text:
ESFA to procure new traineeship providers
Following the publication of the government's Plan for Jobs which included a £111 million investment to triple the number of traineeships available, the ESFA are planning a procurement opportunity so providers can access funding to deliver 19 to 24 adult education budget (AEB) funded traineeships.
New DWP Commissioning Strategy announced
The government has published its intentions for a 10-year programme of change to see one million more disabled people in work by 2027. The DWP commissioning strategy sets out, through a series of high-level principles, how it will work with providers and partners to deliver high-performing welfare to work services which maximise outcomes for claimants and value for the taxpayer.
Mark Kilsby
It is with great sadness that we heard that Mark Kilsby passed away this morning. We send our love and hugs to his partner, Julie Allan, who was with him when he died peacefully in a hospice in Cardiff. Mark had been ill for a few weeks and had spent some time in hospital.
CAEHRS supply chain opportunities
Many organisations are seeking to get approved on DWP's Commercial Agreement for Employment and Health-Related Services (CAEHRS) and are seeking expressions of interest from potential supply chain partners. There are too many to list but they often advertise for partners through the Carley Consult website.
Guidance on continued funding for Internships job coaches
We have received confirmation that DWP will continue to fund job coaches supporting interns on Supported Internships study programmes in England, Scotland and Wales. The situation will be reviewed in January 2021. We welcome this sensible decision which will ensure that job coaches will be able to be retained for when placements restart.
Social Enterprise Support Fund
Big Issue Invest has come together with other organisations including The Key Fund, Resonance, the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) and UnLtd to deliver £18.7 million in grants, with support from CAF Venturesome, the Young Foundation and Ashoka.
The Social Enterprise Support Fund launched today and is now open for applications until Monday, 20th July. The fund will provide essential financial support between £10,000 and £300,000 to help social enterprises during Covid-19.
Chancellor announces measures to boost economy
The Chancellor has announced a number of measures to help boost the economy. These include employer incentives to take support traineeships and apprenticeships. Employers will receive £2,000 for taking on an apprentice and £1,000 for taking on a person on a traineeship. BASE has written to the Department for Education to ask whether similar incentives will apply to Supported Internships.
BASE members win Natspec Awards
Leading post-16 providers that teach students with special educational needs and disabilities have been recognised for excellence in the sector at the inaugural awards of specialist further education organisation Natspec.
The pathways to employment award went to BASE member and Yorkshire provider Camphill Wakefield, for having an "aspirational" pathway into employment embedded into the curriculum, which included vocational profiling, job-matching, in-work support and careers guidance. Former principal of specialist provider Foxes Academy, Tracey Clare-Grey, who judged this category, awarded it to Camphill because "expectations of employment are embedded into learning" so"students are supported into employment".
ESFA subcontracting standard
The Department for Education (DfE) has published the results of a consultation into sub-contracting for learners over 16 years of age.
Subcontracting education and training for learners over 16 is common. DfE wanted to review how they oversee the practice to:


Current and historical p/e ratio for Gilead Sciences (GILD) from 2006 to 2018. The price to earnings ratio is calculated by taking the latest closing price and dividing it by the most recent earnings per share (EPS) number. The PE ratio is a simple way to assess whether a stock is over or under valued and is the most widely used valuation measure. Gilead Sciences PE ratio as of April 23, 2019 is 10.23.


text:
Facebook: Playing the "IPO pop" game?
In my last post on Facebook, I provided my estimate of value (about $ 70 billion) and concluded that I would not be a buyer of Facebook shares even if the company was valued at close to $ 70 billion. A few of you have taken me to task for leaving what you see as easy profits on the table, noting that if I were able to get Facebook shares at the offering price, that I would be guaranteed (or close to guaranteed) a substantial profit. More generally, there is the perception that investing in IPOs at the offering price (and making money on the offering day pop) is a low-risk, high return strategy that can be used to augment your portfolio returns. Like most "sure" things in investing, this one comes with implicit assumptions and costs and is definitely not "sure". Here is my list of caveats for those considering the "Facebook IPO Pop" strategy.
1. You have to be able to get the shares at the offering price
Let's say that when the Facebook IPO does get "priced", you bid to buy shares at the offering price. One of two things will happen: you will either get your requested number of shares or you will not, and ironically, it is the former that should worry you. If you are right in your basic hypothesis, i.e., that IPOs are under priced, the demand for the shares at the offering price will exceed the supply and the investment bankers managing the IPO will have to ration the shares. If the process is fair, you should get only a proportion of the shares you asked for, with the proportion getting smaller as the shares get more under priced. If the process is fixed and the investment banks give first dibs to their preferred customers, the proportion you get, if you are not one of the preferred customers, will be even lower. Thus, the only scenario you should dread if you are not a preferred customer is one where you get your entire allotment filled, because that is an indication that the shares are over priced.
This allotment process has always been the achilles heel of strategies that try to invest across all IPO offerings. You may bid for $100,000 worth of shares of every IPO for the next year, but you will end up with a portfolio that has too little invested in the most under priced IPOs (since you will get far fewer shares than you requested in these) and too much in the most over priced IPOs (since you will get all of the shares you asked for with these).
2. The stock has to pop on the offering date
Once you have been allotted the shares at the offering price, you have to hope for a stock price pop on the offering date. You do have history on your side. Looking across all IPOs, there is evidence of an offering day increase in stock prices. The figure below graphs out the average "under pricing" across all IPOs, by year, for US stocks:
Note, though, that this return presupposes that you can invest an equal amount in each IPO, under priced or not, but it is still impressive. Over the entire 50 year time period, there have been only four years (1962, 1973-1975) where the average returns were negative, and there are periods, such as the late 1990s, where the average return is close to 100% (doubling of price on the offering date). That is good news for the "Facebook IPO Pop" strategy.
Before you get too excited, though, note that the under pricing is greatest with the smallest offerings, as evidenced in the graph below:
Given the size of the Facebook offering (even 5% of $100 billion makes this a big offering), this graph should lead you to lower your expectations of the price pop on the offering date.
There is also evidence that this under pricing is by design. The IPO pricing cookbook at most investment banks includes a "take 15% off the value" ingredient in every pricing recipe, since the positive news stories that accompany the pop are viewed as a sales pitch for future stock issues. The under pricing also is consistent with the incentives for investment banks, who generally guarantee the offering price to the issuers, and thus have fare more to lose by over pricing than from under pricing.
This IPO under pricing has been the source of angst for some, who feel that the under pricing is unfair to the founders/owners of the company going public, since they are leaving money on the table, by offering their shares at a discounted price. That argument, though, becomes less persuasive, when you recognize that only a small portion of the outstanding shares is generally offered on the offering date. The discounted price on these shares operates the same way a loss leader operates in a retail store: it is designed to whet your appetite and get you to buy more. You hope that those who buy these shares (and feel good about the profits they make) will be back in six months or a year to buy more shares in the company. So, if you are feeling sorry for poor Mark Zuckerberg on the offering date, don't worry! There are plenty more shares in Facebook that will be hitting the market in future years.
From an investor's perspective, what can go wrong? Note that the average is across all IPOs (and is skewed by the smallest IPOs) and that a subset of IPOs see a drop in price on the offering date. These are of course the IPOs where you got all of the shares you asked for. If you are not a preferred customer, your odds of making money on IPOs decrease. Even the preferred customers are offered a mixed bag. Not only does their preference stem from the large amounts that they pay the investment banks for other services rendered, but they are expected to be "good" investors. In other words, if they flip the stock soon after the offering, it may endanger their preferred status on future IPOs. More on that in the next section!
3. You have to time your exit well
Assume now that the first two pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place. You have been allotted shares in the Facebook IPO and the stock has popped 15% on the offering date. Should you sell now or should you wait? That eternal question has particular resonance with IPOs, because the gains on the offering date can be fleeting. Remember that Groupon's 20% jump on the offering date is now all gone!
Studies that track the post-offering performance of IPOs suggest that they do are not good investments in the aftermath. In the figure below, we compare the returns in the first five years after an initial public offering, with the returns on non-IPO stocks.
The returns on IPOs lag the returns on other stocks in the market and do so much more in the first few years after the offering. Thus, if buying at the offering price requires you to hold the stock for a year or two (which may be required of you as a preferred customer), you may not be getting a great deal.
In fact, my valuation of Facebook is predicated on the assumption that you may want to hold Facebook for more than a day in your portfolio. If you do, once the buzz fades and the IPO paparazzi leave, the company will be judged increasingly by how it performs relative to expectations. If price and value are on a collision course, value always wins out.
4. You are playing a sector and momentum game, even if you don't want to...
If you bid for shares in the Facebook IPO offering, I do believe that the odds may be in your favor for winning the game, if you define winning as getting the shares at the offering price and flipping them very quickly after the IPO. Much as I am tempted to join you, I am afraid I will sit out that game and not because of any noble impulses (such as wanting to be a long term investor or not speculating).
The IPO game is a subset of the momentum game, on which I have posted before. It is a game that produces big winners but momentum always turns, and when it does, it creates big losers. To see the link, note that IPOs go through hot and cold phases, with years in which you have hundreds of IPOs and years in which you have a few dozen.
In addition, also note that IPOs in any given year tend to be concentrated in a few sectors and those sectors generally have momentum on their side (dot com stocks in the 1990s, social media companies today). Thus, the success of IPOs in a sector is closely tied to whether the sector maintains it "hot" status.
One worrisome aspect of IPOs is that they may operate as canaries in the coal mine in signaling momentum shifts; the loss of enthusiasm for dot com IPOs (and the withdrawals of some) coincided with the epic collapse of the sector that year. The momentum driving social media companies will end one day and it may very well be the day that Facebook goes public. "Unlikely", you say, and I agree, but the tough part of being a lemming is that you never know where the cliff is coming. Of course, you may be able to sense momentum change much better than I, in which case you should be able to play the game successfully.
A strategy of investing in IPOs at the offering price looks much better on paper than it works in practice. All of the academic studies that show the average underpricing are implicitly based upon the assumption that you can create an equally weighted portfolio of all IPOs, when in fact, a non-discriminating investor will end up will be with too much invested in all of the worst IPOs.
The strategy can be made to work by an investor who uses analysis (valuation or information) to invest only in IPOs that are most likely to be under priced and follows through with timely selling to capture profits after the offering. Even for that investor, it is a supplementary strategy since there will extended periods where there are no or very few IPOs in the market.
So, if you are bidding for those Facebook shares, good luck. I hope you get only a fraction of the shares you ask for (see part 1 for why), that the stock price pops on the offering date, that you get out before the you-know-what hits the fan. and that you are not the unfortunate soul who helps ring in the end of the social media circus.
Labels: Facebook IPO
The IPO of the decade? My valuation of Facebook
The Facebook IPO gets closer and I don't think I can put off this valuation much longer. While we don't have an offering price yet, the preliminary estimates are that the company will be valued somewhere between $75 billion and $100 billion. As with my Skype, Linkedin and Groupon valuations, I will present my assumptions and valuation of Facebook, with the admission that I have no crystal ball and know that your estimates will be very different from mine. So, with that disclaimer out of the way, here are my valuation assumptions for Facebook.
1. Where Facebook stands right now: I started with the Facebook S-1 filing which contains their financials from last year. The pdf version is available here, with my highlights and annotations (just ignore my snarky comments... I cannot help them). Looking at the most recent year's numbers, here is what I see:
(a) Revenues in 2011 were $3,711 million, up 88% from revenues of $1,974 million in 2010, which, in turn, were up 150% from revenue of $777 million in 2009.
(b) The firm's pre-tax operating income increased from $1,032 million in 2010 to $1,756 million in 2011. The firm's net income increased from $ 606 million in 2010 to $ 1 billion in 2011, though a third of that net income was set aside for participating securities (convertible preferred and restricted stock units... More on that later...). Incidentally, Facebook paid 41% of its taxable income as taxes in 2011.
(c) The company is primarily equity funded and its book value of equity at the end of 2011 was $5,228 million; the only debt on the books was $398 million in capital leases. They did have operating lease commitments, which when capitalized yielded a value of $776 million. The total debt is therefor $1,174 million.
2. Future revenues: Facebook is on a "high growth" path, with revenues growing by 150% in 2010 and another 88% in 2011, but as even that sample of two observations suggests, the big question is how that growth rate will hold up as the firm becomes larger. I estimate a compounded revenue growth rate of 40% for the next five years and a scaling down of that growth rate to the nominal growth rate in the economy (set equal to the risk free rate of 2.01%) by the end of ten years. While both assumptions may strike you as conservative, I am effectively assuming that Facebook will follow a revenue growth path close to Google's over the next 8 years, as evidenced in the chart below, where I compare Google's actual revenues in the 8 years since their IPO with Facebook's forecasted revenues for the next 8 years:
Since advertising revenues are the drivers of both firms' growth engines, and they may very well be competing for the same advertising dollars, I think a comparison of their competitive advantages is in order. Facebook's primary advantage is that they can use what they know about their users (which is a lot... scary thought!) to offer focused advertising. Google's advantage is that it has a more direct and easy business model, since its revenues come from user clicks. In contrast, Facebook has to be careful about making its focused advertising too obvious, since some users will find this creepy. Google has added other products to its mix, with the Android as the most prominent example, and Facebook also has potential avenues for expansion.
3. Operating margin: Facebook has a phenomenal pre-tax operating profit margin in excess of 45%. To provide a contrast, Google's operating margin is currently about 31% and has seldom exceeded 35%. However, Facebook's margins will come under pressure as they actively seek out more revenues and I am assuming that the pre-tax margin will decrease to 35% over the next decade. Even with this assumption, I am estimating operating income for Facebook will exceed Google's by a wide margin over the 8 years following the IPO:
4. Reinvestment: In one of a series of posts on growth, I argued that growth does not come free (or even cheap). That is true for even a company with the pedigree of Facebook. There is some information in the financial statements about reinvestment: the company had net capital expenditures of $ 283 million, an acquisition that cost $24 million and an increase in capital leases of about $ 480 million. To estimate reinvestment in future years, I assumed that the firm would be able to generate about $1.5 million in revenues for every million in additional capital investment. At this stage, it is impossible to tell what form the reinvestment may take, but looking at Google over the last few years should provide clues; the company has moved increasingly to using acquisitions to augment growth. Lest you feel that I am being too conservative, I am estimating that Facebook will generate a return on its capital of about 32% in year 10, up from just over 26% now.
5. Risk and cost of capital: Facebook is a company that is funded almost entirely with equity and while it is a young, growth company, it does have a business model that is working and delivering substantial profits. While we can start from the bottom and work up to a cost of capital, using parameters estimated for Facebook, I will employ a far simpler approach. Looking across the costs of capital of all US companies at the start of 2012 (you can find this on my website), I estimate a cost of capital of 11.42% for advertising companies. I will assume that Facebook will face a similar cost of capital to start. The median cost of capital for US companies is roughly 8% and as Facebook grows and matures, I do adjust the cost of capital down to 8%.
6. Cash and Debt: The assumptions above are sufficient to estimate the value of the operating assets. Discounting the cash flows back at the cost of capital (with changes over time) results in a value of $71,240 million. To get to equity value, I subtract out the outstanding debt ($1,174 million) and add the current cash balance ($1,512 million). While I would normally augment the cash balance with any cash proceeds from the IPO, Facebook is open about the fact (See S1, page 7) that the proceeds will be going to Mark Zuckerberg to cover tax expenses from option exercise and will not be coming to the firm.
Value of equity = $71,240 + $1,512 - $1,174 = $71,578 million
Based on my estimates, the values being bandied around ($75 billion- $ 100 billion) are not unreasonable. As with my Groupon valuation, I ran a simulation,making assumptions about distributions for my key assumptions (revenue growth, operating margin, cost of capital and reinvestment). The results are summarized below:
Note that the median value of $ 70 billion is close to the base case estimate (as it should) but there is a 10% chance that the value could be greater than $ 117 billion and a 10% chance of a value of $ 43 billion or less.
7. Value per share: At some stage in this IPO process, Facebook's investment bankers will have to arrive at a value per share (offered) and you and I will have to decide on whether to buy or not. That could be messy because Facebook has multiple claims on equity, starting with:
a. Equity options: There are 138.54 million options outstanding, from earlier year compensation schemes, with an average maturity of about 2 years and an exercise price of $0.75. My estimate of the value of these options collectively, net of the tax benefits that I see Facebook getting from the exercise, is $3,782 million. I will net this value out against the equity value to get to a value in the shares:
Value in shares = $71,578 million - $3,782 million = $67,795 million
b. Restricted Stock Units: In the last few years, Facebook (like many other tech companies) has shifted to granting restricted stock units. These are regular shares but the holders who receive have to first stay long enough with the company (vest) to lay claim to them and often face restrictions on trading. The liquidity restrictions, in particular, should make these shares less valuable than regular shares. There are 380.719 millions class B shares, in restricted stock units, that will eventually become regular shares and I will add them to current shards outstanding.
c. Class A and Class B shares: After the IPO, there will be 117.097 million Class A shares (with one voting right per share) and 1758.902 million Class B shares (with ten voting rights per share). Other things remaining equal, the latter should trade at a premium on the former, though I don't think that the expected value of control in this company is significant.
If I take the equity value, net of the value of options, and divide by the total number of class A, class B and RSU shares outstanding, the value per share that I get is $29.05. Allowing for a slight discount (3-5%) on the non-voting shares, I would anticipate that the class A shares in the IPO will have a value of about $28 (assuming that my share count is right... I will wait to get a firmer update as we get closer to the offering, before I close in on a per share value). You can access the excel spreadsheet with the numbers by clicking here. If you don't like my inputs or assumptions, don't stew about them. Go in and change them and see what you get as the aggregate value of equity in Facebook. If you can post it in the Google spreadsheet that I have created for this purpose, even better... Let's see if we can get a consensus value for the company.
If you are investing in Facebook, give credit to the company for being upfront and honest about where the power rests in this company. On page 20 of the filing, you will find this "Mr. Zuckerberg has the ability to control the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and any merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. In addition, Mr. Zuckerberg has the ability to control the management and affairs of our company as a result of his position as our CEO and his ability to control the election of our directors. Additionally, in the event that Mr. Zuckerberg controls our company at the time of his death, control may be transferred to a person or entity that he designates as his successor." A little later on page 31, you will find this "We have elected to take advantage of the "controlled company" exemption to the corporate governance rules for publicly listed companies. Because we qualify as a "controlled company" under the corporate governance rules for publicly-listed companies, we are not required to have a majority of our board of directors be independent, nor are we required to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function." Let's be clear about this: this is Mark Zuckerberg's company and you and I are just providing him with capital.
For those of you who are familiar with my valuations of Linkedin and Groupon, you will note that I am more positive about Facebook than those companies. Part of that can be attributed to Facebook being further along in developing a business model that works and delivers profits. Another reason, though, is that Facebook has a real chance at being the next "winner take all" company. What am I talking about? In conventional businesses, a company that gets a large portion of the market is subject to competitive assaults that cap the market share and reduce profitability over time. In some parts of the technology business, controlling a large share of a market seems to give the winner the capacity to take over the whole market. Consider three big winners from the last 30 years. Microsoft started off in the "office suites' competing with many players in the word processing, spreadsheet and presentation program businesses, but at some point, its dominance drove the competition out. To a lesser extent, Amazon's dominance of online retailing and Google's ownership of online advertising (so far) reflect similar "winner take all" phenomena. I am not suggesting that Facebook has a lock on social media advertising, but it has a chance to get a big chunk of it, and if it does, the value that I estimated will be too low. Note that the simulation does yield values of $120 billion or higher for the company, if the stars align.
Would I buy Facebook stock, if its equity were valued at $75 billion? No, and not because I believe that the price is outlandish, but for two other reasons.
The first is that the price reflects the expectation that Facebook will become a phenomenal success. Anything less than superlative will be viewed as a failure.
The second is that what Facebook is brazen about the fact that they don't see any need for input from stockholders. In effect, they want my money but don't want me to have any say in how the company is run. This does not jell with the notion that stockholders are part owners of the companies that they owned stock in. You may be comfortable with Zuckerberg as CEO for life but I am not. I am sure that I am in the minority on this one, but different strokes for different folks....
In closing, Facebook has immense promise as a company and it is being priced on the premise that the promise will be delivered. Could it be worth $ 100 billion? Sure, but you are fighting the odds as an investor. Social media companies today collectively and Facebook in particular resemble stores with tremendous foot traffic (850 million users in the case of Facebook) but with nothing on the shelves. You are buying access to the foot traffic and hoping that you can get something on the shelves that they will stop and look at and buy. Given that social media is still in its infancy, we really don't know whether this promise will pan out, and that remains the basis for the uncertainty, and why short cuts that are based on value per member (a metric that I see with social media companies all the time) are fraught with danger.
Options and Taxes: Is a "Facebook" tax next?
Facebook is in the news and I will do my usual pre-IPO valuation and posting in a few days on the company but I want to focus in on an interesting story in this morning's New York Times about option exercise and taxation (at both the individual and corporate levels).
The story itself focuses on two tax issues. The first is that Mark Zuckerberg is planning to exercise about $ 5 billion of options ahead of the offering, resulting in a tax bill of roughly $ 2 billion for him, about $1.5 billion in federal taxes and $ 500 million in California taxes. The second is that Facebook will be claiming a tax deduction of roughly the same value, which will shelter them from taxes this year and allow them to claim tax refunds of about $ 500 million from prior years. All of this has some in Congress in full "indignation" mode, with Senator Carl Levin saying ""When profitable corporations can use the stock option tax deduction to pay zero corporate income taxes for years on end, average taxpayers are forced to pick up the tax burden," he said. "It isn't right, and we can't afford it." Before we embark on another tax policy change predicated on a sample of one (Facebook), it is worth examining the broader question of how employee options get taxed, especially at the corporate level.
At the moment, if you are a company that grants options to its employees, the accounting laws require you to value those options as options (rather than at exercise value) and expense them when you grant them (though you can amortize these expenses over a period of time). Thus, what you see reported as operating or net income for a company today is after employee options have been expensed. This, of course, is a sharp reversal of accounting policy prior to 2006, when firms had to show only the exercise value of the options at the time of the grant. Since at the time of the grant, employee options were usually at the money (strike price = stock price), this effectively meant that option grants had no effect on earnings when they were granted. However, if and when the options were exercised, companies were required to show the difference between the stock price and the strike price as an expense.
To illustrate the difference, assume that you grant 100 million options with a strike price of $10, when the stock price is also $ 10, in 2008. Let's also assume that the options get exercised 2 years later when the stock price is $ 40. With pre-2006 accounting, you would not have shown an option expense in 2008 but you would have shown an expense of $ 3 billion [$40 - $10) (100)] in 2010. In the post-2006 time period, the company would have had to show an option expense in 2008, with the expense computed by valuing the options at the time. (For instance, an at-the-money option with five years to expiration on a stock with a price of $ 10 and a standard deviation of 40% would have a value of $3.36. Carrying this through, the company would have to record an expense of $336 million in 2008 and revisit this expense in subsequent years, as stock prices go up or down. If you want to, you can try your hand at valuing options with the attached spreadsheet).
[Update: I have been taken to task by the accountants among my readers for being simplistic (and wrong) on the accounting rules, since they are far more complex than what I have described in this example. I confess to the crime but I feel no remorse. I think that I am being truer to the underlying accounting principle of matching expenses up to revenues than the current accounting rules claim to be. My point is that accounting has moved grudgingly to accept the fact that options have to be expensed when they are granted and not when they are exercised, though the accounting obsessions with smoothing and back filling finds their way into the rules. In fact, more on that in my next post]
So, what does this have to do with today's story? While the accounting treatment of options changed in 2006, the tax treatment did not. In effect, the tax authorities still use the pre-2006 convention, not allowing companies to expense options when they are granted but only when they are exercised. This creates a disconnect between accounting earnings and tax earnings, which can make valuation more difficult. But is it a loophole? Seems like it, if you only consider Facebook, which will save a billion dollars in taxes because its options will be exercised at a time when its stock price is sky high. But let's add to this sample of one. Take a company like Cisco, which has granted hundreds of millions of options over the last decade. Since the stock has stagnated over the period, many of these options are now under water and will either end up un-exercised or exercised for far less than the value at the time of the grant. If Cisco had been able to deduct these options at the time they were granted (at option value), they would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars, which they may now will lose forever, if these options remain under water. In the aggregate, with the current tax treatment of options, the government collects less in taxes from Facebook and more in taxes from Cisco.
Do I think that the tax rules on options should be changed? Perhaps, but it is not because the tax law is unfair or because I think it creates a loophole. As I see it, here are the three choices:
Continue with the existing policy of taxing options when they are exercised. The net effect is that the most successful companies (at least in terms of creating market value) will get bigger tax deductions from option expensing than the least successful companies.
Change tax law to match accounting law and allow companies to expense options in the year that they grant them. It will smooth out tax collections, level the playing field across companies and create more consistency. But here is the follow up question that gives me a little pause: Should employees who receive the options then have to show them as income in the year that they receive them? If you are being consistent, the answer is yes, but where will they come up with the cash to pay the taxes? After all, employee options are not liquid and the employee while wealthy (in terms of options) may be cash poor.
If you follow Senator Levin's logic that this is a loophole, and you try to craft legislation, I am not sure where it leads you. Should we ban the expensing of options by companies? I would accept that, if you stop taxing employees who receive these options. (If that had been in place this year, Facebook would have to pay about a billion more in taxes but the government would be collecting two billions less in taxes from Zuckerberg...)
As someone interested in valuation, I have wrestled with options and their effect on value for a while. I think that options are mishandled in many valuations, with flawed arguments (Options are non cash expenses...) and perilous short cuts (treasury stock and fully diluted value approaches) overwhelming common sense. In fact, I wrote a paper on the topic that you can download by clicking here.
Labels: Taxes and value

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


With respect to the redesign of my sources and production calculator spreadsheets, which will mean nothing to those not steeped in my trade system, I'm done. It's rebuilt, cleaned up, made to look pretty and now available on my Google Drive, for those of you who have paid the access fee.
Truth be told, some of you who have donated to me in the past have bowed out of my Patreon in the last six months. Your names are still on the system, when they shouldn't be ~ still, I'm relaxed about it. You were great about supporting me and I thank you. Still, I'm going to have to downgrade your access within a few days, so don't waste time if you want a last look.
For anyone who wants to see the completed table, you'll have to either pledge $10 to my Patreon account (in which case you'll get access the 1st of November) or donate the money to me directly, in which case I can set you up as soon as I see your email. I've worked many, many, many days and hours on this; I'd be grateful for a remittance at this time.
For myself, I'm in a position now to comfortably add Burma to the system, which was the straw that broke the back of the old set-up. Then I can add Great Britain, Iceland, part of Africa ... but all at my leisure. I may put down numbers for a while and work on something more, ahem, shall we say blog worthy.
Been a rough go, this change. Obsessive. Glad it's behind me.
I'm quite impatient to have the time to dig in this, and your current crunching upgrade is a nice addition, that'll also profit to those that use the Excel for their own world.
My bank card is currently unable to make online payments, but should be unlocked soon. Until then, feel free to remove my access.
A question though, you said that we can give you money directly, do you prefer this to Patreon ?
If you pledge, you have to wait on Patreon's schedule, always the first of the next month; but a direct donation reaches me in about a day through paypal. This is what I mean.
Long time reader, first time poster. Even longer time Excel user, which brings me to my point: I think I can save you many hundreds of hours on your excel spreadsheet. The VLOOKUP function allows you to find a certain value in a table or array. For example, say you had one large table with one row per market town, and one column per trade good. Each cell contains the references for that market for the trade good in the column. For example, if the first row is Paris, and the second column is Wool, and paris has 1 reference for wool, you would put a 1 in that column. Use the "format as table" tool to make this huge array a table. By default this is called "table1".
On a seperate sheet, you can use VLOOKUP([city name],[table],[column#],FALSE) to look up any arbitrary reference for any market in your world. Always set the last argument for VLOOKUP to false or it'll just output nonsense. In this example, VLOOKUP("Paris",Table1,2,FALSE) would return 1, which is the number of wool references in paris. ("2" for wool because wool is in the second column of Table1). This way, you can have just one spreadsheet to calculate the price values of every market town. Say A1 is a cell in which you type in the name of the city you want to look up the prices for. This means that VLOOKUP($A$1,Table1,2,FALSE) will return the references for Wool in whatever city you type into A1. To pick numbers arbitrarily, 3 can equal bricks, 4 can equal horses, 5 can equal leather goods, etc. You can even have a separate table, Table2, with all of your goods in the first column, and their column number in the second, meaning that VLOOKUP($A$1,Table1,VLOOKUP($A$2,Table2,2,False),False) will return the references for the trade good typed into cell A2 for the market in A1. If you create one spreadsheet template for a market town and replace every cell that includes a reference with this formula, swapping A2 for a cell with whatever good you want to look up, you will be able to simply type in any market's name into A1 and it will populate the entire list with prices based on your database.
If you're interested, I'm happy to answer any further questions you may have.
Yes, I've had people just this last week suggest VLOOKUP already.
I have looked at two tutorials now. I think that people who are suggesting this solution may be vastly oversimplifying the complexity of the trade system.
For example, David, you say that I can use just one spreadsheet to calculate the price values of every market town. That is interesting, since the price values for every market town are a composite of the distance of that town from every other market town in the system, with similar products of all the towns added together. With more than 1000 market towns, this is 1,000,000 possible city-to-city comparisons. Now, with more than 900 different sorts of goods and services, now I need a database with 900,000,000 known totals, though most of these will be zero.
The vlookup function will "look up" data, but it won't "calculate" data, not that I have seen so far. This means I'll have to precalculate all this data before it can be looked up. Sounds like a pretty big file.
On the other hand, the file I built that enables me to do the calculations requires only 2.8 mb of space. And runs instantly. Moreover, it can be VIEWED with human eyes and instantly comprehended, because it does not look like a computer programming mess. It is clear and humanly accessible, which is what I want. I need a table that, in the middle of a running, when a player says, "where does most of the building stone come from in this place," I can glance at thirty or forty figures and say, "Apparently, a part of Sweden near Falun," WITHOUT needing to have the file do that for me.
This isn't just a calculator; this is also a game service engine, which I think many just don't understand. I appreciate the suggestion, David, but while it is clear that VLOOKUP will be good for something in my future, right now I don't see it managing this. And at any rate, the work is already done.
I'll try to explain this a little further. If you've been to the wiki and downloaded the file there, to look at it, you'll have noticed that the first tab, marked "data," has a string of numbers connected to each city. These numbers are only relevant to one city, Stavanger, in Norway. These numbers are computed by an algorithm that determines the shortest distance between Stavanger and every other city, but it does not also, at the same time, determine the shortest distance between, say, Paris and Constantinople. If I put in the right numbers, it will calculate the distance between Paris and every other city, or Constantinople and every other city, but not both at the same time.
There is a way to do that, but then I run into a file size problem. See, if I set it up to calculate every trade city I have at the same time, it makes a huge excel file that not only breaks the limit of my computer to handle the 1,000,000 calculating cells, along with another 2,000,000 non-calculating cells, the actual calculation is so slow it is completely useless. Basically, the calculation is a decision tree model and it is best to do this one city at a time.
Therefore, it just isn't practical to generate all this information at one time, particularly when I don't even need a trade table for every city, I just need one when the players go to a town. I have it down to the point where I can generate a pricing table that I need, for any market city, within about 2 minutes of game time. That's all I need. It would be a waste of my time to build a VLOOKUP table for market cities I don't expect to ever sell a good out of.
My apologies. I'd followed your tutorial on the wiki under "Trade System" but haven't looked at your actual, substantially more complex trade system. As a result, I'd been under the impression that you had a separate excel page for every single market, which to me seemed like it would untold weeks slaving away to create. I didn't realize that you only create such a table as you actually need it, which would, as you mentioned, amount to massive time savings.
I suppose you could set things up so that it creates the pricing table using VLOOKUP when you enter the information of the city you want to calculate distances for, but there's not a lot of advantage to tossing out the system you've already created to do that.
While I've got you, I was wondering if you could help me understand a small bit of your trade system, which is how you decide what qualifies as a full step in manufacturing. For example, in your tutorial on the wiki, you split wool manufacturing into "greasy wool" which is cleaned and carded and becomes "cloth." However, you could just as easily input a calculation and calculate labour for spinning the wool, then weaving the wool, for dying the wool, and again for manufacturing cloth goods out of the wool. The finer you break it down, based on your calculations, the more times the references of the city come into play, meaning that a city with lots of wool-related references will make the five-step cloth only somewhat more expensive than the two-step cloth, while a city with a very low reference number for related industries will have dramatically higher prices. So my question is: what constitutes a step?
Thanks for the help, and keep up the good work! This blog is a joy to read.
In the case you mention, the greasy wool is not treated as a manufacturing step, but as the total unprocessed by-product of all sheep in the world. Before we can start doing anything to wool, we have to start with a base amount that we have to process; the cost of greasy wool is, therefore, based on the price of the sheep themselves, and not on any process that has been applied. The shearer is the equivalent of someone who has produced ore from the ground or cut wheat from the field, and is therefore not considered a manufacturer.
Now, I have made some changes to my price system since the tutorial was made, but basically the principle we want to work on is this: what could the players conceivably want to either buy or sell?
They will quite probably someday own sheep (in my world at least), so we want to know how much they will receive for it at the market. They may want to improve that wool themselves, by washing it and spinning it (which I now treat as one measure of improvement), so we want a price for that. They may want to buy cloth not made into clothing, so that needs to be another step. And, finally, we want the players to buy clothes, so that is a last step.
You're right, we can subdivide it further, but it only matters if the players might want to buy cleaned, uncarded wool as opposed to cleaned, carded wool. That seems unlikely, especially as many don't know what carding means; so it isn't worth including that as a step. Incidentally, it's probable that Orson Scott Card's ancestors were involved in that business.
My references are driven by an encyclopedia, not by my choices, so my system includes a lot of weird parts that a totally fanciful system wouldn't include. But it really depends on how deep you want to personally go.


The 1600m relay team of Malachi VanderZwaag, Ezra Jarzembowski, Martens and Honderd finished in 2nd place, while the 3200m relay team of Brad Carter, Hunter Tripp, Jaeger Schippa and Martens placed 3rd.
Individual 3rd place finishers were Caleb Steeby in the 100m dash, Ashton Arredondo in the 400m dash and Javier Ramos in the Shot Put.
Others placing for the Dutch were VanderZwaag, who finished 5th and 6th in the 300m and 110m hurdles, respectively; Carter and Steeby each took 6th in the 800m and 200m races, respectively, while Luis Montgomery-Gonzalez was 5th in the Discus.
Come out to support the team as we visit Zeeland West next Tuesday. Go Dutch!


Another Fortera, Is this One Intriguing?
A little confused to be honest. This ball seemed so close to the Fortera Exile in overall reaction, I'm not sure if Brunswick really got what it was looking for here with the Fortera Intrigue.
Personally, I'm kind of disappointed here. The Fortera Intrigue is a high end ball from Brunswick. It has commensurate cost. However, given how similar it is to the Exile and that it isn't as versatile in my mind as say the new Melee Jab, I couldn't justify a higher value score.
The Fortera Intrige utilizes the same Fortera Flip core as the Exile but moves to a Fortify Hybrid Reactive. It comes finished with 500 Siaair Micro Pad; Royal Compound from the factory. That's the same finish as the Exile, sans the Royal Shine.
No doubt, the Fortera Intrigue continues the Flip line in terms of the ball reaction shape. It is still very clean, seemingly just as clean as the Exile, but also the same kind of flip downlane, maybe a minuscule amount less flip. It clears the heads easily. I would say too easily. It's the same reaction we saw with the Exile. What that does is simply leave too little room for error down lane. But due to the flippy nature, it has a risk of "getting it wrong". Sometimes too much and sometimes too little. In the out of box condition, neither ball in the Fortera line so far can be thrown on many fresh conditions. However, even on broken down conditions, this ball has to match up to a specific condition.
Kerry as a lower rev bowler, had less difficulty finding success with the Intrigue. She can take advantage of the flippy nature of the ball. Brandon with a much higher rev rate had to fish more. The ball has potent backends. Sometimes too potent from more direct lines and not enough from deeper lines. Bottom line is the finish left the ball very finicky.
I believe altering the surface will be a must if you want this ball to work. Kerry took down the surface a bit and found a better more consistent ball reaction. Brandon did not alter the surface for the test.


It is really not that hard to get clients for a plastic surgery clinic if you will use the right marketing strategy. But if you do not have experience in marketing, then you will probably not have any idea on the strategies that you will need to focus on. You can view here for more information about the marketing strategies that you need to put more focus on.
You will not have any problems at all in getting clients for a plastic surgery clinic if you have the right marketing strategy. But again you will not be have an idea on what marketing strategy you will be focusing on if you do not have any experience in marketing.
You are lucky that there are so many marketing strategies that you can choose from. You can read more here if you want to discover more about these marketing strategies.
You can view here if you want to be aware.
1. Make a video content – you can market you plastic surgery clinic by creating a video content about it. Since there are now so many popular video uploading sites in the internet, a lot of people will easily find your video content.
You can make a marketing video content that will be catering questions about plastic surgery.
You must always take note on these questions that a lot of people might ask you during the initial consultations. Those questions can be your basis for your marketing video content.
2. Make your own blog content – you can always create your own blog content if you are not comfortable in front for the camera. You must still take note of the same steps if you will be creating a blog content. That would mean that your blog content should still be answering some possible questions from the clients.
3. Use adwords in order to get people to your site – you can use adwords in order to attract a lot of people to your website.
The AdWords ads are those links that you will see on top of the list of search results when you will search for something in a search engine. One way to identify these ads is that to see a little ad graphic next to the links.
4. Promoting your service using Facebook ads – Facebook ads can also be used to promote your plastic surgery clinic. You must know who your target audience are if you will use this kind of marketing strategy. This can be a good form of marketing.


text:
Community Bank Donates $5,000 to Helios Care
By: Staff 12/17/2022 8:00 am
Community Bank Donates
$5,000 to Helios Care
ONEONTA—Community Bank's Oneonta branch donated $5,000.00 recently to help support Helios Care, an organization that provides hospice and palliative care in the Catskill area. Helios Care's mission is to make life easier for patients and families facing serious illness or end of life by providing choices, dignity, and compassionate care. Pictured above are Community Bank Vice President Senior District Manager Michael Walling, Helios Care President and Chief Executive Officer Dan Ayres, and Community Bank Branch Manager Lesley VanWarner.
'Promise for Parkie' Matching Challenge Is Now Underway
'Promise for Parkie' Matching
Challenge Is Now Underway
By DARLA M. YOUNGS
COOPERSTOWN – Thirty-one days. That's how long the Susquehanna Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SQSPCA) has to raise $100,000.00 in order to earn an additional $25,000.00.
"Promise for Parkie," the SQSPCA's special year-end annual fund campaign, kicked off on Giving Tuesday, November 29. Traditionally the Tuesday after Thanksgiving since its inception in 2012, Giving Tuesday is a national day of giving back to good causes.
Now through December 31, shelter supporters Beth and Gary Glynn will donate an additional $5,000.00 to the SQSPCA for every $20,000.00 raised, up to $100,000.00.
Chobani Donates Gifts To Help St. James Food Programs
Chobani Donates Gifts To
Help St. James Food Programs
Feeding Ministries Director Marcia Hoag greets Chobani's Donald Brown upon delivery of donated coolers. (Photo provided)
ONEONTA—St. James Episcopal Church is now able to store produce for prolonged periods of time, thanks to Chobani. The locally-based yogurt producer continued its tradition of community engagement by donating three coolers to St. James Feeding Ministries.
Glimmerglass Festival Guild Contributes $25,000
Glimmerglass Festival Guild
Contributes $25,000
Robert Ainsley, Laura Tansey Wetzel
The Glimmerglass Festival Guild held its Annual Meeting on September 19 at the Farm Credit East, where members of the volunteer organization voted to donate $25,000 to The Glimmerglass Festival, the summer opera and musical theater company known for its innovative productions.
Through volunteer services, community engagement and educational programs, the Guild provides both acts of service and financial support for the world-renowned company. The Guild raises money through the annual gala in August at The Otesaga.
Musket Donations Find Home At Greater Oneonta Historical Society
Musket Donations Find Home At
Greater Oneonta Historical Society
By GREG KLEIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
Fred Hickein signs his heirloom muskets over to the Greater Oneonta Historical Society on Wednesday, April 21, as his wife, Eleanor, and from left, Wayne Gregory, Terry Harkenreader and George Sluti, from Oneonta American Legion Post 259, look on.
Fred Hickein wanted to make sure his heirloom muskets stayed in good hands, so the 93-year-old Oneonta resident made a major donation to the Greater Historical Society of Oneonta on Wednesday, April 21.
Hickein and his wife, Eleanor, and several of his colleagues from the Oneonta American Legion Post 259, presented GOHS with two family treasures Wednesday,: an English smooth bore rifle, circa 1800, which Hickein believes was brought to the area by an ancestor of his, Solomon Yager; and a Civil War training musket owned and used by another relative, Edward Brewer.
An Oneonta High School and Hartwick College graduate and a Navy veteran, who served in both World War II and Korea, although never overseas or at sea, Hickein said he wanted the heirlooms to be in good hands and he trusted GOHS to honor his family's history.
"I wanted to do it before I died," he said. "I wanted to make sure they were in a good place."
GOHS Executive Director Marcela Micucci said the group's history center at 181 Main St. will soon have a permanent display and it will include one or both of the musket donations.
LaCHANCE: Rotary Helps Fight Social Isolation
LETTER from CAROLE LaCHANCE
Rotary Helps Fight Social Isolation
Rotarians Katherine Dina, right, and Cathy Raddatz, left, flank the first ultrafine air filter donated by Cooperstown Rotary to the village's Senior Community Center. Others, in back, from left, are Bev Hence, Rae Consigli, Christine McNaughton, Patricia Dilorenzo, Betty McNeil and Marti Jax. Front, from left, are Sue Straub, Enid Hinkes, Carole Lachance and Linda (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Social isolation among seniors is a reality that has become an even greater concern since the onset of COVID-19.
To minimize its effects on our older population, Cooperstown Senior Community Center, CSCC, took full advantage of the sunshine and warm temperatures summer and early autumn provided.
Seniors, living in and outside of Cooperstown, have been gathering 1 – 3 p.m. Thursdays since the end of July on the lawn and parking lot of St. Mary's at 31 Elm St.
Hand sanitizing, mask wearing and maintaining distance while outdoors provided the safe and healthy social environment much needed by seniors during this time of uncertainty.
Now thanks to the warm generosity of the Rotary Club of Cooperstown, the arrival of colder weather has not brought CSCC gatherings to an end.
Rotary President Richard Sternberg, members Cathy Raddatz and Katherine Dina received $4,000 from two grants they wrote on behalf of CSCC. This grant money has purchased three Healthway Intellipure air purifiers which utilize the ultrafine 468 air filters strongly recommended by Governor Cuomo for use in schools and hospitals.
These air purifiers, along with other precautions, create a safe and healthy environment inside the large brick building behind St. Mary's where seniors now meet. We are so grateful to Rotary for this generous donation.
On behalf of the many who enjoy coming to CSCC, I thank Rotary Club of Cooperstown for its service and commitment to addressing the needs of our seniors within the community, as well as surrounding areas.
Carole L. LaChance
Acting CSCC Executive Director
Stewart's Shops Donates To First Night Oneonta
By: Ian Austin 03/15/2019 11:23 am
Stewart's Shops Donates
$1,000 To First Night
Andrew Zeh, manager of the Oneonta's Stewart's Shops, presents Carol Mandigo, First Night Oneonta chair, with a $1,000 check in support of annual Hometown Fourth of July celebration and New Year's Eve events. "They have been one of our signature supporters for these events." said Mandigo, "God bless them." Zeh, who has been manager for the last three years, said they have been giving ever since he took the position. "As a company, we give as much as we get." said Zeh, "It keeps us local and keeps our areas running. We have to take care of our communities, kids and adults." (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Susquehanna Valley Animal Shelter Receives 5 Star Donation
By: Ian Austin 05/25/2018 2:53 pm
Susquehanna Animal Shelter
Receives 'Share Love' Grant
As part of Subaru's Share The Love program of community giving, Five Star Subaru today donated $9,822 to the Susquehanna Animal Shelter, which serves the county from Hartwick Seminary. Here, Five Star proprietor Ben Guenther presents a check to SAS board member Peter Gould, Executive Director Stacie Haynes, and board members Jill Basile and Merilyn Gould at the Oneonta car dealership. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
HAPPENIN' OTSEGO for FRIDAY, JUNE 16
Cherry Valley Outdoor Games
TIMBERSPORTS COMPETITION – 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Athletes from around the NE compete with tools not used commercially since the invention of the Chain saw. Watch the STHIL Timbersports Women's Division qualifying rounds. Alden Field, Cherry Valley Community Center. Info, www.facebook.com/northeastqualifier/
SUNNY MOMENTS EXHIBIT – 5-7 p.m. The opening reception of the "Sunny Moments" exhibition. This is a chance to meet the artists, purchase the art, and enter to win a quilt. The Arc Otsego's Main View Gallery & Studio, 73 Main St., Oneonta. www.arcotsego.org
Cycles of Generosity
Cyclists Donate Winnings To Girls On The Run
Members of the CNYC/NYCM Insurance Bicycle team Marc Kingsley, center, and Taylor Brose, left, present Jill Feury, Council Director with Girls On The Run with a donation of $250 the team won from a first place finish in the Cazenovia Hill Bender last Saturday. The program, which encompass five counties, is a 10 week after school program that helps girls in third to eighth grade build self esteem and with the goal of running a 5K race. "A lot of girls would be unable to participate if it wasn't for donations like this to help subsidize costs," said Feury. "It's a really great cause," said Kingsley. "We are glad to support an event like this that gets girls outside and builds confidence." (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
A&D Transport Gives $500 In Free Ride Vouchers To United Way
A&D Transportation Donates
$500 In Vouchers To United Way
Al Rubin, owner of A&D Transportation Services, this morning donated $500 in ride vouchers to United Way of Delaware & Otsego Counties. With him are United Way Executive Director Sue Kurkowski, left, Teri Basdekis, secretary of the board. "Transportation is a huge issue in rural areas like ours." said Kurkowski. "I have had a dozen calls in the last several days from people needing rides to hospitals or the Department of Social services. This program allows us to coordinate rides and save money." Said Rubin, "$500 can help a lot of people. This is not a one time donation. I want this to be a continuing program and I encourage other organizations to donate as well. This is just one more dimension of assisting in this sharing economy." Anyone in need of a ride can call 211, or, the United Way office at 607-432-8006. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
HAPPENIN' OTSEGO for SATURDAY, DEC. 3
Run Of The Ugly Sweaters
At 3 p.m. In Cooperstown
To Learn How You Can Help Area Families This Holiday Season CLICK HERE.
UGLY SWEATER RUN – There's still time to take in the Ugly Sweater Run: It departs at 3 p.m. from Pioneer Park in downtown Cooperstown. (The listing incorrectly reported 1:30 p.m.) Info, clarksportscenter.com/events/rockin-around-cooperstown-ugly-sweater-run-walk/index.php
CONCERT – 7 p.m. Juice Newton performs her greatest hits. Foothills Performing Arts Center, 24 Market St. Oneonta. Info, foothillspac.org List to "Angel in the Morning."
HOLIDAY CRAFT FAIR – 9 a.m.-4 p.m. featuring quality, handmade crafts by local and regional crafters. Free admission. Hunt Union Ballroom, SUNY Oneonta, 108 Ravine pkwy, Oneonta.
PTA HOLIDAY BREAKFAST/MARKET – 8 a.m.-Noon Cooperstown Elementary School, 21 Walnut St, Cooperstown. Info, www.cooperstowncs.org
HAPPENIN' OTSEGO for TUESDAY, NOV. 29
Memorial Basketball Game,
Celebrating Coach Patt Grasso
MEMORIAL BASKETBALL GAME – 6 p.m. In memory of Coach Patt Grasso, Laurens Girls Varsity vs. Milford followed by Laurens Boys Varisty vs. Worcester. Admission by donation. Proceeds go to Patt Grasso scholarship fund. Laurens Central School, 55 Main St, Laurens. Info, www.laurenscs.org
HOLIDAY SHOW & SALE – 11 a.m.-3 p.m. browse and buy original arts and crafts by local and regional artists. Help us celebrate giving tuesday at the Coopertown Art Association, 22 Main St., Cooperstown. Info, www.cooperstownart.com
Five Star Subaru Donates to Family Services
5 Star 'Shares Love' With Family Services
Blaine Jennings, Ben Guenther and the rest of the staff at Five Star Subaru present a check for $14, 564 to Kim DeFalco, Rudy Ballard, Vicki Salmon and Fred Albrecht of Family Services Association of Oneonta. The donation comes from Five Star Subaru's "Share the Love" promotion last December, where anyone buying a car could donate part of the purchase cost toward a charitable purpose. (Ian Austin/ allotsego.com)


text:
USS Bailey — кораблі ВМС США, названі на честь офіцера, учасника Громадянської війни в США, Теоддоруса Бейлі ().

 USS Bailey (1856) — шхуна Берегової охорони США, брала участь в Громадянській війні в США.
 USS Bailey (TB-21) — міноносець типу «Бейлі». На службі у складі ВМС США протягом 1901-1919 років. Зданий на злам у 1920 році.

 USS Bailey (DD-269) — ескадрений міноносець типу «Клемсон». Збудований у 1919 році. На службі у складі ВМС США протягом 1919–1940 років, після чого переданий ВМС Великої Британії, де отримав назву «HMS Reading (G71)». Зданий на злам у 1945 році.
 USS Bailey (DD-492) — ескадрений міноносець типу «Бенсон».  Збудований у 1942 році. У 1946 році виведений в резерв. Зданий на злам у 1969 році.

Назви військових кораблів США
Багатозначні терміни

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Mississippi could re-examine 1959 racial killing of teenager
EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS The Associated Press
CORINTH, Miss. | Eberlene King remembers her 15-year-old brother as he lay dying, after white teenagers cruised through their black neighborhood in a pickup on Halloween night 1959 and shot him in the face.
"His eyes ... were hanging out," King recalled. "His head was full of pellets."
William Roy Prather died the next morning in their hometown of Corinth, Mississippi, near the Tennessee line.
Eight white teens were charged with murder. Jerry Darnell Glidewell, then 16, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in January 1960 and served less than a year in state prison. Six of the seven others in the truck got a year's probation through youth court, and an 18-year-old walked free.
The case has never drawn much attention, even as federal and state authorities in the past 15 years have re-opened investigations of racially motivated killings from the civil rights era.
Now, the U.S. Justice Department says it has referred Prather's killing to the state of Mississippi "for potential prosecution." The Associated Press dug into the case to reveal information not previously reported, including details about the Justice Department's investigation and AP interviews with King and Glidewell.
It's unclear whether a district attorney will pursue charges in a case where witnesses' memories may be fading and some evidence, including the truck and the shotgun, has disappeared.
The case is mentioned in a report the department filed in March — the same one that said the department is reviving its investigation into the 1955 killing of another black teenager in Mississippi, Emmett Till.
"Although prosecution of some of the subjects may be barred by double jeopardy and other subjects are deceased, the Department referred the matter to the state of Mississippi to determine whether any state prosecutions might be appropriate," the department said of the Prather case.
District Attorney John Weddle did not return multiple calls.
King said FBI agents knocked on her door a few years ago and hand-delivered a letter from the Justice Department. It said no federal charges could be brought in the killing of her brother, based on laws in 1959. It said "the only possible prosecution" would be for the state to bring unspecified charges against one suspect who was 18 at the time.
Corinth — pronounced coh-RINTH by locals — is home to about 14,600 people, 70 percent of them white and 24 percent black. A Confederate soldier statue stands outside the courthouse on the town square.
Handwritten court records show that on Jan. 26, 1960, Glidewell pleaded guilty to manslaughter: "Ordered to serve 5 yrs. in State Penitentiary, the last 4 yrs. of which suspended on good behavior."
Glidewell, who goes by his middle name Darnell, now lives off a country road north of Corinth. He answered the phone on a recent morning, and an Associated Press reporter asked about Prather's killing.
"They charged me with that, yeah," said Glidewell, now in his mid-70s.
He said investigators spoke to him about the case several years ago, and one said: "'Don't worry about it.'... But I ain't heard any more from it."
Glidewell said "four or five" of the people with him that night are still alive, but: "I don't ever see them."
Their names don't appear in court records near Glidewell's, but they are in the Justice Department letter, which says investigators learned that a group of white teens drove through a black neighborhood of Corinth on Halloween night 1959. Black witnesses said they saw the white teens throwing firecrackers at the black teens, and some black people threw rocks and bricks at the truck. Investigators were told that white teens got a shotgun from a home of one person in the group, then returned to the black part of town, where Glidewell shot Prather.
News reports from the time said Prather was not among those who had thrown rocks or bricks.
"Although Glidewell and some of the subjects contended that Glidewell had shot straight up in the air, the autopsy report indicated that Glidewell had aimed the shotgun dead-straight at your brother's face," the Justice Department letter said.
King, now 73, said her older brother was "a real quiet person" who had helped his friends clean up a church on Halloween.
"He didn't deserve what happened to him," King said in a phone interview from her home near Atlanta.
The Justice Department letter says the all-white grand jury recommended six of the remaining white teens have their cases sent to youth court, and the one 18-year-old in the group have his case sent to a July 1960 grand jury; investigators found no record of any indictment of him.
A judge put the younger teens on probation and released them by 1961, writing that each "'would make a good citizen,'" according to the letter.
Gennella Graham, who teaches English at Corinth High School, was born in 1975 and grew up in Corinth but had never heard of Prather until 2017, when she took a course and was assigned to write about her hometown's "hidden history." Graham was given Prather's name and called an aunt, who is his cousin. Graham wrote a poem about Prather, which says, in part:
"Write that I,
"Wanted to fight,
"Wanted to live,
"But no one asked what I thought,
"What I wanted."
This school year, Graham will teach her 11th grade students about Prather.
"I just want them to know that he was important," she said. "When you die, that's not the end of your story."


Limn is scholarly magazine that I co-founded and co-edit with Andrew Lakoff and Chris Kelty. Limn aims to create a new venue for academic writing that is more timely and accessible than academic journals and books, and therefore better suited to addressing current issues. It draws material from scholars in the social and human sciences and is intended to be diverse in perspective, authoritative, well written and beautifully designed. The focus is on contemporary problems in our global, politically interconnected, technologically intense culture: problems of infrastructure, ecological vulnerability, economic interdependence, and relentless technological invention A core goal of Limn is to provide genealogical framings that upset the often polarized, stale or static narratives offered in the media or public discussion.
The Introduction (with Chris Kelty and Andrew Lakoff) of Limn 5: Ebola's Ecologies.
The Preface (with Chris Mizes and Antina von Schnitzler) and an article (with Savannah Cox and Kevin Grove) on "Rebuilding by Design in Post-Sandy New York" in Limn 7: Public Infrastructure/Infrastructural Publics.
The Preface (with Peter Redfield, Jamie Cross, and Alice Street) of Limn 9: Little Development Devices/Humanitarian Goods, which I also co-edited.


The Garden State Skating Club's home ice is at Howell Ice Arena in Farmingdale, NJ. Howell Ice Arena is conveniently located one half mile north of Exit 31B off of I-195. Coming from I-195, drive north toward Farmingdale for one half mile and the rink will be located on the left.