Electronic game tables with multifunction legs are described. In one implementation, an electronic multiplayer game table includes a tabletop with player stations for an electronic betting game. Multifunction legs physically support the periphery of the tabletop, while electronic components for playing the betting game are mounted in the multifunction legs. For example, a multifunction leg may contain multiple currency detectors and coinless slot machine-style ticket printers/readers, so that each player at the game table has an exclusive currency detector and an exclusive ticket printer in close proximity. The multifunction legs may also include magnetic or smart card readers for transferring player, banking, and monetary information. In a variation, central control components of the electronic game table are also mounted in the legs. The multifunction legs can eliminate the need for a central support pedestal. This enables efficient under-table cooling schemas and other innovations, such as under-table lighting and a central tabletop holograph space.
Electronic game tables for multiplayer betting games conventionally have a tabletop attached to a central support pedestal that also houses central control components, such as a computing device that acts as a server for peripheral player stations. Or, such conventional electronic game tables have peripheral legs that serve the sole function of supporting the tabletop. With either of these tabletop support schemas, there is limited tabletop area for each player. While it is common to provide each player at an electronic game table with a dedicated touch screen display, it is difficult or impossible to provide each player with other accessories, such as a paper currency detector or a cash-out ticket printer.
What is needed is a way to place more of the desirable components of an electronic game table in close proximity to each player, without cluttering the tabletop to the point of creating distraction or impairing usefulness.
This summary section is not intended to give a full description of electronic game tables with multifunction legs, or to provide a list of features and elements. A detailed description of example embodiments of such an electronic gaming system follows.
FIG. 1 is an elevation diagram of an electronic game table under construction with exemplary multifunction legs.
FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the electronic game table shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is an elevation diagram of exemplary construction details of the electronic game table and multifunction legs as shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method of including electronic components in a leg of an electronic game table.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a first exemplary game processing system that can be included in game tables that use the multifunction legs.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a second exemplary game processing system that can be included in game tables that use the multifunction legs.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a third exemplary game processing system, components of which can be included in game tables that use the multifunction legs.
This disclosure describes electronic game tables with multifunction legs. The multifunction legs provide many benefits over conventional electronic game tables.
In one implementation, as shown in FIG. 1, an exemplary electronic game table 100 for betting games has multifunction legs, e.g., 102, 104, & 106 attached around the outer perimeter or periphery of a tabletop 108. For example, each leg may be attached at a different outer corner of the tabletop 108. Each leg, e.g., leg 104, contains a vertical support member for supporting the tabletop 108 as well as electronic equipment, e.g., communicatively coupled with central control components to provide some elements of a distributed network.
Besides physically supporting the electronic game tabletop 108 either directly via the vertical support member or indirectly via horizontal rails between the vertical support members of two legs, each multifunction leg 104 serves additional practical functions, such as housing currency detectors 110 & 112 and ticket printers 114 & 116 associated with the electronic betting game. The ticket printers 114 & 116, which can be tickets-in-tickets-out systems, typically create a paper ticket with a barcode representing the player's credit balance or money balance (money balance is used herein to represent either) at the time of cashing-out from the electronic game table 100. Depending on implementation, the same device or a different ticket reader may scan the ticket to input a player's money balance as credits at the electronic game table 100. Currency detectors 110 & 112, which are also known as bill validators, bill acceptors, paper currency readers, and sometimes ticket readers, scan paper currency and/or tickets created by ticket printers 114 & 116 using optical sensors. Upon validation, the currency detector 112 signals the control components of the electronic game table 100 of a player credit via a parallel or serial interface.
Other components, such as power supplies and cooling devices, may also be housed in each multifunction leg 104. The multifunction legs may also include magnetic or smart card readers for transferring player, banking, and monetary information to and from an internal or external system for using and tracking the information. A smart card (chip card, or integrated circuit card) is a pocket-sized card with embedded electronics to process data. The exemplary multifunction legs 104 contrast with conventional gaming tables that group the significant conventional electronic components into a central support pedestal of the conventional table or in the tabletop.
The exemplary multifunction legs 104 provide many advantages for the exemplary electronic game table 100 over conventional electronic game table layouts. In one implementation, besides supporting the tabletop 108, each multifunction leg 104 provides currency detectors 110 & 112 and ticket printers 114 & 116 for two players, one on each side of a given multifunction leg 104. Thus, a game table 100 with four legs provides each of eight players with an exclusive currency reader 110 and an exclusive ticket printer 116 for that player alone. Such multifunction legs 104 provide each player at the game table 100 with an exclusive currency reader 110 and an exclusive ticket printer 116 without adding bulk to the game tabletop 108 or to a central pedestal of the game table 100. The multifunction legs 104 position a user interface for each of the user-accessible electronic components mounted in the legs within close proximity to the adjacent player position and thereby within easy reach of a player seated adjacent to a leg. Thus, each player does not have to reach very far to use a respective currency reader 110 and ticket printer 116 dedicated exclusively to that player.
Housing significant electronic components in the multifunction legs 104 keeps electronic accessories from bulking up a central pedestal—or from requiring a central pedestal at all—and from cluttering the game tabletop 108 with credit processing devices and related user interfaces. The multifunction legs 104 allow the electronic game table 100 to achieve a leaner appearance and cleaner tabletop 108 than conventional electronic game tables, while providing another practical benefit of more leg room. The central housing for central control components can be suspended from the bottom of the tabletop 108, or from horizontal supports attached between the multifunction legs 104 that support the tabletop 108, instead of relying on the support of a central pedestal.
As shown in FIG. 2, the multifunction legs 104 allow an innovative cooling system for electronic game tables, in which a cooling air intake 202 draws air from the open bottom of the central housing 204 (when a central housing 204 is used for central control components) and flows the air through channels in the tabletop 108, or out of a top opening. The central housing 204 can include a relatively large opening 202 at its bottom for air intake, since the multifunction legs 104 eliminate the need for a central pedestal that would conventionally reach to the floor to support the game tabletop 108. Drawing air from the open bottom 202 of the central housing 204 can provide a quieter electronic game table 100. That is, the bottom-located opening 202 enables a quieter placement of electric cooling fans. In another implementation, no cooling fans are needed in the central housing 204. When centrally located electronic components generate heat, the rising heat initiates a spontaneous “thermal siphon” airflow that draws air from the bottom opening(s) 202 of the central housing 204.
In one implementation, either fan-driven air circulation or the spontaneous airflow enabled by the multifunction legs 104 flows through the tabletop 108, which contains airflow channels in an interior layer, and is vented at the edges of the tabletop 108, for example, at points furthest away from any player, or at vents in the multifunction legs 104. Such channels in a tabletop 108 of a game table 100 are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/260,989 to Kuhn, which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIG. 3 shows construction detail of an exemplary implementation of the multifunction legs 104. In the illustrated example, besides providing a vertical support member, the multifunction legs 104 are constructed with various access panels and doors, e.g., 302, 304, and 306, which provide openings for the electronic components 110, 112, 114, 116 housed in the multifunction legs 104 to slide in and out for installation and service. The access doors, e.g., door 304, also allows access to auxiliary components, such as a local power supply 308, local cooling fans if needed (not shown), and support components in the multifunction legs 104, such as support fasteners, retractable “pop-down” transport wheels, leveling mechanisms, and so forth.
A central housing access door 310 typically includes a lock 312 and one or more electric interlocks, to secure the central control components (not shown) and to secure privileged access to game settings.
In one implementation, since the multifunction legs 104 allow an open space under the central housing 204 (when used), or eliminate the need for a central housing altogether, the tabletop 108 is equipped with underside lighting (not shown) to illuminate the entire floor surface under the electronic game table 100. The underside lighting of the entire floor surface under the game table 100 is not possible with conventional pedestal-style game tables. The underside lighting can be colored to attract attention to the game table, or can change color or flash colors to signal game states, such as wins. The underside lighting can also turn on-and-off on a programmed cue, flash, change color, change intensity, display light movement in a patterned or sequential manner, etc., for example, when a player approaches the table or begins to leave.
In an alternative implementation, all the significant electronic components for the electronic game table 100 (except tabletop player stations, such as player station 314) are mounted in the multifunction legs 104. This eliminates the need for a central housing 204 underneath the tabletop 108. In one variation, when electronic components are distributed to the peripherally attached multifunction legs 104, a central display screen, also known as a common display 318, may sometimes be omitted from the game table 100. This leaves an open space to the floor, or an opening for a 3-D object, such as a sculpture or an advertisement, or an opening for a recessed holographic projection space, i.e., a recessed well in which 3-D holographic shapes may be projected and animated. Such a central space may also be used for other game parts and functions, such as a real or holographic roulette wheel, a real or holographic dice pit, or other centrally positioned gaming device.
FIG. 4 shows an exemplary method 400 of including electronic components in a leg of an electronic game table. The operations are represented as individual blocks.
At block 402, a leg is attached to a periphery of an electronic multiplayer game table.
At block 404, one currency detector and one ticket printer and/or reader are mounted in the leg per each player position adjacent to the leg.
At block 406, a first user interface for accessing the currency detector and a second user interface for accessing the ticket printer/reader are mounted in the leg, e.g., within human reach of the adjacent player position.
The currency detectors and the ticket printers/readers are typically communicatively coupled with central control components for executing a betting game on the electronic multiplayer game table.
Multiple legs of the electronic multiplayer game table provide an exclusive currency detector and an exclusive ticket printer/reader for each player position at the electronic multiplayer game table.
The exemplary multifunction legs 104 can be used with electronic game tables and/or tabletops for betting games, such as those game tables, tabletops, and betting games variously described in US. Pat. No. 5,586,766 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,998 to Forte et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,069, U.S. Pat. No. 7,048,629, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,255,642 to Sines et al., each of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Returning to FIG. 3 as an exemplary implementation of an electronic game table 100 that uses the multifunction legs 104, each game table 100 has an arbitrary size that in the illustrated version seats eight participants. Other implementations can seat a different number of participants. The game table 100 has a display screen or touch screen user interface for each participant, i.e., a player station 314. A participant's player station 314 may include an electronic display for presenting visual images and may further consist of a touch screen display for further interactive capability. Depending upon implementation, each participant player station 314 may also include various other forms of interactive interface, such as pointing devices, light sensors, wagering chip sensors, audio speakers, etc.
The illustrated example game table 100 may also include at least one common display 318 in the center of the game table 100, for presenting visual information to all participants. The common display(s) 318 may present general information redundantly in two, four, or more visual orientations so that the displayed information is oriented correctly for each participant.
The example electronic game table 100 of FIG. 3 has an example layout that is useful for unhosted card games, although using a live dealer at such a game table 100 is not ruled out. The example game table 100 as shown typically uses virtual playing cards and virtual chips. However, the game table 100 can be configured to use any combination of real playing cards, virtual playing cards, real wagering chips, and/or virtual gaming chips. When real playing cards are used, a live shoe that reads the identity of each card sends the card identity information to the electronic processor (504 or 604 in FIGS. 5-7) that runs the game. When real wagering chips are used, light sensors, optical sensors, scanning technology, weigh cells, RFID technology, etc., may be used with specially constructed chips or conventional standard chips to sense chip presence and chip values.
FIG. 5 shows an example game processing system 500 that can be included in game tables that use the multifunction legs 104, such as electronic game table 100. Some or all of such a game processing system 500, such as currency detectors 110 and ticket printers 114, can be situated in the multifunction legs 104. The illustrated configuration of the exemplary game processing system 500 is meant to provide only one example arrangement for the sake of overview. Many other arrangements of the illustrated components, or similar components, are possible within the scope of the subject matter. Such an exemplary game processing system 500 can be executed in hardware, or combinations of hardware, software, firmware, etc.
The exemplary game processing system 500 includes a computing device 502, which may be a desktop, server, or notebook style computer, or other device that has processor, memory, and data storage. The computing device 502 thus includes a processor 504, memory 506, data storage 508; and interface(s) 510 to communicatively couple with the participant “1” user interface 314, the participant “2” user interface 316, . . . , and the participant “N” user interface 512. The game processing system 500 includes a gaming engine 514 and game rules 516, shown as software loaded into memory 506.
The interfaces 510 can be one or more hardware components that drive the visual displays and communicate with the interactive components, e.g., touch screen displays, of the multiple participant user interfaces 314, 316, . . . , 512.
FIG. 6 shows another example game processing system 600 that can be included in game tables that use the multifunction legs 104, such as electronic game table 100. Some or all of the game processing system 600, such as currency detectors 110 and ticket printers 114, can be situated in one or more of the multifunction legs 104. The illustrated configuration of the exemplary game processing system 600 is meant to provide only one example arrangement for the sake of overview. Many other arrangements of the illustrated components, or similar components, are possible within the scope of the subject matter, e.g., that shown in FIG. 5. In FIG. 6, such an exemplary game processing system 600 can be executed in hardware, or combinations of hardware, software, firmware, etc.
The exemplary game processing system 600 includes a server computing device 602, which can be a computer or other device that has processor, memory, and data storage. The server computing device 602 thus includes a processor 604, memory 606, data storage 608, and an interface, such as a network interface card (NIC) 610, to communicatively couple over a network 612 with remote computing devices, such as computing device “1” 614 that hosts the participant “1” user interface 616; computing device “2” 618 that hosts the participant “2” user interface 620; . . . ; and computing device “N” 622 that hosts the participant “N” user interface 624. The currency detectors 110 and ticket printers 114 typically interface with the server computing device 602 via serial or parallel ports. The game processing system 600 includes a gaming engine 514 and game rules 516, shown as software loaded into memory 606.
The participant computing devices 614, 618, and 622 may be desktop or notebook computers, or may be workstations or other client computing devices that have processor and memory, but may or may not have onboard data storage. Typically, a player station does not have data storage. Such modules may be “dumb” in that they have no bootable device, but generally receive images and instructions from the server 602. Thus, in one implementation, a player computing device 614 is a visual display with graphics processing power and user interface components.
FIG. 7 shows another example game processing system 700, consisting of a network of gaming machines 100, 100′, and 100″ that each may have “n” players. Electronic components for each game table may be stored in multifunction legs 104 of the individual game table. The game processing system 700 is similar to that shown in FIG. 6, except that the client nodes of the network 612 are multiplayer gaming machines (e.g., 100, 100′, & 100″) instead of individual gaming stations. That is, each node of the network 612 can accommodate multiple players. In another implementation, the network 612 has a mixture of client nodes consisting of individual playing stations as in FIG. 6 and multiplayer gaming stations as in FIG. 7.
wherein the electronic components in each leg include at least one currency detector and one ticket printer for each player position adjacent to the leg.
wherein the user interface is mounted within a human reach distance when a player is seated adjacent to the leg.
3. The electronic multiplayer game table as recited in claim 1, wherein the electronic components mounted in each leg are communicatively coupled with central control components to form elements of a distributed computing device network.
4. The electronic multiplayer game table as recited in claim 1, wherein substantially all of the central control components are also mounted in at least one of the legs mounted to the tabletop near an outside periphery of the tabletop.
5. The electronic multiplayer game table as recited in 1, wherein the electronic components in each leg include at least one currency detector and one ticket printer for each player position adjacent to the leg.
6. The electronic multiplayer game table as recited in 1, wherein the collective electronic components mounted in all of the legs include at least an exclusive currency detector and an exclusive ticket printer for each player position at the electronic multiplayer game table.
wherein each player station has an associated exclusive currency detector and an associated exclusive ticket printer in a leg adjacent to the player station.
8. The electronic multiplayer game table as recited in claim 7, wherein N equals one of 3, 4, 5, or 6.
9. The electronic multiplayer game table as recited in claim 1, wherein each leg includes one of a power supply, a cooling fan, a card reader, a smart card reader, or a player-identity-card reader.
wherein a central housing for containing control components is suspended from a center part of the tabletop or from a tabletop support member, leaving an open space between the bottom of the central housing and a floor level at the bottom of the legs.
11. The electronic multiplayer game table as recited in claim 10, wherein a bottom surface of the central housing includes an opening for air to cool the control components.
12. The electronic multiplayer game table as recited in claim 11, wherein air is drawn into the central housing by one of an electric cooling fan or by a thermal siphon of heated air rising from the control components.
13. The electronic multiplayer game table as recited in claim 10, wherein an underside light is mounted on at least one of the underside of the tabletop and/or on the bottom surface of the central housing, in order to light an entire floor or ground area under the electronic multiplayer game table.
14. The electronic multiplayer game table as recited in claim 1, wherein substantially all of the central control components are mounted in the legs; and a central area of the tabletop comprises a holographic projection space.
NL2014715B1 (en) * 2015-04-24 2017-01-18 Ben Moussa Adil Game device.
U.S. Appl. No. 12,323,478, filed 2008, Kuhn et al.
U.S. Appl. No. 12/176,248, filed 2009, Kuhn et al.
U.S. Appl. No. 12/268,398, filed 2008, Chatellier et al.


Both [Michael] Pattinson and his attorney say they were driven into bankruptcy.
>> True Information: Who is “his attorney”? The unnamed attorney in this passage is Graham E. Berry. Allegations from documents prepared by Mr. Berry, that were thoroughly discredited long ago, appear throughout the book—although they are never sourced to Mr. Berry by name. We suspect this is because Mr. Wright was aware of evidence tied to Mr. Berry that cannot pass the “laugh test.” Yet, Mr. Wright’s dependence on Mr. Berry, Mr. Berry’s paid witnesses and stories that Mr. Berry circulated and that later unraveled under scrutiny, fatally infect Going Clear. In addition to representing Michael Pattinson (page 309) and Garry Scarff (pages 281, 400 and 408), Mr. Berry’s clients who are cited in Going Clear include: Vicki Aznaran (pages 178, 179, 184, 219, and 345); Andre Tabayoyon (pages 180, 203, 207-208, 270 and 345); Hana Whitfield (pages 16 and 374); and, Robert Vaughn Young (pages 138, 183, 184, 196, 392 and 396).
In his interview with the Daily Beast, Mr. Wright defended his use of Garry Scarff saying he had interviewed Scarff with his attorney—again referring to Graham Berry.
he was suspended from the practice of law by the California Bar for harassive litigation tactics and misusing client funds.
Mr. Berry’s journey as an anti-Scientologist began in 1994, when he was an associate in a Los Angeles law firm. One of his clients included a psychiatrist with a $1 million insurance policy who was a defendant in Church of Scientology International v. Steven Fishman and Uwe Geertz. According to court records, Mr. Berry squandered the money by hiring former Scientologists to manufacture false statements to use in the case. For example, Mr. Berry paid $17,000 to Andre Tabayoyon for a false declaration concerning conditions at Golden Era Productions, the Church of Scientology’s international film production facility. This false declaration is the source of some bizarre tales cited in Mr. Wright’s book, including that “explosives were placed around the perimeter” (of Golden Era Productions (page 203)) and that a field of wildflowers were planted for visiting celebrities (page 203).
Mr. Berry was then dismissed from his law firm.
“From 1993 through 1998, I made my living consulting with attorneys and writing affidavits and declarations in support of litigation that those lawyers were pursuing against various Scientology entities…those attorneys were Graham Berry ….
“It had been my understanding that I was free to use language that was extremely biased against Scientology in order to prejudice the courts as much as possible….
“12. During the course of the deposition, my false testimony included the following assertions. I knew that the statements I made would be used against the Church, and that though they would surely deny them (as the events never happened), they would be recounted anyway, and it would create negative publicity and sentiment against the Church.
“a. I made up a story that I had conspired with attorneys Kendrick Moxon, Timothy Bowles and Laurie Bartilson, as well as with investigator Eugene Ingram, to murder CAN’s Executive Director, Cynthia Kisser, and San Francisco attorney, Ford Greene, who had represented individuals in legal actions with the Church. The truth of the matter is that no such meeting was ever held and I was never ordered or asked to murder anyone and I completely fabricated the story with the knowing participation of Mr. Berry. I never even met Mr. Moxon until he appeared for a few minutes during one of the sessions of my deposition. I luckily recognized him then only because I had seen his photograph in a media article, so I feigned having met him before to try to bolster my credibility.
One of Mr. Berry’s harassing lawsuits against the Church of Scientology was a malicious prosecution case filed in State Court in Los Angeles. In that case the court re-examined all of the declarations that Mr. Berry had tried to file in the CSI v. Fishman/Geertz case and then some, ultimately finding against Mr. Berry’s clients and dismissing the case on summary judgment in June 1996.
Mr. Berry represented Michael Pattinson, whose lawsuit was dismissed five times. After Mr. Berry repeatedly failed to comply with the court’s orders, the presiding federal court judge found his conduct harassing and awarded the defendant attorney’s fees. The judge subsequently ordered sanctions in the amount of $28,484.72 against Mr. Berry.
After failing with the Pattinson case, Mr. Berry then pursued without success his own frivolous litigation against Scientology churches and individuals. In these actions, Courts repeatedly assessed sanctions and attorneys fees against Mr. Berry, so that by the time he declared bankruptcy in 1999, they totaled more than $100,000.
The Court declared Mr. Berry to be a vexatious litigant on August 20, 1999.
In May of 2002, Mr. Berry was suspended from the practice of law by the California Bar for his continued pattern of misconduct, including the filing of harassing and frivolous litigation and the misuse of client funds. In an attempt to escape responsibility for his offences, Mr. Berry unsuccessfully used his substance abuse problems and mental health issues as excuses for his conduct.
Mr. Berry’s failed cases and their discredited supporting “evidence” are key source material for Mr. Wright. Mr. Wright prohibits his readers from thoroughly evaluating the public record. As a result, they are denied the chance to decide for themselves the honesty of the Berry witnesses cited in Going Clear and the credibility of their bizarre tales that Mr. Wright accepted at face value.
As with much of his book, Mr. Wright failed to properly vet for the reader his sources and the information he was providing. The courts agreed Mr. Berry and his cases lacked credibility to the point that they felt compelled to discipline him. Mr. Wright owed it to readers to write the full story, not conveniently leave out critical details that painted a biased, distorted picture of the Church.


Context: The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact. Dissenting in Terminiello v. City of Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949); this has sometimes been paraphrased as The Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact.
Att.-Gen. v. Warden, &c. of Louth School (1852), 14 Beav. 206.
Rally in defense of marriage, Boston, Massachusetts, May 14, 2004. http://www.renewamerica.us/archives/speeches/04_05_14boston.htm.


MSFT is trading at a premium to all four valuations above. The stock is trading at a 41.4% discount to its calculated fair value of $68.12. MSFT earned a Star in this section since it is trading at a fair value.
MSFT earned a Star in this section for its NPV MMA Diff. of the $14,663. This amount is in excess of the $2,300 target I look for in a stock that has increased dividends as long as MSFT has. If MSFT grows its dividend at 17.5% per year, it will take 2 years to equal a MMA yielding an estimated 20-year average rate of 3.31%. MSFT earned a check for the Key Metric 'Years to >MMA' since its 2 years is less than the 5 year target.
Memberships and Peers: MSFT is a member of the S&P 500 The company's peer group includes: Apple Inc. (AAPL) with a 2.3% yield, Oracle Corp. (ORCL) with a 1.2% yield and Google Inc. (GOOG) with a 0.0% yield.
Using my D4L-PreScreen.xls model, I determined the share price would need to increase to $79.02 before MSFT's NPV MMA Differential decreased to the $2,300 minimum that I look for in a stock with 12 years of consecutive dividend increases. At that price the stock would yield 1.4%.
Resetting the D4L-PreScreen.xls model and solving for the dividend growth rate needed to generate the target $2,300 NPV MMA Differential, the calculated rate is 11.4%. This dividend growth rate is lower than the 17.5% used in this analysis, thus providing a significant margin of safety. MSFT has a risk rating of 2.00 which classifies it as a Medium risk stock.
PC sales have been under pressure for a number of quarters and MSFT is dealing with a slow recovery in enterprise IT spending. However, MSFT announced some positive news in their quarterly earnings release. Windows OEM grew 4%, revenues for Surface increased 50% and the company sold 2 million xBoxes. In addition, Office for iPad was recently released. The company's shift to a mobile strategy and their persistence should eventually lead to long-term success.
With strong free cash flow and very low debt, MSFT in an enviably financial position. Not to be overlooked, the company ended fiscal 2013 with 9 times its dividend in cash and short-term investments sitting on its balance sheet. Since its most recent dividend increase, MSFT is a buy below its calculated fair value price of $68.12. As such, I will continue to add to my position in the stock as market conditions and my allocation allows.
Full Disclosure: At the time of this writing, I was long in MSFT (4.1% of my Dividend Growth Portfolio). See a list of all my dividend growth holdings here.


Is there a way to identify links connecting users to a given page/course?
We recently had to change the name of a course due to... a long story that is unnecessary for the purpose of this question. My question relates to tracking down anywhere in our college's account that a course has provided a link to this newly renamed course. Is there a tool or a method that can help me track down these links, so that I may correct them? I'd rather not scour through every course searching for this specific link if there is an easier method out there... Help?!
If you rename a course, the URL to it should still stay the same. Course urls are usually in the form of https://schoolname.instructure.com/courses/somenumber . Simply renaming the course would not change the URL.
Having said that, no I don't know of any way to scan every course in Canvas to see if any of them linked to this course. Within individual courses you can use the Link Validator to find broken links. If the old URL doesn't go to a course any more it would show up in the report of Broken Links; but you would need to do this individually on each course How do I validate links in a course?
Yeah, the linking is still fine. I just needed to find where it was linked from because we had created a button that I now need to change the way it looks. I was thinking that the answer was probably that there is no easy way to do this, so thanks for at least validating that there wasn't a way. I appreciate your time and your suggestion of using the broken links report as well.


Attacking an "erroneous and unlawful" decision, U.S. Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, R-5th District, came to the hometown of the Schaghticoke Indians Friday morning to announced she had introduced a bill to revoke the tribe's federal recognition.
While Johnson's "Schaghticoke Acknowledgement Repeal Act of 2005" has scant chance of winning congressional approval, it will stoke growing controversy over federal recognition and bolster efforts to overturn the Bureau of Indian Affairs' January 2004 decision recognizing the tribe.
"This decision was made by ignoring evidence, manipulating federal regulations and overturning precedent," said Johnson, who spoke to about 80 town residents at a press conference at the Kent town hall.
"The consequences of this decision, including a casino in western Connecticut, would be deep and irreversible," Johnson said. "Local taxpayers would face increased financial burdens, our infrastructure would be overwhelmed by the round-the-clock traffic, and huge areas would be subject to land claims."
The 300-member Schaghticokes, whose history dates from at least the early 1700s, have been seeking federal recognition since 1981. They hope to expand their 400-acre Kent reservation and eventually open a casino, possibly in Bridgeport.
Johnson's bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Christopher Shays, R-4th District, and Rob Simmons, R-2nd District. It is not connected to an appeal filed by the town of Kent and the state that also seeks to overturn the Schaghticokes' recognition. An Interior Department ruling on that could come as early as this summer.
Schaghticoke Tribal Nation Chief Richard Velky said his tribe has spent two decades following the government's rules and now Johnson wants to change them.
"Congresswoman Johnson threatens to use the power of Congress to change the rules just for us only because she does not like the outcome of the process," he said. "We don't have the power of Congress; we only have the power of truth."
"For the last 20 years we have been following the administrative process -- the same process Connecticut's attorney general called fair and open," Velky said. "We followed the letter and spirit of the rules and have amassed more than 30,000 pages to document our 300-year history."
Johnson said she was unsure whether her bill would receive a hearing, but she promised to use it to educate other members of Congress, including U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who heads the influential Senate Indian Affairs Committee, about the recognition controversy.
Her 21-page bill, which offers a version of how the BIA came to "erroneously" recognize the Schaghticokes, "reads like a novel," Johnson said.
Kent First Selectwoman Dolores Schiesel and town resident Ken Cooper also spoke at the press conference. Cooper is a co-founder of a local group called Town Action to Save Kent, which has been mobilizing opposition to the Schaghticokes.


How can you tell when a home is out of level? There are some regulators that say that you have to be within an inch all over the home and there are others that say that if everything is working, doors, windows, etc., then it's level enough. There should be a way to absolutely say when the home is too bent on the frame or in the roof. How about when the tail ends of the main beam are hanging above the supports at the rear of the home because of the camber? How much is too much there?
These and many other questions have been coming up over the last 30+ years for me and I guess I thought no one really knew. I certainly never asked anyone who gave me an answer other than "well, when I look at a problem like that, this is what I do" and then they proceed to tell me what they believe to be the facts. Guess what, all this is written down and has been available to everyone for over twenty years. It is somewhat embarrassing for me to tell you where I found this wealth of information. It has been right under my nose and I never thought of looking there. All about this question and thousands more besides are found in a government document called Part 3280; you might know it better as the HUD Code. This is so typical, where is the last place you always look for help when you can't figure something out and all the stuff you have been dreaming up doesn't seem to work? Well it's the instructions of course! Somehow I've got to get it into my head that getting caught with instructions in your hand doesn't prove to the world that you are too dumb to figure this out by yourself. There is always room for improvement I guess.
Back to the question of level! According to Part 3280, subsection 3280.305 (d) it clearly states the formula for allowable deflection (bending) of girders (main beams) is L/180. "L" is defined by the clear span between supports or two times the length of a cantilever. So.. If you support your homes eight feet apart under the beams then "L" is eight feet in your case. A cantilever is a projection supported only on one end, like a diving board, or in our case, the distance between the beams and the sidewall of the home. What you do is divide that length (eight feet) by 180 and you get the maximum deflection allowed under the HUD Code. It is easier to do this in inches so let's use 96 inches instead of 8 feet. 96 divided by 180 ' .53 inches or a little over 2 inch.
The sidewalls can be measured the same way but they are not beams, they are floor, and the floor has a different standard L/240. If the floor extends out from the beams 48 inches then you must use the rule for cantilever and double the distance. This makes sense because if you cut a span between two supports in half you would have two cantilevers pointing at each other. It is assumed that each cantilever is half-way to the next imaginary support so you double its length to keep the deflection ratio equal. To get the number you take the 48 inches multiply times 2 (this gets you "L") and divide by 240. The answer is .4 inches or about 3/8 of an inch.
That's the way you prove you are right and it is in the federal code, and yes, I have called several different industry engineers about this and they all agree that this is correct but, they also all said there is more to it than that. And then I learned one more thing that I always knew but didn't realize it. The HUD Code is a performance code. What this means is that in addition to the "L over whatever thing" the home must also fit and function correctly.
For instance, if you were within the tolerances of the HUD Code but the doors did not work right then you would have to do whatever would be the corrective measures for them to close as they should. Another example would be if the frame camber was holding up the tail of the home a half inch above perfect level and everything inside fit and functioned correctly then you could just wedge it tight and leave it there.
One last example, if the home is perfectly dead level but the doors don't work and the marriage walls have a two inch gap between them you still are not done. In order to complete the assembly of the home so it complies with the HUD Code these problems will have to be addressed. The solution might be to actually take it out of level, but within the HUD tolerances for the floor and frame.
For all these years I have been referring to whether the home was level or not. What I should have been doing was asking if the home fit and function correctly. Level is important, but there is more to good installation than that. Whether or not the home meets the performance criteria for the HUD Code is the measure whether the home is correctly installed or not.


Why are social media stars rejecting the label?
It was once considered one of the most enviable labels on social media: the "influencer” was someone associated with status, popularity, and money, thanks to their large and engaged social media following.
But a raft of bad press has led to a revolt against the tag – and now some of the top names that depend on YouTube or Instagram for a living are distancing themselves from the influencer label.
“I try to avoid using the term [influencer] – it’s not how I describe what I do,” lifestyle blogger and podcaster Lily Pebbles tells BBC Three. Lily, 31, identifies instead as an ‘online content creator’ and has a combined reach of 1.27 million people across her social media platforms.
“When I think of an influencer, I think of someone on Instagram with a very large following based on their success elsewhere – for example, an ex-reality TV star – whose main goal is to be paid to sell things to their audience," she says.
The argument that 'content creators' like Lily are making is that there should be a different word for people who put thought and care into their creative and brand work on social media, and people who, in their opinion, use the platforms primarily to advance their celebrity and status, leveraging their large followings to secure marketing deals.
“I wouldn’t class us as influencers,” says Mark Hoyle - better known as LadBaby – whose funny parenting videos have earned him more than 3 million followers on Facebook, half a million fans on YouTube, and last year’s Christmas number one single, We Built This City...On Sausage Rolls. “I quite like the term 'creators'. I feel like we create uplifting content. We don’t necessarily say, ‘Buy this toothpaste'."
Mark was speaking on a panel at VidCon 2019 – a kind of unofficial YouTube Convention – which took place in London last weekend, where industry insiders agreed with him.
But there might be another reason social media stars are distancing themselves from the influencer tag - it has become increasingly toxic.
Influencers have been making headlines for the wrong reasons recently. 2017’s disastrous Fyre Festival has been held up by some as a moment of reckoning for the entire industry, with the event’s promotion relying heavily on influencers, who have since been criticised for their lack of accountability.
There have been numerous cases of influencers failing to declare sponsored content, bombarding hotels with requests for free stays, and hawking products to young audiences including diet pills, pharmaceuticals and tobacco. In addition, aspiring social media stars have reportedly faked sponsorship deals to appear more influential than they actually are.
Lucy Loveridge is the founder of a talent agency representing what its website calls “digital-first talent”. Speaking on the same panel as Mark Hoyle at VidCon, she criticised the way the term 'influencer' is being used in the media.
Polishing the tarnished reputation of the term 'influencer' could be tricky. New terms like “influencer fraud” have been invented to describe social media stars who have bought followers, comments, or likes, usually for the purpose of appearing more popular than they actually are in order to secure lucrative marketing deals.
Consumers seem to agree. A 2018 YouGov survey of 500 Instagram users saw 57% of responders say that they don’t trust influencers who post about products or services not relevant to their channel.
New guidance for influencers has been introduced by the Advertising Standards Agency and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the last six months.
As part of the CMA’s campaign, 16 famous personalities, including singer Rita Ora, Made in Chelsea cast member Louise Thompson and vlogger Jim Chapman, agreed to change how they post online to show more clearly the presence of paid partnerships or advertising campaigns.
Such initiatives are an attempt to encourage more transparency in an area clouded with consumer mistrust. But regulation is not a straightforward solution to the problems facing the digital content industry – in part because of the global nature of social media platforms.
“I’m based in Germany and I need to stick to the German regulations,” Verena Papik, the chief marketing officer of content creation platform TuneMoji told another panel at VidCon. “So what happens if I do a post in the US?
In the meantime, some of the people formerly described as influencers may continue to be the most vocal critics of the current system.
“[The distinction between influencer and content creator] is important to me because the word [influencer] devalues what we do," says Lily Pebbles. "I started blogging in 2010 and for years worked hard – while in full-time employment – on something everyone doubted was worth investing time in.
Be honest, how much do you edit YOUR selfies?


Fireworks flash over Sydney Harbor during New Year's Eve celebrations, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009. The annual fireworks extravaganza over the city's landmark harbor bridge and opera house are the centerpiece of Australia's celebrations, and generate some of the most striking images from a night of revelry across the globe.
Balloons fly over the downtown area of Sao Paulo, Brazil, after members of the city's Commerce Association released them to celebrate the end of the year, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009.
Revelers celebrate the 2010 New Year countdown event in Hong Kong Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009.
A man and a woman return to their village after the day's work on a bicycle as the sun sets marking the end of the year on the outskirts of Puri, India, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009.


I've got a room in the house that seems to have terrible signal reception from my home's wireless router.
I a wireless usb network card to connect to the router. There's no antenna, so I pretty much just move the USB cord (around 3 feet) around to get the best signal.
Is there any way to increase reception on a USB adapter that doesn't have an antenna?
I don't care if it looks stupid, like wrapping the thing in foil, or whatever. It's not like anybody's going to see it.
You can try making a directional antenna for it. Make a satellite dish shape out of some tin foil and put it behind the receiver pointing at your access point.
I don't know if you have thought about it, but you might be able to get longer antennas for your router itself. It all depends on your router.


This is just a small review I wrote after watching the film last night. Has anyone else seen this? If so, comments?
My second expedition into the world of Jean Renoir was not as good as the first, but it was still great. The Rules of the Game is a piece of scathing social satire, a sometimes hilarious but always controversial look at the rotten upper class of society.
According to Renoir himself, when he first screened this film, people were trying to tear out the seats to throw them at the screen. One man lit his newspaper on fire in an attempt to burn the theater down. It was his worst failure, and that's because his portrayal while exaggerated was largely correct. He hit a nerve.
The performances in this film were all picture perfect, though my favorite was Marcel Dalio as Robert. He was so in control of his emotions and appearance with others around, until his wonderfully hysterical breakdown. Julien Carette was certainly the most comical of the players, portraying recently hired former poacher Marceau. His pursuit of a certain maid was funny, and then became ridiculously funny as her husband discovers them.
Renoir himself plays Octave, hopelessly in love with Roberts wife, though unable to admit it to himself or anyone else. He is great, and I find it amazing that he was able to juggle directing and acting with such ease.
The films only fault lies in the slow beginning. I understand what Renoir was trying to accomplish. It moves slow and develops these complicated situations until it inevitably explodes in our faces, however I was starting to become a bit disinterested before the explosion took place. I think the build-up could have been heightened a bit, but it's a small complaint in the long run.
Renoir said that the first reason he made the film was to expose this rotten society for who they were. The second reason was because he wanted to make a film that was classical in feel and classical in score, getting away from the realism movement. He attained both goals. The direction was a very basic approach, much like the classic films before. There were very few difficult shots or camera tricks. Along with that, the film was accompanied by classical music, all very old in sound. I'm not a connoseur of classical music. I recognized some, but I don't know if the entire score was already composed or not.
Renoir had set the bar very high with Grand Illusion. With The Rules of the Game, he followed up on his own high standard of work and thus bumped the bar up higher. I rated it an 8 largely because of the long set-up to the conflict, though I'm fairly positive that with a second viewing my rating would go up and the boredom I felt for a short time would be eliminated.
I was shakey about this film going in, due mostly to the fact that I haven't really enjoyed some other social satires I've seen(The Ruling Class), but I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. It is a definite recommendation to anyone who has yet to see it.
It was for decades the regular runner-up to Kane in international critics' polls, now 3rd with Vertigo in between. Grand Illusion probably has wider appeal, as Rules of the Game is a more adventurous mix of farce, romance, melodrama, tragedy as well as satire. The rabbit hunt may be upsetting for some but perhaps makes a necessary point about unappealing Aristocratic values. Renoir was a lover of nature and the countryside (see also the lovely lyrical A Day in the Country). He certainly exposed weaknesses in the French social system at the time that angered the French but the war quickly confirmed.
The camerawork and choreography in the film are superb but in typically unobtrusive- whereas Kane, for instance, draws attention to its qualities and demands superlatives. Renoir was a modest international humanist, whom Welles, among others, considered the world's best director. He towered over a golden decade of French cinema as few directors have ever done.


The wedding rehearsal is an event before the wedding where each person included in the wedding party gets to mingle with the other guests that they do not really know yet. It is a practice for the wedding proper so that the event will be carried out smoothly. The wedding rehearsal is also followed by a small dinner where the guests can give their blessings to the couple. Planning a wedding rehearsal is not that hard.
Lock the date for the rehearsal. Reserve the date for the wedding rehearsal. Typically, wedding rehearsals are done a day before the wedding itself but you can also set it a few days before the wedding. Make sure that you invite the friends and relatives who are part of the wedding party and have them RSVP so that you will know who will not be able to attend.
Set a theme. Wedding rehearsals can also have themes. This is not necessary but it will help set the mood for the guests. The theme will also help you decorate for the wedding rehearsal dinner. Choose a theme that will put the guests in a festive mood.
Choose a location. Typically, wedding rehearsals are held in a church. However, if the church is not available, you can do the rehearsals elsewhere like a large hall or a big garden. You can do this anywhere as long as the space is big enough for everyone to move around.
Prepare the food. Hire a caterer who will be preparing the food for the rehearsal dinner. If you have picked a theme, have them prepare food that is suitable to the theme that you have. If the wedding party is small and you just have a few guests attending the rehearsal dinner, you can prepare the food by yourself. This will not only impress your guests but you will also be able to save some money.
Go through the ceremony. The main purpose of having a wedding rehearsal is so that the guests can be familiar with the flow of the wedding ceremony. Use the time wisely and make sure that everyone understands where he or she is supposed to be and where he or she should go during the wedding. Explain the instructions clearly so that everyone will understand the flow.
Rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal dinner is a chance for everyone to relax and have a good time before the wedding day. Open the floor to some guests who would like to say a few things about the bride and groom.
These are the steps that you can follow if you are planning a wedding rehearsal. This event does not have to be extravagant. The important thing is that you get through the wedding ceremony and that everyone can have a good time. After the dinner, remember to thank the guests for sharing their time with the bride and groom. You can also give small gifts as tokens of appreciation.


What's better than a good drink for a friday night party? A good drink that gives you a burst of energy while you're getting drunk. What's better than that? An energy cocktail that doesn't taste like cough syrup (AKA Red Bull). This drink combines the great taste of Thinkgeek's famous Energy Soda with alcohol and cotton candy to creat an absolutely scrumptious cocktail.
I initially made this drink as a double in a regular glass, but a martini glass looks prettier and you can drink it more quickly without the drink getting warm, which is preferrable.
You can buy the can if you'd like, and its good for making this drink in large quantities, otherwise the bottle is preferable because it is resealable if you do it right. Bawls can be purchased at Thinkgeek.com or it is available at Super Targets and various gas stations like Speedway, some 7-11's, and Sheetz, to name a few. I would not reccomend making this drink with anything but the original or sugar free flavors. The Bawls needs to be cold since there is no ice in this drink.
Vodka can be added to taste. If you like a stronger drink two shots still tastes good, but more than that and the delicate flavor of the drink is lost. I would recommend a smoother vodka for this. I've made it with top-shelf, mid, and bottom, and at the bottom it was rough. Again, since this drink is not served on the rocks I would recommend chilling the vodka, maybe even freezing it.
Again, you can alter this to taste. When I made a double for a friend in a 20 oz. cup I filled the entire cup with cotton candy, and I was told that it was great. The flavor is also optional, but I think it tastes best with plain cotton candy instead of fruit flavors.
Place the cotton candy directly into the glass that you are using. Do not tamp it down or it will not dissolve fully.
In a shaker combine one shot of vodka and eight ounces of Bawls, or for a stronger drink two shots of vodka and six ounces of Bawls. Shake gently because of the carbonation.
Lastly pour the drink directly on top of the cotton candy and watch it dissolve into a delicious drink. The color will vary based on your choice in cotton candy, anywhere from clear to pink, blue, or purple. The fizz of the soda is very diluted at this point, but the taste is great. Get ready for a long night of partying with this energizing cocktail!
Any Canadians in the house? Can we get Bawls anywhere locally?
There is a 7-11 here that always carries it.
Thanks :) Which 7-11 did you spot it in? I'll look around for it when I get the chance.
In the Fraser Valley in BC.
yeah, I've seen it in a few convenience stores, and macs sometimes carries it.
Will go into a Macs soon, thanks for the reply!
o'charleys restaurants do some kind of cotton candy topped cocktail... i've never had it because the drink is like twelve bucks... after seeing this recipe i realize it can be made for ... one dollar for cotton candy at a dollar store, a three dollar energy drink that will last for several of these drinks and 8 dollars for a pint of vodka (unless you want top self liquor that would be more like 12 bucks) .... i'm definitely going to try this drink now that i dont feel like i would be breaking the bank!!! TY whoever came up with it and posted it!!!
I've never had too bad a hangover from it, but if you are susceptible to hangovers, using the sugar free bawls should help make it not so bad.
indeed. In high school, I think my friends and I made just about every bawls joke imaginable at every lan party. Even when it wasn't really all that funny anymore, it had practically become tradition and was an integral part of proper LAN enjoyment.
Pardon, but Bawls is not "owned" by Think Geek. Think Geek is a bawls selling company... however so is 7-11.
I never said that thinkgeek owned Bawls, I listed it among other places as an option to buy it. In fact I've only bought it from them once because its so heavy that shipping can get hefty. I did say that it was 'Thinkgeek's famous energy soda' because Thinkgeek is rather famous for having Bawls (insert immature giggles ;-) ) But I didn't mean to make it sound like they owned it. I'm sorry if I gave off that impression. Bawls is their own company, you're right.


Why Doesn't TRS Update The Final Average Salary Monthly?
As many of you are aware the Teachers' Retirement System has had a major facelift to its online access system. While some of the changes can be considered improvements, some of the other changes are not. For example, the monthly unit increments for the TRS fixed rate return is missing under the new system that was readily available on the older system. However, the most important omission in the new TRS system is the lack of an updated Final Average Salary (FAS) that was also available in the older system.
Since the new TRS system has been online the FAS listed is almost two years old. Moreover, it does not include per session activities or 683 money for District 75 summer programs. Finally, it is simply calculated on base salary with no adjustments. I would think the so-called upgraded TRS system would have monthly updates of the member's FAS. Instead they rely on the members to use their online calculator to estimate their pension which requires the member to make an educated guess of what his or her FAS is.
I have found the upgraded TRS online system to be disappointing and they should correct the issues I identified. At this point the new TRS online system is a work in progress.
A petition to get the UFT to negotiate with the City on maternity leave was presented at the Executive Board meeting on Monday and the union leadership,while synthetic to the needs of the younger teachers, stated that the City has not been willing to offer a reasonable deal.
Evidence that the union was actually telling the truth is that the City has already imposed a maternity leave program on their mangers and the managers are very unhappy at the cost of this provision. The City imposed maternity leave program cost the managers their 2017 raise of 0.47% and for senior managers they had to fork over two vacations days in exchange for the maternity leave.
Interestingly, the IBO did an analysis of the City's maternity leave cost on the managers and found that the City saved $5.8 million dollars the first year. The reason was that the average age of the 8,279 managers under the program is 47 years of age and few (230 or 2.7%) were able to take advantage of the maternity leave program. The IBO stated that only a few younger managers were able to take advantage of the program while all mangers were penalized by loss of raises and the senior managers with 15 or more years of experience and averaged 55 years of age lost two vacation days for a program that they probably cannot use.
When it comes to the unionized workforce, they are younger than the managers and replacing a person who takes maternity leave usually means paying overtime, rather than straight time/ Therefore, the City's terms would cost the unions too high a price for that "giveback" and so far no union has come to an agreement with the City. Until and unless the City decides that maternity leave should become a right and not a negotiated item in a contract, the prognosis for a maternity leave benefit remains bleak.
For those teachers, who were on maternity leave or other unpaid status,in October of 2015, they will finally get their first lump sum payout. However, this year's lump sum payout will not be paid until October of 2018 for teachers who were on unpaid leave back in October of 2015. Therefore, each lump sum payment will be delayed one year and those teachers will not be whole until October of 2021 instead of 2020.You can thank the union leadership for screwing those teachers on unpaid leave, be it maternity leave or other unpaid leave.
Maybe the union can correct the many wrongs of the 2014 contract in a new contract and one place to start is to negotiate with the City to allow UFT members who were on unpaid leave status, such as maternity leave to be made whole again by giving them the lump sum payments at the time all other active members get theirs.
In my last post I listed the "dirty dozen" high schools in Queens that had the highest student vacancies after the first round of high school selection in 2017 and prominently on that list were the Renewal Schools. In fact, the top two schools were Renewal Schools. They were Long Island City High School with 570 student vacancies and John Adams with 500 student vacancies. In the top five was another two Renewal Schools, Flushing (230 vacancies) and August Martin (200 vacancies) High Schools. The large amount of student vacancies at the Renewal Schools demonstrates that fewer and fewer students are applying for these academically struggling schools with an inexperienced teaching staff.
To show that the Renewal high schools have failed to attract students to their building I used the last three years of data (2015-17) of the student vacancies associated with the second round of high school choice associated with these struggling high schools.
Interestingly, most of the Renewal high schools have seen their, already high student vacancy rate increase over the last three years. Long Island City, Flushing, John Adams, Pan American, and Richmond Hill shows an overall increase in student vacancies between 2015 and 2017. Both August Martin and Martin Van Buren were downsized in the last two years and that accounts for their reduction in student vacancies since they are now a much smaller school in 2017 than they were in 2015.
It appears as the poor reputation of the Renewal High Schools has spread throughout the Borough of Queens, more parents and students are excluding these schools from their high school choice list and this forces the schools to either excess teachers or take the "over-the-counter-students" who are usually "high needs" with academic, behavior, or language issues. The very type of student that the struggling Renewal schools that made them what they are today.
Chancellor Carmen Farina may claim that she sees the light at the end of the tunnel for the turnaround of the Renewal high schools but the light really is the oncoming locomotive about to destroy the Renewal School program as the schools continue to shed students and teachers.
One of the most informative data that tells a parent and child which schools to select and which one to avoid is the amount of vacancies a school has Schools with vacancies are a warning sign that the school is not academically appropriate for an academically proficient child. While many Queens high schools still had vacancies after the first round, the largest amount of vacancies were reported at the Renewal High Schools and the schools located in Southeast Queens. The list below are the "dirty dozen" of schools that had the largest amount of vacancies and should be avoided at all costs.
For all high schools in New York City ou can find the complete list for 2017 Here. Also the previous lists for 2016 and 2015 can be found Here and Here.
To help you with your school selection search please read my posts about Queens high schools to avoid in 2016 and 2015 Here and Here.
The DOE Double Standard Continues Under Carmen Farina.
In today's New York Post there is an article by Susan Edelman on ex-Principal Marc Williams who resigned when investigated for a grade fixing scandal at the Secondary School of Journalism in Brooklyn. After Mr. Williams resigned as Principal , the DOE gave him a new position as a "case manager" in their Human Resources division at a salary of $127,443.
Unbelievable but true, despite a new Mayor and Chancellor, its still business as usual at the DOE as they continue to practice their "double standard" when it comes to disciplining principals. If Mr. Williams was a teacher, he would be subject to 3020-a termination charges and if he resigned, the DOE would place on his file "a do not hire" flag. However, Mr. Williams was a Principal and was given a new position at a salary that is higher than the top rated senior teacher.
When will the "double standard" when it comes to disciplining principals end? I'm certainly not holding my breath waiting for that day as long as the Bloomberg/Klein ideology continues to permeate the halls of Tweed as Chancellor Carmen Farina retained 80% of the Bloomberg policymakers rather than "clean house" like she needed to do..
Chasing Yield - Why The TRS Fixed Income Fund Is Unbeatable.
We have been in a low interest rate environment since 1990 and the average inflation rate since 1990 is only 2.51% (Historically, since 1914, the average inflation rate is 3.34%). Just ask your parents and grandparents how painful it is for them as they only get between 1% to 1.5% on a multi-year CD. Money Market and short-term Bond funds are no better, paying a meager 1% and 1.2% on an annual basis. What does the risk adverse do to gain extra yield without taking a risk on the violable equity market?
For some people, they chase yield by buying international debt. The problem is that the stable western countries like Europe, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Canada pay yields of between 0.5% and 1.5%, not a good substitute to U.S. based instruments. That means that investors who want more yields have to stick their toes into the Emerging Market debt market. There you can find yields of between 4% and 26% and most funds average about 6%. The problem is that the higher the yield, the more unstable the country is and a greater chance of default.
For example, Venezuela bonds gives the investor 26% yield but has had trouble paying the interest and most experts expect them to default. If that happens, most Emerging Market debt funds will drop significantly as the country's bonds make up 4% of the market. Moreover the 26% yield is almost 25% of the total yield of the Emerging Market debt funds. Therefore, the funds total yield of around 6% would drop to 4.5%!
Listed below are some of the bond yields for Emerging Market debt countries included in Mutual Funds and ETFs.s.
The four countries in boldface are known as the BRIC countries and averages a yield of 6.9% and can make up the major portion of some of the Emerging Market debt funds. Most funds do not have Iranian bonds due to U.S. sanctions.
As one can see the more politically unstable the country is, the higher the yield as there is real risk of the country defaulting. In fact, its not uncommon for the Emerging Market debt funds to drop significantly as one or more countries fail to pay their debt and default. Furthermore, the fees range from almost 1% to 2% annually.
By contrast our TRS fixed income fund gives up a guaranteed 7% interest with no risk and no fees. For non-UFT members its 8.25%. Now that the TRS is eliminating their Bond fund, a real dog, please transfer the money into the fixed income fund rather than the balanced fund that offers no real advantage in a low interest rate environment and contains risk that defeats the purpose of the risk adverse investor..
Veteran Teachers Beware, Administrators Are Using Charlotte Danielson As A Weapon To Terminate You.
It appears to me that school administrators have been told that they must stay within the recession era budgets that the DOE has imposed on its public schools. Most schools are only receiving 90% of their fair funding and principals are trying various cost saving strategies to stretch their budget. One of the favorite tactics, especially with the Leadership Academy principals, are to target veteran teachers and either force them to retire or charge them with incompetence or misconduct in their 3020-a hearing.
The weapon of choice is Charlotte Dainelson that allows school administrators to unfairly evaluate teachers based upon 8 components that can be easily manipulated to make the teacher look "ineffective". A case in point is the saga of teacher, I'll call him Mr, Q, who was terminated, despite the fact he only had one "ineffective " rating.
Mr. Q was a veteran teacher who worked at a transfer school in Brooklyn. People familiar with transfer high schools know that it's for over aged students (16 to 21 year old) who have been removed from their previous school(s). Many of these students just want a minimum passing grade of 65%, while during little or no work. Passing a Regents is not their priority. Therefore, transfer high schools do poorly, compared to their State peers, who don't have these transfer schools. The result is that even the best teachers can only expected a "developing" rating in their MOSL.
Back to Mr. Q, he received a "developing" rating in 2013-14 school year and an "ineffective" rating the following year. Despite the union's claim that it takes two consecutive "ineffective" ratings to be charged under 3020-a, the truth is otherwise. In the last year I know of two other veteran teachers who were charged under section 3020-a with only one "ineffective" rating. Mr. Q's 3020-a arbitrator terminated Mr. Q in part, because he failed to differentiate his lesson to the individual needs of the student. Moreover, the arbitrator claimed Mr.Q failed to take advantage of the extensive professional development opportunities he was afforded..
Charlotte Dainelson is not a simple evaluation tool but a weapon to destroy the careers of veteran teachers and that's how I see it.
The DOE's Education On The Cheap Policy Academically Shortchanges The Students.
Over the years and certainly since the recession of 2008 the New York City Department Of Education (DOE) has shortchanged the schools with reduced budgets and lack of resources. Worse, the DOE reuses to fund the schools based on their own Fair Student Funding, with most schools receiving only 90% of what they are allocated for. The result is that New York City's Public School students suffer academically due to the DOE's education on the cheap policy.
In my travels from school to school as an ATR I have noticed the many cost saving strategies school principals use to conserve resources.
First, the fair student funding formula incentivizes principals to :hire the cheapest and not the best teachers" for their school. With "newbie teachers" who must learn classroom management skills, develop curriculum knowledge and master the Art and Science of teaching, students are simply guinea pigs to these teacher's steep learning curve and suffer academically.
Second, many of the Bloomberg small schools have a limited selection of courses and teachers. Electives are few and extracurricular activities are limited or non-existent Quite a few students complain about the lack of electives. Many schools only have one teacher teaching a subject and if a problem develops between a student and either a teacher or another student in the class, there is no option to put him or her into another class of the same subject.
Third, most schools no longer give Music as a course because of the cost of instruments and their upkeep. The ATR pool is full of excessed Music teachers as the tight budgets makes Music a prime candidate to be eliminated from the school course selection, especially in the small schools. The same goes for Health teachers as schools rather use a Physical Education teacher to teach Health than hire a certified Health teacher.
Fourth, most schools have reduced Science to a 4 to 1 program rather than the recommended 5 to 1 program for Regents level Science. The elimination of the extra day allows schools to reduce their Science teaching staff. However, the result has been a lowering of Regents passing rates and scores. While it saves the schools money it hurts student academic achievement. Only the DOE in New York State allows schools to use uncertified teachers for Regents Earth Science is just another example of putting budget first over the academic needs of the students.
Finally, the DOE encouraged discrimination against veteran teachers has resulted in many highly experienced teachers tobe targeted and retire early which are then replaced by untested inexperienced teachers who usually leave their first hiring school within five years (about 80% according to a Chicago study) and leave the system.system entirely (50%).
The DOE's education on the cheap policy continues as real student academic achievement is a poor second to budget shenanigans by school principals and encouraged by the DOE. This allows the DOE to keep throwing money at their bloated Central Bureaucracy as the schools starve for resources and with tight budgets that do an injustice to their students.
Lately, the news media has been on a crusade about "bad teachers", especially the ATRs. Be it Charkbeat, Daily News, Post,Times, or the Wall Street Journal, the one-sided articles blasting teachers appears all the rage. All of a sudden the old Klein era Tweedies have articles that blast teachers. Be it the insufferable Eric Nadeelstern, The lying Daniel Weisberg, or the sleazy Marc Sternberg. Let's not forget about clueless patents like Nicole Thomas also.
Maybe if it was just confined to the education deformer groups and brainwashed parents, I could accept it. However, Our own Chancellor, Carmen Farina, tells new teachers to stay away from the teacher lounge and don't listen to those veteran teachers and she admits she visits schools to ferret out bad teachers and pushes principals to start a paper trail to terminate them. Even Governor Andrew Cuomo revamped the teacher evaluation system so that more teachers can be rated "ineffective" and the burden of proof was shifted to the teacher at their 3020-a hearing.
Instead of appreciating their veteran teachers, the education deformers, and their media and political allies rather continue the narrative of the bad teacher when the truth is the continued demonizing of teachers and their profession will simply hasten the day when we experience a teacher shortage as few college students will choose education, due to low morale, high teacher turnover, inferior pay, and lack of respect. The result is a lower student academic achievement and a continue3d achievement gap between different cohorts.
The ATR Incentive Failed To Achieve Its Goal To Drastically Reduce The ATR Pool.
Moreover, on any given year approximately 60 to 70 ATRs retire or resign, either due to age, years of service, or under 3020-a charges. If we were to exclude those ATRs who were leaving anyway then the ATR incentive only encouraged 70 ATRs to take the incentive, who may have otherwise stayed. That is only 5% of the ATR pool.
Finally, because of the union negotiated contract that allows the DOE not to pay the teacher his or her lump sum payments if the 3020-a arbitrator finds the educator guilty of termination, also encouraged some teachers to take the incentive, rather than risk losing up to $50,000 dollars of the money still owed to them.
While our union leadership will continue to claim a victory, when it came to the ATR incentive. The fact is the ATR incentive was a failure since only between 5% and 10% of the educators in the ATR pool actually took it. Maybe the next ATR incentive will be a year's salary and then you might see many in the ATR pool take the bait and take the money and run.
When Will The Union Sue The DOE On Their Scarlet Letter?
Back when Dennis Walcott became Chancellor, he decided that all teachers who had a substantiated OSI or SCI investigation, would have a discipline flag attached to their file. This flag alerted principals not to hire these teachers. It didn't matter that many of these teachers chose to go through their 3020-a hearings and the independent State arbitrator found them innocent of the DOE charges that were based upon the OSI or SCI report. For example if OSI substantiated a corporal punishment charge and the arbitrator found no corporal punishment or if SCI substantiated sexual misconduct,but the arbitrator finds no sexual misconduct. Why does the DOE act as if the teacher is still guilty of the charges that were dismissed by the arbitrator?
Both corporal punishment and sexual misconduct are termination offenses and arbitrators are automatically required to terminate the teacher. However, charging a teacher with these serious offenses is not the same as be guilty of the charges. The arbitrator must hear all the relevant evidence and any hearsay must be supported. Teachers who are accused of these serious charges and are tenured can ask for an independent arbitrator to hear all the relevant evidence and make their decision based upon the preponderance of the relevant evidence.
Here are two examples of the DOE charging teachers with serious charges only to find the charges didn't stick once the evidence was presented and scrutinized..
Example 1: A Social Studies teacher was accused of slamming his door on the hand of a student that broke the window in the door. The student had a bloody hand and went to the school nurse. The Principal reported it and OSI interviewed the student and, as it turned out a couple of his friends, as well as the school nurse. The teacher was charged with corporal punishment and the case went to the arbitrator. In the 3020-a hearing it came out that some other students in the teacher's class also saw the incident and told the teacher's attorney that the teacher didn't slam the door on the student's hand but after the heated exchange between the teacher and the student, as the teacher closed the door, the student took his fist and slammed the door window, which caused the bloody hand. Interestingly, there was a hallway camera which showed a blurry picture of the incident but tended to support what the teacher had claimed. The arbitrator dismissed the corporal punishment charge but gave the teacher a small fine for not deescalating the altercation. Yet the teacher has a flag on his file for an accusation that wasn't true.
Example 2: A Science teacher was accessed of sexual misconduct by allegedly propositioning a student by showing too much interest in getting her to pass the class, It turned out that the student was having personal problems and that day was a :bad day" Therefore, the student told the Principal that the teacher propositioned her, SCI spoke to the student and also found from other students that the teacher was paying her more attention then most of the students. The result was that SCI substantiated the charge. During the 3020-a hearing the student reluctantly came in and admitted that the teacher did not proposition her but didn't like the intrusive manner of the teacher. That teacher was found innocent of the sexual misconduct charge but also received a small fine for making the student uncomfortable. This teacher also has a flag on their file.
A pro-active union would never allow the administration to continue to punish teachers for charges that they were found innocent of Yet our disconnected union leadership not only failed to file a lawsuit against the DOE's unfair policy that assumes teachers are guilty, even when the arbitrator found otherwise. but agreed to contract language that made hundreds of teachers ineligible to fill vacancies permanently. The union leadership should be ashamed of themselves for sacrificing their members to curry favor with Tweed. It's unconscionable that our union allows innocent teachers to be punished year after year with the Scarlet Letter.
For Newbie Teachers Its Sink Or Swim With No Lifeguard To Save Them.
The DOE has empowered principals to hire who they please and even with the elimination of the useless and money sucking Children First Networks, Superintendents have so far failed to oversee school hiring to ensure that all students have a certified teacher in each subject area. The DOE policies like Fair Student Funding, tight school budgets, and the use of Danielson as a weapon against veteran teachers have resulted in many schools hiring "the cheapest and not the best teachers" for their schools. The result is a lack ofr veteran mentors for this inexperienced staff..
In many schools, the teaching staff is composed of young and inexperienced teachers and there are few veteran teachers to mentor or guide these inexperienced teachers on the skills necessary to survive in the New York City classroom. When I started teaching, I was mentored by a senior Science teacher and in my first couple of years, as I struggled and ready to quit, many veteran teachers dropped in to provide advice and support. The teacher room was a godsend as I could ask the veteran teachers questions and get answers on classroom management skills, pedagogy, and tap their extensive knowledge of the different teaching techniques that worked for them and of course, the ones that did not. Having a veteran staff was invaluable to a "newbie" like me and helped me become a better teacher and stay in the profession.
By contrast, the lack of veteran teachers in the schools means that new teachers are thrown into the New York City classroom and told its "sink or swim". Well, without veteran teachers mentoring the "newbies" ,many sink. Meaning they leave the NYC classroom and maybe even the teaching profession.
While novice doctors and lawyers are mentored by a senior colleague and don't operate or appear in court without first, assisting the veteran for a year or more so as to gain the necessary experience and confidence to eventually learn their craft Nobody in their right mind would want a "newbie" doctor to operate on them or a "newbie" lawyer to defend them in court. Yet, in NYC far too many "newbie" teachers are thrown into the classroom without the proper tools and subject to a steep learning curve that makes guinea pigs out of our children. No wonder we have a low "college and career readiness" rate.
The bottom line, the NYC school system has too many inexperienced teachers and with fewer and fewer veteran teachers to mentor them. Therefore,too many of them sink and take student academic achievement with them because the lifeguard, in the form of the veteran teacher is no longer on duty to save them.
A Utah High School Fines Students Who Show Up Late For Class.
Most schools I have been in the last decade have a similar problem. Students taking their ever loving time to show up for class. Even in the small schools, students can't seem to move quickly enough from one classroom to the next to make it on time to the classroom, despite being given 3 to 5 minutes to do so.
Well one Utah high school has decided to do something about it. Students that show up late to class during the school day are fined. The first offense is a warning. The second offense cost the student $3 and every following lateness cost the student $5. Students that cannot afford the fines will be given lunch detention and clean-up duties. Interestingly, during the first two weeks of the school's lateness policy saw students getting to class on time and the hallways were empty as the late bell rang. So far not one student has been fined and only a few warnings have been issued, You can read the story Here.
Obviously parents and students were not too happy with the school's lateness policy and believe its too draconian. However, school staff and administration are supportive of the lateness policy and the potential monetary penalty has, so far, curbed student lateness and added more instruction time to the classroom. It will be interesting if the policy lasts the year and how it affects student academic achievement.
Why NYC High School Students Have Terrible College And Career Readiness Rates.
There is no secret that the ever rising high school graduation rate does not result in increasing the college and career readiness rates that see 78% of high school graduates forced to take remedial courses in college. The graduation rate increases every year and is now 72%. However, the career and college readiness rates are stuck at 36% and if you excluded the screened and specialized high schools, its in the 20% range. Here are some extreme examples.
80% of a student's academic growth can be attributed to the social-economic factors. They are the child's family, community, and income. Poor urban school districts and New York City are no exception, suffer from academic differences and struggle in college and a career as an adult.
New York City has the largest class sizes in the State and the DOE uses class size reduction funds to fund their own pet projects. Class sizes have increased since 2008 and the DOE only funds the schools at 90% of their fair funding. By contrast the DOE budget increases every year from 23.2 billion in 2014 to 29.2 billion dollars this school year. A 22% increase!
The DOE has installed policies that incentivizes principals to hire "the cheapest and not the best" teachers for their school. The result is the schools hire "newbie" teachers who have a steep learning curve and 80% leave their first school by year three. Not good for a stable educational environment. This DOE policy is known as "fair student funding" that's school-based and not fair whatsoever.. The use of Danielson as an evaluation toll and is used as a weapon against teachers pushes far too many teachers out of the City school system to pursue better opportunities in the suburbs and more respect in office work.
The DOE allows high schools to manipulate the system by reducing Science from six days to five and physical education to three days from five. Moreover, "credit recovery", grade changing, and scholarship requirements on teachers is really academic fraud.
Outside New York City most principals were long-term educators. However, in the New York City schools over 20% of the Principals are from the Leadership Academy and many have little or no classroom experience as a teacher. Finally, the Chancellor has discontinued the program but the damage has been done as many schools suffer from poor leadership, vindictive actions, especially against outspoken veteran teachers, and questionable academic policies.
The bottom line is until all the above issues are resolved, real student academic achievement is simply an illusion.


President Trump has used economic metrics and corporate job announcements to paint his presidency as an instant success. But while this president is far from the first to make these claims, he does not deserve credit for the current state of the economy. In fact, the overall ability of the presidency to impact the economy is overstated.
Figure: The unemployment over the past two years, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With the inauguration of President Trump, the rate has continued to slowly decrease.
At 5:41 AM on March 10, President Trump retweeted what would become his administration's go-to talking point for the day: "GREAT AGAIN: +235,000." With that, Trump continued the tradition of politicizing regularly-reported economic data. Today's metric? The number of jobs added in February, the first full month of Trump's presidency, which resulted in a 0.1 percent dip in the unemployment rate to 4.7 percent. On the surface, having less unemployment seems ideal. But does this have anything to do with Trump? And does this even relate to the strength of the economy? Not everyone seems to think so. Among the critics of the unemployment rate, at one point at least, was President Trump, who questioned both the accuracy and the usefulness of the metric on the campaign trail.
"I talked to the president prior to this, and he said to quote him very clearly, 'They may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now.'" That is the response Sean Spicer gave to a question about Trump's pre-presidency criticism of economic and employment statistics. "Don't believe those phony numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5 percent unemployment," Trump once said. "The number's probably 28, 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent." Now, there are multiple interpretations of this comment. One, that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is lying to the American people to the political benefit of Democrats. But another interpretation has some merit: that the unemployment rate is not a good reflection of how many people are not working, or of the economy in general.
This comes as a result of the narrow definition of the unemployment rate. While the formula seems simple - the number of people unemployed divided by the number of people in the labor force - it gets more complicated when considering what it means to be unemployed. As the BLS defines it, people are unemployed if they meet two conditions: that they are without a job, and most crucially, that they have looked for a job in the past four weeks. If more people looking for a job find one, the rate decreases. But, if more people who are looking give up(which reflects a weak economy), the rate will also decrease. As an alternative to the unemployment rate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps track of broader metrics. The U-4 rate, for example, includes discouraged workers (people who would take a job but cite the job market as the reason for no longer searching for one), while the U-6 rate includes those who are working part time but would like to work full time. Not included here is a more complete measure for underemployment, which in general refers to people working below their full capacity or education level. For example, graduate students working at McDonald's because their fields are not hiring do not register as a negative in any of the BLS' metrics. Politicians occasionally point to the labor force participation rate - the percentage of adults in the labor force - as a better metric, since it registers discouraged workers, underemployed workers, and the like. But, it has its own flaws. What if more high school graduates go to college? The rate declines. What if every single adult in America becomes unemployed? The rate is 100%.
Candidate Trump might have had some justification in dismissing the President's recent claims of success. So too does The New York Times, which noted that nearly a quarter of new jobs came from construction, likely the result of a warmer-than-expected February. But the White House seems to have other proof. It has highly publicized job announcements from American companies, crediting their actions to the President. For example, after meeting with the owner of Sprint, Masayoshi Son, Trump boasted on Twitter about 50,000 new jobs that Son promised, and added, "Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!" Except, he would have. Like many of these "new" job announcements, this one was recycled, already announced before the election by Sprint's parent company.
Besides job announcements, Trump has made frequent mention of the bullish stock market. And this time, Trump can indeed take some credit. Politifact rates Trump's claim of a link between record index highs and his presidency as "Mostly True," crediting Trump's promises of fewer regulations and lower taxes (alongside, however, the strength of the economy inherited from President Obama). But while Trump can use his executive power to scale back regulations, changes to the tax code will require Congressional approval. And given the current state of health care legislation and the discord just within the Republican caucus, getting a tax bill past a Democratic filibuster in the Senate seems far less than assured. So while Trump's stance on regulation may result in a lasting contribution to the market, it may be too early to say that the current state of the market is proof that the economy is better under Trump. And that, of course, assumes a bullish stock market actually reflects a strong economy - something Candidate Trump (among others) attributed to a bubble rather than underlying economic strength.
But the bigger question still exists: how much does the president even influence the economy in the first place? While Americans usually put economic concerns above all else when they go to the ballot box, the evidence that the president controls the economy is weak, as The Atlantic argues in the aptly titled article, "The President of the United States Does Not Control the Economy." While the president can quickly hurt the economy (by nixing trade deals, for example, or causing other shocks), and make a large impact in the event of an economic crisis, actions to improve growth tend to bear fruit gradually. So even though Bill Clinton, for example, is credited with a strong economy, the short term effect of policies such as NAFTA pale in comparison to the effects of baby boomers reaching their peak earning years, or of the Internet boom that coincided with Clinton's presidency. Clinton's signature trade deal has contributed modest growth and diffuse gains to the economy. On the other hand, demographic changes let Clinton enjoy the United State's highest ever labor force participation rate, while technological innovation Clinton played no role in spurring led to the creation of new industries and thousands of jobs.
So, how much of a relationship is there between Trump's evidence, and either his or the economy's performance? As I explained, metrics such as the unemployment rate are far from perfect, but do track economic performance well enough to earn the attention they are given. But the paltry change under Trump, together with old job announcements and a speculative market, tells us little of Trump's upside for the economy. If there in fact is, it won't be felt for years. Odds are, any positive economic performance we see won't be due to him, but because of outside forces and the presidents who came before.