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Here we are at the end of JULY 2016 and we are all waiting to hear the judges decision on the Cottrill Estate debacle, which has been in the 14th District Circuit Court in Gilmer County since June of 2011 over five years now. The Gilmer County Commission finally made a decision and a final ruling involving the pathetic final accounting which was filled with discrepancies and possible illegal actions by the executor Mike Murphy whose wife is now a disqualified heir to the estate according to the commission.
While we wait lets review this RGW article which features members of the Secret Seven Coalition going after an elected judge and having him suspended without pay through the end of 2016.
Please enjoy this highly read article…
"There is West Virginia JUSTICE and then there is JUSTICE FOR ALL!"
By Free Bird – Revenge of the Ghost Wolf Reporter for the Secret Seven Coalition/Hurricane Rina McCoy – Crooked County Crooks Editor for the Concerned Citizens Free Press /Editor Edison – CalPatty Press Editor
"There is no peace in West Virginia, because there is no justice in West Virginia."
Mother Jones
Out of the 7 Billion People on the planet there are about NINE MILLION People in prison. 25% of those NINE MILLION are in the United States.The US has 4.3 % of the world's population, yet 25 % of all the people in prison are in the United States.
So out of all the people in the world in prison 25 % are in the United States and the US only represents 4.3% of the world's population. WOW the capital of the PRISON PLANET is the United States, and West Virginia leads the US in people per capita that are incarcerated, according to latest figures 6.8 people per 100.
WV leads the US, and the US leads the world for people in prison or in jail. This has never happened before, except for in Stalinist Russia, or Hitler's Germany.
Leading experts agree, that any state or any country that has over 3% incarcerated indicates something terribly wrong with that society. Well the US leads the world and West Virginia leads the United States in people incarcerated, therefore something is terribly wrong with West Virginia, and it is county's like Gilmer that make for the bad result.
"Justice" is supposed to be a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, but the Gilmer County Circuit Court is fucking clueless as to that denotation!
"Flat out Power Elite BITCHES like JUDGE FACEMIRE and the prosecuting attorney for Gilmer County Gerry Hough don't even know the meaning of the word JUSTICE!"
Those raised by the Word JUSTICE were taught that the righteous consider the cause of the poor, but the wicked regard not to know it; or, "Does not understand knowledge" of the poor man's cause and case; and there being no money to be had, he does not care to consider it, and look into it, and get knowledge of it, and do him justice; he will not take his cause in hand, or plead it.
"Those words describe exactly the state of justice in West Virginia and specifically Gilmer County!"
There is no justice for those without money or at least enough education to know their rights and stand willing to fight long and hard for them. It is a sad fact that those are skills not easily found around here and to our shame, not encouraged and seldom appreciated.
"There is West Virginia Law and then there is the law for the rest of the 49 states!"
This was a quote from a prosecutor from out of state that was made privy to the misconduct by JUDGE Richard A Facemire and Gerald B Hough, given to her by law enforcement representatives investigating the criminal actions of public officials from Gilmer County involving an illegal extradition, and Beverly Marks ignoring a court order and hiding a DEED to property needed in the longest running court case in Gilmer County history.
When Gilmer County officers of the court knowingly break the law to bring forth a wrongful prosecution it is easily explained by highly educated professionals as WEST VIRGINIA JUSTICE!!
In GILMER COUNTY, West Virginia they, "Make their own rules!"
FOX NEWS finally got coverage of WEST VIRGINA CORRUPTION and laughed their asses off at Judge Watkins and his version of WV Justice, listen below as Megan Kelly expresses that entire WV court system is insane and this Judge should be removed! WHO will be the next judge made fun of in front of millions of viewers at home across America JUDGE FACEMIRE ? YES, it very could be and the long rant that he denied making during the Travesty of Justice trial in which GERRY HOUGH paid witnesses to lie and was caught, but the JIC said the matter was time barred, (meaning the defendant waited too long to file a complaint)but Rachael Cipoletti – Chief Counsel of the ODC – lied, because a complaint was filed officially in December of 2007 in which the ODC did not recognize the evidence that now proves a malicious prosecution took place, but since then even more recent evidence not previously known before was discovered pertaining to the Travesty of Justice case, and should re-set the two year statute.
Law enforcement officers of the court in Ohio said, that NO CHARGES should have been filed against the defendant in the Travesty of Justice case, let alone an arrest made, and a life and a career ruined was ruined with malice. Gilmer County will have to pay for the compensatory damages, and the punitive damages awarded in federal court. If the civil action is won, the award could be in the millions. FACEMIRE and Hough could be held personally liable for their actions and could possibly find themselves held in contempt by the WV Supreme Court and the JIC once all the facts are revealed, since they knowingly brought a malicious prosecution, and both knowingly LIED to both the ODC and the JIC in Charleston WV which happen to share the same office.
In this video below the judge accuses the Rev. Arthur D. Hage, of threatening his family, when all he did was talk to reporter Lawrence Smith. This judge lies as bad as Judge Facemire and says his house was vandalized, but his house was not vandalized, it is all a lie, and we believe that Watkins could be through now for his actions, and he had a whole nation laughing at him — And let's hope we can get the same treatment for Facemire and Hough. Putnam LIVE.com first published these videos, thereby breaking the stories involving Watkins with both the youtube video, and the threatening phone call to Lawrence Smith of the West Virginia Record.
Today the people witness the most widespread suppression of views this county has ever known. The suppression in Gilmer County comes not only from fear of being jailed or physically harmed but even more so from fear of being dismissed or restricted from employment, banned from radio or television work, having thoughts and facts wiped clean from the internet thus changing history, being disqualified for teaching, or found unacceptable for the lecture platform and even public works.
Those sanctions mentioned in the above paragraph are effective and powerful. They often carry more sting than a fine or a jail sentence!
We watch as the persistent efforts of those given control attempt to restrict or suppress information for almost any reason(self assigned moral guardianship with no foundation in ethics, or for political purpose and personal gain)and stand in absolute opposition to the principles of freedom. This is censorship and it flourishes when no one safeguards intellectual freedom. It can be defined as any change in the access status of material, based on the content of the work and made by a governing authority or its collaborators. Worse than that, our criminal justice system is part and parcel to such acts and there is no justice for the oppressed.
Rape after Rape has occurred at Glenville State College, a small and dastardly liberal arts college tucked away far into the Northern part of the middle of the state of West Virginia, the place that is OPEN for BUSINESS and of course GSC lives up to their other slogan of Wild, but not so Wonderful.
"The picture of the judges house in the video below is what started the entire courtroom debacle!"
"The judge, William M. "Chip" Watkins III, was accusing Rev. Arthur D. Hage of talking to the media after a previous hearing. That conversation, he believed, led to an article about the judge and his wife that apparently included a picture of his house and information about his residence. So when Hage showed up for another hearing, Judge Watkins was irate. And he let loose, threatening to incarcerate Hage for life, which was the same type of action taken by Judge Richard A Facemire against the defendant in the Gilmer County Circuit Court during the Travesty of Justice case"
Judge WATKINS threatens LAWRENCE SMITH of the West Virginia Record
White collar crime runs rampant with local attorneys and the most famous attorneys for stealing from estates is the Butcher and Butcher law firm, and anybody that has researched the AJ Woofter estate, will be informed of facts that the executrix of the estate was Rosa Belle Gainer – Cunningham, who was employed as a secretary of the Butcher and Butcher law firm. The fact that Gainer was employed by the Butcher and Butcher law firm while also serving as an executrix of the AJ Woofter estate is a violation of state law, but, Gilmer County makes their own rules which has been proven over and over and over again!
The White collar crime in which the County Commission Clerk as well as a FOR PROFIT non – profit entity entitled the GILMER HOUSING PARTNERS was involved in was exposed by the Secret Seven Coalition first, and then the Gilmer Free Press wrote a fabulous article describing the wrong doing and published documents about the matter that the county flat denied, and then the worthy news story of small town corruption was reported by the West Virginia Record in Charleston, or there would have been NO PRINT PRESS at all on the wrong doing and criminal action in which Gilmer County was sued for by Summit bank and LOST!! The people of Gilmer County lost too, because the county had to pay multiple thousands of dollars for the amount of the judgment by the court and they also had to pay the insurance company 50, 000 bucks for a deductible.
The normal citizen has been kept from actually knowing all the facts, because the local paper never reports any exacting news if it doesn't have a positive spin to it because the newspaper staff are all uneducated dolts with no sense of responsibility to the public. The local paper is the Glenville Democrat and Pathfinder, which is really a pathetic weekly paper put out by Dave Corcoran who is a no talented yes man that even immediate members of the community are tired of. Corcoran was shown direct disrespect at the Glenville Folk Festival held every year, when many walked out on one of his long winded nonsense speeches about how wonderful everything is. Even the common person off the street could sense his insincerity.
The most colorful character to work for the local paper has been Cassandra Huff, who was fired for working on Gerry Hough's hate site on newspaper computers and being paid by Corcoran to do so. Just the fact that Hough would be involved in a hate site that does not argue the issues, but instead spends all of its time attacking the messenger lends one to believe all the awful things ever said about the man.
While an employee of the Glenville Democrat, Huff would many times show up HIGH on drugs to a school board meetings, or some other function smelling of marijuana, and was an avid popper of pills having prescription medication from the doctor's office for her many mental and physical ailments.
Sadly, all of these public officials and local attorneys mentioned, along with the Lord of the Church of IKE himself believe with all their hearts and soul that the good ole boy network can and will protect them, and then NOBODY can touch them. Everyone feels that Senator Joe Manchin will save them, and just before election we hope to confront Big Joe as to why he protects these criminals that call Gilmer County, West Virginia their home.
It's a damn shame the local public officials are part of the crime game in Gilmer County. The crime game players includes Gerry Hough who is accused of breaking the law and subornation of perjury pertaining to the "Travesty of Justice" case – Tim Butcher, R Terry Butcher of the Butcher and Butcher law firm, Beverly Marks, former County Commission Clerk along with the current County Commission Clerk Jean Butcher.
Sheriff Mickey Metz was caught submitting a FAKE document as genuine to run for magistrate as his minimum education requirement, and Waco Oil employee's have been caught with COCAINE and narcotics in a pill form that were in a prescription bottle with the name IKE MORRIS on the label.
Thanks to local leadership's very loose interpretation of the law to their own benefit and monetary advantage and full support of the courts…ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH HAVE BECOME BOTH AN OXYMORON AND A PARADOX IN GILMER COUNTY WITH NO JUSTICE TO BE FOUND FOR THE COMMON MAN.
Oxymoron: a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms
Paradox: a statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which (if true) defies logic or reason and is similar to circular reasoning
Small businesses should be the backbone of our economy, and the reason why is that only small business creates new jobs. Yes, the government and tax funded agencies can create jobs but when they are paid for through taxes or levies, growth is only by appearance and comes right back out of the existing economy. It is a never ending circle.
The CHURCH of IKE which includes all the power elite in Glenville who have proved themselves dishonest and all the local politicians like Boggs and Walker who are as deep in the pocket of Ike Morris and Waco Oil and ASS as Senator Joe Manchin, who has proven himself to be about as worthless to Gilmer County as Governor Earl Ray Tomblin.
When a small business is started an individual gives up their personal wealth (not grant funds or government contracts) and creates jobs with it. When people spend their own money, then that is real money, earned dollars, saved dollars, going back into the economy. This is how real, sustainable, long term economic growth happens. At a time when there have been many small business closures in Gilmer County, what have the County Commission, the Economic Development Association and Glenville State College done to promote a development model that allows and encourages small business growth? Nothing… Which side has our courts stood on when it comes to freedom of speech, election fairness and safeguarding all small business?…Not on the side of the everyday citizen, not on the side of the majority and not on the side of free enterprise within legal constraints.
For example, consider the Small Business Authority on Main Street? The premise was sound in theory. In fact it has done little but pay toward the salaries for three GSC employees!!
The benefit is all to GSC and none to the community directly and gives further profit to a multi-million if not billion dollar nationwide corporation, Aramark, their own vendor. The students at GSC are not even permitted to use their meal cards at any business not affiliated with the college. How does that promote economic development and small business in Gilmer County? Why someone who has been working hard at a small food service such as Carl Duvall, a graduate of GSC, or a local person was not placed there, assisted with finance and promoted we do not know. That would have fulfilled the true purpose of that state and federal funding. It would have exhibited growth but not for GSC who is supposedly developing huge grants dollars for Gilmer at such a pace that few local persons know about or will ever be a recipient of that "generosity". The obvious purchase or taking by eminent domain of multiple tracts of land and its removal from the tax rolls plus administrative hiding of multiple rapes and drug deals with no prosecution through control of Gilmer County's justice system is GSC's most notable achievement, that plus the laundering and steady distribution of cash to the "worthy" few.
Why would all three entities join together and use tax dollars for a website designed to take advertising from Gilmer County's only written newspaper when the developer is using it for promoting their own site, using their own advertisers? Oddly enough it happened just after the local paper showed some support for the Gilmer County Schools Coalition and if you check who those advertisers are you'll see CUBE plus church of Ike members and find they've always advertised out of town. Get the picture? It is made even more astounding when we are told the Commission's Administrator is supposedly an Internet Technology specialist who gets a regular government paycheck and should be able to do such a simple task! Is that economic development and small business encouragement (for Braxton County) or is it another example of the Chapman/Kight and Hess team with Kennedy in tow now helping a manipulated supporter who sacrificed old friends to get a foothold for personal profit, shifted their business out of town and is ready for another payoff ? Last time wasn't the last time and for sure wasn't enough. This time won't be either. Something else is in that woodpile besides wood and people who really believe in Gilmer County know it.
The appropriate attitude of helping the entire community of Gilmer County would go far to meet the needs of small business in not only the county but could act as a much needed model for small, rural communities throughout the state. Small towns offer high quality of life and a strong sense of the worth of every resident in the community, but a place with a small population has a hard time supporting a broad range of goods and services. Economic challenges are magnified in a small town, where even a small number of home repossessions and business failures affect nearly everyone. The key to success in building a healthy business community in a small town is to create an economic development plan that maximizes the community's strengths and minimizes its weaknesses. It is vital that the bulk of the population is included in planning and in the execution of that plan. It is our attitude toward free thought and free expression that will determine our fate. If the people continue to let GCEDA, GSC, IL Morris, the Butchers, and their flunkies which included the Gilmer County Commission, continue to run Gilmer County into the ground for personal gain and personal legacies the end of this county is nearer than you think.
"Take a moment and honestly examine the failed for profit realty business established with tax dollars spent in the name of education and called Riversview!"
The President of GSC was placed as the head of that corporation. It is true that his wife Elizabeth has the education degree, not Peter Barr, and his history with the Chamber of Commerce and economic development in South Carolina which surely would have been more profitable than in little Gilmer County but he leaves there and comes here as a yes man in control of higher education to continue his failing legacy while getting mega salary increases and a music program for his son approved by the Board of Governors. What he has done to this county and its college has had no positive impact and the failing statistics prove it time and again. The fact that its biggest benefactor does nothing about it makes one wonder if he wants GSC to fail so it can be privatized as Morris College. The facts continue to back that theory up. Is dissolving Gilmer County the price Ike's willing to see paid to get that vanity plate? Is that justice? So it would seem as that group seems more impressed about how many Senators are in the pocket after redistricting than how many kids get a quality education or even live in the county these days.
Now, Gilmer County Elementary School children are to be relocated in Lewis County which in and of itself has the potential to close two Elementary Schools as the state is forcing consolidation of the remainder. They say we are too "small" but move to make us smaller with a decreasing population, Yet the very people in charge of economic development; Larry Chapman, Sandy Pettit in Ike Morris's name, Dave Millard, John Kasuba, Tashua Allman, Tom Ratliff, Greg Smith, John Bennett, their flunkies along with the"employers in name only" Brian Kennedy, Dave Hess and Darrell Ramsey sat silent as we watched further decline with the closing of UPAK grocery store, Appcon Hardware, Babcock Lumber and McPherson's Town and County Realty Company who could not sell their business before retiring as other relatives of government officials continue to thrive.
We watch as elected officials and close friends get water, sewer and DSL lines ran past their properties while Cedarville sits with no water and Rosedale only partial service. Don't take that Chapman promise of a new fire department too serious Rosedale, you'll get it the same way you got anything else, when you figure out how to do it and not before. It won't be your current county tax dollars that pay for it.
Can you call that justice?
We see the college go from hosting the W.V. Belles as a courtesy to running the folk festival and being told you have to ask Dave Millard if you can set up a display. When did GSC become the controllers of the W.V. State Folk Festival instead of the people it's supposed to represent and when did they take over EDA with Larry Porter? While we trusted our Gilmer County leaders to watch out for us they were and still are giving us away doing anything they are told for a paycheck. Where's all this community cooperation GSC says they want as they run the show without asking the people and the EDA Director Chapman can't even see it gets advertised in state publications for free? The turnout suffered. Where's the justice?
The Commissioners tell us what we want to hear. Oh yes, 911, we'll bring it back, sorry we gave it away but the undertones say only if paid for with yet another levy placed on the backs of tax payers while businesses go away and all Chapman can say is it's the economy!
President of the Gilmer County Commission Kennedy, who is a direct relative of Tim and R Terry Butcher of the Butcher and Butcher law firm brags, we'll support a study for education now that the state took over the schools but nothing in writing and no checks in the mail. The tax money has been so mismanaged that millions of dollars each year go for employees to take the money in and watch as selective, so called, "justice" and eminent domain is meted out in favor of the power mongers and no eminent domain for their property. Ask Mary Heckert and Hands of Pride.
"Ask Ron Blankenship State Super Pooper for Gilmer County why he wouldn't take any Garrett property? No, no, anything but that, anything but Justice!"
Where is the justice, where is the right, where is the equity for Gilmer County Tax Payers who have been kept in the dark and forced to swallow whatever these self serving "leaders" have fed them? How has any of their actions stimulated growth? Glenville and Gilmer County as a whole is a great area with enormous potential. So much more could have been done to help the growth of this town and surrounding communities but all that gets done is put a paycheck in the pocket of small minded, self serving, greedy yes men and yes women. Small business could have provided new jobs and a better local economy. If local leaders understood this the people would be so much better off. All they seem to understand is that to keep their jobs, no one in business here wants any competitive salary payers around.
"What have our courts done but work to support their influential, vote block holding friends and to suppress the small business that does not encourage their reelection or appointment? What have they done but show their support for pedophiles, adulterers, liars, thieves, murderers and their associates?"
Go down the list of elected and appointed and apply the correct adjective.
You know it, you see it, and you live it and yet use the excuse of being in too much fear to do anything about it. Such lack of action has condemned the majority of citizens here to endure a living death or leave and they are leaving in droves. The word commends the just man's compassion to his cattle and thus commends his sympathy with those who are often treated as cattle, and worse even than cattle but we see no evidence of this sympathy come from our courts, our dispensers of so called justice. No evidence of such compassion from our political leaders or their minions. In fact, just the opposite is more commonly the result of legal action in this state and in this county.
"The poor or those considered "politically out of line" go to jail or incur large legal fees and fines to defend insane and unfounded charges!"
The financially able go home and make a campaign contribution as instructed. Those determined and strong enough to stand their ground must fight to get to a higher court to even begin to experience what justice might be like.
West Virginia's Supreme Court has been reminded more than once that "the only check upon their own exercise of power is their own sense of self-restraint. For the removal of unwise laws from the statute books, appeal lies not to the courts, but to the ballot and to the processes of democratic government" but it seems local judges do not hear and to paraphrase the words of Gilmer Circuit Court Judge Facemire to Lawrence Smith when he asked to legally record the proceedings against him as he has done in circuit courts throughout this state, "that may be how it's done in other courts but THIS IS MY COURT AND YOU WILL NOT RECORD THIS PROCEEDING!" What of his permitting Tara Kennedy, an officer of the court seen in an attempt to run down four members of a local family with her car, to express her personal desire to see a successful Gilmer County business shut down because it did not agree with her husband's political aspirations. Judge Facemire has a probation officer in the court room when no one is on probation or likely to be. When there is no sentencing in progress and though she has an office available to her, because of political ties she can make whatever moronic statement she likes, influence the decision of a bought and paid for judge at a whim and laugh while she seeks to inflict pain on those daring to stand in her way as the Morris family provides protection for a yes man's wife.
"In other words, if you get in a Gilmer or Braxton County Court before Judge Facemire and his crew you'll receive their collective idea of justice as they have been told to dispense it, not the liberty and justice for all provided under the constitution of the State of West Virginia and the United States of America!"
You can't even call that crap they deal out country justice because it has no roots in common sense. Justice here is selectively applied and loosely defined. Morality and ethics have no place within the ranks of our leadership. Justice died here when greed took over and money became God.
As one of the core values of a democratic society, intellectual freedom is the right to seek, receive, hold, and disseminate information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause, or movement may be explored.
There must be no limit on the range of temperate discussion, no limits on thought in order to preserve this county and its people. No subject must be taboo. No censor must preside at our assemblies. No judge must subvert justice for political profit, personal vendetta or gain.
"We need all the ingenuity we possess to avert failure and economic collapse. We need leadership in Gilmer County that values every opinion, every idea and every citizen as much as they value themselves and we do not have it!"
"When will we join together as those who are tired of being slaves to these self assigned masters and find the backbone to make it happen?"
It better be sooner than later or last one here can turn out the lights, put out the cat, inscribe the last name on that poor farm tombstone which needs to be erected in the new park and hopefully they can survive on the royalties from their new book …
"Who Killed Gilmer County WV?"
You've just read a lot of the names to be found in that best seller, because at Revenge of the Ghost Wolf we are the true teller!
In Glenville Justice Is Lost
At GSC Justice Is Raped
In Crooked County Justice Is Gone
Pulling Your Strings
In Gilmer County Justice Is Done
Seeking No Truth
Winning Is All
Find it So Grim
So True
So Real
Power Wolves Beset Your Door
Hear Them Stalking
Soon You'll Please Their Appetite
They Devour
Hammer of Justice Crushes You
Say your prayers little one
Don't forget my son
To include everyone
I tuck you in
Warm within
Keep you free from sin
'Til the sandman he comes
Sleep with one eye open
Gripping your pillow tight
Because the REVENGE of the Ghost WOLF will be coming for YOU in the DARKNESS of the NIGHT!


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This is a blog for TEACHERS WHO ROCK and are frustrated by the day to day drama that gets in the way of our interactions with children. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but sometimes a girl has gotta vent...
Friday, November 30, 2012
Nerd Out: It's Not All About Leveling
I think we all need one big support group. I'll meet you at the bar...
Anyhow, one fallout of testing, testing, testing and more testing is our obsession with data, accountability, measuring, and all things one can put on a graph. One huge casualty besides you, me, our friends and collective sanity? Our classroom libraries.
I don't know about you, but I have always had a love/hate relationship with my classroom library. I loved the neat, organized and colorful labels. I hated that lurking pile of books that I didn't know where to shelve. I loved the bursting baskets, filled with books books, glorious books! I hated when books were put back in the wrong place, carelessly and without thought. I loved the rug, the pillows, the little lamp, the cozy feel of my classroom library. I hated vacuuming and maintaining the space.
As you already know, I can make most things in life into a full fledged drama.
Getting back to my point...one trend I have seen in classrooms (and a trend that I do NOT believe is the fault of the teacher, don't get me wrong) recently is making the classroom library into a wall of leveled baskets. Whether you color code them, number them or Fountas and Pinnell them up, it is still a huge wall of leveled books. And nothing else. No genre, no topic, no author, no nothing. Just levels as far as the eye can see.
I often wonder what this looks like from the perspective of the little friends in that classroom. Do they imagine the books mocking them - all you-can-look-but-you-can't-touch-me? Do they push readers to work harder? (My guess is no.) Do they make readers feel bad about where they are and limit their choices? (My guess is yes.)
Levels are fabulous. They are a great tool and have shaped my own teaching of reading. HOWEVER, as the eloquent Donalynn Miller writes in chapter 4 (I know, chapter 4. Could we be doing this book club thing any slower?! I swear, you guys, I am totally not a slow reader. Seriously.), "I never want my students to feel that they are roped into a book...I believe that students should be empowered to make as many book choices as possible..."
Is it really a choice if you are told to pick one book from the basket labeled "DRA 28"?
This chapter goes on to detail the ways in which Ms. Miller expands her students reading lives and helps them to form a reading identity. Now, I love the smallest of small fries down in lower elementary and for these new readers, it is essential to have leveled books. But leveled books and being labeled as a "level x" reader certainly isn't the answer.
Can you imagine if someone yanked the People magazine out of my hands and told me it wasn't my level? It wouldn't be a pretty day, that's for sure.
If you want to chat more about our The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child, check me and my fellow nerds out over on our book club's Facey Face page.
6 comments:
- Rachel said...
Have you seen/heard of the Daily 5 program and the way that they do their classroom library?
There isn't any leveling of the books and they're organized by genre/theme etc. The students are taught how to choose books that are "good fit" books.
This is my second year with using the program and it works great!
- November 30, 2012 at 11:54 AM
I like distinguishing between "just right" book and free choice book reading time. If a child is READING, I don't care what the level and sometimes kids will try harder to decode and enjoy a text that is above their current reading level if they're really into the topic. During free choice (on Friday's for me, because I like to say Free-Choice Friday) kids can pick whatever book they want. But for the rest of the week, during independent reading, i give them a book bin with books at their just-right level. Also, when we go to the library, kids pick whatever they want, but I send my guided reading books home for practice/homework. I think this builds the "reading is fun and you should read what you want" but also reinforces, "you'll improve if you practice with texts that are just right." The library is harder to manage this way though...and requires both leveled bin and libraries by genre, topic, etc
- November 30, 2012 at 2:53 PM
- Stu said...
Leveled books work great for instruction...but children need to be able to take books out that interest them.
Pardon my lack of couth, but that kind of restriction for "pleasure reading" is just nuts.
Oh...wait. They do get to read for pleasure, don't they?
- November 30, 2012 at 4:41 PM
- Mimi said...
I agree with all being said. My rule of thumb has always been that roughly 30% of the library gets leveled. The remaining seventy percent is organized by a mix of genre, author/illustrator, topic and...my newest category...text type.
- December 1, 2012 at 8:03 AM
- Dorothy said...
Mrs. Mimi:
I love you. Everytime I see a new blog post in my inbox, my heart beats a little faster with excitement and I open your message FIRST. (Are you feeling the love yet?) Your wisdom is so practical, reasonable, logical, down-to-earth. I agree with you 100%. Thank you for being the voice of reason in this age of educational darkness and despair. I am so glad you are our voice. We need you.
Ruby Slippers
P. S. I use the leveling as a guide--but if a child really wants to read and take an AR test on a much higher than their level book, I will let them. If anyone questions me, I will tell them that the child's current level wasn't "rigorous" enough...or some other "academic" argument. The best way for students to excel in any area is for them to read and read and read for pleasure.
- December 2, 2012 at 4:52 AM
- organized chaos said...
I started a new school this year and it was shocking and heartbreaking for me to learn that we were expected to level our classroom library books. But my class (children with intellectual disabilities) wasn't given a library because they aren't on any reading level so they didn't qualify for any books. I can't even begin to describe the frustration with this system. It is a school-wide initiative for our children to all know their levels and for our libraries to be leveled. Thank you for your post!
- December 4, 2012 at 4:19 PM

subset: commoncrawl


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text: Nico Sabbi wrote: > Hartmut Hackmann wrote: > >> Hi, Nico >> >> Nico Sabbi schrieb: >> >>> Hi >>> I've just noticed that in your tree there's support for the >>> pre-amplifier of some Philips cards. >>> Does the Lifeview Trio already use your new code? Or do I need to add >>> support for it? >>> >> >> I copy this to the mailing lists because i think this is interesting >> for more people. >> First: the code went to mainstream yesterday. >> >> Then i should give some explaination of what this is about: >> Many recent cards with the TDA8275a silicon tuner have a preamplifier >> (LNA) in front of the tuner chip. It is *not* inside the chip, and >> since it costs some cents, it will not be on all recent cards. >> This LNA needs to be controlled by the driver. I know about 3 variants >> how this is done, currently, the driver doesn't detect the variant >> automatically. So there is a new entry for the board configuration in >> saa7134-cards.c. Possible values are: >> .tuner_config = 0, : no LNA present. This is the default >> .tuner_config = 1, : with LNA. This config is used on the Pinnacle 310i >> .tuner_config = 2, : with LNA. This is used on the Philips Tiger-S >> reference >> design and probably on most others. >> .tuner_config = 3, with LNA. The new variant. Not sure who uses this. >> There is an entry with the same meaning for the tda10046 configuration >> in saa7134-dvb.c >> I should add that the configurations 1 and 3 are untested. I am quite >> sure that 1 is right but not so sure about config 3. > > > > on a fresly compiled 2.6.20 + a fresh hg pull, after having set > .tuner_config=2 in lifeview_trio_config I got: > > saa7133[0]/alsa: saa7133[0] at 0xf3115000 irq 21 registered as card -1 > tda1004x: setting up plls for 48MHz sampling clock > tda1004x: found firmware revision 29 -- ok > BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 6b6b6b6b > printing eip: > e0f2713b same crash without my change; it seems that 2.6.20 and saa7134-dvb don't get alone at all -- "Without a frontend, mplayer is useless" - someone in mplayer-users


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Antitrust and Competition
Antitrust & Competition Economics
CRA's competition economists have provided economic analysis and testimony in numerous competition matters in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Canada. Many have served in government antitrust agencies or are members of premier academic economics and law faculties.
Our experience extends to many industries, including, among others, healthcare, energy, computer hardware/software, retailing, telecommunications, aerospace and defense, entertainment, transportation, natural resources, sports, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and consumer products.


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Im in the middle or the begging of the next gap! what does the gap look like!
My childhood thinking is all I have! I was locked into it from dissociative disorder and trauma culture!
Im now moving past it! However, Im not used to having stability outside my general thinking of my childhood! My childhood thinking is all that I had! and all that I have! However, something new has appeared!
Because of my intense, long term and complex recovery system; a system that breaks down into three parts; Ive some how created or God has created a life that is sneaking up on me from underneath, and placing itself with in me!
Ive been creating a new life for myself and I didnt know it! its showing up in a very positive wonderful sense!
My recovery process has created life interests; just like bank account interest! I have more life developed then I knew about!
As I get better, a solid life is stationing itself in my brain!
The most important aspect of my life is; the ability to have lost years off my childhood and adolescence and yearly teen years, later teen years, have them re done and filled in new! This means the old is taken out; everything is strengthened, and a new life experience for developing takes its place! I no longer have to look in the past for my lost life or lonely present life! I do not have to have a lonely present life! Because the gaps are filled in or filling in continually, I get to have a present life any way I imagine! And its happening for me!
The greatest achievement is the idea and feeling that Im independent, feel good and free, and looking forward to what I want, not the way things are! Then run and call the shots for myself, no one else; nothing else!


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Wednesday, 30 April 2014 06:49 PM
A convicted felon, a victim and two law enforcement officials testified at a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging on Wednesday, to discuss a report that found an estimated 10,000 Americans — mostly elderly — had fallen prey to such schemes.
One of the regulators, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, pledged to start informing consumers better. It also said nobody had been sent to jail in the 21 cases of precious metals fraud it had prosecuted.
"The first line of defense is not consumer education. The first line of defense is putting the crooks in prison," said Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat.
Both the CFTC, which regulates U.S. derivatives trading, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces laws against false advertising, have investigated and shut down such companies, but the two have no criminal prosecution authority.
McCaskill urged the two regulators to rely less on federal prosecutors and work more with state district attorneys.
Bill Nelson, the Florida Democrat who heads the committee, linked the report to the confirmation of Timothy Massad in his role as CFTC chairman.
"Before I will allow consideration of his nomination in front of the Senate I would like to have a conversation with him," he said. Massad has been confirmed by a different Senate panel, but it is unclear when the full Senate will do so.
Karl Spicer, convicted for his role in a Florida-based scheme to rip off investors though the sale of silver and other precious metals, said that the agencies inspired little fear in the people working on such scams.
"With all due respect to the civil authorities, the people that I have encountered ... don't really respect the civil authority bans," Spicer said. "The gentleman I was with had a CFTC ban, he cooperated; he had a ban and he still went about doing business the very next day."
A group of attorneys helped them evade the rules, for instance, by continuing the business under somebody else's name, he said, adding that the schemes were widespread.
In a typical scam, the report said, a telemarketer phones a potential victim, often a retiree, and gives what is purported to be privileged information about a likely rise in the future price of gold, or silver, or other metals.
The end result is often that a retiree may borrow money at a high interest rate to invest in the metal, pay commissions and storage fees and then lose his or her stake, often thousands of dollars, the report said.
The scams, like many other kinds of fraud, have become more prevalent since the 2008 financial crisis as retirees sought relatively safe investment opportunities. Some seniors, faced with years of near-zero interest rates, have sought out ways to make their retirement nest eggs go further.
Many of the precious metals firms are based in Florida, and the state's Office of Financial Regulation has gone after seven companies whose customers lost more than $54 million, according to the report. Officials in California, Minnesota, North Carolina and Texas have also cracked down on such firms.
In simpler cases, customers are sold coins that are priced at considerably more than their market value. Advertisements for such sales are staples of late-night television programming.
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Competitive weightlifting with a touch of grey
In his blue singlet, John Gilmour strides up to the bench and gets into position.
Competing in the American Athletic Union's North American powerlifting championships in Las Vegas in July, Gilmour has his eye on another record.
At 91, he has a full head of white hair and a powerfully built chest. The former Marine raises the barbell off its rack, brings it down to just above his chest then presses it back up, his arms shaking only slightly with the effort.
The great-grandfather has just pressed 209 pounds, an American and world record in the 90- to 94-year-old Lifetime Masters category.
Since 2001, the Morgan Hill man has set more than a dozen world and U.S. records for his lifts. It's a feat that Gilmour hopes inspires other older men and women to lift weights to stay in shape and even to compete.
"I like the idea of getting some of these older people lifting," he says. "It shows them that you can do these things, and have fun competing. You don't have to set a record every time. You just have to get in and do it."
What may be most remarkable about Gilmour is that there is a 40-year gap in his fitness history. Before he started lifting weights again at age 62, he last devoted time to regular exercise in March 1946, when he ended his career in the Marines.
However, up until that time, he had been pretty active playing soccer in his native Scotland as a young boy. After his family came to the United States in 1930, and eventually settled in Southern California, Gilmour attended Hollywood High. At 5-foot-4, he wasn't big enough to play football so he went out for track; a teammate was future Academy Award-winner Jason Robards.
While in the Marines, he was stationed at different bases around the United States. A late growth spurt put him at 5-foot-9 by his late teens and allowed him to play football for a Marine team with top college players from around the country. Hitting the weight room was part of his regimen.
"I realized lifting weights made me a more efficient Marine," he says. "It also made me a faster and stronger player in football."
But after the war, he settled into the routine of work and raising three kids, first in Van Nuys, then in Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara. Like most other American adults in the 1950s and '60s, fitness wasn't a part of his daily routine. He figured he got enough exercise at work.
An electronics engineer, he walked the length of a factory, and up and down stairs all the time.
"I wasn't really that involved in exercise," he says. "I didn't have the time and felt like I was in good health and pretty strong."
In his early 60s, he realized he wasn't as fit as he thought.
"My legs were still good, and I was in good health. I had stamina, but I lost strength. I wanted to maintain strength," he says.
Gilmour found himself back in the gym, lifting weights. This time, he got hooked, but he didn't take his regimen to another level until a decade later when someone saw him working out and was impressed that someone of his age could lift so much.
"You look pretty strong," the man said to him. "Have you thought of competing?"
In 2001, at age 79, Gilmour competed in his first powerlifting competition for the Amateur Athletic Union, the sports organization that once helped prepare athletes for the Olympics.
"I decided to try it and see how it works, and lo and behold, I set a record," he says.
Specifically, Gilmour lifted 236.9 pounds, an American and world record for the 75-79 age division.
He set more records in 2002 and 2007. His regular training, which also gives him a cardiovascular boost, helped him recover from a minor heart attack at age 85.
He took time off when Dorothy, his wife of 67 years, was in declining health. After she died in 2012, Gilmour moved to Morgan Hill to be closer to his daughter and her children. He joined a gym to start preparing for competition.
These days, he gets into the gym two times a week, lifting up to 24,000 pounds total each time through sets of various lifts that don't just work his chest but also his shoulders, arms, back and legs.
He's not sure when his next competition will be.
"It will depend on how much, or if, I can improve on my latest records," he says. "I may have to wait until I am 95 so I can compete in the 95-99 age group.
"I will if I can."


text:
I'm speaking on a panel next week as part of the MIT Enterprise forum here in Seattle. The topice of the talk is Venture Funding - It's a New Game. The game has for sure changed, and I think the success of Founder's Co-op, TechStars and Lighter Capital shows some of the ways entrepreneurs and investors are adjusting.
The panel is a good mix of people across the startup funding landscape, with a wide range of experiences. I think it should be a really interesting talk, so no matter where you sit in the startup funding world (entrepreneur, investor, service provider), I think there will be some juicy nuggets you can catch here. Check it out next week - details below.
Have you heard about recent exits in which start-ups have been acquired for several million dollars within a couple of years of founding with little or no outside investment? Or clean energy start-ups that can't raise the millions needed to grow their business? Or a game company that sold for hundreds of millions of dollars with relatively little VC participation? What's going on?
Join us as Rebecca Lovell, Chief Business Officer at GeekWire, moderates our panel of industry insiders including:
- Frank Artale, Partner, Ignition Partners
- Tom Duterme, Corporate Development Director, Groupon
- Andy Sack, Co-founder of Lighter Capital, Judy's Book and several acquired tech companies
- Dan Shapiro, Kept Entrepreneur at Google
Our panelists will tell us where acquisition and venture money is coming from today, including specific deals. They will explain new venture funding models such as revenue financing and incubators that offer mentors, connections to investors, and significant cash. More importantly, they will provide a framework for understanding how funding in the Northwest has been transformed by increased capital efficiency, technological development, and the global economic malaise, as well as explain the impact on entrepreneurs and funders, such as angels, VCs, and corporations.
Audience Takeaways
Audience members will learn:
- Details of recent Northwest exits and financings
- What has changed in the last two years
- About the explosion in new ventures and trends in capital efficiency
- What acquirers and investors are looking for today
- What is hard to fund and why
- About new venture funding models such as revenue financing and incubators with advisors, connections to investors and cash


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Antitrust Case Filings
Antitrust Case Filings
To filter the list of cases, select desired options from the left navigation pane.
View the list of NAICS and SIC industry codes used by the Division. To view all industry codes, visit Census.gov.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1
|Case Open Date
|Incident Date
|Case Type
|Federal Court
|Industry Code
|U.S. v. GS Caltex Corp., et al.
|November 14, 2018
|Civil Non-Merger
|Ohio, Southern District


text:
Watson hired
I know many of you have been asking who will replace Terry Collins and Roy Smith and I've got an answer on one of them. Terry's position will be filled by De Jon Watson, who comes to us from the Indians. He grew up in LA as a Dodger fan, so he should know what it means to be a Dodger. And he's worked with the Marlins (including their 1997 World Championship team), as well as the Reds and Indians, helping Cincinnati bring in guys like Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns.
Here's the story from dodgers.com and the official press release we did. Tony Jackson at the Daily News has an article with more quotes from Watson and Logan White.
Also, earlier this year someone was asking me what products are used to get uniforms clean. While I hadn't had much luck in tracking down exact names until now, there was a story in yesterday's Wall Street Journal that credits a New Jersey-based company named Eisco as one that "sells uniform cleaning products to every MLB team and about 20 percent of the minors." I hope that helps whomever was looking for the info.
That's all for now.
37 Comments
hey josh, who are some of the candidates to replace roy smith?
ralyvloeselanie how about Logan White?? he rocks!
logan white needs to stay where he's at. He's a genius
yeah, logan should not go anywhere, he is the main reason we where so good this year.. dont mess with sucess
My understanding was that Logan White was already gone, presumably at his own choice. I too would like some clarification if this is not so. I would have liked him kept on as well.
hey messagebear, logan white hasnt gone anywhere
His name is De Jon? What is that?
yeah, it's like the mustard
That's sooo funny.
Thanks Josh. I asked about the uniform cleaning as my Mom constantly remarks on how clean the uniforms are the next day after being grass and dirt stained. Just a matter of curiosity. Sounds like De Jon Watson is a good replacement for Roy Smith. Hey Ray. Your man Meloan is doing very well in the fall league. Didn't hear much about him during the season but seems to be one reason we could give up minor league pitchers in trades. Probably more important now that Morris is having Tommy John surgery.
How about hiring Orel to manage our triple A club? that way when Grittle gets fired you can bring Hershiser back as Dodger manager and he'll have gotten the expierience people think he needs.
i have been talking about john meloan for a long while, he needs to be in the bullpen next year. hey harold, where have you been?
Just hanging around Ray. Following your blog, actually pulling for an American League team to win the world series, waiting for series to end so the real new season begins with Dodgers changes. I expect my hope for the off season is to keep guarding the prospects. I think we have to build from within and add significant pieces. I also think it might take 2-3 years to get there. Your take on pitching looks good but I am always weary of big contracts to pitchers. Can't wait to see what happens.
Man, who'da thunk that Jeff Weaver would be in a position to seal a World Series with a performance like tonight? Who is this guy anyway and would he please return the REAL Jeff Weaver?
The Weaver fan dude is probably cataleptic right about now. What a roller-coaster he's been on, huh? lol…
Hey maybe we can complete the Giant connection. Ned, Tomko, Conte, Schmidt and Bonds who is filing for free agency. Just kidding.
did anyone read scott borras's comments?.. he said barry is interested in playing for the dodgers… if this where to happen, i would turn in my dodger fan badge..
ray – dude, don't take rumors seriously. Think about it – Kent is already signed for next year, and we already know he won't get along with Bonds. Colletti cares a lot about team chemistry stuff, so he's not going to do anything that dumb.
I like the hiring of Stan "no relation to Victor" Conte. He should be familiar with Jeff Kent's health situation, and frankly, the Dodgers had to do something about their medical staff.
Now all we need is a new pitching coach and a new third base coach.
incidentally, Barry Bonds is not a Scott Boras client; his agent is Jeff Borris.
Jeff Borris also represents Julio Lugo.
if anything, I'd look for Bonds in Anaheim as a DH.
Hello Harold. Good to hear from you again. Sorry your AL team did not fare too well in the Series. I was pulling for the NL team (it's been a while). Unfortunately, all of those horrible errors by the Tigers pitching staff (and the excessive number of guys that they left on base) pretty much sealed their fate.
About Bonds coming to the Dodgers, he can wish all he wants in one hand and **** in the other. Let's see which one fills up first. Sure, he fills the seats and is in a very good position to break the record this coming season, but it will (most likely) be as a DH. Not that it would ever happen, but I would much rather see the Dodgers make a one year offer to Luis Gonzalez than to Bonds.
The LAST thing that the Dodgers need is a left fielder that is a defensive liability. The guy is done in the NL. That being said, I look for him to be in an A's uniform next season. He has very strong ties to the Bay Area and (in my humble opinion) he will probably finish up his career there. What a DH platoon team that would be: The Big Hurt from the right side of the plate and Bonds from the left side – Yikes!
Bonds is going to have a very difficult time finding a team that will be willing to offer him anything but a one-year incentive laden contract , even though he has made it very clear that he will not accept one. If he maintains this stance, he may very well have already played his last game.
i meant jeff borris..
and i also see bonds landing in disneyland
Now that the series is over… and yes I was glad to see a nat'l league team win, and especially glad to see Weaver do so well…I guess we can turn our attention to the hot stove.
I'm not so sure we need a starter. Perhaps Penny will be sent away for a power hitter, but otherwise there may be enough on board already. The young pitchers have shown themselves to be capable, so I think the biggest need is for a big stick.
Ray, I still think SF will offer Bonds the most. It's all about the draw at the gate, and he's all about the money !! Plus no other city can stand him !! "53" the A's have never been loose with the money and with Zito looking for a big contract, if they were going to spend I wouldn't think it would be for another DH with very limited abilities. Look for Bonds in SF for one more year and then out of baseball !!
Harold it's good to hear from you !! I didn't think I would hear you pulling for an AL team though ?? I wanted STL to win, ex-Angels and all !! The "Hot Stove League" is what I'm looking forward to !! I think Ned is going to make this a very interesting time for us Dodger Fans !!
Stay dry Harold !! Ray I always drop into your blog so keep it updated buddy !! 53 be good and ASQ, how you feeling these days ??
Go Ned !!
Go Dodgers !!
Gary, very rarely cheer for AL. But, I am a bit beholding to the Tigers. Al Kaline is one of my all time favorite non Dodgers. More importantly, Frank Lary in the fifties was a Yankee killer (27-13) on a Tiger team that was not that strong. Plus, I really don't like watching LaRussa manage. A good one I'm sure but he looks like a "dead man walking" which he seldomly does during the game. I wish managers showed a bit of fire.
We should have cloned Tommy. He did have a fire in his belly. I'm really looking forward to the "Hot Stove League", a hockey term no doubt. Hoping Ned can bring good baseball men on board, not necessarily super stars with big salaries and often big heads. And, looks after the kids. Can't wait for the action – trades, free agents, rule 5, etc. Go DODGES!!
Dodgers that is. I do have Dodges too – car and truck. GO Dodgers. Go Kasey Kahne.
I've actually been meaning to post this for a couple of days now. Here I am finally, and I can't get to sleep… so now might as well be a good time to get this off my chest.
I really find it absolutely hilarious that FOX fired Steve Lyons the way they did for reasons of "racial insensitivity" when FOX itself has so many issues of "moral insensitivity" with its programming lineup, that one wonders where their integrity really lies.
How many times during the World Series broadcasts did we have to listen to the ads for "The O.C." when someone in the ad asks, "What's a Donkey Show?" Really. This has been what's in their most recent ad! How would you like to explain THAT one to your young children who may be tuned in to watch a baseball game? What boudaries are we as a society really willing to cross these days for the sake of "ratings"?? It's sickening… and FOX is at the forefront of pushing the envelope of "moral insensitivity" and yet fires Steve Lyons for something that nobody even took offense to. Way to go FOX.
"Hello Pot, yeah, this is Kettle. You're black!"
"This is Fox, viewer discretion is advised."
You know, the only thing I can honestly say that Fox did that was good for baseball was selling the Dodgers to Frank McCourt.
What I personally find the most offensive is the way Fox cannot run a broadcast competently. First, they never start the inning on time, but cut back after the first pitch has been thrown far too often. Once they are back, they cannot be content to watch the game. Instead, they insist on every visual distraction imaginable. They run replays on every pitch like it's a football game. Then they constantly pan over to the dugouts, or something else irrelevant to the game.
I can understand the interviews with the managers, but there's a proper way to do them. The manager gets a little face time at first, but then you immediately go to an audio only feed once the action starts. Besides, it's very frightening to look at Tony Larussa without sunglasses.
Finally, the broadcasters are awful. Joe Buck is ok, but I cannot stand anyone else that does Fox broadcasts, particularly Tim McCarver. I mean, the Braves' broadcasters on TBS aren't perfect, but at least they can show a baseball game.
Forget cloning Tommy; we need at least a thousand more Vin Scullys.
Ray… how can you honestly state that Nomar Garciaparra was the "team MVP" this year? Are you kidding me?? After all that Rafael Furcal did for the team this year? Have you forgotten how many games Nomar sat out, yet how many games Furcal played? How many runs he scored? Campanella award? etc. Check your infatuation with Nomar "the poncho" Garciaparra dude. He was not the Dodgers MVP this past season and I doubt he will be healthy enough for another full season as long as his days in MLB remain. He's a good player, but not the great player he once was. Sure he had some dramatic hits late in the season, but this doesn't erase the consistency that Furcal brought to the 2006 Los Angeles Dodgers.
well if u read the entire thing, u would find out that i dont want him on the team next year, and while furcal was slumping, nomar was picking up the team early in the season… and everything u pointed out about him missing games, and being hurt, I POINTED OUT IN THE BLOG, well, i better finish so i can continue my infatuation with nomar, i hope ur man crush on raffy goes well..
"…well, i better finish so i can continue my infatuation with nomar, i hope ur man crush on raffy goes well…"
LOL!! Touche'! Now THAT was funny…
I agree with Kevin in that Furcal was the Dodger MVP, he was far more consistant. But you can't discount what Nomar brought to this team and I for one believe that with as much talent as Nomar has he's our best choice at 3B or infield utility. This guy plays large in the big situations and can carry a team. Nomar needs to come back, I just hope he's willing to sacrafice the big dollars for playing at home !!!
The "Hot Stove Season" has offically begun. LA Times thinks A. Ramirez from the CUBs could be coming to So. Cal, either with the Dodgers or the Angels for around $14mil for 4-5 years, less then Soriano. Good stats, last 3 years 304avg with 35HR. Looks good but I'm still hoping LaRoche can fill the position.
Go Ned !!
Go Dodgers !!
Just as I suspected, (check the post 10/12) Aramis Ramirez sounds very appealing. He's a great pick. Cubs are trying to dial in a deal for A-Rod and want to get a more Pinella-like team together. Aramis' stats are great and he will contribute 30+ HR a year. Show the door to Betimit and Lugo and Nomar and Lofton and Penny.
The argument taking place here (Nomar vs. Furcal) is ridiculous. It's the tortious and the hare revisited….. game winning HRs vs. steady and consistent contributions. Hmmm….let me ponder that one while I warm my hands on these roasting coals. Boy am I glad he's coming back next year, worth every penny of that 3 year contract. Here's my 2 double 07 line-up for my fellow bloggers who are already feeling this chilly winter air-
Furcal- SS
Martin- C
Loney- 1B
A. Ramirez- 3B
Drew- RF
Kent- 2B
Ethier- LF
Repko- CF (get your act together pal)
Sure would like to see Repko batting 2nd but anyone who saw his ABs late last season saw about a dozen pop-ups in as many ABs. And with Martin batting second I could see many a DP what with his contact hitting and all.
As for pitching prospects…ESPN is predicting we get out bid by the Mets on Zito, which doesn't sound too far fetched, they're payroll will get a boost with they're performance this year. Our payroll was sixth in all of baseball this year, and money obviously helps. We don't need a payroll boost, we need production from our multi-million dollar men (KENT and DREW and GAGNE). Whether or not we get out bid for Zito or Schmidt, Andy Petitte is available as is Kerry Wood. Both guys are decent and I would rather see a new face other than Penny who is beginning to remind me of Monopoly (M. Bradley).
Lets pick up two peices this winter. A number 1 or 2 starter (behind Lowe if any) and a clean-up guy. Dunununa Nuna- ARAMIS!
kirby, you can't be serious! Drew before Kent?!?!?! I see where you're coming from with the Martin 2nd thing, but the speed's a liability. I want Ethier #2. My take, same players.
SS – Furcal
LF – Ethier
1B – Loney
3B – Ramirez
2B – Kent
RF – Drew
C – Martin
CF – Repko
And Kerry Wood?!?!?! We spent 12 million on a guy last year that hasn't played in two years(Gagne) and now you wanna do it again?!? Wood's mechanics have been a problem since day one and I really don't think he's gonna start more than 10 games this year. Look for him in the bullpen in Chicago. I see Ned's ties bringing Schmidt to LA. That's a good move by me. Aramis, okay, but he's looking for 3-5 years @13-15 million/year. What about our prospects? We sign that guy and Andy LaRoche never makes it to the bigs. Martin can't bat behind Raffy, too many groundouts. JD can't back up a bat like Aramis, not enough consistency. Loney gets a shot at batting 3rd, put a proven hitter with good speed behind Furcal (i.e. Ethier). Plus, Ethier's a natural #2 hitter. My predictions:
Furcal – .304 AVG, 14 HR, 40 SB, 128 runs scored, 70 RBI
Ethier – look for a .320 AVG and a OBP pushing .390. 15-20 HR, 75-80 RBI, 75-80 R
Loney – not gonna hit .380, but I see something like .325-.345. He's patient and he's picky, great combination. 20-25 HR, 110 RBI
Ramirez (if he's a Dodger) – 35-40 HR, 130-140 RBI
Kent – back in form, .290 AVG, .390 OBP, 25-30 HR, 110 RBI
Those are my thoughts, predictions, hopes, dreams, etc.
nice thoughts tre..we need to give andy laroche a shot, all of our other prospects got one
Key words there…."hopes, dreams"….this is certainly the place to put them in writing.


text:
The page you are looking for has moved.
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum website has a new look and a new address on the Internet!
If you are not redirected to our new website after 20 seconds or to go there now, please click here.
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Richard Merkin, has been the CEO and founder of the Heritage Group since 1979. Under his stewardship, the Heritage Group has become the largest, physician-owned and operated integrated delivery system in the United States with over 50 related healthcare companies. The Heritage Group encompasses numerous patent, venture capital, private equity, and insurance companies.
Dr. Merkin serves on the Board of the California Institute of Technology and the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. He is the Co-founder of Fastercures. He has established the Richard Merkin Foundation for Stem Cell Research at the Broad Institute at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Richard Merkin Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute, and the Richard Merkin Foundation for Neural Regeneration at UCLA. He is on the board of the California Nano Systems Institute and serves on many other boards that focus on science, healthcare and finance.
Inspired by the XPRIZE Foundation, Dr. Merkin launched the Heritage Health Prize, a $3 million global incentivized competition seeking to achieve a fundamental breakthrough in our ability to predict future hospitalization.


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Tellme Networks announced at the Web 2.0 Expo today that it will be adding three new ways to access its information service that was launched back in January. The service functions similar to to 411, but users can request information through voice, SMS, or Mobile Web. The announcement comes just a week after Google announced its free 411 service, Goog-411.
To use the service through voice, simply call 1.800.555.TELL and say "Business Search" to find a business listing or search for a particular category, such as "flower shops," from any phone.SMS and Mobile Web are equally easy. Sending a text message to TELLM with the details of the business you're looking for. The service will respond with detail information that includes a link to a map. And if you don't want to deplete your SMS allotment, a quick visit to www.tellme.com should produce similar results.
TechCrunch recently reported that Microsoft had acquired Tellme Networks, Inc. Tellme claims responsibility for answering nearly 80-percent of the automated 411 calls in the States. The acquisition goes into effect on April 30.


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Practice Saying No
Drug Prevention Activities That Work
Practice Saying No
ACTIVITY: Role Playing Drug Refusal
(Grades 3-12)
One principle of effective drug prevention education agreed upon by most drug prevention experts, and put forward by The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), is the importance of practicing drug refusal. Not every kid finds it easy to say no, in other words, and the ability to refuse a drink, a pill, a toke, has been found to improve with practice. Research also shows that we can achieve some credible success in the classroom through role playing.
1. Set the Stage. Before class, type up a list of at least 30 drug-related scenarios for your students to role play. They should be situations that your students could actually find themselves facing. You only need to type the opening statements, like:
Hey, Tyler, look what I've got. A whole pack of cigarettes and my mom's lighter.
I love the smell of gasoline. Don't you?
Hey, girl, I want you to try these pills. They'll help you relax. You seem nervous.
Get some fellow teachers to help you create these. The more minds, from more diverse backgrounds, the better. Run the list by some young people to make sure the wording will jibe with your students. Cut your typewritten sheet into individual slips and place them in a can.
2. You're the Bad Guy. Select a student to pick a slip of paper and hand it to you. You start off the conversation by reading this sentence on the paper, in a "bad guy" tone of voice. Be sure that you're not teaching the kids how to be bad. I always make the "bad guy" sound a little bit stupid, not the kind of person they would want to emulate.
The student then -- in his or her own words -- refuses the offer. If students find it relatively easy to say no, try pressuring them. Make it difficult for them to find a way out. Counter their arguments with counter-arguments to make it just as tough as any situation they might encounter in real life. Before they feel overwhelmed, however, it is important for you as bad guy to back off. Even acknowledge that their refusals worked.
3. "Just Say No" and Mean It. There are several keys to teach students about effective refusal. Most important is to say no and mean it. The next most important step is to say no and mean it again and again and again. Teach the children that they can, but they don't have to, give a reason.
That stuff burns out your brain cells.
Cigarettes make your breath smell.
Alcohol is full of empty calories and has been shown to make you fat.
The important thing is for them to realize that they can say no, and still be absolutely cool.
4. Then What? If the student is with a friend, he or she should suggest something fun to do.
Hey, I'm going to ride my bike to the mall. Want to come?
Some drug refusal professionals encourage students to lie, if they need to. I would not advise my students to lie. They might find themselves in an even more difficult spot when the truth comes out.
5. When No Is Not Enough. Teach students what to do if the person continues to heckle them. Have them look the person in the eye, say the name of the person, and say "no" one more time loud and clear. Then leave. Teach them, whenever possible, in every case, to get out of there and alert a trusted adult right away. Most drugs are illegal, and being caught with someone who possesses them can carry severe consequences.
6. Let Students Take Over. After practicing several of these scenes, students may ask to take over the role of bad guy. No problem. Let students play both sides in the temptation/refusal struggle. If a student is having trouble, let him or her call on another student to help. With each practice, you'll see students' refusal skills develop and their confidence build.
7. Finale. Students will want to play the drug refusal role-playing game again and again, and if you have time, let them. Sometimes, when the class feels very confident in their ability to refuse drugs, I like to let the whole class join in at once. I pretend to be a drug user, and start off with a statement like,
Why shouldn't I take drugs? My life sucks anyway.
(At this point, explain that "sucks" is not considered good English, but it is the way that this person talks.) Then let the class talk you out of taking drugs. Give them your hardest arguments. Let them struggle. Gradually, let them see that their arguments are beginning to reach you, and at some point, make the decision to give up drugs. Students will feel the exhilaration of having won an important battle.
You can extend the activity to include other ethical decision-making scenarios, such as those involving cheating, lying, or stealing. I like to tell students that if they get in the habit of making the right choice in small matters, they will also make the right choice when faced with big issues like drugs.
Marya Washington Tyler is a gifted child consultant in Ketchikan, Alaska. She has taught in a one-room school (one year), elementary gifted students K-6 (10 years), and sixth grade (2 years). She is the author of Real Life Math Mysteries, It's Alive!, It's Alive and Kicking, Alien Math, and Extreme Math, all published by Prufrock Press.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NEA or its affiliates.
Other Articles in This Series
» Dealing with Boredom As an Excuse -- Opening the discussion about drugs and helping students focus on activities other than taking drugs.
» Call In the Reinforcements -- Using older students who do not use drugs as role models.
» Turn Them Loose - Let Them Teach -- Setting up a debate about the hazards of taking drugs.


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Facing competition, Nicasio eyes rotation spot
Right-hander enters Rockies spring camp with renewed velocity, health
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- When you're being chased and folks believe they're gaining on you, it helps to have a little finesse. And with the competition bearing down on him for his spot in the Rockies' starting rotation, right-hander Juan Nicasio has gone back to a split-fingered changeup that was a developing pitch before he pocketed it for fear of injury.
But when you're the fastest in the race, there's nothing like stepping on the gas and opening some distance. To win the job and develop the way the Rockies want and expect, Nicasio will have to return to the high-end, consistent fastball velocity that has made him such a prospect.
After missing much of the 2011 and '12 seasons with major injuries, Nicasio reports that his arm once again has speed to burn. Able to concentrate on conditioning rather than rehab for the first time in three years, Nicasio gained confidence -- and top-end velocity -- in winter ball in his native Dominican Republic, and maintained it in workouts at the Rockies' complex at Boca Chica, Dominican Republic.
"I have power," Nicasio said. "I hit 98, 97 [mph]. The lowest it was last year was 88 or 89, I think. You're going to see."
While there are many, including some among the Rockies, who believe Nicasio's destiny is as a hard-throwing reliever who can just live by the heater, the predominant sentiment is he can become a successful power starter. So he'll have a chance to make good on the Rockies' investment -- a one-year, $2.03 million deal to avoid arbitration.
But that didn't stop the Rockies from tossing up his rotation spot, and bringing in veteran lefty spot-starter Franklin Morales from the Red Sox, youthful righty Jordan Lyles from the Astros and oft-injured former top Draft pick Christian Friedrich to vie for it.
Nicasio, 27, is ready to prove himself.
"I need to compete for the job," Nicasio said. "I know they have a lot of young guys here with good arms, and good pitches. I'll compete every day. I don't worry about it. I need to pitch well. I can't worry about who's coming. Just do my job.
"I'm not thinking about the bullpen. My mind is thinking of the starting rotation, and working on my breaking ball and commanding my fastball again. I want to be a starter."
Nicasio leaped from Double-A Tulsa to the Majors in 2011, mainly on the strength of his fastball. But quickly he became known more for injuries than his pitches. He suffered a fractured skull and life-threatening broken neck when he was hit in the right temple with a line drive in August 2011, and he went down with a knee injury just 11 starts into 2012.
For the early portion of last year, Nicasio struggled after five innings. Sub-par secondary pitches were a big part of the problem, and an area in which he must show improvement. But Nicasio and the Rockies believe bigger issues were connected to his injuries.
Having been on the mound so little since the line drive from the Nationals' Ian Desmond on Aug. 5, 2011, Nicasio had the understandable reflex of pulling back his head at the end of a delivery. That meant a lack of finish to the fastball, and it robbed him of downward movement on his breaking pitches.
Then there was the July 2, 2012, left knee injury, which also occurred on a hard-hit ball to the mound. Not only did the incident increase the fear factor, but by last season he was still dealing with pain and weakness. Rehab the previous winter robbed him of valuable conditioning time.
"My knee was killing me all year," Nicasio said. "It's a long season. It's hard pitching like that."
Nicasio was 4-4 with a 5.31 ERA when the Rockies sent him down to Triple-A Colorado Springs. He returned after the All-Star break and was better before wearing out at the end. He finished 9-9 with a 5.14 ERA. It was most important that he finished the year with 157 2/3 innings with the Rockies, plus 11 at Colorado Springs.
"It's in there," said Rockies pitching coach Jim Wright, who was happy Nicasio reported lighter but stronger. "He hit 99 last year with us but he wasn't consistent. But he not only missed time with injuries but he missed time from getting hit. To get past all of that and pitch as many innings as he did was a huge hurdle for him. He knows he can do it again, can get his body stronger and get his legs stronger."
Wright also put the specter of pitchers auditioning for Nicasio's job into perspective.
"You can look around and see what you have to do, and that's what brings the man out of guys -- ones that want to step up and take it," Wright said. "He's one of those guys that would enjoy the challenge. He's met all the other challenges above and beyond now."
Rockies manager Walt Weiss said, "You can tell he's excited, because he's healthy. He's been through a lot in his career. He's got a different look in his eye."


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Los Angeles Native Has Dined at 6,000-Plus Chinese Restaurants
He doesn't use chopsticks, he doesn't like eggrolls, and his wife thinks the whole idea is "silly," but third-generation Chinese American David R. Chan has made a point of eating at almost 6,300 Chinese restaurants across the country over the course of 33 years.
It all started in 1969, when Chan, a CPA and lawyer who's now 64, took an Asian studies course at UCLA that inspired him to better connect with his culture. And he'll quickly point out that his quest is not about the food, although of course by now he has some fairly strong opinions on where to go.
"Despite the fact I've been to 6,000 Chinese restaurants, I don't consider myself a foodie," he said. "My kids are foodies and think it is great, and their friends are foodies, and they are all into this. My wife thinks it is silly."
"It is not like one day I sat down and decided that I wanted to go to all the Chinese restaurants I can," he said. "It had nothing to do with food in the beginning, but about an Asian American studies course I took at the time called 'Orientals in America.'
"When I started traveling myself, I decided it would be neat to see what the cuisine would be like in Memphis, Tennessee, where I was at the time. I thought it would be interesting to see what it would be like to be Chinese in Memphis, so I started eating out and got exposed to new types of food."
As far as not using chopsticks, Chan said, "I can't use chopsticks for the same reason I can't write very well. I never learned how to hold a pencil correctly, and in fact writing hurts me because I don't know how to hold the pencil the right way, and when I was in the first grade the teacher spotted it and I was unable to correct it. Now, because of that I don't have the muscles in the fingers to use the chopsticks."
Since the early 1980s, Chan said he has recorded all restaurants he has eaten at on a spreadsheet organized by name, street and year visited. He's also kept the thousands of business cards, menus and credit card receipts from the restaurants.
Then he got his first home computer with a database program. "I went back and tried to recreate where I had been," said Chan. "I went through the credit cards slips, business cards, went to the public library and phone books to see where I had been and started filling it out thoroughly."
As "a CPA and an attorney, it seemed like the natural thing to do," he said.
Chan said he has seen the evolution of Chinese restaurants throughout the Greater Los Angeles area, which began opening in 1970 and in the mid 1980s "started to explode."
"At this point there are about 600 restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley," he said.
Having traveled all around the country, Chan said Vancouver and Toronto are "a step ahead of Los Angeles and San Francisco."
"I have been all over the country and clearly L.A. is almost the best, along with San Francisco in the U.S.," he said. "Then maybe New York, but New York does not have really good Chinese food."
As for his all-time favorite dish, Chan said it is hard to say because there are so many dishes done well. However, he did say he had a "fabulous version of lemon chicken."
"The way they cooked it and the combo of meat, batter and sauce, it was delicious and the best I have had," he said. "If I go to a new place, I also always check to see if they have fish dumplings. If they do, I always order them."
Chan said he will continue to eat at new Chinese restaurants and document his ventures as long as he can.
"I will continue as long as possible and I am probably slowing a little bit," he said. "However, anytime I read about a new place opening in San Gabriel Valley, I tell myself I got to get out there and try some new food."


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He arrived in Brooklyn on December 1 after going to seminary in Berkeley, California. He was ordained on December 3 by the Metropolitan New York Synods for the Greenpoint and Williamsburg area.
McKelahan currently works with St. Paul's church in Williamsburg, St. John's in Greenpoint, the Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Greenpoint, and St. Luke's in Clinton Hill.
"What I've been assigned to do is to create a congregation where the making and sharing of art is worship," he said. "Specifically the goal is to make art that's simple enough that anyone can do it, but that allows people to share something of themselves."
It would allow people to share their own stories, "and then connect their individual stories with their neighbor's stories and to God's story, which ultimately is everyone's story."
To test out his plan, on Christmas night, McKelahan went to Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan where he set up a two-by-four foot pegboard, using glow sticks as the pegs.
Participants dipped small balls into bowls of different-colored glow paint and dropped them down the pegboard.
"So it would leave a path of the color of the glow paint," he said, "which means if you have several people doing this with different colors and different balls taking different paths you get sort of a pretty-colored pattern."
Beneath the peg board were several dog bowls, and depending on which bowl a ball landed in, the person would win a prize.
The prizes, he said, were suggested random acts of kindness, such as complimenting a stranger.
As his congregation starts to develop, McKelahan will host similar events in McCarren Park.
"As a Lutheran pastor, my job is to communicate to people that God loves them unconditionally," he said. "One of the best ways I know to do that is to let people express themselves, to share their own creativity and for me to honor that creativity, honor that story. To me that is worship."


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So much is made of NFL 2K5 and the blaze-of-glory conclusion to its rivalry with Madden NFL that it's easy to forget another title once threatened EA Sports' glamour franchise. In fact, the Madden team also feared NFL GameDay until the end.
"We were always nervous about GameDay," an unnamed EA Sports developer said in a feature published today by Grantland, ESPN's long-form features nameplate. "We wanted to crush them."
By the endgame of 2004, Madden had accomplished that, even without the infamous exclusive NFL license it now holds.
EA Sports is often accused of buying the pot when, in 2004, it landed the NFL's sole permission to make video games, which killed off NFL 2K and all competitors in the process. But up to that point, Madden's makers also feared the deep pockets behind GameDay, an in-house NFL series Sony built exclusively for its PlayStation and PlayStation 2, much like it does today with MLB The Show for the PS2 and PlayStation 3.
Grantland's Tom Bissell writes that EA Sports was always mindful of the resources Sony could throw at its NFL project if it chose, and the high threshold of pain implied by Sony's huge cash reserves. And indeed, GameDay once was more than a threat to Madden; it was the dominant NFL video game.
What happened to Sony's NFL GameDay?
EA's Madden NFL '96 was to have been the first NFL-licensed title on the PlayStation, but repeated production delays ultimately aborted that effort. In its place, GameDay rose. Two years later came GameDay '98, regarded as the best entry in the series, while on the Nintendo 64 that same year, the only option was Madden 64, the last entry in the series with no league licensing, a relic in light of modern sports video games and the consumer expectations attending to them.
What happened to GameDay? Looking back on the reviews, the inability to switch from arcade-style gameplay to true simulation was a big sticking point. The series also never got stable footing once the PlayStation 2 released—a console generation shift that has echoes in Madden's own problems with its first edition on the Xbox 360 (acknowledged in Bissell's article, by EA Sports itself, as the "undisputed lemon of the franchise.")
In its final year, 2004, GameDay didn't even release for the PlayStation 2, having been hammered critically for five straight years. At that time, the clear and present danger to Madden was NFL 2K, whose NFL 2K4 a year earlier is regarded by some as even better than the martyred NFL 2K5. When NFL 2K5 dropped its price to $19.99—less than half of Madden's price that year—"it scared the hell out of us," the same developer told Bissell.
EA Sports went on to land the NFL's exclusive license for disc-based video games on a console or PC. But despite the orthodox history enforced by hardcore sports gamers, it's not like EA did so over a clear critical and sales favorite in NFL 2K5. It and Madden NFL 2005 are a dead heat in aggregated review scores, each pulling above the coveted 90 average (by both Metacritic and GameRankings). In sales, even against 2K5's terrifying price war, Madden NFL 2005 prevailed, but barely.
It does raise an interesting what-if, though. Had GameDay been more of a player, or if Sony had been willing to put up more of a fight, could EA Sports have really bid enough to win the totally exclusive NFL license it has now?
After Madden won the NFL's exclusive deal, 2K Sports exacted revenge by negotiating an exclusive pact with Major League Baseball that wiped out EA Sports' MVP series. However, it's a third-party software development license only. Sony, as a console maker, remained free to build MLB The Show, the baseball analogue to GameDay. And even though it is available only on the PS3, The Show today is considered miles ahead of 2K's baseball offering—whose deal with Major League Baseball expires this year.
Kickoff: Madden NFL and the Future of Video Game Sports [Grantland]


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A review of the World Water Forum is being conducted with a specific focus on stakeholder engagement, learning and dialogue processes.
Now that the Forum is behind us we can learn from our successes and identify areas where changes and improvements could be made for World Water Forum 2012. In an effort to better understand how dialogue and learning took place, we would like to get your views whether the Forum met your expectations and your recommendations for designing the next Forum.
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, SecurityFocus 2007-01-17
Flaws in Web applications boosted the bug counts for 2006 by more than a third over the previous year, according to data obtained by SecurityFocus from the four major vulnerability databases.
On Monday, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) Coordination Center released its final tally of the number of flaws the organization processed in 2006. Counting both public sources and private submissions directly to the CERT Coordination Center, the group logged 8,064 vulnerabilities last year, an increase of 35 percent over the number of flaws reported in 2005.
The three other major flaw databases--the National Vulnerability Database, the Open-Source Vulnerability Database, and the Symantec Vulnerability Database--recorded jumps anywhere from 20 to 35 percent in 2006 compared to 2005.
The greatest factor in the skyrocketing number of vulnerabilities is that certain types of flaws in community and commercial Web applications have become much easier to find, said Art Manion, vulnerability team lead for the CERT Coordination Center.
"The best we can figure, most of the growth is due to fairly easy-to-discover vulnerabilities in Web applications," Manion said. "They are easy to find, easy to create, and easy to deploy."
The burgeoning flaw counts for 2006 should come as no surprise to most security researchers. A jump in the number of vulnerabilities recorded by the same four databases in 2005 had also been blamed on easy-to-find bugs in Web applications. In the first half of 2006, more than three quarters of all software flaws affected online applications, according to security firm Symantec, the owner of SecurityFocus. And a report released in October by the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Project found that the top-three categories of flaws were specific to Web programs and accounted for 45 percent of the bugs reported in the first nine months of the year.
Simply searching through source code or using Google code search can turn up a large number of potential security issues, allowing even novice flaw finders to pinpoint possible security holes. The maintainers of the flaw databases have been inundated with submissions found by would-be vulnerability researchers who use simple string-matching programs find potential issues in open-source applications, said Steven Christey, the editor of the CVE Project maintained by The MITRE Corp., a non-profit government contractor.
"Many people are doing 'grep and gripe' research," Christey said, referring to the flexible search program grep commonly part of Unix-like systems. "They are doing a regular expression search, looking for patterns. If they get a match they will report it to the public, but sometimes what ends up happening is they are reporting false positives."
While novices are focusing on Web applications, other researchers have started focusing on other parts of the operating system as well as popular applications. Tools, known as fuzzers, have become an increasingly popular way to check software for problems caused by the input data given to the program. Such tools have been so successful in finding flaws that some researchers have resorted to the controversial tactic of releasing a bug every day for an entire month to garner attention to the issues.
"You have an emerging levels of sophistication for vulnerability researchers," Christey said. "You have a lot of people who are able to find the low-hanging fruit. But for major software, it seems to be getting more difficult for top researchers to find these issues--they have to work harder, spend more time, spend more resources, (and) do more complex research."
Web flaws boost bug countsEasy-to-find vulnerabilities in Web applications significantly boosted the number of flaws found in 2006, exceeding the previous year by anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent.
Sources: Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (CERT/CC), National Vulnerability Database, Open-Source Vulnerability Database, and the Symantec Vulnerability Database.
The surge in vulnerabilities in 2006 does not necessarily mean that the Internet is a less safe place for computer users.
Many of the Web applications in which flaws were found are community projects not typically used by major companies, said Brian Martin, content manager for the Open-Source Vulnerability Database.
"For the personal sites and the mom-and-pop stores that rely on the software, it certainly affects them," Martin said. "But larger companies likely aren't affected."
Applications written in the popular dynamic Web programming language, PHP, appeared to account for 43 percent of the total vulnerabilities reported in 2006. The language is typically used in community-created software and smaller Web sites, but a number of notable Internet giants, such as Yahoo! and Google, also use PHP.
While Web applications may account for the boost in vulnerability numbers, the smaller number of flaws found in operating systems and client-side applications typically pack a bigger punch.
"From a core operating system standpoint, we are more secure, but the reality is that malicious code has not gone away," said Oliver Friedrichs, director of security response for Symantec. "Malware is still getting on your system, it is just not using core operating system vulnerabilities to do it."
And, while they make up a small fraction of the overall number of vulnerabilities, previously unknown--or zero-day--flaws targeted by active attacks became a big trend in 2006, Friedrichs pointed out.
"The real threat with a zero-day is they are frequently used in a very targeted fashion against companies and enterprises to steal information, where a simple web vulnerability on the Internet does not have as much of a material impact," he said.