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Disclamer: I don't condone piracy, and nothing in this guide is illegal in anyway. Rip your own movies. For any moderators in fear, check the official PS forums, talk about PS3 codec/file support and the programs mentioned is ok.
Release 3.0 - 22/06/08 - Everything updated, cleaned out obsolete information and added PSP remote play section.
Release 2.0 - 06/03/08 - Everything updated and streamlined... PSP remote play section coming later tonight.
Release 2.0b - 24/02/08 - Quick update on the new version of MKV2VOB which does everything, GOTSent support dropped from guide. Still WIP - Rough, and some sections incomplete/outdated
Release 1.4b - 22/02/08 - Overhaul of the guide - Added new PSP section
Release 1.3 - 28/01/08 - Updated guide to reflect MKV2VOB 1.52 (ff/rw now supported)
Release 1.2.1 - 17/01/08 - Added FAQ section at bottom
Release 1.2 - 17/01/08 - Added DVD copying
Release 1.1 - 17/01/08 - Fixed spelling mistakes/added some minor additions
Release 1 - 17/01/08 - "Prone to errors version"
(the read for your own good part)
What you will need:
2. PC (decent hardware for optimal results)
3. TVersity - http://www.tversity.com/
4. MKV2VOB - http://forum.doom9.o...ad.php?t=131782
5. CCCP - Codec pack (clean & best there is) - http://www.cccp-project.net/
I thought I'd tie this all up in a short guide to get everyone started. Reason being it's simple to enjoy your HD content and use your PS3 as a media hub
First off, I assume you have one of the following
1. 720p HD Rip (MKV) of your Movie, taken from your Blu Ray/HD-DVD disc
2. 1080p HD Rip (MKV) of your Movie, taken from your Blu Ray/HD-DVD disc
1080p has more limitations/more complicated to play than 720p, but I'll cover that in my guide.
The next thing you have to decide is will you be wanting to stream your movies, or play them natively off your PS3 hard drive?
I'll cover converting your movies first, then streaming & hard drive playback.
Converting Your Movies:
(the time consuming part)
So, let's get down to business, this is the most important part to get done properly. The PS3 has support for lots of video/audio codecs, but it is picky with containers - Throw all your Divx/Xvid content at it and it will play them natively, but sneak an MKV in it's direction and it will make you cry.
I'm not going to cover TVersity's on-the-fly transcoding as it is not recommended to use it, and to be honest a waste of your time/your HD content quality. So what we will be covering is remuxing which means changing the container from MKV to VOB/MP4/MPG/M2TS/AVI without losing any quality on the video/audio.
The program we are going to use is MKV2VOB.
It supports every MKV file out there, AC3/AAC audio as well. 720p files work 99% of the time with no transcoding, 1080p files most of the time have to be transcoded.
Nothing we can do about it just now - Progress is being made all the time on getting ALL 1080p files working on the PS3 without transcoding.
MKV2VOB (latest version 2.24)
First thing to do BEFORE converting any movies is to setup the program.
1. Make sure you are on the config tab.
2. The temp directory where the program does the converting - Make sure you have some free space.
3. Sets the preferred audio language. If this language is found in the mkv it is used, if not found, the first audio track in the mkv will be used.
4. Splits the final result file into smaller pieces. Use this if you want to burn onto a DVD or a removable hard drive (FAT32).
5. Sets whether video transcoding will be used. Some videos will not play without transcoding, mkv2vob detects this automatically. Recommended setting is Automatic.
6. Sets the extension of the output file. Does not effect codec or file format. MPG extension offers the most playback compatibility.
7. By enabling this option, if the mkv contains the desired subtitles, and the subtitle language is not the same as the audio language, subtitles will be enabled and the video will be transcoded regardless of the transcoding setting!
8. Sets the video codec to use when transcoding. Xvid files will be split in 2GB segments as the PS3 requires - I recommend you leave this on x264 for best quality/compression.
9. Miscellaneous options - Hover to find out more...
Lets move onto the actual converting now that the program is setup!
1. Make sure you are on the add file tab.
2. Choose your MKV movie.
3. Choose the output folder for your new PS3 compatible file.
4. If checked the MKV you're converting will be deleted once the job is done.
5. Click to begin the process.
6. Status bar, shows progress.
7. Textual updates here.
7. Clear/Delete from the list of jobs done.
Batch converting explanation - "Add Directory Tab"
1. Make sure you are on the add directory tab.
2. Choose your folder with MKV movie(s).
3. Choose the output folder for your new PS3 compatible file(s).*
4. Leave on default.
5. Start converting.
6. Status bar, shows progress.
7. Textual updates here.
7. Clear/Delete from the list of jobs done.
* When doing multiple movies, make sure you have adequate space in your output folder.
Now you want to know how to play the movie on your PS3? Of course you do, let's get started on the fun part!
Playing those movies through your PS3!:
(the satisfying part)
This is what it all comes down to, playing your movies through/on your PS3 on your HDTV.
You have 4 choices here - I'll cover all 4.
1. Streaming
2. Internal PS3 hard drive
3. External USB hard drive
Streaming (send that movie through the air)
This is a fairly popular choice, as it keeps space on your PS3 hard drive free, and also lets other devices in your house benefit! (2nd PS3 anywhere? )
We are going to use TVersity.
In regards to setting TVersity up, im not going to cover that for now - There are plently of guides, and in relation to this guide we won't be transcoding any files, therefore not much has to be tinkered with in TVersity anyway. I actually believe the standard options, setup from install, are fine for our purposes.
Lets have a basic look at what you should see anyway...
1. The movie we converted earlier should be here, either drag n drop, or add with the green + button.
2. You MAY need to start the sharing if it is turned off - Tray icon will be red if off, blue if on.
Lets see TVersity in action on your PS3,
First thing you want to do on your PS3, go to Video and click Search for media server.
Your server should be found. If not, try restarting the TVersity server on your PC.
Back on the Video part of the XMB, your Media Server should be shown (ignore videos below for now, those are on my PS3 hard drive).
Navigate through the folders (Video -> My Video -> All Video) and the file you added to TVersity above should be displayed and is ready to play by hitting x!
Hard Drive Play (playing it safe)
You have three options here.
1. Copy the movie over the network through Tversity.
2. Copy the movie from an external drive (PC -> External USB Drive -> PS3).
3. Copy file from DVD.
All have the same conclusion, but have different pluses.
TVersity Copying to PS3's Internal Drive
Setup your media server in the exact same way as above, but this time once you get to your movie...
Push triangle on the file, and go to "copy"...
Voilà, the movie is copying from your PC hard drive, to your PS3 hard drive. This is fairly quick on a wired setup, and a bit slower on wireless.
USB External Drive Copying/Playing
When copying to a USB Portable Drive, your drive MUST be in FAT32 - The PS3 only reads external FAT32 drives.
Doing this works exactly like above, hovering on your movie of choice, and then pushing triangle and going to copy.
Small tip - if you plug in your external drive and it says no files found, push triangle on your drive and go to display all.
You can also just play your media files off your external drive.
DVD Copying
You're thinking didn't I just copy this movie FROM a DVD, why would I want to do it again?
Two simple reasons
1. To fit 2 movies on one disc (2 x 720p rips could fit on a DL DVD)
2. You don't have a USB External Drive/Don't want to wait on a file copying over the network.
Simply burn your movie to DVD and either play from the DVD in your PS3, or copying the file to your PS3 hard drive. Works with the usual method, triangle -> Copy.
Sony PSP (Remote play):
(the connectivity that lets you watch movies, anywhere!)
The first thing to do is register your PSP with your PS3. We can't do anything until we do this.
Go to settings -> remote play settings, then register device on your PS3. Push x.
Next we have a message telling us to connect our PSP to our PS3 using the USB cable you use to charge your Sixaxis/DS3, and then on our PSP to go into USB mode. Connect your PSP now,
As said above, enable USB mode as well on the PSP XMB.
Push X on the PS3, and you should see the screen above if everything has gone well. Your PSP is registered with your PS3.
If you go into the registered device list on your PS3, your PSP should be there.
Now go to remote play on your PS3.
Your PS3 will now enter remote play, and ask you to now connect your PSP to it.
Go to remote play on the PSP XMB.
Choose "Connect Via Private Network" - Seeing as right now we are in our house and within range of our PS3, we'll just connect directly to the PS3. Connecting over the internet is for when you're outside of your house (eg Airport). I'll be adding to this guide to show you how to configure that soon.
As we're within range of our PS3, we can connect directly to it. "Devine House" is my router - As I said above for now we're just focusing on remote play in our house. I'll be covering remote play on the go in the next guide update.
Your PSP will display your PS3s XMB. Familiar sight
We can now watch all the movies on our PS3!
If your PC is on as well, you can as you'd expect connect to the TVersity media server and watch the content on your PC on your PSP.
That's it!
As I mentioned above, I'll be updating this section with a walkthrough on how to setup your router to allow your PSP to connect to it anywhere in the world where you have internet. You don't need to leave your PS3 on to do this, your router will actually turn your PS3 on for you, and then back off when you stop using remote play.
Your PS3 goes into a sleep state that uses slightly more power than standby, but far less than actually leaving it on.
Extras/Thanks/Shout Outs:
(the stuff that just needs to go here)
Let's thank the authors/guys who made this possible.
3r1c (MKV2VOB) - http://forum.doom9.o...ad.php?t=131782
TVersity crew - http://www.tversity.com
Any others who created the codecs/information needed to create this guide.
(the members of ieXbeta chip in)
- Cleaned out for version 3.0 of the guide - (New questions from now will be added here)
Guide being rewritten, for now install PS3MediaServer from here and ask questions in this topic.
Edited by Andrew G., 05 April 2014 - 14:13.


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Welcome to the Crowne Plaza Hotel Wiesbaden .The centrally situated business hotel is the perfect starting point for your visit to Wiesbaden and the Rhine/Main region . Frankfurt International Airport (FRA) can be reached by taxi in around 30 minutes. The hotel's own underground car park has 140 spaces . The proximity of the Crowne Plaza Hotel Wiesbaden to Wiesbaden city centre makes it ideal for your tour of the city . You can reach many sites, such as Wilhelmstraße, the casino, the theatre, the historic old town and the Wiesbaden Kurhaus , in only a few minutes' walk. The hotel has more than 235 modernised guest rooms with free Wi-Fi Internet connection , air-conditioning and Flat screen Entertainment System. Especially high-quality beds, the Crowne Plaza Sleep Advantage Package and a rest area make for a special sleeping experience. To relax and switch off, simply use our wellness area including pool, sauna and fitness equipment for no extra charge. Our lili Lounge & Restaurant is a popular meeting point in a relaxed atmosphere. Our 'Vinothek' restaurant offers regional specialties and wines from the region. The hotel offers professional space for any event. The 7 function rooms are equipped with the most modern technology and can accommodate up to 180 persons .InterContinental
24 hour front desk
Business center
Concierge service
Fitness center
Internet (surcharge)
Indoor pool
Laundry service
Meeting/Banquet facilities
Parking (surcharge)
Pets allowed on request. Charges may apply.
Storage available
WiFi (surcharge)
Get Rates
Get Flight + Hotel

subset: commoncrawl


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Acer Aspire One 533
Svelte design, bright screen, large keyboard
No HDMI port, flat key design on keyboard
Acer has boosted its arsenal of affordable netbooks with an updated version of the Aspire One 532. The ultra-portable Aspire One 533 gets an improved processor with Intel's Atom N475 running at 1.66GHz while the faster DDR3 RAM also makes it stand out from the crowd. It has also got the same 250GB HDD as the previous model and is equipped with Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator 3150. It also comes with Windows Starter 7 edition.
Available in black, white or dark red, the 533 sports a compact design with a chic, glossy finish and the Aspire One moniker embossed in silver (not real silver, obviously). On taking it out of the box, we assumed that our shiny black review model would be a fingerprint magnet the second it was exposed to human hands. However, we were slightly surprised and very pleased to see that it actually seems fairly resistant to collecting too many smudgy fingerprints, at least more so that many other glossy models on the market. And if it does become a problem, at least Acer has provided a handy cleaning cloth in the box.
Weighing in at 1.25kg, the netbook is certainly light enough to be carried around all day and at just 27mm thick, it's svelte enough to fit into a fairly small bag. The 6-Cell battery does protrude slightly (as with many netbooks), so that you don't get a totally flush finish to the underside of the unit, but we can't really mark this affordable device down for that. The 533 also feels pretty sturdy and in particular, the screen hinge appears to be reassuringly robust.
The generously sized trackpad has a slightly raised finish which makes it a cinch to use and also includes a separate vertical bar to the right which can be used for scrolling, although we found this to be a tiny bit temperamental. The remaining palm rest area is fairly sizeable, although you may want to use a separate mouse if you're planning to use the netbook for any extended amount of time as it could become uncomfortable. The trackpad button bar is responsive enough, although we found that it needed downward pressure to be relatively square on, and wasn't so effective if pressed from a slight angle.
The keyboard stretches the whole width of the netbook, which means that the keys are almost full size, while the slightly mottled finish gives them an ideal texture for typing. The keys feel very responsive and not cheap and flimsy, like those found on some budget netbooks. However, the flat design and the resulting lack of a slanted edge to each key makes it that little bit harder to type. It's particularly noticeable when touch-typing, as it's difficult to feel where one key ends and the next begins. The function button enables access to plenty of keyboard shortcuts so that you can tinker with all the usual settings, such as screen brightness, without having to delve into the computer's menus.
Sporting a 1024 x 600-pixel resolution, the 10.1-inch CrystalBrite backlit LED screen is sharp and bright and also promises to improve battery life. Although it's designed to be anti-glare, we found that the glossy screen didn't fare too well in very bright conditions. Having said that, it does benefit from a relatively wide viewing angle. The screen is surrounded by a glossy black bezel, with a webcam integrated into the top-centre portion of the frame.
The device features built-in speakers which are actually pretty good for such a small-screened product, and a great deal better than those found on some larger and more highly specified laptops.
As mentioned earlier, the 533 benefits from Intel's Atom N475 CPU, which is more powerful than the CPUs found in previous models, while the faster DDR3 RAM (1GB) also improves performance. The extra processing power was really noticeable when playing 720p HD videos, which most netbooks tend to struggle with, resulting in lots of freezing and generally clunky playback. On the 533, high-def videos played smoothly, without any noticeable glitches. The netbook also features a 250GB HDD which should be more than enough space for all your mobile computing needs.
When it comes to connections, most of the usual suspects are here, including a generous three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, and a VGA for connecting up to a monitor as well as sockets for headphones and a microphone. The 533 boasts Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), LAN and Bluetooth 3.0, which is handy for transferring content from your smartphone.
The 6 cell Li-ion battery power offers a claimed battery life of up to 8 hours, which we found to be a fairly reasonable assertion. We managed to get several hours of work from one charge, without the battery levels looking anything like they were about to give up. The provided AC adaptor not only boasts a very compact design, but also offers shorter charging times.
The svelte, lightweight design, large keyboard and bright screen, along with the pumped up processor and faster RAM make this is a great little netbook. This is definitely one to consider if you're in the market for a device that will enable to work for lengthy periods while away from your home or office, or any power sockets.
Thanks to saveonlaptops.co.uk for the loan of this review unit.


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Vault Collection| Universal Archive
Dark Crimes: Film Noir Thrillers - Volume 1 DVD
Sale Price: $29.99
List Price: $34.99
You Save: $5.00 14% off
- Technical Specs
- Format: DVD - Boxed Set
- Rating: Not Rated
- Number of Discs: 3
- Run Time: 271 Minutes
- Region: 1
- Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen
- Studio: TCM - Universal
- DVD Release Date: December 3, 2012
- Audio: ENGLISH: Stereo
- Color: Black & White
Digital Bonus Features on the DVD Include:
- Introduction by Ben Mankiewicz
- Digital Image Gallery
- Behind-the-Scenes Photo(s)
- TCM Database Article
- Publicity Still(s)
- Lobby Card(s)
- Movie Poster(s)
- Scene Still(s)
Based on the Dashiell Hammett novel which was first filmed in 1935 with George Raft, this remake, directed by Stuart Heisler (I Died a Thousand Times, 1955), is generally considered the definitive film version and reunited Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake after their dynamic and popular pairing in This Gun For Hire the same year. A tale of political corruption, organized crime and deadly double crosses, THE GLASS KEY focuses on a ruthless political boss and his hired gun and best friend who bends the law and worse to protect their interests. Enter a beautiful blonde....and the fireworks begin.
A man (Alan Curtis) arrested for murdering his wife can't produce his only alibi - a mysterious woman he met in a bar - so his loyal secretary (Ella Raines) goes undercover in an attempt to locate her in this cult favorite based on the Cornell Woolrich novel. Robert Siodmak, who would go on to direct such iconic noir thrillers as The Killers (1946) and Criss Cross (1949), first demonstrated his unique flair for the genre in this atmospheric B-movie that features a surprising change of pace role for Franchot Tone and a scene-stealing performance by Elisha Cook Jr. as a hopped-up, sinister jazz drummer.
A WWII veteran is accused of killing his unfaithful wife and races against time to find the real murderer with the help of a sympathetic stranger in this tense mystery thriller, adapted for the screen by hard-boiled detective writer Raymond Chandler who received an Oscar® nomination for Best Screenplay. Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake display sizzling screen chemistry in their final movie together and film critic James Agee wrote, "The picture is as neatly stylized and synchronized...as a good ballet." The moody black and white cinematography is by three-time Oscar nominee Lionel Lindon.
Additional Details
- DirectorStuart Heisler Robert Siodmak George Marshall
- Primary CastAlan Ladd Veronica Lake Brian Donlevy More
- GenreThriller
- Release Date1942 1944 1946


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Whale Season: August to November & December to April
This tour is a combination of Whale & Dolphin watching, snorkeling, and a tour through spectacular sea caves at Marino Ballena National Park, at less than 20 minutes (18 km) from our Hotel Resort.
We depart early in the morning between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. The meeting point and departure point is the Marino Ballena National Park in Uvita. From Dominical, it takes about 20 minutes (18km) to get there by car. (Transport by car is not included)
The tour starts and finishes on Punta Uvita Beach, it lasts about three hours. The tour takes place in the Marino Ballena National Park and includes a visit in which you can enjoy and see the different beaches of this National Park: Punta Uvita Beach, Colonia Beach, Arco Beach, Ballena Beach and Piñuelas Beach.
In addition to enjoying the different beaches, the tour includes a visit to different and important places near the National Park such as: Ventanas's Caves (by boat).
The tour also includes the cetaceous search, which is one of the main reasons why tourists visit the zone, of course that is during the arriving season of some species of whales such as: the Humpback Whale, Pilot Whale and some others.
There are some dolphin species that are found in almost all of the Pacific Coast of America such as: the Bottle Nosed Dolphin, the common dolphin, Rough Toothed Dolphin, Pantropical or Pacific Spotted Dolphin, among others. It is also renowned because of the snorkeling done in one of the most important coral reefs that the Park has in which you can find great marine life diversity; the places are: Ballena Rock and Tómbolo Punta Uvita.
Combo Tour includes:
Bilingual tourist guide
National Park entrances
Safety equipment (life jackets and first aids kits)
Snorkeling equipment
Snacks (water and fruits)
Price per person: $80.00


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Great White Sharks in New England | Feeding Frenzy
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The first onlookers? Locals mainly. Chatham, Massachusetts, residents who'd heard something from someone about something in the water. It was Labor Day weekend 2009, a beautiful late-summer day. They went to the sea, staking out a spot on the town's wide, sandy beaches in hopes of catching a glimpse, maybe something better. Then the larger crowds came–eager masses of out-of-towners who claimed their own perches–twelve hundred steady regulars keeping watch at Lighthouse Beach alone. They snapped pictures, then headed into town to snap up the T-shirts and other tchotchkes that had suddenly appeared in local gift shops.
The media? They arrived in force, too, rumbling satellite trucks and roving reporters–36 news outlets in all, including the BBC–who gave this thing the whiff of Brad and Angelina. They jammed the phone lines and tracked down key officials; one enterprising journalist even showed up at the home of the town's harbormaster at 10 one night for an impromptu interview. In this frenzied, all-too-familiar scenario–holiday weekend, prime sunny weather–everyone wanted a piece of the action.
Great white sharks can do that.
A little context. The file on unprovoked shark attacks is actually quite slim: worldwide, just 59 documented strikes in 2008. In United States waters there have been only 1,033 confirmed attacks since 1900, a scant six of them coming off the New England coast. In all, just 51 people have been killed by sharks in U.S. waters in the last 110 years, most recently a Florida kite surfer last February.
But that doesn't diminish how much of a force of nature sharks–whites in particular–really are. The big ones are a showcase of almost mythical heft (up to 5,000 pounds) and ferociousness (a single bite can extract up to 50 pounds of meat). Written accounts of attacks go back as early as the mid-fifth century b.c., to the time of Herodotus, the Greek historian who wrote about Persian sailors who'd been eaten by sea monsters a generation earlier, in 492 b.c. It's been 2,500 years of wonder and fear ever since.
"When I was kid growing up in Dorchester, [Massachusetts], we'd go swimming and everyone would always say, 'Be careful–remember what happened to Troy,'" says Captain Tom King, creator of NewEnglandSharks.com, a Web site brimming with historical information about the region's sharks and man's interaction with them. "Troy" was Joseph C. Troy Jr., a 16-year-old Dorchester kid whose death in July 1936 is the most recent shark-related fatality in New England. He was swimming with a family friend in the late afternoon, about 150 yards off Hollywood Beach in Mattapoisett, on Buzzards Bay, when an eight-foot white shark suddenly latched on to the boy's left leg, temporarily bringing him under. Just as quickly as it had appeared, however, the fish swam off, but not before striking a devastating blow. Troy's leg, according to one newspaper report, had been "stripped of flesh from ankle to thigh by the razor teeth of the sea tiger." He'd eventually made it to a hospital but had died several hours later as doctors were amputating the limb.
Before Troy, there was Joseph Blaney, a 52-year-old Swampscott, Massachusetts, fisherman who lost his life in July 1830 when a shark attacked his boat. As witnessed by nearby fishermen, Blaney's vessel was pulled under, reappearing moments later without its captain, who was never seen again. "The sensation created at Swampscut [sic] by this melancholy event … is unprecedented," reported the Essex Register.
Other stories endure, too: like the 12 days of terror inflicted on New Jersey beachgoers in July 1916, when a great white killed four swimmers and injured a fifth. That real-life tale later inspired Nantucket writer Peter Benchley, whose story of carnage on a small East Coast island in turn inspired film director Steven Spielberg, who then inspired a whole generation of Jaws fans. And on the small Massachusetts island of Cuttyhunk, west of Martha's Vineyard, people still talk about the day in August 1954 when Charles Tilton and his son harpooned a great white and brought the giant dead fish to the docks for islanders to gawk at.
And on it goes: encounters and legends, awe and fear. The frontier may be gone, but sharks serve as a reminder that out at sea, an untamed wild of giants and death still looms. And so the masses descend on places like Chatham, for a glimpse of this mystery–to get a better look at something that's not entirely understood.
Please Note: This information was accurate at the time of publication. When planning a trip, please confirm details by directly contacting any company or establishment you intend to visit.


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Weight: 4–35 lbs
Height: 32"
Infant car seats have built-in bases for the car, which makes them easy to remove and use as a carrier. They can be purchased individually or as part of a travel system.
Weight: 4–100 lbs
Height: 9–50"
Convertible car seats work first as rear-facing for infants, and then convert to forward-facing for toddlers and pre-schoolers.
Weight: 22–120 lbs
Height: up to 40–57"
Booster seats are designed to allow children who no longer need a forward-facing seat to use seatbelts. The booster seat positions a child properly so that the seatbelt lies correctly on the lap and shoulder.


text:
Moderators: Jason, Toothy, Tonyblack
Catch-up wrote:Just booked my flight, got an awesome rate, only $165! I also booked the 4th of July reception. Anyone else doing that?
Catch-up wrote:Sorry to hear you guys won't be at the fireworks thing.
Who's Wee Dug wrote:Masquerade prize
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Today marks the start of our End of the Year sale and that means 20% off everything on our site from December 27th until January 2nd! It's a chance to save on stunning Egyptian home decor, exquisite resin garden statues, and the beautiful objets d'art and decor in the Basil Street Gallery.
Buy beautiful decor like the eye-catching Egyptian Temple Sculptural Wall Pediment and the breathtaking King Tutankhamen Wall Sculpture. Both of these sculptures will make a statement on the walls of your home and office and are replicas of ancient Egyptian works of art. While visitors and clients will probably recognize the King Tutankhamen sculpture, you can tell them that the wall pediment is a "Ur-Uatchti", a winged sun disk meant to protect Egyptian temples against evil.
Save on unique garden statuary like our Snapping Swamp Gator, Bigfoot, and dramatic sculptures of angels. The Snapping Swamp Gator is an incredibly lifelike resin representation of an angry alligator. Put it next to the pool to fascinate and entertain your garden guests. Get one of our signature detailed Bigfoot sculptures and neighbors might report sightings of the Great American Ape from your backyard. Our angel collection is simply breathtaking and includes statues for every type of backyard.
Order these and other items from Design Toscano between today and January 2nd and get 20% off the regular price as part of our End of the Year sale!


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When Marisa is unable to pay a debt, her baby, Alessandro, is taken away from her by a drug dealer. After cleaning up her act, she becomes determined to find her child. On the outskirts of Rio, another boy, Sandro, finds his mother stabbed to death in her shop. He runs away, intent on reaching Copacabana, where his mother once promised to take him. Once there, Sandro befriends some street kids who sweep him up into a world of drug use and dealing. After becoming a hardened survivor of the Candelaria massacre (an attempt by Rio police to clean up the city by murdering street kids as they slept), he eventually finds himself in a juvenile detention home. It is there that he meets Marisa's long-lost boy, Alessandro. Marisa meanwhile finds her way to the center, and mistakes Sandro for her own son. Despite her efforts to help him, Sandro cannot escape his hard reality, and ultimately becomes the hostage-taker on Bus 174.
Rated No Rating .
Visit the official site
Cast: Anna Cotrim, Chris Vianna, Gabriela Luiz, Marcello Melo Junior, Michel Gomes
Produced by:
Directed by: Bruno Baretto
Written by: Braulio Mantovani
Running time: 1hr 50min
Opens: Dec 19, 2008 NY/LA


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At first I saw the add for this and I thought it looked terrible but then I watched it and thought it was pretty good.
I'd try to explain it but it's pretty hard.
But basically it's about this group of teenagers who are all witches.
It's on Wednesdays at 8pm on Sky Living.
Did anyone see it?


text:
Cleveland National Forest
Contact Information
Cleveland National Forest
10845 Rancho Bernardo Road
Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92127
Trabuco Ranger District
Darrell Vance, District Ranger
1147 East Sixth Street
Corona, CA 92879
(951) 736-1811
Fax - (951) 736-3002
Palomar Ranger District
Joan Friedlander, District Ranger
1634 Black Canyon Rd.
Ramona, CA 92065
(760) 788-0250
Fax - (760) 788-6130
Descanso Ranger District
Donn Christiansen, District Ranger
3348 Alpine Boulevard
Alpine, CA 91901
(619) 445-6235
Fax - (619) 445-1753
Stay Connected
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Where is this Forest?
On July 1st, 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt signed a declaration that created the Cleveland National Forest. Now, more than 100 years later, the Cleveland National Forest provides habitat for native wildlife, as well as a natural refuge and playground for many of the 3 million plus residents in the greater San Diego area. Read more about the history of the Cleveland National Forest how it was founded and evolved into the forest it is today!
Cleveland National Forest lands in the Silverado Fire burned area vicinity will be subject to administrative closure until September 30, 2015. The burned area is currently being reassessed. If the watershed conditions continue to be a threat to public safety, the closure may be renewed as appropriate. The purpose of the closure is to address resource protection, protection of public property, and health and safety concerns related to the ongoing watershed emergency. The closure order, closure map and reports pertaining to the Silverado Fire Burned Area Emergency Response can now be viewed (PDF).
The first national study, "Tree and Forest Effects on Air Quality and Human Health in the United States", finds that trees are saving lives and reducing respiratory problems. U.S. Forest Service scientists and collaborators calculated that trees are saving more than 850 human lives a year and preventing 670,000 incidences of acute respiratory symptoms. To read more about this study, please click here.
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Release Date: Jun 29, 2015
Release Date: Jun 26, 2015
Effective Friday, April 5, 2013, a visitor use permit is required to visit the Cedar Creek Falls Visitor Use Permit Area.
The Cleveland National Forest opened the west access to Cedar Creek Falls located in Ramona, CA off of the Thornbush Road.
The visitor permit has to be purchased ahead of time at http://www.recreation.gov/.
While the Orosco Ridge Shooting Area is closed, general recreation and hunting is not allowed. The Forest Service is maintaining the closure of the Orosco Ridge Recreational Target Shooting Area for an indefinite amount of time due to public safety concerns and the presence of hazardous materials.
In less than an hour from downtown San Diego you can find a forested spot brimming with a variety of recreational opportunities . . .
An exciting amateur astronomy project occurs each summer and fall at Palomar Mountain's Observatory Campground on the Palomar Ranger of the Cleveland National Forest.
Volunteering on the Cleveland NF can be a rewarding and educational experience. There is much you can do to help!
Don't move oak firewood out of San Diego County!
Current Fire Restrictions
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Be aware that firewood can harbor insects and diseases; transporting it can move these pests to new locations.
Cleveland Scenic Views
Know Before You Go!
Cleveland National Forest General Vicinity Map
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The LaCrosse was redesigned for 2010, but it has gotten more interesting since then. The car's styling is aimed at both the Chinese and the U.S. markets, as Buick now sells more cars in China than it does here. Because a car like this is often chauffeur driven in China, the LaCrosse has generous rear-seat legroom, and buyers can maximize the rear-seat experience by opting for the available DVD entertainment system. Up front, the driver faces a dash that is highly styled, with plenty of chrome, intricate gauges, and a configurable screen. Buick's IntelliLink (available midyear) promises enhanced interaction with a smart phone. IntelliLink is new for 2012, but the LaCrosse's more significant changes are found under the hood. Whereas the base engine was previously an underwhelming V-6, the new one is a 2.4-liter four-cylinder supplemented by a battery-powered electric motor. This so-called mild hybrid (the motor can't power the car on its own) delivers fuel economy of 25 mpg in the city and 36 mpg on the highway, figures that are better than many compacts'. At the same time, the eAssist system makes the four-cylinder surprisingly responsive and has impressive refinement. The V-6 has been bumped to 303 hp and is your only choice if you want all-wheel drive, and, in fact, we recommend AWD with the bigger engine because the softly sprung LaCrosse can easily unload its front wheels during acceleration. Higher-trim V-6 models (Premium III and Touring) use GM's HiPer Strut front suspension to minimize torque steer.
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Family tribute to "devoted" Walney mum
Last updated at 13:51, Thursday, 07 June 2012
A FAMILY has paid tribute to a "kind-hearted and devoted" mum of two young children who died suddenly after a brain haemorrhage.
Teaching assistant Helen Hipkiss, 39, was working at Brisbane Park Infant School last Wednesday lunchtime when she collapsed.
Paramedics were called and her husband, Barrow Borough Council planning manager Jason, raced to the school.
Despite the best efforts of the medical team at Furness General Hospital over the next 24 hours, doctors informed Mr Hipkiss that his wife was not responding and the decision was taken to turn off the machines. In line with her wishes, some of her organs were removed and have been used to save a number of lives.
Mr Hipkiss, who has been supported by his two young children, nine-year-old Adam and Yasmin, seven, and his extended family, said his wife had been a devoted, conscientious and kind-hearted woman.
He said: "I was at work and got a phone call to say Helen had collapsed. She had the car at school so I ran up Duke Street and went to the hospital in the ambulance with her.
"I stopped with Helen on Wednesday night and on Thursday afternoon the consultants carried out formal tests which confirmed she was brain dead.
"Helen was kept on life support in order for the organ donations to take place on Friday. It's what she would have wanted."
The couple and their two children, of Strathaird Avenue, Walney, had been due to travel to Belgium on Monday for a week's holiday.
Mr Hipkiss said his wife, who was known across Barrow and Ulverston from playing hockey with Vickers and Glaxo, had completed the Manchester 10k run last year and had hoped to take on the London Marathon.
He added: "That's what's so shocking about all of this, she's never had anything wrong with her. She never smoked, didn't drink a lot... she really looked after herself."
Mr Hipkiss, 50, was keen to publicly thank the hospital staff for their efforts in trying to save his wife.
He said: "From the two paramedics all the way through to accident and emergency and the intensive care unit, they were all fantastic. They were brilliant with me and I am so grateful for all their help and support."
The family said they had been able to find some comfort in knowing "some good has come out of what happened to Helen" through the organ donation.
Mr Hipkiss, who said his wife was happiest when with her children, said: "She'd carried a donor card since Adam was born, we'd talked about it quite a lot and I countersigned the card.
"When it became clear she wasn't going to come back, the doctors said they wanted to talk to me about something and I knew what it would be so I told them 'Helen carried a donor card'.
"I talked to the rest of the family about it and we were all in agreement that something good could come out of what has happened to Helen. That was the kind of person she was – thoughtful, selfless and always thinking of others."
Mr and Mrs Hipkiss, who met at the town hall where they both worked, married in 1998 at St Mary's Church on Walney.
The church is set to be packed once more at 10.45am on Tuesday when friends, family and colleagues gather to say goodbye to Helen.
Helen's parents, Dorothy and Harry Wrathall, said they have been touched by the number of cards and phone calls from friends, family and colleagues.
Mrs Wrathall, 80, of Hill Road, Barrow, said: "On Thursday the doctors said they would turn off the machines because there was nothing more that could be done. In my heart I'd known on the Wednesday she had gone. So we went up and sat with Helen and said our goodbyes.
"They took her to theatre for the organ donation, then Jason came back and he didn't speak.
"We were all in shock that she had gone.... you don't expect to see your children go before you."
Mrs Hipkiss had worked at the social services offices in Abbey Road before becoming a teaching assistant to work with children with special needs, first at Ramsden Infant and Nursery School and later at Brisbane Park Infant School, both Barrow.
Headteacher at Brisbane Park, Pat Burton, said: "She loved her job and everyone loved her.
"She had a lovely personality and she was a really bubbly person and very good at her job. She got on with everybody and was very well-respected.
"The whole school community is devastated."
l The funeral of Helen Hipkiss will take place at 10.45am on Tuesday at St Mary's Church on Walney.
Mr Hipkiss asked for family flowers only but said any donations would be split between A Chance For Life, a regional support group for people who have suffered from brain trauma, and the Brain Research Trust.
First published at 13:46, Thursday, 07 June 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
Have your say
Treasured memories of a wonderful caring and kind childhood friend who will be so sadly missed. Rest Easy Helen xx My thoughts and prayers are with the family at this very sad time.
I never met you however my son was in the class you were working in at Brisbane Park and he keeps saying how much of a nice teacher and person you were. You also helped teach my daughter to read last year and for these reasons I thank you for helping my children and my thoughts are with your family.
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Travel like a local: Your Neighbourhood Guide to the Cape Town CBD by Day
Rob PetersThe CBD is the heartbeat of every major city and it is no different for Cape Town. The city centre is the pulse of the Mother City, providing the lifeblood of the surrounding areas. It is a melting pot of diversity and culture, a smorgasbord of historical influences and a place like no other on earth. If you really want to get underneath the skin of Cape Town, you need to start in the city.
Travel like a local: Your neighbourhood guide to DurbanvilleDurbanville is not your average Cape Town neighbourhood. There is so much more going on than the daily school run. This is a neighbourhood filled with great experiences for everyone to enjoy.
Take Advantage of Winter in Cape Town
Jenny MorrisI'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and I love to get a quality deal at a good price. My working season is all year round, but it does slow down ever so slightly in winter and that is when I get to take advantage of all the specials on offer.
Your #lovecapetown weekend: What's on from Wednesday 01 July to Sunday 05 July, 2015
Rob PetersWith a wealth of natural beauty, unrivalled mountain trails and sublime backdrops, it's not hard to understand why Mother City locals spend the majority of their time outdoors and on the go. The good news is that it's even better in winter with the cooler temperatures making it an awesome option for sport and fitness fanatics!
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#WeLoveCapeTown – cast your votes by 20 March!
Voting for WWF's Best-loved Sustainable City closes on Thursday 20 March, 2014, so everyone who loves Cape Town needs to declare this online before then to generate votes for the Mother City.
Cape Town Naked Bike Ride 2014: Share share your #WeLoveCapeTown messages
The 2014 Cape Town Naked Bike Ride takes place on Saturday, 8 March – and it's a fantastic (and cheeky!) opportunity to show how much #WeLoveCapeTown.
Cape Town on the National Geographic Channel: watch The World in Two Cities
The National Geographic Channel is currently screening a documentary called The World in Two Cities, in which travel expert Andrew Evans explores Cape Town and Durban. The documentary airs around the world on various dates for the next few weeks, including countries such as England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, India, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and France.
Two Oceans Marathon 2013 results: David Gatebe from South Africa takes the win
The 2013 Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon was won by South African David Gatebe, who is now R250 000 wealthier than he was when he woke up early this morning. His time was 3:08:56.
City Sightseeing Blue Route: an affordable way to explore some of the Cape Peninsula
The City Sightseeing Blue Route double-decker bus tour is probably the most affordable and efficient way to explore parts of the Cape Peninsula, including attractions such as the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Groot Constantia wine estate, the World of Birds, Hout Bay, Camps Bay, Sea Point and various parts of the Cape Town city centre.
Absa Cape Epic 2013 results: Burry Stander-SONGO team take the win
The 2013 Absa Cape Epic concluded at Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West today and was won by Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy of the Burry Stander-SONGO team.
Super Rugby: Will Stormers end Brumbies' winning streak?
Australian Super Rugby team the Brumbies, who are coached by former Springbok IRB Rugby World Cup-winning coach Jake White, have won all four of their Super 15 matches so far this year. They have also won their last seven away matches. This evening they go up against the Stormers at Newlands in Cape Town, with kick-off at 19h10 CAT (GMT +2). The question is, can the home team end the Brumbies' winning streak?
Cape Argus 2013 results: Herman Fouche claims his first win
Find out who won the 2013 Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour, and where to get your result if you took part.
Skrillex in Cape Town: Photos and video
After seeing Skrillex live at the West Coast Show Ranch in Cape Town last night, I'm convinced that this 24-year-old is a musical pioneer worthy of all the acclaim and awards he has picked up so far, regardless of what the haters and the critics have to say.
Visit Cape Town after your African safari
While one week isn't sufficient time to properly explore Cape Town, let alone Africa, this timeframe is a reality for many travellers, and thousands manage this every year.
J&B Met 2013 photos: Made to Fly
The 2013 J&B Met took place at Kenilworth Racecourse in Cape Town's Southern Suburbs today, attended by more than 40 000 people.
J&B Met 2013 results: Martial Eagle takes the glory
The 2013 J&B Met was won by Martial Eagle, a seven-year-old gelding, ridden by Aldo Domeyer and owned by Yogas Govender, who is now R2.5 million richer. The odds of Martial Eagle winning were 80-1 and the result stunned the crowd, who had largely backed the favourite, Jackson, who disappointed by finishing fifth.
South Africa vs New Zealand cricket: records tumble at Newlands
South African cricket fans in Cape Town aren't sure whether to celebrate thrashing New Zealand by an innings and 27 runs, within three days, or be grumpy about the fact that there is no cricket to watch this weekend.
South Africa vs New Zealand cricket in Cape Town: see why Newlands is so highly rated
The first cricket Test between South Africa and New Zealand takes place at Sahara Park Newlands in Cape Town from January 2 to 6. By this time, the teams will have concluded a three-match T20 series and will be ready to do battle on the ground that The Cricketer magazine rates as the second-most beautiful ground in the world after Lords.
Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concerts 2013 line-up: Toya Delazy, Goldfish, Freshlyground and many more
The 2013 leg of the Kirstenbosch Summer Concerts features performers such as Toya Delazy, The Parlotones, Mi Casa and local crowd favourites Goldfish and Freshlyground. If you are going to be in Cape Town anytime between now and April, keep a Sunday afternoon free to go to one of these gigs.
MC Hammer in Cape Town: Can't touch this!
MC Hammer hosted the second awards ceremony of the 34th annual Loerie Awards in Cape Town. Watch a video of him busting a few moves, as well as one in which he shares his thoughts about Cape Town.
Loerie Awards 2012: Saturday night review
Last night the Cape Town International Convention Centre hosted the first awards ceremony of the 2012 Loerie Awards.
Top gay travel destinations: Cape Town recognised in Out Now survey
Cape Town is among the top 20 gay travel destinations, according to a survey conducted by Out Now Business Class,who specialise in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender market. This comes after Clifton 3rd was last year named among the top 10 gay beaches in the world by GayCities.com.
Loerie Awards 2012: It's all happening in Cape Town this week
The 34th Annual Loerie Awards is underway and there will be a large amount of activity taking place in Cape Town this week, with the awards evenings taking place on Saturday and Sunday.
Melvin Böcher of @traveldudes talks about Cape Town
German travel blogger Melvin Böcher has been loving his time in Cape Town as a guest of Cape Town Tourism. He's been staying at a villa in Camps Bay and he's enjoyed adventure activities such as climbing Table Mountain and cage diving with sharks.
Charley Boorman in Cape Town: Photos and video
Charley Boorman, famous for television shows such as The Long Way Round, led a cavalcade of around 200 bikers from Stellenbosch to Cape Town today. The cavalcade ended their journey on Signal Hill and Boorman took time to sign autographs and pose for photos with fans.
Manchester United in Cape Town: What a match!
Yesterday's 1-1 draw between Manchester United and Ajax Cape Town was possibly the most exciting game of football played at Cape Town Stadium so far and the fans got full value for money, despite having to endure a fair amount of rain.
CNN world's 10 most loved cities: Cape Town is there
CNNGo, the travel wing of CNN International, has listed Cape Town as one of the World's 10 Most Loved Cities, adding to the Mother City's long list of accolades.
National Geographic in Cape Town: An interview with Andrew Evans
Andrew Evans, also known as the Digital Nomad, who has been in Cape Town filming a documentary for National Geographic, says he has a dream to return to Cape Town for six months. He describes the city as "the great central station of all the continents," and has wanted to visit for a long time.


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Sep 29, 2011Sportsmans Ski Haus
Sportsman & Ski Haus is an employee owned sporting goods store with locations in Kalispell and Whitefish, Montana. With two ski areas, countless lakes and mountains, Glacier Park, Flathead Lake, Bob Marshall Wilderness we are truly blessed to be located in such a beautiful area.
Sep 28, 2011Lady Fingers
Sep 28, 2011Smoked Ribs and Tri Tip
Finally a weekend without any commitments and my wife was away all day on Saturday. That meant I had all day to be able to babysit my smoker. She wouldn't be there to complain about the piles of raw meat on her countertop or smell of smoldering wood. What she doesn't know won't hurt her right. I decided to smoke a tri tip roast and a couple racks of ribs.
Sep 27, 2011Portable Fire Pit
I have always wanted a fire pit in my back yard, but somehow my ambition to dig a hole has always been missing!
The problem has been solved!
This is a portable outdoor fire pit. Now not only can I have a fire in my back yard I can have one when I camp, and I can use it to cook.
Sep 24, 2011Tip of the Month: Butter
In my many cookbook readings, I ran across this tip and have wanted to try it out!
Sep 22, 2011Morse Code Salsa
Salsa Season!
With a bunch of tomatoes and crisp fall air it seams like it was time to bottle some salsa! My siblings and I have been making salsa with our mom for years. This year was no exception!
Here is the recipe we used.
½ Bushel Roma tomatoes* &nb


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I'ld love to see Punk VS Kofi but seriously doubt he'll ever be pushed to that level, especially when Orton and Wade Barrett are scheduled to return soon...but i seriously doubt that Punk will hold the title till Royal Rumble...
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A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted, malevolent efforts of a person or persons to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even DNS root servers.
One common method of attack involves saturating the target (victim) machine with external communications requests, such that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so slowly as to be rendered effectively unavailable. In general terms, DoS attacks are implemented by either forcing the targeted computer(s) to reset, or consume its resources so that it can no longer provide its intended service or obstructing the communication media between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately.
Denial-of-service attacks are considered violations of the IAB's Internet Proper Use Policy. They also commonly constitute violations of the laws of individual nations.
Attacks on wired networks require a far greater deal of computing power, often even requiring the need of distributed computing. Attacks on wired networks of course do not require any NICs or external antennae, yet often does have the need of a (broadband) connection to the Internet.
Attacks on wireless networks require a high power NIC and usually a high-gain (directional) external antenna (to increase range as well as power output). High power NICs fall in the range of the 300mW-cards. Examples can be found from companies such as Demarch Technology Group.
Not all service outages, even those that result from malicious activity, are necessarily denial-of-service attacks. Other methods of attack may include a denial of service as one component of a larger offensive.
Denial-of-service attacks can also lead to problems in the network 'branches' around the actual computer being attacked. For example, the bandwidth of a router between the Internet and a LAN may be consumed by an attack, compromising not only the intended computer, but also the entire network.
If the attack is conducted on a sufficiently large scale, entire geographical regions of Internet connectivity can be compromised without the attacker's knowledge or intent by incorrectly configured or flimsy network infrastructure equipment.
A "denial-of-service" attack is characterized by an explicit attempt by attackers to prevent legitimate users of a service from using that service. Attacks can be directed at any network device, including attacks on routing devices and web, electronic mail, or Domain Name System servers.
A DoS attack can be perpetrated in a number of ways. The five basic types of attack are:
A DoS attack may include execution of malware intended to:
A smurf attack is one particular variant of a flooding DoS attack on the public Internet. It relies on misconfigured network devices that allow packets to be sent to all computer hosts on a particular network via the broadcast address of the network, rather than a specific machine. The network then serves as a smurf amplifier. In such an attack, the perpetrators will send large numbers of IP packets with the source address faked to appear to be the address of the victim. The network's bandwidth is quickly used up, preventing legitimate packets from getting through to their destination. To combat Denial of Service attacks on the Internet, services like the Smurf Amplifier Registry have given network service providers the ability to identify misconfigured networks and to take appropriate action such as filtering.
Ping flood is based on sending the victim an overwhelming number of ping packets, usually using the "ping -A" command from Unix-like hosts. It is very simple to launch, the primary requirement being access to greater bandwidth than the victim.
SYN flood sends a flood of TCP/SYN packets, often with a forged sender address. Each of these packets is handled like a connection request, causing the server to spawn a half-open connection, by sending back a TCP/SYN-ACK packet, and waiting for packet in response from the sender address. However, because the sender address is forged, the response never comes. These half-open connections saturate the number of available connections the server is able to make, keeping it from responding to legitimate requests until after the attack ends.
A Teardrop attack involves sending mangled IP fragments with overlapping, over-sized, payloads to the target machine. A bug in the TCP/IP fragmentation re-assembly code of various operating systems causes the fragments to be improperly handled, crashing them as a result of this. Windows 3.1x, Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems, as well as versions of Linux prior to versions 2.0.32 and 2.1.63 are vulnerable to this attack.
Attackers have found a way to exploit a number of bugs in peer-to-peer servers to initiate DDoS attacks. The most aggressive of these peer-to-peer-DDoS attacks exploits DC++. Peer-to-peer attacks are different from regular botnet-based attacks. With peer-to-peer there is no botnet and the attacker does not have to communicate with the clients it subverts. Instead, the attacker acts as a 'puppet master,' instructing clients of large peer-to-peer file sharing hubs to disconnect from their peer-to-peer network and to connect to the victim's website instead. As a result, several thousand computers may aggressively try to connect to a target website. While a typical web server can handle a few hundred connections/sec before performance begins to degrade, most web servers fail almost instantly under five or six thousand connections/sec. With a moderately big peer-to-peer attack a site could potentially be hit with up to 750,000 connections in a short order. The targeted web server will be plugged up and confused by the incoming connections. While peer-to-peer attacks are easy to identify with signatures, the large number of IP addresses that need to be blocked (often over 250,000 during the course of a big attack) means that this type of attack can overwhelm mitigation defenses. Even if a mitigation device can keep blocking IP addresses, there are other problems to consider. For instance, there is a brief moment where the connection is opened on the server side before the signature itself comes through. Only once the connection is opened to the server can the identifying signature be sent and detected, and the connection torn down. Even tearing down connections takes server resources and can harm the server.
A permanent denial-of-service (PDoS), also known loosely as phlashing, is an attack that damages a system so badly that it requires replacement or reinstallation of hardware. Unlike the distributed denial-of-service attack, a PDoS attack exploits security flaws in the remote management interfaces of the victim's hardware, be it routers, printers, or other networking hardware. These flaws leave the door open for an attacker to remotely 'update' the device firmware to a modified, corrupt or defective firmware image, therefore bricking the device and making it permanently unusable for its original purpose. The PDoS is a pure hardware targeted attack which can be much faster and requires fewer resources than using a botnet in a DDoS attack. Because of these features, and the potential and high probability of security exploits on Network Enabled Embedded Devices (NEEDs), this technique has come to the attention of numerous hacker communities such as Hack A Day
PhlashDance is a tool created by Rich Smith (an employee of Hewlett-Packard's Systems Security Lab) used to detect and demonstrate PDoS vulnerabilities at the 2008 EUSecWest Applied Security Conference in London.
On IRC, IRC floods are a common electronic warfare weapon.
Various DoS-causing exploits such as buffer overflow can cause server-running software to get confused and fill the disk space or consume all available memory or CPU time.
Other kinds of DoS rely primarily on brute force, flooding the target with an overwhelming flux of packets, oversaturating its connection bandwidth or depleting the target's system resources. Bandwidth-saturating floods rely on the attacker having higher bandwidth available than the victim; a common way of achieving this today is via Distributed Denial of Service, employing a botnet. Other floods may use specific packet types or connection requests to saturate finite resources by, for example, occupying the maximum number of open connections or filling the victim's disk space with logs.
A "banana attack" is another particular type of DoS. It involves redirecting outgoing messages from the client back onto the client, preventing outside access, as well as flooding the client with the sent packets.
An attacker with access to a victim's computer may slow it until it is unusable or crash it by using a fork bomb.
A 'pulsing zombie' is a term referring to a special denial-of-service attack. A network is subjected to hostile pinging by different attacker computers over an extended amount of time. This results in a degraded quality of service and increased workload for the network's resources. This type of attack is more difficult to detect than traditional denial-of-service attacks due to their surreptitious nature.
A Nuke is an old denial-of-service attack against computer networks consisting of fragmented or otherwise invalid ICMP packets sent to the target, achieved by using a modified ping utility to repeatedly send this corrupt data, thus slowing down the affected computer until it comes to a complete stop.
In online gaming, nuking is used by spamming another user, or all other users, with random repeated messages in quick succession. Such techniques are also seen in instant messaging programs as repeatedly sending text can be assigned to a macro or AppleScript. Modern operating systems are usually resistant to these nuke attacks, and online games now have third party "Flood control."
A specific example of a nuke attack that gained some prominence is the WinNuke, which exploited the vulnerability in the NetBIOS handler in Windows 95. A string of out-of-band data was sent to TCP port 139 of the victim's machine, causing it to lock up and display a Blue Screen of Death.
A distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) occurs when multiple compromised systems flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system, usually one or more web servers. These systems are compromised by attackers using a variety of methods.
Malware can carry DDoS attack mechanisms; one of the more well known examples of this was MyDoom. Its DoS mechanism was triggered on a specific date and time. This type of DDoS involved hardcoding the target IP address prior to release of the malware and no further interaction was necessary to launch the attack.
A system may also be compromised with a trojan, allowing the attacker to download a zombie agent (or the trojan may contain one). Attackers can also break into systems using automated tools that exploit flaws in programs that listen for connections from remote hosts. This scenario primarily concerns systems acting as servers on the web.
Stacheldraht is a classic example of a DDoS tool. It utilizes a layered structure where the attacker uses a client program to connect to handlers, which are compromised systems that issue commands to the zombie agents, which in turn facilitate the DDoS attack. Agents are compromised via the handlers by the attacker, using automated routines to exploit vulnerabilities in programs that accept remote connections running on the targeted remote hosts. Each handler can control up to a thousand agents.
These collections of compromised systems are known as botnets. DDoS tools like stacheldraht still use classic DoS attack methods centered around IP spoofing and amplification like smurf attacks and fraggle attacks (these are also known as bandwidth consumption attacks). SYN floods (also known as resource starvation attacks) may also be used. Newer tools can use DNS servers for DoS purposes. (see next section)
Unlike MyDoom's DDoS mechanism, botnets can be turned against any IP address. Script kiddies use them to deny the availability of well known websites to legitimate users. More sophisticated attackers use DDoS tools for the purposes of extortion — even against their business rivals.
It is important to note the difference between a DDoS and DoS attack. If an attacker mounts a smurf attack from a single host it would be classified as a DoS attack. In fact, any attack against availability would be classed as a Denial of Service attack. On the other hand, if an attacker uses a thousand zombie systems to simultaneously launch smurf attacks against a remote host, this would be classified as a DDoS attack.
The major advantages to an attacker of using a distributed denial-of-service attack are that multiple machines can generate more attack traffic than one machine, multiple attack machines are harder to turn off than one attack machine, and that the behavior of each attack machine can be stealthier, making it harder to track down and shut down. These attacker advantages cause challenges for defense mechanisms. For example, merely purchasing more incoming bandwidth than the current volume of the attack might not help, because the attacker might be able to simply add more attack machines.
Although most DDoS attacks are malicious in nature, the same technique can be used to aid the Internet community. Internet fraud schemes, such as Nigerian 419 scams or phishing, commonly involve fraudulent websites that either impersonate a real website for purposes of stealing the victim's identity, or lend credibility to a scammer's fictional business venture to lure the victim into a false sense of confidence. Scam baiters, who combat these scams by posing as victims for the purpose of wasting the scammer's time and money and obtaining information that can be used by authorities, will forward sites they encounter during the course of their conversations to groups that specialize in site-killing. The group will first try to have a site taken down by informing the host of said site that the site is being used fraudulently. In the case where that approach fails, the group will organize a "takedown" of the site by encouraging its members to visit the site en masse and continually refresh its content (an intentional form of the Slashdot effect sometimes referred to as flash mobbing, although that term is technically reserved for real-world gatherings). Alternately, some groups have special web pages that link to images hosted by these fake sites and show the images to visitors (usually members or supporters of the site-killing group) while constantly reloading them, which is known as intentional bandwidth hogging. The purpose, similar to malicious DoS attacks, is to (a.) rapidly consume all of the website's allocated monthly bandwidth, after which requests for the site's content are refused, (b.) draw the attention of the site's host, who when faced with the constant onslaught on the entire hosting network's resources, will usually remove the site, and/or (c.) take up all available connections and maximum throughput of the host so that would-be victims cannot access the site.
A distributed reflected denial of service attack (DRDoS) involves sending forged requests of some type to a very large number of computers that will reply to the requests. Using Internet protocol spoofing, the source address is set to that of the targeted victim, which means all the replies will go to (and flood) the target.
ICMP Echo Request attacks (Smurf Attack) can be considered one form of reflected attack, as the flooding host(s) send Echo Requests to the broadcast addresses of mis-configured networks, thereby enticing many hosts to send Echo Reply packets to the victim. Some early DDoS programs implemented a distributed form of this attack.
Many services can be exploited to act as reflectors, some harder to block than others. DNS amplification attacks involve a new mechanism that increased the amplification effect, using a much larger list of DNS servers than seen earlier.
This describes a situation where a website ends up denied, not due to a deliberate attack by a single individual or group of individuals, but simply due to a sudden enormous spike in popularity. This can happen when an extremely popular website posts a prominent link to a second, less well-prepared site, for example, as part of a news story. The result is that a significant proportion of the primary site's regular users — potentially hundreds of thousands of people — click that link in the space of a few hours, having the same effect on the target website as a DDoS attack.
News sites and link sites — sites whose primary function is to provide links to interesting content elsewhere on the Internet — are most likely to cause this phenomenon. The canonical example is the Slashdot effect. Sites such as Digg, Fark, Something Awful, and the webcomic Penny Arcade have their own corresponding "effects", known as "the Digg effect", "farking", "goonrushing" and "wanging"; respectively.
Routers have also been known to create unintentional DoS attacks, as both D-Link and Netgear routers have created NTP vandalism by flooding NTP servers without respecting the restrictions of client types or geographical limitations.
Similar unintentional attacks can also occur via other media, e.g. when a URL is mentioned on television. If a server is being indexed by Google or another search engine during peak periods of activity, or does not have a lot of available bandwidth while being indexed, it can also experience the effects of a DoS attack.
Legal action has been taken in at least one case of an unintentional attack. In 2006, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corporation has sued YouTube: massive numbers of would-be youtube.com users accidentally typed the tube company's URL, utube.com; as a result, the tube company ended up having to spend large amounts of money on upgrading their bandwidth.
The first major attack involving DNS servers as reflectors occurred in January 2001. The target was Register.com. This attack, which forged requests for the MX records of AOL.com (to amplify the attack) lasted about a week before it could be traced back to all attacking hosts and shut off. It used a list of tens of thousands of DNS records that were a year old at the time of the attack.
In February, 2001, the Irish Government's Department of Finance server was hit by a denial of service attack carried out as part of a student campaign from NUI Maynooth. The Department officially complained to the University authorities and a number of students were disciplined.
In July 2002, the Honeynet Project Reverse Challenge was issued. The binary that was analyzed turned out to be yet another DDoS agent, which implemented several DNS related attacks, including an optimized form of a reflection attack.
On two occasions to date, attackers have performed DNS Backbone DDoS Attacks on the DNS root servers. Since these machines are intended to provide service to all Internet users, these two denial of service attacks might be classified as attempts to take down the entire Internet, though it is unclear what the attackers' true motivations were. The first occurred in October 2002 and disrupted service at 9 of the 13 root servers. The second occurred in February 2007 and caused disruptions at two of the root servers.
In February 2007, more than 10,000 online game servers in games such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Halo, Counter-Strike and many others were attacked by "RUS" hacker group. The DDoS attack was made from more than a thousand computer units located in the republics of the former Soviet Union, mostly from Russia, Uzbekistan and Belarus. Minor attacks are still continuing to be made today.
In the weeks leading up to the five-day Georgia-Russian war, a DDoS attack directed at Georgian government sites containing the message: "win+love+in+Rusia" effectively overloaded and shut down multiple Georgian servers. Websites targeted included the Web site of the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, rendered inoperable for 24 hours, and the National Bank of Georgia. While heavy suspicion was placed on Russia for orchestrating the attack through a proxy, the St. Petersburg-based criminal gang known as the Russian Business Network, or R.B.N, the Russian government denied the allegations, stating that it was possible that individuals in Russia or elsewhere had taken it upon themselves to start the attacks.
In September 2008, DDoS attacks on Sa-Mp Servers started and became a very huge problem. All the servers in the official list was being attacked by DDoS by a hacker called Ryan Cleary/Savage.
The easiest way to survive an attack is to have planned for the attack. Having a separate emergency block of IP addresses for critical servers with a separate route can be invaluable. A separate route (perhaps a DSL) is not that extravagant, and it can be used for load balancing or sharing under normal circumstances and switched to emergency mode in the event of an attack.
Filtering is often ineffective, as the route to the filter will normally be swamped so only a trickle of traffic will survive. However, by using an extremely resilient stateful packet filter that will inexpensively drop any unwanted packets, surviving a DoS attack becomes much easier. When such a high performance packet filtering server is attached to an ultra-high bandwidth connection (preferably an internet backbone), communication with the outside world will be unimpaired so long as not all of the available bandwidth is saturated, and performance behind the packet filter will remain normal as long as the packet filter drops all DoS packets. It should be noted however, that in this case the victim of the DoS attack still would need to pay for the excessive bandwidth. The price of service unavailability thus needs to be weighed against the price of truly exorbitant bandwidth/traffic.
Firewalls have simple rules such as to allow or deny protocols, ports or IP addresses. Some DoS attacks are too complex for today's firewalls, e.g. if there is an attack on port 80 (web service), firewalls cannot prevent that attack because they cannot distinguish good traffic from DoS attack traffic. Additionally, firewalls are too deep in the network hierarchy. Routers may be affected even before the firewall gets the traffic. Nonetheless, firewalls can effectively prevent users from launching simple flooding type attacks from machines behind the firewall.
Modern stateful firewalls like Check Point FW1 NGX & Cisco PIX have a built-in capability to differentiate good traffic from DoS attack traffic. This capability is known as a "Defender", as it confirms TCP connections are valid before proxying TCP packets to service networks (including border routers). A similar ability is present in OpenBSD's pF, which is available for other BSDs as well. In that context, it is called "synproxy".
Comodo Firewall Pro has a built-in Emergency Mode which is activated when the number of incoming packets per seconds exceed a set value for more than the specified time, for example, more than 20 packets/sec for more than 20 seconds. If this happens, the firewall classifies it as a DoS attack and switches to Emergency Mode. In this mode, all inbound traffic is blocked except previously established and active connections, but outbound traffic is allowed. The packet number threshold and the time needed for verifying an attack can be adjusted by the user separately for TCP, UDP and ICMP. The firewall also has some other attack prevention mechanisms, like protocol analysis, checksum verification (so that the packets are not altered since transmission) and NDIS protocol monitoring for attempts at making a DoS attack by using own protocols, thus outmaneuvering older firewalls.
Most switches have some rate-limiting and ACL capability. Some switches provide automatic and/or system-wide rate limiting, traffic shaping, delayed binding (TCP splicing), deep packet inspection and Bogon filtering (bogus IP filtering) to detect and remediate denial of service attacks through automatic rate filtering and WAN Link failover and balancing.
These schemes will work as long as the DoS attacks are something that can be prevented by using them. For example SYN flood can be prevented using delayed binding or TCP splicing. Similarly content based DoS can be prevented using deep packet inspection. Attacks originating from dark addresses or going to dark addresses can be prevented using Bogon filtering. Automatic rate filtering can work as long as you have set rate-thresholds correctly and granularly. Wan-link failover will work as long as both links have DoS/DDoS prevention mechanism.
Similar to switches, routers have some rate-limiting and ACL capability. They, too, are manually set. Most routers can be easily overwhelmed under DoS attack. If you add rules to take flow statistics out of the router during the DoS attacks, they further slow down and complicate the matter. Cisco IOS has features that prevents flooding, i.e. example settings.
Application front end hardware is intelligent hardware placed on the network before traffic reaches the servers. It can be used on networks in conjunction with routers and switches. Application front end hardware analyzes data packets as they enter the system, and then identifies them as priority, regular, or dangerous. There are more than 25 bandwidth management vendors. Hardware acceleration is key to bandwidth management. Look for granularity of bandwidth management, hardware acceleration, and automation while selecting an appliance.
Intrusion-prevention systems (IPS) are effective if the attacks have signatures associated with them. However, the trend among the attacks is to have legitimate content but bad intent. Intrusion-prevention systems which work on content recognition cannot block behavior based DoS attacks.
An ASIC based IPS can detect and block denial of service attacks because they have the processing power and the granularity to analyze the attacks and act like a circuit breaker in an automated way.
A rate-based IPS (RBIPS) must analyze traffic granularly and continuously monitor the traffic pattern and determine if there is traffic anomaly. It must let the legitimate traffic flow while blocking the DoS attack traffic.
If the attacker is spoofing source addresses randomly, the backscatter response packets from the victim will be sent back to random destinations. This effect can be used by network telescopes as an indirect evidence of such attacks.
The term "backscatter analysis" refers to observing backscatter packets arriving at a statistically significant portion of the IP address space to determine characteristics of DoS attacks and victims.
An educational animation describing such backscatter can be found on the animations page maintained by CAIDA, the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis.


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Purification products and buffers were developed to help with profiling and quantitation using the ProteinChip SELDI system. Standards, calibrants, and controls are required to ensure accuracy in the measurements.
Biomarker Discovery Using SELDI Technology
Proper study and experimental design coupled with the correct data analysis approach are critical components of successful biomarker discovery, no matter which technology, platform, or workflow is used. Bio-Rad has produced two in-depth guides to provide researchers with strategies for success.
The first guide, Biomarker Discovery Using SELDI Technology — A Guide to Successful Study and Experimental Design, provides a series of general guidelines for effective study design using virtually any proteomics technology, and gives specific recommendations for using the ProteinChip surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization (SELDI) system. This guide also includes:
The second guide, Biomarker Discovery Using SELDI Technology — A Guide to Data Processing and Analysis Using ProteinChip Data Manager Software, is a comprehensive resource for data analysis workflows, guidelines, and specific recommendations for analyzing biomarker discovery data. The guide covers:
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Teddy Roosevelt said it best: Walk softly, and carry a big stick. In the world of high-performance Bowtie muscle cars, there's no bigger stick than a blown big-block Chevy, and since we're all muscle car fans we can forget about the whole "walk softly" thing.
You've seen plenty of big-block buildups before. Slap a centrifugal supercharger on a 502 crate motor or an HP-series Holley on a high-compression 427 and it's easy to make 500-plus horsepower. Here's the catch: horsepower doesn't mean squat on the street. In fact, horsepower isn't even a real number, it's a calculation based on torque and rpm. What you feel in the seat of your pants, that super duty grunt that makes your tires bark and your front wheels reach for the sky, is good old-fashioned torque. The trick to building a reliable pump gas big-block that will live for years and rocket your ride into the 10s is to keep the redline below six grand and the torque curve as flat as possible. That's what we set out to accomplish with our latest engine, the Long Rod Rat.
It's Hip To Be SquareOur original plan was to build a huge displacement mill with relatively high compression. However, since the engine will eventually end up in a street-bound Camaro that sees occasional track duty, our main goal was to build the engine to last. With that in mind, we decided to keep the compression low and keep the torque curve as flat and low as possible.
We started with a standard-bore four-bolt main 454 truck block, which was punched out .060-inch (up to .100-inch is safe with a solid block, but sonic check the walls to be safe). Rather than mixing and matching parts from different companies, we turned to the Lunati Custom Shop for a turn-key internal rotating assembly. Since a "square" engine is ideal for obtaining maximum torque, horsepower, and longevity, we ordered a 1/4-inch stroker forged stroker crank for the project.
A square engine is where the bore and stroke are roughly the same. In this case, that meant using a 4.250-inch stroke (stock is 4.00-inch), and a 4.31-inch bore (stock is 4.250"), for a total displacement of 496 cubic inches. Rather than using stock connecting rods, we ordered a set of 4340 forged steel 6.385-inch I-beam connecting rods, which are a quarter inch longer than stock (6.135-inch) Chevy rods. The longer rod changes wrist pin angle for improved operation, and flattens the torque curve for improved street performance. It also lengthens piston dwell time at top dead center, improving the combustion process. Finally, in order to compensate for the longer connecting rods, we had to order special forged pistons that have the wrist pin hole moved up higher to compensate. Luckily, Lunati offers these pistons right off the shelf, and since the wrist pin bore actually interrupts the bottom ring groove, they supply a special ring land seal that keeps cylinder pressure from leaking past the pin.
The Lunati Pro Series Engine Kit provided everything we need for the internals, from the forged crank, rods, and pistons, to King bearings and moly rings. Everything is fully internally balanced and blueprinted for maximum longevity performance.
Rather than running high compression pistons that require expensive race gas and put a huge load on the motor-whether you're on the throttle or not-we decided to combine a moderate compression ratio and a small supercharger. The combination of bore, stroke, and a stock thickness Cometic steel laminate head gasket with a flat-top piston worked out to 8.4:1. That number is low enough to be streetable and pump-gas friendly when the motor is in vacuum, and when the boost comes on it's still low enough to keep detonation at bay and keep things reliable.
Our first thought was to run a centrifugal supercharger with a blow-through carburetor, but since the eventual home for the engine will be a Pro Street-style Camaro, we decided to go with a wilder look and bolt on a Roots-type blower. Rather than using a 6-71, we went with a Weiand 250 fitted with Teflon-tipped rotors for maximum efficiency. Topped with two Holley 750 blower carbs (specifically engineered to work with the altered vacuum signal from a Roots blower), the package is relatively compact, powerful, and impressive looking.
Selecting the right cylinder heads is a key step in a big-block Chevrolet buildup. Several companies make impressive oval port aluminum heads that make big top-end power like a square-port and solid bottom end torque like old-fashioned round-port heads. However, since we're dealing with increased displacement and the added airflow of a supercharger, we decided to use Holley's aluminum rectangle port heads. They come from the factory fitted with Manley heavy-duty stainless 2.25-inch intake and 1.88-inch exhaust valves, screw-in 7/16-inch studs and guide plates, and heavy duty springs. These heads can support up to 1,000 horsepower, so we knew they'd be more than appropriate in this application.
Finally, the cam choice was a big decision. Rather than stepping up to a huge lift solid roller that would push the powerband into the stratosphere, we went with a very conservative Lunati flat-tappet hydraulic blower cam specifically designed for street use with Weiand superchargers. With 224/234 duration at .050-inch, and .498-/.520-inch gross valve lift and 112-degree lobe centers, the cam is quite mild for a 500-inch motor. However, it kept the peak horsepower numbers below 5,500 rpm and the torque curve was as flat as the Nebraska plains. Perfect for the ultimate street/strip brawler.


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You Are Here:: The Silk Route / Natural Silk / Silk Tussah -
Silk Tussah
Tussah Silk is produced in India by wild silk moths instead of the cultivated moths used for the white, smooth silks. Tussah silk moths feed on a wide range of vegetation giving an unexpected variety of natural colours, including cream, stone, honey and deeper brown. The characteristic honey colour is often produced where the moth feeds on oak leaves.
Tussah is a textured silk which can be used to make elegant clothing such as jackets, skirts, etc. Using the different colours and variations in texture, it can also be used to make a distinctive cushion, jacket or waistcoat. Tussah can also be useful in applique or as a background for embroidery.
Currently we have some 70 different Silk Tussahs in stock. We list a selection of these below, and we hope to photograph more of the range soon to offer on this website. Meanwhile, if you can't see what you want here, contact us to discuss any requirements that you may have.
Should you wish to buy small pieces of Silk Tussah, have a look at our 'Texture Silk Pack' range elsewhere in our range of Natural silks.


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The MEA Advantage for Your Wallet
Think of the items and services a household regularly purchases — groceries, clothing, meals, oil changes, entertainment, home and auto insurance — it all adds up over time. Thankfully, MEA members have access to numerous member-only discounts that can save thousands of dollars each year on the items they buy most.
Take, for example, a typical MEA member who pays in the neighborhood of $800 a year in dues to support the collective bargaining, representation and advocacy efforts of their professional association. By just occasionally taking advantage of member-only discounts, that member can turn that $800 investment into thousands of dollars a year in discounts.
So while dues-paying MEA members enjoy numerous advantages for their careers, for their rights and for public education, the member-only discounts alone can easily offset the cost of dues.
Discounts on everyday items
By logging on to the Members Only section of www.mea.org, members can peruse a wide array of deep discounts on things like dining, eye care, home supplies, vacations, health products, golf and much more.
MEA members can also download the "My Deals" mobile app on their smartphones to find discounts in their neighborhoods.
Auto and homeowners' insurance
In addition, MEA and MEA-Retired members can save hundreds of dollars each year on automobile and homeowners' insurance through MEA Financial Services, a full-service insurance agency that provides policies exclusively for public education employees.
Because the agency is actually owned by the teachers, education support professionals and higher education employees who comprise MEA, MEA Financial Services' team of insurance specialists does everything possible to keep costs down and save money for members, while providing them with high-quality coverage.
Through MEA Financial Services, members can also take advantage of group discounts on personal umbrella protection and coverage for rental property, boats, RVs, motorcycles, snowmobiles and more.
To receive a no-obligation quote on auto, home and life insurance from MEA Financial Services, call 1-800-292-1950 or visit www.meafs.com.
Free and discounted life insurance
Every MEA member is eligible for free life insurance through NEA, as well as deep discounts on group and individual life insurance plans through MEA Financial Services. For more information, visit www.neamb.com/insurance/nea-complimentary-life-insurance.htm.