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Top European finance officials met again Sunday in Brussels to try and prevent a financial collapse and save the continent from its debt crisis.
Europe's debt situation differs from what happened in 2008 in the U.S., where banks lent money to fuel an unsustainable housing boom. Still, a default in Europe could have serious consequences on Wall Street and on global markets.
As the European markets get closer to a meltdown and the echoes of the 2008 banking crisis still resonate in the U.S., has anything changed on Wall Street in the past few years?
The Dow Jones industrial average recently reached a three-month high. Despite high unemployment, many on Wall Street are still making big money, says Jesse Eisinger, who covers finance for ProPublica.
Eisinger tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered, that though the Dodd-Frank financial oversight law tries to prevent Wall Street banks from doing the sort of proprietary trading that led to the financial crisis, it doesn't mean it's not still happening.
"They can't do that as much, which leads to being less profitable," Eisinger says. "But they're still doing a lot of trading for their own account — it's just much harder to see."
The ecosystem of financial institutions funding other financial institutions without any larger societal benefit is unsustainable, Eisinger says. He says the current caution on Wall Street created by the Dodd-Frank law is going to be temporary unless there's serious structural change to the financial system.
"We didn't break up the banks; we didn't make them smaller -– we just asked them to change their behavior," he says. "That works maybe for a couple of years ... but that won't work in the long term."
Still Too Big To Fail
Though many ordinary people have lost millions, it's business as usual for the large investment firms. For example, investment banking giant Goldman Sachs announced a quarterly loss last week — just the second time since 1999 it has posted a loss; yet Goldman still set aside more than $10 billion for year-end bonuses.
Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who also served as New York's attorney general, says small investors do not get a fair shake on Wall Street.
"Small investors are sold stuff that they should not be sold," Spitzer tells Raz. "They have sold a product to the public and then bet against it -– they have designed it to fail."
Large investment firms have access to IPOs, stocks and information, among other things, in order to make money, Spitzer says. He says these advantages create conflicts of interest in the products they create for small investors.
"I spent many years as attorney general trying to root out the inherent conflicts of interests," he says. "[The people] who put together these products may have one thing in mind that may not be in the best interest of the person who was sold that product."
In a recent article for the online magazine Slate, Spitzer says the Occupy Wall Street movement has "shaken up American politics." He says it has helped re-inject the issue of income inequality, jobs and equity into the political discussion, which until now has been focused solely on debt reduction.
Although Wall Street might be an easy target for critics of the financial crisis, Spitzer, like Eisinger, says it's the very structure that is the problem. He says structural reforms in the financial industry are the first critical step in dealing with equity and growth issues.
"We still have major institutions that are more concentrated now than they used to be," he says. "Have we made some progress? Sure, but not enough."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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How can you find joy in a season when in a small New England town 26 families bury their loved ones? How do you find peace even in honoring a fine senator who lived a long and honest life of public service? Why is there evil in a world so full of good? How do you hope for light on the darkest day of the year?
That is the mystery of the season, and the mystery of life. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die," the Bible says in Ecclesiastes. "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance."
On the solstice the sun hovers almost motionless in the sky as our big blue marble makes its dance around the solar system. On Tuesday, Christmas, the light returns. Whether God's grace or the simple light of a sun rising ever higher, hope returns. Laughter returns. Joy returns. It is the joy that has always been within us, the joy we sometimes forget in these dark, cold and lonely days.
Love, hope, warmth, simple gifts and the embrace of friends, family and community: these are the things we celebrate. These are the things that keep us alive in a time when surviving seems to be an impossible struggle. Love, hope, warmth. That's all there is sometimes, something worth celebrating, indeed, on this weekend of peace. Love, hope, warmth: may you find it among friends in this amazing town at the edge of the sea — perhaps in fellowship like these Best Bets?
BEST BREAKING BREAD BET: Speaking of fellowship, here's a chance to meet your friends and make new ones. Sit down to dinner at 5:30 p.m. today for a free community meal at the United Methodist Church on East End Road. Want to really make friends? Stick around afterward and help clean up and do the dishes, too.
BEST WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The Legislative Information Office has moved up the hill to Pioneer Avenue and Bartlett Street. Check out their new offices, learn how to send public opinion messages, and meet Senator-elect Peter Micciche and Rep. Paul Seaton and their staffs. An open house is 2 to 6 p.m. today.
BEST HALLELUJAH BET: In these times of trouble, nothing lifts the spirits like song. Visit Christian Community Church at 7 p.m. today for a night of community Christmas carols. The church also holds a candlelight service from 6 to 7 p.m. Christmas eve. Faith Lutheran also holds Christmas Eve services from 8 to 9 p.m.
BEST IT'S A WRAP AGAIN BET: Bring those scissors and tape and give the gift of caring at the Share the Spirit food box packing and gift wrapping. It starts at 9 a.m. Friday in the Homer High School commons.
BEST BRING THE LIGHT BET: Dance, sing, play instruments, mediate and do a little yoga for a solstice gathering from 6 p.m. to midnight Friday at the cedar cabin on East End Road and the Art Barn. Bring food, drink and musical instruments and dress for indoors and outdoors. An outdoor fire is provided.
BEST HO-HO-HO BET: After the presents are wrapped and the tree trimmed, work off a little tension with the Christmas Eve Skate Party at Kevin Bell Ice Arena from 2 to 5 p.m. Monday. The K-Bay Marines sponsor the event. Semper fi, Marines. Bring a plate of treats to share and say hi to Santa as he stops in on the Alaska leg of his day.

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When I select "Flash ClockwordMod Recovery" from the ROM Manager menu a list of devices is presented ("Confirm Phone Model" dialog). There I can choose e.g. between "Samsung GalaxyS i9000" and "Samsung GalaxyS i9000 (MTD)".
What is the difference between the MTD and the non MTD versions? When would I choose what?


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First WWDC 2012 banners go up at Moscone: 'Where great ideas go on to do great things'
The banners feature an assortment of app icons and the same colorful squares that make up the Apple logo on the WWDC 2012 invitation, as noted by MacRumors.
Apple will kick off the annual conference next Monday with a keynote at 10 a.m. Pacific . The official conference schedule was published last week, but more of the sessions are marked "To be announced" than usual, setting off a flurry of speculation that they will pertain to as-yet-unannounced products, services or APIs.
The Cupertino, Calif., company itself has been abnormally quiet in the first half of 2012. It did tease this summer's OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion release in February and then release the iPad and a refreshed AppleTV in March, but it has yet to release any new Macs.
WWDC 2012 banner at the Moscone Center (via MacRumors)
On Tuesday, reports emerged that in-store pickup inventory of the Mac Pro has been drying up at Apple Stores, a possible sign that the workstation could see an upgrade at WWDC. The machine was last updated in 2010. Other reports suggest MacBook Pros and iMacs could also make an appearance at the event.
Apple is also expected to announce a new and improved maps application for iOS, new Camera and Photos apps and closer Facebook integration. The company will also likely publicly unveil its next-generation of iOS, presumably called iOS 6, and provide further details about the upcoming Mountain Lion release.
Visit AppleInsider's WWDC 2012 topic page to stay up to date on developments with the conference.


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Schlotzsky's, the home of The Original round toasted sandwich, announced that it has signed 75 franchise agreements for a total of 25 restaurants that will each house the Schlotzsky's, Cinnabon, and Carvel concepts under one roof.
Company executives said the restaurants will begin to open throughout New Jerseyand Texasduring the next six – 12 months. The first development agreement was signed with New Jersey-based Better Bunz, LLC for 17 tri-brand locations (a total of 51 agreements between the three concepts), to open in areas throughout New Jersey.
Meanwhile, Texas-based Sac-N-Pac inked the second deal, with eight tri-brand locations, for a total of 24 agreements to open throughout Houston, San Antonio, and Central Texas.
"Together, these agreements represent the largest in Schlotzsky's history," says Kelly Roddy, president of Schlotzsky's. "We are thrilled to expand the brand throughout Texasand New Jerseywith a talented group of business savvy entrepreneurs."
Roddy says that the new locations will feature the brand's 'Lotz Better' look, a bright, contemporary feel with a circle theme and a new service model where crew members hand-deliver food to the tables.
While Anthony and Lama Dalleggio of Better Bunz, LLC will own the new Schlotzsky's restaurants, their daughter, Lea, will oversee operations. In addition, the Dalleggios will work with experienced restaurateurs as part of their team to help with site selection, marketing, and operations.
"Our family's strong affinity for the Schlotzsky's brand started many years ago while living in Houston," Lea Dalleggio says. "When we moved to New Jersey, our family missed our favorite Schlotzsky's sandwich and looked into bringing the brand to the region. After our due diligence, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to replicate the Schlotzsky's culture in New Jersey. We look forward to serving our customers with the best in gourmet sandwiches and beyond."
Sac-N-Pac, a family-owned and operated fuel and grocery retailer, will open non-traditional interstate/convenience-connected locations primarily operated along major highways and travel plazas. Each Schlotzsky's restaurant will share a building with the fuel/convenience retail and have its own entrance, a separate drive-thru, and a connected pass-through in the building.
With more than 350 locations worldwide, Schlotzsky's continues its growth momentum by aggressively targeting markets in Texas and in untapped markets around the country including Atlanta; Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Denver; Orlando and Tampa, Florida; Kansas City; Nashville; Phoenix; and St. Louis for multi-unit developers. Roddy says that, ideally, Schlotzsky's plans to have upwards of 700 locations by 2015.


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Once a flat sea floor, millions of years of erosion have carved the surface of Allegheny County into a maze of ridges and valleys. Pittsburgh sits where the Monongahela River from the south, and the Allegheny River from the north, join to form the Ohio. Many named and unnamed tributaries steadily cut through layers of sedimentary rock: limestone, sandstone, shale, coal. Today as one stands atop one of the many hilltops above 1,200 feet, it is not difficult to imagine that they were all part of a single, vast plateau, sloping ever so gently down toward the northwest. Pittsburgh and its suburbs are known for steep hillsides covered with buildings, streets which have steps for sidewalks, and sidewalks which are named streets. From the highest point in Allegheny County, 1,401 feet at River Hill in Forward Township, to the 710 foot normal pool level of the Ohio River at the Point in Pittsburgh, and down to the 682 foot elevation on the banks of the Ohio as it exits the County in the west, the elevation varies by a bit more than 700 feet. Other locations may have greater relief, but they are not as heavily urbanized; other cities may be more densely built, but they will tend to be on gentler terrain. With topography such as this, it is not surprising that there are so many bridges. One count reports over 2,000 bridges of 8 feet span or greater. Most types of bridges are represented in this area with the exception of cable-stayed, pontoon, or movable deck designs. Bridge engineers hold their conventions here. The Gateway Clipper Fleet offers guided riverboat tours featuring the bridges. It's virtually impossible to travel any notable distance without crossing a bridge. Long ago, indian trails crossed the area, often following the tops of the ridges to avoid any stream crossings. But with the European conquest and settlement, and nearly simultaneous start of road-building, it was not long before stream fording was replaced by the first simple bridges in the area. In fact, commenting on the British General Braddock's march to the Point in 1755, Colonel George Washington remarked: "instead of pushing on with vigor...they were halting to level every mole-hill and to erect bridges over every brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles." Mount Washington, formerly Coal Hill, rises over 400 feet above the Monongahela River opposite downtown Pittsburgh. This and other ridges and hills were once tunneled into for coal. Now they are tunneled through for transportation. This site seeks to document the "City (and County) of Bridges (and Tunnels)." Where to start with up to 2,000 possible choices? The website is being built to show the most notable structures first -- with the rest to come over time. The Tours, gather these most important structures into logical groups. And "What's New" shows the latest additions. The Overview Map plots the structures on Google Maps. To choose from a comprehensive listing of structures, (1) go to List by Location, (2) choose a map area, then (3) select from the list for structures in that area. Many significant structures are also listed for quick access; go to List by Design, List by Name, or List by Use. Submit info or inquiry - share some facts or ask a question.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) South Carolina's Jadeveon Clowney will play his last home game in what has been sluggish season for the heralded defensive end.
Clowney was a Heisman Trophy favorite when the year began and one of the most popular players in college football after his helmet-popping hit on Michigan's Vincent Smith in the Outback Bowl last New Year's Day.
But the 6-foot-6, 274-pound junior has just two sacks and few memorable game-changing plays this season.
He can add to those numbers Saturday when No. 10 South Carolina (9-2) hosts No. 6 Clemson (10-1).
Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier believes the reigning Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year has had a tremendous impact on South Carolina's improving defense.
Clowney, who has said he will enter the NFL draft after the season, takes a final college bow on Senior Day Saturday night. As has been Spurrier's practice this season, Clowney has not been made available for interviews prior to games.
Defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward acknowledged that Clowney's been his own worst enemy at times, missing sack opportunities and the chances to make big plays that he did his first two seasons. But Clowney's also dealing with two- and three-man blocking schemes to slow him down or offenses playing away from his side of the ball.
"Again, everybody this year has done something different and I'm sure they will, too," Ward said. "A lot of people are backs on him and some people are putting three people on him," Ward said.
Clowney had a mid-season controversy when he pulled himself out of South Carolina's game with Kentucky, sparking the anger of coach Steve Spurrier. That touched off several days of wondering if Clowney were committed to the Gamecocks, or concerned about protecting what could be a guaranteed $22 million as the NFL's top draft pick.
ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said earlier this month he still considered Clowney the draft's top prospect.
Clowney, who had a strained muscle by his ribs Kentucky week, has played better down the stretch.
"Hopefully, Jadeveon's ready to have his best game this Saturday night," Spurrier said.
Spurrier said Clowney's impact has been significant.
The Gamecocks went 11-2 each of Clowney's first two seasons, a feat never accomplished in school history. A win over Clemson this weekend would be South Carolina's fifth straight, also unprecedented in a series that began in 1896.
"All you got to do is look at the record book to see the impact he's made on South Carolina," Spurrier said.
Here are five things to watch for when No. 6 Clemson plays No. 10 South Carolina:
GAMECOCK STREAKS: South Carolina last won four straight in the series from 1951-54 and has never won five straight over the rival Tigers. The Gamecocks also have a longest-in-the-nation, 17-game home win streak, surpassing the mark set by the teams of Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers from 1978-80.
NOT JUST CLOWNEY: There are several NFL draft eligible players on both sidelines pondering NFL decisions. The most likely candidate to leave is Clemson receiver Sammy Watkins, who leads the ACC in receiving yards with 1,144 yards and 10 touchdown catches. Others who could enter the draft are South Carolina defensive tackle Kelcy Quarles and cornerback Victor Hampton, both juniors expected to join Clowney in Senior Day festivities. For the Tigers, defensive end Vic Beasley and receiver Martavis Bryant probably will also at the pros and cons of entering the NFL draft after this year.
GOODBYE QBs: This is definitely the final Palmetto State showing for senior quarterbacks Tajh Boyd of Clemson and Connor Shaw of South Carolina. The two have defined their programs' rise the past few seasons. Boyd has set ACC records for passing yards and touchdowns accounted for. Shaw is the Gamecocks all-time leader with a 25-5 mark as a starter. Plus, he's never lost at Williams-Brice Stadium.
EYE ON MISSOURI: South Carolina remains alive in the SEC championship chase, needing a win by No. 19 Texas A&M over fifth-ranked Missouri to claim the Eastern Division. Two weeks ago, officials broadcast the end of Auburn's victory over Georgia, which the Gamecocks also needed to make the title game, on the team's 123-foot wide video board after their contest with Florida started. Could South Carolina do the same here since Missouri's game starts 45 minutes after the Clemson kickoff?
SWINNEY IN THE SEC: Clemson's Dabo Swinney has done well against SEC competition since becoming a head coach in 2008, just not the Gamecocks. He's won six times against SEC teams, twice over Auburn and once each against South Carolina, Kentucky, LSU and Georgia. He's only 1-4, though, in the state rivalry.


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TPG Growth, the middle market and growth equity investment platform of TPG, announced it has acquired a majority stake in e.l.f. Cosmetics, one of the fastest growing cosmetics brands in the U.S. from company founders and TSG Consumer Partners LLC, a strategic equity investor in high-growth brands. Existing management will continue to have a meaningful investment in and an ongoing role with the company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
e.l.f. Cosmetics occupies a unique niche in the color cosmetics space, providing high-quality cosmetics, tools and accessories at compelling values. Combining strong digital capabilities and insights to deliver innovative products to consumers, the company has created a strong online presence and has become a valuable partner to world-class retailers.
"Through its differentiated approach, e.l.f.'s offering has resonated among a key segment of the cosmetics market," said John Bailey, principal at TPG Growth. "We believe that many opportunities lie ahead and are happy to partner with e.l.f. to build the company and accelerate its already impressive growth trajectory."
"Our team is proud of what we have built and are extremely excited to have a value-added partner like TPG Growth to help us scale the business," said Joey Shamah, co-founder of e.l.f. Cosmetics. "Their track record in building consumer businesses, international distribution relationships, e-commerce capabilities, global operational resources and access to incremental talent make them an ideally suited partner for our company. We are very excited to build upon our strong foundation and deliver even more value to our consumers and retail partners."
"The growth of e.l.f. Cosmetics has been phenomenal, and TSG is fortunate to have been partnered with such an exciting company," said Jennifer Baxter Moser, managing director at TSG Consumer Partners. "We look forward to watching the brand continue to grow and develop in the future."
Legal advice was given to TPG Growth by Kirkland and Ellis LLP. TSG Consumer Partners received legal advice from Sidley Austin LLP; e.l.f. was advised by Sills Cummis & Gross P.C. Financo served as exclusive financial advisor to e.l.f. Cosmetics and TSG Consumer Partners.


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With a motto of "eat healthy, eat less and move more," Healthy Memphis Common Table (HMCT) has made its mark in the local community during the past decade, encouraging the public to lead healthier lifestyles and to "get activated" with their health and health care options.
Denise Bollheimer and Dr. James Bailey, considered two of the primary catalysts behind the creation of Healthy Memphis Common Table, were honored during the organization's 10th anniversary celebration.
"Our mission is excellent health for all. We're working to change the health and the health care of the community, as well as impact the health equity," said CEO Renee Frazier, who joined HMCT in 2009. "We have various programs that focus on predominantly broad population health issues, including our signature focus on obesity and diabetes."
Last week the organization highlighted its 10th anniversary with a Diamond Anniversary Celebration at the GameDay Baseball youth sports complex in Cordova. Draper's Catering of Memphis LLC handled the event's catering, which included menu labeling to show the caloric intake for each item.
The goal of Healthy Memphis Common Table is to execute on community programs funded through various grants from national foundations like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Merck Foundation. Eighty percent of the organization's $1.5 million annual budget comes from grants.
"We also have strong support from health plans, and hospitals sponsor our work," Frazier said.
HMCT was founded in 2003 as a nonprofit by a group of volunteers concerned with the declining health of Memphians. HMCT had been originally incorporated in April 2000 as the Justice in Health Care Foundation, with a mission to foster collaboration of all resources in the community to improve common health goals.
"We were initially very disillusioned and concerned about the way our health care system was going. It was not serving health, and consumers were getting the short end of the stick in the process," said Dr. James E. Bailey, HMCT founding board chairman. "We wanted to help encourage coordination and a redesign of the health care system to better meet people's needs."
Bailey touts other founders like Denise Bollheimer, Dr. Robert R. Waller, Cristie Travis, Dr. Beverly Williams-Cleaves, Michael Provow, Dr. Grant W. Somes, and the Rev. Kathon Ann Kelley as instrumental in the group's early development.
Crux issues for the group over the years have been looking at better managing patients and their relationship with their physicians or providers so they are more activated in their health and examining high-use patients in the emergency room and trying to reduce non-urgent emergency room visits.
"Much of our efforts are about taking charge of our health care resources and using them more effectively and efficiently to promote health," said Bailey, who is now University of Tennessee Health Science Center professor of medicine and preventive medicine and director of the Center for Health Systems Improvement. "Since 2003 we've had a focus on giving consumers meaningful information about where to find good health care."
In the next 10 years, Frazier and Bailey want to see recent positive trends continue to improve with obesity and diabetes, better management of health care costs and end of life care, and reduction of infant mortality rates and non-urgent emergency room visits.
"For the first time we have seen drops in Shelby County in obesity rates," Frazier said. "It's still higher than the state average, but for the first time the trend is going in the right direction."
HMCT convened 37 different organizations to create alignment around the work that is being done locally to fight obesity.
"Of the 37 programs we documented, 21 of those programs were either directly involved as a partner or directly implementing some area of that initiative," Frazier said. "We are also significantly involved in the statewide task force with the grocery industry to look at a statewide food financing program to bring grocery stores into low-income communities."
Although not successful yet, the group has gotten the attention of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.
"It's a significant issue to make sure that healthy, affordable food is available in all neighborhoods, and we need financing incentives to bring full-service grocery stores into those neighborhoods," Frazier said.
Another major area of focus for HMCT is better management of local health care resources and the associated costs. In its last Take Charge report from earlier this year, HMCT cited $129 million wasted annually at local hospitals from an estimated 219,000 non-urgent emergency room visits.
"We have a great amount of waste when it comes to emergency room use in Memphis and Shelby County," Frazier said. "When you look at diabetic patients, probably 90 percent that end up in the emergency room should not have been there."
HMCT works throughout the year with Leadership Memphis to provide menu labeling about caloric intake at corporate events. A new program rolling out in 2014 called "Preferred Choice" will focus on showcasing 500-calorie meals.
The once volunteer-only organization has evolved over the past decade to support a dedicated staff of 16 full- and part-time employees. The group just hired a new program coordinator, Kathy Lofton, to help with its hypertension initiative with Healthy Shelby. Lofton previously worked at BlueCross BlueShield.
As many as 500 participants are expected for The Million Calorie Burn 5K Walk/Run on Saturday, Nov. 2, at Highpoint Church inside the Ridgeway Loop.
"If we could get 1,000 people to come out and run even at a slow pace for three miles, they would burn roughly 1 million calories," Frazier said.
The race captain will be Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr., and race co-chair television morning show host Marybeth Conley. Post-race activities will include an awards ceremony, live music, food and more.
Proceeds will help HMCT continue programming to help reduce childhood and family obesity.
HMCT holds its next community event, its annual Let's CHANGE Summit, on Jan. 15.


text: Details Magazine calls HEY, MISTER "America's funniest comic book." Join Pete's hilarious cast of misfits, Young Tim, Mister, and Aunt Mary, as they get drunk, party naked, and dissect everything sacred in Western civilization with their razor-edged and sardonic philosophies. Witness through our heroes' lives the decay of American morality as we know it. There are eight comic books to date (and three trade paperbacks listed in the graphic novel section). -- 24 pages


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Theodore Dreiser
About the Author
Theodre Dreiser was born into a large and impoverished German American family in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1871. He began his writing career as a reporter, working for newspapers in Chicago. Pittsburg, and St. Louis, until an editor friend, Arthur Henry, suggested he write a novel. The result was Sister Carrie, based on the life of Dreiser's own sister Emma, who had run off to New York with a married man. Rejected by several publishers as "immoral", the book was finally accepted by Doubleday and Company, and published–over Frank Doubleday's strong objections–in 1900.
Numerous cuts and changes had been made in the lengthy original manuscript by various hands, including those of Arthur Henry, Dreiser himself. Later, when given to mythologizing his career, Dreiser was to suggest that the publishing history of Sister Carrie had been one of bowdlerization and suppression only; but the publication of his unedited manuscript by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1981 shows that Dreiser approved and even welcomed Henry's and Jug's alterations. (Whether the book was ultimately improved or compromised by their liberal editing is a fascinating and as yet unresolved issue among Dreiser scholars.) Sister Carrie sold poorly, but writers like Frank Norris and William Dean Howells saw it as a breakthrough in American realism, and Dreiser's career as a novelist was launched.
The Financer (1912) and The Titan (1914) began his trilogy about the rise of a tycoon, but it was An American Tragedy (1925), based on newspaper accounts of a sensational murder case, which brought him fame. The novel was dramatized on Broadway and sold to Hollywood. Newly influential and affluent, Dreiser visited Russia and was unimpressed, describing his observations in the skeptical Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928). In later years, however, he became an ardent (through unorthodox) Communist, writing political Treatises such as America Is Worth Saving (1941) His artistic powers on the wane, Dreiser moved to Hollywood in 1939 and supported himself largely by the sale of film rights of his earlier works. He dies there, in 1945, at the age of seventy-four.


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Nephi Bailey: Early Monticello stalwart
In May of 1880, Nephi Bailey, his young wife and three children arrived in Bluff just months after the Hole-in-the Rock pioneers had settled there. They had left a comfortable life in Cedar City and heeded the call to help settle the San Juan Mission.
It took the family a month to make the journey.
At Lee's Ferry, they had to take their wagons apart and ferry them across the Colorado River to the San Juan side a few pieces at a time.
In Bluff, life was difficult. Annie was afraid of the Indians after one tried to buy her son Moroni. Their well water was bad and the river was especially unkind to their humble farming pursuits.
In l888, after eight years of subsistence living in Bluff, Nephi and his growing family of 11 children, moved to Monticello. The town was less than a year old, tiny, primitive and was battling the cowboys and large ranch owners for water and grazing rights.
It was a long trip from Monticello to any kind of civilization and supplies. The isolation was an ever-present challenge, especially for Annie.
The Bailey Family came to Monticello because the Stake President, Francis Hammond, called on several families from Moab, Bluff and Mancos, CO to move to Monticello and help stake out a town of sufficient size and strength to counter the pressures coming from the wild cowboys, the cattle barons, and the Indians.
The first home the Bailey's had in Monticello was a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor and a roof that leaked.
Nephi was a shoemaker by trade and made shoes for people all over the area.
Nephi was born November 19, 1846 in New Mills, Derbyshire, England, to Henry and Amelia Read Bailey, both recent converts to the LDS Church.
They named their new son after one of the great patriarchs of the Book of Mormon. Nephi learned the art of making fine shoes and boots from his father Henry and his Grandfather William, as a boy in England.
On July 14, 1868, Nephi, as a 22-year old single man, left England and sailed for Zion on the ship Colorado. There were 600 other Mormon converts sailing on the ship. Their leader was William Preston. The crossing of the Atlantic took just two weeks, which was excellent time in those days. They arrived in New York Harbor on July 28.
He made the long trip to the Salt Lake Valley with a team and wagon, just one year before the trans-continental railroad was completed. In Utah, he found employment in the railroad construction camps organized by Brigham Young, who contracted with the Union Pacific Railroad to provide much of the manpower to build the railroad in the Great Basin. Nephi was present at Promontory Point on May 10, 1869 for the driving of the Golden Spike.
Nephi lived in the Ogden area for a short time and then moved to Cedar City. There he wooed and won Annie Eva Mackelprang, the daughter of Peter Mackelprang and Margaret Sorenson, both Danish converts to the church.
Annie and Nephi were married September 4, 1873. Three and a half years later, on March 16, 1877, the marriage was sealed in the St. George Temple.
For the first seven years of their marriage, Nephi and Annie lived in Cedar City in the winter and on Cedar Mountain in the summer, where they worked on a dairy farm, raised a garden and "enjoyed the clear spring water."
In Cedar City, Nephi was active in music, acting as a choir leader and being a member of a well-known male quartet. Nephi also enjoyed dramatics and took part in a dramatic club that specialized in "plays of the better class."
In 1880, the call came and the Bailey's moved with their three oldest children, Nephi Peter, William Henry and Joseph Moroni, to Bluff. Julius Mackelprang, Angus Mackelprang (who drowned at age two) and Margaret Mackelprang were born into the family in Bluff.
In Monticello Margaret Sophia, Jesse M., Alvin M., Elmer and Victor M. (twins), and Ralph joined the family. Nephi and Annie adopted Thelma Pointer, a girl born in Colorado in l902, for a total of eleven children.
Life was a challenge on the frontier with so many mouths to feed. In l896, at the age of 49, Nephi was called to serve a mission for the LDS Church in Great Britain. It was the year that Utah received statehood. He left behind his wife and nine children.
In Salt Lake City, Nephi was set apart by President Seymour B. Young. Nephi was told that he had been called "under the inspiration of the Divine Spirit; was endowed with power from on high; told that he could go forth trusting in the Lord; was given power over the winds, the waves and wicked men; was admonished to be pure in mind and in person and was promised that every blessing that he desired before the Lord would be his."
Nephi sailed back across the Atlantic Ocean and served for 20 months in the Lancaster District of the British Mission. A few excerpts from his missionary journal:
Trying to decide if he should go tracting again in the rain… "I feel I am not doing enough when I consider the sacrifices being made at home."
"Today I baptized two women and a boy."
Wrote that a "musical society sent him a 'plump' $10, making $25 he had received from the people of Monticello for Christmas. It shows people are thinking of me."
"I gave out 112 tracts today; returned home tired."
"In the evening we had a fine outdoor meeting on the Market Place at Wigan. There were five Elders. We had our silk hats and drew much attention. I was the first speaker. I preached to the people to hear us and believe that we were desirous of doing them good."
"Today I spoke perhaps ½ hour to a very intelligent congregation that listened to me with rapt attention. There is something particularly fascinating in talking to an outdoor congregation. You seem to be put on your mettle. The Elders said I spoke well and straight from the shoulder."
His reaction to going to a street fair. "There are many snares laid for the young in such a fair as this."
Before he returned from England, Nephi received a letter from his father asking him to do genealogy work on the Bailey family before he came home. At the end of his missionary service, Nephi traveled to the Manchester District to discharge the duty.
His journal reports visiting many cousins, looking up sexton's records and going to cemeteries. He comments on the beauty of England and wishes that his family could be there with him.
Annie struggled in his absence. By correspondence, mother and father shared the burdens and joys of rearing children.
Annie took in boarders to make ends meet in Nephi's absence. She had some discouraging times with one of her teenage sons.
She wrote: "Our son is as unstable as water. It would be pleasanter around here if he were more thoughtful. He makes promises and breaks them at will. He likes to ride his horse and that is all. Poor boy, he doesn't know how much trouble he is making for me."
Upon receiving this missive, Nephi wrote in his journal, "My dear old partner is not well. She is tired of being alone with our large family. She has managed to keep the house together and has done fine in both management as well as teaching and giving council and advice to the boys. I appreciate her and I hope to be able to ease up her burdens before long. She has too much work and worry, poor old soul. I shall be glad when I can be back to lighten her load."
Nephi returned from England on the ship Furnessia, sailing from Glasgow.
Within five months of returning from his mission in l898, Nephi was elected Justice of the Peace in Monticello. He held the office for ten years and had the honor of marrying his son Julius to Ruth Perkins.
Journal entries in l898 shortly after his mission give us a glimpse into the life of an early pioneer in San Juan at the turn of the century.
"I spent the day in the shoe shop mending and making."
"The boys and I went down to the Vega today and brought back a load of hay."
"Married a couple from Dolores, Colorado."
"Choir practice tonight. I talked at some length at that assemblage. They seem to think I am the most suited to be their leader and so express themselves."
"I finished a fine pair of boots today and sent them down to Bluff."
"Spent the evening at home."
"The entire day spent in fixing up the premises."
"I and the family went to Sunday School and afternoon meeting. I was called upon to preach and I got warmed up a little."
In l913, Nephi and his son Alvin decided to buy a small log general store from one Martinez Johnson. They moved it to a better location on Main Street next to where the Little Theatre later stood.
After a remodel, they named it the Bailey and Brooks Store after Nephi and his partner William Brooks. The Baileys later bought out Brooks and named the store the Bailey Mercantile Co.
They decided the store needed some sidewalks and, at their own expense, purchased lumber from Charles Burr's saw mill, located near where the Blue Mountain Dude Ranch is today, and built the first boardwalks in Monticello.
The business went along very well until "credit overtook us," Nephi wrote.
A couple of dry years, when crops failed and farmers were unable to pay their bills, spelled the end of the Bailey's Mercantile operation. When the end came, Nephi reported they have more charge accounts on the books than their entire capital investment.
Nephi was an industrious, hard working man who worked 8-10 hours a day right up until the day before he died in 1925. He was described as small in stature, always neat, well dressed and very English.
He built his wife and family one of the largest and most beautiful homes in Monticello, which still stands across the road north of the Community Church in Monticello.
Although the original Bailey home has gone through several makovers and today does not look much like it was when the Bailey's built it, it was a mansion in its time.
His home, along with those of F. I. Jones and George A. Adams on the same street (Second South) are the only three remaining pioneer homes in Monticello built before the turn of 20th century which still stand.
Nephi and Annie had the first piano in Monticello and the first gaslights installed in their home in l909.
Nephi was elected Mayor of Monticello and served two terms.
He was always active in the LDS Church and held many offices, including 25 years as Superintendent of the Sunday School.
The day before he died, he put in ten long hours of hard labor. He awoke about midnight complaining of pain in his chest which grew steadily worse.
Annie called the doctor but they could not save him. He passed away July 2, 1925 at the age of 78. He was chairman of the Pioneer Association at the time of his death. His contribution to the building up of San Juan County, with his devotion to family, God and community would be difficult to measure. Today his posterity numbers close to a thousand. He is buried with his beloved Annie in the Monticello Cemetery.
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Deep-fried version
Of such dish the fish fillet is normally dipped with egg-flour mixture and deep-fried first. Since I intend to eat it on the next day and consider the crust turning soft, the fillet (lightly floured) is simply pan-fried. Honestly, it tastes superb.
Also, I used some flour to thicken the sauce so that the consistency is able to last longer.
Pan-fried version
Ingredients (2 servings)
- 2 fish fillets with firm flesh, I use hake/merluza
- salt
- flour
- veg oil
for the sauce:
- 250 ml water
- a small pinch of chicken powder
- 30 - 50 ml lemon juice
- 2 slice of lemon rind
- a tiny slice of ginger
- 3 Tbsps white sugar
- 1/8 tsp margirine
- 2 Tsps flour, dissolved with spoonfuls of water
- 2 tsps cornstarch, dissolved with little water
- (optional) a very small pinch of turmeric (Indian spice, just for coloring)
- Please do the sauce (as follow) before cooking the fish.
- To make the sauce:
- Bring a pot of water, sugar, lemon rind to boil, then add about 30 ml of lemon juice, lower to simmer. And a pinch of chicken powder, a tiny pinch of tumeric and the flour mixture into the sauce, taste and adjust the sweet/sour taste, simmer for 15 minutes.
- Discard the lemon rind and ginger, keep the sauce simmering, add the conrstarch water until your desired consistency. Turn off the heat, stir in margirine until it's totally dissolved.
- To cook the fish:
- Spoon some flour in a wide-base bowl, add a pinch of salt. Set aside.
- Pre-heat some oil in a skillet
- Sprinkle a bit of salt over the fillets, roll them over the flour mixture. Pan-fry them over medium heat until they're done.
- If consume the dish next day, store the fish and sauce seperately. After re-heating both, pour the sauce over the fish right before serving.


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The Ocean City Mayor and Council tabled a discussion this week on decriminalizing the town's open container policy, but it's our hopes it was simply a delaying of the inevitable.
The decision to postpone talks was understandable, since two council members and the mayor were absent as well as the chief of the town's police department.
The entire council needs to be briefed on what has been discussed by the town's Police Commission in recent months, but we would hope the council makes a decision soon after and gets the change on the books before the summer. After all, as Councilman Jim Hall said recently, this discussion has been ongoing for more than 20 years.
The town needs to decriminalize the open container violation. If you are walking on public property in Ocean City with an open beer or mixed drink, you are in violation of the town's open container law and will most likely be charged with a criminal misdemeanor. You could also get a warning if the cop buys your story or even be arrested. It's up to the individual officer's discretion to handle the matter as he or she sees fit.
Proponents of the current open container policy contend police's ability to be proactive on lesser crimes prevents further crimes typically a result of alcohol abuse. Additionally, it's believed open container arrests often lead to other charges, such as underage drinking and narcotics. The city's policy is one example that when combined cumulatively with other measures makes Ocean City a safe place to live and visit, supporters say.
Opponents acknowledge there should be a penalty for violating the town's open container law but they believe it should be decriminalized, removing the possibility of arrest and making it a simple municipal infraction. It should not fall under officer discretion. They say the pure number of open container violations take highly-skilled police officers off the streets for an extended period of time when they should be out maintaining peace and food order.
Research shows eight of 10 resort destinations surveyed currently share Ocean City's policy on open container violations. In three of those resorts, it's a criminal misdemeanor with the maximum penalty set as a fine. In this case, this is one situation we believe Ocean City should break away from the pack.
We believe all open container violators should receive a simple municipal citation and make it payable by a fine. Our view is officer discretion needs to be removed from this policy. There is no need to make it a mandatory court appearance for both the defendant and the arresting officer. It's a waste of police and court resources, which are far too valuable to be using on these minor offenses. The time is now to change this law, and we hope the council makes the move in time for the upcoming summer season.


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Virtual reality really had a moment back in 2016. The internet is still packed with people trying it for the first time, and it's bizarre to watch. People falling on the floor, reaching their hands into ceiling fans, kicking their feet as if they're actually on a swing, and grasping at the floor for their lives even though they're perfectly safe.
Let's address the dinosaur in the virtual room: The graphics in VR aren't exactly hyper-realistic. Even the most realistic games in virtual reality have some pixelation. There's only so much processing power a computer can give before things start to lag.
Luckily for game designers, our brains aren't all that great at differentiating between reality and virtual reality as long as some basic rules are followed.
Making a virtual experience feel real is a matter of picking and choosing specific visual cues; the goal is to trick the brain in basic ways. It doesn't need to be realistic. It simply needs to be believable. Especially when it comes to vision. In a virtual world, the pixels don't need to be tiny or perfect for our brains to perceive the world as possible.
If we lift our feet and this virtual foot also lifts, the illusion only gets stronger. Those virtual feet become our own. Then the world is stretched out before us and objects within that world react in a very real way, even if the pixels aren't perfect. Researchers have harnessed a similar trick of the brain to get people to think a rubber hand is their own.
Check out the video above to learn more.
You can find this video and all of Vox's videos on YouTube. And if you're interested in supporting our video journalism, you can become a member of the Vox Video Lab on YouTube.


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Homer was once a place Kari Dendurent came for vacations. Now, as Homer Middle School's principal, the southern peninsula has become her home.
"Since I moved to Alaska, we've come to Homer on weekend trips, to go fishing," said Dendurent. Now that she and her partner, Jared Kane, are residents, Dendurent said, "We love it. Homer is like a vacation to us."
That enthusiasm extends to her role as the HMS top administrator.
"My professional goals are to brand our school as a top-notch school," said Dendurent. "That includes having a great school climate, pride, high academic achievement, parent involvement and community support and involvement."
To put a grade on how well that's going, Dendurent looked around at the school's 187 students (10 more than projected) and their parents, 15 teachers, five paraprofessional educators and a half dozen support staff.
"I am very impressed with the caliber of the teaching here and the experiences people bring into the classroom," said Dendurent. "Students are engaged. We're a five-star school. Overall, the students are extremely polite. A lot are involved in activities, whether student activities or art or playing hockey in the community. And the parents are very approachable."
Approachable also could describe Dendurent. She was at the head of the school's float in Homer High School's homecoming parade, beside Demon, a striking black and white husky and the spitting-image of the school's Husky mascot, and Jaime Sylva, with a brown and white version of Demon. Behind them was a crowd of seventh- and eighth-grade students dressed in the school's colors of blue and white and displaying so much energy the HMS float was named "Most Enthusiastic" by the judges.
Originally from Oregon, Dendurent was 9 years old when she moved to the Matanuska Valley area with her mother, Carol, also an educator. Dendurent graduated from junior and high school in Houston. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Central Florida, where she is currently working on her doctorate in educational leadership.
Dendurent has been the assistant principal at Houston High School, at Palmer High School and at a high school and middle school in Florida.
By the time Dendurent discovered the principal position had opened at Homer Middle School, it had already closed. Then it reopened. And here she is.
On the first morning of the 2013-2014 school year, she told faculty, staff and students in the school's gym that she wanted to hear a shout of school spirit loud enough to be heard all the way to Fat Olives, a local restaurant several blocks away. Her enthusiasm for Homer Middle School hasn't let up since then.
"We're really trying to brand that we're Homer Huskies," she said of building strong school pride.
State test scores from last year gave HMS a five-star rating, but Dendurent said there are challenges ahead with new state standards.
"Testing is going to look a little different … so while the students are still performing, the results and data may be skewed because the measurements are different," she said. "We're working with parents, letting them know what that really means."
In addition to academic achievement, student involvement is encouraged in sports and activities at school and in the community. Parental involvement in the school also is encouraged and Dendurent said she is "reminding teachers that there's a list of parents that want to volunteer. … The biggest thing is we want people to feel very comfortable and welcome coming into our school."
Giving teachers an opportunity to bring ideas to the table also is important to Dendurent. Darcey Mueller, the school librarian, will host TED (technology, entertainment and design) talks on the second Tuesday of the month, open to students, parents and the community. Quest and yearbook teacher Rand Seaton and his students are working with Haven House to create photographic montages that explore alcohol abuse.
"I think what's really happening is that teachers are saying they want to do something and I'm saying we'll do whatever we can do to support it," said Dendurent.
Supporting Homer's artistic spirit is another commitment Dendurent had made. Working through Bunnell Street Arts Center's artist-in-the-schools program, Eddie Wood will do a two-week salsa dance workshop that wraps up with a celebration the Friday before Thanksgiving.
Today the school is participating in the Great Alaska ShakeOut, an earthquake preparedness drill. The school's first music concert is Oct. 22 at Mariner Theatre. Parent-teacher conferences are Oct. 24-25. And Dendurent is going to be a judge of a chili cook-off sponsored by First Student, the district's transportation contractor, on Oct. 30.
Dendurent and Kane recently purchased a 22-foot Sea Sport, have "been checking out the fishing grounds" and Kane took second place in the Elks recent winter king salmon derby. The couple also is looking forward to cross country skiing, love to go four-wheeling and enjoy camping and hunting.
During the day, however, Dendurent can be found at Homer Middle School, "in the hallways and greeting students in the morning, in the afternoon being accessible. And because I also do discipline, I want to make sure the kids know my office isn't just about discipline. It's about leadership and academics," she said.
McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at email@example.com.


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(revised 25/11/02)
The Street Performer Protocol was proposed by Kelsey and Schneier as a way of generating private funding for public works. It is particularly relevant to the production of information goods.
One objection that can be made about the Street Performer Protocol is that contributors do not seem to gain a reward (in terms of production of the public work) in proportion to their contribution. This means that it makes sense to freeload, and just wait for other people to put up the money.
In this web-page I propose a variation on the Street Performer Protocol in which it is rational to contribute money towards the production of the public work, based on a system of conditional pledges. I call this the Rational Street Performer Protocol. This protocol evolved out of discussions in the Melbourne University Information Economics group.
It is useful to think of these kinds of protocols in terms of providing a service for money, rather than creating a public work with a certain value. It is hard to pin down the value of a good with zero production cost.
The protocol is designed as round that is repeated many times. After several rounds it gains the property that it makes rational sense to contribute, although even from the first round contibutors are guaranteed to get their money's worth. This means that it is more suitable for repeated works. Some things it would be useful for are:
The Protocol
The protocol consists of an on-going series of rounds. In each round, each person is aware of the outcomes of all the previous rounds.
The people involved are the artist (or service provider) and contributors who contribute money towards the work.
Each round proceeds as follows:
1. The artist proposes:
2. The contributors give the artist pledges of money they are willing to pay for the service. These take the form
I will dontate one dollar in every $____ raised over $____ up to a maximum contribution of $____ |
In other words, each person's pledge is a function of the total amount raised.
Stage 2 continues until the time specified by the artist elapses. Then either
3. The maximum amount that could be collected while abiding by each contributor's requirements is calculated. Money is collected from the contributors.
Alternatively, money could be collected in stage 2 by a trusted third party, then forwarded to the artist or returned to the contributors as necessary after stage 3.
4. The artist performs the service.
Calculation of the result
In stage 3 we want to find the largest possible total consistent with all pledges. This is non-trivial, as pledges are a function of the total raised, and the total raised is a function of the pledges.
Suppose we assume a certain total s would be raised, then add up the total t that people would actually be willing to give given s. Then s is consistent if it is less than t.
So one way to find the best possible total would be just to a examine a set of possible totals, then pick that largest that is consistent with the pledges. However, this might take a while if we want to be sure we chose the maximum possible.
We can also test if there might be a consistent solution within some range [a,b]. If the total that would be raised if we assume b exceeds the value of a, then there is a possible solution in that range.
So we can test a range, and if there is a possible solution in that range, split it in two and test each half, and so on. This can be used to find the largest possible total with some efficiency.
Contributors might have more complex requirements. The round will have a solution so long as each pledge is a continuous function of the total amount collected.
The artist may specify a minimum amount to be collected. If this amount is not reached, the round fails.
The artist may specify a maximum amount to be collected. If this amount is exceeded, contributors pay proporionately to what they would have been willing to pay.
Why it works
To see why RSPP would work, let us look at the motivation of the contributors.
The contributors, being rational people, want maximise their utility. Therefore, they want as much money as possible to go to the public work, but to pay as little as possible themselves.
First, let us examine the motivation of someone who freeloaded in previous rounds. Assume there have been several rounds already, and bidding has stabalized. Then this new contributor can judge the effect of their pledge, based on the previous round. They can see that if they pledge such-and-such an amount, it will raise the total by a certain larger amount.
So if they gain more utility from contributing than spending their money elswhere, they will contribute. There is still a chance that other contributors will revise their bids in this round, but they can ensure they don't actually lose out from contributing by setting conditions on their contribution. For example, they could require that each dollar they contribute is matched by some amount from other contributors, in excess of the amount raised in the previous round.
We can apply similar logic to someone who contributed in previous rounds, and is revising their bid. Let us suppose they were happy with the outcome of the previous round (having put conditions on their pledge in the previous round to ensure this). So if the total raised was the same as the previous round, they will make the same contribution. They may also want to make a larger donation this time if it causes sufficiently more to be raised in total, or reduce their donation if doing so only reduces the total raised by a small amount. These kinds of decisions can be made part of their pledge for the current round.
This logic applies once the pledges in each round have stabalised. In initial rounds,
there is more risk for contributors, but they can at least make conditional pledges that
ensure that they don't lose utility from donating.
A more mathematical treatment of these decisions is given in Appendix A.
The Rational Street Performer Protocol provides a way for rational people to cooperate to produce public works. No altruism is required, as people will simply gain more utility from contributing than freeloading. Furthermore, the dynamics of the system provides a way of working out the value of public goods.
Appendix A - pledging while avoiding risk
Suppose a person is considering what proportion of their resources to allocate to a public work. For example, say they have $100 that they could spend on CDs, or on funding a band to release music.
Call the proportion of resources allocated to the public work x. Call the resulting funding for the public work R(x) (R for "Response Curve"). Let f be a function for the utility they gain from the public work and g be a function for applying their resources elsewhere.
Then their utility for a given allocation of resources to the public work is
U(x) = f(R(x)) + g(1-x)
Assume R, f and g are monotonically increasing functions.
We can specify the condition for a donation not detracting from the person's overall utility. This is an upper bound on their donation, one would expect their actual donation to be slightly less in order to profit from the donation.
U(x) >= U(0) -> f(R(x)) + g(1-x) >= f(R(0)) + g(1) -> f(R(x)) >= f(R(0)) + g(1) - g(1-x)
By the monotonicity of f
-1 -> R(x) >= f ( f(R(0)) + g(1) - g(1-x) )
And then by the monotonicity of R
-1 -1 -> x >= R ( f ( f(R(0)) + g(1) - g(1-x) ) ) -1 Let y = f ( f(R(0)) + g(1) - g(1-x) ) -> f(y) = f(R(0)) + g(1) - g(1-x) -> g(1-x) = f(R(0)) + g(1) - f(y) -1 -> 1-x = g ( f(R(0)) + g(1) - f(y) ) -1 -> x = 1 - g ( f(R(0)) + g(1) - f(y) )
By substitution
-1 -1 -> R (y) <= 1 - g ( f(R(0)) + g(1) - f(y) )
So the person's donation should not exceed R-1(y) above if the total raised is R. Also, the donation must be between 0 and 1. This gives a pledge function that will ensure the person does not lose out by donating.
If we use linear functions for the utility gained from allocating resources to the public work and elsewhere
f(x) = ax g(x) = bx
then this simplfies to
-1 a R (y) <= - ( y - R(0) ) b
giving a curve of the same form as an RSPP pledge (assuming the donation must be between 0 and 1).
The above requires that the person know R(0), the amount that would be raised if they did not donate. If it is a repeated round, they might assume R(0) to be the amount that would have been raised last time if they didn't contribute. If it is the first round, they can ensure that they do no worse than if the public work didn't exist at all by assuming R(0) = 0.


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Paul Simon
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
- In full:
- Paul Frederic Simon
- Born:
- October 13, 1941, Newark, New Jersey, U.S. (age 82)
Recent News
Paul Simon (born October 13, 1941, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.) is an American singer-songwriter who brought a highbrow sensibility to rock music.
One of the most paradoxical figures in rock-and-roll history, Simon exemplified many of the principles against which the music initially reacted. From his first big hit, "The Sounds of Silence," in 1965, Simon aspired to a self-consciously elevated poetic tone in his lyric writing that was the antithesis of rock-and-roll spontaneity. Infatuated with teenage street music in the mid-1950s, he returned throughout his career to the wellspring of dreamy doo-wop vocal harmony for inspiration and refreshment. But his approach to the style that enraptured him was analytical, as though he wanted to enshrine under glass a sound that his surreal 1983 song "René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War" described as "deep forbidden music."
Simon and Garfunkel
As a teenager, Simon teamed up with his classmate from Queens, New York, Art Garfunkel, to form Simon and Garfunkel (first known as Tom and Jerry). Beginning with "The Sounds of Silence," they were the most popular folk-pop duo of the 1960s and the musical darlings of literary-minded college-age baby boomers. In 1967 their music was a key ingredient in the success of the hit film The Graduate, and in 1970 they reached their zenith with Simon's inspirational gospel-flavoured anthem "Bridge over Troubled Water," which showcased Garfunkel's soaring semi-operatic tenor.
Simon's best early songs tended to be bookish angst-ridden reveries with simple folk rock melodies and earnest, poetically ambitious (but often mannered) lyrics, some influenced by Bob Dylan. Simon's best narrative song from this period, "The Boxer" (1969), is the streamlined dramatic monologue of a down-and-out prizefighter.
Solo career and world music
Simon's fascination with pop vocal sound quickly expanded to include the sparkle of English folk music, the ethereal pipes and voices of Andean mountain music, and the arching passion of gospel. After he and Garfunkel broke up in 1970 (they reunited briefly in the early 1980s for a tour and a live album), Simon pursued a successful career as a singer-songwriter of whimsical introspective songs with tricky time signatures. His biggest solo success came in 1975 with Still Crazy After All These Years, a collection of wistful ruminations on approaching middle age.
When his popularity began to ebb, Simon jumped on the emerging world-music bandwagon. On a visit to South Africa, he met many of the musicians with whom he made Graceland (1986), an exquisite multifaceted fusion of his own sophisticated stream-of-consciousness poetry with black South Africa's doo-wop-influenced "township jive" and Zulu choral music. Although some accused him of cultural thievery—i.e., the appropriation and exploitation of another culture's music—the album was one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful of the decade and helped put South African music on the world stage.
Simon made a similar pilgrimage to Brazil to record Rhythm of the Saints (1990), an even denser (and somewhat less popular) fusion of African-derived percussion with American folk rock. Its quirky nonlinear lyrics were indebted to the language of the Nobel Prize-winning Caribbean poet Derek Walcott. Walcott became Simon's collaborator on The Capeman, Simon's first Broadway musical, which opened in January 1998 and was a critical and commercial failure. Based on a highly publicized 1959 New York City murder involving a Puerto Rican street gang, The Capeman featured a score by Simon (Walcott collaborated on the lyrics) that was a theatrical elaboration of the New York street music that had originally inspired him. But it also emphasized the long-underappreciated Hispanic contribution to urban pop.
Later work and assessment
In 1999 Simon teamed with Bob Dylan for a summer tour in the United States. The concert series, which ended Simon's eight-year absence from the road, marked the first time the two performers formally worked together. Later that year Simon continued on a solo tour, and in 2000 released You're the One, an understated and introspective album that was a departure from the expansive sound of Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints.
Simon continued to integrate new influences into his work, and he enlisted electronic music legend Brian Eno for Surprise (2006). In addition to cowriting three of the songs on Surprise, Eno was credited with creating the album's "sonic landscape"—a rich layering of electronic instrumentation and rhythms that complemented Simon's lyrics. Simon followed with So Beautiful or So What (2011), an album that was billed as a return to traditional songwriting. If Still Crazy After All These Years was a thirty-something's commentary on middle age, So Beautiful or So What was a meditation on mortality by an artist approaching his 70th birthday. Stylistically, it was something of a career retrospective, incorporating the story-song lyricism of the Simon and Garfunkel years, the African sounds of Graceland, and the pop sensibility with which he had always flirted. Stranger to Stranger (2016) was an experimental mélange of rhythmic instruments and textures that drew inspiration from eclectic composer Harry Partch. On In the Blue Light (2018), Simon reworked several of his lesser-known songs through a jazz lens.
Among songwriters of his generation, Simon enjoyed one of the longest-lasting careers as a pop innovator. Searching out and exploring the sounds of indigenous musical cultures, from Southern gospel to Brazilian and West African percussion, he integrated them into American rock and folk styles to create a highly flexible, personalized style of world music that was at once primitive and elegant. Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
Stephen Holden The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica


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Thanks...this is just what I needed. I have bad experiences with form logic.
How many guys does it take to make the hassles of technology A LOT easier? Apparently only three really innovative ones.
I recently felt the pressure by both peers and professionals to "get a website." Well, as I discovered, it's not that easy to just "get one." Not to mention that if you are going to have it, it might as well be useful. A simple homepage just sitting around isn't enough these days.
Website marketing gurus will all agree that if you're not collecting information from visitors, your website is wasting away in cyberspace. So, after researching what seemed like a dozen options, I built my site in iWeb on my Mac. As a side note: some other options that seemed efficient and stylish were Homestead, Yahoo Site Builder and Website Tonight (by Go Daddy).
After much tedious tinkering, I got my website and blog up and running. However, iWeb doesn't have a way to collect information. Enter Wufoo (www.wufoo.com)! This program is free for the most basic version, and it's awesome. But if you want to upgrade, it's more than reasonable! Wufoo lets you easily (gotta love the drag and drop interface) create totally attractive and useful forms, surveys, registration forms for workshops or meetings, invitations and more to put on your website, or just use for personal stuff.
You can customize them to fit the look and feel of your website. Not only that, but the back-end user panel is like a little worker bee in itself. You can organize the information, e-mail people you wan to fill out your forms, run reports and the list goes on. Stored information can be exported it into an Excel or other file to put all that good stuff to work. If you don't want to bother, it's no problem. Your form-building friends at Wufoo have it covered. They can e-mail you the entries or you can subscribe to them as an RSS feed.
A newer feature allows you to take orders if you sell a product or service because they've integrated with Paypal, Google Checkout and Authorize.net.
It didn't occur to me until I was using it for my site, but this form building and organizing program is just as helpful for personal data too. Create a form to track your daily diet log, manage your to do lists, house inventory, etc. The possibilities are pretty much endless. Check out some of their examples at: http://wufoo.com/examples/.
Ok, by now you can clearly see I'm pimping this product. I should state here and now, although it may seem like it, I don't work for them and have no affiliation. But, I would if they wanted to add a chick to their brainy trio.
You're gonna have to see this one for yourself to believe it Wise Bread smarties. Go ahead. I dare you. Make one form and see if you can stop.
You can check out the examples on my website at: www.amybscher.com.
I made a form on the contact page so no one would have my e-mail address. And, on my blog, I linked a form to a button that allows you to subscribe via e-mail to my blog.
Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.
Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.


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Debbie Brodsky realized after her first year in business that she couldn't do it all alone. If her video storytelling business, DMB Pictures was going to grow, she needed help:
"I remember my first shoot where I did it all myself: the camera work, the lighting, interviewing. I was crazy exhausted at the end of the day. I realized then I needed to get help for those tasks that are complete-time sucks or even physical setups where it is helpful to have an extra set of hands."
During college and her early career years as a filmmaker, Debbie gained her hands-on learning via several internships and wanted to continue that giving process with her business.
After several years and several interns, Debbie has good advice on the pro's, perils, perks, process, and pay considerations when hiring college interns:
1. Pro's:
- Gets you moving on those growth projects for your business
- Forces you to get specific on the scope of the project and where an outside person can help you.
- Writing the job description for an intern usually helps get you organized, as you gather all the information needed to pass on to someone else.
- Saves expenses when you need help but have little to no budget to hire outside services
- Can infuse fresh, young energy into your work
- Personal satisfaction knowing you are helping young adults develop skills and confidence
2. Perils:
- You need to allocate considerable time to teaching and managing.
- Sporadic, sometimes unreliable, assistance - you will likely be hiring someone new every semester or so.
3. Perks (from the intern's perspective):
- Get lots of hands-on experience working for a small company, thereby providing real-world examples to use with future employers
- You are not just getting coffee and taking notes; you get to do actual work.
4. Process – Where/How Get an Intern:
- Write up a formal job description, as you would for a regular job.
- Select local colleges where a) you know they have a strong major for the type of skills you're looking for and b) it's easy to get to you (distance/access to transportation).
- Post on school listservs and job boards via the career office. Another tip is to research the top professors for the major you're interested in, connect with them directly, and ask them for recommendations of students.
- Get references on internship candidates (especially from teachers who will be super honest about their students.)
- Phone interview first to filter down to a select few. Then meet for coffee, noting if they show up on time, communicate well, are flexible and personable.
- Do a trial or test day with a specific task for the day. Let them try out the commute – to make sure it will work for both of you.
- Set up a regular schedule - otherwise, schoolwork and projects will get in the way.
- Have a space for them to work - ideally with tools you provide.
- Put together some sort of letter of agreement (also what they can and can't use as stuff for their portfolio)
Additional Tips:
- Make sure your interns are flexible and agreeable to doing tasks other than those specifically stated in the job description.
- Make sure you have people that want to learn - not students who think they know everything already.
- Set expectations even on details like timeliness, dress code, and rules of engagement. These are young people who may have little to know experience in a work environment.
- Get emergency contact numbers for your interns, in case you need to contact them or in the case of a medical problem.
- If you find someone great and their semester is ending, ask if they know someone else they could recommend who might want an internship
5. Pay:
- If you don't want to offer compensation, offer to at least pay travel expenses.
- If you do offer compensation, make sure the total does not go over $600 for the year - otherwise, they count as a 1099 contractor.
According to The Department of Labor, the following six legal criteria must be applied when making a determination if an internship is required to be paid.
1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment.
2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern.
3. The intern does not displace regular employees but works under close supervision of existing staff.
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern and on occasion, it's operations may actually be impeded.
5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship.
6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.
As Debbie's business has grown, she realized it was too time-consuming to be finding and training new interns each semester. She now hires graduate students as contractors, paying them a reasonable hourly wage and keeping them for longer periods of time.
Jeanne uses her 20 years of marketing know-how to help small business owners reach their goals. Before becoming an entrepreneur, she held a variety of marketing positions with DuPont and General Electric. Jeanne regularly hosts online webinars and workshops in both English and Spanish.
Copyright © 2024 SCORE Association, SCORE.org
Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.


text: QUESTION AND ANSWER: TRIPLE ACTION: KB Glutanac plus Rosehips 60capsules 1. How can we distinguish the REAL Glutathione from a FAKE Glutathione? Taste Powder As well all know Glutathione is composed of three amino acids which is cysteine-glutamic and glycine. According from our pharmaceutical company in Japan. Glutathione has a very ?angy sour sulphur taste?not just a sour but a very sour taste. Sulfur Smell Glutathione is a biologically active sulfur tripeptide and therefore, will have a slight sulfur smell (frequently compared to rotten eggs) Sulfur is the reason glutathione is so good at binding toxins. In order to minimize the sulfur smell we add dessicant in the bottle. Take note: NAC (N-acetyl cystiene) is another combination of Glutathione KB which is also has sulfuric smell and it is same as the glutathione role however the other advantage of the NAC is that it boost the effect of the glutathione INSIDE the body. Note: Some preparation has a sour taste power but no smell. Some has smell but not sour taste. Now, Can you guess which one is FAKE and NOT in the Philippine Market!??? Can you remember the product that you thinked the smell is very bad? If you wish to know more about Glutathione you can email us or search thru the internet and check whether the glutathione has a smell or not just for your additional information. 2. What makes essential KB different? Very Simple! No added of sugar, cornstarch, yeast, soy, corn, rice bran, dairy, gluten, fragrance artificial flavor, colors and preservatives. That is why we only recommend our client to take at least one capsule of 500mg of KB Glutathione plus NAC and 500mg of Vitamin C Rosehips 500mg. Because this product are 100% pure and NO ADDITIVES INGRIDIENTS. 3. What are the other use of KB Set ? Apart from being a skin whitener, KB Set is also an: 1. Antioxidant 2. Immune booster 3. Detoxifier 4. Radiation booster Do you know also that the KB Set Glutathione plus NAC with Rosehips are good for people who have observed to have deficiencies such as: ASD (Autism) Cancer Parkinson? Disease COPD Chronic Fatigue HIV Cardiovascular Disease Liver Disease Diabetes Alzheimer's Disease Heavy Metal Toxicity Acetaminophen Toxicity 4. Does everyone need KB? Yes. We need all the help we can get today for our often demanding, fast-paced lifestyles. Even if you are relatively healthy, and eat a sensible, balanced whole-food diet and have a low-stress lifestyle you can benefit from an individualized preventive nutritional program to build up nutrient reserves, balance, and detoxify your body. Supplementation makes good preventive sense and can give us additional support and protection ensuring that all the essential daily requirements are satisfied so not to become deficient or depleted causing one to breakdown and become ill. Plus the good thing is that KB side effect makes your skin white. 5. How long do I need to take KB supplements and/or herbs before I see improvements? On average you'll need to take between 1-4 months before beginning to recognize the health and other benefits. However, it really depends on your biological individuality and how efficiently and effectively your body absorbs and assimilates these nutritional substances and, of course, your physical and emotional awareness. Generally, the duration and severity of your signs, symptoms, or illness determines the length of time it takes to notice sustained improvements. Below are the standard duration for each skin color: Medium brown skin: 1-3 months Dark brown skin: 3-6 months Very dark skin: 6-12 months Black skin: 2 years or more Note: This studies was originated in our company and mostly copied by other distributor. 6. I?m a MUSLIM. What are the capsules made out of? Most of the gelatin capsules are made of animal sourced collagen. The capsule itself is manufactured under strict kosher and pareve (without meat or dairy) guidelines. Coloring agents such as iron oxide and titanium dioxide are used in animal gelatin capsules. Some colorless capsules, particularly vegetarian, are made from plant cellulose. --- So, basically we used veggie capsules and not porcine gelatin since it is forbidden for Halal and Kosher. 7. What are the other health benefits of KB Set? 1. This supplement inhibits free radical damage. 2. It has been researched for its ability to convert harmful foreign compounds like pesticides, solvents and air pollutants into less harmful substances that can be flushed from the body. 3. On the cellular level, glutathione may facilitate the transport of important nutrients across cell membranes while supporting the integrity of red blood cells 4. It may significantly enhance quality of life and prevent liver and kidney damage in patients who are receiving chemotherapy. 5. It may also support health during radiation therapy. 6. Glutathione may improve liver function in recovering alcoholics. 7. Its deficiency has been associated with cataracts and supplementation has shown promising results. 8. Its deficiency has also been associated with Parkinson's disease. 9. Glutathione can support immune function and is used in the treatment of AIDS. 10.This supplement may treat respiratory infections in children. 8. Why is KB glutathione plus NAC with Vitamin C Rosehips important to health? KB is a very powerful anti-oxidant that protects the body by targeting & destroying reactive oxygen molecules & free radicals. It is found in high concentration in the liver, where it binds heavy metals such as mercury & lead, chemical pollutants, & carcinogens and transforms them into form that can easily flushed out of the body via enzymatic pathway. Glutathione also enhances the body? immune response. Studies shows that lack of gluthathione in the body may actually weaken the immune system. N-ACETYL-L-CYSTEINE (NAC) is the most effective way to boost Glutathione levels in the body. Clinically studies shows that the NAC is much stronger than the ALPHA LIPOIC ACID. N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) is a potent antioxidant and cell detoxifier. It is derived from the amino acid L-Cysteine, and plays an important role in the production of glutathione, the body? primary antioxidant that? crucial in the fight to neutralize free radicals and to detoxify harmful agents from the body. N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) is a potent antioxidant and cell detoxifier. It is derived from the amino acid L-Cysteine, and plays an important role in the production of glutathione, the body? primary antioxidant that? crucial in the fight to neutralize free radicals and to detoxify harmful agents from the body. The primary function of NAC is in the production of glutathione. Glutathione is a small protein found inside cells that plays an important role in the body? antioxidant defense system. NAC is quickly metabolized into glutathione once it enters the body. Glutathione then functions as a powerful antioxidant and cell detoxifier. As an antioxidant, glutathione effectively scavenges free radicals, neutralizing their harmful effects upon cells. As a detoxifier, glutathione can alter chemicals so that they become less harmful, as well as aid in the removal of heavy metals such as lead and mercury, to promote liver health. Glutathione enhances the immune system by aiding the transport of important nutrients to immune cells called lymphocytes and phagocytes, as well as helping to strengthen cell membranes. Glutathione? other benefits include promoting the manufacture of new muscle mass and maintenance of RNA and DNA AN EFFECTIVE DETOXIFYING NUTRIENT AND ANTIOXIDANT Powerful free radical scavenger and detoxifier Enhance immune system function Helps boost glutathione production Vitamin C ROSEHIPS - is a natural herbs that also boost the effect of both Glutathione and NAC. It is said also to be 10x stronger than the ordinary vitamin C. It is also said to be the second biggest source of ascorbic acid. 8. Are there any side effects that comes with taking whitening pills? According to dermatologists worldwide, the only side effect of glutathione intake is the whitening of the dark skin. People with darker skin tone report that taking Reduced Glutathione capsules along with vitamin C for three to six months or more actually lightens the color of their skin. However, not all glutathione brands are safe. There are some brands which claim that they are Glutathione but the real thing is that it is NOT GLUTATHIONE but a product that doesn? have any value. These bad mixture of glutathione to some unsuitable components may cause whitening of the hair, pimples, and acne break outs. There are also companies who claim in their that their products include Vitamin C, Alpha Lipoic , Grapeseed, etc. in one capsule as shown in their product labels, which when tried upon, gives bad results since what their claiming are not true. 9. Why do you need Vitamin C when taking Glutathione? Glutathione is too large a molecule to effectively pass through the intestine into cells, so supplementing with glutathione alone is not helpful. But when taken with Vitamin C, which protects it from oxidative damage, Glutathione becomes a lot effective. The glutathione level rose nearly 50% in healthy individuals taking 500mg of Vitamin C. It also raises glutathione by helping the body manufacture it & at the same time, prevent it from being oxidized. Vitamin C should be taken 1-2 times more than the dose of Glutathione to keep Glutathione in its absorbable and at the same time, release the power of Vitamin C derivatives whitening properties. 10. Is there any drug interactions? Yes there is. You must not take glutathione if you are taking Haloperidol (anti-psychotic drug) and Cisplatin (chemotherapeutic drug). But I suggest you to consult your doctors if you are taking any medicines. Are there any difference between the whitening pills that came from Japan and from other countries? Both have the same whitening side effect since they have the same chemical composition for real products, but they oftentimes differ in the quality of ingredients being used. With KB Set , we carefully made the purest 100% glutathione plus NAC and natural rosehips vitamin c. Also, did you also know that teh production of amino acid are can be found in Asia. Yes! It is not in USA or other country but it's in ASIA. 11. Can I stop taking KB Set once I achieved the skin tone I want? Yes. However we suggest you to used at least 100mg of glutathione for maintenance for your skin and health. 12. Will my skin tone go back to its natural color if I stop taking KB Set ? Definitely not. The whitening effect of KB Set is permanent. But you must also take care of your skin by avoiding too much exposure to sunlight. Exposure to sunlight will indirectly affect the whitening process since it increases the melanin pigments in the skin, thus, might delay the whitening process. It? not really bad to be exposed to sunlight but at least have protection and be sure not be exposed at a long period of time. 13. What causes the Glutathione depletion in the body? Some well-known causes of Glutathione depletion are: poor diet pollution drugs radiation stress injury burns infection aging As we age, our Glutathione levels are diminished. In fact, many diseases normally associated with aging have been linked to Glutathione deficiency including cataracts, Alzheimer? disease, Parkinson, atherosclerosis and others. 14. What happens if Glutathione levels are low? Glutathione deficiency contributes to oxidative stress, which plays a key role in AGING and the worsening of many diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, liver disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, HIV, AIDS, cancer, heart attack, and diabetes. 15. Is KB BFAD approved? Yes, We have TWO SEPARATE BFAD for Kyusoku Bihaku Glutathione plus NAC 30 capsules and Kyusoku Bihaku Vitamin C Rosehips 30 capsules. A total of 1000mg per day intake. 16. KB is made from? Japan Side Effects of glutathione: If you have diabetes, talk to your doctor before taking this dietary supplement. Pregnancy/Breast-Feeding: Any adverse effects with the use of this stress supplement has been noted related to fetal development during pregnancy or to infants who are breast-fed. Notice: If you have seen KYUSOKU BIHAKU Glutathione 500mg in one BOX. That Is our first batch of KB. Second batch was produced with vitamin c rosehips 500mg and the third batch with Glutathione with NAC. We do a lot of research and studies in order to give you the BEST ORAL GLUTATHIONE which gives you a GOOD QUALITY PRODUCTS!


text:
U.S. Producer Prices Rise in September
U.S. producer prices rose more than expected in September as the cost of energy surged, a government report showed on Friday, but underlying inflation pressures were muted.
The Labor Department said its seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index increased 1.1 percent last month.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected prices at farms, factories and refineries to rise 0.7 percent last month.
Despite the rise in overall wholesale inflation last month, there is likely to be little pass-through to consumers given sluggish job growth, which puts a brake on inflation.
Wholesale prices excluding volatile food and energy were flat last month. That was the lowest reading since October 2011 and fell short of analysts' forecasts.
Consumer inflation is currently below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target, and many economists think it will trend below that level for years to come.
In a bid to boost economic activity, the Fed launched an aggressive new stimulus program last month, pledging to buy $40 billion of mortgage-backed debt a month until the outlook for jobs improves substantially.
Overall producer prices last month were buoyed by a 4.7 percent increase in energy prices. Higher gasoline costs drove the increase. Wholesale diesel prices also contributed, rising 9.2 percent, the biggest one-month gain since December 2010.
Food prices rose 0.2 percent, backing off of the faster pace of price increases seen over the summer when a severe drought pushed up the cost of grain and soybeans.
In the 12 months to September, producer prices increased 2.1 percent, biggest gain since March, after advancing 2 percent in August.
Outside food and energy, producer prices were restrained by a decline in the cost of communication equipment.
Core producer prices increased 2.3 percent in the 12 months to September. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Neil Stempleman)


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Detroit Pistons Draft Dreams: Jon Leuer
Although this year's draft lacks star power, it has an abundance of guys who were really good college players who have the ability to become really solid role players at the NBA level. Wisconsin's Jon Leuer isn't going to be a go-to scorer like he was in college, but he does enough things to be an OK rotation big man at some point in his career.
Measurables: 6-foot-10, 228 pounds, senior PF from Wisconsin
Key stats: 18.3 points, 7.2 rebounds per game while shooting 47 percent from the field and 37 percent from three
Projected: Second round
How would he help the Pistons?
Playing in Bo Ryan's system, Leuer is well-schooled in half-court basketball. Like most Wisconsin big men, he scored with his back to the basket and could also shoot the ball from distance.
The best thing about Leuer's college career was that he showed drastic improvement. His scoring and rebounding numbers went up each season and his role in the offense increased because he continually added new post moves to compliment his ability to shoot. Leuer will play a bit like a stretch four in the NBA, but he's not that athletic, so he wouldn't have the same diversity to his offense that Charlie Villanueva does. Leuer, at his best, would be more like a poor man's Channing Frye or Ryan Anderson. It doesn't necessarily fill a need for the Pistons, but players who bring the skills that those guys have always find a spot on a NBA bench.
How wouldn't he help the Pistons?
Villanueva's presence makes it unlikely the Pistons would take another perimeter-oriented big man. Leuer does have some post-up ability, which the Pistons need, but his lack of bulk makes it a question mark as to whether that part of his game will translate to the NBA. Much like fellow senior bigs JaJuan Johnson and Keith Benson, Leuer is looked at as an upperclassmen player whose body might not fill out much more while younger bigs in the draft might be still growing.
What are others saying?
"Its unlikely Leuer will be a frequent post scorer in the NBA, as he lacks the lower body strength to consistently establish position. He's not all that explosive and may struggle to get his shot over longer defenders, and doesn't have a wide array of counter, all of which could leave him limited to fade-aways and tougher post shots in the NBA. However, he has enough in the way of post moves to take advantage when he does get a favorable matchup."
"There are a number of NBA teams who need stretch 4s in their offensive schemes, and as far as big-men shooters go, Leuer is one of the best in the draft. Despite playing in the Big Ten, Wisconsin always goes a bit under-scouted. Leuer and teammate Jordan Taylor are probably a bit underrated right now."
"He possesses excellent footwork in the post, using an array of post moves that make him unpredictable with his back to the basket … He shows nice touch in the post, and looks comfortable turning and shooting in any direction … He has range up to 21 feet out, shooting 39% from downtown at the college level … His handle is better than average for a college forward/center, and he uses it to create open looks for himself in the post and on the perimeter … Has shown he's aware of what's available around him in terms of passing out of the post … Offensively he's very efficient, shooting 52% from the floor while only turning it over once a game … Defensively Leuer has a high IQ, where he seems to position himself efficiently, illustrated by his (low) 2.1 fouls per game."
Hickory High's Similarity Scores
- Darius Morris
- Derrick Williams
- JaJuan Johnson
- Jeremy Tyler
- Perry Jones (Staying in school)
- Kemba Walker
- Nikola Vucevic
- Jimmer Fredette
- Kenneth Faried
- Isaiah Thomas
- Marcus Morris
- Ben Hansbrough
- Brandon Knight
- Keith Benson
- Donatas Motiejunas
- Shelvin Mack
- John Henson (Staying in school)
- Kyrie Irving
- Nolan Smith
- Bismack Biyambo
- Demetri McCamey
- Kyle Singler
- Enes Kanter
- Kalin Lucas


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We just announced Percona Server 5.6.14 release, and I decided to make this build with the TokuDB 7.1 engine.
The build is available here in the TESTING area.
You are welcome to play with these binaries, but keep in mind:
- This is an experimental build and not supposed to be used in production environment
- The binaries built on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server and may not work on other Linux distributions
The post Percona Server 5.6.14 with TokuDB 7.1 Experimental build appeared first on MySQL Performance Blog.


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First a request: I know some of you have had some experience hacking together Greasemonkey scripts. Jim Hanas over at Hanasiana has a quick project he needs help with. Go ask him for the details.
The Nano cases keep rolling in: Here is [Atonomie]'s leather Nano case. Use the template to get a head start on your own case.
More CSS/Javascript/Ajax fun:
CSS/Javascript chat room [wtanaka]
Custom Ajax homepage [Andrew]
[ondras]'s universal SQL & er-diagram designer
[Biggs] built a remote shutter release for his 350D out of a mouse.
Custom Slim Devices control boxes by [chrisla]
[colin]'s super cheap laptop cooler
A ton of laptop photo frames [rob]
[eitan]'s Zen Micro Altoids case
Magnetic levitation demonstrator
[Jonathan Zornow]'s guide for abusing iDVD
Cheat sheet for getting a human operator [hazar via In4mador]