Giving Thanks: Scientists Seek World Record for Most Pieces of Used Toilet Paper Collected

?Once the diversity of the microbial world is catalogued? it will make astronomy look like a pitiful science.? ?Julian Davies

For Neil Armstrong, the big step was the moon. For Jeff Leach it is the colon.

Jeff Leach called me not so long ago to ask me about mine. Well, that isn?t totally right. He called to tell me about other peoples. Is that worse?

In the colon live ?trillions of bacteria (though such estimates are guesses as wild as those about the numbers of stars), a universe of planet-sized cells just above the sphincter. These bacteria are important, but uncharted. The most poorly known feature of these beasts is how they vary from one person to the next and why. This is a version of the belly button mystery I discussed last week?the mystery of what determines just which microbes you have and depend on (or fight). Leach wants to understand what determines the wild life of your colon, badly.

Most readers of Scientific American are aware that their bodies are covered inside and outside with microbes on which his or her life, odor, and much else depend?their cloak of cells. But this consensus is new. In the 1960s Lynn Margulis posited that the mitochondria in our cells and chloroplasts in plant cells were relictual bacteria, evidence of ancient symbioses. She also argued that symbiosis were everywhere, a dominant feature of evolution. She was right on all counts, the founding mother of the microbiome. She was also ignored. Not long after, Carl Woese went into his lab proposing to look at the nucleotides of bacteria to create evolutionary trees of microbes. He was laughed at, but went on to found modern evolutionary biology. Then, in the 1980s, while using LCD and driving around with his girlfriend Kary Mullis had the idea to use the enzymes in an Archaean (a group of microbes that Woese put on a totally unique branch of the tree of life) to amplify DNA and, in essence, produce much more of it for analysis. Together these accomplishments set the stage for the modern field of microbial ecology and evolution. For all of this work, Margulis, Woese and Mullis were regarded as crazy. Now their accomplishments are so well accepted that, among young students, they seem scarcely to be regarded.

Leach wants to take the insights of Margulis and the tools of Woese and Mullis and go big. He is a go big or go home kind of guy. He has the ?let?s go kick some butt,? demeanor of a high school wrestling coach one win shy of the state championship. His perspective is that he can only really understand what is going on by seeing samples of feces (from toilet paper wipes) from thousands and thousands of samples. With those samples, Leach wants to study the variation among people in terms of their gut microbes (or at least the ones that end up in feces). This is the perspective of someone new to the field, someone with the good fortune to be able to work after the earlier, harder, times. Leach wants to see with the tools he has inherited. Galileo had a telescope. Anton Von Leeuwenhoek had a single-lens microscope. Leach has bundled up pieces of used Charmin, that and modern genetics.

[Image 1. Jeff Leach sampling home and body microbes in Botswana. The home samples are part of our Wild Life of Our Homes project; yourwildlife.org].

Leach thinks that there are healthy microbial communities and sick ones, that most of us tend to have somewhat to very sick ones and if we understand the variation we might understand how to eat, live, and farm (microbes) in such a way as to favor the healthy ones. This is an exciting idea, but it, like hundreds of other exciting ideas about gut microbes, still needs to be tested. The field is in its stumbling infancy. The field needs the data; Leach needs the data.

Leach is an anthropologist. He specializes in talking to people, not probing them. He needs help and so he has been making phone calls and in a global version of phone tag he has pulled together a super team of microbiologists, and then me, to try to help with his endeavor. The leaders of this large endeavor are now Leach, Rob Knight at the University of Colorado and Jack Gilbert at University of Chicago and Argonne National Lab, but the team is a who is who of the microbial ecologists of the body, intellectual descendents of Margulis, Mullis and Woese. Knight and Gilbert are now leading the technical part of the project and Leach is coordinating its public reach and offering anthropological context. ?Knight and Gilbert will use fancy molecular tools inspired by Woese and Mullis to see which species are in the feces of those who are sampled and then tell the participants about those species. My job, I think, is to help coordinate what we tell folks about those species. I?m the microbial biographer (stay tuned here for the edited biography)

But here is the problem, a problem we have encountered in our own studies of belly buttons and homes (yourwildlife.org). Microbial ecology and evolution take time. Processing samples is slow and budgets are fixed such that the more people are interested in projects, beyond some limit, the more can be understood about the invisible world, but also the longer it takes to get the job done. Leach had the idea to get around this problem by funding his project via Indiegogo (it sounds like a rash you get from being on Leach?s wrestling team, but it is actually a crowd-funding website). Participants will donate funds to have their samples processed, enough funds to cover the cost of processing their samples (which pays for their piece of a robot, a technician and a postdoc?yes, and this is terrible, the robot gets paid the most). As a starting point, he and Rob Knight have decided that if 275,000 are raised, it will be enough to get the project off the ground (again, damned robot). The project is called American Gut (to be followed, one hopes, by Australian Gut, Thai Gut, etc?, following in American Idol footsteps). You can donate here, but there is also a comment section so if you don?t have the cheddar you can always just leave a note.

[Image 2. Rob Knight in his lab at the University of Colorado].

What is interesting and exciting about this project is that, for your money, it does not propose to deliver health miracles, a thinner fitter you or really anything practical in the short term. It proposes instead to produce science, the science of America?s colonic diversity and the science of you. In this era in which science seems to be getting beat up left and right (though mostly right), a time in which the call is to lower taxes and ignore climate change, will Americans pay for such knowledge? Margulis, Woese and Mullis never appear to have gotten their greatest work funded by the federal government. They did it on shoestrings and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But what if the work the public is willing to pay for is different from the work that tends to get funded, what if the public cares more about the ecology of their bodies than do review panels? This is just what Leach, Knight and Gilbert are hoping for.

Even if Americans won?t pay for their science there is a back up plan. Leach and crew can offer that thing that seems to have even more cache, a world record. I haven?t checked with Guinness, but I am willing to bet that if Leach can really gets thousands of samples he will have the world?s largest collection of pieces of used toilet paper. If not for science or personal knowledge, you can still support Leach in his quest to be the champ.

As for Margulis, Woese, and Mullis? Woese continues to work. Mullis gives lectures. Margulis died last year. I can?t help wondering what she in particular would think of this and other microbiome projects. Her edited biography has just been released. Reading it reminds me of her reckless intellect, but also her battles. She fought her whole life to do what she loved, to study the microbes that she thought (rightly) run and own the world. Now the grandeur and importance of those same microbes have been recognized, enough so that athletes want to know about their microbes and celebrities do too. I have to hope Margulis would want to be sampled, to see her own trillions of symbionts. I think she would; toward the end of her life she was delighted to find a new species of single-celled beast in the pond where she liked to skinny dip. It had been swimming with her all those years, her private mystery. Would that we could have found a new species lurking in her gut too. But the reason I really wish she were still around is to help us think wildly about the data that result from Leach?s samples and those from other projects like our belly button or homes projects, to see the answers so outrageous that even once we articulate them no one will believe them for tens of years.

Giving thanks: Thank you Lynn Margulis, Carl Woese and Kary Mullis for letting us see what was so long invisible. Thank you invisible microbes for letting us exist.

?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=70be56d1fd687a4a10a4665b4414ab24

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Overcrowded South Sudan prisons lack basic health care, sanitation and nutrition

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

An inmate sits in his cell in Rumbek Central Prison in Rumbek, South Sudan, Oct. 25, 2012.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

A female inmate looks out the prison door at Juba Central Prison in Juba, South Sudan, Oct. 23.

European Pressphoto Agency reports ? Built in 1948 by the British colonial government, Rumbek Central Prison houses some 600 prisoners who live in overcrowded cells with virtually no access to basic health care, sanitation, as well as adequate food and nutrition.

Arbitrary detention is rife in South Sudan, says a 2012 report by the Human Rights Watch. All of several inmates interviewed, some of them on death row, said they had no access to lawyers or any form of legal aid. But it is merely just one of several human rights laws being broken at the prisons in South Sudan. Conditions in the country's prisons 'clearly do not comply with international or domestic law and standards on prisoners' welfare', the report continues. Those who are accused of or convicted of murder are often shackled for extended periods of time, if not permanently. And corporal punishment is often used to 'discipline' inmates such as being beaten with a stick or whip for fighting or disobeying prison officers.

Smile Tombek, 33, an inmate in Juba Central Prison, says he was sentenced to 14 years in jail without a trial along with his three sisters, for killing a man, but no one told them who is accused of the killing. 'Someone was murdered and our whole family was accused so we were arrested, and then taken directly to this prison from the police station. Since then, I have never had a chance to talk to anyone, like a lawyer'.

The prison director at the Rumbek Central Prison says that he acknowledges the poor conditions at his prison but there have been some improvements over the past year, although the government needs more funding. South Sudan's economy has been seriously damaged following the halting of its oil production after a border dispute with its northern neighbor Sudan. The world's newest nation still has a lot of work to do for its citizens - whether they are guilty of a crime or not.

EDITOR?S NOTE: Text and images made available to NBC News on Nov. 21

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Shackled inmates sit in the yard in Rumbek Central Prison in Rumbek, South Sudan, Oct. 24.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Inmates line up bowls of food for dinner in Rumbek Central Prison in Rumbek, South Sudan, Oct. 25.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

An elderly inmate leans against a cross at a yard inside the Rumbek Central Prison in Rumbek, South Sudan, Oct. 25.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Shackled inmates wash their hands and feet at a yard in Rumbek Central Prison in Rumbek, South Sudan, Oct. 24.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Shackled inmates play cards in Rumbek Central Prison in Rumbek, South Sudan, Oct. 25.

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

A female inmate, said to be mentally ill, lies down in her cell, soiled with her own urine and feces, in Juba Central Prison in Juba, South Sudan, Oct. 23.

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Source: http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/21/15342839-overcrowded-south-sudan-prisons-lack-basic-health-care-sanitation-and-nutrition?lite

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:: clicky clicky music blog ::: Midriff Residency Night X: Home for Little ...

We're grateful. You're grateful. It's Thanksgiving. Let's keep that feeling (sans the awful stomach pain we have right now) alive for a few days, long enough for you to drag your weary, overstuffed frame to Radio Saturday night for the latest installment of Midriff Records' year-long residency. This particular event is the 10th of its kind, but it is a special kind of special in that it serves both as a memorial of sorts for a friend dear to the Midriff camp who recently died, as well as a benefit for a cause close to that friend's heart, Boston's Home For Little Wanderers. Allow us to crib from The Home's web site for a moment: "The Home for Little Wanderers provides a seamless continuum of vital programs and services for every stage of child and family development. For more than 200 years, we?ve earned a reputation for doing whatever it takes to strengthen vulnerable families and keep children safe in their own communities, even when they don?t have family support. Serving children and youth from birth to 21, The Home makes a positive impact on over 7,000 lives each year through a network of services including behavioral health, therapeutic residential and special education, adoption and foster care. In addition, a number of innovative programs provide specialized assistance to youth transitioning to adulthood from state systems of care."

That's real shit. Important shit. Those things alone should be enough of an inducement to guarantee your patronage Saturday, but on top of it being a benefit for a good cause in honor of a righteous dude, you will also be rocked by Clicky Clicky faves Soccer Mom and Eldridge Rodriguez along with Ex-Planets and The 'Mom's 100m Records labelmates Relations. E.R. will be performing hits from his repertoire of The Beatings, Eldridge Rodriguez and No Love songs accompanied on the piano by Mel Lederman, also of the No Love cohort and formerly of Victory At Sea.

These Midriff residency nights have been, as our friend BRD has been known to say, something other than else. If you missed the Halloween show last month (as admittedly we did), you missed E.R. and friends including The Beatings' Erin Dalbec and Soccer Mom's William Scales doing a cracking set of Pavement covers. Fortunately, some enterprising individual recorded the set, and you can hear the entire thing via the Soundcloud embed below. We're also posting streams of Soccer Mom's recent cataclysmic single "A Canoe Shy" b/w "Brides," which is 31 flavors of awesome and which can be purchased via 100m Records right here. So chew on that along with your leftover turkey for the next 44 hours or so. Then get yourself to Radio Saturday night. Here's the Facebook event page, too, wherein you can pledge your allegiance.

Source: http://jbreitling.blogspot.com/2012/11/midriff-residency-night-x-home-for.html

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The The Best Online Business Tools [Podcast #036] - Ray Edwards

Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:39 ? 46.0MB)

In today?s podcast, I am spending a lot of time answering one of the most common questions I receive: ?Ray, what online business tools or software do you use to run your Internet based business?? I?ll go into detail about what online business tools I use, why I chose them, and also be very candid about whether I would make the same choice if I were starting over again today.

Specifically, in this episode we will cover the following:

• I will share my new favorite iPad app, which is a notetaking app with a twist.
• In Spiritual Foundations, will discuss God?s will to heal in all areas of your life.
• I will go in-depth on the subject of online business tools. I?ll get specific, and name names.
• Stu McLaren shares exactly how frustrations can be the source of million-dollar business ideas.
• And I will share a few special announcements.

Tip Of The Week

Some of my own Paper doodles.

This week?s tip is for another iPad app. This one is called simply Paper.

What makes it different from the app I reviewed last week? Paper is more than a notetaking app. It is really intended for artists. It works and feels like, well? paper.

Hence the name. Check it out.

Spiritual Foundations

God?s nature is to heal you in every way:

??God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.?
Acts 10:38

Don?t fall for the lie that says God made you sick to ?teach you something?. That?s not who He is!

The Best Online Business Tools

In the course of running an online business, there are many tools and applications to choose from.

I use a lot of different tools in my own business, and I am frequently asked for recommendations about what the best tools to use might be.

I am going to supply some very specific answers, and share some of the tools that I use most in my own business. Before I do, however, I want to make a couple of things very clear.

First of all, it is rarely the case that the lack of a tool creates the lack of success. In my experience, successful people are successful despite not having the ?right tools?.

This may sound counter-intuitive. I am not saying that it?s wrong to have the best tools available to get the job done. That would be ridiculous. What I am saying is this: if you are using your search for the ?perfect tools? as an excuse not to act, you will almost certainly encounter disappointment. Perhaps outright failure.

There is no such thing as a ?perfect tool?.

It?s better to start with what you have, from where you are, and do the best job possible. That is what being an entrepreneur is all about. Creating value out of the available resources.

The second thing you should be aware of is that I do receive a commission for recommending most of the tools listed here. If that bothers you, feel free to disregard my advice. However, I will say this: I do not recommend any tool that I have not used myself, or that I do not feel will help you.

Here is my list of recommended tools, software, and websites. These have helped me build a successful online business, and I believe they can help you do the same.

What I?m Using Now? And Most

WordPress.org ? This is what I recommend almost everyone use to build their website. It?s about more than just ?blogging?, it is a rocksolid architecture for constructing any website. There is a reason why so many Fortune 500 companies choose to build their website on the WordPress framework. Plus, because of the ability to apply different ?themes? to your WordPress site, you can change the look and feel of your website with the touch of a button (or, in this case, the click of a mouse). Just make sure you are running the self hosted version of WordPress, which will be found that WordPress.org. You don?t want to build your website on WordPress.com, because you lose a certain amount of control, and also it just looks less professional.

DIYthemes.com ? This is the company that sells the thesis WordPress theme. Devotees of thesis are almost fanatical in their enthusiasm for this very solid, lightning fast, SEO optimized WordPress theme. While it is very powerful, and very sophisticated, it also comes with a bit of a steeper learning curve than other WordPress themes. But if you are looking for a rock solid framework for your website, this is the place for you.

StudioPress.com ? The folks at StudioPress are producing some of the most elegant and beautiful WordPress themes available today. They all work with the Genesis framework, which means your WordPress site will be running on a solid foundation that is optimized to get you search engine love. This is a great option for short-cutting the design phase of your website-these things look great right out of the box.

InfusionSoft.com ? We just switched! This is a very robust and powerful CRM (or customer relationship management) software system, including email followup, direct mail, shopping cart functionality, and more. Infusion allows you to do some very sophisticated marketing, using behavior-based rules, analytics, and automation sequences. If you have a business that is doing $1 million or more in revenue per year, you might well want to consider using this system. It is not cheap, and there is a learning curve to get the most out of it, but it is well worth both of these costs.

PayPal ? This is the easiest and best way to start taking payments online. PayPal is an established, trusted payment processor, thanks mostly to their very close association with eBay. It?s easy to set up an account, and you have direct access to the money as soon as someone pays you. This is where I recommend you start when you?re ready to start taking payments online.

iPowerPay.com?-At some point, you?re going to need a real, honest to goodness merchant account. This is an account that lets you take credit cards directly as a means of payment for your products and services. The customer pays using their credit card, and the money is automatically deposited in your bank account a couple days later. The problem is, it?s not exactly easy to get a true merchant account for online business. Especially if you?re just starting out. This company is the company I use for my own merchant account. It?s very inexpensive to get started, and they have a 98% approval rate for all applications (sometimes it feels like other companies have a 98% rejection rate!). These folks truly understand the business of Internet marketing, so you?ll never have to feel like you?re forced to explain your business to someone who just doesn?t ?get it?. Highly recommended.

BlueHost - This is the place to start when you initially billed your website. You will not outgrow this quickly in all likelihood. Even if you experience huge success with your new website, blue host can accommodate your growth a long way down the road. Their prices are excellent (starting at about 7 bucks a month), and their service is just as good. This is where I recommend all beginners start for their web hosting-and more than a few ?seasoned veterans? should be able to do quite well with an account at blue host.

Opt-in Skin ? This is a WordPress plug-in that allows you to design beautiful and response-enhancing opt-in forms for your WordPress powered site. It has many built-in features, including the ability to split test different designs see which will get the most registrations. I?ve been using it for a while now, and the only criticism I have is that it runs a little slowly when you?re trying to design and generate a new form. That, however, is a small price to pay for what this plug-in will do.

Scribe Content ? This plug-in helps me optimize my blog posts and site content for better placement in the search engines. This is really the only SEO work that I do on my site.

Evernote ? My absolute favorite app that defies description ? but I?ll try: your new omnipresent, universal, non-corporeal notebook. Yep, can?t describe it. Try it. You?ll understand.

LastPass? ? The last password you will ever need. Remember a single password, and access all of your accounts and sites.

DropBox ? This vital service allows me to synchronize the folder on my computer with an identical folder in the cloud. What this means is, I can have access to my files anywhere I can access the Internet. I can also share with others. Indispensable tool!

Backblaze ? This automated backup service makes a complete up-to-the-minute backup of my computer ?in the cloud?. That means even if my computer catches on fire and burns to ashes, I can still duplicate it at the click of a button later.

Screenflow ? I use this tool to make a screen cast recordings that are responsible for so much of my revenue. For instance, when I make sales videos for my own products, I knew Screenflow. When I create the products themselves, I used?Screenflow to create the content. And when I am paid to create sales videos for clients, this is the tool that I use.

ByWord ? A simple, distraction free writing environment that I love. I learned about this gem from Michael Hyatt.

Word ? I wish it were not so, but sometimes you just have to have Microsoft Word to get the job done. Usually, the ?have to? part is because someone else is using it and thus I am forced to use it also.

Pages ? In my opinion, a much better word processing and page layout program than Microsoft Word. Lean, sleek, and easy-to-use, everyone should just switch now. So I can stop using that other program altogether.

OmniFocus ? Hands-down the best implementation of GTD I?ve ever seen in software. I use this every single day.

Synthesis ? I?m not currently using synthesis WordPress hosting, but I?m very close to making the move. It?s mostly a matter of time for me. Their hosting is designed and optimized for WordPress sites. Meaning you get better security, fewer crashes and other problems, and speed. All very important.

GetNoticed! WordPress Theme ? I am looking forward to testing Michael Hyatt?s upcoming WordPress theme. Based on the design of his own popular website, this team is optimized for experts, authors, thought leaders, life coaches, and others who wish to build an online platform for themselves. The theme has not yet been released, but you can sign up to get notified when it is by clicking here.

WishlistMember ? Plugin that turns WordPress sites into recurring revenue!

Online Business Tools I Don?t Use, But Do Recommend

Here are a few recommendations for services that I don?t currently use in my business, but that I have tested and believed to be very useful. In some cases, I am using these tools and services on behalf of clients. In all cases, I believe these to be of the utmost quality and worth your consideration.

SquareSpace.com ? Until very recently the only platform are recommended for building a website was WordPress. That was until I gave square space a try. While there are many website building services available these days, this is the only one that I would recommend as a way to build your platform website. Their hosting is incredibly sophisticated, and you will probably never outgrow it. It?s virtually impossible for you to generate enough traffic to bring one of their websites down. Their built-in design templates will make your site look like a million bucks. Their drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to design your website yourself. If using WordPress intimidates you, and if you don?t need to build sophisticated paid membership site, this is worth considering. Not to mention it is very reasonably priced.

BigCommerce.com ? If I were starting my business again from scratch today, it is very likely that this is the shopping cart system that I would use. But this service is much more than merely a shopping cart, as they offer help with all phases of building a profitable website. If you take full advantage of everything they have to offer, you will end up spending more than a few dollars, but they do very good work. Highly recommended.

AWeber ? There are many options to choose from for building your e-mail list, delivering messages to them, and tracking the results of your e-mail marketing. This is my top recommendation for anyone just getting started out. These guys take all the hard stuff and do it for you, in the background. They make sure you stay off the spam lists, and they make sure your e-mail gets delivered. They?re also relatively inexpensive. You can get started for about 20 bucks a month.

1 ShoppingCart ? This is the shopping cart system that I have used for taking online orders and automating product delivery since about 2004. Not only is it a shopping cart, it also features integrated e-mail marketing functions, handles shipping, taxes, and a lot more. This system is relied on by many online marketers, and the folks who own it have worked hard to keep updating it with the features we need to run our businesses. Highly recommended.

Woothemes.com ? WordPress themes that are stunning to look at, attractive to search engines, and completely easy-to-use. I?ve worked with a lot of websites that are built using themes from this company, and this is my number one recommendation for you if you are just starting out. I also highly recommend these themes to you even if you?re a seasoned pro.

iThemes.com ? For many years, the only WordPress theme I used was built by the folks at iThemes. They?re still building very solid, reliable, and beautiful WordPress themes. And they are reasonably priced.

MarketSamurai ? For doing market research, and finding those profitable keywords for your website to focus on, this is the software you need. It runs on all computers (Mac, PC, and even Linux) and while it is simple to use, it is also very powerful.

The Lifestyle Business Segment

Stu McLaren returns as our ?lifestyle business correspondent?, and this week Stu is sharing his thoughts on how frustration can be the source of million-dollar product ideas.

Special Announcements

I will be making an appearance onstage at James Malinchak?s ?Big Money Speaker Bootcamp? December 6-9 in LA. I?m super-excited about this event! I don?t know if you saw ABC?s hit TV show, ?Secret Millionaire??? James was featured on the show. At the Boot Camp, he shares his strategies and tips on how to become a Big Money Speaker.

I?m attending the Platform Conference in Nashville. If you do business online, you MUST attend this conference that helps you ?get noticed in a noisy world.? It?s being put on by Michael Hyatt and Ken Davis. My friends Stu McLaren and Carrie Owensby Wilkerson are speaking. I?m also looking forward to meeting? Jeff Goins, Cliff Ravenscraft, Pat Flynn, Ken Davis, John Saddington, Michele Cushatt, and Andrew Buckman. Unlike most conferences, there?s not a single speaker I?m not excited to hear and to meet. Get a ticket while you can!

Would you like to have me speak at your event? Click here to visit my speaking page and get details on my availability.

Your Feedback

Do you have an idea for a podcast you would like to hear? Do you have a question that you like to ask me? Please send me an email.

And if you enjoy the podcast, I would consider it a great favor if you subscribe (and leave a review) in iTunes. This helps new people discover the podcast.

You can find the podcast on Stitcher by clicking the logo:

Call in your questions or comments to our new, fancy ?request line? at?(509) 713-2679

Question: What online business tools could you not live without in your business? Leave your tips in the comments below.

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Tagged as: copywriting, Marketing, reasons people buy

Source: http://rayedwards.com/036/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=036

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A Wendy in Neverland | theSheetNews.com

Two weeks ago I celebrated my one year anniversary with my boyfriend Scott. This may not seem like news of note, but as a 26 year old in Mammoth, the longevity of my relationship is considered something of a feat. I?ve lived on and off in Mammoth for the last 3 years, and though I?ve had several meaningful relationships in that time, none has made it to a year. This has been for many reasons, one of them being that like so many young people in town, I was always leaving.

The constant leave-taking is just one of many challenges to long-term relationships here. You also have a tiny dating pool, tides of partiers from Los Angeles and San Diego, more bars than galleries, cafes, and theatres combined, and a challenging ratio of men to women, which at times encourages women to treat men as disposable, and men to treat women with wounded disrespect.

So what allowed me to reach this one year anniversary? First, when I graduated from my masters program in New York, I came back to stay?for good, I hoped. I met Scott through friends at the beginning of my return to Mammoth (at a dinner at the Westin, where I sat next to him and noted which menu was the happy hour, and he politely told me he knew, because he was a server there). After that, I had the luxury of time to keep bumping into him, something I think is a great dating tool not easily available to big city dwellers. And, when the timing was right, I happened to see him on the street behind the post office, on my route delivering Sheet newspapers. I pulled over, he asked me to dinner, and I said yes.

I think our relationship lasted since then for a lot of reasons: we met each other at the right time; we had common interests, both athletic and nerdy; we both preferred commitment to playing the field; we had the patience to work through the challenging times to the fun times. It didn?t hurt that Scott has everything on the list most Mammoth women would love to see checked off: phone, car, house and job. But I decided to ask Scott what he thought.

My first question, in light of the many surprised congratulations I received for celebrating our anniversary, was whether he also thought Mammoth was a difficult place for a committed relationship.

?

S: No. I think it?s one of the easiest places to have a committed relationship, if you have the propensity to have long-term relationships.

K: Why do some think it?s a hard place to have a committed relationship?

S: Well, it used to be there were 3,000 Australian women that came into town every year.

K: So why do you think our relationship has lasted?

S: Same reason why every relationship lasts for a long time: communication. We?re very good at speaking about what we feel and what we want.

K: Was there any point where you doubted our relationship would last?

S: Perhaps there was a time or two, when I felt that I wasn?t able to communicate openly about things that were complicated to me, that felt pedantic or childish, or just embarrassing in general.

K: Do you think it would be harder to have met or maintained this relationship in a big city?

S: I think it?s harder to meet people in big cities because the chances of you meeting someone that has no interests in common is much greater. Whereas up here we?re all like-minded people, we all prefer nature, and then we know how to let loose, because, I mean, there?s only bars up here.

K: I also think it?s easier to coordinate with people, it?s easier to do group activities where you can meet new people, and then you?re going to bump into those people everywhere. I mean honestly, I think that?s how we started dating. We just kept bumping into each other.

S: Yup, exactly. 3-4 times, and then you met me on the street.

K: Picked you up on the street.

S: Like a male prostitute.

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Challenges to commitment?

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Mammoth does present many challenges to commitment: if it?s not Australian women, it could be Los Angeles women; and, given the town?s small population, there?s always the chance that your friend has gone on a date with the same guy you end up dating (something that did happen, in my case). But Mammoth also offers unique and meaningful ways to connect, if connection for longer than a single night is what you?re looking for. The young people here may not be able to afford a romantic dinner at one of the ?fine dining? options in town, or go on the kinds of dates that big city dwellers commute across vast distances to achieve, but hopefully they?ll agree with me that a long day on the mountain, or an overnighter in the backcountry, can be just as good.

In spite of these boons, however, one of Mammoth?s more insidious deterrents to dating finally caught up with me. A week ago, eleven days after our anniversary, Scott changed my oil and broke up with me. He was nothing if not apologetic about his reasons for breaking up. One of the most significant reasons was that he simply couldn?t handle the complexity of emotions he experienced as a result of being in a relationship with me. As he explained it, he needed to be able to have fun with friends; to drink, go out, and play video games without feeling guilty for neglecting me.

Where did this come from? I?m still not entirely sure. Although aspects of our personalities were growing incompatible, I had felt that with our communication and our mutual commitment to each other, we could keep going for at least another few months before either of us came to a decision about our future together. Yet suddenly I found myself facing a dilemma that a dear friend of mine also recently faced: a man who preferred to have day-to-day fun with friends over working with a partner to sustain a long-term relationship. I now found the very trap I thought we had avoided was the one we?d fallen into.

Mammoth, as my friend observed to me after her breakup, can be a kind of Never Never Land. The town attracts individuals with a love of play and adventure. Why else would we choose to settle in an expensive, and at times claustrophobically small town, if not for love of all the ways we can have fun outside? That same love of fun has a drawback, however; a kind of Peter Pan mentality that seems to set in after a few years. While I think it?s important to value your passions over your day job, unless your day job is also your passion, too much of an emphasis on fun and play can tempt you into a life of eternal adolescence.

A lot of young people in Mammoth walk this fine line between living the good life and living the juvenile life. It?s hard not to slide toward the latter when you live month to month, job to job, paycheck to paycheck. Precious few of my friends have enough money to take a vacation, put a down payment on a home, or even move into an apartment of their own. Most?of us are living moment to moment, embracing the present at this time in our lives when it seems like we?ll never have to grow up or face grown up responsibilities.

In some ways I can?t blame Scott for his decision. I fully acknowledge that I can be a lot of work. As an empathetic, analytical person, I tend to react with great emotional intensity and analytical afterthought to difficult or stressful events. This means that the stress lingers longer than it might for other people, something Scott found increasingly hard to cope with. I wouldn?t wish this challenging aspect of my personality on anyone, if not for the fact that it?s balanced by an ability to be extremely open, giving, and loving.

So, like my friend, I found myself surprised and deeply hurt to have a relationship to which I had given so much time and effort set aside in favor of fun with friends. What made this all so much more surreal, however, was that not one but two people close to me were broken up with in the weeks preceding. Even my friends in New York weren?t immune. It got me thinking: is there more to this than just the specifics of two people no longer finding compatibility or common ground, or the ever-present influence of Never Never Mammoth? Maybe it?s a seasonal thing; what?s more natural than evaluating your relationships, friendly or romantic, when you come to the start of a new season?

In Mammoth, this particular turn of the seasons brings a new kind of energy to town. Winter is a time for play, a time for letting loose on the slopes and in the bars. It?s a time of hard work, to be sure, but the payoff is first turns in fresh powder, and raucous weekend nights at Clocktower, Nevados, Lakanuki, and Whiskey Creek.

Top that off with the evaluation that goes into every anniversary, or birthday, or holiday, if they happen to land too close to the change of seasons, and maybe you have a recipe for disaster.

But I think it?s still more complicated than that. My friend and I noticed certain parallels in our relationships. My friend had recently told her boyfriend she wanted to go back to school to pursue a career in physical therapy. He expressed concern about the effect this would have on their relationship, particularly if she left town to go to college. I, too, had recently expressed a need for more from my time in Mammoth, and had, through a complicated turn of events, re-established my job at the Sheet, while also learning a week before that the first short story I had submitted for publication in an anthology had been accepted.

Another factor in our breakups, and we freely admit this is pure speculation, may have been our boyfriends? sense of competitiveness or insecurity about the difference they saw in our ambition and achievements. Looking around at my other friends? relationships in Mammoth, it seems like many of the women have, or are striving for, more secure and higher-paying jobs than their boyfriends.

Then too, whether you?re a man or a woman, there are few jobs of substance in this town to even compete for. What kind of strain must it put on a relationship when one or both partners works in a stressful (and largely thankless) service industry job? It?s no surprise to me that my friends working in retail or at restaurants have to blow off steam at the end of the day. This creates a rhythm of high pressure and excessive release that also challenges relationships.

Anyone who goes through a breakup will have a lot of theories about why the breakup happened. Some things I know because I trust Scott?s explanation, and some things I know in my gut. I learned a great deal from this relationship, and I had as many if not more good times than bad. I may have seen the end coming, although not quite so soon as it did, and I know when the sensation of having my heart slowly dragged out from between my ribs wears off, I?ll be just fine. But will I find a better match here in Mammoth? Therein lies the question. In a Never Never Land, what?s a Wendy to do?

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Source: http://thesheetnews.com/archives/16335

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Analysts Had Questioned Autonomy's Accounting Years Ago

Hewlett Packard's surprising announcement of accounting irregularities at Autonomy caught the market by surprise on Tuesday and led to a nearly 12 percent decline in the company's stock. But Autonomy's accounting had been questioned by analysts years ago, according to one equity analyst that CNBC spoke to.

Paul Morland, technology research analyst at broking and advisory house Peel Hunt, told CNBC that he had noticed three red flags in Autonomy's accounts in the years leading up to the HP (NYSE: HPQ) acquisition: poor cash conversion, an inflated organic growth rate, and the categorizing of hardware sales as software.

Indeed, Morland said that in the six reports he had produced since 2008 in which he had mentioned Autonomy, the U.K.-based maker of data analysis software, he had mostly recommended selling the stock.

"There were periods when I wasn't a seller," he told CNBC on Wednesday, saying that his work as an analyst meant he had to be mindful of what the share price was discounting at the particular time of analysis - but his opinion changed in 2008.

"Sometime in 2009, I began to find out about the things we've been talking about and I moved towards a more negative stance. ... I had a 'sell' recommendation on the stock for most of the three years leading up to the deal."

Mike Lynch, the former Autonomy CEO, declined to comment, but his spokesperson pointed to his previous comments on the issue. Lynch told CNBC on Tuesday that he was shocked by the allegations and blamed HP for mismanagement.

In an analyst note published by Morland in June 2009 titled "Accounting Red Flags," when he worked at Astaire Securities, he wrote: "Although investors do not have access to the same detailed information as auditors, there are plenty of analytical techniques that can be used to help identify when a company's performance might not be quite as good as it seems."

Morland said he had specifically questioned the company's cash conversion ratio (the ratio of cashflow from operations and EBITDA), which seemed lower than other software companies.

"[Autonomy] countered that by saying that they were high growth, which can absorb working capital and make conversion worse ... my model suggested that it was still lower than it should have been even though they were growing higher," he said.

"And now we know - we think we know - that they weren't growing as fast as they said they were, and therefore the cash conversion should have been even better than I thought it should have been at the time," Morland added.

"There were only a few of us writing this sort of stuff on the accounts," he said, noting that JPMorgan's IT services analyst Daud Khan had also questioned the company's accounts.

Morland told CNBC some investors were paying attention his reports before the company's $11.5 billion acquisition by HP in 2011.

"People were listening. The reason I know that is because, at the point of acquisition, the shareholder base changed significantly during the course of the previous two and a half years," he said. "A lot of the U.K. institutions had sold out, who were my primary audience and they'd been replaced largely by U.S.-based shareholders who perhaps weren't getting access to the same sort of research."

Noted short-seller Jim Chanos, president of Kynikos Associates, said Autonomy's accounting problems were apparent and there were many sell-side analysts who had been skeptical. "There were all sorts of cookie-jar accounting ... that appeared to be going on at Autonomy," he said. (Read More: How Jim Chanos Spotted the HP Scandal )

Morland insisted that he was not accusing Autonomy of fraud.

"Unless you're an accountant it's difficult to spot most of the things that were going on, quite frankly," he said, adding that those who got it "right" hadn't necessarily profited from their analysis.

"It's frustrating that the people who got this right didn't make any money out if it. Investors who were in Autonomy made a lot of money because HP paid a massive premium - but they got it wrong," he said. "The hedge funds that shorted it were right to short it, but they lost a lot of money when the price went up [around] 78 percent when the deal was announced."

Among those who lost money was Chanos, who told CNBC the firm's European fund had been short Autonomy's stock and that he "watched in horror" as the firm was bought by HP at a premium.

But Morland said he has learned some lessons from his experience covering Autonomy.

"Stick with your beliefs and what your analysis is telling you," he said. "A lot of other analysts must have had their suspicions but didn't really speak out about it. I think it's right to speak out about it."

-By CNBC's Holly Ellyatt and Deepanshu Bagchee

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Source: http://hereisthecity.com/2012/11/21/analysts-had-questioned-autonomys-accounting-years-ago/

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Holy Motors Tops Cahiers du Cinema's Best of 2012 List

Well, Thanksgiving has barely started and the first top ten list of 2012 has arrived from the snooty folks (kidding guys, we love you) at French movie bible Cahiers Du Cinema, and as usual, it's pretty...eclectic...

If you ever doubted the magazine's dedication to AUTEURS, this list will set your mind at ease. Topping it is Leos Carax's celebrated (and somewhat divisive) poem to the movies themselves, "Holy Motors," which we suspect will be finding its way to many lists as the year winds down. Equally divisive, David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis" slots into second place, but from there, things get a bit funky. Francis Ford Coppola's not-very-well-received 3D jaunt "Twixt" places, while Cahiers found room for two Abel Ferrara movies (complicated distribution only saw "Go Go Tales" debut overseas this year).

We're really glad to see Jeff Nichols' underrated "Take Shelter" get some love (it arrived in cinemas abroad this year, in case you were wondering), while Hong Sang-soo's light "In Another Country" also nabbed a slot. Rounding things out is Ira Sachs' addiction love story "Keep the Lights On," and hopefully it will give that movie a little more shine. Check out the full list below with links to our reviews, and let us know your thoughts in the comments section. [via TOFilmReview]

Cahiers Du Cinema Top 10 Of 2012

1. Holy Motors (Leos Carax) - review
2. Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg) - review
3. Twixt (Francis Ford Coppola) - review
4. 4:44 Last Day On Earth (Abel Ferrara) - review
4. In Another Country (Hong Sang-Soo) - review
4. Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols) - review
7. Go Go Tales (Abel Ferrara)
8. Tabu (Miguel Gomes) - review
8. Faust (Alexadre Sokourov) - review
10. Keep The Lights On (Ira Sachs) - review

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926321/news/1926321/

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