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Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Horse Already Out Of The Barn
Among other things, "CAO valued its crude-oil options incorrectly, misunderstood the risks it was taking, ignored its own internal controls and failed to report accurately its positions to shareholders," according to today's Wall Street Journal.
Nice to know, now that the horse is already out of the barn and across the North 40.
The CAO story looks remarkably similar to the Enron story, as detailed in the excellent new book "Conspiracy of Fools," by Kurt Eichenwald, including the inability of the auditors to understand what was going on beneath their noses.
Perhaps the funniest—and saddest—story in the Enron saga is when the company paid double the nearest bid for a Brazilian pipeline company and then failed to hedge the currency risk.
The Brazilian episode—one of many eye-popping examples of hubris, greed, incompetence and corporate chest-thumping—reads like a sort of billion dollar, high stakes version of two guys leaving a restaurant arguing over whose responsibility it was to leave a tip.
Having known at a least one of the players in the Enron saga fairly well, the Eichenwald book strikes me as the most accurate portrayal thus far of the players and their role in the Enron debacle. I recommend it not only as a good general read, but more importantly as required reading to anybody planning to work on Wall Street, to manage money, or simply to buy a stock.
We'll have to wait a few years for the full China Aviation Oil story to emerge, but I imagine it's as interesting as Enron.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
More Exciting Than a Mutual Fund...
But don't take my word for it--read carefully the excellent article at the following link:
The stories are hair-raising to anyone with a memory longer than three years; but more importantly, they put flesh and bones on a story whose skeleton has been constructed by dry data from the National Association of Realtors and Fannie Mae.
And they remind you why cycles happen, over and over, no matter what.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
Monday, March 28, 2005
Bill's Hideaway
A breathless Wall Street Journal article today discloses that Microsoft founder Bill Gates spends two weeks a year completely alone in a cottage, thinking Big Thoughts about the Future of Technology.
Bill even has a name for it: "Think Week."
According to the article, out of twenty years worth of these "Think Weeks" have come such brilliant Microsoft innovations as "plans to create Microsoft's Tablet PC, build more-secure software and start an online videogame business," and Bill's decision that the internet was a Big Thought and therefore Microsoft ought to crush Netscape while the crushing was good.
Careful readers will grasp immediately that, aside from copying what Netscape had already done and distributing it for "free," none of the so-called "plans" ever came to much—not the Tablet PC, and not, yet, the online videogame business.
And certainly not a "more-secure" software.
Still, we read with high drama how Mr. Gates starts each Think Week with a helicopter or seaplane visit to a "two-story clapboard cottage on a quiet waterfront," from which "all outside visitors" are barred—even family. Only a caretaker "who slips him two simple meals a day" is allowed near.
Then, Mr. Gates reads papers. You know—the kind of white papers that make your eyes roll up into your head? Papers that companies like IBM and Digital Equipment and Lotus Development and Storage Technology used to lovingly reprint and mass-mail, and quote during Keynote Addresses while techno-geeks were stuffing their goody bags with free coffee mugs and pens and t-shirts, and the hung-over salesmen slept soundly in their chairs?
Right, those kinds of papers.
Well, according to the Journal, Bill reads those kinds of papers eighteen hours at a stretch, when he's going strong, and his "record" is 112 papers in one Think Week. Sometimes he gets "goofy" he tells the reporter, and begins "reading aloud words." After a week of thinking Big Thoughts he will have sent emails to "hundreds of people and also have written a Think Week summary for executives."
And out of twenty years of doing all of this two times a year, he has come up with "a more-secure software" and the Tablet PC. Oh, yeah—and copying Netscape and driving them out of the market. Perhaps "Bob" and ".Net" and "MSNBC," not to mention the mysterious "insert" key on your keyboard, also came out of this fecund swamp of dried pulp and ink.
But, hey, Bill set a "record" by reading 112 papers in one week.
Perhaps Mr. Gates should—rather than closeting himself in a cabin reading Microsoft papers—have been spending a few days at a Starbucks near a college campus, watching what future customers were doing on their computers, their iPods and their cell phones.
He might have figured out a few more things than how to copy Netscape, incorporate it into his operating system monopoly, and take over the internet access business.
He might have figured out that not every electronic device and every piece of software ought to be stuffed with a clunky, spam-prone Microsoft Monopoly Operating System that does six million things, all poorly, and only twelve of which customers actually use.
Heck, he might have figured out the iPod and iTunes and the Blackberry and Google and Mozilla and all kinds of cool things none of his executives bothered to write up for him to take to a cabin on a lake and read about them, eighteen hours at a stretch.
And he might then have developed a business model that would endure for another twenty five years, instead of an irrelevant monopoly that the world is passing by, as quickly as it can.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Weekend Update: $3 Million Worth Of Steroids
The home run is the most singularly dynamic achievement in all of North American sport.
Thus begins the web site introduction to The McFarlane Collection of home run balls.
A batter uses discipline, knowledge, speed and power to launch a ball into the seats and beyond, thrilling a home crowd and driving opposing fans to their knees.
Babe Ruth did it consistently, never hitting fewer than 40 in ten full seasons played from 1920 to 1932. He retired with a career slugging average of .690.
In 1961 Roger Maris' 61st homer conquered Babe Ruth's all-time record, but that mark has been surpassed three times in recent years.
Maris, of course, was a fluke. A decent home run hitter caught up in a home run race with Mickey Mantle, Maris had a career year in 1961 and went downhill from there.
Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds have eclipsed the former record with homers number 66, 70, and 73.
We now know, of course, how they did it. In addition to "discipline, knowledge, speed and power," they have been found to have used anabolic steroids. Each virtually doubled his annual home run production to break the record—Bonds went from 34 to 73 in two years. Sosa went from 36 to 66 in one year. McGwire went from 39 to 70 in three years.
All three saw a drastic fall-off in home runs shortly after their peaks. And none of them—even Bonds, with his jacked-up 73 homer year included, approached Ruth's career slugging average.
The baseballs they [Bonds, McGwire, Sosa] hit to earn a piece of baseball immortality all rest in the possession of Todd McFarlane.
Todd McFarlane is a cartoon creator who paid through the nose ($3 million—the most ever paid for a sports artifact) for Mark McGwire's 70th home run baseball. He is a sports nut who built a collection of steroid-juiced home run balls, including, according to "The McFarlane Collection" web site, "six of the ten highest priced baseballs ever purchased."
Whatever the actual current market is for those six steroid-inflated baseballs, it is in my view likely to be far below cost.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
Friday, March 25, 2005
The New New Old Thing
After describing the eerie parallels between today's Real Estate mania and yesterday's Internet Bubble (for example, houses being bought and re-sold on the same day), the article quotes the scariest sentiment of all, from the president of a Miami real estate outfit predicting boomer demand and cheap foreign dollars will overwhelm the shrinking supply of land to create a nirvana for real estate investors:
"South Florida is working off of a totally new economic model than any of us have ever experienced in the past."
The man was obviously not around in 1926, when Florida had the first of many real estate busts, following a boom based on the very same conditions underlying today's bubble: cheap money and a get-rich-quick certitude that a Greater Fool exists out there for any property you can grab.
Thus the "New New" Thing—real estate speculation—is actually a New New Old Thing.
And it's not just in Manhattan and Miami that people are snapping up properties almost as quickly as the Fed raises interest rates: in February, new home sales around the country had their biggest monthly increase—9%—in four years.
Buyers ought to consider one thing before plunking down those deposits: the cost of money. While long bonds yields have not risen very much in the last year, 2 year treasury yields have spiked from a bit above 1% to nearly 4%.
And that takes a good chunk of the "Greater Fool" buying power out of the market.
Everyone seems to be debating the question of whether we are or aren't yet in a "Housing Bubble." But we're there already.
The real question is, how do we get out?
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Overstocked and Underauctioned, Part Three
The Overstock.com CEO has built a tiny money-losing internet-based surplus reseller into a large internet-based surplus reseller that made money in Q4 of 2004. Wall Street's hopes for sustained profitability have been damaged in recent weeks, however, by costs associated with the company's $1 March shipping promotion and a sudden step-up in marketing that caught most of the analysts by surprise.
That it was caught by surprise is not entirely the analyst community's fault. Byrne ended his Q4 conference call in January—a few weeks before the $1 shipping promotion appeared—by proclaiming the company had "passed through the tipping point." "People's expectations for this year are becoming more confident," Byrne noted approvingly in his concluding remarks, saying "we can crush" those expectations. "We are really on a roll here," he said.
In fairness, the sudden downshift from profits back to losses appears to be a part of Byrne's flexibility in managing Overstock.com. He has, in the past, taken what he calls "Patrick Fliers," in the form of new ventures and experiments with the basic model of selling overstocked, surplus merchandise. A laudable trait, for the history of business in America is that companies failing to innovate end up being overtaken—particularly in the fast-paced world of the internet.
Such "Patrick Fliers" include the "sprinkling" of $2 million in bonuses "around the company," in the last quarter of 2004; acquiring online distribution rights to a movie that "answered" Fahrenheit 911, on which the company lost $700,000 in Q4; and $2 million to start an Overstock.com auction site which Bryne, on his conference call, compared repeatedly to eBay.
Indeed, Byrne claimed the new auction site was already "getting better results than they do on eBay" in certain, unidentified areas. He based this on "feedback" from "the eBay power selling community."
Based on the data at hand, however, it appears to me the Overstock.com auction site is a "Patrick Flier" not achieving liftoff.
"Part Two" of this series detailed the paltry bidding in various Overstock auction categories. Let's now examine the travel business on Overstock.com, which Bryne described as demonstrating such improvement that "Somebody showed up here from Latin America… [saying] it's just that we want to liquidate all of our airline tickets through your site. I mean a well-known Latin American airline."
Indeed, he claimed "we actually had to hire people to answer the phone for the hundreds of contacts we are getting from people in the travel industry, offering us unique deals."
Unfortunately, those "hundreds of contacts" have yielded, at this moment, all of 278 items for auction in the "Travel" section of Overstock.com Auctions. And of those 278 items, 44 are listed under "Airline." And just 4 of those 44 have more than 1 bid.
Furthermore, I cannot identify the "well-known Latin American airline" that wants to "liquidate all our airline tickets" through this site, unless that airline happens to offer hokey-looking deals using the handles "4salebyowner" and "sinbad42" and "homeauctionbiz" and "1goodfind" and "freeitemsandmore" and "gailsgoodies."
Of all the "hundreds of contacts" that beseiged the Overstock phone lines offering "unique deals" there are six entities listing 44 airline deals, of which only 4 attracted more than a single bid. That's it.
But don't take my word: check it out yourself. And if you happen see that well-known Latin American airline liquidating all its tickets somewhere on the site I haven't found, let me know. The snow is falling yet again here in New England, and a nice, cheap ticket south of the border might be just the thing.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Of Barbie Dolls, Swiffer Dusters and Alan Greenspan
Gee, who'd have thought the tripling in oil prices would have such an impact? Alan Greenspan certainly didn't--I suppose his infinite faith in the power of productivity prevented him from seeing beyond the fake "ex-food and energy" inflation calculation both the Fed and Wall Street like to use.
Today's CPI won't help either--whatever way you look at the data--and the bond market finally gets it: the 2 year yield has spiked to 3.87% this morning...a far cry from the "1" handle on the 2 year not so very long ago.
Perhaps its distance from Wall Street and Washington is what allowed a certain very smart commercial real estate landlord, the privately held Shorenstein Company, to see through the fake CPI data of yore and be a seller of San Francisco real estate for the last year and a half.
Quoting the New York Times: "Prices are staggeringly high relative to the returns and the underlying fundamentals," said Douglas W. Shorenstein, the chief executive of his family business, in an interview in his 49th-floor corner office at the Bank of America Center overlooking San Francisco Bay. "If somebody is willing to pay a lot more than I would pay, then we're a seller."
Yesterday's Fed moves, today's CPI and tomorrow's bond yields will likely prove the Real-Estate-Happy-Little-Guy, who got left holding the dot-com bag, wrong again.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Overstocked and Underauctioned, Part Two
Quothe the CEO: "As a result of these dynamics [eBay's fee increase combined with Overstock's fee decrease], our listings have soared from 50k to 90k in two days. The quality of listings is excellent. "
Well, we now have more than just two days' worth of data to determine the potential boost to Overstock's auction site—we have thirty. And the results are not promising for Overstock.com.
Overall listings on the Overstock auction site, by my count, are now in the 150,000 range, with a handful of categories (jewelry most notably) showing continued growth and a majority of others (coins, consumer electronics, crafts among them) not.
Clearly, the early momentum—40,000 of new listings the first two days after eBay's price increase—did not continue. (I do not have daily data stretching back to Bryne's "MOMENT TO STRIKE" proclamation, and welcome it here from anyone who does). Otherwise, Overstock's auction listings would be far higher than 150,000.
In addition, the individual categories themselves do have not much action, when measured by the percentage of listings with more than one bid.
In coins, for example, only 268 out of 2,666 recent listings—just 10%—had more than one bid. Pottery and glass, only 10 out of 2,341…not even 1%. Antiques were slightly more successful, with 56 two-bids or more listings, out of 1,161—just under 5%. That lack of participation is not a good thing, and goes a long way toward explaining why Overstock's auctions appear to have little traction.
Comparable data for eBay is impossible to calculate unless you have no life, because the eBay listings are so vast (205,000 in antiques alone, which is greater than all of Overstock's listings). I would suggest to the Conspiracy Theorists who devote so much of their lives to detailing here and elsewhere the rambling, incoherent, paranoid fantasies they have constructed regarding naked short-selling to explain movements in Overstock.com's stock price, that they divert just a few dozen hours of that time to looking at actual data such as the Overstock auction listings. Perhaps they can show where my calculations have gone wrong.
In any case, we will explore further Overstock.com auction data in Part III. For now, it would appear Patrick Byrne's "MOMENT TO STRIKE" has come, and gone, without sparking much of a fight.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Monday, March 21, 2005
Not Exactly A Berkshire Hathaway Move
IAC will shell out nearly $2 billion of stock for Ask Jeeves, the Bubble-Era search engine briefly revived from the near-dead thanks to its relationship with Google, which provides 70% of Ask Jeeves' advertising revenue by placing ads on Jeeves' sites.
The spin thus far seems to be that IAC's travel sites will benefit from their natural synergy with search engines, of which Ask Jeeves is considered something of a player.
In reality, Diller is buying yet another weak, third-string broken-down business. Hardly the "Berkshire Hathaway" model so loudly touted by Miller and other Barry Diller acolytes.
It will be interesting to see how Miller--no dummy--reacts to this one.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Friday, March 18, 2005
Overstocked and Underauctioned, Part One
"THE MOMENT TO STRIKE," Bryne's message began, noting the February 18 eBay fee increases and the opportunities these offered to grow Overstock.com listings. Bryne noted that Overstock's auction listings had soared from 50,000 to 90,000 in just the two days since eBay shot itself in the foot by annoying its members and doing exactly what low-cost retail operators never do: raise prices.
Since a full month has now elapsed since both the eBay move and Byrne's clarion call to his auction members, we now have some data to assess the impact of Byrne's call to action, and in ensuing posts will take a closer look at the results.
Suffice it to say, it does not appear at this point that eBay has anything to worry about from Overstock.com Auctions.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Thursday, March 17, 2005
'Napster To Go' Is Not Going Anywhere
Napster's "new model" is indeed completely different from Apple's 99c download model: instead of charging per song, the Napster user "rents" all the songs they want, as long as they pay a $14.95 monthly fee. When they stop paying the rent, they stop getting access to the songs.
States the Journal, this is "a model that Apple can't match today."
Unforunately for Napster, Apple has no need to "match" the "Napter To Go" model, because Napster To Go will not ever, in my opinion, go anywhere.
But don't take my word.
Go to a college campus. Ask a random student how many songs they have on their iPod. The student will probably say something between 200 and 2,000. I am not making this up. Students take their music seriously.
Then ask how many of those songs have been purchased from iTunes. They will smile, wrinkle their brow, look up at the ceiling and ponder this, and then probably say something like maybe 1%.
Yes, 1%. Not half, not a quarter, not even 10%. Kids do not download music from iTunes for 99c a pop. They burn compact discs already in their collection, they burn friends' cds, they swap files.
So this notion that an online rental service for music is far more cost-effective for the average iPod user than iTunes itself, is hokum.
Kids wanted their MTV, and they want their iPods, and they are not going to pay $14.95 a month or $14.95 a year, for that matter, to rent something they can download for free.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up.
In memory of Henry M. Matthews, February 26, 1926-March 17, 2005.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
How Out Of It Is Kodak?
According to Carp, who has successfully redeployed the fast-fading cash from Kodak's film business into all manner of lousy digital and printed-related businesses, the consumer wants better image quality, battery life and printing capabilities. Many consumers find camera phones "less than satisfying."
The man has no clue.
Far from being a teenage girl-specific fad--and I have two teenage daughters--camera phones are useful in a whole bunch of ways I never imagined, from Sting fans taking pictures and short videos of the rock star and sending them to friends while the concert was still going, to heavy travelers like me swapping pictures with their kids to let them know, say, your plane landed safely, or you miss them.
Being in Florida for a family illness, I got a late-night picture on my cell phone last night showing the cats resting comfortably on the bed. All was well at home.
Mr. Carp, in remarks intended, I suppose, to show how aggressively Kodak is staking out new frontiers in the digital realm, only proves how ignorant he is of what consumers actually do with one of the most successful consumer products of modern times.
Don't bet on him--or Kodak--to lead the revolution.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Warning: This Could Be Your CEO!
You will find a message board titled "Deep Thoughts" by Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, who posts his "Deep Thoughts" under the name Hannibal. You should read his posts.
You will find thoughts both deep and shallow, facts in the form of definitions of certain issues dear to his heart (including short-selling)...and you will also find weird tangential points, borderline-paranoid musings, and outright inanities.
For example, this from CEO Patrick Byrne:
The key is this: if given the right to create an unlimited number of new shares essentially out of thin air, not limited by the number of shares "in the borrow" as legal shorting requires, these hedge funds can always drive the price down and always cover for a profit.
To which, I would say, "Well, yeah, sure, Patrick...but nobody is given that right to create unlimited shares out of thin air, least of all hedge funds. And even if they could, no hedge fund could always drive the price down and always cover for a profit--unless the fundamentals of the company justify that price action. Otherwise, Patrick, willing buyers--who vastly outnumber the ranks of shortsellers, as your own conference calls attest--would step in and buy."
Now, before readers accuse me of exaggeration for effect, or simply of making it up--not allowed on this site--let me highlight a couple more facets of the Byrne "precis" on naked shorting (which clearly does exist, although not on the scale imagined by Bryne and his certifiables, nor is it practised by any legitimate, professional hedge fund I know--and I know a lot of them).
Byrne lays out in great detail the same bizarre scenario explicated at length on the Overstock conference call by "X-Files" O'Brien, full of paranoid delusions of market-making in "German exchanges" and the supposed "nudge and a wink" by which the DTCC supposedly gives free reign to the hedge fund Visigoths.
But that's not even the most bizarre thing about these posts.
The most bizarre thing is that the Byrne postings on "Naked Shorting" have each been edited by Byrne himself as many as 8 times.
This is a CEO who really likes to write on message boards.
Yes, some unprofessional, bad guys short stocks naked. No, Overstock.com's problems are not naked shortsellers. They are, by and large, professionals who think, among other things, a man who spends part of his day alerting his auction site readers to an upcoming appearance on Charlie Rose (also on the message board), and who has taken up the banner of a bizarre, paranoid and highly delusional individual who goes by the alias "Bob O'Brien" is probably not the guy you would want running a fast-growing public company.
Especially when earnings estimates are coming down.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Monday, March 14, 2005
When Strong Men Resign: Whither AIG After Greenberg? (Revised)
I know ex-AIG veterans, and they swear by Greenberg and his get-it-done, make-the-numbers, show-the-growth style. He came into a small, insular company and made it a Wall Street fave and an insurance industry steamroller. But what problems has he steamrolled along the way?
Time will tell, and I have no particular insights into AIG itself--perhaps a reader or two may enlighten this page. But I can not name a single company of the get-it-done, make-the-numbers, show-the-growth type that has not uncovered vast problems--from the billions of dollars in overstated earnings at Tyco to the vast channel-stuffing uncovered at Coke--whether the Strong Man has retired in glory or resigned in disgrace.
Think about them: Tyco afterKozlowski; Coke after Goizueta; GE after Welch; Enron after Lay; Worldcom after Ebbers; Pfizer after McKinnell (McKinnell is still there, but the problems are already surfacing)...
It will be very interesting to see what the regulators uncover now that Greenberg is out at AIG. My guess--an educated guess--is that it will get much worse before it gets better.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
P.S. My first draft of this piece omitted two of the most obvious of all Strong Men: Sandy Weill, whose heir Chuck Prince is dealing with festering problems at Citibanks all over the world; and Michael Eisner, Disney control-freak extraordinaire finally yielding to--or perhaps more like installing--former weatherman Robert Iger in his place.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Weekend Edition: Three Shots in Dallas
Indeed, the JFK Conspiracy debate covers everything—how many shots were fired, by whom, from what part of Dealey Plaza, with what type of gun...and that's just the few seconds of the entire tragedy. I'm not even going near the grassy knoll or the manhole cover or anything else the Conspiracy whacks get into.
So let's just look at the most basic issue of all: how many shots were fired? It's a very specific question, and it should be among the least debatable, considering the number of witnesses and the brief time span of shots. The Warren Commission said three. Oliver Stone says six. Somebody's got to be right about this.
Now, the purpose of this blog is not to debunk JFK Conspiracy Theorists. We're trying to bring accountability and insight to Wall Street.
But it's the weekend, and weekends mean a feature unrelated to stocks.
Steady readers will know how I feel about Conspiracy Theorists in the stock market (see "When CEOs Obsess" and "These Are The Patsies"). They're certifiable.
And if the JFK assassination-obsessives share the shallow, paranoid thought processes that Wall Street Naked Short-Selling Conspiracy Theorists bring to the stock market—well, maybe it's better to let them obsess about grassy knolls and manhole covers. Better than having them loose on the sidewalks of Dealey Plaza, trying to make eye-contact with tourists.
Still, I could not resist breaking the news here that the question of how many shots were fired at JFK has been answered, soundly and soberly by multiple eye- witnesses, who were riding in the cars right behind the President: there were three shots fired at JFK. And only three.
The proof is in a remarkable book nobody seems to be reading.
It's called "President Kennedy Has Been Shot," by a news media organization called "The Newseum." It describes the assassination of JFK "through the eyes of more than sixty print and broadcast journalists" covering the motorcade and the other campaign events that day—in Dallas, Washington, and on Air Force One. The book combines the reporters' and photographers' statements with transcripts of the Dallas Police Department radio transmissions and communications between the White House and a plane carrying Cabinet officials to Japan, to create a compelling minute-by-minute account.
It is a very easy read, but packed with such detail that it is not a quick read. For purposes of this essay, I pick up where the first shots are heard by reporters riding in the Presidential motorcade.
Tom Dillard, Dallas Morning News photographer: "…when the first shot was fired, I said 'They've thrown a torpedo.' At the second shot, 'No, it's heavy rifle fire,' and at the third shot I said, 'They've killed him."
Bob Jackson, another photographer riding with Dillard, had just unloaded his camera and passed the film from the first part of the ride to a reporter on the ground. "And that's when we heard the first shot, and then two more shots closer together." He says he looked at Dillard: "We knew it was a gunshot, no doubt about it. On the fifth floor I saw two men leaning out and looking up. And my eyes went up to the next window and I could see the rifle on the ledge and I could see it being drawn in." Jackson had not yet reloaded his camera with film.
Merriman Smith, the legendary UPI White House correspondent, was riding in the front seat of the White House press-pool car, four cars behind the President's limousine. Smith said: "Suddenly we heard three loud, almost painfully loud cracks. The first sounded as if it might have been a large firecracker. But the second and third blasts were unmistakable. Gunfire."
Robert MacNeil, NBC News correspondent, recalls: "I said, 'Was that a shot?'… Then there were two more explosions, very distinct to me."
Bob Clark of ABC News: "When [Merriman Smith] said those were gunshots, I think we all in the car just accepted they were gunshots. They were loud and clear and more significant—for the historical record—they were equally loud and equally clear and were clearly fired from almost over our head…"
Anybody else see the pattern?
Not one person—not one—in the press covering the motorcade that day in Dealey Plaza claimed anything other than three shots. Distinct, clear, loud, and overhead. By a gun being withdrawn from the window of the Texas Book Depository.
The oddest aspect of the book, in my opinion, is that it makes no point about this fact, or any other facts debunking the Conspiracy myth. It merely continues via eyewitness snippets of the rush to Parkland Hospital, Officer Tippit's shooting, Oswald's arrest, LBJ's swearing-in, flying the body to Washington, Ruby killing Oswald, and finally the funeral in Washington.
It never stops to consider the significance of the simple words of those men about what they heard and saw: one rifle, three shots, history changed.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Friday, March 11, 2005
Diamonds Are Forever, But Where Did Overstock Get Them?
Big talk, even for the voluble Doctor Byrne.
According to Byrne—and this is important—Overstock will sell engagement rings at price-points above the low-end, which is "controlled by Zales and Wal-Mart," and below the high-end where, among others, fast-growing online jewelry retailer Blue Nile lives.
Byrne defined the low-end as "up to $1,000"; the high-end at $5,000 and up. Blue Nile, for example, operates with an "average order size [of] about $5,500," according to Bryne. This price gap between the Wal-Marts of the world at the sub-$1,000 low end, and the Blue Niles of the world at the $5,500 high-end, offer the potential for "fantastic pricing" for Overstock, Byrne exulted.
Unfortunately for Overstock.com, for Patrick Byrne and for Overstock.com shareholders and the analysts who recommend the stock, there is no such gap that I could find in the actual web sites of the companies he mentions; only, apparently, in the fertile imagination of Doctor Byrne.
Go to "Walmart.com". Type in "Diamonds." Sort them by "Top Seller." You will find the Top 5 sellers to be priced, in order: $697, $5,488, $1,399, $3,288, $898. I wasn't a math major, but that's an average price of $2,354 per ring. Smack in the middle of the price range Overstock.com fancies itself "dominating."
Now, Wal-Mart certainly sells a great many more pieces below $1,000, and its average ticket is undoubtedly below the $2,354 average of its five best-selling rings. But Wal-Mart's best sellers are right there in Bryne's price "gap," and I find it hard to see how Overstock.com will source and sell better than Wal-Mart.
What about the high end of the diamond ring market—the $5,500 "average order size" that Blue Nile operates on, according to Byrne? Another sketchy data point from the erudite Doctor Byrne.
"A key metric is our average order size," Blue Nile's CFO states on that company's recent earnings call, "which was $1,283 in the fourth quarter." While engagement rings did indeed average $5,500 in 2004, as Doctor Byrne noted, Blue Nile sells far more units of lower-priced merchandise. Tour the Blue Nile site and you will find pre-set engagement rings starting at $325.
Tour the Overstock.com site, on the other hand, and out of the Top 20 sellers, only 5 of the rings sell for over $1,000. The other 15 range from $199 to $999. Hardly the $1,000-$5,000 pricing strata staked out by Byrne.
So much for the hype behind the Byrne spin. But here's where the whole "steal of a lifetime" gets interesting.
Blue Nile ended its year with $9.9 million worth of inventory. Inventory for Blue Nile consisted of "settings for our customized diamond products, customized jewelry…and finished jewelry such as pearls and sterling silver products."
Notably absent in Blue Nile's inventory is the mention of a large slug of diamonds. This is because Blue Nile operates with hardly any actual loose diamonds. As of last October Blue Nile carried a mere $120,000 of loose diamonds on its balance sheet.
Patrick Byrne, on the other hand, positively gloats about "a $7 million deal on diamonds that was the steal of a lifetime."
Why a fledgling Blue Nile-type web site knockoff requires $7 million worth of diamonds, when the actual Blue Nile operates with 98% less is a question worth asking.
Furthermore, even assuming Overstock.com has—thanks to its "skunk works"—figured out how to convert $7 million of diamonds into a profitable business, it would be worth understanding how exactly one goes about getting a "steal" on $7 million worth of diamonds.
The wholesale diamond market is not exactly inefficient in the manner of, say, Chinese pottery. Diamond sellers know what their inventory cost them, and what it is worth, and the wholesale buyers know it, too. Getting a "steal of a lifetime" on $7 million worth of diamonds is as hard to imagine as an oil trader pulling one over on the boys at Chevron.
I have no answers. But these matters of the price-point "gap" Overstock aims to "dominate" and the $120,000 of loose diamonds on Blue Nile's balance sheet compared to Overstock's $7 million "steal of a lifetime" are all subjects that should be explored more deeply.
Any informed input here is welcome.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Ask Jeeves, Or Not
"Ask Jeeves has 80-85% aided brand awareness," Sordello told the audience. "That means, you go up to somebody and ask Do you know what Ask Jeeves is, they'll say Yeah, it's a search engine."
Sounds good, right?
Unfortunately, Sordello continued, unaided awareness is only 20-25%. Ask people to name search engines, and Jeeves only comes up one out of four or five times. "People know about us," Sordello explains, "they just don't recall us."
Yes. And people know who Weird Al Yankovic is, they just don't recall him.
Like all public companies with a hot past and a deteriorating future, Jeeves is trying its best to keep up with the Googles, buying up a slew of companies and turning on the spending faucet. "We think marketing here is gonna tremendously help close that gap" between those who know about Jeeves but don't bother to use it, Sordello declares rather hopefully.
It's a happy thought. But the reality is, Ask Jeeves' 15 minutes of fame--like Weird Al Yankovic's--looks just about up.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Way To Go, OFHEO!
As reported in today's Wall Street Journal, Fannie's regulator--the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO)--announced new requirements. And boy, are they tough.
For one thing, the new requirements would have Fannie Mae adopt policies "limiting employees' ability to alter database records."
Yes, that's right. No more altering database records at Fannie Mae!
But it gets better: OFHEO also wants Fannie to adopt policies which "ban falsified signatures on accounting journal entries."
Way to go, OFHEO! They finally get around to--after all these years--deciding that they don't want the lynchpin of our national housing market to go around letting its people falsify accounting documents.
Man, when the Feds want to get tough, they really come down hard, don't they?
Why Fannie Mae is still in business, with its Congressional charter and its overpaid executives and its fake accounting, is beyond me. But that's my opinion. The rest of this piece, is, unfortunately, all too true.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Maxing Out at CarMax
The fancy p/e ratio probably owes itself to the fact that CarMax appears to be a great concept: the Best Buy (or Home Depot or Wal-Mart or whatever category killer you want to name) of the highly fragmented, poorly staffed, consumer-unfriendly used car business. Give people a huge, clean, well lighted store, with a transparent trade-in value and a pleasant buying experience, and the world will beat a path to your door.
At least, that's the concept. And while the stores are in fact well run, and the buying experience very positive, CarMax has the least consistent earnings pattern of any actual category killing retailer out there.
The reasons CarMax has such a tough gig are several. For one, the company does not have a parts and service business, which is the flywheel in the hugely cyclical auto sector. For another, people don't shop for a used car every couple of weeks, as they do for groceries or consumer electronics or hardware, so between the time they buy one CarMax vehicle and go back for another, they have to get re-sold on the CarMax value proposition.
And even if a satisfied CarMax customer does decide to buy another used car, they may have moved away in the two or three year gap. So the churn in the customer base is much higher than for the grocery shopper at the Wal-Mart Supercenter, or the building contractor at Home Depot, or the Play Station gamer at Best Buy.
Finally, CarMax's sales depend on more variables--credit conditions, new car incentives, used car inventory--than any normal retailer. Thus, the company's results vary both ways--to the good and the bad.
Right now, CarMax is varying to the good: last quarter's unit comp store sales came in at the high-end of guidance and the company now expects the current quarter's EPS to top its recently raised guidance by $0.01 a share.
There is--as always with CarMax--a caveat. The caveat to the sales acceleration is that it coincides almost precisely with the company's rollout of sub-prime financing (called "DRIVE") to its stores in August of 2004.
Indeed, sub-prime contributed 5% to the recent 12% comps.
Most analysts expect the sales impact from DRIVE to diminish over time. It is hard to imagine how it will not. Meanwhile, the earnings benefit is quite a bit smaller than it might otherwise be, because CarMax has over 100 million shares outstanding--and in a low-margin business like used cars, there's not much left over for shareholders no matter how big the sales boost.
Analysts seem to love this one, for reasons that escape me, except that some very smart investors own the stock and have played it quite well over the years. That plus management's open playbook and excellent systems make this an easy name to go back to when the stars are lining up for a couple of good quarters.
But the fact that CarMax is juicing up sales by reaching down the credit curve illustrates the problem here: there is no fundamental franchise in used cars.
Let the buyer beware.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Monday, March 07, 2005
Mr. Greenspan's Conundrum: Is The Bond Market Playing With Fire?
Perhaps this fact is one reason Alan Greenspan calls the current long-bond yield "a conundrum."
On the other hand, the bond market--especially after Friday's 'whoopee' reaction to the jobs report--would probably take the glass-is-half-full view, and point to the fact that the CRB is at the peak of an extended run as a clear indication that the China-driven raw materials inflation has peaked.
Whatever the case, on top of the long-running surge in oil prices--one of the reasons behind the CRB's hefty move of late--oil-rich Iran has just warned that any attempt to impose sanctions on its nuclear activities would lead to an oil crisis in the US and Europe. "Playing with fire" is what Iran's top nuclear official called it.
Not for nothing that the last oil shortage--in 1979--was caused by production cuts in...Iran.
Perhaps the bond market is right, and Alan Greespan is wrong. Perhaps, though, as the CRB suggests, the bond market is playing with fire.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Brookings Institute to Hovnanian: "Don't Worry, Be Happy."
Except for one small piece of the business, which happens to be Hovnanian's captive finance business.
"Due to the falloff in the re-finance business, Hovnanian is experiencing competition from third-party mortgage lenders who have been reducing their margins in order to originate more new business."
Seems also that there's an increasing demand for adjustable rate mortgages, which are less profitable than the old-fashioned fixed-rate kind--and this too hurt the finance arm.
ARM's were--get this--45% of origination volume in the quarter. That's right: almost half of all Hovnanian's mortgage volume is of the let's-take-the-lowest-monthly-payment-mortgage-because-otherwise-I-can't-afford-this-house variety.
But not to worry: "According to the Brookings Institute," the company reported on their conference call, "new housing starts should average 2 million a year for the next 25 years."
Phew! Thank goodness. If somebody at the Brookings Institute says so, it's gotta be true!
Seems to me the Housing Bubble is here. But not to stay.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Bubble? What Bubble?
Think about that for a second. More than a third of all homes bought last year were bought for either speculative purposes or as vacation homes.
This doesn't square at all with the mantra of the home building companies and their fans, which is that the U.S. has a perennial housing shortage caused by job creation, immigration and the deep-seated hunger for home ownership.
It has nothing to do, they assure investors, with the recent 4% 10 year treasury yield. It has nothing to do with adjustable rate mortgages or "IO" loans--interest only loans--in which the only thing the homeowner pays is the interest, leaving the principle for later (which to the buyer means "when I flip the thing for a big profit").
And it has absolutely nothing to do with speculative buying, according to home builders including--and I've heard them all say it--Toll Brothers, Pulte, Lennar, KB and Hovnanian.
But now we know the facts: home purchases were inflated a full 20% (the jump from 16% in 2003 to 36% in 2004) by boomers snapping up spec housing and vacation homes around the country. That's a bubble.
And not for nothing, it seems the average single-family home financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac shot up almost 12% last year, the highest rate since 1979. For those who remember that far back, 1979 ushered in a couple of pretty ugly years in the housing market.
Jeff Matthews
I'm Not Making This Up


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Members of a state House committee say they're not pleased with the information they're getting from the Brattleboro Retreat about the care of state patients there.
Committee members criticized the Retreat for delays in keeping the state informed about recent incidents at the facility, including one in which a patient reported improper sexual contact to a staff member, and the staff member failed to report the issue.
Hospital Vice President Peter Albert agreed the report should have gone immediately to the state's adult protective division.
In another case, an adolescent patient was improperly placed in seclusion.
And in another, a patient with both medical and mental health issues was reported to have been subjected to an emergency medical intervention too quickly.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Number One Resource In Dryland Training for Swimmers
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IHPSWIM.com is the number one resource in dryland training for swimmers. We are internationally recognized as being on the cutting edge of the strength and conditioning field and have applied our training philosophy specifically to the sport of swimming. IHPSWIM has developed LAPS training systems, the most comprehensive training program that is geared towards teaching swimmers and coaches on how to have an impact on their performance immediately.
It is no secret that to compete at a high level in the sport of swimming you must have a complete training regimen, one that includes an excellent dryland training program. IHP Swim has created training programs that are specific to the sport of swimming. If you are looking for new ideas and exercises that will take your swimming to the next level then you have come to the right place!


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Idaho's Capitol is our state's most-treasured building. Within its beautiful sandstone walls, laws have been passed, issues debated, and citizen rights safeguarded for nearly a century. To ensure the Capitol's long history and legacy, the Idaho Capitol Commission was appointed by Governor Phil Batt in July 1998. Subsequent Governors have been strong advocates of the Commission and its goal to restore and preserve the Capitol to its original splendor.
On January 9, 2010, the Idaho Statehouse, "A Capitol of Light," was rededicated after 3 years of restorations and renovations. For more information about the project, including the addition of the underground wings, check out the Restoration page.
Capitol Online Tour
Learn more about Idaho's most significant and treasured structure by taking an online tour of each floor and the exterior grounds at Capitol of Light: The People's House.
Visitor Information
The Idaho State Capitol is located at:
700 West Jefferson Street in Boise.
Our visitor hours are:
- During Legislative Sessions:
- Monday - Friday, 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
- Saturday, Sunday, Holidays - 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
- During the Interim Between Legislative Sessions:
- Monday - Friday, 6:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
- Saturday, Sunday, Holidays - 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
For details about the hours, tour schedules, gift shop, online store, and dining room, visit the Idaho Legislature website.
For event reservations, visit the Department of Administration website.


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Squarespace Note for iOS: Quickly Capture Ideas Without Distraction
I love Evernote. It's my default notes application. But I must admit, it could be a little faster in the note-taking area. Could be my fault, though. All of the options it gives me to save, tag, categorize and organize notes, makes the simple task of entering notes…a bigger task than it needs to be. The Squarespace Note app for iOS offer a very clean and fast way to jot notes and sync them with other services.
There is no formatting or organizing with Squarespace note. All you do is select which services you want to sync or send notes to: Squarespace, Dropbox, Email Facebook, Twitter, or (my favorite) Evernote. Once you've decided where you want the notes to go, Ss Note offers a blank canvas, free of any features, options, buttons, or distractions for you to capture your notes.
Ss Note uses gestures to navigate the app. After jotting a note, a swipe up (or down, depending on your settings) in the note area sends the note to your service of choice. Swiping to the left will reveal note sharing options and pulling down on the screen will let you add/remove services. Swiping to the right will uncover previous notes and pulling down on the screen will uncover note editing/deleting options.
And that's all there is to it. I've set up Ss Note to automatically send all notes to a "Jot" folder in Evernote so I can go back and organize the crap out of all my little, temporary notes. For neat-freaks like me, removing all distractions in the note area gives me the ability to put down what I have in my head on proverbial "paper" without worrying about every little note detail. Squarespace note is a free download and you don't need a Squaresquare account to use the app.
Check it out and let us know what you think.
For more from Terrance Gaines, follow him on Twitter @BrothaTech


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We're not getting that big Android event we were supposed to get today, but it looks like things are still moving along somewhat as planned. But while Google may not show off its shiny new tablets in person today, the old models are now out of stock at the Google Play store, clearing the way for the new ones, whenever they come out of hiding.
This, of course, lines up with all the previous rumors, including the introduction of a new 32GB Nexus 7, the announcement of a 3G model, and a price drop on the 16GB, bringing it down to $200. Hurricane Sandy may have put a damper on the Android event proper, but it looks like the wheels are still turning behind the scenes, getting everything in place for whenever the announcement does happen. Hopefully it's soon. [CNET]


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| April 12, 2013, 10:04 am
OK, this is a couple years old (or more) but it's still kind of fun.
A thread on Reddit was the first to expose Hollywood's most ambitious prop — a fake newspaper that's been popping up on television shows, in movies, and in commercials for decades. Over and over again.
Shortly after Reddit broke the story, Slashfilm.com, a popular movie-industry blog, picked up on the thread and posted screengrabs from a slew of appearances of the same limelight-loving, Kardashian-esque newspaper prop.
"Married with Children." "Everybody Hates Chris." "That Seventies Show." "Modern Family." "No Country for Old Men." "Desperate Housewives." "Angel." "Scrubs." Even a commercial for Travelers Insurance.
Has this newspaper no shame?


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- I do this for the love.
Hi, I'm Heather! I'm a Detroit Michigan wedding photographer who is still waiting on her Hogwarts letter. I love to find and photograph the moments that define a couple's love -- moments beautiful and candid, big and small. The honest moments that tell the story of who you are.
I believe I do more than photograph weddings. I bear witness. I tell stories. I'd love to tell yours.
- meetHeather
- Your love is a story worth telling.
From behind my lens, I watch women transform into brides. I see fathers hold on a little too tight as they give their daughters away. I notice grooms hold back tears while reading vows. I watch mothers smile proudly, and bridesmaids giggle with anticipation. From behind my lens, I watch love stories unfold.
Good photos speak for themselves, and great stories aren't written, they're lived.


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UPS will first attempt to deliver your package to your home address. If you are not at home at the time, your package will be delivered to your nearest UPS Access Point. You can track your package by using the tracking number provided in the e-mail we send to you when your package leaves our warehouse.
If you place your order before 11:00 am CET on a regular business day, your package will be shipped the same day.


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by Klopfenstein
This no-nonsense, heavy duty taboret has been designed and built for hard, everyday use. It's made from sturdy 14 gauge steel. There are no nuts or bolts to work loose--it's completely welded. There is no assembly except for mounting the hard rubber casters. Each caster is rated at 75 lb. load capacity for a total of 300 lbs. The two drawers are generous 6 in. deep x 11 in. wide by 17 3/4 in. long). The drawers are fitted with stops to prevent them from being pulled all the way out. On the back of the taboret is a hasp on each drawer which can be padlocked for security. Both the top and lower shelf are 18 in. x 30 in. hardboard, solidly supported on steel frames with a 3/8 in. high lip to keep materials in place or to support a glass palette. Weighs 80 lbs. 18 in. x 30 in. footprint by 34 1/2 in. high.
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Teaching Resource
Smooth Sailor – Star Student Badges
A set of star student badges with a sailor theme.
Use these Star Student badges as part of your classroom reward system, or as an award for excellent student work.
Print, cut and laminate these badges and store them in a plastic container or file for easy access. Hole punch the top to add them to a lanyard or put a safety pin through them for the students to wear when they are the 'Star Student'!
A version of this teaching resource document can be opened and edited in Microsoft Word, allowing you to add your own custom content.How do I open and edit this Word document?
"I love teach starter and am so thankful to have found such a great resource collection. The fee is only a few hours pay and I saved myself that much work within the first 15 minutes!" ~ Nanci, a happy Teach Starter member.
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If you are still having difficulty, please visit the Teach Starter Help Desk or contact us.Contact us


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- New
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Nugz Snap Jewelry is an inspired collection of interchangeable pieces! All Nugz Snap are 18mm and compatible with every piece in our jewelry collection. Switch from bracelet to earrings to ring with a quick snap!
For questions or help with your order contact Nugz Snap Jewelry at 800-689-0212 or email info@Nugz SnapJewelry.com
All Nugz Snap are compatible with the jewelry found in the Nugz Snap Jewelry section.
This product hasn't received any reviews yet. Be the first to review this product!


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|Sponsored Links
Hey y'all. I thought I'd drop in an' say "Howdy".
1. Location: Western Kentucky
2. Favorite Current Griz: Marc Gasol
3. Favorite Former Griz: OJ Mayo
4. Other teams in the NBA you root for? The ones former UK players are on.
5. Other sports you enjoy? What other sporting teams do you root for? University of Kentucky
ANYTHING. Boxing. LA Angels, (LA) Oakland Raiders, LA Kings, Jimmie Johnson. (Spent my childhood bouncing back and forth btwn. SoCal and KY.) Also, I sometimes go to Titans training camp and games, but really don't buy a lot of Titans stuff or keep up with day to day Titans activity. I did love that 15-0 run involving Kerry Collins a few years back though! 'Really wish things would have turned out better for him. I can't stand Matt Hasselbeck so I've been kind of avoiding watching the Titans when he plays. Anyway, enough football talk on the hoops forum. GO GRIZZ!
6. Anything else you care to share? Nah.
Last edited by HILLBILLYBLACK; 01-22-2013 at 06:39 PM. Reason: Cain't spell t'save mah life.
1. Location: Southeast Missouri
2. Favorite Current Griz:
3. Favorite Former Griz:
4. Other teams in the NBA you root for?
5. Other sports you enjoy? What other sporting teams do you root for? St. Louis Cardinals Baseball
6. Anything else you care to share?
I don't know if I'm a Grizzles fan or not. I enjoy the NBA, but have never been a fan of a particular team. But Memphis is the closest city with a professional basketball team to my home.
I've been to a few Grizzles games, and I'd prefer them to go deep in the playoffs. But at this point, I just enjoy the NBA and the Grizzles are the best team to help me enjoy that I guess.
But I don't pay any attention to the roster or anything.
Like the poster above, I am a UK fan.
Welcome Jeffy! I've seen you around but am glad you've taken a semi liking to the grizz. I am a uk fan as well. I see your location is southeast Missouri. I've been to cape Gireadeu (sp?) to see my local college team austin peay play SEMO. The grizz are a fun team to watch if you enjoy defensive, fundamental, inside out basketball. You'll notice they are a blue collar team and fit the motto of "grit and grind". Welcome and feel free to post whenever in here, it does get stagnate
What's up old friends? Hope y'all are doing well. Just a couple more weeks till the season starts. Thank god. Go Grizz!
Time to reboot. Everything else the same except my favorite ex-Grizzly is Rudy Gay. My favorite current Grizzlies are Beno, Marc and Zach. What's not to love ??😘
"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you might find, you get what you need"
|Sponsored Links
I have no idea if anyone who used to post on these boards is still active (doesn't appear so) or even alive anymore, but this board randomly popped into my head and prompted some very fond memories of this place and all of the old heads. I hope, if by some remote chance any of you happen to read this, that you are all happy and at peace. Miss y'all. Grind for life!
Whats up y'all its Deezy! Man we used to post in here so much back in 2009 and 2010. The good ole days. I got banned and then came back again to post and got banned haha. I miss you guys a lot, hope y'all are doing well. I-Am-Awesome-O I am at peace, hope you are too! i hope mzgrizz is at peace. Its cool cause we all posted during the Gasol, Conley, Zbo era and now that that era is about to end, we have all moved on from this post. Grateful for those simple days of cheering the Grizz on with you guys... Grind for life.
Deez - awesome to hear from you dude! Man you said it, we all really grew up together on this board. We were a small group of random strangers connected by the hopeless love for a losing franchise. How far everything has come. I often miss those old days - all the hope we all had (OJ Mayo was supposed to be our savior!). The days when it wasn't "cool" to be a Grizz fan haha - when we were CashConsiderationNation. So happy to hear you're doing well man, and I hope we can all keep in at least distant touch like this on our old quiet little board. Much love, grit grind!
I wish we had people posting on here. For a while it was just me and mzgrizz but then it was just me. Not a lot of grizz fans on psd. I even took a hiatus for a while.
Is this place that dead? Love me some Grizzlies
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk


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SystemLink software delivers measurable improvements in operational efficiency and productivity by providing you with a centralized web-based management interface for connected devices, software, and data. Although aligned with NI products such as LabVIEW, TestStand, and hardware systems, SystemLink also offers an open architecture for incorporating a wide range of third-party software and hardware technologies.
Systems Management
Optimize the efficiency of system configuration tasks, such as software deployment, device management, and diagnostics.
Improve system uptime and performance with centralized monitoring services, configurable alarms, and an email notification workflow.
Data Management Services
Reduce the time spent searching and standardizing measurement data by using DataFinder Server to automate data standardization and enable data searching regardless of file format and location.
Efficiently process your data and derive value from it by using Analysis Server to automate data analysis and report generation.
Data Visualization Services
Accelerate the development of real-time monitoring applications and remote operator interfaces with high-performance data services and configuration-based graphical design tools.
Take your data visualizations to the cloud with an NI-hosted service that lets you publish data to graphical dashboards and WebVIs in a secure, high-performance architecture.
Automated Test Insights
Increase test efficiency and minimize test downtime with software that monitors and reports the status, results, and operational parameters of automated tests.
Software Benefits
Standard Service Program
Every purchase includes a renewable, one-year membership to the Standard Service Program (SSP) for software. SSP membership includes the following:
SystemLink provides a powerful and open software architecture for NI partners to develop specialized products and solutions with distributed systems management capabilities.


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CLEVELAND (AP) -- Jason Kipnis, Nick Swisher and Mark Reynolds hit indisputable home runs and Scott Kazmir struck out 10 in six innings, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 9-2 win over Oakland on Thursday and a four-game sweep of the Athletics.
[RELATED: MLB: Improper call was made]
The Indians ended the series with a convincing blowout, one day after they won 4-3 with the help of a blown call in the ninth inning when umpires, after watching a video replay, ruled that an apparent tying home run by Oakland's Adam Rosales was a double.
Major League Baseball acknowledged the umpires made an "improper call," but executive vice president Joe Torre said the decision is final.
Kipnis hit a two-run homer in the first off Bartolo Colon (3-2) for the Indians, who won for the 10th time in 11 games and improved to 13-4 since April 20.
Kazmir (2-1) allowed one run and five hits and has won consecutive starts for the first time since 2010.
Josh Donaldson homered for the A's, who fell to .500 for the first time since April 4 when they were 2-2. Oakland is just 6-14 after starting 12-4.
The Indians were already leading by six runs when MLB released a statement indicating umpire Angel Hernandez and his crew had erred Wednesday night. After watching a video replay, they failed to reverse a call and gave Rosales a double instead of a homer.
TV replays showed Rosales' shot off Chris Perez had easily cleared the 19-foot-high wall.
"Given what we saw, we recognize that an improper call was made," Torre said. "Perfection is an impossible standard in any endeavor, but our goal is always to get the calls right. Earlier this morning, we began the process of speaking with the crew to thoroughly review all the circumstances surrounding last night's decision."
MLB director of umpires Randy Marsh was sent to Progressive Field for the series finale to inspect the video replay equipment. Marsh did not find any problems and reported his findings to Torre.
The Indians, who came in leading the AL in homers, took a 2-0 lead in the first on Kipnis' fourth homer, a two-run shot.
Michael Brantley singled to open the first off Colon and Kipnis followed by belting a 2-1 pitch over the left-field wall, not far from where Rosales' contested double landed.
Kipnis added a sacrifice fly in the second, when the Indians tacked on three runs to open a 5-0 lead.
Swisher led off the third by pulling Colon's first pitch over the wall in right for his fifth homer and second in two days. Swisher, who played college ball at Ohio State, was typically animated after rounding the bases. He bashed forearms with Jason Giambi and raised arms to give the "O-H" gesture to Cleveland fans.
The Indians added three runs in the fifth, two coming on Reynolds' AL-leading 11th homer.
Colon gave up six runs and eight hits in five innings. The right-hander, who pitched for the Indians from 1997 to 2002, hadn't faced Cleveland since 2005.
Before the game, Wednesday night's stunning events dominated the chatter in both clubhouses, with several players weighing in on instant replay.
Perez felt fortunate the Indians had gotten a favorable call, but he doesn't think baseball should broaden its replay system.
"I don't think it needs to be expanded," he said. "I like where it's at on home runs and boundary calls. In baseball, there's a human element with errors and guys tripping over bases and all kinds of stuff - and blown calls.
"So, unfortunately for the A's it didn't go their way, but we're not going to be sorry for it."
NOTES: Oakland came in riding an eight-game winning streak against Cleveland. ... The A's had not been swept in four games by the Indians since 1999. ... Indians OF Michael Bourn (cut index finger) rejoined the team after playing two games on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Columbus. He's scheduled to be activated from the 15-day disabled and will likely play in this weekend's series in Detroit. ... After playing three games against the Tigers, the Indians will return home for a doubleheader Monday against the New York Yankees. The teams were rained out twice last month. ... RHP Vinnie Pestano (sore elbow) is scheduled to resume a throwing program this weekend.


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Guides A-Z
Guide describing how to insulate a basement to improve the overall thermal performance of the building and provide more dry, usable conditioned space for home occupants and for HVAC equipment.
Guide describing how to install a capillary break to help manage moisture in foundations.
Guide describing how to create a capillary break at all crawlspace floors using polyethylene sheeting to manage moisture in crawlspaces.
Guide describing how to install a capillary break under a slab foundation using either polyethylene sheeting or rigid insulation installed over aggregate or over sand and geotextile matting.
Guide describing how to apply water management strategies to below grade walls.
Guide describing installation of sump pumps in the basement or crawlspace of a home.
Guide describing how to install slab edge insulation when retrofitting existing slab-on-grade foundations.
Guide describing how to insulate a new foundation wall or an existing foundation wall by adding rigid insulation to the exterior side.
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Guide describing how to upgrade a crawlspace floor in an existing home by adding insulation.
Vapor retarders can be a crucial part of the building envelope and can help manage moisture issues to keep the home dry. However, before installing a vapor retarder, installers must be aware that in some instances vapor retarders can increase the likelihood of condensation issues.
Guide describing how to correctly slope surfaces outside a home to force water to flow away from the edge of the home.
Guide describing ways to reduce access to bugs, rodents and other pests through openings in a home.
Guide describing principles of insulating band joists as a stand alone energy upgrade, or as part of creating a closed crawlspace.
Guide describing how to insulate closed crawlspace walls and band joist areas with rigid foam board insulation.
Guide describing how to insulate an existing slab floor by adding rigid foam insulation over the slab then installing a floating subfloor.
Guide describing how to insulate an existing foundation wall by adding spray foam insulation to the interior side of the wall.
Guide describing the need for covers on sump pumps in the basement or crawlspace of a home.
Guide describing how to insulate the sill beam or sill plate on the exterior side in a way that allows drying to the exterior, as part of an exterior wall upgrade.
Guide describing how to retrofit an existing basement floor or slab to reduce moisture issues.
Guide providing information about treating bulk water drainage issues and moisture control measures in existing basements and crawl spaces.


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text: BMX is not a sport – it is a lifestyle. Felt understands, embodies, and embraces this lifestyle. From beginners hitting the local skatepark to street riders doing things on their own terms, we have developed BMX bikes and parts for everyone. In a realm where many companies pick their product line out of a cookie-cutter catalog, Felt brings in active BMX riders to work with our highly-talented product design team to ensure everything we produce is top-notch. In the next few pages you will see the new and exciting 2014 Felt BMX line up, very clean and simple for this year. Make sure to take a look at the new Felt designed pedals and stems on most models and do not forget to check out the new 22" wheel Catch model. The BMX lifestyle cannot be explained in a matter of sentences - you have to live it.


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DescriptionFreshwater Cultured Pearl, Gold, Sterling Silver Necklace
The necklace features freshwater cultured pearls measuring 10.00 mm, set along a sterling silver chain with 14k gold accent beads. Gross weight 58.00 grams.
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Welcome to the Blender Public Gallery. Available for all those Blender users who need a space on the internet.
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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 9, 2013 — Just under half of all Americans reported drinking at least one glass of soda per day, while two-thirds said they drink at least one cup of coffee daily, according to a 2012 Gallup poll. Despite popular opinion about soda and weight gain, the same poll found that frequent soda drinkers do not weigh more than non-soda drinkers.
But health experts still say that even one glass of soda a day is too much, as it has been linked to a variety of health problems, including a relatively new one, clinical depression.
Preliminary data from a National Institutes of Health report that will be released in March at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego show that regular soda drinkers, particularly those who drink diet soda, are more likely to be diagnosed with depression. The data showed that coffee drinkers, on the other hand, have a slightly lower risk of a depression diagnosis.
The researchers do not say that soda causes depression — they did not determine whether people who are likely to become depressed are also simply more likely to drink soda in the first place, and the study did not control for all relevant factors, such as socioeconomic status. What they did find was that people who drank more than four cans or cups of soda per day were 30 percent more likely to develop depression over the course of the 10-year study than people who drank no soda. Fruit punch drinkers were 38 percent more likely to develop depression than those who did not drink sweetened drinks. Depression risk appeared to be even greater for people who drank diet soda rather than regular soda, and diet rather than regular fruit punches and iced tea.
Meanwhile, heavy coffee drinkers in the study experienced more than a caffeine buzz: They were also about 10 percent less likely to develop depression than those who drank no coffee.
This most recent finding doesn't necessarily mean you should quit Diet Coke cold turkey and run out for a cup of joe instead. But it's not the first time researchers have found a link between soda consumption and mood. One study of teens in Boston found that those who drank six or more cans of soda per week were more likely to be violent with family and friends and even carry weapons. Researchers associated heavy soda consumption with a 9 percent to 15 percent increase in the risk for aggressive behavior, and suggested that sugar or caffeine may be to blame.
Because past studies have linked poor emotional health to the sugar in soda, this most recent finding is a little more ambiguous. It either indicates that both sugar and the artificial sweeteners in diet drinks may be related to depression, or that other factors contribute to the link between soda drinking and clinical depression. Still, cutting down on both regular and diet soda can help your health in a number of ways.
"Our research suggests that cutting out or down on sweetened diet drinks or replacing them with unsweetened coffee may naturally help lower your depression risk," said study author Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, in a release. "More research is needed to confirm these findings, and people with depression should continue to take depression medications prescribed by their doctors."


text:
So this is what birds in Hawaii snack on at times?
This video was uploaded today by YouTube user Solomine:
Solomine states – "This video was taken in Maui, Hawaii. These birds would stalk lizards hiding in bushes, and swallow them whole."
Filed under: Agriculture, aloha, Big Island, Comedy, Education, Environment, Food & Drink, Hawaii, KO's, Unexplained Phenomenon | Tagged: Bird Eats Lizard, Hawaiian Bird vs. Hawaiian Lizard | Leave a comment »


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As I write this late on Friday night, MSNBC is having a ball ridiculing an article on the website of televangelist Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcast Network: on it, CBN employee Kimberly Daniels makes some crackpot assertions about Halloween candy being literally possessed by demonic entities:
"Most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches," Daniels wrote. "I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference."
"Halloween is much more than a holiday filled with fun and tricks or treats," she wrote. "It is a time for the gathering of evil that masquerades behind the fictitious characters of Dracula, werewolves, mummies and witches on brooms. The truth is that these demons that have been presented as scary cartoons actually exist. I have prayed for witches who are addicted to drinking blood and howling at the moon."
MSNBC, not surprisingly, is treating CBN like they're nuts - which, I admit, they certainly are - but the snarky intellectuals at MSNBC are too much of a rationalist-skeptic bunch to even entertain the notion that something really could be possessed by some sort of spirit.
Myself, I tend to live in a world-view not unlike that of the Algonquin Tribe and their "Manitou" concept, one where everything is haunted by a very real and very tangible living spirit - trees, rocks, birds, dirt, pencils, shoes, laptops, rutabagas, etc. Not only all things, but all classifications of things and components of things, and components of the components. And so on. (It's really not as maddening as it sounds.)
But even without opening that philosophical can of nightcrawlers, there is one instance where CBN's fear of eating food possessed by spirits may clearly be justified.
It's called corn.
We've previously discussed here the horrors of Kentucky corn implanted with human genes being experimentally genetically modified right here in the commonwealth. This is frightening enough in itself to keep a person wide-eyed at night, but that's actually just the tip of the genetically modified iceberg. According to some sources, over 80% of all corn/maize in the United States of America is genetically modified. If you've been trying to avoid eating it, you might as well give up. GMO corn is literally everywhere.
But the omnipresence of GMOs in our nation's corn gets even more disturbing when you consider the omnipresence of corn in our nation's diet. Two scientists at the University of Hawaii recently made a shocking discovery when they chose to analyze the most commonly-eaten foods in America: McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King. Using stable isotope analysis, they found that corn molecules were everywhere, in the burgers (corn-fed meat plus corn used as filler) in the buns (corn used in the flour), in the chicken sandwiches (corn-fed meat plus corn used as filler), in the french fries (coated in cornstarch and cooked in corn oil), even in the soft drinks (High Fructose Corn Syrup)! They didn't do Taco Bell, but if they had, needless to say, the ubiquitous corn tortillas would have made everything a forensic nightmare.
Most GMO corn is circulating freely in our food chain with little or no testing - in most cases, some paid lab shill force-fed the stuff to some rats, and if they didn't immediately drop dead or start bursting out with instant bladder cancer, then the corn was given a green light for you and me and children and babies and pets to eat. If someone finds out later that GMO corn causes some sort of zombie disease that takes decades to show up, it'll be too late for us because we're all devouring the stuff every single day of our lives without even knowing it.
Even the bourbon I'm sipping as I type these words is made from corn.
And just what is corn, anyway? That's a good question, and the short answer is that no one seems to know for sure. As columnist Roger Matile has observed, "For something so valuable and yet so common, corn is one of the nation's historical mysteries".
Corn is especially suited to genetic experimentation because of its rapid ability to grow, to hybridize, and to mutate. Unlike most other plants, a cross will show up in the very next generation. Native Americans were the first to "genetically modify" corn in the literal sense, by planting the kernels with deliberation in separate rows, observing which specimens gave the best results, and subsequently increasing production of those samples which had the most desirable attributes.
Scientists are still undecided about just what corn is, and where it came from. Mary Eubanks of Duke University believes ancient humans actually invented corn by interbreeding two varieties of wild grasses. Eubanks believes that Tripsacum dactyloides (Eastern gamagrass) and Zea diploperennis, a perennial variety of Teosinte (a tall annual grass found in Mexico) were crossed to create the original Maize.
There is no clear chain of evolution of corn to be found in the fossil record. Corn as we know it does not seem to have existed until after the Pleistocene era - seemingly, it just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The oldest corn evidence we have is actually quite sketchy - a specimen of alleged 80,000-year-old fossilized corn pollen, found buried 200 feet beneath the surface of Mexico City. Ears of popcorn, 5,600 years old, were found in Bat Cave, New Mexico. Archaeologists opened tombs in Peru and found kernels of popcorn that were 1,000 years old. They were so well preserved that they still popped when cooked. Remnants of corn from the year 400 have been found in Southern Ohio, near the Kentucky-Ohio border and the ever-spooky Ohio River.
The modern-day proponents of the cult of corn are everywhere, even in Kentucky. The Kentucky Corn Growers Association website seems innocuous enough at first glance, but then you realize that they're prominently linking to Sweet Surprise, a pro-HFCS ad campaign that goes beyond shameless in sheer blatant lies and disinformation. (You've seen their TV ads, which invariably portray pro-HFCS people as highly intelligent and happy, while they patiently try to educate an anti-HFCS person who is portrayed as irrational, uninformed, and just plain dumb. The ads are total "Straw man" fallacy, misrepresenting the anti-HFCS position, and then proceeding to argue with and tear down this false position.)
And then you start noticing troubling little things on the kycorn.org site, like prominent corporate logos for some of the most evil nature-wrecking entities on the planet, like DuPont, Syngenta and Monsanto. Ugh. Seeing Kentucky farmers openly and cheerfully endorsing these cynical and toxic polluters makes me want to hurl my corn-based dinner.
Sounds depressing, I know. And on a certain level, it is. But in the bigger picture, maybe, just maybe, the cornification of Earth is all part of the plan. Sir James Frazer, in his landmark tome The Golden Bough, observes:
Dionysus was not the only Greek deity whose tragic story and ritual appear to reflect the decay and revival of vegetation. In another form and with a different application the old tale reappears in the myth of Demeter and Persephone. Substantially their myth is identical with the Syrian one of Aphrodite (Astarte) and Adonis, the Phrygian one of Cybele and Attis, and the Egyptian one of Isis and Osiris. In the Greek fable, as in its Asiatic and Egyptian counterparts, a goddess mourns the loss of a loved one, who personifies the vegetation, more especially the corn, which dies in winter to revive in spring.
The oldest literary document which narrates the myth of Demeter and Persephone is the beautiful Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which critics assign to the seventh century before our era... It has been generally recognised, and indeed it seems scarcely open to doubt, that the main theme which the poet set before himself in composing this hymn was to describe the traditional foundation of the Eleusinian Mysteries by the goddess Demeter.
But there is yet another and a deeper secret of the mysteries which the author of the poem appears to have divulged under cover of his narrative. He tells us how, as soon as she had transformed the barren brown expanse of the Eleusinian plain into a field of golden grain, she gladdened the eyes of Triptolemus and the other Eleusinian princes by showing them the growing or standing corn. When we compare this part of the story with the statement of a Christian writer of the second century, Hippolytus, that the very heart of the mysteries consisted in showing to the initiated a reaped ear of corn, we can hardly doubt that the poet of the hymn was well acquainted with this solemn rite, and that he deliberately intended to explain its origin in precisely the same way as he explained other rites of the mysteries, namely by representing Demeter as having set the example of performing the ceremony in her own person. Thus myth and ritual mutually explain and confirm each other.
Let me repeat what he just said, and place it in bold face: the very heart of the mysteries consisted in showing to the initiated a reaped ear of corn.
Frazer goes on to systematically deconstruct the generally-held belief that Demeter represents an "Earth-Mother" archetype, and insists that Demeter is actually a personification of corn (and also barleycorn); a Corn Goddess, seeking domination over the Earth and its limitations, seeking to transcend the soil to which it is tethered. "The conclusion is confirmed by the monuments; for in ancient art Demeter and Persephone are alike characterised as goddesses of the corn by the crowns of corn which they wear on their heads and by the stalks of corn which they hold in their hands. Again, it was Demeter who first revealed to the Athenians the secret of the corn and diffused the beneficent discovery far and wide through the agency of Triptolemus, whom she sent forth as an itinerant missionary to communicate the boon to all mankind."
In more modern times, the idea of the Corn Goddess is still with us. In Germany to this day, corn is commonly personified under the folkloric name of "The Corn-mother". When the wind causes waves to ripple across a field of corn, the farmers say, "There goes the Corn-mother" or "The Corn-mother is walking through the corn." She is believed to be present in the handful of corn which is left standing last on the field. Depending on local custom, she is either revered by turning that last corn stalk into a ritual doll, or she is exorcised and driven out like a demon.
Frazer continues his scholarly ponderings with a section entitled "The Spirit of the Corn embodied in Human Beings". Which brings us back to where we came in. Says Frazer:
"The spirit of the corn manifests itself not merely in vegetable but also in human form; the person who cuts the last sheaf or gives the last stroke at threshing passes for a temporary embodiment of the corn-spirit, just as much as the bunch of corn which he reaps or threshes".
In other words, you are what you kill, and you are what you eat.
That phrase, "you are what you eat", has its origins in the Anthelme Brillat-Savarin quote, "Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es (Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are)". Many readers may recognize this as the maxim of the TV show Iron Chef, shown at the beginning of each episode. In the 21st century, we now know that, all allegory aside, we really are literally made of what we have eaten.
If you want a real scare this Halloween, look no further than the documentary film King Corn, in which two researchers set out to find out why corn is taking over the country, invading practically every food Americans consume. They had their hair analyzed by a lab and discovered that corn was even detected in their hair. They learned that the corn found in almost all processed foods is actually "not fit for human consumption", and yet we're eating it, and so are the animals we eat.
High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is the key ingredient to everything from soft drinks to candy, is made from this same low grade corn that was supposed to be classified inedible. The makers of King Corn could not, try though they did, gain access to any corn syrup factory to view the circumstances under which it is made. In other words, it's essentially as much a guarded and classified state secret as Area 51. You, as a member of the public, are not allowed to see how High Fructose Corn Syrup is manufactured even though you are forced to eat it every day of your life.
Rutgers professor Chi-Tang Ho has proven that soft drinks sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup are up to ten times richer in dangerous carbonyl compounds, including the mysterious methylglyoxal. Carbonyl compounds are highly elevated in the bloodstreams of diabetics, and are blamed for diabetic complications such as foot ulcers, nerve damage, and decreased vision.
Since almost all candies now contain High Fructose Corn Syrup, CBN's Pat Robertson and Kimberly Daniels are inadvertently speaking a sort of truth when they say that Halloween candy is possessed by spirits. That ancient spirit of the Corn Goddess is spreading to all that it touches, and it has very nearly touched everything. You, me, Pat Robertson, we're all part corn. It's in our hair. It's in our cells. Our brains. Our nerves. Our molecular structure. Our atomic structure. All living things are increasingly infected by the presence of corn, for better or for worse. And it's too late to stop it now even if we could. It may or may not truly impact us in our own lifetime, but the long-term difference it will make in the future trajectory of life on Earth is immense.
Like a virus and its host, corn has successfully used us as a means to enable it to multiply and spread itself.
To what ends? Probably nothing more sinister than that age-old simple reason for doing anything: survival. Corn is not only surviving and thriving, it is closer to world domination than any other plant in nature, thanks in part to our own inexplicable efforts to promulgate it. We're turning the entire planet into a corn domain, and we don't even know why we're doing it; we're just doing it because something is compelling us to do so. We don't ask questions, we just plough the fields and scatter.


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Fortnightly tea dances with Jeff Short will be held at the Witham Public Hall in Collingwood Road.
The next dance will be held on Monday between 2pm and 4pm and will return every two weeks until the end of March.
There will be ballroom, latin and sequence dancing.
Smart dress code please. Refreshments available.
£4 entrance available from 01621 892404


text:
An independent audit has damned Labor's rollout of the national broadband network (NBN) and recommends all major infrastructure projects be subject to a published cost-benefit analysis.
The review by former Productivity Commission head Bill Scales is highly critical of the NBN project, saying the Rudd cabinet gave only "perfunctory" consideration to the $43 billion second stage of its development.
The government-commissioned audit found that while the $4.7 billion NBN Mark I was "in general conducted appropriately from a public policy perspective", Mark II was "rushed, chaotic and inadequate".
The Scales review found the second stage, introduced in 2009, was given only 11 weeks consideration by the government.
No business case or cost-benefit analysis was done for the project, which has since been marked by delays and cost blowouts.
The company set up to deliver the project, NBN Co, was not "fit for purpose", Mr Scales said.
Only a large and established telecommunications company could have rolled out the project in the allotted time.
The audit recommended all taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects worth more than $1 billion be subject to an independent cost benefit analysis, which should be released for public consultation.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who has been charged with overhauling the NBN, said the multibillion-dollar infrastructure project was "an extraordinary leap into the unknown".
"It was just a ramshackle, reckless excursion which has cost the nation tens of billions of dollars," he told Sky News.
It was already coalition policy to have a cost-benefit analysis for projects worth more than $100 million, Mr Turnbull said.
He agreed there was a good case for making them public, "so the public understand what the government is doing with their money".
The coalition has promised to rein in spending on the NBN, which under Labor relied on expensive fibre-to-the-premises technology.
It plans to introduce a mix of technologies, including fibre-to-the-node and fixed wireless.
Labor dismissed the Scales audit as a political attack on the NBN, saying it proved the government is not committed to broadband.
"We will create a digital divide in this country where a few people will have access to the best and fastest internet … and the rest of Australians will get second-rate helpings from the Abbott government," Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said.