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HANGZHOU – Two brothers and their father were sentenced to death on Monday for cheating 15,000 investors out of over $1.1 billion in east China's Zhejiang province. Ji Wenhua, president of the Yintai Real Estate and Investment Group, was sentenced to death for the crime
Chinese Fund Managers Sentenced to Death after Cheating Investors out of 1 Billion USD
Gold at $7,000 article goes viral in Chinese media
Dan Collins CMR "Gold going to $7,000″, an article today in the Chinese media is going viral and one of the most viewed articles in the financial press. The article references American Jim Rickards and his concept of comparing inflation-adjusted gold prices. Most Chinese economists
Western paper markets manipulate gold prices lower as China takes the real stuff off the market.
It's not uncommon for the large Wall Street banks to combine in shorting an entire years supply of minded silver in a single day.The same goes for all commodities. Endless paper printing getting funneled to Wall Street has destroyed all real price discovery. Capitalism fails
Chanos is back….This is getting sad
Chanos is back! His short China thesis is very long in the tooth but as it goes with most ego maniacs he cannot accept failure or that fact that he might be wrong. Being wrong on an entire country where you have never visited and
"American Collapse Theory" Gaining Ground in China
Dan Collins CMR When I moved to China back in 1998 I was surprised to learn how highly the Chinese thought of America. Of course China was a much poorer place back then but coming from the Detroit area I couldn't fathom where was all
China Car Sales Up 22.6% -The Chinese economy is collapsing?
You have to laugh at the whole "China will collapse crowd" on CNBC and even respected sites like Zero Hedge. Personally, I love the Zerohedge stuff. They understand the ponzi-financial fraud-money printing-welfare state economy that now envelops the West. But China is a real economy,
Cloud Computing in China booming as American giants are pushed out
D.Collins CMR China's cloud computing market is expected to be worth 37.2 billion yuan (US$6 billion) in 2017 as demand for the service grows, the Chinese-language China Securities Journal reported on Friday. Some American tech companies are watching the largest and fastest I.T. market in
Oil rig dispute could see repeat of Sino-Vietnamese War: report
Breaking News today that a Chinese vessel as rammed and sunk a Vietnamese fishing boat. All countries in the South China Sea and East China Sea are using fishing boats in a game of cat-and-mouse to challenge each other on their respective areas. This time
France relents to China, Chinese police to help patrol Paris streets
Scared of losing the Chinese tourist dollar, France has relented to China and will allow Chinese police on the streets of Paris. More signs of the benefits of third-world immigration into the West to the point where cultural breakdown has occurred and law and order
People's Bank of China will take down global gold price manipulation
Gold has been flowing East for a decade. When the West wakes up to the fact that their gold is gone, they will no longer have sound money with which to back a currency. The world has only been off a gold standard since 1971
China to lower reserve requirement ratio
From the China Daily… BEIJING – China will lower banks' reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 0.5 percentage points starting May 18, the country's central bank announced Saturday. The cut, the second of its kind this year, will drop the RRR for the country's large financial
Chinese Officials Falsify Data To Mask Slowdown, NYT Says
Is China tweaking its numbers on GDP? Probably. For twenty years Chinese GDP roughy came in right on the governments target. This would be an almost magical performance record considering economists in the West can predict absolutely nothing. For years, China most likely lowered GDP
Japan Learning the Hard Way, Destroying your Currency is Not an Economic Strategy
Japan will learn the hard way that destroying your currency is not an viable economic strategy. Shanghai Daily JAPAN posted a record 1.63 trillion yen (US$17.4 billion) trade deficit in January as rising exports trailed surging imports of crude oil and gas due to rising
American GDP: The Fantastic Fiction of American Economic Strength
American GDP: The Fantastic Fiction of American Economic Strength By Dan Collins Is the U.S. economy still the most powerful in the world? That is what we are told as the United States does have by far the world's largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In
Government tells Huawei that they are not allowed to spy on Americans. Only they can do that.
Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter are all blocked in China. They have algorithms in place to disrupt Google service as well which makes it very annoying even using Google here. You get many dead links when the algo's are working. Despite blocking American companies in China,
Blackrock, Fidelity and other pros get burned by China debt pricing
Peter Fuhrman
China First Capital
For all the media ink spilled recently, you'd think the ongoing fight in Hong Kong between severely-troubled Hong Kong-listed Chinese real estate developer Kaisa Group and its creditors was the biggest, nastiest, most portentous blood feud the capital markets have ever seen. It's none of that. It's a reasonably small deal ($2.5 billion in total Hong Kong bond debt that may prove worthless) involving a Chinese company of no great significance and a group of unnamed bond-holders who are screaming bloody murder about being asked to take a 50% haircut on the face value of the bonds. The creditors have brought in high-priced legal talent to argue their case, both in court and in the media. Me thinks they doth protest too much.
Nothing wrong with creditors fighting to get back all the money they loaned and interest they were promised. But, what goes unspoken in this whole dispute is the core question of what in heaven's name were bond investors thinking when they bought these bonds to begin with. Kaisa was, if not a train wreck waiting to happen, then clearly the kind of borrower that should be made to pay interest rates sufficiently high to compensate investors for the manifold risks. Instead, just the opposite went down. The six different Kaisa bond issues were sold without problem by Hong Kong-based global securities houses including Citigroup, Credit Suisse and UBS to some of the world's most sophisticated investors including Fidelity and Blackrock by offering average interest rates of around 8%. If Kaisa were trying to raise loans on its home territory in China, rather than Hong Kong, there is likely no way anyone would have loaned such sums to them, with the conditions attached, for anything less than 16%-20% a year, probably even higher. Kaisa's Hong Kong bonds were entirely mispriced at their offering.
It may strain mercy, therefore, to feel much sympathy for investors who lose money on this deal. Start with the fact Kaisa, based where I am in Shenzhen, is a PRC company that sought a stock market listing and issued debt in Hong Kong, rather than at home. Not always, but often, this is itself a big red flag. Hong Kong's stock exchange had laxer listing rules than those on the mainland. As a result, a significant number of PRC companies that would never get approval to IPO in China because of dodgy finances and laughable corporate governance managed to go public in Hong Kong. Kaisa looks like one of these. It has a corporate structure, which since 2009 has been basically illegal, that used to allow PRC companies to slip an offshore holding company at the top of its capital structure.
The bigger issue, though, was that bond buyers clearly didn't understand, or price in, the now-obvious-to-all fact that offshore creditors (meaning anyone holding the Hong Kong issued debt of a PRC domestic company) would get treated less generously in a default situation than creditors in the PRC itself. The collateral is basically all in China. Hong Kong debt holders are effectively junior to Chinese secured creditors. True to form, in the Kaisa case, the domestic creditors, including Chinese banks, are likely to get a better deal in Kaisa's restructuring than the folks in Hong Kong.
This fact alone should have mandated Kaisa would need to promise much sweeter returns and more protections to Hong Kong investors in order to get the $2.5 billion. Investors piled in all the same, and are now enraged to discover that the IOUs and collateral aren't worth nearly as much as they expected. Kaisa bonds were, in effect, junk sold successfully as something close to investment grade. As long as the company didn't pull a fast one with its disclosure – an issue still in dispute – it's fair to conclude that bond-buyers really have no one to blame but themselves.
At this point, it's probable many of the original owners of the Kaisa bonds, including Fidelity and Blackrock, have sold their Kaisa bonds at a loss. Kaisa's bonds are trading now at about half their face value, suggesting that for all the creditors' grousing, they will end up swallowing the restructuring terms put forward by Kaisa. If the creditors don't agree, well then the whole thing will head to court in Hong Kong. If that happens, Kaisa has threatened to default, which would probably leave these Hong Kong bondholders with little or nothing. Indeed, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has calculated that offshore creditors in a liquidation would receive just 2.4% of what they are owed. The collateral Kaisa pledged in Hong Kong may be worth more than the paper it was printed on, but not much.
The real story here is the systematic mispricing of PRC company debt issued in Hong Kong. It's still possible, believe it or not, for other Chinese property developers with similar structure and offering similar protections as Kaisa to sell bonds bearing interest rates of under 9%. Meantime, as discussed here, Chinese property companies in some trouble but not lucky enough to have a holding company outside China are now forced to borrow from Chinese investors, both individuals and institutions, at 2%-3% a month.
It's a situation rarely seen – investors in a foreign domain provide money much more cheaply against shakier collateral than the locals will. Kaisa's current woes are part-and-parcel of at least some of the real estate development industry in China. It seems to have engaged in corrupt practices to acquire land at concessionary prices. Kaisa got punished by the Shenzhen government. It was forbidden to sell newly-built apartment units in Shenzhen. No sales means no cash flow which means no money to pay debt-holders. Kaisa is far from the first Chinese real estate developer to run into problems like this. And yet, again, none of this, the "politico-existential" risk many real estate development companies face in China, seems to have made much of an imprint on the minds of international investors who lined up to buy the 8% bonds originally. After all, the interest rate on offer from Kaisa was a few points higher than for bonds issued by Hong Kong's own property developers.
Global institutional investors like Blackrock and Fidelity might control more capital and have far more experience pricing debt than Chinese ones. But, in this case at least, they showed they are far more willing to be taken for a ride than those on the mainland.
China will relax rules for foreign investors
China will relax rules for foreign investors for trading on its Shanghai-based interbank market, including making it easier to obtain quotas for such investments, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
Participants in the Chinese mainland's capital market investment schemes for foreigners – the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) scheme and its renminbi-denominated version (RQFII) – will in the future use a registration system that eliminates the need to apply for regulatory approval for quotas in the interbank market, the sources said.
The QFII program was started in 2002 to allow foreign investment in Chinese securities using foreign currencies and RQFII was approved in 2011 by the mainland authorities.
Foreign investors will also be permitted to invest in more products traded in the interbank market, such as banks' certificates of deposits (CDs), bond repurchase agreements (repos) and swaps, including interest rate swaps, the sources said.
Qualified foreign investors are currently confined mainly to trading spot bonds and conducting lending and borrowing in the money market.
No firm date has been set for the reforms, but it is possible they could be implemented as early as May, the sources said.
The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, and foreign exchange regulators declined to make any immediate comment on the moves.
China oil storage capacity is completely full
The China Money Report
China is the world's largest oil importer and in 2014 took advantage
of a 50% price drop in crude to import a record amount to fill the
national strategic reserves. How could the world's largest oil
importer import a record amount of oil and still see the global price
collapse? You will have to check the derivative trading accounts at
the Fed controlled banks for that. I'm sure it had nothing to do with
a government coordinated plan combined with global banks and Middle
East oil producers to put pressure on Russia while at the same time
putting the country under sanctions.
As with all government plans, its now time for the blowback portion of
before said plan. Sinopec has now warned that storage capacity is at
full capacity which will cause oil imports this year into China to be
flat or even decline.
China has filled up 91m barrels of storage capacity in four different
locations . They are building a second and third phase of strategic oil
reserve capacity but it is not clear when these locations would be ready
to accept crude storage.
Long bottled up, China's wealth is flooding the world
This article first appeared in Nikkei Asia Review
China's "new normal" is not only about accepting slower growth. Structural changes transforming the country's economy are accelerating another new reality: the outflow of money. Wealth that has been building up at home over decades is being redirected overseas, and the trend is gaining momentum.
That shift is illustrated by Chinese real estate investment flows in 2014. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, a U.S. real estate services company, outbound commercial property investment from mainland China last year totaled $16.5 billion, up 46% from 2013 and surpassing domestic spending for the first time. Although the figure accounted for just 2% of total global commercial real estate investment that year, the growth put observers on notice.
Referring to the Chinese outbound property investment, Alistair Meadows, head of JLL's International Capital Group for the Asia-Pacific, told the Nikkei Asian Review that "this is not cyclical, but a structural shift."
New York state of mind
Chinese property developers, insurance companies and wealthy individuals are displaying a strong appetite for buildings and land in major cities in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. Meadows said, "There is a lot of momentum in outward [investment] activities and we don't see that stopping."
Symbolic of this hunger is the $1.95 billion purchase last October of the iconic Waldorf Astoria New York hotel in Manhattan by Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group. Along with a general Chinese push to "go global" amid the shifting international landscape, Meadows said another driver of the overseas expansion is the "slowdown of the Chinese economy and its own domestic business activities."
Property is not the only asset class being gobbled up. According to data compiled by Dealogic, China's overseas corporate takeover activity almost doubled in 2014 to $70.7 billion from 2009, when the figure was pushed down by the Lehman Brothers collapse.
China's biggest such deal last year was the $7 billion purchase of Peruvian copper mine of the Las Bambas copper mine from Glencore Xstrata by China Minmetals Group, Guoxin International Investment and Citic Group. Although that is far less than the more than $18 billion in deal value that state oil giant CNOOC paid for Canadian oil and gas company Nexen announced in 2012, the sheer number of takeovers in 2014 was enough to set a new record.
Will McLane, head of ASEAN corporate and investment banking and Asia Pacific financial institution at Citigroup, said, "The [overseas corporate expansion] trend is quite clear." He said more Chinese companies are aspiring to be global, and policy changes at home are making it easier than ever for them to do so. With businesses there amassing greater levels of wealth, "more diversification is taking place," McLane added.
It is not just companies and wealthy individuals that are taking their money to foreign shores. Ordinary Chinese, too, are traveling and spending abroad like never before. Some 110 million mainland Chinese traveled overseas in 2014, helping push the country's travel account deficit up by 48% to $113.6 billion. That figure easily dwarfs outbound commercial real estate investment and overseas corporate takeovers — combined.
According to Hong Kong brokerage CLSA, a subsidiary of mainland company Citic Securties, China overtook Germany as the country with the most outbound travelers in 2013. By 2020, the annual figure is forecast to almost double to 200 million, far outstripping the rest of the world.
The outflow of all this money has some observers on edge. China is still running a current-account surplus — at $213.8 billion in 2014 — but its capital and financial account slipped into the red to the tune of $91.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014. That topped the previous record deficit, logged in the third quarter of 2012. The full-year deficit for 2014 swelled to $96 billion. It is not just the size of the figure that is drawing attention, but the momentum behind it: There have now been three straight quarters of net capital outflow. Dong Tao, chief economist for Credit Suisse in Hong Kong, called "consumption" the big theme for China for the coming decade and said "we are just in the beginning of China's consumption boom."
Yuan jitters
Kevin Lai, chief economist at Daiwa Capital Markets in Hong Kong, says the trend is putting pressure on the Chinese currency.
"I am extremely worried because of how the market is positioned in terms of yuan," Lai said. He estimates that about $1 trillion was brought into the Chinese economy through carry trade, in which investors borrow cheap and abundant U.S. dollars and take a long position in yuan. But with China's growth prospects waning and the U.S. Federal Reserve preparing to raise interest rates, the notion that yuan appreciation is an easy bet is rapidly crumbling.
Lai's base-case scenario is that China will somehow muddle through with the help of such measures as continued liquidity injections by the People's Bank of China to facilitate an orderly deleveraging process. But he also sees a more chilling possibility: the outbreak of a credit or currency crisis, or both. Should any of these crises emerge, China could fall into a recession, and the river of money flowing out of the country would start to dry up.
Another area of concern is the discontent brewing in Hong Kong about the increasing mainland presence there. The territory saw over 47 million mainland visitors last year, nearly seven times the local population. Anti-mainland demonstrations have become more frequent, and in some cases tourists and shoppers suspected of being mainlanders have been attacked.
"One day it will [also] happen in Japan, in France, in Australia, in Thailand," Tao of Credit Suisse predicts. He said China's massive population and growing purchasing power mean the country could swarm its regional neighbors and hoard daily necessities, as is happening in Hong Kong. "Nonetheless," said Tao, "this is the new norm."
IBM taking U.S. Defense Department Funded Technologies to China
IBM is a dying company. They have spent years muddling through stock buy-backs
to keep the companies tock price afloat. Critics accuse the company of becoming
more a financial engineering company than a real engineering company.
The once American icon has long ago sold off their real manufacturing
businesses to Lenovo and others to focus on "services". Of course, without
over-paid defense contracts this would have been an even bigger mistake that it
has been.
Since the 2008 crisis and the shedding of real productive products, IBM has
been fighting it out suckling on the government tit even recently suing the
government of an award of a $600m dollar cloud-computing contract for Amazon.
IBM has received millions of dollars from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research
Projects group. There latest quest has been receiving over $50m alone for research
into artificial intelligence. Now, that some technologies are ready to be spun off
of course where are they heading? To the country that has the money to pay for
them, China.
Want China Times
IBM and China's Beijing Teamsun Technology recently announced their partnership allowing the latter to develop and sell domestic innovation products based on IBM's technologies — a move seen as disturbing for the US government, Shanghai-based outlet the Paper reports.
The Obama administration has been wary of the information security component in the draft of China's anti-terrorism law, and IBM's cooperation with a Chinese enterprise in handing over source codes will make the US government even more unhappy.
IBM will be open to Chinese enterprises, not only to share its designs with them but also to help them carry out design work on next-generation microchips, said Wang Yang, IBM senior vice president and general manager of its China Development Center, on March 21.
A day earlier, IBM and Teamsun jointly announced their cooperation program, with Teamsun agreeing to develop domestic innovation products based on IBM's technologies.
Last November, the two sides reached an agreement on data banks, with IBM authorizing Teamsun to use Informix software source codes.
According to foreign media reports, US trade bodies led by the American Chamber of Commerce in the past filed letters to the Chinese and the US governments respectively, calling for Beijing to postpone implementation of network supervisory rules and asking the US government to respond to the Chinese government on related rules.
On March 2, President Obama said in an interview with Reuters that the new rules crafted by Beijing would be unfavorable to US tech companies and called for China to change its policy.
IBM said its move is not intended in response to the new Chinese government policy; it said it is seeking a win-win situation allowing more people to understand and apply IBM's technologies.
Wang said IBM's opening is fully market-oriented, focusing on Chinese enterprises as China has the demand and a massive market. IBM also wishes to establish an industry ecosystem so that the cooperation will accelerate related development.
Beijing has cited the Edward Snowden revelations of US government surveillance as leverage to present foreign tech companies as potential threats to information security and to emphasize the domestic production of IT equipment. However, China trails behind in developing domestic operating systems, middleware, and high-end servers.
2014 Asian Fund Assets up 21% in Landmark Year
2014 Asian Fund Assets up 21% in Landmark Year
Mar 23 2015 | 1:04pm ET
The Asia Pacific region experienced strong growth in hedge fund assets last year, according to new data published by HedgeFund Intelligence's AsiaHedge.
In what is being termed a landmark year, the regional Asia-Pacific hedge fund industry booked growth in assets of 21% during 2014, reaching a record level of $193 billion. The tally exceeds the region's pre-financial crisis level of $192 billion set in 2007.
Aradhna Dayal, editor of AsiaHedge and head of Asia for HedgeFund Intelligence, attributed the growth to solid outperformance of Asian hedge funds in 2013 and 2014, according to media reports.
The survey found China-focused strategies were the largest segment within the regional industry last year, commanding assets of $32.88 billion. Significantly, some 86%, or $167 billion, of the industry's regional AUM is now being managed out of Asia itself, signaling growth in indigenous asset management capability. As much as $68 billion is being run from Hong Kong alone, the survey found.
'One Belt One Road' to be central to China's 13th five-year plan
Want China Times
In a departure from the past practice dividing the nation into the four major economic blocs of eastern, central, western, and northeastern China, the 13th five-year national development plan for 2016-2020 will revolve around the concept of economic belts and economic zones, including the Silk Road Economic Belt, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development zone, and the Yangtze river economic belt, according to Beijing-based Economic Information.
The plan may also encompass a number of other economic belts for priority development, including the Zhu River-Xijing economic belt, the southeastern coastal economic belt, the northeastern economic belt, and the Great Wall economic belt.
A source stated that via pinpointing these economic zones and belts, the new plan envisions accelerating the coordinated development of the nation's major economic areas which have formed following decades of rapid development.
The arrangement will facilitate the formulation of precision development policies, in the same vein as the strategic planning for the Silk Road Economic Belt, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development plan, the Yangtze River economic belt, and the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.
The economic zone and belt concept complies with the spread of the nation's economic development from coastal to inland areas in recent years, as evidenced by the moving of manufacturing operations from the Yangtze River delta to mid and upstream areas of the Yangtze River, including Anhui province, Sichuan province, and Chongqing.
"The economic-belt concept will speed up industrial relocation to central and western China and the economic upgrading of eastern China," said Sun Jiuwen, director of the Regional and Urban Economic Research Institute at Renmin University of China, according to the website.
Chinese stock market booms
Debt: China vs U.S.
BREAKING: Germany, Italy, France to join Chinese Bank
China's money magnet pulls in US allies
Gideon Rachman
The story of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is turning into a diplomatic debacle for the US. By setting up and then losing a power struggle with China, Washington has sent an unintended signal about the drift of power and influence in the 21st century.
As soon as China made clear, back in 2013, that it intended to establish the bank, the US set about persuading its allies to boycott the new institution. The Americans argued that the new Beijing-backed bank might follow less scrupulous lending standards than the World Bank on issues such as clean government and environmental standards.
But it was also pretty clear that this was a power struggle. The World Bank is based in Washington and its president has always been an American. The AIIB, a potential rival, will be based in Shanghai and China is the leading shareholder.
Initially Japan, South Korea and Australia decided to stand aside from the AIIB, as did all the big European nations. But the news that Britain now intends to join the new bank as a founder member looks like opening a decisive crack in the anti-AIIB front.
I spent last week in South Korea and most analysts there believe it is only a matter of time before the Seoul government signs up. Australia is already reconsidering its position and other large EU states are likely to follow Britain's lead. At that point, the only significant holdouts would be Japan and the US. That would look very bad for America. Rather than rallying its friends in a principled opposition to a flawed venture, the AIIB episode will make the US look isolated and petulant.
The story will be all the sweeter for China because it has had a bad couple of years in its developing struggle with America for power and influence in Asia. By taking an increasingly aggressive stance in territorial disputes with its neighbours, it had inadvertently managed to strengthen America's position as a series of countries — including the Philippines, Japan, Australia and India — moved to bolster diplomatic and security ties with the US.
But China seems to have learnt from this experience. In recent months it has been less overtly confrontational towards its neighbours and instead stressed its desire to build economic ties — including a new Silk Road of trade and infrastructure through Central Asia, matched by a "maritime silk road" across the seas of Southeast Asia. The AIIB could play a big role in financing these initiatives.
The hope is to persuade Asian nations that, rather than facing a threat from the rise of China, they stand to benefit from its growing wealth. Most of China's neighbours — as well as the British, who have their own hopes for attracting Chinese investment — seem to have concluded that it would be foolish to miss out.
The AIIB episode demonstrates that, in the struggle for influence in Asia, China's strongest card is its growing economic power. America's strongest card, by contrast, is its military might and its network of security treaties. The countries caught in between face a dilemma. Japan, Australia, the Philippines and South Korea all have security treaties with the US. But every one of them now does considerably more trade with China than the US.
South Korea, for example, relies on American power to ward off North Korea and perhaps, one day, as a hedge against China itself. But China now takes more than a quarter of South Korean exports compared with about 12 per cent that go to America.
As a result, the South Koreans are frequently pulled in two directions. The AIIB is one example. Another is a fierce debate in the country about whether to accede to a US request to install an anti-missile system that might be useful defending against the North — but which the Chinese see as a threat to their own security.
The AIIB episode will only increase American and Japanese incentives to conclude negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that would bring together 12 Pacific nations, but which rather pointedly does not include China. Once again, the Americans argue that this is a question of maintaining standards of economic openness rather than any effort to build an anti-Chinese bloc. But even some of their allies do not wholly buy this argument and some mutter that it is a bit peculiar to build a new trade agreement that excludes China, the leading trading power in the Asia-Pacific region.
The big question in this Asian arm-wrestling match between the US and China, is whether America's military muscle will ultimately matter more than China's economic might. The answer will vary issue by issue. But, in general, the more a country feels threatened by China, the more it is likely to lean towards America. That is why Japan is likely to be the last big Asian holdout against the AIIB. By contrast, if China is sensible enough not to show its fists too often, it has a good chance of seeing its economic might gradually translate into increasing political and diplomatic weight — even with close allies of America.
There was a time when the world was said to bow down before the mighty dollar. But the story of the AIIB suggests that these days, even many of America's closest allies, have renminbi signs in their eyes.
Dalio warns Fed of 1937-style rate risk
The US Federal Reserve risks causing a 1937-style stock market slump when it finally moves to raise interest rates, one of the world's most powerful hedge fund managers has warned.
Ray Dalio, founder of the $165bn hedge fund group Bridgewater Associates, said in a note to clients and followers that he was avoiding large bets on the financial markets for fear that the Fed's expected change of policy could have unintended consequences.
In Mr Dalio's note, the stark tone of which has led it to be widely circulated around the industry, he and his co-author urge the Fed to proceed with caution and to set out a public plan B, in case monetary tightening goes wrong.
"We don't know — nor does the Fed know — exactly how much tightening will knock over the apple cart," Mr Dalio and Mark Dinner, his colleague, wrote. "What we do hope the Fed knows, which we don't know, is how exactly it will fix things if it knocks it over. We hope that they know that before they make a move that could knock over the apple cart."
"We are cautious about our exposures," they added: "For the reasons explained, we do not want to have any concentrated bets, especially at this time."
The note likens financial conditions today to those in 1937, eight years after the 1929 stock market crisis and at the end of four years of money printing that had led to surge in equity valuations. Premature tightening by the Fed led to a one-third slump in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1937 and the sell-off continued into the following year.
Moscow Exchange's turnover in the Chinese Renminbi grew 700% in 2014
From 17 March the Moscow Exchange has started trading in a futures contract on the currency pair Chinese Renminbi — Russian rouble
The launch has been driven by a substantially increasing Renminbi turnover on the Exchange, growing volume
of settlement in the currency between Russia and China as well as newly arising demand for hedging of such transactions.
Andrey Shemetov, First Deputy CEO of Moscow Exchange, said:
"The launch of the CNY/RUB futures is the next step made by the Moscow Exchange to offer a full range of Renminbi instruments and hedging tools to participants. We expect that the new contract will be liquid
and in-demand as other Exchange's derivatives, and facilitate the trade turnover between China and Russia".
The contract is cash-settled against the Moscow Exchange CNY/RUB fixing.
The contract's expiry dates are every 15th day of March, June, September and December.
Metallinvestbank will act as the market maker for the contract.
Moscow Exchange's turnover in the Chinese Renminbi grew 700% in 2014 to RUB 395 bln (CNY 48 bln).
The record average daily trading volume of CNY 541 mln was seen in October.
New US maritime strategy document highlights China's rise
Want China Times
The latest update of America's maritime strategy has highlighted Washington's focus on the Asia-Pacific region and especially the continuing rise of China.
The Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower (CS21), last updated in 2007, said it is "imperative" for the US to maintain its global naval predominance to defend key American interests and prevent "our adversaries from leveraging the world's oceans against us."
To this end, the document stressed the importance for maintaining a fleet of at least 300 ships, including 11 carriers, 33 amphibious ships and 14 ballistic missile subs for the US Navy and Marine Corps. The US Navy, in particular, is aiming to have a forward presence of 120 ships by 2020, up from 97 today, and putting them "where it matters, when it matters."
Where it matters appears to be the Indo-Asia-Pacific, as the document notes that the region's "economic importance, strategic interests and geography…dictate a growing reliance on naval forces to protect US interests."
CS21 confirms America's plans to "rebalance" 60% of its naval and air forces to the Indo-Asia-Pacific region by 2020 by maintaining "a Carrier Strike Group, Carrier Airwing and Amphibious Ready Group in Japan; add an attack submarine to those already in Guam and… [increase] to four the number of Littoral Combat Ships forward-stationed in Singapore." The US Navy's "most advanced warfighting platforms," including "multi-mission ballistic missile defence-capable ships; submarines; and intelligence surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft," will also be provided to the region, the document added.
China's maritime rise was singled out as a key factor in the region, particularly as it continues to be engaged in several maritime disputes — with Japan in the East China Sea and with Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea. The US has accused China of inflaming tensions through maritime patrols, naval drills and land reclamation activities, while China has accused the US of interfering in its dispute with Japan and cozying up to Vietnam and the Philippines.
The strategy document noted that while "China demonstrates its ability to embrace international norms, institutions, and standards of behavior commensurate with rising power status," the country's "naval expansion also presents challenges when it employs force or intimidation against other sovereign nations to assert territorial claims."
"This behavior, along with a lack of transparency in its military intentions, contributes to tension and instability, potentially leading to miscalculation or even escalation," CS21 warned.
To improve US positioning in the region, the document suggested strengthening alliances with Japan, Australia and South Korea while also striving to improve relations with India as well as Myanmar, where unrest rages on due to infighting between the government and ethnic rebels. For China, stability in Myanmar is viewed as crucial to sustaining its economic interests in the country and preserving a channel to the Indian Ocean, and it has been argued that the US has been intentionally muddying the waters in the hopes of stifling China and eventually driving Myanmar towards a democracy.
China was also placed in a list with Russia, Iran and North Korea as countries that present security challenges or threats that could impinge on US interests.
"The world has changed since 2007, when the last strategy was published, violent extremist organization like [the Islamic State] have grown. We have a continued threat from North Korea and Iran and you've seen the recent Russian aggression. There's also the question of the rise of China," William McQuilkin, director of the US Navy's strategy and policy division, said in a news briefing about CS21 last week.
Key to America's naval strategy will be the creation of a new essential function called All Domain Access, which aims to organize, train and equip US forces to maintain appropriate freedom of action in every key domain, including the sea, air, land, space, cyberstance and across the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, the document said.
US Navy can be defeated by China, claims Global Times
Want China Times
In response to a New York Times pieces by Gregg Easterbrook on March 9, China's nationalist tabloid Global Times wrote a commentary of its own, saying that China is capable of defeating the US Navy in the Western Pacific with anti-ship missiles built at low prices.
In Easterbrook's article, he said that China currently possesses only one outdated, conventionally-powered aircraft carrier and is rumored to be constructing two others. However, neither of those two vessels are likely to be nuclear supercarriers, according to the author. Furthermore, Easterbrook questioned whether those two domestically built carriers have "blue water" or open ocean-going capabilities.
Easterbrook said that the US Navy is more powerful than all other navies in the world combined in terms of its aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, naval aviation, surface firepower, assault ships, missiles and logistics. The author added that it is unnecessary for many US military experts to engage in fearmongering regarding China's naval capability since "their carriers are modest compared with America's; the submarines far less capable."
The article also went on to say that there is no evidence that China has conducted realistic tests of its anti-ship missile. "China's neighbors are unhappy that the growing Chinese Navy may back Beijing's claims regarding the South China Sea," Easterbrook wrote. "But Chinese naval expansion does not pose any direct threat to the national security of the United States, or to its dominance of the oceans." He then stated that making the US Navy more powerful does not help to solve the dispute over the South China Sea peacefully.
The Global Times was unhappy about Easterbrook's evaluation of Chinese naval power and said in its commentary that it is not necessary for China to build a strong and powerful navy to defeat the US in a regional conflict. With enough low cost anti-ship missiles, the People's Liberation Army Navy is capable of paralyzing the US Navy's freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, the paper said. Enough damage can be done to morale and equipment even if only one missile out of 1,000 hits an aircraft carrier.
Chinese congress discusses ways to stop officials raising personal armies
Uh…ya, officials not raising a personal army might be a good idea.
Recent events with Bo XiLai bring reminders of the past, in particular
the Warload Era which was 1916-1928. The chaos and famine which accompanied
it were some of China's darkest times outside of the 1960's Great Leap into
Want China Times
CPPCC discusses ways to stop officials raising personal armies
China's ongoing "two sessions" of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have discussed tightening public security regulations to ensure powerful officials cannot build their own private armies like those allegedly established by disgraced political heavyweights Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang, reports Duowei News, a US-based Chinese political news outlet.
Of the 39 recommendations presented to the CPPCC by conference deputy chair Luo Fuhe, also the deputy chief of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, the one that has caught the most attention is the suggestion to speed up the process of ensuring that the country's public security organs are run properly under the rule of law.
China's public security organs are too big, too complex and have too many problems, which has led to abuses of power and illegal use of force, Luo said, listing as an example reports last year of drunken police shooting and killing innocent people.
According to Duowei, the recommendation is aimed at preventing any one individual from becoming so powerful that they can build their own private army, noting that one of the major problems facing China's public security system is that it is not clear whether it is under the control of the Communist Party, the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission or the central government.
Two officials accused of assembling their own security force are former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai and his close ally, retired oil and security tsar Zhou Yongkang. Bo is currently serving a life sentence for corruption, while Zhou was expelled from the party late last year and faces a criminal trial.
Zhou's power came from his time as public security minister and secretary of the Central Politics and Law Commission for more than 10 years, which allowed him to control all aspects of the law enforcement and judicial systems, Duowei said.
During Zhou's reign, China's stability maintenance budget rose rapidly, surpassing the national military budget in 2010 and reaching 769.1 billion yuan (US$122.8 billion) in 2013.
Duowei further alleges that under the guise of counterterrorism, Zhou was said to have built his own personal "Zhou army," loyal only to him. Last March, a leaked document allegedly listing Zhou's assets identified in raids of his properties found that he possessed an armory of 15 made-in-China pistols and numerous guns imported from Germany, Russia, the UK and Belgium, together with more than 11,000 bullets.
Bo, on the other hand, built up his considerable power base through his time as governor of northeast China's Liaoning province, a member of the party's ruling Politburo and party chief of Chongqing in the southwestern part of the country, where his neo-Maoist anti-corruption campaign made him a rising political star.
According to Duowei, Bo used his public security chief Wang Lijun to buy large amounts of military equipment and weapons from Chongqing arms dealers to build a personal army. It was rumored that in April 2012, a red truck detained by police on a Shanghai freeway contained some of the military equipment acquired by Bo and Zhou, including 236 boxes and 12,033 rounds of ammunition weighing more than 10 tons.
By this time the events were in motion that would lead to the downfall of the charismatic Bo in China's biggest political scandal for 20 years and rumors were circulating of a plot between the Chongqing party chief and Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang to subvert the planned succession of the party leadership to take place later in the year. Several reports have claimed that Zhou and Bo had a conspiracy to do "something big" when they were still in power, suggesting that the duo planned to oppose Xi Jinping succeeding Hu Jintao as president and party chief.
80% of bitcoin is exchanged for Chinese yuan
Make sure to check out the video from MOTHERBAORD I have linked below.
Very interesting…now multiply those guys by a thousand and you will
see why China is controlling bitcoin now.
From QZ.COM
In a report out today from Goldman Sachs about the future of money, the bank points out that 80% of bitcoin volume is now exchanged into and out of Chinese yuan. The second-highest trading currency is the US dollar, followed by smaller denominations in yen and euros.
The revelation of China's bitcoin trading dominance seems to defy the logic that tight government restrictions would depress bitcoin's adoption in the world's largest economy. The amount of bitcoin trading activity in China has also risen, despite bitcoin's precipitous price fall from last year's $1,000-plus highs to less than $300 today.
The Chinese bitcoin surge comes against a backdrop of waning confidence in the Chinese economy, as the yuan weakens against the strengthening dollar and capital outflows—once rare in China—increase at record rates.
China's central bank clamped down on the cryptocurrency back in December 2013 when it banned bitcoin transactions at banks, retailers, and payment companies such as Alipay and Tencent. But the data show that bitcoin volume continued marching higher as bitcoin believers kept buying, selling and mining the cryptocurrency.
The fact that China has become a major mining hub is a likely contributor to its high bitcoin transaction volume, according to a report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The report also notes that bitcoin has lured day traders looking to profit off of bitcoin's volatility, as well as younger Chinese investors who might not have the money to invest in property or the understanding to invest in the stock market.
Bitcoin evangelist and crypto currency lawyer Roland Sun explained in an interview on industry website Lets Talk Bitcoin that there's no explicit ban on buying, selling, or owning bitcoin as long as the central bank considers it a commodity, rather than a currency. He said "the only restriction imposed here is to block financial institutions and third-party payment processors from aiding crypto currency businesses (yet there are still many loopholes in reality to circumvent or even penetrate that restriction)."
So until the Chinese government provides more clarity on its bitcoin stance, China's bitcoin trade is likely to go on.
U.S. financial media coverage leaving a lot unsaid
Pay attention..this is what qualifies as "expertise" on China in the
U.S. mainstream press. An American guy reading off cards who doesn't
speak Chinese. Egg prices up 11%, Vegetable prices up 4% but he says
China is suffering deflation. China is the world's largest importer
of commodities such as oil, copper, ore, etc.. The collapse in commodity
prices are a boom to China. Of course, Chinese manufacturers will have to
reduce selling prices somewhat when they are getting such as huge
percentage reduction in their costs.
China has suffered greatly from INFLATION. Vegetable prices up are 30 times
in a decade. Home prices, car prices, clothing, education, everything is up
huge. China has had 7% plus inflation for over a decade until the last couple
of years. A few years of low inflation is not going to hurt China,it will
help the average consumer. Deflation is not such a threat in China as the
country is not highly leveraged as is the U.S. which is just one rate hike
from tipping the boat over of government and consumer debt.
The reporter mentions the PBOC cutting deposit rates rapidly as if there is
a panic or something. The rate is still 5%. A bank loan is still going to
run more than 8% interest. The Bank reserve ratio is at 19.5% while U.S.
banks are complaining about a 10% reserve ratio.
Chinese Premier to push "Internet Plus" in China.
My first suggestion to the premiere is to get the Chinese firewall
software to stop slowing down the internet. Trying to go online in
English sites in China is now like living in the era of dial-up.
Want China Times
The notion of Internet Plus mentioned by Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday has drawn wide attention, as many see it as a sign of the government's increasing emphasis on the internet industry.
When delivering the government work report, Li said China will develop the Internet Plus action plan to integrate mobile internet, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing, to encourage the healthy development of e-commerce, industrial networks, and internet banking, and to help internet companies increase their international presence.
"From the report, we can see that the promotion of trans-boundary integration of the internet has become a focus of government work," said Fang Xingdong, chairman of think tank China Labs.
Internet Plus is the integration of the internet and traditional industries through online platforms and IT technology, it is expected to help economic restructuring, improve people's livelihoods and transform government functions, according to Wu Hequan, academic of Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Xu Linshen, vice general manager of the Beijing-based Qing-Feng Steamed Dumpling Shop, said: "Efficiency has improved since we brought in an e-commerce system that monitors sales. For example, if sales slip for one particular item we are notified and can investigate the reasons behind it."
The internet is also a driving force for the transformation of traditional manufacturing. Zheng Jie, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and general manager of Zhejiang branch of China Mobile, suggested that more "Made in China" products should use intelligent networks and mobile internet technology.
Internet financing is a rising industry and has promoted restructuring of traditional financing institutions. Major banks, including China Merchants Bank, China Minsheng Bank, and China development Bank, have launched online petty loan applications in recent years.
Wu Hequan said Internet Plus not only had economic benefits, but will also improve public services.
"For example, taxi-hailing apps can help save energy and cut emissions. Online appointments with doctors, telemedicine, and video lectures are also more convenient for busy people," he said.
During the ongoing "two sessions," NPC deputy and Tencent chairman Pony Ma, proposed that mobile internet can be used to to solve social problems, such as medical treatment, education resources and smog.
According to China Internet Network Information Center, China had 649 million internet users by the end of 2014, and some 557 million used cell phones to get online.
Li Jiang, a consultant of Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, said that besides markets, the government should also take up the responsibility to promote internet penetration and application, especially in terms of information security, data sharing among different social sectors, and the setting of IT standards.
In the opinion of Fang Xingdong, the internet is not only reshaping the economy, society and governance, but is also creating new opportunities to connect China and the rest of the world.
China has been transforming from a follower into a major player in the world's internet industry during the past two decades, he said.
"The next decade will be a time for the Chinese internet to broaden its reach globally," he said, "with the help of internet, China will pursue its development opportunities with a global vision."
Search Engines have become weaponized- Baidu to create A.I. brain for Chinese Military
Dan Collins
Looking back on the 1980's and 90's it seemed an innocent and carefree time
compared to what would would follow with the 9-11 attack and its subsequent
war on terror. We may be at a similar inflection period now, a time roughly
a decade before the world's first Artificial intelligence. According to Nick
Bostrom's book on the subject called "Super Intelligence", sufficiently
intelligent machines could improve their own capabilities faster than human
computer scientists. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on humans
than on the actions of the gorillas themselves, so would the fate of humanity
depend on the actions of the machine super-intelligence.
Most people are now aware of the links between Google and the NSA in data
capture and surveillance not only of their domestic citizens but foreign
governments as well. Baidu has been used for the same purposes by the Chinese
government in China. As search engines now closely resemble the world's first
base level A.I. expect these systems to become further integrated into the
intelligence systems of their host countries. This is not good news for google
which will some day be limited to the U.S. as countries all over the world make
sure they have their own domestic search engine champions to avoid information
leakage through Google, Baidu, and others.
From Want China Times –
Not to be left out of the race for the first A.I., Robin Li, founder and CEO
of Chinese online search giant Baidu, has proposed a state-level project on
artificial intelligence (AI) systems called "China Brain" and hopes to gain
support from the military as reported in the Chinese press.
The China Brain project will focus on four important research areas: intelligent
human-machine interaction, big data analysis and prediction, smart medical
diagnosis, smart drones and piloting technology, as well as robotics technologies
for military and civilian use.
China should participate in the AI research as soon as possible as Europe and
the US have been developing the systems at a national and strategic level, Li
Li, one of China's wealthiest people, hoped to promote the project on a national
scale that includes government sectors such as the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC) as well as the military who possess a great deal of resources
and often plays a significant role in technological innovation.
Baidu has been running similar projects. The intelligence of its AI systems
is equivalent to a three-year-old child, according to Li in an interview
last April.


text:
ID Please Pretty in Pink
callalilykris(z5b MI)December 22, 2007
Please ID this amaryllis for me. I took this photo last year but cannot remember the name of it. Thanks
Image link:
Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana(zone 5/6)
If you haven't gotten a name yet, or asked at Amaryllis/Hippeastrum Forum, you might try there.
By the way...very pretty.
Here is a link that might be useful: Amaryllis/Hippeastrum Forum

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- BanG Studio Launches Funding Campaign for Governors Island City of Dreams Pavilion April 01, 2015 • Industry
- ASID Offers Online Business Strategy Courses for Interior Designers April 01, 2015 • Industry
- Page/Park Architects to Restore Glasgow School of Art March 31, 2015 • Competitions & Awards
- AMC Unveils "Mad Men" Bench in New York March 31, 2015 • Projects
- IIDA Hosts 7th Annual Sustainable Quilt Auction in New York March 31, 2015 • Events
- Hughes, Shimoda, Braga, and Molina Named IIDA Fellows March 27, 2015 • People
The New American Medical School
A principal at CO Architects identifies innovations for the future of healthcare.March 05, 2015 • Education
Inspirations Awards
Enter now; deadline is April 17. This award recognizes commercial interiors designed for social responsibility.
Best of NeoCon
Contract-network.com is now accepting 2015 product submissions. Deadline is May 4.
36th Annual Interiors Awards
The winners of the 36th Annual Interiors Awards were announced Friday, January 30, 2015 at the Interiors Awards Breakfast.


text:
What is your preference: HP vs Dual Fuel in Southeast?
Just curious to know, in general, what most people prefer for heating in the Southeast? Last winter, in my location there were 98 days below 38 degrees, and we were cold with our landlord's LOW efficiency heatpump. How many folks are really happy with their heat pumps in the winter?
The question isn't about efficiency, it is about the unit's heating capabilities and required load. And your question is also not about HP vs DF, but HP alone or HP with Gas Aux since that is what DF is in the first place.
I'm happy with my HP, but I also have a wood insert for colder days.
Depends on home, insulation qualities, electric rate vs nat gas rates, and location climate.
The low cost of nat gas at this moment coupled with ever advancing electric rates have made DF and straight HP with air handler less advantageous.of course, many in the South have no choice if in an all electric situation.
Make no mistake though, today's modern HPs do a good job in both heating and cooling.
If your home is drafty and badly insulated, you will typically need more heat, and discover the heatpump running alot to maintain the temperature. In a situation like this it won't be as comfy and probably better served with heating with natural gas unless its very mild outside (say above 40).
If your home has efficient windows, attic insulation, and no major draft leaks in doors, the heatpump should keep the home pretty comfy inside down to a colder temp.
My home is older (late 1960's), without wall insulation, but its brick, has great attic insulation, good replacement windows, and sealed some leaks. I find the house is pretty comfy with heatpump heat down to about 25 fahrenheit outdoor temperature.


text:
10 Packages by mandarind
- docolate Easy Express API Documentation
- gulp-semverify Gulp plugin that checks package.json dependencies to make sure they meet version policy
- react-datepicker-com... A standalone ReactJS datepicker component, no jquery etc..
- react-jsx-view Renders children as jsx markup
- react-tree-menu A tree menu component for React
- react-tweenable A simple component and mixin that wraps the excellent [react-tween-state](https://github.com/chenglou/react-tween-state).
- sebastian A flow-control library aimed at encouraging organized, testable code.
- semverify Update your package.json dependencies to satisfy a semver policy
- trazar A xunit chart image generator intended for continuous integration purposes.
- winston-sns-iam An SNS transport that works with or without explicitly passed AWS credentials. If no credentials provided, the EC2 metadata service is called to obtain temporary IAM role-based credentials


text:
MUSEfest London 2014
We took a few days off after the MUSEfest launch at the Hackney Attic in London, and are now stepping back into planning the next steps –Paris 2015! We are … Continue reading
M is for Music, Mothers and MUSEfest!
Originally posted on Neech:
M is for Music… Mothers… MUSEfest…. So Music, obviously. Who are your influences and why? This is the kind of question that gets most music makers,…
Drunken Mermaid interview with MUSEfest
MUSIC HANNAH JUDSON AND ZEB ACHONU LAUNCH MUSEFEST OCTOBER 26, 2014 LEAVE A COMMENT Drunken Mermaid has been itching to get a feature on Hannah Judson onto the site, and … Continue reading
Elbo Room every 10 years
Just a note to say I'll be performing some recent songs at the Elbo Room in an acoustic solo set on Thursday night. I know it's a school night, but … Continue reading
home | work
When I first moved to Chicago to live, I had never been to the Midwest. I took in the strict grid of streets, the flat horizon line, the rattling, inconsistent … Continue reading
The Delicious Tour, first leg
Some delightful memories of the first leg of The Delicious Tour: • We loaded two vans under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on a gorgeous spring morning. • We … Continue reading
S.O.S. 2000 in Amsterdam. Goedemorgen!
When I was a child my plan was to live on a houseboat on a canal in Amsterdam. I haven't got to that yet, but Amsterdam is … Continue reading


text:
The perfect thread begins with a quality hole.
The perfect thread begins with a quality hole.
Introducing Emuge's New Titanium Alloy Tools Program
Emuge's exclusive tap designs for nickel alloys.
Emuge's Revolutionary Z-Tap Technology
The industry's first general purpose, high performance tap, MultiTAP is now available in 9 NEW sizes
We have been the product technology and performance leader in our field for over 80 years. Emuge manufactures an exhaustive line of taps, end mills, thread mills, thrillers, holders and attachments, over 100,000 items sold through distributors worldwide.
No front page content has been created yet.


text:
September 3, 2013
Eaton recently discontinued its Hydraulic Launch Assist system, a parallel hydraulic hybrid well-suited to the stop-and-go world of refuse trucks. That leaves the RunWise Advanced Series Hybrid drive system from Parker to serve the market, where both systems had built up some market share.
We offer e-newsletters that deliver targeted news and information for the entire fleet industry.
The expert, Mark Betner from CITGO, will answer your questions
The expert, Rence Oliphant from Hendrickson, will answer your questions
Drones And the Future of Package Delivery
How Will 3D Printing Affect Trucking?
Ultimate Test Drive Video: Brain and Brawn
Ultimate Test Drive Video: Small Block, Big Load
Webasto Releases Advanced Heater Controls
V-Flap II is An Aerodynamic Mud Flap
Cloud-Based In-Cab Video System Launched
Fan Drive Cools Better in Severe Applications


text:
Mike Welham Named RPG Superstar 2012!
Paizo to Publish Contest-Winning Adventure
After five rounds of intensive competition, amateur game designer Mike Welham has won RPG Superstar 2012, the largest annual tabletop roleplaying design contest in history. The popular vote of paizo.com's more than 200,000-strong fan community chose Mike Welham's Doom Comes to Dustpawn Pathfinder Module proposal over the final-round submissions of competitors Steve Miller, James Olchak, and Tom Phillips. Welham will receive a contract to write the full adventure, which will be released by Paizo in January, 2013.
Paizo challenged amateur game designers from around the world to show off their skills in RPG Superstar 2012, the fifth season of Paizo's search for great undiscovered game designers. Celebrity judges Sean K Reynolds from Paizo, Necromancer Games president Clark Peterson, Goblinworks CEO Ryan Dancey, and RPG Superstar 2009 winner Neil Spicer narrowed a field of hundreds of open call submissions to 32 would-be RPG Superstars, and guest judges including 2011 RPG Superstar champion Sam Zeitlin and finalists Jerral Toi and Sean McGowan, cartographer Robert Lazzaretti, Paizo developer Mark Moreland, and Paizo creative director James Jacobs provided feedback and advice throughout the contest.
In the final round, we asked this year's Top 4 to propose a 32-page Pathfinder Module for use with Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Contestants Steve Miller (Raleigh, NC), James Olchak (Raleigh, NC), Tom Phillips (Fleming Island, FL), and Mike Welham (Kernersville, NC) responded with four compelling submissions. Welham's Doom Comes to Dustpawn won the public vote after a week of public comment and voting at paizo.com.
"With Doom Comes to Dustpawn, Mike Welham is channeling one of my favorite genres—the 'alien comes to menace the small town'" said Paizo creative director James Jacobs. "It's certainly a classic plotline, but Mike's take on the story, with a cabal of mutated wizards and what could develop into a tense race against the clock to prepare for the REAL invasion still to come has all the makings of a new classic. That it gives us a chance to look into the Dark Tapestry to see what monsters might dwell within is the eldritch icing on the cake for me!"
The 2011 RPG Superstar champion module, Sam Zeitlin's The Midnight Mirror, releases in late April 2012.
RPG Superstar will return in 2013.
About Paizo Publishing
Inspectre's Curse of the Crimson Throne Alterations (Spoilers!),
How do i keep my players in their city?,
I need to be healer...and arcane caster... and carry more than my share in melee,
Class Design Input,
Fluff Text vs. Mechanics?,
What Kind of Action to Light A Smoke Stick?,
What can I do with a Dire Crocodile head?,
Store Blog: Heard from Far, Ancestral Voices Prophesying War!,
Zerg Campaign,
Magic Weapon Abilities Akin To Silence,
GM Demonmoose Iron Gods AP Green,
[PFS] Season 0 run, mixed with Dragon's Demand Discussion,
[PFS / DMK] The Penumbral Accords - Table II - Gameplay,
PFS: #6-08: The Segang Expedition,
Mystworld: Realms of Myrndur Discussion,
Escape if you can ...,
PFS Thornkeep The Accursed Halls Table 2,
GM Shathira's Skull and Shackles Discussion,
PFS PbP Game Day 3: From Shore to Sea,
The Turning Wheel - a Zeitgeist PbP Discussion,


text:
Posted in Astronomy, Current Events, space, Star Gazing and Astronomy
Tags: Amateur, Amateur astronomy, astronomy, Business, Earth, International Observe the Moon Night, Moon, Moon Night, NASA, Sept, telescope, Telescopes Binoculars and Accessories, United States
Posted in Astronomy, Technology
Tags: Amateur, Amateur Telescope Making, astronomy, Harvard University, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Internet Explorer, Moon Night, Observatories, Photography, telescope, Whirlpool Galaxy
Posted in In The News, Star Gazing and Astronomy
Tags: astronomy, Earth, Lava, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Moon, Moon Night, Planets, Solar System
The European Space Agency's Third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3) on docking approach to the ISS.
Click here for full image
Hates the World;
Loves the world;
Writes about the world;
End of Story.
|One Thousand NASA Sp… on Spinoff 2011: Unexpected Earth…
|Bill Housley on The Incredible Shrinking Genre
|Bill Housley on Watch the SpaceX Launch Live o…
|Chris on Watch the SpaceX Launch Live o…
|daughter Quotes on The Incredible Shrinking Genre


text:
Resources for "Migrating to Drupal"
"Seven Criteria for Evaluation Open Source Content Management Systems" by Abhijeet Chavan: linuxjournal.com/article/8301
Drupal: drupal.org
Drupal Features: drupal.org/features
Drupal Modules: drupal.org/project/Modules
Planet Drupal: drupal.org/planet
Drupal Podcast: lullabot.com/podcast
Planetizen: www.planetizen.com
CivicSpace: civicspacelabs.org
CiviCRM: www.openngo.org
DrupalEd (Drupal for Education): drupaled.org
Drupal for Artists and Musicians: www.drupalart.org
Wikipedia: Drupal: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupal
Never used Drupal in my life
Never used Drupal in my life but I bookmarked this page for future reading. I know some day I will need this CMS
- What continuous engineering is
- How to continuously improve complex product designs
- How to anticipate and respond to markets and clients
- How to get the most out of your engineering resources
Sponsored by IBM
Learn to:
- Define service virtualization
- Select the most beneficial services to virtualize
- Improve your traditional approach to testing
- Deliver higher-quality software faster
Sponsored by IBM
Trending Topics
Free DevOps eBooks, Videos, and more!
Regardless of where you are in your DevOps process, Linux Journal can help!
We offer here the DEFINITIVE DevOps for Dummies, a mobile Application Development Primer, and advice & help from the expert sources like:
- Forrester
- Gartner
- Linux Journal
|Users, Permissions and Multitenant Sites
|Mar 26, 2015
|New Products
|Mar 24, 2015
|Flexible Access Control with Squid Proxy
|Mar 23, 2015
|Solving ODEs on Linux
|Mar 19, 2015
|DevOps: Everything You Need to Know
|Mar 19, 2015
|Tighten Up SSH
|Mar 18, 2015
- Users, Permissions and Multitenant Sites
- New Products
- Flexible Access Control with Squid Proxy
- Security in Three Ds: Detect, Decide and Deny
- High-Availability Storage with HA-LVM
- DevOps: Everything You Need to Know
- Tighten Up SSH
- Non-Linux FOSS: MenuMeters
- Solving ODEs on Linux
- Nmap—Not Just for Evil!


text:
New to Typophile? Accounts are free, and easy to set up.
I like Microsoft's Corbel..but it doesn't have a light face..or a light italic face..
Is there something I can use very similiar?
Thank you.
Hi Victor,
there's Shaker by Jeremy Tankard, the designer of Corbel. Comes in a number of weights, including Light. Another contemporary sans serif: Facit by Tim Ahrens, with a Light and even an Extralight.
i love Corpid.
Awesome! Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I'll post back after having a deeper look at these.


text:
Climb to the top of this 1000 year old Norman Castle for stunning panoramic views across Sussex.
The adjoining Barbican House is home to the Museum of Sussex Archaeology and houses local collections from the Stone Age to medieval times. A mini-cinema tells the story of Lewes from prehistoric to Victorian times.
Open: November to February: 10 am to 3.45 pm. March to October: 10 am to 5.30 pm. Last admission is 30 minutes before closing time. We open at 11 am on Sundays, Mondays and Bank holidays.
Closed: Mondays in January, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and January 1.
The gift shop and the bookshop, selling new and second-hand books with a special focus on the history and archaeology of Lewes, Sussex and the South Downs, are both open daily until 5.30 pm.
Admission: Adult £7.20, Child (5-16) £3.80, Concessions £6.60, Family £19.50 (2 adults and upto 4 children)
Combined admission with Anne of Cleves House: Adult £11.40, Child (5-16) £6.00, Concessions £10.00, Family £29.00 (2 adults and upto 4 children)
Gift Aid your admission.
Groups: We offer a reduced price for groups of 15. Please contact the castle for details. We welcome school groups and EFL students. Specialist adult talks and tours are also available on request. Subjects may include the De Warenne family, Anne of Cleves, Bronze Age Sussex or the Battle of Lewes. We also offer tours in French as well as audio described tours for BPS visitors. All talks and tours are subject to availability and charged at £2.50 per person (or a minimum of £40 per group) in addition to admission price. Please email firstname.lastname@example.com for further information.
Our sites are open to all, but anyone under the age of 16 needs to be accompanied by an adult, unless agreed in advance with our staff.
We regret that we only allow assistance dogs into the museum and castle grounds.
Contact: Barbican House Museum, 169, High Street, Lewes, BN7 1YE. Tel: 01273 486290, email.


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Made in the U.S. Each planter comes in a jewelry box ready for gift giving, along with directions and recommendations for which plant types work best. Planter pendant is made from 3D printed acrylic and 3D printed nylon and hangs on a 30-inch long adjustable leather cord with a knotted, sliding closure. Plant is not included.
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Selected Community Events for Entertainment
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http://www.kbtx.com/community/events/290654811.html | 290654811
Living History Weekend
Date(s): 3/27/2015, 3/28/2015
19124 HWY 6 South, College Station, TX 77845
The annual Living History Weekend is the Museum of the American G.I.'s signature event. The event is a mix of a military vehicle rally, a military swap meet, and a living history event. It is one of the largest events of its kind in Texas, and is becoming an iconic event for the Brazos Valley. The Living History Weekend provides the public the opportunity to walk through WWII era Allied and Axis encampments, observe historic military equipment displays, and experience the rumble of tanks, blasts of small arms fire, and booms of artillery cannons with impressive pyrotechnics simulating authentic fire during the reenactment. The historic WWII battle reenactment on Saturday showcases an impressive choreography of people and machines. At the reenactment, spectators are treated to the largest display of functioning WWII tanks in the South.
Leisha Mullins, 979 324 7419, Public: 979 446-6888, firstname.lastname@example.com
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Fashion designer John Galliano has lost an unfair dismissal against Christian Dior – and been ordered to pay the top fashion house a symbolic €1.
The Gibraltar born designer was sacked by Dior after he was filmed telling two Italian women that Jews should be gassed. The incident took place in December 2010.
The French are perfectionists – mainly about themselves. They carry self-criticism to extremes but anyone who attempts to criticise them will suffer from their refusal to accept that they can be perceived as imperfect. I have spent many years living in Paris and can tell you that on TV the most popular programmes are those that depict the Resistance in their heroic fight against the Nazis.
Young French Jews are now taking more Krav Maga lessons in a bid to protect themselves against the spike in antisemitism.
According to a report in Arutz Sheva, last week French teenagers went to Israel to partake in a special martial arts defence programme in Netanya called 'Magen'.
The defence programme is geared to protecting French Jewish schools and synagogues.
Comedian Dieudonné, who has several convictions in France for inciting hatred of Jews and mocking the Holocaust, is taking the president of the French Jewish umbrella group to court for accusing him of antisemitism.
Roger Cukierman, president of the French council of Jewish institutions, went before a magistrate this week after Dieudonné filed a complaint against him for defamation.
Eric Zemmour is, without a doubt, the superstar of right-wing journalism in France.
The 56-year-old is a columnist for weekly magazine Figaro and a news pundit for RTL, a major private radio station, as well as a frequent guest on political talkshows.
The writer who won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature, Patrick Modiano, has been hailed as the man who helped France face up to its dark past of collaboration with the Nazis.
Denis Cosnard, a Le Monde journalist who has written a book about Mr Modiano's work, said that the author "tore apart the myth of a France that had supposedly been entirely on the side of resistance".
A French Jewish girl has joined Islamic State (IS), according to a security official in France.
The official, who gave the tip-off anonymously because French rules forbid him from discussing ongoing investigations, said that the girl was one of at least 100 women who have been recruited in the past few weeks.
A row has erupted among Jean-Paul Sartre scholars over a new book which claims that the French philosopher did too little to defend Jews during the Holocaust.
Ingrid Galster, a German Sartre expert, suggests that not only was Sartre unsympathetic to the plight of Jews, he actively profited from antisemitism in France by taking a post at a school when its Jewish incumbent was removed.
A 30-year-old jihadi described by the French Interior Ministry as "very dangerous" was arrested on his arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris last week.
Mourad Fares had been extradited from Turkey, where he had been arrested a month earlier at the request of French authorities.
A remarkable ceremony took place last Sunday at the Rabbinical School of France in Paris.


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Tongareva Street
Commute to Downtown Thousand Oaks
Almost all errands require a car.
Score Details
Tongareva Street has a Walk Score of 5 out of 100. This location is a Car-Dependent neighborhood so almost all errands require a car.
Nearby parks include Leo Carrillo State Park and Leo Carrillo State Beach.
Explore how far you can travel by car, bus, bike and foot from Tongareva Street.


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Please help me pick between these paint choices
alilmuseAugust 9, 2012
We have tiled the floor white with silver grout, the walls will be white 3 x 6 subway tiles with black tiles around the top. The Vanity is black granity top, white beadboard base.
I'm having to choose between, Silver sage, Lasy Gray SW 6254, Forsty White SW 6196
I'd really need your opinion please.


text: Images The Rosetta Stone, basalt slab from Fort Saint-Julien, Rosetta (Rashīd), Egypt, 196 bce; in the British Museum, London. Hieroglyphs on decorative lintels identify King Sesostris III wearing the crown of Lower Egypt (left) and the crown of Upper Egypt (right), 19th century bce; in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Migration of Afro-Asiatic languages from their Middle Eastern Urheimat. Relationships among the modern Afro-Asiatic languages.


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MenuDirections 2013 Day 2: Culinary Competition
The first culinary competition at MenuDirections offered an afternoon of great food and friendly competition between market segments.
James Roth gets the senior living team's prep work done.
James Roth gets the senior living team's prep work done.
What's New
According to Tracey De Jager, resident district manager for Chartwells at Florida Atlantic, Sean has made a difference by developing the Captain Flex mascot campaign and increasing declining balance sales.
Industry News & OpinionView All
Officials determined that a larva found in one student's fruit cup was likely introduced during the canning process...
Managing Your BusinessView All
A recent survey of its members by the School Nutrition Association revealed that many operators are facing moderate to serious challenges in meeting the stricter nutritional requirements set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Ideas & InnovationView All


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Beatboxing Harmonica
Blues Traveler meets Rahzel when this dude mixes harmonica and beatbox. This should give a cappella nerds everywhere (*raises hand*) instant music-boners.
This post was created by a user and has not been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed's editorial staff. BuzzFeed Community is a place where anyone can post awesome lists and creations. Learn more or post your buzz!


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Stanley ST-08 9'8" x 12'8" Beige, Beige Rug
These Magnificent rugs are modern interpretations of the most sophisticated hand knotted designs. Recreated with power loomed technology these gorgeous area rugs offer an affordable alternative. Two time award winning collection. The fine poly threads are blended together to give the 8 color krill a wider variety of colors. The special abrashing technique captures the look of a hand knotted rug.
- Imported from Egypt.
- Imported from Egypt.
Product Specifications
- Sold By
- PlushRugs
- Category
- Rugs
- Style
- Contemporary


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Worthington VFW team on a mission
WORTHINGTON -- Determined not to look too far ahead, yet acknowledging that one solid performance isn't going to be enough to win the VFW District 3 baseball tournament, Worthington Post 3958 coach T.D. Hostikka is lining up his chess pieces for this weekend's action.
"We have the ability to do some things. We have to maintain focus and show up the whole time," Hostikka said.
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Choose your preferred language. We speak English (US) and 41 other languages.
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FREE cancellation on most rooms!
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Easy access to both airport and Bordeaux. Helpful staff
It is a road hotel that's not far from Bordeaux airport so location was excellent. What I loved was the fact that it didn't feel like a road hotel, it is in fact, like a small campus.. Besides that, the night receptionist was very helpful and friendly.Will go back again if needed.
Good location for Airport. Great staff. Very helpful. When we were told the Restaurant was not open they suggested we take the bus, which stopped right outside the Hotel, into the centre of Bordeaux, where we had a lovely meal.
Attention was excellent, they also took me to the airport, the room was confortable and nice for that price. Wi-fi worked excellent in both of my devices, the bus station is in front of the hotel, and line 1 can take you directly to quinconces (Bordeaux centre).
Eccentric decor. Welcoming staff. Very near airport. On good bus route to centre of Bordeaux (40 minutes).
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A Message from the President,
Chestnut Hill College requires students to complete their requirements for graduation before they can participate in the graduation ceremony. This is a policy grounded in respect for the integrity of the degree process, and in fairness for those students who have completed their degree requirements.
In March, Rebekah E. Furey asked the College to make an exception to the graduation policy in light of her medical circumstances and allow her the opportunity to participate at graduation. We carefully considered her request, but in the end the College decided against allowing her to participate in the 2012 graduation ceremony. Our decision was not the result of rigid adherence to the policy, as some have suggested, but rather based on respect for the degree process and those who had invested the time and hard work to successfully complete their requirements.
Our decision was neither easy nor popular, and the ensuing controversy gave us cause to reconsider. To all who know her and the special circumstances of her struggle, Ms. Furey is an inspiration whose courage and dedication should be recognized. We agree, and we welcome Ms. Furey to participate in the graduation ceremony scheduled for May 12, 2012.
We continue to believe that the College's graduation policy is fair and appropriate, and it will remain in effect. As it has in the past, however, the College administration will continue to consider special exceptions to the policy as individual circumstances may warrant.
Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, Ph.D. President Chestnut Hill College
Chestnut Hill College celebrates its third annual Forgiveness Day by welcoming Shujaa Graham, board member of the Witness to Innocence Project, to speak on issues of racism, gang violence, the criminal justice system and his own life experiences.
CHC will host an Information Session about our Montessori Early Education Teacher Training programs on Sunday, April 12 at 1:00. The Program Director, faculty, and admissions staff will be there to explain the curriculum and entrance requirements. The Montessori certificate courses can be taken for graduate credit with a Master's Degree in Education or without the M.Ed. Applicants also may choose to earn the certificate through non-credit workshops. Register today or, if you have questions, contact Amy Boorse at email@example.com or 215.248.7097. Submit the one-page application form and the $55 fee will be waived!


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DL school district gets ready for vote
Enrollment at the Detroit Lakes School District continues its slow, steady climb as student population now stands at 2,814 — that's up by 36 students last year.
Superintendent Doug Froke says a larger kindergarten class of 189 is exactly what school leaders were expecting, and was a large driver in the enrollment increase.
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The sleek, compact SVS Prime Satellite 5.1 System sounds tremendous with movies, thanks in large part to its potent subwoofer, but lacks warmth with music.
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The Energy Take Classic 5.1 is the best budget speaker system we've reviewed, earning our Editors' Choice Award with its outstanding sound quality and exquisite looks.
The Boston SoundWare XS 5.1 is an exceptionally compact system and sounds great for its size--although larger systems sound even better.
Sling TV is a new $20-per-month live TV package with 16 channels, including ESPN, AMC, TNT, CNN, History, HDTV and the Disney Channel. How does it work, how can you get it -- and will it let you quit cable?
Google announces the arrival of Android 5.1 Lollipop. Find out what's being added and who will get the update.
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Extreme air cooling for cheap, but the install is not easy!
This review is from: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Pros: Massive only begins to describe the EVO 212, it's ability to cool off a processor is about equal to the size it occupies in a case! While it only comes with a single fan, it does have the additional hardware to mount a second fan if you so choose, which is what I have done. I also upgraded my fans to some Coolermaster Sickleflow 120s with red LEDs to further compliment my case's Apevia red UV LED 120mm fans. After the rather daft installation process (more on that below), it's been very solid and keeps my Athlon X4 860K @ 4Ghz very nice and frosty!
Cons: Take note folks, this is a HUGE heatsink/fan combo! Only those of you installing this in a mid tower/full tower case should even be considering this setup. It barely fits in my Apevia X-Dreamer 4 case, I even had to remove the stock 200mm fan in the case's window to even get this thing to fit! Oh yes, a few very important things to note, one is the back plate holes... I almost stripped a screw trying to get it through one of the holes on that stupid back plate. I had to get all Black and Decker on that friggin thing to get a screw through it! I got my 5/8" drill bit on my B&D drill and routed that sucker out to clear the threads on the screws and after that, viola'! It's much easier when the threads can actually go through the back plate holes CoolerMaster, you boys might want to update your drill press bits... ;^p The second issue is the serious Charlie-Foxtrot of getting the heatsink itself mounted... PROTIP: REMOVE THE FAN AND FAN MOUNT BEFORE YOU INSTALL THE HEATSINK. The incredible amount of force needed to get that first and even the second screws started with this mount is pretty scary guys. Make dern sure you are on a flat, stable working surface before you attempt it! You will have to brute force this sucker down while you get those screws started, having a second pair of hands with you during the install would really be helpful. One person can do it, but you better have some good arm strength and be prepared to accidentally let loose some expletives during the process a bit... Above all, good luck folks!
Other Thoughts: Aside from the above install issues, the blood, sweat and tears are worth the effort after seeing the CPU temps so far! This is a great CPU cooling solution and very affordable, but not for the faint of heart.(or weak of upper body, haha) It was probably the biggest pain in my build honestly, but after doing it once, I know how to "git'er dun" now.
Did you find this review helpful?
This review is from: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Pros: The cooler works well. The fan is relatively quiet.
Cons: The fan sucks... and not in the good way. It started rattling not long after installation and never really has worked right after the first few weeks. Doesn't have enough cfm's to really make a difference and not enough static pressure to actually push or pull through the fins effectively.
Other Thoughts: all in one bracket solutions are a terrible idea. If intel had a decent standard bracket setup it wouldn't be so bad. most stock amd motherboard brackets could handle this, but they decided to replace it anyway, now, you have a cooler that slips around no matter what socket you get. But hey, it's cheap and effective. As long as you are willing to spend an extra 30-40 bucks on good fans that last more than 3 weeks.
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Very good cooler for my needs
This review is from: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Pros: Good size heat sink ( good with my Rosewill Armor evo case), it fits my MSI Z97-G43 mother board very good, and still have room to install a second fan. Installation was very easy, took me no more than 20 mins from unboxing it.....watched couple of youtube videos before the process.....and it well worth the time :D Now my cpu (i7-4790k) with stock 4.0-4.4 Ghz, only go up to 45-50 C, when it was in the stress test....it used to be like 70-90 with the stock intel fan ...so very happy with the purchase.
Cons: none at the moment.
Other Thoughts: the 4 screws with the arm that hold the sink to the mother board is a little bit hard to put it on...but once you tight the 4 screws into the right place....it's nothing after....but make sure you push the sink in the place when you put the screws up.. (it's good to have a helper to push it for you, when you are tightening the screws, so that the sink doesn't move around, and mess the thermal paste all over the places)...
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Great Fan for a Great Price
This review is from: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Pros: Fan works great for a great price. Probably saved a year or two off my 8350.
Cons: Very Large size, but fan works great so no loss in eggs. Thiugh I suggest you make sure it will fit in your case.
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What a beast!
This review is from: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Pros: This thing just extended the lifespan of my FX-8120 probably a couple years. Stock cooler was beginning to fail and consistently sounded like a hair dryer. Undecided between this and a Corsair H100i and I'm getting the same cooling efficiency for 1/3 the price.
Cons: Install was incredibly painful. Even with a case that has easy access to the back plate, I find this kind of work stressful, and I do this for a living. The instructions are lacking, and the cooler itself is awkward to install--horizontal was not an option for me, I wanted a vertical install to properly move the heat straight out the back rather than drag hot air from my GTX970 across the heat sink. Luckily my RAM is fairly short and the fan gently rests right on the spreaders. In the end, the cons are worth it. With proper application of Arctic Silver 5, this is hands down the best air cooler on the market. I don't even need to install a second fan for pulling since I'm in no danger of getting over 40c at any speed.
Other Thoughts: Don't be intimidated by the size of this thing, but do not underestimate it. It is a HUGE cooler, but huge means more surface area, and really does the job. In a Level 10, I still have the height clearance, but be careful about whether you want horizontal or vertical. Horizontal makes sense to reduce fan torsion, but thermodynamically unsound if you have heat coming from the bottom of your case as most modern ones do.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you?
Great Heat sink!
This review is from: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Pros: Price
Cons: Instructions were a little confusing at first, had to look over them to figure everything out. Learning curve for a first time install of this heatsink is expected.
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Terrible instructions, horrible install
This review is from: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Pros: I'm not sure yet, I can't get the thing installed yet
Cons: The instructions are a joke, no narrative or advising words at all; setting the heat sink and getting the thing tightened down with the screws has been a nightmare DON'T BUY THIS.
Other Thoughts: Completely redo the instructions -- give FULL DETAILS in ENGLISH.
Manufacturer Response:
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Great low cost upgrade
This review is from: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Pros: Cost efficient, low noise, great heat dissipation. Better than entry level water colling. Large, heavy, aluminum hs with copper heat pipes which contact the CPU lid. On par with mid range water systems.
Cons: Difficult to install vertically. Fan mount by default is push (pull benches much lower temps but its painless to reverse) Will not clear dimm 00 or 01 in horizontal position unless you have low profile ram. Clamps must be spread by hand with lots of pressure to align to holes in backplate for vertical mounting on AM3+
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Can't beat theprice, but keep an eye on that fan
This review is from: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Pros: Low price, and performance is excellent for price. Included fan is whisper quiet.
Cons: The heat sink is huge, take some careful measurements of how much room you have, because this thing will take a lot of it. No way this will fit in a small form factor build.
Other Thoughts: On the plus side, the product came with an extra set of fan clips, meant for users to be able to strap a second fan on for a push-pull configuration on it, however, I did not opt for that, but when the original fan failed, i was able to pick up a replacement 120mm fan for cheap and strap it in with the spare clips for no further charge.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you?
very good and cheap aftermarket cooler
This review is from: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Pros: Keeps my i5 4670k cool around 50 degrees, and the fan is pretty quiet and efficient. The height and width is just enough to not interfere with ram, or case depth.
Cons: None.
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