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With everyone reading the 13fs filed last night, we see the quarterly drool-fest over what the super investors are doing. While it's interesting to see what others are buying, I find it most interesting to learn why it is they are doing that buying. Sadly, one of my favorite super investors is a man named Kevin Douglas, and he, as usual, will not be filing any planned 13fs this quarter. Who is Kevin Douglas? Odds are you probably don't know, yet over the past decade he has built one of the most impressive investment track records. Recently he has received some headlines for his thus far poor investment in American Superconconductor Corp., but even those articles reference the fact that he is little known above any other point (see the Wall Street Journal on the topic). If you do a Google Search for Kevin Douglas, it's almost astonishing how little meaty information comes up for a guy who invests tens of millions at a time right now, in the age where Big Brother (aka the Internet) is always watching.
From what I can gather, Mr. Douglas made his initial money as the founder and Chairman of Douglas Telecommunications, a VoiP company. Beyond that, little is even know about Douglas Telecom (as it is/was known) for even the company's website no longer exists. I found one old press release from the company that included a root directory phone number, but that line now leads to a perpetual busy signal. This only adds to the mystery and intrigue.
Swinging for the Fences, and Connecting
One may ask why I care, and that's a fair question. I first encountered Mr. Douglas when he made a substantial investment in IMAX as the company seemed to be in a great deal of distress amidst the financial crisis, crumbling under its debt load accrued a decade earlier during the Dot.com. IMAX caught my eye at that time, as Dark Knight emerged as a hit on the platform and the catalyst to look deeper was Mr. Douglas, already the majority holder, ponying up for more shares in an equity raise that helped pay down a substantial chunk of the company's debt load. Following that move, Mr. Douglas owned nearly 20% of the company and as a result, I dug further into Mr. Douglas' portfolio holdings and investment track-record to determine whether that was a good or bad thing.
I was pretty amazed with what I found on two fronts: first, he had an outstanding success rate, as he made money on nearly all of his investments; and second, that nearly all of his successes were home runs. In baseball terms, this was not your all-or-nothing home run machine like a Jim Thome, nor was it your dinky little singles hitter like Ichiro. This was something like Barry Bonds in 2001 where each at bat was either a walk (a pass in investment terms) or a home run (greater than 25% CAGR over a substantial stretch of time).
For the most part, the only known investments by Mr. Douglas are in situations where he has taken in excess of the 5% ownership interest reporting threshold by the SEC, and as such, any picture is inevitably incomplete. That being said, by all appearances, when Mr. Douglas invests, he buys big and keeps on buying, plus he operates a fairly concentrated portfolio in companies with market capitalizations under $1 billion. He owns enough of companies to safely say that he doesn't trade at all around the holdings, and sits tight as his money works for him. It's this last element that is particularly impressive. He sits tight amidst volatility, he sits tight holding losses, and he sits tight holding massive games. Patience is the man's best friend.
Known investment successes include Hansen Natural, now Monster Beverages, Westport Innovations, Jos. A. Bank, Stamps.com, IMAX, and SilverBirch Energy, with one seemingly large failure in American Superconductor and a remains to be seen, although losing position in Cree Inc. right now.
Monster Beverages and Westport happen to be two of the market's top performers over the last two years, and they just so happen to be two of Mr. Douglas' most noteworthy investments. In Monster Beverages, formerly Hansen Natural Corporation, Mr. Douglas bought 329,719 shares at an average price of $0.58 between 2003 and 2004. At today's share price of $109.68 that represents a 92% CAGR, having turned around $190 thousand into a sum greater than $36 million (Hat Tip to Stockpupfor the cost basis info).
With Westport Innovations, Mr. Douglas accumulated 18.5% of the company's shares, at prices between $12.95 and $20/share. Let's assume an average price of roughly $18/share (which is high if anything considering he had plenty of purchases, most of which happened below that price), that represents a 144% return over the last year and a half. Whereas Monster/Hansen generated a stellar return on a relatively small sum, Mr. Douglas put over $150 million to work in WPRT and thus far has seen an equally lucrative outcome in terms of percent return, and a far more impressive outcome in terms of gross return. Don't underestimate for a second how hard it is to double $150 million in contrast to any number in the thousands.
How Does he Do It?
Considering how little is known about Mr. Douglas, it's hard to know exactly how or what he looks for in an investment. However, I have spent a decent amount of time digging into each and all of his known investments during since 2003 and drawn several conclusions. First, it's most clear what Mr. Douglas doesn't look for. He doesn't look much at all at economic forecasts, or anything of that kind, and further, Mr. Douglas is neither a traditional "value" nor "growth" investor. In many respects, he operates far more like a venture capitalist operating in public markets, than a traditional equity strategist. Incidentally, the only clear-cut theme one can glean from his present holdings is that Mr. Douglas has a "thing" for Canada, as many of his investments are companies domiciled in Canada. Yet, that appears more of a coincidence than anything else, and is most likely reflective of the fact that many American investors turn to "sexier" countries like the BRICs when looking abroad, while ignoring our neighbor to the north.
My intuition after reviewing as many investments as I can is that Mr. Douglas first assesses a company's addressable market and then assigns probabilities based on the likelihood of the company capturing different portions of the addressable market. For example, let's say we're talking about a company with a $20 billion addressable market. He would then assign probabilities for the company to capture that market opportunity. For example, let's say there is a 20% chance that the company captures 50% of the market, a 50% chance of the company capturing 30% of the market, and a 30% chance that the company captures 10% of the market, he then calculates the weighted average of the future revenue base (.2*$10) + (.5*$6) + (.3*$2) = $5.6 billion. So long as the company is worth less than the present market capitalization grown at his target rate of return (let's say 25%), he will invest. For a $5.6 billion market opportunity five years down the road, that means Mr. Douglas will be buying so long as the company is worth less than $1.8 billion today, Mr. Douglas will be buying.
Each of these investments are positioned for some kind of secular super-trend, some of which people knowingly acknowledge and talk about, others of which Mr. Douglas is clearly early in recognizing the opportunity. All in all, there are two key elements to his analysis: first is the subjective analysis of the companies' business and market opportunity, and next is the objective mathematics, based on probabilistic outcomes and his CAGR objectives. It is in these subjective metrics that his skill is clearly superior. His ability to identify and quantify market opportunities for his portfolio companies is simply uncanny. Whether it is energy drinks, fine men's apparel, digital postage or a movie display platform, Mr. Douglas has tremendous skill at identifying the largest market opportunities, targeting the company best positioned to prosper, and quantifying the investment upside in order to make a concentrated wager. Call me impressed.
Mr. Douglas, if you're out there and reading this, I would love to get in touch with you in order to learn a little bit more about your investment background and process.
Author Disclosure: Long IMAX, CREE


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Article Courtesy of Tampa Bay Times By Mary Ellen Klas Published September 23, 2013 TALLAHASSEE — Citizens Property Insurance Corp. will be raising its rates for the third time next year and the proceeds will cover more than claims. They'll also pay attorneys' fees — now averaging an estimated $2 million each month — as policyholders battle over getting their claims paid. Between January 2011 and June 2013, Citizens spent more than $16 million on lawyers from 177 different law firms who have successfully challenged the state's largest insurance company on behalf of policyholders. Citizens collects $2.2 billion in annual premiums and has a 2013 administrative operating budget of $205 million.
Citizens president and chief executive officer Barry Gilway told the company's board of directors at its meeting on Friday that the company is undergoing an internal study to get a handle on its litigation costs. He said that 87 percent of all new litigation since January has come from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and that 56 percent of those claims allege water losses. Many water losses are denied, he said, because Citizens only covers sudden and accidental water damage, not long-term leakage. "The comprehensive review that we are doing is how do we get our arms around the significant increase in water damage losses," he said. Citizens spokesman Michael Peltier said part of the surge in lawsuits since 2010 results from disputes over sinkhole claims. "We have found that the environment has changed,'' he said, noting that in many cases mortgage companies are refusing to turn over money paid on a claim to all the parties entitled to it and so Citizens gets sued. "We are taking the time to go through and systematically determine what our litigation costs are and how it compares with what it was in the past,'' he said. "We're responding to a situation in the market and we're trying to figure out if we're responding to it in a cost-effective manner for our policyholders or not." Artiles believes the increase in water damage claims is the result of cast iron pipes failing in many older South Florida homes — losses he thinks Citizens should cover. But attorneys who make their living battling Citizens attribute the rise in litigation to a 2010 change in the Citizens policies. The board that year removed a clause that required homeowners to hire a third-party appraiser when there is a dispute over the claim. Citizens replaced it with a provision that allows Citizens to decide what should be appraised, not the policyholder. Ken Schurr, a Miami lawyer who also spends much of his practice representing Citizens customers, said his clients frequently resort to lawsuits because the company will only pay for part of the damage. "They say: 'We think only the kitchen was damaged so we're willing to go to appraisal for the kitchen' but they don't want to talk about the living room, the roof or the bathroom," he said. "If I can't agree to appraise the entire loss, we don't go through the appraisal. We go through litigation." The result, several lawyers told the Times/Herald, is an explosion in litigation and an increase in the number of homeowners who are forced to swallow their losses. Sean Shaw, who served as the state's consumer advocate for insurance issues under former state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, now works for the Merlin Law Group in Tampa, one of the companies that has collected some of the highest amounts in attorneys' fees from Citizens in the past three years. Since 2011, Citizens has paid his firm $502,539 in attorney fees for representing policyholders. But, he said, "even we would rather have appraisal." "It's more efficient and better for consumers,'' he said. "There are tons of cases that we and other firms can't take because the amount at issue is too low. Without appraisal, those cases don't get brought, despite the fact that they should." In 2009, Citizens argued that it needed to shift away from appraisals because the system was flawed, devoid of standards, and could be abused by third-party stakeholders. But several lawyers told the Times/Herald they believe the existing system is abused by law firms and other vendors working for Citizens. "Many law firms are consistently giving Citizens poor legal advice,'' said Rep. Carlos Trujillo, a Miami Republican whose firm specializes in insurance law. For example, he is representing a client whose property was extensively damaged when a burglar broke into the apartment while she was in the hospital. The floor of the home was flooded when the burglar tried to rip out the refrigerator. Citizens' adjusters refused to pay the $5,000 claim, accusing the policyholder of neglecting the property. The case has gone before a hearing officer, is now in mediation and is scheduled for trial next week. Trujillo said he has racked up $20,000 in attorneys' fees so far and believes that Citizens has been billed at least $35,000 from their attorneys. If Citizens loses, it will have to pay fees by Trujillo and defense lawyers. "They are pennywise and dollar foolish,'' Trujillo said. Schurr, a Miami attorney, said that because Citizens controls nearly one-fourth of the property insurance market in the state, a cottage industry of closely knit companies of appraisers and adjusters has emerged to handle the work as contractors. "They all know each other and they horse trade all their cases, and, if you are the homeowner that doesn't know anybody, you get screwed,'' he said. To avoid that, he advises clients to get the case before a judge who can protect the property owners' interests, Schurr said. "Litigation is a more expensive way to resolve the case, but it's fairer." Several lawyers told the Times/Herald that they believe that Citizens uniformly attempts to low-ball claims because, as a quasi-public corporation, it is not subject to so-called "bad faith" laws that apply to private insurance companies. Under that law, if a policyholder can prove that an insurance company intentionally refused to negotiate the claim fairly, he can recover damages. Without that law, "it gives Citizens a green light to be irresponsible,'' Trujillo said. "They delay, deny and defend because, at the end of the day, you can only collect what they want to pay." |

subset: commoncrawl


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"I know Lim is going to bring the fight and come to fight, so that's how I'm coming too." - Tarec Saffiedine
Is the glass half-full or half-empty?
A person with a pessimistic outlook would suggest that having nearly a year between a breakthrough performance and the follow-up effort is a bad thing – that the momentum built by four consecutive wins capped by a championship victory was lost as a result of injuries and overcrowding, putting 357 days between trips into the cage.
The optimist, however, would maintain that a dominant performance in a championship fight never loses its value, and that while extended absences are never ideal, the landscape of the welterweight division has shifted to the point where now is the perfect time for someone new to walk in and make an impact.
At this point, Tarec Saffiedine is just happy to have a glass in front of him.
Half Empty
Last year couldn't have started out any better for the 27-year-old talent. Headlining the final Strikeforce event, Saffiedine picked apart Nate Marquardt with precision kickboxing to win the welterweight title, extending his winning streak to four and pushing his record to 14-3 in the process.
Following Marquardt's blistering debut, where he claimed the vacant belt by finishing Tyron Woodley, Saffiedine's ability to entirely shut down the former UFC middleweight title challenger's offense and connect at will opened a number of eyes, and had many waiting for the man known as "Sponge" to transition into the UFC's deep and talented 170-pound ranks. > Watch: Saffiedine Vlog
But a hectic schedule and pre-established pairings pushed the Team Quest member's debut back to July, where a showdown with fellow Strikeforce alum Robbie Lawler was supposed to place on FOX before Saffiedine was forced out of the bout with an undisclosed injury. Rumors of a pairing with surging contender Matt Brown floated through the MMA media late in the summer, but never came together, leading to the lineal Strikeforce welterweight champion being matched up with perennial contender Jake Ellenberger in the main event of the inaugural UFC show in Singapore.
Late last month, Ellenberger was sidelined and pulled from the contest, resulting in South Korean Hyun Gyu Lim being elevated to take his place. Despite the shift in opponent, Saffiedine is still champing at the bit to put the past year behind him and introduce himself to the UFC audience.
"It started pretty good with my win over Nate," says the Belgian kickboxer of his past 12 months. "It was definitely a big accomplishment in my career. I went back to training until I was scheduled to fight Robbie Lawler (but) I got injured and had to take some time off unfortunately. At the time it was pretty frustrating, but at the same time, I wasn't sitting home eating pizza and feeling sorry for myself – I tried to stay strong and I knew I was going to come back a better fighter, mentally and physically. I tried to do everything the right way to come back, and now I guess everything happens for a reason.
"I was a little bit disappointed not fighting Jake – I was really looking forward to facing somebody like Jake; he's a Top 5 fighter – but Lim is a really dangerous fighter and I cannot underestimate him."
Half Full
Even though countless fighters that have matriculated to the UFC from organizations like Strikeforce and the WEC have already proven themselves inside the Octagon, fans and critics often still want to see how an athlete performs on the biggest stage in the sport before they're willing to back them fully, regardless of how successful they were elsewhere. > Free Fight: Saffiedine vs. Moore
While his win over Marquardt and proposed matchups with Lawler and Ellenberger should paint a clear picture of where the UFC newcomer stands within the talented mix that makes up the welterweight division, the only way to solidify that positioning is to step in the cage and earn another victory, and that is exactly what Saffiedine intends to do on Saturday.
"I believe the fact that I beat Nate decisively in my last fight sent a message to the UFC and all the fighters in the division. When I fought Nate, it was more important for me to win than to actually win the title because I wanted to prove to everyone that I belong with that kind of competition – that I can beat guys like Nate Marquardt, who was a Top 10 fighter at that time. That was the message I wanted to send, and fighting guys like Robbie or Jake (was something I was really looking forward to).
"Obviously UFC fans haven't seen me fight yet, but people that have watched me and new fans that are going to be discovering me can expect a better fighter than I was before. I'm a better version of myself after my time out. I'm looking to put on a great performance for my first UFC fight – an exciting fight. I'm going to try to finish the fight, and if it goes the distance, I'm going to put on a good five rounds."
Keep Climbing
With the divisional picture currently blurred by Georges St-Pierre's decision to vacate the welterweight title and go on sabbatical, the opportunity is there for Saffiedine to quickly climb the rankings and put himself into contention. > Watch: UFC Singapore Weigh-In
Coupled with a year's worth of pent up energy and the adrenaline that comes with stepping into the Octagon for the first time, there is the risk of being too amped up and deviating from the patient, measured approach that has made him so successful in the past.
"I guess we're going to find out on January 4," Saffiedine laughs, acknowledging his eagerness to finally fight in the UFC and the potential for pressing too hard right out of the gate. "I'm definitely really excited to come back and fight. People that are used to watching me fight, they know how I fight – how composed I can be, how aggressive I can be if I need to, and how I can take a step back in the fight as well, and I think this will be a mix of all of those things together.
"I'm going to be really anxious to come back and prove (myself), but I have to be smart also – Lim is a dangerous opponent, and I cannot rush things.
"He's a tall fighter, more of a striker," he adds, "and he kind of opens up himself, which makes the fight a little risky because he doesn't mind getting punched in the face. He likes to go to war, and he has dangerous knockout power.
"I know Lim is going to bring the fight and come to fight, so that's how I'm coming too."
This event will air on UFC Fight Pass on Saturday, January 4. Start your free trial now at ufc.tv/fightpass
UFC Performance Institute
Dana White On The Opening Of UFC PI Mexico


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Gingery Split Pea Soup
Adapted from: The Voluptuous Vegan: More Than 200 Sinfully Delicious Recipes for Meatless, Eggless, and Dairy-Free Meals
by Myra Kornfeld and George Minot
Chipotle chile provides the essential smokiness while the sliced ginger offers only a background hint of flavor. Cooked to a golden creaminess, the split peas are enhanced with sautéed, almost carmelized, vegetables and finished with a little miso, which contributes its distinctive richness.
1 cup yellow split peas
1 medium russet potato — peeled and cut into small dice (1 cup)
1 chipotle chile or other dried smoked chile, such as pasilla de Oaxaca OR 1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped
1 2-inch chunk ginger — unpeeled, cut into 3 slices
6 cups water
2 tbsp. water
1 medium onion — cut into small dice (1 cup)
2 garlic cloves — minced
1 medium carrot — peeled and cut into small dice (1/2 cup)
1 celery stalk — cut into small dice (1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon barley or mellow barley miso, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Note: Pressure Cooker instructions at end of recipe.
In a medium pot, combine the split peas, potatoes, chile, ginger, and 5 cups of the water. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer covered 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the split peas are completely soft and broken down. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Remove the chile (if using the dried chile) and ginger slices and discard.
Warm 2 tbsp. water in a medium, non-stick skillet. Add the onions, garlic, carrot, and celery and sauté about 10 to 12 minutes over medium-low heat until the vegetables are soft and beginning to brown (watch them carefully and stir often to prevent burning). Then add the vegetables to the split peas along with the remaining 1 cup of water.
Stir in the balsamic vinegar and miso. Taste and adjust salt if necessary. Reheat if necessary, then stir in the chopped parsley and serve hot.
As an alternative method, add the split peas to a pressure cooker with the potatoes, chile, ginger, and 4 cups of water. Bring the liquid to a boil, cover the pot, and cook at high pressure for 11 minutes. Let the pressure come down naturally. Remove the lid and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Remove the chile (if using the dried chile) and ginger slices and discard. Proceed as in paragraph 2 above.
Serves 4 — If you want leftovers, double or triple this recipe because this is so delicious that every bite gets eaten right away!
Adapted from a recipe posted to Veg-Recipes


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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Leaders of the party that recently won control of Puerto Rico's legislature want put the House of Representatives on part-time status for the first time in nearly two decades.
The move would save millions of dollars and make the government of the U.S. territory more efficient, according to members of the Popular Democratic Party who made the announcement late Monday.
Just how long the House of Representatives would meet, and what members would be paid, is still under study by a commission, but the incoming president of the body, Jaime Perello, said the changes will be approved by July 1.
Lawmakers also plan to eliminate their food and transportation stipends and cut other costs by 30 percent reduction, he said.
Like more than a dozen U.S. states, Puerto Rico had a part-time, January-to-June legislature until 1997, when it moved to a full-time body aimed at tackling the island's growing problems.
Since then, pay for Puerto Rican legislators has risen to among the highest in any U.S. jurisdiction at nearly $74,000 a year on average. They also receive as much as $162 a day in food stipends and $1,460 in monthly transportation stipends.
Perello said that $3 million of the money saved will be used to investigate at least 42,000 child abuse cases that were never resolved, and another $1 million will be used to activate the National Guard to help fight crime, while $500,000 will go toward buying new equipment for the island's Institute of Forensic Science.
While the House majority is plunging ahead with the plan, the Senate has not yet agreed.
"The idea of a civilian legislator must be discussed as part of an open and in-depth process, with public hearings and with participation from everyone," said incoming Senate President Eduardo Bhatia, though he has promised to eliminate senators' food and travel stipends.
New Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla, who was sworn in on Jan. 2, has called for legislative reform and is widely expected to submit a bill calling for both houses of the legislature to work part-time.
Former Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz, a member of the New Progressive Party, accused the new majority of "improvising and acting irresponsibly."
Even governing party Rep. Luis Vega Ramos expressed reservations, saying he worries about potential conflicts of interest involving legislators' other jobs. He suggested that cutting the legislature too far "would allow the executive branch to have an exclusive hold on the country's public agenda," and added, "We could unwittingly be upsetting the balance of power."


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Five wild orangutans in Borneo—nicknamed Sam, Henk, Rambo, Kondor, and Sultan—have learned to create a new kind of distress signal, using leaves to lower the pitch of their common warning call, known as a kiss-squeak. The leaf-produced kiss-squeaks seem intended to make the orangutans sound bigger and more threatening. "Primates were assumed to have no control over their calls," says Madeleine Hardus, a behavioral biologist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who classifies the orangutans' ability to alter their standard call as "a cultural innovation."
Hardus and her colleagues discovered that the orangutans had developed leaf-assisted calls to identify humans (and probably predators as well). She hypothesizes that the technique is passed down from one orangutan to the next. Researchers have rigorously documented leaf adaptation in the cluster of five but have also observed the behavior in the wider orangutan population.


text: Verse One: I'm done talking Ran up in the spot gun smoking Shot it in the air one woke him Sun soaking sweating in his bed like Dunlo Thinking to himself what done provoked him His thoughts is racing like a vulcan I swear I saw a lightbulb when He finally figured out who was the culprit I said yeah remember me from Friend or Foe when I told you don't ever ever come around here no more Time to pay now, you try to rise, I wave the gun - lay down This time you're really going to listen to Jay now I try to talk sensibly, hoping that eventually you realize I had this locked and it just wasn't meant to be Plus I had sympathy when we all wore rams with your keys And it wasn't afterthought that maybe you'll try to revenge me But I was like 'Nah', Chromes had to know he was wrong And if you caught me on the foul now you would sing me the same song Plus you promised And that's really no fun Yeah I find you in this Motel 6 with all these guns And all your goons, lined up in adjoining rooms Like some wild cowboys coming to get me at high noon But my mind's like a flower in bloom *** my eyes just scower the room I'm alert, plus I paid the clerk I got it laid out You think you the first nigga I played out, in a 2 hotel town? Come on now, I peep your Lexus at you Left the exit got some niggas on that side of the town Money well invested, rudely interrupted Jamaican accents *** A gun in your face and that's all you can come up with? I'm done talking, back up and clap them, one in the abdomen Do me a favor dude, get 2 ice cubes I pass them Take that ice up, for the nicest MC And please yo, tell BIG, he's unbelievable Friend or foe BIOTCH


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Transportation is a social determinant that can play a major role in influencing people's health and sense of well-being. Access to adequate transportation options can increase physical activity, reduce streets and help increase family economic security.
Additional resources will be posted here. Please contact DataHaven to get involved in building this document, or if you'd like to add a resource here.
Resources: General
1. CDC Recommendations for Improving Health through Transportation Policy (2010): http://www.cdc.gov/transportation/docs/FINAL%20CDC%20Transportation%20Recommendations-4-28-2010.pdf
2. Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity (2009): http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12674&page=75 Offers specific guidelines and research studies that support these health policy recommendations.
3. Incorporating Health Objectives into Transit Planning. (Todd Litman of VTPI, 2010): http://www.planetizen.com/node/45855
4. Transportation RX: The Transportation Prescription: Bold New Ideas for Healthy, Equitable Transportation Reform in America (Convergence Partnership, 2009) -- Healthy, Equitable Transportation Policy: Recommendations and Research In an effort to further illuminate the opportunities and barriers transportation policy creates for building healthy communities, PolicyLink and Prevention Institute published an edited volume with details and depth into the intersection of transportation, equity and health. The publication is composed of chapters written by leading academics and advocates from across the nation covering topics from public transportation, walking and bicycling, to safety and economic development. The book highlights key policy solutions and provides background on the federal surface transportation policy. http://www.convergencepartnership.org/site/c.fhLOK6PELmF/b.5327643/k.BF0B/Transportation_RX.htm
5. Housing and Transportation Affordability Index. Americans traditionally consider housing affordable if it costs 30 percent or less of their income. The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, in contrast, offers the true cost of housing based on its location by measuring the transportation costs associated with place. http://htaindex.cnt.org/
6. American Public Health Association (APHA): Transportation Issues from the Public Health Perspective http://www.apha.org/advocacy/priorities/issues/transportation/default.htm Transportation decisions affect our individual lives, economy and health. Everyone needs to use various modes of transportation to get to work or school, to get medical attention, to access healthy foods at grocery stores and markets, and to participate in countless other activities every day. However, too many people are negatively impacted by inequitable transportation decisions that are detrimental to public health.
7. Upstream Public Health Transportation Health Equity Principles
9. European Union: Role of transportation research in fighting social exclusion: http://ec.europa.eu/research/transport/news/items/role_for_transport_research_in_fighting_social_exclusion_en.htm
10. PolicyLink: Health, Equity and Transportation Policy Summary: http://www.altfutures.com/draproject/pdfs/Equity_in_Transportation_Policy_Summary.pdf
Resources: Cycling and Walking
1. APBP Survey of Women Cyclists, 2010: According to an analysis by Anna Sibley, MPH Candidate at UNC-Greensboro, the top two safety concerns of women surveyed were distracted driving and the speed of cars. The interventions most likely to get women to start biking or to bike more were bike lanes and off road cycle paths. Conclusion: "Despite the difference in cycling behaviors due to community size, safety and infrastructure concerns were prevalent in nearly all subgroups. The operation of motorized vehicles, (especially distracted driving) dominate women's safety concerns about cycling. Furthermore, infrastructure change, particularly the addition of more bike lanes, appears to be a primary factor for increasing women's cycling. Though these findings warrant additional qualitative research, it is likely that intervention planning to promote cycling as a form of daily transportation needs to address the issues of distracted driving and the addition of more bike lanes." http://www.apbp.org/resource/resmgr/downloads/womens_cycling_survey_091420.pdf A related article explains why female cyclists are the "indicator species" of a cycle-friendly community: http://www.good.is/post/want-to-know-if-an-urban-environment-supports-cycling-measure-the-proportion-of-women-on-bikes/
2. NYC Department of Transportation Says New Brooklyn Bike Lane Dramatically Reduces Speeding, Sidewalk Bicycling: http://transportationnation.org/2010/10/21/nyc-dot-says-brooklyn-bike-lane-dramatically-reduces-speeding-sidewalk-bicycling/ A city DOT spokesperson said today that preliminary data shows that BEFORE the bike lane, three out of four cars on Prospect Park West were speeding. The agency says that number has dropped to one in seven. And the DOT says almost half of all cyclists used to ride on the sidewalk. That number has decreased to four percent.
3. San Francisco Department of Public Health, Program on Transportation and Health: http://www.sfphes.org/phes_transport.htm - Resource on transportation's impact on health, transportation justice, and pedestrian environmental quality impact assessment.
4. Walk this Way: Making walking easier and safer in London (October 2010, London Assembly Transport Committee) - UK report on measures need to make walking more accessible. Study shows 60% of London residents say they don't walk more due to the poor quality of local streets and crosswalk infrastructure. http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/WALKING%20REPORT.pdf
5. Pedestrian Plan for Philadelphia: http://planphilly.com/philadelphia-gets-its-first-pedestrian-plan-which-also-updates-city-goals-bicycling The plan establishes five over-arching goals: Improving safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. Encouraging biking and walking to promote better health and boost revenue for businesses in walkable, bikeable neighborhoods. Promote sidewalks and streets as enjoyable public space. Filling in the gaps between existing biking and walking networks. Garnering recognition for Philadelphia as a great city for cyclists and pedestrians.
6. Research paper on Health Benefits of Cycling "Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks?"(Environmental Health Perspectives August 2010): http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1289/ehp.0901747
7. Alliance for Biking and Walking Benchmarking Report project: http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/memberservices/C529 The U.S. Bicycling and Walking Benchmarking Project is an on-going effort from the Alliance for Biking & Walking to collect and analyze data on bicycling and walking in all 50 states and at least the 50 most-populated U.S. cities.
Resources: Mass Transit and Health
1. Why Public Transportation is Good for Kids (Grist, 11/1/10) http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-01-why-public-transportation-is-good-for-kids


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Global maritime distress and safety systems radio operator's certificate of recognition
This certificate is issued under Marine Order 70 (Seafarer certification) 2014, made under the Navigation Act 2012.
What will this certificate allow me to do?
This certificate allows you to perform radio operator duties and functions on an Australian registered vessel.
Am I eligible?
To be eligible for a Global maritime distress and safety systems certificate of recognition (GMDSS COR) you must meet sea service and course requirements. The requirements depend on whether you are getting a certificate for the first time or revalidating an existing certificate. Each requirement and how to prove that you meet them is explained in these instructions.
Important disclaimer
These instructions are summary information only. We make decisions about seafarer certificates under Marine Order 70 (Seafarer certification) 2014, Marine Order 71 (Masters and deck officers) 2014, Marine Order 72 (Engineer officers) 2014, Marine Order 73 (Ratings) 2014 and Marine Order 74 (Masters and deck officers – yachts) 2015. Please refer to these marine orders for full details of eligibility and other requirements for certificate applications.


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Story highlights
Authorities estimate 8 to 10 million gallons of water spilled
Several inches of water covered the court at Pauley Pavilion
Firefighters rescued several people from inundated parking garages
California had just passed statewide watering restrictions due to drought
Streets turned into rivers and parts of UCLA turned into lakes after a massive water main break sent 8 million to 10 million gallons of water gushing through parts of Los Angeles.
The deluge was so massive that swift-water rescue crews with boats had to ferry away several stranded people.
At least three motorists were rescued from underground parking garages where stairwells had turned into raging waterfalls.
Dozens of vehicles were partly submerged, UCLA said. At least two of the inundated garages belong to the university.
And while authorities managed to stop the water hemorrhage by Tuesday night, the situation might not clear until later Wednesday.
"I'd like to tell you we'd have it fixed by the morning, but I don't think that's really possible," James McDaniel of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said Tuesday night.
He said crews will work through the night, trying to dewater the massive crater caused by the explosion.
Much of UCLA deluged
The UCLA campus, on the city's west side, suffered much of the damage.
The flooding covered the court of Pauley Pavilion, home to the Bruins' basketball, volleyball and women's gymnastics teams. The facility had just gone through a multi-million-dollar renovation two years ago.
"Unfortunately, Pauley Pavilion took quite a bit of water," Chancellor Gene Block told reporters Tuesday night. "It's painful."
Water covers volleyball courts
At least one outdoor athletic stadium turned into an island of grass surrounded by a sea of murky brown water.
But UCLA academic and residence halls were not affected, the university said, and classes will continue Wednesday.
A geyser on Sunset Boulevard
Just before rush hour Tuesday, the 93-year-old water main burst under the world-famous Sunset Boulevard.
The explosion busted through several lanes of the street and sent a geyser of water shooting into the sky. But no one was injured in the ordeal.
It's not clear exactly what cause the burst. But it happened at a very bad time for the city and state.
Drought-stricken California recently passed statewide water restrictions, and Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency in January.
"Unfortunately we lost a lot of water – around 35,000 gallons a minute – which is not ideal in the worst drought in the city's history," Los Angeles city councilman Paul Koretz said. "So we ask everybody to try harder to conserve water."
CNN's Tony Marco, Sonya Hamasaski, Lorenza Brascia and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.


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17 Creative Ways To Re-Use Your Phone Book
I haven't used a phone book in years. Years! I can hardly even remember life before Google. A while back I tried to opt out of my phone book delivery service, but that enormous heavy tome of wasted paper kept arriving on my doorstep. So I recycled it, like a good green steward, but plopping that massive stack of totally-untouched paper into the bin . . . it still felt wasteful.
So I resubmitted my opt-out, and then got to work thinking of what I could do with the phone books I'd accidentally gotten. Here's what I came up with:
1. Use the pages to wash your windows and mirrors. Just like newspaper, this is the best method for achieving a streak-free finish.
2. Turn the pages into envelopes. You can find a ton of cool tutorials for folding your own envelopes, and they add such a charming touch of DIY flair to a little gift or hand drawn card.
3. For a bigger, fancier present, you can make DIY gift toppers like lovely bows or fancy flowers.
4. Speaking of flowers, a paper bouquet of roses is, well, pretty dang amazing.
5. You can also turn phone book pages into leaves, like this lovely "newspaper leaf" garland. It's a season-appropriate decoration these days, and makes a great craft project for children, too.
6. There are tons of paper crafts that are ideal for that thinner, newsprint-y type of paper. For example papier mache, or origami, or paper beads. Each of these can be skewed "beginner" or "master" depending on your skill level. Just google around for tutorials.
7. Paper is paper, and any balled-up paper makes an excellent fire-starter. Keep your phone book near your hearth this winter.
8. If you're planning a move, keep your phone book to use for wrapping your breakable items. Balled-up paper makes great packing material. This can come in handy for mailing holiday gifts, as well.
9. Use the pages as mulch if you need to prepare a plot of land for gardening. Just spread a layer of paper over the area, then pile on the wood chips or other groundcover. It's not only free, but very effective. (I speak from experience as a San Diego-area gardener.)
10. Lots of home composters end up with disproportionate ratios of "greens" to "browns". Phone book pages will work great for the oft-sought after "browns" (don't worry about the ink, soy is the standard these days). You can also add the pages, shredded, to your worm bin.
11. Although it's most often done with newspaper, you can also use phone book pages to make seed starter pots. So hold onto it for next spring.
12. I love the shape of this easy-peasy "Flower Power" pencil holder.
13. One of my all-time favorite projects is the secret book safe. You could totally do this with a phone book and no one would ever think to look inside, since nobody ever uses phone books anyway!
14. This summer I really got into pressing flowers, and I plan to start again next season. A phone book makes a pretty excellent flower press. You can also press leaves (like the incredible colored ones that are abundant these days) in there.
15. A phone book is the right height and size to give your toddler the little boost that he may need to join the family at the table. Cover the book in cotton batting and fabric, or save a step and use a cool vintage quilt. Instant booster seat.
16. If you're an exerciser, you can use a phone book to augment your workout. They make great aerobics "steps" or yoga blocks.
17. And finally, you might want to keep one in the car in case you ever have to change a tire on uneven terrain or on uneven concrete. You can use the phone book under the jack to straighten it out. Just modify the height by flipping the pages.
And there you go, a wide range of ideas to suit every lifestyle. So please make good use of that last phone book, and then go here and OPT OUT!
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Protest Rally: Shut down the European-Iranian Terror Bank!
On February 27, 2011 STOP THE BOMB organized a second protest rally in front of the building of the European-Iranian Trade Bank (EIH) in Hamburg.
Afterwards a panel discussion with Mina Ahadi (exil-Iranian human rights activist and spokesperson of the Comittee against Stoning and Executions), Solmaz Shiva (22Khordad-Hamburg), Dr. Kazem Moussavi (Green Party of Iran), Jonathan Weckerle (STOP THE BOMB) and Ulrike Becker (Moderation, STOP THE BOMB) took place.
A full documentation of both the protest and the panel discussion is available.
See also:
Overview: The European-Iranian Trade Bank (EIH)
Call for protests against the EIH on Feb. 27, 2011
Persian invitation فارسی (PDF)
STOP THE BOMB protests against the EIH in 2010
Call for protests on February 27: Shut down the Iranian Terror Bank in Hamburg! Solidarity with the Iranian freedom movement
The Bank EIH supports the Islamist regime and undermines sanctions
Hamburg is the home to one of the world's most important remaining supporters of the inhuman and anti-Semitic regime in Iran: The European-Iranian Trade Bank (EIH). While international sanctions are putting ever-increasing pressure on the Islamist regime, it is noteworthy that a bank in Germany, owned by the Islamic Republic is instrumental in keeping the genocidal Iranian regime in power.
According to US authorities, EIH has provided important financial services to the Iranian nuclear weapons program - EIH is in fact controlled by the Iranian regime. Despite of this fact, Germany is still blocking sanctions against EIH.
To this day, EIH is one of the world's most important lifelines for the economic viability of the Islamic Republic. Not only German companies conduct their ever-increasing business with Iran via EIH, but companies from other European countries and beyond use this bank for financial transactions which would otherwise be quite difficult if not downright impossible. Starting in 2011 billions of Euros are being transferred to Iran via EIH from the export of Iranian crude oil to India. For months, no other bank in the world could be found willing to provide this service.
Obviously, money and goods that reach Iran with the assistance of EIH strengthen the Iranian regime: This money supports and enables the continued repression of the Iranian opposition, of women, homosexuals, religious and ethnic minorities in Iran, and finances the support for Islamist forces worldwide as well as the war against Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah.
While democratic forces in Tunisia, Egypt and several other countries are rising up against dictatorships, it is crucial to counter Islamist forces and the relentless Iranian efforts of spreading the "Islamic revolution". Due to the support of its bank in Hamburg, the Iranian regime endangers the pro-democracy movements in the entire Near East!
The German government continues to refuse effective measures against EIH like adding it to the list of sanctions of the European Union and to shut it down. Where is the German rejection of dictatorial regimes and where is the "special responsibility" to Israel?
Since the list of targeted sanctions of the European Union will be updated soon, we demand:
EIH should be closed down and must finally be added to the list of sanctions of the European Union! No deals with the Iranian regime!
We support solidarity with the Iranian freedom movement and all democratic and anti-Islamist forces in the Near East!
Place: Hamburg, Depenau 2 (U Meßberg)
Time: Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011, 3.00 pm
At 5.00 pm, there will be a panel discussion with prominent speakers in nearby rooms of the Mahnmal St. Nikolai (Willy-Brandt-Straße 60).
Video about the EIH with English subtitles (Source)
Overview: The European-Iranian Trade Bank (EIH)
Last update: Feb. 12, 2011
On September 7, 2010, the US sanctioned the Hamburg-based EIH.
According to the US Treasury, the EIH has supported Iranian proliferation activities.
According to these sources, the EIH facilitated transactions for weapons and material for the Iranian nuclear and missile program. It has provided financial services for Iranian banks that are on the EU sanctions list because of proliferation activities. Additionally, the bank actively engages in deceptive practices.
The EIH is a bank of the Iranian regime. Its stock is divided between Iranian state banks, two of them are on the EU sanctions list. The EIH management is linked to the ruling elite of the Islamic republic of Iran. The Deputy Chairman of the Board Ali Divandari is in person mentioned in the EU sanctions list because of proliferation activities.
Stuart Levey, the US Treasury Department's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence has called the EIH "a key financial lifeline for Iran". The EIH plays a crucial role for the foreign trade of the Islamic Republic: "Our customers can be found in Iran as well as on all continents and in all branches. The range of the deals that we are in charge with reaches from the handling of small single transactions to complete large-scale projects."
According to STOP THE BOMB information (gathered at an Iran seminar of the Austrian Trade Chamber in December 2010) the EIH handles approximately 50 transactions per day above 40.000 Euros (which have to be approved after the latest EU sanctions). According to our information, a big part of the Iran trade of Europe and other countries, e.g. Taiwan and South Korea, is done via the EIH. Also the Iranian company formations in Germany, approximately 25 per year, are made with the EIH.
German business with Iran grew again in 2010, despite sanctions and with help of the EIH. German exports to the Islamic Republic of Iran increased 5% until November 2010, compared to the same period in 2009; imports increased even 77%. Especially the German machine builders achieved an export plus of 17.5%. While some big companies are retreating from Iran, the mid-sized companies are still doing best business.
The billion dollars of the Iranian trade with India show the strategic importance of the EIH as a loophole of the financial sanctions. In December 2010, the Indian Central Bank banned Indian companies from doing payments for oil and gas deals with Iran via the Asian Clearing Union (ACU). Now these deals are made via the EIH, after no other bank could be found worldwide. They bring approximately 13 billion dollar per year to the Iranian government coffers.
The German federal government has been asked several times to take steps against the EIH. After requests from president Obama and the Israeli government, 11 member of the US senate from both parties wrote to the German Foreign Minister Westerwelle: "Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank must halt these practices [that support the Iranian nuclear program] or be closed immediately."
The German government has to take steps to put the EIH on the EU sanctions list. The activities of the EIH have to be stopped and the pressure of economic sanctions against the regime has to be increased. Only with international unity can sanctions be an effective tool of diplomacy.
Selected sources and articles:
Media Reports
Handelsblatt - Iran-Bank klagt gegen Sanktionierung (18.9.2011)
Wall Street Journal - German Bank Defies Sanctions (26.5.2011)
Matthias Küntzel - Berlin lässt iranische Bank in Hamburg fallen (15.5.2011)
Wall Street Journal - Germany Joins EU Plan to Sanction Iranian Bank (13.5.2011)
Report München - Die umstrittene EIH-Bank (April 18, 2011)
Wall Street Journal - Germany Rebuffs U.S. Calls to Shut Iran Bank (April 12, 2011)
Jerusalem Post - 'German firms finance world champ in Holocaust denial' (April 5, 2011)
Financial Express - Finmin looks for more neutral bank for Iran crude payment (April 5, 2011)
Ynet News - Iran's generous friends (April 1, 2011)
Der Spiegel - Two Journalists and an Oil Transaction (April 1, 2011)
New York Times - U.S. Presses Germany to Block Indian Payments to Iran for Oil (March 31, 2011)
Radio Farda - «پرداخت پول نفت صادراتی ایران به هند از طریق بانک فدرال آلمان»
Haaretz - A nuclear bank in Germany (March 10, 2011)
Jewish Chronicle - German Iran-link bank under fire (March 4, 2011)
Fox News on EIH and STOP THE BOMB Protests (Feb. 22, 2011)
Find more articles on the German version of this page.
US letter to Westerwelle
On February 2, 2011, 11 US senators from both parties have sent a letter to German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle: "Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank must halt these practices [that support the Iranian nuclear program] or be closed immediately."


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Parts Catalog – Part Detail
Part Number: 2-102396-8
Manufacturer: Tyco Electronics / AMP
Description: AMPMODU MT Connectors STANDARD COVER 60P hermaphroditic
Category: Rectangular Connectors
IHI Electronics provides global supply chain solutions, with access to more than 50 million parts from qualified and screened vendors. For instance, there is part number 2-102396-8. You'll find it in the Rectangular Connectors category. It is a AMPMODU MT Connectors STANDARD COVER 60P hermaphroditic. Manufactured by Tyco Electronics / AMP. With more than 20 years of experience as a stocking supply chain manager, IHI is your one-stop global electronic component source.
Request a Quote Form
Phone: 888-444-8862
Minimum order is $100.00. We only sell to CEMs and OEMs in the USA.
No sales to Import/Export Distributors, Students or Individuals.


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Stand at any corner during a MotoGP session and in real time you'll witness a variety of riding styles and lines, not to mention see plenty of body-english that tells you how a rider is coping with his machine. Slow all that down by about 50x speed, and you've got something. You've got art, and that's what Red Bull has done here with its Red Bull Moments.
Shooting Casey stoner in 1,000 fps slow-motion video at the Catalan GP, Red Bull brings us every body panel flex, every exhaust pipe wag, and every wheel and dry clutch rotation…and oh, Casey also talks about racing in MotoGP. Bonus points to Red Bull for including the Karel Abraham "look back" shot as well (a personal pet-peev of Stoner's).
Source: Red Bull (YouTube)


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Books / Digital Text
Part Four: Catallactics or Economics of the... > Chapter XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the...
8. The Monetary or Circulation Credit Theory of the Trade Cycle
The theory of the cyclical fluctuations of business as elaborated by the British Currency School was in two respects unsatisfactory.
First it failed to recognize that circulation credit can be granted not only by the issue of banknotes in excess of the banks' holding of cash reserves, but also by creating bank deposits subject to check in excess of such reserves (checkbook money, deposit currency). Consequently it did not realize that deposits payable on demand can also be used as a device of credit expansion. This error is of little weight, as it can be easily amended. It is enough to stress the point that all that refers to credit expansion is valid for all varieties of credit expansion no matter whether the additional fiduciary media are banknotes or deposits. However , the teachings of the Currency School inspired British legislation designed to prevent the return of credit-expansion booms and their necessary consequence, depressions, at a time when this fundamental defect was not yet widely enough recognized. Peel's Act of 1844 and its imitations in other countries did not attain the ends sought, and this failure shook the prestige of the Currency School. The Banking School triumphed undeservedly.
The second shortcoming of the Currency Theory was more momentous. It restricted its reasoning to the problem of the external drain. It dealt only with a particular case, viz., credit expansion in one country only while there is either no credit expansion or only credit expansion to a smaller extent in other areas. This was, by and large, sufficient to explain the British crises of the first part of the nineteenth century. But it touched only the surface of the problem. The essential question was not raised at all. Nothing was done to clarify the consequences of a general expansion of credit not confined to a number of banks with a restricted clientele. The reciprocal relations between the supply of money (in the broader sense) and the rate of interest were not analyzed. The multifarious projects to lower or to abolish interest altogether by means of a banking reform were haughtily derided as quackery, but not critically dissected and refuted. The naive presumption of money's neutrality was tacitly ratified. Thus a free hand was left to all futile attempts to interpret crises and business fluctuations by means of the theory of direct exchange. Many decades passed before the spell was broken. [p. 572]
The hindrance that the monetary or circulation credit theory had to overcome was not merely theoretical error but also political bias. Public opinion is prone to see in interest nothing but a merely institutional obstacle to the expansion of production. It does not realize that the discount of future goods as against present goods is a necessary and eternal category of human action and cannot be abolished by bank manipulation. In the eyes of cranks and demagogues, interest is a product of the sinister machinations of rugged exploiters. The age-old disapprobation of interest has been fully revived by modern interventionism. It clings to the dogma that it is one of the foremost duties of good government to lower the rate of interest as far as possible or to abolish it altogether. All present-day governments are fanatically committed to an easy money policy. As has been mentioned already, the British Government has asserted that credit expansion has performed "the miracle...of turning a stone into bread." 11 A Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has declared that "final freedom from the domestic money market exists for every sovereign national state where there exists an institution which functions in the manner of a modern central bank, and whose currency is not convertible into gold or into some other commodity."12 Many governments, universities, and institutes of economic research lavishly subsidize publications whose main purpose is to praise the blessings of unbridled credit expansion and to slander all opponents as illintentioned advocates of the selfish interests of usurers.
The wavelike movement affecting the economic system, the recurrence of periods of boom which are followed by periods of depression, is the unavoidable outcome of the attempts, repeated again and again, to lower the gross market rate of interest by means of credit expansion. There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.
The only objection ever raised against the circulation credit theory is lame indeed. It has been asserted that the lowering of the gross market rate of interest below the height it would have reached on an unhampered loan market may appear not as the outcome of an intentional policy on the part of the banks or the monetary authorities but as the unintentional effect of their conservatism. Faced with a [p. 573] situation which would, when left alone, result in a raise in the market rate, the banks refrain from altering the interest they charge on advances and thus willy-nilly tumble into expansion.13 These assertions are unwarranted. But if we are prepared to admit their correctness for the sake of argument, they do not affect at all the essence of the monetary explanation of the trade cycle. It is of no concern what the particular conditions are that induce the banks to expand credit and to underbid the gross market rate of interest which the unhampered market would have determined. What counts is solely that the banks and the monetary authorities are guided by the idea that the height of interest rates as the free loan market determines it is an evil, that it is the objective of a good economic policy to lower it, and that credit expansion is an appropriate means of achieving this end without harm to anybody but parasitic moneylenders. It is this infatuation that causes them to embark upon ventures which must finally bring about the slump.
If one takes these facts into consideration one could be tempted to abstain from any discussion of the problems involved in the frame of the theory of the pure market economy and to relegate it to the analysis of interventionism, the interference of government with the market phenomena. It is beyond doubt that credit expansion is one of the primary issues of interventionism. Nevertheless the right place for the analysis of the problems involved is not in the theory of interventionism but in that of the pure market economy. For the problem we have to deal with is essentially the relation between the supply of money and the rate of interest, a problem of which the consequences of credit expansion are only a particular instance.
Everything that has been asserted with regard to the effects of any increase in the supply of money proper as far as this additional supply reaches the loan market at an early stage of its inflow into the market system. If the additional quantity of money increases the quantity of money offered for loans at a time when commodity prices and wage rates have not yet been completely adjusted to the change in the money relation, the effects are no different from those of a credit expansion. In analyzing the problem of credit expansion, catallactics completes the teachings of the theory of money and of interest. It implicitly demolishes the age-old errors concerning interest and explodes the fantastic plans to "abolish" interest by means of monetary or credit reform.
What differentiates credit expansion from an increase in the supply [p. 574] of money as it can appear in an economy employing only commodity money and no fiduciary media at all is conditioned by divergences in the quantity of the increase and in the temporal sequence of its effects on the various parts of the market. Even a rapid increase in the production of the precious metals can never have the range which credit expansion can attain. The gold standard was an efficacious check upon credit expansion, as it forced the banks not to exceed certain limits in their expansionist ventures.14 The gold standard's own inflationary potentialities were kept within limits by the vicissitudes of gold mining. Moreover, only a part of the additional gold immediately increased the supply offered on the loan market. The greater part acted first upon commodity prices and wage rates and affected the loan market only at a later stage of the inflationary process.
However, the continuous increase in the quantity of commodity money exercised a steady expansionist pressure on the loan market. The gross market rate of interest was, in the course of the last centuries, continually subject to the impact of an inflow of additional money into the loan market. Of course, this pressure for the last hundred and fifty years in the Anglo-Saxon countries and for the last hundred years in the countries of the European continent, was far exceeded by the effects of the synchronous development of circulation credit as granted by the banks apart from their--from time to time reiterated--straightforward endeavors to lower the gross market rate of interest by an intensified expansion of credit. Thus three tendencies toward a lowering of the gross market rate of interest were operating at the same time and strengthening one another. One was the outgrowth of the steady increase in the quantity of commodity money, the second the outgrowth of a spontaneous development of fiduciary media in banking operations, the third the fruit of intentional anti-interest policies sponsored by the authorities and approved by public opinion. It is, of course, impossible to ascertain in a quantitative way the effect of their joint operation and the contribution of each of them; an answer to such a question can only be provided by historical understanding.
What catallactic reasoning can show us is merely that a slight although continuous pressure on the gross market rate of interest as originating from a continuous increase in the quantity of gold, and also from a slight increase in the quantity of fiduciary media, which is not overdone and intensified by purposeful easy money policy, can be counterpoised by the forces of readjustment and accomodation inherent [p. 575] in the market economy. The adaptability of business not purposely sabotaged by forces extraneous to the market is powerful enough to offset the effects which such slight disturbances of the loan market can possibly bring about.
Statisticians have tried to investigate long waves of business fluctuations with statistical methods. Such attempts are futile. The history of modern capitalism is a record of steady economic progress, again and again interrupted by feverish booms and their aftermath, depressions. It is generally possible to discern statistically these recurring oscillations from the general trend toward an increase in the amount of capital invested and the quantity of products turned out. It is impossible to discover any rhythmical fluctuation in the general trend itself.


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EMC World It does not compute; EMC resold $25m of tape products from Quantum in 2010 but has just declared "Tape sucks" to thousands of attendees at EMC World in Las Vegas. This isn't channel conflict; it looks like out and out war.
Or not - no one on the Quantum booth at the shindig seemed at all offended by EMC's anti-tape keynote blast. The rousing speech was delivered by BJ Jenkins, the boss of EMC's Backup and Recovery Systems division, and Stephen Manley, his trophy chief technology officer recruited from NetApp.
During the pitch Google was mocked and derided for recovering lost Google mail files from tape in the recent email outage when mail files on disk were lost. Instead of this being presented as a triumph for tape, it was represented as showing the need for Google to have good disk-based data protection scheme, with Data Domain and Avamar being the ideal choice.
Wells Fargo bank SVPs came on stage to extol EMC's disk-based protection products and ideas. Meanwhile staff on the Quantum booth are happily telling booth visitors that EMC has sold Scalar tape libraries to banks because the banks demand tape.
Don't they know the score? BJ has spoken. Stephen Manley has emoted. Tape sucks. Or it doesn't, because EMC resells Quantum tape, and Quantum has been EMC's top Select partner for the past nine years. It just does not compute. ®


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Why all the buzz about honeycomb shades? Also known as cellulars, these highly versatile products remain the most popular customer choice for covering windows here at SelectBlinds.com. Taking their cue from Mother Nature, the unique, namesake honeycomb construction of these DIY and designer-favorite window treatments is as functional as it is beautiful. Available in single-cell or double-cell, light-filtering and blackout fabrics, cellulars insulate your home from heat and cold and help you save money on power bills while softly diffusing or completely blocking out light.
Perfect for the trending minimalist look, honeycombs are a style standout on their own, or paired with drapery and other products to create unlimited designer-inspired looks throughout your home. Choose from soft-spun lace fabrics in a wide array of colors and patterns to add a touch of subtle texture and energy-efficient class to any space.
The Buzz about Honeycomb Construction
So what's the difference between single and double cells, and which type of cellular blinds should you choose? Single- or double-cell construction has to do with the energy efficiency of the shade. Drafty windows are the biggest culprit when it comes to air leaks in most homes. While both single- and double-cell honeycomb blinds block harmful UV rays and provide insulation against heat and cold, double cells trap more air than a layer of single cells, making them more energy – and cost – efficient.
Cordless Lift Style to Match Your Lifestyle
Sweeten your honeycomb/cellular products with a cordless lift system. Cordless window treatments are the safest choice for homes with young children and pets because there are no cords to get tangled up in. And they just look better. (Who wants to see cords pooled on the window sill or hanging to the floor?) At SelectBlinds.com, every cellular shade comes available with a free cordless lift system upgrade, or you can upgrade to a top down/bottom up, continuous cord loop, or motorized wand or remote-controlled system. Watch this quick video to decide which lift system best meets your needs.
Customized Cellular Options
Besides your choice of lift systems, cellular window fashions can be customized to fit any décor, with hundreds of colors and even patterns to choose from in light filtering or blackout fabrics. They make a great foundation for a custom layered look, too, when framed with curtains or drapes.
Size is an option, too. Both single- and double-cell honeycomb window treatments come in a variety of pleat sizes – 3/8" being the most popular – up to 2"-plus wide. That's why they're a great choice when covering windows of different dimensions in the same room or area, because you can easily create a sleek, unified look throughout the space. Cellulars with smaller pleats look more proportional in smaller windows (too many rows of small cells can look too busy in an oversized window). Larger pleats are actually lighter per square foot than smaller sizes, so they won't sag, making them perfect for large sliding doors and wider windows.
Bored with traditional blinds and ready to create some design buzz of your own? Here's how to measure for honeycomb shades to get started.


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Note: I sat down to write a reflection piece on the White Privilege Conference, which I attended with other AFSC staff and board members and a number of Quakers in April, and I ended up exploring how I learned racism instead. This piece is dedicated to my teachers: Niyonu Spann, Vanessa Julye, Pamela Haines, Pat Jennings, kamillah fairchild, Rosa Silveira, Nancy Duncan, Frances Hoover, and so many others. – Lucy
"I think my own biggest fear about facing race was that the universe as I knew it would be utterly changed if I did so. And my place in the universe would be changed. And so it has been, but in a good way." – Peggy McIntosh
I was born in a small town in Iowa and grew up in Omaha, Neb., a very segregated city. Spending most days primarily in the company of other white people, I assumed that living a segregated life was normal. I passed by people of color in stores and at restaurants, but for the most part, people of color did not appear in my circles of engagement. And like many white children, I was not taught to reach out and greet the people I passed by.
I learned racism by who wasn't in my sphere of encounter, by who wasn't named or included. I didn't know I was being carefully taught to be blind, to close my heart to the pain and experience and joy of others, but that was the program of study. Though I reaped many unearned privileges by learning this curriculum, I studied it without consent, and my parents and teachers taught it to me mostly unconsciously.
There were occasionally more explicit lessons.
When we visited my grandmother in her big white house in Atlanta when I was 5, we were told not to interact with her African-American housekeeper. I find it disturbing that I can remember her presence, but not her name, and that I didn't resist this lesson. My grandmother would spend most of her time watching television and drinking beer, so we didn't interact with her much either, but the message to me was clear: stay out of the kitchen.
When I was in sixth grade, two girls from Vietnam started attending my class. I remember an awkward afternoon; some of the other girls and I tried, haltingly, to talk to them.
They spoke English well, but we didn't know what to say. We learned that their journey to the United States was recent, that they came because of the war.
We didn't talk long, and that was the only exchange I remember; the adults around us gave us no encouragement or tools for befriending these girls, and we saw ourselves as part of a different circle.
I feel sadness for not extending myself to make them welcome, for being one more white girl who rendered them invisible and did not see them as potential friends.
My blindness might have been pierced earlier if I had been able to reach out and connect, to learn about their experience, to see a little of the bubble I lived in through their eyes—to understand the impacts of war, and that the racism that I was acting out makes war possible. I don't remember talking with them again.
There were other occasions of trying to reach out and connect with people of color, but either I fumbled and didn't know how to extend myself, or the connection became possible because the friend or acquaintance didn't counter the white narrative we both inhabited.
This mostly unspoken, hidden, but very powerful curriculum was what I breathed in daily. My mother was engaged in efforts to pierce through the white bubble. She was committed to affirmative action at the children's theater she directed, and she worked for racial justice in other ways. Though she planted some seeds in me that sprouted later, she didn't talk with me much about racial justice, and her understanding and efforts didn't counteract the pervasive atmosphere of white dominance.
Since then I've had many patient teachers that opened my eyes and countered the silent, dangerous lessons I had learned. I learned from the students I had at an underfunded school in California who told me stories of their experiences of racism; I learned from fellow teachers, white and African-American, who believed that their efforts to educate me might not be entirely in vain.
Still, though, I watched as other people went to anti-racism training and didn't understand how it related to me. I didn't understand that there was a whole level I wasn't apprehending.
I remember well the moment that really changed. I was at a Beyond Diversity 101 training, an intensive experience in uncovering racism, sexism, classism, and white privilege in order to reclaim human wholeness and connection.
I had been hearing stories of the deep daily impact of racism on people of color in the workshop. We had just finished an exercise in which we danced and moved in order to free up our understanding. Suddenly a floodgate opened in me. I realized then how deeply I had been schooled in disconnection. I sat on the floor, and memories and understanding flooded through me.
I remembered the moments from my childhood. I thought of how cold my grandmother was; when my mother was little, my grandmother subscribed to a popular parenting philosophy that recommended not touching your children. I thought of my father, a closeted gay man who was married to my mother for 33 years and couldn't acknowledge who he was. I remembered watching the movie "Nightjohn," how the slaveholder had taught his son to abuse those they enslaved, and I felt, viscerally, that there had been such hardness in my family.
I realized that all the ways of disconnection from others that have been taught to white children for so long—that were taught to me—result not only in horrible, systematic consequences for people of color, but also lead to dehumanization in white families and between white people. I realized that the apartheid I had experienced, the lies I'd been told about being better than other people, resulted in a kind of constant anxiety, a sublimated awareness that the comfort I enjoyed was built out of the suffering of others.
That moment changed me.
The numbness, hidden curriculum, and cocoon of whiteness are persistent, and it's a challenge to stay awake.
I make mistakes and screw up and fall on my face all the time. I act out of my white privilege and internalized dominance. But I understand that my humanity and that of my son are bound up with the reclamation of everyone's humanity; that until all children are free, none are free.
I recognize that keeping my heart open, soft, and receptive requires that I hear and take in the stories of injustice of people of color without defensiveness and with a thick skin. It requires daily action fueled by these stories. Though I am often clumsy in these conversations, I talk often with my son, Simon, about inequity and justice so that the default curriculum of white dominance isn't the only one he learns.
As my world has been upturned by this understanding, I have a sense that another world is possible, and that it is within this world.
Sometimes in racially mixed groups of people working for justice, the sense that we are one in Spirit—a community of love and resistance—becomes real, and I can taste the sweetness of what we are striving to create. That sweetness is like no other; it's what gets me up in the morning willing to struggle and do the difficult work of seeing, being, and living for a world based on recognizing and nurturing humanity, a world that fully expresses the first motion, love.


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The idle surges when in neutral and park, but there is no noticeable surge in gear or reverse. The car has an automatic transmission, if that makes a difference.
I have to this point replaced the Fuel pressure regulator, done new plugs, cleaned the IAC and throttle body, replaced the MAP sensor, cleaned the MAF sensor and replaced the air filter, replaced the CVVT solenoid gasket and cleaned the CVVT solenoid.
I am getting (at last checking) an ODB-II code for "Camshaft sensor output incompatible", I don't have the code handy, else I'd list it.
How can I get rid of this strange surging issue and fix the one last lingering CEL code so I can get the car inspected (NYS inspection)?


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If you want to get a sense of what an economic powerhouse Washington has become in recent years, look no further than the Virginia suburb of Falls Church City.
Boasting a strong school system and positioned about six miles from the nation's capital, Falls Church has for years enticed rich families, making it the nation's richest county with median annual household income of $113,313.
"It indicates that the City of Falls Church is located in a healthy economic area in the national capital region," says Wyatt Shields, city manager for Falls Church. "We are proud of the fact that we take advantage of the city's healthy economic area to attract people to live here."
It's No. 1, but it isn't alone. In fact, four of the top ten richest counties in the nation are concentrated in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, and a fifth, Howard County, Md., is equidistant between Washington and Baltimore.
In Pictures: America's 10 Richest Counties
In recent decades northern Virginia has become an economic dynamo, driven by a private sector that feasts on government contracting. These counties are also home to corporate lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who work in or around the nation's capital, soaking up federal government spending. And government-related hiring manages to keep the unemployment rate in places like Falls Church City down to 5.7%.
To determine America's richest counties, we looked at median annual household income estimates from 2005 to 2009 in each county in the nation, provided by the U.S. Census' American Community Survey. The estimates are in 2009 inflation-adjusted U.S. dollars.
Nader Baroukh, the mayor of Falls Church, is not shying away from the designation of being the richest, but he does disagree with one of the U.S. Census' conclusions. "We are actually a city and not a county, but I can't comment on how the Census puts its data together," says Baroukh. "We are a small jurisdiction, about 2.2 square miles, and I think given our location it's a very attractive place to live and our top schools are one of the big attractions."
Falls Church is in fact an independent political subdivision of the state, but most Virginia counties are much larger than Falls Church, which has a population of 12,330. Whatever you want to call it, even wealthy Falls Church is not exempt from the kind of tough fiscal realities facing counties and cities across the nation. Fall Church has cut 14% of its workforce over the last three years and raised property taxes.
Nearby Loudoun County, Va., used to be a sleepy rural community just a few decades ago, but in recent years it has become a technology center and a popular Washington suburb. It is now the second-richest county in the nation with median annual household income of $112,021. Another Washington county, Fairfax County, Va., rounds out the top three with annual median household income of $104,259. Making the median high income in Fairfax County even more impressive is the fact that it has 1.1 million residents. This populous county has a massive federal government presence and is home to companies with strong connections to the government, like
Only counties that are part of the New Jersey suburbs of New York City can rival Northern Virginia. The richest county in the nation outside of Virginia is Hunterdon County in northwest N.J., where the median annual household income is $102,500. Rural Hunterdon County has become a magnet for rich commuters heading to New York City and even Philadelphia. Morris County, N.J., where the taxes are high but the median household income is $96,316 or Somerset County, also are among the richest counties in the nation.
Most of the richest counties in America are in the East. The richest county in the Western United States is Los Alamos, N.M., where decades of government money spent on nuclear weapons has resulted in median annual household income of $100,423. Most of the 18,000 residents of this county, which is New Mexico's smallest, live in Los Alamos or White Rock and the biggest employer is the Los Alamos National Laboratory.


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2014 Cadillac CTS-V Sedan Sport Premium Review by Carey Russ +VIDEO
•SEE ALSO: Cadillac Buyers Guide
I'm reading the following in the owner's manual, under the heading Track Events: "Track events and competitive driving may affect the vehicle warranty. See the warranty manual before using the vehicle for competitive driving. Caution: If the vehicle is used for track events and competitive driving, the engine may use more oil than it would in normal use. Check more often. Check rear axle fluid after every 24 hours of racing or competitive driving."
This is in the owner's manual of a 2014 Cadillac CTS Vsport. Yes, you read that right, advice on track events (such as a driver's school or track day) and racing in a Cadillac manual.
The CTS sedan is all-new for 2014. "All-new" is a seriously overused term in the auto industry, but it's true here. The chassis platform is no longer the older "Sigma" used since the CTS's debut in 2002 (model year 2003). It's now a stretched version of the "Alpha" platform that underlies the smaller ATS. With the introduction of the ATS into the lineup, the CTS is no longer the smallest Cadillac. With a stretch of an inch or so in wheelbase and four in length, there is more room inside, especially for rear passengers. And it goes from "compact" to "midsize" luxury, where it gets to go up against competition including the BMW 5-Series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, and Audi A6. Tough neighborhood.
If my recent time in the line-topping Vsport is any indication, it's the Germans who should worry. The Vsport is not the CTS-V, which continues unchanged this year, as was the case with the previous generational change in model year 2008. Power here is not from a 556-horsepower supercharged V8, but from a 420-hp twin-turbo V6. Because the V6 is smaller and lighter than the -V's V8, and the new CTS was developed with a racer's eye toward weight reduction, the Vsport is several hundred pounds lighter than the -V, so performance is not much less by the numbers, with even less difference in street driving. Or at a track event… And to improve both performance and make some attempt at fuel economy, the transmission is a multi-mode eight-speed automatic.
Watch The Auto Channel's CTS promo video of the Cadillac CTS
There are other models of 2014 CTS sedan. Entry level gets you a 272-hp 2.0-liter turbo, rear- or all-wheel drive, six-speed automatic. Above that is the familiar 321-hp naturally-aspirated 3.6-liter V6, the Vsport engine without enhancements. In rear-drive form it gets the eight-speed; with AWD the six-speed. Like the CTS-V, the regular CTS coupes and wagons are unchanged for 2014.
The Vsport is offered in two trim levels, "base" and Premium. Base is in quotes because it's anything but… Premium adds a host of upgrades including but not limited to the Luxury Package (tri-zone climate control, sunshades, illuminated door handles, head-up display and more), the Seating Package (heated and cooled front seats, heated steering wheel, heated outside mirrors with puddle lamps, ambient lighting, and more), a larger programmable gauge cluster adaptive cruise control and pretty much everything for state of the luxury art comfort and connectivity. Base starts at $59,995; Premium at $69,070. Add another $925 for the destination charge, and in the case of my test car, $ 995 for "Black Diamond Tricoat" paint. Like the power and handling and don't need all the gadgetry? The "base" model looks to be a very good value for a high-performance sedan.
In Premium trim, it showcases all of Cadillac's considerable prowess in luxury appointment and technological goodness -- and that latter not merely in state-of-the-art infotainment and connectivity, but in the use of metallurgical and electronic technology in the service of performance and safety. Fuel economy? Um… entertainment budget, right?
APPEARANCE: Cadillac's distinctive angular lines have softened somewhat, but are still readily recognizable. The grille is a bit larger and ever so slightly rounded at its corners, with a prominent display of the wreath-and-crest logo in the center. Vertical lights have been a Cadillac trademark for a while, and at the front LED technology allows a distinctive running light display at the front of the fenders. Strong shoulders and wheel arches characterize the sides, with vertical taillights distinguishing the rear, where a chrome garnish bar above the license plate denotes luxury and twin exhausts poking through the bumper fascia hint at performance.
COMFORT: Welcome to 21st Century luxury, Cadillac version. The initial impression is "premium sport luxury", with quality leather seating, faux-suede (much better than the real thing for this application) surfaces, and, where the standard sedan has burled wood, carbon-fiber trim. Plus metal binding around various trim and instrument pieces. The instruments are programmable displays on a TFT screen, bright and impervious to glare. Anything that can be power-adjustable is, and all amenities expected in a premium sport-luxury sedan are found. The CUE display on the center stack and the touchscreen above it control audio, navigation, and climate functions. There is a learning curve for the touchpad… The front seats are wonderfully supportive and comfortable, completely adjustable, and both heated and cooled. A heatable steering wheel rim is a pleasant touch on a cool day. The two outboard rear passengers get comfortably contoured seating with adjustable cushion heat. A deep, wide central tunnel makes the center a short-term position. Everyone has overhead grab handles. The trunk is on the small side for the car's size, with a ski-passthrough to the interior.
SAFETY: The 2014 Cadillac CTS Vsport has all of the required safety features, of course. It also comes with all of the new-tech sensors and radar cruise control, lane-departure warning, and such. It can go, so it should stop -- and four-wheel antilock vented disc brakes with four-piston Brembo calipers up front ensure that. Further active safety is enhanced by its extreme roadholding and handling capabilities.
RIDE AND HANDLING: To less mass, 50/50 weight distribution, and a carefully designed and calibrated fully-independent MacPherson strut / five-link suspension add magnetorheological adaptive variable damping and the result compares well to any sports-luxury, or serious sports-only, sedan made today. Poseurs may complain that the Vsport has mere 18-inch wheels instead of stylish 20s. Poseurs would be shown for what they are. The 18s, shod with runflat Pirelli P-Zero rubber, are lighter than larger wheels, and that means less unsprung weight. Traction will not be a problem, unless it rains… which it did for the first days of my week. They are dry-weather, high-performance tires, so take it easy. There are multiple suspension modes with the Magnetic Ride Control system. Touring is the default, and feels a bit flaccid. Snow/Ice lets you know that such conditions are even less optimal Vsport habitat. Sport should be considered the default. Yes, it's firm -- this is a sports sedan as much as a luxury sedan, and it's serious about the sport part. So it's appropriately firm, with perhaps a remap of steering and transmission response as well. It responds best to assertive driving, don't be tentative. Track takes that to the next level. For the most part, during dry weather I left it in Sport and was thoroughly pleased. This is most definitely not a 1970 Eldorado!
PERFORMANCE: The Vsport's engine is based on the naturally-aspirated 3.6-liter V6, but uses one turbocharger per bank of cylinders, with a maximum 15 psi of boost, to make 420 horsepower (at 5750 rpm), with 430 lb-ft of torque available from 3500 through 4500 rpm and not much less all the way down to idle. Direct fuel injection allows high compression for optimum efficiency, further enhanced by continuously-variable cam phasing. It feeds on unleaded premium only. Obviously, it's anything but peaky, and could probably do just fine in the USA at least with only third gear. Cadillac's first eight-speed automatic transmission features low low gears and overdrive seventh and eighth gears for quick acceleration and reasonably efficient highway mileage. The highway this car is best-suited to would be the German Autobahn, not speed-limited American highways… It can be driven gently in traffic with no complaints, but seems much happier when driven assertively. If this type of car is on your list, you're likely not too concerned with mileage. The 17 mpg overall that I got compares well with other high-performance machinery, and was better than the 14 of the last CTS-V I tested.
CONCLUSIONS: With its new CTS Vsport, Cadillac has a car that is the equal of any regular production sport-luxury sedan.
2014 Cadillac CTS V-sport Premium
Base Price $ 69,070
Price As Tested $ 70,990
Engine Type DOHC 24-valve V6 with direct fuel injection, twin turbochargers, continuously-variable cam phasing
Engine Size 3.6 liters / 217 cu. in.
Horsepower 420 @ 5750 rpm
Torque (lb-ft) 430 @ 3500-4500 rpm
Transmission 8-speed automatic with manual-shift mode
Wheelbase / Length 114.6 in. / 195.5 in.
Curb Weight est 3750 lbs.
Pounds Per Horsepower 8.9
Fuel Capacity 19 gal.
Fuel Requirement 91 octane unleaded gasoline required
Tires Pirelli P-Zero runflat front: 245/40R18 93Y rear: 275/35R18 95Y
Brakes, front/rear vented disc all around, 4-piston Brembo front calipers, single-piston rear calipers
Suspension, front/rear independent MacPherson strut / independent multilink
Drivetrain front engine, rear-wheel drive
EPA Fuel Economy - miles per gallon city / highway / observed 16 / 24 / 17
0 to 60 mph 4.6 sec
Black Diamond Tricoat $ 995
Destination Charge $ 925
Watch Cadillac's Black Diamond Tricoat video