Federal Reserve Board Lowers Fed Funds Target Rate 1/4 to 4.5 Percent. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System lowered its benchmark Federal funds short-term rate target to 4.5% from 4.75%, its second reduction in two months. The Fed said, "Economic growth was solid in the third quarter, and strains in financial markets have eased somewhat on balance. However, the pace of economic expansion will likely slow in the near term, partly reflecting the intensification of the housing correction. Today's action, combined with the policy action taken in September, should help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise arise from the disruptions in financial markets." We expect money fund yields to fall over the coming weeks by an equivalent 0.25%, so our Crane 100 Index should ease from its current 4.79% to approximately 4.54% over the next five weeks. Markets appear to be discounting the odds of any additional future cuts. The full text of the Fed's statement may be seen here.
Money Fund Companies Address SIVs, Still "Minimal Credit Risk"
Big Money Fund Companies Address SIVs, Say Still "Minimal Credit Risk". In the most recent case of a fund company correcting media misinformation, Fidelity Investments has released, "A Discussion of the Structured Investment Vehicle Marketplace and Fidelity's Money Market Funds". The brief discusses SIVs, M-LEC, SIFMA and Fidelity's support of these. "The SIV market is a small part of the trillion-dollar-plus money market mutual fund industry that investors utilize every day as a source of stable, high quality investments for their cash management needs.... We can state unequivocally that Fidelity's money market funds have continued to provide safety and security for our clients' cash investments.... Importantly, we have been -- and will continue to be -- proactive in keeping our money market funds safe and protecting the $1.00 net asset value (NAV), which has always been our #1 objective when it comes to managing money funds.... We believe our holdings of SIV debt securities ... continue to represent minimal credit risk," says the brief. SIVs accounted for 3.6% of assets of Fidelity's prime money funds. SIVs held include: HSBC's Asscher and Cullinan Finance; Citi's Beta Finance, Centauri and Dorada; Dresdner's K2, BMO's Links Finance, AIG's Nightingale Finance, and Gordian Knot's Sigma Finance.
Federated Enters Super Institutional Market, Exits Enhanced Cash. Standard & Poor's just rated Federated Money Market Management AAAm. The fund is Federated's oldest, introduced in 1974. Today it launched a new 13 basis point expense class, Premier Share, with a $100 million minimum investment. Federated joins Wells Fargo, UBS, and soon Fidelity in the latest move towards "super-premium," low-expense, high-yield money funds. (See our July Money Fund Intelligence "How Low Can Expenses Go?" and the pending November MFI Wells Fargo profile.) On Friday, Federated also revealed a $4.9 million capital loss on an "enhanced reserve private placement short-term investment option" (not a money fund), and said it is withdrawing from the enhanced cash sector for now, putting this product into "incubation". The fund "did not reach critial mass" and there were "no client losses in the product" said the company on its recent quarterly earnings conference call.
Money Funds Make Front Page of Boston Globe (Along With Red Sox). Today's Boston Globe features an article entitled "Credit crunch highlights risks in money markets", which asks "How safe is your money fund?". Like many recent articles, the title is much scarier than the actual text. The Globe piece mentions SIVs (structured investment vehicles) and Wachovia's $40 million buyout of securities from its Evergreen funds, and discusses the minor historical SIV holdings of Fidelity and Columbia. It also briefly explores the history of money fund credit events, mentioning Community Bankers US Government Money Fund (though incorrectly stating its liquidation at 94 cents instead of 96 cents). The Globe says, "Moody's knows of 145 serious cases of money-market fund problems since 1972," while failing to mention that no individual has ever lost money on any of these. It also quotes Peter Crane on the recent asset surge to $3 trillion and mentions cranedata.us.
Will Five Percent Yields on Cash Soon Become a Thing of the Past?
Will Five Percent Money Market Yields Soon Become a Thing of the Past? With the Federal Reserve Board of Governors meeting next week (Oct. 30-31) to discuss the economy and short-term interest rate policy, futures markets are expecting the Federal funds target rate to be cut to 4.5% from 4.75%. Given that, most of the time, money market fund and money market deposit accounts follow the Fed, the handful of remaining yields over 5% may quickly become history. However, Crane Data likes to be contrarian; we're going with the minority view that the Fed doesn't cut, resisting the market's attempt at blackmail. (Isn't it funny how credit market problems pop up just ahead of each meeting?) We think the Fed should stick with the belief that the economy is fine and that recent market turmoil is artificial, and subsiding. Either way, though, money fund and MMDA yields should continue inching lower in coming weeks.
Money Mkt Fund Assets Hit $3 Trillion (Rounded Up) on Flight to Safety. ICI reports that money market mutual fund asset rose by $44.5 billion to a record $2.970 trillion in the week ended Oct. 24. Investors flooded institutional funds with $43.6 billion in cash in anticipation of a cut in the Federal funds target rate next week by the Federal Reserve. Assets of money funds have risen an astounding $588 billion, or 24.7%, year-to-date, and $716 billion, or 31.8%, over the past 52 weeks. Treasury and Government money funds are seeing a resurgence of "flight-to-quality" money while Prime money funds are also seeing longer-term "enhanced" cash and direct investment money move to the safety of funds.
Vanguard Cuts Expense Ratios to 0.24 Percent on Money Market Funds. The Vanguard Group has reduced expense ratios on its Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund, Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund, and Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund to 0.24% from 0.30%, and has reduced the expense ratio on Vanguard Admiral Treasury MMF to 0.10% from 0.13%. Vanguard Prime MMF Institutional continues to have an expense ratio of 0.09% and the Vanguard Tax Exempt Money Fund ratios also remain unchanged at 0.13%. "Vanguard has a long history of lowering costs as funds grow," says spokesman John Woerth. Vanguard has seen its Prime money fund yields decline relative to other funds due to the absense lack of asset-backed commercial paper. Vanguard Prime MMF had been the No. 1-yielding Individual money fund for the first half of 2007, but it has dropped down to No. 5 since the August ABCP market turmoil hit. Normally, expenses are the main determinant of money fund performance, accounting for over half of returns. But security and maturity selection have recently risen in importance.
The Credit Crunch Will Continue Says Survey at AFP's Boston Conference. A survey at the Association of Financial Professionals (AFP), the world's largest corporate treasury event, found that 62% of respondents think the "turmoil in the credit markets will continue for some time". Seventy-six percent expect the Federal Reserve to continue to lower interest rates before the end of 2007 with 66% expecting a 25 basis point cut. AFP's 2007 "Liquidity Survey", conducted earlier this year, found that treasurer's currently hold 30.9% of their organizations' short-term investments in money market mutual funds, the largest allocation. They also hold 27.1% in bank deposits, 9.4% in commercial paper, 6.3% in repo, and 5.1% in auction-rate securities. Electronic, multi-family trading portals were used by 23% of treasurers or short-term investments. While this year's AFP conference was short on money market content, over 20 fund companies exhibited.
Standard and Poor's Reaffirms AAA Money Mk Fund Ratings Over Cheyne. S&P issued a release last night entitled "No Rating Actions On Principal Stability Rated Funds Exposed to Cheyne and Rhinebridge". The ratings agency also put King County Investment Pool's AAAf rating on "CreditWatch Negative" due to distressed Cheyne Finance LLC (1.2%), Rhinebridge LLC (1.2%) and Mainsail II LLC (1.4%) holdings. S&P lowered its ratings on CP, MTNs, and capital notes issued by Cheyne to 'D' (default) on Oct. 19, but the NRSRO hasn't downgraded any funds due to the "potential sale of the entire investment portfolio to The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. The strength of the underlying collateral "has also forestalled any ratings actions on our part" says an S&P release. S&P currently rates nearly 500 money funds, and says approximately a dozen with half a dozen managers have limited exposure to Cheyne (none have Rhinebridge) and are expected to receive full payment.
Federated Investors' Debbie Cunningham on SIVs and New Super Conduit. In a recent commentary, money fund veteran Deborah Cunningham describes the M-LEC and SIVs. She says, The "master liquidity enhancement conduit (M-LEC) will serve as a back-up liquidity facility for structured investment vehicles.... SIVs are special-purpose corporations that issue highly-rated commercial paper and medium-term notes. They then invest the proceeds in highly-rated securities. SIVs, some of which have existed for nearly twenty years, are important because they underpin an estimated $320 billion in consumer and corporate borrowing.... The underlying assets and management of most SIVs -- the four in which Federated participates, for example -- are very strong. The majority of the SIVs have minimal or no U.S. subprime mortgage exposure. Even so, in the current environment, SIVs have encountered some difficulty in rolling over their debt."
Money Funds Bracing for SIV Inquiries and, Paradoxically, Inflows. Following the August panic in the asset-backed commercial paper market and last week's concerns about SIVs, or structured investment vehicles and the launch of a "super-conduit" to back them, money market mutual funds are undoubtedly preparing to again launch a series of communications to shareholders in an attempt to explain why funds and especially fund investors should remain sheltered from these problems. Expect letters and conference calls shortly. In a continued paradox, we should also expect a continued flood of assets into money funds as institutional investors attempt to delay the impact of an increasingly likely Halloween interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Funds have also benefited from a surge of corporate, financial and "conduit" cash moving into the big, safe, diversified pools. Money funds have averaged inflows of 3.4% a month during periods of falling rates, and have averaged inflows of 5.1% over the past two months.
The Wall Street Journal Asks "Is Your Money Fund SIV Burdened?"
The Wall Street Journal Asks "Is Your Money Fund SIV Burdened?" Structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, are "threatening trouble in a seemingly unlikely place: money market funds," says Saturday's WSJ. Some funds "were holding 10% to 20% of their portfolios in debt issued by SIVs", including funds from Columbia, Credit Suisse, and Federated, reports the piece. However, it adds, "Significant money-fund losses are unlikely for several reasons. Only a handful of SIVs are thought to be in real danger and money funds typically own senior notes ... money-market funds are subject to strict investing rules that limit how much they can keep in individual holdings. Many funds already have begun drastically trimming SIV-related purchases ... [and] allowing securities to mature without rolling them into new debt from the issuer." Finally, the WSJ says, "Most important for money-fund investors, fund companies would almost certainly take steps to prevent losses from reaching shareholders -- such as ... purchasing the money-losing securities from the fund at their full price.
SIVs Cheyne and IKB Defaults Raising Concerns Over Money Funds. Bloomberg reports that structured investment vehicle Cheyne Finance Plc and IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG's Rhinebridge Plc SIV are now in default on over $7 billion of commercial paper. Any money funds unlucky enough to still own either of these, and who haven't already, will likely seek backing, protections, or buyouts while awaiting payment from the asset liquidation. These defaults cap off a week in which the money markets suffered a significant setback on their road to recovery. Concerns resurfaced last weekend following the proposal of a "super-conduit" to support the $320 billion SIV market, and ended with another flight to Treasuries Friday. Money market funds as a whole continue to attract assets and to maintain $1.00 share prices. But this most recent round of problems, centered around SIVs without full liquidity backstops, may cause another handful of bailouts, or purchases of troubled securities, by advisors to protect portfolios. Nonetheless, money fund investors should continue to remain unaffected by this most recent bout of market turmoil.
Explosive Money Fund Asset Growth Continues, At Record $2.92 Trillion. The Investment Company Institute's weekly money fund asset totals show an increase of $11.5 billion in the week ended Oct. 17, to a record $2.92 trillion. Money funds have risen by $538.4 billion, or 22.6%, year-to-date, and by a massive $660 billion, or 29.2%, over the past 52 weeks. The third quarter is likely to be a record-breaker for money fund managers, judging from BlackRock's earnings. Money funds as a whole gained $332 billion, or 13.0%, from July 3 through Oct. 3, according to ICI's weekly numbers. Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Distribution Survey shows huge gains among the largest money fund firms in Q3. The 5 biggest gainers: BlackRock's money fund assets rose by $45.5 billion, or 29.6%, in the quarter; Columbia's rose by $32.9 billion, or 25.8%; Goldman Sachs rose by $31.8, or 35.2%; JPMorgan's rose by $28.8 billion, or 16.4%; and, Fidelity's rose by $23.8 billion. On a percentage basis, HSBC (103.2%), Janus (40.1%), Reserve (39.2%), Goldman (35.2%) and Lehman/NB (34.2%) scored the biggest percent gains among the 30 largest fund families.
No. 1-Yielding Russell Money Market Fund Gets Moody's Aaa Rating. Moody's Investors Service has assigned its Aaa credit rating to the currently No. 1-ranked (by most recent 7-day yield) Russell Money Market Fund, managed by Russell Investment Management Co, a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Group. "The Russell money market fund is led by a seasoned and cohesive portfolio management team that is supported by a cadre of independent, highly experienced credit research analysts," says Moody's VP Dagmar Silva. "The portfolio management function is further supported by a sound operations infrastructure and a set of regulatory compliance programs designed to ensure the integrity of the firm's money market fund product offerings." Moody's press release adds, "The fund's ABCP exposure is comprised entirely of bank-sponsored programs."
Peter Crane Hosts Webinar "Is Your Cash and Money Market Safe?"
Peter Crane To Host Webinar "Is Your Cash and Money Market Safe?" Crane Data President Peter Crane will host an AFP Webinar entitled "Is Your Cash and Money Market Safe?" on November 15 from 3:30-5:15 p.m. Join our money market mutual fund expert to hear about the recent turmoil in the money markets. Crane will discuss regulations and protections surrounding money market funds, securities money funds invest in, and the timeline of crisis events and problems in the asset-backed commercial paper market. Issues with auction-rate securities and enhanced cash funds will also be discussed. Visit AFP to sign up or for more information. Crane Data hopes to see you at the AFP Annual (Treasury) Conference in Boston starting this weekend too.
Treasury Strategies Says Record Corporate Cash Turning Conservative. The "investment portfolios of large U.S. corporations took a sharp turn for the conservative as a result of recent turmoil in financial markets," says Treasury Strategies in a recent survey. A press release issued yesterday said over half of treasurers "reported implementing more cautious investment policies in the few months" and actions include "eliminating asset backed commercial paper, eliminating money fund investments that include asset backed obligations, shortening investment maturities, and investing in higher quality instruments, including government securities, AAA rated money market mutual funds and A1-P1 commercial paper." Corporate cash and short-term investments "recently increased modestly to a record $5.5 trillion" said the treasury consulting firm. Results of Treasury Strategies' full annual Corporate Liquidity Survey should be available in November.
New M-LEC SIV "Superconduit" Elicits Yawns From Money Market Funds. The announcement yesterday of a new "superconduit" fund, Master-Liquidity Enhancement Conduit, or M-LEC, which will purchase only high quality SIV (structured investment vehicle) assets has us wondering "Why bother?" While attempts to clean up remaining problem pockets of the asset-backed commercial paper market are appreciated, this plan appears too limited, too vague, and too slow to matter much (to money funds at least). The high-quality SIVs, which this fund would buy, aren't where the problems are, and the SIVs don't want to sell assets at a discount anyway. The troubled SIVs are now primarily a matter for the banks backing them, and not too big an exposure area for the money market funds, which had been reducing their exposure. As today's Wall Street Journal article, "Call to Brave for $100 Billion Rescue", says, the plan is welcome but the details need to be worked out.
"Superconduit" To Back Structured Investment Vehicles, Bail Out Banks. Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal (with chart of 10 largest SIVs), and The New York Times report that the Treasury department, Citigroup, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase have announced the creation of a $100 billion "superconduit" designed to support other SIV "conduits". The new Master-Liquidity Enhancement Conduit, or M-LEC will sell commercial paper to purchase assets of troubled SIVs, or structured investment vehicles, and MTNs, or medium term notes, and hold them to maturity, thereby sparing banks the full pain of supporting this $300 billion market. The Treasury Department "is pleased with the response by the private sector to enhance liquidity in the short term credit markets. The joint efforts of domestic and international financial institutions, broker dealers, and investors have resulted in a potential structure to improve liquidity in the asset backed commercial paper markets." SIVs remain a trouble spot in the ABCP market, but today's announcement should assist in the recovery. Money market funds, though protected from most troubles by bank backing or other features, have undoubtedly been cutting back their exposure to SIVs over the past two months. Also, see Oct. 13 "Link of the Day".
Double-Whammy Hits Online Banks: Rate Chasers and Falling Yields. Online banks got hit by a double-dose of bad news today -- the New York Times reveals the rate sensitivity of the online banks' customer base in "Rate Chasers Are Online and Moving Cash Quickly", and leading bank blog BankDeals announces yet more rate cuts by banks. The anonymous blog, which reviews recent cuts, says E*Trade has dropped its Complete Savings Account APY (annualized percentage yield) from 5.05% to 4.70%. The Times article discusses the history of online banking including the first (now bankrupt) high-yield online bank NetBank, then ING Direct, Emigrant Direct, and recent high-yielder FNBO Direct. It is a history temporary deals and of "bait-and-switch". Buyers beware!
New Batch of Fund Filings From Fidelity, Dreyfus, ING, Bishop Street. Another batch of new money fund launches is imminent with Fidelity Institutional MM about to add Class IV (0.70% expense) shares to its existing I, II, and III class offerings for Treasury, Treasury Only, and Prime money funds. New super-premium Fidelity Institutional Money Market - Institutional and FIMM Prime MM Inst, with expense ratios of 0.14% and $10 million minimums, are also poised to launch. Other new filings, brought to us by Strategic Insight's Simfund Filing, include: ING Institutional Prime MM IS (0.20% expense, $10 mil. min.); the internal Dreyfus Inst Preferred MM Institutional (0.14% expense), Reserve (0.16%), Hamilton (0.19%), Agency (0.29%) and Premier (0.44%) classes (possibly in preparation for a BNY Hamilton fund merger); and, First Hawaiian Bank-affiliated Bishop St. Tax Free Money Market.
Commercial Paper Starts Arduous Climb Back Towards $2 Trillion Level. For the second week in a row, commercial paper outstandings showed a modest increase, rising $4.9 billion to $1.865 trillion (seasonally adjusted), according to the Federal Reserve's weekly statistics. Last week, CP inched up by $4.5 billion, following a $260 billion freefall in August and a $55 billion decline in September. CP outstandings fell almost 15% from their high of $2.149 trillion in July. It should take some time to regain the $2 trillion level, but we're happy to see the numbers again going the right direction. CP represents the largest category of money market mutual fund holdings, accounting for 31% of taxable assets, according to the ICI's Mutual Fund Fact Book. Commercial paper is short-term, high quality debt. See Bloomberg's new CP supply article here.
Looking Long-Term: Ranking Top Money Market Funds by 10-Year Return. Too often, investors choose funds based on recent performance. While money funds are different due to the predominance of expense ratios in returns and due to their rapidly changing investments, long-term performance still means something, especially when current yields are shifting as fast as they are now. Below, we list the top-performing money market mutual funds ranked by 10-year annualized returns through Sept. 30, 2007. At No. 1 is a three-way tie between American Beacon MM Select, Janus Institutional MMF Inst, and Vanguard Prime MMF Instit with 10-yr returns of 3.95%. The Crane Money Fund Average returned 3.49% and the Crane 100 Money Fund Index returned 3.65% over this period. Tied at No. 4 are Prudential Instit Liq Port MM Ser I and Russell Money Market Fund S with returns of 3.94%, followed by AIM STIT Liquid Assets Inst, Citi Institutional Liquid Reserves A, Federated Prime Value Oblig IS, Phoenix Insight MMF I, and Evergreen Institutional MM I, all tied at No. 6 with 3.93% returns.
OppenheimerFunds Enters Institutional Money Market Fund Business. While they've been running money market funds almost as long as funds have been around -- the company runs the $20+ billion Centennial Money Market Trust -- OppenheimerFunds has made a recent push into the institutional money market fund sector. Observers of our daily Top 5 ranking have no doubt noticed the yield on the $6 billion Oppenheimer Institutional Money Market Fund E (IOEXX). Our pending issue of Money Fund Intelligence interviews SVP and veteran portfolio manager Carol Wolf and VP Mike Walsh about Oppenheimer's investment strategies, recent market events and the company's entry into the institutional money market mutual fund business. Oppenheimer's conservative investment strategy and experience kept them sheltered from the recent market turmoil. The article also discusses why some investors are having second thoughts on "portals" in the current environment.
Money Fund Report Publisher iMoneyNet Launches Revamped Website. iMoneyNet, Inc., the "leading provider of money-market information and analysis", has revamped its website at http://www.imoneynet.com. The new site continues to feature weekly Money Fund Report Averages and tables of the top-yielding Retail, Institutional and Offshore Money Market Funds. The site's look-and-feel has been enhanced with new News, Conferences, and featured Data Tables. iMoneyNet has published Money Fund Report since 1975 and is owned by Informa Plc. Disclaimer: Peter Crane, founder of Crane Data LLC, previously worked for iMoneyNet, and Crane Data competes with iMoneyNet in certain segments of the money fund information business.
Additional Fed Cut Expectations Discounted by September Jobs Growth. Payroll employment grew by 110,000 in September and was revised upwards to 89,000 in August (from a decline of 4,000). This news reduces the liklihood of additional short-term interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The Chicago Board of Trade's 30-Day Federal Funds Futures contracts show that traders still expect the Federal funds target rate to drop another 1/4-point cut by year-end (to 4.5%). But the odds of a cut at the Fed's Oct. 31 meeting have fallen below 50% (44%), and the odds of additional cuts have also fallen. (To calculate percentage odds, take 100 minus the CBOT Close price for a date, subtract this number from the current funds target, 4.75%, and divide the result by 0.25.) Money fund yields continue inching downwards in reaction to the Fed's recent 1/2-point cut, but the decline has been diluted by stubbornly high ABCP and LIBOR rates. Crane Data's outlook is that the economy will stengthen further and that additional Fed cuts are unlikely in 2007.
Money Market Asset Surge Continues, Funds Close in on $3 Trillion Mark. ICI reports that money market mutual fund assets increased by $37.14 billion to a record $2.892 trillion in the week ended October 3. MMMFs have increased by an eye-popping $646 billion, or 28.7%, over the past 52 weeks and by $510.2 billion, or 21.4%, year-to-date, and are just $108 billion away from the $3 trillion barrier. Fund assets posted their biggest monthly increase on record in August, rising by $162.5 billion. Institutional assets, which now account for a record 62.4% of all money funds, continued to lead the surge, rising $32.68 billion to a record $1.804 trillion. Companies, fiduciaries, and financial institutions are attempting to delay and defray the impact of the latest Federal funds target rate cut, and are seeking the safety of funds' diversity and management expertise in the current perilous market.
Bloomberg Adds Crane 100 Money Fund Index and Crane Averages. Starting today, users of the Bloomberg Professional service now may access current and historical data on the Crane 100 Money Fund Index, Crane Data LLC's flagship average yield benchmark measuring the 100 largest taxable money market mutual funds. Bloomberg users will also have access to monthly performance data on the Crane Money Fund Average, which tracks a broader universe of 780 taxable money funds, and the Crane Tax Exempt Money Fund Index, which tracks 405 tax-free and municipal money funds. The list of indexes and data points available may be seen by Bloomberg users that enter "ALLX CRNI", and the Crane 100 is ticker "CRNI100D". Contact Pete for a listing of all indexes and for sample of our monthly Crane Index product.
SEC Finalizes Exemption for Bank Sweep Account From Brokerage Rules. As expected, the SEC recently published its final "Definitions of Terms and Exemptions Relating to the 'Broker' Exceptions For Banks" amendments to section 3a-4 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. The "sweep exception" exempts a bank from the definition of "broker" if it "effects transactions as part of a program for the investment or re-investment of deposit funds into any no-load, open-end management investment company registered under the Investment Company Act that holds itself out as a money market fund." The SEC's "Proposed Rule 740" defines the terms "no-load" and "money market fund" to "provide guidance on the sweep exception".
Funds Closed Columbus Day, But Competition Is Spurring Longer Hours. With the Federal Reserve and banking system closed on Monday, October 8, for the Columbus Day holiday, money funds won't be trading. While money funds and the money markets will be closed, stock funds and stock markets will be open. Fewer and fewer funds have been closing early on Fridays prior to holidays recently. There appears to be a clear push towards longer trading hours among institutional money funds. Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers will be closing early, but almost all other institutional funds who have declared so far will be open all day Friday. Recently, Barclays joined Reserve in announcing a "no early closings" prior to holidays policy.
Almost Half of Commercial Paper Declines Due to Seasonal Adjustments. The Federal Reserve's weekly commercial paper outstandings statistics have unsurprisingly attracted attention recently due to recent market turmoil. But headlines have focused on the Fed's "seasonally adjusted" series, which make the market declines appear much worse than the "not seasonally adjusted" series. Adjusted CP totals showed a $259.6 billion, or 12%, decline in August vs. a $241.2 billion, or 11%, unadjusted decline. The past 4 weeks' adjusted numbers show a $124 billion decline, or 6.2%, vs. a 43% lower $71.1 billion decline, 3.6%, when not adjusted. The week ended Sept. 12 even showed an unadjusted gain of $4.1 billion and the most recent week showed a decline of a mere $6.2 billion, with the non asset-backed component rising modestly.


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Q: Passing operator as a parameter in stored proc while preventing the risk of SQL injection I have following dynamic query and would like to pass an operator as a parameter but it I get an error

Incorrect syntax near @ageOperator

In addition, I would like to prevent any SQL injection. I can do concatenation like below but it cause SQL injection.
@sWhere = ' WHERE AGE1 ' + @ageOperator + ''' + @age + '''

Thank you in advance!
DECLARE @age INT,
        @ageOperator VARCHAR(10),
        @sSQL NVARCHAR(MAX),
        @sWhere NVARCHAR(MAX)

SET @age = 21
SET @ageOperator = ' = '

SET @sWhere = ' WHERE AGE1 @ageOperator @age '

SET @sSQL = ' SELECT * FROM WEBPM_COPY.DBO.Test1111 ' + @sWhere

EXEC sp_executesql @sSQL, N'@age INT, @ageOperator char(10)', @age, @ageOperator;

A: If you want this code to execute, you must concatenate the operator to the @sWhere variable:
set @sWhere = ' WHERE AGE1 '+ @ageOperator +' @age ';

However, 10 chars are enough to write '=1 or 1=1--' (10 chars exactly) so it's not really sql injection safe.
A better implementation would be accepting a limited set of operators and whitelist it:
DECLARE @age INT,
        @ageOperator VARCHAR(10),
        @sSQL NVARCHAR(MAX),
        @sWhere NVARCHAR(MAX);

SET @age = 21;
SET @ageOperator = ' = ';

IF @ageOperator NOT IN('=', '<=', '>=', '<>')
    RAISERROR ('Invalid @ageOperator', -1, 1);

SET @sWhere = ' WHERE AGE1 '+ @ageOperator +' @age ';

SET @sSQL = ' SELECT * FROM WEBPM_COPY.DBO.Test1111 ' + @sWhere ;

EXEC sp_executesql @sSQL, N'@age INT, @ageOperator char(10)', @age, @ageOperator;

A: You can't parametrize an operator. Accordind to a sp_executesql parameter description:

Each parameter definition consists of a parameter name and a data type

You can use only valued data as parameters.
Answering your question I'd suggest you to implement your own logic to check an operator:
case @ageOperator when '=' then ... else <invalid case> end

A: If you print out what your @sSQL variable is, the result is SELECT * FROM WEBPM_COPY.DBO.Test1111  WHERE AGE1 @ageOperator @age so it is literally passing the name of the variable as a string, not its value.  This is where your error message is coming from.
Changing your assignment of @sWhere to, for example
set @sWhere = ' WHERE AGE1 ' + @ageOperator + CAST(@age AS VARCHAR(3)) results in @sSQL becoming SELECT * FROM WEBPM_COPY.DBO.Test1111  WHERE AGE1  = 21, which is valid syntax.
I'm not sure if this still protects from SQL injection - I believe it should as you can't really do much with 3 characters for 'age', but it resolves the "Incorrect syntax near @ageOperator" error you are getting.

A: You can parameterize the query, you just have to execute dynamic sql inside your dynamic sql. I used the following query to get your expected results:
DECLARE @dSQL NVARCHAR(MAX)
        ,@dage INT = 21
        ,@dageOperator VARCHAR(10) = ' = '

SET @dSQL = N'
DECLARE @sSQL NVARCHAR(MAX)
    ,@sWhere NVARCHAR(MAX)

SET @sWhere = '' WHERE AGE1'' + @ageOperator + CAST(@age AS VARCHAR)
SET @sSQL = '' SELECT * FROM WEBPM_COPY.DBO.Test1111 '' + @sWhere

EXEC(@sSQL)'

EXECUTE sp_executesql @dSQL, N'@age INT, @ageOperator varchar(10)', @dage, @dageOperator;

A: Is dynamic sql necessary? If your issue is really as simple as a conditional operator on an INT range, you should be able to do something like this without resorting to a dynamic command:
-- test setup
declare @YourTable table (Id int primary key, Age int);
insert into @YourTable
    select 1, 18 union all
    select 2, 25 union all
    select 3, 40 union all
    select 4, 2;

declare @Age int = 19;
declare @AgeOperator char(1) = '<';

-- option 1:
-- No need for dynamic sql if you just use conditional filters in the
-- where clause.
select  *
from    @YourTable
where   (Age > @Age and @ageOperator = '>') or
        (Age < @Age and @ageOperator = '<') or
        (Age = @Age and @ageOperator = '=');

-- option 2:
-- You may see better performance by calculating the range once and using
-- it in the query instead of the OR conditions
declare @MinAge int;
declare @MaxAge int;

select @MinAge = case @AgeOperator
    when '<' then 0
    when '>' then @Age + 1
    when '=' then @Age
    else null
end;

select @MaxAge = case @AgeOperator
    when '<' then @Age - 1
    when '>' then 2147483647
    when '=' then @Age
    else null
end;

select *
from   @YourTable
where  Age >= @MinAge and Age <= @MaxAge;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: How can I restore the MySQL root user's full privileges? I accidentally removed some of the privileges from my MySQL root user, including the ability to alter tables. Is there some way I can restore this user to its original state (with all privileges)?
UPDATE mysql.user SET Grant_priv = 'Y', Super_priv = 'Y' WHERE User = 'root';
# MySQL returned an empty result set (i.e. zero rows).
FLUSH PRIVILEGES ;
# MySQL returned an empty result set (i.e. zero rows).

#1045 - Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'root'@'localhost'

A: If you've deleted your root user by mistake you can do one thing:

*

*Stop MySQL service

*Run mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &

*Type mysql -u root -p and press enter.

*Enter your password

*At the mysql command line enter: use mysql;
Then execute this query:
insert into `user` (`Host`, `User`, `Password`, `Select_priv`, `Insert_priv`, `Update_priv`, `Delete_priv`, `Create_priv`, `Drop_priv`, `Reload_priv`, `Shutdown_priv`, `Process_priv`, `File_priv`, `Grant_priv`, `References_priv`, `Index_priv`, `Alter_priv`, `Show_db_priv`, `Super_priv`, `Create_tmp_table_priv`, `Lock_tables_priv`, `Execute_priv`, `Repl_slave_priv`, `Repl_client_priv`, `Create_view_priv`, `Show_view_priv`, `Create_routine_priv`, `Alter_routine_priv`, `Create_user_priv`, `ssl_type`, `ssl_cipher`, `x509_issuer`, `x509_subject`, `max_questions`, `max_updates`, `max_connections`, `max_user_connections`)
values('localhost','root','','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','','','','','0','0','0','0');

then restart the mysqld
EDIT: October 6, 2018
In case anyone else needs this answer, I tried it today using innodb_version 5.6.36-82.0 and 10.1.24-MariaDB and it works if you REMOVE THE BACKTICKS (no single quotes either, just remove them):
insert into user (Host, User, Password, Select_priv, Insert_priv, Update_priv, Delete_priv, Create_priv, Drop_priv, Reload_priv, Shutdown_priv, Process_priv, File_priv, Grant_priv, References_priv, Index_priv, Alter_priv, Show_db_priv, Super_priv, Create_tmp_table_priv, Lock_tables_priv, Execute_priv, Repl_slave_priv, Repl_client_priv, Create_view_priv, Show_view_priv, Create_routine_priv, Alter_routine_priv, Create_user_priv, ssl_type, ssl_cipher, x509_issuer, x509_subject, max_questions, max_updates, max_connections, max_user_connections)
values('localhost','root','','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','','','','','0','0','0','0');

A: Just insert or update mysql.user with value Y in each column privileges.

A: GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'user'@'localhost' with GRANT OPTION;

Just log in from root using the respective password if any and simply run the above command to whatever the user is.
For example:
GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'root'@'%' with GRANT OPTION;

A: i also remove privileges of root and database not showing in mysql console when i was a root user, so changed user by  mysql>mysql -u 'userName' -p; and password;
UPDATE mysql.user SET Grant_priv='Y', Super_priv='Y' WHERE User='root';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

after this command it all show database's in root .
Thanks

A: If you are using WAMP on you local computer (mysql version 5.7.14)
Step 1: open my.ini file
Step 2: un-comment this line 'skip-grant-tables' by removing the semi-colon
step 3: restart mysql server
step 4: launch mySQL console
step 5:
UPDATE mysql.user SET Grant_priv='Y', Super_priv='Y' WHERE User='root';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Step 6: Problem solved!!!!

A: If the GRANT ALL doesn't work, try:

*

*Stop mysqld and restart it with the --skip-grant-tables option.

*Connect to the mysqld server with just: mysql (i.e. no -p option, and username may not be required).

*Issue the following commands in the mysql client:
UPDATE mysql.user SET Grant_priv='Y', Super_priv='Y' WHERE User='root';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
After that, you should be able to run GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'root'@'localhost'; and have it work.

A: I had denied insert and reload privileges to root. So after updating permissions, FLUSH PRIVILEGES was not working (due to lack of reload privilege). So I used debian-sys-maint user on Ubuntu 16.04 to restore user.root privileges. You can find password of user.debian-sys-maint from this file
sudo cat /etc/mysql/debian.cnf

A: *

*"sudo cat /etc/mysql/debian.cnf" to use debian-sys-maint user

*login by this user throgh "mysql -u saved-username -p;", then enter the saved password.

*mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET Grant_priv='Y', Super_priv='Y' WHERE User='root';

*mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

*mysql> exit

*reboot
Thanks

A: MariaDB on RHEL:
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service
sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking &
mysql -u root

Then, eg.
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mysql.user TO 'root'@'localhost';
UPDATE mysql.user SET Grant_priv='Y', Super_priv='Y' WHERE User='root';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Sadly, there's no graceful restart when having detached with &:
sudo kill `pidof mysqld`
sudo systemctl start mariadb.service

But one could as well set skip-grant-tables and skip-networking inside /etc/my.cnf.


text:
Lamborghini Takes Double Road To Le Mans Victory For The First Time
AutomotiveBusinessSpeedway Racing
By George McGregor	 On Sep 19, 2020
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo – FFF Racing- Road to Le Mans 2020.
ITALY – Lamborghini recorded a superb double victory in the Road to Le Mans races at the famous Circuit de la Sarthe in the hands of FFF Racing's Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Andrea Caldarelli. The Road to Le Mans is part of the Le Mans Cup, a championship dedicated to LMP3 and GT3 machinery, and runs on the support bill of the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Hamaguchi and Lamborghini Factory Driver Caldarelli, at the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo #63, kicked off the weekend's proceedings positively by setting the second fastest time in the opening practice session before going one better in the second session. The #63 Huracán then claimed pole position for the first of two 55-minute races held on Friday afternoon which Hamaguchi and Caldarelli converted into a commanding victory.
Leading the opening stint, Hamaguchi opened up a healthy margin over the nearest challengers before handing over to Caldarelli at the mandatory pit-stop. Caldarelli continued the strong work of his Japanese team-mate in the second half of the race, extending the advantage to just over 16 seconds by the flag.
The pair started Saturday morning's damp second race from second on the grid but quickly moved to the head of the field thanks to an assertive move by Hamaguchi approaching the first chicane. Again, Caldarelli maintained the lead after the pit-stop, but the margin ahead of David Perel's Ferrari was much narrower this time around.
Perel closed the gap progressively in the final stages and got to within half a second entering the final corners, but Caldarelli and Hamaguchi had already done enough to take a second victory of the weekend.
"Hiroshi did an amazing job, he kept the lead at the start, with all the LMP3s in the middle. All the guys at home, they did an amazing job with the car, it was fantastic."
Andrea Caldarelli
"I am very happy with this result, to be on the top step of the podium at Le Mans, it's an amazing feeling. I cannot thank Andrea enough, he did a great job. After my podium in 2016, I am happy to be back."
Hiroshi Hamaguchi
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text:
Glennon RA, Little PJ, Rosecrans JA, Yousif M.
"The effect of MDMA ('Ecstasy') and its optical isomers on schedule-controlled responding in mice".
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1987;26(2):425-6.
Glennon RA, Little PJ, Rosecrans JA, Yousif M. "The effect of MDMA ('Ecstasy') and its optical isomers on schedule-controlled responding in mice" Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1987;26(2):425-6.
Glennon RA
Little PJ
Rosecrans JA
Yousif M
Eleven mice were trained to respond under an FR 20 schedule of reinforcement and, after learning the schedule, were administered doses of saline and the following phenylisopropylamines: (+/-)-MDMA, S(+)-MDMA, R(-)-MDMA and (+)-amphetamine. Each of the phenylisopropylamines decreased rates of operant responding in a dose-dependent manner. S(+)-MDMA (ED50 = 3.1 mg/kg) was nearly equipotent with racemic MDMA and four times more potent than R(-)-MDMA (ED50 = 4.1 and 11.6 mg/kg, respectively), but less potent than (+)-amphetamine (ED50 = 0.74 mg/kg). The present study constitutes the first enantiomeric behavioral-potency comparison for the optical isomers of MDMA.


text:
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Bucket biologists have taken it upon themselves to plant walleye in Swan Lake. Fortunately, two fish were caught, and if the culprits are caught, they could end up paying a hefty fine.
Region 1 Fisheries Manager Mark Deleray said FWP biologists caught the walleye during gill-net sampling last week. Both measured about 17 inches long, and Deleray didn't know how long they'd been there or how many more might be in the lake.
Walleye are not native to Swan Lake and could wreak havoc on the trout population since they are voracious predators of perch, minnows and small trout. In Canyon Ferry where they are allowed, walleyes eat more than 750,000 pounds of perch each year—that's about 4 pounds of perch per walleye.
Last year, the Fish and Wildlife Commission strengthened FWP's policy for dealing with illegal introductions. Within the next 30 days, biologists will try to confirm the presence and distribution of additional walleye and then decide how to either suppress or remove them.
Since one angler's favorite fish can eliminate another's, Montana Trout Unlimited got involved in 2013 after FWP discovered that someone had planted smallmouth bass in Seeley Lake, about 50 miles south of Swan Lake. At that time, the fine was only $1,000.
MTU stepped in and offered $10,000 for convictions because problem is getting worse. Of more than 500 known illegal introductions in Montana, one quarter occurred in the past 12 years. More than 50 species of nonnative fish have been introduced into 300 state lakes and streams.
Talk to people around Seeley Lake, and they have their suspicions about who did it. But It's often difficult for FWP to cite someone for doing illegal introductions without some telling evidence. So many illegal introductions go unpunished even though they sometimes lead to situations where FWP has to spend a lot of time and money correcting the problem.
That led the FWP commission to take a harder line on introductions.
Fortunately, not all introductions are successful. But Montanans don't want the walleye in Swan Lake to become like the scourge of lake trout in Yellowstone Lake.
Deleray asks anyone with information on who introduced walleye into Swan Lake to call 1-800-TIP-MONT. Callers do not need to identify themselves and may be eligible for a $15,000 cash reward. Anglers are encouraged to keep any walleye caught and report additional sightings of walleye to FWP at 406-752-5501.


text:
What Are Gourmet Salts And Are They Worth The Price?
By Kirstie Bingham/Feb. 15, 2022 1:37 pm EST
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
If you've ever complained about your food tasting bland, it's a good guess that it's lacking salt. One of five basic tastes of the human palate — sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami — Food Republic notes that salt is one of the oldest seasonings, with evidence of salt production going back at least 8,000 years. And while most people think about salt as being just ... salt, the flavor and texture can change based on how it's processed and the minerals associated with the region it was farmed in.
There are three primary methods to extracting salt, and even mass market salts use the same types of processes: solar evaporation, where the sun evaporates shallow pools of water, leaving the salt crystals behind; rock salt mining, where the salt is dug out of the earth; and vacuum evaporation, where salt mine deposits are pumped with water, turning it into a salty brine slurry, that is then moved into a series of large vacuum evaporators where the water is boiled off, leaving fine salt behind (per Morton's Salt).
But in addition to different types of salts based on processing and terroir, a number of "gourmet salts" are available on the market. As celebrity chef Ina Garten told Oprah Daily in June 2021, "Salt is the most important ingredient of all ... Most people think different types of salt are interchangeable, but that's not at all true."
What are gourmet salts?
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Sometimes referred to as artisan salts, gourmet salts are often a step above your classic mined or evaporated coarse grain salt. Simply Recipes notes they're often referred to as "finishing salts," meaning they're meant to be used at the end of the cooking process to imbue the food — or drink — with a salty crunch, and the flavor or essence of that particular salt. As Oregon's Jacobsen Salt Co. owner Ben Jacobson told Williams-Sonoma, when he first tried finishing salts, "I was struck by how much taste they actually had! It wasn't just sodium. It was brininess, combined with a delicate crunch. The crunch would contrast with food, texturally, and then wash my mouth with flavor."
While the profusion of gourmet salts seems new, some are cuisine classics, like Fleur de Sel. According to Salt Spring Sea Salt, Fleur de Sel — "Flower of Salt" — is a kind of sodium crystal that occurs during the evaporation process of harvesting sea salt. In the right, rare conditions, a thin layer of the salty crystals rise to the surface and are harvested by hand, The Spruce Eats writes. Lower in salinity, it has a more briny, mineral flavor, Food Republic notes. While other countries produce similar crystalline salts, Fleur de Sel primarily hails from the shallow seawater pools on the Brittany coast of France. While it gained popularly with professional chefs in the early 2000s, it's been harvested in France since at least 868 C.E., per Spiceography.
How are gourmet salts made, and what do they taste like?
Iryna Pohrebna/Shutterstock
Gourmet salts come in a wide range of flavors and infusions. Some companies leave the fine quality salt crystals in their natural state — like Fleur de Sel or Himalayan Pink Sea Salt — leaving the strong taste of salty sea, while others add flavors or even smoke the salt.
Smoked salts are primarily made from sea salts smoked in various types of wood — no fake Liquid Smoke here. As The Salt Box writes, smoked salts can give a "flame-grilled smokiness" to the dish, and generally the salts are smoked for up to two weeks. When smoking the salt, the type of wood used will impart completely different flavors. Applewood or mesquite woods tend to give off sweet, smokey flavors, while cold-smoked Chardonnay oak can infuse the salt with the flavor of wine.
Flavored salts generally are made by infusing sea salt with flavorings. According to The Spruce Eats, there are a wide-ranging amount of already-manufactured flavors available, from heat-infusions like sriracha, ghost pepper, or green jalapeño, to more savory flavors like saffron, truffle, or vanilla. There are also wine-infused salts, as well as classic herbaceous and citrus flavors like rosemary, thyme, and lemon. The Salt Box notes that some brands separate out chili salts, those infused with heat-providing spices, and flavored salts, those mixed with herbs and other natural flavorings, but many combine the two.
How to cook with gourmet salts
135pixels/Shutterstock
The key thing when using gourmet salts is to use them at the end of the cooking process, Love Sea Salt emphasizes. Adding them during the cooking process will cause the salt to dissolve into whatever dish you're creating, losing the essence of the flavor and texture that are the whole point of using them in the first place.
But just as there are a plethora of gourmet salts available, the uses for them are as wide-ranging as your imagination. The key is choosing the right salt for the dish. A stronger flavored meal might require a coarser, more strongly flavored salt, and the opposite will be true for something more delicate. With subtle foods like fish, SaltWorks notes, gourmet salts can enhance the flavors without overwhelming the palate. They can even be mixed into or sprinkled over butter to add additional flavor and crunch.
They're not just for savory dishes, either — gourmet salts can also enhance the flavor of sweet dishes. Sea salt caramel and salty chocolates are often seen on store shelves, but it doesn't have to stop there. As SaltWorks points out, the salt flavoring can tamper overwhelming bitterness or cloying sweetness of a dessert.
Smoked salts similarly have a wide range of uses. The Salt Box notes they can add chargrilled flavoring to meats that aren't grilled or to add smoky notes to salads or soups. They can also be used as a pre-grilling rub for meats.
How to make drinks with gourmet salts
Sean Locke Photography/Shutterstock
Gourmet salts aren't just for food. One culinary trend involves using gourmet salts to give depth and enhance the flavor profile of a cocktail. As San Francisco-based beverage specialist Morgan Schick told Liquor.com, "Using salt in any drink adds complexity ... It emphasizes certain flavors and can make a simple cocktail really unique, especially with cocktails that are bitter or sour."
You can use them to rim a cocktail glass, Liquor.com notes, or in the cocktail itself, to add to the cocktail's complexity. Mixologist Marcio Ramos of New York City's The Honey Well, noted to Liquor.com, "What's so intriguing about these salts is the layering effects, which makes a cocktail stand out." Experimenting with different salts and cocktails can provide unique results — a jalapeño salt spices up a margarita, or a herbal-infused salt could deepen a classic martini. Cocktails like Manhattans that are often smoke-infused in cocktail bars could get similar flavors from smoked salts, but without the hassle. Salt entrepreneur Mark Bitterman told SevenFiftyDaily that people should buy a variety of salts, "and [just] play ... you can accomplish all kinds of cool things, and, frankly, it's fun."
There are also brands that specialize in pre-made gourmet cocktail salts, and some alcohol brands are producing them as well. Craft gin-specialist Tamworth Distilling has created a Gin Salt, made with juniper, coriander, and anjelica, specifically intended to enhance the natural gin flavors.
Where to buy gourmet salts
Lucinda J Ringer/Shutterstock
Gourmet salts add flavorful finish to any dish, but they do come at a price. Some, like Fleur de Sel, can be especially expensive because they're harvested by hand. An 8.8-ounce jar of Fleur de Sel, for example, will set you back $14.95 at Williams-Sonoma. A 2.2-pound bag of Himalayan Pink Sea Salt, meanwhile, costs $8.99 on Amazon. And an 8.5-ounce box of Maldon Sea Salt Flakes will set you back $6.99 at Safeway. In general, you should be able to find gourmet salts at your local grocery store, though a specialty store may have more flavor options. So, are finishing salts worth the price? It's up to you, but these salts do add flavor and texture that can't be achieved with just regular table or sea salt.
You can also make flavored finishing salts at home, as long as you start with high-quality sea salt. Using a cooking process similar to making infused sugars, Ree Drummond notes on her website that the most successful ratio is approximately one teaspoon of flavoring to 1/4 cup of salt. That said, some infusions might be worth paying for if the ingredients are more expensive, like truffles, or if you want a specific flavoring that's not available in your area.
Smoked salts, however, are a more complicated process, requiring a smoker and a deft hand. Unless you're skilled with a smoker and want to experiment with a specific type of wood, leave those to the professionals.


The Eurosportz range of Sports Shelters provides the perfect solution for your home ground technical area. The shelters are manufactured from stainless steel with polycarbonate glazing making them long lasting and low maintenance.
The dugouts are F.A. compliant and can be made to your specification incorporating team colours and crests. The shelters offer an ideal advertising space so can easily be funded by your club sponsors.
The shelters can be tailormade to your specification with our optional extras including bench or deluxe seating and portable/bolt-down feet or permanently fixed dug in installation.
These shelters are also suitable for schools, colleges, sports academies, universities and leisure centres.
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Do you work in technology? If so, look around you. How many women do you see? Wait, let's narrow that down–how many female developers do you see?
It's no shock that technology is a male-dominated industry and has been for a long time. For Emily Maxie, director of marketing at Very–a Chattanooga-based startup that works with fast-growing companies to create digital products that drive results–this imbalance first hit her while attending a major technology tradeshow.
"In between sessions I went to the restroom, and there was a line out of the door for the men's restroom and not for women. I thought, 'This may be the only time this happens…'" she said on Wednesday at her Startup Week Chattanooga talk on "Practical Ways Men Can Address Tech's Gender Imbalance".
Maxie has spent the last several years of her career working in marketing for technology companies. While the issue of gender inclusion is prevalent in many industries, she's noticed it more in the tech space and is passionate about finding ways for communities to gather and have tough talks on this topic.
Gender diversity, at its core, is about inclusion. From a business perspective, however, the issue has practical and data-driven reasons behind its need. After all, diversity affects the bottom line. Maxie shared one McKinsey & Company study from 2015 that showed gender diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform non-diverse companies, and ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform. She uncovered more research proving when women are added to a company's c-suite, a ripple effect occurs that can equal up to a 6% increase in net profit.
Why does diversity make this much of an impact? Because when individuals with unique perspectives come to the executive table–where decisions are made–problems and solutions are evaluated from many vantage points for the betterment of the company and for business, Maxie explained.
But it's not so easy to achieve this balance.
"This a multi-faceted problem and there's no silver bullet to solve it," Maxie explained.
Her recommendation is for communities to approach this issue by having tough conversations to see how they can make a difference and impact change.
The solution for getting more women into these technical roles may be to start early. Girls' exposure to computer science peaks in junior high, which both dries out the pipeline of girls interested in this career path and minimizes collective awareness of these opportunities by the time they reach college.
In other instances, Maxie believes it's a retention problem, with 56% of women leaving their technical roles halfway through their career. When she dug into this topic to uncover motivations for leaving, she came up short, unable to find solid, well-researched information defining the reasons behind this staggering number. The lack of data showed Maxie that it's an issue people don't care to explore, when, in fact, it's a topic that desperately needs further exploration if companies and communities expect to understand and make change.
To better understand the problem, Maxie took a look at possible solutions and steps for impacting this issue in the Chattanooga tech startup scene.
"It's a leadership problem," she said, explaining how leaders with awareness of the lack of gender–or ethnic–diversity can make a difference in company culture to adjust the status quo within their business' walls.
"At Women in Tech events, I've been in rooms full of women who discuss why this is a problem, but few are in leadership positions to make changes," she said.
Not only is it something that should start with leadership, but with men, Maxie explained. She pulled up a slide that showed all of her tech managers so far in her career–all white men. If these men and managers are not involved in the conversations, she said, the discussions at Women in Tech events will simply turn into echo chambers, where inclusion and diversity are discussed at large, but without leadership individuals present to listen and push for action. It takes leaders like GoDaddy's Blake Irving, who used his role as CEO to shift the conversation from focusing on what they've done wrong to how they can be better.
We all need mentors in our careers; individuals who act as experienced sounding boards for handling changes in career or company. They tend to be empathetic and full of advice. But in order to make real waves in their career, Maxie recommends women search for sponsors.
Sponsors are different from mentors, for they take a vested interest in your success, will help you map out your career path, expect a lot from you in performance and loyalty, and have the power to advocate for you. In these relationships, a sponsor's success is often linked to the sponsee's, so there are higher stakes involved than in a mentor relationship. Maxie shared that women with sponsors are 23% more likely to move up in their career than those without.
During her interview at Very, Maxie was given a disclaimer about the company–she would be one of three women in the entire company… was she OK with that? That comment alone calmed any hesitation Maxie may have had about another male-saturated tech startup. The partners were–and are–aware of the company's lack of diversity, but it's something they're trying to change. This awareness and the continuing open dialogue surrounding the topic is the first step in the right direction, she said.
"When you're looking at a company like Very, from the outside looking in it's hard to know why there are so few women," Maxie said.
In this divisive culture we live in, Maxie said it can be difficult to have calm, rational discussions with opposing viewpoints, but it's necessary with issues like diversity. It takes courage to stand up and say something isn't right, but it also takes courage to go against the grain to share your own, differing perspective. All are pieces of the puzzle needed in this conversation.
Sexual harassment in the workplace is not a new topic, especially in recent days as our social media channels fill with women posting "#metoo". It's a conversation for all industries, and tech is no stranger to it, with 63% of women in tech reporting instances of sexual harassment in their career. To combat this, Maxie asked all the men present to stand up with integrity when derogatory or inappropriate things are said about women, and tell individuals such comments and behavior are not tolerated.
Maxie believes we can help address the women-in-tech pipeline problem by encouraging girls to explore their interest in technology from an early age. The demand for these positions is high, and as today's kids grow, it will likely compound into an even greater need. Introducing young girls to video games, coding camps or games, opportunities to flex that side of their brain, and highlight available paths for them can help get more girls interested in this field.
The hope? For the number of women in tech to increase so that this booming industry can experience more success and continued growth when diverse individuals are at the table.
"As a community, we can work together to make solutions so that Chattanooga becomes recognized as a place of inclusion. It can give us a competitive edge as a community that values women and minorities and we can attract top talent," she said.
Have you noticed the gender diversity gap in tech? If so, how is your company or community working to close the gap? Tell me in the comments below.
This article was originally published on Experts-Exchange.com on October 20, 2017.


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Improved interaction with Excel files in 32-bit installations.
Legal Notice message now gets bypassed when Autologin is used.


QUESTION: WHAT IS AN ARTISAN PATISSERIE BY DAY WITH AN ASIAN FUSION MENU BY NIGHT?
Not long ago, Bam Bam Bakehouse decided to blow us all away by announcing they were opening Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights for dinner.
Bam Bam is no secret hot spot. There is a constant explosion of people lining up to taste one of their delicious strawberry tarts or signature Bam Bam Benny's. In fact, tables fill up so quickly that Bam Bam has started handing out picnic blankets and delivering baskets to people willing to really soak up the alfresco dining experience in the adjacent park.
So when announcing they were opening for dinner, we couldn't wait to see if the menu was worth gathering the squad for.
Looking over the quiet park at night, the atmosphere in the venue is warm and private. The decor hints French countryside meets New York industrial. Think fresh flowers and delicate tiles contrasted by recycled timber and a mixed height tables paired with metal stools. Twinkling candle light gives an eternal dusky mood while the warmth from the outdoor heaters will keep the winter chill at bay.
The distinction between the day/night menu is clear with the Asian additions like Steamed White Fish Dumplings made fresh with shitake mushrooms and Coconut Prawns battered in Stone & Wood. The Katsu Sando with panko dumbed chicken schnitzel, white cabbage, house Tonkatsu sauce and Paddock Bakery Scotch loaf is irresistible. If you didn't know, Paddock and Bam Bam are sister restaurants. Paddock makes the breads and Bam Bam makes the sweets and then they swap. But back to food, the Thai Beef Salad featuring hot smoked beef, roasted peanuts and Naam jim is perfect for a lighter taste explosion. If you want to bust out the big guns (which we suggest you do) you've got to get a side of the Special Soft Shell Crab Chinese Fried Rice with your order. Put a little Sriracha on the side to detonate serious flavour.
On Thursdays be sure to hit up Holy Schnit! night featuring $18.90 Chicken Parmi, rocket salad, chips and a Stone & Wood (what a deal!).
Since dinner is only served Thursday – Sunday it would be a sin not to indulge in at least one of their cocktails. The Elderflower Margarita is a best seller, but we thought the Midori & Cointreau cocktail, the classic Japanese Slipper really packed a punch! The Ink Gin & Tonic is just so pretty too.
As Bam Bam Bakehouse is a patisserie by day, it's unacceptable to leave without trying one of their Sweet Thangs. The interactive Choux Bomb Sundae is truly the way to go. Crispy choux pastry, crunchy praline croustillant, caramelised hazelnuts, vanilla soft serve and a pour-it-yourself nutella hot fudge sauce is a flavour combination so deadly, we can't guarantee you won't die of happiness.
Things are gonna get ruff.
Ho ho how stretchy are your pants?


Helicopter parenting is a thing. There are books about it, spoofs of it, and it's a wildly popular practice.
The long and short of it is that helicopter parents hover over their children in most every venue of life–school, sports, social, spiritual–in such a way that the child or teen (or young adult) is never really left to herself to survive or figure it out. Especially if that means stumbling or someone tripping them up.
Be childlike again and imagine this: a mom hovering over her son, keeping a close watch over the grade book, seeing he didn't do as well as he could have on an assignment. She lands the chopper at school, strides (somewhat passive aggressively–though you don't know it right away) into the teacher's work space, and proceeds to explain why Jimmy deserves a higher grade…any of the following arguments may ensue.
WE just aren't getting the concepts.
WE were at a Circus Olay performance very late, and WE didn't get enough sleep.
Notice the use of We. That's mom acting as if she and her son are one. It's a tell tale sign. In any case, the thrust of each argument is the same: my child is a victim. Of what? Not getting the grade I want him to have.
Are there legitimate reasons why Jimmy may have blown a test? Sure. Was he ill? Did someone in the family pass? Does he just flat out not get it? Those things are possible and do happen. Communication is key, of course.
This scene is playing out on every level, though. From kindergarten through college. Yes, college. I have heard professors speak of parents calling to argue about their kid's grade, even on single assignments.
Whether it's grades or a disagreement with another students, the helicopter parent is always alert and ready to intervene.
I have helicoptered over our oldest. Especially in public play scenarios–playground, soft play (AKA, Bring your kid here if you want sickness to spread through your household Play), etc.
I would keep a close eye on Ben (now 5). Waiting for someone to look at him the wrong way, run past him too fast and thus need my scolding (you're welcome other parent staring at your phone), or in the event that he might fall, trip, stub his toe, get a hangnail, or look constipated.
I'll admit it. I hovered. And it's been hard to stop. To stop making sure he never gets scraped or has to struggle. To stop making excuses for why he colored outside of the lines more than other preschoolers (weak hands….mine are small, too….it's the economy??).
And thankfully we have friends around us trying to prevent doing the same, so we can laugh about our neurosis together. There are things kids can't fully do or think through themselves; that's why parents matter. But some struggle is good.
Let your baby boy or sweet little princess feel some of the tension they will face evermore. In other words, coach them. Don't take their place on the court.
They will eventually work alongside that difficult kid in class you're trying to keep them away from. The coach who doesn't always say something encouraging will be their boss. The players may be different, but the game will look pretty much the same.
God's grace be to all of us trying to prepare kids for this world. It's hard and vulnerable and tiring. And it's so worth it.


Diane finds pleasure watching others be the "best" they can be. She strives to continue learning something new everyday.
Diane and daughter, Lori at the Rock and Roll Marathon.
Diane graduated from Inland Massage Institute in 2003. She opened her practice "Hand to Health Therapeutic Massage" October 2003 in Ritzville WA. Later expanding with an office in Odessa WA with Dr. Troy Eldridge Chiropractic. There she learned how well chiropractic and massage go together for a well rounded treatment program.
As Diane continued her education, she found a passion for Sports massage and Orthopedic massage making them her specialty. Diane decided to open a practice in Spokane WA giving her an opportunity to work closely with Champions Sports Medicine which has allowed her to further develop her skills in orthopedic & sports massage.
Diane also earned her reputation of quality and skill in profession by working with The WA Sports Massage Team, Seattle Seahawks training camp, personal massage therapist for two Seahawk Players during the 2006 season and volunteering in the massage tent at Ironman CDA. Diane also enjoys working with the students participating in high school sports, keeping them in the game.
Another part of Diane's education has been in the treatment of headaches. She specializes in natural treatments for migraine headaches, to include cold marble facial stones and aroma therapy. Treatments can take as little as 30 minutes. Treatments can be given pre-migraine or during a migraine. Regular treatments have been known to prevent migraines. Treatments are also good for tension, sinus and cluster headaches.
Diane has great compassion for people and a passion for massage therapy. She wants every person on her table to have the best experience. Whether it is treatment for an injury, pre- sporting event, post event, training or simply relaxation. Overall well being is her goal.


text:
package com.davidjohnburrowes.format.jpeg.support;

import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;

/**
 * Used to annotate a Marker class to indicate what JPEG marker id it can
 * accept.
 */
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public @interface MarkerId {
	int value();
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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AUTO_EXTENSION_DAYS_NOT_SUPPORTED Auto extension days is not supported by programmatic line items.
VIDEO_NOT_SUPPORTED Video is currently not supported.
ROADBLOCKING_NOT_SUPPORTED Roadblocking is not supported by programmatic line items.
INVALID_CREATIVE_ROTATION Programmatic line items do not support CreativeRotationType.SEQUENTIAL.
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COST_PER_UNIT_TOO_LOW Cost per unit is too low. It has to be at least 0.005 USD.


text:
DV8 Playlist
To RSVP for the
Sunset Blvd Shows
Blvd
A livestream takeover of the sunset strip
Join the madness! YUNGBLUD is taking over the Sunset Strip to celebrate the release of his third album on September 8. You're invited to be in the live audience!! Select your dream venue below or sign up for the waitlist. Don't Forget to Listen to Yungblud's New Self-Titled album On Amazon Music on September 2nd.
follow twitch.tv/amazonmusic
Don't Want to
join the crowd?
Tune in to
Amazon Music on Twitch
09-08-22 @ 7PM PDT
DOORS: 6:30pm; SET TIME: 7:00PM
*ALL AGES*
8852 WEST SUNSET BOULEVARD,
Since its stellar opening in 1993, the world-famous Viper Room has hosted the likes of Johnny Cash, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stone Temple Pilots, Bruce Springsteen, Oasis, Queens of The Stone Age, Courtney Love, Natalie Cole, Elvis Costello, Pete Yorn, Lenny Kravitz, Pearl Jam, The Strokes, Weezer, Maroon 5, John Mayer, Iggy Pop and Sheryl Crow, as well as an array of other internationally established artists and the cult favorites of America's underground, including Yungblud.
8901 W. Sunset Blvd,
The World Famous Whisky a Go Go – As long as there has been a Los Angeles rock scene, there has been the Whisky A Go-Go. An anchor on the Sunset Strip since it's opening in 1964, the Whisky A Go-Go has played host to rock 'n' roll's most important bands, from the Doors, Janis Joplin, and Led Zeppelin to Yungblud.
The Roxy
9009 West Sunset Blvd,
Established in 1973 The Roxy Theatre is a legendary music venue located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. Regardless of its West Coast locale, it is known by music lovers all over the world.
Thank you for RSVPing to an exclusive event for Yungblud. This is a reminder that an RSVP is not a guaranteed entry to the event, we suggest showing up early. Entry is subject to capacity and will be a first come first serve basis.
Venue(Required)
Sorry, there are no more of this item.
YUNGBLUD STORMS THE STRIP!
PERFORMING LIVE FROM THE ROXY,
WHISKY A GO-GO AND THE
VIPER ROOM IN ONE NIGHT,
WITH VERY SPECIAL GUESTS
ON SEPTEMBER 8
The third album. Out 9/2.


text:
The Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background
Sponsored by PittconAug 18 2014
Image Credit: Igor Zh/Shutterstock.com
An accidental discovery by Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias in 1964 changed the entire landscape of cosmology and established the concept of a big bang as a keystone in our understanding of how the universe came into existence.
Steady State vs Big Bang
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, cosmologists had been involved in a debate regarding the origin of the universe. By the start of the 1960s, the two most popular cosmological models in this scientific field were the Steady State theory and the Big Bang theory.
The Steady State model, which was championed by the English astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, postulated that the universe obeyed the perfect cosmological principle. This meant that the universe was both homogeneous and isotropic in space and time when observed on sufficiently large enough scales. This theory also hypothesized that the universe had always existed and would continue to do so without much change.
In stark contrast, the Big Bang theory suggested that the universe had been formed fractions of a second after a huge explosion which happened billions of years ago. The concept of the 'primeval atom', which was used as the basis of the big bang theory as we know it, was first proposed by the Belgian astronomer and physicist, Georges Lemaître. This concept was then advocated and developed into a fully formed theory, in part by the Russian cosmologist George Gamow.
Image Credit: Designua/Shutterstock.com
The Big Bang's Smoking Gun
In 1964 two American radio astronomers, Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias were working at the Bell Labs in Holmdel, using the Horn Antenna to map signals across the Milky Way. The Holmdel Horn Antenna was a highly sensitive instrument originally built to detect faint radio waves, which had been deflected off of satellites. In order for the antenna to work properly, all "noisy" interference, such as radio waves, radar, and heat, had to be completely eliminated.
However, after removing the obvious sources of interference, the researchers still noticed a faint, persistent, and ever-present noise emanating from every direction. It was not coming from a planet, the sun, or anywhere else in the Milky Way. As a result, the Wilson and Penzias could only logically conclude that the noise was originating from outside of our galaxy.
Meanwhile, at nearby Princeton, the astrophysicists Jim Peebles, Robert Dicke, and David Wilkinson were trying to detect microwave radiation. They predicted that the Big Bang explosion would have strewn both matter and the radiation out across the newly formed universe and were ready to build an experiment to try to test their hypothesis.
The radiation detected by Wilson and Penzias perfectly matched the predictions made by Peebles, Dicke, and Wilkinson. The cosmic microwave background radiation was dubbed a signature of the Big Bang event or its "smoking gun".
A Bigger Bang
The discovery of the cosmic microwave background gave Penzias and Wilson the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 and is regarded as a hallmark moment in modern physical cosmology, validating the efficacy of the Big Bang Theory. Since its discovery, the cosmic microwave background has been a basic pillar of the cosmological model and continues to provide insights into the makeup of the universe.
The observable universe, made up of stars, planets, and galaxies, comprises less than 5% of the universe's total mass. The universe is believed to be mostly comprised of dark energy, a mysterious force driving the expansion of our universe at an ever-increasing rate. The next largest component is dark matter, which is believed to account for a large amount of the invisible mass in the universe.
Although dark energy and dark matter are still not fully understood, cosmic microwave background observations have become powerful tools for cosmologists to study the mysterious forces which are at work in the universe.
The Large Horn Antenna and the Discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation - APS Physics
Big Bang or Steady State? - American Institute of Physics
An Introduction to the CMB - University of Chicago
The 3K Cosmic Background Radiation - HyperPhysics
Physical Keys to Cosmology - HyperPhysics
This article has been produced in association with the Pittcon Conference and Expo to celebrate the International Year of Light 2015.
For more information on how Pittcon are involved in IYL 2015, please visit www.pittcon.org
Pittcon. (2020, August 21). The Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background. AZoOptics. Retrieved on January 20, 2021 from https://www.azooptics.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=942.
Pittcon. "The Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background". AZoOptics. 20 January 2021. <https://www.azooptics.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=942>.
Pittcon. "The Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background". AZoOptics. https://www.azooptics.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=942. (accessed January 20, 2021).
Pittcon. 2020. The Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background. AZoOptics, viewed 20 January 2021, https://www.azooptics.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=942.
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See all content from Pittcon


My husband visited the emergency room for a worker's comp visit in May 2011. He recieved notice to provide the workers comp insurance information and responded in August 2011. No other letters were sent to us and we thought it was paid by workers comp. We received a collection notice in February 2012. We called and found out that they never billed the insurance company with the claim. They never billed my husband (the patient). They simply sent it off to the collection agency. Now they are going to place the collection on hold for 60 days and bill the insurance company (which they should have already done). If the insurance company does not pay, we will remain in collections, even though we never received a bill or had the opportunity to pay. What are my rights?
For a workers comp claim, the provider has 1 year from the date of service to submit the claim to the carrier. You should make sure that they did indeed submit this before the year runs out. If they did not, you can be held responsible since the claim information was not given to them at the time of service, this is considered a delay on the patients part. If I were your husband, I would request an itemized statement from the doctors office and submit it to the workers comp carrier directly to assure it is received in time.
I have been a medical biller for over 20 years.
I am not an expert on medical billing or insurance issues. Therefore, I recommend that you visit The Access Project which will answer your questions for free.


The UNITY collaborative has driven down homelessness by 85 percent since Katrina by housing families like the Newtons, who sought UNITY's help after elderly relatives died in the storm, leaving the young family with no one to turn to.
thinking back to a different time.
Before his diabetes got so bad that his kidneys failed. Before his eyes began to fail, rendering him legally blind. Back then, he had never doubted his ability to work hard and provide for his family.


text:
using Castle.MicroKernel.Registration;
using Castle.MicroKernel.SubSystems.Configuration;
using Castle.Windsor;
using dbqf.Display.Standard;
using dbqf.WinForms;
using dbqf.WinForms.Standard;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace Standalone.Installers.Views
{
    public class StandardInstaller : IWindsorInstaller
    {
        public void Install(IWindsorContainer container, IConfigurationStore store)
        {
            // Lifestyle Singleton because we know the control will only be used once in our application.
            container.Register(
                Component.For<StandardView>().LifestyleSingleton(),
                Component.For<StandardAdapter<Control>>().ImplementedBy<Standalone.Core.Display.StandardAdapter<Control>>().LifestyleSingleton()
            );
        }
    }
}


text:
Review: "Christmas Wish" by Olivia Newton-John (CD, 2007)
December 2, 2022 December 16, 2022 • Pop Rescue
Today's Christmas Pop Rescue from an unknown fate, is 2007's Christmas Wish – the twenty-second album by the late Australian actress and singer Olivia Newton-John. Will this album make all your wishes come true, or is it a greasy turkey? Read on…
Olivia Newton-John – Christmas Wish (2007) album
This 22 track CD opens with gentle tinkling piano and pennywhistle of traditional song O Come All Ye Faithful, and Olivia's delivery is rich, warm, and absolutely flawless. Briefly, you imagine Celine Dion joining in to tell you about her heart that goes on and on, but thankfully that doesn't happen, allowing Olivia to shine in a wash of choral vocal harmonies with her backing vocalists. Eventually keyboards provide some sad strings, and a simple thudding drum adds some weight as contrast, but all together, it's a great start to the album.
That's followed by Angels We Have Heard On High (Interlude), which again sees piano lead us through this instrumental traditional song. It lasts a mere 1m 14s, but the piano delivers its majesty and joy perfectly.
Next it's original track Every Time It Snows, which is a duet between Olivia and Jon Secada. Olivia shows off her soft and breathy vocals here, as the piano and string section playful dance around her. The contrasting vocals of Jon Secada are a perfect match, and this is probably the best I've heard him, and it just gets better as they reach harmonies. It sounds almost as if it belongs in a Christmas favourite animation.
Away In A Manger (Interlude) follows that, giving us another little interlude with piano and the richness of the mournful cello to carry this lullaby traditional song to it's short but perfectly formed conclusion.
There's mysterious sounds of cymbals and percussion at the start of next song We Three Kings, before Olivia takes the mic. She's joined by a bansuri and some male backing vocalists, offering up a really nice sounding contrast high and low. She is sounding wonderful here against the delicately angelic backing track as it almost tip-toes along. The song builds slowly, even managing a key change as a rumble of military band styled drums arrive.
The First Noel (Interlude) is next, and the piano once again delivers this classic song perfectly.
That's followed by A Mother's Christmas Wish – another original song, this time featuring pianist and songwriter Jim Brickman. From the songs heard so far, this track sounds the most modern but no less Christmassy. The track gently plods along quite nicely, and Olivia does a great job of delivering it.
Next is Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring (Interlude) another traditional song. This time, the piano sounds like it's joined by a harp. It's quite a plinky-plonky song, but it's soon over in 1m 24s.
That leads on to Angels In The Snow, a song written by Olivia's backing singer (at least on this album) Amy Sky. The piano, cello, and accordion, work really well together, as they cross over each other tonally. Olivia's vocal harmonies with herself gives us a really nice little modern song, and gives her a big final note to end on.
It's time for another traditional song – What Child Is This? (Interlude) – which I had to check the sleeve notes for, as I thought of Greensleeves. Here, there's piano, guitar, and some backing synthscapes. The guitar solo is brief but is a nice closing touch.
Canadian singer Jann Arden joins Olivia for the classic Silent Night, and as you'd expect Olivia delivers this with absolute perfection. The song is perfectly un-hurried, and Amy Sky and Steve Real join in to provide French (alongside Jann) and Spanish vocals respectively. This really helps to build the song nicely. It's another nice plodder, and the inclusion of the guitar during the Spanish part just helps to build it nicely (no, there's no accordion during the French bit). Olivia returns with English alongside a cello, and the loyal piano, to take the song to a soaring ending.
Another interlude this time with piano, it's O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Interlude) and this time it's not a track that I'm overly familiar with, still it sounds quite nice as it slowly evolves.
Next up is All Through The Night with American singer Michael McDonald joining Olivia on the vocal duties. His vocals are unmistakable here, and they offer a good clear contrast as the orchestra, harp and french horn all help the song to build up. Olivia is very much in control here, but her harmonies with Michael sound really warm and rich.
As you'd expect drums turn up swiftly for Little Drummer Boy (Interlude), but the difficulty is that the vocal line is carried by the piano, which sounds quite nice, but it also loses some power in the relationship between lyric and the drumming… but before you've realised it, the 1m 5s is over and we're moving on.
Underneath The Same Sky is next, and this is a shift in sound, leading us to some sort of missing Dolly Parton meets pop-rock song. This certainly sounds very modern, but then it is another original track. The track has beats, strummed guitars galore, and synthscapes helping to carry Olivia through from verse to chorus and back again. It's a nice enough song, but it is quite a change in pace sat here amongst the rest of these songs so far.
Returning back to traditional, it's the piano's time to perform O Christmas Tree (Interlude). The piano takes this in its stride, delivering a rich and weighty classic sound.
That turns suddenly to Little Star Of Bethlehem, which begins abruptly with piano chords, before Olivia arrives with familiar lyrics. Whilst you might think that you know this song, here the track has a different arrangement courtesy of a song called Porcelain by the track's pianist Stephan Moccio. This version certainly takes this song to new realms, and the piano and vocal harmonies sound almost angelic.
We return to the more familiar, with Deck The Halls (Interlude) giving us a jolly 59s of tradition with seemingly great ease and cheeriness.
Instrument Of Peace is next, as Marc Jordan joins Olivia on this song which as the sleeve art informs me, was 'inspired by the words of St. Francis of Assisi'. The strings swirl around Olivia as she effortlessly delivers this song, flanked by Marc's well placed contrasting soulful vocals. Olivia really gets to shine here alongside the soaring strings with some fantastically big notes. Suddenly, a full song erupts complete with dramatic drum fills, before returning aptly to the 'peace' she sings of. A really lovely song.
What Christmas album could be complete without a rendition of the traditional We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Interlude), well, this one is no exception, except that it is instrumental here, so maybe she didn't really mean it. Oh well.
Christmas On My Radio is the penultimate song, and we're heading to that strange 1950's Christmas land with a plethora of 'doo wop' sound and oodles of backing vocals and harmonies. Shakin' Stevens will be frothing at the mouth, but this is a fantastically playful and almost predictable track, and gives wonderful echoes of Olivia's former Grease performances. It's unsurprising that she co-wrote it, and it really should have been her Christmas single. I hope she enjoyed singing this, as it sounds like a lot of fun. There's even a cheeky little saxophone riff from The Christmas Song. Superb!
We're still in that 1950's-esque Christmas land, as the album closes with Olivia's duet with the legendary singer Barry Manilow – A Gift Of Love. Barry takes the lead here, perhaps unsurprisingly as the song's co-writer (Olivia is not), but he is soon joined by Olivia as they duel in vocal harmonies. This is a version of his earlier 2002 recording, seemingly with Olivia's vocals added in. It's hard to say whether he re-recorded his vocals, but the result is a nice song that makes more sense lyrically as a duet.
Olivia Newton-John's 'Instrument Of Peace'.
Over all, this album is has a really wonderful air of Christmas to it. The frequent teasings of traditional Christmas songs works well, and the pianists really put their skills to use.
There are a couple of weaker tracks here, with Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring, and the easy Little Drummer Boy being the two most disappointing, but these are instrumental and therefore there's no critique of Olivia. Her seemingly stick-on appearance alongside Barry Manilow feels precisely that.
Olivia absolutely beams throughout the rest of the album, and the precision, delicateness, and diversity in her voice is heard throughout the rest of the vocal songs. The wonderfulness of the more playful Christmas On My Radio is crying out for that to have been a single – I'm sure it could have provided a hit, coining in on the Grease era styling.
There's plenty here for everyone – it ticks the religious and secular needs of a Christmas album, and is musically pretty sound. Give it a spin!
Posted in 2000s, Barry Manilow, Christmas, Jon Secada, Olivia Newton-JohnTagged 2007, Amy Sky, Christmas Wish, Instrument Of Peace, Jann Arden, Jim Brickman, Marc Jordan, Michael McDonald, Stephan Moccio, Steve RealBookmark the permalink.
Review: "Early Side Of Later" by Matt Goss (CD, 2004)
Review: "A Cabbage Patch Christmas" by Cabbage Patch Kids (Vinyl, 1984)


I was talking in my sleep to this policeman.
What it is, he said, is this. You trust your judgement.
and you notice his reaction.
You can always tell the guilty ones.
reactions that were asking to be noticed.
So I made an effort.
get to pass your test and walk away?
None of them, he smiled, and that's the point.
That's the way we know we've got it right.