
After all the work to produce rules and standards that would fit the above descriptions, Martin Manley soon came along with a better method to approximate basketball players' values. He called it a Production Rating. Production Rating (PR) was defined by him as credits (as defined by formula earlier) per game. I fooled around with PR a little in hopes of deriving a points created formula, but soon found it to be a fruitless task. Instead, a simple way to calculate approximate values came out.
AV= Credits^(3/4)/21 + 1 if All-Defense
In my conversations with Mr. Manley about this manipulation of his method to fit the verbal descriptions and range of scores above, he pointed out a couple of things. First, he thought that instead of using credits, a player's PR*82 should be used. For players who played a full 82 games, there would be no difference, but for players like Magic Johnson or Adrian Dantley last year, who missed quite a few games, there might be a difference of about two on the AV scale. His reasoning for this suggestion was that "stats on a per game basis is so basketballish whereas total season stats are so baseballish...no one cares how many total points Jordan scored [in '86-87] - only that it was 37.1 per game." The second suggestion Mr. Manley made was that the conversion be simpler, dividing credits by 130 rather than raising credits to the 3/4th power and dividing by 21.
Both suggestions have their merit, but there are reasons not to implement them. His first suggestion to replace credits with PR*82 I hesitate to use for one main reason. While per game stats may be more 'basketballish', they do not represent a player's total value to his team over a whole season, which is what AV tries to measure. No matter how good a player is, if he isn't playing, he isn't contributing to wins and isn't valuable to his team. In the ten games Magic Johnson missed last season, he did not contribute anything to the Lakers (at least nothing we can measure). In those ten games, someone else (Wes Matthews or Milt Wagner) came in to contribute. In a game, Magic Johnson contributes more to the Lakers than Matthews or Wagner does, but, in those ten games, Johnson's value was 0, while the other two put points on the board and were valuable to the Lakers. Potentially, Johnson's value was a lot more than Matthew's or Wagner's, but, to use a cliche (sorry), potential never won a game for anyone. Ask the coaches of Dennis Hopson, Chris Washburn, Benoit Benjamin, Reggie Williams, Ralph Sampson, Darryl Dawkins, Kent Benson, J.B. Carroll, Mychal Thompson, Len Bias or any player who ever had the 'potential' to be one of the best.
Mr. Manley's second suggestion comes down to simplicity and a little more. Dividing by 130 is simpler than doing what I do until you realize that all conversions are unnecessary once ranges of credits are written next to the corresponding AV. (Heck, we do everything with computers these days anyway! What's the big deal?) From 562.5 to 702.8 credits, the corresponding AV is 6. From 702.9 to 850.5, the corresponding AV is 7. Calculate credits, look on a chart for corresponding AV. That's simple enough. Numerically, the conversion methods don't differ too much until you get to great players with high numbers of credits. Wilt Chamberlain's '61-62 season gives an AV of 25 using the method in this book and an AV of 32 using Mr. Manley's suggestion of dividing by 130. Both are tremendous values and there is almost no reason to argue over the difference because Wilt's '61-62 season was clearly the best ever statistically. What it comes down to is this: the best baseball player ever, Babe Ruth, racked up AV's (using James' method) around 25-27 and if we say that Chamberlain dominated his sport as much as Ruth did his ("Chamberlain was the Babe Ruth of basketball"), then their best AV's should be about the same.
The purpose of the Value Approximation method is to quickly produce a useful number that represents the sum of all of a player's obvious contributions. In studies involving large groups of players, AV's are the most convenient way to quantify approximately how valuable the players are. If we wanted to find out how well a team drafts, we could add the career AV's of all the players they've drafted and compare that to the total for other teams. If we wanted to find out what position in the NBA was the position with the most valuable players, we'd use AV's and we might see how this compares with the NBA of 15 years ago. If we wanted to find out how productive the bench is on NBA teams, we might use AV's. There are many studies waiting to be done that could use the Value Approximation method to make them a little easier.
PtsCreated = a*PTS+b*AST+c*OR+d*DR+e*STL+f*BLK -g*TO-h*(FGA-FGM)-i*(FTA-FTM) -j*PF-k*FF-l*DQIn some versions of this formula, the result is scaled by a factor that accounts for whether the team (or the player's team, if it's applied to a player) played at a faster or slower pace than normal. I generally assign the value of 1 to each of the weights, a through i, and 0 to the others.
Linear weights are a simple way to approximately account for a large number of things a player does, both positively and negatively. Because they are simple and because they account for a large number of things, I use them in my approximate value method. However, as an instrument to study strategy or detailed aspects of the game, linear weights are generally inadequate. For one thing, the game of basketball is not linear, meaning that an increase in a positive statistic does not lead to a constant increase in points or wins, even in an expected value (probabilistic) sense. There is a statistical correlation between, say, blocks and points, but do we have any good reason to believe that 10 blocked shots in a game will mean twice as many points to our team than 5 blocked shots will? Even if it did "mean twice as many points", why is this simply added to the linear weights formula since blocks contribute defensively to taking away potential points allowed? Just by the fact that various people have assigned different weights to each of the components indicates that either the weights are not very well known or that they change for different people or teams (making it nonlinear) -- both cases invalidating the use of the tool for analysis.
That being said, linear weights are ideal for approximate value methods, which are great for performing studies involving large numbers of players and their overall contributions. For example, studying trades or free agent signings over a period of time or for many teams can use approximate value methods. A general look at the development of players as they age might use linear weights.
An estimate using a player's age and his approximate value to determine how much value a player has left in his career.
Y= 27-0.75*Age
Trade Value= (AV-Y)2(Y+1)AV/190 + AV*Y2/13
A player's Y factor represents an estimate of how many seasons he has left to play and is always assumed to be at least one and a half years.
Another application of AV's is in the determination of trade values. Trade values, because they take into account both age and production, can be a good indicator of the future success of a team. Teams like Chicago, Cleveland, Sacramento, Portland, New York, and Seattle are all young clubs with high trade values and seem to have good futures. Teams like Denver, Detroit, Milwaukee, and, of course, Boston seem to be facing bad years within the next three years or so as they see their best players turning a little gray and their young players not producing.
Trade value will probably be an important part of one of my more ambitious (and unrealistic?) projects for the future, which is to devise a method that would give an approximate percent chance that a certain team will win a championship in one year, two years, three years, etc. Every year, magazines and newspapers give us their predictions for the coming season and they can be fairly accurate. Teams like New York and Cleveland that have so much young talent inspire questions about a more distant future, though. Of course, the farther in the future you look the less detail you can see and basketball predictions are an uncertain 'science' to begin with. Predictions, though, are an inevitable and unavoidable part of studying basketball from the point of view I've taken. The test of real sciences - physics, biology, chemistry - is not how well they can explain things that have already happened, but whether they can predict outcomes of future experiments. That is the general direction some of the research herein is going. Predictions may in fact be self-defeating because of the psychology involved, but they're worth trying.


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The idea for the cafe has been marinating for the past six or seven years, Gloria Justiniano says. She and her sisters Roxana and Fatima — 3G's stands for three girls — spent years fine-tuning family recipes and testing them out at potlucks before deciding to open the cafe.
"Everybody loved the food," Justiniano says. "We thought, why not provide these flavors to the community?"
They took the leap this summer, opening 3G's at the end of August. They've relied mostly on word-of-mouth, Justiniano says.
"Today we got 11 students from Stanford, all from Bolivia," she says. "They were waiting for the saltenas."
The saltenas ($3-$3.25) are made from a family recipe that goes back generations. Her mom, Elva, oversees the two-day process of making the savory pastry pockets, similar to empanadas. A tender, slightly sweet dough is filled with beef or chicken stew in a light gravy, and baked until golden. They're all made by hand, because there's no mechanized way to create the dough and seal in the gravy so it doesn't leak out, Justiniano says. She makes a face at the thought of a dry saltena that's lost its juicy filling.
The hearty saltenas are eaten all day long, hot or cold, as breakfast or a snack, although few Bolivians make them at home, she says. "When I visit back home, I go straight from the airport" to get a saltena, she says.
The cafe also offers more typical fare, with made-to-order sandwiches, salads, cookies and scones. But there are also slices of brazo de gitano ($1.85), a light white cake rolled around a thick, caramel-colored filling of dulce de leche. Crumbly alfajores ($1), cookies sandwiched around dulce de leche and rolled in shredded coconut, share a pastry case with chocolate chip cookies.
The cunapes ($1.50) are similar to a savory cheese biscuit, but are made with yucca instead of flour, which gives them an unusual texture. Pan de arroz ($1.50) is a sticky pancake made of rice flour studded with chunks of cheese that's baked on a banana leaf. The peanut and quinoa soups ($3.25-$4.25) are also typical Bolivian fare, although the creamy-smooth blended texture comes from Justiniano's family recipe.
While many of the menu items won't be found at a Starbucks or Peet's, Justiniano says there's been a great response, and a surprising number of people who are familiar with the dishes.
"We're surprised: The community has really responded," she says. "I'm encouraged."
Besides seeing homesick Bolivians, 3G's is welcoming a lot of patrons from Central America, Chile, Argentina and Peru, she says.
"Many of the items are the same, but have different names," Justiniano says. "In our heads, it's close enough; it reminds us of home."
While the weekday crowd is mostly people who work nearby, on the weekends people living in the nearby neighborhood venture into 3G's, often to check out the weekend specials, where Justiniano and her sisters test out new recipes.
Recent weekend specials have been pico de gallina, chicken with spicy red sauce served with rice; and majado, a rice dish with dried beef that's topped with egg and fried plantains.
On Sundays, shoppers at the California Avenue farmers market have begun to discover 3G's, Justiniano says.
Justiniano and her sisters don't have any previous experience in the restaurant business — one sister is a dentist, the other does medical billings, and Justiniano quit her job as a dental assistant to work full-time at 3G's.
Make that more than full-time.
Since its opening, Justiniano has been putting in 16- or 18-hour days. Her sisters work in the cafe on weekends, and they all pitch in to make the pastries, soups and other dishes 3G's serves.
"We were well-prepared to work hard," she says. "It's fun, but it's hard work."
Part of that is because everything is made fresh daily. "We don't have a microwave," she says, gesturing toward the small space behind the counter that's dominated by a large oven. "I'm that type of person."
3G's doesn't have full breakfasts because there's no stove, and Justiniano isn't interested in using the microwaveable egg-mixes available.
While she said it's been surprisingly easy to find local sources that carry specialty ingredients like yucca flour, quinoa and yerba mate, getting other Bolivian specialties has been a little more frustrating. She says she's been trying to get Buena Vista coffee from Bolivia, and the coca tea won't get past customs in Miami. "I keep banging my head against the wall," she says.
Despite the challenges, Justiniano seems confident that 3G's is going to be a success. "We got some regulars from day one," she says. "We're trying to create that atmosphere."
Working in a dentist's office, she appreciated the friendly atmosphere, where she not only knew her patients, she knew their children and their families, too.
"I like that environment and I want to create the same kind here," she says.
3G's Cafe
456 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto
Hours: Weekdays 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Sat.-Sun., 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
3.3 pounds grated cheese, such as queso fresco
1.1 pounds yucca (also known as cassava or tapioca) starch
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons milk
salt to taste
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix grated cheese, yucca starch, sugar and salt (if the cheese is not salty). Finally add milk, pouring little by little until you have a smooth, but not dry, dough.
3. Place dough on a work surface sprinkled with some yucca starch. Knead until the dough is smooth and even.
4. Make small balls. With your finger, make a small hole at the bottom of each ball. Place the cunapes in a yucca-starch-sprinkled baking sheet, with the hole in direct contact with the sheet.
5. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cunapes are golden.
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subset: commoncrawl


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ORLANDO, Fla. -- The message at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo is to prepare for a fast move to augmented reality, the decline of mobile apps, and a major shift away from web browsing to voice interaction.
Many users will expect businesses, universities and governments to respond to these shifts, the market research firm said at its annual conference.
Here's what Gartner sees arriving soon:
1. By 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality environments.
AR will be "overlaying data on top of environments," said Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer. For instance, when you walk into a grocery store, "all the data about the different items will be floating in the air in front of those items," he said. The bulky and boxy glasses that customers need to see the augmented reality at the store will get more fashionable and will be easier to wear. AR also will be used in online shopping.
By 2017, Gartner expects that one in five leading global retail brands will be deploying AR.
People already are seeing a form of AR on televised football games, namely the first-down line marker illustrated by a yellow, virtual stripe.
2. By 2020, "the average person will have more conversations with bots than with their spouse."
More practically for IT managers, what this shift to voice means is that in four years, 30% of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen. Users of Amazon's Alexa voice service, which comes with its Echo device, are already doing this.
The growing reliance of voice communications to interact with the internet raises big questions, said Aren Cambre, the web technologies team lead at Southern Methodist University, who attended the presentation.
"We have been thinking of visual representations of data," said Cambre, but how will this "nonvisual-interaction" method of getting services work?
"Let's say a student wants to check his grades through Alexa. How do we authenticate the student?" Cambre said. "There are some tricky questions and important questions" that have to be answered, he said.
3. By 2019, 20 percent of major brands will abandon their mobile apps.
Companies will stop using apps as the first point of marketing for their brand, Plummer said. Apps aren't producing the results businesses thought they would, he said.
"There are so many apps in the app stores," said Plummer, that "it's very difficult amongst all the noise to find the apps that are really great. The cost is still higher than the benefit."
Instead, businesses will turn to the mobile web or will use approaches such as "Progressive Web Apps," which Google is doing. When you connect to a website using a mobile device, a mobile framework is downloaded to the client and begins to run, and the next time you connect, it runs instantly, Plummer said. Updates will be automatic.
Apps won't disappear, but "we're in the post-app era," he said.
4. Businesses will use algorithms to "positively alter the behavior of billions of global workers."
These systems will work like a virtual assistant, but will use behavioral and psychological knowledge to help employees make appropriate decisions.
5. By 2022, there will be a blockchain services business that will be worth at least $10 billon.
Blockchain, a public ledger of financial transactions, will improve and lead to development of "large community-sharing transactions."
Because it helps to increase transparency and trust in transactions, blockchain will lead to development of large "ecosystems," or business networks that will use it.
6. By 2021, 20 percent of all activities in which an individual engages will involve at least one of the top seven digital giants.
Those companies are Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon in the U.S., and Chinese firms Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. It means consumers will be more reliant on the services of large digital services business than ever before -- becoming as essential as utilities.
7. Spending on innovation won't be cheap. Gartner estimates that for every $1 earmarked for innovation, it will take another $7 to execute. Why? Because data centers aren't modernized, and new and unfamiliar technologies may be needed, such as machine learning.
The new technologies will mean that skills also will have to be improved, Plummer said.
8. IoT data will result in a small increase in storage demand. The internet of things will produce a lot of data, but by 2018 that data will increase storage demand by less than 3 percent. The reason is most IoT data won't be retained, and algorithms will determine what data needs to be saved.
9. By 2022, the IoT will save consumers and businesses $1 trillion a year. Sensors, for instance, will be used for such services as predicting when hardware maintenance is needed.
10. The use of fitness trackers will increase. By 2020, Gartner estimates that 40 percent of employees can cut their healthcare costs by wearing a fitness tracker.


text:
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text:
Born in Lerida, Spain, the artist and journalist Alfons López has been active in comics since the late 1970's. Some of his most important series have been 'Atasco Star' (in collaboration with Rafel Vaquer), 'Acción Directa' and 'Pepa'. López has worked for numerous publications in Europe, among them the Spanish TBO, Rambla and Cimoc; the French Fluide Glacial, the Italian Totem Comic, and the German U-Comix.
He's also a promoting member of the Comics Salon in Barcelona, as well as director of Angelitos Negros magazine. In 2004, he created 'La Saga de Chavez' (2004) with Manel Fontdevila, an album published by Ediciones Glenat.


text:
MANAUS, Brazil – Mario Balotelli scored with a second-half header Saturday to give Italy a 2-1 win over England at the World Cup.
The Italy striker was left unmarked by Gary Cahill and nodded a cross from Antonio Candreva past goalkeeper Joe Hart in the 50th minute.
Claudio Marchisio opened the scoring for Italy, sending a long shot through a crowded area and past a diving Hart in the 35th. Daniel Sturridge equalized for England two minutes later, tapping in a cross from Wayne Rooney.
The win puts Italy in a strong position to qualify for the second round, and leaves England with plenty to do in its remaining two matches.
In the other Group D match, Costa Rica beat Uruguay 3-1, leaving the 2010 semifinalists with a similarly difficult task to advance.


text:
As an independent importer and distributor of ceramic tile, natural stone and allied products, Bedrosians has the pick of the lot when it comes to product selection and distribution. We comb the world to find the finest quality tiles and stones that satisfy the latest design trends. And since we are independent, this gives us great flexibility in providing the ceramic tile or natural stone that best meets any project's requirements.
What are people saying about Bedrosians® Tile
4285 North Golden State BoulevardFresno CA 93722
Suggested Links


text:
The Aromatic category focus on aquatic, fruity, green, spicy, resinous, or woody notes, which are frequently used in men's scents. It also includes Fougère, a traditional men's perfume style which typically includes notes of lavender,oakmoss and coumarin in the mix.
|Aromatic Aquatic or Green
|Aromatic Floral or Fruity
|Aromatic Spicy or Woody
|Aromatic Fougère


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Marion Barry: Ladies' Man
The Washington City Paper has landed a treasure-trove of voicemails and other recordings documenting the ongoing episode of COPS that is former D.C. mayor Marion Barry's relationship with the girlfriend he was arrested for stalking on Saturday.
Donna Watts-Brighthaupt is a former lobbyist with terrible, tragic taste in men. Barry hired her last year as his driver and personal assistant, and took her with him to the Democratic National Committee in Denver. "For reasons that remain murky," the City Paper reports, she was booked to stay in the same hotel room as Barry. While Barack Obama was busy restoring the nation's hope and offering a path forward out of our racial morass, Barry was busy, in the words of his girlfriend, putting her out because she wouldn't suck his dick. That's from an audiotape a fight between Barry and Watts-Brighthaupt, supplied to the paper by her ex-husband.
According to the paper, after Watts-Brighthaupt refused do the honors, he threw her clothes out of the room and forced her to sleep in his rented Cadillac in the hotel's parking garage.
But Barry's tender opening gambit eventually paid off, and the two started dating, which for Barry means leaving a bizarre and deluded succession of voicemail messages for his best gal, copies of which the City Paper has posted online. A sampling:
- "I'm gone. I'm not gonna think about it anymore. I'm not gonna worry about it like I used to, not gonna pray about it, not gonna do nothing....You don't even exist. Goodbye, good luck, God bless you."
- "Donna, this thing's gotten outta hand. That's too bad. I don't want to continue talking to you about anything and I don't want to press no charges, I don't wanna do nothin'. I just want to be left alone and so you oughtta do the same thing. Don't call me."
- "Donna, you don't have to answer your home phone....Don't call me back. I will not take a call from you; I'm not gonna call you, so this is it."
- "Donna, call me....I'd like to apologize and settle this matter."
There's also this gem, from a recording of an argument between the lovebirds, spoken by Watts-Brighthaupt:
You made me fuck you up in the middle of a Las Vegas casino. I had my shoes off. We were like fucking Tina and Ike Turner.
Where do you go after you've introduced such pitch-perfect generational catchphrases as "The Goddamn bitch set me up" and "You put me out in Denver because I wouldn't suck your dick" to the world?
And how does a paper that does work this beautiful—look at that cover!—end up in bankruptcy? It's a sad, crazy world, kids.


text:
In the wake of the massive, destructive tsunami in Japan, AT&T is offering wired and wireless billing relief for calls made on AT&T between March 11th and March 31st. Under the plan, AT&T wireless postpaid customers will not be charged for international long distance or text messages to Japan from the US and Puerto Rico. Residential wireline customers can even receive credits for up to 60 minutes of direct dialing to Japan.
For more information, please visit AT&T's corporate page.


text: China is scratching its head over why the U.S. is opposing a new anti-terror law relating to cybersurveillance when the U.S. and other countries have also requested that tech companies hand over data to help stop terrorists.On Wednesday, China's parliamentary spokeswoman tried to play down the impact the proposed legislation might have on foreign tech businesses, in the face of U.S. fears it would require companies to hand over sensitive data to the country's government.The anti-terror law is still under review, but if passed, it would require tech companies to give encryption keys to the authorities, and create "back doors" into their systems for government surveillance access.On Monday, President Barack Obama said in an interview with Reuters that he's urged the country to change the legislation, and even raised the matter directly with China's president."We have made it very clear to them that this is something they are going to have to change if they are to do business with the United States," Obama said.But on Wednesday, Fu Ying, the spokeswoman of China's National People's Congress, said that the U.S. probably misunderstands the proposed regulations.To prevent and investigate terrorist activities, the legislation asks that the government be allowed to leverage Internet and telecommunication technology, she said at a news conference."This approach is also common with international practice, and will not affect the legitimate interests of Internet firms," Fu said. Under the proposed legislation, only Chinese security forces will be privy to the surveillance data."In reality, the U.S., U.K., and other Western countries have spent many years demanding that tech companies disclose their encryption methods," Fu said.The U.S., in particularly, has faced controversy for spying on communications across the world, including China, according to leaks from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.Following the leaks, China has made cybersecurity a national priority. Last year, the government announced it would develop a "vetting system" to weed out secret spying systems from important IT products sold in the country.China's new regulations have the potential to shut out U.S. tech businesses from the market, according to analysts.On Wednesday, Fu struck a more conciliatory tone and said U.S. enterprises have played a crucial role in China's economic development. "We also especially hope that foreign businesses will be able to continue to support, and participate in our reform process," she said, adding that the Chinese government will listen to input on refining the anti-terror legislation.But Fu also said that she was well aware that the U.S. has imposed its own restrictions on Chinese business in the past. She pointed to one example of a Chinese sausage maker even facing a U.S. government security probe after it wanted to supply pork from the country."The U.S. tends to treat Chinese companies with this kind of attention and restriction often, according to the views from our businesses," Fu said.


text:
East Providence, RI — igus®, an expert in triboplastics, has released a new polymer plain bearing that is fire retardant and classified according to UL94 with V0 standards. iglide® GV0 has exceptional physical and thermal properties, boasting a maximum short-term application temperature of 410 degrees Fahrenheit and a maximum long-term application temperature of 266 degrees Fahrenheit. iglide GV0 offers similar all-round properties to igus' standard plastic bearing material iglide G300, such as an extremely high load capacity at low to medium sliding velocities, and excellent wear resistance on most shaft materials. The additional V0 classification means this cost-effective material is suitable for use in areas with high fire-protection regulations, including aircraft, automobile and rail vehicle interiors, as well as elevator and escalator technology.
For more information, please visit www.igus.com.


text:
Desk phone. Home phone. SIP phone. Personal cell phone. Company cell phone. In today's world, we have a lot of options on how and where we take our calls — and when running a business, phone calls are money. If you can't get the call, no matter where you are, you lose business, which means you lose money! Therefore, it was a BIG surprise to learn that one of the major players in the virtual phone system market no longer offers "Follow Me Calling" style call forwarding. Isn't call forwarding through "Follow Me Calling" one of the main reasons people choose a virtual phone system?
Not only is "Follow Me Calling" extremely important to your business, it's extremely easy to setup and manage with Virtual PBX. With "Follow Me Calling", your virtual phone system will find you at whatever phone numbers you have selected. It's like "telestalking", but different. For example, you can configure your extension to try your desk phone for 20 seconds, then if no answer, try your cell phone for 20 seconds. This appears seamless to your callers. All they need to do is dial your extension — let Virtual PBX handle the rest. Don't worry, we'll find you.
With Virtual PBX, there are no complex "call rules". Setting up "Follow Me Calling" is as easy as 1-2-3. Just login to your system and click on the Call Routing tab:
1. Enter your contact numbers in the Contact Phone Numbers section.
2. Click the checkbox next to Use Follow-Me Calling in the lower right section.
3. Click the UPDATE button to save your changes.
That's all there is to it. However, we don't stop there — we also allow you to set the Ring Duration for each contact phone number, so you can control just how long your Virtual PBX will try each number. This setting is found on the Advanced Configuration page of the CALL ROUTING tab.
If you don't see what is shown in the graphic above, please talk to your Virtual PBX System Administrator and have them allow extension owners to override the system Ring Duration setting.
So the lesson here is that not only is "Follow Me Calling" extremely important to your business, but with Virtual PBX its as easy as 1-2-3 to setup and manage. With Virtual PBX handling your calls properly, you get to spend more time on what matters — your business!
*NOTE: Approximately 98% of this post, including images, was written on an Apple iPad using the WordPress and Photogene apps.


text: Getting a job with the State of California is now simpler than ever. Start by creating a CalCareer account. With an account, you can take state civil service examinations, store different versions of your application, apply for vacancies at 150 departments, track your application status and save your resume all in one place.


text: Spanish born Marcos Calo began his career working for various Spanish animation studios as a concept artist for CGI movies. During that time he also worked freelance doing illustration, commercial work and occasionally comic books. Marcos usually works digitally, although he still likes to start his drawings on paper first. After wandering around different cities, he's finally settled again in A Coruña, where he lives with his girlfriend Patricia, who happens to be an excellent illustrator. Sharing the same career is a very good excuse to keep buying comics and picture books, so their collection is always growing and leaving little space to live in their apartment.


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Free Flex FS BreechRegular price $178.95
Traditional full seats: good for looking the part, not so great to wear. Binding, pinching, confining... ugh! Not color shown in picture. Actual color is medium grey.
Like only FITS knows how to do, the Free Flex full seat offers our usual exceptional grip and performance, yoga-pant comfort, and anti-fatigue muscle compression, but with the clean long lines of a traditional full seat with a gorgeous back yoke and euro seat styling. As with all FITS breeches, it features our unique patented leather-free stretch gusseted crotch to allow you to sit deep in the saddle with full freedom to move your body without binding.
The legendary PerforMAX™ All Season compression fabric, cooling power mesh on the lower leg for a sleek look and feel under boots, and tummy-smoothing panel finishes this stunning – and stunningly comfortable – breech. Exclusive to FITS, new Flex-Leather synthetic looks and grips like leather, but is machine washable and dryable.
- Flex-Leather synthetic looks and grips like leather
- All-Season fabric cools in summer & warms in winter
- Seam-free, stretchable, gusseted crotch adds comfort where it counts
- Smooth finish sheds dirt, shavings & hair
- Stretchable 29% Lycra fabric
- Zip front, two slash pockets


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As you may recall, the American Academy of Pediatrics had condoned female genital mutilation earlier this month. Now they (finally!) recognized their error:
Pediatricians now reject all female genital cutting
The American Academy of Pediatrics has rescinded a controversial policy statement raising the idea that doctors in some communities should be able to substitute demands for female genital cutting with a harmless clitoral "pricking" procedure.
"We retracted the policy because it is important that the world health community understands the AAP is totally opposed to all forms of female genital cutting, both here in the U.S. and anywhere else in the world," said AAP President Judith S. Palfrey.
The contentious policy statement, issued in April, had condemned the practice of female genital cutting overall. But a small portion of statement suggesting the pricking procedure riled U.S. advocacy groups and survivors of female genital cutting.
And cultural relativism scored one, on those who can't tell an earlobe from a private part:
In the April statement, the group raised the idea that some physicians should be able to prick or nick a girl's clitoral skin in order to "satisfy cultural requirements." The group likened the nick to an ear piercing.
By the way, there is a federal law already prohibiting FGM:
The AAP also clarified nicking a girl or woman's genitals is forbidden under a 1996 federal law banning female genital mutilation.
Through the article you see that term, mutilation, changed to "cutting", and "circumcision", as if those euphemisms described the barbaric practice of mutilating a woman's genitalia for the single purpose of preventing her sexual enjoyment for the rest of her life.
It boggles the mind that the AAP actually went along with FGM in the first place.
And I want to know, where are the liberal feminists? Where's their outcry?


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Consulting Services for Local Transportation Authorities
As a local or national transportation authority, you are responsible for managing traffic and transit networks within a defined area. But your work does not only matter locally. It is also crucial for you to communicate and collaborate with neighbor areas on certain matters and know about their latest projects and regulatory changes. Rely on our long experience and worldwide network of experts to support you with local, but also with regional matters related to transportation.
With our consulting services, we help you coordinate with the other local or national organizations, simplify negotiations and administrative tasks. Our services allow you to manage relationships between different stakeholders, partners and responsible parties. Moreover, our experts are aware of the developments and changes of the local and national transportation systems. We can therefore help you develop new technical and legal requirements in line with these evolutions. Take advantage of our comprehensive support from a single source.


text:
In this recessional year, with places going down-scale, many new restaurants were all about burgers, sandwiches, pizza and hot dogs getting extreme makeovers. I found myself eating a lot with my hands. Herewith, in no particular order:
10. Margherita Pizza—In a tiny space carved out of the back of a Haagan-Dazs, Michael Brunetti and pizzaiolo Mike Nunziata have wedged in a pizza oven and are baking personal designer pizzas worth seeking out. I've never tasted a crust so impressive. Both crispy and chewy, the thin crust, redolent of good olive oil can actually steal the show from the high quality ingredients. There are several varieties but the Margherita is a must.
Pizzetteria Brunetti
103 Main St., Westhampton Beach
9. Kati Rolls—Think Indian burritos, with warm paratha bread standing in for the tortilla, rolled up around aromatic tandoor baked chicken (also mutton on weekends) and grilled onion and pepper filling it out.
Aminia of Calcutta
253 S. Broadway, Hicksville
8. Gyro Burger Sliders—2010 was the year of the slider. This incarnation, made with ground beef and lamb on mini brioche rolls with tzatziki sauce for slathering, was unforgettable.
Landmark Diner
1027 Northern Blvd., Roslyn
7. Salvadoran Enchiladas—At this Salvadoran steam table, homemade, insanely tasty enchiladas, prepared like opened-face tacos, piled high with meat, slaw and cheese were a big surprise, and all for about the price of a newspaper.
Vasquez Deli
191 Main St., Farmingdale
6. Meatloaf Knish—Just about everything but salads are pressed at this Park Slope-based sandwich bar including the square potato knish that encased the savory homemade meatloaf covered with cheddar cheese and gravy.
195 22 N. Park Ave., Rockville Centre
5. Tongue Taco—From the outside, these spiffy looking spots don't look like they have authentic Mexican tacos. But the menu holds many pleasures including the Lengua Taco—that's beef tongue—slow cooked until tender and juicy, cubed and piled on doubled-up soft-flour tortillas (or hard shell) with onion and cilantro. Tastes like a cross between beef and pork.
2370 Merrick Rd., Bellmore
601 Hicksville Rd. (Rt. 107), Bethpage
4. Sweet Corn Arepa—Is it a dessert or a snack? The thick pancake-sized corn patties are sweet, but ask for "queso" and you get a salty cheese melted on top for a nice counterpoint.
La Parvita
251 W. Old Country Rd., Hicksville
3. Ripper Hot Dog—Well, as close to a ripper as we have on LI. Popular in Jersey and Connecticut, a ripper is a frankfurter that's deep fried until the casing rips open. The El Raphael is a hefty quarter-pound all-beef skinless Boars Head, wrapped in bacon, deep fried and covered with onions, chopped jalapenos and chili. There's no casing to rip but the bacon obscures all anyway.
First National Franks
3147 Rte. 112, Medford
2. Hamburger —The grilled signature burger has something that I crave in a burger, juiciness. The juices ran with each luscious bite—a three napkin burger. The brioche bun holds it all together to the last bite.
The Burger Spot
150 Seventh St., Garden City
1. Alabama Sloppy Hammer Sandwich—Who needs cheeseburgers when you can get grass-fed braised, shredded short ribs on soft ciabatta covered by good melted fontina and gravy? A new addiction.
Hops and Grub
287 Main St., Huntington


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Some SQL statements relating to certain MySQL features produce
errors when used with
NDB tables,
as described in the following list:
Temporary tables. Temporary tables are not supported. Trying either to create a temporary table that uses the
NDBstorage engine or to alter an existing temporary table to use
NDBfails with the error Table storage engine 'ndbcluster' does not support the create option 'TEMPORARY'.
Indexes and keys in NDB tables. Keys and indexes on NDB Cluster tables are subject to the following limitations:
Column width. Attempting to create an index on an
NDBtable column whose width is greater than 3072 bytes succeeds, but only the first 3072 bytes are actually used for the index. In such cases, a warning Specified key was too long; max key length is 3072 bytes is issued, and a
SHOW CREATE TABLEstatement shows the length of the index as 3072.
TEXT and BLOB columns. You cannot create indexes on
NDBtable columns that use any of the
BLOBdata types.
FULLTEXT indexes. The
NDBstorage engine does not support
FULLTEXTindexes, which are possible for
InnoDBtables only.
However, you can create indexes on
VARCHARcolumns of
USING HASH keys and NULL. Using nullable columns in unique keys and primary keys means that queries using these columns are handled as full table scans. To work around this issue, make the column
NOT NULL, or re-create the index without the
USING HASHoption.
Prefixes. There are no prefix indexes; only entire columns can be indexed. (The size of an
NDBcolumn index is always the same as the width of the column in bytes, up to and including 3072 bytes, as described earlier in this section. Also see Section 126.96.36.199, "Unsupported or Missing Features in NDB Cluster", for additional information.)
BIT columns. A
BITcolumn cannot be a primary key, unique key, or index, nor can it be part of a composite primary key, unique key, or index.
AUTO_INCREMENT columns. Like other MySQL storage engines, the
NDBstorage engine can handle a maximum of one
AUTO_INCREMENTcolumn per table, and this column must be indexed. However, in the case of an NDB table with no explicit primary key, an
AUTO_INCREMENTcolumn is automatically defined and used as a "hidden" primary key. For this reason, you cannot create an
NDBtable having an
AUTO_INCREMENTcolumn and no explicit primary key.
The following
CREATE TABLEstatements do not work, as shown here:
# No index on AUTO_INCREMENT column; table has no primary key # Raises ER_WRONG_AUTO_KEY mysql> CREATE TABLE n ( -> a INT, -> b INT AUTO_INCREMENT -> ) -> ENGINE=NDB; ERROR 1075 (42000): Incorrect table definition; there can be only one auto column and it must be defined as a key # Index on AUTO_INCREMENT column; table has no primary key # Raises NDB error 4335 mysql> CREATE TABLE n ( -> a INT, -> b INT AUTO_INCREMENT, -> KEY k (b) -> ) -> ENGINE=NDB; ERROR 1296 (HY000): Got error 4335 'Only one autoincrement column allowed per table. Having a table without primary key uses an autoincr' from NDBCLUSTER
The following statement creates a table with a primary key, an
AUTO_INCREMENTcolumn, and an index on this column, and succeeds:
# Index on AUTO_INCREMENT column; table has a primary key mysql> CREATE TABLE n ( -> a INT PRIMARY KEY, -> b INT AUTO_INCREMENT, -> KEY k (b) -> ) -> ENGINE=NDB; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.38 sec)
Restrictions on foreign keys. Support for foreign key constraints in NDB 7.5 is comparable to that provided by
InnoDB, subject to the following restrictions:
Every column referenced as a foreign key requires an explicit unique key, if it is not the table's primary key.
ON UPDATE CASCADEis not supported when the reference is to the parent table's primary key.
This is because an update of a primary key is implemented as a delete of the old row (containing the old primary key) plus an insert of the new row (with a new primary key). This is not visible to the
NDBkernel, which views these two rows as being the same, and thus has no way of knowing that this update should be cascaded.
As of NDB 7.5.14 and NDB 7.6.10:
ON DELETE CASCADEis not supported where the child table contains one or more columns of any of the
BLOBtypes. (Bug #89511, Bug #27484882)
SET DEFAULTis not supported. (Also not supported by
NO ACTIONkeywords are accepted but treated as
RESTRICT. (Also the same as with
In earlier versions of NDB Cluster, when creating a table with foreign key referencing an index in another table, it sometimes appeared possible to create the foreign key even if the order of the columns in the indexes did not match, due to the fact that an appropriate error was not always returned internally. A partial fix for this issue improved the error used internally to work in most cases; however, it remains possible for this situation to occur in the event that the parent index is a unique index. (Bug #18094360)
Prior to NDB 7.5.6, when adding or dropping a foreign key using
ALTER TABLE, the parent table's metadata is not updated, which makes it possible subsequently to execute
ALTER TABLEstatements on the parent that should be invalid. To work around this issue, execute
SHOW CREATE TABLEon the parent table immediately after adding or dropping the foreign key; this forces the parent's metadata to be reloaded.
This issue is fixed in NDB 7.5.6. (Bug #82989, Bug #24666177)
For more information, see Section 188.8.131.52, "FOREIGN KEY Constraints", and Section 184.108.40.206, "FOREIGN KEY Constraints".
NDB Cluster and geometry data types. Geometry data types (
WKB) are supported for
NDBtables. However, spatial indexes are not supported.
Character sets and binary log files. Currently, the
ndb_binlog_indextables are created using the
latin1(ASCII) character set. Because names of binary logs are recorded in this table, binary log files named using non-Latin characters are not referenced correctly in these tables. This is a known issue, which we are working to fix. (Bug #50226)
To work around this problem, use only Latin-1 characters when naming binary log files or setting any the
--log-bin, or
Creating NDB tables with user-defined partitioning. Support for user-defined partitioning in NDB Cluster is restricted to [
KEYpartitioning. Using any other partitioning type with
ENGINE=NDBCLUSTERin a
CREATE TABLEstatement results in an error.
It is possible to override this restriction, but doing so is not supported for use in production settings. For details, see User-defined partitioning and the NDB storage engine (NDB Cluster).
Default partitioning scheme. All NDB Cluster tables are by default partitioned by
KEYusing the table's primary key as the partitioning key. If no primary key is explicitly set for the table, the "hidden" primary key automatically created by the
NDBstorage engine is used instead. For additional discussion of these and related issues, see Section 22.2.5, "KEY Partitioning".
CREATE TABLEand
ALTER TABLEstatements that would cause a user-partitioned
NDBCLUSTERtable not to meet either or both of the following two requirements are not permitted, and fail with an error:
The table must have an explicit primary key.
All columns listed in the table's partitioning expression must be part of the primary key.
Exception. If a user-partitioned
NDBCLUSTERtable is created using an empty column-list (that is, using
PARTITION BY [LINEAR] KEY()), then no explicit primary key is required.
Maximum number of partitions for NDBCLUSTER tables. The maximum number of partitions that can defined for a
NDBCLUSTERtable when employing user-defined partitioning is 8 per node group. (See Section 21.2.2, "NDB Cluster Nodes, Node Groups, Fragment Replicas, and Partitions", for more information about NDB Cluster node groups.
DROP PARTITION not supported. It is not possible to drop partitions from
NDBtables using
ALTER TABLE ... DROP PARTITION. The other partitioning extensions to
REORGANIZE PARTITION, and
COALESCE PARTITION—are supported for NDB tables, but use copying and so are not optimized. See Section 22.3.1, "Management of RANGE and LIST Partitions" and Section 13.1.8, "ALTER TABLE Statement".
Partition selection. Partition selection is not supported for
NDBtables. See Section 22.5, "Partition Selection", for more information.
JSON data type. The MySQL
JSONdata type is supported for
NDBtables in the mysqld supplied with NDB 7.5.2 and later.
NDBtable can have a maximum of 3
The NDB API has no special provision for working with
JSONdata, which it views simply as
BLOBdata. Handling data as
JSONmust be performed by the application.
CPU and thread info ndbinfo tables. NDB 7.5.2 adds several new tables to the
ndbinfoinformation database providing information about CPU and thread activity by node, thread ID, and thread type. The tables are listed here:
cpustat: Provides per-second, per-thread CPU statistics
cpustat_50ms: Raw per-thread CPU statistics data, gathered every 50ms
cpustat_1sec: Raw per-thread CPU statistics data, gathered each second
cpustat_20sec: Raw per-thread CPU statistics data, gathered every 20 seconds
threads: Names and descriptions of thread types
For more information about these tables, see Section 21.6.15, "ndbinfo: The NDB Cluster Information Database".
Lock info ndbinfo tables. NDB 7.5.3 adds new tables to the
ndbinfoinformation database providing information about locks and lock attempts in a running NDB Cluster. These tables are listed here:
cluster_locks: Current lock requests which are waiting for or holding locks; this information can be useful when investigating stalls and deadlocks. Analogous to
locks_per_fragment: Counts of lock claim requests, and their outcomes per fragment, as well as total time spent waiting for locks successfully and unsuccessfully. Analogous to
server_locks: Subset of cluster transactions—those running on the local mysqld, showing a connection id per transaction. Analogous to


text:
Splendid Jewel: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus
|Splendid Jewel: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus
The Singers, Matthew Culloton, Conductor
Released: March 2007, Playing Time: 65:28
ORDER NOW from our Online Store.
To purchase from iTunes, click here.
Track listing as follows (all music by Stephen Paulus):
(* indicates world premiere recording)


text:
Associate Professor
Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch
Dr. Slobodan Beronja studies how our skin develops to better understand skin cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma. Because we constantly shed the uppermost layer of our skin, we rely on specialized skin stem cells to form new skin cells to replace those lost. To maintain a pool of skin-replenishing stem cells, stem cells also continually renew themselves. Dr. Beronja studies how skin stem cells perform both functions — and how skin tumors can co-opt those normal processes. He also uncovers the strategies that skin employs to prevent the development of cancer.
University of Toronto, 2006, PhD
University of Toronto, 2000, BS, Zoology
Dr. Beronja's laboratory studies molecular and cellular mechanisms that are essential for tissue growth during development and tumorigenesis. His goal is to identify genes and gene pathways that can be used as targets in cancer therapy with a particular focus on the regulators of the balance between stem cell renewal and differentiation.
Dr. Beronja's research uses mouse skin epidermis and epidermal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) as a model of tissue growth in development and disease. Skin epidermis is a particularly suitable system for our investigation for the following reasons:
Well-defined physiological system: Skin is composed of two compartments, the epithelial epidermis and mesenchymal dermis, separated by a basement membrane. Epidermal growth during embryonic development and its maintenance in the adult are achieved through continuous cycles of progenitor cell self-renewal and differentiation under the control of cell extrinsic signals coming from the surrounding mesenchyme.
Implications for human health: SCC of the skin is the second most common cancer in people, with an estimated 700,000 new cases in the US each year. Fortunately, most lesions are detected early and surgically removed, accounting for disease's high survival rates. Importantly, ontogeny of epidermal SCC parallels cancers associated with high mortality, including the SCC of the head and neck and the lung SCC.
Tools for analysis of gene function: In addition to standard methods of creating transgenic animals, mouse epidermis can be efficiently and stably targeted through in utero injection of lentivirus. Using lentivirus to express shRNA, for RNAi-mediated gene knockdown, or ORF, for gene overexpression, we can rapidly assess gene function and complex genetic interactions in skin morphogenesis and disease in vivo.
1. Candidate-based analysis of gene function in regulation of epidermal tissue growth. We have completed an RNAi screen of ~16,000 mouse genes and uncovered putative regulators of epidermal tissue growth during embryonic development and oncogenic hyperplasia. We will now probe the precise cellular and molecular mechanisms behind the observed growth effects, with a focus on genes that specifically operate within the physiological environment by altering the balance between stem cell renewal and differentiation.
2. Large-scale investigation of modifiers of epidermal tumor initiation. We have been successful in combining the pooled-format lentiviral-mediated RNAi and quantitative Illumina sequencing into a rapid, comprehensive, and relatively low-cost approach to genome-wide gene function analysis during embryogenesis. Next, we are extending the use of the approach to postnatal epidermis, to identify bona fide enhancers of tumor initiation and progression in the oncogenic Ras animal model. The complexity of our lentiviral pools will vary from patient-specific to genome-wide.
3. Development of a general model of epithelial growth and tumorigenesis. Small modifications in the in utero injection method result in efficient lentiviral transduction of other tissues, including the oral, mammary and airway epithelium. These are distinct from the epidermis in their organization, physiological environment, and rate of developmental and regenerative growth, and carcinomas in these epithelia are the leading cause of tumor-associated deaths worldwide. Using RNAi-mediated gene knockdown we will test general applicability of molecular mechanisms uncovered in our studies of epidermal growth and tumorigenesis.
The Media Relations team at Fred Hutch is available to assist members of the news media who would like to arrange interviews with faculty.
Email email@example.com or call 206.667.2210


text:
WASHINGTON – The Senate began consideration Tuesday of a farm and food bill that would bring fundamental changes to how the government protects food growers during hard times, including putting an end to paying farmers regardless of whether they plant a crop.
The Senate is expected to spend several weeks on the five-year bill as lawmakers thrash out differences between Northern and Southern farmers over safety net programs and address the costs of the federal food stamp program, which makes up about 80 percent of the $100 billion in annual spending under the legislation.
The current farm act expires at the end of September, and getting a new plan in place by then will likely require tough negotiations between the Senate and the House, which is taking a different approach to farm protection programs and seeks deeper cuts than the $23 billion over 10 years envisioned in the Senate bill. The House Agriculture Committee is expected to take up its version later this month.
Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who crafted the bill with the panel's ranking Republican Pat Roberts of Kansas, said it represented "the most significant reform in agriculture policy in decades."
She said she was confident she had the 60 votes to formally begin debate on the bill if opponents tried to block it.
The measure ends direct payments to farmers who may or may not actually plant crops, saving some $5 billion a year. That's replaced with a greater emphasis on federally subsidized crop insurance and a new program that compensates farmers for "shallow losses" in revenues as measured over a five-year average.
"We're not going to be paying farmers for crops they don't grow. We're not going to be paying farmers when they are already doing very well," Stabenow said.
The new Agriculture Risk Coverage program has the backing of most major farm groups, but faces resistance from Southern rice and peanut growers who say it hurts their bottom lines. They are seeking the retention of some kind of target pricing to protect their crops.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Senate bill would save about $8.5 billion over five years by ending direct payments as well as other commodity support payments, and moving to the new ARC program and save another $1.8 billion by streamlining conservation programs. It says $1.7 billion over five years and $4.5 billion over 10 years will be saved through changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, mainly by ending an automatic qualification for food stamps for households receiving less than $10 a year in the federal low-income heating assistance program. Some 46 million Americans are now receiving food stamps.
House Republicans are seeking far greater cuts to food stamps, while Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., says she will offer an amendment to restore that $4.5 billion, paying for it by reducing federal subsidies for crop insurance companies. The crop insurance program, costing about $9 billion a year, provides farmers with an average subsidy of 62 percent on their insurance premiums.


text:
Moments after receiving a safety reflector designed to help increase pedestrian visibility, a Victoria-area man was struck by a car in downtown Sidney.
Sidney/North Saanich RCMP officers — who were standing on the edge of the sidewalk handing out the reflectors — immediately went to help the man, administering first aid and calling for an ambulance and other first responders.
Corporal Chris Manseau, the local RCMP detachment's public affairs officer, said he'd just finished speaking to the man and giving him a reflector. The man then entered the crosswalk at Beacon Avenue and Third Street and was promptly struck by a car that had been waiting at the intersection.
Manseau said it was an unusual situation, that he happened to be the last person the man spoke with before being hit by a car.
The pedestrian was treated by paramedics at the scene and suffered a cut above one eye. The collision also broke the man's glasses, but it could have been much worse.
Police officers and representatives from ICBC were in downtown Sidney helping promote better pedestrian safety — reminding people to use crosswalks, make eye contact with drivers and to wear bright clothing and reflectors in order to be better seen during the darker, rainier days of fall and winter on Vancouver Island.


text:
Will Smartphones And iPads Mush My Toddler's Brain?
Parents of small children have long been told to avoid using the television as a babysitter. This week, the nation's leading group of pediatricians reiterated its stance against letting kids under 2 watch any TV at all.
But what about iPhones and iPads?
These days, it's pretty common to see Mom or Dad hand over a pricey smartphone to a cranky toddler to stave off a temper tantrum. One survey found that as many as 1 in 4 toddlers has used a smartphone. For many young kids, it's become the toy of choice.
I confess, I've given my iPhone to my 1 1/2-year-old in a pinch (he likes to browse my iTunes collection). But in general, I've tried to limit my son's exposure to our family's iPad and iPhones because of the American Academy of Pediatrics' long-standing advice to keep kids under 2 away from screens.
The AAP first issued that guidance in 1999. Now, "we have more science to back up the previous recommendation," says Dr. Ari Brown, the lead author of the AAP's revised guidelines on toddlers and TV. (Parents might recognize her as the author of the best-selling parenting guide Baby 411.)
Despite the many educational DVDs aimed at the under-2 crowd, the AAP says research doesn't support the notion that kids that young benefit from videos. Some studies suggest TV viewing may actually be harmful to those under 2 — even when the set is merely on in the background.
"The concern that we have is it's distracting to the parent, so the parent is talking less to the child, there's less parent-child conversation, which is important for language development," Brown tells Shots. "And it's also distracting for the child."
Distracted infants and toddlers are more likely to abandon an activity quickly. Experts worry about how that will affect children's ability to learn to organize information and make decisions "when they're not having the experience of being really focused on the activity that's at hand," says Brown.
A better use of time, says Brown: Let tots engage in free play, like stacking cups on the floor. That type of activity has been shown to boost baby's development.
So how does all this relate to smartphones and tablets?
The AAP's new policy doesn't address these devices — "we simply don't have the science right now to comment," Brown says.
But if you're merely pulling up an Elmo video on YouTube and handing your mobile device over, that viewing experience is just as passive as if your kid were watching TV, so the same concerns apply, says Brown.
What about all those peekaboo and storybook apps aimed specifically at the toddler set?
"When it comes to apps and interactive games," she says, "that is a completely different way of using your brain."
That's not official AAP policy, Brown stresses. But as a pediatrician, she says she could see how some apps might provide a limited, "virtual approximation of something a child might be doing with an object in their hand. They're figuring out cause and effect or sequencing or ordering."
"There might be a real educational use for those items on these screens," she says. "We just don't have any data to say one way or the other."
And if the same impulse that keeps so many of us bound to our digital devices also makes parents more likely to play an app with a child, so much the better, says Brown. "It might teach the parent and child how to share."
Just don't use that as an excuse to sneak in some rounds of Angry Birds under the guise of family bonding. The bottom line, says Brown, is that parents need to engage actively with their child — not with their devices. "When you are with your child," she says, "be there with them."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Jee Realises Further Growth Goal
29 January 2013Jee Ltd, a leading subsea engineering and training firm, has achieved a significant growth milestone by opening the companys first London office.
Jee took the decision to open a central London office to aid the companys overall growth strategy, which will see the firm create 150 jobs in the UK over the next 4 years, spread across its bases in London, Aberdeen and Tonbridge, near London.
Mike Hawkins, Technical Director, who will head up the London office, said: "Opening an office in central London has long been a goal for Jee and the whole team is thrilled to be taking this next step in expanding the company.
"The new location will allow us to better serve existing clients, and will be a hub from which we can attract more high-calibre employees, building on the wealth of knowledge the company already possesses as our client portfolio rapidly increases.
"These are exciting times at Jee and the London office has already proven to be the right decision to help drive forward growth plans, with two skilled senior engineers recently appointed to work from the new Victoria site.
Mr Hawkins is joined by Team Leader Graham Wilson as well as a team of engineers in the new space, which can initially accommodate 20 staff. The firm aims to create more than 40 jobs in the UK in 2013, and the new office is an integral part of this existing growth strategy.
Jee managing director, Trevor Jee said: "It is fantastic to be able to convey a positive message of company expansion and prosperity keeping in line with our development plans.
"The opening of the London office sees us well on course to meet our growth targets, as we aim to create 150 new jobs in the UK in the next four years. Revenue for 2012 was up 51% on 2011, pushing us ahead of our projected targets of increasing company turnover from £5million to £20million in the same time period.
Jee is a multi-discipline subsea engineering and training company operating in the global oil, gas and renewables industries. Services span the whole life-of-field, from early concept studies, through FEED and detailed design, installation and construction support services integrity management, operations and maintenance, and lifetime extension and decommissioning.