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The standard Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) utilities can be used under Oracle Label Security, but certain restrictions apply, and extra steps may be required to get the expected results. This chapter describes these special considerations. It assumes that you are using policy label columns of the NUMBER data type.
The chapter contains these sections:
The Export utility functions in the standard way under Oracle Label Security. There are, however, a few differences resulting from the enforcement of Oracle Label Security policies.
For any tables protected by an Oracle Label Security policy, only rows with labels authorized for read access will be exported. Unauthorized rows will not be included in the export file. Consequently, to export all the data in protected tables, you must have a privilege (such as FULL or READ) that gives you complete access.
SQL statements to reapply policies are exported along with tables and schemas that are exported. These statements are carried out during import to reapply policies with the same enforcement options as in the original database.
The HIDE property is not exported. When protected tables are exported, the label columns in those tables are also exported (as numeric values). However, if a label column is hidden, then it is exported as a normal, unhidden column.
The LBACSYS schema cannot be exported due to the use of opaque types in Oracle Label Security. An export of the entire database (parameter FULL=Y) with Oracle Label Security installed can be done, except that the LBACSYS schema would not be exported.
See Also:Oracle Database Utilities
This section explains how the Import utility functions under Oracle Label Security:
Importing Labeled Data Without Installing Oracle Label Security
Importing Tables with Hidden Columns
See Also:Oracle Database Utilities
To use the Import utility under Oracle Label Security, you must prepare the import database and ensure that the import user has the proper authorizations.
Before you can use the Import utility with Oracle Label Security, you must prepare the import database, as follows:
Install Oracle Label Security.
Create any Oracle Label Security policies that protect the data to be imported. The policies must use the same column names as in the export database.
Define in the import database all of the label components and individual labels used in tables being imported. Tag values assigned to the policy labels in each database must be the same. (Note that if you are importing into a database from which you exported, then the components are most likely already defined.)
To successfully import data under Oracle Label Security, the user running the import operation must be authorized for all of the labels required to insert the data and labels contained in the export file. Errors will be raised upon import if the following requirements are not met:
Requirement 1: To assure that all rows can be imported, the user must have the policy_DBA role for all policies with data being imported. After each schema or table is imported, any policies from the export database are reapplied to the imported objects.
Requirement 2: The user must also have the ability to write all rows that have been exported. This can be accomplished by one of the following methods:
The user can be granted the FULL privilege.
A user-defined labeling function can be applied to the table.
The user can be given sufficient authorization to write all labels contained in the import file.
The label definitions at the time of import must include all the policy labels used in the export file. You can use the views DBA_SA_LEVELS, DBA_SA_COMPARTMENTS, DBA_SA_GROUPS, and DBA_SA_LABELS in the export database to design SQL scripts that re-create the label components and labels for each policy in the import database. The following example shows how to generate a PL/SQL block that re-creates the individual labels for the HR policy:
set serveroutput on BEGIN dbms_output.put_line('BEGIN'); FOR l IN (SELECT label_tag, label FROM dba_sa_labels WHERE policy_name='HR' ORDER BY label_tag) LOOP dbms_output.put_line (' SA_LABEL_ADMIN.CREATE_LABEL(''HR'', ' || l.label_tag || ', ''' || l.label || ''');'); END LOOP; dbms_output.put_line ('END;'); dbms_output.put_line ('/'); END; /
If the individual labels do not exist in the import database with the same numeric values and the same character string representations as in the export database, then the label values in the imported tables will be meaningless. The numeric label value in the table may refer to a different character string representation, or it may be a label value that has not been defined at all in the import database.
If a user attempts to access rows containing invalid numeric labels, then the operation will fail.
When policy label columns are defined as a NUMBER data type, they can be imported into databases that do not have Oracle Label Security installed. In this case, the values in the policy label column are imported as numbers. Without the corresponding Oracle Label Security label definitions, the numbers will not reference any specific label.
Note that errors will be raised during the import if Oracle Label Security is not installed, because the SQL statements to reapply the policy to the imported tables and schemas will fail.
You can import unlabeled data into an existing table protected by an Oracle Label Security policy. Either the LABEL_DEFAULT option or a labeling function must be specified for each table being imported, so that the labels for the rows can be automatically initialized as they are inserted into the table.
A hidden column is exported as a normal column, but the fact that it was hidden is lost. If you want to preserve the hidden property of the label column, you must precreate the table in the import database.
Before you perform the import, create the table and apply the policy with the HIDE option. This causes the policy label column to be added to the table as a hidden column.
Then remove the policy from the table, so that the enforcement options specified in the export file can be reapplied to the table during the import operation.
Perform the import with
IGNORE=Y. Setting the
IGNORE parameter to
Y ignores errors during import.
Manually apply the policy to the table with the HIDE option.
SQL*Loader moves data from external files into tables in Oracle Database. This section contains these topics:
Requirements for Using SQL*Loader Under Oracle Label Security
Oracle Label Security Input to SQL*Loader
See Also:For information about SQL*Loader, including log files, discard files, and bad files, see Oracle Database Utilities
You can use SQL*Loader with the conventional path to load data into a database protected by Oracle Label Security. Because SQL*Loader performs INSERT operations, all of the standard requirements apply when using SQL*Loader on tables protected by Oracle Label Security policies.
If the policy column for a table is hidden, then you must use the HIDDEN keyword to convey this information to SQL*Loader.
To specify row labels in the input file, include the policy label column in the INTO TABLE clause in the control file.
To load policy labels along with the data for each row, you can specify the CHAR_TO_LABEL function or the TO_DATA_LABEL function in the SQL*Loader control file.
Note:When Oracle Label Security is installed to work with Oracle Internet Directory, dynamic label generation is not allowed, because labels are managed centrally in Oracle Internet Directory, using olsadmintool commands. Refer to Appendix B, "Command-line Tools for Label Security Using Oracle Internet Directory".
So, when Oracle Label Security is directory-enabled, this function, TO_DATA_LABEL, is not available and will generate an error message if used.
You can use the following variations when loading Oracle Label Security data with SQL*Loader:
Table 13-1 Input Choices for Oracle Label Security Input to SQL*Loader
|Form of Data
|Explanation of Results
Hidden column loaded with tag value of data directly from data file
Hidden column loaded with character value of data from data file. func() used to translate between the character label and its tag value. Note: func() might be char_to_label().
Same as in col2 specified earlier, field type defaults to char
Hidden column not mapped to input data. func() will be called to provide the label value. This could be a user function.
For example, the following is a valid INTO TABLE clause in a control file that is loading data into the DEPT table:
INTO TABLE dept (hr_label HIDDEN POSITION (1:22) CHAR "CHAR_TO_LABEL('HR',:hr_label)", deptno POSITION (23:26) INTEGER EXTERNAL, dname POSITION (27:40) CHAR, loc POSITION(41,54) CHAR)
The following could be an entry in the data file specified by this control file:
This section explains how to achieve optimal performance with Oracle Label Security.
Run the ANALYZE command on the Oracle Label Security data dictionary tables in the LBACSYS schema, so that the cost-based optimizer can improve execution plans on queries. This will improve Oracle Label Security performance.
Running ANALYZE on application tables improves the application SQL performance.
By creating the appropriate type of index on the policy label column, you can improve the performance of user-raised queries on protected tables.
If you have applied an Oracle Label Security policy on a database table in a particular schema, then you should compare the number of different labels to the amount of data. Based on this information, you can decide which type of index to create on the policy label column.
If the cardinality of data in the policy label column (that is, the number of labels compared to the number of rows) is low, then consider creating a bitmapped index.
If the cardinality of data in the policy label column is high, then consider creating a B-tree index.
Example 1:
Consider the following case, in which the EMP table is protected by an Oracle Label Security policy with the READ_CONTROL enforcement option set, and HR_LABEL is the name of the policy label column. A user raises the following query:
SELECT COUNT (*) FROM scott.emp;
In this situation, Oracle Label Security adds a predicate based on the label column. For example:
SELECT COUNT (*) FROM scott.emp WHERE hr_label=100;
In this way, Oracle Label Security uses the security label to restrict the rows that are processed, based on the user's authorizations. To improve performance of this query, you could create an index on the HR_LABEL column.
Example 2:
Consider a more complex query (once again, with READ_CONTROL applied to the EMP table):
SELECT COUNT (*) FROM scott.emp WHERE deptno=10
Again, Oracle Label Security adds a predicate based on the label column:
SELECT COUNT (*) FROM scott.emp WHERE deptno=10 AND hr_label=100;
In this case, you might want to create a composite index based on the DEPTNO and HR_LABEL columns, to improve application performance.
See Also:Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide
For optimal performance, you can plan a strategy for assigning values to label tags. In general, it is best to assign higher numeric values to labels with higher sensitivity levels. This is because, typically, many more users can see data at comparatively low levels and fewer users at higher levels can see many levels of data.
In addition, with READ_CONTROL set, Oracle Label Security generates a predicate that uses a BETWEEN clause to restrict the rows to be processed by the query. As illustrated in the following example, if the higher-sensitivity labels do not have a higher label tag than the lower-sensitivity labels, then the query will potentially examine a larger set of rows. This will affect performance.
Consider, for example, label tags assigned as follows:
Table 13-2 Label Tag Performance Example: Correct Values
|Label Tag
Here, a user whose maximum authorization is S:A can potentially access data at labels S:A, S, and U:A. Consider what happens when this user raises the following query:
SELECT COUNT (*) FROM scott.emp;
Oracle Label Security adds a predicate that includes a BETWEEN clause (based on the user's maximum and minimum authorizations) to restrict the set of rows this user can see:
SELECT COUNT (*) FROM scott.emp WHERE hr_label BETWEEN 10 AND 50;
Performance improves, because the query examines only a subset of data based on the user's authorizations. It does not fruitlessly process rows that the user is not authorized to access.
By contrast, unnecessary work would be performed if tag values were assigned as follows:
Table 13-3 Label Tag Performance Example: Incorrect Values
|Label Tag
In this case, the user with S:A authorization can see only some of the labels between 100 and 10. Although the user cannot see TS:A,B labels (that is, rows with a label tag of 50). A query would nonetheless pick up and process these rows, even though the user ultimately will not have access to them.
If you are using a numeric ordering strategy with the numeric label tags that you have applied to the labels, then you can use this as a basis for Oracle Database data partitioning. Depending on the application, partitioning data based on label values may or may not be useful.
Consider, for example, a business-hosting CRM application to which many companies subscribe. In the same EMP table, there might be rows (and labels) for Subscriber 1 and Subscriber 2. That is, information for both companies can be stored in the same table, as long as it is labeled differently. In this case, employees of Subscriber 1 will never need to access data for Subscriber 2, so it might make sense to partition based on label. You could put rows for Subscriber 1 in one partition, and rows for Subscriber2 in a different partition. When a query is raised, it will access only one or the other partition, depending on the label. Performance improves because partitions that are not relevant are not examined by the query.
The following example shows this is done. It places labels in the 2000 series on one partition, labels in the 3000 series on another partition, and labels in the 4000 series on a third partition.
CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE (EMPNO NUMBER(10) CONSTRAINT PK_EMPLOYEE PRIMARY KEY, ENAME VARCHAR2(10), JOB VARCHAR2(9), MGR NUMBER(4), HIREDATE DATE, SAL NUMBER(7,2), COMM NUMBER(7,2), DEPTNO NUMBER(4), HR_LABEL NUMBER(10)) TABLESPACE PERF_DATA STORAGE (initial 2M NEXT 1M MINEXTENTS 1 MAXEXTENTS unlimited) PARTITION BY RANGE (hr_label) (partition sx1 VALUES LESS THAN (2000) NOLOGGING, partition sx2 VALUES LESS THAN (3000), partition sx3 VALUES LESS THAN (4000) );
When you install the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) Enterprise Edition and Oracle Label Security, an initial Oracle Database is created. You can then install Oracle Label Security, as described in the Oracle Label Security Installation Notes for your platform.
If you wish to create additional databases, then Oracle recommends that you do this using the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant. Alternatively, you can create additional databases by following the steps listed in Chapter 2 of the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide
Each time you create a new database, you must install into it the Oracle Label Security data dictionary tables, views, and packages, and create the LBACSYS account. For the first database, this is done automatically when you install Oracle Label Security. For additional databases, you must perform the following tasks manually.
Note:If you have not installed Oracle Label Security at least once in your target Oracle environment, then you must first do so using the Oracle Universal Installer.
In your initsid.ora file, set the COMPATIBLE parameter to the current Oracle Database release that you are running. (This must be no lower than 8.1.7.)
Shut down and restart your database so that this change will take effect.
Connect to the Oracle Database instance as user SYS, using the
AS SYSDBA syntax.
Run the script
This script installs the label-based framework, data dictionary, data types, and packages. After the script is run, the LBACSYS account exists, with the password LBACSYS. All the Oracle Label Security packages exist under this account.
Change the default password of the LBACSYS user.
Now, you can proceed to create an Oracle Label Security policy.
See Also:For a complete discussion of Oracle database creation, see Oracle Database Administrator's Guide


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I seem to have a recent obsession with one inch hexagons…. It started with this sewing machine cover
I made it for my partner in the "For the Love of Solids" swap on Flickr. The color scheme was a little mellower than I think she would prefer so I added bit more pop on the back (sans hexagons)
And because she commented on a lot of rainbow items in the pool I made this little mug rug.
Finally I made this from my Modern Meadow scraps. It's handsewn onto linen and is intended as a present for someone else.
Eventually I guess I'll need to make something for myself!
I'm thinking about something like this
or this
What are you in love with today?

subset: commoncrawl


text: Warboss Krag 3 Posted October 9, 2012 The fact that we're on this forum indicates at least a bit of preference, of course. But Dust Warfare is increasingly becoming preferable to Warhammer 40K. The short list includes: Rules that at least have some guidance, rather than the product of a soviet of duelling company fiefdoms each putting in an equal amount of new rules for the sake of appearances. Errata on said rules, instead of stoney and truculant silence. Reasonable prices on minis, and particularly on models! And now, the latest reason: Anyone besides me seen the price of the new 7th edition codecies? $50 USD! For nothing more than the previous codex template, with a hard cover. Personally, I find this intolerable; since I own 11 40K armies, that would be $550 USD to codex myself up over the next 4 years. That's almost as much money as I've spent on all of my Dust material, including the 1st edition Tactics and every supplement for it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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Part 1 Uploaded to YouTube
09/01/2012 by filmumentaries | 0 comments
I've just uploaded a 10 minute part 1 to YouTube as I thought I might be neglecting all those YouTube subscribers. It's a slightly updated one to the version on Vimeo. Things are going well. I've been working on Raiding all day and reckon it will be ready to launch within a couple of weeks.


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Opinion Columns & Blogs
Matt Garcia: Movie about life of Cesar Chavez simply got it wrong
Most great men have one. Malcolm X, Gandhi, Mandela all have one. And now, Cesar Chavez has his.
The biographical film titled "Cesar Chavez," which came out this past weekend, lends itself to the creation of legends. In the case of Chavez, the legend is complicated by the fact that his story did not exactly lead to the liberation of the people he represented. Great strides were made during the heyday of the farmworkers movement – namely the first contracts for farmworkers and a California law that recognized their right to unionize. But field workers today suffer indignities familiar to those who worked in rural California prior to the 1960s.
These facts are not the concern of Diego Luna, the new film's director. "We have to send a message to the (film) industry that our stories have to be represented. And with the depth and the complexity they deserve," Luna said recently.
Fair enough. As a Mexican American and a historian, I too long for dignified cinematic portrayals of Latinos that convey the struggles for equality our people have initiated. Our yearnings, however, should not come at the expense of historical accuracy.
I recently published a book on the United Farm Workers and Chavez, and I understand the need to play a little loose with the timeline for dramatic effect. But Luna's omissions and alterations are really historical subversions. His interpretation, I suspect, is a product of his unsophisticated handling of U.S. identity politics. He rejects the multiethnic community that made up the farmworkers movement in favor of a simplistic notion that Mexicans did all the work. Creating a hero comes at the expense of depicting an entire social movement.
The Filipino American National Historical Society has rightly come out against the film's misrepresentation of labor leader Larry Itliong and have questioned Luna's failure to acknowledge the largely Filipino Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, which initiated the 1965 grape strike, a turning point in the film.
The film doesn't mention white volunteers and organizers beyond Fred Ross, Cesar's mentor, and Jerry Cohen, the talented leader of the UFW legal team. Several white ministers and students played a critical role in the movement, including Rev. Jim Drake, who came up with the boycott strategy. As the film lumbers toward the epic signing of the first contracts in 1970, Luna's most egregious distortion of history comes when he shows Chavez in London. We see the labor leader lobbying dockworkers on the Thames River wharf and appealing to consumers not to buy the fruit. Though this work actually happened, it was a young Jewish American volunteer, Elaine Elinson, who almost single-handedly kept the grapes out of Europe.
The film even fails to represent accurately the supporting cast of Mexican American activists in Cesar's orbit. Gilbert Padilla (Yancey Arias) and Dolores Huerta (Rosario Dawson) come off as nothing more than a yes-man and yes-woman to Chavez when in fact they were distinguished organizers in their own right. Only Helen Chavez, Cesar's wife, is presented as a character with her own mind and story, a tribute to America Ferrera's standout performance.
But the film probably does the greatest disservice to Cesar Chavez himself. The director opts out of the 1970s altogether, a period in which Chavez struggled with personal and professional demons and became invested in creating a community rather than solidifying earlier gains. Such a storyline would have done little to burnish his credentials as a civil and labor rights leader, but it would have made for a more compelling film. More importantly, it would have made for a much more accurate portrait of the real man's depth and complexity.
These omissions reflect the limitations of the genre and the hero-making project of this film. With rare exception, biopics elide complexity and avoid overt criticism of their subjects. The most extraordinary and entertaining renditions of historical figures have often via fictionalized characters, like Orson Welles' Charles Foster Kane based on William Randolph Hearst ("Citizen Kane") and P. T. Anderson's Daniel Plainview based on Edward Doheny ("There Will Be Blood") .
In fairness to Luna, Chavez was delivered to him with decades of historical baggage, thanks to hagiography and political stamps of approval from Robert Kennedy, Jerry Brown, and Barack Obama. Though new histories are now being written, it will take time for the public's perception of the hero to catch up with the all-too-human Chavez. Sadly, Luna's film does almost nothing to assist this move toward a new understanding of Cesar Chavez's life and the successes and failures of the movement he led.
Zocalo Public Square


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The Cars' seventh album and their first in 23 years, "Move Like This" is scheduled to be released May 10, 2011 by Concord Music Group. The album will be their first since 1987's Door to Door and feature all of the original band members except for bassist and vocalist Benjamin Orr, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2000.
The first single, due in March 2011 is slated to be the track "Sad Song". We viewed and listened to a clip on YouTube and it definitely has that classic Cars sound.
Blue Tip (official) Video | The Cars
"Move Like This" is the first reunion of The Cars to feature vocalist Ric Ocasek since their 1988 split. In 1997, Ocasek told a journalist that the band would "never" reunite: "I'm saying never and you can count on that." A partial reunion of the band occurred in 2005 when keyboardist Greg Hawkes and lead guitarist Elliot Easton toured with singer Todd Rundgren, drummer Prairie Prince and bassist Kasim Sulton as "The New Cars"; neither Ocasek nor Cars drummer David Robinson participated, and the Rundgren lineup split following two years of touring.
According to Paste magazine, Ocasek said that he was "amazed at how we clicked when we got back together" for "Move Like This".
Track Listing:
1. Blue Tip
2. Too Late
3. Keep On Knocking
4. Soon
5. Sad Song
6. Free
7. Drag On Forever
8. Take Another Look
9. It's Only
10. Hits Me


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Family Traits
The family is central to the biblical ethic. It is the primary image of the relationship of the saints to God. The work of Christ was required to bring about regeneration and adoption, making believers heirs of God and joint …Read More
Wynn Kenyon
Dr. Wynn Kenyon was professor of Bible and philosophy at Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi. He went to be with the Lord on February 13, 2012.


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I'm looking for a good way to publish data along with a digital signature (and ideally a timestamp) which is as easy as possible to verify.
For example, imagine an election administrator who wants to publish election data which is to be audited (totals by candidate by precinct). We ideally don't want to require the public to have to acquire much if any special or proprietary software. Signatures which adhere to an open standard, can be validated on PC, Mac, Linux, and can be generated by open source software are preferred.
The data has to remain machine-readable
, so a pdf isn't suitable, so if pdf is used, the data would be in attachments to the pdf.
E.g. if we generate XML Signatures (e.g. for IEEE 1622-2011 Election Markup Language (EML) files for elections), is there standard functionality in any common browsers or operating systems to validate the signatures? Is the user interface clear enough to make it clear to the user when the data looks good, when it is suspicious, and how to deal with common issues?
Other alternatives (and concerns):
- Publish SHA-256 hash in the newspaper (How to describe verification steps to the user?)
- Use a jar (signed zip) and jarsigner (is there a nice GUI for verifying jar signatures? X.509 PATH validation?)
- Use OpenOffice (A hassle to install)
- CMS or S-MIME (How can we publish an S-MIME message with attachments - public IMAP?)
- Use gpg (but admins need to get in the PGP web of trust, and users need to learn to understand it)
- Use s-http (a pity http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2660 never took off....)
- Use Excel (are there free clients that can check the signature? Open source software to generate it via a script?)
- "Just serve from a secure web site" (doesn't deal with a variety of attacks)


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Buzz on the Street: Responding to the Syrian Crisis, the Market Remains Volatile
A look back at the happenings on Wall Street this week, as seen by Minyanville's Buzz & Banter.
Here is a small sampling of this week's activity in the Buzz.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Following Up on Nominal GDP and Interest Rates
Michael Sedacca
I received a lot of emails about my earlier comment on the relationship between Treasury yields and nominal GDP, so I thought it would be helpful if I clarified my thoughts with a chart.
My point is that when the 10-year Treasury yield increases "above" the growth rate of nominal GDP YoY from "below," the US has always gone into a recession. An example would be when the 10-year yield increases to 3% from 2% with nominal GDP at 2.9%.
I've always viewed the Treasury curve as a proxy for the demand for money, which means that either credit growth (loan demand, GDP) will follow the recent rate increase higher, or growth will fall because the cost of credit has risen too much, too fast. The second half of the year should give a lot more clarity on that subject. I am constructive that I am being too concerned because PCE (consumption) growth has picked up in recent months. The July consumption figure is due out on Friday morning.
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Clear and Present Markets: 8/26/2013
Tom Clancy
With the interns departed and kids headed back to school, it is time to delve back into the markets ahead of what I expect to be considerable volatility.
1. The WSJ homepage, this morning, tells a story of unsustainable spending. On the left side, you have headlines about the US role in the Middle East. On the right side, you have a story about transporting domestic oil.
It bears noting that as we prepare for a battle over the debt ceiling and the budget, the President's 2014 Budget calls for a 98% increase in income tax collections and a 25% increase in payroll taxes by 2020. I don't see how you can take another $1.3 trillion out of the consumers pocket without negatively impacting the economy, unless there is a commensurate increase in wages. In addition, since the individual will fund 80% of the government revenue, the country will have to better define its investment and spending priorities, and defense spending is a primary target. Throughout history, taxes on global trade have supported military expansion, and when military expansion outpaced the ability of taxes to fund that expansion, the economic, political, and military influence of the regime declined. This is why many nations are challenging the US politically and why we are debating our involvement in these actions. Our military is overextended, and we can't continue supporting our military to the degree we have in the past.
Oil is another segment in which we see unsustainable spending. Low interest rates have funded capital expenditures that exceed the cash flows from those investments, and many exploration & production companies have been forced to sell assets to fund drilling programs. As interest rates increase and fewer mid-stream assets are available to spin-off as MLPs, domestic oil production has to decline because the cash to fund that production comes at a higher cost. It is often overlooked how important low interest rates have been to domestic oil production, and one impact of a 3% yield on the 10-year Treasury is that capital intensive businesses will experience negative operating leverage as the cost of capital increases.
2. I have been expecting an increase in M&A activity, which has not materialized. The news of Amgen (NASDSAQ:AMGN) acquiring Onyx (NASDAQ:ONXX) brought this catalyst back on to my radar. Companies are at the limit of driving earnings growth through financial engineering of the balance sheet, and M&A provides another opportunity to drive growth by leveraging the cash flows of an under-leveraged competitor. Managers have been pretty disciplined, stating that prices are not attractive, but as Todd often says, "buyers are higher." As pressure builds on managers to deliver growth, M&A funded with cheap debt is another way to engineer growth.
3. Last week, a colleague and I were contemplating the future of the "big box" store, and the earnings of Dick's (NYSE:DKS) and PetSmart (NASDAQ:PETM) painted a stark difference in results and strategy. Dick's sales are traditionally volatile and have become more dependent on apparel recently. Dick's expects square footage growth to be the primary driver of earnings growth, and the company thinks services like return-to-store and ship-to-store will prevent Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) from disrupting its business model. PetSmart had much stronger results, which were driven by the growth in services like grooming, kennel, and training. PetSmart's use of services to drive traffic to the store ultimately helps them drive sales of items that might otherwise be purchased on-line. Coupling services with the traditional offering helps insulate the brick & mortar business from the on-line threat. Dick's is not doing enough to differentiate its experience. I would like to see Dick's take its service offering a step further, moving beyond hiring a golf pro and adding an ESPN Sports Science type experience, coupled with coaching (in a variety of sports), that makes the store a destination and drives both service revenue and other sales. There is entirely too much retail square footage in this country, and how it is utilized as on-line sales claim an increasing percentage of sales will determine the winners and losers.
Gold Gains Momentums
Jeffrey Cooper
Gold is approaching its record high from 2 years ago. The action in miners such as Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV) exemplify the recent strength in the sector with Franco-Nevada stabbing through its 200 DMA six months after violating it in February.
See FNV for 2013 below with 200 DMA.
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Note Friday/today's strength was setup from a textbook backtest of a Rule-of-4 Breakout (a breakout over triple tops).
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
The Risk of Staycation
Todd Harrison
While I'm "off" this week, I'm spending the time with my family at our home--which means I'm only a few steps from my home office systems. A blessing and a curse perhaps, but either way, here are a few quick thoughts:
S&P (INDEXSP:.INX) 1640 matters on a closing basis; if we push through there on the downside, S&P 1600 and the 200-day at 1560 come into play through a technical lens.
Gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) has room to $1500 before it collides with the downtrend (technical resistance).
The specter of geopolitical unrest in the Middle East -- aside from it being an unfortunate evolution of social mood -- is on the margin constructive for both gold and crude.
Deflation is the other side of that trade, which makes both risky investments. See both sides.
I don't know JC Penney (NYSE:JCP) intimately, but I would think that once the Ackman overage works itself off, the stock has room to bounce.
Tapes that are weak all day (with breadth 2:1 negative or worse) tend to end that way BUT given how thin this week is (and will be), it won't take much to push an agenda (volatility is the opposite of liquidity).
Trading smaller "lots" is one way to address this dynamic; and of course, the ability not to trade is often as powerful as trading ability. Keep loose grips on those handlebars. September looms large on the horizon.
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Chart of the Day -- Russell 2000 and 2% Down Days
Minyanville Staff
For today's chart of the day, we took the Russell 2000 (INDEXRUSSELL:RUT) year-to-date and plotted 2% down days for the index against it, marked by glowing red bars.
If you'll notice, every time the Russell 2000 fell 2% or more this year, the market was within range of an interim low.
Today, the Russell is down 2.3%, marking the biggest decline since June 20. Time will tell whether this signal holds again -- in the meantime, be aware that it isn't perfect as the bottoms weren't immediate.
Either way, a failure to rebound could within the next few trading days could indicate a change in character, especially if the S&P 500 fails to get back up above its 50 DMA, which has marked a key turning point numerous times this year.
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The Square of 9 Called It Right on This Stock
Jeffrey Cooper
Around two weeks ago, we flagged the potential Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) square-out at 512/513.
This was a big level since it was 540 degrees up from low. 540 degrees being a true square or cube (6 sides of 90 degrees = 540 degrees).
The Square of 9 Wheel continues to prove its value -- especially on those items that are widely watched, being part of the Street's 'spiritus mundi'.
Knowing the significance of 512 on AAPL not only would have saved/created financial capital but also substantial emotional capital, which is worth its weight in gold in this game.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Everyone Is Staring at the Same Scenario
Fil Zucchi
There's a rather staggering volatility skew in the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) October puts. With the stock at 164.10, the 155 puts are trading at 18.4% implied volatility with a price of 1.45 vs. theoretical value of 0.55. Now flip to the calls side and the mirror image 173 calls are trading at 12% implied volatility and the price is 0.35 vs. 0.45 theoretical value.
I wouldn't use this type of overloading on the put side as a "contrarian" indicator, but there is little doubt that protecting the downside by buying puts outright seems a low odds play, and risk reversals look outright suicidal. Ratio or butterfly put spreads look a lot more manageable.
Update on Short Interest
Phil Erlanger
Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date August 15. Short interest numbers have increased to 13,749,200,005 from 13,692,475,466 shares (revised) for an increase of 56,724,539 shares, or 0.41% with 1,598 advancers and 1,902 decliners. The NYSE has seen more advancers than decliners in 46 of the last 92 initial reporting periods.
NYSE and NASDAQ had risen the last eight of fourteen reporting periods and dropping across the board over the last three months.
During this period on a trade date basis (7/26 to 8/12) the S&P fell by -0.13%. The conclusion is shorts capitulated their positions with the recent strength. The next short interest collection period covers from 8/12 to 8/27, which is today, and so far, the S&P 500 has fallen by -1.93%. It will be interesting to see how much shorting takes place.
Short interest numbers for NASDAQ are reported for the period of settlement date August 15. Short interest numbers have decreased to 7,378,326,489 shares from 7,395,403,049 shares for a decrease of 17,076,560 shares or -0.23%. There were 1,089 increases and 1,402 decreases. In the last 92 reporting periods, NASDAQ has seen more advancers than decliners in 48 of the 92 last reporting periods.
Dedicated short sellers lost -5.74% in July (YTD -17.38%), as reported by www.hedgeindex.com and 2012 -15.99% while the index made 7.32% in 2011. For 2010, this index was down -17.79%. For 2009, this style lost -14.62%. In 2008, short sellers lost -1.52%. In 2007, short sellers made 4.14%.
Brandon Perry
The Day After
So here I sit with the highest cash levels in my portfolio since 2011. I feel kinda naked, but I know the market is really in a tenuous spot and without a washout low, there is still significant downside risk. I have cut to the bone now and prefer to manage market exposure via hedges at this point rather than selling positions. I have a handful of long-term stocks on the books that I still believe in, many of which I have buzzed about. This market is exceedingly weak, and the downtrend is becoming well established. We broke the November trendline, and I don't see much support below us until the 200-day moving average that sits around 1560. Attached is an updated chart that we looked at a couple days ago.
I am currently holding about 60% cash, 15% bonds (the bulk being my iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond (NYSEARCA:TLT) buy from last week) and 25% core individual stocks. As I have mentioned before, my stylistic approach is maximize trends and systematically reduce risk and protect the portfolio when trends fail. I rarely go net short as you must be very quick to close those positions.
My expectations for the next couple of days are a drift up to the breakdown point of 1639 in the S&P 500, which would be a quality location to start layering into some shorts if that is your game. I will likely add hedges in that area.
Good luck my friends.
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Thursday, August 29, 2013
X-Raying the Markets
Jeff Saut
The stock market has taken a few sick days recently, but the question now is whether or not it is suffering from a true illness or if it just pushed itself too hard for too long and needed a break. Indeed, the S&P 500 (SPX/1634.96) asserted its vigor with a powerful up-move from the June 24th low to the August 2nd high, but since then it appears to be out of breath and has struggled to convalesce to its erstwhile form. Given the recent pattern of lower lows and lower highs, it may be time for a check-up to help diagnose just what is ailing the market. Only then can a reasonable attempt at a prognosis be made. So just as a doctor will put a sick patient through a battery of tests, technicians will look to the charts to assess the internal health of the current investment landscape.
One diagnostic test that can be used is to attempt to identify where we are in the traditional business cycle by looking at the intermarket relationship between bonds, stocks, and commodities. Historically, these asset classes tend to rise and fall in sequence, with bond prices topping out before stocks, which, in turn, top before commodities. So far it looks like this pattern may be developing in its textbook manner. Bond prices, for the most part, topped in July 2012 and have declined ever since, while stocks went on to make new highs before this recent patch of weakness. It may be too early to call an equities top in this business cycle, but commodities have picked up recently, as measured by the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index. Commodities tend to lead toward the end of business cycles, so their recent relative strength is something to keep an eye on.
To utilize another tool, we can examine the equity markets more closely by studying the price action within the S&P 500 individual sectors. Not surprisingly, the SPDRs Select Sector Energy ETF (NYSEARCA:XLE/$82.46) has been the best performer among the nine SPDRs Sector Funds over the past month, reiterating the aforementioned theme of outperformance by commodities. However, it is the breakdown of the Financials that most intrigues us at the moment. Since the major low in March 2009, the Financials have appeared very comfortably in the driver's seat as they consistently led the equity market higher. But recent trading sessions have jeopardized this trend as the SPDRs Select Sector Financial ETF (NYSEARCA:XLF/$19.49) has just broken its rising wedge pattern and is currently positioned for lower prices in the near term (see chart). The stock market might not yet be terminal at this point, but without support from the Financials, it may be hard for the broad market to make its miraculous recovery. For now, it's chicken soup and plenty of fluids until it can once more get on its feet.
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The S&P 500's Reaction to US Adventures in the Middle East
Christopher Witrak
The list below contains the dates of direct, US military interventions in Middle Eastern countries and the S&P 500's subsequent reaction. While traders and investors are understandably concerned about a military strike on Syria, military conflict doesn't always lead to a lower market. The reactions of the S&P to previous events hold no clear pattern. A spike in the price of oil is probably the biggest concern for investors if the US attacks - besides the unlikely event of a larger conflict erupting between the bigger players.
August 19, 1953 - At the request of the British M16, the CIA secretly organized and led a coup that overthrew Iranian Mohammad Mosaddeq. Both nations viewed Mosaddeq as a threat because he nationalized the Iranian oil industry, which which the British had controlled through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
Between August 19 and September 14, the S&P declined 6.58% from 24.31 to 22.71. The S&P had already been in a downtrend though. Afterwards, it started a bull run lasting until August 2, 1956 to 49.64 for a 118.58% gain.
July 15, 1958 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized Operation Blue Bat, which involved about 14,000 men. Lebanese President Camille Chamoun asked the US for military aid after the Iraqi revolution that occurred a day earlier. The Christian and pro-Western Chamoun feared the Lebanese Muslims would gain control of the country and join the recently formed United Arab Republic, formed by Egypt and Syria. The US withdrew its forces on October 25, 1958.
From July 11 to July 15 the S&P dropped from 45.72 to 45.11 for a 1.33% decline.
Despite the small drop, the S&P would continue its uptrend from 45.11 to 50.81 on October 24, 1958 for a 12.64% gain. The market continued to gain despite the Soviet Union's threat to use nuclear weapons if the US intervened in Lebanon.
April 24, 1980 - President Jimmy Carter orders Operation Eagle Claw. US soldiers attempted to rescue 52 Americans held captive at the US embassy in Tehran. The helicopters encountered technical issues, causing commanders to abort the mission.
The S&P had declined from February through March before entering another uptrend. From April 24, the S&P would increase from 104.40 to 140.52 on November 28, the highest point of 1980, for a 34.60% gain.
August 25, 1982 - President Ronald Reagan sends marines to Beirut, Lebanon as part of a three-nation Multinational Force, which also included French and Italian troops, to try and help stabilize the country. The US military would remain active in the area until February 26, 1984.
By August 25, the S&P had reversed a downtrend. Beginning at 117.58 on that day, the S&P would reach 157.51 by February of 1984 for a 33.96% gain.
Between August 25, 1982 and February 26, 1984, attacks on the Multinational Force occurred.
During the week after the suicide bombing of the US Marine and French paratrooper barracks in Beirut on October 23, 1983, the S&P fell from 165.99 to 163.37 for a 1.58% decline. The S&P had reached a top on October 10 of that year, and it would not resume an uptrend until August of 1984.
When US Air Forces targeted Syrian anti-aircraft batteries on December 4, the S&P barely moved. However, the USS New Jersey battleship fired on Lebanon on December 14 and 15, and the S&P fell from 163.33 to 161.66 over the two days for a 1.02% decline.
When the Multinational Force began withdrawing on February 20, the S&P increased from 154.64 the following day to 159.30 by the time the US Marines had withdrawn for a 3.01% gain.
August 2, 1990 - When Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait starting the First Gulf War, the S&P stood at 351.48 and would drop to 295.46 by October 11 for a 15.94% decline.
The S&P regained some ground, rising to 331.75 before falling again by 5.67%, two weeks before the US military launched Operation Desert Storm on January 16, 1991. By this time, the S&P had regained its losses, and when the ceasefire occurred on February 28, 1991, the S&P reached 367.07 and would continue its uptrend.
August 20, 1998 - The US military launched cruise missile attacks on terrorist bases in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. President Clinton authorized the attacks in retaliation to the US embassy bombings that occurred on August 7, 1998 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya.
The S&P remained little changed between these dates. The strikes occurred just days before the S&P fell 11.7%.
October 7, 2001 - President Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11. When the market opened on October 8 after that weekend, the S&P dropped from 1071.38 to 1062.44 for a 0.83% decline. But no major moves occurred on the index at the beginning of military operations. The S&P had rebounded from the sell-off that occurred after September 11, and it would continue its longer downtrend until it bottomed at 776.76 on October 9, 2002.
March 19, 2003 - When the Second Gulf War began, the S&P had not technically reversed its downtrend. Even by May 1, when President George Bush gave his "Mission Accomplished" speech, the S&P had not technically created an uptrend. During the conflict, the S&P gained 4.84%, moving from 874.02 to 916.30.
May 2, 2011 - When the US Navy SEAL team killed Osama Bin Laden, the S&P had little reaction.
Social Mood
Michael Comeau
Times are tense out in... the entire world?
1. Fast food workers, who are at the absolute bottom of the income distribution curve, are protesting to get their pay bumped up.
2. There is a raging debate over where it's time to attack Syria.
3. People who voluntarily give all their personal information to Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter are going crazy over government surveillance programs.
It makes for a toxic mix in the air perhaps not seen since Occupy Wall Street, which saw a market pullback before a moonshot higher.
The data:
The S&P was at 1216 on September 16, 2011, before hitting a closing low of 1099 on October 3, 2011. From there, the rally was on, and the index hit 1419 on April 2, 2012 -- a full 29% off the lows.
Are we seeing a parallel pullback now that the news is so lousy?
Friday, August 30, 2013
Random Sniffage
Michael Sedacca
India and Brazil were trying to restart the game of "he said, she said" that we saw predominantly during the Euro crises. This morning at 8:35, it was reported that India's principal economic adviser Dasgupta said, "India and other emerging markets are seeking a coordinated FX intervention that could happen in days rather than weeks. Brazil and India can start the move." Twenty minutes later the head of the Brazilian central bank said "there is no initiative of that sort." Now, Dasgupta is saying it's "hard to say if emerging markets are planning an FX move." Ugh. Will there be clowns at this circus?
With regards to the emerging markets situation, I would have to think that the rupee is pricing in a heckuva lot now of economic slowdown, which has me backing away from the EM short some. One thing I've learned/was taught is that once something moves in an extreme (record) in one direction, there is a high probability that the next move is not in the same direction. Still marinating on those thoughts, but thought I'd share.
The income data we saw this morning was the worst we had seen all year and is a bad trend to kick off the 3Q. Additionally, the spending data we saw matches up with the negative skew on guidance from consumer related stocks in the 2Q. Already, I've seen Barclay's (NYSE:BCS) taking down its 3Q GDP estimate to 1.6% from 1.9% (annualized) and Goldman to 1.5% from 1.7%.
Treasuries are dealing with a month-end index extension by 0.11 years due, which is the obvious reason for outperformance in the long end. Nothing new I can add today, the trend is still looking up but admittedly fragile. I will most likely wait until Tuesday to add to a long position, however.
Volumes looking light in ES (SP futures) and TY (10-year futures) thus far. ES has only traded 420K contracts vs 15 DMA of 1.587 million and TY at 493K vs 1.275 million 15 DMA. NYSE all securities breadth is just ticking 2:1 negative after the first 30 minutes.
I know this is a bit overdue... below is a picture from my trip to Montana at Hidden Lake up in Logan's Pass, Glacier National Park. Photo credit goes to Brandon Perry.
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Nuance Communications Getting More Icahn Love
Sean Udall
There has been a lot written about Carl Icahn's latest moves regarding Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN). The two key items are these: He's in talks with Nuance about adding a board seat or seats, and he's still increasing his position in the name.
At this point, he's up to a 16.9% stake in the company. That's a big darn stake.
I'll remind readers that Icahn is not impervious, and I took a beating on one other Icahn activist action in the past. But in general I think he has a sound strategy with Nuance, and the company also has enough of a moat with its current set of technology as well as customer partnerships for a strong probability of value creation.
The key for Icahn is whether he can get Nuance sold, which is what I believe he wants. And the rub for any sale to a couple key tech companies like Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) or Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is that Apple is such a key customer that it take those two out of play. This also creates a bit of an issue as Apple then becomes a logical buyer, but it has shown little interest.
Then lastly, given that Nuance's market cap isn't small (nearly $6B), it makes the company a bit too large for an easy deal as there are not many software names that can easily gobble a company of this size up. Taking Google, Microsoft, and Apple out, the list is pretty well left with just IBM (NYSE:IBM), Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), SAP (NYSE:SAP), EMC (NYSE:EMC), VMWare (NYSE:VMW), and maybe Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH). My view is the data storage/cloud players would not be interested.
Bottom Line: When one looks at all this, it does become pretty clear why Nuance hasn't seen a corporate takeover yet. If it isn't Appleor private equity, the rest don't shake out very well. That doesn't mean that taking a shot at Nuance here doesn't make sense. I think it does as the stock has simply gotten very beaten up again. But this is a patience trade, and I'm one of the few people in the world left who can tolerate patience trades.
Quick Follow-Up
Michael Comeau
The reaction to Kerry's speech feels almost Fed-like (lots of bouncing around). For the meantime, the market appears comforted by his assertion that any action will be short-lived and not involve boots on the ground, which is aimed at soothing worries that Syria could be another Iraq orAfghanistan. This was supposed to be one of the most boring days of the year, but I wouldn't be surprised to see more volatility this afternoon.
Twitter: @Minyanville
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Daily Recap Newsletter
entertainment, education and
smart market commentary.


text:
Editors Note: This is the second in a three part series on BYU-Idaho and the implications for higher education. Read part one of the series here. Read part three of the series here.
NEW YORK — J.D. Griffith walked off the subway and onto the bustling streets of midtown Manhattan. It was an April evening, cold and rainy, and he was a long way from home.
As he stepped into a church on Columbus Avenue, the din of the city — the honking cabs, the clattering of trains underground, the screech of brake lines on city buses — receded into silence.
Griffith had come to a special meeting at the LDS chapel with an unusual message. BYU-Idaho, the LDS Church's second largest university, was expanding its reach to students who had never considered college a real option.
As he walked into the chapel, Griffith was surprised at what he saw. He had expected maybe a dozen people to show up to the meeting, advertised largely by word of mouth, but instead, the place was packed with nearly two hundred potential students. As he made his way to the front, he shook hands with a young Japanese immigrant who spoke halting English, a group of Latin Americans from Guatemala, and five or six young adults of Chinese descent. People had come from as far away as Connecticut and New Jersey.
Griffith was excited so many people had shown up, but he also felt slightly intimidated. He had come to recruit more students, but this group had such diverse and pressing needs. Could BYU-Idaho help them all?
"These people were seeking education almost desperately," he said. "It seemed as if they were just pleading and begging for an opportunity to start an educational program, and I felt this overwhelming sense of urgency to help them."
Griffith had come at the request of Kim Clark, a Harvard educated academic who ran BYU-Idaho. Since taking over a few years before, Clark had defined three priorities for the school: raise the quality of education, lower costs and reach more students. This came at a time in which public universities across the country were dealing with declining state budgets, as well as competition from online schools like the University of Phoenix, which offered more flexible ways to college graduation. Standing at the front of the chapel, Griffith announced a new initiative at BYU-Idaho — called the Pathway program — that would allow a nontraditional student to attain a degree remotely, whether it was a certificate or a bachelor's degree. The program would allow the school to extend its reach, thus fulfilling one of Clark's three imperatives.
Just before the presentation, a fresh-out-of-high-school Jamaican girl approached Griffith. Dressed in a -jean skirt and sparkly Tee, she explained that her mother was sick, which required her to stay home to take care of her siblings. She couldn't leave home, she said, but she desperately wanted to study.
Griffith told her that through the Pathway program there was a place for her at BYU-I.
"So you mean I can stay at home in New York and get a degree from BYU-I?" she asked, beaming. "You mean, that's possible?"
"Yes," Griffith said. The school had created the program for people like her.
Back in Rexburg, Griffith related the experience to Clark, the school's president. Clark said he wasn't surprised about the response, he had expected it. This is what he and many presidents before him had hoped to one day accomplish.
"Historically, we've brought students from around the world to BYU-Idaho," said Rob Eaton, associate academic vice president for Academic Development. "Pathway, on the other hand, brings BYU-Idaho to the students — wherever they live. For those who can't come here or aren't ready to come, it can be a blessing."
Before the university could ever look at reaching places like Manhattan, administrators had to first focus on sharpening their ability to increase the number of students they reached on their Rexburg campus ever year. One day in April of 2005, shortly after arriving at BYU-Idaho, university president Kim Clark was sitting in his office that overlooks the Rexburg campus, when Max Checketts, the then-academic vice president of the school, walked in with a stack of papers, a six-sided cube and an idea.
For the last four years, the school had grappled with a vexing problem: How could they bring more students to campus without raising costs? Clark's predecessor, David Bednar, had come up with a temporary solution. The school would adopt a year-round calendar, with two block semesters in the summer, and in so doing, would increase the number of students without having to build any new buildings.
But this model presented a challenge. Students with the highest grades could pick what time of the year they wanted to come to BYU-I, and they typically choose to come during the fall and spring semesters. Moreover, the course offerings were not equivalent, so access for summer was very different than the fall and winter semesters. And while the summer months brought thousands of more students to the campus, this was minimal compared to what it could offer.
The six-sided cube Checketts held in his hands dated back five years and included the main principles upon which BYU-I had been built. To move forward, Checketts laid out a plan: BYU-I would move to three semesters.
For the system to really work, the school would have to make every semester equal, meaning they would need to offer every class, assign students of different backgrounds and academic ability to certain semesters and provide equivalent offerings across all three semesters. To do this would require professors to work year round.
For many long-time faculty members, this was a tough pill to swallow. Most professors at the school had already sacrificed greatly to be there, giving up salary and visibility at other universities because they believed in BYU-Idaho's faith-based mission. They didn't earn overly large salaries, and they had already been asked to give up tenure and research, something almost no other administrator at a four-year university would ask.
Now they were being asked to give up most of their summers — the most beautiful time of year in Rexburg, a place known for its long, cold winters.
"It was dead on arrival," Clark said of presenting the plan to the faculty. "People didn't like it."
Clark didn't give up.
He knew the three-semester plan didn't just mean reaching 50 percent more students, it also meant more savings since up until then buildings sat half-empty in the summer and counselors, administrators and salaried-personnel were still working during these months with many less students. The school could save 20 percent of these fixed costs per student while also raising teacher's salary by 15 percent and giving them the month of August off.
But Clark also wanted to build a shared sense of ownership with the faculty in making the transition.
So Clark and Checketts created a discussion board for faculty to submit ideas on how to implement the three-semester plan. More than a dozen faculty members submitted formal plans, and many more used the message board to hash out the implications of the different proposals. When Clark submitted the different proposals to the faculty for approval, 80 percent voted for the original plan Checketts and Clark came up with, with varying degrees of refined suggestions.
"In almost everything we do, there is a lot of discussion and debate and a lot of engagement of the faculty," Clark said.
The faculty was now on board; convincing students to switch to a three-semester plan had its own set of challenges. Betty Oldham, the assistant to the president, got dozens of calls from parents upset that their children had been assigned to summer classes. What about family vacations? What about summer jobs?
Today, there are far fewer complaints about the summer and spring semester from students. Before the implementation in 2004, total spring enrollment was 8,287. In 2011, it had risen to 14,296.
"I used to get letters and phone calls of people pleading their cases," Oldham said. "I don't get those anymore."
Just three months after finalizing the year-round schedule with faculty, Clark began rolling out the next project — changing BYU-Idaho's approach to instruction. He wanted to do so through what would prove to be a somewhat controversial proposal — giving students more ownership of their own education.
It wasn't an entirely novel idea. Clark had seen this learning model in action at other schools, principally at the Harvard Business School (HBS), where he had served as dean for over a decade. At HBS, many professors taught through the case method, which required students to prepare for the class discussion through by preparing a case study that could take hours to study and analyze. In the case method, students were asked to study a certain company or trend in business, such as how I-Tunes changed the music industry, or the ways in which the Internet had impacted the newspaper business. Before class, students were given study materials, which could include financial reports, or organizational charts of companies they would discuss in class.
Once class started, it wasn't really a lecture — instead professors called on students to open the discussion and then acted as a facilitator to help guide the students through a discussion. In this way, the students were teaching each other, but with a faculty facilitator.
Clark wanted to use similar principles of student engagement and participant-centered learning at BYU-Idaho. There was a growing literature that confirmed improved student learning outcomes when students were more engaged and had opportunities to teach what they were learning to others. For example, a prominent, cross-discipline study released by North Carolina State University found that students who participated in this type of learning environment were more likely to graduate, earn higher grades and develop higher critical thinking skills than those who did not. They also reported more fulfilling interactions with students in class, and a richer relationship with their professors.
While other universities had implemented a shared learning model in certain departments or graduate schools, Clark wasn't aware of a school that had tried to use it in every class across and entire university, from 100 level to 400 level courses, from English to biology.
Clark wanted input from the staff, so he assembled a team from people across campus, including faculty members who taught Spanish, teacher education, business, religion and nursing.
With the team in place to create the shared principles behind a common learning approach for the university, they invited fellow faculty members to come up with ideas on what the model should look like — 400 ideas and 18 months later, the committee decided on three overarching ideas: students should prepare before coming to class, teach one another what they were learning, and ponder and prove that learning subsequent to structured learning activities.
"We wanted to create a climate for learning," said Fenton Broadhead, the academic vice president who helped develop the model. "In most places, academia is about faculty being a star and imparting all the knowledge. But the faculty should be the facilitators of learning and not the stars. It has to be about helping students learn how to learn."
At first some of the professors weren't sure how to implement the plan. Some worried that administrators wanted them to have students teach each other the whole time during class, others thought the new method of teaching only allowed for studying and discussing different scenarios in class and ruled out any lecture.
Sid Palmer, biology department chair at the school, was one of these professors who was leery of the model at first.
Palmer had grown up in academia — having spent 13 years of his life getting his undergraduate, master's and doctorate. He was a product of the traditional lecture style method. His favorite professors had taught this way. It was all he had known.
At the same time, he saw the logic of this new way of teaching and wanted to give it a shot. So he went to brown bag lunches and asked fellow teachers how they did it. One professor in his own department said he had had slips of paper with each student's name on it and would pick them out at random to teach aspects of the lesson they studied the night before. Another professor in history said he sometimes used case methods in classes to help students apply what they had learned.
Palmer decided to give it a try and within a couple weeks saw students engaging in class more, speaking out and sharing their insights. He also said by the end of the semester, students who did study before class and engaged during class were getting about half a grade higher than what he traditionally had seen.
"When you are calling on students to respond or engage in case study, it forces them to start thinking about the material before they come to class and to synthesize," Palmer said. "Reading assignments are not new, but traditionally professors rarely hold their students accountable to actually read them and students come to class and realize their teachers talk about the whole reading assignment anyway. But now students come to class with a baseline of knowledge on the subject, and we can build off this and use it as a jumping point."
Today, this approach is evident in almost every class on the Rexburg campus. During a 200 level class this June, Professor Jason Hunt led a discussion on in vitro fertilization in a course called Analytical Thinking and Moral Judgment. Prior to class, students had been asked to read about a couple having fertility problems.
To kick off the discussion, Hunt wrote the following on the board: Should they do in vitro fertilization?
He then turned to the students: "Tell me what you need to know to understand this question."
A young woman in the front of the class raised her hand. "The safety of the mother," she said.
Four other students scattered across the room followed suit before Jared Antzcak, a pre-med student who was sitting in the back left raised his hand "When is an embryo human?"
At this question, the professor stopped writing.
"Why would this be an important question?" Hunt asked the packed classroom. "Would you consider this an issue?"
Before he had the students answer, he explained how in vitro normally worked. The doctor fertilizes 24 to 30 eggs, lets them multiply for three days, freezes them, and then implants the best three.
"Now that you know this, argue the definition of human life."
By the end of class, almost every student had made a comment.
This kind of debate couldn't have happened without the students coming to class prepared and willing to participate, Hunt later said.
"We want them to feel like they'll let their colleagues down, their fellow students down if they don't prepare," said Rob Eaton, associate academic vice president who also teaches classes on campus. "So we try to create that type of environment in the class." While many who were interviewed admitted the school was still learning how to teach most effectively in a Learning Model environment, early data signaled that teachers who employed "Teach One Another" pedagogies had higher student engagement and improved student learning (see data).
Twenty-four-year-old, Carson Phillips, who sat in the back right of Hunt's class, admitted that taking more control of his own education takes more work — he studied up to several hours the night before coming to discuss in vitro fertilization. During class, other students brought up points that made him rethink his original stance. Then after class, he and his classmates argued and wrestled with the material further by making comments on a discussion board.
"Everybody has to participate and mull it over," Phillips said. "It's hard, but you get a much deeper understanding."
Antczak even said this way of teaching and learning was a main reason why he decided to stay at BYU-Idaho after being accepted to both the University of Utah and Brigham Young University in Provo just a semester in.
Clark and his team had now tackled two problems: they had saved costs by turning BYU-I into a year round school, and they had raised the quality of instruction by introducing a research-proven method of teaching. He now turned his focus to what was in some ways was the most important objective of BYU-Idaho — reaching more students.
The school had used online instruction in some manner for nearly a decade, but it had been ad hoc, operating as an auxiliary to the university, with pockets of innovation scattered throughout campus. Few students on campus actually took classes online and those who did used them when a class they needed was full, or when work conflicted with schedules.
For several years, faculty had been looking at how to make online education more cost-effective and of better quality. Clark and a few other administrators met regularly about it after he came to the university, but in 2008, a novel idea surfaced that would change their approach to online learning. What if the faculty on campus didn't teach the online courses? What if qualified instructors, those with master's or doctorate degrees in relevant disciplines who were out in the workforce taught the classes remotely?
Every class would be offered online, and every student would take an online course. This, more than anything else, would allow the university to expand its enrollment and reach.
"When I first heard about it, I knew it was right," Clark said. "If you looked at the number of courses we wanted and the number of faculty, it just made sense. Our campus faculty were already swamped, and we hired them for their skill and excellence in [classroom] teaching and in developing courses."
But Clark also wanted to maintain quality. Traditionally, colleges that offered online courses had individual professors create the classes themselves. Sometimes, the results were brilliant. And sometimes, the magic of in-person teaching didn't translate to the computer.
BYU-I tried something different. They teamed up faculty who were experts on a subject (say, molecular biology) with experts on building online courses. They then tested the classes with remote adjunct faculty who were asked to teach the course online.
What they came up with was highly collaborative. Rather than self-paced online courses, the BYU-Idaho courses would need to be build in a Learning Model format that required collaborative learning and cohort-based progress. Professors developed online courses with online instructional design experts in ways that allowed students interact, with each other and with the instructor, through online study sessions, Skype, message boards and instant messaging. Not all classes naturally translated from the classroom to the computer screen. The art department, for example, wasn't sure how to teach painting online. But they were asked to try so they did.
They decided to start with an introduction to drawing class, which was one of the most popular offerings on campus, and thus a class that typically filled up fast. And they found there were actually some advantages to teaching the course online.
Traditionally, the class had been taught in a studio, and there were only so many studios in Rexburg, which reduced how many sections of the course the school could offer. And the truth was, teaching a large group how to draw in a studio, with one teacher and one easel, wasn't exactly ideal. Students in the back of the class, or those positioned at an odd angle in relation to the easel, had to crane their necks to see what the instructor was drawing, and once a certain part of the drawing was complete, he or she moved on.
But online, the experience was different. Every student had a front row seat, and could pause and rewind the video until they completely understood the concepts. They could also provide peer review and feedback by sharing their other with others.
Today, nearly everyone at BYU-Idaho takes an online course in addition to traditional classes, and nearly every course is offered online. The school is even experimenting with a live broadcast from the cadaver lab for its anatomy and physiology online course.
"I felt initially that it would be a big challenge to put classes online," said Palmer, the biology department head. "I had always thought online was going to be inferior to face-to-face — it just seemed like a removed process from teacher to students. That couldn't be the further from the truth. With the learning model as a guide, students and teachers are well connected. It has also opened up possibilities of different ways we can educate. I am now a fan of our online courses. It helps us reach out to more and more students."
In 2009, the equivalent of 880 students took full semester loads online. By last year that number had jumped to 2,140.
It's a warm summer afternoon in Rexburg, and Kim Clark is sitting in his office. Outside, yellow bulldozers idle beside big heaps of dirt that will soon be used to build a new courtyard. Clark only has to look out the window of the conference room to see BYU-I's future moving forward.
The school is a very different kind of university today than it was 10 years ago. Enrollment has grown 60 percent, the university has gone to four years, and its entire way of teaching has changed. Faculty members expect students to take charge of their own education. The school has also found ways to radically lower costs and expand its reach, primarily through online education. Last spring, 6,500 students on campus took online courses that were taught by 222 remote faculty from around the country.
"By not paying for office space, classrooms, and benefits, it's safe to say that it costs us less than half as much to teach courses online as it does face-to-face," said Eaton, associate academic vice president for Academic Development.
The Pathway Program, which officially launched in May, is allowing the university to reach even more students.
Already the program, which is meant to serve young adults who would not otherwise have access to an education, is in place in 22 cities across the country and in two locations outside the U.S. The school plans on adding about 10 more sites each year.
All of these changes date back to a vision former LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley had for the school in 2000. It's something Clark thinks about often.
"With relatively modest resources you can do a lot," Clark says. "That is what we have learned, and that is the story of BYU-Idaho. The things that matter most typically don't cost very much — the learning model, the three-track calendar, the Pathway Program. They are brought to pass by ideas and committed people; you can't buy passion and commitment. As long as people are respected and taken care of, you get compassion and commitment and ideas. In the end, you can be very innovative and very frugal."
EMAIL: email@example.com


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Free shipping to US
Your item(s) should arrive to you within 2 - 5 business days. See our shipping policy for details.
Safely carry your wireless device with this Flip Wallet Leather pouch with window on the front. Synthetic leather and high-quality construction with matching color stitching and sealed seams for durability and classic good looks.
The case includes additional slot to hold cards. Open design allows access to all your phone's functions.
The interior is lined with soft fabric that protects your mobile cell phone from minor bumps and shock.
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|Apple iPhone 7
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Choose cell phone cases that best meet your criteria. MyCuteMobile.com is committed to provide you with the latest and coolest cell phone accessories.


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UPDATE: Location and times for the Holdman Christmas light display have changed for 2010 – The new address is 3183 Millcreek Road in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Google map is here: Click Here for Google Map
They dates and times for 2010 are: Dec 8th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 18th, 20th, 22nd, & 26th from 6:30pm-9:30pm.
So I've lived in Utah for almost 10 years of my life, and I had never heard of the Holdman's and their incredible musical Christmas light display until a week ago. I was talking to my home teacher about going to look at Christmas lights, and he recommended I check out the musical light display up in Lindon, near the Tahitian Noni Mansion.
So tonight my wife and I got around to checking it out, and I have to say, it was AWESOME! The Holdman family has been doing this since 2006, and the display is truly something to behold. You turn your radio station to 99.9 FM, and it broadcasts the music to your car. The lights are all in sync with the music. So cool 🙂
You can make donations and find out tons of cool information at their website here: Holdman Christmas Lights. All donations go towards charity, and the display is eco-friendly (powered by wind turbines). Very cool of them to provide us with such an awesome Christmas light display.
The display runs during the Christmas season from 5:30pm to 10pm Sunday-Thursday, and 5:30pm to 11pm Friday and Saturday. It is located at 61 Kings Peak Drive, in Lindon, UT (at the corner of Denali Dr. and Kings Peak Dr.). Click here for the Google Map.
Check out these amazing videos:


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Every Branch Is Different
Each branch of the military has developed methods for documenting military training that the American Council on Education (ACE) has evaluated for college credit. For information on obtaining your military transcript, just review your branch of service below.
Ferris will evaluate your military credit for a possible award of transfer credit after your official transcript has been received and you have been admitted to the University. Have your official military transcripts mailed to:
- Office of Admissions and Records
Ferris State University
1201 S. State Street, CSS-201
Big Rapids, MI 49307
Transcript requests will require your full or former name, social security number, birth date, dates of service, current mailing address, Ferris' address (see above), your signature and the current date.
Air Force
Send a letter containing the above information to the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) at:
100 S. Turner Blvd
Maxwell-Gunter AFB, AL 36114
(334) 649-5066
Army, Coast Guard, Navy/Marine
To request an Institutional Copy of your transcript, please register and sign in to the Joint Services Transcript Services website:


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March 11, 2009
Fresno, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara encountered a pristine Belmont Country Club at Monday and Tuesday's Fresno State Lexus Classic, posting a season-high team score of 41-over par 905, good enough for 15th place.
The University of Washington won the tournament with a 1-over 865. Host Fresno State finished second, five shots off the leader. UC Davis and UC Irvine rounded off the top three, both scoring a 12-over 876. Ramie Sprinkling of UC Davis took medalist honors with a 4-under 212 thanks in large part to a 68 in the first round and a 69 in the final round.
Junior Brian Hollenbeck led the Gauchos with a 9-over 225. Hollenbeck, who currently leads UCSB in per-round average, recovered from a 79 in the first round by posting scores of 72 and 74 to finish out the tournament.
Tony Verna finished in a tie for 53rd place, two shots behind Hollenbeck. Playing in his first tournament of the season for UCSB, Kei Kita had a 16-over 232. Tyler Weir also had a 232, good enough for an 86th place tie.
Andrew Gunson finished the first two rounds in tenth place at 145 after posting totals of 74 and 71. However, Gunson was disqualified from round three, forcing the Gauchos to drop their lowest score from the first day. UCSB dropped five slots on the last day to fifteenth-place.
UCSB is still searching for a solid replacement for the injured Matt Grush, rotating various 5th men while searching for the right fit. Grush's 73.00 scoring average is second-best on the UCSB squad.
UCSB Golf's next tournament of the young spring season will take place in three weeks, Mar. 29 - Mar. 31 at the Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo Country Club in Santa Cruz, Calif.


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Singing Bowl (Scale F | Heart Chakra)
Designer: Lucky Thanka Handicraft
Price: $60.00Product SKU:
For Wholesale please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com
This singing bowl is made of Seven Auspicious Metals. Beautifully crafted in Nepal these singing bowls are used worldwide for yoga, meditation and spiritual healing. The sounds generated by this Tibetan Singing Bowl is a type of energy medicine that promotes healing from stress disorders, pain, depression and more.
Please note that handcrafted items may have slight variations in measurement and the measurements are a close approximation.
You can see the following signs of imbalance in the heart chakra :
- Being overly defensive
- Feeling closed down
- Jealousy; fear of intimacy
- Codependency, relying on other's approval and attention, trying to please at all cost
- Always putting oneself in the role of the savior or the rescuer; or on the contrary, falling into victimization
- Excessive isolation, being recluse, antisocial
- Holding grudges, not being to forgive
At the physical level, it can manifest as:
- Respiratory ailments, such as lung infection, bronchitis
- Circulatory and heart-related issues


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Important: The POPLINE website will retire on September 1, 2019. Click here to read about the transition.
Country implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes: status report 2011.
Globally, breastfeeding has the potential to prevent 220 000 deaths among children under five each year. WHO recommends that all infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, but actual practice is low (38%). The implementation and enforcement of International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent relevant Health Assembly Resolutions (the Code) are critical for an environment that supports proper infant and young child feeding and for the attainment of Millennium Development Goal 4 (reduce child mortality). This report summarizes the progress countries have made in implementing the Code. It is based on data received from WHO Member States between 2008 and 2010 and on information for 2011 from UNICEF. WHO recognizes ongoing progress being made in various countries since 2011, in terms of passing laws, strengthening existing laws or improving monitoring mechanisms. Updates will be included on an ongoing basis in the WHO Global database on the Implementation of Nutrition Action (GINA). In addition, WHO will publish status reports periodically.


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These days it feels like a miracle when you find a sane-sounding Republican willing to go against the party line, which is why this speech by Washington State Representative Maureen Walsh feels quite remarkable. Walsh, a Republican from Walla Walla, spoke yesterday in support of the marriage equality bill being debated in the House, and she made a lovely and compelling case.
A widow, she spoke very frankly about why she valued her own marriage—and, in a particularly funny moment, she said, "I don't miss the sex" and then backtracked a bit on that sentiment. But her main point is that she doesn't want to deny anyone else the right to experience the same wonderful connection she had with her husband, least of all her daughter, who happens to be a lesbian. Walsh was one of two Republicans who supported the bill, which passed 55-43, and will be signed into law next week. Three cheers for her for standing up for what's right and not just what's Right.
Aaand if that's got you feeling just a little too hopeful about the state of the world, try watching this video wherein another Republican from Washington, State Rep. Mark Hargrove, says gay marriage is basically no different than a man wanting to marry a slice of bacon—a lesson he learned from watching a Jack in the Box commercial during the Super Bowl.
I suppose you could make this stuff up if you tried, but why would you want to when reality is so much more mind-bending?
[Via The Dish]


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TMC wrote:xbay wrote:I think they all got intimidated when they saw that us 5 in this league.
Might be. In that case, why don't we try to lure Bigs into this league?. He doesn't know a damn thing about football, so he cannot feel intimidated by us, right?
hey, he might have beginner luck....


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Descendants of the Rev. John Whitaker and Ann Dunn of Harford, Md. were, his son, Simeon Sim A. Whiteker, born Jan. 18, 1801, Kentucky Methodist minister, farmer and landowner, died 1867. He first married March 16, 1820 in Harrison County by his father, the Rev. John Whiteker, to Elizabeth Hickman (born March 16, 1804 and died Nov. 10, 1846 at age 42). They had 11 children:
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Black Women Living With AIDS Thrive Thanks to Peer Support
Roberta Willis (name changed), 26, has come a long way since first discovering she was HIV-positive, thanks to a little help from her friends: peers and mentors who are also living with HIV. Raped and impregnated by a neighbor when she was 15, Willis didn't tell anyone, including her ob-gyn. It wasn't until her daughter was born that she learned they were both infected. "A year later my mother put us out," Willis says. "I was overwhelmed and ashamed, with nowhere to turn."
Willis saw a newspaper article about a clinic that specialized in caring for women and families affected by HIV/AIDS. "We just showed up, not knowing what to expect," she says. A female volunteer who had been living with AIDS for a decade greeted them. "She told me her story, helped me fill out the paperwork, and introduced me to the case managers and told me about services," Willis says. "I trusted her because she wasn't afraid to say that she was living with AIDS, and she wanted to help me." Nine years later and doing well, Willis volunteered as a peer advocate at the same clinic, offering emotional support and helping to link other women to medical care; sharing information on treatment, resources and support services; accompanying women to the doctor to help them ask questions and take notes; and role-modeling how to live a productive HIV-positive life. A year later she was hired as a paid peer advocate-educator -- the first job she had ever had. "I never want another girl or woman to go through this alone," Willis says.
Most HIV programs and support services were designed to address the needs of gay men, the largest demographic group living with HIV/AIDS and, during the early years, the most visible. But having peer support can help keep women in care, says ob-gyn Jean R. Anderson, M.D., the founder and first director of the Johns Hopkins HIV Women's Health Program. Her program is one of the first to utilize HIV-positive women as peer advocates. Dr. Anderson says, "The social framework within which women live ... is perhaps the major determinant of their quality of life, and ultimately serves as either a facilitator or a barrier to good clinical care." Peer counseling is "an effective strategy for helping patients overcome some of those barriers," she adds.
Linda Scruggs of the Washington, D.C.-based AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth & Families (AACYF) was diagnosed with HIV 20 years ago. Instead of seeing her diagnosis as a death sentence, Scruggs saw her journey as an HIV-positive woman as an "opportunity to be a lifeline for other women." She now manages the AIDS Alliance's peer-training program for women. "We've trained 200 women from all over, and that work has touched 37,000 people around the country," Scruggs says. "I consider those 200 women my sisters."
Vanessa Johnson, executive vice president of the National Association of People With AIDS, was one of the first women to attend Scruggs' training. "I was already working in HIV/AIDS," Johnson says, "but this program gave me a different perspective on working with women. One of the big challenges is that women often struggle with disclosing their status."
Willis can relate. "It wasn't until I was 20 that I told anyone that I am HIV-positive," she says. "I got into a women's group that encouraged us to not just talk about the stuff around infection, but to talk about what it means to be an HIV/AIDS-infected woman." She adds: "How can you be a support to somebody if you won't talk about the thing that brings you together?"
"As difficult as an HIV/AIDS diagnosis can be, it can also be a turning point in a woman's life," says sociologist Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Ph.D., the lead researcher on "Health, Hardship, and Renewal," a study looking at the specific economic and emotional experiences of low-income Chicago women living with HIV/AIDS. Many HIV-infected women learn how to navigate services and systems in a way that they could never seem to do before their diagnosis, she says.
"Connecting with women who have walked in my shoes helped me, as a young mother, be determined not just to survive infection but to make a good life for me and my daughter," Willis says. "I am not an AIDS victim or a victim of my circumstances. That's what the ladies taught me." That is a lesson she will keep on teaching as she pays it forward.
Andrea King Collier is a freelance health and health-policy journalist. She is the lead author of The Black Woman's Guide to Black Men's Health.


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In a new interview with The American Spectator, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito suggested U.S. News & World Report's law school rankings are a money-making gimmick.
"I really don't like this categorization of schools as first, second, and third-tier," Alito told the Spectator.
"The U.S. News and World Report rankings of law schools are an abomination," he added. "The legal profession and the country would be better off if they were eliminated. I gather that all these rankings are one of these things that keeps U.S. News and World Report in the black — unlike Newsweek."
The conservative justice's attitude about law school rankings is reflected in his choice of clerks. Between 2009 and 2010, only two of his eight clerks graduated from Ivy League law schools, The Spectator reported.
Alito is not the first Supreme Court justice to attack law school rankings or to express a willingness to hire clerks who didn't go to Ivy League schools. Justice Clarence Thomas has said U.S. News' law school rankings encourage bias against grads of lower-ranked schools— a discrimination not unlike that against women and minorities.
Others have criticized U.S. News' rankings, including the Northwestern law professor Steven J. Harper. Harper has complained that much of the ranking depends on surveys sent out to law school deans and faculty members who may not have set foot on the campus of the schools they're rating.


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Like most of their space-rock brethren, White Hills build head-trips out of semi-improvised, often spontaneous layers of riff and rhythm. That organic, cumulative process reached its zenith with the group's stellar 2011 album, H-p1. Guitarist-singer David W. and his gang of inner-space astronauts take a more conventional approach on the new Frying On This Rock. Comprising five lengthy jams that were honed on the road over the past year, the album sounds at first like another hypnotically nihilistic White Hills drone-strike. But instead of helping to intensify its cyclical assault, all that practice and preparation seem to have robbed Frying of some of its sizzle.
That's not to say the disc doesn't dreamily devastate. White Hills has always specialized in the harder, more aggressive edge of space-rock, and Frying is no different. "Pads Of Light" unhinges itself like the jaws of an alien, twitching with distortion and dripping acidic incantations. "I Write A Thousand Letters" throbs with a chaotic, cosmic pulse that's equal parts Can, Stooges, and Sun Ra. But the 12-minute instrumental "Robot Stomp" could diplomatically be considered filler—that is, if it were actually substantial enough to fill much space. Instead, the plodding, aimless track fails to harness its own bulk. Or even get out from under it.
The album's biggest drawback, though, is its tone. Where H-p1 chewed through eardrums, Frying sort of squelches. Which is surprising, seeing as how engineer Martin Bisi has done noisy justice to everyone from Swans to Boredoms. Despite that, a few rows of teeth have been pulled from the group's usually ravenous guitar-and-synth attack—and the whole affair is sunk in a dank murk that obscures the atmosphere rather than heightens it. Still, with incredible peaks like "Song Of Everything," the lackluster sound is forgivable. At nine minutes, not a moment is wasted; like a lopsided centrifuge with no off switch, it wobbles nauseatingly until liquefying into a psychotropic, spoken-word protoplasm. "Spread your wings / Fly away," chants W. as he lures the song to the lip of the abyss. It's a hard offer to resist.