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Nashua, NH (PRWEB) April 30, 2013
IntelliSoft Group, LLC, a leading provider of credentialing, payer enrollment and contract management software, today announced the release of IntelliCred™ and IntelliApp™ version 12.3. With a significant hard-dollar value associated with provider enrollment and credentialing, the improved functionality of Version 12.3 means users will more effectively optimize time management, reduce errors and increase reimbursement rates.
Based on customer-driven recommendations, this new version of IntelliCred and IntelliApp is designed to provide the highest level of productivity among software users.
Some key new features available on Version 12.3 are:
"Nearly all the modifications in this new version of IntelliCred and IntelliApp are based on customer requests, the first with this focus in several versions," said Mike Aha, Director of Development. "We take pride in releasing a quality product that has gone through a vigorous testing process prior to this release."
Companies interested in signing up for a product demonstration of IntelliCred™ or IntelliApp™ Version 12.3 can visit http://www.intellisoftgroup.com and click on the Contact Us button.
Based in Nashua, NH, IntelliSoft Group is a leading provider of medical credentialing, provider enrollment, and contract management software products. The company's products, IntelliCred, IntelliApp and IntelliContract are used by hundreds of healthcare systems, hospitals, managed care organizations, credentialing verification organizations, individual practice associations, and sub-acute healthcare organizations and can be deployed on a traditional client server or in a soft-hosted web or SaaS environment. IntelliSoft Group's CVO offers one of the most innovative credentials verification services available. For more information, please visit http://www.intellisoftgroup.com.
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1754A2X IBM Local 2x16 Console Manager KVM Switch 16 Ports Rack Mountable.
Manufacturer: IBM Corporation
Manufacturer Part Number: 1754A2X
Manufacturer Website Address: www.ibm.com
Brand Name: IBM
Product Model: 1754A2X
Product Name: 1754A2X KVM Switch
Marketing Information:
The IBM LCM8 and LCM16 are designed to address the challenges of managing ever increasing density of servers with features designed to offer unmatched scalability, flexibility and security with the ability to use physical Two Factor Authentication (TFA) devices, such as Common Access Card (CAC) cards.
Condition: New Retail Factory Sealed
Manufacturer Warranty: Full Manufacturer Warranty
ALLHDD Warranty: 30 Days
Manufacturer Warranty: Full Manufacturer Warranty
ALLHDD Warranty: 30 Days

subset: commoncrawl


text:
See other Quebec properties
HI-Quebec- Auberge Internationale de Québec
Real Reviews
Real reviews from fellow travellers
These are trusted reviews from guests who have actually stayed here. We hope you find them helpful.
Note: we only give a property a rating once it has received a minimum of 3 reviews.
- " The staff was not over the top helpful. In my opinion, they did what they had to do. The last night I was there there was a guy who I asked to help me with my 50 lb bag from the 3rd floor, he said he couldn't leave the desk (which I understood) so he instructed me to go upstairs and put the luggage in the elevator. I did. But then when the luggage came downstairs, he didn't even grab it from the elevator, he opened the elevator and let me get it myself. I could be overreacting. "
- 08 May 2015 Ashley USA
- " Really enjoyed our stay. Loved the free breakfast every morning! Activities organised by the hostel were also fun :) "
- 23 Jan 2015 Tara Australia
- " Atmosphere was a bit dead, but I think that's more to do with the time of year than the hostel. I imagine it would get very busy during the summer! "
- 15 Jan 2015 Anonymous Australia
- " I spent a night there and i liked it. It is a clean hostel and the location is awesome. I highly recommend it "
- 09 Nov 2014 Mohamad Lebanon
- " Great place to stay, above average to say the least, privileged location and considerably cheap. Highly recommended "
- 01 Nov 2014 Rodrigo Brazil
- " It was a very noisy place, the noisiest I've ever been in. At first I thought it was coming from the room above me, but it could have been just everywhere: doors slamming (people not taking care to let the door shut nicely), and loudly stomping instead walking, all night, in a regular din, from the afternoon all through to the morning, never ending. Maybe there was particularly rowdy group, or maybe ghosts, but I didn't sleep very well. "
- 20 Oct 2014 Anonymous Canada
- " I LOVE the room and the Hostel too. Close to everything. "
- 18 Oct 2014 Anonymous Brazil
- " Liked having kitchen facilities. The location was great, we were able to walk a lot of places. And the guided tours offrered daily helped us keep our costs down as we used public transportation. Our stay was great. Only downside was windows didn't open and the room got hot but they brought us a fan and it helped out a lot. "
- 12 Oct 2014 Rita USA
- " A really fab hostel, it crated a lovely atmosphere and people behaved according to that stnospgere. Was more like a guest house than a hostel. Clean, informative staff, excellent location, free activities, loads of communal space to chill out, have a drink, watch TV - whatever you need. "
- 06 Oct 2014 francesca England
- " very good location, clean room and bathroom!! The best choice. "
- 05 Oct 2014 Dasom South Korea


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ABF taking stock after suit tossed
Posted: September 4, 2013 at 12:16 a.m.
ABF Freight System Inc. is evaluating its legal options after a lawsuit against YRC Worldwide and the Teamsters was dismissed by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
This story is only available from our archives.
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Rolling Stone has released their end of the year list of the "50 best albums of 2012," with Green Day's ¡Uno! coming in at number eight.
"Green Day took a vacation from sweeping rock operas and spent 2012 banging out hot, hook-mad punk rock like it was 1994 all over again. The first installment in their ¡Uno!-¡Dos!-¡Tré! album trilogy flails and bashes and rants like a spiky dervish - from the Clash-disco of "Kill the DJ" to the mod-Who blood rush of "Carpe Diem." Billie Joe Armstrong blitzes past his 40th birthday without losing the bullshit-calling rage that keeps a man young, cranky and always on the lookout for girls who think "Won't you be my bloody valentine?" is a cool pickup line."
It would be pretty cool if all three albums from the trilogy were included in the list, or even in order, but sadly that was not the case. Other band's that made the list include Bob Dylan, Frank Ocean, and Bruce Springsteen taking the number one spot.
You can read the full top 50 list by heading over to RollingStone.com.
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¡Uno! comes in at #8 on Rolling Stone's list of the top 50 albums of 2012
Started by Crimpshrine , Dec 05 2012 06:34 PM
Posted 05 December 2012 - 06:34 PM
Posted 05 December 2012 - 06:42 PM
Yeah, there's a thread for this.
Posted 05 December 2012 - 06:45 PM
So effectively, they put Uno to represent the trilogy?
Posted 05 December 2012 - 06:47 PM
Next time please use the search function first before making a new thread. There's already a thread about this, so you can discuss it there http://www.greendayc...albums-of-2012/
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Updated: 07/22/2014 8:20 AM |
Created: 07/22/2014 8:06 AM
By: Nikki Ibarra, KOB Eyewitness News 4
It's a number some have been waiting all year for–where does New Mexico rank in terms of child well-being?
In 2013, the Kids Count Report put the state at 50. This year, New Mexico is 49. "I'm happy we're not 50th, but it's nothing really to celebrate," said Veronica Garcia with New Mexico Voices for Children.
Garcia said they're calling the change "insignificant."
"We're playing hopscotch with Mississippi and that we're still at the very bottom of the pile," Garcia said.
Each year, states are ranked according to how well kids are doing in four groups: economic well-being, education, health and family and community.
From there, certain indicators are analyzed, like high school graduation rates–which have improved in New Mexico–and the teen birth rate. But that's not enough for a significant improvement. Things have gotten worse in some areas, like kids living in high-poverty areas and eighth graders who aren't proficient in math.
"We're no longer doing worst for kids. We're doing second worst," said Ellen Bernstein with the Albuquerque Teachers Federation.
Bernstein adds more needs to be done, especially on early education and poverty.
"If you ask any teacher, the one thing that would really improve the lives of kids is an attention on poverty. It's time to stop paying lip service and step up and do something," Bernstein said.
Related Links:
New Mexico Kids Count Profile
2014 Kids Count Report
KOB welcomes a lively and courteous discussion as long as you follow the rules of conduct set forth in our Terms of Use. Comments are not pre-screened before they post. You agree that anything you post may be used, along with your name and profile picture, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the license you have granted pursuant to our Terms of Use.


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May I introduce you to:
Software engineer with fifteen years experience in the semiconductor industry, working specifically on embedded systems, device drivers, and high-level applications.
Specialties: System-level debugging, embedded software programming, high-level software architecture/design/implementation, C, C++, C#, VB, assembly language
Manage video tuner firmware team.
Developed firmware for analog/digital hybrid video tuner product line.
Provided software application support for cell phone SOC and transceiver product lines.
Provided software application support for cell phone SOC and transceiver product lines.
Provided software support for development of an embedded MIPS system controller.
Provided software support for development of PC southbridge chip.
Developed 2D/3D drivers/applications for graphics workstation display adapters.
At this point, someone reading this blog years hence would probably knit their brows and cynically wonder, "which one?" Whether because tragedies have randomly clustered around this particular time, or because of our society's unprecedented access to news, or because (an ironically historically-popular theory) we are at the End of Days, there are a lot of tragedies to choose from. This one is different, though, because it involves two things that should never go together: guns and children.
In the days following, as I worked through my own horror and the underlying fear that gripped every parent, I was struck by the fact that now, as never before, we are able to watch an entire society go through the stages of grief. I'm referring here to Facebook, where the first few posts immediately following the incident spoke of numbness and shock…but were then followed by a flood of anger and outrage. (Soon after, the Onion posted an article that encapsulated the "depression" stage pretty succinctly, but I'm getting ahead of myself.) And riding on the crest of that anger came the Agendas:
"We need more gun control."
"We need to arm more civilians."
"We need to put God back in schools."
Granted, there were a few who attempted to lead Facebook in prayer, but they were (in my corner of the Internet, at least) drowned out by the sea of demands. And for the most part, this is entirely natural and even reasonable — a terrible thing has happened, let's take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again. The problem here is this: generally speaking, we don't make good decisions in the face of this kind of tragedy. Feeling the terrible injustice that has been done, even if it hasn't touched us directly, we lash out; and when someone urges caution, tells us not to make decisions too quickly, says "it's too soon", we call them an unfeeling monster. "How can you stand there and say that? Don't you see what happened? Isn't it obvious what needs to be done?" Spurred on by heart-rending news photos, perhaps a few quickly-written songs aired on the radio, we hold on to that anger.
And that, too, is entirely natural, because at some level, the anger feels…good, doesn't it? Like a sore muscle or bruise, we find ourselves somehow seeking out the pain. So we clutch it, and before it has a chance to fade, we act on it — and, almost inevitably, say or do something we regret.
But how do we avoid being "unfeeling monsters"? Well, this is what I'm going to do: grieve. Mourn. Make a space for the anger to be replaced by sadness, rather than immediately rushing out and doing. It's hard — sadness doesn't feel nearly as good as anger — but by allowing ourselves time and space to work through our grief, allowing ourselves to grow, we are able to come together afterwards, all of us with our agendas, from a place of compassion and wisdom.
And maybe, just maybe, take a step forward.
There's a saying that the rector at my church is fond of when referring to the Bible: "All stories are true; some of them actually happened." As far as referring to the ain't-necessarily-so aspect of Scripture, I'm all for that. However, when taken in a wider context, I disagree: there are stories that are radically untrue. From my way of looking at things, all stories can't be true, because for every story, there is an anti-story.
For instance: there's story of the Prodigal Son, where the wastrel returns home to his family to be welcomed with open arms. That's Mercy and Grace, in a nutshell. But there's an anti-story: the Grasshopper and the Ants, where the grasshopper plays all summer while the ants work hard and save up for the winter, and when winter comes, the ants leave him out in the cold to die of starvation. That's Justice. They can't both be true…at least, not at the same time and at the same level. True, the Prodigal does experience his Grasshopper moment while pining for even the scraps fed to the pigs, but in the end — in the wider, broader story — he is redeemed.
More importantly, our belief as to which story is true will determine how we live. Do we believe in Mercy, that those who have squandered the richness of their lives deserve a second — and third, and seventh, and seventy-seventh — chance? Or do we believe in Justice, that everyone must earn their reward? Or, as is often the case, do we believe in one story for ourselves and another for others? Do we believe in justice for ourselves and mercy for others, which generally comes out as "in their case, they deserve what they get, but in my case, it wasn't my fault"? Or perhaps even the reverse, where we hold ourselves to an impossibly, soul-crushingly high standard that would seem ridiculous if we imposed it on someone else?
So when you hear a story, ask yourself: what's the anti-story? And which do I believe?
Warning: if you're not a gaming geek, the following post will be relatively meaningless. Feel free to skip it; I won't be offended. It's not world-shattering, but I had to get it out there nonetheless.
I find myself experiencing a severe case of child-before-Christmas syndrome with respect to Star Wars: The Old Republic's imminent release. As I pre-ordered the day that pre-orders were available, I fully expect to be in tomorrow's wave of early releases; as such, I suspect I will find it difficult to sleep tonight. But why?
Well, I'm a fan of MMO's, it's true. Despite not really having the attention span to get far into, say, high-level raiding, there's something about the idea that grabs hold of me. I occasionally subscribe to EVE for a couple months, just to get my spaceship/everyone-on-the-same-server/crazy-player-economy fix.
And it's true that I love Star Wars. It's in my top three IP's, next to Middle-Earth and Narnia — and it's the only one with laser swords. But again, I don't have the commitment to, say, watch the old trilogy back-to-back (I tried once, before Phantom Menace came out, and ended up sleeping through Dagobah).
Star Wars: The Old Republic is personal, though. It was made in Austin.
So when the server didn't boot me once, even during Beta Weekends, I figured I had Evan and his team to thank. Evan spent a semester walking me and the rest of his class through the basics of game programming, and sharing his love of artful Japanese games like Shadow of the Colossus.
When a piece of concept art made me swoon, I checked to see if my friend Paul had done it. He and I played D&D together in ages past, and would occasionally doodle out our interactions with crafty kobolds and whatnot.
When I first met the Sith Inquisitor's master, Darth Zash, I cackled gleefully at her wonderfully unique personality and voice. I immediately sent a facebook message to her writer, Rebecca, a friend of mine from church.
Every time I come across an interesting feature, like companion crafting or variable-rate energy recharge, I wonder whether Damion has been waiting since Shadowbane to implement it. I got the chance to interact with him and the others at Wolfpack back in Shadowbane's glory days, and I'm sure there were a lot of lessons learned that they were just itching to apply to their next MMO. (For me, I still think that game had some of the best original IP ever.)
And of course as I revel in the overall story, I think of Daniel Erickson, and the semester he spent teaching me — and the few of my classmates to survive his scathing criticism — how to suck a little bit less at writing.
So for the first time, I'm personally invested in how well a game does. No, I didn't buy the Collector's Edition — but I am buying several months of game time for both my dad and my wife.
A friend of mine once remarked, "You know the best way to get rich? Don't have kids." My first reaction was to ruefully admit that this was true; children are a very expensive commitment, and a very long-term one at that.
However, as I found myself thinking about that statement much later, something about it just seemed to ring false. I slowly began to realize that the problem I had was with the definition of the word "rich". "Rich" certainly is generally used to indicate an abundance of material wealth; however, money is not an end to itself. Rather, it's a means to an end; it's a resource that allows you to pursue other ends.
And "rich" can be used in another context; that is, the idea of a "rich life". When people use that phrase, they're generally referring to a life lived to its utmost. In this sense, "rich" doesn't imply wealth at all, except insofar as it's necessary to achieve that end.
It reminds me of a conversation I once had with the rector at my church, when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. At one point, I mused, "I want my life to be an adventure." His response was to ask a question: "What would life as an adventure look like?"
After thinking about this for a while, I came up with a picture that works for me:
Many years later, I look back on my years as a parent, and I see that it truly is a grand adventure. It's not comfortable, and in fact requires a great deal of sacrifice…but in the end, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Being a parent — if you truly embrace it as your life's adventure — is as rich a life as I could ask for.
From George MacDonald's "Diary of an Old Soul":
"'Tis hard for man to rouse his spirit up —
It is the human creative agony,
Though but to hold the heart an empty cup,
Or tighten on the team a rigid rein.
Many will rather lie among the slain
Than creep through narrow ways the light to gain —
Than wake the will, and be born bitterly."
Being translated: wake up.
I had completely forgotten the magic of reading until the light bulb went on for my son Peter. For him, it's as if a whole new world has come into focus; what once were meaningless symbols on doors, signs, books, computers, gadgets, toys, magazines, games, TV, food wrappers, clocks, billboards — so many things — are now becoming meaningful. It's thrilling, and the excitement creates a positive feedback loop that has accelerated the process even further.
I wonder what new sorcery he's going to discover next…
I've been thinking a lot about personal change lately, and whaddya know? It's New Year's, when the idea of personal change comes to the fore. So while we're in that frame of mind, a few thoughts gleaned the many, many mistakes during my time here:
Change is hard; the animal part of us just isn't equipped for it. Luckily, we have brains, and we have each other, and change is worthwhile.
So: let's get to it. See you in 2011.
There's a prevalent idea in the personal finance world: "if you don't start investing now, you'll never catch up." I recently encountered this idea in a slightly different context than I'm used to, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized how misleading it can be.
First off, an introduction. "You'll never catch up" is an idea that stems from the power of compound interest. The classic example is that of Early Edna and Late Lucy (substitute whatever cutesy names you desire): Early Edna invests for ten years immediately upon receiving her first income, then stops and never puts in another dime. Late Lucy, however, doesn't start until Early Edna is finished, but she invests for another 30 years. At the end of that 40-year span, if the rate of return on their investments is high enough, Edna still beats out Lucy. Check out the table here if you like hard numbers.
So the point here, of course, is to start investing as soon as possible. I agree with this 100%, and wish I'd seen it when I graduated from college (or that I'd listened to my parents). But then I encountered that idea in the context of investing vs. paying off debt, and it gave me pause. It ran something like, "Of course you should invest at least something, rather than using all of your available income to pay off debt — otherwise, you'll never catch up. An investment compounds forever, but eventually, you'll pay off the debt." In other words, there was a qualitative difference between investing and paying off debt.
I was torn. On the one hand, intuitively I saw where the idea was coming from. But on the other, I had learned enough to know that, as far as the math is concerned, investing and paying off debt have exactly the same effect on one's long term net worth. You even use the same spreadsheet function (FV, "future value") to do the calculations — just with a sign or two reversed.
I also began to see the intuitive counterargument: debt also compounds forever, or at least it would if you didn't make any payments on it.
So to be absolutely sure, I drew up a spreadsheet (I love spreadsheets) and played around with several scenarios. Sure enough, if the interest rate on your debt and the rate of return on your investment is the same, then it doesn't matter a whit where you put your money — your net worth is the same at the end.
Of course, that's a big "if" — the your interest rate and investment returns will almost certainly be widely disparate. Also, paying off debt is risk-free, whereas most investments tend to swing in value over time. Also also, being debt-free has psychological worth to many people that's far beyond the dollar value.
So really, that last paragraph is the takeaway. If you're a numbers person, treat paying off your debt as a risk-free investment with a rate of return equal to the interest rate. If your rate is fairly high, you'll find that paying it off is a fantastic investment, and that it's worthwhile to get rid of that debt before putting a penny towards investments. If it's fairly low, perhaps you'll want to split between the two, and if it's extremely low, I don't think anyone would blame you for paying the minimum and putting the rest of your money into investments. Of course, what "high" and "low" mean are up to you. If the mere idea of being out of debt has worth to you, then the bar for putting money towards your debt is set lower than it would be otherwise.
Just don't let anyone tell you "you'll never catch up" if they don't know your situation.
To the fine people at Discover Card:
I like the idea of having 5% cash back on rotating categories. Very cool. It has the potential for making me occasionally pull out my Discover instead of AmEx Blue Cash. I mean, I'm pretty enamored of the fact that the AmEx gives me 5% back on groceries, gas, and drugstore purchases all the time and 1.5% back on everything else, but I'd be willing to use the Discover to pay for clothes, restaurants, etc. if you gave me 5% back on them now and then.
But wait, what's this fine print? "Subject to a cap of $300 in purchases." Wait, for the entire rotation time (3 months)? Yes, for the entire three months. OK, so you're saying if I use your card instead of my other one, I'll get at most a whopping $10.50 (5%-1.5%) over what I'd get with the AmEx (which, incidentally, has no such cap)? $3.50 per month?
That's pretty underhanded, Discover. I mean, I like you — you were the first credit card I had heard of to offer cash back for purchases, and I loved that (and still do). But this? This kind of trickery is no way to keep your customers' hearts — or our wallets.
Public service announcement: in your young child's eyes, nothing is more awesome than one-on-one time with you. Video games are pretty fun. TV is OK. But watch how their eyes light up when you say, "Wanna play Transformers (or legos or house or…) together?"
Every now and then, give them your undivided attention. They crave it, like a man in the desert craves water.
This has been a public service announcement.
Alright, now it's time to get down to the nitty gritty. You've decided on an allocation and you've decided on a location. Now for the big question: what funds do you actually buy? As it turns out, this part is actually simpler than you might think. There are two main rules:
#1: Follow your allocation. This means avoiding funds that are mixes of different asset classes, which includes most actively-managed funds, since they almost always contain some amount of cash.
#2: Find the lowest expense ratio possible. Forget Morningstar ratings; within a given asset class, expense ratio is the best predictor of fund performance. Now, this is simultaneously intuitive and counter-intuitive — one would expect a cheaper investment to be a better bargain, but at the same time, one would expect someone who charges more to give you more for your money. That's certainly what expensive funds would like you to believe, but the research — including Morningstar's own! — doesn't bear that out.
With those two rules in mind, let's take a look at 401(k)'s and IRA's.
With 401(k)'s (and 529's), rule #1 is generally enough to suffice: you rarely have more than one fund per asset class, which makes the choice easy. However, sometimes there's no direct match, in which case you just do the best you can. Here's a list of funds you might swap out a given asset class for, in order of preference:
Now, with an IRA, your choices are much, much broader, bordering on overwhelming. However, given that the ideal per the above rules is (a) a "pure" mutual fund, and (b) an inexpensive one, the choice becomes clear: Vanguard index funds. You can easily find an index fund that matches any of the given categories above, and it is virtually guaranteed to have the lowest expense ratio in its class. Also, you can avoid brokerage fees by opening your IRA with Vanguard itself. The only caveat is that Vanguard funds often have a minimum ($3,000 is the most common). If you have less than this, you can substitute funds as per above; for example, you could combine all of your stocks into Total World Stock and all your bonds into Total US Bond.
(Sounds like an advertisement, I know. But Vanguard doesn't know me from Adam. I just like their funds.)
That's it — you're done! Once you've come up with your allocation, all you have to do is rebalance periodically to stick with your target (and update your target as circumstances change). More on that in a future post.
In the meantime, if there's a related topic you'd like me to go over in detail, let me know in the comments!
Welcome to part three of my series on rolling your own target date fund — taking charge of your own investments so as not to get blindsided, but without spending every waking moment reading the Wall Street Journal. Last week was all about the biggest factor in determining how volatile your portfolio is going to be: your asset allocation. This week, we talk about where best to place those assets. Yep, it's all going to be about taxes and fees, fees and taxes. Since the vast majority of your investing is going to be for retirement, today I'm just going to talk about retirement vehicles; if you'd like to know about college savings, you might want to check this out.
Ready? Let's go.
401(k)'s: For lots of you, this is where nearly all of your investments will be located. Many companies offer a 401(k) match (in lieu of a pension plan), which can make investing in a 401(k) a tasty treat. However, once that match has been met, a 401(k) becomes much less appetizing. For one thing, there are generally only a small handful of choices to invest in; this wouldn't be terrible, were it not for the other thing, which is that either (a) most of the choices are expensive, or (b) there is a fee tacked on top of the funds' normal expense ratios, or (c) both. 401(k) administrators have to make money somehow! So generally, once you've hit the match on your 401(k), it's time to move on to a better home, like…
IRA's: An Independent Retirement Account is generally a better alternative for retirement investing than a 401(k): your options are better, especially if your IRA is with Vanguard, where you have access to some extremely nice, low-cost, no-load funds (more on that next week). And there are no fees. However, there's a couple caveats: for one, as of this writing you can only contribute $5,500 annually to your IRA ($6,500 if you're 50 or older), while you can contribute $17,500 to your 401(k). (And yes, you can do both!) For another, IRA's are subject to an income limit, so some people can't contribute at all*.
Roth v. Traditional: Now, 401(k)'s and IRA's come in two different flavors: Traditional and Roth. The main difference lies in how they're taxed: Traditional IRA's and 401(k)'s are tax-deferred, which means that you don't have to pay taxes on the money you contribute, but you do have to pay normal income taxes on money that's withdrawn in retirement. Meanwhile, Roth 401(k)'s and IRA's grow tax-free, which means that while you are taxed as normal on your contributions, your withdrawals are completely tax-free. A couple related wrinkles to also consider:
So…what to do? Everyone's situation is unique, but a good strategy for most people when allocating your contributions is to contribute to your 401(k) up to your company match (the Roth option, if your company offers it), then max out your Roth IRA, then max out your 401(k).
Got it? Great! Next week, we'll get down to brass tacks: exactly what funds to buy to implement that asset allocation you crafted from last time!
* You're right, that's not entirely true: there is a sneaky backdoor, where you can contribute to a nondeductible IRA at any income level, and roll that over to a Roth IRA. Good call, have a lollipop.
** The same smart kids who got a lollipop will note that because you're not taxed on contributions to a Traditional 401(k)/IRA, you could in theory afford to contribute more to it. This is true…until you reach the max, which is the same dollar amount for a Roth as for a Traditional. So: the Roth wins. Nyaah nyaah.
Hopefully, last week convinced you that while a target date fund is a good place to start, ultimately it's up to you to make the right decisions for your portfolio. Of course, you already know that the most important investing rules are 1) save earlier, 2) save more, and 3) be tax-efficient, but asset allocation is right up there; it can make the difference between a smooth transition to retirement and losing half your portfolio the year before! So: following are some simple guidelines for constructing your asset allocation. I could write a book on this — and many people have — but I'm going to fly through a top-level summary here, so that you have just enough information to construct a decent allocation.
Step 1: Cash. Any money you're going to need in the next two years should be in cash or cash-equivalents; generally, this means a money-market or stable value fund. Why? Because even a short-term bond fund isn't guaranteed to maintain its value, and in fact, it was a full year before many such funds recouped their losses from their peak in 2007.
Step 2: Stock/bond allocation. The rest of your money should be broadly divided between stocks and bonds. Stocks are riskier but have a higher expected return; bonds are more stable, but have a lower expected return. Your stock/bond allocation is absolutely critical; much of the rest is gravy, if you're making halfway decent decisions. An allocation to all stocks means the risk of losing half your portfolio in a given year; an allocation to all bonds means having inflation devour your returns. Let's walk through one way to calculate your stock/bond split:
Step 2a: How much can you lose, without losing sleep? This is probably the hardest question to answer honestly. A lot of folks thought their appetite for risk was greater than it actually was…and then 2007 happened, and they panicked so badly that they sold everything and went to cash. This is precisely what you want to avoid; you want to balance your maximum equity allocation with your maximum tolerable loss. You can thank Larry Swedroe and William Bernstein for the following table:
|Maximum Tolerable Loss
|Maximum Equity Allocation
|Time Horizon (years)
|Maximum Equity Allocation
Step 2c: Use 2a and 2b to determine your equity allocation. In other words, choose the lesser of the two; this represents the most risk you should take with your portfolio, both from your personal point of view and your portfolio's.
Step 3: Divide your equity portfolio into international and domestic components. Basic allocation: 30% international, 70% domestic. The US is about 50% of the global market, but there is some uncompensated risk to international investments (namely currency fluctuations and event risks caused by restrictions on foreign investors, if you're interested).
Step 4: Divide your domestic equity portfolio into sub-categories. Basic allocation: 10% of your equities be in real estate, because it often (not always!) tends to move in an uncorrelated fashion from other equities, with the rest divided equally between large-cap equities, large-cap value equities, small-cap equities, and small-cap value equities. (I recommend the tip towards value because growth stocks tend to be less "efficient", i.e. less stability for their lack of return compared to value.)
Step 5: Divide your international equity portfolio into sub-categories. Basic allocation: equal portions developed, international small-cap, and emerging markets. (If that sounds like a high allocation to emerging markets, remember: this is only 30% of your equity portfolio.) If you don't have access to an international small-cap fund, feel free to put that part in developed, as well.
Step 6: Divide your fixed income portfolio into sub-categories. Basic allocation: equal portions short-term bonds, intermediate-term bonds, and inflation-protected bonds. I don't recommend long-term bonds because they're generally quite volatile for the modest increase in returns they give you, and I don't recommend junk bonds because they put instability into the stable part of your portfolio.
There you have it — your own personal asset allocation. Note that beyond the cash/stock/bond split, I pretty much dictated the sub-allocations; this was done for simplicity's sake. If I ever write that book, I'll probably have a lot more to say on the matter; for now, however, this will get you most of where you want to go.
An asset allocation is really an abstract concept, however; next week, we'll talk about the actual investments you'll use to implement your allocation!
If there's any place where the investment world falls into the "one-size-fits-all" trap, it's in target date funds. Don't get me wrong — they're a good place to start — but the chances of any given target date fund being just right for you for your entire life are slim to none. Case in point: the uproar in 2009, when funds targeted for people retiring that year took a beating, dropping up to 41% in value! But here's the kicker — I'm not saying that the funds were poorly designed. I'm saying that they weren't right for the people who were yelling about them, who didn't fully understand what they were getting into. I would love it if there were an investment out there that magically tailored itself properly to the person who bought it; until that day, I highly recommend you roll your own "target date fund". Don't worry — it's not nearly as complex as it sounds!
A quick primer on target date funds
A little review: target-date funds are mutual funds that are designed to achieve a certain goal, generally either retirement or college matriculation in a certain year. They do this by gradually changing their asset allocation from very aggressive (risky but long-term rewarding stuff, like international stocks) at the beginning to conservative (stable but less long-term rewarding stuff, like short-term bonds) as the target date approaches. The idea is that you get the benefit of higher expected returns when you can afford to take the risk — and stability when you can't.
This gradual shifting of allocations is called a "glide path", and every fund company uses a different one. For some examples, check out this wiki page from our good friends the Bogleheads. It all looks very scientific, but truthfully, there's a lot of guesswork involved — especially since the fund has no idea what you need. What if you plan on delaying social security claims, and thus having completely different income needs your first few years of retirement? What if you're keen on leaving a legacy, and have more than enough money to handle market fluctuations? What if (as happened to a lot of folks in 2009) a drop of more than 10% in your retirement funds would cause you to panic, sell everything, and put it in cash, where it would subsequently get mauled by inflation? Each of those situations calls for a radically different allocation, but the target date retirement fund doesn't know that, and if you don't know that it doesn't know, you may end up blindsided.
Building the glider: the basics
So, if a target-date fund could leave you high and dry, how do you go about building a replacement yourself? First off, don't worry about creating a "glide path" that makes assumptions about what things are going to be like 20 years from now — the only thing you know for sure is that they're going to be different. Glide paths are for institutions that don't know your personal situation! Rather, you're going to focus on the allocation that makes sense now, and you're going to revisit this once a year. Once you've gone through the exercise once, it's a breeze to revisit — just make sure you've got a calendar entry or reminder set up, or you may find yourself losing half your portfolio the year before you're set to retire!
Really, it's just a three-step process:
1) Determine your asset allocation: what percentage of your portfolio are you going to allocate to stocks v. bonds? International v. domestic? Small-cap v. large-cap? A lot of research has been done on this, but until (or unless) you dive in deep, there are some basic rules that will get you 90% of the way there.
2) Determine your asset location: how much of your portfolio is in a tax-advantaged account? Roth v. Traditional? Again, some basic rules will help you out.
3) Determine the funds you will use to implement your allocation. If all of your retirement is in a 401(k), this choice is often more or less made for you. If you have an IRA, then you've got a double-edged sword: you generally have access to better (cheaper/more transparent) funds, but the choices can be overwhelming.
And yes, once you've been at the investing game for a while, you're liable to collect quite a handful of accounts — 401(k), Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, brokerage account, etc. etc…and one of each of those for your spouse, as well! This is where a rudimentary knowledge of spreadsheets — or a friendly expert who can set it up for you — comes in handy!
That's it! Don't worry, I won't leave you hanging; the next few posts will go into detail on steps one and two. Stay tuned!
Got your attention? Well, I won't be coy: the key is mindfulness. Surprised? Looking at some of my previous posts on systems, you might think the opposite; isn't the point of systems to enable you to just breeze through life without really paying attention, and yet still have things turn out okay?
Well…no. In fact, "hell no".
For instance, take a look at this article on mindfulness in eating from Mind Over Fatter. In it, the author begins with the assumption that mindfulness in eating is important, and then poses the oh-so-practical question: how do we achieve that? Her answer is to give us ideas for implementing a system for improving that mindfulness! Rather than a machine that does your work for you, the system becomes a set of triggers whose sole purpose is to restore you to mindfulness.
It's like having a series of alarm clocks. The practice of "chewing your food twenty-five times" (as she is reminded by a regular iPhone notification), using the action of stabbing your food with a fork to remind you to wait until you finish what you're chewing, and other "scripts" are constantly waking you up to the world around you (and in your mouth). They keep you from "falling asleep", sleepwalking your way through your meal without really paying attention to what you're eating.
A lot of life is like that, isn't it? It seems that it's all too easy to fall asleep, acting automatically on our fears, our greed, our "lizard brain", rather than waking up to the world around us. We eat without tasting; we watch TV without engaging; we go to our jobs without being present to the joy of doing good work. We read blog posts without looking to apply their insights to our lives. (Yeah — did that one wake you up? Good.)
And of course, we spend without being mindful.
Really, that's what budgeting is all about, and if you've been paying attention to previous posts, you probably saw that coming. And if you've heard it before, then listen, because it's important and worth hearing again. It's not about going on some sort of money diet, though it can feel like that it times; it's not about getting out of debt, though it's a good way to get there; it's not about preserving marital peace, though that can be a happy side effect. No, it's primarily about mindfulness: deciding what your values are, what you want to spend your money on, and then staying awake enough to follow through with that decision, even when the siren song of advertising or peer pressure or habit tries to lull you to sleep. This is vital, because the consequences of falling asleep at the financial wheel are disastrous — just ask the guy with tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt, and no idea how it happened.
And that's where the systems I've been talking about come in. The Monthly Money Check-In, where you go over your bills and your cash flow, keeps you mindful of where your money is going. Similarly, the Monthly Money Date, where you get together with your partner to go over the household budget and talk about money matters in general, helps keep the both of you mindful not only of yourselves, but of each other. The overnight investment test keeps you mindful of why you bought your investments. You get the idea: each of these systems isn't putting your life on autopilot, but rather getting it back under your control.
Is it hard? Sure, at first — but so is waking up, and if you're going to live, why not live awake?
You've got a shiny diploma, thousands of dollars in student loan debt, and a dozen friends and relatives who each have their own idea about where your money should go. Buy a house! Pay off that student loan! Save for an emergency fund! Invest in your 401(k)! And, somehow, have money left over for, you know, food and stuff!
Fear not: I've got a system that can help.
Start off by putting a minimal amount towards every savings goal you have. You heard me: all of them. And when I say "minimal", I mean it — even if it's only 0.5% of your paycheck into your 401(k), the minimum payment on your credit cards, and $20/month for your emergency savings fund, put something away towards each of your goals. The idea here is that you start saving right now, thus taking advantage of the mysterious force of compound interest that makes for interesting graphs like this (from this post). (And yes, compound interest has the same effect whether you're talking about debt or saving.)
Of course, even compound interest isn't magic enough to fund your retirement on 0.5% of your paycheck. Which is why the next steps are critical:
Every six months, increase the amount you're putting away by a set amount. It doesn't have to be a lot, but by periodically increasing the amount you put away, you can slowly ramp up to your goal in small, painless increments. The money that would normally go to "lifestyle inflation" will instead go quietly, steadily towards your savings goals.
For instance, you might add 0.5% to the amount of your paycheck going towards your 401(k) every six months. In ten years, you'll be putting an extra 10% away towards retirement, something a lot of people in their 50's can't say!
Meanwhile, choose your Most Important Goal and focus on that. All your savings goals are getting some attention; pick the most important one and give it some extra love. Allocate more of your budget to it; put a high percentage of all "found money" there (the rest you can spend on whatever you want, as an incentive to "find" more); in general, make it a high priority. Once that goal is taken care of, move on to another, and so on. This way, while you're slowly building momentum on your other goals, you're always focusing on the most important one. A suggested priority list for a new grad:
By the time you've worked your way down to "low-interest debt", you should be in really good shape. Will it take a while? You bet. That's the beauty of long-term goals, though — you have a long time to get them right!
So you're bound and determined to add commodities to your portfolio, and for all the right reasons. Great! There are a few ways to do it…though I would only strongly recommend one.
Buy the commodities themselves. Stocks and bonds are quite liquid, since they're essentially notes saying "you own X" or "we owe you X". Commodities, much less so. Sure, you can buy gold coins, but to buy enough that they're a substantial part of your portfolio — not to mention diversifying into other commodities such as timber — would get prohibitive very, very quickly.
Buy GLD. Purchasing a share of the SPDR Gold Trust ETF ("GLD") entitles you to ownership of a piece of the gold held by the trust in reserve. You could even redeem a "basket" (100,000 shares) for the equivalent in gold, if you so desired. This is much more liquid than buying gold bars themselves, but in buying gold you're holding a concentrated position in one particular commodity — one which has historically shown itself to be among the most volatile!
Buy precious metals equities. That is, buy stock in mining companies. This isn't a terrible idea, as precious metals equities tend to be relatively uncorrelated to other equities and positively correlated with inflation, both of which are good for hedging, and you can buy a low-cost, diversified bucket of them via Vanguard's VGPMX fund. However, like GLD, VGPMX is highly volatile, and its returns have not had nearly the sharp upward trend that GLD has had over the past decade.
Buy a collateralized commodity futures (CCF) fund. This sounds a little complicated, and it is — a little. A CCF doesn't buy commodities, but rather it buys futures — contracts to buy commodities at a future date at a certain price. Moreover, the cost of buying the contract is a small fraction of the cost of the commodities themselves; the rest of the collateral can be invested in a high-quality investment like treasury bills or TIPS, which earns interest during the time of the contract. (Of course, the fund never actually buys the commodity, but rather keeps rolling the futures forward indefinitely.) What this means is that by investing in a fund like PIMCO CommodityRealReturn, you can double-hedge against inflation — once by the price of commodities, and again by the TIPS used as collateral. PCRIX is well-diversified and has a not-terrible expense ratio, to boot. You're still not going to earn much more than inflation in the long run, but a dollop of this in your portfolio can reduce inflation-related volatility without sacrificing too much in the way of returns.
As you've guessed, I can really only recommend CCF's, and even then only if you're committed to investing in commodities. It may be comforting to invest in something that is "real", but just because something is tangible doesn't mean that its value doesn't fluctuate as much — or even more — than something that is intangible! (And if you want to invest in something that's exciting…well, I can only hope that you're limiting your gambling addiction to a small fraction of your portfolio.)
A couple years ago I wrote a cautionary post in the wake of the run-up on gold over the past decade. Since then, gold has…well, not gone really anywhere, and neither have commodities in general. So I figure now is a good time to talk about investing in commodities, when people aren't jumping up and down about how they're going through the roof (or the floor).
Don't speculate on commodities. Well, I don't recommend speculating on investments, ever, but it's especially true for commodities. You think the stock market is a roller-coaster ride? Commodities will make you lose your lunch! Remember back in 2008-2009, when the S&P 500 got cut in half? GSG, an ETF that tracks the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index, plummeted by two-thirds, and it's hovering at around half of its 2008 high even today. Yes, the runup on gold since 2000 is drool-inducing, but so were internet stocks before 2000 and real estate before 2008. Don't become yet another cautionary tale.
Don't look to commodities to boost your returns. "OK, fine — I'm investing in commodities for the long term. They'll make me rich!" No, they won't. By definition, commodities are items that can be replaced. Any time any given commodity gets too expensive, corporations start figuring out how to do without it — witness the explosion in hybrid technology when oil prices were shooting up a few years ago, or the move to copper wiring by companies that traditionally use gold. No, over the long term commodities barely keep up with inflation — no surprise, since the price of commodities is pretty much the definition of inflation. (Gold has historically been no exception…which should make current holders of the shiny stuff very cautious when looking at charts like this.)
Don't invest in commodities as your primary hedge against inflation. Afraid of inflation? Invest in Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities! While they have normal interest just like any other bond, their principal is adjusted for inflation, which makes TIPS a safe, low-volatility way to guard against inflation. (By design, their yield is exactly their inflation-adjusted return!) While commodities track inflation over the long term, they may go for years before reverting to the mean; in mathematical terms, they have a positive but lower correlation with inflation than TIPS.
Do invest in commodities to reduce your overall portfolio volatility. Commodities are very interesting in that they don't often move in tandem with either stocks or bonds. This means that, with regular rebalancing, a canny investor can take advantage of commodities to smooth out their portfolio, selling commodities when they are high to buy stocks and/or bonds, and vice-versa, with the overall effect of reducing volatility. Now, note that I said "don't often move in tandem"; in 2008, they crashed along with nearly everything else, so don't look to commodities to work miracles. That's the job of short-term treasuries!
So yes, commodities can be a useful part of your portfolio, if bought for the right reasons. Next stop — how (and how not) to invest in them!
Arguably some of the most important work I do with clients is integrating their financial and spiritual lives — e.g., how does what you do with your money reflect your beliefs about The World and your place in it? Sometimes, a client says one thing, but their money says another, and I have to gently point out where the two differ. However, what can be more troublesome is when a client's finances follow their theology completely…straight down a black hole of credit card debt. This is most often the case with the Theology of Abundance.
The Theology of Abundance is a fairly straightforward aspect of the Christian faith in particular; it says that you shouldn't hoard your resources out of fear, but that you should give freely as God has given to you. The example of Jesus feeding the five thousand with only a few loaves and fishes is given as a prime example. And it's a great theology; that kind of faith frees you to let go of your money, which in turn releases your money's hold on you.
You can probably see where such a theology might lead you into trouble: "I shouldn't worry about my finances, so budgeting is, in fact, something to be avoided. I give to the church, and my family, and my friends, and those I meet on the street…and occasionally buy myself nice things. God will provide, right?" And then the credit card bills come in, and that's amended to, "God will provide eventually, right?" Despite faithfully following Jesus' example with the loaves and fishes, there's a twinge of guilt, and a nagging feeling: does the Theology of Abundance actually work in the real world? But of course that would question your faith, so you shove that nagging feeling down and continue to (faithfully!) ignore your finances. And the debt piles up, until you barely have the cash flow to pay your normal bills, much less help anyone else out.
So, does this mean that the Theology of Abundance is wrong? As it turns out, no. There's a crucial point here that people overlook when applying the loaves and fishes to modern-day life: Jesus didn't ask the disciples to give what they didn't have. He didn't say, "go get a loan of a few hundred denarii, and feed these people"; he asked, "What do you have?" And he was able to work a miracle with that. The trouble is that with the advent of credit cards, it is ridiculously easy to spend what we don't have, and there's where we get into trouble. If you want Bible quotes, here's one from Proverbs that Dave Ramsey loves to throw around: "the borrower is slave to the lender." He's not wrong, either; how can you live your life faithfully as a servant of God when you're already a servant of your creditors?
If you truly believe in abundance, then the only reason you should be carrying credit cards is for convenience. If they're a temptation to live beyond your means, throw them away and start using the envelope method — it's actually more fun than you might think! Once you start giving out of what you have, and not what your credit card company has — once you allow God to work with your small handful of loaves and fishes — then you'll start seeing the real miracles happen.
"Financial success doesn't happen overnight, but is the product of years of work." That kind of pithy saying is obvious almost to the point of being painful, so why point it out? Well, I wouldn't bother, except for the fact that most people don't actually act on it; they don't seem to know what thinking in the long term actually means. So let's get into specifics, shall we?
Spending trends are more important than events. Did you spend more than you earned in November? Who cares? What matters is, are you spending more than you earn over time? One month isn't going to make or break you; what matters is the long-term trend. Does your spending go up faster than your income? When you get a raise, does it immediately go to improving your lifestyle — or do you set aside some of that raise to pay off your debt faster or bump up your monthly 401(k) contribution? Do you have a plan to not only to save a certain amount, but to increase that amount year after year?
This is one of the reasons why a buffer should be your very first savings goal. When you're no longer swamped with the day-to-day stress of wondering whether you can pay the bills, you can spend more time looking at the trends — both external (like the price of gas) and internal (like how much you decide to put aside each month).
"Always in motion is the future." Ten years is a long time from now — so why base your plan on a bunch of assumptions about where you're going to be? Instead, you need to make flexibility a priority, which in turn means building up discretionary income by resisting lifestyle inflation, paying down your debts, and saving up for new purchases, rather than taking on new debt. The more discretionary spending you have available, the better you'll be able to handle whatever life throws at you.
Your investment plan can't be based on occasional luck. So you (or your financial planner) predicted the latest crash and pulled all your assets out of stocks just in time, or invested in Apple stock when it was at 200, or made a killing selling covered calls while the market was going nowhere. That's great, but…that's not what's really important. What's really important is whether you (or they) perform well consistently, year in and year out, for decades. The flip side is also true: don't be too quick to dump a strategy or planner for underperformance, either. A conservative portfolio looked like foolishness in 1999…and sheer genius in 2001.
See what I mean? The long-term view means ignoring events in isolation, and looking at patterns and systems instead. Not why you spent $300 on electronics last month, but how you're controlling your spending over the year; not how you're going to pay your recently-raised rent, but what your plan is for maximizing your discretionary spending; not what the market's doing this week, but what it's doing this century.
And if that kind of systematic planning just isn't your thing, well, that's what geeks are for.


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Skywatching Guide
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DO NOT PUBLISH YET - Pluto -- the Dwarf Planet Archive
« Previous Page
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16 March 2009, 10:06 AM ET
As Science Evolves, So Does Pluto
Pluto's status nowadays as a so-called plutoid and former planet may be official in the latest textbooks, but someone forgot to tell the astronomers.
04 March 2009, 05:05 PM ET
Pluto's Atmosphere Warmer Than Thought
An in-depth study of Pluto's atmosphere reveals it is warmer, and contains more methane, than previously thought.
29 October 2008, 04:24 PM ET
To Pluto With Postage: Nine Souvenirs Stow Away on NASA Probe
Nine mementos are riding to Pluto aboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
17 October 2008, 06:58 AM ET
Doorstep Astronomy: Mercury in the Morning
The next three weeks will present an excellent opportunity to view Mercury.
10 October 2008, 06:28 AM ET
Sky Search: How to Find Neptune
Neptune is much too faint to be perceived without any optical aid.
19 September 2008, 04:18 PM ET
Dwarf Planet Named for Hawaiian Goddess
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced the name of the solar system's fifth dwarf planet.
19 August 2008, 06:45 AM ET
The Storied History of the Word 'Planet'
The word "planet" has meant many different things over the millennia and even still its definition is evolving.
15 August 2008, 09:10 AM ET
The Great (and Sometimes Serious) Debate About Pluto
Two planetary scientists duke it out over Pluto.
05 August 2008, 06:48 AM ET
Great Planet Debate: Scientists Could Overturn Official Definition
Scientists will convene this month to figure out what makes an object a planet.
31 July 2008, 06:41 AM ET
Adopt a Scientist: Lord of the Rings
SETI invites scuba divers on an expedition to a destination of your choice.
28 July 2008, 07:00 AM ET
New Solar System Guide: The Latest Lingo
With planets, dwarf planets and plutoids, the solar system's getting crowded.
20 July 2008, 02:51 PM ET
Fourth Dwarf Planet Named For Polynesian God
A dwarf planet beyond Neptune has been renamed Makemake.
19 June 2008, 10:38 AM ET
Pluto's Identity Crisis Hits Classrooms and Bookstores
Pluto went from planet to dwarf planet and the latest name, plutoid.
18 June 2008, 10:21 AM ET
Large 'Planet X' May Lurk Beyond Pluto
Its existence would satisfy the long-held hopes and hypothesis for a "Planet X" envisioned by scientists and sci-fi buffs alike.
12 June 2008, 03:38 PM ET
Astronomers Argue Pluto is a Planet
Disgruntled scientists renewed their vows this week to call Pluto a planet despite an international governing body's latest ruling to reclassify the tiny world.
11 June 2008, 02:36 PM ET
Pluto-bound Probe Crosses Saturn's Orbit
The Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft crossed the orbit of Saturn on June 8.
11 June 2008, 10:30 AM ET
Pluto Now Called a Plutoid
The IAU decides on a name for Pluto and other round objects way out there.
29 November 2007, 06:39 AM ET
Sharing Space for the Holidays
Thoughtful astronomy books abound for the holiday gift-giving season.
26 November 2007, 06:44 AM ET
Shooting Gallery: How Moons Get Rocked
Colossal impacts may have bowled over remote, frozen moons
12 October 2007, 01:48 PM ET
New Portrait Made of Pluto and its Moons
New images bring Pluto and its moons into sharper view.
09 October 2007, 10:38 AM ET
Jupiter Caught in Rare, Calm Period
Brief fly-by of New Horizons spacecraft captures an unusually calm Jupiter.
01 October 2007, 06:35 AM ET
Pluto-Sized Planet Embryos Detected
Puffy debris disk around three nearby stars could harbor Pluto-sized planets-to-be.
17 July 2007, 04:20 PM ET
Pluto's Moon is an Ice Machine
Slushy geysers on Pluto's moon Charon coat the tiny world in ice crystals and make it the outer solar system equivalent of an ice machine.
14 June 2007, 02:00 PM ET
Dwarf Planet Outweighs Pluto
The dwarf planet that forced astronomers to strip Pluto of its planethood is not only bigger than the former ninth planet, but also much more massive, a new study finds.
01 May 2007, 02:01 PM ET
NASA Probe Reveals New Views of Jupiter
NASA is presenting a series of stunning new images today of the Jupiter system snapped by its probe New Horizons earlier this year.
15 March 2007, 06:08 AM ET
All Eyes on Pluto Sunday
Telescopes all over the southwest United States will turn toward Pluto as it meanders across the face of a star in the constellation Sagittarius on Sunday. The observations could help researchers better understand the diminutive world's atmosphere.
09 March 2007, 03:15 PM ET
New Mexico Lawmaker Petitions to Restore Pluto's Planet Status
The state of New Mexico State could effectively secede from the astronomical community if a resolution to call Pluto a planet is passed.
28 February 2007, 01:59 PM ET
Slingshot to Pluto
We've been waiting for a long time and, finally, we're on our way. But there are no "direct" flights to Pluto—the only way to get there is to first swing by Jupiter.
28 February 2007, 07:16 AM ET
NASA Probe Spies Jupiter's Moons and Storms in Flyby
Visions of a volcanic plume spewing out of Jupiter's moon Io and a swirling storm were among the first images returned by a NASA probe as it approached an early-morning swing past the gas giant today.
18 January 2007, 04:57 PM ET
Pluto-Bound Spacecraft to Nab Speed Boost in Jupiter Flyby
A NASA probe hurtling towards Pluto will hit the accelerator next month when it flies past the planetary giant Jupiter.
12 January 2007, 06:25 AM ET
NASA's Pluto Probe Prepares for Jupiter Flyby
NASA's New Horizons probe bound for Pluto is headed for a Jupiter flyby, its camera eyes wide open, in preparation for its swing out towards the fringe of the solar system.
30 November 2006, 06:43 AM ET
New Horizons: Outbound For Jupiter Flyby
BOULDER, Colorado -- Now heading outward on its lengthy trek to tiny Pluto, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is on course to zip by gigantic Jupiter early next year.
29 November 2006, 02:15 PM ET
Pluto-bound Spacecraft Spots its Target
A NASA spacecraft hurtling away from Earth has caught the first glimpse of its distant destination: the dwarf planet Pluto.
21 November 2006, 06:07 AM ET
Why Planets Will Never Be Defined
The Great Pluto War in Prague failed to forge an accepted definition, but it succeeded in alienating astronomers and deepening rifts along theoretical and national lines.
15 November 2006, 05:43 PM ET
Pluto Data Sheet
Space.com explains information about the planet Pluto.
23 October 2006, 09:43 AM ET
Teachers See Educational Value in Pluto's Demotion
Pluto may be no more than a distant, icy rock in the minds of astronomers who stripped it of planethood, but its downgrade to a "dwarf planet'' has created a teachable moment in classrooms nationwide.
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Garcia optimistic for Lille grand finale
Lille coach Rudi Garcia is eager to see his side finish their poor Champions League campaign on a high against Valencia on Wednesday.
The French side are certain to finish bottom of Group F after winning just one of their first five games.
But despite having nothing but pride to play for, Garcia said he wanted Lille to finish their European adventure successfully.
"We will try everything to end on a good note in this season's Champions League. There is no mathematical issue with regards to us and qualification," Garcia said.
"But we are at home and we have to give everything to end with a good result, at least for our fans.
"It also allows us to face one of the best teams in Europe – Valencia FC. So that's our goal for tomorrow – try to play a good match, to deliver a good performance and also to try to enjoy the occasion."
Lille have also been disappointing in Ligue 1, sitting 10th and 10 points behind leaders Lyon.
Garcia suggested he may rest players as he looks ahead to Saturday's league clash against Sochaux, but also spoke about the importance of the Valencia fixture.
"I'm not going to be in good spirits but tomorrow's match is the most important because it's the Champions League and we want to show a good performance from our team," he said.
"We lost so many points. That's why we have to do everything to win.
"I think about that – to build a team able to win this match, but I have to deal with the tiredness of some players and with what happened during the last few matches."
Meanwhile, Valencia defender Adil Rami says heading back to Lille will be an emotional experience after spending five years at the club before moving to Spain in 2011.
"I'm sad for Lille because it's a team that deserved to go through the first round – even if I should not say that because if they qualified, maybe we would not have qualified," he said.
"I don't know why they are struggling, some people are saying it's because Eden Hazard left the club.
"I think that might be part of it but Lille remains a big team in the French league. I think they have to adapt to life without him."


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Nigel Peake
Strom Drawings and Paintings
written by Nigel Peake
Hardback – 30 pages
Member's price: $26.10
Usually ships within 2–11 business days.
An illustrated essay by Nigel Peake about a week in a cabin in Norway last August. "Red then yellow. Green then white. Then the blue. This is how I remember it".
Artist: Nigel Peake


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Fryeburg Academy, ca. 1777
Contributed by Fryeburg Academy Archives
Drawing of the original Fryeburg Academy building, located in Fryeburg, Maine. Originally, school was taught in private homes, until 1777 when money was appropriated to build a schoolhouse. Citizens were interested in subjects such as Latin, Greek and English being taught to their children. In 1791 residents from Fryeburg, Brownfield and Conway agreed to support a new school, Fryeburg Academy. The school was incorporated in 1792.
The Academy was known as a "fitting school" for Bowdoin College, focusing on teacher training. For a short time the Academy was also on the way to becoming a medical school, but that soon gave way to its traditional comprehensive education courses - a preparatory school for college and life.
There's a distinguished list of people involved with the school, including Daniel Webster, who was the Headmaster of the Academy in 1806.
The school was rebuilt in its present location in 1853, after the Brownfield fire, and remains one of the region's finest academic institutions.
Other Information
- Title: Fryeburg Academy, ca. 1777
- Creation Date: circa 1777
- Subject Date: circa 1777
- Town: Fryeburg
- County: Oxford
- State: ME
- Media: Ink on paper
- Object Type: Image
For more information about this item, contact:
Fryeburg Academy Archives
745 Main St., Fryeburg, ME 04037
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LC Subject Headings
Fryeburg Academy (Fryeburg, Me.)--History
Fryeburg Academy (Fryeburg, Me.)--Buildlings
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We do NOT offer appraisals on like items. Check our Note on Appraisals.


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Draft Puna Flood Study
1. Flood Study began in 2006.
The Puna District does not currently have Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs). The draft Puna Flood Study (Study) investigates the severity of riverine related flood hazards in the northern Puna District. The Study is a detailed hydrologic and hydraulic analysis of the Puna area watersheds, resulting in new reliable FIRMs for the Puna District. The Study's flood hazard/risk information will be used to establish actual flood insurance rates and assist the community in its effort to promote sound floodplain management.
2. What areas are affected?
The study area is approximately 282 square miles and includes subdivisions in Mountain View, Kurtistown, Keā'au, Hawaiian Acres, Orchidland, Hawaiian Paradise Park and Fern Forest. The area indexed by Tax Map Key: 1-6, 7, 8 and 9 has had active storm events and substantial property damages in recent years.
3. What is a floodplain and how do I see a map?
FEMA defines a "Floodplain" as any land area susceptible to flood water inundation from any source. Floodplains shown on FEMA's FIRMs are called Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs), which are 1-percent chance Floodplains. The FIRMs determine the flood hazard/risk to your home or business. The areas outside the SFHAs posing a moderate to low flood risk are labeled on FIRMs as Zone "X." SFHAs posing a high flood risk are labeled on the FIRMs as Zone "A," "AE," "AO" or "AH." SFHAs along the coastal areas posing a high flood risk due to waves are designated on the FIRMs as Zone "VE." The Study does not include analyses of coastal area flood hazard/risk. Links to the Study's 35 FIRMs are provided below, and the Study and Study's FIRMs are also available at the Department of Public Works' (DPW) Offices in Hilo at 101 Pauahi Street Ste 7. Office hours are weekdays, excluding holidays 7:45 AM -4:30 PM.
4. How will the new FIRMs affect me under National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)?
DPW administers Hawaii County Code (HCC) Chapter 27 Floodplain Management regulations whose purpose is to promote the public health, safety, and general welfare, and minimize public and private losses due to flooding conditions, within SFHAs determine from FIRMs and/or best available flood hazard data. In July 2014 and within the Study's SFHAs (refer to item 2 above), the County began enforcing Floodplain Management regulatory standards for new structures and existing structures that are substantially improved and/or damaged. Mandatory flood insurance for federally regulated or back mortgages will not be required until FEMA publishes and makes effective the Study's FIRMs.
5. When do Physical Map Change (PMC) become effective?
During a November 2014 meeting, FEMA and the County agreed to postpone submitting the Study to FEMA until July 2015. Once submitted, FEMA will process the Study as a PMC, which involves publishing 35 new FIRMs for the study area, refer to item 2 above. For mandatory flood insurance purposes, the Study's FIRMs should become effective in the fall of 2016. See links below to review the study area location map, the FIRM index map and the 36 new FIRMs.
6. My structure is incorrectly mapped, how do I correct this?
After the Study's FIRMs are published and made effective by FEMA and you disagree with the mapping of your structure, you may apply for a FEMA Letter of Map Change (LOMC). FEMA's LOMC application process includes, in part, the following: Letter of Determination Review; a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA); electronic LOMA or eLOMA; Letter of Map Revision Based on Fill, whichever is applicable. Information on the LOMC application process is available at FEMA's webpages: https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program-flood-hazard-mapping/letter-map-change, or https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/7362.
If you have any questions regarding the proposed flood changes, please contact the Frank DeMarco (808-961-8042) or Carter Romero (808-961-8943) with the DPW, Engineering Division.
Draft Puna Flood Study FIRMs (Use the Index Map to locate individual FIRM panel numbers): Location Map, Index Map , 943, 944, 963, 1120, 1135, 1140, 1141, 1143, 1144, 1151, 1152, 1153, 1154, 1156, 1157, 1158, 1159, 1161, 1162, 1163, 1164, 1166, 1167, 1168, 1169, 1176, 1180, 1360, 1380, 1385, 1390, 1395, 1405, 1410, Puna Hydrology and Hydraulic Report


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Wolters Kluwer
Receiving top leadership training for inside counsel
IC's Mary J. Hynes Institute leads the way in gaining the kind of valuable training that will help you advance from within or become even more marketable to your next employer.
Proportionality, text messages and smartphones on appeal
Applying the principle of proportionality to preservation of electronically stored information (ESI) is gaining traction, as witnessed by recent court opinions, thought leadership and even proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Law firm hourly rates jumped 4.8% last year
According to the latest figures, law firms are clawing back some of the pricing power they lost during the recession.
Some law school grads head directly in-house
While most GCs hire law firm-trained associates, a few are opting to groom their own teams
Mary Ann Hynes paves the way
The first-ever woman GC of a Fortune 500 company discusses her career and the importance of mentoring.


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The Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution wants the Presidential Retirement Benefit Act 2012 declared unconstitutional. The Commission has written to the Attorney General informing him of its intention to go to courts over the matter. It had advised the president not to assent to the bill but the opinion was ignored.
CIC's announcement comes a day after the Salaries and Remuneration Commission proposed a new pay structure which will set a limit to the amount that 3,760 high ranking state officers including the president, deputy president, governors, senators, MPs and county representatives in the next government will earn.
The next occupant of State House will only earn a maximum of Sh1.7 million and not less than Sh1.3 million per month according to the proposal.
President Mwai Kibaki who currently earns a total of Sh 3.1 million in basic salary and allowances, signed the Presidential Retirement Benefits and Amendment Bill in January this year.
The bill will see him get 25 million shillings as a send-off package as well as other retirement benefits including an entertainment allowance of 280 thousand shillings each month when he leaves office. Kibaki signed the bill despite rejecting a hefty-send off package for MPs


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"Sanchez's main problem is when there's any hint of a defender close he goes to pieces." – ProFootball Focus.
In related news, the New York Jets' opponent this week is the Seattle Seahawks, in Seattle. This hardnosed squad from the Pacific Northwest plays out of CenturyLink Field, considered by many to be the hardest place in the NFL to play because of the raucous fans (affectionately dubbed their "12th man").
The Seahawks are 4-0 at home, and in their four road losses this season, each game has been decided by a touchdown or less. According to PFF, Seattle has the best pass rush in the NFL, the ninth best pass coverage, and 12th best rush defense. So this could be tough sledding for the Jets.
In the spirit of Democracy and the 2012 election that was held this past week, here are the questions looming over all others for the Jets. When does the lying stop (sound familiar American public)? When do head coach Rex Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum drop the surreptitious act and quit the machinations they are trying to pull over their fans and the National Football League and admit it is time for Plan B? How do Ryan and Tannenbaum avoid joining the U.S. unemployment ranks?
There does not seem to be any pragmatic approach for the Jets changing their fortunes, as the best solution anyone is suggesting at this stage is either Tim Tebow deputizing Mark Sanchez's quarterback role or Tebow replacing Bilal Powell or Joe McKnight as the change-of-pace running back. The logic behind this being "the offense might not be better, but at least it won't look worse."
The reality is that the Jets suffered injuries to their No. 1 receiving option (Santonio Holmes) and best player (Darrelle Revis), and like nearly any NFL team the effect from those losses is catastrophic. Without Holmes and Revis, and because of poor appraisals of some of the key cogs on offense, this team cannot do anything above average.
There is a considerate answer, but I'm not sure either Ryan or Tannenbaum are humble enough to accept it. Sports fans these days are smarter and more informed than ever, thanks to a surfeit of information out there available at the touch of a button (or movement of a finger). Jets fans have watched some gruesome defeats, but get splashed with Ryan's detached optimism, ultimately coming away even more annoyed at management's refusal to accept the reality of what they see and read.
The Jets are not a very good football team, and failure to acknowledge this further alienates fans. (Maybe the best example was Ryan holding off on Revis for IR in the case they made the Super Bowl.) If the Jets lose this week, then Ryan and Tannebaum should speak candidly with Gang Green fans about the state of the franchise.
Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan did just this when his own team lost last Sunday, putting them at 3-6. Shanahan took the initial backlash of criticism (being forthright in the 21st century comes at a cost), but Washington fans know they have RGIII and their time will come.
Ryan and Tannenbaum should explain that they were crippled by the Revis and Holmes injuries, and while that is not excusing failure, it helped bring about disappointment. The next seven games will be "tryouts" to determine who has a long-term place with this franchise (specifically for Sanchez, Greene, the linebacker corps, and any receiving target other than Jeremy Kerely, etc.). If Ryan truly believes that Sanchez can be a franchise quarterback, that the Jets have the right horses to run a "ground and pound," and that they have the correct personnel to rush the passer, then those players need to start producing results.
The NFL is not the NBA. A franchise does not need to land a superstar or blue-chip stud to have a bright future (although a very good quarterback helps tremendously). Parity is rampant because 22 players are on the field at one time instead of 10. Cleaning house would be acknowledging failure, but it is the only way that the Jets can emerge from sinking further in quicksand. Put more simply, if the key players in place are not the answer, a search for new players needs to begin.
On the other side of the ledger, the Seahawks seem to have found their centerpiece for the future. Quarterback Russell Wilson has eight touchdowns and two picks over his last four starts, and is showing an adeptness at escaping pressure and extending plays out of the pocket with his legs and finding the open target downfield.
They have a tough, grinding running game led by Marshawn Lynch, and an emerging receiving corps that has rallied around their rookie signal-caller. They have excellent speedy pass-rushers, and a secondary that bruises and punishes receivers. Seattle is a team that has an identity, an identity eerily similar to the one the Jets wanted to develop.
The Jets are no closer to becoming a complete team than they were at the beginning of the season, but after another political season filled with artful dodges from both candidates, a calculated risk of accepting failure would ultimately bring appreciation from fans after an offseason and half-season full of dishonesty. There is no paucity of talent in the NFL on both sides of the ball; the key is assembling the pieces. After Sunday, it will be time to hit the RESET button.
Seahawks 24, Jets 10


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College Data
Data last updated: January 2014
We try to make information available and accessible to everyone. If you need an alternative, accessible version, please contact us.
Bellevue College at a Glance
These data provide a quick overview of commonly requested information about the college, students and selected demographics.
Fall Students at a Glance
These data provide a quick overview of students who attend Bellevue College and selected demographics of these students..
Employee Data
These data provide BC annual historical staffing levels with displays by Employee Type and Race/Ethnicity.
Historical Trends
These reports contain historical fall quarter enrollment, student, and staffing data—specific to Bellevue College—as published in reports generated by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.