Blog

Times are tough, and everybody I know is trying to save as much money as they can. What do you do if you’re a gearhead looking to improve your ride on a budget? You’ve got a limited amount of money to spend, so what mods will give you the best return for your investment?

Every car is different, and it’s impossible to cover specifics by make and model. Still, the information below, general though it may be, applies to nearly all stock vehicles. Some mods will give you a “butt dyno” improvement in acceleration, others will help cut your lap times. If you’ve got any experience wrenching on cars, most of these can be done in your own garage, saving you a boatload on labor costs. You can do them one at a time, as your budget allows, since all of them are “stand alone” mods that don’t require additional upgrades to function properly.

Ditch your stock tires for “summer only” performance tires

Most cars come equipped with all season radials supplied to the automaker by the lowest bidder. These may be fine for commuting, but tires are generally the weakest link in any stock vehicle.

Upgrading to a higher performance tire will give you better braking, better turn-in and will allow higher cornering speeds. Four new tires, especially good ones, won’t be cheap, but bargains can be found on brands like Kumho or Hankook. Both build decent tires, but don’t have the inflated overhead of Goodyear, Michelin, Bridgestone or Pirelli.

Save your stock all season tires for winter driving (unless you live where it doesn’t get cold), and your upgraded tires should last you for quite a while.

Upgrade your exhaust

You can spend a little bit of money doing this or you can spend a lot; it all depends on your budget and performance expectations. Going with custom headers, a low restriction catalyst (or a ‘test pipe’, for off road use) and a performance muffler will net you the best improvement, but will have the biggest cost. Chances are good you’ll need to replace an oxygen sensor and you may need to reflash the cars ECU, so it may require a shop if you don’t have the tools and the knowledge to do this at home.

Replacing just the muffler will get you a small gain, probably just enough to feel the difference under hard acceleration. By retaining the stock exhaust upstream, you reduce the cost and complexity of swapping components that tie into your car’s ECU.

Add a cold air intake and high flow air filter

Changing out your stock airbox for a cold air intake can generally net you a few more horsepower, plus it makes the car sound a whole lot better. The downside? Since cold air intakes are generally located as low as possible in the engine compartment, you need to be careful when driving through puddles. Sucking water into a cold-air intake is a one time thing, and you’ll get to learn all sorts of cool science about how liquid isn’t compressible. You’ll also pick up valuable experience in swapping your motor for one that doesn’t have a connecting rod sticking through the side of the block. Just be careful, don’t drive through any deep puddles and you should be fine.

One more word about performance air filters: it it flows more air, chances are good it’ll flow more dirt as well. If you want the maximum performance, an aftermarket intake with a high flow air cleaner is the way to go. If you want the longest possible engine life, you may want to stick to the stock airbox and filter.

Change your stock springs for lower, stiffer ones

Stock suspensions are always a compromise between comfort, handling and crash testing requirements. If you want better handling from your ride, you need to drop the suspension and firm up the springs.

Most manufacturers have multiple options for each car, ranging from a slight drop and small increase in stiffness to track-only setups, with a radical drop and brutally uncomfortable ride. It’s your choice, but I recommend going with the smallest drop unless you’re building a race car. The net result will still be a better appearance and superior handling compared to stock.

Add stiffer sway bars

Sway bars may be the most mis-understood upgrade that people make to their vehicles. Stiffer isn’t always better; you need to know what handling traits you want before buying sway bars. Adding a stiffer bar to the front will cause more understeer if the rear is left alone; generally speaking, this results in slower lap times, not faster ones. Likewise, setting a rear sway on full stiff can result in a poorly balanced car that’s unforgiving at the limit; remember, a fast car is well balanced.

My preference is for a slightly stiffer sway bar up front and a medium-stiff bar in the back. Compared to stock, this gives me a car that has less understeer and controllable oversteer. It’s comfortable to drive on the street, yet predictable enough for track trays and autocrossing.

So there you have it, the five best “bang for your buck” car mods. Let me know if I overlooked something, or if you have other suggestion.

Of course, the other indices were up, so maybe we were being a little dramatic.

NASDAQ: Up 7 points to 2436.

S&P 500: Up 2 points to 1189.

Energy had an abysmal day with oil gaining a mere $0.09, closing at $86.71 a barrel.

Join the conversation about this story »

So you know the VIX is dead as a doornail, but here’s another way of viewing this market that’s ceaselessly spiraling higher (today excepted on the Dow, barely).

It’s from Bespoke, which notes the old maxim: never short a dull market.

While 21 trading days without a one percent move seems like a long streak after what we’ve been through recently, it was actually not that uncommon prior to the financial collapse.  As recently as January 2007, the S&P 500 had a streak of 38 days without a +/-1% daily move.  As shown in the chart below, the current streak is big compared to the last couple of years, but it pales in comparison to many streaks over the last 20 years.  While the S&P hasn’t had a one percent gain or decline since March 5th, the index is up 4.54% over the time period.  Most of these streaks come during periods where the market is rallying nicely.  The phrase “never short a dull market” came about for a reason!

Join the conversation about this story »

Android fans have been patiently waiting for a true successor to the G1, but all of HTC’s high end phones have been dumping the physical keyboard lately. Many G1 owners have said they are waiting to upgrade their device till someone releases a “Snapdragon slider” (or 1 GHz phone with a full QWERTY keyboard).

Details are beginning to emerge from South Korea about the new LG Eclipse LU2300 Android smartphone. This Android 2.1 device features a Snapdragon processor, 3.5 inch AMOLED display, and a sliding 4-row QWERTY keyboard.

The phone is likely headed for SK Telecom with an April – May release. LG still has ambitions to release Android phones with all the major U.S. carriers, so many this form factor could appear later this year as a different model.

Rumored specs include:

• Android 2.1
• 1 GHz Snapdragon processor
• 3.5-inch AMOLED 800×480 touch display
• Sliding 4-row QWERTY keyboard
• 5 megapixel camera
• 720p HD DivX compatible playback
• WiFi, GPS, DMB tuner

Related Posts

• MWC: Hands on LG Swift GT540 Android phone
• Acer Liquid e is a Snapdragon Android phone
• The HTC Scorpion is poised to strike later this year
• Motorola MOTOSPLIT competes for whackiest Android phone
• LG previews Barbie phone, ready to push Android

Jury selection is scheduled to start next week in the bribery and extortion trial of Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez.

A judge rejected Perez’s request Tuesday for a change of venue – dismissing the notion that Perez could not get a fair trial in Hartford.

Change of venue requests are made frequently, but they are very rarely granted.

http://blogs.courant.com/cityline/2010/04/judge-perez-trial-to-stay-in-h.html

Castle Town Ghost Town

Mining town from the late 1890s, once home to Calamity Jane

The first mine regiestred was the North Carolina mine in 1884, but within the next 7 years, 991 claims had been made.
The main street of Castle, incorporated in 1891 with a population of about 1,500 people, the result of the influx of miners, and the barkeeps and prostitutes which provided them with services should they have a good day in the mine. Like many other mine towns, the silver panic of 1893 caused the town to die a rapid death.
The best-known one time resident of Castle Town was Martha Jane Cannary Burke, or as she is better known Calamity Jane. A frontierswoman, alcoholic, Indian fighter, sometimes prostitute, she came to Castle to open a restaurant, determined to lead a lady-like existence. This didn’t work out too well and she eventually returned to the boom-town of Deadwood in the Black Hills.
Today once can still see the remains of the town, and the open rock basement is the remains of what was once the baker’s general store and post office. Berg’s meat market and Kidd’s furniture store was across the street and on the far hill side was Minnie’s sporting house.
Castle Townsite is located on private lands, and permission is required for access.

Read more about Castle Town Ghost Town on Atlas Obscura…

Category: Ghost Towns
Location: Castle Town, Montana, US
Edited by: hross, Dylan

(VIDEO NSFW……)

Looks like the Ho Stroll just got a new anthem — courtesy of none of other than former Disney star Kiely Williams. The ex-3LW and Cheetah Girl member has been working on her solo debut album from some time now. Since many former child stars over 21 deem any affiliation with Disney the career equivalent of holding a giant “Loser Stick,” Kiely is obviously working overtime to shed the fresh-faced and kid-friendly image she earned for her role in the once-popular Cheetah Girls franchise.

The wannabe pop princess hit the studio in 2008 to start recording the LP, and it was announced earlier this year that the Mike City-produced “Spectacular” would be Kiely’s long-awaited first single. Ah behold, a song about getting wasted, passing out, and having the best (likely unprotected) sex of your life with a total stranger. What a lovely message to promote in a society where HIV/AIDS has become an epidemic and jumpoffs sometimes turn into crazed stalkers requiring pepper spray and restraining orders. Just look at Kat Stacks….

On Tuesday, a music video emerged for Kiely’s ode to extremely memorable sex you sadly won’t remember the next day…..

In “Spectacular,” Kiely sings:

Last I remember I was face down
Ass up, clothes off, broke off, dozed off
Even though I’m not sure of his name
He could get it again if he wanted
Cause the sex was spectacular
The sex was spectacular
The sex was spectacular
The sex was spectacular

Featuring lyrics/punchlines like “I hope he used a rubber or I’m gon’ be in trouble,” the track’s raunchier than a whorehouse on a Saturday night. And you thought Ke$ha catered to the Bottom Feeders!

What the hell are they doing to those kids over at Mouse Headquarters? And why do we have the sickening feeling that this tomfoolery is going to become some sort of club anthem?

Imagine a day in the future when a soldier could just roll out of bed, pull on a cotton T-shirt, and head out into a combat zone, without worrying about taking a bullet through the chest.

An international team of scientists from Switzerland, China, and the United States have moved one step closer towards the goal of a bulletproof T-shirt by combining cotton with boron carbide–the third hardest material known on earth and the stuff used to armor battle tanks.

Chemistry World reports:

Modern military forces use plates of boron carbide (B₄C) as ceramic inserts for bulletproof clothing but these can restrict mobility, so the design of a nanocomposite — where B₄C is used to reinforce another material — could provide the perfect balance of strength and flexibility.

The scientists created the new bulletproof material by cutting squares from a pure cotton T-shirt and soaking them in a solution containing boron powder and a nickel-based catalyst. Then they heated the cloth patches to 2012 degrees Fahrenheit under a stream of argon that prevented the material from burning. In the process, the cotton fibers changed to carbon fibers, which reacted with the boron powder to form “nanowires” of boron carbide. The researchers describe their breakthrough in the journal Advanced Materials.

The cloth changed color from white to black after the reaction, but remained remarkably strong, lightweight, and flexible. But cops and soldiers won’t be sporting these bulletproof T-shirts anytime soon, Chemistry World adds:

But despite the dramatic change in their properties, this type of ‘armored cotton’ is not yet ready to replace conventional bulletproof materials, such as Kevlar.

Related Content:
80beats: New Latex & Plastic Soundproofing Could Stop Even Rumbling Bass Sound
80beats: Could a Deep-Sea Snail’s Shell Inspire Next-Gen Body-Armor?
80beats: Self-Healing Coating Could Make Scratch-Proof Cars
80beats: Super-Strong Ceramic Mimics Seashells’ Tough Mother-of-Pearl Coating

Image: Xiaoding Li. The image shows the nanowire arrays in the cotton fabric, and a cross-section diagram of the carbon microfiber coated with boron carbide nanowires.

There are times when I feel that all of the posts I write for FDL are just variations on one story: US forces kill civilians in occupied country. US spinmeisters claim civilians were really “insurgents.” Witnesses speak up or neighbors go to local government to complain. US military quietly backtrack on original story and some officer makes a visit to the scene of the killing, pockets full of condolence cash. Officer pledges that from now on, things will change, more care will be taken – and of course we deeply regret …

And then it happens all over again.

It’s very good to see new attention being paid to civilian casualties as the horrific murders of three Afghan women, two pregnant, comes to light – and the new Wikileaks videos are documenting incidents that passed virtually unnoticed at the time. But these incidents are not unique, not surprising, not news to the people of the countries we occupy. And neither are the “regrets” and promises of more careful behavior to come.

They have seen it all before:

Take the murders of 90 Afghan civilians in one airstrike – in September 2008. While local villagers reported the killings, the US military told the western press that only insurgents were killed – and assured everyone that they were certain of these “facts” because a journalist had been on the scene. It was only later, and not in the US press that we learned that that journalist was none other than Oliver North – and it was only after video taken by a doctor on the scene and a UN investigation that the US military admitted responsibility.

Or look at the 2005 Haditha massacre in Iraq:  “A Naval Criminal Investigative Service report found that the Marines then killed five unarmed civilians whom they ordered out of a car — one Marine alleged that another got down on one knee and shot them one by one — before storming several houses and killing women and children, some of them still in their pajamas and lying in bed…

A report by Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell on Haditha, leaked to the Washington Post noted:

“All levels of command tended to view civilian casualties, even in significant numbers, as routine and as the natural and intended result of insurgent tactics … Statements made by the chain of command during interviews for this investigation, taken as a whole, suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to get ‘the job done’ no matter what it takes.”

And the Post’s Josh White reported that Bargewell’s analysis shows that the chain of command consistently misrepresented or refused to investigate the massacre:

Then, no one asked any further questions, Bargewell wrote, despite gruesome photographs circulating among junior Marines that showed that women and children had been killed in their beds.

The attitudes towards civilians which lead to such easy killing have been well known to our military leaders. In 2007, the Pentagon studied the mental health of US troops in Iraq and found:

• Only 47 percent of the soldiers and 38 percent of Marines said noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect.

• About a third of troops said they had insulted or cursed at civilians in their presence.

• About 10 percent of soldiers and Marines reported mistreating civilians or damaging property when it was not necessary. Mistreatment includes hitting or kicking a civilian.

This report led Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine Corps commandant to say:

“I was a little bit disturbed by what I saw because, one, Marines were more likely to do those things than were soldiers,” he said. “I want to get after that because, again, those things are things that either incite the population or, conversely, help to win the fight if you do them right.” and then said that an Army commander in Afghanistan was wrong when he issued a public apology for an incident in March where Marines “killed and wounded innocent Afghan people.”

19 Afghans were killed and 50 injured in the incident the commandant referenced.

Then there’s this, from 10/19/2008:

On 1PM on Thursday General David McKiernan’s senior staff officers “were briefing reporters and Western aid groups in Kabul on the new measures McKiernan had ordered for the purpose of “protecting the civilian population” during combat operations.”

At the same time, a NATO air strike was killing “25 to 30 civilians” in the village of Nad Ali in the south of Afghanistan.

Local officials and residents of Nad Ali said Thursday that a bomb had hit three houses in a village in the Loy Bagh District where seven families were seeking refuge from fighting elsewhere. Mahboob Khan, the district chief, said in a telephone interview that 18 bodies had been retrieved, and that as many as 12 other bodies remained in the rubble.

Followed by this in November 2008:

People near Kandahar in Afghanistan were also celebrating last week, celebrating a wedding – and once again, US air strikes brought death and despair rather than joy to these innocents. 37 died, 35 more were wounded. Nine “insurgents” were also killed…

The U.S. military said Thursday that civilians attempted to leave during the battle in Shah Wali Kott, “but the insurgents forced them to remain as they continued to fire on the ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) and Coalition forces along the highway.”

The Kandahar attack was followed on Thursday by another:

The latest incident happened Thursday morning in northwestern Afghanistan and left up to 30 civilians dead, according to officials in Badghis province.

There is one hopeful sign however:

“I’ve given direct guidance, and so has my boss to me, that if there’s any doubt at all that the enemy is firing from a house or building where there might be women and children, that we’ll just back off,” Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, told CNN’s Barbara Starr.

“That potentially is something that we did not do before, but now because of this increased emphasis, we are doing,” he said…

Yet, a month later:

They came in the night and shot Saeed Alam in his bed. His three-year-old son was crying at his feet and his mother had leapt on top of him to try to block the bullets. Both of them were hurled out of the way and an American soldier opened fire…

Saeed Alam was shot four times in the chest in the raid last Saturday. His son landed in a fire pit, used for cooking. His mother died of shock the next day. The American soldiers left, taking 10 other Afghans with them. “We are not Taliban. We do not support al-Qa’ida but if these searches continue we will definitely join the anti-government elements,” said Mr. Janan, a senior member of the Gardeserai shura, or council…

“What laws allow them to kill him without an investigation?” Mr. Janan said. “There are no courts, there is no justice. We are Muslims. Maybe they are from another religion but there are international laws and customs. Who will tell me that killing this person was legal?”

Two months later:

Three recent U.S. Special Forces operations killed 50 people—the vast majority civilians…

Afghan officials say an overnight raid Jan. 7 in the village of Masmoot in Laghman killed 19 civilians. A raid in Kapisa on Jan. 19 killed 15 people, mostly civilians. And a second Laghman raid Jan. 23, in Guloch village, killed 16, they say.

In addition to the 50 listed above, three more civilians were killed by US forces Saturday, including two children in Helmand and a tribal elder in Paktia.

After each such incident, American military officials promise that more care will be taken—yet we still read accounts like these from Laghman:

An angry Afghan man with a thick black beard ranted wildly at the U.S. officials, shouting about how their overnight raid had killed 16 civilians in his village. An Afghan elder cried out in grief that his son and four grandsons were among the dead.

“One young boy said his whole family was killed, and now he wants to become a suicide bomber. This is a very negative message,” Mashal said. ”

These deaths occurred during nighttime raids by US Special Forces.

So many of these raids are tied to US Special Forces. Take the example of one SOF unit — the Fox Company of the Marine Special Operations Forces — “who have been responsible for all three of the largest civilian casualty events, two of which occurred after MSOC was removed from Afghanistan for acting like cowboys the first time around [but] the DOD is not worried: (h/t Cernig for link via email)”

The spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Greg Julian, denied reports that commanders had lost confidence in Marsoc and insisted the group was operating under the same rules as everyone else.

“They have the same rules of engagement that everyone has and there’s a tactical directive for all international forces,” he said. “Marsoc was involved in these incidents, but it’s not all the same guys. They get the lessons learned passed on from all of the rotations and experiences. Yet they are human.”

As Jerome Starkey reported a year ago about the same unit:

Troops from the US Marine Corps’ recently formed Special Operations Command, or Marsoc, were responsible for calling in air strikes in Bala Baluk, in Farah, last week which officials say left up to 147 people dead. The Red Cross confirmed that women and children – more than 90 – according to Afghan investigators, were among those killed.

In August last year a 20-man Marsoc unit, fighting alongside about 20 Afghan commandos, directed fire from unmanned drones, attack helicopters and a cannon-armed Spectre C-130 gunship into compounds in Azizabad, in Shindand district in Herat, leaving more than 90 dead – many of them children.

And in March 2007 a Marsoc convoy fired on civilians near Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan, as they sped away from a suicide bomb attack close to the Pakistan border. Eyewitnesses said the marines fired indiscriminately at pedestrians and civilian cars, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 50.

Their tour was cut short and they were flown out of Afghanistan on 3 April, but they were later spared criminal charges by marine General Samuel Helland, after a three-week “court of inquiry” in the United States.

It is worth remembering that Stanley McChrystal was commander of JSOC at the time of their 2007 removal.

This is just a sampling. These are the big events with many civilians killed but there are untold numbers of little events. Back in 2007, the ACLU released details they uncovered using FOIA of incidents in which civilians were killed by US forces. These accounts represented only those civilians killed in “non-combat” situations. And these are only the ones for which the military accepted some level of responsibility – or rather agreed to pay a condolence fee without accepting responsibility. At the time the New York Times reported that “the military has paid more than $32 million to Iraqi and Afghan civilians for noncombat-related killings, injuries and property damage, an Army spokeswoman said. That figure does not include condolence payments made at a unit commander’s discretion.” And given that the average payment for a dead adult civilian was $3,000, you begin to get some sense of the scale of devastation we have brought to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is good that we are taking notice – and that once again an attempted cover-up of a horrific crime has been revealed.  Someday we may also face up to what these incidents say about our military and their “leadership,” and someday we may actually demand a stop to these war crimes.

 

For this week’s Photoshop Contest, I asked you to imagine El Jobso announcing something a bit more surprising than a new iPhone. And the reality distortion apparently field works for non-Apple products, because now I really want a pizza. More »

Comcast has won a key court battle as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the FCC lacks authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks, reports the AP.

This is a serious setback for the FCC which is trying to establish “net neutrality” rules. The case revolves around an incident in 2007 when Comcast was caught interfering with BitTorrent.

Here’s the FCC’s statement about the decision:

The Court of Appeals has made clear that, in its view, the Commission does not have the authority to enforce its prior framework designed to preserve an open Internet. The Court’s decision, however, does not change the importance of our goal nor should it weaken our resolve.

Indeed, we now have the kind of guidance that will enable us to develop the most effective and legally sound rules of the road to preserve Internet openness and to achieve other important goals set forth in the National Broadband Plan.

I look forward to working with my colleagues and industry to ensure that we are able to protect consumers and cultivate a vibrant Internet ecosystem where economic and social opportunities can continue to flourish.

FCC loses key ruling on Internet `neutrality’ [AP]
STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER MIGNON CLYBURN
REGARDING THE D.C. CIRCUIT’S DECISION IN COMCAST V. FCC (PDF) [FCC]

Filed under: Etc., Videos, Bugatti, Toys/Games

Someone going by the handle “Sheepo” spent who knows how many hours satisfying the urge to build a Bugatti Veyron out of Lego Technic pieces. Among its many features are a remote controlled braking system, power targa roof and motorized rear spoiler. And then there’s that working seven-speed sequential gearbox – even the gear lever moves – plus reverse. If it goes 254 miles per hour to scale, we’ll be even more impressed. And to any of you with this much time on your hands and dreams in your head, keep up the good work. Follow the jump to see it in action. Hat tip to Cameron!

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading Video: Sign #5,328 You Have Too Much Free Time – Lego R/C Veyron with seven-speed gearbox

Video: Sign #5,328 You Have Too Much Free Time – Lego R/C Veyron with seven-speed gearbox originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Got a Super 8 customer service issue they’re not being so super about, and regular customer service leaves you with a dull metallic taste in your mouth? Try one of these escalated points of contact.

John Valetta’s (President) at 973-753-8302 or Jim Darby (VP Operations) office at 973-753-8310.

John’s secretary’s name is Ellen. She’ll call and scream at customer service for a while until they get it fixed.

If you do call 1-800-800-8000, ask for the Presidential Line, which is a special group of agents specifically charged to handle big issues.

If you don’t get anywhere with that, ask for Margo Beckwith-Byrne, who is in charge of all the call centers for Super 8.

LeBron James(notes) is looking forward to a few games off once the Cavs are assured the top playoff seed.

• LeBron James is likely to get at least two of the Cavs’ remaining five games off. He’s been dealing with a sore left elbow in recent games and offered the following:

"You’d love to get some rest before the playoffs start. I
think there’s a few guys who want to keep playing but there’s a few guys
who want a little rest and I’m one of them."

Shaquille O’Neal’s(notes) potential availability could also affect which games LBJ does sit out. From The Plain Dealer:

Though the Cavs are not publicly talking about it, the belief within
the locker room is that team doctors could clear O’Neal to play within a
week … That would leave the option of O’Neal getting a game or two in
before the playoffs start in two weeks. It might help the Cavs get some
of the rust out in a meaningless regular-season game with O’Neal,
instead of in a playoff game. If that comes to fruition, it is possible James and some other
regulars would take a look at skipping some of the games this week —
[Tuesday] vs. Toronto, Thursday at Chicago or Friday vs. Indiana — and
then coming back together with O’Neal next week.

There have been no official mentions of James sitting Tuesday as of yet, but clearly it’s looking like his getting some time off is an inevitability. Antawn Jamison(notes) (knee, shoulder) and Mo Williams(notes) (shoulder) also appear to be prime candidates for down time once the No.1 overall seed is clinched. Delonte West(notes), Daniel Gibson(notes), and Jamario Moon(notes) would be the major beneficiaries of the surplus playing time.

• Joe Johnson(notes) will be out for at
least the Hawks’ next two games, as he continues to rest and
rehabilitate his sprained right thumb. Nothing is certain beyond that [schedule], as
his availability will be determined based on how the injury reacts over
the next few days. Johnson offered the following quote on Monday:

"I can’t really get deflections or try and steal or rebound the
ball the
way I want to, because I’m worried about getting hit. I’m just trying
to rest up and do whatever it takes to get it back to
100 percent before the playoffs start."

Maurice Evans(notes) will replace Johnson in the starting five, and he’s
averaged 16 points on 61-percent shooting, 2.7 threes, and 6 boards in
32 minutes during his three starts thus far.

• A Monday MRI of George Hill’s(notes) right ankle showed a strained right peroneal tendon, and the injury puts the rest of his regular season in doubt. The team has yet to announce a potential timetable for his return, although he’s been officially declared out for Tuesday and Wednesday. Tony Parker(notes) has been medically cleared and will return to the active roster Tuesday. He won’t start and Gregg Popovich said "fifteen or so" minutes would be ideal as he works his way back to game shape after missing over a month of action.

• Andrew Bynum(notes) remains out indefinitely.
A Monday MRI showed that his left Achilles tendon remains strained and
there is no timetable for his return. 

• Stephen Jackson(notes) is dealing with a strained hamstring, a turned ankle, a sore hand, and a sore elbow, but plans to play through all of it until the Bobcats clinch a playoff spot. The Bobcats are currently the seventh seed in the East [standings], three games ahead of the ninth-seeded Bulls with six games to play for both teams.

• Jermaine O’Neal’s(notes) hyper-extended right knee is getting better. He was a partial participant in the Heat’s Monday practice, will get more treatment Tuesday, and may return to the court Wednesday. Keep in mind that the team will not press him back into service if he’s not completely ready – Joel Anthony’s(notes) defense has been pivotal during their current eight-game winning streak (the past four without O’Neal) and they have a playoff spot all but wrapped up.

• Shawn Marion(notes) (oblique) did not practice Monday, isn’t likely to practice Tuesday, and will be a game-day decision Wednesday.

• The Warriors still have yet to receive the results of medical tests regarding Monta Ellis’(notes) bout with flu-like symptoms, which has now lasted two weeks. Ellis is expected to remain out until at least Saturday at this point.

• For the 76ers: Andre Iguodala(notes) (plantar fasciitis) did not practice Monday but is expected to play Tuesday … Louis Williams(notes) (back) was a full participant in practice and said that
he expects no limitations moving forward … Thaddeus Young(notes) (thumb) was a non-contact participant in Monday’s practice and is being called a game-time decision, although it’s hard to think that he’ll play if he’s not taking part in contact work.

• For the Nuggets: Chauncey Billups(notes) (quad) is probable for Wednesday … Chris Andersen(notes) (ankle) was a limited participant in Monday’s practice and will be a game-time decision Wednesday … Kenyon Martin(notes) (knee) is still hoping to return before the end of the regular season.

• For the Pistons: Richard Hamilton(notes) (ankle) practiced Monday and will be a game-time decision Tuesday … Jason Maxiell(notes) (back) did not practice and is questionable for Tuesday.

• Andrei Kirilenko(notes) (calf) is traveling with the Jazz on their
current road trip but is likely to still be a week away
from returning to action.

—

Photos via Getty Images

The Los Angeles City Council voted 9-2 Tuesday to approve the second and final phase of the Playa Vista development.

Phase 2, known as the Village, will add 2,800 homes, a shopping center, office buildings and parks to the community between the Westchester bluffs and Marina del Rey.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the area, and Councilman Paul Koretz cast the dissenting votes on the second and final reading of the ordinance to approve the necessary zoning changes and a development agreement between the city and Playa Capital Co.

— Martha Groves

On April 1st, Google introduced a 3D mode for Street View in Google Maps. At that time, we just thought this was an elaborate April Fool’s joke, but as of this morning, the 3D view is still available in Google Maps. To see these images, you will need a pair of old-fashioned red/cyan glasses, bring up Street View in Google Maps and click on the Pegman with 3D glasses on the left side of the screen. As far as we can see, this feature is available anywhere in the world where Google currently offers Street View.

Sponsor

Given that Google announced this update on April Fool’s Day, we assumed that the 3D feature would have been gone by now. Instead, it actually looks like Google has expanded this program since April 1st. The 3D mode in Google Books, which Google also announced on April 1st, is now gone, however.

We can only assume that Google was already calculating these 3D perspectives and using them internally. By combining shots from different angles, Google can use the stereo pair to calculate the distance between the Street View car and the buildings along the street. Google can then use this data to create better location data for these buildings and addresses.

Update: As Barry Hunter points out in the comments, Google is actually using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to calculate the 3D images and is not calculating stereo pair imagery. This also explains why the resolution of the 3D view isn’t very high.

Give it a Try (If You Have 3D Glasses)

If you still have some old 3D glasses, head over to Google Maps and let us know what you think of the new Google Maps 3D view in the comments.

View Larger Map

Discuss

U.S. earnings season looks promising for equity markets. Beyond that a major pullback looms, says Tobias Levkovich, a Citigroup Capital Markets strategist.

"To some degree, we think that 1Q10 earnings and the likely positive forward looking statements should sustain the rally but we do worry that the late spring/early summer period could bring about a 10%-like correction driven by the confluence of factors rather than an individual event." he said in a note to clients.

Starting next week, U.S. companies are expected to report solid first quarter earnings based on a generally favourable pre-announcement period.

As of last week, there had been only 70 negative pre-announcements issued by S&P 500 members. That equates to a negative/positive ratio of 1.3x for the index, which is below the 1.5x ratio right before fourth quarter 2009 earnings were released and the long-term average of 2.1x.

Meanwhile, the estimate of earnings growth for S&P 500 companies in the first quarter is 37%. Better yet, the growth is being tracked across almost every industry sector. 

Mr. Levkovich said the bounce in industrial production and ISM readings combined with management commentary about supportive consumer and capital spending  implies that earnings numbers should be good, not only in the first quarter, but throughout the year.

"Thus, one could argue that the S&P 500 should continue to trade higher during the upcoming earnings season even as many perceive the recent gains as just a late quarter window dressing," he said.

Unfortunately, Mr. Levkovich foresees a "toxic mix" of various issues that may topple equities starting in June.

Among his concerns is higher interest rates, a possibly "hung parliament" in the UK, and a growing emphasis on 2011 prospects as the calendar shifts towards the second half of the year.

Political uncertainty looking towards the midterm U.S. elections and the plausibility of increased trade friction with China could also contribute to a meaningful pullback in the S&P 500, the strategist said.

"While we do not foresee any one of these listed items as being a big problem by itself, the coming together of several of them simultaneously though could cause a meaningful pullback in the S&P 500," Mr. Levkovich said.

"Thus, we remain focused on the trading environment and think that investors may need to retrench in the next couple of months, but the earnings data over the next few weeks suggests that it is too early to back away just yet."

David Pett

“We will either settle down as a species or completely wreck the planet.”

That grim prognostication from esteemed biologist and longtime Harvard professor Edward O. Wilson kicked off his assessment of the problems and possible solutions facing humanity and the many species with which we share planet Earth.

Wilson described several problems that collectively result in extinction rates today that are 1,000 times the natural background rate. Overpopulation, overharvesting, habitat destruction, invasive species, and pollution are all taking their toll. With human populations continuing to climb, pressures promise to increase. At the root of those problems is our inability to master our own urges and moderate our grasping for the resources of the natural world. Wilson said humanity is ruled by Paleolithic emotions, is guided by medieval institutions, and is wielding godlike power over the natural world, which he termed a dangerous combination.

“The radical reduction in the world’s biodiversity is a folly our descendants will never forgive us for,” Wilson said.

Wilson spoke Monday evening (April 5) in Sanders Theatre in the first of three John M. Prather Lectures in Biology, “Biodiversity and the Future of Biology.” The lectures are sponsored by the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Delivered on consecutive days, they are the most distinguished lectures at Harvard in the biological sciences. The final two are at 4 p.m. in the Science Center and will address “The Superorganism” and “Consilience.”

With climate change pointing so much scientific attention toward the planet’s physical world, Wilson cautioned it’s important that the biological world and biodiversity not be forgotten.

It’s striking, he said, just how little is actually known about life on Earth. He directed students in the audience toward mycology, the study of fungi, as a field in which they’d be able to make great progress, since so little is known. The world’s roughly 60,000 known fungal species are just a fraction of the estimated 1.5 million. Similarly, he described the study of microscopic life as a veritable “black hole” because so little is known.

Life exists from the deepest oceanic depths to the highest mountains, in superheated water from undersea vents and in corrosive runoff from abandoned mines. Life is possible wherever there is water, he said, and so could exist in the buried frosts of Mars, in the suspected oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa, and on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

Wilson highlighted several efforts to promote biodiversity and knowledge of life on Earth, including the online Encyclopedia of Life, which seeks to document life in a way accessible to all, and a new online library that seeks to make accessible biodiversity-related works in several major libraries.

Wilson said he believes that the 21st century will be known as the Century of the Environment and that, despite the ongoing destruction, many people are working to preserve the world’s biodiversity.

He promoted a plan to use just one-thousandth of the gross domestic product of all nations to conserve global biodiversity hotspots and large chunks of rainforest. That one-time payment would save half the planet’s species, he suggested.

“This is a problem that can be solved,” Wilson said.

(Rob McEwen is chairman and CEO of US Gold Corporation (NYSE:UXG and TSX:UXG). In this exclusive interview provided by Hera Research, Mr. McEwen discusses financial markets, the McEwen Junior Gold Index (MJGI) and the junior mining sector, which he believes offers superior growth opportunities, and where the gold market is headed in 2010 and beyond. Mr. McEwen also offers unique insights into his strategy to create the next Homestake Mining Company.)

Rob McEwen formerly founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Goldcorp, Inc. (NYSE:GG), the world’s lowest-cost million-ounce gold producer. Mr. McEwen transformed Goldcorp from a group of small companies into a global, tier-1 gold mining giant whose market cap now exceeds $28 billion. Under Mr. McEwen’s leadership, Goldcorp’s share price climbed at a compound annual growth rate of 31%.

Mr. McEwen’s goal for US Gold Corporation, in which he is the largest shareholder, is for it to become Nevada’s premier exploration company. Since Mr. McEwen took the helm, US Gold’s share price has increased more than 1000%.

HRM: Thank you for taking the time to speak to me today. Before we get started, I wanted to ask you why you created the MJGI when there are other indexes such as the XAU and HUI?

Rob McEwen: We originally developed the index internally to monitor the performance of our investments relative to other junior mining companies in North America. There have been several articles about it and it’s been cited in research. To be included in the index, companies have to have a minimum market cap of $50 million and a minimum trading volume equal to $50,000. They have to be listed on an exchange and have no commercial production.

HRM: So all the companies are pre-production?

Rob McEwen: Yes. The companies are involved in gold exploration and discovery. This is where the growth is going to be.

HRM: Have you considered creating an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)?

Rob McEwen: A number of investors said they wanted to have a product like that. We looked at creating an ETF and determined that the companies within the index are too small. Their shares don’t afford the liquidity necessary to move in and out as frequently as an ETF requires. You’d have to include producers, which tend to have greater market liquidity.

Rob McEwen: Shareholders have to approach this cautiously and they shouldn’t put all their money in one stock. An exploration company can promise you one thing. They can’t promise you a discovery, but they can promise they will spend all the money they have on exploration. Once they have a discovery, it has to be large enough to raise more capital, or to sell or joint venture with a larger company.

HRM: Exploration and discovery isn’t for the feint of heart.

Rob McEwen: Anyone who goes into the market thinking it will go up forever should get out now. People have to be thinking about how to grow their capital and individual investors have to diversify their risk. Major producers’ share prices will increase with the price of gold, but they won’t deliver the dramatic growth of a junior with a discovery.

HRM: When the stock market crashed in 2008, the stocks of gold exploration and discovery companies fell more than other types of companies. Couldn’t that happen again?

Rob McEwen: Yes. They’re more thinly traded and they have a smaller number of shares outstanding. A large investor can sell a block of equity and adversely affect the stock price. They can’t absorb aggressive institutional selling. In 2008, the whole market was down. People were selling indiscriminately.

HRM: So pre-production, gold exploration and discovery companies are more vulnerable in a stock market decline?

Rob McEwen: I would say that’s true. In 2008, they had the largest declines. They’ve recovered well but have not returned to former levels. They’re reliant on equity capital. An extended decline in the stock market can limit their access to capital or force them to accept poor terms.

HRM: I would be remiss if I didn’t ask what you look for in gold exploration and discovery companies.

Rob McEwen: I start off looking at where their property is located. I tend to stay away from Africa and the former Soviet Union. I look to see if there is growth potential. I tend to buy distress, meaning companies that are undervalued or underappreciated or depressed because of market timing, and I take large positions so I can influence the company’s strategic direction.

HRM: That’s probably not something the average investor thinks about.

Rob McEwen: I agree. I look for combinations where the sum [of two companies] is greater than two, such as companies operating in established mineralized belts. In US Gold’s case I saw an opportunity to take over three companies. It’s a game of putting different pieces together to create a much stronger entity that can grow its value faster.

I look for companies that have been overlooked or are underappreciated, or whose assets are depressed because of market timing. I am a large shareholder in Minera Andes, Inc. (TSX:MAI), which operates in Argentina, and Rubicon Minerals Corp. (TSX:RMX), which has properties at Red Lake, in the Ontario mining district, as well as in the US.

HRM: What are your plans for US Gold’s Nevada projects?

Rob McEwen: We just released an updated gold resource estimate, last week, for our Gold Bar project in Nevada and a preliminary economic assessment will be released later this month that will highlight the initial gold production profile for Gold Bar. Our drilling program slowed down during the winter because the properties are above 6000 feet and we didn’t want to incur additional costs. We will be drilling throughout the summer. The Gold Bar properties are in an area that has been previously mined, so permitting should be easier.

HRM: I understand US Gold has another group of projects in Mexico.

Rob McEwen: US Gold has an exciting high grade, silver discovery at its El Gallo project in Mexico. We are rapidly advancing this project with a large $17 million exploration drilling program this year. In fact, it is probably one of the largest (330,000 feet) exploration programs being conducted in Mexico this year by a junior [mining company]. We’ll have an initial resource estimates out at the end of the second quarter followed by a second updated NI 43-101 by year end along with a preliminary economic assessment for El Gallo. The ore is close to surface and we can use inexpensive mining methods. Targets are shallow, between surface and 500 feet. The topography is gentle and we can do drilling quickly. There is a good chance this will be our first mine.

HRM: Do you see growing investment interest?

Rob McEwen: Gold tends to move up when paper currency and financial products are questioned. From 1981 to 2001, gold was going down and portfolio managers and investment advisers weren’t recommending owning gold or gold stocks and most are still thinking that way. Despite the fact, gold bullion and gold shares have been the best performing asset class over the past 10 years. Performance speaks for itself. There is a growing interest developing and I think we’re going to see substantial funds moving into gold.

HRM: That’s interesting because I understand Goldcorp did very well in the 1990’s even though gold was going down. Would you comment on that?

Rob McEwen: Goldcorp originally invested in gold bullion and gold mining shares but, because it was a holding company, it would sell at a discount to its net asset value when the gold market wasmovingdown. At those times, there was pressure from some shareholders to open end the company and distribute the assets. I thought there was an alternative not being considered which was to turn the company into a gold producer and get it valued at a higher multiple. Operating companies were trading at 2.5 times their net asset values. I started merging Goldcorp with other companies to generate cash flows. It took 8 years and three reorganizations during which we merged five companies into one and eliminated the debt, strengthened the balance sheet, improved operational efficiencies and started exploring aggressively. Originally, I was just going to do the financial architecture and leave the running of the company to the mining executives, but in the space of a year I stepped in as CEO and re-made the senior management team.

HRM: So, you acquired gold producers?

Rob McEwen: Yes, we acquired two gold producers and with one came an industrial minerals division which produced lime and sodium sulfate.

HRM: Industrial minerals sound quite different from gold exploration and discovery.

Rob McEwen: Indeed, industrial minerals are usually long life, steady producers. The cash flow from our industrial minerals allowed us to pay down our debt and then fund the exploration at our Red Lake mine.

HRM: That sounds like a long-term plan. How did you achieve such phenomenal growth at Goldcorp?

Rob McEwen: Goldcorp’s success was based on a fantastic gold discovery made a mile below surface in a mine that almost everyone thought was at the end of its life and [that was expected] to close within 3 years. We invested $10 million in exploration and our chief geologist came back 1 1/2 months later with the assay results from 9 drill holes with grades (concentrations of gold) that were 30 times what we were then mining. That was the start.

We grew shareholder value. We increased our resources. We were aggressive in our exploration and innovative in the way we ran the company. We used The Goldcorp Challenge to find new resources. That was the inspiration for Don Tapscott’s best selling book Wikinomics. We also started off paying a dividend out of Red Lake; at first, annually, then semi-annually, then quarterly and then monthly. I saw the dividends as a form of rent to shareholders while they’re waiting for capital gains.

HRM: That’s amazing, because the price of gold continued to go down until the low of 2001.

Rob McEwen: In 2001 when gold was $270/oz, at Goldcorp we started to withhold part of our gold production. The reasons were threefold, one, I believed the gold price was going much higher, two, there were tax advantages to selling it several years later and three, we increased our financial assets by holding back the gold. Several years after we started we had more gold in our bank vaults than half the central banks in the world. When we started with holding the gold I predicted that gold would hit $850 per ounce in 2008. Gold has gone up more than four fold since the low of $250/oz in 2001.

HRM: I’ve heard people say that gold is in a bubble now. Do you think that’s true?

Rob McEwen: Absolutely not, I believe the gold price will climb significantly higher from the current level. Look back 20 years at the price of many asset classes and you will appreciate the enormous price inflation we have experienced. In 1985, in order to get on Forbes’ list of the 1000 richest people in America you needed to have $150 million. At that time, Warren Buffett was one of the 14 billionaires on the list. I saw that list a year ago and there were something like 990 billionaires and, basically, you needed to have $1 billion to be on the list. How was so much wealth created? It was financed by debt. A long period of low interest rates has encouraged very speculative investments financed by high levels of debt. Today we’re seeing the unwinding of financial asset inflation that has happened over the past 10 or 20 years. Areas that are susceptible to further declines are in real estate, so called collectible assets, derivatives, the debt market, and the dollar.

HRM: So, despite inflation, gold is not yet in a bubble in your view?

Rob McEwen: No. We’ve got a long way to go before that happens. If you think about the tech bubble, a few hundred companies became thousands. They all had stories and were looking to make a zillion dollars or be taken over for such an amount. Today, there are a lot of exploration companies [and] as gold goes up there will be more exploration companies and stories and more investor confusion about where to invest. One indicator is the attendance at the annual Prospectors and Developers Association show just held in March in Toronto. It was the largest ever!

HRM: You mentioned that there are many more billionaires. Doesn’t that simply mean that economic activity has expanded and that the wealth of society has increased?

Rob McEwen: Increased economic activity fueled by low interest rates and government monetary expansion, and by record levels of debt, has produced the growth in apparent wealth. It is built on a shaky foundation. In August 2007, when the sub-prime mortgage market blew up, I recall thinking this is like at no time in my career. There appeared to be no safe place to put your money. The global financial/banking system was collapsing. Just prior to British mortgage bank Northern Rock failing there were pictures of people who had deposits there lined up for hours trying to get their money out. That’s where gold comes in; it protects your wealth when the banks can’t. Gold is the ultimate currency that governments can’t create by printing more of it. The collapse of the banking system has been deferred.

HRM: What do you mean by a shaky foundation?

Rob McEwen: OTC derivatives have multiplied wealth like a fractional reserve banking system, but they’re hollow. When someone can no longer provide a guarantee, the system collapses or at least part of it does. Investors and the public have been too cavalier in their approach to risk.

HRM: But the wealth created by OTC derivatives is real?

Rob McEwen: The obligations are real, at least on one side. What we’ve seen is that when banks fail, governments bail them out. It’s in the interests of banks to create these instruments. Real wealth for the investment banks is generated by their creation and transaction fees generated by selling these derivatives. Huge money has been taken out of investors’ pockets.

HRM: This is fascinating but what do derivatives have to do with gold mining companies?

Rob McEwen: The introduction of the gold ETFs (a derivative) has broadened the market for gold and created an attractive, convenient alternative to buying senior gold producers. I would rather buy bullion than [shares in] a gold ETF. There is greater certainty of ownership when you have a bar of gold.

I would like to comment on a place and time when gold performed and we appear to be on the same path today. After World War I, Germany’s manufacturing base was in ruins, and the victors, the Allied nations, were demanding enormous payments as compensation for the damage Germany caused. Prior to the war Germany had been one to the world’s richest and most powerful nations. Initially, America was providing Germany with the credit to make the payments to the Allies but that soon stopped and Germany, burdened by an enormous debt load and without a manufacturing base to provide employment and tax revenue, turned to printing massive amounts of money to pay its bills. Fast forward to today, where globalization of world trade has opened up Asia for huge capital investments and created the low cost manufacturing center of the world. There’s been an outsourcing of production from the US and the West to Asia. The US went from being the world’s biggest creditor to the biggest debtor. Its largest creditor is China which appears to be growing impatient with Washington’s disregard for maintaining the value of the dollar. Like Germany in the early 1920’s, America is struggling with an enormous debt load [and has] large, expensive, new social programs, in addition to a very expensive war in the Middle East. Those are some of the parallels I see today along with the need to own gold to protect one’s wealth. What happens if China stops buying America’s debt?

HRM: Are you saying that the US is headed for hyperinflation, like Germany?

Rob McEwen: That is a very real possibility. You need to protect your savings, your retirement, [and] your financial independence. Gold can provide part of your solution. From 1929 to 1939, Homestake Mining, which you might think of as a proxy for senior [gold] mining stocks, rose from $80 per share in October 1929 to $495 per share in December 1935, which was 519% and it paid large annual cash dividends while gold was only increased from $20/oz to $35/oz in 1933 by government decree. The Depression of the 1930s started with a severe deflation followed by inflation later in the decade. Senior gold stocks are up perhaps 200% from their lows, and [from the low of] gold in 2001, and still have room to go higher.

Rob McEwen: People are going to turn to gold as they have repeatedly over the millennia. Whenever a monetary system fails, confidence in the country’s fiat (paper) currency rapidly disappears and gold performs. The monetary expansion of the past 10 or 20 years is going to cause big problems going forward. Gold is money, the ultimate currency, store of value and a very liquid asset. If you sell your gold through a bank it’s 2-day settlement, and you have cash in any other currency in two days. If you take a gold bar into a bullion dealer, it’s immediate. You can go anywhere in the world and sell gold. It’s recognized internationally.

HRM: Where do you see gold going from here?

Rob McEwen: More people are moving into the gold market but it’s still a tiny number compared to the amount invested in the stock, bond and derivative markets. In 1929, something like 10% of the working population owned stocks. Now, with retirement funds and mutual funds, it’s probably closer to 90%. A shift of 1% to 2% of this money into gold would have a profound and positive impact on the price of gold and gold shares. Unlike governments printing massive amounts of paper money with the push of a button the supply of gold increases slowly. Annual mine production increases the supply by approximately 1% per year. When a growing number of investors start adding gold to their portfolio, they will find a limited supply and the gold price will climb. I believe gold will ultimately reach $5,000/oz.

HRM: Thank you for being so generous with your time.

Rob McEwen: My pleasure.

Join the conversation about this story »

Dorn’s weak moment a teachable one

I want to commend State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn for pleading guilty to his recent DUI charge. [“School chief Dorn pleads guilty to DUI charge,” NWSaturday, April 3.]

It truly is a teachable moment and he is in a position to help young people learn from his mistake. Responsibility and accountability really need to be taken into account for those who choose to drink and drive.

— Diane Egan, Renton

School superintendent’s charge doesn’t compare to socially acceptable drinking

Randy Dorn should be admired for pleading guilty to his drunken driving charge instead of trying to “lawyer” his way out of it. However, with a blood-alcohol level of .011, it is obvious Dorn had a minimal amount to drink before driving as opposed to, say, the thousands of basketball fans who drank themselves into a stupor while watching the Final Four and then drove home.

We live in an odd society where motorists arrested for DUIs are demonized, yet our social structure almost requires club-goers, bar-hoppers and live-music fans to drink and drive.

Pop into Pioneer Square, Ballard or Capitol Hill on a weekend morning at 1:45 a.m. and witness hundreds of seriously drunk young adults slide behind the wheels of their cars and weave their way back home, with nary a cop to be found.

Instead of clucking our tongues at Dorn, perhaps we need to seriously review our beer-soaked glass houses.

— Brent Stavig, Seattle