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This profile is the first in a yearlong series titled The Root's Salute to Unsung Heroes, which will put a weekly spotlight on African Americans who have been recognized by the Corporation for National and Community Service as Drum Majors for Service. The inspiration for the honor is the spirit of community service that Martin Luther King Jr. described in his 1968 sermon "The Drum Major Instinct."
At 88, retired Chicago transit worker and ex-Marine Theodore Peters sometimes wonders if he's getting too old for all the demanding volunteer work he does.
The thought comes up while he's telling you about some of the things he's involved with at Mount Calvary Baptist Church, where he's a deacon. Let's see — there's the program to help out the neighborhood elderly, whether it's shoveling snow in front of their houses ("I stopped doing that myself about two years ago") or just knocking on their doors to see if they're warm enough on really cold days.
"There's five or six of us who work together in the inner core," says Peters, whose volunteer work prompted the White House to designate him as one of more than 1,000 recipients of the government's MLK Drum Major for Service Awards. "If somebody's gas is cut off, we can take care of that. We go down to the gas or light company and pay the bill for them."
Then there's the church food basket, with monthly deliveries from a centralized Chicago food bank so the needy can pick up supplies at the West Side church. And also emergency supplies, which volunteers hand out to people whose homes are damaged by fire or who might be experiencing power outages or other family catastrophes. All of this comes under Peters' bailiwick as chairman of the church's trustee ministry and member of the men's ministry.
And that's not even mentioning the work he does as a leader of the Montford Point Marine Association chapter, what with Toys for Tots and Christmas food baskets for the poor ("First-class food with all the trimmings"). Plus, don't forget Peters' involvement in the long, hard campaign to gain official recognition for the heroic efforts of black U.S. Marines during World War II.
This last, of course, culminated last November, when President Barack Obama signed a bill awarding the Montford Point Marines the Congressional Gold Medal, raising the veterans group to the status of the buffalo soldiers and the Tuskegee Airmen.
So that's a lot of volunteering. "I might be getting too old for all of this daily volunteering," he says. "But maybe not."
Why does he do it? "Have you ever done something for someone who really needed it?" he asks. "You know how you feel after that? That's the way God blesses you, giving you that good feeling. That's the way you get your reward."
Peters was born in 1923 in Mississippi, where he learned up close about Jim Crow and the legacy of the Civil War. "I met people who were in slavery time," he recalls, "telling us what happened when four or five brothers and sisters were stolen away, and knowing they might never see them again."
When Peters was 10, his family followed the early 20th century's Great Migration, in which blacks moved en masse "up the river to Chicago." He went to public schools in the big city, then got drafted in the midst of the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had just signed Executive Order 8802, ordering that the color ban be removed from all of the military services, including the Marines. Peters was one of the first to be accepted.
Those early black Marines weren't sent to boot camp with the whites in South Carolina or San Diego but were relegated to a sandy, mosquito-riddled corner at Camp Lejeune, N.C., called Montford Point. "They tried to discourage us and make us more or less fail," Peters recalls. But insults and poor treatment from white superiors just made the black Marines more determined, he says. Peters trained as an anti-aircraft gunner there, then got shipped to the South Pacific.
He saw no combat, though his unit was assigned to a series of island encampments. "The explanation was that, after the Battle of Midway, the Navy ruled the skies," Peters says. "We were in an anti-aircraft outfit, and we were ready for combat. But as far as they were concerned, we were obsolete in the Pacific."
Giving his military experience a final bitter punctuation, when his ship home disembarked at Norfolk, Va., on a bitterly cold day, the Red Cross denied him food service because of his color.
"I got off the ship and heard someone say the Red Cross was serving coffee and doughnuts," Peters says. "We all ran down there, and guess what? The Red Cross said, no, this is just for the white guys."
The Congressional Gold Medal at last recognizes the 20,000 black Marines who came through the segregated boot camp at Montford Point, some of them going on to give their lives at Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Japan. Peters, the chaplain of his chapter of the Montford Point veterans organization, was deeply involved in the effort to bring recognition to these Marines, organizing fellow Marine veterans to participate in letter-writing and email campaigns.
Back in Chicago after the war, Peters went to work for the Chicago Transit Authority as a bus driver. He retired in 1986, becoming the exemplary volunteer that he is today. His wife of 65 years, Mary, died two months ago at 84. "God let me keep her all those years, and I'm thankful for that," he says.
No, he's not ready to give up the work, even though he'll be 89 in April. "I'm in good health," he says. "No high blood pressure, no diabetes, though my cholesterol could be a little lower."
Besides, he's got plans. New plans, bigger programs. "This year we want to do more than just the Christmas basket," he says. "This year we're going to do Christmas in July."
Edmund Newton is a freelance writer in the Washington, D.C., area.


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Hilary Duff in Dolce Vita
Hilary Duff carries her son Luca into a baby class in Studio City on August 28, 2013.
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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — It's Shaq Week around here and we're celebrating the big fella, Shaquille O'Neal, in all his splendor in advance of his induction next week into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.
Normally a player has to wait until later in his life to take this introspective look at his own life and times. But for a player of Shaq's magnitude, both on and off the floor, there is no reason to wait.
Folks knew Shaq would leave an indelible mark on the game, hence his name. Shaq's Orlando Magic teammate Dennis "3D" Scott (the social media master) knew it from the first moment he laid eyes on the big fella that he would go down as one of the all-time greats (big men and players overall) in basketball history.
Shaq checked all of the boxes — multiple championships, Finals MVPs, gold medal, assault on the record books, entertainer, rapper, actor, law enforcement officer, pitch man extraordinaire, all-around renaissance man, etc. — and did in his own style, thank goodness for the rest of us. Rick Fox even showed up to weigh in on his good friend, whose love for the game and his teammates sticks out in hindsight.
You don't change as many lives of the guys who played alongside Shaq and not leave a dramatic impression on those who were as close to him as both 3D and Fox were.
The stories they can tell publicly (and the ones they cannot) are seemingly endless.
It's all Shaq, all day long on Episode 246 of The Hang Time Podcast featuring Dennis Scott, just the way it should be.
As always, we welcome your feedback. You can follow the entire crew, including the Hang Time Podcast, co-hosts Sekou Smith of NBA.com, Lang Whitaker of NBA.com's All-Ball Blog and renaissance man Rick Fox of NBA TV, as well as our new super producer Gregg (just like Popovich) Waigand.
– To download the podcast, click here. To subscribe via iTunes, click here, or get the xml feed if you want to subscribe some other, less iTunes-y way.


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South Dakota Accepting Proposals to Restore Buildings
PIERRE - Gov. Dennis Daugaard has announced that South Dakota is accepting proposals through the end of May for development and restoration of buildings on the old campus of the Human Services Center in Yankton.
Daugaard says the majority of buildings on the campus have been vacant for decades, but the state is seeking interested parties to restore a show barn, dairy barn and other buildings.
The state government is working with the Yankton Office of Economic Development to solicit proposals for the buildings that would complement economic development priorities for Yankton and South Dakota.
Proposals can be submitted to Mike Dellinger at the Yankton Office of Economic Development, 803 East Fourth Street in Yankton, or by calling 605-665-9011.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Would I be correct in assuming that a PNP transistor with a higher current capacity would draw more current when not in use?
This is the circuit that use P-MOSFET to switch the supply linehttp://www.edn.com/file/24877-Figure_2.pdfhttp://www.edn.com/design/analog/4362161/Transistor-latch-improves-on-off-circuitry
What is the role of the DC/DC converter?Also is the value of Q1 critial, or will any p channel mosfet be ok?
Hmm, would a bistable (latching) relay be a good idea? A button activates it, a circuit is closed and the power to the Arduino starts flowing. Arduino does its thing and when it's done it turns itself off by pulling its own plug.


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Allied Brass 713124 SN 24inch Towel Bar
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Two laws deserving mention in Actuarial Note 142 were inadvertantly omitted.
Public Law 103-296, titled "Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994," requires each obligation issued by the Department of the Treasury for purchase by the Social Security Trust Funds (including those already issued) to be evidenced by a physical document in the form of a bond, note, or certificate of indebtedness, rather than simply by an accounting entry. The law also requires interest payments and proceeds from the sale or redemption of trust fund holdings to be paid by checks drawn on the general fund of the Treasury. The law was enacted on August 15, 1994.
Public Law 104-121, titled "Contract with America Advancement Act of 1996," provides a section that limits the Secretary of the Treasury's discretionary powers with respect to trust fund investments. Specifically, section 107(a) of this law states
"No officer or employee of the United States shall--The law defines the term "Federal fund" as any of the Social Security or Medicare Trust Funds.
- delay the deposit of any amount into (or delay the credit of any amount to) any Federal fund or otherwise vary from the normal terms, procedures, or timing for making such deposits or credits,
- refrain from the investment in public debt obligations of amounts in any Federal fund, or
- redeem prior to maturity amounts in any Federal fund which are invested in public debt obligations for any purpose other than the payment of benefits or administrative expenses from such Federal fund."
On rare occasions, the Managing Trustee had taken steps, now prohibited by Public Law 104-121, to avoid increasing the public debt beyond then current statutory limits. The second item, above, strengthens previous law requiring the Managing Trustee to invest such portion of the funds that is not, in his judgment, required to meet current withdrawals. The third item simply changes what had been an administrative investment policy into a statutory requirement. The law was enacted March 29, 1996.
Return to Actuarial Note 142
Notes published in the 1990s


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Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
Last week, a 24-year-old Lebanese holding a Swedish passport was arrested on Cyprus. He was under suspicion of terrorist activities. The Cyprian police received some warning from an intelligence service abroad and arrested the man in his hotel room.
He was in possession of photographs and documents which kept track of Israelis living on the island. Cyprian radio broadcasting stations assumed that the terrorist planned to blow up an Israeli airplane or bus.
A spokesman of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for being involved in the terrorist plans.
Cyprus is a popular travel destination with Israelis, since it is relatively close-by and the governments of both countries are in a good relationship. Since Turkey is no longer a holiday option for Israelis due to the hostile attitude against the Jewish state, tourism to Cyprus has even increased.
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates
For Information & Reservations:
E-Mail: email@example.com
Israel Today
Free to Your Inbox


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The Registrar's Office is responsible for academic and administrative operations of the law school including course registration, tuition, grades, and examinations. The registrar staff is available to assist with questions or concerns regarding registration and related areas and can be reached Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Maryam Isles, Registrar
Phone: (714) 628-2522
Fax: (714) 628-3411
Email: email@example.com
Bethany Tumbleson, Assistant Registrar
Ph.: (714) 628-2522
Fax: (714) 628-3411
Email: email@example.com
Registrar's Office
Email: email@example.com


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InformationWeek is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC
This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them.Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Hyperion Offering BI For The Masses Hyperion plans to offer next year mini desktop applications that can deliver to customer employees selected information from the vendor's business intelligence platform.
Yahoo Hands Setback To Google In Book Publishers' Suit Yahoo says that Google isn't just looking for information to defend itself in the lawsuit; it's also fishing for information that could give it a competitive advantage.
Microsoft, Novell Take Their Partnership To The Streets Customers are more interested in interoperability and virtualization than patent protection and intellectual property issues, despite the stir Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is creating in the open source community, says Novell.
Fox Wins Allies In FCC Indecency Fight Fox, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Progress & Freedom Foundation charge that the FCC makes it easy for small, vocal groups to block content they don't like.
Business Objects Acquires On-Demand Application Vendor Nsite Business Objects will use the technology to expand its on-demand reporting application, Crystalreports.com, with business intelligence applications that companies can integrate with multiple data sources.
Battery Recalls Pushing Some Buyers To Switch Laptop Brands While most laptop buyers are still pretty happy, 15% of buyers said recent, sweeping battery recalls will alter their buying practices, according to an IDC study.
Intuit Seeks Bigger Piece Of Online Banking Through Digital Insight Purchase Intuit is looking to convince banks to offer services beyond traditional online checking, savings, and bill payment. These new would include small business services such as invoicing and payment processing, as well as consumer services such as tracking spending, or planning for retirement or college.
Post Vista: Microsoft Hints At What Comes Next When asked the other day about what's missing from Windows Vista, Steve Ballmer refused to be drawn into the discussion. "I don't choose to go down that path, sorry," he replied. At today's official launch of Vista in New York, however, Ballmer opened up, rattling off a list of things customers can expect to see in Vista's successor.
Merger Of Lucent And Alcatel Is Complete The total employee head count is 79,000, with about 23,000 of them working in R&D. Bell Labs will remain headquartered in New Jersey.
Apple Seeks Patent For Wireless Handheld Device A patent application shows that wireless communications will play a part either in an upcoming revision of Apple's iPod or in its long-rumored mobile phone.
Lovin' An Elevator -- Or Not New elevators in skyscrapers with multiple banks of lifts don't have buttons inside them -- instead, you punch in your destination while you're calling the elevator, and the controlling computer directs people to cars that are going to floors that are close to each other.
AllofMP3 Still Alive In The Midst Of Piracy Crackdowns The Russian Web site is drawing unwanted attention from officials discussing plans for Russia to join the WTO.
AMD Tries To Leapfrog Intel By Showing Single-Die, Quad-Core Server Processor AMD demonstrated the first native quad-core x86 server processor at its annual Analyst Forum on Thursday.
Cooliris: It's A Keeper I've been using Cooliris for about a day now, and my verdict so far: it's a keeper. Cooliris helps you check out a page to see if it's worth visiting. Cooliris is a browser plug-in that lets you mouse over Web links and get a pop-up window that shows the Web page on the other end of that link. It works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.
Visit Google's Super-Secret Experimental Playground: Searchmash Searchmash is Google's site for experimenting with new features in its core search business. Visiting Searchmash, you're confronted with a mostly-blank page, with a logo, and a one-line text entry field inviting you to type a search query. Enter a query and you get a single page that shows search results, with side-panels showing search results in images, blogs, videos, and Wikipedia.
Sun, Nokia, Ericsson Form Telecom Equipment Alliance The three vendors will assist telecommunications firms and service providers by developing a common telecom infrastructure platform.
Microsoft Launches Vista, Office; 30 More Products On The Way Microsoft plans to spend more to promote the new products than it devoted to its landmark Windows 95 and Office 95 software 11 years ago.
Future Tech First, a confession: Like a lot of tech enthusiasts, I'm a long-time science fiction reader (and a sometime science fiction writer), and so articles that describe new inventions, technical gadgets, or future possibilities always catch my attention.
Center Seeks To Overturn E-Learning Patent The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been asked to re-examine its grant of Blackboard's 44 claims in the patent.
Sophos Claim: One-Third Of November's Malware Can Breach Vista Although Vista's integrated e-mail client stopped all 10 pieces of malware that made November's list of most common threats, three bypassed Vista's built-in defenses when a third-party e-mail client was used.
The Quad-Core War Begins: AMD Launches Quad FX AMD's dual-socket, multicore desktop platform is designed to take full advantage of Microsoft's Windows Vista, which also officially launched on Thursday.
Adobe Warns Of Critical Acrobat, Reader Bugs The critical unpatched bugs could be used by attackers to seize control of Windows PCs running Internet Explorer, Adobe warns.
Microsoft To Give Away 30,000 Copies Of Vista, Office 2007 The free software will go to developers who register for at least three Webcast training sessions.
Convert Videos The free Any Video Converter for Windows lets you convert between many video formats.
Accenture Opens New Software Lab In India The center will employ about 80 developers and coordinate work with three existing Accenture software labs in India.
Financial Firms Use Software Tools To Reduce Risk, Comply With New Regulations About a quarter of all companies have to comply with an average of six to eight regulations, and larger financial services firms are subject to a dozen or more, all with overlapping requirements, says the Yankee Group.
Review: Can Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional Compete In Workflow Space? Adobe Acrobat 8 Profes-sional is moving headlong into the workflow space with its new form editing features.
Developers Embrace Java, Drop Visual Basic Use of Visual Basic has dropped 35% since the spring, says a poll of more than 430 North American developers done by research company Evans Data.
IRS Deep-Sixes Outsourcing Plans As Tax Season Approaches The halting of the plan is unrelated to the fact that the IRS has a poor track record when it comes to managing large outsourcing projects, a spokesman insists.
Dell, CompUSA Gear Up For Windows Vista Launch Dell said customers with volume licensing agreements with Microsoft can use Dell to factory-install Vista, and CompUSA is offering a Vista implementation program at 160 of its stores.
Vista Will Add Vroom To New Business Software A handful of business-software vendors are introducing products they've been working on for months that are designed to utilize the best of what Vista has to offer.
Yahoo Quietly Launches Mobile Social-Networking Service The unannounced service apparently targets teens and young adults, for texting and photo and video sharing.
Zango Tries To Reinstall Trust Zango, formerly known as 180solutions, recently agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it used unfair and deceptive methods to distribute adware. Founder and CEO Keith Smith stopped by InformationWeek to talk about his reformed company and to address charges that bad advertising practices continue at Zango despite the agreement with the FTC.
Nokia Agrees To Expand Use Of Yahoo Services Yahoo Web mail and instant messaging will be available on broader array of Nokia cell phones.
Mobile Music, Video Poised For Growth, Study Shows Wireless music downloads are becoming more popular among young people, who have traditionally stayed away from those services, according to a study from Ipsos Insight.
Most Effective IT Organizations Spend 7% More, Says Report Top-performing IT organizations spend more per end-user, but reap the benefits in reduced operational costs, according to a study from Hackett Group.
BitTorrent Does Digital Download Deal Film and TV video from eight studios, including 20th Century Fox, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, and Starz Media, will be available on the peer-to-peer network.
Virtual Worlds Are As Important As The Real World To Internet Users A new study shows that more women than men are on the Internet, online communities are becoming key parts of our lives, and more people are surfing the Net at work.
Turbolinux Proposes Mobile Linux For Consumers Turbolinux, Inc. said it will offer a Linux booting device in an iPod-sized media player as a way to promote Linux among consumers.
Verizon Wireless Could Get Boost From Video Content Deals Verizon Wireless has signed exclusive deals to distribute user generated video from YouTube and Revver, which could provide a boost to the carrier's slow-selling mobile media service.
If An IT Manager Finds Kiddie Porn On The Company President's Computer, Should He Call The Cops? That's a question posed to the New York Times's "The Ethicist" column. The columnist, Randy Cohen, has a completely insane response: The IT manager should remain silent. The questioner writes: "I am an Internet technician. While installing software on my company's computer network, I happened on a lot of pornographic pictures in the president's personal directory, including some of yo
HP Unveils Automated Cooling System For Data Centers HP says its Dynamic Smart Cooling system will cut data center power costs by 20% to 40%.
3Com Stock Down After Huawei Deal 3Com agreed to pay $882 million for Huawei's 49% stake in Huawei-3Com.
Indiana May Turn Over Welfare System To IBM Under $1.6 Billion Outsourcing Deal IBM would provide Indiana with intake processing services and set up an automated welfare eligibility application system that will be accessible online 24 hours a day.
Personal Links, Broadband Penetration Boost Net Usage In EU European Internet users spend more than 11 hours a week online, up 11% from 2005. Forty-five percent of them go online every day.
Cyber Monday Sets Online Shopping Record Internet shoppers handed $608 million to retailers on the Monday following the Thanksgiving weekend, the first time single-day online sales broke $600 million.
Study: Violent Video Game Exposure Affects Self-Control The differences were associated with emotional arousal and controlling behavior.
Watch Out for Oracle BPMS Oracle has one of the most widely used BPEL tools on the market, but so far they haven't shown up in Gartner's business process management suite (BPMS) magic quadrants. That should change soon. Recall that Oracle did an OEM deal in July with IDS Scheer for the ARIS Process Design Platform. At the time I speculated this had more to do with keeping up with SAP, but that's apparently not entirely true.


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Melissa Riso — Babe of the Day
Melissa's a 25-year-old Italian-Guamanian model and actress originally from in Salinas, California now living in L.A.
She's appeared as an extra on the shows 'Greek', 'Las Vegas', and 'Terriers' and as the lead on Playboy TV's 'Bad Ass'. You might've also seen her in a 2007 commercial for PlayStation or in Xzibit's music video for "What It Is".
The former Hooter Bikini Contest competitor has also popped up in Maxim and on IGN, in addition to gracing the covers of Super StreetBike Mag, Import Tuner Mag, and Low Rider. Her most notable promo work has been for Two In The Shirt… we'll let you hash out the acronym.
Want to know what's up with her tattoo? Well, here's the story:
Well, when she was a freshman in high school, she almost died in a very serious car accident. She broke her back had internal bleeding in her stomach, so they had to cut her open to stop it. The resulting six inch surgical scar was too thick to correct with plastic surgery, but just right for some ink.
Recently, she completed a stint as a bouncer at one of SoCal's hottest nightclubs. We've been thinking about going the submissive route lately… like the reverse 50 Shades of Grey.
Age: 25 | Location: Los Angeles, CA | Ht: 5′ 2″ | Wt: 100 lbs | Measurements: 32C-24-34
See more of Melissa on Facebook | Twitter | her Official Site | ModelMayhem


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Big thanks to Joe for loaning us his blog in exchange for a cause that affects so many of us.
My name is Alistair McIntyre, and I'm here on behalf of myself and my buddies at the4threalm.com. What follows is a fake interview that I set up for this kind of shameless publicity, featuring my associates Kris Kramer and Patrick Underhill. We write our own individual pieces, but we've collaborated together on a new series entitled RISE OF CITHRIA, and we'd love to tell you all about joining forces with other authors.
What is the4threalm.com?
The4threalm.com is an indie publishing imprint created by a group of writers who want to make an impact. We collaboratively edit, critique, publish, and market everything we do, including both single and multi-author projects. It's essentially a brand that encompasses all the novels, short stories, comic books, screenplays, and whatever else we feel like writing.
The independent publishing scene is a wild, untamed frontier right now, and there's no need for each of us to tackle it alone. We believe in a strength-in-numbers approach, and we do what we can to support each other, which makes the group, and the writers who make up the group, stronger and more successful.
We're based physically out of several locations but our main web presence is at www.the4threalm.com.
How did the three of you meet?
Kris: I've known Patrick since Middle School, back in good old Cedar Hill, TX. Alistair joined forces with us after a long online courtship through IGN's VNBoards. We all played the same MMO at the same time, and even though we were enemies in-game, we were pals on those forums, which was home to MANY fascinating personalities.
Alistair: I physically met Kris and Patrick for the first time in 2003 at a get-together for said MMORPG (Dark Age of Camelot, not WoW) in Dallas. I wasn't even twenty-one yet, so someone had to sign in as my chaperon at Dave & Buster's. Needless to say, I ended up as someone's designated driver, even though I didn't know how to drive a manual transmission at the time, which was… fun. Back then, writing wasn't remotely on my radar, though.
You met online? Isn't that a bit weird/creepy?
Patrick: Hey, Alistair was nineteen. That's legal in Texas.
Alistair: If you want creepy, you should meet some of the other dudes we played games with (I'm looking at you, Hroard).
How did the story for Cithria originate?
Alistair: It all started with a flash fiction piece I wrote called Lost Souls (available for free on our website), which was based on the MMORPG that the three of us used to play. I added in what I'd consider a game-changing mechanic, and then from there had a general idea of how I could expand on that to write a full-length novel inside the game world. As usual, I aimed too low.
Kris: Alistair sent his story to me, and after reading it, I had an idea to create a bigger story than what he'd envisioned. Basically, we'd grow it into a larger world, and we'd each write from the perspective of different characters in that world, advancing the story separately until they all eventually met and the larger story could take off. It would be a pretty big collaborative effort, but it sounded fun, and I'm rarely ever daunted by big, seemingly impossible projects.
At first, we just posted chapters on the website every week, alternating between myself, Alistair, and Patrick. That plan worked pretty well for a while, but eventually, we wanted to make this into something even bigger…
Patrick: I think most of the fun was that each of us got to write from the perspective of a different "realm." We each had a chance to get into the minds of these characters and show how they might view their enemies.
Kris: The original story was fan fiction, based on a property owned by EA called Dark Age of Camelot. When we decided to make this into a full-blown series of novels, I contacted EA to see if we could get permission for something like that. They basically told me 'NO,' so we decided to adjust on the fly, scrap our existing stuff, and rework it into a brand new world, created entirely by us. Thus, Cithria was born!
Patrick: Instead of just writing fan fiction, we began creating our own cultures and religions to give to our characters. In a sense, we were creating a world of our own from three different points of view. I think it really made the creative process much more fun for all of us.
Kris: The freedom to build this world from scratch really excited us, and inspired us to create a lot of new backstory, interesting new locations, rules for the fantasy elements, and an entirely new mythology. I think most fantasy writers will agree that world-building is one of the best parts of the job. Well, try doing it with a group of other writers who are just as ecstatic and imaginative as you!
What prompted the recent rewrite of The Chosen (Rise of Cithria #1)?
Alistair: A friend of mine read it, and loved it, but told me that despite this cool world we'd created, the physical character descriptions were lacking. I took this as a sign that we hadn't fully disengaged from the assumption that our audience knew what the hell we were talking about with a known game universe, so I went back through the Andua section and spiced it up. Nothing near what GRRM could dream up, but I added enough to paint a less vague picture of each character. At the same time, we collectively came up with all kinds of new details, and I totally revamped the social structure of Andua. This didn't change the plot at all, but now the story feels more complete.
Patrick: While it's nice to be able to edit our work at will, I've decided not to touch my first book. I like the idea of someone reading my next book and saying, "Wow, he's really improved." That's assuming, of course, that I do improve. People's reactions could be far worse.
Kris: Shameless Marketing Incoming!!! The updated The Chosen (Rise of Cithria #1) was released in August, and the second book in the series, The Descent, will appear in October 2013! Get in line now! I want to see people camped out outside the doors at Amazon!
(Yes, I know Amazon has no doors, so to speak…)
What's the worst part of collaborating on a story with two other writers?
Alistair: Telling Kris that I'm going to kill off all his characters in book three.
Kris: Wait… what?
Alistair: Don't worry about it. Really the worst part of collaboration for me is also the best part. What a cop-out. Anyway, instead of harnessing just my own creativity, I need to harness and merge the creative outbursts of three imaginations. There are tons of great ideas floating around, but at the end of the day, someone needs to make a damn decision and force the others to cooperate. We switch out on that role quite a bit, but I think Kris hypnotizes us into going his way most of the time.
Patrick: Damn it! I knew it!
Kris: You're welcome.
Alistair: In any case, the end result of melding the powers of three nerds into one epic fantasy tale blows away anything I could've ever dreamt up on my own.
Kris: The key to smooth collaboration is learning how to make others do exactly what you want while making them think it was their idea.
Self-publishing carries a stigma of poor quality control and a lack of editing and proofing. What does The 4th Realm do differently to counteract that notion?
Kris: We pride ourselves on our quality at the4threalm.com, which is why everything we publish passes before many eyeballs first. We critique and edit each other's work extensively, all in the service of a good story. Then, we make use of a few different editors, just to minimize the glaring grammatical, spelling, or text issues as best as possible. By the time we publish something, we've each read it multiple times, so even though we're sick of it, very little escapes our notice.
This kind of quality control is important to us, because I can't count how many books I've read, by independent and traditionally published authors that have GLARING issues. The ones in traditionally published books especially astound me, since I have this preconceived notion that a professionally published book will be just that: Professional. The fact that our books hold up as well, or better, than many other books I've read makes me more than a little proud.
Patrick: We're also trying real hard to master the art of self-promotion. There's something about going to a convention and having people meet us, the authors. They like putting a face behind the words. Plus, we encourage them to go to the website and contact us directly. Only small publishers like ourselves have the ability to make themselves that available to their audience. In that regard, I think self-publishing catches a niche of readers that, while small, tends to grow into a more dedicated fan-base.
Alistair McIntyre is the author of the sci-fi thriller PHALANX ALPHA and the recently released regular ol' thriller SHALLOW CREEK. Kris Kramer is the author of the historical, dark fantasy SANCTUARY, the action-packed thriller THE EXTRACTION, and the fantasy THE WIND RIDERS. Patrick Underhill is co-author of THE CHOSEN with Alistair and Kris.


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End of 2010 saw the launch of Radeon HD 6970 and Geforce GTX 570 graphics cards, which have proven to be great and definitely serve as a nice reference points for graphics performance. As far HD 6970 and GTX 570 go, they come with pretty much identical performance and pricing. An example of this is EVGA GTX 570 whose clocks are up from 732MHz to 797MHz for the GPU and the memory from 950MHz to 975MHz.
Higher clocks mean improved performance, which is the GTX 570 Superclocked's main advantage as the card uses reference cooling. Thankfully, Nvidia did a good job by using vapor chamber technology on reference coolers. Despite the overclock, the cooler is not to loud and the temperatures aren't too high either.
If you're looking for extra performance, EVGA GTX 570 Superclocked can definitely satisfy your urge. On the other hand, there's also the option of purchasing EVGA GTX 570 at reference clocks for some €30 less. EVGA GTX 570 Superclocked is currently priced at around €342. You can find both cards listed here.


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June 22, 2014
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Seminoles.com) – Rising senior and 2014 USA Softball National Player of the Year Lacey Waldrop participated in the Team USA Selection Camp from June 8-22 but did not make the final roster that was announced today.
Liberty University was host to a five-day camp from June 8-12 as 24 athletes competed in practices, drills and scrimmages to give the coaching staff, led by head coach Ken Eriksen of USF, a chance to see who would be able to make the final 17-member squad.
Team USA transitioned to play six exhibition games over three days, with doubleheaders on June 13 in Lynchburg, Va., June 17 in Findlay, Ohio and June 19 in Purcellville, Va.
Waldrop was named the starter in game one on June 13 and faced the Central Virginia All-Stars. The Chester, Va., native earned the win after pitching 2.0 innings, allowing two unearned runs and recording two strikeouts as Team USA went on to a 10-2 victory.
Waldrop only other appearance came in the final game of the doubleheader on June 19 against the VA All-Stars, tossing 2.1 innings of relief and surrendering one hit, one run, one walk and posting two strikeouts.
Maddie O'Brien was a member of the VA All-Stars team, and the pair of first team All-Americans faced off against each other in the top of the fourth of game two. Waldrop was able to get best of her teammate, inducing a groundout to the circle from the 2014 ACC Player of the Year. O'Brien later ripped an RBI double to center in the sixth inning off Oregon's Cheridan Hawkins to bring in the only run of the game for the VA All-Stars.
"I could not have had a better experience over the last two weeks while trying out for Team USA," said Waldrop. "As badly as I wanted to make the team, I am so happy for the girls who will be representing the USA this summer. They are such a talented and amazing group and I hope to be able to play with them again sometime in the future."
Follow Florida State softball on Twitter (@FSU_Softball) and Instagram (fsusoftball), and like our Facebook page (Facebook.com/FSUsoftball) to keep with everything about Seminole softball.


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VIDEO: Bickerstaff receives Daly Lifetime Achievement award
SAN ANTONIO – In 41 years as an NBA coach and executive, across five decades, Bernie Bickerstaff learned, deployed, imparted and maybe even forgot more X's and O's than used in all the episodes of Hollywood Squares combined.
But when it came time to reflect on his career – which continues these days as an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers – Bickerstaff defaulted to faces and names and people. That is the NBA he has most enjoyed, the one he thanked Thursday for "letting [him] come along on this wonderful ride for 40-plus years."
"I've been fortunate to start a lot of good relationships," Bickerstaff said, "with ball boys, with trainers, PR people, assistant coaches, head coaches, general managers, presidents, owners – and even some of those owners and general managers who decided they wanted to go in a different direction."
Bickerstaff, 70, was presented with the 2014 Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, as chosen by the National Basketball Coaches Association, prior to Game 1 of The Finals. As described by NBCA president Rick Carlisle, coach of the Dallas Mavericks, the Daly award honors competitive integrity, diversity, longevity and "the thing that Chuck always talked about, which was love and respect for the game."
That love and respect was looping back toward Bickerstaff at the AT&T Center. Fellow coaches Pat Riley, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson made sure to be in the audience for Bickerstaff's news conference. His sons John-Blair, an assistant on Houston coach Kevin McHale's staff, and Bernard were in the front row. And so was his wife of 46 years, Eugenia. "Like Chuck, she knew the buttons to push – she didn't always know when but she knew the buttons to push," Bickerstaff said.
Bickerstaff , a native of Benham, Ky., has worked at the NBA's highest levels throughout his career, not just on the bench but in the front office. He became the youngest assistant coach in league history, joining the Washington Bullets' staff at age 29 in 1973. He had made the jump from the University of San Diego, and the differences were immediately apparent.
"When I joined the Bullets in '73 I didn't have a clue about the NBA," he recalled. "I was mesmerized by all the picks that they set. There was one, two, three, four picks, and basically in college you go off one screen and you go to the other side of the screen and that was it.
"And the talent. When you think of the team we had, we had [Wes] Unseld, Elvin Hayes, Archie Clark, Phil Chenier – the talent level was so much different than it was at the University of San Diego."
In Washington, Bickerstaff worked for K.C. Jones and Dick Motta and helped the Bullets reach The Finals three times, winning the franchise's only championship in 1978. In 1985, he was hired as head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics and led them to three postseason appearances in five years.
Of those Sonics clubs, his personal favorites, Bickerstaff said: "They were all 6-8, 6-9, so the things that you could do defensively. They were athletic, they were mentally tough. But we couldn't get by the Lakers, you know?"
The Denver Nuggets offered Bickerstaff the role of president and GM in 1990, and he took over as head coach four years later, guiding them to the first No. 8 vs. No. 1 playoff upset in NBA history.
In 1997, he went back to Washington as head coach for three seasons. In 2004, the Charlotte Bobcats hired him as coach and GM. And Bickerstaff served between and after those gigs as an assistant with Chicago, Portland and the L.A. Lakers. In fact, when he temporarily took over on the Lakers bench between Mike Brown and Mike D'Antoni in 2012, his 4-1 mark moved him high on that franchise's all-time success list.
Bickerstaff ranks No. 41 all-time in NBA coaching victories (419) and No. 29 in games coached (937).
When San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich saw Bickerstaff near the interview room in the hours before Game 1's tipoff, he heartily congratulated him. "He's one of those guys you call a 'lifer,' like a lifer in the military or in the NBA," Popovich said. "He's helped many people be better coaches and better people, and that's one of the reasons he's here tonight for that award."
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra grew up in Portland as a Trail Blazers fan when Bickerstaff was working in Seattle and teased him from the podium Thursday evening. "I didn't like the Sonics when he was coaching there," Spoelstra said, "but he had some great teams out there and all of his different spots."
Said Bickerstaff: "I think the two fortunate people here tonight are Spo and Coach Popovich because they've got a chance to walk home with the crown."
Brown, the former Cavs and Lakers coach, was brought into the league by Bickerstaff as Denver's video coordinator in 1992. He hired Brown as an assistant in 1997, too, after his move back to Washington.
"'NBA coach Mike Brown' would not be in existence if it wasn't for Bernie," Brown told the Cleveland Plain Dealer upon learning of Bickerstaff's award. "I'm thrilled for him. He's got his name etched in stone in a few other places, but this place is one of the best. It's a neat award for what Bernie has given to the game of basketball. He definitely has contributed to the growth of the NBA in his own way. His longevity in itself is an accomplishment."
The Daly award, conceived in 2009, is dedicated to the memory of Hall of Famer Chuck Daly, who coached for four NBA franchises over 14 seasons, led the Detroit "Bad Boys" to consecutive championships in 1989 and 1990 and was voted one of the league's Top 10 coaches of all-time in 1996.
The award is selected by a committee of NBA insiders, including Popovich, Riley, Billy Cunningham, Donnie Walsh, Lenny Wilkens, Joe Dumars and Phil Jackson. Past winners include Bill Fitch (2013), Riley (2012), Wilkens (2011), Tex Winters and Jack Ramsay (2010) and Tommy Heinsohn (2009).


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Best and Worst of March Entertainment, Including The Office Proposal, Casey Abrams's Idol Meltdown, and Big Love's Series Finale
Buzz Backtrack: The Best and Worst of March Entertainment
Buzz Backtrack: The Best and Worst of March Entertainment
March is coming to a close, which means it's the perfect time to reflect on everything that went down in entertainment over the past several weeks — and there was plenty! From Big Love's shocking season finale to Michael Scott's proposal, we're reliving the best (and worst!) that March had to offer. Click through to check out our picks, and then share your favorite highlights from the month in the comments.


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Elliot Spitzer proposes to save us from political allocation of economic development dollars. How is he going to do this? By politically allocating economic development dollars, of course -- only he's going to do it his way, which will be much more rational than the current idiots way. The trouble, of course, is that once he's in orifice, he'll be the current idiot.
If Elliot really wants to help New Yorkers, he'll give us our economic development dollars back in the form of tax cuts. Frankly, Elliot is a politician, not a businessman. So when he says that he "believes that government should have no higher priority than standing up for New York State's economic future." you know that means that he wants to spend our money to help us. I have a better idea: I want to spend my money to help me, and I don't need any busybody telling me how to spend my own money.


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Chile child sex abuse to be investigated at 61 schools
Prosecutors in Chile are investigating about 60 schools in the capital, Santiago, over allegations that pupils were sexually abused.
The investigations come after reports of child sex abuse in schools and day care centres increased markedly this year.
Most of the schools are in Santiago's affluent eastern areas.
Earlier this week, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera announced a raft of measures to combat child sex abuse.
Attorney general Sabas Chahuan said 49 schools in eastern Santiago and about a dozen on the west side of the city would be investigated.
"Wherever there are children, we will investigate just the same as we do with corruption or economic crimes," Mr Chahuan said on Friday after meeting representatives of a parents' association.
"We put ourselves in the place of the parents and we know they're worried, anxious and desperate."
According to the National Prosecuting Authority, complaints of sexual abuse of children under the age of 14 jumped 22% in the first half of 2012, compared to the same period in 2011.
On Wednesday, President Pinera said a database registering those convicted of sexually abusing minors or of child pornography offensives would be operational from August.
A new law last month banned convicted paedophiles from working near children.


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It's the kind of audacious but small-stakes insider trading that normally wouldn't have merited much attention.
Golfing buddies Scott London and Bryan Shaw netted just $1.3 million, a blip in a world where Wall Street kingpins pocket hundreds of millions in ill-gotten gains.
The two men made one misstep after another. Their haplessness virtually guaranteed they'd get nailed, experts said. The scope of their ill-fated caper was made clear Thursday when federal prosecutors in Los Angeles filed a criminal charge against London, alleging that he passed insider tips to Shaw from 2010 to 2013.
London, a former auditor at KPMG, and Shaw, an Encino jeweler, kept trading even after Fidelity Investments suspended Shaw's brokerage account, according to the Justice Department complaint. They swapped packets of cash in public. London brashly predicted that authorities weren't interested in "small fish" like them.
Their most glaring blunder was the decision to trade shares of Herbalife Ltd., a controversy-scarred Los Angeles company that was under intense scrutiny by federal authorities. The pals not only brushed aside the heightened risk in Herbalife but also privately bemoaned that they missed out on bigger profits by not trading more frequently, according to the criminal complaint.
There were enormous stakes involved in the link to nutritional supplements maker Herbalife. The New York Stock Exchange was forced to halt trading of its shares for two hours Tuesday morning after KPMG resigned as Herbalife's outside auditor because of the emerging trading scandal. The halt was intended to prevent panicked traders from dumping the stock out of fear that Herbalife itself was about to release damaging news.
"You got two knuckleheads who keep affirming each other's stupid ideas," said Gene Murphy, a white-collar defense attorney at Murphy & Hourihane in Chicago. They kept at their scheme "even when warning flags are going up [and] the hairs are rising on the back of the neck."
Even Shaw's attorney, Nathan Hochman, conceded the fatal flaw: "It was probably less greed than stupidity."
London fed Shaw confidential tidbits on Herbalife and footwear maker Skechers USA Inc., two companies whose audits he oversaw in his high-ranking job as head auditor at KPMG's L.A. office, according to the complaint. He also leaked information on other KPMG clients.
Shaw rewarded London with tens of thousands in cash, often slipping him manila envelopes stuffed with $100 bills during clandestine meetings on a side street near Shaw's Encino business, according to the complaint.
Shaw also gave London a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona watch worth $12,000, jewelry for his wife and Bruce Springsteen concert tickets.
London's lawyer labeled some of those allegations as "completely bogus," such as the value of the concert tickets.
London publicly admitted wrongdoing in an interview Tuesday night with The Times, saying in penitent terms that he gave bare-bones information to Shaw after his friend's business had suffered financial trouble. The mea culpa appeared to be part of a calibrated strategy to lighten the personal and legal backlash against the Agoura Hills man who had been involved in a variety of civic activities.
However, the actions Thursday from the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission portrayed London as far more involved in the scheme than he had acknowledged, including advising Shaw how to structure trades to conceal their activity.
London plans to plead guilty May 17 and "hopes he will be spared prison time," said his lawyer, Harland W. Braun. Shaw's lawyer said he also expects charges to be filed against his client.
The federal charge of conspiracy to commit securities fraud through insider trading carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.
Shaw made $450,000 in Herbalife at one point and the men salivated at the notion that they could make even more, according to the complaint.
In one call, London referred to rumors that Herbalife may be going private, telling Shaw "[t]hat is going to be where you make a ton of money."
What London, 50, and Shaw, 52, never accounted for was the financial and media firestorm that would ensue from any news pertaining to Herbalife.
Herbalife is caught in a bitter tug of war between two of the most prominent hedge fund managers on Wall Street over the legitimacy of the company's accounting and business practices.
Disclosure of London and Shaw's scheme began to emerge Monday night when KPMG announced that it had fired a high-ranking staffer, later revealed to be London, because of inappropriate trading in companies whose audits he handled.
The next day, Herbalife and Skechers said KPMG abruptly resigned as their outside auditor because of the alleged misconduct.
The NYSE halted trading in Herbalife shares Tuesday to give jittery investors time to assess what was really going on. The resignation of an outside auditor normally is jarring news that signals potential accounting fraud — and investors were relieved when that wasn't the case.
"Given the scrutiny that was already being placed on Herbalife, it's almost like they wanted to get caught," said Mark Fickes, a partner at law firm BraunHagey & Borden in San Francisco.
On the website for Shaw's jewelry business, Shaw Diamond Co., the company says it was founded in 1957 and has become among the "most reliable" and "reputable" wholesale jewelers and diamond brokers in the area.
But the firm is not a member of the California Jewelers Assn. or the Diamond Dealers Club, both large trade groups. And dozens of local merchants, many of them multi-decade veterans of the industry, said they had never heard of the company or knew almost nothing about it.
On customer review site Yelp, Shaw Diamond's profile is almost completely bare. There's one review, a glowing, five-star endorsement left a year ago in April.
"The best jewelers," the review reads. "Brian treats every customer like family. The ONLY jeweler to buy a diamond from."
Yelp filtered the post, an action the site takes when it suspects that reviews may be unreliable.
It's a bitter end for two friends whose families had grown especially close over the years.
London frequently commented on the Facebook page of Shaw's wife, Cyndi. In 2009, Cyndi posted a photo of her with Scott London's wife, Michele, and a third friend at a restaurant and captioned it "The 3 amigas." The girls' night out picture elicited a teasing response from Scott London, who commented, "You guys look a little out of focus. Is the world blurry to you?"
That same month, underneath a photo showing the Shaws smiling on vacation, London wrote, "Who is that hotty in the sunglasses." Cyndi Shaw responded, "Your buddy Bryan of course!"
Other photos on Cyndi Shaw's Facebook page show the couple, who live in Lake Sherwood, enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle with their two children, jetting around the world for Mediterranean cruises and vacations to Italy and Argentina.
But now that London and Shaw have been caught, they are no longer on speaking terms, said Braun, London's lawyer.
"Shaw did what he had to do," he said.
Times staff writers Andrew Khouri, Ricardo Lopez and Adolfo Flores contributed to this report.


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text:
|2011-03-08, 16:38
|Link #63
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
Is it me or are they missing the mask?
Seriously though, why is it important?
|2011-03-08, 19:46
|Link #67
floating away...
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Beyond World's End
Yeah... i think that the different Yamadas must fulfill some tasks to keep the flow of the time... if you remember, when Yamada started to look out for Chika, he falls from a cliff and in his mind he saw a guy with the mask he found in his house... and that guy was him!.
I think it's like Back to the Future with Haruhi's movie.
|2011-11-16, 08:24
|Link #76
Portable Dude Mk. II
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: All ghillied up spying on someone ~2,000 yards away using telescope sights.
Age: 30
Yeah, as you said...
|2016-06-17, 11:18
|Link #79
Join Date: Jan 2015
I was surprised and immediately interested when I saw scans
in English translations of Let's Lagoon had resumed, after a
hiatus of almost three years.
Let's Lagoon is easily unexpectedly deceptive to those going
only on the first five or six chapters. It seems to be about a
boy and girl from a middle school class that are accidentally
stranded on a mysterious island. Not mysterious because of
monsters or dangerous animals, but for physical changes to
the island and its fogs.
A big part of the story involves the relationship between two
girls and one boy. Initially only one girl, Imase Chika and one
boy with a family name of Yama. They are later joined on
the island by another girl from their class, Kamiyama Nori,
and others who come and go in the story.
The most central plot element is in the contrasting thoughts,
abilities, and boldlness of the two girls. Secondly there is
something yet unsaid that has happened in the future past.
Unsaid but repeatedly shown is the much greater abilities
and driving boldness to survive of Nori, the second girl. The
first girl although of a good heart has very limited vision and
no independent foraging background.
The two girls are also at very different points of sexual
awaking, also compared to the male. As proof of this
compare the attitude of the girls on his seeing their
bodies, and their physically touching him.
Chika has to be aided while Nori risks her own neck to
save Yamada from a shark. It is only after this last event
that Yamada seems to appreciate her depth of
commitment to him, rather than see her as a pest.
The deception comes in the focus of the first couple of
chapters on Chika and Yamada. He blinded by circumstances
thinks he is discovering a relationship. She, Chika is at best
alot more ambivalent. This is best shown in her conversations
with her sister about him. When Yamada wakes up from
sleep or a dream he calls Chika's family name. When Chika
wakes up she calls her sister, Mika's name.
Last edited by Old Rick; 2016-06-17 at 11:22. Reason: spelling
|drama, mystery, romance, seinen
|Thread Tools


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Dodge Caravan Lease Questions
in Dodge
Hi everyone. Please use the following discussion to post any questions that you have about leasing a Dodge Caravan. Thanks.
Smart Shopper / Prices Paid Forums
Smart Shopper / Prices Paid Forums
garn0 Posts: 3in December for exactly $18,000. It was a 2005 and had 10K miles on it. Had the standard 3.8L engine, power slider doors, steering wheel audio controls, stow and go seats, etc. I found the stow and go seats to be fairly uncomfortable. Not greatly sure it was a wonderful deal but it didn't seem bad compared to the other dealers that I had been talking with. It was the cheapest of the dealers I talked to and it came in under the TMV value on Edmunds. It was a certified van with 8/80 warranty.
I bought extra warranty for electrical items plus and that cost me $650. I bought gap insurance for $148. It was the fist time I had bought added warranty on a vehicle but the quote was 200 dollars under what I received via e-mail from other private sellers on the net.
Good deal? Too late now but wondered what everyone thought.0
Hi garn0. Congratulations on your new van. Did you lease it? It doesn't sound like it. This particular discussion is for community members to discuss leasing the Dodge Caravan. You would be better off discussing the price that you paid for your van over in the "Chrysler Voyager/Dodge Caravan: Prices Paid & Buying Experience" discussion.
Smart Shopper / Prices Paid Forums0
Hello Car_man,
Could you please provide me with the lease numbers for the subject vehicle. I will be leasing for no money down, 12K miles, 39 or 42 months. I am a returning Chrysler lesee so I can take advantage of all cash back offers totaling $5K. MSRP for the vehicle is $27,830 with a selling price of $20,519. Thanks much for your help.0
I'd be happy to help you out, deejay2099. If you were to lease a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT through Chrysler Financial right now for 36 months (its program is less attractive for the terms that you mentioned) with 12,000 miles per year, its buy rate lease money factor and residual value should be .00101 and 47%, respectively. Since you provided all of the necessary price info, let's work up a lease payment on this van and see what we come up with. According to my calculations if you were to lease a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT with an MSRP of $27,830 and a selling price of $20,519 through Chrysler Financial for 36 months with 12,000 miles per year, your zero down, pre-tax monthly payment should be around an attractive $241 per month.
Smart Shopper / Prices Paid Forums0
Thanks Car_man, this really helps, much appreciated.0
You;re very welcome, deejay2099. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Smart Shopper / Prices Paid Forums0
apostle31 Posts: 5Hi I just leased a 2006 Dodge Caravan SXT. It is a 27 month lease with 15,000 miles a year. My total payment including taxes a month is 299.75. This was a no money down lease. Only thing I paid was first months lease payment. However, I have a few problems. They told me at the end of the lease I just turn in vehicle and owe nothing. I re-read lease and I have a $425.00 turn in fee. Also, the Gross Capitalized Cost is $21,378 that amount is in paranthesis and on the right hand column is $22,269. Then you take off the 4,000 for rebates which comes down to 18,269. I thought it should be about $900 dollars less at around 17,000 for the Adjusted Capitalized Cost. This would I think lower my payment considerably. My Residual Value is 10,826 and there is also a rent charge of $196 that I dont understand. Any info on any of my questions or if this is a good lease would be appreciated. Thank You0
A local dealer is advertising a Grand Caravan lease for $99/month, $2995 + license + first payment + tax down, for 27 months. No security deposit. It is a SXT with no options, MSRP $27,830. It says "all rebates to dealer" and also that you must lease through DC Credit. This price seems too good to be true, since Dodge is running an ad on Edmunds.com for what sounds like the same kind of lease, but for $179/month. Anyone else see a deal comparable to this?0
steelerman123 Posts: 1Car_man, Looking to lease the 2006 Dodge Grand caravan. I stopped by local dealership today to get some info. Here is what I have... I have 1997 Plymouth Grand Voyager, leased vehicle that I paid off a couple years ago. Do I qualify for lease loyalty? When I am choosing the van I want, is the price negotiatable, or is the lease amount?
I was going to use the little $ equity in the van towards the lease. If they give me $2000 for the old van, where do you think my payments would come in at? If they say $249, can I say " I need to be at $229?" Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks, Jerry0
Hi apostle31. Chrysler Financial charges a $425 disposition fee (turn-in fee) on every vehicle that it leases. Individual dealers do not have the authority to waive this charge. It sounds as through the dealer neglected to mention or mislead you about this fee. Unfortunately, there is nothing that you can do about this now that you have signed your lease contract and driven off in your vehicle. Similarly, there is nothing that you can do at this point either if you think that your vehicle's capitalized cost is to high. One possible explanation why your van's cap cost is higher than you thought it would be is if your dealer rolled Chrysler Financial's $700 lease acquisition fee into it. These are important items to look at prior to signing your contract. There's really nothing that you can do if you are unsatisfied with them at this point, other than chalk this lease up as a learning experience. Don't worry about the "rent charge." All leased vehicles have them. They represent the interest portion of your vehicle's monthly payment.
Smart Shopper / Prices Paid Forums0
Hi Jerry. That is a good question. I suspect that you do qualify for DaimlerChrysler's $1,000 lease loyalty incentive, but I am not 100% positive that is the case. Your dealer will be able to tell you for certain. The selling prices of leased vehicles are absolutely negotiable just as if you were paying cash for or financing them. You can trade your current vheicle in when you lease, but it would be in your best interest to have the dealer that you are working with cut you a check for it rather than use the proceeds as a down payment on your lease. I always advise consumers against making any sort of down payment when leasing. I do so for two main reasons. The first is if your vehicle is totaled in an accident or stolen during your lease, your down payment essentially disappears. The second main reason is that down payments on leased vehicles do nothing to reduce their lease-end purchase prices. So your lease-end purchase option price for your new van would be exactly the same, regardless of whether you had put several thousand dollars down, or had made absolutely no down payment at all.
Rather than negotiating this van's lease payment, negotiate the lowest possible selling price that you can on it. Once you know what it's price is, I can help you figure out what your lease payment should be.
Smart Shopper / Prices Paid Forums0
rjc1072 Posts: 1I'm actually getting ready to take delivery on a Dodge Caravan tomorrow - I've read this forum and was surprised to see the $425 disposition fee.
Is this fee negotiable? I've always had a GM vehicle and never came across this.
Your comments are appreciated.0
Has anyone seen a Grand Caravan SXT lease deal at less than $200/month, with 0 down? I am seeing some close to that in my town, e.g. $219/month, and several dealers are offering $99/month with $2990 down. I qualify for the DC partner program (1% under invoice) so that could shave a few bucks off.
Does anyone know, if a leased car is totalled, what happens? Is the vehicle replaced with another or ???
btw, the dealers I talked to all mentioned the $425 disposition fee and made it sound like it was non-negotiable.0
Hi backy. If a leased vehicle is stolen or totaled during your term, you don't get a new vehicle. Your lease is essentially over and your insurance company will pay what it feels is the current market value for your totaled vehicle. If this amount is less than you owe on it, and you have gap insurance you are fine. If you don't have gap insurance, you would have to pay the difference out of your own pocket. Like I said though, either way you aren't getting a new vehicle unless you buy or lease another one.
Smart Shopper / Prices Paid Forums0
Thanks for the reply. I think the Chrysler Financial leases have gap insurance, but in any case it appears 0 down and no acquisition fee is the way to go on leases. That way if the vehicle is totalled, the potential loss is lower.0
You;re very welcome, backy. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Smart Shopper / Prices Paid Forums0
Hi, this is my first post so please bear with me. We are looking at a 39 month lease, zero down, 12k or 15k per miles per year. It is an SXT with 3.8 and MSRP of $27,830. Residual of $12,245 and $11,688 resp. I was quoted a monthly lease payment of $364 and $378. This appears to be high to me, what should I expect as a good rate with today's rebates, etc?0
arthurking Posts: 9well, I bought a 06 DGC SXT, but I did pay attention to leasing option, too.
During memorial day, I saw one of my local dealer has a leasing offer like $249 a month for 27 month with zero down. I think that is a pretty good offer. $364 for 39 months? definitely too high!0
Welcome brum. If you were to lease a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT through Chrysler Financial right now for 39 months with 15,000 miles per year, its buy rate lease money factor and residual value should be .00116 and 43%, respectively. The money factor for a lease with only 12,000 miles per year would be the same, but the residual value would be 2% higher. When negotiating your lease on this van, make sure to take the $4,000 lease cash that is currently available on it into account. DaimlerChrysler also has loyalty incentives on it for returning customers.
Smart Shopper / Prices Paid Forums0
Thanks for the info Car_man. I have had several discussions with a dealer and this is what I have so far...MSRP $28,000, selling price $21,455. 12K miles $298 for 27 or 39 months and 15K miles for 310 @ 27 or [email protected] 39 months. This is with $4000 in rebate and $750 as a current Dodge owner. I note in your post #6 to Deejay2099 you calculate the monthly @ 241 so the figures I have still appear high. I am having trouble relating the buy rate lease factor and residual % to the monthly payment. Should I expect to be able to attain a monthly payment of $240-250 @ zero down as calculated for Deejay? Help!0
badtolz Posts: 1Going to lease a 2006 grand caravan sxt. Lease with a trade in on my vehicle ($1900.00)
Here are the specs
1. Used with 7900 miles
2. 3.8 engine
3. Customer Preferred Package - Leather Interior Group
4. Premium Group
5. Power Sunroof
6. 6 Disc cde/dvd changer
7. 1 Yr Sirius Salellite
8. Rear Seat Video System
Base Was $27,100
All options was $34,000
Vehicle price came to $27,000 because it was a Demo Vehicle.
Got a CAP RED REBATE OF $2500
Trade of my car $1900
There are some other numbers I don't understand but bottom line is my monthly payment is $360.00 for 39 Months.
How does this sound? Thanks.0
kfranci2 Posts: 31Hi Car_man,
I am looking to lease a bare-bones Dodge Caravan with a list price of 20,720. I plan to offer a cap cost of $14,300. I would like to lease for 24, 27, or 36 months. I see leases advertised with 10,500 miles, which would suffice for my needs. Could you please let me know the 0 down payment, MF, and residual for the different time periods? Thank you - K0
reilly3 Posts: 2Hello Car-man (and anyone else who can help!). We are looking at a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravaan, MSRP of $31,500 (lots of nice toys on it). We would trade in our 2002 Chrsyler T&C (good condition, has a DVD). They are quoting us $429 per month for a 39 month lease with 18000 miles per year. Does this seem like a good deal? We live in Pittburgh Pa.0
Hi kfranci2. Chrysler Financial's current buy rate lease money factor and residual value for a 24 month lease of a base short wheel base 2006 Dodge Caravan SE with 10,500 miles per year are an amazingly low .00001 and 43%, respectively. The numbers for an otherwise identical 36 month lease are .00027 and 36%. When negotiating your lease on this van, make sure to take the $3,500 lease cash that is currently available on it into account. If the specific unit that you are considering has been on the dealer's lot since April 1st or earlier, there is an additional $1,000 cash incentive on it.
Using the aforementioned lease program, an MSRP of $20,720, and a selling price of $14,300, I estimate that this van's 24 month zero down, pre-tax monthly payment should be around $225. The payment for an otherwise identical 36 month lease should be around $196.
Prices Paid Forum0
Hello reilly3. You never mentioned the selling price of the Grand Caravan that you are interested in leasing. This is an important number for you as a consumer to know for two reasons. First, the selling prices of leased vehicles can be negotiated, just as if you were paying cash for them. Without knowing the price of the van that you want to lease you don't know how good a price you are getting it for. The second reason is that one needs the selling price of a vehicle that they want to lease is that it is necessary to calculate its lease payment. I would be more than happy to give you my opinion of this deal if you let me know what its selling price is.
As far as your trade goes, there's nothing wrong with trading in your current vehicle when leasing a new one. However, it would be in your best interest to have the dealer that you are working with cut you a check for any equity that you have in your trade rather than applying the proceeds from it as a down payment for your new lease. I always advise consumers not to make down payments on leased vehicles. Consumers who make them risk losing them if their vehicle is totaled in an accident or stolen.
Prices Paid Forum0
twilkinson Posts: 3Hi,
Are these two models exactly the same? And are these fair prices for 06 models---all with just standard features it appears. Located in suburban Phila., PA
SXT/16,378/$17,900 (marked down from $19,900)
Town and Country Touring/17,961/ $18,900 (marked down from $20,900)
Are these good prices right now, and should I consider leasing?
Hi twilkinson. I see that you mentioned the mileage of these vans. Are these demo vehicles? If so, you would still be able to lease them using Chrysler Financial's new vehicle lease program. If they are used vehicles, you would not. These vehicles' new vehicle lease programs are different. If you tell me how long you want to lease them for and how many miles per year you need to be able to drive them, I will be happy to give you an idea of what their lease programs are currently like. As far as their prices go, given the significant number of miles that are on them I personally would not purchase either of these vehicles unless I was able to get them for well below dealer invoice minus any available cash incentives. The problem that I have with demos is that dealers are not usually willing to provide enough of a discount on them for me to personally justify purchasing what essentially is a low mileage used vehicle over an otherwise identical brand new one.
Prices Paid Forum0
drdsanto Posts: 1Looking to get out of my current lease early and get into a new Dodge Grand Caravan. Currently have rear DVD player in mine, and would prefer it again. What's going rate now? I qualify for Chrysler employee discount.0
pigpen9 Posts: 1Hi CarMan,
I currently own a 1999 Dodge Neon that is completely paid off. Now that the third son has arrived, we are wanting to get a minivan. I went to the Dodge.com website and was looking at leasing comparing to buying and am leanind towards going that route. I have a couple questions since I am new to the lease game: 1) They have a lease program called Chrysler Financial Plus that is a little different than a regular lease. Do you know anything about this? (here is something about it from the site: When you've reached the end of your term, you can choose from three end of term options. You can Return the vehicle to your dealer or make a final Fixed Value Payment, or refinance the Fixed Value Payment." That leads me to question #2. My wife told me she is skeptical of leasing because when her friend's lease ran out, the dealership did her dirty on the "refinancing the Fixed Value Payment and her payment was going to be alot higher to purchase a "used vehicle at the ned of the lease than f she had just bought it new." Is this legit?
and my last question (for now) In previous posts, I see people talking about leasing demo vehicles and getting them cheaper, how do I go about that?
Hi drdsanto. That's great that you qualify for DaimlerChrysler's Employee Purchase Program. The fact that you do will ensure that you get a great selling price on the Caravan that you're interested in without having to haggle. When you ask what the going rate is now, are you asking what sort of monthly payment can you expect? If so, I would be happy to use Chrysler Financial's current lease program to estimate your van's lease payment for you. However in order for me to do so I need you to provide me with some more information, including its MSRP, the employee purchase price, how long you want to lease for, and how many miles per year you need to be able to drive it. Let me know and I'll crunch some numbers for you.
Prices Paid Forum0


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Location: Environmentally Integrated Dairy Management ResearchTitle: Production, reproduction, health, and growth traits in backcross holstein x jersey cows and their holstein contemporaries Author
|Bjelland, D. - University Of Wisconsin
|Weigel, K. - University Of Wisconsin
|Hoffman, P. - University Of Wisconsin
|Esser, N. - University Of Wisconsin
|Coblentz, Wayne
|Halbach, T. - Holstein Association Usa, Inc
Submitted to: Journal of Dairy Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/7/2011
Publication Date: 9/22/2011
Citation: Bjelland, D.W., Weigel, K.A., Hoffman, P.C., Esser, N.M., Coblentz, W.K., Halbach, T.J. 2011. Production, reproduction, health, and growth traits in backcross holstein x jersey cows and their holstein contemporaries. Journal of Dairy Science. 94:5194-5203.
Interpretive Summary: Over the past several decades, average milk production per cow has increased substantially, but many health and fertility traits have become less desirable. Interest in crossbreeding has grown among many producers as a technique for improving these lagging traits. Oftentimes, Jerseys are thought to the best complement for purebred Holsteins because of their adavantages in milk composition and reproductive fertility.A total of 648 purebred Holstein and 319 backcross Holstein x Jersey dairy cattle were compared for production, health, linear type, and growth traits within the University of Wisconsin Intergrated Dairy Facility, located at Marshfield and Arlington, WI. Control Holsteins exhibited greater milk production traits than the backcross cows; however, days open and services per conception as heifers or later as cows did not differ between Holsteins and backcrosses. Results of this study suggest that backcross Holstein x Jersey cows will exhibit decreased milk production, but also fail to demonstrate improvements in health and reproductive traits compared to purebred Holsteins.
Technical Abstract: A total of 648 purebred Holstein and 319 backcross Holstein × Jersey dairy cattle were compared for production, reproduction, health, linear type, and growth traits. Animals were born between 2003 and 2009 and were housed in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Integrated Dairy Facility. All animals had Holstein dams; lactating dams were mated to unproven Holstein sires to produce purebred (control) Holsteins or to unproven (F1) Jersey × Holstein crossbred sires to produce backcross animals, whereas nulliparous dams were mated to proven Holstein sires to produce purebred (other) Holsteins. Traits were analyzed using mixed linear models with effects of season of birth, age of dam, sire, birth year of sire, days in milk, lactation, and linear type score evaluator. Control Holsteins had greater 305-d milk yield (12,645 vs. 11,456 kg), 305-d mature equivalent milk yield (13,420 vs. 12,180 kg), peak daily milk yield (49.5 vs. 46.4 kg), total lactation milk yield (11,556 vs. 10,796 kg), and daily fat-corrected milk yield (43 vs. 40 kg) compared with backcrosses. Days open and services per conception as a heifer or cow did not differ between control Holsteins, other Holsteins, or backcrosses. The proportion of first-parity births that required assistance was less in control Holsteins than in backcross cows (3.7 vs. 11.2%). The incidence of scours or respiratory problems in calves did not differ between control Holsteins, other Holsteins, and backcrosses, nor did the incidence of mastitis, injury, or feet problems. Control Holstein heifers were heavier (629 vs. 557 kg), with greater hip height (145 vs. 139 cm), body length (167 vs. 163 cm), heart girth (205 vs. 198 cm), and hip width (54 vs. 53 cm) at 22 mo of age. On a 50-point scale for linear type traits, Holsteins were larger in stature compared with backcrosses (41 vs. 28), had wider rumps (37 vs. 33), and wider rear udders (34 vs. 32). Results of this study suggest that backcross Holstein × Jersey cattle have decreased production but fail to demonstrate an advantage in health and reproduction compared with purebred Holsteins.


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VERGENNES — The Lake Champlain Committee recently received an $8,280 grant from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Ecosystem Restoration Program to fund a study of needed design modifications for a stormwater pond in the Crosby Farms neighborhood of Vergennes.
The city will contribute $2,800 in matching funds, according to City Manager Mel Hawley.
The stormwater pond has been identified as needing remediation in the Vergennes Municipal Plan and by a Vermont DEC stormwater mapping project.
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VERGENNES — Work has begun to correct longstanding drainage problems in the Crosby Farms development area, City Manager Mel Hawley told aldermen on at their Aug. 21 meeting.
Hawley said after a firm was hired to "televise" about 60 percent of the stormwater drainage systems, two blockages were found, some iron bars (known as rebar, which holds concrete in place) sticking into one 24-inch pipe, and a 15-by-6-inch stone in another drainage pipe.
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The first year is designed to provide the seven trainees with the necessary experience to become accomplished specialists, excellent clinician-teachers and clinical researchers. The year consists of fully structured clinical work. Responsibilities include the following:
Management of patients with all acute medical problems admitted to the intensive care units of five hospitals: UC Health (UCH), Denver Health Medical Center (DHMC), Veteran's Administration Medical Center (VAMC), St. Anthony Central (SAC), and Rose Medical Center (RMC).
Management of patients with chronic respiratory insufficiency due to asthma, COPD, ILD, tuberculosis, atypical mycobacterial disease and immunologic deficiency states. The physiology and sleep medicine rotation at NJMRC also includes a required elective in two of the following: occupational medicine, pulmonary rehabilitation, interstitial lung disease, or chest imaging.
Handling large numbers of consultations and providing advice for the consulting physicians in the core hospitals.
Performing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures: fiberoptic bronchoscopy, bronchoalveolar lavage, transbronchial biopsy, needle biopsy, pleural biopsy, intubations, right heart catheterization, chest tube insertion, and percutaneous tracheostomy.
Learning the principles and interpretation of pulmonary physiology and sleep at National Jewish Health (NJH) as well as how to organize a pulmonary function and exercise laboratory.
Participating in one afternoon weekly outpatient continuity clinic at one of our clinical training sites for the entire 3 year period.
Weekly attendance and participation at Pulmonary and Critical Care Grand Rounds, Chest X-Ray Conference, and Pulmonary and Critical Care Lecture Series. Attendance at the weekly divisional research conference while on rotation at NJMRC.
Formal and informal teaching of housestaff, medical students, nurses and allied health professionals.
It should be clear that these activities will occupy most of the first-year fellow's time. In many cases, however, clinical research projects are initiated and it is common for significant clinical research to be conceived, initiated and completed within the first year, often leading to presentations at regional and national meetings.
Research Pathways
The research training will be in either one of two pathways: the Clinician Scientist or the Basic Investigator Pathway. Because of established center grants and multiple individual grants, the research opportunities are excellent.
Clinician Scientist Pathway: For trainees who elect the Clinician Scientist Pathway, course work in the School of Public Health is required during research year one. During research year two a didactic series in the design and evaluation of clinical trials is offered by the Department of Medicine and required of those fellows in the clinician scientist track. This consists of 13 weekly lectures in the fall and winter. The goal of this pathway is to prepare clinical investigators to carry out population based and epidemiologic studies. Because of established clinical centers in ARDS, interstitial lung disease, asthma, sleep, pulmonary hypertension, lung cancer, lung transplantation, sepsis trials and cystic fibrosis there are a number of ongoing and new studies. Trainees who select this pathway also establish collaborative relationships with basic science laboratories in the division and enter one of the clinical Ph.D. pathways.
Basic Investigator Pathway: For trainees electing this pathway the Department of Medicine's Basic Science course is required during research year one. This course is divided into three parts and meets three times weekly for 2 months in the summer.
Ph.D. Program: For either pathway, a Ph.D. program in Health Services Research, Clinical Investigation or Basic Sciences is now obtainable within the confines of a 4 year program.
The second fellowship year is devoted to specific research training arranged with a mentor in the division. This is protected time and careful planning will ensure that productivity will result. One can elect almost any experience, including both basic and clinical research. Excellent experience is available in applied physiology, biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology, genetics, cell biology and epidemiology. This is a time when many fellows will elect experience at the Cardiovascular-Pulmonary Research Laboratory (CVP), NJH, the VAMC, or the divisional research laboratories in the medical school with either clinical translational or basic investigators. It is possible to develop a relationship with these researchers during the first year in preparation for conducting research with them during the second and third years, as well as additional years.
The required clinical responsibilities during this year include a weekly half-day continuity clinic, two months of advanced lung disease training at UH, one month of critical care at the Anschutz Inpatient Pavilion (UCH) and attendance at conferences.
This year is a continuation of the second year experience. The two critical care clinical months are spent in the medical ICU at DHMC. In addition, trainees complete one month of an inpatient pulmonary elective rotation and a six-month half-day pulmonary outpatient subspecialty clinic experience. The continuity clinics and conference attendance continues. As in year two, the research training continues.
This is an optional year added to ensure continuity of research for those desiring it. For all trainees selecting one of the Ph.D. programs, the fellowship will be four years.
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Y-Combinator Demo Day 2013: Still looking for the next Airbnb or Dropbox
Y-Combinator has made changes since the first of its 15 batches of graduates earned their degrees in startupology – or whatever they get when they finish the 3-month program. The accelerator's founder, Paul Graham, trimmed by about a third the number of companies he allowed to enroll, from 65 last year to 47 this time, to better focus on the participants. I suppose that means he intends to provide each company more individual attention. And in November, YC introduced its official VC program, which organized access to mentors from firms like Andreessen Horowitz. In the process Graham cut the amount of money each company would receive, to $80,000 from $150,000, which had caused unnecessary tension when disputes arose among founders. Less money, the thinking goes, should result in fewer complications.
Today was Y-Combinator's Demo Day, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, where I was able to see each company present its product in public for the first time. While Y-Combinator made changes over the past year, there wasn't a whole lot different about the companies this time around. Less money did not, YC partner Jessica Livingston claims, result in greater fiscal austerity. "It's not like they were really irresponsible to begin with," she says. More squishy was the outward impression each company emitted: some attendees told me there was a greater sense of founder modesty.
Really, though, it was no mind-blowing affair. In fact, perhaps the major difference was that the bar opened earlier this year. Last time, booze (wine and beer, actually) was served right before the reception; today it started at lunch, with three-fourths of the day to go. "Maybe it will put people in a friendlier mood," Livingston says. The move wasn't a calculated decision. But I guess it does go with the theme of a smaller, more manageable, easier-going Demo Day.
There didn't seem to be any knockout winners, though many attendees were impressed with Thalmic Labs and its wearable tech product, MYO. The band recognizes movements in a user's muscles and creates a vivid gaming experience. Still, it did little to combat the common knock against YC. That is, after more than 400 companies have gone through its ranks, only two – Airbnb and Dropbox – have been smash, revenue-spewing successes, leading a handful of successful exits, namely Reddit, Heroku, and OMGPOP.
While I don't have my Tarot cards handy, I don't think there's a big winner in this bunch either. The two big categories this time around were enterprise and crowd sourcing, the latest hyped trend to shake up Silicon Valley. By my count, 19 out of the 47 companies had some sort of B2B component. One was BitNami, an app store for server apps that counts MasterCard, Fiat, and GE as customers, and claims it's already profitable. Another: Errplane, a service that works with appmakers and alerts them of errors on the backend in real-time. Founder Paul Dix says the company hopes to be on premises by December.
There was also a lot of Kickstarter copycatting. There was BackerKit (to manage Kickstarter supporters), Microryza (a Kickstarter for science projects), Swish (which handles preorders after a company concludes a successful Kickstarter campaign), Teespring (a KIckstarter for t-shirts), Wefunder (a Kickstarter for investors) and Watsi (a non-profit Kickstarter that hopes to fund treatment for sick people). Next year maybe I'll pitch a Kickstarter to auto-generate Kickstarter imitators.
Today's event was a far cry from the eight startups the program accepted in its first year in 2005. And even though YC shrank the program by about 20 companies, maybe all the Kickstarter wannabes are proof it needs to scale back even more.
At least one investor, who attended six demo days before this one, was equally underwhelmed. "I would have concern with all the Kickstarter for X companies," says Jon Soberg, managing director at Blumberg Capital, an early stage venture firm, says. He also didn't think many of the companies had big market potential, and said other investors he talked to felt the same way. "How many big companies will adopt these things?"
Maybe next time will different.
[Image courtesy: Paul Miller]


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KeepRecipes is one spot for all your recipes and kitchen memories. Keep, cook, capture and share with your cookbook in the cloud.Get Started - 100% free to try - join in 30 seconds
Yikes! My recipes are everywhere: cookbooks, index cards, pages torn from magazines, Word docs, emails, my husband's iPad, my Facebook account, Pinterest, my bookmarks bar, etc. So I'm trying a few web-based recipe organizers (like this one) as well as a few apps. Mostly I'm rounding up recipes I've seen online which I'd like to try; however, slowly but surely, I'm going to add family recipes. My ultimate goal is to have my favorite recipes both online and on either my MacBook or iPad. I don't plan on getting rid of my most beloved cookbooks, but my not-so-beloved cookbooks are another story. New homes need to be found for the books with only one or two recipes I like -- but only after I have copied down those recipes, of course. And who knows how long that will take. My immediate goal is to figure out what to have for dinner tonight.
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Lady Gaga Gets 'Artpop' Tattoo, Hints New Album Title
Artpop. Is that the title of Lady Gaga's new album? Could be! It's the word that she just got tattoed on her arm and she seems to have dropped a really big hint that impacted with the subtlety of a bomb!
The Mother Monster shared a photo of her brand new tattoo, which is the phrase 'Artpop' in simple black script. It's all caps and one word. She captioned the photo, which she shared on LittleMonsters.com, with this statement: "New ink new album." That certainly implies that her new album will be titled 'Artpop.' That's also probably what it will sound like.
She also commented on the post a second time, writing: "We could, we could belong together. ARTPOP." – lady gaga
Little monsters immediately began questioning the location of the tattoo. Looking straight ahead and flipping it, the tatt would seem to be on her right arm, which would oppose the fact that she only tattoos the left side of her body, per Papa Germanotta's request. However, other lil' monsters pointed out that the iPad cameras turn pictures around and that the image is mirrored, so it should be on her left arm and therefore on the side of her body reserved for ink.
Whatever the case, Gaga appears to have shared some really big news.
Artpop, huh? We like it. It sounds like a revolution in sound and culture, as opposed to a simple album title.
We also love how pouty Gaga's lips look. While there were rumors that she may have had fillers injected into her kisser, it's probably just her pose and that rosy lipstick making them appear fuller!
Watch Lady Gaga Perform New Song 'Princess Die'


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Children seeking asylum
Under international law, the UK has a duty to offer asylum to people who flee their own countries because of a well founded fear of persecution.
Children in these families are usually very vulnerable and have experienced the most traumatic of times in their home countries.
Whether families are given leave to remain in the UK or eventually return home we believe that the children are children first and foremost and should be treated with dignity and respect while they are here.
Children seeking asylum facts
- Most asylum seekers are living in poverty and experience poor health and hunger.
- Children from asylum seeking families usually make a good contribution to their schools and are highly motivated.
- The UK does not take more than its 'fair share' of asylum seekers.
Barnardo's services
Barnardo's services work with asylum seeking families while they are going through the asylum process. For example:
- we run fostering services for children and young people who arrive here on their own
- we help children get the health care and schooling they need while they are in the UK
- we support the parents to do the best they can for their children and offer them a place where they can meet each other
- we offer practical support, with finding an interpreter, donations of clothes and food and advice on financial assistance.


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LONDON -- Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, is prepared to stay holed up inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London for as long as five years if necessary in order to avoid extradition to Sweden to face what he says are politically motivated allegations of sexual assault, the Ecuadorean foreign minister said Monday.
Assange is accused of sexually assaulting two women on separate occasions in Stockholm in August 2010. He was arrested in London in December of that year, which began a series of legal appeals by his attorneys to block his extradition to Sweden. But those appeals, which went all the way up to Britain's Supreme Court, were denied.
Britain says it is duty-bound to extradite Assange to Sweden to face allegations of rape, but Ecuador has offered the white-haired Australian sanctuary if he can be guaranteed safe passage to the South American country.
Ricardo Patiño, the Ecuadorean foreign minister, met with his British counterpart, William Hague, for 45 minutes Monday morning to try to resolve the standoff. The meeting was cordial, but the British government said that "no substantive progress was made." Patiño told reporters that Assange was willing to stay inside the embassy even for five years if that's what it took.
"The Ecuadorean government will continue to ensure that he continues with the protection we have given him under asylum in our country," Patiño said, adding: "The Ecuadorean government maintains that the reasons for which Ecuador granted asylum are still relevant, and therefore there is going to be no change in his circumstances."