I was sad to hear sxsw was closing, but had not heard that the cotton mill was closing. We ate there shortly after it opened, and there were some timing issues with our meals, but the food & service were excellent. We hadn't been to either in a while, but it was due to things going on at home not due to the economy.

Love the wider center column!

6 years ago, I interviewed with Intellon http://www.intellon.com/ a company that makes a lot of the innards of powerline networks. It's good & interesting technology, but will always be limited by the ubiquity of wireless networks - even though they are often a pain.

The better 990 to compare w/Novant is NC Baptist Hospital. It appeared that Novant had expenses 10% less than income and NCBH about 3% less than income. What level would you deem "plowing their profits back into their mission?" No margin? I don't know of many other non-profits that are as capital intensive as hospitals, and each has bond obligations measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. They need to have some 'profit' to continue paying their obligations and to continue expansion. Didn't Novant pump money into the new Sara Lee Women's center, and NCBH is planning on a major expansion over the next few years. I don't think either of your plans are good ideas. Would NC then revisit every hospital in the state? NCBH is not just competing with Forsyth, but with the other teaching hospitals in NC. I don't think the state dictating to hospitals where to build is useful, as then they would mandate a given size, etc. The issue is really whose hospital plan for Clemmons/Davie is better, and I don't know by what criteria that would be judged.

Is there a reason besides your cousin & proximity to Lewisville why you support Novant? Your ideal plan sounds like Baptist bulding a new hospital near the existing Davie Cty Hospital - http://www.daviehospital.org/ - and Novant building the Clemmons Hospital. I could see a new Clemmons hospital taking a lot of business away from the existing DCH, making it unviable economically, and I doubt it makes sense to build both hospitals. I didn't understand all the debate, but I guess this boils down to which plan gets state approval. My wife is a resident at Baptist, but we'll be using the L&D services at Forsyth in the next couple weeks.

My seats weren't quite as good, view here:http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/viewPhoto?uname=jimcaserta&aid=5120294959899847457&iid=5120294994259585842 but were still good. Photo via my cameraphone. The game was sloppy to start, but Wake took it to them in the 2nd half. As a gator I can always enjoy seeing fsu lose. The atmosphere is a lot different at Groves than at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium aka the Swamp. How about that traffic getting in though!

I really don't like that "Love & Money" section in the WallSJ. It gets reprinted in our WSJ and makes me laugh.

Two consecutive even integers, 2x and 2x+2, smaller (2x) = 10 more than half the greater (10 + x+1), 2x=11+x, x=11, so the two are 22, and 24. The problem with subs gets worse in high school. It's hard enough to find competent full-time teachers for Calculus, Physics, Chem, etc. When we had a sub in Calculus my teacher gave them a note that said, "let Jim explain this". There should always be one kid in class who really gets the material and can help out the rest of class. Instruction is overrated. To learn math or science you have to work problems, you can't just listen to someone. Teachers can have students do this on class time and then go over the answers, but students need to do at least as much individual time into assignments as listening time. English class doesn't accomplish much if you never read the book. To help the problem, you could have students work together (I know the risk of that - all talk) or have study-hall type setups at school. What also gets lost is that high achieving students are accomplishing more and more before entering college. I think my parents took 0 college classes in HS, I took 10, which is now not even that high a number. If kids are learning more, it has to get done sometime.

Did you watch the NCAA championship game? Oden was the only buckeye doing anything against the Gators. That plus Durant not being able to bench press 185 once favored Oden.

Is this post #1000?

Novant seems to be fairly open with their books: http://www.novanthealth.org/about_novant_health/financial_profile/annual_financial_info.jsp and I think WFUBMC has a similar site. I think you can look up or request not-for-profit IRS records, which list 5-10 highest paid employees. There should be no need for the secrecy.

I think this is a hoax. Check out: www.engadget.com/entry/1234000317047049/