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Friday, August 31, 2007
Dow Jones Up: Mission Accomplished!
Stocks appeared poised for a strong opening this morning ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the introduction by President Bush of policy proposals to lessen the pain for struggling mortgage borrowers.
—The Wall Street Journal
No, I am not making this up: stocks are set to rise in part on news that President Bush is going to announce a plan to help subdue the mortgage crisis.
As further explained in this morning's online version of the Journal,
Mr. Bush…is expected to introduce a plan to reduce some of the pressure on squeezed homeowners by, among other things, changing the Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance program to allow more people to refinance with FHA insurance if they fall behind on adjustable-rate mortgages, according to media reports. The president is scheduled to speak at shortly after 11 a.m. Eastern time.
While we here at NotMakingThisUp never venture short-term opinions on the direction of stocks or bonds—let alone the ups and downs of pre-opening futures trading—we can't help but wonder at Mr. Market's heightened expectations for what the nation's CEO will do to solve the sub-prime crisis.
Hope that Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Bush's words will calm the waters helped to push shares of mortgage lenders higher early on. Countrywide Financial, the nation's largest home lender and a company that has been hard-hit by the credit and housing turmoil, jumped 6% in overseas trading.
If history is any guide, we suspect tomorrow's newspapers will report something like the following:
When the President and his team received word of the 100-plus point rise in the pre-opening Dow Jones Industrial Average on their Blackberries on the way to the announcement, they immediately declared "Mission Accomplished," turned around the motorcade and drove back to the White House.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2007 NotMakingThisUp, LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
Posted by Jeff Matthews at 9:03 AM 7 comments:
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Miss Teen South Carolina Wants to Thank Biff, Sally and Barf, From the Bottom of Her Heart
The nice thing about being on the road is getting to watch the morning shows.
I am not making that up.
After all, when I'm home—what with dogs to walk and cats to feed and newspapers scattered across the lawn by the delivery guy who drives 80 miles an hour down the street, swerving from one curb to the other like one of those getaway drivers on Bad Boys and tossing out at each swerve a clump of papers held together by nothing more than slim rubber bands that burst on impact—I never get a chance to turn on the television, flip through the perky morning news shows and find out exactly what's happening in the world that I need to know in order to get through the day.
Thanks to being on the road, however, with no dogs or cats to feed and no newspapers to reassemble, I can find out just what I've been missing by tuning into the local Morning Show, with cheery hosts Biff and Sally and Barf all sitting on sofas for some strange reason.
Does anybody sit on sofas any more except people on television?
In any event, what I've been missing, according to Biff and Sally and Barf—and I am not making this up—is a "gaffe" that occurred at a recent beauty pageant, when Miss Teen South Carolina had a hard time answering a question.
That's right: that was the lead story.
Seems that when Miss Teen South Carolina was asked why Americans are so stupid they can't locate the United States on a map, the poor girl said, and I quote from one of the 600 billion blogs that have been written about this important news story:
I personally believe that U.S. [sic] Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and I believe that they should, our education over here in the US should help the US, er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.
And that's what I've been missing, according to Biff and Sally and Barf.
Now, "Miss Teen South Carolina" is, by definition, a teenager. Also, she was on a stage, presumably, in front of an audience.
With television cameras running.
And I don't know many teenagers who could express a more intelligent answer to the question of why Americans are so stupid they can't locate their own country on a map than what Miss Teen South Carolina came up with, on a stage, in front of an audience, with television cameras running.
If she'd been running for office, say, or had already been elected to office—now, that might be news.
On the other hand, if she was a former Vice President named Dan Quayle, Biff and Sally and Barf might not have noticed, for Quayle frequently gave incoherent responses to similarly simple questions, as with this gem:
What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.
Do we really expect more of our teenagers than we do our Vice Presidents?
Nevertheless, based on my brief, channel-flipping exercise before heading out to get some work done today, the morning shows actually serve a higher purpose than some might suspect.
That's right, I said "higher purpose."
And that higher purpose is this: by bringing into our homes each day a set of talking make-up dolls named Biff, Sally and Barf—whose lives are clearly so empty and devoid of meaning that you actually find yourself feeling sorry for them, trapped on that sofa as they are, with a video of the incoherent Miss Teen South Carolina running on big screens all around them—the shows prove that no matter how depressed you are by your lot in life at that particular moment, and no matter what self-destructive thoughts may be passing through your mind at that particular moment, and no matter how much you want to swap lives with somebody else at that particular moment…there are at least three other people on earth whose lives are even less meaningful at that particular moment than yours.
And they are sitting on a sofa together.
In fact, I have no doubt that right now, as you read this, Miss Teen South Carolina is watching her local morning news program with a thankful tear in her eye and a grateful lump in her throat.
And she wants to say, from the bottom of her heart,
"Thank you, Biff, Sally and Barf!"
She's feeling a hell of a lot better about herself already.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2007 NotMakingThisUp, LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
Posted by Jeff Matthews at 7:54 AM 14 comments:
Friday, August 24, 2007
The Washington Post Says "Global Alpha Male Quant Crisis Over!"
Well, the crisis roiling the "quant" hedge fund community is officially over—or, at least, on hold—according The Washington Post.
No, I'm not talking about the newspaper Washington Post, which I never read, and which I doubt has ventured any opinion about whether or not the quant crisis that forced bizarre, mechanical short-covering and bizarre, mechanical long-selling of individual stocks by computers in the early days of August, the likes of which I've never seen, is over.
But the stock Washington Post is certainly looking that way.
Now, for starters, the Washington Post Company (ticker WPO) is not your typical fast-money trading vehicle. In fact, it is probably one of the very last stocks you might ever dream of being caught up in some Goldman Stanley Stearns & Lynch Global Alpha Male Hedge Fund, LLC disaster.
First, there are only 7.8 million shares outstanding, and most of them are owned by Berkshire Hathaway and fans of Berkshire Hathaway—the 'Never Sell' crowd we studied in our "Pilgrimage to Omaha" series early this summer.
As a result, average daily trading volume in the Washington Post is a less-than-whopping 16,000 shares. Most publicly traded companies trade 16,000 shares before the lights go on in lower Manhattan.
Second, the business of the Washington Post is sound, if not spectacular, and by no means cyclical. And while you might think the Washington Post would be a good short-selling candidate along with the rest of the newspaper industry, it is in reality not a newspaper company any more.
Just 20% of the company's business is the old-media newspaper and Newsweek; 80% is television stations, cable TV, and the educational provider Kaplan. In fact, of all major newspaper chains, only E.W. Scripps has moved as aggressively away from its origins as Washington Post.
Consequently, WPO is one of the few publicly traded newspaper chains showing revenue growth and healthy profitability.
Third, WPO's shareholders—and I have been in this category—tend to own the stock to have and to hold, not to flip. Consequently, the stock itself, thanks to the patient shareholder base and recession-resistant nature of its franchises, has a "beta" of only 0.57.
For perspective on that number, "Beta" is a measure of a stock's volatility. A stock that moves up and down in line with the overall stock market is said to have a "beta" of 1.00.
A more volatile stock would have a higher "beta" than the market. Google, for example, has a "beta" of 1.24, which means Google's share price tends to be 24% more volatile than the overall market, thanks to the company's young, fast growing, risk-taking culture.
Consequently, at 0.57, the Washington Post has the "beta" of a corpse.
Thus, with a reasonable business model, limited float and low "beta," the short interest in WPO has been virtually non-existent.
Until late last year.
That is when the stock's short interest began rising steadily—roughly 10% each month—from a mere 50,809 shares in August, reaching 100,000 in June and jumping to 119,193 in July. Thus the shorts more than doubled their position in less than a year.
The stock, meanwhile, went, slowly and fairly steadily from $740 per share to nearly $800 during the early summer months, while the company itself was also doing fairly well, all things considered, despite normal quarterly earnings fluctuations which are to be expected in a company with Warren Buffett—who abhors quarterly earnings management—on the board.
Then, on August 3rd, the company reported earnings that meant nothing much in the scheme of things—and yet the stock made a Google-ish 60-point move to a high of $850 on four-times the normal average volume, closing up 4% $825.50 a share.
The only possible explanation at the time was that since Rupert Murdoch had just won approval from the Bancroft family to buy Dow Jones, he might also pay a stupid price for the Washington Post.
But there was no follow-through in the shares, which settled down the next day and the next, and went back under $800.
They erupted again on August 8th and 9th (a down 350-point day on the Dow) hitting $880 a share on six times normal volume, only to settle back below $800 on the 10th .
Meanwhile, other stocks with similar characteristics—high price/earnings ratios and high short interests—were likewise jumping, and it became clear something other than a Rupert Murdoch rumor was driving the stock.
To whit, some Global Alpha Male Quant Fund, LLC was covering a short position, very badly.
And sure enough, when the short interest data (which for reasons I have never understood, is tallied on the 15th of each month) came out this week, it showed the short interest in the Washington Post had suddenly stopped going up.
In fact, the short interest declined modestly. And I suspect September's numbers will show a further decline, as whatever Global Alpha Male Quant Fund, LLC finishes its business.
Or perhaps the Global Alpha Male etc. LLC's computer will decide to look through the Washington Post annual report and see what kind of business it has been short, and who is on the board of directors and what the long-term value of the enterprise might be...and instead of buying high after selling low, will hang onto the shares for the long term?
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2007 NotMakingThisUp, LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
Posted by Jeff Matthews at 8:37 AM 10 comments:
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Senator Forehead Saves the World!
"I expressed the need for both the Fed and Treasury to use all the tools at their disposal to keep our markets working and so that the business and consumers can have the funds to prosper," Mr. Dodd said. "Chairman Bernanke agreed," Mr. Dodd added
—The Wall Street Journal
That's a story?
A senator—who's also running for President and wants desperately to get his poll numbers above Dennis Kucinich, the Democrats' answer to Dwight K. Schrute, the whacky, lovable character in "The Office"—meets with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, tells him to do his job, to which the Fed Chairman agrees…and that's news?
What else was Ben Bernanke going say to the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee—"No, we think it would be cool to have a crash"?
That Senator Forehead—er, Dodd—would get such press coverage is more a testament to how nervous markets really are than to how much Senator Dodd has going for him.
I know. I once helped his campaign.
Christopher J. Dodd has been a Senator from Connecticut for 27 years, during which time he accomplished just enough to get re-elected and absolutely nothing at all where it really counts—in the state's inner cities, where separate-and-unequal education has ruled during all of Dodd's 27 year tenure, and the resulting poverty hasn't changed a bit.
Yet he is very popular in his state and unbeatable every six years. Mainly, I think, because Don Imus liked having Dodd on his radio show, which is not saying much.
Also, Dodd has terrific hair—a big Kennedyesque shock that has turned a mature white, giving him the look of the prototypical Senator Forehead.
Lest you think I approach the good Senator with a closed mind, I first met him thirty years ago when he was still a Congressman—a young, popular Congressman with a great head of hair that was not yet white.
It was during the Carter Presidency, and a lot was happening in Washington: Jimmy Carter was attempting to decontrol oil and gas prices, which was terrific economic policy and, therefore, extremely unpopular at the time, especially among young populists like Dodd.
Dodd was discussing his "position" on oil and gas decontrol with a group of worshipful high school seniors, and what he said was something about as bland and off-hand as, "I think the oil companies make enough money—they don't need to make more."
That was it—the entire sum of his analysis of probably the greatest legacy of the much-maligned Carter Administration: the dismantling of Nixon's price controls.
And, naturally, it went over very well with the 17-year olds.
Of course, what Dodd and the 17-year olds didn't grasp was that a big part of the "stagflation" hindering the American economy during the late 1970's was the fact that oil and gas prices in the United States were still rising to world levels, thanks to Nixon's price controls.
Unlike Japan, which imports virtually all its oil and yet had recovered from the Arab oil embargo in record time, politicians like Dodd were so afraid of angering their constituencies that they refused to do what the Japanese had done: let prices rise and force the economy to adjust.
For all his mistakes on international policy, Jimmy Carter did the country one very big long-term favor: he decontrolled oil and gas prices, no thanks to Chris Dodd and the other Congressmen and Senator Foreheads of the world.
Carter, naturally, lost re-election. Dodd, naturally, won election to the Senate and has been re-elected ever since.
Now, when I mentioned that I once helped Chris Dodd's re-election campaign, I was not making that up.
It happened in 1992. His opponent was a wealthy Greenwich polo player named Brook Johnson, who had made a good chunk of money doing an old-fashioned leverage buyout of Collins & Aikman, by which I mean piling debt on the balance sheet and taking money out of the business, which was not great for the business but was great for Brook Johnson.
Johnson's campaign theme was that he had created "thousands" of jobs in his tenure at C&A, which I believed was absolutely not true, and could do the same for the country.
Being one who, even then, distrusted individuals who 'make it up,' yours truly dug into the public documents and provided Dodd's campaign with a basic analysis of where the C&A money came from, and where it went. Whether they actually used the data in any way, was never clear.
Dodd, of course, won the election and continued warming his chair in the Senate long enough to get to the top of the Banking Committee, which is why he is on television demanding meetings with Ben Bernanke even though:
1. The U.S. sub-prime crisis happened during Chris Dodd's own watch as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
2. The Fed is going to do whatever it has to do to keep the world afloat, no matter what Chris Dodd thinks.
3. Chris Dodd wouldn't know a CDO from a Dr. Seuss character.
Which is why I think it's all the more remarkable than anybody could possibly care what Chris Dodd did or didn't say to Ben Bernanke.
In fact, here's what we at NotMakingThisUp think was really said when Dodd met Bernanke:
Dodd: "Hi there!" (Reaching out his hand and leaning in, speaking quietly.) "Let's shake hands while I look into your eyes. You nod as if I'm saying something meaningful."
Bernanke Aide: "But I'm—"
Dodd: "I know, I know—you're busy, I'm busy. We'll get this over with in a second. Just nod and look at me thoughtfully. I'll keep talking while you nod thoughtfully. When the camera clicking starts do die down, that's when we can stop shaking hands."
Aide: "But, Mr. Bernanke is—"
Dodd: "So you talk about yourself in the third person? Me too! 'Chris Dodd wouldn't agree with that!' 'Chris Dodd thinks a grave injustice has been committed.' 'Chris Dodd will have another, but without so much vermouth this time—'"
Aide: "No, no, no, Senator—"
Dodd: "Hey, pal, don't tell me 'no.' Nobody tells Chris Dodd 'no.' You just shake hands with Chris Dodd until the CNN guy over there gets a good shot in and we'll be fine."
Aide: "But I'm not who you think I am!"
Dodd: "'That's what she said!'"
Aide: "But I'm not Chairman Bernanke!"
Dodd: (Dropping the handshake.) "What?"
Aide: "I'm not Chairman Bernanke! He is on an emergency conference call with the heads of six major Wall Street firms and is running several minutes late. He asked me to tell you he'd be late."
Dodd: (Considering this news.) "Well, then let me ask you something."
Aide: "Certainly."
Dodd: "What exactly is a CDO?"
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2007 NotMakingThisUp, LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
Posted by Jeff Matthews at 8:45 AM 8 comments:
Monday, August 20, 2007
Northwest Airlines 15 Minute-Time
The nation's fifth-largest airline by traffic [Northwest] is taking steps to ensure that it is able to operate reliably in the future, Mr. Steenland [the CEO] said. One important component is a new tentative agreement with its pilots union that would reinstate time-and-a-half premium pay if the pilots fly more than 80 hours a month.
—The Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2007.
"The mechanic doesn't have the right tools to fix the problem, so they're going to have to fly a mechanic in with the right tools. This flight is postponed indefinitely. Please come to the ticket counter and we will help you find alternatives."
—Northwest Airlines ticket agent, Pellston MI, August 17, 2007.
While the CEO of Northwest Airlines—advertising slogan "We Haven't Been Bankrupt Since May!"—was telling the Wall Street Journal about his plans to make the Northwest pilots feel better about showing up for work, he neglected to discuss what he was doing to perk up the mechanics who help the planes get off the ground, not to mention the flight attendants who actually interact with the paying customers.
I bring this up because less than two weeks after Mr. Steenland's mea culpa to the press and his declaration of a fresh new start at the old Northwest, we here at NotMakingThisUp ran into the same old problems with the new Northwest that we seem to have every summer on the way to our annual mid-west vacation along the upper reaches of Lake Huron.
Now, when I am asked by people on the East Coast why we vacation in Northern Michigan in the first place, it's as if I'd said we were going to Jersey City, say, or Elko, Nevada—no offense to either place.
In the minds of East-Coasters who, if they think of the Great Lakes at all, think of the industrial waters of Lake Erie rather than the vast, clear waters of Lake Superior or Lake Huron, the word "Michigan" conjures up images of shuttered Ford factories and poverty-stricken Detroit, not dune-covered shorelines and crisp, cool summer nights with late sunsets and dramatic moon-rises over quiet pine woods.
And that's fine with me, because a week away from the getting and spending of the "two-and-twenty crowd"—as Warren Buffett calls the hedge fund quant wizards whose antics nearly brought the financial world to its knees early this month—does wonders for the mind and soul.
The trick, of course, is getting there and back without undue stress, which has proven nearly impossible given the fact that Northwest Airlines, despite having been run by leveraged buyout artists and taken into bankruptcy in 2005, still has a lock on the small airports of the Upper Midwest.
This means that if you want to fly from somewhere on the East Coast to somewhere in Minnesota, or somewhere in Michigan, or somewhere in Indiana, chances are good that at least one leg of your trip will require you to fly on Northwest.
By "to fly on Northwest," of course, I mean "to be trapped on a grounded plane for extended lengths of time in between long periods in a holding pattern."
In fact, our most recent trip on Northwest was our third consecutive summer trip disrupted by both the weather and the seeming inability of Northwest to get its act together, which I believe is a legacy of Northwest's heritage as one of the first leveraged buyouts in the airline business.
Any time somebody wants to tout the merits of private equity, tell them to fly Northwest.
Weather disruptions, for example, shouldn't be a big deal for an airline—after all, the entire airline industry pretty much operates in weather—except that Northwest apparently hires only those human beings who have lost the ability to speak with regular human beings as opposed to airline-related individuals.
Curious about the holding pattern you've been in for a half hour? Wondering about the mechanic scratching his head out on the tarmac? Anxious about whether you'll make the connecting flight?
The rule on Northwest appears to be, if you don't ask, they won't tell you.
Furthermore, Northwest operates on a unique time system I refer to as "Northwest Airlines 15 Minute-Time."
There are two rules governing this unique time system:
First, everything is always going to happen in about 15 minutes. As in, "We should pull away from the gate in about 15 minutes." Or, "We should be in a holding pattern for only another 15 minutes." Or, "We should be on the ground in about 15 minutes."
Second, "15 Minutes" actually means "At least an hour."
When the kids were young and diapers needed changing, we drove the 900-plus miles from the East Coast to the Upper Midwest. After our experience flying Northwest Airlines the last three summers running, I decided to look into whether we should start driving again.
I did my own calculations, based on an estimated average driving speed of 65 miles an hour and allowing for stops every five hours.
And, based on Northwest Airlines 15-Minute Time, I think we could make the trip in only about, oh, 15 minutes.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2007 NotMakingThisUp, LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
Posted by Jeff Matthews at 7:11 AM 18 comments:
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
When the Gamma of the Beta Begins to Lose its Alpha
"No, let me just clarify. This is not a rescue. This is two things. First, given the dislocation in the markets, we believe that this is a good investment opportunity for us and the other investors that we have brought in. We also think at the same time this will be very helpful to the current fund investors because it will give the fund the wherewithal to also take advantage of these market opportunities.
"And so we think it is both of those things but not a rescue."
—David Viniar, Goldman Sachs CFO
"Look at you. You used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world…. What are you, but a…miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help."
—Lionel Barrymore ("Henry Potter") to Jimmy Stewart ("George Bailey"), "It's a Wonderful Life."
Well the cocky folks whose leveraged "quant" funds have helped bring the current crisis upon the world's capital markets—Goldman Sachs—held a conference call Monday to describe some steps they're taking to alleviate the very same crisis which their leveraged "quant" funds helped trigger.
Just don't use the word "rescue" to describe Goldman's moves.
No, the wonderful folks at Goldman are not "rescuing" the troubled Global Equity Opportunities fund. They're simply taking advantage of what Sam Wainwright—the greedy government-contract profiteer and boyhood friend of "It's a Wonderful Life" hero George Bailey—might have described as "the opportunity of a lifetime."
At least that's how Goldman Sachs CFO David Viniars described the $3 billion weekend-organized emergency propping-up of the Global Equity Opportunities ("GEO") fund:
Goldman Sachs is partnering with various investors, including C.V. Starr & Co., Perry Capital and Eli Broad to invest $3 billion in GEO. This investment reflects our collective belief that the value of this fund is suffering from a market dislocation that does not reflect the fundamental value of the fund's positions.
Since we here at Not Making This Up strive to, well, not make things up, we here at Not Making This Up will indeed use the term 'rescue' no matter what the folks at Goldman want to call it.
For that is precisely what it is.
Now, the fund being rescued—the Global Equity Opportunities fund—ought not be confused with Goldman's other big "quant" funds, including the Global Alpha fund, the North American Equity Opportunities fund or even the Global North American European Alpha Phi Beta What Happens in Sub-Prime Stays in Sub-Prime fund which we just made up but sounds about as good as anything else out there.
No, those other Goldman funds are so highly differentiated from the Not-Being-Rescued Global Equity Opportunities fund that they have generated completely non-correlated positive results that have fully offset the losses at the Not-Being-Rescued Global Equity Opportunities fund.
Actually, I'm making that up.
Those other Goldman funds have also, unfortunately, gotten crushed, which calls into question,
1. What differentiated strategies were they pursuing that yielded such a highly correlated co-efficient of returns?
2. What is a co-efficient of return anyway, and when did the gamma of the beta begin to lose its alpha?
3.Why do these funds all have different names in the first place?
Whether the other funds will need to Not Be Rescued like the fund that is Not Being Rescued remains to be seen, although the Goldman team somewhat bizarrely stated on their conference call that the reason they rescued—er, invested in—the "Global Equity Opportunities" fund as opposed to the "Global Alpha" fund and the "North American Equity Opportunities" fund is because they prefer "global opportunities."
As if the "Global Alpha" fund is not a "global" fund.
Now, we here at Not Making This Up tend to give Wall Street's Finest a hard time for their deferential manner on conference calls, by which I mean their incessant use of the phrase "Great quarter guys" as a substitute for "Hello," not to mention their preference for asking "housekeeping" questions about the tax rate as opposed to business questions that actually matter.
So it is only fair to call out Susan Katzke of Credit Suisse, who showed on the Monday call why asking good questions makes a difference, during an interchange with Goldman CFO David Viniar about the stupendous leverage still residing in the Not-Being-Rescued fund as of Monday morning.
Note how Viniar tried to downplay the leverage in the Not-Being-Rescued fund, and actually understated it by half before Katzke forced him to cough up the truer picture of just how much trouble the "quants" had gotten into, when the gamma of their beta lost its alpha.
This is from the indispensable Street Events:
Susan Katzke, Credit Suisse:
Okay. And just I don't know if you covered this with Roger -- I might have missed it -- but in terms of the leverage in the funds, what are the leverage parameters, and where do you expect them to be going forward? Were they in retrospect a little bit higher than you would have liked them to have been or will be going forward?
David Viniar, Goldman Sachs CFO:
They were higher than we wished they were given how fast the market moved, but they were right in line with what had been expected. And the leverage at GEO as we sit here now is around 3.5 times, which is actually a little bit under where we had told people we would operate but probably around where we will operate going forward.
Susan Katzke, Credit Suisse:
Okay. And the 3.5 times just to clarify is with the $3 billion equity investment?
David Viniar, Goldman Sachs CFO:
With the equity investment.
Susan Katzke, Credit Suisse:
Okay. So closer to 6 times before that.
David Viniar, Goldman Sachs CFO:
That is correct.
Ah, those cocky quants who were going to go out and conquer the world!
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2007 NotMakingThisUp, LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
Posted by Jeff Matthews at 8:18 AM 12 comments:
Monday, August 13, 2007
What's Happening at Barclay's?
It began innocently enough.
A few odd stocks started collapsing—falling really hard for two or three or four days in a row—on no apparent news.
The first such stock I noticed was Teleflex (TFX), a fine, New York Stock Exchange-listed industrial conglomerate whose share price hit a 52-week high of $85 one fine day in July, and then dropped almost 25 points in the next two weeks on absolutely no news.
Now, Teleflex happens to be buying a medical products company called Arrow International, with which I am quite familiar.
And reasonable people might argue that Teleflex is paying an exorbitant price for Arrow, given the fact that Arrow's core product line (something called central venous catheters—basically fancy straws that allow doctors to inject fluids into the body) are losing share to other types of catheters, thus calling into question Arrow's ability to grow revenue in line with other medical products companies.
Furthermore, Teleflex plans to sell one of its existing businesses to help fund the Arrow transaction. Given the seize-up in the credit markets and the swift reduction in the number of private equity firms able to buy businesses on margin the way people used to buy houses in Orlando, Vegas and Sacramento, reasonable people might worry that Teleflex will get a less-than-super price for its existing business.
Thus, the market might be spooked into thinking that Teleflex was buying high and selling low, simultaneously.
At least, that was my best guess as to why shares of Teleflex had begun to crater.
But along came more Teleflexes—stocks suddenly dropping as though somebody's life depended on it.
Ashland, Computer Sciences, Office Depot, CIT and Robert Half, among others, all experienced sudden, sharp drops under relentless selling pressure—most of them on absolutely no new news.
Sure, Office Depot had missed earnings, and yes Computer Sciences had been juiced upwards on private equity takeover speculation. But the decline in these and the others was quite sudden, in tandem and without let-up.
What on earth, then would a chemical company have in common with a high-tech computer services outfit, an office products retailer, a finance company, a headhunter and a diversified conglomerate?
In every case, their single largest publicly disclosed investor is identified as Barclay's Bank.
Now, Barclay's is as big as a bank can get—a little volatility in the credit markets is not likely going to cause a problem leading to the wholesale liquidation of assets, and certainly not assets that presumably belong to investors in Barclay's equity funds, not the bank itself.
Still, Barclay's is seeking to buy ABN Amro for what is widely considered to be a ridiculous price. And it would appear that Barclay's has been selling stocks out of its funds in a get-me-out fashion.
Is it all an innocent coincidence, or is it one of the following:
1) Some trader on Barclay's equities desk hit the wrong button on their computer;
2) The portfolio managers at Barclay's all decided to sell stocks they had owned in size for a long time into a weak tape.
3) Something else is going on at Barclay's that hasn't come to light.
I'm willing to bet the answer is Number 3.
Any informed observations would be most welcome.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2007 NotMakingThisUp, LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
Posted by Jeff Matthews at 6:51 AM 17 comments:
Friday, August 10, 2007
Quotes You Don't Want to See at a Time Like This
Those of you looking for solace in today's Wall Street Journal—some sign that the current melt-down in the sub-prime mortgage-backed fiction of a debt market is near an end—may want to skip the C-Section of the Journal, go straight to the "Weekend Journal" and look at all those nice houses in Vail seeking a buyer.
More specifically, readers should avoid the following quote on the front page of the C-Section from one Ann Rutledge, who is identified by the paper as the principal of a structured finance consulting firm.
Here's what she said:
"No one really knows how to price asset-backed securities and CDOs and that's a real problem in the market now."
You think?
Me, I made the mistake of reading Ms. Rutledge's quote. So now I'm looking at all those nice houses in Vail in the "Weekend Journal."
Is it my imagination, or are a lot more of 'em for sale than last week?
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2007 NotMakingThisUp, LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
Posted by Jeff Matthews at 8:33 AM 6 comments:
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
The Shareholder Letter You Should, But Won't, Be Reading Next Spring
Dear Shareholder:
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I am referring to your board's decision to approve a massive share buyback and huge special dividend last summer, when the buzzwords going around Wall Street were "returning value to shareholders."
Why we did it was this: a smart banker from Goldman Lehman Lynch & Sachs came in, all gussied up and looking sharp, and made a terrific PowerPoint presentation to the board with multi-colored slides that showed how paying a special $10 a share dividend, plus buying back a bunch of our stock at the 52-week high, would "return value to our shareholders."
We should have thrown the fellow out the window, along with his PowerPoint slides, but what happened was, my fellow board members and I were so busy deleting emails from our Blackberries that we just didn't notice the last slide showing (in very tiny numbers) the "Trump-style" debt we would be incurring to do so.
We also missed the footnote showing the fees that would go to Goldman Lehman Lynch & Sachs for the courtesy of their showing us how to wreck our balance sheet.
Those fees, I am embarrassed to say, amounted to more money than we made the quarter before we "returned value to shareholders."
But the fact is, we'd been getting so much pressure over the last few years from the hedge fund fellows who own our stock for ten minutes tops, not to mention the so-called "analysts" on Wall Street (around here we call them "Barking Seals"), to do something with the cash...well, the truth is we just couldn't stand answering our phones any more.
So, in order to finally start getting things done instead of spending all day explaining to these hedge fund fellows and the Barking Seals on Wall Street why we weren't "returning value to shareholders," we decided to do the big buyback and the big dividend.
And for a few weeks there, it was pretty nice.
The stock jumped, the phones stopped ringing, and the Barking Seals started congratulating us on the conference calls instead of asking us when we were going to get rid of our cash.
Unfortunately, not only did getting rid of our cash and taking on a huge debt load NOT "return value" to you, our shareholders, it actually crippled the company for years to come.
For starters, as you know, the aftermath of last summer's sub-prime debt crisis is forcing perfectly fine companies to liquidate businesses at fire-sale prices…but we can't take advantage of those prices, because we have no cash. And thanks to the debt we incurred "returning value to shareholders," the banks won't loan us another dime.
Secondly, as you also know, we've had to lay off hundreds of loyal, hard working employees to pay the interest expense and principal on all that debt, because unlike Donald Trump, we actually repay our debts.
Furthermore, as you probably don't know, we've also scaled back some interesting research projects that had great long-term potential for the company, but were deemed too expensive to continue in light of the fact that we have no cash.
Now, I'd feel a heck of a lot worse about all this if we were the only company suckered into buying our stock at a record high price and paying a big fat dividend on top of it.
But I'm happy to report there were others who also did the same stupid thing.
For example, Cracker Barrel, the restaurant chain that depends on people having enough money for gas to get to its stores along Interstates across America, spent 46 bucks a share for 5.4 million shares of its stock early last year to "return value to shareholders."
Cracker Barrel's stock now trades at $39.
And Scott's Miracle-Gro, whose business is so seasonal it loses money two quarters out of four, put over a billion dollars of debt on its books with the kind of special dividend and share buyback we did.
Health Management Associates—a healthcare chain that can't collect money from about a quarter of the patients it handles—paid shareholders ten bucks a share in a special dividend to "return value to shareholders" and then missed its very next earnings report because of all those unpaid bills and all that new interest expense it was paying.
Oh, and Dean Foods, a commodity dairy processor with 2% profit margins, returned all sorts of value to shareholders early last year—almost $2 billion worth—just before its business went to hell in a hand basket when raw milk prices soared.
So, you see, everybody was doing it.
And boy, do I wish we hadn't.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2007 NotMakingThisUp, LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
Posted by Jeff Matthews at 9:12 AM 11 comments:
Monday, August 06, 2007
What Happens in Sub-prime…Gets to Spain Really Quickly
"How does this happen?" somebody asked me this weekend.
That somebody was my wife, and she was wondering out loud how a financial institution such as Bear Stearns could get caught in a sub-prime debt crisis that pretty much everybody in America, including my dog Lucy, knew was coming.
It's a great question.
On the one hand, it's inexplicable. How could grownups decide that buying paper written by unscrupulous mortgage brokers with no documentary evidence that income or assets or creditworthiness are as stated would be a good way to invest their client's money?
What makes a well educated veteran who lived through the Long Term Capital melt-down ten years ago think nothing of leveraging forty-to-one a portfolio of sub-prime paper backed by overpriced houses next to Interstate 80 in Sacramento?
How does a wise-guy bond maven—who as recently as April 12th got a fawning article ("Prospering in an Implosion; Subprime Market's Fall Plays to the Strengths Of a Bold Contrarian") and a photo of himself, his wife, his children and his yacht, in the New York Times—hit the wall in June, freezing investor redemptions and putting the yacht up for sale?
The complex answer involves newer age MBA-type concepts such as alpha and beta coefficients and bond strategies beyond my comprehension, along with older-fashioned realities such as leverage and margin calls.
The simpler answer, however, is the fact that these markets of ours vacillate—over seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months and years and decades—from greed to fear and back to greed again
When markets get fearful, no news headline is positive: wars are bad for consumer confidence, Fed rate cuts are proof-positive that the next Great Depression is at hand, and all corporate earnings reports, no matter how strong, seem not quite good enough.
When markets get greedy, however, the opposite holds true. Every headline is positive: wars stimulate the economy; Fed rate cuts feed the liquidity machine; while all earnings reports, no matter how poor their quality, become excuses to bid up the underlying stock.
When greed takes hold, investors become inured to risk and simply make up whatever they want to make up that helps them justify the risks they're taking.
Lest you think I exagerrate that last point, recall that six brief months ago, when the domestic housing market had frozen solid and the counter on the ticking time bomb that was the sub-prime mortgage mess was fast approaching "zero," the solace of highly levered bond market players in this particular cycle was a catchy phrase stolen from the Las Vegas advertising slogan, "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas."
Now, whatever you might think of an entire U.S. city marketing itself as a haven for adulterers, "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" is one terrific slogan, packing as it does the entire Rat-Pack lifestyle into seven words—not one of which actually refers to smoking, drinking, gambling and, yes, whoring, but which together imply all those activities and more.
And from those seven words came the rather hopeful catchphrase of the market wise-guys whose 40-to-1 leveraged portfolios depended entirely on the continued inflation of the housing bubble in order to bail out all the unqualified buyers whose paper they owned in one form or another:
"What Happens in Sub-Prime Stays in Sub-Prime."
We heard it on CNBC and read it in bond briefs from Wall Street's Finest. Hey, it was catchy!
Thus, with a brief, memorable and entirely false sentence did an entire world of bond mavens dismiss the fact that what they owned was upwards of a trillion dollars of garbage that had only temporarily been transformed into something better than garbage by the magic of Wall Street paper-shuffling and the waving of Moody's Magic Ratings Wand.
Imagine their surprise, then, when National City Corp stopped making stated-income "liar" loans long after the liars had stopped asking for a loan; when IndyMac began charging higher rates on mortgage loans despite lower Treasury bond yields; and American Home Mortgage simply shut down.
But it should have come as no surprise.
The shift from greed to fear had been underway for months, and had already crossed the Atlantic to Spain earlier this spring—around the time John Devaney got his 15 minutes of fame as the "Bold Contrarian" in the New York Times, a mere two months before he would freeze investor withdrawals and three months before he would begin peddling his yacht, called "Positive Carry" but more aptly named "Carried Out," for needed cash.
Indeed, anybody listening in on the recent General Cable Corporation earnings call—and the company's previous call in early May—would have heard that what was happening in sub-prime was absolutely not staying in sub-prime.
General Cable (ticker BGC) makes copper cable—about as basic a thing as basic gets. And what General Cable was seeing was that what was happening in sub-prime was, in fact, spreading around the world pretty quickly.
But don't take my word for it. Hear it straight from the mouth of General Cable's seasoned, extremely able CEO, Greg Kenny. For the record, I once worked for General Cable's former parent company.
Greg Kenny – General Cable Corporation President, CEO
As discussed in our last conference call, we have seen some weaker housing in Spain and Oceania directly impact the sale of some products used in new construction. In addition, we have seen a secondary impact in cables used to connect houses to the grid, such as electrical and telecommunications distribution cables in the United States.
Kenny noted positive offsets to the weakness in housing from the United States to Spain and Oceana (Asia Pacific):
We're also happy to report that cabling for wind farms continues to be quite strong. In Europe demand for medium and high voltage cable is very high due to the continuing rebuild of the electric utility distribution infrastructure and increasing investments throughout Europe in wind farm electricity generation. Extra high voltage underground systems continue to be in demand and lead times and now extending out beyond one year. Demand for cabling solutions in the oil, gas and petrochemical markets, particularly offshore exploration and production platforms, remains high and lead times are also extending.
He also described a firming in telecommunications demand:
At the same time, the submarine fiber-optic market appears ready to improve after years of declines....
Unfortunately for General Cable, and bond mavens everywhere, the positives are not enough to offset—in the near-term—the negatives:
The construction market in Spain is slowing after more than a decade of strong growth, and will create some headwind as we move into the next few quarters. As you may remember from our last conference call, cable for housing applications is about 7% of our worldwide revenues. Housing demand also has some impact on small gauge electrical and telecommunications distribution cables.
Kenny expressed hopes that what started in sub-prime will eventually stop spreading:
I would hope that we see the Spanish thing correct. We're watching the government as it begins to try to perhaps come in and build housing for all of the immigrant communities, etc. So we're watching government policy as they try to go through a soft landing there.
He's not the only one. After all, what happens in Spain eventually gets back to Vegas.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2007 NotMakingThisUp, LLC
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews' recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
Posted by Jeff Matthews at 7:13 AM 4 comments:
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On January of 2011 the life of a man named mark Hunter was changed forever, the father of 3 who was a militant atheist never thought one day he would give his life to Jesus Christ. Mark who once distinguished himself as an "avowed and fiercely proud atheist" is now spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. He described his journey from atheism to Christianity as "significant, dramatic and complete total life change." I had the opportunity to interview Mark about his experience and this is what he had to say:
How long were you an atheist for?
I was a definite atheist throughout my entire adulthood from 1994 (aged 19) until early 2010. Before that I was an agnostic I guess because I never really declared my disbelief in God – I was just sitting on the fence – but was definitely leaning the wrong way from an early age.
Were you a Christian before you became an atheist?
No, sadly, I was never was a Christian.
What does being a Christian mean to you?
For me being a Christian means absolute purpose and absolute happiness. No longer am I wandering around this world aimlessly trying to satisfy my materialistic and personal desires. My life now is as a servant of Christ trying not just to share the word but to actually live the word. I've always been a good person, and that hasn't changed since becoming a Christian, but the real difference is now I know where my future lies and I know what I must do.
When you were an atheist, did you ever think you could have been wrong about there not being a God?
No, not once, ever. I was so completely convinced of my "beliefs" as an atheist which were based upon (and confirmed by) a life of misery, pain and suffering. I'd always firmly assured myself that to know God was to literally feel his presence. Because I felt nothing at all therefore there must be no God. Looking back on it now I didn't realise how right I actually was about feeling his presence but the problem was I was looking with my eyes closed. I was always expecting a neatly packaged, date stamped, undeniable proof of his existence. Atheists, unfortunately, will accept nothing less.
What were the circumstances that led you to leave atheism?
My life as an atheist had been literally founded upon successive layers of perceived failure, misery and depression. After all, if God had existed, why would my life be so awful? Many atheists assume that converts only turn to Christ when life suddenly collapses and the psychology cannot deal with the problem. For me, it was the complete reverse, as I had experienced a troubling and difficult childhood and adulthood. It was in fact, the first good thing to come into my life, that forced me to question everything. I had just exited an awful marriage from a closet lesbian which had been the final straw that broke the back of my disastrous life to that point. I was contemplating suicide and tentatively called out to God, asking him, if there was there to just show me a sign. Anything. A series of very strange and unlikely events began that lead me to meeting my new girlfriend (and future wife to be). This fantastic woman, a successful business woman, was not just logical, smart and rational person but also wonderfully caring and generous. She was positive, supportive and happy and nothing ever seemed to get her down. I was desperate to know her life secret after my own long life of struggle. When she revealed she was a Christian I was quietly stunned but fascinated in equal measure. I began asking questions here and there, which then turned into a floodgate, and the rest is well… you can probably guess the rest.
You are writing a book about your experience, correct? What exactly do you want people to get out of it?
I am writing one as we speak yes. I want to share my personal testimony with Christians and non believers alike. The book is particularly aimed at the non religious with a view, in simple terms, to explain how accepting Christ into their lives can be a positive thing – a force for good. I have outlined a simple series of very small steps to allow someone to make that first leap of faith. I've also set out to debunk a lot of atheist misconceptions about faith, organized religions and science. As a former atheist I think I have a unique insight into how they perceive all of these things. For Christians who read it I hope I can really inspire their faith furthermore by showing even someone like me can be saved and that it is worth the effort on their part. Never give up on even the most ardent non believer. Beneath it all they completely suppress the real truth that they seek.
Speaking with atheists, I have noticed something very similar in their attitude, they always sound angry. Why is that?
I wrote a comment on my blog lately discussing this very topic. Atheists, like any belief system (and atheism is essentially a belief), are a varied group. I have met plenty of wonderful, friendly and empathic atheists who would do anything for anyone and I have also met some incredibly ignorant, hostile and brutal fundamentalist atheists. For me, the latter seems to form the majority nowadays, and they are gaining strength all the time it seems. For me, these fundamentalist atheists are the new lions surrounding us Christians in the coliseum, and no matter how vicious they are, or who they take from us, they will not ultimately prevail. Christianity has survived centuries of persecution and this is (and will be) simply the latest in a long line of such failed attacks. They get angry because they perceive our beliefs as illogical, irrational and without scientific merit and as such we are treated like stupid, undisciplined and ignorant children who it would appear following religion like blinded morons. Sadly their perception is completely and terribly wrong. I also think there is an element of self doubt that creeps in from time to time. I never engage to strongly with them because I was never open to it. The time will come when they naturally begin to question such a strong stance.
When you look back at how you used to insult God, what goes through your mind?
To be brutally honest I felt complete shame and disgust at myself. It took me weeks and weeks of fervent apologizing to God when i first converted before I felt sufficiently forgiven. Even now I still feel the tinge of remorse but its just a fleeting reminder which serves to fuel my faith ever more. I know he forgave me instantly but still I apologized overand over again.
What advice do you have to give to a Christian that is thinking about becoming an atheist? Is there anything you can tell them to stop them from making the same mistake you did?
Well, the biggest thing I think, is to trust in God. Make the leap of faith that you are probably already contemplating in doing and let him catch you. Seek forgiveness from God and accept Jesus as your personal saviour. Do this with absolute and total humility and honesty. Pray every day and literally throw yourself into the Bible – read it from start to finish – absorb yourself in it as if life itself depended on it. Life your life with purpose and fullness and submit to his will and his plan for you. My book is going to cover all of this in greater detail but this is it in a nutshell. God bless you all!
I would like to thank Mark for doing this interview!
Please support Mark by visiting his blog www.atheist-convert.co.uk and by picking up his book when it comes out.
You can also follow him on twitter: @Atheist_Convert
Mark is not the first and will not be the last atheist to walk away from atheism, I believe that by the power of God many others will leave atheism once they find out that it's built upon lies and deception. I asked ( @borofergie ) who happens to be an atheist, how can he be so sure there is no God. This is what he had to say:
No one can be 100% sure that there is no God, especially since there isn't a single agreed definition of God. The term atheist does not refer to someone who is 100% certain that there are no gods, it simply describes someone that has reached the conclusion that the existence of such a "God" is highly unlikely.
He clearly states that atheists aren't 100 percent sure there is no God and that atheism is simply the belief that the existence of God is unlikely. Ladies and gentlemen, need I say more? It's clear that atheists do not know where they stand on their beliefs, atheism is built upon lies and it's only a matter of time before all their lies are exposed. Atheists know that there is a God but they simply refuse to obey, which is why I stated on part one of my report that atheism is simply rebellion against God.
Thank you very much for reading my report, keep Mark in your prayers and ask God to give him strength as he embarks into his new journey with Jesus Christ. It won't be an easy one but blessed are those who will endure till the end. God bless you all.
- Miss Raissa
Views: 544
please don't take this the wrong way! Being an atheist doesnt necessary mean one is an atheist for rational reasons. In my 2 years since declaring open atheist I have noticed a small minority of atheists that are nonbelievers for emotional reasons. These atheists are far more likely to become believers than rational atheists. This man may very well have been an atheist but as he himself clearly expressed he was not one because of a rational logical review of the problems with the god theory but rather he decided "his life sucks" therefore he wanted to be atheist. This is not a rational atheist position but an emotional one! From his own words he obviously had not declared atheist because of the correct reason: an examination of religious faith and a rejection of it based on logical fallacies, improbabilities, AND immoralities caused by belief. His atheism was based on unhappiness... which is irrelevant.
His comments in the interview are irrelevant. But more importantly! He grossly misrepresents atheism and should be ashamed of himself!!
Some people just need a terrifying fear of evil to steer their life.
Some people without surveillance just rip each other apart. Sometimes I think it's good for this maniacs to believe that there is a vengeful god watching their every move.
Wow.... this guy is completely insane...
he thinks demons and devils are tempting him at every turn?
"I could feel the blood boiling in my body and the rage building up..."
He is seriously unbalanced. Let's just hope he doesn't one day believe "God" is telling him to kill his family and wrap them in bedsheets and bury them in the woods to save them from this "Devil".
Nearly every time I read about a serial killer being discovered and arrested, it turns out that he was from a devout religious family and was raised a Christian. Funny, I have yet to see a report that says, "He was raised an atheist." When I read about all the children who have been sexually molested in the Catholic Church, it never turns out to be an atheist who did it. The perpetrators of the Crusades, The Inquisition, the extermination of the native peoples of the western hemisphere, and so forth, were all committed by fanatical religious people, not atheists. Atheists did not fly planes into the Twin Towers on 9/11/01. I do not need a god to tell me that it's good to be moral, ethical, honest, and kind. Evidently, you do, though.
You want to talk lies? How about the lie Christians (and Fox News) repeat endlessly about Adolf Hitler being an atheist. He was born Catholic. He was raised Catholic. His writings are filled with his Christian beliefs (Try reading "Mein Kampf"). His speeches frequently invoked the Christian God to support his policies and lead his armies. And finally, how do you explain that, in March of 1933, Hitler declared a law BANNING all freethought and atheist organizations in Germany? You can't explain it, because it's easier for you to LIE.
In your essay, you never presented one example of actual evidence, by which I mean empirical, testable, verifiable, scientifically logical evidence. It appears that you consider any as yet unexplained phenomenon of nature as proof God did it. What god? I don't see, hear, smell, taste, or feel him. Neither does anything about the concept of a magic man, sitting in space, capriciously choosing whether or not to answer the prayers of 7 billion people make the slightest bit of sense to me. After thousands of years of trying, you and your kind have failed miserably to come up with even a scintilla of reliable evidence. What it all boils down to is that your evidence for God is that you believe in Him. You have faith. But, sir, faith is NOT evidence.
There are three reasons I do not believe in any kind of God: 1) it makes no sense whatsoever; 2) There is not the slightest evidence; and 3) I don't need to, because, unlike you, I do not fear death, since it is simply a transfer of my atoms to some other use - maybe similar to the function they were serving before I was born. You believe in God for one reason and one reason only: a terrifying apprehension of death - a refusal to accept the painfully obvious fact that, once your physiological functions cease operating, microbes (created by your god, one assumes) will devour you and reduce you to mush. Okay, I get it: you believe your SOUL will live on. How about some evidence for that? When I am dead I will be DEAD. I will not be in Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, a Mormon plateau, or any other place. If you wish to believe otherwise, it is your privilege; but there is a good reason that Christianity is fast disappearing, worldwide: because science and reason are slowly winning out over blind obedience to an invisible and intangible entity called DOG; uh, I mean GOD.
The real reason Mark walked away from his atheism, such as it was, is that he started to reach an age where he was forced to contemplate, seriously, his impending death. It scared him so badly that he grabbed, as all religious folk do, the only helping hand he could find - his imaginary friend in the sky.
A marketing ploy, anyone?
What I hate the most about people who believe in god is that they feel so superior and brave about their 'leap of faith', and when they claim that atheism is a belief. How many more time it needs to be said that we are all atheist by birth and that atheism is not a belief but a lack of one. How many more times...
And also he should read that bible passage Hebrews 6:4-8.
Uhhhh, ok, Wow! That was as pointless as Lee Strobel claiming to be Atheist before writing "The Case For..." Series. But hey, since I'm here to play along and you want to put it out there, I have a few questions:
"No, sadly, I was never was a Christian." - Then how were you indoctrinated in to calling on God? Why not Buddha, or The Great Spirit or Muhammad (A billion Muslims can't be wrong).
"My life as an atheist had been literally founded upon successive layers of perceived failure, misery and depression." Do you realize that your life now revolves around a book written about people in the Bronze Age who believed in talking snakes and donkeys, zombies, genocide, rape and incest, murder of disobedient children, slavery and a host of other thing? I don't get the feeling that you upped your standard of living.
"I had just exited an awful marriage from a closet lesbian which had been the final straw." What does your bible say about divorce? (just wondering). Also YOU DIVORCED A LESBIAN???? You lose man-points for that one.
"...lead me to meeting my new girlfriend (and future wife to be)." By future wife to be, I'm assuming that means you have had sex. What does your bible say about that?
I could go on but, you get the point.
Also YOU DIVORCED A LESBIAN???? You lose man-points for that one.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Select Regional Settings
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Impedance: 32ohms
Charging Time: 1 - 1.5 hours
Music Time: 4 hours
Talk time: 4 hours
Working Time: 4 hours
Headphone Sensitivity: 106db
Micphone Sensitivity: -42dB
Extended Function
| Bluetooth: Yes
Bluetooth distance: W/O obstacles 10m
Bluetooth protocol: A2DP,AVRCP,HFP,HSP
Bluetooth Version: V5.0
WIFI: No
Dimensions and Weight
| Product weight: 0.0600 kg
Package weight: 0.1150 kg
Product size (L x W x H): 7.50 x 5.00 x 2.50 cm / 2.95 x 1.97 x 0.98 inches
Package size (L x W x H): 15.00 x 8.00 x 3.70 cm / 5.91 x 3.15 x 1.46 inches
Package Contents
|Package Contents: 1 x Pair of Headphones, 1 x Charging Base, 1 x USB Cable, 2 x Pair of Eartips, 1 x Chinese / English Manual
Oct 06,2019
Aug 09,2019
Oct 27,2019
Aug 12,2019
Aug 28,2019
Why the headphones does not charge?
Why the headphone disconnect with the mobile phone within 10 meters?
There is no audio signal, what can i do?
Why can't I use the headphones to adjust the volume or select the track on the App of mobile phone?
Why the headphones cannot pair with mobile phone?
1. Please check whether your headphone is in pairing mode or reconnect mode and check whether your mobile phone Bluetooth search function is opened;
2. Check your mobile device's Bluetooth menu and delete / forget the headphones, then reconnect the headphones following the instructions in the user manual.
What does the headphone certification logos mean?
How to choose a headset?
Why my smartphone can't find my Bluetooth headphones?
1. Make sure your smartphone and headphones are close enough to one another when you want to connect them;
2. Check the manufacturer's recommended pairing process;
3. Try turning them off and on again;
4. Turn off or remove any interfering devices;
5. Move away from the WiFi router.
What factors affect the sound quality of Bluetooth headsets?
Why there is static whenever I listen to music on my Bluetooth headphones?
1. First you should disable or turn off any other unused Bluetooth devices in the area;
2. If the static doesn't go away try resetting your headphones;
3. Turn on your media player, then disconnect your headphones for 30 seconds and then re-pair them;
4. Reduce the distance between your smartphone and your headphones, as this also helps reduce any static.
How many kinds of headphones are there in the market?
Why my devices cannot recognize the bluetooth headphones?
1.The Bluetooth feature in the phone is not turned on.
2. The headset is not in pairing / discoverable mode. The phone will not find the headset unless the headset is in this mode.
Can this item be shipped to my country?
We can deliver orders to most countries. For a detailed explanation of each shipping method, destination and approximate delivery time, please check our website:
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GearBest shipping memo: save money on delivery by choosing the best option
By sharath Aug-17/2019 12:41:05
Hello Sharath,
Mini power bank can charge the two earbuds 15 times, providing up to 120 hours of wireless music.
By eddie walker Aug-15/2019 00:09:30
Hello Eddie,
Yes ,it does .
By eddie walker Aug-15/2019 00:09:30
Hello Eddie,
Yes ,it does .
Be the FIRST to Ask a question. Want G Points? Just Write a Review!
Be the FIRST to Ask a question. Want G Points? Just Write a Review!
Be the FIRST to Ask a question. Want G Points? Just Write a Review!
By sharath Aug-17/2019 12:41:05
Hello Sharath,
Mini power bank can charge the two earbuds 15 times, providing up to 120 hours of wireless music.
2 Questions & Answers View All


text:
Why Do Republicans Want Us to Work All the Time?
This week, America's political class has been consumed by an intense, vitriolic debate over a single number: 2.5 million.
That's the amount by which, according to the Congressional Budget Office, President Obama's signature health care law will effectively reduce the U.S. work force over the next decade.
Story Continued Below
The initial Republican reaction was predictable: Pundits filled the airwaves, Cassandra-like, to paint Obamacare as the ultimate job killer. Never mind that, reading the fine print, it's clear the CBO was talking about workers voluntarily reducing their hours in response to the law—not getting laid off or seeing their shifts scaled back.
And anyway, isn't that supposed to be a good thing?
The president's critics, in high dudgeon, are fulminating about lay-abouts and scofflaws actually choosing to work less than what God intended, predicting a host of ills that will supposedly befall the nation, from moral turpitude to economic ruin.
The fuss will doubtless soon die down, but this bit of political theater has resurrected a very old debate about working hours, and could conceivably reawaken what I have called the forgotten American Dream. That dream has not always been just about striving to consume bigger houses, fancier clothes, faster cars. The idea that "full time" work is something foreordained and the bedrock of morality is new, mostly a product of the last century.
During the Industrial Revolution, Americans worked incredibly long hours. It was common for people to work from dawn to dusk, often into the night, six days a week—better than 60 to 70 hours a week with no vacation and few holidays. It was all very Dickensian— remember Bob Cratchit's appeal to Scrooge for Christmas day off? That was America in the 19th century.
The birth of the labor movement changed that. Beginning in the 1820s, laborites began pressing for higher wages and shorter hours. For more than a century, and until about 40 years ago, unions, supported by numerous economists, pressed for shorter hours as one of the primary ways to deal with unemployment. They argued that as the economy improved, workers would need higher wages to buy what they produced and more free time to use all the new products.
For more than a century before 1930, the average American's working hours were gradually reduced—cut nearly in half. Labor played a part in these reductions, but they were largely a product of the free market, reflecting individuals' choices to work less and less.
Most Americans approved, counting work reductions as the better half of industrial progress (higher wages and shorter hours). No one expected this progress would end. Quite the contrary. Through the last century, observers such as John Maynard Keynes, Julien Huxley, Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Eric Sevareid regularly predicted that soon America would enter an age of leisure in which we would chose to devote more and more of our lives to the "pursuit of happiness" promised in the Declaration of Independence. As technology created "labor-saving" machines and the economy grew, they reasoned, we would gradually be able to buy back more of our time from our jobs, preferring leisure to new goods and services that we had never needed, or even seen before.
Then real progress would begin. Humane and moral progress. Instead of perpetual consumerism and the infinite increase in material wealth, we would naturally turn to improving the human condition, learning how to live together "wisely, agreeable, and well," as Keynes put it. Progress would then take the form of healthier families, communities and cities—the increase of knowledge, the enjoyment of nature, history and other peoples, an increasing delight in the marvels of the human spirit, the practice of our beliefs and values together, the finding of common ground for conviviality, expanding our awareness of God, wondering in Creation.
These lofty sentiments mixed with the ordinary delights: slow meals together (Ralph Waldo Emerson), conversations in the evening (Henry David Thoreau), dancing the night away (William Ellery Channing), singing in the choir (Jonathan Edwards), "observing a spear of summer grass" (Walt Whitman), reading and talking about books (Robert Hutchins), playing amateur sports (Fannia Cohn) and walking around Central Park in the dead of winter (Elizabeth Hasanovitz). Even Abraham Lincoln believed that the steam plow and other agricultural technologies would free farm workers from steady toil for more opportunities to learn, socialize, govern themselves and pursue happiness.


text:
It's the
bottom top of the ninth, and San Francisco is protecting a 2-1 lead over the Astros. Two out, 1-2 count, man on second. The Giants' Santiago Casilla gets Chris Snyder to swing and miss. Ballga—woops! The ball got away from Hector Sanchez and so he quickly airmails it to first base, pulling Brandon Belt off the bag. But what about Justin Maxwell on sec—oh shit! Here he comes. Safe. Fuck. Tie game.
While it did spoil a rare great start from the all-of-a-sudden terrible Tim Lincecum, Sanchez would redeem himself in the 12th inning with a walkoff single. It really is true what they say, you can't accurately forecast what will happen on a given day during a baseball game.


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MOSCOW, Idaho – UC Santa Barbara's season ended on Wednesday night, but the Gauchos didn't go down without a fight as they came from 17 points behind to get within one before losing 86-83 at Idaho in the first round of the CollegeInsder.com Tournament.
UCSB led 11-10 on a layup by Jaimé Serna with 14:41 to play in the first half, but the Vandals took control of the offensive glass and the game from there, outscoring the Gauchos 25-7 to take a decisive 35-18 lead with 4:42 to play in the half.
"We weren't ready to play in the first half and it showed," Said head coach Bob Williams. "We just didn't fight for anything in those first 15 minutes and they (Idaho) got too many easy baskets. Give them credit, they went hard to the glass and took advantage of it."
UCSB closed the half on a 12-8 run to cut the lead to 43-30 at the break. The Vandals had eight offensive rebounds and had a 16-4 edge in second chance points in the first 20 minutes.
But the Gauchos weren't done. Led by seniors James Nunnally, Jaimé Serna and Orlando Johnson, they fought back. After the Vandals scored the first three points of the second half, UCSB used a 6-0 run to pull within 10, 46-36, but Idaho stretched the lead back to 55-40 with 15:47 remaining. An 8-2 Gaucho run, capped by a Kyle Boswell three-point basket, got the lead under 10, 57-48, for the first time since early in the game.
"I thought we competed in the second half," Williams said. "Our guys kind of decided that they didn't want to go down quietly."
The single-digit margin was short-lived as Deremy Geiger, who finished with a team-high 22 points, made a three-pointer and then was fouled on another, draining all three free throws, to push the Idaho advantage back to 63-48 with 13:14 to play.
Again, Santa Barbara battled back, going on a 6-0 run to get the margin back down to 64-55. But the Vandals Kyle Barone, who had 20 points, scored on consecutive layups to make it 68-55.
Still trailing 70-60 with 8:58 remaining, Nunnally scored two of his game-high 25 points on a free throw line jumper to cut the deficit to single-digits for good.
UCSB got within one on three occasions in the final minutes, the last time coming on a layup by Orlando Johnson with 34 seconds left, after which, the Gauchos called timeout.
Following the timeout, Sana Barbara tried for a steal in the backcourt, but Idaho was able to get the ball into the frontcourt where Stephen Madison was fouled. Madison made both free throws to give his team an 83-80 lead with 21 seconds to play.
A long three-point attempt by Nunnally rimmed in-and-out with just over 10 seconds to play. The shot would have tied the score, but Mike McChristian got the rebound for the Vandals and quickly got the ball to Landon Tatum, who made two free throws after he was fouled by Boswell with six seconds left, giving Idaho an insurmountable 85-80 lead. T.J. Taylor made a three-pointer for UCSB and Geiger a free throw for Idaho for the 86-83 final score.
The Gauhos complete their season with a 20-11 overall record. The CIT appearance marked the third postseason appearance in as many seasons and the fourth in the last five. The Vandals improved to 19-13.
Nunnally's 25 points gave him 1,685 in his career, fourth all-time and just two behind Carrick DeHart for third on the list. Johnson, one of the most decorated players in school history, had 19 points and ends his career with 1,825, the most ever. Serna had 17 points and 12 rebounds for his third double-double of the year. The 12 rebounds tied his career-high. The trio of seniors combined for 42 of UCSB's 53 points in the second half.
"Those five seniors (Greg Somogyi and Christian Peterson in addition to the other three) have had a lot of success for us," Williams said. "They took us to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, had 20 win seasons and really helped establish this program. I'll miss them, but I look forward to the future because we have a lot of good young players."
The Gauchos will return, among others, Alan Williams and Taylor, who were starters since the beginning of Big West play. They will also return several others and will add a litany of freshmen, including two who redshirted the 2011-12 season (John Green and Taran Brown) and four true freshmen.


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In many ways, the aviation industry's business environment during the past few years has created a perfect storm for early aircraft retirements, reduced valuations and engine part-outs.
Fuel prices are high, and new aircraft are on the way that promise savings of 15% or more on fuel costs. The financing to acquire those aircraft has been cheap and easy to get, thanks to a long period of historically low interest rates and readily available export credit agency assistance. Simultaneously, it has become more difficult to obtain financing for used aircraft.
In addition to those factors, airlines' historically high usage of leased aircraft gives them more flexibility to get rid of aging jets, which they can simply return when the leases expire. The global recession dampened an increase in airline traffic and the need for fleet growth to carry those passengers. Passenger travel has come back, but the slow recovery of the cargo market has lessened the demand for the freighter conversions that can give old aircraft new life.
What will happen next, especially whether or when some of those contributing factors will change, is a hotly debated topic. For example, Boeing and aircraft lessor Avolon are pushing back hard against assumptions that the trend toward younger retirement ages will continue, because any assumptions that reduced the expected economic life of aircraft below 25 years would raise financing costs, lower aircraft valuations and increase depreciation. Currently, aircraft typically are depreciated to a 15% residual value over a 25-year period.
But, at the moment, the effect on the retirement ages and valuations of certain aircraft types is difficult to deny: An analysis using the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) fleet database shows an average retirement age of about 23 years in 2012, down from about 27 in the three prior years and 29-30 each year in 2008, 2007 and 2006. Those retirements are inextricably linked to engines, because the tipping point on the retirement decision often rests on how much value the aircraft's owner or acquirer believes it can get from parting out the powerplants.
The impact of the perfect storm has not been universal, however, with some aircraft types affected more than others.
Airbus A320s and Boeing 737NGs: The most hotly contested debate right now is what the future holds for the current A320s and Next Generation 737s, given the pending arrival of the reengined, significantly more fuel-efficient A320NEO and 737 MAX. The fate of the current A320 is a big deal for lessors, because that has been an extremely popular model for them to acquire: More than half of the world's A320 fleet is leased, Frankfurt-based DVB Bank has determined based on data received from Ascend .
Four-engine aircraft, such as this 23-year-old 747-400 still flown by Lufthansa, are more vulnerable to early retirement because of high fuel prices that make them less appealing than two-engine alternatives. (Credit: Joepriesaviation.net)Four-engine aircraft, such as this 23-year-old 747-400 still flown by Lufthansa, are more vulnerable to early retirement because of high fuel prices that make them less appealing than two-engine alternatives. (Credit: Joepriesaviation.net)Avolon and Boeing argue that concern about the fate of A320s and 737NGs is overblown. A recent Avolon study, for example, concludes that it will take eight years from entry into service for the MAX and NEO to build 35% shares of their respective family fleets, which the lessor describes as the "tipping point" for the valuations of the aircraft they will be replacing.
But this view is far from universal. "It is by no means guaranteed that the only value impact is after a significant part of the old fleet is replaced," says Bert van Leeuwen, managing director of aviation research for DVB, which cites the valuation history of the late-built 737 Classics as an example.
DVB's recent research, using historical value data from Ascend, found the value of 10-year-old A320 aircraft dropped from 79% of their new value in 2000 to just 43% in 2012. Lease rates for 10-year-old A320s are following a similar line, van Leeuwen says, falling from 85% of the lease rate for a new A320 to just 54%.
The same trend is starting to emerge for 737-800s, van Leeuwen says, with the value of 10-year-old aircraft in that model dropping to 54% from 67% over the past five or six years.
Aviation Week's Fleet & MRO Forecast projects about 250 A320 retirements over the next five years. Aviation Week's forecast for all aircraft models is based on historical trends and other factors, including but not limited to projected maintenance requirements, aircraft operating economics, airframe versatility and flexibility, and ownership type.
But Owen Geach, IBA Group's commercial director, notes a potential restraint on A320 retirements: too many would flood the market with spare engines, lowering the part-out value to the point where an early teardown does not make financial sense.
Boeing 737 Classics: The number of 737-300s, -400s and -500s being retired jumped by about 40% in 2012, primarily for the -300s and -500s. Moreover, they are being retired relatively young: under 24 years for the -300s and under 21 for the -500s, both of which use CFM56-3B1 engines.
The demand for -500s is less than for the other Classics because they are smaller-a particular disadvantage with the escalation in fuel costs-and none are being converted to freighters.
Boeing 747-400: Geach says 747 values have fallen so dramatically over the past six years that the aircraft have reached the point where there only real value is in their engines, although some airlines still will operate the aircraft until the end of their useful lives because they are expensive to replace. The 747-400s use Pratt & Whitney PW4062, Rolls-Royce RB211-524H2-T or General Electric CF6-80C2B5Fs.
As a four-engine aircraft, the 747-400's fate is especially tied to fuel costs; many airlines prefer the twin-engine Airbus A330-300 as an alternative, and Boeing's 787 also could push some of them out early. In van Leeuwen's figures for valuation of 10-year-old aircraft, some of the steepest declines in the past year show up for -400s, with a drop that exceeds 20%.
Airbus A340-300: This four-engine aircraft, powered by CFM56-5C4 / Ps, shows up with the biggest market value decline in the past year at 10 years of age in van Leeuwen's numbers-more than 30%.
A few years ago, Geach says, the A340-300 could be sold in the high $ 20 million or low $ 30 million range. But in addition to the four-engine handicap, values began to tumble after late 2011 when Airbus announced the end of its production. With carriers such as Lufthansa and Swiss International Air Lines expected to retire them in considerable quantities in coming years, the selling price is expected to drop below $ 10 million, he says.
Bombardier CRJ100 / 200s and ERJ 135/145: It is no secret that the smaller regional jets, and the 50-seaters in particular, have fallen far out of favor in the US because fuel costs have made them uneconomical on many routes. That is already showing up in higher retirement rates at young ages for the CRJs, and in valuations for the ERJs.
The ERJ retirements are just beginning, but could be exacerbated because Rolls-Royce exercises more control over the secondhand market for its engines than General Electric, which powers the CRJs with CF34-3As and -3Bs. Rolls selectively licenses its engine overhaul work and restricts an overhaul company's choice of parts suppliers, which can make engine maintenance more expensive for potential ERJ leasers or acquirers. Rolls, in response, says its TotalCare agreements provide predictability in costs and on-wing performance for the AE 3007 turbofans.
What does the future hold for retirements? AWIN's forecast sees a handful of aircraft models retiring in significant numbers at average ages under 25 over the next five years, including the small regional jets, the A340-200 / -300, A320 and 747-400.
ANDREW COMPART | Aviation Week & Space Technology
In many ways, the aviation industry's business environment during the past few years has created a perfect storm for early aircraft retirements, reduced valuations and engine part-outs.


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November 14, 2011
Reminder: One southbound lane of Cleveland Avenue will be closed from Jack Gibbs Blvd. to McCoy Street on Wednesday, November 16 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Contractors for the Ohio Department of Transportation will be doing construction work connected to the I-71/670 Columbus Crossroads project.
Bowers reviews book by "Barefoot Executive"
Michael Bowers, director of Columbus State's Ohio Small Business Development Center (SBDC) was recently asked to review Carrie Wilkerson's new book "The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom."
met Wilkerson when she presented a session at the 2010 SBDC Annual Ohio Growth Summit, an entrepreneurship conference.
Bowers also recently presented at the 2011 Business Owner's Success Strategies (BOSS) event held October 7 and 8 in Dallas, Texas.
He participated as a panelist on the "Power of People: Buzz, Publicity and Social Media" panel and presented the breakout session "Financing and Funding" in which he discussed the business funding continuum that dictates what kind of funding you should be seeking based on your business type and where your business lies on the continuum. To read more about Bowers' presentation, go to his blog here.
Ohio Dominican LEAD program offers information session
Ohio Dominican University will host an information session for those interested in completing a bachelor's degree in business through the university's LEAD Program, on Tuesday, November 29 at 6 p.m. in NH Room 319. The program allows students with an Associate of Arts, or Associate in Business Management, to complete the bachelor's degree in two years attending one night a week. You can RSVP by calling (614) 473-9003, or online at http://bit.ly/rAZPWD.
Fire Science students can take certification exam
The Testing & Talent Assessment Center, formerly the ACT Testing Center, WD 223, has partnered with Jonathan McCombs, chair of Justice and Safety Programs, and Jay Louks, coordinator of Fire Science Technology, to provide the online State Fire Certification Exam to Fire Science students. The exam is governed by the Ohio Emergency Medical Services, Division of EMS Testing & Certification System.
Boren Scholarships provide opportunities to study abroad
Applications for the 2012-2013 David L. Boren Scholarships are now available at www.borenawards.org. Boren Scholarships provide funding for U.S. undergraduate students to study abroad in Africa, Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East, where they can add important international and language components to their educations.
Boren Scholars can receive up to $10,000 for a semester abroad or $20,000 for an academic year abroad. In addition, students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields can receive up to $8,000 for eight weeks of study abroad in the summer.
Let your students know that community college students are especially encouraged to apply for the scholarship, as Boren strives for diversity in both applicants and recipients.
The national deadline for the Boren Scholarship is February 9, 2012.
Basketball team wins over the weekend, plays at home Friday
The Columbus State men's basketball team, currently ranked No. 10 in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) beat Kankakee Community College, Ill. 82-69 on Friday. They will face off against Jamestown Community College, NY in their next home game on Friday, November 18 at 7:30 p.m. The Lady Cougars tip off at 5:30 p.m. Come out and support the Cougars.
Name that race!
Don't forget to submit your idea to name the Staff Advisory Council's 5K (three-mile) running race to be held on April 28, 2012. The winner of the contest will receive a gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods! Some additional information that may be helpful in naming the race is that it will be held at Columbus State's own golf course Bridgeview, and that proceeds from the entries will go to fund scholarships for students and employees at Columbus State! Ideas are due by November 29 to Nichole Bowman-Glover.


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Cincinnati's Zack Cozart and Todd Frazier hit upper-deck homers to power the Reds to a 4-1 win over Pittsburgh on Monday, moving a game-and-a-half clear of the Pirates and to a season-best 15 games over .500.
Cincinnati hit four solo homers in all, extending their best start since 1995 — the last time they won a playoff series.
Cozart connected in the fourth and Frazier in the sixth off Francisco Liriano (5-3), who had not allowed a homer in his seven previous starts.
In Arlington, Texas, the Rangers ended a six-game losing skid by beating Oakland to close the gap in the race for the American League East Division crown.
Nelson Cruz homered twice as the Rangers edged Oakland 8-7, moving within two games of the Athletics atop the AL West.
Cruz's second homer was a two-run shot in the fifth and he added a run-scoring double in the seventh.
A.J. Pierzynski drove in three runs as Texas snapped a six-game losing streak — all at home — in which they only scored eight runs.
Meanwhile, Detroit pitcher Max Scherzer improved his record to 10-0 in the Tigers' 5-1 win at home over Baltimore.
Scherzer became the first pitcher to begin a season 10-0 — with all decisions coming in starts — since Roger Clemens went 11-0 for Toronto in 1997, according to STATS. He allowed one run in six innings.
Miguel Cabrera hit a two-run homer for Detroit, while Baltimore's Chris Davis hit his Major League-leading 24th homer of the season.
In Missouri, St Louis rookie Shelby Miller pitched five shutout innings to guide the Cardinals to a 5-2 win over the Chicago Cubs.
Miller (8-4), who had to wait out a rain delay of 1 hour, 59 minutes to start the game, left due to cramping in his right leg.
Yadier Molina had a two-run double for St Louis.
At AT&T Park in San Diego, California, the Padres won their seventh straight by downing San Francisco 5-3 over 13 innings.
Will Venable made an incredible game-saving catch in the 12th inning, allowing pinch-hitting pitcher Andrew Cashner to drive in the go-ahead run in the 13th.
Venable's diving grab on the center-field warning track with his back to home plate ended the 12th and stole a game-winning hit from Juan Perez.
Moments later, Alexi Amarista started the winning rally with a single and went to third on Chris Denorfia's single. Cashner came up to face Jose Mijares (0-1) and dropped a bunt single between the mound and third base for his sixth career hit and second RBI.
In Toronto, the Jays' winning streak reached six with a 2-0 victory over Colorado.
Toronto's Maicer Izturis hit a two-run single in the eighth inning for the only score of the game.
Rajai Davis singled to start the eighth-inning rally, just the second hit of the game for the Blue Jays.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Domonic Brown hit an RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Phillies a 5-4 win over Washington.
In Cleveland, Ohio, Kansas City pinch-runner Elliot Johnson scored from third base on a wild pitch by reliever Matt Albers in the ninth inning, giving the Royals a 2-1 win over the Indians.
Freddie Freeman hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning off Dillon Gee, giving the Braves a 2-1 stunning victory at home over the New York Mets in a game that was delayed nearly four hours by rain.
Los Angeles' Albert Pujols had an RBI double among his four hits and Josh Hamilton hit a two-run homer as the Angels pounded out a season-high 21 hits in an 11-3 win over Seattle in California.