text:
Farm bill fate still up in the air
No crying over spilled milk for John Boehner.
For all the dire headlines, the House speaker seems settled into a waiting game on any farm bill extension, betting that a tax deal in the Senate will let him slip through a fix without having to give in to demands for a new dairy program backed by the House and Senate Agriculture Committees.
Story Continued Below
Monday morning arrived with still nothing on the House legislative schedule to block a half-century old 1949 farm law that kicks back in Tuesday and will require the Agriculture Department to begin buying up dairy products at a rate of $38.54 per hundredweight, more than double the current prevailing price.
The four top farm bill leaders in the House and Senate are united behind an extension that would run through September and provide more certainty going into New Year's. Thus far Boehner and the GOP leadership have responded with a pair of 30-day patches that the Aggies dismiss as a "poor joke on farmers" — who, they ask, plants a crop for just 30 days?
The biggest single issue is the fate of a new dairy margin protection and market stabilization plan what promises to cost less than the current milk program but is strongly opposed by major processors aligned with the speaker.
At a lively GOP whip meeting Sunday, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas pressed hard for his longer extension and said later he was open to an up-or-down floor vote testing support for the new dairy policy. But no commitment has yet come from the leadership for such a vote, and in a series of sometimes colorful exchanges, Boehner went so far as to liken new dairy provisions in the Lucas bill to "communism."
The sparring between the two men continued in a meeting of the full GOP conference Sunday night, where Boehner again laced into the dairy program. But Lucas — the traditional "good soldier" for his party — held his ground. And the back-and-forth illustrates the problems facing the GOP as it tries to untangle itself from the milk crisis brought on in large part because of Boehner's refusal to allow floor debate in this Congress on a full-scale, five-year farm bill.
"We need to take positive action to put this issue to rest," Lucas told reporters. "And make sure that it is clear to everybody in this country that the farm bill policy has certainty and we will not have eight- or nine-dollar milk."


text:
July 26, 2012
On-Time Registration Period: Another step on the Road to Student Success
Planning ahead is a good thing! As faculty and staff, you're forced to do it often to succeed at work and at home. Students tend to be less aware of the connection between timely preparation and a successful outcome. Part of our job as educators is to help them learn the value and process of planning ahead. To that end, and as one of multiple success initiatives underway at the college this fall, Columbus State is introducing an On-Time Registration period for Autumn Semester.
The On-Time Registration period runs from the opening of registration, March 12, through August 14. Students who register any time during that period are likely to get the classes they need and the sections they want, offering positive reinforcement for timely planning. Conversely, students who delay registration until Late Registration, August 15 – Sept. 12 (some department deadlines may be earlier), risk not getting into required courses, and they will see a Late Registration Fee appear on their student account. This fee will be waived for Autumn Semester only. However, students will be expected to follow the new registration deadline dates and procedures. This information sheet gives details, deadlines, and rationales. Students will receive information about the On-Time Registration/Late Registration periods soon as well.
Full-time staff and administrator reviews are due by July 31. In COOL this means the Administrative Review needs to mark the review complete by this date. If you're using an alternative form, submit a hard copy to the Human Resources Department by this date.
If you need additional directions for completing a review in COOL, or copies of forms to complete a review outside of COOL, these can be found on-line at this link: http://www.cscc.edu/about/hcd/performs/review.shtml
If you need assistance, or have questions, please contact your Human Resources Employment Representative at 287-2408 or Mary Francis McLaughlin, Program Coordinator for Performance Management, at firstname.lastname@example.com or 287-5220.
Desktop security application to be upgraded
Columbus State's Communication Technologies and PC Services team is set to upgrade to the latest desktop security application which will continue to protect the campus from malicious code (viruses, Trojans, worms, etc.).
The upgrade process will take approximately 20 minutes (more or less depending on the PC), will involve one reboot, and will require no user interaction once the upgrade process begins.
Upgrade Testing Process
The upgrade to Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 was tested within Communication Technologies & PC Services and the IT Support Center on approximately 55 computers over the past month. It has also been deployed on over 300 lab computers since the start of Summer Quarter.
Complete information, including what you'll see after the automatic upgrade, is available on this flyer.
Attend the Hip Hop Institute Showcase July 28
"The Principles of Hip Hop" will be Saturday, July 28, from 5:00-7:30 p.m. in the Columbus State Conference Center, WD fourth floor.
Performers include: Jon Sands, Writer and Spoken Word Artist; Krate Digga, DJ from Mighty SoundChamps; Marshall Shorts, Visual Artist and BRUSH Experience creator; plus "The Next Big Thing" Presentations by Searius Add, " Hip Hop - Consciousness and Current Events," Racquel L. Armstrong, "Hip-hop as a Teaching Tool," Bess Bolton, "Green Technology is the Newest Hustle," Javier Sanchez, "Guard My Heart," and Mexie Wilson, "The 5th Element – Doin' the Knowledge."
The Hip Hop Institute is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Kimberly Brazwell at email@example.com.
Student Calling Campaign needs volunteers
The Switch 2 Semesters Communication Campaign Task Force is seeking faculty and staff volunteers for a phone calling campaign during the week of July 30 through August 2. Volunteers will reach out to new students not currently registered for Autumn Semester.
The calling will occur evenings from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. A brief training session and script will be provided to the volunteers. Refreshments also will be provided.
Can you spare as little as an hour to reach out to our students and provide valuable information to ensure they are on the path to success here at Columbus State?. We'd greatly appreciate it! If interested in volunteering, please contact Nome Stillwell by noon Friday, July 27, at firstname.lastname@example.com or 287-5525.
Woodwinds, Stage Band to perform
The Columbus State Woodwind Ensemble will perform a free 40-minute concert on Tuesday, July 31 at 4:30 p.m. in the TL-123 music room. The program will be narrated by Thomas Lloyd and will include music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classic, Romantic, and 20th century eras.
Columbus State Stage Band will play an hour of jazz inspired music on Tuesday, August 7 at 6:00 p.m. in the TL-123 music room. The group, under the direction of Thomas Lloyd, will play music by Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, and Sammy Nestico. For more information contact firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Blue Ridge Naturally Workshop: Connecting Medicinal Plant Growers With Buyers
When: September 14, 2013, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: AB Tech Enka Campus, Haynes Conference Center, Room 200
1459 Sand Hill Rd. Candler, NC 28715
Cost: $20 in advance; $25 at the door. Includes lunch catered by Gypsy Queen
On-line Registration:https://blueridgenaturally.
Natural products manufacturers are looking for medicinal herb growers and local medicinal herb growers are looking for buyers. But how do they find each other? This event will help connect current and potential medicinal plant growers with manufacturers and raw material buyers for the natural products industry in North Carolina. It will feature panels of four new and experienced medicinal herb growers and four natural products buyers/manufacturers to discuss their unique experiences, challenges, goals, and needs as it relates to natural products and raw materials. There will be ample time for networking between growers and buyers. If you are a grower, please bring a list of what you are growing, including quantities and what form you can supply them in (fresh or dried). If you are a medicinal plant buyer, please bring a list of what raw materials you want to source locally and in what quantity and form you need them.
We will also discuss the newBlue Ridge NaturallyTM branding effort, created to raise the awareness of the superiority of botanical raw materials and quality natural products (personal care, pet care, cleaning, tinctures and supplements, functional food and beverages) from the Blue Ridge Mountains region of North Carolina.
If you are interested in becoming involved in the natural products industry in Western North Carolina, this event is not to be missed! While the event will focus on medicinal plant cultivation, wild-harvesters are welcome and encouraged to attend.
If you would like to set-up a product or informational table for $10, please contact Alison Dressler via email or phone at 828-684-3562 x 150.
This event is made possible by a grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation. Project partners include AdvantageWest, Bent Creek Institute, BioNetwork, Blue Ridge Food Ventures, NC Natural Products Association, NC State University, SBTDC, and US Botanical Safety Laboratory


text:
BOSTON, Mass. - Led by Bri Sousa's (Swansea, Mass.) match-high 11 kills volleyball dominated regionally ranked Trinity College defeating the 13th ranked Bantams by the final of 3-0 Friday evening in the Clark Athletic Gym.
The victory marked the third straight for the Beacons over Trinity College and the first-ever 3-0 win. It also tied the all-time series at 4-4 between the two non-conference rivals. UMB used the momentum from the 25-23 win in the first game to carry them to a 25-20 victory in the second and a 25-17 win in the third. The deciding game should have been decided earlier, but the Bantams were able to grind out five straight points, before Sousa was able to drop in the deciding kill to secure the victory.
Friday's win also marked the second for the Beacons over a regionally ranked opponent this season. To date UMass Boston has faced six regionally and five nationally ranked teams based on the most recent NEWVA and AVCA Coaches polls. The first win over a regionally ranked opponent came in the 3-1 decision over Connecticut College.
Not only did Sousa's 11 kills lead the way for UMB, but the Beacons as a whole showed all new life in Friday's huge win. As a team the Beacons hit .264, which consisted of a .343 hitting percentage in the tight game one victory. As a squad the Beacons threw down 41 kills to Trinity's 29. Setter Megan Pollock (Wilton, Calif.) was beyond aggressive as she finished with a career-high 34 assists, breaking her original personal best by nine.
The Beacons also saw three of their top hitters score a combined 24 kills respectively, with freshman Patsy Boland (Chicago, Ill.) totaling nine in the victory. Freshman Julia Murphy (Canton, Mass.) led the contest with a .500 hitting percentage as she went 7-for-12 with only one error. Senior Corrine Porter (Huntington Beach, Calif.) made her return to the hitter position, as the three-time Little East Conference selection scored eight kills, while also coming up with 14 digs.
Kirsten Morrison (North Reading, Mass.) totaled four kills to help the offense, but her strong play at the net resulted in UMB's lone solo block, and one of the four block assists. In the back row Elizabeth Glavan (Edina, Minn.) came-up with 21 digs, which marked only the fourth time this season the freshman libero has recorded 20 or more put-ups in a match.
For the Bantams, Hannah Brickley scored 10 kills on 35 attempts and also finished with eight digs. Hunter Drews and Kate Giddens each finished with six, while Kristen Cooprider led the defense with 11 digs. Setters Amy Hackett and Gina Buzzelli each tallied 10 assists.
Volleyball returns to action tomorrow when they face Endicott College at 12:00 p.m. and Haverford College (Pa.) at 6:00 p.m. on day one of the 2013 Beacons Invitational.


text:
The Caldene 4 Tech Junior Jodhpurs are stretch knitted jodhpurs with self knee patches and belt loops.
If the Caldene 4 Tech Junior Jodhpurs aren't quite what you're looking for, then why not take a look at our wide selection of junior jodhpurs?
The Caldene 4 Tech Junior Jodhpurs have the following features:
Payment can be made online by any credit or debit card, Paypal or by Google Checkout.
Our site uses the latest 128 bit SSL security, complying with and exceeding all necessary security requirements to protect your details. We do not store any sensitive information (card number, etc).
SSL encrypts your order online to avoid any decoding of that information of anyone other than the necessary processing parties. To check the security of your connection, look at the status bar of your browser window after accessing the server. If you see an unbroken key or a closed lock then, depending upon your browser, SSL is active. You can also double check by looking at the URL line of your browser - while accessing a secure server the first characters of the address will change from HTTP to HTTPS.
All orders received before midday Monday - Friday will normally be dispatched the same day. Orders received after midday, at weekends or on public holidays will be sent the next working day.
If there is a problem with your order that prevents us from despatching it, for example it is not currently in stock in our warehouse, we will normally contact you within 24 hours of the order being received by us or on the next working day.
If you are not completely satisfied with your purchase, you can return it within 14 days of purchase in its original unworn condition with original packaging and labels and we will refund the product price. This will not include postage costs.
If the main product in any offer is not suitable and needs to be returned, then the offer product should also be returned. If the offer product is retained then any refund relating to the main product shall be less the discount originally given on the offer product.
Caldene clothing is an excellent equestrian clothing brand that continuously provides high quality and distinctive attire for horse riders. This particular brand incorporates both style and durability in order to provide for every customer's specific needs. The Caldene brand has been a popular choice for the typical equestrian rider for many years and remains one of the most highly acclaimed equestrian clothing brands of our time.
Caldene was established in 1922 as a small made-to-measure family business but is now eminent within the equestrian clothing world. Since their initial made-to-measure business they have maintained this specific quality and individual care for their meticulous items and present this throughout their current range of products. This particular collection of Caldene clothing is made from hardwearing and durable materials making this a brand you can rely on for excellent value for money.
They have retained immaculate standards throughout the many years that Caldene clothing has been founded for production and manufacturing of apparel. Providing equestrian clothing for both men and women this brand is indisputably amongst the most progressive brands in the riding wear industry.
We are always updating our stock so do not hesitate to check back for updates within our Caldene equestrian clothing range. In the meantime view their fantastic ranges of Caldene jodhpurs and Caldene show shirts available at affordable prices online.


text:
Dickey's tough day ends early in Red Sox rout
Knuckleballer exits in fifth as Boston belts six homers in finale
TORONTO -- R.A. Dickey's first week in a Blue Jays uniform has turned into one he would like to forget.
Toronto's No. 1 starter followed up an Opening Night loss with one of his worst outings in recent memory Sunday. The knuckleball wasn't dancing like it normally does, and the end result was a series of balls leaving the yard.
Dickey surrendered eight runs, while Boston's Will Middlebrooks enjoyed a career day at the plate, with three home runs in the Blue Jays' 13-0 loss in front of 41,168 at Rogers Centre.
"You certainly try to forget about it as soon as you can," said Dickey, who surrendered two of Middlebrooks' homers. "Throughout the course of the season, you're going to have a clunker or two that you have to try to forget as soon as you can."
The Blue Jays lost control of Sunday afternoon's game before some fans even made it to their seats. Boston's Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a double, and Shane Victorino and Dustin Pedroia followed with a pair of singles. Mike Napoli then delivered a two-run double, which was immediately followed by a two-run homer off the bat of Middlebrooks.
Five batters into the game, it was 5-0 Boston, but the damage didn't stop there. Dickey allowed three more runs before giving way to the bullpen in the fifth inning.
It's not the way Dickey envisioned starting his tenure in Toronto, but he's also aware it's still way too early for alarm bells to go off. Even during last year's Cy Young Award-winning season, Dickey began the year with a 4.45 ERA in April before posting a 2.48 ERA the rest of the way.
"Probably a little bit too much rotation, they hit a couple of good pitches," Dickey said of his knuckleball. "Sometimes you have to look at the overall scope of the game and determine did you just get baseballed, or did you just not execute? And I think today was a bit of both for me.
"I think I didn't execute on a couple of pitches that I could have executed much better, and there were a couple of balls that might have gotten through that maybe on another day you field, get an out, and it's a different inning."
Dickey's outing was comparable to a start he had at the beginning of 2012. During an April 18 start for the Mets, the Braves got to Dickey for eight runs on eight hits. He walked three and surrendered three homers.
The native of Nashville moved on from that performance, and the hope is that he will be able to do so again.
Dickey watched some video after being removed from the game and pinpointed a couple of areas for improvement. He wants to start changing speeds more and also feels like he needs to stay back on the rubber longer during his delivery.
"You have to draw on your past experiences," Dickey said. "Atlanta last year was maybe even a click worse than this one. You have to understand that with 33 starts, you have a handful that you just have to throw out, and hopefully the majority of them end up the way you want them to.
"I'm certainly believing in that and feel like that's going to be the case, but you have to learn from it, too. You have to have aptitude in this game, and there are some things I can get better at that I've identified on some video after the game, and we'll see what happens."
Right-hander Dave Bush's outing wasn't much of an improvement over Dickey. He allowed five runs on five hits while walking one in his first big league appearance since 2011. In total, the Red Sox recorded six home runs and four off Bush -- one each from Middlebrooks, Daniel Nava, Napoli and Ellsbury.
The same type of production wasn't enjoyed by the Blue Jays' offense. Boston's Jon Lester was dominant, allowing five hits while striking out six and not walking a batter in seven strong innings.
It's the first time this season the Blue Jays have been shut out, but the struggles mark a continuation of their offense being either feast or famine. Of the 22 runs scored by Toronto this season, all but four have come via the home run.
The loss is a bitter end to a series that many Blue Jays fans had been waiting months for. Approximately 130,000 walked through the Rogers Centre gates during the series that saw Boston manager John Farrell make his return. The boos were loud and frequent, but Farrell's team took two out of three.
"It was a good series, we were looking forward to coming up here," Farrell said. "Much has been made about the changes they've gone through. They've added a lot of good players. It was a good challenge for us, a good test for us, and I liked the way we played in this three-game set."
Toronto will have a much-needed off-day Monday and hope to have Jose Bautista back in its lineup when the next series opens on Tuesday in Detroit.
The 2-4 start to the season isn't ideal, but with 158 games remaining, it's not like people inside the Blue Jays clubhouse are about to start panicking.
"We're fine, we'll stick together as a group, it's not like we're not together or anything like that," shortstop Jose Reyes said. "Just a 2-4 start, it's going to happen. This is baseball, there's a lot of baseball left.
"It's not how you start, it's how you finish. We have a lot of confidence in this ballclub, and like I said, we're going to be fine. So there's nothing to worry about."


text: Thursday, November 14, 2013 Rockar and UPMC Host Congressman Murphy Concussion management, the therapy cap, SGR, and the National Health Service Corps were among the topics discussed when Congressman Tim Murphy (R-PA) visited APTA President Paul Rockar Jr, PT, DPT, MS, last week at Rockar's office at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). "The discussions were very positive and it is obvious the congressman has a profound interest in concussion management," said Rockar, adding that Murphy was "very supportive" of UPMC's concussion clinic and programs. The November 4 meeting between Murphy, Rockar, and congressional and UPMC staff lasted about an hour. APTA encourages its members to schedule practice visits with legislators to demonstrate what physical therapists and physical therapist assistants do on a daily basis, and to show the value of physical therapy. These personal visits help educate members of Congress about the issues that impact the profession and provide constituents with an opportunity to talk with their legislator about how physical therapy has improved their lives. APTA has several resources available to help members schedule practice visits with their legislators, including the practice visit guide. Members interested in hosting a practice visits can contact APTA's Government Affairs Department at email@example.com for more information. Comments Dr. Rockar did you ask Congressman Tim Murphy why he hasn't supported Any Willing Provider Act in PA? Do you support Any Willing Provider Act in PA? Every private practicing therapist in PA should log onto www.anywillingprovider.org and sign the petition to open real free competition in PA and then call your state legislators to demand the bill is past in our state. Over 30+ other states have the bill passed and there are private practices all over the place in those states! Posted by Ned Bruns on 11/14/2013 6:00 PM


text:
IYA2009 Updates
30 April 2010
Call for Abstracts: JENAM2010 IYA2009 related Special Sessions
- Education and Outreach after the International Year of Astronomy 2009 in Europe: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/906/
- Amateur and professional astronomers in Europe: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/902/
Naming X, a global online competition launches 30 April 2010
2010 celebrates the 80th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto and marks the 1st anniversary of Venetia Burney Phair, the most influential 11 year-old in the history of astronomy who, died on 30th April 2009, aged 90. Venetia was a young schoolgirl living in Oxford, England in 1930, when she came up with the name Pluto for the newly discovered Planet X. As a tribute to Venetia's extraordinary contribution and to its young discoverer, the American Clyde Tombaugh, Space Renaissance Education Chapter, in collaboration with Father Films, announce the launch of Naming X, a global online competition, to find the next influential student or school group with the creative and scientific talent to suggest a suitable name for a minor planet and a reason why. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/905/
Global Astronomy Month newsletter
OSA Foundation To Donate Hundreds Of Telescopes To Milwaukee Students Through Galileoscope Challenge
The OSA Foundation announced recently the launch of a new program to donate hundreds of telescopes to students in the Milwaukee area, while educating them about science, optics and astronomy. The OSA Foundation, through a partnership with the Institute for the Transformation of Learning and a grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, will donate nearly 500 "Galileoscopes" as well as books and DVDs about Galileo Galilei and astronomy to six local middle, junior high and high schools as part of its program called the Galileoscope Challenge. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/903/
Sidewalk Marathon in Erding, Germany
On Friday 24 April 2010, the town of Erding near Munich in Germany began a star party with an exhibition with the local fine art club on the topic "the Tower of Babel". Two hours later, EurAstro's President Jean-Luc Dighaye kicked off an incredible Astronomy Marathon. At around 16:00, his Coronado started duty in the middle of the "Schranneplatz", initiating a queue of people waiting in the line which disappeared only eight hours later as the exhausted organisers collapsed under the demand! http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/901/
International Astronautical Congress registration now open
Online registration, hotel accommodation, social events and tours booking forms for the 61st International Astronautical Congress (IAC) is now open. The early registration rate (and payment) deadline is 30 June 2010. The Congress will take place in Prague between 27 September and 1 October 2010. It is believed that the IAC will help to increase general awareness about space related capacities and plans of countries in this part of Europe and, at the same time, it will motivate and stimulate activity of new space generation there. The theme is "Space for Human benefit and exploration" . All relevant information can be found here: http://www.iac2010.cz/en/welcome
The Sky of our Grandparents
The project "The Sky of our Grandparents", coordinated by the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and the Institute for the Study of Traditional Literature (IELT) of the New University of Lisbon (Portugal), collected personal testimonies, stories, legends, songs, poetry and proverbs for a year and revisited the endangered sky, the bright sky that our ancestors saw, and the knowledge of astronomy that passed down from generation to generation. The Amazonian Museum in Brazil was an active partner of this project. Germano Afonso, an ethno astronomer working at the Amazonian Museum with students of several ethnic origins, has discovered amazing facts about the astronomical knowledge of the different populations of Amazonia. The film "Our Ancestors' Sky" unveils us some of these facts. http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/multimedia/videos/detail/our_ancectors_sky/
Join in the Hubble Pop Culture Contest!
In honour of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's 20th anniversary, the European Space Agency (ESA) is proud to present the ESA "Hubble Pop Culture" competition — a free competition that calls for everyone who loves Hubble to find examples of it in popular culture. Have you seen a Hubble image on the cover of a CD? Has Hubble been used as inspiration for art? Let us know and you could win great prizes! http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/898/
Search IYA2009 Updates
National Nodes: 148
Organisational Nodes: 40
Organisational Associates:33
National Websites: 111
Cornerstone Projects: 12
Special Task Groups: 11
Special Projects:16
Official Products:8
Media Partners:22


text:
Page 1
|1 of 1
This page
96 HASKINS & SELLS December News Items Colonel Carter and Mr. Kracke recently sailed for Europe to attend to an important engagement. Colonel Carter sailed on the Berengaria, and a few days later Mr. Kracke followed on the Olympic. cently was assistant manager of our Philadelphia office. Mr. O. N . Hutchinson, manager of our Charlotte office, has been elected vice-president and a director of the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. G. C. Rayner, of our Newark office, has become a member of the New York Society of Certified Public Accountants. A letter from Mr. Wildman to the editor of The American Accountant, containing an expression on the idea of the natural business year, appeared in the October issue of that magazine. An article by Mr. Bell entitled, "Preparation and Issuance of Financial Statements," appeared in the October issue of The Certified Public Accountant. A report of the Special Committee on Arbitration of the American Society of Certified Public Accountants, submitted by Mr. Dunn as chairman of the committee, appeared in the October issue of The Certified Public Accountant. Mr. C. N . Bullock, manager of our Detroit office, addressed the members of the Associated Sign Manufacturers of Detroit on the subject of "Overhead,'' at the Wolverine Hotel, Detroit, on October 31, 1928. Mr. H. Brooks Davies, who has been manager of our San Diego office, has been appointed manager of our Dallas office. Mr. H. W. Goodson, of our Dallas office, has been appointed assistant manager of that office. Mr. J. W. Haines has been appointed manager of our Buffalo office, effective November 1, 1928. Mr. Haines until re- PRESS OF WILLIAM GREEN, NEW YORK The report of the Committee on Natural Business Year of the American Society of Certified Public Accountants, of which committee Mr. Rossetter is a member, appeared in the October issue of The Certified Public Accountant. Mr. Rossetter is chairman of the Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants' Committee on "The Natural Business Year." He presented the report of this committee at the annual meeting of the Illinois Society in Chicago on September 11. An article by Mr. Pearce C. Davis, manager of our Seattle office, entitled "Submit It to Arbitration," appeared in the October issue of Public Service, a Seattle publication.


text:
We believe elevating where you live is about blending it seamlessly with how you live. We go to great lengths designing amenities and choosing locations that put everything within reach. Where you live, is where you come alive.
The Bothell apartments are available in a variety of floor plans with amazing designs. Each floor plan is equipped with a host of apartment features that make day-to-day life much simpler for you. Additionally, you can choose between a one-, two- or three-bedroom apartment, or a luxurious town home. Avalon RockMeadow's charming rentals allow residents to enjoy the best aspects of two worlds. On one hand residents get the benefit of living near Seattle, a dynamic city that offers a multitude of things to do, and on the other hand, Avalon RockMeadow provides a level of comfort akin to a small town community. In short, our Bothell apartments allow people to live a lifestyle that best suits them.
When you choose to make our Bothell apartments your home, you'll be living in one of the best locations in Washington. Our apartment community puts you close to the best of Northwest living. At any moment you can go on a delightful adventure, take a trip to an exquisite winery or scenic picnic area. From beautiful parks to fully-equipped playgrounds, there is no shortage of things to do and places to see.
As a member of Avalon Rockmeadow, you will be automatically privy to the Avalon Advantage. This exclusive program offers a 30-day move-in satisfaction guarantee program, flexible leasing options, preferred discounts at select stores and many more exciting perks. Our on-site maintenance team will ensure that you have every luxury and comfort available at your fingertips.
So, what are you waiting for? Contact us to schedule an appointment and find your new home at the best apartments in Bothell today.
Learn More
View Pet Policy
Learn More
Show me more.
Your pets are part of your family. That means finding a home that welcomes all of you. We couldn't agree more, which is why we are a pet-friendly community and created WAG The Pet Program to take pet-friendly living to the next level.
Cats and dogs are welcome! Please check the dog breed and pet restrictions below.
Max of 2 Pets Allowed
Max Weight Limit: N/A
AvalonBay Communities reserves the right to deny residency to any animal deemed aggressive whose breed is not explicitly listed. Should your pet injure any other pets, residents or AvalonBay Communities associates, you will be asked to remove the pet from the premises immediately.
Pets must be on a leash at all times when outside the apartment home. If applicable, dogs must be leashed whenever entering and exiting the Pet Park, but may be unleashed while within the enclosure of the Pet Park.
The following breeds are restricted:
* Other pets may also be restricted. Please contact our community for details.
For Residents: Each apartment homes includes one assigned parking space. Permits and additional options are available for an additional monthly fee. All parking is based on availability.
For Future Residents: We have four spaces across from the Leasing Center designated for Future Resident parking. If those are occupied, you may park in any "Permit Parking" space during your tour of the community.
For Guests: Between the hours of 8:00am to 6:00pm, all "Permit Parking" stalls are open to any guest or visitor. A Visitor Permit is required for guests parking between the hours of 6:00pm to 8:00am. Once our residents' vehicles are accounted for, the office will provide Visitor parking permits on a "first come, first served" basis. Visitor permits can be used in "Permit Parking" stalls. Permits will need to be displayed on the visitor's vehicle dashboard.
Maybe you want room to entertain. Maybe you're going for class without the extravagance. Maybe you'll know when you see it. So look around, and make yourself at home.
This floor plan is currently not available - please sign up for an email below to receive notice when this floor plan has an available unit.
I would like to be alerted when the following apartment(s) become available:
If you already know exactly which apartment is right for you, you can use this form to jump straight to it.
Find more Avalon locations and other properties designed by the people that bring you Avalon, here.
You've put a lot in to get where you are. You deserve the freedom to enjoy it. So go ahead. Shed the hassles of ownership without sacrificing the comforts of home. Rent to live. Avalon style.
Cats and dogs welcome! Check out WAG The Pet Program and see what we do to take pet-friendly living to the next level.
We partnered with CORT Furniture to make it easier for you to actually live in our apartment homes even when you can't have your own furniture come along.
Everyone has their own definition of a healthy lifestyle, so we offer a variety of spaces and places, information and inspiration, and some little extras to help you find your fit.
Your pets are part of your family. That means finding a home that welcomes all of you. We couldn't agree more, which is why we offer pet-friendly communities across the country and created WAG The Pet Program to take pet-friendly living to the next level.
Change is inevitable. Should it happen to your apartment needs, you'll get to keep the standard of service you expect at any one of our communities, with additional perks to smooth your


text:
Virtual Machine Debugging Module
In this invention, a Debugging Module, embedded within the operating system, runs a Virtual Machine specifically for testing code.
Publication Date29 July 2009
Click here to download link on ip.com
Click to share this page via your favorite social network.
What we are trying to do?
We are attempting to mobilize the creativity and innovative capacities of the Linux and broader open source community to codify the universe of preexisting inventions in defensive publications that upon publication in the IP.COM database will immediately serve as effective prior art that prevents anyone from having a patent issued that claims inventions that have already been document in a defensive publication. In addition to creating a vehicle to utilize this highly effective form of IP rights management for known inventions, it is hoped that the community will use defensive publications as a means of codifying future inventions should the inventors prefer not to make their invention the subject of a patent disclosure and application.


text:
Cavalera Conspiracy Downunder
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Cavalera Conspiracy are finally to tour Australia in 2012.
Some years ago, I was pleased to find myself writing music interviews for Live to Ride, a motorcycle magazine with scantily clad hot chicks draped over cool bikes (I include that last phrase to aid random google hits to this blog post). I was mainly talking to metal musos, and wasn't particularly into metal – but when the dude from the record label would ask the musos which interview they enjoyed most, more often than not, they'd name mine. I think it was because I just love a chat. And, not knowing much about metal, asked them questions they weren't often asked.
One such occasion was this chat with Max Cavalera in 2008, when he and brother Igor [1] first patched up their friendship and decided to collaborate once again. And now they're returning to Australia, so it's as good a time as any to put this interview on my blog.
Blood Brothers
"I lied to him," Max confesses. "I said, 'Don't worry, I got plenty of material already written. I've got ten songs.' It was a big lie. The next morning I looked at my wife Gloria and I said, 'I'm in big trouble. I better write some f*cking music – I don't have any!"
Max Cavalera is coming clean about the reunion with his brother Igor in the project that became Cavalera Conspiracy. It's a pretty big deal: some 12 years ago, Max walked away from Sepultura – not just the heavy metal band he fronted on guitar and vocals, but the band he'd founded with Igor. When Max walked, he turned his back on his brother as well as the band. There are few things that'll make a man walk away from his life's work and his own blood. Yep, that's right, there was a woman involved: Gloria Cavalera, the band's soon-to-be former manager. Who also happened to be married to the person soon to become the band's former guitarist and vocalist. But we're not allowed to talk about that – on pain of the interview being terminated. Rather than the break-up, we're here to discuss the reunion, which is a good thing. However bitterly the brothers parted, the fact that they've made amends – and meant it – is apparent in the solid, full-on album that resulted: Inflikted.
"It was great, man," Max says of recording the album. "Playing with Igor again was such a great feeling of relief and excitement. We were hungry to make the music and we went right into it."
Well, not right into it. First there was a 'break the ice' jam, which began with covers before turning to Sepultura classics. They didn't get very far. "We played half of one song," Max says, "'Territory'," – the big single from 1993 album Chaos A.D. – "and Igor just stopped and said, 'Okay, enough of this sh*t; let's make the f*cking record then'. That was the attitude I needed to hear. Forget about the past, go with the future, you know?"
So after the 'break the ice' jam, a brief 'shit – I got no songs' panic was inevitable. But, says Max, it was ultimately "no problem":
"I was so excited that I would write for 24 hours, man – riff, riff, riff – just throwing all kinds of riffs. I sent these to Igor in Brazil – something I never did before with anybody – so Igor could check out the things I was doing and give me feedback. He called back from Brazil: 'I love the riffs. I'm ready. Let's do this.'"
To recap, 'sepultura' is Portuguese for 'grave', and was inspired as a band name by Max Cavalera's translation of the Motörhead song 'Dancing on Your Grave'. The band came into being in 1984 in Brazil after the death of Max and Igor's Italian diplomat father, Graciliano. "My dad was very family-oriented," Max recalls. "He had strong plans for us to follow him into diplomatic careers. If he had not died, we would not have been musicians."
Life changed dramatically after the death. "We were living pretty good in Sao Paulo – Brazil's biggest city – while my dad was making money. After he died, we had to live in a shack out the back of my grandmother's house in another city. Me and Igor were like, 'What happened? Our lives got fucked up so fast!' We were angry; we were poor. It was very depressing." Metal music offered an outlet. And, unexpectedly, a way out, as Sepultura pretty much pioneered the sub-genre of 'death metal'.
"I remember my mother saying, 'You guys are wasting your time. You're not jazz musicians, you're not classical musicians; you're just playing by ear.' We proved her wrong!" If it was a surprise to Mama Cavalera that Brazilian kids could become well-respected metal musos, it was as much of a shock to the rest of the world that well-respected metal musos could come from Brazil.
"So many people were blown away," Max concurs. "Doing interviews for America, for Europe – all they knew about Brazil was football and nice girls and samba and coffee. We came with death metal. It was a different Brazil to the tourist Brazil."
Twelve years after he started the band, Max left it. By this time the initial death/thrash metal combo had expanded its remit to include hardcore punk and industrial noise. Max went on to form a new band, Soulfly, which would extend the remit further still, to groove metal, Brazilian tribal music and world music.
"It was as though someone had said to me, 'There's so much more in metal you can do – you don't have to copy them, you can invent sh*t'. And I did, man."
Naturally, with growth, there should be change. Why the changes seem to take place in 12-year cycles for Max Cavalera is anybody's guess. But it's 2008 and time to work out what to do with his and Igor's reunion. First item on the agenda: what should they call it? It couldn't be 'Sepultura' – by this stage, Igor had also quit that band.
"And it should not be Soulfly because Soulfly is a different beast I'd already established," Max reasons. "I don't think Igor'd be comfortable. He's a real creative guy, the best thing would be to start fresh, from Ground Zero up – a new chapter." The argument was convincing enough for Igor and created the perfect situation for Max. "Soulfly is a lot on my shoulder all the time, whereas Conspiracy is not. That's the way we worked in Sepultura – everybody had his own role and did it the best he could. It works great for the Conspiracy."
Once they got stuck into the music, it was as though the twelve year sabbatical – of their collaboration and their brotherhood – had never taken place. Well, musically, that was the case.
"Personally," says Max, "it was a little different. It took me a little while to get used to Igor. We've changed a little bit. But musically, it was automatic. When me and Igor get our instruments, people were noticing even our faces changing – we put our 'war face' on. During soundcheck, Igor's entire face changes – it's quite amazing. You don't want to f*ck with him at that time. He's a very intense drummer, man. Intense and provocative. You have to be really on your toes. You don't fuck around with him. But I love that about playing with Igor. It's one of the things that I missed."
Inflikted is itself an intense and provocative album, brimful of righteous anger. The opener is the title track and it begins with a siren. "It's like the war has started," says Max, who initially had trouble accepting the siren – created for an earlier Soulfly project by bass player Marc Rizzo – was executed on guitar, rather than a sample. "That siren is very unique," Max explains, "better than some guitarists' solos. When you hear that, you'd better run!"
The track 'Nevertrust', following the peaceful and gorgeous acoustic play-out of previous track 'Bloodbrawl', is an extreme punk follow-up to John Lennon's 'God', albeit seeking this time to systematically destroy everything rather than merely denounce it. From nihilism to total annihilation. "It's about the things around us that we can't trust," says Max, citing "cops" and "the President".
One of my favourite tracks is 'Terrorize', featuring a funky, percussive introduction that a foreboding, low drone – accompanied by that siren again – inevitably dispels. The drumming comes from traditional Brazilian carnival music. "I first heart Igor do that during a soundcheck in Arizona. It's not samba – it comes from old, old folk music. But once the guitar starts, it's all over."
Is that a statement about village life coming to an end as a result of modern politics? [2]
"I never looked at it like that, but it's a very cool coincidence. The world today, with globalization: folk music being slaughtered by future music, by technology…"
Perhaps the most important song on the album is 'Black Ark', about Dana Wells, Max Cavalera's "murdered" stepson. Dana died in a car accident, under questionable circumstances. His mother, Gloria Cavalera, filed a 'wrongful death' lawsuit against passengers who survived the accident but claim no recollection of it. That this occurred in 1996, the year that Gloria and Max ceased working with Sepultura, may be significant… but again, the renion is far more important to discuss than the breakup. Particularly in this instance, since Dana's brother Richie joins Stepdad Max and Uncle Igor to provide vocals.
"We felt inviting Richie would make Dana proud," Max beams. "It would be exciting to include the family and it would be really special, with the reunion. Richie was great. I'm really very proud that he was part of it." As ever the Cavaleras cope with family tragedy by making passionate music.
One quirky aspect of Max's is his insistence that all of his albums – at least with his earliest work with Soulfly, 'have colours': Soulfly 1 was green; Primitive was yellow; 3, "like the earth", was brown; Prophecy was gold; and Dark Ages was, suitably, black.
"Inflikted is black and red," he says, "the voodoo colours for war. It's a pretty heavy album, and it has the most powerful voodoo spirit around."
1. At the time of writing, Igor Cavalera had decided to change the spelling of his first name to 'Iggor' – apparently for no other reason than it looks better – and that's how it appeared in this article at the time of publication.
2. More significant now than when first written, seeing as – it turns out – Brazil does boast some of the last 'uncontacted tribes'… that we know about. Or at least did; more recently, one such tribe disappeared and nobody really knows what happened to it.


text:
Pan-Roasted Cauliflower
This cauliflower is one of my new favourite things to eat. It says it serves 4 as a side dish but I can't help myself from eating at least more than half of the recipe at a time. I love finding recipes like this that are single vegetable and simple - does that make sense? Like if I have a vegetable in my fridge/pantry, I'd love to have some things to do with it aside from steaming, pan frying or roasting it. Something a little different but still really easy. And in this case, so incredibly deliciously wonderfully tasty. The combination of pine nuts (don't omit these, they're crucial!), lemon (I tried vinegar, not as good), ground mustard, salt, pepper and green onions is so perfectly balanced and interesting. I'm sure this will remain a favourite dish of mine for a long time.
If this sounds good, you might also like:
Warm Vegetable Salad with Sesame-Maple Dressing
Herbed Cauliflower with Capers & Lemon
Cauliflower Gratin
Ginger Roasted Winter Vegetables
Pan-Roasted Cauliflower
Adapted from fresh 365
serves 4 as a side dish
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 large head cauliflower, cut into tiny florets
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp salt
pepper, to taste
2-3 green onions, chopped
In a large sauté pan, add pine nuts over medium heat, and cook, stirring often, 5-7 minutes, until toasted. Transfer pine nuts to a serving bowl. Place pan back on heat and add cauliflower, olive oil, lemon juice, ground mustard and salt. Cook, 12-15 minutes, shaking or stirring every few minutes, until cauliflower is golden brown. Transfer cauliflower to the serving bowl with pine nuts. Season to taste with pepper, and top with green onions.


text:
Friday, September 30, 2005
Is This The Sign of a Top?
Forget Chasing The Energy-Fund Money Train
Thus reads the most interesting headline I've seen in today's Wall Street Journal.
Pros Warn It Might Be Too Late To Capture Big Gains in a Sector That Is Known for High Volatility
By now, with oil defying both gravity and the expectation of most forecasters that oil prices would settle down post-hurricanes, you might expect the press to be getting excited about the stocks.
Instead, the same press that has been calling the housing bubble (as I did in this blog on August 5th, 2005) for 2 years, is saying "stay away."
For people paying hefty prices at the pump these days, it might be tempting to drive straight home -- burning off a bit of that precious gasoline -- and try to make money investing in energy-focused mutual funds.
Meanwhile, Venezuela is threatening to seize oil fields and banish foreign oil companies from their rich fields over tax and contract issues.
And Russian oil producer Lukoil just joined India and the China National Petroleum Company in buying up foreign oil producing capacity, making a $2 billion bid for a Kazakhstan producer.
The day after the Kremlin bought yet another major Russian oil producer.
All in all, it doesn't smell like a top in energy to me.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2005 Jeff Matthews
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.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
My Second-to-Last Piece on Overstock.com: "The Best CIO in America"
Check out this whopper:
The IT staff's ability to make fixes now exceeds the number of bugs being detected, a sign that the system is nearing stability.
Information Week, Sept. 26, 2005
You might guess—and rightly so—that the "IT staff" referred to in the above quote is that of Overstock.com, seeing as how Overstock is one of the few internet retailers I am aware of that is still having problems getting a handle on this whole IT thing.
The problems arose as Overstock was preparing to go live with Oracle financial and order-management apps designed to reduce the load of the company's proprietary shopping engine.
Information Week, Sept. 26, 2005
And you might guess that I am prepared to make plenty of sarcastic references to Overstock's CEO Patrick Byrne and how he said the following in his second quarter 2004 shareholder letter:
Shawn Schwegman (VP, Technology) remains a star. This year Shawn has assembled a team of mature, experienced Database Administrators (DBA's). Our network has become quite stable… By the end of July, I think I will be able to say, "I could not be happier with the IT team nor the level of understanding between it and its internal customers."
And you might guess I am prepared to show how different a picture from that soft-hued-Monet-style-watercolor of Overstock's IT system is painted by this week's InformationWeek article:
Before the Oracle deployment, Overstock relied on its homegrown system to route orders to the appropriate distribution facility. But Schwegman says it wasn't good at detecting and correcting order and delivery errors, a problem that required a great deal of manual oversight and one the growing company could no longer live with.
Information Week, Sept. 26, 2005
And you might expect even more sarcastic comments about the August 3, 2005 earnings call (not quite two months ago), when Byrne said this to investors:
But this is the architecture and we're putting the finishing touches on it now, and it's cost us $35 million. But I think it has been brilliant, I think our CIO, Shawn Schwegman, has done - is the best CIO in America. I think he's done a fantastic job over two years taking us from really a rinky dink arrangement into this architecture. And what's beautiful about it is not only heavy duty, it's so scalable. It's scalable at each layer.
And you might expect me to question why, regarding the very same IT system described as "brilliant" and "scalable" and "beautiful" on August 3, we read in the September 26 InformationWeek that:
The IT staff's ability to make fixes now exceeds the number of bugs being detected, a sign that the system is nearing stability.
But I've had it with this one. There's nothing more to say.
Oh, I know I've said the same thing once before...and kept writing. But in my own defense, that was before Byrne kicked it up a notch, what with Sith Lords and Master Manipulators and all that Conspiracy nonsense, followed by the Friday-after-the-close oops-we-had-a-five-week-$30 million-inventory-upload-problem press release.
I think Schwegman's frank admissions, in contrast to Byrne's well documented public pronouncements on the "brilliant" IT strategy at Overstock.com, tell any observor everything that observor needs to know.
And whoever doesn't know it by now doesn't want to know, and never will...which is, of course, their right. After all, as Paul Simon wrote, "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."
So, you have just read my second to last piece on Overstock.com.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2005 Jeff Matthews
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.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
"The Rig Devastation is Quite Significant"
The best energy industry research firm I know is Petrie Parkman, run by oil research veteran Tom Petrie—a man I interviewed with 25 years ago when I was first looking for work on Wall Street, although he wouldn't remember me from the Sith Lord.
And from their morning research notes comes the following comment regarding Rowan Companies, a large operator of jack-up drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico:
Rowan has its own planes and were thus one of the first on the scene to witness the impact. They say that the rig devastation is quite significant and the pilots reported that in an area where they previously would see about 15 jack-ups there were none visible.
"None visible."
Of course, while Rowan was flying planes over the area where there were no rigs "visible," the stock market had already decided the impact of Hurricane Rita was not too severe, based largely, I gather, on the fact that Fox and CNN TV reporters in rain gear were able to walk around parking lots in Galveston shortly after the storm passed and could see no visible damage to the infrastructure miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.
By the end of yesterday, however, the oil markets had corrected the market's misinterpretation of the Talking Heads' somber yet relieved reports, and bid oil prices back up—while natural gas never even bothered to head-fake anybody, and just stayed strong.
Meanwhile, Rowan sees a more significant impact on their business besides the loss of a few of their own rigs, thanks to the apparent disappearance of so many other rigs in that region: drilling rates in the Gulf should "sky rocket," according to the Petrie Parkman note.
No inflation indeed!
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2005 Jeff Matthews
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.
Monday, September 26, 2005
"Dismissed for Violations"
Well now we know where Patrick got his affidavits.
The affidavits I'm referring to are the documents Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne brandished Joe McCarthy-like during his "Sith Lord" appearance CNBC, claiming proof of a conspiracy between short-sellers and a research firm called Gradient Analytics before reading selective bits from the so-called proof of the so-called conspiracy.
According to today's New York Post, of the three ex-employees at Gradient who apparently provided the affidavits, two were "dismissed for violations of Gradient's corporate policy."
Furthermore, the two worked in "customer-relationship management" at Gradient—which is not exactly the guts of a research shop, where conspiracies of the scale alleged by Byrne might be hatched.
And one of the two "customer-relationship" ex-employees was, according to the Post, fired for "forwarding Gradient's client list to his personal e-mail account," and has "filed and lost repeated appeals to claim unemployment benefits."
Not exactly an Andy Fastow-type eye-witness, if you ask me.
Now that I think of it, when Patrick read from his "Sith Lord" papers on CNBC (I don't know about you, but I kept waiting for him to say he had in his hand the names of 57 communists now working in the State Department), the phrase that jumped out was the qualifier "it appeared," which was placed before an allegation of conspiracy between the shorts, Gradient and reporter Herb Greenberg.
There was no first-person "and then I did this" eye-witness account from somebody at the epicenter of the so-called conspiracy—the kind of testimony that put Bernie Ebbers in jail. At least as far as I could tell. And today's article explains why.
Stay tuned, and read the Post.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2005 Jeff Matthews
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.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Weekend Edition: A Warbler Takes to Manhattan
Walking towards the skating rink at Rockefeller Center on this quiet Sunday morning, I noticed an unusual flurry of birds in the plantings along the water fountains lining the middle of the walkway connecting Fifth Avenue and John D. Rockefeller's masterpiece of urban renewal.
The birds were sparrows—the scavengers of the city—and nothing particularly nice to look at, except they were having such a great time feeding off the unusual tall grasses and birch trees planted by the pools of water.
Looking closer, I found the sparrows were busy picking seeds that had budded on the tips of the ripe grass, and they seemed extremely jazzed about the whole experience, most likely because it wasn't at all like the half-empty, ketchup-smeared McDonald's bag they usually pick apart for their lunch.
This time it was the real deal.
But there was an odd sound—a non-sparrow sound—and an odder flutter among the plants, and I noticed that one of the birds was not a plain old brownish speckled dust-grimed New York City sparrow, but a female Yellowthroat…tiny, delicate and olive-brown with a dull yellow throat.
She was doing the usual warbler thing—hopping around among the lower branches of the birch tree and the clumps of grass, chirping and acting generally like a 7 year old boy on a sugar high.
Yellowthroats come from as near as Florida and as far as Argentina in the spring to nest and hatch fledglings and hop around the lower branches of trees while they look for insects and seeds to eat...and by now they would have returned south. But this one was clearly enjoying the little ecosystem set up there right in the middle of Manhattan.
It was a nice, if temporary, affirmation that, try as the human race might, we haven't yet killed off every last vestige of nature.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
© 2005 Jeff Matthews
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.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Why We Have an Oil Crisis, Or; Wait 'Til Chuck Schumer Gets a Load of This
Chuck Schumer is, in my opinion, a blow-hard, a media hound and a showboat…pretty much your basic U.S. Senator.
But he does mix it up pretty good whenever he finds a cause that gets him publicity—which is more or less every morning—and here in San Francisco, at the BankAmerica conference, I came across a cause that's tailor-made for Chuck: it is timely, easy to grasp and begs for righteous indignation.
I call it "Why We Have an Oil Crisis."
The British Petroleum investor relations person presented yesterday at the BankAmerica conference, and during the breakout session she defended the fact that BP uses a $20 per barrel oil price to "test" its spending projects—i.e. to decide whether to go ahead with drilling for oil.
When reminded that oil currently sells for about three-times that figure, the BP investor relations person vigorously defended this $20 "test" price, noting that BP sees oil trading in a $20 to $35 a barrel range over the long haul.
Since it takes five to seven years to bring a big project on stream, "it is reckless to be investing (based) on (today's) oil price."
That is true enough, I suppose…but when asked if $20 a barrel was not a little on the low side of recklessness, she noted that at the $20 per barrel "test" price, BP has enough exploration and production projects "to grow production 5% per year."
And since world oil production is growing "at half" that rate—i.e. around 2.5%—then "we are doing more than our fair share."
Now, this is where the numbers get easy to follow, even for a U.S. Senator.
How much of its cash flow is BP actually spending to explore for and produce oil this year, you might wonder?
"$9.5 to $10 billion," according to the investor relations person.
And how much of its cash flow is BP "returning to shareholders" in the form of dividends and share repurchase, you might wonder?
$17 billion.
Therefore, British So-Called Petroleum is giving back to its shareholders 70% more of the cash flow it makes thanks to $65 oil prices than it is spending to find new sources of oil supply.
Perhaps they should change the company's name to "British Dividends & Share Repurchases."
Of course, as this blog has noted previously, BP is not alone when it comes to capital allocation weighted to shareholders at the expense of a resource we are rapidly exhausting: ExxonMobil likewise spends more on dividends and share repurchases than on wildcatting, as they used to call it.
Which is why—along with a ridiculously low gasoline tax that Chuck and his colleagues don't have the guts to increase—we have an oil crisis, Senator.
Go get 'em.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
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.
Good Thing There's No Inflation
I'll keep this one brief so that even bond traders can focus on it.
CS First Boston analysts today lowered earnings estimates for 20 companies, mostly due to lower margins owing to higher energy prices and higher related materials prices.
And the firm's analysts raised estimates for three companies, due entirely to higher margins owing to higher energy prices.
Good thing there's no inflation.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
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.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Is There A Disclosure Issue Here?
On Friday at 4:01 PM, Overstock.com issued the following press release, in bold italics, with commentary from the author of this blog.
Overstock.com Overstocked With Bargains
Friday September 16, 4:01 pm ET
Interesting timing—4:01 Eastern Standard Time on the Friday of September options expiration. Did the facts really not come to light sooner than the market close at 4:00 PM on option expiration day?
Is there a disclosure here?
SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Popular online retailer Overstock.com® (Nasdaq: OSTK - News) today announced a mass upload of new inventory for sale on its website.
Quite a bland way to begin a press release that announces (later in the text) "sharply" slowed sales, "inefficiencies" and "downward pressure on gross margins."
Is there a disclosure issue here?
The $30 million (retail value) upload of jewelry, apparel, home, electronic and other products far exceeds any single upload in Overstock.com's corporate history (by a large multiple). As always, these products will be priced to move and will sell out on a first-come first-serve basis.
Inventory glitches are, generally speaking, not a good thing for a retailer.
Indeed, just the day before this release, Tad Martin (Overstock's own SVP of Merchandising) noted on a conference call with investors that "Inventory is not like wine—it does not get better with age."
Martin made no reference to the $30 million "mass upload" of inventory that would be announced on September 16th, the very next day.
Is there a disclosure issue here?
As previously announced, Overstock.com is completing a massive upgrade to its IT infrastructure. In working through the implementation of these new systems, the company has not loaded new products from its warehouse and fulfillment partners onto the website for nearly five weeks, several weeks longer than the company had anticipated.
On conference calls and in shareholder letters, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has given the impression—at least to Wall Street's Finest, none of whom raised any red flags—that the IT upgrade was largely complete.
But don't take my word for it. This is the way Byrne describes the situation to shareholders in his August 3rd letter to investors:
I believe we have found a healthy balance among the three (growth, infrastructure, and new programs), and am particularly glad that we have super-sized our systems over the last three quarters, as it gives them a quarter to harden before the next holiday wave hits.
No word about the problems that stopped five weeks worth of inventory from being "uploaded."
Is there a disclosure issue here?
"This upgrade was the equivalent of a heart, lung and kidney transplant," said Patrick Byrne, president of Overstock.com. "The replacement of the core technology infrastructure, which I have discussed at length in my quarterly letters, prevented us from uploading new items to the website for the past five weeks."
Patrick did indeed discuss "at length" the infrastructure replacement, especially in the second quarter letter. Here's a sample:
Oracle 10g -- Over the course of May and June, all components with the exception of the B2C shopping site itself rolled from Oracle 9i to 10g running on our new IBM P5's AIX. We expect to do this last piece in August (and will be down for 30-120 minutes some night as we do it).
This transition has been remarkably smooth.
From a "remarkably smooth" transition on August 3rd to a five week inventory "uploading" disruption disclosed on September 16th.
Is there a disclosure issue here?
However, while the operation was going on, our buyers, copywriters and warehouse staff continued to make purchases, prepare postings and stock our warehouse -- which is now stuffed to the gills. This presents our customers with a huge opportunity to find great selection and bargains, but when they're gone they're gone."
Disregarding, for the moment, the question of why "copywriters" and "warehouse staff" are making inventory purchases, the day before this press release—September 15th—Overstock's Tad Martin had the following conversation with Stanford Group analyst Rebecca Jones Kujawa on her conference call with clients:
Rebecca: "What's going on with the holiday season?"
Tad Martin: "We're ready for the holidays. We made a decision earlier this year that with the amount of cash we had in the bank and the direction we were heading we'd rather be a little over-inventoried going into the Christmas season than under-inventoried, which all it means is we're building inventory a little ahead of where we had the previous year. And what that allows us to do is to find some greater marketing opportunities—if the opportunity of a lifetime came in marketing, we're not gonna be inventory constrained."
Rebecca: "Is that inventory already up on the web site or are you kind of holding that back…"
Tad Martin: "No, no, no. As much as possible we try and flow our inventories through to the web site at the time [emphasis added]. There's no reason to hold inventory in your warehouse. Inventory is not like wine—it does not get better with age."
From "we're building inventory a little ahead of where we had the previous year" and "there's no reason to hold inventory in your warehouse" on September 15th to "our warehouse…is now stuffed to he gills" on September 16th.
From "we try and flow our inventories through to the web site at the time" on September 15th to "the replacement...prevented us from uploading new items to the website for the past five weeks" on September 16th.
Are there disclosure issues here?
"These investments in technology, while incredibly expensive, are providing a foundation for the next five years, and will, I believe, generate huge dividends in customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, by preventing the posting of fresh inventory since early August, this transplant did shock our system."
Let's consider the public appearances Patrick Byrne made, beginning in "early August" when, according to Byrne, the "transplant" began to "shock" the Overstock inventory system:
On August 3rd, Patrick Byrne holds an 85 minute earnings conference call with investors. He says "we should be able to do somewhere around 1.5 billion or more [sales] next year."
On August 12th, Patrick Byrne holds a one hour "Sith Lord" conspiracy conference call with investors. He does not discuss revenue or earnings, but does mention Al Qaeda, cocaine, and Wayne and Garth.
On August 12th, Patrick Byrne appears for 15 minutes on CNBC discussing his "naked short-selling" conspiracy theory. In response to a question about Overstock's profitability, he says "…what you're gonna see us do is basically double on the top line…"
On August 16th, Patrick Byrne appears for 18 minutes on CNBC to debate his "Sith Lord" conspiracy theory and says "Somehow, in the face of all this poor performance we've grown from $2 million to basically a billion [in sales] this year…"
According to Friday's press release, however, Overstock's sales slowed "sharply" as a result
of the failure to "upload" inventory starting in "early August."
Yet even on August 16th Byrne was telling CNBC viewers Overstock was growing to "basically a billion" in sales in 2005.
Is there a disclosure issue here?
"Investors should note that our restricted ability to post fresh inventory slowed sales sharply, a caesura from which we are now rebounding. In addition, the upgrade also caused inefficiencies that, when combined with our extended dollar shipping promotion, has put downward pressure on gross margins this quarter. However, my goal of growing 60% to 100% for the year at break even GAAP, +/- 1%, stands."
Fancy Latin words aside, the fact that "the upgrade also caused inefficiencies" had not, to my knowledge, been previously disclosed—either on the August 3rd call, the August 12th call, the August 12th CNBC appearance, or the August 16th CNBC appearance.
Not even on Tad Martin's September 15th conference call.
One more time: is there a disclosure issue here?
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
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.
Friday, September 16, 2005
It's Always Something at Overstocked.com
Well, Patrick has done it again.
With a just-after-the-Friday-close press release headlined "Overstock.com Overstocked With Bargains," CEO Patrick Byrne has come up with another very amusing spin on his company's latest change in fortune, which includes "sharply" slowed sales and "downward pressure on gross margins."
Once again, the CEO who bills himself as "one of the most transparent CEOs" in the world has painted a beautiful face on one dog of an announcement, blaming the whole thing on an IT infrastructure "transplant."
And keeping in style, Patrick uses an elegant, erudite word ("caesura") to suggest his company's latest SNAFU is merely a pause that refreshes...and that everything now is, as they say, up-and-to-the-right.
(Unfortunately, "caesura" is not the correct word, for it implies a pause in a conversation or a break in a line of poetry...and not even Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" would begin to describe Overstock's "caesura.")
Poor word-selection aside, this latest of missives from Overstock.com's "Humble Servant" merely extends the long line of excuses (recall, and I am not making this up, that he mentioned the death of Pope John Paul II after last spring's "caesura") that never admit to an actual problem for which Overstock.com management might bear responsibility.
It's always something, isn't it?
We'll take a closer look at the whole thing on Monday.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
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.
The Evil Empire Stirs
We face significant competition from Microsoft… Microsoft recently introduced a new search engine and has announced plans to develop features that make web search a more integrated part of its Windows operating system or other desktop software products. We expect that Microsoft will increasingly use its financial and engineering resources to compete with us.
In addition, advertising and other fees generated from one Google Network member, America Online, Inc…accounted for approximately 12% and 11% of our revenues in 2004 and in the six months ended June 30, 2005…—Google prospectus, 9/9/05.
Demonstrating its growing concern about Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. has entered talks with Time Warner Inc. about taking a substantial stake in the media giant's America Online unit, said people familiar with the matter.
The conversations have centered on whether AOL would switch to using Microsoft's search engine instead of Google's, these people said, as well as other areas of potential cooperation. AOL and Google shared about $380 million in revenue last year derived from displaying ads on AOL's search results.—Wall Street Journal, 9/16/05.
I apologize up front to those of you who, based on the title of this piece, expected commentary about Sith Lords and Master Puppeteers and other fantasies of a certain CEO who sees conspiracies to ruin his share price where others merely see what they believe to be a lousy business model and poor corporate governance.
The "Evil Empire" referred to in the title is, of course, Microsoft, whose own CEO—the brilliant and irascible and monopoly-spoiled Bill Gates—has decided to target Google after letting two Stanford grads undermine his hold on the hearts and minds of millions of Windows users around the world, and, ultimately, threaten that very monopoly by making the software underlying the search platform irrelevant to the user.
And now we see one thrust of Bill's attack plan: pick up in a single, quick move the biggest piece of Google's business—that portion of its revenues generated by AOL users who do Google searches from the AOL web site.
The timing couldn't be better.
Google just priced its secondary offering of 4-plus million shares at $295 a share, after management road shows that included meetings with some of the biggest funds on the planet and a luncheon at the top of the St. Regis in New York—the main feature of which was co-founder Sergey Brin, young and scary-smart, looking for all the world like a high school sophomore dressed for his first prom in a new and very uncomfortable suit and tie.
For the record, as readers have gleaned, I own shares of Google, because I think the earnings power of the business is much higher than Wall Street thinks. But I could very well be wrong and change my mind in a minute, and I don't recommend anyone go near the stock.
Why point out a very large potential short-term negative to Google—i.e. the Evil Empire's courtship of a damaged AOL and the one trump card in its otherwise weak hand?
Well, because it's right there on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, and because we all knew this day was coming.
In previous posts, I've argued that "you can't under-price free"—meaning that Microsoft's disadvantage in the search wars is that users don't pay for search, and, therefore, Microsoft couldn't undercut Google the way it undercut Borland and Lotus and WordPerfect and Novell and all the dozens of other software companies it destroyed by selling under-priced software subsidized by its desktop operating system monopoly.
But, here, at least, is an example of where Microsoft might be able to simply buy outright more than one-tenth of Google's current search revenues by cutting a deal at the source—the AOL web site.
I do not know details of the AOL/Google contract, but today's WSJ reports that "people close to AOL say the company has the option to walk away."
If I was Bill Gates and had $40 billion of cash in the bank, my "negotiation" with Dick Parsons of Time-Warner (parent company of AOL) would go something like this:
Gates: "We want to buy an equity stake in AOL in return for AOL walking away from Google and giving that business to MSN."
Parsons: "Okay. We're willing to sell—"
Gates: "Done."
Parsons: "I haven't told you what we're willing to sell to you, or the price."
Gates: "Sorry. Hurry up."
Parsons: "We're willing to sell 49% of AOL for twenty—"
Gates: "Done."
Parsons: "I haven't told you the whole price."
Gates: "Sorry. Hurry up."
Parsons: "For twenty-five—"
Gates: "Done."
Parsons: "I'm not finished. For twenty-five HUNDRED billion—"
Gates: "Here's the check—fill in the blanks."
But that's just me. However this supposed deal works out, if at all, one thing is certain: Darth Vader is looking for blood.
I'm rooting for Luke.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
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.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
--New York Post, September 15, 2005
I'm going to miss those New York Post and Daily News headline writers.
You see, the August numbers are in, and the newspaper industry is looking increasingly like the "dead-tree press" as it was dismissively dubbed by the Yahoos of the world during the Internet Bubble days.
Total ad revenue among the big three—Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Tribune—ranged from up 1.2% to down 0.6%...during a period of strong economic growth and record consumer spending.
In the old days—i.e. the last economic cycle—ad revenues would have been up 5% or more in this environment.
Most ominous was the collapse in so-called "national" advertising—those ridiculous Microsoft ads, for example, showing office-workers wearing dinosaur heads and muttering about Dilbert-type office-worker concerns such as getting their Power Point slides to the Big Meeting on time—which tanked 5.5% at Tribune and 8.2% at Gannett.
Advertising aside, the other key to a newspaper's health—circulation—continued its unhealthy trend, from barely flat, to down a couple percent, depending on the paper…about in line with the rate at which readers are dying off.
(Tribune's circulation revenues were down 8.6%, demonstrating that you can both cut price and lose volume at the same time.)
I do not mean to dance on anybody's grave. If anything, I root for the newspaper industry because, a) I grew up reading the papers (and remember the Daily News headline, FORD TO NY: DROP DEAD, upon which the title to this piece is based), and b) I have a longstanding investment in one of the smaller, better run newspaper chains.
The paradox is that poor revenue trends aside, the newspaper business is still blessed with huge cash flow margins and low capital needs.
At the end of the day I suspect most of the chains—especially those that are controlled by families such as the New York Times and Dow Jones—will go private…either slowly via share repurchases as management disinvests in the business, or all at once as the families see more value in their heritage than Wall Street's Finest are willing to give them.
In the meantime, we still need a healthy newspaper industry, if for no other reasons than to keep the headline writers at the New York Post and the Daily News busy.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
P.S. To "FrmrOSTKGrunt": shoot me an email at the address posted above and we can talk off-line.
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.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
"Scouring the Globe to Find Raw Materials…"
Hands down the most interesting piece of research I've come across this morning is a Bear Stearns comment that management of Proctor & Gamble "is scouring the globe to find raw materials" in the wake of rising energy prices and the disruptive impact of Hurricane Katrina.
(While the Bear analyst is lowering P&G estimates all of a penny per share owing to said cost pressures, keep in mind this is a company with 2.5 billion shares outstanding.)
According to the report, P&G management—which I think anybody on Wall Street would rank up there with the best in the world—"has been working for quite a while at insuring an ability to use a variety of input costs [sic]. Nonetheless, we think that the recent announcements by chemical companies that they could be declaring force majeure on key inputs could limit supply and raise costs."
Somebody ought to tell the bond market what one of the world's biggest, and best, companies is seeing out in the real world.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
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.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Anybody Remember the Hurricane of '38?
But while rebuilding hurricane-ravaged regions will eventually mean more orders, it's also bringing more immediate supply glitches and rising prices, particularly for petroleum-based raw materials.
Certain manufacturers are building inventory of steel, plastic resins and cardboard boxes and such stockpiling could eventually lead to even higher prices in the near term. The result is an uneven picture, as certain manufacturers gear up to produce more, while also facing negative cost and supply-related fallout from the storm.
—Wall Street Journal, 9/12/05
The bond market's immediate reaction to Hurricane Katrina was a big sigh of relief.
Not, however, because the human catastrophe of lives lost and homes destroyed might be less than feared—no, that's not what the bond market worries about.
The big sigh of relief came because the only thing the bond market worries about, economic growth, suddenly looked imperiled by the massive structural damage to the country's infrastructure.
Bonds soared on the short and long end as the bond market decided that by destroying great parts of the Gulf Coast, Katrina would, therefore, cause the Federal Reserve to ease up on its previously relentless program of 25-basis-points-a-meeting-until-it-hurts.
But the bond guys weren't reading their history.
The Hurriance of '38 decimated Long Island and hit a large part of New England with 121 mile an hour steady winds (gusts up to 180 MPH), killed 700 and left 60,000 homeless.
And the rebuilding effort from that hurricane helped start bringing New England out of the worst of the Great Depression (of course, when World War II came along, that recovery turned into a boom).
Katrina was bigger, and the rebuilding efforts will be enormous—already the Federal Budget Deficit is being revised upwards by one-third thanks to Katrina, and companies ranging from Masco to Massey Coal have discussed the highly inflationary impact of Katrina on their own operations.
If I were a bond guy, I'd read today's Wall Street Journal very carefully before paying up for sub-4% 2 year notes.
And also dust off some history books.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
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.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Eddie to the Rescue
A person familiar with Mr. Lampert's thinking, who declined to be named because Sears keeps tight control of all disclosures about its business, said the financier believes there is a shortage of talented merchants in the industry. "This is a work in progress," the person said. "It's going to be a bumpy ride." But he noted that Kmart's sales have pulled out of a nosedive under Mr. Lampert and that both chains are also forsaking mere sales growth through discounting.—New York Times
It's hard to choose where to begin here.
Let's start with the obvious: Eddie Lampert is one of the all-time great hedge fund managers—in fact, as we have observed in prior discussions of Sears, one of the greatest investors of all time.
Then there's the other obvious fact: Eddie Lampert has no apparent merchandising skills whatsoever.
And if you want to argue with me about that—well, I suggest you first get yourself to a "Sears Essentials" store and see for yourself how Eddie's vision of combining the best of Sears' merchandising with the best of the old K-Mart real estate locations is working out.
I've done it, and I can tell you that it's about as effective as, say, combining US Trust and Charles Schwab.
For starters, the stores all carry bilingual signage—English and Spanish—in one of those corporate money-saving moves that looks good on paper but looks really dumb in a store in rural Putnam Connecticut, with an Hispanic population of zero.
For another, the Lands' End merchandise is mixed in with all the other Sears apparel brands, further destroying whatever equity value the Lands' End brand had after the last few years of intensive destruction by the old-line Sears "merchants."
The list could go on—but suffice it to say that while the store looked clean, thanks to a fresh paint job; and cheery, thanks to new light-bulbs…it uses the same old K-Mart fixtures and the same old K-Mart layout and (I hate to say it because they are the sympton, not the problem) the same old K-Mart employees.
For comparison purposes, the TJ Maxx store right next door not only looked like a real store run by real merchants, but with only half the square footage of the "Sears Essentials" store it was doing more business.
Sears Holdings needs a lot of things—great merchants among them.
And there are plenty of great merchants around—but they work at Abercrombie or Penney or Nordstrom or Williams-Sonoma or Quiksilver…not at hedge funds.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
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.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Too Expensive…at One-Third the Cost of Water?
"There are going to be questions about what major oil companies are doing with all the resources they're accumulating…they can't escape that."—U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, WSJ
Now the witch-hunt begins.
With gasoline prices rising (a minimum of 50c a gallon in my part of the country) in the seven days since Hurricane Katrina disrupted a tenth of the domestic refining capacity and much of the energy transportation infrastructure, politicians whose previous "fact-finding" missions to that hurricane-prone region of the country had no doubt been limited to touring the newest casino, are doing what they do best: they're blaming somebody else.
The above-quoted Senator Domenici's official web site, for the record, has a handy "On The Issues" segment devoted to four topics: Health Care, National Defense, Taxes/Economic Growth, and Water.
Energy—specifically why energy policy in this country has promoted truck traffic at the expense of railroad traffic and protected car companies from including SUVs in automobile mileage standards—is nowhere to be found in Senator Domenici's Fab Four topics.
But now that gasoline prices are up in his district—a natural occurrence when 10% of refining capacity gets shut down for a week—Senator Domenici is all over this one.
As will be, I'm sure, my own Senior Senator, Chris Dodd—whose Kennedyesque Big Hair looks really terrific on TV when he starts working up his righteous indignation at whatever it is he wants to get on TV for.
Meanwhile, here at the local Starbucks they sell "Ethos" brand bottled water for $1.85 a bottle.
The bottle contains 1.5 pints of water from the Tomhicken Mountain Springs—which happens to be in Pennsylvania, near Pottsville. Cost: $1.23 a pint.
There are 8 pints in a gallon.
So the Starbucks customer is paying about $9.85 a gallon…for water that comes from a self-replenishing spring, gets put into bottles and shipped to the store as is.
Yet that same Starbucks customer is going to complain bitterly to Senators Dodd and Domenici that it now costs $3.25 for a gallon of gasoline that has been shipped via crude oil tanker from depleting oil fields in Saudi Arabia across 3,000 miles of ocean to an offshore tanker port, pumped through pipes to a refinery in the Gulf Coast, refined via an energy-intensive distillation process into a variety of fuels—jet fuel, diesel fuel, kerosene and even asphalt, not to mention three types of gasoline—and then shipped by pipeline to distribution terminals from whence it has been loaded into tank trucks and hauled up an Interstate Highway to a gas station for the Starbucks customer who is complaining about the High Cost of Gasoline to Senators Dodd and Domenici…
…and doesn't think twice about paying $9.85 for a gallon of water.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
Monday, September 05, 2005
Riding the Shark
The scene is a coffee shop in coastal Rhode Island, not too far from the University of Rhode Island.
The characters are two men: one, a pot-bellied, middle-aged, academic-looking man with reading glasses perched atop his head and a kind of retro, John Quincy Adams hair style—complete with mutton chop sideburns; the other is a young man in shorts, t-shirt and baseball cap, who uses the word "Dude" incessantly.
The actual unedited dialogue:
John Quincy: You watch Cramer?
Dude: No.
John Quincy: He's on at night, on television. Stock market show.
Dude: What's he saying?
John Quincy: Genentech. He thinks Genentech is for everyone.
Dude: Dude, you believe it?
John Quincy: Sure. Cramer was a hedge fund manager…
Dude: Hunh.
John Quincy: That's like riding on top of a shark and surviving. He knows how they do it.
Dude (Nodding): Dude.
John Quincy: He's very funny. He's a nut. He's VERY good.
Understanding fully that this post may become Exhibit A in whatever new Conspiracy Theory is being constructed by Patrick Byrne to attract attention away from his company's poor financial performance, that last line sums up "Jim Cramer's Mad Money" precisely, for me.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
Friday, September 02, 2005
No Sarcasm and No Conspiracies…Just Some Help Where It's Needed
The first time I went to a fundraiser for the United Jewish Appeal, my WASP sensibilities were startled by the blunt, straightforward way the members made their pledges.
Instead of writing a figure down on a pledge-card in the quiet of their den, men stood right up at their dinner table in a ballroom filled with their peers and said, "I'm so-and-so and I'm pledging [insert large dollar figure here]."
The bigger the large-dollar-figure pledged, the bigger the applause from the crowd—which, in and of itself triggered ever-larger large-dollar-figures for the UJA coffers. I was both shocked and awed—it was the most effective way of raising money I'd ever seen, and I'd been involved in fundraising for my own church for years.
I looked at bringing that style to the fund-raising efforts of my church, which does things in the normal WASPY privacy-of-your-own-home way, but it never flew.
So I'm going to try it here.
Despite accusations by Business Week that this blog is "sarcastic" and "rambling," and accusations by at least one apparently hallucination-prone CEO that this blog is much worse, today we have no sarcasm and no conspiracies to offer—just an effort to accomplish something more useful than Hamlet's "Words, words, words."
Last night, while looking up a song at Apple's iTunes Music Store, the site offered the ability to donate to the Red Cross relief efforts on the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
I gave $200 and I admit I gave it feeling guilty that I had not already done something. Then I read up on the relief efforts in general and the Red Cross in particular, as well as its efficiency rating at http://www.charitynavigator.org.
My own experience with certain charities and non-profits that my church has helped fund over the years is that some do spectacular good with very little money, and some do very little good with spectacular amounts of money. (Jim Rogers' two "Investment Biker" books covering his round-the-world travels contain hair-raising insights on "relief effort" scams that make church groups here in America feel good yet do nothing for the third-world refugees they intend to aid.)
But the American Red Cross does good work—and millions of Americans urgently need that help right now.
So, for today at least, you'll read no sarcasm here, no rambling, and nothing about the housing market or the Energy Crisis of 2005.
If you have time to read this blog, then you have time to go the Red Cross web site at http://www.redcross.org/ and click on the "Donate Now" button. It took me maybe two minutes to make another, more substantial, donation just before starting this piece.
An hour ago, that site had generated $27,684,625 through 191,682 individual donors. Moments ago the figures were $28,079,870 and 194,198, which work out to an average of $157 for each of the 2,516 donations that were made in the 45 minutes it took me to write this.
Let's see if the good readers of this blog can help raise that average donation, right here and now.
And, like the stand-up guys at a UJA fund-raiser, let us know when you've done it.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up


text:
Clemens was named to the All-Tournament Team after leading the Crimson past Juniata (Ben Barnhart).
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Harvard men's volleyball team turned in one of its best offensive performances on the young season to defeat Juniata Saturday afternoon at the Volleyball Hall of Fame Morgan Classic, 3-1. The Crimson earned the victory by set scores of 25-16, 22-25, 25-17 and 25-13.
Branden Clemens led the attack with a career-high 19 kills and a .630 hitting percentage. The freshman committed just two errors on 27 attempts and was named to the All-Tournament Team.
Nick Madden scored a match-high 20 kills to go along with a .351 hitting percentage while Michael Owen registered 12 kills and a .346 hitting percentage. Harvard (4-2, 1-1 EIVA) combined for a team hitting percentage of .303 thanks to 48 assists from Rob Lothman.
The Crimson defense was also on display as Harvard limited Juniata (4-2) to a .075 hitting percentage. Chris Gibbons picked up a season-best 13 digs in the victory with Madden and Owen each chipping in nine.
Harvard jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set but found itself trailing, 10-9, following a 5-1 Juniata run. The Crimson responded quickly to go back on top, 18-12, with a 9-2 spurt of its own and cruised down the stretch for the 25-16 run.
The second set went to Juniata, 25-22, and the teams traded points early in the third. With the score tied at 13, Harvard used a 3-0 to open up a 16-13 margin and then outscored the Eagles 9-3 for the win, 25-17.
The Crimson took control of the fourth set early on, opening a 14-7 lead thanks to a 5-1 stretch. Harvard never looked back and rolled to match point, 25-13.
The Crimson will make its home debut next week as it hosts Rivier on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Malkin Athletic Center.