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Commitment to excellence remains at the heart of who we are.
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Tan Sri Md Nor Md Yusof holds a Bachelor Degree in Commerce from the University of Otago, New Zealand and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Tan Sri Md Nor is very familiar with Malaysia Airlines and the airline industry having previously served Malaysia Airlines as its Managing Director from 14 February 2001 until 31 March 2004.
Tan Sri Md Nor was appointed as Director of Khazanah Nasional Berhad on 1 April 2006 and currently serves as the Chairman of its Executive Committee. He also sits on the Boards of several companies and institutions including Malaysian Agrifood Corporation Bhd, Pelaburan Hartanah Berhad and is also a Trustee of Yayasan Khazanah.
Tan Sri Md Nor was appointed to the Board of CIMB Group Holdings Berhad as Director on 27 June 2006 and assumed the post of Chairman on 31 July 2006. He is also Chairman of CIMB Group Sdn Bhd. Tan Sri Md Nor has spent 18 years of his working career with CIMB Group, and more notably as President and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Commerce (M) Berhad (now known as CIMB Bank Berhad).
Tan Sri Md Nor completed his term as Executive Chairman of the Securities Commission on 31 March 2006. He has also served as Advisor to the Ministry of Finance.
Non-Executive Chairman
Appointed on 1 August 2011
Appointment effective 1 July 2016.
David Lau Nai Pek is a Director of Axiata Berhad. He is also a Director of Celcom Axiata Berhad and Shell Refining Company (Federation of Malaya) Berhad. He has over 35 years of professional experience in finance and leading financial organisations in various locations in Australia, Brunei, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. He served the Shell Group for 28 years in various capacities. His last position before he returned to Malaysia at the end of December 2008 was Vice-President Finance, Shell International Exploration and Production B.V., The Hague, the Netherlands.
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Canterbury University, New Zealand and is a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Non-Executive Director
Appointed on 9 August 2011
Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar, aged 55, a Malaysian, was appointed as Non-Independent Non-Executive Director of Malaysia Airlines on 22 October 2012.
He holds a PhD in Economics from International Islamic University Malaysia, Masters of Science in Energy, Management and Policy from University of Pennsylvania, USA, and Bachelors Degree with Honours in Population Studies from University Malaya.
He also attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, Harvard University, USA. Tan Seri Dr. Mohd Irwan Serigar has an extensive experience working in the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister's Department from 1984 until 2003. He was involved in the preparation of the Fifth Malaysia Plan, Action Plan of the First Industrial Master Plan, and setting up of the Energy Division. In 2003, he joined the Ministry of Finance and held various positions, including Principal Assistant Secretary in the Economics and International Division, Head of Econometrics Section, Head of Multi Lateral Relations, Deputy Under Secretary (Macro) of the Economics and International Division, and Under Secretary of Economics and International Division, before being appointed to his current position, Deputy Secretary General (Policy) in 2011.
He currently sits on the board of Employees Provident Fund, Retirement Fund Incorporated, Suruhanjaya Koperasi Malaysia, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kumpulan Wang Amanah Negara, Lembaga Tabung Haji, Malaysian Foundation for Innovation, GovCo Holdings Limited, Capital Market Development Fund, Malaysian Venture Capital Development Council and Malaysian Holding Sdn Bhd.
Non-Executive Director
Appointed on 22 October 2012
Tan Sri Tan Boon Seng @ Krishnan is currently Executive Deputy Chairman of IJM Corporation Berhad. He also serves as a Director of IJM Plantations Berhad, IJM Land Berhad (Chairman), Malaysian South-South Corporation Berhad and Grupo Concesionario del Oeste S.A., Argentina. He joined IJM as Financial Controller in 1983 and was appointed Group Managing Director in 1997 and served in this position until 2010.
He qualified as a Certified Public Accountant in 1978 after graduating with a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) degree from University of Malaya in 1975, and holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, USA. He is a member of the Board of Governors of Malaysia Property Incorporated (MPI).
He also serves as a Member of the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board as well as the Financial Reporting Foundation, and a Trustee of Perdana Leadership Foundation. He is actively involved in the promotion of Malaysia India business ties and is currently the President of the Malaysia-India Business Council (MIBC) and Chairman of the Malaysia India CEO Forum.
Non-Executive Director
Appointed on 9 August 2011
Tan Sri Morshidi is currently State Secretary in the Sarawak state government and previously served as an alternate board member of Malaysia Airlines.
Tan Sri Morshidi holds a Masters in Human Resource Management from the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, US and a Bachelors Degree in Economics (majoring in Statistics) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
For more than three decades, Tan Sri Morshidi has served in various private and public sector agencies where he has held senior positions in the Chief Minister's Department. In August 2006, Tan Sri Morshidi was appointed to his current position.
Non-Executive Director
Appointed on 19 December 2012
Tan Sri Sukarti is currently State Secretary in the Sabah state government and previously served as a board member of Malaysia Airlines from 22 March to August 2011.
Aged 59, Tan Sri Sukarti holds a Bachelor (Hons) Arts, Antropology and Sosiology from the University Malaya. Tan Sri Sukarti has served in various portfolios in the Sabah State government over the last 33 years. He is the State Secretary in the Chief Minister's office in Sabah and also the Administrative Officer State Public Service Department, Sabah and sits on the board for Borneo Housing Mortgage Finance Berhad. In July 2007, Tan Sri Sukarti was appointed to his current position.
Non-Executive Director
Appointed on 2 February 2013
Dr Mohamadon Abdullah, or Dr Don as he is known to many, joined Malaysia Airlines as a Management Trainee in June 1972. During his 32-year career, Dr Don has gained wide hands-on experience in many operational, commercial and support areas of the Company. These include Human Resources, Management Development, Marketing & Sales (Passenger & Cargo), Centralised Purchasing & Procurement, In-flight Catering & Cabin Services, In-flight Services and Flight Operations.
Dr Don retired from service on 31 December 2004 as Senior General Manager, Corporate Services where he was responsible and accountable for Legal Affairs, Property Management, Corporate Insurance, Human Resource Training & Development, Government Relations & Corporate Communications, Corporate Safety & Security, Crisis Management and Medical Services.
Representing the Company, he also served as member of the board of directors for several subsidiaries and associate companies. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Comintel Corporation Berhad and the Executive Director of Borneo Isthmus Development Sdn. Bhd.
Non-Executive Director
Appointed on 22 June 2012
Mohd Izani Ashari joined Khazanah in April 2009 and is an Executive Director in charge of GLC Transformation Program, coordinating GLCs contribution to various national agenda such National Transformation Programs and Bumiputera Agenda. He has been pivotal in the initial development which forms the foundation of the Government Transformation Program.
He has 30 years of working experience covering six different industries mainly with multi- nationals and large companies including Shell Malaysia, Maybank, Sime Darby, Petronas (both in Petronas Dagangan and Carigali), and Malaysian Airline System (MAS). He has spent 20 years of his career specialising in organisation transformation/re-engineering.
Relating to MAS, during his stint there in 2006-2007, he was the head of the Turnaround Management Office (TMO) that had helped MAS' turnaround under the leadership of its then CEO Dato' Sri Idris Jala.
He holds a Masters Degree in Construction Management from Reading University, UK and Bachelor's Degree in Quantity Surveying from John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
Sheranjiv a/l M Sammanthan is the Executive Director in Managing Director's Office, Khazanah Nasional Berhad.
Non-Executive Director
Appointed on 11 April 2016
Bachelor of Science (Marketing) from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A. Masters of Business Administration from St. Louis University, Missouri, U.S.A.
2005 - Present
Chief Executive Officer and Director, Celcom Axiata Berhad
1996 - 2005: Chief Executive Officer, ntv7
1993 - 1996: Malaysian Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco
1987 - 1993: Lever Brothers
Marketing Director, Astro
Mr. Omar Siddiq is Chief Financial Officer at Malaysia Airlines Berhad.


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Brad Ohadi of Monta Vista, Amit Ben-Simhon of Homestead and Jessica Yu of Fremont each delivered hat tricks to lead their teams to victories in the first week of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division soccer season.
Ohadi, a junior who plays both midfielder and forward, delivered all three goals for the Matadors in a 3-1 triumph over visiting Cupertino on Jan. 8. He was assisted by seniors Will Major and Josh Sullivan and junior Varun Kalandoor.
It was the second feet feat in a row for the junior co-captain, who also scored a trio in a 4-2 non-league win against Christopher of Gilroy on Jan. 3.
Ohadi had 13 of the team's 22 goals in the first 10 games, but none at Milpitas on Jan. 10. He did get off a couple of shots, but it was Sullivan's third goal of the year that allowed the Matadors to gain a 1-1 tie. Seniors Eric Polgar and Vaish Menon assisted on the play for Monta Vista (1-0-1, 6-1-3 overall).
Meanwhile, Ben-Simhon's three second half goals helped Homestead rally for a 5-3 home victory against Wilcox and finish the week in first place with a 2-0 division record. The Chargers led 2-1 at halftime, but Ben-Simhon tallied three scores in a row, two off assists from fellow sophomore Brian Wehner, to key the win for the Mustangs.
Senior Benjamin Cheng and sophomore Ari Berman also knocked in goals and senior Christopher Chen had an assist, as Homestead improved to 6-4 overall.
Earlier in the week, Ben-Simhon assisted on goals by Cheng and senior Yuta Arai during a 4-1 victory at Gunn. Sophomores Eli Berman and Ryan Flynn added goals and junior Jared Johnson came through with an assist.
Cupertino also beat Gunn last week, 3-2, to bounce back from the defeat at Monta Vista. The Pioneers, who will host Homestead on Jan. 17, 3:30 p.m., finished the week at 1-1. Lynbrook (1-0) won its only division game of the week 3-1 over Milpitas.
In El Camino girls play, Yu put three in the net for Fremont's girls during a 3-1win at Wilcox. Yu, who scored team highs of 24 goals and seven assists last year as a freshman, also scored the Firebirds' only goal in a 1-1 tie with Gunn two days earlier. Sophomore Leilani Loo had the assist against the Titans.
Santa Clara finished the week in first place with a 2-0 record, followed by Fremont, Lynbrook (1-0) and Cupertino (1-1).
Lynbrook improved to 5-2 overall with a 2-1 against visiting Milpitas. Senior Kat Tatley and sophomore Kristen Wong scored goals for the Vikings, with freshman Tuhina Dasgupta and senior Sonjia Summerfield earning assists.
Lynbrook had wrapped up non-league play on Dec. 17 with a 3-1 win over Soquel. Dasgupta and Tatley each had a goal and an assist in that one. Sophomore Sarah Tatley added an unassisted goal.
Cupertino bounced back from a 6-0 loss to Santa Clara with a 2-1 win at Gunn. Magellan and Chen scored goals, getting assists from Annie Boyle and Ori Hazan. The win evened the Pioneers' overall record at 3-3.
In the De Anza Division, Homestead's girls went 0-1-1 in the first week, while Monta Vista went 0-2.
The Mustangs lost to Saratoga 2-1, but tied Mountain View 0-0. Sophomore Megan Lloyd had Homestead's lone goal of the week, with an assist by junior Sophia Stavoli.
Monta Vista dropped its opener 7-0 to Los Gatos and lost 2-1 to Palo Alto.
In De Anza boys' play, Fremont picked up a point in the standings with a scoreless tie at Saratoga, but lost 3-0 at home to Mountain View. The Firebirds, who went 3-4-1 in non-league action, resume division play at Los Gatos Jan. 17, 3:30 p.m.

subset: commoncrawl


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Broadway legends Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone have teamed up for a love-themed musical peformance that they will be bringing to Scranton as part of a three-city tour.
As two of the most acclaimed stars of musical theater over the past three decades, any time that Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone pair up for a performance is cause for celebration among their legions of fans.
So when it was announced that the duo would be performing their new show, An Evening With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, at the Scranton Cultural Center — one of only three stops, along with Syracuse and Palo Alto, for the production — Broadway's loss was the region's gain.
For Patinkin, it doesn't matter what the venue or the locale is, as long as he gets to perform.
"We don't care where we take it — we love traveling, we love bringing our work to people. We'll go anywhere in the world, we don't care where it is," Patinkin exclaimed during a recent phone interview.
The show, which comes to the Scranton Cultural Center in Scranton, Pa., for five performances May 9 to 11, is a musical love story told through a set list chosen by the two Broadway legends that guides audiences on "a figurative journey of two souls using familiar and unfamiliar material both spoken and sung," according to Patinkin.
"It's a real celebration of life and old friends. Patti and I are 30-plus-year-old friends and we use this material to sort of walk through life, just have fun, get away from the world."
The show includes numbers from Carousel, South Pacific, Merrily We Row Along and Evita — the 1979 musical in which Patinkin and LuPone burst onto the Broadway scene, with his widely acclaimed portrayal of Ché and her defining interpretation of Eva Perón.
Their work together on Evita spawned a lasting friendship that laid the groundwork for their current show, which came about thanks to a Texas-sized tall tale told by a lone Star state concert promoter.
"He told a little bit of a white lie," Patinkin said, referring to a music theater booker in Richardson, Tex., where the duo first debuted An Evening together in 2002. "He called her people and said they had me, and then he called my people and said they had her — and they didn't have either one of us."
The gamble paid off and Patinkin, uninterested in performing a typical showcase that involved the two of them doing solos and a duet finale, put together the current show with the help of pianist Paul Ford and choreographer Ann Reinking. The rest, as they say, is history.
"It's just a piece that I deeply love because I love being with her, I love looking in her eyes — it's like being in a time machine. I'm instantly 30 years younger. She's the best in the world," Patinkin said of LuPone.
Patinkin's theater career may be a revelation to those who have come to know him through iconic film roles like that of Avigdor in 1983's Yentl and as Inigo Montoya in 1987's The Princess Bride. His character, a Spanish swordsman on a mission of vengeance against the man who murdered his father, is beloved by generations of fans for uttering the lines: "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
More recently, Patinkin has enlivened the small screen as Saul Berenson, a CIA operative on the Showtime series Homeland for which he was nominated for Golden Globe and Emmy awards in 2013.
To top it all off, the busy Patinkin somehow found the time to record several music albums throughout his career, including the all-Yiddish 1998 release, Mamaloshen.
At 61, one might assume that Patinkin has had enough with the chaotic life of acting and is looking to slow down and enjoy the fruits of his prosperous career — but that assessment couldn't be farther from the truth.
"I love traveling, it makes me feel alive, it doesn't tire me. I love bringing the work to other people," he said. "I'm such a theater addict that I love being with the audience because the audience is part of the performance.
"I'd say if there's one word in my life that I wanted on my door head and the wishes and lips of people who knew me, it was that I tried to connect, the word 'connect' in every way imaginable," he said. "That's my wish, my goal for myself, for my work, for my family, for my friends."
Just before hopping on a flight bound for Boston and yet another performance, Patinkin offered one last tidbit of life advice.
"You never know what the future's going to be. When we made The Princess Bride, it was a wonderful story that I connected with the minute I read it but we had no idea it would become what it became and that it would connect generations all through the years," Patinkin said. "So that's just one of the gifts, you have no idea what's going to happen and so the thing to do is get up, take a risk, go to work, kiss your kids, kiss your wife and have a good day and thank God you're alive."


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Title I of the ESEA (known as No Child Left Behind) is a grant to states, with the majority of funds distributed to school districts with a high number or percentage of low income students. Since its creation, Title I has been available for programs serving children from birth through high school.
- Using ARRA Funds to Drive School Reform and Improvement (April 24)
- April 1 Department of Education Part A Guidance PDF | WORD
- U.S. Department of Education Guidance (March 2009)
- U.S. Department of Education guidance on using Title I for preschool (April 2004)
- State allocations for Title I under the ARRA
- Allocations to school districts under Title I under the ARRA
- CLASP report on Title I and Early Childhood Programs (2007)


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Cheryl's 6-Cookie Sampler Pack plus Free $10 Gift Card @ Cheryl's - Free
Compare at $22.00
Shipping adds $6.99
Expires On: Nov 30, 2012 11:59pm
Includes chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, sugar, snickerdoodle, chocolate chocolate chip, and buttercream frosted cookies.
Limit one per person.
(FatWallet Deal Hunter staff posts are certified ad-free. No money, bribes, or candy have been accepted.)


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Corn stabilized around unchanged levels late Friday morning. U.S. dollar strength seemingly weighed upon the commodity sector in Friday morning action, with corn prices sustaining overnight losses. A respected industry analysis firm published a forecast for a huge US crop, but prices remained surprisingly stable. That confirms the bearish nature of current market sentiment. December corn futures bounced 1.0 cent to $4.2925/bushel late Friday morning, while May lost 0.25 cents to $4.4725.
The soy complex is caught between competing influences. This morning a respected ag industry firm also boosted its prediction for the soybean crop on next Friday's USDA reports, but the news barely budged the market. Expectations for a huge U.S. soybean harvest are competing against the bullish influence of the Asian palm oil markets at this juncture. January soybean futures declined 7.25 cents to $12.59/bushel around midsession Friday, while December soyoil climbed 0.40 cents to 41.73 cents/pound, and December soymeal dropped $6.4 to $397.2/ton.
The wheat markets proved generally firm Friday morning. Although prices dipped Thursday night and might have been depressed further by U.S. dollar strength, wheat futures were trading in mixed fashion around midsession Friday. Bulls were also encouraged by a private industry report, which suggested Argentina's forthcoming crop will fall short of expectations. December CBOT wheat futures gained 3.25 cents to $6.7075/bushel just before lunchtime Friday, while December KCBT wheat futures slid 2.0 cents to $7.385, and December MWE futures added 0.5 to $7.3075.
Traders cited beef weakness for undercutting cattle futures Friday. Although many aspects of the cattle/beef situation seem price supportive, prices turned decidedly lower this morning. Bears were reportedly reacting to the latest wholesale report, which stated Thursday afternoon cutout values modestly below those posted Wednesday. The outcome of this week's cash trading will probably set the tone for next week. December cattle slid 0.20 cents to 132.52 cents/pound as the lunch hour loomed Friday, while April edged 0.05 lower to 133.72. January feeder cattle rallied 0.47 cents to 164.15 cents/pound, but March feeders sank 0.22 to 164.27.
Hog futures also lost ground in early Friday trading. Talk of declining cash and wholesale prices apparently depressed CME hog values this morning. The slippage might have garnered less attention in other circumstances, but this is the time of year when the hog and pork complex often proves very weak. December hog futures fell 0.55 cents lower to 88.62 cents/pound late Friday morning, while April descended 0.40 cents to 92.97 cents/pound.


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Shippers say heavy rains could cause small production gaps in New York's squash and cucumbers.
Bell peppers and eggplant aren't expecting to suffer as much from the weather disruptions.
Thanks to the excessive rains, buyers should expect New York growers to furnish variable supplies of squash this season.
Jason Turek, partner in Turek Farms, King Ferry, N.Y., said rains pounded the growing region with 2-3 inches the day after the company finished the first round of planting.
That resulted in many seeds failing to emerge.
Turek Farms replanted but those crops won't be ready until later in the deal, Turek said.
"Like with beans, there will be a lot of hit-and-misses on production," he said in mid-July. "We should have inconsistent harvesting with the inconsistent plantings."
Instead of planting 50 acres a week as originally planned, Turek Farms only planted half, Turek said.
Georgia finished production in late June and New Jersey, Delaware, southern Pennsylvania and Virginia growers started their harvesting, Turek said.
Those regions and New York typically harvest into October.
Torrey Farms Inc., Elba, N.Y., began harvesting July 15.
Maureen Torrey, vice president, said Georgia finished harvests in late June and New Jersey, Michigan and Ohio started during that time, bringing more supplies to the market.
"We just started but they look good," she said in mid-July.
"There won't be any gaps caused by the rain during planting. The squash grows fast. It should catch up."
Demand was strong in late June and early July because of shorter supplies, Torrey said.
Torrey plans to begin winter squash production, including butternuts, Sept. 10 and harvest through Oct. 15.
Eden Valley Growers, Eden, N.Y., started harvesting green squash and yellow crookneck squash in early July, about a week later than normal.
Cooler nights delayed Eden Valley's start, said Dave Walczak, sales and operations manager.
"The squash look very good," Walczak said in mid-July. "The quality looks strong. With the cooler nights and the cooler days we've been having, it's getting to the point to where production will be pretty good."
Walczak said Georgia normally finishes in early August while New Jersey usually ends harvesting in mid-August.
In late June, Walczak said the squash market was hot, and attributed higher prices to heavy rains harming Georgia production.
On July 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported these prices for ½-bushel cartons and crates of squash from Michigan: $13.85-14.85 for zucchini small, $10.85-12.85 for medium; $16-16.85 for yellow straightneck small and $14-14.85 for medium.
Torrey plans to begin harvesting cucumbers July 20-25, as usual.
"They look good," she said. "The quality will be there. There will be some gaps because of the weather but we should have adequate supply. We don't have as many acres planted in our first plantings, though."
Planting was a challenge and there are some spots in the fields, but Torrey said the weather can help improve conditions.
Growers on the Eastern Shore, New Jersey, Ohio and Michigan were all beginning production by early July, she said.
Eden Valley started cucumber harvesting July 15, a little later than usual.
Walczak said buyers should count on the season to bring solid production.
"They look good," he said in mid-July. "The cucumbers look healthy."
Walczak quoted $16-18 for super selects.
On July 15, the USDA reported 1 1/9-bushel cartons of waxed medium cucumbers from Michigan selling for $24.85-26.85, with fair quality going for $14-16.85 and cartons of 24s selling for $8.50-9.50.
Walczak said last year was a favorable season despite many cucumbers being on the market in July and August.
Eden Valley plans to ship through early October.
Bell peppers
Eden Valley plans to begin its bell pepper harvesting by early August.
While Georgia typically finishes by mid-July, New Jersey remains in production and sometimes runs later than its usual mid-July finish, as it did last season, which depressed prices, Walczak said.
The grower-shipper has added more acreage and plans to go longer this year.
"The bells look good," Walczak said in mid-July. "The crops look real healthy. We're hoping to go a little further into October this year."
According to the USDA, 1 1/9 bushel-cartons of jumbos from North Carolina on July 15 sold for $20.35.
Eden Valley expects to start its eggplant production in late August.
Georgia production usually runs through mid- to late July while New Jersey normally harvests into August, Walczak said.
On July 15, the USDA reported 1 1/9-bushel cartons mediums from eastern North Carolina fetching $8-10.35.


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Hard Knocks got another storyline
Chad Johnson arrested in Florida
Chad Johnson arrested for misdemeanor domestic battery.
Miami Dolphins wide receiver Chad Johnson was arrested Saturday night for misdemeanor domestic battery, according to Davie (Fla.) Police Department captain Dale Engle.
Johnson is in police custody, and will have to see a judge before he can be released.
The argument started while the couple was in their car. As they pulled into their driveway, Johnson's wife claims he leaned over and headbutted her, while Johnson claims his wife leaned forward and they bumped heads.
Johnson's wife has a laceration on her forehead. She was treated on the scene and transported to the hospital.
The call to police came at Johnson's residence.
The couple was married on July 4.


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Billy Elliot Vancouver Tickets
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Details of Billy Elliot Vancouver Tickets and the Ticket Luck value
Billy Elliot is a musical that has won ten Tony and ten Drama Desk Awards. With Elton John serving as the musician, this play has proved to be a super hit all over the world. Billy Elliot Vancouver BC tickets are highly demanded by the fans as the show announces its tour to the city. It is considered as a celebrated musical ever since it premiered in London in 2005.
It is a story of a boy named Billy Elliot who does not have a mother and struggles hard to seek his fate. He trades his boxing gloves with ballet shoes as the latter was his passion. Based on the movie released in 2005, Billy Elliot the musical is successfully running productions in and out of the country. Premiering in Victoria Palace Theatre, it opened to great reviews and was lauded by the critics. The musical still runs today and keeps receiving favorable remarks as more and more people fall in love with it.
The musical gained positive reviews and it was declared as "a theatrical masterpiece", by The Daily Mail. Billy Elliot in known to win 4 Laurence Oliver Awards for 'Best New Musical', 'Best Choreographer', 'Best Actor' and 'Best Sound Design'. The first anniversary of the musical was celebrated in May 2006 as the first three Billys came together on stage for an outstanding performance. The musical is phenomenal as a whole and if you want to experience it, book your tickets in advance!


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In other free agency news, according to a pair of Eastern Conference sources, the Celtics offered point guard Sarunas Jasikevicius $1.6 million for next season as part of a three-year deal worth close to $5 million. Those sources said the offer was turned down. Teams over the cap have a $1.6 million exception to use every other year. Boston did not use its exception last year.
Since the Celtics are intent on developing Al Jefferson and now have a backup power forward in Scalabrine, Antoine Walker appears on his way to another team. Look for the Celtics to try to execute a sign-and-trade with Walker as they fill out their roster.
Boston Globe


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Island Surfboards Wall Mural
No longer available
- Overview
A dreamy image catches the relaxed island spirit. Our mural is printed on a durable panel with top and bottom rails for a smooth hang.
- 72.5" wide x 48" high
- Printed with water-based ink on a durable nonadhesive panel.
- Matte finish eliminates glare on the surface.
- Top and bottom rails ensure a smooth and easy hang.
- Dimensions + Care
- Art canvas is nonwoven 66% polypropylene, 25% polyester, 9% viscose.
- Aluminum tube and hanger.
- Water-based ink.
- Includes metal hanger and end caps for mounting.
- Dust with a soft, dry cloth.
- Avoid the use of any adhesive-backed products (tape, stickers, etc.) on the mural's surface.
- Shipping Info
This item will arrive in 3-5 business days. Please proceed to the Payment & Review page of Checkout for a precise delivery estimate.


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Kroger 250 Tickets
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Whiskey Myers, 'Where the Sun Don't Shine' – Exclusive Song Premiere
Whiskey Myers are preparing to release their next album, and they're letting readers of The Boot hear one of the new tracks early via this exclusive song premiere.
The Texas-based country rock group are stepped in the traditions of southern rock, but also draw from R&B, psychedelic rock and even string band traditions.They released their debut album, 'Road of Life,' in 2008, and followed it up with 'Firewater' in 2011.
The group — composed of Cody Cannon, Cody Tate, John Jeffers, Jeff Hogg and Gary Brown — will release 'Early Morning Shakes' on Feb. 4 via Wiggy Thump/Thirty Tigers. 'Where the Sun Don't Shine' showcases them doing what they do best, bringing together their soulful rock influences with a unique dose of Texas musical grit.
Texas Monthly recently called Whiskey Myers "what you might hear from the Allman Brothers Band if they'd grown up with with a serious Led Zeppelin fetish."
'Early Morning Shakes' is currently available for pre-order here.
Listen to Whiskey Myers, 'Where the Sun Don't Shine'


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San Clemente High School's Madrigals entertained at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, singing songs of the holiday season.
Here are some scenes of the group and its director, Tiffany Fernandez.
If you missed it live, you can watch a rebroadcast of the meeting at noon Saturday on Cox cable Channels 30 and 854 (high definition).
Contact the writer: email@example.com or 949-492-5127


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Montero's belief in rotation still strong
PHOENIX -- D-backs catcher Miguel Montero has a front-row seat when it comes to the struggles of Arizona's rotation, and he's not ready to give up on the starting pitchers.
"I know we're going to get out of this rut and have a good run," Montero said.
Entering Wednesday's game, the D-backs' rotation had the worst ERA in the Majors at 7.82, nearly two runs worse than the 29th-ranked Twins.
"I know it grinds on him," D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said of Montero. "Catchers take it personally."
Gibson added that Montero has been a vocal encourager of the pitchers -- as well as the entire team -- during games.
"One thing is for sure, I've got their backs," Montero said of the rotation. "I'm going to keep working to help them get better."
Steve Gilbert is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Inside the D-backs, and follow him on Twitter @dbackswriter. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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League can't put closure on Dodgers' skid
Losing streak reaches six as D-backs get two-run homer in ninth
LOS ANGELES -- It might have looked like just another loss, but when the last-place Dodgers fell again to the D-backs, 5-3, on Tuesday night, it was historic.
It gave the Dodgers a second six-game losing streak this early in the season for the first time in more than a century.
The last time it happened was 1912, 101 years ago, the year that Fenway Park opened and the Titanic sank. The Dodgers went 58-95 that season. It's unknown what the payroll was in 1912, but it wasn't $230 million like this year.
"Obviously it's frustrating for this club to lose six in a row two different times," said manager Don Mattingly. "It's hard to imagine this club playing like that. You can bang your head against the wall, but I don't know. We've got to buckle up and turn it around. The guys in that locker room have had a lot of success, they had to have determination and fight to get to this level. It's tough at times, but you've just got to get past it.
"We were talking in Baltimore [when the other losing streak ended] about pushing that rock in the other direction. There's no magic formula. We have our guys and they've got to perform. You can make a move and maybe spark something, but once you get past all the smoke and mirrors, we've got to perform. We've got to play better. You can throw all kinds of things off the wall … but at the end of the day, we've got to play better and we've got to perform better."
Nick Punto is one Dodger who has performed all season, filling in all over the place because of the unprecedented medical crisis. On Tuesday night, starting at third base, he homered, doubled in another run and led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk against Arizona closer J.J. Putz, who left the game after ball four with an elbow injury. However, Heath Bell took over and stranded Punto at third base.
A member of the remarkable 2011 St. Louis Cardinals, who trailed by 10 1/2 games at one point but won the World Series as a Wild Card, Punto has seen what can happen when a team doesn't quit.
"Absolutely," he said. "The season is never over. I'll never count my team out after what we did in 2011 with the Cardinals."
Although starter Josh Beckett rebounded from a four-inning outing against Colorado with a decent six innings (three earned runs, no homers), he allowed the leadoff batter to reach base five times and he's still winless. But so is opposing starter Brandon McCarthy, who coughed up one-run leads three different times.
So at least the Dodgers kept battling, even in that final inning after closer Brandon League served up a one-out, two-run homer to Paul Goldschmidt at the end of an 11-pitch at-bat.
"There are plenty of times you don't come through, so whenever you get that opportunity and get that hit and hold on for the win, it's fun," said Goldschmidt.
The homer by Goldschmidt, who also hit one Monday night, was the dagger, but League created the mess by walking Gerardo Parra to lead off the ninth.
"Tonight, leadoff walk, I got that one out and my whole plan was just to get Goldschmidt to ground into the double play," League said. "But it's a prime example of what happens when you throw a good hitter a [bad] pitch."
In his previous outing Saturday night, League allowed a walk-off homer to his former teammate, Giants backup catcher Guillermo Quiroz.
"Mechanics are not the issue right now," League said. "I'm not all over the strike zone or out of the strike zone, whatever you want to call it. I'm just not executing when I need to execute."
League, signed to a three-year, $22.5 million contract in the winter, has a 5.40 ERA despite eight saves.
"Sure, there's concern," Mattingly said of League, although he said closers have slumps, too. "When one gets away, they seem to come in bunches.
"It seems everything we do doesn't seem to work. Carl [Crawford] hits a ball [after Punto's walk] and it hits the pitcher's glove, and instead of extending the inning, he's out. And it's a guy Carl can run on. That's the way it is right now."
The Dodgers have lost 14 of their last 17 to the D-backs and are 5-15 against National League West clubs.
Mattingly was asked why he didn't pinch-hit A.J. Ellis for the struggling Ramon Hernandez with one out and runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth, when Hernandez flied out.
"It didn't seem like the right spot," Mattingly said.
Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Bone Health Quick Tips (Page 4)
3. Consume Calcium In Increments
Don't wash down your 500 mg calcium supplement with a tall glass of milk; rather, drink your milk now and save the supplement for later, or vice versa. Why? Your body absorbs the mineral—from foods or supplements—best in increments of 500 mg or less.


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Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model All three major indices are trading up today with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI) trading up 36 points (0.3%) at 14,562 as of Thursday, March 28, 2013, 12:50 PM ET. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,626 issues advancing vs. 1,256 declining with 162 unchanged. The Consumer Goods sector currently is unchanged today versus the S&P 500, which is up 0.2%. On the negative front, top decliners within the sector include Panasonic Corporation ( PC), down 1.9%, Canon ( CAJ), down 1.7% and Sony Corporation ( SNE), down 1.4%. TheStreet Ratings group would like to highlight 5 stocks pushing the sector lower today: 5. Honda Motor ( HMC) is one of the companies pushing the Consumer Goods sector lower today. As of noon trading, Honda Motor is down $0.54 (-1.4%) to $38.25 on average volume Thus far, 294,004 shares of Honda Motor exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 621,500 shares. The stock has ranged in price between $38.24-$38.40 after having opened the day at $38.30 as compared to the previous trading day's close of $38.79. Honda Motor Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and distribution of motorcycles, automobiles, and power products worldwide. Honda Motor has a market cap of $69.6 billion and is part of the automotive industry. The company has a P/E ratio of 10.8, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are up 5.0% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday. Currently there is 1 analyst that rates Honda Motor a buy, no analysts rate it a sell, and 1 rates it a hold. TheStreet Ratings rates Honda Motor as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its good cash flow from operations, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity, growth in earnings per share and reasonable valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins. Get the full Honda Motor Ratings Report now. It's Official: Action Alerts PLUS beats the S&P 500 with Dividends Reinvested! Cramer and Link were up 16.72% in 2012. Were you? See what they are trading for 14-days FREE
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Our Spring 2013 color trend breakdown is vibrant proof of the many hues we've been inspired to play around with this season, and today we're honing in on one of the boldest of the pack. Enter one serious shade of bright, shocking yellow. Before you get started on your not-so-mellow yellow journey, first see how designers interpreted the color on the Spring '13 runways. Then, click through to shop our handpicked pieces — including textured minidresses, mod skirts, sleek pumps, and tweed jackets — right this way.
Image Source: Getty


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CHICO — Dave Kelley plans to be the moderate, non-partisan vote if elected to City Council. He's also the only candidate with Planning Commission experience — eight years — and who worked on the General Plan update, he said.
His goals are local jobs, safe neighborhoods and a strong downtown.
He announced his candidacy more than a year ago and has visited 361 businesses, as well as visiting homes and speaking at service groups.
Those he spoke with said "the City Council should be more adaptable."
"They think the City Council puts a lot of things ahead of their local businesses," and that "it's not a business-friendly place."
He would like to designate a new business assistance department, similar to Oroville, which has an attitude that "any job is a good job."
A new or existing business could have one point person who walks them through the process, he said.
As for the city budget, Kelley said the city needs to cut the budget and promote growth. A priority-based budget model is also needed, he said.
For pension reform, all candidates are on board with that, Kelley said.
One area to grow is through tourism, he continued. Events such as Artoberfest bring people to town, and bring in hotel taxes.
The value of tourism is that they bring in money without long-term impacts, Kelley noted.
For new businesses, he said high-technology and businesses like build.com are doing well to create new jobs.
"Sales tax will not be the nirvana that it has been in the past," Kelley said. While Chico has been a retail sales hub, "every town will get a super Walmart."
"We need to focus on Chico as a regional medical hub," and a good place to live.
In other issues, Kelley said the update to the noise ordinance "didn't need to take that long. Move things along and pay attention to everybody."
To hear the entire interview: http://www2.chicoer.com/election/201211/201211_DaveKelley.html.


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I know the discussion about Granger has gotten out of hand, but I still think it would be awesome if he comes back.
...He'll also have to acknowledge that if this team belongs to any one player, right now it's Paul George. Yet Granger insists that Indiana's offense, which doesn't ask any perimeter player to dominate possessions, will allow for George and him to complement each other. Says an Eastern Conference scout: "We know he and George can play together. That's not an issue at all." Adds George: "When Danny's out there, it frees everybody up. The whole court is just bigger. I have more room, George [Hill] has more room everybody."
All this talk of readjusting assumes one thing: Someday possibly soon Granger will be healthy. He insists that his knee feels good, that he's back to his old self. Yet his health issues stem from tendinosis a degenerative condition that can be managed but that tends to linger. When asked what to expect from Granger, the scout is noncommittal. "You're asking me to give an opinion on a guy who no one has really seen in, what, almost two years?" he says, though at this point, it has only been about 17 months. "He could be an All-Star again," the scout says. "He could be done. I end up sticking my foot in my mouth, whatever I say." But if Granger is healthy, the scout sees him readjusting with no problem. "When they got David West they took on this physical identity," he says, "and Granger can fit with that. He doesn't change their identity at all."
The scout continues: "If he comes all the way back if he's anything close to All-Star level again, then I put them back in the conference finals with Miami. Even with Brooklyn adding everybody they added, even with Chicago getting Rose back Indiana's better. And once they get to the conference finals, maybe it's different this time."...


text: Into the Garden: Tough native shrubs have multiple benefits By Sara Busse October 27, 2012 Story Share CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Horticulture Magazine's William Cullina suggests several native shrubs that are hearty and hardy. The black chokeberry is an Eastern native able to grow in "soil-filled clefts on mountaintops, dim swampy woods and just about everywhere in between." Known for the berries and sweetly fragrant white flowers, typical shrubs grow 8 to 10 feet high and half as wide and smaller in dry situations.Cullina said two compact forms are available commercially: Aronia 'Autumn Magic' that grows to 3 to 5 feet high, while A. Iroquois Beauty ('Morton') tops out at 3 feet.The red chokeberry is similar, but has red fall leaf color and red berries.Northern bayberry, a fragrant shrub that grows in zones 4-7, is native to different parts of the United States and Canada. Female plants produce fragrant gray berries. Leathery, dull green leaves last late into the fall. The southern waxmyrtle (M. cerifera; zones 7-9) is a popular screening shrub in the Southeast.According to nutrition expert Kate Schlag's blog, "threeapplesaday," the aronia berry (chokeberry) is North America's answer to the Central and South American rainforest's acai berry or the Himalayas' goji berry."Aronia berries may rank as the highest fruit on the ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) scale, giving them incredibly potent antioxidant powers. Aronia berries get their dark purple (almost black) hues from anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants that protect against inflammation, age-related neurological deficits and cardiovascular disease."Scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have also indicated that aronia berries are effective aids to weight maintenance by preventing the storage of dangerous fat around the abdomen. Aronia berries are known for their tart taste (hence the name chokeberry), but you can still enjoy them sprinkled on yogurt, cereal or in pancakes for a zesty kick. To tone down their tartness, mix them up into smoothies, mixed berry jams and compotes, or sip on some chokeberry-spiked green tea."So, this lovely native shrub has benefits beyond the landscape!Wildflower seed sourcesI received an email asking for a list of companies that sell wildflower seed. You may call or write to them to request a seed catalog. Adams Brisco Seed Co., P.O. Box 19, Jackson, GA 30233-0019; 770-775-7826, www.abseedjuno.comAmerican Meadows Inc. (formerly Vermont Wildflower Farm), 223 Ave. D, Suite 30, Williston, VT 05495; 802-951-5812, email@example.com; www.americanmeadows.comErnst Conservation Seeds, 9006 Mercer Pike, Meadville, PA 16335; 814-336-2404, email@example.com, www.ernstseed.comLofts Seed, 4764 Hollins Ferry Road, Baltimore, MD 21227; 800-732-3332, www.turf.comShooting Star Nursery, 444 Bates Road, Frankfort, KY 40601, 502-223-1679, www.shootingstarnursery.com Wildseed Farms Inc., P.O. Box 308, Eagle, TX 77434; 800-848-0078, email@example.com, www.wildseedfarms.comOn a personal noteI am "semi-retiring"! While I will continue to write this gardening column, I will no longer be doing other, day-to-day duties here at the newspaper. I will fill my days with my family, and I will be more involved in our church's feeding ministry, Trinity's Table.Thanks for your support!Reach Sara Busse at firstname.lastname@example.com. Story Share Story Share Trending Now 1 WVU pulls away from Kansas for 56-34 win 2 New company planning $73M synthetic fuel plant in Greenbrier County 3 'Heroin(e)' spotlights women helping combat Huntington's drug crisis 4 Getting deep on WVU's penchant for getting deep 5 Philanthropist Betty Schoenbaum of Shoney's fortune turns 100 Animal-theme kids� rooms will get roars of approval Previous Story Prepare your house against winter hazards Next Story


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ancientbuddhism wrote:New Buddhist Movements In Thailand: Towards an Understanding of Wat Phra Dhammakāya and Santi Asoke, by Rory Mackenzie
That's interesting. A related term "New Religious Movement" is now very much preferred by Scientology as an alternative word for "cult".
A much shorter work on the subject by Rory Mackenzie is found here: http://www.buddhismaustralia.org/Black% ... makaya.htm It provides a (scary) idea of the Dhammakaya movement.


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Judge Pens New Bankruptcy Chapter
A year into Jefferson County, Ala.'s historic bankruptcy, its elected leaders are playing tug of war with the brightest lawyers hired by Wall Street banks to protect their $3.2 billion investment in the county's sewer system.
But it is a self-described "slow country boy from West Virginia" who is driving the largest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas Bennett, 63 years old,...


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Topic: Hospice care for dad
Hi all,
I think it is getting to the point where hospice care of some sort may be required for my dad and we are going to have to discuss the options for future care soon. I know my dad would much rather stay at home and has said previously that that is what he wants. And I want him to do whatever he feels is best for him. But today on the way home from the docs, he asked me what I thought he should do and he is looking to me for advice and guidance on this.
My mums health is not good and dad is worried about care at home and how this will affect my mum. I can't be there with them 24 hours a day, they just don't have the space but I only live about 5 minutes from then in the car so can be there pretty quickly if need be. What I said to dad is that maybe he should think more about himself right now and not worry so much about us, but I totally understand his thinking here. The 3 of us haven't really talked about this yet, mum doesn't want to have that discussion properly but it needs to be discussed soon. I tried to bring up the subject today and told her what dad said today, but she refused to discuss it.
I know that dad is going to further look to me for help with this issue, so I'm thinking that he should stay at home for as long as is possible and then if need be enter the hospice when ever that may be. Anyone have any thoughts or advice on this?
Many thanks


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Discovering Columbus
Ridley Scott, Cohiba in hand, directs Gérard Depardieu in 1492.
(continued from page 6)
By temperament, Scott is calm, methodical and cool to the point of aloof, perhaps a vestige of his upbringing in the far north of England. No one ever accuses Ridley Scott of wearing his emotions on his sleeve. But one look at him this morning, fueled with coffee and cigarettes pacing around inside La Rabida monastery, inspecting the set, checking his cameras and lighting, commanding his crew, the celebrated director of Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise was a jangle of nerves, tightly clamped.
Etched into his face was fatigue. Dark circles ringed and puffed his eyes--so blue, so masked--and a couple of days' worth of red and gray stubble slid down his chin. Who had time to shave? Not Scott. For long months, he had been putting in marathon days and frustrating weeks, working against a terrible deadline, trying to manage a team of some 400 people, working in three different countries, on two different continents, all in an effort to plan and shoot an adventure of epic scope and grandeur, a movie that would recreate the historic voyages of Christopher Columbus.
Once inside La Rabida, Scott moved quickly and precisely. Sharpening camera angles. Fiddling with lighting. Positioning his monks at their drafting tables, plumes in hand and eyes fixed to their maps of the world, elegantly charted out on parchment and anchored in the firm conviction that the Earth was flat. In his mind, in his sketchbook, and here on the set, Scott had already worked this crucial first scene down to its finest detail, from its color and composition to its most subtle plays of light and shadow. He composed the scene the way a classical painter would compose a mammoth canvas, one he dreamed could be a masterpiece.
Throughout Scott's career, visuals have been his greatest strength; Pauline Kael has called him a "visual hypnotist." To anyone who saw Thelma & Louise, with its majestic landscapes of the American West, it may come as little surprise that Scott trained as a painter and graphics designer at the Royal College of Art in London, often in drawing classes next to David Hockney. But this morning Scott seemed intent on finding an even richer visual vocabulary: The candles flickering above the drafting tables and the embers glowing in the fireplace bathed his scene in glimmering hues of yellow and orange, just as in the warm, intimate paintings of Caravaggio and Georges de la Tour.
Finally, every detail in place, the mood as he wanted it, Scott signaled he was ready to shoot. "Silencio por favor! OK, boys, quiet down now," bellowed Terry Needham, one of Scott's assistant directors. "Shhh, shhh, shhh...OK, now, a little more atmosphere! Bring up the smoke..."
At once a hush fell over the converted stable and the 150 members of the cast and crew jammed inside. And then every eye on the set turned to the far end of the monastery and focused in on a huge wooden door reaching upward like the apse of a cathedral. "Rolling .... Action!" Slowly, creaking on its ancient hinges, the door inched open, and into the light came Christopher Columbus. A collective gasp rippled through the cast and crew. Columbus was cloaked in a long medieval robe the color of burnt orange with black trim, his dark blond hair flowed down over his collar, his blue-gray eyes burned with the haunted look of a man launched on a holy mission, beyond the reach of Prudence or Reason.
The impact on the set was stunning: This WAS Christopher Columbus, sprung to life. Before everyone's eyes, this towering, mysterious historical figure, so shrouded in myth, controversy and revisionist politics, was again a real man, flesh and blood, soul and will. And perfectly embodied by France's unique gift to the world of cinema, Gérard Depardieu.
At this stage in his life, and in the script, Columbus was an accomplished navigator and explorer, with long experience in the Mediterranean Sea and along the Atlantic coast of Spain, France and England. But he had been waiting an agonizing seven years for royal permission to mount his dream voyage into the pure unknown, to test his absolute conviction that the riches of the East could be reached by sailing to the West. In the halls of power in Spain, Columbus and his theory were objects of scorn and ridicule, and Columbus's patience had worn dangerously thin. Striding into the monastery, his frustration now wearing plain on his face, Columbus was greeted by his friend and spiritual and political adviser, Antonio de Marchena, being played by Spain's greatest actor, Fernando Rey.
"I have something for you," said Marchena, drawing from his robe a parchment bearing a royal seal. "You are going to be heard at The University of Salamanca."
Columbus studied the letter, marveling at the idea of at last presenting his case to an official commission of the Spanish royal court. He felt a rush of hope. And of panic: "God, that is in a week! " During rehearsals earlier this morning, Depardieu's English had come out haltingly and heavily Gallicized. But now, cameras rolling, his English came out clear, fluid and slightly exotic, as befits a humble mariner from Genoa who had settled in Spain.
"Cut! Good," said Scott. "Let's go again."
By the third try, Scott thought he had a printable take. He stared at the replay in one of his video monitors. The composition and the lighting looked right, and so did the chemistry between Columbus and Marchena. And this time when Depardieu delivered his lines, with a flurry of contradictory emotions playing across his face, Scott's hand flew up to his heart in joy. And relief. After nearly a year of agonized planning, scripting, casting, scouting locations, building sets, outfitting ships and leading rehearsals, Scott seemed to sense that this $45 million extravaganza just might deliver the magic for which every director dreams and works.
Ever cool, ever cautious, through, Scott was not about to call for Champagne. Still, after this successful take, on this crucial first scene , those who know Scott well detected a sure sign of his rising sprits. He put away his cigarettes and instead put a match to his favorite cigar: a long, regal Cohiba, made from the finest Cuban tobacco. A bold smoke to launch a very bold voyage.
On the set of every major movie, this first day of shooting is always filled with tension and excitement, but 1492 carried with it unusually high expectations and risks. For Scott's telling of the story of Columbus and his voyage to America was not just a major film, it was a colossal gamble--a $45 million gamble with implications far more daunting than budgets and global grosses.
This was to be a Hollywood-scale extravaganza, but this time financed and executed not by American studios and financiers but by Europeans, with European cultural values and European ideas about what the art of cinema should be. If 1492 succeeded, the film would be a welcome triumph for Europe and European cinema, especially at a time when more and more national film industries were feeling severely menaced by America's increasing dominance of world cinema. But if it failed, 1492 would be seen in Europe and in America as a major defeat, more proof that the Europeans, with their boutique approach to film-making, and their insistence on prizing art over commerce, just cannot make smash blockbusters with industrial scale budgets and international box-office muscle.
There were other layers of risk and ambition as well. In terms of its pan-European financing and its production team, using technicians from England, France and Spain, 1492 was designed to be a prototype venture, one that could set the standard for a range of European projects to come. Scott and Depardieu had shown they could bridge the gap between European artistic values and Hollywood commercialism; could 1492 help them lead Europe into a whole new era of major filmmaking? That was the hope. But if the film failed, if, in the typical Hollywood parlance, 1492 should "go down the toilet," well, then, Scott and Depardieu would surely face the heaviest flak.
But you would never know it watching Depardieu this morning. Between takes at La Rabida, the huge, rollicking Frenchman joked with his makeup team, pulled pranks on the sound specialists, friends of his from France, and he did his general best to keep everyone loose and to create a kind of family spirit and chemistry among the cast and crew. Unlike so many actors, Depardieu seems to be totally lacking in ego and pretense; he grew up in a peasant family in provincial France, and despite all his success, he is not about to become a supercilious Parisian. On the set, his warmth and clowning served as a sharp contrast and complement to Ridley Scott's aloof precision and preoccupation.
Like Depardieu, the origin of 1492 was purely French. In 1987, a young French journalist named Roselyne Bosch went to Spain on what was supposed to be a routine assignment for the French newsweekly Le Point. Bosch was doing an article on how Spain was going to fete the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage on behalf of Spain's Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand and for her research, Bosch went to Madrid and then further south to Seville to peek into the provincial archives.
In the two cities, like countless historians before her, she found some 40 million parchments, many never deciphered, and she found scores of letters handwritten by Columbus. Leafing through some of Columbus's books, she sometimes found notes and little drawings penned in the margins. The more she looked through his books and papers, the more real Columbus became to her; all the mythological haze surrounding the man started to clear.
Bosch: "I was deeply moved just by seeing his handwriting and signature. Suddenly, instead of being like Santa Claus, Columbus was a human being .... Sometimes in the margin of a book, he would draw a little hand pointing to a certain passage. It was very moving, and I thought, 'This ought to be a movie."'
Indeed it seemed a natural, especially with all the hoopla planned for the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage. And no one, up to then, had ever brought Columbus convincingly to the screen. In 1949, Hollywood brought out a Christopher Columbus, with Frederic March in the title role, but the general assessment was that the movie was an embarrassment and certainly not what Columbus deserved. In fact, with all the renewed interest in him, it has now become clear what a fascinating man Columbus was, no matter how disputed is the legend that he discovered America.
While historians disagree about many aspects of his life and travels, there now seems to be a consensus that while Columbus hoped to return from The New World with gold, silk and spices, he returned with something that proved to be as valuable: tobacco. Most accounts, from historians from America to Cuba, now maintain that when Columbus visited Indian villages in the Caribbean, he found the natives smoking enormous leaves fashioned into tight rolls, an aboriginal cigar. According to some Cuban accounts, two of Columbus's crew members, Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, were sent on a mission into the interior of what Columbus thought was the Asian mainland but was probably Cuba. There, in a peaceful village, they made what was probably Europe's first sighting of tobacco.
By some historical accounts, Columbus himself was indifferent to the appeal of tobacco, so preoccupied was he by his quest for the Grand Khan and the source of Solomon's riches. But tobacco was among the curiosities and riches Columbus's ships brought back from The New World, thus introducing the pungent leaves to Europe and laying the groundwork for the tobacco industry and popular subculture that would develop over the next 500 years. In subsequent voyages, European explorers and traders bartered their silks and cinnamon and other spices for bales of tobacco, until the leaves themselves became a focal point of the growing transatlantic commerce.
Bosch came to see Columbus as an ideal subject for a film, a movie showing him not as a cartoon character but as a real man fueled by intellectual fervor and messianic zeal. She called a friend of hers in Paris, Alain Goldman, a French film distributor. He flew to Seville for a firsthand appraisal of the Columbus material and a visit to the cathedral in Seville, where Columbus is buried. (Though there are historians who doubt the remains are actually his.) Excited by what he saw, Goldman encouraged Bosch to pursue her research, and she stayed on in Spain. Soon the two of them became partners in a fledgling film venture: he as producer and Bosch plunging into research and a conversion from journalism to screenwriting.
Initially, they envisioned doing the entire film as a French project, but they found no support among French producers. It would be too big a budget for France, the producers said, try Hollywood. Rank amateurs though they were, neophytes with little idea how Hollywood worked and French to boot, Bosch and Goldman nonetheless started knocking on the doors of American studios. And they found no encouragement. And understandably so: they had no director, no star and no track record in screenwriting or movie production. You can almost hear Hollywood executives chortling: "No star, no script; kids, kids, get real."
Bosch became very disconcerted, but then for Le Point she did a profile of the American writer Tom Wolfe. He told her about how he had come to write The Right Stuff, and of his admiration for the NASA astronauts. Bosch was inspired: " 'Listen,' I told him, `the astronauts are nothing next to Columbus.' It was talking with Wolfe that I started to believe....And the more I read, the more I worked, the more convinced I became that Columbus was somebody people think they know, but really nobody knew. And so I felt I had to tell them."
Finally, Bosch knocked on the right door: Ridley Scott. He had ideal credentials for directing Columbus: he was a European with artistic merit, commercial success and excellent connections in Hollywood. He was just coming off Thelma & Louise and it would soon bring him an Oscar nomination as best director. By chance, Scott on his own had been exploring the idea of doing a film on Columbus, and when Bosch set forth her vision and a synopsis of a script, he had one immediate reaction: "Yes, if Gérard Depardieu would agree to be Columbus."
This took Bosch by complete surprise; oddly, Depardieu had not even occurred to her. With their sights set on finding U.S. financing, she and Goldman had been focusing on American stars like Kevin Costner and Michael Douglas, big names they figured would be the only way they could secure the necessary funding. But as soon as Scott said it, Bosch knew Depardieu would be perfect. The star of Cyrano de Bergerac, Danton, Jean de Florette and The Last Metro was now the biggest star in Europe, and with Peter Weir's Green Card, he had made an impressive debut in the English-language market. Distributed by Disney, Green Card grossed over $40 million in America alone. Bosch was sure he would be perfect for Columbus. "Right away I knew there would be no problem with energy; Gérard would burst the screen," she said. "And from that moment on, thinking of him in the role gave me a big push. Instead of having an abstract idea of Columbus, I knew it was Gérard. It was a liberation."
But would Depardieu agree? Bosch sent Depardieu a draft script and then set up a meeting with him in Paris, at the Hotel Raphael, a favorite rendezvous point for French film stars and executives. She and Scott arrived in the bar at the appointed hour of 7 p.m., but there was no sign of Depardieu. After a half-hour wait, Bosch telephoned Depardieu at a pied-à-terre he keeps in Paris, and he answered with a very soft, very shy voice. Had he forgotten? Or was he just nervous about taking on such a colossal role? She had no clue, but soon Depardieu was storming into the Raphael and into a torrential stream of conversation. For an hour Depardieu did most of the talking, about himself and his vision of Columbus; it left both Scott and Bosch a little dazed.
Bosch: "To my astonishment, I realized that in one or two readings he had understood all the subtleties behind the lines. When in Hollywood I had tried to discuss Columbus's relationship with Queen Isabella, I had great difficulty, because it was ambiguous, it was an unresolved sexual attraction. In sum, it was not Hollywood. Gérard got it right away, like a laser .... Ridley and I came away very excited. Gérard is larger than life. And Ridley films larger than life. It seemed a perfect match."
With Depardieu aboard, Goldman and Scott went to see Gaumont, the French film conglomerate and part of the Schlumberger family empire. They met with Nicolas Seydoux, head of Gaumont, and a close friend of Depardieu. Scott was expecting a tough Hollywood-style negotiation, but when they named a price of 43 million francs, some $8 million, one of the largest sums ever paid for French distribution rights, Seydoux simply said fine. "We shook hands," Scott recalled, "and then a moment later a waiter came out carrying a silver tray with a bottle of Champagne, from the family winery of course."
With Gaumont providing the essential start-up capital, Scott and Bosch began putting together the mammoth venture, from finding and outfitting Columbus's ships to scouting the locations needed in Spain and The New World. Goldman focused on packaging and selling world rights to their project, but soon he ran into an unexpected and terrifying hitch: Hollywood competitors.
Producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind, best known for their Superman movies, had their own Columbus film in the works, and it promised to be a real Hollywood shebang. There was talk Tom Selleck would play the lead, there were rumors Marlon Brando would have a role, and the Salkinds were busy trying to legally corner every conceivable title using the name Columbus. Both productions feared that even in the year of the 500th anniversary of his sailing, the world market just could not accommodate two Columbus extravaganzas.
Goldman, then not even 30 years old, was suddenly dipped into a full-scale Hollywood battle, one that would fry his nerves for months on end, right down to the first week of shooting, when he was still waiting for bank guarantees and insurance clearance. The battle quickly became nasty and was played out at several levels: with distributors and theater chains, with lawyers arguing over the rights to potential titles, and it was played out in the press, from Variety to The New York Times. The Salkinds made lavish use of Variety to announce they had signed Brando, for $5 million, to play Tomas de Torquemada, the infamous head of the Spanish Inquisition. Selleck wound up as King Ferdinand, while for Columbus the Salkinds signed George Coraface, a European whose name has yet to become a household word or a box-office draw.
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A POLICE community support officer has been given a bravery award for saving the life of a two-year-old boy who had fallen into a canal.
PCSO Beccy Walker was awarded the Roland Gee McGowan Trophy after she jumped into the water to save little Ayaan Shah, who had become separated from his mother in Burnley.
A search was immediately launched and PCSO Walker and her colleague PCSO Kirsty Shepherd made their way to Pit Top Park, bordering onto Pheasant Ford Green.
When PCSO Walker found the boy in the Leeds Liverpool Canal, face down, she climbed in without hesitation, despite the water being deep and silt making it difficult for her to get a foothold.
When she managed to get through the water, she pulled Ayaan to the side where her colleagues, PC Vicky Malley, PCSO Shepherd and PC Duncan Hall got him out.
PCs Malley, Rubina Akoo and Alan Brown carried out CPR until the ambulance arrived. The child was taken by air ambulance to the Royal Blackburn Hospital in a critical condition, but was later transferred to Manchester Children's Hospital, where he made a full recovery.
PCSO Walker said: "I am really pleased and thankful to have been given this award, but I must also say that it was a team effort between myself and my colleagues that meant the little boy was saved.
"I am just glad that I managed to get him out of the water, and that he survived such a dangerous incident."
East divisional commander Chief Superintendent Chris Bithell, who presented the award at a special ceremony at Burnley Police Station, said: "It was a privilege to hand this trophy to Beccy, who, without any concern for her own safety, entered the canal to save the young boy's life.
"This award is very special given that it hasn't been given out since 1997, but more so because it is named after one of our officers who tragically lost his life whilst attending an incident.
"Beccy is a deserving recipient of the trophy.
"And I thoroughly commend her courage.
"I think it is very reassuring to the community of Burnley that we have an officer like Beccy, and her other colleagues who helped in this awful situation, patrolling the streets and protecting residents."


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To this day, when George Bonafede backs his 90 ZR-1 out of the garage, he cant believe its his Corvette. Thirteen years ago, George owned a 69 with a 600-horse 427 that he sold because he became financially challenged. At that time, he vowed to own another Corvette as soon as circumstances allowed. When the 88 ZR-1 hit the showroom floor he knew thered be no turning awaya ZR-1 was now the only Corvette that would do.
Then, in 1995, while looking through Sportcar Trader magazine, he spotted an ad for a black-with-gray-interior 90 ZR-1 with only 2,500 miles on the odometer. He contacted the original owner and learned that the car had never seen any rain and had been babied from the day it left the showroom. George bought it on the spot without so much as a testdrive.
After purchasing the ZR-1, George occasionally raced in quarter-mile and autocross. With the car stock, its best time in the quarter-mile was 13.70 at 106. That wasnt good enough, and prompted George to add some performance goodies to the car. Only two months after bringing the car home, George added a new Tri-Flow exhaust and a lowering kit. In an attempt to get the car to hook up better, a new set of Fittipaldi 17x10 rims in the front and 17x11-½ on the rear were wrapped in Bridgestone Pontenzas. Next, a Free Flow intake and a custom chip helped remove a few tenths off the quarter-mile time, but this still wasnt enough. George added 2-inch Watson ceramic-coated headers, a Centerforce clutch, Single Mass flywheel, and 4.09 gears in the rear to get the time down to 12.70 at 114.
Georges need for speed drove him to continue with the performance enhancements: 63mm throttle bodies, ported and matched plenum and injector housing, and a 120hp nitrous system were put into place. This gave him his best time to datea quarter-mile run of 12.30 at 120 on street tires. Currently the ZR-1 is having a lightweight flywheel installed and set of Viper 4.11 Dana gears put into the rearend to help stand up to the increased power. Finally, George will put a set of drag radials on the back with the hope of reaching his under-11-second goal; if that doesnt do it, only George knows whats next for the ZR-1.
He says the car wont be raced anymore once he reaches this goal; he only needs to know the power is there when he wants it.


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This game was classified by the community with the following category scores - Violence=0/3, Sex=0/3, Mature Content=0/3. SPINNR is a unique multiplayer game which utilizes novel gameplay mechanics to pit players against each other in a timed fast paced turn based arena. Players can gain multipliers to increase their point values, as well as use a myriad of powerups to help themselves, or hurt their enemies. Colorful graphics and upbeat audio help to immerse the player in a fun world bathed in glowing neon action.
Buy Xbox content on Xbox.com. Your Xbox 360 console will automatically download the content next time you turn it on and connect to Xbox Live.Learn More


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SEC401: Security Essentials Bootcamp Style
Very well rounded. Great that he(the instructor)was able to bring real world examples to class. Made the class flow smoothly.
Robin Mahon, Kapstone Paper
Excellent tips and links provided today - for more than I was anticipating and many that I plan to use.
Paul Puskorius, The College Board
Learn the most effective steps to prevent attacks and detect adversaries with actionable techniques that you can directly apply when you get back to work. Learn tips and tricks from the experts so that you can win the battle against the wide range of cyber adversaries that want to harm your environment.
Is SEC401: Security Essentials Bootcamp Style the right course for you?
STOP and ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you fully understand why some organizations get compromised and others do not?
- If there were compromised systems on your network, are you confident that you would be able to find them?
- Do you know the effectiveness of each security device and are you certain that they are all configured correctly?
- Are proper security metrics set up and communicated to your executives to drive security decisions?
If you do not know the answers to these questions, SEC401 course will provide the information security training you need in a bootcamp-style format that is reinforced with hands-on labs.
You Will Learn:
- To develop effective security metrics that provide a focused playbook that IT can implement, auditors can validate, and executives can understand
- To analyze and assess the risk to your environment in order to drive the creation of a security roadmap that focuses on the right areas of security
- Practical tips and tricks to focus in on high-priority security problems within your organization and on doing the right things that will lead to security solutions that work
- Why some organizations are winning and some are losing when it comes to security and, most importantly, how to be on the winning side
- The core areas of security and how to create a security program that is anchored on PREVENT-DETECT-RESPOND.
Learn to build a security roadmap that can scale today and into the future.
SEC401: Security Essentials Bootcamp Style is focused on teaching you the essential information security skills and techniques you need to protect and secure your organization's critical information assets and business systems. Our course will show you how to prevent your organization's security problems from being headline news in the Wall Street Journal!
"Prevention is Ideal but Detection is a Must."
With the rise in advanced persistent threats, it is almost inevitable that organizations will be targeted. Whether the attacker is successful in penetrating an organization's network depends on the effectiveness of the organization's defense. Defending against attacks is an ongoing challenge, with new threats emerging all of the time, including the next generation of threats. Organizations need to understand what really works in cybersecurity. What has worked, and will always work, is taking a risk-based approach to cyber defense. Before your organization spends a dollar of its IT budget or allocates any resources or time to anything in the name of cybersecurity, three questions must be answered:
- What is the risk?
- Is it the highest priority risk?
- What is the most cost-effective way to reduce the risk?
Security is all about making sure you focus on the right areas of defense. In SEC401 you will learn the language and underlying theory of computer and information security. You will gain the essential and effective security knowledge you will need if you are given the responsibility for securing systems and/or organizations. This course meets both of the key promises SANS makes to our students: (1) You will learn up-to-the-minute skills you can put into practice immediately upon returning to work; and (2) You will be taught by the best security instructors in the industry.
Assessment Available
Test your security knowledge with our free SANS Security Essentials Assessment Test.
This course prepares you for the GSEC certification that meets the requirement of the DoD 8570 IAT Level 2.
Please plan to arrive early on Day 1 (8:30AM-Local Time) for lab preparation and set-up. The additional time is needed as the labs require the installation of both a Linux and Windows Virtual Machine (VM) and extensive copying of files in order to run and complete the labs successfully. The Instructor will be available to assist students with lab prep and set-up from 8:30AM-9:00AM. Class lecture will start at 9AM. (Excludes vLive and Mentor)
Course Content Overlap Notice:
Please note that some course material for SEC401 and MGT512 may overlap. We recommend SEC401 for those interested in a more technical course of study, and MGT512 for those primarily interested in a leadership-oriented but less technical learning experience.
|Course Contents
|SEC401.1: Networking Concepts
A key way that attackers gain access to a company's resources is through a network connected to the Internet. A company wants to try to prevent as many attacks as possible, but in cases where it cannot prevent an attack, it must detect it in a timely manner. Therefore, an understanding of how networks and the related protocols like TCP/IP work is critical to being able to analyze network traffic and determine what is hostile. It is just as important to know how to protect against these attacks using devices such as routers and firewalls. These essentials, and more, will be covered during this course day in order to provide a firm foundation for the consecutive days of training.
CPE/CMU Credits: 8
Setting Up a Lab with Virtual Machines
Network Fundamentals
IP Concepts
IP Behavior
Virtual Machines
|SEC401.2: Defense In-Depth
To secure an enterprise network, you must have an understanding of the general principles of network security. In this course, you will learn about six key areas of network security. The day starts with information assurance foundations. Students look at both current and historical computer security threats, and how they have impacted confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The first half of the day also covers creating sound security policies and password management, including tools for password strength on both Unix and Windows platforms. The second half of the day is spent on understanding the information warfare threat and the six steps of incident handling. The day draws to a close by looking at attack strategies and how the offense operates.
CPE/CMU Credits: 8
Information Assurance Foundations
Computer Security Policies
Contingency and Continuity Planning
Access Control
Password Management
Incident Response (IR)
Offensive and Defensive Information Warfare (IW)
Attack Strategies and Methods
|SEC401.3: Internet Security Technologies
Military agencies, banks, and retailers offering electronic commerce programs, as well as dozens of other types of organizations, are striving to understand the threats they are facing and what they can do to address those threats. On day 3, you will be provided with a roadmap to help you understand the paths available to organizations that are considering deploying or planning to deploy various security devices and tools such as intrusion detection systems and firewalls. When it comes to securing your enterprise, there is no single technology that is going to solve all your security issues. However, by implementing an in-depth defense strategy that includes multiple risk-reducing measures, you can go a long way toward securing your enterprise.
CPE/CMU Credits: 8
Vulnerability Scanning and Remediation
Web Security
Firewalls and Perimeters
Host-based Protection
Network-based Intrusion Detection and Prevention
|SEC401.4: Secure Communications
There is no silver bullet when it comes to security. However, there is one technology that would help solve a lot of security issues, though few companies deploy it correctly. This technology is cryptography. Concealing the meaning of a message can prevent unauthorized parties from reading sensitive information. Day 4 looks at various aspects of encryption and how it can be used to secure a company's assets. A related area called steganography, or information hiding, is also covered. The day finishes by looking at using the Critical Security Controls for metrics based dashboards and performing risk assessment across an organization.
CPE/CMU Credits: 8
Critical Security Controls
Risk Assessment and Auditing
|SEC401.5: Windows Security
Windows is the most widely-used and hacked operating system on the planet. At the same time, the complexities of Active Directory, PKI, BitLocker, AppLocker, and User Account Control represent both challenges and opportunities. This section will help you quickly master the world of Windows security while showing you the tools that can simplify and automate your work. You will complete the day with a solid grounding in Windows security, by looking at automation, auditing and forensics.
CPE/CMU Credits: 8
Security Infrastructure
Service Packs, Patches, and Backups
Permissions and User Rights
Security Policies and Templates
Securing Network Services
Auditing and Automation
|SEC401.6: Unix/Linux Security
While organizations do not have as many Unix/Linux systems, those that they do have are often some of the most critical systems that need to be protected. Day 6 provides step-by-step guidance to improve the security of any Linux system. The course combines practical "how to" instructions with background information for Linux beginners, as well as security advice and best practices for administrators of all levels of expertise.
CPE/CMU Credits: 6
Linux Landscape
Permissions and User Accounts
Linux OS Security
Maintenance, Monitoring, and Auditing Linux
Linux Security Tools
|Additional Information
To give you an idea of the effectiveness of the course, here is what a few former students have said about it:
"SEC401 provides an excellent overview of security fundamentals delivered by experienced industry professionals." - Jathan Watso, Department of Finance
"Excellent material for security professionals wanting a deeper level of knowledge on how to implement security policies, procedures, and defensive mechanisms in an org." - Brandon Smit, Dynetics
"SEC401 took what I thought I knew and truly explained everything to me. Now, I also UNDERSTAND the security essentials fundamentals and how/why we apply them. Loved the training, cannot wait to come back for more." - Nicholas Blanton, ManTech International
|Laptop Required
Security 401: Security Essentials Bootcamp Style consists of course instructions and hands-on sessions. To reinforce the skills covered in class and gain experience with the tools needed to implement effective security, there are hands-on labs every day. These lab sessions are designed to enable students to use the knowledge gained throughout the course in an instructor-led environment. Students will have the opportunity to install, configure, and utilize the tools and techniques that they have learned. In class you will receive a USB drive with 2 virtual machines, but it is critical that you have a properly configured system prior to class.
IMPORTANT: You can use any 64-bit version of Windows, Mac OSX, or Linux as your core operating system that also can install and run VMware virtualization products. You also must have a minimum of 8 GB of RAM or higher for the VM's to function properly in the class. A VMware product must also be installed prior to coming to class. Verify that under BIOS, Virtual Support is ENABLED.
Mandatory System Requirements
Mandatory Downloads prior to coming to class:
It is critical that your CPU and operating system support 64-bit so that our 64-bit guest virtual machine will run on your laptop. VMware provides a free tool for Windows and Linux that will detect whether or not your host supports 64-bit guest virtual machines. For further troubleshooting, this article also provides good instructions for Windows users to determine more about the CPU and OS capabilities. For Macs, please use this support page from Apple to determine 64-bit capability.
Please download and install VMware Workstation 11, VMware Fusion 7, or VMware Workstation Player 7 or higher versions on your system prior to class beginning. If you do not own a licensed copy of VMware Workstation or Fusion, you can download a free 30-day trial copy from VMware. VMware will send you a time-limited serial number if you register for the trial at their website.
SEC401 Checklist
I have confirmed that:
If you have additional questions about the laptop specifications, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com.
|Who Should Attend
Anyone who works in security, is interested in security, or has to understand security should take this course, including:
SEC401 Security Essentials Bootcamp Style covers all of the core areas of security and assumes a basic understanding of technology, networks, and security. For those who are brand new to the field with no background knowledge, SEC301: Intro to Information Security would be the recommended starting point. While SEC301 is not a prerequisite, it will provide the introductory knowledge that will help maximize the experience with SEC401.
|Other Courses People Have Taken
Other Courses People Have Taken
For those who are more advanced, SEC501: Enterprise Defender might be the more appropriate course to take.
|What You Will Receive
|You Will Be Able To
|Hands-on Training
SEC401 is an interactive hands-on training course. The following are some of the lab activities that students will carry out:
Additional Resources
View Dr. Cole's security videos
Learn even more about computer and information security in the SANS Reading Room, where more than 1,600 White Papers authored by industry professionals are available for free. The papers cover such topics as:
- Network fundamentals
- Core security design principles for networks
- Protocol behavior
- Analysis and decoding of packets
- Information assurance foundations
- Computer security policies
- Contingency and continuity planning
- Password management and access control
- Incident handling
- Offensive and defensive information warfare
- Host-based intrusion detection and prevention
- Network-based intrusion detection and prevention
- Offensive methods of attack
- Firewalls and perimeters
- Risk assessment and auditing
- Cryptography
- Steganography
- Wireless security
- Operations security
- Windows security
- Unix/Linux security


text:
"How Stella Got Her Groove Back" author Terry McMillan tweets: "I prayed President Obama would slay Mitt Romney." Of course, Terry McMillan was referring to Electoral College votes, but we know the right wing will take offense. McMillan's tweet came after President Obama won Florida after the voter count was completed.
I prayed President Obama would slay Mitt, and I think 332 to 206 electoral votes qualifies as slain.
— Terry McMillan (@MsTerryMcMillan) November 10, 2012
Terry McMillan also tweeted though she's in the top one percent, she wants President Obama to stick to his guns on raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans:
I just pray he doesn't back down on those tax increases for the 1%. Even though last time I checked, I was one of them. What's fair is fair.
— Terry McMillan (@MsTerryMcMillan) November 10, 2012


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Macau Gaming: Analysts Race To Raise Estimates; Skeptic Macquarie Ups Melco Crown To Buy
In the last week, analysts have been racing to raise their estimates and target prices for the Macau names.
We have a new convert, Macquarie. This case is significant because the broker has been a vocal skeptic. Here are analysts Gary Pinge and Roger Tse:
Our concern on corruption crackdowns and a general slowdown in Macau driven by Chinese macro has clearly proven to be conservative. For now, Macau's mass market segment continues to grow from the broader hinterland in China. VIP is also showing signs of improvement as macro conditions in China improve.
We have upgraded FY13 expectations from 13% to 18%. FY14 expectation has been raised from 8% to 12%, and FY15 is estimated at 12%.
The broker upgraded Melco Crown (MPEL) from Hold to Buy, with a new target price of $41.5. Melco Crown last traded at $34, a 22% upside.
Macquarie likes Melco Crown because it has an abundance of tables in a land where gaming table is a scarcity:
Our key rationale for liking both of these companies is mostly due to the table cap regime. We continue to note that tables are a scare resource in Macau as the Government is trying to control the table additions. Against this backdrop, both SJM and MPEL (at Altira) have a relatively large bank of tables (compared to their existing tables) which they can move to unlock value.
For the same reason, Macquarie downgrades Wynn Macau, a unit of Wynn (WYNN), to Hold:
We remain cautious on Wynn Macau which we have downgraded to Underperform from Neutral. While we like Wynn as a builder of premium luxury properties and applaud the company for its bold investment (US$4bn), the Macau Government's table cap regime makes us think that it will be hard for Wynn to generate an exciting return on the project.
But the analysts were grudging in their sector upgrade and warn that the upcoming 2015 government concession will drive the stock flow - at some point:
We have learnt that China certainly has a deep pool of players, but trying to work out how deep that pool is and how far down that pool we are is a challenge. Also, even after we roll forward multiples to post Cotai openings, many operators (except for SJM) still trade on 8-10x EV/EBITDA, which is expensive with only 4yrs left on the concession. Hence, concession discussions will start to become very important – especially from Jan 2015 onwards when the Government will start consultations/discussions.
But that is 2015. Meanwhile, Macau is game.


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|October 2, 2000, 11:17 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: December 6, 1999
Location: Fort Atkinson, WI USA
Posts: 143
I went trout fishing with my dad and a few friends saturday morning. I caught 2 brown trout over legal size (and one under, released and 1 legal rainbow trout.
Noon opened Wisconsins Duck season, we loaded up and I was elected to walk the ditchbanks looking while my dad and Hal posted around the corner.
I jumped at least 4 wood ducks and 2 blue wing teal, shot 1 woodie (my first duck!)
and watch the rest fly off. (by the time my first one hit the ground the others were gone, I wonder why?)
Later Hal jumped a woodie that I hit and it ran under the bank. Hal had hip waders so he went into ditch to look for duck. BLAM BLAM his second shot neatly beheaded the duck.
So our total for 4 fisherman saturday morning was 11 trout (2 rainbow 9 brown),
3 duck hunters who took 2 woodies, my dad took 1 blue winged teal along with his two woodies and Hal took 2 blue wing teal with his woodies.
Trout make excellent grill fare. !
Ahh, so much fun. I cannot understand why anyone would want to stop people who enjoy this from doing it. It was a lot of work, so I understand that not everyone will do it,
but I really had a good day. And now I have shared it with you. Even better.
|October 2, 2000, 01:14 PM
Junior member
Join Date: July 7, 2000
Location: Anchorage
Posts: 863
Under legal limit? Over legal limit? Ain't that a shame, when they set up windows like that? In washing ton you have to buy a fishing licsence, and a sturgeon tag, and can onle keep them if they're over 36" or under 42" IT's like, geeze guys, don't go out of your way to make this easy for us Glad you had a good time, duck hunting is alot of fun, we used to do it alot in idaho, but here it conflicts with moose season, so we haven't bought tags.
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