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International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 153912, 12 pages
Dynamic Key-Updating: Privacy-Preserving Authentication for RFID Systems
1School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
2School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
3State Key Laboratory of Information Security, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
4Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
Received 14 December 2011; Accepted 14 February 2012
Academic Editor: Mo Li
Copyright © 2012 Li Lu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The objective of private authentication for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems is to allow valid readers to explicitly authenticate their dominated tags without leaking the private information of tags. In previous designs, the RFID tags issue encrypted authentication messages to the RFID reader, and the reader searches the key space to identify the tags. Without key updating, those schemes are vulnerable to many active attacks, especially the compromising attack. We propose a strong and lightweight RFID private authentication protocol, SPA. By designing a novel key updating method, we achieve the forward secrecy in SPA with an efficient key search algorithm. We also show that, compared with existing designs, (SPA) is able to effectively defend against both passive and active attacks, including compromising attacks. Through prototype implementation, we demonstrate that SPA is practical and scalable for current RFID infrastructures.
1. Introduction
The proliferation of RFID applications [1–5] raises an emerging requirement—protecting user privacy [6] in authentications. In most RFID systems, tags automatically emit their unique serial numbers upon reader interrogation without alerting their users. Within the scanning range, a malicious reader thus can perform bogus authentication on detected tags to obtain sensitive information. For example, without privacy protection, any RFID reader is able to identify a consumer's ID via the serial number emitted from the tag. In this case, a buyer can be easily tracked and profiled by unauthorized entities. Nowadays, many companies embed RFID tags with produced items. Those tags indicate the unique information of the items they are attached to. Thus, a customer carrying those items might easily get subject to silent track from unauthorized entities in a much larger span. Some sensitive personal information would thereby be exposed: the illnesses she suffers from indicated by the pharmaceutical products; the malls where she shops; the types of items she prefers, and so on. To prevent such unexpected leakage of private information, a secure RFID system must meet two requirements. First, a valid reader must be able to successfully identify the valid tags; on the other hand, misbehaving readers should be isolated from retrieving private information from these tags.
To address the above issue, researchers employ encryptions in RFID authentication. Each tag shares a unique key with the RFID reader and sends an encrypted authentication message to the reader. Instead of identifying the tag directly, the back-end database subsequently searches all keys that it holds to recover the authentication message and identify the tag. For simplicity, we will denote the reader device and back-end database by the "reader" in what follows. Two challenging issues on the reader side must be addressed in the key storage infrastructure and search algorithm: the search efficiency and the security guarantee. Searching a key should be sufficiently fast to support a large-scale system, while the maintained keys should be dynamically updated to meet security requirements.
Many efforts have been made to achieve efficient private authentication. To the best of our knowledge, the most efficient protocols are tree based [7, 8]. They provide efficient key search schemes with logarithm complexity. In those approaches, each tag holds multiple keys instead of a single key. A virtual hierarchical tree structure is constructed by the reader to organize these keys. Every node in the tree, except the root, stores a unique key. Each tag is associated with a unique leaf node. Keys in the path from the root to the leaf node are then distributed to this tag. If the tree has a depth and branching factor , each tag contains keys and the entire tree can support up to tags. A tag encrypts the authentication message by using each of its keys. During authentication, the reader performs a depth-first search in the key tree. In each hierarchy, the reader can narrow the search set within keys. Thus, the reader only needs to search keys for each tag's authentication. Therefore, the key search complexity of identifying a given tag from tags is logarithmic in .
The tree-based approaches are efficient, nevertheless, not sufficiently secure due to the lack of a key-updating mechanism. Most tree-based approaches do not update keys of tags dynamically. Since the storage infrastructure of keys in tree-based approaches is static, each tag shares common keys with others. Consequently, compromising one tag will reveal information of other tags. To address this problem, we need to provide a dynamic key-updating mechanism to such approaches. The major challenge of dynamic key-updating in tree-based approaches is consistency. If a single tag updates its keys, some other tags have to update their keys accordingly. Till now, consistent and dynamic key-updating mechanisms have scarcely been seen in the literatures.
In this paper, we propose a strong and lightweight RFID private authentication protocol, (SPA), which enables dynamic key-updating for tree-based authentication approaches. Besides consistency, SPA also achieves forwarding secrecy without degrading key search efficiency. We also show that SPA outperforms existing designs in defending against both passive and active attacks, including the compromising attack.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. We introduce related work in Section 2. We present the SPA design in Section 3. In Section 4, we analyze the security guarantee of SPA. We evaluate the performance of SPA via a prototype implementation in Section 5. We conclude this paper in Section 6.
2. Related Work
Many approaches have been proposed to achieve private authentication in RFID systems. Weis et al. [9] proposed a hash-function-based authentication scheme, HashLock, to avoid tags being tracked. In this approach, each tag shares a secret key with the reader. The reader sends a random number as the authentication request. To respond to the reader, the tag generates a hash value on the inputs of and . The reader then computes of all stored keys until it finds a key to recover , thereby identifying the tag. The search complexity of HashLock is linear to , where is the number of tags in the system. Most subsequent approaches in the literature are aimed at reducing the cost of key search. Juels [10] classifies these approaches into three types.
Tree-Based Approaches
Tree based approaches [7, 8, 11] improve the key search efficiency from linear complexity to logarithmic complexity. Molnar and Wagner proposed the first tree-based scheme, which employs a challenge-response scheme [8], which achieves mutual authentication between tags and readers. The protocol uses multiple rounds to identify a tag and each round needs three messages. Since it requires rounds to identify a tag, the exchanged messages incur relatively large communication overhead. In [7], the authors provide a more efficient scheme which performs the authentication via one message from the tag to the reader and no further interactions. However, the tree-based approaches are often vulnerable to the Tag Compromising Attack. Because tags share keys with others in the tree structure, compromising one tag results in compromising secrets in other tags.
Synchronization Approaches
Synchronization approaches [12] make use of an incremental counter to enhance the authentication security. When successfully completing an authentication, the counter of a tag augments by one. The reader can compare the value of a tag's counter with the record in the database. If they match, the tag is valid and the reader will synchronize the counter record of this tag. However, incomplete authentications lead the tag's counter larger than the one held by the reader. To solve this problem, the reader keeps a window for each tag. Such a window limits the maximum value of the counter held by the tag. If a tag's counter is larger than the record held by the reader but within the window, the reader still regards this tag as valid. Such schemes are vulnerable to the Desynchronization Attack. In such an attack, an invalid reader can interrogate a tag many times so that the counter of this tag exceeds the window recorded in the valid reader. In [13], the authors proposed a protocol to mitigate the impact from desynchronization attacks by allowing tags to report the number of incomplete authentications since the last successful authentication with the reader. Dimitriou proposed a scheme in [14], in which a tag increases its counter only after successful mutual authentications. Those protocols, however, degrade the anonymity of tags. An attacker is still able to interrogate a given tag enough times so that the tag will be immediately recognized when replying with unchanged responses.
Time-Space Tradeoff Approaches
Avoine converted the key search problem to an attempt at breaking a symmetric key [15]. In [16], Hellman studied the key-breaking problem and claimed that recovering a symmetric key from a ciphertext needs to precompute and to store () possible keys. Accordingly, the key search complexity is () in key-breaking-based approaches. Obviously, those approaches are not efficient compared with tree-based approaches.
3. SPA Protocol
In this section, we first introduce the challenging issues of static tree-based private authentication approaches. We then present the design of SPA.
3.1. Challenges of Tree-Based Approaches
Existing tree-based approaches [7, 8, 11] construct a balanced tree to organize and store the keys for all tags. Each node stores a key and each tag is arranged to a unique leaf node. Thus, there exists a unique path from the root to this leaf node. Correspondingly, those keys on this path are assigned to the tag. For example, tag obtains keys , , , and , as illustrated in Figure 1. When a reader authenticates a tag, for example, , it conducts the identification protocol shown in Figure 2. denotes the output of a hash function on two input parameters: a key and a random number . The identification procedure is similar to traversing a tree from the root to a leaf. The reader first sends a nonce to tag . encrypts with all its keys and includes the ciphertexts in a response. Upon the response from , the reader searches proper keys in the key tree to recover . This is equal to marking a path from the root to the leaf node of in the tree. At the end of identification, if such a path exists, regards as a valid tag. Usually, the encryption is employed by using cryptographic hash functions.
From the above procedure, we see that tags will, more or less, share some nonleaf nodes in the tree. For example, and share , while , , , and share . Of course all tags share the root . Such a static tree architecture is efficient because the complexity of key search is logarithmic. For the example in Figure 1, any identification of a tag only needs search steps. On the other hand, if the adversary tampers with some tags; however, it obtains several paths from the root to those leaf nodes of the corrupt tags, as well as the keys on those paths. Since keys are not changed in the static tree architecture, the captured keys will still be used by those tags which are not tampered (for simplicity, we denote those tags as normal tags). Consequently, the adversary is able to capture the secret of normal tags.
A practical solution is to update keys for a tag after each authentication so that the adversary cannot make use of keys obtained from compromised tags to attack normal ones. However, the static tree architecture makes it highly inflexible to provide consistent key-updating. Suppose we update the keys of in Figure 1, we have to change , , , and partially or totally. Note that is also used by , , and , and is used by . To keep the updating consistent, the keys of all influenced tags must be updated and re-distributed. A challenging issue is that if the position of a key is close to the root, the key-updating would influence more tags. For example, updating would influence half of all tags in the system (, , , and ). One intuitive idea is to periodically recall all tags and update the keys simultaneously. Unfortunately, such a solution is not practical in large-scale systems with millions or even hundreds of millions of tags. Another solution is collecting those influenced tags only and updating their keys. This is also difficult because we have to collect a large span of tags even though there is only one tag updating its keys.
This problem motivates us to develop a dynamic key-updating algorithm for private authentication in RFID systems. This is where our proposed SPA enters the picture.
3.2. SPA Overview
SPA comprises four components: system initialization, tag identification, key-updating, and system maintenance. The first and second components are similar to tree-based approaches such as [7] and perform the basic identification functions. The key-updating is employed after a tag successfully performs its identification with the reader. In this procedure, the tag and the reader update their shared keys. This key-updating procedure will not break the validation of keys used by other tags. SPA achieves this using temporary keys and state bits. A temporary key is used to store the old key for each nonleaf node in the key tree. For each nonleaf node, a number of state bits are used in order to record the key-updating status of nodes in the subtrees. Based on this design, each nonleaf node will automatically perform key-updating when all its children nodes have updated their keys. Thus, SPA guarantees the validation and consistency of private authentication for all tags. SPA also eases the system maintenance in high dynamic systems where tags join or leave frequently by the fourth component.
3.3. System Initialization
For the simplicity of discussion, we use a balanced binary tree to organize and store keys, as shown by an example in Figure 3. Let denote the branching factor of the key tree (e.g., when the key tree is a binary tree). We assume that there are tags , , and a reader in the RFID system. The reader assigns the tags to leaf nodes in a balanced binary tree . Each nonleaf node in is assigned with two keys, a working key and a temporary key . The usage of will be illustrated in Section 3.5. Initially, each key is generated independently randomly by the reader, and for all nonleaf nodes.
When a tag is introduced into the system, the reader distributes the () keys to . Those keys are corresponding to the path from the root to tag (for a nonleaf node at the path, if , tag is assigned with ). For example, the keys stored in tag are , and , as illustrated in Figure 3. Hereafter, we use to denote the depth of the tree and (, , …, ) to denote the secret keys distributed to .
3.4. Tag Identification
The basic authentication procedure between the reader and tags includes three rounds, as illustrated in Figure 4. In the first round, starts the protocol by sending a "Request" and a random number (a nonce) to tag , . In the second round, upon receiving the request, generates a random number (a nonce) and computes the sequence, where ,) denotes the output of a hash function on three inputs: a key and two random numbers and . replies with a message . For simplicity, we denote the elements in as , , …, . identifies according to .
executes the basic identification procedure to identify , represented as Step 1 in Figure 4. From the root, the reader first encrypts by using and compares the result with from . If they match, invokes a recursive algorithm, Algorithm 1, as illustrated in Algorithm 1 to identify . For the key tree in Figure 3, the reader starts from the root and encrypts by using and (or ). Having the results, the reader compares them with received (, , ). If (, , ) is equal to the result computed from (or ), the tag belongs to the left sub-tree; otherwise, it belongs to the right sub-tree.
Level by level, figures out the path of originated from the root by invoking Algorithm 1. Suppose the path reaches an intermediate node at level in the tree. At this point, computes all hash values and by using the keys of node 's children, then compares them with . Note that is in the authentication message received from . If there is a match, must belong to the sub-tree of the matched 's child node. Therefore, extends the path to that node and continues the identification procedure until reaching a leaf node.
Identifying a tag is similar to traversing from the root to a leaf in the key tree. The path is determined by using Algorithm 1. Instead of using only one key for each node, Algorithm 1 uses both the working key and the temporary key .
3.5. Key-Updating
After successfully identifying , invokes the Key-updating algorithm in Step 2, as shown in Figure 4.
When generating new keys, SPA still makes use of the hash function . Let be the old key of node . The reader computes a new key from the old key as . The key-updating algorithm for the key tree is shown in Algorithm 2. To remain consistent, the nonleaf node uses temporary key to store 's old key. In this way, the key-updating of a tag will not interrupt the authentication procedures of other tags belonging to 's sub-tree.
Two important issues must be addressed when updating keys. First, should update the keys of the identified tag without interrupting the identification of other tags. This is because the keys stored in nonleaf nodes are shared by multiple tags. Those keys should be updated in a consistent manner. Second, each nonleaf node should automatically update its keys when all its children have updated their keys.
To address the two issues, SPA introduces a number of state bits to each nonleaf node. The basic idea behind this mechanism is that each nonleaf node uses these bits to reflect the key-updating status of its children. Once a child has updated its key, the corresponding bit is set to 1. Each node updates its own key when all its state bits become 1.
Without losing generality, we still use balanced binary key tree to illustrate this mechanism. Each nonleaf node in is assigned with two state bits, denoted as and , , , where () represents the state whether or not the left (right) child of node has updated its keys. When initializing the key tree , = = 0 for all nonleaf nodes. At any time, if the key of node 's left (right) child is updated, SPA sets () to 1.
When finishes key-updating, it sends a message , as shown in Figure 4, and a synchronization message to . The former one is used by to authenticate . The latter one includes the information of the levels on which the nodes have updated their keys in the key tree. After receiving these messages, first verifies whether or not . If yes, updates its keys according to the synchronization message. For example, in Figure 3, suppose that has updated keys and at levels 1 and 2 after identifying . The synchronization message is (1, 2). Accordingly, updates as () and as (), respectively. This algorithm guarantees that the key-updating is consistent and feasible under arbitrary tag access patterns.
The key-updating algorithm is suitable for an arbitrary balanced tree with . In such a tree, there are state bits maintained in each nonleaf node to indicate the key-updating states of children.
3.6. System Maintenance
If a tag is added to the RFID system, checks whether or not there exists an empty leaf node in the key tree . If yes, is assigned to an empty leaf node. 's keys are then predistributed according to the path from the leaf node to the root of . If there is no any empty leaf node in the tree , creates a new balanced tree with the branching factor and depth . then initializes by employing the system initialization component described in Section 3.3.
After initialization, connects the root of to the root of . In this way, becomes a sub-tree of . Hereby, is assigned to an empty leaf node in and 's keys are pre-distributed according to the path from the leaf node to the root of . For example, in Figure 5(a), has 4 tags and each leaf node is occupied in 's key tree. If a new tag is added to the RFID system, creates a new sub-tree and assigns a leaf node in this sub-tree to . 's keys are , , and .
For any empty leaf node in the key tree, SPA lets the 's parent node to set the corresponding state bit to 1. Further, is locked until the node is assigned to a new tag . This constraint is for protecting the key-updating of other tags from being interrupted. Indeed, since the node is empty, no tag will trigger the change of . Therefore, if is 0, it will never change, such that node will never update keys. To avoid such an interruption, SPA sets the to 1 to allow other tags update their keys continuously and consistently.
If a tag leaves, sets the leaf node of the leaving tag to be empty. For example, in Figure 5(b), if the tag leaves, empties the leaf node distributed to and let .
3.7. An Example of Key-Updating
For the ease of understanding, we use an example to explain the key-updating algorithm. Here we show one reader and four tags , , , (i.e., four leaf nodes in the key tree). We assume the sequence of tag authentication is (, , , , ). The original state of the key tree is shown in Figure 6(a). When tag is identified, sets the corresponding state bit of 's parent to 1. Meanwhile, generates a new key of the leaf as shown in Figure 6(b).
When tag is identified, the corresponding state bit of 's parent is set to 1, and updates the keys of the leaf node and 's parent as shown in Figure 6(c).
When tag is identified, the situation is similar to that of tag . Since all state bits of the parent node of and are set to 1, clears the state bits (i.e., reset the state bits to 0) in the key-updating operation as illustrated in Figure 6(d).
When tag is identified, all state bits of 's parent and the root are set to 1. Thus, R updates the keys of the path from the leaf node of to the root as shown in Figure 6(e).
Since tag does not know that the keys of 's parent and the root have been updated, it will still use the old keys for identification. As indicated in the description of Algorithm 2 (Algorithm 2 in Section 3.5), each node stores the old key as the temporary key. After identifying tag , informs tag to update its keys, according to the new keys from the leaf node of to the root in the tree, as shown in Figure 6(f).
4. Discussion
In this section, we first discuss the security requirements for designing private authentication protocols in RFID systems. To evaluate the security of SPA, we propose an attack model to represent existing attacking scenarios. We then demonstrate the ability of SPA to meet those requirements and to defend against attacks.
4.1. Security Requirements
A private authentication protocol should meet the following security requirements [7].
The private information, such as tag's ID, user name, and other private information should not be leaked to any third party during authentication.
A tag should not be correlated to its output authentication messages; otherwise, it may be tracked by attackers.
Cloning Resistance
Attackers should not be able to use bogus tags to impersonate a valid tag. Also, the replay attack should be resisted.
Forward Secrecy
Attackers can compromise a tag to obtain the keys stored in it. In this case, those keys should not reveal the previous outputs of the captured tag.
Compromising Resistance
The privacy of normal tags is threatened if they share some keys with compromised tags. Thus, the number of affected tags should be minimized after a successful compromising attack.
Existing private authentication approaches are able to defend against passive attacks (i.e., eavesdropping), but are vulnerable to active attacks (i.e., cloning and compromising attacks). Therefore, our discussion will focus on how SPA protects tags from active attacks. From the attacker's perspective, two metrics are important for evaluating the capability of SPA in defending against active attacks: (a) past-exposing probability, the probability of successfully identifying the past outputs of a compromised tag—this metric reflects the forward secrecy property of an authentication scheme; (b) correlated-exposing probability, the probability of successfully tracing a tag when some other tags in the system are compromised.
4.2. Attack Model
Avoine [17] proposes an attack model for RFID system and introduces the concept untraceability. The model well-reflects the attack behaviors and impacts on the authentication protocols. Our discussions are mainly based on this model with slight modification as follows.
In our model, the attackers and the RFID system are abstracted into two participants: the Adversary A (the attackers) and the Challenger C (the RFID system). So, the model is like a game between and C. A first informs that will start to attack. then chooses two tags to perform SPA protocols. If can successfully distinguish any tag from another one based on their outputs by performing passive or active attacks on the RFID system, we claim that successfully compromises the privacy of the system. For simplicity, Let denote the SPA authentication procedure.
We define four oracles, Query, Send, Executive, and Reveal, to abstract the attacks on each or . Thus, any attack on a given or can be represented as 's calling on its oracles.
Query (, , )
sends a request to . Subsequently, receives a response from . then sends the message to . Note that and represent the messages sent from in the first round and third round in a SPA authentication procedure, respectively.
Send (, )
sends a message to and receives a response. Note that represents the message sent from in the second round in a SPA authentication procedure.
Execution (, )
A executes an instance of with and , respectively. then modifies the response messages and relays them to both sides accordingly.
Reveal ()
After accessing this oracle of , compromises , which means obtains 's keys. Note that can distinguish any given tag from other tags if it can obtain 's keys.
We claim that an authentication protocol is resistant to attacks , if the protocol is resistant to when the adversary has access to the oracles . Based on these oracles, the detailed procedure of a game between and is formalized by following steps.
tells that the game begins. chooses two tags and .
For two tags and chosen by , accesses the oracles of and . For and , let and denote the sets of accessed oracles, respectively.
selects a bit uniformly at random, and then provides the oracles of the corresponding tag for to access. For simplicity, we denote as . then accesses 's oracle. Let the set of accessed oracles of , be .
Based on the results from, and , outputs a bit . If , successfully distinguishes and ; otherwise, loses. Note that can access the oracles in , and in polynomial times. Indeed, if can distinguish from , it means that can track all tags in an RFID system.
A passive adversary who can only eavesdrop on the messages delivered by or has no access to any oracle. For an active adversary, it can access arbitrary oracles introduced above. For instance, if an adversary applies a cloning attack, it means that it can access the Query, Send, and Executive oracles in this attack model. If an adversary can apply compromising attack, it means that it can access the Reveal oracle.
4.3. Security Analysis
In this subsection, we show how SPA achieves the security goals.
Due to the pseudorandomness and one-way properties of the cryptographic hash functions, it is safe to claim that the output of the hash function can be seen as a random bit string. Note that the pseudo-randomness of a hash function means no adversary can distinguish the output of the hash function from a real random bit string. Therefore, the messages sent by the reader and tags provide no useful information to an adversary. None of the passive adversaries is able to deduce the original messages based on the output of hash functions, unless it can invert the hash function. It is well known that the probability of inverting a hash function is negligible.
Since the authentication of SPA does not enroll the ID of a tag and all authentication messages are encrypted by a cryptographic hash function, any passive adversary cannot distinguish the tags from others based on their encrypted messages. That is, it cannot track a tag.
Cloning Resistance
In a cloning attack, an adversary monitors a tag, records its messages and resends the message repeatedly [9]. Similar to most previous protocols, in SPA, the reader and the tags generate random numbers and to defend against the cloning attack. Since the random numbers and are generated uniformly at random, the adversary has to guess them to recover the content of the messages. If the length of () is sufficiently long (e.g., 40 bits), the probability of successfully guessing the random numbers is negligible. Thus, SPA is not subject to the cloning attack.
Forward Secrecy
If a tag is captured, the adversary might obtain the tag's current keys. However, the adversary cannot trace back the tag's past communications because the keys are updated by a cryptographic hash function in each authentication procedure. In this way, the adversary still cannot retrieve the past outputs of the tag, unless it is able to invert the cryptographic hash function. Therefore, we can consider that the past-exposing probability of SPA upon the forward secrecy approaches 0. On the contrary, the static key tree protocols [7, 8, 11] cannot update the keys in the system. When an adversary compromised a tag, it can identify the past outputs of the tag from the obtained keys. Thus, the past-exposing probability of the key tree protocols approaches 1.
4.4. Compromising Attack
As we discussed in Section 3.1, a compromised tag may reveal some of the keys of other tags in static tree-based protocols. The adversary is then aware of some paths from the root to the leaf nodes of the compromised tag. Based on those paths, the adversary partially compromises the tree infrastructure. Knowing the "positions" of those nonleaf nodes, the adversary can further identify a sub-tree to which might belong.
Now we use the attack model to discuss the impact of a compromising attack on SPA. The following analysis is based on Avoine's work [18]. The game procedure comprises six phases.
Phase 1. The adversary has compromised tags and obtained their complete secret keys.
Phase 2. The system (challenger) chooses two normal tags and .
Phase 3. calls oracles and (except the Reveal oracle), and then receives the results (Note that cannot compromise and ).
Phase 4. selects a bit uniformly at random, and then provides the oracle (denote as T) to for accessing (except the Reveal oracle).
Phase 5. calls oracle (except the Reveal oracle) and receives the results.
Phase 6. outputs a bit , if , has successfully distinguished or from another. Otherwise, loses.
We assume that cannot carry out an exhaustive search over the key space. Suppose that has compromised tags except and . Thus, is aware of several paths from the root to the leaf nodes of those tags, as well as the relevant keys of the nonleaf nodes on those paths. Let denote the set of those compromised nonleaf nodes in key tree. Let denote the subset of in which the nodes have the same level in the key tree. Clearly, . Correspondingly, let denote the set of nodes at level which have not been compromised by A.
In Phase 5, impersonates the reader and queries , , and with the keys obtained in the RFID system. At this point, there are three possible cases: (1) If neither nor has a nonleaf in , completely fails. (2) if either or (but not both) has a nonleaf node in , the key subset of or including all the keys from the root to this nonleaf node have been compromised. Thus, the adversary can determine which one is and obtain a correct answer in Phase 6. In this case, succeeds. (3) If both and have an identical nonleaf node in , cannot directly distinguish or from another. In this case, can move down to the lower level of the key tree from the current nonleaf node. We denote the keys of , , and by , , and , respectively, where is the depth of the key tree. For a given level , suppose two nodes and have an identical parent at the lever , and their keys are and , respectively. Let denote the sub-tree of key tree rooted at . Thus, and are both in . Let denote the set of keys of the nodes in the interaction of . Let denote the set of the nodes in the interaction of . For example, suppose that maintains a key tree with eight leaf nodes in Figure 7. has compromised tags , , and . In this case, for the sub-tree , = and = . Let be the number of keys in , and let be the branching factor of the key tree. We also denote as the number of keys belonging to a nonleaf node (in SPA, any nonleaf node stores two keys and , therefore ). We consider the following five cases.
Case 1. If , then succeeds.
Case 2. If , then succeeds.
Case 3. If , then succeeds.
Case 4. If , then definitively fails.
Case 5. If , then fails at level but it can move to level to continue its attack.
For , we have Therefore, .
The probability that succeeds is given by In (2), , the number of keys known by the adversary at level , is given by where.
Equation (2) shows that the correlated-exposing probability is mainly determined by three key parameters: (a) , the number of compromised tags; (b) , the branching factor of the key tree; (c) , the number of keys belonging to each nonleaf node. Note that if , (2) can also be used to evaluate the security of static tree-based approaches. In Figure 8, we show the theoretical evaluation on the security of SPA in a typical RFID system.
We assume that the system contains 220 tags and the depth of key tree is 20. In the worst case, the adversary can simultaneously compromise tags at a given time. Then, immediately starts attacks following the game strategy with challenger . In addition, we assume there are only and , which are chosen by , performing authentication with the reader at this moment. Thus, we can use (2) to compute the correlated-exposing probability for attacking SPA and static tree-based approaches.
As shown in Figure 8, SPA outperforms static tree-based approaches in defending against compromising attacks. In SPA, although captures a number of keys shared by some normal tags, those tags are still secure if they update their keys. In contrast, normal tags in static tree-based approaches would be more vulnerable because the keys obtained by will still be in use. This would ease 's tracking attempts.
In both SPA and static tree-based approaches, the correlated-exposing probability is reduced when enlarging the branching factor . This is because enlarging leads attackers to capturing fewer keys shared by tags which are not tampered with.
The static tree base approaches are extremely vulnerable to compromising attacks when is sufficiently large. We find the correlated-exposing probability is close to 1 when in static tree-based approaches. In this case, enlarging does not help much. On the contrary, SPA can decrease the probability by increasing . The curves of in Figure 8 show that SPA is more secure under compromising attacks and flexible enough to meet different security concerns.
We here explain why increasing can enhance the security of SPA. In an RFID system, a part of tags may not be accessed by the reader for a long time. Keys in those tags hereby cannot be updated. The reader must maintain these keys in nonleaf nodes' temporal keys for future use. As discussed in Section 3.2, temporal keys s store those old keys. The working key is computed from the temporal keys after these temporal keys have been updated. Therefore, keys of some nonleaf nodes will not be updated if a number of tags are not identified by the reader for a long time. For example, we assume that each nonleaf node has only a single temporal key. If some tags lie in the sub-tree are not accessed by the reader in a period, other tags belong to this node's sub-tree can update keys for only once. That will make the key tree in SPA degenerate into the static tree, thereby alleviate SPA's resilience to compromising attacks. To ease the impact of this problem, we increase the number of temporal keys. We assume that each nonleaf node has one working key and temporal keys, ,…, . Thus, even if a number of tags are not accessed by the reader, keys of other tags in the system can be updated for at least times. When we enlarge the parameter , we can enhance the system's capability on resilience to compromising attacks, as shown in Figure 8.
5. Prototype Implementation
In this section, we introduce our experience on SPA prototype implementation. We also evaluate the performance of SPA and compare it with existing private authentication protocols.
5.1. Experiment Setup
We have implemented the SPA protocol on Mantis-series 303 MHz asset tags and Mantis II reader manufactured by RF Code [19]. In terms of its coding, this system is able to support over one trillion tags. A tags' typical transmission range is 300 feet, and the reader can communicate with them at distances of more than 1000 feet depending on the antenna configurations. The back-end database is implemented on the desktop PC with the following configurations: Pentium M 3.2 G dual core CPU, 1 GBytes memory, and 40 G hard disk. We use SHA-1 algorithm as the secure hash function.
In this implementation, the system is able to maintain up to tags. For each test, we randomly distribute 40 tags into leaf nodes in the key tree. We perform 1000 independent runs and report the average. We employ a balanced binary tree as the key tree. Each nonleaf node is assigned with two keys, that is, . The length of each key is 64 bit, which is sufficiently long to resist brute-force attacks.
A fundamental concern upon SPA is the latency of key-updating. We use the metric key-updating Latency as the time required for the reader to update a tag's keys to evaluate the performance of SPA. On the other hand, the key-updating of SPA should guarantee that the keys are secure enough over their lifetime. We focus on two metrics in the experiments.
(a) Key-Updating Latency
It reflects the computational overhead of key-updating. In SPA, the whole processing overhead for an authentication procedure includes two components: identification and key-updating. Since the static key tree approaches only perform the identification function, we focus more on the computational overhead caused by key-updating of SPA.
(b) Key Security Degree (KSD)
It reflects the possibility of keys being obtained when an adversary attacks a RFID system. Let denote the tag accessing frequency, which means how many tags interact with the reader per second. Let be the length of a key, let be the number of updated keys in one key-updating procedure, and let be the depth of the key tree. We denote as the probability of an adversary successfully gaining the keys, and as the attack frequency (i.e., the number of attacks occurred per second). Thus, the key security degree KSD is defined by Because the KSD computed from (4) will be a large value, we use a small real number to make the KSD value not too large, where is a system parameter.
KSD reflects the comprehensive ability of a protocol on defending against the active attacks. A higher KSD value represents a more secure protocol. Parameters in our experiments are summarized in Table 1.
5.2. Results
Figure 9 plots the average key-updating latency of SPA. With the increase of the tag accessing frequency, which means how many times a tag is accessed per second, the key-updating latency increases. The processing speed of SHA-1 is 1.73 MByte per second. We find that the latency of key-updating does not exceed 1.7 ms even when the tag accessing frequency approaches 10. Since we construct a tree with the depth of 20 in this experiment, each tag is assigned with 20 keys. Thus, the curve of key-updating is enclosed within two lines: one represents the upper bound (20 keys in a tag are updated) and another represents the lower bound (only one key is updated). The short key-updating latency of SPA enables a reader to support dense access patterns. Due to page limitation, results from other experiments are not reported here.
Figure 10 shows the change of KSD of SPA with different tag access frequencies. The curve of KSD fluctuates when increasing the frequency. In Figure 10, two lines show the upper and lower bounds ( and ) of the KSD curve of SPA. We can see that the KSD of SPA increases when enlarging the tag accessing frequency. Clearly, the design of SPA has two advantages. First, tag holders do not need to update the keys of their tags specially. Second, the RFID system is highly secure when tag holders use their tags frequently.
In SPA, the main overhead is caused by SHA-1 computations on the side of . Therefore, the number of SHA-1 computations reflects the computation overhead of SPA. Figure 11 shows the relationship between the computation overhead and KSD in different tag accessing frequencies. In Figure 11, the -axis refers to the number of SHA-1 computations. We see that a high tag access frequency results in a smooth curve of overhead. We also find that the computation overhead caused by SPA does not exceed 900 times of SHA-1 even the tag accessing frequency is high, for example, accessing 10 tags per second, while the PC used in our experiments can perform 86,500 SHA-1 computations per second. It indicates that a significant incensement of KSD only incurs small computation overhead to the system. Hence, SPA is scalable when providing high secure private authentication services.
6. Conclusion
We proposed a privacy-preserving authentication protocol, SPA, to support secure and efficient tag-reader transactions in RFID systems. By using a dynamic key-updating algorithm, SPA enhances the security of existing RFID authentication protocols. SPA is lightweight with high authentication efficiency: a reader can identify a tag within tree walking steps. Compared with previous works, SPA can effectively defend against both passive and active attacks. Through the prototype implementation, we demonstrated that SPA is scalable and practical in large-scale RFID systems.
This research was supported by NSFC 60903155 and NSFC 61173171.
- L. M. Ni, Y. Liu, Y. C. Lau, and A. P. Patil, "LANDMARC: indoor location sensing using active RFID," in Proceedings of the1st IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom'03), pp. 407–415, March 2003. View at Scopus
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- RFCode, Inc., http://www.rfcode.com/Solutions/Asset-Management/Products-Overview.html.


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Those of you looking for the next new thing here in the Napa Valley are in luck. A new tasting room, built inside a nineteenth century barn and including light fixtures made from historic re-purposed barbed wire, seating on burlap-covered hay bales and more, has recently opened in Calistoga. Phifer Pavitt Winery, which is owned… Read More
November 2010
Culinary news from Yountville: R+D Kitchen approved, Ad Hoc to expand, O'Toole out at Bardessono
Wow, what a Friday in terms of culinary news from the foodie capital of the Napa Valley. The town of Yountville, which loves to promote the fact that it boasts more Michelin starts per capita than any other city (or town) in the country, continues to make changes to its dining scene. Read on for… Read More
Cork Bits: ideas for your Napa Valley weekend
This is it--the final weekend before the Holidays are officially upon us. We're expecting some stormy weather in the Napa Valley over the next several days, but that won't stop us from getting out to check out the following events. Friday, November 19th From 5pm - 7pm all you Pinot Noir lovers will want to… Read More
Four can't miss Napa Valley holiday gift ideas for the foodie
Without a doubt the Napa Valley is synonymous with wine. And what's the perfect compliment to an amazing bottle of wine? Killer food of course! Luckily for us, Napa Valley also boasts an amazing array of top-notch restaurants run by both established (and famous) chefs and up-and-coming culinary stars. The Valley's ever-burgeoning food scene can… Read More
Cork Bits: ideas for your Napa Valley weekend
November is flying by and before you know it the holidays will be upon us. That doesn't mean the local events scene is slowing down at all. Want proof? Check out the awesome activities taking place here in the Napa Valley this weekend below. Saturday, November 13th From 12pm - 4pm our friends at Goosecross… Read More

subset: commoncrawl


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College Hockey:UNH Rides Four PPG To Ice Breaker Win Over OSU
DURHAM, N.H. — This might not be the time to try out new "Knock, knock" jokes on Ohio State coach John Markell.
Not after his Buckeyes lost the opening round of the Ice Breaker Tournament to New Hampshire, 5-1, when a key turning point may have been a protocol violation penalty arising out of the wrong door being knocked on.
UNH led after the first period, 1-0, and was already on the power play. That advantage, however, became a five-on-three because Ohio State was late to take the ice. Brett Hemingway scored the first of his two goals just 27 seconds later and an Ohio State tally eight minutes later would be as close as it got.
"It was frustrating — a bit of a momentum-changer — when we came out of the dressing room late and got a five-on-three for it," Markell said. "When they scored that goal, I thought it was big. I thought we were playing well up to that point. We were pretty positive about what was happening.
"And apparently they were banging on the wrong door. Letting us know [it was time to start the period], they were banging on the wrong door. St. Cloud says they were getting mad; apparently they were having a meeting. They were banging on the wrong door.
"We weren't out there in time and it cost us the game. [It] at least cost us the momentum."
In the end, UNH would score four power-play goals, two by Hemingway, to finish 4-for-11 while holding Ohio State to 1-for-8.
"It's a lot easier to play on the power play with all these new rule enforcements," he said. "They can't clutch and grab and do all the things they used to. It definitely gives us a lot more room to show our skills.
"I was fortunate enough to get a couple lucky bounces and I was able to put them away."
The Wildcats would also finish with a 28-18 shot advantage.
"Five-on-five, I thought we did some good things and we handled the specialty situations well for one weekend into the season," said UNH coach Richard Umile.
New Hampshire will now face St. Lawrence in the Ice Breaker championship game. The Saints tied St. Cloud, 1-1, but advanced by winning the shootout.
"St. Lawrence really comes after you on their forecheck," said Umile. "we're going to have a tough time handling that tomorrow. They've had our number the last couple outings."
Since replacing goaltender Mike Ayers and several veteran defensemen has been considered this year's biggest challenge for UNH, the lone goal allowed was a promising first step. Jeff Pietrasiak stopped 17 of 18 shots, 14 of which came on OSU power plays.
"Jeff was our backbone tonight," said defenseman Brian Yandle. "He looked like Mike Ayers back there."
Ohio State will be shorthanded when it faces St. Cloud in the consolation game with Rod Pelley sidelined due to injury and Andrew Schembri serving a suspension for a game disqualification for spearing as tempters erupted late in the third period.
"I saw a lot of positive things from our young guys and our older guys and we can build on it," said Markell. "We're going to have to do that in less than 24 hours."
The first period needed all of seven seconds before the first penalty was called, symbolic of things to come. Penalties of seemingly all shapes would be in the offing: from old-fashioned elbowing and hooking to the newfangled obstruction-interference now in vogue, to protocol violations to a boatload of roughing infractions in the closing minutes.
On this the first of many power plays, UNH's best chance came near the end of the power play when Sean Collins took a pass on the far post but couldn't redirect it on net.
The Wildcats, after killing off a penalty of their own, capitalized on their next man advantage with a goal at 5:54. And a pretty one it was. Jacob Micflikier, on the right post, fed Mark Kolanos on the left side where he roofed it.
The see-saw of penalties continued, but the score remained 1-0. Ohio State's best chance while a man up came from their Sean Collins, not to be confused with his UNH counterpart, at 8:15, forcing a nice save by Pietrasiak.
The controversial protocol violation put UNH up two men opening the second period and Hemingway made it 2-0 at the 27-second mark, taking a rebound off the back boards and from a sharp angle flipping it into the net.
OSU went on an extended five-on-three power play of its own when UNH picked up successive penalties at 4:33, 5:26 and 6:18. The Buckeyes were not able to solve Pietrasiak, however, until captain JB Bittner buried it at 7:59. The tally was the 28th of his career.
At 16:22, UNH regained the two-goal lead with the only even strength goal of the evening. Brian Yandle, facing inside pressure, spun around to the outside, avoiding the defender and then found Preston Callander on the far post where the senior roofed it.
"Preston just got open," Yandle said. "He's such a great player. He just knows where to be at all times. It was pretty easy to just slide it over there. That was the easy part. Then he put it away, a great finish."
Considering the high number of penalties, the game remained up for grabs until Hemingway iced it with 2:35 remaining in the third on the rebound of a Justin Aikins shot.
Tempers began to flare and then escalated after Schembri's spearing of Daniel Winnik. Freshman Mike Radja scored his first collegiate goal on the five-on-three that arose from the spearing major.
The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the "Flag" link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.
Please also keep "woofing," taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.


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Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe took to Twitter yesterday to sound off on the circumcision debate, telling followers he thinks the practice is "barbaric and stupid."
"Who are you to correct nature? Is it real that God requires a donation of foreskin? Babies are perfect. (I have) many Jewish friends, I love my Jewish friends, I love the apples and the honey and the funny little hats but stop cutting yr (your) babies. I will always believe in God, not man's interpretation of what God requires… Last of it, if u feel it is yr (your) right 2 (to) cut things off yr (your) babies please unfollow and f**k off, I'll take attentive parenting over barbarism."
Crowe's overstatement is what's stupid (and insensitive), especially during a week in which headlines coming out of Syria tell of real savagery and inhumanity. But he's an actor, so we'll forgive his predilection for dramatics and simply suggest he read real newspapers along with the trades.
Oh, and by the way Mr. Crowe, they're called "yarmulkes." I agree they're a bit funny-looking, but next time you're trying to make a case that a religious practice is stupid, you might want to learn a thing or two about it so your argument comes off stronger.
UPDATE: After some Twitter tussle, the contrite contrarian softened his tone and this morning tweeted: "I have a deep and abiding love for all people of all nationalities, I'm very sorry that I have said things on here that have caused distress. My personal beliefs aside I realize that some will interpret this debate as me mocking the rituals and traditions of others. I am very sorry."
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|2014-03-08, 21:36
|Link #1742
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Defiantly rukia and ichigo mainly because they both have a strong bond and it was obvious what she was gonna say before she disappeared she's the only person who can pick him up and the only person who brings him back to reality so defiantly ichigo and rukia
|2014-05-05, 19:36
|Link #1743
Maximum Victory
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Arcadia Bay.
Age: 23
So, I rewatched episode 20 - I don't know why - and the amount of Tatsuki-Orihime fluff is over 9000. Like, how the hell didn't I see this earlier ? I'm so disappointed in myself.
So, yeah, even though Kubo totally ruined Orihime for me in the Arrancar arc, TatsukiHime is the new addition to my list. I think they got the most attention in terms of heart to heart talks.
I mean look at this,
|Thread Tools


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in Charlestown County
'Gateway to the West'
The O'Hara family home in Charlestown has been keeping guests since 1966 and the Riverside Restaurant was established in 1972.
Riverside Restaurant is a member of the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF).
Anne O'Hara & her husband Chef Anthony Kelly - the existing owners - have developed the business to an award winning establishment.
"You can stay in our 157 year old home with its modern conveniences and olde world atmosphere, high standards at a price you can afford. Start your day with a hearty Irish breakfast, with a selection of juice & cereals, followed by a hot, freshly cooked 'Irish Fry'. This will set you up for a day of touring all of Counties Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Galway, and you can be back in time for the wonderful food Anthony serves in the evening."
As well as information on the Riverside Restaurant, Bed and Breakfast and sample menus you will find links to some of Anthony's award winning recipes below.


text:
Health Sciences
The Health Sciences curriculum provides individuals with the necessary background and skills to work in noncredential-driven health-career positions, as well as providing prerequisite coursework for application to graduate programs in a variety of allied health professions. Students who are pursuing admission to graduate programs in allied health, such as Midwifery, Occupational Therapy or Physical Therapy will need to complete Anatomy and Physiology II and will be advised to select that course as one of their five required major option courses. Other students may select any five of the six courses that are offered.
Receive your degree. Realize your dream.
This program is intended for adults who have a minimum of 30 credits to apply to their BS degrees. These credits are acquired through transfer of credits from previously attended, accredited colleges and universities. Credits include college-level courses in Writing, Math, Scientific Reasoning, History, Social Science, Humanities and Information Systems. (Please note: Information Systems training or coursework required within 5 years of enrollment in the program.)
General Education Core: 15 credits
- HIST-321 Business, Industry and Work in American History
- HUMN-310 Globalization and World Politics
- SOC-310 The Social Science of the Workplace
- COMM-320 Professional Communication Skills
- CSSEM-499 Professional Studies Capstone Seminar
Continuing Professional Studies Core: 20 credits
- CSSEM-300 Professional Practice Seminar
- MGMT-361 Leadership Theory & Ethical Practices
- BIOL -104 Biology II
- STAT-311 Finding and Evaluation Statistical Data
- BIO-201 Anatomy and Physiology I
- IT-201 Learning and Technology
Major Courses: 15-16 credits
(Choose any five of the below six options; Introduction to Psychology is the prerequisite for all Psych courses)
- PSYCH-201 Abnormal Psychology
- PSYCH-233 Interpersonal Relations and Small Group Dynamics
- PSYCH-213 Developmental Psychology
- BEHLT-341 Behavioral Health and Neurorehabilitation
- BEHLT-499 Applied Project in Behavioral Health and Neurorehabilitation
- BIOL-202 Anatomy and Physiology II
Free Electives: 9 -10 credits
Call 215.951.2900 or email email@example.com for more information about this innovative program or to schedule an appointment with an academic advisor.
Please call or email Philadelphia University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies: Phone- 215.951.2900 or email- email@example.com


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I can verify that vmware tools is running with
/etc/init.d/vmware-tools status, but how can I verify that the vmware-tools network driver is being used by my CentOS guest?
The host is VMWare ESX 4.1
Perhaps I need to look for something in
lsmod? I see a file in modprobe.d that contains:
install pcnet32 /bin/sh -c ". /usr/lib/vmware-tools/install/vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod/functions load-module && vmware_load_module vmxnet" || /sbin/modprobe -q --ignore-install pcnet32 ; /bin/true
lmsod doesn't show a pcnet or vmxnet however.


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The Purge: Election Year
This pseudo-political horror-thriller is an ugly provocation, one that feels especially crass in light of national tragedies like the recent shooting in Orlando.
This pseudo-political horror-thriller is an ugly provocation, one that feels especially crass in light of national tragedies like the recent shooting in Orlando.
Sometimes you have to wonder how certain movies get made.
"The Ballad of Narayama" is a Japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. What a space it opens…
Patrice Leconte's "Monsieur Hire" is a tragedy about loneliness and erotomania, told about two solitary people who have nothing else in common. It involves a…
Ken Loach's "I, Daniel Blake" wins the Palme d'Or at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.
Barbara Scharres on the cats of Cannes 2016.
An article about Roger Ebert's reviews getting republished in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Chaz Ebert remembers the late Paul Cox and shares an article about Cox speaking with students at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
A report by FFC Seongyong Cho about Andrew Ahn's "Spa Night," which recently played the Jeonju International Film Festival.
FFC Gerardo Valero returns to "The Shawshank Redemption" to investigate how it remains the #1 film on IMDb.
A celebration of actor Warren Oates in anticipation of an upcoming retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in NYC.
A look at the legacy of "Independence Day," as reflected in films that tried to top it, including its sequel.
* This filmography is not intended to be a comprehensive list of this artist's work. Instead it reflects the films this person has been involved with that have been reviewed on this site.
Highlights of the live-action portion of 2015's D23, featuring "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," "Captain America: Civil War," and more!
Is "The Goldfinch" art?; The meta-homophobia of "22 Jump Street"; Seinfeld on celebrity; Lack of TV writer jobs in NYC; "Orange" is the new "Hill Street Blues."


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Alone in the house last night at around 9pm, with 3 cats and deep into working on the computer, that queasy odd sudden dizzy feeling that often hits before an earthquake rattled my nerves seconds before the sound of rattling cabinets and sloshing water from the attic fire sprinkler system had me heading for the nearest door jam.
Largest in a series of latest Southern California earthquake swarms, last night's 5.1 magnitude tremblor was centered between the cities of La Habra and Brea in Orange County, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The quake was also felt strongly in downtown LA and as far to the west as Culver City and Venice. Since then more than 100 aftershocks — including a range of small quakes to larger quakes of 3.5 to 4.5 — have been reported across Southern California. NBC Los Angeles also stated that residents across Southern California reported feeling the quake as far north as Ventura County and Barstow to the northeast and Dana Point to San Diego and Palm Springs in the south.
The low rolling rumble was preceded about an hour earlier by a magnitude-3.6 quake and as of the writing of this article, has been followed by at least 115 aftershocks in about the same area, according to the USGS website, the strongest reported hitting the region (and us here) at 2:32 p.m. today (Saturday), according to USGS's real time quake data.
All around the tremblor's epicenter and for several miles beyond, items shook off tables, chandeliers rattled, stores saw damage from items falling from the shelves and there was damage to cars and property, including one incident from a rockslide in Brea that flipped a car on its roof. While no major damage or injuries were reported from Friday's quake, or the aftershocks, the temblor displaced at least 50 people in Fullerton, due to minor damage and Lieutenant Mike Chlebowski of the Fullerton Police reported that 5 houses and 20 apartments were damaged by the earthquake, in addition to broken water mains in that city that forced the closure of several flooded streets. More than 2,000 customers were still without power today as a result of the quake, according to Southern California Edison. The quake also temporarily shut down Metrolink trains to allow for inspection of tracks and cars and in Anaheim, Disneyland briefly turned off park rides as a precaution and asked guests to remain seated.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was quoted as saying in a news release that no damage had been found by police or firefighters within that city, but that "Tonight's earthquake is the second in two weeks, and reminds us to be prepared."
"While not large, the event "seems unusual, of course, because a lot of people felt it," said Doug Given, a USGS geophysicist. Aftershocks are still being recorded by the United States Geological Survey, nearly 15 hours after the initial quake. And I can personally attest to the fact that we're all shaken up enough to wonder (and I am especially sensitive to this after living through the 1989 San Francisco quake in the heart of the Marina District)…Is the next one around the corner going to be "Big One"?
While Californians are used to the fact that we live in earthquake country and multiple aftershocks are a very common occurrence in earthquake zones, the increasing rate and severity of these earthquake "swarms" leads us to asking the question --
What the Frack?
Is fracking in these areas linked to the increase of quakes and are we endangering both our cities and populations by continuing this practice? The fact that strong quakes are now hitting areas where fracking is going on much more frequently and with instances of unusual quakes hitting on the East Coast in similar areas, it should be reason enough to look much deeper into the issue and beyond the push for oil at all cost.
We have seen fracking in the news now for months and the debate goes on, but the scientific evidence has led to a number of significant concerns in California and other earthquake prone areas. Just a little over ten days ago, after the 4.4 magnitude earthquake, dubbed the "Shamrock Shake", shook many of us out of bed on March 17th, the Los Angeles City Council called on city staff to investigate whether natural gas and oil drilling methods, such as fracking, helped trigger that earthquake.
According to CBS news and other sources, Councilmen Paul Koretz and Mike Bonin introduced the motion, which was then seconded by Councilman Bernard Parks. The motion would direct city staff members from the city to work with the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geotherman Resources (DOGGR), the U.S. Geological Survey and the South Coast Air Quality Management District in order to produce a report a report looking into whether a link may exist between fracking and the temblor.
Los Angeles City Council members in February has ordered a halt to fracking, gravel packing, acidizing and other "unconventional" drilling and well-stimulation methods used by some oil companies may be using in and around Los Angeles, but the practice is still going on in many other regions adjacent to LA, including Culver City, Carson and in many areas around yesterday and today's quake activity center.
According to the City Council's motion -- " It is crucial to the health and safety of the City's residents to understand the seismic impacts of oil and gas extraction activities in the City. All high-pressure fracking and injection creates 'seismic events' …and active oil extraction activities are reportedly taking place on the Veteran's Administration grounds in West Los Angeles, nearby the epicenter of the March 17, 2014, 4.4 earthquake.
In February, the city council moved to ban fracking, agreeing to draw up rules to prohibit "well stimulation" until further regulations are imposed by the state and federal governments. In early March, the council followed up on the agreement and authorized a change of local land-use laws in order to ban fracking within the city limits. The proposed moratorium also extends to gravel packing, acidizing, and any other form of well stimulation.
With these actions, Los Angeles would became the first oil-producing city in California to ban fracking. Other cities such as Carson and Culver City have expressed support for a statewide ban, but as yet have not taken action.
So what do the geologists say?
On March 6, 2014, the USGS issued a press release indicating that the 5.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Prague, Oklahoma in 2011 was unintentionally human-induced. The USGS claimed that the magnitude 5.0 earthquake triggered by waste-water injection the previous day triggered a cascade of earthquakes, including a larger one, which has important implications for reducing the seismic risk from waste-water injection.
Officials from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have said there has been a dramatic rise over recent years of "noticeable earthquakes" that exceed 3.0-magnitudes in both central and eastern United States. They have linked pumping fracking wastewater underground to a sixfold jump in quakes in the central U.S. from 2000 to present. Since 2009, earthquake reports in Oklahoma alone are almost 40 times higher than in the previous three decades, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey.
While many experts agree that the dangers from fracking are real and several reports are being compiled from the USGS and the EPA to a number of government and university experts, we still don't know the extent to which we at risk locally and how much fracking could finally bring on that BIG ONE.
I for one will continue to dig into the research and keep reporting on, while most certainly filling up all the water canisters, updating my earthquake preparedness kit and making sure I know to drop to the floor between my couch and the coffee table or the side of the bed instead of running for the door jam on the next one.


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Forget those reality shows where budding inventors and entrepreneurs compete at begging celebrities to endorse and invest in them; PBS has the real story of smart, gutsy, determined people who built their companies from the ground up and brought jobs and hope to their families and communities. Economic Freedom in Action: Changing Lives presents four true and inspiring stories of small businesses and how they overcame seemingly impossible obstacles to make their dreams and those of others around them come true.
Economic Freedom in Action: Changing Lives is a presentation of WTTW Chicago, and will air on PBS' World Channel at 7 pm Eastern, Monday, January 6. World Channel is carried by nearly 160 PBS stations (including WLIW World in New York, WTTW World Chicago, WGBH World in Boston and KQED World in San Francisco, to name a few).
In the one-hour documentary directors James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty profile five people in four corners of the world who did what they were told was impossible. The Tusty's document how in Zambia, a teacher taught local farmers in poor, rural villages how to farm smarter, better and produce enough food to not only supply a restaurant she started but also to sell at regional markets. In South Korea they show how a refugee who escaped North Korea built up a small business and has helped others who fled the communist regime set up shops and companies of their own. Moving on to Slovakia, the filmmakers follow a mother and her children who built up a bread company in the former socialist republic, and in Chile the Tusty's present two stories: one of a bee-keeper who now raises and sells queen bees around the world and a weaver who has set up a small factory to produce her designs.
These five stories of people working against the odds to create profitable ventures and bring jobs, hope and "economic freedom" to their families and communities are engaging and inspiring, as well as entertaining. This is true "reality" television.
Economic Freedom in Action: Changing Lives will air on PBS' World Channel at 7 pm Eastern on Monday, January 6.
Mark G. McLaughlin is a Connecticut-based free lance journalist and game designer with over 30 years of experience as a ghost-writer, columnist, historian and game designer. An author whose first published book was Battles of the American Civil War, and whose games include the Mr. Lincoln's War set, Mark continues to be enthralled by stories from the age of Lincoln. To view Mark's 16th published design, the American Civil War Naval strategy game Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, visit his publisher at http://www.gmtgames.com/p-238-rebel-raiders-on-the-high-seas.aspx
…or his blog at http://markgmclaughlin.blogspot.com/
Mark's latest work, the science fiction adventure novel Princess Ryan's Star Marines, is available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle e-book formats at http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Ryans-Star-Marines-Save/dp/1466218487/ref...
To read more Examiner.com pieces by Mark G. McLaughlin become a regular subscriber; just click on the "Subscribe to get instant updates" button at the top of the page. Examiner's editors pledge that subscribers will never be spammed. Sharing articles on Facebook, Twitter or other social networks is also appreciated


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Main Street and Wall Street Practical Observations that provoke thought, and entertain,
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The Weight Reflections Published May 24, 2012
The Observer: The Complete Works Published August 15, 2010
Poems of the Fishermen Published June 10, 2008
Molly Bridget Woulfe Published June 10, 2008
Poems of the Fishermen Published April 09, 2008
Book Of Minutes 2006: Evansville, Wi Published February 20, 2008
School Issues That Count Published January 18, 2008
The Observer: Book of Reflections: The Complete Edition Published January 13, 2008


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Search Results for: omnichannel
February 2, 2015
Omnichannel, Big Data…What's Next? Predictions for 2015
If I had to summarize 2014 for the retail industry, it would be the year of buzzwords. From omnichannel to big data, new "solutions" were being discussed every day and all of them were touted as the latest-and-greatest in the ongoing …More...
January 14, 2016
Pitney Bowes Acquires Transportation Management Firm Enroute
Pitney Bowes Inc., a global technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to power commerce, today announced the acquisition of Enroute Systems Corporation, a cloud-based, software-as-a-service enterprise retail and fulfillment solutions company. Enroute's capabilities complement and expand Pitney …More...
January 11, 2016
Premium Packaging Enhances the Customer Experience
In these days of fast shipping, customers expect their order to arrive on their front doorstep in a plain brown box with some bubble wrap and a receipt.
But by creating a tremendous unboxing experience for the customer, some ecommerce …
January 23, 2015
4 Omnichannel Tips to Improve Customer Experience and Increase Sales
When it comes to retail selling, gone are the days of "if you build it, they will come." Customers today spend a significant amount of time researching products they want to buy and are much savvier about where, when and …More...
January 6, 2016
No Miracle on 34th St. for Macy's, Thousands of Jobs Being Slashed
If Macy's, Inc. was hoping for a modern-day Miracle on 34th St. the holiday season, it didn't get one.
Citing warm weather in the Northeast as a deterrent to comp sales, Macy's announced that its comparable sales on an owned …More...
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January 15, 2015
Mobile Huge in Omnichannel Engagement, Retailers Report at NRF
Executives from Macy's, Lowe's and The Limited said the impact of mobile on omnichannel engagement with customers has been huge and has progressed faster than expected, attendees were told at a session at the NRF Big Show this week …More...
January 8, 2015
Macy's Inc. Restructuring with Omnichannel in Mind
Macy's, Inc. today announced a series of initiatives to evolve its business model and invest in continued growth opportunities as consumers change the way they shop. Actions include a restructuring of merchandising and marketing functions at Macy's and …More...
December 31, 2015
The Top 10 Stories that Shaped D-to-C Retail in 2015
The ball in Times Square will drop in just a few hours, and Ryan Seacrest will let the world know 2016 is here.
With the year about to come to an end, here's a look at the Top 10 stories that shaped …More...
In Must Reads
December 28, 2015
3 Steps to Successful Data Convergence
Countless articles have been written about the differences between omnichannel and multichannel marketing. But the only thing you really need to know is that one provides a seamless customer experience while the other can leave shoppers feeling a bit fragmented.
In Blog, Data & Analytics
December 28, 2015
Evolving Retail Trends to Watch in 2016
2015 has come and (nearly) gone, and for the retail industry, it has been a year of big change. From a variety of new payments options and requirements to new ways to sell online, there are a number of trends propelling …More...
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No time to talk about my five things this week…it's back to school! Moms everywhere are running around in a panic looking for all those MUST HAVE items for their kids' first day of school.
I put together a little checklist for everyone to review. It's not supposed to make you feel like you have more to do—it will hopefully reassure you that you've got most things nailed. There are just a few things you need for day one, some ideas to ease your child into a new environment and some handy mom items.
What you should have for day one:
As far as anything else is concerned, we recommend waiting to get the official list from the teacher to find out what school supplies you need.
In terms of preparing your child for school, there are some great tips for parents who are sending their child to school for the first time and for kids who are entering a new school:
Moms need to get organized as well. You'll find some fabulous time saving ideas in our 22 Morning Time Savers but I would also recommend you don't leave home without:
A few other tips I rounded up from the moms at Savvy HQ that I thought were helpful:
Finally—make sure you have scheduled some very important time for you during the week, whether it's a coffee or a yoga class (or both). Make sure that you are part of the new routine. And remember, just as a ponytail does not qualify as a hairstyle, neither does a trip to the grocery store qualify as mommy time.
Happy new year, everyone!


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In 2014, the first Full Moon was on the 16th of January in Cancer. Whenever a Full Moon occurs, our lives go through various changes, some more obvious, others quite subtle. In the following paragraphs we'll take a look at each Sun sign and how it is affected by the Full Moon.
For people born under this sign, the Full Moon favors taking initiative and making changes, either related to their careers or their homes. This is due to the fact that the Full Moon creates a sense of security needed for one to act upon one's thoughts.
Taurus individuals should create professional partnerships under the Moon's influence. The only thing to take into consideration is that the business they choose is the one they really want. Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, all brought together, ensure that the partnership will be lasting.
If Geminis have been waiting for a long time to receive a certain form of payment – especially a check –, then it is most likely that they will receive it when there's a Full Moon. One way or another – if not financially, then in a different area – these people will experience abundance.
In the case of Cancer people, relationships are exacerbated by the Full Moon's influence. Individuals born under this sign should love themselves first, and only after that focus on their significant other. It is a favorable time for true lovers to nurture their connection.
Under this astrological influence, it is Leos' health that comes into focus. They should take time to relax and destress, get plenty of sleep, and do some form of physical activity. It is important to recover the energy and vitality which is lost through other activities.
Virgos should seek social events to attend on the night of the Full Moon. Under this influence, people born under this Sun sign are the soul of the party, the perfect conversationalist and guest.
For Libra individuals this is a great time in terms of job and career. It could be that they receive a promotion or that they find a new job, they begin an exciting project finally or receive an unexpected offer. No matter which of these happens, change will surely occur.
The Full Moon favors the settlement of certain issues. While under this influence, it would be a good idea to solve legal matters and to look for opportunities to get in touch with other people.
Sagittarians will experience a sense of security and stability under the influence of this astrological event. If Archers have been confronted with major stress and difficult situations, they will finally get the chance to relax and find inner peace.
The main focus of the Capricorns during the Full Moon is their relationship and life partner. If there is any talk about deeper commitment, the Full Moon represents a decisive moment because it provides an opportunity to strengthen any relationship.
If Aquarians have been waiting to fully enjoy the fruits of their work, they will finally have the chance to do it: their position at the workplace will be secured under the Full Moon's influence. Whether they've just finished an important project or they may have just begun one, progress will abound.
The Full Moon brings creativity in the lives of Pisces people. Self-expression through creative means is encouraged at this time. These astrological circumstances provide a great opportunity to spend time with children who take an interest in art.


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Setting the Stage for Smart Grids
By Sarah Reedy on August 27, 2009
The smart grid market, evolving from advanced meter infrastructure (AMI), is experiencing a perfect storm of industry forces that combined make it one of the biggest opportunities for telecom service providers working with utilities and a host of other new and existing players.
Contributing to the storm are regulatory issues, public policy, market dynamics, technology drivers, rising energy demands, climate change, increasing import dependence, aging infrastructure and higher energy prices, according to analyst firm BroadbandTrends. With so many drivers, the number of key stakeholders is also steep and ranges from regulators and standards bodies to equipment vendors and technology providers to systems integrators to consumers and, of course, network operators and the more than 2,000 US-based utilities ripe for partnership.
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Photographs of the Yorkshire Dales, Cumbria and the Isle of Skye.
My first collection of photographs! I have been taking photographs for far too many years, mostly whilst otherwise occupied on mountains, hills, or frozen waterfalls.
Only in the last few months have I decided to make images; deliberately taking myself to what I know to be beautiful places, at what I hoped to be 'good' times of day for capturing interesting light. This book contains some of the images created using this approach.
I've been 'taking photos' for years, mostly whilst mountaineering, ice climbing and walking in the hills. I decided to try and 'make photos', take a little more care, in 2009. Oh, and I accidentally took some photos of a certain poodle by the name of Patsy Pegman, or 'The Earl' - once or twice....
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bingleyman dice Well Mike, I'm suprised we haven't tripped over each other! Excellent work.
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Harris: beaches Publicado 03 de enero de 2011
Portfolio: 2010 Publicado 15 de diciembre de 2010
My World Publicado 08 de junio de 2010


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Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Today is the 219th anniversary of Marie Antoinette's execution by guillotine. I first created a ring in the French queen's honor in 2008. Many of my jewelry designs are inspired by royalty, and no royal-themed collection is complete without an Antoinette piece.
My ring, in the royal colors of purple and green, features a custom-cut amethyst that weighs over 27 carats. The amethyst is surrounded by 118 tsavorites set in 18K yellow gold. The creeping, thorn-like prongs symbolize the way Marie Antoinette was entangled in a tragedy not of her own making. The seeds of the French revolution were planted long before Antoinette became queen. After all, it was Louis XIV — the great-great-great-grandfather of Antoinette's husband Louis XVI — who lavished money on the palace of Versailles and created the rigid and extravagant social order in which aristocrats were entirely dependent on, and jealous of, the king's favor. (To put the timing in perspective, Louis XIV, who held the throne for 72 years, died nearly two years before the queen's mother, Empress Maria Theresa, was born.)
France incurred great debts under Louis XIV due to his wars as well as the creation of Versailles, and neither his great-grandson, Louis XV, or Louis XVI were well-equipped to handle that legacy. Certainly, the young woman baptized Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna and married off at the age of 14 — the undereducated 15th child of Maria Theresa and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I — couldn't influence much except fashion and social behavior, and even then she caused controversy. (The Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, a book by Caroline Weber, does a good job of explaining the consequences of defying the traditions of Versailles.) Marie Antoinette, as she was known after she left her homeland of Austria for France, and her husband were still teenagers when Louis XV died of smallpox and his grandson became Louis XVI. It was reported that upon receiving news of the king's death, the couple fell to their knees, weeping, and cried, "O God! guide us, protect us; we are too young to reign." Indeed.
I always wanted to make earrings to match the Marie Antoinette ring. I like to do multiple variations on a theme. September's Jewel of the Month, for instance, was the latest in a line of designs inspired by Juana la Loca of Spain. But earrings are a challenge. They require the same kind of delicate, expensive work that a ring does — times two. In addition, I have to find a way to make that work lightweight enough to be worn comfortably on the earlobes.
I finally had the time and money to start working on the Marie Antoinette earrings late last year. It was slow going. I had to get two 25-carat amethysts specially cut. I needed a particular size tsavorite to fit the 18K-gold wire I was going to use to wrap the amethysts, so those stones also needed to be custom-ordered too. When I received the tsavorites after many weeks of waiting, they were too light in color. I had to send them back to the gem-cutter and order a new batch. When the right ones arrived, the setting took a long time. That's what happens when you have to set a total of 404 tiny stones. But here are the earrings, at last, in time for the anniversary — they are October's Jewel of the Month.
These earrings are handmade in the truest sense — there is no mold for the metal work, or standard size for the gems. If I were to do a second pair, it wouldn't look exactly the same as this one, so it's safe to say this particular design is one of a kind. As with some of my other ultra-luxurious designs, the price is available only upon request.
I look forward to spending quality time with these earrings someday, but not too soon — right after I finished them, I sent them off to be considered for a design competition and the longer they stay in the running, the better. I hope judges agree with me that these earrings are fit for a queen.
26 Responses to "Jewel of the Month: Marie Antoinette Earrings"
These earrings are gorgeous !! I don't see how they couldn't win the competition. There truley nothing else that compares – the stones were custom cut I mean come on…
These are gorgeous. I love the amethyst drops.
Absolutely stunning, Wendy! Fit for royalty.
Beautifully made and matched! Break a leg with the competition!
I've always loved that ring, but I think I love those earrings even more. You've surpassed yourself – they are gorgeous! Really stunning pieces. I love your creations.
wendy- those are fabulous!
Beautiful colors!
Those are absolutely amazing. I think your other jewelry is gorgeous but those earrings are just otherworldly. Good Luck!
Oh wow! Those are absolutely breathtaking. Brava!
As always, Wendy, when you set no limits, true art comes out.
Why must you torture me like this!!??!! I've coveted that ring for years! It's on my list of "Things I Will Do Once I Win the Lottery" at #2 (right after Buy House In Paris). Now you had to come up with those stunning, exquisite earrings! Aarrggg! The want, it hurts!
Best of luck in the design contest; your earrings are superb and unique, you deserve to win.
They are magnificent!
These are beautiful! The Marie Antoinette ring has always been my favorite. I hope to buy it one day as my wedding ring.
Beautiful! xA
I love how your work is informed by your brilliantly culturally-conscious understanding of history, to results of unearthly splendor. Amazing!!!
Oh Wendy, these earrings are so beautiful I can't take my eyes off of them! Wow. I have a strong feeling these earrings are going to win the competition.
Wow, those are my favorite example(s) of your work. I've always had a penchant for the ring, because of the many design elements you point out in your post. But for me, the use of my two favorite complementary colors is the best part. I've always loved green and purple together. The workmanship is just amazing. I'd give a lot to have a peek at the detail with a 10x loupe.
Beautifully done.
I hope they/you win the competition.


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Men's Basketball: Northern Illinois lost two tight MAC West contests during the week. At home on Wednesday, the Huskies lost in a 56-52 decision to Ball State despite Antoine Christian's season-high 14 points. Saturday evening, NIU let an eight-point lead late in the game slip away in a 66-58 loss at Western Michigan.
Women's Basketball: The Huskies dropped their lone game of the week, a 60-49 defeat at the hands of Bowling Green. Amanda Corral paced the NIU offense with 12 points.
Wrestling: The Huskies capped their MAC slate on a positive note, defeating Buffalo, 20-18. Nick Smith, Rob Jillard, Andrew Morse and Matt Mougin got wins for NIU early before Jared Torrence won the meet with an overtime decision at heavyweight.
Gymnastics: Northern Illinois recorded a season-best score for the second consecutive meet, but it was not enough in a 195.175-194.375 loss at Iowa State. Kim Gotlund posted career-best scores on the balance beam and uneven bars.
Track & Field: NIU earned three event titles Friday at the Ball State Quadrangular en route to a second place team finish. Janay Mitchell and Megan Gregory won the 60 meters and 60 hurdles, respectively, while Meghan Heuer captured her first event title at NIU with a win in the 3000 meters.
Baseball: Northern Illinois opened their season at Texas Tech's Brooks Wallace Memorial Classic. The weekend opened with an 8-0 loss against the host Red Raiders. On Saturday, the Huskies used a late rally against BYU, but fell short in a 5-3 defeat. Sunday's twinbill saw NIU drop games against Northern Colorado, 3-2, and TTU, 13-0.
Women's Tennis: NIU grabbed three wins during a weekend swing in Indianapolis. The Huskies defeated IUPUI Friday, 6-1, Indianapolis Saturday, 7-0, and Butler Sunday, 6-1.
Men's Golf: NIU opened their spring season Monday and Tuesday with a fourth place finish at the MAC Match Play in Dade City, Fla. After upsetting second-seeded Akron in the first round, the Huskies lost to eventual champion Bowling Green to close out Monday. On Tuesday, Northern dropped a tight contest against Eastern Michigan in the third-place match.


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100m Freestyle
100m Freestyle is a real-life olympic event that can be played in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. It is under the "Aquatics" category, along with 4x100m Freestyle, and plays very similar to the 100m event in "Athletics". The goal of the game is swim two lengths of the pool first. The event relies on both Speed and Stamina.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games[edit]
Wii version[edit]
The controls of the game are very similar to that of the 100m Dash event. The Wii Remote can be used on its own, or with the Nunchuk. Before the event starts, the player is given a certain swimming style (example, Vector the Crocodile has the Crocodile paddle). The way to swim is to steadily move the Remote and Nunchuk back and forth in a certain direction (e.g. Crocodile paddle is left and right). There are five swimming styles.
When the event starts, the player has to hold while READY appears on the screen, to build up energy. When GO! appears, the player has to release and flick the Wii Remote down, to get a speed boost. The sooner this is done, the better the boost, but doing it before GO appears will result in a foul, and will rather slow down the player than providing a speed boost. Once in the water, the player has to use one of the above swimming styles, which will be shown when the player starts swimming. The faster the controllers are shaken, the faster the player will swim. The more energy is used up the faster the player swims, but if all of the player's energy is burned up, they will stop in one spot, and waste time. To combat this, the player has to press before the Stamina meter drops to zero. Perfect timing will give the player more speed, but bad timing will slow the player down.
Swim Styles[edit]
DS version[edit]
The event is the same in the DS version of the game. Different ways of rubbing the touch screen make the character swim in their specific style. The beginning speed boost is controlled by pressing down with the on the screen and releasing it when the event begins.
Dive in on the start signal and swim two lengths of the pool in the fastest time to win. Don't forget to breathe, or it will cost you valuable seconds in recovery time!
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games[edit]
Wii version[edit]
The Wii Remote can be used on its own, or with the Nunchuk. Before the event starts, the player is given a certain swimming style (example, Yoshi swims using the Dog Paddle). The way to swim is to steadily move the Remote and Nunchuk back and forth in a certain direction (e.g. The Dog Paddle is done is moving the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk up and down alternately). There are six swimming styles. The character swims to one end, and back. To turn, the Wii Remote needs to be thrust down when the moving ring is inside the pink ring.
Swim Styles[edit]
3DS version[edit]
In the 3DS version, only the Heroes group can play this event. The player must tap left and right alternately on the touch screen to keep the blue bar in the green zone. Taping too fast will turn the bar red and slow down the player.


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I did a lot of knitting and crocheting. I made most of my daughter's clothes and some for myself. I went to nursing school and then worked full time from 1981 until I retired last year. I was introduced to Heirloom sewing in 2005 by attending a Martha Pullen sewing extravaganza and that lit my fire. This is my first attempt at tatting.
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May 2, 2014 8:20 AM
Super smooth skin and all-day shine control? Sign us up! This Ever-Matte Shine Proof Foundation ($42) is actually formulated with nylon to give it a velvety matte finish while filling in lines and wrinkles. Sure, it's a little pricier than the stuff you get at the drugstore, but can you really put a price on flawless skin? (Don't answer that.)
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