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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Big man earns his big money
Pacers centre makes max amount, provides max protection, production
INDIANAPOLIS -- With his massive size and even more massive contract, Roy Hibbert almost feels a responsibility to serve as bouncer for the Indiana Pacers.
If that requires him to interrupt an interview with a throng of reporters to make sure that his locker-room neighbor D.J. Augustin can get dressed, to cover for Paul George to block New York star Carmelo Anthony's dunk attempt or even if he has to absorb a knee to the groin from the Miami Heat's Shane Battier while contesting a layup, the 7-2 Hibbert wants be there for his teammates.
"I always tell guys, if they get beat, don't foul them, I'll be there to clean it up," said Hibbert, the former Georgetown standout. "It's just that I feel I'm important. I want to be on the court. That's why they brought me back. That's why they gave me all this money."
Last summer Hibbert signed a four-year contract for $58 million, the maximum he could receive under the collective bargaining agreement, but at no time has he appeared more valuable to the Pacers than right now. He has proven to be the difference maker thus far in the Eastern Conference finals against the defending champion Heat, which shift here to Bankers Life Fieldhouse for tonight's Game 3 tied at one game apiece.
-- Pacers centre Roy Hibbert
Hibbert is averaging 24 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in the series after posting just 9.7 points and eight rebounds in three regular season games against Miami. In the Pacers' 97-93 victory in Game 2 on Friday, Hibbert had 29 points and 10 rebounds and was on the floor when four-time league MVP LeBron James had two turnovers in the final minute.
"I feel like the team needs me to be out there to play, score, rebound, block shots," Hibbert said. "I need to be out there as much as possible."
Pacers Coach Frank Vogel was highly criticized for sitting Hibbert for the final two defensive possessions in overtime of Game 1, as James took advantage of his absence to convert two easy layups in the final 10 seconds of Miami's 103-102 win. Hibbert shook his head from the bench as he watched James blow past George for an uncontested layup as time expired.
"Obviously, hindsight is usually 20-20. But you never know, they may not have run that play if I was in the game," Hibbert said. "I respect the coach's decision and I understand the logic behind it. Whatever the coach wanted. If he wanted me on the court, I'd be on the court."
Hibbert has scored at least 20 points in three of his past six playoff games after reaching 20 just 11 times in the regular season. He is making amends for a mystifying early start to the regular season in which he occasionally vanished, failing to score in double figures in 26 of the 53 games before the all-star break, including a scoreless outing in Atlanta. The ever-conscientious Hibbert consistently sought out feedback from his teammates, believing they had lost some trust in him. But Hibbert disputes the notion that the weight of his deal had caused him to press.
"I signed a max contract, but I never said to myself, 'I have to force things because I got a max contract,' or anything like that. I just felt I have to do my job every day and be aggressive and make sure I'm the heart and soul of the defense and just go from there," said Hibbert, who finished the regular season fourth in the league with a career-high 2.61 blocks per game.
Hibbert said his problems were rooted in a right wrist injury that he originally suffered in a collision with James during the Pacers' loss to Miami in last postseason's conference semifinals. He aggravated the injury at some point during the season, though he isn't sure when.
"I didn't realize I had a problem until I started lifting in the weight room and it felt really weak and our specialist was like, 'Wow, this is really bad.' It affected my touch and everything, my feel for the game," Hibbert said. "I just relied on my defense and luckily I turned some things around once I got it fixed."
While Hibbert struggled, his teammates carried on, with George emerging as an all-star and veteran David West serving as a stabilizing force in the locker room and on the court.
"The team moved on and now I'm catching back up," Hibbert said. "I feel like I'm back to form now."
He is also confident in the Pacers' chances to upset the Heat.
"We feel like we're built for them," he said. "We may not have three or four superstars, but I feel like we have a team full of guys who have the same mentality of playing smart, playing together and having one focus."
Hibbert earned his spot among Georgetown's lineage of all-star big men that includes Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo by working diligently to improve each season. Hoyas Coach John Thompson III helped him learn simply how to run properly. Former Pacers president Larry Bird, who drafted Hibbert 17th overall in 2008, hooked him up with Bill Walton to develop his skills. And during the lockout that shortened the 2011-12 season, Hibbert took it upon himself to join Washington Wizards center Nene and San Antonio's Tiago Splitter at Spurs star Tim Duncan's house for a few days of intense workouts. For those who saw him in college, or even as a plodding high school player at Georgetown Prep, the success might seem stunning - but not to Hibbert.
"I always wanted to be an all-star. I always wanted to be in the NBA. I never wanted to settle," Hibbert said. "People could say this, that and the other about how I played, how I moved and things like that, but I had confidence in myself, no matter what anybody else said."
-- The Washington Post
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 26, 2013 B11
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Jennifer Lopez Sorry For Appearance In Turkmenistan
By editor
Good morning, I'm David Greene.
Jennifer Lopez says she's sorry for singing "Happy Birthday" to the president of Turkmenistan. The country's known for being repressive. Human rights groups say government critics can be tortured or thrown in jail. A publicist says Lopez didn't know any of that when she put on a traditional Turkmen dress to serenade the president. At one point, Lopez's choreographer tweeted: I wonder where all my Turkmenistan followers are. Guess he didn't realize that Twitter is banned in the country.
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3 vs 3 battle Morals off and a fight to the death Takes place in a completely empty Times Square No prep, random encounter Which team wins and why? Thanks for reading :)
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team 2 due to the surfer.
Team 2 thanks to Silver Surfer, whats quicksilver doing here?
Lmfao Quick silver is here, Flash could literally run circles around him.
Superman beats Thor, Surfer stomps GL, Flash stomps Quick silver, Silver loses to Flash and Superman in an amazing fight.
or, GL gets his ass kicked by Thor, Surfer beats on Flash, and Superman sneezes Quicksilver into the sun. Superman loses to Silver Surfer and Thor.
OR, Flash beats Thor, Silver Surfer beats Superman, and GL beats up on quicksilver... without the ring. Surfer beats Flash and GL.
So all in all, Marvel team wins the majority here, like 6/10 or 7/10. The MVP ranks would go like, 1) Surfer 2) Superman 3) Flash 4) Thor 5) GL and Quicksilver doesn't deserve to be on this list.
Team 2 in a stomp. SS could solo
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Team 1 easily.
Flash soloes everybody including his own team... bwahahahahahaha!
I give it to Team 1 coz of speed, and physical might and speed! Did I mention speed, Flash (hoping its Wally) steals team 2 speed and gives it to his team mates then they go have coffee.
I think you don't know who Silver Surfer is then......
@GhostRider2 said:
I think you don't know who Silver Surfer is then......
I do, he is impressive! The problem is SF wielding Flash
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What is with this site and speed> everything. I mean really, is it the defining factor in all battles wtf?!
@LordMasterGod said:
What is with this site and speed> everything. I mean really, is it the defining factor in all battles wtf?!
I don't agree that speed> everything, but realistically it comes close in a forum where we don't have to take jobbing into account to create a story. There is no use being powerful and slow as a tortoise... sorry if my above comment on speed gave you a "wtf" moment
These are current DC characters, so Wally isn't in this battle. SS would stomp regardless. W/o Wally DC team goes down hard, yeah SS can solo.
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Team 2 because it has Thor, Superman doesn't stand a chance against the wrath of Thor's whopper lightning bolt. I mean sure Flash is better than Quicksilver but the Silver Surfer is just a one man band of awesomeness!
Supes, GL, and the Flash win this one!! Supes bests Thor down, Flash destroys Quicksilver, and then the 3 of them triple SS and kick his arse.
@iHailCarlo: do you think SS is going to watch how his team fights?He would kill Superman or Flash he isn't gonna stand there and watch.
@GhostRider2 He will be busy fighting the Green Lantern, Hal can hang on long enough for the other 2 to best the crap out of Thor and QS. GL is a tough dude, not sure why everyone thinks he just gets it handed to him by SS? Most marvel fans hang on to SS as their only saving grace as if he is unbeatable, he can be beat and very handily.
@iHailCarlo: this is morals off fight Gl cant hang with a morals off SS, he can drain his ring also he can drain Superman.Silver Surfer is above them.None of them can keep him busy.
@sandw1tch said:
Team 2 as superman only a pseudo-god, no match for the norse prowess of the mighty Thor.
......No. Thor being a "high and mighty norse god" really doesn't mean anything. Superman's handled arrogant greek style "gods" before, so that's not an excuse.
But yeah unless they all start on the ground and it's Wally and not Barry, then Silver Surfer is victorious
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The only way Quicksilver fits this fight is if you give him teh bonus terragen mist powers (as Marvel hasn't given him the overpower treatment that DC has pressed on the Flash universe). Either way Team 2 wins
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@LordMasterGod said:
What is with this site and speed> everything. I mean really, is it the defining factor in all battles wtf?!
Actually it's Batman's prep > everything in this site.
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@GhostRider2 said:
Team 2 thanks to Silver Surfer, whats quicksilver doing here?
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Pre flashpoint team 1, current team 2.
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@Lone_Wolf_and_Cub said:
Team 2 in a stomp. SS could solo
You sound silly. He won't even touch the Flash.
@InnerAssassin your silly for thinking SS can't solo. Read up son.
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Silver Surfer could almost solo with morals off. Superman and GL will both get stomped by a no morals surfer.
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Thor stalemates superman ( wins if he uses his versatlility), surf boy stomps gl, flash destroys quicksilver. Flash could beat both surfer and thor since they can't catch him. But surfer and Thor can just destroy the planet or fly up in the orbit and shoot energy blasts or cover the earth with lightning or I don't know. But I think flash could dodge all that so I am not sure.


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HOLY WEEK - Kyrie eleison imas. Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us.
Selection of Early Music, ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to the height of the English Renaissance
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Choirboys and Trebles - Boy Sopranos and Altos - Choirs and Choristers - Religious and Secular - Choral and Soloists - perhaps a tenor or bass
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Basketball - Page 13
Watch Gerald Green Throw An Alley Oop To Himself
UTEP'S Going Bowling
With an opportunity to clinch their first winning season since 2005, and the chance to secure a bowl game, the Miners knocked off Middle Tennessee 24-21 in a thrilling contest on senior night. With everything on the line, UTEP played their best game at home all season in what turne
The L.A. Lakers — Where Do We Go From Here?
The Lakers are one of the landmark franchises of the NBA. It's beyond a team now and more of a brand. Typically, as long as there was a Lakers team, there was also a name or face that could be associated with it instantly. These are seen in the form of players and coaches (the Pat Riley era with Magic and Kareem) the Kobe-Shaq era (with Phil Jackson) and even as far back as the 60's with Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain.
UTEP Squeaks Out An Exhilarating Victory Over NMSU
The UTEP Miners improved their record to 2-0 with an exciting 77-76 win over NMSU in front of 11,127 fans at the Don Haskins Center on Saturday night. The Miners' second consecutive victory to open the season marks the first time in the last five seasons that they were able to accomplish that feat


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Amazon Made a Real-Life "That Was Easy" Button
Perhaps one of the best marketing stunts of the last decade was the Staples "easy button." The now-iconic red plastic buttons hit stores in late 2005. They took two batteries and, when pressed, announced to listeners, "That was easy!" That's all they did. Customers loved it. By June 2006, Staples was on track to sell its millionth one. Still, the easy button was an idea before its time—a fantasy that the mere push of a button could, in fact, be enough to make something happen easily.
Nearly 10 years later, Amazon is introducing a button that actually does what Staples only imagined. Amazon's version, called the "Dash Button," is about the size of a thumb drive and facilitates preset orders of a product with a single touch. To accomplish this, each dash button is tied to a specific brand—current choices include Bounty, Huggies, Clorox, Tide, and Gatorade. They come with adhesive on the back and connect to your Wi-Fi. So you might stick your Tide dash button on your laundry machine and your Gatorade dash button inside your fridge. Then, when that stock of Glacier Freeze starts to run low, you simply push the button to initiate a refill. Two days later, Amazon drops the order off at your house.
So, yes, it's a real-life easy button. You don't need to punch in your order online. You don't need to enter an address or credit card information. Button, push, done. Right now, Amazon says the dash button is a limited-time, invitation-only offer for Amazon Prime members. To request one, you can click here and sign into Prime.
For Amazon, filling homes with dash buttons promises to make its addictively easy shopping platform even easier. It's also clearly a way to build brand loyalty and get consumers to pay premiums. Need laundry detergent now? Sure, another brand might be a little cheaper, but why spend five minutes price comparing when you could spend five seconds hitting a button by your machine? Amazon has actually been testing its dash buttons for the past year, but this is the first time it's making them widely available to Prime members.
Amazon is also taking things one step further, launching what it calls the "Dash Replenishment Service." The idea is that companies can essentially build sensors into their products that will set off refills when the product level gets too low. You can imagine, for example, a smart coffee dispenser that automatically orders more beans when you only have a few days' worth left. Eventually, such sensors would eliminate the need for Amazon's dash buttons altogether. If only they'd eliminate our need to press buttons that say funny things as well.
Why More Bachelor's Degrees Won't Solve Inequality
From time to time, you'll hear economists argue that the best long-term solution to economic inequality is education. There is an enormous, and growing, pay gap between those with a college degree and those without. Push more people further through school, the thinking goes, and you'll close the divide. MIT's David Autor has pressed this point recently. And even though he's better known for advocating a global tax on wealth, so too has Thomas Piketty. "So at the end of the day, the main policy to reduce inequality is not progressive taxation, is not the minimum wage," the author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century has said. "It's really education. It's really investing in skills, investing in schools."
What these analyses usually lack is a clear picture of what the world might look like if we successfully increased college graduation. But today, economists Larry Summers, Melissa Kearney, and Brad Hershbein have stepped up to offer an answer in a short paper for the Hamilton Project. The team finds that, yes, boosting bachelor's degree attainment would decrease inequality a bit, mostly by bringing lower-income workers a bit closer to the middle class. But it wouldn't do much at all to shrink the growing gap between the very rich and everybody else. In other words, if you're worried about the power of the 1 percent (or .1 percent), expanding higher ed isn't the solution you're looking for.
In their analysis, Summers, Kearney, and Hershbein run a simulation in which they give a bachelor's degree to 1 out of every 10 working-age men who never went to college. "To be clear, this would be a tremendous accomplishment," they write. "It is only slightly less than the observed increase in the college share over the entire 34-year period of 1979 to 2013." What happens as a result? First, overall pay for college graduates goes down, since there are more of them on the labor market. However, all those new degree holders would see their pay go up substantially. As a result, earnings would ultimately rise, with bigger gains going to those near the bottom of the income ladder than the top, and the distance between low-earners and the middle class would shrink. According to the paper, the median American would earn about 4.25 times as much as someone at the 25th percentile, as opposed to 5.57 times, as much like they do today. The middle and upper-middle class would be crunched closer together, as well.
But income distribution would still be extremely uneven across the economy. The researchers find that the U.S. Gini coefficient—a standard measure of inequality—would barely drop, slipping from 0.57 to 0.55. The reason, Hershbein told me, is that the richest Americans would continue to take home an incredibly outsize chunk of the national paycheck.
In some ways, Summers, Kearney, and Hershbein may be too optimistic about the impact of education on inequality. For instance, their model assumes that as the number of college graduates rises, all current bachelor's holders would see their earnings fall by about 9 percent. That seems a bit unrealistic. If more students start finishing degrees at average four-year schools, it might bring down their classmates' pay. But I doubt those same B.A.'s will be competing for jobs with the alums of selective institutions. Brooklyn College grads might feel the pinch. High-earning engineers who went to Georgia Tech might not.
Another slightly technical but important point: The researchers assume that their new batch of graduates will be a completely random assortment of students from across the whole income distribution. That, too, seems a bit far-fetched. If extra Americans start graduating from college, they're more likely to be middle class than poor.
All that said, the broad strokes of this paper are useful. Expanding educational opportunity could, theoretically, be a way to increase standards of living and make the country slightly more egalitarian. It just wouldn't do much about the rise of the very rich.
Amazon Home Services Could Take Uber's Iffy Labor Model to a Whole New Level
On Monday, Amazon officially launched Home Services, a new marketplace for odd jobs and professional help. Among its 700 (very diverse!) offerings: Plumbing, TV wall mounting, iPhone repair, voice lessons, tire installation, grill assembly, gutter cleaning, goat grazing. Yes, goat grazing. The notion, in a nutshell, is that Amazon has already become a ubiquitous seller of things. Now it wants to be a catch-all facilitator of around-the-home help, too.
For Amazon customers, this all sounds very convenient and incredibly helpful. Need a plumber? No more Yellow Pages! But for the workers marketing their services, it could amount to Amazon's endorsement of the kind of economy that the rise of start-ups like TaskRabbit, Instacart, and, yes, Uber have augured: one in which more and more people don't have full-time jobs, but instead scrape together gigs through various online platforms.
Amazon is describing Home Services as an "invite-only marketplace" for those service providers. It's also promising to price all its services upfront, and to match cheaper local rates if customers come across them. Here's more from the Verge, which talked to Peter Faricy, vice president for Amazon Marketplace:
A big part of the sales pitch from Amazon is that they are doing the hard work of figuring out who you can trust. "We're very excited to see if we can solve what today is a real pain point. It's tough to quickly find someone who is qualified," says Faricy. Amazon says it accepts an average of three out of every 100 service professionals in each metro area. It makes sure each business is licensed, insured, and passes a five-point background check, with a further six-point background check for each technician. You will never need to worry about hiring a sub-par goat grazer again.
Once Amazon does the initial verification legwork, it's hoping customers will do the rest. People who've used a service will be able to write "verified reviews" of their experiences, which will be visible to anyone who visits the site. Customer reviews are one of the things that's made Amazon's traditional platform for selling goods so successful; the company is probably hoping that reviews will do the same for its services marketplace as well. Amazon plans to take a 10 percent to 20 percent cut of each service booked through its site.
If Amazon's latest venture sounds kind of Uber-esque, that's because it is—not in the will-bring-you-a-car-in-six-minutes way, but in the will-get-you-a-service-quickly-and-conveniently way. Amazon says customers can browse, buy, and schedule services on its new platform in "less than 60 seconds." In other words, Amazon is entering the "on-demand economy" in a big way. Already, there are lots of other platforms that offer versions of what Amazon Home Services is promising. TaskRabbit, which has partnered with Amazon on Home Services, lets users describe a task and hire someone to do it for them. Handy helps people book cleaning services or handymen. Instacart offers on-demand grocery shopping and delivery. Most of these services run on labor from contract workers, which is why they're sometimes referred to collectively as the "1099 economy."
Amazon's entrance into this field would seem to legitimize this contract-style work, in which people run their own businesses and arrange jobs through various third-party platforms in exchange for a fee, in a way TaskRabbit and Instacart and Handy cannot. Where those apps are still essentially startups, Amazon is an established public company. We don't yet know if gig-based jobs are good or bad for workers, but they're already the subject of plenty of lawsuits, and it's an open question whether 1099-style work will last or be sued to death. Amazon Home Services is one more indication that the independent-contractor model might be here to stay.
McDonald's Is Finally Making the One Big Menu Change That Could Save Its Business
The past two years were not McDonald's finest. Sales declined; promotions fell flat; ugly labor disputes drew public ire. In January, Don Thompson stepped down as the company's chief executive, and his replacement, Steve Easterbrook, was handed the monumental task of trying to turn the struggling chain around. Easterbrook finally might be onto a solution—in bacon, egg, and cheese form.
On Monday, McDonald's said it will begin testing daylong breakfast—that means the Egg McMuffin, hash browns, and various other items—at certain restaurants near San Diego. Should the initial tests go well, the menu switch could end up being what McDonald's desperately needs to get its business back on track. That's because, by and large, people love McDonald's breakfast. Matt Yglesias once wrote in Slate of the Sausage McMuffin With Egg: "Asking whether McDonald's can make a better breakfast sandwich than the Sausage McMuffin With Egg is a bit like asking whether God could make an object so massive that he couldn't move it." Business Insider's Sam Ro has declared a photo of an Egg McMuffin so "perfect" that it inspired him and two colleagues to order McDonald's on Seamless.
In short, McDonald's breakfast has somehow escaped the widespread consumer skepticism weighing down sales of most other items on the menu. It's hard to know exactly why this is. Perhaps it's because McDonald's has been more successful at marketing its breakfast as fresh—as Thompson said last April, "we actually crack eggs." Or maybe it's because with breakfast, it's easier to believe that marketing. As anyone who's ever had an Egg McMuffin knows, it looks and tastes authentic in a way that the standard McDonald's burger just doesn't. Or maybe it's simply that McDonald's breakfast really does taste pretty good.
"Arguably, the two most craveable items on the McDonald's menu are its French fries and breakfast items such as the various McMuffin permutations and the utterly delicious McGriddles," Mark Kalinowski, an analyst at Janney Capital Markets, wrote in a Monday note to clients that announced the news of McDonald's planned breakfast test. "Having those breakfast items available to sell all day would also serve as a reminder to customers (and the media ... and Wall Street ...) that McDonald's does indeed have craveable food to sell."
Whatever the reason, breakfast has remained a bright spot for the chain even as other sales have flailed. Breakfast makes up an estimated 25 percent of McDonald's sales, which in 2014 would have translated to some $4.5 billion at company-operated restaurants. In 2012, food and restaurant research firm Technomic estimated the U.S. market for fast-food breakfast at $31.7 billion. Since then, breakfast sales have continued to grow, but competition has, too.
Considering how popular and successful McDonald's breakfast is, it might seem odd that the company has historically offered it only until 10:30 a.m. The company says that's because the grills in its kitchens aren't big enough to accommodate both breakfast and lunch cooking. "Their equipment has been designed for efficiency," says Darren Tristano, executive vice president at Technomic. "So you're looking at taking a very efficient and space-confined kitchen, and looking at 14,000 stores, and how you're going to increase the griddle space for breakfast and burgers. It's a major challenge."
That said, McDonald's is probably ready to try anything at this point. "They're in a funk right now and for the last two years," Tristano says. "Any move that gives your customers what they want, when they want it ... is a strong and positive move." For once, this seems like a case where customers have spoken clearly. They want the Egg McMuffin. They don't want to be asked to dance for it. And they want to be able to order it any time—not just until 10:30 a.m.
American Oil Production Grew by the Most in Recorded History Last Year
Just how explosive has the American oil boom been? The U.S. Energy Information Agency offers some context today. Last year, production jumped by 1.2 million barrels per day, the most "since recordkeeping began in 1900." Though this graph only dates back to 1960, you can see how the recent surge simply dwarfs other increases during the modern era.
In the end, U.S. crude production grew by about 16 percent during 2014, which the EIA notes was the most in "more than six decades." (Relatively large increases were more common in the early days of drilling.)
As Tom Randall notes at Bloomberg Business, these charts show how U.S. producers essentially crashed the price of oil by dumping a massive amount of product on the market. But I think they also tell us something slightly more subtle about how unconventional oil exploration has fundamentally changed the oil world. American drillers have been able to mobilize at practically unprecedented speed, in part because hydraulic fracking doesn't require enormous lead time. Because of that, OPEC may simply not be able to manage the price of oil as it's done in the past. It can cut its production to bring up prices, but that will quickly bring on another stampede of small drillers to Texas and North Dakota—and fast. The fact that Saudi Arabia has chosen to maintain its production, cratering prices with hope of dissuading future oil exploration, was probably in part a recognition of that reality. At the same time, the pace at which frackers can start pumping from their fields is one reason why it may be very hard to do lasting damage to U.S. oil infrastructure. The bust of the last few months might discourage some long-term investment contingent on years and years of high prices. But in the states, pumping oil doesn't necessarily require much long-term planning.
The "Bright Side" of the Ellen Pao Trial Isn't Very Bright
The Ellen Pao ink-blot test of Silicon Valley sexism ended Friday, and most jurors saw a clear white page. It's hard for me to read that as any sort of victory for workplace equality.
My heart sank Friday afternoon, as the news about the jury's complete—if temporarily math-challenged—rejection of Pao's claims flooded my Twitter feed. However imperfect a victim Pao was, whatever the shortcomings of her allegations or the merits of her case against former employer Kleiner Perkins, it's been difficult to watch Pao take on a painfully common set of professional circumstances and not root for her.
By suing her former employers for retaliation, Pao unquestionably raised awareness about the subtle but pervasive sexism most professional women regularly run up against. Pao, now the interim CEO of Reddit, was not a model victim of gender discrimination (though, as my Inc. colleague Kimberly Weisul pointed out last week, such a thing rarely exists). But the case, and its outcome, resonated far beyond her particular situation at Kleiner Perkins and even beyond the relatively rarefied venture capital and tech worlds.
Those are famously boys clubs, but it's hard to be a professional woman in any setting and not nod knowingly at the insidious double standards Pao says she faced. (Speak up more! Don't be too pushy! Be more aggressive! Don't be abrasive!)
That's where the message of Pao's case, to any woman who hopes to win a similar battle, gets particularly depressing. Whatever the merits of her lawsuit, Pao let her name, her personality, and her dirty laundry be dragged through the press, the Valley, the Twittersphere, the Reddit threads that she oversees—and came up with a big fat pat on the head and a "You're imagining things, dear."
It's hard not to see that as a setback, or to think that so much effort sacrificed for this sort of verdict is going to make it all the more difficult for the next Ellen Pao—or Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe or former Facebook employee Chia Hong or whomever—to successfully pass through the gantlets of money and power in tech.
It's a sinking feeling reinforced by Claire Cain Miller's New York Times interviews about the verdict with venture capitalists. When asked what they learned from the whole experience, they told Miller the case had taught them to:be less overtly sexist in work emails; formalize human resources standards; and be less hasty about declining to fund female entrepreneurs so quickly.
Big progress, right? I mean, those are all good things, but shouldn't they pretty much be table stakes at this point? When you have to remind yourself to not write down your sexist comments in work emails, you know your industry has a long way to go.
VC investors also told Miller that the trial could provoke a backlash, by making women less interested in becoming venture capitalists—or by making men more reluctant to hire them. Yes, apparently one of Ellen Pao's lessons to some observers is: don't let the girls into the boys clubs because they're going to be buzzkills once they get there.
Maybe this is focusing too much on the negative. Since the verdict came back, there's understandably and perhaps constructively been a lot of emphasis on the silver lining, starting with Pao herself.
"If we do not share our stories and shine a light on inequities, things will not change," she tweeted. "Hopefully my case will inspire the venture capital industry to level the playing field for everyone, including women and minorities."
Similar hopes became the main angle of verdict analysis over the weekend. Pao "disrupts how Silicon Valley does business," Farhad Manjoo argued at the New York Times. Wired's Davey Alba, speaking to NPR, called the Kleiner Perkins trial a "game-changer," which "has blown wide open these subtle biases that women deal with all the time in the workplace and more so within the Valley." And at Recode, which has been closely tracking every in and out of the case, Liz Gannes concluded that "in submitting herself to be torn apart on the stand, [Pao] ratcheted up a meaningful and necessary public conversation."
I really hope so. And I agree that Pao at the very least made that conversation harder to ignore. But I also fear that the jury's verdict will make it all the more difficult for the next Ellen Pao to mount her case—or raise her voice at work, or make the case to give funding to more than a handful of female CEOs—and ultimately to make the next desperately needed inroads in most professional boys clubs.
There's a $17,000 Way to Skip the Line for an Apple Watch
When Apple debuted the gold-cased Apple Watch Edition in early March, it made clear it was selling prestige and luxury. The Apple Watch Edition line starts at $10,000 and runs up to $17,000 for the top-of-the-line version. As Will Oremus wrote in Slate at the time, the elite who purchase the fanciest Apple Watch will "get the chance to own an Apple product that the plebes can't afford. They aren't paying for a device, really. They're paying for prestige."
It looks like that prestige extends to the Apple's notorious waits for its new devices, according to new details from 9to5Mac. "Apple has developed a unique Apple Store purchasing experience just for the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition," the site reports. "When a customer interested in the Apple Watch Edition enters the store, he or she will be given no-wait access to a dedicated Expert, who will provide a personalized 'journey' from the beginning of the appointment until the end, as much as one hour later." Only two gold Apple Watch Edition models will be brought out simultaneously, and stores will have private stations for trying the premium device on.
With their purchase of an Apple Watch Edition, customers will gain access to an exclusive, 24/7 Apple Watch Edition support line for two years (to start out it will only be offered in English). Sources also tell 9to5Mac that the Apple Watch Edition will initially only be available in Apple's "largest markets" but will slowly come to other stores.
One thing to ponder: Could such private, hands-on treatment ultimately help Apple not just in selling luxury to its richest consumers, but also in avoiding offending its middle-of-the-road ones? After all, it's a bit harder to resent the guy buying a $17,000 watch—not to mention the store selling it—if you don't have to witness the spectacle of him cutting the queue and trying on such an opulent timepiece in front of all the other customers. Until the device hits stores, it's hard to know whether that will be the case. For now, this basically looks like a $17,000 way to skip that most annoying thing for Apple early adopters: the line.
Why Would Companies Ever Think a Campaign Like #AskSeaWorld Is a Good Idea?
In an effort to improve its tanking image, SeaWorld launched a new advertising campaign this week to educate the public about its "leadership in the care of killer whales" and other work to protect whales in captivity and in the wild. "There's been a lot of misinformation and even lies spread about SeaWorld, and we recognize that it has caused some people to have questions about the welfare of killer whales in human care," David D'Alessandro, SeaWorld's interim CEO, said in a release. "This long-term campaign will address those questions head on."
As part of that head-on initiative, someone at SeaWorld decided to invite Twitter users to pose their questions to the company directly using the hashtag #AskSeaWorld. I'll give you one guess as to how that went over.
Dear #SeaWorld, Tilikum has a question for you too. #AskSeaWorld pic.twitter.com/3YkEjBuMFO— PETA (@peta) March 27, 2015
#AskSeaWorld do you think it's morally okay to take a child away from its mother? #EmptyTheTanks— anna (@_lovatic___) March 27, 2015
How do you sleep knowing you imprison innocent animals, abuse them for entertainment, lie to the public, and make millions? #AskSeaWorld— Hi, My Name is (@thatshowirolled) March 27, 2015
What made you think a Q&A wouldn't be a PR nightmare? #AskSeaWorld— Ariadne (@macgillivray514) March 27, 2015
As easy as it is to make fun of SeaWorld here, the real question is why any company still thinks hosting an open Twitter forum could be good for public relations. Let's review some of the times this has backfired, starting with the infamous McDonald's #McDStories Twitter campaign of January 2012. Rather than prompting customers to share their heart-warming McDonald's anecdotes, the hashtag gave critics a highly visible forum to share their top McDonald's horror stories. McDonald's pulled the campaign, but the damage was done. "#McDStories: When a Hashtag Becomes a Bashtag," Kashmir Hill quipped in Forbes.
Next up: In October 2013, British Gas set the Internet alight when it announced a major price increase in annual energy bills and then offered to field customer concerns on Twitter with the hashtag #AskBG. The company was quickly inundated with tweets demanding to know why prices had risen so much and why British Gas was so greedy. "My office has a window where the sun comes in and makes the side of my head really hot. How much do I owe you?" one user complained.
Just one month after that debacle, JPMorgan announced a "#TwitterTakeover" headlined with its first live Q&A. People were encouraged to submit their question using the hashtag #AskJPM. But before Jimmy Lee, JPMorgan's vice chairman, could take the virtual stage, the bank started getting flooded with, er, pointedly critical queries from its audience. Here are a couple of the best ones:
Mr. Dimon, which of your abject failures are you proudest of? http://t.co/vd66214HeJ #ASKJPM— Rudolf E. Havenstein (@RudyHavenstein) November 13, 2013
I have Mortgage Fraud, Market Manipulation, Credit Card Abuse, Libor Rigging and Predatory Lending AM I DIVERSIFIED? #AskJPM— Downtown Josh Brown (@ReformedBroker) November 13, 2013
JPMorgan canceled the Q&A.
I emailed SeaWorld to ask who at the company had dreamt up the #AskSeaWorld part of the new campaign; so far, no one's responded. Meanwhile, the company's PR team is clearly having a tough time. "We are trying to answer your questions but we have a few thousand trolls and bots to weed through," SeaWorld's main account tweeted, with a somewhat-disturbing GIF of a baby attached. Before that: "Jacking hashtags is so 2014. #bewareoftrolls" with a decidedly creepy GIF of a masked man frantically typing at a laptop, and "No time for bots and bullies."
Let's be honest: This is all a very bad idea. The "haters gonna hate strategy" is never particularly effective when you're a brand under fire, and while puppies might help, weird GIFs don't do much for the cause. So maybe SeaWorld's social and PR folks just really have no idea what they're doing. Even so, you'd think they'd have learned from the corporate failures before them. Twitter Q&As are a terrible idea. A well-meaning hashtag gives critics an easy way to assemble and voice their complaints in a public forum. Why companies still try them is a great mystery. Maybe they'll all finally learn from SeaWorld and give this one horrible PR trick up for good.
Marijuana Is Changing the Workplace. Here's How Employers Should Deal With It.
With medical marijuana legal in 23 states and Washington, D.C., there are now millions of card-carrying cannabis users working at companies across the U.S. While four states and the District have legalized recreational marijuana use, pot is still illegal under federal law, and many business owners still subscribe to the plant's Reefer Madness stigma and don't want to allow people to smoke on the job. For some of those owners, that can mean getting sued for failing to accommodate an employee who has a medical condition.
Regardless of how you feel about marijuana, there are certain rules employees and employers need to follow when it comes to drugs in the workplace. If you make a mistake, you could find yourself in court. Todd Wulffson, a partner at California-based employment and labor law firm Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger, is one of the many lawyers who have been busy defending employers in these types of cases. Wulffson says that to protect your business you need to update your employment policies and human resources programs, and train all managers.
First, employers need to be familiar with the laws that have been passed in their states and consider a drug policy that doesn't prohibit employees from using cannabis on their own time. With 86 percent of Americans supporting medical marijuana, an overly restrictive policy may chase some of your workers to another employer. Marijuana, while still classified as a Schedule I drug without medical use, does have medical benefits, and a bipartisan bill to make medical marijuana legal on the federal level has been introduced in the Senate.
Until then, employers need to take steps to avoid becoming a target of an employee lawsuit (whether the employee would have a strong case or not). "There are four scenarios that play out in these types of lawsuits that I see over and over again," Wulffson says.
1. Innocent inquiry
The first scenario is when an employee or an applicant innocently asks the question "'I just wanted to know, would you accommodate my use of medical marijuana?'" "That's a loaded question because you have to accommodate the underlying disability of the medical condition," Wulffson says. "But you don't have to accommodate being stoned at work."
If the query is put to the human resources department, the HR person should tell the employee that the company will accommodate his condition. At the same time, the employee should explain his condition, the treatment, and exactly what kind of accommodation he needs so you can have a dialogue about it. Where most companies falter is when a manager doesn't know the company policy and speaks out of turn.
"If an employee asks a line manager, they could easily say, 'Hell no! We don't accommodate stoners! You can't be stoned at work!' " Then the employee says, "Gee, I got glaucoma and I was hoping you'd accommodate my condition." If the manager doesn't tell the employee to go talk to HR and fires them, Wulffson warns, the result may be a lawsuit.
2. An ill employee stoned at work
The second scenario, Wulffson says, is when an employee with a serious disease is under the influence at work and gets called on the carpet: "The employee will say, 'I am getting treated for cancer and I am going through chemo. The only thing that helps is medical marijuana and I had to smoke a bowl at lunch to keep from throwing up. I am really sorry, I'll do something light until it wears off.' " Wulffson says that although you may have sympathy for the employee's situation, the only way to protect yourself from litigation is to institute a zero-tolerance policy for the use of any drugs, including medical marijuana, while at work.
Keep in mind, however, that if you are in a state that mandates employers accommodate medical marijuana (i.e., Arizona, Delaware, or Minnesota) you cannot fire a medical marijuana card-holding employee for a positive marijuana test. While it is indeed advisable to have a drug policy prohibiting marijuana use during work hours, you don't need to know about what employees are doing on their own time.
3. The future smoker
Wulffson says he's currently representing three clients who are in this situation: The employee comes to you and says she's suffering from anxiety or glaucoma and needs to deal with the symptoms. She tells you she's about to go outside, walk 50 feet away from the building, smoke, and come back. "They're telling you they're going to do it, but they are not stoned right now, so you don't have the right to fire them right now," he says. "But, invariably, the manager says, 'No, no, no, no. Go home, stay home, you're fired.' "
Wulffson says you should not allow the employee to smoke while at work, but you can make allowances. Say something like this: "We will reasonably accommodate your condition, but we cannot allow you to be under the influence while on the clock—it's too risky for the company. You can go home for the rest of the day and come back tomorrow."
4. Social media smokers
Here, an employee goes on Facebook or Twitter and sees pictures of an applicant smoking a joint. The employee then emails the hiring manager to discourage him from hiring the person. When the candidate finds out you saw the photos, Wulffson says, "that's when they claim you didn't hire them because of either a perceived disability" and/or because you don't want to provide an accommodation for them.
You might find this is frivolous, but there are lawyers out there looking to cash in. "There is a cottage industry of lawyers that do nothing but bring claims related to medical marijuana against employers," Wulffson says. "Google 'medical marijuana rights' and you'll find 50 lawyers who write well-written letters about how you didn't accommodate the employee and you're getting sued for hundreds of millions of dollars, but today they'll take $15,000 to go away."
Wulffson says these lawsuits are catching a lot of employers off guard because of the confusion over medical marijuana laws. "It may be legal in many states, but it's still a federal crime," he says. California and other states will not prosecute someone with a medical card who is carrying less than a certain amount, but that's not a blanket permission. "You can't go on federal property, you can't work for a federal employer," he says. "'Don't work for a federal contractor because you could be fired and maybe jailed."
When it comes to drug use at work—whether it is an employee with cancer smoking marijuana or one popping Xanax to deal with anxiety—Wulffson suggests you should adopt a simple, straightforward company policy that reads something like this: "We don't allow the use of, the possession, or being under the influence of any illegal drug in the workplace. 'Illegal drug' is defined as 'the abuse of over-the-counter medication, prescription medication, medical marijuana, and alcohol.' "
Additionally, Wulffson says, make sure you train all of your managers to answer questions. "If anything from any employee looks, sounds, or smells like they have a medical condition or medical marijuana issue, refer them to HR," he says. "The biggest issue I see is that companies don't get the word out and the line managers say and do things that get the company sued."
How to Make Americans Love the "Death Tax"
By all rights, the federal estate tax should be an extremely popular piece of policy. Most Americans believe that the wealthy should pay more of their money to the IRS. And while not everybody agrees on what constitutes affluence these days, the government only taxes estates worth at least $5.43 million dollars. In 2013, 2.6 million people died in this country, and only 4,700 of them had to pay any taxes as a goodbye gift to Uncle Sam. We're talking about a levy on the 0.2 percent.
And yet the estate tax is not popular. Polls frequently show that most Americans would like to reduce or repeal it. When the House Ways and Means Committee, led by Rep. Paul Ryan, voted in favor of a bill that would scrap the tax altogether, it was, oddly, both a sop to the rich and probably good politics.
There may be a simple reason for this. And no, it's not because Republicans started calling the estate tax the "death tax," or because the public believes that heirs have a God-given right to inherit their parents' second home in the Hamptons without paying a fee. Rather, Americans seem to vastly misunderstand how many families are subject to the tax. And it's possible that simply providing them with better information might actually boost support for increasing it.
At least, that's what one experiment by economists Ilyana Kuziemko, Michael Norton, Emmanuel Saez, and Stefanie Stantcheva suggests. In it, the team surveyed 10,000 individuals about how the government should respond to rising inequality. One group of participants was shown a presentation beforehand about the history and extent of income gap, which included information on how many households actually pay the estate tax. The other group took the survey cold. While the educational exercise did make people more concerned about inequality, it didn't seem to change their minds much about policy. The two cohorts offered similar answers when asked, for instance, what the top income tax rate should be, or whether the government should increase funding for food stamps. However, the presentation did seem to affect opinions on two issues. It drove up enthusiasm for a higher minimum wage, but only slightly. And it more than tripled support for hiking the estate tax.
Why the huge swing? In a follow-up experiment, the researchers found that participants who saw the presentation were much, much more likely to accurately answer how many families are subject the estate tax. This suggested that many people disliked the policy because they overestimated how many households were paying it.
To be fair, the response may not have been entirely rational. The researchers found that simply presenting survey-takers with facts about the estate tax made them a little more likely to support an increase. Showing them the same facts next to a picture of a mansion, it turned out, was far more effective. Democrats, take note.


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[…] Rhythm And Booze […]
Simian Ghost-Lovelorn EP
Simian Ghost is the new Electro-pop project by Sebastian Arnstrom of Swedish band Aerial, the band the released their debut album in their native country towards the tail end of last year to great enthusiasm and critical acclaim, topping critics charts. Simian Ghost (as a live trio) have already support the likes of Mount Kimble, SBTRKT and Niki & The Dove among others.
Lovelorn is the band's debut single here in the UK, a seven-track affair that has (like the debut album) been written, recorded and produced by Sebastian Arnstrom alone. The idea of behind the EP is a completely DIY affair all conceived in Sebastian's messy living room with the likes of Gently Submissive beinbg deliberately quiet and restrained due to being recorded at night as not to wake the neighbours.
The EP opens with Free Agent a stunning combination of addictive electro-pop, eighties synth's and gorgeous blissed out vocals bringing to mind a laid back Hot Chip or perhaps a more electronic Memory Tapes. Note To Self, follows in the same chilled out manner only with more glitches, loops and cut & paste falsetto vocals, it's a delicious slab of pure electro-pop complete with a massive hook and enough of a dance influence to seduce the dancefloor of any forward thinking club, or perhaps used as a sun-kissed set closer to gently bring the revellers back to earth whilst still maintaining the eurphoric rush of the nights festivities.
As You See Fit is perhaps more influenced by shoegaze indie as dreamlike vocals and rich harmonies combine, twinkling instrumentation and the omni-present deep pulsating beat to create an infectious dreamscape evoking calm, lulling imagery as Simian Ghost provides the perfect floaty soundtrack.
I suppose if you were bang upto date with your music classifications you would probably say that Simian Ghost slot nicely into the current chill wave scene that seems to be gaining momentum and tracks such as the beautiful bubbling and shimmering Poolside Glow and the aforementioned hushed grooves of Gently Submissive further enhances these initial musings. However there's more to the grooves of Lovelorn than just a current trend, the vocal harmonies at times nod towards The Beach Boys (especially notable on the stunning acoustic assisted finale Take My Hand And Lead Me Home), you can also hear a M83 influence in there and perhaps even the folktronica of Adem buried amongst the chilled out grooves.
Lovelorn is a dazzling release that seduces the listener with it's blissed out instrumentation and Sebastian's dreamy vocals, a gorgeous blissed out release that fans of electronica, 80's pop, chill wave and even abstract indie should seek out and snap up greedily.
Rhythm & Booze Rating 10
3 Comments to "Simian Ghost-Lovelorn EP"
[…] "Lovelorn is a dazzling release that seduces the listener with it's blissed out instrumentation and Sebastian's dreamy vocals" – Rhythm And Booze […]
[…] seduces the listener with it's blissed out instrumentation and Sebastian's dreamy vocals" Rhythm And Booze "'Lovelorn' is a remarkable EP – combining dreamy sweet vocals with a catchy pop element, […]
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The first image from Robert De Niro's second boxing-flick for '14, "Hands of Stone" has been released.
In "Hands of Stone", the "Grudge Match" star plays retired boxing trainer Ray Arcel, with Edgar Ramirez ("Carlos the Jackal", "The Bourne Ultimatum") as his pupil, Panama boxing great Roberto Duran. Duran won 103 of 119 contests, taking down greats like Vinny Pazienza and Marvin Hagler; Duran might be best remembered for prematurely calling quits on a well-remembered bout with Sugar Ray Leonard.
De Niro's Ray Arcel is a legend of the boxing circuit, working the ropes since the '30s until his death in 1994. At the time Duran called on his services, he was retired but lured back into the ring to help the Panamanian achieve victory.
Jonathan Jakubowicz's film also stars '80s sexpot Ellen Barkin ("Sea of Love"), John Turturro ("Transformers"), Jurnee Smollett-Bell ("Friday Night Lights"), musician cum actor Usher Raymond, and Drea De Niro.
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Zedd - If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy? (Well, answer my question!)
Arrow (Okay, Felicity from Arrow!)
Chrissy Costanza (cat eyes and buttery lyrics!)
Girls (TV) (Okay, Allison Williams!)
Movies - especially when they play in the dark.
Twin Peaks (TV)
Friends (TV) (It had me at "No way are you cool enough to pull Clint"; damn straight, Chandler!)
Traveling - preferably where water is, so I can splash someone!
Star Wars trilogy - no, the other one, fella!
Alex G - far more talented than her younger brother Alex H
Cameron Crowe movies - Say Anything..., Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous
The sign 'Free Wi-Fi'.
Reenacting dance/song scenes from "Grease" with my little girl (hey! Wait till you see my 'Summer Lovin'! - don't judge)
Die Hard - 40 stories of Sheer Adventure!
Alex Goot & Friends (his enemies aren't half as talented!)
Cooking up a nice dish and sitting in the entertainment area, on a cool night, basking in it's greatness.
Inflatable kids pools full of Vodka Lime Crush.
Acidic Email from angry, over passionate teenagers after I trash something "Twilight"-related on the site. Sparkle elsewhere.
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Wed, Jan 30, 2013
Times: 5-8 p.m.
Venue: Mechanics Hall
321 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01608Contact:
Ellen Ganley
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Join us for an evening to tempt your senses - great food, great music, great fun! Enjoy performances by multiple performing arts organizations and food tastings from a variety of our WOO venues. Free admission with a WOO Card. Buy a card at the door for just $15!
The Borscht Belt Comes Alive Again in Amherst
Growing up in New York's Catskills region in the 1980s and '90s, Marisa...
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Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot!
We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).
Comment: Re:Units were chosen for the conclusion? (Score 1) 409
Some useful stats for the past and current performances.
Comment: Arithmetical error? (Score 1) 409
Comment: Check the numbers, kid (Score 1) 409
Typical modern wind turbines have diameters of 40 to 90 metres (130 to 300 ft) and are rated between 500 kW and 2 MW. As of 2014 the most powerful turbine, the Vestas V-164, is rated at 8 MW and has a rotor diameter of 164m.
That from the wiki and which also has other numbers for that biggest piece, which clearly show that diesel still wins.
Comment: Re:Externalization (Score 1) 409
Comment: So this is news now? (Score 1) 288
Maybe Amazon or some other provider could take a page from some local utilities and let users signal their own preferences with a (surcharged) "clean energy" option.
Meh, I'd like them more, if they started a better trend - ignore Greenpeace altogether. What's next? We're gonna have posts about Westboro Baptist Church's stance on computers, presented as a valid opinion? Fuck you, Jason, your submission is lamer than your hockey mask.
Comment: Re:increased cancer risk. See references (Score 1) 230
A bit of light reading for those interested in the amount of conservative assumptions, posited improbable scenarios, rounding up and Fermi estimates necessary to claims of actual radiation-induced health consequences to the public.
Comment: Not enough! (Score 1) 230
Also, you missed a decimal, it's 2.4 mSv, not that the average means much, it's counted from about half mSv in some places and tens in others.
Comment: Re:Anti-nuclear FUD (Score 1) 299
Comment: Re:Perl (Score 1) 536
' *'{~4=+/~ 4<.|i:5
Ha, got "Filter error: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.", when trying to post both code and result, Slashdot apparently can't stomach rhombus made of asterisks, thus inadvertently giving unplanned example of expression and power being too limited for something relatively simple, yet unexpected. Unless it's just protection from pasting heaps of ASCII art?
Anyway, result's here, proper Slavic cunt symbol should have vertical line in the center, but the shape is generally recognized as simplified substitute, as in, say, Renault logo ("One cunt on the grill, the other behind the wheel." as somebody mean, probably me, remarked when homeroom teacher passed us in her car).


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I got Radiessed
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 10,240
Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 04:15PM
Hi Poochie, I'm so glad you got a great result. I'm all for it if it makes you happier.
Did your dr. decide which treatment to offer you? How did you decide on the Radiesse vs. something else? So far I've been too afraid to try anything but I may give in one of these days.
Keep us posted....
2/c and some 3A.
Protein sensitive but can use occasionally
Highly porous. Color over grey.
Best 1st day method: Super Soaker
Stylers: Mix Curls in a Bottle into everything for shine. Terrible pj
Sometimes try roller sets - classic glamor but I prefer my curls.
Every day is a gift


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It was for our first animation class at my school.
I did the last animation (out of the 4) in toonboom
I also did the video editing and the audio editing for the 1st and 4th animation, also added some audio background to the other 2.
This is a team project, we all participated in the making of this short video.
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Deathlok is a name you might recognize from that one time he was on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. awhile back; a cameo appearance that earned him his own comic as part of the Marvel Now initiative. Given that Deathlok's appearance on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was insubstantial, he hasn't appeared since then. I'm assuming most of you have never ...Read More »
Jem and the Holograms #1 Review (Comics)
Jem and the Holograms occupies a strange spot on the pop cultural totem pole. In case you aren't familiar with the '80s cartoon, well, don't worry too much. This comic writes and assumes your ignorance with Jem and her accompanying holograms. What I mean by the strangeness of Jem's place in the ...Read More »
The Flash: Rogue Time Review (TV/Comics)
Hey, two steps forward one step back right? This week's episode of The Flash is a direct follow-up to last week's 'Out of Time,' which means this review will contain mild spoilers. At the end of that episode, the Flash managed to run so incredibly fast that he traversed time itself and got shot ...Read More »
iZombie: Brother, Can You Spare A Brain? Review (TV/Comics)
iZombie is a TV show based on a comic book which is why I'm reviewing it. On the show, Liv is a zombie; there was truth in the advertising in this case. The rules of zombie in this universe dictate she consume human brains to survive, and that if she doesn't eat brains ...Read More »
The Fly: Outbreak #1 Review
The Fly is one of those movies everyone is at least passively familiar with understanding. Despite not seeing the film, chances are you can identify the famous monster and have experienced the plot parodied on countless cartoons. If you've ever seen a show or comic feature a guy with a human ...Read More »
Frankenstein Underground #1 Review
Seems like there's been a lot of Frankenstein on my plate lately. This week's installment comes to us courtesy of Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy and a vast universe of comics reviewed by Front Towards Gamer too many times to link to them all. Mignola's had his ups and downs over the years with his work ...Read More »
The Flash: Out Of Time Review (TV/Comics)
Now that is how you come back from a hiatus. Let's get down to the nitty gritty of why this episode of The Flash is so awesome. The Flash is about Barry Allen, a forensic scientist who is caught in a science blast that gives him super speed. With the aid ...Read More »
iZombie Pilot Review (TV/Comics)
Did you know iZombie was based on a comic book? Well, you do now, though the giveaway was in the title of this review; however, I'm using the term "based on" pretty lightly. The show shares similar ideas and elements with the comic series, and it's gone through some major changes as well. I'm ...Read More »
Howard The Duck #1 Review (Comics)
The story of Howard The Duck is one steeped in copyright law, weird trends, and bygone eras. The condensed version is that Howard was a very successful adult comedy comic in the '70s. Back then, adult-oriented comics and animation made a lot of headway, as was duck comedy. Created by Steve Gerber, Howard The Duck is pretty much exactly ...Read More »
Spider-Gwen #2 Review (Comics)
Spider-Gwen is an alternate universe comic, not all that much of a rarity for Marvel given their hit line of Ultimate comics. This parallel reality is a world where Gwen Stacey, one-time Spider-Man girlfriend, was the one who gained spider powers and Peter Parker became the Lizard. Spider-Gwen was originally introduced as a one-off ...Read More »


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Quality Inn South, Wichita
Located in Wichita (South Wichita), Quality Inn South is close to Herman Hill Park. Additional area attractions include Kansas Aviation Museum and Museum of World Treasures.
Hotel Features.
Guests are served a complimentary breakfast each morning. In addition to an outdoor pool and coffee/tea in the lobby, Quality Inn South features complimentary newspapers in the lobby. Complimentary wireless Internet access is available in public areas. Additional amenities include dry cleaning/laundry services, a safe deposit box at the front desk, and a television in the lobby. Self parking is complimentary.
The 114 guestrooms at Quality Inn South include coffee/tea makers and hair dryers. Complimentary wireless high-speed Internet access is provided. Televisions are equipped with cable channels, video-game consoles, and pay movies. All accommodations provide desks and phones; free local calls are offered (restrictions may apply). Bathrooms offer shower/tub combinations and complimentary toiletries. In-room microwaves and refrigerators are provided.
Was just an overnight stay on our way through town. Have stayed here before with a good…
Shower head was only about 5ft up, the door hit the bed frame when you opened it,…
Enter dates to check prices
Hotel Info: 866-539-8117from $65
- Double Room, Accessible
- Business Double Room, 2 Double Beds, Non Smoking
- Standard Room, 1 King Bed, Non Smoking
- Business Room, 1 King Bed, Non Smoking
- Standard Room, 2 Queen Beds, Smoking
- Standard Room, 2 Queen Beds, Non Smoking
- Standard Room, 1 King Bed, Smoking
- Double Room, 2 Double Beds, Non Smoking
Recommended hotels
At a glance
Key facts
Hotel size
- This hotel has 114 rooms
- This hotel is arranged over 2 floors
- Check-in time starts at 3 PM
- Check-out time is 11 AM
Required at check in
- Credit card or cash deposit required
- Government-issued photo ID required
Travelling with others
- Pets allowed *
Extra people
- Roll-away beds available, charges may apply*
- Free WiFi in public areas
- Free WiFi in rooms
- Free self parking
Nearby Two Star Wichita hotels
In the hotel
- Free buffet breakfast daily
- Coffee/tea in the lobby
- Outdoor pool
- Golfing nearby
- Conference space
- 24-hour front desk
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Television in lobby
- In-room accessibility
In the room
- Climate control
- Coffee/tea maker
- Iron/ironing board
- Shower/tub combination
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Pay movies
- Cable TV channels
- Video-game console
- Desk
- Free WiFi
- Free local calls
- Refrigerator
- Microwave
Top Wichita hotels
Recently reviewed hotels in Wichita
- Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites East Wichita I-35 AndoverFrom
- Candlewood Suites Wichita AirportFrom
"ALWAYS an awesome stay!"Mar 7, 2015
- DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Wichita AirportFrom
- Days Inn North Wichita/Park CityFrom
"The hotel was comfortable, priced great and clean. The breakfast wasn't much but for the price it worked for me and it was cheap enough you could go out next door to eat. The…"Mar 4, 2015
Nearby hotels
Quality Inn South, Wichita's small print
Also known as
- Comfort Inn South Hotel Wichita
- Comfort Locanda South
- Wichita Comfort Inn
- Comfort Inn Wichita
- Comfort Inn South Hotel
- Quality Inn South Wichita
Mandatory fees
You'll be asked to pay the following charges at check in or check out:
- A 7.3 percent city/local tax will be charged
Pet deposit: USD 10.00 per night
Optional extras
Pets are allowed for an extra charge of USD 10.00 per pet, per night (maximum USD 100 per stay)
We have included all charges provided to us by this hotel. However, charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the room you book.


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***** Item Detail
Product ID: WVR12
Control Number: 568876
The Wilson 12 Hour Digital Voice Recorder
The Wilson™ 12 Hour Digital Voice Recorder is a digital voice recorder that is
simple to use, inexpensive to purchase, and made from high-quality components.
Its uses are practically endless:
Have you ever received an address or phone number you want to remember?
Have you awakened in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea?
If so, you need The Wilson™. 12 Hour Digital Voice Recorder!
The Wilson™ is designed to be your recordable companion.
Requires 2 Triple A batteries (not included)
(*Version 3 Now With Volume Control)
Up to 12 hours of continuous recording time
Download messages to your computer - USB cable included
Will store multiple messages
Easy to add and delete messages
Clips to belts, visors and purses
Records in wav format
Use The Wilson™ to record and play:
Phone numbers
Shopping lists
To do lists
Brilliant ideas
Audio instructions
Suggested Retail Price: $34.95
Mice Price: $29.99
Weight: 0.4000 pounds
***** Item Detail Page End
***** Home
Welcome to Blind Mice Mega Mall!
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Specials and Announcements below from our merchants!
Talking Cooking Thermometer $29.99
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Blind Mice Mega Mall
Office Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. CST Monday - Friday
Call The Order Center
(713) 893-7277
***** Home Page End


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Item low in stock
Ladies 'Windsor' silver and rose gold watch with tan leather strap
Item No.0610102508
The O.W.L Windsor watch features a petit 22mm round silver case with rose gold shoulders. The dual layer dial is pale silver and finished in a sand blast effect with clear rose gold dial markers. The strap is a high quality tan leather with hand stitched detailing. This watch has clean classic looks combined with subtle design details.
This item is available for
UK Home Delivery Free (UK orders over £30) or £3.99
Delivered within 4 working days
Next or Named Day Delivery
7 days a week between 8am - 6pm
Monday to Friday - order by 7pm - £4.99
Saturday & Sunday - order by 6pm - £4.99
Next or Named Evening Delivery
7 days a week between 6pm - 10pm
Monday to Sunday - order by 10pm - £6.99
Collect from store the next day - FREE
Order before 7pm for next day collection after 12pm midday
Show participating stores
Full Delivery details
- Model reference: WN1STT
- Strap/bracelet: leather strap
- Case material: alloy case
- Glass type: mineral
- Movement: quartz
- 30m water resistant
- 2 years guarantee
- Battery: AA Button Cell ( Silver Oxide )
- Packaging: O.W.L Victorian Travel Case


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Dr. Phillip E. Dowd, MD
Urological Surgery
- 310 W South St FL 1
Henrietta, TX 76365
- 2 Locations
- (940) 538-5621
Dr. Phillip E. Dowd graduated from the Texas Tech University Health Science Center School of Medicine - Lubbock in 1988. He works in Henrietta, TX and 1 other location and specializes in Urological Surgery. Dr. Dowd is affiliated with Clay County Memorial Hospital and Kell West Regional Hospital.
Gender: Male
Languages Spoken: English
Urological Surgery
Medical School: Texas Tech University Health Science Center School of Medicine - Lubbock; Graduated 1988
*This physician has multiple office locations. See Office Information for details.


text: PCWorld unveils new, all-digital enhanced edition Published on October 07, 2013. 0 Reprints Reprints Ad Age LookBook Weekly Feature Get Help Organizing Your Mobile Data and Start Tracking What's Working Learn more Framingham, Mass.—PCWorld, the flagship of IDG's Consumer & SMB division, has debuted an enhanced edition specifically built for tablets. September marked the first all-digital month for the brand, which ceased print publication in August. Supplementing a longstanding digital edition, the enhanced edition incorporates more rich-media content, including video, interactive slideshows and podcasts; embedded links to direct users to the Web for related information; pages optimized for high-resolution displays, and the ability to share content via email and Twitter. "Now that the transition has happened, no longer having to create a printed version has been like unbuttoning a straightjacket from around our editorial and production teams," said Randall Grilli, consumer and product marketing manager for IDG Consumer & SMB. "Unconstrained by page cost, page size and any other print-related ad/edit ratio considerations, they are free to reinvent PCWorld as a product that is laser focused on the needs of its readers." In this article: BtoB Advertisement Read These Next Lowe's Gives Away Glow-in-the-Dark Cat Hats During March Madness Ashley Rodriguez on 03.27.2015 90 0 Why Dodge Paired a Gearhead With a Monkey in 'Dodge Law' Campaign Vince Bond Jr. on 03.27.2015 64 0 Pepsi Passes Diet Coke in Market Share as Artificial Sweeteners Fall Out of Favor E.J. Schultz on 03.26.2015 527 1 Comments (0)


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Electronic Government:
Challenges to the Adoption of Smart Card Technology
GAO-03-1108T: Published: Sep 9, 2003. Publicly Released: Sep 9, 2003.
Additional Materials:
- Highlights Page:
- Full Report:
- Accessible Text:
(202) 512-7487
Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
The federal government is increasingly interested in the use of smart cards--credit-card-like devices that use integrated circuit chips to store and process data--for improving the security of its many physical and information assets. Besides better authentication of the identities of people accessing buildings and computer systems, smart cards offer a number of potential benefits and uses, such as creating electronic passenger lists for deploying military personnel, and tracking immunization and other medical records. Earlier this year, GAO reported on the use of smart cards across the federal government (GAO-03-144). GAO was asked to testify on the results of this work, including the challenges to successful adoption of smart cards throughout the federal government, as well as the government's progress in promoting this smart card adoption.
To successfully implement smart card systems, agency managers have faced a number of substantial challenges: sustaining executive-level commitment in the face of organizational resistance and cost concerns; obtaining adequate resources for projects that can require extensive modifications to technical infrastructures and software; integrating security practices across agencies, a task requiring collaboration among separate and dissimilar internal organizations; achieving smart card interoperability across the government; and maintaining the security of smart card systems and the privacy of personal information. These difficulties may be less formidable as management concerns about facility and information system security increase and as technical advances improve smart card capabilities and reduce costs. However, such challenges, which have slowed the adoption of this technology in the past, continue to be factors in smart card projects. Given the significant management and technical challenges associated with successful adoption of smart cards, a series of initiatives has been undertaken to facilitate the adoption of the technology. As the federal government's designated promoter of smart card technology, GSA assists agencies in assessing the potential of smart cards and in implementation. GSA has set up a governmentwide, standards-based contracting vehicle and has established interagency groups to work on procedures, standards, and guidelines. As the government's policymaker, OMB is beginning to develop a framework of policy guidance for governmentwide smart card adoption. In a July 2003 memorandum, OMB described a three-part initiative on authentication and identity management in the government, consisting of (1) developing common policy and technical guidance; (2) executing a governmentwide acquisition of authentication technology, including smart cards; and (3) selecting shared service providers for smart card technology. These efforts address the need for consistent, up-to-date standards and policy on smart cards, but both GSA and OMB still have much work to do before common credentialing systems can be successfully implemented across government agencies.
Mar 26, 2015
2014 Lobbying Disclosure:Observations on Lobbyists' Compliance with Disclosure RequirementsGAO-15-310: Published: Mar 26, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 26, 2015.
Mar 18, 2015
Security Clearances:Additional Mechanisms May Aid Federal Tax-Debt DetectionGAO-15-467T: Published: Mar 18, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 18, 2015.
Mar 16, 2015
Recovery Act:GSA's Courthouse Projects Illustrate Opportunities to Improve Management Practices and Analyze Environmental OutcomesGAO-15-307: Published: Feb 12, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 16, 2015.
Mar 9, 2015
2020 Census:Key Challenges Need to Be Addressed to Successfully Enable Internet ResponseGAO-15-225: Published: Feb 5, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 9, 2015.
Mar 4, 2015
Government Efficiency and Effectiveness:Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, Duplication, and Improper Payments and Achieve Other Financial BenefitsGAO-15-440T: Published: Mar 4, 2015. Publicly Released: Mar 4, 2015.
Feb 27, 2015
Elections:Issues Related to State Voter Identification Laws [Reissued on February 27, 2015]GAO-14-634: Published: Sep 19, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 8, 2014.
Feb 23, 2015
Results-Oriented Management:OPM Needs to Do More to Ensure Meaningful Distinctions Are Made in SES Ratings and Performance AwardsGAO-15-189: Published: Jan 22, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 23, 2015.
Feb 11, 2015
GAO'S 2015 High-Risk Series:An UpdateGAO-15-371T: Published: Feb 11, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 11, 2015.
GAO's 2015 High-Risk Series:An UpdateGAO-15-373T: Published: Feb 11, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 11, 2015.
High-Risk Series:An UpdateGAO-15-290: Published: Feb 11, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 11, 2015.
Looking for more? Browse all our products here


text:
Quality Inn
11460 SW Pacific Hwy
Tigard, OR 97223
Phone: (503) 245-6421
Fax: (503) 245-6425
Southwest Community Center Pool
Located at the Southwest Community Center, this aquatic facility is the cutting edge of water fitness and entertainment for the family. The pool house includes a six-lane lap pool, leisure pool with wading entry, water slide, splash pool and whirlpool. Swim classes are offered to all ages and levels. Passes are available for multiple visits. Call for admission.
6820 Southwest 45th Avenue
Portland, OR 97219
+1 503 823 2840
Earn valuable points toward free nights.


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When I heard Shurhold Industries was releasing an adapter for its "One-Handle-Does-It-All" system, I just had to get my hands on one.
A rickshaw by any other name...wouldn't be a rickshaw anymore, I guess. But Cascade Cycleboats certainly evoke those three-wheeled conveyances of years past.
You can get a feel for the high-end quality when you first take a glance at this Escape pontoon, but you can't truly appreciate the attention to detail until you spend some time onboard.
Getting the boat ready for the season is a lot like getting the boat ready to sell. You want it to look good and operate without any problems.
© 2015 Pontoon and Deckboat® Magazine | Published by Harris Publishing, Inc.
Handcrafted by Manwaring Web


text:
- Exchange: NASDAQ GS
- Sector: Industrials
- Industry: Aerospace & Defense
- Sub-Industry: Defense Primes
TASER International Inc+ Add to Watchlist
As of 20:10:00 ET on 03/26/2015.
Company Profile for TASER International Inc (TASR)
TASER International, Inc. engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of conducted electrical weapons for use in law enforcement, federal, military, corrections, private security, and personal defense markets worldwide.
Contact Information
TASER International Inc
Key Executives for TASER International Inc (TASR)
|Patrick W Smith "Rick"CEO/Co-Founder
|Douglas E Klint "Doug"President/Secretary/Gen Cnsl
|Daniel M BehrendtChief Financial Officer
|Luke LarsonChief Marketing Officer
|Erin CurtisInvestor Relations
Quotes delayed, except where indicated otherwise. All prices in local currency. Time is ET.
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For the most part, the Nazis did not admit it occurred.
The postwar courts were set up with the assumption that it did occur. This put the Nazis in a position that there only defense was they were following orders, were not involved, or knew nothing about it.
Hitler is reported to have told people the Jewish extermination stories were black propaganda like that of WWI where German soldiers were accused of cutting the hands off Belgian children.
Himmler in a magazine interview before the end of the war is quoted that the Jews were not being exterminated.
Lammers testified he asked Himmler about the extermination rumors and was told the Jews were being deported and resettled in the East. Lammers said he was shown photo albums of the resettlement.
Alfred Rosenberg, the administrator of the Nazi occupied eastern territories, testified that the Nazi rhetoric about extermination of the Jews was not what the war crimes court took it to mean, but rather, the goal of breaking Jewish political power.
Julius Streicher testified the final solution to the Jewish question was the establishment of a Jewish homeland into which Jews would be resettled from all over the world after Germany won the war. He said he had heard the accusation of the extermination of the Jews, but did not believe it.
Hans Frank, who administered occupied Nazi Poland, testified he did not know the Jews were being killed, but must have unwittingly participated in the activities after hearing Rudolf Hoess testify.
Hoess was tortured to get his "confession" and allegedly told another prisoner that there were ways to get people to confess to anything. His affidavit is full of contradictions and information that is untrue.
Albert Speer stated his exposure to the extermination of the Jews was he was once told not to go to Auschwitz.
Hermann Goering testified he didn't know anything about it as he was too busy running the German economy.
Like Hoess, Adolf Eichmann testified to a lot of nonsense. For example, he said he visited an extermination gas chamber that used the exhaust from a captured Russian submarine. The problem is the Germans never captured any Russian submarines.
Nazis who confessed to knowing about and participating in the extermination of the Jews seem to have always inserted nonsense in their testimony to let skeptics know they were lying.
The confessions of Kurt Gerstein and Perry Broad are similarly full of nonsense.
[F]orce can only settle questions of power, not of right. - Clyde N. Wilson
- Login to post comments


text:
An annual gas supply auction determines one component of the SCO – the Retail Price Adjustment. The February 4, 2014 auction set the Retail Price Adjustment at $1.40 per Mcf ($0.140 per ccf). That rate will be in effect from April 2014 through March 2015. The Retail Price Adjustment represents the supplier's non-gas costs of doing business.
The auction also selected five SCO suppliers for April 2014 through March 2015: Constellation Energy Gas Choice, Inc.; Direct Energy Services, LLC; DTE Energy Trading, Inc. dba DTE Energy Supply; Interstate Gas Supply, Inc. dba IGS Energy; and Volunteer Energy Services, Inc.
The other component of the SCO is the market price for natural gas. It is reset monthly as market conditions change. Natural gas, like other energy commodities, is traded every business day on the New York Mercantile Exchange, also known as the NYMEX. Near the end of each month, a month-end "settlement price" is set for natural gas on NYMEX. The SCO is determined by adding the Retail Price Adjustment to the NYMEX month-end settlement price.
For more information on the SCO and how it's determined, see our SCO Questions & Answers and our SCO Video.
The Current Standard Choice Offer (SCO) Price
The table below shows the current SCO price, the typical residential customer's expected gas usage and a projected total bill, which includes Columbia's service and delivery charges and all taxes.
Market Price*
*Market Price and Retail Price Adjustment are listed in dollars per thousand cubic feet (Mcf). Columbia bills customers per hundred cubic feet (Ccf).
**Includes Columbia service and delivery charges and all taxes.
NYMEX natural gas prices are set on energy value and reported in dollars per Dekatherm, or Dth. Columbia Gas bills are calculated per 100 cubic feet, or Ccf. The Retail Price Adjustment converts the NYMEX rate in dollars per Dth to a volumetric rate in dollars per Mcf. To convert Mcf to Ccf, simply divide by 10. For instance, if the NYMEX settlement price is $5.01 per Dth, and the Retail Price Adjustment is $1.40, the resulting SCO Price is $6.41 per Mcf, which converts to 64 cents per Ccf.