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Examining the early Trump era, and all its promises, can be quite a treasure-trove of dangerous goodies, especially for Dystopian fiction fans.
You might need some music to get you through November 8th. Why not a little Tom Morello? Kris Kristofferson? Amie Mann? DJ Shadow? Whatever you’re into, we have you covered in our Election Day Playlist.
Election Day might be terrible, but it doesn’t have to be. Here’s how to throw a party and make November 8th, at the very least, a tolerable experience.
Now at its ripe old age of about 410, students breathed new life into Macbeth. The Massasoit Student Ensemble performed the infamous “Scottish play” over a three-day Halloween weekend run, with plenty of fake blood to go around.
In what will likely begin a whole series of performances at Buckley, the Massasoit Theater Company is taking on difficult–but timely–themes with this year’s show. “Face Forward,” a play about growing up in Nazi Germany, addresses the use of propaganda, prejudice, and scapegoating to divide groups.


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domain: sociology


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He made over a billion dollars for David Geffen, racked up better returns than Warren Buffett,
and talked four kidnappers into letting him go. Eddie Lampert is ... THE BEST INVESTOR OF HIS GENERATION. So what is he doing with Sears?
(FORTUNE Magazine) - The mood was tense at the Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif., early last year. The top two dozen executives of Sears Roebuck & Co. were gathering for a strategy session with Eddie Lampert, then 42, the billionaire hedge fund manager who had just engineered an unlikely takeover of their venerable but struggling company. The fact that the vehicle of his acquisition was discounter Kmart--which Lampert had come out of nowhere to snatch control of during bankruptcy--was only one source of unease. Once their presentations started, Lampert also began poking holes in virtually every idea. "What's the benefit of that?" he asked again and again. "What's the value?" He shot down a modest $2 million proposal to improve lighting in the stores. "Why invest in that?" He skewered a plan to sell DVDs at a discounted price to better compete with Target and Wal-Mart. "It doesn't matter what Target and Wal-Mart do," he declared.
Eyes began rolling. Sure, Lampert was an alluring character: He'd built himself into one of the richest men in America, survived a bizarre and terrifying kidnapping, and somehow supercharged Kmart's moribund stock into a highflier. But when the Sears team asked him to share his vision for their company, he brushed the question aside. The impression, says one attendee, was that "Eddie was going to pull cash out of Sears to invest in the next addition to his hedge fund." Lampert says that view comes with the territory: "The pushback I get is, 'He's a hedge fund guy.' Full stop. Some places, that can be a badge of honor. In others, it's almost a term of derision."
A year after the Bel Age meeting many of those Sears executives--including the CEO, the CFO, and the chief buyer--are out of the picture. Sears stock is up 30%, and Lampert is fully in charge. While his official title is chairman, he's operating much like a CEO, calling the shots on strategy, marketing, merchandising, and more. "I'm not from a retail background, but I am a shopper," says Lampert, whose contained, sometimes shy manner is the last thing you'd expect from a big swingin' hedge fund guy. "I come to this with practical, logical ideas."
Eddie Lampert is the Steve Jobs of the investing world: He thinks differently, and acts differently, with extraordinary results. "He's the greatest investor of his generation," says fellow billionaire (and onetime mentor) Richard Rainwater, and Lampert has the numbers to prove it. His hedge fund, ESL Investments, has delivered average annual returns of nearly 30%, after fees, since its 1988 launch, according to several of its investors, who include Dell founder Michael Dell, media mogul David Geffen, and the Tisch family. Geffen, who gave Lampert $200 million to invest in 1992 (when Lampert was just 29), says that had he not periodically taken money out for diversification, he would have $9 billion today. As it is, says Geffen, "I've made more money from Eddie than from all the businesses I've created and sold."
Lampert is wealthier than Warren Buffett was at his age. And his $15 billion fund has outperformed Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway during its 18-year span (though of course the bigger Berkshire is a heavier load to move). Unlike other hedge funds, ESL doesn't typically short stocks, or trade derivatives, or dabble in currencies, or use aggressive leverage. Lampert buys cheap stocks and holds them for long periods (see "How Lampert Picks His Stocks," page 100). He made his first big money in the '90s with IBM and financial stocks like Wells Fargo, and became a billionaire by buying AutoNation and AutoZone, which have tripled and quadrupled in value, respectively, since he invested in them. But the capper so far has been his coup with Kmart. In 2004 alone, the stock soared 300%, ESL's stake grew from $1.3 billion to $5.4 billion, and as a reward that year he raked in a reported $1 billion in fee income.
Now the question is this: Is Lampert's Sears acquisition another inspired work of genius, a stepping stone to Berkshire Hathaway--like wealth creation for public investors? Or has he finally gone a step too far? In a series of revealing interviews--the first in-depth discussions he's had with any outsiders, including Wall Street analysts, since the Sears deal--Lampert acknowledges that he has nearly all of his own money in his hedge fund. That means his personal fortune is also riding on the fate of Sears Holdings, as the combined Sears-Kmart is now called. After rocketing to $163 last summer, shares of Sears Holdings have dropped to a recent $121. With same-store sales at Sears down 12% this Christmas season, the sniping among retailing purists--for a time overshadowed by Wall Street's cheers--is getting louder. "These financial guys, including Eddie Lampert, have no idea who the customer is," says Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, a retail industry consultancy. Former Sears CEO Arthur Martinez calls the plunge in holiday sales at Sears "very troubling" and wonders how long Lampert can sustain such a poor showing.
If Lampert is blinking, he sure doesn't show it. His hedge fund owns 40% of Sears Holdings, a stake worth almost $8 billion and by far its largest position. (He takes no salary for his role as Sears chairman.) From ESL's tiny offices in an unremarkable four-story building in Greenwich, Conn., Lampert manages the $54 billion, 330,000-person retail giant by phone, e-mail, and videoconference. He regularly holds court in his spartan conference room, diagramming on a big whiteboard for Sears executives who tune in remotely. The key points on his agenda: Be willing to sacrifice sales for profitability. Ignore Wall Street expectations. Question everything.
Lampert, who is a white-knuckle flier, has been to Sears' headquarters near Chicago just six times. But chief information officer Karen Austin says Lampert is the company's No. 1 user of a computer-based tool to analyze sales, margins, and inventories by store, by region, and by merchandise group. A geek at heart, he spends hours at his Connecticut office drilling down into the data, zeroing in on whatever isn't making money. His critics argue that judging a single item's profitability in isolation is unsophisticated--that a retailer's menu of offerings is what's important, even if an individual item lags. Lampert disputes that. While Sears' December sales drop was disappointing, as he admits, year-end earnings, due out in mid-March, are expected to show improving margins. That, in part, is because unprofitable items are disappearing from the stores. Sears recently stopped carrying traditional televisions, now offering only pricey flat screens. As for DVDs at Wal-Mart and Target prices, they're also a thing of the past. An in-store test showed that full-priced DVDs produce plenty of volume and a lot more for the bottom line. Eddie was right.
"I THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO kill me," Lampert says. He's sitting in the conference room at ESL, almost exactly three years after his kidnapping. Lampert's operation has moved to a new building, and security has gotten tighter--the beefiest receptionist in Connecticut sits behind the counter of ESL's small entrance area--but when Lampert tells the full story of what happened to him that day in early 2003, the terror of it shakes him anew.
And there's also the irony: that if Lampert hadn't been kidnapped that day, he might not be the sole, undisputed king of Sears and Kmart now. If he hadn't been crossed by a potential business partner who took his absence as an opportunity to go around him, he might even have retired. To understand the saga--the full tale that has not been told anywhere until now--you have to go back to the start of the Kmart deal.
Just about everybody thought Lampert was crazy in 2002 when he began buying up Kmart debt at around 40 cents on the dollar after the retailer filed for Chapter 11. Crazier still, Lampert loaded up more as the price sank to 20 cents, eventually boosting his total investment to $700 million. "To most people, Kmart looked like a pile of trash," says Al Koch of restructuring advisor AlixPartners, then Kmart's interim CFO. "We were told that this hedge fund guy had bought a huge portion of Kmart and wanted to get it out of bankruptcy fast. None of us had ever heard of him."
But Lampert knew exactly what he was doing. He'd spent hundreds of hours analyzing Kmart's financials and reached a simple conclusion: "Kmart's bankruptcy was avoidable," he says. To his thinking, the retailer had frittered billions on unproductive store improvements and excessive inventories. The prevailing wisdom held that Wal-Mart and Target were squeezing Kmart into oblivion by stealing its sales, and that Kmart had to fight back to maintain its dwindling market share. Lampert felt differently: that only by managing Kmart for profitability, not sales growth, could the discounter succeed. And if need be, Lampert could sell off Kmart's real estate, which had been valued at $800 million in a liquidation analysis filed in bankruptcy court. He was sure it was worth much more.
As 2003 approached, Kmart was hungry for more cash to keep operating, and Lampert considered bringing on a partner: Ron Burkle, a secretive California billionaire who had owned more than 6% of Kmart stock pre-bankruptcy and wanted back in.. Lampert and Burkle considered several possibilities: that Burkle would buy some of Lampert's Kmart debt or partner with him to put additional funds into Kmart. "The company needed a lot of money," says Lampert. "And he had a lot of experience that could be valuable."
On Friday, Jan. 10, at about 7:30 P.M., Lampert left his office to meet his wife and mother for dinner at a nearby restaurant. He was anticipating a weekend full of phone calls and meetings--the following Monday was a key deadline for Kmart's refinancing--but as he walked to his car in the underground parking garage of ESL's building, four masked men grabbed him. They pulled a thick hood over his head, shoved him into an SUV, and sped off. An hour later Lampert was sitting on a toilet in a motel bathroom, blindfolded, his hands and feet bound by plastic handcuffs. His abductors told him that they had been hired to kill him. It made no sense, but he wasn't about to argue. "One thing I was sure of was that I had to tell the truth because they knew everything about me," Lampert recalls. "They knew where I lived, how much I had paid for my house, who worked at my office, how much I was worth. If I bullshitted them, they'd know it."
He sat in that bathroom for 39 hours, awaiting who-knew-what. They gave him water and one meal (Popeye's fried chicken). When they removed his blindfold so that he could eat, he kept his eyes down, even though they had masks on. "I was respectful," he says. They'd taken his wallet away but allowed him to hold a passport photo of his 5-month-old son that he'd wedged into his billfold. When they demanded that he record a message to his wife, he complied. "I was in God's hands," he says.
It was later reported that Lampert talked his kidnappers into believing that he would deliver $5 million to them if they let him go. But the real story is a little different. One of the kidnappers foolishly used Lampert's credit card to order pizza delivered to a friend's house. When Lampert heard them talking about it, he saw an opening. Didn't they realize that the police were on to them now? Only if they released him would they have a chance to get away. Lampert, after all, had never seen them, so he couldn't ID them. But if they got caught with him as a captive--or harmed him--they would be in terrible trouble. Lampert says he did discuss a payoff with his captors, but nothing was decided on. "Ultimately they realized that it was better to let me go than to kill me," he says.
At 2 A.M. on Sunday the kidnappers dropped him at the off ramp of exit 3 on I-95. Even then he feared that they would shoot him, but they drove off. He walked a mile to the Greenwich police station. The cops apprehended the culprits within days. Ranging in ages from just 17 to 23, they had used the Internet to research Lampert and buy equipment for their caper. They later pleaded guilty. They are now in prison, and Lampert says he just wants to put the episode behind him.
"A couple of friends said to me, 'Stop. Get out of the business. Retire,' " Lampert recalls. "I thought about it--not for a long time, but it was definitely a consideration." A few hours after he arrived home, he says, he asked colleagues to call the key players in the Kmart refinancing and pass along a message: "I need to collect my thoughts. I don't need weeks. I need days." He was stunned by the reaction he got: A few people suggested that he might have concocted the kidnapping story to buy time.
Then he heard about Burkle. The day after Lampert's release, as he was recovering from his ordeal with his family, Burkle went to Jim Adamson, Kmart's then-CEO, and said he would be willing to put up the money the company needed, without Lampert. When Lampert found out, he was furious at Burkle's apparent end run. "It jolted me back to reality," he says. Instead of retiring, he jumped back into the fray, elbowing Burkle aside--and committing $110 million. Burkle says that Lampert misinterpreted his maneuvers, and that he acted only because one of Lampert's colleagues told him that ESL was not going to put any more money in. "We never would have gone in when somebody was kidnapped and tried to do a deal around him," says Burkle.
In any case, by the time Kmart emerged from bankruptcy in May 2003, a year ahead of schedule, Lampert had invested some $800 million. When his debt converted to equity, he found himself with a commanding 54% ownership stake.
WHEN LAMPERT WAS 14, HIS FATHER died of a heart attack at age 47. A lawyer, he nonetheless left the family, which lived in the middle-class town of Roslyn, N.Y., with virtually no savings. Lampert's mother took a job as a clerk at Saks Fifth Avenue. Eddie worked in various warehouses--stocking shelves, picking orders--after school and on weekends to help support her and his younger sister, Tracey. "He was a child, and then suddenly he was a man," says his mother. Eddie handled the pressure. He earned good grades, made time for soccer and basketball, won the scholar-athlete award at his high school. He got financial aid to help pay for Yale, where he majored in economics and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Skull & Bones. "Even back then Eddie was intense," says Steven Mnuchin, his college roommate, who now runs Dune Capital in Manhattan and sits on the board of Sears Holdings.
After college Lampert landed a job at Goldman Sachs, persuading Robert Rubin to let him join his risk-arbitrage unit. The decision-making process he learned working for the future Treasury Secretary (now Citigroup vice chairman)--envisioning possibilities and their inherent risks--has shaped him as an investor, he says: "In investing, you constantly make decisions under conditions of uncertainty."
After four years the 25-year-old Lampert decided he didn't want to build his career inside someone else's money machine. In early 1988 he moved to Texas to work with Richard Rainwater, whom he had met in Nantucket a few months earlier. Rainwater gave him seed money to launch his own equity fund, which Lampert dubbed ESL. "Eddie works harder than anyone I've ever seen," says Rainwater. He recalls that when he owned the Texas Rangers (with George W. Bush), he would take the guys from his office to the stadium on sunny afternoons to play baseball. "Eddie would come with us, but he'd be there with his papers spread out on the right-field stands." Lampert cringes at Rainwater's portrayal. "Richard's office was like Grand Central Station," he says. "Richard would say, 'Joe Smith is coming to town. Let's all have lunch with Joe Smith.' I'd say, 'No, I have my work to do.' "
He split with Rainwater after a year and a half over a disagreement about his role. Lampert pushed to get involved in deals, but Rainwater wanted him to stay focused on buying and selling stocks. "It wasn't that I thought I'd do deals," says Lampert, who was 27 when he set out on his own, taking ESL with him. "But I was hell-bent on the principle that I should have the flexibility to do deals." He adds, "The irony is that I didn't do a deal until 15, 16, 17 years later." That first deal was Kmart.
During ESL's early days, Lampert was an ordinary passive investor. "I bought IBM two years after Lou Gerstner got there," he says. "They had an incredible services business, but most investors were focusing on the mainframe and PC businesses, so IBM's valuation was low. In four or five years, we made four or five times our money." Starting in the late '90s with AutoZone and then AutoNation, he became more active, attacking capital spending and playing a key role in replacing top management. He took heat from some critics, who charged that he was pursuing short-term fixes that could end up hurting the companies. But the stocks of AutoZone and AutoNation continued to rise, and ESL still counts both among its core holdings. Lampert's tactics back then--and critics' reactions to them--would become a model for his future deals.
WHEN KMART EMERGED FROM bankruptcy in 2003, Lampert quickly cut spending, reduced inventories, and halted what he calls "crazy promotions" to clear out merchandise. "For the first year or so, we had declining same-store sales, but more stores made a profit. To some people, it looked like a plane that was going from 40,000 feet to 20,000 feet, and in five minutes from now, it's going to hit the ground. We said, 'We're going to land this plane.' And we did."
The stock didn't just land, it soared. By summer 2004, Kmart was solidly profitable and building a $3 billion cash pile. The retail novice was proving everyone wrong. The buzz on the Street was that Lampert planned to milk the company for cash, using Kmart's real estate as his secret cache. Lampert exploited the moment. In June he announced the sale of some 70 Kmart stores--5% of the base--to Sears and Home Depot for more than $900 million. The figure was so high, Kmart stock zoomed on the news. Lampert's stake, acquired for $800 million, was now worth about $4 billion.
But Lampert had another card to play. His hedge fund had also quietly accumulated almost 15% of Sears over the previous four years. In selling 50 Kmart stores at a premium price, he'd spotlighted the weakness of Sears management. With Wall Street convinced that Kmart had gotten the better of the deal (Home Depot's purchases were deemed more strategic), Sears stock dipped. That opened the door to phase two of Lampert's plan: to use Kmart to take over Sears.
On Halloween weekend of 2004, Lampert and Sears CEO Alan Lacy sat down in Lampert's Greenwich home. Lampert prodded Lacy to sell him the company. After endless bad news--sales declines, profit shortfalls, and 75,000 job cuts--Lacy was exhausted. Kmart's $12 billion takeover was announced three weeks later.
Not long after, Lampert placed a call to Arthur Martinez, who had run Sears during a short-lived revival in the late '90s. Martinez had recharged the company (and its stock) by reducing costs, imposing new financial discipline, and luring female shoppers with the "Softer side of Sears" campaign. Martinez had an office in Greenwich not far from ESL, and on a mild winter day he walked the few blocks over for a visit. Lampert greeted him warmly, though the two had never met before. "Do you think I've done something crazy?" Lampert asked Martinez when they sat down. Martinez didn't answer him directly. "You have taken on the most complex retail integration task in history," he replied. Martinez recalls that Lampert wanted to know how he had gone about changing a vast bureaucratic organization. "I told him that it was far harder than I thought it was going to be," Martinez says. He'd underestimated "the cultural challenge," he told Lampert, and should have cleared out the old guard more quickly. Says Lampert: "He was helpful. The changes he made didn't stick, so the turnaround stalled out."
Lampert got the message, though his strategic approach is not what Martinez's would have been. He replaced CEO Lacy, who was Martinez's successor, with retailing newcomer Aylwin Lewis, 51, a restaurant industry man and former president of YUM Brands (owner of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken) whom he had hired to run Kmart just before the Sears deal was announced. "He's been on an incredibly steep learning curve," says Lampert of Lewis, with whom he talks frequently and e-mails constantly. A few months ago, CEO Lewis recalls, he asked Lampert, " 'Where do you end and I begin?' Eddie said, 'Why do you have to know that? This is a partnership.' " Lewis is pragmatic. "You check your ego at the door," he says. "Eddie is a nontraditional leader. I've learned to be nontraditional."
Lampert found Sears a new marketing chief too, not by using a recruiter but by querying a tech world contact who steered him to IBM. Lampert, who admires the company for its cultural revival, asked Maureen McGuire, a 30-year IBMer, to meet him at his ESL office. McGuire recalls asking Lampert, " 'Why would you hire me? I have no retail experience.' He told me, 'That's exactly why I want you. I need somebody with fresh eyes.' "
Lampert's right hand at ESL, Bill Crowley, 48, is now his eyes and ears at Sears headquarters, typically spending three days a week there. "We don't use discounted cash flows out five years and weigh it against the cost of capital," says Crowley, whom Lampert installed as Sears' CFO and chief administrative officer. "We talk about how much money we are making right now, and how that can change."
At times it seems as if Lampert's only passion is in tightening the operations. (One experiment in expansion, new stores called Sears Essentials that put Sears brands like Craftsman, Kenmore, and DieHard into Kmart's off-the-mall locations, has already been scaled back after a subpar rollout.) Says Morgan Stanley's Greg Melich, a bear on the stock: "You could find specialty retailers that have scaled down to something sustainable. But among general-merchandise retailers, there's no example of long-term success."
"The notion of spending money on the business--I'm not opposed to it. I just want a return for it," Lampert says. That attitude has certainly helped free up cash flow: Sears Holdings ended 2005 with more than $3.5 billion on its books. But how is Eddie going to create long-term value? He offers no specifics. When I propose one popular speculation--that if improved operations don't get the stock moving soon, he will begin selling off more real estate and maybe even Sears house brands like Craftsman--he laughs, simply saying, "No." In other conversations he suggests that rather than unload the company's prime properties, he'd like to better exploit them--he calls Land's End, for one, "a strategic asset." But he offers few details.
In other words, we just have to trust him--as his hedge fund investors have. (He demands a five-year minimum commitment from them, and refuses to tell them what he's investing in.) He points to three role models that together may say more about where he's going than any retail initiative he might float: Bob Rubin, who claims that the best decision-makers keep their options open until the last reasonable moment; Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots football team, who befuddles and outwits his opponents by constantly adjusting the game plan; and Warren Buffett, who turned from investor to business builder by acquiring operations at good prices and rearranging the cash flow, in many cases to invest elsewhere. "The entrance strategy is actually more important than the exit strategy," Lampert says. Could Sears Holdings evolve into another Berkshire Hathaway?
"One of the unspoken secrets about business leaders is that they often have no idea about where they're going to end up," Lampert says coyly. "I know the right direction. Whether we end up at the destination--rebuilding Sears Holdings into a great company on many dimensions--I don't know. But we're headed in that direction."
IN LATE JANUARY, LAMPERT TAKES ME for a walk-through of the Kmart in White Plains, N. Y., 20 minutes from his Greenwich office. He points out that he redirected the toothpaste display to the end aisle, and carps that the bath towel section needs classier signage. His mother has joined us, and we sit down on Martha Stewart patio chairs in the outdoor-furniture section for a chat. "I never thought he would go into retail," Dolores Lampert says. "It's a very hard business. But it's a challenge, and Eddie likes a challenge." She talks about how he'd been accepted to both Harvard and Yale law schools after college, and how crushed she was when he told her he was going to Goldman Sachs instead. "I didn't know what Goldman Sachs was," she recalls, adding: "I called my mother and I cried. I was hysterical."
I ask Dolores Lampert what Eddie's greatest insecurity is. She pauses, and almost chokes up, then replies, "This is a terrible thing to say, but it's that he won't live long enough to complete all his goals." His mother goes on, saying how Lampert writes his goals on a yellow legal pad, just like his father did before he died. "But Eddie won't die young," she says, not looking at him. "He'll probably live into his 90s."
Lampert is sitting quietly, watching us but involved in his own thoughts. "I want to be known as a great businessman," Lampert had told me earlier. With all he's accomplished, you might think he'd feel like one already. But Lampert has bigger aspirations, even if he's mostly mum about them. Sitting there in the Kmart with his mother, he agrees that he worries about dying young like his dad did. "If you had asked me the question, I wouldn't have answered that way. But that is the right answer." And then he goes silent. Perhaps he is calculating the probabilities and, whatever they may be, thinking that he has no time to waste.
HOW LAMPERT PICKS HIS STOCKS
LIKE WARREN BUFFETT, EDDIE LAMPERT CALLS HIMSELF A
"value investor," meaning he buys into companies whose assets he
calculates are worth more than the current trading price. "The idea is that
I'm going to pay this price and great things may happen, but they don't have to
happen for me to do okay," he says. He typically doesn't short stocks,
trade currencies or derivatives, take on substantial leverage, or do any of the
fancy stuff that most hedge funds do. His firm, ESL Investments, employs 20
people, whereas another hedge fund its size (there are just a few) would have
hundreds and a busy trading floor. "We try to stay very focused,"
Lampert says. He takes large positions in major companies and typically holds
them for a long time. He has owned AutoZone and AutoNation, his two biggest
investments besides Sears Holdings, since 1997 and 2000, respectively. ESL now
owns about 29% of each company.
Lampert's stock picking is a "form of
immersion," he says. Before he put a penny into AutoZone, he visited dozens
of the auto-parts retailer's outlets and had one of ESL's analysts spend six
months calling on hundreds of stores, posing as a demanding customer. "It's
probably overkill," Lampert says, but he can't resist. "Eddie doesn't
do things that 99% of the hedge fund world does," says Tom Tisch, an ESL
limited partner since 1992. To avoid pressure to sell his holdings prematurely,
Lampert requires ESL's investors to commit their money for five years--rare in
the hedge fund world, where the standard lockup is one year.
Lampert also believes that secrecy is a key advantage
for an investor. Because ESL today owns such large stakes in companies, those
holdings must be publicly disclosed. But Lampert still refuses to talk about
the specifics of his portfolio, even with his own investors. In the past
Lampert has had occasional conflicts with his limited partners over this
policy. Media mogul David Geffen, who has invested with Lampert since 1992,
recalls insisting to him at one point, "I want to know where the hell my
money is." Lampert refused to tell him. "The rules are the rules, and
they're the same for everybody," says Geffen. "Eddie is very strict.
It's one of the things I admire about Eddie. But I don't like it about
Of course, much has changed since Lampert made the
biggest bet of his career: his $12 billion acquisition of Sears. He used to
wield his influence quietly at companies--by shaking up management and imposing
financial discipline from his seat inside the boardroom. Now, by taking an
active role in running Sears Holdings, he is veering from his old self and from
Buffett, who takes pains to avoid meddling in management. Buffett also tends to
buy well-run market leaders--such as Wal-Mart (whose stock he bought last year)
rather than its downtrodden victims like Kmart and Sears. "Warren Buffett
says, 'I'd rather jump over a one-foot hurdle than a six-foot hurdle,' "
says Lampert. "We'd rather jump over a one-foot hurdle too. But it's
difficult to find the opportunity. So I'm willing to engage more in
Lampert on being an active--not
"You don't need to revolutionize an industry or
overhaul a company to make money. Often you need to change the way capital is
allocated and maybe change compensation targets. I'd rather do these things
privately than publicly."
On capital spending:
"A lot of managers say, "Here's the rule of
thumb: We have to spend X amount per year." It gets written into the plan.
You know who benefits? The consumer. There's nothing wrong with that. But my
job is to provide value for the investor."
On executive compensation:
"Compensation committees divide pay into
quartiles. No board wants to pay people in the fourth quartile, but somebody
has to be there. If your performance is in the fourth quartile, then maybe your
pay should be in the fourth quartile."
On Wall Street guidance:
"The world is just not predictable enough to give
earnings guidance. The prevailing wisdom is, you set guidance at a level that
you can beat, so the surprise is on the upside. Or you sell something on June
29 for $2.2 million even though you could have gotten $2.5 million on July

domain: economics


text:
As far as I know there are two schools of thought about what triggers psychosis, one that says psychosis and other mental illnesses are all to do with the brain structure and anomalies in the brain structure and another that says they are more to do with repressed ideas that are psychological. I don't know which one is true to be honest but I think probably a combination of brain abnormalities and psychological reasons.if i had a couple psychotic episodes does that really mean there's something wrong with my brain?
No don't they'll induce the same reaction again, I know last time I smoked weed it made my dp worse and made me paranoid.do you think smoking weed again would reverse the curse or just initiate another panic attack or some psychotic thinking again?
Sticki've heard it can be triggered through extreme levels of stress and doing drugs. how bad does this stress have to be?

domain: health


text:
Medical school diploma of Joseph Adrian Booth
Joseph Adrian Booth receives his diploma from New York University granting him a doctorate in Artis Medicae et Chirurgicae [medical and surgical arts]. The diploma is printed in Latin on vellum paper and signed by his professors, Council President, and Council Secretary. On the reverse side of the diploma, the Clerk of the City and County of New York registers Booth's certificate on March 16, 1889. Before receiving this diploma, J.A. Booth worked as a San Francisco mail carrier, lived with mother, and upon her death he seems to have spent his inheritance on medical school at New York University. Although Booth received his doctorate in medical and surgical arts, he never practiced medicine.
New York University
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
paper and ink
59 x 48 cm

domain: history


text:
In the not-too-distant future, the United States and other nations will have a vaccination available, thankfully, for COVID-19, which has killed more than 1.5 million people and altered millions of more lives.
But besides the issue of who will get the vaccination first looms another question: Who will be willing to get it?
Debates about the value and efficacy of vaccines — as well as the socioeconomics of those who will get them and those who won’t — have raged throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.
Such a debate took place in the early 1900s in Utah over the smallpox vaccine, dividing prominent community members, leaders and Latter-day Saints, including top church authorities and the editor of the church-owned Deseret News.
On this week’s podcast, Ben Cater — who teaches history at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and has written about the religious politics at play in public health during the Progressive Era in Utah — revisits that period and how it may parallel our current times.
As Cater noted, in a quote often attributed to Mark Twain: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”


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Prescription medicine (Schedule 4) for therapeutic use containing 2 per cent (2.0%) or less of other cannabinoids commonly found in cannabis (such as ∆9-THC). A schedule 4 drug under the SUSMP is Prescription Only Medicine, or Prescription Animal Remedy – Substances, the use or supply of which should be by or on the order of persons permitted by State or Territory legislation to prescribe and should be available from a pharmacist on prescription.
Malfait AM, Gallily R, Sumariwalla PF, et al. The non-psychoactive cannabis-constituent cannabidiol is an oral anti-arthritic therapeutic in murine collagen-induced arthritis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2000;97:9561-6. View abstract.
I want to make a lotion to help alleviate my psoriasis symptoms. And use CBD oil and maybe other additives. I now live in Arizona where it is legal (If you have State Id and medical card) I don’t have the ID card yet (Still looking for a permanent abode). I am thinking that I don’t want oil, but a tincture Where can I get it?
This means that CBD could potentially prevent people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s from losing their ability to recognize the faces of people that they know. This is the first evidence that CBD has potential to prevent Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.
Then why did you comment at all? I was desperately looking for something to help my intense pain from my auto immune disorder and arthritis severe in my feet and hands so I bought USA made pure cold pressed hemp oil capsules within a week I couldn’t believe how much better I felt! Been on narcotic pain meds. For 30 years and I finally found something that helps without slowly killing me!
The Herbal Renewals CBD Spray comes in three great flavors: Vanilla, Peppermint, and Unflavored (for those who prefer the natural taste of CBD with its earthy, hempy undertones). And like all Herbal Renewals CBD products, this soothing CBD Herbal Spray is made in the U.S. from organic, non-GMO industrial hemp.
“Both hemp varieties and marijuana varieties are of the same genus, Cannabis, and the same species, Cannabis sativa. Further, there are countless varieties that fall into further classifications within the species Cannabis Sativa.”
In 2011, researchers added light on the cellular mechanism through which CBD induces cell death in breast cancer cells. They showed that CBD induced a concentration-dependent cell death of both oestrogen receptor-positive and oestrogen receptor-negative breast cancer cells. They also found that the effective concentrations of CBD in tumor cells have little effect on non-tumorigenic, mammary cells. (11)
Benefits of castor oil for the face and skin A look at the benefits of castor oil for the face and skin. Included is detail on how to use castor oil and the potential side effects of which to be aware Read now
I posted a reply and it didn’t post so they don’t want anyone telling you where to go. On the SHOP link in small print beneath the “NON CANNABIS, COMING SOON, Blah Blah” it says that you can get cannabis products from here. When you go there, it sends you to another link to a website called Leafy. c o m. That site sells actual Marijuana. www.leafly.com/dispensary-info/chronic-therapy/ menu. You can’t use this link. It has spaces in it so it doesn’t look like a web site. You will have to copy it and paste it and take out the spaces.
Representations regarding the efficacy and safety of CBDPure have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA only evaluates foods and drugs, not supplements like these products. These products are not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease. Click here and here to find evidence of a test, analysis, research, or study describing the benefits, performance or efficacy of CBD Oil based on the expertise of relevant professionals.
According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), “hemp extract must be composed of less than nine-tenths of one percent (0.9%) tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) by weight, at least five percent (5%) cannabidiol (CBD) by weight and may contain no other psychoactive substances.” By law, patients are allowed to use and possess CBD but it remains illegal to cultivate or produce hemp extract in the state. People in possession of the DHHS Caregiver Registration letter are allowed to carry hemp extract outside their homes.
CBD Oil Bellamy AL | Where Can I Purchase Near Me
About CBD Oil Bellamy AL | Where Can I Purchase In August, 2017
Resstel LB, Joca SR, Moreira FA, et al. Effects of cannabidiol and diazepam on behavioral and cardiovascular responses induced by contextual conditioned fear in rats. Behav Brain Res 2006;172(2):294-8. View abstract.
Although the World Health Organization listed Cannabidiolum in a list of International Nonproprietary Names for Pharmaceutical Substances (INN) on 30 June 2016. French and Spanish versions wrongly mention agonist action of CBD on cannabinoid receptors while the English version says CBD is a cannabinoid receptor antagonist.
Cannabidiol has been found to act as an antagonist of the GPR55, a G protein-coupled receptor and putative cannabinoid receptor that is expressed in the caudate nucleus and putamen in the brain. It has also been found to act as an inverse agonist of the GPR3, GPR6, and GPR12. Although currently classified as orphan receptors, these receptors are most closely related phylogeneticaly to the cannabinoid receptors. In addition to orphan receptors, CBD has been shown to act as a serotonin 5-HT1A receptor partial agonist, and this action may be involved in its antidepressant, anxiolytic, and neuroprotective effects. It is an allosteric modulator of the μ- and δ-opioid receptors as well. The pharmacological effects of CBD have additionally been attributed to PPARγ agonism and intracellular calcium release.
Jump up ^ Hurd YL, Yoon M, Manini AF, Hernandez S, Olmedo R, Ostman M, Jutras-Aswad D (October 2015). “Early Phase in the Development of Cannabidiol as a Treatment for Addiction: Opioid Relapse Takes Initial Center Stage”. Neurotherapeutics. 12 (4): 807–15. doi:10.1007/s13311-015-0373-7. PMC 4604178 . PMID 26269227.
In 2013, the American Journal of Medicine published a study that highlighted the impact of marijuana use on glucose, insulin and insulin resistance among U.S. adults. The study included 4,657 adult men and women from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey from 2005 to 2010. Of the participants, 579 were current marijuana users and 1,975 were past users. The researchers found that current marijuana use was associated with 16 percent lower fasting insulin levels. They also found significant associations between marijuana use and smaller waist circumferences, a factor connected to the onset of diabetes symptoms. (17)
I have been using CBD complete for over a month now. This is a truly amazing product. The customer service is outstanding and they are always helpful, and professional. I like that i can also track my package which has always been on time. I just placed my next order and look forward to more in the future. Thank you bluebird botanicals.
My new ArthriDoc introduced me to something called ‘Hemp Oil?’ “Mr Fontaine you can’t always smoke.” My ministry inc Motivational Speaking, Martial Arts And Photojournalism/Photography. With this product I save a LOT OF DOUGH! That other brand my doc’s dad sells is far too Xpensive (Ca__n). ThanX! PUREKANA!
Great information here. I wanted to share my experience. I buy from AmberBotanical.com and I really trust their products. My firbomyalgia, headaches, PMS and anxiety has been helped in an extreme way. I also have ADHD and its really hard for me to focus at work and this has helped that room I can accomplish so much more. If reccomend CBD and that’s seller for sure.
On May 16, 2014, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed SB 2531 into law. The bill allows the use of cannabis oil containing cannabidiol (CBD) that has less than 0.9% THC “as part of a clinical research study on the treatment of intractable seizures when supervised by a physician practicing at… a university having a college or school of medicine.” The study is authorized for four years.
Unlike THC, CBD is not psychoactive. This means that it does not change the state of mind of the person who uses it. However, it does appear to produce significant changes in the body and has been found to have medical benefits.
Unlike THC, CBD does not cause any feeling of “high,” which contributes to its legalization across the United States. CBD does not typically have any immediate noticeable effect, though some customers have reported otherwise when using isolates.
Definitely not. Standard hemp oil, which can be found very cheaply at a grocery store, is a much different product than our full spectrum hemp extracts (not from seed). Standard hemp oil is produced by cold pressing the seeds, whereas our hemp extract is a full plant extraction with many components not typically found in the seeds. Hemp seed oil is considered to be a great nutritive food, but it doesn’t have the naturally occurring terpenes, cannabinoids and other components that our extracts do have.
Crippa, J. A., Zuardi, A. W., Martin-Santos, R., Bhattacharyya, S., Atakan, Z., McGuire, P., and Fusar-Poli, P. Cannabis and anxiety: a critical review of the evidence. Hum.Psychopharmacol. 2009;24(7):515-523. View abstract.
CBD has shown therapeutic efficacy in a range of animal models of anxiety and stress, reducing both behavioral and physiological (e.g., heart rate) measures of stress and anxiety.xxxiii,xxxiv In addition, CBD has shown efficacy in small human laboratory and clinical trials. CBD reduced anxiety in patients with social anxiety subjected to a stressful public speaking task.xxxv In a laboratory protocol designed to model post-traumatic stress disorders, CBD improved “consolidation of extinction learning”, in other words, forgetting of traumatic memories.xxxvi The anxiety-reducing effects of CBD appear to be mediated by alterations in serotonin receptor 1a signaling, although the precise mechanism remains to be elucidated and more research is needed.xxxvii
The Food and Drug Administration on 6/25/2018 approved the first drug derived from marijuana, which will be used to treat two rare and severe forms of childhood epilepsy. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the approval was “a reminder that advancing sound development programs that properly evaluate active ingredients contained in marijuana can lead to important medical therapies.” He noted that the action was “not an approval of marijuana or all of its components” but rather of one specific CBD medication for a particular use. In April, an advisory committee unanimously recommended approval of the drug for the two types of epilepsy.
An orally administered cannabidiol solution containing sesame oil (brand name Epidiolex) is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in June 2018 as a treatment for two rare forms of childhood epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.
This website contains general information about diet, health and nutrition. The information is not advice and is not a substitute for advice from a healthcare professional. Read the full disclaimer here.
CBD capsules are similar to your everyday multi-vitamin. Capsules make a comfortable alternative to people who do not wish to taste the Cannabidiol oil. If you take medication tablets, capsules will help integrate Cannabinoids seamlessly into your daily routine. The potency of capsules can range from 25-50 mg per capsule. You should pay close attention to just how potent your capsules are to ensure you get your desired dose of CBD. The only downside to CBD capsules is when you want to increase your dosage you will have to increase the number of capsules you take daily. Some people find it hard to swallow capsules, and this fact should be considered when purchasing your product.
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domain: medical


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Shamil expressed his happiness with the award, saying "It is surely a great honor to win this award as it carries numerous meanings, the most important of which that young musicians are able to present works and melodies that can achieve international successes and awards." He pointed out that the soundtrack of the series "La MusikaFelAhmadi" was inspired by the events of the dramatic work
that tells the history of the city of Ahmadi.
People who go to the Forthside complex - Scotland's building conservation centre - will get an insight into this highly specialist and dramatic work
as it progresses.
Completed in 2010, it is more a meditation on an Ovid tale than a dramatic work
, or, as a convoluted program note explained, "the opera focuses not on action, or on 'the traditional arc of time,' but on a man and woman's interior emotional states as separated by a metaphoric wall of the 'subtlety of the unconscious,' the presence of nature; and a stillness evocative of Samuel Beckett's most static work."
Now properly authenticated, the dramatic work
of Snowdonian hills and cottages is up for auction with a guide price of PS35,000 to PS45,000.
Though Alasdair Gray is best known as an artist and a novelist--a large part of his literary corpus was published in the eighties and nineties following the success of his Scottish epic Lanark (1981)--it was his dramatic work
in radio and television a decade or two earlier that first familiarized Scottish audiences with Gray's work.
The individual entries of Volume II follow the format of those in Volume I, presenting a wealth of information about each dramatic work
. Each entry is uniquely numbered, identified by genre and tide, and illustrated by one or more incipits as appropriate.
Susan K Moore's Fowey is a peaceful depiction of the beach scene while Jayne Powell's Layered is a dramatic work
with wild coloured shapes, and soldiers fighting in the background, with people in a Remembrance Day parade walking into the foreground.
IT'S been described as both a comic and dramatic work
, but there's not much to laugh about in Mozart's Don Giovanni which launches the Welsh National Opera's autumn season.
Spanish critic MasCarello of Paradoxo says Shua "masterfully employs black humor" in her satirical and dramatic work
The London-based theatre company says the Bard's most iconic and challenging play - arguably the world's greatest dramatic work
- goes for the jugular without hesitation.
Not remembered as a composer of opera, though he did write a fair number, Creation is a dramatic work
, particularly when it comes to what's expected of the chorus.

domain: artistic


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Ellsworth Adhesives Relocates Distribution Center
“Our new facility in Irvine more than triples our previous warehouse space and capabilities, and the increased storage areas will allow our dedicated team in the western region to better serve our customers’ needs,” said Roger Lee, president of the Ellsworth Adhesives–ESR Group.
“We are pleased to be moving to a larger location to supply our growing business in the western region and throughout the world,” said Mike McCourt, global president of Ellsworth Adhesives-Specialty Chemical Distribution. “The new facility will ensure that our clients benefit from exceptional levels of customer support.”
For more information, visit www.ellsworth.com.

domain: geography


text:
Halıcızade, one of the best carpet brandsThe journey of 's started in 2004 with the story of a family who decided to open a carpet store to decorate their house.
Combining the right information with the most comfortable customer experience possible, while bringing together different designs under the same roof. HalicizadeSince its inception, it has been the first choice to complete more than 60,000 living spaces.
It has become one of the best carpet brands that speaks the common language of design and decoration stories woven into the carpet in our collection, which is brought together from both the challenging geographies of the world and different regions of Turkey, each with its own unique colors and patterns, Halicizade.
We considered touching the lives of more than millions of people as the most exciting part of our work, through carpets, which determine the focal point of the space as well as the complementary element of decoration.
in 2020 Halicizade We started working to get rid of distance and time restrictions and touch more people's lives by transferring the experience to online platforms.
While doing this, we continue the journey of Halıcızade with pleasure, without getting away for a moment from our values listed below.
Honesty: To ensure the accuracy of the information presented about each product in the Halıcızade collection.
Creativity: To design original and high quality models inspired by imagination.
Empathy: Seeking solutions that add color to life by thinking user-oriented.
Transparency: Regardless of the outcome, sharing the right information and providing transformation.
HalicizadeThere is plenty of room for everyone in the journey of .


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|Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Ha speaks at the workshop in Hanoi on September 11
Participants said human trafficking in Vietnam tends to be on the rise. Traffickers have created many trans-provincial and transnational rings that take advantage of social networks to make acquaintance with and trick women and girls into illegal marriage, surrogacy, prostitution and forced labour.
According to a report of the Vietnamese Government’s steering committee for crime prevention and control, from 2012 to 2017, authorised forces rescued and received about 7,500 trafficking victims.
More than 90% of them were women and girls while over 80 percent were ethnic minority people with limited knowledge and awareness and disadvantaged economic conditions. Over 70% of the victims did farm work or were unemployed, 37% were illiterate, and about 6.8% were young people.
Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Ha said more than 98% of the victims were trafficked to other countries, mainly China (over 90%). Nearly 80% of them were forced into marriage and sexual exploitation.
She added that after being rescued or received by relevant agencies, all the victims were provided with psychological support, medical check-ups and legal aid. About half of them have also been helped to reintegrate into society.
Many participants acknowledged the attention that the National Assembly and the Government have paid to the fight against human trafficking and the reception and assistance for returnee victims. Since the Law on Human Trafficking Prevention and Control took effect in 2012, synchronous legal documents and policies have been issued, creating a more favourable legal framework for receiving and supporting the return and integration of trafficking victims.
However, the reception and assistance for them have yet to meet expectations due to certain problems relating to mechanisms and policies, they noted.
Sen. Lt. Col. Nguyen Van Trang, deputy head of the anti-human trafficking division of the Ministry of Public Security, said although the revised Penal Code came into effect on January 1, 2018, there haven’t been any documents guiding the implementation of Articles 150 and 151 on human trafficking.
Notably, after returning, few victims reported their cases to police, leading to difficulties in the investigation and punishment of traffickers. Some victims left their places of residence because of the feeling of shame and the fear of revenge.
The rescue and investigation also faced many obstacles as in most cases, victims were brought deep into other countries’ territories, Trang added.
At the workshop, participants called for existing legal regulations and policies to be revised. They said the 2005 decree on administrative penalties in the field of social security, order and safety should be amended to exempt trafficking victims from liability when they got involved in prostitution or illegal exit and entrance. Meanwhile, the Law on Legal Assistance should be supplemented to include trafficking victims in groups eligible for free legal aid.


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Political chatter from DC and NYC, the amNewYork way
As I type, Obama is giving a speech on the meaning of patriotism. This coincides with an absolutely fascinating article in todays
about one city in Ohio where the false rumors about Obama have reached a sort of critical mass (the rumor that Barrys a homosexual is new to me but may serve to cement Dans fantastic assertion that Michelle...Read more »
In the spirit of the celebration of Pride Week here in NY, I leave you with this submission to Steven Colberts Make McCain Exciting
, Vogue Edition! (Though I must admit my favorite submission is Super McCain Bros. Dude, he totally knows where all the
secret 1 ups
...Read more »
Today Now!: How To Pretend You Give A **** About The Election
A humorous look at feigning interest in the presidential election. From
Jeff...Read more »
Tonight, Michelle Obama is the
at the DNC's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council Gala at the Waldorf-Astoria. So this seems as good a time as any for me to declare for the first time publicly that Michelle Obama will be the new gay icon!
Move over Liza Minelli, Bette Midler and Hillary Clinton! I predict that over the next eight...Read more »
The Washington Post
beat me to the punch today on something Ive been kicking around with for a while: Why is it that in this year of unconventional candidates do we have a presidential election that is so, well, conventional?
McCain the maverick and Obama the post-partisan promised us something different if not traveling on the same plane to...Read more »
says Barack Obama is more popular than Jesus and Angelina Jolie, but I argue that he's not more popular than Miley Cyrus. How embarrassing, Barack. How embarrasing.
Emily...Read more »
playing up regarding Barack Obama and Scarlett Johanssen.
Does he, by chance, think he's too cool for her?
Emily...Read more »
The delightful thing about art is that you can interpret it many ways.
While the artist, Scott LoBaido, may have been intent on showing off his patriotism when he added his bubbles to this Reagan picture, there are plenty of people out there who would be more than willing to take his sincerity with a very big grain of irony.
LoBaido's exhibit of his surreal paintings opens at...Read more »
Gas prices are high. Whos to blame? Someone is always to blame, right? When prices rise for consumers, there has to be some corporate fat-cat wearing a monocle and lighting cigars with $100 bills and cackling maniacally.
Multiple choice: Whats the main reason for higher gas prices?
A: Oil speculators
B: The Iraq war
C: Greedy...Read more »
Donatella Versace has dedicated her latest spring/summer 2009 collection featured in Milan, Italy, this weekend to
citing that he is "a relaxed man who doesn't need to flex muscles to show he has power." She went on to recommend that Obama "get rid of the tie and jazz up the shirt. Perhaps Obama should loosen up and sport the silk tank top seen...Read more »

domain: news


Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about.
The Best of the Super Junior finals took place on Monday morning, with Hiromu Takahashi emerging as the winner in a terrific match. Bryan and Dave break down the card, including the main event. The full card for Dominion has also been released, and that is ran down as well.
After the Raw report, today’s mailbag is read which has topics such as why WWE doesn’t do two man commentary teams anymore, Naito disrespecting the titles he wears, Would Roman have gotten a better reaction at WrestleMania this year with the Shield by his side, Amber Gallows, jobbers who used Dave Meltzer’s name, which junior heavyweights in New Japan could be top heavyweights, Jake Roberts’ 1992 WCW run and more.
A fun show as always so check it out~!
Start - 5:20: CM Punk trial
6:53 - 29:35: Best of the Super Juniors finals, Dominion
29:35 - 54:09: Raw, SmackDown preview
54:09 - 55:03: Undertaker working MSG
55:03 - end: Mailbag


End - Dungeon Hack (DOS)
End plays as you watch the ending animation.
This song was extracted from the open.res file in the game's default install folder. The title comes from the footer information in the archive file. There are two copies of the file, one for Roland MT-32 and one for Adlib. There is no PC speaker version of this song.


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domain: chemistry


We are very pleased to have recently submitted a planning application for the Old Gym at the University of Birmingham. It was built in 1939-41 by Peacock and Bewlay, an important firm of local architects responsible for a number of buildings in the city. The £12.5m refurbishment project changes the existing dated gymnasium facilities into flexible teaching spaces on the ground floor including a lecture theatre, seminar rooms and student break out spaces. The first and second floor proposes open plan office space, seminar and meeting rooms for the Higher Education Futures Institute (HEFI), which includes an extension to the rear of the building.
The reconfigured building aims to achieve a BREEAM Excellent and EPC B rating. Works are scheduled to commence in the summer, with the building ready for student intake in 2018.


Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Strategies rolled into San Jose this week, bringing an unprecedented 4 days of search engine marketing advice (SEM) and news to more than 1,700 attendees. If you still had reservations about the legitimacy of search engine marketing, one look at the impressive roster of exhibitors, sponsors and attendees would quickly dispel any doubts.
More than 48 companies, including Google and Yahoo!, decided to exhibit at the event (the highest number of exhibitors ever for SES) and speakers included representatives from all the main search engines and top SEM companies.
At the immensely busy registration desk, a buzz was developing with attendees enthused about recent developments in the search engine industry. With Overture, Google and Lycos being just a few of the search engines expected to make some big announcements during the proceedings, the conference was expected to provide a lot more than just “how-to” information.
Day One of the conference had been designated as a “pre-conference” day, with the sessions taking two distinct streams. Sullivan had decided to move all the beginners’ SEM sessions to this first day, and to take the opportunity to provide an annual update on the economics of the search engine industry.
As part of this exclusive insight to the world’s largest SEO conference, I decided to take a seat in many of the search engine economics sessions, taking a break only to deliver my own presentation on “Search Term Research” (provided as part of the beginners’ itinerary).
Search Monetization Strategies
One of the most interesting sessions of the day was unquestionably Search Monetization Strategies. While none of the panelists could agree on what “monetization” really meant, they all had interesting information to share.
Sheryl Sandberg, VP of Global Online Sales & Operations for Google, was the first to speak. She explained that not only is Google the largest search engine property, it’s also the fastest growing. With more than 100,000 advertisers, 88 different interfaces and products in 11 languages, Google has taken great steps to secure its position and become profitable.
Sandberg also shared with the audience the great success Google had seen with the Google Search Appliance product, which allows any business to purchase an easy and effective search tool for their own Website. The list of customers for the tool includes Boeing, Cisco, and Xerox, confirming that this is another growing market for Google.
Sandberg also took the time to showcase the recently launched AdSense service, which allows the average Website to display Google’s AdWords campaigns and receive a commission on the click-throughs. The success of AdSense is in part due to the fact that Google is able to spider the Website of the proposed partner and use an algorithm to determine which ads would be most relevant to the pages the site displays. This format has proven to be far more accurate than simply asking the site owner which terms they thought were relevant to the page.
In finishing, Sandberg answered audience questions, and in so doing, confirmed that:
- Google has no plans to introduce a “paid inclusion” or trusted feed service at any time in the future.
- While Google’s AdWords service does track the click-through rates of ads, it does not track how long a visitor remains on the advertiser’s Website.
- In response to a question about eBay’s request that Google remove any ads that infringe on its copyright, Sandberg confirmed that these requests could be made by any company concerned about trademark or copyright infringement.
While Google is still the darling of the search engine industry, Yahoo! has caused quite a stir with its recent acquisitions. Tim Cadogan, VP of Search for Yahoo! explained some of the initiatives the business had taken to improve search offerings.
One of the most interesting developments has to be the new Product search. While still in beta testing, this service strikes an uncanny resemblance to Google’s new Froogle service. It comes as no surprise that the new service from Yahoo! will also include sponsored listings from Overture.
Cadogan also describe some important steps Yahoo! has taken to improve user access to search. These included:
- Showing Yahoo! Yellow Pages listings in search results for products or services that also include a zip code. E.g. Pizza delivery 95110
- A search for Weather or Maps for a particular location will bring up relevant information, not just search results
- Including a search box in Yahoo! Mail accounts so that a user who receives an email on a product or service can search without leaving their mailbox
With the inclusion in this session of Tony Mamone of LookSmart and Jim Diaz from Ask Jeeves, a lot of valuable information was shared.
Another session of interest was the Advertiser Roundtable. This was an opportunity for respected experts in the search engine marketing industry to discuss future developments of the search engine technology, in particular the areas of PPC and Paid Inclusion.
Most of the panelists agreed that there needed to be many improvements made to PPC or paid inclusion if the search engines wish to see marketers continue to use these mediums. Dana Todd of SiteLab International made a valid point when she complained that all current PPC solutions required an advertiser to pay the same click-through rate whether their ad appeared on one of the top search partners or some lowly, little-known search engine. She suggested that a model should be developed to allow for different costs per click depending on the quality of the traffic.
Kevin Lee of Did-It.com offered that there are two types of company that place high bids for search terms: those that are very smart, and those that are incredibly dumb. The smart bidders are the ones that track traffic and understand the value of their visitors, while the dumb bidders simply continue to increase their bids without knowing if the high bid will bring an ROI.
Asked whether PPC and paid inclusion would overtake Organic SEM, Frederick Markini of iProspect suggested that there would always be a need for a balance in online marketing. With PPC campaigns, Markini said, there is always a risk that a company will run out of money or no longer be able to keep up with escalating bids; he argued that organic SEM did not suffer from these pressures.
Industry Analyst Roundtable
The Industry Analyst Roundtable session brought together some of the industry’s best know analysts. Sullivan and Chris Sherman of Search Engine Watch were joined by Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld.com and Greg Notess of Search Engine Showdown.
This open forum took on a simple format that allowed audience members to interact directly with the panelists. Topics that were discussed included:
- Anecdotal evidence that simple paid inclusions did offer some assistance in achieving better search engine rankings, despite claims to the contrary by the search engines themselves.
- The limitations of PPC. Advertisers are limited to having their ads displayed only for search requests that they have identified and bid upon. Many search terms therefore have no PPC bids placed on them.
- The constant evolution of search engines. Google replaced AltaVista; will Nutch replace Google?
- Should XML Trusted feeds be labeled as such, clearly identifying their placement in search results?
Day Two of the conference reverted to the normal format expected from SES and with three distinct streams being offered, there was a variety of information to report back. In the meantime, I attended the “Google Dance”, a soiree that took place at the Googleplex, where I hoped to track down a Google employee and find out exactly what’s happening with their PageRank these days…
On Day Two, Search Engine Strategies promised to step up the pace by offering 3 separate itineraries for search engine marketers to choose from. While many attendees were recovering from the Google Dance the night before (which should probably be re-named “Googlepalooza” as the open air event offered a soundstage with DJs, marquees, Segway rides and massage chairs all designed to sweep attendees into further Google hysteria), they soon got down to business when Sullivan took to the podium to give an unprecedented keynote address on the state of the Search Engine Industry.
While Sullivan started off his address with a comical look at industry’s recent trend of acquisition upon acquisition, he soon got down to the nitty-gritty of the future of search. The fact that over 5 billion searches were conducted in the month of June this year confirmed that the search engines are here to stay. Sullivan decided to look into his “crystal ball” and made some predictions about what is to come. Some important predictions included:
- Sometime in 2004, Yahoo! will launch a new search engine that combines Inktomi, AltaVista and AllTheWeb technologies.
- MSN should also be ready to launch their own crawler in 2004, with the possibility of purchasing any of Ask Jeeves, FindWhat, LookSmart or even Google, to help speed up the implementation.
- AOL is likely to continue its partnership with Google as this remains a non-competitive relationship for them.
Moving on to consider the audience reach of the search engines, Sullivan explained how Google’s current reach of 76% of all searches would decline in 2004. He predicted that Google’s total audience would decrease to around 51%, with Yahoo! at 25%, MSN at 15%, and the other engines making up the remainder.
Next, Sullivan discussed the future popularity of the search engines, and suggested that Google might become a victim of its own popularity if both reporters and users experience “burn-out”. With his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, Sullivan predicted that Ask Jeeves would make valiant attempts to become the “Avis of search engines” by positioning itself as the #2 preferred search engine. He also believed that LookSmart would position itself as the most popular supplement to primary search results, continuing its current trend of being a provider to other search engines.
Sullivan expects to see growth and development in the paid placement and paid inclusion markets as search engines look to increase their advertising revenue from search results. Citing results from an IAB survey, Sullivan said he didn’t believe that search engine users would object to paid advertising, as 64% of them are already aware that it exists, and 52% of those do not care, provided the paid advertising is relevant to their search. Drawing from his previous journalism experience, he estimated that in the coming years search engines would increase the amount of paid advertising shown on a search results page from an average of 25% to around 70%.
Sullivan wrapped up his keynote address by answering a question on everyone’s mind; “Will SEO still be important in future?” He believed strongly that search engine optimization (SEO) would still be a dominant part of the industry as there will need to be a balance between paid ads and organic listings for some time to come.
Search Engines and Trademarks
While the Search Engines and Trademarks session concentrated on information that would be of most interest to those involved with the legal aspects of a company’s SEM campaign, there were some interesting comments that were important for all participants.
The recent incident where eBay asked Google to remove any sponsored ads that included their trademarked name drew claims of hypocrisy from this session’s panelists. They pointed out that while eBay did not want companies to bid on the word “eBay”, one could go to Google and search for trademarked names such as “Barbie” and instantly see paid ads for the product on sale at eBay.com.
The panelists also mentioned cases that are currently working their way through the legal system. They suggested that, while it might be fair for a company to use trademarked names in comparative examples, the waters become very murky when it comes to simply bidding on a competitor’s brand name. The best suggestion from all panelists was to seek legal advice before bidding on the trademarks of any company.
Cleaning Up The Mess
A topic that’s new to SES was “Cleaning up the Mess”, which looked at how to clean up spam that had been left by another SEO company. Many of the panelists discussed techniques for identifying spam that included viewing Google’s cache of the sender’s site, and the source code.
In addition, Matthew Bailey of The Karcher Group offered an assortment of techniques for spotting and rectifying spam. With Google’s PageRank fluctuating wildly over the past couple of months, Bailey urged SEOs to not automatically assume that a low or zero PageRank meant their Website had been penalized. However, he said, if you do determine that your site has been banned by Google, fixing the problem and then sending an apology email to Google to outline the problems that were fixed and promise not to take such actions again would be the best approach to having the ban lifted. Bailey also suggested owners view their Websites with a text viewer such as the one located at http://lynx.browser.org to determine how a spider might see their site.
Shari Thurow of GrantasticDesigns.com also suggested a few issues for which site owners should keep an eye out when they review a site. She pointed out that a site might not be banned from an engine, but may be prevented from being listed if it uses certain techniques. These included:
- A recently redesigned site that had switched from static to dynamic content might have trouble getting listed.
- A newly implemented Robots.txt file might also have an adverse effect on a site’s ranking if it wasn’t correctly formatted.
All panelists suggested that businesses should review the contract of any SEO firm they might consider to ensure that they wouldn’t be taking any risks with their rankings. A clearly outlined “anti-spam” policy was considered to be among the most important aspects to assess in the search for an SEO firm. The use of doorway pages was seen as one of the worst things an SEO could implement as part of an “organic” optimization campaign. Sullivan pointed out that using doorway pages for PPC was completely acceptable, though he confirmed that using them for “crawler” listings would be bad for any site.
Search Engine Ratings
It seems that a new search engine statistic or survey is released every week. The Search Engine Ratings session promised to shed some light on exactly where all this data comes from. Up first was James Lamberti of comScore Networks to provide details on how his company collects information and what they know about search engine use. Lamberti explained that comScore uses data collected from more than 1.5 million online consumers who agree to have their Internet activity monitored passively. Unlike some consumer rating companies, comScore is able to track numerous types of Internet activity including searches, click-rates and conversions.
The company is unique in that it’s able to track online activity in addition to asking the normal consumer survey questions. The benefits of this were apparent when Lamberti offered two stunning statistics:
- 15% of Google visitors do not actually visit Google to search. He gave the example that many people have Google set as their homepage; it appears every time they launch their browser. This registers a visitor for Google even though no actual search was carried out.
- 20% of consumers surveyed attributed their searches to the wrong search engine. For example, they may have said they went to AOL, but the data tracked by comScore showed they actually used MSN.
The remainder of the panel was made up of experts from Nielsen/NetRatings, Hitwise and Statmarket. While none of them could agree on percentage share of search engine users, between them they offered some very interesting statistics:
- While Google may be dominant in the US, in Japan, Yahoo! receives 74.19% of all searches.
- There were 5.5 billion searches carried out worldwide in June 2003, up by 28% on the previous year.
- In 2002, more than 25% of all online product purchases originated from a search engine.
- While 96.9% of US searches are carried out on US search engines, only 56.6% of UK searches were done on a UK search engine. In fact, the US Google is more often used in the UK than Google.co.uk.
The end of the ratings session also marked the end of the second day of Search Engine Strategies, San Jose. Day Three brings Google co-founder Sergey Brin to the Keynote address podium and advanced topics of search engine marketing and search engine technology are also introduced.
Day Three: A Chat With Sergey Brin
Day Three of Search Engine Strategies, San Jose included a wide range of sessions covering broad topics such as “Meet the Crawlers” and the more targeted “Google API”. However, there was not an empty seat in the house when Danny Sullivan sat down with Google co-founder, Sergey Brin on the eve of his 30th birthday, to chat about the past and future of the world’s most famous search engine.
Sitting in two elegant arm chairs with a large plasma screen providing a back-drop of a roaring log fire, the setting suggested that we were eves-dropping on 2 old friends as they reminisced about the past.
It has been 5 years since Google entered the search engine arena, and in that time the then unknown challenger to AltaVista has grown from indexing 15 million pages to a colossal 3+ billion, and now serves 76% of US searches. Sullivan recalled how Brin had attended one of the earlier conferences and had asked the audience who had heard of Google. Back then, few hands went up. Laughter circulated today’s audience when Sullivan gave Brin the opportunity to ask the same question, “Who here has heard of Google?”
Sullivan then proceeded to real off the developments that Google had made this year alone — AdSense, Toolbars, buying Blogger, launching Google News Alerts, and more. Asked if he was proud of these accomplishments, Brin replied modestly that despite the list sounding impressive, he believed they were “not doing enough.” Brin wanted his company to expand even further and provide searchers with even more technological developments and enhancements that would expand the use and enjoyment of Google.
Expanding Content on the Web
Sullivan wanted to know which of the past year’s accomplishments Brin was particularly pleased with. After giving the question some thought, Brin replied that the recent launch of their “AdSense” service was his proudest moment. The affiliate type service allowed small businesses an opportunity to display Google’s AdWords sponsors on their own Website, providing a means for many companies to increase income from their sites by sharing the revenue these sponsorships generated. Brin expressed his desire for AdSense to “spur the next generation of content on the Web”.
An IPO for Google?
Sullivan asked Brin if an IPO was on the horizon, and if he could estimate when Google might make a public offering. In giving his answer, Brin made it clear that he was focused on building a better search engine to assist the world; the last thing on his mind was to have to answer to Wall Street. “We debate [going public] periodically at board meetings” said Brin, adding that it “would be nice to have currency to do acquisitions, [however] there are significant management distractions with being public”. While his statements seemed to signal that Google does not intend to become a public company, Brin did admit that there is a “good chance eventually” that they would issue an IPO, but that it is currently “not the most pressing thing.”
Google to acquire MSN?
If issuing an IPO was not in the future for Google, was an acquisition strategy likely to be developed? Sullivan couldn’t resist putting a twist on a recurring question, “Any chance Google would buy Microsoft?” Brin joined the audience in raucous laughter as everyone dismissed this as an impossibility, although with Google’s reputation and dominance, you might be forgiven for thinking that this impossible scenario could just happen.
On a more serious note, Sullivan did ask Brin whether Google would entertain any advances made by a rival such as MSN. “We have always said “no” thus far” Brin explained, before going on to elaborate that the company “can’t discount any approach.” This statement created more questions than it answered, suggesting that rumors of an approach by MSN and Yahoo! contained an element of truth.
Turning to the technology developments that Google had planned for the future, Sullivan asked Brin to elaborate on the work that goes into the constant development of the famed Google PageRank. Brin explained that it was still very much an important part of Google’s ranking system and that more than half a dozen new ranking technologies are tested each month, with roughly half of these being integrated into Google’s PageRank algorithm.
He went to on discuss the issues Google faces with spam and indicated that Google is aware of the “corrupt” practices of some companies in an attempt to manipulate the PageRank, making it quite clear that the engine has technologies to deal with any misuse.
Paid Inclusion not Likely at Google
A request that’s often made to Google is that the engine introduce a paid inclusion option so that those interested in obtaining faster inclusion in the index can do so at a premium. While many representatives of Google have in the past suggested that this is unlikely to happen,
Brin made a point of clarifying his dislike for the introduction of paid inclusion. “I don’t really believe in it,” he said, adding that he wanted to “keep any kind of payment from objective search results”. Indeed, “objective search” is the very thing that has made Google popular, hence it’s founder’s reluctance to tinker with its formula for success. In the second part of the question, Sullivan asked whether Google had given any thought to offering some form of “paid support” to allow Webmasters a faster and easier way of communicating problems to Google engineers. This was also a “no go” as far as Brin was concerned, as he believed that offering this type of premium support would sap resources and “slow down [Google’s] pace of development.”
As the virtual fire-place started to die down, Sullivan asked Brin what was the worst thing about being at the helm of the world’s most popular and widely-analyzed search engine. After taking a few seconds to consider the question, Brin offered a simple answer, “coping with the growth”. While many of us might think that we would love to be involved with a company growing as rapidly as Google, being in control of behemoth such as this can be a daunting task for anyone — let alone someone who has yet to celebrate his 30th birthday.
While many attendees had decided to forego day four of Search Engine Strategies in order to catch flights home, those that did stay on were offered very diverse and interesting sessions.
Converting Visitors into Buyers
The most important topic of the day for any search engine marketer had to be Converting Visitors into Buyers. While some marketers concentrate on simply obtaining top rankings in Google, Yahoo! and other search engines, more experienced SEM’s know the importance of actually converting that valuable traffic. An impressive panel of speakers provided the audience with ideas and solutions to increase a Website’s conversion ratio.
While iProspect is known for its more comprehensive service and higher pricing, it does allow for extensive work in the area of visitor conversion. Conversion Product Manager, Larry Kerstein, shared with the attendees different factors that help ensure a Website encourages conversions. While the natural thought process might lead a Website owner to write text that screams “buy it now”, Kerstein suggested that in some instances your visitor may not yet know that they need your product or service.
He suggested that the copy on a Website should inform and educate a visitor so that they can ultimately decide what meets their needs. Once they know what it is you offer and why it is better than your competitor’s product, you can then encourage them to order. Talking to the buyer in the language of the buyer and using benefit statements rather than product specifications were also conducive to increased client conversions according to Kerstein.
Michael Sack, Chief Product Officer for Inceptor offered similar advice, but suggested that you “do not have to take apart your Website to increase conversions.” Citing an example from Dell’s Website he backed up his theory by demonstrating that the computer manufacturer had increased conversion rates by 6% through simply enhancing the category structure of certain areas of their Website. He provided research from Shop.org that suggested that the average conversion rate for the retail sector was just 1.8%.
Sack also gave attendees examples of questions a visitor may ask themselves when at a Website:
- Why should I buy from you?
- Should I trust you?
- What is special about your company?
The most important part of Sack’s message was that site owners should simply “expose their content on the Internet”. By this he was suggesting that too few Websites offer enough information about a product or service and with many people using the search engines to research a purchase, it was essential that marketers provide this valuable information. Finally, Sack told attendees to constantly “test, analyze and adjust”, giving a great example of how different types of pages tested on MSN yielded conversion rates from 1.75% to more than 3%.
Repeat speaker Heather Lloyd Martin took the conversion process to a different level when she argued that the conversion begins when you entice a search user to actually click on your listing. She implored marketers to ensure that Title tags and Descriptions were compelling to real, live humans and not just search engine friendly. She explained that a site that was ranked towards the bottom of a search result page could have higher click-throughs than the number one listed site if its listing were more enticing and strongly targeted.
Of course, in order to accurately track all of these conversions, a Website owner would need to ensure accurate reporting and tracking of visitors. The Measuring Tool Vendors session brought different Web analytics companies together in one room to tout the benefits of each of their respective products.
Representatives of all the major analytics tools were in attendance, each offering the benefits of their product and how it worked. The companies included:
- Urchin.com â€“ software-based analytics starting at $895 with additional modules priced at $695. A 15 day trial is available at their Website.
- ConversionRuler.com â€“ for the minimalist who’s looking for a cheap alternative. Focused on reporting PPC data, the service is priced “per click through” analyzed. A free trial is available.
WebTrends.com â€“ the most well known and most popular Web analytics service on the market. Comprehensive stats can even show you which stage of a site’s checkout process causes the most aborted sales.
ClickTracks.com â€“ the newest, but arguably the most original Web analytics package around. ClickTracks displays Website visitor behavior directly on the pages of your site. Different demos can be downloaded from the Website.
John Marshall of ClickTracks was particularly entertaining when he decided to skip thru his entire presentation in about 30 seconds so that he could discuss a book that he felt would provide great insight for marketers looking to collect and present data. Marshall suggested that each attendee purchase Edward Tufte’s “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” as it would assist them in analyzing Website data. While the unique abandonment of his own product to discuss a book may have seemed crazy, I suspect that Marshall knew that the findings of the book would lead marketers to conclude that ClickTracks’ unique display of Website analytics was the perfect solution to their needs.
As the last day of the conference wound down, a wave of satisfaction appeared to be felt by all of those involved. The attendees, staff, exhibitors, speakers (and those of us who had agreed to write daily articles when they should have been relaxing) all agreed that the event had been the most successful and well received search engine conference yet.
The industry is growing at a rapid rate. Not only is there change in the landscape for the search engines, but search engine marketers are also evolving and adapting. With the successful launch of SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization), marketers now even have a “trade union” in an industry that is expected to grow by billions of dollars each year.
If you were not able to attend the conference in San Jose, I hope this article has given you an insight into the developments taking place, and maybe even encouraged you to attend the next conference in Chicago in December. If you were able to make it, I’m sure you will agree that the event was an outstanding success.


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July is nearly over and by now most of my followers know to expect a video game challenge report at the end of each month. It’s my way of keeping track of my own personal progress while discussing impressions I have had on the game I chose to play from my hill of a backlog. Despite my dogged determination to play and experience every game I ever bought or received as a gift, going as far as turning it into a challenge, even fatigue and lack of motivation can sometimes strike the best and most ardent of gamers.
Online game nights, or every other weekend for online fun, is a tradition I cherish with my good friend. Sometimes our options for multiplayer games we can play together are limited, but they aren’t lacking in quality either. Since coming back from my vacation a few weeks ago, we got together to play a few rounds of Overwatch. By going back to Blizzard Entertainment’s stellar online multiplayer game, I finally got to discover the joys of Overwatch’s latest addition to the team Brigitte.
This year has been a bit of a dry spell for me when it comes to finding video games I want to purchase and play. Then, there has been a gradual increase in games I really wanted to have when I heard the latest new releases that hit in June. Whenever there’s a new game I want to play, the question I now find myself asking is in what form should I buy it as? Physical game disc or digital download?
The official start of summer is June 21st and it’s about that time most people will be planning getaways, whether it be big or small. When you’re a working adult, it almost doesn’t matter when you take off for vacation. As long as there’s no conflict with work and personal schedules, you can go away any season. But one advantage of going away during the summer is the warmer weather. The clothes you pack will be lighter and there’s no need to lug around a bulky winter jacket, at least if you’re not heading to Antarctica. What’s with all this talk of vacations and summer? I’ll be heading out on my next adventure!
My friend and I started a tradition of playing games that offer an online multiplayer feature or cooperative play ever since I joined the vast and wonderful world of video games. We have played everything from Borderlands to Overwatch. It’s quality time we look forward to scheduling every other weekend when we may not always see each other in person due to conflicting work schedules. It has made playing and finishing games easier and fun when you have another person uniting in your cause to seeing a game through to the end, or at least having a partner to fight a particularly hard boss. The latest game to be added to our small but growing collection of games we can and have played together is Far Cry 5.
A little progress is better than no progress. It’ll always be a challenge to divide my time between everything I want to do during my downtime. In the end, you do find a way. It also helps when you have a long weekend to do a little gaming. While all of America is wrapping up their Memorial Day weekends, let’s check in and see where I’m at with my progress for Spirit of Justice.
One of the most rewarding things about blogging is its community. The simple act of reading, commenting, and following other bloggers, whose interests are similar to your own, leads you to life long friends and supporters you never would have connected with otherwise. And what’s especially great about the WordPress community is the overwhelming warmth and kindness that unfailingly greets you every time you come online, which can sometimes inspire your fellow peers to nominate you for a blogging award.
April has been a jam packed month between attending PAX East, planning out a birthday, and taking care of a personal family matter. Despite the balancing act I found myself in this month, I was determined to make time for Spirit of Justice. On the final day of the month, let’s find out if my persistence finally paid off.
Two weekends ago another PAX East was held in the great city of Boston. I was fortunate enough to attend the always busy and exciting video game convention that happens once a year for a third time. Saturday was the only day I was able to go to PAX, but even one day there is enough to experience almost everything the convention has to offer.
This past weekend was another PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts. Although I only had a one day attendance at the convention, I’m still recovering from a fun but exhausting weekend in Boston. Until I can fully get my bearings to write up a full report on what I did and saw at the convention, enjoy some of the photos I snapped at the Expo Hall.

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