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I greet you, dearest Listener, a perturbed Becky. Something happened yesterday that has made me want to say some very important things.
Whilst in a shop, I overhead the following conversation between two young teenage girls. I'm appalling at judging people's ages – I thought Mick Jagger was 348, turns out he's only 70 – but I'm guessing these two girls couldn't have been more than 14.
Girl 1: I really need to lose weight.
Girl 2: Do what I'm doing.
Girl 1: Yeah, you've lost loads of weight.
Girl 2: Yeah, over a stone! Seriously, just spit everything into a tissue, you never actually swallow anything! I've been doing it for ages.
Girl 1: I might start doing that.
Girl 2: Do it, we'll be well skinny.
Girl 1: (Smiling) Yeah.
Listener, this conversation left me colder than a polar bear who's fallen into a frozen lake, climbed out, spent all night in the rain, then been told the local shop has no woolly jumpers left.
These two girls were healthy-looking and slim – in fact the one who said she'd been hawking food into tissues was erring on too-skinny (unsurprising, as she's probably ingested about 7 calories in the last month) – and neither of them needed, by any stretch of even the wildest imagination, to lose even an ounce.
Yet here they were proudly discussing the merits of what is essentially a form of bulimia. In a bid to get 'well skinny'.
Every gram of fat, every ounce of muscle in my body wanted to grab them by their perfectly lean shoulders and yell
The thought of these two healthy girls slipping into the bony grip of an eating disorder was horrible. Depressing, and horrible. Two words that exactly describe an eating disorder. Or, if you're less wordy, the word
will do nicely.
I'm not just having an aimless rant, I know what I'm talking about: I spent nearly two years in my early 20s starving myself in a bid to get skinny. At the end of 2005, the world had a healthy, happy, curvaceous, 9 and a half stone Becky. By mid 2007, the world was frankly bored and rather irritated by an unhealthy, miserable, bony, 7 and a half stone Becky.
What started as a bid to 'lose a few pounds' and 'tone up' plummeted into an uncontrollable need to control what I put in my mouth, and before I could say 'I don't have an issue with food and I could never be anorexic', I had a monumental issue with food and I was anorexic.
An eating disorder is basically the man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors. In fact, I'm surprised some English literature professor hasn't written a thesis entitled "Feed Me, Seymour: Audrey II as a Metaphor for Anorexia". (That one's mine, hands off.)
It starts as an innocuous seed in your brain: I want to lose weight. You start eating less, you start losing weight. You get smaller. The seed gets bigger. It wants more of your flesh, more of your blood. You duly provide. The less you eat and the smaller you get, the more it consumes and the bigger and more monstrous is becomes, until it's got you dangling from its greedy, slobbering lips and you realise with a sudden terrible certainty that there is no escape.
At this point you may as well say goodbye to everything that shapes you as a person. Any aspirations, hobbies, enjoyment, pleasure, hopes, sparks of character, or that fire that burns inside you with your name on it – forget it. You are one thing and one thing only: an eating disorder. Every single second of every day is consumed with focussing on losing fat, with not eating, with trying to avoid eating situations. Food is your nemesis. Yet you can't think about anything else. It doesn't matter where you are, what you are doing, who says what to you – there is only one thing you can think about.
The enjoyment you took in everyday things – hanging out with friends, dinner with your family, shopping, lounging around being yourself – disappears. Suddenly everything is a terrifying problem. An invite to a house party becomes a desperate quest to look skinny and avoid those evil plates of nibbles on every surface. A harmless question from a parent – 'Are you in for dinner tonight' – is a gut-punching, brain-screwing imperative to lie. And lie you will. You will become an expert fabricator of life's minutiae, and you will be ruthless.
To avoid having to stay in and eat what was put in front of me, I once told my mother I was going out for dinner with friends. I wasn't going out for dinner. It was a massive, slimy lie. I borrowed her car and drove round the streets of South West London for three hours, then came back and gushed about what a lovely meal I'd had. Not only did my eating disorder turn me into a slithering, pathetic liar, it rendered me single-handedly responsible for England's carbon emissions.
An eating disorder makes your once happy, sparkly life utterly miserable. And now let me tell you what you achieve in your diehard quest to be skinny:
The tragic irony is that in your quest to be skinny, there is no such thing as 'skinny'. There is no single weight, no end goal, that will satisfy an eating disorder.
'Skinny' is a terrifying, bottomless concept that you will never, ever reach. Even when everyone in the world is telling you
it is never enough. Comments like that are a sign you are doing well, and you should carry on. Basically, in today's lingo, an eating disorder is an epic fail. Before you even start, you have failed. You will never reach your goal because your goal will scuttle off into the gloom like a cockroach. Even when you can happily see your cute little collar bones strain through your skin, and you can admire your twig-like arms in the mirror, it still will not make you smile. I have never been so miserable, so wretched, or cried or shouted so much, as I did during my eating disorder.
Eventually, if my experience is anything to go by, your willpower and your self-control will snap like a piece of taut string – it may take one year, two, ten – it may never happen – and you will plunge into a desperate, blacked-out world of uncontrollable, panicked binge eating. Late nights in the kitchen, tearing through cupboards like the Tasmanian Devil, shoving anything and everything you can get your hands on. I probably owe my parents hundreds of pounds in binged-on food. And the bitter truth is that I have lost more hours to the blind frenzy of binge eating than I have to starving myself. An eating disorder has one hell of a long hangover.
And even if you make a full recovery, like I did (and guess what: I love food and I'm bloody happy about it), and get back to a healthy weight and stop viewing food as the Devil incarnate, your body image and your self-control will always be a little bit broken.
I didn't say anything to the two girls in the shop who wanted to be 'well skinny', and I spent the day wishing I had. True, they may have told me to Fuck off, and remarked amongst themselves that I could do with dropping a few feet from around my bum – but on the other hand, they might have thought about the stranger that felt strongly enough to say something, and they might, just might, have packed the whole thing in and gone for a pizza.
So I've said it on here instead. Trying to be skinny is shit. It is impossible. You will never reach it. It will get hold of you, and it will never quite let go.


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Message Board
Josephine Carr Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Carr has written!
Author Carr's Book Reviews
The Dewey Decimal System of Love
Librarian Ally Sheffield is sitting at the debut concert of Maestro Aleksi Kullio with the Philadelphia Philharmonic when her 15 year dormant sexuality awakes with a vengance. Her boss notices the change in her features the next day and proclaims she's in love. She doesn't deny it to herself, even when she meets Kullio's wife who is researching poisons for a mystery that she is writing. No surprise that it's set in an orchestra and the conductor is on...
The Dewey Decimal System of Love
Alison Sheffield, a 40 year old librarian in Philadelphia, has been celibate for 15 years, but she has fallen in love. The man she feels she has been waiting for all these years is Aleksi Kullio, the handsome and dashing new conductor of Philadephia's philharmonic orchestra. Trouble is, Aleksi is married to a gorgeous woman, Michelle, who everyone thinks is charming, while Ally is thin, bespectacled, and primly dressed. Ally realizes her love is po...

subset: commoncrawl


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Already all but eliminated from playoff contention, the Ottawa Senators will now play the remainder of the season without their leading goal scorer.
The Senators announced forward Bobby Ryan would undergo surgery in Montreal Thursday to repair a sports hernia. He will miss the final ten games of the regular season.
"Bobby has been dealing with the discomfort of this injury since it was sustained in November," said Senators general manager Bryan Murray. "Both Bobby and our medical staff were hopeful that we could hold off from having surgery until the completion of the season, but he aggravated the condition last Saturday in Dallas to the point that surgery is now the only option."
Ryan, who was acquired last July from the Anaheim Ducks, scored a team-leading 23 goals and had 48 points in 70 games.
Ryan scored 18 of his 23 goals by Dec. 31 and there was much speculation as to what was the cause of his recent lack of productivity. It now appears the injury played a big factor.
"Well he certainly started very, very well," said Murray on the Senators team website. "He shoots the puck awfully well, he scored some goals, his line obviously carried the team early on. He was a big part of that.
"I think after the hernia started to get aggravated a little bit he seemed to shoot the puck a bit less. Overall, very happy and satisfied with his overall play and we know he'll be a real contributor going forward."
Ryan's teammates were aware of the discomfort the winger was dealing with and offered their support.
"He battled through it and tried to work through it and it was something they were trying to give him help and he played well through it," said linemate Kyle Turris. "It will be nice when he's healthy and feeling better and able to get back at it.
"We knew it had been nagging him for a while and for him to battle through it and continue to try playing is something that we all respect him for."
Ryan's injury has created an opportunity for Mark Stone, who was recalled from Binghamton in the American Hockey League after Ryan aggravated the injury last weekend.
"There's still lots of hockey to be played and I want to make an impression and I want to stay up here," said Stone, who has a goal and an assist in his last two games. "I want to continue to play consistent hockey and stay up here for those ten games and hopefully make a good audition for next year."
While the Senators will have to host the Chicago Blackhawks without Ryan on Friday, they will likely have Craig Anderson back in goal against the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Anderson missed the last seven games after suffering an upper body injury due to a collision with teammate Milan Michalek in a game against the Nashville Predators March 10.
Anderson's injury came at a terrible time for the Senators, who were still within reach of one of the final wild card spots in the Eastern Conference. The Senators lost their next five games without Anderson and saw any playoff hope disappear.
Anderson has served as Robin Lehner's backup for the past two games and says he's ready to face the Blackhawks if called upon.
Senators head coach Paul MacLean wouldn't name his starter for Friday's game.
"If called upon I'll be the guy that gets in there, but we'll wait to see what the coach says," said Anderson. "It's been a while. I want to make sure when I get back in there that physically I feel 100 per cent and am able to help the team achieve victory that night."
Defenceman Chris Phillips should also return to the lineup after missing the last game.
Tampa's Ryan Malone hit Phillips in a game Monday, and the two crashed hard into the boards. Phillips missed Tuesday's game against the Florida Panthers, but says he feels good and is ready to return.
While the Senators are no longer in playoff contention Phillips says there's numerous reasons for the players to be at their best.
"We still have games to play," said Phillips. "Everybody's fighting for a job, a contract, trying to prove to coaches and management that you should be here as well as the pride of wearing these jerseys. We're going to go out until the season's over, whenever that may be, and we want to go out and play as good as we can on a nightly basis."
Notes: C Mika Zibanejad says he should be ready to play Friday after missing the last game. Tomorrow's game marks the start of a five-game home stand for the Senators.


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Rowing WOD 4/15/13:
"The Castle"
Row for 21min as follows…
3′ @20 s/m, 3′ @24, 3′ @28, 3′ @26, 3′ @28, 3′ @24, 3′ @20
- Focus on Rhythm and Ratio
As we head into Regionals and the Games, many athletes will need some extra time on the erg to focus on rhythm, timing, and overall form. Today's Rowing WOD is a great opportunity for any athlete, experienced or not, to get a sense of form and rhythm without the pressure of intensity and competition. Sometimes it's good to slow down for an active recovery day in order to go harder and faster later on down the road.
Rhythm and Endurance are two necessities for successful competition in longer WODs. A great example would be the KB Swings and Pull Ups found in "Helen". Those who find a consistent rhythm can flow through the movements naturally and rely on their aerobic endurance without dipping into their anaerobic energy supply.
In today's Rowing WOD the focus is developing rhythm and endurance. Another word for rhythm in rowing is Ratio. By varying the ratio of the drive to the recovery rowers can maintain the same pace or split, but work more efficiently and make the stroke feel lighter or heavier.
When going from a 20 stroke rating to a 24 you should focus on more pressure with the legs and quickly redirecting the hands through the finish. This will help increase the stroke rating while leaving you the same amount of time to sit up, breathe, and relax as you slide forward on the recovery.
Post distance rowed to comments along with songs that helped you stick to each rating!
A project that I've started thanks to Renegade Rower Mike T. is how to help people feel the proper rhythm and ratio by rowing to music. Music can motivate us to push hard and row longer, but it can also give us a sense of timing.
If you have Spotify, I've created a playlist for each stroke rating. Each playlist is named "Renegade Rowing @(insert stroke rate)", so for songs that you could row to at a 20 the playlist is named "Renegade Rowing @20″. If you have favorite songs that go well at certain stroke ratings please feel free to add to the playlists on Spotify. Thanks Mike T. for kick starting this project and I hope this helps motivate everyone to find better rhythm and ratio!
20 s/m: Renegade Rowing @20
22 s/m: Renegade Rowing @22
24 s/m: Renegade Rowing @24
26 s/m: Renegade Rowing @26
28 s/m: Renegade Rowing @28
30 s/m: Renegade Rowing @30
32 s/m: Renegade Rowing @32
34 s/m: Renegade Rowing @34
36 s/m: Renegade Rowing @36


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From Beau's All Natural Brewing in Vankleek Hill Ontario comes their "Cabalier Blue" Blueberry IPA. The beer pours very red with some floaties and a light reddish head. The aroma consists of Blueberries, herbal and grassy hops and some grain. The flavour is of blueberries, mild tropical fruits, some bready malts, herbal and grassy hops with some hops bitterness in the finish. The alcohol content comes in at 6% with an IBU of 50. Leave it to Beau's All Natural Brewing to come up with a really interesting blend of flavours!
Commercial Description: Built on the foundation of a generously hopped I.P.A., Cavalier Bleu blends the citrusy aromas of organic New Zealand hop varieties with the fruity flavours found in American Azacca and German Mandarina Bavaria hops. Topping it off is an infusion of organic blueberry juice made from wild Québec blueberries.
Food pairing as per brewery: Venison steak with a blueberry reduction, blueberry cheesecake, beemster cheese.


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The Fighting Games market research covers an all-inclusive study encompassing a primary and secondary market research surveying the key aspects delivering crucial findings supported by factual and evidential data sourced from some of the reliable participants including vendors and providers. The study also provides accurate evaluation of the Fighting Games market size along with the market share and volume coordinates, cost structure and supply chain. The report incorporates conclusive assessment delivering reliable market estimates and metrics represented graphically through the future forecast determination. The Fighting Games market growth predictions are compiled into the forecast offering key insights of the potential growth scales and patterns.
We Have Recent Updates of Fighting Games Market in Sample [email protected] https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/5255642?utm_source=PoojaGIR
The study particularly emphasizes determination and analysis of the growth inducing variables providing the clientele with a thorough overview of the critical drivers accelerating the revenue generation as well as the rate of demand for the Fighting Games market. the study also incorporates the major factors hindering the growth of the Fighting Games market classified from the positive influence of the drivers. Followed by the in-depth study of the drivers and restrains altering the growth of the Fighting Games market is the evaluation of major opportunities and challenges. The report includes a SWOT analysis indicating the strengths and threats to the market.
Vendor Profiling: Fighting Games Market, 2020-28:
Autumn Games
SNK Playmore
WB Games
Koei Tecmo
Arc System Works
The report further focuses on delivering a thorough analysis of the COVID-19 outbreak impact on the Fighting Games market comprising of the specific challenges emerged since, threats, along with the adverse effects. It includes analysis of the disrupted supply chain, sales and marketing as well as production across the Fighting Games market along with evaluation of the fluctuations caused to the linear growth trajectory of the industry. the study also analyses the changing market dynamics consisting of determination of the innovative business models, adoption of new techniques and trends encouraging the Fighting Games market over the forecast.
Analysis by Type:
2D Fighting Games
3D Fighting Games
Analysis by Application:
Gaming Console
Regional Analysis:
The report evaluates the proliferation of the Fighting Games market in the nations like France, Italy USA, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Germany, U.K, South Korea, and Southeast Asia. The report also undergoes meticulous evaluation of the regions such as Middle East & Africa, Europe North, America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific.
– North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico)
– Europe (U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Central & Eastern Europe, CIS)
– Asia Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, ASEAN, India, Rest of Asia Pacific)
– Latin America (Brazil, Rest of L.A.)
– Middle East and Africa (Turkey, GCC, Rest of Middle East)
Browse Full Report with Facts and Figures of Fighting Games Market Report at @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/reports/index/global-fighting-games-market-2020-by-company-regions-type-and-application-forecast-to-2025?utm_source=PoojaGIR
Lastly, the market study comprehensively deciphers the individual players driving the growth of the Fighting Games market. it ranks the leading competitors based on the market performance and revenue contributions. The market report delivers the company profile of the top Fighting Games market players with a detailed analysis of the infrastructure and finances, competitive advantage and share. The study primarily focuses on the highest revenue generating players of the Fighting Games market marking their potential role in accelerating the growth during the forecast period. It includes evaluation of the mergers and collaborations with an aggressive growth impact in the future.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Report Overview
1.1 Study Scope
1.2 Key Market Segments
1.3 Players Covered: Ranking by Fighting Games Revenue
1.4 Market Analysis by Type
1.4.1 Fighting Games Market Size Growth Rate by Type: 2020 VS 2028
1.5 Market by Application
1.5.1 Fighting Games Market Share by Application: 2020 VS 2028
1.6 Study Objectives
1.7 Years Considered
Chapter Two: Growth Trends by Regions
2.1 Fighting Games Market Perspective (2018-2028)
2.2 Fighting Games Growth Trends by Regions
2.2.1 Fighting Games Market Size by Regions: 2018 VS 2020 VS 2028
2.2.2 Fighting Games Historic Market Share by Regions (2018-2020)
2.2.3 Fighting Games Forecasted Market Size by Regions (2022-2028)
2.3 Industry Trends and Growth Strategy
2.3.1 Market Top Trends
2.3.2 Market Drivers
2.3.3 Market Challenges
2.3.4 Porter's Five Forces Analysis
2.3.5 Fighting Games Market Growth Strategy
2.3.6 Primary Interviews with Key Fighting Games Players (Opinion Leaders)
Chapter Three: Competition Landscape by Key Players
3.1 Top Fighting Games Players by Market Size
3.1.1 Top Fighting Games Players by Revenue (2018-2020)
3.1.2 Fighting Games Revenue Market Share by Players (2018-2020)
3.1.3 Fighting Games Market Share by Company Type
3.2 Fighting Games Market Concentration Ratio
3.2.1 Fighting Games Market Concentration Ratio (CRChapter Five: and HHI)
3.2.2 Top Chapter Ten: and Top 5 Companies by Fighting Games Revenue in 2020
3.3 Fighting Games Key Players Head office and Area Served
3.4 Key Players Fighting Games Product Solution and Service
3.5 Date of Enter into Fighting Games Market
3.6 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans
Do You Have Any Query or Specific Requirement? Ask Our Industry [email protected] https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/5255642?utm_source=PoojaGIR
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text:
19th April, 2012
Just a quick note to say the reason I've not posted here in a while is because I've been posting photos and gubbins to my Google+ page. Mainly because it works so seamlessly with my phone (auto uploads photos etc), not to mention how much better then FB it is!
Anyway if you're interested in following me there, I can be found HERE.
My secret Minecraft base
11th December, 2011
Video of one of my minecraft creations, involves all kinds of insane wiring behind the scenes.
Boys wanting to stay in bed.
1st November, 2011
Pumpkin photos
31st October, 2011
This year's pumpkin creation. (Sam thought it was too scary too stand next too)
26th October, 2011
View from my office window.
Poker fun
16th October, 2011
William gets comfortable to watch F1 with me.
28th August, 2011
Ben plots evil plans (aka Ball Pool fun)
25th August, 2011
Congrats to Mr & Mrs Birdsall!
21st August, 2011
Minecraft Creations
19th August, 2011
Picasa Gallery HERE


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Target Employee Free Choice Act anti-union memos, Aug 2009
From WikiLeaks
Unless otherwise specified, the document described here:
- Was first publicly revealed by WikiLeaks working with our source.
- Was classified, confidential, censored or otherwise withheld from the public before release.
- Is of political, diplomatic, ethical or historical significance.
Any questions about this document's veracity are noted.
The summary is approved by the editorial board.
See here for a detailed explanation of the information on this page.
If you have similar or updated material, see our submission instructions.
- Release date
- August 25, 2009
This file contains two internal Target Corporation memos sent to all levels of management at Target stores. The memos relate to the Employee Free Choice Act currently before Congress. They show that Target is showing anti-union DVDs to all stores employees attempting to persuade them not to form unions or participate in the Employee Free Choice Act's card check process to form a union.
This file is important for two reasons. The first being that many Americans are under the impression Target Corporation is a union friendly company when these memos demonstrate it is not. The second reason being these memos prove that Target is partcipating in anti-union training activity at its stores.
Journalists can independently verify these documents by speaking to Taget management employees at Target stores who are willing to speak about these memos, and have the ability to check the corporate intranet site. Target calls these employees "Team Leaders" and "Executive Team Leaders". Journalists could verify the activity mentioned in these memos by asking regular non-management Target employees at Target stores if they have been shown anti-union DVDs or had any other anti-union training.
Our source wishes to show the public that one of the largest retailers in the United States (one that many Americans feel is union-friendly) is in fact taking direct action to prevent its employees from forming unions, and is working against the method employees would have to form unions if the Employee Free Choice Act passes Congress.
For more on the Free Choice Act, see anti-union call between Bank of America, Bernie Marcus, et al. and Rick Berman, 17 Oct 2008.
Further information
- Context
- United States
- Company
- Target Corporation


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I'm just back from the San Francisco Treasury Symposium where I gave the luncheon keynote speech on "Wine Boom and Bust — With Lessons for Finance in the 21st Century." You might well ask what business a wine economist has speaking to a group of treasury executives (I asked that question myself!), and the answer has two parts.
First, I actually know a little bit about global finance from my day job as a university professor. I've written frequently about global financial flows and especially the periodic crises that seem to plague them.
The other reason is that the conference organizers thought it would be interesting and different to hear someone talk wine, but in a way that would still be relevant to their treasury executive audience. So that was my challenge.
Money into Wine? Easy! Wine into Money … Not So Much
Money and wine are closely tied, although it is an asymmetrical relationship. It is pretty easy to convert money into wine, for example. In fact, it may be a little too easy to do this. Some of my friends report that the whole "money into wine" thing has gotten way out of hand for them. You probably know the problem from personal experience if your cellar has grown bigger than your bank account.
It is harder to convert wine into money, especially if you are in the wine business. The best way to make a small fortune in wine, people tell me, is to start with a large one. I focused on three aspects of wine economics for my talk: globalization's opportunities and threats, the "new rules of the game" and the need to embrace (or at least accept) volatility. All these points apply to both wine and 21st Century finance.
Globalization: Opportunity and Threat
Globalization offers a world of opportunity to winemakers and financial managers alike, but it is a complex world and a very competitive one. New markets open their doors … but your market doors are open wide, too. Optimists will see the wine glass more than half full and seize the opportunities that present themselves, hopefully taking the associated costs and risks into account.
One problem with globalization is that the risks are so difficult to fully evaluate. The Australian wine industry, for example, is currently suffering from a bad case of globalization gone bad and part of the problem has nothing directly to do with wine.
Although the Crash of 2008 slowed down the global economy, China continues to surge ahead, its demand for natural resources (one of Australia's strong sectors) growing year after year. Australian has come down with a bad case of the "Dutch Disease" where success in one sector causes chaos elsewhere. As mineral sales have increased, the strong Australian dollar has depressed the already weakened wine industry by discouraging exports. Click on the "Dutch Disease" link to see my report on this problem.
The [New] Rules of the Game
Global finance is dominated by a number of key financial centers that set the "rules of the game" for money. Wine works the same way, but the centers have shifted and the rules of the game have changed.
Producing nations (think France and Italy) once determined the rules of the game with their AOC designations. The center shifted to Great Britain, Germanyand the United States in the last 20 years and now the rules are written by those who sell wine (think Tesco, Costco and Aldi) more than by those who produce it. The most successful wine sectors so far are those that have best adjusted to the new rules.
The rules will change again soon, I suspect, as the BRIC and new BRIC nations make their wine market influence felt. I think finance will also experience shifting centers with new rules and have to adjust accordingly.
Volatility was my final point and wine markets have plenty of it. Boom and bust cycles seem to be "baked in the cake" in both money and wine. I talked about Australia's five big wine booms and busts in the past 150 years and characterized them in terms of Hyman Minsky's famous "seven stages" description of financial crises.
Beyond Boom and Bust
Booms and busts are bad enough, but wine markets also suffer from medium-term cycles of surplus and scarcity as illustrated by the Turrentine Brokerage "Wine Business Wheel of Fortune." High prices today sow the seeds of low prices a few years down the road, according this analysis, which is based on the well-known "cob-web" model of lagged adjustment in agricultural markets.
Anyone who has tried to guide their 401k portfolio (much less manage corporate financial affairs) knows how volatile financial markets can be – the wine world's bubbles and cycles must seem pretty peaceful by comparison.
Wine and money may be very different, but the problems they face bear a certain resemblance, don't you think? What can wine teach money in these uncertain times?
One lesson, I proposed, is to "think global but drink local." This sounds pretty simplistic, but it captures trends that I see in wine today. Economic imperatives have made both global and local markets more important than in the past. Developing direct sales vectors and developing and maintaining personal relationships is high priority today. Wine (like money) is a relationship business that needs constant attention.
Boulding's Law
But it's useful (and often necessary) to keep a global mindset even as you cultivate local markets. The world is getting bigger and smaller at the same time and the rules of the game continue to change.
The second lesson is what I call "Boulding's Law" after Kenneth Boulding, the famous economist. Boulding once made a study of the history of the future. He looked at what people thought about the future at various points in time and then did a "fast forward" though the history books to see if they were right.
His conclusion? When the future came around people were usually surprised. It wasn't what they expected at all (even if it was exactly what they predicted years before!).
Hence Boulding's Law: The best way to prepare for the future … is to prepare to be surprised. That holds for wine, I think, and for money, too.
Thanks to the San Francisco Treasury Management Association for inviting me to speak at their symposium. Special thanks to Jim Lindsay and Larry Goldman.


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Posted by: Nick and Ted
Well we like it we like it we like it we like it we la la la like it. La la la like it. Here we go-oooh! We're Waffling around the world!
After the roaring success that was our tour of Scotland, we've decided to jump on a big old jet airliner and go global.
Our next Waffle Night will occur on the 22nd of July and once again be held at Burnie's best cafe and whisky tasting venue: The Chapel. We will be sampling whisky (and whiskey) from various exotic countries around the world… and America.
The night will cost $35 and this covers light nibbles, as well as six drams of whisky from different countries. Judging by past events, tickets will sell out fast, so book your place by visiting: www.trybooking.com/QYYZ
What: Whisky Waffle's World Tour: Wafflin' Around the World
When: Saturday the 22nd of July at 7.30pm
Where: The Chapel, Burnie
Why: because whisky is good
Who: you guys!
How much: $35 for 6 drams and light food
So giddy up and giddy up and get away. We're getting Waffly in the best kind of way. Here we go-oooh! We're Waffling around the world!


text:
Cyr column: John Bolton's revenge memoir
Columns share an author's personal perspective.
John Bolton abruptly departed as National Security Adviser to President Donald Trump in September 2019, after just under a year and a half in the pivotal, exceptionally demanding position. This was only one incident in a continuing series of departures of officials from this turbulent administration.
Now Bolton has published a memoir, titled "The Room Where It Happened - A White House Memoir." His visible Washington D.C. career has involved regular appearances on Fox News, as well as service in the Reagan and both Bush administrations, including the Justice Department and the State Department. He brought that high-flyer style into the national security position, where a relatively low profile is often most effective.
White House efforts to prevent publication of his book have generated more attention and controversy. He strenuously denies circumventing standard national security review of the manuscript.
The book, just published by Simon & Schuster, is very much a discussion of personalities in the Trump administration. There is focus on the president but even more on Bolton, who is emphatic that he resigned and was not fired. However, he also provides extensive personal testimony that the relationship with the president had deteriorated badly by the time he departed.
Bolton's exit was then only the latest in what is now a non-stop merry-go-round of senior administration officials coming and then going, often very quickly. Robert O'Brien, Bolton's successor, is a successful lawyer from California with extensive professional success, and active political campaign experience, but very little background in foreign policy.
In this administration, there has been relative stability at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a particularly influential player among our multiple federal intelligence agencies. This stands out especially in current turmoil. Mike Pompeo joined the current administration as CIA director, and then became Secretary of State in April 2018.
Gina Haspel, his successor at the CIA, is the first woman director and a career professional. Both qualities are major strengths, professionally and politically. She clearly has relevant experience, impact on policy and a useful relatively low public profile.
Military dimensions remain vital policy challenges, for our nation as for others, and military officers have long been central to government leadership in intelligence and national security. During the Trump administration, two senior Army officers served as National Security Advisor before Bolton - Generals Michael Flynn and H.R. McMaster.
At the CIA, established in 1947, the first four directors were all senior military officers: Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Vice Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter and General Walter Bedell Smith.
The U.S. has paid a high price for alienation between civilian and military agencies. During the Vietnam War, there was a general lack of communication between our military and CIA. The latter proved notably accurate - and prescient.
Vietnam field commander General William Westmoreland encouraged conformity in outlook. He ordered military officers literally not to talk to CIA personnel. Late in that war, Congress acted to force cooperation.
Gathering and assessing intelligence accurately remain challenging. False intelligence that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction encouraged the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Bolton harshly condemns the president for last-minute cancellation of a planned air strike on Iran in retaliation for the downing of a U.S. drone. Trump warned of "too many body bags."
Candidate Trump pledged to avoid overseas military involvement. Washington warrior Bolton regularly advocates force against Iran, North Korea and elsewhere. Personality plus policy made his departure no surprise.
Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of "After the Cold War" (NYU Press and Macmillan). Contact email@example.com.


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Happy International Women's Day! Now let's get to it . . .
Mo'Nique might have said last night that it was about "the performance and not the politics" but when she invoked the legacy of Hattie McDaniel, the first African American woman to win an Oscar, she proved that it is always about the politics. Back in 1939, McDaniel wanted simply to be "a credit to [her] race." Beyond merely paying homage to McDaniel in words, Mo'Nique attempted to embody her, wearing a large white flower reminiscent of the one McDaniel wore when she received the award. By (rightly) situating herself within the tradition of Hattie McDaniel, Mo'Nique invited us through her own words –and through her superbly troubling portrayal of Mary Jones—to ask: What is our racial credit score? Do we have enough cultural capital to be able to afford yet another troubling representation of Black motherhood and womanhood? For these two women and their Oscar winning roles book-end a catalogue of representations of Black mothering, that leave one staggering for perspective and grasping for any slice of reality.
To offer another metaphor, they create an arc, an umbrella that starts with Mammy and ends with the Welfare Queen, and ensconses every negative stereotype of Black womanhood in between. Memorialized by McDaniel in Gone with the Wind, the Mammy– that ever-nurturing, sometimes sassy, always-loving, self-sacrificing and asexual mother– continues to anchor White Americans pastoral remembrances of girlhood and boyhood. At the other end are the Mary Joneses of the world, the welfare queens, the lazy, cunning, ignorant, abusive tangles of pathology that remain a thorn in the side of Black America. And if McDaniel's and Mo'Nique's performances are the umbrella of representations of Black mothers, then Sandra Bullock's Oscar-winning performance of the heroic white mother in The Blind Side is the curved handle, the lever at the center, which has the power to make the umbrella as narrow or as wide as we wish, as formidable or innocuous as we need. And it is a curved handle because such performances hook you and handle you, while making you believe you control the lever. If our recent credit crisis has taught us anything, it is this: when White America gets a rain shower, Black America gets a hurricane. And when you're caught in the whirlwind of volatile representations, wielding your umbrella is surely an exercise in futility.


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What is T-SQL Tuesday?
T-SQL Tuesday is the brain-child of MVP Adam Machanic (blog|twitter). It happens once a month on the 2nd Tuesday and is hosted by a different person in the SQL community each time. The idea is to get the SQL Community blogging on a common topic on a single day of the month after which a round-up of all the participating posts are done by the hosting blog owner to give the SQL community a one-stop shop of some great articles on a single topic.
What is the topic for July?
The topic for July is "T-SQL Best Practices". If you work with SQL Server, then undoubtedly you would have had to write T-SQL queries atleast once or would have had to debug the seemingly useful piece of T-SQL code written by your developers to find out where the performance bottleneck or problem was. Your post for this month's revolving blog party could be along one of the areas:
a. A set of T-SQL best practices that you follow in your shop that or you believe that should be followed always. It could be as specific as for writing only linked server queries or writing queries for SSIS packages etc.
b. An issue that you resolved because certain T-SQL best practices were not followed.
c. A workaround that you used (like query hints) to resolve an issue where T-SQL best practices couldn't be implemented due to involvement of a third party solution.
Why did I choose this topic?
Over the years of troubleshooting SQL performance related issues, I have found on multiple occasions that the T-SQL query in question was performing badly because certain best practices for writing that piece of code were not followed and the one responsible for the development had not foreseen that such an oversight could become a bottleneck when the data or the number of users increased. So, I thought it would be a good idea to get the SQL Community's thoughts around best practices in this area. Sometimes, the most obvious things are the easiest to overlook!
What are the Rules?
T-SQL Tuesday has some basic rules which are pretty easy to follow.
1. Your post must be published between 00:00 GMT Tuesday July 12, 2011, and 00:00 GMT Wednesday July 13, 2011.
2. Your post must contain the T-SQL Tuesday logo from above and the image should link back to this blog post.
3. Trackbacks should work, but if you don't see one please link to your post in the comments section below so everyone can view your blog post.
- Include a reference to T-SQL Tuesday in the title of your post
- Tweet about your post using the hash tag #TSQL2sDay
- Being creative always fetches brownie points and gets a smile from the reader!
So now it's time for:
SELECT [content] FROM [dbo].[tblbrain] WHERE [content_type] = 'T-SQL'
Before I wrap-up this post, a big thanks to Adam for letting me host T-SQL Tuesday for this month!


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What is Islamic law? Explore the history as David S. Powers explains the origins, concepts, and misconceptions of Islamic law.
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Analysts Debate: Is Disney a Top Stock?
The Motley Fool has been making successful stock picks for many years, but we don't always agree on what a great stock looks like. That's what makes us "motley," and it's one of our core values. We can disagree respectfully, as we often do. Investors do better when they share their knowledge.
In that spirit, we three Fools have banded together to find the market's best and worst stocks, which we'll rate on The Motley Fool's CAPS system as outperformers or underperformers. We'll be accountable for every pick based on the sum of our knowledge and the balance of our decisions. Today, we'll be discussing media and theme park company Disney (NYS: DIS) .
Disney by the numbers
Here's a quick snapshot of the company's most important numbers:
Result (most recent available)
$42.3 billion
Net Income
$5.7 billion
Market Cap
$86.3 billion
Dividend Yield
Key Franchises
Mickey Mouse, Star Wars, Avengers, Toy Story
Key Businesses
ESPN, Pixar, Marvel Studios
Key Competitors
Sources: Company filings.
Travis' take
Disney is one of those incredible companies that will be around forever no matter what happens. As the years roll on, the company keeps adding content and incredible long-lasting franchises and capabilities for distributing its content.
When we think of Disney we often think of Mickey Mouse, Disney World, or Pixar, but Disney's most valuable asset is probably its 80% stake in ESPN. This drives its largest segment, media networks, and is the one "must have" channel for consumers around the country. Take ABC, ABC Family, Disney Channel, and all of the other channels Disney owns; I just want my ESPN. This business isn't a phenomenal growth business, growing just 5% in the first three quarters of 2012, but it's stable and profitable, which every investor should like.
In my eyes the second most valuable asset Disney owns is its slew of franchises and characters. In spending $7.4 billion for Pixar, $4 billion for Marvel, and, just recently, $4 billion for Lucasfilm, the company was shoring up popular content that will drive it into the future. But the company hasn't spent $15.4 billion on these assets just to generate box office profits. These franchises become the heart of Disney's second-largest business -- parks and resorts.
Parks and Resorts is actually the fastest-growing business in the Disney portfolio, and has grown 10% this year. It generated 30% of the company's revenue in the first nine months of the year and 18% of the company's operating income. When you look at the eye-popping figures Disney spends on buyouts, it's actually the parks that make these acquisitions truly profitable.
I also think the company is setting itself up with a fortress of content for the digital future, a future that Disney is more prepared for than any other studio. The growing popularity of Netflix (NAS: NFLX) , Hulu (partially owned by Disney), and Amazon.com's (NAS: AMZN) streaming service provide a window into the future. These companies are just vehicles for delivering content, but there's no reason Disney couldn't deliver content on its own. WatchESPN, which brings ESPN content to your computer, mobile devices, and Xbox, shows the company has the capability, and the company's content gives it the flexibility to demand high prices from other distribution channels or build its own.
Disney isn't at the point where it will launch its own app or streaming network, but when I look out 10 years, I think owning a ton of content is a much better position to be in than owning a distribution channel like Netflix. It's analogous to owning a baseball team. If you don't like the deal a cable company offers, start your own network.
Paying 15 times earnings isn't a steal for investors, but with an eye on the long term I think the stock will still outperform the market.
Sean's take
It has truly been a remarkable year for the House of Mouse. Disney's share price has advanced 34%, crushing the S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC) , and it recently reported solid fourth-quarter earnings results. Yet for all the magic that Disney brings to the table, I have just as many concerns that this could be as good as it gets for a while.
Looking first at the positives, I have to point out the fantastic job being done by Disney's premier CEO, Bob Iger. Iger has led Disney to record quarterly results while also boosting its annual dividend by 50% and honoring America's veterans by putting them back to work. His leadership is the primary reason Disney shareholders should be thankful in 2012.
Disney's leadership in film is another saving grace. Marvel's The Avengers is the third-highest grossing film in the U.S. of all time and the highest-grossing film in 2012 by a mile. While not all of its movies are successes, those that are allow Disney to capitalize on multiple fronts, including the movie itself, merchandise sold from the movie, partnerships formed with other businesses (e.g., fast-food chains) to promote the movie, carryover to its theme parks, and eventually streaming/DVD sales.
Right now you're probably thinking, "OK, so why exactly aren't you gung-ho on Disney after mentioning these positive points?"
My skepticism (which you'll recognize as one of my defining characteristics if you've been following these weekly debates) primarily stems from Disney's historical valuation and tepid consumer spending figures worldwide.
With regard to valuation, I don't consider Disney to be ludicrously overvalued at 15 times trailing earnings. However, I think it's worth noting that at no time in the past decade has Disney traded at a higher price-to-book relative to the S&P 500 than it has this year. In terms of P/E, Disney hasn't had this type of premium over the S&P 500's P/E ratio since 2005. Disney tends to be relatively range-bound when it comes to valuation, and by all accounts, it doesn't appear to be an attractive buy based on these figures.
Difficult worldwide consumer spending prospects are also clouding my optimism for Disney. Price increases are big growth drivers at theme parks, which, as Travis notes, made up close to a third of Disney's revenue. If consumers in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. have less discretionary income due to a myriad of global factors that are slowing down growth, leisure companies like Disney will be the first to feel the pain.
Overall, I share sentiments similar to Travis'. I believe in Disney's management team, and I feel its media operations will be strong growth drivers going forward. On the other hand, this is about as pricey as I can recall Disney being in years, and the bar for future earnings reports is being set incredibly high. I'd rather wait for a better entry price than risk chasing Disney any higher.
Alex's take
Both of my colleagues have offered smart analysis on Disney's past and potential future success, and I agree with just about all of it. Well, that sure was easy. Thanks for reading!
On a more serious note, I'd like to focus on two things mentioned earlier -- Disney's parks and resorts growth, and its higher-than-normal valuation. Travis' point that the Lucas properties could become cornerstones of a deeper theme park experience is something that slipped by me at first, but which makes perfect sense on reflection. Darth Vader, Yoda, and the crew are truly iconic characters inhabiting a universe that's become part of our shared cultural experience, even if you're one of the few people to have never seen the Star Wars films. Adding that lineup to Disney World, or even developing a new cruise ship concept, would attract a group of fans outside Disney's typical wheelhouse. I bet the lure of watching lightsaber duels on the deck of the Fun Star (or whatever they choose to call it) would be tempting for many comic-con fans.
Travis mentioned the size of Disney's Parks and Resorts segment, but here's a way to appreciate the sheer scope of this segment relative to its competitors: This one segment generates more annual revenue than Six Flags (NYS: SIX) , Cedar Fair (NYS: FUN) , and Royal Caribbean (NYS: RCL) combined. Those three companies control a total of 36 theme parks and 40 cruise ships to Disney's 11 theme parks and four ships. Disney gets some serious bang for the buck out of each of its locations, and with the additional nerdy allure of a Millennium Falcon ride or a photo op with R2-D2 to drive more customers to its parks, the gap should only widen between Disney and its peers in this segment.
Let's talk about Disney's supposedly high valuation. The company may be pricier than normal compared to the S&P 500, but it is decidedly not expensive on either a 10-year historical basis or in comparison to its peers:
DIS P/E Ratio TTM data by YCharts.
Disney's P/E, like that of many other large caps, has been in steady decline over the past decade. It's currently below both Royal Caribbean's and Time Warner's P/Es, and is close to Viacom's, despite what can arguably be called a vastly superior portfolio of entertainment options. Disney's average P/E in the past decade is 19.4, much higher than its current valuation. Over the past five years, Disney's average P/E is 15.0, which is below its current valuation, but only barely.
Nothing I can see in Disney's valuation history warns me that this stock isn't worth it today. Over the long run, there is simply no better all-around entertainment company in the world. If you want to invest in people having fun, Disney should be your first choice, now and for the foreseeable future.
The final call
Alex and I think Disney will outperform the market over the long term, and so this time we've overruled Sean's more cautious take.
For more of our stock picks and to see just how we've beaten the market by 78 points in the past six months, check out our CAPS page, found here.
Disney has a lot of opportunity overseas, but there are still more stock ideas that are profiting from our increasingly global economy. Our free report "3 American Companies Set to Dominate the World" shows you how. Click here to get your free copy before it's gone.
The article Analysts Debate: Is Disney a Top Stock? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributors Sean Williams and Alex Planes have no positions in the stocks mentioned above. Fool contributor Travis Hoium is short Amazon.com. You can follow Travis on Twitter at @FlushDrawFool, Sean at @TMFUltraLong, and Alex at @TMFBiggles. The Motley Fool owns shares of Amazon.com, Walt Disney, and Netflix. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Amazon.com, Walt Disney, Netflix, Royal Caribbean, and Time Warner. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright © 1995 - 2012 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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Major Sunday Tournaments
We are home to the Sunday Million - the biggest weekly online poker tournament - as well as the Sunday Warm-Up. But they are not the only huge No Limit Hold'em tournaments that run on a Sunday. There's also the Sunday Kickoff, Sunday Storm and the Sunday Supersonic. See below to find out more. You'll find them listed in the lobby under 'Online Events' > 'Sunday Majors' (desktop) or the 'Tourney' tab accessed via the Lobby (mobile).
Satellites run all week for most of the major Sunday tournaments, which means that you can win a seat for just a few dollars. To find a satellite, open the desktop software and select the 'Satellite' filter, or search 'Sunday' in the 'Tourney' tab (mobile).
Click here to go straight to the Tournaments tab, where you'll find information on start times, buy-in details and guaranteed prize pools for all the tournaments you see below and more.
Sunday Kickoff
The Sunday Kickoff is the first major tournament on the schedule every Sunday and the best way to get a piece of the action early.
Sunday Warm-Up
The Sunday Warm-Up is is one of the largest tournaments in online poker, giving you the chance to win a share of a huge guaranteed prize pool each week.
Sunday Storm
With a low buy-in and a big guaranteed prize pool, the Sunday Storm is ideal for players of all levels and bankrolls. If you're looking for your first taste of big money action then this is the tournament for you.
Sunday Million
Simply the biggest weekly tournament anywhere online. Winning this event is one of poker's biggest achievements, and you can take your shot with hundreds of satellites running before each tourney.
Sunday Supersonic
With its hyper-turbo structure and large guaranteed prize pool, the Sunday Supersonic offers a shot at big money but takes just a few hours to play.
Log-in to the client or mobile app for a full list of other events taking place on our biggest tournament day of the week, including tournaments across games like Omaha, Draw, Stud and many more, all with guaranteed prize pools.
Contact Support if you have any questions about the Sunday schedule.


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Russia bans LinkedIn after court finds it violating data storage law
Russia's communication regulator has started blocking Linkedin after the court ruling found the US firm guilty of breaking the law.
Russia's communications regulator ordered public access to LinkedIn's website to be blocked on Thursday to comply with a court ruling that found the social networking firm guilty of violating a data storage law.
LinkedIn, which has its headquarters in the United States, is the first major social network to be blocked by Russian authorities, setting a precedent for the way foreign Internet firms operate. It has over 6 million registered users in Russia.
The Kremlin said that the decision was legal and that President Vladimir Putin did not plan to interfere in the case.
When asked whether the move might stir fears of online censorship, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were "no such concerns."
Critics see it as part of an attack on social networks in a country which has increasingly tightened control over the Internet.
Russian law requires websites that store the personal data of Russian citizens to do so on Russian servers, something communications regulator Roskomnadzor said LinkedIn had not done.
That law was approved by Putin in 2014 and came into force in September last year.
LinkedIn`s site will be blocked within 24 hours, Interfax news agency cited Roskomnadzor spokesman Vadim Ampelonsky as saying. One Internet service provider, Rostelcom, said it had already blocked access.
Two others, MTS and Vimpelcom, said they would do so within 24 hours.
LinkedIn was starting to hear from members in Russia saying they were no longer able to access the site, a company spokeswoman said.
"Roskomnadzor's action to block LinkedIn denies access to the millions of members we have in Russia and the companies that use LinkedIn to grow their businesses," the spokeswoman said.
Roskomnadzor`s Ampelonsky told Reuters the watchdog had received a letter from LinkedIn's US management on Friday requesting a meeting.
He said he expected the meeting to take place within the next two weeks, but that Roskomnadzor had first to get approval for the meeting from the foreign ministry and the security services because LinkedIn was a foreign company.
The LinkedIn spokeswoman said the firm was still interested in meeting Roskomnadzor "to discuss their data localisation request."
Get Latest Business News, Stock Market Updates and Videos; Check your tax outgo through Income Tax Calculator and save money through our Personal Finance coverage. Check Business Breaking News Live on Zee Business Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe on YouTube.
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WASHINGTON - The Justice Department's controversial decision to seize phone records of Associated Press journalists was just one element in a sweeping U.S. government investigation into media leaks about a Yemen-based plot to bomb a U.S. airliner, government officials said on Wednesday.
The search for who leaked the information is being led by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington and has involved extensive FBI interviews of personnel at the Justice Department, U.S. intelligence agencies, the White House's National Security staff and the FBI itself.
The interviews have been lengthy and thorough, said people who have been questioned in the investigation, but requested anonymity. Two of those interviewed said leak inquiries were always aggressive and that being questioned is a wearing and unpleasant experience.
The investigation, which a law enforcement official has said was prompted by a May 7, 2012, AP story about the operation to foil the Yemen plot, appears to be ongoing. Some potential witnesses have been advised they are likely to be interviewed in the next two or three weeks.
Officials in the office of Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Attorney General Eric Holder, who recused himself from involvement in the case, largely sidestepped questions from angry lawmakers on Wednesday about his department's secret seizure of AP records, which the news agency revealed on Monday.
The seizure, denounced by critics as a gross intrusion into freedom of the press, has created an uproar in Washington and led to questions about how the Obama administration is balancing the need for national security with privacy rights.
There are signs the administration's efforts to find the alleged leaker were unproductive - at least before the Justice Department seized two months of records of phone calls by the AP and its journalists.
"Seeking toll records associated with media organizations is undertaken only after all other reasonable alternative investigative steps have been taken," Holder's deputy, James Cole, said in a letter on Tuesday to AP President Gary Pruitt, who has protested the government's action.
In that letter, Cole revealed the Justice Department had conducted more than 550 interviews and reviewed tens of thousands of documents before subpoenaing phone company records of AP calls.
Reuters was one of nearly 50 news organizations that signed a letter to Holder on Tuesday complaining about the AP phone record seizures.
Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment and media attorney, said, "The breathtaking scope of these subpoenas served on the telephone companies might suggest that after all this time, they have no idea who they're looking for."
Another possibility is "they are touching all bases" because they suspect someone but are not sure, said Abrams, a partner at Cahill Gordon and Reindel LLP in New York. He said it was difficult for an outsider to know.
"I don't think that there is any doubt that this is a serious investigation that they have spent a lot of time on and that they feel deeply about," Abrams said. Justice's targeting of a large number of phone lines and the AP journalists who use them "taken together, certainly makes it look like the largest, most intrusive action by the government vis-a-vis the press that I can remember."
Holder has called the leak "very, very serious" and said it "put the American people at risk." He did not provide details.
The AP has reported that it delayed reporting the story of how the United States had foiled a plot by a suicide bomber affiliated with Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, at the request of government officials, who said it would jeopardize national security. Once U.S. officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP said, it disclosed the plot.
A law enforcement official said on Wednesday that because officials were so concerned and shocked by the leak, they opened an investigation into how the AP found out about the spy operation even before the news agency ran its initial story. The AP had contacted the government and asked for comment several days before the story was published.
The AP's first story reported the CIA had "thwarted an ambitious plot" by AQAP to attack an airline with a newly designed underwear bomb and said the FBI had acquired the bomb. The AP reported it did not know what had happened to the alleged bomber.
A few hours after the story was published, John Brennan, then chief White House counterterrorism adviser and now director of the CIA, held a conference call with former counterterrorism officials who frequently appear as TV commentators. Brennan said the plot was never a threat to the U.S. public or air safety because Washington had "inside control" over it.
That night, Richard Clarke, a former counterterrorism adviser to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, suggested on ABC News there was a Western spy or double agent in on the plot. "The U.S. government is saying it never came close because they had insider information, insider control, which implies that they had somebody on the inside who wasn't going to let it happen," Clarke said.
The next day's headlines were filled with news of a U.S. spy planted inside AQAP who had acquired the latest, non-metallic model of the underwear bomb and handed it over to U.S. authorities.
Reuters subsequently reported that the spy inside AQAP had been recruited by British intelligence, principally the counterterrorism agency known as MI-5, that the informant had to be whisked to safety, and that UK authorities were deeply distressed that news of the operation had leaked.
During Senate consideration of his nomination to become CIA director, Brennan confirmed he had been interviewed by people investigating both the foiled bomb plot leak and another series of leaks related to alleged U.S. cyber warfare against Iran's nuclear program.
Brennan strongly denied he had leaked any sensitive or secret information to the media. Sources familiar with Brennan's conference call with the TV pundits said at least two of the former officials who were on the call with Brennan had not been contacted by leak investigators.


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Archive for the 'Impala' Category
Apache Hive Or Cloudera Impala? What is Best for me?
July 10, 2013 5 comments
Hi Guys,
I'm not recommending anything Hive or Cloudera Impala here but just trying to express my experience with both the tools as noticed there is lot of puzzlement these days which one is best. Comparison between Hive and Impala is not fair. Simply I can say again it's fully depend on your case study and your requirements on how fast you want to read data from Hadoop. Read more…
18.604494 73.717420


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The iPhone X's Face ID can't approve family purchases, and no one knows why
iPhone X owners have found that Face ID isn't available as an authentication method for the "Ask to Buy" feature, which allows parents to approve their kids' iOS purchases and downloads. Instead, the parent (or any other "family organizer," as Apple terms it) must enter their entire Apple account password to approve each individual purchase attempt.
Users are frustrated because equivalent functionality was available on Touch ID devices, and that functionality has been lost in the transition to the iPhone X. Face ID can be used as an authentication method for other purchases, just like Touch ID before it—but Touch ID also worked for "Ask to Buy," and Face ID doesn't.
Apple has touted Face ID's ability to replace Touch ID in interactions for which Touch ID was previously used. In fact, we found when reviewing the iPhone X that third-party apps using Touch ID automatically used Face ID instead on that device, with no action needed from Apple. It was a slick, seamless transition, so it's all the more surprising that it doesn't work for an iOS feature offered by Apple itself. Apple's documentation of the feature makes no mention of either Touch ID or Face ID.
Parents of large families with several children, each of whom might have an iOS device available to them, will find that the requests mount up quite quickly—especially right after the holidays. Kids cashing in App Store gift cards add to the requests already coming in from normal use and in-app purchases in games.
When we reviewed the iPhone X, we were also surprised that the device could only store one face, making sharing one device within a family more difficult than with Touch ID. However, a passcode could still be used. In the case of Ask to Buy, though, the parent doesn't just have to enter their passcode—they have to enter their Apple password. And a secure password can obviously be quite long or quite complex—or both.
Users are sharing complaints about this on support forums, but Apple has not made it clear why this limitation is in place. Apple has said that Face ID is most likely to be fooled by a close family member who bears a strong physical resemblance to the face data stored on the device, and we've already seen some alleged examples of Face ID on a parent's phone getting fooled by that parent's child. As a result, the users who have taken to support forums to complain have asked if Apple disabled this feature for Face ID because of the possibility of the child getting past it.
However, even if the child could get past the parent's Face ID authentication (and we have no data on how frequently that might happen), they could still simply make the purchase on the parent's phone and access the app or purchase through family sharing on their own device.
We've reached out to Apple for clarification on this functionality.
[contf] [contfnew]
Ars Technica
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
The post The iPhone X's Face ID can't approve family purchases, and no one knows why appeared first on News Wire Now.


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Back home, we are remembering some of the wonderful experiences we enjoyed in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Muscat. Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi was beautiful.
And we, as non Muslims, were able to go inside to see the largest carpet, largest chandelier and the grandeur of this mosque. The fish market was fun and I, Zeb the Duck, got a fish.
An evening boat ride, dinner included, showed us old and new on the Abu Dhabi sky line.
A common sight, and sound, throughout our Middle East adventure, the minaret of a mosque with a speaker for the call to worship.
We gave up a free day in Abu Dhabi to experience a little of Muscat, Oman. Here we saw some old and some new. Muscat is a few thousand years old. We loved wandering through the souk.
Driving through Muscat, we appreciated the absence of too many cars and the accompanying car noises.
Here, our guide shows some of the new: The Royal Opera House of Muscat, Oman.
Back to the United Arab Emirates, in Dubai we rode a traditional boat, or dhow, to cross Dubai Creek.
We admired Dubai Fountain with Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, all connected with Dubai Mall.
Dubai Marina was bustling, but still relaxing for our lunch stop.
Mall of the Emirates provided indoor snow skiing and tubing on snow, in additional to fabulous dining and shopping.
Souk Madinat Jumeirah was a modern souk.
The narrow alley of Bastakia Heritage Area showed life before oil and oil money forever changed Dubai.
Aromas from the spice souk will be with us always.
Of course we loved the animals. The unexpected flock of flamingos were wonderful to see.
And riding the desert native, a camel, made our trip even more memorable.
Of course we will never the gold souk with those huge gold necklaces and gold hats. But our fondest memories are of the kind, welcoming people we met. Our trip was a tour through http://www.SmarTours.com. We have taken tours from them previously. This was Deluxe Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The day trip to Muscat, Oman, was not connected to SmarTours. Chanel's mom made separate reservations for us and we loved our day in Oman. We hope you visit Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Oman soon. We loved it.


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#1,201 – How to Share Star Sized Column Sizes
March 4, 2017 2 Comments
You can use the SharedSizeGroup attribute to share column sizes across different grids. You can't normally share sizes of star-sized columns across multiple grids, however, since star sizing works only in the context of the current grid.
Below is an example of how to get a star sized column to be the same size as a star sized column in a different grid. In the example, we have two grids. In the first, we have two auto-sized TextBlocks and then a star-sized TextBox that takes up the remaining space. In the second grid, we have just a TextBlock and a TextBox, but we want the TextBox to be the same size as the one in the first grid. Using SharedSizeGroup on the TextBox columns won't work, since the columns would then get auto-sized.
The solution is to set up a SharedSizeGroup on every column except for the TextBox columns and to add a dummy third column in the second grid. The TextBox columns will then each independently use star sizing and end up the same size.
<StackPanel Margin="15" Grid.IsSharedSizeScope="True"> <Grid> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="A"/> <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/> <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="B"/> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Text="Col 1"/> <TextBox Grid.Column="1" /> <TextBlock Grid.Column="2" Text="3rd column here"/> </Grid> <Separator Margin="0,20"/> <Grid> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" SharedSizeGroup="A"/> <ColumnDefinition /> <ColumnDefinition SharedSizeGroup="B"/> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Text="1"/> <TextBox Grid.Column="1"/> </Grid> </StackPanel>


text: On Tue, 17 Jul 2007, Chris Samuel wrote: > On Tue, 17 Jul 2007, Robert G. Brown wrote: > >> The real drivers will install into the BIOS and should stop being OS >> specific at all > > Given the general quality of BIOS and ACPI implementations this somehow does > not fill me with a warm glow... > > "Our BIOS supports both types of Linux, RHEL and SLES".. No, you misunderstand. At this point in time, one major job of an operating system is to hide the details of the hardware from the programmer. When I open a socket connection or configure TCP-IP, I do so with tools that do not need to know WHICH ethernet card my system has or its speed or whether it has onboard buffers or who made it. All I do is configure and open the socket for the "generic" network device. A really, really major portion of the remaining pain associated with using linux is that hardware MANUFACTURERS do not produce DRIVERS with a toplevel "generic" interface. This is actually remarkably silly -- there is no reason I can think of that that a hardware device driver should not present a uniform interface to the kernel, and of course many now do -- USB devices, ATAPI, SCSI -- all of these are high level interfaces and use generic kernel drivers (which don't always work, sigh, but in PRINCIPLE there exists a STANDARD and most e.g. CD-ROM manufacturers comply with the standard because if they don't people won't buy their devices and besides, they are more expensive for THEM to support. Manufacturers of certain devices have opposed this sort of generic driver interface because it lowers their perceived market advantage or interferes with their engineering process that splits off function between on-card stuff (requiring firmware and on-card intelligence to support the generic control/communications interface) and off-card stuff (that doesn't). To make a really cheap card for certain functions, you basically make the system CPU do a lot of the work instead of putting a PU and firmware on the card itself. Again, lexmark is a classical example -- they make "impossibly cheap" printers to sell bundled with systems. Why are the printers so cheap? Because they are NOTHING but an engine for putting dots on paper according to a data stream coming in through their printer interface. ALL of the computations regarding where those dots go has to be done on the host system. For this they require not just a "printer driver" per se -- they need a program that takes data streams sent "to the printer" that can transform them all the way into the hardware control stream. This is contrasted with a much more expensive printer with a very high level interface -- send it a PDF or PS file or text file and it will Do the Right Thing and print it, and yes it can manage a high level handshaking communications interface to manage the file transfer. It can ALSO manage graphics and pixel-level printing -- usually with a special language associated with it -- but you can actually print quite a lot to it through a "generic" interface and have it just work. OK, so now you have to have real device specific software that resides on the host system. Many hardware device manufacturers consider all or part of this software to be a trade secret. They are under the illusion that somebody out there gives a rodent's furry behind that they cleverly unroll a loop in the middle of their graphics stream processor, or that somebody out there is going to reverse engineer their particular split up of on and off device processing and challenge their market "dominance". My current favorite example of this sort of insanity is broadcom wireless devices. There are many models. Each one is typically a cheap, onboard wireless device in a consumer crade laptop. Each one has unique, proprietary, firmware that must be downloaded to the device. And finally, Broadcom refuses to release that firmware to linux people. To make a broadcom wireless device function under linux, one requires "fwcutter", a reverse-engineered linux tool that takes a Windows driver, cuts out the firmware, and packages it up so that it can be sent to the device. Once THIS is done, it is apparently straightforward to make it function. Broadcom clearly relies on being a price-point leader, and it costs money to support linux, and they just shrug and say no. Windows drivers only, specific per device, keep it cheap. This is where VM may stimulate a change. There is no real reason anymore to install device drivers of this sort at the operating system level. VMs already are in the process of "defining" a generic interface for non-generic devices -- my XP VM doesn't even know that it is a laptop with wireless any more -- it thinks it has "a network" (an pseudo-AMD network device, if it matters, for which it has very generic drivers). For a Windows box hosting a Linux VM, the L-VM no longer needs a broadcom driver even if the host system uses a broadcom device. This produces some economic incentive to produce a system that presents ALL network devices so that they look like that generic "pseudo-AMD network device" (or an even more generic interface yet to be defined). This basically would require, I think, an extension of the capabilities of the standard BIOS firmware. They would need a "device FW loader" and a "device FW storage area", and ALL operating systems that ran on top of the BIOS would require a common/portable interface for loading data into the FW area. The BIOS itself would then make all devices of a certain type (firmware required or not, on or off device computing or not) appear as generic devices to any resident kernel without the need of an intermediary VM interface. In fact, one could basically move most the VM interface and all the heterogeneous device support out of the kernel and into the BIOS. The advantages of this, and the products it would enable, are profound. * Generic Operating environments. For $300 you buy XP Pro, preinstalled on a USB flash stick, with all the generic drivers preloaded and preconfigured. Snap it onto any system, boot (or direct a VM player at it) and you're running XP Pro. For $160 you buy FC-kitchen-sink, configured with generic drivers, on a USB flash stick. Snap it onto any system, etc. If today you want your PC to be a Mac, no problem. For $300 you buy your stick, plug it in, and poof, you're a Mac. Borrow a friend's stick, poof you're a Mac. The license resides in and with the stick, which can be all copy protected and everything for the commercial OSs. USB Flash is just a tad slow still for this purpose, but it saves energy, money, and above all, SUPPORT costs and MANUFACTURING costs. Right now it costs OEM resellers a lot of time to install and support operating environments. They'd be all over a motherboard/BIOS that permitted a single OS image to install on all of their hardware, no matter what physical devices it contained. * A complete restructuring of the kernel itself. Once upon a time, a long long time ago, the humble IBM PC actually used the BIOS (and pretty much only the BIOS) to talk to attached devices. Want a character on the screen? Use the BIOS call. Want to write to floppy? Use the BIOS call. I/O routines where trivial wrappers for BIOS calls. At the same time, Unix devices had moved the hardware compatibility layer into the kernel -- everything was a file, and Unix kernels had to provide all the wrapping required to "make" any attached device into a file. One model failed because nobody was willing to devote much of the limited computational and memory resources of an x86 system to handle the dazzling array of physical devices that were spawned by the burgeoning multibillion dollar consumer computer business. NOW, however, we have a SURPLUS of computing resources. We can put an entire operating environment -- kernel, applications, data -- onto a RW persistent storage device that is basically a single chip the size of a segment of my little finger. Computers are already starting to appear with linux preloaded in exactly this way -- there was one in this month's Linux Magazine, for example, and Neoware terminals are basically computers along this model that can run Linux or Windows XPe. No disk. No fan. And billions of clock cycles per second on multiple CPU cores, with a full GB of RAM or more. One can achieve the separation of hardware device layer from operating kernel layer NOW, using over the counter open/free software and hardware, by crafting a linux image with VMware player preinstalled that boots up directly into a loader interface that lets you pick a VM to run or OS image to virtualize -- only. However incredibly inefficient this is computationally, it STILL saves one all of that nasty administrative cost and is therefore worth it. It's just a matter of time before the kernel and BIOS renegotiate the split between hardware device interface provision and the OTHER functions of the kernel, and most of the former move to the BIOS behind a HAL. The kernel will then really, really dramatically shrink, and coincidentally one of the last real advantages of Windows will disappear. This will have profound consequences (if it happens) in cluster engineering. There will be significant pressure to make high end cluster network devices "generic" in some way, whether or not they are TCP/IP per se. Open source "glue" will be developed that transform all high speed native interfaces into a single "generic" high speed native interface. Ethernet based cluster engineering will become even simpler. A "cluster distribution" will be conceptually replaced by a "cluster VM image" that one simply plugs and plays. Maybe this is all a fantasy on my part -- no surprise if it is -- but if this IS the way things unfold we should be in for exciting times indeed. rgb -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb at phy.duke.edu


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Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) is a stoner, convenience store clerk, deeply in love with his long time girlfriend, Phoebe Larson (Kristen Stewart). So in love; he is ready to make it official. Although when a planned trip to Hawaii is derailed by one of Mike's uncontrollable panic attacks, he has to reconsider when to pop the question and if to pop the question at all. Having lived his life burdened by his anxiety, he worries that he is holding Phoebe back and if marriage would only hit the nail in the proverbial coffin. This all changes when a strange lady visits him at his convenience store, and utters what can only be deciphered as song lyrics at first interpretation. Little does he know, he is a sleeper agent, being activated in anticipation of an attack against his life.
American Ultra gives you exactly what you expect to get. A stoner romance with a secret agent backdrop. The trailers and promotional materials tell us that it's a film that isn't meant to be taken seriously. We know to go into it prepared for a pretty crazy romp, that has enough weed and bullets to last us ten Harold and Kumar films. Does it succeed? Absolutely. For a film of its scale, it delivers enough explosions and mayhem, to give the Michael Bay's of this world, raging hard-ons. You might be thinking, "Jesse Eisenberg? An action star?", and you would be right in thinking that, but that is exactly the point. This is a dude who is completely oblivious of the fact that he is a secret agent. So when he inevitably kills two guys, with only a cup of noodles and a spoon at his disposal; it becomes quite fitting that he is just as shocked as we are. I mean, he's basically the stoner version of Jason Bourne… and with that thought in mind; imagine a Jason Bourne, Mike Howell crossover. I can see it now. Two best friends, fighting corrupt government agents with a spliff in their mouths, contemplating existence and humanity… isn't it absolutely delightful. Although we wouldn't want Aaron Cross getting jealous would we?
Even though the film hits on every level we want in terms of action, I just wish it was filmed with a bit more style. After watching Kingsman this year, it really opened up my mind about how unique an action sequence can look, and how much more it can add to a film. A lot of American Ultra is by the books, with exception of that frying pan ricochet shot. That was actually pretty badass! If it possessed a bit more of that ingenuity, this film could have hit the heights of John Wick of last year.
Nevertheless, beneath all that mindless action, is actually some heart. Within two minutes of the film, I bought into the relationship between Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) and Phoebe (Kristen Stewart). Their love, although dysfunctional, totally works. Phoebe almost possesses this unconditional love towards Mike, as she evidently plays a mother figure as well as being his girlfriend. Despite all of his fuck ups, she still loves him for who he is, and that connection is felt throughout the film. As well as their relationship, there is a brilliant moment at the end of the film between Mike and one of the CIA agents trying to kill him, (Laugher). With all that has happened, you instantly enter the psyche of someone who has been experimented on and then used as an expendable entity. Admittedly, it sounds a lot deeper than it was, and most of the praise could probably go to Eisenberg and Goggins for selling those emotions. Regardless, I really enjoyed that moment. Man, I'm sensitive… That being said, it would have been interesting to explore that a bit more, just to give the film something extra to chew on.
Ultimately, with a couple of twists here and there, and enough comedy to inspire laughs, this film strays away from becoming a snooze-fest as we so often see with films like this. American Ultra is true to what it is on the surface. A fun, action-packed, stoner flick, with an endearing romance at its core.