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MLB's Revenue Issue: A Simple Fix
March 16, 2010 in MLB
There has been much hand-wringing on this site and others about the financial disparities in MLB, principally because of the Yankees' payroll. Now, the MLB has a special committee of people who are apparently proposing a dramatic realignment which will likely have a significant effect on the Orioles, among others.
I sympathize with the folks who want more parity and a better economic model. It would be good for the sport if 30+ markets had a legit chance to compete. Unfortunately, I'm unconvinced that this dramatic realignment is good for baseball, and I'm equally unconvinced that it will fix baseball's revenue problems.
So, what is the problem? It's not that money is concentrated in the hands of a few teams. It's that a few teams get all of the BIG NAME free agents. Other teams can't compete for those BIG NAME players...that's the problem.
What we know is that the Yankees in particular already pay tens of millions in revenue sharing. This would continue. Here's the simple fix:
Implement a max contract system, somewhat like the NBA, but not a salary cap. This system would allow a team to sign their own FAs for up to $20 million per year, while other teams could only spend $17 million per year (play with the numbers as you choose). In a nutshell, the Yankees could decide to spend $17 million on every position, but they couldn't simply overbid by $40 million on a player like they did with Sabathia. They could sign a bunch of players, but they couldn't simply buy all of the best players as they enter free agency. The contract cap would be high enough that we'd still have plenty of FAs - with no limit on the # of years a team could offer - but low enough that most teams would be willing to at least consider making that investment on their version of Teixeira. Players could still be awash in money, just not quite to the ARod/Pujols level.
This is against all I stand for with respect to free market economics, but baseball isn't now and never will be a free market. If it were, the Yankees and Red Sox would be Home Depot and Lowes, and the Royals would be Hechinger. They'd be out of business, and that's not good for baseball.
Importantly (for me) it would also maintain the existing traditional alignment of baseball, so teams like the Orioles would continue to play their historical rivals. Note, this doesn't preclude some logical realignment.
1. Most teams wouldn't pay $20M/year for anyone, including their own.
2. How many $17M per annum contracts are there? It can't be 15 or 20. So your plan has no impact on 98% of major leaguers.
3. When you cap, and this is a kind of cap, you shift resources and incentives to other areas. Rich teams would have more money to use on development, cutting away at poorer teams' advantages. And top free agents would be presented with a dozen offers at the max salary, so they'd choose based on other things, like who wins the most or who has the best facilities or most rabid fanbase or most endorsement opportunities (hint: Yanks, Sox).
4. Allowing the big teams to overspend hurts them. Even the Yanks probably have some kind of internal payroll limit. Under your plan they'll still get most of the big names, and they'll have a lot more cash left over for the almost-big names.
5. If you modify your thresholds, setting the limits lower, you'll get more and more pushback from the MLBPA and the big market teams.
Three Run Homer
I'm not sure if this reform would have much effect. The Pirates and Royals (and Orioles, unfortunately) are unlikely to ever spend $20 million per season on one player. Meanwhile, the Yankees could still outbid everyone else just by extending the length of contracts. CC Sabathia would probably have preferred to sign with the Yankees for $10 years, $170 million, even if Milwaukee had been willing to offer (say) 3 years, $60 million to keep him.
I'm not a big fan of division realignment either. I don't want the league to be divided into an "A" division, and "B" division and so on. I don't want the O's to be competing to be the best team in the worst division.
Just have real revenue sharing and a salary cap, like all the other major sports do. To create the revenue sharing pool, tax each team according to the size (and thus potential revenue) of its local media market, rather than its actual revenue stream, so that teams still have financial incentives to market themselves well and put out a good product.
CrimsonTribe
I doubt the MLBPA would allow any sort of cap on salaries, no matter how high.
I think most of your points actually argue for my proposal. Here are my responses...
I bet just about every team would pay that for Teixeira, Howard, Fielder, Pujols, etc. These are the guys who tip the balance. Not Pettite, Vasquez, Burnett, et al. The Yankees would basically be able to purchase pitchers and second level FAs (they already do), but each comes at a very high out year risk. Further, it would eliminate some of the incentive for arbitration eligible players to wait for FA to sign. The relative potential value gained would diminish.
Exactly. This is a good thing that *might* make it play better with the owners and the union. I don't think Adrian Beltre is the problem.
They'd only have 1 offer at max salary. The other dozen would be at less than max value. Facilities aren't as important as money and stability. Additionally, baseball isn't a huge endorsement sport, so the relative advantage there would be minimized compared to the NBA and NFL.
In the interest of space, I took out the part about the draft and int'l FAs, but I agree that they'd need to be addressed at some level. Either way, just because they haven't yet fully exploited those avenues doesn't mean that won't happen under the current system (it will, eventually). In other words, it'll probably have to be addressed either way.
How does it hurt them? I'm not concerned about the Yankees' bottom line, I'm concerned about the competitive advantage. You'll have a hard time convincing me that their spending is bad for them in the standings. Also, I don't believe they'd get all of the big name guys. Again, I'm talking about the BIG NAME FAs.
Why would I modify the thresholds? If anything, I might have a sliding scale where the other teams could bid closer to the original team. 15% less is quite significant, particularly when you consider that a player would have to move themselves and their families to an unknown team/area.
Only 29 in the history of baseball. 18 of those are current. And it looks like about half of those 18 are contracts the team would like to take back. (these #s might be off by one or two, I counted quickly)
# Roger Clemens, $28,000,022 (2007)
# Alex Rodriguez, $27,500,000 (2008-17)
# CC Sabathia, $23,000,000 (2009-15)
# Johan Santana, $22,916,667 (2008-13)
# Manny Ramirez, $22,500,000 (2009-10)
# Mark Teixeira, $22,500,000 (2009-16)
Roy Halladay, $20,000,000 (2011-13)
# Miguel Cabrera, $19,037,500 (2008-15)
# Derek Jeter, $18,900,000 (2001-10)
# Carlos Zambrano, $18,300,000 (2008-12)
# Andruw Jones, $18,100,000 (2008-09)
# Barry Bonds, $18,000,000 (2002-06)
Roger Clemens, $18,000,000 (2005)
Ryan Howard, $18,000,000 (2009-11)
Torii Hunter, $18,000,000 (2008-12)
Sammy Sosa, $18,000,000 (2002-05)
Ichiro Suzuki, $18,000,000 (2008-12)
Vernon Wells, $18,000,000 (2008-14)
Barry Zito, $18,000,000 (2007-13)
# Jake Peavy, $17,333,333 (2010-12)
# Jason Giambi, $17,142,857 (2002-08)
Matt Holliday, $17,142,857 (2010-16)
# Jeff Bagwell, $17,000,000 (2002-06)
Carlos Beltran, $17,000,000 (2005-11)
Carlos Delgado, $17,000,000 (2001-04)
Alfonso Soriano, $17,000,000 (2007-14)
I'm not sure if this reform would have much effect. The Pirates and Royals (and Orioles, unfortunately) are unlikely to ever spend $20 million per season on one player.
The Brewers were in this category until they got Sabathia and Fielder. I bet they would.
Meanwhile, the Yankees could still outbid everyone else just by extending the length of contracts. CC Sabathia would probably have preferred to sign with the Yankees for $10 years, $170 million, even if Milwaukee had been willing to offer (say) 3 years, $60 million to keep him.
Sabathia was a severe outlier insofar as he was a pitcher who got that much money over that many years. The risk is huge. Still, the Yankees wouldn't have been able to offer that deal under my proposal, so the Brewers would have at least had a chance, and probably a good one. Consider, their offer was something like 5/100. The Yankees would have had to go to 7 years to significantly outbid them.
A more pure financial system is harder to get by either the players or the owners. My system may have a better chance of succeeding.
If I were in charge of a small or mid-market team I'd pay $20M for Teixiera, maybe $25M for Pujols and ARod, and that's about it. There's not a pitcher in the world I'd approach $20M a year on, and I wouldn't even get into the bidding on Howard, Fielder, or other Mo Vaughn types.
The plan is more acceptable because it has less impact. If you're only touching 1% or 2% of contracts this thing is more for show than competitive balance.
I'm assuming that almost every free agent would take $17M from the Yanks/Sox/Dodgers/Angels over $20M from the Royals, Nats, or Pirates. Especially if the rich teams can just extend the deal, or defer more money to make the overall package more valuable.
Your plan keeps teams from signing Barry Zito to a 12/43789M deal. It allows them to still sign Teixiera to a 10/170 deal with endorsements and a private jet and his own suite in the clubhouse... and take the cash they would have used to outbid everyone else and spend it on CC Sabathia or whomever.
I figured, if anything, you'd want it to apply to more players so it would be more than window dressing.
I don't think Adrian Beltre is the problem.
I absolutely think guys like Adrian Beltre are the problem. Not Beltre specifically by himself because he signed a one year deal with an option, which most teams probably could have afforded. He picked Boston because of competitiveness and because Fenway should help his stats. But look at how many of those mid-level FAs Boston signed. Beltre, Cameron, Scutaro, and they traded for Bill Hall. Plus John Lackey, who only has one year on his deal over $17 million. Add those to a whole slew of guys they have under contract who are in that $7-16 million sweet spot (Drew, Ortiz, Lowell, Beckett, Youkilis, Papelbon, Martinez, Matsuzaka, and several more).
But the point isn't about who anyone should sign, it's about whether they could be competitive if they choose to be when those players hit FA.
I guess we have a disagreement on the definition of the problem. I simply don't think mid-level guys are part of the problem. By definition, there are many available. It's only the elite players who create the problem. The Yankees didn't buy a World Series last year with Ryan Garko.
Maybe today, but why would you assume this over the long run? Look at basketball. Lebron James just apparently decided to stay in Cleveland. Duane Wade apparently wants to stay in Miami. Their endorsements are available no matter where they play. The only driving factor then is competitiveness, personal comfort and money, and they're staying put.
Furthermore, why would we want to protect bad franchises? Allowing player movement is a good thing in that respect. Perhaps a terrible player wouldn't want to be in a bad environment. Even that would vary by player.
Nobody made a 10 year committment to Teixeira. They made an 8 year committment. Still, their 10 year committment would only be 10 million more than some other team's 8 year committment. With interest and potential future earnings, it's probably a deficit.
I don't want MLB to control all player movement. I want them to allow teams an opportunity to keep their best players and I don't want any 1-4 teams to have an insurmountable (over time) financial advantage allowing them to purchase a winner rather than to compete in all aspects of organizational development.
Boston should be rewarded for being a good franchise. Allowing second-third tier players the right to choose the better franchise makes the most sense. Under what system would that not be the case?
For John Lackey, the Angels could have afforded him, but chose not to. He didn't fit their risk profile due to his age and some recent injuries.
To be clear, I'm not advocating any system that provides exact financial equality because it's impossible in the current MLB political environment. The numbers could be tweaked here or there, but I think the point is that teams with FAs should have a better chance to keep their players because that's the real problem in baseball today.
I'm open to other solutions. Anyone have something better/different to offer?
MarCakes21
I think that the concept of what you have in basketball may actually work. Its not a hard cap, but it does have some limitations.
For example, you can sign players to a max deal only if you have cap space. At that point, they would need to take a significant discount to play on a team without cap space, as they would have to be an exception to a mid-level player similar to what basketball has.
Also, another key point of what basketball has is that if this "max-player" is on your team, not only can you sign him for more money per year, but more years over all. So you could give someone a 10/200 contract, whereas another team, like the Stanks would be forced to give them say a 8/136 deal. Big difference when you look at it that way. Would the player signing a max deal then sign for 64 mil less?
The system does not work in the NBA, but it would be interesting in MLB, even though the MLBPA would never agree to this. However, it also does not work in the NBA because they're revenue is actually much much less than what they spend on players. So every single owner is actually shelling out of his pocket to pay players. In the MLB, with revenue sharing, teams make more money then they pay players, just not all choose to spend it.
Comprehensive revenue sharing based on market potential and incentivized towards success.
Or, if you were starting from scratch, you'd construct a system that allows the market to decide the number and level of teams in each geographic area so that each team's market size would be roughly the same. This could take the form of a large number of competing, independent leagues. Or maybe a promotion/relegation system. Or maybe a hybrid system that regularly expands/contracts/relocates franchises based on performance.
Or, you could just wait until TV revenue is overwhelmed by internet content delivery revenues. The former isn't shared (mostly), the latter is. That will go a long way towards fixing the current disparities.
For example, you can sign players to a max deal only if you have cap space.
I think the concept of a broader cap is DOA.
Also, another key point of what basketball has is that if this "max-player" is on your team, not only can you sign him for more money per year, but more years over all.
In theory, this could be somewhat workable in the collective bargaining sense of things. I actually think I'd prefer not to limit the number of years. There's a natural market risk limitation involved anyway.
Care to elaborate?
Comprehensive would mean MLB would ask for more money from the Yankees. Very difficult to secure this agreement. Market potential would present actuarial/legal difficulties, but they could probably be overcome. Would incentives mean MLB would recoup some % of money not spent on payroll?
I'm interested, but I think the difficulty here is in securing the agreement by taking more money from the haves. Of course, any would be difficult.
I also don't fully understand how this would effect payroll.
I agree, but we won't start from scratch. You can't undo the Yankee dynasty.
owknows
HarlowFan


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text:
Die Kiste war ein Stückmaß für Fensterglas in Glashütten und ein Handelsmaß.

"Kiste" als Stückmaß
Die Hersteller von Tafelglas verpackten es zum Transport und Verkauf in Holzkisten. So wurde "Kiste" zu einer Mengenangabe und zu einem Maß. Wie viele Tafeln der Einheit "1 Kiste" entsprachen, hing von der Größe der Tafeln ab.

Gewöhnliches Glas wurde schockweise verkauft. Dabei bestimmten die Tafelgrößen die Anzahl der Tafeln je Schock. Eine Tafel mit den Maßen von 41 Zoll Länge und 26 Zoll Breite war bereits ein Schock. Die Anzahl der auf 1 Schock gehenden Tafeln wurden als Einer, Sechser, Vierzehner usw. bezeichnet. Bei grünem Glas hatte die Kiste auch 120 Tafeln. Man nannte diese Einheit Kistenglas. Die Tafelgröße war 22 Zoll Höhe und 20 Zoll Breite und in 20er Bunden zusammengefasst.

Es gab an einigen Orten auch Kisten mit 20 Scheiben je Bund. Die Bundanzahl 20 war aber gleich, so dass 400 Stück eine Kiste ergab. Für Böhmisches Tafelglas, mit Stroh gepolstert in Kisten, konnte das Bund zwischen 1 Stück Tafel bis zu 60 Stück haben. Die kleinste Tafel soll 22 Zoll hoch und 18 Zoll breit betragen haben. Die größte Tafel maß 31 Zoll mal 28 Zoll.

Regionale Unterschiede
 In Preußen wurde weißes und weißmattes Glas in Tafeln von 36 bis 40 Zoll Höhe und 27–28 Zoll Breite zum Bund zusammengestellt.
 In Hannover konnte ein Bund 40 Stück Tafeln mit den Abmaßen von 10 ¾ mal 7 ½ Zoll enthalten. Andere Gläser, wie Hohlgläser, Trinkgläser u. d. gl. wurden nach dem Hüttenhundert(-stück) gehandelt und die Anzahl war entsprechend zwischen 96 und 108 Stück.
 In Österreich war die Tafel durch die Sorte bestimmt. Die Sorte war durch die veränderliche Tafelgröße bestimmt. Hierzu addierte man zwei im Winkel zueinander stehende Seiten, die Summe wurde einer bestimmten Nummer zugeordnet. Gleiche Summe war 10 mal 12 Zoll (22) und 13 mal 9 Zoll (22). Beispiele:
64 Tafeln 10 mal 6 Zoll = 1 Bund
2 Tafel 36 mal 28 Zoll = 1 Bund

Einzelwerte
Einzelwerte für ein Schock in den Glaswerken der Churmark (Zechlin und Tornow) waren:
 1 Tafel mit 31 Zoll hoch und 29 Zoll breit
 2 Tafeln mit 29 Zoll hoch und 27 Zoll breit
 3 Tafeln mit 28 Zoll hoch und 26 Zoll breit
 4 Tafeln mit 26 Zoll hoch und 26 Zoll breit
 5 Tafeln mit 26 Zoll hoch und 25 Zoll breit
 6 Tafeln mit 23 Zoll hoch und 21 Zoll breit
 7 Tafeln mit 22 Zoll hoch und 19 Zoll breit
 8 Tafeln mit 19 Zoll hoch und 18 Zoll breit

Sonstiges
 1 Kiste = 48 Flaschen (Rotwein)
 1 Kiste = 225 Weiß-Bleche
(Quelle unter)

Literatur
 Gottlob Heinrich Heinse: Enzyklopädisches Wörterbuch oder alphabetische Erklärung aller Wörter aus fremden Sprachen, die im Deutschen angenommen sind. Band 4, Wilhelm Wedel, Zeitz/Naumburg 1801, S. 258
 Oscar Mothes: Illustriertes Bau-Lexikon. F-M. Verlagsbuchhandlung Otto Spamer, Leipzig/Berlin 1866, S. 159

Einzelnachweise

Altes Maß oder Gewicht (Deutschland)
Altes Maß oder Gewicht (Österreich)
Mengeneinheit
Glasverarbeitung

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The annual traditional event Mosquito Sunday (in Slovene: Komarjeva nedelja) will take place in the Spodnja Šiška district of Ljubljana in front of the Old Church (the Church of St. Jernej) on 26 August 2018 from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Within the framework of the event, the church service will begin at 11:00 a.m., and an hour later the cultural and entertainment programme will start at the Plečnik Stairs near the church. A concert and a prayer service for blessing will begin in the church at 5:00 p.m.
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!=~ outputs a 1 signal when the left input is not-equal to the right input and a 0 when it is equal to the right input. The right input can be a signal or a float.
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If the signal in the left inlet is not equal to the value in the right inlet, 1 is sent out; otherwise, 0 is sent out.


There is virtually no elected official that would deny that the UK is facing a housing crisis. Since 1997, the UK hasn't built anywhere near enough houses, and that has caused the cost of housing to skyrocket: pricing home-ownership well out of the reach of ordinary Britons.
Local authorities generally don't like new housing, and who can blame them? It puts pressure on public services and it can undermine the character of local communities.
However, new housing is a must, and achieving a change in the politics of housing, so that local authorities feel as though housing benefits their areas, is a top priority.
In 2011, the Conservatives introduced the New Homes Bonus, under which it has paid local authorities a grant for each new home built or unused home brought back into use. The Government has distributed £6bn from this fund, with Camden receiving £7.6m from it last year.
However, the long-term impact of this is limited. While the New Homes Bonus is not required to be spent on capital projects, it is limited in duration to five years (being reduced to four). As such, it is rarely treated as sufficiently permanent to be used to provide new services.
Instead of giving councils a New Homes Bonus for a few years, it should be a permanent, annual payment. And it should be increased. If local authorities received, say, £800 every year for each home they built, there would be a rapid realignment of incentives for councils.
Restoring weekly bin collections in Camden would cost £800,000 – using the above figure, this could be done, permanently, by Camden permitting 1,000 new homes to be developed: about the number built each year. If two million extra homes were built, this would cost £1.6bn a year: a small fraction of the government's budget and a small price to pay to solve the housing crisis.
The New Homes Bonus is brilliant, because it provides an incentive to councils to build while not costing the government any money overall. After all, the councils would be free to spend the extra cash on whatever services they deemed suitable.
And they would be free to decide for themselves what their priorities were: preventing development – which comes with limited financial upsides and many social and political downsides – or more services?
Instead of spending money on Help To Buy to increase the viability of developments, the government should look at how it can incentivise local government to build more. Devolving taxation is a difficult issue, but extending and enhancing the New Homes Bonus would be a great way to do it.
Copyright © 2015-2016 Oliver Cooper. Promoted by David Douglas on behalf of Oliver Cooper, both of 1a Heath Hurst Road, London, NW3 2RU.


Tom Scholl is the sort of person who's studied so many things that you shake your head in wonder. Currently a partner at Novak Biddle Venture Partners, a venture capital firm in Bethesda, Maryland, this philosophy and English literature alumnus has also worked as a CIA systems programmer, founded and sold a couple of communications software companies, and written a lot of poetry. In nurturing these seemingly disparate interests, however, Scholl applies curiosity, the desire to create things, and the pleasure of solving problems—whether choosing the perfect word for a poem or the right segment of code.
That said, Scholl is also smart enough to know when it's best to bring someone else on board for the problem solving. "When I was writing software, one of my early projects, around 1975, was the very first hybrid electronic key telephone/PBX product (which we later patented and sold as the Electra 100) for NEC Corporation. I believe there are two types of programmers and the industry needs them both—the kind that pride themselves on writing software with as few bugs as possible and the kind that love to find them and debug. Thanks, perhaps, to my philosophy degree, I'm the first type. I don't like finding bugs in my own software because it means I didn't do my job as an architect," he explains.
"Once we were ready to test out the whole system, we built a prototype consisting of 130 telephones and 30 central office lines coming into the switch. It seemed to be working as designed—and then I got bored. I came up with the idea of getting others to do my debugging for me. I invited engineers in the lab to try their hand at 'breaking the system' by dialing phone calls, calling each other on the intercom, simultaneously going off- and on-hook, and so forth. 'If we help you, what do we get?' they asked. I said I'd pay 25 cents for any bug they found. All of a sudden, four bugs were exposed for a cost of one dollar. I went back to my office and spent a day rewriting some code and then came back out to the lab. 'OK, see if you can break it now,' I said. 'You'll have to pay $1.00 per bug,' they said, and I agreed. I ended up paying another dollar. The next session went up to $5.00 per bug, but no one found any more bugs. This whole process gave me a lot of satisfaction, and to this day, I'm the only software person I know who was willing to pay for his bugs," recalls Scholl.
Besides making lifelong friends at Purdue as students, some of my professors had a profound impact on me and I am grateful. I think about this now that both my sons, William and Tommy, are in college. A couple of us would actually show up at Barriss Mills's house at 1 or 2 in the morning to talk about courses we were taking, poetry, or throwing pots. (Barriss was a well-known English professor and accomplished poet and critic, as well as a potter.) No matter what time it was, Barriss would offer to make us all a round of fresh, black coffee in his towering, dented, aluminum drip coffee maker. Amazingly, his wife joined into our conversations and never complained—but she was also an artist in her own right.
It was a long time before I returned to Purdue after I moved away from Indiana. When I finally did go back, the first place I wanted to go was the library. Of course, due to changes in technology, the library is not the same. I used to love going there at night or on the weekends and walking up to the big wooden card index files—I'd pick a random portion of the alphabet, look at that card drawer and then go off into the innards and find a book on some topic, or by some poet or philosopher I'd never heard of. Ironically, even though it's easier to perform that simple treat now than it was then by using Google or Project Gutenberg, there was something about the manual discovery process that was dear to me and can't be duplicated with today's technology advances.
I'm still working on it. Hopefully, I've made some people's lives discernibly better because of something I did. But that would be for them to say and not me.
The person who first leaps into my mind upon reading this question is Lhamo Thondup, who became His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. Who else can speak on a world stage and introduce himself as plagued by facial pimples, then dive into a treatise on the importance of human values such as "compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment and self-discipline"?
The reciprocated love of a woman, the success of my sons or observing them having pleasure, in the swimming pool out back on a sunny day with Miles Davis playing on the outdoor speakers loud enough for neighbors to hear, a meal with loved ones that was so good I'll never forget it, accidently running across a poem I'll remember for the rest of my life, making love, starting/creating something from nothing, the time where I know for a fact that I actually helped someone, making a sacrifice that was worth it. When it comes to perfect happiness, is it better to set a low bar or a high one?
I just finished Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed by Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille. (I just had dinner with Sandy Grimes downtown at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. She used to carpool with Aldrich Ames!) I'm reading How to Make Money in Stocks by William J. O'Neil, the novel Heaven on a Saturday Night by my cousin Elizabeth Boyd Thompson, a couple of new poetry books, and for the last year I continue to crawl through Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold and his partners.


Technical education and vocational training at various levels are spread all over Himachal Pradesh. The Industrial Training Institutes are constituted to provide technical trainings in engineering and non-engineering courses and Himachal Pradesh now boasts of having a good number of private and government ITI colleges and institutions. Interested candidates can check about ITI courses and its scope online and get more information about ITI entrance examination details, dates, cut-off marks, online application forms and other notifications. Moreover, this website also help the candidates get their admit cards downloaded directly from the website and also check the results of ITI entrance examinations.


text:
namespace Figlut.Mobile.Configuration.Manager.UI
{
    partial class EditSettingsForm
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Required designer variable.
        /// </summary>
        private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;
        private System.Windows.Forms.MainMenu mnuMain;

        /// <summary>
        /// Clean up any resources being used.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false.</param>
        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing && (components != null))
            {
                components.Dispose();
            }
            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }

        #region Windows Form Designer generated code

        /// <summary>
        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        /// </summary>
        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
            this.mnuMain = new System.Windows.Forms.MainMenu();
            this.mnuCancel = new System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem();
            this.mnuEdit = new System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem();
            this.grdSettingValues = new System.Windows.Forms.DataGrid();
            this.SuspendLayout();
            //
            // mnuMain
            //
            this.mnuMain.MenuItems.Add(this.mnuCancel);
            this.mnuMain.MenuItems.Add(this.mnuEdit);
            //
            // mnuCancel
            //
            this.mnuCancel.Text = "Cancel";
            this.mnuCancel.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.mnuCancel_Click);
            //
            // mnuEdit
            //
            this.mnuEdit.Text = "Edit";
            this.mnuEdit.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.mnuEdit_Click);
            //
            // grdSettingValues
            //
            this.grdSettingValues.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.White;
            this.grdSettingValues.BackgroundColor = System.Drawing.Color.White;
            this.grdSettingValues.Font = new System.Drawing.Font("Tahoma", 6F, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular);
            this.grdSettingValues.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Black;
            this.grdSettingValues.GridLineColor = System.Drawing.Color.SteelBlue;
            this.grdSettingValues.HeaderBackColor = System.Drawing.Color.SteelBlue;
            this.grdSettingValues.HeaderForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.White;
            this.grdSettingValues.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(18, 116);
            this.grdSettingValues.Name = "grdSettingValues";
            this.grdSettingValues.PreferredRowHeight = 8;
            this.grdSettingValues.RowHeadersVisible = false;
            this.grdSettingValues.SelectionBackColor = System.Drawing.Color.SteelBlue;
            this.grdSettingValues.SelectionForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.White;
            this.grdSettingValues.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(204, 120);
            this.grdSettingValues.TabIndex = 0;
            this.grdSettingValues.CurrentCellChanged += new System.EventHandler(this.grdSettingValues_CurrentCellChanged);
            //
            // EditSettingsForm
            //
            this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(96F, 96F);
            this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Dpi;
            this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(240, 268);
            this.ControlBox = false;
            this.Controls.Add(this.grdSettingValues);
            this.KeyPreview = true;
            this.Menu = this.mnuMain;
            this.Name = "EditSettingsForm";
            this.Text = "Edit Settings";
            this.KeyDown += new System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventHandler(this.EditSettingsForm_KeyDown);
            this.Load += new System.EventHandler(this.EditSettingsForm_Load);
            this.ResumeLayout(false);

        }

        #endregion

        private System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem mnuCancel;
        private System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem mnuEdit;
        private System.Windows.Forms.DataGrid grdSettingValues;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Daily updates of April personal income tax collections.
We discuss the trends in corporation tax collections through the middle of April.
We discuss March 2019 state tax collections.
A brief look at housing permit data for February 2019.
We discuss the February 2019 jobs report.
We discuss February 2019 state tax collections.
We review data on household debt in California, which is at its lowest level in at least 15 years, and discuss why this is generally a good sign for the economy.
A brief look at home sales data for February 2019.
A brief look at unemployment claims data for February 2019.
We discuss the January 2019 jobs report.
An update of our index which tracks the strength of economic conditions relevant to the state's fiscal health.
A brief look at housing permit data for January 2019.
A brief look at unemployment claims data for January 2019.
We discuss second quarter 2018-19 cannabis tax collections.
We discuss December 2018 and January 2019 state tax collections.


text:
Team USA gold medal favorite is refusing vaccination ahead of Olympic Games
Olympic U.S. swimmer Michael Andrew told the media on Thursday that he will forego vaccination prior to the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The event is set to start on July 23, with no spectators planned to attend the event due to an ongoing spike in COVID cases challenging Tokyo.
Impressing his team with a near record-breaking performance at the Olympic trials, Michael Andrew's contention for top honors at the Olympic Games is predicated on an intense training regimen that Andrew worries may be affected by inoculation.
Andrew enters the Olympic Games as the best freestyle swimmer and breaststroker for Team U.S.A.
Per the Yahoo Sports! report, the swimmer provided some context to his decision during Thursday's press:
"My reason behind it is I, for one, it was kind of a last moment, I didn't want to put anything in my body that I didn't know how I would potentially react to. As an athlete on the elite level, everything we do is very calculated. For me in the training cycle, especially leading up to trials, I didn't want to risk any days out, because we do know that there are periods where, getting the vaccine, you have to deal with some days off.
"But as far as that goes, U.S.A. Swimming and all of us here have been through a very strict protocol with lots of testing, masks, socially distant, obviously staying away from the crowds, everything like that. And going into Tokyo, the same thing, with testing every day. So we feel very safe and protected, knowing that we're minimizing risk as much as possible."
As proponents for mandatory vaccination give the 22-year-old swimmer heat for his decision, the swimmer's choice for freewill reflects a positive standard for independent assessment when it comes to getting the vaccine.
Based on current ruling, vaccination remains optional for all athletes going into the Olympic Games. Andrew is confident that he can stay in good health by adhering to the COVID measures detailed by the IOC.
With a reported 80%+ vaccination rate among participants in Tokyo, the swimmer is ready to just keep swimming his way to Olympic gold, ignoring the distractions in the interim.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
import { Search } from './search';
export {
	Search
};


Many European countries are struggling to respond to high unemployment. The labour market is also facing many challenges, including those of discrimination and gender equality issues. The Global Fund for Decent Work and Tripartite Dialogue put these and other workplace challenges on the agenda.
Norway promote decent work and tripartite dialogue in the 13 beneficiary countries that joined the EU in 2004, 2007 and 2013.
Funding is available for entities registered in 13 beneficiary countries. The Global Fund for Decent Work and Tripartite Dialogue is distinctive from all other programmes which are country-specific.
The Fund is operated by Innovation Norway. Projects are selected on the basis of a dialogue with the National Focal Point in each beneficiary country. Efforts are made to facilitate partnerships with social partners in Norway; partnerships are not however mandatory.
Projects are selected following open calls organised by the Fund Operator. Calls are published on the websites of the Fund Operator and in our open calls calendar.
A call for bids for a review of the Norway Grants funding to Decent work and Tripartite dialogue is now open.


text:
> Home > EN3 >
EN3: terms and conditions
EN3 is subject to Crown copyright protection. The material may be downloaded to file or printer for the purposes of private study and scientific research. Any other proposed use of the material is subject to a copyright licence available from the Met Office. Licences and further information can be obtained from the Met Office IPR Officer, Met Office, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB. E-mail: ipr@metoffice.gov.uk.
For further information on Crown Copyright policy and licensing arrangements, see the guidance featured on HMSO's web site.
When publishing work using the data, please use the following citation:
Ingleby, B., and M. Huddleston, 2007: Quality control of ocean temperature and salinity profiles - historical and real-time data. Journal of Marine Systems, 65, 158-175 10.1016/j.jmarsys.2005.11.019
The source should also be quoted in the acknowledgements section as www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs.
Maintained by: Simon Good


text:
Tag: referendum
Exercise your right to vote
(news.gov.bc.ca)
British Columbians have been tasked, once again, with voting on whether or not to change our electoral system.
Until Nov. 30, we are being asked to choose what voting system we should use for provincial elections, whether to keep the current first-past-the-post (FPTP) system or switch to one of three proportional representation (PR) voting systems offered on the ballot. This is our third referendum on electoral reform, the 2005 and 2009 votes having chosen the status quo rather than change to a single transferable vote system. While the STV forms a component of one of our choices this time around, it is not one of the systems being proposed.
The 24-page voter's guide from Elections BC describes our current system, FPTP: "the province is divided into electoral districts and each district is represented by one member of the legislative assembly (MLA). Voters mark their ballot for one candidate. The candidate with the most votes in the district wins and represents the district in the legislature. The number of seats a party gets in the legislature equals the number of districts its candidates win."
In PR, however, "the share of seats a political party wins in the legislative assembly is about the same as the party's share of the popular vote. So, if a party receives 40 percent of the popular vote, they are likely to have about 40 percent of the seats in the legislature. There are many different voting systems that are designed to produce proportional results."
Indeed, there are dozens of variations on the PR theme, and herein lies one of the problems with the 2018 referendum. British Columbians will be asked: 1) which system, FPTP or PR, should be used for provincial elections, and 2) if a PR system were to be adopted, which of three systems – mixed member, rural-urban or dual member – we would prefer. There will be no second referendum, as there was in New Zealand, asking us whether we would prefer FPTP or the majority-chosen type of PR, with its details fleshed out by a parliamentary, expert or other committee.
We are, in essence, being asked to take our best, semi-educated guess as to which of three vaguely described PR options might yield better results than FPTP. Several key factors are "to be determined" after the referendum results, if PR is chosen, such as how electoral boundaries will change, how candidate lists would be drawn up, the total number of MLAs to be elected, how coalition governments would be formed. All of these elements determine how effective a PR system will be in producing a more responsive, diverse and balanced government. And we will not have a direct say in these decisions.
There is no way in this limited amount of space that we can satisfactorily explain all of the PR systems being put forward in the referendum. Readers should go to elections.bc.ca/referendum for the basics and research as best they can. This may not yield satisfactory results, however, because only one of the referendum's PR options is actually in use in other countries; the other two are theoretical at this point. Mixed member PR is used in New Zealand, Germany, Scotland, Mexico and other countries, while the rural-urban system combines approaches used in various countries and the dual-member version is akin to a system Prince Edward Island once used (but no longer does) and also, according to one pro-PR website, "echoes our own voting history," as British Columbia had multi-member ridings until the 1990s.
So, what do to then if we treat this referendum as less of a choice between which PR system we prefer and more of a choice between keeping the status quo and changing to a new system?
Vote PR BC and the No BC Proportional Representation Society each received $500,000 in government funding to advocate for and against PR, respectively. However, you will find little in-depth information from these sources. Think tanks and other groups have tried to fill in the gaps of knowledge but, perhaps not surprisingly, there's valid-sounding evidence on both sides of the issue. For each piece of evidence supporting PR – such as it will end adversarial politics and hold politicians more to account – there is an evidence-based opposite finding. How many of us will look at all the studies, check the sources and determine how rigorous and accurate the conclusions are? Likely very few of us.
For what it's worth, among the supporters of PR, you will find the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the B.C. NDP and B.C. Green Party. Among those skeptical of it are the right-leaning Fraser Institute and the B.C. Liberals. At the end of the day, most of us will probably base our decision on the opinions of those people and organizations with whom we agree on other subjects. We also will consider what we know personally (as opposed to filtered through another researcher's lens) of PR systems elsewhere in the world, such as in Israel – even though the specific Israeli form of PR is not one of those on the B.C. ballot, it is similar. Some of us might opt for change for change's sake, and others will stick with the devil we know. It might comfort some voters to know that, if we choose change, there will be another referendum in two election cycles to see if we want to return to FPTP or stay the course.
Knowledge is power and we recommend that voters do the absolute best to educate themselves about the various alternatives. But don't be discouraged if you're still uncertain after your research. Both FPTP and PR have their strengths and weaknesses. However, a vital aspect of both FPTP and PR – and one that directly speaks to the health of our democracy no matter what the electoral system – is that people exercise their right to vote. Whatever your choice, please fill out your ballot when you get it in the mail.
Format ImagePosted on October 26, 2018 October 25, 2018 Author The Editorial BoardCategories From the JITags British Columbia, electoral reform, politics, referendum
BDS loses in SFU vote
SFU's Teaching Support Staff Union voted 186 for and 227 against including a BDS campaign in the union's bylaws and policies. (photo from RestfulC401 (WinterforceMedia) via commons.wikimedia.org)
The Vancouver Jewish community had another victory over the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement last week, this time at Simon Fraser University.
The university's Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU), a union for teaching assistants, seasonal instructors and non-full-time staff, held a referendum May 15-19 on whether to include a BDS campaign against Israel in its bylaws and policies. The motion was defeated, with 186 TSSU members voting for BDS and 227 voting against it.
When Rabbi Philip Bregman, executive director of Hillel BC, first heard about the referendum, he and his team at Hillel BC were in the midst of fighting BDS at the University of British Columbia. "It was like whack-a-mole," he said. "We were fighting two battles at the same time and, when we weren't dealing with UBC, we were dealing with SFU!"
Bregman estimates TSSU has around 600 members and a key part of Hillel BC's strategy was reaching those members. That was a challenge, given the fact that TSSU would not give Hillel BC access to its membership list. Instead, Hillel BC had to research each SFU faculty individually to find out who its teaching assistants were, and then communicated with them via email. "It was like we were fighting ghosts – we had to try figure out who the part- time professors and TAs were in order to reach their members," he said.
Bregman and his team also sent a letter to SFU faculty members, explaining how dangerous it was for an academic institute to be boycotting other academic institutions. "We were trying to show members of the TSSU that this was not a smart thing for them to do," he said.
The week of the referendum, Bregman and his team were on the SFU campus with a sign requesting that TSSU members approach them and have a conversation – and many of them did. TSSU tried to counter Hillel BC's arguments, but their counter-arguments were weak, Bregman said.
Still, Bregman was certain the BDS campaign would be voted into policy. "The TSSU held all the cards. They wouldn't let us know who their membership was and most of the information they sent out was pro-BDS," he said.
On its website, however, amid the wording of the resolution and other background information, TSSU included four documents that laid out reasons why members should vote no to the BDS motion.
While the administration at SFU did not issue any statements about its position on the BDS referendum, it did reach out to Bregman. "They called me to ask what was happening on their campus," he said. "I told the university administration that SFU would get a black eye if this thing passes. It really would have been catastrophic for the university."
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
Format ImagePosted on May 26, 2017 May 24, 2017 Author Lauren KramerCategories LocalTags anti-Israel, BDS, boycott, Hillel BC, Philip Bregman, referendum, SFU, Simon Fraser University
Campus, church extremism
Last week, students at the University of British Columbia rejected a referendum question that would have urged the student society to boycott Israeli businesses and products.
But the news was by no means all good when the results came in last Friday night. In fact, more students voted yes in support of BDS (boycotts, divestment, sanctions) than voted no. The question was defeated effectively on a technicality, with the number of students voting yes failing to reach quorum. Therefore the question failed.
Students were asked: "Do you support your student union (AMS) in boycotting products and divesting from companies that support Israeli war crimes, illegal occupation and the oppression of Palestinians?" The yes side received 3,493 votes, 2,223 students voted no and 435 registered their abstentions. To pass, the vote required 4,130 yeses, representing eight percent of eligible students.
In this, too, there is good news and bad news. The low turnout indicates that students at the university have better things on their mind than the conflict between Israel and its neighbors. It has become increasingly clear in recent years that the anti-Israel movement on college campuses in North America is comparatively small. Yet the damage this narrow group of extremists can do to the comfort and security of Jewish and Zionist students – and to the broader objective of an inclusive, welcoming environment – has been serious and detrimental.
The BDS movement has had few tangible successes and plenty of failures, if measured by their effectiveness at actually boycotting, divesting from or sanctioning anything. What they have been wildly successful at is spreading messages that single out Israel as the fountainhead of all things evil.
Also mixed news is the fact that, while campaigns like BDS are finding it difficult to rustle up serious numbers of equally agitated fellow travelers, Jewish students, too, are challenged in finding substantial numbers of allies when confronted with a campaign of targeted aggression against the Jewish homeland. There might be only a few thousand out of more than 50,000 students who succumb to anti-Israel messaging, but there are even fewer who observe that messaging and are moved to come to the aid of Israel – and/or Jewish students – when it is attacked in this fashion.
Which raises another issue facing our Vancouver community.
Later this month, Canadian Friends of Sabeel will hold a conference on "overcoming Christian Zionism." Sabeel describes itself as an "ecumenical Palestinian liberation theology centre" that is "working for justice, peace and reconciliation in Palestine-Israel." In reality, it is a group that promotes a misrepresentation of events in the Middle East. The conference slated for Vancouver is explicitly aimed at undermining Israel among its North American Christian supporters.
Conservative Christians have been among Israel's most reliable bloc of friends in troubled times. Like any bedfellows, the Zionist-Christian alliance brings with it complexities. While some Christians use Zionism as a back door to evangelizing or view Christianity as a "successor" religion to Judaism, for example, there are also many in the Christian Zionist movement who respect the integrity of Judaism.
The upcoming conference is co-sponsored by three Christian churches.
The United Church of Canada, for decades but especially in recent years, has adopted a heavily anti-Israel approach to global affairs. Their sponsorship of this event is not surprising. The Presbyterian Church in Canada is also supporting this event, though this, too, is not shocking, given that the American branch of the Presbyterian Church has been beset by anti-Israel agitation and last year voted to divest itself of some Israeli holdings.
What is surprising – and worrisome – is the role of the Anglican Church of Canada as co-sponsor of this conference. Two years ago, the church passed a resolution that made some attempts at balance but was marred by typical anti-Israel boilerplate. With their co-sponsorship of this Sabeel event, the Anglican church has thrown itself unequivocally off the fence.
There are parallels between these two developments – the UBC vote and the involvement of erstwhile moderate Christian groups in a blatantly anti-Israel conference. The fact is, probably most active Anglicans, Presbyterians and United churchgoers have no idea what their national bodies are up to. Of the millions of Canadians represented by these three denominations, the vast majority probably do not have an opinion on – or do not agree with – the approach of this month's conference. As we saw at UBC, the anti-Israel movement tends to be a small group of zealots who get involved in a legitimate body and turn it into a platform, a rabidly anti-Israel tail wagging an otherwise amicable dog.
Like the impact of anti-Israel extremism on campus, the involvement of mainline Christian groups in this anti-Israel conference shows how a small group of dedicated individuals can create nasty, lasting divisions in a multicultural community.
Posted on April 3, 2015 April 1, 2015 Author The Editorial BoardCategories From the JITags Anglican Church, anti-Israel, antisemitism, BDS, Presbyterian Church, referendum, Sabeel, UBC, United Church of Canada3 Comments on Campus, church extremism


With the IMO's 2020 sulfur cap continuing to dominate the agenda, we've developed a program focused on its consequences for both the shipping sector and commodities markets.
Our leading editors and analysts will share the latest analysis on how best to deal with the sulfur cap, how producers and refiners are preparing for the cap, and how best to defend your business against bunker price credit risk. We're also delighted to host a panel discussion considering the broader influence that the IMO's cap will have on the world trade.


text:
COMMUNITY MILESTONES
— Mar 17th, 1995
At Harrison Memorial Hospital
To Deborah and Bruce Berkimar, Bremerton, a son, March 13.
To Deanna Frender and James Rowen, Bremerton, a son, March 13.
To Terri and John McKenzie, Bremerton, a son, March 13.
To Shanta Turner, Bremerton, a daughter, March 14.
At Tacoma General Hospital
To Laura and Kier Schmitt, Poulsbo, a son, March 14.
At St. Joseph Medical Center, Tacoma
To Shanon Morelock and Jason Doggett, Port Orchard, a son, March 4.
Albert T. Audette, 71, of Quilcene, March 14, at home.
Ester M. Seymour, 79, of Port Orchard, March 15, at Harrison Memorial Hospital.
Merton P. Waterman, 87, of Port Townsend, March 15, at Kah Tai Care Center.
David C. Beal, 43, and Katherine M. Hawkes, 32, both of Bainbridge Island.
Gregg Q. Thomas, 27, and Karyn Y. Paschal, 30, both of Bremerton.
Glen T. Brydges, 47, and Joanne N. Allie, 50, both of Tumwater.
Brentt Hensley, 24, and Karen L. Slater, 37, both of Shelton.
Donald W. Makoviney, 22, and Amanda Reid, 20, both of Shelton.
DEATHS Kitsap County Sylvia Lattin, 80, of Port Orchard, March 13, at home. William Blunt, 72, of Bremerton, March 14, at home. BIRTHS At Harrison Hospital To Nicole D. Kinnunen, Bremerton, a daughter, March 11. To Cindy and Brian Sandberg, Suquamish, a daughter, March 13. To Teah and Scott ... [Read More...]
DEATHS Kitsap County Richard O. Riedl, 74, of Port Orchard, March 12, at Harrison Memorial Hospital. Sylvia F. Strightrunchey, 75, of Bremerton, March 12, at Harrison Memorial Hospital. Mable L. Bruns, 94, of Bremerton, March 13, at home. Lillian G. Willison, 71, of Bremerton, March 13, at home. BIRTHS At Harrison ... [Read More...]
DEATHS Kitsap County Orville H. Keen, 87, of Port Orchard, March 26, at Harrison Memorial Hospital. Billie D. Zinter, 66, of Bremerton, March 27, at Harrison Memorial Hospital. Walter Studerus, 73, of Bainbridge Island, March 27, at Messenger House. Jefferson County Jeanette S. Heaward, 58, of Quilcene, March 27, in Port ... [Read More...]
BIRTHS At Harrison Memorial Hospital To Leeshelia Perrigo, Bremerton, a daughter, March 11. To Laura and Damon Simpkinson, Bremerton, a son, March 11. To Destiny Gremillion, Bremerton, a son, March 12. To Virginia and John Hunter, Hansville, a daughter, March 12. To Cynthia and Brent Parker, Kingston, ... [Read More...]
BIRTHS At Harrison Memorial Hospital To Justine and Jess McKellar, Bremerton, a son, March 13. To Julie and Robert Newman, Bremerton, a son, March 13. To Shelley and Paul Wittig, Port Orchard, a son, March 13. To Roya and Aaron Ash, Kingston, a son, March 14. To ... [Read More...]


text:
It's not all about flows: critical issues overlooked
Posted by on 8 March 2009
The macro debate has engaged (as befitting) with many variables, yet left areas critical to tackling the crisis almost untouched.
Let me explain. Take the identity MV=PT. I'd caricature the discussion as having roamed over each of M, V, P and T - sometimes alone, sometimes in combination, sometimes in the context of a "small, open economy", sometimes in other contexts, sometimes from a neo-Keynesian perspective, sometimes not. Plenty of issues there, but let's look at what's missing.
Remember the context. According to official material, the London G20 is to provide a forum for further global discourse to take forward the agenda to:
- restore financial stability
- drive economic recovery
- progress the transition to a high-growth, low carbon global economy.
Notice two things here. First, the gobbleygook: "forum" for "discourse" for taking forward an "agenda". We are well into international bureaucrat territory here. Second, the action words "restore", "drive", and (slightly less confident) "progress". Now we all (I hope) know that forums for discourses to take forward agendas don't drive economic recovery. To be blunt, it seems that the meeting is intended to provide some positive sounding statements that show the G20 leaders strongly to be leading us toward recovery etc. I suggest that professionals should be wary of serving that agenda. If there are key issues that are intractable or highly divisive, we should say so.
So, what's my beef? I suggest four issues need far more attention. Each one points to severe limits or difficulties to the G20 driving economic recovery etc. So, all the more reason to mention them.
First, and looking at stocks rather than flows, real asset prices. We have hit the limits of leveraging the U.S. household income. Assume the financial sector can be held together but with much less leveraging than previously. Assume the U.S. government in part substitutes for missing consumption. There's still a big gap which means that substantial slab of capital assets (and human capital) globally are mis-allocated and thus mis-priced. This is important as the Chinese, U.S., Japanese and /German governments show little sign to date of wanting to take that on. The inclination is instead to try and match demand to the available supply which merely delays the adaption process. The problem is also tricky because the longer term adjustments needed are difficult to distinguish from the noise produced by destocking and postponed purchases; e.g. U.S. auto sales may be down 40% but who knows where they will settle.
Second, the stock of household and firm debt. Again, we have a lot of noise from the over-leveraging in the financial sector. But, even supposing that can be cleared away, households in the U.S. and firms in export countries and the U.S. will be left holding a lot of debt for (as per the price adjustment on assets) poor quality assets. In short, the balance sheet problem isn't just with financials and industrial dinosaurs.
Again, even assuming the financial sector can be put on its feet, lending will be limited until these balance sheet issues can be worked through.
Third, the impact of increasing the stock of government debt. Virtually every government in the world is or will be issuing more debt shortly, including those like Australia, New Zealand and Israel, who have not increased their issuance for some years. And, of course, the U.S. will be issuing lots more. Quantitative easing will see some removed from the market, but overall the marketplace will be crowded. Some issuers will be crowded out, and either there will be upward pressure on interest rates or other forms of investment (notably equities) will be crowded out also. In short, the increase stock of government debt necessary to fund the fiscal stimulii will have displacement effects, as well as being a burden on future taxpayers.
Fourth, bilateralism and the U.S. $. We all know the status of the U.S. $ as the world's reserve currency for both means of exchange and store of value purposes. Recent work by Brad Setser at the U.S. Council for Foreign Relations (Sovereign Wealth and Sovereign Power
The Strategic Consequences of American Indebtedness, CSR no 37, 2008) shows that in this decade: (1) central banks and sovereign wealth funds have almost entirely replaced private investors as the foreign holders of U.s. government bonds; (2) those from authoritarian regimes (and notably China) are increasingly dominant. What this points to is that the U.S. government debt market is decreasingly a market at all. It more resembles a series of bilateral deals or, in the case of China, a bilateral monopoly. (I've written on the robust signaling going on between China and the U.S.) Followers of game theory will know that such arrangements tend not to end happily.
In combination, I suggest that airing these four issues is a necessary counterbalance to the emerging story for the G20 that by spending more and by quantitative easing the big economies can get things rolling again.


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Larkin Love is looking mighty bootyliscious in this set by Blue Blood's Amelia G and Forrest Black. As you well may know, I am a huge fan of shoes and boots. These boots completely rock! I mean, okay, Larkin Love is an awesome model with a great look. She's half girl-next door and half Hunger Games femme fatale (and all vixen). These boots though are straight out of the KISS catalog. They go up towards the knees with straps and heavy leather. I am seriously jealous.
The jealously doesn't stop at her boots, though. Check out another KISS nod, her tongue. There were actually a lot of great shots of her tongue parting her blue-purple lips. This entire BlueBlood shoot rests upon Larkin's ability to use her natural assets to her advantage. I'm talking about the entire package of talent here. These shots are the safest I can get for the website, but there is one shot in particular, you have to check out. You see, she loses her bottoms rather quickly in the photo shoot and her top is soon to follow, but whilst she is moving her clothing over, she plops down in the splits.
That's right. Larkin Love not only looks gorgeous, but she's darn right athletic too. Can you imagine a girl who looks like Larkin Love, with that tongue, doing the splits with those boots on? Well, I don't have to imagine it. I get to see the tres cool (that's French for "Not Safe For Work") photos that we can't show here. I'll give you a hint, her lips and hair might be blue, but what she can do with that tongue will blow you away.
Amelia G and I had a really fun time taking these with Larkin Love. I just happened to have the matching neon yellow striped stockings to complete the look, as extras from a gallery show we went to a while back where everyone was supposed to dress up as bumble-bees. I think Larkin looks really cute in her poofy blue skirt and matching bright blue hair. I hope you like these as much as I do.


Arcade Fire,and i love me some chili peppers!
Bruce is one of my all-time favorites. I love the way that even though often times he writes his songs with specific characters and stories, there's something universal about them.
Yes. This. He knows how to get people to relate to everything he's singing about. "Used Car"-that is my family's story. We've been there. And "My Father's House" had me blubbering like a baby.
It's up there, yeah (I've always loved "I'm On Fire". That is one of my favorite songs of his). And on a related note, the whole "wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims/strap your hands 'cross my engines" thing from "Born To Run" is still a killer line to this day.
Yeah. I've been having some fun checking out his work further, it's great stuff.
My top 3 right now are Electric Light Orchestra, Lenka and Kelly Clarkson. I also listen to some Alison Iraheta and Arcade Fire.
Oh, Alison Iraheta. Killer, KILLER first single ... and the rest of the album was so disappointing. I had such high pop hopes for her album.
What was her first single? Friday I'll Be Over You?
She's very similar to, but not as good as, Kelly Clarkson. In fact, when I saw the video to Friday..., it struck me as kinda creepy exactly how similar to Kelly she is in look and stage presence.
Next time I'm somewhere with karaoke I'm gonna do I'm On Fire, see if any girls fall at my feet.
Let's see... The Decemberists, Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, and Radiohead. Oh, and Tori Amos.
Amazing artist and he has released so many great records. You can't go wrong with most of his albums (though personally I don't like Mighty Like A Rose much).
I'm very much into The Jayhawks at the moment. I got their album Hollywood Town Hall a few months ago (I knew their song Take Me With You (When You Go) since it was first released in 1993, but I never explored the rest of their catalogue). And I can hardly put it down, it is a really excellent record. I love the harmonies between Mark Olson and Gary Louris. So shortly after I got Tomorrow The Green Grass, Rainy Day Music and, a few days ago, Music From The North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology (with a second disc of B-sides, outtakes, demos, etc.).
If you pay for my flight, I'll come do it.
Always good to hear about an artist being overall consistent like that, and judging from what I've heard so far I'd say you'd be right about that. I still have your specific recommendations in mind, sometime soon here I'll start catching up with getting those.
And Mighty Like A Rose, guess I'll find out about that one when the time comes.
I love their song "Save It For A Rainy Day". That's the only one I know, though. But yeah. Good stuff.


The DNA binding domain of HMG proteins is known to be important in many diseases, with the Sox sub-family of HMG proteins of particular significance. Numerous natural variants in HMG proteins are associated with disease phenotypes. Integrating these natural variants, molecular dynamic simulations of DNA interaction and sequence and structure alignments give detailed molecular knowledge of potential amino acid function such as DNA or protein interaction.
A total of 33 amino acids in HMG proteins are known to have natural variants in diseases. Eight of these amino acids are normally conserved in human HMG proteins and 27 are conserved in the human Sox sub-family. Among the six non-Sox conserved amino acids, amino acids 16 and 45 are likely targets for interaction with other proteins. Docking studies between the androgen receptor and Sry/Sox9 reveals a stable amino acid specific interaction involving several Sox conserved residues.
The HMG box has structural conservation between the first two of the three helixes in the domain as well as some DNA contact points. Individual sub-groups of the HMG family have specificity in the location of the third helix, DNA specific contact points (such as amino acids 4 and 29), and conserved amino acids interacting with other proteins such as androgen receptor. Studies such as this help to distinguish individual members of a much larger family of proteins and can be applied to any protein family of interest.
Predicting function from protein sequence is a complex and challenging task. Multiple sequence alignments can give insights into functional conservation over evolutionary time but are limited to what can be observed at the level of primary structure. Combining these sequences with known protein tertiary structures provides a three dimensional explanation of potential evolutionary pressures, but correlating the conservation to specific functions is still a challenge. This study compares natural variants (NV) associated with disease phenotypes to molecular dynamic (MD) simulations of DNA binding, predicting the functionality of specific amino acids within a medically important protein domain.
The high mobility group (HMG) box is composed of three helices that make an "L" shape able to bind the minor groove of DNA (reviewed in ). Many of the members of this protein family bind to DNA with low sequence specificity, such as the HMGB1 protein important in inflammation response . Some members, such as the Sox sub-family, bind to DNA with a higher degree of sequence specificity . The Sox family consists of 20 known human proteins, with the most thoroughly studied being the mammalian testis-determining factor, Sry . Recent work has shown Sry to have additional functions outside testis determination. These functions may include brain development [5, 6], activation of the sympathetic nervous system , and blood pressure regulation . Identifying and understanding the roles of conserved amino acids in Sry and other Sox proteins may lead to insights into particular amino acid functions. These might be HMG specific, such as DNA binding and structure, or specific to individual protein members. Combined analysis of amino acids known to have natural variants in disease phenotypes via multiple sequence alignment, structure alignment and MD simulation reveals several amino acids in the Sox family that may contribute to Sox specific functions such as interactions with the androgen receptor (AR).
Natural variations of amino acids in HMG proteins associated with various diseases were collected from Uniprot  and can be seen in the Additional file 1 along with all sequence accession codes. These amino acids were highlighted on the sequence of Sry, which could be used to identify conserved regions on multiple sequence alignments.
All sequence alignments were performed with ClustalW  using the BLOSUM62 matrix . Human HMG proteins were retrieved from Uniprot, and proteins containing multiple HMG domains were parsed into individual domain sequences. Human sequences were used to study conservation of the HMG family, while sequences from multiple species (from invertebrates to vertebrates) were used in studying conservation of an individual member of the family across evolutionary time. HMG protein structures were identified by blasting the sequence of the HMG box of Sry against the Protein Data Bank (PDB)  using blastp from NCBI with default settings . All structures were cleaned by removing all molecules (water, salts, DNA, additional protein sequence) that were not part of the HMG domain. For NMR structures containing multiple models, only regions of high agreement from the first reported ensemble member were used. The multiple structures of HMG proteins were superposed using MUSTANG  to the structure of SRY remaining bound to DNA. Sox proteins were also superposed to identify Sox-specific features.
All MD simulations were run using YASARA Structure  with Amber03 force field  for 1000 picoseconds (ps). The md_run macro  was used with a water density of 0.997g/mL. Simulations were analyzed using both the md_analyse and md_analyzeres macros . Structure 1j46 was used for MD of SRY. As no known structure exists for Sox9, models were created using I-TASSER , superposed onto DNA using structure 1j46, and the energy was minimized with YASARA. Although HMGB1 contains two HMG domains, only the second (which contains the NV) was used to run the MD simulation of HMGB1. Amino acid substitutions were performed by swapping amino acids in YASARA.
A short peptide of the AR was docked into the model by placing the fragment in close proximity to the proposed contact amino acids of SRY and the energy of the system was minimized in vacuo. The starting model for docking was derived from 1j46 coordinates. The model was placed in simulation space of 57, 72, and 57 Å, water was added to the system at 0.997g/mL, and the system was energy minimized. Three different simulations were run on both SRY and Sox9 for 1500 ps each: docked AR (Docked), AR in which all the amino acids were swapped with alanine (Docked A's) to show sequence specificity, and the AR pulled away from interaction (free). Movement of the AR peptide in each system was recorded over the simulation every 25 ps. Sox9-AR interactions were investigated by replacing amino acids in the structure of Sry with those present in Sox9.
Forty four natural variants (NVs) were found in 33 amino acids in a total of 5 HMG proteins. All NVs were found in Sox members except for two in the HMGB1 protein. When aligning the 18 known structures of HMG proteins, it appears that the first and second helixes have a high degree of structural conservation, while the third helix varies considerably (Figure 1A). The divergence in the geometry of this third helix is likely due to changes in kinetics and thermodynamics of protein folding and DNA binding between individual members. Forty nine non-Sox human HMG domain sequences were identified and 20 human SOX, totaling 69 human HMG protein sequences. Eight NV amino acids are conserved with 90% or greater frequency in these sequences. Four hydrophobic, aromatic amino acids (9, 12, 40, 51) were conserved between the first, second, and beginning of the third helix that likely contribute to proper packing of the three helices. Additionally a hydrophobic amino acid is conserved at amino acids 6, 32, and 43 contributing to structural organization and non-sequence specific DNA interaction, while a conserved polar basic amino acid is found at 48 associated with non-sequence specific DNA interaction.
A) Structure alignments of 18 HMG box domains from various proteins bound to DNA (cyan). Amino acids in red were NVs conserved 90% or greater in the 69 HMG sequences. B) Alignments of 7 SOX specific HMG box structures with NV amino acids in purple conserved 90% or greater in the 20 human SOX sequences.
Most NVs were conserved in Sox family members rather than in non-Sox HMG sequences. Because of the paucity of NVs in non-Sox HMG proteins, and with only 8 of the 33 NV amino acids conserved in the HMG family sequences, we decided to determine if any amino acids were conserved only in the Sox family. Nineteen additional amino acids with NVs were conserved 90% or greater in the Sox family with the previous 8 HMG NVs also conserved in SOX. Structure alignments of the Sox family members show a highly conserved first, second and third helix (Figure 1B) with several clumped regions of conserved NVs. A hydrophobic core is conserved between the N-terminus and the C-terminus of the Sox proteins. All of the NVs involved in Sry based disease associations were conserved in multiple sequence alignments of Sry.
During MD simulations the movement of each amino acid can be tracked relative to the starting structure. Figure 2 shows the averaged root mean square distance (RMSD) of the alpha carbon for each amino acid from the initial structure to the structure every 25ps of MD simulation. It can be seen that the amino acids that are highly conserved in the HMG sequences (red Figure 2) have a lower RMSD (around 1 or below). Thus these amino acids deviated less during the simulation, suggesting that these amino acids are in low energy conformations with strong energetic costs associated with their structural perturbation. We ascribe this to their contribution to structural packing and/or DNA interaction. For example, some of the amino acids that are conserved in the Sox family and appear to contribute to DNA specificity in binding, such as amino acid 4 and 29, have lower dynamics during the simulation (purple Figure 2).
MD simulations of SRY [PDB: 1j46] showing the carbon alpha RMSD for each amino acid. Colors of the bars represent NV and where they were conserved on sequence alignments: red = HMG, purple = SOX, green = not conserved, grey = no NV.
Six amino acids with disease associated NVs were not conserved in either the HMG or Sox family, two of which are of particular medical interest. Amino acid 16 is found as a valine in place of alanine in a Campomelic dysplasia patient, but this substitution showed little effect on DNA binding . Models of Sox9 structure show the amino acid to be on the opposite side of the HMG box DNA binding (Figure 3A). Of the 69 HMG sequences only SOX8, SOX9, and SOX10 had an alanine. Sixty of the 61 SOX9 sequences from multiple species, 16 out of 16 Sox8, and 12 out of 13 Sox10 had a conserved alanine at this amino acid suggesting a possible functional conservation found only in these proteins. MD simulations of the NV show an increase movement of the amino acid (Figure 3A), which we propose changes the kinetics or thermodynamics of interaction with another protein most likely involved in nuclear localization. Amino acid 45 is found to have a substitution of a glutamic acid from an alanine in a gastric carcinoma cell line HMGB1 protein . In simulations this amino acid is highly dynamic and does not appear to contribute to DNA interaction (Figure 3B), but may contribute to interaction with another protein.
A) NV at amino acid 16 (green) located on the back side of DNA binding on helix 1. MD simulations show increased movement of the NV (red) compared to the normal Sox9 (blue) at amino acid 16. B) NV at amino acid 45 (green) at the beginning of the third helix. An acidic amino acid leads to an increase in movement (red) over the normal alanine (blue).
As an example to illustrate the usefulness of these kinds of studies to SRY protein function, we investigated the possible interactions of SRY with the androgen receptor (AR). For many years we have known that a functional AR is needed for the blood pressure increase due to the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) Y chromosome , and we believe this may be through a direct interaction of AR and Sry. The HMG box of Sry  or Sox9  is known to directly interact with the AR C-terminal extension (CTE). Examining 75 mammalian Sry sequences we identified amino acids that do not appear to contribute to either DNA interaction or proper folding of the HMG box and yet are highly conserved (Figure 4A yellow). These amino acids were highly conserved across the human Sox members (Figure 4B) and indicate a functional importance that is not related to folding or DNA binding. When docking the CTE sequence to these amino acids, a stable interaction with SRY and Sox9 can be predicted (Figure 4C-D). The binding energy of this is higher than other docking experiments and can possibly take on the fold orientation as shown with modeling approached. Sox9 has high conservation of these amino acids when looking at multiple sequence alignments. The methionine conserved in SRY contributed to the mutated CTE stability (docked As in green of Figure 4D) by enhancing hydrophobic packing missing from Sox9. Interactions between HMGB1/2 and steroid receptors are known to increase recruitment of the steroid receptors to DNA and are dependent on the CTE [24, 25]. We propose that this interaction between the CTE of AR and Sry facilitates recruitment to DNA as shown in Figure 5.
A) Amino acids (yellow) located on the backside of the third helix conserved in multiple sequences of Sry not identified in NVs of HMG diseases. B) The amino acids in A are shown on sequence alignments of the human SOX members. C) Proposed docking between the conserved amino acids on Sry (yellow) and the CTE of AR (red). D) MD simulations of the CTE interacting with DNA and SRY (left) or Sox9 (right) either docked (blue), AR mutated to all alanines (green) or pulled away from the interaction and free in movement (red).
Recruitment to DNA (cyan) through the interaction of the AR's (blue) C-terminal extension sequence (red) with the identified residues (yellow) of SRY (gray).
Molecular dynamic simulations support functional conservation for DNA binding and structure of the 8 HMG conserved NVs. Most NVs identified were conserved in the Sox subfamily of HMG proteins. Of these amino acids conserved, amino acids 4 and 29 were identified to have contacts with base pairs of the minor groove contributing to DNA specificity. Several NV amino acids, such as 16 and 45, were not as highly conserved in HMG proteins and likely contribute to individual member specificity. Some Sox conserved amino acids that do not appear to contribute to proper packing or DNA interaction were identified as a potential docking site for interacting with AR. The use of sequences, structures, natural variants in disease phenotypes and molecular dynamics simulations of protein-DNA interaction offers new insights at understanding the HMG domain at an amino acid level. This approach serves as a hypothesis generator for molecular mutagenesis, and protein-protein/protein-DNA interactions.
JWP performed all alignments, MD simulations, presented data, and compiled the manuscript. TL advised on the biochemistry, structural modeling and structure alignments. ZHD aided in MD simulation setup. AM advised on HMG basics and Sry biology. All authors contributed extensive revisions to both the presentation at the conference and the manuscript; approving both.