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5 things you missed: Stream the iTunes Music Festival, a Netflix for photos, more
1. Watch your favorite bands at SXSW – but only if you have an Apple device
Music and video streaming service Vevo has partnered with Apple to live stream the iTunes Music Festival at South by Southwest (SXSW), but there is a catch. You can only stream if you have a Mac, iOS device or Apple TV. If you do, from now through March 15, you can catch bands like Coldplay, Keith Urban and more.
Read more: Vevo strikes deal to stream Apple's iTunes Festival at SXSW, but only on iOS, Mac and Apple TV (TheNextWeb)
2. 500px wants to help you find beautiful photos
Photo company 500px has a new business model – to help marketers, publishers and others find photos based on previous searches. The service sells photos for a fixed fee of $250 and uses the information from past searches to not only make recommendations, but let you know which photos could go viral.
Read more: Photo-sharing startup 500px wants to be the Netflix of beautiful pictures(Business Insider)
3. This new app curates, personalizes your sports experience
Chat Sports has developed a native iOS app that curates sports content from around the web and customizes based on what sporting events or teams you follow. The app delivers notifications when news breaks or is published about your team, but also lets you follow other users and get alerts when a new comment or post is published.
Read more: Chat Sports goes mobile, pokes at the impersonal and anti-social nature of legacy sports news players (PandoDaily)
4. CarThrottle videos can now be seen on YouTube
Car enthusiasts rejoice: CarThrottle, the site dedicated to news and videos about the automotive industry, has partnered with YouTube to produce videos directly through the social site.
Read more: CarThrottle, the BuzzFeed for cars, signs directly with YouTube as it continues to step on the gas(TechCrunch)
5. JawBone releases UP24 for Android
JawBone's UP24, an wearable wristband fitness tracker, can now be paired with an Android. JawBone just launched the UP 3.0 app in the Google Play store. Since its release in December, the wearable could only be paired with iOS device.
Read more: JawBone releases UP 3.0 app for Android with support for new UP24 band (ZDNet)


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Expensify.org/hunger SNAP campaign status
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subset: commoncrawl


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The side effects of chemotherapy depend on the type of chemotherapy, duration of treatment, and the amount given. Anticipating and managing anemia (decreased number of red blood cells that carry oxygen to the body) can help to minimize it and avoid blood transfusions.
Anemia and chemotherapy
As each person's individual medical profile and diagnosis is different, so is his or her reaction to treatment. Side effects may be severe, mild, or absent. Be sure to discuss with your cancer care team possible side effects of treatment before the treatment begins.
Red blood cells (RBCs) carry oxygen to other cells throughout your body. Chemotherapy can damage your body's ability to make RBCs, so body tissues do not get enough oxygen, a condition called anemia. People who have anemia may feel very weak or tired, dizzy, faint, or short of breath, or may feel that their hearts are beating very fast. Consult your doctor immediately if you experience any of these symptoms.
You will be given frequent tests to measure your hemoglobin and hematocrit during your therapy. These numbers are used to watch for anemia. If you have too few red blood cells, you may need a blood transfusion or medications, such as epoetin or darbepoetin, to raise the number of red blood cells in your body. Talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits in your specific case. These medicines take time to work. If the anemia is severe or you have symptoms, your doctor may decide not to wait until they work and to give you a transfusion.
What can I do if I have anemia?
Consider the following strategies to help manage anemia and fatigue:
Plan time to rest during the day.
Take short naps or breaks. Make sure that you get enough sleep.
Limit your activities to those that are most important.
Try easier or shorter versions of activities you enjoy.
Take short walks or do light exercise, if possible.
Consider activities, such as meditation, prayer, yoga, guided imagery, or visualization.
Eat as well as you can in small amounts at a time. Drink plenty of fluids.
Join a support group. Your doctor can help you find a support group in your area.
Limit caffeine and alcohol.
Ask for help with daily responsibilities.
Talk to your doctor regarding ways to conserve your energy and reduce fatigue.
Report any changes in energy level, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, fluid retention or leg swelling, or frequent urination at night to your doctor.


text: Hire a bartender and shake things up at your next event— unless, of course, you prefer them stirred! From wedding cocktail hours to upscale corporate receptions, The Bash makes it easy to locate and book professional bartenders and mixologists for private events in your area. So what are you waiting for? Let's get this party started!


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Core Reading List 10 items
Creative writing: a workbook with readings - , 2006
Book Recommended reading Or any other Creative Writing text book that you find useful - there are plenty in the library.
Novels & Short Stories 6 items
The best British short stories 2013
Chapter Recommended reading Read pp. 152-157 'My Wife The Hyena'.
Selected short fiction/extracts (Blackboard)
Secondary 3 items
Oxford A-Z of grammar and punctuation - 2013
Book Recommended reading Previous editions can be found at the same shelf mark.
Cite them right: the essential referencing guide - , 2019
Book Recommended reading Previous editions can be found at the same shelf mark.
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Thinking of taking in a movie with Dad on Father's Day? Whether you head to the theater or to the video rental store, here are some movies Dad might like.
"Star Wars" Episodes IV-VI (1977, 1980, 1983) -- The first -- and the best -- the classic "Star Wars" trilogy finds a young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) growing from a Tatooine farm boy into a full-fledged Jedi knight, eventually saddled with the daunting task of finding the good in and redeeming Darth Vader, formerly known as Anakin Skywalker, his Jedi father. If you have more than the six hours it takes to watch the first three films, watch the prequel trilogy first to get the back story on how Anakin fell prey to the Dark Side of The Force. All films are rated PG -- except Episode III, which is rated PG-13.
"Field of Dreams" (1989) -- Kevin Costner stars in this classic weeper as Ray Kinsella, an Iowa farmer haunted by the strained relationship with his late father that went unmended. But when Ray suddenly hears a voice to plow under his corn crop to build a baseball field, classic players from the past magically start to appear. But unbeknowst to Ray, it is his shot at redemption. Rated PG.
"Liar Liar" (1997) -- Jim Carrey is at his comedic best as Fletcher Reed, a hot-shot family law attorney who knows little about what it takes to be a dad outside of the courtroom. Continually disappointed with his divorced dad's false promises (he refers to him as "liar" instead of lawyer), Max makes a birthday wish that dad would not tell a lie for an entire day -- and Fletcher finds himself in bigger trouble than he could have ever imagined. Maura Tierney co-stars as Fletcher's ex in this funny but poignant look at a father's desperate struggle to get his priorities straight. Rated PG-13.
"Finding Nemo" (2003) -- Disney-Pixar's blockbuster animated fishtale is a great comedy for kids and dads of all ages, as Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) and Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) voyage across to seas to search for Marlin's son Nemo (Alexander Gould) after he's netted and transported to Australia. While the film at heart is a comedy, it's poignant message keys in on a dad who must learn to allow his son to grow up on his own. Rated PG.
"Invincible" (2006) -- The best "feel good" movie of 2006, "Invincible" tells the incredible true story of Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg), a 30-year-old Philadelphia bartender who dares to defeat the odds when he tries out as a walk-on player for the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles. Papale's relationship with his father (Kevin Conway) isn't the main focus of the story, but it's an important element nonetheless. Rated PG.
"Father of the Bride" (1950 and/or 1991) -- Whether it's the 1950s version starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett and Elizabeth Taylor or the 1991 remake starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton and Kimberly Williams, either "Father of the Bride" is a comedy in which you'll want to get engaged. In a nutshell, it's about a father coming to terms with letting his little girl grow up, presented in comic fashion. The 1950 version is not rated, and the 1991 version is rated PG.
"Superman" (1978) and "Superman Returns" (2006) -- While both films are about the Man of Steel saving the Earth from bad guy Lex Luthor, Superman/Clark Kent's relationship with his Kryptonian and Earth fathers are significant plot points in both the 1978 Christopher Reeve film and the Brandon Routh update of franchise last year. The Krypton Dad, Jor-El, is expertly played by noneother than The Godfather himself, Marlon Brando (who also appears in archive footage in the 2006 film). Glenn Ford is an amazing presence as well in the 1978 version as Jonathan Kent, the adoptive father of baby Kal-El, who grows up to be Clark/Supes. Both films rated PG.
"Parenthood" (1989) -- Ron Howard's delightful ensemble comedy is a must-see for dads and moms and their kids, as it explores the parenting ups and downs of the grown-up Buckman children (Steve Martin, Dianne Wiest, Harley Jane Kozak and Tom Hulce) and the family's patriarch (Jason Robards). Mary Steenburgen is radiant as Martin's wife and Rick Moranis is perfect as Kozak's uptight husband. Also look for Keanu Reeves in a funny yet poignant turn as Wiest's prospective son-in-law, and a young Joaquin Phoenix (billed as Leaf Phoenix) as Wiest's troubled young teen. Rated PG.


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Navy blue & white bridesmaid dresses
Navy blue & white bridesmaid dresses with 3 different neckline designs
your dress designed
Its simply a matter of starting a conversation with Marisela. WhatsApp her to discuss your dress in detail. Everything can be customised from the colour to the finishes. Marisela will advise you throughout the process of making your dress.
Atelier Haute Couture Custom Made Dresses
More Custom made dresses just for you
Navy blue & white bridesmaid dresses with 3 different neckline designs
This evening dress design is a classic and can be worn to several occasions. Navy blue and champagne lace prom dress, with a lace bodice and long sleeves, illusion open back detailed with buttons and gold beads. Bottom in a navy blue gathered chiffon adding a great movement to the dress.
Powder blue and silver prom ball gown dress. With a lace-up back. Bodice detailed with silver lace and beads. Illusion neckline and shoulders. Bottom of the dress with tulle detailed with lace appliques.
Venda traditional matching family items. Ladies high waisted skirt and girls matching skirt. With men's matching shirt.
This adorable navy blue short evening dress was created for a debutante's ball. With an illusion neckline detailed with lace to add sophistication to the design, scattered silver beads on the lace. A silver beaded belt effect to enhance the waistline, with a cute knee-length tulle skirt
Navy blue short knee length mother of the bride dress, fully laced with a scallop hem and short sheer lace sleeves
Marisela designs fashion for her clients to feel amazing in her haute couture studio in Lisbon. All you have to do is read her comments and see why Marisela is such a great fashion designer. Read more about your sustainable fashion practices.
Click an icon to read more about this topic. (opens in new window)
During the process of making your dress, Marisela advises you on how to complete your look. Here are some of the questions she gets asked:
If you are unsure of what colour heels to wear, the best choice is to go for a black, silver or nude heel. However, you can add a pop of colour to your look and choose a funky bright shoe.
Hairstyles depend on your event location and the neckline of your dress. For example, if you don't want to hide any detail on the back neckline or show off a naked back, then an upstyle or side style would be great.
Less is more. If your dress has a lot of detail, especially on the bust line, your neck should be naked. If your dress is simple, jewellery is a must, taking neckline and design into consideration.
All of our products are custom made products. Proudly made in Portugal.
Ready to wear products are fashion items which are ready to ship. Choose your colour and your size. It takes a few days to get your order ready and then it's off to be delivered to you!
Our made to measure dresses and items are a great option for those who want a dress quick for a good price! These dresses don't have any extra details like lace, tassels or feathers. Ordering is simple, choose your dress, choose your colour! If you want extra changes, read about our exclusive custom orders.
Exclusive custom ordered dresses are unique dresses. Individually designed and made with the clients specifications in mind. If you want beads, lace or any on your dress, start a chat with us. Send us an email or whatsapp so we can get started.
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As a leading provider of standard and express parcel services DPD operates day in day out on behalf of thousands of satisfied customers. We are part of the international DPD network and are also experts in our own domestic market.
Its a much cheaper alternative to DHL or Aramex, but if you trust your countries postal service, then this is the courier we would recommend.
You can read our full shop policy to learn more about our delivery methods.
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All the pictures on our website celebrate real woman and their natural beauty!


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If your BlackBerry Z30 is locked to a particular carrier like Vodafone, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc., then you cannot use it with a SIM from another provider, and it can be quite irksome. BlackBerry Z30 are locked with network providers so that you can avail benefits of the provider in the future too instead of switching to another network. However, you can unlock BlackBerry Z30 before your contract ends and can shift to desired network, thereby saving substantial costs using BlackBerry Z30 unlock codes.
The unlock codes for BlackBerry Z30 models are taken from manufacturer BlackBerry database. Unlocking codes are assigned to each BlackBerry Z30 phone on manufacturing time so each set of codes is specific to each IMEI.
Reasons to unlock BlackBerry Z30
If you are going to be travelling, then you will require working on different networks. In another scenario if you have bought a second hand phone or are using a 'pass me down' from a relative or friend, you would need to unlock the phone to change the current carrier SIM with your preferred SIM. Unlocking BlackBerry Z30 will also increase its re-sale value.
How to Unlock BlackBerry Z30 with Phone Unlocker
Phone Unlocker helps you to enjoy free unlocking of BlackBerry Z30. You can unlock your mobile using the BlackBerry Z30 imei unlock code and it takes maximum 5 minutes depending on your internet connection.
Phone Unlocker is an easy to use tool that can be downloaded and installed onto any desktop and mobile which will unlock any mobile device for free. The tool can unlock phones of all major brands such as Apple, Samsung, Sony, Nokia, LG, BlackBerry, HTC, Alcatel, ZTE, Acer and much more. The unlock process is very intuitive and the software is free of malware and spyware. The app is 100% free, 100% legal, and 100% guaranteed.
Unlock BlackBerry Z30 Instructions
It is very simple to unlock BlackBerry Z30 phone with unlock codes. Put in the new SIM card and turn your device on. Your BlackBerry Z30 will ask you to enter a Network Unlock (Control) Key that will remove network (provider) restriction and unlock your BlackBerry Z30 for other networks. Enter the code and restart your phone and enjoy using your new provider SIM.
Steps to unlock your BlackBerry Z30
– Once the software has been downloaded, the unlock code needs to be retrieved to unlock BlackBerry Z30 for free.
– The software will ask for the mobile brand and model of the phone
– Finally the imei number needs to be entered (dial *#06# to find your IMEI).


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The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) was established on the 18th March 1960. TAT was the first organization in Thailand to be specifically responsible for the promotion of tourism.
TAT supplies information and data on tourist areas to the public, publicizes Thailand with the intention of encouraging both Thai and international tourists to travel in and around Thailand, conducts studies to set development plans for tourist destinations, and co-operates with and supports the production and development of personnel in the field of tourism.
Since the inception of the first local office of TAT in Chiang Mai in 1968, there are now 35 regional offices throughout Thailand. TAT has also established many overseas offices the first being in New York, which was opened in 1965. During the past 30 years, TAT has since established 15 more offices in different parts of the world.
TAT Head Office
Tourism Authority of Thailand
1600 New Phetchaburi Road, Makkasan, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, THAILAND
Tel: +66 02 250 5500 (120 automatic lines)
Fax: +66 02 250 5511
Website: http://www.tourismthailand.org
E-mail Address: email@example.com
TAT Tourist Information Counters can be found at the following locations:
Tourism Authority of Thailand
1600 New Phechatburi Road, Makkasan, Rajathewi, Bangkok 10400, THAILAND
Open daily from 08.30 to 16.30 hrs.
Suvarnabhumi Airport
Arrival Floor
Tel: (66)2134 0040 Open 24 hours
Ministry of Tourism and Sports
4 Ratchadamnoen Nok Rd, Pom Prab Sattru Phai, Bangkok 10100
Tel: (66)2283 1500 Ext. 1620 Open daily 08.30-16.30 hrs.


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As widely anticipated, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro announced Monday morning that she would depart from the agency on Dec. 14.
Schapiro, 57, who has more than a year left on her term, said in a statement, "It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to work with so many dedicated SEC staff who strive every day to protect investors and ensure our markets operate with integrity." Over the past four years, Schapiro said that the SEC had "brought a record number of enforcement actions, engaged in one of the busiest rulemaking periods, and gained greater authority from Congress to better fulfill our mission."
President Obama designated SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter as the new SEC Chairwoman after Schapiro's departure. "I'm confident that Elisse's years of experience will serve her well in her new position, and I'm grateful she has agreed to help lead the agency," Obama said in a statement.
In each of the past two years, the agency has brought more enforcement actions than ever before, including 735 enforcement actions in fiscal year 2011 and 734 actions in FY 2012.
Schapiro, who became chairwoman in the wake of the financial crisis in January 2009, is credited with strengthening, reforming and revitalizing the agency. She's credited with overseeing a more rigorous enforcement and examination program, and shaping new rules for Wall Street.
Schapiro is one of the longest-serving SEC chiefs, having served longer than 24 of the previous 28. She was appointed by President Obama on Jan. 20, 2009, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
Reached by AdvisorOne just as the news broke, former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt said Schapiro had been a "superb" SEC chairwoman. "She has worked tirelessly to advance the interests of investors, led the SEC in bringing record numbers of enforcement actions, led the agency's incredible rulemaking efforts, and brought the agency back from the brink of extinction. She has left a remarkable legacy."
What happens to the SEC's rule to put brokers under a fiduciary mandate? While industry observers have been adamant that the SEC's fiduciary process has stalled, Schapiro told AdvisorOne in a recent interview that while "it may appear from the outside it has stalled, work has been going on here [at the agency] to advance the issue."
Schapiro told AdvisorOne that the fiduciary issue remains "really important," and that she was "ready to go" on releasing a request for information to allow the public to help inform a "more detailed" cost-benefit analysis on the agency's fiduciary rule.
Industry officials remain optimistic that the fiduciary rule will maintain momentum at the agency regardless of Schapiro's departure. As Blaine Aikin, president and CEO of fi360 wrote in a recent article, "the imperative for [fiduciary] reform … has created enough momentum that it would be virtually impossible for a complete reversal in course."
However, David Tittsworth, executive director of the Investment Adviser Association in Washington, told AdvisorOne on Monday that until a successor to Schapiro is nominated, confirmed, and sworn in "it is unlikely that any controversial proposal will move forward." Because there will be two Democratic commissioners—Elisse Walter and Luis Aguilar—and two Republican commissioners—Troy Paredes and Daniel Gallagher—"nothing will happen on any rulemaking unless there are at least three votes."
Furthermore, Tittsworth adds that given the need to deal with fiscal cliff issues, "it is certainly possible that there will be a period of time where an Acting Chairman will be leading the agency—probably Commissioner Elisse Walter—until a permanent successor is confirmed by the Senate."
Late last week, word started circulating that Mary John Miller, the Treasury Department's Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, is the top candidate to replace Schapiro at the head of the Commission.
Industry officials reached by AdvisorOne said that Miller was, indeed, "qualified" to fill Schapiro's shoes. As Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, Miller is responsible for developing and coordinating Treasury's policies and guidance in the areas of financial institutions, federal debt financing, financial regulation and capital markets.
Indeed, there is also industry banter that Richard Ketchum, CEO of FINRA, is interested in throwing his hat into the ring as a potential Schapiro replacement. Ketchum declined to comment on the speculation, however.
Sallie Krawcheck, the former Bank of America and Citigroup executive, has also popped up as another possible candidate to fill Schapiro's shoes.
Check out these related stories at AdvisorOne:
- Schapiro recounted some of her accomplishments as SEC Chairman in a November speech at SIFMA.
- View AdvisorOne's election morning-after story for insights into who else may be leaving regulatory posts in the near future.
- In a exclusive interview in September with Melanie Waddell, Schapiro spoke about the possibility of a a fiduciary standard for all advice givers.


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Gaarde Surname Ancestry Results
Our indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'gaarde'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 1 record (displaying 1 to 1):
Try these...
fyzsacre fyzsactr fyzssacre fyzt fyztsymond fyzwilliam fyzwillyams fyzwogon fzaakerley g gaa gaab gaade gaafar gaakema gaal gaallagher gaalon gaane gaard gaarn gaary gab gaba gabain gabal gaball gaballa gabam gaban gabard gabaret gabarret gabarretta gabarro gabarry gabatus gabay gabb gabballis
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In two weeks, we will celebrate an epic day.
And my heart is twisting in all sorts of beautiful ways just thinking about it, but mostly it is throbbing with love.
Any attempt at threading words to just how funny, how spirited, how healing her existence is…well it seems so small and unworthy. But, I'm used to that. Her sister's had me slayed from the start.
I can tell you this though.
I have changed. My eyes have been opened to the broad spectrum of beauty, the value of uniqueness and the amazement of the common thread that binds us all regardless of the color of our skin or the makeup of our chromosomes.
How could I not have been aware of their magic?
I am grateful for the pain that propelled me forward this year for without it, I wouldn't have known the joy of this place.
When I sat down to write this post earlier this afternoon, I intended to make this about Nella. But, I've learned something more this year. I've learned to look beyond. While yes, the rawness of loving my own child and imagining her almond eyed, milky-cheeked, tiny-toothed grin on the face of every other child with Down syndrome is what initiated my purpose in this new world, it has become more. I care not just because my daughter personally connects me to this greater world but because I have learned to see their hearts, their capabilities, their spirit, their determination, their love.
And I want you to see it too. Beyond Nella. The faces of these children brighten the worlds of so many lucky families every day. And as I checked my e-mail earlier this evening after a quick Facebook photo all-call, tears rolled down my cheeks at the response. My e-mail alert chirped a continuous rhythm as pictures rolled in, and I couldn't determine what was more powerful–the faces of these beautiful babies or the words you attached to them in a desperate plea to express a fraction of how you feel.
The love of our lives. She changed me. Our joy boy. The heart of our family.
So, here's the deal.
I'm going to ask you for something. And it's really important to me. To a lot of people.
I'm going to ask you to think about what you've taken from this space this year. I have felt incredibly inspired by not only the feeling of community here but by this productive push toward good that arises simply from the understanding of the power of a group of people connected in a small way on the Interweb but, more importantly, in a much greater way within this vast world. And so, I'm asking you again, have you gained anything from visiting this space this year? A smile, a thought, a connection, the encouragement to dig deeper or let your own voice speak out. If you have, I'm asking you to give back today. Please, pay it forward.
In honor of our girl's first year, we are asking you to give back to her. And the 400,000 other individuals living with Down syndrome in the United States alone.
The mission of the NDSS is to create a culture that fully accepts and includes individuals with Down syndrome.
Let me say that more clearly. The mission of the NDSS is to create a culture that fully accepts and includes our little girl. Our Nella.
Last year, the NDSS helped Annie Clancy, a Connecticut high school student, get closer to her dream of becoming a clothing designer when they gave her the once-in-a-lifetime chance to join designer Anya Cole in her studio to learn how to design and produce clothing. Without the NDSS, Annie wouldn't have known what it felt like to strut her fabulousness down the runway of a fashion show in a posh SoHo loft.
Or how about Sara Wolff? A skilled motivational speaker, she serves on the NDSS Board of Directors and actively promotes Down syndrome awareness and understanding through personal appearances and inspirational speeches to educators, employers and community professionals. She is loving what she's doing. She's doing something amazing with her one wild and precious life. Not to mention, she got to meet Barbara Walters and Meredith Viera which is more than I can say. As Sara says, "I feel good knowing I can inspire people and make a difference."
I want my little girl to have these opportunities, and I'm just one of many mamas who share this dream.
I've set a scary goal. $15,000, People. (Actually, I'm editing this after 12 hours into the fundraiser, I'm doubling it, yikes! $30,000.) Editing this AGAIN about 2 days into it. $47,000. Yup, $47 grand for 47 grand chromosomes!) Alright, I'm back. 4 days, and our goal is now $63,000. That's 21 x 3. Three beautiful little 21st chromosomes, that's what. And I'm a little nervous about it. But, I believe you care. I believe we can make a difference together. If every Follower–a fraction of readers–gave only $5, we could raise $45,000. Forty Five Thousand Dollars to help change the world into a place that sees the beauty and potential of the magic of these amazing individuals.
I want this life-changing year to mean more. I want to hold hands with my family in two weeks and know, when we sing "Happy Birthday Dear Nella" and watch her pat her tiny palms into sweet frosting, that something greater is in store.
For everyone.
Please. Give Nella a birthday gift. Help her give back to her friends.
If a magazine costs $5, think of how you'll feel if you spent that instead right here.
Pay it forward. Help us give Nella a very happy birthday.
Nella's shirt and sweater used to be dresses. They were her coming-home-from-the-hospital outfit. Sweater, crocheted by my mama
Giving is easy. Click on any link to Nella's ONEder Fund on this page (the easiest being the large banner at the top of the blog which will remain until Nella's birthday.)
Spread the word. E-mail it. Facebook it. Tweet it. Blog it.
Together, I'm certain we can move mountains.
Give $5. Or give more. But know, you are appreciated and you are making a difference.
Thank you for your support, your love, your joining with us to make something grand of our one wild and precious life.
And thank you to all the mamas out there who shared their magically enhanced little beauties with me tonight.


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Gland, Switzerland, 22 November 2012 (IUCN) Flagship species conservation initiative Save Our Species (SOS) is expanding its work with US$ 2.5 million funding for 25 new projects.
Dolphins, dugongs, manatees, gibbons, rhinos, tigers and many other lesser known yet similarly threatened species such as river turtles, Asian crocodiles, flying foxes, myriad freshwater fish and plant species are going to benefit from what will be the second round of species conservation projects within the SOS initiative – a global coalition initiated by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the World Bank.
"The latest injection of US$ 2.5 million doubles the number of active SOS projects but much more needs to be done in the field of species conservation," says Jean Christophe Vié, Deputy Director of IUCN's Global Species Programme and SOS Director.
"Every year we receive more project proposals than we can possibly fund and the selection process is extremely challenging. "With more funding available from a broader range of sponsors and donors, we can be much more efficient in addressing the current biodiversity crisis. That is why we are ramping up our efforts in promoting SOS to individuals and companies alike with the possibility to make online donations while also engaging with several progressive industry leaders."
This announcement comes a few weeks after the meeting of the Convention on Biological Biodiversity in Hyderabad where 193 countries discussed ways of honouring their engagement to preserve the diversity of life. It also follows the publication of a recent report in Science, calculating the cost of improving the status of threatened species until 2020 at approximately US$ 4 billion annually, just 1% of the value of ecosystems being lost every year.
The new SOS projects will be implemented by NGOs across the Americas, Africa and Asia, starting immediately. They will focus on a broad range of species groups that have been assessed by the IUCN Red List, including small marine mammals, freshwater African fish, tropical terrestrial Asian vertebrates and cycads – one of the world's oldest plant groups. The projects will address conservation needs of some of our most threatened species such as the vaquita, the world's smallest dolphin which is Critically Endangered in its only home, the Gulf of California or the Javan and Sumatran rhinoceroses, also in urgent need of support and protection.
According to The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, one in three amphibians, one in four mammals and one in eight birds are at risk of extinction in the wild.
Through its species-focus approach, SOS aims to stop biodiversity loss and increase resources for biodiversity conservation. IUCN manages the initiative by channelling resources to fund the best projects undertaken by civil society around the world – projects which are technically sound, well designed, cost effective, have a good chance of success, and which explain conservation in an engaging way to the public.This is achieved by leveraging IUCN's in-depth knowledge base. To date SOS projects have worked with more than 150 species listed as threatened on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, positively impacting wildlife as well as local communities.
"We invite everyone who is interested and passionate about protecting the world's animals and plants to join us and help answer the SOS call from the wild, so that we can do more for the amazing diversity of life on our planet on which our own lives depend so dearly," says IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre.
Quotes from our donors
1. Dr. Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility says
"With this new and exciting batch of projects, SOS scales up its reach to the front lines of the battle to save globally threatened species," said Dr. Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility. "This is not only a moral agenda, since, by protecting species, we are benefitting people and communities across the globe. While the GEF is still the single largest financial contributor to SOS, we are most impressed by the growing interest of other donors in joining the initiative. This expanded base of support continues the mobilization of resources for the highest priority in the biodiversity field globally -- putting a stop to the extinction crisis."
2. Sari Soderstrom - Sector Manager, Agriculture and Environmental Services Department, The World Bank says
"Species matter to the World Bank's mission of ending poverty. Millions of people depend daily on the safety net that nature provides. For vulnerable communities, nature helps build resilience against emerging global threats from water scarcity to climate shocks. We welcome the on-the-ground action and results focus that SOS brings and look forward to seeing the benefits from these new projects."
3. François-Xavier Duporge, FFEM Secretary-General says
"SOS is a great opportunity for Africa and we hope to see more good proposals to support biodiversity conservation challenges faced in this continent."
4. Markus Terho, Head of Sustainability for Nokia, SOS longest standing corporate sponsor says
"I am delighted to see SOS growing with continued success in the fields of conservation and general public awareness. For Nokia this special relationship is an important symbol of our commitment to suppoort nature conservation work and increase biodiversity awareness worldwide. We joined SOS as biodiversity is a very important topic for society and a key emerging issue in environmental protection. Through SOS we also hope to leverage a variety of knowledge products and initiatives that use the power of mobile technologies for both research and education."


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At Minerva Crafts we stock products for so many different hobbies and crafts, so whether you love making jewellery, cards, latch hook rugs or soft toys you will find something here in the Crafts section for you. We also have a lovely range of craft products suitable for Children to encourage your little ones to start crafting at a young age. We hope you will enjoy browsing through our huge range of Beads and Jewellery Findings, Papercrafts, Dyes, Paints, Feathers, Glitter, Diamante, Magnets, Sequins and much much more! Your creativity is only limited by imagination!
Habico Felting Wool Bundle
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Vote Smart provides easy access to Congressional and state voting records and maintains a collection of key votes grouped by issue. Vote Smart uses the following criteria to select key votes:
Vote Smart provides a summary of the version of the bill text associated with each selected key vote. The summary does not necessarily reflect the content of the final version of the bill. Summaries are written by Vote Smart's staff and interns, who adhere to the project's strict policies and procedures in order to guarantee absolute impartiality and accuracy. Each key vote selection is reviewed by the project's community of advisors, who are political scientists and journalists from all fifty states.


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Title: Men's Official Disney The Muppets "Kermit" Character Lounge Trouser Pants B16
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About Spencer
The luxurious Spencer grey luxury leather 2 seater sofa with oak legs is a sleek design that combines a slender, streamlined shape with soft cushions and 2 feather-filled bolsters.
Designed by and exclusive to Habitat, the Italian-made sofa is upholstered in aniline leather, which allows the natural characteristics of the hide to show through and it is the most premium natural looking leather available on the market.
The Spencer range comprises various sized sofas and an armchair in 3 types of leather, 3 types of fabric and in a choice of oak or metal legs.
Will it fit?
We want you to love your sofa and enjoy it for years to come, so before you make your purchase, please check that it will fit perfectly into your home.Measuring Guide Buying Guide
Check out all of our buying guides here
- Assembled dimensions: W180 x H81 x D83cm
- Seat height: 40cm
- Diagonal depth: 110cm
- Seat depth: 59cm
- Width of armrest: 7cm
- Height of armrest: 53cm
- Packaged dimensions: Pack 1: W180 x H83 x D90cm.
Please note that this is just a guide - due to their handmade nature, our sofas may vary slightly in size.
Product Details
- Product Code: 446555
- Design exclusive to Habitat.
- Upholstered in luxurious aniline leather Premium leather with only a wax applied for a natural look and feel. Only the best hides are selected for this type of leather which is very lightly treated with only a wax finish giving it a soft, natural feel with a drape like thickness.
- Slight variations in the colour and texture of leather are totally normal. We take great care handling our sofas and they're rigorously checked for quality, but please bear in mind that small irregularities, scratches or blemishes are not faults. They're the good part!
- Legs require assembly.
- Cover: 100% aniline leather.
- Structure: metal.
- Seat cushion: foam and fibre.
- Back cushion: foam and fibre.
- Bolster cushion: feather.
- Feet: oak.
Care Instructions
To keep your sofa looking fabulous, give its cushions a good squeeze regularly to restore their shape and rotate double-sided cushions so that they wear evenly. If your sofa is feather filed we recommend you plump and rotate once a week.
Professional clean only.
Covers (both removable and fixed) should only be cleaned professionally by an upholstery cleaning specialist.
Colour variation may occur between cleaned and un-cleaned sections. When cleaning, please ensure all components are cleaned at the same time to avoid colour variation.
Vacuum or brush your upholstery weekly as accumulated dirt will accelerate wear and dull colours.
Avoid exposing your furniture to direct and prolonged periods of sunlight and heat sources as fading may occur.
Avoid sharp objects.
Spots and Spills; DO NOT RUB! Carefully soak up any spillage by gently blotting with a clean, dry absorbent cloth. Do not use a wet cloth.
Delivery & Returns
Home Delivery to UK Mainland:
Orders under £500£15
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From Portobello by Inspire, this gorgeous mug provides a more opulent way to enjoy your cup of tea. With elegant features and a stunning deep purple peony and butterfly design, this exquisite footed mug looks charming in any setting. Crafted from fine bone china with a gloss finish, it is microwave and dishwasher safe, making it practical for everyday use and convenient to clean. Ideal as a gift, or simply to treat yourself, this beautiful mug is the perfect addition to every home.
There are no reviews for this product yet.
All orders will be dispatched within 1-2 days of receiving full payment.
If an item is not available due to stock shortages we will offer a full refund or where possible an alternative product.
All orders will be dispatched using your chosen courier and you will be advised by email once your order has been dispatched and a tracking number will be provided.
Please note: goods cannot be collected from our premises.
There may be a small delivery charge dependant on the size of your basket to a UK Mainland address but additional delivery services may be available; please contact customer services for further information. There may also be exceptions which will be clearly shown. Portobello will not be held responsible for any additional costs incurred through incorrect delivery addresses being provided, as these items may need to be re-delivered.
All products listed as new carry a manufacturers guarantee; the time period of the guarantee will be different for each product. Portobello will provide a standard 12 month guarantee on all purchases.
If your item is faulty or develops a fault within the time period stated under Warranties & Guarantees, we will pay reasonable costs for the goods to be returned. Please contact us in advance regarding our returns procedure as refunds cannot be processed without the correct information being provided.
Reasonable care must be taken to ensure the returned goods are not damaged in transit and proof of postage must be obtained.
In the event that we cannot provide an exact replacement, a similar product will be offered. If we cannot provide an exact or similar replacement, a full refund will be offered.
Any damages from day to day wear and tear are not covered by this guarantee.
If an item is not available due to stock shortages we will offer a full refund or an alternative product.
If an alternative product is purchased but you decide you wish to return it Portobello will pay reasonable costs of returning the product.


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There's something anachronistic about David Blitzer. It's as if he's straight out of central casting for one of those faux black-and-white, mahogany and Corinthian leather commercials about listening to clients and the fundamentals of investing that were popular in the 1990s. That's good, because now (especially now) what the bespectacled and bow-tied Blitzer exudes, more than anything else, is reassurance.
He's seen it all before and doesn't get rattled by talk of "cliffs," "battle lines" and other loaded terms cavalierly thrown about at the point where politics and economics intersect. It makes him perfectly suited for his role as managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
His academic style probably has something to do with it. He earned a bachelor's in engineering from Cornell University, a master's in economics from the George Washington University and a doctorate in economics from Columbia University. His widely-read books, most notably "What's the Economy Trying to Tell You? Everyone's Guide to Understanding and Profiting from the Economy," seem to arrive in times of turmoil and are surprisingly easy reads for someone with such a pedigree. We'll leave the hokey horse-whisperer analogies aside because he's not an advisor, so he's not listening to clients; but he most definitely is listening to the economy, or more specifically, the reams of data it produces.
Is it any wonder we chose him for this year's outlook? His cautious optimism for the new year is something about which we're happy to report, but give credit where credit is due: His academic and professional achievements are impressive, but his prominence is also due to the corresponding prominence of Standard & Poor's as a whole. As CEO Alex Matturri noted, part of that proud history means avoiding the recent Libor scandal and so many others that have cast a shadow on the integrity of the indexing industry as a whole.
"We're not product issuers," Matturri explained. "We're not the providers of the inputs in the index itself, so we're unconflicted in that sense. We don't have a vested interest in the input, and we don't have a vested interest in the output. Our role is strictly to develop and publish these indexes on an ongoing basis."
So where did other companies go wrong in their handling of Libor?
"It gave rise to a situation where you had banks that were providing the inputs in the Libor calculation that also had a vested interested in the output," he responded. "Libor was used as a basis for swaps and other products and strategies that impacted the input of index calculations. This was done to suit other parts of their business. That's a natural conflict."
With that out of the way, it's back to Blitzer. As we said, we like his cautious optimism. Here's why.
"Finally, after three or four years housing is turning around," he said. "Housing is definitely coming back. Housing starts are up. We've seen existing sales go up. Every housing statistic has turned positive, and housing will make a contribution to the economy next year. This year it's probably about neutral. The previous few years it was a negative contribution."
As for the stock market, it's "sitting on two or three contrasting forces": impressively strong earnings (at least until the latest round), and in some cases record levels.
"We have corporations sitting on huge quantities of cash, and we have bargain basement interest rates," he added. "So I think the outlook for the market is reasonably good, but not gangbusters."
Does the fact that the last round of earnings was a disappointment point to a slowdown, and something about which to be concerned?
"The fact that earnings have a disappointing quarter or maybe a couple of quarters I don't think is a major concern for the market," he reassured us. "There are plenty of times [when] the market goes up and earnings are flat to down."
More interesting is the cash issue, which he feels could point to renewed interest in acquisitions and expansion.
"They'll have absolutely no difficulty financing. Even if they want to borrow the money instead of use what's in the till, they'll have no difficulty in financing."
Part of the reason, of course, is Fed policy, which Bernanke promises will remain constant though 2014. That's the sort of consistency Blitzer, and by extension the broader market, likes.
As for inflation concerns, he's not about to get ahead of himself.
"You know, the inflation rate doesn't concern me at all," he bluntly stated. "It's in the neighborhood of 2%. When you get the unemployment rate down to 6% and GDP growth over 4%, I'll be happy to worry about inflation because I'll be very happy when all that happens."
He quickly tempered our excitement over 4% GDP growth and 6% unemployment happening anytime soon. (Excited by 6% unemployment? What's become of us?)
"I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you," he cautioned. "Certainly not in the next year or so. I think you could do it over the next four years. It really depends on the unwinding of the fiscal cliff and what gets done with taxes and so forth. I believe we need fundamental tax reform and that kind of thing and so on."
As to the specific sectors in which he sees promise, there are both intermediate and longer-term positives being missed.
"One, ironically enough, is energy. And this is not renewables; this is gas and oil."
Arguing natural gas is at "absurdly low prices," he believes it should be four times or five times more expensive than it currently is "if you use the energy or heat value of a barrel of oil compared to a thousand cubic feet of gas. It's completely misaligned because we have huge quantities of cheap natural gas." It takes time to figure out how to use those most effectively, he noted, adding some municipalities have converted their car fleets to run on natural gas because it's cheaper and cleaner than gasoline.
"Even with all the arguments about fracking and about environmental issues related to getting it out, I think we're still going to have large quantities. Behind that, we're producing a lot more oil than we have anytime in the last 10 or 15 years."
One important topic, Europe, hasn't received as much attention in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of the recent presidential election, but it will be back in force in 2013.
"I think the euro survives," Blitzer bluntly stated. "I think the political cost to any of the leading politicians in Europe in or out of office, the political cost of seeing the euro destroyed, is just too big for them to stomach."
Even though one could make a reasonably good argument that on one end Greece would be better off if it got out, and Germany would be better off if it got out on the other, neither country is willing to take part in the destruction of the euro.
"I think they will move toward some kind of unified banking regulation because it's almost a necessity to have in order for the euro to survive. Whether they ever get to true fiscal policy union is much less clear. If the euro is still around in four or five years and nothing's completely collapsed, the pressure will fade. I don't think anybody wants to give their neighboring countries taxing power or rights to their tax revenue. So a fiscal union would be very difficult, if not impossible. But I think politically the euro will survive."
No outlook would be complete without a discussion of China, a topic Blitzer called "a bigger puzzle than anything else."
"They're going to have huge productivity problems," he warned. "Their strategy for decades was to find a lot of rural performers whose productivity was pretty close to zero and move them into some factory, even if it was 10 or 20 years out of date by western standards. Their productivity still looks like it just went to the moon."
When they run out of zero-productivity "labor-in-waiting," he concluded, they're going to have a problem.
"It seems they're approaching that point now. They'll have to re-scramble their economy, which may mean that they would be more interested in buying and less interested in selling than they are today."


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Here are a few reasons government forecasters at the National Hurricane Center and emergency management officials are so concerned about Sandy:
1. Sandy is one of the largest hurricanes ever to strike the U.S. Sandy's winds cover an area of more than 1,000 miles in diameter. That's enormous by hurricane standards. So instead of affecting an area a couple of hundred miles across, Sandy will cut a huge swath. That means many millions of people are probably going to be exposed to high winds, heavy rains, and, for those on the coast, powerful storm surge.
2. Sandy is a very slow-moving storm. Sandy was slowing as it turned inland in a northwesterly direction. That means many places could see two full days of heavy winds and rain, not just a few hours. Sandy is now packing winds of more than 90 miles per hour, according to latest update from the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters say some places will get a foot of rain and they expect widespread flooding, wind damage and power outages.
3. Sandy remains strong as it reaches the coast. Hurricanes often weaken as they travel north across colder water and approach land. But Sandy hasn't. One reason is that it's expected to change from a tropical storm powered by warm ocean water to something more like a winter storm powered by temperature and pressure differences in the atmosphere. So it will be a hybrid, or "Frankenstorm." And forecasters say Sandy may actually gain strength slightly as it reaches land. They also think it will remain strong enough once on land to produce strong winds far inland.
4. Sandy is arriving during high tides. October 29 is a full moon and the highest tides usually come a day or two after that. So the "life-threatening" storm surge caused by Sandy's winds is likely to coincide with several very high tides. Forecasters say in some places, the combined effect could push tidal waters 11 feet higher than normal — a level usually associated with much more powerful storms.
5. Sandy is bringing cold air and snow as well as wind and rain. Forecasters expect Sandy to meet a mass of very cold air from a winter storm about the time it reaches land. This cold air will be incorporated into the hurricane, which means in some places torrential rains will be followed by temperatures in the 20s. It's situation with "two events amplifying each other," David Nolan of the University of Miami told NPR's Joe Palca.
That's a big problem if you don't have power or heat. Also, Sandy is expected to produce two feet of snow or even more in parts of West Virginia. So the problems of extreme winter and summer weather will be wrapped into one storm.
6. Sandy is likely to affect New York City. Last year's Hurricane Irene was a reminder of how vulnerable Manhattan and the other boroughs are to storm surge. Even though Irene had weakened to a tropical storm by the time it reached Manhattan, it still caused the Hudson to flood the Meatpacking District. Many forecasters say Sandy could be much worse. Bad news in a place where many subway tunnels are lower than the Hudson already.
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
And I'm Audie Cornish. Hurricane Sandy has earned the nickname Frankenstorm for a reason. An odd confluence of weather events have helped the storm grow and the result is a frightening mix: high winds, storm surge, snow and driving rain. But what is the science behind Sandy? A cold weather system mixing with a tropical system to become extratropical or post-tropical, depending on who you ask.
To translate, I'm joined by Perry Samson, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Michigan. Welcome, Mr. Samson.
PERRY SAMSON: Thank you.
CORNISH: So what makes this storm unique?
SAMSON: We have, as you've mentioned, a combination of events going on. First, the tropical storm, which is moving up the East Coast following the Gulf Stream. And tropical storms are driven by the availability of warm water and moisture. These cause the clouds, and these then clouds form into the storms that make a hurricane.
Now, that storm is following the Gulf Stream, as it would normally do, as it moves towards the north and east. But the odd thing that's happening now is that the upper level winds are grabbing that storm and pulling it back towards the coastline. And that's where the tropical storm then gets embodied into these - the jet stream and these waves in the upper atmosphere to produce an extratropical storm.
CORNISH: Explain the term extratropical.
SAMSON: These are the kinds of storms that we normally get in the United States, and they're produced by variations in the jet stream in the upper atmosphere. Without going into it, these variations cause the winds to rise in the atmosphere and cause low pressure. These are fairly well understood and studied by many.
The combination of this kind of storm with a hurricane embedded in it, I don't remember a storm like this in the last 30 or 40 years. It's going to produce tremendous amounts of precipitation across Pennsylvania and New York and New Jersey. In addition, this has the bad luck of coming onshore at high tide and with a full moon.
So we're concerned and interested in how this is going to affect storm surge, how the topography of the Long Island Sound and how the topography of New Jersey and New York might confound this. These are questions that are hard to answer.
CORNISH: I've also heard that Sandy has extremely low pressure. Could you explain what that means and what role pressure plays in a hurricane's strength?
SAMSON: Central pressure in Hurricane Sandy right now is somewhere around 950 millibars. And typically, the pressure at sea level is somewhere around 1,012 millibars. The pressure in the center doesn't by itself cause the storminess. It's the change of pressure between the outside the storm and inside the storm. This pressure gradient, the stronger it gets, the stronger the winds become. So it's the difference in pressure from inside to outside the storm.
CORNISH: Looking at this as an academic, are there any aspects of the storm or the way it's being described that you think are maybe hyperbolic, r, you know, people kind of getting overexcited?
SAMSON: I have a trouble with the word Frankenstorm myself, but that's just me. But beyond that, this particular storm is going to offer a huge opportunity for our science to study what happens when a tropical storm and a extratropical storm come together, because these are very rare events. And the fact that this is happening and hitting an area of high population gives great concern about the current situation but also a great opportunity in the future to know more about the dynamics of our atmosphere.
CORNISH: Perry Samson, thank you so much for talking with us.
SAMSON: It's been my pleasure.
CORNISH: Perry Samson is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Michigan. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Noted security researcher Kristin Paget—known for her work that helped to beef up the security of Windows Vista—is now working at Apple as a Core OS Security Researcher. Paget confirmed to Wired that she has been working at Apple since September but couldn't divulge any specific details of her work.
Paget has a long history of finding and plugging security holes in all manner of hardware and software. Perhaps most famously, she was part of a group of hackers hired by Microsoft to "lock down" the upcoming Windows Vista operating system in 2006. Microsoft had apparently expected Vista to be fairly secure at that point in its development cycle, but Paget and her cohorts found so many holes that Microsoft ended up delaying its release.
"We prevented a lot of bugs from shipping on Vista," Paget said during a talk at Black Hat last year, after the NDA she signed with Microsoft had expired. "I'm proud of the number of bugs we found and helped get fixed."
In 2009, Paget (then named Chris) unveiled a custom-built mobile platform that captured the unique electronic identifiers used in US passport cards and next-generation drivers licenses. During a 20-minute demonstration with Dan Goodin (before he became IT Security Editor at Ars), Paget's $250 proof-of-concept device was able to surreptitiously copy RFID tags of two passport cards as she drove through downtown San Francisco. The identifiers could then be cloned and loaded onto separate cards.
Paget also has experience intercepting cell phone calls using flaws in the GSM protocol, and has described herself as a "total UNIX head." Those are qualities we expect should be beneficial if put toward locking down OS X and iOS, both built on the same UNIX-based core.


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Sometimes, it can be difficult to notice a cultural sea change. At first, there's just a little, unexpected turn in the tide. But then, whoosh! The new current takes over, and old preconceptions are swept away. Country music seems to be in the middle of this process now.
Last May, the astute critic Jewly Hight noticed that while men like Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney still dominated commercial country, a new cohort of female artists had begun to take possession of country's most hallowed sounds and subject matter. "We're hearing women working with traditional country sounds while they sing about staking claim to personal freedom and demanding equal footing in relationships," Hight wrote.
Country radio and casual listeners still favored male artists' rock-based, proudly redneck music. But their female counterparts were laying claim to the genre's essential ingredients: honky-tonk guitars and melodies worth weeping over; and supporting lyrics that went deep into the personal politics of family, intimate relationships and getting by.
That was before a few notable developments made 2013 the first Year of the Woman that country's seen in a while. (None of them, by the way, has to do with Taylor Swift, who was always only tenuously tied to the genre and who, despite a current chart-topping duet with her idol Tim McGraw, has now decidedly gone pop.) I count five major factors: three that sneaked up on the Nashville establishment, and two that made a major splash.
The most important new thing in mainstream country isn't a trend, but a person: Miranda Lambert. Though she emerged in the first decade of this century, she's ended up shaping the second. While Swift has been more important to pop music in general, Lambert — Texas-born; married to the telegenic, 21st century, good ol' boy Blake Shelton; and known to sometimes wield a gun and knock back a whiskey — is much more influential among country's core producers and consumers.
Lambert's hits, from revenge tales like "Gunpowder & Lead" to arguments for compassion like "Heart Like Mine" and "Mama's Broken Heart," explore the inner landscape of the modern heartland woman caught between inherited conservatism and a powerful awareness that the world is changing fast. And Lambert has put her money where her mouth is, forming the successful all-female trio the Pistol Annies, whose success has further proven women's viability in the marketplace.
The Lambert Effect has opened doors for many of the new hopefuls blending hard country sounds with feminist-aware (if rarely explicitly political) attitudes. Also key has been the rise of close-harmony duos and trios: Sugarland, whose Atlanta-style, liberal twang had a huge impact circa 2006; and Lady Antebellum, whose 2010 hook-up ballad "Need You Now" redefined country romance for a new generation. Women have eased into the limelight through these groups by sharing it with men: family act The Band Perry, married duo Joey + Rory, and the outstanding quartet Little Big Town have all put the spotlight on women's voices this way.
While the artists whose faces adorned the end racks at Wal-Mart pulled country in a different direction, the music's capital city also began to change. Thanks in part to the influence of culture-friendly mayor Karl Dean and rock 'n' roll scenemaker Jack White, Nashville is becoming known for much more than Loretta Lynn's (awesome!) ranch. Americana music, the bohemian counterpart to commercial country, has flourished in the past decade, with the Americana Music Association's annual conference and festival growing each year and the scene's darlings, from Buddy Miller to Emmylou Harris, growing into their roles as local royalty.
The accouterments of a hipster hive are all now evident there — locavore food scene, indie record stores, reclaimed dive bars, and a New York Times article comparing the city to Portlandia. This city, though still home to conservative institutions like the Southern Baptist Convention and Cracker Barrel, is leading the nation in job growth as it grows into a more diverse creative hub — traditionally, a more sympathetic atmosphere for women in power positions.
Those three coalescing elements finally jelled this year, and a new star has emerged to represent them. A critic's darling who's doing well on the charts, too, Kacey Musgraves goes even further than Lambert has in marrying a progressive sensibility with a classic country sound. Even more than Lambert, Musgraves has perfected a sound that invokes the great matriarchs of classic country — Dolly, Loretta, Tammy — without ever seeming constricted by vintage trappings. (Ashton Shepherd was here first, but her excellent albums haven't yet reached the audience they deserve.)
There's no doubt that Musgraves' Same Trailer, Different Park, released in March, will top many critics' lists — in fact, it's bringing in a new generation of listeners who thought that Neko Case was as country as they'd ever get. And beyond rocking an edgy image and attitude (her signature song, "Follow Your Arrow," endorses same-sex smooching and the occasional toke), Musgraves, like Lambert, works with other very gifted women who are ready to jump into the space she's created. Just one example is Kree Harrison — a background singer on Musgraves' album who's a fine songwriter herself and who went on to be the runner-up in this year's American Idol race.
Another friendly workplace, and the final factor that's made this year so great for women in Nashville, is the television show that bears the city's name. I'm hardly the first writer to notice that Nashville deserves to be called a feminist intervention. It's important to note that not only do the program's characters and plotlines support and celebrate women; many of the songs performed each week are written or co-written by women, including Musgraves and Americana vets Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin. And given the fact that the three most frequently featured singers on Nashville are female, even male writers have had to shift attention back to the feminine.
So it makes sense that halfway through 2013, I can easily make a Year's Best list comprising the following albums: Same Trailer, Different Park; Like A Rose, by Pistol Annies member Ashley Monroe; Annie Up, the second album from that group itself; The Highway, the first independent release from Hank Williams' granddaughter, Holly Williams; Spitfire, the emotionally unrelenting comeback album by LeeAnn Rimes; American Kid, by Americana veteran Griffin; The Stand-In, by a relative newcomer in the same field, Caitlin Rose; Love and Forgiveness, by Dusty Springfield's spiritual daughter, Courtney Jaye; Carnival, by the quietly brilliant Nora Jane Struthers — just one of several younger women making major waves in bluegrass; Pioneer, by the ever more rocking The Band Perry; and yes, those two volumes of soundtrack from the series Nashville.
Oh, and did I mention that the young singer-songwriter who might be the best of them all — Brandy Clark, who co-wrote Musgraves' "Follow Your Arrow," hasn't even released her debut album yet? For women creating country music, and for all of us who love to hear their stories, this is truly Lucky 2013.
Mainstream country music has been dominated by men in cowboy hats for a long time now, even with the crossover success of stars like Taylor Swift. Some industry watchers think 2013 will go down as the year a new batch of young women emerged, big-time.
To explain the latest trends in country music and bring us a sampling of some of those sounds, we turn to NPR's music critic, Ann Powers. Nice to talk to you again.
ANN POWERS, BYLINE: Hi, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So, why don't you begin by explaining what you might call the voice of these new female musicians, what they're bringing that's different to country music?
POWERS: Renee, as you know, there's always an amazing women working in country music, from the Carter family to Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, all the way up to the Dixie Chicks, and more recently, Taylor Swift and Miranda Lambert.
But this year there's been such a return to that gritty, honest, and very classic country sound, that really looks at the lives of young women in small towns or suburban America who really are the main audience for country music.
MONTAGNE: Well, one of these new artists is Holly Williams. She's Hank Williams' granddaughter. Tell us about her.
POWERS: She made a couple of records that were more commercial, more mainstream. But now she's returned with this album called "The Highway." And this album is just gorgeous, like the song, "Giving Up," which is about a wife and mother who just can't kick her addictions.
MONTAGNE: OK, Holly Williams. Another artist you recommend is Caitlin Rose. And I gather she grew up in the music business herself.
POWERS: Caitlin Rose's mom has written songs for Taylor Swift. Her dad is also in the country music industry. She has a different sound than Holly Williams. It's more, kind of, vintage and its part of a change that's happening in Nashville itself, which is this company town, is becoming more and more eclectic. Caitlin Rose reminds me a lot of early country artists like Patsy Cline with that country-politan sound.
And here's one of my favorite of her songs. It's called "Pink Champagne."
MONTAGNE: So a little bit, as you said, a little vintage there. So in this year of country women, I bet there's at least one more up-and-coming star that you find intriguing.
POWERS: Oh, Renee. I have so many, but I want to share a scoop with everyone today. I'm really excited about this singer/songwriter whose name is Brandy Clark. She's part of this group of women, including Miranda Lambert and Casey Musgrave. They often work together. And her own songs and voice, I think, are some of the most clear-eyed and tough-minded of the new country artist. She just has a no BS attitude...
POWERS: ...about representing life. And I love it.
POWERS: That's "The Day She Got Divorced," a great description of what it's like when a marriage falls apart. Written by Brandy Clark, was recorded once by Reba McEntire, but you hear Brandy's own beautiful voice in that version.
MONTAGNE: Now that we've spent some time here in talking about these new female country music stars, what about a veteran - someone that you think is especially exciting this year?
POWERS: I think there's no greater evidence that women in country are in a renaissance moment right now, then the new album "Spitfire," by Leann Rimes.
POWERS: Leann Rimes, formerly a child star, recently fodder for the tabloids with her marital problems. But this new record "Spitfire," it's deep. It's intimate. It has an amazing sound. It's just an excellent record. And Leann Rimes coming out on top, that's a beautiful midyear capper to this women in country music year.
MONTAGNE: Ann, thanks a lot for sharing all that music with us.
POWERS: Thank you so much Renee.
MONTAGNE: Ann Powers is NPR's music critic. She joined us from member station WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
And I'm Linda Wertheimer. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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In 2011, NASA commissioned the National Research Council to put together a report to serve as a "comprehensive independent assessment of NASA's strategic direction and agency management." That report, released yesterday, reads as a damning litany of what's wrong with one of the United States government's crown jewels. NASA, for all its accomplishments over the past fifty years, is a sinking ship.
Altogether, the report lists four primary areas that should be NASA's focus: manned spaceflight, Earth and space science, aeronautics, and technology development. The lack of focus in the manned space program is obvious to even casual observers, but the report also highlights serious issues in both funding and direction across the board at NASA, affecting the other focus areas as well.
The report brings up the recent Mars Science Laboratory program as a benchmark achievement, while at the same time pointing out that many other Earth and space science missions previously targeted as priorities are being set aside due to funding problems. The withdrawal from the ExoMars partnership with the European Space Agency clouds the agency's robotic future, even as Curiosity rolls triumphantly around on the surface of Mars, happily zapping things and making discoveries.
The reasons for the shortcomings are discussed at length, but they all can be characterized as failures in leadership. The report paints the picture of an agency crippled by the whims of politicians holding the purse strings:
Numerous times the agency initiated new programs with the expectation that budgets would increase to support them (a basic requirement for optimizing any development program's budget), only to have no increases emerge. Taken in aggregate, this situation has been wasteful and inefficient. Even leaving aside the funding requirements for large procurements, it is tempting to assume that if NASA officials knew to expect a flat budget they could plan better, but in several recent cases they were told (even required) to expect funding that never ultimately emerged.
On one hand, NASA's funding remains relatively stable. "The funding for NASA's total budget has been remarkably level in constant-year dollars for more than a decade," notes the report. On the other hand, continual shifts in agency direction have negated much of the benefit of that funding:
However, there has been some instability at the programmatic level and the out-year projections in the President's budget are unreliable, which makes it difficult for program managers to plan activities that require multi-year planning. Put another way, although the budget may have been level over time, NASA experienced substantial program instability over the same period.
This "program instability" causes problems when NASA is working with international partners. In a number of cases, these partners have been sold on NASA's involvement in a mission, only to have shifting priorities and budgets cause the US to back out. These international partnerships also cause friction between leadership and reality. It's the traditional position that the US will "partner" with other countries in space by taking a leadership role over most or all aspects of the given mission. However, the report argues this can no longer be the case:
Many US leaders also assume that the United States will take the lead in such projects. However, American leadership in international space cooperation requires meeting several conditions. First, the United States has to have a program that other countries want to participate in, and this is not always the case. Second, the United States has to be willing to give substantial responsibility to its partners. In the past, the approach of the United States to international partnership has too often been perceived as being based on a program conceived, planned, and directed by NASA. Third, other nations must be able to see something to gain—in other words, a reason to partner with the United States. Finally, the United States has to demonstrate its reliability and attractiveness as an international partner.
The last part is particularly noteworthy. The idea that the United States and NASA must prove that it's worth partnering with in a space venture seems a curious notion at first—no government agency's successes are as storied as NASA's—but the agency today lacks even the ability to send astronauts into space on its own. "Although gaps in US human spaceflight capability have existed in the past, several other factors, in combination, make this a unique period for NASA," the report states.
These "other factors" are capped by a total lack of consensus on the next steps of how to get astronauts into space—the spacecraft and launch vehicles to replace the retired space shuttle are still in flux and not securely funded. A space agency that can't even put its own astronauts in space, the report chides, is one that has a lot to prove to international partners. NASA is no longer the prettiest girl at the dance.
Again, the lack of a consistent vision has been a problem. The manned program is specifically called out as a paragon of confusion. "Other than the long-range goal of sending humans to Mars," notes the report, "there is no strong, compelling national vision for the human spaceflight program, which is arguably the centerpiece of NASA's spectrum of mission areas."
The goal of a manned landing on an asteroid by 2025 is met with the written equivalent of a head-shake and an eye-roll: "The committee has seen little evidence that a current stated goal for NASA's human spaceflight program—namely, to visit an asteroid by 2025—has been widely accepted as a compelling destination by NASA's own workforce, by the nation as a whole, or by the international community."
The asteroid mission, originally recommended by the 2009 Review of US Human Space Flight Plans Committee (also known as the "Augustine Commission" after its chairman, aerospace veteran Norman Augustine) as almost a throwaway mission to keep the manned program marking time while waiting for a more substantial goal, is considered by no one to be a serious option. "This goal has been studied extensively by NASA and received rhetorical support from numerous US presidents...but it has never received sufficient funding to advance beyond the rhetoric stage." Lip service is the order of the day for the manned program.
In fact, the Augustine Commission laid out several potential manned space flight goals, including affordable methods of maximizing the existing and planned Project Constellation hardware; the commission's conclusions and recommendations were almost totally ignored by agency leadership and government policymakers.
The report doesn't go so far as to recommend what NASA should be doing with its time and money—that was already taken care of, in great detail, by the Augustine Commission in 2009. However, the report does lay out four options for how the United States might address the sad state of its space program.
The first option is to "[i]nstitute an aggressive restructuring program to reduce infrastructure and personnel costs to improve efficiency." This would result in an outright reduction in the number of contractors and civil servants working at or for NASA, and the shuttering of some facilities. Although there would be immediate cost savings, this could leave the agency unable to perform some meaningful work; layoffs at the scale required could drive personnel not included in the layoffs to leave.
Option two is to "[e]ngage in and commit for the long-term to more cost-sharing partnerships with other US government agencies, private sector industries, and international partners." Ramping up international partnerships sounds good, but it comes with its own challenges. Manned or unmanned programs that cross international boundaries bring tremendous complexity (though the most successful partnership, the International Space Station, shows that the complexities aren't insurmountable). Further, the report notes that this option might actually incur higher costs, as international partners might require long-term financial commitments on the part of NASA to ensure the notoriously fickle US Congress wouldn't be able to unilaterally cancel a program.
Option three is the simplest (and simultaneously the most complex): increase NASA's funding so that it can actually do what it's been tasked to do. The Augustine Commission reached this conclusion, too, noting that an immediate $3 billion increase in NASA's funding, coupled with a sensible per-year increase to track inflation, would be sufficient to pay for the entire manned space flight program in perpetuity. The various unmanned programs would benefit from this increase as well. Unfortunately, even though $3 billion is an almost vanishingly small sum in government terms, the political challenges of increasing NASA's funding in today's budget climate are likely insurmountable.
The public's lack of interest in a compelling vision is just as responsible for NASA's state. It's difficult to turn one's eyes to the heavens when there are so many problems on the ground to stare at.
Option four is the corollary to option 3: "[r]educe considerably the size and scope of elements of NASA's current program portfolio to better fit the current and anticipated budget profile." The report cites this as the "least attractive" of all the options, as the reduction would have to be dramatic in scope and would likely mean shelving one whole area of focus from NASA, which would send ripples through the other three.
It's difficult to predict which option, if any, decision-makers will choose to go with. If the past is any indication, this report will be met with the same level of deafening silence as met the Augustine Commission. Something, however, must change. NASA is an agency of the United States government; it is a ship without a motor, steered by the winds, and it cannot change direction on its own.
"Although the committee carefully analyzed NASA's current strategic plan, as well as previous ones, it ultimately concluded that the strategic planning process is affected more by what happens outside the agency than by any process inside NASA," the report flatly states. "The lack of a national consensus on what NASA should do constrains NASA's ability to plan and to operate."
In the end, this statement puts the blame on us. NASA's distributed presence across the US means that even in the worst of times, it remains on life support. Woe to the Congressperson who cancels NASA funds if that Congressperson resides in a NASA-heavy state like Alabama, California, Florida, or Texas. But NASA cannot be treated as simply a politically expedient jobs program. While it may fall to the country's leadership to inspire and suggest a direction, the public's lack of interest in a compelling vision is just as responsible for NASA's state. It's difficult to turn one's eyes to the heavens when there are so many problems on the ground to stare at.
This is not a universal problem among space-faring nations—China in particular hungers for the prestige a successful space program brings to a nation. But it would be difficult to frame a "space race" with China in the same terms with which the government framed the competition with the Soviets. Communism isn't the world-devouring monster it appeared to be fifty years ago, and even a series of Chinese flags planted on the Moon to complement the six copies of Old Glory currently up there might not be enough to spark support for a renewed NASA. For the United States to salvage its preeminence in space exploration, manned or unmanned, the public must hold its leaders accountable for supplying the agency with direction, and that seems less likely to happen now than at any point in NASA's history.