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Home > Faculty and Research > Research > PhD Research > Finance and Managerial Economics > FAQs
Students take yearly doctoral seminars on advanced topics in the field. We also have a workshop series where students and faculty present there work for discussion and outside speakers are brought in. Students also work very closely with faculty on their own research as well as on the research of faculty members as they serve as research assistants.
Students are also required to do a second year paper to prepare them with the skills necessary to complete their dissertations. These a committee is developed to supervise the students during this process and to evaluate the final product. After completing their coursework, students are tested for mastery of the material in a comprehensive exam.
We achieve this goal through our doctoral seminar and our research workshop. We offer our doctoral seminar (3 credits) once a year. We rotate the seminar topics over a two-year window to expose all students to the research topics over their first two years in the program. We also require the students to attend a semi-monthly research workshop in which guest speakers present current research papers. At the end of their seminar series, we administer comprehensive exam that tests the major areas of accounting research.
The Finance doctoral students are required to take four core finance courses and four doctoral seminars in addition to six foundation courses offered by the Department of Economics. We typically offer one finance doctoral seminar per semester. All four doctoral seminars are taught by faculty members who have published extensively in top-tier journals.
The PhD Program in Managerial Economics is offered as a joint program of the Department of Finance and Managerial Economics and the Department of Economics. The students are required to take the eight common core courses offered by the Department of Economics. If the student chooses to follow the degree program in the School of Management, the student must take four advanced seminars in areas related to economic policy
Our department has four areas of specialization:
Our curriculum imparts state-of-the-art knowledge in all four areas. During the last two years, there have been major upgrades in two areas. The information systems curriculum has been upgraded to offer the latest concepts in e-business, web-based technologies, and e-commerce strategies. Likewise, the Manufacturing and Operations Management curriculum was upgraded to "Supply Chains and Operations Management" during the last year.
The department also offers seminar courses exclusively for PhD students to keep them abreast of emerging concepts in all four areas.
PhD students are also encouraged to read research journals regularly, and they are also tested on advanced knowledge acquired, in the 2nd year comprehensive examination.
This is goal is achieved through a 3-credit doctoral Proseminar (MGB702) offered once each year. The course is offered over a two-year cycle, so that over the course of two years (6 credits) the major research topics within the field of Organizational Behavior are covered. The course is team-taught by four OB research faculty members in the OHR department.
All students are required to pass a 48-hour comprehensive exam, typically offered at the end of their second year, to demonstrate knowledge of and competency with the Organizational Behavior literature. The exam covers not only the assigned readings from the Pro seminar, but also a large sample of recent articles in top-tier Organizational Behavior journals.
Students take advanced courses in statistics, econometrics, and marketing research to develop technical skills.
Students take courses and work individually with faculty members to develop skills in substantive theoretical research issues in the field of Marketing.
Faculty have a close working relationship with a major retail grocery chain. We have developed a large database of loyalty card data. Students are trained by faculty on how to analyze this type of data to develop practical as well as theoretical research skills.
We require each student to serve as a research assistant for one or more researching faculty. We gear these assignments toward collaborative research projects. Before we allow a student to sit for the comprehensive exam, we require the student to complete a research project, under the direction of a faculty member. We require the student to present the project in a research seminar. The project must then be approved before the student advances to comprehensive exams.
Students are required to take the following courses that help acquire up-to-date knowledge and develop research skills: MGF 742 Information and Capital Markets and MGF 743 Research Methodology
All students must begin a research paper no later than one year after entering the PhD Program. The paper is to be evaluated by a committee no later than two and one-half years after the student enters the PhD Program. The committee shall consist of two full-time faculty members selected by the student in consultation with the PhD advisor. At least one committee member must be a member of the graduate faculty. Failure to produce a satisfactory paper as determined by the committee will constitute unsatisfactory performance and will necessitate a review of the student by the PhD Program Committee. The student must produce a satisfactory paper before the major qualifying exam is taken. Students are also required to present this paper at a departmental seminar.
Students are encouraged to develop their knowledge in specialized topics through independent study and supervised research with the finance faculty. Such efforts may be undertaken with the objective of publishing a paper
In addition to acquiring conceptual knowledge in their areas of specialization, our PhD students are also required to learn the latest research tools and techniques.
The PhD curriculum has a strong component of courses on research methods as part of required course work. Depending on their interests, students are guided to acquire a strong portfolio of research tools and techniques. They are also encouraged to undertake research courses offered by other departments such as social sciences and industrial engineering. These include, in particular, courses imparting advanced empirical research methods, case analysis, qualitative research methods, operations research techniques, etc.
Being a department with four different areas, our students end up being exposed to a diverse range of research tools and techniques, and research paradigms. We feel that this is a major strength of our PhD curriculum.
Our students leave the program with a significant number of publications. Having a close interaction with our faculty, they are also well exposed to the rigors of publishing in high-quality journals, and ability to navigate through the thickets of the review process of high-quality journals.
We also have a Wednesday noon seminar during which PhD students get to present research work done in collaboration with faculty members. This also includes presentations on new research methods and tools.
Outside experts are also invited periodically to expose them to the latest research tools and techniques (e.g., the visit of Dr. Chin last summer to offer a 2-day seminar on partial least squares (PLS) methodology).
This goal is achieved through several activities:
Students are all required to take doctoral coursework in other functional areas besides their major in order to get exposure to the big picture.
Many students in the program come with an MBA degree and have already been exposed to a broad managerial education. The doctoral program allows them to specialize in one particular area while still exposing students to the other functional areas.
The specialization areas in managerial and organizational context may be seen in the doctoral dissertation topics of our students. In a recently completed dissertation (2002), one dissertation investigates the ability of auditors to effectively and cost-efficiently search for fraud in their audit clients. Recent authoritative pronouncements have been issued directly on the issue that the dissertation addresses. As another example of specialization, the dissertation of a current student investigates whether analysts forecasts improve when strong corporate governance exists to oversee the financial reporting process. This issue is very topical, considering the lack of corporate oversight in organizations such as Enron and WorldCom. These two dissertations typify the type grounding in managerial and organizational contexts of our students.
Our PhD elective and required courses include the discussion of the role of finance specialization areas in managerial and organizational contexts. For instance, these courses (1) introduces the scope and objectives of corporate financial management along with the concept of the risk-return trade-off; (2) introduces the concept of the market for corporate control as a means of management discipline; (3) explores the use of financial information to evaluate and improve operations and financial planning given the corporation's strategy; (4) develops an understanding of how financial management decisions help create shareholder value; and (5) analyzes the basic management problems in the loan, investment, and deposit administration functions of financial institutions
The importance of relevance, and being grounded in managerial and organizational contexts, are also stressed in the PhD curriculum.
This may be seen in the doctoral dissertation topics selected by our PhD students in recent years. Of the two most recent dissertations in the supply chain area, for instance, one thesis was devoted to an empirical investigation of strategic sourcing and e-procurement practices on supply chain performance. This thesis was sponsored by National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM) in USA and a similar organization (NEVI) in the Netherlands. The other dissertation investigated the impact of information sharing methods on supply chain performance. Though more theoretical, predicated on a queuing theory-simulation approach, it was also driven by empirical findings in its problem formulation and experimental design.
Likewise, recent theses in the information systems area have addressed the issues of trust in the e-commerce era, user satisfaction in B2B market places, etc. and a review of these dissertations again will reveal a strong and relevant grounding in managerial contexts.
The institutions in which our PhD students were placed last year include SUNY, Binghamton, Michigan State University, University of Kansas, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and University of Rhode Island.
The importance of relevance, and being grounded in managerial and organizational contexts, are also stressed in the PhD curriculum.
This may be seen in the doctoral dissertation topics selected by our PhD students in recent years. Of the two most recent dissertations in the Organizational Behavior area, for instance, one thesis was devoted to understanding how company leaders communicate their vision to employees. The second thesis focused on effective and ineffective merger and acquisition strategies and tactics. A multi-state grocery chain and a large Health Maintenance Organization supported these theses by hosting company-wide surveys. In both cases, the companies supported the theses in large part because of their interest in improving their own leadership and merger and acquisition practices, and the doctoral students worked closely with management to provide information and insight about the issues. These PhD students were placed at Claremont Graduate University, and California State University at San Marcos.
Students all teach a minimum of one class. They all go though a mentoring program before teaching.
In compliance with the School of Management policy, all PhD students teach at least one course independently before graduating. Students also serve as a teaching assistant under the guidance of a faculty member prior to their independent course.
We follow the procedures detailed in our PhD Handbook.
There has been a renewed emphasis on nurturing teaching skills for PhD students.
We have introduced a mentorship system wherein PhD students are assigned to faculty members who are strong on the teaching dimension. We ensure that PhD students get ample opportunity to acquire and refine their pedagogical skills before they finish the program.
PhD student also are required to present their research work at the Wednesday noon seminar where constructive criticism of not only their research effort, but also their delivery style is offered. Students are also actively encouraged to attend professional conferences and present their work.
In the case of international PhD students, they are first required to complete the English SPEAK test requirements before being assigned to teach courses. Particular care is taken to ensure they become well familiar with the teaching practices of a North American universities.
In compliance with School of Management policy, all PhD students teach at least one course before graduating. In practice, our two most recent graduates and our current "post-comp" student have taught at least two undergraduate Organizational Behavior classes each.
The OHR department has fully adopted the School of Management's teaching mentoring program.
All students complete a dissertation under the direction of at least 3 Marketing faculty. Additionally an outside reader is required from another University to insure that the dissertation makes a significant contribution to the field.
All students must complete a dissertation to meet the graduation requirements. At least two members of the Accounting faculty serve on the dissertation committee. As a verification of the contribution of the dissertation, we require an outside reader to approve the dissertation. Further, the dissertation must be orally defended.
We follow the procedures detailed in our PhD Handbook.
Throughout the PhD program, gaining taxonomical understanding of related research problems in the area of specialization is emphasized, in addition to making original contributions to various bodies of knowledge.
We have a second-year paper requirement, which involves writing a research paper of publishable quality. This is a major hurdle to be crossed, along with the comprehensive examination. This trains the students to obtain a clear, classified understanding of the field, performing rigorous literature review, before making additional, sizable contribution to the body of knowledge.
Our PhD students publish actively in collaboration with our productive faculty members, and they imbibe the necessary skills relating to performing thorough literature review, developing good writing styles, avoiding duplication of past research work inadvertently, giving due credit to past contributions of other researchers, following ethical practices while collaborating with other researchers, in addition to performing creative, and innovative research.
All students write a second-year research paper. This allows them to apply their knowledge of OB content and research design, and demonstrate that they are capable of conducting publication-quality research.
All students are required to complete a dissertation prior to graduation. At least two members of the OHR faculty serve on the dissertation committee. As a verification of the contribution of the dissertation, we require an outside reader to approve the dissertation. The dissertation must also be orally defended.


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I often think about green, environmental impact, and what we're doing to the environment. One major reason I became an engineer was to leave the world a little better than when I arrived. I've gotten sidetracked a few times, but I've tried to help, even if just a little.
The good people in LSI's EHS (Environment, Health & Safety) asked me a question the other day about carbon footprint, energy impact, and materials use. Which got me thinking … OK – I know most people in LSI don't really think of ourselves as a "green tech" company. But we are – really. No foolin'. We are having a big impact on the global power consumption and material consumption of the IT industry. And I mean that in a good way.
There are many ways to look at this, both from what we enable datacenters to do, to what we enable integrators to do, all the way to hard-core technology improvements and massive changes in what it's possible to do.
Back in 2008 I got to speak at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen conference. (I was lucky enough to be just after Elon Musk– he's a lot more famous now with Tesla doing so well.
http://www.smartplanet.com/video/making-the-case-for-green-it/305467 (at 2:09 in video)
IT consumes massive amounts of energy
The massive deployment of IT equipment, all the ancillary metal, plastic wiring, etc. that goes with them, consumes energy as its being shipped and moved halfway around the world, and, more importantly, then gets scrapped out quickly. This has been a concern for me for quite a while. I mean – think about that. As an industry we are generating about 9 million servers a year, about 3 million go into hyperscale datacenters (or hyperscale if you prefer). Many of those are scrapped on a 2, 3 or 4 year cycle – so in steady state, maybe 1 million to 2 million a year are scrapped. Worse – there is amazing use of energy by that many servers (even as they have advanced the state of the art unbelievably since 2008). And frankly, you and I are responsible for using all that power. Did you know thousands of servers are activated every time you make a Google® query from your phone?
I want to take a look at basic silicon improvements we make, the impact of disk architecture improvement, SSDs, system and improvements, efficiency improvements, and also where we're going in the near future with eliminating scrap in hard drives and batteries. In reality, it's the massive pressure on work/$ that has made us optimize everything – being able to do much more work at a lower cost, when a lot of cost is the energy and material that goes into the products that forces our hand. But the result is a real, profound impact on our carbon footprint that we should be proud of.
Sure we have a general silicon roadmap where each node enables reduced power, even as some standards and improvements actually increase individual device power. For example, our transition from 28nm semi process to 14nm FinFET can literally cut the power consumption of a chip in half. But that's small potatoes.
Ethernet abounds
How about Ethernet? It's everywhere – right? Did you know servers often have 4 ethernet ports, and that there are a matching 4 ports on a network switch? LSI pioneered something called Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE). We're also one of the biggest manufacturers of Ethernet PHYs – the part that drives the cable – and we come standard in everything from personal computers to servers to enterprise switches. The savings are hard to estimate, because they depend very much on how much traffic there is, but you can realistically save Watts per interface link, and there are often 256 links in a rack. 500 Watts per rack is no joke, and in some datacenters it adds up to 1 or 2 MegaWatts.
How about something a little bigger and more specific? Hard disk drives. Did you know a typical hyperscale datacenter has between 1 million and 1.5 million disk drives? Each one of those consumes about 9 Watts, and most have 2 TBytes of capacity. So for easy math, 1 million drives is about 9 MegaWatts (!?) and about 2 Exabytes of capacity (remember – data is often replicated 3 or more times). Data capacities in these facilities are needed to grow about 50% per year. So if we did nothing, we would need to go from 1 million drives to 1.5 million drives: 9 MegaWatts goes to 13.5 MegaWatts. Wow! Instead – our high linearity, low noise PA and read channel designs are allowing drives to go to 4 TBytes per drives. (Sure the chip itself may use slightly more power, but that's not the point, what it enables is a profound difference.) So to get that 50% increase in capacity we could actually reduce the number of drives deployed, with a net savings of 6.75 MegaWatts. Consider an average US home, with air conditioning, uses 1 kiloWatt. That's almost 7,000 homes. In reality – they won't get deployed that way – but it will still be a huge savings. Instead of buying another 0.5 million drives they would buy 0.25 million drives with a net savings of 2.2 MegaWatts. That's still HUGE! (way to go, guys!) How many datacenters are doing that? Dozens. So that's easily 20 or 30 MegaWatts globally. Did I say we saved them money too? A lot of money.
SSDs sip power to help improve energy profile
SSDs don't always get the credit they deserve. Yes, they really are fast, and they are awesome in your laptop, but they also end up being much lower power than hard drives. Our controllers were in about half the flash solutions shipped last year. Think tens of millions. If you just assume they were all laptop SSDs (at least half were not) then that's another 20 MegaWatts in savings.
Did you know that in a traditional datacenter, about 30% of the power going into the building is used for air conditioning? It doesn't actually get used on the IT equipment at all, but is used to remove the heat that the IT equipment generates. We design our solutions so they can accommodate 40C ambient inlet air (that's a little over 100F… hot). What that means is that the 30% of power used for the air conditioners disappears. Gone. That's not theoretical either. Most of the large social media, search engine, web shopping, and web portal companies are using our solutions this way. That's a 30% reduction in the power of storage solutions globally. Again, its MegaWatts in savings. And mega money savings too.
But let's really get to the big hitters: improved work per server. Yep – we do that. In fact adding a Nytro™ MegaRAID® solution will almost always give you 4x the work out of a server. It's a slam dunk if you're running a database. You heard me – 1 server doing the work that it previously took 4 servers to do. Not only is that a huge savings in dollars (especially if you pay for software licenses!) but it's a massive savings in power. You can replace 4 servers with 1, saving at least 900 Watts, and that lone server that's left is actually dissipating less power too, because it's actively using fewer HDDs, and using flash for most traffic instead. If you go a step further and use Nytro WarpDrive Flash cards in the servers, you can get much more – 6 to 8 times the work. (Yes, sometimes up to 10x, but let's not get too excited). If you think that's just theoretical again, check your Facebook® account, or download something from iTunes®. Those two services are the biggest users of PCIe® flash in the world. Why? It works cost effectively. And in case you haven't noticed those two companies like to make money, not spend it. So again, we're talking about MegaWatts of savings. Arguably on the order of 150 MegaWatts. Yea – that's pretty theoretical, because they couldn't really do the same work otherwise, but still, if you had to do the work in a traditional way, it would be around that.
It's hard to be more precise than giving round numbers at these massive scales, but the numbers are definitely in the right zone. I can say with a straight face we save the world 10's, and maybe even 100's of MegaWatts per year. But no one sees that, and not many people even think about it. Still – I'd say LSI is a green hero.
The future
Hey – we're not done by a long shot. Let's just look at scrap. If you read my earlier post on false disk failure, you'll see some scary numbers. (http://blog.lsi.com/what-is-false-disk-failure-and-why-is-it-a-problem/ ) A normal hyperscale datacenter can expect 40-60 disks per day to be mistakenly scrapped out. That's around 20,000 disk drives a year that should not have been scrapped, from just one web company. Think of the material waste, shipping waste, manufacturing waste, and eWaste issues. Wow – all for nothing. We're working on solutions to that. And batteries. Ugly, eWaste, recycle only, heavy metal batteries. They are necessary for RAID protected storage systems. And much of the world's data is protected that way – the battery is needed to save meta-data and transient writes in the event of a power failure, or server failure. We ship millions a year. (Sorry, mother earth). But we're working diligently to make that a thing of the past. And that will also result in big savings for datacenters in both materials and recycling costs.
Can we do more? Sure. I know I am trying to get us the core technologies that will help reduce power consumption, raise capability and performance, and reduce waste. But we'll never be done with that march of technology. (Which is a good thing if engineering is your career…)
I still often think about green, environmental impact, and what we're doing to the environment. And I guess in my own small way, I am leaving the world a little better than when I arrived. And I think we at LSI should at least take a moment and pat ourselves on the back for that. You have to celebrate the small victories, you know? Even as the fight goes on.
Tags: AlwaysOn GoingGreen, datacenter, Energy Efficient Ethernet, Ethernet, FinFET, green technology, hard disk drive, HDD, hyperscale, MegaWatts, solid state drive, SSD, Watts
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subset: commoncrawl


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Sure! You can message it to me?
I LOVE ME SOME KORN! They are amazing.
Some of my favorite KoRn songs are Falling away from me, Alone I Break, Liar, Blind, Daddy, Faget, Freak On A Leash, Kunt and im probably forgetting some....
And i try posting poetry at lest once a week, now that school started i might not be able to. Ill try my best though!
As some of you know, i usually post poetry on here. But i wanted to write a short story today, so it might not be very good. But hey, at lest i tried. ANYWHORE Here it is "Shut up and keep still! If you don't I swear to god I'll kill you!" said Rem as she tied her victim to a chair. She was getting rather frustrated with all the muffled screams he was making, if it wasn't for...


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Crisscross Back Strap Dress
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Elegant crisscrossing at back and soft body-contouring fabric make this bebe dress at total show stopper. Try it with a pair of ornate heels and an oversized clutch.
- 66% rayon, 30% nylon, 4% spandex
- Center back to hem: 16" (41 cm)
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Rated 5 out of 5�by 1 reviewer.
Rated 5 out of 5�by Brighteyes Love. Perfect vday dress This was the perfect vday dress for a night out. The m fit perfectly for a 5'3 139lbs . Give or take 5lbs it will fit. February 14, 2014
1-1 of 1


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In addition, transparency is often an "extra" for a graphics format, and some graphics programs will ignore the transparency.
Raster file formats that support transparency include GIF, PNG, and TIFF, through either a transparent color or an alpha channel.
Most vector formats implicitly support transparency because they simply avoid putting any objects at a given point. This includes EPS and WMF. For vector graphics this may not strictly be seen as transparency, but it requires much of the same careful programming as transparency in raster formats.
More complex vector formats may allow transparency combinations between the elements within the graphic, as well as that above. This includes SVG and PDF.
A suitable raster graphics editor shows transparency by a special pattern, e.g. a chessboard pattern.
One color entry in a single GIF or PNG image's palette can be defined as "transparent" rather than an actual color. This means that when the decoder encounters a pixel with this value, it is rendered in the background color of the part of the screen where the image is placed, also if this varies pixel-by-pixel as in the case of a background image.
Applications include:
The transparent color should be chosen carefully, to avoid items that just happen to be the same color vanishing.
Even this limited form of transparency has patchy implementation, though most popular web browsers are capable of displaying transparent GIF images. This support often does not extend to printing, especially to printing devices (such as PostScript) which do not include support for transparency in the device or driver. Outside the world of web browsers, support is fairly hit-or-miss for transparent GIF files.
The edges of characters and other images with transparent background should not have shades of gray: these are normally used for intermediate colors between the color of the letter/image and that of the background, typically shades of gray being intermediate between a black letter and a white background. However, with for example a red background the intermediate colors would be dark red, and gray edge pixels give an ugly and unclear result. For a variable background color there are no suitable fixed intermediate colors.
PNG and TIFF also allows partial transparency, which solves the edge limitation problem. However, support is even more patchy. Internet Explorer prior to version 7 does not support partial transparency in a PNG graphic. Very few applications correctly process TIFF files with alpha channels.
A major use of partial transparency, but not the only one, is to produce "soft edges" in graphics so that they blend into their background. See also monochrome or with shades of gray and anti-aliasing.
The process of combining a partially transparent color with its background ("compositing") is often ill-defined and the results may not be exactly the same in all cases. For example, where color correction is in use, should the colors be composited before or after color correction?
In this example, two grayscale colors are to be composited. Grayscale values are considered to be numbers between 0.0 (white) and 1.0 (black). To emphasize: this is only one possible rule for transparency. If working with transparency, check the rules in use for your situation.
The color at a point, where color G1 and G2 are to be combined, is . Some consequences of this are:
(G1 + (G2 + G3 ) / 2 ) / 2 = G1 / 2 + G2 / 4 + G3 / 4This is important as it means that when combining three or more objects with this rule for transparency, the final color depends very much on the order of doing the calculations.
Although the formula is simple, it may not be ideal. Human perception of brightness is not linear - we do not necessarily consider that a gray value of 0.5 is halfway between black and white. Such details may not matter when transparency is used only to soften edges, but in more complex designs this may be significant. Most people working seriously with transparency will need to see the results and may fiddle with the colors or (where possible) the algorithm to arrive at the results they need.
This formula can easily be generalized to RGB color or CMYK color by applying the formula to each channel separately. For example, final . But it cannot be applied to all color models. For example Lab color would produce results that were surprising.
An alternative model is that at every point in each element to be combined for transparency there is an associated color and opacity between 0 and 1. For each color channel, you might work with this model: if a channel with intensity and opacity overlays a channel with intensity and opacity the result will be a channel with intensity equal to , and opacity . When one is left with a single result after blending, the final result in each channel is multiplied by the final opacity. During intermediate calculations the channel values may be more than the maximum, and the final calculation will bring it back into range. The SVG file specification uses this type of blending, and this is one of the models that can be used in PDF.
Alpha channels may be implemented in this way, where the alpha channel provides an opacity level to be applied equally to all other channels. To work with the above formula, the opacity needs to be scaled to the range 0 to 1, whatever its external representation (often 0 to 255 if using 8 bit samples such as "RGBA").
Starting with version 1.4 of the PDF standard, transparency (including translucency) is supported. This is a very complex model, requiring over 100 pages to document. A key source of complication is that PDF files may contain objects with different color spaces, and blending these is tricky. PDF supports many different blend modes, not just the most common averaging method. In addition, the rules for compositing many overlapping objects allow choices, such as whether a group of objects are blended before being blended with the background, or whether each object in turn is blended into the background.
Adobe Acrobat 5.0 was the first to support PDF 1.4 and, hence, transparent PDF files. Transparency in PDF was carefully designed not to cause errors in PDF viewers that did not understand it, they would simply display all elements as fully opaque. This was a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it reduced errors and complaints about errors; on the other hand it meant people with older viewers, PDF printers, etc. might print something completely different from the original design, increasing complaints about incorrect output. When PDF files are used to prepare work for professional printing, transparency issues could cause millions of printed copies to be incorrect, and have to be destroyed.
In addition, few of the programs that generate EPS previews will generate transparency information in the preview.
Some programs have sought to get around this by treating all white in the preview as transparent, but this too is problematic in the cases where some whites are not transparent.
More recently, applications have been appearing that ignore the preview altogether; they therefore get information on which parts of the preview to paint by interpreting the PostScript.


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To promote the growth of the Catholic church as a community of faith in Central Kentucky. In pursuit of this mission, we choose to emphasize the following: Stewardship as a faith response and call to discipleship; recognition that all we have comes from a good and gracious God; self-giving through gifts of time, talent and treasure; and faithful accountability of the human and material resources entrusted to our care. The Office of Stewardship and Development promotes an integrated approach to development, which includes collaboration among the planning, communications and fund-raising functions of the Archdiocese.
Street address:
The Chancery
212 East College Street
Louisville, KY 40203
Mailing address
P. O. Box 1073
Louisville, KY 40201-1073
(502) 585-3291
(502) 585-2466 (fax)
General e-mail address: email@example.com
Resources & Links
|Stewardship Guides for Young People
|2014/2015 Cycle B-Stewardship Weekly Bulletin Reflections
|word doc
|Annual Parish Stewardship Renewal Guide
Nicholas Eve, Director
Matthew Schuhmann, Coordinator for Annual Giving
Erin Zuber, Director of Planned Giving
Sheila Ricketts, Secretary


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Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest at Museum of Glass
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Animation, Family, Comedy
Originally released in 1999, "Toy Story 2" went on to become one of the most popular animated features of all time. The film picks up as Andy is heading off to Cowboy Camp and the toys are left to their own devices. When an obsessive toy collector named Al McWhiggin (owner of Al's Toy Barn) kidnaps Woody, and Woody learns that he's a highly valued collectable from a 1950s TV show called "Woody's Roundup," the stage is set for a daring rescue attempt by the gang from Andy's room. The film introduced such other memorable characters from "Woody's Roundup" as Jessie the cowgirl, Bullseye the horse, and the Prospector.
Rated G .
Visit the official site
Cast: Wallace Shawn, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney
Produced by: Karen Robert Jackson, Helene Plotkin
Directed by: John Lasseter
Written by: Rita Hsiao, Andrew Stanton, Doug Chamberlin
Running time: 1hr 32min
Opens: Oct 02, 2009 Nationwide


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Heavy-duty steel pet gate withstands tough chewers at a great bargain price. Durable screw in pressure mounted gate stays firmly in place. Protective wall cups with screw in pressure mounts secure gate. A 17" x 30" high swinging door with easy-lift locking handle opens one way. Small door in door (7.5" x 10" high) allows smaller pets like cats to pass through. Includes one 6" x 30" high and one 12" x 30" high extension to accommodate openings 29" to 52" wide. 2.25" bar spacing. 4.5" long adjustable pressure mounts. Extra extension panels sold separately for wider openings. Please specify color: White, Black, or Platinum.
Please click on "More Information" for assembly and installation instructions.
Assembly and Installation Instructions
Pre-Installation: Please check to see all parts are present before assembly.
Gate Assembly
Insert the assembled Threaded Spindle Rods and Hand Wheels into the appropriate holes in the plastic end plugs at the top and bottom of the Gate. NOTE: Plastic plugs are NOT threaded. They are only guides for the Threaded Spindle Rods.
Gate Installation
Place a Wall Cup over each Spindle Rod. Turn the bottom Hand Wheel to extend the adjustable Spindle Rod until the base is held firmly in position. Continue tightening the Hand Wheel until the gaps on either side of the Gate are as even as possible.
Turn the top Hand Wheels to extend the adjustable Spindle Rod. Continue turning the Hand Wheels to reduce the gap between the handle and the side rails. The Gate is properly positioned when the gap between the handle and the side rails is approximately 1/16".
Important: It is essential to position the Gate as vertical as possible so that the Gate can close and lock properly before marking the position of the Wall Cups. Adjust or reposition as needed.
Securing the Gate in Place
Using the Attachment Screws provided, secure the Wall Cups in their marked position. The Attachment Screws are suitable for a minimum wood thickness of 3/4". For all other surfaces, use an appropriate, secure method of attaching the Wall Cups.
Replace the Gate inside the attached Wall Cups. Turn the bottom Hand Wheels until the base is firmly held into position. Once again, make sure the gaps on either side of the Gate are as evenly spaced as possible.
Turn the top Hand Wheels towards the Gate frame until the gap between the handle and the side rails is about 1/16". Do not over-tighten since it may prevent the locking mechanisms from functioning.
Once installed, make sure the Gate is properly installed and secure.
Using the Gate:
Gate Extension Assembly Instructions
Installation Tips (Supplement to Instructions)
Step 2:
Step 3:
Step 4:
Step 5:
Helpful Hint: Occasionally, while turning the adjustable Hand Wheel, the flat plastic end of the Threaded Spindle Rod will start turning inside the Wall Cup. If this occurs, simply take a flat-ended screwdriver and press it against the flat plastic end of the Threaded Spindle Rod while turning the adjustable Hand Wheel.


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The fourth edition of the festival of extreme sports will take place on 4 and 5 June at the Parc del Forum in Barcelona and, again, will be attended by leading professional riders, the international elite of skateboarding, BMX, FMX, inline skating, longboard and, new this year, scooters.
In LKXA Barcelona Extreme will be high-level sports competitions and also amateur riders will participate there at the same stage.
Whether you're into skateboarding, mountain biking, BMX, inline skating and/or wakeboarding, you will find it here. There will be spectacular exhibitions and competitions over this two day event involving leading sportsmen of each discipline, together with the best urban music and graffiti. Go and enjoy the extreme atmosphere with Be Hostels mates!


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Is it wrong that I find the girls in the images under "sex crimes" hot?
I'd rather have nothing than have a lie.
Last edited by WWTNA Mark; 01-29-2011 at 08:03 PM.
"Bring a knife to a fist fight, a gun to a knife fight, and a M134 to anything else."
Wrestling lost the spectacle factor.


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Go quicker--go faster. That's been the goal of many a Corvette devotee since Zora Arkus-Duntov joined Chevrolet's engineering team in 1953 and set out to make the Corvette do just that. Six generations of production Corvettes have gone quicker and faster than their predecessors. But, in more than a few cases, it has taken an owner's urge, plus aftermarket hardware, to make it happen.
Which brings us to this '99 Corvette, a competitor in the '08 YearOne Shootout. Its current owner, Joe Underwood, says this was originally a "brass hat" car--owned by an executive with the General's Delphi Electronics Division. But, unlike the Marina Blue C4 we brought you several months ago ("Blue Mule," Sep. '08), this one wasn't used as a "test mule," as far as Joe can determine. "I could never find that out," he says. "I tried to do some research on it, and I talked with the previous user, but all I got was a bunch of red tape at Delphi--`We don't divulge that information'--and I finally gave up."
Still, the car had just 8,000 miles on it when Joe found it back in 2002. It also had a rare color scheme and options combination that he was looking for: Nassau Blue with a six-speed manual transmission. Joe and his friend Randy Hammons flew to Detroit to pick up the car, and then drove it back to Memphis. "We went from Detroit to Chicago, and we were running 100-120 miles an hour," he says. "We then made it from Chicago to Memphis in about six hours. We were flying at low altitude!"
That '99 didn't stay original for long. OEM parts started coming off almost as soon as the C5 was parked after its run to Joe's home. Many of those upgrades were of the simple variety at first. "It started with stuff as minimal as a shifter," he says. "In fact, I already had an exhaust sitting there, through the folks at Lingenfelter, because I had good connections with the folks at Hypertech. They were able to hook me up with some parts-vendor sources."
The anticipation of more power under the hood (a J&D Corvette scooped item that replaced the original hood) led to many of the other parts replacements and upgrades. "It had some breakage, and rather than have that opportunity rear its ugly head again, we just did it," Joe says. "It's more insurance than anything. I don't like to `half-fast' anything, so I've always tried to use the best parts that I could, within reason."
The result is the C5 you see here, which looks little changed from stock, save for the Boyd Coddington five-spokes, Michelin Pilot Sport rubber, and the above-mentioned scooped hood. It's under that hood where the big changes were made--starting with a new LS-series engine built up to 421 ci and filled with a billet-steel Lunati stroker crankshaft, Diamond 12:1 pistons, a specially ground Comp Cams hydraulic roller camshaft, ET Performance LS7-style heads, and a stock LS7 intake with 42-lb/hr fuel injectors, full-length Kooks stainless steel headers, and a GHL exhaust system.


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1. Mike Martz is Jay Cutler's savior. Through two weeks he has looked like the best quarterback in the league. If you're not buying into the hype, consider this stat from ProFootballFocus.com: when Cutler was blitzed on Sunday, he completed 17 of 24 pass attempts for 198 yards and three touchdowns. That's efficiency that you will rarely see against one of the more talented defenses in the league.
2. What's up with all these quarterbacks being benched? If you're sitting a guy midway through the second game of the season maybe you shouldn't have started him in the first place. If your team has already made a quarterback switch before fall is officially here, you have every reason to panic.
3. At this rate, I don't see how Eric Mangini and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll will survive the season in Cleveland. In each of their first two games the Browns offense has come out of the gate with reasonable success, only to be completely shut down in the 2nd half. It's as if the Browns just go to the locker room and hang out at halftime while the other team adjusts.
4. Another issue with the Browns offense… how can you not get the ball in the hands of your playmakers? They had Jerome Harrison, Josh Cribbs and Seneca Wallace on the field at the same time for most of the game, and yet they failed to even fake any trick plays. They could have created some nightmare matches for the Chiefs defense with just a little creativity.
5. Derek Anderson did not look good on Sunday, but his offensive line didn't do him any favors. The Cardinals offensive line allowed two sacks, six hits and 18 pressures! And they only dropped back to pass 33 times! And please, for the sake of Kurt Warner, don't think that this offensive line got worse since last year. Warner was simply brilliant at avoiding pressure and getting rid of the football.
6. I'm excited to see Jimmy Clausen's debut on Sunday, but I'm afraid it won't be pretty. He faces two tough secondaries in each of his first two games – vs Cincinnati, at New Orleans. The Panthers might as well wave the white flag. They're locked in a battle with the Browns and Bills for the No. 1 pick.
7. The Vikings have every reason to panic. They should add one in the win column this weekend against the Lions, but after that it's at the Jets, home against the Cowboys, then at Green Bay and at New England. They could lose all four of those games. And they will if Brett Favre doesn't stop playing like Sage Rosenfels. The Vikings could have gotten this performance for a lot less money if he had stayed retired.
8. The Steelers may be emerging as a favorite in the AFC. They're 2-0 (two good wins, mind you) while essentially playing without a quarterback. As soon as Roethlisberger returns, this team will be very, very hard to beat.
9. Green Bay's defense looked absolutely dominant on Sunday (with plenty of help from Trent Edwards). But here's a fun stat for you courtesy of ProFootballFocus.com – the Bills didn't target Charles Woodson once the entire game. Not a single pass thrown his direction. Now that's respect.
10. And I'll conclude with this… I hope someone in the NFL public relations department is paying close attention to the amount of media coverage being given today to Braylon Edwards and Kenny McKinley. The fact that most media outlets are spending more time talking about Edwards' DWI and how the Jets will react, than to McKinley's death is sad.


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UV filters help to filter out the UV rays in the environment from entering into the lens which leads to haziness in the pictures. The result, the contrast will improve & your pictures will become much more sharper in appearance. The UV filters were very much effective for one shooting film but with the digital era, their effectiveness seems to be debatable. Since digital sensors provide protection to filter out the UV rays, their seems no reason to use a UV filter on your DSLR anymore. However I strongly recommend you put one on your lens.
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text: Hello Each year it seems I have to replace the pressure valve, circulator pump or black pipe near my boiler. Each time, the rust has plugged something up. This year, I call my service guy in to fix what I tought was a problem with the pressure valve. Turns out, everything from the boiler to the copper that heads it to the radiators had to be replaced. Every inlet and outlet for all the black pipe, t's, elbows, valves, tank and the circulator pump was clogged with rust. A couple of the black pipe ends were rotted completly. Lucky they didn't bust open. Service guy suggests a whole whole water filter to remove the minerals that may be causing this rust build up. This is a closed system I thought so I'm not sure how that'll help. But I can't explain how this rust builds up like this. Any advise is appreciated! Andrew


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By DANNY P. SMITH
Jacqueline Fair picked a good time to hit the only 3-point field goal of the game for the Starkville Lady Yellowjackets.
Fair's 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining gave the Lady Jackets a 36-35 victory against the Grenada Lady Chargers Friday night.
A shot attempt from long range may not have been exactly what Starkville girls coach Kristie Williams was looking for in that situation, but she wasn't about to complain about the results.
"I didn't draw it up, but I'll take it any day of the week," Williams said. "It was a huge shot and she's a senior. To take a shot like that can only boost her confidence. Now she knows she can step up and hit a big shot like that."
Overall, it was a tough night from the outside for Fair, but she came through when it mattered most for the Lady Jackets.
"I came out shooting, but my 3's weren't falling," Fair said. "I kept shooting and knew they were going to fall. I'm glad we won the game."
Starkville, which improved to 5-3 overall, struggled to get points early as it fell behind Grenada 11-6 with 7:40 left in the second quarter.
The Lady Jackets were able to fight back and took a 16-15 advantage at halftime on a score by Imane Montgomery at the 1:12 mark of the second quarter.
A basket by Janay Townsel increased the margin to 18-15 for SHS, but the Lady Chargers came back to regain the lead at 19-18 with 6:19 remaining in the third quarter.
The lead changed hands seven times for the rest of the game until Fair's game-winning shot for the Lady Jackets.
"We came out sluggish and I don't know what was our mind-frame," Williams said. "Coming off that disappointing loss to Neshoba on Tuesday, I thought we would have come out fighting a little bit harder, but we couldn't find our rhythm the entire game.
"To come out with this win tonight, I guess we decided that we didn't want to give up and they fought to the very end. It was an ugly win, but we fought hard. We could have gotten down on ourselves, but we continued to fight and that's a sign of maturity with this team."
Like her coach, Fair was disappointed that Starkville had not played better during the course of the game and knew it would come down to whichever team made a play at the end.
"It was a very close game," Fair said. "This was a big win because even though we won at Grenada, we thought we would come out and win. We set our standards up too high. We played around with them instead of playing our game."
Janay Townsel was the only scorer in double digits for the Lady Jackets with 12 points, while cousin Shameka Townsel was next in the scoring column with eight points.
Starkville plays Northeast Jones at the Meridian Wildcat Classic today. Tipoff for the girls action is set for 3 p.m.
Boys Game
Starkville 90,
Grenada 60
The Jackets were hot from the outside with 13 3-point field goals and easily picked up win against the Chargers.
"We came out making shot after shot," SHS boys coach Greg Carter said. "We defended well early on and rebounded. Everything kind of fell in together."
Carter knows when hit team is shooting well and combined with a strong inside game, it can be tough to stop. He just doesn't want the Jackets to stop themselves.
"We've just got to put together long stretches where we play that way and we're getting better at it." Carter said.
In taking a 30-12 lead after the first quarter, Steve Brand hit three 3-point field goals, while Jacolby Mobley hit a pair from long range for Starkville.
Tori Rice and Mobley had 18 points each by halftime as the Jackets stretched the margin to 51-23.
Carter said Rice's play when Mississippi State signee Gavin Ware had to go out of the game with three fouls was good to see.
"Tori stepped up and filled in at the center spot with not just the rebounding but the scoring too," Carter said. "They kept leaving him one-on-one in there and he kept scoring on the guy. He's getting to the free-throw line and making his free throws."
Rice had 20 points for SHS, while Mobley led the squad in scoring with 22 points. Brand, who joined Mobley with four 3-pointers, and Ware added 14 points each.
The Jackets, who improved to 9-0, have a quick turnaround by playing Jackson Lanier at 4:30 p.m. today in the Meridian Wildcat Classic. Following that, Starkville plays at Canton in a division game Tuesday night before seeing two tough games at the Joe Horne Christmas Classic next weekend.
"We've got a tough stretch of games coming up so we need to be consistent and play well in this next stretch," Carter said.


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Posted 15 November 2012 - 18:11
Posted 15 November 2012 - 18:28
Posted 15 November 2012 - 18:34
Posted 15 November 2012 - 18:36
wow... we've had a company policy that we MUST use truecrypt with AES at minimum as a boot level encryption on all laptops for many years now and all encryption passwords are at least 15 characters long, and picked by IT staff not the individuals to ensure they are compliant with encryption standards here...
Posted 15 November 2012 - 19:04
Lots of people here use TrueCrypt (including myself). If you can't figure it out on your own, create a new thread and we'll help you out.
Finally, someone who uses TrueCrypt, maybe you can tell me how to use it, because the instructions on the web site suck. And, I'm getting a laptop again soon.
Posted 15 November 2012 - 21:18
If it was so 'simple', how come I still can't figure out how to use it!
Encryption costs money. Did anyone think about what happens when you underfund an entire department like Nasa is? Mistakes happen.


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Camp Tanglefoot: Come with us as we walk through our Girl Scout Flower garden. Meet the flower friends in the garden and sample a bouquet of activities. Play the Garden Scamper Game and learn the Honey Bee Dance. See what parts of plants we eat and plant our own seeds as well! Activities introduce the Daisy Journey, Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden. Fun patch included.
Contact Office: Mason City
Girl Cost: $ 6
Adult Cost: Free
Max: 30 girls / 10 adults
Registration Close: 1/18/13


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Moderators: Tonyblack, Jason, Toothy
Tonyblack wrote:Not a book, but the 2009 Discworld Calendar is currently available from Amazon.uk for just over a quid!
That's how I feel when I'm in charity shops and see a Pratchett book waiting to be rescued from being sent for pulping.Who's Wee Dug wrote:Thanks Tony I may get my finger out now and register with them,been toying with the idea of getting Lawrence Watt-Evans Discworld book.
While on the subject I was having a look in a charity shop I found a 1st edition of The Wee Free Men could not resist buying it just jumped into my hand from the top shelf and would not let go,a bit like if you go into one of the lost dogs homes and they are all shouting/barking me,me,me take me so I could not leave it on it's own. made my day a happy one.
You took the Librarian?Who's Wee Dug wrote:I went to Uxbridge to have a ook in The Works and the swines have closed it.
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"Electronic Health Records, Clinical Research, and SLU: How trial sites can survive a monitor's visit in the electronic world" (presentation and question forum) will be offered on the Medical Center Campus from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, in the Caroline Building, Room 108 (Caroline conference room).
Don't forget to bring your lunch or a snack.
This presentation, by the clinical trials office (CTO), will provide information regarding good clinical practice with electronic records in clinical trials, how the use of electronics (including EHR) may change monitoring at the trial site, and how planning ahead may make the monitoring visit smoother.
Following the presentation, a moderated panel of experts will weigh-in from their specific perspective. Participants will be invited to ask questions of the panel which includes representatives from the CTO, IRB, ITS, Compliance offices, and more!
CNEs available. This session is co-provided by the SLU School of Nursing.
The IRB's Brown Bag series is designed to provide the SLU research community with in-depth understanding and discussion concerning the latest policies, procedures, and requirements pertaining to human subject's research.
Brown Bag sessions are for SLU research professionals and coordinators, and any student, staff, or faculty member who is looking for continuing IRB education.
For questions or to RSVP, please call Rachel Millinger at 977-9813 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.
For more information and additional education opportunities visit the "Training and Education" tab on the IRB website.


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The tactic of Terrorism is available to insurgents and governments. Not all insurgents use terror as a tactic, and some choose not to use it because other tactics work better for them in a particular context. Individuals, such as Timothy McVeigh, may also engage in terrorist acts such as the Oklahoma City bombing. If the terrorism is part of a broader insurgency, counter-terrorism may also form a part of a counter-insurgency doctrine, but political, economic, and other measures may focus more on the insurgency than the specific acts of terror. Foreign internal defense (FID) is a term used by several countries for programs either to suppress insurgency, or reduce the conditions under which insurgency could develop.
Counter-terrorism includes both the detection of potential acts and the response to related events.
Counter-terrorism refers to offensive strategies intended to prevent a belligerent, in a broader conflict, from successfully using the tactic of terrorism. The U.S. military definition, compatible with the definitions used by NATO and many other militaries, is "Operations that include the offensive measures taken to prevent, deter, preempt, and respond to terrorism." In other words, counter-terrorism is a set of techniques for denying an opponent the use terrorism-based tactics, just as counter-air is a set of techniques for denying the opponent the use of attack aircraft.
Anti-terrorism is defensive, intended to reduce the chance of an attack using terrorist tactics at specific points, or to reduce the vulnerability of possible targets to such tactics. "Defensive measures used to reduce the vulnerability of individuals and property to terrorist acts, to include limited response and containment by local military and civilian forces." To continue the analogy between air and terrorist capability, offensive counter-air missions attack the airfields of the opponent, while defensive counter-air uses antiaircraft missiles to protect a point on one's own territory. The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Sri Lankan Civil War, and Colombian Civil War are examples of conflicts where terrorism is present, along with other tactics, so that a participant uses counter- and anti-terrorism to limit the opponent's use of terror tactics.
Most counter-terrorism strategies involve an increase in standard police and domestic intelligence. The central activities are traditional: interception of communications, and the tracing of persons. New technology has, however, expanded the range of military and law enforcement operations. Domestic intelligence is often directed at specific groups, defined on the basis of origin or religion, which is a source of political controversy. Mass surveillance of an entire population raises objections on civil liberties grounds.
To select the effective action when terrorism appears to be more of an isolated event, the appropriate government organizations need to understand the source, motivation, methods of preparation, and tactics of terrorist groups. Good intelligence is at the heart of such preparation, as well as political and social understanding of any grievances that might be solved. Ideally, one gets information from inside the group, a very difficult challenge for HUMINT because operational terrorist cells are often small, with all members known to one another, perhaps even related. Counterintelligence is a great challenge with the security of cell-based systems, since the ideal, but nearly impossible, goal is to obtain a clandestine source within the cell. Financial tracking can play a role, as can communications intercept, but both of these approaches need to be balanced against legitimate expectations of privacy.
Examples of these problems can include prolonged, incommunicado detention without judicial review; risk of subjecting to torture during the transfer, return and extradition of people between or within countries; and the adoption of security measures that restrain the rights or freedoms of citizens and breach principles of non-discrimination. Examples include:
Many would argue that such violations exacerbate rather than counter the terrorist threat. Human rights advocates argue for the crucial role of human rights protection as an intrinsic part to fight against terrorism. This suggests, as proponents of human security have long argued, that respecting human rights may indeed help us to incur security. Amnesty International included a section on confronting terrorism in the recommendations in the Madrid Agenda arising from the Madrid Summit on Democracy and Terrorism (Madrid 8-11 March 2005):
While international efforts to combat terrorism have focused on the need to enhance cooperation between states, proponents of human rights (as well as human security) have suggested that more effort needs to be given to the effective inclusion of human rights protection as a crucial element in that cooperation. They argue that international human rights obligations do not stop at borders and a failure to respect human rights in one state may undermine its effectiveness in the international effort to cooperate to combat terrorism.
Another major method of pre-emptive neutralization is interrogation of known or suspected terrorists to obtain information about specific plots, targets, the identity of other terrorists, and whether the interrogation subjects himself as guilty of terrorist involvement. Sometimes more extreme methods are used to increase suggestibility, such as sleep deprivation or drugs. Such methods may lead captives to offer false information in an attempt to stop the treatment, or due to the confusion brought on by it. These methods are not available to European powers because in 1978 the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the Ireland v. United Kingdom case that such methods amounted to a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment, and that such practices were in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 3 (art. 3).
Foreign internal defense programs provide outside expert assistance to a threatened government. FID can involve both non-military and military aspects of counter-terrorism.
History has shown that military intervention has rarely been successful in stopping or preventing terrorism. Although military action can disrupt a terrorist group's operations temporarily, it rarely ends the threat. Provoking repression is actually a key goal of terrorism, as most of the time it increases the popularity of the terrorist cause as well as furthers the motivation for continuing terrorism. Most probably such a strategy against terrorism is not successful and cannot be as the structural causes of terrorism are not addressed: Relative deprivation that leads to frustration, aggressive foreign policy that leads to 'hate', and psychosocial effects of globalization (as well as other causes) are not solved. Thus repression by the military in itself (particularly if it is not accompanied by other measures) usually leads to short term victories, but tend to be unsuccessful in the long run (e.g. the French's doctrine described in Roger Trinquier's book Modern War used in Indochina and Algeria). However, new methods (see the new Counterinsurgency Field Manual) such as those taken in Iraq have yet to be seen as beneficial or ineffectual.
A more sophisticated target-hardening approach must consider industrial and other critical industrial infrastructure that could be attacked. Terrorists need not import chemical weapons if they can cause a major industrial accident such as the Bhopal disaster or the Halifax explosion. Industrial chemicals in manufacturing, shipping, and storage need greater protection, and some efforts are in progress. To put this risk into perspective, the first major lethal chemical attack in WWI used 160 tons of chlorine. Industrial shipments of chlorine, widely used in water purification and the chemical industry, travel in 90 or 55 ton tank cars.
To give one more example, the North American electrical grid has already demonstrated, in the Northeast Blackout of 2003, its vulnerability to natural disasters coupled with inadequate, possibly insecure, SCADA (system control and data acquisition) networks. Part of the vulnerability is due to deregulation leading to much more interconnection in a grid designed for only occasional power-selling between utilities. A very few terrorists, attacking key power facilities when one or more engineers have infiltrated the power control centers, could wreak havoc.
Equipping likely targets with containers (i.e., bags) of pig lard has been utilized to discourage attacks by Islamist suicide bombers. The technique was apparently used on a limited scale by British authorities in the 1940s. The approach stems from the idea that Muslims perpetrating the attack would not want to be "soiled" by the lard in the moment prior to dying. The idea has been suggested more recently as a deterrent to suicide bombings in Israel. However, the actual effectiveness of this tactic is probably limited as it is possible that a sympathetic Islamic scholar could issue a fatwa proclaiming that a suicide bomber would not be polluted by the swine products.
Public health agencies, from local to national level, may be designated to deal with identification, and sometimes mitigation, of possible biological attacks, and sometimes chemical or radiologic contamination.
Most of these measures deal with terrorist attacks that affect an area, or threaten to do so. It is far harder to deal with assassination, or even reprisals on individuals, due to the short (if any) warning time and the quick exfiltration of the assassins. Of course, if the assassination is done by a suicide bomber, exfiltration becomes moot.
These units are specially trained in tactics and are very well equipped for CQB with emphasis on stealth and performing the mission with minimal casualties. The units include take-over force (assault teams), snipers, EOD experts, dog handlers and intelligence officers. See Counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism organizations for national command, intelligence, and incident mitigation.
The majority of counter-terrorism operations at the tactical level, are conducted by state, federal and national law enforcement agencies or intelligence agencies. In some countries, the military may be called in as a last resort. Obviously, for countries whose military are legally permitted to conduct police operations, this is a non-issue, and such counter-terrorism operations are conducted by their military.
See Counter-intelligence for command, intelligence and warning, and incident mitigation aspects of counter-terror.
|Main locale
|Hostage nationality
|Counter-terrorist force
|Munich Massacre
|Munich Olympics, Germany
|Black September
|German police
|11 hostages, 1 rescuer, 5 terrorists killed. 3 terrorists captured.
|AIA Hostage Incident
|AIA building, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
|US, Swedish Embassies. Mixed
|Japanese Red Army
|Malaysian police
|All hostages rescuer, all terrorists flew up to Libya.
|Entebbe raid
|Entebbe, Uganda
|Mixed. Israelis and Jews separated.
|Israeli mixed force
|all 6 hijackers, 45 Ugandan troops, 3 hostages and 1 Israeli soldier dead. 100 hostages rescued
|Hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181
|Spanish airspace and Mogadishu, Somalia
|GSG 9, Special Air Service mixed forces
|1 hostage, 3 hijackers dead, 1 captured. 90 hostages rescued.
|Iranian Embassy Siege
|London, UK
|Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan
|Special Air Service
|1 hostage, 5 terrorists dead, 1 captured, 1 SAS operative received minor burns.
|Hijacking of "Woyla" Garuda Indonesia
|Don Muang International Airport, Thailand
|Jihad Commandos
|Kopassus, Thailand military mixed forces
|1 hijacker kill himself, 4 hijackers and 1 Kopassus operative dead, 1 pilot wounded, all hostages rescued.
|Capture of Achille Lauro hijackers
|International airspace and Italy
|US military, turned over to Italy
|1 dead in hijacking, 4 terrorists convicted in Italy
|Japanese embassy hostage crisis
|Lima, Peru
|Japanese and guests (800+)
|Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
|Peruvian military & police mixed forces
|1 hostage, 2 rescuers, all 14 terrorists dead.
|Sauk Arms Heist
|Perak, Malaysia
|2 policemen, 1 army and 1 civilian
|Malaysian military & police CT Pasukan Gerakan Khas mixed forces
|2 hostages dead, 2 rescuers, 1 terrorist dead and all 28 terrorists captured.
|Moscow theater hostage crisis
|Mixed, mostly Russian (900+)
|Russian OZNAZ
|129-204 hostages dead, all 39 terrorists dead. 600-700 rescued
|Beslan school hostage crisis
|Beslan, North Ossetia-Alania, (an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation).
|Mixed Russian
|334 hostages dead and hundreds wounded. 10-21 rescuers dead. 31 hostage takers killed, 1 captured
|Lal Masjid siege
|Islamabad, Pakistan
|Pakistani students
|Lal Masjid students and militants
|Pakistani Army and Rangers SSG commandos
|61 militants killed, 50 militants captured 23 students killed, 11 SSG killed,1 Ranger killed,33 SSG wounded,8 soldiers wounded,3 Rangers wounded, 14 civilians killed
|Operation Jaque
|Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
|15 hostages released. 2 hostage takers captured
|Hijacking of MISC Bunga Melati Dua and Lima ships
|Gulf of Aden, Somalia
|Somaliaan piracy and militants
|Royal Malaysian Navy PASKAL and international mixed forces
|Negotiation finished. 80 hostages released. RMN including PASKAL navy commandos with international mixed forces patrolling the Gulf of Aden during this festive period.
Examples include:
Given the nature of operational counter-terrorism tasks national military organisations do not generally have dedicated units whose sole responsibility is the prosecution of these tasks. Instead the counter-terrorism function is an element of the role, allowing flexibility in their employment, with operations being undertaken in the domestic or international context. In some cases the legal framework within which they operate prohibits military units conducting operations in the domestic arena; United States Department of Defense policy, based on the Posse Comitatus Act, forbids domestic counter-terrorism operations by the US military. Units allocated some operational counter-terrorism task are frequently Special Forces or similar assets.
In cases where military organisations do operate in the domestic context some form of formal handover from the law enforcement community is regularly required, to ensure adherence to the legislative framework and limitations. such as the Iranian Embassy Siege, the British police formally turned responsibility over to the Special Air Service when the situation went beyond police capabilities.


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Posted 26 February 2013 - 16:11
Posted 06 March 2013 - 05:20
Posted 06 March 2013 - 05:31
Posted 06 March 2013 - 13:18
Posted 06 March 2013 - 17:08
Seems to me that your job isn't very important if you can telecommute.
Posted 07 March 2013 - 05:02
Posted 07 March 2013 - 06:48
For another thing working from home allows more people to still work and support elderly parents, kids, etc. Cuts down on childcare costs massively (hey didn't the chick that runs yahoo now just have a baby so she should understand this).
Also some people are more creative at home. Designers can't get inspiration from bleak cubicles or drab offices. Developers would have more distractions in these open concept offices where there are tons of distractions as well as people wandering by your desk asking "do you like turtles?" "do you like chocolate milk" "oooh! what's that?" "what does this do?" "oh you need to blah blah blah"... every 10 minutes... would you be able to code an application a fortune 500 relies on or software that runs critical stuff in a crazy environment like that??
Poo Poo on yahoo for doing this. They are on the way out like myspace anyways.


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Strategy OverviewMunicipal bonds are debt securities issued by or on behalf of state and local governments, their agencies and authorities, and other instrumentalities. The interest income of most municipal issues is exempt from Federal income taxes. Additionally, the interest income of municipal issues of a specific state will generally not be taxable for state income tax purposes for residents of that state.
On a tax-adjusted basis, municipal bonds may offer greater returns than taxable debt sectors, such as Treasuries and corporate bonds, having similar credit ratings and maturities. In addition to providing the potential for attractive tax-adjusted yields, municipal debt generally has high credit. During credit-sensitive time periods, such as a recession, municipal debt default frequencies tend to be lower than corporate debt. The potential for higher tax-adjusted yields than corporate bonds and low credit default risk make municipal bonds an attractive asset class.
The New York Municipal Bond Strategy employs the municipal yield curve's full maturity spectrum.
We manage municipal bond portfolios with the same core investment process used for all of our strategies:
We avoid undue reliance on a limited set of strategies, which could lead to greater return volatilities and large tracking errors relative to the stated benchmark. We have customized our analytics for municipal-specific factors, such as municipal yield volatility, call option costs, and tax exposures. Because we concentrate on relative value opportunities across most global debt sectors, we can use our extensive experience in relative value comparisons to help select the most fairly valued securities to meet portfolio objectives. Above all, we seek to hold well-structured municipal bonds, being compensated appropriately for risks relating to calls, credit quality, liquidity, tax liabilities, and market supply-demand conditions.
Our strategic objectives are to consistently add value over benchmark total returns and to maintain return volatilities similar to those of the selected benchmark. We use the following portfolio strategies in attempting to achieve consistent above-benchmark returns:
Most municipal bonds have call options. Callability introduces duration uncertainty as duration can be extended or shortened dramatically, depending upon changes in interest rates. For example, as yields drop, the likelihood of a bond getting called away well before its stated maturity date may increase substantially. Under such a circumstance, the bond's duration could be dramatically shortened, thereby limiting the potential price appreciation resulting from falling yields. We carefully measure the added yield from accepting call risks and will structure our portfolios to provide for appropriate call protection. Similarly, we use our extensive internal analytics to gauge the potential price effects of yield curve movements and sector yield premium shifts.
We closely track potential tax liabilities of market discount bonds, which may be trading near their safe harbor limits, or the price at which any further price increases to par are not taxable. Such market discount bonds will experience price volatilities differently than their stated duration calculations. For discount bonds near or below the safe harbor limits, market discounts would be taxed at ordinary income tax rates upon disposal, call, or maturity. Due to this potential tax liability, a market discount bond can sustain adverse price movements as the de minimis safe harbor limit is approached.
As one of the largest bond managers in the U.S., we have available trading economies of scale, permitting us to manage trading costs to as low a level as possible. Trading costs are reflected in bid-ask spreads, which can be substantial in the municipal market due to the absence of sufficient trading liquidity, the very large number of different issues, and the relatively small average issue amount. Our trading volumes provide us with continuous access to all of the major market makers, allowing us to assess broker inventories and current market conditions. Trading costs, including tax effects, are factored into all of our analyses to help ensure that the relative value benefits of a trade outweigh the transaction costs.
We are unique among municipal managers in that we integrate our municipal bond managers with our other sector specialist and generalist portfolio managers. Through this integration, our municipal managers acquire a relative value perspective among all debt sectors, enabling them to assess how relative sector and issue valuations may shift under changing circumstances and how relative portfolio performance may be affected.
Past performance is not a guarantee or a reliable indicator of future results. All investments contain risk and may lose value. Investing in the bond market is subject to certain risks including market, interest-rate, issuer, credit, and inflation risk. Income from municipal bonds may be subject to state and local taxes and at times the alternative minimum tax; a strategy concentrating in a single or limited number of states is subject to greater risk of adverse economic conditions and regulatory changes. PIMCO strategies utilize derivatives which may involve certain costs and risks such as liquidity, interest rate, market, credit, management and the risk that a position could not be closed when most advantageous. Investing in derivatives could lose more than the amount invested. The credit quality of a particular security or group of securities does not ensure the stability or safety of an overall portfolio. There is no guarantee that this investment strategy will work under all market conditions and each investor should evaluate their ability to invest for a long-term especially during periods of downturn in the market. Diversification does not ensure against loss. Please consult your tax and/or legal counsel for specific tax questions and concerns.
This material contains the current opinions of the manager and such opinions are subject to change without notice. This material has been distributed for informational purposes only and should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product.
No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission. Pacific Investment Management Company LLC, 650 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660, 800-387-4626. ©2015, PIMCO.
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