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Amazing. keep it up!~
Not bad. A little on the short side. Do you think you should put a DH disregarded warning because of the Horcrux related stuff? 8.75/10
Author's Response: except I wrote that before I read deathly hallows....
what do you call Violet? A fashionista? A psychotic megalomaniac? Both?
As usual, a good chapter. Not much happened in terms of plot, but very well-written.
My favorites the Hello Hydration, with lilac and coconut.
mine, too! (High fives Draco)
This is a hilarious world you've come up with, I can't wait to finish!
loving it! Schmergo reccomended this to me and I'm glad I decided to click the link!
Love the allusions to other dark lords...sauron, Darth Vader reading parenting magazine, etc.
Author's Response: Schmergo is very cool. I'm glad you took her advice. To be honest (and vain), I just love the idea of Darth Vader reading Parenting magazine. I mean, who needs it more than him?
update please for the love of my sanity, I need to know what happens.
Hahahaha! I totally love this! Keep it up soon!
hehe. now you have to update or i will shave your cat.
Author's Response: shave my cat and you'll have to write your own ending.
xD Especially loved this chapter, Draco's hilarious.
Haha, great job so far! Though some of the characters seem to be a /little/ out of character, it's very funny and quite enjoyable. Keep up the great work! =D
Author's Response: you
YAAAY! You should have seen me dance when I got that email that said this story's been updated.
Egads, the conversation with Pansy was hilarious! Everyone knows they're going to end up married, though...
The vampire bat analogy was brilliant, as was Draco somehow failing to pay attention to Voldemort and daydreaming about the Holiday Inn and doughnuts.
I just stare at the screen, seriously, and wonder what kind of mind can just come up with stuff so easily. It's incredible.
You know what would be awesome? If in Deathly Hallows, Draco joined up with Harry to destroy Horcruxes... but not to do good, just to take over as Dark Lord. That would be so, so cool, especially if the good side stupidly thought that Draco had switched to their team...
Okay, I think I've been spending too much time rooting for evil.
I can't wait for an update! I hope you're seriously considering a career writing books, because you're shockingly funny and original.
Author's Response: Your ideas are good but we shall just have to see... :)
Oh, wait, what about those Horcrux things my father told me about? He told me that Dumbledore says that there are six Horcruxes, each one containing a piece of Voldemorts soul, and all six must be destroyed before the Fearless Leader can be destroyed.
This is just a side note, but its really pathetic that powerful Death Eaters have to rely on penetrating the enemys intelligence so they can find out about their own leader.
Anyway, Horcruxes: the diary Potter destroyed back in second year, the ring that Dumbledore destroyed, Slytherins locket, Hufflepuffs cup, something that used to be Ravenclaws, something that used to be Gryffindors, and one that nobody knows about, or thats what Dad said.
How on Earth does Lucius know about the Horcruxes? The only person D'dore would have spoken to them about is Harry.
Author's Response: D'dore told Snape about them, otherwise how could he explain the hand thing?
"may-he-be-boiled-in-blackberry-jam-and-left-on-the-top-shelf-of-a-cupboard-to-gather-dustbunnies-for-all-eternity" Good one. Rolls right off the tongue. I suppose Pansy would be stalking him, so that would be the best he could say as far as I know. 9/10.
Author's Response: Hey, it seemed like a pretty dreadful fate to me.
This was funny...the way Pansy thinks Draco loves her and the way Snape is out for revenge,But I still LIKE the OTHER chapter better,(the Herbal Essences thing really helped make it funny, and the rest of te chapter was good too), Soooo I guess it was a good chapter too,not as funny as the other ones,but still a good chapter,(Sorry for the bad review) 0-0 *~*CowGirlHPFan*~* :)
Author's Response: I don't mind I didn't write this chapter. ;) Grace did (my co-author)
Author's Response: Beg pardon!!! You're my co-author. And the Herbal Essences thing was my idea ;)
Author's Response: Yeah maybe, but I'm the one who takes care of this joint so I call the shots. And Violet was mine so hah! ;-]
I love this story! Excellent humour.. one of my favourites..
By the way, just a side note: aren't there only six horcruxes? Isn't Voldemort himself the seventh piece of his soul?
Great chapter! Update soon!
Author's Response: you're right! Thanks for pointing that out. I fixed it.
Oh, wow. This story is hilarious. Nice job! :)
Author's Response: Thank you. We try for the 'wow factor.'
Your story is SO funny. LOL. I loved the Herbal Essences part with the coconut and mango. I wish there was a picture of Draco and Snape when they were finished with their "make-overs". ....Actually, no, I'm happy making up my own images of them. *evil smirk*
Author's Response: Herbal Essences is my speciality. I just hope Snape keeps to using shampoo. Thanks for reviewing.
Wow. That was amazing. Ilove it. you rock
Author's Response: Thanks. We try.
Wow, even your authors' notes are fantastic!
I was hoping for a Snape makeover... and you didn't disappoint. The idea of Violet scaring Snape more than Voldemort is funny and not at all implausible.
The shampoo part KILLED me. I love it! I can really see Draco getting all excited over hair products and knowing all of the different scents of Herbal Essence.
Draco's suggestion about Snape's eyes was really funny as well... 'put them out, he doesn't need them.' And Snape actually thinking about his appearance, like his haircut when he was eleven, pale making him look intelligent, not being able to go wrong with black... it's interesting to think that he doesn't look the way he does because he just doesn't care at all.
For some reason, my favourite part of this chapter was the distinct shortage of elephants. Where do you get this stuff? You're incredible! And then the 'sweet as honey'... I believe this is the best characterization of Snape I've ever seen in a humour fic, Draco too, for that matter.
Somehow I was actually rather touched by the Snape makeover scene. I can just see him completely stunned by his own improved reflection... I'm sure he thought he was a lost cause as well.
I can't wait for more! Keep writing because this is one of my favourite stories on the site!
Author's Response: I love reviews like this, and you left three. You know, I'm sort of beginning to adore you.


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"Despite over 100 years of federal deference to state law, federal agencies have adopted the practice of demanding that water users transfer rights granted to them by states over to the federal government as a condition of getting a permit to operate on federal lands. This amounts to an uncompensated taking, and is a violation of both the 5th Amendment to the Constitution and a violation of state law under which the federal government must acquire water rights through the proper channels as would any other user." said Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (CA-04).
"Recent federal attempts to manipulate the federal permit, lease, and land management process to circumvent long-established state water law and hijack privately-held water rights have sounded the alarm for all non-federal water users that rely on these water rights for their livelihood, and have already hurt stakeholders in Colorado and in other Western states," said Congressman Scott Tipton. "The bipartisan Water Rights Protection Act seeks to protect local water rights from federal government overreach and takings by prohibiting federal agencies from pilfering water rights through the use of permits, leases, and other land management arrangements as well as by upholding longstanding federal deference to state water law on which countless water users rely."
In recent years, the federal government has attempted to end-run state water law and hijack privately held water rights. The U.S. Forest Service is currently attempting to implement a requirement for the transfer of privately held water rights to the federal government as a permit condition on National Forest Service lands. This defacto extortion of water rights is already having an adverse impact on a number of water users including the recreation industry, farming and ranching operations, businesses and municipalities.
During today's hearing, Committee Members heard from witnesses who testified on the importance of the established state water laws, the need to protect them and decried the new attempts by the Forest Service to usurp those rights and resources.
David Corbin, Vice-President of Planning and Development, Aspen Skiing Company, highlighted the direct impacts to recreation, local economies and jobs as result of federal water grabs. "We likewise take seriously our responsibilities with respect to stewardship of the land and water resources arising from it. At the same time, we view protection of ski area water rights, typically privately acquired, developed and applied and unrelated to the original issuance of our Special Use Permits, as essential to our business sustainability and as a top priority for the ski industry as a whole. The ski industry is united in looking to Congress to take action to protect water rights and to protect the state laws that govern water rights allocation, administration and adjudication."
Randy Parker, CEO, Utah Farm Bureau Federation, testified on the stewardship tradition of western farmers and ranchers and recent examples of Forest Service officials forcing forfeiture of water rights to continue agriculture operations. "American Farm Bureau policy continues expressing opposition to any federal domination or pre-emption of state water laws and that water rights as property rights cannot be taken without compensation and due process of law. Scarcity of water in the Western United States led to the development of a system of water allocation that is very different from how water is allocated in regions graced with abundant moisture."
Glenn Porzak, Attorney Representing Ski Areas in Colorado and California, discussed the legal implications of recent federal water grabs and the importance of this legislation to protect valuable water rights. "By issuing these directives, the Forest Service has not only violated the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by taking property without paying compensation, it has attempted to use its permitting authority to circumvent long established federal and state water laws The Water Rights Protection Act protects these privately and publically held water rights, prohibits federal takings, and upholds state water law."
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Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) issued the following statement in reaction to the appointment of Brian Steed as Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM): "Brian Steed has the expertise to hel......
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Today, the Full Committee held an oversight hearing on "The Need for Transparent Financial Accountability in Territories' Disaster Recovery Efforts." The panel reviewed the financial needs of both Pue......
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Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources passed H.R. 4239, the "Strengthening the Economy with Critical Untapped Resources to Expand American Energy Act" or "SECURE American Energy Act." The bi......
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subset: commoncrawl


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CAUSTON Peacefully on Friday 7th December 2012. Linda aged 71 years of Newquay. Beloved wife of David, loving mother of Karen and Paul, Louise, Robert and Jana, much loved grandma of Phoebe and Jessica and dear sister of Dorothy. Service of Thanksgiving will take place at St Columb Minor Parish Church on Monday 17th December at 2.00pm. Bright clothes preferred. Family flowers only but donations in lieu for Mount Edgcumbe Hospice may be sent c/o The Funeral Director Andrew Henwood, 74 Edgcumbe Ave, Newquay, TR7 2NN.
Please get in touch


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A Spy in the House (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
Mary, an ex-thief mysteriously saved from the gallows and brought to Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls, has eagerly accepted a position with The Agency, the secret female spy corps hidden within the school. Her first assignment is working as a lady's companion with the Thorolds, a family whose patriarch is suspected of smuggling. The father ignores Mary, the daughter detests her, and the mother is practically an invalid. But in this household, everyone hiding something, doing all they can to outsmart each other and prevent their own secrets from coming out. Mary finds a potential ally in handsome James Easton, but with her own secret to hide, finding the criminal might just be more than she can handle.— Danielle
Introducing an exciting new series Steeped in Victorian atmosphere and intrigue, this diverting mystery trails a feisty heroine as she takes on a precarious secret assignment.
Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan (and thief) Mary Quinn is surprised to be offered a singular education, instruction in fine manners and an unusual vocation. Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls is a cover for an all-female investigative unit called The Agency, and at seventeen, Mary is about to put her training to the test. Assuming the guise of a lady's companion, she must infiltrate a rich merchant's home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships. But the household is full of dangerous deceptions, and there is no one to trust or is there? Packed with action and suspense, banter and romance, and evoking the gritty backstreets of Victorian London, this breezy mystery debuts a daring young detective who lives by her wits while uncovering secrets including those of her own past.
"From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Y. S. Lee has a PhD in Victorian literature and culture and says her research inspired her to write A SPY IN THE HOUSE, "a totally unrealistic, completely fictitious antidote to the fate that would otherwise swallow a girl like Mary Quinn." Y. S. Lee lives in Ontario, Canada. "From the Hardcover edition."


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Hi just a quick update on one of our 5. Lilly one of the grey rescue kitties my son found and fostered(was supposed to be 3 F and 1 male according to the Az vet they saw before we moved) got pregnant by the other F. (yes we know it's impossible ....but he was a she they thought as his testicles hadn't descended, so the male was neutered and the "girls" we held off on till the gained a bit more weight ) Needless to say all are neutered now except Lilly who will be as soon as possible after her litter arrives. Now don't go off on us finding homes as they are all staying here. And Dr. Pope does young kitty neuters (he donates time to HS and Foster programs here to spay and neuter kitties and pups ) So mommy and babies will all be done ASAP. Will post and update when they arrives (with pics of course) of the ahem *fatherless* Kitties
Lilly is as we speak now finishing up her delivery, she has at this time 1 Grey and 2 Blackies! she is still delivering, and is a natural wonderful mama!! As soon as she comes out and takes a potty break, we will snap some pics of our new family! (we are hoping for 2 additions but I guess we will be an 8+ cathouse now ) Have no Idea how I am going to explain I am not the local crazy cat lady, just the local crazy lady


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Rund's Catering
Rochester, NY
Your trusted source for holiday parties, corporate events, and special personal get-togethers. We have simplified the process to create your catered event! For our first-time customers, please look around our menus and services to decide which is best for you. For return customers (which is most of you), please login.
Simple Set Up and Serve Buffets
* We arrive just before you are ready to eat and set up our delicious buffets
* Group sizes from 20 guests to hundreds
* This is our most popular service option.
* We provide full service events as well.
We can't wait to Serve you and your guests!


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- Product Type: Color Intensifying Shampoo
- Animal Type: Horse
- Container Size: 16 oz.
- Product Form: Liquid
- Intensifies all natural colors within coat
- Produces intensely snow white markings
- Creates dramatically deep rich color and brilliant highlights
- Effective spot remover
- Best choice for richer chestnuts, bays, browns, blacks and pintos
*Items shipped from our warehouse to stores in Alaska and Hawaii will receive a 70% shipping discount.
30-Day Return Guarantee
We want you to be fully satisfied with every item that you purchase from www.acehardware.com. If you are not satisfied with an item that you have purchased (excluding Gift Cards and gas-powered outdoor equipment*), you may return the item up to thirty days after the original purchase date to receive a store credit (less shipping, handling and other charges). We recommend that you make returns of online purchases to an Ace retail store near you which will issue your store credit. If you do not have an Ace retail store near you, please contact a Customer Service Specialist by calling 1-866-290-5334 for complete return instructions. Please refer to our Return Instructions for more information about returning a purchase.
The item must be returned in good condition, in original boxes (whenever possible), and with all paperwork, parts and accessories to insure full credit. After 30 days, please contact the manufacturer directly.
*Gas-Powered Outdoor Equipment cannot be returned once gas or oil has been put in it, even if the Equipment has been drained of these materials.


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This Amazing Quick-Draw iPhone Sleeve Will Stop You from Ever Missing a Call
Inspired by Taxi Driver, no doubt, a Japanese man chose to make a quick-draw sleeve gun-type system for his iPhone. It guarantees quick access to his iPhone—phone calls would never ever be missed. Hell, phone calls might not even need to ring before he picks it up.


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Find information on common issues.
Ask questions and find answers from other users.
Suggest a new site feature or improvement.
Check on status of your tickets.
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Quantum-Mechanical Reflections in Nanodevices: an Exercise
0.0 out of 5 stars
02 Jul 2008 | Teaching Materials | Contributor(s): Dragica Vasileska, Gerhard Klimeck
This exercise points out to the fact that quantum-mechanical reflections are going to be significant in nanoscale devices and proper modeling of these device structures must take into...


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Should we have dedicated care facilities for older deaf people?
Last week's story about my friend Frank and the lovely care home at which he is staying in Newcastle coincided with a fax I received the same day.
It was from a deaf man in Bangor who had been in contact with Conrad Kirkwood, head of Physical and Sensory Disability at the department of Health, Social Service and Public Safety, on the same parallel question of a residential home in Northern Ireland for older deaf people.
Bangor man Bertie had written in admiration of Rumball, the wonderful residential home for deaf people he visited during a holiday in Canada, and feels we need something similar here so our older deaf can enjoy fellowship in their golden years with people of the same needs and communication problems rather than be scattered all over the country in small units attached to hearing homes with little to look forward to but loneliness and only occasional visits from family or friends.
In his reply to Bertie, Mr Kirkwood agrees there is no dedicated residential or nursing home in Northern Ireland for people who are solely deaf, deafblind or hard of hearing. There is, he says, a residential unit for deaf people with mental disorders at Harkness Gardens in Londonderry run by the RNID, and he's been advised that the same body is currently considering the development of a residential home for elderly deaf people in the Bangor area in partnership with the Presbyterian Housing Association. This development, he says, is in its early stages and as yet there is no date for completion.
In response to Bertie's point about the potential isolation that elderly people who are deaf or have a hearing impairment may experience in these small unit facilities, Mr Kirkwood goes on to say that of course the staff are very mindful of this and are actively encouraged to learn sign language and attend deaf awareness training in order to overcome any communication barriers.
"It is government policy," he writes, "to promote care in the community so far as is possible and where appropriate. Where this is not possible, social workers in specialist teams provide support to elderly people with hearing problems when they enter nursing homes or residential facilities".
In his accompanying fax to me Bertie says that if the proposed plans come to fruition either Bangor or Derry would be the best options for a new centre as the greater number of deaf live nearby and travel would not be a great problem. Bertie also feels that the venture would have more chance of success if it was a close as possible to shops, and a church and club were within easy reach so that the older deaf residents and those with mobility problems could get about easily.
Such an idea is very attractive and seems to work very well when practised in countries such as Canada and Holland, with populations much bigger that Northern Ireland. Would it work so well in our wee country where so many of our older deaf value their privacy above all else and are ensconced in comfortable homes with our wide-screen subtitled televisions and text phones for instant communication? The new generation of older deaf folk are much more tough and independent than before and any proposed new home would have to be very good indeed to tempt us out of our snug and expensive nests.
These suggestions refer only to the totally deaf, sign language community, which total about 5,000 in the province. The hard of hearing and deafened add up to a much larger number and require a different form of care and attention.
Belfast Telegraph


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Home » Taxi Games » 3D City Taxi Parking
At this game your job is to find free parking place in the city. This game has six levels and each level is more difficult than the previous. Show us your driving skills and find this free parking spot fast as possible. Use arrow keys to play this game and watch on arrow on your screen. If you follow this arrow you can find the parking easy.
Please log in to favorite.
Added: 2 August 2015 | Played: 14,606 times
3D City Taxi Parking


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A bus exploded while driving across a bridge in central London and freaked everyone out on social media.
However, City of London officials had to reassure the public that there was nothing to worry about because it was a movie stunt for "The Foreigner," starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan. Associated Press reported that the Port of London Authority said Lambeth Bridge had been closed to the public prior to the stunt.
This is what the explosion looked like, as posted on Twitter by Nigel Huddleston MP:


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It's titled "World War Z," but the first trailer for Marc Forster's film adaptation seemingly has no real relation to the book on which it is based other than the title and the global scale of the event.
In fact a much closer comparison is a Roland Emmerich film, "The Dead After Tomorrow" perhaps. The heavily CG zombie tsunami effect will divide people, but this looks like one of the biggest and certainly one of the most expensive zombie films ever made.
For a different take on the undead there's this fun trailer for "Warm Bodies", a zombie comedy with both romantic and action elements.
Finally comes the impressive and stirring 2.5 minute UK trailer for Tom Hopper's "Les Miserables" which has snuck online. The preview includes much of the main cast singing, even Russell Crowe whose voice sounds stronger than expected.
We also get a good idea of how Hopper's technique of recording the vocal performances live on set rather than in a studio has played out – and the result is good.


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Armenia's president visits bypass road construction site in Tavush
YEREVAN, April 7. /ARKA/. Armenia's president Serzh Sargsyan visited the construction site of Vazashen-Paravakar bypass road in Vavush Marz of Armenia.
The new road is to solve security problems. The old highway is seen from the enemy's side and, hence, is dangerous, whereas the new bypass road is completely safe, head of project implementation at Armenia's ministry of transport Alexander Bakhtamyan told reporters.
The total length of the road is 3,188 kilometers. Road bed and drainage have been already laid and a 2.9-kilometer section of the protective wall has been built. Limited number of trips on the road may be possible already in mid April.
The construction costs 519.8 million drams and is expected to finish at the end of June.
The president paid floral tribute to the kach-qar (cross stone) monument to liberators. Minister of defense Seyran Ohanyan handed awards to families of soldiers who fell in battle. –0--
13:08 07.04.2014


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An operatic version of gay classic Brokeback Mountain is opening at the Teatro Real in Madrid later this month.
American composer Charles Wuorinen wrote the music for the libretto, which was originally planned to open at the New York City Opera. It moved to Madrid after the NYC Opera's general director resigned. It premieres at the Teatro Real on January 28.
The opera is based on the short story by Annie Proulx, which first appeared in The New Yorker in 1997, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000, and made into a 2005 Oscar-winning film, directed by Ang Lee and starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. The story centers around two Wyoming cowboys who fall passionately in love during the 1960s. Read more here.


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The selling price of a home wa
The selling price of a home was dropped from $200,000 to $190,000 in Caroline county. By what percent did the price drop?
Tutor Answer
Brown University
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Carnegie Mellon University
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Harvard University
599 Tutors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2319 Tutors
New York University
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Kelly Ball, 3
November 29th, 2012 Author: Administrator Filed Under: Obituaries
Kelly Anne Louise Ball, 3, of Goshen Township, died Nov. 15 in Cincinnati.
Ball is survived by her parents Jeff and Nancy Ball, siblings Gracie, Daniel and Eric Ball, grandparents Bill and Mary Hull and Larry and Mary Ball and aunts and uncles Beth Lachner, Laura Snyder and David Ball.
Services 11 a.m. Nov. 20 at Rivertree Church. Interment at Myers Cemetery in Goshen. Memorials to Starshine Hospice C/O Children's Hospital, P.O. Box 5202 Cincinnati, OH 45201.


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Police station for every village not good value, says Ford
Police manpower numbers in Northern Ireland should be reviewed, the favourite for the justice ministry has said.
Keeping a police station open in every village is not a good use of public money, David Ford told the Assembly.
The Alliance leader is expected to become Justice Minister once powers are devolved from London to Belfast on April 12.
"There will be difficult issues that will have to be tackled there," he said.
"I think MLAs and other public representatives need to face the fact that keeping a police station open in every village is not a good use of public resources in the kind of pressures we are under and there are real issues about what actually contributes to making a safer society rather than managing the previous and ongoing patterns."
A cross-party vote in the Assembly approved the decision to take policing powers, with the only objection from the Ulster Unionists.
Mr Ford said there was a major issue concerning the large section of the budget for justice "immediately swallowed up by the police service by commitments on salaries and pensions".
The Northern Ireland Office has allocated £1.2bn to policing in the coming year.
A spokesman for the Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said: "From June there will be no full-time reserve officers on front-line duty. We are saying that will be a mistake."
MLAs will today vote on establishing a justice committee at Stormont to scrutinise the Justice Minister.
Belfast Telegraph


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"Mike Tyson Mysteries" Coming to Adult Swim
Who doesn't love a healthy dose of Iron Mike?
Well, maybe Evander Holyfield, Robin Givens, those two guys he knocked out in that hotel lobby a few years ago, Michael Spinks…nevermind. If you're one of the folks that want more Mike Tyson, we've got some fun for you.
As is customary with Comic-Con, folks in San Diego got glimpses galore of upcoming movies, comics, graphic novels (there is a difference), video games, technology, shows, and more. We're not sure who sent out the call or shined the bright "tribal face tattoo" signal into the Brooklyn night sky, but we're letting out a resounding thank you.
Prepare yourselves for a journey of epic proportions with Mike Tyson Mysteries. This jammie jam is like if Iron Mike was the guest star on Scooby Doo Adventures, hijacked the van, took it to West Coast customs, and then decided to live vicarious through "Johnny Quest's" Race Bannon or Mr. T.
It's a whole lot of zany, insanely funny, Mike Tyson goodness. Here's how the folks at Adult Swim are describing the series,
Mike Tyson is taking the fight from the boxing ring to the streets … by solving mysteries! Aided by the Mike Tyson Mystery Team – the Ghost of the Marquess of Queensbury, Mike's adopted Korean daughter, and a pigeon who was once a man – Mike Tyson will answer any plea sent to him. If you have a problem that needs solving, Iron Mike is in your corner. The series incorporates live-action appearances featuring Mighty Mike himself, and the gloves come off as the former heavyweight champ and his team gear up for weekly adventures as they put unsolved mysteries down for the count.
Hit the video player up top to check out the new series from the Adult Swim gang, Mike Tyson Mysteries will hit your boob tube this Fall.


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Tribute in Light 9/11 Installation Pictures
The Week in Pictures
The Week in Pictures
We kicked off the first unofficial week of Fall with Labor Day, and it didn't slow down from there. The love-filled Venice Film Festival continued on, the US Open was full of man candy, and New York Fashion Week festivities have begun. The royals got in on the action as well, as Kate's sis, Pippa Middleton, celebrated her birthday, and Princess Beatrice graduated from university. On a somber note, there were emotional tributes leading up to the anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. See photos from the events of the week now.
0previous images
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Sweet and innocent young girl gets ready for bed, and caught on camera!...
Naughty amateur girl getting ready to play with her long crystal dildo
white girl gets spanked
Hot girl cassie absolutely naked showing off her tits and ass indoors
Danny has had the biggest crush on Carolyn. Friday is Suggestion Box day, the perfect time to post a note that might hint he wants to fuck her. Giving into temptation, he tells her he has always wanted to suck and fuck her tits. This turns Carolyn on and being the horny girl she is accepts his offer.
Girl next door Nubile Bulgari in all pink sexy dress spreads and toys pussy in front of a glass cabinet
Cute little Thai girl eats an apple in panties
This Girl is BLOWING UP: Hot, lean, tall and takes it in the Ass!
Naive young girl gets taught
Cammy is hosting this week's all girl slumber party. Sayla has never jerked off a guy. Her friends definitely want to pop her Handjob cherry.
In days of old, a convicted thief was often sentenced to a torturous ordeal. For her misdeeds, Arianna is given a night in the stocks as punishment. The executioner is delighted to have this stunning beauty in his custody. Unfortunately for Arianna, he has more in mind for her than the judge's sentence He indulges himself in some playful and painful antics with her shapely smooth alabaster body. After being stripped and tied in the stocks the poor girl is made to endure a flogging as the Executioner delights over her full round nether globes. His next attraction has her pert shapely breasts mauled, pinched and clamped. The thrill of her squirms and cries induce him to plunge into her helplessly stretched and gaping quim for the second time. He satisfies his lust for the attractive charge by taking full advantage of her succulent mouth and delectable pussy. When he is finished, she has been well fucked and abused. Arianna is left tied to a table spread open and tasting his cum dabbled across her face, for the rest of the night.
Hairy Asian girl
This Girl is BLOWING UP: Hot, lean, tall and takes it in the Ass!
Exceptionally we have a milf and a super young teeny who have to take care of a hard-on. The little teeny has an amazing cute little body. The kissing, licking and sucking can begin. And of course, the little girl must be fucked deep in the ass while our milf can lick a be jealous. Great threesome!
Very hot Asian girl spreads
Horny girl Sera giving a seductive look and spreads her legs really wide on the bed


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I've tried it with Ginestet Botrytic and SL Chergui, but that was only because someone else recommended the pairing.
Do you layer? How do you decide what to layer? What is the method? Really, just tell me whatever you think is useful. The concept intrigues me, but I don't want to end up smelling atrocious!


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Oracle Acquired BEA
The deed is done. Oracle bought BEA.
Rest in pieces, BEA…
The deed is done. Oracle bought BEA.
Rest in pieces, BEA…
Happy New Year!
2007 passed by so quickly — it's funny how the passage of time can feel so relative. Remember back in grade school it seemed like the school year lasted F-O-R-E-V-E-R and that even the summer did, too? I distinctly remember staring out the window in third grade lamenting that school seemed so endless. That day was a bleak winter one and it apparently matched my mood. I even remember time spent daydreaming in class about how old I'd be in the year 2000. That year seemed so magical in the mid- to late-seventies. I couldn't even envision myself at 33. I'd be so OLD! 2000 had seemed so far away and now it's 8 years in the past.
I hope that your 2007 was a good one and that 2008 will be even better. (And maybe a little slower, too.)
On the blog front, it's fun (for me, at least) to mention that a Google search for "client-cert" has my post The Mysterious CLIENT-CERT as the number one result. W00t! Well, at least on some days, it does. On other days it occupies the second slot but clearly Google's algorithm is out to lunch when that happens. 😉 It's the Schrodinger's cat of search results.
Speaking of "w00t," the "word" was Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2007. I find that humorous.
Speaking of Schrodinger's cat, I had a brilliant idea for a quote on T-shirts:
Curiosity killed Schrodinger's cat. (maybe)
I find that humorous, too. Only too bad for me because a quick search of the net turns up that quote (minus the "maybe") a bunch of times. I guess I'm not as clever as I thought.
Back to the blog…
In case you missed them, here's a list of my Top 10 posts for 2007 as reported by that All-Knowing Oracle of Web Traffic, Google Analytics:
Yikes! That looks almost identical to the list for 2006. Maybe the passage of time is slower than I thought!
Speaking of Oracle, the database company of the same name (you might have heard of them) didn't buy BEA in 2007. But who knows what 2008 will bring. Maybe Oracle won't destroy WebLogic if they bought BEA. I don't know. I've read some opinion pieces that BEA can't survive the onslaught of IBM and Oracle and that it's just a matter of time before BEA is acquired. Perhaps WebLogic is the Schrodinger's cat of application servers. Perhaps Oracle is looking for a quantum leap in their product offering. Perhaps that would make Larry say "W00t!"
It's fairly easy to get digital signatures working with web services. Just pull up the docs for your web service stack and follow the directions. Some configuration here and keystores there and you're good to go.
But just what is happening under the covers? Digitally signing something might seem like magic but it's rather simple conceptually even though it builds on some pretty heavy theory (mostly math, ugh!). However, in this post I'm going to talk about the concepts and leave the math to someone else.
Before we start decomposing the mechanics of signing data, let's first consider what we want to use a signature for in the first place.
A digital signature allows the receiver to check if the data has been altered since the sender signed it. This function is performed via a cryptographic hash which I'll talk about later.
Digital signatures use private and public keys. An entity (person or process) signs the message with his/its private key and then the recipient can use the entity's public key to verify the source.
Do these two functions seem a little like what SSL does? You're right! SSL provides those features for data in transit while a digital signature does the same thing at the message level. SSL and digital signatures don't work in the exact same way but they do perform similar high-level functions. One interesting difference between the two is that the digital signature stays with the message even if it's sitting in a queue or on disk somewhere (assuming that it's not intentionally stripped at some point).
Try that, SSL!
I'd like to mention one more thing about SSL and signatures before digging out of this SSL rabbit hole: You can use signatures and SSL at the same time. Why might you want to do this? There are several reasons:
Creating signed data is a two step process. The first step is to hash the data and the second step is to sign the hash. Both of these steps are cryptographic operations but neither actually encrypts the data. Fortunately, the Java API provides classes for doing these operations so we don't have to write any of that complex stuff. We'll see these APIs in action in a bit.
There are several algorithms for generating one-way cryptographic hashes. You've probably heard of MD5 and SHA-1. These algorithms take any amount of data and convert it to a fixed length byte array that can't be reversed. That is, given the hash, you can't determine what the input was. Additionally, two different inputs will never generate the same hash.
NOTE: Technically, both of the previous assertions are not absolutely true. The time and computing power required for reversing a hash make it unlikely. The more likely case for "reversing" a hash is to leverage a pre-computed hash dictionary which I'll discuss briefly later. Finally, there are so called "collisions" where two different inputs can create the same hash but this situation is extremely rare).
Because of these features, hash algorithms are often used for storing passwords. Take the user's password, hash it, and then store it in LDAP or a database. You can't guess the password from the hash so the stored passwords are reasonably secure from prying eyes. But when the user logs in, you hash the newly supplied password and compare it against the hash on file. If they match, the user is authenticated.
I bet you already knew that stuff. The cool thing is that's the first half of generating a signature. Before we move on to the second half, let's have a look at how to generate a hash using the Java APIs.
MessageDigest md = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-1"); md.update("Corned beef hash".getBytes()); // Create the hash from the message byte[] hash = md.digest();
The code above leverages the MessageDigest class for hashing data. "Digest" is another word for "hash." We tell the MessageDigest object that we want to use the SHA-1 algorithm and then feed it the data using the update() method. You can call that method repeatedly until all of your data is included in the hash. Then, simply call digest() to get the fixed-length hash.
Notice that the hash is actually a byte array which would create non-printable characters. So, to show you the hash for the input data I'll first encode the hash like this:
String encodedHash = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(hash);
I know, I know. Don't use the sun.* classes. I'm just saving you the trouble of not having to download something like Commons Codec in order to try this out. Just don't use sun.* classes for production.
Anyway, now that the hash has been encoded, I can tell you that the hashed version of "Corned beef hash" is
Notice that the length of the hash is longer than the input. Let's try hashing "Corned beef hash is not dog food"
Notice that the length of the hash is still the same. It would even be the same length for a megabyte worth of text.
Before we move on to signing data, I'd like to mention one more thing about hashing. The one-way nature of a cryptographic hash is very useful but it can bite you. Since the same input always generates the same hash for a given algorithm, a bad guy who can get hold of your hashed data might be able to use a precomputed hash dictionary to determine your original text. It's sort of like a reverse-lookup of the hash. For example, a hash dictionary will have the hashes for common passwords such as "Password" or "ABC123" and the bad guy can just query the hash to get the corresponding input.
Not good.
The remedy is to add some "salt" to the hash. A salt is just a bit of data that you'll add to your input text when you compute the hash. This simply equates to another call to update() method. Only you know the value of this salt which acts like a simple pass key or password and negates the ability for a bad guy to determine the input data.
For example, the hash for "Corned beef hash" is TARd8ciquglqtzCGlhl/Ano8+kE= and always will be. The hash of "Corned beef hash" with a salt of "Pinch of Salt" is rEN7xxJPqyY7pkspLL902NkmJn0=. Obviously, the phrase "Pinch of Salt" would have to be kept secret.
Conceptually, we would now just sign the hash. However, with the Java API, the hashing is done for us as part of the signing process so we wouldn't actually perform the steps above to generate the signature. Instead, we'd just use the Signature class.
Using the Signature class is a little more involved than hashing because we need a private key to actually do the signing. The corresponding public key would be used by the recipient to verify the signature later. Ideally, you would have your keys in a keystore and use them with the Signature class. For demonstration purposes I'm going to generate the keypair on the fly. Yes, I'm lazy but it also makes the pertinent signing machinery stand out better. Call it artistic license. 😉
Here's the sample code:
// Generate a keypair which // contains the private/public keys KeyPairGenerator keyGen = KeyPairGenerator.getInstance("DSA"); keyGen.initialize(1024, new SecureRandom()); KeyPair keyPair = keyGen.generateKeyPair(); // Sign some data Signature sig = Signature.getInstance("DSA"); sig.initSign(keyPair.getPrivate()); sig.update("Sign on the dotted line".getBytes()); byte[] signedData = sig.sign();
The first group of code generates a sample keypair that, as shown here, will only live until it goes out of scope. It's good enough for our purposes, though. The second group is where the action is. We tell the Signature object that we want to use the DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm) and then we load it with the private key to use as the signer. Add the text via update() just like we did for hashing and then call sign(). Just like before, we get back a byte array which is unprintable. After encoding the signed data, I can tell you that the signature for "Sign on the dotted line" looks like this:
Now, the results here are a little trickier than when hashing. If you run this code, you'll get a different encoded string than what's shown here. It'll be different for two reasons:
When I run it again with the same private key I get
So, even though the lengths are the same the output is different. By the way, the length will be the same regardless of the input size.
Pretty cool, isn't it? There's a lot of stuff going on in those few lines of code. Now we have signed data but how does the recipient verify it?
Let's say I send you an email that contains two lines. The first line is
Sign on the dotted line
and the second line is
Obviously, these lines represent the message and the signed message, respectively.
To see if I REALLY said "Sign on the dotted line" you would mash together my public key, the message, and the signed message to see if they align. That's imprecise language for the process of determining if, given the message, the private key associated with the public key would produce the signed message. It's sort of equivalent to the process of checking passwords using a hash as described above except the keys have been added to the mix.
Here's the code for doing just that:
Signature sig2 = Signature.getInstance("DSA"); sig2.initVerify(keyPair.getPublic()); sig2.update("Sign on the dotted line".getBytes()); boolean verified = sig2.verify( "MCwCFA1+YXhgSu0xCP6lhKVO9QH5DYbcAhRQ/V5i8czHiMxL7SnyLtafZNoL9A==" .getBytes());
As before, the first line tells the Signature object which signing algorithm to use and it has to match the algorithm that was used originally to sign the message. The second line loads the public key that matches the private key used to sign the data. (Important: The recipient does NOT and should not have your private key!)
We then load the message with the update() method. Finally, we pass the signed data to the verify() method. If it returns true, the signature is verified. Changing even one character in the message or signed data will cause verification to fail which is what you want. And obviously, specifying a public key that does not match the signer's private key will fail, too.
To sum up verification, if the message is modified in any way, verification will fail. Somebody monkeyed with the data and you were able to detect it. That's data integrity checking. If verification fails because a mismatched public key was used, then you know that someone other than who you expected signed the message. To my knowledge, you can't distinguish between the two causes of verification failure.
Knowing the fundamentals of digital signatures will help you to understand things that build on them such as the XML Digital Signature specification or the Java implementation of it. Here's a re-cap and a few other take-aways:
BEA's Peter Laird recently wrote an excellent article entitled "WebLogic Security: Configuring the Database Authentication Providers (SQL, Custom, DBMS)." His post describes the following DBMS authentication providers that come with WLS 9 and later:
Peter lays out the technical details of the providers as well as their differences. He then finishes with a SQL authenticator configuration walk-through.
I am surprised to see that he says that when choosing an authentication repository "…you are safest performance-wise with a database backed authentication store." I do agree that databases are typically well-understood by developers but I'd think that an LDAP server would kick the tail of a database in the speed department.
Anyway, that's a tiny nitpick on an outstanding article. I encourage you to have a look.
I think I'm done gushing about Peter's article but wait, there's more! Turns out that Peter is the Managing Architect for the WebLogic Portal team. In the prequel to the above article he wrote "Discussion on WebLogic Security: Authentication Providers, Internal LDAP, JAAS, WebLogic Portal, Profile." This post is a set of fact-filled soundbites concerning Portal and security. If you do portal work you'll want to have a look at this post, too.
In WebLogicMBeanMaker and Maven I wrote about how to use WebLogicMBeanMaker 8.1 in a Maven 2 build. Even though WebLogicMBeanMaker is documented as a two-step process, the Maven build process allowed us to skip the second step by relying upon Maven's packaging mechanism. All was well at the time…
Of course, if you have a security provider in WebLogic 8.1 you're probably going to migrate it to WebLogic 9 or 10 eventually, right? Unfortunately, the old build process is no longer sufficient and you'll have to make some changes. First, I'll describe the problem and then show the solution.
If you use a POM similar to the one presented in WebLogicMBeanMaker and Maven but with WebLogic 9+ dependencies (note that wlManagement.jar changed to wlManagementMBean.jar in WLS 9), you'll get the following error:
[java] Compiling inline [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method) [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:164) [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : at weblogic.management.commo.BeanGenDriver.getManagementTempDir(BeanGenDriver.java:76) [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : at weblogic.management.commo.BeanGenDriver.main(BeanGenDriver.java:118) [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: error in finding weblogic.Home [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : at weblogic.Home.getInstance(Home.java:90) [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : at weblogic.Home.getPath(Home.java:96) [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : at weblogic.management.bootstrap.BootStrap.init(BootStrap.java:108) [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : at weblogic.management.bootstrap.BootStrap.
(BootStrap.java:87) [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : ... 4 more [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : Stopped draining WLMaker-SubProcess: [java] BeanGen code generation failed [java] WLMaker-SubProcess: : Stopped draining WLMaker-SubProcess:
"Error in finding weblogic.Home" is the only thing of value in the exception, but what's that about? Running setDomainEnv before running Maven didn't help.
As it turns out, the WebLogic dependencies are location-dependent in some fashion. Simply having weblogic.jar and wlManagementMBean.jar in your Maven repository is not sufficient. While setting a weblogic.home system property has potential, I didn't have any success with the approach. What did work for me is to use the WebLogic installation directory even though it is less than ideal. Here's how I configured my dependencies in the POM:
<dependency> <groupId>weblogic</groupId> <artifactId>weblogic</artifactId> <version>9.1.0</version> <scope>system</scope> <systemPath>C:/bea910/weblogic91/server/lib/weblogic.jar</systemPath> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>weblogic</groupId> <artifactId>wlManagementMBean</artifactId> <version>9.1.0</version> <scope>system</scope> <systemPath>C:/bea910/weblogic91/server/lib/mbeantypes/wlManagementMBean.jar</systemPath> </dependency>
Essentially, I changed the scope from "provided" to "system" and added the systemPath element which points to the jar in the WebLogic installation directory. I left the hard-coded paths for illustration but you'll probably want to use properties, instead.
Using the system scope solves the home problem and your provider will build without error. It won't actually work, but your build was successful so what more could you want? 😉 Seriously, that problem will be solved in the next section, but for completeness, I'd like to point out something in case someone knows a better solution than using a WebLogic installation directory. After all, I'd much rather use the Maven repository and I'm guessing you would, too.
Here's something I discovered:
If you run
java -classpath C:\bea910\weblogic91\server\lib\weblogic.jar weblogic.Home
you get
If you do the same thing against your repository's weblogic.jar like this
java -classpath "C:\Documents and Settings\MSF\.m2\repository\weblogic\weblogic\9.1.0\weblogic-9.1.0.jar" weblogic.Home
you get
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: error in finding weblogic.Home at weblogic.Home.getInstance(Home.java:90) at weblogic.Home.getHome(Home.java:105) at weblogic.Home.main(Home.java:113)
I'm not sure what it means or how to leverage the information but it seems to be the root of the problem. I got tired of messing with it but if you have an idea, please comment.
Moving right along…
As I mentioned above, you should now have a JAR file for your provider. If you copy it to the mbeantypes directory and start WebLogic, though, you'll find that your provider doesn't show up in WebLogic console. Very annoying, indeed.
As it turns out, our pals at BEA are messing with our heads. Starting with WebLogic 9, you need to dance the MBeanMaker Two-Step because the second phase — which just jarred the provider in the past — now creates schema files among other things. No schema files means no recognition of your provider by WebLogic.
Fortunately, the solution is pretty simple since you just need to run WebLogicMBeanMaker twice to get all of the required artifacts. Here's my updated POM snippet:
<!-- Run WebLogicMBeanMaker to build the authentication provider --> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId> <executions> <execution> <id>WebLogicMBeanMaker</id> <phase>generate-sources</phase> <configuration> <tasks> <echo>Building Authentication provider with WebLogicMBeanMaker...</echo> <!-- Ensure that WebLogicMBeanMaker starts from a clean slate --> <delete dir="${project.build.directory}/generated-sources"/> <path id="gen.path"> <pathelement path="${project.build.directory}\generated-sources\main\java"/> <path refid="maven.compile.classpath"/> </path> <!-- Copy ZAuthenticator.xml to the generated source directory or it won't work --> <copy file="${basedir}/conf/ZAuthenticator.xml" todir="${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/main/java"/> <!-- Build the MDF (mbean definition file) for the authenticator --> <java classname="weblogic.management.commo.WebLogicMBeanMaker" fork="true" failonerror="true"> <jvmarg line="-Dfiles=${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/main/java -DMDF=${basedir}/conf/ZAuthenticator.xml -DcreateStubs=true -Dverbose=true "/> <classpath> <path refid="gen.path"/> </classpath> </java> <!-- Build the MJF (mbean jar file) for the authenticator . Also generates a set of XML binding classes and a schema. --> <java classname="weblogic.management.commo.WebLogicMBeanMaker" fork="true" failonerror="true"> <jvmarg line="-Dfiles=${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/main/java -DMJF=${basedir}/conf/ZAuthenticator -Dverbose=true "/> <classpath> <path refid="gen.path"/> </classpath> </java> <!-- Copy meta-data files to the target/classes directory so they get jarred --> <copy todir="${project.build.directory}/classes"> <fileset dir="${basedir}/conf"> <include name="**/*.xml"/> <!-- ZAuthenticator.xml --> <include name="**/*.dtd"/> <!-- commo.dtd --> </fileset> <fileset dir="${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/main/java"> <exclude name="**/*.java"/> </fileset> </copy> <echo>Building Authentication provider with WebLogicMBeanMaker. DONE!</echo> </tasks> <!-- Add the generated sources to the Maven source directory list --> <sourceRoot>${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/main/java</sourceRoot> </configuration> <goals> <goal>run</goal> </goals> </execution> </executions> </plugin>
Now, in addition to the original files, your jar should contain roughly a dozen more files, half of which are XSB files. Your provider should now be recognized by WebLogic after you copy the jar to mbeantypes and restart WebLogic.
Can you handle more good news? The same build configuration works in WebLogic 10.
Update: Alex Rykov figured out how to handle the Weblogic home problem. Check it out here.
Matt Raible recently blogged about Java Web Frameworks and XSS. The post and the comments are well worth reading. It's easy to think (hope!) that a framework will automatically escape output to prevent XSS and give no more thought to it. As Matt's post shows, you really need to know how your chosen framework deals with the issue.
If you use Struts 2 or WebWork be sure to read the post and update your libraries.
Want to fill up your audit logs quickly? Set the auditor's severity to INFORMATION and you're well on your way. In this post we'll take a closer look and see if the information gained is worthy of the disk space and processing time.
It's natural to expect that audit logs won't be as "chatty" as application logging. After all, you'd typically only expect one or a handful of authorization events for each accessed resource. Application logging, on the other hand, might spew dozens of lines per request depending upon the logging level.
With this in mind, your security officer or well-meaning admin might see that the WebLogic DefaultAuditor is initially set to a severity of ERROR leaving not one but TWO severity levels untapped. More security data has to be good, right?
Not necessarily. Besides INFORMATION, the other severity level below ERROR is WARNING. I've never seen a WARNING event from the out-of-the-box providers. That's not to say they don't exist — just that I've never seen one. The INFORMATION severity is the lowest level which only seems to include a certain class of Role Manager events.
Role Manager audit events can be sourced from a Role Mapping provider or an Authorization provider. Useful Role Manager events can happen at the SUCCESS and FAILURE levels, but the INFORMATION-level events are highly repetitive and provide little bang for buck. Here are a couple of examples:
#### Audit Record Begin <Jun 26, 2007 9:20:01 PM> <Severity =INFORMATION> <<<Event Type = RoleManager Audit Event ><Subject: 2
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSUserImpl("weblogic")
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSGroupImpl("Administrators")
><<adm>><type=<adm>, category=Configuration><>>> Audit Record End ####
#### Audit Record Begin <Jun 26, 2007 9:20:01 PM> <Severity =INFORMATION> <<<Event Type = RoleManager Audit Event ><Subject: 2
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSUserImpl("weblogic")
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSGroupImpl("Administrators")
><<adm>><type=<adm>, category=Configuration><||Anonymous||Admin>>> Audit Record End ####
As you can see, there's very little actionable information here. Yes, user "weblogic" did something but we're not quite sure what.
To give you an idea of the volume of Role Manager events at the INFORMATION severity, I started up a WebLogic 8.1 domain which includes five custom applications. I then logged into console but went no further than the initial page. Here's the breakdown of audit events (note that I've enabled configuration auditing):
|AuthorizationPolicy Deploy:
|Invoke Configuration:
|RoleManager Deploy:
|Set Attribute:
As you can see, the RoleManager events account for 94%(!) of all events for my scenario. Hitting Refresh on the console caused approximately the same number of Role Manager events. I haven't timed it, but writing all of those events to disk is probably quite measurable.
Console makes heavy use of JMX so I suspect a lot of the Role Manager events are caused by that. I tested a "normal" web app with just a protected page. Here are the results:
Thus, for one request, the Role Manager events comprise 88% of the total number of events. The information is slightly different (and maybe even a little useful) as long as you don't mind seeing it a bunch of times. Here are a couple events:
#### Audit Record Begin <Jun 26, 2007 10:44:08 PM> <Severity =INFORMATION> <<<Event Type = RoleManager Audit Event ><Subject: 2
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSUserImpl("weblogic")
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSGroupImpl("Administrators")
><<url>><type=<url>, application=ImplicitGroupsApp, contextPath=/implicitgroupsapp, uri=/users/users.jsp, httpMethod=GET><>>> Audit Record End ####
#### Audit Record Begin <Jun 26, 2007 10:44:08 PM> <Severity =INFORMATION> <<<Event Type = RoleManager Audit Event ><Subject: 2
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSUserImpl("weblogic")
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSGroupImpl("Administrators")
><<url>><type=<url>, application=ImplicitGroupsApp, contextPath=/implicitgroupsapp, uri=/users/users.jsp, httpMethod=GET><||user||Anonymous||everyone||Admin>>> Audit Record End ####
I suspect these are sourced by the authorization provider given that it's showing the requested resource information. The list of roles is barely useful — which one is required?
If you decide to not use the INFORMATION severity you can still get the equivalent information from the audit log if you had to. The first thing to consider is the Authorization event. Here's the event that accompanied the RoleManager event above:
#### Audit Record Begin <Jun 26, 2007 10:44:08 PM> <Severity =SUCCESS> <<<Event Type = Authorization Audit Event ><Subject: 2
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSUserImpl("weblogic")
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSGroupImpl("Administrators")
><ONCE><<url>><type=<url>, application=ImplicitGroupsApp, contextPath=/implicitgroupsapp, uri=/users/users.jsp, httpMethod=GET>>> Audit Record End ####
Notice that the resource information is identical to the equivalent RoleManager event.
How can you know which role was required for "/users/users.jsp?" One way is to check that application's web.xml. However, that data could be newer than what was in place when the event was logged (e.g., web.xml was updated and the app was redeployed after the event).
A better way to do it is to find the most recent corresponding Authorization Policy Deploy event prior to the authorization event in question. For example,
#### Audit Record Begin <Jun 26, 2007 9:12:12 PM> <Severity =SUCCESS> <<<Event Type = Authorization Policy Deploy Audit Event ><Subject: 1
Principal = class weblogic.security.principal.WLSKernelIdentity("<WLS Kernel>")
><<url>><type=<url>, application=ImplicitGroupsApp, contextPath=/implicitgroupsapp, uri=/users/*, httpMethod=GET><user>>> Audit Record End ####
shows one of the policies for the ImplicitGroupsApp. Note that the policy applies to "/users/*" and requires the "user" role for URIs with that pattern.
This concludes our little romp through an audit log. If you choose to not select the INFORMATION severity you can save yourself considerable disk space while still retaining the ability to get the data you need.
As I mentioned in my WebLogic 10 Released post, WebLogic 10 has the ability to record your sessions in the console as WLST scripts. Unfortunately, doing so takes all the excitement and mystery out of sleuthing around for MBean information! 😉
Even though it was deprecated in Weblogic 9, weblogic.Admin is still around which means you can still use the techniques described in Find WebLogic MBeans with Ease and Using Audit Logs to Make Scripting Easier. Furthermore, the approaches given in those posts give you the real object names of the MBeans in case you need to do some JMX work. Otherwise, WLST is the way to go for normal server configuration. The rest of this post will be a quick walk-through of the new script recording feature.
The first thing you'll notice when you load the WebLogic 10 console is that it looks very similar to the WebLogic 9 console. You'll also quickly notice the disabled "Record" link and the "Record WLST Scripts" link under "How Do I…" The simple steps below illustrate how to record a configuration script:
The recording session has started. Recording to C:\BEA10\user_projects\domains\Test\AddAuditorScript.py.
cmo.createAuditor('TestAuditor', 'weblogic.security.providers.audit.DefaultAuditor')
Doesn't get much easier than that, does it?
At this point you can edit the script (outside of console, of course) or do whatever you need to do. Then, you can subsequently run the script as you would any WLST script.
If you are interested in recording scripts, you should read the "How Do I" link since there are some things the recorder won't do. For example, it won't record the addition or deletion of users, roles, or policies. You can also learn about how the recorder handles encrypted values.
Finally, if you're running Weblogic 9 and wish you could record scripts, look no further than the WLST Script Generator. At the other end of this link you will find Satya Ghattu's script generator and accompanying console extension for WebLogic 9. Thanks to Andre Glauser for passing along the link.
What happens when a servlet (or JSP) forwards the user to a protected resource for which the user does not have authorization? According to the servlet specification, the user will see the protected resource. Surprise!
I checked the servlet specifications on this subject. Servlet 2.2 has no explicit mention of what happens during forwards or includes from a security perspective. Starting with Servlet 2.3, however, section SRV.12.2 explicitly states that declarative security does not apply to forwards and includes.
I'd prefer it to default the other way such that the container checks security for forwards and includes. Too bad for me, I guess. Fortunately, WebLogic meets the specification's requirement by default but provides a way to check security if you want to enable it. To use it, add the following stanza to weblogic.xml:
<container-descriptor> <check-auth-on-forward/> </container-descriptor>
Now, authorization will be checked for the target forward or include.
BEA announced that WebLogic 10 has been released for general availability. I don't know about you, but I haven't even fully kicked the tires on 9.x yet!
With this release, the big push was for Java EE5, EJB, 3.0, and Spring interoperability. Security-wise, the changes seem to be incremental. Here are the highlights of the security changes:
That's all of the documented changes in the security arena. I plan on going a little more in-depth on some of these in the near future.


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'Hey, have I mentioned that my little brother's rowing in the Olympics?"
If you and I have had occasion to speak in the past month or two, I can almost guarantee that at some point, typically in the first eight seconds, you've heard me utter this question-that-isn't-really-a-question. In fact, I probably have already mentioned my brother's incredible achievement to you, in an earlier conversation. The repetition is no accident.
See, the reason I keep asking is not because I'm on some lame quest for admiration-by-proxy. Or not entirely. The truth is I'm asking in the long-shot hope that you also have a brother competing in the Olympics, and might be able to teach me to do a better job of it. I fear I'm mucking the whole thing up.
We all tend to get a bit excited about our Canadian Olympians when the Games roll around. We feel a connection to the athletes wearing the Maple Leaf singlet – our national laundry. We consume newspaper profiles about them, and watch heartwarming biographical segments between commercial breaks.
But what happens to a sports fan who's seen 25 years worth of heartwarming biographical segments for just one athlete? That's me.
Michael's 25 and I'm 31, so I've got an editing room full of reels. (Incidentally, he's also now eight inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than me, which is why he gets to row for Canada, and I'm stuck tapping on a keyboard with slightly undersized fingers.)
I've seen it all. I remember the seven-year-old swimming prodigy unhealthily obsessed with medals, who would walk around the house with two dozen of them clanking around his neck.
I remember the 13-year-old beanpole who was simultaneously the youngest and the tallest Braithwaite in our six-member family portrait, prompting my mother to come up with one of her best running jokes: "Well … [sighing wistfully] … the milkman was tall, too."
And the biographical scenes where the sad music wells up, of challenges faced and overcome? I've got 25 years of those stored up, too.
I was the one who convinced Michael he was a shoo-in to be recruited to an Ivy League rowing program … until they all passed on him. There were late nights at my apartment in Toronto, while he was struggling to lead a fledgling U of T rowing program out of obscurity, when he'd ask me (after clearing out most of the food in my fridge) if the sacrifices were worth it. What would he accomplish by putting himself through hell, waking at dawn to row on a nearly frozen lake?
I fear that I never provided a sufficiently wise older-brother answer. But despite my failings, here he is: an Olympian. And his exact boat – two men, four oars (Kevin Kowalyk's in there, too) knifing across a still lake – is the one depicted on Canada Post's commemorative 2012 Olympics stamp.
Michael wasn't really supposed to make the 2012 team – Rio was his target – and the boat is a long shot to medal based on the competition, so Joe Barstool may not end up knowing him very well by the end of the Games.
So here's another joy of Olympic-watching that's been rudely ripped from me: the ability to walk away. The typical Canadian can move on to the next hopeful if his adopted athlete is nipped at the line, stumbles out of the blocks or chokes under pressure. Plug in, plug out. That no longer works for me.
There are 13 nations competing in Michael's event tomorrow, and 12 make the semifinals. What if his team ends up odd-man-out?
He's risen to the occasion on this sort of stage before. I was sitting in the press box in a Czech village to witness his first big triumph, winning bronze in the men's single at the Under-23 World Championships.
But for every athlete who outperforms, another must necessarily stumble, or choke. The Olympics are a zero-sum game.
How does one deal with this intense closeness, this familial knowledge of how the Olympian sausage is made? In different ways. My sister has thrown herself into cheerleading, printing T-shirts and ponchos for friends and relatives and hounding us to post video messages for Michael on the Internet. My father became so boastful on Facebook that Michael had to impose "final cut" reviews of any social-media outbursts. The two of them will be at the course tomorrow, cheering Michael on.
My mother, on the other hand, told me not too long ago that she felt she ought to be more excited. "Maybe it hasn't sunk in yet, maybe it won't until I see him on TV," she said, and I felt we were experiencing the same thing: an overwhelming mix of feelings and emotional obligations, perhaps too much to handle in one go.
But all this me, me, me stuff is part of the problem, isn't it? Who cares what I think? Shouldn't Michael's own thoughts be 50 times more powerful and important? I suppose that's why he's there: Not just because he's bigger than the rest of our family, but because he's figured out how to handle all the emotions, to harness those 25 years and turn them into something incredible.
In the end, it's not about how he does, and whether that reflects well or poorly on you or me. What's important is that he's getting to do it at all. And he is welcome to raise and reraise the subject with me whenever he wants. I'll never get tired of hearing about it.
Andrew Braithwaite lives in San Francisco. His brother Michael (michaelbraithwaite.ca) competes tomorrow in the men's double sculls rowing event.


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Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), a successful workaholic businessman and corporate raider in Los Angeles on business, accidentally takes a detour on Hollywood Boulevard while looking for Beverly Hills. He unsuccessfully tries to ask for directions and ends up in the red-light district, where he encounters a hooker named Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts), who mistakes him for a possible client. Her roommate and best friend, Kit De Luca (Laura San Giacomo), encourages her to recruit him, though he only wants directions and makes a deal with her to pay her if she shows him the way. Intrigued by her knowledge and wit he hires her to spend the night with him for $300 in his hotel's penthouse apartment, treating her to strawberries and champagne and sharing personal information with her. He comes to trust her as she "surprises" him by flossing her teeth after eating the strawberries (and not doing drugs as he thought she was more likely to do given her profession). They spend the night watching I Love Lucy reruns and having sex.
The morning after, Edward hires Vivian to stay with him for a week as an escort for social events. She advises him that it will cost him, and he agrees to pay her $3,000 and gives her money and access to his credit cards to buy suitable elegant clothing. She then goes shopping on Rodeo Drive, only to be snubbed by saleswomen who disdain her because of her unsophisticated and overly sexual appearance. Initially, hotel manager Barney Thompson (Hector Elizondo) is also somewhat hostile towards her but slowly relents and instead helps her find a dress and even coaches her on dinner etiquette. Edward returns and is visibly amazed by her transformation. The business dinner does not end well, however, with Edward making clear his intention to dismantle James Morse's corporation once it was bought, close down the shipyard which Morse had spent 40 years building, and sell the land for real estate. Morse and his grandson, David, abandon their dinner in anger, while Edward remains preoccupied with the deal afterward. Back at the hotel, he reveals to Vivian that he had not spoken to his recently deceased father for 14½ years. She attempts to cheer him up but he rebuffs her and leaves. Later that night, lonesome and worried, she goes looking for him. She tries again to console him and they end up having sex on the grand piano in the hotel lounge.
The next morning Edward asks Vivian about her buying only one dress and she, upset, tells him about the snubbing that took place the day before. He takes her to a store where he makes sure that the staff will indulge her. He leaves her with money and his credit cards and she goes on a shopping spree. Now wearing very elegant clothes Vivian returns carrying all the bags, to the shop that had snubbed her, telling the saleswomen they had made a big mistake and announcing nonchalantly that she "has to go shopping now" leaving them speechless.
The following day, Edward takes Vivian to a polo match he sponsors in hopes of networking for his business deal. She meets some of his snooty upperclass friends and tells him that she understands why he came looking for her. While she chats with David Morse, who is there playing polo, Phillip Stuckey, Edward's attorney begins to suspect that she is a spy. Edward reassures him by telling him how they met, and that she is in fact a sex worker, and Phillip (Jason Alexander) approaches her and offers to hire her once she is finished with Edward, insulting her. When they return to the hotel, she is furious with Edward for telling Phillip about her and plans to leave, but he apologizes, confessing his jealousy towards David and persuades her to see out the week. He, elated, leaves work early the next day to take her on a date to the opera in San Francisco in his private jet. Vivian is moved to tears by the opera (which is La traviata, whose plot deals with a rich man tragically falling in love with a courtesan). Clearly growing closer they later play chess and she convinces him to take the next day off.
They spend the next day entirely together talking and enjoying each other's company. During the night Vivian breaks her "no kissing on the mouth" rule and they end up making love for the very first time. Just before she falls asleep in his arms she admits that she's in love with him. Over breakfast the next day he offers to put her up in an apartment so she can be off the streets but she rejects it, insulted and says this is not the "fairy tale" she wants. Telling him a story of her childhood fantasy, he then goes off to work without resolving the situation. Kit, collecting money from her, comes to the hotel and realizes that she is in love with Edward. She reluctantly encourages Vivian to pursue a relationship with him.
In the meantime, Edward meets with Morse and is about to close the deal, but changes his mind at the last minute. His time with Vivian has shown him another way of living and working, taking time off and enjoying activities he never cared for. As a result, his strong interest towards his business is put aside. He decides that he would rather help Morse than take over his company. Morse still has his Navy contracts that could make his company a lot richer and Edward bluffed a little, the contracts were delayed not destroyed. With those Navy Contracts, Edward 10 million shares of the company he owns, they will build big ships together. That was Edward's dream: to build things, instead of tearing them down. Furious over the loss of so much money, Phillip goes to the hotel to confront Edward, but finds only Vivian. He blames her for changing Edward and tries to grope her. She bites his hand to make him stop and a furious Phillip slaps and tries to rape her. Edward arrives in time to stop him, hitting him while chasing him for his greed and then throws him out.
Edward tends to Vivian and tries to persuade her to stay with him because she wants to, not because he's paying her but she refuses once again and returns to the apartment she shared with Kit, preparing to leave for San Francisco to earn a GED. With his business trip done, Edward packs and gets ready to head back to New York. He pauses in the lobby and asks Barney to return the jewelry that Vivian wore on their date to the opera. He states that "it must be hard letting go of something so beautiful" and informs Edward that the limo's chauffeur drove Vivian home the day before. He gets into the car with the chauffeur but instead of going to the airport, he goes to her apartment arriving with music from La traviata. He climbs up the fire escape, despite his fear of heights, with a bouquet of roses clutched between his teeth to woo her. Edward, leaping from the white limo and then climbing the fire escape, is a visual urban metaphor for the knight on a white horse rescuing the princess from the tower, the childhood fantasy Vivian told him about. The film ends as they kiss passionately on the fire escape. They declare their love to each other.


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Alma Heights Christian varsity boy's basketball team went into the holiday break with a 51-44 victory over Crystal Springs Uplands School last Friday night.
The Eagles led from the opening tip until the final buzzer. They had a very balanced attack with eight different players scoring on the night. The leading scorer was Joshua Cayetano with 12 points. He also added three steals and a blocked shot.
James Boyd filled the box score with 11 points, 14 rebounds, three steals and two assists. Other contributors were Elias Paz with eight points, Matthew Kolesnikov with seven points and seven rebounds and finally, Greg Lim with four points and four steals.
The Eagles next game will be tomorrow at 5 p.m. when they host Jewish Community in the Private School Athlete League North Division opener.


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Legal Question in Immigration Law in New Jersey
Hi there,
This is regarding the query for my new h1b filing.
I was in US for five yeaars on h1b and last year october 2012 my h1b visa extension got denied , due to my employer negligence
i got the update on December. Due to my personal conditions it's take again 3 more months (March 2013) to be back to India.
NOw i am working for one IT company and they were going to file my h1b for this year .
Due to my earlier h1b denial and overstay, Is any possible deny of h1b filig or any issues ?
Please advise me to take suitable action.
Raj Rao
1 Answer from Attorneys
Your overstay was not long enough to trigger any bars to return, but way increase the difficulty in obtaining a new visa issuance from the consulate. Hopefully you have documentation for the reasons for the delay in departing the US.


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Karmarama has hired Mother's Mark Harrison as the managing director of retail, Lawrence Weber from The Brooklyn Brothers as the head of digital integration and David Pandit, who joins from Bartle Bogle Hegarty as the director of data and analytics. (Campaign)
WCRS has promoted Elisa Edmonds to the new role of head of account planning. (Campaign)
Omnicom Media Group's digital leader in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Damian Blackden is to leave the agency network after four years. (Campaign)
Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has appointed Gill Huber to the position of marketing and communications director of SMG London. (Media Week)
Initiative has appointed both Steve Henderson, client director at Mindshare, and Tania Harwood, business director at OMD UK, as business directors, replacing Simon Kennett and Sean Pattison respectively. (Media Week)
Yahoo is parting way with its sales director Steve Brown. Brown joined Yahoo in 2008 as group business manager, and was promoted to sales director two years later. Brown has yet to be replaced. (Media Week)
Yahoo has also appointed Google's vice-president of local, maps and location services Marissa Mayer as its chief executive. The appointment of Mayer ends Yahoo's period without a leader. (Media Week)
AOL has appointed former Thomson Reuters brand head Jolie Hunt to the newly created role of chief marketing officer, following a global restructure that saw the company's marketing function stripped out of the UK and relocated to the US. (Marketing)
Nintendo has appointed its head of European PR Shelly Pearce to the UK marketing director position left vacant by the departure of Dawn Paine. (Marketing)


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Kai Ryssdal: You wanna make it in the music business? Figure it out yourself. 'Cause the old rules are long gone. Most recent case in point -- singer/songwriter Alina Simone. She was discovered by a book editor, of all things. He'd heard some of her songs online, became a fan, and to her surprise, offered her a book deal. To his surprise, the essays she wrote are funny. Actually funny. They're collected in a new book called You Must Go and Win, all about building a career in the trenches of indie rock. Good to have you with us.
Alina Simone: Nice to be here.
Ryssdal: So this is not your typical musician biography. You know, I mean Keith Richards is out there, Patti Smith is out there and they tell all kinds of tells. This is stories of flea-bit mattresses and skeevy Craigslist ads and producers who are more interested in the second house in the Hamptons than they are in your music career. Why'd you stick with it? I mean, there comes a point when even the most determined person -- whether they wanted to do it when they were five or not -- says I can't do this any more.
Simone: It's because I was absolutely compelled to do it. And I think that's the answer any artist would give you if you asked them. You know, you wanted to be a writer and your book got rejected 28,000 times and no one wanted to be your agent, and 17 years passed before you finally broke through. Why do people do that? It's because they have to. It's the expression of who you are. And if you look back at your life and you didn't even try to do what you dreamed to do, then that's really tragic. That's tragic and it's not funny. It's just tragic.
Ryssdal: So speaking of tragedy, your most recent album before this one that's out was all in Russian about an ill-fated Russian poet. Do I have that right?
Simone: Yeah, punk poet. She's a singer and a poet.
Ryssdal: Right. You're not playing to a fanbase here, you're doing your thing.
Simone: That is very accurate. I wouldn't say there was a loud clamor out there that I was answering for covers of deceased Soviet punk singers. I fell in love with her music. I became totally obsessed with it. I felt that it deserved to be reinterpreted.
Ryssdal: You have in your book, it's a roadmap of sorts. It's a graphic or a chart that says, listen if you're an artist, here's what you have to do. And you lay out a bunch of things: You have to go see a publicist and lawyers and press and all kinds of things. And then you have one where you have to connect with your fans. And I want you to read the little bit right there about connecting with your fans.
Simone: Howard Wolfson is going to kill me.
"In the summer of 2008, I got an order for an album I sell for leased and was selling through MySpace from one Howard Wolfson. At the time, I knew a man with the same name was helping run Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, but I figured this must be a different guy -- especially since Hillary was in the midst of battling Obama in the primaries. The best way to check whether it was that Howard Wolfson, I decided, was a Google search to see if he was Jewish. Because one key to growing your fanbase is knowing your demographic and my fanbase was comprised entirely of depressed Jews. The search came up aces. But later on, I wrote just to make sure: 'I hope you don't mind asking,' I wrote, 'but are you that Howard Wolfson?' A few hours later I had my answer: 'I am. Hope you're a Hillary fan.' I never did ask what he was doing on my MySpace page during the primaries, but I wasn't totally surprised when Hillary lost."
Ryssdal: Yeah, so that is a good question what he was doing on your MySpace page. But the moral of the story is you gotta do what it takes, right, to get out to your fans.
Simone: You do have to do what it takes to get out to your fans. I think being an artist is about following your own voice and some people are really lucky in that what they want to do really intersects exactly with the market. There are just two lines on a grid and they meet. You've got JK Rowling and she really wants to tell the story of Harry Potter, and then lucky for her there are 3 billion people that really want to hear that story. Whereas in my case, there are 600 people that really want to hear those songs. But it doesn't matter to me because I can't be any other way. I can't flip a switch and become Lady Gaga. There are people that say to me, why don't you write some dance music, you've got a great voice? You could do this and that. But the truth is I can't. I can't do anything but what I do, which is why I do it.
Ryssdal: Alina Simone. Her album is called "Make Your Own Danger." Her book is called You Must Go and Win.
Simone: Thank you.


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Even when the Twins win, they still can't win.
It was star first baseman Joe Mauer's fourth-inning, bases-loaded double that sparked the Twins' biggest lead in recent memory. But while the crowd cheered Eduardo Escobar and Sam Fuld home, Mauer pulled up in pain at second base.
Mauer's injury marred an otherwise impressive 10-2 Twins' victory over the error-prone Kansas City Royals at Target Field on Tuesday night. The Twins scored first for the first time in six games and played with more pep than the team had in losing six of its previous seven games.
Mauer's strained right oblique strain will be further evaluated Wednesday, but the Twins first baseman said he has been a bit stiff in that area for about a week.
And even though he said he thought it was getting better, it became clear it wasn't when he took the reaching swing to drive the ball down the line.
"It felt like somebody hit me pretty hard right there," he said.
Mauer attempted to stay in the game in hopes the pain would ease. But Chris Parmelee eventually had to fill in for him at first starting in the fifth inning while Josh Willingham went to left field.
Since the injury comes with Mauer in the midst of a turnaround on a 12-game hitting streak in which he is hitting .362 and 12 RBI, he called it "frustrating" and "bad timing."
Parmelee might have to take over Mauer's streak, as he's on an 11-game run himself.
"Losing Joe like that during a game is not something you want," he said. "We'll do the best we can to, I guess, fill the hole until he gets back.
"When somebody goes down like that, such a key contributor like Joe, somebody's going to have to step up."
Parmelee and shortstop Eduardo Nunez did just that at the top of the order, which manager Ron Gardenhire praised.
In only his second game back from the disabled list, Nunez had three hits in five at-bats, including a homer, walked once and drove in two runs. That puts him at 5-for-9 since his return from a 14-game absence because of a right hamstring strain.
"We missed him when he was gone," Gardenhire said. "You can plug him in just about anywhere on a baseball field, and he gives quality at bats. That was nice of him to step in."
MLB Headlines
Even when the Twins win, they still can't win.


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By ARTHUR MACDONALD, Posted on » 20 August 2009
MANAMA: Bahrain-based Investcorp saw an improvement in performance in the second half of its fiscal year to the end of June. In spite of the continuation of highly challenging business conditions, hedge fund returns rebounded strongly with a return of 12.3 per cent for the period.
At the same time, Investcorp took a conservative view towards marking-to-market its portfolio of private equity and real estate co-investments in light of continued uncertainty surrounding the global economy and its emergence from the current recessionary environment.
This resulted in a net loss of $269.5 million for the second half of the year, marking a significant improvement over the net loss of $511.1m in the first half of the fiscal year.
The overall loss for fiscal year 2009 was therefore $780.6m, of which a significant portion related to unrealised market valuation adjustments for private equity and real estate co-investments on the balance sheet.
"The fiscal year has seen the worst period of sustained stress to the world economy and financial markets in living memory, and this has had a severe impact on Investcorp and its clients, as it has on financial institutions and investors worldwide," a company spokesman said.
"It has been the most challenging year since the formation of the firm in 1982."
During the second half of fiscal year 2009, Investcorp concluded its preference share issue, with subscriptions of over $500m. Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio now stands at 20pc compared to 18pc last year, which is 250pc of the Bank for International Settlements capital adequacy guideline of 8pc and 167pc of the Central Bank of Bahrain's minimum requirement of 12pc.
This puts Investcorp amongst the strongest capitalised banks globally, providing a strong platform to benefit from an anticipated recovery in global economies and markets.
With total liquidity now at $1.8 billion, the new preference share issue has boosted Investcorp's economic capital, helped meet its deleveraging objectives and will support new business growth initiatives.
A new streamlined management structure was announced following the fiscal year-end, designed to enable Investcorp to leverage its strong franchise and successful track record for future growth. Reporting to executive chairman and chief executive officer Nemir A Kirdar, is a team of four senior partners.
This comprises Investcorp's chief financial officer Rishi Kapoor, formerly head of direct investment and now president of US and European business Christopher O'Brien, newly appointed president, Gulf business, Mohammed Al Shroogi, and newly appointed chief administrative officer Mark Slaughter.
"We have taken decisive action to position the firm for the future and for the business opportunities that will present themselves as the market recovers," said Mr Kirdar.
"The capital increase is a strong vote of confidence in Investcorp's franchise by all our key stakeholders.
"Our new management structure, combining experienced new talent with home grown, will accelerate product development and the evolution of our distribution network as we drive the performance of our business to its fullest potential," he said.
"The systemic shock to the financial system that occurred from September 2008 impacted financial performance in two areas, reducing fee income and lowering the book value of balance sheet co-investments largely due to unrealised mark-to-market valuation declines," the spokesman said.
"Fiscal year 2009 was Investcorp's first-ever loss. Prior to this, it has had a consistent record of profitability for over a quarter of a century. The timely action taken to manage costs has fed through, with total operating expenses of $206.3m, 22pc lower than in 2008, helping offset the decline in fee revenues due to lower transactional activity.
"The full year effect of the cost reduction programme will be felt in 2010," the spokesman said.
[email protected]


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PRETORIA, South Africa, April 27 (UPI) -- On the 20th anniversary of the end of apartheid, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he's glad former leader Nelson Mandela is dead so he can't see what's become of South Africa.
Mandela, affectionately known as Madiba by South Africans, died in December after a long illness.
He was imprisoned for 28 years for supporting the end of apartheid -- or racial segregation -- in South Africa, and was released in 1990.
Tutu was a close friend of Mandela's while he was in prison.
"I didn't think there would be a disillusionment so soon," Tutu said of South Africa since the end of apartheid. "I'm glad that Madiba is dead. I'm glad that most of these people are no longer alive to see this."


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Frederick (Md.) Linganore offensive guard Robby Havenstein has come to a decision. The 6-foot-7, 345-pound lineman has decided to head out-of-state.
"He called Coach Cooks from Wisconsin and told them he wanted to play football there," Linganore head coach Richard Conner said. "I think it came down to a couple schools, one was really close (Maryland) and one was really far away. He wanted to go far away."
Conner discussed his star lineman's choice further.
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"For him to plan to attend Wisconsin and play football there isn't shocking to me," he said. "He's a unique kid and this is what he wanted to do.
"There was great deliberation. Maryland did a great job all the way up to Ralph Friedgen. They were super and he did really like Maryland, but he wanted to get further away."
Much of Havenstein's choice appears to have come down to a couple visits to Madison.
"He did his due diligence," he said. "He went out there twice. He's got a cousin that attends the school and an uncle that lives right there. Then he went out with his mom a couple weeks ago. I'm sure the fact they have had success on the line was important as well, but Coach Brattan with Maryland is one of the better offensive line coaches in the country too. He had great coaches."
Conner is thrilled with his prospect's choice.
"I'm just happy for Rob," he said. "This is behind him and he can concentrate on other things. He's playing at such a high level this year and he's our captain."
Meanwhile, Conner discussed the talent the Badgers are getting.
"They're getting a team leader, a team captain," he said. "He's only played football, this is his fourth year. He's done a great job and plays on the offensive line and defensive line. They are getting a kid with a great heart, a tough kid that believes in being successful. He knows what it is to work hard and is a well-prepared senior."