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The number of freelance workers is predicted to be 50% of the American population in 2020.
That is an extraordinarily large number of people.
It's obviously not just the US, England aren't far behind and in India things are really kicking off…
On Elance, India is ranked as the second-highest freelance earning country. The hiring of Indian freelancers is growing at a healthy +46% annually.
What Does This Mean for Digital Nomads?
If you're currently earning your living off freelance work then there is good news and bad news.
The bad news is that competition for clients is going to get more fierce. Millions and millions of people fighting for the same jobs means only one thing. The fight for cheaper work.
As Seth Godin has predicted "There will be a race to the bottom".
In other words, whoever bids to work for the lowest amount will get the job.
It is already happening now, but it's still easy enough to charge more to western clients even when you're living in Thailand. Many a' digital nomad knows this and unfortunately a few base their entire living off of it.
The obvious problem with this type of game of racing towards working for cheaper and cheaper? You might win!
How does a designer living in New York, Paris or Sydney earn a sustainable living when competing with somebody just as qualified and talented living in the Philippines or in India?
The Collapse of Western Society
You may have noticed the increase in documentaries named 'the collapse of western society'. Most of which are unwatchable actually with too many exaggerations and unanswered questions aimed at a category of people you most likely don't belong to. It is interesting food for thought though.
More and more people are demanding work-from-home jobs and extra flexibility. Fair enough, I don't blame them. The long term consequence though is that companies will be pushed into giving people what they want and will start only hiring on a freelance basis. The age of global competition then can really start to show it's head.
It isn't my place to say if this is a good thing or bad thing. It will no doubt balance the world's economy a bit instead of the lob-sided west / east situation we have today.
If you are basing your business on the lob-sided situation of today, then unfortunately you will be the ones to feel it.
You Said There Was Good News!
Indeed I did.
The good news is, I've given you six years notice to change your fate.
While everybody else is 'racing towards the bottom', you need to decide what you will be doing instead. Six years is a very long time to get extremely skilled at something.
I won't go in to the effort of writing all the things you could become great at in six years, but it is safe to say there is enough time to master something which you know absolutely nothing about right now. There is that much time.
Our Advice
Make sure you are spending the majority of your working time towards things that matter. Not only what matters now, but will continue to matter in six years time.
Finding yourself on twitter two hours each day trying to get the odd client? I doubt that will make the slightest bit of difference in a few years time. Building up your personal website, giving out lots of useful information and helping people with their problems so they keep returning to you – that's more likely to help you in the long run!
You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want – Zig Ziglar
I'm going to keep this post short as I really just wanted to throw this at you and to see if it is something that people had been considering and planning for.
This is actually a large topic which we will be talking about more on our new website. Remember to sign up below and we'll be sure to keep you updated with how that is going.
How do you plan on adapting when the competition rises and people are no longer willing to pay fair prices? Is this something you have been planning for already? Let us know in the comments!


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UPDATE: "The Flash" Hasn't Cast Savitar, Says Berlanti
TV, Comic Books
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Robot 6
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Rob M. Worley is the Eisner-nominated writer of comics, books and screenplays.
Best-known for his all-ages comic book title âScratch9,â Rob has a wealth of writing experience. Heâs worked for nearly every comic publisher in the business, written dozens of published books and completed numerous screenplays. Thatâs not to mention his status as a pioneer of new media, having developed the movie news site Comics2Film.com in the early days of the world wide web.
FIRST COMIC: Amazing Spider-Man #87
FAVORITE CHARACTER: Scratch, natch!
Showing results 21-40 of 396
'Hellboy' hits in April for an early summer kick-off. 'Over the Hedge' director talks about the new movie. 'Smallville's' Chloe has her own blog now. 'Michel Vaillant' trailer online. 'Teen Titans' continues ratings streak. DC TV schedule for August.
Rafael Navarro's indie comic 'Masks of Sonambulo' is now in development as a movie. Will 'Constantine' roll in September? Giamatti talks about Harvey Pekar and 'American Splendor.' Marvel loses a skirmish in the battle over 'Spider-Man' licensing with Sony. 'Hulk' disappoints overseas.
Artisan and Marvel kicked off production on 'The Punisher' with a weekend shoot, a Monday press event and one surprising new announcement: renowned actor Roy Scheider has joined the cast of this "intense urban drama."
'Luther Arkwright' makes progress. Perry White to appear on 'Smallville.' More 'CrossGen' titles headed for theaters. Does 'American Splendor' have the performance of Paul Giamitti's career? 'LXG' still a top 10 movie in its fourth week.
Rutger Hauer to give Superboy a hard time on 'Smallville.' Stan Winston designs creatures for 'Constantine.' Warner looking to push 'Yu-Gi-Oh' in the states. Norrington drops 'Akira.' Cameras roll on 'The Punisher.'
'Hulk' DVD details revealed. Chris Nolan talks about 'Batman' (a tiny bit). 'Teen Titans' helps Cartoon Network cement #1 ranking among kid demos. Wanted: DC's Avi Arad! Easter eggs on 'Batman' and 'Daredevil' DVDs.
More on 'Fantastic Four' director's exit. Cool 'Spider-Man 2' poster appears online. Marvel stock 'Hulks' out. 'Catwoman' casting rumors. Woo wooed by 'He-Man.' 'Smallville' season 3 starts October 1st. 'Daredevil' virtual concert celebrates the DVD.
Straczynski says, 'No' to a third season of 'Jeremiah.' Persistence pays off for 'S.M.A.S.Heroes' creator. 'Batwoman' DVD loaded with extras. 'X2' DVD artwork online. New 'Smallville' season three spoilers online. 'Teen Titans' comic based on TV show based on comics!
A new film distribution outlet forms around 'American Splendor.' 'LXG' loses box office ground to competitive summer release schedule. Peyton Reed exits 'Fantastic Four.' Future Comics cuts new Hollywood deal. 'Daredevil' DVD winners announced.
An all star cast of fan favorites like Stan Lee and Mark Hamill and animation voice talents gathered at Comic-Con along to celebrate the upcoming release of 'Comic Book: The Movie.' Also in attendance was the film's biggest star: Comic-Con International itself.
The 'Daredevil' DVD is due in stores tomorrow. C2F/CBR News takes a look at the double-disc set, overflowing with extras for comic-to-film fans.
'The Punisher' completes casting with seven new actors. 'Smallville' ringing up three minute episodes. 'Conan' still battling in development hell.
When Columbia pictures asked Henson Pictures to restart their fantasy film line, Lisa Henson went to Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman. The challenge: make a movie in the vein of 'Dark Crystal' or 'Labyrinth' on an indie film budget. CBR/C2F EXCLUSIVE: Images from the movie!
'Hulk' DVD screens appear online. 'Blade III' gets a designer. McG returning to 'Superman'? You can work on 'MirrorMask.' Watch 'Batman: Dead End' online. More 'Betty and Veronica' details. Superman second only to Oprah!
Neil Gaiman talks to fans at Comic-Con International about '1602', the Miracleman case and his upcoming film and book projects.
'Deathlok' gets 'Die Another Day' director. Komikwerks enters the Circle of Confusion. 'Betty & Veronica' launch new Archie movie plans. Comic fan subjects himself to punishment as a movie extra. 'Teen Titans' score powerful ratings in kid demos.
Producers Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, special effects supervisor John Dykstra and actor Alfred Molina present 'Spider-Man 2' and Doc Ock to Comic-Con.
The official 'Spider-Man 2' site opens with another good look at Ock! 'American Splendor' collects another award. 'LXG' hangs in at #3 while 'Hulk' falls off the charts in the weekend box office. Marvel submits it's bid to buy Artisan. Stan Lee and Hugh Hefner team up and cross over.
Mike Mignola talks to fans in San Diego about the 'Hellboy' movie, his level of involvement with it, the changes fans can expect and much more!
Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner and producer Ted Hope talk about "American Splendor" at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
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Wells Fargo's David Wong and his team have a note out today about the state of the semiconductors. They downgraded the sector in mid-October and now note that September-quarter earnings reports bolster their cautious stance, as a number of companies guided for fourth quarter sales below "what we consider to be a normal seasonal pattern, with most of the larger broad-based companies expecting sales to be flat to down sequentially."
A few projections from the bigger names tell the tale: Texas Instruments (TXN) and Broadcom (BRCM) are both guiding for sales to slip 8% sequentially, while Linear Technology (LLTC) and Altera (ALTR) are guiding for a 2% and 1% decrease.
With a weak December quarter shaping up, to be followed by a seasonally weak March quarter, Wong and his team write that they see few catalyst for the chip growth in the near term, especially as inventories have been ticking upward.
They also note that DRAM pricing may have peaked:
We believe that a full production cycle through a memory fab from wafer start to wafer out is of the order of about three months. From Hynix's comments we expect that Hynix's DRAM output will begin to rise fairly soon, first from the additional production from the converted NAND lines, and then from the WuXi line coming back online. We expect this to pressure DRAM spot and contract prices.
DRAM spot prices rose, to a peak of about $4.27 in early October from close to $3.00 for a 4Gb chip just before the Hynix fire. At the time of the writing of this report (November 11), the 4Gb DRAM spot price had eased down to $4.00. We believe that Micron's price negotiations for the month of November resulted in DRAM contract prices that were about flat with October, after an increase of about 10% month over month in October and a similar increase in September. We remain cautious on Micron's (MU) stock, having downgraded to an Underperform rating on October 11 from Market Perform.
Still, chip growth may be a bright spot:
In October, after the first September quarter chip reports, we reduced our 2013 chip growth projection to 6-7% from a prior, 8-10%. When month of September Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) global chip sales data became available in early October, we widened our 2013 chip growth projection range to 4-7%. Although we have moderated our 2013 chip growth projections, our new numbers still imply a solid exit to 2013, at 6-10% year-over-year growth for the month of December, suggesting that chip growth could continue to improve in 2014 from 4-7% growth in 2013 and a decline of 3% in 2012.
Shares of Micron Technology (MU) were down 9% at recent check following its fiscal fourth quarter earnings report.
Bernstein Research analyst Mark Newman was undeterred by the report, however, reiterating his Outperform rating on the stock and raising his target price $4 to $24.
He writes that the company's commentary confirmed his thesis that DRAM will continue to recover this year, following the company's acquisition of Elpida and rationalization in the supply chain. He also sees the NAND rebound continuing.
More details from his note:
Memory supply remains constrained, with product now on allocation. Non-key customers such as white-box PC makers are unable to fulfill their needs. This supports continued strong margin expansion. The company confirmed that DRAM industry bit growth should be mid-20s in 2013 and 2014. Given expectations about demand growth this should lead to further shortages, which should impact future contract discussions including the Elpida mobile DRAM contract with Apple (AAPL).
The Singapore fab conversion continues as planned, converting 60kWPM DRAM capacity into NAND with completion expected by late summer 2014. Even so, Micron stated that NAND industry bit growth should be low-40s in 2013 and 2014, which we believe to be below demand growth. Strong supply/demand dynamics should continue to improve going forward.
Micron's DRAM ASP is up mid single digits QTD (using the forecasted product mix for the quarter). Micron guided to DRAM bit growth up mid-40% in FQ1'14 as this is the first full quarter with Elpida. On the cost side, Micron guided to cost/bit down low single digits in FQ1'14. The cost of products purchased from Inotera is based on a moving average market minus model with a one-month lag.
Trade NAND ASPs are down high single digits QTD (using the forecasted product mix for the quarter). Excluding the mix effect, Trade NAND ASP is actually flat QTD. Micron's NAND mix is improving with shipments to the SSD segment (both internal and external) increasing significantly. Micron guided to Trade NAND bit growth up low to mid teens in FQ1'14. On the cost side, management guided to Trade NAND cost/bit down high single digits in FQ1'14.
Micron's guidance for FY 2014 CapEx remains unchanged ($2.6-3.2B). Elpida's CapEx should be ~$1B. This is for technology migration and the company mentioned that the CapEx guidance is actually somewhat above what they believe the normal run rate for the business should be (some spending was differed into 2014).
Jefferies & Co. analyst Sundeep Bajikar was another analyst to boost his target price, from $25 to $30, and reiterate a Buy rating: "Similar to consolidation in other industries such as HDDs, we believe the structural changes that occurred in industry DRAM supply over the last year, are permanent. Consequently, we think industry DRAM capacity is likely to remain limited both until and after EUV becomes available in 2018+. Similarly, in spite of potential technology breakthroughs in 3D NAND, we think capacity growth is likely to remain limited, following the DRAM case study, and lending longer term stability to an industry with a volatile past."
Elsewhere, Roth Capital Partners analyst Krishna Shankar reiterated his Buy rating and $21 price target on the stock, writing that the company is executing well and also citing a positive pricing outlook for its DRAM and NAND businesses:
According to DRAMExchange, recent DRAM contract pricing is up by 15 to 20% and NAND flash contract pricing is up by 3 to 6% due to SK Hynix fire in Wuxi/China DRAM fab Sept DRAM spot pricing spiked by 20 to 30% and contract pricing rose by 15 to 20% due to SK Hynix fire. Micron has a favorable DRAM mix focused on high-end server, networking, smartphone/tablet mobile DRAM and NAND flash. Negative factors include weak PC demand and caution regarding inventory builds offset by seasonally strong demand for smartphones and tablets (new iPhone5 and Android phones/tablets). We note that DRAM and NAND pricing could improve in 2014 due to impact of SK Hynix fire removing 10 to 15% of industry capacity for 6 months. Other factors include additional consolidation and supply reductions in DRAM market due to SK Hynix DRAM fab fire, industry consolidation, new smartphone and tablet introductions, hybrid tablet/PC ultra-thin platforms running Android/Windows 8.1, PC upgrade cycle with SSD drives, and improving enterprise IT spending.
Wedbush analyst Betsy Van Hees was similarly upbeat, reiterating her Outperform rating and $23 price target: "While FQ4 revenue soared past expectations, GAAP EPS excluding the one-time gain from Elpida fell short as much of the Street didn't account for the impact from purchase accounting. MU's near-term outlook was very upbeat, with expectations for DRAM to be constrained and NAND supply/demand to be in balance through the end of the year. We believe with our long-term investment thesis firmly intact and continuing to play out: that investors should take advantage of any weakness in the stock today and buy shares."
See MKM Partners analysts take on the quarter here.
Another earnings preview for next week: SanDisk (SNDK) will report after the market close on Oct. 16, and MKM Partners analyst Ada Menaker today reiterated her Neutral rating on the stock, although she did raise her fair value estimate by $2 to $55.
Despite her neutral stance on the stock, Menaker writes that she wouldn't be surprised to see a beat: The stock is already up more than 40% this year on supply uncertainty and benign NAND pricing. However, her outyear estimates are below consensus, as she thinks that the current pricing environment isn't sustainable in the long term. "Pricing may well remain benign through 4Q13 on limited capacity growth and uncertainty around Hynix (even though thus far the DRAM shortages have not impacted NAND), but with demand growth slowing, despite the increasing popularity of SSDs, industry supply/demand will likely be more balanced in 2014, leading to a resumption of price declines."
By contrast, she notes that consensus figures seem to factor in favorable pricing, cost reductions and high big growth in the future—a goldilocks scenario she sees as unlikely. She says she prefers Micron Technology (MU), given its completed acquisition of Elpida, although she also rates that stock Neutral.
More of her thoughts on SanDisk:
With our 2014 EPS estimate still below consensus, we are particularly concerned that some investors are overly optimistic on overall bit demand, though we agree that limited capacity additions and Hynix uncertainty will drive benign pricing through the end of 2013.
The expansion of Fab 5 is unlikely to contribute to supply growth until 2015 – growth in NAND supply will likely be limited to that which can be achieved through shrinks and, in MU's case, potential conversions from DRAM – supply will thus remain constrained, but will likely balance slowing demand growth.
SNDK has been moving away from the lower-margin card business, and several acquisitions will help it move into enterprise storage (the higher end of the SSD market) – we expect upbeat management commentary around progress in this area.
Our estimates move higher on benign pricing, but remain below consensus. Our 2013E revenue/pro forma EPS estimates (ex. stock comp for easy comparison to consensus) are $6.02bn/$4.81 (consensus $6.05bn/ $4.76); 2014E go to $6.3bn/$5.19 from $6.1bn/$4.93 (consensus $6.65bn/$5.28). Valuation. Our new $55 fair value estimate is 1.5x our CY14E book value of $37.02.
Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron's veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: firstname.lastname@example.com.


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What's this? (Firefox reports this site as bad?)
View Single Post
KH Geek
Site Admin
Join Date: Aug 1976
Location: Among the electrons that make up KH
Posts: 1,780
Thanks: 135
Thanked 1,494 Times in 532 Posts
I replaced the ad serving code from the forum and put in a request for a "review" with google. So they should scan the site at some point in the future and remove the KH forum from the StopMalware blacklist. Hopefully that will happen soon and the warning prompts delivered by browsers which leverage StopMalware will cease.
I got the warning. I emailed the Webmaster who responded promptly and graciously to ease my nonexistent fears. Thanks Sheldon, we know you're looking out for these things and I really appreciate it.
Oh, that was you! I thought the email address looked familiar. I have to commend you on sending the screenshots. Usually when someone reports a problem, all they tell me is "Something not right". The more specifics I have the better I am able to get to the bottom of things.
If there really were a problem, would it only be dangerous for Windows users?
As far as I am aware, malware exploits tend to affect PC's and more specifically older versions of Internet Explorer. With newer browsers, you may receive a prompt to install some plugin or save some file, which of course would be trouble.
Sometimes a site can get listed as unsafe and it's not due to being infectious. Spammers will sometimes find ways to setup phishing sites hidden among the website. So in these cases, you would get the browser warning of an unsafe website, but there actually nothing dangerous on the pages.
I don't think Mac's are entirely immune. Their popularity has made them a bit more of a target than they used to be. However, they tend to be secure and more up-to-date than windows. Case in point: we still get about 500 windows visitors each month using Internet Explorer 6. This is a browser from 2001!
It amazes me. The #1 browser visiting KH is Safari, the browser by apple, largely thanks to the iPad and iPhone toting knitters.
Anyhow, there's always something exciting going on at KH.
KnittingHelp.com Chief Technology Officer: I put the
in KNIT!!
yours truly
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Vaccines and the Peanut Allergy Epidemic
I just read this article and would like to know if peanut oil is currently used in the flu shot as an excipient/additive or if the flu shot contains any ingredients that may contain a peanut derivative.
My daughter has a severe peanut allergy and I want to absolutely avoid giving her the flu shot if it has any peanut ingredient.
Thank you in advance for your help!
my daughter is allergic to peanuts and she got the flu shot with out problems. I would give a call to you pediatrician but I can't imagine that they would do that. There are to many people out there with nut allergies that need the flu shot. I would also look at where you got this information to see if it is credible
Sign up for our newsletter and receive a free peanut-free snack guide.
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Donations sought for homeless pets
Published: Saturday, December 22, 2012 at 7:14 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, December 22, 2012 at 7:14 p.m.
The Lafourche Chapter of the Humane Society is asking for donations to care for homeless animals, including cats, dogs, horses, reptiles and others.
Donations of food, leashes, bowls, cleaning supplies or similar items can be dropped off through month's end at the libraries in Cut Off, 16241 E. Main St., or Golden Meadow, 1403 N. Bayou Drive. Or arrange a pickup by calling Pamela George at 258-6163.
Money donations are also welcome and can be mailed to The Humane Society, P.O. BOX 613, Cut Off LA 70345. Write "Lafourche chapter" in the memo portion of the check.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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About the Book
Expanding the canon of African American literature, alongside Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Alice Walker's The Color Purple, and Toni Morrison's Beloved, Sherley Anne Williams' critically acclaimed and unforgettable Dessa Rose is a novel of two powerfully conceived female protagonists forging a vital friendship in the face of racial divides in the antebellum South.
From there the story unfolds: two strong women, one black, one white, form a forbidden and ambivalent alliance; a bold scheme is hatched to win freedom; trust is slowly extended and cautiously accepted as the two women unite and discover greater strength together than alone. United by fate but divided by prejudice, these two women are locked in a thrilling battle for freedom, sisterhood, friendship, and love.
Educator and Librarian Resources
Critical Praise
"Having this treasure of a book available again for new and more readers is not only necessary, it is imperative." — Toni Morrison
"A deep, rich, compelling work. . . . I am astonished, moved, and delighted with the language, the thought, the obvious collaboration of the ancestors and the love I read on these pages." — Alice Walker
"A powerful story. . . . Emotionally affecting and totally unforgettable." — New York Times
"Extraordinary. . . . These two women achieve one of the most intricate and ambivalent relationships in contemporary fiction." — Los Angeles Times
"Destined to become a modern classic." — Chicago Tribune
"Absorbing…Deeply true and brilliantly imagined." — Newsday
Product Details
- Imprint: William Morrow Paperbacks
- On Sale: 01/20/1999
- Trimsize: 5.5 in (w) x 8 in (h) x 0.6 in (d)
- Pages: 240
- List Price: 13.99 USD
- BISAC1: FICTION / Literary
- BISAC2: FICTION / General


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Call 471-6636
This is to all the people who are running for different offices in this county. We're tired of lying, so if you're running in office, we're the voters. We're the ones who will vote you in, so I would suggest that you do some hard lines and tell us what you're really for and quit dancing around. We're sick and tired of hearing it. If you're a Republican administrator, tell us what you're going to do for the sick, handicapped and mentally ill. We're not going to vote you in if you're not going to be there to check to see where their money has gone, if they're getting proper care and not just sticking them somewhere to make officials happy. If you're running for sheriff, you need to tell us what you stand for because we're not going to vote somebody in that's going to pat the back of all of the, shall we say, "rich and famous" in this county. We know of people in this county who have been getting picked up on charges and then get swept under the carpet. We're no longer going to stand for that. If you are a county commissioner, show us something. We're sick and tired of the "good old boy" image (cover-up) and that also goes for you Sikeston officials. If you want to make this place look like Mayberry, you need to start at the bottom and work your way up.
This is an open letter to John Kerry in reference to a letter I received a few days ago, asking for support and money to defeat George W. Bush in the election. Dear John Kerry: You have billions of dollars in your bank account, not to mention your wife's Heinz ketchup company. Finance your own campaign. You are a socialist as far as taxes, jobs and healthcare are concerned. We're not. You are a pro-choice candidate, having voted against the ban on partial-birth abortion. Our family votes pro-life. You are for gay rights, having voted against the Defense of Marriage Act. We vote pro-family. Kerry, you'd make a good president of France or maybe prime minister of Canada. I have sent you a Canadian 25-cent coin. God bless you, but not as president of the United States.
I saw where the Carnahan bunch got millions of dollars from the plane crash, blaming faulty equipment. There's no way anyone could have flown safely on that night. I was out on a farm tractor and I could hardly hold it on the road. Anyone being in an airplane that night were dare devils. He was going to New Madrid to speak to a bunch of freeloaders. It's a bad deal, but it wasn't the equipment's fault. It was the pilot's fault for flying in that kind of weather. It was very stormy weather.
Have you had any response to "tutor needed" for a student to teach me how to use this computer? My number is 472-2886. I am willing to pay them for their time and would appreciate it. I can also provide transportation for the student if needed.
I saw the picture of this year's Miss and Junior Miss Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo winners in the Standard Democrat, but you didn't say who the other winners were in the contest.
The rest of the information was not immediately made available to us when the photo was printed. Winners in the Miss and Junior Miss Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo contests were: Miss Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo Jillian Lee, daughter of Robert and Alice Lee of Dittmer; first alternate, Katie Palmer, daughter of David Palmer and Desiree Palmer of Olive Branch, Ill.; second runner-up, Meridee Haworth, daughter of Jim and Lois Haworth of LaRussell; and third runner-up was Leah McDonald, daughter of Mike McDonald and Joyce Kiekeiner of Sikeston. Junior Miss Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo is Catherine Presson of Charleston, daughter of Roy and Melinda Presson; first runner-up was Mallory Jones, daughter of Dewey and Joella Jones of New Madrid; second runner-up, Christa Barton, daughter of Rebecca Allen of Jackson; and third runner-up, Andrea Duncan, daughter of Barry and Angie Duncan of Sikeston.


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His epitaph: This tomb hold Diophantus, Ah, what a marvel! And the tomb tells scientifically the measure of his life. God vouchsafed that he should be a boy for the sixth part of his life; when a twelfth was added, his cheeks acquired a beard; He kindled for him the light of marriage after a seventh, and in the fifth year after his marriage He granted him a son. Alas! late-begotten and miserable child, when he had reached the measure of half his father's life, the chill grave took him. After consoling his grief by this science of numbers for four years, he reached the end of his life.
Source: Ivor Thomas Greek Mathematics, in J. R. Newman (ed.) The World of Mathematics, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956.
Contributed by: Zaady
Copyright © 2016 Gaiam, Inc.


text:
HTML Code Spy is an additional program for the Internet Explorer that enables the revealing of HTML code segments of the page. It is very easy to use: you select the necessary part in the browser, launch the context-sensitive menu by pressing the right mouse button and choose a new item "HTML Code Spy". After that a new window appears that contains the code of the selected fragment.
Besides the detection of the selected part code the program provides the information of its place in the code of the whole page. It is also possible to save and copy the text into the Windows Clipboard for its use in the future.


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We're having a little surge of green bean recipes. Just yesterday I shared the recipe for Stir-Fried Green Beans with Lemon, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts, which I've decided are the best green beans I've ever tasted. I've only posted one other recipe with green beans, and that bean salad was the inspiration for this one. I'm eating the leftovers as I write this, and this tastes fantastic. I think there might be a lot more green beans in my future, at least as long as Costco keeps carrying those lovely French green beans.
Because it contains anti-oxidants, oregano is considered one of The World's Healthiest Foods. It's commonly associated with pizza sauce, and is used widely in Greek, Italian, and Mexican cuisine. There are two types of oregano, Greek Oregano and Mexican Oregano, and both types have their uses. Adding to the confusion is the fact that marjoram is often confused with oregano. For this salad you want Greek oregano, or use dried oregano if you don't have any fresh oregano on hand.
Green Bean Salad with Hearts of Palm, Olives, Red Pepper, and Feta
(Makes 4-6 servings, recipe created by Kalyn)
1 lb. fresh green beans, preferably French green beans
1-2 cups sliced hearts of palm
3/4 cup Kalamata olives, sliced in half
1 cup roasted red bell pepper from a jar, diced in pieces about 3/8 inch square
(could substitute sun dried tomatoes)
1/3 cup Feta cheese
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 T balsamic vinegar
2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 T chopped fresh oregano (or use small amount dried oregano)
1 T chopped fresh basil (I would omit basil if I only had dried basil)
Steam beans until they are barely tender-crisp. I steamed mine ten minutes in an electric vegetable steamer. On the stove top, it would take less time. I prefer the beans quite crisp.
While beans cook, combine balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, lemon zest, chopped fresh oregano and chopped fresh basil in food processor. Process until herbs are very finely chopped and dressing is mixed well. (I did this in the small bowl chopper attachment of my immersion blender, which worked great.)
When beans are as tender as you'd like them, remove from steamer and plunge immediately into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Remove beans to colander and let cool about and drain about 15 minutes. When beans are cool, combine with small amount of dressing and marinate 30 minutes, or longer if possible.
When ready to serve salad, combine marinated beans with sliced hearts of palm, olive halves, and chopped red pepper. Add as much dressing as needed to moisten salad and combine gently. (You will not need all the dressing.) Add feta cheese and stir 1-2 times to barely mix in feta. Grind over some black pepper and serve immediately. This will keep for several days in the refrigerator, but bring to room temperature before serving the leftovers.
South Beach Suggestions:
This salad is a perfect side dish for any phase of the South Beach Diet. It would taste great with Very Greek Grilled Chicken or Grilled Spicy Tuna. For phase two or three, add something like Georgette's Really Lemony Greek Pilafi.
More Oregano Love:
(Recipes from other blogs may not be South Beach friendly, check ingredients.)
Grilled Chicken with Lemon, Capers, and Oregano
Chicken Soup with Garbanzos and Oregano
Oregano/Hazelnut Pesto from Stephen Cooks
Mozarella with Capers, Chillies, and Oregano from Lucullian Delights
Chicken with Almonds, Olives, and Oregano from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once


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Elliot Hirshman is the eighth president of San Diego State University.
He leads a university committed to shared governance and the important role community plays in accomplishing the university's missions of education, research and service.
During his first few years, President Hirshman has overseen the implementation of SDSU's new strategic plan, "Building on Excellence," its first campus wide fundraising campaign and a new integrated budget.
San Diego State University is rising in nationwide college rankings and is developing as a leading public research university.
Learn more about President Hirshman
Elliot HirshmanPresident
Chukuka S. EnwemekaProvost and Senior Vice President
Tom McCarronVice President for Businessand Financial Affairs & CFO
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Stephen WelterVice President for Research & Dean of Graduate Affairs
Sandra CookAssociate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Enrollment
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Jim SterkDirector of Intercollegiate Athletics
Chris XanthosAssociate Vice President and CIO, Business Operations
Tom KarloGeneral Manager, KPBS
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Phone: 619-594-5201Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
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Police: Nigeria sect kills officer, robs bank
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria Authorities say members of a radical Muslim sect attacked a bank in northeast Nigeria, killing one police officer and stealing an undisclosed sum of money.
Borno state police commissioner Simeone Midenda said the attack happened Wednesday in Damboa, a city about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of the state capital Maiduguri. Midenda said sect members used motorcycles in the attack, which also left three people injured.
The sect, known locally as Boko Haram, has carried out a string of assassinations and bombings in northern Nigeria in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law in Africa's most populace nation.
The sect claimed responsibility for the Aug. 26 suicide car bombing at the United Nations headquarters in the country that killed 23 people and wounded 116 others.
The Associated Press


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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 7 Summary
How It All Goes Down
The Slug Club
- After what he saw at Borgin and Burkes, Harry is pretty much convinced that Malfoy is a Death Eater working for Voldemort. He thinks that Draco showed Borgin the Dark Mark on his left arm, and that's also why Draco jumped when Madam Malkin touched his arm.
- Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and Harry board the Hogwarts Express, and Harry finds that he is stared at and whispered about everywhere he goes. The fame thing has never been this bad before. Since the incident at the Ministry of Magic last year (in Book 5), the Daily Prophet has been speculating whether Harry is the Chosen One, and everybody is intrigued.
- Harry rides in a compartment with Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom, even though he is invited by a group of admiring girls to sit in their compartment.
- Slughorn sends Harry an invitation to come to a little get-together in his compartment.
- Harry nearly dies of boredom and of frustration at Slughorn's gathering. It would seem Slughorn has gathered all of the students with rich or powerful family connections. Ginny Weasley is the only exception – she impressed Slughorn by casing a really great hex on an annoying boy.
- Slughorn pesters Harry with a bunch of questions about the incident at the Ministry, and whether or not Harry really is the Chosen One. But Harry does his best to avoid answering any of the prying questions.
- On his way out of Slughorn's compartment, Harry uses his Invisibility Cloak to sneak into Malfoy's compartment. After almost getting caught, he crams himself into the luggage rack.
- Harry overhears Draco discussing Voldemort and suggesting that he might be working for the Dark Lord.
- Inadvertently, Harry lets out a little scream when the train approaches the Hogsmeade station. No one seems to notice.
- When the train stops, everyone clears the compartment except for Malfoy, who knows Harry is there.
- Malfoy freezes Harry, who falls to the ground, and then stomps on Harry's nose. He leaves Harry, still covered in his Invisibility Cloak.
- Harry can't move and is filled with hatred for Malfoy.


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Back-to-Back NBA Champions Officially Welcomed to Lakersfield
Bakersfield, CA, September 17, 2010
As the limousines pulled up to the Jam Events Center, a massive American flag flew over head. It was the perfect image of two cities, seemingly worlds apart, now affiliated with one another.
As Jeanie and Joey Buss stepped onto the Laker blue carpet and made their way into the state-of-the-art facility, the era of Los Angeles Showtime and Bakersfields legendary hospitality began in earnest.
The NBA Development Leagues trend-setting and visionary Bakersfield Jam welcomed the scions of Lakers owner, Dr. Jerry Buss with a vintage down-home barbeque and dance, as well as an auction of NBA events and travel excursions to benefit the Jam Education Foundation.
Jam majority owner Stan Ellis and his band Stampede performed for the excited and generous guest list of season ticket holders and corporate sponsors. Bakersfields Mayor Hall presented the Buss family with the official key to the city, and Ellis presented them with autographed, Buck Owens guitars.
The highlight of the evening was twofold: the guests were able to take photographs with the Larry OBrien NBA Championship trophy, as well as being treated to a surprise visit from Lakers post-season hero, Ron Artest. Artest warmly engaged the audience with a genuine and heartfelt thanks to the Buss family and the Lakers organization for the opportunity to become an NBA champion.
When asked of the business venture with the Jam, Jeanie Buss attributed the success of the partnership exclusively to Ellis and Jam Managing Partner, David Higdon. Ive been involved with business associates from around the world, and I can honestly tell you that Ive never met anyone like Stan Ellis. Together, he and David have impressed us beyond belief.
The evening had all the flair of a Lakers game, but with the personal touch that moved Buss to mention to the audience, This feeling of family and closeness that the Jam have with their community is exactly how we feel about our team and our city.
Jam head coach, Will Voigt addressed the packed house with a poignant tribute to Jam ownership by saying, Look around you at this beautiful facility, the great fan experience that you enjoy here this is exactly why the Lakers, the gold standard-bearer of professional sports wants to be involved with Bakersfield.
As the evening was winding down, the Buss siblings posed for endless photos with the trophy, soaking up the glow and nostalgia of Lakersfield. Not a single person in the building doubted the possibility of a back-to-back-to-back NBA championship for the LA squad.
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(Photo by Chris Pobst, Staff)
FARMINGTON -- Despite cold, wet and windy conditions, the Class 3, District 1 track and field meet was held at Farmington High School on Saturday afternoon.
Sikeston's boys team had a strong day, finishing with 117.50 points, but it wasn't enough to reclaim the district crown from Farmington, which captured its second-straight district title with 144 points.
On the girls side, Sikeston finished in fourth place with 73 points behind district champion Festus (103 points), Farmington (84 points) and Hillsboro (76 points).
In all, Sikeston qualified three relay teams and nine individual boys for next Saturday's sectional meet at Lutheran South High School. On the girls side, two speed relay teams and seven individuals qualified.
Sikeston coach Terry Flannigan had mixed emotions after Saturday's meet.
"We're disappointed we didn't get first on the boys side," Flannigan said. "We took second to a very, very good Farmington team. With the girls we knew we could end up anywhere from two to four. A couple things didn't go our way so we ended up in fourth. Our fourth place wasn't a distant fourth, we were right there in the mix."
Senior Quentin Washington had the strongest day for the Bulldogs, qualifying in four events, including first place in the 200-meter dash while running the lead leg on both the 400-meter and 800-meter relays. He also qualified in the 100-meter dash, taking second.
In addition to Washington, members of the 400-meter relay team were Darryl Howard, Ray Clark and James Watson. Members of the 800-meter relay team were Nick Nichols, Kyland Gross and Clark.
Sikeston's 1600-meter relay team, consisting of sophomore Nichols, freshmen Zach Harrison and Wanya Henderson, and junior Jamison, qualified with a fourth place finish.
"Our mile relay team had a real good day," Flannigan said. "Four young guys got in there and ran well and got a fourth place finish to move on to sectionals."
Jamison also qualified in the triple jump, with a second place leap.
"Terry had to come right out of the open 400 and had about 10 or 20 minutes to get ready for the triple jump and he busted a jump there to put himself in the sectional," Flannigan said. "He showed a lot of heart there."
Another couple surprises were freshman Steven Baker finishing fourth in the 400-meter dash and senior Kenneth Moy taking second in the pole vault.
Baker was seeded sixth, but ran a personal best time to qualify.
"That was a big surprise," Flannigan said of Baker. "He's been coming on here lately at the end of the year. He kept getting better and better and he really ran a great race. We're looking for great things from him in the future."
Moy was seeded lower than eighth in the pole vault, but beat his previous best mark by two feet.
Sophomore Spenser Clark took fourth place in the 300-meter hurdles to qualify.
"Spenser was on the bubble," Flannigan said. "He came through and did a great job in the hurdles."
Keldon Warfield qualified in the 110-meter hurdles with a third place finish and Ray Clark took third in the 200-meter dash.
"Ray has been hurt the biggest part of the year," Flannigan said. "We were hoping he had a shot at it and he's also on our speed relays."
Trey Lewis and Howard took second and third respectively in the long jump.
Howard also qualified in the high jump with a third place leap, but he did not qualify in the triple jump, an event that he placed second in the state last year.
Lewis scratched on four of his six total jumps and only landed a 42-8 leap, four feet shorter than his previous best.
"He struggled and it's been a rough year all the way around," Flannigan said. "That's the thing about it, you get into this competition level now, if you don't bring your 'A' game then you're staying home. That put a bad taste in his mouth."
Another disappointment came in the 110-hurdles when Watson, who had the top time in the preliminaries and was seeded first going into the finals, false started and was eliminated from the race.
"We knew James had a chance to make it out and he's sitting No. 1 after the prelims, but then he false started," Flannigan said. "That's bad for him because he's done a great job all year. But he shook it off and anchored our 400-meter relay team to a first place finish."
On the girls side, Vonteria Applewhite qualified in four events, the 100 and 200-meter dashes and both speed relays.
"Vonteria Applewhite had a pretty good day and got out in four events," Flannigan said. "She's worked hard all year."
Applewhite joined Darqueshionna Howard, Allisha Oglesby and Genetrious White on both speed relays.
Betsy Borgsmiller, after setting a school record earlier in the year with a high jump leap of 5-7, took first place in the event.
"Betsy continues to get those first places so we're hoping she can continue to perform well for us," Flannigan said.
Sikeston's Jalen Peet and Olgesby went first and second in the triple jump respectively. This came after Peet scratched on all three of her attempts in the long jump.
"Jalen was very disappointed after the long jump," Flannigan said. "I just told her that she has to forget that and focus on the triple jump. Her and Oglesby did a tremendous job and went one and two in that."
Freshman Ailena Stovall qualified for sectionals in the 400-meter dash despite being the fifth seed.
"That was real, real good for her," Flannigan said. "She's another young one and I was proud to see her step it up right there."
While no team points will be kept at the sectional meet on Saturday, the top four individuals in each event will advance to the state meet in Jefferson City in two weeks.
"Sectionals will be pretty tough," Flannigan said. "On the girls side we're going to have to step up some on the track. If they come in and run hard and compete, they all have a chance to get out. On the boys side we're seeded No. 1 in the 400-meter relay and on the bubble in the 800-meter relay. Our jumpers all have a chance and if our mile relay team can continue to cut time off they will have a shot."
Locally on the girls side, both Dexter and New Madrid County Central had numerous qualifiers.
Dexter's Lindsey Hindman took fourth in the long jump to qualify. Dexter's 400-meter relay and 800-meter relay teams both qualified with second and fourth place finishes respectively.
Taylor Martin took second place in the 100-meter dash.
NMCC's Rashaunda Summer took fourth in the shot put; Brittany Johnson took fourth in the 100-meter hurdles and Brittian Horne took fourth in the 100 and 200-meter dash.
Team results
1. Farmington 144, 2. Sikeston 117.50, 3. Festus 108, 4. Ste. Genevieve 72, 5. Notre Dame 52, 6. Potosi 48, 7. DeSoto 45, 8. Perryville 27, 9. Hillsboro 21, 10. Kennett 20, 11. Park Hills Central 14, 12. Fredericktown 13, 13. Arcadia Valley 9, 14. North County 7, 15. NMCC 3, 16. Dexter 0.50
Local results (top four
qualify for state)
High jump -- 3. Trey Lewis (S) 5-10; 8. Kyland Gross (S) 5-8; 8. Austin Richardson (D) 5-8.
Pole vault -- 2. Kenneth Moy (S) 12-6; 5. Evan Deere (S) 11-6.
Long jump -- 2. Trey Lewis (S) 22-2.50; 3. Darryl Howard (S) 22-1.5
Triple jump -- 2. Terry Jamison (S) 44-4.50; 5. Trey Lewis (S) 42-8
3200m relay -- 5. Sikeston (Ethan Scherer, Zach Harrison, Mark Swanson, Wanya Henderson) 8:50.26; 8. NMCC (Ahmeel Fowler, Frank Harrell, Chad Moton, Blade Perkins) 10:41.35.
110m hurdles -- 3. Keldon Warfield (S) 16.41.
100 -- 2. Quentin Washington (S) 11.26; 5. Nick Nichols (S) 11.54.
800m relay -- 1. Sikeston (Washington, Nichols, Gross, Ray Clark) 1:32.04.
400m relay -- 1. Sikeston (Washington, Darryl Howard, R. Clark, James Watson) 43.99.
400 -- 4. Steven Baker (S) 52.94; 7. Ahmeel Fowler (N) 55.95.
300m hurdles -- 4. Spenser Clark (S) 43.25.
200 -- 1. Washington (S) 23.13; 3. R. Clark (S) 23.78.
1600m relay -- 4. Sikeston (Nichols, Harrison, Henderson, Jamison) 3:37.53
Team results
1. Festus 103, 2. Farmington 84, 3. Hillsboro 76, 4. Sikeston 73, 5. Ste. Genevieve 47, 5. DeSoto 47, 7, Notre Dame 45, 8. Dexter 38, 9. Potosi 36, 10. North County 32, 11. Arcadia Valley 26, 11. NMCC 26, 11. Kennett 26, 14. Park Hills Central 20, 15. Perryville 19.
Local results (top four
qualify for state)
High jump -- 1. Betsy Borgsmiller (S) 5-4; 6. Raezheem Miller (D) 4-10.
Long jump -- 4. Lindsey Hindman (D) 15-7; 6. Chazeton Redd (S) 15-2.75.
Triple jump -- 1. Jalen Peet (S) 35-3.75; 2. Allisha Oglesby (S) 35-3; 7. Madison Pixley (D) 31-3.50.
Discus -- 8. Alecia Nelson (N) 85-8
Shot put -- 4. Rashaunda Summers (N) 34-3.
3200m relay -- 6. Dexter (Morgan Cliff, Christina Harris, Katie Justice, Malinda Mayo) 11:36.63.
100m hurdles -- 4. Brittany Johnson (N) 16.69.
100 -- 2. Taylor Martin (D) 12.76; 3. Vonteria Applewhite (S) 13.15; 4. Brittian Horne (N) 13.31; 7. Chazeton Redd (S) 13.94.
800m relay -- 2. Sikeston (Applewhite, Darqueisheanna Howard, Oglesby, Genetrious White) 1:50.52; 4. Dexter (Brooke Baker, Christina Harris, Lindsey Hindman, Taylor Martin) 1:53.31; 7. NMCC (Brittian Horne, Aqwanness Johnson, Amirah Ruff, Kemaya Taylor) 2:02.94.
400m relay -- 1. Sikeston (Applewhite, Howard, Olgesby, White) 51.67; 2. Dexter (Baker, Hindman, Martin, Samantha Midgett) 51.81; 6. NMCC (Horne, B. Johnson, A. Johnson, Ruff) 54.93.
400 -- 4. Ailena Stovall (S) 1:04.02; 8. Kyla Robinson (S) 1:06.
200 -- 2. Applewhite (S) 27.20; 4. Horne (N) 27.49; 5. Martin (D) 27.83.
1600m relay -- 7. Sikeston (Stovall, Redd, White, Yalanda Johnson) 4:31.95.


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Abductions in Myanmar Could Hurt Chinese Investment
YANGON, Myanmar—Despite recent efforts by some Chinese companies to launch a charm offensive in Myanmar, the abduction of two Chinese workers at a rural copper mine operated by a Beijing-backed firm has underscored deep-seated animosity toward foreign investment in the country.
The two Chinese workers were released Monday after being kidnapped a day earlier by local activists and monks. Myanmar's Ministry of Information said in a statement that local authorities helped with negotiations and managed to secure the safe release of the two workers, both age 23.
The workers "are in good shape," Wanbao Mining Ltd., a subsidiary of arms supplier China North Industries Corp, said in a statement Monday. "We thank local government officials for their efforts in the release of these two young people in a peaceful manner."
The two workers, along with a third from Myanmar, were captured while surveying land near Se De village, a rural community close to the copper mine. The worker from Myanmar was released on Sunday, but captors held the two Chinese workers until government officials secured their release Monday. Wanbao officials say the men had received death threats.
Wanbao's copper mine, located close to the town of Monywa in central Myanmar, has battled against local opposition since it took over the project in 2010 in a deal with the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd., a conglomerate backed by the Myanmar military. Canada's Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. operated the mine until 2007.
Villages say land they owned was taken from them with minimal compensation to make way for expansion of the mine in 2010. Residents near the mine site depend almost exclusively on subsistence farming, and, in some cases, they say the compensation they received for their land hasn't been sufficient. Some worry about the mine's environmental impact.
Company officials say the abduction marks is the second time activists have staged a kidnapping over the project. The first took place in March 2012. The workers were later released unharmed.
Protests in November 2012 sparked by mine work forced Wanbao to stop construction. It restarted operations in October last year, but has incurred what the company describes as "huge losses" since the November 2012 shutdown.
The earlier opposition forced Wanbao to rethink its operations. It drew up a new contract with the Myanmar government that will provide Yangon with a greater percentage of the mine's profits. Wanbao has also promised to inject more than US$1 million a year into villages around the site, partly to help build schools and mobile clinics. It says it will funnel 2% of its profits toward corporate social-responsibility projects — which analysts say is unusually generous for a Chinese company.
Wanbao's new strategy has been highlighted by China's ambassador to Myanmar, Yang Houlan, as an example of how Chinese companies are listening to the demands of the residents around their projects and changing the way they do business.
Despite these efforts, analysts say, people in Myanmar worry the project will do more harm than good.
Opposition to the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam in northern Myanmar's Kachin state eventually forced Yangon to issue a presidential act suspending all activity around the site in 2011. In March, a group of activists began a 750-mile walk across the country to protest against resuming construction at the dam.
"There is an uncertainty associated with local anti-China sentiment, and with the policy directions of the Myanmar government in general," said Yun Sun, an expert on relations between Myanmar and China at the Stimson Center, a think-tank in Washington, D.C.
Some analysts say the anti-China sentiment, and the growing unease it has caused among Chinese investors could hurt Myanmar at a time where foreign investment is seen to play a vital role in supporting continued reform in a country that began its transition from a military-led government in 2011.
Chinese investment between April 2013 and January this year was $46 million, compared to $407 million in the previous fiscal year, and $4.3 billion between 2011 and April 2012.
Ms. Yun Sun and other analysts predict that the less certain the Chinese feel about the security of their investments and their workers in Myanmar, the more its investments in the country will fall.
Also popular on Southeast Asia Real Time:
Jokowi's Mental Revolution: Substance Over Style?


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The Atlantic06/23/2014By Mujib Mashal [Printer Friendly Version]
Afghanistans outgoing president hobbled the warlords, protected personal freedom, and helped heal a shattered country. He also winked at corruption and ruled like a tribal chief. His successor will inherit a country thats in better shape than you might thinkand a government with little power to keep it that way.
In the shadow of the Kandahar City mausoleum of Ahmad Shah Durrani, the warrior-king who founded the modern state of Afghanistan, sits a small shrine, the blue plaster of its dome peeling off. Here rests the martyred champion Azimullah, reads the headstone inside the shrine, black calligraphy on white marble whose once-brilliant color is fading to gray.
An 18-year-old shopkeeper with dark almond eyes, Azimullah Khaksar gave his life on September 5, 2002, so that Hamid Karzai, the recently appointed interim leader of Afghanistan, could live. He wrestled a gunman who had opened fire on Karzai as the president waved through a car window at a crowd outside the governors compound in Kandahar. In the free-for-all shooting that followed, as Karzais motorcade made a clumsy effort to flee, Azimullah caught bullets in his chin, stomach, and legs. Which of the bullets came from the assassin and which from Karzais bodyguards, no one knows.
The arrival of Hamid Karzai, on the heels of the U.S. invasion in 2001, promised Afghans a break from the recent bloody past. Karzais lack of involvement in the long, brutal civil war that followed the Soviet retreat in 1989 raised the possibility of a unified country after a decade of battling fiefs. His international backing promised reconnection to the world after years of isolation. While not all Afghans welcomed Karzaiseveral circles within the Northern Alliance, for instance, wanted power for themselvesmany ordinary people looked upon him with hope.
I remember hearing Karzais name on the radio for the first time, when I was a teenager in Kabul, as fires caused by American bombs burned throughout the city. The name had a ring to it, a lightness that itself seemed to promise new possibilities. For more than a decade, we had been ruled by men whose names and titles were a mouthful; the last was the one-eyed self-proclaimed Leader of the Faithful, Emir of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Mullah Mohammed Omar Mujahed. He had been more myth than manmost Afghans did not hear his voice or see his image until after he was toppled. The simplicity of Hamid Karzais name, without a credential affixed to it, seemed to suggest humility and an unpretentious nature.
The name struck a chord with Azimullah, too, and sparked his curiosity. Karzai, Azimullah had said at home on many occasions in the days after he first heard it. I wonder what he is like. As Karzai and the forces around him pressed closer to Kandahar City, Azimullah found a photo of him at the buzzing Charso bazaar. He brought the photo home and showed it to his family. This, they say, is Karzai, he explained, pointing at the bald, mustachioed man in a suit.
Charismatic and youthful, Karzai in 2002 was a man with an enormous talent, as Amrullah Saleh, his former intelligence chief, recently put it to me, who showed no celebration, jubilation, or a sense of triumph as he took power; he was a man who moved with the mood of the country and spoke to the peoples exhaustion and deprivation and exclusionand to the countrys ability to heal.
Some 12 years later, as Karzai prepares to leave office, the flush of hope that greeted him has been replaced by more-complex sentiments. Americans officials, who adored him at the beginning of the war, have come to see him as a manic-depressive: erratic and mercurial. To Afghans, he leaves a series of contradictions. Under Karzai, Afghanistan got a new constitution, but not the will from its leadership to adhere to it; a national security force, 380,000 strong, but without adequate equipment or a clear definition of the enemy it fights. Genuine progressthe return of more than 5 million refugees, the enrollment of more than 8 million children in school, an estimated 20-year rise in life expectancy, and possibly as much as a 40 percent drop in the infant-mortality ratehas often been overshadowed by rampant corruption and failures of governance. In recent years, Afghanistan has vied with Somalia and North Korea for standing as the most corrupt country in the world.
This spring, I met Azimullahs elder brother, Haji Hekmatullah, at his bakery in a Shia neighborhood of Kandahar City. A half-melted can of cooking oil hung over a small fire in the back of the shop, the walls of which had been darkened by smoke. At the front, Hekmatullah, distracted by his young sons demand for ice cream, poured me a cup of green tea. Just weeks earlier, Karzai had visited Kandahar again. In contrast to his 2002 visit, when the president walked freely around the bazaars, this time most shops had been closed as a security precaution.
I asked Hekmatullah whether his brothers sacrifice had been worth it.
Sometimes, when I think about itwe have everything: a decent house, some land, and two shops. All I want is my brother back, he said. Hekmatullah had gotten engaged six days before the killing; Azimullah had died in the new coffee-colored clothes hed had made for the engagement party. Other times, when I look at my daughter, who is going to fourth grade now, I think that might not have been possible if Azimullah had lived. There could have been more chaos, more bloodshed.
Whether chaos and bloodshed have merely been deferred by the abundance of Western troops and drones and money; whether anything like a sustainable democracy, capable of standing on its own, has taken hold during Karzais time in officethese are open questions. On one level, it is amazing that Hamid Karzai has even survived his presidency. Given the immense challenges of governing Afghanistan, perhaps it is unreasonable to expect much more than that. And yet, as he leaves office, it is important to appreciate what, beyond survival, has motivated Karzaiand what has constrained him. Only through such an appreciation can one glimpse the legacy he is likely to leave behind.
On Fridays, Karzais palace hosts a congregational prayer followed by a banquet-style lunch for an exclusive group of about 100 tribal elders, clerics, former members of the Taliban, and cabinet ministers (many of them returnees from the West who, by reputation, do not care much about religion). On these occasions, the highly social president is in his elementmixing politics and prayer and small talk, and telling stories that make the otherwise incoherent mix of people laugh in unison, over lamb, rice, and vegetables.
I attended one such gathering with Karzai in April. As the president made his way to lunch after the prayer, walking quickly, the crowd of men around him struggled to keep up. Karzai noticed the Kabul police chief and the deputy minister of the interior, and stopped for a moment.
Oh, commanders! Oh, commanders! the president called out. The house of Mawlawi Qalamuddin was robbed last night, and you still dont know about it. The intonation was teasing, but the subtext clear: Karzai seldom misses a chance to let other officials know that he has many informal sources of information, that he is as knowledgeable as they are about matters large and small, that he is in no way reliant on them. The comment also underlined Karzais genuine commitment to an inclusive approach to governance, with equal protection for all: Qalamuddin is a former Taliban minister of the notorious Vice and Virtue Police. He, too, was on his way to the luncheon, where he and the police chief exchanged phone numbers.
Before the gathering, I had sat down with Karzai in his office to talk about his leadership and legacy. The president was wearing a long gray tunic beneath a loose navy sport jacket. His signature fur cap was folded on his desk, amid framed pictures of his three young children. Among the many books on the shelf behind him was a four-volume set of Tolstoys War and Peace, translated into Pashto. I had been warned by a longtime former aide that the president, 56 years old and remarkably fit (he spends 45 minutes on an elliptical trainer three times a week), hasnt come to terms with the fact that his time in office is ending. Yet Karzai has also confided to people close to him that he believes America would do anything to get rid of himeven kill himif he tried to extend his stay in the presidential palace.
The Karzai I met was, for the most part, relaxed, reflective, and confident of a smooth transfer of power, the first democratic transition in Afghan history. But the hour-long interview, as well as the four additional hours I spent with the president over two days, was punctuated by bursts of heartfelt anger at American officials for what he described as their betrayal.
Sometimes Karzai went on emotional tangents that seemed to confirm the widely held perception that he sees an American hand in everything that has gone wrong during his 12 and a half years in powera deeply conspiratorial way of thinking that has seemed to grip him especially tightly since his 2009 reelection campaign, when the U.S. mission in Afghanistan (led by the late Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administrations special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the time) tried to oust him. Western media attention has recently focused on Karzais refusals to sign a new agreement with the United States that would enable a continued U.S. military presence beyond this year. In fact, this refusal is mostly theatrics. The next president will have plenty of time to sign that pact; Karzai, meanwhile, can leave office brandishing evidence that he was not a foreign stooge. Even so, there is no doubt that Karzai, a master tactician, has long since come to see the Americans as rivals rather than supporters.
My purposes were different from those of the Americans, Karzai told me in his immaculate English. The president said he sees the counterinsurgency effort championed by the West as fundamentally misguided: the roots of the insurgency lay in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. The war, he said, was centered in the wrong place. He noted that Western support of him, from the start, was hedged and incomplete. The West wanted me weak, and in conflict with the rest of the leadership of this country, he told me. Western leaders wanted an isolated president, a president they could use.
Mostly, Karzai seemed satisfied with how far he had carried his fragile, cracked vasean image he has often invoked to describe the country he inherited after 30 years of war and isolation. I had a vision for a democratic Afghanistan, for human rights, and for the freedom of the press and freedom of expression, Karzai told me. Those were visions, and the last elections a few days ago proved that was achievable and we achieved it.
More than 6 million Afghans (about half of those eligible) voted on April 5 to choose a successor to Karzai, in the first round of an election that many of the presidents critics had warned would not happen. Karzai, they argued, would change the constitution and extend his rule. When the election seemed to be proceeding according to schedule, they then warned that Karzai would engineer the vote to elect a puppet president of his choosing. But that scenario didnt materialize either. The elections were held, and Karzais reported favorite, Zalmai Rassoul, a 71-year-old former cabinet minister, came in a distant third. (A runoff between the top two candidates was scheduled for mid-June.)
I had a vision for this country of unitythat we have achieved, the president said as he leaned back in his chair. Afghans of all colors, all political thinking, of all parts of this country feel absolutely free.
Making generous allowances for political overstatement, Karzais list of his accomplishments is at least notionally accurate: rights and freedoms have expanded widely during his tenure, especially in urban areas, which are growing rapidly. Yet in many ways, the vase that is Afghanistan remains just as fragile as the day Karzai picked it up. The lunch I attended with him calls to mind the best and worst aspects of his presidency: his ability to bring together diverse constituencies, his preference for the informal and general disregard for the chain of command, and above all his personalization of politicswhich, paradoxically, has both enabled parts of Karzais agenda and imperiled much of what Karzai says he holds dear.
Before he became president, Karzai, a polished former diplomat turned guerrilla leader, was largely an unknown figure. The scion of a prominent Pashtun family in Kandahar, he had served briefly as the deputy minister of foreign affairs after anti-Soviet forces took over the government in 1992. He made his name among Washington elites through years of anti-Taliban lobbying at Western embassies in Pakistan, after the group allegedly assassinated his father in 1999. In December 2001, when major Afghan leaders gathered in Bonn, Germany, to determine who would lead the countrys interim government, Karzai was not the first choice. Abdul Sattar Sirat, a former justice minister and the favorite of the exiled former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, was turned down by the representatives of the Northern Alliance, an anti-Taliban force that had served as the United States partner on the ground. Sirat, a member of the Uzbek ethnic minority, would have been a divisive figure for both the Pashtuns and the Tajiks, who together make up the majority of the countrys population. Late in the night, the old king was woken up and asked to persuade Sirat to withdraw.
Who is the alternative? the king asked.
Hamid Karzai, he was told.
Who is that? the king responded in a half-asleep daze.
The reasons behind Karzais ultimate selection were straightforward: he was a Pashtun from the south, the traditional homeland of Afghan leaders; he had the support of the West; and he was on the ground already. He had snuck from Pakistan into Afghanistan just south of Kandahar City as U.S. B-52 bomber jets pounded Taliban targets and Northern Alliance forces advanced toward Kabul. When he received the call that he had been chosen to lead Afghanistan, he was reportedly covered in blood and shrapnel, having miraculously survived a 2,000-pound bomb the U.S. had dropped by mistake, killing three of its own Special Forces troops and at least 23 of Karzais men.
That gory moment aside, Karzai, in his white tennis shoes, bore little resemblance to the strongmen leading Afghanistans guerrilla forces. (After members of the U.S. Special Forces were dispatched to help Karzai in the south, one team member asked another, whod already met him, Is he a badass? The reply: Well
not exactly.) Karzai carries himself with the air of an intellectual, especially when he speaks in English, and he is empathetic by nature. His way of thinking about politics grew from his observations of his father, the head of a Pashtun clan and a member of parliament in the 1960s under Zahir Shah, and from his formal study of political science, history, and Western philosophy at Simla University, in India, where he obtained his undergraduate and masters degrees. In a 1988 essay analyzing Zahir Shahs relatively peaceful reign, Karzai described how the king had managed to earn the absolute support, confidence, and trust of the tribes deemed crucial to the stability of his government. Afghanistan, even after its consolidation as a state in the 18th century, has often seemed like a confederation of hundreds of tribes and subtribes, all with a sensitive relationship to the central government. He noted, quite correctly, that statesmen who lost touch with the tribes, preferring to govern through institutional intermediaries, did not tend to last very long in power.
When Karzai finally arrived in Kabul, in December 2001, he was installed at the helm of a government bankrolled by foreign money and staffed by officials he had not chosen. Under the Bonn agreement, brokered by the West, many key roles had gone to warlords in return for their cooperation with the United States. Karzai never overcame the legacy of Bonn, where everyone else at his cabinet given to him had the same legitimacy as him, says a longtime aide. So he never really embraced the government as his, always mistrusted it. Seventeen of the 30 cabinet members were Northern Alliance commanders, and those commanders also got a share of power at the local level, installing men who had served under them. Over one meal at his palace, Karzai asked General John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command at the time, why America was supporting certain warlords who were causing his government trouble. They are one of us, just like you are one of us, Abizaid responded, in an attempt, he later said, to encourage political accommodation. Afghan forces allied with the American counterinsurgency mission are designated green by the U.S. military. We are not going to be green on green, Abizaid said.
It is perhaps unsurprising that Karzai, presented with this state of affairs, quickly began trying to establish his own power network, going around and beneath appointed officialsparticularly through outreach to tribal, clan, and village elders. Yet it can be difficult to appreciate just how much of Karzais attention, throughout his presidency, was devoted to this effort, or how much he ignored the formal government apparatus set up around him once his own, informal network was in place.
Throughout his presidency, the doors of Karzais palace would open, daily, to flocks of supposed tribal leaders, some with official local or regional positions, some without. Karzai would consult with them for hours, collecting information, dispensing favors and cash from slush funds, attempting to convince them that the Afghan governmentor, more precisely, Karzai himselfwas a good and trustworthy long-term partner. Many of these meetings were hard to sit through, Saleh, the former intelligence chief, told me: the room stank of sweat and bodies unwashed for weeks. Every man in power wants to be nicely cologned, Saleh said. We should admire [Karzai] for sharing his palace.
Tactically, Karzais approach was brilliant. It allowed him to steadily consolidate power and destabilize potential rivals. Many of those rivals were warlords, and the diminishment of their authority must be counted as a triumph of Karzais early years. And yet this strategy was also directly at odds with the establishment of a modern, democratic government, rooted in stable institutions rather than personality. Its flaws grew ever more pronounced as Karzais tenure stretched on.
I raised the government flag in seven districts previously held by the Taliban, the former governor of Helmand province, Gulab Mangal, told me recently at his home in west Kabul. And not once did the president call me to say Well done, or to instruct me as to what to do next. Out of office for more than a year now, Mangal still brims with disappointment at how Karzai treated him, and how the president approached regional security and development.
In Afghanistans highly centralized system, governors are directly appointed by the president and essentially serve as his representatives to the 34 provinces. Mangal served as the governor of three different provinces over nine years. But Karzai was suspicious of his governors, particularly those with Western support. The presidents whole approach to governance, Mangal told me, involved the balancing of the powers beneath him and the pursuit of shortsighted alliances, all with the goal of ensuring that no single official grew too strong. The more our success increased, the more he suspected us. The more we extended the governments reach, clearing new districts and raising the government flag, the more he got jealous. Karzais psychology is suchhe operates more like a malik [a tribal chief] than a president, Mangal told me.
On one occasion, Mangal went to Karzai and asked him to refrain from supporting a former police chief who still controlled parts of a ragtag force accused of aiding drug traffickers and abusing civilians. Several men loyal to the chief had recently surrendered their posts during Taliban offensives. Mangal saw an opportunity, once the posts were retaken, to break the chiefs old network and instead bring professional police to show people that we are honest about good governance.
Yet Karzai, Mangal says, gave more weight to the short-term benefits of keeping the former police chief on the governments side. If he is such an important person, Mangal recalls the president telling him, why dont you side with him?
Karzais task in Helmand was complicated by the fact that British troops had, by most accounts, made a mess of the situation there. Five of Helmands 13 districts were under Taliban control in 2008. Musa Qala, a district of about 50,000 residents, had slipped back into insurgent hands in 2006, and become a hub for the production of suicide bombers. So Karzai was forced to experiment. One effort involved funding an uprising by Mullah Salaam Alizai, a burly former Taliban commander in the region, and then appointing him as the district governor.
The idea was good, but the character was dubious, Saleh, Karzais former intelligence chief, told me. Mullah Salaam wanted to be his own authoritythe little autonomous king of Musa Qala
but financed by the government.
Salaam told me that, as district governor, he often called Karzai directly by satellite phone, bypassing Mangal. After dozens of his bodyguards were drugged and killed by a turncoat, Salaam got the president to assign him more than 100 soldiers as guards, even though the law does not allow local officials to have such militias outside the normal police structure. On at least two occasions when Salaam came to Kabul, the president called a cabinet meeting for him, where the district governor made demands and launched into diatribes, calling the cabinet ministers foreign stooges to their faces. Karzai had the whole cabinet report to a district governor, a minister present during one of the meetings said. With a triumphant smile, Salaam said he called one minister a gaw-mesh, an ox.
Amid the rival interests at play, it was often unclear who was really in charge in Helmand. The president did not trust Mangal, thinking of him as a British lackey. In addition to empowering Salaam and other players beneath Mangal, Karzai made a point of keeping in close contact with Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, a previous governor of Helmand. The British had pressured Karzai to remove Akhundzada in 2005 because of his frequent violence against rivals and his alleged involvement in the drug trade. The president, however, found Akhundzada useful: his tribe was the largest in Helmand. Whenever Karzai traveled to Helmand, he would fly Akhundzada with him and sit next to him in meetings with tribes. In one speech in the provincial capital, Karzai mentioned Akhundzada more than 25 times in front of Mangal, who got little recognition. In the eyes of the locals, it was Akhundzadastill called the esteemed Mr. Governor by manywho was the real power.
Karzai is unapologetic about his reliance on informal networks and ad hoc governance. He relied the very least on his own government institutions, he told me. The fact on the ground was that the Afghan government was weak, that it had no capacity, that it had no means of movement, that it could not provide the president of the country with the information that related to the facts on the ground, he said. One of my greatest victories, if you can call it that, was my contact with the people.
Yet many of those people were unreliable, and had hidden agendas. Years of warfare had created a new class of local leaders who had not necessarily gone through traditional rites of passage, and did not have the legitimacy associated with tribal chiefs; they had guns and drugs. Some of Karzais advisers believe that many villagers would have supported a more formal system of institutional government, if only Karzai had developed it. Instead, the president relied on this new class. Among the elders who would line up at his office were many violent opportunists, different from the warlords only in the smaller reach of their influence. Karzai gave them access to resources, and standing that will last long after he is gone.
Perhaps most significant, the unfiltered access Karzai granted to local, informal leaders exposed the president to Taliban sympathizers who played upon his distaste for violence and in many cases misled him. A governor of a restive eastern province once told me that 80 percent or more of the elders from his province who were complaining to the president about military actions were Taliban sympathizers. Karzai never consulted the governor about any of the elders identities or motives. The president created a dangerous parallel system with enormous sway, he said. And this network persuaded Karzai, at various points, to cut back the night raids by American Special Forces, which were considered a major blow to insurgents; to release prisoners; even to replace local security commanders.
Karzai acknowledged to me that he never really became a commander in chief. By the time the Afghan army grew into a relatively professional fighting force, he no longer believed in the war it had been trained to fight. One reason, perhaps, is dispositional: Karzai described himself to me as a pacifist in my heart, in my core, and while his support of several violent regional leaders complicates this claim, most people I talked with who know Karzai well said he makes it in earnest. But another reason surely has to do with the distorted nature of the information Karzai was receiving each day, and with his paranoia regarding the foreign forces in his country.
The Taliban left without a fight at first, the president told me. But then the AmericansI was without access to the country in the initial days, and without the tools of governance, which are still very weakthey went around with thugs from our own country and, with their violence, forced the Taliban back into taking guns. And Pakistan was willing, and ready to use the opportunity. He stressed, throughout our conversation, his differences with the American leadership in the country. I didnt see a war in Afghanistan we should have fought.
As Afghan soldiers were dying at a rate of 10 a day in recent years, the president took to mourning dead Taliban just as intensely as he mourned the armys fallen. One morning in February of this year, the bodies of 21 army soldiers, killed in the eastern province of Kunar, were brought to the military hospital in Kabul. Karzai used the incident as a pretext to cancel a trip abroad, but instead of attending the funerals, he remained in his palace, busily politicking. When I told him the public thought he was a leader who did not stand up for his soldiers, the president became defensive.
But I do. I have done it very often. Thats Western propaganda, he said, thumping his desk. They are the sons of this soil, they are giving their life. But that life is gone in a war thats not ours.
On the same day he said those words, Karzai ordered the questioning of three of his brightest special-forces officers on vague charges of, among other things, spying for Western countriesan odd charge, considering they are equipped and advised by NATO. The special forces, some 14,000 strong, are crucial to repelling Taliban attacks. They also played a central role in securing the first round of the presidential election. I had met one of the detained officers last year, at a social gathering. Well built, knowledgeable, and courteous, he was the kind of soldier-thinker one would believe to be essential to the largely illiterate force.
In the final years of his presidency, Karzai, who had once been called the mayor of Kabul because of his limited reach, focused almost entirely on the plight of the rural areas that continue to bear the brunt of the war. He bent over backwards to try to appease the Taliban and condemned the missteps of foreign soldiers. He engaged in many talks that he hoped might lead to peace, none of them bearing much fruit. And he made many efforts to co-opt or isolate individual Taliban leaders, although he repeatedly declared that he would not compromise constitutional freedoms to win them over. His approach has, unquestionably, caused some degree of confusion and fragmentation in the Taliban ranks. And yet, it has also confused his own forcesrestraining them against a brutal enemyand brought the president harsh criticism from civil groups.
Look at his cabinet, his government, and elsewherefrom Taliban, to Communists, to mujahideen, to those who returned from the West. They are all there. This was the art of Hamid Karzai, said Rangin Dadfar Spanta, the presidents national-security adviser, when I asked him whether Karzai was a visionary leader. But this is not enough for a statesman trying to rebuild a post-conflict nation, helping it transition towards democracy. Spanta and several other people who have worked closely with Karzai told me he never articulated a clear model of government to strive toward, or a vision of what Afghanistan should become.
The Afghanistan that Karzai leaves behind is certainly a more inclusive and cohesive country than the fractured mess he inherited. Among my own peerseducated young urbanites, connected to the world and provided with free space for expressionthere is a growing sense of nostalgia for him; he is largely seen as a man of great personal dignity who, despite his shortcomings, tried to minimize the bloodshed that my generation was born into. Our Afghanistan is shaped by the principles Karzai saw as essential and nonnegotiable. But because of the presidents leadership style, these gains appear tenuous. Under Karzai, a relatively free press has blossomed, but every time threats against it have emerged, they have been blunted not by the institutions or laws Karzai put in place, but by the presidents personal intervention. The same can be said for womens participation in society, which has grown tremendously, but with few institutional safeguards.
Even the future role of the countrys warlords is uncertain. Karzai has kept most of these men off balance and relatively weak during his tenure, and deserves credit for doing so. Yet these men are not gone from public life. They have continued to profit from contracts and investments largely tied to the presence of foreign militaries: vested economic interest is a major factor that keeps them loyal to the democratic system. Indeed, in the 12 and a half years of Karzais rule, many have sanitized their imagesshorter beards, fancier suits, more politically correct language. For better or worse, their sons and daughters, who seem more attuned to democratic practices, are now beginning to step into their fathers shoes.
Spanta says he doubts anyone could have fared better than Karzai in such a fragmented society. And yet the next president of Afghanistan will inherit a broken chain of command, weak institutions, and a variety of local powers that may prove difficult to bring to heelall the more so because he will lack the personal connections that Karzai worked so hard to cultivate. The question of whether the forces from the past will succeed again or whether modernizing forces will take the country forwardthis has not been finalized. Almost none of the achievements made under Karzai appear irreversible, Spanta lamented. Instead, Afghanistan remains a place stuck between modernity and its own splintered history. Which way it will move next is anyones guess.


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Product Description
You and your friends have just returned from a fruitful trick-or-treating journey. But now the real fun begins. The grownups have tasked you and your friends to fairly distribute the candy pile. But all of you have something else in mind. Be the one to get the most candy at the end of the game to win!
Tricks & Treats is a family-friendly card game for 2-4 players.
Each player takes turns placing candy into several numbered Halloween candy baskets on the table. The objective is to have the most candy in your basket by the end of the game. The catch is.. if another player can figure out which basket is yours, he/she can tattle on you and bump you out of the game.
The goal of the game is to have the most candy at the end of the game or to be the only player left in the game.
Product Information
Year: 2013
Players: 2 - 4
Time: 10 or more minutes
Ages: 8 and up
Weight: 149 grams


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2 cups flour2 Tbsp. sugar4 tsp. baking powder1 tsp. cinnamon1 tsp. salt1 1/2 cups milk1 cup canned pumpkin (not mix)4 eggs, separated1/4 cup melted margarine
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Washington, DC – Lynn McNulty, Executive Consultant at McConnell International, is honored by the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) for his exceptional contributions to ISSA and the information security profession."Throughout his career Lynn has been on the leading edge of information technology and cyber security" says Brad King, President of McConnell International. "This recognition by ISSA is a great honor and is the result of Lynn's life-long commitment to passionate observation of the latest advances in technology and cyber security. We are fortunate to have him on the McConnell International team."
Lynn McNulty has more than 30 years of IT and computer security experience. His entire federal career has centered on computer security beginning in 1967 when he was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, running through his time at the Department of State where he initiated the Department's computer security program, until 1995 when he retired from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). While at NIST Mr. McNulty was appointed Associate Director for Computer Security where his duties included policy liaison for computer security issues between NIST and other federal agencies, the Congress, and the private sector. He also served as the Executive Secretary of the Computer Systems Security and Privacy Advisory Board, and he founded and chaired the Federal Computer Security Program Manager's Forum.
Lynn McNulty and five others were presented with the ISSA's 2008 International Awards for exceptional contributions to ISSA and the information security profession, in an event held in San Francisco on Wednesday, April 22, 2009.
For more information contact:
Camille Auspitz
(215) 715-3896
Notes to editors
McConnell International, a Clinton Rubin LLC company – www.mcconnellinternational.com
McConnell International promotes successful partnerships between industry and government. McConnell International helps industry clients win new business, shorten sales cycles, and expand existing contracts. With such strong partners, government works better.
McConnell International services create win-win relationships with Federal government agencies and industry players. Competing for new business is costly, and McConnell International helps clients maximize their return on business development investment, secure new business, shorten sales cycles and expand existing contracts by providing:
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