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|Visit the Inc. 500 site, which includes a fully searchable database of winners from 1983 to the present
The best places to build an Inc. 500 company. a look at the hottest cities, states, and regions. Some strategies for expansion. And a few entrepreneurial hideaways where business is done off the beaten track
Every few years, the economy changes its tune, as one region hits a high C and another struggles in the lower registers. If the Inc. 500 lists of the last five years are any kind of libretto, it's clear that the economy is singing "Dixie."
Growing a company posthaste has been a rather Southern preoccupation in the 1990s. Nearly one-third of this year's class -- 165 companies -- hail from the South, up from 145 five years ago. The South enjoyed this upswing even while a recession idled or stole growth in other regions. The West, which claims 123 growth companies this year, came in only 3 ahead of its 1989 tally. The Northeast rebounded from a count of only 97 companies last year to 110 this year, still carrying a 14-company deficit from 1989. Meanwhile, there has been scant year-to-year change in the Midwest, which has shown only pockets of entrepreneurial vitality. The heartland posted 102 companies to the current Inc. 500 list, the same number as last year but 9 fewer than in 1989.
Of course, the performance of each region was largely determined by economic conditions in the most populous states. As California goes, so goes the West. And although the Golden State, the perennial, albeit battered, single-state leader, fielded 73, or 6 more, companies this year than last, it remained 10 down from its total in 1989 and 13 off its high of 86 in 1984. Arizona continued its recent tumble, from 15 in 1992, to 11 in 1993, to a paltry 6 in 1994. Colorado and Washington picked up some of the slack. Colorado chalked up 13 and Washington 15, perpetuating five-year hot streaks, but those states may be losing steam: both finished slightly off last year's pace. Meanwhile, Utah stalled at 5. Idaho dropped to 3 from 5 last year. Montana rose from the dead to post 2 of its own.
In the Southland, Florida basked in growth. Compared with the 20 companies that headquartered their operations there in 1989, 35 companies from this year's list call the Sunshine State home. Their diversity testifies to the state's vibrant economy: Banyan Construction & Development and Tarheel Roofing rode the building boom, while Payroll 1 and Payroll Transfers, as well as temp service Sprint Staffing, paging service Network USA, and technical-services firm Maria Elena Torano & Associates, benefited from a bullish business climate in south and central Florida. Georgia, a breeding ground for Inc. 500 companies in recentyears, lapsed back to 13 companies, down nearly a third from a 1992 high of 19. But its neighbor to the west, Alabama, which had been holding steady for years at 4, more than doubled this year to 9, thanks to the rise of Huntsville and Birmingham as technology centers. Maryland pressed its upward march, from 12 two years ago and 16 last year to 19 this year. Meanwhile, Virginia took a nosedive and produced only 25, compared with 35 companies last year. Texas beat a sorry retreat with only 25 companies this year, down from 32 last year and 2 less than the 27 it counted in 1987, marking the bottom of the bust.
In the Northeast, only Massachusetts and New Jersey betrayed signs of an entrepreneurial revival. In its jump to 33 companies this year, Massachusetts increased its Inc. 500 ranks a whopping 50% in a single year. New Jersey continued its steady five-year climb, from 17 in 1989 to 21 in 1994. Pennsylvania tanked. After bounding up, it fell from 19 last year to 14 this year. Five years ago it boasted 23. New York fell by one to 24, continuing a bumpy five-year slide from 34.
In the relatively torpid Midwest, bright spots in Illinois, which nearly doubled its force from 12 last year to 23 companies this year, and Missouri, which jumped from 7 last year to 11 this year, helped offset sharp declines in Indiana and Michigan, the latter of which lost a third of its roster in one year and posted only 15 companies this year. And North Dakota continued its long sleep.
Based on the number of Inc. 500 companies per capita, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Massachusetts led the pack, accounting for more than 60 companies among them. Slumping Indiana, sparsely populated Oregon and Nevada, as well as the usual laggards (Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia, and South Carolina), brought up the rear. Mississippi, Hawaii, Alaska, Wyoming, and North Dakota produced none.
The Cities
The perils of life in the city -- high costs, high crime, high tax rates -- have made urban entrepreneurship distinctly unfashionable. Consider the fate of New York City: five years ago it counted 13 Inc. 500 companies as its own. This year it claims only 8. In 1989 there were 7 Chicago-based growth companies on our list. This year: 3. Five years ago Los Angeles had 6, but for 1994 it shows only 5. The heart of a Gotham, it appears, is hardly the place to grow an Inc. 500 company. An exception is San Francisco, the only city with a population of more than half a million that has continued to be a popular habitat for growth companies. There are 8 Inc. 500 companies headquartered within San Francisco's city limits this year, the same number as in New York City, which has more than 10 times the population.
This year's growth companies are more likely to be doing business from a safe and affordable suburb or an emerging edge city than from the center of a metropolis. Don't pronounce downtown dead, however. Smaller cities and Southern cities of all sizes are alive with fast-growing upstarts, who don't mind hanging their shingles in the center city if the local economy (and the climate) is hot enough. Scan the list and you'll note a preponderance of companies with downtown addresses located in cities with fewer than half a million people. Six of the top 10 cities for growing Inc. 500 companies (on a per capita basis) are in the South.
The worst metro centers are Detroit and New Orleans, both with none, followed by Philadelphia and Milwaukee, with one apiece; Chicago, with 3; Los Angeles, with 5; and New York City, with just a slight fraction more than one company for every million residents.
If most growth companies were loath to set up shop in the big burgs, they didn't hesitate to camp just outside. Plotted on a map of the United States, the companies in this year's pack often fall in ringlike patterns around large and midsize cities. Call it the entrepreneurial-orbit effect. Its laws require growth companies to get out of the city to escape cost but to stay near enough to tap vendors and customers. The result: a radial colony of companies circling the cities they can't live in but can't live entirely without, either.
Take Washington, D.C., which posted only 4 companies to the list this year. Not a bad showing for a city of 600,000. But look 10 miles out in all directions and you'll find 29 more Inc. 500 companies ringing the district. Look 30 miles out and the count surges by another 7. Chicago, host to only 3 companies inside its borders, supports another 17 within a 30-mile radius. Los Angeles, with only 5 companies located within its 467 square miles, is orbited by another 12 growth fiends. Augmenting the 8 companies with a New York, N.Y., return address are another 30 within 40 miles of midtown Manhattan. There are four times as many businesses orbiting Boston as are docked there.
Big cities do, in fact, support entrepreneurial life. But only from a distance. Indeed, proximity to a large city is practically a prerequisite for truly explosive growth. Most of the fastest-growing companies on this list are located near the largest cities in the country. There are 217 companies doing business within 10 miles of the 100 largest cities in the United States, and 170 more within a 30-mile arc.
The Edge Cities
These high-flying founders prefer living on the edge. Just look where they congregate: Of the top 10 companies on this year's list, 6 are doing business from edge cities, the border towns that have proliferated in the last decade on the outskirts of more congested metropolitan areas. Detroit might be a wasteland for growth companies, but Southfield, Mich., not even 10 miles away from the city limits, boasts 3, or one for every 25,000 residents. Job centers as well as residential communities, edge cities are expected to become the new economy's entrepreneurial frontier. Here's where the business builders on this list are sowing tomorrow's jobs:
The Top 10 Edge Cities: Sterling, Va.; Burlington, Mass.; Kirkland, Wash.; Chesterfield, Mo.; Rockville, Md.; Bethesda, Md.; Walnut Creek, Calif.; Alexandria, Va.; Arlington, Va.; Southfield, Mich.
Best of Show
Welcome to Boulder, Colo., Rocky Mountain resort for the entrepreneurial elite. Granted, no tour guide would admit it, but with 6 Inc. 500 companies calling Boulder home, this scenic city of 93,000 holds the bragging rights to one of the densest concentrations of high-growth companies in the country. Since 1990 more than 1,300 businesses -- an average of about 25 a month -- have sprouted in or relocated to Boulder. Even as the city's largest employers have downsized, its job growth has run double the national average. So it's no anomaly that Boulder County has been rated best of show by bankers and economists tracking the Mountain Region's booming economy. Or that a cadre of Inc. 500 companies should camp there.
If there's any surprise in Boulder's good fortune, it's in how easily it's been won. "You don't have to sell too hard when you're Boulder," reports André Pettigrew, who until recently was vice-president of economic development for the Boulder Development Commission. The natural beauty that surrounds the place, long a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts and the granola set, is hardly a secret. But its less obvious assets -- a well-educated workforce, world-class research facilities, and a rich technology base -- have in recent years inspired as many entrepreneurs as triathletes.
With more than half a dozen venture-capital firms based there, and a wealth of technology spinning out of private as well as public labs, companies such as Marc Rochkind's $11.4-million XVT Software (#72) needn't make excuses to Silicon Valley. "Nobody asks why you are here," says Rochkind.
Recruiting, the eternal challenge for understaffed growth machines, just isn't a big deal when your offices overlook a glacier. Even though salaries are lower in Boulder than in Silicon Valley, Matt McConnell, CEO of Compatible Systems (#315), a networking business that grossed $3.5 million last year, reports a backlog of job candidates from California. "The flood of résumés has been unbelievable," he says.
Then, of course, there's the karma of the place -- a very literal advantage for Tami Simon of Sounds True (#247), a publisher and marketer of audiotapes on psychology, spirituality, and meditation. Home to Naropa Institute, the first accredited Buddhist college in the country, Boulder is also a bastion of New Age thinkers and spiritual guides, just the sort of people Simon relies on to record and listen to her tapes. "We have an incredible base of authors and customers here," she says. Like Simon, Felix Magowan, president of Inside Communications (#388), benefits from the synergies of doing business in Boulder: he publishes sports magazines in a city that is a mecca for Olympic athletes and sports enthusiasts.
Of course, paradise isn't cheap. "If you're doing business in Boulder, you've got to be willing and able to pay for it," says Pettigrew. Labor costs are no longer the bargain they were five years ago. The city's restrictions on land use and development, which have spared it from urban sprawl and enticed nature-loving newcomers, are driving up real estate costs. In the past two years Boulder's property prices have escalated faster than those of almost any city in the country. The median price of a home is now more than $230,000. "Employees cannot afford to live within city limits," reports Rochkind, who bemoans what he calls the "Aspenization of Boulder."
Balancing growth against the strong conservation ethic in Boulder is difficult. A proposed referendum restricting building expansion to 1% "could be the death knell," says Pettigrew.
"This community has been built on local enterprise," he avers. "If this were the headquarters of six Fortune 500 companies instead of six Inc. 500 companies, this town would be in the dumps right now. A community of entrepreneurs: that's what's making it work in Boulder."
Expansion Strategies
On the walls of Drew Conway's office, in Newton, Mass., hangs a four-foot-by-three-foot map studded with navy blue flags and green pushpins. The flags mark territories already staked by 17 branch offices; the pushpins target 24 more markets yet to be conquered. Like a battered souvenir of the company's runaway ride to $61 million in sales last year, Conway's pocked map displays a classic expansion strategy at work: dominate a local market and then run like the devil to every other hot market you can find.
For growth companies, the search for the next market or the best new site is a never-ending quest. If they're not hastening to open international sales offices, or cross-country or even crosstown branches, they're desperately seeking a bigger warehouse, a better factory, more and ever more space. It is a rare company on this list that's doing business only in the humble place where it started.
Consider one 60-day period in the life of Conway's company, the Registry (#429). Last summer the Registry opened five new offices (in Denver; San Mateo, Calif.; Charlotte, N.C.; Greensboro, N.C.; and Manhattan) -- oh, and hatched plans for four more. Those were merely the latest assaults in Conway's Napoleonic campaign to become a national contender in the fragmented business of technical consulting.
"The opportunity is now," says Conway. "We're in a hot niche. We've hit a really good time in the market, so it's an ideal moment to expand."
Although the pace is furious, the Registry's expansion is not haphazard, says Conway. There's a regimen behind his urgent push: the company's five regions are governed by detailed expansion plans. And managers in each territory are judged by their ability to train the next generation. "They know they've got to produce a crop of people to open the next round of offices," he says. Few decisions are divorced from the company's ambitious expansion, reports Conway, who hires people willing to move, pursues customers with multiple locations, and electronically wires his organization so that staff around the country can communicate instantly.
"This is a portable organization," he says. "It's been built to move."
Tom Hoshko's Computer Professionals (#162), in Lake Wylie, S.C., operates out of eight offices, most of which are in the Southeast, yet he takes a more conservative (and less itinerant) approach to expansion than Conway, his sometime competitor. Rather than build a national company at breakneck speed (and lower margins), Hoshko opts to grow regionally. He's more discriminating in choosing sites, he says, even though he lets someone else do the picking. "We follow our customers," Hoshko states. When he insists that his company, a purveyor of technical services to the Fortune 500, is "customer driven," he means it quite literally: He has set up shop in Richmond, Va., in pursuit of Philip Morris; in Atlanta for the sake of Coca-Cola; and in Boca Raton, Fla., to cater to IBM. What's more, he recently crossed the Mississippi to serve American Express in Phoenix. "If we don't have a premium customer in town, we don't go," says Hoshko, who prefers to see a volume of business billed to the same address before he will commit to a new office. Expansion doesn't drain as much cash, Hoshko argues, when every office finances itself out of sales. "It's not what you make but what you keep," he says.
Marvin Kramer of Friendship Manor Homes, in Madison, Wis., is another incurable follower. But he doesn't trail his aging customers. They're everywhere, and increasing every year. He is guided, instead, by a different lodestar: "Wal-Mart," he says, quite reluctantly. "I hate to let the secret out, but we follow Wal-Mart around."
For the last four years Kramer has decided where to site most of his 52 homes for the elderly by shadowing the business-that-Sam-built. "It hasn't failed us yet," he claims. This year the company took number 65 on the Inc. 500 list, and it expects to top $10 million in revenues in 1994.
After 20 years as a commercial real estate broker and developer, Kramer knew firsthand how costly feasibility and site-selection studies could be. "I was going from place to place, doing it the hard way, and I kept bumping into the Wal-Mart team," recalls Kramer, who, like the place pickers from Bentonville, Ark., has an appetite for small semirural towns. "I thought, 'Why not take a shortcut? Let them pick the spots and we'd just meet them there later." It didn't matter how many old folks lived there, Kramer figured. If there were enough for Wal-Mart, then there'd be enough to fill a residential home with 15 beds.
When he read that the category killer was heading to Eau Claire, Wis., he followed suit. When Wal-Mart arrived in Plover, Wis., where Friendship Manor already operated one home, Kramer built two more. "It has made a huge difference in the time and money we have to spend on expansion decisions," he says of the strategy. "We do less homework ourselves now because we know they've done theirs."
Of course, more than a few entrepreneurs quite rightly see competition, not coattails, when they study the category killers. If they're like Tom Flink of Office Stop (#74), in Butte, Mont., they stay well out of the way, playing only where the big boys don't. What Flink and his two brothers have done is take the discount office superstore to places (such as Missoula, Mont.) where Office Depot and other national chains fear to tread. It's a hit-'em-where-they-ain't strategy. And it has boosted Office Stop sales nearly 3,000% in the company's last five years, to $7 million in 1993.
With locations in four Montana cities, Office Stop employs the same marketing and discounting that superstores do in large metro areas -- counting on volume to compensate for razor-thin margins -- but throws in enough service to draw business away from the mail-order office suppliers it must compete with in a rural market. "We're bringing big-city distribution and pricing to small cities and rural areas, places most national chains either overlook or can't afford to go to," says Flink.
Some, of course, build growth companies without ever leaving home. Take Paul Argall of PCBM Management (#286). Let others strike out for new economic frontiers in far-flung places; Argall has found his in his own backyard, in Ishpeming, Mich. A small mining town in upper Michigan, Ishpeming is home to some 7,000 souls as well as one motel, two bars, a restaurant, a bowling alley, a convenience store, a gas station, a car wash, a quick lube, a construction company, and a real estate developer, all owned by Argall's PCBM Management. Argall even sells the dirt in Ishpeming -- sand and topsoil from the land he clears to develop properties. "I own a lot of Ishpeming," avows Argall, who reckons he's now the largest property-tax payer in town. His varied ventures, built from scratch and "pure stubbornness," would never have been started if he hadn't been such a willful local boy, Argall reports. "Ishpeming was not going anywhere," he recalls. "But there was so much opportunity."
Argall recognizes the risks of tying his fortunes to one very local economy, but he hedges his bets by diversifying the businesses he owns, he says, and financing them largely out of cash. "We carry very little debt and watch the balance sheet very carefully," says Argall, who claims he has no ambitions to expand beyond the bounds of Ishpeming. "Who knows why?" he says. "Maybe because I'm from Ishpeming, maybe because I want to prove something to somebody. But I'm happy making something out of nothing right here at home."
Off the Beaten Track
It may not be easy to find Cave City, Ky., or Sandpoint, Idaho, on a map, but you'll find them on this year's Inc. 500 list, along with Poulsbo, Wash., and Madill, Okla., the last of which is just a hop, skip, and 3,000-mile jump from Silicon Valley. Unlikely as it may sound to those struggling to grow businesses in suburban office parks or pricey downtown quarters, you don't have to set up shop in Santa Clara, Calif., or Norcross, Ga., or Arlington, Va., to stand a chance of building a growth company. A handful of resourceful business builders gracing this year's list demonstrate that Inc. 500 companies can, in fact, be grown in the outback. Yes, Virginia, you can get there. From just about anywhere.
"This is the last place you'd look to start a business," says Ron Jackson, CEO of Contract Manufacturer (#58), a $17-million maker of livestock trailers. Set in the sparse and rolling hills of southeast Oklahoma, Madill is a town of 5,000 built in the settlement days and, "like every other place around, is just hanging on," according to Jackson, a native son. But the town's grip may be getting a little firmer, at least for the 46 locals whose checks are signed by Jackson, thanks in part to the growth of Contract Manufacturer to more than $12 million in sales last year.
While Jackson's company has benefited from the relatively low costs of labor and real estate in his rural outpost (and boyhood home), it has not relied on Madill for customers. "Not enough people drive by here in a day to buy the trailers I could make in my backyard, never mind in my factory," he says. Instead, Jackson, who has never employed a single salesperson, draws on the contacts he's accumulated over 20 years in his niche to sell his trailers nationally, with little more than a few phones and a fax machine to aid him. There are, after all, only a couple hundred livestock-trailer dealers in the nation. And they're not on Madison Avenue, either.
Dennis Pence, who fled New York City 10 years ago in search of a new Eden, couldn't give a damn about Madison Avenue now. That's how good life has been in Sandpoint, Idaho. By virtue of his company's rapid growth and burgeoning payroll, Pence has become a big man in the mountains: one of the largest employers in the wilds of northern Idaho and a power broker in the state.
Pence's company, a mail-order marketer of nature gifts called Coldwater Creek (#279), posted sales of $29 million last year, nearly 10 times its revenues in 1989. Set on the shores of the pristine Lake Pend Oreille, minutes from the mountains but an hour and a half from the nearest airport, Coldwater's remote location has proved to be a distinct, if quirky, advantage, according to Pence. He had decided while on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, bound for Sandpoint, to start a company with his wife, Ann, that could trade on such an outback location. "Our address charms customers," says the 44-year-old CEO. "People are always impressed that they're not talking to some phone bank in Chicago when they call us." And because a mail-order company can operate from anywhere a phone line and a UPS truck can reach, it hardly matters that Pence is often thousands of miles from big-city customers.
Even though he sees more moose than traffic on the open roads of Sandpoint, "we get a wonderful workforce up here," he asserts, estimating a turnover rate below 5%. "Once you hire people, they stay." The challenge, of course, lies in finding enough of them. The paucity of top management and marketing talent in this northern finger of Idaho forces Pence to retain headhunters and recruit nationally. "Job candidates either love it here or hate it here," says Pence. "And they know it as soon as they get off the plane."
Still, the company carries clout on its own unspoiled terrain. When Pence considered leaving Sandpoint because the company's growth was straining the local infrastructure's ability to support it, the state of Idaho rushed to Coldwater's aid. One hundred seventy-five full-time jobs make for a big stack of chips in northern Idaho. To keep the company headquartered there (Pence was being wooed by West Virginia), the state legislature appropriated $100,000 to subsidize job training at Coldwater Creek. State officials lobbied for a federal grant to improve water pressure for a sprinkler system in the company's warehouse, and then persuaded the phone company to run 45 miles of fiber-optic cable up to Sandpoint so that calls could be processed more quickly. "I guess you could say they cared," says Pence, who won't say what he might have been told in New York.
Like Pence, Tom Clopton, CEO of $5.5-million Tekno (#169), in Cave City, Ky., enjoys the perks of being a big fish in a small creek. "This is just a little ol' speck of a place with a couple of grocery stores, a filling station or two, a few churches, and a funeral home," reports Clopton, who lives on the farm that his grandfather's grandfather cleared back when Kentucky was considered the Western frontier. "It's not much, but it's got just about all we need."
Declaring the company, which builds automated manufacturing systems, little more than "a bunch of country boys trying to make a living," Clopton doesn't boast about how sales bolted from less than $350,000 in 1989 to $5.5 million last year. Maybe he doesn't have to.
The biggest employer in Cave City, with a payroll of 46, Clopton's business sits quite handsomely on a street newly paved by the solicitous city fathers, who also see to it that Tekno's grass gets mowed and its trash gets picked up on time. "The police come around real often to make sure everything's OK," Clopton explains. His best friend is the deputy sheriff. "It's a personal situation here. They look out for us."
While Clopton's distance from major suppliers can pose problems (if a part comes in damaged or something in the shop breaks, it can take days to get a replacement), his distance from large corporate customers does not. "Once upon a time I worried about customers' not wanting to come out here, but I found out they liked it," he says. The drive from the Louisville airport takes 90 minutes. "You can spend the same time trying to get from O'Hare to the Loop, in Chicago. So what's the difference?" A stretch of pretty green hills, perhaps, and a lot of sky.
Boulder, Colo.
Huntsville, Ala.
Atlanta, Ga.
San Francisco
Birmingham, Ala.
St. Louis
New York City
Los Angeles
New Orleans
San Antonio
Alabama 4 4 9
Alaska 3 0 0
Arizona 10 7 6
Arkansas 2 1 1
California 86 83 73
Colorado 4 7 13
Connecticut 8 7 6
Delaware 0 2 1
District of Columbia 4 1 4
Florida 26 20 35
Georgia 9 14 13
Hawaii 3 1 0
Iowa 4 2 3
Idaho 3 1 3
Illinois 19 22 23
Indiana 11 5 5
Kansas 7 4 6
Kentucky 5 3 4
Louisiana 2 3 2
Maine 0 3 0
Massachusetts 22 29 33
Maryland 12 16 19
Michigan 10 28 15
Minnesota 10 5 9
Mississippi 0 0 0
Missouri 6 6 11
Montana 1 0 2
Nebraska 1 3 4
North Carolina 14 11 12
North Dakota 0 1 0
Nevada 1 0 1
New Hampshire 5 5 6
New Jersey 17 17 21
New Mexico 1 4 3
New York 31 34 24
Ohio 26 23 16
Oklahoma 3 6 4
Oregon 6 3 2
Pennsylvania 23 23 14
Rhode Island 2 4 3
South Carolina 0 2 3
South Dakota 0 1 1
Tennessee 6 8 7
Texas 38 27 25
Utah 2 4 5
Vermont 0 2 3
Virginia 32 26 25
Washington 11 9 15
West Virginia 0 1 1
Wisconsin 9 11 9
Wyoming 0 1 0


text: Canadian designer Mark Fast made knitwear sexy. His namesake label, rife with cobwebby, skin-baring knit dresses, is designed by hand on a domestic knitting machine. Each body-hugging, crocheted minidress from his collection is sculpted onto the female body as its created. The London label, founded in 2009, quickly garnered fans like Nicki Minaj, Beyonce Knowles, and Rihanna. Inspired by the reception, Fast launched a more affordable extension of his main line collection, Faster, in 2010, featuring knit tube dresses, cropped tops, and leggings manufactured in Italy.

subset: commoncrawl


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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) Denver coach John Fox makes it pretty clear: running backs have to hold on to the ball to hang on to their jobs. Rookie Ronnie Hillman is just hoping he's not in the Broncos' doghouse as long as Knowshon Moreno was.
``I've got to win Coach Fox's confidence back, my teammates'. I let them down,'' said Hillman, who didn't see the field again after fumbling Sunday while the Broncos were driving for a score against Kansas City.
Cornerback Brandon Flowers returned it 64 yards before tight end Joel Dreessen dragged him down at the 12 with a heart-skipping assist from Peyton Manning.
Moreno didn't suit up for two months after coughing up the football at Atlanta in Week 2, finally getting another chance - and running with it - in November after Willis McGahee blew out a knee.
To get another chance to serve as Moreno's primary backup, Hillman has some work to do.
Lance Ball and Jacob Hester shared running duties after Hillman's blunder, combining for 121 yards and a TD as the Broncos (13-3) routed the Chiefs 38-3.
Hillman said Wednesday he'd love a shot at redemption in the playoffs.
``I want the ball, but I know my role, too, and if they call my number, they call my number,'' he said.
He's not exactly exuding confidence that will happen.
``I hope so, but ... if they don't, I'll cheer on the rest of my teammates,'' Hillman said.
Hillman had a sputtering start to his rookie season after being slowed in camp by a pulled hamstring. But he came on strong down the stretch, carrying 15 times in a pivotal win at Baltimore last month and finishing with 330 yards and a touchdown to go with a 3.9-yard average.
The Broncos still believe Hillman has a bright future in this league, but he realizes it might be training camp before he's allowed the chance to make up what could have been a very costly mistake.
After all, Moreno has rushed for 510 yards and four TDs since becoming the starter six weeks ago, Ball ran for 66 yards Sunday and Hester has given the Broncos a great goal line option and blitz protector in the mold of McGahee, who is on the mend and can return to action if Denver reaches the AFC championship game.
Online:http://pro32.ap.org/poll andhttp://twitter.com/AP-NFL
Follow Arnie Stapleton on Twitter:http://twitter.com/arniestapleton


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Iraq: Dramatic Images of Shia Preparing to Fight
In Iraq, ISIS released a new video of an Iraqi soldier being assassinated. How are Iraq's Shia responding to their country's latest defeats and militant provocations? WSJ's Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
another key northern Iraqi city falls to Sunni extremists ... Intel for one of Iraq's top generals is used by fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and I'll show aam or ISIS this after Sunni militants on Monday took to the streets in Mosul ... Iraq's second largest city which they overtook in a lightning raid nearly a week ago ... the biggest defeat and images like these ... Fanning the flames which threaten to engulf Iraq in a full-blown sectarian war ... house Iraq's Shiite population responding across the country on Monday images of Shiites enthusiastically preparing to fight ... the Shiite Muslim shrine city of Karbala on Monday ... Iraqi volunteers lineup to collector uniforms ... in a job Another shrine city ... tribesmen brandished rocket propelled grenade launchers ... Shia Muslim clerics their men on Monday to discuss plans for carry out Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani East call to arms ... it Erbil licorice region of northern Iraq ... military deaths are sewn in the tea shop ... this man hero ... and in Baghdad vultures to fight against a Jihadist militants gather around losses ... ahead of being transported for training and infantry ... he called Iraqi Prime Minister an Oreo molecule ... we never taken the initiative ... and here we are dancing to defeat them he says ... them Isis agreed that appears to be courting Shiites to fight and ... coating them ... but after posting these horrific under five photos on Twitter shown with they say are captured Iraqi soldiers and lined up to be executed ... ISIS poses a social media a grim new propaganda video ... this would join other Iraqi soldiers also renal the gunpoint is being forced to say ... long live the Islamic state ... whoever doesn't say this is the gunmen ... I will wipe his face in the door ... one man apparently refusing to save ... the shot ... what is ISIS wants ... to create a radical Islamic state ... or territorial vision includes Iraq that's controlled by Sunni fundamentalists ... judging by Monday's images ... Shiites have gotten the message ... as the short answer


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[AIG And Stock Manipulation]
You have a pension. Your pension fund is invested in a mixture of stocks and bonds.
A significant part of the pension is invested in indexed funds, such as the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500. Let us assume that one of those stocks has been manipulated; that is, the price of a stock has been kept at an artificially high price.
You would be angry- you have been defrauded. Even more so if you had invested in a mutual fund, the price of which is based on the closing price of a stock. If the closing price had been manipulated, you have been defrauded. You might say: This is only a few dimes- but multiply those dimes every day for fifteen years. And the dimes become a billion dollars. Could this happen? Yes- and we shall examine one such incident—the manipulation of the price of American International Group (AIG).
By keeping the price of AIG at an artificially high level, every pension fund that invested in equities was defrauded- in an amount exceeding $1 billion. Also pension funds, which invested in the bonds of AIG, were defrauded. In the end the American public paid for this fraud while Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, Chairman of AIG, earned billions during the period.
AIG was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1984. Later, Greenberg became a member of the Board of the New York Stock Exchange upon the recommendation of Richard Grasso, Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. As a Member of the Board of the New York Stock Exchange, Greenberg helped to determine the salary of Richard Grasso-recall the $160 million payday?
Greenberg was upset at the price of AIG. Greenberg would telephone Grasso and vociferously complain that the specialist in AIG, Spear Leeds and Kellogg which is a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, did not support the price of AIG. Greenberg threatened to have AIG listed on another exchange if Goldman Sachs did not support the price of AIG. Grasso was upset; if AIG were to list on another exchange, the NYSE would lose millions of dollars per year in transaction fees.
As reported in the media on October 3, 2003 by Emily Church: On October 23, 2002 Greenberg wrote a letter to Grasso. In this letter Greenberg stated that the specialist in AIG needed to commit more of its money to purchase AIG shares. Greenberg thus left written proof of a conspiracy to manipulate the price of AIG.
Richard Grasso was upset and decided that Goldman Sachs must support the price of AIG- after all Greenberg was on the Board of the NYSE and the Board of the NYSE determined Grasso's $160 million compensation package. Grasso met with the specialist and the senior management of the NYSE specialist unit. Grasso would also meet with senior management of Goldman Sachs, including Henry Paulson, then Chairman of Goldman Sachs and a member of the Board of the New York Stock Exchange.
Grasso would demand that Goldman Sachs support the price of AIG. It must here be noted that the New York Stock Exchange had regulatory oversight of Goldman's activities on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Henry Paulson, then Chairman of Goldman Sachs and currently Secretary of the Treasury, bowed to the pressure of Grasso and Greenberg. Goldman established a fund, separate from that of its specialist unit, to support the price of AIG. According to newspaper reports published in 2003, Goldman Sachs had lost $14 million over the preceding few years by supporting the price of AIG.
What was wrong? Nothing. Except that it was illegal. On December 16, 2004 the American Stock Exchange disciplined Alfred Merendino, Ronald Menello and GHM, an American Stock Exchange specialist firm, for manipulating the prices of three stocks: Thermo Ecotek, Thermo BioAnalysis, and Thermo Fibertek, in which GHM served as the specialist.
This American Stock Exchange Disciplinary Decision stated that GHM and Merendino violated Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act (SEA) in that they purchased and sold shares of Thermo Ecotek (TCK) for GHM's account during the period between June 2, 1998 and June 25, 1998 and that these transactions were not reasonably calculated to contribute to the maintenance of price continuity and manipulated the price of the security.
This Disciplinary Decision also stated that GHM and Menello (the M in GHM) violated Section 10(b) of the SEA in that they purchased and sold shares of Thermo BioAnalysis (TBA) for GHM's account during the period June 10, 1998 and June 17, 1998 in transactions, whose purpose was to manipulate the price of TBA.
Menello and GHM were also found guilty of violating Section 10(b) of the SEA by manipulating the price of Thermo Fibertek (TFT) during the periods July 22, 1998 and July 31, 1998 and January 21, 1999 and February 2, 1999.
This is sufficient proof to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Goldman Sachs violated Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act when Goldman supported the price of AIG.
But there is one major difference: These violations by GHM, Menello and Merendino occurred within a specific time period lasting at most a few weeks. Al Merendino was fined $75,000 and Ron Menello was fined $200,000. GHM was fined $475,000. Merendino is currently a specialist at the American Stock Exchange.
The Black Star News was unable to contact Ronald Menello. GHM is no longer in business. When The Black Star contacted Al Merendino at the American Stock Exchange, Merendino said: "No quote. No nothing. No nothing at all." The illegal trading in AIG by Goldman Sachs' subsidiary, Spear Leeds and Kellogg Specialists, occurred over a period of 15 years-not over a few weeks.
But there is another more damning precedent. Baron Capital is an investment firm. Baron Capital and its affiliates owned 10% of the stock of Southern Union Company, whose stock symbol is SUG. Baron Capital cleared its trades through Spear Leeds and Kellogg. Baron Capital comprised nearly half of Spear Leeds and Kellogg's Direct Access business to the NYSE during this period. Baron Capital and Spear Leeds and Kellogg conspired to manipulate the price of SUG.
On June 9, 2003 the New York Stock Exchange disciplined Spear Leeds and Kellogg (Disciplinary Decision 03-108) because employees of Spear Leeds and Kellogg aided and abetted the violation of SEA Sec. 14c (1)(a) by permitting a direct access customer to manipulate the price of a listed security (SUG). The NYSE fined Spear Leeds and Kellogg $450,000.
On April 29, 2003 the Securities and Exchange Commission (File No. 3-11096) disciplined Baron Capital for violating Sections 15(C)(1)(A) and of the Securities and Exchange Act for the manipulation of the stock of SUG. Baron Capital was fined $2,000,000. When The Black Star contacted Tucker Hewes, the public relations firm that represents Baron Capital, concerning the manipulation of the price of SUG the response was: "We decline to comment."
We now have proof that over a 15 year period Spear Leeds and Kellogg and Goldman Sachs violated the Securities Exchange Act by manipulating the price of AIG.
Furthermore, it appears that there was good reason for the price of AIG to trade at a lower price. In 2005 AIG wrote off $3.9 billion of profit from 2000 through 2004 and wrote down $2.26 billion of shareholder equity in AIG's restatement.
But here is something that was never mentioned in connection with the illegal support of AIG by Goldman Sachs. On October 25, 2001, AIG joined Goldman Sachs and the Chubb Corporation in a new insurance venture, Allied World Insurance Holdings, which based in Bermuda. Was there a conflict of interest in Goldman Sachs performing its function as a specialist in AIG and joining in a business venture with AIG, while simultaneously acting as specialist in AIG?
When asked this question and other questions concerning the illegal price support of AIG, a spokesperson for Goldman Sachs replied: "I am sorry but Goldman is declining this request for an interview." Section 32 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, provides that any person who willfully violates any provision of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 is punishable by a fine of not more than $10,000 and imprisonment of not more than two years for each violation of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Why have there been no indictments of Goldman Sachs personnel?
Manfredonia writes about Wall Street for The Black Star News
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Eighteen years have passed since FreeSpace 2 and the destruction of Capella, and the shattered colonies of man are finally ready to re-open the jump node to Earth. As the Alliance teeters on the verge of total social collapse, the Security Council deploys the elite 14th Battlegroup to re-establish contact with Earth, and young pilot Samuel Bei finds himself once more under his estranged father's command. Age of Aquarius describes the journey of the 14th Battlegroup as its mission to the Blue Planet goes shockingly wrong. War in Heaven takes place eighteen months after the events of Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius and details the final stages of the civil war between Sol and the rest of her colonies: a war without good or evil, only shades of gray. Built at the cutting edge of the FreeSpace Open engine, Blue Planet is a fan-made conclusion to the FreeSpace saga, a story of sacrifice, triumph, and destiny, and one of the most beloved FreeSpace mods of all time.
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It seems like one of these sort of (opinion) articles pops up every once and a while, and they always cause their share of controversy. This new post on NetTuts.com comparing PHP and Ruby is no different (over 70 comments and counting).
It's time; queue the "Going the Distance" theme from Rocky. In the red ring: Envato developer extraordinaire, Ryan Allen, who built the original FlashDen with his cold bare hands. In the blue corner: Michael Wales, a well known member in the PHP and CodeIgniter communities. The battle? PHP vs. Ruby. Fight!
The two contenders in this "fight" were asked the same questions and answers from both sides are shared to help balance things out. The questions were things like:
- Do you feel that your language is more suited to beginners or advanced users?
- Many PHP developers move on to Ruby after a few years. Have you found this to be the case, and, if so, why do you think it's so common?
- Are there instances when you might choose to use Ruby for one project, and PHP for another?
- What specifically does your language have that the other does not -- if anything?
- How does Ruby or PHP's community compare to the other?
Be sure to check out the comments - there's lots of good thoughts from the communities on both sides there too.


text:
Hay tarps or tarpaulins, also known as hay covers, hay stack covers, or bale covers, are used to protect hay produced through a season's hard work in order to sell the product during the best market times and achieve the maximum farm profit. Typically if you buy a hay tarp it can be used for three to five seasons if cared for properly. A few hundred dollars invested to buy a high quality hay tarp may provide you thousands of dollars in savings versus not covering your hay.
Those customers who use the hay rely upon a hay tarp or hay barn to protect the hay they purchased until the livestock have consumed it. If hay is not protected, mold and bacteria cause spoilage of the hay. Spoiled hay fed to livestock can create health problems. Be sure and protect your hay and get maximum production from your livestock. Buy a hay tarp today!
Acreage(TM) Hay Tarp
Call for Pricing & Options


text:
Software AG today announced that it has executed an agreement with Progress Software to acquire Apama, the market leading platform for Complex Event Processing (CEP) and CEP-powered solutions. Apama CEP allows organizations to correlate and analyze business activities across multiple data streams in real-time and take immediate action in response. The high performance Apama CEP platform together with Software AG's low-latency messaging and in-memory technology will enable customers to gain maximum value from real-time business data in any business area where sub-second response times to events are critical; such as fraud detection, capital markets trading or customer experience management. In addition, Apama CEP will enable customers to fully design, test, monitor and control the industrial internet to a new level of precision and at a new level of intelligence.
Under the deal Software AG will take over the Apama technology teams based primarily in Cambridge (UK), Bedford (USA) and Hyderabad (India). Also included are the global Apama sales and technical teams which serve their extensive customer base in financial services, communications and other markets. Software AG will maintain the Apama product brand given the high brand recognition of Apama in the CEP market. Software AG will also continue and expand Apama's industry and solution focus areas, including capital markets trading, risk and surveillance, as well as more broadly location and context-aware customer experience management and fraud prevention.
"Data can lose its value in an instant", said Software AG's CEO Terracotta and Member of the Group Executive Board, Robin Gilthorpe. "Software AG's big data technology focuses on empowering enterprises to react to complex data while that data is still live and while a reaction still has significant business impact - whether preventing fraud, increasing sales or even in saving lives. This acquisition is a major step in delivering on our strategy of empowering enterprises to derive meaningful business insights and value from big data".
Software AG's big data strategy focuses on delivering real-time insights from any big data source to any type of device for immediate action. It combines in-memory data management with event stream processing and messaging to deliver real-time business insights. Software AG's big data platform will enable a new class of applications that easily adapt to emerging use cases and new data sets. These goals have not been achievable using traditional disk-based data management approaches. Apama is a low-latency CEP platform that fully complements Software AG's product portfolio.
Dr. John Bates, Apama co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Progress Software stated: "Both Progress and Software AG are committed to making this transition as seamless as possible for customers and to continue providing them with the highest levels of support to which they've become accustomed. I will be joining Software AG once the transaction is completed and am personally committed to this transition."
This acquisition is consistent with Software AG's focus on expanding its dynamically growing business line for integration and process software (Business Process Excellence) in order to help customers digitize their enterprises around the "four forces": mobile, cloud, social collaboration and big data. Software AG generated about €547 million in the Business Process Excellence segment alone in fiscal 2012. Licensing revenue in this business segment increased by 19 percent year-on-year in Q1 2013.
Technical Details
The Apama Event Processing Platform is a complete design and deployment environment for CEP applications. From graphical design tools to research and back-testing utilities, the complex event processing (CEP) platform provides analysts, developers and administrators with a full lifecycle design center that is optimized for CEP solutions. Apama is the leading CEP technology used by capital markets participants in trading, risk and compliance. The Apama platform offers a flexible and powerful platform for developing event-driven applications.
About Software AG
Software AG (FRA: SOW) helps organizations achieve their business objectives faster. The company's big data, integration and business process technologies enable customers to drive operational efficiency, modernize their systems and optimize processes for smarter decisions and better service. Building on over 40 years of customer-centric innovation, the company is ranked as a leader in 15 market categories, fueled by core product familiesAdabas and Natural, ARIS, Terracotta and webMethods. Software AG has ca. 5,300 employees in 70 countries and had revenues of €1.05 billion in 2012. Learn more at www.softwareag.com.
Software AG - Get There Faster
Software AG | Uhlandstraße 12 | 64297 Darmstadt | Germany
Detailed press information about Software AG including a picture and multimedia database are available under:www.softwareag.com/press
Follow us on Twitter:
Software AG Germany | Software AG USA
| Contact:
Software AG
Barbara Koegler
Senior Vice President Corporate Communications
Uhlandstrasse 12
64297 Darmstadt
Tel: +49 6151 92-1574
Fax: +49 6151 92-34-1243
| or:
Software AG
Paul Hughes
Director Media Relations
Uhlandstrasse 12
64297 Darmstadt
Tel: +49 6151 92-1787
Fax: +49 6151 92-34-1243


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Your Daily Card
Enter your predictions
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Capped Sports?
Capped Sports is much like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn but just for sports fans, sports writers and sports bettors.
Is this site free to use?
Yes. We will never charge anything.
Can I host my Fan Sports Blog on Capped Sports?
Yes. It is as easy as signing up and starting to blog.
Start your Fan Sports Blog today. It's visible on our fast growing sports platform and we have Facebook and Twitter tools to help get you huge!
You get your own free hosted Capped Sports website when you sign up. Upgrade anytime to a custom site for just 0.88 cents a year.
Click here for custom site details.
Grow your large following and we will just give you a custom site. Sign up today!
If your blog gets to 25 regular followers you can use the Capped Sports built in Ad Platform. Run ads and make money.
Our revenue share with bloggers is an industry leader. We handle all the technical aspects of your blog and you keep 70% of revenue to start.
We are the the platform for sports fans who don't want the hassle and cost of setting up, programming and designing your own site. Get started in minutes.
Get a large follow and your revenue share can increase up to 80% or you can join the team as a pro. It's up to you.
We handle all costs and technical aspects of running your professional looking site.
You write. Promote. Grow.
Can I write professionally for Capped Sports?
Yes. We are growing fast and have open positions.
Good writers get their own website built on the Capped Sports platform. Send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com today. We can get you started in less than a day.
Our pro writers work with Capped Sports programmers & designers to develop custom features for your site. Your own technical staff to help you grow!
Our revenue share with writers is an industry leader. We handle all the technical aspects of your website and you keep 80% of revenue to start.
Get a large follow and your revenue share can increase up to 90%!
We: Handle all costs and technical aspects of running your sports site. Get a pro site today.
You: Write. Promote. Grow.
How can I set up a custom website with my own domain name?
It's easy. It takes 2 steps.
You can have your own domain name and website hosting for 0.88 cents a year. How?
Step 1: Go to
and buy a domain name.
Step 2: Point the nameservers to us.
That's it.
You can now set up your website in your Admin Panel. Your website will be live the same day.
More Info:
Some domain names are very cheap for 1 year.
costs 0.88 cents for a year. Domains with .com are about $10 a year. Decide what works best for you.
Writing regular articles is important as you build your audience.
How can I run ads on my page?
Running ads on your page is very easy. Many ad networks take just minutes to sign up and get your <ad code>. You enter this code in your Admin Panel.
Some popular ad networks are:
Amazon Advertising
Propeller Ads
Google Adsense
Many Other Options
Basically, you can sign up for ANY ad network you want. They all have <ad code> that you will copy and paste into your Admin Panel. They are your ads. So you will get paid directly as you grow your audience.
Amazon Ads is a really good choice because they will show ads for products that your visitors were looking for before they came to your page. Amazon Ads is cool because you can also sell stuff directly to your readers. If you have a book you wrote, a hat you designed, or anything, you can sell it.
Google Adwords is not recommended right away. You need a lot of content and a lot of people visiting your page.
Figure out what works best for you. Also, use your Admin Panel to install
Google Analytics
if you want to see a detailed report of how many people are coming to your site.
To get started just sign up and hook up ads in your Admin Panel.
It takes just a few minutes.
Running a sports website is really fun and a great adventure. Get started today.
How can I use my own custom DNS for my website (Advanced)?
1. Buy the domain name at NameCheap.com
2. Click on "Manage" domain name
3. NameServers: Select "Namecheap Basic DNS"
4. Parking Page: Turn it off
5. Click "Advanced DNS"
6. Delete the parking page entry if its still there
7. Add a CNAME Record - Host is "www" and value is "lit-sierra-3663.herokuapp.com"
If you need to set up custom dns please contact Admin. Most people (99%) should follow the simple instructions for
How can I set up a custom website with my own domain name?
Can I place a real bet on Capped Sports?
No. Capped Sports is not a bookmaker. You can make fantasy bets, talk about the games, get odds, see other opinions, but you cannot place real money wagers. Real sports betting is legal in many parts of the world but not in others. You should familiarize yourself with sports betting laws in your area.
How do I make a pick on the site?
You can click on any game listed on Capped Sports. After that click the giant "Make a pick" button.
What games / matches do you have odds for?
Everything. We have the odds for all events worldwide. Click "Search Games Worldwide" in your main drop down menu.
Can I keep picks private?
Yes. When you make a pick check the "Subscriber only" box.
Are picks given out free on the site?
It is up to the person who made the pick.
On your profile page there is a "My subscriptions" link. Some 'cappers' only show picks to subscribers. Some cappers charge for Full Access to their blogs and picks.
Can I host my Sports Betting Blog & Picks on Capped Sports?
Yes. Start making picks and write to your blog within minutes of sign up. It's easy.
Start your Capper Sports Blog today. Make your blog & picks public or charge for Insider Access.
Many Cappers do a combination of public and Insider Access.
It's up to you and you keep all subscription money. We email your clients provide Twitter and Facebook integration and give you a free website to post your public and private blog & picks.
Public picks and analysis are visible on our fast growing sports platform and we have Facebook and Twitter tools to help get you huge!
You get your own free hosted Capped Sports website when you sign in.
Upgrade anytime to a custom site for just 0.88 cents a year.
Click here for custom site details.
Sign up today.
If you get to 25 regular followers you can use the Capped Sports built in Ad Platform. Run ads. Make money.
We handle all costs and technical aspects of running your site. It's 100% free to get started and you don't have to build a website from scratch.
Sign up today and instantly start using your free Capper website.
We make your sports handicapping website look professional. You make picks. Write. Promote. Grow.
Can I charge for picks?
Yes. It is totally up to you. We build the platform but you decide how you want to use it. Capped Sports does not ever charge it's users for anything but 'cappers' can make arrangements for full access to their picks / blog.
If I charge for picks does the site take a 'cut' of the money?
No. We will never take a cut. You can run a Subscription Service on Capped Sports and keep 100% of the money.
What is the Subscription Service?
Once you sign up you will see 'My Subscriptions' on your profile page. You can add people to your subscriber list and they will get an email anytime you make a pick or say something. You can connect your own payment link into the Subscription Service easily.
What is the 'Weight' score?
Weight is a unit of measure on Capped Sports. Lots of things have 'weight' on Capped Sports.
Weight is the influence a person, pick, article or other item on Capped Sports has. It is based on:
1. How many people view the pick, article, analysis or other type of item.
2. How many Capped Sports members vote the item up, down or hot. Becoming a member is always 100% free.
Sign up now
You and all the things you do on Capped Sports gain 'weight' when you:
1. Make winning picks
2. Vote good things up, vote bad things down
3. Use the site to help the Capped Sports community
Capped Sports does millions of page views every year and growing. Build your weight and influence FAST by doing things like:
Voting on things, making solid picks, writing something, and sharing what you do
You can use your weight by voting on things. As your reputation grows you have more weight to throw around. Your influence on Capped Sports grows with your weight. Capped Sports has a large and growing worldwide audience of sports writers, fans and bettors.
Some writers, bloggers and cappers have big followings on here, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere. They Share or Tweet links to their articles, blogs and picks. This will increase your influence and 'Weight'.
Basically, you increase your weight by writing articles, blog posts, analysis for your predictions, winning predictions, vote good things up and bad things down.
The best way to get your 'Weight' up is to share and do constructive things on Capped Sports.
If a pick has a lot of ''Weight' does that mean it is going to win?
No. It means that pick has been seen by a lot of people.
How does Capped Sports make money?
We don't. You can think of us much like Twitter or Facebook. You don't have to pay to use those sites.
So the site makes no money, why would you build this?
There will be ways to make money from the web based software we are writing for Capped Sports. Plus, we are trying to make something cool!
How do I customize Capped Sports for me?
After you sign up go to your profile page. Click 'Edit Profile'. You can decide what is on your homepage / main feed. You can decide what sports and leagues show up on your personal homepage.
What is a Betting League?
They are just like Fantasy Football Leagues except they are for sports bettors. Start a 1-on-1 league with a friend in 30 seconds... Our computers will keep track of who is up.
What is Bet a Friend?
We keep track of both your bets and who is up. There is no way to send actual money. It is 1-on-1 fantasy betting.
What is a Private Betting League?
It is a league where you decide the rules. Most people do 1-on-1 leagues with a friend. Our computers keep track of the results.
What is the maximum bet in a public betting league?
The maximum bet in a public betting league is 10% of your stack for single bets and 5% of your stack for parlays. Many people start private leagues with friends where there is no limit, except for what you decide.
What is a Sports Betting Investment Fund?
You can start a Sports Betting Investment Fund and track its success. Track multiple fund strategies and stick with the winning ones.
The public can subscribe to your winning funds or you can share them with friends and followers.
Example: "I am so good at picking home team underdogs" - Create an investment fund called 'Home Underdog Only Picks'. Our computers will keep track of how this fund does. You can make as many funds as you want and see which is most successful.
For reference, please see this handicapper who has created some good examples of investment funds
Coach Belinger
What are other examples of Sports Betting Investment Funds?
"If I just bet $100 on EVERY game I would be up much more" - You could test this investment strategy out on Capped Sports.
"If I only bet baseball I think I would be up for the year" - You can track just how your baseball bets do in a special investment fund.
"I wish I knew how much I would be up if I only bet Moneylines" - Just create a 'Moneyline Only' investment strategy.
"When me and my friend agree it usually means those bets win" - This can be an investment strategy too
You can create any investment strategy you can think of and test it out on here.
The most successful funds will be highlighted on the homepage. You can disable funds that don't work out for you. Discover what works best for you.
If I am 'up' in my league or investment fund do people owe me money?
No. Leagues and investment funds are an online game with fake money. There is no way to collect real money. You can create leagues and investment funds with friends and the site will keep track of who is winning but you can't actually send money.
What is following or fading in sports betting?
If you think someone is good at sports betting you would "follow" them. People also call this "tailing" someone. When you follow or tail someone you think that they are good at sports betting in general.
If you think someone is bad at sports betting you would "fade" them. This means you think they lose money and you want to do the opposite of them in general.
Capped Sports computers will compute daily picks for you based on people and investment funds you are "following" and "fading".
How do I decide who to follow or fade?
There is no great answer for this. Some people only follow people and make picks based on this. Some people just fade people that they think are terrible and make picks based on doing the opposite of all the terrible people.
Most people do a combination of following some people and fading others.
What is a Moneyline bet?
You are betting on which team wins the game.
What is a Points Spread bet?
At the end of the game you add or subtract the 'points' on your bet.
Example: If my bet is "New York Giants +6.5", when the game is over add 6.5 to the score for the New York Giants. If the final score was (Washington Redskins 24 New York Giants 20) you would win the bet because you have to add 6.5 to the Giants score and that gives them 26.5 which is more than 24.
Another example: If my bet is "New York Giants -3", when the game is over subtract 3 from the score for the New York Giants. If the final score was (Washington 24 New York Giants 27) you would have a tie because you have to subtract -3 from the Giants score.
What if there is a tie on a Points Spread Bet?
This is called a 'push' and you get the money you bet back.
What is an Under bet?
You are betting that the final score for both teams added up is lower than the total set.
Example: If my bet is "UNDER 45" and the final score is New York Giants 14 Washington Redskins 10 you would win the bet because the final score added up is less than 45. 14 + 10 = 24.
What is an Over bet?
You are betting that the final score for both teams added up is higher than the total set.
Example: If my bet is "OVER 45" and the final score is New York Giants 35 Washington Redskins 30 you would win the bet because the final score added up is more than 45. 35 + 30 = 65.
What if the final score added up is equal to the number set for the total?
This is a tie and called a 'push'. You get the money you bet back.
What is 'adjust' on a bet?
This is what affects how much you win on a bet. If the adjust is +101 or better you will more than double your money. If the bet is -101 or lower you will not quite double your money. Las Vegas bookmakers use this to get a 'commission' on a bet.
Example: If the New York Giants were playing the Washington Redskins and you bet (both sides) $100 on Washington and also $100 on New York... you would lose a little bit of money because of this 'adjust' or commission. If there is no adjust you would break even when you bet on both sides. But you don't...
What is 'juice' on a bet?
This is slang for 'adjust'. Please see the answer above for
What is 'adjust' on a bet?
What if a tennis match or other event ends in forfeit or retirement?
All bookmakers handle this differently. No matter what you do someone will not like the policy. Capped Sports has chosen to cancel all bets and push all money back. No matter when an event or match was cancelled. If you are in a private betting league or sports investment fund you can choose to adjust your balance according to your rules. This adjustment is of course documented. The administrator of your league or investment fund can adjust your balance according to your rules.
If you have not previously talked about what your league or investment fund would do in this situation you should follow our default policy of cancelling all bets and pushing back all money.
What if a tennis match or other event is cancelled?
All money is pushed back. All bets cancelled.
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59:08 minutes (13.54 MB)
National Geographic Photojournalist Karin Muller joined us on April 28, 2009 to share her incredible initiative, Take2 Videos. Karin places herself in conflict areas to provide high-definition footage to students so that they can create documentaries and shorts. This is an opportunity for our students to interact with real people about gritty issues.
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Heart and Vascular Institute – Treatment and Management of Cardiovascular Disease
Conditions of the heart, veins or arteries may take a multifaceted approach. Our team will work with you and your primary care doctor to create a treatment and management plan tailored to your needs and preferences.
Make an appointment
To schedule an appointment at any Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute location, please call
Depending on your condition, your options may include surgery, lifestyle changes or medication. The Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute brings together the care and services you need to heal and manage your condition so you can live your best life.
Cardiothoracic surgery
Our cardiothoracic surgeons are at the top of their field and work with the rest of our heart and vascular team to offer a full range of surgical options for treating cardiovascular disease. Types of cardiothoracic surgery we offer include:
- Arrhythmia surgery
- Coronary artery bypass (CABG) surgery
- Heart valve repairs and replacements
- Reoperative cardiac surgery
- Surgical treatment of adult congenital heart disease
- Thoracic aortic surgery
- Surgical therapy for heart failure
Arrhythmia surgery
Heart and Vascular Institute cardiothoracic surgeons perform a variety of surgical procedures to treat heart rhythm disorders, including:
- Ventricular tachycardia, a rapid heartbeat that starts in the heart's lower chambers
- Supraventricular tachycardia, a rapid heartbeat that starts in the upper part of the heart
- Atrial fibrillation, also called flutter, a rapid and irregular heartbeat that can increase risk for stroke. It's often treated with the MAZE procedure, a surgery that creates scar tissue to block the signals causing irregular heartbeat. The surgery can be open or minimally invasive, depending on your condition and needs.
Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery
CABG is commonly called a bypass. This surgery is used when blood flow to the heart is blocked because arteries are clogged with a fatty substance called plaque. The surgeon takes a healthy piece of vein from the leg or artery from the chest or wrist. Then the surgeon attaches it to the coronary artery, just above or the below blocked area. This allows blood to go around the blockage. Our experienced surgeons offer multiple approaches to this surgery including:
- On pump
- Off pump
- Arterial conduits
- Endoscopic harvesting of saphenous veins and radial artery conduits
Heart valve repairs and replacements (mitral, aortic and tricuspid valves)
Heart valves control blood flow through the blood vessels. When a heart valve is diseased or damaged, it can block blood flow or cause leakage. The cardiothoracic team works with you to find the best solution for you. Our surgeons are skilled in heart valve repair and replacement procedures, including the:
- Open, standard technique, often used when a valve repair or replacement is performed along with bypass surgery.
- Minimally invasive technique, which does not require cutting open the chest. This option can offer a shorter hospital stay, quicker recovery, less pain and a smaller incision.
- Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), using a flexible tube called a catheter to place the new valve inside of the existing valve. This option is for those who have aortic stenosis (narrowing of the aorta) and who are high risk for open surgery. Our surgeons, interventional cardiologists, imaging cardiologist and a nurse coordinator will work together to decide whether you need this procedure.
Reoperative cardiac surgery
If you've already had cardiac surgery, another one can bring new risks and challenges. Our team has the experience and knowledge to face these challenges, reduce risks and help you heal properly.
Surgical treatment of adult congenital heart disease
Cardiothoracic surgeons work closely with cardiologists in the care and treatment of adults who are living with congenital heart disease. Adult congenital heart conditions that are typically treated surgically include:
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, thickening of the heart muscle. Surgery to remove part of the muscle is called myectomy.
- Atrial septal defect, a problem with the wall between the heart's upper chamber and left and right atrium. Repair can often be minimally invasive, but open surgery may be needed.
Thoracic aortic surgery
Aneurysms (bulges), valve problems and other complex aortic conditions can be repaired through thoracic (chest) aortic surgery, such as:
- Aortic root replacement, replacing a section of the aorta and the valve
- Aortic arch replacement, replacing the bent section that connects the ascending and descending aorta
- Valve-sparing aortic root replacement, removing a section of the aorta and reconnecting the rest of it to the valve
- Descending aortic repairs, to treat problems in the part of the aorta that goes down toward your lower body
Vascular and endovascular surgery
Circulation of blood through the body is essential to life. Blood flows throughout the body through blood vessels (arteries and veins) that make up the vascular system. Diseases or damage to veins or arteries can keep them from circulating blood properly. This causes a lack of oxygen, called ischemia that can damage organs and tissues.
Cardiovascular disease affects the vessels of the heart. Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) affects blood vessels in your extremities.
Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause for narrowing of the arteries. It can affect any vessel, but most commonly involves:
- Aorta (the body's main artery)
- Arteries to the brain (carotid)
- Arteries to the kidneys (renal)
- Blood vessels in the legs
Vascular surgery uses traditional surgery as well as endovascular (minimally invasive) procedures to treat conditions of the arteries and veins.
Some of the procedures our endovascular surgeons commonly perform include:
- Endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm (EVAR)
- Endovascular repair of thoracic aortic aneurysm (TEVAR)
- Hybrid repair of abdominal and thoracic aortic aneurysm
- Open repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA)
- Carotid endarterectomy
- Carotid artery stenting
- Endovascular management of peripheral arterial disease (PAD)
- Lower extremity bypass surgery
- Mesenteric, renal artery stenting
- Mesenteric artery bypass
- Renal artery bypass
- Endovenous ablation for venous insufficiency
- Subclavian artery bypass and reconstruction
- Dialysis access
Surgical therapy for heart failure
Our heart failure team is skilled and experienced in surgical options for end-stage heart failure, including:
- Heart transplantation. Our heart transplant team is skilled and respected, and Penn State offers services to help you and your family cope with the challenges of the surgery and life after transplant.
- Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) as destination therapy (long-term treatment), as well as bridge-to-transplant. Devices available for implant include:
- Thoratec® HeartMate II®
- Thoratec® HeartMate 3™
- HeartWare
- Syncardia Total Artificial Heart
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
ECMO uses a machine to circulate oxygen-rich blood through the body while bypassing the heart and lungs. It's used for acute respiratory failure or acute cardiogenic shock (when the heart suddenly can't pump enough blood to meet the body's demands). Our surgeons place the ECMO components, and our intensivist team will manage your follow-up care.
Heart failure program
If you're one of millions of Americans living with heart failure, we can help. The Heart and Vascular Institute brings together a full range of services for the management and treatment of heart failure. We'll work with you to provide the most convenient and effective care possible at all stages, including transplant, pacing and mechanical pumping assistance.
Our program has been recognized for quality of care by the Joint Commission and the American Heart Association. To make an appointment, please call 1-877-467-7484.
- What is heart failure?
- Heart failure care at all stages
- Diagnosis
- Living with heart failure
- Pacing and defibrillation therapies
- Advanced therapies for those with end stage heart failure
- Heart failure team
What is heart failure?
Heart failure, [link to http://pennstatehershey.adam.com/content.aspx?productId=108&pid=1&gid=000158] also called congestive heart failure, means the heart is not able to pump oxygen-rich blood out of the heart and to the rest of the body. Heart failure can be caused by:
- Coronary artery disease, or not enough blood flow to the heart muscle.
- Chronic high blood pressure that, over time, has stiffened the left main pumping chamber (ventricle) of the heart.
- Irregular heart rhythms, such as atrial fibrillation, where the upper chambers of the heart (atrium) are beating much faster than the lower chambers (ventricles). This keeps the blood from flowing swiftly out of the heart to the rest of the body.
- Faulty heart valves, that either don't close properly (regurgitation) or don't open well (stenosis).
Talk with your health care team about the cause of your heart failure and what steps you should take.
Complete, advanced care at all stages
Learning you have heart failure can be overwhelming. You and your family need one-on-one guidance tailored to your diagnosis and needs. Our team works with you to adjust your medication and treatment plan for the best results.
Our heart failure cardiologists will assess your condition and needs, and may offer you the option to enroll in clinical trials of new and promising treatments. We'll monitor your progress and condition to make sure the treatment plan is working.
We may recommend cardiac rehabilitation, a tailored approach that draws expertise from physicians, nurses, exercise physiologists and registered dietitians.
Whatever your needs, our specially trained nurse practitioners will work with you, your caregivers and your doctors to create a complete plan of care. Your plan may include telephone management, remote electronic monitoring and scheduled clinic visits at convenient locations.
Your heart failure team works with other specialists in the Heart and Vascular Institute, including electrophysiologists (cardiologists who specialize in treating heart rhythm disturbances) and cardiac surgeons. You may see these and other specialists to treat symptoms of heart failure.
Heart failure is diagnosed by your doctor, but a number of tests are used to best understand your heart disease. Some tests may also be also be used to monitor your condition after starting treatment. Some of the tests you might need include:
- Echocardiogram, which uses sound waves to create a picture of your heart.
- Stress echocardiogram, which uses ultrasound imaging to show how well your heart is working.
- Nuclear thallium test, which uses radioactive materials called tracers to show the heart's chambers.
- Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG)
- Heart catheterization, passing a thin flexible tube (catheter) into the right or left side of the heart to see the heart and blood vessels or to treat certain heart conditions.
- Chest X-ray.
- Metabolic bike test, to see how well your heart and lungs work under stress.
Living with heart failure
You can live an active life, even with heart failure. The key is to work with your health care provider to manage your heart failure. Here are some guidelines:
- Monitor and record your weight daily. If you suddenly lose or gain a lot of weight, tell your doctor.
- Remember the symptoms of heart failure, and let your doctor know if you have:
- Weight gain
- Fatigue (often feeling tired)
- Swollen feet and legs
- Shortness of breath
- Bloated abdomen or stomach area
- Nausea
- Feeling of fullness after eating only a small amount
- Waking up at night with trouble breathing
- A cough that worsens when lying down
- Having to urinate more often at night
- Confusion or feeling mixed up
- Limit sodium (salt) to 2,000 milligrams or less a day.
- Take your medicine as directed, every time.
- Stay active and get plenty of exercise.
- See your doctor often so you can take care of any problems before they worsen.
If you have questions or need to contact your heart failure team, call 877-467-7484.
Monitoring and controlling heart rhythms
At some point, you may need a device to monitor and control your heart rhythm or to coordinate your heart function. Your options might include:
- Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) biventricular pacemaker. This device is implanted under the skin by an electrophysiologist and helps coordinate the heartbeat and relieve symptoms.
- Defibrillator. This device delivers electric jolts to the heart to stop dangerous heart rhythms.
Advanced therapies for those with end stage heart failure
If your heart failure gets worse and does not respond to medical therapy, our team provides the latest proven surgical options and a level of care that is unmatched in the region. We've designed a care process that can be tailored to your needs and life, from pre-surgery appointments through recovery and long-term transitional care.
Our surgeons are skilled in surgical treatments, including:
- Total artificial heart
- Heart transplant surgery
- Ventricular assist device (VAD), a pump that can be used as a short-term bridge to transplant or as destination therapy (a long-term solution).
Our team in your corner
To give you the best possible care and support, our heart failure team includes:
- Advanced intervention care coordinators
- A cardiology-specific pharmacist
- A cardiology-assigned chaplain
- Clinical research coordinators
- A palliative care coordinator
- A social worker
- Transitional care coordinators
An arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) can have many causes and be challenging to treat. Our electrophysiology team specializes in the heart's electrical system and in treating and managing heart rhythm problems. As world leaders in treatment, research and national medical organizations, they've helped create care guidelines that are used nationwide. Our electrophysiologists are skilled in the latest proven techniques, and can often offer access to leading clinical trials of new and promising treatments.
Abnormal heart rhythms can be treated with medication, ablation (creating scar tissue to block the signals causing arrhythmia) or implanted devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators. Procedures are performed in our electrophysiology laboratory using equipment that can map the heart's electrical circuitry.
Some of the services we offer include:
- Electrophysiology studies to see how well the heart's electrical system is working.
- Routine checks for pacemakers or implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). A specialist in these devices reprograms them as directed by our doctors. We also offer remote monitoring.
- Atrial fibrillation ablation
- Catheter ablation, creating scar tissue to block electrical signals causing arrhythmia.
- Placement of pacemakers
- Placement of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs)
- Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT)with a biventricular (BiV) device, which paces both the right and left ventricles of the heart at once.
- Managing and removing device leads as needed.
- Tilt table testing to find the cause of syncope, or fainting.
- Treatment for long QT syndrome and other disorders that can affect heart rhythm.
Atrial fibrillation management using the Watchman™ (including Watchman left atrial appendage closure), reduces the risk of stroke without long-term blood thinner.
The Watchman device is a newly approved left atrial appendage closure for those with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (a-fib). This device reduces the risk of stroke and the need for patients to take long-term blood thinner medications.
Those with this type of a-fib are at an increased risk of having a stroke, due to blood settling in the left atrial appendage, potentially clotting and traveling through the body to the brain.
The umbrella-like device is implanted into a patient's heart, through a catheter (tube) and acts as a screen to close off the left atrial appendage, allowing blood to continue to flow out of the left atrial appendage, trapping any clots.
Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute offers a multi-disciplinary team to evaluate patients for the device, perform the implant procedure and continue to care for patients following the procedure.
For more information about Watchman:
Read Penn State Medicine article
To make an appointment, please call 1-877-467-7484 or 717-531-4554 or 717-531-8407.
General cardiology and prevention
Services provided by the General Cardiology and Prevention program include:
- Congestive heart failure
- Heart transplant
- Adult congenital heart disease
- Wellness, prevention and rehabilitation
- Interventional services
Interventional services
Interventional services, including interventional cardiology and cardiovascular interventional radiology, can help treat a wide range of conditions and disease. Our Cardiovascular Interventional Radiology team offers advanced imaging aimed at diagnosing and treating peripheral vascular disease as well as a host of non-vascular pathology.
Interventional cardiology
The interventional cardiology program offers advanced, minimally invasive treatment options for cardiac and vascular diseases. Some examples include:
- Cardiac catheterization uses a catheter (a thin flexible tube) to view the arteries and check the heart's structure and function.
- Coronary (balloon) angioplasty and stent placement uses a catheter with a tiny balloon on the end to open an artery and place a stent (a tiny, mesh-like tube) to keep the artery open.
- Intravascular ultrasound uses sound waves to see inside the heart and blood vessels.
- Valvuloplasty uses a balloon to fix narrowed or stenotic heart valves.
To make an appointment, call 1-877-467-7484
Cardiovascular interventional radiology
Wellness, prevention and rehabilitation
Hospital to Home (H2H) National Quality Improvement Initiative
The right care after you leave the hospital could make all the difference to your future health and quality of life. Hershey Medical Center is a participating hospital in the Hospital to Home (H2H) National Quality Improvement Initiative, led by the American College of Cardiology and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. This initiative aims to reduce hospital readmissions and smooth the move from hospital to home after hospital treatment for heart disease.
This initiative has three areas of focus:
1. Medication management
Do you have your medications? Do you know when to take them and why you need them?
If your doctor has prescribed medicine to treat your heart disease, it's critical to take them as directed. Make sure you understand when, how much and how to take them. Keep in mind:
- Some medicines need to be taken at certain times of the day.
- Some medicines may interact with others you are already taking or with certain foods.
- If are having trouble paying for your prescriptions, a prescription assistance program coordinator can help.
2. Symptom management
Do you know the signs and symptoms that need medical attention and who to contact if they occur?
Make sure you know what to do if your symptoms return. Talk to your doctor and health care team now, so you'll know:
- Which symptoms require medical attention
- Whom you should contact for help
- When you should call
- When you should get emergency care
3. Early follow-up
Do you have a follow-up visit scheduled within seven to 10 days of discharge? Do you have a way to get there?
Research has shown you're less likely to need another hospital stay when you have a follow-up appointment within seven to 10 days after discharge from the hospital.
We will schedule an appointment for you before you leave. At the appointment, one of our physician assistants or nurse practitioners will meet with you to:
- Make sure you understand your medications and how to take them
- Find options if you cannot afford your medications
- Make sure you know your action plan and what to do if you have symptoms
If you are can't keep this appointment, call the Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute Access Center at 1-877-467-7484 to reschedule. If you need transportation, let us know before you leave the hospital and an inpatient social worker can help.