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DWTS 15, Week 5 Power Rankings – Part II
So now that we've seen everybody dance both their team dance & individual dance, I can finally start to get a snapshot of where things stand heading into week 6. As I promised in part I, I've really just taken my commentary on last night's dances, copied & pasted it here, and added any additional notes I found pertinent to go along with my commentary on tonight's dances. I know many of you have already read the spoilers we posted last night for tonight's show, so there aren't probably any huge revelations for you; for those that haven't, I doubt there are any huge revelations for you, either…it became pretty clear to me that they put the stronger individual performances on Tuesday night and the weaker ones on Monday night, perhaps in an effort to increase viewership for Tuesday night's show. As for the team dance – I think you guys can probably guess where I stand 😉 And the other thing that became quite evident after tonight? They are really doing their damndest to protect Gilles and ensure he sticks around. Gilles gets the high score of night 1; 3 of the 4 couples on night 2 get the same (2.5 points lower than Gilles') score, and the one person that even comes close still falls .5 points short of Gilles, despite dancing one of the most beautiful waltzes I've ever seen on the show. The message is clear: protect the whiny, egotistical Frenchmen at all costs. Gag me.
Speaking of week 6 – it is country week, and each couple is doing an individual unlearned dance and a group dance. The group dance will not be scored, except the couple that does the move that impresses the judges the most will get two bonus points – which is practically nothing, in the great scheme of things, since we're taking all of the points from this week and all of the points from next week and adding them together. It's gonna be a fanbase battle royale…hope you guys voted hard!
1.) Sabrina & Louis – I was skeptical about Sabrina being able to carry off such a soft, romantic dance, since she seems to hit everything so hard – but this was actually quite lovely. She showed a lot of control and some of her lines were just beautiful – at a couple moments, I honestly thought she would fit right in on a dance floor filled with American Smooth professionals. I even believed adoring looks she was giving Louis – and while I agree that vulnerability may not be Sabrina's strong suit, I thought she absolutely showed it tonight in this waltz. Funny how you call her out on it, Carrie Ann, and then give her a 10 anyway. If you aren't gonna nut up, then you gots to SHUT UP. Loved the theme, loved the choreography, loved the execution – and love that someone from Team Call Me Maybe was able to give Gilles a run for his money in the individual dance round 🙂
2.) Gilles & Peta – Well, guess I can't really get too mad at the overscoring of this one, since it's kind of become par for the course this season. I actually thought Gilles had some really nice lines in this rumba – he was actually extending both his arms and his legs nicely. But my big problem was that I still felt like Peta was doing all the work…and it got a little repetitive. To concur with Len, I got tired of the leg extensions and displays of flexibility really quickly, and it seemed to slow everything down just a little too much. It was a time-waster in an already shortened routine. It seemed like the first part (the a cappella part) was nice, and then once the crescendo hit with the instruments it was all overwrought emotion from there on out. I would have probably given it a 28, tops, because I felt like there just wasn't as much content as there should have been. 29.5 is an awfully cushy score. Adding in after Tuesday night's show: I wasn't so upset about this score last night, but now I am, considering that Shawn & Derek did what I would consider to be a FAR superior rumba, both in terms of technique & performance, got reamed by the judges, and ended up 2.5 points less than Gilles. The pimping is obvious now, and TPTB (and Gilles himself) seem hellbent on changing the name of the show to "Dancing with Gilles Marini!…and some other people". But I do feel a bit vindicated knowing that Gilles' magnum opus of a team freestyle got called out for being a ridiculous mess and got 2.5 points less than Team Call Me Maybe…that really must chap his ass, as does the fact that Sabrina is now at the top of the leaderboard 😉 Read more..


text: Lion Brand Needle Gauge Palette$ In Stock14 $14.00This Needle Gauge is a handy tool for the knitter (and crocheters too!). It has 15 holes to size your needles/hooks in standard US numerical sizes, as well as a 2 inch ruler to check your stitch and row gauge. The Needle Gauge is made of Maple Wood and is finished to a lustrous sheen. The gauge size is approximately 4 X 6 inches. More Details

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Dinosaur Jr Woman's T-Shirt
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text:
Battle heats up over definition of Tennessee whiskey
Liquor companies fight over rights to call their brands authentic
The fight between Jack Daniels and George Dickel over who has the right to right to label their drink as actual authentic Tennessee whiskey just got interesting.
The Associated Press reported that the two worldwide liquor companies have been battling over which of their whiskeys drink should carry special status as local and unique.
London-based liquor conglomerate Diageo PLC, of which George Dickel is a subsidiary, opened a legislative fight earlier this year seeking to overturn the state's newly established legal definition for Tennessee whiskey that has been championed by Jack Daniel's, which is owned by Louisville, Kentucky-based Brown-Forman Corp. The new rules state that whiskey must be aged in new, charred oak barrels in Tennessee and filtered through maple charcoal prior to aging.
Dickel's owners say they conform with the traditional methods laid out in the state law, but are challenging the statute, mostly over the storage restrictions. Some advocates fear a successful challenge by Dickel of the storage statute could give way to a legal challenge of the overall Tennessee whiskey law.
State lawmakers this summer are expected to return to the struggle of crafting the legal definition of Tennessee whiskey.
The two distilleries are located just 15 miles apart in southern Tennessee and are not marketplace equals, with Jack Daniel's outselling Dickel by a ratio of 88 cases to one, according to The Associated Press.
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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The health and safety of our staff, customers, and community is our top priority. Read an important message from Autohaus of Peoria.
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CARFAX One-Owner. *Bluetooth*, *Back Up Camera*, *Leather*, *GPS Navigation*, *Moonroof*, *Heated Seats*, *USB Port/Phone Charger*, *One Owner*, 8 Speakers, AM/FM radio: SIRIUS, Auto-dimming Rear-View mirror, Automatic temperature control, Brake assist, Dual front impact airbags, Emergency communication system, Exterior Parking Camera Rear, Front anti-roll bar, Front dual zone A/C, Front fog lights, Full Oxford Perforated Leather Seating Surfaces, Fully automatic headlights, Garage door transmitter: HomeLink, Headlight cleaning, Heated door mirrors, Heated Front Bucket Seats, High intensity discharge headlights: Bi-Xenon, Illuminated entry, Memory seat, Navigation System, Radio: Range Rover Audio System, Rain sensing wipers, Rear fog lights, Rear Parking Sensors, Remote keyless entry, Security system, Speed-sensing steering, Traction control. 2016 Land Rover Black Range Rover Sport 3.0L V6 Supercharged HSE
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We welcome you to come visit Autohaus of Peoria at 2322 W Van Winkle Way in Peoria, IL. Autohaus may be reached at 309-243-7000, or visit us online at www.autohausofpeoria.com. We provide many amenities that offer our customers comfort, entertainment, and café dining. Autohaus of Peoria is locally, family-owned and has been in the business for over 35 years. We pride ourselves on customer service and community involvement. Autohaus of Peoria is a proud sponsor of St Jude Children's Research Hospital and we donate a portion of the proceeds from all car sales to St Jude Children's Research Hospital! Visit us today and allow us to find you the car of your dreams.
Porsche of Peoria is among the nicest dealership facilities in Illinois. We provide many amenities that offer our customers comfort, entertainment, and cafe dining. Come see for yourself why customers choose us. Porsche of Peorioa associates are passionate about their craft, averaging more than 15 years in their positions. We envision a strong outlook for the future of our dealerships, with increased opportunity to serve Central Illinois through innovative offerings and unsurpassed customer service. In our 35 years of dedication to the industry, we have illustrated a commitment to growth and plan to continue expanding through acquisitions of dealerships and personnel to meet the increasing needs of our customers. Porsche of Peoria is a proud sponsor of St Jude Children's Research Hospital. We will donate a portion of the proceedes' from all car sales to St Jude Children's Research Hospital.
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Out-lobbied: Wholesalers hogtie wineries
Winemaking has become the hip ag business in Virginia, attracting names like Kluge, Matthews, and Warner. Despite its cachet and heady bouquet, winemaking got clobbered January 26 in a House of Delegates subcommittee vote, thanks to the powerful Virginia Wine Wholesalers Association.
"That's because we don't have the money the distributors do," says Bill Moses, chairman of the Virginia Wine Board and CEO of Kluge Estate Vineyard and Winery.
Skip the politics for a moment. At issue is whether Virginia's 107 wineries can bypass the middleman and continue to distribute their own wine– as they have done for the past 26 years.
A federal court ruled last year that the Virginia law allowing wineries to do their own wholesaling discriminated against out-of-state wineries. A new law, HB 1288, might have leveled the playing field by allowing out-of-state wineries to deliver wine in Virginia.
Wine wholesalers, however, fought for their turf, and a General Assembly subcommittee voted 4-1 against the bill January 26.
"I'm a little dismayed, with all the support at the association level– it was so summarily dismissed," says Sarah Gorman, business manager at Cardinal Point Winery in Afton. She had assumed that with the backing of groups like the Virginia Retail Merchants Association, the B&B and Restaurant Association, the Agricultural Council, the Farm Bureau, Virginia Hospitality and Travel, and the winery and vineyard associations, the bill's passage would be a shoo-in.
"The only group speaking against it was the wholesalers," says Gorman, adding, "They gave quite a bit of money."
In fact, the Virginia Wine Wholesalers Association donated over $165,000 to legislators last year, nearly 20 times the $8,650 given by the wineries, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. And the wholesalers were way ahead when it came to schmoozing with delegates.
When Gorman headed to Richmond to lobby, she kept hearing, "We've seen a lot of the wholesalers, but haven't seen the wineries," she says.
Wine Wholesalers lobbyist Charles Duvall did not return phone calls by press time– he was busy over at the Capital, according to his office.
Winery officials say the wholesalers fear any loosening of the three-tier system– the triumvirate of producer/distributor/retailer– mandated since the repeal of Prohibition.
"Essentially it's a state-legislated monopoly," says Moses. "It adds to the cost of wine to the retailers and consumers."
Thanks to the Farm Winery Act of 1980, Virginia farm wineries have been legally self-distributing for nearly 26 years. Not only has this system not hurt the wholesale industry, Moses says, it's enabled the Virginia wine industry to flourish.
"It's not a pretty picture for the fastest growing agricultural business in the state to preserve a monopoly– a highly profitable one at that," says Moses of the wholesalers.
White Hall Vineyards produces about 6,000 cases of wine a year and distributes about one-third of that itself. Proprietor Tony Champ describes how his business would be affected without self-distribution. He makes $10 on a $15 bottle that he delivers directly to a wine shop in town. If he has to pay a distributor, he makes $7 on the same bottle.
"You do the math," he says. "You'll see that's about $40 a case times 2,000 cases. That equals $80,000. That's profit coming off the bottom line. That's hard for a small business." And White Hall is larger than the median winery, which sells just 2,500 cases a year.
Delegate Watkins Abbitt, who represents a piece of Albemarle, was the only subcommittee member to vote for HB 1288. The day before it went to the full committee, he was predicting defeat– unless he could broker a compromise. "The wholesalers," he observes, "are a pretty powerful lobby."
A three-hour meeting January 30 produced compromises that essentially maintained versions of the three-tiered system by, say, allowing wineries to let relatives become their distributors, according to Moses.
"They say you can do indirectly what you can't do directly," he adds.
Moses scoffs at the idea that wineries from California will drive wine across the country to sell in Virginia, calling it a "bugaboo" from the wine wholesalers. "Guys from North Carolina might drive to Danville," he allows. "Think they're going to drive to Fairfax?"
Meanwhile, the state still gets its taxes and the consumer gets more choice. "We're arguing for more competition," Moses says. "They're arguing for less competition."
He predicts the matter ultimately will be decided in court: "In the end, it'll take a lawsuit to destroy the three-tier system. It's an anachronism."
The bill was to go before the full House Committee on General Laws, but on the afternoon of January 31, sources said the bill was dead until lawmakers meet again next year. Moses doesn't sound like he wants to wait that long.
"We'll have more of a chance to present our case in court," he says, "than at the General Assembly."
This was William Moses before courts ruled winery-to-retailer sales illegal.


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You stapled them and the people probably just ripped it out and threw the contents away or they ripped it and lost some of the contents. Just manually send them in this time and make sure they get every single document instead of taking the time to post the problem here. Also, how much is it going to your law school? Right now my parents are paying 45k out of pocket for me to go to a private institution. If I do go to an Ivy League then it would be too much money for my parents to cover out of pocket + having to lease me an apartment added with monthly income of around 3,500 so I can live off of that month-to-month, which is not much.
I sent my Student Aid Application, Federal Tax return and W-2 in early March of this year. I finally got news back today from my law school saying that they received my Application and FAFSA but not my Tax Return or my W-2. I do not understand how this could happen. I sent all my documents in together and they obviously got my application just not the documents that were stapled to it? On top of that, I have been calling the financial aid office all day and cannot get ahold of anyone. I tried to find an e-mail for the financial aid office but was unable to. My plan currently is to make copies of my W-2 and Federal Tax return and sending them a copy everyday until they admit that they have received them or tell me what is wrong with my application.I am upset and frustrated. Has anyone else had similar issues with their Student Aid Office? This seems super fishy to me.
I got enough love. Blame obst.


text: Titan is one of the solar system's coldest places, but that hasn't stopped Saturn's largest moon from being incredibly dynamic. A collection of 13 new studies about Titan show previously undetected craters and river deltas, and provide improved maps of its surface and interior. They also reveal new details about the moon's mysterious 29.5-Earth-year-long seasonal cycle (the equivalent of one year on Saturn, which orbits the sun at a distance of 890 million miles). "We're really starting to see quite a lot of profound changes on Titan," said planetary scientist Ralph Lorenz at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. "We're learning things now that you could only learn after years of repeat observations." The findings come from nearly 8 years of observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in the Saturn system. Lorenz both co-authored and edited studies in the new collection published January 2012 in Planetary and Space Science. Browse through some of the most exciting findings about Titan in this gallery. Image: A false-color view of haze and clouds Titan's north pole on Dec. 22, 2006. (Planetary and Space Science/NASA)Seasonal Shifts Throughout most of Cassini's tour of Saturn, which began in July 2004, hazy clouds made of ethane and methane shrouded Titan's lake-covered north pole. "Then in 2009, the [haze layer] dropped like a brick," Lorenz said. "Until now it's been winter up there. We can start looking with Cassini's optical and infrared instruments, so it's always an ongoing discovery." The dynamic atmospheric veil, shown in the above series of snapshots mapped onto partial radar images, has already granted Cassini better looks at its polar lakes fed by summer and spring rains on Titan. Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/CNRS/LPGNantesNew Craters Impact craters left by asteroids, comets and meteorites are useful tools in understanding how a planet's surface has aged and eroded. Planetary scientists first identified a strange, ring-shaped feature (above and right) called Paxsi on Aug. 25, 2009 in Cassini spectrometer data. It wasn't until this year, however, that planetary scientists verified that the 75-mile-wide object was indeed an ancient impact crater. Elsewhere on Titan, researchers have found other new impact craters using Cassini's radar sweeps of the moon. The pair below (dark circles) support notions that Titan's surface is between 1 billion and 200 million years old. "In total, these observations suggest that Titan has a relatively 'young' surface, and that something more than erosional processes has been acting there to reduce the number of observed craters," Lorenz and others wrote in a study of the crater pair. Images: Planetary and Space Science*/NASA*Hydrocarbon Lakes and Rivers One of Titan's most curious features is its collection of lakes and rivers filled with liquid hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane. Such compounds are found in natural gas on Earth, but Titan receives little more than 1 percent of the solar intensity received by Earth. As a result, surface temperatures hover around -291 degrees Fahrenheit and cause the compounds to condense into liquid. In 2016, with NASA's pending approval, Lorenz and others hope to launch a nuclear-powered robotic boat called Titan Mare Explorer, or TiME (right), to the Sea of Ligeia (above). To help select the best splashdown point in that Lake Superior-sized body of liquid hydrocarbons, Lorenz and two other researchers led a study to model its depths, tides and and currents (below). Images: 1) NASA/JPL 2) NASA/JPL 3) Simulated depth in meters, left, and currents, right, in the Ligeia Mare situated near Titan's north pole. (Planetary and Space Science/NASA)New Surface Map Because Titan is a hazy world, with an atmosphere about twice as thick as Earth's, it's difficult for astronomical instruments to image its surface in visible light. By creatively combining several sets of image data, however, researchers cut through the haze and create the most accurate visible-light map of Titan yet (above). Although the new map has a false-color purple hue, the results suggest Titan's surface would appear a drab gray to human eyes (below). Images: Planetary and Space Science*/NASA*Titan's Chilly Interior During Cassini's fly-bys, the spacecraft has taken enough local gravity measurements for researchers to extrapolate what lies below its surface. "Only in the last year or so has Doppler [radio tracking] been able to accurately measure Titan's gravitational field," Lorenz said. "This gives you information on how mass is distributed inside Titan." The latest results support the existence of onion-like layers below the chilly moon's surface, including a water-ice crust, subsurface ocean, a shell of high-pressure ice and a rocky interior. However, the core may not be as cold and dense as previously believed and probably contains more sulfur than expected. "We assumed rock sank to the middle of a dense core, but it seems a little more evenly distributed than that now," he said. Image: A.D. Fortes/UCL/STFC


text:
About TOEFL
Everything You Need to Know about TOEFL
Introduction to TOEFL
Are you looking for information about the TOEFL? If you are, then you need to be aware that this is an English test that will assess the ability of an individual in Academic English. There will be four sections in the examination that the candidate will have to work on. The ETS has not just designed the test but they are also administering it. The highest score that a person can get in this test is 120 and generally, 90 is considered to be a good score. Colleges and universities located in English-speaking nations refer to the result of this test at the time of screening candidates from non-English speaking nations. There are two kinds of this test. One is the Internet-based Test and the other is the Paper-based Test. You can choose one that you would prefer, depending on the location you are in.
Sections in TOEFL
- Reading: This is one of the first sections that you will have to work on. In the Internet-based Test (iBT), you will find that there will be 3 to 4 passages on academic topics and each of them will have around 700 words. After each passage, you will find questions relating to the same that you will have to work on. You need to finish this section in 60 to 80 minutes. In the paper-based test (PBT), the reading comprehension will have 50 questions that you will have to work on and the time given to you to finish this is 55 minutes. To score high, make sure you get a good idea about this section so that you will know how to handle the questions effectively.
- Listening: In the iBT, you will find there are six audio recordings and questions relating to the same. Each recording will have around 5 to 6 questions that you will have to work on and you will be given 60 to 90 minutes to complete these. In the PBT, the Listening section will have three parts with a total of 50 questions that you will have to answer in 30 to 40 minutes.
- Speaking: The speaking section is only found in the Internet-based Test (iBT) and not the Paper-based Test (PBT). It consists of six tasks where four are integrated and two are independent. The candidate will have to listen to conversation or lecture in the two integrated tasks and then answer a question based on the recording. In the other two integrated tasks, he will have to either read a short passage or listen to a lecture or conversation before answering a question that will be asked. Lastly, the independent tasks are those where there will be opinion questions on common topics.
- Structure and Written Expression: This section is only found in the PBT and here, the candidate will have to work on twenty-five exercises where he will have to point out errors. Additionally, there will be fifteen more exercises where he will have to complete sentences correctly. He will be given twenty-five minutes to work on this section.
- Writing: If you are collecting information regarding this test, you will know that this is the last section of this test. In iBT, there are two tasks and these are the independent and integrated tasks. In the independent task, the candidate will have to write an essay that will support his opinion on a certain topic. In the integrated task, he will have to read a passage and then listen to the speaker discuss the same. He will then have to write based on what he has heard. In PBT, the candidate will have to write an essay of 250 to 300 words approximately. The total time in iBT for this section is 50 minutes and in PBT it is 30 minutes.
Do Remember...
With thousands of educational institutions around the world using the result of this test as a tool to screen the students at the time of application, it is important that you get a high score. This is the reason why you need to know everything about this test so that you will be in the position to get a good score.


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Washington, District Of Columbia, United States
- Overview
- Team
- Activities
NewsiT's mobile and social platform verifies original crowd-sourced content in real time to help media, campaigns and brands attract targeted and committed consumers.
End-users get more relevant and accurate real time information – and valuable conversations with other users. People connect around interests they have in common to create, verify and share original content. NewsiT's mobile, tablet and web crowd-sourcing apps enable anyone to report and share key story elements in text, video and photos. NewsiT algorithms, rating and reputation scoring systems and fact-checkers interact with smart NewsiT communities to guarantee veracity, quality, relevance and influence.
NewsiT drives early and recurring revenue by licensing its technology, processes and crowd-sourcing software to media, campaigns and brands to help them retain and attract highly-targeted and committed consumers. A 'plug & play' mobile SDK and web API provides NewsiT partners with a crowd-reporting user interface customizable by topic, location, and style – powered by sophisticated algorithms and processes to vet, validate and reward both original contributions and raw content mined from Twitter, YouTube and other sources. Partners bring their existing users into NewsiT communities, while attracting new users via the NewsiT platform. NewsiT scales by enabling self-propelling communities worldwide, monetized by targeted contextual advertising and sponsorship.
Who wins? Consumers - and the brands, businesses, media, affinity groups and others that want to reach them 24/7.
NewsiT is a distributed solution that scales across multiple verticals worldwide with two primary sources of revenue:
— Step 1 - Platform Licensing Fees: Media, brands, affinity groups, agencies and businesses license our technology (algorithms, business processes, consumer-facing mobile/tablet/web APIs and analytics) to get quality content, reduce costs, grow, retain and reward users, and open new revenue streams as consumers move mobile.
— Step 2 – Sponsorship & Advertising: Partners bring their own pre-existing online networks and marketing to help NewsiT scale self-propelling communities aggregated by shared interest, creating a an efficient and effective market for sponsors and advertisers to target specific users cross-platform around valuable verticals.
NewsiT has the right team to deliver on a strong plan: CEO and founder Melinda Wittstock is a proven entrepreneur, results driver, social media expert and award-winning journalist. From the Times of London, BBC, CNBC to Capitol News Connection and NewsiT, she's driven traffic, revenue and ratings, built teams and businesses, sold licensing deals and advertising, and sweated many a payroll. Her team includes talented engineers across iOS, Ruby and Big Data, including CTO Craig Zingerline,and proven revenue drivers like Matt Prohaska, former SVP of Digital Advertising at AOL, who has sold or managed teams selling $2.5BN of advertising in 12 years. Advisers include Duncan Work, former Chief Scientist of LinkedIn, and Kevin Survance, former CTO of MapQuest.
NewsiT is on track to close licensing deals Q1 2013 worth $100,000 in the quarter – with a substantial pipeline of committed media, affinity and other customers.
Market trends heavily favor NewsiT prospects as social becomes 'interest' and 'trust' focused, and a $100BN annual US news advertising spend (and other vertical ad budgets addressed by NewsiT's focus on consumer, health, small business, politics, environment, etc)– moves online/mobile. Mobile represents a $20BN+ opportunity in the US (KPCB). More than 107m Americans have smart-phones and 55m+ own tablets, with 25% getting news via mobile.
Consumers are migrating away from traditional media and creating their own content and relationships focused on what interests them. But much of this content is unreliable, irrelevant and repetitive and media, brands, and affinity groups lack efficient means to verify user-generated content made ubiquitous by social networks. Media groups are unable to sustain quality or respond quickly to the mobile migration of consumers given cost pressures. NewsiT provides an 'end-to-end' integrated solution that enables partners to grow/retain users, cut costs and boost revenue.
No other company has found an automated and scalable way to create and validate user-generated content of trust and personal relevance in real time at low cost. NewsiT is differentiated from other user-generated sites (NowPublic, AllVoices, Newsvine, CNN iReport, Reddit), social curating platforms (Flipboard, Instapaper, Storify, Flud), aggregators (Feedly, Prismatic, Google News, Pulse) and destination sites, by being first to:
— Deploy pattern recognition, predictive, natural language and other algorithms to real-time validation of raw content and source reputation
— Incentivize and reward user posts via reputation scoring, rating, game layer & recognition
— Create network effects around content creation and systems for trusted reciprocal conversation
— Cut through 'information overload' to unearth nuggets of valuable information 'gold'
NewsiT is raising $3mm in Series A. Proceeds will be used primarily for Go to Market Execution (hiring and support for key sales/BD, engagement and revenue generating personnel) and Platform Enhancement ('Next Gen' Algorithms & Processes, iPad and Android SDK, ongoing UX improvements and implementation of 'reputation scoring' systems).
There are two primary sources of revenue:
— Platform Licensing: We solve a major problem for media, brands and businesses. They license our technology – algorithms, innovative business processes, consumer-facing mobile/tablet/web SDK and analytics – to get quality content, reduce costs, grow and retain users and open new revenue streams as consumers move mobile.
— Sponsorship: Partners harness existing users to help build NewsiT 'communities of interest' for sponsors and brands to target cross-platform across valuable verticals around reliable quality content.
No meaningful company has found an automated and scalable way to apply big data analytics, crowd-sourcing software and a social game layer to validate raw user-generated content in real time to create original, quality news of personal relevance at low cost.
NewsiT is differentiated from other user-generated sites (NowPublic, AllVoices, Newsvine, RawPower, CNN iReport and others), social curating platforms (Flipboard, Instapaper, Storify, Flud), aggregators (Feedly, Google News, Pulse, Trove, News 360 and many others) and destination sites, by being the first to:
— Deploy big data analytics, pattern recognition and other algorithms to real-time editing/QA across social media and its own platform
— Incentivize and reward user contribution via reputation scoring & game layer
— Cut through the social information overload to identify the valuable nuggets of actionable, relevant information
- Create powerful network effects around content creation and collaboration, as well as a powerful automated user acquisition tool.


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Electrodes 3 Corners
Discussion in 'Rate My Deck' started by K1LL3RxP0P7aRt, Feb 11, 2012.


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VANCOUVER — Often heralded as Vancouver's most successful tech startup, Hootsuite attracted uncharacteristically negative attention online this weekend as criticism mounted on social media networks over the company's use of unpaid interns.
The firestorm started Friday as a post decrying the practice as exploitative and potentially illegal under the provincial labour code soon began attracting hundreds of comments on the popular news and entertainment site Reddit.
By Friday night, original poster Ryl had added a series of screenshots detailing the company's scrubbing of its website in response to the ongoing backlash from tech-savvy users.
The reddit thread alleges Hootsuite removed all reference to the lack of pay for eight internship opportunities in the careers section of its website.
Gone was the paragraph asking potential interns to commit to three months of work "Monday to Friday with core hours of 9 a.m. -5 p.m. and that the role is unpaid."
A link was also posted to a 2011 guest post with Hootsuite's community marketing director Dave Olson, where he states the company's interns are never asked to get coffee but are almost always unpaid.
"Opinions throughout the industry differ on this point, but it's your choice to make. Just ensure you are clear about the terms from the beginning," the post states. "If you don't have budget, let them know and explain the types for benefits they'll receive from their efforts: Internships are valuable learning experiences and a great way to get a foot in the door of competitive industries."
"Since your Interns are non-paid, you want to ensure you provide some career assistance when they need it," the post goes on to say. "This starts with a LinkedIn recommendation and well-thought-out letter.
"Plus send a Tweet publicly to thank them and recommend them to other companies and offer yourself as a reference for jobs."
Hootsuite's CEO Ryan Holmes responded to the online outrage in an emailed statement Sunday.
"Recently, I learned about some concerns that a few of our internship job postings may not be in compliance with the local laws," Holmes wrote. "I appreciate those who have taken the time to bring this to our attention and we will immediately review this internally.
"When we created the internship program, I believed we were doing the right thing by offering the opportunity for young people to add experience to their resume and join a Vancouver success story. If we learn these internships are not compliant, we will fix it."
The statement added that over half of the interns in the past year went on to full-time paid positions at the company.
"Our legal review indicates that no more than 15 (of) HootSuite's interns in the past twelve months may be affected by the unpaid internship guidelines and will be reviewed by our team," Holmes wrote at the end of the statement. "As I have always been a strong part of our local technology industry, I am committed to find a solution that is fair for everyone involved."
In British Columbia, an internship is defined by law as "on-the-job training offered by an employer to provide a person with practical experience."
"Often internships are offered to persons who have completed a diploma or degree program and are seeking employment," says an online government guide to the Employment Standards Act and Regulations. "Completing an internship does not itself result in an academic certificate or diploma.
"An apprentice is being trained while working for an employer and as such is performing work and must be paid wages."
These wages must be at least $10.25 an hour, B.C.'s minimum wage, and an intern must be paid the same wages and benefits a normal employee would receive for doing the identical job.
The act differentiates internships from practicums, which are part of a formal education process and don't necessarily have to be paid.


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High fidelity, premium quality. Wherever you go.
Fidelio L2 headphones with mic combine the highest standards in sound and comfort for an authentic listening experience. Expertly engineered for natural sound as faithful to the original as possible. Exquisitely crafted for lasting comfort.
Product features
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Universal remote, mic, 6.3mm adapter and pouch.
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Premium design in aluminum, real leather, protein leather and fabric.
Our acoustics engineers have designed the Fidelio L2 to account for all the minute details that affect how listeners hear sound, such as how the ear reflects sound and resonates in response. We've also drawn on extensive research with discriminating listeners to discover the true, balanced sound characteristics they prefer. The results is that these headphones have been engineered to reproduce sound as faithful to the original as possible and attuned to modern recording styles.


text: When it comes to focusing on body image and self esteem the media often discusses how this impacts women in negative ways. There's not a whole lot out there that focuses on men and their self image. Bigger, stronger, faster is a documentary that tries to do exactly that. By talking to various body builders, weight lifters and athletes we find that there exists this childhood yearning in some grown men to become the superheroes that they read about and admired when they were children. But what if those superheroes became number one by injecting themselves with anabolic steroids? If you found out that your favorite athlete was taking anabolic steroids would that change your opinion of him or her? Would you think of them as cheaters? These are some of the questions that this documentary tries to answer along with why people feel the need to alter their bodies to feel good about themselves. Check out the trailer below and if you like it, our library has two copies on dvd.


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The Lipscomb Bisons weren't prematurely counting on a drive to the Atlantic Sun Tournament Championship and the automatic NCAA berth they had been seeking since the first day of practice. But while almost every game is in doubt until the final buzzer they also didn't count on Mercer to derail their plans in the quarterfinals Thursday night in the nightcap of the A-Sun Tournament .
Mercer, the No. 5 seed stopped the Bisons, the No. 4 seed, 73-63 on Mercer''s home court here at the University Center. It was the second loss by the Bisons to Mercer in the last six days. The Bisons lost their regular season finale here 68-67 Feb. 26.
Ironically, the last time a No. 4 seed beat a No. 5 seed was in 2009 when Lipscomb beat Campbell 82-52.
This is the second year in a row the Bisons have lost in the first round.
The Bisons struggled to get any sort of inside game going. Only 11 of their 19 field goals were made inside the three-point arc. Lipscomb coach Scott Sanderson had been stressing consistency in practice, but he did not see it against Mercer.
"We started out battling in the second half, but we never put enough quality possessions back-to-back offensively or defensively," Sanderson said. "That has what has plagued us all season long. We haven't put consecutive possessions together back-to-back on either end of the court."
Center Adnan Hodzic, playing his last game for the Bisons, only had two points and two rebounds in the first half. He finished with nine points, but did grab a game-high seven rebounds.
Guard Jordan Burgason kept the Bisons in the game, hitting four of his nine three-point attempts.
"Mercer played very well," Sanderson said. "They took away our inside presence. That's why we took so many threes the first half.
"We got some good looks in the first half. Brian Wright and Michael Teller had seven great looks at the basket but they just couldn't make them."
The Bisons started out hot hitting a trio of three-points to take a 9-6 lead. Guard Josh Slater, Burgason and guard Jacob Arnett each scored from beyond the arc.
But Mercer pulled ahead 11-9 and never trailed in the game again. At the half the Bears held a 38-27 edge as Langston Hall hit jumper with one second left.
"I felt like our guys battled the whole time, but the last two minutes of the first half really hurt us," Sanderson said. "It was 31-27 and they scored seven straight points."
Mercer capitalized at the free throw line, hitting 24-of-26, a 92.3 success rate. The Bisons hit 17-of-27, a 63 percent rate.
"They made the free throws down the stretch," Sanderson said. "We cut it to seven at one point in the second half, but we could never get it to a workable margin. They kept us at bay by hitting all of the free throws."
From the field Mercer shot 43.1 percent while the Bisons hit at a 33.9 percent rate.
The Bears also held a seven-rebound advantage on the boards, 39-32, while the Bisons had a 12-11 edge in offensive rebounds.
"We didn't execute and they did," Slater said. "We missed 10 free throws, and I missed five, and they missed two. If you are going to win the conference tournament you can't shoot 63 percent from the line like we did.
"They also out-rebounded us. You are not going to win, especially on a team's home court, if you control those stats."
Slater led the Bisons with 18 points as he also played his last college game. Burgason finished with 15.
The Bisons finished the season with a 17-13 record.
Written by Mark McGee, Senior Publisher/Director of Media Relations.


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FREE Weekly Behavior Chart (Happy Kids)
How to use the weekly chart
This happy kids weekly behavior chart is designed for focusing on several activities or behaviors during the course of one week. A variety of goals can be entered for each day, and you can decide how many you want to include. The weekend days are combined into one day to give the child a chance to easily fill that section.
Our Getting Started with Behavior Charts article has some simple tips on how to use the chart.
How to download this weekly chartWe offer two different versions of this chart:
Basic version: Enter your name and email address below (if prompted) to access the basic version of this chart.
Premium version (Recommended): To access a special version that can be personalized (you can type directly into the chart to customize it), start your FREE 30-day premium membership. Signup is quick and easy and gives you full access to all of our premium charts plus many other benefits! Existing premium members can login here.
Want to be sure your behavior chart efforts are successful?
See Behavior Charts to the Rescue! This proven, popular guide does 3 things: (1) helps you select the best charts to use; (2) gives lots of ideas for low-cost rewards, and (3) troubleshoots common situations. Learn the secrets to success with our behavior charts guide for parents and teachers. Satisfaction guaranteed.


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Apple's 2017 1st Quarter Results as Viewed Outside the Reality Distortion Field
Apple has been a money printing press for the last decade. At the behest of the late Steve Jobs, they have had one key, core ability that no other company has been able to match. No, it definitely wasn't innovation or engineering. It was... the RDF. The Reality Distortion Field! For some reason, when normal people look at Apple hardware or financials, they don't see reality, they see Reality Distooooorrrrtion! But before we get to that, let's see what all of the smart people in the financial world had to say...
Stress Test on Banks' Earnings Facing the Veritaseum UltraCoin Value Transaction Platform
My last post on the topic of disintermediation during a paradigm shift was Wall Street Should Be First To Invest In Reggie Middleton's UltraCoin, Much Of It Won't Be Here In 10 Years! I clearly illustrated the potential for growth of Bitcoin related companies and cited statistics for the transformation of the financial industry as we know it today.
This post introduces long form research from the analysts at Veritaseum, the same team that brought you the hard hitting BoomBustBlog research. The first page of the report says it all - "Stress Test on Banks' Earnings Facing the Veritaseum UltraCoin Value Transaction Platform".
Excerpts from deeper into the report...
And of course the inevitable... What happens when a less expensive product is introduced into the market with similar or superior attributes? Margin Compression! We analyzed three big Wall Street banks, starting with the "Riskiest Bank on the Street" (time permitting, reference our hard hitting, prescient research from early 2008).
I invite all to download the free Veritasuem Research Report for July 2014. I also invite all to meet me for the soft beta launch of Veritaseum's UltraCoin Value Trading Platform in my suite at the Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago, the evening of Saturday July 19th (this is also the weekend of The North American Bitcoin Conference in Chicago, where I will be speaking on the topic of money center bank disintermediation.
You will get to touch, play with and trade value via UltraCoin. Below is a screenshot of UltraCoin running on a Mac. I will also be taking applications for large scale beta testers and entities who wish to have customized value trading solutions created for them.
Bitcoin (and Apple) Mythbusting 101
Yesterday, I did a radio interview with Benzinga. In it I busted myths about Apple, Bitcoin and Coins in general (ABCs). Listen to the interview below and the info sheets afterwards and let me know if you knew this stuff was possible with today's tech - and Apple!
As for Apple...
And more on http://Ultra-Coin.com...
Why am I so bullish on Bitcoin? Note: this is not an offer to buy or solicitation for securities and is presented for illustrative purposes only.
As we roll out Veritaseum's UltraCoin ZeroTrust Smart Contracts, I'll be posting much more on "the new way of doing business".
Media Exposure
- Reggie Middleton Intro
- How Reggie Middleton's Start-up Patented The Future of Global Finance!
- Reggie Middleton on Wikipedia
- Who is Reggie Middleton?
- Bitcoin is not just digital currency. It's Napster for finance.
- Reggie Middleton's UltraCoin @ NYC CryptoCurrency Convention
- Reggie Middleton Wins CNBC Stock Draft for the 2nd time in a row - with the same stock
Margin Compression Is Coming in the Payment Processing Space As $100 Million Pours Into Startups
After an interesting discussion with those in my laboratory, I've decided to apply the forensic analysis team from BoomBustBlog to the privately funded companies in the Bitcoin space. See my post from yesterday for much of the reason why.
As clearly predicted yesterday, the better funded of the payment processors will initiate a pricing blood bath they'd likely kill for...
From PayPal's subsite on Mass Payments:
As you can see, PayPal has already imbued its service with much of the attributes that are being offered by the Bitcoin payment processors. They also have a material advantage as of right now, a massive installed base.
I also cannot emphasize enough how damaging the all too necessary customer service option is to margins. You see, the problem is most service companies don't put enough into customer service and handholding of the customer. From an optimal perspective, this should actually be part of the marketing and sales process, but it's often either non-existent or implemented as an after thought after enough customers start bitching and complaining, or worse yet (and likely most often the case) leaving!
As a company with mature management, it appears as if PayPal is trying to head this off at the pass as it attempts to change consumer behavior and prod them into adopting its new electronic currency payment system...
Now, let's compare PayPal to the newly funded Bitcoin payment processors...
Funding Rounds (3) - $32.50M
- See more at: http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/bitpay#sthash.yvlqpNtr.dpuf
An interesting departure from the per transaction/fee model, Bitpay implemented a subscription system which benefits those customers who perform a large quantity of relatively small transactions moreso than those who process large orders.
I calculate Bitpay's most recent $30 million series A round to have been at around 9.2x sales, valuing the company at $160 million. This is a guestimate, of course, since I do not have access to internal numbers.
Next we have Coinbase...
Funding Rounds (3) - $31.70M
- See more at: http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/coinbase#sthash.CD8IPTp6.dpuf
There's also Circle, founded by Mr. Allaire of Coldfusion fame (sold to Adobe Systems).
Funding Rounds (2) - $26M
- See more at: http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/nfc-direct#sthash.dd0DaxHc.dpuf
Circle has not publicly launched yet but promises to bring a new level of simplicity and user-friendliness to the bitcoin payment ecosystem, concentrating more on a banking paradigm then the technical bent that bitcoin is known to represent. This is all you need ot know about the Circle business model as it relates to this discussion of impending margin compression...
Free=Margin Compression!
Let's see how this plays out for customers. The most lucrative segments for this industry is the SME (small and medium business enterprises) who process anywhere between 10 and 1,000 transactions per month. Why? Because there are simply more SMEs than they are big companies in the world. Let's see what the two biggest bitcoin processors look like when stacked up against PayPal's Mass Pay product for the SME market...
Of course, the Bitcoin transactions are likely a loss leader for additional, value added services for many companies in the not too distant future. As a matter of fact, I feel that the payment space will quickly become commoditized by Bitcoin technology - forcing these companies and many more (I'm talking about you Mastercard, Visa and Western Union) to innovate and offer significantly and materially better value for the buck.
Imagine what this competitive landscape will look like when Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Discover and Western Union jump into the fray. Of course, before that a much greater portion of the VC and private equity community will wake up and realize the opportunity in Bitcoin to pour more cash into it than sugar into a Bubble gum machine (emphasis on "Bubble"). The key is to get in early, and get in right. But how does one do that and where will this tale of uber margin compression end?
Well, the research report from which this info is being prepared will be offered to accredited and instituional investors starting next week, at least those who have an interest in UltraCoin.
My next article on this topic will explicitly illustrate how UltraCoin can assist ALL players (that's right, including PayPal, Bitpay, Circle, Coinbase, Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Discover and Western Union) as well as their direct customers, in climbing up both the food chain and the value proposition ladder - thus rapidly repairing the margin compression damage they are about to bring upon thier business models.
Payment Processors, Patents and a Dollop of Healthy Paranoia
Reggie Middleton discussion UltraCoin at the 2014 FinTech conference at Dechert LLP.
Coindesk asks "Do Patent Filings from eBay and Western Union Pose a Threat to Bitcoin?" I feel the question is in and of itself missing the point. To explain this fully, I have to share a little bit about myself, particularly my weaknesses. I'm the type of person who is very knowledgeable about his strengths and his weaknesses, but sometimes I don't see my strength for what it is, and that is tantamount to a weakness in a highly competitive environment.
Case in point, in discussing whether or not competing patents have been filed for smart contract transacion processes by those who seek to be in my space with my contract engineer (a very skilled software architect and IP attorney), I displayed what I considered a healthy level of paranoid concern. I found it hard to believe that no one bothered to patent the most innovative, disruptive and groundbreaking aspect of this new crop of digital currencies - the ability to program them. As those who follow me know, I've spent a lot of resources developing, designing, refining and patenting advanced smart contracts (see How Reggie Middleton's Start-up Patented The Future of Global Finance!). I actually found it highly unlikely that no one had come up with this idea before me. Matt (my contracts engineer) said, "You know, it actually takes an uncanny amount of vision to have seen the scope of this stuff and act upon it, not to mention to have done so 6 months ago. Not many people are like you." Right then and there, it hit me. People really do not see things the way I do!
Most know me from my prescient calls in banking, finance, real estate and tech (see Who is Reggie Middleton?). I've demonstrated a knack for seeing future trends and determining when things (such as valuations and opportunities) are out of whack. With that being said, the big media interest in Bitcoin combined with the increasing VC interest in Bitcoin companies (reference BitPay Gets $30 Million in Venture Capital Funding) is a very good thing for the industry, but also illustrates shortsigtedness in both the investment community and many practitioners.
The problem with the processors...
When bitcoin is as easy as PayPal to use then it will be on the path to mass adoption, but to assume that's the most lucrative path to take in bitcoin company private equity investment begs the wrong question. Here's the strategic landscape as I see it.
Bitcoin is very inexpensive to use as a transfer agent. A transaction may be safely sent without fees if these conditions are met (this is excerpted directly from the Bitcoin Wiki, verbatum):
- It is smaller than 1,000 bytes.
- All outputs are 0.01 BTC or larger.
- Its priority is large enough
Otherwise, the reference implementation will round up the transaction size to the next thousand bytes and add a fee of 0.1 mBTC (0.0001 BTC) per thousand bytes. Note that a typical transaction is 500 bytes, so the typical transaction fee for low-priority transactions is 0.1 mBTC (0.0001 BTC), regardless of the number of bitcoins sent.
Bitcoin as of 5/18/2014 is $444.74m, thus the fee for this transaction is roughly 4 cents, if not outright free. If a processor is transferring $10,000 on behalf of a customer, whether at one time or 100 times throughout the course of a month, the processor's fee cost would range from $0 to $4, while the processor would likely charge (as of the date of this writing, $0 to $100). The traditional processors such a Visa or Paypal would charge hundreds (as in up to 50x more!) for the same deal!
That 25x markup on the high end is significant (even for the Bitcoin companies), and ripe for disintermediation itself (that's right, the disintermediaing agents are poised for disintermediaion). Particularly once the UX of Bitcoin evolves, as email and web browsing did, and users realize how easy and cheap it is to jump onto the blockchain and do this stuff themselves.
Even assuming users don't follow the historical model of those that left proprietary walled gardens (think AOL) and jumped directly into the open World Wide Web themselves, there are no material barriers to entry to enter into the processing business other than potentially a money transmitter license. The only material barrier, hence the business opportunity, is that Bitcoin is cumbersome to use. As the UI/UX polish increases and the amount of competitors in the space increase, the lower the prices charged - hence the margins - will be.
With such low barriers to entry and potentially humongous markups to exploit, what do you think happens next? The wild, untamed hordes of competitors swoop down upon the masses, and we have a concerted race to zero, and likely negative margin as competitors attempt to make processing a loss leader to draw users into the folds of richer, higher margin services!!!
The race to marginal zero, then negative, does not make a strong business plan. So, what do these companies such as BitPay, Coinbase, etc. do once that point is reached (rather quickly)? They look to value added (high margin) services on top of their low margin, utility-like payment infrastructures.
Enter smart contracts and the true use of programmability in the crypto-currencies. The easiest and the likely first implementation of such will be multi-sig operations which allow multiple parties to share funds without having to worry about trusting and single party in a transaction. Our ZeroTrust Letters of Credit (patent pending) is just such a product. It allows for multiple parties to tranfer payment for simple and complex transactions contingent upon the mutual agreed upon successful execution of said transactions. This is done without the parties having to:
- Know each other
- Trust each other
- Have any form of proximity to each other;
and can be done using micropayments all the way up to multi-million dollar macro payments. The barriers to this business are much higher. For one, it takes more than just programming code. You have to be able to congeal the legal logic of the conventional law in equity contract into code. You have to be able to congeal the business logic into code, and you have to be able to implement it into the blockchain or whatever other underlying transmission mechanism you choose to utilize.
Once the race to negative zero is in full swing, a few of the wiser companies will wake-up and say "Hey, there has to be a better way, and we think we found it!". It is at that point Reggie Middleton's UltraCoin products and assets will shine. It is not hard to foresee that the entrenched companies (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Western Union) may enter a bidding war with the new comers armed with material VC warchests (much more than we're seeing with $30 million investments of today - all over the guys who had the foresight to see the next evolutionary step in plain vanilla payments - smart transactions and self-executing digital contracts and transactions.
We're actively looking for financial and intellectual capital. If you, as an accredited investor, are looking for an opportunity in the higher end of the digital currency space, I think we should talk. In addition, if you are a higher level Java/C++ developer willing to take risk, we need to talk. I'm available at reggie at ultra-coin.com.
Did Money Center Bank Ignorance of CryptoCurrencies Allowed A Start-up To Patent The Future of Global Finance?
Bloomberg ran a story earlier this week illustrating the human capital flight out of the Wall Street machine and into tech:
At elite universities, fewer MBA and finance candidates are willing to even consider a life of missed weddings, busted romances and deep-into-the-night deal negotiations. The percentage of Harvard Business School graduates entering investment banking, sales or trading dropped to 5 percent last year from 12 percent in 2006, while those entering technology almost tripled to 18 percent during that period.
At the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, the percentage of MBAs entering investment banking dropped to 13.3 percent last year from 26 percent in 2006, while those entering tech more than doubled to 11.1 percent.
Those of you who have been following finance from the Wall Street/Bay Street/Canary Wharf perspective realize that this is a cyclical occurence. Basically, Wall Street falls out of favor with MBA whiz kids every ten years of so. But!!!! This time is different. This time around, Wall Street, et. al. is about to succumb to the destructive forces of technology that transformed, revolutionized, disintermediated, gutted and absolutely reinvigorated the media, news and retail industries.
That's right! The Internet Paradigm Shift has finally hit Global Finance... and it's going to hurt, and hurt a lot!
As many know, the I've poured my time and resources into a start-up by the name of UltraCoin. Many have been clamoring for white papers and details, and I have been purposely secretive about such. The reason? I needed to entrency protection from my competition - the money center banks. How did I do this? Well...
I patented the future of Global Finance!
This video illustrates my presentation to both the mainstream and alternative media as I start my capital raising rounds from venture capitalists and strategic investos alike. Check it out!
Must be willing to sign an NDA. You should be knowledgeable and competent, but we prefer grit to genius. Prima donnas need not apply.
T-Mobile Threatens Deadbeat Carriers With The Death Of The American Wireless Business Model
It started in 2012 wiith the article "Deadbeat Carrier Creative Destruction In The Ongoing Mobile Computing Wars". That's when I warned that margins in the carrier space will collapse - just as they did in the cellular handset space, as new business models and the effect if Android start to ripple and reverbrate. My latest article in the series, "The Smallest & Liveliest Of The DeadBeat Carriers Successfully Launched Wireless WMDs" detailed how T-Mobile will throw the gauntlet down and turn the wireless industry on its head - at great risk not just to margins but entire business models. To wit:
There are 4 major national carriers in the US, basically two big ones two smaller ones. The smallest of the 4, T-Mobile, consistently get beat up - losing out on the right to subsidize the iPhone at a loss (like AT&T used to and Sprint still does) and basically losing subscribers. Then they decided to do something about it. They said, "Hey, let's stop being deadbeats!". By changing their pricing plans and eliminating subsidies and instead selling pure access to their virtual pipes (like a carrier is supposed to) combined with actual "real" financing of the hardware (at competitive rates, nonetheless) they essentially committed DeadBeat Carrier Blashphemy. The only issue was, it worked, to the chagrin of the competition - reference:
Reggie Middleotns Carrier Cost Comparison
Reggie Middleotns Carrier Subsidy Cost Comparison
As a matter of fact, in Deadbeat Carriers Compete, aka #MarginCompression!!! (exactly ONE year ago), I prognosticated that T-Mobile will kick off a pricing war that will bring about the greatest savings to the wireless consumer it has seen since the birth of the industry. I even went so far as to include and online interactive spreadsheet for readers to analyze their own savings - or potential therefore.
Well, fast forward to today and we get to see if Reggie's thesis is still holding water. From the Street.com in How the Consumer Wins In the Wireless Wars:
Carriers are engaging in a price war in order to win market share, with T-Mobile's "uncarrier" plans really shaking things up. T-Mobile has been aggressively trying to grab market shares by eliminating consumer "pain points," specifically the issue of locking customers into two-year contracts. T-Mobile has been rolling out programs to entice customers to switch their carrier, with the latest three offerings announced in April, where the company under the "Simple Starter," "Tablet Freedom" and "Overage Freedom" - eliminated all domestic overage charges for consumers, even those on legacy plans. T-Mobile had announced in March 2013 its "Simple Choice" plan that offered no annual service contract and low out-of-pocket costs on smartphones.
The company must be doing something right, given its impressive first-quarter subscriber growth of 2.4 million total net customer additions for the three months, making it the "fastest growing wireless company in America," it said in its earnings release last week.
Both Verizon and AT&T are combating T-Mobile by touting payment agreements for customersthat require little to no down payment, more data, and fewer service charges when it comes to multiple phones or being able to pay for the device itself in installments as appealing features to switch over. (Check with your carrier to see the latest offers available.)
That said, it's easy for consumers to get confused by the growing array of options, but it's clear that for once, the consumer is winning since costs associated with smartphones are becoming more transparent and understandable. "This trend, combined with a wider selection of fully functional mid-range and low-end devices, should help win over the undecided consumers but also will shift the growth away from the high end," Kantar stated.
Between the first quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of this year, spending on smartphones on contracts dropped to $93 from $119, while pre-pay spending dropped to $148 from $187, Kantar said.
Now, the mainstream media and sell side analytical community is just a year (or two) late in realizing this, but better late then never, eh? Also from the Street.com we have Why T-Mobile Is Beating AT&T and Verizon:
T-Mobile US shares were surging 8.1% to $31.67 following news that larger rival Sprint was prepping plans to propose a buyout of the carrier as its impressive subscriber growth for the first-quarter shows that consumers are digging its offerings.
T-Mobile, known for its "Un-carrier" initiatives, has been aggressively trying to grab market share by eliminating consumer "pain points," specifically the issue of locking customers into two-year contracts like Verizon , Sprint and AT&T . T-Mobile has been rolling out programs to entice customers to switch their carrier, with the latest three offerings announced in April, where the company under the "Simple Starter," "Tablet Freedom" and "Overage Freedom" - eliminated all domestic overage charges for consumers, even those on legacy plans. T-Mobile had announced in March 2013 its "Simple Choice" plan that offered no annual service contract and low out-of-pocket costs on smartphones.
The company must be doing something right, given its impressive first-quarter subscriber growth.
T-Mobile reported first-quarter earnings results earlier this morning in which it boasted 2.4 million total net customer additions for the three months, which included more than 1.8 million branded net customer additions, making it the "fastest growing wireless company in America," it said in its earnings release. T-Mobile ended the quarter with 49.1 million customers, it said. On the other hand, the company experienced "record low" churn of 1.5%, down 20 basis points from the fourth quarter and down 40 basis points from the year-earlier period.
... T-Mobile actually posted a net loss of $151 million, or 19 cents a share, for the three months ending March 31, compared to a profit of $106 million, or 20 cents a share in the year-earlier quarter, according to its quarterly filing. However, revenue at the Bellevue, Wash.-based company rose 47% to $6.87 billion year over year.
... Adjusted EBITDA came in at $1.1 billion, down 12.2% sequentially, which it attributed to increased equipment sales due to the "significant acceleration in customer growth and the success of its Un-carrier 4.0 - Contract Freedom offer." Adjusted EBITDA margin was 20% compared to 24% in the fourth quarter of 2013.<story_page_break>
... T-Mobile expects branded postpaid net additions between 2.8 million and 3.3 million for the full year and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $5.6 to $5.8 billion, it said.
Althouth T-Mobile may be hard pressed to replicate that pop in revenues and subscribers, I expect the trend to continue until and unless the other carriers match it in both pricing model and marketing efforts. I doubt they will do this until it is too late. They should, but they won't. That is unfortunate for thier investors for, as T-Mobile is the smallest of the top 4 national carriers, this is Verizon/ATT/Sprint's (in that order) fight to lose!
In addition, as revenue and subscriber rate increases subside, EBITDA may level off as the switching incentive costs amortize. This is not even considering what may happen if an entrepenurial and disruptive force (ex. Google Loon offshoots) appears on the scene.
My "Hardware IS Dead" Thesis Has Now Torn Through Every Major Handset Provider
I called the Apple short before it became vogue! I called the Blackberry short beforethey became the industry whipping boy! I warned about Nokia and made clear that Samsung Will Be Ready To Do That Fruit Thing! How'd I know all of this? It's quite simple, I explained it all in 2012 - Smartphone Hardware Manufacturers Are Dead. Well, now the chickens continue to come home to roost, as per CNBC:
In order to deal with such pressures, Samsung appears to be pricing the Galaxy S5 lower than its predecessor S4, according to Kang, who has collected pre-order prices for the device from around the world.
"It reflects the trend of smart phone commoditization – Samsung will have to learn to create profits at a lower price point," Kang said.
Earlier this week, Samsung said it's on track to post its second straight quarter of profit decline, as slowing smartphone sales growth continued to weigh on earnings.
Samsung Electronics 1Q profit view just shy of estimates
The South Korean tech giant estimated that its January-March operating profit fell by 4.3 percent to 8.4 trillion won, slightly below an average forecast of 8.5 trillion won, according to Reuters.
I've created an infrastructure that significantly expands these investment markets by allowing anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection (of almost any speed) to participate in almost any of the world's public financial markets. Taking the subject matter of this article into consideration, we can short Samsung on its own home exchange of Korea for nearly any amount, from $10 million US down to $8 ...
These same young investors can even hedge thier currency translation risk with a Korean Won US dollar forex pair, for 55 basis points!
Armed with the information from simply reading my blog posts, your brothers from Haiti or Botstwana can now take short positions in these (margin)doomed hardware manufacturers - taking the other side of the trade from these big name financial institutions that don't seem to read my writings.
These are kids that I taught UltraCoin to during my trip to Haiti a couple of weeks ago. Before you assume, the kids are actually quite bright and adept at math, and yes - kdis can easily trade with UltraCoin. My kids have been doing it for months!
My UltraCoin project will nearly double the available potential investors able to profit from these markets. By making the ability to participate in multi-asset class prices moves bi-directionally (that's right, long and short) I will be increase the liquidity of said markets by almost 2 billion people, as per McKinsey:
- 2.5 billion adults, just over half of the world's adult population, do not use formal financial services to save or borrow.
- 2.2 billion of the unserved adults live in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
- Of the 1.2 billion adults who use formal financial services in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, at least two-thirds, a little more than 800 million, live on less than $5 per day (purchasing power parity adjusted).
- Regulatory and policy environments, as well as the actions of individual financial services providers, affect usage levels in a way that is, to a large extent, independent of countries' socioeconomic and demographic characteristics.
I just had the pleasure of meeting this young lady from Botswana who's trying to spearhead Bitcoin adoption in her country. I've made friends and I'm going to supply her with the means to have the whole country trading a whole variety (UltraCoin can trade more than 10,000 tickers - stocks, bonds, options, futures, indices) of financial assets very soon.
I'll leave it up to you to determine who'll win those trades. These are interesting times indeed. For those who are not aware of how far I've come in transforming the way value is traded across geo-political and socio-economic lines, I urge you to view the following video and/or peruse the embedded presentation below it.
Samsung Follows Footsteps Of Apple, HTC, Nokia - Wasn't ...
Sep 6, 2013 - Smartphone Hardware Manufacturers Are DeadNov 29, 2012 - Two and a ... BoomBustBlog Mar 7, 2013 - applecutsabreandriod3d Two and a ...
Sep 27, 2013 - Here I go again – Hardware is Dead & Samsung Agrees Featured ... raw fundamentals and margins, let's look at the newest crop of hardware.
Nov 29, 2012 - Two and a half years ago I declared in my mobile computing wars series that Google would commoditized the mobile computing space, thereby ...
Dec 10, 2012 - Last week I told the world that hardwarevendors are DEAD! At least the fat margin business modelhardware vendors (like those whose name rhymes with Snapple). ... Related BoomBustBlog Subscription-only Research:.
Goldman Sachs, the 3rd Bank Spewing Fear, Loathing & Hatred At Bitcoin: The Paradigm Shift That Makes Bankers Quake
Let's quote some of the last lines of my last article on Bitcoin: "Witness the drivel that comes out of the the analyst's reports (and yes, I thoroughly ridiculed each one):
- Theres' Something Fishy In The House Of Morgan, Pt. 2: Bitcoin Fear, Envy & Loathing
- Does the Mainstream Media Assist Wall Street In Hypocritical Hypothesis For Fear Of The Next Paradigm Shift?"
You see, first JP Morgan threw baseless fear tactics, then Citibank jumped into the fray. Well, guess whose next? Goldman Sachs, of course. Everybody's favorite fair game player. As excerpted from Business Insider today:
"Dominic Wilson and Jose Ursua of the firm's markets research division are first up. They argue that Bitcoin fails to meet both basic criteria of a viable currency: while there remains an outside chance for widespread acceptance as a medium of exchange, as a stable source of value, it has so far failed. That undermines the premise that Bitcoin could serve as a way of short-circuiting exchange rates in inflation-prone countries."
And Reggie, Chief of Bullshit Patrol & Related Crimes Division chimes in with a Google search on promintent "failed" currency processors:
But wait a minute! Goldman's business business is growing at a fraction of this pace, and actually negative in some areas. So, if Bitcoin as a currency and payment system is a failure, what the hell is Goldmam? Of course, Business Insider goes on to report...
For most users what matters is not the comparison with other currencies, but a comparison with the volatility of the currency that they hold (dollars in the US for instance) in terms of the things that they need to buy. The volatility of consumer prices (in dollars) has been even lower than FX rates, even if measured over a period including the 1970s. Put simply, if you hold cash today in most developed countries, you know within a few percentage points what you will be able to buy with it a day, a week or a year from now.
This is Bullshit! Say it to the more mathematically challenged, my bonus hungry friends. Let's run the math using theusinflationcalculator.com:
As you can see, if you measure things from the '70s as the esteemed, erstwhile Wall Street aficiaondo from Goldman recommended, then you would have less than 17% of your buying power left. Yes, bitcoin is volatile, but its volatility stems from the price going up and down, while the USD has primarily just went down. You know that saying about the frog in the slowly heated boiling pot of water, right?
In addition, both of the largest Bitcoin payment processors absorb the exchange rate volatility for their customers, or did the best of breed Goldman analysts somehow overlook this pertinent fact?
Eliminate the bitcoin volatility risk with BitPay's guaranteed exchange rates. ... Import your BitPay sales into QuickBooks, to report and reconcile your bitcoin ...
In addition, there are cutting edge products being introduced by tall, handsome, charsimatic and highly intelligent entrepeneurs who have a long track record of out gunning Goldman et. al. that allow anyone to hedge Bitcoin volatlity against any prominent fiat currency.
Back to those Goldman guys...
Wilson and Ursua include this graph showing volatility of Bitcoin versus the Argentine peso, the yen, the euro, the pound, and U.S. inflation. It's not even close.
But wait a minute! If the largest payment processors absorb the volatility and market risk of their customers, then Goldman must assuredly be referring to the currencies above from an investment perspective, no?
Yes! Bitcoin is truly volatile, indeed, but the guy at Goldman are cheating, hoping that the rest of us don't know our finance and/or basic common sense. You see, they are looking at just one side of the equation - the side that favors fiat currencies and disfavors bitcoin. You see, risk is the price of reward. For every reward you seek, you pay a price in risk. The goal, as a smart investor, is to pay little risk for much reward. Goldman is trying to make it appear as if you are paying nothing but risk for bitcoin and getting little reward in return. Let's see how that pans out when someone who knows what they're doing chimes in. From the BoomBustBlogresearch report Digital Currencies' Risks, Rewards & Returns - An Into Into Bitcoin Investing For Longer Term Horizons:
You see, with high volatility (aka, risk), it's hard to earn your cost of capital, not to menton surpass it. Isn't that right, employess of Goldman Sachs? Let me jog your collective memories, as excerpted from the BoomBustBlog post on When the Patina Fades… The Rise and Fall of Goldman Sachs???
GS return on equity has declined substantially due to deleverage and is only marginally higher than its current cost of capital. With ROE down to c12% from c20% during pre-crisis levels, there is no way a stock with high beta as GS could justify adequate returns to cover the inherent risk. For GS to trade back at 200 it has to increase its leverage back to pre-crisis levels to assume ROE of 20%. And for that GS has to either increase its leverage back to 25x. With curbs on banks leverage this seems highly unlikely. Without any increase in leverage and ROE, the stock would only marginally cover returns to shareholders given that ROE is c12%. Even based on consensus estimates the stock should trade at about where it is trading right now, leaving no upside potential. Using BoomBustBlog estimates, the valuation drops considerably since we take into consideration a decrease in trading revenue or an increase in the cost of funding in combination with a limitation of leverage due to the impending global regulation coming down the pike.
Now that we see how hard it is to truly produce Alpha, I query thee... What do you think would happen if a financial maverick, an out of the box thinker who's different from all of those other guys, got a seed round of funding for the most disruptive product to hit the finance world since the printing press? What if that seed round was for $8 million dollars, with a preferred A series coming right behind it? What would such a cash flush company do, being one of the most cash flush Bitcoin companies in the world? Hmmmnnn!!!
Speakin' of Goldman Sachs...
I anticipate being in the market very soon for (I'm not thier yet, but hopefully very soon):
CTO - Chief Technology Officer
COO - Chief Opertating Officer
General Counsel
CMO - Chief Marketing Officer
CFO - Chief Financial Officer
As well as skilled Java and Blockchain developers.
Hit me via reggie at ultra-coin.com if you have an interest in coming on board.
The Man Who Correctly Anticipated Facebook's IPO Value Knows Why Whatsapp Was Purchased
No, Facebook is not stupid for paying $19B for Whatsapp! If they didn't do it, Google would have!
No, contrary to popular pro-Facebook belief, Whatsapp is not a synergistic buy. Remember, Facebook already has a near identical application (Facebook Messenger) already used by probably hundreds of millions.
So, why did Facebook spend this money (stock)? It's quite simple and rather obvious, but my competitors in the sell side are remiss in not discussing it... Facebook is DYING as a GROWTH company! My analysis of Facebook's Q1-2013 results read much differently from all of sell side Wall Street's - The Truth About Facebook That No Media Outlet Or Analyst Has Bothered To Notice:
In my previous warnings of Facebook euphoria, I brought up the topic of growth many times, particularly active user growth. Reference The World's First Phenomenally Forensic Facebook Analysis - This Is What You Need Before You Invest, Pt 1, while remaining cognizant that this was written exactly 1 year ago:
Thus, it is highly unlikely one can legitimately factor in the type of growth needed to justify the current Goldman $50B valuation - particularly when you consider that Facebook's growth is already slowing!
Well, let's see if I had a valid point now that we have clear and convincing historical evidence from which to base our analysis... (click any of these graphics to enlarge to print quality size)c
Uh huh! Facebook is MOVING BACKWARDS! IT'S LOSING USERS! LOOK OUT BELOW!!!
At this point, I can't help myself. I MUST point out the literal rippoff that Goldman Sachs pushed as a once in a life time investment a year and a half ago. As excerpted from Facebook Registers The WHOLE WORLD! Or At Least They Would Have To In Order To Justify Goldman's Pricing: Here's What $2 Billion Or So Worth Of Goldman HNW Clients Probably Wish They Read This Time Last Week! while remaining cognizant that this was written exactly 1 year ago...
Just a day or two later I penned Facebook Is Now Relying on Developing Markets For Growth, Is It Working? Let's Delve Into The Numbers...
Facebook is a farce even with the froth taken off of the IPO price. Why? As gleaned fromInternet World Stats...
These stats are from the 2011-2012 YEAR! Growth has likely slowed more since then! Here's a tidbit for those who don't subscribe that clearly illustrates... When it sounds too good to be true, it's probably not true!
FB IPO Analysis Valuation Note Page 01FB IPO Analysis Valuation Note Page 02FB IPO Analysis Valuation Note Page 03FB IPO Analysis Valuation Note Page 04
In More Doubts About "Liking" Facebook, I referenced the following infographic from Finance Degree Center:
As luck would have it, Whatsapp is the fastest growing company (in terms of active users) in the history of technology. Whatsapp also is the messaging market leader in nearly all major developing nations.
So, what Facebook is doing is buying user growth. It's doing so because…
- Not only can it not generate said user growth organically anymore, but
- It is actually losing subscribers
How does Facebook remedy its growth problems? Well, it should be evident at this point, it's buying the growth! Of course, this begs the question, does a growth company really have to purchase growth? This is a rhetoric question, which leads to this rather painful discovery (posed as a question): If Facebook is no longer a growth company, why doesn't its valuation reflect that of a rollup instead of a growth company?
If Mr. or Mrs. Market Participant broaches this question, look out belowwwwwwwwww……
Dated Facebook analysis is available to download for all paying subscribers (FB Q4-2012 Analysis & Valuation Note - update with per share valuation). I'm available to discuss this with professional and institutional subscribers via phone or Google+. Click here to subscribe or upgrade.


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