text:
This week: The New Mexico State volleyball team plays one conference match this week as it heads to Ruston, La. to take on Louisiana Tech, Saturday, Oct. 22, in the Thomas Assembly Center at 6pm (MT).
Radio Coverage: NM State has five regular-season matches left on the schedule to air over the radio waves by the Aggie Sports Network on KSNM AM 570 in Las Cruces with Kyle Doperalski giving the play-by-play action. Saturday's match versus La. Tech this week is scheduled to air over the radio waves starting at 6pm (MT). Fans can also listen in from anywhere around the world on the Internet by going to www.NMStateSports.com. Fans can just click on the live events link to access the coverage for a fee.
Television Coverage: The NM State volleyball team has two home matches left on the schedule to air on television, each produced by the AggieVision Production team. NM State faces Fresno State and Nevada on TV, Nov. 3 and Nov. 6 respectively in Las Cruces. Both matches start 7pm (MT).
Matches produced by AggieVision will also be available free of charge on the Internet at ESPN3.com. Fans can go to www.AggieVision.tv or check local listings for airtimes. Please check with your local cable or satellite provider for airtimes.
Live Stats on the Web: Live stats will be available for fans at www.NMStateSports.com at no cost all season long. Fans can click on the Live Events link at the top of the NMStateSports.com home page to access the live stats.
Twitter/Facebook: Get all the updates of Aggie Athletics on Twitter and Facebook. Get in-game statistics and in-game updates on Twitter @NMStateAggies. Find out about all Aggie Athletics promotions and events on Facebook @NMSU Athletics.
About NM State: The Aggie volleyball team is 17-5 overall and 6-1 in league play after falling to No. 8 Hawai'i and sweeping San Jose State last week. NM State won seven out of its last ten matches and went on its second six-match winning streak defeating Louisiana Tech, Idaho, Utah State, UNM, Nevada and Fresno State from Sept. 24 through Oct. 8.
The Aggies are averaging 13.79 kills per set so far this season and 13.71 in WAC play. NM State is hitting .216 as a team this year, which is second best in the WAC, while holding opponents to a .151 hitting percentage, which ranks No. 1 in the league.
The highest hitting percentage for a single match this year is .392, which came last week against San Jose State when the Aggies posted 48 kills on 97 attempts with only 10 errors. The Aggies tallied a season-high 65 kills against Hawai'i, Oct. 12. NM State posted a season-high 59 assists against Colgate, Sept. 10 and a season-high 87 digs against Northwestern State in San Marcos, Texas, Sept. 10. The Aggies put up a season-high nine service aces against Louisiana Tech, Sept. 24 and a season-high 13 total team blocks twice. This first time it happened was against New Mexico, Oct. 4 and the second-time happened against Fresno State, Oct. 8.
Senior Kelsey Brennan posted the highest hitting percentage (min. 12 kills) this season when she marked 16 kills on 24 attempts without committing an error for a .667 percentage against Northwestern State, Sept. 10. Freshman Meredith Hays has the most kills in a match with 22. She accomplished the feat against No. 5 Hawai'i, Oct. 12 in Las Cruces. Before that she tallied three matches with at least 21 kills and the first time she did it was against Houston Baptist, Sept. 9. Hays did it again the following day against Texas State. The last time she posted 21 kills was Sept. 16 against Colgate.
The Aggies have posted two six match winning streaks this season. NM State has won its last six matches starting on Sept. 24, when the Aggies swept Louisiana Tech in the WAC season opener. The first streak was from September 9 through September 16, and included wins over Louisiana-Lafayette, Houston Baptist, Northwestern State, Texas State, UTEP and Colgate.
NM State ended the 2010 regular season with an overall record of 18-13 with a 12-4 record in Western Athletic Conference play. The Aggies return for their 38th season of play and its seventh season in the WAC.
Despite finishing in second place in league play, NM State fell to Utah State in the first round of the WAC Tournament in five sets. Former Aggie Kayleigh Giddens had 29 kills in the loss. Giddens was the team's kill leader for the season with 542 and now holds the Aggie record for kills in a season.
Louisiana Tech: The Aggies are now 14-1 all-time against La. Tech and have now won 13 matches in a row after sweeping the Techsters 25-19, 25-20, 25-15 in the Pan American Center, Sept. 24. Louisiana Tech is 9-14 heading into this week's play and is still searching out for its first conference win. Clara Vido leads the Techsters averaging 2.85 kills and 3.12 digs per set. La. Tech faces Northwestern State, Wednesday, Oct. 19 in Ruston before taking on the Aggies.
Head Coach Mike Jordan: Jordan is in 14th year coaching at NM State. He is the all-time winningest coach in the programs history with a record of 302-133 giving him a winning percentage of .694. He has been named coach of the year five times while at NM State, twice in the Sun Belt and three times in the WAC. Before coming to NM State, Jordan spent time as an assistant at both Cameron and Utah State.
Jordan's Aggies have made it to the NCAA Tournament five times in the past eight seasons. In the 2008 tournament, The Aggies defeated St. Mary's College 3-1 to advance to the second round of the tournament for the first time in school history.
Jordan picked up career win No. 300 when the Aggies swept Nevada in Reno, Thursday, Oct. 6.
Record Watch: Returning Senior setter Jennah DeVries led the team in assists during the 2010 season with 1,205. After posting 821 assists this season, she now has 3,654 assists all-time, which has her ahead of former Aggie Temre Kuester for fourth on the all-time assist list at NM State. Kuester tallied 3,092 assists for the Aggies from 1987-90.
DeVries needs 447 more assists to catch former Aggie setter Jackie Choi (2004-06), who is third on the all-time assist list with 4,101. Former setter Christine Jinbo (1993-96) holds the NM State career-record with 4,294.
Senior libero Kelsi Phillips posted a career-high 30 digs against Idaho, Sept. 29, which is in the top 5 for digs in a four-set match. She heads into this week's play with 931 career-digs and needs 65 more to move into the top-10 in the all-time records list at NM State. Former Aggie Lisa Roberson (1985-88) holds the No. 10 spot on the all-time Aggie list for digs with 996. Former All-American libero Krystal Torres (2005-08) holds the all-time record for digs with 1,942.
Senior Kesley Brennan has 293 total blocks on her career and could move into the top 10 in the Aggie record books with 26 more total blocks this year. Former Aggie Whitney Woods (2007-10) holds the No. 10 spot on the all-time total blocks list with 319, while former All-American Amber Simpson (2005-08) owns the Aggie record with 515.
Aggies in the WAC: NM State heads into the week with a 6-1 in WAC play. The Aggies still lead the WAC with an opponent hitting percentage of.151. NM ranks second in the WAC in assists (12.79/set average), hitting percentage (.216), and kills (13.79/set).
Freshman Meredith Hays leads the WAC in kills (4.39/set), and points (4.87/set), while senior Jennah DeVries is third in the conference in assists (10.80/set). Senior Michelle Kuester is fourth in the conference in blocks (1.24/set) and senior, Kelsey Brennan is ranked third in the WAC with a hitting percentage of a (.349/set).
Senior Kelsi Phillips is fourth in the league in digs (4.14/set) and eighth in service aces (0.28).
Aggies in the Nation: New Mexico State is ranked 31st out of 322 teams across the nation in match W-L percentage and No. 43 for assists per set with 12.79. The Aggies are ranked 35 in kills per set averaging 13.79.
Freshman Meredith Hays is ranked individually as 19th in the nation out of 250 with 4.39 kills per set. Hays is also ranked at 23 with 4.87 points per set. Jennah DeVries jumped five spots to No. 40 with 10.8 assists per set. Senior Michelle Kuester is also ranked as 40th in the nation with 1.24 blocks per set as well as 231 with a 0.29 hitting percentage. Kelsey Brennan is also ranked as 67th with a hitting percentage of 0.349. Senior libero Kelsi Phillips is No.166 in the nation with 4.14 digs per set.
Looking Ahead: New Mexico State will be home next week with matches against Fresno State and Nevada. The match against Nevada, Nov. 5 will be senior night and is scheduled air on Aggie Vision and ESPN3 at 7PM. Live stats will be available online at www.NMStateSports.com.
Double-Doubles: The Aggies have posted 19 double-doubles this season with nine from Jennah DeVries, eight from Meredith Hays, one from Brynja Rodgers and one from Stephanie Ziegler. DeVries marked the first one, Aug. 26 against Nebraska when she had 40 assists and 17 digs. The most recent for DeVries came on Oct. 12, when she marked 48 assists and 20 digs against No. 8 Hawai'i. Ziegler joined DeVries on Oct. 12 when she also tallied a double-double against the Wahine with 14 kills and 12 digs. Hays' markerd her first double-double, Sept. 3 against LSU with 14 kills and 11 digs and also added a double-double against UNM when she put up 20 and 13 digs. Senior Brynja Rodgers has one double-double this season, Sept. 17 against Duquesne with 12 assists and 10 digs.
Aggies Versus Ranked Opponents: NM State is 10-137 against opponents ranked in the top 25 and 1-79 against top 10 opponents after falling 3-2 to Nebraska, who was ranked No. 5 at the start of the season and to Hawaii, who was ranked No. 8 last week.
WAC Player of the Week: New Mexico State senior libero Kelsi Phillips was named Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 26-Oct. 1. That was the first-ever WAC Player of the Week honor for Phillips.
Phillips, a native of Scottsdale, Ariz. averaged 6.29 digs per set on the week as the Aggies defeated Idaho and Utah State to go to 3-0 in WAC play. Phillips got off to a good start on the week as she marked a career-high 30 digs against Idaho, Sept. 29 then followed that with a 14-dig performance against defending WAC Tournament champions Utah State. The 30 digs is the conference high in WAC matches this season.
WAC Player of the Week: New Mexico State senior setter Jennah DeVries was named Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 5-11. That was the first-ever WAC Player of the Week honor for DeVries.
The Sedalia, Colo. native earned CenturyLink Premier Tournament MVP honors after leading New Mexico State to the tournament title by defeating four teams in two days. DeVries tallied two double-doubles, averaged 12.07 assists and 2.93 digs and set her team to a .246 hitting percentage over the four matches. Her first double-double came in a four-set win over Northwestern State when she posted 47 assists, 12 digs and four kills. She followed that up with her second double-double of the weekend against host Texas State, when she tallied a season-high 51 assists while adding 15 digs and four kills.
CVU.com Top Performer: On September 13, Jennah DeVries was also named a College Volleyball Update (CVU.com) Top Performer, which includes 12 players each week from across the country.
Wildcat Classic All-Tournament: Senior Setter Jennah DeVries was named to the Wildcat Classic All-Tournament team marking 9.90 assists and 1.40 digs per set. She tallied a season-high .625 hitting percentage in the win over Colgate (9/16) and also had a season-high 52 assists against the Raiders. She had a season-low 20 assists and thee digs against Duquesne and added 26 assists, six digs and three block assists versus Northwestern.
Aggies in the Preseason Polls: The Western Athletic Conference office released its preseason poll August 5, with the volleyball coaches selecting New Mexico State to finish second in the WAC regular season, while Hawai'i was picked to win its 16th-straight regular-season title.Along with the second-place prediction by the league's coaches, the Aggies had three student-athletes on the 2011 WAC Preseason team, while Hawaii had the most with four selections. Senior middle hitter Kelsey Brennan and senior setter Jennah DeVries join sophomore middle hitter Desiree Scott on the preseason team along with three players from Utah State and one from Fresno State and Idaho.
Hawai'i earned 49 total points followed by the Aggies with 41. Utah State was picked to finish third with 34 points, followed closely by Idaho in fourth with 33 points. Fresno State was picked fifth with 25 points, while Nevada was selected sixth with 20 points. San Jose State and Louisiana Tech rounded out the poll with 14 and eight points, respectively.
2010 Honors & Awards: The Aggies continued to pile up awards in 2010. NM State had an AVCA All-American (honorable mention) in Jennah DeVries, who also collected first team All-WAC honors and Academic All-WAC honors.
Also returning for NM State is Kelsey Brennan, who was a 2010 first team All-WAC selection and a Florida State Invitational all-tournament team honoree.


text:
|« Back to Article
Golf: Did You Know? Positive spin
San Antonio Express-News : February 26, 2013 : Updated: February 26, 2013 6:43pm
More Information
Rule courtesy of Gene Riley, member of San Antonio Rules of Golf Group and USGA Regional Affairs Committee:
A player who started a round with 14 clubs lost his putter. May he replace it during the round?
No. A lost club is not one that has become unfit for play in the normal course of play.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Interview with Tim Marquitz
For today's post I give you an interview with Tim Marquitz, author of the Demon Squad series and Witch Bane, a sword and sorcery novel.
F.I.: Hi Tim, welcome on Fantastical Imaginations. Let's start this interview with the classic question. What was your first stray in the realm of fantasy as a reader?
Man, that was a long time ago. While my memory is faulty, I want to say that the Elric books were my first foray into legitimate fantasy. I used to read a lot of mystery and sci-fi books, as well as adventures; pretty much anything I could get my hands on.
F.I.: In which author's shoes would you like to be standing for one day?
A lot of my inspirations come back to the same source: Clive Barker. I think I'd be happy to be in his shoes with regards to the level of success he's attained. He has a solid following and a lot of respect. I would be honored to reach a similar level in my life.
F.I.: What is it that you like so much about Clive Barker?
There's a sense of poetry, of beauty, to Clive's work that both inspires and humbles me. While his subject matter is dark and twisted, he writes with a grace that keeps you reading no matter how disturbing the actual story line is. I like that he steps beyond the bounds of the safe and sane and yet is still able to drag you into it so deeply, so willingly.
F.I.: Let's talk about today's writers. Which of your fellow authors of today would you recommend to your readers?
This is a loaded question. There are so many. On the overlooked stage, I'd say my friends, Lincoln Crisler, Edward M Erdelac, and Malon Edwards are all impressive, creative authors who've yet to see success comparable to their ability.
Larger scale, I'd say Mark Lawrence, Jeff Salyards, Dan Wells, and Chuck Wendig (only to name a few) are all doing things different enough to stand out from the pack. It's a fantastic time to be a reader.
F.I.: Is there a fantasy character of which you say "Damn, I wish that was a character of one of my books"?
Honestly? No, not anymore. Don't get me wrong, growing up with the X-men and a horde of great comics, I dreamed of creating a character like Wolverine or Rogue and whatnot, but all those ideas faded when I realized I didn't need to copy my influences to satisfy my need to create.
These days, I'm very disconnected from the "Wow Factor," a side effect of nitpicking everything through the editing process. While I love what authors are doing, I don't feel the need to do anything but go my own road. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure yet. :)
F.I.: That's a fascinating answer. About your own books: you have written about 14 books by now. Which of them are you most proud of?
I think I'm most proud of the last book I've written, and it's a cycle. I feel each book is better, stronger than the last. That said, I temper my pride because it's clear I have so much more to learn. None of my stories are perfect, and I never really expect them to be, so I'll keep working.
F.I.: Tell us something of what we can expect of your latest book Witch Bane, which is now available as e-book and will be available as paperback within a few weeks.
Witch Bane is a sword and sorcery story I wrote a couple years back. It's a revenge story, at its core, and fairly straight forward. There's plenty of action and a little bit of intrigue, and a solid dose of darkness.
For me, Witch Bane is a low commitment fantasy tale. I don't expect the reader to come away from the book contemplating deep philosophical thoughts. It's more like an action movie; fun and entertaining, and that's it.
F.I.: That's something to look forward to. Will you be writing more books in the sword and sorcery genre like Witch Bane?
Absolutely. I'm halfway through a novel that's similar in style but features an assassin and the undead. My other commitments have pushed that to the back burner a little, but I definitely intend to finish it. I've also written a Sword & Sorcery short story for hopeful inclusion in an anthology, but
that's up in the air. Regardless, at some point, I'll turn that story world into a novel because I had so much fun creating it.
F.I.: And after Witch Bane, what will be your next project?
I've been fluctuating back and forth on this question. I've a couple projects started, one pretty much halfway done, but I find myself emotionally coming back to the Demon Squad world. As such, I believe the next story I'll tell will be Demon Squad 5: Beyond the Veil. I'm nearly finished plotting it, so writing should begin soon.
F.I.: How many books is the Demon Squad series going to be?
I've yet to decide that. I'm currently working on book five, and I think I'll go until the series is no longer fun for me or the reader. I have such a fun time writing the DS books that I want it to continue forever, but I know better. When the books hit the point where I'm struggling to make them exciting and funny, then I'll figure a way out and close shop. Until then, I'll keep writing.
F.I.: Sounds great to me. Let's end this interview with some more personal questions. What advice would you give if someone asked you how to become a writer?
Sit down and do it. The only way to become a writer is to write. Figure out what you want to do, learn how, and do it all the damn time.
F.I.: And your good intentions for 2013. What would you like to achieve this year?
Had you asked me this at the beginning of 2012, I would have told you I wanted to achieve a traditional deal: agent, big publisher, etc. Now, I'm not so sure that's as high a priority as it was just a year ago. I'd still like to get my stories onto the shelves of brick and mortar bookstores, but my goals are evolving.
I'd like to build upon the meager success I've garnered so far and see what opportunities avail themselves this year. I hope to better my situation and move forward in publishing, but I believe my perspective has widened a good bit since early 2012, which is a good thing. Ultimately, my goal is to write for a living, and to be able to support my family doing so. I intend to stay flexible with my expectations and go from there.
F.I.: That's a good attitude. One final question. Is your wife also a fantasy fan and how does she feels about your books?
She's definitely a fantasy fan, but she has a love/hate relationship with my writing. Early on, she used to get it in bits and pieces, every chapter changing right after she read it because I was still figuring things out. It kind of jaded her to the process because, for years, she never got the complete book. Now she's reluctant to dive into anything I haven't published because she's worried I'll just change it.
Worse still, I tend to give away all my physical book copies so there's only a couple of them at the house, at any one time. She doesn't like to read those because I always manage to snatch them away while she's right in the middle of reading them.
She's very supportive of what I do, but I don't think she'll read all my books until after I'm dead.
F.I.: Thank you for all those wonderful answers, Tim. It was fun having you on the blog.
Tim's bio (in his own words): I live in west Texas with my wife and daughter. I write horror and dark fantasy, and whatever else comes to mind. I don't restrict my creativity to a single genre, pushing myself to branch out and get better every time I sit down to write. My goal is to write for a living, one day.
Posted on 11/01/2013, in Books, Interview and tagged Dark Fantasy, Demon Squad, sword and sorcery, Tim Marquitz, Witch Bane. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.


text:
|Pin It
Eric & Julie Comstock, Social Club, Tail Feather/Peacock in FAT QUARTERS 10 Total
Each Fat QuarterĀ Measures: 18"x 21/22"
You will receive a Fat Quarter of each of the following:
Simple Dot Salt/Peacock
Alphabet Letters Tail Feather
Quilted Stitches Tail Feather
Leaves Stripe Salt/Tail Feather
Peacock Feathers Salt
Simple Dot Peacock
Jazzy Dots Peacock
Metro Dots Peacock
Leaves Stripe Peacock
Alphabet Letters Peacock
Fiber Content: 100% Cotton
If you would like to have a 1/2 yard of each print, please enter 2 in the Qty Box. Ā
Yardage is cut in one continuous piece.
HoverĀover image for a larger, better view.Ā


text:
Thank you, Major General [Gary L.] Curtin [Director, DSWA], very much.
I was looking forward to talking to you today until I looked out and saw two of my old colleagues from the Senate Armed Services Committee, Dick Combs and Bill Hoehn and they used to routinely come to my office and tell me I didn't know what I was talking about. And so this is a scary thought, indeed, to have them here. Good to see you guys. Thank you for coming.
If I may, let me begin, by sharing a remarkable personal experience this week. Earlier on Tuesday, I went out to Omaha to visit the Strategic Air Command. Well, it's not called the Strategic Air Command anymore. We did away with that. It's Strategic Command. And then I find myself on Thursday coming here to talk to 300 arms control experts, a very interesting juxtaposition in my life. I went out on Monday night and had dinner with [Air Force General] Gene Habiger and his wife Barbara. I don't how many of you have ever been there, but Gene is in the command quarters that [the late Air Force General] Curtis LeMay [SAC commander, 1948-1957] occupied and in the basement is Curtis LeMay's bomb shelter. It's really stunning to go down there. It's like a trip 30 years back in time, complete with a hand-cranked air exchange system and hand-cranked telephone which is EMP [electro-magnetic pulse] hardened, of course. It was tested every Friday until 1988. It had about a two-inch thick blast door covering the window that I guess you crawled out of when it was all over!
Later I sat down and talk with Gene Habiger. And I, somewhere, wherever Curtis LeMay is, he must have been just dying to hear the things that Gene Habiger, his successor, is now talking about.
Gene had just returned the night before from a two-week visit to Russia where he toured a nuclear submarine, went out and saw a silo complete with active warheads, saw the command and control system, saw the custodial stewardship procedures that Russia has for warheads. And I thought to myself, what a remarkable thing it is to Gene's enduring credit, that he has seen his tenure, his stewardship responsibilities as the head of the Strategic Command to create probably one of the most sophisticated and successful dialogues with his counterparts in Russia during the last three years. It is absolutely remarkable.
It told me more than anything what a remarkable transition we have all endured these last eight to ten years. It is a different world. A hugely different world. In many ways, in a beneficent sense, a different world. I think it is greatly reassuring that we live in a time when the head of our Strategic Command can sit down with his counterpart in Russia and talk about nuclear surety issues and command and control issues and custodial issues. I don't think I ever anticipated having lived long enough to have experienced that, yet, it is very real.
At the same time, we live in a much more complicated and, I would argue, a more dangerous world. Not just because of the events of the last month (the India and Pakistan nuclear tests), troubling as they were. But really, the gradual unfolding of a world that is troubling, indeed, I suspect has been the focal point of so much of your conversation these last two days. Let me, at this stage, say how much I admire you, Gary, for setting up this conference and actually continuing these conferences. I think it again reflects the enormous professionalism of our Department of Defense and the creative spirit that people like (Major General) Gary Curtin and (Brigadier General) John Reppert and others who have been so much in the forefront of pioneering new relationships with our uneasy partners in this spaceship Earth that we share together. And I thank you for doing this and I thank you for asking me to come. I'm grateful for that.
I believe that this new world that's unfolding and the challenges of containing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons represents the signal security challenge of the next decade, if not the next century. I don't think that there is a more important, and arguably, not a more complicated problem than this. And it's going to take fully all of the creative energy that these remarkable people that work for our department and all of you who work in other parts of our government or in non-government agencies, either of the United States or overseas, all of our creative energies to deal with this.
It was only, six years ago, Bill Hoehn, when you were working out the Nunn-Lugar program [to dismantle nuclear weapons] to get it going and the best you would say was our government was apathetic, right Dick Combs? We even confronted active opposition of some in our government to what, I think, has been singularly one of the most successful and important programs that we've had in the last five years. In this period of time, I think we've had a huge transition for those of us in the Department of Defense, and I actually believe it's the consensus view in our government that threat reduction constitutes a primary defense mission. There was once a time when it was viewed as a liberal, left-wing diversion to the real challenge to maintaining a strong defense. And, I think, people are now realizing that threat reduction now represents a primary defense mission.
I think a world perspective has emerged because of some very significant changes in the last five years, to eight years. The collapse of the old Soviet Union and the making available in a very unsettling way the knowledge and the tools of a large military that is now available to third parties is a scary picture for everyone, not just the United States. It isn't just us who face this at all.
And let me say, I think part of the reason why the CTR [Cooperative Threat Reduction] program has been so important is it's been able to establish a framework for interaction with Russia. We've had success in the last six months, working with Russia to try to prevent the proliferation of knowledge and things to other countries that would be, frankly, detrimental to Russia's security as well as others in the region. [Special envoy] Bob Gallucci has been very instrumental in this. That's a profound and very far-reaching development, and I would argue that we've been dealing with it fairly successfully, when you consider the complexity of the task.
I think a second thing that characterizes this period is the emergence of a willingness by terrorists to contemplate the use of chemical or biological weapons. It's obviously passé now to refer to the sarin attack in Tokyo. But, if ever there were a wake up call, it was that. Or a couple of homegrown kooks out in Nevada that want to pretend they've created anthrax to poison Americans. It's an unusually difficult problem to deal with. And for the first time, our government is seriously now talking about homeland defense in very significant and profound ways. And I'd be glad to talk about that. I don't intend to spend much time here talking about that. But I'd be glad to discuss it if you're interested.
I think a third development which is troubling has been the collapse in the interest in the United States in nuclear weapons. This was, after all, for years, the premier defense mission. And we built up a remarkable organization in the Defense Nuclear Agency to become the Defense Special Weapons Agency, where the best and the brightest sought careers. And yet, in the last five to eight years, there's been just a significant reduction in interest of our best and brightest in this career field. Nuclear weapons aren't going away as much as we would wish it. But we can't afford to lose our intellectual competence in dealing with it. And that's a very significant challenge and one I know that Gary has been working on.
I think an equally important development of the last four to five years has been the increasing vulnerability of the American infrastructure caused by American productivity in using computers to run business processes and physical processes. I know that you've had some discussion about this before I arrived today. I apologize for not having been here earlier, but I spent the morning testifying in front of the House National Security Committee on this issue, America's vulnerability to a cyber attack and the significance of our vulnerability to cyber attack.
Now, I reviewed these developments as an introduction to context of our thinking when last fall, we decided that we needed to make a fairly significant change in the way we were organized at the Department of Defense to deal with these challenging developments. We believe that there was no more important national security mission that we faced in the next decade than threat reduction and counter proliferation and we were poorly organized to deal with it. Not that we didn't have remarkable people working on it. But we were not organized in an integrated way to deal with this very comprehensive problem. We had, obviously, very strong organizations to begin with, DWSA; On-Site Inspection Agency [OSIA]; DTSA, the Defense Technology and Security Agency. But we also have boutique, and I don't mean that in a negative sense, but boutique organizations that were dealing with the Nunn-Lugar program, the CTR program. And we found that in various ways we needed to bring this together into a coherence and into a whole.
So we set about the process of creating this new organization called the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. And that's really why I wanted to come and talk to you. I wanted to tell you about this organization and our plans, at least in the near term.
First, the organization will become operational officially on the 1st of October. We have been already initiated a transition. The infrastructure is in place and we will, I think, in a month be transferring the entire Cooperative Threat Reduction program to the new agency. It's going to take a little bit of time to make the transition to bring the other elements together because we are going to consolidate to a single space and that does entail relocation and the turmoil.
Now, let me first describe the goals of the organization and what we're going to try to do. There are going to be three primary missions for the new organization. First, and I would say foremost, but I don't want it to look like it's disproportionate in weight, is to maintain our current nuclear deterrent capability. That is still, singularly, one of the most important challenges we face. And it means providing the technical expertise to manage this infrastructure. We still have a large and will, I think, always have a large infrastructure of nuclear capability. And we have to husband that and we have to maintain the intellectual infrastructure to support it. This organization, of course, will be responsible for the Defense Department's stockpile stewardship duties and provide technical support in that area.
The second primary mission is going to be to reduce the threat from weapons of mass destruction. Within this mission there are obviously important elements, such as treaty monitoring and on-going support of the confidence building measures. And here, I think we're fortunate to be able to build on the base created by this remarkable little organization called OSIA. Over the last ten years, this is really a gem and has done some really great things. And I think we have a wonderful infrastructure to, on which to build the new organization. And it's on that rootstock, as it were, we're going to graft, for example, the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.
The third mission is to counter weapons of mass destruction threats. Here, we seek the full panoply of capabilities. We need to develop modeling and simulation skills. Especially for biological and chemical weapons. We do not have the intellectual infrastructure for biological and chemical threats the way we have it for nuclear threats. We spent a long time thinking about nuclear weapons. When the United States abandoned biological weapons in, I think, 1969, we really lost the intellectual infrastructure that goes with having an offensive program. It's a fact of nature that military organizations tend to devote an order of magnitude more attention to things if they're on the offense than if they're on the defense.
We have not sustained and maintained an intellectual infrastructure associated with biological or chemical weapons. We are somewhat further along on chemical weapons because we really started working very hard on chemical weapons protection back in the mid '80s. We still have an awful long way to go. And Dick Macke remembers this from his days in the Pacific about the challenges that would come if we ever confront chemical weapons on the Korean peninsula, for example. An enormously difficult environment if we had to do that. But at least, in the area of chemical threats, we've spent some time thinking about the problem.
There's another dimension to this third mission, which is still unfolding in our minds. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency will be deeply involved in it, but not singularly involved in consequence management. Those of you who are familiar with the American defense establishment know that we have unified commanders in chief and the world is divided among them. There was one country that was never in a CINCs area of responsibility and that was the United States. Continental air defense fell under the jurisdiction of NORAD, but homeland defense belonged to no one. Those days are over. We are going to have to assign the United States to a CINC to start worrying about homeland defense.
And those of you who have been involved in any analysis associated with a terrorist act that might use chemical or biological weapons know, it is startling how soon this becomes a national security problem. It's within minutes, a chemical or biological terrorist act transcends the capability of local law enforcement or emergency responders. This will be a homeland defense issue, a national security issue if it were ever to happen. Over the next 16 to 18 months, we will be wrestling through all of the tough but essential details of assigning the United States to a CINC and starting to develop real world war plans to defend this country.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency becomes, as it were, the central nervous system for our counter-proliferation plans and preparation. We have to have an organization that can start with first principles, study the threat, what will it look like, and how do you deal with it. When it comes to chemical and biological weapons, we don't have that integrated intelligence assessment, today to be honest. We don't have an integrated view of this as a threat and what to do about it. And so that will become the first responsibility of the agency.
Now, in that regard, probably the most important thing that we'll be doing early with this agency, is to establish an advanced systems and concepts office for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. That becomes the, as it were, the central nervous system for the new agency, helping us to think threats and requirements, and to take them in an integrated way into the resourcing and planning and programming for this agency. That will be the highest priority and our focus, really, between now and October 1st.
This advanced systems and concept office will be a fairly small organization, extensively utilizing Individual Professional Assignments (IPAs) from industry and academia to augment our talent. The Director of Central Intelligence has a counter proliferation agency and it took nearly nine months to hire two microbiologists. We can't use government personnel practices to try to stay up with this problem. We are going to have to utilize IPAs. And so we will have a small government civil service core, 20 to 30 people maybe, that constitute the bulk of the permanent force for the ASCO. The rest of the staffing is going to be done through IPAs.
I think this is especially important because there is an astounding intellectual capital that exists on issues like biological technical developments in our pharmaceutical industry. We could never hope to replicate it, neither should we try. The private sector will be much more vibrant and current than anything we could create in the government. And so finding ways to link up with these organizations will become enormously important.
The last thing that we're doing with DTRA is creating a very senior panel of advisors, the Threat Reduction Advisory Committee. [Retired Air Force] General Larry Welch, who's the head of IDA, is going to chair it. We have people like [former Secretary of Defense] Bill Perry and George Whitesides; I tried to get [retired General] John Shalikashvili [former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff], but he couldn't make it; Paul Wolfowitz [former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy]; I'm hoping with a little bit of luck to get Bob Gallucci, but he's holding out on me; to try to be a part of this organization because we need early on to be able to develop a very clear vision to guide this organization over the next three to four years. I think our first meeting of the advisory committee is going to be next month. And, I think, most people are concerned that it's going to be very demanding. And I fear that it will be for the first 12 months. We'll be asking a lot from people in the first 12 months, but that'll be the most important time to get our grounding.
Finally, let me again, thank you General Curtin not just for inviting me here, but frankly, for hosting this event. I believe this kind of a conclave becomes an irreplaceable element for the future. I cannot contemplate dealing with this problem without having the resources of this sort of an association, this sort of a conference, to help all of us deal with this challenging problem. We will be asking much more of all of you. I will be asking you to help us think through the most challenging national security problems that this country faces and frankly, all countries face. We share it together. And we're going to need all of you. I'm very serious. We're going to need all of you and your involvement and your professionalism and your expertise.
It isn't just an arms control issue, frankly. Many of you in the arms control world, frankly, are wrestling with the end of the Cold War just as much as we have been in the Department of Defense. There are an awful lot of changes that lie ahead for you. We share them together. I would like to conclude by saying the Department of Defense is actually your partner because we see this as our mission. Not the only mission. Because when you get right down to it, we're still going to go off and fight and win America's wars. But it is one of our primary missions to reduce the threat that we face and that all other countries face. And we're going to need your help.
Thank you very much, Gary. Thank you for inviting me. (Applause)
General Curtin asked if I would be willing to take some questions and I would. I'm not exactly sure when I have to be whisked out of here. I have to go to a meeting at the White House this afternoon. But I would be glad to answer questions. How much -- 10, 15 minutes. Are there any questions?
Yes, sir, please.
Q: How is the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency going to work in with NATO?
A: First of all, I need to say that all of the constituent elements that currently exist in the Department of Defense will be transferred over DTRA. We've been very careful to make sure nothing falls off the table during the transition. And that, frankly, was one of General Curtin's and General Reppert's primary responsibilities, to make sure that in this transition, nobody fell off the truck on the way.
My first response to your question is that all of the existing patterns and associations will continue in the transition. In the long run, I hope what you're going to see is a much more coherent focus. Instead of having two or maybe three organizations that might be involved in the issue, you're going to get one organization plus the policy elements in OSD. So, I hope what it produces one-stop shopping for others when they want to deal with this problem, you will have one place to go.
Q: With regard to continental defense, what will be the coordinating mechanism between DTRA and the National Infrastructure Protection Center in Department of Justice and the Critical Infrastructure Protection office in Commerce?
A: Let me say at this point that we view these as somewhat separate problems and they are organizationally separate. The department's response to the cyber issues and the infrastructure protection issues are really going to be coordinated through a different mechanism. It's going to be through the Assistant Secretary for Command, Control and Intelligence on the one hand. We will also be establishing a new military organization to deal with cyber defense. That is going to be resolved in the next six weeks or so, separate from the DTRA. DTRA has its hands full right now. And frankly, it is a somewhat different problem.
Now, let me describe to you the relationship of the department to the NIPC and then, I forget the name of the other one. ...CIAO (Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office) ...that's right, CIAO organization.
Infrastructure protection is a very interesting problem. The Department of Defense is not responsible for any infrastructure inside the United States with the exception of locks and dams. And we do that because the Corps of Engineers has the responsibility. Other than that, we don't have any responsibilities for infrastructure. It's deeply rooted in American Constitutional democracy that's evolved over the last hundred years, 125 years. The Department of Defense only deals with threats outside of the borders of the United States. If it's inside of the borders of the United States, it is a law enforcement problem.
I believe that's an artificial distinction. Cyberspace doesn't know geographical boundaries. We're looking at a future where frankly, DoD doesn't have any primary responsibility or jurisdiction, but almost inevitably will be pulled in very early in any cyber protection role. We are spending considerable resources right now dealing with the problems that we revealed to ourselves last year through an exercise called Eligible Receiver. The lessons of Eligible Receiver reconfirmed in February when we were under attack by some hackers.
We really are substantially down the road in dealing with that problem now. We have committed ourselves and are supporting the National Infrastructure Protection Center. We provide the deputy and we'll provide, I believe, three of the five heads of the directorates. Because of our Constitutional orientation and our history, the Department of Defense is not going to be the lead in anything, but we will be backbone of everything when you get down to it. We are actively partnering with the Department of Justice and the FBI. I meet on a monthly basis with the Attorney General and with the director of the FBI as we are laying out our plans on the NIPC. We are, also creating a computer forensics capability on behalf of both DoD and the Justice Department. So we're very deeply involved with the NIPC.
Now as to the CIAO organization, that's just been created. It's slightly ambiguous because, I think, some people's visions are grander than what can really be done by the organization. I mean you can't really take the responsibilities away from the organizations. So this organization is more responsible for coordination policy coordination.
Q: Thank you. My name is Mr. (inaudible). I'm teaching arms control and proliferation issues at (inaudible) University in Ankara, Turkey. Although the primary concern of arms control has been nuclear as well as biological and chemical weapons, we all know that there is also a significant role for controlling conventional weaponry as well. I would, therefore, like to take this opportunity of being in same room with you, sir, to bring to your attention an extremely important subject that has not been touched upon during the conference here. I'm talking about the situation in Cyprus which is very likely to be the next big explosion to those of India and Pakistan.
As most of us know, the Russian anti-aircraft missiles will be soon dispatched to Cyprus upon the request of Greek Cypriots. Turkish military and security elites consider this missile deal as very serious challenge to Turkey's privacy toward the island and has a serious threat to Turkish national security. For reasons that I won't be dealing with here, Turks are determined to take all sorts of military measures, including a preventive strike to the missiles. In that, these options, it's unfortunately seemingly the most likely. Therefore, in case this occurs, there should be no doubt that the conflict will easily and quickly escalate to a war between Turkey and Greece, possibly inviting U.S. as well as Russian intervention. Considering that the costs of war between two NATO allies will be tremendous for all the parties concerned, I would like to know what concrete measures the U.S. administration is or will be taking short of the rhetorics of exercising restraint. It's what I'm telling my friends in the Turkish general staff that does me no good. Because they believe once these missiles are deployed to the island, it will be much more difficult to take them out during a conflict. Therefore, a preventive strike prevails as the most feasible option for them. So, I would like to hear that, I'm just speaking on my personal capacity and I'm just the spokesperson of all those who want to live in peace and harmony with our Greek friends. Thank you, sir.
A: If I were here just to speak in my personal capacity, I'd be able to be more open in my discussion with you and so, I'm going to have to be controlled somewhat in my remarks.
The United States shares the concern that you uttered about the seriousness and the volatility of the situation. As you know, we have designated an individual to become a point person for dealing with it. And, in all honesty, there have been a series of fairly important discussions, which I'm not at liberty to go into. I think you are seeing the appropriate level of caution right now. I don't believe that there is anything that's happened right now that is irreversible. And there are very serious ongoing, very substantive discussions associated with it, working with all the parties that are affected by it.
Forgive for me for not being able to go much further than that right now. I think we share, very much, your concern that this could be a situation that could quickly get out of hand and could quickly lead to unforeseeable consequences. And therefore, we're very anxious to take substantive steps to prevent it from happening.
I'm sorry that I'm constrained from going further than that.
Q: Sir, what CINC did you have in mind for working with DTRA? I'm from ACOM, so I have no dog in that fight, really. (Laughter)
A: Is ACOM America Command or Atlantic Command? I don't know...(Laughter) This is more complicated than Cyprus -- (Laughter). And infinitely more dangerous. (Laughter)
Logically, we have three commands that have an important role to play. We have NORAD and we've got Strategic Command and we have the Atlantic Command. I have my own personal preferences and views. But we are working that out right now inside the department. There obviously is a compromise solution, which is some kind of a joint task force. But I actually believe it needs to be grounded in a CINC. My personal view, but again, let me just state explicitly it's only a personal view and I don't want this to be forejudging either the secretary's flexibility or his thinking on it, is that it's logical to put it with ACOM. But that is not a settled issue and there are very important equities that come to the table associated with other organizations.
Let me give you an example. I personally don't believe homeland defense is just a case of the United States. You have to think about Canada in this regard. For all practical purposes, we have an integrated infrastructure with Canada. If the power were to go out in Ontario, it would effect New York City. So you cannot think about it being just a United States homeland problem. And NORAD, of course, has had a long, very successful history of working closely with Canada. So it's not a trivial issue when I say that this is not yet resolved. We will resolve it here this summer.
I gave you more information than I gave him. (Laughter)
I'm sorry, I have to go. Thank you all.
Published by the American Forces Information Service, a field activity of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), Washington, D.C. Parenthetical entries are speaker/author notes; bracketed entries are editorial notes. This material is in the public domain and may be reprinted without permission.


text:
Discovering Nature with Young Children Trainer's Guide
Item #: 762
# of Pages:218
Subject: Math, Science & Tech
This indispensable guide for trainers and administrators introduces teaching staff to the complete Discovering Nature with Young Children curriculum?from planning to implementation. Features an introduction to scientific reasoning for adults, workshops to prepare teachers to use the curriculum, and strategies for supporting teachers over time through mentoring and guided discussions. Includes detailed charts, forms and reproducible overheads for extended study and reflection. From Redleaf Press.


text:
This item has been discontinued and is no longer available
My name is modelname
Ordering for a Team?
Let our Team Division Help!
Item has a Minimum Qty
Dress up your simple swimsuit with a flattering fit and feminine flair; the V Neck Princess Tunic One Piece allows for full coverage and a flirty fashion.
Get an alert when we add new styles of T.H.E! Simply sign up and we'll notify you.


text:
Applied Materials (AMAT) is expected to report poor first quarter earnings on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 with analysts expecting a 83.3% drop in earnings from a year ago. The consensus estimate is 3 cents per share, down from earnings of 18 cents per share a year ago.
The consensus estimate remains unchanged over the past month, but it has decreased from three months ago when it was 10 cents. Analysts are projecting earnings of 54 cents per share for the fiscal year. For the year, revenue is expected to come in at $7.58 billion.
Applied Materials' two-quarter streak of profitability was snapped by last quarter's loss. The company reported a loss of $515 million in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and a profit of $218 million in the third quarter of the last fiscal year and profit of $289 million in the second quarter of the last fiscal year.
The company has seen declines in revenue in the past two quarters. Revenue dropped by 24.5% year-over-year to $1.65 billion in fourth quarter of the last fiscal year. The quarter before that, revenue dropped 15.9%.
Analysts have become more optimistic about the stock recently and the number of buy ratings has risen slightly over the past three months.
Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.
Narrative Science, through its proprietary artificial intelligence platform, transforms data into stories and insights.


text:
Boating is a popular recreational activity in South Carolina, with easy access to not just the Atlantic Ocean but numerous lakes, rivers, creeks and ponds.
But boating also takes a devastating annual death toll in our state. And while more widespread enforcement of boating laws would likely help reduce those horrendous figures, the best defense against boating fatalities remains adherence to practical safety methods.
According to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, 28 people died in boating accidents in our state last year, raising the 2010 through 2013 total to 87. Those grim statistics were compiled despite the General Assembly's strengthening of boating safety laws over the last decade, including stiffer penalties for driving a boat under the influence of alcohol.
A recent Post and Courier included a story from The State newspaper reporting those numbers and recalling "that terrible spring of 2010, when four people were killed on Lake Murray in two boating collisions just minutes apart." The story added: "Both crashes were alcohol-related."
Another obvious hazard: Just as the rising number of cars and trucks on S.C. highways have created higher accident risks, so have the rising number of boats on S.C. waterways. Both elevated traffic perils are predictable results of South Carolina's remarkable population growth over the last few decades.
Yet numbers alone can't convey the awful heartbreak of boating accidents. For instance, in a tragedy unrelated to alcohol, a Mount Pleasant teenager recently died after falling off a boat at a local marina. The sad, familiar reminder here is that while boating can be fun, it can also be very dangerous.
On a brighter note, boater education courses help reduce those risks when the lessons they teach are followed.
Boaters also should realize that violation of regulations can draw serious consequences from DNR and other law-enforcement agencies.
Of course, the best reason to practice boating safety isn't to make sure you stay out of trouble with the authorities.
It's to make sure you - and everybody else in your boat and on the water - stays alive.
And one proven way to do that is by wearing a life jacket.
No, S.C. law doesn't require you to do so - unless you're under 12 years old and on a boat less than 16 feet long.
But the law does demand that each boat have a personal flotation device for each person aboard.
And common sense demands recognizing - and minimizing - the dangers of boating.
Notice about comments:
The Post and Courier is pleased to offer readers the enhanced ability to comment on stories. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point.
We do not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click the X that appears in the upper right corner when you hover over a comment. This will send the comment to Facebook for review. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website. Read our full terms and conditions.


text:
Upcoming Shows for the Artist Series' 48th Season
The Artist Series, Jacksonville's major presenter of Broadway, Concert and Variety, Off Broadway, and International shows, kicks off its 48th season this fall. What began as a small program to make the arts more available to students at the local community college, now Florida State College at Jacksonville, has expanded into a well-rounded performing arts program that is available to the entire community. The Artist Series utilizes some of Jacksonville's best entertainment venues, such as the Times-Union Center and Florida State College's South Campus' Wilson Center for the Arts.
THE D* WORD: October 4th – November 24th, Matinees & Evenings, Times-Union Center's Terry Theater. Tickets on sale now!
From the Creator/Writer of the smash international hit Menopause The Musical® comes the new party show of all our lives, THE D* WORD – A Musical (*Ditched, Dumped, Divorced and Dating!)®THED* WORDis a 90-minute musical that follows the woes and wows of four single and single-again women who meet after a night of speed dating. Join Erica, DeeDee, Kate and Jen as they learn the art of happily EVEN after featuring songs from I Will Survive and Hot Stuff to Before He Cheats and Turn Me On! This laugh-out-loud celebration will have you singing and dancing along to the best break-up/make-up songs ever!
To purchase tickets, call the Artist Series Box Office at (904) 442-BWAY (2929).
Tickets to individual shows in the Artist Series' 2013-2014 Five-Show Broadway in Jacksonville Season go on sale this fall and winter. Reservations for groups of 10+ for each Broadway show can be made at this time by calling the Artist Series Group Sales Hotline at (904) 442-2947.


text:
Search thousands of Junction car dealers across the nation online at Autobytel.com. Look for your future new or used automobile by manufacturer, value, type, or production year. Autobytel has a huge directory of Junction car dealerships with their inventories of new and used car, truck, and SUV listings online. We will help with your automobile shopping experience every step of the way. View up-to-date values of automobiles, study vehicle stats, browse photos, research extensive analysis of the cars, and find prices pertaining to the Junction car dealership.
The days of browsing cars at brick and mortar Junction car dealerships have long since passed. Because of the advancements in cyberspace; Junction car dealers are able to have a virtual showroom located at multiple sites at the same time including Autobytel.com. There is an increasingly greater number of shoppers that use the web to explore all the vehicle choices available on the market today. After a consumer has narrowed down their choices of new or used cars; they will begin to search the local listings of Junction car dealers. It will not be long till they come to an authorative car site like Autobytel.com. At our website you can get a free price quote from a number of Junction car dealers.
Finding one Junction car dealership that is trustworthy can be a huge burden off your shoulders. You might think that in the car buying process, you will only visit that Junction car dealer lot once. Often times Junction car dealers have so many more resources available to the consumer that you're likely to make a return visit. Established Junction car dealerships not only specialize in vehicle sales; they have a myriad of other services to offer such as: car repair, parts sales, and auto leasing, just to name a few. Since there is a very good likelihood that in the coming years you will revisit the Junction car dealer for repair or a replacement part. That's why it is a good idea to form a close bond with the Junction car dealership in the event that you need to use one of their multiple services.
Browse the Junction car dealerships catalogue at Autobytel.com to get information and an assessment on a perspective dealer. Read actual clientele reports on a number of Junction car dealers. These appraisals of Junction car dealerships can be an effective way to figure out which dealership you should choose.


text:
US crude firmed after their lowest since January as weak factory activity in China deepened a commodity-wide selloff.» Read More
CNBC's Jackie DeAngelis discusses the day's activity in the commodities markets. Oil was down for the third straight day, due to dollar strength, an increase in OPEC output, and the possibility of a nuclear deal with Iran.
CNBC's Sue Herera reports on the latest tweets from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, revealing Tesla's new product will not be a car.
The chart in oil prices is getting a lot of people talking positively about crude. Don't buy it.
Once a darling of emerging market investors, the slump in oil prices mean Nigeria's economy is seen continuing to slow after this weekend's elections.
Insight to tension in the Middle East, and how much events impact the price of oil, with Helima Croft, RBC Capital Markets.
As talks between the West and Iran continue, analysts have warned that a successful deal could further compound the glut in global oil markets.
Traders are worried Iran could begin selling oil into an already oversupplied market, but other forces could support prices, Helima Croft tells CNBC.
Oil prices fell as officials from Iran and six world powers discussed a possible deal over Tehran's nuclear program.
Plunging oil has been a windfall for U.S. consumers, but energy-reliant countries like Angola, however, the effect has been far less beneficial.
For the past year, the turmoil in energy markets has been the biggest event in global financial markets, says David Mann, chief economist, Asia at Standard Chartered Bank.
CNBC's Jackie DeAngelis discusses the day's activity in the commodities markets. Traders focus on Iran, but headlines from the State Department drove crude higher by the end of the day.
CNBC's Rick Santelli reports the latest in dropping crude prices and the Middle East.
An incident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant was the result of an employee using the wrong type of cat litter to absorb liquid nuclear waste.
Expect more volatility in oil prices, which will stay in the current range for some time, John Watson told CNBC.
Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors, discusses his bullish outlook on the markets.
David Lennox, resources analyst at Fat Prophets, says U.S. energy giant Chevron's pull-out of Caltex Australia is part of a broader industry restructuring.
Chevron CEO John Watson talks oil prices, Middle East tensions, debt and dividends with, CNBC's Kelly Evans.
A Yemeni official said the Saudi-backed operation in the country would only take days, but experts said an easy conclusion is unlikely.
CNBC Pro highlights the five best strategy notes that came across our desk this week.
Against a backdrop of political chaos in the Middle East, hedge fund managers said the oil price would remain volatile and could fall as low as $30.
Get the best of CNBC in your inbox


text:
Retirement can be stress free if one starts early...
Give your child a head start in life by investing for his or her future...
Check the NAV of a particular scheme.
Check the dividends you have received on your current plan.
A unique idea designed to let your hard earned savings work harder for you...
A discipline that enables setting aside a set amt. of money every month to invest
Through the Prof. Simply Simple™ initiative, we will try and simplify financial terminologies and concepts.
What happens when Suppandi meets Professor Simply Simple?
Here you can download our application forms with a single click.
Just Think of your Dream, And Plan to make it True...
Plan for your Happy retirement using our Retirement planner…
Thank You!
We will get back to you soon.
The Fund aims to create a liquid portfolio of debt as well as money market instruments to provide reasonable returns and liquidity to investors.
Investment by the scheme in securitised debt will not normally exceed 70% of the net assets of the scheme.
Investment in derivative instruments may be done for hedging and Portfolio balancing.
The scheme net assets will have a maximum derivative net position of 50% of the net assets of the scheme.
Raghupathi Acharya
Raghupathi Acharya began his career in 1991 at Karnataka Bank where he worked till 2007 in various capacities in Merchant Banking, Foreign Exchange and Treasury Departments of the Bank. As an Officer in Merchant Banking Division of the Bank, he handled underwriting & issue management functions, as well as managed short term bridge loan portfolio of the bank. From 1995 to 2000 he worked as a Forex Dealer handling foreign exchange dealing functions of the Bank. He also worked in the Credit Department handling credit appraisals of large borrowers for a brief period. Thereafter he moved to the Treasury Department of the Bank as Chief Manager, handling Treasury & Investments operations of the Bank. Since May 2008 till date, he is working with Tata Asset Management Ltd as Fund Manager - Fixed Income. Raghupathi Acharya is a B.Com Graduate and a Chartered Accountant.
Akhil Mittal
Mr. Akhil Mittal started his career in 2004 at Rallis India Limited where he worked till 2006 in the treasury department looking after working capital management, foreign exchange management & banking. He moved to Edelweiss Securities Limited in 2006, where he worked in the Corporate Treasury & resources department looking after resource mobilization, working capital management, banking & investments. Akhil joined Canara Robeco Asset Management Co Ltd as a fund manager looking after fixed income funds from Sept 2008 till Nov 2010 & from March 2011 to June 2014. He managed various Fixed Income portfolios including money market funds, duration funds & hybrid funds. He also had a brief stint with Principal PNB Asset Management Co Ltd from Nov 2010 to Feb 2011 where he worked as a Senior Fund Manager looking after Fixed Income Investments. Akhil joined Tata Asset Management in June 2014 as senior fund manager looking after fixed income investments. He is a B.Com graduate & holds an MBA degree from University Business School.
The investment objective will be to create a liquid portfolio of debt as well as Money Market Instruments so as to provide reasonable returns and liquidity to the Unitholders.
An open ended debt scheme.
*There is no minimum amount requirement in case unitholder is opting for an all units switch.
Cut off timing for subscriptions (including switch in) for all open ended schemes of Tata Mutual Fund except Tata Liquid Fund, Tata Liquidity Management Fund & Tata Money Market Fund is revised as under
* Multiple applications (purchase including switch in) submitted by investor on
same day for the same scheme, shall be aggregated at investor level (i.e. First
holder / Sole Holder) for determination of Rs. 2 Lacs.
NAV of the day on which the funds are realized up to 3.00 p.m
(Subject to transaction being time-stamped upto 3 p.m. on the date of
realization of funds).
In case of switch transactions, funds will be made available for utilization in the switch-in scheme based on redemption payout cycle of the switch out scheme.
Toll Free Number
Copyright © 2012 Tata Mutual Fund. All rights reserved.
Fields with* marks are mandatory


text:
|Page: 1 of 4
|Sort By:
Stay in the ultimate Sofia hostel - Internet Hostel Sofia, located on the world famous Bulgarian street: Vitosha Blvd and offering affordable private rooms, studios, apartments and dorms for any taste!
Sofia Guesthouse is located in the very center of Sofia, very close to the most famous meeting point in Sofia - Patriarh Evtimiy's monument. For 9 euro including breakfast you will enjoy a wonderful stay in a relaxing and friendly atmosphere.
The Rooms hostel is located in the centre of Sofia. It is in a quiet street between two of the biggest main street...
Located 200 meters from the center of Sofia in very pleasant surroundings isolated of the city noise, the Hotel Elysia is intimate and peaceful place
Stay in the heart of Sofia at the city's cheapest and most comfortable hostel!
by Hostelworld customers has a unique setup in a totally renovated 19th
The Internet Hostel is located in the heart of Sofia close to bars & restaurants & has mixed dorms...
Our small, family-owned hostel in downtown Sofia offers classic Bulgarian hospitality to make your stay memorable!
A 2 bed room apartment in a secure building with private entrance, private shower and toilet, fridge, satelite TV-60 channels, free telephone - incoming and local calls,pick up service, sightseeing, taxi service, transfer.
This is a small family bed and breakfast hotel situated in a quiet street in the central part of Sofia. We have 10 double rooms, each of them with a different interior with distinct individuality.
Run by a nice family, the hostel is situated near downtown Sofia, Bulgaria's capital. A few minutes away there are outdoor bazaars & markets, lots of restaurants,
|Page: 12 | 3 | 4 |
Find a hostel in Sofia Bulgaria and save money on discount lodging. Hosteling in Sofia Bulgaria offers a different travel experience than staying at traditional accommodations. Youth hostels allow you to meet new people and learn from other international and worldly travelers. Most hostels are conveniently located in the center of the action close to public transportation, including buses and rails. Staying at a hostel in Sofia Bulgaria is a great option whether you are backpacking or traveling on a budget . Browse our hostels and plan your Sofia Bulgaria vacation today!
|Page: 12 | 3 | 4 |


text:
Results 41 to 45 of 45
Registered Member
- Join Date
- Jul 2006
- Location
- Lubbock, TX
- Posts
- 65
Posted On:
10/07/2007 12:14pm
Style: tkd, bjj--
Running up the hogou-protected chests of three classmates of increasing height in order to jump front kick and pop a balloon with my secretly modified "thumb-tack in the toe to give a sharp tip" shoe in order to show an audience that our TKD demo team was "teh deadly".
I am 100% serious.
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
- Posts
- 29
Posted On:
10/07/2007 1:26pm
Registered Member
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
- Location
- United States, Florida
- Posts
- 328
Posted On:
10/07/2007 2:31pm
Style: None--
My instructor made me and my fellow classmates close our eyes and visualize an opponent while performing our forms/kata. While I have no problem with forms/kata, the whole visualization thing seemed really pointless.
My friend was taking Shotokan classes a very long time ago. He told me that his instructor was sued for abuse towards his students and barred from teaching Martial Arts. What lead to this was his instructor would have his students (mostly little kids) lay on the floor. He would go up to each one of them and stand on their stomachs. Unfortunately, the instructor was packing close to three hundred pounds of pure fat (maybe a little less, my friend just said the guy was pretty fat). This caused most of his students to throw up or suffer injuries. In the instructor's defense, this exercise is good for strengthening abdominal muscles.
--Originally Posted by AMH
And yes. I'm serious. That's what it's for.More human than human is our motto.


text:
Saturday, February 28, 2009
SATURDAY INSIGHT: Tanner on governing
As an officer of Federated Clerks Union in the 1980s and early 1990s he used to regularly visit one of the northern suburbs factories that Pacific Brands this week closed down.
"It's terrible," he says. "But it isn't just the economic crisis. It's also the way this company has been run; its debt levels, its acquisition strategy, its large number of brands, many of them little impact, and what we now know about very large pay increases given to management."
Australia's Finance Minister isn't completely powerless to help - the day before Pacific Brands sacked 1,800 workers he and colleague Julia Gillard ditched the 3 month waiting period for retrenched workers seeking to use government services.
And he is talking tough about executive salaries. "They've gone through the roof, they're out of control," he says at the end of a week in which Telstra revealed plans to pay its outgoing chief executive $11 million.
But he believes the best way to help is one of the least direct...
"It will always be the case that a slowdown will tend to hurt first the companies that already have problems."
"The most important thing to do is to strengthen the economy generally; to spend money on infrastructure and associated activity that helps sustain growth."
If the prescription sounds boring, the reality isn't. Tanner is part of the small group of four (the others are Rudd, Swan and Gillard) that has nutted out each of Australia's multi billion dollar stimulus packages as well as each of the other emergency measures.
Since Lehman Brothers collapsed in late September it's been a white-knuckle ride.
"It's been like fighting a series of emergencies. There are huge sums of money involved and it's not an exact science," he says.
"You have to make judgement calls based on the best advice, from the Treasury and the Reserve Bank and other places, but we're not doing physics experiments - these are highly complex constantly changing circumstances where most of the factors that are involved are external and we often don't have all the information."
"People say, you know 'here's what happened in the Swedish banking system in the early 1990s and here's how they responded, so do what they did'. Well inevitably the Swedish banking system is different from the American banking system and in turn the British banking system and our banking system, and the differences can be critical."
Does he ever wish he could just "wait to see," rather than making emergency decisions that throw around billions of dollars on the basis of imperfect information, an idea infamously put forward by the Opposition's Treasury spokesman Julie Bishop shortly before she lost the job.
Tanner was, after all the Finance spokesman in opposition who derided his predecessor as "Santa Minchin" and on taking office promised to wield "Tanner's Axe."
"Our problem is that we can't sit around staring at our navels," he says. "We have to act quickly because of the lags involved. Even when we're making bonus payments, it takes time to get the money out of the door."
"These are in unprecedented circumstances. The responsibility that is weighing particularly on the four of us is pretty heavy, but that's what we spent a lifetime aiming for."
"One of my party colleagues straight after the famous meetings of that weekend in October when we announced the stimulus pacakge and the bank guarantee, said to me, 'I hope you're taking lots of notes in all these meetings mate, this is history being made,' and I looked at him and laughed and said, you've got to be kidding - who'se got time to take notes about anything?"
"In the middle of this you don't think about things like that."
Some of what were to be Tanners biggest tasks have been put on the back burner. The results of Razor Gang Mark II, his second go at shaving spending, were expected by Christmas.
They now won't be ready until the May Budget.
"We have been forced to move away from the serene steady roll out of policy. The wider context has become so turbulant that it has become clear it is going to be difficult to deal with these things sensibly. We've been literally spending so much time on the global economic situation."
"It's one of the interesting lessons I've learned in government, he confides. "When you are in Opposition you have virtually no resources and you are used to thinking of Government and its resources as infinite; its people, resources, its brain power, its capacity to dream up ideas, to get answers, provide briefing papers, get teams working on problems."
"One of the things you realise when you are in government is that they are not infinite. You need to allocate resources to where you want your effort, and not only with the public service."
"Because it's the same small group of people at the top who ultimately have to make the decisions - who have to be informed and make decisive calls - there's only so much capacity that those people have to absorb, to think, to toss around."
Do you mean that if you are fighting a fire, you can't redecorate?
"Yes, we were about to start a budget process, and had the world been vaguely normal in September and October, then things would have proceeded as they were going to. We had got one already got one thing out of the door with the Gershon report on information technology. We thought let's proceed with that, but lets fold the rest of the razor gang into the ordinary budget process."
As Tanner sees things, his first budget as Finance Minister was about making the easy cuts, "things that didn't require a huge amount of complex groundwork," what economists call low-hanging fruit.
The cuts in his second budget will be more difficult, and by themselves won't look like much.
"It's low-profile work and it doesn't excite much interest, except in Canberra," he says. "But I'm a devotee of that old saying, look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. I'm the guy looking after the pennies."
Just because the budget is expanding, doesn't mean that the budget shouldn't be frugal in the way it spends money, Tanner says.
"I see a central part of my role being to liberate resources that can be dedicated to more valuable purposes - whether in the current climate it's sustaining jobs, sustaining economic activity or whatever."
But he is frustrated that there isn't yet a good way of measuring how good he will be at that job. Finance Ministers are normally judged on the toughness of their first few budgets. The cuts expected in Tanner's first budget were toned down at the request of the Treasurer Wayne Swan who was concerned about the looming economic downturn. The cuts in the second won't be seen in a bottom line that will swell well into deficit in order to keep fighting the downturn.
"The two things actually aren't in conflict. We are very clearly now in the domain of a very substantial deficit. My work is to ensure that whatever the quantity outcome, the quality keeps improving."
"There isn't a way of measuring this yet, but it is something about which I have had initial discussions with my department. The concept is simple: for a total amount of money that the government spend in a given year, how much is devoted to it merely functioning and how much ends up as outcomes?"
"For instance what percentage of tax receipts is used up just in the administering and collection of tax? It's very low, around half a per cent. I know it is difficult and I don't know whether it has been done overseas, but I want to develop a broader measure against which our budgets can be judged."
"A classic area where I think it would be hugely beneficial is in somewhere like the ABC, to get an understanding of what proportion of its resources actually end up directly providing content versus running the organisation. That kind of metric will give you a very good idea, even though it's not capable of being done absolutely scientifically, particularly over a number of years, of whether governments and their organisations are getting flabby or inefficient and whether citizens are getting value for money."
"I try to keep my partisan sledging down to a dull roar, but the Howard government was essentially uninterested in managing government. It tried a few things early in its term and then gave up. I was dimly aware of this in Opposition, but I only became fully aware of it on taking office.
"It essentially created the government as a giant holding company or conglomerate and got individual agencies to mimic private companies. Each had a CEO with very wide responsibility, and virtually all across-government functions, purchasing and so, were abandoned. The end result was massive inefficiency."
The Gershon report, prepared for Tanner by Tony Blair's British cost-cutter Sir Peter Gershon, is one the "consultants reports" that the Opposition bagged in Question Time this week. Tanner says Gershon donated his fee to charity.
"We adopted Gershon's recommendation in full. They give you a good idea of what we are trying to do. Here's just one small positive outcome: The Department of Defence has a history of being a very good purchaser of Microsoft products and getting good deals from Microsoft because they are a big purchaser. We have reached an arrangement with Defence to lead a collective buying effort between all agencies and departments and Microsoft. That is saving us $15 million a year across departments. Microsoft isn't complaining because although its price goes down the cost of dealing with us goes down as well."
"We've decided to allow departments and agencies to keep the savings from that one because they are thinly spread. That's just one small example of where across-government collaboration, provided you don't go too far to a centralist model and try to get an intelligent balance, produces better outcomes."
"It's just a start. We have 45 data centres outside the Defence department. That's 45, wholly devoted to different arms of the Australian government. Individual agencies have been doing their own thing with no attempt to aggregate and deal with sustainability, redundancy, power supplies and so on. It's massively inefficient."
"Gershon estimated that if we develop a whole of government strategy, over 15 years we can save $1 billion - just by being more intelligent in the way we do things."
"We are methodically working through all of these areas; travel, the purchasing of office equipment, property. At the moment individual agencies compete against each other to rent office space, pushing up the price. There is no common standard on how much space an individual employee needs, as there is in the US and the UK."
"What you have is this elegant private sector theory applied completely inappropriately to government and it has produced absolutely perverse outcomes; waste, inefficiency and poor performance."
The Finance Minister is warming to his topic. It may seem a long way from helping those who lost their jobs their jobs this week at Pacific Brands, but it isn't to him. The job he does matters to him, even if much of the work is unnoticed more broadly. The Member for Melbourne is applying himself to making sure government works.
He seems to be enjoying it.
Tanner's quiet revolution
. saving money while spending more
. adopting an all of government approach
. saving $1 billion on IT alone
. extending savings to travel, purchasing
. a "value for money" scorecard
. unveiling savings in the May budget
7 comments:
- Anonymous said...
Why do you start off with a meaningless quote?
What does the quote mean?
When people lose their jobs, they sometimes also lose their house because they can't pay their loan repayments
Did Tanner lose his job?
No, so responsibility is about as heavy as a feather.
Have you ever lost your job Peter?
Tell people what it feels like when a man loses his job and he has responsibility for his wife family and the dog.
It is very, very heavy Peter.
- February 28, 2009
- Peter Martin said...
Dear Anonymous.
I have lost my job. Enough said.
I started off with that quote because The Age had placed the story with another one about the Pacific Brands sackings and wanted a link between the two.
It's in today's paper - in Melbourne. Worth reading.
- February 28, 2009
- Anonymous said...
He is kidding about Defence gettting a better deal than the rest of the government from Microsoft? When has defence ever delivered something on budget and time?
- February 28, 2009
- Marek said...
LOL it sounds about right, defence can't work out how to buy helicopters(or any other equipment) properly, but they get the best deal Microsoft Office! now if only they could work out how to use excel....
- March 02, 2009
- derrida derider said...
Ah, the perennial attractions of centralisation to naive managers. It looks as though you can get huge savings from rationalising things. But these huge savings always turn out to be totally illusory:
- the redundancy turns out to be necessary. A mistake by one department affects only that department, but a mistake by a centralised purchasing or IT agency affects all departments.
- as complexity of decison making increases exponentially with organisation size, the odds of a mistake become higher than ever.
- there are huge hidden costs in the loss of flexibility, local responsiveness and autonomy. One package from Microsoft will not meet the needs of all departments.
Its amazing that Tanner didn't look at the actual state of the UK services before adopting their "reforms".
- March 02, 2009
- Chris Chappell said...
A few years ago now I predicted that Tanner would be Labour's next PM.
Perhaps then next one.... he certainly has one of the best brains on the floor of the house
- March 03, 2009
- lillian said...
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
- March 21, 2009