text:
Stocks finished lower Wednesday, with the S&P 500 snapping a four-day streak of record highs, following weakness in global equities and a mixed bag of earnings reports.
(Read more: After-hours buzz: AT&T, Akamai, Visa & more)
Stocks finished lower Wednesday, with the S&P 500 snapping a four-day streak of record highs, following weakness in global equities and a mixed bag of earnings reports.
(Read more: After-hours buzz: AT&T, Akamai, Visa & more)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 54.33 points to end at 15,413.33, dragged sharply lower by Caterpillar.
The S&P 500 declined 8.29 points to close at 1,746.38. And the Nasdaq fell 22.49 points to finish at 3,907.07.
The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, climbed to close above 13.
Most S&P sectors ended in the red, dragged by energy and materials, while defensive sectors such as utilities and consumer staples kept a limit on losses.
The S&P 500 set a record high for the fourth-straight session Tuesday, closing above 1,750 for the first time, after the tepid September jobs report gave further evidence to investors that the Federal Reserve will continue to support the economy at the current pace. Meanwhile, the Dow is within 1.5 percent of its all-time record set last month.
"Thanks to some overly enthusiastic economic projections that look more and more out of line with reality and a dysfunctional Congress that caused a very partial short-term government shutdown, the Federal Reserve appears likely to allow the current pace of quantitative easing to continue unabated," wrote Scott Wren, senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors. "When we add it up, the tapering phase of QE is unlikely to start until the first few months of 2014 at the earliest."
Among earnings, Caterpillar tumbled after the heavy equipment maker missed earnings expectations and slashed its full-year revenue guidance. CEO Doug Olberhelman called this year "difficult," especially in Caterpillar's mining-related business.
Meanwhile, fellow Dow component Boeing rallied after the jet maker posted quarterly results that easily topped expectations and raised its full-year outlook. The company also lifted its production scheduled for the Dreamliner to 12 units per month from 10 by 2016.
AT&T, Akamai and E-Trade are among notable companies scheduled to report earnings after the closing bell.
So far, 160 S&P 500 companies have reported results so far, with nearly 66 percent topping earnings expectations, and 54 percent beating revenue estimates. If all remaining companies report earnings in line with estimates, earnings will be up 2.6 percent from last year's third quarter.
Adding to woes, Bloomberg reported that top Chinese lenders, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), wrote off about $3.7 billion in bad debt for the first six months of the year, higher than last year. Japan's Nikkei and the Shanghai Composite hit one-week and two-week lows following the report.
In addition, official Chinese media reports stated that the country's central bank may look to tighten liquidity with a policy adviser to the People's Bank of China (PBOC) telling Reuters the authority may look to tighten to address inflation risks.
"The Asian trading session today has seen some pick-up in volatility with equity markets across the region lower…Real GDP growth appears to be improving in China but confidence is likely to remain fragile given these lingering concerns over the degree of bad loans in the banking sector," wrote Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi's Derek Halpenny in a research note.
And adding pressure to the market, the European Central Bank announced it would begin a stress test for about 130 banks in November to see whether they are strong enough to withstand another financial crisis. European shares closed lower.
On the economic front, U.S. import prices gained 0.2 percent in September, but there was no indication of a rise in imported inflation pressures, according to the Labor Department. In the 12 months through September, import prices declined 1.0 percent.
Apple nudged higher a day after the tech giant unveiled its new iPad Air and iPad Mini. And Evercore lifted its price target on the company to $630 from $600.
(Slideshow: Rising smartphone stars look to outshine Apple)
Netflix rose after plunging more than 9 percent in the previous session after the movie streaming company's CEO expressed concerns over the stock's valuation. Late Tuesday, billionaire investor Carl Icahn revealed that he had cut his stake in the company to 4.5 percent from 9.4 percent. The filing came a day after the company delivered strong earnings.
Safeway soared after Reuters reported that several buyout firms, including Cerberus Capital, may be exploring a deal for all or part of the supermarket chain, citing sources familiar with the matter.
And Corning spiked more than 10 percent to lead the S&P 500 gainers after the glass maker said it would buy out Samsung Display's stake in their LCD glass joint venture. The deal includes a new 10-year LCD display glass supply agreement between Corning and Samsung Display that will add nearly $2 billion to Corning's annual revenue.
—By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)
On Tap This Week:
THURSDAY: Jobless claims, PMI mfg index, new home sales*, natural gas inventories, Kansas city mfg index, Fed balance sheet/money supply; Earnings from Ford, 3M, Credit Suisse, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Western Digital, Zynga
FRIDAY: Durable goods orders*, consumer sentiment, iPhone 5s & 5c sold overseas, Twitter roadshow begins; Earnings from P&G, UPS
(*Report likely delayed due to government shutdown)
What's Trending on CNBC.com:


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Saturday, August 28, 2010
McIlrath Looking to Complete His Game
"I'm looking to complete my game as a whole, fine tune my hands and feet while also adjusting to the pace of the NHL."
...i don't know McIlrath from a hole in the wall, but he seems like one of those players who's quiet and soft spoken off the ice, but as soon as he steps into the rink he becomes this tough, physical d-man.
...great interview by Rubenstein.
Remember to follow me on Twitter & Facebook or e-mail me at firstname.lastname@example.com.
68 comments:
- AnnoyingJoe said...
I have a good feeling about this pick. This lad's going to hurt people.
- August 28, 2010 at 10:39 AM
- Bauer Goalie94 said...
I'm optimistic about Mcllrath. I cant wait to see him stand up Crosby for the first time. If he develops right, there's no doubt he'll be able to compete with NHLers. I have no problem with the Rangers picking a big, tough d-man in witch they can develop into something great.
- August 28, 2010 at 12:27 PM
The guy sucks. He scored 7 goals IN ONE SEASON OF JUNIOR. Not to mention he's gonna take at least 3 years of seasoning b4 he gets into the NHL. Fowler, on the other hand, is an incredible two-way defenseman who will make the jump this year. Not to mention Gormley, perhaps the most complete dman in the drat, who is mature beyond his years and will also make the Coyotes out of camp.
- August 28, 2010 at 12:55 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
They didnt draft him to score goals, dumbass And who the hells talking about fowler?
Like its some sort of surprise to the team that he's going to a couple of years to develop? They drafted him knowing that.
LikeI said, I like this pick and am optimistic it will work out. But draft pick are almost impossible to predict, and anybody that comes on here and makes proclamations about how picks are going to work out is being foolish.
Some of the best minds in hockey realize that picks are hit or miss (with a few exceptions), but you know how these d-men will work out. go away.
- August 28, 2010 at 4:56 PM
I'm quite aware that they didn't draft him to score goals. I would certainly hope so, given his stats. What I AM saying is that Fowler is a complete two-way defenseman that will undoubtedly win Norris Trophies. Scouts have compared him to Lidstrom, Niedermayer, etc. You know who McIlrath draws comparisons to? Jovanovski. The most overpaid, overrated player in hockey. So there you go. The Rangers screwed up. Admit it. Let's see... Gormley and Fowler. And then McIlrath. Yes. Even the Islanders wouldn't have screwed that up.
- August 28, 2010 at 6:41 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Im curious. then, as to why you based your contention that he sucks on the fact that he scored only seven goals. Way to say something one post and then completely backtrack in the next.
And to say that a player who has never played in the NHL will one day win a Norris trophy is maybe the dumbest thing I have ever read on this blog from you trolls, and trust me, you trolls have said some dumb things. You cant predict that and to try makes you look silly
But I suppose that, when your team has been so bad for so long and hasnt won a playoff series since last century, then all you have is hope. all you have is the need to go on another teams blog, and comment on a post about another teams 1st pick, and jump up and down and scream "look at us! our picks better. I mean, look at how well we have drafted over the past 15 years."
you're embarrasing yourself.
- August 28, 2010 at 8:05 PM
The Islanders haven't drafted well over the last 15 years. They HAVE over the last four. I seem to remember a certain young man named Chris Pronger being drafted 2nd overall by the St. Louis Blues. He was projected to be Norris Trophy winner and low and behold...he did. I call t mind another young man named Scott NIedermayer, also projected to be a Norris Trophy Winner in his draft year...and low and behold he did. Projecting young dmen to be Norris winners is not dumb. It is only dumb if your team passed on two defenseman who will dominate the NHL, and the Norris Trophy nominations, for the next ten years.
- August 28, 2010 at 11:21 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
The best thing about you trollers is that you make it too easy.
You IDIOT. How hard is it to predict that 2nd and 3rd OVERALL picks will win a Norris trophy? Oh, and the D-man you used as a comparison initially, Lidstrom, was picked 53rd overall...Think anyone was predicting that he would have won 6 out of the last ten Norris trophies? Thats right, dummy. Your crap-ass, 2nd and 2rd overall examples have each won UNO Norris', and Mr. 53rd overall has one 6.
No, but you're right though...predicting d-men isn't dumb. I mean, look how it worked out for all of those teams that passed on Lidstrom.
Do you actually think about these comments when you write them or does your cat just run across the keyboard.
- August 28, 2010 at 11:50 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
*won 6.
- August 29, 2010 at 12:38 AM
Dude, dont dis his cat, its got some amazingly awful points...
Anyway, on what basis is fowler going to dominate the NHL? If anyone is going to dominate the nhl, it will be the pronger-esque defenseman that goes out every game looking to crush people and back his team up.(Mcilrath if you missed my implication).
P.S- your name is too long, so can we just shorten it to idiot?
- August 29, 2010 at 2:41 AM
The Rangers are the only people who could tell you why they passed over the other D and took Dylan. I dont know why, but they do, and I trust they have good reason to do so.
- August 29, 2010 at 11:45 AM
islander trolls on a ranger blog just make me sad. i wouldnt even think of going to an islanders blog to post and stir shit up. the islanders will forever be in the shadow of the rangers.
its just sad. the best thing to do is to not even respond to them. they are just attention starved children. dont give them what they want.
- August 29, 2010 at 2:34 PM
both gormley and fowler are extremely weak defensively. quite a few teams passed on them for good reason after all the position is called defense.
- August 29, 2010 at 2:41 PM
- Gary said...
They also likened mcilrath to chris pronger. Just because you're likened to them, doesn't mean you're gonna be them. Fowler was passed on for a reason. He fell past SEVERAL teams who had a need for defensemen, including the stars, who were planning on taking mcilrath if we didn't. There's probably a good reason as to why he fell.
Also, its easy to draft well when you get the 1st or 2nd pick each year cause you suck so horribly. The islanders should be proud. They got the charity draft picks and are still at the bottom of the conference.
A lot of people in other organizations commended the mcilrath pick after it was done. Its a kid with a lot of potential, who works hard to improve and succeed. He's a tough kid who plays a shutdown game. Just needs to work on his hands and footwork and he'll be ok.
- August 29, 2010 at 2:58 PM
sfalcon27- McIlrath is a Pronger-esque defenseman? Ur kidding, right? Pronger is a goal-scoring, play-making, hard-hitting, minute-munching, dominate defenseman. If anyone is "Pronger-esque" it is Erik Gudbranson. McIlrath has absolutely no offensive upside. Honestly one of the most idiotic comparisons ever..think b4 u type.
LI Joe- Gormley is weak defensively? Again, an unbelievably idiotic comment from a Ranger fan. Fowler has holes in his defense, yes. Although he is still a solid two-way player. But Gormley? Gormley was named the most complete defenseman in the draft by virtually EVERY SINGLE SCOUT. He doesn't have much flair, but he rarely makes mistakes. Again...think b4 u type.
- August 29, 2010 at 4:55 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Wait a minute! you have Fowler going from winning "multiple Norris trophies" to now having "holes in his defense?"
Bad kitty!
- August 29, 2010 at 5:34 PM
He DOES have holes in his defense. But so does Duncan Keith. And so does Zdeno Chara. Unfortunately, not every player is perfect. Fowler will mature and improve his defensive game. When he does, he will be deadly.
- August 29, 2010 at 5:40 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Exactly. The same can be said for McIlrath.
The problem is that you can't tell me one player is going to develop into something and another isn't. They are too young, you just cant tell. I used the Lidstrom example - 53rd overall and 6 of the last 10 Norris trophies!
If all you have to hang your hat on is something as unpredictable as draft picks, then you're sad. ESPECIALLY since your team has had so many high picks for so long and done nothing with them.
- August 29, 2010 at 6:01 PM
What high draft picks are you referring to?
- August 29, 2010 at 6:06 PM
What high draft picks are you referring to?
- August 29, 2010 at 6:06 PM
What high draft picks are you referring to?
- August 29, 2010 at 6:06 PM
colin why are you on here? dont you have youre own mediocre/terrible team to complain about?
- August 29, 2010 at 6:32 PM
really... what a sad little loser.
- August 29, 2010 at 6:58 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Since they last won a playoff series, the NYI have had 13 1st round picks either 10th or better, the Rangers....half that.
I am referring to those high draft picks.
I am referring to those high draft picks.
I am referring to those high draft picks.
Please. Keep going. Its so much fun owning you.
- August 29, 2010 at 8:27 PM
Could you do me a favor and specifically name those draft picks please? I'm still not getting it.
- August 29, 2010 at 9:08 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Do some homework idiot. or ask your cat.
Worst troller ever
- August 29, 2010 at 9:53 PM
troll - both of those guys fell dramatically because of their weakness in their own zone. not me saying it but rather the various teams and their scouts and the reporters especially those in canada who follow this stuff.
but i'm supposed to take the word of a troll who says he's a surgeon but really works at wendys. i think not.
your parents must be very very proud of you.
- August 29, 2010 at 10:00 PM
Wait a minute...so you guys honestly believe that McIlrath is better defensively than Gormley? Wow. Just lost about 1,000 brain cells.
The reason why Annoying Joe won't list the picks is bc he knows the majority of them were decent prospects (some sucked, Scissons, for ex) and many are on their way to becoming solid NHLers. Also bc he knows the Rags haven't drafted well either the last 15 years.
- August 29, 2010 at 10:16 PM
troll - bad news for you. your team is not making the playoffs this year either so the masoleum ice at least won't be littered with garbage which as we all know is an islander fan tradition
get some sleep so you can be productive tommorow to give your employer the best you can in cleaning those tables
- August 29, 2010 at 10:40 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Are you really going to make me do this? ok....
'94 Brett Lindros - 9th overall
tee-hee. gets me every time
'95 Wade Redden - 2nd overall
well, we both blew that one
'96 JP Dumont - 3rd overall
This is my favorite year...
'97 Roberto Lunongo - 4th overall
'97 Eric Brewer - 5th overall
when they actually DO draft well they trade them away.
'98 Michael Rupp - 9th overall
'99 Tim Connolly - 5th overall
'99 Taylor Pyatt - 8th overall
(For those of you keeping score at home, thats FIVE top ten picks in three years.)
I take it back, THIS is my favorite year...
'00 Rick TP - 1st overall
'00 Raffi Torres - 5th overall
Good job. Holy Crap! thats 4 top 8 picks in 2 years!
After that, destiny saved the Isles from themselves and gave them only 4 top ten picks in the next 10 years...Okposo, Bailey, Tavares and Nino. Of which, only 2 were solid picks.
So there are your "decent prospects" idiot.
Any questions?
Granted, the Rangers havent drafted like champs but, then again, they havent had so many chances to do so poorly.
God your organization sucks.
- August 29, 2010 at 10:52 PM
A popular Rangers fan tradition would be cutting opposing players with a program, attempting to take their hockey stick, and then getting their asses kicked by the future GM of their archrival.
True Blue? More like True White Trash. LMAO. Rangers fans are tools...
- August 29, 2010 at 10:53 PM
think before I type? you should do the same. i said he was a PRONGER-ESQUE defenseman, in the way that pronger goes out every game looking to hurt the other team, and support his team through his rough style of play. I really dont care if McIlrath scores at all, just as long as he can keep the other team at bay. (though a few goals would be nice)
since when does an islanders troll have 1000 brain cells to lose? leave the hard work to your cat and try not to hurt yourself.
- August 29, 2010 at 10:57 PM
If the rangers fans are white trash, what does that make islanders fans?
- August 29, 2010 at 10:58 PM
so lets see one event took place in the 70's by 1 fan taking a stick whereas the other took place in the last few yrs by hundreds if not thousands of punks by littering the ice like they would litter their own living room. a disgrace. and somehow mr wendys thinks the 2 are comparable.
as you would say think before you write.
i really hope you are not the best the isles fanbase has to offer because if you are they are in more trouble than i thought. i seriously doubt you could spell IQ even if i spotted you the I
- August 29, 2010 at 11:04 PM
btw are you the clown who wears that wig
- August 29, 2010 at 11:18 PM
- Kevin DeLury said...
Man, I take a day off and I miss this great back and forth. Damn!!!
- August 29, 2010 at 11:43 PM
LI Joe- Hundreds if not thousands of fans? You would be the first to say that Nassau Coliseum has never seen hundreds of fans.
Annoying Joe- Tavares, Bailey, Okposo, Nino
Only two are solid prospects? LMAO. Which ones are you referring to, moron? Tavares is a future superstar, Bailey was recently named one of the best under 21s in the league. Okposo was also named in this category and is the next American superstar, and every scout on Earth is in love with Nino. Plus, your team wanted him so badly, or so you say. Do some research...ya jackass.
- August 30, 2010 at 9:27 AM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
The point of all of this is that it is ok to have an opinion, but to jump up and down and annoint draft picks as definite future superstars is foolish and mnakes you look like the idiot you are.
None of us are saying that McIlrath is the next norris trophy winner, we're just saying that we are optiomistic and excited about him.
I did my research and laid it all out for you. Convenient that you chose to ignore 17 YEARS of futility and bookend your lame argument with Scissons (20 yeard ago) and their last 4 picks.
Fact is, you have no argument, just sad hope and an opinion based in fantasy, not fact.
Again, you want to be glad bout your teams "future"? fine. But dont come on a rangers blog and tell us how great the isles have drafted over the past decade and a half cuz they havent drafted for shit. Do you know how hard it is to have so many high picks for so many years and still suck over all of that time?
So go away, you got owned. Take your medicine like a good girl and go bitch about your crap team on an isles blog.
Poor cat
- August 30, 2010 at 9:51 AM
The Islanders have drafted terribly over the last 20 years, excluding the last four. I'm not saying they didn't. But coming from a fan of a team that drafted the likes of:
Al Montoya
Hugh Jessiman
Lauri Korpikoski
Dan Blackburn
Pavel Brendl
Stefan Cherneski
Jeff Brown
You shouldn't be talking. Not to mention you have two decent prospects: Kreider and Stepan (Grachev is a bust in the making). We have de Haan, Hamonic, Nelson, Koskinen, Poulin, Niedereitter, Martin, and last but not least Kirill Kabanov and Kirill Petrov. You are threatened by our future. Stop kidding yourselves.
- August 30, 2010 at 5:22 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
I was hoping you would walk into that one.
Please review the comments section above and note that at no time did was anyone praising the Rangers' recent draft history. Thats why we don't waste our time visiting opposing teams blogs saying how great our team drafts. We don't waste our time trying to predict something as unpredictable as draft picks. We leave that to morons like you.
Does your team have a bright future with good prospects? maybe they do. Do the Rangers have the same? Maybe. All I have been trying to do is point out to you is that it is stupid to come here and make proclamations and annointing Hall of Famers out of kids who havent played an NHL game. And, again, the isles have had TWICE as many top ten first rounders over the past 17 yrs as the Rangers, so to compare the two teams' draft history is comical.
Is this what being an Islander fan has been reduced too, "Our prospects are better than your prospects"?
- August 30, 2010 at 6:04 PM
Yes, that is what we have been deduced to. Because it pisses you schmucks off so much and gets a reaction out of Rags fans.
- August 30, 2010 at 6:07 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
If you call making you look silly with facts, wit and style a "reaction", so be it. Owned!
- August 30, 2010 at 6:29 PM
Facts, wit, and style? You brought up pointless facts, first of all. Second of all...what wit? I have yet to discover as rare an artifact as a Ranger fan with wit. Third of all...style? Not even gonna address that one. Owned? Owned indeed. You got owned. Thank you for admitting.
- August 30, 2010 at 7:19 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Now now, you're reacting.
Stop while you're ahead.
Pointless facts...
Dumbass (thats you) - "What high draft picks are you referring to?"
Me - Answering you, chapter and verse, the joke that the isles organization has been over the past 20 years. with facts.
This is fun! you're a silly goose. please don't stop.
- August 30, 2010 at 8:09 PM
It was a rhetorical question. You would go on to say how many bad picks we had, and I would list yours.
- August 30, 2010 at 8:12 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Oh you silly boy, but I already did that.
Isles 13 top ten picks in past 17 years, Rangers only 7. Thats alot more screw ups.
You should call your Dr., cuz I don't think talking out of your asshole is either normal or healthy.
- August 30, 2010 at 8:32 PM
I never said you didn't do that.
- August 30, 2010 at 8:48 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
yo, enjoy the season.
- August 30, 2010 at 8:57 PM
You, too. I'm afraid you won't have much to look forward too though.
- August 30, 2010 at 10:12 PM
Is this the quickest 50 on comments? If so, awesome ending, so full of hate and scorn for eachother :D
- August 30, 2010 at 10:26 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Its sad. I tried to end on a semi-positive note.
And then there's the guy who's team has, for the past 20 years, jammed futility up his ass, and all he can say say is "Thank you sir, may I have another!"
Idiot, I tried to give you an out, and yet you persist.
Here kitty kitty kitty
- August 30, 2010 at 11:02 PM
oh the isles have a couple thousand fans or so, of the white trash variety with the troll here as exhbibit A. since you guys are front runners you make appearances almost as rarely as halleys comet. but the playoffs brought the "fans" out and you acted as expected like little low class losers who littered the ice when a call went against you.
poor babies. well you won't have to worry about misbehaving in the playoffs this season.
- August 30, 2010 at 11:34 PM
Did you seriously just call Islander fans frontrunners? What exactly are we "running" to? Rangers fans, especially those of the Long Island variety, a frontrunners. Rather than support Long Island's only sports team and New York's only team to achieve a true dynasty, they choose to support the team in NYC, with better attendance, more big name players, and more money. That, my friend, is the definition of a frontrunner.
- August 31, 2010 at 9:22 AM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Wow you're dumb.
win or lose, the garden's always full.
When the isles lose, the building is empty. Don't make me pull out last year's attendance records.
thats the definition of "frontrunner"
- August 31, 2010 at 9:34 AM
The Rags were 13th in attendance last year. Yeah. That's what I call "full" every night. Madison Square Garden, on a regular night, has about as many true Ranger fans as an Islander game has Islander fans. The rest are all tourists and businessmen. With the occasional front-running Long Island family. Get real.
- August 31, 2010 at 5:12 PM
And by the way, if the building is empty, HOW ARE WE FRONT RUNNERS! That doesn't make any sense! Do you have any logic whatsoever?
- August 31, 2010 at 5:19 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
I must be getting punked because you couldnt be making you look silly this easy.
The Rangers attendance was at 99.3% The only reason they were 13th is because every other team above them were at 100%. Thats based on building capacity. Thats a sellout virtually every night. That tourist B.S. is just that, B.S. and does not account for nightly sellouts. Nice try using stats. Careful, your going to hurt yourself.
Oh the Isles, 78%. Thats 27th in the league. Pathetic. I think what Li Joe meant when he called front runners was that you're fair weather. Or disloyal. Or ignorant of the game. Or unable to outnumber Ranger fans in your own building. or smelly. Take your pick.
- August 31, 2010 at 6:15 PM
I must end this before you Ranger fans embarrass yourselves any further. I'd rather start an argument with a wall, because I could probably have a more meaningful, intellectual debate than I could with you people. If the New York Rangers finished, 26th, 30th, and 26th, respectively, do you think their attendance would be 13th overall in the league? Consider yourselves lucky you will never find the answer to this question because yours is the richest hockey team in America and finds a way to attract enough free agents (plus a good goalie) to compete every year. The NYI are a struggling franchise. The thousands of fans you have seen at the Coliseum the past three years...we are the true fans. We are not "fairweather frontrunners". We pay good money to watch a terrible, terrible team. But this is because we believe in better days. Pray you do not have to undergo what Islander fans have suffered the past few years. Because I guarantee you if that happens, many of you will abandon ship, unable to cope with a embarrassingly inferior team. Just because you have the luxury of a consistently competitive team and because you are willing to spend money to see them does not make you "loyal". If the Rangers ever finish 26th or worse, then you can rub your 99.3% attendance in my face. But until then...keep your mouth shut about things you don't understand.
- August 31, 2010 at 8:37 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
Now THATS a reaction!
Haha. see you in KC.
Lets Go Rangers!
- August 31, 2010 at 9:03 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
By the way, bitch....
'99-2000......wait for it.....rangers finished 24th overal.....ready kids....?
100% attendance! ya like that!
I own!
- August 31, 2010 at 9:17 PM
24th? I said 26th or worse...ya jackass. 24th means the team was virtually in it right up until the end of the season. That's the way the NHL is. STOP EMBARRASSING YOURSELF! I DEMAND YOU STOP EMBARRASSING YOURSELF! YOU ARE KILLING ME WITH LAUGHTER!
- August 31, 2010 at 10:01 PM
troll what i meant was the few times in recent memory the isles made the playoffs the fans came out of the woodwork and the attendance was respectable. however all that led to was more white trash isles fans who faced with a few calls they did not agree with disgraced themselves by littering the ice with junk. they did this several times.
unfortuantely since i live on long island its almost guilt by association and i have to explain to people that i';m not one of those. i root for a respectable team with great fans who are classy as well. you can not say the same
- August 31, 2010 at 11:11 PM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
24th is 8 spots from a playoff spot...you know only 16 teams make it, right? there were only 4 teams with worse records. they finished ten points out of a playoff spot. ya they were right in the thick of it. you're a silly boy.
using all caps makes you look silly. stop reacting so much.
- September 1, 2010 at 6:24 AM
Annoying Joe-10 points out of a playoff spot is right in the thick of it, you moron. How long have you been watching NHL hockey? There are teams that finish 20th or worse, that aren't officially eliminated until the last week of the season. Your 99-00 Rangers were pretty competitive for a playoff spot, thus attracting large crowds.
LI Joe- First of all, get out of this argument, stop double teaming. I know you Rags folk LOVE double teaming, as your scumbag players do it all the time (Mara and Avery vs. Kovalchuk LMAO). Did you just say Rangers fans are classy? Do you realize Ranger fans are notorious drunks who, at every Islander-Ranger game, start fights with kids, verbally abuse women, and eventually get dragged out by security, disgracing themselves and their fellow fans? There are many white trash Islander fans. But there are many Manhattan trash Ranger fans. And also...if you are a Ranger fan and you think we're white trash...GET THE F--- OFF LONG ISLAND!
- September 1, 2010 at 9:16 AM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
I love being a ranger fan. I love the fact that we stick with this team thru thick and thi, thru 54 years of suffering, thru 7 years of not even making the playoffs. No matter what, we're there.
Im sorry that this upsets you so much. Go take your inferiority complex someplace else.
Lets Go Rangers!
- September 1, 2010 at 9:39 AM
I will close on this note. If the New York Rangers were made to suffer through what the New York Islanders have suffered the past 20 years (consistent incompetence, horrific coaches and GMs, criminal owners), you wouldn't "be there". You would all jump off the bandwagon. You may have gone 54 years without a Cup, but at least you were competitive. Rangers fans have never truly been tested, pray you never will be.
- September 1, 2010 at 10:27 AM
- AnnoyingJoe said...
I will admit that it has sucked being an isles fan over the past 20 years, i dont agree that ranger fans would have bailed also, but whatever
I never found out why Colin Cambells an idiot...
- September 1, 2010 at 10:42 AM
Colin Campbell is an idiot because he makes ridiculous decisions regarding suspensions. He will give 2 game suspensions for elbowing to Corey Perry and Denis Gauthier and then decide to "make an example" out of Islanders players like Thomas Pock and Brendan Witt. He also refuses to suspend players who cheapshot Islanders. For example, Chris Pronger hit John Tavares from behind and knocked three of his teeth out last season, but was not suspended. Pronger, although many don't know about this incident, also slashed Trent Hunter on the back of the head with his stick in December, but was not suspended.
- September 1, 2010 at 11:30 AM

subset: commoncrawl


text: Breadcrumb Home Scott Suttell Blog March 19, 2013 02:30 AM Longer-living Americans brace for a retirement crisis Scott Suttell Tweet Share Share Share Email More Print This one will be quick: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is mentioned in this Wall Street Journal story, which says U.S. workers and employers "are bracing for a retirement crisis, even as the stock market sits near highs and the economy shows signs of improvement." A survey released today by the Employee Benefit Research Institute finds that 57% of U.S. workers surveyed "reported less than $25,000 in total household savings and investments excluding their homes," The Journal reports. The survey "also found that 28% of Americans have no confidence they will have enough money to retire comfortably — the highest level in the study's 23-year history." On the corporate side, The Journal says another recent report, by the Society of Actuaries, found that rising life expectancies "could add as much as $97 billion to corporate pension liabilities in coming years, an increase of up to 5%." Simply put, as Americans live longer, "the extended life spans will make it tougher for workers trying to stretch retirement savings and put additional strains on pension plans." The Journal says Akron-based Goodyear "cited the growth in the life expectancy for its plan's beneficiaries as one reason its global pension-funding gap widened to $3.5 billion last year from $3.1 billion in 2011." A Goodyear spokesman tells the newspaper that the tiremaker made the mortality adjustment "because we saw an increase in (the) actual longevity of our participants." The story notes that U.S. pension obligations for all publicly traded U.S. companies totaled $1.93 trillion at the end of 2012, up from $1.60 trillion in 2008, according to benefits firm Mercer. Entrepreneur magazine spotlights three companies, including Mayfield Village-based auto insurer Progressive Corp., that are leaders in offering "healthy living initiatives" that benefit both the employer and the employee. The story notes that Progressive helps its 25,000 employees stay healthy "with an onsite Fitness Centre, Weight Watchers reimbursement program, yoga and boot camp classes, personal training and a smoking cessation program." Customer representative Carla Minichello lost 150 pounds after 18 months using Progressive's Fitness Center, according to Entrepreneur. "These amenities show Progressive's commitment to employees and their daily desire to be productive both in work and life," says Pamela Sraeel, the company's senior manager of benefit services. Ms. Sraeel tells the website that making a healthy lifestyle more convenient and affordable for employees has resulted in a more motivated and less stressed staff. "When employees are healthy, they feel good. They innovate, solve problems and take initiative, which is imperative in a tough global marketplace," she says. Among the other companies highlighted, social media giant Twitter offers onsite yoga, Pilates, Wing Chun Kung Fu and CrossFit classes. Onsite massages and acupuncture sessions also are available for a fee. Telus, the Canadian phone company, has internal fitness facilities with cardio equipment, weight rooms and group fitness classes, on-site massage and reflexology practitioners, active living challenges and mental health support. Janet Crowe, director of wellness and work-life solutions at Telus, says wellness initiatives are possible no matter the size of a company; she encourages small businesses to begin by asking employees what initiatives would help them. Parker Hannifin Corp.'s work on the Indego exoskeleton device is highlighted in this Bloomberg story about the rise of wearable machines "that enhance human muscle power (and) are poised to leave the realm of science fiction and help factory workers hoist heavier tools, lighten soldiers' loads and enable spinal patients to walk." Parker Hannifin, the biggest manufacturer of motion and control devices, is seeking to expand into the medical industry with the product. The company has an exclusive licensing agreement with Vanderbilt University for the exoskeleton technology, which allows people with severe spinal cord injury to walk and enhances rehabilitation for people who have suffered a stroke. Bloomberg says such commercial exoskeletons are moving beyond "just echoes of Hollywood's take on 'Iron Man's' bulletproof garb and the armor that" science fiction writer Robert Heinlein envisioned for his futuristic warriors in works such as "Starship Troopers." The story notes that Parker's Indego model will go on sale in 2014 at a price the company says is competitive with a competitor's 52,000-euro ($67,230) unit. The new post on Forbes.com from NorTech CEO Rebecca O. Bagley offers three key points driven home by last week's NorTech Innovation Awards. (And if you missed the awards, Crain's technology reporter Chuck Soder has a good summary here.) Those three important takeaways: companies need to push past conventional wisdom that causes them to think in a box; businesses need to be aware their customers don't always know what they want; and paying too much attention to traditional business metrics inhibits companies from making breakthroughs. "One company that understands these concepts well" she writes, is Vitamix, the high-end blender maker whose president and CEO, Jodi Berg, gave the keynote address at the awards. "Berg understands that innovation is not a one-time thing," Ms. Bagley writes. "Whether you are part of a startup company or one that's several generations old, you have to continue to reach above and beyond what you have done before to stay relevant. In other words: innovate or lose." You also can follow me on Twitter for more news about business and Northeast Ohio. Recommended for You Crain's Morning Roundup Business headlines from Crain's Cleveland Business and other Ohio newspapers — delivered FREE to your inbox every morning. Sign up for the Morning Newsletter. Email Address View the discussion thread.


text:
Good Samaritan bazaar benefits area charities
The Good Samaritan Philoptochos Ladies Society is about to embark on another meaningful mission. They will hold the annual Christmas Bazaar this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 10 and 11, inside the Church of the Annunciation's Mihailides Center-Demetrakas Hall in Cranston.
But the two-day event has a purpose, which is signified by the Society's name.
"Philoptochos means 'Friends of the Poor' in Greek," explained Georgia Pappas, who is chairing this year's event. "All proceeds from the bazaar support a wide range of charities. We also sponsor a luncheon in January for St. Basil's Academy in Garrison, New York."
St. Basil's is a safe haven for Orthodox children. Other agencies supported by the Ladies Society include the American Cancer Society, Amos House, Bradley Hospital, Arthritis Foundation, Samaritans, Meeting Street School, Hasbro Children's Hospital, Interfaith Food Ministry, Elizabeth Buffum Chase, R.I. Shriners, Ronald McDonald House, Travelers Aid and other charities.
And while guests can feel good about their contribution, the group members make sure they offer a selection of food that keeps the crowd happy.
"We have the same selection of pastries that our parish's Cranston Greek Festival is known for," said Pappas. "And we're still making our pastries the old-fashioned way."
Featured on the menu are diples, fried strips of dough topped with chopped walnuts, cinnamon and Greek honey syrup. During "baking nights," more than a dozen members help to produce 1,000 diples that will be on sale this weekend.
"It takes a lot of hands and time to make our pastries," Pappas said. "We here at the Church of the Annunciation are blessed to have so many dedicated people who share in our baking duties."
There are more volunteers who work to man such booths as handcrafts, a Christmas boutique, a Greek marketplace Agora, bingo, white elephant, silent auction that ranges from sports memorabilia to paintings and vintage treasures.
This weekend's Christmas Bazaar will also offer fine and costume jewelry.
Demetrakas Hall, which is located at 175 Oaklawn Avenue, will be transformed into a marketplace for this weekend's Philoptochos Ladies Society Christmas Bazaar that will open at 10 a.m. Saturday and run through 8 p.m.
"We'll be serving lunch and dinner Saturday and Sunday," Pappas said. "Please come and enjoy our Greek heritage. No reservations are necessary and we even have food and all kinds of pastry to go."
Sunday's hours are 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Parking is free in the Church of the Annunciation's parking lot. For more information, call 942-4188.


text:
A task that's frequently skipped when setting up a new SQL Server or application is proper capacity planning. With storage costs falling every quarter, it's easy to tell your storage administrator that you need 500GB of storage. But what have you really asked for? Will 500GB of storage last six months, three years, or 10 years? Without the answer to this question, you might not be asking for the right thing. Also, you need to consider the speed of your storage. Some storage is more expensive than other storage. Although your organization might not charge back when storage is requested, as a member of the IT staff it's your responsibility to ensure the most effective use of the department's resources. Let's look at how to determine how much storage you need, how to configure your disks, and the types of storage available.
Capacity Planning
The easiest part of capacity planning is determining how much storage space your database requires. You need to figure out the total number of bytes that you will need to use over n months. Although calculating this number might appear to be a rather daunting task, when you break it down to each table it's not as scary. First, add up the size of all the static lookup tables. The size of these tables won't change from month-to-month, so once you have that value you can just add it onto the end. For the tables that will be growing in size every day/month/year, you need to know a few key pieces of information. You need to know the average number of rows to be added per cycle. A cycle could be a day, a month, or a year—however often the data will be coming into the system. If it's a real-time system, such as an order entry system, ticketing system, or network security system, daily is probably the best assumption. You also need to know the average length of each row. The developers can probably help you answer this question. You'll also want to find out what your organization's record retention policy is. Do you plan to keep data for a month, a year, or forever? You also need static numbers; in this case, the total number of bytes per data page on the disk is 8060.
From here some basic arithmetic will provide you with the total number of bytes. For this example, we'll assume a daily cycle of 20,000 rows, with an average row length of 187 bytes, and a corporate record retention period of three years. The first calculation that you need to do is to figure out how many rows fit into each data page. This calculation is important because SQL Server can't split a row between two data pages. Next, take the number of bytes per page and divide that by the number of bytes per row (8060/187), which gives you 43.101 rows per data page, as shown in Table 1.
You'll want to round this number down because SQL doesn't page split, which gives you 43 rows per data page. Then take the number of rows per (daily) cycle and divide that by the number of rows per data page (20000/43), which gives you 465.11 as number of data pages you need for the table, as shown in Table 2.
Because you can't have a part of a data page, round this number up to 466 data pages. Although each data page can hold only 8060 bytes, the data page itself is actually 8KB in size. Now take 466 data pages and multiply that by 8KB to get the total amount of data added to the table each day, which is 3728 KB or 3.64MB, as shown in Table 3.
If you stretch this number out to a month (30.5 days on average), you get 111.02MB per month. Now multiply that number by the retention period (36 months) to get 3996.72MB or 3.9GB over three years, as Table 4 shows.
After you've determined how much space each table requires, add the numbers up to get the total space needed for the database over your retention period. If your retention period includes moving data to an archive database for reporting purposes, your actual data sizes will be smaller because some data is being removed from the tables. After figuring out how much space your data requires, you then need to think about the speed and redundancy of the disks that will be hosting your data.
Configuring Your RAID
On paper, everyone says to use RAID 10 for your database. It has the fastest write response and there's no parity calculation overhead. However, when people typically talk about storage they forget one important thing: cost. Although RAID 10 will get you the best performance, it's an extremely expensive RAID level to use. RAID 10 takes twice as many disks to configure, and those disks aren't free. RAID 10 should be used in some cases, but deploying it to all your databases by default is typically an extremely inefficient use of your storage resources. The majority of databases that are configured for RAID 10 storage would probably work just fine on RAID 5 storage.
It's important to understand the difference between RAID 5 and RAID 10 before deciding which RAID level to use. RAID 5 is also called a stripe set with parity. As the data is written to the disk, a parity calculation is done on each data page. This parity calculation is written to the disk with the data page and used by the array in the event of a disk failure to let the array rebuild the data when the failed disk is replaced. Some SAN vendors will place all the parity information on a single disk, and some will spread the parity information across all disks in the RAID array. Although both techniques will give you the same level of protection, having the parity spread across all the disks in the array will increase the speed of the array because the additional disk can be used for reads and writes.
RAID 10 is also called a mirrored stripe. The number of disks in the array is split in half, with each half going into a single strip. These two strips are then mirrored against each other. In the event of a disk failure, the strip that contained that disk is unusable until the disk is replaced and the data is mirrored from the undamaged strip to the now repaired strip. Because there's no parity to be calculated for each write, the writes can happen faster; however, because only half the disks in the RAID 10 array are used for reading and writing data, twice as many disks are needed to get the same amount of capacity. Figure 1 shows the two different ways that RAID 5 arrays can be laid out, as well as how a RAID 10 array is laid out on the physical disks.
Tuning the Cache
One thing to remember when working in a SAN environment is that the SAN has cache, a lot of cache. That cache is set up to allow massive amount of writes to be cached, meaning that when SQL Server flushes to disk it's not actually writing to the disks. Instead, the SAN is caching that write into its cache to be flushed to the actual disks at a later time. Because of this caching, the RAID level means nothing to SQL Server because SQL Server isn't actually writing to the disks but rather writing to the cache.
By default, most SAN systems come with the cache set up for 50 percent read cache and 50 percent write cache. Although this setup works great for things like data warehouse systems, it's not so good for OLTP databases. SANs use read ahead to try and predict what information the host system is going to be looking for and read it into the read buffer before the host actually requests it. This way, the data has been read from disk and the SAN can simply give out the data from the read cache. However, in an OLTP application (e.g., databases, exchange, file servers) the parts of the disk that need to be read from are rarely in sequential order. They're usually randomly placed throughout the drive. The read ahead might actually cause more load than the benefit it's providing. You might be better served to reduce the ratio of read cache to write cache from 50/50 to 30/70 or 20/80. Reducing the ratio lets SQL Server write more data to the cache where it really needs the speed.
This cache change also improves the case for RAID 5 disks. Because SQL Server will actually be talking to the disks only when it's reading from them, you want the most disks processing the read as possible. With RAID 10, only half the disks are used for reading data, and with RAID 5 all of the disks (or all but one depending on how the SAN vendor handles RAID 5) are used.
Storage Tuning
In addition to tuning your cache, there are some things that you can do at the LUN and disk level to increase performance. You might want to experiment with disabling the read cache on the LUN itself. Doing so will prevent any caching of information from the LUN into the SAN's cache. The reason for this is that SQL Server caches a lot of information into its own cache within the server's RAM. It rarely needs to go to the disk for data to begin with, and when it does, the data won't be available in cache. Once the data is in the SAN's cache, it will also be in the SQL Server's cache. There's only a slight performance hit when having read cache enabled on your database LUN. The SAN will attempt to read ahead when SQL Server is doing reads to the disk to try and have the data that SQL Server is looking for available in cache so that SQL doesn't have to wait for a call to the physical disk to get its data. Because of the random nature of OLTP databases, the odds of the SAN being able to pull the correct data to cache is almost none. In OLTP systems where the disk is already strained, having the read cache enabled might slightly affect performance, in systems where the disk isn't already strained, leaving the read cache enabled shouldn't negatively affect performance.
At the disk level, an important yet often overlooked part of storage tuning is correctly aligning the disk. When the specifications for the master boot record (MBR) were written, storage was pricey. Therefore, the MBR was set up to be 63 blocks on the disk, so the first bit of data goes in the 64 block. This setup is problematic because disks like to do everything in 64-block chunks. So because the data is now offset by 1 block, each time SQL Server wants to read or write, twice as many operations need to be done. In applications such as Microsoft Exchange or Oracle ASM where all disk activity is done in 8KB (8 block) reads and writes, this effect isn't as pronounced. But SQL Server does all its disk access in 64KB (64 block) reads and writes. The net effect is that every read and write operation requires twice as many physical operations to the disk.
This problem can be fixed fairly easily if the disk is created by using the DISKPART.EXE command-line tool in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003. After the LUN has been presented to the server, log onto the server and launch diskpart.exe from a command-line window. Then run the command
where 3 is the disk number you just added to the server. Then run the command
This command will create a primary partition on the disk with the alignment set to the 64 block of the disk instead of the 63 block of the disk. Do this for each LUN that has been presented to the server.
If you have LUNs that aren't correctly aligned, this change isn't as easy to do because there's no tool to correct this alignment after the partition has been created. The easiest method is to backup your database and delete the database from the server. Then remove the partition and recreate it with the correct alignment. Next, restore the database to the disk. Some SAN vendors have client-side migration tools that can be used perform this process online, and there's third-party software available to perform this process as well. However, don't use a back-end SAN migration tool because it will copy all the data, including the misaligned partition information.
Shared Everything vs. Shared Nothing
There are two basic techniques for setting up storage: shared everything and shared nothing. With the shared everything technique, all disks in the SAN are used for every LUN. Although this technique looks great on paper, it has some drawbacks. If any one disk in the array begins to slow down, then every LUN on the array is affected. The shared everything approach is good if you don't have a full-time SAN administrator because there isn't much to do beside create LUNs and assign them to storage.
With the shared nothing approach (more correctly called the shared some approach), LUNs are created in smaller RAID groups throughout the SAN. Small numbers of physical disks are created in RAID groups of various configurations and sizes and the LUNs are placed within these RAID groups. The good thing about this configuration is that if a specific LUN or disk starts to cause a slowdown, the only LUNs that are affected are the ones within that LUNs RAID group. The downside to this system is that it requires more hands-on configuration and more knowledge of the I/O levels that you need to support. The upside is that if a LUN needs more I/O, you can move it to another RAID group or even have it span more than one RAID group to give it more I/O throughput.
SAN vs. DAS
Today, the SAN is king in the world of storage. The SAN is very fast and usually made up of hundreds of fiber channel drives, all of which are connected to the server via high-end fiber cables. However, SAN solutions are very expensive, often costing hundreds of thousands of dollars just to get started. This brings us to DAS. DAS is a great solution if you're company doesn't need a large-scale SAN solution. DAS offers you pretty much all the same capabilities as a SAN, just at a smaller level, and usually with less cache. DAS devices are made up of anywhere from 2 to 45 SCSI, SAS, or SATA drives, with anywhere from a few megabytes of cache to a gigabyte of cache.
All the same configuration options are usually available with DAS as with SAN, including read cache and write cache balancing. Just like SAN drives, DAS drives still need to be aligned (as do all RAID arrays). Unlike a SAN, a DAS usually won't let you control cache settings on a disk-by-disk level. Also, DAS systems are connected to a specific server, so you can't have more than one server connected to a DAS, as you can with a SAN.
The biggest drawbacks to using DAS for your databases are the lack of growth potential, because there's a physical limit on the number of disks you can put into a DAS, and the fact that you can't pool your resources between multiple servers with DAS devices. Another problem you might run into with DAS devices is that you can't spread a single RAID array beyond the number of disks in a single drive shelf. Most DAS drive shelves hold 15 drives, and each drive shelf is connected to a single RAID controller. Because the RAID controllers don't talk to each other, you can't RAID between drive shelves. However, these drawbacks are offset by the very attractive entry cost. DAS storage is inexpensive when compared to the costs of purchasing a SAN solution.
iSCSI and the Database
A newer storage technology that's just breaking into the database world is iSCSI. iSCSI uses your existing Ethernet to connect the database to the storage. Many SAN vendors now include iSCSI as part of SAN systems. The upside to iSCSI is that you get SAN quality storage without the additional cost of the fiber channel equipment. The downside to iSCSI is that all your storage traffic now has to compete for bandwidth with your regular Ethernet traffic. If you have a slow or extremely busy Ethernet network, iSCSI probably isn't the solution for you. Another potential problem with iSCSI is that because your storage traffic is going over the TCP network, you have to deal with the TCP timeout settings. If your storage array fails for some reason, fiber channel will time out very quickly and retry along another path. However, the timeout for TCP packets is much higher, which will be represented within your database as blocking or processes timing out.
To address network bandwidth issues, network engineers use a technique call VLANing to separate and isolate network traffic. VLANing ensures that traffic on your iSCSI network is isolated from other parts of your network. This isolation is a logical separation of network segments into Virtual LANs (VLANs) at layer 2 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model. A VLAN is a logical domain within the network switch that lets only traffic that has been tagged for that VLAN to access that network switch. Traffic within a VLAN, including broadcast traffic, is kept isolated within that VLAN. Any traffic destined for another VLAN will have to be routed. This helps prevent non-iSCSI network traffic from affecting your iSCSI traffic and helps prevent your iSCSI traffic from affecting other non-iSCSI traffic. VLANing works at layer 2 and separates traffic only at the layer. To further isolate traffic for applications that require layer 3 switching or routing, VLANs can be associated with a routing subnet that will let traffic cross logical domains (VLANs) to communicate with other VLANs. Furthermore, layer 3 routing can also be configured with an ACL to allow or prevent specific traffic within specific subnets from communicating with each other. Other techniques at layer 4 and layer 5 are also available, but that's beyond the scope of this article.
Get the Best Performance Out of Your SQL Server
Properly setting up and configuring the physical disks is essential to getting the best possible performance out of your server. This is especially true with SQL Server (or any database server) because database servers read and write data to and from the disk in much higher quantities and at much higher speeds than other servers in the enterprise. Therefore, you want to make sure that every issue is addressed when configuring your storage, especially when you consider how much time it takes to make these changes after implementation.


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text: Hm. What next? Kaye ----- Original Message ----- From: "PUBLIC RADIO 113" <publicradio113 at gmail.com> To: <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org> Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2011 1:21 PM Subject: [nfbwatlk] Interesting technology > My sister, Julie sent this my direction. I appreciate her comment at the > end. What are your thoughts? > > Copied from Instructables: > > Abstract: > Using the iRobot Roomba Create, I have prototyped a device called > eyeRobot. It will guide blind and visually impaired users through > cluttered and populated environments by using the Roomba as a base to > marry the simplicity of the traditional white cane with the instincts > of a seeing-eye dog. The user indicates his/her desired motion by > intuitively pushing on and twisting the handle. The robot takes this > information and finds a clear path down a hallway or across a room, > using sonar to steer the user in a suitable direction around static > and dynamic obstacles. The user then follows behind the robot as it > guides the user in the desired direction by the noticeable force felt > through the handle. This robotic option requires little training: push > to go, pull to stop, twist to turn. The foresight the rangefinders > provide is similar to a seeing eye dog, and is a considerable > advantage over the constant trial and error that marks the use of the > white cane. Yet eyeRobot still provides a much cheaper alternative > than guide dogs, which cost over $12,000 and are useful for only 5 > years, while the prototype was built for well under $400. It is also a > relatively simple machine, requiring a few inexpensive sensors, > various potentiometers, some hardware, and of course, a Roomba Create. > > http://www.instructables.com/id/eyeRobot---The-Robotic-White-Cane/ > > and then your battery goes dead in an hour and you need your cane or > dog to find your way out. but its a neat idea. > Julie > > -- > Paul Van Dyck > > www.publicradio113.weebly.com > > OR > > www.kboo.fm/soundsofawareness > _______________________________________________ > nfbwatlk mailing list > nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbwatlk_nfbnet.org > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for > nfbwatlk: > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbwatlk_nfbnet.org/kkipp123%40msn.com >


text:
|2009-12-07, 00:00
|Link #82
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New England
Age: 35
Okay, I'm thinking of building my own PC. What cables will I need? Some OEM products don't come with cables. I will need hard drive cables. What else? Optical drive cable?
This is what I'm considering for parts, if I build my own PC:
Asus or Gigabyte motherboard with dual PCI-E x16
OCZ PSU over 600 watt (I forget how much, maybe a 700 watt unit)
I'm looking at two cases; one recommended from Outfoxzero
I'm thinking of getting a Phenom II x2, but I might get a Phenom II x4 955
Graphics card
750 GB hard drive
I'm not sure what to do for a graphics card. I read some newegg reviews of the 5750, a card I wanted to get...people were saying it won't work with Windows 7 64-bit...the OS I want. So I dunno what card to get. I could always upgrade to a DX 11 card later. I will look into getting a 4850, maybe a 4770 (I know the 4850 is better).
I might also want to build my own PC because it will save money and instead of one big bill, I can spread out the money I spend.
|2009-12-07, 00:49
|Link #83
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 31
There's no reason the 5750 shouldn't work with Windows 7 64 bit... Anandtech tested the card on that exact OS for their review and the drivers for it are certainly available on ATI's site.
ATI has a reputation for having more game specific bugs than nVidia although I'm not sure if this is still the case. The only really major issue I'm aware of with ATI cards and a recent game is the PC version of "The Saboteur", which according to people who got ahold of the game early is basically unplayable on ATI hardware. I consider that the game developer's fault though, since that really ought never to have gotten through quality assurance testing. Hopefully it'll get patched quickly.
Most motherboards I've seen include two SATA cables for connecting hard drives, although that means you probably need to order more if you want to add additional hard drives. Any specific reason for wanting two PCI-E 16X slots?
|2009-12-07, 01:43
|Link #84
Gin-Sama no Tameni!
|2009-12-07, 02:14
|Link #85
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 31
|2009-12-07, 02:22
|Link #86
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New England
Age: 35
First off...lol, do I need two PCI-slots? I don't plan to cross fire. I just thought it might be good to have. I guess not. Maybe I just need one PCI-E slot.
Does anybody know if CyberpowerPC is a good site to go with? I asked before, but no one said anything. I'd like to know if they can be trusted. They are a place to buy a made PC at a great price. I hear there are some people that have issues with them, but I'd like to know if they are a site to trust. I ask because they are pretty tempting right now...I can get the PC I want (same specs as what I want that I can build myself) with Windows 7 64-bit for $675. For the same thing (for building my own PC) with the OS, it would cost over $700. Part of the reason the price is good at this site is it is a holiday special.
|2009-12-07, 03:13
|Link #87
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 31
PCI-E 16X slots are used for parts that require a very high bandwidth connection: graphics cards and controllers for very high end storage setups (the ones with like 8 drives and a 600mb/s transfer rate). So unless you're planning to run a second video card I don't see a lot of use for a second PCI-E 16 slot.
(The only possible exception I see here is if you want PhysX while still running an ATI board. Although nVidia doesn't allow it in their drivers, by using hacked drivers you can actually use a cheap nVidia card (like a GT 220) as a dedicated PhysX board while still rendering on an ATI board. But if you're that intent on having PhysX support you should probably consider getting an nVidia card in the first place.)
I take it the $675 configuration is the base level Ultra 7500 with a 700 watt PSU and HD 5750? If so, I feel obliged to point out that any 700 watt unit being sold for $65 less than a Corsair 650 watt is probably a generic and almost certainly not built to the same standard as something from a well respected brand. And if you upgrade to said Corsair, then you're not really saving anything from what I can tell.
I don't think you're going to save anything going through cyberpower without shaving some corners. I'd mainly base the choice on whether to go with them on whether you feel comfortable building a PC or not. Do you know about proper anti-static handling and such?
|2009-12-07, 04:14
|Link #88
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New England
Age: 35
I don't know about proper anti-static handling. Building my own PC is probably easy, I just don't really know everything about it, I have no one to help me in person, and I'd hate to do something wrong (such as something involving static and frying a part). I'd like to learn how to build PCs, but it'd be best to have someone in person show me what to do.
I hear ibuypower is really good and I hear nothing bad about them. I read reviews from CyberpowerPC and people were talking about things like flash card readers not being screwed in and cases coming cracked after being shipped. So, no to them.
How does the best AMD quad core stack up to an i5, anyway? I hear people say that i5s and i7s are better. I wonder if AMD will release new quad cores that will compete evenly with i7s.
|2009-12-07, 06:39
|Link #89
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
|2009-12-07, 08:41
|Link #90
Gin-Sama no Tameni!
|2009-12-07, 14:52
|Link #91
blinded by blood
It looks like Nehalem beats out the AMD chips (in gaming, anyway) mostly due to the Turbo function. When more games start taking advantage of more than one or two cores, AMD has a good chance of pulling ahead since the Turbo function does less the more cores are active.
|2009-12-09, 04:50
|Link #92
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 31
So yeah, the i5 seems like it might actually be worth the extra. Although Tech Report also ran a Far Cry 2 test where the i5 was ahead at low resolutions but fell behind the Phenoms when the resolution was cranked to 1600X1200 (as in like 60 fps vs. 65)... they suggested it might be related to immature drivers for i5 based mainboards, since 1600X1200 should be GPU limited.
|2009-12-09, 15:26
|Link #94
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 31
I'm still trying to decide whether I think the i7-860 would be a worthwhile upgrade over the i5-750 (well, not for me, I'm expecting to get a few years out of my Core 2 Quad still...). The big difference is hyperthreading, and I've seen some games run faster with it on, but some also run slower with it on:
Valve's particle benchmark seems to benefit a fair bit from hyperthreading but its a synthetic benchmark rather than a real game. There's also the role DirectCompute will play in all this, since many tasks that benefit from large numbers of threads would be well suited to execution on a GPU.
I also looked a little more into the fact the Core i5/i7 seem to be slower in Far Cry 2 than the Phenom IIs and Core 2 Quads... this appears to occur with nVidia graphics cards but not ATI ones. The situation is inverted with Crysis, where ATI graphics are a little faster on the older designs but nVidia graphics seem unaffected. Go figure. I wouldn't loose too much sleep over it, since the difference is usually only a few FPS.
(Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ming,2403.html Despite the main concentration of the article being SLI/Crossfire, it still provides some good info on how single card configurations work with various CPUs.)
|2009-12-09, 19:02
|Link #95
IT Support
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Pennsylvania , United States
Age: 29
Graphics drivers and cards are really iffy. nVidia drivers, although they have less bloat than the AMD/ATI ones I used to have when I was using my old Macbook Pro with a ATI card, I had some problems with the crashing, although I realized it was a power issue and I needed to reinsert the battery.
I'm still thinking that the i5 are a good choice in the long run over AMD in the future, once they improve the drivers. Also, Turbo mode is just basically automatic overclocking, but without the extra heat and power usage... I still wonder how much faster theses i5/i7 can go if one were to overclock one manually, but so far I have over clocked my Intel Core2 Duo on my laptop with nVidia System Tools and pretty much boost performance with a little more heat (would be safer if you used a laptop cooler).
|2009-12-09, 19:20
|Link #96
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 31
Well, based on the results I've seen so far, it does appear that the i5-750 is about 20-30% faster than the X4 965 in gaming tests that take advantage of quad cores. So yeah.
I wouldn't necessarily count on the i5 being a great overclocking chip though... while Anandtech has pushed a Lynnfield to 4.2 ghz, they noted that it required quite a bit of voltage boost to get there. Apparently the on-die PCI-E controller prevented them from going past 3.37 at stock voltages, and I'm not really a fan of running stuff at higher than normal voltages since I like my systems to last.
|2009-12-11, 00:15
|Link #98
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 31
To see a real clock speed boost, you'll need to wait for 32nm processors (smaller manufacturing processes allow for higher clock speeds in general). I don't think AMD plans to produce these for a while. Intel has 32nm chips coming, but they're targeted at the low end (dual core with integrated GPU) and high end (six core) markets, not the more mid range quad core market.
I do hear AMD may release a six core AM3 CPU in mid to late 2010, whereas Intel's six core CPUs will only be available on the expensive LGA 1366 socket (as opposed to the cheaper LGA 1156 design) at first. But I'm not sure I'd consider this a big deal: unlike intel's hexa-core chips, AMD's will still be a 45nm design and I doubt it will be clocked as high as AMD's current quads. They have to keep heat output in check somehow.
|2009-12-11, 01:20
|Link #99
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New England
Age: 35
Should I go for AMD or Intel? Hmmm...AMD is more affordable, which I need right now. I can't afford the high end i7s, but I could afford the PCs with the sockets for the lower end i7s...would that be a better investment than the AM3 route? Or should I be good with AMD for awhile? I mean, I could always buy a new motherboard down the road.
Again, thanks to so many for help here. Advice here has helped me to figure out what to get for a PC. I keep fine tuning what kind of PC to go for as I save up enough money to buy this PC. I want to be able to "comfortably" pay for this PC...save up enough money so that when I buy it, I can pay most of the credit card bill off right away.
|2009-12-11, 15:57
|Link #100
blinded by blood
Intel has been real schizophrenic when it comes to sockets as of late. AMD has pretty much stuck to AM3... so yeah.
As I've noticed over the past year or so, unless you do a lot of processor-intensive tasks or are a hardcore gamer, you probably don't need something as expensive as an i7 or i5. The netbook/CULV revolution is showing people that unless you do some crazy computational shit, you just don't need to shell out $300 for a CPU alone.
|Thread Tools


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- Year
- 1863
Johnston named commander of Army of Tennessee
On this day in 1863, Confederate President Jefferson Davis names General Joseph Johnston commander of the Army of Tennessee. Johnston replaced Braxton Bragg, who managed to lose all of Tennessee to the Union during 1863.
A Virginia native, Johnston graduated from West Point in 1829 along with future Confederate leader Robert E. Lee. Johnston fought in the Black Hawk, Creek, and Seminole wars of the 1830s before serving with distinction in the Mexican War (1846-48). When Virginia seceded from the Union shortly after the firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina,in April 1861, Johnston accepted a commission in the Confederate army. He fought at the First Battle of Bull Run, Virginia,in July 1861, and commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during the early stages of the Peninsular Campaign in 1862. WhenJohnston was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, Virginia,on May 31, Lee replaced him.
After recovering from his wounds, Johnston was sent to coordinate the operations of the armies of the Tennessee and Mississippi regions. Since he did not have a command of his own, Johnston resented this duty. In 1863,he made a futile attempt to relieve John C. Pemberton's army at Vicksburg, Mississippi. He wanted Pemberton to fight his way out of Vicksburg, but Union General Ulysses S. Grant had Pemberton trapped. The surrender of Pemberton's army put additional stress on the already strained relationship between Johnston and President Davis.
After the campaigns of 1863, however, Davis felt he had little choice but to name Johnston commander of the Army of Tennessee. The Confederates were losing large sections of territory to the Union. Bragg was literally maneuvered right out of Tennessee during the summer, although he engineered a victory at Chickamauga before laying siege to Union troops at Chattanooga. When Grant broke the Confederate hold on Chattanooga in November, Bragg resigned his command.
Davis reluctantly appointed Johnston to save the situation in the West. Johnston took the field with his army in the spring of 1864, when Union General William T. Sherman began his drive toward Atlanta. Johnston employed a defensive strategy that avoided direct battle with Sherman but which also resulted in lost territory as Johnston slowly backed up to Atlanta. Johnston's command lasted until July 1864, when Davis replacedhim after the Army of the Tennessee was backed into Atlanta.


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Choosing a Livingston accountant
The following article will describe for you some of the considerations when evaluating accountants online in Livingston.
Although they are often used interchangeably, the first question to consider is whether you need an accountant or a Livingston bookkeeper.
What does an accountant do?
Typical accounting services include tax preparation (commonly done by a tax accountant), audit, and financial planning. Your Livingston accounting firm is generally forward-thinking and looks for ways to structure your business to ensure its long term success. Your accountant should be genuinely interested your business. An accountant in Livingston can also be invaluable to you through networking in the larger Livingston business community. Generally speaking, the same accounting rules apply whether your business employs two people or two thousand people, so a Livingston accountant makes sure that you are compliant with local and federal accounting regulations.
Accounting software
Your accountant will have his/her favorite accounting software. Make sure that the accounting software is up to date and regularly backed up.
Types of accountants
Accountants come in different shapes and sizes. Typical designations include Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and Certified Management Accountant (CMA).
Further information on the accounting professsion can be found at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) - http://www.aicpa.org
What does a bookkeeper do?
As the name implies, a Livingston bookkeeper is responsible for managing your business' records, such as its accounts receivable and accounts payable. Usually, your Livingston accountant will set up the accounting structure, while the bookkeeper will work within this structure. Accurate business records are critical to the success of your business.
Bookkeeping software
Record-keeping software varies by industry and company size. Popular Livingston bookkeeping applications include Simply Accounting and QuickBooks. Whatever bookkeeping software you choose, make sure that you regularly back up your data and keep hard copies of important documents.
Further information on the bookkeeping profession can be found at the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers (AIPB) - http://www.aipb.org
Fun fact: Kenny G, the jazz artist, began his career as an accountant
You may also be interested in Small Business Accounting.


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Will Washington become a right-to-work state in order to secure design and manufacturing of Boeing's 777X here?
The answer: Not likely.
But one state senator has proposed legislation that would weaken labor unions here should the state workers' compensation insurance rates continue to increase. The move would help position Washington to win work on Boeing's updated 777, said Sen. Michael Baumgartner, in a statement Tuesday.
"It's very clear that Boeing is choosing to expand into states that have more competitive labor environments, and that right-to-work states like South Carolina have a significant potential advantage," said Baumgartner, R-Spokane.
Boeing in 2009 picked South Carolina as the site for a second 787 production line when the jet maker and the local district of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers failed to reach a long term labor accord. The Machinists had struck Boeing in 2008. The National Labor Relations Board later sued Boeing over the 787 decision, alleging the company illegally retaliated against the union.
The Chicago-based Boeing likely will launch the 777X later this year. As the site of 777 manufacturing, Everett is a favorite for 777X work.
However, with the South Carolina move in mind, state lawmakers aren't taking for granted that Boeing will remain in Washington for the newest 777. Last week, Gov. Jay Inslee unveiled his own strategy for the 777X. The Democrat's plan didn't include making Washington the 25th right-to-work state in the country.
"Washington is a hub of aerospace, and it's clear that too many of our elected leaders aren't taking real steps to keep it that way," Baumgartner said in a statement Tuesday.
Aerospace analyst Scott Hamilton, with Issaquah-based Leeham Co., also recently pushed for turning Washington into a right-to-work state as part of the state's 777X. Like Baumgartner, Hamilton suggests the cost of doing business in Washington is too high due to workers' comp rates.
Read Baumgartner's bill here.


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My friend with benefits told me he has feelings for me and wants to date me. I told him I hadn't thought of him that way and to let me think about it. We continued to be physical for a while, but I came to the decision that I don't want to date. I told him that and we've stopped being physical, but still talk every day. I've told him I'm afraid I'm leading him on and he told me he knows where I stand. He's also told me he still feels the same way and will continue to try. In an ideal world, I wish I could have him as my friend with benefits, but I know that's out of the question. I know I am leading him on, so my question is, what is the right thing to do? I love talking to him all the time and don't want to lose him as my friend. Do I need to give him space though?--What Now?
You're not leading him on, What Now. He's leading himself on. But either way, it would definitely benefit your now benefit-less friendship if you made yourself less available to him for a while. How much time and space apart is up to you, but make it a clean break: no texts or calls and, as you've already noted, no more playing hide the peach gobbler.
Treat it like a breakup, which it kind of is. You're changing the rules of your relationship. This is to save the friendship, which can't keep functioning successfully if one party is carrying a huge torch for the other. Especially if he's professed he's going to "keep trying." (As an aside: Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we think we can convince people to love us through determination and being hard to get rid of? It's banana sandwiches!)
You can be friends again with this guy when he can honestly answer that he'll be happy for you when you start dating or sleeping with somebody else. It is, unfortunately (fortunately?), on you to be the boundary-keeper of this break/change in the relationship with your hopefully-soon-to-be-platonic friend. But remember that the short-term heartache (both his and yours) will be worth it in the long haul, when you can look back as pals and share funny sex stories from boners gone by.
I've been sexually active for over 10 years. I've been dating my girlfriend for about two years now and sometimes I can't keep it hard for her. Also it's embarrassing to say but with her I never really ejaculated from the sex. I can come If I'm masturbating but not when we have sex. Have you heard this before?--Mr. X
Of course, I've heard this before. It's the only reason I attend those NRA Women's Leadership luncheons (though the mini-quiches come in at a close second). It sounds like there could be two reasons why you can't ejaculate from sex: anxiety or too much of the same masturbation routine. (There's also a third medical possibility, but you'd have to consult a doctor about that, and I don't mean WebMD). I'd suggest adapting your jerkin' routine. Your member may simply be accustomed to the way you touch it, which isn't easily replicated by a woman. Switch hands, use a condom, loosen your grip -- basically teach it to respond to a different touch and see if that helps. You could also try masturbating until you're reeeeally close to orgasm and then let her finish you off. The trick is to reprogram your little brain so that it's receptive to partners other than your trusty hand.
Want to ask Anna an anonymous question about love, sex or dating? Email your quandary to email@example.com. Need to give your dating life a boost? Sign up for RedEye Dating.
Want more? Discuss this article and others on RedEye's Facebook page.


text:
- What's New at EBRI
- Fast Facts
- Issue Briefs
- Notes
- Press Releases
- President's Reports
- Testimony
- Resources
- Benefit Bibliography
- Benefit FAQs
- Links to Other Internet Resources
- Reference Shelf
- Special Issues of Periodicals
EBRI's Fundamentals of Employee Benefit Programs – 6th Edition (2009)
Fundamentals offers a straightforward, basic explanation of employee benefit programs in the private and public sectors. Written in clear, nontechnical language, this fact-filled reference book covers everything from health insurance to pension plans and from retirement planning to dependent care programs. Chapters review the history of a program, outline its design and structure, and provide sources and key contacts for more information.
6th edition update: The material in Fundamentals has been used both by business and academia in numerous educational and training programs, simplifying complex and confusing laws and regulations. The all-new 6th edition updates the book for 2009.
Online chapters: The online chapters are in Adobe "PDF" format. If your computer does not already have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader® viewer software to read these files, click here for the one-time free download necessary to read any of our online publications. To download a chapter, click on the chapter number. If you are having trouble downloading, you may have an older edition of Adobe Reader® and will need to download the current version.
Fundamentals is divided into the following five sections:
Overview | Retirement Benefits | Health Benefits Other Benefits | Public-Sector Benefits
© 2009, Employee Benefit Research Institute
Part One: Overview
- Employee Benefits in the United States: An Introduction
- Social Security Old Age and Survivors Insurance Program
- Social Security Disability Insurance
- Medicare
Part Two: Retirement Benefits
- Retirement Plans
- Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Plans: Understanding the Differences
- Profit-Sharing Plans
- 401(k) Cash or Deferred Arrangements
- Employee Stock Ownership Plans
- Cash Balance Plans
- SIMPLE Plans and Simplified Employee Pensions
- Multiemployer Plans
- Nondiscrimination and Minimum Coverage Requirements for Pension Plans
- Integrating Pension Plans With Social Security
- Sec. 403(b) Arrangements
- Individual Retirement Accounts
- Retirement Plans for the Self-Employed
- The PBGC and Plan Funding
- Appendix: Automatic Enrollment Arrangements Under the Pension Protection Act of 2006
Part Three: Health Benefits
- Health Benefits: Overview
- Prescription Drug Plans
- Dental Care Plans
- Vision Care Plans
- Health Promotion and Disability Management Programs
- Mental Health and Substance Abuse Benefits
- Retiree Health Benefits
- COBRA Continuation of Coverage
- Nondiscrimination and Health Benefits
- Managing Health Care Costs
Part Four: Other Benefits
- Overview of Other Benefits
- Leave Benefits
- Unemployment Insurance
- Voluntary Disability Insurance Plans
- Group Life Insurance Plans
- Workers' Compensation
- Dependent Care
- Education Assistance Benefits
- Employee Assistance Programs
- Legal Services Plans
- Domestic Partner Benefits
Part Five: Public-Sector Benefits
- Public-Sector Environment
- Benefit Cost Comparisons Between State and Local Governments and Private-Sector Employers
- Regulation of Public-Sector Retirement Plans
- Defined Benefit Plans in the Public Sector
- Public-Sector Life Insurance and Related Protection
- Employment-Based Health Benefits in the Public Sector
- Leave Programs in the Public Sector
- Defined Contribution and Supplemental Retirement Savings Plans in the Public Sector
- 401(k) Valuations Published: October 1, 2018 401(k) Balances and Changes Due to Market Volatility
- President's Letter Published: February 20, 2018 Insights from EBRI's President and CEO


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|Holly's submitted pictures!
19 year old Holly posts amateur pictures like these all of the time to my site. She also does a live webcam show every week! She DOES get nude in the shows... AND... she is availble for Private (spank your monkey) Shows!
Click here to see more of Holly!


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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Freshman Taran Brown had 17 points, sophomore Alan Williams added 12 and five blocked shots, and the University of San Diego made just 3-of-27 shots in the second half as UC Santa Barbara cruised to a 57-39 home win on Wednesday night.
The Toreros (3-3) shot just 38.5% in the first half, and it got worse in the final 20 minutes. Not only did they make just 11.1% of their shots, they missed all 11 of their three-point attempts and scored a mere 11 points. The Gauchos (2-2) meanwhile held a 34-28 lead at halftime and saw it grow to the final margin of 18 despite 12 second half turnovers.
"They obviously missed some shots, but I thought we had something to do with that," said UCSB head coach Bob Williams. "That (USD) is a very good shooting team, especially from outside, and we really did a good job of closing out and staying with their shooters most of the game."
Guard Johnny Dee, who came into the game shooting 50.0% from outside the three-point arc, made just 2-of-9 and finished with eight points. No Torero player scored in double-figures.
Brown and Williams, who have been the Gauchos' two leading scorers in the last three games, each battled foul trouble in the first half. They scored 20 of their combined 29 points in the second half. The duo also tied for team-high honors in rebounds with eight apiece.
"I was very happy with our effort on the glass in the second half," Williams said. "I think we were outrebounded 21-12 in the first half and to finish with more rebounds than San Diego was huge."
In addition to eight rebounds apiece from Brown and Williams, the Gauchos got a career-high seven, to go with eight points, from freshman Michael Bryson. They finished with a 36-35 rebound edge.
The Gauchos jumped out of the gates in the second half with a 7-0 run, to push a six-point lead to 13, 41-28. Williams scored on a lay-up and a 15-foot bank shot and Kyle Boswell made a three-pointer from the corner before San Diego stopped the run on a pair of free throws by Ken Rancifer and a mid-range jumper by Dee.
Another 6-0 UCSB run pushed the lead back to 15, 47-32 with 11:02 left, and it never dipped below 13 the rest of the way.
The Gauchos finished the game at 46.0% from the field, although they made just 4-of-17 three-point attempts. San Diego finished at 24.5% overall from the floor, making 13-of-53 shots overall and 3-of-19 from three-point range.
The Gauchos return to action on Saturday, Nov. 24 when they travel to Boise State for a game that will tip-off at 1:00 p.m. (PST). It can be heard live on AM 1290 KZSB and at UCSBgauchos.com. UCSB returns home to host Wyoming on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 7:00 p.m. in the Thunderdome.
Season tickets for both the men's and women's teams are still available from the Ticket Office in the Intercollegiate Athletics Building on campus, by calling 805-893-UCSB (8272) or online by clicking here for men's season tickets and here for women's season tickets. Also, for the nest two seasons, the season tickets commemorate 35 years of the Thunderdome and the tickets will reflect that. This year, the commemorative tickets will celebrate some of the greatest players to ever play in the storied arena and next year the greatest moments will be remembered.


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The Walrus Says
Bill O'Brien, the Patriots' offensive coordinator who just accepted the job as the new football head coach at Penn State, is a nephew of island attorney John A. Murphy. Before coming to the Patriots in 2007, Bill coached at Georgia Tech, Duke and Maryland.
Speaking of John A. Murphy, we should send him to Congress so he could sow his scattering seeds among the dunderheads in Washington.
From Beth Weibust: "A great big thank you to the kind library patron who found my pocketbook on the ground next to the book deposit box and brought it to the front desk on Friday. I will definitely pay it forward!"
Bring back Rex Morgan, M.D.!
Received a letter from former Shoreby Hill resident Ron Hickman in Hattiesburg, Miss., saying that his book, "Operation Big Flounder," published a little over a year ago, is about to go digital. Receiving rave reviews, the book is based on an actual tax scam involving a Pensacola seafood king in a community on the Gulf of Mexico. Ron says the story and events are real "with the exception of some embellishment by the author."
Ron passed on a short story about the song "What a Wonderful World" recorded by Louis Armstrong. "For a couple of years the only exposure or airplay given to this now standard came from England where a minister was playing the song as his theme song. Soon, it became popular in Europe and spread back to the USA and later was the theme in the movie 'Good Morning, Vietnam' with Robin Williams. The late George David Weiss, a friend of mine who had composed some 950 songs, including the Elvis hit 'I Can't Help Falling in Love,' related the story during one of our visits."
Thanks, Ron.
Elizabeth Mancini and Cheryl Fernstrom emailed correctly that last week's poser is "Kodachrome" by Paul Simon.
They give us those nice bright colors,
They give us the greens of summers,
Makes you think all the world's, a sunny day,
I got a Nikon camera,
I love to take a photograph,
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away.
If there is such a shortage of cod, why is it available just about everywhere?
Too late to save myself from falling,
I took a chance and changed your way of life,
But you misread my meaning when I met you,
Closed the door and left me blinded by the light.
The Jamestown Arts Center will present "Life on the Ledger: How to Make Your Art Add Up," on Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Richard Streitfeld, CPA, CFE, will discuss accounting for artists. Topics will include what artists can deduct, keeping the books, quick overview of fi- nancial statements, sales tax blues and minimizing audit risk. It'll be only $10 for all that information. For the answers to questions and to register, call 560-0979.
It's a shame that with all the talent available in our wonderful country that the current Republican candidates for president are the best we can do.
Donations are needed for the treatment of a dog hit on the island by a vehicle on Jan. 2 and finally rescued on Jan. 7 after a five-day search by many island volunteers. The dog is a 6-year-old male German shepherd and is being treated at the Warwick Animal Hospital.
Barbara Szepatowski reports that the dog spent five days and nights outside without food or water. "How he lived through the cold on Monday and Tuesday night is truly a miracle. He has sustained multiple serious injuries, including possible internal injuries, a broken hip, an injured/broken front leg, and rib cage damage. Once he is stabilized a decision will be made as to whether he can be saved, which of course is partially driven by cost. He belongs to a woman who is recovering from surgery."
Any donations are greatly appreciated. Checks made out to the Jamestown Animal Fund can be dropped off to Jamestown Finance Director Tina Collins at Town Hall. The dog will survive, but the owner does not have the money for additional diagnostic care. As of Saturday afternoon the bill was $1,100, and the cost increased as additional treatment continued.
Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Tuesday is Ben Franklin's birthday and the date of the beginning of the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
Be true!
Call in your stuff to 829-2760 or 423-0383, or email me at jtnwal firstname.lastname@example.com. Thank you.


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The Richmond Convertible Crib is a sturdy crib for your new addition. The ability to transition from a crib to toddler bed to daybed and finally a full size bed makes this a sound investment for you and your child. The adjustable height mattress makes a drop down side obsolete, and will make it easier to put down a sleeping infant. Economically this bed works too, just a purchase of the solid hardwood long rails conversion kit turns this bed into a solid platform bed that your teenager will love
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