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The College Derby
Andrew Ferguson's delightful plea for sanity about college admissions.
Much of the pleasure in reading Crazy U lies in watching Ferguson's son Gillum play the indifferent Sancho Panza to Andy's ever-more anxiety-ridden Don Quixote. "What's wrong with lifeguarding?" Gillum asks when Andy proposes his son take up some résumé-buffing volunteer work instead. When Gillum's high school guidance counselor asks him, at a meeting with his parents, what type of college he'd like to go to, Gillum says, "I want to go to a place where I can go to a football game, take off my shirt, paint my chest and major in beer." (He's kidding. Sort of.) When father and son attend a presentation in a hotel ballroom for Gillum's first-choice school, the University of Virginia, Gillum falls asleep. Andy pokes him a couple of times, and Gillum says "What?" so loudly that the dean hears. Andy suddenly imagines the dean "as one of the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, fingering the last human on the planet with a goggle-eyed look of horror." But at the book's end, we learn that despite Gillum's lassitude (surely exaggerated by Ferguson for comic effect), he managed to get into UVA. Which suggests most of this worrying wasn't really necessary.
Ferguson is especially good on the most legitimately worrying aspect of sending a child to college. That isn't whether he'll get in (there is, in fact, an oversupply of excellent colleges in this country, and it's almost impossible not to get in somewhere), but how to pay for it when he does. To apply for any kind of aid, public or private, you have to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, universally known as FAFSA. This is a long form filled out mostly by consulting your federal tax return, which wouldn't be so bad if the FAFSA were due, say, on June 1. But colleges typically want the FAFSA by … Ferguson says March 1, but most of my son's were due in February. Which means you have to do your taxes, or at least dummy them up, well before you've received most of the necessary documents by mail. (In the end, the Ferguson family was found ineligible for most tuition aid, but because they lived in Virginia they were able to pay less than half what they'd have paid to send Gillum to most comparable private colleges—though more, by my guess, than what they'd have paid to send Gillum to Harvard, where he didn't apply.)
There is, Ferguson is told, $143 billion in financial aid available to help students and their families pay tuition. Maybe this is good news, Ferguson writes. "But isn't it bad news that we need the $143 billion in the first place?" Ferguson poses this excellent question to Richard Vedder, an economist at Ohio University "who's studied college tuition so long, so thoroughly, and so honestly that colleges administrators can't stand him." Vedder tells him that from 1900 to 1975 average college tuition increased 2 to 3 percent per year, after inflation. Then, "like a dirigible unloosed from its mooring," the average tuition hike "angled sharply skyward." Increases are now typically 5 to 6 percent per year after inflation. In 2003 average tuition rose 14 percent. Why is this happening?
"You want my short answer?" Vedder says. "This is my simple, one-sentence answer to why colleges keep raising their tuition: Because they can!" At this Vedder lets out a high-pitched laugh. "I mean, who's going to stop them? Parents? The government? There's nothing stopping them—literally nothing." Vedder's longer answer is that the schools' governance systems are so decentralized that the schools' presidents can manage things only by buying each powerful constituency off—the alumni with a good football team, the faculty with good salaries and a light course load, the students with excellent food and swank facilities. "All this costs huge amounts of money," Vedder says. "No wonder universities are expensive!"
Over the next 10 days my son will hear from four colleges. He's already accepted at two; both of them excellent, though there are still financial packages to examine and the more existential question about which school would be best for him. I tell him that this is the least significant major decision he'll ever make in his life—that it's nothing compared to choosing a wife, a trade, or a place to raise children. He is a superb student, mature beyond his years, kind to others and happy with who he is. So why can't I shake the feeling that his fate hangs in the balance?
Maybe because higher education isn't really what fuels college-application anxiety in the first place. Mostly it's a proxy for worrying about letting go. In Ferguson's final chapter, he describes his "sadness, grief almost," at dropping Gillum off at UVA. Stopping at a gas station on the way out of town, he thinks about the part of his life that has just ended. "We did it," his wife reassures him. "We raised him to be a strong, kind, happy, self-confident young man, and we succeeded. It's what we were supposed to do." She is, of course, right, and he knows it. Ferguson gets in the car, starts up the engine, and pulls away. Then he hears the sound of ripped sheet metal, because he's left the nozzle in the tank. That final detail alone is worth a crate of self-help books.


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Monday Dec 06 2010
Local water district goes solar
Energy-efficient solar panels will save district $12 million over 25 years
The San Juan Water District announced Dec. 1 that it's going solar with the installation of energy-efficient solar panels. The panels will generate 794 kilowatts, which is nearly 90 percent of the electricity consumed by the district's water-treatment plant, booster pump station and administration buildings. Established in 1954, the community-services district provides drinking water to more than 265,000 people in portions of Placer and Sacramento counties, including retail customers in Granite Bay, east Roseville, Orangevale and Folsom. The organization also wholesales water to other districts in the area. This green technology could save the district up to $12 million over the estimated 25-year lifespan of the solar system. "Solar power will allow us to achieve the maximum amount of clean, renewable energy generated from a very small plot of district-owned land," said Rick Hydrick, operations manager of the San Juan Water District, in a press release. "This project will help the district better serve the community by minimizing the long-term impacts on ratepayers from rising energy costs and improving overall reliability." Of the total $5.5 million construction costs, about $2 million will be offset by California Solar Initiative grant funding. The remaining cost will pay for itself in energy savings within nine years, according to the release. The system will use SunPower Corporation solar panels with the SunPower T0 Tracker, which increases energy capture by up to 25 percent over conventional fixed-tilt systems, while significantly reducing land-use requirements. The installation should be complete by June 2011. ~ Sena Christian


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FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, April 4. WITH 15 world records broken at the FINA World Championships, ISHOF CEO Bruce Wigo had a chance to talk with one of the greatest record breakers in swimming history – Alan Ford. The man who broke Johnny Weissmuller's record in the 100 yard freestyle, a record that stood for 16 years.
In February of 2007, Ford became the latest swimming great to donate his scrapbook to the Henning Library. ISHOF's CEO, Bruce Wigo, recently visited with Alan and reminisced with him about his career as one of the great sprint swimmers of all time.
If Johnny Weissmuller was the Cadillac of Swimmers, then Alan Ford was at least his own namesake, quick on the pick-up, tight on his turns, and able to get off the blocks from start to high in record time. Ford was his own man but his legacy is that he'll always be known as the swimmer who finally broke Johnny Weissmuller's record in the 100 yard freestyle. He did it on Feb. 13, 1943, in New Haven, Ct., with a 50.6 clocking for 100 yards. Weissmuller's 51 flat, set at Ann Arbor, Mich., on April 5, 1927, had stood against all comers for 16 years. Ford gained milestone immortality on his own right 13 months later. On March 18, 1944 at New Haven, he was the first man in the world to swim 100 yards under 50 seconds. It was eight more years before Ohio State's Dick Cleveland became the second man in history to go under 50 seconds.
ISHOF: Where and when did you learn to swim?
AF: I grew up in the Panama Canal Zone. My father worked for the Canal Zone as did his father before him. My grandfather was a locomotive engineer who moved to Panama in 1907 to help build the Canal. He was given a couple of medals from President Roosevelt. I don't remember when I started swimming, but swimming was an important part of life in the Canal Zone. There were so many rivers, lakes, beaches and every town had a pool. All the kids swam and we had a coach who really knew how to keep us interested in swimming. He organized a lot of meets and he would go around and get businesses to give us prizes, like samples of toothpaste and soap. There were also a lot of famous people passing through the Canal, and he made sure we got to meet them, like Clark Gable and Johnny Weissmuller. In 1931 Weissmuller and Stubby Kruger passed through canal on their way to Hollywood. I was eight years old at the time and remember winning a ribbon, given to me by Weissmuller himself. Weissmuller and Stubby Kruger also put on an exhibition of swimming and the comedy routine that I later saw them perform at the Billy Rose Aquacade in 1939. That was very special.
ISHOF: How did you end up at Mercersburg Academy and Yale?
AF: When I was about 16, Ecuador won the South American Swimming Championships. They invited our team and a team of college all-stars from the States to go down for a meet. Michigan's Mike Peppe was the coach of the US team. At about the same time, my father was very unhappy with me. He thought I adapted too much of the Canal Zone lifestyle and he was right. I wasn't doing well in school and when I wasn't swimming or playing baseball, I was chasing girls. Peppe told my dad I would have to do better in school if I wanted to go to college. He suggested sending me to Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania where "King" John Miller was the coach. Miller got the nickname "King" from John Macionis (1936 Olympic bronze medalist in the 400m freestyle) because he was a no nonsense kind of guy and whatever he said was the law. Miller was also a great admirer of Bob Kiphuth and Kiphuth's training methods. Kiphuth was the coach at Yale, the great college swimming team of the period and it wasn't long before that was where I decided I wanted to go. So, I worked my tail off in the classroom and that's where I ended up.
ISHOF: What was Bob Kiphuth like?
AF: Bob Kiphuth was a very learned, self-educated man. I had a great rapport with Bob. He was a prolific reader and was knowledgeable on almost every subject: art, architecture, history, psychology. He was always surrounded by interesting people and exposed us to them. I'm not sure what his background was in swimming. His expertise was in physical conditioning and he was a tough taskmaster. He was also a great motivator. If he told you could do something, you believed him and this just wasn't in the pool. Bob was a great coach because he always stressed that there was more to life than swimming. If someone on the team wasn't doing well in the classroom, he would point to some former great Yale athlete (usually a football player) who tried to live on their sports laurels after graduating and ended up a failure. When it came to swimming form and stroke work, he left that to Harry Burke.
ISHOF: Who was Harry Burke?
AF: Harry Burke was one of Kiphuth's assistants who had an unusual mind and understanding of swimming. In some ways he was the complete opposite of Kiphuth. Burke was not educated or strict like Bob. He was a likeable guy, always with an interesting story or joke to tell and how he got to Yale was a great story in itself. He may or may not have graduated from high school, I don't know, but he worked at the Winchester Arms factory in Hartford. After a few years he got sick factory work and decided to travel around the country hopping on and off trains whenever he felt like it. One day, as he was waiting for a train to stop, he overheard a fellow traveler calling out numbers. "One million, three-hundred seventy-two thousand four-hundred sixty eight….one million, five-hundred thousand and ninety-two." "What are you talking about Buddy?" asked Burke. "That's the sum of the numbers on the boxcars," the man replied. Burke immediately recognized the guy as a savant and Burke became his agent. After a few years of working at carnivals and in vaudeville, the head of Psychiatric Medicine at Yale, Dr. Clement Fry approached Burke about brining his client to Yale to be studied. Burke agreed, so long as he came along with him. Fry and Kiphuth were great friends and that's how the two met. Burke was a great compliment to Kiphuth and the two made a great team.
ISHOF: What kind of training did you do while you were at Yale?
AF: We'd start each season with 6 weeks with dry land work using medicine balls, pulleys, running and calisthenics. Kiphuth's dry land program was intense and it got us in great shape before we got in the water. We didn't swim during this period. Our swim workouts were nothing like they do today in terms of distance, but when we swam we were either working on stroke mechanics or we swam all out. Our practices were also always interesting because we did something new and different. It wasn't the same thing every day. We only trained one and a half hours a day, but when we left the pool, we were exhausted.
ISHOF: Weissmuller's 100 yard record of :51 seconds stood for 16 years and although tied four times, was never broken. Was it a psychological barrier? And what was it like to break his record?
AF: Well, first of all, I didn't think of it as a barrier. Bob Kiphuth and I both felt it was just a matter of time before I broke the record and that I was capable of going under :50, which I eventually did. But having met Weissmuller as a youngster and him being so famous, breaking his record was very satisfying.
ISHOF: After you graduated from Yale in 1945, what type of training did you do to prepare for the 1948 Olympic Games? AF: I didn't train. I got married the day after I graduated from Yale and took a job with Carrier Air Conditioning in Syracuse, NY. I didn't get in the water again until February of 1948 when Carrier assigned me to do some research for them at Yale. When I arrived in New Haven I went to see Kiphuth. I had always wanted to go the Olympics but I was in terrible shape and weighed just 130 pounds. Even so, Kiphuth believed he could get me in shape to make the Olympic team and win a gold medal. Bob started me out with dry land exercises to re-build my muscle strength and gain weight. Two months later I finished second to Wally Ris in the AAU National Championships and a few months later finished second again at the Olympic Trials. I never could catch Ris, but was very satisfied with my silver medal at the London Olympic Games.
ISHOF: Did you have a relationship with Weissmuller?
AF: I really didn't. I don't think he was happy that I broke his record. He never wrote me to congratulate me or made an effort to meet me. The only time I spoke to him since meeting him in the Canal Zone when I was a kid was when I was inducted in 1966. When I was introduced, someone let out a loud BOO! It was Weissmuller. Everyone laughed when they saw who it was, but I'm not sure he was joking.
ISHOF: When was the last time you saw Bob Kiphuth?
AF: It was in 1967. I happened to go back to New Haven to watch the Yale vs. Army swim meet and had a nice dinner with Bob after the meet. The next day I learned that he had a heart attack in his sleep and passed away. To this day, I'm grateful I had the opportunity to see him one last time. He was a great man.
To see Alan Ford in action in 1944, click here.


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NYC stabbing spree suspect: I'm victim of a setup
Monday, February 14, 2011
NEW YORK (AP) — A man accused of going on a 28-hour stabbing rampage through the city shouted that he was the victim of a "setup" as he was led from a police station Sunday.
Maksim Gelman was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on charges that he hacked three people to death, then stalked the city for more than a day, attacking innocent strangers, hijacking vehicles and killing a pedestrian with a car. He did not speak as he stood shackled at the ankles and arms while dressed in a white jumpsuit issued to him after his bloody clothing was seized as evidence. He was ringed by a half-dozen guards.
Public defender Michael Baum, who represented Gelman at the arraignment, said he could not shed any light on Gelman's mental state during the time police say he was committing the crimes, but he described his client Sunday evening as "calm" and "rational."
"He's very concerned about the nature of the charges," Baum said. "There are many things he wants to discuss about what happened."
A small throng of Brooklyn residents taunted Gelman from the sidewalk as he was escorted out of a police precinct for his trip to court.
The 23-year-old cursed and yelled back that it "was a setup" as he was led to a vehicle.
Gelman was arraigned on charges of second-degree murder, robbery and assault in the Brooklyn attacks. He was being held without bail. He likely will face charges in Manhattan for an attack on a subway train passenger before he was arrested Saturday morning.
Police said Gelman's vicious spree ended after he was captured in dramatic fashion on the subway train beneath Times Square. After dodging officers by dashing across the tracks, Gelman pounded on the door of the compartment of a moving train and demanded that the driver let him in, authorities said.
Then, he turned and attacked a passenger, stabbing him in the head before two police officers who had been riding with the driver sprang to his aid, they said. When the fracas ended, Gelman was in handcuffs and the officers were in possession of his bloody 8-inch kitchen knife, police said.
The final stabbing victim, Joseph Lozito, of Philadelphia, recounted the attack from his hospital bed Sunday for newspaper reporters.
"He's 2 or 3 feet away from me, and he pulls this knife out, looks me in the eye and says, 'You're gonna die,' Lozito told the New York Post.
Lozito, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs more than 260 pounds, said he decided to go down fighting. He told the Daily News he tackled Gelman and was trying to grab his wrist as he sliced at his arm and face.
""You better hope that I die because I'm going to come kill you," Lozito said he told the slasher.
Police said the capture ended a violent spree that began just after 5 a.m. Friday, when police say Gelman snapped during an argument over the use of his mother's Lexus sedan. His stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, intervened and was stabbed to death at their apartment in Brooklyn, police said. Police found the 54-year-old's body in his home. Gelman's mother was uninjured.
Later that morning, Gelman turned up at the home of a 20-year-old acquaintance, Yelena Bulchenko, and stabbed to death her mother, 56-year-old Anna Bulchenko, police said. When Yelena Bulchenko arrived home at about 4 p.m., she found her mother dead in a pool of blood and called 911. But Gelman was waiting for her there, chased her outside and stabbed her 11 times, authorities said.
Police initially identified Yelena Bulchenko as Gelman's ex-girlfriend, but the nature of their relationship was unclear. Some friends said that if the two ever dated, they were unaware of it.
Gelman sped away in his mom's car to another part of Brooklyn, where he rear-ended a Pontiac, then stabbed the driver when he confronted Gelman about the crash, police said. The driver was slashed three times in the chest but survived and was stable at a hospital.
Gelman left the man bleeding on the street and drove off in his Pontiac but smacked into 62-year-old pedestrian Stephen Tanenbaum, who died from his injuries, police said. He later abandoned the car, engine running, in a private driveway not far from a freight railroad where he once was caught spray-painting graffiti, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Police hunted him, but he disappeared until just before 1 a.m. Saturday, when police say he confronted and stabbed a livery cab driver in Brooklyn, north of where the other attacks occurred. Shortly afterward, he approached a couple in a Nissan, stabbing the man multiple times in the hand before hijacking the car, police said. Both men survived.
Just after 8 a.m. Saturday, passengers on a southbound No. 1 train in upper Manhattan noticed that a man on the train matched photos of Gelman they had seen in newspapers.
One passenger on the train got off at West 96th Street, approached officers on the platform and told them that a man fitting Gelman's description knocked a newspaper out of her hand, saying, "Do you believe what they're writing about me?" according to police.
Gelman jumped off the train at the West 34th Street station, crossed the tracks and hopped on a northbound No. 3 train, where he sliced a passenger, the police commissioner said.
Officers were in the driver's compartment of the train looking for him on the tracks when he made his way up to the driver's door and pounded on it, "claiming that he was the police," Kelly said.
One of the officers threw open the door and wrestled Gelman to the ground, knocking the knife from his hand, Kelly said.
The Ukraine-born Gelman and his mother became naturalized U.S. citizens about five years ago, Kelly said. He lived with his family in a predominantly Eastern European section of Brooklyn. He was known to be a troublemaker and has a criminal history, but the arrests were mostly non-violent, for criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal mischief or graffiti, though some of his arrest records were sealed.
Gelman made some incoherent statements to police after his arrest, including "she had to die," but it's unclear to whom he was referring, Kelly said.
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text:
I just got back from watching Kinky Friedman speak at the Mark Twain House. As part of the Great American Humorists Meet Colin McEnroe's Dog Series, Kinky shook hands with Malcolm.
It was exciting to see the (not so) new Twain House auditorium. I've sort of been passively banned from the Twain House for years, despite being a not-so-great American humorist currently living (really) one block away. I don't know why, but they never invited me to anything before, unless another humorist specifically asked for me to be there. Anyway, it was lovely to be invited tonight. I hope I didn't screw up.
Kinky is a decent and gentle man, even if I don't agree with him about a lot of things (Giuliani, McCain, Laura Bush, Iraq). And he's a better writer than he lets on. He read an essay called "The Hummingbird Man" that was so lovely and heartfelt that it will force me to track it down and re-read it a bunch of times. I hate that. Really, it's about as good as any essay I've read or heard read in years.
Watching him speak in Hartford, I had a few thoughts about Northern vs. Southern pacing and energy. Up here, it's not so much what you say but how fast you say it and with how much verve and spunk and brio. Kinky is funny and profound, but all those long Texas pauses discomfited the bristling Hartford set.
My favorite line had to do with Kinky's rejection by the Texas voters, when he ran for governor. (His slogan: How hard could it be?) Kinky said he had been consoled by man who pointed out that, when offered the choice by Pilate, the crowd let a man named Barrabas go free and crucified Jesus.
"In my experience, the crowd almost always gets it wrong," quoth Kinky.
Malcolm enjoyed shaking hands with Kinky but not as much as he would enjoy a piece of chicken right now. It's all relative.


text: Home World Not Free At Last Around the world, freedom is on the ropes, as the number of 'free' countries continue to decline. By: Sundaa Bridgett Jones Posted: Feb. 19 2009 7:19 AM 0 Just as many Americans are feeling better about the state of our democracy, it appears that democracy in some parts of the world is not faring so well. In the release of its annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, Freedom House, an independent U.S. non-profit organization in support of freedom and democracy the world over, begins its report with the following: "Global freedom suffered its third year of decline in 2008 ... with sub-Saharan Africa and the non-Baltic former Soviet Union experiencing the most acute deterioration." This is troubling news, indeed. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, democratic trends were heading in the right direction. There was the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall fell, unifying Germany. We witnessed the liberation of Eastern Europe and growth of Asian democracies in Japan and South Korea. There was hope for a renaissance in African leadership after South Africa's election of Nelson Mandela. A growing number of people were able to more freely participate in political processes, express themselves, and organize without fear of reprisal. Today, there are disconcerting signs of a retreat. So what accounts for the decline in freedom over the past several years? It is easy to blame George Bush for all the world's current troubles. We are getting good at it. But on this issue, that would be a cop out. The Freedom House survey uses a trifecta system of "free, partly free and not free" to rate countries around the world. In 2008, 89 countries were judged free, 63 partly free and 42 not free. Thirty-four percent of the world's population live in not free countries (half of this percentage lives in China). A closer look at the regional patterns in a map of freedom reveal striking data (note: the more green the better). For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, 10 countries are designated free, 23 partly free and 15 not free with Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe squarely in the last category. As for the non-Baltic former Soviet Union, Freedom House indicates that it "lags far behind sub-Saharan Africa on the average scores for political rights and civil liberties." Indeed the expansion of executive power in Russia and its influence in the region is not making things better for neighboring countries. The Bush administration devised a national security strategy in 2006 that touted a grand "freedom agenda". The strategy reads, "[to] protect our nation and honor our values, the United States seeks to extend freedom across the globe by leading an international effort to end tyranny and to promote effective democracy." All eyes were on the Middle East; yet it remains one of the least free regions. And although it preached freedom, the administration's actions often did not heed its own calling, resulting in deserved, blaring criticism of its invasion of Iraq and use of torture and detention in a broader war against terrorism. The impetus for change lies with the leaders and people of a country. The election of President Obama is a prime illustration. After the ballot boxes are put away, the real challenge of leading and governing begins. And in this unprecedented global economic crisis, the challenges are multi-fold in many countries around the world. But as we press ahead for global economic recovery, we cannot merely measure our collective success by the wealth we may regain. As Aristotlean ethics suggests, "wealth is not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else." Ultimately, success will be judged by a real commitment to values of equality, justice and opportunity. The people and state of affairs that led to the upsurge in freedom at the end of the 20th century must be supported and encouraged as we move deeper into this century. Sundaa Bridgett Jones is an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a regular contributor to The Root. Get what we're watching delivered to your inbox everyday! Sign up for our daily video newsletter below. Page 1 of 2 NEXT PAGE > Powered by Livefyre 0


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May 6, 2016
The 9-th annual Pepsi Carolina Country Stampede got underway Friday night in Williamston, Martin County. It has plenty of food, children's activities, old fashioned carnival rides, and live music. Saturday night the event features national country recording artist Mel McDaniel who will perform on the main stage at 7-pm. Most of the event takes place right on main street in Williamston, but there's also the Sunny Side horse show which begins at 8-am Saturday at the Bob Martin Agricultural Center.
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Last week I got an email from Jill, who keeps a blog called Glossy Veneer. Jill wrote to say she was participating in the Rock & Roll San Antonio Marathon where she'll be a team member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. The Team in Training are raising funds to help stop Leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma. Jill herself has committed to raising $3,500, which is a lot of money, but not an unattainable goal – especially with help from blog readers.
Normally, I don't post donation requests here and I don't plan on making a habit of it, but Jill's email hit close to home. A little friend of Fuzz's was just diagnosed with lymphoma a few weeks ago and is currently in ICU at Dell Childrens Hospital. He's been on my mind a lot lately and I feel deeply for his parents. For that reason, I'm posting a link to Jill's fundraising site and asking everyone to consider donating a dollar or two. It all adds up.


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Digi International Stock Downgraded (DGII)
TheStreet) -- Digi International (Nasdaq: DGII) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from buy to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its increase in net income, revenue growth and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself and disappointing return on equity.Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model. NEW YORK (
-- Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff
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- The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Communications Equipment industry. The net income increased by 69.9% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $0.72 million to $1.23 million.
- DGII's revenue growth trails the industry average of 14.2%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 0.7%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
- DIGI INTERNATIONAL INC reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, DIGI INTERNATIONAL INC reported lower earnings of $0.29 versus $0.43 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($0.35 versus $0.29).
- DGII has underperformed the S&P 500 Index, declining 12.22% from its price level of one year ago. Looking ahead, we do not see anything in this company's numbers that would change the one-year trend. It was down over the last twelve months; and it could be down again in the next twelve. Naturally, a bull or bear market could sway the movement of this stock.
- The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased from the same quarter one year prior. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Communications Equipment industry and the overall market, DIGI INTERNATIONAL INC's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
-- Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff
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Application Form
Fill out the following application online using Penn State's secure servers:
Application to the Graduate School - Select University Park (UP) as the campus location.
After submitting the Graduate School application, you will receive a PSU ID number via e-mail. To review descriptions of the Electrical Engineering Department research specialization areas, click here.
For application fee information: http://gradsch.psu.edu/prospective/apply.html.
Transcript Information
Copies of transcripts, degree/study certificates and diplomas in the language of instruction from all institutions of higher education attended, both undergraduate and graduate, should be uploaded online as part of the Graduate School Application. If English is not the language of instruction, copies of all transcripts/documents in the English translation also must be uploaded.
Applicants recommended for admission will be notified by the Graduate School that official/original transcripts/documents and their official English translation must be sent from the originating institutions for review by the Graduate School, in order to finalize an admission decision. Notarized copies are not sufficient.
Additional Information
Transcript Request Form (if needed): Complete and Print – You must send this completed form to the university where you earned your B.S. and/or M.S. degree to request transcripts.
Note: The form mentioned above is in PDF format and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to access the required form. If you do not currently have Adobe Acrobat Reader, please click here Get Acrobat which will take you to Adobe's site to obtain the free software.


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iHerb Customer Reviews
Savings of: CA$8.04 (23% off)
4 star
Posted by 5749584382856152975 on Nov 12, 2014
Very good protein plus hormone free. However the fact that it isn't isolated, makes it harder to mix
Tasty protein powder, and no soy or milk
Posted by herbana on May 22, 2014
Very good chocolate flavor, and if you're a meat eater, it's great protein from something you know you can eat without a bad reaction. No soy, no milk proteins. The only downside is the cost, but you get what you pay for when you're avoiding cheap soy.
Bad taste!
Posted by vaggos on Aug 13, 2013
Taste is like melted grease....Tried 3-4 times to get used to it but no luck. Never gonna buy again.
Posted by 5557679914130376328 on Jul 25, 2013
Good results, but taste is not so good.
This stuff is the best! Please don't ever stop carrying it
Posted by Reviewer1876628 on Dec 15, 2012
I am allergic to pea, rice, egg white, soy and whey proteins, leaving me with no way to get my necessary protein daily. Digests easily, haven't found any issues in the first 3 weeks of using it. My naturopath is concerned with the fact that it shows "white chocolate" which is really just wax and sugar, and there isn't a lot of info on the label. I would love to get some more in-depth info on this product.
Nice taste
Posted by Reviewer2402627 on Sep 25, 2012
This is a good one! Can be used for making fluffy food.
Beef Protein Powder is a Score!
Posted by Reviewer2247103 on Jul 23, 2012
Taste not bad, not great, but I'd trade some taste any day for a clean product like this -- no added sugars or sugar alcohols (which just cause GI problems for many, including me), no extra junk! If you add a bit of extra raw cocoa powder and a few frozen raspberries, it's really quite good (I blend with unsweetened coconut milk by So Delicious, which I get at Whole Foods, but I've seen it elsewhere by the cold almond milk). As others have said, best texture if you use a blender. I think people generally expect too much in the taste of these types of products - if they offer what you're looking for in nutrition and agree with your system without being offensive in taste AND they don't include a bunch of questionable ingredients, then it's a score as far as I'm concerned.
This taste awfull!
Posted by Reviewer2364573 on Feb 16, 2012
This taste's really bad! You can feel and taste the stevia, and it's not rally a rich chocolate flavour :( Will not buy again.
Weird after taste
Posted by Reviewer1617860 on Nov 17, 2011
Somehow I get a weird, unnatural, almost nauseating aftertaste from this powder, blended in water as well as milk. Proteins seems to be of good quality though, will try this in smoothies.
Posted by Reviewer3174354 on Oct 25, 2011
Good product but will be great to have more flavor choice.


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Barracuda Could Replace Dodge Challenger In Near Future
Opinions on the Dodge Challenger have always been divided. For some, the retro-themed coupe is a welcome addition to a resurgent affordable performance market, offering big cubic inches, aggressive styling and surprising day-to-day practicality. To others the Challenger has always been too big and bloated to accurately capture the spirit of the original 70s-era model. Motor Trend is reporting that those in the latter camp might soon have a Mopar muscle machine that better satisfies their criteria for what a modern sports car should have to offer.
It's no secret that there have are no official plans in place to produce a second generation edition of the current Dodge Challenger. Although the vehicle's platform has received numerous updates to coincide with those offered on the Dodge Charger / Chrysler 300 sedans with which it shares its bones, eventually the Challenger will be forced into obsolescence without a major refresh. With both the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro due for substantial upgrades of their own in the near future, Chrysler could be looking at a full replacement of the Challenger with an all-new model dubbed the Barracuda in order to remain competitive in the domestic performance segment.
Barracuda Could Replace Dodge Challenger In Near Future
Any vehicle wearing the equally-hallowed Barracuda nameplate is unlikely to carry over the heft of the 2012 Dodge Challenger. In fact, the Chrysler/Dodge Barracuda would in all probability hit the streets in the form of a new rear-wheel drive platform developed in partnership with corporate overlords Fiat that would move away from the full-size sedan proportions of the Charger. The rear-wheel drive platform could then also be used in Europe and North America to underpin future Alfa Romeo performance vehicles, giving Alfa a complement to its already fun-to-drive core lineup.
Motor Trend remains convinced that any potential Barracuda coupe will not dip as deeply into Chrysler's past design well as the Challenger did and instead offer a more contemporary appearance. The magazine also reports that the Barracuda could join the Viper as an SRT-exclusive vehicle, giving it additional cachet over its competitors but also potentially limiting the ability for Chrysler to market a more affordable, six-cylinder edition of the car.
If the Barracuda does make it to dealerships as an SRT-only model, it may indicate that the future of the Dodge marque itself could be murky. With Ram trucks having been split off into their own sub-brand, the Viper leaving the stable for SRT as well and the Dodge Grand Caravan slated for the dust heap, there are very few iconic Dodge vehicles left to populate showrooms. Could the Barracuda mark the beginning of the end for Dodge as an American institution?


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In Sedona Everywhere is Beautiful
Sometime during my walk in Sedona's Slide Rock State Park, an elderly man who had been walking on the path nearby looked at me and sighed, "Everywhere is beautiful".
He had dropped a few words from the sentence, but I knew what he meant. Everywhere you looked, there was something beautiful to see and his comment has become the caption to my memories of Sedona.
We visited Slide Rock because of my husband's sentimental attachment to a drive he made in his youth. Shortly after getting out of the Navy, with a new convertible sports car and a beautiful girl in the right seat, he'd made a cross-country road trip that included a drive through Sedona. It was hot – not unexpected in Arizona – and his travel companion suggested they stop at the park; with its idyllic pools and harrowing rapids and a naturally occurring water slide created over the eons by snow melting down the mountains to the north.
Despite the fact that it was so cold when we first arrived in Sedona that we saw snow on one of our hikes, the Saturday of our visit to the park was clear and warm. I'm sure it was romantic for my husband and his then-girlfriend all those years ago. It still is. But Sliding Rock is suitable for everyone, just flat-out lovely, with a moderately challenging hiking path that parallels the water, some ruins to explore and butterflies, flowers and birds to look at.
There is opportunity for thrill seeking too. A 20-something couple entertained us for 10 minutes with their on again/off again – yep/back on again decision to jump off a ten foot cliff and into the frigid water.
A tour group of about 80 people sporting a virtual rainbow of skin tones was clambering over the rocks and posing for photos. This, I later learned, was a field trip for the American English and Culture program at Arizona State University. Watching the Arab women in abayas hamming it up for the camera, arms around Asian women in short-shorts as if borders and cultures had melted under the Arizona sun was sight I hope I always remember.
Frankly, from the first sight of the sandstone formations that dominate the town of Sedona I was charmed. And I have come to the conclusion that living among so much natural beauty has a positive effect on the locals, who exude generosity in even the simplest encounters.
We must have been the millionth tourists who, arriving late at the limited parking provided at the popular West Fork trail head, asked the ranger about our options. Yet he was affable in explaining we'd have to wait for a returning hiker to exit so we could have the parking spot. He proceeded to keep us company while we waited, naming the birds we saw and telling us stories.
At the Adobe Grand Villas, where we stayed, cookies awaited us on our return each night, along with homemade bread freshly baked in the bread oven in our suite.
From Kegn Hall at the Chamber of Commerce to Alejandra Melo, the housekeeper who showed me some of the other individually-designed theme rooms at the Adobe Grand, we were indulged as if Sedona couldn't be happier to have us visit.
Granted, the Adobe Grand Villas is high-end (rooms go for $400 a night including breakfast), but I've stayed at other upscale hotels and been nickel and dimed from arrival to departure; not offered movies and games, 24/7 snacks, a fireplace in my room, another in the bathroom, robe, slippers, private patio and an assortment of fancy toiletries and chocolates, all delivered with considerable charm. It is all the more remarkable considering nearly half a million people visit Sedona each year.
Sedona has captured hospitality without Disney-fying it. The wilderness is never out of sight or out of mind. At M-Diamond Ranch where we went for a sunset horseback ride followed by a barbeque, our hostess, Peggy Ingham dressed in jeans as dusty as our own, but looking as if God had designed her face just to wear the Stetson on her head, spoke earnestly of wanting to share with her guests this little piece of American history that is still putting meat on the table of the nation.
By allowing visitors to view her cattle ranch, we learn there's not much difference between those cows and their babies we'd ooohed and ahhhed over as we passed them on our horses and the ones that would end up on our plate with a side of corn and beans a few hours later.
"People need to know where their food comes from," Peggy said. And sometimes where it goes, too. Peggy's spring garden was decimated the night before my visit when javelinas got through the fence.
On our last day, Jim and I took the Sedona Trolley (Note to future visitors, do this first) for a 2-hour overview of the city and its surroundings.
At one stop, after expressing skepticism about our driver's story that this bone dry landscape could actually churn out deadly flash floods, he pulled out his cell phone to share a video he'd taken after seeking shelter from a rainstorm under a rocky outcrop. I was sobered by the phenomenal deluge of water he'd captured with his smart phone. Where had it come from? Where had it gone? A little later as we passed by an empty creek bed and he explained, "When it's dry we call it a creek. When there's water in it we call it a flood."
With the macho pride of desert dwellers, Arizonans remind visitors that everything here will either poke, bite, sting or burn. It is easy to believe.
What is more difficult to fathom, but trust me it's true is that in Sedona, "everywhere is beautiful."
2 Comments
Very well written. Pictures never do Sedona justice. I live in Indiana and dream about living there someday. I have no desire to be anywhere else. I enjoy all the pictures posted on facebook so I can share them with friends about where I've been.
[...] Feeds Dreams for the Future July 16, 2013 – 2:26 pm by Christine Negroni On a side street in Sedona, Arizona, behind the adobe-style shops and the Pink Jeeps that take tourists to the area's abundant [...]


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New Song Music
Music is a beautiful gift from the Lord. And teaching your child how to play the piano is a wonderful way to educate them about music. This product from New Song Music, meant for ages 4 and up, is the perfect resource for homeschoolers to use.
The kit comes in a cute little suitcase, complete with a handle and latch. Inside you will find foam musical shapes, line and space cards, and colorful tiles that correspond with the notes. There are also 32 scale cards, piano gloves, and a lesson booklet. Everything you need is provided; the only other item you will need is a metronome, to help understand rhythm. The 35 lessons are simple and meant to only take about 10 minutes per day. They begin with Reading the Staff and continue on with Middle C Notes, Bass and Treble Notes, Note Values, and Scales. For each lesson an objective is listed, plus the materials needed, and step-by-step procedures. This makes it very easy for anyone to teach it, even if you don't have a musical background.
For the first 14 lessons you don't even touch the piano, instead the teaching is focused on learning the note names and values. Using foam shapes, tiles, and blank lined cards you slowly introduce your student to the musical concepts. When you begin to learn how to play the piano, your student will wear gloves, which have Velcro letters that can attach to each knuckle on the glove. From this they progress to playing songs, which are printed on cards and include "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and "This Old Man". They will learn all the major scales and how to cross over and under. Throughout the lessons there are fun ideas to include if desired; some of these include shaping notes out of play dough, cutting out large notes, or making glitter treble clefs. The cost of the kit is $60, but it is reusable and so can be used with multiple students.
I used this with my two younger children. Right from the beginning I liked this product. When I was first married I taught beginning piano to young children and was sometimes frustrated with how quickly some traditional piano courses can progress. I really liked the pace of the material, and the hands on activities that were suggested. I also liked that not only were the students taught to play songs on the piano, but in some of the lessons they were given notes and told to build the song on the staff using the materials. This really causes their brains to see both sides of music and gives understanding to their playing. After completing the course your child can easily begin to play songs from a beginner piano course. I would recommend this product for those that love hands-on, interactive, teaching material.
Product review by Charlotte Gochnauer, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March, 2013


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The statement 'there are no men in the church' has often been reiterated. So much so that it has now become the reality for many congregations.
Kayon Vaz, who wrote the play, scripted it based on real-life experiences.
"I was inspired to write about this issue because some women are so desperate, that even if a young man walks through the door to find God, he may walk right out again, based on the aggressiveness of us, church sisters," said Vaz.
creative avenues for church issues
Ancile Gloudon, director of the play, said it was good to see young people finding creative avenues like theatre to speak about issues in their lives.
Vaz, founder of KMV Productions, pointed out that the Church must realise that the traditional way to reach our youth is not as effective as it once was, and using the creative arts is the way to enhance the Church's efforts.
The playwright's mantra for her ministry is 'Empower, Express and Evangelise'.
The production will be hosted by the East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, in association with End Time Ministries and KMV Productions, on December 15 at the V.H. Percy Centre at 10-12 Osbourne Road.
Ticket outlets include the East Jamaica Conference office and Ketanya Fashions.


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These Shimano XTR Race (G01A) Resin Disc Brake Pads are what comes with your XTR Race disc brakes. The pad material is attached to aluminum backing plates that are as light as possible while still performing admirably. The Resin Pad compound offers better modulation, is quieter, and tends to squeal less than the Metallic Pads, although they tend to wear a bit quicker and don't have quite as much ultimate stopping power. One pair of pads equals one wheel. Buy two pairs to complete your bike.
The Shimano XTR Race (G01A) Resin Disc Brake Pads will work in both the Trail and Race versions of XTR985 brakes as well as fitting the following Shimano brakes: XTR-M975/966/965, Saint-M800, XT-M776/775/765, SLX-M665, Hone-M601, LX-M585, Deore-M545/535.
- Lightweight aluminum backplate
- Resin Pad compound offers excellent modulation with little noise
- Fits XTR-M975/966/965, Saint-M800, XT-M776/775/765, SLX-M665, Hone-M601, LX-M585, Deore-M545/535
- One pair of pads is enough for one caliper (buy two pairs to complete your bike)
Tech Specs
View more Mountain Brake Pads
Reviews & Community
Eitan Hai
dear company
will SHIMANO XTR RACE (G01A) RESIN DISC BRAKE PADS
will fit the Shimano XT M785 Disc Brake?
thank you
No, those brakes take the F03C pads.
Ski Dude
- Familiarity:I've put it through the wringer
These are very quiet compared to the metallic version. They wear quicker I find as well but for the price it doesn't matter, cause they are quiet. I get about 500 miles on them for a rear brake, so order a few if you ride lots.
David Sunde
Excellent brake pads
- Familiarity:I've put it through the wringer
Super quiet pads, great stopping power, good price, moderate life expectancy. Very much worth what you pay for.
Chad Cordell
Economical Pads
- Familiarity:I've put it through the wringer
Great economical pads for your Shimano brakes. May not be quite as powerful as metallic.
Travis Woodruff
Excellent pads for Shimano XT/XTR
- Familiarity:I've put it through the wringer
The resin pads work great, especially in the West where the riding is generally dry. You'll get a lot of miles out of these pads and they'll keep quiet while offering great stopping power. I've used them on XT and XTR calipers. Pick up a few extras so you have spares when you (or a buddy) really need them.
Pete OBrien
Good replacements for XT M785
I have these brakes on my Tallboy;
The brakes came with these pads:
At first I thought I bought the wrong pads, but these work just as well as the stock ones as far as I can tell and they are cheaper. Once you pull your old ones out, be sure to apply enough pressure to the caliper mechanisms to make them flush inside the caliper, otherwise you have to reinstall the pads. Keep your hardware (the locking pin) from your old pads as you may need them to install your new pads.
Anthony P.
will these fit the bl m988 brakes?
will these fit the bl m988 brakes?
Natalie Ramon
Nice And Quiet!
- Familiarity:I've put it through the wringer
These pads are great and easy to change. I like the Resin pads much better then the metallic because of how much quieter they are. They do not last as long but are a little less money than the others, so it evens out. If you hate beak squeaky brakes get these.
Steven D.
I'm a little confused with the compatibility...
I'm a little confused with the compatibility of this product... it says it works with 985 as well as 775, which are shaped completely differently.
I need to know that these will fit my XT M785 brakes, which they appear to based on the picture, but they are not listed on the model list. Please confirm that these will fit.
Bryan H.
ive been using them for about 3 weeks now on my m785.


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Would you jump to your death, or burn alive?
posted 1/15/2008 4:44:34 AM |
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This is something that would probably be asked in Psychology class. Ever since I saw what happened on 9-11, that question will always probably be debated on which would be best. Some people being afraid of heights, well, that situation may have changed your mind that day and they may have jumped to their death. Others don't like fire, but who's to say they wouldn't have taken their chances on not jumping. This applies to any situation other than what happened on 9-11. I still have the Cincinnati Enquirer the day it happened. In it was a special section devoted to that days event. The newpaper showed a lot of pictures that day of the burning towers, people jumping to their deaths, and the rescue workers working hard to save the innocent people in this tragedy. I'm not really sure what I would have done, but in all likelyhood I would have stayed in the tower and taken my chance instead of jumping (I mean, who on earth would have ever thought the towers would collapse?
). What would you have done?
This question can also mean in any other situation with a tall building and a fire where chances were slim to none of getting out of the building alive and at least 50 stories up with no water down below to cushion your fall.
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Jan 15 @ 4:58AM
burning alive is considered one of the most painful ways to die. where as jumping to my death would be exhilerating (sorry can't spell today), until everything (relative to me) simply ceased to be. Both offer a potential to take others out with you, being on fire the easier of the two to use. What can I say? I love a challenge.
On a slightly less, or maybe more, morbid point. I remember some guy jumped out of one of the towers and basically hopped his way to the ground through the stream of debris. By breaking his fall repeatedly, he managed to live suffering only a broken leg.
Finally, Re: jumping to your death, its not how far you fall, its what you land on/in. A friend whose physics is much better than mine explained this to me one day. If you fell from free orbit and landed in a foot or more of snow, in theory, you'd be fine. If you fell into the ocean from free orbit, the pico-second so much as your hair touched the water, your bones would shatter like glass, before you mercifully died. Concrete, well we all know what that would be like.
Jan 15 @ 5:01AM
But on 9-11 all that was an option was concrete and vehicles.
Jan 15 @ 5:24AM
true, still I'd enjoy the ride down.
Jan 15 @ 5:37AM
Jan 15 @ 5:40AM
I'd jump to my death.
It'd be too painful to be burnt alive, plus it takes forever to lose consciousness and i'm too much of a wuss to handle that much pain.
At least if you jumped, your descent to the ground would be painless.Landing would be a breeze because you'd pass on impact. The worst case scenario is that you survive, only to live your life as a cripple.
Jan 15 @ 6:12AM
I'd jump
Jan 15 @ 7:57AM
Skirting the provided options as usual I'd say carry a cyanide capsule in your wallet and avoid choosing between two horrifying alternatives. Maybe invest in a parachute too.
Jan 15 @ 8:09AM
Jan 15 @ 8:26AM
well the first thing would be start praying for courage then jump
Jan 15 @ 8:40AM
Its very hard to say unless you are in this situation.Lets hope we never have to make a decison like this.
Jan 15 @ 9:26AM
I'm with secretpassions.. let's hope we never have to find out. I'd prolly give myself a heart attack out of panic.. so the point would be moot.
Jan 15 @ 10:19AM
What a depressing question. Get back to your weird and deviant
sex blogs, Ok?
Jan 15 @ 11:10AM
i'd find a spiderman suit and climb down the side of the building...........
Jan 15 @ 11:43AM
It is simply a matter of time and pain.
The rate of fatality skyrockets above 20 feet. I used to be in a field where I worked on 18 inch wide beams 90 feet above the floor. One mistake and (at the time) there was a 185 pound pizza with my drivers license in the back pocket...a thousand one...a thousand two...a thou...splat.
Fire can be slow and excruciating.
Kind of a no brainer, Shawn. If you think about it, how common is suicide by jumping compared to by fire?
Jan 15 @ 12:25PM
Neither are attractive options.
Depending on the height of the building the fall can last for a long time. People that fall when their passenger liner explodes for instance can fall for several minutes and they may not lose consciousness though you'd hope that the thin air and shock of it all would render them senseless.
If a person is used to falling, an experienced skydiver or acrobat, aerialist that would probably be the best option but for an average person the choice would be agonizing. Though I think death by falling/impact is the more humane of the two.
Jan 15 @ 12:35PM
Of course in a 9/11 type situation there would probably be enough twisted metal and broken glass that you could cut your wrists and just fade out. Or if you live in a conceal carry state maybe you or another would have a handgun and could go out real fast.
Jan 15 @ 12:40PM
Jump! Jumo! Jump! but hopefully not land on someone and kill them , too.
Fire is NOT the way I want to die...only drowning would be worse.
Jan 15 @ 1:34PM
I would plunge my own fingers into my liver! Death by liver fingering!
Jan 15 @ 3:01PM
eeeeewe can I cover myself with honey and roll on a fire ant nest?
Jan 15 @ 4:09PM
Well i was going to try to make a funny out of this but i failed..........
What happened at the twin towers was horrifying enough to watch, i cant even imagine what those ppl went thru..........hopefully the ones that did die in fires.......had already passed out by smoke inhalation.......but for me........i dont know, i guess maybe at the last second i would probably jump but up until then i would hope to be saved.........
Jan 15 @ 6:12PM
Jump....I'm big enuff that I could possibly hold out my shirt and hope for a parachute kinda landing......Thank God for being a BBW....My padding for the landing!!
Jan 15 @ 6:15PM
@ Sunshine79's comment
Damn, Meagan, I can't stop laughing after that comment now.
Jan 15 @ 9:10PM
Jump? Or burn to death? Wow...if those were my only options...I would jump....after having a long and serious argument with myself to get up the courage...but then again...with flames ready to burn my ass....wouldn't take much arguing.
Jan 16 @ 12:39AM
I would jump after I was on fire so I could burn to death in midair!!
Feb 1 @ 3:38AM
Better to go with a quick bang rather than a slow sizzle,
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Officials with Poteau police, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and District 16 Drug Task Force shut down a methamphetamine operation was shut down in Poteau Thursday morning. They seized meth, guns and money.
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NEWTON, MA | March 8, 2010
With the goal of strengthening the preparation that new K-12 principals receive in schools of education around the country, Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) will host a forum to share strategies to improve these programs nationwide. The forum, "Linking School Leadership Preparation to Student Achievement: Begin with the Outcome in Mind," will be held March 10–12 at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston.
Featured speakers at the forum, representing universities, states, and districts around the country, will include state officials, principals, educators, and policymakers.
With funding from The Wallace Foundation, EDC has been researching principal preparation since 2002, using surveys, interviews, and observations to document the kinds of curricula, field experiences, and assessment practices used in these programs. EDC is now developing more effective ways to prepare the next generation of school leaders and boost student achievement, especially in high-need schools.
"For the past five years, we have been in the re-design business, designing new tools to assess the principal preparation programs out there," said EDC's Cheryl King, who has led the effort. "We've worked with 24 preparation programs in 12 states to assess the quality of their content, pedagogy, and clinical practices, and the evidence suggests that programs are redesigning to match new standards of practice. Our focus now is to shift to program outcomes as the true indicators of program effectiveness."
Forum sessions will include opportunities for participants to problem solve and answer questions such as, What should we expect candidates to be able to do immediately as a result of their preparation, and what will take more time? What are the most effective ways to hire, place, and retain new principals? The forum will close with a plenary session highlighting the leadership successes of principals in low-performing schools around the country.
"EDC is in a very good position to conduct this work and advise the field," said Senior Vice President Joanne Brady. "EDC has many years of experience working with superintendents, principals, teacher leaders, and classroom teachers, and is able to help practitioners create the transition between preparation and effectiveness on the job."
Participation in the forum is by invitation only. To learn more, contact Tom Haferd at firstname.lastname@example.com or visit http://www.organizational-services.com/edcqualitymeasures/.
Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), is a global nonprofit organization that develops innovative programs to address urgent challenges in education, health, and economic development. EDC conducts more than 300 projects in 35 countries. Visit www.edc.org


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Tag Archives: hackensack
Home-care firm spreads its wings
Eleven months after I first wrote about the company's expansion, Hackensack-based Executive Care has several franchised sites. The nursing and home-care agency recently opened a franchise in Morristown, extending the company's reach in Bergen County and into Morris, Essex, Union … Continue reading
Posted in General Tagged Executive Care, Franchise, Freehold, hackensack, home-heath care, Lenny Verkhoglaz, Morristown
Hispanic Chamber founder Daniel Jara remembered
The sad death of Hispanic business leader Daniel Jara came in late Friday afternoon, right on deadline for The Record. As such, some of the people who I reached out to comment on the death of the founder of the … Continue reading


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When the United States Census hits mailboxes in 2010 the process will be simplified for Grant County residents.
"The head of household is responsible for answering 10 primary questions with an additional seven questions for each additional household member," said Gayle Brown, partnership specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau. "A postage paid envelope is included with the Census mailing for easy return."
The Census form will be mailed out mid-March and should be returned by April 1, 2010.
Chuck Estridge is bringing to life the character of Howard, the occasionally obstinate but wise grandfather, in the Kincaid Regional Theatre's production of "I'll Be Home For Christmas."
The play is set in late 1941. It is the story of the faith of a family and nation on the brink of war as they preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ. Most of the action takes place inside Howard's home, with a choir providing music and drama as it is broadcast over the family radio.
Having a child allows you sometimes to relive your own experiences.
You start to remember early Christmases, the Halloween costumes and not having a care in the world other than why you can't eat candy for dinner and why you have to go to bed so early.
Recently, I got to witness my 2-year-old son have several new experiences during our first family vacation to Florida.
It was a short three-day trip to the home of my wife's best friend just outside of Orlando.
The first nausea-inducing hurdle was getting to the Sunshine State.
While many families are making holiday plans, others are wondering how they'll make ends meet.
Several organizations and groups in Grant County are making plans to help families in need this holiday season.
Cash Express in Dry Ridge is collecting coats, toys, shoes and non-perishable food items through Dec. 15.
Targeted groups will be able to receive a free swine flu vaccination Dec. 5 in Grant County.
The Northern Kentucky Health Department will be conducting a public clinic from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sherman Elementary School.
Lines may be closed earlier to allow for all of those in line to be vaccinated by 4 p.m.
High school sweethearts at Williamstown, Doug and Julie Stanley thought their life was full.
The couple, who has been married for 12 years, has two biological sons, 9-year-old Brennan and 6-year-old Bryson.
They soon realized they had more love to give.
A few years ago, Julie unexpectedly became pregnant for a third time.
Just as she was getting used to the idea of having another child, Julie had a miscarriage.
Where some see tragedy, the Stanleys saw it as a sign from a higher power.
After the first quarter of the season, the Grant County girls' basketball team found themselves without any points.
While shaking off first game jitters, the Lady Braves started slowly, trailing Owen County 10-0 after the first quarter.
While they found offense in the final three quarters, they were unable to close the gap, falling 51-41 on Nov. 30.
(Editor's Note: The Grant County News publishes all items in police beat that are submitted from each individual police agency. The News does not omit names from police reports.)
Grant County Sheriff's Office
Deputy Scott Conrad investigated an accident at 3:59 p.m. Nov. 8 on Elliston-Mount Zion Road. The driver involved was Jackie L. Whiteker, 58, of Dry Ridge driving a 2008 Harley Davidson that ran off the roadway.
Williamstown is moving forward with plans to construct a $15 million sewer plant on Ky. 36.
The decision to build the new plant means sewer customers will be paying higher rates as early as next summer.
Council members unanimously approved the project and accepted a bid of $11.9 million from 3D Enterprises Contracting of Lexington for construction of the new facility and a bid of almost $1.7 million to Merryman Excavation for building a three and one-half mile interceptor line from the old sewer plant to the new one.
Copyright © 2016
The Grant County News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Dry Ridge, KY and the surrounding area.


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Officials: Child custody battle at center of killings
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
This weekend's killing of two Dent County residents apparently had its roots in a child custody battle.
The Missouri Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control unit based in Rolla "determined that there were reportedly ongoing custody issues between Marvin Rice and Annette Durham involving the custody of their 2-year-old child," the patrol's probable cause statement said.
The statement was filed Monday along with the Dent County prosecutor's two-count murder charge against Rice, a former Dent County sheriff's deputy, for killing Annette M. Durham, 32 — the boy's mother — and her current boyfriend, Steven W. Strotkamp.
Some early news reports said Durham was Rice's ex-wife, but Dent County Sheriff Rick Stallings said Monday the two were never married.
The killings occurred at Strotkamp's home in rural Dent County, north of Salem, where Rice apparently had demanded that the boy be turned over to him. Rice produced a gun during the argument.
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Bret Bielema on injuries, transfers, satellite camps and NFL Draft
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema speaks to the ...
Former Arkansas Razorback Jason Peters works out in the Philadelphia Eagles training facility Tuesday. The left tackle ruptured his right Achilles tendon twice within a month last year.
FAYETTEVILLE Jason Peters received an invitation to the Pro Bowl on Friday.
Peters, a tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles, was selected to represent the NFC at the game which is scheduled for Jan. 26 in Honolulu. Peters played in the game five consecutive years from 2007-11 but missed the 2012 season after rupturing his Achilles tendon twice in the off-season.
"This is really special," Peters told NJ.com. "Two Achilles surgeries, people thought I wasn't going to even be able to play football again. The doctors – especially after the second one – they didn't think I was going to be able to play at a high level. They maybe thought that I could come back and play, but not at a high level. So I never took it for granted. Every year, I try to work to make the Pro Bowl. And I just know, if I'm working to make the Pro Bowl the team is going to succeed."
Peters played tight end at Arkansas but went undrafted in 2004. He signed a free agent deal with Buffalo and spent five seasons with the Bills before being traded to the Eagles in 2009.
Philadelphia will play Dallas on Sunday for the NFC East championship and a spot in the playoffs. Peters would not be able to participate in the Pro Bowl if the Eagles were to advance to the Super Bowl.


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- Jacobus E. van der Merwe, Cormac J. Sreenan, Austin N. Donnelly, Andrea Basso, and Charles R. Kalmanek, A Network Based Replay Portal, in IFIP Conference on Intelligence in Newtworks (SmartNet 2000, September 2000.
- Austin Donnelly and Tim Deegan, IP Route Lookups as String Matching, in IEEE LCN'2000, November 2000.
- Austin Donnelly, Resource Control in Network Elements, January 2002.
- Austin Donnelly, Lightweight Thread Tunnelling in Network Applications, in Proceedings of the IFIP-TC6 4th International Working Conference on Active Networks (IWAN'02), Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, December 2002.
- Richard Black, Austin Donnelly, and Cédric Fournet, Ethernet Topology Discovery without Network Assistance, in Proceedings of 12th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP'04), IEEE Computer Society, October 2004.
This work addresses the problem of Layer 2 topology discovery. Current techniques concentrate on using SNMP to query information from Ethernet switches. In contrast, we present a technique that infers the Ethernet (Layer 2) topology without assistance from the network elements by injecting suitable probe packets from the end-systems and observing where they are delivered. We describe the algorithm, formally characterize its correctness and completeness, and present our implementation and experimental results. Performance results show that although originally aimed at the home and small office the techniques scale to much larger networks.
- Paul Barham, Austin Donnelly, Rebecca Isaacs, and Richard Mortier, Using Magpie for request extraction and workload modelling, in Proceedings of the Sixth USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI) 2004, USENIX, December 2004.
Tools to understand complex system behaviour are essential for many performance analysis and debugging tasks, yet there are many open research problems in their development. Magpie is a toolchain for automatically extracting a system's workload under realistic operating conditions. Using low-overhead instrumentation, we monitor the system to record fine-grained events generated by kernel, middleware and application components. The Magpie request extraction tool uses an application-specific event schema to correlate these events, and hence precisely capture the control flow and resource consumption of each and every request. By removing scheduling artefacts, whilst preserving causal dependencies, we obtain canonical request descriptions from which we can construct concise workload models suitable for performance prediction and change detection. In this paper we describe and evaluate the capability of Magpie to accurately extract requests and construct representative models of system behaviour.
- Richard Mortier, Rebecca Isaacs, Austin Donnelly, and Paul Barham, Anemone: Edge-based network management, in INFOCOM 2005, IEEE Communications Society, March 2005.
This proposal describes the Anemone project and a demonstration of the work so far. The project is developing an edge-based IP network management platform which utilises only information collected at the edges of the network, eschewing the need to collect data in the network core. Devoting a small fraction of hosts' idle cycles, disk space, and network bandwidth to network management allows inference of network-wide traffic patterns by synthesising end-system flow statistics with dynamic topology information obtained through passive snooping of IP routeing protocols. We claim that this approach will provide a more complete view of the network that supports sophisticated traffic engineering queries to supply the global statistics necessary to automate network control, and is future-proofed against increasing deployment of encrypting and tunnelling protocols.
- Richard Black, Austin Donnelly, Alexandru Gavrilescu, and Dave Thaler, Fast Scalable Robust Node Enumeration, in Proceedings of 4th International IFIP-TC6 Networking Conference (NETWORKING 2005), Springer-Verlag, May 2005.
In a Local Area Network of computers, often a machine wants to learn of the existence of all the others satisfying some condition. Specifically, there are a number of existing discovery algorithms which permit an enumerator to reliably discover protocol participants, many of them idealised. This paper provides a new technique which controls the load placed on the network, minimises the time to completion, handles networks with significant loss, and scales over many orders of magnitude. Most significantly, the protocol also deals with the possibility of a malicious enumerator; an important contribution needed for current real-world networks. We also address the effects of several systems and engineering aspects, including scheduler jitter and clock quantisation.
- D. Gunawardena, A. Donnelly, J. Scott .Berkley, and A. Zugenmaier .NTT DoCoMo, Countering Automated Exploits with System Security CAPTCHAS, in 13th International Cambridge Security Protocols Workshop (ICSPW 05), , July 2005.
- Richard Mortier, Dushyanth Narayanan, Austin Donnelly, and Antony Rowstron, Seaweed: Distributed scalable ad hoc querying, in Proceedings of 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Networking Meets Databases (NetDB 2006), IEEE, Atlanta, GA, April 2006.
- Evan Cooke, Richard Mortier, Austin Donnelly, Paul Barham, and Rebecca Isaacs, Reclaiming network-wide visibility using ubiquitous end system monitors, in USENIX 2006 Annual Technical Conference, USENIX, June 2006.
Network-centric tools like NetFlow and security systems like IDSes provide essential data about the availability, reliability, and security of network devices and appli-cations. However, the increased use of encryption and tunnelling has reduced the visibility of monitoring ap-plications into packet headers and payloads (e. g. 93% of traffic on our enterprise network is IPSec encapsulated). The result is the inability to collect the required infor-mation using network-only measurements. To regain the lost visibility we propose that measurement systems must themselves apply the end-to-end principle: only endsys-tems can correctly attach semantics to traffic they send and receive. We present such an end-to-end monitoring platform that ubiquitously records per-flow data and then we show that this approach is feasible and practical using data from our enterprise network.
- Dushyanth Narayanan, Austin Donnelly, Richard Mortier, and Antony Rowstron, Delay aware querying with Seaweed, in Proceedings of 32nd International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB 2006), VLDB, Seoul, Korea, September 2006.
- Richard Black, Austin Donnelly, Glenn Ward, Alvin Tan, and Alexandru Gavrilescu, LLTD: Link Layer Topology Discovery Protocol. A Windows® Rally™ Specification., 15 September 2006.
This specification describes how the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) protocol operates over wired (802.3 Ethernet) and wireless (802.11) media. As the protocol name suggests, the core functions of LLTD enable applications to discover the topology of a network. In addition, LLTD has optional QoS Extensions that applications can use to diagnose problems, especially those involving signal strength on wireless networks or bandwidth constraints in home networks.
LLTD is a key component of the Microsoft® Windows® Rally™ set of technologies.
- Dushyanth Narayanan, Austin Donnelly, Richard Mortier, and Antony Rowstron, Delay aware querying with Seaweed, in The VLDB Journal, vol. 16, no. 1, Springer Verlag, September 2007.
- Dushyanth Narayanan, Austin Donnelly, and Antony Rowstron, Write Off-Loading: Practical Power Management for Enterprise Storage, in Proceedings of 6th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies (FAST '08), USENIX, San Jose, CA, February 2008.
- Dushyanth Narayanan, Austin Donnelly, and Antony Rowstron, Write off-loading: Practical power management for enterprise storage, in Trans. Storage, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 1–23, ACM, New York, NY, USA, November 2008.
- Dushyanth Narayanan, Austin Donnelly, Eno Thereska, Sameh Elnikety, and Antony Rowstron, Everest: Scaling down peak loads through I/O off-loading, in Proceedings of 8th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI '08), USENIX, San Diego, CA, December 2008.
- Dushyanth Narayanan, Eno Thereska, Austin Donnelly, Sameh Elnikety, and Antony Rowstron, Migrating enterprise storage to SSDs: analysis of tradeoffs, in Proceedings of EuroSys 2009, ACM, Nuremberg, Germany, March 2009.
- Miguel Castro, Manuel Costa, Jean-Philippe Martin, Marcus Peinado, Periklis Akritidis, Austin Donnelly, Paul Barham, and Richard Black, Fast Byte-Granularity Software Fault Isolation, in ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP), Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., October 2009.
Bugs in kernel extensions remain one of the main causes of poor operating system reliability despite proposed techniques that isolate extensions in separate protection domains to contain faults. We believe that previous fault isolation techniques are not widely used because they cannot isolate existing kernel extensions with low overhead on standard hardware. This is a hard problem because these extensions communicate with the kernel using a complex interface and they communicate frequently. We present BGI (Byte-Granularity Isolation), a new software fault isolation technique that addresses this problem. BGI uses efficient byte-granularity memory protection to isolate kernel extensions in separate protection domains that share the same address space. BGI ensures type safety for kernel objects and it can detect common types of errors inside domains. Our results show that BGI is practical: it can isolate Windows drivers without requiring changes to the source code and it introduces a CPU overhead between 0 and 16%. BGI can also find bugs during driver testing. We found 28 new bugs in widely used Windows drivers.
- Eno Thereska, Austin Donnelly, and Dushyanth Narayanan, Sierra: a power-proportional, distributed storage system, no. MSR-TR-2009-153, November 2009.
We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of Sierra: a power-proportional, distributed storage system. I/O workloads in data centers show significant diurnal variation, with peak and trough periods. Sierra powers down storage servers during the troughs. The challenge is to ensure that data is available for reads and writes at all times, including power-down periods. Consistency and fault-tolerance of the data, as well as good performance, must also be maintained. Sierra achieves all these through a set of techniques including power-aware layout, predictive gear scheduling, and a replicated shortterm versioned store. Replaying live server traces from a large e-mail service (Hotmail) shows power savings of at least 23%, and analysis of load from a small enterprise shows that power savings of up to 60% are possible.
- Hussam Abu-Libdeh, Paolo Costa, Antony Rowstron, Austin Donnelly, and Greg O'Shea, Symbiotic Routing in Future Data Centers, ACM SIGCOMM, August 2010.
Building distributed applications that run in data centers is hard. The CamCube project explores the design of a ship- ping container sized data center with the goal of building an easier platform on which to build these applications. Cam- Cube replaces the traditional switch-based network with a 3D torus topology, with each server directly connected to six other servers. As in other proposals, e.g. DCell and BCube, multi-hop routing in CamCube requires servers to participate in packet forwarding. To date, as in existing data centers, these approaches have all provided a single routing protocol for the applications. In this paper we explore if allowing applications to im- plement their own routing services is advantageous, and if we can support it efficiently. This is based on the obser- vation that, due to the exibility offered by the CamCube API, many applications implemented their own routing pro- tocol in order to achieve specific application-level charac- teristics, such as trading off higher-latency for better path convergence. Using large-scale simulations we demonstrate the benefits and network-level impact of running multiple routing protocols. We demonstrate that applications are more efficient and do not generate additional control traffic overhead. This motivates us to design an extended routing service allowing easy implementation of application-specific routing protocols on CamCube. Finally, we demonstrate that the additional performance overhead incurred when us- ing the extended routing service on a prototype CamCube is very low.
- Eno Thereska, Austin Donnelly, and Dushyanth Narayanan, Sierra: Practical Power-proportionality for Data Center Storage, Proceedings of EuroSys 2011, Salzburg, Austria, April 2011.
Online services hosted in data centers show significant diurnal variation in load levels. Thus, there is significant potential for saving power by powering down excess servers during the troughs. However, while techniques like VM migration can consolidate computational load, storage state has always been the elephant in the room preventing this powering down. Migrating storage is not a practical way to consolidate I/O load. This paper presents Sierra, a power-proportional distributed storage subsystem for data centers. Sierra allows powering down of a large fraction of servers during troughs without migrating data and without imposing extra capacity requirements. It addresses the challenges of maintaining read and write availability, no performance degradation, consistency, and fault tolerance for general I/O workloads through a set of techniques including power-aware layout, a distributed virtual log, recovery and migration techniques, and predictive gear scheduling. Replaying live traces from a large, real service (Hotmail) on a cluster shows power savings of 23%. Savings of 40–50% are possible with more complex optimizations.
- Paolo Costa, Austin Donnelly, Antony Rowstron, and Greg O'Shea, Camdoop: Exploiting In-network Aggregation for Big Data Applications, in 9th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI'12), USENIX, April 2012.
Large companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft as well as a number of small and medium enterprises daily process massive amounts of data in batch jobs and in real time applications. This generates high network traffic, which is hard to support using traditional, oversubscribed, network infrastructures. To address this issue, several alternative network topologies have been proposed, aiming to increase the bandwidth available in enterprise clusters. We observe that in many of the commonly used workloads, data is aggregated during the process and the output size is a fraction of the input size. This motivated us to explore a different point in the design space. Instead of increasing the bandwidth, we focus on decreasing the traffic by pushing aggregation from the edge into the network. We built Camdoop, a MapReduce-like system running on CamCube, a cluster design that uses a direct-connect network topology with servers directly linked to other servers. Camdoop exploits the property that CamCube servers forward traffic, to perform in-network aggregation of data during the shuffle phase. Camdoop supports the same functions used in MapReduce and is compatible with existing MapReduce applications. We demonstrate that, in common cases, Camdoop significantly reduces the network traffic and provides high performance increase over a version of Camdoop running over a switch and against two production systems, Hadoop and Dryad/DryadLINQ.
- Antony Rowstron, Dushyanth Narayanan, Austin Donnelly, Greg O'Shea, and Andrew Douglas, Nobody ever got fired for using Hadoop on a cluster, in 1st International Workshop on Hot Topics in Cloud Data Processing (HotCDP 2012), ACM, 10 April 2012.
The norm for data analytics is now to run them on commodity clusters with MapReduce-like abstractions. One only needs to read the popular blogs to see the evidence of this. We believe that we could now say that "nobody ever got fired for using Hadoop on a cluster"! We completely agree that Hadoop on a cluster is the right solution for jobs where the input data is multi-terabyte or larger. However, in this position paper we ask if this is the right path for general purpose data analytics? Evidence suggests that many MapReduce-like jobs process relatively small input data sets (less than 14 GB). Memory has reached a GB/$ ratio such that it is now technically and financially feasible to have servers with 100s GB of DRAM. We therefore ask, should we be scaling by using single machines with very large memories rather than clusters? We conjecture that, in terms of hardware and programmer time, this may be a better option for the majority of data processing jobs.
- Paolo Costa, Austin Donnelly, Greg O'Shea, and Antony Rowstron, CamCubeOS: A Key-based Network Stack for 3D Torus Cluster Topologies, in The 22nd ACM International Symposium on High Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing (HPDC'13), ACM Press, New York, NY, US, June 2013.
- Shobana Balakrishnan, Richard Black, Austin Donnelly, Paul England, Adam Glass, Dave Harper, Sergey Legtchenko, Aaron Ogus, Eric Peterson, and Antony Rowstron, Pelican: A building block for exascale cold data storage, 11th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI '14), 6 October 2014.
A significant fraction of data stored in cloud storage is rarely accessed. This data is referred to as cold data; cost-effective storage for cold data has become a challenge for cloud providers. Pelican is a rack-scale hard disk based storage unit designed as the basic building block for exabyte scale storage for cold data. In Pelican, server, power, cooling and interconnect bandwidth resources are provisioned by design to support cold data workloads; this right-provisioning significantly reduces Pelican's total cost of ownership compared to traditional disk-based storage.
Resource right-provisioning in Pelican means only 8% of the drives can be concurrently spinning. This introduces complex resource management to be handled by the Pelican storage stack. Resource restrictions are expressed as constraints over the hard drives. The data layout and IO scheduling ensures that these constraints are not violated. We evaluate the performance of a prototype Pelican, and compare against a traditional resource overprovisioned storage rack using a cross-validated simulator. We show that compared to this over-provisioned storage rack Pelican performs well for cold workloads, providing high throughput with acceptable latency.
- Sergey Legtchenko, Xiaozhou Li, Antony Rowstron, Austin Donnelly, and Richard Black, Flamingo: Enabling Evolvable HDD-based Near-Line Storage, in 14th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies (FAST 16), USENIX Association, Santa Clara, CA, 22 February 2016.
Cloud providers and companies running large-scale data centers offer near-line, cold, and archival data storage, which trade access latency and throughput performance for cost. These often require physical rack-scale storage designs, e.g. Facebook/Open Compute Project (OCP) Cold Storage or Pelican, which co-design the hardware, mechanics, power, cooling and software to minimize costs to support the desired workload. A consequence is that the rack resources are restricted, requiring a software stack that can operate within the provided resources. The co-design makes it hard to understand the end-to-end performance impact of relatively small physical design changes and, worse, the software stacks are brittle to these changes.
Flamingo supports the design of near-line HDD-based storage racks for cloud services. It requires a physical rack design, a set of resource constraints, and some target performance characteristics. Using these Flamingo is able to automatically parameterize a generic storage stack to allow it to operate on the physical rack. It is also able to efficiently explore the performance impact of varying the rack resources. It incorporates key principles learned from the design and deployment of cold storage systems. We demonstrate that Flamingo can rapidly reduce the time taken to design custom racks to support near-line storage.