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PHILADELPHIA – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine can now explain how the body determines whether there are enough mature B-cells in the blood stream at any one time. These are the cells that produce antibodies against germs to fight infections.
Molecular crosstalk between two B-cell surface receptors (green, Y-shaped B-cell receptor and orange cylinder-shaped BLyS receptor) balances the need to have enough B cells to drive a healthy immune response while at the same time guarding against autoimmunity.
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"There is a steady state number of B cells that is considered normal for humans," says senior author Michael P. Cancro, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. "We found that molecular crosstalk between two receptors on the surface of B cells balances the need to have enough B cells to make good immune responses, while at the same time guarding against autoimmunity."
The B-cell crosstalk paper appeared online this week in Nature Immunology. This and other work from the Cancro lab has important implications for transplantation science and battling autoimmune diseases.
Cancro, first author Jason E. Stadanlick, a PhD student in the Cancro lab, and others found that when more of a protein called BLyS, which binds to a receptor on B-cell surfaces is circulating, more mature B cells can be kept alive. By adding more BLyS to the system, the "brakes" governing how many immature B cells are allowed to become mature B cells are relaxed. On the other hand, the body guards against autoimmune diseases such as lupus by preventing the survival of B cells via the other receptor in this equation.
The research from the Cancro lab reveals a complicated interplay between these two receptors that allows them to integrate their signals, which are at odds with one another. "One receptor sends signals to the cell nucleus that says, 'yes stay alive, the body needs more B cells,' while the other says 'wait a minute, be careful which B cells are allowed to live.'"
The Cancro lab also described in a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) paper that if BLyS is neutralized, most B cells die, but the ones in charge of remembering what the body has already been vaccinated against or has been exposed to, remain alive.
Together, these findings should eventually lead to interventions that alter or adjust B cell behavior in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of autoimmune diseases.
Editor's Note: The research described in the Nature Immunology paper was funded in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the National Institute on Aging. The research described in the PNAS paper was funded in part by a sponsored research agreement with Human Genome Sciences, Inc.
PENN Medicine is a $3.6 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Penn's School of Medicine is currently ranked #4 in the nation in U.S.News & World Report's survey of top research-oriented medical schools; and, according to most recent data from the National Institutes of Health, received over $379 million in NIH research funds in the 2006 fiscal year. Supporting 1,700 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) includes its flagship hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, rated one of the nation's top ten "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S.News & World Report; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. In addition UPHS includes a primary-care provider network; a faculty practice plan; home care, hospice, and nursing home; three multispecialty satellite facilities; as well as the Penn Medicine Rittenhouse campus, which offers comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation facilities and outpatient services in multiple specialties.
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Greatest moments in presidential speeches
Published On: Oct 28 2011 01:06:49 PM CDT Updated On: Jan 09 2015 01:00:00 AM CST
Presidential speeches can be memorable for many reasons: they can capture the nation's mood after a tragedy; they can issue warning; they can be a call to action. This September 11th is the 11th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. Listen to Bush's famous 9/11 speech, as well as many others and see how many lines you recognize from these famous presidential speeches.
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text: I am a new mom of a 7 week old and am just starting to pump. I have a Medela pump in style and after a few minutes the milk starts to flow and then stops so I stop pumping. I get about a half ounce from each breast. Is this the wrong thing to do? The reason I stop is because my breasts start to ache shortly after I start pumping. I purchased the next size breast shield to see if that would help but that didn't do anything. My nipples do not touch anywhere in the shield. It is the areola that is really sore after pumping which makes me not want to do it all. Thoughts?


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What Are You Really Getting When You Invest in a Hedge Fund?
by William Reichenstein
Hedge funds are all the rage in the investment industry. Their historical returns look great. And best yet, their returns often are weakly correlated with the stock market—a feature that has helped their appeal in the 2000–2002 bear market. They are touted as a great asset class for adding diversification to a portfolio.
What a deal!
But, CAVEAT EMPTOR—buyer beware! If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
This article takes a critical look at hedge funds and whether they can play a useful role in an individual investor's portfolio.
Traditional advice encourages individuals to take control of their finances, concentrating on factors not the least of which includes their asset allocation decision and the costs of their investments. Hedge funds mess up these controllable factors—they have high costs, and many are not clearly categorized as stocks or bonds or cash.
In addition, a review of the historical returns of hedge funds and other alleged advantages finds them suspect.
What Are Hedge Funds?
Hedge funds are limited liability partnerships that are open to the relatively wealthy. In the U.S., investors must have a net worth of $1 million or higher or an annual income in excess of $200,000 for the past two years to be eligible to invest in a hedge fund or a fund of hedge funds.
Hedge funds are unregulated and hold non-diversified investment portfolios. Although the Securities and Exchange Commission has made some noise recently about regulating hedge funds, they are currently unregulated (see the SEC's Note of Caution).
One justification for the lack of regulation is that the wealthy investors who invest in hedge funds should be able to fend for themselves, and even if the hedge fund falters it is only a small fraction of their wealth.
To say they are not regulated and not diversified says something about what they are not. But what are hedge funds?
No simple definition of a hedge fund exists. In the world of investments, hedge funds use many strategies that are not used by traditional mutual funds (see Table 1). This leads to a wide variety of investment strategies.
For example, some hedge funds use a long-short stock portfolio. [When you are "long" a stock, it simply means you own it. When you "short" a stock, you sell a stock that you do not presently own but that you have borrowed indefinitely from a broker; a short sale is made in anticipation of a price drop.] A fund may be long Ford and short GM, or long Sears and short Kohl's; these are just two examples of many long-short pairs.
Some hedge funds use a long-short bond portfolio with leverage: For every dollar of capital, they may be long $5 of bond A and short $5 of bond B.
The range of strategies is so wide that the hedge fund industry itself is struggling to find a system to categorize the strategies. Some use long-only positions, while others use short-only or long-short positions. Some use leverage, while others do not. Some use stocks, while others use bonds or commodities or currencies. Some are directional—that is, designed to increase in value with the market—while others are market-neutral, depending on individual stock picks for increasing portfolio value.
In contrast, the traditional assets recommended for individual investors' portfolios are long-only positions in individual stocks or stock mutual funds and long-only positions in bonds and bond funds. These portfolios avoid leverage. Let us return to the question, "What are hedge funds?" Although no single definition applies, one thing should be clear: Hedge funds as a group are not one single asset class.
The Individual Investor's Perspective
For individual investors, there are distinct merits in keeping the investment management process simple [which I described in my February 2003 column "10 Lessons You Should Learn From Recent Market History"]:
- Select a strategic asset allocation—that is, your long-run normal asset allocations across stocks, bonds, and cash;
- Periodically rebalance back to that asset allocation; and
- Keep expenses to a minimum.
This management process is essentially the process advocated by mutual fund families in their life-cycle funds [discussed in my February 2004 column "Retiree Stock Allocation Recommendations: Do You Fit the 'Mold'?"], except that their strategic asset allocations slowly become more conservative as the individual approaches and enters retirement. In addition, this approach is consistent with the processes advocated by many other leading financial planning scholars and professionals. Since it is the standard advice given by many who have studied financial markets and investment history, it should not be discarded lightly.
This investment management process puts an emphasis on the factors that investors can control:
- You can control the amount you save each year;
- You can control the portfolio's asset allocation; and
- With diligence, you can keep expenses to a minimum.
Unfortunately, hedge funds are high-cost investments and they frequently mess up the asset-allocation decision. On these grounds alone, I discourage investments in hedge funds.
Asset Allocation Miscalculations
Hedge funds can cause individuals to miscalculate their true asset allocation for two reasons.
First, they are not one asset class and therefore cannot be easily classified, as the box below illustrates.
Second, some hedge fund managers refuse to discuss their strategy, allegedly because they do not want to reveal the market inefficiency that the strategy is trying to exploit. Individuals investing in these funds have no idea whether the hedge funds should be considered cash, bonds, or stocks and whether leverage is involved. Obviously, these individuals forego control of their asset allocation.
Whether due to misclassifying a hedge fund's asset class or the lack of knowledge about the fund's strategy, in practice hedge funds tend to interfere with individuals' ability to control their asset allocation.
|Hedge Funds & Asset Allocation: What the Heck Are They?
What asset class do hedge funds fit into?
That's hard to say, because it depends on the approach used by the hedge fund manager, as the following examples illustrate. Let's compare three hedge funds. The first two use long-short stock strategies, while the third uses leverage.
1) Long-Short Market-Neutral Strategy
If you own this hedge fund, what is it—that is, in an asset allocation framework, is it stocks, bonds, or cash?
The answer is that it should be viewed as cash. Since its returns are not sensitive to the market, it should not be classified as a stock. Instead, if markets are efficient, its expected return should equal the return on Treasury bills (the cash proceeds from the short sale are invested in Treasury bills, which provide the expected return). The hedge fund is betting that Ford's returns will exceed GM's returns by enough to more than offset the management fees and transaction costs. If that bet is successful, the hedge fund's actual return will exceed the return on Treasury bills. If that bet is not successful, the hedge fund's returns will fall short of the Treasury bill return.
The upshot is that for asset allocation this hedge fund should be viewed as volatile cash. Volatile cash! Now that is an interesting concept.
2) Long-Short Market-Neutral With Index Futures Strategy
For asset allocation purposes, it should be treated as stocks.
3) Cash-and-Carry Strategy
The answer is not clear. If the probability of bankruptcy is small for the limited partnership, then it should be viewed as a $400,000 long position in bonds and a $300,000 short position in cash. Thus, a relatively small position in this hedge fund could cause a substantial change in someone's overall asset allocation.
Diversification Benefits
In fact, the diversification benefits are similar to those provided by various traditional asset classes. The first long-short hedge fund should provide diversification benefits similar to those of cash, the second should perform like stocks, while the third should perform like a leveraged bond position.
Since hedge funds are not one asset class, the diversification benefit provided varies among hedge funds. The bottom line: For individual investors, there are easier, less expensive ways to attain various cash, stock, and bond exposures.
High Investment Costs
A fund's total investment costs include the fund's expenses plus trading costs. The typical hedge fund charges 1% a year plus 20% of profits.
If you invest in a fund of hedge funds, then the total cost structure sometimes rises to 2% plus 30% of profits.
In contrast, numerous stock and bond mutual funds have expense ratios of 0.5% or less.
Trading costs are also high on hedge funds. For example, a stock mutual fund will buy Ford stock. But a long-short market-neutral hedge fund must buy Ford, sell GM, and also may buy stock index futures. Thus, long-short hedge funds have at least twice the level of transaction costs as a long-only strategy. Hedge funds are truly high-cost investments. Lastly, the cost structure encourages the managers to take risky bets, since the manager is assured the high expense fee plus 20% of the profits—and none of any losses.
Hedge Fund Hype
Hedge fund salesmen like to point out strong industry returns and claim that these strong returns are due to hedge funds' ability to exploit market inefficiencies. This section examines these claims.
Strong historical returns on hedge funds are often touted as an attractive feature. But there are several biases present in these reported returns. Consequently, the reported numbers greatly exaggerate the returns that typical investors have earned. Moreover, there are good reasons to believe future hedge fund returns will be lower than historical returns.
The hedge fund industry asks current hedge funds to report their historical returns, and individual hedge funds choose whether they want to provide those returns. This procedure ensures that the reported returns exaggerate the returns earned by the typical investor. The biases include survivorship bias, non-reporting bias, questionable-numbers bias, and instant-history bias.
Suppose there were 1,000 hedge funds in existence five years ago, but only 550 of these remain today. Survivorship bias refers to the fact that the returns on the 450 non-surviving funds are not reported. Naturally, on average, these non-survivors' returns were poor. Yet, their returns and the returns earned by their investors are unrecorded. Thus, the reported returns exaggerate the returns earned by the average investor.
Survivorship bias also exists in the mutual fund industry. For 1971–1991, one study estimated that average reported returns in the mutual fund industry were 1.5% higher than the returns actually earned by the average investor. However, the survivorship bias in the hedge fund industry is probably larger than this.
The second and third biases exist because the current hedge funds can decide whether or not to report their current numbers, and their numbers are not audited. To continue with the example above, of the 550 survivors, 400 may provide their returns. Excluding the returns from the 150 non-reporting hedge funds is the non-reporting bias. In addition, the returns provided by the 400 hedge funds lack external verification. This is the questionable-numbers bias.
The last bias is the instant-history bias. A manager may begin several hedge funds, each one based on a different strategy with a small amount of the seed money in each. After a couple of years, the successful strategies will go public and their historical records are made public. The records of the unsuccessful strategies are not made public. Moreover, the historical returns earned by the successful strategies are not returns earned by typical investors.
It should be obvious that the industry-reported returns should be viewed skeptically. One study ["A Critical Look at the Case for Hedge Funds," by Richard M. Ennis and Michael D. Sebastian, Summer 2003 Journal of Portfolio Management] examined the overall bias in numbers for the 1992–2002 period by comparing the reported 7.1% average return on the Hedge Fund Research Fund of Funds Index, which is the return earned by actual investors in funds of hedge funds, to the Hedge Fund Research Composite Index's reported average return of 11.3%. The 4.2% difference suggests a large bias in the industry's numbers. Moreover, the 7.1% return earned by actual investors was less than the 8.5% return on the S&P 500 and the 7.3% return on the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index over the same period.
|And the SEC's Note of Caution:
"Hedge fund investors do not receive the full set of protections commonly applied by the federal and states' securities laws to most registered investments. This means that you won't get the same level of disclosures from a hedge fund that you'll get from other registered investments.
Without the disclosures that the securities laws require for most registered investments, it can be quite difficult to verify representations you may receive from a hedge fund.
You should also be aware that the SEC and other securities regulators have limited ability to check routinely on hedge fund activities."
Alleged Exploitation of Market Inefficiencies
It is often claimed that hedge funds provide market-beating returns because they are able to exploit market inefficiencies. Hedge fund strategies do provide opportunities for skilled managers to outperform the market through their stock-picking skills.
For example, the manager of a traditional large-cap stock mutual fund can try to beat the S&P 500 using his stock-picking abilities by underweighting investments in stocks that will underperform the index and overweighting investments in stocks that will outperform the index. However, because this is a traditional fund that simply owns stocks, this manager can only underweight a stock with a 0.2% weight in the S&P 500 by 0.2%. That is, by not investing in this stock, he underweights it by 0.2%.
In contrast, by shorting this stock, the manager of a long-short hedge fund (with an S&P 500 futures overlay) could underweight it by more than the traditional mutual fund. For example, if he took a 3% short position in this stock and a corresponding long position in another stock in the same industry, he would have a 3.2% underweight on this particular stock. (The long position in the other stock of the same industry means that the manager is only shorting the stock, not the industry.)
On the surface this sounds like an important advantage.
But how important is it?
The key statement is that this is an advantage for a skilled manager. However, based on the evidence from the mutual fund industry and institutional fund management, those management skills are scarce. And for hedge funds, it becomes even harder to find a manager that has sufficient skills to more than offset the high management expenses and transaction costs of an active hedge fund.
There is another problem with the claim that hedge funds' alleged strong returns are due to their ability to exploit market inefficiencies. If enough money is thrown at a market inefficiency, it should disappear. For example, one hedge fund strategy is to take a short position in the most recently issued 10-year Treasury security and a long position in the next shorter-term security. The strategy claims that the price of the "on-the-run" (most recently issued) bond is higher than the price of surrounding bonds, because these bonds have a larger trading volume and investors are willing to pay for this greater liquidity. The strategy tries to sell this highly priced bond and buy a similar bond whose price does not contain this liquidity "premium." Then, when the next 10-year bond is issued, the hedge fund will unwind the first bet and capture the liquidity premium. If relatively few dollars try to capture this liquidity premium, this strategy might work. But as more and more dollars try to profit from this strategy, the liquidity premium should disappear.
In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in the size of the hedge fund industry. Recent estimates suggest that there is now $600 billion chasing alleged market inefficiencies. It follows that the profit potential from exploiting these alleged market inefficiencies should diminish.
Furthermore, it is now apparent that some of the industry's historical returns were not earned by exploiting market inefficiencies. Rather, they were earned because some mutual funds allowed select hedge funds to use market timing to the detriment of the mutual fund's long-term investors. Hedge funds were not exploiting alleged market inefficiencies. Rather, they were allowed to exploit long-term mutual fund investors due to inefficient safeguards at select fund companies. Presumably, this loophole has been closed.
Current Popularity
There is no denying the current popularity of hedge funds. However, much of this popularity is due to the market neutrality of many hedge funds at a time when it was advantageous to be market-neutral.
During the bear market of 2000 to 2002, market-neutral hedge funds usually produced higher returns than traditional stock mutual funds. Hedge funds that produced positive returns compared favorably to stock funds that were in deeply negative territory.
However, during bull markets, stock funds usually beat market-neutral funds. And over the long run, stock markets trend up.
Moreover, if market neutrality is the desired characteristic, you do not need to be in a hedge fund. You can simply invest in cash.
In short, the industry's historical returns look impressive at first glance, but the picture clouds under closer scrutiny. And the claim that the alleged high returns are due to the managers' abilities to exploit market inefficiencies is problematic on several grounds:
- Few managers have demonstrated persistent security selection skills,
- Market inefficiencies should occur infrequently, and if one occurs it should quickly be eliminated, and
- Some of hedge funds' historical returns were due to market timing and other inappropriate practices.
The elimination of these sources of returns suggests that future hedge fund returns will be lower.
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. The hedge fund industry touts strong historical returns as well as returns that are weakly correlated with the stock market, and it attributes success to managers' abilities to exploit market inefficiencies. Hedge fund proponents push the allure of high returns with limited risk.
If only it were true!
For most individual investors, hedge funds do not offer an attractive addition to their investment portfolio. For these investors, the primary reasons to avoid hedge funds are:
- They often cause the investor to lose control of his portfolio's asset allocation, and
- They have high costs.
Other reasons to avoid hedge funds include:
- Questions about their historical returns,
- The lack of evidence that managers can consistently add value though security selection, and
- The surge of money chasing the alleged market inefficiencies.
It is easy to understand why hedge funds are highly touted by the industry. Not only are they guaranteed their high expenses, but they get 20% of the winnings and bear none of the losses. This cost structure encourages risky investments and risky strategies.
But hedge funds are not necessarily an attractive investment alternative for individual investors, and they are unlikely to make any positive contribution to a traditional investment portfolio consisting of stocks, bonds and cash.
|Still Interested? Information You Should Seek
Here are some solid recommendations from the SEC on the information you should seek if you are considering investing in a hedge fund or a fund of hedge funds.


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The 2010 Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium
I really have to give those guys at McGill University's Office for Science and Society credit. They're fast. Remember how I pointed out that I've been away at the Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium? This year, the theme was Confronting Pseudoscience: A Call to Action, and I got to share the stage with Michael Shermer, Ben Goldacre, and, of course, our host, "Dr. Joe" Schwarcz. Sadly, I couldn't stay to see The Amazing Randi do his thing yesterday evening, but at least I did get to have breakfast with him before I left.
In any case, the reason I have to hand it to Dr. Joe and his team at McGill is because they've already uploaded all the videos for symposium events. Here's the main page with the videos (the 2010 Trottier Symposium occurred on October 17, 18, and 19), and here are the individual links:
- 2010 Lorne Trottier Roundtable (moderated by Dr. Joe Schwarcz)
- 2010 Lorne Trottier Public Syposium (Drs. Ben Goldacre, Michael Shermer, and David Gorski; note that my talk is the second talk)
And, because I can't resist, here are some photos taken with various people's cell phone cameras. First, we have a lovely poster of woo that I saw at the restaurant where we had lunch on Sunday and just had to snap a quick picture of:


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Freedom New Mexico: Argen Duncan From left, Kenneth Workheiser of Transmatic Wrecker Service and Curry County Deputies Michael Brockett and Erica Romero man a roadblock on U.S. 70 near Southwest Cheese Company LLC during the grass fire April 17. Workheiser said he was there in case a fire truck needed help. Twenty-eight fire departments fought the fire with support from several law enforcement agencies and civilians.
Sharna Johnson and Argen Duncan
Approximately 71,000 acres burned in Curry and Roosevelt counties in a massive grass fire April 17 — more than four times initial estimates, making the fire the area's largest in more than 30 years.
Melrose Fire Chief Kenny Jacobs said last week he drove the fire line to survey the damage and found it to be more than 4 miles wide in most places and covering 25 miles of distance.
What he observed by far trumped early estimates that placed the fire in the range of 17,000 acres, he said.
"This is the biggest fire that we've seen in 30 years that I've been around," he said.
The fire started near Melrose around 11 a.m. after a tire on a vehicle blew out and sparks from the wheel set nearby grass ablaze.
Because the fire started in his department's jurisdiction, Jacobs is the incident commander.
Burning throughout the day, the blaze made its way east to Clovis and finally burned out before hitting U.S. 70.
Even though the wind speed wasn't as high as in the 2005 fire in Floyd that burned more than 26,000 acres, Jacobs said the fire moved faster.
"This one moved a lot faster because of the amount of fuel. It was a lot hotter," he said. "It wasn't something we were going to stop; we just had to maintain it as best we could."
In the end, Jacobs said 28 fire departments responded from as far away as Capitan and Sudan, Texas, bringing nearly 200 firefighters to the scene.
Looking at the damage, with three burned houses and a barn and injuries or fatalities to 100 or more cattle, Jacobs said probably the biggest single impact is in the loss of grass, both for grazing and anchoring soil.
Signs on N.M. 467 warn of dust storms between Cannon Air Force Base and Portales.
"A lot of it is going to be the ground erosion. It's nothing but sand out there," he said. "It's just going to blow. Texas is going to see a lot of New Mexico."
Fences burned in the fire are another major impact.
"There were just miles and miles of fences. Fencing is very expensive; it is very expensive and labor-intensive to replace it," he said.
One rancher had to put down several of his cattle, while Jacobs said he heard of another that took his herd to a packing plant.
The ranch Sharon and Tom Davis and their children run in Roosevelt and Curry counties lost 11,000 acres of grass. That's nearly the entire acreage of the ranch, Sharon Davis said.
"There's nothing," she said. "It looks like Mars."
The family also lost all of their fences, but firefighters saved their house and barn, and only two of about 280 cows and calves died.
"That's the wonder of things, that they can survive a fire like that," Sharon Davis said.
Cattle usually run to the fence in such a situation, she said. When she and others went to cut fences so the cattle could escape April 17, they found none and feared all of the animals had been killed.
However, Sharon Davis said some of the cattle had gone to water tanks, where there's little grass this time of year, and others apparently found another way to survive.
Sharon Davis said her niece's family, the Dodds, also lost all of their grass but are trying to carry on by bringing feed to their cattle. A Clovis businessman donated a truckload of feed to be divided among ranchers who had lost their grass.
"What a nice gesture," she said.
However, the Davis family sold their entire herd.
Now, she said, they, "pray for rain, and then you start building fences." There is no insurance available for grass and fences.
Chad Davis, Sharon's son, said the soil on their land is blowing away.
"The longer it takes for it to rain for all that grass to get going again, the worse it'll be," he said of the state of the land.
If it rains soon and waters the surviving grass roots, Chad Davis said, the grass will take a year or two to return to a grazeable condition. Until then, ranchers have to make a living some other way.
Chad Davis said he knew of three large ranches, plus other land, that burned in Roosevelt and Curry counties.


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A Clovis woman was sentenced Friday to four years in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling about $90,000 from the accounts of disabled customers at the bank where she worked.
Dawn Lebow, 45, as part of a plea agreement, paid $60,000 restitution Friday during the hearing and will be required to pay an additional $30,000 after she is released from prison, according to a press release from the district attorney's office.
The investigation took place in 2009 after police were notified 14 burial accounts belonging to disabled ENMRSH clients had been suspiciously closed.
ENMRSH is a privately owned company that provides services to disabled clients who qualify for funding through the New Mexico Department of Health's Developmental Disability Support Division.
It was alleged through the investigation that Lebow, an employee of New Mexico Bank and Trust, was using her position at the bank to identify dormant accounts, which she then drained and closed.
She was originally charged with 99 counts of forgery and embezzlement, according to court records.
Lebow was ultimately convicted of 23 counts of forgery, the press release said.
She will be required to serve five years supervised probation upon her release from prison.


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The New Mexican Days remaining in session: 21 Penalizing paperwork: The House has approved a measure (HB367) that would reduce the amount of paperwork that state agencies can send to lawmakers. It puts some teeth into a current law that puts a five-page limit on what agencies can send to lawmakers, with a few exceptions.
Law reducing paperwork approved
February 28, 2009


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An inside look: Fighting fires in icy temperatures
Firefighting is already a dangerous job.
Add dangerously cold temperatures to the mix and firefighters have to take even more precautions to keep themselves, and the public, safe. Otherwise, they could end up fighting with the gear they need to fight the fires when every second counts.
It was 8 degrees below zero Tuesday morning when firefighters were called to a 7:30 a.m. fire at a La Crosse apartment complex at 1321 South 4th St.
At that temperature, water can freeze in minutes, which can make using a fire hose tricky.
"With the hose lines themselves, they'll freeze up. So just like if you have a faucet that's prone to freezing at home, we'll leave that nozzle opened up a little bit so the water keeps moving and it doesn't freeze up as easily," said La Crosse Fire Division Chief Jeff Murphy.
But that water has to go somewhere.
"Well, that's the problem, is all the water that we run through the hose is typically under the apparatus and out the end of the hoses. That's freezing up on the sidewalks and in the streets. So there's always more slip hazards," said Murphy.
The weather can also be dangerous for people escaping the fire.
On Tuesday morning, firefighters kept children warm inside a fire truck until a Municipal Transit Unit bus arrived.
"It's something people maybe don't think about, that we're here to help in emergencies," said La Crosse Transit Manager Keith Carlson. "Whether it's residents, or it could be just a place for the firefighters to warm up, they call us when they feel the situation warrants and we show up with a bus."
After the fire has been put out, the fire truck and all the gear are taken back inside the station, so they're warmed up and ready to go for the next emergency.
Murphy said anyone who needs to leave a building to escape a fire should not stop to grab a coat. The fire is a more immediate danger than the cold temperatures. He said it's better to get out right away and find somewhere warm to wait for firefighters to arrive.
Fire investigators say an overheated wall heater caused Tuesday morning's apartment fire. The American Red Cross is helping the family displaced by the fire. No injuries were reported.
Copyright 2013 by WKBT News8000. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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When it comes to emissions from road users, there are four main exhaust ingredients that have negative effects on health and the environment: nitrogen oxides, particulates, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. Emissions of these substances are strictly regulated in most countries and the limits for what each vehicle may emit are being constantly lowered.
For heavy diesel vehicles, the main focus is on nitrogen oxides and particulates.
The next major emission step is Euro VI in 2013 and it will cut particulates by 50% och NOx by 80% compared with Euro V.


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Sofa so outdated only stuffed animals use it.
By: DWiley51Subscribe Channel: Events Location: Lafargeville, NY
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Imperial Purple Faceted Short Necklace
Style: 570096586
Out of Stock
Delicate necklace favors symmetry with hematite colored rounds and faceted Imperial purple baguettes. Channel-set hematite stones complete the necklace in back.
- 18"-20" with extender.
- Lobster claw clasp.
- Faceted glass and acrylic stones in polished solid-back settings. Rhodium-finish metal.
- Custom designed exclusively for WHBM. Handcrafted with nickel-free and lead-free metal.
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text:
- Game Details
- News (30)
- Review
- Previews (6)
- Videos (32)
- Images (22)
- Cheats & Walkthroughs
Sessler's Soapbox: Changing the Game is a Good Thing
Change, for the most part, is a good thing. But not everyone is comfortable with change. Sometimes, the one thing you've grown accustomed to is the...
NFL Player Files Lawsuit Over Madden Likenesses
Former Bengals all-star running back Tony Davis, on behalf of over 6,000 retired NFL players, have filed a suit against Electronic Arts over the...
Electronic Arts Promises "Innovative, New Take On Madden"
It looks like Madden NFL could be in for a shakeup in 2010. Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello told analysts today that his company is currently...
Worst/Best Glitches In Madden History
Electronic Arts flagship football franchise Madden NFL has been kicking around for 20 years, and every year it's gotten more complicated and...
Madden Retires From Football, But Not Video Games
John Madden, legendary football coach, broadcaster and namesake of the Madden NFL series of video games, has announced his retirement from...
'Skate 2' Interview: Chilling With Pro Skater Darren Navarrette
'Skate 2' Interview: Darren Navarrette
Video Preview
Madden NFL 09: Hands On
EA's Anthony Stevenson is here to bring X-Play an early look at the highly-anticipated Madden NFL 09, the 20th title in the Madden franchise.
Video Preview
Madden NFL 09 Preview
Blair Herter brings you an early look at EA's new installment of the classic NFL sim, Madden NFL 09 for multiple platforms.
My X-Play 1000Th Episode PosterLatest Post: Mar 18, 2013 by Smashdrama
I Can't Believe It's Come To This.Latest Post: Mar 18, 2013 by Shadow_ben_jamin
Anime Corner Farewell Tour! March...Latest Post: Mar 18, 2013 by Squeakachu31


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Product information:
From 27mm wide-angle to 15x Optical Zoom for both still pictures and HD Movies with the AgfaPhoto SELECTA 16 youll reach the next level of flexibility. Compact and stylish - equipped with a powerful 15x wide optical zoom and amazing embedded features, this camera is tailor-made for exciting travels and sport events alike. Take your pictures to a whole new level of experience - the 3D software and glasses are already included in the box. And with the One-click-upload functionality, theres no need to wait to share your favorite photos on any Social Networking site.
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MOUs from the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA).
Memorandum of Understanding Between
Department of Veterans Affairs
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service
U.S. Department of Education
Rehabilitation Services Administration
May 23, 2011
On May 23, 2011, RSA Commissioner Lynnae M. Ruttledge and Director Ruth A. Fanning, along with the VA's Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) Service, reaffirmed their shared commitment and signed an updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU will ensure that both federal agencies work together to support local relationships between state VR agencies and other entities funded by RSA and the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Services program. Services are administered through VA regional offices for the purpose of providing a more comprehensive and integrated program of vocational rehabilitation services for veterans with disabilities. Building on the collaborative relationships at the federal, state, and local levels, the MOU will encourage the development of new relationships and coordination of services in new ways. The intended result is more, better, and in many cases more localized services to veterans with disabilities who want to prepare for, get, or keep a job.
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15 million people in the United States live with and manage ADHD every day. CHADD is the premiere nonprofit where those with ADHD and others who care about them can get unbiased fact-based information about ADHD. Membership in CHADD demonstrates your support of the ADHD community. Join or renew your membership today.
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Reward Points on this item:31
Availability: Discontinued Item Discontinued. Cannot Ship.
Whey protein is a naturally complete protein that provides essential and non essential amino acids to support healing, muscle building, muscle and tissue recovery, energy and the immune system. Whey protein is a great source of branched chain amino acids for muscle support, precursors for glutathione production as well as alphalactalbumin and immunoglobulins for immune system support.
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Supplement Facts:
guar gum and natural vanilla flavor.


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There will be races in sport modified, street stock, pure stock, late model, classic dwarf, mini stock, front runner, and go-kart divisions.
The pit gates will open at 3 p.m. Spectator gates open at 5 p.m.
The go-kart meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. and the driver meeting will be at 6:05 p.m. Races will start at 7 p.m.
Edna's Tim Harp leads the hot stock truck standings and Cuero's Jacob Drane heads into Saturday with the lead in the wing go-karts.
Victoria's Travis Copeland (mini stocks), Cuero's Joseph Snow (limited modifieds), Yorktown's Jarrod Stepanski (late models), Victoria's Christie Cope (pure stock), Victoria's Tony Blankenship (street stock), Victoria's Douglas Wright (classic dwarfs), Cuero's Elena Corpus (senior karts), and Goliad's Anthony Scribellito (junior karts) are the other division leaders.
For information on Shady Oaks Speedway, call 645-8353.


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by Anton Shilov
SK Hynix, one of the world's largest producers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), on Monday said that it had successfully developed and build its first LPDDR4 memory chips. Customers of the company have already received the first samples of LPDDR4 for testing purposes. SK Hynix unveiled its new mobile DRAM chips on the same day as its larger rival Samsung Electronics.
SK Hynix 8Gb LPDDR4 works at 3200Mb/s effective rate and ultra low-voltage of 1.1V which runs two times faster than 1600Mb/s and does at lower voltage than 1.2V of existing LPDDR3. The new memory chip is produced using 20nm-class process technology.
The company has been strengthening its cooperation with the customers for the standardization of this new mobile DRAM by providing the samples of LPDDR4 to major customers and SoC (system on chip) companies.
SK Hynix plans to start mass production of LPDDR4 from the second half of next year. JEDEC, a leading DRAM standards setting organization, plans to finalize the new mobile LPDDR4 standard sometimes in 2014.
"SK Hynix secured its technology leadership by developing the world's first next generation mobile memory LPDDR4 and providing samples of the product to the customers. The company will further strengthen its competitiveness in the mobile area with the development of high density, ultrahigh speed and low power consuming product," said Richard Chin, senior vice president and the head of global sales and marketing at SK Hynix.
SK Hynix announced its LPDDR4 memory chips on the same day as Samsung Electronics. With two leading DRAM makers unveiling the memory chips well ahead of the formal ratification of the standard, this may as indicate that the standard has been nearly finalized and is highly expected by the market, especially by leading players like Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm.
The new interface LPDDR4 is expected to be loaded onto flagship mobile devices at the end of 2014 and is anticipated to be commercialized regularly from 2015. Plus, it is expected to be the main product in the industry from 2016.


text: Ask HISTORY: Cinco De Mayo (2) tv-pg Play video Select your TV provider to log in to have full access to videos Select your TV provider See all providers Don't see your TV provider? Learn more You can access this video on the free HISTORY® app. *You must verify your TV provider towatch this video on the App Your Parental Control settings do not allow you to view this content. Ask HISTORY: Cinco De Mayo (2 min) tv-pg Ever wonder why May 5th is celebrated in the U.S. and Mexico? Get the full story.


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Which B-list mostly TV comic actress who has never matched the success of her first big hit has said some viciously anti-gay things in the past but is actually sleeping with a woman on the side? Yes, her husband does know about it.
Patrica HeatonReplyCancel
Did Brett Butler ever have a rant? I know she was off the rails there for a while..ReplyCancel
NM, not married.ReplyCancel
JW–google PH homophobicReplyCancel
Yep, she sure does JW.
She is an outspoken conservative but that doesn't automatically = homophobe.
Derek, I did.
The first line in this one is "After some of us questioned why a generally LGBT supportive (even if conservative) celebrity like Patricia Heaton".
Patricia Heaton has indicated that she has conservative views but on LGBT matters, she supports gay rights and feels that people who do not are "lunatics".
Hi everyone .. and it's another happy happy day! JW, you might be getting PH (as I do) with another actress who has a similar name / look. (It will come to me).ReplyCancel
I don't think JW has it mixed up at all
Good to hear that about PH. Personally, as an anti-racist, pro-immigration, gay-friendly fiscal conservative, I like to hear there are more of us out there. I believe in a country and a world where there's room for everyone. I also believe in economic freedom.ReplyCancel
"I used to think Patricia Heaton was funny, but now I'm just grossed out by her!"
Those are the biting words of comic Kathy Griffin, who's been blasting the former "Everybody Loves Raymond" star in her new sold-out comedy tour. Griffin's taken the 48-year-old actress to task for her conservative views on subjects such as gay rights and stem cell research.
"The whole gay issue, I gotta tell you – when I hear Patricia talking her bull—- and saying it's not in the Bible that gay people should be together – those are the pieces of information that I can't forget about," said Kathy.ReplyCancel
I get her mixed up with Marcia Gay HardenReplyCancel
Kathy Griffin is not generally known for having her facts straight. The article I posted to is a gay website, the article was posted in February of this year. I've also read the articles with Heaton where she states that she supports gay rights. She does not support abortion or stem cell research. As Bacon Ranch points out, not all conservatives are homophobes.ReplyCancel
Yeah I'm not taking Kathy Grating Voice Griffin's word to the bank, that is for damn sure.
Heaton is on record as against stem cell research but that's not the subject of the blind. She's on the record more than once supporting gay rights and gay marriage.ReplyCancel
JW—give it up. I can post other articles if you want. You just choose to think you are right when you are wrong. She is just supporting gays now to save face.ReplyCancel
That's fairly standard isn't it? Homophobia for bunches of closeted gay peeps? For every anti-gay spouting politician, isn't there always a boyfriend rolling his eyes while waiting in a hotel room? Or airport bathroom?ReplyCancel
To be different, Melissa McCarthy.ReplyCancel
NVM, missed mostly TV. She's probably mostly movies now.ReplyCancel
Patricia Heaton gets on my every last nerve. I loved her on Everybody Loves Raymond and thought she was awesome, then she joined the slut-shaming of the college girl who wanted birth control to be covered. She actually slut-shamed the girl on Twitter, crap like "keep your legs closed then" when the woman has a non-contraceptive use for contraceptives. (Google PCOS and BCP. Not every female who uses contraceptives is asking the government to "support her right to be a slut", ya know.)
Not all conservatives are homophobes, or even jerks at all (my SO leans conservatively), but that was not cool at all. She apologized and deleted her tweets about it, but as someone who says she is a Christian, she ought to look at the words of the faith: Out of the mouth, the heart speaks (Luke 6:45).ReplyCancel
LOL the article I posted is from 2011, so she sure has one hell of a time machine.
(heh this is fun)
though I would rather ride with the Tennant Dr. Who in his Tardis 🙁ReplyCancel
Victoria jacksonReplyCancel
@Bacon—yeah so she probably changed her political public opinion since then. It says she has said some homophobic things in the PAST. She is only pro-gay marriage publicly cause she works in HWOOD with many gay people and it was effecting her career. Shes like a racist who claims to have "many black friends".ReplyCancel
Derek she made the pro gay statements in 2011 and from the article JW submitted from earlier this year, it hasn't changed.
In case you missed what JW found:
Wrong guess, that's all I'm sayin'. If Ent tries to reveal this as her, the evidence is in the thread to the contrary.ReplyCancel
but Kathy Griffins statement was from 2006. I am thinking Patrica has changed her views (or at least publicly–I personally think she is the devil) between then and that article.ReplyCancel
Derek, assuming you are correct don't you think the gay website would have, instead of describing her as generally supportive, said something to the effect of she is back to her old ways. I think Kathy Griffin simply failed to check her facts and lumped Heaton in with the general view of conservatives as homophobes, probably because she professes to have a strong Christian faith.ReplyCancel
JW for the love of god. The article you posted is from 2011. The article I posted was from 2006. It is the year 2014 (and she has made plenty of hateful rants about other things in the meantime). Enty has stated that she has said homophobic things in the past. It does not give a time-frame. What is your point about timing? Also, she may have said demeaning things in private or at a party etc. I gave you an example of someone claiming she was a homophobe I also found 2 others. All these examples were from around the early to mid 2000s
but as I stated the timing is irrelevant cause she could have just simply changed her views (probably cause people are sick of her shit!) publicly to be a little less hated cause that sorta thing is no longer tolerated.
Not speaking for JW but I'm not going to go with "she may have had said things at a party" BUT KATHY GRIFFIN SAID SOMETHING ABOUT HER THAT IS GOSPEL TRUTH 8 YEARS AGO.
That's just stupid.
I'm the one who gave you the 2011 article, the one she [provided was from last month. From a gay website, no less.
Wrong guess.ReplyCancel
I don't think PH is the subject of this blind, but she HAS in the past made bigoted remarks (I hate the word homophobe). It's possible she has changed her mind, or it's more likely she realized that it isn't good for her public image to state them in public given the way the tide is turning.ReplyCancel
Try not to get your panties in a bunch Derek..it may just be true that PH is supportive of LBGT community. Now go put your fedora back on girlReplyCancel
Dont think so–they are tacky tacky
oh, hahahahaReplyCancel
whats that feathery thing yall like to wear? see, theres the lezzie talkinReplyCancel
ew. fedoras suck. Im off to google gay accessoriesReplyCancel
a boa? lol —I am not a tranny ; )ReplyCancel
Boa!!! yes. the twinks over here love that shit for getting prettyReplyCancel
I don't like PH or Kathy. And I have two fedoras that I think are super cute.ReplyCancel
I know I'm old and all, but I like fedoras, too!!ReplyCancel
kirstie alley??
only because cheers was the biggest and the rest will never come close and co$ is against the gays.. I know it says husband, but she has been telling people she's married?? just throwing out a guess.
Angie Harmon for the WIN.ReplyCancel
Uh oh with the Kelly O. slip there, @Derek. The PCPD will be all ova your ass, next!! Hide!ReplyCancel
Or changed her views, full stop.
It's a bit disheartening to think that if a person is uncomfortable with homosexuality or has reservations about gay marriage being legal, then changes her opinion after being educated on the issue, she will still be regarded as anti-gay.
That attitude renders the campaign to enlighten people rather useless, doesn't it? That is, why should I listen if you're going to label and hate me anyway?ReplyCancel


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9/16/08 at Yankee Stadium
I attended this game with my friend Jordan (aka "hockeyguy1011" if you read the comments) and his friend Josh. They'd flown in from Florida just to see Yankee Stadium, and of course they were each hoping to catch a commemorative ball. They had tickets for the main part of the stadium so I sent them to the corner spot at the end of the short porch. I had a seat in the right field bleachers and my day of snagging got off to a fast start.
Less than a minute after I entered the stadium, Phil Hughes tossed me ball number one. Even though his aim was perfect, I jumped up on the chest-high railing so that I was briefly balancing on my stomach…so that I could reach out as far as possible and prevent anyone else from interfering.
Five minutes later, I caught a Robinson Cano homer in the crowded aisle, and five minutes after THAT, I got another ball from Hughes. He didn't intend to throw this one to anyone in particular. He just flipped it up randomly–one section to the right of where he'd tossed the first ball–and I happened to be standing there so I jumped and made the catch.
I was checking in on Jordan every now and then–his corner spot was only 30 feet from the left edge of the bleachers–and at one point, when I was more than 100 feet away, I saw a player toss him a ball. I ran over and yelled his name and got him to hold it up…
…and learned later that a) the ball was tossed by Alfredo Aceves who b) also tossed one to Josh, and that c) both balls were commemorative. Not bad.
I ended up snagging three more balls with my glove trick during the Yankees' portion of BP. The first two landed in the narrow gap behind the outfield wall in right-center field, and I had to pounce on them because Greg (aka "gregb123") was there with his cup trick, and another man (who told me he was inspired by this blog) was there with his own makeshift ball-retrieving device. Those two guys each pulled a ball out of the gap, and Greg ended up getting a couple other balls as well. Anyway, my third glove-trick ball came in left field. I saw a player throw a ball to some fans in the bleachers. Naturally they dropped it, and I ran over, and to my surprise Greg was already on the scene.
"You can have it," he said. "It's too far out."
Indeed, the ball WAS nearly ten feet out from the wall (check out the lame photograph on the right), and Greg's cup wasn't going to cut it.
Cup tricks are better than glove tricks in certain situations (like when a ball is sitting on thick grass or surrounded by garbage, as is often the case in the various gaps at Shea Stadium), but here, when the ball needed to be knocked closer, I was all over it.
Fortunately, stadium security was nowhere in sight, so I was able to spend several minutes flinging my glove out past the ball and then dragging it back by pulling the string. Once I'd moved the ball off the grass, it took an extra effort to bring it closer because the dirt area was slightly sloped and the ball kept trickling away from me. Finally, though, I had the ball where I needed it and went in for the kill.
The man on my right was skeptical, as people often are.
"What you need is a secondary string," he said.
A secondary…WHAT?!?!
I didn't respond at first. I just went about my business, and ten seconds later I was holding the ball.
"What was that you mentioned about extra string?" I asked.
I ran back to right field with six commemorative balls in my drawstring backpack. It'd taken me 40 minutes to snag them, so I figured I'd be able to get four more over the next 45 minutes with the White Sox hitting. It always makes me happy to reach double digits, especially in a tough ballpark like Yankee Stadium, but guess what happened…
The Sox hardly tossed any balls into the crowd. Most of their hitters were right-handed. Their few lefties were either too wimpy to reach the bleachers or, in the case of Jim Thome and Ken Griffey Jr., having too much fun taking aim at the right field upper deck. It was totally dead and my once-promising day quickly turned into a slightly-below-average performance.
I caught up with Greg after BP, and he (expertly) took the following photo:
I only had the baseballs out of my bag for a minute, during which time two people approached me separately and wanted to buy one.
"How much do you want?" asked one guy.
I didn't even bother asking how much he was willing to pay or making up a number, but it obviously would've been a lot more than $30. That's how much these balls cost in the stadium souvenir stores–and mine were actually USED by the Yankees.
All I said was, "I'm sorry, they're not for sale."
I played the tunnels in right field for the first couple innings of the game and had a decent view of Jeter's fake hit–the one that moved him past Lou Gehrig for "most hits all time at Yankee Stadium." Seriously, I can't believe it was ruled a hit. I don't care what kind of pressure Bill Shannon, the official scorer, was feeling in terms of making a hometown call. He was wrong and his poor decision cheated Jeter and every Yankee fan. He ruined a historic moment. The ball was hit hard–I won't deny that–but third baseman Juan Uribe should've caught it. He's a major leaguer. Make the play. Get in front of the ball. Move your feet. Knock it down. I used to play shortstop and third base, and I was charged with errors on much harder plays than that. You know when there's a line drive hit right at an infielder and it in-between hops him and deflects off his glove? In my summer ball leagues (where the fields were crappy and you were lucky if the ball didn't take a bad hop), those were ruled errors. In the major leagues, why are these plays ruled hits more often than not? It makes me sick. Jeter's routine ground ball three feet to the right of Uribe should have been caught, and since it wasn't, it should've been an error. Everyone in the stadium kind of cheered as soon as the ball got through, but we were all holding our breaths and looking at the scoreboard. After five to ten seconds, when it was ruled a hit, THEN everyone cheered. It was terrible. And it's not even like this was the last game at Yankee Stadium. There were still five games and eight innings remaining at that point, so the Captain was clearly going to have plenty of chances. What the hell.
In the second inning, one of my vendor friends walked out of the tunnel where I was standing and said, "No seat again tonight, Zack?"
I actually *did* have a seat in section 41–the second section over from the batter's eye–but it was in Row M, and there was no way I was gonna sit there.
To make a long story short (and to protect the people who made it happen), I got to sit on an extra folding chair IN the actual aisle directly behind the wall. That aisle is normally reserved for wheelchair seating (just like at Coors Field), but not everyone there is necessarily disabled because those seats often end up getting released to the public shortly before game time.
My view of the game itself wasn't great because I had to watch the action through the railings…
…but the space on either side of me (and the lack of competition) was to die for. Was this really happening at Yankee effin' Stadium? This was the view to my left…
…and this was the view to my right:
Wow. If ever there was a night to catch a home run, this was it.
The bottom of the third inning was thoroughly entertaining, not in a snagging sense, but because of the idiot fans sitting directly behind me. Bobby Abreu had committed the horrible crime of grounding out to the pitcher with one out and runner on third, so the fans were already angry when A-Rod stepped into the batter's box. One guy started screaming, "LOSER!!! LOSER!!!" which prompted his friend to shout, "Pop up to the infield and then pretend you care! I love it!"
(Clearly, A-Rod wants to fail and is more talented as an actor than as an athlete.)
After A-Rod ended the inning with a towering fly out to right field (which would've been a 430-foot homer had he swung half an inch higher), the first fan yelled, "YOU BUM!!! YOU BUM!!! YOU PIECE OF SH*T!!!" Then his buddy yelled, "Cheat on your wife!!"
When Abreu took his position in right field in the top of the fourth, another fan screamed, "Way to get the run in, Bobby!! Welcome to free agency!! The Yankees hate you!!"
(Let it be known that Abreu is batting .298 with 91 runs, 17 homers, 19 stolen bases, 38 doubles, and a .372 on-base percentage. Not exactly a terrible season.)
Then the fans started talking about how A-Rod should be dropped to the 8th slot in the lineup, and that the only reason why manager Joe Girardi won't do it is because it "goes against the book."
When Jason Giambi led off the bottom of the fourth inning, I was thinking that he had a better chance than anyone on either team to hit a home run to me. That said, I wasn't rooting for this to happen. I don't like the guy. To me, he's a villain who deserves to fail.
Gavin Floyd quickly fell behind in the count 3-0, and all I could think was something along the lines of: "I don't even want Giambi to enjoy the pleasure of getting a base on balls."
Giambi predictably took the next pitch–a strike–and fouled off the next one to bring the count to 3-2. I was sitting on the edge of my seat, as I always do, hoping but not necessarily expecting anything to come my way.
Well, wouldn't you know it, Floyd grooved a 91mph fastball, and Giambi launched it about 20 feet to my right. From the moment it left the bat, I knew it was gone, but at first I thought it was going to sail over the aisle and land out of reach in the packed section behind me. Still, I jumped up and drifted through the wide aisle and got in line with the ball. Somehow, either because it was a cool night or because the wind was blowing in (or maybe because I flat-out misjudged it initially), the ball didn't travel as far as I thought it would, and it began descending toward me in the aisle. I stayed near the back railing, still preparing for the ball to carry (and of course because it's easier to move forward than backward at the last second), and then determined that the ball was going to land right in the middle of the aisle. Rather than taking
one step forward and preparing to make a face-high catch, I took two steps forward, thereby forcing myself to jump for the ball so that I could catch it as high as possible–and in front of anyone else who might've been hoping to make their own attempt.
And that's exactly what I did.
I jumped. I caught it. The place went nuts (not for me but rather for Giambi) and I held up the ball triumphantly. Then, since I knew I was sitting in a spot where I "belonged" and that I wasn't going to get kicked out of the section by security (as was the case after my other two home run catches this season), I quickly decided to do a little dorky/celebratory dance…nothing fancy, and certainly nothing GOOD. Just a few silly moves so that that cameras might stay on me for a couple seconds…just to have fun with it and entertain my friends and family and all you blog readers (and the millions of baseball fans) who would end up seeing the highlights later that night.
As it turned out, the cameras captured the whole thing quite well.
The swing:
My catch (leaping and reaching just behind the "G" in "AIG):
Holding up the ball:
Dancing (badly):
Talking on my cell phone (to Jordan who saw me from the upper deck and called immediately):
I want to give a BIG thanks to my friend Michael Fierman (formerly "tswechtenberg" and now "pinched") for taping the game and making a compilation of all the footage.
CLICK HERE to watch it, but be warned that it's about 16 MB and might take a little while to load if you have a slow internet connection.
I was dying to catch another home run–two in one game is a very rare feat–but it wasn't meant to be.
I am proud to say, though, that as of this moment, I am the proud owner of the last home run ever hit at Yankee Stadium. There are five more games remaining there, and I'll be at three of them. What are the odds that a) there won't be any more homers or b) there will be another and I'll catch it?
Final score: Zack 7, White Sox 6, Yankees 2.
? 7 balls at this game
? 481 balls in 62 games this season = 7.8 balls per game.
? 558 consecutive games with at least one ball
? 124 consecutive games at Yankee Stadium with at least one ball
? 11 game balls this season (not counting game-used balls that get tossed into the crowd)
? 3 game home run balls this season (all of which were caught on a fly at Yankee Stadium)
? 122 lifetime game balls (115 foul balls, 6 home runs, 1 ground-rule double)
? 20 lifetime game balls at Yankee Stadium
? 3,758 total balls
When I got home, the following email was waiting for me. The subject was "I see 3's and 1's." It was from my friend Brad. Here goes:
There has been a streak of HR catches by some notorious ballhawks over the last six (3 + 3) days. Wanna see how the numbers "3" and "1" occur prominently for each of these?
On Thursday in San Diego, T.C. got Drew Macias's first (1) MLB homer. Macias's jersey number is 11 (1) (1). And Leigh got Adrian Gonzalez's' 31st (3) (1) homer of the season.
On Friday in San Diego, T.C. got Pedro Sandoval's third (3) homer of the season,
On Friday in Oakland, Tyler got Hank Blalock's HR. Blalock went 1-3 that game and wears number nine (3) X (3).
On Saturday at PETCO, Leigh got Bengie Molina's 13th (1) (3) homer of the year. That's also 31 backwards from the Gonzalez homer (3) (1) and Molina's jersey number is one (1).
Monday night at Coors Field, Danny got Matt Antonelli's first (1) MLB HR. Antonelli is #9 (3) X (3). That catch also makes a total of (3) ballhawks that we know of who got a player's first (1) major league home run this season; Tyler's brother Tom in Oakland got Carlos Gonzalez's first (1)
With all these one's and three's flyin' around, we should have been able to predict that you would catch Giambi's 31st (3) (1) on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. That also made you the first (1) person to catch three (3) homers at Yankee Stadium in it's final season. It also happened in the 4th inning (3) + (1). And Giambi ended up going 1-3
for the game.
Also on Tuesday night: Prince Fielder hit his 31st (3) (1) homer of the season onto Sheffield Avenue at Wrigley, and the probability is high that one of the regular ballhawks out there got it. So it is possible that You and Leigh and one of the Wrigley guys have someone's 31st (3) (1) homer of the 2008 season.
And for the most bizarre stat of the night– the attendance at Yankee Stadium was 52,558.
5 + 2+ 5 + 5 + 8 = 25 (Giambi's number.)
As awesome as that email was, the response of the night went to my girlfriend (a former professional dancer) who watched the footage and said, "So you were churning butter and then you started doing aerobics."
Yup. And it worked.
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ok zackon chris, and ill remeber this. you singled me out( even though i may be deserving). i will find a way to get you back somehow (hopefully)
Well, when I ran into the stadium at 10, I did not expect BP. The teams had played a double header the night before, and it was a 12 noon Sunday game. As I sprinted through the tunnel the nets were up but the Yankees weren?t out yet. As I went to make the turn to the seats, I took a big spill in a small puddle of water. My elbow was scraped up, and it felt like there would be a giant purple bruise on my butt the next day, but there wasn?t. It was pretty embarrassing, but I probably looked kind of funny. My family commented on how much they would have paid to see the fall. Anyway, as BP started, Johnny Damon hit a ball that bounced off the fa�ade of the lodge, into an empty row. I scooped it up, and found that it was a brand new commemorative! Jose Verse denied me as he?s done all season, and then threw a ball to someone else, but he sucks so it?s okay. I didn?t get anything else during the first round of BP, but during the second round, A-Rod came up. He was trying to go opposite way on almost every ball, and he was CRUSHING the ball. I would have probably caught one on a fly, if not for the guy who seat I was standing on showed up a minute before he launched one. It bounced into the gap, and a cop threw it to a kid. But he hammered a ball about 8 rows back, and a guy dropped it in the middle of the aisle. It bounced into the last section of seats (there are only 2 seats, then the retaining wall) and 3 guys dove into the row. I stayed back hoping maybe the ball would trickle down. And it did! I picked it up as it rolled down the row to the bottom of another lady?s feet. This was also a commemorative. The Yankees ended bp soon after, and I headed to my seats behind the rays dugout. Before the game, I got David Price (if you don?t know who he is, you will next season) to sign the A-rod ball right on the sweet spot. He seemed nice. I got Jason Bartlett to throw me his pre-game warm-up ball, and then that was it for the day. It was awful! There were like a million kids, and I couldn?t get anything, even with a Ray?s hat! Of course when I left to go get dippin dots, cuz it was like 95 degrees out, the kid sitting behind me, who also was behind me every time I went down to the dugout after the final out got a batting glove! Just my luck. At least I got to see Jeter tie Gehrig's records for most hits in Yankee Stadium.
Now for the second game from hell.
I got to the gates at around 4:45 and there was a big line. I figured I would go see zack and greg at the bleacher entrance. It turned out that this was a good move because zack informed me of a fellow reader who would be waiting on line, and sure enough he was there, 3rd in line, and no body complained when I cut the line and went to go chat with him. (oh, and greg, next time, I?ll shake your hand first :) when the gates opened the guy who had to check your bag took forever and I ran in a minute or two late. I didn?t get a single ball the entire time during Yankees BP, and I was fuming. Finally, when the white sox took the field, two balls rolled right up against the wall on the warning track. I lowered my glove, but my rubber band was just too tight. When I tried again it still didn?t work, a white sox player pushed the glove down and walked away. As I was bringing the glove up, the 10 YEAR-OLD next to me swatted the glove and knocked the ball out! I was pissed, and immediately started yelling at his as I went in for another try. He left, and the glove trick still wouldn?t work! I had my White Sox hat on so I was starting to get booed. A really nice guy offered me his cup trick, but I told him one last try. Finally after maybe 7 attempts I got it. The glove I have is so weird. I marked where to put the sharpie, after trying it at home, but when I put it there at a game, it won?t work. I was so aggravated, I left and as I was in my seats (again behind the dugout) Ken Griffin hit a ball that bounced off the lady I was standing next to! My entire goal was to get a ball from griffey! I got two balls as the white sox were coming off the field, and my spirits were raised a little, I still had a chance at 6 or seven balls. This quickly died as I didn?t get a pre game warm-up ball, and once again there were a million little kids in Yankee jerseys, and they got balls tossed to the over me a White Sox ?fan? it also didn?t help that the entire team went into the dugout via, the entrance one section over, and in the 8th when I finally moved to that section, the new first baseman went into the dugout via the entrance in my section, with2 balls in his glove. I got one after the game, but im extremely disappointed.
Oh, and Jeter broke Lou?s record for hits in Yankee Stadium
P.S: Zack, in light of the Chris situation, are your blog entries backed up on like a floppy disk or something? Even if you didn?t get hacked, the mlblogs servers might crash or get a virus (although unlikely) and stuff may be deleted. Just a thought.
PPS: are you going to the final game with WWZ clients, cuz I want the corner spot for that game, even though there may be a camera man there, I want as close to the corner as I can get.
oh, and hey i called you like 3 minutes after the catch, i had to get the number from my dad who was in ENGLAND!
i saw you make the catch and was like OMG, then when you started to dance (badly) i was OMG what is he doing. great catch BTW.
and jeters 200th hit also should have been an error, but he got a hit later, so he would have broken the record anyway.
I have been a reader of your blog for a long time, and when I saw you catch the homerun I was pretty excited for you. I am in Chicago and a huge White Sox fan, but I still cheered when I saw you caught it. If you are ever going to be in Chicago, I have great season tickets for getting balls. My seats are in right centerfield next to the visitors bullpen.
Nice snag Zack, i was watching the game with my bro, cause the Mets were killing me and when you caught it my bro goes, hey its Zack, and I was like holy crap that is him. Anyway nice catch again
hey zack,
nice catch
you might know this, but in the beginning of sportscenter when they show a bunch of clips, you were on for 2 or 3 seconds this morning
Nice catch! I could not believe it when I saw the replay on YES.
Also, never to early to start planning for 2009. Most teams released there 2009 schedule including the Yanks and Mets!
Lastly, I have a 70% chance of being at the stadium tomorrow night (Thursday) for my last shot at a commeorative. I'll see you at the bleachers!
Hope tonight went well.
Hey Zack Remember me Jody from the game. I just wanna start out with this. Remember when you said to me "Hey, If one gets hit this way think of me". So i was just sitting enjoing the game when giambi crushed that ball toward the right field bleachers and i thought to myself "it going toward zack area, he's gonna get it" and guess what you got it and the i saw you on the scoreboard and i saw you dancing and i laughed. As for ball snagging i didnt get a ball but i almost got phil coke to toss me brett gardner's ground rule double. he said "I'll get you a different one im holding this one for brett." he walked into that little room in the bullpen and never came back out until the end of the game.Yea well I guess thats it.See You later Zack.
Okay, that dance was the dorkiest dance, ever. Nice catch though.
the opening of sportscenter?!?!?!?
my dream!….actually to be an anchor for it…but thats pretty close
Wow Zack, I don't even know what to say other that WOW! What an epic entry. You have such a marvelous talent in writing, which I find just as interesting as the baseball!! :P
I'm not gunna lie, today was an absolutely horrible today. Did really poorly on a test or two, girl trouble, and just overall crap. Just wanted to share that watching that video made my whole day better. Watching how happy you were really made me realize that I shouldn't be sweating the small stuff, but rather the big picture. Who woulda thought that some stranger in New York was going to be the one to brighten my mood? :)
Anyways, thanks so much for the entry and cheering me up. I'm heading out to Chase Field today and I am debating whether I should camp out in the barren wasteland that is right field and look for Dunn to connect, or go to a semi-empty left field and hope for Upton (my favorite player) to crank one my way. Any who, if something happens I'll let you know, but I'm not optimistic. Once again, thanks for the brilliant entry, and keep it up. I speak for all of the readers when I say we look forward to reading it, and it makes us all feel a bit happier than we were before we logged on. Take it easy, Zack!
Awesome snag Zack. I was finally able to snag (3) YS Comm balls in Detroit on 9/01/08 when the Yanks cam to the COPA for a makeup game. I was on a mission. I snagged (5) balls tot that day. None of the fans in the seats knew what they were. Ball #170 of this yr was a YS Comm ball that I made my best catch of the season off of Damon in RT/Ctr during BP. Catching a gamer HR ball has to have double the excitement compared to a foul gamer.
Fun Stuff
Mike in Detroit….I hope you get to #500
Hey Zack, great entry. I was hanging on every word. It's funny man, I was bragging to my friends about Hunter getting the first and last ball at BP yesterday and now you have a chance (although slight) of having caught the last home run hit in Yankee Stadium (a stadium you despise). That's almost poetic. Good luck with that bro, that would be too cool. Here's a question. Does anybody know who caught the first home run ever hit at Yankee?? I myself do not know the answer, but I would like to know. Thanks for seriously grabbing my attention for a few minutes..Don ..RPR
10th all time on the yankees homer list. GREAT CATCH!!! U R AMAZING!!
excellent catch zack! you put all the other yankee ballhawks to shame.
george steibrenner is the 377 richest american at 1.3 billion, according to the forbes 400
I sat down to watch ESPN last night and saw you during the opening of sportscenter! I then had to patiently wait all day for you post about it. Congrats on the nice catch and making a brief appearance on nation wide prime time!
2 home run catches on as many nights! Wow!!! Michael Kay is raving about you!
WHOAH!!!! Two nights in a row, same spot! Great catch!!! (Great positioning) Michael Kay can't stop talking about you on YES. I thought that was you out there….. I'll be at tomorrow night's game but I can't hope to get that lucky….
OMG are you kidding me!!!! Now Damon lol.
Right after he hit it, i was looking intensly to see if it was you and then i saw you do the dance and put up 2. YES was waving about you and still are. Congrats- Joe
Zack, this is my first comment but I just watched you catch ANOTHER homer on the fly off the bat of Damon! Michael Kay talked about you for rest of the half inning pretty much. He said 2 in a season is amazing, let alone 2 in back-to-back nights. Then Al Leiter said 2 in a lifetime is amazing.
Kay also talked about your scrabble shirt, and said Kim Jones should go out and climb the wall to interview you.
Your the man Zack!!!!!!!!!!!!
Imagine if you had caught arods hr in the same inning, the announcers would have gone nuts
Thas the gameday, its under video there.
Zach, I was at the game on the 16th with my son( I had the tubular retrieving device) . It was our first trip to the Stadium!!! It was pretty fun to watch your magic and instinct at getting ball. Maybe we'll see you at the new stadium. Dan
I was just watching FSN Final Score and you were on there twice. I got it on my phone and I'm going to upload it on YouTube when it comes back up. Like I said, its on my camera phone so it has crappy quality BUT you can hear what the anchor said about you.
But wow, two home runs in two games, I've never even caught one homer, except for the time it got ripped out of my glove. But congrats! The video will be upload tomorrow. Do you have a preferred host?
WOW! That's awesome Zack. What are the odds? Has anyone ever caught homers on back to back nights before? Congrats! I liked your dance from teh first night better though. Ha! The announcers were astonished… you'll hear it, I'm sure.
WOW! That's awesome Zack. What are the odds? Has anyone ever caught homers on back to back nights before? Congrats! I liked your dance from the first night better though. Ha! The announcers were astonished… you'll hear it, I'm sure.
Holy crud! NESN just showed your catches from last night and tonight. During Red Sox postgame. Tom Caron was psyched for you and enjoyed your dances. Shown in slo-mo. Nice job.
Omg, Zack, that was awesome. Paul A called me tonight to tell me what I have been missing! And to tell me about your repeat performance. WOW is all I can say!!! He noticed you while he was watching the game and kept thinking it was you but wasn't quite sure. Then someone posted the catch on the Scrabble news site – that's when he was sure. And then he said the next catch was with a Scrabble t-shirt on??? It doesn't get any better. ;)
hey zack, congrats on catching that Giambi homer! that ball is worth over 40 bucks or something! i can't wait till next Friday and Sunday because friday is the last night game of the year and Sunday is the last game of the year and all the players toss their hats and stuff into the crowd! but the thing is there is no bp on that day…..whatever.. -Luke
Holy atomic poop, Zack! You are EL HOMBRE! But, perhaps for your next televised catch you could rock the Electric Slide? Running Man? Moonwalk? Golly gee willackers, Z, that would be SWEET. : )
what you did good:
-catch homeruns on consecutive nights on the fly
-astonish michael kay and al leiter
-amuse everyone who reads your blog
-do something that i doubt anyone has ever come close to at yankee stadium
what you did bad:
-the dancing
-the dancing
-the dancing
i think you need some lessons from Jona…
they spent a whole minute talking about you on sportcenter. They loved that you made two catches in two days, but they hated the dancing :-p
I don't really know what to say. It's been a fun two days. I still haven't seen SportsCenter or any of the footage from tonight's game, so I have no idea what to expect (other than what you all have been describing). I'll try to have the blog entry up by like 3pm tomorrow, and yes, I'm going back to Yankee Stadium again.
zack 2 days ina row! i cant even get ONE game ball at yankee stadium. and nice dancing, i saw it from across the stadium.
so i was about to go to sleep, when on the cw news they show your clips, i hit record right away and got up to check the blog, i try to play the clip back but it got cut off for some reason, i then tried nbc and abc but they only showed todays and just missed it when it turned to cbs so i turned espn and finally got.
i think i have unlimited banwith till late november so you can use the embed link if you want.
Z- rosey odonnell showed you on her show.You robbed the guy behind you.grow a mustache and hair now .wear yankee jersey sit in hr zones,forget foul balls are for the birds/mlballhawk not incl./get in on the action JW,we will celebrate at claim jumper#100.Go hr hample
I can't believe you can dance with cracked rib. That's pretty funny
I just found out. All I can say is OH MY GOD!!! Two in two days. First TC does it last week and now YOU. Crazy stuff. I love it. Congratulations man.
Zack, I can't believe I'm the first to tell you, but they had a pretty big segment on you on baseball tonight. They should your great catch of Damon's homer, then they flashed back to the Giambi one!
Personally, I got 2 today, should have been 3. I'm sure this never happens to you, but sometimes I just freeze when a ball is hit towards me. Like an adrenaline rush, only instead of time going slowly, I start to THINK slowly. Got any tips?
That makes 3 of us that have caught 2 balls on consecutive days this year. I caught 2 when the Cubs were in town in April. Besides catching 2 in the same 1/2 of an inning, I have caught balls on 3 consecutive days twice. When I say caught, not picked up, but actually on the fly. Zack, I had about 5 guys call me when they saw you catch the one last night, and then about 10 more guys tonight. You need to take some dance lessons, though:) Dan
Congrats on the two home run catches. They had a 30 second piece with a flashback to Tuesday on how you caught a homer two days in a row on SportsCenter. Back in the national spotlight, huh? Good luck on catching the last homer at Yankee Stadium.
wow! sportscenter! i saw the flashback, but i missed the actual catch on the damon homer. ur harder to spot in black.
Hey Zack,
You also made Best Damn's top 10 with your catch… I don't remember which number it was, but I think they gave you a 10 on the catch, and a 2 on the dance.
'Stros Bro
You are THE MAN. That dance needs to be the "official" HR snag dance at every stadium. Must be a HR catch though. I could not believe my eyes this am when I saw you on Baseball Tonight. Nice press….They could not believe you were the same guy who caught Giambi's HR last night.
Fun Stuff,
Looking forward to your update later,
Mike in Detroit
I just discovered your blog yesterday. Good stuff, I enjoy it. Anyway, I was watching NESN last night, and they showed your catch of Giambi's homer on Tuesday and your nifty dance (you should send a tape to Dancing With the Stars). They followed that up by showing your catch of the Damon homer last night, and dance again, noting that the same fan caught a HR ball on consecutive nights in almost the exact same spot. Good stuff.
Take Care
Dude! I just saw you on CNN… you caught another one, eh? Sweet!
Oh, and your little dance routine… priceless.
Kylie — http://kylie.mlblogs.com
Hannah Storm just called you a "kid with not very good moves" on the live SportsCenter just now. I think I only agree with the second part of that statement lol.
When reading comments, it took me a minute to realize there were 2 different home runs being discussed.
Just saw you on sportscenter! haha very cool!
Ok Zack …….. first I will say Congratulations and then I will add ……. FOR THE SAKE OF BALLHAWKS EVERYWHERE DON'T EVER DANCE AGAIN!!
With that said it is really cool that you caught HR's on back to back days. One could only hope that the last one is truly the last HR hit by a Yankee at the Stadium. In 1990 I was lucky enough to get the last ROOF TOP HR that was hit at Old Comiskey Park by Ron Kittle. I picked it up in the park that was outside of left field. With Kittle being a family friend I returned it for an autographed bat and to this day get no credit from the White Sox for doing it. At least Ron, fellow ballhawks and a few White Sox people know that it was me that returned the ball.
As for getting balls on back to back nights I am pretty sure that most of the Chicago Regulars as well as T.C have done it a few times. I actually had a stretch in 1987 at Anaheim where I got home runs on 5 consecutive days including 2 nights of 2 home runs. I will say that there in the late 80's it was a bit easier with smaller crowds and the old family section!
Regardless getting Home Runs on back to back days at Yankee Stadium is incredible. Yankee fans aren't the nicest and easiest to deal with when a ball is flying into the stands. Especially if it comes from a Yankee player!Now if I could only get in on the action and get a HR ball at some of the next Dodger or Angels game in the next 2 weeks I could finally get game HR #100!!Then again we will have playoffs at both places this year which will give me a few extra chances!!
Speaking of playoffs …. the Mets sure are trying to blow it aren't they!!
Major League Ballhawk
You made the header page on Yahoo Sports also…
Mike in Detroit
Congrats Zach, hope you make it 3 in a row tonight. By the way, happy late birthday. Wasn't your birthday a few days ago ?
the link to the blog w/ the video on the yahoo article says ur a moron if you snag like that and dont make money off it, but you do. i also like the rule he made up "same fan cant catch a homer on 2 consecutive nights. and hey try to call in on the michael kay show today. 1050 espn radio, 4 to 7 (or maybe like 4 to 6 cuz of the game)
also i "churned butter" in class today after i got a hard question right.
Congrats on your catch being talked about on Thursday's episodes of Around the Horn and PTI!!!!!


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HUGE price increase at Publix here in Orlando. Was previously $2.89 per can. It's now $2.99 per can. Woooooo $0.10 per can. LOLI stocked up and bought 8 cans!
So I guess it is up to the store itself to price the can.
Price might also be based on port of entry and proximity of your grocery store to the distributor warehouse?
I received my case of roa1 batch Centos today....thanks again for the help Craig, they are faantastic! http://www.amazon.com/Cento-Imported-Italian-Tomatoes-35-Ounce/dp/B002C4C67C/?tag=pizzamaking-20


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China overtaking US as global traderBy JOE McDONALD and YOUKYUNG LEE
The Associated Press | December 03,2012AP PHOTO
Shin Cheol-soo, chief executive of ENA Industry, speaks at his office in Gyeongsan, south of Seoul, South Korea. Shin no longer sees his future in the United States. The South Korean auto parts supplier uprooted his family from Detroit this year and moved home to focus on selling to the new economic superpower: China.SEOUL, South Korea Shin Cheol-soo no longer sees his future in the United States.
The South Korean businessman supplied components to American automakers for a decade. But this year, he uprooted his family from Detroit and moved home to focus on selling to the new economic superpower: China.
In just five years, China has surpassed the United States as a trading partner for much of the world, including U.S. allies such as South Korea and Australia, according to an Associated Press analysis of trade data. As recently as 2006, the U.S. was the larger trading partner for 127 countries, versus just 70 for China. By last year the two had clearly traded places: 124 countries for China, 76 for the U.S.
In the most abrupt global shift of its kind since World War II, the trend is changing the way people live and do business from Africa to Arizona, as farmers plant more soybeans to sell to China and students sign up to learn Mandarin.
The findings show how fast China has ascended to challenge Americas century-old status as the globes dominant trader, a change that is gradually translating into political influence. They highlight how pervasive Chinas impact has been, spreading from neighboring Asia to Africa and now emerging in Latin America, the traditional U.S. backyard.
Despite Chinas now-slowing economy, its share of world output and trade is expected to keep rising, with growth forecast at up to 8 percent a year over the next decade, far above U.S. and European levels. This growth could strengthen the hand of a new generation of just-named Chinese leaders, even as it fuels strain with other nations.
Last year, Shins Ena Industry Co. made half his sales of rubber and plastic parts to U.S. factories. But his plans call for China, which overtook the United States as the biggest auto market in 2009, to rise fivefold to 30 percent of his total by 2015. He and his children are studying Mandarin.
The United States is a tiger with no power, Shin said in his office, where three walls are lined with books, many about China. Nobody can deny that China is the one now rising.
Trade is a bit like football the balance of exports and imports, like the game score, is a neat snapshot of a jumble of moves that make up the economy, and both sides are apt to accuse each other of cheating from time to time. Also, the U.S. and China are both rivals and partners who cant have a match without each other, and a strong performance from both is good for the entire league.
Trade may get less publicity than military affairs or diplomacy, yet it is commerce that generates jobs and raises living standards. Trade can also translate into political power. As shopkeepers say, the customer is always right: Governments listen to countries that buy their goods, and the threat to stop buying is one of the most potent diplomatic weapons.
China has been slow to flex its political muscle on a large scale but is starting to push back in disputes over trade, exchange rates and climate change.
When a German chancellor or French president goes to China, right at the top of the list, hes trying to sell Airbuses and other products and is being sensitive to Chinas political concerns, like on human rights, said C. Fred Bergsten, a former U.S. Treasury Department official who heads the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
The United States is still the worlds biggest importer, but China is gaining. It was a bigger market than the United States for 77 countries in 2011, up from 20 in 2000, according to the AP analysis.
The story that emerges is of Chinas breakneck rise, rather than of a U.S. decline. In 2002, trade with China was 3 percent of a countrys GDP on average, compared with 8.7 percent with the U.S. But China caught up, and surged ahead in 2008. Last year, trade with China averaged 12.4 percent of GDP for other countries, higher than that with America at any time in the last 30 years.
Of course, not all trade is equal. Chinas trade is mostly low-end goods and commodities, while the U.S. competes at the upper end of the market.
Also, even though Chinese companies invest abroad and employ thousands of foreign workers, they lag behind American industry in building global alliances and in innovation, which is still rewarded in the marketplace. Chinas competitive edge remains low labor and other costs, while the U.S. is the worlds center for innovation in autos, aerospace, computers, medicine, munitions, finance and pharmaceuticals. The Chinese have yet to build a car that will pass U.S. or European emission standards.
And the United States still does more trade overall but just barely. If the trend continues, China will push past the U.S. this year, a remarkable feat for a country so poor 30 years ago that the average person had never talked on a telephone.
The center of gravity of the world economy has moved to the east, said Mauricio Cardenas, the finance minister in Colombia. Like most of Latin America, his country is still more closely tied to the U.S., but its trade with China has risen from virtually nothing to 2.5 percent of GDP, a more than tenfold increase since 2001. I would say that there is nothing comparable in the last 50 years.
In one sense, Chinas growing presence in trade is just restoring the Middle Kingdom to its historic dominance. China was the biggest economy for centuries until about 1800, when the industrial revolution propelled first Europe and then the U.S. into the lead.
China began its return to the global stage in the 1990s as a manufacturer of low-priced goods, from T-shirts to toys. Factories in other countries slashed costs to meet the China price or were pushed out of the market.
As the new millennium dawned, the U.S. remained by far the worlds dominant trader, rivaled collectively by Europe but no single nation. However, from 2000 to 2008, Chinas imports grew 403 percent and exports 474 percent, driven in part by its entrance into the World Trade Organization and its move to higher-value production.
Chinas imports of oil and raw materials for its factories propelled resource booms in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinas demand for steel for manufacturing and construction grew so fast that its mills now consume half the worlds output of iron ore.
Zambia, a major copper producer, switched to the China column in 2000. Australia, a coal and iron ore exporter, followed in 2005. Chile, another copper supplier, moved in 2009.
Meanwhile, exports surged as Apple, Samsung, Nokia and other electronics giants shifted final assembly to China. Shipments of mobile phones, flat-screen TVs and personal computers have jumped sevenfold over the past decade to nearly $500 billion. That made China a major customer for high-tech components supplied by countries such as South Korea, which swung into Chinas column in 2003, followed by Malaysia in 2007.
In the U.S., Vermont-based manufacturer SBE Inc. started exporting capacitors energy-storage devices used in computers, hybrid cars and wind turbines in 2006. The company now gets 15 to 20 percent of its revenue from China, and has hired 10 employees there.
As China grew richer, its people spent more.
Chinese ate more pork, fried chicken and hamburgers, rapidly sending up the demand for soybeans to make cooking oil and feed for pigs and cows. Some cattle ranchers in Latin America turned grazing land into fields of soy, a crop few in their region consume. Soybean exports helped push Brazil into the China column in 2010, and put China neck and neck with the U.S. as Argentinas top trading partner.MORE IN National / World BusinessNEW YORK Its not just the musical Hairspray that will air live on NBC tonight. Full StoryOXON HILL, Md. Far from the Las Vegas Strip, MGM Resorts International opens its $1. Full Story
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