text: Dr. David L. Strayer Freshwater Ecologist Share: June 3, 2012 Ecosystem Services, Weather & Climate Our homes are filled with things that we use only on rare occasions, but still really need. Think about fire extinguishers, aspirins, automobile jacks, or plumber's helpers. We use these objects less than 1 percent of the time, yet our lives would be unpleasant without them.Likewise, streams use their floodplains just once in a while, but they (and we) really need them. Why does a stream need a floodplain? As I write this, it has been sunny and dry for several days, and the small creek running behind my office is maybe 15 feet wide and calf-deep, fed by the ground water that has slowly percolated through the soil from past rain and snow. The water doesn't even begin to fill the channel, and the floodplain is dry.But suppose tomorrow afternoon we get a real frog-drowner, and it rains 2 inches. This amounts to more than 800 million gallons of water falling on the 24 square mile watershed. All of that water has to go somewhere — and where it goes is towards the creek.This means that the channel that looks far too big for the stream today will be far too small for the rush of floodwaters tomorrow. Flood flows often are 100 times to more than 1,000 times greater than stream flows during low water. In response, the stream spills onto its floodplain to move all that water. During floods, water flows fast in the channel and slow in the floodplain — this spreads out the flood peak so that flood waters don't all arrive at the same time downstream.Floods carry a lot of energy, too. If all of the water from that two-inch rainstorm were to flow to the Hudson, it would expend more than 1 million kilowatt-hours of energy on its way (a typical American house uses about 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month). As we know from last fall's floods, this energy can tear up stream banks and property. But as the flood waters spread over a flood plain, much of this energy can be harmlessly dissipated.If I decide I want to "reclaim" the floodplain by building dikes and levees to keep the stream in its channel so I can build something on the floodplain, the water will rise higher and move downstream much more quickly. All of that water and energy will sweep down onto my downstream neighbors, and cause more severe flood damage to their properties.So floodplains allow for the gentle dissipation of the huge amounts of water and energy that are generated by rainstorms (or snowmelt). Human activities that destroy floodplains reduce the protections that they provide, and can seriously increase flood damages downstream.A second lesson many people have learned the hard way is that an area marked as a floodplain will flood. It's not a question of if but when it will flood. It is a loser's game to bet that something built on a floodplain will stay dry.Third, as every birdwatcher, hunter, and amateur botanist knows, floodplains are valuable habitats. The combination of rich soils deposited by floodwaters, a nearby source of water in the stream, and (often) lower levels of human disturbance makes floodplains biological hotspots.Here are a few suggestions about how best to manage floodplains. First, know where floodplains are — they can be surprisingly large even for small streams, and are easy to underestimate during periods of low water. Almost 8 percent of Dutchess County is in a 100-year floodplain. Consult FEMA maps (www.msc.fema.gov) to find your local floodplains.Second, make sure any new land uses on the floodplain are not damaged by flooding and do not block the floodway. Parks, nature preserves and agriculture that can tolerate flooding are good choices.Third, if incompatible land uses have already been put onto floodplains (and this is unfortunately very common in Dutchess County), evaluate the options (including abandonment) based on the long-term costs and benefits of all options, including effects on downstream properties.Healthy floodplains are valuable to both people and nature, and deserve to be managed thoughtfully.Dave Strayer is a freshwater ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook. Share: Dr. David L. Strayer Freshwater Ecologist Dave Strayer is a freshwater ecologist whose work focuses on measuring the long-term effects of zebra mussels on the Hudson River ecosystem, and understanding the roles of suspension-feeding animals in ecosystems. Strayer also works on broader issues in freshwater conservation ecology and invasion biology.


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Posted 9 years ago
(13 items)
This is a stunning all original cobalt blue Sparton 558 "sled" mirror/wood radio manufactured in 1938. This 558 is an upgrade version of the model 557 of the same year. Both are a Teagle design. The mirrored panels were also available in peach. This Art Deco radio is in impeccable condition with only very minor signs of its age or use. The black finish on the wood cabinet looks factory fresh. There are two minor specks in the mirror front and that's it! The radio measure 17.5×8.75×8.5" and weighs about 13 lbs.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Central Connecticut softball team recorded losses against Hofstra, 12-6, and the University of Connecticut, 10-2, in the conclusion of the Hofstra Tournament on Sunday in Hempstead, NY. The Blue Devils were led by senior Kelsey Barlow who posted three RBI as well as juniors Arielle Bruno and Tessa Brown and freshmen Evie Rentzel and Hannah Cooper who each added one on the day. Rentzel also led the Blue Devils against the Huskies with two of six hits and sophomore Kat Malcolm went 3-for-4 against the Pride. Central's record drops to 8-9.
"We played two great teams today," Head Coach Jeff Franquet said. "Offensively, we had some solid hits including a home run by Nicole, Arielle and Kelsey. Overall, I think our team put forth a solid effort and we are looking forward to our next match up against Fairfield."
Game 1 vs. Hofstra
Sophomore Laura Messina started for the Blue Devils. She gave up seven hits in three innings including three home runs. Senior Jordan Tingley took to the circle in the top of the fourth for Central and completed the game allowing ten hits and six runs. Messina takes the loss and her record drops to 4-5.
Three home runs by the Pride (11-8) in the first three innings resulted in six runs for Hofstra by the bottom of the third.
In the bottom of the first, the Blue Devils' lead-off batter, Bruno, launched a solo home run down the left field line in response to put Central on the board 3-1.
A double by Rentzel in the bottom of the second, her fourth extra-base hit of the season, threatened to add another run to the board, however, Rentzel was left stranded on third at the conclusion of the inning.
In the bottom of the third, Brown smacked a double down the right field line to plate Malcolm, who had reached base on a single up the middle, to add another Blue Devil run, 6-2 Hofstra.
The Pride added three more runs in the top of the fifth on a single down the left field line and a pair of stolen bases to increase the Hofstra lead to 9-2.
Two home runs for three RBI in the top of the seventh increased the Hofstra lead to 12-2.
The Blue Devils attempted a comeback in the bottom of the seventh with a single and RBI from Brown and a three-run homer to left center by Barlow, driving in Brown and pinch-hitting freshman Brittany Ernst to reduce the deficit to 12-6. The home run is the first of the season for Barlow and the 20th of her career.
CCSU totaled 10 hits compared to 17 for the Pride in the loss. Central smashed two home runs and hit two doubles while accumulating only nine strikeouts. The Blue Devils committed two errors and left six runners stranded on base.
Game 2 vs. UConn
Senior Nicole Springer pitched the first three innings for the Blue Devils against the Huskies (9-8). She faced 20 batters, allowed 10 hits and posted one strikeout. Springer was relieved by Tingley in the bottom of the fourth and junior Julie Marks made her first appearance of the season in the bottom of the fifth. Springer takes the loss and her record drops to 3-2.
Springer blasted a home run to left field in the top of the first inning to kick off the game with a 1-0 Central lead.
The Huskies matched the run with an RBI double in the bottom of the first to tie the game 1-1. They followed it up with a two-run homer in the bottom of the second to pull ahead 3-1 and added five more in the bottom of the third to increase the lead to 8-1.
In the top of the fourth, Central opened the inning with a Barlow single to shortstop and another from Renzel through the left side. With no outs and two on base, Cooper smacked a single down the left line to drive in Barlow and notch the second Blue Devil run of the game, 8-2. Three consecutive CCSU outs ended the half inning with Rentzel stranded half-way around the bases.
UConn added an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, bringing the score to 9-2 and one more in the bottom of the fifth to put the Huskies up by eight and end the game on a mercy rule.
Central totaled six hits, including one home run, and only four strikeouts and left five runners stranded on base.
The Blue Devils return to action on Wednesday, March 20, in a doubleheader against Fairfield in Fairfield, CT at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The match-up will be the final opportunity for Central to prepare for conference competition as CCSU will open NEC play against Wagner on March 23.


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The First Jets-Giants Game
A look back to the first Jets-Giants game in 1969 with the broadcasters of the game.
From the WFUV Sports Archives
The first Giants-Jets game. August 17, 1969...Yale Bowl, New Haven, CT.
The Jets were coming off a Super Bowl victory and needed to prove their victory over Baltimore wasn't a fluke. The two teams and the two leagues did not like each other...and that's putting it nicely.
Back in 1997, WFUV's Connell McShane talked with Marty Glickman (Giants) and Merle Harmon (Jets), the broadcasters for that game. It started out as a discussion about the game and wound up with stories about the war between the leagues, the animosity between the Giants and Jets and how the two teams tweaked each other to create a rivalry.
It also was an education in how to conduct an interview for the young broadcaster.
Connell McShane - Anchor, Fox Business Network
One of the best interviews I have ever done in broadcasting was one in which I barely spoke. Marty Glickman and Merle Harmon joined me on One on One when I was a young broadcaster at WFUV. Both Marty and Merle were sports broadcasting legends and they had joined us to talk about the first game ever played between the Jets and the Giants. I started by asking a question of Marty. Then I asked one of Merle. And then something special happened. Merle started his answer about three minutes into the interview and ended by addressing a question to Marty directly. The next time I spoke was more than 10 minutes into the interview. I had gone more than seven minutes without speaking! Listen to the radio now and see if you ever hear a host refrain from speaking for seven minutes. That's an eternity in broadcasting.
If you like football history, this interview is worth listening to. Marty told a great story about how Giants fans used to go to Shea Stadium to watch the Jets in the old days because they couldn't get tickets to see the Giants. Knowing this, Giants owner Wellington Mara suggested Marty should encourage all Giant fans everywhere to start chanting "Let's go Giants" at a key moment in the game. Mara knew many of the fans at Shea were listening on the radio. Marty tried it and Shea Stadium was filled with chants of "Let's go Giants" during a Jets game!
We were lucky in our days at WFUV. Marty Glickman was our broadcasting coach and he worked with us every week. One of the many lessons he taught us was that the broadcast wasn't about us. "The game is the thing," he used to say. That day on the radio Marty and Merle were the thing and I'm glad I had the sense to shut up for a change and let them talk. It's a lesson I should probably re-teach myself when I'm cutting off our guests on Fox every 15 seconds. Of course, if the guests were Marty and Merle, it would be a whole lot easier.


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The Crew returns home this weekend to host FC Dallas in the Lamar Hunt Pioneer Cup on Saturday, May 12, at Crew Stadium. The Black & Gold has a chance to earn bragging rights in what is this year a one-game competition that is named after soccer pioneer, Crew Founder and FCD Investor-Operator Lamar Hunt.
Saturday's match will kick off at 7:30 p.m. and be televised live regionally in high definition on FOX Sports Ohio, with Dwight Burgess and Duncan Oughton calling all the action and Ashleigh Ignelzi reporting from the sidelines. The game can also be heard in English on News/Talk 610 WTVN and on-line at TheCrew.com, with Neil Sika and John Bluem on the call, and in Spanish on La Mega 103.1, with Carlos Cordova and Benny Pietrangelo behind the microphones.
FC Dallas (3-5-3, 12 pts.) enters the match after suffering back-to-back 2-0 losses against Colorado on May 6, and Seattle on Wednesday night (May 9). It is led by Panamanian international Blas Perez and U.S. National Team midfielder Brek Shea, who have scored a team-leading three goals each.
The Black & Gold (2-4-2, 8 pts.) looks to build upon an exciting 0-0 draw earned at Portland last Saturday (May 5), in which goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum and center backs Eric Gehrig and Josh Williams shined to preserve the shutout.
Saturday's match will be the lone regular-season meeting of 2012 between the two teams who have an even record of 16-16-8. Last year, the first that the Pioneer Cup was a regular-season competition, Dallas and the Crew split a pair of games with the Black & Gold winning the first match 2-0 behind a penalty by Andres Mendoza and a left-footed strike by a beardless Eddie Gaven on April 1. FC Dallas claimed a 2-0 victory of its own at FC Dallas Stadium on July 2, behind goals by Shea and Jackson, and won the Pioneer Cup by virtue of the second tiebreaker, all-time goal differential, by a single goal (55-54).
One of the founding fathers of American sports, Lamar Hunt pioneered the rise of soccer in the United States. As one of the founding investors in Major League Soccer, Lamar Hunt was a visionary and catalyst for the inception, growth and success of MLS. His legacy in soccer in North America lives on in the two professional teams owned and operated by the Hunt family: the Columbus Crew and FC Dallas. In honor of Lamar Hunt, who was often referred to as a "Pioneer" in American sports, the Crew and FC Dallas launched the annual, regular season competitive tribute series known as the Lamar Hunt Pioneer Cup. A trophy is awarded to the winning team (image attached).
Next, the Crew embarks on a two-game west-coast road trip, to San Jose on Saturday, May 19, and Seattle on Wednesday, May 23, before returning home to host the Chicago Fire on Saturday, May 26, at 7 p.m. at Crew Stadium.
COLUMBUS CREW vs. FC Dallas
Saturday, May 12 – 7:30 p.m. (ET) – Crew Stadium
Regional Television: FOX Sports Ohio
Crew Radio: News/Talk 610 WTVN (English); La Mega 103.1 (Spanish)
Crew Webcast: TheCrew.com (English)
The Crew Soccer Academy U-15/16s and U-17/18s returned to action on Sunday (May 6), hosting the Indiana United Fire Academy at the Crew Training Center at Obetz. The 17/18s won their match, 2-0, behind goals from Alex Bumpus and David Witkoff. The 15/16s tied their counterparts, 1-1, with Andrew McKelvey scoring the game-tying goal for CSA. The CSA teams host FC Milwaukee this Saturday, May 12, and Sockers FC on Sunday, May 13, at the Crew Training Center at Obetz. The 17/18s will kick off at 1 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. on Sunday, followed by the 15/16s at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Crew Stadium will host America's premier rock festival, ROCK ON THE RANGE, next Friday through Sunday, May 18-20, for the sixth straight year. The world-famous festival will feature artists such as headliners Incubus and Rob Zombie, as well as Slash, Anthrax, Cypress Hill and Marilyn Manson. The ROTR celebration will start early on Friday night, May 18, with a four-band show at Crew Stadium, featuring performances from Hairball, Foxy Shazam, Black Tide and Hell's bells. Tickets for ROTR 2012 are still available at www.rockontherange.com <http://www.rockontherange.com/> and www.ticketmaster.com <http://www.ticketmaster.com/> , all local Ticketmaster outlets and the Crew Stadium Box Office.
International Irish rock band Flogging Molly will play a full concert at Crew Stadium following the Crew's match vs. the Chicago Fire on Saturday, May 26. Flogging Molly drummer George Schwindt and manager Gary Schwindt are Columbus natives, and have been Crew season-ticket holders for the last five years. All tickets to the Crew vs. Fire game will grant access to the concert. A very limited number of VIP Field Access tickets that will allow field access for the concert are available – starting at $34 for Upper Level tickets and $39 for Lower Level tickets – at TheCrew.com, Ticketmaster.com, the Crew Stadium Ticket Office, Ticketmaster Outlets or by phone at 1-800-745-3000.
News & Notes - May 10
The Crew returns home this weekend to host FC Dallas in the Lamar Hunt Pioneer Cup on Saturday, May 12, at Crew Stadium. The Black & Gold has a chance to earn bragging rights in what is this year a one-game competition that is named after soccer pioneer, Crew Founder and FCD Investor-Operator Lamar Hunt.


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Tonight, the nation paused to formally dedicate the names of 362 fallen law enforcement heroes, added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in 2012. Of the 362 names, 163 were officers killed in the line of duty during 2011 and 199 were names of officers previously undiscovered.
Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, and U.S. Attorney General, Eric H. Holder, Jr., delivered remarks. Attorney General Holder and Concerns of Police Survivors National President, Linda Moon Gregory, led the lighting of the candles.
Detective Brian Phillips, La Porte (IN) Police Department; Lieutenant Mavis Johnson, Baton Rouge (LA) Police Department; and Officer Bridget Sanchez, Miami-Dade (FL) Police Department, all performed moving musical tributes during the ceremony.
The national monument now contains the names of 19,660 fallen law enforcement officers—from all 50 states; the District of Columbia; U.S. territories; federal law enforcement, corrections, railroad and military police agencies—who have died in the performance of duty throughout U.S. history, dating back to the first known officer death in 1791.
Special thanks to Officer.com for providing a free webcast of tonight's services.


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I've read a lot of good reviews for the DragonFly USB DAC and would love to get my hands on one.
AudioQuest DragonFly USB Digital-Audio Converter and Sydney Interconnect Sweepstakes
According to AudioQuest:
Beautiful Sound ... From Any Computer: DragonFly is an affordable and easy-to-use device that delivers far superior sound by bypassing the poor quality sound card that is built into your computer. DragonFly is a sleek, flash drive sized Digital-Audio Converter that connects to a USB jack on a Mac or Windows PC, turning any computer into a true high- fidelity music source.
Whether you're on the go or at home, listening on ear buds or connecting your computer to a stereo system, DragonFly reveals all the emotional expression and nuance that makes your favorite music, or movies, so enjoyable. However you connect it, DragonFly simply and easily makes any computer sound better.
Plays All Music Files: MP3 to 24-bit/192kHz
Drives Headphones Directly
Variable Output Drives Powered Speakers or Power Amp
Fixed Output Feeds Preamp or Receiver
Asynchronous Transfer Ensures Digital Timing Integrity
Two Clocks Enable Native Resolution Up To 24-bit/96kHz
For this special sweepstakes, included with DragonFly is a low-distortion AudioQuest Sydney analog interconnect cable with a 3.5mm "mini" plug at the DragonFly end and stereo RCAs at the other end. From AQ's Bridges & Falls series, Sydney is all that's required to connect DragonFly to a full-blown audio rig just like a traditional DAC or disc player, or directly to a power amplifier. Sydney employs superior materials and design, including solid Perfect-Surface Copper+ conductors, air-tube insulation, and AudioQuest's 3-layer Noise-Dissipation System for low distortion and high performance.
Click here for more info from Audioquest.
To enter the sweepstakes, all you need is an account on this website. If you don't already have one, click on the link labeled "register" at the bottom of this announcement or "Create new account" in the right column (under the ads). Then, enter a username and a valid e-mail address, and click on the "Create new account" button. A message will be automatically sent to the e-mail address you specified, which will include a link to activate the account.
You can enter once on www.analogplanet.com, audiostream.com, hometheater.com, innerfidelity.com and/or stereophile.com. No more than one entry allowed per website.
The final step (and only step for those who already have an account) is to log in and leave a comment right here on this announcementany comment will do, as long as it's not profane or spam. Then, when the sweepstakes closes, a lucky commenter will be chosen at random to receive the prize. So post a comment, and good luck!
For complete sweepstakes rules, click here.
[This Sweepstakes is now closed.]
I've heard good things about it!
All I have to do is leave a comment, and I could win an Audioquest DragonFly USB Digital-Audio Converter and Sydney Interconnect (MSRP $478) you say? That would be awesome!
I wanted one dragonfly audio converter, but can't afford one...
And I do especially like the Dragonfly's color changes for different sample rates.
Thank you :D !
I would love to own and put to good use both these devices.
i haven't heared the dragonfly, but i won't mind winning it though
With DACs becoming more of a target for 'getting it right' it will be interesting to hear how this little unit fairs.
I am new to DACs and my dad is looking for one! Maybe i'll try this one out, due to it's apparent ease to use.
Love the blog! Long time reader. Saving my pennies for that blue hawaiian.
Well lets try my luck here. I'm sort of curious with the Audioquest product and on whether they're really good.
Nice! I want one of these. I've always been looking at the reviews for this DAC and its safe to say that i am very curious to know how it really compares with the other sub $1000 Dollar DACs I've owned and heard.
If the Audioquest Dragonbly has such a good DAC already, what's the point of an interconnect?
Just got my power back from the hurricane and I'm thinking this would be a nice device to have in the next hurricane/power outage!
This DAC would go great with Noontec Zoros
This would be perfect to use with my computer!
I have been looking at this DAC for awhile.
Please sign me up.
Thank you.
Just in the past year I've gotten some decent phones. I've been running the juice from my Macbook Pro via a mini-port to hdmi connection / Pioneer receiver. The sound is quite good, but I'd love to "up the quality". I've been curious about DACs and dedicated amps, but haven't tried any. This sounds promising. Thanks. I enjoy this site. :)
I could definitely use them there promotional products, yo'.
Looks great I could use one.
Beautiful device. Thank you for the sweepstakes.
Haven't read too many reviews on this but will look into it now.
This. Is. Gold. Thank you for the opportunity!
Aside from the volume control bug with Vista, this is a very good entry level DAC.
The versatility gained from the small form factor really makes this DAC/amp a standout.
Let's hope newer generations will come at a lower price point. You need to hit the $99 threshold to make this an impulse buy and really drive volume.
In the meantime, I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of these.
Got a Dragonfly a few weeks to use while traveling. Listen to KCSM FM Jazz on my MacBook Pro while on long flights (Go-Go Wi-Fi, Shure 535 IEMs), to listen to my iTunes library and to use my Mac with a Foxl speaker in hotel rooms. The Dragonfly makes a huge difference in the audio quality from my Mac. Now I would like a Dragonfly to keep on my home system. I know, I'm greedy, but I would still like two. This is an amazing product!
Got a Dragonfly a few weeks to use while traveling. Listen to KCSM FM Jazz on my MacBook Pro while on long flights (Go-Go Wi-Fi, Shure 535 IEMs), to listen to my iTunes library and to use my Mac with a Foxl speaker in hotel rooms. The Dragonfly makes a huge difference in the audio quality from my Mac. Now I would like a Dragonfly to keep on my home system. I know, I'm greedy, but I would still like two. This is an amazing product!
That Dragonfly is on the short list of DACs I've been considering for a while, and that a fine lookin' cable.
I'd love to get a chance to have one of these units, and the interconnects are just icing on the cake.
Thanks for this opportunity. I wish the device sounds as good as it looks.
This would be a nice beginning DAC for me.
Is this giveaway open to international readers?
You just made me create an account, so it better be.
Alright, how many entries will there be?
heard one and really liked it
Thank you for the contest and the great content!
Would love this little DAC. Just what im looking for.
Would be awesome with my music. Thanks!
Would like to hear one of these, in for an entry. :)
Mr. PITA here....Why Don't You Start Calling Me Gordon!!!
Really great site that I enjoy reading a lot!
Quick, toss me the sweepstakes prize!
Wow! I was saving up to buy dragonfly! Hopefully I win this!
I would love a Dragonfly.
This would be a good chance =)
This would be massively helpful for me. Instead of using a headphone out.. I could be using this!
Just so happens I'm looking for a new DAC...
I read a positive review of this on head-fi, so consider me entered.
I like the way this is designed, at least from a visual approach. Now if I could get my hands on one (hmm... haha) then I guess I'd be able to review personally how I like it. I could compare it to my Music Streamer II+ and Emotiva XPA DACs. Very interesting though, and thanks for the chance to try this out!
Really excited to get my hands on a DragonFly, one way or another!
Anything that helps with the monetary strain this ridiculous hobby requires I openly welcome and shamelessly pursue. Only a brief year ago I could not fathom spending as much time as I now do scouring the internet in search of better treble extension with an airy soundstage presenting more accurate instrument separation in a headphone costing 75% the cost of the laptop I was researching it on. How the times have changed.
.. look absolutely fantastic injected to the side of my Lenovo laptop! Also it would properly make my headphones sound significantly better as well! I can haz?
This sweepstake is only open for residents of the US...
/sad Canadian =(
Since I'am from Russia.. I'd rather know an honest Tyll's opinion about Dragonfly...
My sound card is ancient and I could certaintly use an upgrade. Please sign me up.
Thank you for the chance
It would be amazing to get one of these as I have been looking for a DAC! Thanks for the sweepstakes!
This looks so sweet..In need of a good dac to feed my Crack.Give it to me already :P
I've read many reviews for DACs based on es9023 from ESS Tech and also auditioned ODAC myself. The sound is very good with plenty of details and awesome resolution. I would say a budget heaven. Would be nice to have such a small DAC/Amplifier combo for portable listening.
Great website, great sweepstakes, would love to win the Dragonfly DAC!
Nice to see an add-on that not only improves the sound but actually adds functionality. Makes the Dragonfly an excellent option as a stand-alone DAC.
I would love to win this item. Here's to wishful thinking! Good luck everyone.
great promo!!! all i need now is a good luck kiss!
Would love to compare the dragonfly to my 4 other dacs.
This lil' FLY looks so sweet and probably sound even more so.
I'm not satisfied with the Fiio E10, i'd love one too
I have a lot of AudioQuest products, mostly cables. Would love to try this one some time.
I've been eyeing the Dragonfly for sometime. I'll donate my Headroom Totalbit Head if I win it. Sorry Tyll ;)
much easier to setup than a on-board card and hopefully better SQ.
Sounds like a great item. I'm in! Thanks so much.
pendulum is my favorite band in the world.
I have a cow-orker with one of these, and it sounds pretty great on the occasions I've played with it. I'd love to get one for myself.
This would be my first outboard DAC, I have always depended on the computer to do the processing. Please allow me to benefit from a much better DAC.
Thank you, Brad.
Beautiful!!! Wow I really want this!!!!!!
What can I say? This thing's been getting some pretty amazing reviews, especially for something as smal as a flash drive. I'd love to get one.
Hmm...what's the chance of me winning
Sounds great. As I just gave my DAC away when moving overseas I'll gladly use this baby.
Keeping my fingers crossed, but not my cables.
More and More i find myself sitting in front of linux machines and
it sure would be nice if it works.
Thank you for this opportunity. Please count me in.
Would love to hear it. Thanks for offering this contest.
This would make my home computer setup sweeet!
I would be happy to give a dragonfly a loving home :)
Play my GBs worth of audio files with audiophile quality? Sign me up
This device would greatly enhance my system. Please pick me. Thank you!
Winning an AudioQuest DragonFly would be great! Enter me!
The Dragonfly is terrific with NFM's like the B&W MM-1's and with high quality headphones like the Sennheiser HD650's. The Sydneys would be great to connect the DF to a great desktop amp like my Decware CSP2+. Thanks for the opportunity!
I would love to listen to music from my PC with better sound quality!


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Spotted: Avril Lavigne and boyfriend Brody Jenner walking around NYC with friends yesterday, November 28. Their walk came after the punk-pop princess stopped by Live! with Kelly to perform a lovely acoustic rendition of "Wish You Were Here.' Like the parade performance, Avril censored the song's lyrics to be more suitable for daytime TV. (The "damn, damn, damns" became "yeah, yeah, yeahs.") But it didn't take away from the song's sentiments.
Later in the show, Avril was back to perform her single, "Smile." Both tracks are taken from her new album, Goodbye Lullaby, out now.
Check out Avril's performances on Live! with Kelly below:
Click here for more posts on Brody & Avril
credit - neonlimelight.com, tlfan
~Kelli at Hills Freak


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Serviços Personalizados
Links relacionados
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South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences
versão On-line ISSN 2222-3436
versão impressa ISSN 1015-8812
KOHLER, Marcel e SAVILLE, Adrian. Measuring the impact of trade finance on country trade flows: a South African perspective. S. Afr. j. econ. manag. sci. [online]. 2011, vol.14, n.4, pp.466-478. ISSN 2222-3436.
Trade finance (or short-term credit) plays a crucial role in facilitating international trade yet is particularly vulnerable to financial crises as banks increase the pricing on all trade finance transactions to cover increased funding costs and higher credit risks. Whereas South Africa's financial institutions largely managed to strengthen their capital positions during the global financial crisis, the country's trade flows and access to capital (in particular trade finance and its costs) were hard hit by the crisis. Little is known about the extent of shortages or 'gaps' in trade finance and the impact of this on South Africa's recent trade performance. Whilst our research recognises that access to trade finance is not the main cause of South Africa's trade contraction, our research suggests that all else equal, a one percentage point increase in the interbank lending rate of our trade partner could reduce exports by approximately ten per cent.
Palavras-chave : exports; trade finance; crisis.


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Florida officials urged residents and businesses Sunday to prepare for heavy rain leading to widespread flash floods this week along the entire width of the Panhandle, NBC News reported.
A low-pressure system was stalled over the northern Florida peninsula, fueling a chance of heavy showers and thunderstorms.
Flood watches were in effect Sunday night for the Florida Nature Coast and Big Bend all the way into Tuesday.
U.S. & World
The system is also forecast to drive temperatures up, with heat indexes predicted to hit 102 to 107 degrees across the state from Pensacola to Jacksonville.


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The day after Thanksgiving has been dubbed America's "cloggiest" day of the year.
Nov. 27 is also known as Black Friday, but don't feel bad for sleeping in -- retailers reportedly plan to keep the deals coming through the new year. If you do hit the mall today, remember these tips before your credit card bill rolls in.
- Get there early if you want to snag Zhu Zhu Pet, the battery-powered hamster. "There are two pieces of Black Friday mythology…that stand up to scrutiny," Alyssa Demirjian blogs for BookofOdds. "The first is shoppers' eagerness to get the best bargains—or at least the best parking spaces—by showing up early: One in 1.75 (57%) shoppers will leave the house before 7 a.m. to get a jump on Black Friday sales. The second is that among those who shop, the clamor for the hottest items can be fierce."So, what's a myth? Not everyone shops on Black Friday, Demirjian writes. Odds are closer to 1 in 8.33.
- If you're the planning type, here are two sites to check out: PCMag aggregates the six best Black Friday Web Sites; Black Friday Ads lays claim to being that rare Internet phenomenon: a shameless click-ad site that's actually useful.
- Don't be fooled by cheap TVs, HD Guru writes. Walmart's 32" Emerson HDTV seems like a bargain at $248. But once your 90 days labor/1 year parts warranty runs out you could on the hook for $150 to $250 in repairs should it break. HD Guru also recommends passing on unnecessarily pricey HDMI cables.
- Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams caught up with the author of "Scroogenomics" who recommends only buying gifts for BFFs. Otherwise, it's an unsatisfying experience. "Normally if I spend $50 on myself it's for something worth at least $50 to me. If I spend $50 on you, and I don't know what you like or already have, I could buy something that's worth nothing for you. That's a loss. The average difference in gift satisfaction between the giver and recipient is about 20 percent." Is your head spinning?
- Slate's Farhead Manjoo sums up the negator's perspective: Black Friday is for suckers. "The biggest worry on Black Friday is that you'll buy stuff you don't need," he writes. "For retailers, that's the entire point of Black Friday—they're hoping that, in your quest for bargains, you'll buy an electric toothbrush or radio-controlled rubber rat just because it's on sale." For the record, Manjoo recommends avoiding E-book readers, netbooks, and cheap inkjet printers. No deals there.


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Darden 101: What business schools really do
By Ron Wilcox
To believe the common narrative of what happens in business schools you have to imagine professors teaching such courses as "How to Steal from Widows" and "Exploiting Loopholes in Financial Regulation: Advanced Readings." You have to believe that business schools are at best morally ambivalent and probably something less, a university's grudging genuflection to the lucrative realities of wealthy alumni. Their imperious alumni lurk in the halls of the great universities and are the puppeteers of the administration. Their latest victim was Teresa Sullivan.
This is an ignorant view, detached from the realities of modern graduate business schools.
Graduate business schools share some of the blame for this ignorance. In an understandable but short-sighted rush to insulate their relative prosperity from the rest of the university, they have built up barriers— physical, financial, and intellectual— from their parent institutions. This is understandable because having fewer barriers entails risk. Allow the greater university to access your wealth and you may soon have a mediocre business school, unable to pay competitive salaries to professors and scholarships to promising students. But the costs are high as well: your better business school becomes detached from the broader conversation about what practically-grounded academics offers the world.
The faculties of modern graduate business schools are on the leading edge of practical issues in economics, psychology, and even philosophy. Where many disciplines have retreated to speaking only to other academics, business schools have no such luxury. Their faculty has to face real-world businesses, institutions, and people that make economic decisions. Failure to do so risks the swift discipline of the market and the public rebuke of their alumni. This constantly-uncomfortable balancing act between the demands of the academy and that of the business world produces research of uncommon importance.
The research emerging from leading graduate business schools is in many substantive areas superior to that of any other academic discipline. In a world where complex group interactions mean the difference not only between profitability and bankruptcy, but also war and peace, research from business schools dominates.
A cursory review of the research my Darden colleagues are doing includes how authoritative management structures affect moral decision making, why foreign companies come to the United States to raise capital, and how to incentivize greater basic research at companies. This summer, I'll be researching whether excessive student loan debt causes students to spend carelessly in other parts of their lives. Call me biased, but I see social good rather than evil here.
And if you think that the senior executives of America's most powerful companies don't contemplate these larger social issues, you are wrong. Including my academic colleagues both within and outside Darden, some of the most voraciously well-read and intellectually curious people I've ever met are senior business (and military) leaders. They did not assume the leadership of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people by accident.
If there is one characteristic that defines students who enroll in the much-maligned elite MBA programs is that they are, almost to a person, intent on changing things. The average student is not a greed-crazed master-of-the-universe type. There are a few Gordon Gekkos, but they are the distinct minority. More likely are students who, say, studied engineering, became engineers, and then gradually came to the realization that they had some natural leadership skills that were not being used by their current employers. These students gambled on themselves, quit their jobs, and went back to school. They are motivated pragmatists, less inclined to start the next protest about local housing conditions, but more inclined to fix someone's house.
In his latest book, The Righteous Mind, the University's own Jonathan Haidt explores the primitives of why human beings gravitate toward demonizing anyone who disagrees with them. Facts be damned, extravagant caricatures of our perceived enemy are more natural for people. President Sullivan's removal is deeply hurtful and disorienting. Although The Darden School played no role whatsoever in her ouster, some of its alumni were involved in the decision. The School has become that demon that our minds all too readily create.
The fact that Darden School alumni were involved in this decision should come as no newsworthy surprise: university boards are generally peopled by loyal alumni who contribute large sums to the university and to the political campaigns of governors who, in turn, appoint them to the governing board of a university. Wealthy business people are more likely to make those financial commitments. This has been the case for many years, and we have all tacitly bought into that system. If we now find this state of affairs distasteful, the proper recourse is at the steps of the Governor's mansion, not the steps of the graduate school that some board members attended.
History will judge the wisdom of the Board of Visitors' decision. But that doesn't stop many from seeking an enemy immediately, facts be damned.
Ron Wilcox is a Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia.Read more on: darden
76 comments
Whole lotta truth to that.
Let the spin begin.
Translated plainly:
"Me like Darden. Darden signs my paycheck. Stop picking on us."
This, from a professor who specializes is marketing and branding.
Oh, and whose "facts" are these?
"Although The Darden School played no role whatsoever in her ouster, some of its alumni were involved in the decision. The School has become that demon that our minds all too readily create."
This, Ron, is a statement of your opinion based only on information that is only accurate to the best of your knowledge. The confidence of your assertion hinges entirely on what you are not privvy to, which is almost certainly a lot as this story continues to unravel.
The fact is, the Darden alumni are a product of the Darden School. Dragas learned her Draconian management style from Darden faculty. Sure, her natural inclination toward underhandedness played a roll, but the tools she needed to engineer this mess were taught to her at Darden.
Students enroll at Darden not to become leaders -- such a grand notion! -- so much as to increase their earning opportunities -- tremendously so. They want to make a lot of money, which is reflected in their eyes and in the opulent spaces on the Darden campus.
History also shows us that Darden provides the skills that, when placed in the hands of megalomaniacal sociopaths, only lead to the meltdown of financial markets, upside-down real estate markets and, occasionally, the treacherous and coerced removal of a true leader in furtherance of political, financial and personal ambition. I speak of Sullivan's ouster, of course.
To grandstand about the nobility of business or a business school in a world already weary of the well-known havoc created by MBA people is specious, at best. At worst, your fleeting observations in print and on this website are just a cynical marketing effort to restore some semblance of credibility to Darden's seriously diminished brand.
I do not begrudge you the effort; I merely laugh at your heavy-handed deployment of obvious marketing techniques.
Here are questions for your consideration:
When the dust finally settles, will Darden's development office stop going after Kiernan, Kington, Dragas, et. al., for donations to the school?
Will the alumni affairs office stop ordering plaques and honoraria engraved with these people's names in order to commemmorate their achievements?
Ron, a School or a University is not a collection of buildings, ideas or even beliefs. It is the people who live and breathe within the boundaries of that School. To separate the school from the alumni, or to distance the institution from the people who benefitted from its teachings, is just a classic diversionary tactic.
Give Bob Bruner my regards when you two decamp to discuss this latest strategem in damage control.
Thus far, your spin does not convince.
While it's nice to see this balanced presentation, this is more of a spin-piece - opinion - than an intro to Business 101. It would be more interesting - and more persuasive, if the author had:
- explained what courses MBAs actually take.
- what fields they go into - the general impression is that the vast majority study and then go into "finance" which is a nice word for Gordon Gekko rent-seeking.
- where the faculty who do this 'research' get their training. For example, I'm a fan of Dan Arielly, who does interesting research in psychology and economics (the type of things the author mentions) first while at Sloan (MIT's business school) and now at Fuqua (Duke's business school), but was really trained in Liberal Arts: philosophy, psychology, physics and math. His original PhD is in Psychology, not business.
I certainly don't refute the author's premise that MBAs are inherently evil or rapacious - it's a silly canard to demonize people, I agree.
However, just because it is generally true that the most successful people in business (like the rest of society) are intellectually curious, this does not imply that business or business schools uniquely attract the intellectually curious, nor does it imply business rewards intellectual curiousity.
The stereotype of finance MBAs exists for a reason; and indeed, no character flaws need be attritubuted to explain the stereotype. They are doing what they are trained to do.
You left out something else: business administration, as a major, was the first modern university major that did not require any ethics courses. That has, thankfully, changed, but the damage was done -- large numbers of business leaders from the previous generation had simply never taken an ethics course, and their behavior reflected that. There are still plenty of people who fail to distinguish between what is legal and what is moral.
Business School is a worthy enterprise for those interested in money and management. But let's be honest, despite the adornments of architecture, salary, and alumni contributions, Darden and other b-schools are little more than trade schools. Schools like UVa and UPenn with codes of Honor should distance themselves from these institutions that forsake ethics for institutional profitability.
I'm sure there are good people at Darden, but this sort of spin does not make up for the majority of "product" the school produces. Darden is not a positive example of UVa' code of Honor.
True enough, not all MBA's are evil. But let's be honest, most MBAs are not gained in order to make the world a warm, fuzzy place...
Darden has some very important ethics faculty on yonder hill. It would be very interesting to hear their view on all this. Wouldn't stakeholder theory suggest that not all interested parties were properly accounted for in this decision by Darden alums? Maybe they didn't take those courses?
Based on what's been made public, this all looks like nothing more than means-to-end machination. And despite the "greater good" pointed to by Dragas et al., such thinking and acting seems to fly in the face of the kind of ethics taught at Darden.
Thank you Ron - This is probably the first reasonable article written in the Hook over the past two weeks.
@pfft - take your crazy rants, conspiracies, and stereotypes elsewhere. any decent point you are trying to make is clearly undermined by your extreme rhetoric. you are obviously extremely bitter about something, take a deep breathe.
FYI, the Darden School was the FIRST business school in the country to make business ethics a required course for first year students. There are still some schools that don't offer ethics at all.
@ TheDude: Really, little fella, is that your best jab?
I obviously cut you close to the bone for you to get your undies all in a twist. You have never, not once, offered any intelligent rebuttal of anyone you disagree with. Instead, your simple mind switches into silly name calling. Anyone you disagree with is crazy, conspiratorial, stereotyping, ad nauseuam. Troll.
Methinks you've been swilling too many White Russians, which have addled your feeble mind.
Time will tell who is right. If I am wrong or in any way inaccurate in the way I represent this situation, I will apologize. But I know first-hand of what I describe.
Are you man enough to do the same? Are you a man at all, little dude? Go ahead: peck all day on your mom's computer keyboard. I've got work to do.
What a puff piece. What needs to be changed is the composition of the Board. In my own SEC university the governor of the state is on the board. As are two members of the faculty (one voting and one not) and two members of the student body (one voting and one not) No billionaires, though. Thank God.
You actually fired the President of the University without a full meeting of the Board? How did that happen?
We always looked to Virginia as to what a school should be. Not so much now.
@ VA Girl:
Exactly! So, wouldn't it be nice if those faculty offered some insight that moved beyond a sweeping defense of business schools? The argument that MBA students are intrinsically laudable because "they are, almost to a person, intent on changing things" is not at all reassuring. Change, in and of itself, is not valuable. Although it appears that those pushing for this current overhaul seem to think the exact opposite. Change toward or away from what? How is that change to happen? We all understand that change can and often does include latent functions, yes?
Sure, non-academics can and probably should play a role in governing the school. But, should they be alone in that governance? How can that make any sense? The "business" of higher ed is the production of knowledge and the next generation of educated adults. If the "business" of higher ed. becomes of the production of profits, the other two will invariably suffer.
If what we've seen so far is the demonstration of a Mastery of Business Administration, the business is not in good hands.
Darden Business 101 Screw your customers, screw your employees, screw the tax man, reward yuorself with perks calling it "overhead", game the numbers to keep the stockholders fooled, do a strategic bankruptsy, repeat.
If you look at succesful small and medium sized busineses where the customers and employees are both happy and the owners are making a tidy profit you will seldom find an MBA at the head of it. You will also notice that they have small advertising budgets because they often have in common the old adage "if you build a better mousetrap people will beat a path to your door"
Darden is for people who are interested in making money through leveraging and manipulation of the marketplace. It teaches ways to (legally if not ethically) steal market share. It would for instance encourage someone to open a giant bodyshop in the area and cut deals with all the insurance companies at the expense of a dozen smaller ones who were quite content to share the their respective pieces of the pie. While that IS a way to make money, it is still not really "earning it, because at the end of the day(year) you simply have a lot of unhappy customers because of the lower quality impersonal service, unhappy employees because of the impersonal working envrionment and usually lower wages, and the "benificiaries" are the passive investors, the insurance companies because they cut a deal (and kept the savings for themselves), and the Darden MBA who was able to make a buttload of money doing the deal.
While we need extremely intelligent people to negotiate the very complex world of global finance where billions can be won or lost in a matter of hours, that is only a potion of what Darden teaches. Mostly it is about how to make money without really earning it. They may teach ethics, but it is sort of like an atheist reading the Bible... not for the conversion, but for the knowledge of what others are doing so you can work around it.
There is nothing wrong wih making money but the belief that outmanuvering someone else with other peoples money at the expense of human beings is "earning" it is a misnomer. Mostly it is a sad reflection and compensation for having very little else to offer the world.
That is why we occasionally see MBAs give it alll up to paint, but painters seldom give up their artistry to go and play the stock market.
Darden is nessasary, and I am actually OK with them having some fiduciary input into how UVA can deliver the best bang for the buck, but they need to be watched as the foxes should never have the keys to the henhouse.
"They (Darden) may teach ethics, but it is sort of like an atheist reading the Bible... not for the conversion, but for the knowledge of what others are doing so you (Darden MBAs) can work around it."
short sales (profiting from others' misery - sometimes misery you create yourself to then short the company) ask someone from Goldman how to do it. You too can be a hedge fund manager.
@theDude--I think you meant to end your rebuttal with "breath," not the verb "breathe." Also, the first word of a sentence should begin with a capital letter. I think some old, jaded, ultra-liberal, underpaid academic of the classics taught me that useless stuff.
Now, for the important stuff...
R.I.P.: Rodney Glen King--a fine man, yet a complex one!
Libralace is growing on me.
The idea that wealthy alumni have influence in the business school is pragmatic but incomplete. The most influential should be the most prosperous, who were also well-respected for their integrity. This does not include those who made big money by selling paper with obscure trap doors built in.
mike --
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Short positions are not intrinsically evil, and can play an important role in mitigating risks. It is not just a matter of profiting from someone's misery.
That's why ethics need to be taught and why ethics courses in general should be required in all business schools. Short positions can be used in productive ways, or they can be used in destructive ways. The ethical question that businessmen need to ask is whether their profit was productive or destructive, regardless of the strategy they use.
Fifty years ago Dwight Eisenhower warned the country about the "unwarranted influence" of the military-industrial complex, whether "sought or unsought". But the Darden school dean is unaware of the likelihood of unwarranted influence of billionaire giving on a university? As long as the ego-maniacally named sports stadia and "meditation centers" keeping popping up like crabgrass all will be well?
You really need to change the composition of the board and the way it is conducted. Getting rid of Dragas will not really solve anything; there will always be someone like her waiting for an opportunity.
Right now Virginia has a governor who is loathe to cross these same billionaire donors and apparently hopes the firestorm will just go away. Just pathetic.
The notion that taking an ethics course will make you ethical is pretty funny. Not that it hurts. People learn their ethics from their mums & dads.
Yeah, and people who spent their college and post-college years taking courses that teach them the importance of profit and how to develop profitable strategies may forget what their parents taught them about morals and ethics. If we do nothing but train people to be ruthless businessmen, no amount of good parenting will keep those people within ethical boundaries.
As someone who grew up in Charlottesville, went to UVa undergrad with an Anthropology and Finance double major, is currently in a fulltime MBA program from Darden, has sat on the Piedmont Council for the Arts board, and has founded and owned several small businesses in Charlottesville for 5 years, I am a little disturbed by the community's accusations and assumptions about Darden.
The idea that business people are "greedy little bastards trying to do each other in" is not true, despite what fallacies you want to create. Every product or service you consume, buy or interact with in Charlottesville has some "business person" behind it. Does that mean that they are all evil and only profit motivated? No, they all have a set of skills they use to bring products and services to Charlottesville. Some are self-taught and some have formal MBA educations. A lot of the places you frequent are Darden MBAs doing good things for Charlottesville and our community.
We have classes devoted to using business principals to solve the world's problems. Ever heard of Husk Power Systems, Footprint Free, One2One? They are all companies founded by Darden MBAs with the idea to change the world. As one example of charity work, Darden students run an April building project for the Building Goodness Foundation that builds 10 to 15 houses every year for people in need in our community.
Darden creates better leaders because it gives you the tools to be a leader and apply skills and principals to everything from non-profits to the finance world. Whether or not you choose to use those skills to better the world and/or to accumulate wealth is your choice. I have yet to meet the archetypical evil MBA at Darden, and maybe if those accusers were to meet MBAs, they wouldn't create images. Trying to blame the BOV's actions on a Darden MBA education fails to holistically understand the situation. Darden doesn't attract unethical people. That doesn't excuse the BOV, but placing blame on Darden isn't justified.
The irony of the whole situation is that higher education is broken and needs to rely on high profile alumni donations and other non-traditional academic type things to sustain itself, but that's a conversation for another day.
So according to Ron Wilcox... Darden gets to take credit for its grads' good deeds, but their misdeeds are a reflection on the grads themselves only? Interesting.
For VA Girl.
it does not follow that because
" the Darden School was the FIRST business school in the country to make business ethics a required course for first year students." the students learned anything. The evidence that some of them did NOT has been presented to us all too forcibly during the last week. Perhaps Darden should offer a course in logic. On the subject of honour and nobility, and on knowing right from wrong, please see Mr. Gilliam's comment.
That makes to much sense Kyle. Anyone who makes money other than teaching one class a semester and having to 'drag' themselves in a few times a week is a robber baron.
Keep up man.
You don't need an MBA to start, manage or lead a business; you just need an MBA to run it into the ground.
MBAs are trained to extract value from other people's work and innovations. MBAs do not create value; they squeeze it out of companies that already have value. MBAs try to identify efficiencies that are predicated on the notion that people are tools to be used and disposed of. MBAs are educated to take financial instruments and turn them into puzzle boxes, then package then into tranches and resell to other companies, ad infinitum, to mitigate the risk of what was already a bad business deal (housing crisis, anyone?).
MBAs create nothing. They go into a business, identify weaknesses, alienate everyone associated with the business, wring out the last nickle of profit and sell whatever is left. They do this with slick fast-talk packaged with alpha-bitch personalities that charge forward without any other consideration than extracting value in anything they touch.
MBAs, in sum, are bipedal locusts.
Oops, sorry for the typos. I sent my assistant out to Whole Foods for some couscous and sushi.
R.I.P.: Some old Yoga maharashi somewhere
Kyle Redinger: "I am a little disturbed by the community's accusations and assumptions about Darden."
And I am a little disturbed by the potential for injury in the typical Crossfit workout and the fact that a one-day seminar is the only qualification necessary to be a Crossfit instructor. Apparently a person can make good money running a no-frills workout facility out of a garage, but if that is what passes for your idea of "doing good things for Charlottesville and our community", I think I'll take your little speech with a grain of salt.
Not that it is partcularly relevant, but Paul Tudor Jones is not a Darden grad. He is a grad of the College. He did not go to business school. Sorry Liberalace.
@Da Troof - that is not at all what Ron is saying. The point is that everyone on this board is ONLY talking negatively about Darden and ignoring all the good that Darden grads do. Even worse, they are taking one mistake by a Darden grad and making sweeping generalizations about not only all Darden grads, but all MBAs. This line of logic is essentially akin to saying that all UVA students must be murders (or capable of) because George Huegley went to UVA and was a murderer. You can't logically make assumptions about entire institutions or groups of people based on the actions of one (or a few).
And now people are actually attacking Darden because they DO teach an ethics course? Would you rather them not?
Well said Kyle.
@liberalace. The article you are referring to is "Did Greenwich Tycoon Take Down a Major University President." http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Did-Greenwich-tycoons-take-dow... is not in the title --- why? Because he is not a Darden alum. Get for facts straight liberalace.
@habi, could you help me with some research ? Was Paul Tudor Jones in the Commerce School with Carl Zeithaml as this implies :
McIntire School of Commerce Faculty
Robert I. Webb, B.B.A., M.B.A., Ph.D., Paul Tudor Jones II Research Professor. William J. Wilhelm, Jr., B.B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Carl P. Zeithaml, B.A., M.B.A., D.B.A., ...
No. Ptj graduated from a&s. The Ptj professor is a chair he endowed. He has never been on the faculty.
Classic synecdoche. Because Dragas went to Darden, doesn't mean this is all of Darden's fault. Dragas and Kington got rid of Sullivan because she didn't fall in line with their quest to get more money for the school by adding online education. That's it. Yes, there are some greedy people that have gone or go to Darden, but they were like that already. Now they're just more educated.
Hardly matters that Darden as an institution or Darden's faculty, students and alumni are involved in Theresa Sullivan's undoing, and the somewhat indifferent attitude of Helen and her BOV associates. Maybe it is a Darden thing, and maybe not. But I doubt that Darden, or something like Darden, was a necessary pre-condition for what occurred. Which is to say that Helen would have been predisposed to her evident megalomania whether she went to business school or divinity school. That she had support from Darden people is irrelevant; if there were no Darden, the outcome would have been the same. Owing to what I see on the Dragas web site, too many years of exposure to people who behave like Helen, and her very evident lack of character and depth, I think Helen acts the way she does simply because she enjoys it. She is the perfect figurehead for her board. She does what the other board members are afraid to do, which says little about the constituency she represents.
Noe of this will be explained, understood, or resolved by beating up on business schools. But darn, doesn't it FEEL good?
Paul Tudor Jones has endoed a chair there just like he's also endowed one in the Environmental Sciences department. He may guest lecture on trading or investment management style every once in a while but that really has nothing at all to do with the issues we're facing. I know he has participated in investment forums they've offered to the public in the past. He didn't attend Mcintire. He was an Econ major.
thanks habi
I don't know if this has been covered in posts already and if so, sorry for the redundancy but do the BOV members sign any docs about their responsibilities as BOV's and/or do they take/sign any kind of oath re:fulfilling their duties as a member of the BOV? Exactly what is the process for those becoming members of the BOV once they've been (or prior to for that matter) appointed (in addition to understood financial contributions).
An amusing Facebook site titled "Fire Helen Dragas" is attracting quite a following.
It seems for every article her PR team "plants" in the media, a dozen blogs and social media sites spring up to counteract the effects of any pro-Dragas PR.
Resistance is futile, Helen. Go away. Crawl back under one of your ramshackle condominums.
We are more tenacious than your wildest egomaniacal aspirations. We will overrun you.
And you will be defeated.
There's no longer an opportunity for you to resign with dignity. Now its simply a matter of eliminating any opportunity you will ever have to run for public office or show your face without attracting a crowd of angry people.
You are a laughingstock.
I like da crossfit games on ESPN
Crossfit's one size fits all mantra does major diservice to alot of people.
Don't forget Kyle also did "good things for Charlottesville and our community" by starting an online gossip site. See this Hook archives for more on its demise. I can't wait to see what Darden does with raw talent like that!
That page extends an invitation to "read some of our favorite posts." Classy!
French A Hole with Principal
Speculations about Goth Kids
Miller's on a Downward Spiral?
Racist Rant
Snooty Bartenders
What happens when you spend time in Charlottesville?
I get that there is a substantial antibusiness sentiment in Charlottesville and elsewhere, so no amount of explanation from the "enemy" will receive thoughtful consideration from that crowd. What I find troubling is the belittling, anti-intellectual responses from many of the posters above. I hope to heaven those posters are not faculty at UVa.
If they are, the recent BoV blunder has brought to light additional serious issues at UVa. These boards are starting to resemble the corrosive, class warfare being fomented on the national stage. Maybe that divide was already infecting the school, but so far in my many interactions with UVa, such a sentiment has been hidden.
Go Hoos -- I haven't seen the oath, but I am aware that Visitors take one.
@TheDude: "that is not at all what Ron is saying."
That is certainly at least PART of what Ron is saying. Otherwise, how would YOU answer Pfft's questions:
"When the dust finally settles, will Darden's development office stop going after Kiernan, Kington, Dragas, et. al., for donations to the school?"
"Will the alumni affairs office stop ordering plaques and honoraria engraved with these people's names in order to commemmorate their achievements?"
I can't believe you are actually attacking another commenter for starting a gym and formerly running a local website. Ridiculous.
@ An Observer:
Perhaps you could learn to read. Nowhere is there expressed an "antibusiness" sentiment on this thread or elsewhere in Charlottesville. Most of the animosity you see on this issue has to do with the unassailable fact that a group of out-oftouch individuals took it upon themselves to orchestrate a coup against a popular univeristy leader.
These individuals circumvented the spirit of open meeting laws, dodged issues of quorum rules by meeting one-on-one, gave no warning to anyone with a vested interest in the issue -- and still remain silently definant in their refusal to justify any of their activities.
Put in the plainest terms possible, the University of Virginia is plagued by a group of elitists who through their every action are attempting to seize control of a public institution for their own purposes. And if they are not, then let them come forward to deny it and state their true objectives, which go against the wishes of the majority anyway.
How you come up with "antibusiness" is God's Own Private Mystery. You wouldn't happen to be a paid schill for that Dragas woman, now wouldja?
Pfft -- thanks for making my point for me.
@SRM: "I can't believe you are actually attacking another commenter for starting a gym and formerly running a local website. Ridiculous."
Correction. For opening a gym franchise that advocates arguably unhealthy (if not downright dangerous) workout practices, supervised by trainers with dubious credentials. And for acting as though we should all be thankful for it.
I don't give a rip about his website.
An Observer: You have no point to make. That's your problem.
"Pfft -- thanks for making my point for me."
So... paid schill then?
As someone who worked at Darden (over 10 years ago) I can tell you there are alum and students who do still have the "light in their eyes" and "ideals" of how the world should be and want to change things to benefit all - but they are few and far between.
As someone else pointed out, the training and education Darden gave Dragas was obviously used. Best yet, her high-end condos that have vinal flooring and laminate counter tops. (Sigh.)
And she is not the first graduate of Darden to be a villain. Way back when, there was one that was being sought by the FBI...
This said, there are all sorts of "institutions" which there are less than ethical beings, but at this time your alum, Dragas and those involved have blackened both of your eyes in the eyes of the world.
And for the record, I've known MBAs and PhDs who couldn't create a spreadsheet if their lives depended upon it.
Before the name calling gets too ridiculous, let's remember one thing: those involved made a point to suggest that being a Darden alum was enough of a credential to account for these actions. From Kiernan:
"And you should be comforted by the fact that both the Rector and Vice Rector, Helen Dragas and Mark Kington are Darden alums.
Trust me, Helen has things well in hand."
While it is unfair to indict all business-related people in this matter, it seems clear that there exists a perspective among those involved (and sadly, those observing) that somehow "business knows best." And more specifically, that a Darden education will cure all ills. Clearly, Dragas does not have things well in hand. Re: my previous post: how does this debacle demonstrate the mastery of anything? Perhaps a marketing/PR course would have been useful?
So, although I don't think there's anything particular about Darden or it's products that caused this, those behind it did/do seem to believe that as Darden products, they can do no wrong. This reflects badly on Darden, even if, as an institutions, it truly isn't blameworthy. Bad apples, and such. However and again, it'd be nice to see some folks at Darden distance themselves from this--and more than just a defense of business schools
"The first rule of Crossfit is, you do not talk about anything but Crossfit."
Like it or not top Darden leaders and top Darden donors have their fingerprints all over this - I think the Hook cover -Cabal Hall -is accurate and this is a class if cultures .
From RTD
Later that day, a forwarded email from Darden School of Business Dean Robert Bruner explaining Sullivan's resignation brings this comment from Kington to Dragas about the financially independent Darden School:
"Bob Bruner is at the top of his game – we are so fortunate to have him. As you said today Darden is a near and visible template for much of what we seek."
Sent from my iPhone
For the record; Kaine appointed Dragas to the BOV, big mistake and the present Governor appointed her as Rector, bigger mistake.
Meant - clash of cultures
She identified the problem, replacing the president was the solution. How does she do that? She flunks. BIG TIME. How did she get thru two years of case solutions with out some sensitivity training?
Wow. I have both an MBA and an ME.d and two degrees from UVA and I'm actually appalled at the missive presented. Not only is the defense of Darden not well written or argued, it really is devoid of that which the author doesn't know....that he doesn't know.I suggest those Dardenites hoping to quell the furor over the hubristic statement by Peter Kiernan about how the two BOV members have things under control because they hail from Darden (in so many words) might do well not to comment on events if you ONLY have a Darden MBA.
Remember, the reason Darden partners with Law, the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and Curry for joint degrees is because even the Darden administrators know that a Darden MBA does not confer knowledge and expertise in other subjects! If it did, none of these partnerships would have any value nor would they be necessary. To comment from only your Darden perspective without the value of studying higher education administration (or living it) is what Kington and Dragas did. Please don't continue to hurt Darden's reputation by continuing to comment in areas where you have no expertise, even in the ability to put forth a cogent argument for your limited perspectivec. It is only hurting Darden, and thus hurting the entire University. (If you don't believe me, read the volume of comments which I suspect will only get darker and more voluminous.) Don't make Darden's MBA become a slogan where a graduate becomes an expert on any subject simply because you stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night.
"Don't make Darden's MBA become a slogan where a graduate becomes an expert on any subject simply because you stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night."
Obviously, that expertise and training depends on whom the Darden grad is in bed with.
She identified the problem, replacing the president was the solution. How does she do that? She flunks. BIG TIME. How did she get thru two years of case solutions with out some sensitivity training?
DARDEN FLUNKS in this one incident and I hope no more.
Okay Pftt, you're starting to look like you have too much time on your hands. No job? Are you associated with the University? Did you go here? Are you just an out-of-towner that is interested in this subject? Are you a college student (UVA or otherwise) that just couldn't get an internship (do you need one)? Give us some perspective on why you're spending your entire afternoon commenting and responding on everyone's comments. I know I would be interested in your creds.
We could all learn from Terry Sullivan:
4:05 PM 6/21/12 http://ht.ly/bK7uq
Message from Teresa Sullivan:
To members of the University community:
Vigorous debate is one of the hallmarks of our university, and indeed of our nation. Freedom of speech is one of the great gifts ensured to us by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other Founders of the Republic.
Civility is also an important hallmark of our university. Our faculty and students distinguish themselves by their ability to make a reasoned argument without resort to crude, vulgar, or abusive language. I know that emotions are running high on Grounds, but there is no excuse for abusing anyone with whom you disagree. Let me say in particular that Carl Zeithaml has been an exemplary member of the University community, and he and his family in no way deserve abusive language. The Board of Visitors is made up of dedicated volunteers, and abusive behavior toward them or anyone else is destructive of our community's values.
The defacing of the Rotunda goes beyond free speech into vandalism. The Rotunda needs our careful attention to restore it, not to carry graffiti for any side in any debate.
Teresa A. Sullivan, President
"The fact is, the Darden alumni are a product of the Darden School. Dragas learned her Draconian management style from Darden faculty. Sure, her natural inclination toward underhandedness played a roll, but the tools she needed to engineer this mess were taught to her at Darden."
How Dragas has handled this situation from start to finish is antithetical to the teachings at Darden. As a current Darden cohort, I have been shocked by the lack of transparency, alignment, and perspective the Rector has displayed. The tools we are taught at Darden today are in NO way reflected in Dragas' behaviors.
There are bad apples in *every* bunch. One being in the Rector's seat. I have written several letters asking for her resignation, by the way. She has proven herself incapable of leadership.
Finally something superfluous I can grouse about. "Classic synecdoche"? Not exactly, though I see why you thought so.
And Dragas wanted to get rid of our classics department....
For those who've mention the importance of a business ethics course in an MBA program...
Taking an ethics course does not instill ethics, and attending a certain university does not instill honor. There may not be much hope if you're not an ethically sound or honorable person by the time you begin your undergrad studies, or graduate studies in your twenties or later. If you know otherwise, please teach me what constitutes ethical behavior?
I attended the Virginia Military Institute where "a cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do" and I currently serve "honorably" in the United States Army. Who's to say if I'm honorable?
Of course not all Darden MBAs are moneygrubbing sociopaths. But anti-MBA sentiment is running strong in this country after the tech bubble and the housing bubble and the concerted efforts by lobbyists for MBAs to thwart any efforts to meaningfully regulate their behavior so that it doesn't happen again. Seems to me that many MBAs, especially those on Wall Street, live in their own self-congratulatory, self-reinforcing bubble. News flash: there is more to life than the bottom line.
This is almost as much of a self-serving diatribe as Rector Helen's BS, which she released this afternoon.
When Liberal Arts degree teachers start charities/companies and are the CEOs, they usually hire MBAs as CFOs and C.O.Os such as my step sister's son (Charles Best) did with donorschoose charity. He hired an MBA in both.
As a current Darden executive MBA student I feel compelled to offer one opinion.
From reading previous posts, I both respect and am encouraged to see a variety of opinions and insights, something I believe Thomas Jefferson would approve of based on my study of who he was and the impact he has had as a leader.
I don't believe Professor Wilcox is trying to steer the current situation away from Darden, nor put a positive spin on what is occurring. More so I believe he offers a credible opinion based on his knowledge gained from being inside the institution. And I applaud him for sharing his views with others, and to go on record with his insights.
I don't know the true motivations of Rector Dragas, and with the information available at this point to me, I know I would have pursued a different approach. As a leader in the military I have had to make difficult decisions. The highpoint being when I lead a command that grew to be close to 6,000 in Afghanistan, and those decisions were not about profit and loss, but about lives. Not everyone agreed with the decisions I made, some were unpopular – but every day to the best of my ability I made the best decisions I could and always gave opportunity from inputs from my organization and its leaders.
Having served my country for 26 years, and having the opportunity to earn two graduate degrees along the way – I chose Darden and UVA because of what they stand for and their core values. In just over a year, I was not wrong. The environment I am a part of challenges me, has helped me develop additional skills, and truly has been a learning lab of where my cohort and I can grow. Not once have I felt that we are being groomed to only think about the bottom line, or profit at all costs, or to pay lip service to ethics – no just the opposite. Of all the leadership training and development I have experienced in my military service, my experience at Darden is without peer. We are not being educated to become something specific, but we are increasing our knowledge to greater enable us for the future.
I believe the Darden community is a large family that includes past and present members. And at times family members make mistakes, or err in their decisions. It is at these moments that leaders step forward, and acknowledge those mistakes and we learn from them – and then move forward. What is happening at UVA today (different bodies and groups offering their opinions and support and being heard) – is exactly that, a family expressing its opinions and being heard.
I have heard that some, maybe many, maybe a few, were happy when Sullivan was asked to leave, even if they can agree the way it was done was sloppy .
That they believe Sullivan had serious problems and wasn't making changes fast enough. Could someone from Darden tell me specifically what changes were not occurring fast enough, what was Sullivan not doing that she should have been doing in the 2 years since she came.. We need to hear some specifics. Maybe we could agree if we knew what you think the problem was.
Dragas has put out her 10 points, but they are not specific and are quite abstract and what actions should Sullivan have been taking ?
Thank you for attempting to answer my question, I will listen carefully. I wish this essay had addressed the Sullivan question not business school in general. Perhaps someone could submit such an essay to the Hook.
I think Mr. Wilcox needs to focus less on defending Darden and try to figure out how they can learn from this mess and what Darden's responsibility is for the current sorry state of corporate ethics and behavior.
Darden Class of 1976
Tear the Darden down and sow salt over the grass!


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Although the reasons for having sex of any kind are varied and complex, reaching orgasm is usually the goal. Because we're all so different, coming up with a universal description of an orgasm is impossible. The one thing that most people can agree on is that it's an incredibly, intensely pleasurable experience.
So what is it? When in doubt, go to the dictionary. The Oxford English Dictonary defines an orgasm as "a sudden movement, spasm, contraction, or convulsion [...] a surge of sexual excitement." Merriam-Webster gets more descriptive, stating that it's "an explosive discharge of neuromuscular tensions at the height of sexual arousal that is usually accompanied by the ejaculation of semen in the male and by vaginal contractions in the female." The famous sex researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey once said that an orgasm "can be likened to the crescendo, climax, and sudden stillness achieved by an orchestra of human emotions ... an explosion of tensions, and to sneezing" [source: Geddes].
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To bring you up to speed, Colin Wyers tried to set the record straight on parallax as it relates to the strike zone and TV broadcasts. He made the fair point that camera angles and zoom are deceiving; the most reliable arbiter of ball/strike calls might just be the home plate umpire. Though I, for one, welcome our new PITCHf/x overlords. Anyway, a controversial call to Lance Berkman in Game 2 of the ALDS might have been a fair one after all.
But MGL was having none of that.
I say poppycock! I claim I can call most pitches almost as well as the pitch f/x graphics you see on TV. How can I do that even with all those camera problems that Colin talks about? Well, when you watch thousand [sic] of games and you get feedback from umpires, batters, pitchers, AND, most importantly, the "pitchtrax" graphics on TV over the last 5 or 10 years, you somehow mentally can make all the necessary adjustments, the same way that a batter can figure out whether a pitch is going to be a ball or strike (Jeff Francouer and Pablo Sandoval excepted of course) in less than 1/2 a second. In other words, for every pitch you see, you have seen that same pitch in the same visual location hundreds of times, and you have also seen what the umpire calls it, the reaction of the players, and many times, the exact location according to the TV strike zone graphic. You can reach into your memory bank, and call the pitch pretty much as well as the average umpire, the average player, the pitchtrax graphic, etc.
Bully for poppycock, but MGL was basically saying, "Screw your science and computers. I know what I'm doing." This argument by experience–without a whiff of evidence–just reeks of the mythical old-school Baseball Man.
Fortunately, Mike Fast was there to call out MGL.
MGL and Dave [Smyth], it's easy for you guys to claim that when you don't have to offer any proof. I'm extremely skeptical of your claims.
Put another way, what percentage of pitches do you call correctly, and how did you determine that?
And after some MGL flimflammery,
This thread is is [sic] pointless. It's just like all of MGL's favorite announcers and managers.
Kind of a non-sequitur, but still, that's got to sting. And it did, as MGL replied,
Thanks Mike. That is a real nice thing to say…
If you can't take the heat, don't make a summary judgment in a thread on The The Book–Playing the Percentages in Baseball Blog.


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Having a song with the title "Uptown Vibes" on his album definitely implied that Meek had been spending quite a bit of time in NYC during the recording of "Championships". Confirming to Angie that he spent about 4 months recording here saying that New York had a huge influence on his album as there are quite a bit of artists from the city featured on it such as Melli, Fabolous, Cardi B, and Jay-Z. Hov's verse on "What's Free" has been the talk of the Hip-Hop community as many people said he was taking shots at Kanye West, which prompted him to take to twitter to clear up the confusion. While Meek agrees that Hov had the better verse on the song he also wanted to make it clear that the verse wasn't a shot saying, "no he said what he said, don't let them separate us... we family".
Drake and Meek Mill may have had one of the most public rap beefs of the decade but fans were extremely excited when the two finally reunited on stage during Drake's "Aubrey and The Three Amigos tour". When asked who extended the first olive branch Meek said, "I don't know exactly its been going on for a year and a half, I think one of his homies reached out to my homies". He also expressed that there is no bad blood between the two saying that they both laugh at the past and shots they took at each other. However that doesn't stop Meek from keeping it real as he spoke on the beef Drake had with Pusha T, saying that there are no rules to rap beef and everything is on the table, adding that he would even tell Drizzy that himself.
Recently a story came out in which Meek recounted a double with Jay-Z & Beyonce, where Hov was playing the music and accidentally played Drake's "Back To Back" during the height of the two's beef. However Meek revealed to Angie that the song he played wasn't actually "Back to Back" but it was actually "Jumpman" featuring Future. Meek explained that at the time, however, it felt as if it was it was the infamous diss track Drizzy released.
Check Out Angie Martinez full Interview with Meek Mill above!


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Now comes the hard part for Transform Rockford.
After several months spent listening to the ideas and concerns of ordinary residents — the people who run our small businesses, teach our kids, service our cars and make the products we ship all over the world — the Transformers now move to the far-more-difficult task of chiseling a masterpiece from the raw material of public opinion quarried from a series of community visioning sessions.
After all, human beings are bundles of DNA and dreams, sprinkled with the concerns of everyday living. It's fun to talk about our visions for self, family and community.
The trick is to turn the myriad dreams of the hundreds of people who have participated in Transform Rockford sessions into a single, powerful vision for the entire community. And then, how do you turn the broad community vision into concrete strategies that will slowly but surely propel Rockford toward the top of those "best of" lists?
Those are tough tasks in the best of circumstances and will be made tougher if egos, turf wars, long-held grudges, and old ways of doing things foul the Transform process.
The Transform Rockford leadership team — Woodward CEO Tom Gendron, executive director Mike Schablaske and the dozen or so members of the steering committee — cannot control what goes on outside of the Transform process.
What they can control, however, might be more important, and that's their own fidelity to the shared values guiding Transform Rockord.
Inclusion. Caring. Respect. Transparency. Trustworthiness. Unity. Ideation. Responsibility. Interconnectedness.
Taken together, those values are the gold standard for civil conduct, and heaven knows, we need civility wherever we can find it.
Let's focus for the moment on just two of those values — transparency and inclusion.
Transparency requires the Transform brain trust to be open about their intentions and their processes with the public — and with one another.
As the work gets harder, it's only natural that the Transformers themselves will settle into factions. If that happens, information will be less freely shared within the Transform leadership, let alone with the rest of us. Information, after all, is power.
Resist that temptation, Transformers. You've done a remarkable job to date of galvanizing community interest in your work by presenting a united front. Keep it up.
Inclusion requires that the Transform movement reach into every nook and cranny of the community, touching residents of all colors, the disadvantaged and the well-heeled, the well-educated and dropouts, west side and east side. Everybody gets a seat at the table.
As the process unfolds, the easy choice will be to turn a deaf ear to those quarters of the community that lack the sharply honed communications skills that make it easy to participate in civic discourse — or to turn a blind eye to those parts of the community whose problems seem intractable.
Resist that temptation, too. People left on the margins tend to stay there.
Transform Rockford remains a work in progress. No surprise there.
And it's led by human beings, none of whom are perfect. We get that, too.
But great things await if the Transform Rockford leadership remains faithful to its shared values.
Stay open. Stay trustworthy. Hang together.
We're counting on you.