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According to the "2005 Executive Compensation Report," conducted by Specialty Consultants (SCI), Pittsburgh, salaries for executives at electrical contracting firms are on the rise.
In fact, the average annual increase for all positions covered in the firm's annual electrical contracting segment of the survey, including president, vice president/general manager, branch/department manager, vice president/director of business development, and chief estimator, was 7.67% higher than last year. For a look at base salaries for typical positions compiled from the survey as well as common incentive packages (cash bonuses paid on an annual basis, whether based on structured formulas or discretionary programs), see the Table.
The ranges presented in the survey results reflect actual cash compensation packages (base salary and annual incentives), with all figures rounded to the nearest thousand. The 50th percentile represents the median of all salaries reported for a given position. The minimum of the range is the 25th percentile (25% of salaries reported for a particular position fall below this level); the maximum of the range is the 75th percentile (25% of all salaries reported for that position are above this amount).
When comparing the results of this salary survey over the last four years, executive level base salary increases have remained consistent, says Daniel Pauletich, director of SCI, averaging roughly 5% growth per year, adding that the structure of incentive and bonus packages also have remained consistent.
"Typically profit and loss managers are having their compensation packages structured with ⅔ of the compensation package guaranteed in base salary and ⅓ allocated in a bonus package that is predicated upon hitting predetermined goals," Pauletich says. "Executive profit and loss management positions typically have target bonuses of 50% of their base salary. There are often additional stretch goals that would enable them to earn up to 100% of their base salary, but the full 100% bonus is rarely achieved."
A growing trend among privately held companies is the replacement of traditional 401K plans with profit sharing or deferred compensation plans, explains Pauletich. "By contributing a fixed percentage of all employees' salaries to a profit sharing plan, executives are capable of deferring a larger amount than can be allocated under a traditional 401K plan," he says. "The bankruptcies and liquidation of several of the publicly traded electrical contracting corporations of the 1990s changed the way that many executives value stock options. Stock is now more commonly viewed as a personal investment than a lucrative portion of a compensation package."
Another trend can be seen on the benefits front. "All companies are feeling the crunch of rising health-care costs and are being forced to pass the burden along to their employees," Pauletich says. "Just 10 years ago it was common for companies to offer 100% company-paid family health-care coverage. The median today is to ask the employee to pick up 20% of the premium cost."


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Top 10 reasons NOT to move to Missouri. Don't go to Branson, Missouri.
- published: 10 Sep 2018
- views: 102817
#top10 #worldaccordingtobriggs Top 10 reasons NOT to move to Missouri. Don\'t go to Branson, Missouri. Hope you enjoy this video about the state of Missouri. . Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4761105 Business email: firstname.lastname@example.com additional footage: Tyler Landis Calvin Tigre World News Thanks for stopping by The world according to Briggs, I make lists. Not just lists of random stuff, I make them about states, cities, towns and other places in the United States. I post 3 times a week and sometimes live stream, so please subscribe and enjoy. . DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I'll receive a small commission. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support! Travel essentials: audible.com: https://amzn.to/2Hip1Rs Sling Bag : https://amzn.to/2F6gQ97 Tablet : https://amzn.to/2HPp8Fe Business email: email@example.com Travel books you need to read. Blue Highways: http://amzn.to/2fLiF1b 1K places to see before you die: http://amzn.to/2E3qitV Travels with Charley in Search of America: http://amzn.to/2BVcQqr Do you want to make videos like I do on this channel? This is all you need: DJI Iphone Gimbal: http://amzn.to/2wUec5t DJI Phantom 3: http://amzn.to/2xqULT2 Blue Yeti Microphone: http://amzn.to/2wx06ne Sound Cage:http://amzn.to/2wwZv4R Editing Software:http://amzn.to/2u3RAOD Shuttle Controller: http://amzn.to/2v4XxrW Pop filter:http://amzn.to/2u43FDL Acoustic Foam: http://amzn.to/2j0qY...

subset: commoncrawl


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The iPhone 4S has been out for two weeks in Japan. And sales are riding high, really high.
BCN Rankings has released its well-known figures and they're quite impressive.
Now, bear in mind that these numbers are to be considered with a disclaimer: the rankings are based on point of sales surveys covering lots of mobile specialty shops and consumer electronics resellers but excluding a very big player: the Apple Stores.
Also note that there are no official numbers from Apple itself or the two carriers who offer the handset, SoftBank and au/KDDI.
Yet, those numbers allow us to witness some trends.
Week 1: the iPhone steals the show
In the first week, the iPhone 4S took the first 6 spots.
1. iPhone 4S 64GB (SoftBank) — 10.4%
2. iPhone 4S 32GB (au/KDDI) — 10.3%
3. iPhone 4S 64GB (au/KDDI) — 9,4%
4. iPhone 4S 32GB (SoftBank) — 9.1%
5. iPhone 4S 16GB (SoftBank) — 8.2%
6. iPhone 4S 16GB (au/KDDI) — 6.3%
7. Samsung Galaxy S II (NTT DoCoMo) — 3.4%
8. Xperia acro (NTT DoCoMo) — 3.3%
9. iPhone 4 16GB (SoftBank) — 2.3%
10. Xperia acro (au/KDDI) — 2.1%
11. iPhone 4 32GB (SoftBank) — 1.7%
BCN did aggregate sales market share of that week, which percentage you see appended above. If we aggregate the 4S-only numbers (the iPhone 4 is not carried by au/KDDI), we've got a slightly higher market share for SoftBank at 51.8% —that's 19.4% for the 64GB, 17% for the 32GB and 15.4% for the 16GB, while au/KDDI has 19.2% for the 64GB, 17.5% for the 32GB and 11.7% for the 16GB.
Again, these numbers are just what they are, trends. The market share is even less relevant for, I repeat it, the Apple Stores are not surveyed, which completely skews numbers when some other phones do not have separate points of sales (the four phones following place #11 are feature phones on NTT DoCoMo, followed by four other Android-powered smartphones all on DoCoMo as well).
Early 2011 sales better than 2010
BCN went further and computed an indicator of the "level of enthusiasm" for the iPhone, by comparing their numbers with historical data from the iPhone 4 in 2010. But, once again, the comparison needs explaining: in 2010, there was only one carrier, SoftBank, while this time, we've got two, a big difference. The "enthusiasm" is also blurred in a haze of first-timers that were loyal to au/KDDI (on surplus, did they switch from an Android smartphone for instance or are they smartphone-first-timers?), iPhone-carrier switchers (from SoftBank to au/KDDI), iPhone-upgraders (with a two-year contract on the iPhone 3GS, some didn't jump for the 4 last year), etc. But still, there seem to have been 2.4 times more sales on the iPhone 4S release day the similar day last year. And if you go through the weekend, a four-day period, this number rises to 5.4x.
Not too shabby. Let's see if this sustains in the long run, with the influence of stocks hanging in the balance.
Another trend we spot: the 64GB version was the most popular during week #1. Totally expected if you want my two cents. You see, most early adopters rush at that time and look for the higher-end model —the break-down is 36.8% of sales for the 64GB, 36.1% for the 32GB and 27% for the 16GB.
Am I right? Week #2 seems to prove my point.
Week 2: au/KDDI rises
1. iPhone 4S 32GB (au/KDDI)
2. iPhone 4S 16GB (au/KDDI)
3. iPhone 4S 16GB (SoftBank)
4. iPhone 4S 64GB (au/KDDI)
5. iPhone 4S 32GB (SoftBank)
6. iPhone 4S 64GB (SoftBank)
7. iPhone 4 32GB (SoftBank)
8. Samsung Galaxy S II (NTT DoCoMo)
9. Xperia acro (NTT DoCoMo)
10. iPhone 4 16GB (SoftBank)
BCN didn't rank the market shares this time around.
Two weeks is really limited to be jumping to any conclusion. The higher-priced model took the aforementioned expected hit, but it could also be slightly influenced by stocks hovering low forcing a choice towards the 32 or 16GB versions (see this thread on our forums about current availabilities and note that Apple Stores traditionally get priority, which could explain that some shops have empty shelves).
More interestingly, au/KDDI seems to dominate the sales a bit more. It could be that early adopters who also had the possibility to upgrade from their SoftBank contract did, while the novelty effect is stronger for au/KDDI's subscribers.
All this is pure speculation from my part. These numbers only tell a partial truth —sorry to have bored you by repeating this to death.
One thing is for sure though: my estimate of 7.5m iPhones sold in Japan will have to be revised soon.


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Wabash Men Host Discussion on Dream Actby Wyatt Lewis '13 • February 18, 2010 Share:
Wednesday night, a panel of men spearheaded by Alejandro Maya '13 attempted to project a vision of a brighter future through their presentation entitled "A Night of Dreaming: Discussing the Dream Act."
Maya began his speech with a haunting refrain, "I asked professors about the Dream Act, and they gave me blank stares. I asked students about the Dream Act, and they gave me blank stares. Our mission is to inform, and second, to gain support from you.
Presentations and conversations have been taking place across the U.S. about the Dream Act since its introduction in 2001. Many have been silenced by fear, segregation, and discrimination. The only thing that separates them from us is a piece of paper."
The reason for Maya's solemnity is the Dream Act, or the "Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act," a weighty piece of legislation that would grant undocumented immigrant students up to six years of legal residence, during which they would have an opportunity to earn the right to apply for permanent residency.
In order to even be eligible for the temporary six-year residency, students would have to meet four qualities: having lived in the U.S. for at least five years before the bill passes, having been in the U.S. at the age of 15 or younger, having graduated from a U.S. high school or received a G.E.D., and having demonstrated good moral character (i.e. avoiding criminal behavior or liability as a security risk).
If these four qualities are met, the student is eligible for temporary residency and can earn permanent residency during those six years by meeting one of the following conditions: graduating from a two-year college, completing two years toward a four-year degree, or serving in the military for at least two years.
Maya then relinquished the podium to the men comprising the panel, Jose Herrera '13, Garrett Wilson '13, Professor of History Richard Warner, Rudy Altergott '13, and guest speaker Isaias Guerrero from the Latino Youth Collective. Each explored the Dream Act from a different angle.
Herrera spoke first and explained the bill itself, noting that it was voted down in 2001, 2006, and 2007,
"In 2008, Democrat Richard Dubin of Illinois and Republicans Charles Hagel of Nebraska and Richard Lugar of Indiana re-introduced the bill. It failed by a mere eight votes for legislative consideration.
I cannot stress enough that the bill is not amnesty. Certain criteria must be met, applications must be filled out, and this applies to all immigrants, not just Hispanics. It's a chance for education.
The law currently prohibits thousands of citizens from going to college. These children had no choice; they have lived here for most of their life. We are losing aspiring doctors, lawyers, and artists.
Currently, only one out of every twenty immigrants who graduate from high school attends college and those that do are denied federal financial aid and sometimes in-state tuition rates. And, after graduating, they have to work for minimum wage and live in constant fear of deportation.
The Dream Act levels the playing field. The undocumented students will still not be eligible for financial aid and will actually end up paying more than citizens."
Wilson also addressed the issue of whether or not the Dream Act would harm the economic well-being of current citizens,
"Some claim that these immigrants are taking our resources. They have been."
Wilson explained state and local taxpayers are already investing in the education of these children in elementary and secondary school.
"The immigrant child is just like any other American child, just like you or me. These students consider their home the U.S. Many of them have no recollection of their country of origin."
Wilson argued that the Dream Act would be financially beneficial as well, "It makes economic and humanitarian sense. A single person with a Bachelor's degree who earns an average $60,000 of taxable income will contribute $9,640 to taxes and welfare annually; in a 40-year span he/she will have contributed $385,000.
In April 2005, the Army Reserve failed to meet their quote of new recruits. 7,200 of the 180,000 new recruits each year are non-citizens."
After Wilson concluded, a drastic change in the mood of the program took place as Professor Warner stood up to speak and began a slightly more informal anecdote,
"In a world that doesn't really value complexity, it's worth thinking about this issue with a bit of dispassionate rationality. If the U.S. wanted to, it could close down illegal immigration tomorrow. Part of the problem is that the U.S. and Mexico share the largest economic difference in the world of any two bordering nations. Let's use the term 'undocumented,' because no human can be illegal."
Warner went on to relate the story of a person friend whom he disguised with the name "Ricardo", a man who "lived his entire conscious life in the U.S." but arrived at the age of four. "Ricardo" graduated from high school and was luckily accepted into a private four-year college.
"He was a stellar student and was pre-med. But he couldn't get into medical school; the state universities that offered the program wouldn't accept him. He could have been a great bilingual, bi-cultural doctor, and there's definitely a business there. Now? He bags groceries"
Warner contrasted that with the story of another man who grew up in New England, the son of a professor and a high school teacher, "privileged by virtue of birth, but lazy," who took six years to finish undergraduate school and spent "ten years goofing around in the restaurant business" before going back to school to earn his Master's degree and P.H.D.
Then startlingly, Warner proclaimed "I am that man. There is a human aspect to this issue that you should think about it."
After a stunned silence, Rudy Altergott claimed the podium, stressing the bipartisan nature of the bill and imploring the community to write to their congressmen, educate their peers on the act, and talk to President White about the act.
"This night is about fulfilling dreams, not our dreams, but others…the University of Michigan, the presidents of Harvard and Stanford, the UC Berkely Chancellor, institutions such as College Board and the National Education Association-which has 3.2 million members- have all declared their support for the bill.
This is unconventional warfare. We are trying to win the hearts and minds of our congressmen."
The last speaker of the night, Isaias Guerrero, an immigrant from Colombia and representative of the Latino Youth Coalition, related his personal experience,
"I lived in Colombia in the 90's when there were still problems with guerrillas and drug dealers. We'd wake up to car bombs…it was normal in a way, the reality you would constantly see.
My family tried to apply for political asylum, but the process was too long, and we took a tourist visa of six months to get out. We've been here for nine years now. I've graduated from college here, but now people say, 'Want this job? What's your social security number?'"
Guerrero went on to explain the work he does at the Latino Youth Collective, a program that started as a "dropout prevention program" and describes its goal as providing "resources and opportunities for youth to engage in personal and community development through critical pedagogy, grassroots organizing, and collective action."
Guerrero also encouraged interested community members to visit www.trailofdreams.net to read about four undocumented students trekking from Florida to Washington, D.C., in order to gain publicity.
"The goal is to build bridges between dreams and reality," Guerrero said as the program came to a close, "As Césár Chávez said, 'History will judge societies and governments — and their institutions — not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless.'"


text:
Find Your Perfect Home.
Walworth Real Estate
Walworth is located in Wisconsin. Walworth, Wisconsin has a population of 1,715. Walworth is less family-centric than the surrounding county with 28.27% of the households containing married families with children. The county average for households married with children is 31.81%.
The median household income in Walworth, Wisconsin is $64,239. The median household income for the surrounding county is $53,998 compared to the national median of $53,482. The median age of people living in Walworth is 45.6 years.
Walworth Weather
The average high temperature in July is 85.2 degrees, with an average low temperature in January of 14.2 degrees. The average rainfall is approximately 36.1 inches per year, with inches of snow per year.
View Homes for Sale in Walworth
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January 2010
The Department of Education (ED) and the Obama Administration kicked off 2009 with a goal to get America on track and to return to being number one in the world in high school and college graduation rates, school readiness and overall academic achievement. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the profound impact of the President's commitment and personal example were the bookends for this unparalleled effort to significantly improve our country's education system. The year 2009 will likely be remembered as a breakthrough year for education reform and a guidepost for what is to come.
Read the full report. MS Word, (165K)


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Brake Pad Wear Sensor at 1A Auto
What is a brake pad wear sensor and where is it located?
Some vehicles use an electronic sensor to warn you, the driver, when your brake pads are starting to get too worn down from the rigors of driving. This is called the brake pad wear sensor, also known as the brake pad wear indicator. The most common type of electronic wear sensors are mounted into the brake pad itself. On some applications the wear sensor is embedded into the pad and not removable; therefore they are only available with the brake pad. When the brake pad wears down to its discard thickness due to contacting the rotor while braking over the course of time, the sensor will make contact to the rotor, thus grounding the sensor. This will cause a brake warning light to illuminate on your dash or instrument cluster, indicating that the brake pad friction material is almost gone and that replacement brake pads are needed. This light usually looks like a circle, sometimes with an exclamation mark inside of it.
Brake pad wear indicators are more prevalent on European models. They are usually found on the front brakes, but sometimes on the rear brakes as well. So, how many sensors a vehicle will have, and their location in terms of what wheels they can be found on will vary.
How do I know if my brake pad sensor needs to be replaced?
If your brake pad warning light comes on, then that means that your brake pad wear sensor has made contact with the rotor, and that means it needs to be replaced. Since a worn sensor coincides with worn brake pads, you may experience the squealing and poor braking associated with worn brake pads. Once the sensor has done its job, it's no longer any good. Just think of the noble sacrifice it made to tell you that you need to change your brake pads.
For this reason, you'll need to replace the brake pad wear sensor at the same time that you replace the brake pads. Because of their small size, the brake pad wear sensor's wires can also get broken during a brake job, so be careful when working around the sensor so that you don't have to replace it twice. Also, the brake warning light can indicate a low brake fluid level, so be sure to check that the fluid level is not the source of your problem.
Can I replace a brake pad wear indicator myself?
Replacing a brake pad wear sensor will add just one more step to any brake job you do. If you are comfortable working on disc brakes, then replacing the brake pad wear indicator will not prove difficult. Once you have access to the brake caliper, you'll just have disconnect the old sensor from its wiring harness and disconnect it from the brake pad. Then just connect the new one and continue with your brake job. If, for some reason, you are only replacing the sensor, you'll just have to remove the wheel to gain access to the brake caliper and the wear sensor.
Need a brake pad wear sensor replacement?
Brake pad sensors provide a driver with a lot of benefits—including eliminating the need to visually inspect the pads every now and again to see if they are still in good shape. These sensors will let you know when replacements are needed, saving you time and effort. Also, by letting you know in advance when the brake pad material is almost gone and that you need to replace the pads, brake pad sensors can prevent extensive wear of the rotors, which occurs when the brake pad wears down to the metal and grinds against the metal rotor. So, making sure you replace your brake pad sensor(s) when necessary is important.
At 1A Auto, we make shopping for a brake pad wear sensor replacement for your car, truck, SUV or van easy - we're here to help you select the right part for your vehicle! Call our customer service toll free at 888-844-3393 if you have any questions about our brake pad wear indicators, warranty, compatibility or to purchase, or you can buy online.


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Just the Facts Please
The title of Inventing Mormonism arouses expectations that are not actually realized in the reading of the book. Latter-day Saints use verbs like revealed or restored to explain how Mormonism came about. The word inventing implies that somebody concocted Mormonism; it was made up by an inventor of religion. The name of Wesley Walters as second author increases the expectation that the book will tell how Joseph Smith invented his visions, the doctrines, the Book of Mormon—the whole story. Walters's 1969 Dialogue essay on the Palmyra revival had concluded with the thought that Joseph got mixed up about the date of the revival—saying it was 1819-20 rather than 1824 when the records all say it happened—because he was fabricating the story of the vision. The logical extension of this line of attack would be to discover more contradictions between the "tradition" that Joseph made up about himself and the facts of the "historical record." The tone of the book would be iconoclastic, skeptical, and argumentative, and the book would expose Joseph Smith in the act of inventing the Mormon religion.
If Wesley Walters had not died in 1990, the book might have taken that tack. Walters had a debater's temperament. He loved to take on an opponent's proposition and score points against it. A mild-mannered, courteous explication of historical documents would not have been to his taste. Michael Marquardt writes in another spirit. He makes no effort to show Joseph making up Mormonism. Marquardt claims only that "as the documents reveal, some events differed from what has been traditionally taught." He explicitly refuses to say Joseph was a charlatan: "we have long since abandoned the simple prophet-fraud dichotomy that others still find so compelling. Our intent is to understand, not to debunk" (p. 197). Marquardt rejects the conscious-fraud hypothesis; in his opinion Joseph was sincere. "Smith believed that he spoke with supernatural beings, and he produced impressive transcripts of interviews with them. Whether he actually did is ultimately a matter of faith" (pp. 197-98).
Marquardt and Walters have searched the archives for thirty years looking for documents related to Joseph Smith's story of his evolution from farm boy to prophet. In that time, they have dug up a lot of material, not elaborate new reminiscences, but tiny fragments, like Joseph Smith, Sr.'s, name on a Palmyra road tax list. These small clues can be helpful, especially when there are questions about the exact location of the family at a given time. Since Joseph Smith looms so large today, we want to know everything about him. For the early years before he stepped into his public role, these tiny details are especially valuable. The authors deserve full credit for their arduous search and for adding new material to the record of Joseph Smith.
The chief target of Marquardt's and Walters's analysis is the story Joseph wrote about his early life in 1838, the familiar account now found in the Pearl of Great Price. In their prologue, the authors quote the story in its unedited form up through the first meeting with the messenger at Cumorah in 1823. Although Marquardt and Walters deal with events through the fall of 1830, they highlight this account of the early years as the core of the "tradition" against which they wish to compare the "historical record."
What is new or interesting in their findings? There are lots of small matters that elaborate the story and can be incorporated without controversy. For long stretches in the book the narrative seems to follow a slightly idiosyncratic path dictated by sources that the authors have discovered or choose to emphasize, but without veering far from the traditional account. In these passages, a reader will encounter few surprises while appreciating the new light thrown on familiar events and people.
In three places, however, narrative gives way to argument as the authors attempt to dynamite a segment of the traditional story and cut a new path. The first argument has to do with the time when the Smiths moved to their Manchester farm. The main point is that they could not have purchased the land until July 1820 when power of attorney was passed from the owners of the land, the Nicholas Evertson heirs, to their agent in the Manchester area. Before that date, no one in the Palmyra area had the authority to sell the farm. Moreover, as late as April 1822, Joseph, Sr., and Alvin were still listed on the Palmyra tax list, suggesting that they did not move to the farm until the following summer.
The late date is troublesome because the First Vision events which occurred on the Manchester farm are dated by Joseph Smith to the spring of 1820, three months before title could have passed. The point is that Joseph's chronology does not appear to jibe with the historical record taken from documents in Palmyra and Ontario County archives.
The impact of these facts, however, is mitigated by others that the authors turn up. The most important is that by April of 1820—perhaps as early as the spring of 1819—Joseph Smith, Sr., was residing at the southern boundary of Palmyra, on the edge of what was to become Manchester, land which belonged to Samuel Jennings, a Palmyra merchant. The family built a cabin on a site within fifty feet of the farm they were to buy formally in the summer of 1820. They may not have purchased the farm until July 1820, but they were there in time for the traditional dating of the First Vision.
The question, then, is why build a cabin so near the farm and yet not quite on the property? A variety of explanations for that peculiar fact suggest themselves. The misplaced cabin could have been an error on the Smiths' part, as Larry Porter has argued. The Smiths simply misjudged where the boundary was. We can imagine how the mistake came about. The family was interested in the land and was waiting for the power of attorney to be transmitted before closing the deal. While they continued with odd jobs and sales of craft items to support themselves, they wanted to start clearing land so as to be able to plant in the spring of 1820; a few months' delay would have deprived them of an entire year's harvest. The Evertson agent would have been happy to have them clearing land and putting in crops before title passed; cleared land was more valuable than forested in those days. The Smiths were the ones taking the risk, and as impoverished farmers who had rented land for over fifteen years, they were more than willing. Why else would they have built a cabin on the Manchester boundary if not to work on the land, which they fully expected to contract for within a few months? Without the benefit of the owner's surveyor, they misjudged the location of the boundary and built on the wrong spot.
The authors say Samuel Jennings "would hardly have allowed Smith to mistakenly build on his land" (p. 11). But why not? He would get a log cabin out of the deal with possibly no expense to himself. Many owners of large tracts granted developmental leases at extremely low rents for the very purpose of having land cleared and buildings constructed. If Jennings was anything like other landowners, he would have been delighted to have the Smiths dropping trees and putting up buildings.
Possibly neither Jennings nor the Smiths knew where the cabin stood when it first went up. One of the authors' valuable findings is a Palmyra record that says the Stafford road was laid out from the Smiths' cabin to Main Street in the village center. The survey was run on June 13, 1820, which means that there was not a road to the cabin when the Smiths built it in 1819. It was probably on a tiny path deep in the woods. With no sign at the Manchester boundary telling them where their property began, they could easily have erred.
A simple explanation of the episode comes from Pomeroy Tucker, a Palmyra resident who claimed to know the Smiths. He says the Smiths squatted on the Evertson land before they contracted for it. In his memory, the farm was in Manchester and the "one-story, smoky log-house, which they had built prior to removing there" was on the farm.1 The fifty-foot discrepancy did not register with Tucker.
The confusion caused by the location error plagued the official records for two years. In 1821 and 1822 Joseph, Sr., continued to be listed on the Palmyra road tax list, because the cabin was in the town, and yet in 1820 he appears on the U.S. Census as a resident of Manchester since his farm was there. For a couple of years, the Smiths were of two towns.
In the end, the new documents amplify rather than disrupt the traditional record. Indeed they confirm it in a number of small ways. We now have further evidence that the Smiths were living within fifty feet of Manchester by the spring of 1820 when the First Vision occurred, just as Joseph's 1838 account says. At the end of the chapter, the authors attempt to insert one new twist. They claim that the Smiths had two cabins, one on the Jennings property before they purchased the farm, and the other on their own farm erected probably by 1822 when Joseph, Sr., finally moved out of Palmyra to his own land. But that puts the Smiths in the anomalous position of building a new cabin in 1822, at the very moment when they were planning an expensive new frame house. With the evidence given us, even accepting some dubious chronology in the authors' account, the second cabin hypothesis looks like an implausible surmise.
The Palmyra revival, the subject of another of the argumentative chapters, presents more serious problems. There are two incongruities to be explained. One is the date of the "unusual excitement on the subject of religion" in the place where Joseph lived.2 The other is an apparent chronological contradiction in Joseph Smith's own story.
Palmyra underwent known revivals in 1816-17 and 1824-25, but none in 1819-20 in the months preceding the First Vision. The authors assemble evidence from many sources to demonstrate the intensity of the 1824-25 revival and claim this emphatic experience must have been the memory that Joseph referred to. Milton Backman and I have assumed that Joseph was thinking of revivals in nearby towns; "the place where we lived" included more than Palmyra village or Manchester. That still may be the best explanation, with newly discovered evidence now available of Methodist camp meetings going on through the spring of 1820 in the "vicinity" of Palmyra.3 But Marvin Hill accepts the Marquardt-Walters argument that "the place where we lived" must have meant Palmyra. Other little scraps of evidence support the 1824-25 date.
The second incongruity is a chronological contradiction in Joseph's 1838 account. He says that his father moved from Vermont to Palmyra in Joseph's tenth year, which by all historians has been interpreted to mean when he was ten, or in 1816. (In other accounts he says he was ten, and a number of facts make 1816 the logical date.) Then Joseph says that "in about four years after my father's arrival at Palmyra, he moved with his family into Manchester."4 Taking advantage of the word about, and the question of how to count half years, and knowing that the Smiths made their move to the Manchester boundary before April 1820, we can still fit Joseph's account with the known facts and put them in their forest cabin perhaps in the fall of 1819 or maybe the winter of 1819-20.
But then comes the contradiction. Joseph goes on to say that "sometime in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion."5 That sentence moves the vision to at least 1821; Marquardt thinks the text implies 1822 (p. 1). And since the First Vision came after the revival, the vision would be still later by Joseph's reckoning here, either 1821 or 1822. Yet he says that he was in his fifteenth year during the religious strife, which would be 1820, and states specifically that he went to pray in the spring of 1820. That date and the total of around six years since the move to Palmyra do not jibe.
Marquardt exempts the 1832 account of Joseph's vision from this chronological tangle. Joseph does not enmesh that experience in family or town history, nor does he make any mention of a revival. He reports that "from the age of twelve years to fifteen I pondered many things in my heart concerning the situation of the world," and says nothing about a revival.6 Because of the absence of contradictions with the historical record, Marquardt believes that in 1820 or 1821 Joseph experienced the personal forgiveness of sins reported in the 1832 account. The problem lies with the later story where so much is made of the revival as a driving motivation for Joseph's religious inquiry.
Can we reconcile all of the conflicting evidence and get back to the actual chronology of events from 1816 to 1824? At this point, I think we must acknowledge the possibility of an error somewhere in Joseph's chronology, simply because of the internal contradiction. On the other hand, we are well-advised to take care in overthrowing the report of a person who was on the scene merely because circumstantial evidence raises doubts. Can we be absolutely sure that we know Joseph must have been referring to the 1824 revival when he wrote his story? Marquardt speculates that he conflated events: "Perhaps Smith in retrospect blended in his mind events from 1820 with a revival occurring four years later" (p. 32). Possibly, but that conclusion, based on the confidence that we know better than the person who was there, seems premature to me.
While the evidence is still under review, another hypothesis should be kept in mind. This reconstruction of events grows out of two facts. One is that Joseph's 1839 story says very little about a revival. It mainly discusses religious turmoil, the contention among pastors and priests over the denominational choices of the converts. Religious competition, not conversions, stirred Joseph's feelings. So far none of the historical records have shed light on this sectarian warfare, although it loomed larger in Joseph's mind than the revivals themselves. We will understand the chronology better when we locate evidence of these battles, not the revivals alone. The revivals were usually depicted as times of denominational cooperation and general good feeling, and all of the accounts that the authors cite offer no hint of competition. The stories add up the new members in all of the denominations as if the combined conversions mattered most. Can these be the revivals that Joseph had in mind?
The second fact is that in the 1832 account Joseph does not brood over these matters for six months or a year as is assumed in the usual interpretation of the 1839 account. Religious confusion troubled him from his twelfth to fifteenth year. For three years he suffered "grief to my soul" as he contemplated "the contentions and divi[s]ions the wicke[d]ness and abominations and the darkness which pervaded the minds of mankind." During this time he became convicted of his sins and found that mankind had "apostatized from the true and living faith."7
Nothing in the 1838 account contradicts the protracted chronology of the 1832 story. In the later version, Joseph says that the revival started the contention; how long it took before the conflicts broke out, or how long before his questions came to a head is not indicated. In fact, the chronologies of the two would coincide if one word in Joseph's 1839 account were changed. If the text read "sometime in the second year after our removal to Palmyra," rather than "after our removal to Manchester," the stories would blend. Two years after the removal to Palmyra, Joseph was twelve, the year in the 1832 account when his mind became "seriously imprest."8
While we are reexamining the various stories looking for a key to reconcile the contradictions, we should search the years around 1817, Joseph's twelfth year and the second year after the Smiths' removal to Palmyra, for signs of religious turmoil. We know there was a revival in 1816-17. How does it fit the description of the 1839 account? Is there evidence of denominational competition in its aftermath that could account for Joseph's three years of religious grief? Oliver Cowdery reported that the Methodist minister George Lane had an influence on Joseph. Lane attended a conference in the town next to Palmyra in the summer of 1819. An interview then might have brought Joseph's anguished quest to a point and led to the prayer in the woods. The authors try to move the date of the revivals forward to 1824-25. In the search for the religious turmoil that prompted Joseph's inquiry, we should also look back to 1817.
In the final argument, the authors take up the strange matter of the place where the Church was organized. How can there be a question when so many people were present, and we have agreed on Fayette and the Whitmer house for so long? The authors argue for Manchester and Hyrum Smith's house because of three primary bits of evidence. (1) In the spring of 1833, The Evening and Morning Star twice named Manchester as the location; (2) the headings of six revelations in the original Book of Commandments are dated April 6, 1830, and are located in Manchester, including the current D&C 21 which is associated with the organization of the Church; and (3) William Smith in his later account of Mormonism, published in 1883 as William Smith on Mormonism, located the organization at Manchester.
The story changed by May of 1834. The later editions of The Evening and Morning Star published in Kirtland, Joseph's 1838 history, and virtually every other history named Fayette. The two exceptions, anomalously, are Orson Pratt's 1840 Remarkable Visions and Joseph Smith's own letter to John Wentworth in 1842. In his 1887 Address to All Believers in Christ, David Whitmer insisted the Church was organized in his father's house.
Where does this leave us? Not a lot is at stake in terms of the prophet's integrity, the divinity of the Church, or the ongoing flow of the story. The authors quote T. Edgar Lyon on the importance of accuracy about trivial facts, and who can disagree? It is just that right now there seems to be no way of definitively adjudicating the conflict. In the meantime, Joseph's and David Whitmer's naming of Fayette as the site of the organization must be given due weight. The presumption of truth is in their favor considering that both were present. The case for Manchester is weakened because the evidence in The Evening and Morning Star and the Book of Commandments can be accounted for by the error of one man, William W. Phelps, the editor in Independence who oversaw the publication of both texts. Once an error like that creeps in, shadows can turn up in subsequent accounts, such as Orson Pratt's Remarkable Visions and even William Smith's story of Mormonism. It seems more parsimonious to attribute an error to Phelps than to both Joseph Smith and David Whitmer, eyewitnesses of the organization. The authors have assembled various scraps of additional circumstantial evidence in support of their case, but not enough to be determinative. While they try to explain why Joseph may have changed the story, we should look equally hard for reasons why Phelps would err.
These are Inventing Mormonism's substantive challenges to the traditional story. Beyond the specific findings, however, the book raises questions about method. The investigation makes certain commonsense assumptions which may not be as evident as the authors say. The structure, the tone, and the claims of the book are based on the distinction between interpretation and fact, a distinction which they believe is obvious. The authors' primary endeavor is to bring forward the facts, leaving the interpretation to their readers. As they say in the conclusion, "Although it has become fashionable in some quarters to quote Martin Heidegger's axiom that 'there are no facts, only interpretation,' we believe that facts exist and that an array of different interpretations is possible" (p. 197). In the opening pages, they present an eleven-page "Chronology of Mormon Origins" where they summarize the facts as they understand them. The authors' narrative posture is that they have assembled these facts from trustworthy historical documents, some of which are in clear contradiction to the traditional account. The readers are then left to choose between the facts of the historical record and the "fabrications" of the traditional account.
The authors are probably right in thinking that most readers believe facts can be separated from interpretation. We all know what they mean by the distinction. But Inventing Mormonism moved this reader to reconsider the truth of Heidegger's insight about "facts" being inevitably enveloped in interpretation. The distinction may not be entirely obvious after all.
Interpretation trespasses upon fact in one clear instance in the chronology of Mormon origins. The authors list under 1825 the admission of Lucy and three of the Smith children into the Palmyra Presbyterian church as if this were a well-attested fact. But the authors have no direct evidence that this highly contested event occurred in 1825. It takes a number of less-than-rock-solid deductions to turn a collection of circumstantial scraps into a fact.
More significant is the entire cast of the chronology and what the authors choose to deem as fact and what they choose to leave in the realm of interpretation. One of the interpretive themes of the book is the large role of money-digging in Smith family culture. In a chapter titled "Manchester Scryer," the authors quote liberally from the Staffords, Willard Chase, and a collection of others who spoke of treasure-seeking. Since the magical culture of nineteenth-century Yankees no longer seems foreign to the Latter-day Saint image of the Smith family, the decision to include material from E. D. Howe, Mormonism Unveiled9 or Naked Truths about Mormonism10 does not itself provoke debate.
The question is why these factual materials are introduced while others from sources equally close to the time period produced by people who were indisputably present are left out. A book with a title so encompassing as Inventing Mormonism implies that all the relevant facts will find a place. Why then are the statements of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon plates not listed in the chronology? Martin Harris, David Whitmer, and Oliver Cowdery are cited for other purposes, particularly Martin Harris. Their statement about the angel and the plates appeared in the first edition of the Book of Mormon published in 1830 and was never repudiated by any of them. It is one of the earliest texts on early Mormon history. Why is it not part of the "invention" of Mormonism?
The answer is obvious. The appearance of an angel with golden plates is so far beyond the realm of conventional experience that the authors are reluctant to consider it among their "facts." The testimony of the three witnesses exists in the realm of the fabulous along with Joseph's revelations, even though the documentation, from a narrow methodological viewpoint, is entirely authentic. Revelations cannot be facts in the schema of this book. Events recorded in contemporaneous documents only become facts if they are judged believable. As Heidegger was trying to tell us, facts presume interpretation.
To give the authors credit, they weave at least one fabulous occurrence into their account. Honoring sources close to the event, they include the trip to the hill for the plates among their facts. Their methodology compels them to list that event because it appears in the sources, not just in Joseph's official account, but in Lucy Smith's and Joseph Knight's. Despite any wish to explain away the plates, the authors remained true to their methodology and bravely recorded in their chronology under 22 September 1829, "Joseph Jr. visits a nearby hill taking Emma with him in Joseph Knight's wagon. He finds gold plates in a stone box and hides the plates in a fallen tree top" (p. xxx). The reason for the inclusion is clear. To eliminate the trip to the hill, along with the transportation of the plates and the hours of translation, requires tortuous textual acrobatics. In terms of the raw materials of history, it is far easier to tell the story of Mormon origins with the divine events left in because people close to the history told it that way.
All in all, Inventing Mormonism is a far cry in both spirit and substance from the iconoclastic studies of Mormonism that descend from E. D. Howe and Alexander Campbell to Fawn Brodie and the early Wesley Walters. The book assembles material that has not been part of the record before, and in good faith offers variant readings of Joseph Smith's history. I have taken exception to the most critical conclusions, but I like the book. I admire the research, and I appreciate the generous, fair-minded tone of the writing. The book makes a genuine effort to be irenic, and I hope that Mormon readers will accept the work in the spirit in which it is offered.
1. Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism. . . . (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1867), 12-13.
2. Dean C. Jessee, ed., The Papers of Joseph Smith: Autobiographical and Historical Writings, vol. 1(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989), 269.
3. Walter A. Norton has discovered a Palmyra Register article in the 28 June 1820 issue that reported the death of an intoxicated man in Palmyra village and claimed he obtained liquor at "a camp-meeting held in this vicinity." When criticized, the editor exonerated the Methodists from blame, as if they were the chief users of the campground, but asserted that the dissolute frequently resorted to the campground for liquor, implying that the grounds were commonly in use. "Comparative Images: Mormonism and Contemporary Religions as Seen by Village Newspapermen in Western New York and Northeastern Ohio, 1820-1833" (Ph.D. Diss., Brigham Young University, 1991), 255.
9. Painesville, Ohio: By the author, 1834.


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A rebel separatist group in Mali has declared an end to a five-month ceasefire pact with the government following clashes in the city of Kidal. It follows elections marking a transition to democracy after a 2012 coup.
Mali's ethnic Tuareg separatist group announced on Friday that it would resume fighting Mali's army following a series of violent incidents in the country's north.
The MLNA, or National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, which is what the group calls the region they claim, said one person was killed and five others injured on Thursday when Tuareg demonstrators clashed with Mali government troops at an airport while trying to prevent Mali's Prime Minister Oumar Tatam Ly from visiting Kidal. However, the Malian government offered a different explanation, saying its troops fired warning shots after they had been shot at and hit with stones.
"What happened (on Thursday) is a declaration of war. We will deliver this war," said Mahamadou Djeri Maiga, vice-president of the MNLA. "Wherever we find the Malian army we will launch the assault against them. It will be automatic. The warnings are over," Maiga said.
Setback to democracy
A ceasefire agreement between the Tuareg rebels and Mali's government was signed in June, paving the way for elections to be held across the country.
The breaking of the ceasefire comes as Malians prepare for a second round of voting in parliamentary elections, after an initial voting round on November 24 failed to reveal majority winners in most constituencies.
Turnout in the poll was low at 38.4 percent and Malians are due to vote again on December 15. About half of the country's eligible voters participated in a runoff presidential election in July, which was won by Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
The elections were supposed to signal a fresh start for the west African nation, which was plunged into chaos last year when a secessionist Tuareg uprising in the north of the country led to a military coup in March 2012 and the overthrow of President Amadou Toumani Toure.
The Tuareg seized control of an area larger than France in the chaos that followed, only to be ousted by al Qaeda-linked Islamist groups. They, in turn, were driven out by a French-led ground and air offensive in January 2013.
But, as Friday's breaking of the ceasefire pact shows, tensions in Mali remain high.
se/rc (Reuters, AFP)


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Government initiatives to promote solar power will provide a much-needed boost to commercial solar projects, which have been overshadowed by their residential solar counterparts.
Growth in the commercial market has been significantly slower than in the residential market, where rooftop solar systems have proliferated thanks in part to new financing sources and marketing efforts.
President Barack Obama last week announced a set of goals to advance solar power and energy efficiency. The administration has said the goals amount to deploying more than 850 megawatts of solar power.
The commercial side of solar has lagged in the past couple of years. The residential solar market grew 60% between 2012 and 2013, whereas the non-residential sector grew 4% in the same period.
Innovations in installation, direct marketing, and varied financing opportunities have propelled the residential market, said Cory Honeyman, solar analyst at GTM Research.
Comparatively, there are fewer financing opportunities for commercial projects, which are costlier and take longer to come to fruition.
The government announcement could also play a role in injecting some additional investor confidence into the sector, Honeyman said.
Commercial projects are also more sensitive to the twilight of subsidies by some states, whereas the phasing out of some state incentives has not put as much of a damper on the residential market.
GTM Research expects the commercial solar side to grow 41% this year, and the residential solar market to grow 47%, Honeyman said. Funding from the government's initiatives will be spread out over several years, making it difficult to quantify early impact.
-- Claudia Assis
Follow Claudia Assis on Twitter @ClaudiaAssisMW.
More from MarketWatch and Energy Ticker:
Solar companies rally on boost from White House
Plug Power shares up 15% ahead of earnings


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The results of a global survey administered by Harvey Nash and PA Consulting show CIOs are under pressure as they help bring their companies out of the recession and prepare for a new competitive landscape. The evidence suggests the recession is affecting job satisfaction for some CIOs. The good news: Many tech execs see their role as becoming more strategic. The bad news: A significant number of CIOs saw their salaries frozen in 2009 or even took a pay cut. Ann All discussed these trends and more with Andy Bookless, director of Government Services for Harvey Nash and project lead for the CIO Survey 2010 in a recent interview.
Related Topics : Cox Communications, Business Development, Contact Center Solutions, CRM Solutions, Database Acceleration
An effective content automation solution can ease the transition to a digital-first distribution strategy, helping companies preview and approve content across all platforms and media types. ... More >>
Predictive analytics uses past data to forecast outcomes and target the right prospects – a move that's redefining the use of data and insights in marketing. ... More >>
Five steps CIOs and CMOs can take to patch the IT/marketing disconnect and create a cohesive, efficient working environment. ... More >>


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|Orange, Conn.
|High School:
|Amity Regional
|Geology and geophysics
|Residential College:
|Timothy Dwight
Yale PRs
1500 4:03.99
Mile 4:24.92
3000m 8:18.65
3000m Steeple 9:40.68
5000m 14:40.48
XC 8k 25:14
High School PRs
3000m 8:33.42
2 Mile 9:03.10
Mile 4:20.69
5k 15:05.23
2013-2014: Served as XC team captain...Finished third on the team with his season-best time at the New England Championships...Finished 11th on the team at XC Heps...Competed in 3,000-meters at indoor Heps...Finished second in 3,000-meters at Shamrock Invitational...Placed fifth in 3,000-meters against Harvard.
2012-2013: Competed at Paul Short, New Englands, CCSU, and Heps...Won the junior varsity race at the New England Championships...First on the team and second overall at the CCSU Mini-Meet...Struggled with injury during the track season...Placed 13th in the 3,000-meters against Harvard and Princeton.
2011-2012: Was the fastest Yale runner at the New England Championships, where he set his PR… Second on the team at the Princeton Invitational (25:18)… Also competed at cross country Heps (26:26.6).
2010-2011: Competed in 5000m run at outdoor Heps … Placed sixth in 5000m at Harvard-Yale … Ran PR of 14:45.80 at Larry Ellis Invitational … Indoors, ran 8:34.37 in 3000m at Dartmouth-Columbia … Opened cross country season at Dartmouth Invitational.
High School: All-American in track & field … National champion in 4x1 mile relay … State champion in 3200m … All-State cross-country and track & field … Set school records in 3000m, 2-mile, 5000m and 1600m (indoors) … Captained cross country and outdoor track teams … Helped team win state championships in cross country, indoor and outdoor track … Academic honors include CABE Award for Leadership, Phillip M. and Matthew A. Oravetz Scholarship for Scholar?Athletes and Bryant University Book Award for Leadership.
Personal: Timothy Dwight College … Hobbies include photography and guitar… Grandfather played Division I basketball for the University of Bridgeport; held the record for most points scored until NBA star Manute Bol erased it.
Q: If you could set a World Record in one event, which one would it be?
A: I would like to set a World Record in the 10,000m because it's the longest and perhaps the most difficult of the standard track events. The 10,000m requires exceptional levels of aerobic endurance, as well as finishing speed, and most importantly, it requires a steely resolve to push through the fire burning in one's legs and chest, as well as the doubt welling up in one's mind over the course of 25 laps.
Q: Favorite motivational quote?
A: "When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber of your body. He is the richest man who pays the largest debt to his shoemaker." - Ralph Waldo Emerson


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Bauer reigns supreme at the Stanley Cup Final as the equipment giant can claim it is getting the most usage in each major gear category at the Final.
The only close category is sticks, which is the only category in which Bauer doesn't hold over 50% of the usage. Their 42% share still towers over the next closest manufacturer (Easton) who slots in at 17%. It shouldn't be too surprising to see the stick category as the most diverse in terms of usage as every manufacturer offers a number of similar, elite products. In fact, Bauer's dominance in the category is based on their three different lines as opposed to one singular product as is seen by the overwhelming number of players wearing Vapor skates.
One other category that isn't illustrated above is goaltender equipment. With David LeNeveu currently serving as the Ragners' backup, there is a 50-50 split between Vaughn and Bauer users. If and when Cam Talbot returns, Vaughn will hold the majority (Quick and Jones) with Bauer and Reebok each having one goaltender wearing their equipment.
To further break down the goaltending category, Lundqvist and Talbot each wear Bauer helmets, Jones wears Pro's Choice and Quick uses Sportmask.
These are always fun graphics to look at just to see the vast diversity of equipment used by each player. Try to figure out who is wearing what over the rest of the series so you can line up individuals with the graphic above.


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Photos shot by Pichou Stone (www.pichoustone.com), professional photographer based in Bangui and Paris.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Pirogue race photos
Photos shot by Pichou Stone (www.pichoustone.com), professional photographer based in Bangui and Paris.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Pirogue race!
Tuesday morning I awoke early, stepped onto the balcony and peered down to the fog-swaddled Oubangui, the river that separates CAR from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Already at such an early hour, the water teems with pirogues (canoes made from hollowed tree trunks). Some are full of fishermen, who paddle (sometimes with oars, sometimes with flip-flops, cupped hands, or whatever else they can find) to the calm, current-less spots that dot the water like knots in a piece of wood, where they cast long nets in hopes of ensnaring the ever-more-elusive capitaine. Some have outboard motors and transport beehive-like Styrofoam structures full of plastic baggies of neon-colored juices for sale either here or across the river in Zongo. It's a Bruegel painting come to life, even on the calmest of Sundays. But Tuesday was different: the annual pirogue race. My two housemates had slept on the balcony in anticipation of catching the first preparations.
Sadly, though, I saw only the usual puttering river folk. Perhaps the race was on Wednesday after all – it is usually on 1 December, which is the day CAR celebrates independence (not the actual day of independence, which is in August like that of all the other former African colonies save Guinea). But this year they decided to roll the usual independence day celebrations into the 50th anniversary commemoration, and hence expected a number of the region's heads of states, and the festivities spread over several days. The official program (a few hastily photocopied sheets stapled into a book, such that the text ran in randomly inclining and declining lines) placed the race on Tuesday, but who really knew? I sighed and commenced the usual early morning ablutions.
Then I heard it: drumming, and some cheering, and people beginning to gather on the patch of beach that has emerged now in the first weeks of the dry season. All of a sudden a monster pirogue appeared around the corner. Whereas the daily pirogues carry maybe five people, some 45 people filled the enormous race pirogue. They stood in two columns. Each column was divided into thirds. The front and rear third rowed in unison, and then, as they rotated their paddles through the air, the middle third cut into the water: a human piston. In addition to the rowers, each boat carried a drummer to keep rhythm, and many carried a bailer to triage the water inevitably taken on.
Pretty soon the water teemed with drumming, whirring boats. Some teams sported a fresh-white t-shirt from their sponsor. An Areva employee tossed them out to his boat. One of the KNK (the president's party) boats got to wear their signature orange. Another was inexplicably pink. Others stuck with the rainbow of knock-off soccer jerseys they wear every day. Meanwhile, the Navy (yes, landlocked though it is, CAR has a navy) zipped around in Zodiacs and wore their orange horseshoe life preservers with all the dignity of ermine-bedecked royals. A fight broke out between a young man and woman on shore, but the crowd quickly broke it up. Last year the police spent a lot of time whacking people with sticks to clear the finish area of people. This year they didn't even seem to mind as fans climbed on top of their vans for a better view.
And they were off! The race started more suddenly – ahead of schedule! – than anyone thought possible. The water churned with these human pistons, who quickly sped around the bend and out of sight. They returned via the far bank, some 800m away, racing millipedes to us now. Then, immediately in front of where they started, they cut across at a 90 degree angle to finish by ramming into the shore in front of the assembled dignitaries. The rowers jumped out quickly to avoid those behind them and as they did so the pirogues often became water logged and sank. The skill of many of the rowers – none of whom ever seem to practice – became even more apparent alongside this reminder of their crafts' fragility.
Meanwhile, pirogues kept arriving from both sides. I learned later that the initial race had been a false start, but the navy had been unable to catch up to all the boats to alert them to turn around so they just let them complete the course. Either that or the VIPs weren't in place yet. By the time President Bozize, gliding by in a Zodiac (no life vest for him, just a sober beige suit), made a surprise appearance, flashing his trademark double thumbs-up at the crowd, 32 boats jockeyed for position at the start. The gun cracked and they again flew downriver. Whistles blew and Zodiacs whizzed: false start. It seems impossible to actually line up so many boats evenly in such a strong current, and I wonder if the false start verdict is simply a way of increasing the illusion of fairness. Whatever the case, it meant that we got to watch the most exciting part not once, but thrice.
Apparently two pirogues overturned during the race (post-race rumors said two died), but I didn't see it. I saw only the masterful cooperation of one of the white teams, which powered to shore in first place. The rowers celebrated with gymnastic leaps from their craft. In their euphoria they seemed not to notice the runners-up sailing in behind them, but by some unknown artistry, disaster was avoided.
After the race, overheard shrieks led us to wander to the deck on the side of the building that fronts the road. A large woman, resplendent in a boubou, screamed at a man with a pousse-pousse (a hand cart similar to those Americans use for their gardening). The pousse-pousse was filled with pigs trussed by their legs. The woman grabbed each pig by the ear and hurled it angrily onto the ground. The pigs wailed their too-human-like squeal at the pain and attempted futilely to scootch away. They came to encircle a homeless man who'd made the grassy patch his bed and slept tranquilly through all the drama. The woman disputed the delivery charge the pousse-pousse man had leveled for his service. In the end, she tossed the pigs – using either the ear or the tail as a handle – into a taxi and drove away. The turbaned Chadian soldiers that accompany the president watched on, seeming bored, from their on-guard positions in the middle of the road.
For the rest of the day, I bubbled over attempting to convey the morning's excitement to friends: Did you see the pirogue race? It's the most impressive sporting feat I've ever seen! Never have I felt such exhilaration and euphoria at an athletic event. The West Africans who populate the middle levels of INGOs and UN agencies sniffed, "Pirogue races? We used to do that." Expatriates shrugged, "I had to work." Central Africans seemed happy to see a foreigner so impressed with their country but a little baffled by the eagerness.
Far greater sportswriters than I have dedicated their careers to describing the effervescence that animates these mass events. And yet in the end it always comes back to: you had to be there.


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Overcoming the Eclipse of God: 2003 Pastors Conference
During Ligonier Ministries' first annual pastors conference in October of 2003, pastors from around the country gathered to hear Dr. R.C. Sproul, John Sartelle, and Rick Phillips emphasize the importance of God-centered worship, prayer, evangelism, and preaching. This series …Read More
The Best of 2003-2006 Pastors Conferences
The intense pressure to adopt man-centered approaches to ministry from the world pounds against preachers and congregants alike. We must therefore be exhorted to remain God-centered in our worship and encourage our leaders as they faithfully preach the Word. This …Read More
John Sartelle
Rev. John P. Sartelle Sr. is senior minister of Christ Presbyterian Church in Oakland, Tenn. He is author of What Christian Parents Should Know about Infant Baptism.


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22mm x 3/4" Polymax Straight Tap Connector


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Nokia's next Windows Phone with the 41MP shooter will be called the Lumia 1020, according to sample photos published on flicker. Microsoft's Joe Belfiore posted a series of shots from various Nokia Windows Phones, but two from the collection stood out as they appear to have been taken using a "Nokia Lumia 1020." One of the photos is listed at 2947 x 1658 (noted to be almost 5MP), while the other is 1352 x 1568 (hitting 3.7MP). These images suggest that Nokia's upcoming Lumia PureView Windows Phone will likely shoot at multiple resolutions.
The new name makes perfect sense, being a sure enough upgrade to the Lumia 920. Confusion has surrounded the device before it has been announced by Nokia with it being recognised at the Nokia 909. Here's the uploaded shot from Belfiore:
We'll have more details on the Nokia Lumia 1020 this week.


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Statement of Stephen C. Goss
SSA Chief Actuary
Testimony before the
House Budget Committee
July 17, 2007
Chairman Spratt, Ranking Member Ryan, and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Social Security Administration's (SSA) efforts to reduce and correct improper payments and the FY 2008 Budget proposal for an adjustment in the discretionary spending caps to help increase program integrity efforts. Specifically, the proposal would provide an adjustment above a base level of funding that would allow SSA to conduct more continuing disability reviews (CDRs) and non-medical redeterminations to avoid improper payments to Social Security beneficiaries and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients when factors affecting their eligibility or payment level have changed.
The proposal would provide SSA with a $213 million cap adjustment that would allow us to conduct an additional 200,000 CDRs and 500,000 additional SSI redeterminations in FY 2008. With these efforts, we project that we would realize about $2 billion in future program savings, with most of the savings coming in the next ten years. The return on investment from the additional $213 million is expected to be approximately $10 to $1 in program savings for CDRs and $7 to $1 for redeterminations.
SSA uses well-founded methods for determining administrative costs and estimating future program savings for these important program integrity workloads. The projected returns on investment for these workloads are substantial and thus contribute to the solvency of the programs and help to keep benefits well targeted to those who most need them.
In the case of CDRs, we use data from our CDR tracking file and other sources to develop estimates of future program savings. When the Congress previously provided SSA with cap adjustment funding for CDRs in FY 1996 through 2002, you also required us to submit an annual report to Congress. Because we well understand the value and importance of program integrity efforts, we have been reporting this type of information for over 20 years.
SSA supports this program integrity cap adjustment proposal as a highly effective and efficient means to prevent improper payments. The balance of this testimony will describe these CDR and redetermination workloads to you in more detail.
Continuing Disability Reviews
For an individual to be entitled to disability benefits under either the Social Security Disability Insurance or SSI program, a determination must be made that the person meets the definition of disability in the Social Security Act. Most of these determinations are made by State agencies known as Disability Determination Services, or DDSs. These determinations establish whether the individual is disabled and the date the disability began. After an individual has been on the program rolls for a period of time, the DDS is also involved in the determination of whether the individual's disability continues.
Since the beginning of the disability program, Congress has required, under sections 221(i) and 1614(a) of the Social Security Act that SSA periodically review the cases of beneficiaries who receive benefits, based on disability, to determine if disability continues. When disability is established, each case is scheduled for a periodic continuing disability review. The frequency of review depends on the likelihood of medical improvement. In addition, if we receive information that a beneficiary may no longer be disabled, a CDR may be conducted earlier than scheduled.
In the early 1990s, concern over the reduced number of CDRs that SSA was doing each year began to grow. Of particular relevance, the Contract with America Advancement Act of 1996 , P.L. 104-121, included a provision authorizing the appropriation of special funds for fiscal years 1996 through 2002 to be used exclusively to conduct CDRs. At that time, SSA estimated at least $6 in program savings for every $1 spent in CDR administrative costs. Based on subsequent data, we believe that CDRs are even more cost effective, with estimated savings of about $10 to $1 during the ten fiscal years 1996 through 2005.
The additional funding provided by P.L. 104-121 allowed SSA to embark on a seven-year plan designed to eliminate the backlog of CDRs, which had grown to between three to four million cases at the end of FY 1997 . With the support of Congress, this funding outside of discretionary spending caps for SSA's CDR program allowed SSA to initiate a CDR for all of the cases in which one was due by the end of FY 2002.
Since FY 2002, however, requests totaling $1.75 billion in dedicated funding for CDRs have not been met. This has meant that we have fallen behind in our scheduled CDRs and currently have a significant backlog.
SSA reports annually to Congress on the CDR workload. In the most recent report, SSA reported that it spent $493 million processing CDRs in FY 2005 for an estimated present value of lifetime program benefit savings of $5.4 billion, including Medicare and Medicaid savings, showing that CDRs continue to be a highly cost-effective program integrity tool. As I mentioned earlier, the return on investment for CDRs is about $10 to $1. The report for FY 2006 will be published later this year, and we expect the return on investment numbers will be consistent with previous reports.
Our past experience has shown us that additional funding through cap adjustments is effective and will help us become current on CDR processing.
The Redetermination Process
SSI is a means-tested program that provides cash assistance to aged, blind, and disabled individuals with limited income and resources. Once individuals are found eligible for benefits, changes in their living arrangements or in the amounts of their income or resources can have an effect on their benefit amount or eligibility status even if their medical condition has not changed. In order to assure that SSI payments are made in the correct amount and only to eligible individuals, SSA conducts redeterminations, which are periodic reviews of SSI non-medical eligibility factors. Redeterminations are a very effective tool to detect and prevent improper payments in the SSI program.
The purpose of a redetermination is to determine whether a recipient is still eligible for SSI and still receiving the correct payment amount. Redeterminations can be scheduled or unscheduled, and except for certain institutionalized individuals, all recipients are periodically scheduled for a review. The frequency and the intensity of these reviews depend on the probability that the case is being paid in error, which is based on a number of case characteristics, and on the level of funding available for these reviews. While SSA selects for review the cases most likely to have a payment error, even the cases unlikely to have payment error are scheduled for review at less frequent intervals. Unscheduled redeterminations are completed on an as needed basis when recipients report, or we discover, certain changes in circumstances that could affect the continuing SSI payment amount or eligibility.
The number of redeterminations we complete varies from year-to-year based on available resources and workload requirements. In fact, fewer redeterminations were selected for processing in FY 2005 and 2006. In FY 2004, we processed over 2.2 million redeterminations, but in FY 2005 we only completed 1.7 million. In FY 2006, we conducted just over 1 million redeterminations, and it is expected that we will process a similar amount in FY 2007.
Estimating Program Savings for CDRs and Redeterminations
SSA has been reporting CDR data to Congress since 1983. Beginning with the CDR report to Congress for FY 1996, SSA has included information on the number of reviews, the disposition of such reviews, the amount spent on reviews, and the estimated future program savings for those found to be no longer eligible for benefits. The calculation of estimated future program savings for benefit cessations is critical in determining the return on investment for CDRs. This calculation reflects the duration of additional benefit receipt that would have occurred in the absence of the CDR. Estimated benefit savings reflect the likelihood of successfully appealing the CDR determination or of reapplying for benefits and becoming re-entitled. Through the years, the analysis has become more detailed and many parameters have been refined. But the expected present value of future program savings has remained about $10 for every $1 spent in doing CDRs. It is important to remember that this return on investment reflects Medicare and Medicaid savings as well as Old Age and Survivor and Disability Insurance savings. Also, the savings do not reflect only benefit savings in the year the CDR is completed. The actual savings for cessations in a specific year reflect expected future savings over the next 10 to 20 years in many cases.
We conduct similar analysis for estimating the results of SSI redeterminations. However, unlike CDR cessations, redeterminations can result in an individual no longer receiving benefits or continuing to receive benefits but at a different level. In some instances, an individual's benefit may decrease—e.g., due to an increase in income—while in others, the benefit may increase—e.g., due to a change in living arrangements. We estimate program savings from SSI redeterminations by adding the expected recovery of overpayments detected by the redetermination to the expected future overpayments that are avoided as a result of the redetermination. For redeterminations that will be processed with the additional funding from a cap adjustment for FY 2008, the expected return on investment is about $7 in program savings for every $1 spent in conducting them.
The Social Security Administration is responsible for providing benefits to all qualified individuals, but only for as long as and to the extent that the benefit is warranted under law. CDRs and redeterminations are among the most important program integrity tools SSA has, and our ability to do more of them will go a long way in helping us reduce and correct improper payments for the programs SSA administers. Therefore, it is vital that the cap adjustment under consideration, that would give SSA funding to conduct additional CDRs and redeterminations, is approved. SSA appreciates this Committee's support in helping us maintain the integrity of the Social Security and SSI disability programs, and we look forward to working with you in the future.
I will be happy to answer any questions you might have.


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I'm excited to bring you another conversation with Liberation Artist Jonathan Mead. Jonathan is a liberation badass. This year he quit his real job and moved into coaching and writing full time.
I had the opportunity to first speak with Jonathan back in the spring and you can find that interview here.
There's been a lot of change and growth since then and in this conversation we talk about our own personal growth both personally and on a more business level. We're not just talking about this online world either – we explore how we each explain the juncture of the personal development online community and the social worlds we inhabit offline, how we help to enrich the world and communities around us, and inspire others to go out and create change in the world.
Reverse-engineering motivations, how life coaching changes both the coach and the client, and why he's been holed up in a cave (i.e. desk) for a month.
Listen to it here (Donald Trump apprentices need not apply):
Jonathan Mead is the author of the Zero Hour Workweek and Reclaim Your Dreams. He's a regular contributor to Zen Habits. Runs the Black Sheep Project with Jared Kessler. Is the Lead Ass-Kicker for Project Mojave. And is ready to launch his own e-course on how to Get Paid to Exist – an indepth examination about how to turn your passion and skill into a saleable skill.
Excuse the breathing into the microphone – I sound like I've got a respiratory disorder.


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We offer you to download free games for Digma Optima 4.01. Our system will select the most appropriate game files. To see all mobile games, click on the link that you see below, or select one of the genres of java games.
To view all compatible games for Digma Optima 4.01, click the button:
Show more


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"AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL ALL-STARS" - (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET)
"Exploring Greece" (TV-PG, L)
THE ALL-STARS RE-CREATE ANCIENT OLYMPIC SPORTS - The women find out they will be judged by each other during a challenge, where one of the All-Stars is confronted about her insecurities. The women also get some time off to enjoy Greece and its night life. Nigel Barker photographs the models re-creating ancient Olympic sports. Andr� Leon Tally and Nigel Barker join J. Alexander and Tyra Banks on the judges' panel for the elimination (#1710).


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Zermatt - Sunnegga (via Tiefenmatten)
From the centre of the village of Zermatt up into the mountain sunshine, under one's own steam: that's the essence of this bracing hike. A climb through the romantic, snow-blanketed forest accesses the open slopes leading to Sunnegga and glorious views.
- Type Winter hiking
- Difficulty medium
- Duration 2,45 h
- Distance 6,6 km
- Ascent 852 m
- Descent 181 m
- Lowest point 1608 m
- Highest point 2279 m
(Hiking time in reverse direction: approx. 2h 15)
- Good footwear
- Hiking poles (optional)
- Warm winter clothing appropriate for the weather
Additional information and recommendations are available from the guest information centre on Bahnhofplatz (by the railway station).
- Plan every mountain tour carefully and adapt to participants' fitness level as well as the weather and season.
- Weather conditions can change quickly in the mountains. Appropriate clothing is therefore essential, along with adequate supplies of food and water. In uncertain weather, turn back in good time.
- Inform others of planned route, and whenever possible avoid going alone.
- Do not leave the marked routes; do not venture onto glaciers without a mountain guide.
- It is forbidden to walk on the ski pistes.
- Please be considerate to other walkers and to plants and animals.


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Welcome to Harts Fabric
Harts Fabric is your source for modern quilting, apparel, and home fabrics – both online and in our Santa Cruz store. We carry a great selection of top quality fabrics, appliances and accessories, including notions, patterns, and sewing machines. Shop our most popular fabrics, including apparel & fashion fabric, modern quilting cottons, jersey knit fabric, traditional Japanese fabric, retro fabric, and much more.
Customers rave about our great selection of organic fabric, rayon fabric, fabrics by the yard, prints, and designer fabrics. Be sure to check out our new arrivals, employee favorites, and our blog for free sewing and crafts tutorials! Can't find what you're looking for? Contact customer service for custom orders, creative advice or inspiration. Don't buy fabric from a big box store - buy fabric from real people who actually sew!


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Virgin Mobile to throttle 'unlimited' mobile broadband
Bandwidth penalty for transferring 5GB imposed
Virgin Mobile's US division has decided its network can no longer support truly all-you-can-eat mobile broadband without slowing down uploads and downloads.
VM's Broadband2Go package provides customers with unlimited data transfers for a $40-a-month fee. From 15 February, they will still have access to as much data as they like each month, but their bandwidth is throttled when they exceed 5GB, for the rest of the month.
T-Mobile US did the same thing in April 2010.
This is an interesting approach to the problem of consumers who dare to think that subscribing to an unlimited package means they can send and receive lots and lots of data. VM's conclusion: they can't, not without affecting other users.
British mobile internet users have grown accustomed to either paying a premium for the data the transfer beyond a contracted limit, or to having their access cut until the start of the next 30-day period.
VM clearly feels it needs to dissuade customers from transferring too much data, but it's choosing to squeeze their pipes rather than pummel their wallets.
VM said using the package for email, browsing and music downloads shouldn't be affected - they won't be using much more than 5GB, if they go past the limit at all. But it is likely to hinder very active torrenters and folk downloading or streaming movies from the likes of iTunes and Netflix.
That will come as a blow to many, particularly as we're all being increasingly encouraged by technology and media companies to connect more kit to the net, and access ever more multimedia content through it. ®


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Provides native Hadoop integration within Oracle Data Integrator. Based on Hive, it enhances productivity and provides a simple user interface for creating programs to load data to and from files or relational data stores.
Oracle Data Integrator Enterprise Edition delivers unique next-generation, Extract Load and Transform (E-LT) technology that improves performance and reduces data integration costs-even across heterogeneous systems.
Oracle's partner community of more than 20,000+ partners (including 1,000+ specialized partners) provides you with solutions and services that meet your unique business needs.


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Children's Volunteer Health Network has kicked off its seventh year of offering cottage-style playhouses as possible Christmas gifts for kids, with proceeds benefiting area children who are uninsured or underinsured for dental or healthcare.
The cottages are presently resting on Rosemary Beach's East Long Green lawn and are visible from County Road 30A.
Each cottage/playhouse is different and each was designed and built by a different company, with each receiving its own unique dose of imagination and view into a child's mind.
Designed to entertain and delight, this year's choices range from a two-story pirate ship built by Freeport High School's Key Club members under the leadership of Ted Missildine; "Seaslide" designed after Seaside's iconic Coleman pavilion; the understated "Live It Up"; "All Decked Out"; and last but not least, "Kid Comfort," which was designed by HGTV's Vern Yip.
CVHN's Shaye Smith said the designs reflect local architecture.
"They all bring something different," she said. "One even has a rock-climbing wall."
Cottages for Kids is an annual �fun-raising� event that kicked off Nov. 9. The cottages are open for play and discovery each weekend through Nov. 30. It is a free, family-friendly event. The designs are earth-friendly and the materials must be safe and healthy for kids and good for the environment.
The 2013 builder teams include returning teams Randy Wise Homes with the Freeport High School Key Club, Corestruction, Heritage Builders with The Merchants of Rosemary Beach, Davis Dunn Construction with Studio A Architecture and the newest addition to the builder line-up, Chuck, LLC.
These carefully crafted mini-houses may be purchased, and this year, CVHN offers two ways to win a Cottage: by raffle and an online auction. Raffle tickets are available for purchase at the event and online.
The second way to win one of the creative cottages is to bid during the online auction. Buy It Now prices will also be available onsite and online. Bid online through Nov. 30.
Proceeds from the Cottages for Kids raffle and online auction support CVHN's ongoing efforts to make sure every child in the community has access to the health and dental care they need and deserve.
For more details, event schedule, to purchase raffle tickets or bid on a cottage, visit www.cottagesforkids.org or call 622-3200.
"This event is significant for raising funds for CVHN," said Smith. "Every year is different."
Bidding starts at $2,000 for all except Yip's cottage, where bidding starts at $3,000.
As for garnering Yip's involvement, Smith said the organization reaches out to designer contacts every year, as well as builders.
"One of the builders had contacts with Yip and got his commitment to design a playhouse," she said. "He chose to recreate his home in miniature."


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Universal Clip-On Lens System
Fancy photos made simple
- Clip-on lens system fits almost any smartphone
- 180° fish-eye lens, wide-angle and macro, and 2X telephoto lens
- Fun at parties and weddings
Sometimes you see products and you think, "Why didn't somebody think of that earlier?" Products that generally take a simple, brute-force approach to a potentially complicated problem.
You can build a single camera lens into a single case that's proprietary for every single type of smartphone out there (imagine Carl Sagan saying "billions and billions" here), or you can build a binder-clip-style device that'll hold 3 interchangeable and fit on any phone that's less than 1 1/4" thick. So all your 80s-style brick phones are out. Which is fine since they didn't have cameras. Shame, really, cause you looked so stylin' holding that thing up to your head.
Product Specifications
- Clip-on Lens System for smartphones (and cameras)
- Compatible with any smartphone (or camera) less than 1 1/4" thick with a lens within 1" of an edge
- Includes clip system, 180° fish-eye lens, wide-angle and macro, 2X telephoto lens, lens covers, and soft storage bags for lenses
- Fun to put out at parties and wedding tables to encourage photo craziness
- Dimensions: 2 1/2" long, 1 1/2" wide, 3/4" across clip, lens diameter 15/16" fish-eye and wide-angle, 3/4" telephoto


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Alicia Keys to take son on tour
Singer ALICIA KEYS will make her upcoming world tour a family affair by taking her young son on the road with her.
The Fallin' hitmaker became a first-time mother in October 2010 when she gave birth to Egypt, her first child with her hip-hop producer husband Swizz Beatz.
Keys admits the tot is already showing signs he may follow in his parents' musical footsteps, and she plans to take the two year old with her on her next trek to teach him all about live shows.
She tells Hello! magazine, "He plays (piano). Egypt has a stark sense of rhythm. He also plays the drums already. He likes that most. The kid's making noise all day long. He's adorable... Soon Egypt will come on tour with me, and then he'll get a taste of that world. Most importantly, I want him to do everything he does with passion, whatever that may be."


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Welcome back, everyone, to Akano's Comics! Hi, I am Akano. I was inspired by some comic authors such as Matreid and T-E to make my own comics. I hope you enjoy them. I'll take opinions, comments, and constructive criticism. No spamming, flaming, etc. I'd really like your opinion! Thanks to Razor, Rayg, Mout, RZ, ToM Dracone, and Swert for the sprites. Also, thanks to Matreid, T-E, Litoru, etc. who inspired me. And, thanks to KK for some of the ideas.I am not accepting guest star PMs! I will choose guest stars myself if I see fit!PLEASE NOTE! All sprites/comics/ideas are copyright their owners and using said content is not allowed without permission from their respective owners. Thank you.
- You have to post.If you haven't posted, that means that you don't think you can add to the discussion. If you can't do that, then how is it you want to guest star?
- You can't bother me to take you as a guest star.I will choose guest stars as I see fit. They will most likely be someone who has posted here for a while and someone I deem worthy for the comedic part of the comic. Bothering me makes me less likely to guest star you.
Guest star list:
The Comics
Character Page.png Updated as of 6/25/05
Comic 1 K.K.'s death.png
Comic 2 Po-Koro.png
Comic 3 TVM.png
Comic 4 Meet Misterwill101.png
Comic 5 Meet Misterwill101 again.png
Comic 6 T-E Guest Stars!.png
Comic 7 Game Show Part One.png
Comic 8 Game Show Part Two.png
Comic 9 Game Show Part 3, The Finale!.png
Comic 10 Soaroka vs. Lewa!.png
Comic 11 Zapper goes to the vet.png
Comic 12 Guest starring Lady Ervai!.png
Comic 13 Guest starring Master Makuta and Keratu.png
Comic 14 Guest starring Pohatu Jr. Master-0-Pie.png
Comic 15 Ardakh Arrives.png
Comic 16 McLichen's starring Kaanuva & Humourman.png
Comic 17 Species test.png
Comic 18 Akano got lost....png
Comic 19 Akano the inventor guest starring Valcuma Toa of Crystals.png
Comic 20 My internet's failure
Comic 21 The secret to my trimming abilities starring Dark709!.png
Comic 22 Fem.png
Comic 23 My promotion.png
Comic 24 My shoes.png
Comic 25 Michael McLichen.png
Comic 26 How to present guest stars.png
Comic 27 A bet starring Wise One.png
Comic 28 Hunger kills.png
Comic 29 Atkano starring Kewat and Infected Lost Toa.png
Comic 30 Purification.png
Comic 31 Dummy.png
Comic 32 Distraction.png
Comic 33 Sharing Powers.png
Comic 34 Annoyance.png
Comic 35 Good News!.png
Comic 36 Guest starring Vanatu!.png
Comic 37 Tap and I go mental, guest starring GSMN.png
Comic 38 I'm a nerd.png
Comic 39 Dealing with problems, guest starring Toa Jetice.png
Comic 40 Superglue, guest starring Raka Nuva.png
Comic 41 Understanding, guest starring Minq and Kayru.png
Comic 42 Neglecting.png
Comic 43 Babysitting.png
Comic 44 Saying goodbye.png
Comic 45 Change of Style, Same Old Stupidity.png
Comic 46 Paint Cans...or Bazookas.png
Comic 47 Laziness....png
Comic 48 Time Difference.png
Comic 49 I'm back!.png
Comic 50 Happy 50th!.png
Comic 51 Happy 50th! Part 2.png
Comic 52 Happy 50th! Part 3.png
Comic 53 Happy 50th! Part 4.png
Comic 54 I've been busy....png
Comic 55 Seriously, I felt THIS good after Friday night....png
Comic 56 @_@;;.png
Comic 57 Obsessions.png
Comic 58 Don't ask....png
Comic 59 Gone for a week....png secret edit
Comic 60 Kinda like Comic 56....png
Comic 61 Once again, obsessed.png
Comic 62 Just my luck....png
Comic 63 Boredom? Yeah, you could say that....png
Comic 64 Halloween!.png
Comic 65 What happens when Bionicle and Homestar Runner collide....png
Comic 66 Minish Minish Minish....png
Comic 67 Strong Bad isn't the only one with an e-mail show.png
Comic 68 Thanksgiving comic.png
Comic 69 Jingle bells?.png
Comic 70 First Cee puns, now this....png
Comic 71 So, why don't we see KK anymore?.png
Comic 72 The Piraka are awesome....png
Comic 73 I didn't do it!.png
Comic 74 Yes, I do call it milk day... >>;.png
Comic 75 Blatant advertisements!.png
Comic 76 Isn't that Nixie's?.png
Comic 77 What a wonderous occasion!.png
Comic 78 Yay for running gags!.png
Comic 79 EIGHTH?!.png
Comic 80 Sorry, GSMN, I couldn't resist....png
Comic 81 He's a genius, I say!.png
Comic 82 Coincidence?.png
Comic 83 State....png
Comic 84 8D.png
Comic 85 3-year Huna.png
Comic 86 Happy Independence Day!.png
Comic 87 Fusion Part II.png
Comic 88 Trying to get away.png
Comic 89 I kinda joined the trend a bit late....png
Comic 90 Mosquitos.png
Comic 91 Some mask powers just aren't worth it....png
Comic 92 Recovery?.png
Comic 93 Scratch that last one....png
Comic 94 Ego? Maybe a little.png
Comic 95 Minish again, Happy Halloween!.png
Comic 96 MONKEY!.png
Comic 97 The Joys December Brings....png
Comic 98 Enforcement structure.png
Comic 99 ...I am so angry at myself....png
Comic 100 At long last...the hundredth comic!.png
Comic 101 DNA Evidence and sweet text bubbles.png
Comic 102 Changes of Styles.png
Comic 103 I've Got Nothing.png
Comic 104 Filler: The Effect of College on Akano.png
Comic 105 Akano is not a partier....png
Comic 106 Wait...Female?!.png
Comic 107 Finals week....png
Comic 108 Akano is not a morning person....png
Comic 109 Sad news.png
Comic 110 Warning: Keep Out of Reach of Children.png
Comic 111 It lives?!.png
Comic 112 Objection!.png
Comic 113 Filler: Who's that Pokémon?.png
Comic 114 I choose you, Miltankano!.png
Comic 115 The Legend of Hapori Tohu.png
Comic 116 Work.png
Comic 117 Happy Fireworks!.png
Comic 118 Free Kazoo!.png
Comic 119 Appear and Inspire!.png
Comic 120 Silver and Gold.png
Comic 121 Forget the Rules!.png
Comic 122 GRE.png
Comic 123 One of Few Things That Is Worse When Yellow.png
Comic 124 Interference.pngComic 125 Welcome back.png
Comic 126 At least KK never lived on a rock farm.png
Comic 127 Abstract math is almost as bad.png
Comic 128 Learning.png
Comic 129 Procrastination.png
Comic 130 Brotherly Love.png New as of 12/5/12
The "How I became me" Series
How I became me Part 1.png
How I became me Part 2.png
How I became me Part 3.png
How I became me Part 4.png
How I became Me Part 5 The Finale!
Special Comics
Character Page Edit.png
The Night Before.png
Forever and ever....png
Disk of Time.png
Costume Part 1.png
Costume Part 2.png
Costume Part 3.png
Thanksgiving shorty.png
777th Post Celebration!.png
Valentine's day shorty
Happy Anniversary!.png
Happy Holidays!
2 years...
April Fools'!
Happy New Year 2008!.png
Happy Four Year Anniversary, Akano's Comics!.png New as of 5/12/08
Fan Comics
Pohatu Jr.'s character Page Edit
YMCA From Keratu
Fan Comic from Kaanuva and Humourman
From Toa Jetice
From Tapaio
From Krigui
Darnz's fan comic
Fan comic from airanuva
From Angela Toa of Colors
Kodakano advertisement from Karectahn
From Dylan the Roporak
From the planet of higher lifeforms where Scarabs say... from toa_of_life New as of 3/17/07
Fan Comics I made for other topicsThe meaning of Tiandi.png
Old joke....png
He's so cute starring the real Litoru.png
Old dog, new tricks.png
For PDACBHe scares me... >>; New as of 7/4/2005
Edited by Akano Toa of Electricity, Feb 13 2014 - 06:43 PM.