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The Azure Code Samples are currently available in English
Tweet vibration anomalies detected by Azure IoT services on data from an Intel Edison running Node.js
If you want to try out Azure IoT Hub and other Azure IoT services, this sample will walk you through the configuration of services and the setup of an Intel Edison running Node.js. The device will log vibration sensor data that will be analyzed by Stream Analytics and a worker role will send an alert message back to the device via IoT Hub as well as tweet the alert on twitter.
Running this sample
Hardware prerequisites
In order to run this sample you will need the following hardware: - An Intel Edison board - In the sample we are using the Seeed Xadow wearable kit for Intel Edison but you can use another kit and sensor adapting the code for the device. - These are the sensors and extensions we are using in the sample (all included in the Seeed Xadow wearable kit mentioned above): - Xadow Expansion board - Xadow Programmer - Xadow 3-Axis accelerometer - Xadow OLED screen
Software prerequisites
- Visual Studio 2015 with Azure SDK for .Net
- A Serial terminal, such as PuTTY, so you monitor debug traces from the devices.
- Intel XDK
Services setup
In order to run the sample you will need to do the following (directions for each step follow): - Create an IoT hub that will receive data from devices and send commands and notifications back to it - Create an Event hub into which we will post alerts triggered by the Stream Analytics job - Create a Stream Analytics job that will read data from the IoT hub and post alerts into the Event hub - Create a Storage account that will be used by the worker role - Deploy a simple worker role that will read alerts from the Event hub and tweet alerts on Twitter and forward alerts back to devices through the IoT hub
Create an IoT Hub
Log on to the Azure Preview Portal.
In the jumpbar, click New, then click Internet of Things, and then click IoT Hub.
In the New IoT Hub blade, specify the desired configuration for the IoT Hub.
- In the Name box, enter a name to identify your IoT hub such as myiothubname. When the Name is validated, a green check mark appears in the Name box.
- Change the Pricing and scale tier as desired. This tutorial does not require a specific tier.
- In the Resource group box, create a new resource group, or select and existing one. For more information, see Using resource groups to manage your Azure resources.
- Use Location to specify the geographic location in which to host your IoT hub.
Once the new IoT hub options are configured, click Create. It can take a few minutes for the IoT hub to be created. To check the status, you can monitor the progress on the Startboard. Or, you can monitor your progress from the Notifications section.
After the IoT hub has been created successfully, open the blade of the new IoT hub, take note of the Hostname, and select the Key icon on the top.
Select the Shared access policy called iothubowner, then copy and take note of the connection string on the right blade. Also take note of the Primary key
Your IoT hub is now created, and you have the Hostname and connection string you need to complete this tutorial.
For the creation of the Stream Analytics job Input, you will need to retreive some informations from the IoT Hub: - From the Messaging blade (found in the settings blade), write down the Event Hub-compatible name - Look at the Event-hub-compatible Endpoint, and write down this part: sb://thispart.servicebus.windows.net/ we will call this one the IoTHub EventHub-compatible namespace - For the key, you will need the Primary Key read in step #6
Create an Event Hub
Log on to the Azure Management Portal.
In the lower left corner of the page, click on the + NEW button.
Select App Services, Service Bus, Event Hub, Quick Create
Enter the following settings for the Event Hub (use a name of your choice for the event hub and the namespace):
- Event Hub Name: "myeventhubname"
- Region: your choice
- Subscription: your choice
- Namespace Name: "mynamespacename-ns"
Click on Create a new Event Hub
Select the mynamespacename-ns and go in the Event Hub tab
Select the myeventhubname event hub and go in the Configure tab
in the Shared Access Policies section, add a new policy:
- Name = "readwrite"
- Permissions = Send, Listen
Write down the Primary Key for the readwrite policy name
Click Save, then go to the event hub Dashboard tab and click on Connection Information at the bottom
Write down the connection string for the readwrite policy name.
Create a Stream Analytics job
Log on to the Azure Preview Portal.
In the jumpbar, click New, then click Internet of Things, and then click Azure Stream Analytics.
Enter a name for the job, a prefered region, choose your subscription. At this stage you are also offered to create a new or to use an existing resource group. This is usefull to gather several Azure services used together. To learn more on resource groups, read this.
Once the job is created, click on the Inputs tile in the job topology section. In the Inputs blade, click on Add
Enter the following settings:
- Input Alias = "accel"
- Type = "Data Stream"
- Source = "IoT Hub"
- IoT Hub = "myiothubname" (use the name for the IoT Hub you create before
- Shared Access Policy Name = "iothubowner"
- Shared Access Policy Key = "iothubowner Primary Key" (That's the key you wrote down when creating the IoT Hub)
- IoT Hub Consumer Group = "" (leave it to the default empty value)
- Event serialization format = "JSON"
- Encoding = "UTF-8"
Back to the Stream Analytics Job blade, click on the Query tile. In the Query settings blade, type in the below query and click Save
SELECT * INTO accel4twitter FROM accel WHERE (accel.z < 0)
Back to the Stream Analytics Job blade, click on the Outputs tile and in the Outputs blade, click on Add
Enter the following settings then click on create:
- Output Alias = "accel4twitter"
- Source = "Event Hub"
- Service Bus Namespace = "mynamespacename-ns
- Event Hub Name = "myeventhubname"
- Event Hub Policy Name = "readwrite"
- Event Hub Policy Key = "Primary Key for readwrite Policy name" (That's the one you wrote down after creating the event hub)
- Partition Key Column = "4"
- Event Serialization format = "JSON"
- Encoding = "UTF-8"
- Format = "Line separated"
Back in the Stream Analytics blade, start the job by clicking on the Start button at the top
Create a storage account
Log on to the Azure Preview Portal.
In the jumpbar, click New and select Data + Storage then Storage Account
Choose Classic for the deployment model and click on create
Enter the name of your choice (i.e. "mystorageaccountname" for the account name and select your resource group, subscription,... then click on "Create"
Once the account is created, find it in the resources blade and write down the Primary Key for it as well as the storage account name you chose to configure the worker role
Get a twitter app consumer and access information
In a browser, go to https://apps.twitter.com/
Login with your twitter account
Click on "Create New App" button and follow instructions
Go to the Keys and Access Tokens tab and generate an access token and access token secret by clicking the "Generate My Access Token and Token Secret" button
Write down the Consumer Key (API Key), Consumer Secret (API Secret), Access Token, and Access Token Secret.
Deploy the worker role
The sample uses a worker role to trigger alerts back on devices through IoT Hub. To build an deploy the worker role here are the few simple steps:
Clone the repository on your machine (see the links on top of this tutorial)
Note that the project depends on the Azure SDK for .Net. If you have not done so yet, install the SDK.
Open the solution events_to_device_service\events_to_device_service.sln in Visual Studio 2015
Open the file app.config and replace the fields below with the connection strings from the Event Hub, the IoT Hub, the storage account and your Twitter account
<add key="Microsoft.ServiceBus.ConnectionString" value="<<Enter your EH connection string>>" /> <add key="Microsoft.ServiceBus.EventHubName" value="<<Enter your EH name string>>" /> <add key="AzureStorage.AccountName" value="<<Enter your Storage account name>>" /> <add key="AzureStorage.Key" value="<<Enter your storage account key>>" /> <add key="Twitter.ConsumerKey" value="<<Enter your Twitter consumer key>>" /> <add key="Twitter.ConsumerSecret" value="<<Enter your Twitter consumer secret>>" /> <add key="Twitter.AccessToken" value="<<Enter your Twitter access token>>" /> <add key="Twitter.AccessSecret" value="<<Enter your Twitter access secret>>" /> <add key="AzureIoTHub.ConnectionString" value="<<IoT Hub Connection String>>" />
Compile the project
From here you can whether run the service locally or publish it on Azure. To run locally, right click on the events_to_device_service project and select "Set As Startup Project" then hit F5. To publish to Azure, right click on the events_to_device_service project, select "Publish..." and follow the prompts.
Create a new device identity in the IoT Hub
To connect your device to the IoT Hub instance, you need to generate a unique identity and connection string. IoT Hub does that for you. To create a new device identity, you have the following options: - Use the Device Explorer tool (runs only on Windows for now) - Use the node.js tool - For this one, you need to have node installed on your machine (https://nodejs.org/en/) - Once node is installed, in a command shell, type the following commands:
npm install -g iothub-explorer
You can type the following to learn more about the tool
iothub-explorer help
Type the following commands to create a new device identity (replace
in the commands with the connection string for the iothubowner that you retreive previously in the portal.
iothub-explorer <connectionstring> create mydevice --connection-string
This will create a new device identity in your IoT Hub and will display the required information. Copy the connectionString
Prepare the device
For deploying the application on the Intel Edison, You have a couple of options. The first one is to use the Intel XDK IDE, while the second one uses a simple deployment script (batch script for Windows users).
Deploy the app using the Intel XDK
Connect your Intel Edison to your development machine over USB (see Intel Edison getting started instructions)
Clone the project repository on your machine (see the links on top of this tutorial)
Start Intel XDK
Create a new project, choose a Blank Template in the Templates tab and click Continue
Enter the project name of your choice, for example: tweetmyvibe, click Create
Open the package.json file and cpy paste the content from the js\package.json file from the repository of the project you cloned at step 1.
Open the main.js file and cpy paste the content from the js\main.js file from the repository of the project you cloned at step 1.
In the main.js file, search for the below code and replace the connection string and DeviceID placeholders with your IoTHub connection string for the device you created in it and the DeviceID
// Set the credentials for the event hub, where the data should be uploaded var connectionstring = '<<Enter your service bus namespace connection string here>>'; // must match the deviceID in the connection string var deviceID = '<<Enter your deviceID>>';
In the Intel XDK tool, compile the project (using the icon with a hammer in it) then click on the Play button to start runnig the app on the device
Deploy the app using the Windows batch script
Clone the project repository on your machine (see the links on top of this tutorial)
In the js/main.js file, search for the below code and replace the connection string and DeviceID placeholders with your IoTHub connection string for the device you created in it and the DeviceID
// Set the credentials for the event hub, where the data should be uploaded
var connectionstring = '<<Enter your service bus namespace connection string here>>';
var deviceID = '<<Enter your deviceID>>'; // must match the deviceID in the connection string
In order to use the deployment script, you need to install PuTTY as the file transfer uses PuTTY SCP, one of the tools coming with the full install of PuTTY. You can consider adapting the script if you prefer using a different SSH client and SCP tool.
Connect your Intel Edison to your development machine over USB (see Intel Edison getting started instructions)
Determine which COM port the device is showing up as on your development machine. Open a command prompt and type the following command:
Connect PuTTY to the COM port for the device at 115200 Bauds.
Type in user name root and your device's password. Note that in order for the SCP tool to work, you need to device to be password protected. If you want to set a password for the user, type the following command in the Serial Terminal prompt:
Retreive the device's IP address typing the below command in the serial termninal.
Open the /js/tools/deploy.cmd script and edit the board_ip, and board_pw values with your device's IP address and password
Run the script on your Windows machine. this will download the app script and package.json files in a specific folder (./node_app_slot) on the device. This folder is monitored by a Daemon running on the Intel Edison which will ensure the node.js application that is stored in this specific folder is started at boot time and kept alive. The script will also install all the modules the app depends on.
Once the application is deployed, you can whether reboot the device, or type the following commands in the serial terminal:
cd /node_app_slot node .
App is now running on the device!
At this point your device is connected to IoT Hub and sends telemetry data. The Stream Analytics Job will detect when the acceleration.z value is negative and will post an alert in the event hub. The worker role will pick up the alerts, will notify the device that an alert was triggered and will tweet the alert.
More information
To learn more about Azure IoT Hub check out the Azure IoT Dev center. In the IoT dev center you will also find plenty simple samples for connecting many sorts of devices to Azure IoT Hub.


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Okay, so what I want to know is do you guys prefer anime or manga?
I don't really have a preference but I usually read manga because it has a lot that the anime doesn't and is ahead. If. You prefer anime, Dubbed or Subbed?
|AnimeGalleries [dot] Net
|AnimeWallpapers [dot] Com
|AnimeLyrics [dot] Com
|AnimePedia [dot] Com
|AnimeGlobe [dot] Com
Okay, so what I want to know is do you guys prefer anime or manga?
I don't really have a preference but I usually read manga because it has a lot that the anime doesn't and is ahead. If. You prefer anime, Dubbed or Subbed?
Anime over manga whenever possible. Why waste time reading a book when you can be WATCHING TV?
I prefer anime, books, and visual novels over comic books.
Honestly, I prefer manga over Anime for a few reasons.
- Firstly, there is a consistency with quality, unlike anime where budget issues can affect animation quality. Yu Yu Hakusho is an example of this.
- Secondly, there isn't a need to cut content so it can fit into a broadcasting time slot.
- Lastly, I don't have to worry about crappy dubbing if I'm watching in English, or reading subtitles with a moving picture (I've never been very patient or good with it) if I'm watching in Japanese.
I know violence isn't the answer. It's the question, and the answer is yes.
Anime all the way. I dont mind manga, but one of the most amazing things ( to me, anyways ) about anime is the music. For that reason alone, I love anime more than manga. Music draws you in to a story, in a way that pictures cant. It gives the entire story so much more feeling, emotion. Im a guy, 27 years old. I work for a masonry company, I drink beer, i shoot guns.... and I could name at least 10 tracks from animes that had me fighting back tears before I even watched the whole series. Sorry, you cant get that from paper. At least I can't. Thats why anime wins for me.
Oh! and subbed. Dub is awful, unless I really need a laugh. I speak and write japanese so its really funny to watch a dubbed anime. Japanese isnt the best lang out there for direct English translation.
Last edited by Baka Gaijin; 06-03-2012 at 12:37 AM.
Anime, but if the series is still ongoing i get to curious so i just read all of the further manga asap. Furthermore i love watching subbed.. i hate watching dubbed because it just sounds fake or something :P. (well actually it is fake)
Definitely anime, for sure. Id rather watch than read, and it lets me become more involved with the particular show a lot easier.
And definitely subbed, not dubbed. Some of the English dubs are absolutely horrendous D:
I prefer Anime cos I like to see the movement and hear the characters voices. When I read I prefer novels, or non-fiction.
I personally prefer Anime but Manga has its merits too. Unlike manga, anime has more of an emotional response from me. Why? because the characters are alive, if you while, plus the music in the series helps make more better. Anime, subbed or dubbed? It really depends on the voice actors for that particular series. Though I like hearing it in subbed but I don't mind dubbed, that's if they get the right voice actors. Though, I do like manga because its have more content than the anime. However, there isn't much of an emotional response because they aren't moving. It's too static for me.
Manga, always.
- It's a more bare-bones art form, and the detail of artwork in anime can't even compare. Try as it may, the anime of Mushshi could never capture the light, airy illustrations of the manga. A Blame! anime couldn't hope to capture the contrast and detail of the manga, a Pastel anime couldn't get the pastel/watercolor styling of the manga.
- It's what the author intended. Anime gets censored to meet broadcast standards, it adds fanservice to draw the late-night crowd and general otaku, it gets moe-fied to draw in otaku, filler is added to maintain scheduling, character designs are changed to make them more suitable for animation, sometimes even art styles are changed. One of my biggest pet peeves in changing of colors, particularly black. A lot of anime studios avoid using black for clothing, hair, eye, or background coloring - even if it was part of a character design or scene. Instead it gets changed to dark blue or purple. This happened most recently with Tasogare x Otome Amnesia.
- Voices not fitting characters. As you read manga, you develop a voice and a tone for characters in your head that is created from their character traits, the way they look, and context clues. Anime gives characters a solid, specific voice and tone that may not fit the perceived voice from the manga, or even fit the character itself. This has been why I don't like watching the Nazo no Kanojo X anime, despite the fact that it's been one of my favorite manga since it first began serialization.
- Pacing becomes a big thing. In manga, the author has control of time. A single panel could contain half-a-second, 10 seconds, or a few minutes or hours. Anime is bound to real time. They can compensate for panels with a lot of content in a short time with slow-motion effects, but there's no way to accurately convey a 10-minute-time-span panel into anime. What they'll do is a show a few second of material, and then go into a montage of the sun going down or shadows growing or cars going by, and hop back to what was happening before in about 10 seconds.
- Scheduling. Anime are generally produced with an amount of episodes decided before the series starts, with a few exceptions. This means if a manga has ended, in most cases they'll try to pack it into a standard length series - ~12 episodes, ~25 episodes, ~50 episodes. To do so they will cut content from the series, drag things out, or add filler content to make it fit into the anime's schedule. If a manga is still on-going when an anime is produced for it, the anime producers will either have a cut-off ending, or make up something to substitute for the end. Most recently, this was Zetman's problem. I looooove the Zetman manga, but the pacing in the anime was terrible. They're trying to cram at least a volume's worth of content into a single anime episode - a typical anime episode is equivelent to about 30-40 pages of manga, a volume is about 200 pages.
- Budgeting. Anime is very, very sensitive to budgeting. Bigger studios or bigger projects can afford more animators and produce higher quality animation...but not all studios are Sunrise or GAINAX, and this means that either the anime as a whole is low/mediocre quality, or the budget is saved to make the more critical scenes high quality and the rest of the scenes are low quality. Look at the animation of Naruto Shippuden, One Piece during the Skypiea arc, or the original Shakugan no Shana series for examples. Naruto is a pretty good example - the quality of the animation during most scenes is sub-par, while the far-and-few-between fight scenes seem to receive most of the budgeting.
- Waiting and selection. Even the most popular manga series don't get anime until more than a year after they begin serialization. Some series take much, much longer than that. The vast majority of manga series never get animated. The anime pool is small, and the manga pool is incredibly large.
It's no less "fake" than the Japanese dub; it's just a different language.Originally Posted by Forbuki
The English dubs of Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell (including both series, and all three movies), FLCL, Evangelion, Casshern SINS, Naruto (after the second season), Full Metal Panic, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Deathnote, Kikaider, Yu Yu Hakusho, or any Studio Ghibli movie is as good as or better than their Japanese dubs.
And some Japanese dubs will make your eardrums bleed. It depends on the anime.Originally Posted by blade_runner95
"The color fades along the intervals I follow."
In an ideal world I'd both read manga and watch anime, as both mediums have their unique qualities - but sadly, since I mostly can't find the time to do both, I go for anime.
i dislike watching it in English (Although i begun with English).
And aint it a opinion that the English dubs from all the series above are as good or even better than the Japanese ones?
Sorry if after that you still think im completely wrong.
Anime Dubbed. This is 'Merica, in 'Merica we read books normal like n'stuff. And we speak 'Merican!
in other words, idk why, but the whole reading books backwards thing with Manga really annoys me. And i don't watch TV to read, therefore i want Animes to be dubbed.
Hmmm... Been a while
Manga generally.
The story is usually better thought our and more consistant.
It's generally the original story line only therefore there are no fillers, filler characters or random plot holes.
The character development is usually more profound.
No change in the art style so to speak.
It usually has a much better and more rounded ending to it then anime.
*Ususally* it doesn't stop right in the middle of a series.
And...you don't havr to worry about which VA does it better, Japanese or English, because it doesn't matter.
Last edited by Kagome; 06-04-2012 at 10:40 AM.
Some English dubs like The Melancholy of Haurhi Suzumiya are great as they actually put a good dub for Americans. I read the novels of Haruhi Suzumiya, and the way it was worded just wasn't as great or as funny as its English-dub anime counterpart.
Anime. Dubbed.
First off, animation has been a huge interest of mine since I was little. Second, voice acting is also something I love, even when it's bad it draws me into the story so much much than not having it there at all.
I just can't connect with manga. I read it every now and then but it's not nearly as enjoyable.
(I'm such a hypocrite though, because I vastly prefer books to movies xD)
I Prefer Manga over Anime.
Because you can basically make the character sound like whatever you want.
And Its ahead the Anime it self.
I prefer to watch anime because I need color in my life and it is mindless entertainment where I can sit and relax with a big bowl of candy. Candy is like my version of popcorn ^^;
I honeslty think both really cool. I love them all! and that. But only as long as the are on the as long as on the cartoon channels =D
What I will do sometimes with dubbed animes is just close my eyes and let it play. It's a way to relax but it's still like watching the anime bcuz all you really need is audio to know what's going on and if I have already seen the anime then I can just visualize that for myself. For me, listening to movies or anime that I have already watched is almost the same as just watching it all together.
Manga, its easier access and mostly has a longer but better and refined story.
Animes, kinda changes. But sometimes I do like seeing the actions in Anime and of course the awesome voices and songs of our seiyuus <3
Im going to be an otaku if you like or not im just starting to be one its hard to get those kinda things!!!!
Money and ...well um money is what i need!!!
Sig ^ made by @Kaleohano *hugs*
I think my preference falls back on which series it is. I normally prefer watching anime over reading manga because I have a really short attention span. The voices and the soundtrack isn't something that you get in anime or manga and those things play a bit part in the series. This boils down to the reason why I enjoyed the anime for Death Note better than the manga - because of the fantastic sound track and voice acting.
I find that the majority of the time, I enjoy the manga with series like Black Butler and Fullmetal Alchemist. This is usually because the anime quickly catches up with a manga that hasn't been finished and goes off of the rail. Both anime significantly falterred after the episodes started to take their own path and not stick to the manga. This is why FMA:B was so much better that the original and the Soul Eater anime more than the manga.
It depends on how good the story is in the anime or manga. Sometimes one isn't as good as the other.
I myself like a little of both, but i can understand the appeal of anime over manga. I love seeing how the characters are brought to life in an anime. sometimes you just don't get the same feeling from reading the manga as you do watching the anime. Besides i find watching the animes really relaxing and they are just so awesomely cute to look at sometimes.
I like reading and watching both so that i can compare them. especially when i discover that the anime is so totally opposite from the manga. I mean that is not a bad thing, But sometimes it's not great either.
as for subbed and dubbed.. well a lot of anime i started watching was on television so i guess that would be dubbed and i got used to it. but then after a while i started watching more of them online like bleach and naruto and gundam and other random ones and i got so used to read the subs that when i would go to watching them on television now they sounded kinda funny to me. But I guess since i go back and forth between them, i am kinda used to both.. but honestly i think the subtitles ones are much better.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo's Playdate Pictures
Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo Have a Grey's Reunion at Lunch With the Girls
Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo Have a Grey's Reunion at Lunch With the Girls
Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl bundled up their daughters, Stella Ivery and Naleigh Kelley, and met for lunch at LA's Cliff's Edge restaurant on Saturday. It was a happy reunion for the former Grey's Anatomy costars, who are both balancing life in front of the cameras in addition to raising toddlers. It's been nearly two years since Katherine's departure from the doctor drama, and she's since gone on to star in several big-screen projects including her upcoming New Year's Eve. The film hits theaters Dec. 9, and, according to Katherine, her make-out scenes with Jon Bon Jovi were "nerve-wracking."
Meanwhile, Ellen and the surgeons at Seattle Grace are up to their elbows with trauma. Ellen's character Meredith is still working out the kinks of her marriage with Derek, Patrick Dempsey, and the rest of the staff is dealing with OR emergencies, an unfortunate death, and relationship woes — don't forget you can stay up-to-date with all the good-looking doctors by following Buzz's weekly Grey's Anatomy recap!


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By CNBC.com
Key earnings bookends, the red hot rental market, and everyone's favorite toxic assets. We called Rep. Paul Ryan the $4 trillion man for his proposed cuts over 10 years. He rocked Washington with a sweeping $5.2 trillion plan, which will keep reverberating as a government shutdown looms. Here's what else is on tap for Wednesday…
1. The Mind of Dimon: As early as Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon will release his annual letter. His comments will surely include pointed criticism of an environment of perceived over-regulation. Banks will be digesting the effects of the Dodd-Frank legislation for years and, as recently as today, Dimon questioned the economic hindrance caused by Basel III capital requirements. JPMorgan Chase shares have been on a good run thus far in 2011, and the company will report quarterly earnings on April 13.
2. Tale of Two Earnings: Get ready for the frenzy of earnings season beginning next with a pair of key companies reporting Wednesday. Before the opening bell, agricultural giant Monsanto is due to release quarterly results. Analysts anticipate earnings per share of $1.85. Retailer Bed Bath & Beyond reports earnings after the market close, with consensus EPS estimate at 97 cents a share. Both will be key drivers in what's been a quiet stock market the past few days.
3. Auctioning Maiden Lane: Final bids are due at 1:00pm ET Wednesday in the first round of rolling auctions for the New York Fed's Maiden Lane II portfolio (also known as AIG's formerly toxic assets). AIG made its pitch to the New York Fed last week, with a bid for the securities outright. That bid was rejected and with the auction process in place, the famously soured assets will go to the winning bidders.
RELATED: Foreclosures on the rise: Is your city on the Top 10 list?
4. From the Gridiron to the Courtroom: It's not as fun as heading to your local sports bar on a Sunday, but football fans have a lot riding on a Wednesday hearing in St. Paul, Minn., where District Judge Susan Richard Nelson hears arguments on a request by players for an injunction to lift the lockout. The hearing begins at 10:30am ET. If the players win, the 2011 season should be saved, while both sides negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.
5. The Rental Boom: Most of us don't need to be reminded of continued weakness in housing. But, the rental market, by comparison, is soaring. Despite high rents and low home prices, the lack of consumer confidence is still pushing Americans away from buying and towards renting. On Wednesday, REIS releases its quarterly apartment vacancy/rent report, illustrating the disparity.


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On a spring evening in 1911, a mob of about fifty white men in the small city of Livermore, Kentucky, lynched Will Potter on the stage of the local opera house. Potter was the black manager of a segregated poolroom where Clarence Mitchell, a young white liveryman, and a friend had come to play. When they refused to pay, Potter asked them to leave, explaining, according to one local report, that "a negro poolroom is not the place for white men." A fight ensued, and Mitchell left the poolroom, "cursing" Potter and daring him to come out. Potter "walked to the door with a pistol in his hands and fired two shots." The city marshal almost immediately arrested Potter and brought him to the theater, securing him in a dressing room behind the stage. As news of the incident spread throughout the town, a mob of "infuriated citizens" formed and broke into the opera house, overpowering the marshal and his deputies. The men then took Potter to the center of the stage, tied him down, and turned on the footlights. Arranging themselves in the orchestra pit, they, on cue, began to shoot.1 "Of about 200 shots fired, nearly half entered the body of the black man," reported the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal. "The remainder tore to shreds the woodland scenery, arranged for the presentation of a more mild drama." Recognizing that the lynching itself was theater, the news account went on to exclaim that "the little Operahouse at Livermore . . . never witnessed such a melodrama."2
The lynching of Will Potter was not a mass spectacle lynching; that is, there were no crowds of spectators there to witness a mob of fifty white men avenging an attempted murder. But if photographing a lynching staged for the camera exaggerated images of white virtue and black degeneracy, the lynching of Potter placed in macabre relief the ways in which white southerners perceived lynching as a staged performance, a "melodrama" in which white righteousness triumphed over black villainy. That Potter was lynched in an opera house may appear to be an unfortunate coincidence, except that the mob did not simply shoot Potter where it found him. The lynchers evidently saw the dramatic potential of their violence; even without a crowd of supporters and spectators, they chose to turn on the "glaring footlights" of the stage and position Potter center stage. And by placing themselves in the orchestra pit rather than on stage with Potter, they positioned themselves as both performers and audience — spectators to their own drama.3
News reporters made much of this "melodrama" at the opera house, so that an otherwise all too typical lynching became national, and even international, news. The story, for instance, appeared in a Paris newspaper, Le Petit Journal, along with a drawing depicting the scene. "Whatever else may be said about the inhabitants of Livermore, Ky., it cannot be denied that in them the dramatic sense is strongly developed," opined the New York Times, "for, when they deemed it expedient to lynch a negro, they managed to do the familiar deed in a way not only entirely, but highly picturesque in the literal meaning of that much-abused word." Other accounts exaggerated the event, reporting that the mob had seized Potter from the jail and taken him to the opera house. According to these reports, the mob charged admission to the lynching and allowed those who had purchased orchestra seats to empty their guns into Potter, while those in the gallery were permitted only one shot each. This sensational attention ultimately led the "better elements" of Livermore to "deeply deplore the action of the mob" and support a legal indictment against "the members of the lawless band" to, according to the county attorney, "erase the blot on the fair name" of the county.4
This turn of events was also undoubtedly influenced by the fact that the whole affair began in an amusement hall of ill repute associated with African American men — the poolroom where Potter and Mitchell fought. The "better elements" of Livermore could easily abandon their support for a mob that rallied after a brawl in a poolroom operated for blacks. After all, according to the Owensboro (Ky.) Daily Inquirer, the fight began because Potter attempted to uphold Jim Crow segregation by telling Mitchell that "a negro poolroom is not the place for white men." Nevertheless, despite Mitchell's occupation as a liveryman and his presence at the pool hall, most papers initially represented him, as they did most white victims in these cases, as a "prominent citizen of the little town" who showed restraint against Potter's aggression. The lynchers, the ones who were indicted at least, were not the poorest in town — several of these men were able to, or had friends who could, post their bonds of $500 or $1,000 — but neither were they well established or well respected. They were skilled laborers, like Mitchell, or small business owners, all "well-known" young men, except for W. N. Davis, a sixty-year-old man engaged in the "restaurant business." Two of the "leaders" were Clifton Schroeter, the proprietor of a "floating" photography studio, and Jesse Schroeter, also a photographer.5
By choosing to lynch Potter in the opera house, these men were in some sense recognizing the ways in which entertainment was bound up with violence, as well as the ways in which violence itself was a source of visual amusement. At the turn of the century, most southern cities and towns, even small towns like Livermore, had an opera house where white townspeople of all classes watched high dramas, vaudeville acts, minstrel shows, and, at times, motion pictures. In lynching Potter in the opera house, therefore, these working men were acclaiming their act of vengeance as respectable drama in a way that the poolroom brawl was decidedly not.
About the Author
Amy Louise Wood is assistant professor of history at Illinois State University. This essay is adapted from Wood's Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940. Copyright 2009 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu.
- 1. News accounts of the fight and the subsequent lynching differ. This account of the fight, which presents Mitchell as the instigator, is from the Owensboro (Ky.) Daily Inquirer, 21 Apr. 1911, 1. Owensboro is a small city located near Livermore, in the western region of the state. A border state, Kentucky had relatively high rates of racial violence, especially in western and central Kentucky, where African Americans were more highly concentrated than in the eastern counties, and where white Kentuckians were more likely to identify themselves as southern. See George C. Wright, Racial Violence in Kentucky (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990) 5, 70–72, 118–19.
- 2. Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, 21 Apr. 1911, 1. According to the Owensboro (Ky.) Daily Inquirer, Potter was lynched on stage by the light of lanterns, not footlights.
- 3. Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, 21 Apr. 1911, 1.
- 4. Wright, Racial Violence in Kentucky, 118, 165; NYT, 22 Apr. 1911, 12; Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, 13 May 1911, 1. The NAACP wrote to both President Taft and Kentucky governor Augustus Wilson in protest. This national attention compelled Governor Wilson to write to the NAACP to express his opposition to injustice and mob action but also to clarify that the lynching, "while it was bad enough," was not as bad or as sensationalistic as reported. Although indictments were made, no one was ever convicted for the lynching. Crisis, June 1911, 61.
- 5. Owensboro (Ky.) Daily Inquirer, 21 Apr. 1911, 1; Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, 13 May 1911, 1. The Owensboro (Ky.) Daily Inquirer initially reported that Mitchell was a troublemaker and a "Negro-hater" and that the mob was "composed of young hot-headed fellows, and not of the older and very best citizens of the town." But it also made note that Mitchell's father was "well-respected by those who knew him." Owensboro (Ky.) Daily Inquirer, 21 Apr. 1911, 1.


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Youngsters are invited to compete in the biggest tiny tots competition of the year.
NORTH ATTLEBORO — Crawlers start your 'engines'! Emerald Square Mall is gearing up for the third annual Diaper Derby! Youngsters are invited to compete in the biggest tiny tots competition of the year on Saturday, March 8, from 10 a.m. to noon.
Participants must be crawlers under the age of 12 months and must not be walking to race against each other in a fun competition that will also include other activities before, during and after the races which include:
• Mommy and Me Lounge
• Prize Giveaways
• Face painting by Sue Greco
The winner from each of the heats will then compete for first, second and third prize. This is followed by an award ceremony. All three winners will receive a trophy.
All racers will receive a goody bag (while supplies last).
Registration and participation are free.
This year's Diaper Derby is limited to the first 72 registered babies. Registration is open now and runs through Saturday, March 8. (Registration on the day of the event will end at 8:45 a.m.)
Pre- Registration is encouraged. To register, parents or guardians can visit Guest Services at the mall or call 508-699-4100.
All participating babies must check in at 9 a.m. at the registration table at Level 1 Center Court.
The Diaper Derby will be held at Emerald Square Mall, 999 S Washington St., North Attleboro.
The event is sponsored by WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Nutrition Program and Bay State Parent Magazine.


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Millard House (La Miniatura)
The Millard House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 1976 for its significance in architecture, engineering and landscape architecture. The house is also located within the Prospect Historic District which was created in 1983. This historic district spans 689 acres and has approximately 116 buildings.
In 1906 Frank Lloyd Wright designed a home for Alice Millard, a rare-book dealer, and her husband in Highland Park, Illinois. After her husband's death Alice moved to Los Angeles County where she commissioned Wright to design another house.
The house is composed of rough textured earth toned concrete blocks which allow the house to blend in with the landscape. In addition, the fabricated concrete blocks use sand from the property further integrating the structure with the surrounding natural environment. Even though Wright waived his fee for the house the final cost was 70% ($7,000) over the strict $10,000 budget. At three stories the structure is 2,400 square feet in total. The first floor has the kitchen, dining room and maid's room. The dining room opens to a terrace with a reflecting pool connecting the house with the outdoors. The main entrance is located on the second floor along with a guest room and a large two-story living room. Within the living room is the concrete block fireplace, the main focal point of the house. A balcony from the third story overlooks the living room below. On the third floor Wright placed Millard's bedroom with an outdoor terrace. While the load bearing walls are constructed of concrete blocks the interior walls are wooden studs with plaster. The floors are either concrete or wood and the ceilings are plaster or exposed redwood. In 1926, Lloyd Wright, Wright's son, designed a separate studio and guest house.
Completed in 1923, addition completed in 1926
The Millard House sits along a steep ravine located on a tree covered lot.
Wright's textured concrete block was a new experimental material in modular housing. The concrete blocks were poured onsite using wooden molds and constructed with a tongue and groove system and conventional mortar. Unlike the Millard House, Wright's later three textile block houses within the Los Angeles area used rebar reinforced blocks. The additional rebar provides a catalyst for the cracking and breaking of the original concrete. For example, if moisture seeps into the concrete block and comes in contact with the rebar the metal can rust. This rust can cause chunks of concrete to pop off from the original block.
At the Millard House the walls are two concrete blocks thick with an air gap to provide insulation. These concrete blocks are richly textured and patterned with a modernized pre-Columbian motif of a central cross and a square in each corner. Some of the blocks are solid while others are perforated to allow filtered light through the cross. In his autobiography Wright wrote that he chose concrete blocks since they were "the cheapest (and ugliest) thing in the building world," and he wanted to see what he could accomplish (Wright 234).
With the Millard House Wright attempted to reinvent himself by breaking with the horizontally oriented structures of the Prairie Style. In addition, Wright attempted to develop a new low cost flexible building system. When designing his concrete block technique Wright used a standardized block as the basic design unit. The blocks created a grid like geometric pattern and the small scale of the unit allowed for an adaptable organic design that could closely follow the landscape. While the building system was flexible it proved to be more expensive than planned, and the house was 70% over budget.
The Millard House was inspired by pre-Columbian motifs popular in 1920s architectural culture, which evoked a sense of the exoticism. Evidence of Mesoamerican designs are seen in the heavy massing of the house, its flat roofs, geometric arrangement of spaces and the concrete block pattern.
The Millard House was the first of four textile block houses designed by Wright. The other three houses, all of which are located in the Los Angeles area, are the Samuel Freeman House (completed 1923), the Storer House (completed in 1923) and the Ennis House (completed in 1924). In addition, Wright's design for the Millard House utilized pre-Columbian/Mayan Revival motifs that were popular during the 1920s and 1930s within the United States.
Wright created the new textile block construction system stating: "We would take that despised outcast of the building industry- the concrete block...find hitherto unsuspected soul in it- make it live as a thing of beauty- textured like the trees" (Pfeiffer 45)
The Millard House is one of a few Mayan Revival Style structures built by Wright utilizing his inventive textile block construction. As Wright's first textile block house, the Millard House set a precedent for the design of the subsequent textile block houses and stands out as a lasting example of Wright's innovations in building technology. Wright fused aestheticism and practicality, while creating a house that is open to and connected with nature. While the initial response to the Millard House was negative, it is now known around the world as one of the most significant structures in the Los Angeles area.
"CALIFORNIA (CA), Los Angeles County." National Register of Historical Places. Web. 29 Jan. 2011. .
Crosby Doe Presents Frank Lloyd Wright Millard House, Pasadena, CA. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. .
Groves, Martha. "Tour Shows off the Block Architect Wright Played with." Los Angeles Times - California, National and World News - Latimes.com. 27 Jan. 2008. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. .
LeBlanc, Sydney. The Architecture Traveler: a Guide to 250 Key 20th Century American Buildings. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000. Print.
Pfeiffer, Bruce B. Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959: Building for Democracy. Germany: Taschen, 2004. Print.
Phillips, Ruth Anne. ""Pre-Columbian Revival": Defining and Exploring a United States Architectural Style, 1910--1940." ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2007. PROQUESTMS. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.
Storrer, William Allin., and Frank Lloyd Wright. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: a Complete Catalog. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2002. Print.
Vargas, Angela Paola. "The Textile Block System: Structural Analysis and Alternative Seismic Upgrading to IBC 2003." ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2009. ProQuest. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.
Wright, Frank Lloyd. An Autobiography. Pomegranate, California: Pomegranate Communications, Inc, 2005.


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About Us
All goods are on hand at our South Florida Location and are available for inspection.
Topper Liquidators offers below-wholesale merchandise to the public and small to large businesses. As you will see, when buying one or two items from us, we have the lowest prices available to the public, period. If you are interested in buying in bulk, we offer quantity discounts!
As a liquidator to the public we offer the rare opportunity to purchase discounted legitimate merchandise in both small and bulk lots. We also offer a shipping option for everyone. Learn about shipping prices. Contact us for more details on bulk orders! We are one of the very few companies that offer merchandise liquidations and closeouts in lots both large and small.
Buy with the same power as large corporations around the world! Also, if you have a State of Florida Tax ID and are purchasing goods for resale, don't forget to make sure that we have your tax information on file so that you are not charged sales tax. Merchandise Liquidations, Wholesale Lots Electronics, Fine Jewelry Designer Sunglasses & More! Whether looking for a small number of designer sunglasses or hundreds of pair, handfuls of boutique bridal gowns or enough to start an entire store,
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On Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014, Kent Douglas Vandenberg, a husband, a father, a brother, a friend, a musician, a spiritual guide, a business man, an engineer, and most of all a teacher of life, went to the light after fighting gastric cancer with courage and grace for more than a year.
He was surrounded by family and close friends who showered him with love and positive affirmations for all that he gave to the world. He died peacefully at home.
Together with his wife of 20 years, Stephanie R. Vandenberg, he created a beautiful family. He faced life with courage, integrity and passion. He taught that the best parenting was done through actions not words and love was the best form of discipline. He gave his family the most incredible life filled with joy, passion, love and creativity. He showed the world and how to explore it. He taught to never take what other people think too seriously - to stay true to your heart.
He loved sharing his passion for music, from Jazz to Kirtan, from Joni Mitchell to Bob Dylan, and more. He was an avid supporter of NPR and PBS. He taught that the meaning of life was love and compassion. He taught that spirituality and commitment were intertwined.
If eyes are the window to the soul, Kent's soul is a beaming ray of light.
Kent, go to the light and find the answers you have been seeking for so long. Look down upon your beautiful family that you created and continue to guide them through life.
Kent is survived by his loving wife of 20 years, Stephanie Vandenberg; his three amazing children, Eric Maxwell, a student at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, Nicholas Ryan and Claire Lois of Solebury; his brother, Raymond Vandenberg and his wife, Margaret, of Pelham, N.Y.; his brother-in-law, Guy Erdman of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; his brother-in-law, Allen Masenheimer of Wycombe; his loving nephews, Christopher Vandenberg of Manhattan, N.Y., William Vandenberg, a student at Tufts University, Christopher Erdman, a student at Drexel University, Gregory Masenheimer and his wife, Cami, of Rockville, Md., Keith Masenheimer and his wife, Abby, of Denver, Colo., John Masenheimer of Denver, Colo.; mother-in-law, Catherine Bussell of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; father-in-law, Lawrence Erdman and his wife, Patricia Erdman, of Trenton, Mich.; and great-nephew, Owen Masenheimer, and great-niece, Tyler Masenheimer.
Kent is now in the loving arms of his deceased father, Raymond L. Vandenberg of Newtown; his mother, Beatrice Louis Ripper of Rushland; and his sister, Lyn R. Masenheimer of Wycombe.
Born June 22, 1955, in Bristol, a graduate of Council Rock High School, Class of 1973, Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, graduating Summa Cum Laude; and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering/Semiconductors from University of Vermont.
Kent led a successful sales and marketing career in the field of photonics, telecommunications, and home-networking, and last-mile HFC networks.
A celebration of Kent's life will held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 6587 Upper York Road, Solebury.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to: In Memory of Kent Vandenberg, Fox Chase Cancer Center, 333 Cottman Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19111 or to: Kent Vandenberg Music and Arts Scholarship Fund, c/o Vickie Behlert, New Hope-Solebury High School, 182 W. Bridge St., New Hope, PA 18938.
To share your fondest memory of Kent, please visit the Web site below. Swartz/Givnish Funeral Home,


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text: Look ma, no gravity! NASA March 10, 2017 Life on Earth is used to gravity – so what happens to our cells and tissues in space? Andy Tay, University of California, Los Angeles Every moment of life on our planet has had the force of gravity in the background. But the prospect of long-distance space travel means it's time to figure out what happens to our biology in its absence.


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free(redirected from freelance)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Legal, Financial, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
FreeThe Royal Free Hospital. A large NHS teaching hospital in Hampstead, near central London, which houses part of the UCL medical school and belongs to the Royal Free Hampstead Trust.
Areas of interest
HIV, hepatology, transplantation.
1. Devoid of, as in cell-free, gluten-free, or sugar-free.
2. Natural, wild, or unrestrained, as in freerange or freespirit.
3. Available at no cost; gratis.
4. Unbound by proteins in the plasma, and therefore biologically active.
not tied; unconfined.
free bullet humane killer
see humane killer.
free electricity
the presence of uncontrolled electrical current in solid materials at low amperages and voltages, usually due to faulty wiring and poor earthing (grounding) of the electrical power system. It causes restlessness, and failure of letdown of milk. In some cases when the circumstances are suitable there may be stunning of animals and rarely fatal electrocution.
free fatty acids
most fatty acids in the body are combined with alcohols in the form of triglycerides. Free fatty acids are produced during digestion and metabolism but most of them in the circulation are combined with protein during this phase.
free fluid
fluid in the body, other than in the alimentary or urinary tracts, which is not part of tissue fluid but free in a body cavity or as a discrete mass in an organ.
free gas bloat
see ruminal tympany.
free hormone hypothesis
the unbound fraction of hormone is the indicator of what is available to tissues, available for metabolism and excretion. See also free thyroxine.
free return
a return of service for a mare to the same stallion in the next season if she does not produce a live foal.
free stall housing
cow accommodation in which there are enough stalls for each cow to have one but the cows are not tied in; they are free to lie down in a cubicle or to feed or to seek other cows coming on heat.
free T4 index
see free thyroxine.
free water clearance
the capacity to excrete urine of lower osmolality than plasma, thus avoiding depletion of salt reserves.
Patient discussion about free
Q. is this a free service?
A. yes this is a 100% free site
Q. I have RA and would like to know is there anything i can do to keep my moovement free is walking ok how mush and how long
A. my grandma has it too, from what i understand - every patient is different. but it takes several of years. i recommend also taking Omega 3 fatty acids, they were proven to slow inflammation and RA is an inflammatory process. other then that the information above seems very good, i'll keep it in mind and try to implement it and help my grandma :)
Q. How can I go about finding a free depression support group where I live? would like to find a depression support group in my area. How do I go about finding one? Google searches are turning up nothing.
A. Call the help desk or receptionist of your local or nearest hospital or medical clinic.More discussions about free
You could go to an AA meeting in your local community. A lot of people there are depressed. That's what those meetings do for people, they are a support group.
You could also start one and put a community notice in your local paper.
Get together with others you trust and talk.
Call home and talk.
Find a friend and talk.
I pray. God listens.
You could go to an AA meeting in your local community. A lot of people there are depressed. That's what those meetings do for people, they are a support group.
You could also start one and put a community notice in your local paper.
Get together with others you trust and talk.
Call home and talk.
Find a friend and talk.
I pray. God listens.


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Oscar Pistorius Facing 2 More Gun Charges
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa prosecutors have served Oscar Pistorius with new indictment papers containing two additional firearm charges believed to relate to the double-amputee Olympian allegedly shooting a gun in a public on two occasions — one of them weeks before he killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Nathi Mncube told The Associated Press the papers were served to Pistorius' lawyers Wednesday. The athlete will now face a main charge of murder and three other charges of contravening South Africa's firearm laws at his trial in March.
Pistorius had already been indicted in August on charges of murder for the Feb. 14 shooting of Steenkamp and illegal possession of ammunition.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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It's the dream team meets the supreme team And all our eyes green it only means one thing You ain't fucking with my clique—Jay-Z, Clique
It's an honor, a privilege and so supremely awesome to announce that our newest General Partner is Lars Dalgaard.
Lars is spectacularly qualified. He founded and ran SuccessFactors and led them to $364 million in annual revenue ultimately resulting in a $3.5 billion acquisition by SAP in 2011. This was by far the largest and most important acquisition in the history of the SaaS category. SAP then put Lars in charge of its newly formed Cloud Business unit, which he promptly grew to $1 billion in annual revenue. He also served as a member of the SAP Executive Board and the SAP Global Managing Board. He holds a B.A. from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and an M.S. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business as a Sloan Fellow. And if you are an entrepreneur doing business internationally, Lars speaks 7 languages.
But that's not why we are so fired up about Lars. Yes, he built one of the most important enterprise companies of the era. Yes, he fits our standard of Founder/CEOs advising Founder/CEOs. Those are the reasons why we were initially interested in Lars, but those are not the reasons why we absolutely had to have him on our team.
In venture capital, we spend lots of time thinking about business models, product market fit, inflection points, network effects, viral coefficients and other points of leverage in a business. Those things are important, but they are not what building a company is about. Those are not the things that founders and CEOs spend all day doing. They are not why engineers, product managers and sales people put in insane hours and make great sacrifices.
Building a company isn't about business models and inflection points; it's about doing something larger than yourself. It's about working for each other. It's about being part of a team trying to make possible the impossible. It's about doing it in a way that no matter the outcome, everyone was glad they were there.
When Lars' last day finally came after 12 long years of building SuccessFactors, a long line of employees formed. There each team member waited patiently to tell him one last story, recall one last thrill and give him one more hug. One by one, they told him how they did it together and wouldn't trade the experience for anything. That's what building a company is about. That's why we're here and that's why he's here.
Read more posts on Ben's Blog »


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Aaron a married orthodox Jew in his thirties gives an enigmatic young man (Ezri) a job in his Jerusalem butcher's shop. Working alongside Ezri unlocks long repressed desires and the two men embark on a sexual relationship. Slowly the community begins to suspect what is happening, and so begins Aaron's conflict between his faith, community and desire. With a restrained pace and muted colours Tabakman's film captures the oppressive atmosphere of a closed society and the cost of breaking a great taboo."'A gripping tale of a man fighting with himself, his community and religion'
Time Out
"Tabakman manages to break taboos without resorting to a heavy-handed attack on religion. His film is sparse, sombre and curiously compelling." ****
Sunday Times
Watch the trailer
Haim Tabakman / Israel 2009 / 90 min / Hebrew & Yiddish with subtitles / Cert: 12
Queer haredim on screen in SE4! I am told this is one of the real gems of the current Israeli cinema, under-going something of a renaissance with films like Samuel Maoz's Lebanon, Eran Riklis' The Lemon Tree, Ari Folman's awesome Waltz With Bashir, Tatia Rosenthal's $9.99, Joseph Cedar's Beaufort, Eran Kolirin's The Band's Visit and Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani's Ajami.


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OTTAWA — An internal memo to CBC employees warns of "dark clouds on the horizon" for the state broadcaster, QMI Agency has learned.
CBC president and CEO Hubert Lacroix sent the ominous note last Friday.
"On Monday, I informed the board that we are projecting significant financial challenges," Lacroix told staffers.
He warned that a weak advertising market, low TV ratings among 25-54-year-olds and the loss of the NHL contract "have combined to create an important revenue shortfall for the whole of CBC/Radio-Canada."
Despite receiving more than $1 billion from taxpayers, Lacroix says that's not enough.
"We are working hard to confirm the bottom line," he said in the memo. "However, it's clear that tough and more fundamental decisions will have to be made to establish a longer-term, sustainable, financial model for our corporation."
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting has renewed a call for a larger taxpayer subsidy.
On Tuesday, Friends spokesman Ian Morrison told a Senate committee that the CBC needs an extra $100 million per year over the next four years, in line with an opposition party report from 2008.
Conservative Sen. Don Plett says he's no fan of government subsidies, but added that eliminating the CBC's subsidy is probably too difficult.
"So, I don't know what the answer is, and that of course is why we're having this study – to look at that and other issues," Plett said.
The Senate Transport and Communications Committee will continue its study of CBC challenges next week with testimony from former CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein.


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Johnson / Foster Father & Mother no info on Mother from Montana
I am looking for info on my Mothers side Mainly (Donna L Foster) she went to school in Billings MT @(BSHS) her and my father (Lawrence E Johnson) had 2 Children, my brother born in Montana and (me) born in Alaska. I do not know anything about her side of the family.
"Guess it was one of those I dont like your relatives things."
My fathers mother was Dorothy (Reintsma) Johnson, her husband was Otis Johnson. (one time she was Dorothy Gonnerman) Dorothys parents were John Reintsma and Denna Buss. I have relatives in Mont. Minn. & OK as far as I know
My Email is firstname.lastname@example.com
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A Price War Erupts in Cloud Services
As Amazon, Microsoft and Google Battle, Users Reap Benefits
Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. are warring over the future of corporate computing, and executives like Michael Simonsen are reaping the benefits.
Mr. Simonsen, chief executive of real-estate startup Altos Research, rents computing horsepower and data storage from Amazon to crunch data on about 100 million U.S. home listings. Three weeks ago, Amazon cut Altos's bill nearly in half. That enabled Mr. Simonsen to add two programmers to develop new services....


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Oilers' first-year pro Justin Schultz a quick studyby Dan Rosen
At least, that's what Schultz is saying these days. Whether you believe him is a topic for a different debate.
"It still is difficult. I'm learning every day," Schultz, Edmonton's top defensive prospect, humbly told NHL.com earlier this week in a phone interview from Oklahoma City, where he is playing for the Barons in the American Hockey League. "It's tougher at this level. It's still a challenge, but obviously I've had a good start."
ACT TOOBy Tal Pinchevsky - NHL.com Staff Writer
Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt and Goldie Hawn, leaves hockey for a career in the family business. READ MORE ›
Let's take a look at that start Schultz is talking about. It'll help you decide if you want to believe him when he says he finds professional hockey "difficult" and a "challenge."
Schultz and teammate Jordan Eberle, an NHL All-Star last season, are tied for the AHL lead with 38 points through 26 games. Remember, Schultz is a defenseman and Eberle is a forward who was 16th in the NHL last season with 76 points.
Schultz has 14 goals, seven shy of the AHL record for a rookie defenseman. He has an AHL-best 24 assists. His 38 points are 14 more than the next rookie. He has been held without a point in three games and has had at least two points in half the games he's played, including two against the Texas Stars, who have to deal with Schultz four more times before the end of the month.
"The American League is a real good league and lots of time there is an adjustment period, but it seems like he missed the adjustment period," Stars coach Willie Desjardins told NHL.com. "He went right into it and has functioned at a real high level."
There are two questions Schultz still has to answer:
1. Can he keep up his current pace, or at least stay close to it, through a full professional season, including a grind and travel schedule he has never faced before?
2. Can he translate his production to the NHL? When the League returns, the Oilers will bring Schultz to Edmonton and ask him to star on their blue line and run the point on their power play.
Both answers will come over time, but Schultz, who grew up in British Columbia idolizing native son Scott Niedermayer, isn't leaving much to the imagination these days. The former University of Wisconsin star is living up to the hype that followed him over the summer.
"He has parts of Niedermayer and one player he reminds me of is Drew Doughty," Oklahoma City coach Todd Nelson told NHL.com. "The NHL is a step higher, but I see him doing the same thing up there. Maybe not as explosive in his first year, but I see him contributing offensively. I see him playing a lot of minutes, just as he does here -- and he plays about 30 minutes a game, handles it well.
"Is he capable of being a Scott Niedermayer? He's very capable. I feel very comfortable in saying that."
Schultz hasn't had the chance to prove it yet, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing for him. In fact, an argument can be made that it's actually the opposite.
The ongoing labor dispute has given Schultz time to adjust to professional hockey in the AHL, an opportunity he otherwise wouldn't have had because, frankly, there is just no way the Oilers were going to let him play in Oklahoma City if the NHL was in action.
|Rookie defenseman Justin Schultz has been a quick study at the AHL level in his first pro season -- he's leading the league in scoring. (Photo by David Maxwell/Getty Images)
Schultz was a prize of the 2012 free-agent class despite having never played a single professional hockey game. A former second-round pick by the Anaheim Ducks, he went unsigned to become an unrestricted free agent this year. Teams across the NHL pitched their programs, their futures and their markets to Schultz. He was attainable to every team because he could sign only an entry-level contract, so he was arguably the most sought-after free agent on the market.
Schultz signed a two-year deal with Edmonton after hearing about the organization and the city from a group that included Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey. Schultz chose the Oilers largely because it intrigued him to be part of the team's bright future, much of which has been on display in Oklahoma City this season with Schultz and Eberle joined by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall and Magnus Paajarvi.
"That he has this transition phase is extremely valuable for him. There are so many elements that we can mention," Edmonton coach Ralph Krueger told NHL.com. "One of them would be the pace. Coming out of college and now having three and sometimes four games a week is new to him.
"The physicality and the overall tight-checking nature of the American League -- there is not a lot of space and room, things happen a lot quicker -- he's able to adapt to that," Krueger continued. "And, of course, the opportunity to be working on what will be one of his specialties, the power play, with personnel that he will also be working with here in Edmonton. To get that kind of practice at that level is going to really help his comfort in taking that responsibility here in Edmonton, which is clearly going to be one of his staples."
Krueger also pointed to the easiness with which Schultz can adjust to the responsibilities of being a pro because he's not in the cauldron that is a hockey-mad city like Edmonton, but is instead finding his comfort zone in what for hockey players is a vastly more anonymous environment in Oklahoma City.
"He doesn't have to deal with the Canadian media and the pressures he would have coped with in Edmonton," Nelson said. "He's here in Oklahoma City, he's taken the league by storm, and he's dealing with it well. He just reminds me of a kid who just wants to go play hockey. That's all he cares about. He has lived up to the hype and exceeded my expectations."
But Schultz has not exceeded his own expectations -- especially on the defensive end, where he said he has improved the most since the AHL season started and yet still has the most improvement to make in order to be like his idol, Niedermayer.
"It's definitely harder than the offensive part of the game for me, but it'll come," Schultz said. "You can see in practice; we're going against pretty good players in Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins, Hall every day. The first couple of times I got stuck watching the puck, but now I'm getting better at challenging them."
Nelson is quick to point out that the Barons' coaching staff hasn't overhauled any part of Schultz's defensive game. They've made tweaks, like giving him advice on when to jump into the play and when to avoid the risk, but Nelson said major changes haven't been necessary because Schultz already had good defensive instincts and habits (i.e. stick on puck, gap control) before he turned pro.
"He's an intelligent person and he takes direction very well, but we haven't really had to lean on him because he does so many things so well," Nelson said. "For instance, in our first two exhibition games he was lugging it up the ice and then he'd get caught. He learned quick. Instead of trying to force the game he is letting the game come to him and he reacts off of that. That's a good way to play defense. With defenseman, when they try to force it, it's like putting gas on fire. He's got a good balance."
The Barons' staff has had very little to tweak in Schultz's offensive game.
Schultz's ability with the puck on his stick is already considered off the charts for a 22-year-old rookie defenseman because of his smooth skating, his ability to get his wrist shot through to the net like he was shooting the puck through a mail slot, and, most importantly, "his mind-quickness," according to NHL Network and TSN analyst/scout Craig Button.
Button compared Schultz's multifaceted skills to those of Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III.
"It's one thing to see the play that is happening, it's a whole other thing to see the potential play unfolding, and that is what he sees," Button told NHL.com. "If you take away the shot, he can pass. If you take away the pass he can beat you with his skating. He presents you multiple problems, and when you're multifaceted like him you end up with real challenges in terms of trying to defend him.
"He's like RG3. How do you defend him?"
NHL coaches will eventually have to figure it out for themselves. AHL coaches know all too well the dilemma their NHL counterparts will have.
"He'll have to prove it [in the NHL]," Desjardins said, "but he's showing every indication that [his abilities] will transfer over."
Follow Dan Rosen on Twitter at: @drosennhl


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-Coast Cutlery Rapid Response
From coastportland.com :
The Coast Rapid Response knife features blade assist technology which was designed by world class custom knife maker and inventor, Ron Lake. It uses a patented system using a roller-bearing mounted to the blade and a leaf spring mounted between the handle liners resulting in a blade that releases faster, smoother, and safer than other assisted opening knives on the market. A stainless steel frame and nylon filled nylon handle add incredible strength and durability. Thumb studs on both sides of the blade and thumb ramping on both sides of the handle make firing the blade easy from right or left side carry positions. A reversible, stainless steel pocket clip is included making the knife fully ambidextrous. The knife uses Coast's patented Max-Lock technology which provides a second lock system. This safeguard secures the blade closed when not in use and double locks the Liner-Lock when open, even if the Liner Lock is inadvertently dis-engaged. Backed by Coast's lifetime warranty against defects in materials and workmanship.
Available through various retailers, including http://www.coastportland.com


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A secret trail through the Santa Cruz Mountains winds past four family-owned wineries.
Turn off California's Highway 1 at Aptos, south of Santa Cruz, then head east toward the Santa Cruz Mountains, and you'll quickly find yourself on the Corralitos Wine Trail (see a map at corralitoswinetrail.com). You won't run into traffic jams or lavish estates—just four distinctive family-run wineries, where on intimate tours you get to meet the vintners as they pour impressive tastes.
- The bowl-shaped property at Craig and Cathy Handley's Pleasant Valley Vineyards has vines on the sides and a hammock strung between shady redwoods in the middle. It's a sweet spot to sip a rich Dylan David pinot noir, one of several wines named for the couple's grandkids. pvvines.com.
- "We don't do it for a living, we do it for love," says Marguerite Nicholson of Nicholson Vineyards. She and her husband, Brian, a ninth-generation Californian, produce mainly chardonnay and pinot noir. Sage-green trees outside the barnlike winery sustain another of the couple's passions: farmstead olive oil. nicholsonvineyards.com.
- After selling his bread company, Richard Alfaro set out to try a different use for yeast, launching Alfaro Family Vineyards & Winery. His wife, Mary Kay—a certified sommelier—pours serious wines at the tasting room's granite counter. The setting is anything but stuffy: A basketball court by the vineyards is open to everyone. alfarowine.com.
- Windy Oaks Estate Vineyards & Winery's namesake trees stand high on a ridge overlooking the windswept Pacific Ocean. Picnic benches beneath them provide a tranquil perch as you sample Jim and Judy Schultze's Burgundian pinot noirs and chardonnays and take in the view of Monterey Bay. windyoaksestate.com.
Photography by Patty Hinz Imagery
This article was first published in January 2012 and updated in February 2019. Some facts may have aged gracelessly. Please call ahead to verify information.


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Incentives to win
Capital goods – July 2011
It wasn't happenstance. Gov. Beverly Perdue, delivering her State of the State address to the General Assembly back in February, recognized a company and its CEO, who stood in the House gallery. Gordon Jones of Clearwater Paper Corp. had announced the previous summer that the Spokane, Wash.-based company will build a tissue-paper plant in Cleveland County. "We used every tool in the toolbox to convince companies that the Tar Heel State deserves our reputation as the best place in the nation to do business," Perdue said.
By tools, she mostly meant business-recruiting incentives. To lure Clearwater, the state offered a Jobs Development Investment Grant, based on the plant's projected payroll taxes, worth up to $3.48 million, and $500,000 from the One North Carolina Fund, sometimes called the governor's "walking-around money." Golden LEAF, the nonprofit that gets half the state's proceeds from the national tobacco settlement, ponied up $3 million, most of it for job training.
At the time, Perdue and the new Republican leaders of the General Assembly were engaged in a fight, the first of many to come, over the budget. Legislators wanted to direct her to where they felt she could find some savings, and that included incentive funds. She responded by uttering the four-letter word no politician can resist: jobs. That might explain why they have left the state's package of grants, tax breaks and other recruiting inducements untouched. (She won that skirmish, by the way, vetoing the bill and forcing Republicans to let her decide where best to search for state government's loose change. But she lost the battle when the Republicans rallied a handful of Democrats to override her veto of the final budget bill.)
Not so long ago, the nearly monolithic legislative support for incentives seemed to be cracking as more Republicans began voting against packages and GOP candidates for governor criticized them. Chucking rocks from the back row is easy, but once Republicans won control of the legislature, criticism wasn't enough. They needed to figure out something better.
There has been no serious attempt to rein in incentives or even call for a study of how the state compares with its neighbors these days, much less how effective something as relatively new as JDIG has been. A few bills were filed to restrict or even eliminate incentives for the film industry, but they appear to have about as much support as opening prisons or shuttering public schools. A provision tucked into the budget bill required a bit more detail of annual incentives reporting by the N.C. Department of Commerce. JDIG took a hit in the budget, but its writers gave Perdue more One North Carolina money.
Just a year earlier, Rep. Johnathan Rhyne, the Lincolnton Republican who now co-chairs three key committees, proclaimed on the House floor: "We're simply prostituting the state of North Carolina for these big corporations." That kind of rhetoric grabs people's attention. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, one of the more vocal critics of film incentives, isn't convinced that the sentiment, if growing in recent years, is widespread just yet. Although the most powerful person in the upper chamber, he has only one vote on the chamber floor. "We operate within the confines of a representative democracy," he says. "My personal position has not really changed. I am understanding of what can be achieved."
The state's most vocal incentives critic, former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, believes it's tough for any politician to tackle the issue while the economy is still struggling. Orr, who made his opposition to incentives a key plank in his unsuccessful bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2008, says those who dislike inducements won't scale back or drop them without some other job-growth strategy.
Orr, who heads the conservative North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law, offers a couple of predictions: One, incentives reform will gain traction as more people recognize that tax breaks for some put added taxing pressure on others; two, incentives reform would ultimately be tied to larger tax reform. "You have to give them some time to focus on some reforms," he says. "How do we still grow jobs, but how do we do it in a more cost-effective manner?"
Even the critics may have a little nagging worry. In the absence of nothing else, what if Perdue is right? What if instead of holding up examples of success, she waves around evidence of failure after legislators pluck away her "tools." Picking winners and losers in business might offend the philosophical sensibilities of some Republicans, but it beats having to pick up the phone to make a congratulatory call to a rival on election night.
Scott Mooneyham is the editor of The Insider, www.ncinsider.com.


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Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a very good speech today at the National Press Club. In it he emphasized why having a plan to get back to economically sustainable deficits is not only important for longer-term economic growth, but to our near-term economic health as well. He also suggested that "acting now to develop a credible program to reduce future deficits" is not so daunting a task now that the President's fiscal commission and related groups have put forward proposals that "provide useful starting points."
Chairman Bernanke then hints about what he likes about the commission proposals, in his concluding paragraph (emphasis added):
Of course, economic growth is affected not only by the levels of taxes and spending, but also by their composition and structure. I hope that, in addressing our long-term fiscal challenges, the Congress and the Administration will seek reforms to the government's tax policies and spending priorities that serve not only to reduce the deficit, but also to enhance the long-term growth potential of our economy–for example, by reducing disincentives to work and to save, by encouraging investment in the skills of our workforce as well as in new machinery and equipment, by promoting research and development, and by providing necessary public infrastructure. Our nation cannot reasonably expect to grow its way out of our fiscal imbalances, but a more productive economy will ease the tradeoffs that we face.
With tax policy, the only way to raise revenue (and reduce the deficit) while reducing disincentives to work and to save is to broaden the tax base rather than raising marginal tax rates. Luckily we have tremendous room to broaden the tax base, because the existing federal income tax base is really "holey"–as in chock full of holes.
Such tax base "holes"–as in special exemptions, deductions, and credits that narrow the definition of taxable income–comprise the bulk of what are labeled "tax expenditures." In total, federal tax expenditures add up to around $1 trillion per year, or about as much as all of discretionary spending (both defense and nondefense) combined.
It so happens that the Tax Policy Center's Donald Marron testified before the Senate Budget Committee yesterday and very clearly presented the case for getting rid of some of these tax expenditures, in the title of his testimony calling "cutting tax preferences" the "key to tax reform and deficit reduction." His main points:
My message is simple: the income tax is riddled with tax preferences. These preferences narrow the tax base, reduce revenues, distort economic activity, complicate the tax system, force tax rates higher than they would otherwise be, and are often unfair. By reducing, eliminating, or redesigning many of these preferences, policymakers can
- Make the tax system simpler, fairer, and more conducive to America's future prosperity;
- Raise revenues to finance both across-the-board tax rate cuts and deficit reduction; and
- Improve the efficiency and fairness of any remaining preferences.
Donald later explains some analysis with Eric Toder that I have previously mentioned here, stressing the point that when tax preferences take the form of reducing the definition of taxable income (what I think of as "poking holes" in the tax base), then they both reduce revenues and expand (not reduce) the size of government. Donald's bad news for tea partiers is that to be truly committed to smaller government may require a willingness to give up one's (very own) tax preferences and end up paying more, not less, in taxes (my emphasis added):
In some preliminary research, my Tax Policy Center colleague Eric Toder and I (2011) have tried to estimate how large the government is when we recognize that many (but not all) tax preferences are effectively spending programs. For fiscal 2007, we estimate that spending-like tax preferences amounted to 4.1 percent of GDP. Adding that to official outlays yields a broader definition of spending, 23.7 percent of GDP in 2007, about a fifth larger than the official 19.6 percent. Similarly, our broader definition of revenues—official revenues plus revenues foregone through spending-like tax preferences—is 22.6 percent of GDP rather than the official 18.5 percent.
These figures illustrate that conventional budget measures understate the extent to which federal fiscal policy affects economic activity. They also suggest that some policy proposals that increase revenues, as conventionally measured, may nonetheless reduce the size of government. If policymakers reduce the tax preference for employer-provided health insurance, for example, that would increase federal revenue but reduce the government's role in private insurance markets.
Advocates of smaller government are often skeptical of proposals that would increase federal revenues. When it comes to paring back spending-like tax preferences, however, an increase in revenues may actually mean that government's role is narrowing.
The trouble is that once people start realizing that reducing government "spending" may include things like reducing the subsidy to employer-provided health insurance received via their (very own) tax exclusion, instead of clamoring for government to get smaller they might start screaming that "the government needs to get its hands off of"…"my tax preferences."
The "holey" tax system enlarges the deficit and enlarges the government, but most of us don't want to give up our (very own) precious holes. See, tax cuts can be just like spending dressed up in a different costume.
(**NOTE: here's the link to Donald's own blog post on his testimony, and here's a link to the Senate Budget Committee page where you can read/watch testimony by the other witnesses, Gene Steuerle, Rosanne Altshuler, and Larry Lindsey.)
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Name of product/article
13205 | Chest of drawers
Wooden chest of drawers
Modenese Gastone introduces the new collection: Bella Vita. The splendor of the past has been reinterpreted in a modern way. All the best stylishness of 17th century finds a new lease of live in this collection. Baroque has never been so modern and so splendidly bright. This vibrant and elegant collection brings warm colors, fashionable fabrics, sumptuous baroque elements, classy marbles and stones to the interior: The collection Bella Vita gives your interiors the allure of the past and modern rigor; harmony and opulence. It is a charm recovered from the past, the Italian touch you need to make your place unique.
Art. 13205 - Chest of drawers
Cm: L. 150 P. 65 H. 91


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Paul Cluver Wines is a family owned and family run winery, focused on producing wines that reflect the uniqueness of the cool-climate Elgin terroir. The family is proud to have pioneered the Elgin appellation and for being seen as a leader in the sustainable farming.
The property is approximately 70km south-east of Cape Town and has been in ownership of the Cluver Family since 1896.
Our Tasting centre is open Mondays to Sundays from 10:00-16:00.
The office is open from Mondays to Thursdays from 09:00-17:00; Fridays from 09:00-16:00.
The wine business forms part of larger holistic farming business called 'De Rust Estate'. In addition to the vineyards and cellar, there are apple and pear orchards, a Hereford stud and eco-tourism activities, including amphitheatre concerts, on the farm. This estate forms part of the UNESCO world heritage site, the Kogelberg Biosphere. Half of the estate has been set aside for conservation into perpetuity.
- Tim Atkin (MW) South Africa Report First Growth 2013, 2014 and 2015
- Founder member of the Green Mountain Eco-route - the World's first wine & biodiversity route.
- Initiator & mentor of Thandi Wines - SA's first black economic empowerment wine brand and World's first Fairtrade wine brand.
- BWI Champion status since 2009
- Drinks Business Green Awards 2010 - Lifetime Achievement Award went to Dr. Paul Cluver
- Drinks Business Green Awards 2010 - Ethical Company Award - Joint runner-up.


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Almost a decade ago, the federal government dropped $100 million for an Earth-monitoring satellite that never made it into space. Today it sits in a closet in Maryland.
Cost to taxpayers for storing it: $1 million a year. And that's just what's hiding in one closet. Who knows what's in the rest of them? Reader's Digest decided to find out.
That's roughly equal to the amount collected annually by the Internal Revenue Service in personal income taxes. Put another way, it's also equal to about one-third of the country's $2.9 trillion total annual budget. And reclaiming that lost trillion could help wipe out the country's annual budget deficit, improve education, and provide health insurance for those who don't have it.
So how do you define "waste"? David Walker of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal watchdog agency, calls it "the government's failure to give taxpayers the most for their money." For our part, we used the kind of household test you would use on a piece of meat sitting in your refrigerator: If it smells rotten, it's waste. And there is plenty to sniff out. Our government regularly pays for products and services it never gets, wildly overpays companies to do things it could do more cheaply itself, loses money outright due to lax accounting and oversight, fails to collect what it's owed, and antes up for unnecessary programs.
How exactly does the federal government fritter away your hard-earned tax dollars? We've identified what we consider ten of the worst ways. Now, we're not naive. We know that not everyone will agree on every ripoff we've flagged. And we know that even with excellent discipline and management, it's unlikely we could recover more than half of this waste. But hey, it's a start.
1. Taxes: Cheating Shows. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that the annual net tax gap—the difference between what's owed and what's collected—is $290 billion, more than double the average yearly sum spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
About $59 billion of that figure results from the underreporting and underpayment of employment taxes. Our broken system of immigration is another concern, with nearly eight million undocumented workers having a less-than-stellar relationship with the IRS. Getting more of them on the books could certainly help narrow that tax gap.
Going after the deadbeats would seem like an obvious move. Unfortunately, the IRS doesn't have the resources to adequately pursue big offenders and their high-powered tax attorneys. "The IRS is outgunned," says Walker, "especially when dealing with multinational corporations with offshore headquarters."
Another group that costs taxpayers billions: hedge fund and private equity managers. Many of these moguls make vast "incomes" yet pay taxes on a portion of those earnings at the paltry 15 percent capital gains rate, instead of the higher income tax rate. By some estimates, this loophole costs taxpayers more than $2.5 billion a year.
Oil companies are getting a nice deal too. The country hands them more than $2 billion a year in tax breaks. Says Walker, "Some of the sweetheart deals that were negotiated for drilling rights on public lands don't pass the straight-face test, especially given current crude oil prices." And Big Oil isn't alone. Citizens for Tax Justice estimates that corporations reap more than $123 billion a year in special tax breaks. Cut this in half and we could save about $60 billion.
The Tab*
Tax Shortfall: $290 billion (uncollected taxes) + $2.5 billion (undertaxed high rollers) + $60 billion (unwarranted tax breaks)
Starting Tab: $352.5 billion
2. Healthy Fixes. Medicare and Medicaid, which cover elderly and low-income patients respectively, eat up a growing portion of the federal budget. Investigations by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) point to as much as $60 billion a year in fraud, waste and overpayments between the two programs. And Coburn is likely underestimating the problem.
The U.S. spends more than $400 per person on health care administration costs and insurance — six times more than other industrialized nations.
That's because a 2003 Dartmouth Medical School study found that up to 30 percent of the $2 trillion spent in this country on medical care each year—including what's spent on Medicare and Medicaid—is wasted. And with the combined tab for those programs rising to some $665 billion this year, cutting costs by a conservative 15 percent could save taxpayers about $100 billion. Yet, rather than moving to trim fat, the government continues such questionable practices as paying private insurance companies that offer Medicare Advantage plans an average of 12 percent more per patient than traditional Medicare fee-for-service. Congress is trying to close this loophole, and doing so could save $15 billion per year, on average, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Another money-wasting bright idea was to create a giant class of middlemen: Private bureaucrats who administer the Medicare drug program are monitored by federal bureaucrats—and the public pays for both. An October report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform estimated that this setup costs the government $10 billion per year in unnecessary administrative expenses and higher drug prices.
The Tab*
Wasteful Health Spending:
$60 billion (fraud, waste, overpayments) + $100 billion (modest 15 percent cost reduction) + $15 billion (closing the 12 percent loophole) + $10 billion (unnecessary Medicare administrative and drug costs)
Total $185 billion
Running Tab: $352.5 billion +$185 billion = $537.5 billion
*All figures are estimates.
*Source list: OMB Watch, Tax Payers for Common Sense, Citizens Against Government Waste, Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, Government Accountability Office