text:
Further evidence has emerged of the irrelevance of Windows 8 to enterprise IT – and of the irrelevance of this irrelevance.
A Forrester survey of IT hardware decision makers has found Windows 8 is less popular than its predecessor Windows 7 at the same stage in their launch cycles.
Just a quarter of firms expect to roll out Windows 8 versus half for Windows 7 back in 2009. Just 5 per cent plan to update to Windows 8 in the next 12 months, compared to 10 per cent in 2010.
The fact enterprises are not interested in Windows 8 and have no plans to migrate should come as little surprise for two reasons.
One is that a vast majority are only now beginning to move to Windows 7, thanks to the impending demise of Windows XP. Windows XP to Windows 7 means an application rewrite for many, and getting off Internet Explorer 6 - unless they use a get-around such as Browsium's Ion.
The other reason is Microsoft's own field sales team are pushing Windows 7. The goal for Microsoft's fiscal year 2013 is 70 per cent of enterprise PCs running Windows 7.
Taken together, these two facts are one reason statements such as this from analysts like Forrester are obvious.
However, Forrester is looking in the wrong direction. Despite what Microsoft would try to have us believe - that Windows 8 is business-ready - businesses are not Microsoft's big focus on Windows 8. And that's why talk of lack of interest among IT shops is irrelevant.
Microsoft wants Windows 8 to prove a hit with consumers, hence the decision to produce and promote Glee-style ads for Surface.
If this strategy is successful then Microsoft can secure an end-run around enterprise IT as consumers bring Windows 8 devices into work. Then, IT shops will end up supporting Windows 8 on their network; there's no need for hardware types in the IT shop to bother refreshing their own PCs.
Twenty per cent, or one in five, of those surveyed said they'd prefer Windows 8 on their next touchscreen tablet – almost the same as iOS - according to Forrester. The only curiosity is that Forrester has included Windows 7.
"Which operating system would you prefer to use on your next tablet?" was the question Forrester asked. The survey respondents gave Windows 8 equal billing to iOS, but Windows 7 pulled in 12 per cent support, placing it third.
Given that Windows 7 has no touch capability to speak of, this suggests users want to stick with what they know and to make their existing apps work in a world of touch. This is not what Microsoft wants, however. It wants people to buy new Windows 8 licences and for people to buy Windows 8 on new machines.
While existing Windows 7 apps will run on Windows 8, what you can't do is pinch, squeeze or swipe them and you don't get the data and interface integration that comes with apps for Windows 8.
It's early days for Microsoft's Windows 8 BYOD hopes. From what we're seeing, Windows RT- and Windows 8-based tablets from Microsoft and others are not materialising in numbers and Gartner doesn't expect sales will provide the much-needed jolt to the chest of the flatlining PC industry during the Christmas period.
The test for Microsoft's plan to subvert corporate IT will be whether Windows 8 devices arrive in large enough numbers through the established PC-makers' channel to make a difference. If they do, and this results in a reasonable level of sales, Redmond is surely hoping the touchy fondletops and tiled phondleslabs will barge their way into the enterprise in the same way that Apple's iPhone and iPad once did. ®


text:
With regional services across the country, the Express Scripts Canada Pharmacy is transforming the Canadian prescription drug landscape and the way patients make decisions about their medications.
The truth is that most employees simply don't understand how their benefit plan works, so they make decisions that lead to waste: increased costs that don't contribute to improved health outcomes.
Express Scripts Canada leverages Health Decision ScienceTM to help members understand and make better decisions about their maintenance medication options. This innovative pharmacy service also puts tools in place to make it easier for them to take medications as prescribed.
At the very centre of the Express Scripts Canada strategy are pharmacists who act as proactive member advocates.
And it works. Results have been proven with clients across Canada.
Benefits to sponsors
✓ Immediate and ongoing savings
✓ Sustainability
✓ Improved adherence
✓ Easy implementation
✓ Step-by-step launch support
Benefits to members
✓ Pharmacist is a member advocate
✓ Free delivery in Canada
✓ Auto refills and reminders
✓ Pharmacists on call 24/7
✓ Online transfer and refill requests

subset: commoncrawl


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Murphy returns to left field
ANAHEIM -- David Murphy was back in left field for the Rangers on Tuesday, one game after having a rough night in right field. Murphy, replacing Nelson Cruz in right, misplayed two fly balls, and manager Ron Washington decided he was better off in left. Engel Beltre, who started in left field on Monday, was in right field on Tuesday.
"I'm just trying to get everybody comfortable," Washington said. "David has played right field before, and he's comfortable out there, but he's more comfortable in left field. I trust David no matter where I put him."
Beltre played mostly center field in the Minor Leagues but has played both corner spots. Leonys Martin is the Rangers' regular center fielder, but Washington likes to shift him to a corner when Craig Gentry is in the lineup. Washington said Gentry is his best defensive center fielder.
Washington said that when Martin does play on the corner, it will most likely be in right field. Martin has played six games in left and 16 in right, and Washington believes he is better in right.
"He's better at seeing the ball from center toward right," Washington said. "He's not as comfortable in left and I don't want him out there scared. I want him playing with aggressiveness."
The Rangers want to look at Joey Butler in left field. He played mainly right field in the Minor Leagues because he has an excellent throwing arm. But he could be an alternative in left for Murphy against left-handers.


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All Aspects: The Derek Smart AAW Interview
You suspect 3000AD's Derek Smart is the man the phrase "outspoken developer" was coined for. He's… oh, you have an opinion, don't you? Whether or not you've played – or could even name – one of his games, everyone's got a take on Smart. He's also a perennial PC gaming figure which we haven't talked to yet. With All Aspect Warfare approaching release, we thought it time to change all that. Talk about where he's coming from, going to and – whisper it – whether he was actually right all along. Along the way, we take in the death of Space Sims, Steam's power being over-estimated, his take on the Space MMOs, some cheery demonization of EA and… well, whether he ever regrets comment threads.
Join us.
RPS: Okay, from the top: All Aspect Warfare. Could you explain its germination? How do you think it fits in with your other games? Is it fair to say the scope is more focused this time around? Or is the focus just different?
Derek Smart: Well, apparent by the time we released our last space combat game, Echo Squad SE, that the days of space sims – as a viable business – were pretty much over. The genre is as dead as a doornail; and anyone who says any different, has maybe one or two other day jobs, lives on Ramen noodles and their monthly bills amount to a monthly grocery trip.
Seeing that we very well couldn't make the same kinds of money over the years on the genre – short of rolling out our MMO (which is still about eighteen months away) based on our existing properties – I decided to do a game in between. A sort of stepping stone if you will. Sure it could have been KnightBlade, the space game we were planning on doing for PC/XB360. But given that no publisher in their right minds is going to sign a space combat game – let alone a console one, I decided to play it safe and put that game on ice and start a new game from scratch. Plus I wanted a break to do something else for a change.
When you have a franchise property you've spent decades on (in my case, twenty plus years already), you don't just abandon it and start from scratch. Most especially not when you have a large install base. So this game, though radically different (for one thing, it is not a space game), takes places within our pre-existing game world and mythos.
The focus is 100% on planet side aerial and infantry combat. The game was designed, developed and fine tuned specifically for that. Which is why the majority of our technologies were either written from scratch or heavily revised for this game. It has been a HUGE investment. We'll see if it pays off or not.
RPS: Is the space-combat game actually dead then? What can resurrect it? I'm interested in how older genres have been unexpectedly rejuvenated – I mean, the Adventure game finding a new home as webgames and on the Wii of all places. See an opportunity anywhere, or is it just the MMO?
Derek Smart: Yeah, its dead, Jim.
Well, you just hit it right there on the head. While adventure, war games etc are no longer mainstream – as far as retail publishing goes – there is grassroots support for it by gamers and developers alike. The way I see it, a publisher won't bother with a game that won't sell five copies. However, a developer (or web publisher/developer) who knows that he only needs to sell two copies for his break even, can still survive by going the alternate publishing route. More often than not, they often end up making more money than if they went with a publisher. Why? Because if you sell direct, the money goes to you directly.
If you have a traditional publisher, you have to wait to get paid. If they actually do pay.
Nevertheless, nothing beats the sheer number, volume and face time than retail gives. But that brick and mortar model is on the way out. The publishers know it. The retailers know it. It is only a matter of time before retail becomes an afterthought. Much like mainstream PC gaming.
There are so many opportunities for online distribution these days, that there is no longer an excuse to not do it. The biggest decision you're going to be faced with is who to go with and how many. On one hand, you can sell through a lot of portals and dilute your metrics or go through a single [popular] portal and cross your fingers. That's like selling to Walmart and not bothering with the likes of Best Buy, Target etc. If that's how you roll.
And believe it or not Steam -even with its "Valve games powered numbers" – is not the leading online digital distribution portal. IGN's Direct2Drive still is. Primarily due to their very diversified game portfolio, non-preferential treatment, developer friendly rules, brain dead straightforward contract, friendly and responsive sales and develop personnel etc. Gamer's Gate is the same way. Been working these two and several other smaller portals (e.g. Digital River, BMT Micro) for many years now and have no complaints or qualms.
All of a sudden, everyone wants to get on Steam. It is easy to scream up to the rafters about hozillion subscribers. It doesn't mean squat if a good portion of those are only on Steam specifically for the exceedingly popular Valve games. And I know for a fact that I'm right. Otherwise, you'd have already seen product specific numbers (like you do with NPD and such) from Steam already to backup those claims. Sure you'd get a sales spike there every now and then. But so what? You'd get the same sales spike if you put the game on any of the other portal and offered the same price, period and conditions. Marketing is marketing, no matter how many gimmicks you wrap around it. Selling a gamer a game he already owns, is the ultimate gimmick. That's like selling ice to Eskimos.
The point is that even if you didn't want to setup your own storefront, if you have a finished product – specifically a game – you can get it online rather quickly and start selling through the developer friendly portals without having to go through the same bullshit you normally would if were going with a traditional publisher. Plus, you'll get paid – and on time. All done automatically.
Seriously, you can get a game on a good portal in under a week. Tops. In fact, the biggest delay is probably in getting the DRM scheme that they use, sorted out because the contracts themselves are just fill in the blanks simple.
There are also other upcoming ones which target a specific demographic. e.g. GoG. I mean, was that a brilliant idea or what? Its like retro bargain bin hunting. Hopefully they can get a lot more classics on there. But my guess is that the biggest hassle they're faced with is tracking down the developers/publishers, finding out who actually owns the rights to properties etc. GameTap went through the same thing. It ain't easy.
In many of my legacy interviews, I said – quite clearly – that MMO games and digital distribution, were the wave of the future. Those interviews are still up on my website to this day. And guess what? That's exactly where we are today and specifically for PC games which will never be able to make their way to retail shelves.
So the way I see it, space games may be on the out, but they can be revitalized in the online distribution space. If the game is good and there are gamers out there who would rather buy than pirate (bastards) it, you can probably made a decent return on investment. But given the thinned out popularity of the genre, I wouldn't quit my day job to develop and sell a space sim. Especially one that didn't already have an incubated fan base. Seriously.
Just look around and see how many mainstream space combat developer from the old days are still in business today. I'm sure that if you approached Larry Holland [Totally Games, of X-Wing series fame – Ed] today about doing a space game, he'd probably (depending on the size of his bank account at the time) just laugh and saunter off in mild amusement. The same thing could be said for Egosoft. I'm sure they're hurting – but my guess is you won't see another X3 game for a long time because there is a point (the point I reached with the last niche space game) where you have to say enough is enough to derivative works.
There is a good reason why, for example, David Braben has been threatening to unleash Elite IV since Nixon was president and why you still haven't seen it – and probably never will. At least not until you grow Grey hairs in places you didn't realize could actually sprout hairs.
RPS: Your games have been… okay, let's go with "divisive". If you go with something as simple as a metacritic score, they're always mixed. Yet despite that, you're a perennial PC-developer who seems to have found an audience who appreciates your vision. Would you think this fair? If so, how does AAW fit here – both in terms of reaching new players and the pleasing old ones?
Derek Smart: Divisive huh? Well, that's new. Usually I get sentiments ranging from mediocre to challenging…and all the way to the crap end of that particularly ecclectic opinions spectrum reserved by gamers solely for the purpose of expressing repressed emotions. You know, the kind that controlled substances, therapy or resolved Mommy issues don't quite fix.
Seriously though, I love what I do. For me, being a sci-fi geek who grew up on all things sci-fi, getting into space games was a no-brainer. Sure I could have picked another genre (e.g. RTS) and still gone the sci-fi route, but even as a kid, I had always been fascinated by space and all its mysteries and such.
Playing games like Elite, Star Flight, Echelon etc just sold me right there and then. Once I decided to go out and make my own game instead of just sitting around playing someone else's, I realized that life as I once knew it, was, well, over. I always felt that I could take the genre further.
My previous games – as you well know – are designed and developed for a specific group of people. I didn't – and still don't – care about the people outside that classification. My games, you either like them or you don't. There is no in between, no fuzzy logic and certainly no repressed emotions. You can't win over everybody and trying to do that is just a lesson in futility. So, I've always targeted like minded folks. And once that segment grew large enough to sustain my company, I decided to just keep doing it. Twenty years and thirteen (and at least two more to come) games later.
For this game, the goal is the same. While we're not targeting the space combat fan base, I'm sure that those guys play other games too. So this is a chance to see how well (or bad) we do outside of our (space combat) comfort zone. As I've been telling the publishers we've been speaking to, if you want a cookie cutter fps game, this ain't it. Which is why we have been providing them with the game's docs first and foremost. Those who like what they read enough to play the game, go on to request an eval. So far, we've had some good responses and feedback. So I think we're on the right track.
Apart from the fact that this is a "Thinking man's fps", a lot of the technologies were designed with various genres and gamers in mind. For e.g. the aerial combat aspect features proper cockpit and camera views, awesome flight dynamics and avionics. And oh yeah, a proper camera – not that rubbish those other guys are currently pushing and frustrating gamers all over. So an aerial combat flight jock is going to feel right at home, even if the only time he ever steps foot on solid ground – or fire a weapon – is when he's searching for a fighter to jack. You start off in the ground, in fps mode. None of that "start and end in the air" crap.
As to the infantry combat aspect, it is all skills and experience based. If you don't have the skills or the experience points to fly a fighter, you're never – ever – going to be able to get in one. This leaves flying to jocks and the rest of the heavy lifting to the infantry guys. And even they need experience points to drive most of the vehicles in the game or man the numerous ground surface to air missile and gun units. When I designed this, I didn't want any of the rubbish you see on other game servers where it is a free-for-all and with mostly griefers.
Oh, and – btw, IMO – Metacritic scores are the greatest injustice to the creative minds that actually work (yeah, some of us actually do that) to bring fun (and a balanced level of frustration) to gamers. Apart from the fact that it doesn't contain "scores" from all print and on-line media reviews, its just plain wrong to use that as a yardstick for measuring excellence or failure when in fact the data sampling is hardly indicative of a true weight/ratio analysis based on the written word. But that's a whole other interview.
RPS: Following on from the last question… do you think that makes you ahead of the curve? As in, realising you don't need everyone to love you. There seems to be more and more people who work in PC gaming who seem to realise that actually servicing a niche of people who care about a certain approach and then making a game with a suitable budget is something that's sustainable and worth doing – especially when you're one of those people who want the game you're making. You've been doing that for years.
Derek Smart: Well, it is only now when most of them either find themselves on the receiving end of redundancy or losing money hand over fist, that this common sense notion hits them. A lot of companies and small devs have been doing that for years. Most – if not all, like us, are still in business. Mostly it is greed and bad planning that gets some of these companies into trouble. Why spend $250K making a game and sell it to 100K people who actually want it, when you can blow $10m on a wildcard while trying to get 500K people to buy it? The mainstream economics of game development today makes absolutely no sense to me. It all boils down to bloat and mismanagement.
Plus I blame EA.
They started this bullshit about how games worth having or which are to be considered high end, would and should cost North of $30m because of the "next gen consoles". It was retarded bullshit then. It is retarded bullshit now. And their shareholders are wondering where their money went right about now. Look no further than the likes of Eidos, Atari and every single one of them who bet big – and lost. Meanwhile, guys like us, Stardock and everyone in between and around, are still around making our low budget games for a group of people who actually enjoy them.
When I did my first game, the fact that I didn't go straight out of business and back into the realms of obscurity is because a group of people saw what it was I was trying to do. So, they stuck around. Funny that. But since 1996 when I released my first game, the game that started it all has had no less than eleven iterations, derivatives, sequels and the like. Why? Because those small group of people keep buying the games. Some new ones come on board along the way and some get to stick around, while some get to move on. The economics is simple, if someone isn't buying a game, why spend time, effort and money making it. So even with all the crap you see some gamers writing about games – they probably never even played – and which they claim suck, you have to wonder which planet they hail from.
The same thing here with All Aspect Warfare. Take our small budget (though this game has a higher budget than our previous games) and build a smallish game for a specific group of people.
I always joke with Sergio (one of my fellow developers) that if someone were ever (foolish enough) to give us $30m to make a game, that I was going to buy an island, disappear and leave him $2m to make the same game. :)
RPS: As everybody knows, co-op's been one of the bigger trends of the last few years – I'm interested in how you've approached the issue and what the key of it for AAW is. Purely going on my own recollections, while my really early co-op memories were arcades, in terms of the late 90s/early00s, what little co-op there was seemed really quite hardcore. Like – say – Flashpoint, which is very much that realistic thinking man shooter's sort of thing. While it lead to agreeable chaos, it was more grounded than the mental chaos which most co-op games lean towards now. What sort of pacing does AAW's Co-op have?
Derek Smart: Well, in our game co-op is basically a multiplayer mode in which the four team members in the story mode campaign are replaced by human players.
The pacing is no different than if you were playing the scenario alongside the three NPC team members. The only difference is that you would expect your human team mates to actually make intelligent decisions and work together to achieve the objectives. But my guess is none of that (intelligent decision) is going to happen. But since voice chat will be available, you'll be able to scream out obscenities on the fly and have them mean something.
The largest obstacle to co-op in games is the handling of NPC characters. Primarily who to attack, when and how. For us, an NPC targets list is prioritized. So its not like they're going to attack player A who is 100m away, while ignoring player B who is standing right next to them.
No big deal really. I always wanted co-op for this game. Playing L4D just solidified my suspicions as to what it is we needed to aim for in doing it the no-frills but correct way.
RPS: Could you talk more about the experience system and multiplayer? I presume that your skills will be linked in a central server if you're trying to make characters develop classes which they can't easily grief. Or am I just making nonsense up out of my head again?
Derek Smart: Well as we (gamers that is) all know, Games For Windows Live is severely lacking. Since we just decided to do our own thing.
And doing our own thing means that we get to control the fate of our game, our servers, our player base, our patching etc. Our IP. Our worlds. Our rules. Nobody gets to hold us to ever shifting standards. Standards which tend to be relaxed for some (publishers) while steadfastly enforced for others. To this end, we just built ours from the ground up and tied it directly into the game. The way we did it is simple. You can play the multiplayer game using the game's built-in server browser where you can host and/or join a game. There is no stats saving. So when you quit the server, it is all gone.
If you wanted to play on (ranked) stats saving servers, you have to use our external GameLobby app seen here. Doing so requires you to create a unique UserID (aka GamerTag) which is then stored on our servers. For your stats to be updated and tracked on the server, you have to always join a server this way. You can then look at your real-time stats and compare against others on our leaderboards over here. During multiplayer (there is no stats saving/tracking in single player), your kills, rank, Experience Points etc are tracked and updated in real-time, all the time. Since XP is tied directly into the game (e.g. you need a certain amount of XP in single and multiplayer to use certain vehicles, do certain things etc), the higher your XP, the more things you can do in the game. So there will be this on-going quest to get your XP very high.
Due to the game's design and mechanics, you can also use XP for doing various things. e.g wantonly killing other friendly players, dying (yeah, each time you die, you lose XP when you re-spawn), failing objectives etc. So in one week, you could be at a high rank and XP, then the next – bad – week, your stats have tanked. And all of a sudden, some n00b has more XP and ranking than you do. If a player ends up griefing other players, we just ban their UserID, their IP address etc. They then will never be able to create another one, let alone join any server that is reporting to our master servers. They can still of course join a non-ranked server and play as normal and without a UserID. But even so, they can still be banned from there because all servers report to our master server – and that's where the ban occurs.
You know me; I have zero tolerance for anti-social misfits – so I'm going to do everything in my power to keep them away from my game and off my servers.
We went all out on the multiplayer aspect of the game – to the extent of radical revisions to the multiplayer engine (e.g now it is a pure client-server architecture) – because we know that the popularity of multiplayer fps games lies in the multiplayer component and community. So, unlike our previous games where multiplayer was just another feature, this time around we focused on it as much as we would on any other feature or technology in the game.
For example, even the GameLobby has a bunch of unique features including friends list, invites, private messaging and such. As well as the ability to chat with a friend who is currently either in the lobby or on a game server, and vice versa. So if you want to locate your friend on a server, just login to the GameLobby and their UserID will tell you what server they're playing on. Then you can send them a message directly from the lobby. e.g. while you are waiting to join a full server, you two can chat directly with each other via private messaging. Your friend never has to leave the game. We are considering extending this to sending Twitter chats, IM etc – directly from the lobby or the game. Sure, there are other third party (e.g. XFire) tools that have similar functionality, but we wanted built-in support without having to resort to yet another external app for the same functionality.
RPS: While I suspect it's too early to talk about what you've planned with your MMO, what do you think of the current Space MMOs? What would you do differently?
Derek Smart: Well SWG [Star Wars Galaxies – Ed] is, well, uhm – (with no offense to the developers) – rubbish? And my guess is that the only reason it is still going is because that demographic – rabid or not – won't touch Eve with the longest barge pole. Just wait until STO [Star Trek Online – Ed] launches and watch what happens.
And I don't have any confidence whatsoever that Star Trek Online will be anything but. However, I am going to reserve final judgment on that until it is actually out and the gamers have spoken. From what I've seen, heard and can tell, they're going with the tried – and failing – Status Quo. Its like these guys doing MMO games are stuck in a time machine. Yet, those who aren't making it, just don't get the message that the Status Quo doesn't work for everyone. It is all about risk taking. Look at Eve! That, to me is the greatest risk ever undertaken by a developer. See where they are today.
Don't like Eve. Never did. Only because it is not my kind of game. I love the genre, but there is a limit to how much love I can dole out when my idea of "fun" is being tested.
Eve – the quintessential spreadsheet in space – is popular (the stagnant subscriber base is testament to the space sim's thinned popularity) because those guys decided what they wanted to do, did it – and stuck with it. So when the gamers jumped on board, CCP didn't turn around and renege on what they started out with because some publisher said so. They bet that there were enough gamers out there who – spreadsheet or not – wanted that specific kind of game. And those who were first exposed to it, obviously liked it enough to stick around. CCP saw that – and thus far hasn't done a single thing to rock the boat. So that's how you do it. That's the way we did it. And it has worked out pretty well so far.
If CCP had a publisher looking over their shoulder and had released Eve as the usual run-of-the-mill space combat shooter, mind blowing graphics or not, they'd be out of business by now – or at least struggling. Guaranteed.
For us, the long term goal is to get KnightBlade – our next (single player only) space combat game based on the AAW engines – out in early 2010. Then hunker down and release the Beta of our final (yes, it will in fact be our last game) space/planetary game, Galactic Command Online later that year and do a final roll out in 2011.
Since GCO uses all our established technologies, we're just going to keep our space combat pedigree alive by going the MMO model. We don't need gazillions of dollars to do it either. Plus, we've already got decades of experience in that game space – so no learning curve there for us. Plus we have the (proven) space and planetary technologies.
We have a much larger – and popular – install base than most space combat games, so I am confident that the subscribers will be sufficient for us to keep it going indefinitely. Instead of killing ourselves with a new game, sequel or derivative works every eighteen months or so, we're just going to use that effort to provide free content to our paying subscribers year on year. Hell, we may even release the darn thing on an FTP (Free To Play) model supported by in-game ads and micro-transactions. Though we're talking to several partners about it. I just haven't made any final decisions yet.
In fact, doing KnightBlade is just another stepping stone and we're doing it simply because I always wanted to do a space combat game that takes place in first person perspective inside a carrier and in a free-form universe. It is the one feature that we couldn't do in previous games for various reasons – all related to horsepower and technologies. It is one thing to have a carrier hurtling through space at FTL speeds and clearly another to have a player running around inside said carrier in first person mode, talking to and interacting with his crew, doing combat with intruders etc – while the outside space and planetary worlds continues to go on.
And the reason that it is single player only is again due to technologies. I don't want to spent two years doing it and dealing with the problems of multiplayer in such a game, when I can spend nine months doing a more tightly focused single player game. Especially since the price, viability or attraction won't change whether or not it has a multiplayer component.
RPS: Why games? What was the moment where you realised that – fuck yeah! – games are amazing. And when did that germinate in a desire to make the bally things?
Derek Smart: Never in my wildest dreams. I love games. I have a library that would make Lincoln's library proud – and that's just the ones I have space in that room for. The decision to make games came from a part-time hobby back when I first started learning how to program in C. Once I got ahold of Lee Adams' books, it was all over. In fact, I blame him 100% for how I ended up here. Anyone who had any of his books back in the day, knows exactly what I'm talking about. Sure he wasn't exactly a good writer let alone a top notch programmer (at least not by today's standards), but his books were enough to get you started and headfirst into the abyss. The fact that he wrote about four books on creating a flight sim – complete with source code, was the high point of my life back then.
Man, as I think about those (I owned ALL of them) books, I remember sitting there and manually typing in every frigging line of code and trying to get it to compile. Kids today have it easy. But I digress.
RPS: Do you ever regret your approach to comments threads, even momentarily? You've said before that you enjoy it a bit too much, which is why you do it… but there's no way back. Even if you changed your tactics online, you've got so much history that it'd take another decade for it to sink in.
Derek Smart: The only regret I have is that I used to take it all so seriously. Once I realized that I could just as well play their own game, beating them at it while employing shock and awe tactics was just the end game. But I think I've mellowed out a bit. Must be old age because it certainly has nothing to do with common sense.
I am who I am. What I'm not is someone who some faceless fool out on a weekend pass is going to put under siege just because they think they can. They can pull that crap with other developers, like – oh I dunno – Denis Dyack mabye, but not me. First and foremost, I'm a gamer. So someone wants to wind me up, they'd better be ready to play.
When Jesus H. Christ said to turn the other cheek, he said nothing about a baseball bat.
As a wise man once said: "Game developers are just human beings who happen to make games for a living. If you want to hold us up to higher standards of conduct, then go ahead …but don't be surprised if we don't uphold them." . Oh right, that was Warren Marshall over at Epic Games from back in the day when we used to hang out over on Planetcrap. Those were the days.
RPS: Thanks for your time.
For more on All Aspect Warfare, you can go to the website. It's due second Quarter of 2009.


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The UF Honors Football Block is looking for a new chairperson for the 2018-2019 football season. As chairperson you are responsible for coordinating one of the largest blocks on campus, which means attending block chair meetings, distributing tickets, and managing block members. This person must be extremely detail-oriented, social media-savvy, enthusiastic about football, patient, firm, and have real time to dedicate to coordinating such a large group.
Preference for a student who has been a member of the Honors Block, but it is not required. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Johnson at firstname.lastname@example.com by Friday, March 30. In the email explain why you are interested, how you meet the qualifications listed above, and include one new idea for boosting Honors spirit in the block.


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East Coast
Categories Featuring East Coast Products
The Concept Behind East Coast
As one of the leading suppliers of a whole range of nursery essentials and developmental toys, it is East Coast's aim to help parents choose the products that are right for them, their baby and lifestyle in an easy and informed way.
East Coast is proud to have over 50 years of experience and specialises in working to customer's individual needs and requirements with a caring approach and expertise at every level to ensure the highest standard of quality and value for all their products. This results in well designed ranges of products which have won many prestigious awards.
The History Behind East Coast
East Coast was founded as a family business in a market town in Norfolk in 1960, originally as a manufacturer of high frequency welded plastic inflatable's and rain coats. In 1965 the company diversified into nursery products which led to the acquisition of a wood factory to manufacture cots, highchairs and moses basket stands in cooperation with the baby goods retailer Mothercare.
Today The East Coast Group, with 150,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space, comprises of two main divisions of which the nursery division is now the largest part and the fastest growing sector.
Whilst the company continues to manufacture high frequency welded baby changing mats, mattresses and highchair seats in the factory, the largest part of the business comes from the design and distribution of nursery furniture, nursery accessories, bedding and dining products, some of which are distributed under the East Coast Nursery brand and some of which are distributed as branded products through leading nursery retailers.
By having such an extensive range of nursery products the company has dedicated time and effort in developing a global sourcing policy and works with a variety of suppliers worldwide. This includes Portugal, China and Vietnam where the company has set-up an office. The office opened in 2006 to manage the quality control of products being manufactured and employs 4 members of staff speaking Taiwanese, Vietnamese and English.
Accredited with the ISO9001, East Coast has very high ethical values. All of the wood used for nursery furniture and wooden toys come from sustainable sources, and all overseas factories that the company works with are asked to sign ethical agreements particular to the country concerned.
For more than ten years East Coast has worked in co-operation with Disney and holds the license for Winnie The Pooh and Fisher Price. The Offices are based in the North West of England a traditional place for design, development and Manufacturing of Textile products.


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MIAMI – Opening statements will be heard Wednesday morning in the trial of a man accused of kidnapping, raping, and killing a senior in high school in 2002.
A jury was selected Tuesday evening in the trial of Joel Lebron. Many in the jury pool told the judge they remembered the case even ten years later.
Lebron, now 33, is the fourth of five men to go to trial for the torture and death of honor student Ana Angel of Southwest Miami-Dade. Ana was 18-years-old in the spring of 2002, two months from graduating South Miami High, when she was out celebrating an anniversary with her boyfriend Nelson Portobanco on South Beach when five people kidnapped them and forced them into their truck at gunpoint.
As they rode north to Orlando where the defendants came from, Ana was repeatedly raped and Nelson was beaten, said prosecutors. He was dumped out and left for dead. The five are accused of killing Ana execution-style at the side of I-95 near Boca Raton to keep her from identifying them.
Margarita Osorio, Ana's mother, prepared to head to court Tuesday to see the jury empanelled. She spoke to Local 10's Glenna Milberg at her home, describing how she finds the strength to face the men accused to taking her only daughter.
"In the love that I have for her and the support of family and friends," said Osorio.
Three of the five have been convicted. Two are sentenced to life in prison; one is awaiting a second sentencing hearing since his death penalty sentence was overturned.
Opening statements are scheduled to be made at 10 a.m.


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Saturday, March 20, 2010
THE Most Important Chart of the CENTURY
It explains the "jobless" recoveries of the past and how each recent economic cycle produces higher money figures, yet lower employment. It explains why we are seeing debt driven events that circle the globe. It explains the psychological uneasiness that underpins this point in history, the elephant in the room that nobody sees or can describe.
This is a very simple chart. It takes the change in GDP and divides it by the change in Debt. What it shows is how much productivity is gained by infusing $1 of debt into our debt backed money system.
Back in the early 1960s a dollar of new debt added almost a dollar to the nation's output of goods and services. As more debt enters the system the productivity gained by new debt diminishes. This produced a path that was following a diminishing line targeting ZERO in the year 2015. This meant that we could expect that each new dollar of debt added in the year 2015 would add NOTHING to our productivity.
Then a funny thing happened along the way. Macroeconomic DEBT SATURATION occurred causing a phase transition with our debt relationship. This is because total income can no longer support total debt. In the third quarter of 2009 each dollar of debt added produced NEGATIVE 15 cents of productivity, and at the end of 2009, each dollar of new debt now SUBTRACTS 45 cents from GDP!
This is mathematical PROOF that debt saturation has occurred. Continuing to add debt into a saturated system, where all money is debt, leads only to future defaults and to higher unemployment.
This is the dilemma created by our top down debt backed money structure. Because all money is backed by a liability, and carries interest, it guarantees mathematically that there will be losers and that the system will eventually reach the natural limits, the ability of incomes to service debt.
The data for the diminishing productivity of debt chart comes from the U.S. Treasury's latest Z1 data, the complete report is posted below:
On page two of that report is the following table showing the Growth of Non Financial Debt:
I included Financial debt onto the end of the table, that data comes from page 14 of the Z1 report.
This table makes clear what is happening. Business, household, and financial debt is trying to cleanse itself, to bring the level of debt back within the ability of incomes to support it. Our governments, armed with people who cannot explain the common sense behind debt saturation, are attempting to compensate by producing prolific amounts of Governmental debt.
They feel they must do this because if they do not, then debt and money – since debt backs our money – would both decrease and that would cause the economy to slow. But by adding money, and debt, they have created a sovereign issue where our nation's income cannot possibly service our nation's debt. In just the month of February, for example, our nation took in $107 billion, but spent $328 billion, a $221 billion shortfall. That one month shortfall exceeds all the combined shortfalls of the entire Nixon Administration – one month.
This is like an individual earning $5,000 but spending $15,000 a month. Would you lend your money to such an individual?
Last year we spent just under $400 billion on interest on our current debt, plus we spend another $1.5 Trillion buying down rates via Freddie, Fannie, and Quantitative Easing. That's $1.9 Trillion spent on interest, most of which wound up in the hands of the central banks and their surrogates. Compared to our $2.2 Trillion in income, interest expense last year nearly took it all. That means that nearly all your productive effort used to pay Federal taxes last year were transferred to the central banks.
Modern monetary theory does not understand, nor does it correctly describe the debt backed money world in which we live. Velocity, for example, slows as debt saturation occurs. This is only common sense, and yet the formulas do not account for the bad math of debt, nor its non linear function. Velocity is blamed partially on the psychology of "consumers." What nonsense. It is as mechanical as the engine in your car, it was designed that way. Once people, businesses, and governments become saturated with debt, new money/ debt when introduced can only be used to service prior existing debt.
Thus money creation at the saturation point stops adding to productive efforts and becomes a roll-over affair with only the financial services industry profiting via interest and fees. In other words, money goes out and circles right back around to the banks instead of rippling through a healthy non saturated economy. If you cannot follow that most simple logic, then going to Harvard will not help you.
Below is a chart of the Gross Federal Debt, it is now $12.6 Trillion dollars and headed straight up, a classic parabolic rise:
Below is a chart of the Gross Federal Debt expressed in year-over-year change in billions of dollars. The same phase transition of debt saturation is clear as a bell.
Below is a chart of Federal Net Outlays, parabolic and again headed straight up:
Clearly this is not sustainable and that means that change to our monetary system is rapidly approaching. No, it will not be left to your children or your grandchildren. It is an immediate problem and fortunately there is an immediate solution. That solution is called "Freedom's Vision." It can be found at SwarmUSA.com.
That chart of diminishing returns is the window to understanding why humankind is trapped in a central banker debt backed money box. No money for NASA manned space flight – NASA's total budget a puny $18 billion in comparison to the $1.9 Trillion that went to service the bankers last year. One half the schools closing in Kansas City, states whose debts and budget deficits seem insurmountable all pale in comparison to how much money went to service the use of our own money system.
It doesn't have to be like that, in fact it's a ridiculous notion that the people of the United States, or any country, should pay private individuals for the use of their money system. Ridiculous!
It's difficult to see this from inside the box, so let's look at what happened to Iceland to illustrate. The central banks of the world created financial engineered products and brought them to the banks of Iceland. These products created a boom in the amount of credit. Prices of everything rose, and the people of Iceland then had no choice but to go along for the bubble ride. Then with incomes no longer able to service the bubble debt, the bubble collapsed.
To "save the day," the IMF and central bankers around the world rushed in to "rescue" the people, banks, and government of Iceland. They did this by offering loans... documents that create money simply by signing a contract of debt servitude. That contract demanded ownership of Iceland's infrastructure such as their geothermal electrical generating plants. It also demanded the future productivity of the people of Iceland in that they should work and pay high taxes for decades to pay back this "debt." Debt that they did not create or agree to service in the first place!
There were some wise people who saw through this central banker game and started a movement. They DEMANDED that the President of Iceland put the debt servitude to a vote and the people wisely said, "Central Bankers Pound Sand!"
Thus they now control their own destiny, their future productive efforts still belong to them.
It's easy to see from the outside looking in, but it's not so easy to see that it's EXACTLY the same thing occurring in the United States and no one is rising up to stop it. No one, that is, except the movement of people at SwarmUSA.com.
To all the naysayers who think the people do not have the power to make the change, I say take a look at history and how humankind has overcome its obstacles to progress with each new step. Mankind is now teetering between the brink and the dawn of a new renaissance. A new renaissance is coming because mankind is about to free itself from the chains of needless debt that are holding humanity back.
*Note: A follow-up to this article exists here: Guest Post and More on THE Most Important Chart of the Century
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Nathan Martin Interviews Gerald Celente
People who frequent Economic Edge are familiar with his message. While his message of current and future trends sounds negative on their face, the reality is that we must have the fortitude to face our problems or we will never overcome them. If you listen to Celente, he is actually speaking some very positive messages as well, I would ask you to please focus on those. Here is an exchange that I think is the takeaway from this interview:
Martin: "Do you think it's possible to change directions?"That's exactly what Freedom's Vision and SwarmUSA.com are all about. He recognized that immediately and that's why he did the interview.
Celente: "Of course it is! Yes, yes! That's one of the things that your group is doing, that's what prompted me to respond. It's people standing up, speaking out, and taking action! That's the only thing that's going to change it… It has to come from the bottom up."
One person at a time. There are solutions outside of the current debt-backed money box. As more people become aware and as more people stand up for themselves and refuse to live inside of that box, the more likely that we will effect positive change – it is truly up to us.
Nathan Martin
Gerald Celente
Trends Research
* Intro and Outro provided by Jason Paige at Celebrity Radio DJs
Morning Update/ Market Thread 3/18
Equity futures are slightly lower overnight, tomorrow being quadruple witching. Below is a 60 minute chart of the DOW on the left and 5 minute chart of S&P futures on the right:
The dollar is higher, retesting the breakdown of the upchannel that it broke. The Euro is lower. Bonds are higher once again, it is very unusual to have money flowing both into equities and into bonds, a condition that when it occurs, usually doesn't last long. Oil is about flat after running higher even against building crude oil inventories which were reported up again yesterday. Gold is higher at $1,125 an ounce.
CPI came in at 0.0% for the month of February, reflecting the same type of pullback in the year over year number as PPI - here's Econoday:
Temporarily soft energy costs pulled down the headline CPI for February while weak shelter costs kept core inflation very sluggish. Overall CPI inflation for February eased to no change from 0.2 percent the month before. The latest came in just below the market forecast for a 0.1 percent uptick. Core CPI inflation rebounded a modest 0.1 percent, following a 0.1 percent dip in January and matching consensus expectations. A number of weak components point to the fact that inflation pressures, indeed, are subdued. Shelter costs were flat in the latest month while declines also were seen in apparel and recreation.
Looking at detail, the energy component of the CPI declined 0.5 percent in February after jumping 2.8 percent the month before. Gasoline temporarily eased 1.4 percent, following a 4.4 percent jump in January. Food inflation slowed in February to 0.1 percent from 0.2 percent in January.
There were other notable component declines, including apparel, down 0.7 percent; household furnishings & operations, down 0.4 percent; recreation, down 0.1 percent; and public transportation, down 0.1 percent (largely airline fares). The notable increases included medical care, up 0.5 percent, and used cars & trucks, up 0.7 percent.
Year-on-year, overall CPI inflation fell to to 2.2 percent (seasonally adjusted) from 2.7 percent in January. The core rate was slipped/rose in February to 1.3 percent from 1.5 percent the month before. On an unadjusted year-ago basis, the headline number was up 2.1 percent in February while the core was up 1.3 percent.
Weekly jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 457,000 for the prior week. The consensus was calling for 455,000. This number is extremely elevated still, being now almost two and a half years since this markets peaked in late '07.
Weekly jobless claim are indicating only the slightest improvement in the labor market. Initial claims fell 5,000 in the March 13 week to 457,000, following a 6,000 dip in the prior week. The four-week average fell 4,250 to 471,250, showing no significant change from February and well above readings in January.
Continuing claims, up 12,000 to 4.579 million in data for the March 6 week, are likewise indicating no improvement in the labor market. The four-week average for continuing claims, at 4.575 million, is only slightly lower than February levels. The unemployment rate for insured workers is unchanged at 3.5 percent.
The economic recovery may be emerging but it looks to be a jobless recovery, at least so far. Markets were little changed in reaction to today's report which was accompanied by benign consumer-price headlines.
The large bubble of people who filed last year are still unemployed as new jobs simply are not being created. From the weekly DOL report:
States reported 5,888,048 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending Feb. 27, an increase of 360,123 from the prior week. There were 2,086,682 claimants in the comparable week in 2009.
That's 3.8 million more people on EUC this year than last year! This says that once a person is unemployed, they are staying unemployed, in fact the length of time spent unemployed is at historic highs still.
Yet the market powers into a ballistic parabolic move based not upon a productive economy, but on hot money that ultimately is robbing Americans of their purchasing ability.
The DOW managed to barely make a new closing high and thus produced a new DOW Theory buy signal. This move looks parabolic, no corrections, this is not healthy, it is a buying panic. The internal indications are at insane readings. The number of new 52 week highs on the NYSE hit 601 yesterday a number that is unfathomable, readings in the mid 300's usually produce significant tops.
The VIX reached the lower Bollinger band after breaking below support. This too shows extreme complacency. When people believe that they can't be out of the market or else they will miss it, then you know all is not well. Yes, the breakouts, as contrived as they appear, happened and thus they indicate that higher prices are on the horizon. Should they continue higher without correction, that would not be a good thing.
During the FOMC, Bernanke and the boys indicated that they were going to let the GSE money wind down. It will certainly be interesting to see if they actually allow that and what the reaction will be. Is the public sector really healthy enough to pick it back up? Not by my reckoning, and not with the coming wave of option-ARM mortgage resets. What I see is a government liquidity pump, not a healthy economy and not a healthy market.
I now have conflicting opinions on the market. Fundamentally I see hot government money, a bond market bubble, parabolic government spending, but a consumer who still wears the weight of too much debt and is faced with higher taxes as a result of the government giving their money to the bankers. Technically I see what clearly looks like a 5 wave structure in the markets, normally a sign of a new bull market. Tony Caldero sees this structure as a bull market, McHugh still sees this as a bear market rally and even with the breakout believes it is simply a continuation of wave B up and that it is likely making a complex wave structure and that it's not as simple as it looks on the surface. My personal motto is that when the experts don't agree and when what I see fundamentally doesn't jive with the markets, I'll leave it to the people who like to play games have at it, it's not what I would term investing.
When the government is underpinning the bond market and the mortgage markets, that money then affects ALL markets as it's impossible to target one asset class without affecting all the others. DEBT is an asset to the person who holds it as a receivable.
I have to keep this one short this morning, I have the Gerald Celente interview first thing, then I have to spend the day prepping for a presentation this weekend in Florida. I probably won't be able to get an update out tomorrow, I'll be gone until most likely Tuesday and do not plan on making any significant posts from the road. Just because I won't likely be able to bring you the Sunday Funnies, here's Jon Stewart with one of the best explanations yet of what's occurring:
Jon Stewart
|The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
|Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
|In Dodd We Trust
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Nathan Martin Interview - 1090 Radio, Little Rock
Thank you to Swarm volunteer Jason who provided the great voice introduction!
Buster Godbee
Nathan Martin
Click here download the mp3
Morning Update/ Market Thread 3/17
Equity futures are higher once again this morning following the S&P 500 breaking out after the dovish FOMC meeting release. Below is a 60 minute chart of the DOW on the left and 5 minute chart of the S&P on the right showing the overnight action:
The dollar is roughly flat but has broken its uptrend that began late last November. Bonds are up again, once again moving in a direction that is generally not friendly to stocks as they have done for the past three days. Oil is higher, gold is down.
The worthless MBA Purchase Index, reported only in percentage moves, fell again this week, but did not present the completely impossible mathematic moves that have been reported recently:
The Mortgage Bankers Association's purchase index fell 2.3 percent in the March 12 week. Despite the fall, two prior weeks of strong gains still hint at month-to-month strength for home sales. The refinance index also fell, down 1.7 percent. The declines weren't due to high mortgage rates which fell sharply in the week with 30-year loans down 10 basis points to an average 4.91 percent. The MBA has been warning that low rates are no longer boosting refinancing demand.
Low mortgage rates cannot get any lower, the Federal Funds rate is at zero. The central bankers spent $1.7 Trillion last year buying down these rates. They have now saturated the world with debt and that debt will be an anchor around the economy until it is cleared. The bankers will continue to siphon off money – the productive capacity of YOUR labor – until they are stopped.
It's easier to see what they are doing to Iceland to gain control over the people – they try to take their infrastructure in exchange for issuing DEBT. They also want the future productivity of the people for decades in exchange for DEBT. The people of Iceland told the central bankers to "pound sand!" If you can see that's what happened there, then you should be able to understand that's EXACTLY what is happening here.
The PPI inflation number came in negative for the month of February and the yoy number eased somewhat as well, but is still at 4.6% which is very elevated. Here's Econoday:
PPI inflation reversed course in February, coming off strong numbers the month before. The overall PPI dropped 0.6 percent after spiking 1.4 percent in January. The February fall was more negative than the consensus expectation for a 0.2 percent decline. At the core level, the PPI inflation rate eased to a 0.1 percent rise from a 0.3 percent gain in January. The latest core number matched expectations.
The drop in the headline PPI was led by a 2.9 percent decrease in energy costs after 5.1 percent surge in January. Gasoline fell 7.4 percent, following an 11.5 percent spike in January. Food cost inflation held steady at 0.4 percent. Within the core, tobacco prices dipped 0.1 percent as did light trucks.
For the overall PPI, the year-on-year rate declined to 4.6 percent from 5.0 percent in January (seasonally adjusted). The core rate year-ago pace slipped to 0.9 percent from 1.0 percent the month before. On a not seasonally adjusted basis for February, the year-ago increase for the headline PPI was up 4.4 percent while the core was up 1.0 percent.
The bond market was little changed on the news despite a weak headline number. That was due to the core being on target and with traders discounting the February drop in gasoline prices, given the sharp jump seen at the pump in March.
No, it won't take long for those numbers to translate into more expense for Americans. Wages will not keep up.
More warnings on the bubble in China:
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- China is in the midst of "the greatest bubble in history," said James Rickards, former general counsel of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management LP.
The Chinese central bank's balance sheet resembles that of a hedge fund buying dollars and short-selling the yuan, said Rickards, now the senior managing director for market intelligence at McLean, Virginia-based consulting firm Omnis Inc.
"As I see it, it is the greatest bubble in history with the most massive misallocation of wealth," Rickards said at the Asset Allocation Summit Asia 2010 organized by Terrapinn Pte in Hong Kong yesterday. China "is a bubble waiting to burst."
Rickards joins hedge fund manager Jim Chanos, Gloom, Boom & Doom publisher Marc Faber and Harvard University professor Kenneth Rogoff in warning of a potential crash in China's economy. The government has raised banks' reserve requirements twice this year after economic growth accelerated and property prices rallied.
The bubble in China goes right alongside the bond bubble in the United States that is based upon nothing but financial engineering fluff.
Speaking of financial engineering, it seems the people in Italy have had enough of being abused:
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co., UBS AG and Hypo Real Estate Holding AG's Depfa Bank Plc unit were charged with fraud linked to the sale of derivatives to the City of Milan.
Judge Simone Luerti scheduled the trial of the four firms, 11 bankers and two former city officials for May 6, Prosecutor Alfredo Robledo said after a hearing in Milan today. The banks allegedly misled the city on swaps that adjusted interest payments on 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion) of borrowings.
Prosecutors across Italy are probing banks as local and national government agencies face potential losses of 2.5 billion euros on derivatives, lawyers say. The Milan probe may also affect cases as far away as the U.S., where securities firms have faced charges for price-fixing and bid-rigging in the sale of derivatives to municipalities, though not for fraud, according to former regulator Christopher "Kit" Taylor.
There are now a string of lawsuits cropping up regarding derivatives around the world. People are figuring it out more and more.
Here's someone who has figured out the impossible math of Greece:
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard University Professor Martin Feldstein, who warned almost two decades ago that the euro would prove an "economic liability," said Greece's austerity plan will fail and the country may quit the single currency to fix its fiscal crisis.
Under pressure from investors and fellow policy makers, Prime Minister George Papandreou's government is striving to knock four percentage points off its budget gap this year from 12.7 percent of gross domestic product and has vowed to meet the EU's 3 percent limit in 2012 for the first time since 2006.
"The idea that Greece can go from a 12 percent deficit now to a 3 percent deficit two years from now seems fantasy," Feldstein, an adviser to U.S. presidents since Ronald Reagan, said in a March 13 interview in Geneva. "The alternatives are to default in some way or to leave, or both."
His diagnosis clashes with that of European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, who calls Greece's strategy "convincing" and rejects as "absurd" any speculation it might leave the euro zone. Investors nevertheless aren't ruling out Feldstein's analysis. Billionaire George Soros said last month that the euro "may not survive," and credit default swaps indicate a 22 percent chance Greece will default within five years, up from 16 percent a year ago.
Once the math has gone exponential like it has in Greece and in the United States, there is no turning it around on a dime without literally crashing the economy. That is what austerity means. Feldstein is talking default or leave the Euro. Yes, there is a way out that does not include austerity or becoming a forever debt slave to the central banks. Of course the right answer is that all countries need to do exactly what Freedom's Vision does – produce their own sovereign money, clear out the debts, and put methods in place to keep the quantity of money under control for the very long term.
Turning to the markets, it has been longer than a week since the Transports made a new high, the Industrials have still not confirmed but are getting close. The markets were pumped overnight in the futures, the entire rally of the past year is on lower and lower volume. Even the breakouts to new highs have not been followed with volume increases a sign of a bear market rally. Bull markets have increasing volume as prices rise.
Below is a 10 minute chart of the DOW showing a rising wedge. Today's open is creating an overthrow of that wedge, typical of the final wave higher:
Many technicians are looking for a run up to 1,220 on the S&P. That and a new high on the Industrials will suck in the remaining die hard bears, as many of the holdouts who are short will be forced to cover with that type of a move and breakout. It is extremely dangerous, the market is historically overbought on many indicators. Today the percent of stocks above their short term moving averages is at a place where turns occur. Money flows are at an extreme as are several other indicators that have already issued warnings.
Now, let me tell you what I just witnessed while I was typing this report this morning - I got the first sentence typed and then…
I hear a bullhorn but it is unintelligible. I hear a couple of loud explosions, I crack my window open so I can hear and hear the police on a bullhorn yelling panic instructions and I see blue lights one block from my home. More explosions, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, then what sounded like 30 to 40 rapid fire shots from small arms, then BOOM, BOOM, then silence and blue/red lights!
I am not joking, this happened right in front of me, across the block only about 3 houses away. NUTS! I moved last year to a small and "quaint" town to ensure that I wasn't around anything remotely like that. It only occurred about 40 minutes ago now, I have no idea what happened, but it certainly wasn't good. Once I find out, I'll let you know.
Bruce Springsteen – Badlands:
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Bill Still - Media Hits and Misses
Morning Update/ Market Thread 3/16
Equity futures are higher this morning in front of the FOMC meeting whose results are announced at 2:15 Eastern time. Below is a 60 minute chart of the DOW futures on the left and a 5 minute view of S&P futures on the right:
The dollar is down, bonds are higher, both oil and gold are shooting higher just prior to the open.
I think the scariest thing I read this morning is "Pelosi says that Democrats will have the votes to pass health bill in the House." After having flown into the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war, I saw first hand how the socialist economy did not work for the people. Health care? They got to say they had it, but it was awful, like walking back in time to 1930. Heading down that slippery path is not a win for America, it is another step in the wrong direction.
From CNN:
Delinquency rates have hit historic highs. More than 7.4 million home loans nationwide are in some stage of delinquency or foreclosure, with another 1 million properties either bank-owned or sold out of foreclosure. An incredible 10% of all U.S. loans are delinquent."
Ten percent are delinquent! Not just underwater, but delinquent as in behind on their payments, amazing. And what's even more amazing is that the government has seemingly, for now, transferred all that risk onto itself yet a large percentage of the banks still hold enough bad debt to make them insolvent and the game of pretend and extend continues.
Housing starts fell in February, of course everyone blames the weather like there's never any bad weather in February, so just ignore it… here's Econoday talking about the weather, isn't it a beautiful day outside?
Snow storms bumped down housing starts in February but from upwardly revised January numbers. Housing starts in February dropped 5.9 percent, following a 6.6 percent rebound the month before. February's annualized pace of 0.575 million units beat the market consensus for 0.565 million units and was up 0.2 percent on a year-ago basis. January was revised up to 0.611 million units from the original estimate of 0.591 million units. The decline in February was led by a 30.3 percent decrease in multifamily starts, following a 18.5 percent gain in January. The single-family component slipped 0.6 percent after a 4.4 percent rise the prior month.
By region, the February drop in starts was led by a 15.5 percent fall in the South with the Northeast decreasing by 9.6 percent. Both regions were hit by heavy snow storms during the month. Starts in the Midwest rose 10.6 percent while the West gained 7.9 percent.
Starts are under downward pressure in coming months as housing permits declined 1.6 percent, following a 4.7 percent fall in January. The February pace of 0.612 million units annualized was up 11.3 percent on a year-ago basis.
Starts clearly were hit by atypically adverse winter weather-most of the decline was in the South which was hit by unusual snow storms. But permits also fell which are not as susceptible to weather. Basically, inventories still need to be worked down as demand needs to pick up and homebuilders cannot afford to ignore these supply and demand facts.
"I know… now that the sun is out, the snow is away, the birds are singing, let's head out and buy a house for twice what our incomes can support, shall we?"
"Oh sure, dear, let me pop another Prozac before we head out and indebt ourselves to servicing a loan that will be underwater six months from now."
That interlude was brought to you by Eli Lilly, the makers of Prozac, and by the National Association of Realtors who say to America, "Go ahead and take the double plunge! Prozac and housing are the perfect combination, they go together hand in glove!" See you in the food stamp line!
Meanwhile, Import and Export Prices were released for February, data that is very close to the one year anniversary of the bottom in the markets. Year over year import prices are up an amazing 11.2%, while Export prices are up only 3.5% - only. Month over month there were price declines in both imports and exports, something to keep an eye on.
Inflation pressures from import prices, after building sharply in January, eased back in February, pointing to benign readings in tomorrow's producer price and Thursday's consumer price reports. Import prices fell 0.3 percent following January's 1.3 percent jump. The decline reflects a 2.2 percent fall back in petroleum prices which in January jumped 4.4 percent. But the key reading for this report excludes petroleum and here too pressures eased, at plus 0.2 percent following a four-month streak of 0.5 and 0.6 percent gains.
Import prices for industrial supplies fell 0.8 percent with capital goods down 0.1 percent in what will firm expectations for a 0.2 percent decline in tomorrow's producer prices. A 0.1 percent decline for imported consumer goods is in line with the marginal 0.1 percent gain expected for consumer prices.
Export prices also reversed in February, down 0.5 percent and show wide declines across agricultural and non-agricultural components. Agricultural export prices fell 3.8 percent in the month to end a long string of sharp gains.
Declines in today's report are the first in about six months and largely reflect a swing lower in oil and in agricultural products. The outlook for March so far is favorable with both oil and agricultural prices easing slightly. But the dollar has also eased this month, an offsetting factor that raises the cost of foreign imports. There is mild talk perking back up over deflationary risks, but these risks remain low as long as consumer spending remains solid and as long as oil, holding at $80, remains high.
I don't like the chart above for a couple of reasons. It is hard to read and it doesn't give you a feel for the real level of activity in relation to the past because it is expressed in percentage terms. In other words, zero percent is a lot better than -10%, but it simply means that price is level, not that activity has picked up to near where it was prior to the fall.
It will be interesting to see how prices behave after the FOMC announcement. While I've been typing the markets have turned negative, I would expect a pause until the announcement and then we'll get a direction following the usual head fakes.
Yesterday's slightly positive close was divergent with the internals that were negative on the day. That is a sign of weakness, of a market that is heavy and topping. The volume was pathetic, and there has been no relief of the severe overbought condition. Despite the rotation trade attempting to pump up the DOW, it has yet to make a new high and the non-confirmation remains in place. The longer it takes to confirm, the more tenuous the market is. Hey, take a Prozac and go long, you're going to make it to the big time!
Peter Gabriel - Big Time:
Monday, March 15, 2010
Dylan Ratigan – Explanation of 'Repo 105' Transactions and Accounting Fraud…
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Martin Weiss - The Great Credit Squeeze
Freedom's Vision, of course is the answer. Until the people of the U.S. have the courage to stand up, like the people of Iceland now have, we will continue to experience crisis. It's easy, take back what belong to you, tell the central bankers to pound sand!
The Great Credit Squeeze
By Martin Weiss
If you think that the sovereign debt crisis is mostly behind us … that America's federal deficit is turning into a non-issue … or that we can just go back to business as usual … you'd better consider the drama now unfolding in the hard numbers just released last week:
February deficit: In February alone, the official U.S. federal deficit was a monstrous $221 billion, far greater than anything we have ever experienced in history.
Back in the 1980s, for example, President Reagan was plagued with the worst string of federal deficits ever recorded until that time. But with February's deficit, Washington has managed to run up just as much red ink as it did in all of 1986, the single worst deficit year under Reagan.
Going back further, to the 1970s under President Nixon, we also had a rash of deficit spending that sent chills up the spines of economists. But last month's deficit of $221 billion was more than TRIPLE the sum total of ALL deficits during the six years under Nixon.
Ever since America's Declaration of Independence, deficit spending has been a recurring theme in Washington that invariably returns with a vengeance, especially during wartime. But it took 169 long years and seven major wars — from 1776 to 1945 — to rack up a cumulative deficit that matches the gaping budget hole of just 28 short days in February.
What does the government resort to in order to finance these humongous deficits? The answer is obvious…
Unprecedented borrowing: In just one week last month (ending 2/26), the U.S. Treasury issued…
- $32 billion in 7-year Treasury notes,
- $42 billion in 5-year notes,
- $44 billion in 2-year notes,
- $8 billion in 30-year TIPS bonds,
- $26 billion of 3-month bills,
- $28 billion of 6-month bills,
- $31 billion of 4-week bills, and
- $25 billion of cash management bills.
Grand total: $236 billion in government debt issued in a single week, the most in the history of the world.
This means that Uncle Sam borrowed new money — and replaced old debt — at the rate of $390,212 per second … $23.4 million per minute… and $1.4 billion per hour — around the clock!
It is a pace of debt issuance that simply cannot be sustained without disastrous consequences.
Why not? One reason is because of…
Dreadful crowding out of the private sector: As long as Uncle Sam is continuing to hog most of the available credit, it's going to be increasingly difficult — sometimes nearly impossible — for most businesses and consumers to get their share of desperately needed funds.
Consider the fourth quarter of last year, for example. The Fed's Flow of Funds report, just released on Thursday, tells the story…
Government borrowing was massive: The U.S. Treasury jumped into the credit markets and grabbed up new funds at an annual pace of $954.7 billion, while local and state governments raised $114.2 billion. Total government borrowing (after some reduction in gov't agency bonds): $1,040.4 billion.
In contrast…
Most business borrowers were shoved out of the credit markets: Not only did they have a tough time getting new loans, they also cut down their EXISTING debts — either voluntarily or not — at the breakneck annual pace of $1,097.5 billion.
Millions of consumers were virtually ostracized from the credit market: They were forced to cut their existing mortgages at the annual rate of $365.1 billion and their consumer credit at the rate of $145.3 billion — a total annualized cutback of $510.4 billion.
Don't underestimate the potential impact of this phenomenon on the economy and your investments.
Remember: We are not just witnessing a decline in new business and consumer borrowing — a trend that typically signals economic weakness. Rather, what we have here is…
- A decline to ZERO on a net basis! Plus…
- Massive pressure on consumers and businesses to actually PAY DOWN debts outstanding! Plus…
- Widespread defaults and foreclosures forcing the lenders to WRITE OFF massive amounts of debts
My main point: It's bad enough when you see credit flowing to consumers and corporations at a slower pace. But what's happening now is far, far worse! Credit is actually being sucked OUT of the consumer and corporate economy at a torrid pace.
In fact, if you step back from the trees, you see an even uglier picture:
Huge amounts of credit being denied — or even taken away from — those who could fuel a recovery … plus, at the same time, huge amounts of credit being grabbed by federal and local governments to finance their giant deficits.
Now do you see why we've been saying all along that this recovery is bought and paid for by Washington?
Now do you see why a sovereign debt crisis — and future difficulties by governments to continue borrowing — is such a threat?
Heck! If the U.S. economy is just limping along even with massive government support, imagine the paralysis that's likely if the government cuts back that support to curtail out-of-control deficits!
Bottom line:
First, the massive supply of government bonds on the way will drive their prices down and long-term interest rates up. Short of a miracle, we see little hope to avoid this outcome.
Second, as the federal deficit continues to grow out of control, the Great Credit Crunch is going to get even worse.
Third, don't jump to the conclusion that the credit crunch will immediately topple the U.S. economy or stock market. With all the money that Washington has pumped in, a weak recovery can continue and stocks could still enjoy an extension of their rally.
But it cannot last. In the long term, corporate profits cannot be sustained without credit. If credit remains scarce, forget about a long, multi-year recovery … and brace yourself for a violent double-dip recession beginning later this year.
Good luck and God bless!
Morning Update/ Market Thread 3/15
Welcome to the Ides of March, yet another Monday, another options expiration week, and yet the normal ramp job has not shown up… yet. Ahh, come on guys, you're laying down on the job, we all know the market only goes up, right? In Roman times the Ides of March was a festive day to celebrate Mars, but famous today as the day that Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate. Beware.
The futures are fairly close to flat after being down overnight. Below is a 60 minute chart of the DOW on the left, 5 minute S&P close-up on the right:
The dollar is up strongly, though, after bouncing perfectly right off the bottom of its current uptrend channel. Below is a daily chart of the dollar showing the trend, the question here is did we just finish wave 4 and are about to make a 5th wave higher, or was it an a,b,c correction and it's going to break down? It's an important question, another inflection point in the markets that happens to be coincident with the long term bond market sitting right on critical support, the neckline of a very large H&S pattern. Should the dollar break down, equities up, the bond market will have a hard time holding – yet again up against a rock and a hard place.
The Euro performed three perfect waves right into the target area I pointed out a long time ago, found support and now the question is the same as it is for the dollar.
Two more bank failure this weekend, bringing the year's total so far to 30.
Senator Dodd is pressing for bank reform. The draft is supposed to come out today calling for higher capital requirements, creating exchanges for some derivatives, and limiting the size of big corporations. Baby steps in my opinion, can it happen against the will of the special interests? I doubt it, not from within the box they created and they own. They set the rules, not Dodd, even though he's the illusion of the person who the people believe makes the rules. If it does come into being, and if it is not just another platitude to make people think meaningful change is occurring then once again the banks are way, overvalued. Heck, any value above zero is simply fantasy in my world of accounting.
Here's a good one:
March 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures fell after Moody's Investors Service said the nation has moved closer to losing its AAA credit rating and concern grew that China and India will restrict economic growth to curb inflation.
They also put Britain in the same camp as the U.S.. This from a ratings agency that can only change a rating AFTER failure has occurred. They are part and parcel a part of the problem, still. Nothing has changed. Let me ask you a simple question. Would you lend me your money if I told you that I earn $5,000 a month and yet I spend $15,000 a month, month after month? No? So why would anybody buy a U.S. Treasury bond? This is exactly the situation our country is in, it is no different other than the ability to print which, again, if you're foolish enough to lend money to they will simply pay you back with money that is worth less because they devalued it for you. Deficits DO matter, it is very close to time where the debt situation comes home to roost. I know, people have been saying it for years, but the math is so far gone now that we are literally living on borrowed time.
The Empire State Manufacturing Index was released this morning and did show growth pretty much in line with expectations, here's Econoday:
HighlightsRemember, these indexes are surveys, and it's difficult as heck to survey a company that is no longer there. The premise that all these data are built upon is flawed because there is no accounting for survivorship bias.
New orders, shipments, inventories, delivery times and employment are all posting month-to-month increases in New York state's manufacturing region, offering a convincing indication of building strength at the national level. The Empire State's general business conditions index did slow by more than 2 points to 22.86 in March, but the reading is still far over zero to indicate significant month-to-month expansion.
The headline reading masks wide strength in the individual indexes: new orders 25.43 in March vs. 8.78 in February, shipments 25.58 vs. 15.14, inventories 4.94 vs. 0.00, delivery time 2.47 vs. minus 6.94, employment 12.35 vs. 5.56. The rise in inventories is of special note, offering a new indication that the manufacturing restocking cycle is safely underway. The rise in delivery times is also of special note, indicating a slowing that supports the prospect for new capacity investment in the manufacturing supply chain.
The Treasury International Capital flows (TIC) for January went negative again, this time down $33.4 billion. The United States took in $107 billion in February and spent more than three times that amount, $328 billion. Insane, the whole bond market is now a rouse. Yet somehow Econoday finds a way to report it as positive number, the NET number was negative.
HighlightsMore "revisions?" Riiight, they mean more creative accounting, what normal people call fraud.
Foreign investment in long-term U.S. securities slowed in January, to a net $19.1 billion vs. $63.3 billion in December and an exceptionally strong $126.4 billion in November. Breaking the data down, U.S. investors bought a net $17.0 billion of foreign securities while foreigners bought a net $36.1 billion of U.S. securities for the weakest reading since May. Weakness in January was centered in corporate & other bonds where private foreign investors were heavy sellers. Foreigners were also heavy sellers of agency debt but, importantly, were heavy buyers of Treasuries and solid buyers of equities.
Country data shows Chinese Treasury holdings at $889.0 billion, down nearly $6 billion from December and compared against $938.3 billion as recently as October. Japanese holdings, in contrast, have been on the rise, at $765.4 billion. Note that benchmark revisions released earlier this month added significantly to Chinese holdings.
Note what's happening in this line from the report, "Monthly net TIC flows were negative $33.4 billion. Of this amount, net foreign private flows were $0.6 billion, and net foreign official flows were negative $34.1 billion."
Private flows have been running quite negative while "official" flows had remained slightly positive. Central banker games from my point of view, but this reading shows negative official flows. I actually don't trust these reports either, we'd all have to see the books and trace the flow of money. Of course it would be far easier just to replace the Fed and create a system that doesn't rely on this type of fun and games that is controlled by private bankers who refuse to open the system up to the light of day.
For the curious, here's the entire TIC report:
TiC for January 2010
Industrial Production figures came out for February, again, here's Econoday:
Although overall industrial production managed to pull off a modest increase for February, it was mainly weather related from higher utilities output. The manufacturing component, however, dipped. Overall industrial production in February posted a small 0.1 percent rise after a 0.9 percent jump in January. The latest increase beat the market forecast for no change.
The manufacturing component, however, fell back 0.2 percent, following a 0.9 percent spike in January. Weakness was led by motor vehicles-other components were mixed. For the latest month, utilities output jumped 0.5 percent after rising 0.6 percent the month before. Mining output increased 2.0 percent after advancing 1.1 percent in January.
Indeed, the motor vehicles & parts component pulled down manufacturing as it fell 4.4 percent after jumping 4.7 percent in January. Excluding motor vehicles, manufacturing nudged up 0.1 percent, following a 0.7 percent boost in January.
On a year-on-year basis, industrial production rose to plus 1.7 percent from 0.8 percent in January.
Capacity utilization remains low as it edged up to 72.7 percent in February from 72.5 percent the month before. The latest number topped the market expectation for 72.4 percent.
Overall, today's report was marginally weaker than at face value as manufacturing slipped and the headline was basically boosted by cold weather raising utilities output. But manufacturing appears to still be trending upward with the February dip coming after a strong gain the month before. On the news, markets had little reaction. Also, earlier in the morning, the March Empire State index came in as expected.
Turning back to the markets, there was some funny activity just prior to the close on Friday that was noticeable in a few names, one being GE. It sure looked like front-running sparked by some insider type of activity. Funny, but just as I was typing this the market began to zoom higher, GE is headed straight up. Again, these markets look as wild as Juarez Mexico to me, lawless.
There are so many indicators at extreme overbought readings that it's just sad because any rational person knows what's coming. This move has been parabolic and it has been completely irrational, the money flows are lopsided, and once all the money is headed in the same direction then there is a change of direction afoot. The possibility of a DOW theory non-confirmation remains in place as the Industrial have yet to be gunned to new highs. I've been preaching patience, I still think this is extremely dangerous, a time where patience will eventually be rewarded, but that certainly does not mean buy and hold.
Just remember that the volatility and crazy things we see are an expression of the bad math at work. It corrupted everyone. The banks had to keep the growth going somehow or they would die. Thus they did anything and everything they could to continue to crank out debt backed money. It was destined to happen from the beginning because of WHO controlled the money.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – From the Beginning:
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Uncle Jay Explains...


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Anything pirates can do, Nintendo can do better.
Back in October, a college student named Josh Goldberg created Full Screen Mario, a version of 1985's Super Mario Bros. that you could play in your Web browser. The pirated game was instantly popular not just because it was free, but because the young programmer managed to one-up Nintendo's original creation in one thrilling way: He gave players simple tools to create their own levels.
There was only one problem. Goldberg didn't own the copyright to Mario, so, as I warned him at the time, Nintendo was free to shut down his site, steal his ideas, and laugh all the way to the coin bank. Fast-forward to the present. The Full Screen Mario site now displays a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice, and Nintendo on Tuesday unveiled Mario Maker, a version of the classic platformer that, whaddya know, lets you create your own levels.
As you can see, placing blocks, enemies, and pipes with the Wii U GamePad—the iPad-with-buttons that is the system's main controller—is a cinch, and with the push of a button you can toggle between 8-bit Super Mario Bros. graphics and the high-definition world of 2012's New Super Mario Bros. U. There's an easter egg of the flyswatter minigame from Mario Paint, and the trailer hints that you can even customize power-ups, as Mario nabs a tall, thin mushroom that makes him so.
Mario Maker, due next year, is part of a wave of titles announced at E3, the video game expo taking place in Los Angeles this week, hoping to capitalize on the DIY ethos (and massive sales) of Minecraft. But Mario Maker seems to have a simplicity missing from the more comprehensive design games LittleBigPlanet 3 (from Sony) and Project Spark (from Microsoft) that were also announced this week. What's more, the Mario world has a built-in, cross-generational familiarity that Sony's and Microsoft's offerings just can't touch. (LittleBigPlanet is a brilliant series, but raise your hand if you're familiar with its mascot, Sackboy.) It's easy to imagine parents playing Mario Maker with their kids, making it the system-seller that the Wii U desperately needs (the newly launched Mario Kart 8 notwithstanding.)
As for Goldberg, he's unapologetic about his role as a sort of classic-gaming Robin Hood. Under the takedown notice on FullScreenMario.com is a note from Goldberg that concludes, "I'm glad so many people got to enjoy the game, and look forward to working on new and exciting
(and legal) projects." But he has no hard feelings for Nintendo if the company is indeed giving him a taste of his own medicine, and using his ideas. "FullScreenMario was visible enough that they clearly knew about the thing, and it would be surprising if it didn't affect development," he tells me via email. "Still, whether it's a blatant rip-off or an unlikely coincidence, I'm glad to see Nintendo bringing what the public wants. Companies like Nintendo are learning more and more that great franchises are made by great games but maintained by great communities." A truth that game-makers, from Nintendo to Sony to Microsoft, ignore at their peril.


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PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. (WJLA/CNN) - A 1-year-old girl with a heart defect is recovering from a surgery that will help her continue to grow, despite doctors' initial fear of performing the procedure.
Phoenix Da'Vine, 1, was born with a heart defect, which prevented the organ from properly circulating oxygen around her body. But she beat the odds when she was taken off life support just 8 months later in April and lived.
Now, the baby and her family are celebrating another medical "miracle" after Phoenix made it through a successful heart surgery that doctors across the country said was too dangerous to perform, according to her mother, Monique Goldring.
Facing the possibility Phoenix would outgrow the shunt that allowed blood to flow to her lungs, her family was desperate.
"[I am] desperately hoping that somebody will be willing to look at her case and perform this surgery on her," said Goldring in August.
Just a short time later, doctors at Children's National Hospital decided to take on Phoenix's case. The baby had a successful surgery in November, meaning the family no longer has to fear her outgrowing her shunt. Doctors also performed a tracheostomy to help with respiratory issues.
Phoenix remains in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit as she recovers.
"Words can't express how grateful I am for Children's National Hospital. They stepped up and saved my daughter's life," Goldring said. "I am the happiest mother on the face of this earth."
The family is overwhelmed with joy. They celebrated Thanksgiving with Phoenix at the hospital.
Copyright 2019 WJLA, Family photos via CNN. All rights reserved.


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We are now on the top page of results for all our main search terms. The website news feed appears instantly; we don't have to do anything!'Managing Director, corporate hospitality firm (London, UK)
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Fairfax, Vermont
|This article is a stub. Help us to expand it by contributing your knowledge. For county and town page guidelines, visit U.S. County Page Content Suggestions.
Fairfax is a town in Franklin county, Vermont. It was formed in 1763 in N.H. from Chittenden county. The probate and court district for Fairfax is Franklin. For more information, contact the town at 67 Hunt St., P.O. Box 27, Fairfax 05454. On the attached map, Fairfax is shown as 13 in Franklin county.
For information about the state of Vermont see Vermont Family History Research.


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Zhang Kui, an immigrant from Fujian, China, was asked to assist a New York City Police murder investigation in the Fifth Precinct in Chinatown. According to a report by the Chinese newspaper Singtao Daily, the police later found that Zhang is an undocumented immigrant and reported him to the federal immigrant agency, where he is now facing deportation.
Stories such as Zhang's are causing concern among immigrant rights groups who worry that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's executive order 34, which allows police, city agencies and services to ask people about their immigration status and then report them to the federal authority, will disrupt the lives of more than 400,000 undocumented immigrants in New York City.
Within days of the announcement, groups of immigrant advocacy groups and some public officials took to the streets to protest. Facing so much opposition, Mayor Bloomberg said in July that he is considering changing the order.
"Although the mayor believes on the merits it is a good order, he is considering revising it because of the harm its misconceptions have cause," said Edward Skyler, the mayor's press secretary. While the mayor is revising his new policy, some fear immigrants will continue shunning city services and refusing to cooperate with the police.
"[The new order] will radically change the city's relationship to its millions of immigrant residents," Moises Perez, executive director of Alianza Dominicana, who was in the protest at City Hall, told the Daily News.
In the past, an executive order issued by Mayor Edward Koch barred city employees from reporting undocumented aliens to immigration authorities. But in 1996, Congress passed a law stating that the city cannot forbid their employees from sharing information about an undocumented immigrant to federal agents.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani refused to comply with the law and challenged its legality. In 1999, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the second circuit ruled that Koch's executive order was unconstitutional.
After the September 11 attack, the federal government encouraged local police to work with immigration agencies and allowed them to inquire about the immigration status of suspects. Under the new executive order, police can now report illegal immigrants to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Since the court ruling, city officials have not clarified their policy toward undocumented immigrants. A few weeks before issuing the order, Mayor Bloomberg himself said on his weekly radio show that all undocumented immigrants should be made citizens.
The timing of the new executive order has to do with pressure from Washington to clarify the city's position on reporting illegal immigrants, according to a Daily News report.
As reported in this column two months ago, the City Council is now sponsoring a bill (Intro 326), "Access Without Fear" that would allow immigrants to get access to the city's health and social services without having to worry abut their status.
"In a city that is 40 percent foreign-born, it is essential that [immigrant] communities don't fear accessing city services," said City Councilmember Hiram Monserrate, who is the main sponsor of the bill.
An immigrant from Bangkok, Thailand, Chaleampon Ritthichai is the editor of The Citizen.