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Properties for sale near Melides, Setubal (Province of), Portugal
- List view
- Grid view
£2,730,078 (€3,450,000) 7580 Alcácer Do Sal, Portugal Land for sale
An exclusive riverfront destination, bringing together a stunning golf course with a unique open-air sculpture park, located near the medieval town of Alcácer, Portugal, 80km south of Lisbon ... see full details and 9 photos
Marketed by Engel & Völkers, .£2,294,848 (€2,900,000) 7580 Alcácer Do Sal, Portugal Land for sale
South of Lisbon, one of the most beautiful places of Portugal is the Alentejo, a region of vast open countryside with undulating plains and rich fertile soil with an economy mostly reliant on ... see full details and 8 photos
Marketed by Engel & Völkers, .£1,012,899 (€1,280,000) Hospital Do Litoral Alentejano, Monte Do Gilbardinho En 261, 7540-230 Santiago Do Cacém, Portugal Property for sale
Beautiful estate with charm garden, near Lagoa de Santo André, completely rebuilt since 1995, on a plot of 4 acres. It consists of two buildings with a total of 400sqm of private area with quality ... see full details and 9 photos
Marketed by Engel & Völkers, .Fixed price £629,105 (€795,000) Troia, Setubal (Province Of), Portugal Detached house for sale
For sale elegant and discreet in Tróia, Lisbon – Portugal. The house has 4 bedrooms, the area of 350 m2, a terrace, a porch, a garden. It is sold furnished, and has an equipped kitchen. It is ... see full details and 9 photos
Marketed by JPP Real Estate, .£435,230 (€550,000) Sol Tróia, Carvalhal, Setubal (Province Of), Portugal Town house for sale
Villa situated in Sol Tróia, Mar Carvalhal near from the beach with a total area of 1256m2. see full details and 5 photos
Marketed by Spain Property Finder, .£225,528 (€285,000) Setúbal, Santiago Do Cacém, Abela Villa for sale
Small Farm T4 in Santiago do Cacém - Abela for Sell see full details and 10 photos
Marketed by Status-Home Real Estate, 8200.


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Columbia movies back on Netflix instant view
once again available for Netflix streaming on Xbox 360. After the titles were first yanked from the service in November, we later reported that most of the Columbia movies had returned, but it seems that now all of them are available once again. Just to be sure, we decided to see if our beloved Paprika had returned. Lo and behold, it has! Now go and add some movies to your queue! Do it because it's more fun than working.
Breaking News
Dying Light cancelled on Xbox 360, PS3
Featured Stories
Get a closer look at final retail Amiibos
Posted on Nov 22nd 2014 9:00AM
Barely Related: Star-Lord's dance-off, comet sounds
Posted on Nov 21st 2014 8:30PM
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Posted on Nov 21st 2014 3:00PM

subset: commoncrawl


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CCAC brings home eighth state crown
TribLIVE Sports Videos
For the eighth time in school history, the CCAC men's golf team has earned the distinction of being called state champions. The course was cold and nasty according to CCAC coach Chuck Bell, but his boys pulled it off.
Leading the way was Eric Poplowski of Ambridge, who won the individual state title with scores of 72 and 72.
"It's been two years now," Poplowski said. "We set these goals, and kept our eye on the prize.
"I just kept my head in (the game) and hit straight shots off the tee."
Poplowski said he should have sunk more putts, but he didn't let a tough start get him down.
While Poplowski took first, teammates Paul Ajak of Aspinwall and Ben Kennedy of Sewickley tallied scores of 80, 79 and 80, 81 to earn third and fourth place.
"We finally got it done as a team," Ajak said. "Me and Eric wanted to win it as a team, and we are excited because it is our last year here, so this win was a weight off our shoulders."
Ajak said he didn't have his best round but was happy with the end result.
Kennedy credited Bell with pushing the team and the team in turn pushing each other.
"Chuck is never down on us," Kennedy said. "We didn't let the weather get to us, either. We just tried to dress in layers and stay warm."
Bell mentioned Dan Dalhnik as another player who played a big role in this victory.
"It never gets old," Bell said. "We always have fun and try to win because this is our goal. Everyone has to be good, but we expect that."
Jerry Clark is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-779-6979 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
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One asset class that dividend investors could use in order to diversify their portfolios is real estate. The sector includes rental real estate on residential buildings, offices, malls etc. Owning a piece of rental real estate outright however comes with headaches, such as dealing with tenants and not being properly diversified. In order to avoid managing buildings and finding tenants, investors could use real estate investment trusts (REITs).
Real estate investment trusts own different types of real estate, and they offer instant liquidity to investors, since most are publicly traded. In addition to that REITs are required to distribute almost all of their earnings back to shareholders. As a result REITs are not taxed at the corporate level, but distributions from earnings are typically taxed as ordinary income. The rest of distributions from REITs are typically treated as returns of capital, which reduce your basis and would be taxable as a capital gain if you sell your shares.
Real Estate Investment Trusts offer instant diversification to investors, as most of them typically own hundreds of properties across many states. In addition to that, since they distribute all of their earnings to shareholders, their yields are typically much higher than yields on stocks. An important metric for evaluating REITs is Funds from operations (FFO). FFO is defined as net income available to common stockholders, plus depreciation and amortization of real estate assets, reduced by gains on sales of investment properties and extraordinary items.
Most REITs have rather stable revenues and as a result are able to maintain and even consistently raise distributions over time. I have highlighted four trusts for further research:
Realty Income Corporation (O) engages in the acquisition and ownership of commercial retail real estate properties in the United States. The company leases its retail properties primarily to regional and national retail chain store operators. Realty Income is widely known among its investors as the monthly dividend company. The company is a dividend achiever, which has increased its dividend for 15 years in a row by raising its monthly distributions several times per year. (analysis)
Universal Health Realty Income Trust (UHT) operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT) in the United States. The company invests in health care and human service related facilities, including acute care hospitals, behavioral healthcare facilities, rehabilitation hospitals, sub-acute facilities, surgery centers, childcare centers, and medical office buildings. The company is a dividend achiever and has raised distributions for 22 consecutive years. (analysis)
Health Care Property Investors, Inc. (HCP) operates as a real estate investment trust in the United States. The company invests in health care-related properties and provides mortgage financing on health care facilities. This dividend achiever has raised distributions for 24 consecutive years. (analysis)
National Retail Properties, Inc. (NNN) is a publicly owned equity real estate investment trust. The firm acquires, owns, manages, and develops retail properties in the United States. It provides complete turn-key and built-to-suit development services including market analysis, site selection and acquisition, entitlements, permitting, and construction management. The firm also focuses on purchasing and financing net-leased retail properties. The company is a dividend achiever as well as a component of the S&P 1500 index. It has been increasing its dividends for the past 20 consecutive years. (analysis)
While I generally find these companies attractive, each one has its own risks. Realty Income (O) has slowed the growth in distributions, and its FFO payout ratio is above 90%. In addition to that the rate of vacancies there has increased over the past few years, as the number of assets under management has increased.
National Retail Properties (NNN) has not raised distributions since 2008. The company does have a lower vacancy rate than Realty Income and in addition to that has a much lower FFO payout ratio. If the company doesn't raise distributions by the end of 2010, it would lose its dividend achiever status.
Fifty-one percent of Universal Health Realty Income's revenues are derived from leases to Universal Health Services. UHT's advisor is a subsidiary of UHS, and all officers of Universal Health Realty are employees of UHS, which could create conflicts of interest.
One warning statistic for Health Care Property Investors, Inc. (HCP) is the fact that average occupancy percentage for Senior Housing has dropped from 95% in 2005 to 86% in 2009. This occupancy ratio represents occupancy and unit/bed amounts as reported by the respective tenants or operators. Certain operators in HCP Inc's hospital portfolio are not required under their respective leases to provide operational data however. The company's focus on senior living facilities should benefit from increasing demand by retiring baby boomers. There will be a significant increase in the number of people over the age of 65 in the US over the next decade, which would be beneficial to overall healthcare facilities.
Overall, I like the stable income streams generated by real estate investment trusts. I believe that getting exposure to real estate through REITs could not only help in diversifying your income portfolio, but also boost your current yield. In addition to that most REITs also grow distributions, which provides some hedge against inflation.
Full Disclosure: Long O, NNN, UHT
Relevant Articles:
- Realty Income (O) Dividend Stock Analysis
- National Retail Properties (NNN) Dividend Stock Analysis
- Universal Health Realty Income Trust (UHT) Dividend Stock Analysis
- Health Care Property Investors, Inc. (HCP) Dividend Stock Analysis
Monday, June 28, 2010
Four High Yield REITs for current income
One asset class that dividend investors could use in order to diversify their portfolios is real estate. The sector includes rental real estate on residential buildings, offices, malls etc. Owning a piece of rental real estate outright however comes with headaches, such as dealing with tenants and not being properly diversified. In order to avoid managing buildings and finding tenants, investors could use real estate investment trusts (REITs).
Posted by D at 1:00 AM
Labels: high-yield, real-estate, REIT
3 comments:
Great article, from where you come up with ideas like this. Thanks for sharing.ReplyDelete
Other companies, with the exception of a REIT, you might want to screen for dividend ratio is less than 65-70%. Another parameter to revise operating profit margin steadily. And 'much higher than the dividend yield? Otherwise, they may eventually have to cut dividends, because their margins are not there to sustain the current rate of return.ReplyDelete
Great article. Thanks for this!ReplyDelete
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Safety, Empowerment, Healing, and Hope
Who We Are
Bradley Angle's mission is to serve all people affected by domestic violence. We place any person experiencing or at risk for domestic violence at the center of our services and provide support for safety, education, empowerment, healing, and hope.
What we do
In 1975, Bradley Angle became the first domestic violence shelter on the West Coast (and only the fourth in the United States). Over the years, our services have expanded to include a 24- hour crisis line, transitional housing, support groups, community-based advocacy, culturally specific programming for African and African-American survivors, an economic empowerment program called Making Cent$, and support for LGBTQ survivors.
Bradley Angle has a long history of providing local leadership to address unmet community needs and services for domestic violence survivors and their families.
Why we do this work
Among the many reasons we do this important work: because of the strength and resiliency of our participants.
At least I don't have to check "Divorced"
On a lifetime of official forms
But I remember the wedding ritual,
The party, the thank you notes.
The marriage failed within a year.
At least the cats can't ask me
Why she doesn't come home any more
But they follow me with puzzled eyes
And keep waiting by the door.
I can't seem to provide them a stable home.
At least I have my own career,
Accounts,... Read More »
We are grateful for the support of our community partners >
BRADLEY ANGLE•5432 N. Albina Ave.•Portland, OR 97217•503.232.1528


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Wiki Headlines
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main index
Q: How do you know that a politician is lying?
A: He opens his mouth.
—Old joke
Democracy: Noun. Informal. A form of government in which people, faced with the prospect of self-rule, cast the job into an exclusive mire of unskilled panderers.
— Thorax, 9 Chickweed Lane
"What, they give me shit in the polling booth and I should give them someplace to live? Eat me."
— President, Transmetropolitan
Mayor Russo: End of the day, we're both in the people business, Frank. Sometimes, you take one for the team.
Frank: I never really thought of this as a "team."
—Blue Bloods, "Silver Star"
Maurice Chavez: Mr. Shrub got elected because he has great hair and says things that make you nod your head. His campaign appealed to the wealthy because he set all of us at ease by confirming, "It's okay to be rich, as long as you say you care about the children." Mr. Shrub, welcome.
Congressman Alex Shrub: That's not entirely true, Maurice. My campaign also appealed to the poor— who were too stupid to understand what I'm saying, so I held up pretty pictures and then gave out candy bars to appeal to their most base instincts.
—Pressing Issues, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Peculiar to any campaign for office is the practice among candidates of hurling dread accusations at their opponents. The practice has achieved such a degree of ordinariness , that the exercise of mudslinging is expected. It's a kind of etiquette, like good manners.
Each candidate, according to the other's advertised assertions, possesses not only the mendacity of Baron Munchausen and a concern for one's fellow citizens normally ascribed to Dracula; he is unrivaled in moral turpitude, avarice, misanthropy, corruption, criminality, cheating, stealing, child-starving, puppy-stomping, kitten-drowning and, on a grand scale, just plain old down-and-dirty psychopathy. Fundamentally, each candidate recognizes in his opponent a depravity of personal and professional conduct that not only would make him unfit for public office, but, in the real world, unsuited for anything better than maximum security—the very worst example of human sludge ever to have flushed from his sewer with the sinister desire to uphold, protect and defend the laws of the land.
In other words, there is no dungeon suited to confine such noisome evil. So we, naturally, vote for them. It's a reflex, just good manners.
—A Demon's Nest of Sentiments, Pibgorn
A nurse comes in to check if Kiyomi has died, but she hasn't and the nurse looks visibly disappointed. She doesn't comment on my rule breaking either, so that's proof that the civilised world has laws for the masses and laws for me. I ask her for today's papers, which she brings quickly, bowing like she has a spinal problem which won't allow her to stand straight.
Real Life
�In public affairs men are often better pleased that the truth, though known to everybody, should be wrapped up under a decent cover than if it were exposed in open daylight to the eyes of all the world.�
—David Hume, The History of England 1
"Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.�
—Bertrand Russell
�Well, I don't believe he'd steal a red hot stove."
—Thaddeus Stevens, when asked as to whether Secretary of War Simon Cameron was honest
"The fact is New York politics were always dishonest—long before my time. There never was a time you couldn't buy the Board of Aldermen... A politician coming forward takes things as they are."
—William M. "Boss" Tweed
�Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.�
— Henry Kissinger
"Basically, we're all rascals."
—Barry Goldwater
"Nothing I have ever done has been tinged with legality."
—New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses
�It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.�
"Politics and war are remarkably similar situations."
—U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
—George W. Bush, Greece, N.Y. 5.24.05
�A good debater is not necessarily an effective vote-getter: you can find a hole in your opponent's argument through which you could drive a coach and four ringing jingle bells all the way...which, however, may warm only you and your muse, while the smiling paralogist has in the meantime made votes by the tens of thousands.�
—William F. Buckley Jr.
"I was a university student and lecturer once, so I know universities stand for truth, honesty, and the pursuit of knowledge. When I became a politician I had to abandon all of that."
"Nixon has never been interested in issues or ideas, only in self-promotion. His congressional career was a perfect blank � nothing accomplished, no one represented ... More to the point, since he is interested only in self-promotion, he is not about to jeopardize The Career by taking a strong position on any issue. The ghettos will be 'solved,' he tells us, by giving tax cuts to private industry for doing business with the blacks. Well, it doesn�t take a profound student of the human heart to know that the tax cuts will be accepted gladly and that the ghettos will be no better off. It is a proof of his banality not only that he thinks we don�t know how inadequate what he proposes is but that the very way he puts his 'solution' shows that to him the ghetto is something incurable..."
—Gore Vidal, Playboy 1969
"What fascinates me is: people watching her on television — can they not see that she's basically learned certain speeches? She does them very well, she's got a very good memory, but it's like a nice-looking parrot."
"Even John Boehner Can't Believe What a Dick John Boehner Has to Be Now"
"During the first few months of his administration, [Orval] Faubus desegregated public transportation in Arkansas and investigated the possibility of integrating public schools, which was quite a courageous endeavor for a man of his time (and place). His progressive approach to civil rights reform would prove to be short-lived, however. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public schools had to be integrated. White Arkansans were not amused. In a stunning display of political douchebaggery, Faubus (envious of the success his opponents were having using segregationist rhetoric to stir up white voters) decided that the wisest course of action would be to deploy the Arkansas National Guard to Little Rock Central High School at the beginning of the 1957-58 school year in order to block nine colored black students from entering."
—Rational Wiki on the Little Rock Nine
"Today, probable 2016 Republican Presidential hopeful Rand Paul told a crowd in Iowa that 'Nobody here' was trying to ban birth control. Either Rand Paul has a terrible memory, or he has such low self esteem that he considers himself 'nobody,' because just last year, Rand Paul cosponsored a bill that would have banned certain forms of birth control...stuff like this and his cartoonishly cowardly dodge from an undocumented immigrant yesterday only further proves that Rand Paul is to the 2016 Presidential Election what non-Bowsers are to Super Mario Brothers. A formidable sub-villain, sure, but far from the Main Boss."
—Erin Gloria Ryan, "'Nobody' Is Trying to Ban Birth Control, Says Guy Who Tried to Ban It"
Yahtzee: It's hard to believe this government isn't just a government that wants to fuck with people like in Transmetropolitan. They've gone back on all their campaign promises! You can't just do that! I mean, that's why they got elected: they were elected on the promise of doing A, B, and C. If they do the exact opposite... well, there should be international tribunals for that kind of thing!
Gabriel: They haven't just done the exact opposite, they've invented new letters to do.
—Let's Drown Out, Alien�
"They hired George 'Macaca' Allen and Lanny 'I Represent The Interests of Legitimate War Criminals' Davis to protect their stupid name. Dan Snyder is 2 degrees from being a war criminal himself, as far as I'm concerned."


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Ms. Sara C. Trivette
Family Medicine, East Albany Medical Center
- 1712 E Broad Ave Ste A
Albany, GA 31705
- 3 Office Locations
- (229) 639-3100
Ms. Sara C. Trivette is a practicing physician. Ms. Trivette practices medicine in Albany, GA and 2 other locations and specializes in Family Medicine and Internal Medicine. Ms. Trivette is affiliated with Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital Norh Campus. Ms. Trivette speaks English and Spanish.
Gender: Not Available
Years in Practice: Not Available
Languages Spoken: English, Spanish
Medical School: Not Available
Graduation Date: Not Available
Hospital Affiliations: Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital Norh Campus
Specialties: Family Medicine, Internal Medicine
*This physician has multiple office locations. See Appointments for details.


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List of short stories in the Dark fantasy category at short fiction - back to our genre list
- List of short stories by our resident authors within the Dark fantasy genre. Please do leave comments for the writers! Or how about visiting our Short Fiction Forum to chat about the site, stories, and authors?
- Dark fantasy has yet to be solidly connected to its own particular subgenre of Fantasy. Stories often described as dark fantasy are therefore more likely to be "officially" placed in either the horror or fantasy genres, based on which genre the story tends more toward.
Top 10 Most Popular stories in this genre EVER!Son Horny For Mom In The Morning (11542), The Day Poly Lost Her Virginity (6568), Desire of the Erotic Vampire (5380), Mortal Sins (4437), Caged (4279), Midnight pleasure (4276), Pagan Ties (3901), An old womans remembers (3822), Orgasm Mints (3777), Coffie And Blood (3066),
- Princil's Magic : Ch.4 : The Trial (Part 2), by Kurt Rellians
Date added: 2014-11-18 Total reads: 129
- Valdark the Great Sorceror searches Aribor the wizard's mind to determine his motivations. He discovers Aribor's obsession for the beauty Remzain.
- Princil's Magic : Ch.4 : The Trial (Part1), by Kurt Rellians
Date added: 2014-09-23 Total reads: 291
- The dark wizard goes to the Council House to see what has happened to beauty Remzain's father. He sees Chanceleord on trial, in a humiliating charade of justice, and finds himself the subject of scrutiny.
- Pain UnderNew Mngmnt ch.5: Bad-Ass-Ness, by VampireLuv
Date added: 2014-09-22 Total reads: 481
- Under earth, being unsavory is orgasmic pleasure. Yes, evil has a foreplay protocol; it's a statement of intent to do harm. Kruel is ready to do grisly tonight.
- Princil's Magic : Ch.3 : Aribor's Servant (Part 2), by Kurt Rellians
Date added: 2014-09-15 Total reads: 460
- The dark wizard claims his beautiful prize Remzain and finds his pleasure while he can in the conquered city.
- Vindictive, by LittleMissLoner
Date added: 2014-08-30 Total reads: 996
- Alexander, merely a teenager, faced a devastating event at such a young age. Having all that rage bottled up inside for so long, his little sister somehow ended up in his blame-box.
- Pain UnderNew Mngmnt ch.4: The Light, Please?, by VampireLuv
Date added: 2014-08-21 Total reads: 409
- Who in their right mind hides with the light on?
- Princil's Magic : Ch.3 : Aribor's Search (Part 1), by Kurt Rellians
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- A dark wizard searches a fallen city for leading families, but finds the beauty of his dreams protected by Princil's Magic. He takes steps to acquire her.
- Pain UnderNew Mngmnt ch. 3: Nutt-Sacked, by VampireLuv
Date added: 2014-07-21 Total reads: 755
- Fear handcuffing her mind, nothing but body heat separated them. And in the dark, who could see?
- Pain Under New Mngmnt ch. 2: Watch Me Watch You , by VampireLuv
Date added: 2014-05-12 Total reads: 866
- He's watching me watch him, while I'm watching him watch me. He was decked in solid black from head to toe, like the featured stick of colored wax readied for a crayon box.
- ONJI, by JohnSachu
Date added: 2014-05-01 Total reads: 1132
- A cold night, and stranger in the dar, and revelations that could frighten her forever.
- Pain Under New Management chapter 1, by VampireLuv
Date added: 2014-04-26 Total reads: 1631
- Welcome to Lovesick Penitentiary... where the women wear teardrop-blues.
- Emma's Love., by TomiTank
Date added: 2014-04-17 Total reads: 1244
- The story of Parisian lovers Emma and Scott.
- SISTERS APART, by actung
Date added: 2014-03-29 Total reads: 1526
- (SoI)Book 1: The Book of Death- Prologue[Updated verison], by Fantasywarrior
Date added: 2014-03-22 Total reads: 557
- Prologue to Shadows of Infamy Book 1: The Book of Death. An insanely complicated plot and world, major dark fantasy that is sure to keep you guessing and awaiting in suspense just to trip and surprise you all over again. Please send feedback.
- Princil's Magic : Chapter 1, by Kurt Rellians
Date added: 2014-03-13 Total reads: 1390
- Barbarians using dark magic are invading the prosperous and liberated city of Cromilil. The only way young mage Princil can save his household is to create magic by breaking sexual taboos.
- The Nights Ran Red With Blood, by NightAngel
Date added: 2014-03-10 Total reads: 682
- Danshalla, by woodmountman
Date added: 2014-01-21 Total reads: 1544
- Not sure what the hell it's about.
- Cremation? A Disgustingly Heathen Practice., by Camilla
Date added: 2014-01-07 Total reads: 999
- I didn't die in 1797, I merely had some Conversations and Copulations with Corpses. These are they.........
- Sophias Fail, by Me
Date added: 2014-01-01 Total reads: 737
- Orgasm Mints, by murraylevy1
Date added: 2013-11-18 Total reads: 3777
- Accidentally DC scientists create the ultimate pleasure pill. All hell breaks loose for President-elect Janet Cummings.
- A Hero story?? Prologue, by Fantasywarrior
Date added: 2013-10-29 Total reads: 887
- Just remembered have this most recent story. Its mix of Darkfantasy,Steampunk and Cyber Punk. Haven't came up with offical name yet!(or maybe make this offical name hmm, what you all think?) Hope you like it, enjoy :) Going to try and update thisas soon as get inspiration for it and when have time leave feadback please, very helpful!
- my genius son, by sally@u
Date added: 2013-10-27 Total reads: 1785
- A Battle Within, by BeccaRoux92
Date added: 2013-10-20 Total reads: 981
- A super short about the love that still plagues the long dead heart of a vampire.
- A hundred million or die, by Macaw!
Date added: 2013-10-03 Total reads: 1463
- A new game show with a prize of one hundred million dollars, but the consequences of losing are not so good.
- Stolen Waters: Chapter 3, by Wednesday
Date added: 2013-09-29 Total reads: 1630
- As a newborn Vampire, Lily is forced to put her trust in Patrick, a vengeful, manipulative vampire, in order to survive not only for herself, but to save Gabriel's Immortal soul.
- Departure Examination, by qmpash
Date added: 2013-09-11 Total reads: 2479
- Punishment in a futuristic society.
- Sex Grove, by murraylevy1
Date added: 2013-08-20 Total reads: 2984
- Weiner, Filner, and Spitzer types gather for sex and power at The Bohunk Grove.This year the women are in charge. Oh, yeah.
- Beautiful Lie Part 5, by Lozzie
Date added: 2013-08-18 Total reads: 864
- Part 5 has arrived! :) Please remember to leave comments... I always love having feedback :)
- X-Men Origins: Spiderkiller, by MacShayne
Date added: 2013-08-11 Total reads: 853
- Beautiful Lie Part 4, by Lozzie
Date added: 2013-08-09 Total reads: 991
- Part 4 has arrived... Lauren and Blade stuck in a jail cell together? What could be more hilarious :D please remember to keep giving me feedback!
- Beautiful Lie Part 3, by Lozzie
Date added: 2013-07-27 Total reads: 872
- Here's part 3! Hope you enjoy it, I think I'm going to start bringing a new part out once a week, please, please give feedback and comments, would love to know how I'm doing :)
- Biting For Time: Initiation of Synne , by VampireLuv
Date added: 2013-07-16 Total reads: 1213
- Excerpt of Chapter 12: Synner the sexy winner.... or our chooser a loser? This excerpt is NOT vulgar, but still should not be read by teenagers.
- Beautiful Lie Part 2, by Lozzie
Date added: 2013-07-10 Total reads: 911
- Here's part 2 hope you've enjoyed reading all I have to offer so far :) Please comment as I'd love to hear what you guys think!
- The Dark Side Part 3, by Lozzie
Date added: 2013-07-10 Total reads: 824
- Well it's been a long time coming, but here's part 3
- Beautiful Lie, by Lozzie
Date added: 2013-07-08 Total reads: 2033
- Hey guys... so after a long time I am back! And I have some new material for you :) please comment constructive criticism is welcome! :)
- The vampire Attack, by sally@u
Date added: 2013-07-07 Total reads: 883
- a detective has to figure it who killed all those people in jack the ripper style vamperic attacks
- Soul of the Stalker (Lex Talionis #4), by robertmoons
Date added: 2013-06-25 Total reads: 856
- What's worse than a serial killer? A serial killer with superhuman powers. The top of the food chain? Maybe, but then, he hasn't run into the predator of serial killers.
- MAT, by uranusurhonor
Date added: 2013-06-04 Total reads: 904
- Punani n Cherry, by uranusurhonor
Date added: 2013-06-03 Total reads: 1370
- Biting For Time 8: Vamptologist Got the Juice, by VampireLuv
Date added: 2013-05-09 Total reads: 785
- Has the vamptologist got the juice to help Idamae...um, RoHellen? Who dis' is?
- THE KILLING, by JohnSachu
Date added: 2013-05-03 Total reads: 1714
- An ancient curse is debated in a man's mind while he takes his pleasure with a new conquest.
- cupid apocalypse, by sally@u
Date added: 2013-04-01 Total reads: 1108
- pandoras box has been opened, plunging the world into hades new underworld and turning everyone into zombies and restless spirits wonder. Cupid is left only to kill this time using his arrows which hurts zombies and restless spirits and finds a mysterious human girl not affected by pandora
- Roach Amour, by murraylevy1
Date added: 2013-03-25 Total reads: 938
- The third of the roach trilogy.This dark, warped, fairy tale concerns a young woman who loses her love, and must take desperate measures to get him back.
- In the Year of Their Lord (Lex Talionis #3), by robertmoons
Date added: 2013-03-24 Total reads: 876
- In the year 3012 AD, an ancient predator stalks the dark city streets. He is man's worst nightmare, and Earth's ultimate saviour.
- Pictures Of A Tragedy 1, by Shadowstar Boxer
Date added: 2013-03-20 Total reads: 806
- This is structured for a graphic novel, and is a fantasy that was originally created by my good friend, Justin Wayne. Enjoy this modern day adventure in the lives of two young women who are destined to fix what is broken between the light and the darkness.
- The Shade Counters 2: AUTUMN, by Shadowstar Boxer
Date added: 2013-03-18 Total reads: 1595
- Welcome to the second installment of our death handlers' chronicler. Enter the dark beauty of The Shade Counters.
- Biting For Time 7, by VampireLuv
Date added: 2013-03-14 Total reads: 835
- Flameryll's TRUTH is just a nightdream away! Synner and Beggar.
- The Shade Counters 0: CAST, by Shadowstar Boxer
Date added: 2013-03-10 Total reads: 645
- Between the living world and the afterlife is a veil of alternate reality. Some call it purgatory, but we will learn of its true purpose. It is home to those who balance life and death for us all: The Shade Counters.
- The Shade Counters 1: GENESIS, by Shadowstar Boxer
Date added: 2013-03-10 Total reads: 783
- Between the living world and the afterlife is a veil of alternate reality. Some call it purgatory, but we will learn of its true purpose. It is home to those who balance life and death for us all: The Shade Counters.
- Toy, by Lyssarose19
Date added: 2013-01-13 Total reads: 1838
- Who is being played with here? Trying to decide whether to extend this very short short story. Comments welcomed!
- Thanks to the writers who have registered and submitted all the above short stories.
** [ Next Stories ] **


text: Paul Winter performing with the Forces of Nature ensemble. Clifford A. Sobel/Courtesy of the artist hide caption itoggle caption Clifford A. Sobel/Courtesy of the artist Holiday Music A Paul Winter Solstice Concert 2013 December 20, 2013 The saxophonist and world-music ambassador presents his annual theater, dance and music special, held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Upper Manhattan. Listen Loading… 57:00 Playlist


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Seeing the price of beer flights makes my jaw drop each time! I had found 24 five ounce tasting glasses online for 39$ and decided, I'm going to make my own. This way I can design it the way I want, and I can match the stain to my keezer. So, I was feeling ambitious one night and designed my beer flight idea on a couple sheets of paper with measurements.http://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachme...1&d=1363570605
Last week I made a template of my design out of 1/4" plywood so I could just use this template for each of the wooden flight holders I would make (6 total). This weekend I picked up an 8 footer of 1x6 oak (I adjusted my above design to 5 1/2" wide to accommodate the wood so I adjusted each side by 1/4") and had it cut in half, so I could fit in my car (two 4 foot pieces). Each flight paddle is going to be 15" long and I cut out the six 15" pieces tonight. I then used my template to drill 1" holes to start my handle design. I used a 1" paddle bit. I need to pick up a 1 7/8" or 2" paddle bit for my tasting glass indents. I also drilled an 1/8" hanging hole above the handle. See my progress so far:http://www.homebrewtalk.com/attachme...1&d=1363571119
For the final product I also plan to add 1"x2" pieces of 1/4" plywood with either chalkboard paint or whiteboard paint underneath each tasting glass to write what it is. I got the motivation to do this project and figured I'd share with the HBT community who "get it", heh. I will post updates as I go along.
Ok, I worked on my beer flights some more last night. I had to go to the local hardware store and get a 2" forstner bit to drill the holes for the tasting glasses (they didn't have 1 7/8" so I adjusted). The holes for the glasses were the easy part. The handle was much more difficult. I had to try and maneuver a jigsaw to get these cuts with the finger notches. My first and second one I couldn't get the notches right, so I just made it a straight handle hole, but the others have finger notches like the pic below. I then started routing the edges and only got through a couple so far. I hope to work some more on these on Thursday. I need to finish the routing, then sand this beast, stain and clear coat. Then comes the whiteboard pieces. Thinking wood glue. These will be a fine addition to my next beer tasting!
Looks good to me. Those finger holes remind me of brass knuckles for some reason; very cool. I think wood glue would hold a piece of chalkboard to that thing just fine.
Looks good, if you are looking for high quality glasses that are perfect for tasting I found these and just bought them myself:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Ok, I finished routing all 6 of the paddles. Going on a work trip so won't be able to get any further for a week or so. Next, sanding, staining, clear coat, and the whiteboard pieces. I have to fix one of the handle holes too. After I sand it ill re rout it. It looks a little shoddy right now. The others look good though. Check out my progress below. Cheers!
I like the open handles instead of the brass knuckles. My 0.02.
I stumbled across a sale of tasting and pint glasses sets at NB a couple years ago.. I did a basic paddle for the flights, certainly not as nice as yours..
Well done!


text: NYU NLP: An Information Extraction Perspective Ralph Grishman September 2005 Information Extraction (for this talk) Information Extraction (IE) = identifying the instances of the important relations and events for a domain from unstructured text. 2 Extraction Example Topic: executive succession – George Garrick, 40 years old, president of the years old, George Garrick, London-based European Information Services Inc., was appointed chief executive officer of Nielsen MarketingResearch, USA. Nielsen Marketing Research, USA. Position Company President European Information Services, Inc. CEO Location London Person George Garrick George Garrick Status Out In Nielsen Marketing Research USA 3 Why an IE Perspective? • IE can use a wide range of technologies: – some successes with simple methods (names, some relations) – high performance IE will need to draw on a wide range of NLP methods • ultimately, everything needed for 'deep understanding' • Potential impact of high-performance IE • A central perspective of our NLP laboratory 4 Progress and Frustration Over the past decade • Introduction of machine learning methods has allowed a shift from hand-crafted rules to corpustrained systems – shifted burden to annotation of lots of data for a new task • But has not produced large gains in 'bottom-line' performance – 'glass ceiling' on event extraction performance … can the latest advances give us a push in performance and portability? 5 Pattern Matching Roughly speaking, IE systems are pattern-matching systems: – we write a pattern corresponding to a type of event we are looking for x shot y – we match it against the text Booth shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre – and we fill a data base entry shooting events assailant target Booth Lincoln 6 Three Degrees of IE-Building Tasks 1. We know what linguistic patterns we are looking for. 2. We know what relations we are looking for, but not the variety of ways in which they are expressed. 3. We know the topic, but not the relations involved. fuzzy boundaries 7 performance portability Three Degrees of IE-Building Tasks 1. We know what linguistic patterns we are looking for. 2. We know what relations we are looking for, but not the variety of ways in which they are expressed. 3. We know the topic, but not the relations involved. 8 Identifying linguistic expressions • To be at all useful, the patterns for IE must be stated structurally • patterns at the token level are not general enough • So our main obstacle (as for many NLP tasks) is accurate structural analysis • name recognition and classification • syntactic structure • co-reference structure – if the analysis is wrong, the pattern won't match 9 Decomposing Structural Analysis • Decomposing structural analysis into subtasks like named entities, syntactic structure, coreference has clear benefits … – problems can be addressed separately – can build separate corpus-trained models – can achieve fairly good levels of performance (near 90%) separately – well, maybe not for coreference • But it also has problems ... 10 Sequential IE Framework Raw Doc Name/ Nominal Mention Tagger Reference Resolver Relation Tagger Analyzed Doc. Precision: 100% 90% 80% 70% Errors are compounded from stage to stage 11 A More Global View • Typical pipeline approach performs local optimization of each stage • We can take advantage of interactions between stages by taking a more global view of 'best analysis' • For example, prefer named entity analyses which allow for more coreference or more semantic relations 12 Names which can be coreferenced are much more likely to be correct Counting only 'difficult' names for name tagger … small margin over 2nd hypothesis, not on list of common names 13 Names which can participate in semantic relations are much more likely to be correct Probability of a name being correct & margin lower than threshold 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0.2 0.5 0.8 1 1.2 1.5 1.8 2 3 4 Threshold of Margin (difference between the log probabilities of the first and second name hypotheses) Name Accuracy Participating in Relation Not Participating in Relation 14 Sources of interaction • Coreference and semantic relations impose type constraints (or preferences) on their arguments • A natural discourse is more likely to be cohesive … to have 'mentions' (noun phrases) which are linked by coreference and semantic relations 15 N-best • One way to capture such global information is to use an N-best pipeline and rerank after each stage, using the additional information provided by that stage (Ji and Grishman ACL 2005 ) Reduced name tagging errors for Chinese by 20% (F measure: 87.5 --> 89.9) 16 Multiple Hypotheses + Re-Ranking Raw Doc 1 Name/ Nominal Mention Tagger 1 Reference Resolver 20 1 Relation Tagger 1 20 20 Name Coref Relation pruned pruned pruned Maximum Precision: 100% 99% 98% 97% Final Precision top1 85% Re-Ranking Model Combination of information from Interactions between stages 17 Computing Global Probabilities • Roth and Yih (CoNLL 2004) optimized a combined probability over two analysis stages • limited interaction to name classification and semantic relation identification • optimized product of name and relation probabilities, subject to constraint on types of name arguments • used linear programming methods • obtained 1%+ improvement in name tagging, and 24% in relation tagging, over conventional pipeline 18 Three Degrees of IE-Building Tasks 1. We know what linguistic patterns we are looking for. 2. We know what relations we are looking for, but not the variety of ways in which they are expressed. 3. We know the topic, but not the relations involved. 19 Lots of Ways of Expressing an Event • • • • • • Booth assassinated Lincoln Lincoln was assassinated by Booth The assassination of Lincoln by Booth Booth went through with the assassination of Lincoln Booth murdered Lincoln Booth fatally shot Lincoln 20 Syntactic Paraphrases • Some paraphrase relations involve the same words (or morphologically related words) and are broadly applicable • • • • Booth assassinated Lincoln Lincoln was assassinated by Booth The assassination of Lincoln by Booth Booth went through with the assassination of Lincoln • These are syntactic paraphrases 21 Semantic Paraphrases • Others paraphrase relations involve different word choices: • Booth assassinated Lincoln • Booth murdered Lincoln • Booth fatally shot Lincoln • These are semantic paraphrases 22 Attacking Syntactic Paraphrases • Syntactic paraphrases can be addressed through 'deeper' syntactic representations which reduce paraphrases to a common relationship: • • • • chunks surface syntax deep structure (logical subject/object) predicate-argument structure ('semantic roles') 23 Tree Banks • Syntactic analyzers have been effectively created through training from tree banks – good coverage possible with a limited corpus 24 Predicate Argument Banks • The next stage of syntactic analysis is being enabled through the creation of predicateargument banks – PropBank (for verb arguments) – (Kingsbury and Palmer [Univ. of Penn.]) – NomBank (for noun arguments)* – (Meyers et al. ) * first release next week 25 PA Banks, cont'd • Together these predicate-argument banks assign common argument labels to a wide range of constructs • The Bulgarians attacked the Turks • The Bulgarians' attack on the Turks • The Bulgarians launched an attack on the Turks 26 Depth vs. Accuracy • Patterns based on deeper representations cover more examples but • Deeper representations are generally less accurate • Leaves us with a dilemma … to use shallow (chunk) or deep (PA) patterns 27 Resolving the Dilemma • The solution: – allow patterns at multiple levels – combine evidence from the different levels – use machine learning methods to assign appropriate weights to each level In cases where deep analysis fails, correct decision can often be made from shallow analysis 28 Integrating Multiple Levels • Zhao applied this approach to relation and event detection • corpus-trained method • a 'kernel' measures similarity of an example in the training corpus with a test input separate kernels at – word level – chunk level – logical syntactic structure level • a composite kernel combines information at different levels 29 Kernel-based Integration Logical Relations Classifier SGML Parser Text Sent Parser Name Tagger XML Generator Documents Input POS Tagger Other Analyzer Results Output Preprocessing SVM / KNN Post-processing 30 Benefits of Level Integration • Zhao demonstrated significant performance improvements for semantic relation detection by combining • word, • chunk • logical syntactic relations over performance of individual levels (Zhao and Grishman ACL 2005 ) 31 Attacking Semantic Paraphrase • Some semantic paraphrase can be addressed through manually prepared synonym sets, such as are available in WordNet • Stevenson and Greenwood [Sheffield] (ACL 2005) measured the degree to which IE patterns could be successfully generalized using WordNet • measured on 'executive succession' task • started with a small 'seed' set of patterns 32 Seed Pattern Set for Executive Succession Subject company person Verb v-appoint v-resign Object person - • v-appoint = { appoint, elect, promote, name } • v-resign = { resign, depart, quit} 33 Evaluating IE Patterns • Text filtering metric: if we select documents / sentences containing a pattern, how many of the relevant documents / sentences do we get? 34 • Wordnet worked quite well for the executive succession task … seed P R document filtering 100% 26% sentence filtering 81% 10% expanded P R 68% 96% 47% 64% 35 Challenge of Semantic Paraphrase • But semantic paraphrase, by its nature, is more open ended and more domain-specific than syntactic paraphrase, so it is hard to prepare any comprehensive resource by hand • Corpus-based discovery methods will be essential to improve our coverage 36 Paraphrase discovery • Basic Intuition: – find pairs of passages which probably convey the same information – align structures at points of known correspondence (e.g., names which appear in both passages) Fred xxxxx Harriet Fred yyyyy Harriet paraphrases similar to MT training from bitexts 37 Evidence of paraphrase • From almost parallel text: strong external evidence of paraphrase + a single aligned example • From comparable text: weak external evidence of paraphrase + a few aligned examples • From general text: using lots of aligned examples 38 Paraphrase from Translations (Barzilay and McKeown ACL 01 [Columbia]) • Take multiple translations of same novel. – High likelihood of passage paraphrase • Align sentences. • Chunk and align sentence constituents • Found lots of lexical paraphrases (words & phrases); a few larger (syntactic) paraphrases • Data availability limited 39 Paraphrase from news sources (Shinyama, Sekine, et al. IWP 03 ) • Take news stories from multiple sources from same day • Use word-based metric to identify stories about same topic • Tag sentences for names; look for sentences in the two stories with several names in common • moderate likelihood of sentence paraphrase • Look for syntactic structures in these sentences which share names • sharing 2 names, paraphrase precision 62% (articles about murder in Japanese) • sharing one name, at least four examples of a given paraphrase relation, precision 58% (2005 results, English, no topic constraint) 40 Relation paraphrase from multiple examples Basic idea: • If • expression R appears with several pairs of names – a R b, c R d, e R f, … • expression S appears with several of the same pairs – a S b, e S f, … • Then there is a good chance that R and S are paraphrases 41 Relation paraphrase -- example • Eastern Group 's agreement to buy • Eastern Group to acquire • CBS • CBS • CBS will acquire 's purchase of agreed to buy Hanson Hanson Westinghouse Westinghouse Westinghouse (example based on Sekine 2005) 42 Relation paraphrase -- example • Eastern Group 's agreement to buy • Eastern Group to acquire • CBS • CBS • CBS will acquire 's purchase of agreed to buy Hanson Hanson Westinghouse Westinghouse Westinghouse select main linking predicate 43 Relation paraphrase -- example • Eastern Group 's agreement to buy • Eastern Group to acquire • CBS • CBS • CBS 2 shared pairs will acquire 's purchase of agreed to buy Hanson Hanson Westinghouse Westinghouse Westinghouse paraphrase link (buy acquire) 44 Relation paraphrase, cont'd • Brin (1998); Agichtein and Gravano (2000): • acquired individual relations (authorship, location) • Lin and Pantel (2001) • patterns for use in QA • Sekine (IWP 2005 ) • acquire all relations between two types of names • paraphrase precision 86% for person-company pairs, 73% for company-company pairs 45 Three Degrees of IE-Building Tasks 1. We know what linguistic patterns we are looking for. 2. We know what relations we are looking for, but not the variety of ways in which they are expressed. 3. We know the topic, but not the relations involved. 46 • Topic • Set of documents on topic • Set of patterns characterizing topic 47 Riloff Metric • Divide corpus into relevant (on-topic) and irrelevant (offtopic) documents • Classify (some) words into major semantic categories (people, organizations, …) • Identify predication structures in document (such as verb-object pairs) • Count frequency of each structure in relevant (R) and irrelevant (I) documents • Score structures by (R/I) log R • Select top-ranked patterns 48 Bootstrapping • Goal: find examples / patterns relevant to a given topic without any corpus tagging (Yangarber '00 ) • Method: – – – – identify a few seed patterns for topic retrieve documents containing patterns find additional structures with high Riloff metric add to seed and repeat 49 #1: pick seed pattern Seed: < person retires > 50 #2: retrieve relevant documents Seed: < person retires > Fred retired. ... Harry was Maki retired. ... Yuki was named president. named president. Relevant documents Other documents 51 #3: pick new pattern Seed: < person retires > Fred retired. ... Harry was Maki retired. ... Yuki was named president. named president. < person was named president > appears in several relevant documents (top-ranked by Riloff metric) 52 #4: add new pattern to pattern set Pattern set: < person retires > < person was named president > 53 Applied to Executive Succession task Subject company person Verb v-appoint v-resign Object person - seed • v-appoint = { appoint, elect, promote, name } • v-resign = { resign, depart, quit, step-down } • Run discovery procedure for 80 iterations 54 Discovered patterns Subject company person person person Verb v-appoint v-resign succeed be | become name join | run | leave serve leave Object person person president | officer | chairman | executive president | … company board | company post 55 company person person person Evaluation: Text Filtering • Evaluated using document-level text filtering Pattern set Recall Precision Seed 11% 93% Seed+discovered 88% 81% • Comparable to WordNet-based expansion • Successful for a variety of extraction tasks 56 Document Recall / Precision 250 Test Documents (.5) 1 0.8 0.6 Recall Precision 0.4 0.2 0 0 10 20 30 40 Generation # 50 60 70 80 57 Evaluation: Slot filling • How effective are patterns within a complete IE system? • MUC-style IE on MUC-6 corpora training test pattern set recall precision F recall precision F seed 28 78 76 71 79 + discovered 51 manual–MUC 54 manual–now 69 41 27 61 52 74 72 62 47 74 56 70 75 40 60 56 64 • Caveat: filtered / aligned by hand 58 Topical Patterns vs. Paraphrases • These methods gather the main expressions about a particular topic • These include sets of paraphrases – name, appoint, select • But also include topically related phrases which are not paraphrases – appoint & resign – shoot & die 59 Pattern Discovery + Paraphrase Discovery • We can couple topical pattern discovery and paraphrase discovery – first discover patterns from topic description (Sudo ) – then group them into paraphrase sets (Shinyama ) • Result are semantically coherent extraction pattern groups (Shinyama 2002) – although not all patterns are grouped – paraphrase detection works better because patterns are already semantically related 60 Paraphrase identification for discovered patterns (Shinyama et al 2002) • worked well for executive succession task (in Japanese): precision 94%, coverage 47% – coverage = number of paraphrase pairs discovered / number of pairs required to link all paraphrases • didn't work as well for arrest task … fewer names, multiple sentences with same name led to alignment errors 61 Conclusion • Current basic research on NLP methods offers significant opportunities for improved IE performance and portability – global optimization to improve analysis performance – richer treebanks to support greater coverage of syntactic paraphrase – corpus-based discovery methods to support greater coverage of semantic paraphrase 62


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At Bath Junkie, shopping is an interactive experience. Upon entering the store, clients peruse bath products, including scrubs and lotions, and pick a base. Then they sniff and hachoo through more than 200 scents, identifying one, two, or three fragrances and a color for their product. With the client's personalized recipe in hand, a beauty expert whips up the formula and readies it for sale. Each product is crafted to minimize harm to the environment, and Bath Junkie offers paraben-free hair products, recyclable containers, and kisses on both cheeks from Mother Nature herself.
Though most licensed aestheticians know a great deal about the skincare products they use, few know their serums and creams as well as Lily Trieu knows hers. That's because at Lily Med Spa, Trieu uses Lily Dermaceuticals skincare products, a line she cocreated with registered nurse and licensed aesthetician Tama Tran. The duo's more than 15 years of experience as aestheticians working in clinical skin-treatment centers gave them first-hand knowledge of the complexity of skin's tone, sensitivity, and penchant for turning purple after excessive eggplant consumption.
This knowledge helped them to develop more than 50 pharmaceutical-grade products, used as part of the comprehensive aesthetic care plan they have developed for their patients. The duo uses authentic Botox and Dysport fillers to smooth out facial wrinkles and un-furrow frown lines. They also wield a Sciton laser to reduce unwanted hair, remove acne scarring, and boost skin texture and brightness with micro-peels. During SkinTyte treatments, infrared energy deeply heats soft tissue, causing it to tighten as it heals and stimulate collagen production. Fractional resurfacing, on the other hand, targets outer layers of skin, peeling away the old, damaged surface to reveal a healthier layer.
The recipe for the runway-ready styles that emerge within Eleven 11 Hair Studio begins with its location: a 3,000-square-foot studio designed by architect Eddie Maestri and interior designer Jamie Carroll, situated in Dallas's luxurious Uptown neighborhood in front of Hotel Zaza, and across the street from Hotel Crescent and the Ritz Carlton. In this spa-like setting, stylists?many of whom also serve as educators for leading beauty companies?call on both time-honored and cutting-edge techniques to create stylish, flattering looks for men and women.
The service menu goes far beyond haircuts and styles to include hair extensions and bold color treatments ranging from classic highlights to balayage, a freehand technique that creates a gradient ombre effect to suggest time spent lying on the beach or coloring your hair in a sunset. The staff can transform hair's texture, too: Japanese straightening treatments leave hair smooth and straight until it grows out, and Brazilian Blowouts control curl and boost shine for up to three months. Aesthetic experts also perform makeup applications and bridal services. The salon extends its regular Tuesday through Saturday business hours to include services by appointment on Sundays and Mondays, so clients with strapped schedules can always find a time that works for them, seven days a week.
Nestled inside a sprawling yellow house first built in 1963, Mapleshade Spa retains much of its structure's original charm. Out front, a set of wind chimes and a swing rock gently in the breeze above a huge wraparound porch. Garden fountains send up spouts of water amid colorful, aromatic thickets of rosemary, thyme, mint, lavender, and roses scattered beneath the boughs of large trees.
This bucolic setting surrounds Mapleshade Spa's eight treatment rooms, where aestheticians set to work pampering their clientele with botanical skincare products from Pevonia and Éminence Organics. To account for different skin types and concerns, the staff offers more than 10 types of facials—all of which can be performed outside if desired—and an array of body treatments, including massages and body wraps. Stylists trim and highlight tresses in the hair salon while nail techs brush Shellac polish onto digits in both public and private nailcare areas. Mapleshade Spa frequently hosts spa parties to celebrate special events or provide a day away from clingy parole officers.
While performing her residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Dr. Ellen Turner built a strong foundation for treating dermatological conditions such as acne, rosacea, psoriasis, and skin cancer. She designed DermLaser Institute of Dallas to treat skin maladies ranging from eczema and melasma to scar treatment. She and her staff tone and brighten complexions with skin treatments as well as medical, cosmetic, and laser procedures. Outside of simple skin-brightening work, DermLaser Institute of Dallas also wields Yag and Fraxel lasers to perform facial rejuvenation, body contouring, hair removal, and tattoo removal. Dr. Turner also works below the surface in her spa, treating faces with injectables and dermal fillers in addition to traditional chemical peels, facials, and microdermabrasion treatments. She also helps clients keep up at-home regimens with Belladermis, her personally curated product shop that includes cleansers by SkinMedica, lotions from Obagi, and a mysterious salve that turns dogs invisible.
Dr. Naila Malik is board certified in family medicine, and has over 20 years of experience. She has focused on skin care and weight management for the past 10 years and today, having been featured in such magazines as Elle and Fitness, Dr. Malik applies her diverse expertise at her own practice. She is the health and beauty advisor for the network on the Broadcast TV Show, and has been featured on Best Doctors Network and has made appearances on TV shows such as Good Morning Texas, and CBS Dallas. Her team of certified medical aestheticians performs a slew of services, from acne care for teens and adults to cosmetic dermatology procedures such as Botox injections, chemical peels, and laser hair reduction. Dr. Malik has also developed her own line of skincare products, many of which she uses during in-office treatments, to treat issues such as acne, rosacea, sensitive skin, and anti-aging.


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Under The Hood: A Better Way to Tech
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By ETF Professor | January 30, 2013 5:16 AM EST
Last week, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) reminded investors that although it is the largest technology company, it is far from being the perfect stock in that sector. Apple's recent woes have also reminded investors that it is possible to profit with select tech ETFs that skimp on Apple.
The First Trust Technology AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FXL) proves that notion. FXL, like many of the AlphaDEX ETFs uses a screening process that often leads to superior returns compared ETFs using the usual market capitalization weighting methodology.
FXL is comprised of members of the Russell 1000 Index that are ranked on growth factors including three, six and 12-month price appreciation, sales to price and one year sales growth, and value factors such as book value and return on assets. In the case of FXL, the result is a 90-stock ETF that is not dominated by the largest tech titans.
Actually, no single stock dominates FXL as the ETF's largest holding is Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) with a weight of just under 2.4 percent. Only four other stocks receive weights of two percent or more in the fund. Semiconductor names account for over 21 percent of the fund's weight. Instruments and components makers chime in at 18.5 percent while software makers receive an allocation of 17.9 percent.
The median market cap within FXL is $6.35 billion, but the fund does include plenty of the most familiar technology names such as Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and yes, Apple. Still, FXL's methodology has set the fund apart relative to other tech ETFs in 2013.
Following Monday's close, FXL sported a year-to-date gain of almost seven percent, which is better than twice the returns offered this year by the PowerShares QQQ (NASDAQ: QQQ). To be precise, FXL was up 6.9 percent year-to-date after Monday's session. That means the ETF outperformed the Technology Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLK) and the iShares Dow Jones US Technology Index Fund (NYSE: IYW) by 500 basis points.
Noteworthy is the fact that FXL's relative outperformance of its peer group has not come with excessive volatility. The ETF is only slightly more volatile than QQQ and noticeably less volatile than IYW and QQQ.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, however, and that pertains to FXL that means the ETF will outpace its rivals in some market environments, though not all. For example, a major Apple rebound would not mean much to FXL because the stock is the ETF's smallest holding with a weight of just 0.3 percent. Over the past two years when that stock soared, FXL still move higher, but it lagged the aforementioned competing funds.
Still, there are aspects of FXL investors should consider. While the ETF is far smaller than QQQ or XLK, $192.3 million in assets under management is by no means tiny. Average daily volume of less than 161,000 shares pales in comparison to XLK, but the fund is sufficiently liquid. In the fourth quarter of 2012, there were just 10 days during which FXL closed at a premium of up to 49 basis points to the midpoint of its bid/ask spread, according to First Trust data.
Valuation will like the fact that while the tech sector looks inexpensive, FXL is as well. XLK has a P/E ratio of 13.1 and a price-to-book ratio of 3.06. FXL's P/E ratio of almost 14.7 is obviously higher, but the fund's price-to-book of 1.99 and a price-to-sales ratio of 0.81 might be saying FXL is offering some value even after rising 13.2 percent in the past 90 days.
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It seems as though everyone has a bone to pick with the millennial generation. Complaints about how members of that generation are high maintenance and demand special attention in the workplace never seem to go away. If we believe the anecdotal evidence, millennials expect a trophy just for showing up.
In the past decade, management guru and author Bruce Tulgan has endeavored to dispel some of the conventional wisdom about millennials. And according to him, there's plenty of it. Millennials want work to be fun. They can only learn from computers. They snub grunt work. Not only that: Managers have long heeded bad advice on how to handle this generation, convinced that coddling is the way to win over millennials.
But instead of handling millennials with silk gloves, managers should take an approach that's "less Google and more U.S. Army," Tulgan says. In short: Leaders should be strong. To capitalize on the strengths of this generation, managers need to carefully manage expectations, never minimize the negatives of a job and always tell it like it is, said Tulgan, author of the book "Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y."
Chanelle Schneider, a digital content producer and founder of the GenYChat on Twitter, agrees. To get the best performance out of millennials, managers shouldn't dote on their younger employees but instead build a reciprocal relationship that will ultimately produce long-term results, she said.
"Don't give praise when it isn't due," she said. "Phony adulation will lead to doubt in your authenticity as a person and as a leader."
Millennial employees do their best work in give-and-take relationships, she said, because they believe in supporting their managers, just as the managers support the employees. "It's a cycle of kindness that becomes the foundation for loyalty and retention as opposed to the vicious cycle where people compete solely to get ahead," Schneider said.
Perhaps some much-needed relationship building could bring the generations closer. In a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, nearly 40 percent of millennials claimed that older managers don't relate well to younger workers, and 34 percent said their personal drive intimidated members of other generations.
"If a senior manager is not relating to younger workers, it's because they're uninterested in them as people and see them solely as employees," Schneider said. "That attitude has to change."
To achieve a more harmonious coexistence, managers should spend some one-on-one time with their millennial employees, said Alexandra Levit, a workplace expert who counsels government organizations on intergenerational communication issues.
"Take each millennial employee to lunch or coffee, inquire about their dreams and aspirations, and show them you genuinely care about their ideas, career growth and success," advised Levit, who wrote "MillennialTweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Managing the Millennials."
Millennials "love the apprentice approach [so] allow them to work by your side during a crisis," she added. "Delegate important tasks and then encourage them to report back to you regularly on progress."
Keep the communication flowing
Managers should also teach millennials how to adapt to the workplace's culture. Educate them about the ins and outs of your organization and why things are done a certain way. Make sure they understand what a good work ethic is, Levit said, and direct their enthusiasm and energy into projects that allow them to make a valuable contribution.
"Provide frequent and constructive feedback," she said. "Don't wait for performance evaluations to tell them how they're doing. Don't harp on the negative. Accentuate the positive, and focus on one issue at a time."
But even more important for managers is to operate with an eye toward retaining talented employees. To keep millennials' interest, Levit advises managers to recognize good work, whether they do it privately or publicly. High-performing millennials should also be considered for small bonuses or other non-monetary rewards, she said.
However, if you think there's a star on your team, act fast. "Do whatever you can to keep her — even if it's facilitating an internal move," Levit said.
About the Author
Camille Tuutti is a former FCW staff writer who covered federal oversight and the workforce.
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Steve Kelman considers the costs of corruption in Mexico, China, and most developing countries -- and argues that Americans should keep their own government troubles in perspective.
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The General Services Administration's Matthew Goodrich predicts more agency-driven authorizations and previews a new two-year road map.
Good advice... but it really applies to ALL employees.
My millenials are some of the best employees on the team. Set your expectations, define where you want to go in broad terms and then cut them loose and watch the results.
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Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West has amped fans' anticipation for some new music by promising to leak a new record by tomorrow.
Writing via his Twitter page, West exclaimed his excitement over a new, untitled track.
"This sh*t I got in studio now don't make no sense Ima leak this sh*t 2mrw !!! Ima go up to Angie's!! I'm extremely serious!!!," he wrote early Wednesday (August 11) morning.
"God is good all the time… I know my Mama woulda loved this one!"
"Me, No ID & Lex Luger… I ain't playing fair!!!!" (Kanye West's Twitter)
Some sites have speculated that the song may even be released sometime today.
Kanye was in the studio early this morning with mentor No ID and producer Lex Luger. Apparently the session was so good, that Ye said he wanted to pass the record off to Hot 97?s Angie Martinez today. We'll see. (Rap Radar)
Album promo photos from West were scattered on the Internet earlier this week.
Based on five new album promo photos, Grammy-winning artist Kanye West is featured in each shot by himself and dressed with a sports jacket. In four of the shots, West is shown with a tie while another photo shows the rapper with an open shirt. Notably, West is seen posed with sun glasses on in each image with a low-cut hair style and closed lips. (Hip Hop N More)
During a UStream session last week, West said plans for a September 14th G.O.O.D. Music Day were nixed.
Kanye West is taking full advantage of all that technology has to offer. The rapper, who recently joined Twitter, hosted his firstUstream chat today (Aug. 6) from Korea and revealed that his new album will be out "sometime in November." West also said that his next single — the follow-up to "Power" — will drop in about 20 days, and it's a toss-up between a track called "Lost in The World" and "All of The Lights." He played a short snippet of the latter, which features big horns and double-speed drums. (Billboard)
No further details have been revealed as of now.
Check out some recent Kanye West footage down below:


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Step by Step – Brown Pelican
Taken with Nikon D5100 and Sigma 120-400mm Lens at 350mm
in Murrells Inlet South Carolina United States.
Thanks Ray
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HAHAHA, this is funny…..he look's totally flustered with his wings flying about…great capture, Di
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Featured 1-27-2013
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January 27, 2013
Beautiful Work
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Congratulations! This image is included in the 30th January, 2013, Features Gallery in the Beautiful Carolinas group.*
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Exclusive: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes' 'Straight Up'
A punk cover of Paula Abdul
Byon March 26, 2014
Make no mistake, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are a supergroup. Comprised of members of other successful acts NOFX, Foo Fighters, Lagwagon they bring together their collective wit and ability to reimagine pop songs as instant punk rock classics. Thought you couldn't mosh your way through Whitney Houston's Bodyguard theme? Think again. After forming way back in the Reality Bites era of the '90s, these guys are still giving you a reason to pogo to Paula Abdul, and with a new album out this May the ironically dubbed Are We Not Men? We Are Diva! they aren't slowing down.
Here's what the band had to say about this cover of Paula Abdul's classic "Straight Up":
Chris Shiflett: "If I recall correctly, 'Straight Up' was one of the last tunes we worked on for the new Gimmes record. I think it was Spike [Slawson]'s idea. He has an app on his phone that transposes songs into whatever key you want, so once we figured out where it was gonna work for his vocal, we banged it out quickly. Just like all our tunes, Spike's vocal is the magic sauce that makes it good."
Spike Slawson: "I just kept imagining Arsenio Hall's prodigious index finger on my sweet spot and the rest took care of itself."
Fat Mike: "When I think of divas (the new Gimmes album theme) I think of Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, or Beyoncé, but their songs all suck. We picked "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul, not because she's that much of a diva, but because it's a great song."
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The Joy of his Presence - Today's Christian Videos
39 Lady collapses under Power of God while giving testimony at a JESUS Be Set Free Revival with Robbie Cairncross - @robbiec
00:02:00 275 views
Embed robbiec 2449 views 2010-10-01T22:49:28 It is all about His Presence. There is healing, there is name change, there are promises, there are breakthroughs and there is wealth, in His Presence. In His Presence people are saved, healed and set free. The only thing that can raise the dead is His Presence. Be Set Free in His Presence. Robbie Cairncross spends much time, one on One with Jesus. The spill over can be viewed on Jesus Be Set Free TV. An ordinary man used Supernaturally by an Extraordinary God. When He ministers, His body transfigures into that of Jesus Christ. People do not see him, But Jesus appears to them directly. Wow. Read about His encounters and meeting David, Paul & Elisha who was introduced to him, by Jesus as well as transfiguring testimonies on www.JesusBeSetFree.tv
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One of my responsibilities as a Barron's tech columnist is to be the keeper of buzzwords. Buzzwords are the fuel for elaborate stock theses on Wall Street, and they can drive the interest in stocks sometimes more than, say, revenue and earnings.
The buzzword du jour is "big data," the information that piles up in the databases of companies everywhere and that those companies would like to manage and understand better.
It's probably time for this buzzword, and stocks that play off it, to take a breather, given a quite substantial run-up in some of their shares, and given some lofty valuations.
The companies include public outfits such as software giants SAP SAP 0.4519774011299435% SAP SE ADS U.S.: NYSE USD71.12 0.32 0.4519774011299435% /Date(1417039411208-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1029621 AFTER HOURS USD71.14 0.019999999999996 0.0281214848143982% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 25179 P/E Ratio 18.99116131271863 Market Cap 87515016413.7008 Dividend Yield 1.9205568053993252% Rev. per Employee 349982 More quote details and news » (SAP) and Oracle(ORCL), smaller software stalwarts such as Tibco TIBX 0.37593984962406013% TIBCO Software Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD24.03 0.09 0.37593984962406013% /Date(1417039200236-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 27615409 AFTER HOURS USD24.0329 0.00290000000000035 0.012068248023304202% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 10923 P/E Ratio 63.23684210526316 Market Cap 3937531727.04551 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 279107 More quote details and news » (TIBX), Teradata TDC -0.13357079252003562% Teradata Corp. U.S.: NYSE USD44.86 -0.06 -0.13357079252003562% /Date(1417039317991-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 922351 AFTER HOURS USD44.9745 0.1145 0.2552385198395007% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 18796 P/E Ratio 19.67543859649123 Market Cap 6863580093.38379 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 253704 More quote details and news » (TDC), and Informatica INFA 0.12354152367879204% Informatica Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq USD36.47 0.045 0.12354152367879204% /Date(1417039200151-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1034390 AFTER HOURS USD36.4744 0.00440000000000396 0.012064710721140664% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 4193 P/E Ratio 35.754901960784316 Market Cap 3963304315.77819 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 315476 More quote details and news » (INFA), upstart software makers such as Qlik Technologies QLIK 0.3215434083601286% Qlik Technologies Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD31.2 0.1 0.3215434083601286% /Date(1417039200182-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 491607 AFTER HOURS USD31.2 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 10781 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap 2817765779.35257 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 311336 More quote details and news » (QLIK), and hardware vendors such as EMC EMC 0.5018400802944128% EMC Corp. U.S.: NYSE USD30.04 0.15 0.5018400802944128% /Date(1417039230666-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 8774714 AFTER HOURS USD30.05 0.0100000000000016 0.033288948069241014% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 164347 P/E Ratio 23.966810276049145 Market Cap 61128669953.8352 Dividend Yield 1.5312916111850865% Rev. per Employee 376510 More quote details and news » (EMC), NetApp NTAP -0.8820798514391829% NetApp Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD42.7 -0.38 -0.8820798514391829% /Date(1417039200215-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2124805 AFTER HOURS USD42.7729 0.0728999999999971 0.17072599531615926% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 73105 P/E Ratio 22.010309278350515 Market Cap 13309291045.9084 Dividend Yield 1.5456674473067915% Rev. per Employee 504203 More quote details and news » (NTAP), Fusion-io (FIO), Mellanox Technologies (MLNX), InfoBlox BLOX 6.275902901124926% Infoblox Inc. U.S.: NYSE USD17.95 1.06 6.275902901124926% /Date(1417039286886-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 4664603 AFTER HOURS USD17.82 -0.129999999999999 -0.724233983286908% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2730 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap 1000192004.56314 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 366915 More quote details and news » (BLOX) and CommVault cvlt -0.31302170283806346% CommVault Systems Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD47.77 -0.15 -0.31302170283806346% /Date(1417039200088-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 345733 AFTER HOURS USD47.7796 0.00959999999999894 0.02009629474565627% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1470 P/E Ratio 42.651785714285715 Market Cap 2186146298.03345 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 311128 More quote details and news » (CVLT); as well as private companies such as Coraid, Nimble Storage, memSQL and DataStax, among others.
The average forward earnings multiple of the public names I mentioned is 45, which is a reflection of the fact that some of the better performers here are getting a substantial premium in a no-growth era of computing.
Mellanox, for example, has been the standout, rising almost threefold this year, to a recent $112.09. It's also one of the few to show real revenue momentum from the big-data movement, with estimates for this year's revenue having risen by 70% in that time. It trades at 30 times this year's profit estimate.
If the company can come up with another similar acceleration in revenue, good for it. If not, it may be time for the stock to relax, if you will.
Some of the names here have appreciated without appreciable improvements in outlook. EMC, which is a fine tech company, and owns most of VMWare VMW 1.5763433436888736% VMware Inc. U.S.: NYSE USD88.28 1.37 1.5763433436888736% /Date(1417039503899-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2042419 AFTER HOURS USD88.25 -0.0300000000000011 -0.03398278205709107% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 46686 P/E Ratio 42.44230769230769 Market Cap 38003215328.3875 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 406643 More quote details and news » (VMW), another fine tech company, is up 25% this year, even as its revenue estimate has slipped slightly.
It's the small, younger companies that see the biggest revenue boosts from new growth markets. Those markets aren't enough to move the needle for the big techs.
Fusion-io, which went public in June of 2011, vaulted back above its first-day close of $22.50, rising almost 28% Friday after the company beat estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter and offered an upbeat outlook.
Fusion, which makes hardware that speeds up access to data, has actually been one of the laggards this year, up just 11%, to $26.86. It fetches 74 times this year's projected earnings, which leaves the company little room to disappoint.
ONE OF THE MOST COMPELLING quests in the personal computer industry these days is that of chip maker Nvidia NVDA 1.6771998055420516% NVIDIA Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq USD20.915 0.345 1.6771998055420516% /Date(1417039200139-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 5365227 AFTER HOURS USD20.7481 -0.166899999999998 -0.7979918718622998% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 116407 P/E Ratio 19.919047619047618 Market Cap 11368076587.1005 Dividend Yield 1.6256275400430313% Rev. per Employee 519438 More quote details and news » (NVDA), which for years has sold so-called graphics-processing units, or GPUs, for desktops and laptops, chips that render pictures on the screen.
The PC market is on the ropes now, with some analysts predicting no growth at all this year, despite Microsoft's MSFT 0.5898462186644197% Microsoft Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq USD47.75 0.28 0.5898462186644197% /Date(1417039200531-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 26472937 AFTER HOURS USD47.79 0.0399999999999992 0.08376963350785341% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 691940 P/E Ratio 18.507751937984494 Market Cap 393596208740.234 Dividend Yield 2.5968586387434556% Rev. per Employee 714094 More quote details and news » (MSFT) expected introduction of a new version of Windows on Oct. 26. Instead, the activity has moved to smartphones and tablet computers, with the former expected to eclipse PC sales this year, in unit terms.
And so Nvidia has transformed itself. Its Tegra chip takes all the technology tricks Nvidia learned selling graphics chips for desktop computers and applies them to the phone and tablet markets.
Nvidia's financial results at the moment are supported by the company gaining share in plain-old GPU sales from rival Advanced Micro Devices AMD 0.35335689045936397% Advanced Micro Devices Inc. U.S.: NYSE USD2.84 0.01 0.35335689045936397% /Date(1417039261277-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 10534101 AFTER HOURS USD2.84 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 26646 P/E Ratio 47.333333333333336 Market Cap 2201965609.72156 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 548777 More quote details and news » (AMD) for what remains of the PC market. Apple AAPL 1.1904761904761905% Apple Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD119 1.4 1.1904761904761905% /Date(1417039200564-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 39910694 AFTER HOURS USD119.14 0.140000000000001 0.11764705882352941% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 921192 P/E Ratio 18.380365444912965 Market Cap 697915941406.25 Dividend Yield 1.5798319327731092% Rev. per Employee 1969180 More quote details and news » (AAPL), for example, in June announced a new crop of laptops using Nvidia's parts.
At $14.62, the stock looks fairly cheap at 11 times this year's estimates, after taking into account $5 per share or so in net cash on its balance sheet. The rub is that growth, which has been meager of late for Nvidia, really hinges on Tegra's taking off, and that has been a story of fits and starts.
This past February, the company withdrew its projection of $4.7 billion to $5 billion in revenue this year; analysts' current consensus estimate is much lower, at $4.34 billion.
Last Thursday brought reason for hope that Nvidia might come closer to that original forecast. Nvidia's revenue was in line with analysts' expectations for its fiscal second quarter, but it forecast that this quarter would beat the projected numbers rather substantially.
In part, this reflects the success of Tegra, which propelled the company's consumer computing unit to 36% sales growth, year over year. Tegra has won deals with Google GOOG -0.1312190433946921% Google Inc. Cl C U.S.: Nasdaq USD540.37 -0.71 -0.1312190433946921% /Date(1417039200673-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1474124 AFTER HOURS USD540.7 0.330000000000041 0.06106926735385014% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 45379 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap 369063424349.263 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 1355410 More quote details and news » (GOOG), being designed into the company's recently released Nexus 7 tablet, as well as one version of the Surface tablet that Microsoft will put on sale this fall. Which is important because Tegra is not in Apple's iPad, which rules the tablet market.
Nvidia has reason to view the others tablets' ascendancy with a particular mix of concern and optimism. The company has been building chips for PCs so long, it knows more than other companies about how to design not for simple, stripped-down computers, but rather for machines that approach the complex functionality of the traditional PC.
For that reason, the company has always been up against it when it comes to fighting rivals such as Qualcomm QCOM 0.5706332637439109% Qualcomm Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq USD72.26 0.41 0.5706332637439109% /Date(1417039200193-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 6678258 AFTER HOURS USD72.26 % Volume (Delayed 15m) : 328230 P/E Ratio 15.276955602536997 Market Cap 120139548353.945 Dividend Yield 2.324937724882369% Rev. per Employee 846230 More quote details and news » (QCOM) and Broadcom BRCM 2.022950431799361% Broadcom Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq USD43.12 0.855 2.022950431799361% /Date(1417039200074-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 5978173 AFTER HOURS USD43.35 0.230000000000004 0.5333951762523191% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 201269 P/E Ratio 58.270270270270274 Market Cap 25527039367.6758 Dividend Yield 1.1131725417439704% Rev. per Employee 665259 More quote details and news » (BRCM) in selling into cheaper phones and tablets.
Qualcomm and Broadcom cut their teeth making parts for mobile phones in huge volume and for consumer electronics, respectively, and they have deeper pockets than Nvidia, which means they can outspend the smaller challenger and move more units by cutting prices of their chips to meet the requirements of the consumer market.
If Nvidia is going to hold its own, it must hope that tablets and smartphones are increasingly the kinds of gizmos on which real work is done, which would make functionality and complexity at least as important as price.
For the moment, Nvidia has the wind at its back. The Nexus may have really, finally cracked the code for the tablet market, making the device more than just an Apple novelty.
I think it's too soon to know if tablets and smartphones will play to Nvidia's strengths for an extended period. But at the moment, there's more working in the company's favor than there was just a few months ago.
Tiernan Ray can be reached at email@example.com or at blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily or www.twitter.com/barronstechblog


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Said atmosphere was too "tense." Aaron Wilson
Darrelle Revis said what seemed obvious from the outside.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers players weren't too happy with former coach Greg Schiano's style. The disconnect hurt the team's progress on the field and led to Schiano's dismissal following the 2013 season.
"The atmosphere, I felt like, was real tense," Revis told the Tampa Bay Times. "Guys didn't like coming to work. That's one of the things you have to have, a stress-free atmosphere and environment. You're going to get everything out of everybody if it's stress-free and let people be who they are."
Revis then said he's optimistic with everything he's heard about new coach Lovie Smith. Even if he's forced to play more in the cover-2 than in press-man coverage, Revis said he'll look to master whatever defense he's asked to do.
"I feel confident in Lovie and [defensive coordinator] Leslie Frazier, too," Revis said. "They have a lot of experience in the league with unbelievable players."
Follow me on Twitter: @RavensInsider
Aaron Wilson covers the Ravens for The Baltimore Sun.
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NOV 20 Joel Corry
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A detailed look at the eight candidates vying for that unique honor.