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For a man who once said, "You have to turn your back sometimes," pertaining to his tendency to go against the grain and delve in out-of-favor bets, one cannot help but be lured into the fascinating investment moves of Canadian investor, Prem Watsa .
Take his top holding of the stock, Research in Motion Ltd. ( RIMM ), for example.
Acquiring shares of the company in the third quarter of 2010, RIMM declined in market share and stock prices for years, despite its more recent bounce back in market value. As the stock downgraded, Watsa's holding sky-rocketed. He added 93 percent to his stake in the third quarter, alone.
To add on to the media's scrutiny of RIMM, as reported by Barron's, the stock is among the ones that will be dropped from the Nasdaq 100 index on Dec. 24, switched with stocks that drip with more appeal in market value.
Regardless, RIMM remains Watsa's second largest holding as of the end of the third quarter, right after Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ), with RIMM representing 21.1 percent of his 42-stock portfolio, which is valued at about $1.8 billion.
As a widely known contrarian investor, Watsa is approximated to have produced an average return of 8.5 percent in the last 12 months, GuruFocus Scoreboard predicts. His portfolio has extracted about a 23.4 percent return since inception. He is one of GuruFocus' nominees for Investment Guru of 2012.
With the business world's recent magnification of RIMM, and the fact that Watsa's name is attached to the stock, it is always delighting to find reading material, new and old, about the value investor.
One in particular, a popular read for Watsa followers, was an article in Toronto Life magazine, titled "$2-Billion Man," which spotlighted the life of Watsa. Published in 2009, below is an excerpt:
"Professor Andrew Lo, the director of MIT's Laboratory for Financial Engineering, studies the psychology of the market. While Lo believes the markets are capable of rational behaviour, he says they become irrational when investors' animal instincts take over and their pleasure or fear receptors are activated...Lo believes that individuals who, like Watsa...have a more highly developed instinct for fear. They can sniff out trouble well before the average unsuspecting investor. They might be naturally temperate (a kind of market ascetic), but they are also a more highly evolved animal.
'Either he has experienced this before, so he has a memory of pain or loss,' Lo says, 'or he has developed certain models or forecasts that trigger in his brain the potential for pain.'
In Watsa's case, it's a bit of both. He's not only a long-time student of crashes; he also has first-hand knowledge of what it means to almost lose it all." (Read the rest of $2-Billion Man here.)
The article impeccably captured who Watsa was, and who he continues to be. It provided details that enabled followers to understand his methods as a value investor. Perhaps the article could have even provided a closer understanding about Watsa's mindset, used each time in crafting his stock picks every quarter.
Throughout the year, there were various stocks that produced prodigious returns in Watsa's portfolio.
Starting with His Largest Holdings
Year to date, Johnson & Johnson has appreciated by 8.17 percent in market value. While its stock is down today by 0.13 percent, it is trading close to this year's high of $72 in October - its share price is currently $70. The lowest it traded this year was in June around $51.
Watsa belongs in the top 10 group of investors (that GuruFocus follows) who owns the most shares of JNJ. As of the third quarter, he reported a total holding of 5.9 million shares. This accounts for 22.2 percent of his portfolio.
JNJ data by GuruFocus.com
Level 3 Communications Inc. ( LVLT ) makes up 16.1 percent of Watsa's portfolio, or almost 6 percent of shares outstanding. Year to date, its market value has gone up almost 27 percent.
Level 3's stock price surged the highest in March around $27, and traded the lowest in January around $17. Currently, the stock is up 6 percent for today's trading, priced at $23.07 per share.
LVLT data by GuruFocus.com
Making up the fourth largest represented stock in Watsa's portfolio, Resolute Forest Products Inc. ( RFP ) stock has gone up 1.31 percent year to date. Watsa first acquired the stock in the second quarter of this year. He currently owns almost 19 million shares of the company, and represents 18.91 percent of the company's shares outstanding.
Up almost 4 percent today, Resolute Forest Products is trading at $12.85.
RFP data by GuruFocus.com
Watsa has 3.1 million shares of US Bancorp ( USB ), which is 5.8 percent of his portfolio. The stock has gone up 18.15 percent this year, trading its highest in October around $35, and trading its lowest in January around $27.
Watsa's latest move on the stock was a stake reduction in the third quarter by 30 percent.
USB data by GuruFocus.com
Watsa's 52-Week High Stocks
Using the GuruFocus All-in-One Screener, the following stocks were the results that turned up as Watsa's stocks that changed the most in a 52-week time frame.
USG Corp. ( USG ) is one of Watsa's smaller holdings. He currently claims about 42,000 shares of the stock. However, USG price has reported the most positive change in market value in 52 weeks.
It has garnered a price increase of 169 percent year to date. Its stock is up 3.18 percent this afternoon, trading at a price of $28.26. It traded its lowest in January when its price was around $10.
USG data by GuruFocus.com
Watsa owns 35,000 shares of Nam Tai Electronics Inc. ( NTE ). He first acquired the stock in the first quarter of 2008, starting off with only 25,000 shares. In 2010, he added 10,000 more shares to his holding, and has not touched the stock ever since.
Nam Tai has gone up 163.47 percent this year, trading near its November peak price of $15. Its current price is $13.99, its stock up 3.86 percent this afternoon. The lowest that it traded this year was in March around $4.
NTE data by GuruFocus.com
Watsa acquired Overstock.com Inc. ( OSTK ) in the third quarter of this year, and has not touched the company ever since, purchasing more almost 3.4 million shares. It makes up 1.9 percent of Watsa's portfolio, and Watsa owns 14.45 percent of its shares outstanding.
Year to date, Overstock has delivered 82.78 percent in market value. It traded its highest in November around $15 and traded its lowest in April at $5.
OSTK data by GuruFocus.com
View Prem Watsa's latest stock picks here, as well as his undervalued stocks, top growth companies and high yield stocks.About GuruFocus: GuruFocus.com tracks the stocks picks and portfolio holdings of the world's best investors. This value investing site offers stock screeners and valuation tools. And publishes daily articles tracking the latest moves of the world's best investors. GuruFocus also provides promising stock ideas in 3 monthly newsletters sent to Premium Members .
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.


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Appellant, who was born in Germany, came to this country with her parents as a child and acquired derivative American citizenship. She lived abroad since graduation from college, became married to a German national, and, except for two visits back to this country, has lived in Germany for the past eight years. The State Department denied her a passport, certifying that she had lost her American citizenship under 352 (a) (1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which provides that a naturalized citizen, with exceptions not material here, loses citizenship by continuous residence for three years in the country of origin. She thereupon sued in the District Court for a declaratory judgment that she is still an American citizen and has appealed from that court's adverse decision. Held: by a majority of this Court that 352 (a) (1) is discriminatory and therefore violative of due process under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, since no restriction against the length of foreign residence applies to native-born citizens, though some members of that majority believe that Congress lacks constitutional power to effect involuntary divestiture of citizenship. Pp. 164-169.
218 F. Supp. 302, reversed.
Milton V. Freeman argued the cause for appellant. With him on the briefs were Robert E. Herzstein, Horst Kurnik and Charles A. Reich.
Bruce J. Terris argued the cause for appellee. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Cox, Assistant Attorney General Miller and Beatrice Rosenberg.
Jack Wasserman, David Carliner and Melvin L. Wulf filed a brief for the American Civil Liberties Union, as amicus curiae, urging reversal. [377 U.S. 163, 164]
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 66 Stat. 163, 269, 8 U.S.C. 1101, 1484, provides by 352:
The Solicitor General makes his case along the following lines.
Over a period of many years this Government has been seriously concerned by special problems engendered when naturalized citizens return for a long period to the countries of their former nationalities. It is upon this premise that the argument derives that Congress, through its power over foreign relations, has the power to deprive such citizens of their citizenship.
Other nations, it is said, frequently attempt to treat such persons as their own citizens, thus embroiling the United States in conflicts when it attempts to afford them protection. It is argued that expatriation is an alternative to withdrawal of diplomatic protection. It is also argued that Congress reasonably can protect against the tendency of three years' residence in a naturalized citizen's former homeland to weaken his or her allegiance to this country. The argument continues that it is not invidious discrimination for Congress to treat such naturalized citizens differently from the manner in which it treats native-born citizens and that Congress has the right to legislate with respect to the general class without regard to each factual violation. It is finally argued that Congress here, unlike the situation in Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. 144 , was aiming only to regulate and not to punish, and that what Congress did had been deemed appropriate not only by this country but by many others and is in keeping with traditional American concepts of citizenship.
We start from the premise that the rights of citizenship of the native born and of the naturalized person are of the same dignity and are coextensive. The only difference drawn by the Constitution is that only the "natural born" citizen is eligible to be President. Art. II, 1. [377 U.S. 163, 166]
While the rights of citizenship of the native born derive from 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment and the rights of the naturalized citizen derive from satisfying, free of fraud, the requirements set by Congress, the latter, apart from the exception noted, "becomes a member of the society, possessing all the rights of a native citizen, and standing, in the view of the constitution, on the footing of a native. The constitution does not authorize Congress to enlarge or abridge those rights. The simple power of the national Legislature, is to prescribe a uniform rule of naturalization, and the exercise of this power exhausts it, so far as respects the individual." Osborn v. Bank of United States, 9 Wheat. 738, 827. And see Luria v. United States, 231 U.S. 9, 22 ; United States v. MacIntosh, 283 U.S. 605, 624 ; Knauer v. United States, 328 U.S. 654, 658 .
Views of the Justices have varied when it comes to the problem of expatriation.
There is one view that the power of Congress to take away citizenship for activities of the citizen is nonexistent absent expatriation by the voluntary renunciation of nationality and allegiance. See Perez v. Brownell, 356 U.S. 44, 79 (dissenting opinion of JUSTICES BLACK and DOUGLAS); Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86 (opinion by CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN). That view has not yet commanded a majority of the entire Court. Hence we are faced with the issue presented and decided in Perez v. Brownell, supra, i. e., whether the present Act violates due process. That in turn comes to the question put in the following words in Perez:
Speaking of the provision in the Nationality Act of 1940, which was the predecessor of 352 (a) (1), Chairman Dickstein of the House said that the bill would "relieve this country of the responsibility of those who reside in foreign lands and only claim citizenship when it serves their purpose." 86 Cong. Rec. 11944. And the Senate Report on the 1940 bill stated:
In Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, supra, a divided Court held that it was beyond the power of Congress to deprive an American of his citizenship automatically and without any prior judicial or administrative proceedings because he left the United States in time of war to evade or avoid training or service in the Armed Forces. The Court held that it was an unconstitutional use of [377 U.S. 163, 168] congressional power because it took away citizenship as punishment for the offense of remaining outside the country to avoid military service, without, at the same time, affording him the procedural safeguards granted by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. Yet even the dissenters, who felt that flight or absence to evade the duty of helping to defend the country in time of war amounted to manifest nonallegiance, made a reservation. JUSTICE STEWART stated:
[ Footnote 2 ] For other aspects of the case see 372 U.S. 224 .
MR. JUSTICE CLARK, whom MR. JUSTICE HARLAN and MR. JUSTICE WHITE join, dissenting.
The appellant, a derivative citizen since 1950, has voluntarily absented herself from the United States for over a decade, living in her native Germany for the last eight years. In 1956 she married a German citizen there; she has since borne four (German national) sons there, and now says she has no intention to return to the United States.
I, too, sympathize with the appellant for the dilemma in which she has placed herself through her marriage to a foreign citizen. But the policy of our country is involved here, not just her personal consideration. I cannot say that Congress made her a second-class citizen by enacting 352 (a) (1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 66 Stat. 269, 8 U.S.C. 1484, placing a "badge of lack of allegiance" upon her because she chose to live permanently abroad in her native land. If there is such a citizenship or badge, appellant, not the Congress, created it through her own actions. All that Congress did was face up to problems of the highest national importance by authorizing expatriation, the only adequate remedy. Appellant, with her eyes open to the result, chose by her action to renounce her derivative citizenship. Our cases have so interpreted such action for half [377 U.S. 163, 170] a century. Mackenzie v. Hare, 239 U.S. 299 (1915). As applied to her I cannot say, as does the Court, that the command of Congress in 352 (a) (1) is discriminatory and, therefore, violative of due process. Mackenzie decided just the contrary, upholding a statute which provided that, although an American male did not suffer loss of citizenship during marriage to a foreign citizen, an American woman did. Here the appellant had statutory notice of the requirement; she voluntarily acted in disregard of it for eight years, intends to continue to do so, and in my view has therefore renounced her citizenship.
There is nothing new about the practice of expatriating naturalized citizens who voluntarily return to their native lands to reside. It has a long-established and widely accepted history. Our concept of citizenship was inherited from England and, accordingly, was based on the principle that rights conferred by naturalization were subject to the conditions reserved in the grant. See Calvin's Case, 7 Co. Rep. 1 a, 77 Eng. Rep. 377 (1608). It was with this in mind that the Founders incorporated Art. I, 8, cl. 4, into our Constitution. This clause grants Congress the power "[t]o establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization . . . ." And, as Madison himself said, these words meant that the "Natl. Legislre. is to have the right of regulating naturalization, and can by virtue thereof fix different periods of residence as conditions of enjoying different privileges of Citizenship . . . ." II Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, 235 (1911). This was confirmed during the debate in the First Congress on the first naturalization bill when Alexander White of Virginia suggested that if the residence requirement were stricken, "another clause ought to be added, depriving [naturalized] persons of the privilege of citizenship, who left the country and staid abroad for a given [377 U.S. 163, 171] length of time." 1 Annals of Congress 1110 (1790). James Madison answered:
The right to renounce citizenship acquired at birth was a serious question during the War of 1812. In 1814 the Government, through Secretary of State Monroe, circulated an anonymous pamphlet, A Treatise on Expatriation, which declared that "[e]xpatriation . . . is nothing more than emigration, with an intention to settle permanently abroad." At 21. Since that time it has traditionally been our policy to withdraw diplomatic protection from naturalized citizens domiciled in their native states. See, e. g., letter from Secretary of State Adams to Shaler (1818), III Moore, Digest of International Law 735-736 (1906); letter from United States Minister to Prussia Wheaton to Knoche (1840), S. Exec. Doc. No. 38, 36th Cong., 1st Sess., 6-7; letter from Secretary of State Fish to Wing (1871), II Wharton, Digest of International Law of the United States 361-362 (2d ed. 1887); communication from Secretary of State Hay to American diplomats (1899), III Moore, supra, at 950. During all this period the United States protected all citizens abroad except naturalized ones residing in their [377 U.S. 163, 172] native lands. In 1868 the Bancroft treaty was negotiated with the North German Confederation. It provided that each country would recognize naturalization of its native-born citizens by the other country. It further provided that "[i]f a German naturalized in America renews his residence in North Germany, without the intent to return to America, he shall be held to have renounced his naturalization . . . [and] [t]he intent not to return may be held to exist when the person naturalized in the one country resides more than two years in the other country." 15 Stat. 615, 616-617. The United States has similar rights under existing treaties with 20 countries. All of these rights will be stricken by the decision today.
In the late nineteenth century the Government adopted a practice of informing naturalized citizens residing in their native lands without intent to return that they had expatriated themselves. The doctrine underlying this procedure has since been followed on several occasions by commissions arbitrating the claims of American citizens against foreign governments. See III Moore, History and Digest of International Arbitrations 2562-2572, 2579-2581 (1898).
As early as 1863 President Lincoln had suggested to Congress that it "might be advisable to fix a limit beyond which no citizen of the United States residing abroad may claim the interposition of his Government." 7 Messages and Papers of the Presidents 3382 (Richardson ed. 1897). However, no legislation was enacted in the nineteenth century. In 1906, at the request of Congress, Secretary of State Elihu Root appointed a "citizenship board" to consider this and other related matters. The Board's report stated:
This historical background points up the international difficulties which led to the adoption of the policy announced in 352 (a) (1). Residence of United States nationals abroad has always been the source of much international friction and the ruling today will expand these difficulties tremendously. In 1962 alone 919 persons were expatriated on the basis of residence in countries of former nationality. The action of the Court in voiding these expatriations will cause no end of difficulties because thousands of persons living throughout the world will come under the broad sweep of the Court's [377 U.S. 163, 174] decision. It is estimated that several thousand of these American expatriates reside in iron curtain countries alone. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on S. Res. 49, 85th Cong., 1st Sess., 133. The protection of American citizens abroad has always been a most sensitive matter and continues to be so today. This is especially true in Belgium, Greece, France, Iran, Israel, Switzerland and Turkey, because of their refusal to recognize the expatriation of their nationals who acquire American citizenship. The dissension that springs up in some of these areas adds immeasurably to the difficulty.
Nor is the United States alone in making residence abroad cause for expatriation. Although the number of years of foreign residence varies from 2 to 10 years, 29 countries, including the United Kingdom and 7 Commonwealth countries, expatriate naturalized citizens residing abroad. Only four - Czechoslovakia, Poland, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia - apply expatriation to both native-born and naturalized citizens. Even the United Nations sanctions different treatment for naturalized and native-born citizens; Article 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness provides that naturalized citizens who reside abroad for seven years may be expatriated unless they declare their intent to retain citizenship.
The decisions of this Court have consistently approved the power of Congress to enact statutes similar to the one here stricken down. Beginning with Mackenzie v. Hare, supra, where the Court sustained a statute suspending during coverture the citizenship of a native-born American woman who married a foreigner, the Court has invariably upheld expatriation when there is a concurrence on the part of the citizen. In Mackenzie exactly the [377 U.S. 163, 175] same argument was made that appellant urges here. Indeed, the Court uses the same opinion in this case to strike down 352 (a) (1) as was urged in Mackenzie, namely, Osborn v. Bank of the United States, 9 Wheat. 738 (1824), where Chief Justice Marshall remarked: "The constitution does not authorize Congress to enlarge or abridge . . . [the] rights" of citizens. At 827. But the Court in Mackenzie, without dissent on the merits, held:
The Court bases its decision on the fact that 352 (a) (1) applies only to naturalized, not native-born, citizens. It says this results in a discrimination in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. I think that in so doing the Court overspeaks itself. If Congress has the power to expatriate all citizens, as the Court's position implies, it would certainly have like power to enact a more narrowly confined statute aimed only at those citizens whose presence in their native homelands can embroil the United States in conflict with such countries. As the history shows, the naturalized citizen who returns to his homeland is often the cause of the difficulties. This fact is recognized by the policy of this country and of 25 others and by a United Nations Convention as well. Through 352 (a) (1), Congress has restricted its remedy to correction of the precise situations which have caused the problem. In adopting the classification "naturalized citizen" has the Congress acted with reason? Many times this Court has upheld classifications of more significance. Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 81 (1943) (curfew imposed on persons of Japanese ancestry, regardless of citizenship, in military areas during war); Heim v. McCall, 239 U.S. 175 (1915) (aliens not employable on public works projects); Terrace [377 U.S. 163, 177] v. Thompson, 263 U.S. 197 (1923) and Porterfield v. Webb, 263 U.S. 225 (1923) (aliens who were ineligible for citizenship not permitted to hold land for farming or other purposes); Ohio ex rel. Clarke v. Deckebach, 274 U.S. 392 (1927) (aliens not permitted to conduct pool and billiard rooms). As in Mackenzie v. Hare, supra, these cases were sustained on the basis that the classification was reasonably devised to meet a demonstrated need. Distinctions between native-born and naturalized citizens in connection with foreign residence are drawn in the Constitution itself. Only a native-born may become President, Art. II, 1. A naturalized citizen must wait seven years after he obtains his citizenship before he is eligible to sit in the House, Art. I, 2. For the Senate, the waiting period is nine years, Art. I, 3. Do these provisions create a second-class citizenship or place a "badge of lack of allegiance" on those citizens? It has never been thought so until today. As I have shown, in the debate in the First Congress on the first naturalization bill, it was proposed to expatriate naturalized citizens who resided abroad. During the entire nineteenth century only naturalized citizens were, as a general rule, expatriated on the grounds of foreign residence, and for nearly 100 years our naturalization treaties have contained provisions authorizing the expatriation of naturalized citizens residing in their native lands. Indeed, during the consideration of the 1952 Act, not a single witness specifically objected to 352 (a) (1). Even the Americans for Democratic Action suggested that it was a reasonable regulation. It is a little late for the Court to decide in the face of this mountain of evidence that the section has suddenly become so invidious that it must be stricken as arbitrary under the Due Process Clause.
Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. 144 (1963), is not apposite. There expatriation for the offense of remaining outside the country to avoid military service [377 U.S. 163, 178] was held to constitute punishment without a criminal trial. The majority here indicates that a reservation made by MR. JUSTICE STEWART in his dissent in that case supports its present view. I think not. Indeed, my Brother STEWART'S conclusion that our cases "upholding involuntary denationalization all involved conduct inconsistent with undiluted allegiance to this country," at 214, fits this case like a glove. Here appellant has been away from the country for 10 years, has married a foreign citizen, has continuously lived with him in her native land for eight years, has borne four sons who are German nationals, and admits that she has no intention to return to this country. She wishes to retain her citizenship on a standby basis for her own benefit in the event of trouble. There is no constitutional necessity for Congress to accede to her wish.
I dissent. [377 U.S. 163, 179]
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Audit Report: Procurement management at the United Nations Joints Staff Pension Fund, 4 Jun 2008
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United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (UN OIOS) 4 Jun 2008 report titled "Audit Report: Procurement management at the United Nations Joints Staff Pension Fund" relating to the Audit Reports Jan-Sept 2008. The report runs to 32 printed pages.Note
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This collection boasts an oval shape and refined beaded design that complements the traditional style of Colonial and Brownstone architecture. The fine details were achieved through the ancient method of a lost wax process, which allows the bronze to smoothly produce finer detail than sand-cast.
This collection was thoughtfully designed to blend clean, simple elongated lines with the warmth of solid bronze.
In collaboration with renowned hospitality designer Roger Thomas comes our Paris Collection, a study in the historical styles from 17th and 18th century France. Cast from solid, art-grade bronze, Thomas has distilled the collection down to its purist form, stripping away extraneous details typical of the era to capture the timeless silhouettes presented in our collection.
The clean geometry of this rectangular shape makes a strong statement in contemporary or traditional settings. The simple handcrafted style recalls the beautiful Craftsman hardware of the early 20th century.
The subtle bevel detail smoothly wraps both the round and oval escutcheons creating the prefect understated detail to complement any traditional style.
Roger Thomas
Designed by renowned hospitality designer, Roger Thomas, it is reminiscent of historical styles from 17th and 18th century France with a sense of whimsy, romance and decorative flair.
The stepped edge adds another level of detail to this classic rectangular shape. Formal in nature, it would add texture to a contemporary style or complete a more traditional style.
Ted Boerner
Designed by Ted Boerner, respected San Francisco-based furniture designer, offers five new cabinet hardware collections, including chunky handles and asymmetrical knobs and pulls.
The elegant wave-like design effortlessly matches a room s style without overshadowing it.null
A distinguished look that incorporates subtle details without losing its classic simplicity.The Addison trim was inspired by Edwardian architecture-particularly the windows and window treatments associated with that style. A simple shape paired with thoughtful detail makes Addison an exceptionally appropriate choice for traditional homes.
Traditional but versatile, with delicate details and a subtle hint of elegance.null
An understated look that seamlessly blends into virtually any décor.null
Ornately styled, sparing no attention to detail.null
Clean lines give a futuristic look that s as modern as it is stylish.null
The tubular design offers a tastefully reserved, yet high-style look.null
Stand out with ornate details and an opulent design aesthetic.null
Our flagship trim can make any room charming and approachable.The Camelot trim blends colonial inspiration with Victorian Era edges for a versatile transitional finish.
The Century is chic, with a slightly curved shape that is simple yet imaginative.The Century trim is a Mid-Century Modern design, characterized by homes built between 1945 and 1980 and made popular in Southern Californian cities like Santa Monica.
Unassuming symmetry with modest detailing throughout.null
A modern and stylish trim that lends a chic touch of simplicity to any space.The Greenwich trim has a subtle arch design with a Californian flair and was inspired by the look and feel of Mid-Century Modern homes.
Minimalist design with clean lines and rectangular features.null
Clean lines and simple design bring a touch of elegance to any space.null
A graceful curve makes this style as delicate as it is chic.null
Imaginative and refined, offering a new view on minimalist design.null
Bringing a fresh feeling to any space with a design that s charming, clean and adaptable.null
Polished and playful, with an arched design that lends itself to almost any style.null
The eye-catching oval shape gives it a unique and memorable look.null
A simple style to suit any decor.
A simplistic design that focuses on the beauty of its shape alone.The Upland trim takes significant style cues from the Bauhaus design movement, best known for open floor plans, functional furniture and smooth facades. This style was made popular in Germany and often featured a muted color palette of blacks, whites and greys.
Soft and simple, bringing a warm, welcoming style to any room.The Wakefield trim is inspired by classic Federal-style homes made popular in towns like Arlington, Virginia. The Wakefield trim is the only trim in the Schlage product line based on an oval design.
Beverly 314
Blue 37
Brooklyn 31
Lily 71
Rainey 70
Titanium 22
Our Studio41 home design showrooms are open to everyone - homeowners, contractors, designers, and architects. We welcome your business, no matter how large or small your project, whether you are buying a single item or for a whole house, we have the products, staff, service and convenient locations to meet your needs.
If you're building or remodeling a home, we at Studio41 invite you to visit us for the products you need for your kitchen or bath, windows, and doors to complete the look you want. We have a full selection of quality products at affordable prices: kitchen and bath plumbing fixtures, kitchen and bath cabinetry, kitchen and bath accessories, windows, doors, door hardware and cabinet hardware.Click here to learn more about our process.
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Learn how Synapse Design handles multi-billion gate SOCs while optimizing for power, performance and size trade-offs.
Synapse Engineers are experts at dealing with timing closure, signal integrity and power leakage, successfully creating first-pass ASICs every time.
Getting from design to finished product requires Synapse Design's domain expertise in embedded software, hardware and firmware co-design.
Market trends drive increasing need for complex analog and M/S solutions but as processes continue to scale, SOC and ASIC analog and M/S designs can become unmanageable. Synapse Design has experts ready to create your next analog, M/S product.
Synapse Design attacks the problems of place and route including exponential growth of design rules, on chip variation, multi-corner, multi mode issues.
Highly complex electronic designs create ongoing challenges in verifying their functional correctness. Synapse Design engineering teams are verification experts.
Expert engineers with hundreds of ARM processor implementations achieve customer's goals for maximizing designs for power, performance and size at any process node.
Less power and more functionality: That's the challenge Synapse Design engineers successfully address in dealing with today's mobile, wireless and multimedia designs.
Browse through the current openings at Synapse Design and apply. Post your resumes in easy steps to join the Synapse Design team and be agent of innovation.


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LOS ANGELES—Sliders, the science-fiction series that followed a group of adventurers who used a space-time wormhole to "slide" between parallel universes, ended its five-year run much too soon and with unresolved questions, show creator Robert Weiss said, unprompted, to literally nobody Tuesday.
Weiss, who spoke out loud for nearly four and a half hours as if there were other people in his general vicinity, noted that the series never had network support, and that seasons six and seven would have brought the Jerry O'Connell vehicle to a proper close.
Sliders was canceled in 2000.
"Two seasons—44 more episodes—that's all we needed," Weiss said as he sat alone in his Los Angeles home, his voice echoing off the living room walls. "So many threads were left hanging: Sure we know Quinn's mom is safe, but how safe? After Rembrandt injected himself with the virus, was he able to kill the Kromaggs?"
"Another season also would have given us the chance to explore the fanatical religion of Slidology further," added Weiss, who was more than 600 yards away from the nearest human being. "Much further."
According to Weiss, who even gesticulated as if he were engaging another person in a face-to-face conversation, the producer could have used the extra seasons to return the show to its alternate-history roots. The former showrunner told his bathroom mirror reflection that he had ideas for parallel-reality episodes in which the atomic bomb has never been used, yo-yos are the primary form of entertainment, and the Ku Klux Klan is made up entirely of African-Americans.
"Allegory is a powerful method for examining society," Weiss said with no regard for the standard communication model in which a sender relays a message to a receiver. "If given the chance, me and the whole Sliders creative team would have loved to tackle 9/11. Some shows would have been too afraid to touch it. But not Sliders. We were fearless."
Weiss continued his uninterrupted monologue as he exited his house, got into his car, and drove to a Santa Monica diner and explained to nobody that with 2,000 additional minutes of airtime he could have finally revisited how Logan St. Clair lost touch with the gang after they switched timers in the season-three episode "Slide Like An Egyptian."
"It's a fickle business," said Weiss, an empty booth before him. "I was talking to [series cocreator] Tracy [Tormé] the other day and we already have a finale in mind. Imagine this: Quinn and Wade get married on a planet that can only sustain life for two more days. And the final shot is of our Sliders arriving through the gateway and we discover we were watching the other Sliders throughout the entire show. Awesome, right?"
Weiss then meandered through the Farmers Market, down Fairfax Avenue, and along the beach, his words often devolving into muttered sentence fragments, including, "Second Earth Prime? Could work," "Simple phone call and Jerry [O'Connell] would have come back for season six," and "Canceled? Fuck you, I'm canceled. You're canceled."
Records confirmed that, in the past seven years, Weiss is the only person to speak aloud about Sliders.
Standing at the edge of the Santa Monica Pier, with seagulls the closest living organisms capable of hearing him, the producer discussed a potential five-episode arc in which the Kromaggs successfully convince the Sliders that they never slid away from Earth Prime in the first place. He later refined the idea in a desolate downtown alleyway, telling some leaky water pipes that it might be better if just Quinn remembers sliding and the other don't.
"That could be good for dramatic tension. Hey, where am I? Anyway, Sliders was way ahead of its time," added Weiss, who later returned to his empty house, lay on his bed, and turned off his bedroom light. "The bottom line is that the fans deserve closure."


text: If you run a small business, and think that none of your data was of interest to a hacker, consider this: what if a hacker could take stolen bank account or credit card information from your computer and package it with the same information from a hundred or a thousand other small businesses? Would it be worth something then?"SMBs don't know how defenseless they've become, especially to automated and industrialized attack methodologies by organized crime," Christopher Porter tells PCWorld. Porter, a principal with the Verizon RISK Team, is the author of a new report from Verizon on security risk."[Hackers] scan the Internet, looking for remote access services, and then try the default credentials. Once they gain access, they automatically install keyloggers to collect password information [as it's typed in]," Porter says. "Then they send the information it out via e-mail or by uploading it to an FTP server or a web site. They aggregate the data and sell it on the black market."Hackers could use the keylogger to figure out how access and drain a small business' bank account, but more commonly, Porter said, they'll target point-of-sale systems, as four Romanians did recently. "That kind of attack is increasing, because they're low-risk and low-cost attacks for organized crime." Because they're geographically widespread, it's hard for any one police department to follow up.But if small businesses are increasingly vulnerable, Porter characterized the tactics they should employ in response as "quite simple.If you have a point-of-sale system, make sure to change the password from the default it came with. It shouldn't be microsmicros or alohaaloha," citing two common POS systems. "The problem is that when small businesses think about their POS system, they worry about whether it's going to be available when they sell the shirt or charge for the burger," Porter says. "They're not worried about confidentiality. They're worried about margins."Verizon's Fifth Annual Data Breach ReportThe fifth-annual Verizon 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report, produced in conjunction with the United States Secret Service, the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit, the Australian Federal Police, the Irish Reporting & Information Security Service, and the London Metropolitan Police's cybercrime unit, reveals seventy-nine percent of attacks represented in the report were opportunistic.Of all the attacks the report studied, it found 96 percent were not difficult to achieve and 97 percent were avoidable, "without the need for organizations to resort to difficult or expensive countermeasures."[Download the full report.]What does the Verizon report recommend small businesses do? The report cites three simple things:Use a firewall. Install and maintain a firewall on Internet-facing services to protect data. Hackers cannot steal what they cannot reach.Change default credentials. Point-of-sale (POS) and other systems come with pre-set credentials. Change the credentials to prevent unauthorized access.Monitor third parties. Third parties often manage firewalls and POS systems. Organizations should monitor these vendors to ensure they have implemented the above security recommendations, where applicable.In addition, Porter recommends some other simple steps:Educate your staff, especially in regard to social phishing. "Set up policies, and then make sure they're being followed. The weakest link in security will always be the carbon-based life form."Follow through on what you've bought. "Businesses spend a lot of money on security technology, but then they don't configure them properly, or ignore the reports. A well-tuned intrusion detection system that's tailored to your environment is a powerful tool for finding hacking incidents on the network."Think about security frequently, not just when you're being audited. "Check the logs of your Windows OS system, your POS system, and your security software." If that represents too big a time commitment, then hire someone to do it. Don't ignore them.Porter stresses that, in most cases, these infiltrations are targets of opportunity. If small business follows the simple procedures outlined, they're less likely to be targeted. "The criminals will pass right by you."


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Water leak aboard Australia-bound plane forces flight to return to Los Angeles airport
Qantas Airways says a water leak aboard a flight bound for Australia has forced the plane to return to Los Angeles.
The company says in a statement that the flight bound for Melbourne on Tuesday night returned to Los Angeles International Airport about an hour after takeoff.
Qantas says there were no safety concerns with the leak and that the captain decided to turn the plane around in the interest of passenger comfort. There was no immediate word on the type of plane involved.
LAX spokeswoman Amanda Parsons tells The Associated Press the 11:40 p.m. flight was carrying about 400 passengers.
Qantas says the plane's crew did all it could to help customers and that the issue with the plane was being addressed by its engineers.
The company says it is working to determine the cause of the leak.


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How not to fund highways
How long could your family pay for today's needs with tomorrow's dollars before it would start to catch up to you? Congress is doing something like that, again.
The Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014 would provide extra highway funding for 10 months by pulling money from future revenues through a tactic known as "pension smoothing." This allows employers to delay contributing to their employees' pension plans, thus raising the employers' taxable incomes now. Under a formula, they'll make up the difference later, reducing their taxable incomes then, and at that point a future Congress will have to budget for that lost revenue. But that's a problem for the future Congress.
The House of Representatives passed the $10.8 billion bill this past week, with all four Arkansas House members voting yes – which I guess they had to do, because the alternative was a train wreck. The Senate is expected to vote on the matter as early as this coming week.
This is happening because we've reached yet another unnecessary fiscal crisis. The Highway Trust Fund, which reimburses states for highway costs, will be dry within a couple of weeks – the result of too few dollars funding too many projects. The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) has already delayed some contracts in case that happens.
Money flows into the fund as a result of federal highway laws passed periodically by Congress. In the past, these have been five- or six-year deals so states could make long-term planning decisions. It takes, after all, a long time to build a highway. The most recent, MAP-21, lasted only two years, and now it's expiring. The Highway and Transportation Funding Act would extend MAP-21 only to May.
Highways are funded mostly through fuel taxes. These are easy to collect, they don't require that much bureaucracy, and they are considered to be fair because they are user fees. The person using the government service, the highway, is the one who pays for it.
But the federal fuel tax has not been increased since 1993, which means inflation has eaten away at it. Meanwhile, cars have become more fuel efficient, so we're buying fewer gallons to drive the same distance, thereby paying even less in fuel taxes. At the same time, construction costs have risen.
There's waste in the highway system, of course, but even if all of that were eliminated, the country still would be investing far too little in its aging and decaying infrastructure. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the average bridge in America is 42 years old.
For now, the easiest, quickest, most efficient way of increasing highway funding is raising the gas tax, but politically that's a tough sell. Even the Connecting Arkansas Program passed by voters in 2012 exempted fuel as part of its half-cent sales tax.
Meanwhile, the fuel tax faces an uncertain future. As Scott Bennett, AHTD director, points out, reducing fuel consumption is a national priority, so how can consumption continue to be the primary way we fund highways? The Obama administration is suggesting letting states put toll booths on interstates – an inefficient way of collecting money that is inconvenient for drivers. Oregon is testing a vehicle miles traveled tax, where drivers' mileage would be tracked, and they would be taxed accordingly.
It may be that the only solution now is for states to bear greater responsibility for maintaining and constructing the nation's roadways. According to Bennett, 70% of Arkansas highway construction funding comes from the federal government, but other states pay more of their own way.
Arkansas voters have shown a willingness to pay for highways. In addition to the Connecting Arkansas Program, they also voted in 2011 for the Interstate Rehabilitation Program, which funds interstate improvements through a bond issue. Those two programs are funding $3 billion worth of work. On the other hand, they only apply to 4 percent of the state's highway miles.
What do you think? Raise fuel taxes? Build toll booths? Track how far (and maybe where) we drive? Let the states take care of it?
Something has to happen. There are only so many times future dollars can pay for current work.


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"They that love beyond the World cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can Spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle. They live in one another still." - William Penn, 1693
When a Friend dies, that Friend's monthly meeting writes and approves a memorial minute, which emphasizes the deceased's life as a Friend. Memorial minutes provide us with examples of ways to live by our Quaker Faith.
Send your meeting's memorial minutes to Western Friend if you are affiliated with Intermountain Yearly Meeting, North Pacific Yearly Meeting, or Pacific Yearly Meeting. We will publish them here.


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Hong Kong Gives Swift Kick to Ivory Traders
Earlier this month, the Chinese government destroyed more than six tons of confiscated ivory held in government stockpiles, signaling the new resolve of the People's Republic of China to crack down on the illegal ivory trade and to reduce ivory consumption. On January 23, the Hong Kong Government's Endangered Species Advisory Committee (ESAC) of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) decided that it will destroy 28 tons of ivory stockpiles from past seizures—the largest cache of seized ivory to be destroyed to date, anywhere in the world. This action signals that the fight against the ivory trade is global, and it's finding increasing favor in critical parts of Asia, among consumers and government officials.
More than 46,000 supporters of our global affiliate, Humane Society International, responded to our call to support the Hong Kong ivory destruction. HSI president and CEO Dr. Andrew Rowan wrote to the ESAC, laying out reasons in support of the destruction. HSI has met and communicated with AFCD and ESAC as well as collaborated closely with advocates of Hong Kong for Elephants. This campaign, coordinated with the work of local advocates during the past year, helped produce the government's January 23 decision.
Elephant poaching has reached an unprecedented level. Last year poachers massacred at least 35,000 African elephants. With less than half a million elephants left in the wild in Africa, if this killing rate persists, African elephants could be extinct in two decades. Poachers poisoned or shot elephants with machine guns, and hacked off the tusks of elephants while the animals were still alive. This slaughter of elephants, for jewelry, trinkets, or statuettes – conducted in many cases by the Janjaweed, the Lord's Resistance Army, and Al-Shabaab, and other terrorist groups — is unconscionable, and it is robbing African nations of the value that live elephants would bring to these nations in the form of wildlife tourism for decades.
Reducing consumer demand for ivory reduces the incentive for poachers to massacre elephants and for traffickers to engage in illegal ivory trade. Destroying stockpiles of seized ivory, as the recent examples of the U.S. and China have demonstrated, is a great way to raise awareness about the elephant poaching crisis and reminds current and potential buyers to eschew ivory. So many people don't connect their purchase of ivory with the epidemic of poaching, and we are reminding people that you can draw a straight line from the purchase of this product to the killing of elephants in their native habitats.
HSI will continue our public education programs with local partner groups in China and Hong Kong on elephant protection as well as work in concert with relevant government officials and agencies to implement stronger laws to reduce ivory consumption. Here in the U.S., as the second largest market in the world for ivory, there is work to be done. HSUS and HSI are working with lawmakers in Hawaii and New York to ban the sale of ivory to reduce the U.S. prominent role in the cruel ivory trade. We're likely to expand that effort to other states, toward the goal of creating no safe haven in any part of the world for this blood trade in ivory.


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NAIROBI, Kenya - Dozens of extremists attacked a Kenyan coastal town for hours, killing those who weren't Muslim and those who didn't know the Somali language, officials and witnesses said Monday. At least 48 people were killed and two hotels were set on fire.
Police said Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamist group was most likely to blame for the assault.
Somali website www.somalimemo.net said the Islamist group had claimed responsibility. It gave no details and the group's spokesman could not be reached for comment on the assault, the latest in a spate of gun and bomb attacks in recent months that have hurt Kenya's struggling tourist industry.
The assault in Mpeketoni began Sunday night as residents watched World Cup matches on TV and lasted until early Monday, with little resistance put up by Kenya's security forces. Cars and buildings still smoldered at daybreak.
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Armed Militants' Attack Leaves Dozens Dead in KenyaJune 16, 201400:43
Like the gunmen who attacked Nairobi's Westgate Mall last year, the Mpeketoni attackers gave life-or-death religious assessment, a witness said, killing those who were not Muslim.
"They came to our house at around 8 p.m. and asked us in Swahili whether we were Muslims. My husband told them we were Christians and they shot him in the head and chest," said Anne Gathigi.
Another resident, John Waweru, said his two brothers were killed because the attackers did not like that the brothers did not speak Somali.
"My brothers who stay next door to me were killed as I watched. I was peeping from my window and I clearly heard them speak to my brothers in Somali and it seems since my brothers did not meet their expectations, they sprayed them with bullets and moved on," said Waweru.
At the Breeze View Hotel, the gunmen pulled the men aside and ordered the women to watch as they killed them, saying it was what Kenyan troops are doing to Somali men inside Somalia, a police commander said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to share such details of the attack.


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Tag Archives: buying a business
Selling a Business? Don't Get 'Sandbagged'!
In the context of selling or buying a business, the term "sandbagging" refers to when the buyer in an acquisition agreement (asset purchase agreement or purchase and sale agreement) seeks post-closing indemnification for breaches of representations and warranties that the buyer was aware of prior to signing the acquisition agreement, or in some cases, closing the… Finish Reading Selling a Business? Don't Get 'Sandbagged'!


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Mila Kunis Not Actually Going on YouTube Marine Date?
[There was a video here]
This morning on the Access Hollywood Live program, co-host Billy Bush, the human embodiment of a Teddy Ruxpin doll, said that Mila Kunis will not be going on her Marine Corps Ball date. Oh no!
Over the weekend Kunis agreed to be Sgt. Scott Moore's date to the Marine Corps Ball after he asked her out on YouTube, and everyone was excited and warm of heart. But now sinister old Billy Bush says that Kunis is filming two movies around that time in November, so she can't jet off to Maryland to fulfill her treasured promise. Hmmmmm. I bet they'll find a way though, right? That would be incredibly bad PR to back out at this point, wouldn't it? I mean, the guy was so excited. His mom was going to help him pick out a corsage and there was a limo and everything and they were supposed to go to Jake Murphy's house afterward 'cause his parents are at Lake Winnipesaukee for the weekend. It was gonna be awesome! C'mon, Mila. You can't do this to the poor guy. Find a way. You're a movie star! Use your movie star magic.


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Transavia.com - Bologna Airport (BLQ)
Bologna Airport (BLQ) has a single passenger terminal. Check-in Area is located at the ground level.
Check your arriving flight here
Check your departing flight here
Follow the links below in order to see all the flights scheduled for Transavia.com
- Arrivals
- Departures
In order to check in for your flight at Bologna Airport (BLQ), go to departures hall in the main building terminal, or follow the instructions provided in your ticket.
General Information
- IATA Code: HV
- Website: www.transavia.com/


text: Memorycarenearme.com offers a comprehensive list of top rated Alzheimer's care facilities and nursing homes near Albuquerque, NM. We currently have Alzheimer's care facilities listed near Albuquerque. Adjust your search radius with our easy to use search feature to find the facility that will be the best fit for you and your family.


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The Mirror
Evan Sanders
Posted on January 19, 2013
If you ever wondered what it's like sometimes. Here it is. All on the line.
I've been happy. And at the same time, I was in an enormous amount of pain. Every time I had to read the book, at the end I felt like I just got out of a fight with Mike Tyson. Problem was, I went into this fight not knowing what to expect. Essentially I was blindfolded. To me, to have turned all of that darkness into light was an almost impossible task. But i did it. However, I am still going through withdrawals of all of this being torn out from the inside and brought into the light. There was a lot of stuff in the basement that I didn't think was still there. Like Socrates said…my eyes are adjusting to the brightest of lights. I am blinded by a dream coming true, and I know that when my eyes adjust I am going to see something so clear and beautiful. Real and true. And then I am going to dive right back down and hold the lantern for others who are afraid of making their own footsteps. Those who only see the darkness. the looming black. A consuming darkness – that if left unattended, starts splitting the seams of your heart one by one.
If you ever wondered what the dark part feels like that accompanies the light – there it is on the paper. In the end though, this is the part of the game that turns the iron in the heart into something unbreakable. You become unbreakable. But in order to have that strong heart, you must truly face the hardest test – your deepest and darkest fears. They don't come one by one, they come knocking all at once. That will either break you or make you.
In every speech from a motivational or inspirational speaker, you will hear a segment about overcoming obstacles. In fact, you will hear an almost romanticized version of people overcoming massive failures. What you do not hear though is the full truth. The heart wrenching emotions and feelings that come along with the obstacles. Those times where you sit in the bottom of your shower, all the lights off, your forehead resting on your arms crossed over your knees, feeling the water run over you. There is a strange sensation that comes over you in those moments. Sometimes you cry. Sometimes you sit there in perfect silence just listening to the water patter on the curtain. Learning to breathe again. You wont hear about these moments. They probably think that you wont try to go after what you want if you hear this.
But this is a disservice because you end up going into a battle not knowing the price of your dreams. There will be loss, there will be casualties, there will be severe pain. There will be all of these things, but you are only given as much as you can handle. Only as much as you can take…right up until you get to breaking point. You will crack, but never be fully lost. In the end, when you go after your dreams, you have to come back to the people and let them see and learn for themselves. To let them know that there is something beyond the cloak of darkness – and if they wish, to pick up a lantern of their own.
(End of Part 1)
So the story does not end there. I get off the train, on my way to my best friends house, feeling pretty down…but looking forward to seeing him…and at the bus stop…there was this man.
This man had crutches with arm supports, and looked like he could have used some help with his luggage. I offered to carry his things for him, we got on the bus, I commented on his awesome Trilby hat, and we got to talking about life. We chatted for a while about where we were from…small talk etc. After a long pause, he reached down to his leg. Click, click, click…and he took if off.
I just sat there…staring at my own legs.
He looked at me after a couple minutes and said, "You know, this is a new thing for me. But people seem to be pretty helpful."
I smile at him, and I just felt…empty. Empty of everything that I had written above on the train…of doubts, worries, and fears. Here I was, siting feeling awful about all these things coming up for me, and when that man took off his prosthetic leg…it just cleaned the slate for me.
I eventually helped him with his bags, we shook hands and said our farewells. I got back into my seat on the bus with a smile on my face and mumbled the following words to myself.
"If you care about the small things…then here's the smallest of things."
I believe that people come in and out of your life for a reason. That man was there for a reason. But if I hadn't been open to that experience, I would have missed it completely. If my heart hadn't been open for help during a time of struggle, I would still be, in fact, in the dark. I am not discounting the emotions and feelings I was having before, but I did realize that it is completely up to me to flip the cards that I have been dealt and move forward. You have a choice to make each and every day. I made mine.
Stay open. Who knows? Lightning could strike.
Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project


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A thoat is a large eight-legged Barsoomian animal, 'Barsoom' being the native name for the planet Mars in Edgar Rice Burrough's works. Burroughs starting writing Barsoom novels around 1912. I never read any, for the simple reason that there were no Barsoom books in translation around when I was at the right age to enjoy them. I did read his Tarzan books, though, and suppose that I would have read Barsoom novels with equal appetite. The reason Barsoom caught my attention after having ignored it so far, lies in the recent movie 'John Carter of Mars' (JCoM).
|Click to enlarge; copyright Michael Kutsche
The wonderful image above is from the DeviantArt account of Michael Kutsche, who designed the thoat for JCoM; the thoat is the eight-legged beast, not the individual sitting on top. Have a look at how Kutsche approached the 'leg problem': where do you put eight legs without them looking odd, if not altogether ridiculous? Kutsche solved the problem by dividing the eight legs in front and hind groups. In build, the legs look a lot like those of a large mammal such as a rhinoceros or an elephant. In fact, the original hind and front legs were simply copied and pasted as close as possible to the original. Where there was one leg there are now two, moving in unison. Being so close together, that is all they can do, as otherwise they would knock into one another. This solution is very reminiscent of the large animals in Avatar, except for the fact that these had six legs, with just the front legs doubled. I criticised that arrangement in a previous post, thinking that it did not make much sense from a biological point of view. It felt it would be easy to learn how six-legged animals could or should move: after all, Earth is literally crawling with insects. For eight-legged creatures you can look at spiders or crabs.
The video fragments above shows a few seconds of thoats walking in JCoM (sorry about the quality), illustrating the 'doubled leg design'. Bt the way, I wonder why the legs are so immensely thick. Their thickness looks about right for an athletic elephant-sized mammal on Earth with just four legs. But with eight legs, each leg can be more slender than if there are four (read here for posts on leg design, gravity and the number of legs). As it is, the animal looks as if it was designed for a planet with a very high gravity, not for Mars, where gravity is just 38% of that of Earth.
The Barsoom fictional universe has been around for a century, so many illustrators over the years must have faced the problem how to design a plausible as well as dramatic eight-legged big animal? The drawing above, by John Allen St John, must be one of the first depictions of the Barsoom universe (I found it here). The style of the drawing fits the early twentieth century. This early thoat does not show doubling of the front and hind pairs of feet, but shows tripling of the front feet, keeping one pair of hind legs. There seems to be a generic 'copy and paste legs' solution operating here.
In the late thirties there was an attempt to produce an animation of JCoM. Only a bit can be found now, coming from ERBzine, a very large website on Edgar Rice Burroughs. I woulld like to include it here but am having upload problems; I may rectify that ater, but for now, here is the YouTube version. Look at how the thoat lands on its feet: there is a definite phase offset between the successive pairs of feet, resulting in a jumping gallop. This is one of the very few thoat designs with phase differences between successive pairs of legs.
Edgar Rice Burroughs son, John Coleman Burroughs, worked on his father's creations. He produced a wooden thoat model, shown above. I found these images on the Erbzine site. It is a pity that the model cannot be seen better. The legs are so close together on the body, that they must all move in unison on one side of the body, or else they will knock into one another.
The late Frank Frazetta, famous for his equally but not similarly well-developed heroes and heroines, produced quite a few Barsoom paintings. I found no thoat among them, but there are two banths, Barsoomian lions with ten legs. The ink drawing above shows a banth from the front, a nice trick to avoid looking too closely at its shape. The legs on one side seem to be moving in unison. For the oil painting, Frazetta chose to hide most of the banth's legs from sight. For a painter of Frazetta's skill this is probably no coincidence; did he feel that showing all legs would not work?
The image above is by William Stout, a well-known painter of palaeontological scenes. His thoat is livelier than most, as can be expected from a Stout design. And the legs? Well, a doubling design again.
So, what can be concluded from studying a century of thoat design? Some of the best fantasy illustrators worked on the problem, and many gravitated towards the same solution: they doubled or tripled pairs of legs, and as such did not depart too much from the familiar mammal pattern. To me the 'doubling solution' does not seem like a good idea, but if all these wonderful illustrators chose it, I may have been too harsh in my judgement. A good artist or illustrator will have learned human and some mammal anatomy, but that education is not likely to include hexapod and octapod locomotion. In fact, the necessary knowledge is not that easy to find, and has not been adapted for non-specialist use.
What would you get if you do take such knowledge into account? Well, probably something as in the animation above (adapted from a model designed to study Furahan rusp locomotion). I made no effort to define the body and the legs all have the same shape. The main point was to show an eight-legged gait that can work well. The gait is based on one described in a scientific paper on spidr gaits, and concerns a slow walk. I applied that gait to a model in which the legs are held vertically rather then horizontally, making the design better suited for large animals. Personally, I think it makes more sense than the doubling design.
You could argue that using such a true octapod gait or the simpler 'doubled leg gait' does not matter, as the audience will probably accept doubled legs as easily as a more sensible gait. Maybe; the audience may also feel that the true octapod gait has a more alien feel to it, and that should please the designers. All in all, I probably overestimated how accessible the required biological knowledge is. Well, that is a good reason to continue this blog. What else could be done with it? Phone Hollywood, perhaps?...


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A team of researchers at Kaiser Permanente and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has identified a significant relationship between mortality and the length of telomeres, the stretches of DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes, according to a presentation on Nov. 8 at the American Society of Human Genetics 2012 meeting in San Francisco.
While a reduction in telomere length is regarded as a biomarker of aging, scientists have not yet determined whether it plays a direct causal role in aging-related health changes and mortality or is just a sign of aging.
In their prospective study of 100,000 multi-ethnic individuals whose average age was 63 years, the researchers determined that an association between telomere length and mortality existed and persisted even after the data were adjusted for such demographic and behavioral factors as education, smoking and alcohol consumption, said Catherine Schaefer, Ph.D., director of the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health (RPGEH).
Dr. Schaefer and Neil Risch, Ph.D., director of the UCSF Institute for Human Genetics, are principal investigators of the Genetic Epidemiology Research Study on Adult Health and Aging (GERA). UCSF professor and Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., led the research on telomere length measurement.
The telomere research, part of the GERA project, has genotyped over 675,000 markers of 100,000 KP Northern California patients and linked them with health data from their electronic medical records. To obtain DNA for genotyping and telomere measurement, the researchers collected saliva samples from the patients, who volunteered for the project and provided scientists with access to their electronic medical records.
Two years prior to the saliva collection, the researchers conducted a detailed survey of the patients' demographic and behavioral factors, providing a unique opportunity to address questions of telomere epidemiology and aging.
"With these data, we examined demographic relationships with telomere length, behavioral influences and relationship of telomere length with all causes of mortality following sample collection," said Dr. Schaefer. "Although we found that shorter-than-average telomeres were prospectively associated with mortality, only those with the shortest telomeres were at increased risk of death."
Dr. Risch added, "While this could indicate a direct effect of telomere length on health, it will also be important to examine the extent of pre-existing diseases in these individuals to understand their possible role in the biological connection between telomere length and longevity."
Dr. Risch said that he and the other scientists expected to and did find that telomere length was inversely correlated with age, and women had longer telomeres than men except as young adults. All analyses controlled for age and gender.
Harvard Medical School scientist Cynthia C. Morton, Ph.D., who was not involved in the study, commented, "The GERA study is especially impressive for the large resource of DNA samples and corresponding electronic medical records available from KP patients, and for the outstanding group of scientists collaborating in the research.
"The intriguing findings on telomere length in the GERA cohort are no doubt among many yet forthcoming, prompting further investigations into the basis for ethnic differences in telomere length such as whether specific oral environmental exposures in ethnic groups might account for differences in telomere lengths in saliva DNA samples," added Dr. Morton, William Lambert Richardson Professor in Harvard's department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology.
Like several other investigations, GERA detected significantly longer telomeres among African Americans than other groups, but did not reveal a significant difference between European-Americans, Latinos and Asians.
According to the GERA results, telomere length was positively correlated with such factors as level of education and body mass index (BMI), and negatively correlated with cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. However, telomere length was not associated with major depression or stress-related disorders, although other studies have reported an association between telomere length and depression and stressful events.
Links between shorter telomeres and risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers, depression, pulmonary fibrosis, vascular dementia, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis have been detected by Dr. Blackburn, one of three scientists honored with the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and her research group as well as other labs. Telomeres are special DNA sequences attached to the ends of each of the 46 chromosomes in human cells. When telomeres become too short, cells can no longer multiply.
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Sales of Chromebooks exploded from basically nothing in 2012 to more than 20 percent of the U.S. commercial PC market, analyst firm NPD reported on Monday, while Windows PCs and Macs remained flat at best.
NPD estimated that, throughout all of 2013, 14.4 million desktops, notebooks, and tablets were sold through U.S. commercial channels, typically resellers. That compares to 16.4 million PCs, overall, sold in the U.S. during the third quarter alone—excluding tablets, according to IDC. All told, about 46.2 million PCs have been sold in the U.S. during 2013, IDC found.
Within that segment, however, NPD reported some intriguing findings. Chromebooks, once largely the province of Acer and Samsung, have been embraced by Dell, HP, and others—not the least of which are paying customers. In 2012, Chromebook sales were "negligible," NPD reported. But in the space of a single year, they climbed to 21 percent, NPD found, helping push overall notebook PC growth up by 28.9 percent.
Windows notebooks, however, contributed nothing to that, as NPD found that growth was flat. Worse still, Macs actually declined, with combined sales of desktops and notebooks falling by 7 percent. Windows tablet sales tripled, albeit off what NPD called "a very small base".
The message? Businesses are turning to the Web, which Chromebooks almost exclusively run. And those low-cost, Net-focused devices are becoming engines of productivity. As a result, they're receiving validation from traditional PC vendors including Acer, Asus, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard, plus Google's own Pixel.
"The market for personal computing devices in commercial markets continues to shift and change," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, in a statement. "New products like Chromebooks, and reimagined items like Windows tablets, are now supplementing the revitalization that iPads started in personal computing devices. It is no accident that we are seeing the fruits of this change in the commercial markets as business and institutional buyers exploit the flexibility inherent in the new range of choices now open to them."
Naturally, tablet sales continued to explode, capturing 22 percent(or about 3.16 million units) of all the computing device sales sold through the U.S. channel. Of all tablets sold commercially, iPads dominated with 59 percent of all unit sales, leaving the rest to Android (which grew more than 160 percent) and Windows.
Baker said that diversity will be key to the future success of hardware makers, a signpost for what vendors might release at 2014 and the weeks and months following.
"Tepid Windows PC sales allowed brands with a focus on alternative form factors or operating systems, like Apple and Samsung, to capture significant share of a market traditionally dominated by Windows devices," Baker said. "Yet the Windows PC in commercial channels is clearly not dead, and its biggest brand proponents, HP and Lenovo, remain deeply committed to that product. However, as businesses upgrade from older machines and operating systems in the year ahead, the long-term trend is clearly towards greater hardware diversity, which all manufacturers will need to embrace in order to continue to grow."
As proof, NPD offered its vendor sales rankings, featuring familiar names such as HP and Lenovo. But in fourth place, and closing, is Samsung, whose embrace of Chromebooks and tablets alike propelled it into the top four with 678 percent growth.
With businesses and consumers alike turning more and more to the Web for work, the low price of Chromebooks has obviously attracted an interest customer base—and, more importantly, validated Chromebooks as a tool for business—overheating charging cords aside. If the trend continues, Windows notebooks won't just have to fend off tablets, but Google as well.


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A former Google engineer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing trade secrets before joining Uber's effort to build robotic vehicles for its ride-hailing service.
The sentence handed down Tuesday by U.S. District Judge William Alsup came more than four months after former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski reached a plea agreement with the federal prosecutors who brought a criminal case against him last August.
Levandowski, who helped steer Google's self-driving car project before landing at Uber, was also ordered to pay more than $850,000.
Alsup had taken the unusual step of recommending the Justice Department open a criminal investigation into Levandowski while presiding over a high-profile civil trial between Uber and Waymo, a spinoff from a self-driving car project that Google began in 2007 after hiring Levandowski to be part of its team.
Levandowski eventually became disillusioned with Google and left the company in early 2016 to start his own self-driving truck company, called Otto, which Uber eventually bought for $680 million.
Before leaving Google, though, Levandowski downloaded a trove of Google's self-driving car technology, resulting in him facing 33 counts of intellectual property theft. He wound up pleading guilty to one count, culminating in Tuesday's sentencing.
The accusations turned Levandowski, once highly regarded for his early inroads into self-driving cars, into a notorious figure "almost synonymous with greed run amok in Silicon Valley," his own lawyers acknowledged in court documents filed last week.
The lawyers argued Levandowski deserved some leniency because there was never any evidence that he used Google's trade secrets while overseeing Uber's self-driving car division. He lost that job in 2017 while asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when Uber was still defending itself against Waymo's lawsuit.
Uber settled its case with Waymo for $245 million a few days into a trial that featured its former CEO, Travis Kalanick, speaking about some of his discussions with Levandowski about the ride-hailing service's desire to win the race to build self-driving cars.
Levandowski, 40, faced a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine. Besides sentencing Levandowski to 18 months in prison, Alsup fined him $95,000 and ordered him to pay Waymo $756,499 to reimburse the company for the costs it incurred in helping the government with its investigation.
It appears uncertain whether Levandowski will be able to make the payments. He filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after another court upheld an arbitration ruling requiring him to pay Google $179 million, most of which consisted of a bonus he received for his work on self-driving cars.
In its victim statement, Waymo told Alsup that Levandowski's "misconduct was enormously disruptive and harmful to Waymo, constituted a betrayal, and the financial effects would likely have been even more severe had it gone undetected."
In documents arguing why Levandowski deserved prison time, U.S. Attorney David Anderson called his theft a "brazen and shocking" act that seemed driven by ego as much as greed.
"Levandowski's actions suggest he wanted to be seen as the singular inventor of the self-driving car, the way Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the telephone," Anderson wrote.


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Kehillat Israel by Graham & Graham
We have photographed many Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and Jewish weddings at Kehillat Israel, 16019 Sunset Blvd, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 and have loved every minute of being there.
Enjoy this collection of photos and the videos below.
Call or write to check our availability to see if we can help you with your event.
Client reviews
Working with Jeff was Awesome!! He took amazing shots of my daughter's Bat Mitzvah! Finding a good photographer who takes amazing candid shots is def hard, and Jeff was TERRIFIC!! We can not recommend him enough. A lot of our pictures, we look at and say "where was he standing to take that shot?!" - Sharon, Los Angeles
We have used Graham and Graham for both my daughters b'nai mitzvah and our son's bar mitzvah.
They were professional, reasonably priced and take incredible photos. We were so happy my sister recently used them for her wedding. The pictures are all amazing shots and Jeff is very creative. I encourage anyone looking for a photographer to use them! - Jewlz, Pacific Palisades
Graham & Graham did a phenomenal job with the pictures and video at Daniel's recent Bar Mitzva and also my older son's Bar Mitzva 5 years ago.
Cannot thank you enough Jeff!
The montage you did in advance was such a cute history of Daniel's life and so much fun it really got the party going. We got compliments from many guests for this montage.
We're very grateful for the many wonderful pictures you took, memories for a lifetime. No only did the pictures capture the events perfectly, but Jeff helped us look good in them. From helping us pose in the pictures, to editing when needed, Jeff is a competent pro, and a pleasure to work with. - Andrei, Los Angeles
Kehillat Israel says it's "is an inclusive Jewish community, which honors diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds. Grounded in Jewish cultural and religious tradition, and guided by the core Reconstructionist principle to value both the wisdom of the past and the need for evolving belief and practice, KI seeks through prayer, learning and Tikkun Olam to create a sacred space in which its members of all ages may find meaning, purpose and joy."
For more information about Kehillat Israel, Pacific Palisades, check out the http://www.ourki.org website.


text: Despite concerns that federal authorities might fine or arrest him, hacker Chris Paget went ahead with a live demonstration of mobile phone interception at the Defcon hacking conference Saturday.Using several thousand dollars worth of equipment, Paget was able to intercept mobile-phone data on the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks used by AT&T and T-Mobile. He did this using a home-made system he calls an IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) catcher.Within minutes of activating his IMSI catcher in test mode, Paget had 30 phones connected to the system. Then, with a few keystrokes, he quickly configured the device to spoof an AT&T cell tower."As far as your cell phones are concerned I am now indistinguishable from AT&T," he said. He predicted that every AT&T device in the room would connect to his tower, within the next half hour.Cell phone interception is illegal in the U.S. And while the U.S. Federal Communications Commission had raised questions about his talk, Paget believes that his demonstration was legal because his device was operating in the 900MHz band used by Ham radio devices. Coincidentally, that 900MHz band is used by GSM devices in Europe "As far as your cell pones are concerned I am a European radio transmitter."Not all GSM devices will connect to Paget's IMSI catcher, however. Quad band phones will connect, but U.S. phones that do not support this 900MHz band will not, he said.By the end of the demo, Paget actually had fewer phones connected to the network -- just 17 -- something he was at a loss to explain. He said that it was possible that he had mistyped the AT&T network ID and that phones were rejecting his system because of the typo.Android and iPhone systems would connect, however, he said. "In my experience it's generally the iPhones that connect most easily," he said. "It's actually been the bane of my existence trying to keep the damned iPhones away."People connected to Paget's system would get a warning message, but they could dial out as normal, but anyone trying to call them would go straight to voicemail.Paget didn't record or play back any calls, but he could have. His IMSI catcher can get around cell phone encryption by simply telling the connecting phones to drop encryption. "If I decide not to enable encryption I just disable it," he said. "It's that simple." Earlier this week, it wasn't clear that Paget's talk would go ahead. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) got in touch with Paget Friday morning to express concern and inform him of relevant federal regulations, he said.The agency raised concerns that Paget's device might transmit over licensed frequencies and that he might unlawfully intercept mobile-phone calls.On Friday, FCC spokesman Eric Bash said the agency doesn't comment on the legality of specific matters until it fully investigates and takes enforcement action.(Nancy Gohring in Seattle contributed to this report.)Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com


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Lagos – The outgoing Nigerian ruling party, APC, has strongly denied employing fake bishops to attend the unveiling of the party's Muslim Vice-Presidential candidate.
Lagos - Nigerians are waking up to the bitter reality that their new president, Muhammadu Buhari, and his party, APC, have played a fast one on them.
Ibadan - Yet another supporter of Nigerian President elect, General Muhammadu Buhari has started a journey across the nation in show of support for the election victory of the retired General.
Lagos – As the 2015 election draws near, a recent survey has revealed that there are still some Nigerians planning to vote for PDP on the 14th of February.
Abuja – There are indications that God might have forgiven Nigeria.
Abuja - The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, has been unable to choose a running mate because he is waiting for a candidate who has never stolen a kobo of public funds.
Abuja - The association of Pentecostal Churches has congratulated the Governor of Lagos Sate, Mr Raji Babalola Fashola, on successfully containing the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria.
Germany – The Nigerian leader, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has returned to his country after a brief trip to Germany where he was secretly treated for excessive salt ingestion.
London - The adopted daughter of the Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has become a luxury car rental entrepreneur.
Abuja – The Nigerian senate has secretly passed a bill banning the authoring and publishing of so-called open letters.
Abuja – The leader of Nigeria, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, elected under the Peoples' Democratic Party, PDP, has defected to opposition party, APC.
Abuja– The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has threatened to expose all the Nigerians who have sold their souls to Satan.
Lagos – The Nigerian Aviation Minister, Stella Oduh, has explained the supposed purchase of two armoured BMW cars for the sum of $1.
Lagos - A university of Lagos student, Mr Chibuihem Amalaha, has used magnets to prove that gay marriage is wrong.
Abuja – The organizers of an international beauty pageant, Miss Worlds, have caused outrage by insisting that contestants in the pageant compete in their own hair.
Abuja – The Pastor in the middle of a sex scandal has finally spoken out.
A group of young Nigerian girls tell their stories. Love them or loathe them, they will not be silenced.
Dear Aunty Ngozi,
I am always at a lack of words when ever I am talking to my love. What tips do you have for me, please, Aunty Ngozi?...
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A dead and bloated Harbour Seal entangled in a net attached to unused fish farming equipment near Port Hardy.
In the lead-up to the BC Salmon Farmers Association's first-ever Aquaculture Awareness Week a lot of media reports and even one or two clever cartoons were generated. They must be disappointed that most of the coverage was in response to our media release about predator control activities at BC salmon farms during the first quarter of 2011 being reported publicly for the first time.
Members of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) have been advocating for more transparency around activities at BC salmon farms for a long, long time because very little information has been offered up voluntarily by industry or government. When a CAAR member's Freedom of Information requests for fish health audit data were rebuffed by the province they went to appeal and won. Together with our supporters CAAR pushed hard for better public reporting on site-by-site impacts in the marine environment to become part of the new aquaculture regulations when the jurisdictional responsibility for management in BC was handed over to the federal government. We were heard and now everyone will have access to information on incidental catch, marine mammal interactions, site-by-site sea lice counts, escapes, egg imports and licensing information. Our EcoJustice lawyers for the Conservation Coalition at the Cohen Commission of Inquiry fought for the release of fish health data at all salmon farms along the migration route of Fraser River sockeye over the objections of industry and government. We won and now those data have been entered into evidence for all to see. What is still not clear from DFO's new web page is how they will report out future disease information they collect from salmon farmers.
The reason Living Oceans Society and CAAR have been fighting hard to advance the cause of transparency is because, in the end, the more British Columbians and Canadians know about the practices and impacts of farming salmon in open net-cages, the more pressure there will be on our elected officials to clean up the industry and transition it to closed containment.