Browse > Home / Schools / Hazen students teach lessons about big-budget decisions
May 1, 2013
By Christina Corrales-Toy
By Christina Corrales-Toy Hazen High School sophomore Shiva Prasad (center) is surrounded by Nelsen Middle School students as they make real-world financial decisions during a simulation that teaches kids about budgeting.
Adulthood comes with its perks, including a long-awaited sense of freedom, but it also brings to light the inevitable financial, familial and personal responsibilities that go with it.
ATLANTA ? Already beset with injuries to other key members of their lineup, the Nationals got a scare tonight when their most important player had to depart with what initially looked like a serious injury.
Bryce Harper, though, is fairly confident he didn't strain any muscles on an awkward, sixth-inning swing, and is dealing only with a bruise to his left side suffered Tuesday night when he crashed into the outfield fence.
"If I can play tomorrow, I'm gonna play," Harper said. "If they put me in the lineup, I'm gonna play. I can play with pain and I can tolerate pain, so hopefully there's nothing that can keep me out of that lineup tomorrow."
Davey Johnson also downplayed the significance of the injury, though the veteran manager didn't sound inclined to take a chance and let his 20-year-old slugger play in Thursday's series finale at Turner Field.
"We'll take it day-by-day and we'll check him tomorrow," Johnson said. "But he'll probably be out of there."
Harper originally hurt himself Tuesday slamming into the right-field wall on Tim Hudson's homer, a collision that left a long, nasty-looking gash down his left side. Though he was able to continue playing with the bad bruise, his check swing in the top of the sixth tonight was particularly painful.
"I think having all the force going towards the ball and then just stopping, immediately it just got me a little bit," he said. "Got me to the point where I couldn't breathe real quick and had to catch my breath. It didn't feel very good."
Harper did remain at the plate and grounded the next pitch from Paul Maholm to first base. He ran only halfway down the line, then gingerly returned to the dugout, where he met with Johnson and trainers. He didn't take the field for the bottom of the sixth, with Roger Bernadina taking his place in right field.
After an hour of rest and treatment, Harper said he felt somewhat better.
"It's just a little tight," he said. "I think that's the biggest thing. Went in there, iced it, did some treatment a little bit. Of course, once you ice it, it tightens up a little bit. So like I said, hopefully I can come in tomorrow and feel like a million bucks and play."
The Nationals already went into this game without regular right fielder Jayson Werth (battling ankle and hamstring injuries) and third baseman Ryan Zimmerman (eligible to come off the disabled list Friday after straining his hamstring).
X-rays on Werth's ankle were negative, and he hopes to play in Thursday's series finale. Zimmerman went 0-for-3 in a rehab game at Class A Potomac. He's scheduled to work out Thursday morning, then fly to Pittsburgh to meet the Nationals in time for Friday's series opener at PNC Park.
If a good country song tells a story, then George Jones was a master storyteller. The Country Music Hall of Famer, who passed away last Friday at age 81, spun tales both comical and heart-breaking, from his autobiographical drinking-gone-awry hit "Honky Tonk Song" to the emotionally charged ballad "He Stopped Loving Her Today," regarded by many to be the greatest country music recording of all time. Unfortunately, the story of selling Jones' Franklin, Tenn., estate could be a song in its own right.
First listed for $15 million in March 2011, the 80-acre property has received a series of price cuts since hitting the market. Jones and his wife even tried dividing the property into five parcels and putting it up for auction, but total bids only reached the $2 million mark, and the couple declined those offers. The price dropped in late March to its current $8 million -- but 500 percent more expensive -- per square foot -- than a middle-of-the-road Franklin home.
The equestrian estate was built in 1993 and boasts immaculate green pastures, with a 9,704-square-foot main house and several outbuildings. Showcasing its Tennessee character, the four-bedroom, 7.5-bath mansion also features a grand entryway, long porch and even a personal barber shop. The for-sale listing for Jones' longtime residence is held by Bailey & Ivey.
See the listing for more details.
Find more homes for sale in Franklin, Tenn., or search listings in your area.
See more on Zillow: Rascal Flatts Band Member Selling Tennessee Home Larry Hagman's Home Gets Another Price Cut Price Drop for Kenny Rogers-Designed Estate in Georgia
More on AOL Real Estate: See celebrity homes. Find out how to calculate mortgage payments. Find homes for sale in your area. Find foreclosures in your area.
Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.
Brewster launched late last year with a simple goal: Replace your tired old A-to-Z contact list with an address book that actually understands your relationships and, in turn, helps you become a better friend. For some of us, this feels like a hopeless pursuit. We're overworked, stressed, have terrible breath, and just can't seem to find enough hours in the day to better manage our personal relationships. It starts in your twenties and gets worse from there.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A private equity group made up of Bain Capital LLC and Golden Gate Capital Corp has emerged as the lead contender to buy BMC Software Inc for more than $6.5 billion, three people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Bain and Golden Gate, which made a binding bid for the business software maker on April 22, offered more than a rival consortium of KKR & Co LP, TPG Capital LP and Thoma Bravo LLC, the sources said.
The exact bids could not immediately be learned, but one of the sources said the offers came in a range of $45 to $50 per share, valuing the company at more than $6.5 billion.
A deal for BMC Software would be one of the largest leveraged buyouts so far this year, after Michael Dell teamed up with private equity firm Silver Lake Partners LP to take Dell Inc private for $24.4 billion. Silver Lake accounts for only a quarter of the equity in that deal.
Buoyant debt markets have encouraged private equity to consider larger deals, which in turn call for larger equity checks and make buyout firms more open to teaming up.
BMC Software has not granted exclusivity to Bain and Golden Gate and the rival consortium could still raise its bid, or the business technology company may yet decide not to sell at all, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the matter is not public. BMC is trying to finalize an agreement in the coming week, one of the people added.
BMC Software and KKR did not respond to requests for comment while TPG, Bain, Thoma Bravo and Golden Gate declined to comment.
BMC Software shares ended trading at $45.58 on Tuesday, giving the company a value of $6.5 billion. It competes with Oracle Corp, SAP AG, CA Inc and Compuware Corp, and has been under pressure from Paul Singer's activist hedge fund Elliott Associates LP to sell itself since last year.
Elliott, which has a 9.7 percent stake in the company, argued that BMC's management was neglecting a huge opportunity to expand into Internet-based business software, a market dominated by the likes of Salesforce.com Inc. The world's largest providers of software for enterprises, including Oracle, SAP and Microsoft Corp, have already begun investing heavily in that market.
Houston, Texas-based BMC is due to announce first-quarter earnings on May 7. Its shares have rallied 14.7 percent since the start of the year, on expectations of a deal, compared with a 9.5 percent rise in the NASDAQ.
BMC Software currently trades at 11.5 times projected 12-month earnings, compared with an 11.1 times average for its peer group, according to Thomson Reuters data.
BMC said on April 8 that it would reduce its workforce following a company-wide operational review. Those job cuts will result in pretax charges of approximately $33 million to $38 million for severance and related termination costs, it added.
Rival Compuware, which has rejected a $2.3 billion bid from Elliott, is also exploring a sale and talking to buyout firms to gauge takeover interest, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
Elliott is a seasoned investor in the software sector. It is a shareholder in business software company Attachmate Corp, alongside Golden Gate, Thoma Bravo and Francisco Partners.
(Editing by Gary Hill, Chris Gallagher and Edmund Klamann)
Google announced that Google Now, the predictive search feature from Google, is now available on iOS devices. You can download it by just downloading or upgrading the Google Search App via iTunes App Store. Once you do, to activate it...
Contact: Christian Borch cbo.lpf@cbs.dk 45-38-15-36-27 University of Copenhagen
Participants of group riots have since the end of the 1960s been viewed as rational individuals driven by a sense of injustice. But in today's world this is misleading, concludes sociologist and PhD Christian Borch in a newly published doctoral thesis, and he encourages the police to take the destructive behaviour of some participants into account when dealing with groups of rioters.
During the so-called 'UK Riots' in the summer of 2011, discontented young people set the streets of London alight and looted shopping centres. The initial strategy of the police which was to communicate with rioters soon failed. Instead they resorted to using batons and containment. Within a Danish context, the violent reactions to the clearance of "Ungdomshuset" in 2007 show that a revolt can develop into serious criminal actions.
According to Christian Borch, these examples illustrate that group rioting are not solely based on righteous indignation and considered planning:
"The notion of the 1960s that social movements happened as a legitimate response to social injustice created the impression of riots as being rational. Crowds however do not have to be rational entities," says Christian Borch.
In a new doctoral thesis "The Politics of Crowds: An Alternative History of Sociology" from University of Copenhagen, Christian Borch analyses the historical development of the concept of crowds in a sociological context.
"The riots in London demonstrate the existence of a lack of rational thought processes as the events had an entirely spontaneous and irrational character. People looted for the sake of looting, for many this was not necessarily born out of a sense of injustice," says Christian Borch who has analysed the strategies of the Metropolitan police in connection with the London riots.
Danish riots attracted violent supporters
The riots surrounding the clerance of "Ungdomshuset" at Jagtvej 69 in Denmark illustrate that demonstrations are capable of creating a self-perpetuating sense of dynamics which accenture the irrational elements. Thus, setting cars alight and breaking windows became part of the rioting.
"During the Danish riots there existed on the one hand a sense of rationality within the young people's protests, in so far as they were drive by a political motivated interest. However, other people who were normally not affiliated with 'Ungdomshuset' became a part of the conflict and participated in the riots without any shared purpose. They were having fun and the adrenalin kicked in," says Christian Borch.
It is inner group dynamics which fuel pointless bahaviour.
"Riots can assume self-perpetuating dynamics which is not driven by rational motives. When individuals form a crowd they can become irrational and driven by emotion which occur as part of the rioting," says Christian Borch.
Inspiration to police tactics
Thinking of crowds as rational entities has since 2000 affected the way in which the British police have handled riots. The UK Riots serve as an example of this. The police worked on the promise that they were dealing with rational individuals with sensible objectives which is why their plan of action was based on communication rather than containment. This however, did not work in practice.
"The interesting aspect of the London riots was to ascertain that it was pointless to address the crowds through a communication strategy. The rational way of regarding the crowds came to nothing whereas the traditional form of containment did. This shows that at certain times a successful solution is not to handle crowds based on dialogue-orientated efforts," says Christian Borch.
In addition to the police, Christian Borch encourages town planners, sociologists and economists to apply a more critical approach when dealing with the concept of crowds.
3 May at 13:00 Christian Borch defends his doctoral thesis "The Politics of Crowds: An Alternative History of Sociology". The defence is open to the public and will be held at University of Copenhagen, Alexandersalen, Bispetorvet 1-3, building 701, 1167 Kbenhavn K.
Christian Borch has written most of his doctoral thesis in a position of post doc at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Copenhagen. He is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School.
UK Riots 2011
Around 4000 rioters were arrested during the protests in the streets of London in the late summer of 2011. The British paper The Guardian and London School of Economics collaborated in a report providing facts about the riots including profiles of the rioters. Link to the report:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2011/dec/14/reading-the-riots-investigating-england-s-summer-of-disorder-full-report.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Christian Borch cbo.lpf@cbs.dk 45-38-15-36-27 University of Copenhagen
Participants of group riots have since the end of the 1960s been viewed as rational individuals driven by a sense of injustice. But in today's world this is misleading, concludes sociologist and PhD Christian Borch in a newly published doctoral thesis, and he encourages the police to take the destructive behaviour of some participants into account when dealing with groups of rioters.
During the so-called 'UK Riots' in the summer of 2011, discontented young people set the streets of London alight and looted shopping centres. The initial strategy of the police which was to communicate with rioters soon failed. Instead they resorted to using batons and containment. Within a Danish context, the violent reactions to the clearance of "Ungdomshuset" in 2007 show that a revolt can develop into serious criminal actions.
According to Christian Borch, these examples illustrate that group rioting are not solely based on righteous indignation and considered planning:
"The notion of the 1960s that social movements happened as a legitimate response to social injustice created the impression of riots as being rational. Crowds however do not have to be rational entities," says Christian Borch.
In a new doctoral thesis "The Politics of Crowds: An Alternative History of Sociology" from University of Copenhagen, Christian Borch analyses the historical development of the concept of crowds in a sociological context.
"The riots in London demonstrate the existence of a lack of rational thought processes as the events had an entirely spontaneous and irrational character. People looted for the sake of looting, for many this was not necessarily born out of a sense of injustice," says Christian Borch who has analysed the strategies of the Metropolitan police in connection with the London riots.
Danish riots attracted violent supporters
The riots surrounding the clerance of "Ungdomshuset" at Jagtvej 69 in Denmark illustrate that demonstrations are capable of creating a self-perpetuating sense of dynamics which accenture the irrational elements. Thus, setting cars alight and breaking windows became part of the rioting.
"During the Danish riots there existed on the one hand a sense of rationality within the young people's protests, in so far as they were drive by a political motivated interest. However, other people who were normally not affiliated with 'Ungdomshuset' became a part of the conflict and participated in the riots without any shared purpose. They were having fun and the adrenalin kicked in," says Christian Borch.
It is inner group dynamics which fuel pointless bahaviour.
"Riots can assume self-perpetuating dynamics which is not driven by rational motives. When individuals form a crowd they can become irrational and driven by emotion which occur as part of the rioting," says Christian Borch.
Inspiration to police tactics
Thinking of crowds as rational entities has since 2000 affected the way in which the British police have handled riots. The UK Riots serve as an example of this. The police worked on the promise that they were dealing with rational individuals with sensible objectives which is why their plan of action was based on communication rather than containment. This however, did not work in practice.
"The interesting aspect of the London riots was to ascertain that it was pointless to address the crowds through a communication strategy. The rational way of regarding the crowds came to nothing whereas the traditional form of containment did. This shows that at certain times a successful solution is not to handle crowds based on dialogue-orientated efforts," says Christian Borch.
In addition to the police, Christian Borch encourages town planners, sociologists and economists to apply a more critical approach when dealing with the concept of crowds.
3 May at 13:00 Christian Borch defends his doctoral thesis "The Politics of Crowds: An Alternative History of Sociology". The defence is open to the public and will be held at University of Copenhagen, Alexandersalen, Bispetorvet 1-3, building 701, 1167 Kbenhavn K.
Christian Borch has written most of his doctoral thesis in a position of post doc at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Copenhagen. He is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School.
UK Riots 2011
Around 4000 rioters were arrested during the protests in the streets of London in the late summer of 2011. The British paper The Guardian and London School of Economics collaborated in a report providing facts about the riots including profiles of the rioters. Link to the report:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2011/dec/14/reading-the-riots-investigating-england-s-summer-of-disorder-full-report.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uCgGaIYwggF_NEkMpjlc8lZsuIybRzA4Y7xB3ivhUFwKQ7oedZIM9Ao9dLqhuW4__OLnJVsjz5e7JyBVy_Jumbg5klMLnlQkKI9FBMWpg=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 30-Apr-2013
Share ]