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The Spirit of Innovation: From High School to the Moon
Nancy Conrad, chair of the Conrad Foundation, talks about the Spirit of Innovation competition for high school students, and about her late husband, Pete Conrad, the third man to walk on the moon.
Podcast Transcription
Steve: Welcome to Science Talk, the more of less weekly podcast of Scientific American, posted on February 17th, 2011. I'm Steve Mirsky. This week on the podcast:
Conrad: We had fun. I mean, if you listen to the voice tapes and everything else, you'll hear Pete giggling, singing on the moon.
Steve: Yeah, she said "moon." That's Nancy Conrad, widow of astronaut Pete Conrad, talking about some of Pete's stories about being on the moon. We'll hear those as well as about Nancy's current mission, which is to stimulate an interest in science and technology among high school students with the Spirit of Innovation Awards through her San Francisco–based Conrad Foundation. We spoke by phone.
Steve: Tell us about the Spirit of Innovation Awards. How did they come to be? How did you get involved? And what's the purpose behind them?
Conrad: The awards are there to encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and education for teens and young high school students. And it's really asking students to take risks and get out there and unleash their scientific creativity and solve real-world problems. We've seen, in the three years that we've done this exam, unbelievable ideas coming out of these young minds; so much so that some of the teams that we take in to patent and/or help get them to the commercial marketplace. This is what we call "where science gets real". We based all of this on the legacy of my late husband, who was expelled from school in the eleventh grade because he couldn't read or spell. It was a day when dyslexia just wasn't something that educators recognized. And fortunately for Pete, his mom took him to a little school in upstate New York, Darrow School, which is still alive and well and helping students with so-called problems. The headmaster at Darrow saw something really special in Pete and he took him under his wings, and my husband went on to get a scholarship to Princeton, compliments of the Navy and Princeton. He went in as an NROTC scholar, and he became an aeronautical engineer, which when I later wrote his book, Rocket Man I figured that one out, because you don't have to read or spell much to be an aeronautical engineer. Pete went on to become part of the America's space program. He flew four flights in space, Gemini 5, Gemini 11, Apollo 12. He was the third man to walk on the moon. And he was awarded a Congressional Space Medal of Honor for rescuing Skylab, our first space station. And then Pete went on to create companies working on the commercialization of spaceflight, much like what Richard Branson is doing today, Pete was doing in the early '90s. And unfortunately he was killed in an accident in 1999. So all of this happened for Pete because an educator took this young man under his wings, and he got a moon shot. So we decided we would take young students under our wing and give them their moon shot. We really followed Pete's path of innovation, which is how he got to the moon; education which is how he got his moon shot; and entrepreneurship which is who he is and who he was. And so those are the three waves of this tool that we offer to our students to become part of the innovative workforce for the 21st century. I was interested to just read some quotes from President Obama's Startup America event the other day, and he mentioned these young minds; it's a quote in which he says that "in their willingness to take a risk on a bold idea, we can see the future, we can see how America will compete and win the 21st-century global economy." And that's really precisely what we're trying to do, we are trying to grow an innovative workforce for the 21st century; students with the ability to do project-based multidisciplinary learning, understand design learning skill sets and really understand aspirational learning. We've, kind of, put in A in STEM, so we can kind of call it STEAM, because these students are invited to aspire and invited to achieve; so that's our little A in STEAM. It's really been an unbelievable opportunity, I am an educator, I am a teacher; albeit I didn't teach science, I was an English teacher. So I've really worked in this really my whole life. When Pete was alive, I had an astronaut licensing company, so I quote owned the rights to 19 astronauts. And we made educational products for students and kids, comic books, action figures, popup books, all sorts of things. And so it was a natural transition for me to evolve into this effort going forward after Pete's death. So that's what we do—we've got students with patents, they've invited to be seated with Michelle Obama at the State of the Union, they've been to the White House, one of our teams was archived into the Kennedy Library, they've been interviewed by the BBC, profiled in Popular Science magazine, MTV. I mean, they're turning into science rock stars, and that's exactly what this country is going to need to pull us up into the 21st century and to implement 21st-century learning skills and 21st-century education into our education program; so that in fact our education system can get its own moon shot by evolving into a next generation of ways to teach these young minds.
Steve: And why did you decide to concentrate on high school students rather than, say, junior high or college?
Conrad: Right. Well we, sort of, based our business model on the moon shot which, you know, when you look at what we did was that it fit on the back of a match book: go to the moon by the end of the decade. Now Pete always said the more important part was we returned safely to Earth…
Steve: Right.
Conrad: Our back of the match book is to create an innovative workforce for the 21st century. Well we went to the moon incrementally, and so we're doing this effort incrementally. We started in high school—that's the, sort of, the cup of the ocean we chose to boil—for a couple of reasons. It's the immediate pipeline into college and into industry, and so it was the closest place that we could bring our program to the attention of young high schoolers. And we are now doing some pilots in middle schools and eventually we will be doing a K-12 effort but we had to decide which cup of the ocean and that was the cup of the ocean we chose to boil.
Steve: You mentioned some of the previous projects; can you just discuss a couple of them briefly to give people an idea of what the kids come up with?
Conrad: Sure. One of our teams came up with a project that would harvest the energy from the heat vents in the deep ocean, through a generator that they designed, to create low cost electricity; that project got the attention of Jon Wellinghoff, who is the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and that team is, now currently has two patents and they are in development with their process. We've given them some coaches to work with, a science coach and a business coach, to help them continue developing their product idea. We brought another team into our portal, which is where these students get patents, and that team has created a way to take humidity out of the air and convert it into potable water. Some of the teams don't need patents. We have a team of young food scientists who've been working on a project that created a nutrition bar, so food science for microgravity in this particular instance—we are going to be doing another nutrition challenge going forward, but those students don't need a patent; but we are bringing them into our portal and we haven't told them yet, so you're getting a scoop here—and they have really become young entrepreneurs. They are packaging their product idea. The business plan there is to create a way for schools to do fundraisers using this particular product idea and to really drive STEM education within the schools, being facilitated through this product. Some kids don't win; we've had a solar oven that was created it was awesome, it didn't win and those kids are continuing to develop their product idea and working on a next generation of it, and we're connecting them to a company that actually manufactures prototypes and takes them into the market place, so….
Steve: That's a really important point, I mean, just because you don't win doesn't mean…
Conrad: You don't win.
Steve: Right exactly.
Conrad: You do win.
Steve: I mean…
Conrad: I mean just getting to our innovation summit at NASA in the end of April where we bring our finalists; and between the time that they have been announced as the finalists and they come to the summit, we want them to look really good when they show up, so they get coaches, they get a science coach, a presentation coach and a marketing coach. So that when they get there to do their presentation in real time in front of industry leaders and venture capitalists and academics, real rocket scientists, all the people that come share this event with us, they look really good. And by the way they better have fun at this thing, because that's part of the whole thing as well. I mean this has taken science and technology, engineering and math, and really integrated it into an education where it's real, it's fun, it's important, it drives impact, and it really is a moon shot for these kids. They win just getting there. And we're going to have what we call a wildcard this year. We decided that we would create a way for students who didn't get into the finals to actually get hosted by us to come to our finals. So we're going to be launching a wild card competition; so we will pick, sort of, a sweepstakes where one of the teams will get to come to the summit even though they didn't make it into the finals.
Steve: And we should say there are three general categories that teams can compete in.
Conrad: This year we've did aerospace exploration, we did energy, and we did cyber security. We are going to bring 27 teams of students out to NASA-Ames the 28th of April to the 1st of May. We really are growing a community of young innovators. I mean, these students stay with us. The kids who have won before come back to our summit, and they work with the new students that have come on board. We have a whole group now and we are very young. We look old for our age but we're very young. This is our third innovation summit, and we bring really world-level people like Vint Cerf is going to come and do a fireside chat with these young students. That's awesome when kids can sit and talk to a guy like Vint Cerf. We've had, you know Tom Cellucci, is coming; he's the head of commercialization for the Department of Homeland Security. We've had guys like Steve Jurvetson come. And many, many entrepreneurs come to this event, because we're growing the next generation of them, and so it's a tremendous pay-it-forward for industry leaders and for entrepreneurs and for academics to come and work with this next generation. I mean, we've got to grow these kids.
Steve: And people around the country will have an opportunity to vote themselves on the finalists.
Conrad: Yeah, we do this thing called the People's Choice Awards. It's sort of Revenge of the Nerds meets American idol. And these kids crowd-source their product ideas; they do a video of their team and their product idea and they put it up on the Web, they blog with each other, and they generate interest in their product idea in their communities and across the country. And so people get their vote for their product ideas. Now last year's team that won that particular award got a flight in zero gravity, so it's very cool and the kids get very excited about it. So it's real chance for the whole country to take a look at what these young new innovators are doing.
Steve: I wanted to ask a question; when I've had the opportunity because of my line of work to meet two of the men who've walked on the moon, and one of the things I find fascinating and perhaps Pete discussed this with you, is what the actual experience of being there was like in ways that they could not have anticipated.
Conrad: Right. I think there are a couple of things that Pete shared with me. When he flew Gemini 5, and I mean it really was two guys in a tin can for eight days, and he said if Al Bean had told him one more day, he would have been the first space statistic. And it was really lonely. Gemini 11 was a fast turn-around; he was with his good buddy Dick Gordon. And Dick went on to fly to the moon with Pete, and they took an all-Navy crew to the moon; Al Bean flew the lunar landing module. And so I think, you know, it was a long trip, and Pete was fully expecting to be lonely again. And you know when he went to the moon, Pete just liked to fly. He didn't care where it went, and if you put a wings on a box of cereal he'd fly that. He was just happy to fly, and when he got to the moon and he had now went onto the surface of the moon. First of all they had done a pinpoint landing on the lunar surface because they should probably know….
Steve: Right….
Conrad: Yeah, Apollo was a little off course.
Steve: In comparison to the, right, right…
Conrad: So he was just happy as a clam to see that they had actually accomplished a pinpoint landing, which is incredibly difficult, and given what they had to navigate from, which was basically paper-mâche models of the lunar surface from photos that had been sent back, it was outstanding and amazing. So he was just all happy, happy that they accomplished the pinpoint landing and they had science to do on the lunar surface. So they setup an ALSEP, which was Apollo Lunar Experiment Package, magnetometers and all sorts of things; and so he was very engaged in the science that they were performing on the moon. And it's a full-grade story and you ought to check out our comic book, Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 12, it was actually, it's tremendous a source of research on the flight of Apollo 12. But the bottom line was, he wasn't lonely at all. He had a blast. He had his two best friends with him, they did a pinpoint landing. They accomplished everything they wanted to do with the exception of one small thing. They had rigged a system to take a picture of themselves on the moon, and they set up this whole tripod and all this stuff so that they could send back to Houston a picture of both Al and Pete on the moon. And they figured NASA would spend the rest of the life scratching its head trying to figure out how that happened, because, as you know, there were only two men walking on the moon together.
Steve: Who took the picture? Right.
Conrad: Yeah, exactly, and towards the end of their mission you could, all those the recordings and everything, their heart rates were going crazy because they couldn't find the little tripod that they had stowed away. And of course, it showed up later in the rock box. They had fun. I mean if you listen to the voice tapes and everything else you'll hear Pete giggling and singing on the moon; and of course his first words were hysterical. He had had a bet with someone, a journalist, an Italian journalist who thought that Neil's words were created by the government, and Pete said absolutely not. So he bet her 500 bucks that he would say whatever was that they made up and when he said it she would pay him 500 bucks. And so he said it, and what he said was, "That may have been a small one for Neil, but it was a big one for a little guy like me." Because Pete was the smallest guy in the astronaut corp. So of course, he came back from the moon and went to collect the 500 bucks and she never paid up.
Steve: Wow…
Conrad: And unfortunately she is deceased now too; and at one point I was going to calculate what it was worth today but, oh well it doesn't matter. But the bottom line was he had fun and he wasn't lonely. And the loneliness was what he was most fearful of and it just wasn't that at all, he really had a blast. And these were three best friends who went to the moon together, and they remained best friends for life.
Steve: That's a great story. Well, thanks very much for talking to us, and obviously we wish you good luck with this project not just for its own sake, but for all our sakes.
Conrad: Oh! Absolutely. This is America's education moon shot, so to speak. It really is.
Steve: For more info about the Spirit of Innovation competition and the finalists you can vote for, go to conradawards.org. I will be right back after this word from Kerri Smith at the Nature podcast.
Kerri Smith: This week we get hot under the collar about human evolution; find out if climate change is causing more extreme weather; and hear from the astronauts pretending to go to Mars.
Steve: You can find the Nature podcast on iTunes and at www.nature.com/podcast. That's it for this episode, get your science news at http://www.ScientificAmerican.com where you can check out a package of articles on the possible benefits of daydreaming. Uh, what was that? Follow us on Twitter where you'll get a tweet about each new article posted to our Web site. Our Twitter handle is @sciam. For Science Talk, the podcast of Scientific American, I'm Steve Mirsky. Thanks for clicking on us.


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Today is a very exciting day as we are finally able to share our new website with the world!
Please pass on the message to others: www.ousewashes.org.uk
This website is intended to be a 'one-stop shop' for local people and visitors to explore the Ouse Washes Landscape:
- Explore the Ouse Washes LP area's tourist attractions, nature reserves and museums in more detail through our interactive Explore map;
- Find out what's going on in the area through our What's on section;
- Find out how you can get involved through our projects, events and our volunteering options in our Get Involved section
- Find out what makes the Ouse Washes LP area special, by reading through our Discover section;
- The Ouse News is our old WordPress blog incorporated in this new website – keep up to date of all new events, project development and information about the area though this newsreel
- And a lot more – go on, find out for yourself!
Do let us know what you think about the new website – we want this to be useful for you, so please help us make things better – drop us a line through the Contact section.
Happy reading!
Press release: Press release_New website for Ouse Washes Landscape now live!

subset: commoncrawl


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Most Costly Adverse Events In Children's Hospitals
The study in children's hospitals may help set priority targets for patient safety efforts in children's hospital.
A large study of health records from 38 American children's hospitals has measured adverse events that most increase length of stay and overall cost. The researchers say their findings provide useful targets for hospital programs aimed at preventing harm to young patients.
"Our study offers a framework for physicians, researchers and administrators to think about pediatric-specific adverse events that are potentially preventable," said study leader Samir S. Shah, M.D., an infectious diseases specialist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Among the areas in which children's hospitals can address quality improvement, it is important to set priorities. This study provides some guidance."
In a study in the June issue of Pediatrics, the researchers analyzed information from more than 430,000 discharges from 38 pediatric hospitals in the United States that participated in the Pediatric Health Information Systems database in 2006. They searched the database for 12 different adverse patient safety events, designated pediatric-specific quality indicators (PDIs) by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The adverse events included infections and other complications that occurred as unintended consequences of treatment and hospitalization.
"Our study was the first to use this pediatric-specific tool to screen for adverse events," said co-author Matthew Kronman, M.D., a hospital-based specialist in infectious diseases at Children's Hospital. "AHRQ had previously developed patient-safety indicators for adult patients, but some of those adverse events in adults, such as hip fractures after a fall in the hospital, were uncommon in children. Our findings suggest that the pediatric safety indicators reflect a better understanding of the situation of children."
The total number of adverse events was 6,656, or approximately 1.5 percent of the sample. Overall, the most frequent adverse events in hospitalized children were infection due to medical care, respiratory failure following surgery and postoperative sepsis (an infection in the bloodstream).
The excess length of hospital stay from PDI events ranged from 2.8 days for accidental puncture and laceration to 23.5 days for postoperative sepsis. Excess overall charges ranged from $34,884 for accidental puncture and laceration to $337,226 for in-hospital mortality after pediatric heart surgery. Among excess charges, the largest were for laboratory, room and nursing charges. The researchers adjusted charges to reflect geographical differences in prices and wages.
"Our findings may help guide physicians and hospital administrators toward changes in practices where even modest improvements could have a high impact in patient safety and in more efficient, less costly health care," said Shah. "For instance, focusing quality improvement efforts on reducing postoperative sepsis and infection due to medical care could create large cost savings and reduction in length of hospitalization. Additional studies should focus on determining specific safety measures and practices that pediatric hospitals can implement in the most appropriate areas."
Shah added that such quality improvement programs are all the more important in light of a recent decision by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to begin denying payments to hospitals for patients who develop preventable complications during hospitalization.


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Legendary sports broadcaster Keith Jackson dies at 89
Keith Jackson, one of the most distinctive voices in college football for half a century, died Friday night. He was 89.
ESPN, the sister Disney company to ABC where Jackson spent much of his career, said the family had confirmed Jackson's death.
Jackson called the biggest events in college football for 40 years at ABC Sports. His last broadcast was the 2006 Rose Bowl, a bowl he coined "the granddaddy of them all." Vince Young scrambled into the end zone in the closing seconds of the game as Texas defeated USC to claim the BCS championship in what some call the best college football game ever.
"For generations of fans, Keith Jackson was college football," Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO for The Walt Disney Company, said in a statement released by ESPN. "When you heard his voice, you knew it was a big game. Keith was a true gentleman and a memorable presence. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Turi Ann, and his family."
Jackson also worked on ABC's Wide World of Sports, a job that took him to 31 countries and 10 Olympics, according to ESPN.
"Can close my eyes and think of so many of his special calls," ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who was part of the studio cast that final game, wrote on Twitter. "Thank you Keith for all the memories and the grace in which you provided them. RIP Keith
Jackson stepped down in the offseason after that 2006 Rose Bowl, ending a career that began calling Washington State football games in 1952.
"This is the perfect time," Jackson told The New York Times in May 2006. "I don't want to get back into the pressure cooker of play-by-play and worry about travel. I don't want to die in a stadium parking lot."
Jackson, known for emoting the occasional "Whoa, Nellie" for a big play, also created other terms that will persevere, including "The Big House" for Michigan's stadium.
Gallery: Keith Jackson through the years


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Anthony's Week 12 NFL Pointspread Picks
Last week: 9-4. Season totals: 71-84-6, Pct. .460. Best Bets: 17-14-2, Pct. .545.
Home team in capital letters; point spreads (opening line) in parentheses after underdog team; selections with point spreads in bold.
DETROIT 24 (+3 1/2), Chicago 23 - The Bears have dropped five straight at Ford Field, and are 2-9 straight up and 5-6 against the spread on rugs since 2016, and 3-12 straight up and 4-10-1 against the spread in domes since 2013. And are they really good enough to be 8-3 after eleven games?
DALLAS 27, Washington 0 (+8) - Don't read too much into Colt McCoy's performance after Alex Smith's season-ending broken leg (he led them on two touchdown drives, albeit one of them spanning all of 13 yards following an interception), because 1) he didn't have time to get nervous, and 2) the game was at home. He will have plenty of time to get nervous this time around (and he's 7-18 as a starter), and not only will he be on the road, but also both on artificial turf, where Elizabeth Warren's Team is 6-17 straight up and 10-13 against the line since 2013, and indoors, where they're 5-20 straight up and 11-14 against the line since 2009. And I hardly need to remind any fantasy mavens who read this to sit Adrian Peterson this week, as the Cowboys will be shoving eight in the box on essentially every play to stop Peterson and make McCoy beat them.
NEW ORLEANS 45, Atlanta 24 (+13) - The total lack of defense on display Monday night by both the Rams and Chiefs marks the Saints as the clear favorites to win Super Bowl LIII, and they have already have a Week 3 road win over the Falcons, whose offense, which is far more athletic and explosive than Philadelphia's, should score some points, but not enough to cover.
N.Y. Giants 42 (+5 1/2), PHILADELPHIA 12 - The Eagles have moved into the top 10 in the 2019 draft order, and could find themselves in the top five by the end of the season. And Carson Wentz is like a cheap speed horse in a horse race: If he is able to make an easy lead, he's awesome; but if someone runs with him, he will fall apart like a twenty-dollar suit in a driving rainstorm (in 37 career starts, Wentz has three fourth-quarter comebacks and three game-winning drives, while Dak Prescott has seven fourth-quarter comebacks and seven game-winning drives in 43 career starts, and Tim Tebow had eight of the former and seven of the latter in 16 starts).
New England 24, N.Y. JETS 20 (+8) - The Pats have burned the money in their last five at Club Med, and the Jets could get Sam Darnold back coming off a bye (which the entire AFC East does). If Darnold is able to return and he avoids the costly miscues that have plagued him throughout the season, the Jets have a decent shot to cover.
BUFFALO 14 (+3 1/2), Jacksonville 13 - Josh Allen is expected to play, and heads figure to roll in Jacksonville at the end of the season, from Doug Marrone to Blake Bortles to possibly even Jalen Ramsey being shown the door - and the Jags are 4-18 straight up since 2013 on artificial turf since 2013 and and 5-14 straight up in cold-weather games since 2008. Upset special.
CAROLINA 24, Seattle 17 (+3) - Despite having a bye this week, the Rams clinch the NFC West if the Seahawks lose - and lose is something that Seattle has a lot of practice doing as a visitor on the grass: 45-73-1 straight up and 49-65-5 against the line dating all the way back to 1998.
TAMPA BAY 28, San Francisco 14 (+3 1/2) - Had Dirk Koetter stuck with Ryan Fitzpatrick the 49ers would have been the pick. With Jameis Winston at quarterback, the Buccaneers are a lock.
CINCINNATI 35, Cleveland 13 (+3) - The Browns have lost and non-covered seven in a row to the Bengals by a combined 213-63, and can tie the all-time consecutive road losing streak record with a loss here. Cleveland is also 7-17-1 against the spread during the streak, and has been outscored 302-162 while losing 10 in a row on artificial turf. Cleveland 2.0 even has the worst straight-up winning percentage in the league coming off a bye week (6-11).
BALTIMORE 14, Oakland 10 (+11) - The Ravens haven't covered since Week 6, Joe Flacco remains doubtful, and Lamar Jackson got almost as many rushing yards as passing yards last week - hardly a formula for covering a big spread.
INDIANAPOLIS 27, Miami 24 (+10) - The home team in this series is 2-5 straight up and 1-6 against the spread in the last seven meetings, and while the Dolphins are 7-18 both ways on the carpet since 2013, they're 12-14 straight up and 14-12 against the spread indoors going back to 1998. This number is way too high, and the Colts will struggle to win.
Pittsburgh 23, DENVER 21 (+3 1/2) - Kansas City's loss on Monday night makes this a potential look-ahead game for the Steelers, if not a full-blown trap game (with them coming off avenging those twin 2017 losses to Jacksonville last week), because it kept the Chargers, who Pittsburgh hosts next week, very much in the running in the AFC West, giving that game very possible seeding and home field implications. Broncos come off a gritty road win over those same Chargers and this one could come down to a field goal, made or missed, either way.
L.A. CHARGERS 16, Arizona 7 (+11 1/2) - After a 38-point explosion at Cleveland in Week 6, the Chargers have scored just 87 points in their four games since. It's easy to overreact to the Cardinals losing to the Raiders at home last week - but don't do it.
MINNESOTA 27, Green Bay 21 (+3 1/2) - The Packers have lost seven in a row on the road (1-6 against the spread) dating back to last year, and have lost and non-covered five straight on artificial turf by a combined 147-85. But Kirk Cousins is 4-11 straight up and 4-10-1 against the spread lifetime on Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights, compared with 27-24-2 straight up and 30-23 against the spread in the rest of his games, so be very careful here. The Vikings to win the toss to start overtime, and then they score a touchdown?
HOUSTON 35, Tennessee 17 (+6) - The Texans are poised to become the first team to make the playoffs after starting 0-3 since 1998, but no 0-3 starter has ever reached the Final Four, and only one has ever won a playoff game (the 1992 Chargers, who actually started 0-4). But first things first: Marcus Mariota is injured (again!) and the Titans have lost six in a row in Houston (1-5 against the spread) and have been outscored 217-99 doing it. Tennessee is also 5-14 both ways since 2013 as a visitor on the carpet, and 4-12 straight up and 6-10 against the line inside NFL domes since 2012.
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Web Site Administration Tool Provider Tab
Use the Provider tab of the Web Site Administration Tool to manage how ASP.NET stores the data for application features, such as user accounts, roles, and other settings.
ASP.NET uses provider classes to manage data storage for various features, such as membership and role management. A provider class is a component that exposes specific ASP.NET functionality, such as managing user accounts in membership. Each of these application features requires data storage. Although each provider class performs the same application features, each provider class can store data in different ways. For example, different provider classes for ASP.NET membership might store user account information in the following different ways:
In a Microsoft SQL Server database.
In Microsoft Windows Active Directory directory service.
In a custom user database.
Each of these provider classes still performs the same core set of tasks for managing user accounts and you interact with the provider classes in your application in the same way.
Configuring Providers in the Web Site Administration Tool
The Web Site Administration Tool lets you use different provider classes for application features, such as membership and roles. ASP.NET is installed with several provider classes for each type of application feature. For example, ASP.NET has a provider class for membership that stores information in a SQL Server database (AspNetSqlMembershipProvider), and another that stores membership information in Active Directory.
Managing Provider Settings
You can use the Web Site Administration Tool to change and test providers for the Web site. Your application can use a single provider for application features or it can use several different providers.
By default, the Web Site Administration Tool uses the AspNetSqlProvider provider for all application features.
Use the Web Site Administration Tool to manage providers for the Web site in the following ways:
Change from the default AspNetSqlRoleProvider provider to the alternate AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider provider, if you would prefer to use local Windows groups for role authorization.
Specify whether to use the same provider for all application features or to use a different provider for each application feature. Generally, you select individual providers, only if you want precise control over where the information is stored or if you have to use a different provider for just one feature, such as roles.
Selecting a Single Provider vs. Different Providers
You can configure the Web site to use the same provider for all application features. In this case, all data for membership and roles and so on, is stored in a single data store (typically a single database). Alternatively, you can select a different provider for each application feature.
In the Web Site Administration Tool, on the Provider tab, your first choice is whether you want to use the same provider for all features or to select a provider individually for each application feature. You can choose the following options:
To specify a single provider for all application features, click Select a single provider for all site management data.
To specify providers for specific application features, click Select a different provider for each feature (advanced), and then select a provider for each application feature.
Configuring the SQL Server Provider
If you want to use the SQL Server provider to store application feature data in a SQL Server database, you must first configure SQL Server by creating the appropriate database. ASP.NET includes a command-line utility named aspnet_regsql.exe that performs this task for you.
The aspnet_regsql.exe executable is located in the WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\versionNumber folder on the Web server. The aspnet_regsql.exe utility is used to both create the SQL Server database and add or remove options from an existing database.
You can run the aspnet_regsql.exe executable without any command-line arguments to run a wizard that will help you with specifying connection information for SQL Server and installing or removing the database elements for all supported features. You can also run the aspnet_regsql.exe executable as a command-line utility to configure database elements for individual features.
To run the aspnet_regsql.exe wizard, run the aspnet_regsql.exe executable without any command-line arguments, as shown in the following example.
[%system root%]\Microsoft.NET\Framework\versionNumber\aspnet_regsql.exe
To view online Help for additional options that are available with the aspnet_regsql.exe utility, use the /? option.
Behind the Scenes
The Provider tab manages configuration settings that are stored in the Web.config file for your application. Specifically, the settings that are managed through the Provider tab exist in the <membership> and <roleManager> sections of your configuration file.
The following code is the Web.config file that is generated by the Web Site Administration Tool after specifying that the AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider provider be used for role management.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<membership defaultProvider="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" />
<roleManager enabled="true" defaultProvider="AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider" />
<authentication mode="Forms" />
More Information
For more information, see the following sections in the .NET Framework class reference and the ASP.NET Configuration Settings:
See Also
Web Site Administration Tool Overview
Web Site Administration Tool Security Tab
Web Site Administration Tool Application Tab


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A sari, saree or shari is a South Asian female garment that consists of a drape varying from five to nine yards in length and two to four feet in breadth that is typically wrapped around the waist, with one end draped over the shoulder, baring the midriff.
There are more than 80 recorded ways to wear a sari. Fashion designer Shaina NC declared,"I can drape a sari in 54 different styles".
The most common style is for the sari to be wrapped around the waist, with the loose end of the drape to be worn over the shoulder, baring the midriff. However, the sari can be draped in several different styles, though some styles do require a sari of a particular length or form. The French cultural anthropologist and sari researcher Chantal Boulanger categorised sari drapes in the following families:
Nivi – styles originally worn in Andhra Pradesh; besides the modern nivi, there is also the kaccha nivi, where the pleats are passed through the legs and tucked into the waist at the back. This allows free movement while covering the legs.
Bengali and Oriya style.
Gujarati/Rajasthani – after tucking in the pleats similar to the nivi style, the loose end is taken from the back, draped across the right shoulder, and pulled across to be secured in the back
Maharashtrian/Konkani/Kashta; this drape is very similar to that of the male Maharashtrian dhoti. The center of the sari (held lengthwise) is placed at the center back, the ends are brought forward and tied securely, then the two ends are wrapped around the legs. When worn as a sari, an extra-long cloth of nine yards is used and the ends are then passed up over the shoulders and the upper body. They are primarily worn by Brahmin women of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.
Madisar – this drape is typical of Iyengar/Iyer Brahmin ladies from Tamil Nadu. Traditional Madisar is weared using 9 yards saree.
Kodagu style – this drape is confined to ladies hailing from the Kodagu district of Karnataka. In this style, the pleats are created in the rear, instead of the front. The loose end of the sari is draped back-to-front over the right shoulder, and is pinned to the rest of the sari.
Gobbe Seere – This style is worn by women in the Malnad or Sahyadri and central region of Karnataka. It is worn with 18 molas saree with three four rounds at the waist and a knot after crisscrossing over shoulders.
Gond – sari styles found in many parts of Central India. The cloth is first draped over the left shoulder, then arranged to cover the body.
Malayali style – the two-piece sari, or Mundum Neryathum, worn in Kerala. Usually made of unbleached cotton and decorated with gold or coloured stripes and/or borders. Also the Set-saree, a sort of mundum neryathum.
Tribal styles – often secured by tying them firmly across the chest, covering the breasts.
Kunbi style or denthli:Goan Gauda and Kunbis,and those of them who have migrated to other states use this way of draping Sari or Kappad,this form of draping is created by tying a knot in the fabric below the shoulder and a strip of cloth which crossed the left shoulder was fasten on the back.
Sari – splendid clothes in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
Here you can post the information about different pieces of national dresses. It doesn't matter clothing of what country you bear in mind. Please add photos of mentioned garments to make it more interesting and clear for other people.
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text: Werthead - Contributor Posted July 16, 2012 2044. The climate is wrecked, oil resources have been depleted and the world economy has still not fully recovered from the excesses of the turn of the century. Wade Watts, like millions of other teenagers, escapes the real world by playing in the OASIS, a computer programme that has combined the old Internet and numerous MMORPGs into a virtual reality existence. Five years ago the founder of the OASIS died, leaving his multi-billion-dollar fortune to whoever can solve an elaborate puzzle he left behind in the game. Millions have tried and failed...until Wade stumbles across a key clue. Suddenly a race is on: Wade and several fellow gamers competing with one another and a sinister corporation to be the first to win the prize. Ready Player One is the debut novel by writer Ernest Cline, whose previous genre credit of note was co-writing the 2009 movie Fanboys. Ready Player One, like that movie, is a geek-centric, nostalgia-heavy paean for the past. In this case, Cline references early video games, 'classic' movies of the 1980s and various TV shows and bands as he creates a cultural landscape which Wade must delve into to solve the puzzles left for him and millions of fellow gamers. The book is mostly set within the OASIS, with the world outside described fairly perfunctorily. There are allusions to ecological catastrophe, peak oil, climate change and the breakdown of society, but these elements are not developed very far at all. Within the OASIS things are more engaging, with Cline creating worlds dedicated entirely to 1980s video games or to fantastical environments where the rules of nature are twisted. It's basically Second Life meets Tad Williams's Otherworld with a dash of EVE Online and World of WarCraft on top and is described vividly and energetically. However, the creations are usually built on cultural references with Cline contributing little that is original. This is Ready Player One's key weakness. The book is a nostalgia-fest, a romp through 1980s video arcades, ancient home consoles, old-skool Dungeons and Dragons campaigns and repeated viewings of movies like Ladyhawke and WarGames. For those who get the references, it's great fun. For those who don't, the book struggles a little. Being born seven years after Cline (and the creator of the OASIS in the book), I got a lot of the references but others, particularly to the very earliest days of home gaming, were unfamiliar. Cline, to his credit, does try to explain each reference in as concise a manner as possible, but this has a tendency to slow down the narrative whilst not necessarily helping very much (my visual imagining of Joust was very different to the reality of the game when I finally looked it up online). The characters are straightforward archetypes, veering very little away from the standard. Main character Wade is an awkward, non-confident nerd living with an unsympathetic extended family and being irrationally blamed for their misfortunes (when we get a glimpse of Wade's home life I was half-expecting him to be sleeping a small cupboard, Potter-style). Cline shows a rare burst of imagination in suggesting that in the future, trailer parks will be overcrowded to the point of having trailers stacked on top of one another with supporting framework and these will sometimes collapse, to no-one's particular interest. The other characters are likewise standard: Art3mis is the cute-but-determined geek girl, Aech is the loyal best friend and two supporting Japanese characters are awesome with swords and much-concerned with honour, which is an unfortunate stereotype. There are a few surprises given that we only know these characters through their online avatars and their 'true' selves turn out to be rather different, but again there are few real surprises here. The villains are, well, snarling caricatures of evil whose motivations are unconvincing and whose chief representative, Sorrento, is a laughable cartoon character at best. So, we have a book which contributes little of its own to the genre, competently-executed protagonists and awful antagonists. Normally this would be enough to consign a book to the mediocre pile, but Ready Player One still manages to rise above this. Cline's narrative has pace, verve and energy. His ideas are standard but they are handled well, and some of Wade's less laudable activities raise issues about how healthy it is to live your life online or in computer games. Cline is celebrating nostalgia but certainly not advocating dedicating your life to it. The determination of some characters to 'change the world' with the prize money whilst others dream of building a spaceship and escaping also opens an interesting debate about maturity and dealing with consequences rather than running away from them. Plus, the book is so much damned fun. There's spaceship and mecha fights within the OASIS, antimatter bombings, a puzzle based around the D&D module Tomb of Horrors, a 3D recreation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and laughs than you can shake a stick at. At one point, as he ascends the levels and achievements of the game, Wade chooses as his vehicle the DeLorean from Back to the Future with a Knight Rider-style front grill and Ghostbusters logos on the side. Whether you find that amusing, eye-rollingly inane or merely unimportant will determine how likely you are to enjoy the whole book, but certainly, as a child of the 1980s, I found it fairly entertaining. Ready Player One (***½) makes up for deficiencies in characterisation and originality with its fast-moving plot and engaging cultural references. The novel is available now in the UK and USA. A film version is in development. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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On this day (22 September), 1986, the Pet Shop Boys released the single "Suburbia" b/w "Paninaro," which introduced an Italian subculture to the wider world. It was certainly my introduction.
Paninari - che è il gran gallo?
Paninari (the plural of Paninaro) were an Italian youth subculture in the 1980s. Their name came from the word "panino," Italian for "bread." La Stampa branded them that due to the fact that their original, preferred hang-out was the Al Panino, a sandwich joint in in Milan's Via Agnello, where they first congregated in 1983.
In 1985 the now defunct Burghy, an Italian chain specializing in American fast food, opened a location on Piazza San Babila, that became their home base.


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Most permit filings since recession began; but, in trend, echoes of pre-recession bubble
Contractors across Southwest Florida have filed for permits to build more new homes this year than at any other time since the onset of the Great Recession six years ago, propelling a construction recovery both broad and deep.
The uptick comes amid demand from retirees and billion-dollar investment firms alike. That demand has shaved the existing stock of real estate for sale and sent builders scrambling.
But the quick rise has also brought about a skilled-worker shortage and pushed land costs up — conditions like those found prior to the deflation of the region's last housing bubble.
Those factors are stirring new worries in some quarters.
"It's a natural progression from the down years," said Alan Anderson, executive vice president of the Homebuilders Association Manatee-Sarasota.
"The housing market is cyclical. We had maybe the greatest peak ever in the mid-2000s, then the bottom fell out quite severally and now we're on the way back up again."
Developers in June pulled a combined 292 new single-family building permits in Southwest Florida, off 14 percent from a post-recession high set in May but ahead of last year's pace by 20 percent, according to county building records.
Permits measure new homes expected to break ground within 90 days. They're considered the most accurate gauge of construction activity in local markets.
Manatee County, where buildable land remains easier to acquire, has led the area's recovery. Builders in Manatee were issued 180 new residential permits last month, cooling 30 percent from a record-setting May but ahead of the same period last year by 42 percent.
In unincorporated Sarasota County, the 112 new residential permits issued in June were 30 percent ahead of May's figure, ifl just short of the four-year high set in June 2012, records show.
In all, homebuilders in Sarasota and Manatee in the first half of the year have requested permission to raise 1,865 new homes — an increase of 73 percent from the first half of 2012, according to industry researcher Metrostudy.
Last week alone, a trio of builders filed site plans in Manatee to build 473 homes in Cobblestone at Artisan Lakes in Palmetto; the Rye Road neighborhood of Bradenton; and a Parrish subdivision dubbed Southern Oaks.
"The gap in prices from existing to new homes really has started to close, and anytime that happens, people are going to choose new," said Peter Mason, vice president of sales and marketing for Lee Wetherington Homes in Lakewood Ranch. "As long as there's increased demand and a shortage of supply, it should continue to trend in the same direction."
Empowered to act
Industry observers attribute the turnaround to improvements in the general economy, a brighter job outlook and stock market strides — all of which have empowered buyers to act.
A migration of baby boomers to Southwest Florida also has helped boost home sales.
Overall, pent-up demand has largely cleaned out a once-abundant stock of homes under $200,000 for sale, leaving an anemic two-month supply.
Markets in a healthy balance historically have inventories of about six months' worth of homes for sale. That level is what builders want to see before constructing speculative homes.
The shortage pushed the price of existing homes in greater Sarasota up by 19 percent in May.
Experts contend the local new-home market has been stimulated by intuitional investors — like Wall Street's Blackstone Group and rival Colony Capital in California — that have been snapping up hundreds of properties in the area.
Together, the two firms have bought more than 500 single-family homes from Parrish to North Port since last fall, spending more than $84 million.
In some cases, they have paid as much as 300 percent above market value.
"The investors, now paying well above assessed value for their purchases, have prompted people to look at new homes who maybe otherwise would have liked to buy an existing home but can't compete with the hedge funds," said Jack McCabe, a real estate consultant in Deerfield Beach. "Now those new homes will begin artificially inflating in value as well."
Pushing through
The builders capitalizing now are those who negotiated cheap material contracts during the recession, held onto key employees and stocked up on distressed land while prices were depressed.
At the same time, hot spots like Lakewood Ranch have emerged as a favorite with builders and buyers.
Builders in the master-planned community sold 332 new homes through the end of June, at an average price of $403,000 — both up 7 percent from 2012, according to community developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch.
There's now another 328 homes in Lakewood Ranch in various stages of construction, a 17 percent increase from the first quarter.
"In the downturn, we maintained and kept pushing through," said Jimmy Stewart, vice president of sales for LWR Communities, an arm of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch. "Activity breeds activity, and when you come onto the ranch and see all of the homes being built, it creates a sense of urgency."
But the same is not true nationwide.
Despite renewed builder confidence, new home construction activity slowed during the month, though the pace pace remains ahead of this time a year ago.
U.S. building permits slipped 7.5 percent over the month to reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 911,000 in June.
Even with that hiccup, though, permit activity remains 16.1 percent above the June 2012 estimate of 785,000, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
New home starts in June similarly dipped nearly 10 percent from May, but continued rising ahead of the same time in 2012 — posting a 10.4 percent year-over-year gain — for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 836,000 last month.
Both indicators have lifted homebuilder confidence to its highest since January 2006 — the peak of the Florida's market's rise in the last decade.
For builder Nelson Homes, sales this year have already matched the $18.2 million it recorded last year, and that was 50 percent above 2011.
"I am about as optimistic as I have been since the downturn six years ago," said company president and founder Derek Nelson.


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I was thrilled to sit tonight and watch a new episode of Grey's Anatomy. Considering I've missed the last four episodes, you would never know it is one of my favorite television shows. After experiencing severe separation anxiety from Izzie, McSteamy, Meredith, George, and McDreamy it was inevitable that I needed a fix. Thus tonight, after coming home from work, cooking dinner, and getting my grandmother ready for bed, I sat down in front of the television with a great sense of anticipation and a hot cuppa tea. Tonight's tea choice… Organic Green Dragon.
Composition: Organic green Dragonwell tea grown in the Zhejiang province of China.
Dry Visual: Very green, broken tea leaves resembling fresh cut grass. Additional characteristics are hard to discern as Organic Green Dragon is a loose tea in biodegradable nylon sachets.
Dry Aroma: Very vegetal.
Flavor: Organic Green Dragon is a robust green tea. The initial taste was very vegetal, however subsequent flavors consisted of a nutty buttery combination. Actually more buttery than nutty which was quite a surprise. I cannot say that I have tasted a green tea with this combination of flavors. Additionally, Organic Green Dragon was heavy in the mouth, yet not dry.
I found it was necessary to play with steeping times. When steeped for the maximum recommended time Organic Green Dragon was slightly bitter. When steeped for the minimum recommended time, there was no bitterness. Organic Green Dragon was enjoyable without sweetener, however, a dab of honey would have been a nice addition to this cuppa tea.
Liquor: A beautiful light green hue. The liquor was very clear.
Brewing Time: Recommended brewing time is 2 – 3 minutes. I enjoyed two cups of Organic Green Dragon – one of which was brewed for the recommended 2 minutes and the second for 3 minutes.
Manufacturer: Mighty Leaf Tea
Caffeine: Yes.
I always appreciate the opportunity to steep and drink a new tea. If you have enjoyed a cup of Organic Green Dragon, please stop by and share your experience. Until then… Happy Tea Drinking!


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Please Note: We have moved this course from in-person learning to online learning. A message was emailed to all enrolled participants on 3/12/20. If you have any questions about this, please contact Tori Barnes immediately.
Audience: This workshop is designed for camp representatives who are preparing for accreditation visits in 2020 and beyond. The course is appropriate for those who are new to the accreditation process AND those who have been part of an accreditation visit or completed standards training in the past. Every camp being visited must have at least one person who completes the workshop on behalf of the camp; that person must actively assist in preparation for the accreditation visit, be on site a significant amount of time during the camp season, and participate fully in the on-site accreditation visit.
Workshop Objectives: Participants leave feeling excited, engaged, and ready to prepare for an accreditation visit. They know where to find and how to use information, resources, and technology provided by ACA. They can navigate the Accreditation Process Guide, 2019 Edition to understand compliance and applicability of standards, including all revisions to the standards and the accreditation process, and they can articulate the steps in the visit timeline and the responsibilities of the camp and the visitors.
Accreditation Process Guide, 2019 Edition: The printed version will be shipped to current fee-paying camps being visited in 2020 (1 per camp), beginning in the fall. All other camps paying accreditation fees have access to an electronic version of the standards online via the ACA website. Non-fee-paying camps and camps wanting additional printed copies can purchase these through the bookstore.
This course fulfills a pre-requisite to attend the Associate Visitor Course immediately following.
Workshop Information:
- More information will be shared in Course Reminder e-mail sent two days before course.
- Please be sure to download learning materials prior to the workshop. You may bring them printed or electronically on the day of the workshop.
- Bring a sack lunch and water bottle.
Registration Deadline: March 9, 2020
Questions? Contact: Tori Barnes, Standards Manager- Western Region | 765-349-3527


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Neb. County Mulls Jail Project
McCOOK, Neb. — Red Willow County commissioners are creating a jail task force to spearhead the county's study into jail options.
Unlike a task force formed five years ago to study the possibility of building a joint city-county law enforcement facility, this task force will concentrate on the pros and cons of operating a county jail as well as on the continuation of the current prisoner transport procedure from the City of McCook.
During a recent meeting, commissioners and Sheriff Gene Mahon discussed potential appointments to the task force out of a pool of local residents.
Steven Riley and Scott Lundberg of Prochaska & Associates, the Omaha, Neb. firm commissioners hired to conduct the jail feasibility study, told commissioners that task force members should believe in the project, even if they're unsure right now which of the five options the county should pursue: a new jail connected to the north side of the courthouse and/or the sheriff's office; renovation/expansion of the county's existing jail in the sheriff's office; renovation of the city's existing 96-hour holding cells into a fully operational jail; construction of a new jail at a new site; or the development of a hold-and-transport facility and continuing to transfer long-term prisoners to neighboring counties.
The consultants and the task force will develop and refine the five options and by the first part of July, will pick the top option for which to develop a budget and locate a bond company.
Riley and Lundberg's timeline includes conducting site surveys and a walk-through of existing facilities.
The Nebraska Jail Standards board will then review the plans and a final proposal will be made to commissioners by the middle of August.
Commission chairman Earl McNutt noted the timeline allows plenty of time for town hall meetings to explain renovation and construction plans to residents before the November election.
Construction of a jail, if that is the final decision approved by voters, could begin in the spring of 2012.


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Canada Consulting Staffing and People Team Director, Toronto
At BCG, Allies bring a sense of collaboration and excitement to their teams. They create an atmosphere of trust and support in which people can do their best work. Lisa finds clarity in a complex world.
From my first day at BCG, the firm has celebrated my uniqueness and empowered me to find my own voice.
While I was originally drawn to BCG for the opportunity to help clients solve their most complex strategic problems, BCG has provided me with opportunities extending far beyond this. As a consultant and project leader on our consulting team, I had the opportunity to support numerous clients across a variety of issues. The challenges that resonated most deeply with me were those related to organization design, change management, leadership, culture, and engagement. On these topics, I could feel myself thrive. I shared this passion with my mentors, who supported me in joining our global People & Organization practice, where I served clients in an expert capacity, wrote numerous articles, and line-managed a global team of experts.
While I relished the opportunity to provide expert counsel, the operations element of the role was an increasingly exciting component as I felt my muscles in this domain strengthen. As I was returning from my third maternity leave and considering next steps, our Canadian leadership approached me about a role that would allow me to bring all of my previous experiences to the fore. As the head of consulting experience for BCG Canada, I'm responsible for setting our talent strategy, overseeing our consulting team operations, and managing our key talent functions and a team of HR professionals. I am grateful for the way in which BCG has supported me as my passions have evolved and through key stages of my life.
Lisa holds a degree in political science and mass communication from Carleton University, and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, where she was class valedictorian.
As part of its development process, BCG places significant focus on identifying individuals' strengths. In the moments at BCG when I've felt lost or discouraged, my mentors within the firm have always reminded me about my strengths, and have guided me to leverage them to solve the problems I am facing. This strength-based approach is what led me to my current role—and has allowed me to shine.
While BCG is an incredibly eclectic place, one common thread is that everyone is exceptionally curious and interested in improving the world around them. Standing in line at a sandwich shop with a group of BCGers, chances are everyone is thinking about an alternative approach to sandwich making that would enhance throughput! I continue to be awed and inspired by the energy, passion, and commitment to excellence that everyone brings to work every day.
Given BCG's reputation as one of the world's leading strategy firms and the incredibly strong profile of individuals who join our team, I expected I'd be contending with a lot of egos! In fact, BCGers are incredibly humble. They are down to earth, modest, understated, and disarming. This is definitely one of the firm's most endearing qualities, and an element that makes it a very comfortable environment in which to learn.


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Italian Cities in Review: Torino (Turin)
n an attempt to spread our travel net ever further afield, we grabbed our camera and boarded a three-hour train to Torino, the first capital of unified Italy and home to its once Royal family, the House of Savoy. This city has been given two strikingly dissimilar mottos: "the Detroit of Italy" and "little Paris." While car manufacture is one of its most important industries, I think you'll agree from the photos below that the French influence dominates in this mini Paris on the Po.
Continue reading…


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Ex-Computer Associates boss Sanjay Kumar began his almighty bowl of porridge yesterday when he checked in at a federal prison in New Jersey.
Kumar, 45, reported to the federal prison in Fairton, Reuters reports, to begin a 12 year sentence for his role in the $2.2bn accounting scandal at the software firm that cost shareholders over $400m.
Even as Kumar handed over his civvies for standard issue prison gear, he will presumably be thanking his lucky lawyers that he will be serving his sentence at the minimum security federal prison camp at the facility.
Apparently, up until he checked in with the feds, he did not know where he would be serving his sentence. Ex-CEOs are generally not known for gaining respect and running the rackets when they hit the rougher end of the US prison system. Few know to fashion a home-made shiv from a toothbrush, and most don't even have home-made tattoos for god's sake.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Kumar can expect "dormitory housing, a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio, and limited or no perimeter fencing".
He won't be bored either, as "these institutions are work and program-oriented". Indeed, "many are located adjacent to larger institutions or on military bases, where inmates help serve the labour needs of the larger institution or base".
According to the Prison Talk website, the food is "above average", while another poster says "was a good place to do my time".
Kumar struck a deal with prosecutors last year, pleading guilty to overseeing the infamous 35 day month accounting scam at the firm and to obstructing justice, just weeks before the case was due to go to trial. The case first blew up in 2004.
The company, now reborn as CA, was forced to restate years worth of results, and its new management has spent the last three years trying to scrub up its image in the wake of the scandal.
Apart from spending time in the prison camp, Kumar has been hit with an $8m fine, and must pay $800m back to shareholders. He has liquidated trusts and other assets to make a down payment of $52m, and will pay an ongoing 20 per cent of his annual income once he gets out of the slammer. Apparently, the government does not expect him to ever pay the full amount. ®


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Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman ended each of his long training-camp practices in Mankato last week the same way: He lined up his dog-tired players on the baseline and summoned one after another to the free-throw line until somebody inevitably missed. Then he blew his whistle and they all ran sprints from one end of the court to the other and in between.
And often the first player up and back was not little Luke Ridnour or J.J. Barea but rather big, bad Nikola Pekovic, the 6-10 European center with the skulls and warrior tattooed on his arm.
"You just don't see that with big guys," Adelman said.
He does now, after Pekovic came back from summer a few pounds lighter and most noticeably leaner, down from 12-plus percent body fat to 8 percent.
"I feel good, I feel stronger and everything," he said. "Most important for me is I can run more. That's something I can do. If I can run more, I can stay longer in the game."
Staying in the game was an issue his rookie season two years ago, but not because of his conditioning. Big and bruising, he had trouble learning what NBA referees considered a foul, and NBA referees probably took their time learning about him.
Playing time also became an issue late in last year's breakthrough season because of bone spurs on his ankles that first pained and then sidelined him.
Now the bone spurs are gone, shaved off during a May surgery, and Pekovic is entering his third NBA season -- a contract season for him -- wiser and noticeably leaner after a second season in which he contended for the league's Most Improved Player award.
"I feel somehow different this season," Pekovic said. "You know players. You know the league now. You know how everything works. It gives me more confidence."
Getting his chance
In one breath, he calls himself different. In the next, he contends he's the same player he was as a rookie.
What has changed, apparently, is simply opportunity.
"It's just different when you spend some time on the court, when somebody gives you a chance," he said. "If you play 25, 30 minutes, you have some chance to show something. You got more chance to score, to do some good stuff. If you're like only one, two minutes in the game, there's no chance."
He believes his leaner look will allow him to run better with his teammates and to play more minutes.
That new look also has caused Wolves fans concern on Twitter, where a smattering of them worried that he now might have turned himself into something of a weakling.
Remember, the guy's got a bed of skulls tattooed on his upper arm.
"He's slimmed down, but he's stronger," Adelman said. "You just watch him. Guys in the scrimmages just want out of there. They don't want to go against him. He's going to be crucial for us. If we have a guy who has to be our Iron Man, it's Pek. When we have him out there, he's such a force around the basket. It makes everybody else better."
Adelman calls Pekovic at center and two-time All-Star Kevin Love at power forward the only givens in his starting lineup during a preseason schedule in which Adelman plans to experiment with different combinations at the other three positions.
It sounds like Love hopes that tag-team pairing applies during practice scrimmages, too.
"I try to team up with him, I want him on my team," Love said. "I'm assuming I'll be on the court with him a lot this year. It's good to be on his side."
Adelman praised Pekovic's passing, of all things, after Thursday's practice, saying the big guy is seeing plays unfold and making passes that he didn't see from Pekovic all last season.
Adelman also wants Pekovic to expand his offensive game, which apparently means shooting the ball from beyond 2 feet.
"He can really shoot the ball from 15, 16 feet, he just never looks for it," Adelman said. "I offer him the three-pointer every time I talk to him about it, and he has not accepted that yet."
Pekovic said he is open to all suggestions, except maybe that three-point thing.
"Not yet, that is too far," he said. "The coaching staff is just asking, they think I can take those 15- to 18-foot shots. I don't know, I never shot that shot. I'll try to take them this year."
Either way, he will get paid big after this season for his seemingly unstoppable low-post game and intimidating court presence, not his outside shot.
The first player taken in the 2008 draft's second round, Pekovic will become a restricted free agent next July at age 27 if the Wolves don't sign him to a contract extension before them.
And remember: Pekovic plays in a league where big men Brook Lopez and Roy Hibbert just got maximum-sized deals and Houston just paid a guy named Omer Asik more than $8 million a year.
His agent, by the way, is Jeff Schwartz, who negotiated Al Jefferson's $65 million deal with the Wolves in 2007 and Love's four-year, $61 million-plus extension last winter.
"Yeah, he has a history with Wolves, but I know nothing about it," Pekovic said. "I'm just here to do my job, that's all. I'm not really trying to think in that way. I'm just trying to establish myself here. That's what I'm trying. After I do that, the money will come. I'm not really thinking about it in this moment."
The Wolves' summertime personnel moves have put them right at the NBA's salary cap, but they can choose to exceed it and pay Pekovic as much as they want up to the maximum salary because he is already on their roster.
Pekovic said he wants to stay in Minnesota.
"I would like to stay here because of everything," he said. "I just like everything. I like the area. I like the team. I like all the stuff. Now I got some friends here. Now it's real easy. It's just nice, nice people, nice town. I would like to be here."


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Shellbark Court
Havelock, North Carolina, 28532
Commute to Downtown Havelock
Almost all errands require a car.
Minimal bike infrastructure.
Shellbark Court has a Walk Score of 1 out of 100. This location is a Car-Dependent neighborhood so almost all errands require a car.
This location is in Havelock. Nearby parks include Havelock Athletic Complex, Recreation and Park Complex and Walter B. Jones Park.
Explore how far you can travel by car, bus, bike and foot from Shellbark Court.
View all Havelock apartments on a map.
This location is in the city of Havelock, NC. Havelock has an average Walk Score of 26 and has 20,735 residents.


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Dana Weinstein, a core faculty member of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT and assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has received a 2010 Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
DARPA's Defense Sciences Office grants these awards annually to junior faculty conducting research in the areas of the physical sciences, engineering and mathematics. The award is administered by DARPA's Defense Sciences Office and Microsystems Technology Office.
Weinstein and her MIT research group, the Hybrid Devices Lab, are working to develop innovative technologies for "more-than-Moore" devices. Their focus is on developing NEMS-enhanced electron devices to achieve high-Q, small footprint resonators at previously inaccessible frequencies with the capacity for direct integration in standard CMOS processes.
Weinstein's group has demonstrated acoustic resonance in Silicon-based Independent Gate FinFETs at multi-GHz frequencies with frequency-quality factor products rivaling those of quartz. Investigation of fundamental limits of this technology and exploration into device optimization, integration, and control will provide circuit designers with basic building blocks for RF and mm-wave applications, including wireless communication, high-accuracy frequency sources for timing applications and navigation, and integrated temperature sensing in CMOS.


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|"There are plenty of eye-witness accounts. Just because you're so narrow-minded you need to have everything shoved under your nose before you–"
This article contains a list of appearances, but currently has few or no notes and references. Please help the Harry Potter Wiki by adding notes and/or references to bring this article to a higher standard of quality.
|"Are you a wizard or not?"
The title of this article is conjectural. Although it is based on canonical information, the actual name is a conjecture and may be supplanted at any time by additional information released from canonical sources. If this occurs, please move this page to the appropriate title.
- Peter Pettigrew: "You don't understand! He would have killed me, Sirius!"
- Sirius Black: "THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED! DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"
- Remus Lupin: "You should have realised if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Good-bye, Peter."
- — Sirius Black and Remus Lupin prepare to kill their former friend[src]
During the 1993–1994 school year, Sirius Black engaged in an attempt to kill Peter Pettigrew and avenge the deaths of James and Lily Potter.
Despite the hindrance of being a fugitive from the Ministry of Magic and Peter being well-protected inside Hogwarts Castle disguised as a pet rat owned by Ronald Weasley, Sirius eventually managed to get Peter away from the castle and to the Shrieking Shack. However, in the end, Peter escaped, and would contribute to his master's return almost a year later.
Background information
Marauders Hogwarts Years (1971-1978)
Peter's betrayal of the Potters
- "I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as Secret-Keeper instead of me...."
- —Sirius Black discusses the Secret-Keeper gambit[src]
Unbeknownst to them, Peter was a double agent actually working for Voldemort, and quickly turned the location of the Potters over to his master. Though he would be unsuccessful at killing Harry Potter due to Lily's sacrificial protection and was reduced to a mere broken soul without a body for over a decade, Voldemort did managed to kill both James and Lily thanks to Peter's betrayal. Upon seeing the Potter's cottage in ruin, Pettigrew deduced what happened and retrieved Voldemort's wand to prevent the Ministry from inspecting it to discover his treason. Sirius deduced Peter's backstabbing from a lack of struggle at his hiding place.
Sirius's first attempt at revenge
- "I — I will never forget it. I still dream about it sometimes. A crater in the middle of the street, so deep it cracked the sewer below. Bodies everywhere. Muggles screaming. And Black standing there laughing, with what was left of Pettigrew in front of him...a heap of bloodstained robes and a few — a few fragments."
- —Cornelius Fudge's incorrect assumptions of what happened that morning[src]
The following day, 1 November, Sirius cornered Peter on a street in London, intending to kill Peter for his betrayal. However, Peter was too quick and set off a Blasting Curse, killing twelve innocent Muggles and creating a diversion, allowing Pettigrew to cut off one of his fingers, take on his rat form, and escape. As this left a large amount of incriminating evidence against Sirius, who had been laughing maniacally due to believing Peter has finally died, he was arrested and, without a trial, sent to Azkaban for the next twelve years. Peter would later make his way into the ownership of the Weasley family as a pet rat, and was owned by Ronald Weasley by the time of Sirius's escape.
The murder attempt
Sirius's escape and trip to Hogwarts
- "He's at Hogwarts...He's at Hogwarts [...] "
- —Sirius Black obsessing over Peter Pettigrew[src]
News of Sirius's breakout soon became nationwide and "Have You Seen This Wizard?"-posters were soon hung up everywhere. It was until he was seen by a Muggle woman in Dufftown, not far from Hogwarts, who immediately informed the Crime Watchers Hotline. The Ministry of Magic Witch Watchers eventually got word of this and arrived at the place with hundreds of Dementors; however, Sirius Black was gone at the time they arrived.
Attempt at Hallowe'en
After eventually arriving at the castle, Sirius made his first attempt on 31 October, correctly assuming that most of the staff and students would be in the Great Hall having the traditional Hallowe'en feast. In addition, Sirius might have chosen the date, as it was the twelfth anniversary of Voldemort's attack on the Potters. Though he made it as far as the Fat Lady, she refused to admit him without a password. In a rage, Sirius made a vain attempt to slash his way into the common room with his knife, frightening off the Fat Lady, before quickly making his escape. He managed to elude the staff's total search of the castle and grounds for him, and went back to planning his next attempt.
Attempt in Feburary
- Sirius: "I found him."
- Remus: "I know."
- Sirius: "He's here."
- Remus: "I understand."
- Sirius: "Let's kill him!"
- — Sirius and Remus in the Shrieking Shack[src]
Sometime afterward, Sirius met Crookshanks, the pet cat of Hermione Granger. After communicating that he wanted to kill a rat belong to Ronald Weasley, Crookshanks set off for Gryffindor Tower. Though he failed to capture Peter, Crookshanks did bring back a list of passwords that Neville Longbottom had gotten from Sir Cadogan. Armed with this, Sirius once more broke into the castle, taking off to the Gryffindor Boys' Dormitory and standing over Ron's bed. Unfortunately, he found that Peter had gotten wise and faked being eaten by Crookshanks, and thus was no longer in the castle. Ron woke up and yelled, and Sirius only barely escaped before the staff showed up.
Final attempt
- Sirius Black: "Forgive me, Remus."
- Remus Lupin: "Not at all, Padfoot, my old friend. And will you, in turn, forgive me for believing you were the spy?"
- Sirius Black: "Of course. Shall we kill him together?"
- — Sirius Black and Remus Lupin reconcile and prepare to kill Peter Pettigrew[src]
Eventually, on 6 June, Sirius saw that Ron, along with Harry and Hermione, had managed to find Peter again. Though Peter attempted to flee, Sirius attacked Ron, carrying them both to the passage beneath the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack, with Harry and Hermione following quickly behind with Crookshanks's assistance. Remus Lupin, who saw this all happen on the Marauder's Map he had confiscated from Harry earlier that year, would follow after a short time.
After a struggle, Sirius and Remus, the latter only fully understanding after seeing Peter on the Map, explained to Harry, Ron, and Hermione the above events, and managed to convince them that Sirius was innocent of the crime for which he had been convicted. Before they could reveal Peter, however, Severus Snape, who had seen Remus heading for the Whomping Willow on the Map when coming to give him his Wolfsbane Potion, arrived, hidden under the Cloak of Invisibility Harry had left outside the Willow. He refused to believe Sirius's story and was only stopped from taking him to the dementors by a triple Disarming Charm from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, knocking him unconscious.
After this diversion, Remus and Sirius revealed Peter and proved Sirius's story. Though they were fully prepared to kill their former friend, Harry interjected at the last moment, saying that James wouldn't have wanted his friends to become murderers, and instead opting to offer Peter up to the dementors.
Unfortunately, this did not go as expected. That night happened to be a full moon, and Remus, who was chained to both Peter and Ron, took on his werewolf form. In the resulting chaos, Peter escaped once more and Sirius's name was not cleared. Indeed, only the clever actions of Hermione and her Time-Turner saved Sirius from the Dementor's Kiss. As prophesied by Sybill Trelawney earlier that night, Peter would go on to rejoin Voldemort, and was a major contributor in his rebirth almost one year later.
During the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor in the spring of 1998, Harry reminded Pettigrew of how the former had saved the latter's life from Sirius and Remus nearly four years earlier. Pettigrew relented momentarily, but was soon killed by the silver hand that he was given to by Voldemort after the latter's return.
Behind the scenes
- In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, instead of having Pettigrew chained to Ron and Remus, the scene has Ron being tended to by Hermione and Remus standing with his wand pointed at Pettigrew when the full moon emerges. Remus then drops his wand which is taken by Pettigrew, who attempts to curse Sirius before being Disarmed by Harry.
- Also, in the film, Pettigrew suggests they turn him into a Flobberworm as an alternative to handing him over to the Dementors.
- In the film, when Harry knocks out Snape, they leave him there instead of binding and levitating him. As a result, Snape comes out of the Whomping Willow on his own, when the transformed Lupin is about to attack Harry and his friends.


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FREE METAL!!! Get A Free Download of DAITRIBE's New Song, "I Hate Me"!
DaiTribe are getting ready to unleash their new album Epochalypse A.D. later this Spring. The album was recorded at Farview Audio by Jason "Jay" Walsh and mixed by Sterling Winfield (Pantera, Hatebreed, and Mercyful Fate). The artwork was done by Mark Alano who is also known for his work with Mecca and Grammy Award Winner Jim Peterik. The album is scheduled for an April 17th release date via True Gemini Records
DaiTribe are giving away a free download of their new single "I Hate Me". The track can be accessed by "liking" the band on Facebook. Head to www.facebook.com/daitribe and click "Like", then on the top of the page the DaiTribe app will appear. Once you click on that, you will be prompted to download your free mp3 of "I Hate Me"
DaiTribe's new video for their first single entitled "I Hate Me" is being streamed exclusively by Metal Injection and can be viewed HERE. The video was shot in Chicago, IL and directed by Nathaniel E. Bell.
DaiTribe (pronounced die – tribe) featuring Ricky Riccardo/bass, Rich Collins/vocals, Tristan '1690' Grigsby/guitar, Michael 'Cat' Grigsby/drums} was formed in 1998 by Cat, 1690, & Ricky in Chicago. Over the next 5 years, the band wrote, recorded, and toured the United States. In 2005, they released the direct to radio EP "The Second Coming".
Epochalypse A.D. Tracklisting
1. For The Sins
2. My Eyes
3. I Hate Me
4. Liar Messiahs
5. Betray
6. This Hell
7. Crime Legacy
8. Redemption
9. False Hopes
10. Control
11. Sanctuary
12. Loss By Distance
For More Info Visit:


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- Barcoding
- Printing
- Mobile Computing
- POS Equipment
- Wireless
- Brands
- 1-800-485-3730
You have no items in your shopping cart.
Setting A New Standard For Industrial Portable Data Collection Terminals
Falcon 335 Features:
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The Falcon 335 has a sleek, IP54 rated, environmentally sealed case and built-in, front-shooting laser. Its powerful 486 processor, running at 33 MHz, operates under DOS 6.22. The Falcon 335 comes with 8 MB of RAM standard, 2 MB of Flash ROM, an internal PC Card Slot, a 16-line screen. There are two keyboard options: the standard 38 key alphanumeric keypad and the 25-key large numeric keypad. Open architecture ensures easy application development. And the Falcon 335 wireless terminal is available with PowerNet Twin Client™ to support VT100, VT220, HP700/92, IBM 3270 and IBM 5250 terminal emulations with screen formatter, allowing swift and simple integration into your existing legacy system.
While the Falcon 335 provides ideal batch data collection solutions, the Falcon 335 , a wireless data collection terminal, excels in data collection throughut the supply chain where real-time access to dat is required. Its internal antenna is protected and its 2.4Ghz spread spectrum radio options include Cisco Aironet, Lucent (Agere) Orinoco, Proxim and Symbol radio support for maximum flexibility. The Falcon 335 has raised the bar in RF, real-time data collection technology.
With international quality standards set by ISO 9000, Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), Just In Time (JIT), and Total Quality Control (TQC), companies are required to have documented procedures and effective automated data capture applications, such as inventory control, work in progress, labor tracking, receiving-putaway and pick/ship systems. The aptly named Falcon soars in this tough environment.
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Falcon 335 Dimensions
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3 Item(s)


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My company has 20 people. We all use Google Docs. As I continue to get Docs sent my way, I'm organizing them (via collections), but I realize everyone else is organizing them as well. This is a great feature, but it seems like there is a better way to organize docs so that others can find them and not everyone has to organize them.
Does anyone have suggestions on resources for best practices for organizing Google Docs for the entire organization?
I know I can use collections and share them instead of individual docs.


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I read in some presentation that des, 3 des, aes are all acceptable by hipaa but not RSA.
Is it so? Why?
I am looking for the least complex algo that I should use if I were to pass HIPAA compliance. I am sending some data using sockets to my internent server from PDAs and mobile phones using j2ME.


text:
CHICAGO — Rough waves and gale force winds in the form of missed deadlines and a federal investigation are whipping around Bally Total Fitness. The crew has tossed some executives and accountants overboard while others have jumped ship. As the Blackstone Group tries to steer the vessel back on course, some investors nervously wait for the captain, Bally CEO Paul Toback, to announce what lies ahead.
Bally, the nation's largest operator of commercial health clubs, is sailing on uncharted waters, and analysts, investors and the fitness industry are waiting for numbers from Bally as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues its investigation of the company. The Chicago-based fitness operator missed the July 31 deadline for filing financials for 2002 through 2004 and has requested a 90-day extension from its lenders. As of press time, the company hadn't received an extension from debtholders and extended its consent date for solicitation of waivers from July 26 to July 28. If 50 percent of the lenders don't grant Bally an extension, then Bally will be in technical default on some of its $757 million debt.
In a July 13 conference call, Bally attributed the filing delay to the complexity of the accounting issues and the fact that several of its key executives — its chief financial officer, treasurer, controller and assistant controller — were hired in recent months. Its accounting firm, Ernst and Young, was also replaced with KPMG LLP in November 2004. Toback said that Bally, which is working with the Blackstone Group on a turnaround strategy, has made progress toward completing the audit but needs more time.
"It's more important to get the accounting right than to do it hastily or haphazardly," he said.
In the past six months, the audit committee and the new finance team uncovered more than two dozen errors in Bally's past accounting, Toback said. Last November, the company was aware of three primary errors — it recognized revenue more quickly than it should have, it made an error in the recording of $22 million of repayment obligations and it neglected to remove the installment contract receivables and the corresponding amount of deferred revenue from the balance sheet. After 14 months of work including hiring new auditors and investigating the complex accounting issues, Toback said his company is close to being able to release the audited financials. However, some analysts are growing tired of waiting for results.
"For the past year, we haven't been able to gauge how well or poorly they are doing because we don't have enough financial information to make a decision," said John Maxwell, managing director of fixed income research for Merrill Lynch in New York City. "It's a concern because people have been waiting for well over a year to get audited financials. It's making some people nervous."
Change of Leadership
After the announcement of the missed deadline, one of the company's largest shareholders — Liberation Investment Group, which owns 12 percent of the company's outstanding shares — called for a change in leadership, prompting a volley of letters between the group and Bally's board of directors. Emanuel Pearlman, chairman and CEO of Liberation Investment Group in Los Angeles, sent a letter to the board on July 13 urging them to oust Toback, immediately commence a search for a new CEO and appoint Pearlman to the board. In the letter, he stated that he was surprised and disappointed by Bally's inability to meet generous, self-imposed deadlines, which were accepted by the public debtholders.
"In our estimation, last week's announcements are further evidence that Bally's management team continues to flounder in its efforts to set the company on a path to maximize shareholder value, and as a result, we believe the capital markets have now lost any and all confidence in current management," he said. "We believe that Bally Total Fitness desperately needs new leadership at this time in order to restore investor credibility and move the company forward."
Pearlman went on to say that the company's significantly depressed stock price has been sending a clear, strong message for some time now that Bally is not heading in the right direction. In the past five years, the value of Bally's stock has plunged 88 percent, and as of press time, it was holding steady at $3.57 a share. In response to Pearlman's letter, the board issued a letter expressing its support for Toback and the management team and unanimously declining Pearlman's appointment to the board.
"We have every confidence that Mr. Toback and his team are on the right track and have the right plan to restore Bally to financial success," said the letter from the directors. "Any efforts to destabilize the company, particularly during a critical debt consent solicitation process, are damaging to our ability to return Bally to profitability."
The board's letter noted that Pearlman served as an advisor to former CEO Lee Hillman during the years in which the financials must be restated. During that time, the stock price fell from a high in the $20-range to a low in the $6-range, and the company took on unprecedented levels of new debt and expensive acquisitions, without an operating plan or a capital market plan to increase shareholder value, according to the letter.
"Our shareholders have already experienced your approach to creating value, and we think your historical actions — and the millions of dollars your ideas have cost the company and shareholders to date — speak for themselves," the board said.
In a follow-up letter to the SEC, Gregg Frankel, president of Liberation, took issue with the tone of the board's letter. He also said that Pearlman served as an outside advisor to Bally on a limited number of specific transactions during the time in question and was personally retained by Toback during the first six months of 2003. He then said that during the two years that need to be restated, Toback signed the financial statements. The board members followed up with a letter that reiterated their support of Toback and his turnaround plan.
Pearlman isn't the only one who thinks it's time for a change. A large shareholder and a small bondholder who responded to Club Industry's Fitness Business Pro's online survey and wished to remain nameless, agreed.
"As long-term shareholders, we have lost confidence in the CEO, and find it absurd that to date, every issue at the company was blamed on someone else," they said. "The CEO has yet to take responsibility for anything, and that is unacceptable given that he has been the CEO for two years and COO for another two. Operating issues and to some extent accounting issues are his responsibility."
In a July 27 interview, Toback said that as CEO of the company, he took responsibility for everything under his leadership; however, he said he wasn't responsible for the company's accounting policies, which are the subject of the investigation, until he became CEO. He also said Bally's need to keep quiet while it is auditing financials from 2000 through 2004 has hurt the company's ability to communicate effectively with shareholders.
"People need to withhold judgment on the performance until they see the numbers," Toback said. "We are moving through a company transformation and an audit process at an amazing pace given the amount of work to do."
What's Ahead for Bally
To improve the company's financial position, Toback and his team are evaluating non-core assets and may close underperforming clubs. Bally currently owns Crunch, Gorilla Sports, Pinnacle Fitness and Sports Clubs of Canada, but the company announced this summer that it was shopping around Crunch. Toback said the company may consider selling some of its other assets to maximize value for shareholders. Part of Bally's strategy to leverage its debt centers around the sale of Crunch, which it bought for about $90 million in a cash/stock transaction in December 2001. Toback said by selling Crunch, Bally would be able to focus on its core business — mid-market health clubs in major cities.
If a sale occurs, Toback said Bally would need to use the majority of the proceeds to repay its debt. But if Bally can't get the right price for Crunch, the company plans to continue running the 21 clubs.
While selling Crunch may satisfy short-term debt holders, it won't make Bally's debt go away, said consultant Michael Scott Scudder.
"They may be able to get the debt holders off their back for awhile and buy themselves six months, but it's hard to increase sales in a mature company such as Bally," he said. "Unless they can rapidly increase sales and decrease expenses, they'll have this tremendous burden of debt to get out from under."
Whether or not Bally can decrease its debt through asset sales, the SEC investigation still looms, causing investors and analysts to question what lies ahead.


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