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Playing with the Pros
It's early on a Friday afternoon and the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas crawls with card counters. Some of the smartest players in the business have swarmed this off-Strip hotel/casino, and, not surprisingly, many are operating under various pseudonyms. There's the diminutive and bearded Richard Munchkin. Stanford Wong, a famous blackjack strategist and author, is anything but Asian. And Anthony Curtis is not the child of a mother obsessed with Hollywood icons.
Big personalities are on the strut and cleverly conceived disguises abound: one player has a hippie-hair wig, a blacked-out tooth and the put-on demeanor of a pint-sized biker. Another's tipped his brownish locks with gray and inserted strips of baby-bottle nipples into his nostrils to pug out his nose. Under most circumstances, this crowd would represent a financial nightmare for any gambling establishment. Not today, however; these top-flight players are here to compete against one another rather than the house in the Ultimate Blackjack Tour.
The organizers—veteran gambler and Tour founder and president Russ Hamilton, entertainment attorney John Moonves and TV producer Houston Curtis—are offering more than $1.3 million in prize money for this invitational event. They're shooting it with the intention of landing a television deal, anticipating that the show will make blackjack as universally beloved as small-screen poker. Invited to help along this process is a who's who of Texas Hold'em stars: Phil Hellmuth, David "Devilfish" Ulliott and Annie Duke.
In today's seven preliminary tournaments, each player receives $25,000 in chips, betting limits range from $500 to $25,000, and a total of 30 hands will get played (with each table's lowest-stacked players eliminated after hands eight, 16 and 25). The object is to finish with as many chips as possible—which necessitates strategically betting in such a way that you maintain a lead over your opponents while minimizing your risk of ruin. The two players with the most chips at each table move on to a semifinal tourney. Then, the top six finishers from each of the seven days of play (filling a total of 42 seats, plus seven players who will have qualified online) earn a seat in the finals, scheduled to be taped two weeks later in Los Angeles, with a first prize of $300,000.
Several weeks earlier, when Hamilton asked me to compete in the preliminaries at the Hyatt, I jumped at the opportunity. In preparation, I spent a few weeks crash-coursing on how to play optimally (Wong's Casino Tournament Strategy has long been considered the bible) and got blackjack sensei Rick Blaine (author of recently published Blackjack Blueprint) to spend a couple nights running through some rudimentary concepts with me.
In Blaine's living room blackjack pit, I learned that it's best to start off slow but to quickly get aggressive if I'm behind as an elimination round looms. Blaine talked about the Secret Bet, a showy Ultimate Blackjack innovation in which each player has an opportunity to write down one bet and make it without others at the table seeing the amount being wagered (save it for the end, advised Blaine). And he offered strategies for holding on to a lead. "Usually," he said, "there are like results, meaning that if you win, your opponent will win as well. When you get ahead, mirror his bets and there's a good chance that you'll hang on to your lead." To say that the lessons make me seasoned, or even competent, is an exaggeration. Although I now feel as if I have a clue, I also expect to be pretty much winging it and do not anticipate getting very far against what promises to be stiff competition. Lingering in my mind, however, is one particular scenario: I have $30,000, another player has $20,000 and a third has $40,000. If we are going into an elimination round, what is the proper bet? I get all kinds of answers: $11,000 (to prevent the guy in last place from catching up), $10,000 (to push if you both win, and to give me the win in the event of a swing), and bet it all (some people can't help but go for broke). When I run into lanky Stanford Wong at the tournament, I pose the question to him. He answers without hesitation: "Nine thousand dollars is the proper bet."
I tell him that I don't get it. With that amount it seems as though I'd be setting myself up to lose if the person with $20,000 bets it all. "I don't mind answering your question," Wong replies, sounding a little testy. "But I'm not going to argue with you about it. We did computer simulations and came to this conclusion. That is the right bet."
Unconvinced, I pose the question to a guy who calls himself Hollywood Dave. Spiky-haired and displaying a flashy fashion sense that is straight out of the New Wave '80s, he offers a different take. "You make a big bet, like $12,000, press the short-stacked player to make a minimum bet [in the hope that you'll both lose, which would leave you with $18,000 and him with $19,500], and then surrender [removing your bet in exchange for giving up half of it]. It guarantees you the win. It is what's called a surrender trap."
Clearly, I have a lot to learn. And when I find myself sitting at a tournament table flanked by Wong and Anthony Curtis, along with poker star Phil "The Unabomber" Laak in the number one seat, I don't have to ask anyone to identify the underdog at this table. Miraculously, however, through a couple of smart wagers (one of which, Curtis marvels, is "the perfect-sized bet") and selective aggressive play, I wind up finishing second to the Unabomber and move on to the semifinals. If I win or place at the next table, I'll receive $2,000 and will be heading off to L.A. to take a shot at the $300,000. But it won't be easy. Among those I'll be up against are two notorious poker pros, Lane Flack and Alex Brennes, a woman named Ophelia whose boyfriend is a well-known card counter ("She's been well schooled," warns Blaine, shaking his head), and, scariest of all, a top-flight, muscled-up blackjack master by the name of Michael Castellana. Spotting his name on the seating list, Blaine ruefully says, "You're playing for second place." Fine, I think, second place will still get me to L.A., a prospect that begins to look more promising as the number of competitors at my table dwindles. In the 25th round, I double down with 15 (obviously an unconventional play, but perfectly sensible under tournament conditions and necessary to prevent my elimination). I draw a 5, dispatching the fourth-place player who leaves with a trail of artfully spouted F-bombs, all aimed at me, and I now feel as if I have a shot.
I've actually got the most chips at the table with only four hands to go. Castellana makes huge bets and goes on to win the next two hands (failing to follow Blaine's advice, I played more conservatively and now trot behind him in second place). Then, on the 29th hand, leading Brennes by $3,000 (and feeling as if L.A. just might be my destiny), I match his $4,000 bet. He doubles down and wins both hands. I lose and suddenly, going into the final round, I am in last place, trailing the second-place player by $9,000. I definitely got unlucky, but, in retrospect, made a critical error in failing to protect my lead by matching Castellana's big bets.
As the final and decisive hand is about to be dealt, I am not in great shape. But my situation is far from insurmountable. I step back from the table to make my secret bet and have a couple of options. I can place a minimum wager of, say, $1,000, assume that Brennes will bet $17,000 (to cover my $25,000-max bet if we both win), and go for the low. In that case, if we both lose, I'll finish in second place. But if we both win, I'll be out of the tournament. The thought of hitting a blackjack and still losing this thing bugs me for reasons that are totally nonmathematical. So I let my ego get the best of me and make a maximum bet. Brennes makes his secret bet, while Castellana (who's now got a big stack and had used his secret bet earlier) pushes forward a medium-sized wager that insures he'll be covered for either first or second place. The cards come and Castellana gets an 18, Brennes has 14, I have a pair of 2s and the dealer shows a 7.
I am first to act (which is the worst possible position to be in) and completely unsure of what to do. Split the 2s? That is the perfect basic strategy play. But Brennes's 14 doesn't look too good for him. The dealer's 7, I figure, will force him to hit. With only 20 seconds to calculate a strategy, and woefully unprepared for being in such a situation, I opt not to split and take a hit. The thinking here is that if I split and lose either hand, then things are essentially over. But if I can just make a single, potentially winning hand with the two 2s, well, then Brennes will have to get lucky with his 14.
I scratch the felt and the dealer slides me a 9, which would have been a great card had I split. My heart begins to break a little. Then comes a 2, giving me a total of 15. I feel compelled to hit and draw a picture card. Busted. I curse myself for failing to bet the minimum with Brennes showing a 14. But then he makes a very smart play (which would have decimated my chance to win here, even with a miniscule bet): he surrenders, getting back half of his money and clinching second place with a guaranteed $50,500. So now it is officially over for me. I'm out of the tournament. No playing in L.A. No shot at the big money. No $2,000 guaranteed. Instantly I'm depressed. I become even more so when I run into Ophelia and her card-counting boyfriend at the Hyatt bar. She can't believe that I didn't split. She keeps explaining why it would have been the better move and insists that I had been given a golden opportunity to snag second place.
Then her boyfriend, who's absorbed more than his fair share of bad beats, admonishes her, saying, "The guy feels awful enough already. Give him a break." Maybe he's right, but so is she. To have increased my shot at winning, I needed to do two things: get as much money on the table as possible and pile on the uncertainty. Splitting would have done the former, and doubling down with the subsequent 11 would have accomplished both goals (doubled cards are dealt face down). Then Brennes would have been forced to hit or possibly even double down with 14.
Rick Blaine comes over, hears about the botched move and advises me to shrug it off. "Yeah," he says, "you needed to get more money in there. You should have split. You needed to double down with a lot of hands that you wouldn't normally do it with. But you also have to look at how well you did. You made it a lot further than some of the most experienced players [including Blaine himself]. It was your first tournament and you did great."
"You're not pissed at me?" I ask, feeling as if I've let down someone who put time into teaching me.
"Pissed?" he responds, sounding incredulous. "I'm proud of you, man. You did great."
I feel a little better, still angry with myself for not thinking things through more clearly, but adjusting to the reality of being bounced. Hollywood Dave hears the scenario, and he offers a philosophical response. "You've gotta figure that you used up your karma when you doubled down on the 15. You shouldn't have lived after that hand."
I order a Scotch and drink to karma and my next shot at winning big bucks on the Ultimate Blackjack Tour.
A couple weeks after my inglorious flameout, when the tournament moves to a soundstage at CBS Studios in West Hollywood, I am chagrined to be in the wings instead of at a table. Frankly, I was so outplayed at the Hyatt that I really don't deserve the seat. Nevertheless, the experience in Vegas did serve to immerse me in the ways of tournament blackjack, leaving me with a decent understanding of the game and its strategies.
For five days here in L.A., on a high-tech stage set, complete with red velvet curtains and swirling lasers, 49 tournament hotshots have spent afternoons and evenings angling for a chance to win $300,000. On the last day of the finals, winners from each of those seven tournaments crowd around a single championship table and prepare to take a shot at the money. Remaining in action are two Daves (hyperkinetic Hollywood Dave, who sports a tight pullover shirt and black leather wristbands to go with his spiky hair, and David Matthews, a lanky dude who is not the famous singer but a former professional gambler who now works for a gambling-related publisher); Rock 'n' Roll Darrell Arnold, who's got black hair streaked with red and more tattoos than a card counter could catalog; blackjack nerd Ken Smith; pimped-out looking Tyrone Jackson; an elegant Asian woman who goes by the name of Adriana Jade; and Monica Reeves, a tyro blackjacker whose boyfriend is the professional poker player Jim "Krazy Kanuck" Worth (at least one fan in the online world has joked that the statuesque Reeves ought to be nicknamed "Big Pair").
None of the contestants are exactly shy. Right from the start they are all perfectly comfortable in soliciting high fives and cheers from the studio audience. Following a particularly strong play, Hollywood Dave autographs a card and flips it into the cheap seats. On the sixth hand (an elimination round), miniskirted Monica asks the crowd whether she should go all in. They roar affirmatively. And she is happy to have listened as she lucks into an 18 against the dealer's 5. But after the under-card reveals itself to be an ace, and a 3 comes on the hit, well, it's bye-bye Monica.
A couple hands later, Tyrone Jackson busts out after mistakenly going all in (he meant to hold back $1,000 in chips). Following Tyrone's departure, Ken Smith loses most of his stack and Hollywood Dave gleefully taunts, "You must feel sick. Like you want to vomit in your shoes."
By the 16th hand, Hollywood Dave is out of the game and so is Smith. The competition is down to David Matthews, Adriana Jade and Rock 'n' Roll Darrell. All three, to varying degrees, are blackjack experts. They've played tournaments before and are unlikely to get rattled by the money at stake, the bright lights or the crowd. But no matter how steady these three may feel, one of them will be eliminated this round.
Because Rock 'n' Roll Darrell is trailing significantly on hand 16, he pushes his entire stack ($89,000) into the betting circle. In second place, Matthews is nearly a lock to survive this round and risks a minimum bet of $1,000. Adriana, in first place, is a lock and she wagers $16,000. It works for two of the players: When Rock 'n' Roll Darrell stands on 13 and the dealer makes an 18, he struts offstage with a sign of the devil cockily flashed toward the audience.
By hand 26, the final elimination round, a winner will be declared. But in reality, it doesn't even take that long. Adriana loses three hands in a row, busts out on round 20 and leaves David Matthews the only remaining player. He jumps skyward, gives her an enormous bear hug, does a victory lap around the set and, no doubt, spends the rest of the day trying to figure out how he's going to spend his 300 grand.
Michael Kaplan is Cigar Aficionado's gambling columnist.


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Saxo Bank CIO and chief economist Steen Jakobsen sees event risks on the near horizon in terms of Trump policies and the US dollar.
Specifically, Jakobsen has a focus on a "Weak Dollar Policy" that he expects Trump to pursue.
Ready, Steady, Go by Steen Jakobsen
We stand in front of major event risks in the Dollar direction with three announcements:
- February 28th: Trump to address a joint session of Congress
- March 14-15th: FOMC meeting
- March 17-18th: G-20 finance ministers & central banks meet in Baden, Germany
As background G-20 consider the G-20 Hamburg Summit Priority Agenda
The fact Trump is struggling to keep the "business" momentum going and is falling back to being Trump "the candidate" shows the limited range and output from the Trump administration.
By this time in February, all prior Presidents had their agenda and economic policy announced. Trump don't seem to have a direction and strategy except for the "Tweeter-attack mode"
This means he is likely to refocus his effort leading into his address to a joint session of Congress. There will high expectations for a tax plan, repealing Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, and his trade policy which could include some comments on "the unfair FX policy by China & Germany alike".
America first is the call to action used by not only Trump but also the majority leader Ryan when rallying behind Trump's policies. It means "protecting" US jobs at any cost, at least case by case. But what is the overall strategy on trade and globalization?
A pressured Trump is a dangerous Trump. We are more likely to see "fall out" under the present condition than under a more smooth administration.
The focus remains on trade as Trump sees trade deficit as the main culprit in his narrative of the "US losing jobs", despite having below average unemployment.
State Street has some excellent charts on this issue:
Germany vs. US REER [Real Effective Exchange Rate] basis being 2 sigmas cheaper will be an issue for Trump and staff to look at.
Tump Accord?
Not so fast says State Street.
Weak Dollar Policy
We think Trump will pursue a policy of weaker US dollar.
Whether this will turn into direct policy, i.e.: announcing the end of US reserve status similar to Trump's political hero Nixon taking the US off the gold standard in 1971, could be more clear by end of March.
In probability terms this is how we see this playing out:
- 20% – Stronger dollar through no change to policy and a Border Adjustment Tax estimated to make dollar 15-25% stronger.
- 60% – Indirect weaker dollar – Constant focus on other currencies being too weak, the Fed tightening (which historically means weaker dollar) & slowing US economic growth.
- 20% – Direct- announcing US dollar is no longer the reserve currency and forcing either New Plaza Accord or similar action by overseas exporters (1980s repeat).
We see US dollar index testing the 96.00 level on unchanged policy. If confirmed that weaker dollar is the new policy of choice, the dollar cycle could be turning down in a traditional 8-year cycle.
British Pound 8-Year Cycle
This is our weekly "model" trade indicator.
Bearish on the Dollar
Next one month should give us major input to next direction in the US dollar, we remain bearish because:
- Inflation is topping: Overall the peaking base effect in energy will reduce inflationary upside. The YoY net change in oil prices will come down from +85% now in January data to 5% in May.
- The FOMC & economy will remain slow: Yellen repeat strong rhetoric talk based on dual mandate but overall the economy continues to sputter on productivity and hence growth.
- The weighted risk of weaker Dollar policy is 20% to 80% depending on the definition. A stronger dollar will kill growth and inflation not only in the US but globally.
Safe travels,
Steen Jakobsen
End Steen Begin Mish
Some of my readers will not get to this point because of a perceived attack on Trump. That's too bad because Steen presents many interesting ideas, some I agree with and some I don't.
In regards to politics, I have lost readers recently because I recently supported Trump and because I didn't.
I am issues based. I disagree with Trump on trade issues and on his handling of the travel ban. I generally agree with Trump on Russia.
Those looking for constant Trump bashing can easily find that elsewhere, as can those who seek constant praise for Trump.
Amusingly, One person said goodbye today, after accusing me of wavering.
I discussed a spike in the PPI and CPI twice this week. Links are below. Oil was the culprit. If oil stabilizes here, it unlikely the CPI will continue the current spike. The CPI might even decline if oil prices fall back.
That said, the medical portion of the CPI is a total joke (way understated), as is housing portion. The latter is due to the BLS' use of Owners' Equivalent Rent (OER) instead of actual housing prices.
But the Fed lives and breathes this stuff, and it is their view, not mine, that matters.
The market now expects at least one hike by June, and at least one more hike by December. Color me skeptical. The economic reports have not been that good. It's been a profitable trade betting against spikes in rate hike odds.
I am bearish on the dollar as well. If the Fed does not hike as much as expected, the dollar is likely to weaken.
The dollar may weaken even if the Fed hikes.
End of US Dollar as Reserve Currency
I fail to see how halting the US dollar as reserve currency can be accomplished by decree. How? This is not the reverse of Nixon closing the gold window by decree.
Would a plaza accord work? I have strong doubts. In the first place, do countries want stronger currencies?
Japan surely doesn't. Germany might, but do Spain and France?
That said, an announcement by Trump, even if it could not be enforced, could weaken the dollar significantly, even if it did nothing in regards to reserve currency status.
Steen did not discuss gold, but it is an important part of this cog.
If the dollar weakens, gold rates to rise (all else being equal). Might gold rise anyway?
Yes, there is a very strong chance the eurozone breaks apart. A currency crisis is on deck. The Euro, the Yen, and the Yuan all have serious issues.
If the dollar rises because of Eurozone problems, I would expect gold to do well.
Related Articles
- CPI Jumps Most Since February 2013 on Energy: Did Gasoline Prices Really Rise 7.8% in January?
- PPI Spikes 0.6% in January, Largest Jump in 20 Months: Start of Inflation Run? Will February Repeat?
- Farage Expects Another "Big Shock", Warns EP on "More Europe": Elites vs. Underdogs French Style
- Vice-Chairman of EuroThinkTank States "Euro May Already Be Lost"
- Diving Into the Medical CPI: Are Your Medical Expenses Up Only 5% from Year Ago?
The source of the 8-year British Pound cycle chart is You've heard of Kondratiev waves – now meet the Frisby flux, the pound's eight-year cycle by Dominic Frisby.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock

subset: commoncrawl


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Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 283:Chapter 283 (sometimes called HB 1777) was enacted by the 76th Legislature as a mechanism to increase competition in the telecommunications industry by establishing a uniform method for certified telecommunications providers (CTPs) to compensate municipalities for the use of public rights-of-way. The provisions of this statute went into effect on September 1, 1999.PUC Substantive Rules: Chapter 26, Subchapter R, contains the Commission's Provisions Relating To Municipal Regulation and Rights-Of-Way Management.
"Public right-of-way" means the area on, below, or above a public roadway, highway, street, public sidewalk, alley, waterway, or utility easement in which the municipality has an interest. The term does not include the airwaves above a right-of-way with regard to wireless telecommunications.
PO Box 13326
Austin, TX 78711-3326
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Zias split games in LSC crossover
Freedom New Mexico
DURANT, Okla. — Senior catcher Michelle Anderson hit a two-out RBI double, capping a two-run eighth for Eastern New Mexico University that lifted the Zias to a 7-5 victory over Southwestern Oklahoma Friday in the Lone Star Conference softball crossover tournament.
Earlier, the Zias dropped a 1-0 decision to East Central. ENMU (9-22) faces Northeastern State and Southeastern Oklahoma today, then plays Midwestern State and Cameron on Sunday.
Senior Kristen Cruickshank (6-9) earned the win with 3 2/3 shutout innings in relief of starter Kimberly Crouse, allowing two hits. The Zias belted three homers and outhit Southwestern 16-9 for the game, led by Cruickshank with a 3-for-5 effort.
ENMU took a 2-0 lead in the second on one-out, back-to-bakc homers by Melissa Williams and Amanda Lale. The Lady Bulldogs (16-9) went ahead 4-2 in the fourth, but senior second baseman Rebecca Quinones hit a two-run shot in the fifth to tie it at 4-4.
Sophomore Samantha Davis hit an RBI double later in the inning, but Southwestern tied it in the bottom half on a run-scoring double by first baseman Kristina Davis.
With the international tiebreaker rule in effect in extra innings, Josette Aguirre was placed on second to start the inning. She took third on Alex Mayo Otis' sacrifice bunt and scored on a passed ball.
Crouse then drew a walk, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Anderson's second double of the game, a drive down the left field line.
East Central 1, ENMU 0 — Junior right-hander Wanda Malone (9-3) outpitched Cruickshank, making an unearned second-inning run stand up for the victory.
Both hurlers finished with three-hitters. Malone walked one and struck out seven while Cruickshank issued two passes and fvanned five.
The Tigers (20-7) plated the only run in the bottom of the second. Right fielder Cassandra Nordie singled with one out, stole second, took third when the relay was muffed and scored on an illegal pitch by Cruickshank.


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With the start of Game of Thrones Season Three only hours away it is a good time to revisit and update one of my old blog posts 4 Leadership Lessons From Game of Thrones.
When I originally read the five available books in George R.R Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire' I found myself thinking about the leadership and life lessons that could be extracted from the series. Quotes like 'Kill the boy' haunted some of my more boy-like decisions, and Ygritte's 'You know nothing Jon Snow' played through my head whenever I took issue with a management decision. I would reflect on the possibility that many more factors were at play than I could see, and that I still had some distance to travel in my journey to be a more effective person (and leader).
So here is my list of seven leadership lessons from Game of Thrones, expanded from my original list of 4: Continue reading


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One of the perks of studying in Jerusalem is "winter break". No, not our winter break, but rather, those of foreign universities, during which many scholars end up visiting Jerusalem. For the Talmud Blog, this allowed us to hear Ron in person (the day before Stephen Greenblatt, in a lecture on Lucretius at Hebrew University, commented that the Talmud can be likened to Bruno Latour's concept of "compositionist"), and here in the HUJI Talmud department, this meant that we were privileged to hear a presentation by Judith Olszowy-Schlanger of the Sorbonne.
Olszowy-Schlanger heads a pan-European project entitled "Books within Books" that seeks to locate, photograph, and describe every Hebrew manuscript that can be found in the bindings of mostly Latin books now in libraries across Europe. The name of the project, "Books within Books", comes as a correction to the misleading term "European Genizah" often used in describing these manuscripts. "I've worked with the Cairo Genizah," Olszowy-Schlanger said, "and this is not a Genizah." Examples of such material has already been known of since the end of the 19th century. Indeed, some countries have already been sifting through their fragments for some time. Italy started to do so more than thirty years ago, and Austria and others already have their own websites.
Olszowy-Schlanger discussed the many technical difficulties in separating the manuscripts from their "host volumes." As some of the scholars in the room were already aware, the price of separating a piece of parchment from the binding can run upwards of 1,000 Euro. Paper manuscripts were often pasted together twenty pages at a time, creating a carton that would be strong enough to serve as a binding. Thanks to another costly procedure, these pages can now be salvaged in their entirety. Other problems include the very basic issue of convincing librarians to allow the bindings of their books be ripped open so that Hebrew manuscripts can be extracted from them.
Yet despite all of these difficulties, the incredible benefit of amassing this material is unquestionable. Olszowy-Schlanger brought examples of mahzorim, ketubbot, historical documents, and even Talmudic manuscripts which have been discovered since the publication of Sussman's catalogue. The sheer number of findings was hard to fathom- "Barely a day goes by when we don't find another fragment."
After seven years of working jointly with other teams of codicologists and paleographers from Europe and Israel, Olszowy-Schlanger's web-based database is about to be launched in mid-January. The BwB site already has links to those collections, like the Austrian one mentioned above, that are already available online. The current stage of the website will only contain new material in its own database from countries such as France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and more. It turns out that England, famous for its thousands of Cairo Genizah fragments, has proven particularly difficult to catalog due to the wide dispersion of the "books within books" that may be found there. In, England, manuscripts (not just Hebrew ones) were already used as bindings as early as the twelfth century. Also, some of the fragments that were clearly pulled from European bindings have somehow found their way into such British collections of Cairo Genizah material like the famous Taylor-Schechter collection.
The website is browsable by title and by library, and each photographed fragment is accompanied by an exhaustive amount of details pertaining to its codicological and paleographic characteristics, references to secondary literature, and even the contact information of the scholar who provided the information. Additionally, the website has a list of "mutual books"- fragments of the same original manuscripts that are now found in the bindings of different books, often times even in different libraries (what in Genizah-speak is usually termed "joins"). Overall, the site seems to be easy to use while still providing a large amount of information. It will no doubt become an irreplaceable tool for scholars upon its release (signup will be free, like the FGP site).
Yet the most impressive part of the presentation was not the website, but rather, Olszowy-Schlanger's inspiring devotion to the overall project. The number of libraries- public, private, church- that she and her team have reached out to, and the amount of hours of painstaking restoration and description of manuscripts, are simply innumerable. Thus, it is fitting that at the end of the lecture, Prof. Simcha Emanuel, who had invited her to come speak as part of his seminar on the European Genizah, called Olszowy-Schlanger "a modern-day Schechter."


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You don't necessarily need to have wireless controller box anymore in order to deliver enterprise-grade WLAN capabilities. The debate on whether or not a controller is necessary for WLANs is not a new one, though enterprise WLAN vendor Aruba is now adding more choices and options to the debate.
Aruba is advancing its controller-less WLAN options with a new Instant Enterprise WLAN offering. The Instant portfolio delivers a virtual controller on access points and is now being expanded with new provisioning and management capabilities.
"Many customers still choose a mobility controller for different reasons, whether it's the need for a centralized VLAN or encryption services on an appliance, but some want another option," Ozer Dondurmacioglu, senior director of product and solutions marketing for Aruba, told EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet .
Aruba announced it first Instant technology in November of 2011. Instant delivers controller-like features inside of the wireless access point including RF management and role based access control.
The new Aruba Instant 3.1 update expands the technology with improved video and voice optimization as well Layer 3 roaming capabilities.
Dondurmacioglu explained that the way the Instant WLAN works is that it is a single VLAN subnet, so if you were to install another subnet and you plugged the instant APs in another subnet it would create a separate VLAN. That said, there is a need to maintain mobility across VLANs which is what Instant now also provides, without a performance penalty.
The new Aruba Instant update also provides for WLAN uplink survivability. Dondurmacioglu noted that some of the hardware models in the Aruba Instant portfolio include a 3G/4G uplink module. On the authentication side, there is now a way to cache user authentication sessions within an Instant WLAN. So if the WAN link to the authentication server is down for any, the Instant is able to authenticate directly on the WLAN.
Dondurmacioglu explained that Aruba Instant works with PEAP (Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol) authentication.
"As users connect to the network we start caching their credentials and authentication state on the WLAN," Dondurmacioglu said. "We rely on that information only if we can't reach the backend clearpass authentication server."
Another new component to Instant is the inclusion of a provisioning technology that Aruba calls, Activate.
"Activate is a service that is targeted to make deployment of the network easier," Dondurmacioglu said.
Aruba has a management server service called Airwave that performs management, and reporting features. Activate is focused on deployment configuration. In the controller based model, access points download configuration information automatically from the controller. Activate is intended to perform a similar function, but without the need for a controller.
"Activate is the middleman connecting access points to Airwave at the point of installation," Dondurmacioglu said. "
Controller vs. Controller-less
Though Aruba is expanding its controller-less WLAN portfolio, that doesn't mean the company isn't still offering and supporting controller based solutions as well. Dondurmacioglu noted that at the core Aruba is a WLAN vendor, whether that WLAN includes a controller or not.
"We're not religious about it, we only care that the networks are up and running," Dondurmacioglu said. "What we see is a natural organic selection within customers; they know best how they want to run their own networks."
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.


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By Gopal Ratnam
In his Feb. 12 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said America no longer needs to deploy tens of thousands of troops to occupy nations or meet the evolving threat from new extremist groups. Cyber-attacks are the "rapidly growing threat," he said.
Nevertheless, the defense budget contains hundreds of billions of dollars for new generations of aircraft carriers and stealth fighters, tanks that even the Army says it doesn't need and combat vehicles too heavy to maneuver in desert sands or cross most bridges in Asia, Africa or the Middle East.
"There's a fundamental need to have a conversation about what kind of military we need to have and what we should expect it to do," Andrew Bacevich, a West Point graduate and former Army colonel who now teaches at Boston University, said in an interview.
In the absence of such a conversation, the Pentagon faces the prospect of $500 billion in automatic cuts over the next decade, beginning March 1, with no consensus on what to trim. Instead, the budget is driven largely by champions of existing programs in Congress, the defense industry and the uniformed services. As a result, predicts Bacevich: "The behemoth of an entity called the Pentagon is not going to shrink."
Contracts Plunge
Uncertainty has proven painful for defense contractors, especially smaller companies that don't have deals locked in for months or years to come. Pentagon contracts plunged to $12.1 billion in January, a 67 percent decrease from December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as the military reined in spending in anticipation of the cuts that may be coming.
The Standard & Poor's Aerospace and Defense Index gained 7.5 percent in the past 12 months, trailing the 13 percent gain for the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
Pentagon spending cuts, should they remain in force over a decade, would mean "changes in the portfolios of Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Boeing," the biggest U.S. defense contractors, Byron Callan, a defense analyst in Washington at Capital Alpha Partners LLC, said in an interview. "Five years from now they'll look different."
Information technology units may be spun off and then consolidated, while slow-growing operations such as shipbuilding and armored-vehicle manufacturing may end up in the hands of private equity investors, Callan said.
Major Weapons
The U.S. spent $689 billion on defense in 2011, more than 40 percent of all such spending globally in 2011, according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Pentagon had $1.58 trillion of major weapons projects on its books. Those include the F-35 jet fighter, which is seven years behind schedule and costing 70 percent more than planned; the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship, plagued by cracks, flaws and a price that's doubled to $440 million each; and M1 tanks the Army doesn't want.
Even if the budget cuts happen, U.S. defense spending is projected to grow about 2.4 percent annually through 2021, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The military, the defense industry and their allies in Congress have gone to war over the automatic cuts, called sequestration, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and other leaders saying they would devastate the military.
Deployments Canceled
If their budgets are cut, they argue, ship deployments will be canceled, training will be curtailed, maintenance will be delayed, weapons contracts will be withheld and the military will be unable to respond to contingencies.
"We've gone past cutting the meat — we're into the bone," Representative Howard "Buck" McKeon, the California Republican who heads the House Armed Services Committee, told a Feb. 6 news conference. He's proposed reducing the number of federal employees and freezing congressional pay to preserve military spending.
Lost in the political melee over defense spending, said Bacevich, is the need for a 21st Century military strategy to keep pace with the changing nature of warfare and guide the drawdown of military forces and spending after more than a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A year ago, Obama and the Defense Department issued a blueprint for a "smaller and leaner" military that would be "agile, flexible, and ready for the full range of contingencies."
Every Possibility
Instead, the military's effort to prepare for every possibility has encouraged the Pentagon and defense contractors such as the three largest — Lockheed Martin Corp., Chicago- based Boeing Co., and Northrop Grumman Corp. based in Falls Church, Virginia — to keep developing ever more complex and costly weapons.
While the increased military spending of the last decade helped the Pentagon advance several battlefield capabilities, the Defense Department still has "too many programs that are not appropriate and do not provide the next-generation capabilities" needed, said Barry Blechman, co-founder of the Stimson Center, a Washington policy research institute.
Blechman cited the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as an example of a weapons program that "provides some marginal improvement over existing F-16s, but nothing compared with the amount the Pentagon is planning to invest in it." The program, which includes variants for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, could be cut or scaled back, Blechman said.
Increased 70%
The Pentagon estimates the cost for development and production of 2,443 F-35s at $395.7 billion, a 70 percent increase since the initial contract with Bethesda, Maryland- based Lockheed Martin was signed in 2001. The jet is designed to replace the F-16 fighter, the A-10 "Warthog" ground attack plane, F-18C/D Hornet fighter and the Marine Corps' AV-8B Harrier jump-jet.
Although the Army's strength is set to decline by 72,000 by 2017, General Raymond Odierno, the Army Chief of Staff, has said the service must be able to send units large or small to any part of the globe. While the service should reorient itself toward engaging with allies and partners to prevent conflicts, it should be ready to "win wars on land," Odierno wrote Feb. 4 in Foreign Policy magazine.
Nevertheless, the Army's plan to spend as much as $32 billion to buy 1,904 new Ground Combat Vehicles, tank-like replacements for its Bradley Fighting Vehicle, "would be a mistake," Blechman said. Instead, the Army needs improved capabilities for small forces that can move quickly to trouble spots, Blechman said. "I don't know that the slightly improved version of the current ground vehicles is necessary."
Vehicle's 70 Tons
The new 70-ton vehicle may not be easily transportable by air or sea, and is likely to raise questions about "how quickly it could be deployed in the event of a conflict," according to a January report by the Congressional Research Service.
While even the Army brass have said they don't need an an updated version of the M1, the combat vehicle that was developed to go track-to-track with the Soviet Union's tanks on the North German Plain, Congress wants to keep paying Falls Church, Virginia-based General Dynamics Corp. to gut and rebuild older tanks.
The Navy is building two versions of the Littoral Combat Ship instead of one as it had planned. Once billed as a low- cost, versatile ship for coastal patrols, the LCS's price has doubled to $440 million a ship, and Pentagon testers have found that the ship's guns are ineffective and the vessels may not survive combat.
Pacific Focus
One attraction of the LCS is that buying it will help the Navy reach its target of 300 ships, making it easier to fulfill the Pentagon's plan to position 60 percent of its ships in the Pacific by 2020, an increase from the current equal division between the Pacific and Atlantic fleets.
That increased focus on Asia needs to be better spelled out, according to former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, a retired Navy admiral who also once headed the U.S. Pacific Command, based in Honolulu.
"There's no there there beyond a general appreciation of East Asia's importance," Blair said of the Obama administration's emphasis on Asia. "It's not a basis for how we solve a very difficult problem of ensuring we have a hedge against Chinese military aggression without launching ourselves into a spiraling arms race based on mutual suspicion and worst- case analysis."
Not 'Sacrosanct'
While they warn that further budget cuts would cripple the military, Panetta and Dempsey, as well as former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, have said the Pentagon can cut costs by eliminating jobs and waste.
"Not every defense dollar is sacrosanct," Gates said in September at an event organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "One need only spend 10 minutes walking around the Pentagon or any major military headquarters to see excess and redundancy."
As defense chief in 2009, Gates managed to cull 20 weapons systems he considered unnecessary or that had become too expensive. He stopped production of the F-22 fighter, canceled the VH-1 presidential helicopter and reduced the scope of Boeing's Future Combat Systems.
Health-Care System
Weapons aren't the only part of the Pentagon budget that has proven difficult to rein in. Rising operations and maintenance costs as well as "significant increases" in the military's health-care system, which has been politically sacrosanct in the past, will be the primary causes of defense budget growth through 2030, the Congressional Budget Office said in a July report.
Promised savings mostly have eluded presidents and defense secretaries going back to the 1980s, said retired Marine Corps Major General Arnold Punaro, who's been advising former Nebraska Republican senator Chuck Hagel, Obama's nominee to succeed the retiring Panetta.
While military officials protest cuts to their forces, operations, maintenance and training, they've allowed their own staffs to grow, said Punaro, who's now a consultant and last year headed a Defense Business Board panel to identify such excess.
Chiefs' Staff
The size of the Joint Chiefs of Staff office has more than tripled to 4,244 in 2012 from 1,313 in 2010, according to the Pentagon's annual manpower report.
"The Pentagon's leadership should set an example" by reducing their staffs, Punaro said in an interview. "If senior people in the Pentagon can't cut the size of the staff and the size of office of the secretary of defense, then how can they expect the rest of the department to tighten its belt?"
The increase stemmed mostly from the joint staff absorbing many employees of the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia, which was shuttered by Gates in 2011, Dempsey said in an e-mail. The additions were necessary because the joint staff "assumed responsibility for core missions" previously done by the Joint Forces Command, which was created in 1999 to lead the post-Cold War transformation of the U.S. military, Dempsey said.
Still, while the Pentagon is cutting combat forces, "We are not cutting the overhead proportionately," Punaro said. "People have been trying to get at this issue in the Pentagon for 50 years. And frankly we haven't really put a dent in the overhead costs. It's not for the lack of trying."
To contact the reporter on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Washington at firstname.lastname@example.com
via Pentagon Budget Stuck in Last Century as Warfare Changes | Bloomberg.


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Phosphorus starvation linked to symptoms of citrus disease Huanglongbing in new study
The citrus disease Huanglongbing (HLB), meaning "yellow shoot disease" in Chinese and also called citrus greening in English-speaking countries, is the most destructive disease threatening the citrus industry worldwide. Powerful diagnostic tools and management strategies are desired to control it.
A new study, 'Small RNA profiling reveals phosphorus deficiency as a contributing factor in symptom expression for citrus Huanglongbing disease', published online today (Friday) in the journal Molecular Plant profiled small Ribonucleic Acids (sRNAs) from both diseased and healthy plants and found that some of these tiny molecules could potentially be developed into early diagnosis markers for HLB. More importantly, the study demonstrates that the diseased trees suffered from severe phosphorus (P) deficiency and that application of phosphorus solutions to the diseased trees significantly alleviated HLB symptoms and thus improved fruit yield in a three-year field trial in southwest Florida.
HLB is caused by the bacteria of the genus "Candidatus Liberibacter". Symptoms of the disease include blotchy mottled leaves, sections of yellow and underdeveloped vegetative growth, premature fruit drop, and in some cases, off-flavoured fruit with aborted seeds. In areas affected by HLB, citrus management costs have increased dramatically in the last few years: in the US alone, annual HLB management-related costs have totalled around $1.2 billion and it has been estimated that HLB management has increased citrus production costs by 40-50% in affected areas. These high costs are largely due to the need for more additional treatments to mitigate the disease's effects, and therefore early, rapid, and robust detective methods are required, especially presymptomatic diagnosis.
The study's author, Dr Hailing Jin of The University of California, Riverside, explains, "sRNAs are important gene expression modulators, some of which regulate plant responses to microbial infections. To study the expression of citrus sRNAs in response to HLB, we grafted 19 greenhouse-grown healthy sweet orange plants with HLB-positive bark or leaf pieces. Both donor and receptor trees tested negative for other graft-transmissible pathogens of citrus. As controls, five plants were mock-inoculated with pathogen-free healthy tissue. Samples were collected at 10- and 14-week post inoculation/grafting for small RNA profiling. Leaves were also collected continuously at later points to ensure that the tissue used for sRNA libraries was from the diseased trees. sRNAs ranging from 18 to 28 nucleotides were isolated, cloned, and sequenced."
This resulted in the discovery of ten new microRNAs (miRNAs), along with 76 conserved miRNAs, and many small interfering miRNAs. Several of these sRNAs were found to have been induced specifically by HLB, which means that they can potentially be developed into early diagnosis markers for the disease. This is important because if trees can be diagnosed with HLB and treated before symptoms start to become apparent, then money spent by the global citrus industry on additional treatments might be saved.
In particular, miR399, which is induced by P starvation in other plant species, was discovered to be induced by HLB infection in the diseased citrus trees. It is known that miR399 is important for P translocation in plants by suppressing a P signalling pathway gene. The study found that the phosphorus level in leave of HLB-positive plants was on about 65% of that in healthy plants, suggesting that HLB is associated with P starvation in the citrus plants, which may in turn contribute to the expression of HLB symptoms.
Dr Jin writes, "we hypothesized that applying P solutions to the Las-positive trees would reduce HLB symptoms and improve tree performance." Phosphorus solutions were applied to HLB-positive sweet orange trees in a field trial three times per year for more than three years. After two years of treatment, the diseased trees displayed the significantly reduced HLB symptoms.
"Compared with the mock-treated plants, the P-treated trees had a greener appearance and more vigorous growth. Fruit yield increased approximately two-fold compared with the mock-treated plants."
It should be noted that the application of phosphorus solutions did not cure the trees, but this study suggests that additional phosphorus application may help the diseased trees to look healthier and improve fruit yield. This, along with the potential use of miRNAs to diagnose infected trees earlier, could have real, practical significance given the global economic importance of citrus plants and the rising costs of HLB management.
More information: Molecular Plant, DOI: 10.1093/mp/sst002
Journal information: Molecular Plant
Provided by Oxford University Press


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The Android iteration of the social reading app Flipboard was supposed to be a Samsung Galaxy S III exclusive. As it turns out, not so much. The app has popped up for download on the XDA-Developers forum, and appears to be installing on a handful of current and previous generation Android devices, handsets and tablets alike.
Some users report bugginess with the app (the Asus Transformer Prime, for example), while others say their older devices run great (the Samsung Galaxy S II). But this doesn't appear to be the final version of the app, as the one poster, along with the Verge, points out that the promised widgets are not available. Either way, if you're an android user, head here to get your hands on the app before someone calls for its takedown. [XDA-Developers via SlashGear via The Verge]


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This article was originally published in the May/June 1996 issue of Home Energy Magazine. Some formatting inconsistencies may be evident in older archive content.
| Back to Contents Page | Home Energy Index | About Home Energy |
Home Energy Magazine Online May/June 1996
Cooling By the StarsAn innovative way to cool houses has recently been tried at two sites in California. It's called night evaporative underfloor cooling storage (NEUCS). A NEUCS system takes advantage of the slab floor's thermal mass, which absorbs heat from indoor air during hot summer days. Typically, the slab heats up during the day and then transfers some of the heat to the ground and most of it back to the indoor air during the cooler evening hours. The NEUCS system helps the slab floor remove more heat from the home's air space during the day by circulating water from an evaporative cooler through tubing beneath the slab during the night. The evaporative cooler works like a cooling tower to cool water by as much as 30oF below the outside air temperature. This water is circulated beneath the slab floor, cooling the slab to a lower temperature than it would reach through natural heat transfer without the system.
Davis Energy Group (DEG) developed a NEUCS system appropriate for most dry climates. The evaporative cooler can perform the dual purpose of providing cooled air to the home, while providing slab cooling in the nighttime hours. Operating the slab cooling at night is more effective than during the day, because outdoor wet bulb temperatures are lower at night.
In 1994, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) sponsored a house using NEUCS in Rocklin, near Sacramento, California. This stand-alone system has no compressor-based air conditioner installed. The NEUCS system is able to maintain indoor temperatures at or below 78oF, with occasional assistance from the evaporative cooler itself and a fan coil, which circulates cool water under the floor to provide supplemental cooling on the hottest days.
Southern California Edison (SCE) sponsored design of a NEUCS by DEG in a new 2,350 ft2 house in Palm Desert, California. In this hot desert climate (with a humid monsoon season in August), they used an evaporative precooler for the condenser on the home's air conditioning system. Two 500-ft coils of polyethylene tubing were spaced 2 ft on center, 8 inches beneath the surface of the slab floor. The system is controlled to circulate cooled water between 5 pm and 7 am when the outdoor temperature is below 90oF. The slab circulation pump turns off when the air conditioner comes on, and does not come on at all if the daytime temperature stayed below 90oF.
For tubing, the researchers used 1 1/4 inch diameter Driscopipe Series 1000 polyethylene pipe, which cost 44/ft. It took two people three hours to lay out the tubing, plus an additional person-hour to install the manifolds. Other costs beyond the piping included the EvapCon evaporative precooler ($1,750), plumbing, and adding custom controls to the evaporative cooler to run the NEUCS system. Although these costs totalled $2,790, DEG calculated that the costs in a mature market would be closer to $1,500.
Researchers monitored the Palm Desert home in June of 1995 and found that the evaporative precooler lowered water temperature by an average of 14oF. Based on the data they collected, the slab inlet water temperature will be 5oF-6oF higher than wet bulb, when wet bulb temperatures are between 55oF and 60oF. The slab circulating pump and the condenser fan (operating at low speed) used about 0.35 kW with typical slab cooling rates of about 12,000 Btu/h.
DEG used a computer model to predict annual energy savings at the home. They also modeled NEUCS systems in four different Southern California climate zones, and tested various changes to the design. The simulations showed that water flow rate should have the largest effect on system performance, providing greater savings at higher flow rates. The percent of the slab covered by carpeting also should have an effect (with an exposed floor being more efficient). The cost of tubing appears to override the energy saving benefits of narrow tube spacing. Tube diameter (3/4 to 1 1/4 inches) showed little effect on performance, suggesting that lower-cost smaller tube diameters can be used. The simulation found little gain from burying the tubes deeper.
For the home in the arid Palm Desert climate, DEG predicted energy savings of 3,500 kWh per year and peak savings of 0.88 kW, resulting in a simple payback of 2 years. They predicted a payback of 3 years in Fresno, 4 years in Riverside, and 11 years in the coastal climate of El Toro. However, a NEUCS system could eliminate compressor-based air conditioning at the El Toro site, generating an immediate payback.
Although long-term minitoring data have not been collected to demonstrate the continued performance of the system, the greatest applicability of NEUCS seems to be in arid climates where many homes already use evaporative coolers.
DEG's development of the computer model was supported by SCE through the California Institute for Energy Efficiency. For more information, contact DEG at (916)753-1100.
-Phillip Hasley
| Back to Contents Page | Home Energy Index | About Home Energy |
Home Energy can be reached at: firstname.lastname@example.com
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Did you know you could use your mobile device to keep up with what's going on in our universe? These apps will help you get the latest from NASA, identify that bright light in your sky, and land a space shuttle!
SkyView (iOS, $1.99)
SkyView uses an augmented reality engine to show you what's up in your sky. Hold up your device and explore what's around you. You can search for planets, stars, constellations and satellites, and tap an object for more information. Want to know when the International Space Station will be flying overhead, if that bright star in your sky is Jupiter, or when the moon will rise? This app's for you.
Mission Clock (iOS, $4.99)
Want to keep track of the latest launches and missions? Mission Clock contains a wealth of information on both upcoming missions and current ones: launch dates and locations, elapsed mission time, major goals and more. Set alerts to remind yourself of upcoming events, or to keep track of changes for upcoming launches.
F-Sim Shuttle Simulator (iOS and Android, $3.99)
Ever wanted to fly a space shuttle? The real thing may be retired, but you can still try your hand at re-entry and landing with the F-Sim Shuttle Simulator. You've got a ton of options for setting the difficulty of the flight, the landing site, night or day, weather...the list goes on.
And finally...
NASA (iOS and Android, free)
NASA has actually released a few mobile apps, but the core NASA app opens up a wealth of information about the space agency and its missions, not to mention beautiful imagery, Third Rock Radio, and video. Use it to watch NASA TV on the road, check out the latest tweets from NASA accounts, and find out more about the many space agency centers around the country.


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What to Watch: 'Sesame Street' teaches kids about incarceration
Staff Writer
Journal Star
Hot video
"Sesame Street" is tackling tough topics these days, like divorce and incarceration. The "Little Children, Big Challenges" campaign aims to give parents the tools they need to discuss difficult things, like having another parent in jail, with their children. Gillian Pensavalle takes a look.
On TV
Tonight is the premiere of the last season (13) of "Intervention." Tonight will feature a woman battling heroin addiction. 9 p.m. EDT, A&E
Trending topic
Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli have finalized their divorce. The two Hollywood stars came to an amicable split after some early nastiness. Garth, 40, starred in "Beverly Hills, 90210," and Facinelli, 39, starred in "Twilight."
More Content Now


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HOLE IN THE WALL, the body-bending, mind-twisting, global game show phenomenon from AMERICAN IDOL producers FremantleMedia North America, will premiere Thursday, Sept. 11 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
HOLE IN THE WALL became an instant ratings success story on-air and online after launching on Japan's Fuji TV in July 2006, where it continues to rank No. 1 in its timeslot. The format swiftly created waves around the world, with FremantleMedia currently producing versions in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Sweden and the U.K.
Hosted by Brooke Burns ("Dog Eat Dog") and Mark Thompson ("Guinness World Records: Primetime"), HOLE IN THE WALL is one of the trickiest, fastest, funniest and wettest shows on the planet where speed, agility and a hearty sense of humor are essential tools to survive. During each episode, two teams of three compete against each other in multiple rounds of play, facing various barrier walls speeding toward them with weird and wacky cut-out shapes. Each team must contort their bodies individually or in unison to fit through the wall or be swept away into a pool below. As players struggle to strike a pose, points � and dignity � can be easily lost with a simple miscalculation. As the rounds progress and the pace heats up, mind over matter, quick thinking, coordination, agility and clever teamwork play a crucial role as each team strives to maneuver through walls literally closing in on them. The team with the most points at the end of the competition will win $25,000 and the chance to face the dreaded "Blind Wall" for the opportunity to win an additional $100,000.
HOLE IN THE WALL is produced by FremantleMedia North America. Stuart Krasnow is executive producer.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: THE MOMENT OF TRUTH, which was previously scheduled in the Thursday 8:00 PM time slot, will now premiere midseason.]


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Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) -- The Yellowstone caldera has been classified a high threat for volcanic eruption, according to a report from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Yellowstone ranks 21st most dangerous of the 169 volcano centers in the United States, according to the Geological Survey's first-ever comprehensive review of the nation's volcanoes.
Kilauea in Hawaii received the highest overall threat score followed by Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainer in Washington, Mount Hood in Oregon and Mount Shasta in California.
Kilauea has been erupting since 1983. Mount St. Helens, which erupted catastrophically in 1980, began venting again in 2004.
Those volcanoes fall within the very high threat group, which includes 18 systems. Yellowstone is classified with 36 others as high threat.
Recurring earthquake swarms, swelling and falling ground, and changes in hydrothermal features are cited in the report as evidence of unrest at Yellowstone.
The report calls for better monitoring of the 55 volcanoes in the very high and high threat categories to track seismic activity, ground bulging, gas emissions and hydrologic changes.
University of Utah geology professor Robert Smith, who monitors earthquakes and volcanic activity in Yellowstone, said more real-time monitoring should be helpful.
"We've really been stressing over the last couple of years that the USGS should consider hazards as a very high priority in their future," he said. "We need to get the public's confidence and the perception that we're doing it right."
The university has joined the Geological Survey and Yellowstone National Park in creating the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, which uses ground-based instruments throughout the region and satellite data to monitor volcanic and earthquake unrest in the world's first national park.
The USGS report recognizes Yellowstone as an unusual hazard because of the millions of people who visit the park and walk amid features created by North America's largest volcanic system, Smith said, a status he has been advocating for years.
Smith does not paint the devastating picture portrayed in a recent TV docudrama but said smaller threats exist. For example, a lower-scale hydrothermal blast could scald tourists strolling along boardwalks.
Emissions of toxic gases from the park's geothermal features also pose a threat. Five bison dropped dead last year after inhaling poisonous gases trapped near the ground due to cold, calm weather near Norris Geyser Basin.
Stepped up monitoring and a new 24-hour watch office could lead to more timely warnings and help avoid human catastrophes at Yellowstone and nationally, according to the USGS.
Forty-five eruptions, including 15 cases of notable volcanic unrest, have been documented at 33 volcanoes in the U.S. since 1980, according to the report, released April 29.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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Grand Theft Auto V will be released in October, if information from a lead artist working on the game is correct.
OXM reports that a CV revealing the date was posted on Grand Theft Auto fansite GTANetwork, which was taken down completely shortly after.
The conclusion arrived at by the internet, of course, is that Rockstar stepped in in a damage limitation move.
Analysts recently pointed out that Take-Two's financial predictions for the current fiscal year would not add-up without the release of GTA V before the end of March 2013, though a Q1 release next year was predicted.


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Bracket Prep: West Region AnalysisPosted by Andrew Murawa (@AMurawa) on March 17th, 2014
Throughout Monday, we will roll out our region-by-region analysis on the following schedule: East (10:00 AM), Midwest (11:00 AM), South (1:00 PM), West (2:00 PM). Here, Andrew Murawa (@amurawa) breaks down the West Region from top to bottom. Also, be sure to follow our RTC West Region handle on Twitter for continuous updates the next two weeks (@RTCwestregion).
You should also check out our upcoming RTC Podblast with Andrew breaking down the West Region, which will drop both on the site and on iTunes Tuesday.
West Region
Favorite: Arizona, #1, 30-4. The Wildcats are the nation's best defensive team – this is beyond debate. In 34 games to this date, they've allowed teams to score better than a point per possession just six times all year (and seven times they've held their opponent to less than 0.8 points per possession). They've got freshman Aaron Gordon, who is on the short list of most versatile defenders in the nation, capable of guarding players from power forward to point guard. Likewise, guys like Nick Johnson, T.J. McConnell and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson are terrific athletic defenders, while sophomore Kaleb Tarczewski is a rugged rim protector. Point is that it is going to be very hard for any opponent to score consistently on this team. Throw in the fact that the Wildcats are a quality offensive team as well (only six times all season have they scored less than a point per possession in a game) and that they're playing arguably their best ball of the season at the right time for rising star Sean Miller, and the West is theirs to win.
Should They Falter: Wisconsin, #2, 26-7. Aside from a head-scratching downturn in the middle of the season when the Badgers lost five out of six games, Bo Ryan's squad has been excellent. Only once in the last 12 seasons has Wisconsin had a more efficient offense (2011, and even then, it is a razor-thin margin), but what is different about this team is an increased tempo, a sparkling shooting percentage, and a complete avoidance of turnovers. However, all of this offensive wonderment does not come without a price, as this is also the worst Badgers team on the defensive end in those same dozen years, with the team – especially in that bad stretch in January – failing to contain dribble penetration and regularly getting scorched. This happened again this past weekend against Michigan State, so the Badgers are not here without concerns. But in a region where there are few teams without some blemishes, the Badgers are the safest bet – beyond Arizona – to wind up in Dallas.
Grossly Overseeded: BYU, #10, 23-11. Let's just refer back to 2012 in the West region and read what I wrote then. Sure, some of the details have now changed, but the gist of this is the same: Why is BYU in the field again? They've got a solid win over Gonzaga, they beat Stanford and Texas in the non-conference. Sure. But all of those good spots are balanced out by atrocious losses to Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, Portland and Pacific. There aren't a ton of other great options to go into BYU's spot, for sure, and rewarding them for playing a tough non-conference slate is fine. But if anything, the Cougars should have to win their way into the field of 64 by getting through the First Four in Dayton.


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One of my friends, an intern, is struggling with the belief that they killed their patient.
I've thought that more than once, and in cold reflection I believe it to be true in at least one and two halves. That is, one I'm personally responsible for, and about two others I'm definitely responsible for significant failings. There were several other times that I felt very guilty about for a week, but as time passes I think my responsibility is less weighty in those. I haven't written about them before because, in close temporal proximity, I was too upset to write, and I didn't want any time correlation for the lawyers to find.
The one patient that I think of particularly, I personally failed to notice something, and that thing being overlooked led to another thing, and the complications of that other thing led to the patient dying. So it's not like I directly administered an overdose. But it seems reasonably certain that if I hadn't overlooked that particular thing, the patient would have been much more likely to survive. Also there were several other doctors, both residents and attendings, from my own and other services, who also had cause to notice that particular thing and act on it, and none of them did, either. But it was my patient, on my service; so I can't decrease my own fault by saying that others, who were not as directly responsible, although more senior, made the same mistake. It comes down to, my lack of attention led to the patient's death.
The other times are similar: I didn't do anything – I didn't cut a major artery, or cause a laparoscopic injury – I'm sure those are down the road – but I failed to pay close enough attention, or to pay attention soon enough, and then the patient died. If I had done a better job – if I had done well the job that I was supposed to be doing – it probably wouldn't have ended the way it did.
I don't know what to tell my friend, though. There's no way around it. Sometimes I've tried to reason with interns (because they're the ones to whom it happens for the first time; for the rest of us, the feeling of guilt is familiar and feared) and tell them, in this case it wasn't their fault. But inevitably there comes a time, probably before six months are out, when there is no honest way to reason out of it: it really is my fault – your fault – our fault.
I can't remember now how I dealt with those times. By not thinking about it, I suppose. I considered the facts enough to realize what I had done, maybe asked a senior resident what they thought about it, and then I closed a door in my mind. I think the phrase is from King Lear: "That way madness lies." Now, one part of me knows I've killed people, and the rest of me is for all practical purposes unaware of that fact. It takes time, though, to get that door closed, and to keep it closed. And so for a week or two, it's quite miserable. M&M helps a little, to have it out in the open. The attendings' conclusion, surprisingly enough, has rarely been as harsh as my own. After all, only I know exactly when I knew certain things, and exactly what conclusions I drew from them, and whether I could have taken certain actions sooner than I did. The final picture, in public, is always a bit blurry; the blame never settles very definitely. Inside my own mind, though, I know that I failed – and it will happen again, no matter how careful I am; it will happen again. . .
It's hard to watch interns learning that.


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Empowered Patient, a regular feature from CNN Medical News correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, helps put you in the driver's seat when it comes to health care.
Even well-educated women sometimes freeze up in the doctor's office, says Dr. Christiane Northrup.
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- For 10 years, Barbara's gut told her she needed to get a new doctor for her daughter, and for 10 years, she didn't listen, even as her daughter got sicker and sicker.
The doctor had diagnosed irritable bowel syndrome when Barbara's daughter was 13. Day after day, year after year, she had bloody diarrhea.
At age 23, weighing just 112 pounds at 6 feet tall, her daughter became so sick and malnourished she ended up in the hospital. Barbara's intuition told her the doctor wasn't giving her daughter the right treatment, but she just couldn't tell him.
"It was like my tongue was bolted to my bottom mouth, and I couldn't get the words out. I didn't want to offend him. I was paralyzed," said Barbara, a high-ranking university administrator.
"I'm well-educated. I have a Ph.D. I make decisions easily, and I say 'no' easily. But in this situation, it was like I had a different personality. I felt like I'd reverted to childhood," she added. Empowered Patient: Watch more on doctor-office mistakes »
Research on women's interaction with doctors is limited, but a number of women's health experts say they had noticed trends among female patients that didn't see as frequently in men.
Feeling paralyzed and voiceless in the doctor's office is one of the major health care mistakes women make, says Dr. Christiane Northrup, author of "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing."
"Even very well-educated women freeze up and don't speak up" in some cases, she said.
Here, from Northrup and other women's health specialists, are five mistakes women make at the doctor's office.
1. Women don't question doctors
"Being at a doctor's office often puts the patient in the position of 'child' and the doctor in a position of 'parent,' " Northrup said.
Northrup's solution: "Always take someone with you who will ask the questions you are afraid to ask."
When you're alone, Robin DiMatteo, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, has this suggestion. "Say to the doctor, 'I realize I don't have the medical skills that you do, but this doesn't make sense to me logically. Can we think this through together?' "
2. Women tend to over-research
According to the Pew Internet Project, women are more likely to look up health information on the Internet. In a telephone survey, 69 percent of women said they'd looked up information about a specific disease or condition, compared with 58 percent of men.
Although doing your own research is a good thing, Dr. Pamela Peeke says her female patients are more likely to become overwhelmed by what they read.
"Women are much more likely to come in with hundreds of pages of Internet printouts under their arms, and they've become convinced they have all sorts of diseases," she said.
The solution: Some experts recommend doing research on the Internet and writing down the most important points rather than carrying in numerous printouts. That way, you can have a more focused conversation with your doctor.
3. Women don't recognize gender bias
Several studies have shown that women's medical problems are more likely to be interpreted as emotional issues or complaining.
"You should recognize that there is doctor bias," advised Dr. Nieca Goldberg, author of "Women are Not Small Men." "You don't want to go to a doctor who says, 'Now, honey, it's not all that bad.' "
Goldberg says she remembers going to a doctor who made a remark like that. "I said, 'I don't think we'll be continuing this visit,' " she remembered.
4. Women interpret their own symptoms
Goldberg says she's seen this over and over again: Instead of just giving the doctor the facts, women sometimes also offer their own interpretations, which can put their own health at risk.
For example, she's seen women who are having heart attacks tell the doctor that they think it's just indigestion. "This could be dangerous if you're in the ER having a heart attack," Goldberg says. "You don't want to lead the doctor down the wrong path."
Goldberg's advice: Just state the facts, and let the doctor do the interpreting. There'll be time for questions afterwards if you think the doctor's diagnosis is wrong.
5. The mother of all mistakes: Women don't trust their intuition
This is what happened to Barbara, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of retribution from other doctors in her small town.
She says her gut told her that her daughter's doctor didn't have the right diagnosis. When she and her daughter finally found a new doctor, he said her daughter didn't have irritable bowel syndrome at all; she had ulcerative colitis.
Last year, surgeons removed her daughter's colon. Her bloody diarrhea is gone, and her daughter now weighs a healthy 158 pounds.
"There are literally hundreds of situations in which a woman's gut intuition is spot-on, but she talks herself out of it so as not to make waves," Northrup said. "We women are suckers for wanting to be loved."
CNN Medical News senior producer Jennifer Pifer and producer Amy Burkholder contributed to this report.


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Genre: Drama
Actor: Dindigul.I. Leoni | Karunakaran | Yogi Babu
IMDb 4.0/ 10 (119 votes)
Director: Anucharan Murugaiyan
Country: India
iMDB: https://imdb.com/title/tt11444768/
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Cubs minor leaguer Javier Baez hits 2 HRs to help Cubs beat Japan 7-5
MESA, Ariz. – Javier Baez hit homered twice, including a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth that gave the Chicago Cubs a 7-5 win over Japan on Friday.
The shortstop prospect who played in the high Class A Florida State League last season finished 2-for-4 with a walk, three runs and RBIs. He homered in the seventh and then followed up with the winning hit off Takeru Imamura.
Sho Nakata, who had three hits, and Hayato Sakamoto each hit two-run home runs as the two-time World Baseball Classic champions prepared for the event's semifinals in San Francisco.
Cubs left-hander Travis Wood allowed five runs, 4 earned, and seven hits in his 4 2-3 innings. He struck out four.
The Cubs jumped out to an early lead in the first when Alfonso Soriano hit a sacrifice fly, Dave Sappelt had an RBI double and third baseman Josh Vitter had an RBI single.
Cub prospect Dan Vogelbach singled in the tying run in the eighth inning before Baez's heroics in the ninth after third baseman Christian Villanueva doubled to start the inning. Shinnosuke Abe had two doubles and a RBI for Japan to join Sakamoto with two hits each.
NOTES: Cubs 3B Ian Stewart (quad) saw his first action Thursday in a B game. He said felt tight later that night but felt great Friday, which was a rest day. He was unsure when he'd appear in Cactus League game but still feels he can be ready by opening day. . The Cubs expect top OF prospect Albert Almora to make a full recovery from the broken hamate bone in his left hand he suffered in a minor-league spring game Thursday. Surgery expected soon with a recovery time of eight to 10 weeks. . Cubs 1B Anthony Rizzo is expected back in the lineup Saturday after returning from World Baseball Classic action with Italy.


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Estimated Arrival: Between Apr 02 and Apr 05. *ETA to the USA Only
This Mary Jane, built with a white cedar core, sports a 7" center inlay and epic spin stripes at the rails.
Each piece of sustainably forested wood is hand-milled, tuned to perfection, and precisely placed right where it should be. Our boards tell us a story and we listen.
Product Specs
Weight 31 lbs
Dimensions 123.5 × 31 × 5 in
Fin Style Fixed
☑ The Shape
This stand-up paddleboard is built in our now famous, "All-Arounder" shape and size, comfortably floating riders between 120 to 250 pounds. So many of our customers have found this original style of board to ride "grounded with earth" – with a better response on all types of waters.
The reports from coast to coast are best summed up with quotes like "amazingly smooth" and "synergistic with nature.
☑ The Materials
☑ Real Wood
Don't be fooled by the foam core boards masquerading around as eco-friendly with their wood veneers.
At Little Bay Boards we only build paddleboards that are truly eco-friendly.
Our paddleboards are lightweight and float because they are built with a wooden rib and spine frame structure which create a hollow core interior. No foam needed!
The exterior of our paddleboards are built with sustainably forested Cedar woods.
Cedar is a strong but lightweight material that allows us to work with nature to compose an ultimate display of beauty throughout the skins, fin, rails, paddle shaft, and blade.
☑ Eco-friendly Epoxy
For added strength, durability, and waterproofing, fiberglass and epoxy are applied to help ensure that when treated properly, these paddleboards will last a lifetime. We use epoxy that is UV stable ensuring the finish remains clear as day one and will not yellow over time.
☑ The Paddle
As always, a "featherlight" handmade wood paddle is included with each board purchase.
The unique bent shaft drives strokes deeper and faster with no deflection which helps ease up the wear and tear on the paddler's shoulders for much longer peaceful times out on the water.
Paddle Height:
6' 4"
Product Review Video from Pro SUP Athlete Girard Middleton