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The Big Short: How Wall Street Destroyed Main Street
Posted by Jim Q.
Day after day, bankers have been paraded before Congressional committees regarding their role in the financial crisis which brought the financial system to the edge of the abyss on September 18,2008. Every one has claimed that they were not responsible in any way for the disaster. They blame once in a lifetime circumstances that no one could have anticipated. It was a perfect storm and they had no way of knowing. These Harvard MBA Wall Street geniuses, who collected compensation in excess of $100 million each before the collapse, had no idea what was going on within their own firms.
Ignorance and stupidity is no excuse for losing a trillion dollars. The truth is that the CEO's of all the Wall Street banks encouraged a casino culture of greed and gambling. The generation of fees became the sole driving incentive for every firm. It started with collateralizing subprime mortgages into packages of mortgage backed securities. Then they created Credit Default Swaps as insurance on these mortgages. When they ran out of chumps to put into houses, they created side bets with Credit Default Obligations that didn't require an actual homeowner.
The fees generated by creating this crap were incomprehensible. The Masters of the Universe were taking home pay packages of $25 million and weren't satisfied. They only made one small mistake. They deluded themselves into thinking the crap they were selling to suckers wasn't actually crap. They ended up buying their own toxic paper. Even though they knew that the ratings agencies were basically whoring out AAA ratings for fees, they believed that AAA rated securities they were buying and insuring weren't actually worthless. They didn't understand that they had created Frankenderivatives. Author Michael Lewis has done a fantastic job making this sordid tale of greed understandable to the common person.
You are probably thinking that the title of this article is strange, but you will understand in a few minutes. Michael Lewis wrote the classic Wall Street book about the greed of the 1980's Liar's Poker, published in 1989. He detailed the absurdity and greed of Wall Street from his firsthand experiences working at Salomon Brothers fresh out of college. He captured the destructive culture of Wall Street in a very funny 290 page classic. He immortalized the term Big Swinging Dick regarding Salomon ("If he could make millions of dollars come out of those phones, he became that most revered of all species: a Big Swinging Dick."). He also described the act of Blowing up a customer -Successfully convincing a customer to purchase an investment product which ends up declining rapidly in value, forcing the client to withdraw from the market.
He described an old mortgage bond trader named Donnie Green who once stopped a young callow salesman on his way out the door to catch a flight from New York to Chicago. Green tossed the salesman a ten dollar bill. "Hey, take out some crash insurance for yourself in my name", he said. "Why?" asked the salesman. "I feel lucky," said Green. Some other memorable snippets included:
- The larger the number of people involved, the easier it was for them to delude themselves that what they were doing must be smart. The first thing you learn on the trading floor is that when large numbers of people are after the same commodity, be it a stock, a bond, or a job, the commodity quickly becomes overvalued.
- In any market, as in any poker game, there is a fool. The astute investor Warren Buffet is fond of saying that any player unaware of the fool in the market probably is the fool in the market.
- The firm's management created a training programme, filled it to the brim, then walked away. In the ensuing anarchy the bad drove out the good, the big drove out the small, and the brawn drove out the brains.
- Whenever calculus is brought in, or higher algebra, you could take it as a warning signal that the operator was trying to substitute theory for experience.
- The only thing that history teaches us, a wise man once said, is that history doesn't teach us anything.
- That was how a Salomon bond trader thought: he forgot whatever it was that he wanted to do for a minute and put his finger on the pulse of the market. If the market felt fidgety, if people were scared or desperate, he herded them like sheep into a corner, then made them pay for their uncertainty. He sat on the market until it puked gold coins. Then he worried about what he wanted to do.
- Stupid customers (the fools in the market) were a wonderful asset, but at some level of ignorance they became a liability – they went broke.
Michael expected that his book would convince many smart college students to pass on Wall Street and pursue worthwhile careers. Instead he was bombarded with fan mail thanking him for making Wall Street seem so appealing. The unquenchable desire for millions in compensation and unfettered greed on Wall Street only grew during the two decades since his book.
He has now book-ended two decades of greed with his latest masterpiece The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. He was able to link the two books by interviewing John Gutfreund, his former boss at Salomon Brothers, at the end of his new book. Lewis is able to explain the most recent financial crisis caused by Wall Street through the eyes of a few oddball skeptics. It is a truly enlightening book and reveals the true nature of the Wall Street mega-banks. Lewis summarizes the big picture in the following sequence:
By early 2005, the sub-prime mortgage machine was up and running again. If the first act of sub-prime lending had been freaky, this second act was terrifying. $30bn was a big year for sub-prime lending in the mid-1990s. In 2005 there would be $625bn in sub-prime mortgage loans, $507bn of which found its way into mortgage bonds. Even more shocking was that the terms of the loans were changing in ways that increased the likelihood they would go bad. Back in 1996, 65% of sub-prime loans had been fixed-rate. By 2005, 75% were some form of floating rate, usually fixed for the first two years.
By the time Greg Lippmann, the head sub-prime guy at Deutsche Bank, turned up in the FrontPoint conference room, in February 2006, Steve Eisman knew enough about the bond market to be wary. Lippmann's aim was to sell Eisman on what he claimed was his own original brilliant idea for betting against – or short selling – the sub-prime mortgage bond market.
Eisman didn't understand. Lippmann wasn't even a bond salesman; he was a bond trader: "In my entire life, I never saw a sell-side guy come in and say, 'Short my market.'" But Lippmann made his case with a long and involved presentation: over the last three years, housing prices had risen far more rapidly than they had over the previous 30; they had not yet fallen but they had ceased to rise; even so, the loans against them were now going sour in their first year at amazing rates.
He showed Eisman this little chart that illustrated an astonishing fact: since 2000, people whose homes had risen in value between 1% and 5% were nearly four times more likely to default on their home loans than people whose homes had risen in value more than 10%. Millions of Americans had no ability to repay their mortgages unless their houses rose dramatically in value, which enabled them to borrow even more. That was the pitch in a nutshell: home prices didn't even need to fall; they merely needed to stop rising at the unprecedented rates they had been for vast numbers of Americans to default on their home loans.
Lippmann's presentation was just a fancy way to describe the idea of betting against US home loans: buying credit default swaps on the crappiest sub-prime mortgage bonds. The beauty of the credit default swap, or CDS, was that it solved the timing problem. Eisman no longer needed to guess exactly when the sub-prime mortgage market would crash. It also allowed him to make the bet without laying down cash up front, and put him in a position to win many times the sums he could possibly lose. Worst case: insolvent Americans somehow paid off their sub-prime mortgage loans, and you were stuck paying an insurance premium of roughly 2% a year for as long as six years – the longest expected life span of the putatively 30-year loans.
Eisman could imagine very little that would give him so much pleasure as going to bed each night, possibly for the next six years, knowing he was shorting a financial market he'd come to know and despise, and was certain would one day explode.
In the summer of 2006, house prices peaked and began to fall. For the entire year they would fall, nationally, by 2%. By that autumn, Lippmann had made his case to hundreds more investors. Yet only 100 or so dabbled in the new market for credit default swaps on sub-prime mortgage bonds. A smaller number of people still – more than 10, fewer than 20 – made a straightforward bet against the entire multi-trillion-dollar sub-prime mortgage market and, by extension, the global financial system. The catastrophe was foreseeable, yet only a handful noticed.
Eisman was odd in his conviction that the leveraging of middle-class America was a corrupt and corrupting event. At the annual sub-prime conference that year, Eisman walked around the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas – with its penny slots and cash machines that spat out $100 bills – and felt depressed. It was overrun by thousands of white men now earning their living, one way or another, off sub-prime mortgages.
Later, whenever Eisman set out to explain to others the origins of the financial crisis, he would start with what he learned in Las Vegas. He'd draw a picture of several towers of debt. The first tower was the original sub-prime loans that had been piled together. At the top of this tower was the safest triple-A rated tranche, just below it the double-A tranche, and so on down to the riskiest, triple-B tranche – the bonds Eisman had bet against. The Wall Street firms had taken these triple-B tranches – the worst of the worst – to build yet another tower of bonds: a collateralised debt obligation. Like the credit default swap, the CDO had been invented to redistribute the risk of corporate and government bond defaults, and was now being rejigged to disguise the risk of sub-prime mortgage loans.
It was in Vegas that Eisman finally understood the madness of the machine. He'd been making these side bets with major investment banks on the fate of the triple-B tranche of sub-prime mortgage-backed bonds without fully understanding why those firms were so eager to accept them. Now he got it: the credit default swaps, filtered through the CDOs, were being used to replicate bonds backed by actual home loans. There weren't enough Americans with shitty credit taking out loans to satisfy investors' appetite for the end product. Wall Street needed his bets in order to synthesize more of them. "They weren't satisfied getting lots of unqualified borrowers to borrow money to buy a house they couldn't afford," Eisman says. "They were creating them out of whole cloth. One hundred times over! That's why the losses in the financial system are so much greater than just the sub-prime loans. That's when I realised they needed us to keep the machine running. I was like, This is allowed?"
It was in Las Vegas that Eisman and his associates' attitude toward the US bond market hardened into something like its final shape. The question lingering at the back of their minds ceased to be, do these bond market people know something we do not? It was replaced by, do they deserve merely to be fired, or should they be put in jail? Are they delusional, or do they know what they're doing?
On the surface, these big Wall Street firms appeared robust; below the surface, Eisman was beginning to think, their problems might not be confined to a potential loss of revenue. He'd go to meetings with Wall Street CEOs and ask them the most basic questions: "They didn't know their own balance sheets."
I now have a new hero to worship. His name is Steve Eisman. He is a total prick. Whenever he opens his mouth in public, his two associates – Vincent Daniel and Danny Moses – sink down in their seats in anticipation of him saying something truly outrageous and true. In this book Lewis details how a few skeptical oddball guys figured out that the subprime mortgage market was the scam of the century and tried desperately to call attention to what was happening. The fact that they got unbelievably rich in the process is really secondary to the story of corruption, greed and stupidity by Wall Street bankers, the ratings agencies Moodys and S&P, the SEC, and the American homeowners.
The subprime mortgage market was miniscule during the 1990's. Steve Eisman, Michael Burry, and 3 guys named Charlie Ledley, Jamie Mai, and Ben Hockett operating out of a garage with $1 million, figured out independently from each other that as the 2000's progressed an immense bubble of bad debt was being created. The question was how could they take advantage of their discovery.
Eisman had a disdain for the companies in the subprime mortgage industry because he knew they were taking advantage of ignorant poor people. Household Finance was peddling these misleading loans and the CEO sold out to HSBC before the disaster struck. Eisman said, "It was engaged in blatant fraud. They should have taken the CEO out and hung him up by his fucking testicles. Instead they sold the company and the CEO made a hundred million dollars." After this he made it his life's mission to expose the fraud in this market.
Vinny Daniel was Eisman's analyst and Danny Moses was his trader. Vinny was from Queens and trusted no one. Eisman described him as "Very dark." He dug into the transaction details and fed the info to Steve. Danny didn't trust anyone on Wall Street.
When a Wall Street firm helped him to get into a trade that seemed perfect in every way, he asked the salesman, "I appreciate this, but I just want to know one thing: How are you going to fuck me?"
Heh-heh-heh, c'mon, we'd never do that, the trader started to say, but Danny, though perfectly polite, was insistent. "We both know that unadulterated good things like this trade don't just happen between little hedge funds and big Wall Street firms. I'll do it, but only after you explain to me how you are going to fuck me." And the salesman explained how he was going to fuck him. And Danny did the trade.
Eisman and his colleagues did real due diligence on the market. They flew around the country, attended subprime conferences and grilled CEOs and the ratings agencies. Lewis detailed these efforts in the book:
Moses actually flew down to Miami and wandered around neighborhoods built with subprime loans to see how bad things were. "He'd call me and say, 'Oh my God, this is a calamity here,' " recalls Eisman. All that was required for the BBB bonds to go to zero was for the default rate on the underlying loans to reach 14 percent. Eisman thought that, in certain sections of the country, it would go far, far higher.
The funny thing, looking back on it, is how long it took for even someone who predicted the disaster to grasp its root causes. They were learning about this on the fly, shorting the bonds and then trying to figure out what they had done. Eisman knew subprime lenders could be scumbags. What he underestimated was the total unabashed complicity of the upper class of American capitalism. For instance, he knew that the big Wall Street investment banks took huge piles of loans that in and of themselves might be rated BBB, threw them into a trust, carved the trust into tranches, and wound up with 60 percent of the new total being rated AAA.
But he couldn't figure out exactly how the rating agencies justified turning BBB loans into AAA-rated bonds. "I didn't understand how they were turning all this garbage into gold," he says. He brought some of the bond people from Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and UBS over for a visit. "We always asked the same question," says Eisman. "Where are the rating agencies in all of this? And I'd always get the same reaction. It was a smirk." He called Standard & Poor's and asked what would happen to default rates if real estate prices fell. The man at S&P couldn't say; its model for home prices had no ability to accept a negative number. "They were just assuming home prices would keep going up," Eisman says.
As an investor, Eisman was allowed on the quarterly conference calls held by Moody's but not allowed to ask questions. The people at Moody's were polite about their brush-off, however. The C.E.O. even invited Eisman and his team to his office for a visit in June 2007. By then, Eisman was so certain that the world had been turned upside down that he just assumed this guy must know it too. "But we're sitting there," Daniel recalls, "and he says to us, like he actually means it, 'I truly believe that our rating will prove accurate.' And Steve shoots up in his chair and asks, 'What did you just say?' as if the guy had just uttered the most preposterous statement in the history of finance. He repeated it. And Eisman just laughed at him."
"With all due respect, sir," Daniel told the C.E.O. deferentially as they left the meeting, "you're delusional."
This wasn't Fitch or even S&P. This was Moody's, the aristocrats of the rating business, 20 percent owned by Warren Buffett. And the company's C.E.O. was being told he was either a fool or a crook by one Vincent Daniel, from Queens.
Eisman, Daniel, and Moses then flew out to Las Vegas for an even bigger subprime conference. By now, Eisman knew everything he needed to know about the quality of the loans being made. He still didn't fully understand how the apparatus worked, but he knew that Wall Street had built a doomsday machine. He was at once opportunistic and outraged.
Their first stop was a speech given by the C.E.O. of Option One, the mortgage originator owned by H&R Block. When the guy got to the part of his speech about Option One's subprime-loan portfolio, he claimed to be expecting a modest default rate of 5 percent. Eisman raised his hand. Moses and Daniel sank into their chairs. "It wasn't a Q&A," says Moses. "The guy was giving a speech. He sees Steve's hand and says, 'Yes?'"
"Would you say that 5 percent is a probability or a possibility?" Eisman asked.
A probability, said the C.E.O., and he continued his speech.
Eisman had his hand up in the air again, waving it around. Oh, no, Moses thought. "The one thing Steve always says," Daniel explains, "is you must assume they are lying to you. They will always lie to you." Moses and Daniel both knew what Eisman thought of these subprime lenders but didn't see the need for him to express it here in this manner. For Eisman wasn't raising his hand to ask a question. He had his thumb and index finger in a big circle. He was using his fingers to speak on his behalf. Zero! they said.
"Yes?" the C.E.O. said, obviously irritated. "Is that another question?"
"No," said Eisman. "It's a zero. There is zero probability that your default rate will be 5 percent." The losses on subprime loans would be much, much greater. Before the guy could reply, Eisman's cell phone rang. Instead of shutting it off, Eisman reached into his pocket and answered it. "Excuse me," he said, standing up. "But I need to take this call." And with that, he walked out.
His dinner companion in Las Vegas ran a fund of about $15 billion and managed C.D.O.'s backed by the BBB tranche of a mortgage bond, or as Eisman puts it, "the equivalent of three levels of dog shit lower than the original bonds."
FrontPoint had spent a lot of time digging around in the dog shit and knew that the default rates were already sufficient to wipe out this guy's entire portfolio. "God, you must be having a hard time," Eisman told his dinner companion.
"No," the guy said, "I've sold everything out."
Whatever rising anger Eisman felt was offset by the man's genial disposition. Not only did he not mind that Eisman took a dim view of his C.D.O.'s; he saw it as a basis for friendship. "Then he said something that blew my mind," Eisman tells me. "He says, 'I love guys like you who short my market. Without you, I don't have anything to buy.' "
That's when Eisman finally got it. Here he'd been making these side bets with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank on the fate of the BBB tranche without fully understanding why those firms were so eager to make the bets. Now he saw. There weren't enough Americans with shitty credit taking out loans to satisfy investors' appetite for the end product. The firms used Eisman's bet to synthesize more of them. Here, then, was the difference between fantasy finance and fantasy football: When a fantasy player drafts Peyton Manning, he doesn't create a second Peyton Manning to inflate the league's stats. But when Eisman bought a credit-default swap, he enabled Deutsche Bank to create another bond identical in every respect but one to the original. The only difference was that there was no actual homebuyer or borrower. The only assets backing the bonds were the side bets Eisman and others made with firms like Goldman Sachs. Eisman, in effect, was paying to Goldman the interest on a subprime mortgage. In fact, there was no mortgage at all. "They weren't satisfied getting lots of unqualified borrowers to borrow money to buy a house they couldn't afford," Eisman says. "They were creating them out of whole cloth. One hundred times over! That's why the losses are so much greater than the loans. But that's when I realized they needed us to keep the machine running. I was like, This is allowed?"
Steve Eisman had virtually no respect for the large Wall Street firms, particularly Merrill Lynch. His speech below is reminiscent of Tom Joad's memorable "I'll be there" dialogue in The Grapes of Wrath:
"We have a simple thesis," Eisman explained. "There is going to be a calamity, and whenever there is a calamity, Merrill is there." When it came time to bankrupt Orange County with bad advice, Merrill was there. When the internet went bust, Merrill was there. Way back in the 1980s, when the first bond trader was let off his leash and lost hundreds of millions of dollars, Merrill was there to take the hit. That was Eisman's logic—the logic of Wall Street's pecking order. Goldman Sachs was the big kid who ran the games in this neighborhood. Merrill Lynch was the little fat kid assigned the least pleasant roles, just happy to be a part of things. The game, as Eisman saw it, was Crack the Whip. He assumed Merrill Lynch had taken its assigned place at the end of the chain.
As the financial system crashed on September 18, 2008 and the protagonists of the story became rich beyond all belief, there was no joy. They weren't happy that they had been proven right. They were disgusted by the entire Wall Street culture. Michael Burry shut down his fund in disgust with his ungrateful investors. The system broke and the Wall Street gamblers should have paid the consequences. Instead, the US taxpayer bailed them out. In the twenty years since Lewis had written Liar's Poker, Wall Street became greedier, nastier, more corrupt, more arrogant and more incompetent. He traced the biggest financial disaster in history back to his old boss John Gutfreund. His decision to convert Salomon Brothers from a private partnership to a public corporation opened Pandora's Box. The other Wall Street partnerships followed like lemmings. The risk of failure was shifted from the partners to the shareholders and the citizens of the United States. Lewis details this fateful decision:
From that moment, though, the Wall Street firm became a black box. The shareholders who financed the risks had no real understanding of what the risk takers were doing, and as the risk-taking grew ever more complex, their understanding diminished. The moment Salomon Brothers demonstrated the potential gains to be had by the investment bank as public corporation, the psychological foundations of Wall Street shifted from trust to blind faith.
No investment bank owned by its employees would have levered itself 35 to 1 or bought and held $50 billion in mezzanine C.D.O.'s. I doubt any partnership would have sought to game the rating agencies or leap into bed with loan sharks or even allow mezzanine C.D.O.'s to be sold to its customers. The hoped-for short-term gain would not have justified the long-term hit.
This decision unhinged the concept of risk from the concept of return. Compensation was no longer tied to long term profits and success. Clients were no longer the customer. They were just fee-generating suckers. Wall Street kept all the profits, took ungodly risks, lost trillions and got bailed out by Main Street. The poker game continues, as these criminals are again paying themselves billions in bonuses at the expense of Main Street. Michael Lewis completes the 20 year circle of greed with his brilliant book:
"The people in a position to resolve the financial crisis were, of course, the very same people who had failed to foresee it. All shared a distinction: they had proven far less capable of grasping basic truths in the heart of the U.S. financial system than a one-eyed money manager with Asperger's syndrome. … The world's most powerful and most highly paid financiers had been entirely discredited; without government intervention every single one of them would have lost his job; and yet these same financiers were using the government to enrich themselves."
STEVE EISMAN – Manager of FrontPoint Financial Services hedge fund, which was owned by Morgan Stanley. During the financial crisis he wished he could have shorted Morgan Stanley. "Even on Wall Street people think he's rude and obnoxious and aggressive," says Eisman's wife. "He has no interest in manners. He's not tactically rude. He's sincerely rude. He knows everyone thinks of him as a character but he doesn't think of himself that way. Steven lives inside his head."
The Big Short: How Wall Street The upper classes in this country raped this country. You fucked people. You built a castle to rip people off. Not once in all these years have I come across a person inside a big Wall Street firm who was having a crisis of conscience. Nobody ever said 'This is wrong'." Eisman understood Wall Street thoroughly: "What I learned from that experience was that Wall Street didn't give a shit what it sold."
MICHAEL BURRY – One eyed doctor turned investment manager who discovered he had Asperger's Syndrome during his quest to be proven right about subprime mortgages being worthless. He figured it out in 2003 by himself. Burry had been "the first investor to diagnose the disorder in the American financial system." Complicated financial stuff was being dreamed up for the sole purpose of lending money to people who could never repay it.
STEVE LIPPMAN – Took Michael Burry's idea about shorting subprime mortgages and sold it across Wall Street in order to hedge Deutsche Bank's own subprime portfolio. "I love Greg," said one of his bosses at Deutsche Bank. "I have nothing bad to say about him except that he's a fucking whack job." A trader who worked near him for years referred to him as "the asshole known as Greg Lippman."
HOWIE HUBLER – Single handedly lost $9 billion for Morgan Stanley with one trade. He was the ultimate Big Swinging Dick as the head of mortgage bond trading who made $25 million the year he lost the $9 billion. CEO John Mack had no clue what his bond traders were doing. Hubler went on vacation and never came back.
John Gutfreund Michael Lewis


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Your vision – ought to you pick to accept it – would be to infiltrate the POW (Prisoner of Walrus) camp by which Teddy is incarcerated. using the aid of rock gods Ping and Pong, you'll locate Teddy, incite a riot, beat the guards at Battlefish, and enact a prison break like no other.Rewards consist of a boatload of Fishing, Crafting, building and Thieving XP, but that's just the suggestion with the iceberg. There's also a manufacturer new thieving-based occasion in Balthazar Beauregard's huge best Bonanza; the chance to customise your clockwork penguin suit; along with a shock for sharp-eyed spies between you to Buy Runescape Gold.
There's gonna be considered a jailbreak in Runescape Some Like It Cold: the most recent during the sequence of quests starring RuneScape's megalomaniacal penguins. anticipate espionage, improbable disguises, circus-loving seal guards, and beneficial aged rock in roll of RS Gold.
While subsequent a direct concerning the whereabouts of the lost comrade in to Runescape Gold, Teddy the polar bear spy has long been captured by long-standing enemies, the seals. Diplomatic relations among the two factions are previously frosty, and tempers are beginning to heat up on this chilly war.

subset: commoncrawl


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May Wish List by redlipsredhair featuring cross jewelry
First up, the Kenwood Smoothie 2 Go machine. I am DYING for one of these suckers! It would allow me to make my own smoothies that would be dairy free and more filling than the junk you get at Zumo and Jump!
Next is a single arrow pendant. Archer, need I say more? I am in love with arrows, hell, I have an arrow tattoo!!
Over from that, is a deep fuchsia high low wrap skirt. I think these are gorgeous for summer, because they cover you but allow you to show some leg too! The color is bright but can be transitioned into Autumn too...
Next over we have the Vichy Dermablend foundation. This has been on my "to try" list for a while now but I still haven't took the plunge. Any help you guys can offer visa vis shades/oxidization or the like would be so appreciated!
Above that we have another arrow necklace. I have a problem with things like this! Moving swiftly along!
Just left of that, the Wierdo crop top. I have no problem advertising my freakiness, so this is right up my alley!! It would be perfect with the high-low skirt and some ditsy-print wedges.
In the middle we have a beautiful turquoise neck piece, three stones set in a silver lunula-style plating...
And finally we have two cropped jumpers. I love both of these and couldn't choose. Both of these would work over some skinny jeans or a maxi-skirt and could be dressed up or down depending on your choice of shoe.
Those are my lust-have items for the month, I hope you enjoyed my picks.
Let me know what yours are down below.


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"Your extremely rich friend Oliver Carswell. Dad's a venture capitalist. Oliver was arrested several times for drug possession, once for dealing. Sounds quality."
Survival Guide
"To my father's black card; to my black card!"
Oliver Carswell a.k.a. The Stoner is a good friend of Jason Brody, and a rich and avid drug enthusiast.
Oliver was born in the USA, in 1989. He is best friends with Jason Brody, Grant Brody, Riley Brody, Daisy Lee, Keith Ramsay, Liza Snow and Vincent Salas. He comes from a wealthy family, but feels more close with his friends, due to his parents always travelling around the world. Oliver and his friends can be seen partying at a nightclub in Bangkok, only for it to be cut short, because of a fight with some men. The group is introduced by Jason to a DJ named Doug, who tells them about skydiving over some islands. It is implied that Oliver paid for the skydiving, which landed him and his friends on the Rook Islands. Oliver was kidnapped by pirate lord Vaas Montenegro along with the rest of his friends visiting the islands.
Vaas planned on ransoming him as well as the rest of his friends and then sell them into slavery to make more money. During the process of Oliver being handed over to the buyer by the pirates, Jason intervened by sniping the Pirates and enabling Oliver to escape via gunboat and pick up Jason.
Later on, he was taken to the cave where Daisy and Liza were kept hidden from the pirates, where he spent considerable time getting high. Later, Oliver and the rest greet Jason about the boat and how they can leave the island, but Jason instead tells them he's not going and that they leave him. Here, you can have an optional conversation with Oliver.
Jason and Riley return to the North Island by helicopter and find Dr. Earnhardt's mansion set ablaze. Jason unsuccessfully finds his friends, but manages to find Dr. Earnhardt, who tells Jason that his friends were kidnapped and taken to Citra's temple by the Rakyat, before dying from his wounds.
Once you go to the temple, you have the option to either join Citra or save your friends. If you choose to join Citra, then Oliver, Liza, Daisy, Riley and Keith will be killed. But if you choose to save your friends, Jason will untie Liza, who unties Oliver, and Daisy, who will untie Riley and Keith. Dennis Rogers will accidentally stab Citra and then Jason, Liza, Daisy, Oliver, Riley and Keith leave the Rook Islands by boat.
Mission appearances
- Make a Break for It
- Island Port Hotel
- The Social Club
- Meet Citra
- Saving Oliver
- Unhappy Reunion
- Citra's Favor
- Hard Choices
- Oliver is played by Kristian Hodko.
- He wears a small fitted cap.
- He has been arrested for possession and dealing of drugs.
- His father is a successful venture capitalist.
- After Jason tells his friends that he is going to stay on the island and therefore not return to home, an optional dialogue between Oliver and Jason becomes available. In the interaction, Oliver informs Jason that he is also going to remain on the island; specifically, Oliver is going to stay with Dr. Earnhardt. But, Jason tells him that he must go back home to tell his (Jason's) mother. Oliver agrees to tell Jason's mother. It is assumed that Oliver is expected to tell Jason's mother about Grant's and Riley's death (it should be noted that at this point, Riley's death is alleged), and Jason staying on the island.
- When you enter the cave after you just saved Oliver, you may go to him and have an optional conversation. When the conversation ends he says he is going to get buzzed. If you walk up to him he will smoke a cigarette and throw it on the ground. After that he will either say three things. He will also tell you about the pills that lead to flashbacks.
- It seems that Oliver is mostly friendly and close with Jason, as Jason seems to be the only one, who calls him Oli/Ollie and mostly communicates with him.
- If Jason takes his time killing the pirates after his first shot, Oliver will kill some pirates with the AK-47 he grabs in the mission Saving Oliver. Making him one of the only killers in the group after Grant, Jason and optionally Liza.


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Teaching myself the Element. In patching a multi parameter fixture. in my case a K9 Pup: I am successful in patching the address to a channel (for example 11 to 11) I select the fixture from type, and then the console assigns the next 5 channels to the the address. Channels 11 through 16 are assigned to the instrument. According to the K9 manual, I should control intensity with channel 11, I do. That works, but I should be able to control red from channel 12, green from channel 13, etc. But when I highlight these tombstones and bring them up, nothing changes. They are also grayed out.
I'm sure there is something somewhere, but the brutal clarity of the ETC manual is preventing me from finding the answer.
the confusion is this: a channel (in Eos/ETC lingo) is the number of a fixture. what you're thinking of is Address.
so you patch channel 11 to the K9 Pup and enter the start address. this means the…
so you patch channel 11 to the K9 Pup and enter the start address. this means the 5 DMX addresses react now to the different properties of channel 11. the advantage of this is, you don't need to know which address does what within the fixture. you don't need to remember if Intensity is first and then RGB, or is it GBR?. the console will do the work for you. you control Chan 11 Red and the console know what to do.
Thank you. I was over thinking it.
Further to what Ueli said, to now control the Pup's colour, strobe, etc. have a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ezewStLlsw&list=PLl-Ao0hIFwH-iMmB9z9XUV0J5Xr4pa8ke&index=22


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Arctic Safe From Oil Drilling For Now
Dan Ritzman knows this week's announcement from Shell that the company wouldn't drill in the Arctic's Beaufort and Chukchi Seas this year is a reason to be happy, but he also knows it's not a complete victory.
"I'm not just opposed to drilling because it can't be done safely -- it just shouldn't be done at all," said Dan, a senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club and Arctic wilderness guide. "To me, the Arctic is just too special."Known as the Polar Bear Seas, the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas are home to the entire US population of polar bears and serve as an important migration route for bowhead and beluga whales.
"I'm very lucky to have experienced the place first hand," said Dan. "I feel a special connection to the incredible wildlife that lives there and tremendous respect for the people and their culture that call the Arctic home and the Arctic Ocean their garden."
The area is also home to some of the most extreme and dangerous conditions on the planet, making drilling a risky proposition.
Dan knows, as do Alaska Natives and many Americans, that drilling for oil in the Arctic will never be safe. The technology doesn't exist to drill safely no matter how many different ways Big Oil tries to argue to the contrary.
"More than 10 years ago I was an invited along by industry to witness an Arctic oil spill clean-up drill -- they failed miserably then and it is clear that they are no better off today," Dan said. Shell's Arctic clean-up vessel had yet to be approved by the Coast Guard.
Mother Nature also demonstrated its power to Shell -- first when the drilling was delayed by lingering sea ice and later when initial drilling had to stop within hours because of a massive iceberg floating nearby.
"We were reminded that Mother Nature bats last in the North," said Dan.
Dan and I agree that Shell's decision gives us momentum going into the new year. We will have more time to rally our forces and build our campaign up even further -- as if 1 million comments to the Obama Administration isn't enough -- to prevent Big Oil from drilling in the Arctic.
We don't need to open this irreplaceable area to drilling. Instead we should focus on making our cars cleaner and more efficient and expanding our transportation choices in order to move beyond oil. Let's invest in clean energy innovation instead of remaining addicted to oil and ruining our planet's most amazing places.
"Americans want to see the Polar Bear Seas protected for future generations," Dan said.
Stay up to date on the campaign against drilling in the Arctic by liking "Chill the Drills" on Facebook and following Dan Ritzman on Twitter.


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Newsletter Archive
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The main perk of Club MacStories is MacStories Weekly, an ad-free newsletter delivered every Friday featuring the following regular sections:
- MacStories Favorite: A great app that deserves to be on everyone's iOS device or Mac.
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If you have duplicate contacts across different sources then you'll need to enable 'Merge across sources' under Settings-->Advanced Settings and then re-analyze. Also, select appropriate options under Settings-->Analysis Level and re-try.
Note: Merge across sources will merge duplicate contacts into 1 and will remove the duplicate from either of the sources.
If you have contacts with only name as common, the app won't recognize such contacts as duplicates. It works on a combination of Name+Email or Name+Phone.


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Man of the Month: Silas Clay
Although we love Richard and he is truly the man of the year, every year, he was not in our poll. Did we fool you? Ok, now it's time to announce who you voted as your man of the month. Silas Clay! Silas has had quite the month on General Hospital. Between being investigated in his late wife's murder and romancing Sam Morgan he has had little time for anything else. We adore Dr. Clay and can't wait to see more. Enjoy the video and be sure to read our interview with Michael Easton below!
We caught up with Michael Easton and had some questions about his steamy romance with Kelly Monaco (Sam).
You and Sam are a fan favorite couple, earning the name "Siam." Why do you think people love you two together so much?
I attribute it all to the lovely Kelly Monaco.
What is your favorite part about playing Dr. Silas Clay?
See the last four words above...
How do you prepare for such steamy love scenes?
I brush my teeth twice.
Any words for your fans?
Thank you for being there.


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Room Booking
Named after the famous Serengeti Kopjes(rocks), Mawe Luxury Tented Camp is located at the heart of Serengeti central part in the Seronera area, carefully positioned for close proximity to the wildlife herds and great migration. Stay in this luxury tented lodge and enjoy game drives directly on your doorstep every day!
Best way to get to Serengeti
How to get here
Daily morning and afternon scheduled flights from the cities of Arusha, Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar takes about 1hr from Arusha and 2hrs from Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. The closest airstrip is Seronera (SEU) which is about 35minutes from the camp
The camp is also accessed via a wonderful scenic journey from Arusha through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area passing around the rim of the crater. The journey takes approximately 6-7hrs.
Its not CampingITS GLAMPING
Rooms and Suites
12 Tented rooms including 2 family suites all with great views of the plains, and the river which passes right infront of the camp.
All rooms are equipped with mosquito nets, private en suite bathroom, hot and cold showers and can be configured as single, double, triple or twins
Our honeymoon suites are located at each end of the camp
Game Drives
The area is well known for big cats sighting and big game animals around. With a waterhole just infront of the camp game viewing is endless all year around. During your stays most of times you will be able to see some of our resident animals passing very close to the camp including Serengeti's famous cats; lions, leopards and cheetahs, elephants, buffaloes, zebras, antelopes and hundreds of species of birds. Great Migration is accessible from November to mid July.
Year round, warm and lots of sunshine! For much of the year temperatures remains between 70-80°F (21-27°C). Dry season months are June to October as are January and February. The short rains are in November and December and the height of the rainy season is April and May. Nights and early mornings get colder in the months of June, July and August.


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Blake Shelton was just crowned PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive 2017, and in his eyes, girlfriend of two years Gwen Stefani is deserving of her own sexiest woman title. And even though the glamorous singer's known for her signature winged cat eye and bold red lipstick, in Shelton's eyes, Stefani looks the most beautiful completely barefaced.
"My favorite thing to see on her — and I don't mean this to sound cheesy — is no makeup on whatsoever," the country crooner told PeopleStyle. "She's literally ageless. It's unbelievable."
Although he won't deny that Stefani can rock a red lip like no other (he calls out her "Revlon red" lips in his song "Turnin' Me On" on his newest album), he wishes the rest of the world could see the woman he spends time with behind closed doors.
"When she gets fixed up, she's beautiful. There is no question about it. Her red lips are her signature and so that's why it got written into the song," Shelton said, but "the Gwen that nobody gets to see is the one that you all should see."
He continued, saying that the 48-year-old mom of mom of three "looks like she is 25 years old. I don't know what kind of genetics God gave her, but it's literally unbelievable!"
Looking for more style content? Click here to subscribe to the PeopleStyle Newsletter for amazing shopping discounts, can't-live-without beauty products and more.
Watch PEOPLE Cover Story: Sexiest Man Alive — Blake Shelton, available now, on PeopleTV. Go to PeopleTV.com, or download the PeopleTV app on your favorite mobile or connected TV device.
Stefani can't stop raving about her man either, especially upon hearing his Sexiest Man Alive title announcement. "I guess I've been kissing the #sexiestmanalive all this time but @people I knew that already!" she tweeted Wednesday morning.
"He's perfect for it," the star told PEOPLE exclusively. "Somebody that is funny and has a sense of humor is sexy — that's the No. 1 thing."
For more of Shelton's revealing interview—including his life with Stefani—pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday.
Shelton admits that their very different style has rubbed off on each other a bit, but he's not letting anyone — even his stylish girlfriend — near his hair.
"I don't wanna mess with my hair. I hate fixing my hair because it's turning gray and kind of has a mind of its own," Shelton admitted. "When my hair used to be brown it would do what I said, but when it goes gray it turns into a Brillo pad — so I put a baseball cap on. The Brillo pad drives women crazy!"
Do you think it's sweet Blake loves Gwen without makeup? Tell us below.


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Escape the rat race at Old Farm, Snowdonia
Hmmm, you've reached an older feature - let's get you up to date! Read our latest Days out features here.
Bore da!
I had a fantastic weekend away in North Wales a few weeks ago with Sheepskin Life, a Wheatley-based company with a crack list of lodges and houses, mostly in Wales but others dotted around the Cotswolds, the Peak District, Exmoor and Scotland too. I've used Rural Retreats, English Country Cottages etc in the past but the service from Sheepskin Life is definitely superior (personalised suggested itineraries through the post, posh welcome goodie packs) and their lodges/retreats are definitely on the cooler side.
I stayed at Old Farm (above), a remote farm house near Bala in Snowdonia, down multiple winding lanes (I'd recommend finding it in daylight if you value your sanity) through several five-bar gates and into a place of tranquility and fresh air where WIFI and mobile phones fear to tread. Given that Mr Muddy and I live life attached to telecommunications equipment, I loved not having to check my phone every ten minutes, and being able to properly relax.
The barn was typically Welsh – all that lovely local stone – but was obviously recently renovated and had lots of mod cons inside, underfloor heating, a big TV, a slick modern kitchen, oak floorboards. There were some quirks, like the bottled water (there's no water supply) and a slightly temperamental shower, but there's a massive verandah to the back that would be amazing in spring/summer, and there's a view that literally runs for miles. Below is the vista as we went up our driveway. Not bad is it?
We were kind of nowhere and yet in the middle of everything too – close enough to the coast to see the castles and bang in walking/tourist territory too. It was a stunning 45 minute drive from Old Farm to Porthmadog and the Ffestiniog Railway (the oldest working steam railway line in the world) where we caught the steam train up that took us for an hour through the gorgeous Snowdonian scenery. Tip: pay for the premium carriage at the front of the train directly behind the engine – your kids will have their noses glued to the windows.
Back at Porthmadog after our round trip, we realised we were only a few miles from Portmeirion, the quirky Italianate village created by Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 – 1976 and immortalised in The Prisoner series in the Sixties. Mr Muddy and I had had a lovely posh weekend there in Castell Deudraeth before our social life was rudely interrupted by children, so we decided to revisit it for the afternoon.
It's undeniably beautiful and strange, and in a great position by the beach, but it's definitely an outdoor place and I wouldn't particularly recommend it in wet winter. There's nothing going on and it cost us £30 to enter – a bit steep for the time of year I thought. So it was back to Old Farm and a family meal making use of that Sheepskin goodie pack of olive oil, salt and pepper, tea bags, and posh nibbles.
New morning, new energy. Mr Muddy and my 10 year old went off to do go-carting at Glan Y Gors Park, a state-of-the-art British grand prix circuit about 20 minutes away. They had it to themselves – you can see them whizzing around on the left side.
Then it was off to Conwy Castle. Wales has some of the most magnificent castles in the UK, really dramatic whoppers, and World Heritage Site Conwy, built from 1283, is one of the loveliest, its high walls wrapped around the town in a protective hug. The children absolutely loved it and so did we and we spent hours here.
We had plans to eat at a restaurant but we ended up at the Conwy Castle cafe instead and it did the job just fine. Then it was back to Old Farm for one last night of peace and quiet from life's electronic chirruping. There was loads of stuff we didn't get around to doing on our weekend – exploring Bala lake and trying the watersports, visiting Carmarthen castle, checking out Angelsey, trying the walks around the farm, going up Snowdonia itself. But North Wales is positioning itself rightly as an outdoor family paradise and Old Farm is a great launch pad to enjoy it.
3 nights at Old Farm starts is £690, 7 nights £1475. By the way, book a 5 night+ stay at any Sheepskin cottage for Jan-March before 31 Jan 2013 and you'll get a 'Relax and Indulge' hamper for your stay. Nice work!
See Old Farm here, and Sheepskin Life's other properties here.


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Spider Santa Claus is a challenging game with a lot of levels to play. Swing your Spider Santa Claus by shooting spider web to avoid the obstacles. Keep as many as possible his body-parts and reach the destination to be fully restored. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! PLAY NOW!
Friday, February 28, 2020
Spider Santa Claus
About GamesBX
we are certified themeforest Developers, Google blogspot developer and UI designers. We are popular at JavaScript engineers. We are team of professinal programmers, developers work together and make unique blogger templates.
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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Gardening 2007
Other than a successful upside down tomato grow in 2007, we like to think we did well producing a little green haven in our corner of downtown Duncan. The following are a few pics showing the year.
This is the blackberry bush mid July.
During summer months, there is a festival downtown and the cars are blocked off from access to our "parking lot/garden" so we took advantage and expanded our deck to include a patio for a few days.... :)
Our "back 40" as we've taken to calling it mid September.
Our entry way to the house and the deck mid September.
TS looking a little overwhelmed under the leaves of late Autumn.
And another garden season (heh, we have 2 under our belt now) comes to an end.....
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This formulation contains 100% pure Chia Seed Oil that is sustainably-sourced, organic, virgin and cold-pressed. This immediately-soothing, calming and nourishing skin oil contains an exceptionally-high concentration of alpha-linolenic acid, an important essential fatty acid, and linoleic, oleic, stearic as well as palmitic acids, together with multiple vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. This oil also adds softness, sheen and strength to hair. Notes: Supplied in UV-protective packaging.
Hair Application—Work through damp, clean hair daily or as needed. Skin Application—Apply a few drops daily or as needed to entire face ideally after water-based treatments. If irritation occurs, cease use and consult a physician. Use only as directed on unbroken skin. Patch testing prior to use is advised. Refer to our in-depth guide to patch testing. Keep out of reach of children.
Salvia Hispanica Seed Oil.


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Report Highlights
At the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) and Portland Public Schools (PPS), monitoring of spending and evaluation of performance is limited and inconsistent, even as student performance continues to lag. This lack of sustained focus limits achievement gains and affects students at high-poverty schools the most. Oregon's K-12 education funding has fallen into the lower half among states and retirement costs are rising quickly, increasing the importance of ensuring effective education spending.
Since the 1990s, K-12 education funding has shifted substantially to the state, which spends about $4.3 billion a year in addition to local property taxes collected for education. Despite some recent improvement, the state as a whole and PPS specifically still face low graduation rates and large achievement gaps, underscoring the need to improve returns on this investment. However, improving K-12 education requires navigating multiple layers of government, from local to state to federal. PPS's new leadership has taken important steps toward developing a uniform core curriculum, improving training, and adding student support, but still has substantial work to do. The state is also transitioning to the latest in a series of accountability systems. These challenges increase the risk that a sharp, unified focus on improving student achievement will be further delayed.
The purpose of this audit was to examine spending at ODE and PPS, the state's largest school district, including transparency, controls, and priorities, and determine additional steps these agencies could take to improve returns on the state's education investments and increase achievement. As a component of the audit, we honored a request from the Oregon Legislature to audit ODE grant management.
Key Findings
- ODE does relatively little to support and monitor efficient district spending. The Legislature has not required detailed reviews of school district efficiency outside of narrowly focused initiatives.
- PPS has more money to spend per student than many of its state and national peer districts, but the district is spending proportionately less on instruction and more on support services than many of its peers. Potential savings areas we identified include executive administration, substitute teacher use, health benefits, bus service, and legal costs.
- PPS needs to develop a more transparent budget, publicly report on the results of its investments in student achievement, and detail how its revenues and spending compare to peer districts. The district also needs to better control increasing employee use of purchasing cards.
- ODE and PPS are not adequately evaluating whether grants, contracts, and other dollars, often intended for Oregon's most vulnerable students, are improving student performance. At PPS, contract issues include poor oversight of alternative education contracts and limited scrutiny of non-competitive contracts. ODE has not adequately evaluated its school improvement efforts under the federal Title I program, focused on some of the most vulnerable children in the state. The lack of sustained focus at PPS and statewide has the most detrimental effect on schools serving high numbers of African-American, Latino, and economically disadvantaged students.
- At PPS, inequities affecting these students include relatively high rates of teacher turnover and absences at high-poverty schools, a disconnect between teachers and administrators on managing student conduct, and a teacher hiring and transfer system that contributes to high-poverty schools having less experienced teachers. The district has also not prioritized principal or teacher stability at high-poverty schools, adequately supported principals, or developed a consistent and effective performance evaluation system.
- In comparison to students in peer districts, PPS does relatively poorly with African-American, Latino, and economically disadvantaged students. Conversely, the district does relatively well compared to peers with white students and students who are not economically disadvantaged.
- ODE's limited enforcement of district standards, a new K-12 accountability system at risk of delays, a reliance on short-lived improvement initiatives, and a disjointed system of education funding all increase the risk that the state's student performance will continue to lag. ODE enforcement of standards designed to improve student achievement is limited, and education leaders and the Legislature have not resolved how best to improve districts without infringing on local control.
We made 26 recommendations to help improve return on education investments at ODE and PPS.
Among the key recommendations for ODE:
- Coordinate with the Governor's Office, the State Board of Education, the Legislature, and districts to develop a plan to align education investments for the long-term.
- Work with the State Board and stakeholders to evaluate Division 22 district standards for clarity and enforceability and ensure that ODE has adequate resources to review compliance and enforce standards when districts fall short.
- For key grants, incorporate best-practice performance management, including setting quantitative and qualitative performance expectations in contracts, establishing baseline measurements, and providing timely and constructive feedback to grantees.
Among the key recommendations for PPS:
- Investigate and report on potential savings areas in depth, including the level of executive administration, use of substitute teachers and educational assistants due to educator absences, health benefits, bus services, legal services, and building utilization.
- While working to improve instructional quality, address other obstacles that create inequities at high-poverty schools. Strategies include changes to attendance rules, boundary changes, and practices that could encourage retention of high-quality principals and teachers at high-poverty schools, such as additional pay, enhanced training, and additional classroom support.
We also made a recommendation to the PPS school board. In general, the board should ensure that district administrators prioritize key steps to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of district operations. These steps include developing a strategic plan that focuses on long-term investment and measurement of results, and addressing inequities at high-poverty schools.
ODE and PPS agreed with all of our recommendations, with agency leaders detailing steps the agencies have already taken and providing timelines for completion. The auditees' responses are at the end of the report.


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Tonight I'm looking for a particular YA novel. I know the first four words in the title, "The Dark Side of". So I do what any avid reader does in a town with an impressive public library just a bike ride away…I google the book. Here's what I find…
The Dark Side of The Moon
The Dark Side of Disney
The Dark Side of Love
The Dark Side of Men
The Dark Side of Women
The Dark Side of Family
The Dark Side of Religion
The Dark Side of Hope
I close the laptop and stuff a spoonful of sorbet into my mouth. Then, I ask my poodle, "Does everything have a dark side?" She doesn't know. I google "the dark side of poodles" and the screen fills with stories of designer dogs gone bad. I move away from the laptop. And the poodle.
It's Halloween night and my TV won't let me forget it. Screams and the guttural roar of chainsaws vibrate my collection of Pixar figurines. What is it with human beings and our fascination with forbidden impulses and fantastical nightmares? It seems to set us apart from other animals. I have yet to hear of a lion pride assembling to watch videos of demon-possessed gazelles impaling scantily furred lionesses whilst camping beside a lake.
I admit I've always been fascinated with what can go wrong in our fragile existences. I love sensational stories as much as every other human being, but not the weepers or the screamers. I love books and movies that make me laugh, because "pants-peeing giggling" is the only thing strong enough to counter my fears. I'm afraid of everything. I'm afraid I'll fail. Or succeed. Or remain average. Or be alone. Or be in a crowd. Or say the wrong thing. Or do the wrong thing. Or forget to flush.
I know, right?
As an only child with two full-time working parents, I often had to find solutions to my own problems. I was a late, late, late bloomer, who had the agility of a newborn walrus, and the patience of a labrador retriever. I discovered the power of my humor on the first day of fifth grade.
Insert Wayne's World "doodlee-doo" dissolve. Look it up, if you don't know it. It's hilarious.
After a glorious summer of shenanigans and chocolate shakes, I open a back-to-school gift from my grandparents. It's a puffy winter jacket, the color of a rusted screw. Years later, it will be the height of fashion, but as I am walking the gauntlet on this fall day, it is a big, puffy, rusty screw of a target…on my back.
The day sucks as expected: spilled lunch, missing classrooms, friendly betrayals, alphabetical seating assignments that assure I sat next to Sam "Puncher" Pullman. I assume you get why that last one was such a bummer.
When the last bell rings, I yank on my coat and run for the front door. The sidewalk is just steps away…
"Did you forget to inflate your parachute?", a rough male voice yells at the back of my head. It cracks at the end, turning parachute into two distinct words.
I turn around and look up, up, up into the sneering face of Big Bobby. He is a sixth grader and whatever his parents are feeding him is working. He pokes at my jacket a few times and smiles a sharky smile. The crowd gathers close, scenting my imminent humiliation. I can almost see two doors on either side of Bobby's head. One would lead me to a moment of shame that will hopefully be forgotten as soon as he finds another victim. The other door would require me standing up for myself and maybe, just maybe, ending up somewhere new.
I stand up straight and bellow, "That's it? That's all you've got? I heard that joke from a third grader before lunch. How about…my mom's maxi pads look comfier than that coat. Or…did you get that jacket from my toilet, 'cause I think I pooped it out this morning!"
The crowd is noticeably impressed with what is my first and last stand-up set. Big Bobby pats me on the shoulder and smiles. "Alright, kid. Nice." As I escape to the curb, kids smile, wave and yell "see ya' tomorrow, Kel!" I am finally somewhere new.
I'll always be grateful to Big Bobby because he forced me to make a choice, and as a result, I found a way to deal with life's dark side. Whether you laugh, or cry, or scream, or pee your pants, connecting through emotion is what makes us human.
That, and Googling videos of cats dressed as Princess Leia.
So, get out there and face your fears. Then, use your words and let the rest of us know it's okay to do the same.


text:
BRUSSELS, Sept 9 (Reuters) - European Union antitrust regulators approved on Tuesday Mexican cement producer Cemex's proposed takeover of Swiss rival Holcim's Spanish units, saying the deal would not reduce competition in Spain.
The European Commission opened an investigation in April, worried the acquisition could curb competition and also facilitate illegal collusion between grey cement producers in Spain.
The probe showed that this would not be the case, absolving the companies from requiring to make concessions.
"The Commission concluded that the acquisition would not raise competition concerns since the merged entity will continue to face sufficient competition from its rivals in all markets concerned," the EU competition watchdog said in a statement.
Reuters reported on Aug. 4 that the deal, part of an exchange of assets between Cemex and Holcim, would be cleared unconditionally. [ID:nL6N0QA44R}
Holcim and French peer Lafarge are now in informal talks with the Commission on their planned merger to create the world's largest cement producer. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Robin Emmott)


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Safety Study of Low Dose Interleukin 2 (IL-2) Plus PEG-IFN/RBV In Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Genotype I
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00277758
Recruitment Status : Terminated (Insufficient rate of volunteer accrual.)
First Posted : January 16, 2006
Last Update Posted : March 7, 2008
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- No Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
|Condition or disease
|Hepatitis C
|Biological: Interleukin 2 Drug: Ribavirin Biological: Pegylated Interferon Alpha Biological: Inteleukin-2 Drug: Ribavirin + Pegylated interferon-alpha
|Phase 1
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|18 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Single Group Assignment
|None (Open Label)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|A Phase I Study of Low Dose Interleukin 2 (IL-2)Monotherapy, Followed by IL-2 Plus PEG-IFN/RBV In Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Genotype I Infection
|Study Start Date :
|March 2004
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|July 2006
|Actual Study Completion Date :
|August 2006
Experimental: 1
Interventions: 12 weeks of interleukin-2 administration, followed by 48 weeks of interleukin-2 + Ribavirin + interferon-alpha therapy, followed by 24 weeks off therapy
Biological: Interleukin 2
Interleukin-2 at 1.2 mU/M2 administered subcutaneously daily
Other Name: Proleukin
Drug: Ribavirin
Ribavirin @ 800 mg daily (< 65 kg body weight), 1000 mg (65-85 kg), and 1200 mg (> 85 kg)
Other Name: Rebetrol
Biological: Pegylated Interferon Alpha
Pegylated-Interferon-alpha 1.5 ug/kg weekly subcutaneously.
Other Name: PEG-Intron
Biological: Inteleukin-2
Interleukin-2 administered as a daily subcutaneous injection at 1.2 mU/M2 BSA
Other Names:
Active Comparator: 2
48 weeks of therapy with Ribavirin + interferon-alpha, followed by 24 weeks off therapy
Drug: Ribavirin
Ribavirin @ 800 mg daily (< 65 kg body weight), 1000 mg (65-85 kg), and 1200 mg (> 85 kg)
Other Name: Rebetrol
Biological: Pegylated Interferon Alpha
Pegylated-Interferon-alpha 1.5 ug/kg weekly subcutaneously.
Other Name: PEG-Intron
Drug: Ribavirin + Pegylated interferon-alpha
Pegylated interferon-alpha administered 1.5 ug/kg weekly. Ribivirin 800 mg daily for body weight <65 kg, 1000 mg for body weight 65-85 kg, and 1200 mg for body weight >85 kg.
Other Names:
- Determination of the safety and tolerability of 12 weeks IL2 monotherapy followed by 48 weeks of IL2 combined with PEG-IFN/RBV [ Time Frame: 60 weeks of therapy followed by 24 weeks off therapy ]
- Determination of specific immunologic responses to HCV. Immunologic assessment will be performed as the sme time intervals as the assays for plasma virus. [ Time Frame: 60 weeks of therapy followed by 24 weeks off therapy ]
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 65 Years (Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Men and women, age >18 years to < 65 years.
- Ability and willingness to sign an informed consent.
- Hepatitis C antibody positive status confirmed by the NYPH laboratory.
- Genotype 1 HCV confirmed by the NYPH laboratory using the DupliType assay as performed by Quest Diagnostics.
- Liver biopsy demonstrating chronic hepatitis but without cirrhosis within 2 years of enrollment.
- Prothrombin time < 3 seconds longer than control.
- Platelet count ≥75,000 mm3
- Neutrophil count ≥ 1000/mm3
- Hemoglobin ≥12 g/dL for women and ≥13 g/dL for men
- Subject must agree not to participate in a conception process (defined as active attempt to become pregnant or to impregnate, donate sperm, in vitro fertilization etc.) while on study drugs and for 6 months following permanent discontinuation of study therapy.
Women of reproductive potential (defined for this study as sexually mature women who have not been post-menopausal for at least 24 consecutive months, or have not undergone hysterectomy or oophorectomy) must have a negative serum or urine pregnancy test with a sensitivity of at least 50 MIU/mL performed within 30 days prior to enrollment and again within 24 hours before initiating study therapy.
All subjects must not participate in a conception process, and if participating in sexual activity that could lead to pregnancy, male subjects must take every precaution to avoid risk of pregnancy for their female partners, women subjects/male partners must use two reliable methods of contraception simultaneously, while receiving study therapy and for 6 months following permanent discontinuation of study therapy.
NOTE A: Reliable forms of contraception are a combination of two of the following methods: 1) condoms (male or female) with or without a spermicidal agent. 2) diaphragm or cervical cap with spermicide, 3) IUD, or 4) hormonal-based contraception.
NOTE B: An IUD is an adequate method of contraception but increases the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Previous IFN-alpha, RBV or IL2 therapy
- Any active viral hepatitis other than hepatitis C virus infection, as defined by the presence of IgM antibody to Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) within 30 days of enrollment, or Hepatitis B Virus Surface Antigen (HBsAg) positivity, or positive plasma HBV DNA by PCR methodology when HB core antibody is the only serologic marker of HBV infection within 30 days of entry.
- ALT and AST > 5x ULN, total bilirubin > 1.5 x ULN
- Signs/symptoms of advanced liver disease.
- Uncontrolled infection, except hepatitis C
- HIV infection as determined by HIV ELISA & Western blot assay, and confirmed by plasma HIV assay (PCR or bDNA)
- Cardiac condition that cannot be controlled by medication: Because of the risk of anemia associated with RBV use and the potential to induce cardiac ischemia, subjects with a positive cardiac stress test are ineligible. Therefore, subjects > 40 years of age with ≥ 1 risk factor for ASHD (i.e., hyperlipidemia, hypertension, smoking history, family history) should have an EKG preformed. If the EKG is abnormal and consistent with ischemic heart disease, the subject should have a cardiac stress test to R/O ASHD.
- CNS or psychiatric illness uncontrolled by medication. In particular, psychiatric illness, especially depression. Subjects with a psychiatric illness, a previous suicide attempt or hospitalization for a psychiatric Dx Will be enrolled at the discretion of the investigator.
- Concurrent therapy with any immune-modulating agents, e.g,. interleukins, interferons, therapeutic vaccines, corticosteroids, immunosuppressive agents (azathioprine, 6-mercaptopurine, Cyclosporine-A, FK506, Rapamycin, antilymphocyte antibodies).
- Pregnant or nursing women (all women of child bearing age should be using effective contraception)
- History of malignancy with receipt of cancer therapy within 24 weeks.
- Any severe illness that would make the subject unsuitable for the study.
- Active asthma, or asthma uncontrolled by medication.
- Any immunologically mediated disease, including Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosis, ITP, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, eczema, psoriasis.
- Untreated thyroid disease.
- Heroin or cocaine use within 9 months of enrollment.
- Inadequate venous access.
NOTE: If screening TSH is abnormal, obtain free thyroxin index. If the free thyroxine index is normal, the subject may enter the study. If the free thyroxin index is low, the subject may be treated with thyroid hormone replacement medication and enter the study once the free thyroxin index is corrected. If the free thyroxin index is elevated indicating hyperthyroidism, the subject should not enroll in the study.
Patients with preexistent antibodies against thyroid peroxidase or thyroglobulin should not be enrolled.
- Allergy to any of the medications to be used in the study (i.e., IL2, PEG-IFN/RBV), or other components of the study products. Peg Intron: benzyl alcohol, NaCl, Na-phosphate, EDTA, polysorbate 80, m-cresol, IL2; phosphate buffer, SDS, mannitol. RBV: cellulose, lactose, croscarmellose, magnesium stearate, Blue pharmaceutical ink: shellac, anhydrous ethyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol, propylene glycol, ammonium hydroxide, Blue # 2 aluminum lake.
- Alcohol dependency, for example, current alcohol use of more than 1 drink/day any time during the previous 6 months. One drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1-¼ ounces of hard liquor.
- Severe retinopathy due to diabetes, hypertension, CMV, or macular degeneration
- Acute therapy for a serious infection or other serious medical illness that is potentially life threatening and requires systemic therapy and/or hospitalization within 14 days of study entry.
- Serum creatinine > 2.0 mg/dL or creatinine clearance < 50 mL/min as estimated by the Cockcroft-Gault equation. This screening value must be obtained within 30 days of enrollment.
- History of major organ transplantation with an existing graft.
- Subject judged by the investigator to be at significant risk of failing to comply with the provisions of the protocol as to cause harm to self or seriously interfere with the validity of the study results.
- Subjects with biopsy proven liver disease other than HCV infection.
- Subjects with hemoglobinopathies or any other causes or tendencies toward hemolysis.
- Subjects with chronic pulmonary disease with functional limitations.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00277758
|United States, New York
|Weill Medical College of Cornell University
|New York, New York, United States, 10021
|Principal Investigator:
|Kendall A Smith, MD
|Weill Medical College of Cornell University
|Responsible Party:
|Kendall A. Smith, Professor of Medicine, weill Medical College of Cornell University
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|Other Study ID Numbers:
U01AI048224 ( U.S. NIH Grant/Contract )
|First Posted:
|January 16, 2006 Key Record Dates
|Last Update Posted:
|March 7, 2008
|Last Verified:
|March 2008
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C, Chronic
Liver Diseases
Digestive System Diseases
Hepatitis, Viral, Human
Virus Diseases
Enterovirus Infections
Picornaviridae Infections
RNA Virus Infections
Flaviviridae Infections
Hepatitis, Chronic
Peginterferon alfa-2b
Antineoplastic Agents
Antiviral Agents
Anti-Infective Agents
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
Immunologic Factors
Physiological Effects of Drugs
Analgesics, Non-Narcotic
Sensory System Agents
Peripheral Nervous System Agents


text:
Chelsey Huff
CCJ Online Enrollment Advisor
Criminology & Criminal Justice
571C Urban Center Building
(503) 725-9296
Chelsey Huff is the enrollment advisor for students interested in enrolling to the Criminology & Criminal Justice fully online program.
She has extensive experience working with students through the admission's process and transitioning to student life. Chelsey is here to help prospective online students understand the enrollment process, and provide information and guidance about our various CCJ Online programs that best fits the prospective student's future career goals. In addition, she is able to assist with explaining the transfer credit policies, payment options, and the requirements needed to be admitted to the Criminology & Criminal Justice fully online program. She is here to support prospective students and new students every step of the way through admission and the registration of their first courses.
Prospective students who are interested or have questions about enrolling in our Criminology and Criminal Justice fully online programs should connect with our Enrollment Advisor to find out their next steps in a supportive environment. Please feel free to contact Chelsey with any questions through email, phone or an appointment.


text:
cec2013 (0.1-5)
Benchmark functions for the Special Session and Competition on Real-Parameter Single Objective Optimization at CEC-2013.
This package provides R wrappers for the C implementation of 28 benchmark functions defined for the Special Session and Competition on Real-Parameter Single Objective Optimization at CEC-2013. The focus of this package is to provide an open-source and multi-platform implementation of the CEC2013 benchmark functions, in order to make easier for researchers to test the performance of new optimization algorithms in a reproducible way. The original C code (Windows only) was provided by Jane Jing Liang, while GNU/Linux comments were made by Janez Brest. This package was gently authorised for publication on CRAN by Ponnuthurai Nagaratnam Suganthan. The official documentation is available at http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/EPNSugan/index_files/CEC2013/CEC2013.htm. Bugs reports/comments/questions are very welcomed (in English, Spanish or Italian).
Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini
Author(s): Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini [aut, cre], Yasser Gonzalez-Fernandez [aut]
License: GPL (>= 3)
Uses: Does not use any package
Reverse suggests: copulaedas, ExpDE
Released over 5 years ago.
1 previous version
- cec2013_0.1-4. Released about 7 years ago.
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Related packages: DEoptim, LowRankQP, TSP, boot, bvls, clue, desirability, gafit, genalg, glpk, gsl, igraph, kernlab, linprog, lpSolve, minpack.lm, nls2, nnls, optmatch, powell … (20 best matches, based on common tags.)
Search for cec2013 on google, google scholar, r-help, r-devel.
Visit cec2013 on R Graphical Manual.


text:
Richard Bowles Appointed President of Nazdar Ink Technologies
Since 2005, Bowles has served as VP and General Manager of Nazdar Ink Technologies.
April 22, 2013
Nazdar appointed Richard Bowles as president of Nazdar Ink Technologies. In this role, Bowles will develop strategic sales, marketing, manufacturing, R&D, customer care, quality, and continuous improvement plans to enable Nazdar Ink Technologies to achieve objectives for growth and profitability.
"One of our top priorities is developing Nazdar's leadership team," stated Mike Fox, Nazdar CEO. "Richard plays a critical role in leading Nazdar Ink Technologies into the future. Today's appointment is the result of his ability to think strategically on a global scale, the respect he has earned from his peers, customers and partners, and his significant contributions to our Company."
View more from this Screen Printing issue


text:
Skilled Eviction and Lease Enforcement Litigation for Sacramento Landlords, Property Managers, and Owners
I am attorney Joshua B. Clark, and I have developed extensive experience handling cases from simple landlord-tenant issues to lease and rental agreement review to complex evictions involving tenant bankruptcy. Landlords have a considerable investment to protect. In cases of landlord-tenant disputes, it is in your best interest to work with an attorney who understands the details of the process and of the law.
Clear Legal Guidance
A lawyer's value comes in the form of not only the results obtained, but also in his or her ability to provide clarity in the face of uncertainty and anxiety. This is especially true when you need skillful and prompt assistance with a tenant. Effective resolution of landlord-tenant disputes in California requires a clear understanding of your needs and goals. This is why I work one-on-one with you throughout the entire planning process.


text:
UKGBC today announced the second annual Rising Star Award.
Its the kind of initiative Mel would have been enthusiastic about supporting, and a really great tribute to her work.
I was privileged and proud to be involved with last years award, and to see so many great entries.
I'm looking forward to being involved again this year, and seeing lots of you at ECObuild for the presentation and a glass of red wine (which Mel would have been equally enthusiastic about).
The full announcement appears on the UKGBC website: http://www.ukgbc.org/news/who-next-rising-star-sustainability


text:
After I became vegetarian, one of the two foods I missed the most was KFC fried chicken. Something about those 11 herbs and spices… smelled and tasted so good. Below is the best recipe I've found so far to replicate it, the seasonings adapted from the Spice Guru's post on Food.com.
- 1 batch of Vegan/Vegetarian Chicken
- vegetable oil for deep frying
Salt Wash:
- 6 c water
- 1 T salt
- 2 t MSG
- 4 t corn flour or masa harina
- 2 T dry milk powder
- 2½ powdered sugar
- 1 T salt
- 2 T tellicherry black pepper, ground
- 2 t celery salt
- ½ T sage, ground
- 1 t coriander, ground
- 1 t ginger, ground
- 1/4 t cloves, ground
- 1/4 t nutmeg, ground
- 1/4 t parsley, ground
- 1/8 t cardamom, ground
- 1¼ t smoked paprika
- ¼ t sweet paprika
- 1½ t Lawry's Seasoned Salt
- 1 t garlic salt
- ¼ t cumin, ground
- 1/8 t cayenne pepper
- ½ t onion powder
- ½ t baking soda
- ¼ t turmeric, ground
- 1/8 t lemon pepper
- 3½ c self-rising flour
- ¼ c cornstarch, packed
Prepare the Vegan/Vegetarian chicken per instructions. Allow to cool. Break apart into chicken-sized chunks.
Combine the salt wash in a medium-sized bowl. Mix to dissolve the salt.
Combine all of the Breading ingredients in a large bowl, except for the self-rising flour and cornstarch. Break up all the pieces to ensure there are no clumps. Then add the self-rising flour and corn starch. Stir to thoroughly combine.
Dip each piece of vegchicken into the salt wash and then into the breading. Allow the salt wash to drip freely into the breading bowl while you do this. The breading clumps is what gives the chicken its signature flaky texture. Set the breaded vegchicken onto a platter and repeat with the rest of the chicken.
2nd round of breading: Dip each piece of breaded vegchicken into the salt wash quickly and then back into the breading. Encourage clumping. Set the vegchicken back onto the platter and repeat with the rest of the breaded vegchicken.
Heat oil in a deepfryer. Drop the twice-breaded vegchiken into the deepfryer separately, taking care to keep them separate. Deep fry for 4½ minutes. Remove from oil and cool.