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Below is the changelog for the public builds of FBackup since the release of version 5.0. You can download the latest version of FBackup here:
[Current build] Changes in FBackup 5.5.839 (20-October-2015)
- Fix: Scheduled tasks don't need elevated user rights to run anymore
- Fix: Other small fixes
Changes in FBackup 5.5.835 (07-October-2015)
- New: User interface is now available in Danish
- New: Added Japanese language for the user interface
- New: Added Korean language for the user interface
- New: Added Portuguese Brazil language for the user interface
- New: Added Serbian language for the user interface
- New: Added Vietnamese language for the user interface
- Update: Updated translations for Chinese Simplified, Czech, Dutch, Italian, Romanian and Slovenian
- Update: Fully compatible with Windows 10
Changes in FBackup 5.4.813 (04-August-2015)
- Update: Fully compatible with Windows 10
- Fix: Scheduled jobs were not displayed in Windows 10
- Fix: Other fixes for Windows 10
Changes in FBackup 5.4.810 (29-July-2015)
- Interface now available in Czech
- French translation updated
- Russian translation updated
- Tray popup menu captions fixes
- Fixed some localization issues
Changes in FBackup 5.4.784 (12-May-2015)
- Fixed an access violation error occurring when cancelling an action
- Fixed error for the update check window position
Changes in FBackup 5.4.779 (11-May-2015)
- Improved backup speed for mirror backups with multiple source files
- Various interface updates
- Allow special XML characters in paths and names
- More information is added to the Installer Log
- List excluded files in log
- Check for updates didn't install the new version in some situations
- Some keys were not removed from registry on uninstall
- Default language chosen in installer was not used when starting the app
Changes in FBackup 5.3.723 (10-February-2015)
- Notification pop-up window will show if there are important messages
- Drastically reduced drive fragmentation for backups
- "More details" button for notifications did not appear correctly
- History was not updated after execution
- List index out of bounds error received at limit file numbers
- Update available window now displays program title
- Add drive to new job created an invalid .ini file
Changes in FBackup 5.3.704 (10-February-2015)
- Added Catalan language for user interface
- The installer will check for updates and offer to install the latest version
- Added backup type on statistics page
- Folder name case is now updated in destination
- Added more information to logs and updated messages
- Service timeout when starting the computer due to antivirus scan delay
- Restore was not working correctly in certain situations
Changes in FBackup 5.2.685 (21-January-2015)
- Updated message that shows when an error occurs during installation
- Added antivirus information in logs for troubleshooting purposes
- Scheduled tasks were not copied with the job
Changes in FBackup 5.2.643 (24-November-2014)
- Interface is now available in German
- New updates can now be installed automatically
- Added "Jobs with warnings" filter in the Navigation pane
- Scheduled jobs now show an extra-icon in the main job layout view
- Added new tag for "Scheduled jobs"
- Jobs and tags are sorted alphabetically by default
- In Card and List view mode you can do multiple selections using the keyboard
- Notifications window completely redesigned (new actions, redesigned icons)
- Total Backup time is now included in the log
- Layout actions were renamed
- All notification messages can be configured to display collapsed or expanded
- Show number of jobs in status bar
- "List index out of bounds" when dragging filter checkboxes
- Type of source is included in the log file
- Minor display fixes for radio buttons and tray icon
- Installer text corrections
- "Try Again" after cancelling an installation didn't work
Changes in FBackup 5.1.613 (24-October-2014)
- Fixed "Access violation at address 0170B614 in module Fbackup.exe. Read of address 0000000C."
- Added new text to installer window
- Corrected some typos in several messages
- Show explorer context menu didn't remain activated
- Destinations radio controls were not aligned in new backup wizard
- Save columns for scheduler view and other fixes for restore default layout
- Language is preserved during updates
Changes in FBackup 5.1.596 (30-September-2014)
- Preserve language during software update
- bResourceStrings language file was not overwritten in temp after update
- Sorting by size columns in test windows did not work
- Show explorer context menu option was not saved on application restart
- In some cases, the text files were opened automatically after restore
Changes in FBackup 5.1.589 (25-September-2014)
- Added new language translations for the interface: Chinese Simplified, Dutch, Slovenian
- SHORTCUTDIR was added as a parameter for installing the program via command line to tell where the folder in the start menu should be placed
- Check destination is now done after "Run action before"
- Improved loading time when unavailable mapped drives were used as destination
- Fixed Editing/deleting scheduled task for backup jobs having long names
- Taskbar icon was not visible when using old plugins and at activation
- Corrected help links in New Backup Wizard and Register link in Startup dialog
Changes in FBackup 5.1.558 (18-August-2014)
- Fixed errors during update on systems where Italian/French was default language
- Updated language files
- "Launch and visit site" button corrections
- Fixes when changing the location of the temporary folder
Changes in FBackup 5.1.555 (13-August-2014)
- Fixed errors during update on systems where French was default language
- Fixes for installation in Chinese traditional
- Unnecessary warning for splitting zip files in temp folder
- Information about operating system, user rights, processor and locale is always added in log file
- Fix empty backup when backing up folders with no files using a plugin
- Added more USN journal info to log
Changes in FBackup 5.1.549 (07-August-2014)
- Added Italian language for the interface
- Independent test removes tested zip files from temp folder when completed
- Calculated compression ratio is now more precise
- Show support email when there's an installation error
- Fixed AV when clicking on the update notification from tray
Changes in FBackup 5.1.541 (30-July-2014)
- Added French language for user interface
- Added Malay language for user interface
- Added Indonesian language for user interface
- Added Portuguese language for user interface
- Added Spanish language for user interface
- Added Swedish language for user interface
- Added Chinese Traditional language for user interface
- Improved backup speed for backup jobs with lots of files
- Show file icons from system using file extension in sources and restore previews
- Added "Last backup size" and "Total size of backup" for statistics view
- Disabled context menu option re-appeared on updating
- Layout was not preserved when reopening application
- Using the F11 shortcut for scheduler did not work
- Fix when expanding a folder for which GUI did not have the right to access it
- Fixed mirror backup on empty folders with override filters
Changes in FBackup 5.0.483 (24-June-2014)
- Windows 8 ReFS file system is now fully supported
- Sort files and folders in backup view
- .ost files are excluded from Outlook backups (those are not needed)
- Disabled Try Again link when install conditions were not fulfilled during setup
Changes in FBackup 5.0.467 (29-May-2014)
- Fixed GUI inconsistencies for 125% DPI and 1024x756 resolution
- Some info notes will be always visible in log files
Changes in FBackup 5.0.463 (29-May-2014)
- Multiple design fixes for the interface when using custom DPI settings
- If VSS could not be started, the backup stopped with "no files to backup"
- The name of the copied filter was generated incorrectly
- Access violation when no sources were set (caused by import from previous versions)
Changes in FBackup 5.0.460 (27-May-2014)
- Added new languages for the interface, Romanian and Malaysian
- Disable journal by default
- Handle catalogs with invalid signatures
- Fix for moving plugins folder (when there is a job using the DLL plugin)
- Change message when plugins are obsolete
- Two scheduler options could not be used in Windows XP
- Runtime error after installation in certain situations
- The folder "Default" was still skipped during backups
Changes in FBackup 5.0.450 (21-May-2014)
- NTFS Journal backup improvements
- New updates to EULA
- Added "Following drive(s) could not be found" message to log when a source drive is not available
- Installation failed in some situations with an exception error
- Tray notifications showed messages even when none were unread
- Backup catalog error: "The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file."
- Fix for Blu-ray backups
- Shutdown after action not executed (force parameter must be set is some cases)
Changes in FBackup 5.0.414 (02-Apr-2014)
- Backup job for configurations plug-in had errors when backing up the tag
- "Next scheduled backup" information more accurate in log
- Security permissions were not backed up
- "Default" users folder was not backed up when using filters
- Files and folders are now case sensitive in backups
- Improved French translation
- Fix test for split files in backups using plugins
- Fixed outlook backup problems
- Empty warnings in log in certain situations
- Refresh job status in GUI and tray after app restart
- "Invalid floating point operation" and "List index out of bounds (-1)" exception errors
Changes in FBackup 5.0.396 (12-Mar-2014)
- Update: Added French translation for GUI
- Fix:Large backups to Blu-ray discs failed in some situations
- Fix:Skip files instead of aborting backup for unreadable files in block backups
- Fix:List header font size and row height fixes when using larger DPI
- Fix:Cannot create file "autorun.inf" error in certain specific cases
- Fix:Put the line with "search for warning and error" in info log
Changes in FBackup 5.0.389 (04-Mar-2014)
- Fix: A focus rectangle will be shown in scheduler list/grid
- Fix: Ribbon context menus were shown for history and scheduler even if unrelated
- Fix: No errors were shown when the statuses for scheduled tasks were enabled or disabled
- Fix: The destination link will not be loaded if not needed
Changes in FBackup 5.0.372 (21-Feb-2014)
- Fix: Shutdown after backup didn't work in Windows XP/2003/2008 R2 (x64)
- Fix: Custom icons for backup jobs were not correctly loaded
- Fix: Runtime error when cancelling a Test operation
- Fix: Language didn't stay selected when switching from English
- Fix: Auto-dismiss "insert disk" notification when a disk is inserted during spanned backups
- Fix: Notification sounds after backup didn't play entire audio
- Fix: Modified text on notification message for spanned backups
- Fix: Test after backup didn't verify last disk for spanned backups in certain situations
- Fix: Shutdown after backup didn't work in certain situations for test, cleanup and restore operations
Changes in FBackup 5.0.360 (20-Feb-2014)
- Fix: Improved the speed of mirror backups
- Fix: Added additional information in error messages
- Fix: "Invalid floating point operation" error in certain situations
Changes in FBackup 5.0.359 (13-Feb-2014)
- Fix: FBackup was causing occasionally a computer restart on Windows 7 when no user was logged in</FIX>
Changes in FBackup 5.0.358 (12-Feb-2014)
- Fix: Explore View ribbon menu was not shown in certain situations
- Fix: In certain situations the tray notification app was consuming too much CPU, slowing down the system
- Fix: Abort with "User press cancel" was not shown in log
- Fix: Excluded files not removed even if option was checked for mirror backups
- Fix: The system cannot find the file specified error when browsing for folder in New Backup Wizard
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 357 (Feb 11, 2014):
- Fix: Tray menu improvements
- Fix: Show full setup download link on hash mismatch in web installer
- Fix: Limit by file version was not loaded correctly from .ini
- Fix: "Show warning and error messages when scheduled" wasn't showing up in logs
- Fix: Runtime error when the app doesn't have enough rights to open an sqlite file
- Fix: Several other minor fixes
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 355 (Feb 07, 2014):
- Fix: Username in scheduled backups was modified automatically in certain situations
- Fix: Error "Cannot focus a disabled or invisible window"
- Fix: Fixes for tray message notifications (now in perfect sync with main interface)
- Fix: bTray.exe is duplicated when switching from all users to current user
- Fix: Limit bService log size to 50MB
- Fix: Access violation at address 05B4CF91 in module 'bResourceStrings.bpl'. Read of address 13CB800C.
- Fix: Access violation at address 05B46473 in module 'bResourceStrings.bpl'. Read of address DC458910.
- Fix: Several other minor fixes
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 346 (Jan 31, 2014):
- Fix: Settings folder path was reset without user interaction
- Fix: Removable and external drive letters were not detected if FBackup was running as a standard user (without admin rights)
- Fix: Improved GUI look for getting started and ribbon backstage on Windows XP and 2003
- Fix: Miscellaneous errors when backing up open files
- Fix: Error when comparing file versions
- Fix: Microsoft Outlook backup problems
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 336 (Jan 24, 2014):
- Fix: "Restore Default Layout" was showing buttons from "Jobs" on other sections that shouldn't have those
- Fix: Added debug log for loading file/folder dictionary and folder tree from backup catalog
- Fix: Hash mismatch error while trying to install via the web installer in certain situations
- Fix: Errors when trying to backup to Samba shares were not correctly reported
- Fix: Access violation at address 009AC236 in module 'FBackup.exe'. Read of address 00000000.
- Fix: Several other exception errors and minor fixes
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 325 (Jan 15, 2014):
- Fix: Import from previous versions will offer to copy application specific settings too
- Fix: Display updates in List mode for running backups
- Fix: Access violation at address 016242E1 in module 'FBackup.exe'. Read of address 0000000C.
- Fix: Access violation at address 016245CB in module 'FBackup.exe'. Read of address 00000008.
- Fix: Inconsistencies for messages displayed in tray
- Fix: Error "This operation is not valid because the current image contains no valid header"
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 314 (Jan 06, 2014):
- Fix: Main update link from check for updates window was invalid
- Fix: Empty notification window when opening from tray
- Fix: "Cannot create a file when that file already exists" error for paths longer than 255 characters
- Fix: Create schedule task fixes
- Fix: Disabling or changing settings for scheduled jobs didn't work correctly
- Fix: Error when creating scheduled jobs in Windows XP with "Run whether the user is logged on or not" option on
- Fix: Other fixes
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 309 (Dec 20, 2013):
- Fix: Modified confirmation message shown when importing from previous versions
- Fix: Several fixes when importing backups from other versions
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 307 (Dec 18, 2013):
- Fix: Fixed SQL access violation error (TSQLException error)
- Fix: Runtime error at app startup
- Fix: Access violation at address 77C9224D in module ntdll.dll
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 305 (Dec 17, 2013):
- Fix: Errors when backing up Outlook 2013
- Fix: Errors in particular situations when backing up jobs on non-English systems
- Fix: Errors during setup when using the web installer (unable to get the full setup)
- Fix: Access violation at address 0052840B in module FBackup.exe. Read of address 00000260.
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 304 (Dec 16, 2013):
- Fix: "Destination error (code 127072568). Cannot find description of this error code." (occurred when adding files to an imported fast mirror backup job)
- Fix: Some startup problems on Windows XP/2003
- Fix: Other access violation fixes
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 300 (Dec 11, 2013):
- Scheduled tasks were not created with the highest privileges and thus open files were not backed up
- License agreement was missing from the installer
- Access violation when forcefully closing the tray icon and starting FBackup
- Access violation at address 013E79F4 in module 'FBackup.exe'. Read of address 0000000B.
- Access violation at address 0166B6D6 in module 'FBackup.exe'. Read of address 00000004.
- Minor display corrections for higher DPI
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 245 (Nov 25, 2013):
- In some situations Windows was unable to boot in safe mode when the FBackup service was running
- Several other minor bug fixes
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 242 (Nov 18, 2013):
- Check for updates now connects via https
- Deleted files showed up as warnings on next run
- "List index out of bounds (-1)" in certain situations
- Access violation at address 00695F0A in module bBackup.exe
- bTray was blocking shutdown
- Several other minor bug fixes
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 230 (Nov 06, 2013):
- Drastically improved the backup speed when using the mirror type to backup lots of files (over 80% improvement)
- More than 20 bug fixes
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 218 (Oct 15, 2013):
- Added new symbols for backup job warnings and errors to improve visibility
- Added new option to disable the explorer context menu for FBackup
- The built-in scheduled tasks were not imported correctly from version 4
- In some cases the Mirror backup jobs were shown as Full backup jobs
- Several access violation error messages fixed
- Added ribbon button for quick comparison between FBackup and Backup4all
- If the web installer encounters an error in downloading the setup, the link to the full installer will be offered
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 192 (Sep 10, 2013):
- "Start at Windows start-up" option was not saved when checked
- Help page for the scheduler section was not loading
- Selecting weekly/monthly option in scheduler without indicating the specific days/months, leads now to the page where the selection has to be made
- Several access violation error messages fixed
Changes in FBackup 5.0 build 190 (Jul 19, 2013):
- Completely redesigned interface (ribbon style)
- Quick access toolbar
- Navigation pane
- Windows Explorer contextual pop-up menu
- Show job details in card/list mode (with filters and groups)
- Password storage management
- Notification messages
- Allow processes to use up to 4GB of memory
- Access FBackup according to system privileges
- Suspend application, cancel current and all jobs as actions in right-click tasks
- Run missed schedules
- Redesigned Plugin Manager (with automatic plugin load and customization)
- Windows 8.1 full compatibility
- Display progress for the current backup job


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MySpace has a new video from The Bounty Hunter. Called Rules for Outwitting a Bounty Hunter, the video gives you the top 8 ways to escape Gerard Butler! Watch it below:
A different trailer for the film has also been posted on YouTube. Watch it below:
A new trailer for How To Train Your Dragon has been released. Watch it below at Yahoo! Movies:

subset: commoncrawl


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School, Bridge Highlight Progress in Afghanistan
07.31.2009LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan - An agreement for a new school to be built and a new bridge over the Kunar River highlight continued improvements in Afghanistan.
An Afghan construction company here agreed with Task Force Mountain Warrior servicemembers July 29 to build a primary school in the province's Qhargayee district.
The new school, the fourth to be built in the province, will serve as the first primary educational center for the children of Miakhan Kac village and surrounding areas. Funding will come from
In Kunar province, July 27, the provincial reconstruction team assessed the Shigal district's recently completed Bar Sholton Bridge. The bridge's construction, coordinated and funded by the team using CERP funds, supports 50 to 60 vehicles per day and was built entirely by Afghans. It officially opened July 10.
"Now we have an area where we can set up our own bazaar," said Noor Mohammad, a local villager. "Also, we can now see relatives regularly. Now we have access to the district center [and] clinic, and our children can go to high school, when before they could not."
Previously, villagers had to use a rope ferry to cross the river.


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BALTIMORE - Tickets are now on sale for the 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship, which takes place from July 10-19, 2014 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Denver. Tickets can be purchased at www.worldlacrosse2014.com/tickets.
As many as 40 nations are expected to compete in the 2014 FIL World Championship, which is hosted by US Lacrosse. That would easily surpass the previous record for the number of nations competing in the world championship. A total of 29 nations competed at the 2010 men's world championship in Manchester, England, where the United States edged Canada 12-10 to win gold. This is the first time in nearly two decades that the United States has hosted the men's world championship, and the first time a lacrosse world championship will be played in the United States away from the East Coast.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a significant moment for the sport," said Bill Schoonmaker, chief operating officer of US Lacrosse. "Colorado is a beautiful state with a tremendous lacrosse community. We're excited to showcase the global growth of the sport in the United States with this event, and to welcome the lacrosse world to Colorado."
The 18,000-seat stadium at Dick's Sporting Goods Park will be used for at least three days of the event – opening ceremonies followed by the U.S.-Canada pool play game, the semifinals, and the championship game. Additionally, the two turf fields at the complex will feature stadium seating holding 10,000 spectators. Additional grass fields at the park will be used for games in the championship.
Full-event ticket packages are available for sale, and include access to more than 125 games over the 10 days. They are available in three levels:
- Gold packages include midfield reserved seating for all stadium games in East and West stands, guaranteed bleacher seating for Main Turf Field games and general admission access for all other fields.
- Silver packages include reserved seating for all stadium games in East and West stands and general admission access for all other fields.
- Bronze packages include reserved seating for all stadium games in the South and North stands (end zone) and general admission access for all other fields.
In addition to the world championship, registration is currently open for boys' youth and men's masters' festivals that will be held in conjunction with the event at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Visit www.worldlacrosse2014.com/festivals for more information about age groups and registering a team.


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PPD uses cookies on this website. Please be aware that if you continue browsing the website without changing your cookie settings, you consent to this. For more information on our use of cookies, please review our cookie policy.
Expertise in nearly 40 psychiatric and neurological disorders, and clinically trained neuroscience teams led by scientists and clinicians with extensive neuroscience experience.
PPD's Phase I Clinic conducts clinical studies to determine how new medicines act in the bodies of healthy volunteers.
PPD News and Events Media kit
We take a medically and scientifically informed, proactive approach to trial design, helping clients plan for specific scientific issues that may impact the efficacy and/or safety aspects of a product, including:
PPD also guides clients through the critical — and often uniquely challenging — process of recruiting for diabetes trials. We help identify, enroll and retain the desired study population to ensure study objectives are accurately and effectively met.
Having executed more than 30 global trials with adjudicated clinical endpoints, PPD implements a systematic approach to the surveillance and adjudication processing for major cardiovascular events (MACE). Our centralized team of adjudication experts developed an electronic system that encompasses all stages of adjudication, including event identification, dossier compilation, committee submission, arbitrations and final classification of events. This system provides the following advantages:
Additionally, PPD uses standard medical dictionary for regulatory activities (MedDRA) queries specific for MACE to ensure no potential cardiovascular event is missed.
With PPD, clients have access to more than 1,600 endocrine/metabolic professionals and staff. They can also tap into the knowledge and expertise of our global network of 1,500+ endocrinologists and 22,600 physicians.
At PPD, we're committed to developing flexible and customizable solutions that fit the specific needs of clients of any size for any study in any region. We help clients prepare for success by providing strategic clinical study design planning, ranging from smaller consulting contracts to full programs.
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Whittier, CA - Public LibraryHome Library Menu
Preschool Storytime & PAL Time-Whittwood-Cancelled
- Date: 03/26/2020 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
- Location: Whittwood Branch Library
10537 Santa Gertrudes Ave.
Whittier, California 90603
Stories for children 2-5 years old. Followed immediately by P.A.L. (Play and Learn) Time where children can play with a variety of educational toys and interact with each other.Return to full list >>
The printed version provided at the library circulation and reference desks is also available online


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VT Ranch is a 200 acre youth retreat center providing programs for students in kindergarten thru 12th grade serving all of Los Angles County. VT Ranch is located in Santa Clarita within a short drive from Los Angeles off the 5 FWY and Hasley Canyon. Our center specializes in overnight or day group programs centered around outdoor recreation, leadership, high ropes, cooperation and teamwork. VT Ranch operates one of the largest ropes courses in Southern California, including a 500 ft zip line, 2-three person giant swing, multiple leap of faiths, burma bridge, vine walk and much more.
The youth retreat center can accommodate large groups for one day or up to week at at time. It is our #1 goal to ensure that your groups experience exceeds your expectations.
Every group that comes to VT Ranch enjoys great food, professional programming, and rates for every budget.


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UNION BANK OF INDIA India is situated in 42 districts in KERALA. You can find here All UNION BANK OF INDIA branches in KERALA with IFSC Code, Contact Phone Number, Address etc.
We (IFSCode.com) have tried our best to keep the update information as available from RBI Website, visitors are requested to confirm information with the respective bank before using. The website reserves the right not to be responsible for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided. Liability claims regarding damage caused by the use of any information provided, including any kind of information which is incomplete or incorrect, will therefore be rejected.
011-49403304 05


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Terms of Reference
Draft revised Terms of Reference for the period 2016-2020:
1. The Working Party on Land Administration operates under the auspices of the ECE Committee on Housing and Land Management. Its members are the national land-administration authorities and related authorities from ECE member States.
2. The overall goals of the Working Party are the promotion and improvement of land administration and land management in the ECE region. The Working Party aims at supporting security of tenure, introducing and improving cadastre and land registry, developing real estate markets and the implementation of land and geodata policy. Given the entry into force of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda, the Working Party also aims to promote its implementation and the achievement of the relevant Sustainable Development Goals in the region.
3. The activities of the Working Party are based on cooperation and the exchange of experience among all countries of the region. This is done through: seminars and workshops organized in member States; land-administration reviews; participation in the development of country profiles on the housing sector organized by the Committee on Housing and Land Management; publication of studies and guidelines on specific land-administration and land-management topics; benchmarking and preparation of inventories of land-administration systems in the UNECE region; and the provision of policy advice and expert assistance. In particular, the Working Party deals with:
a) Land administration:
4. General task: Improving the acquisition, registration, storage, maintenance and dissemination of information on real property rights as well as the geometric and physical characteristics of land.
5. Activities: Providing advice on documentation of ownership rights, leases and mortgages, land cover, land-use and land-use restrictions, geo-referenced addresses; transfer of ownership rights; adjudication of land rights; solving of land disputes; cadastral mapping; database activities; real property valuation and mass appraisal; personal data protection; re-use of land-administration public data; and other related activities. Pricing of services; cost-recovery requirements; development of professional skills; taxation of land and real properties; monitoring of real estate markets; development of e-services; participation of land-administration authorities in e-government programmes.
b) Land management:
6. General task: Contributing to the formulation, implementation and monitoring of land policy and geo-data policy (including related financial policy issues); promotion of sustainable land management programmes and projects.
7. Providing advice in support of implementation of geo-spatial data policy; contributing to sustainable development of urban and rural areas, with a particular focus on land consolidation, the protection of natural resources and the further strengthening of good governance.
8. The Working Party shall periodically review its programme of work to ensure coherence of its activities with the work of the Committee on Housing and Land Management and within the overall objectives of the ECE.
9. The Working Party coordinates its activities in close contact with other international governmental and non-governmental organizations active in related fields, such as the United Nations Programme on Human Settlements (UN-HABITAT), other United Nations regional commissions, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the European Union institutions concerned with land management activities (e.g. the INSPIRE Initiative), the European Land Information Service (EULIS) organisation, the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), Permanent Committee on Cadastre in the European Union (PCC), the International Centre of Registration Law (CINDER), the European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information (EUROGI), EuroGeographics, the UN Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), and the European Land Registry Association (ELRA), among others.
10. The Working Party cooperates with international financial and donor organizations that fund programmes and projects related to land administration in countries of the UNECE region: e.g. the European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the World Bank.
11. The Working Party encourages partnership among the public and private sectors and their involvement in managing land resources and capacity-building for sustainable development. It encourages cooperation with educational institutions in order to enhance capacity-building activities. The Working Party encourages partnership among the public and private sectors and their involvement in managing land resources and capacity-building for sustainable development, supported in particular by the Real Estate Market Advisory Group.


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This Fact Sheet provides an overview of the Better Buildings Workforce Guidelines project. The Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) are working with industry stakeholders to develop voluntary national guidelines that will improve the quality and consistency of commercial building workforce training and certification programs for five key energy-related jobs.
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The purpose of this handbook is to furnish guidance for planning and conducting a highperformance building charrette, sometimes called a "greening charrette." The handbook answers typical questions such as, "What is a charrette?", "Why conduct a charrette?", "What topics should we cover?", "Whom should we invite?" and "What happens after the charrette?". Owners, design team leaders, site planners, state energy office staff, and others who believe a charrette will benefit their projects will find the handbook helpful.
This paper illustrates the challenges of integrating rigorous daylight and electric lighting simulation data with whole-building energy models, and defends the need for such integration in order to achieve aggressive energy savings in building designs. Through a case study example, we examine the ways daylighting – and daylighting simulation – drove the design of a large net-zero energy project.
It is still early in the collection and analysis of energy performance data, but it is already clear that high-performance commercial buildings—some "almost net-zero buildings"—can be constructed cost effectively, providing productive environments for occupants, reducing operating costs, and enhancing the competitiveness of commercial properties.


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Blanco takes job as D-backs' assistant hitting coach
PHOENIX -- After taking a day to think about it, veteran catcher Henry Blanco decided to accept the D-backs' offer to join their Major League coaching staff.
Blanco, 42, signed a Minor League contract during the offseason with the understanding that if he did not win the backup catching job, he would become the team's assistant hitting coach. After a tough battle, Blanco was edged out for the spot by Tuffy Gosewisch.
When he was informed of the decision Saturday, Blanco spent a day looking to see if there might be a big league job available for him, but when he discovered there was not one to be had, he accepted the coaching job.
"It's been crazy the first day," Blanco said after going from a hitters' meeting to batting practice.
Blanco began his professional career in 1990, and since 1999, he has spent at least part of every season in the big leagues.
While he didn't 100 percent rule out getting back onto the field again, he said it would have to be a really good opportunity to get him to leave.
"I'm more now a coach," he said. "I think this is a good opportunity to stay here in Arizona."
Mark Grace, who had been filling in on the coaching staff while Blanco tried to win a job, will now go back to his original position and be the hitting coach for Class A Short-Season Hillsboro in the Northwest League.


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Louisville police chief responds to "cheap shots" over Lawrence Street
Three days into actor Lawrence Street's mysterious disappearance in Denver over the weekend, his friends were issuing emotionally charged salvos at the perceived non-handling of the case to that point by the Denver and Louisville police departments. As the tense drama unfolded, the police-bashing theme mushroomed on social networking sites. Tonight, Louisville Chief of Police Bruce Goodman forcefully defended his department's handling of the Street disappearance, and answered to detractors whom he says held "not a clue how much effort was being put into this case."
By now the world knows that Street, who disappeared overnight Saturday after heading from Louisville to Denver for a party with a friend, is safe. According to police accounts, Street was spending time in Denver of his own volition, even though the Broadway veteran was missing key rehearsals for a production of "The Wizard of Oz" he was hired to choreograph for a new theater company 25 miles northwest of Denver.
Long before anyone knew what fate had befallen Street, a desperate and inflammatory out-of-town email was issued in the name of Street's friend, Franklin Trapp, not only alerting the media of Street's disappearance, but charging that the police in Colorado were not yet involving themselves in the case because Street is black, and gay.
In that part of the email, which The Post chose not to circulate along with information about Street's disappearance, was Trapp's frustrated observation that, "The cops say, 'He is an adult' (and) he can find his way home.' " Trapp went on to question: "It it that he is gay or black, that he is not important???"
He then issued the following threat, which, again, The Denver Post chose not to distribute while the case was still unresolved:
"We have contacted the Human Rights Campaign and the media, because apparently Colorado does not care about missing gay men. I will make it my main goal to make sure that Colorado is a hateful state if nothing is done to try to help find this amazing man."
In 1992, Colorado was labeled "The Hate State," when a comparatively small number of voters passed the infamous Amendment 2, which prohibited state and local officials from doing anything to protect gay people from discrimination. The referendum was declared unconstitutional before it ever went into effect. But to this day, it is a charge that makes most Coloradans bristle. Amendment 2's passage was a wake-up call to a largely sleeping electorate. Recently, former Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law a ban on job discrimination against those who are gay or transgendered, and signed a bill giving gay partners the right to be legal co-parents. It was an unprecedented piece of legislation, and one most people in Colorado consider far more representative of the state as a whole.
Situations like Street's disappearance are agonizing for loved ones near and far who can't understand why any police department will not immediately expend any and all resources to locate any person as soon as he or she is reported missing.
But while it is a myth that you must wait up to 72 hours to report a person missing, it is unrealistic to think that any police department has the manpower and resources to respond immediately to every missing-persons report, when most adult missing persons are found not to have been the victims of kidnapping, murder or some other criminal act. Very few of them are, in fact. Rather, the vast majority of reported missing persons are found or voluntarily return home within 48-72 hours after being reported. Just as happened in this case.
Problem is, even though The Denver Post chose not to distribute Trapp's charge that the police departments here are inherently racist and homophobic, his theme was picked up and proliferated throughout Facebook and Twitter. It spread like wildfire, doing great and unfair harm to the reputations of both police departments.
Fact is, being a missing person is not a crime, and police are given a very limited role while conducting these types of investigations. Given the quick results achieved here, the Denver and Louisville police departments certainly seem to have acted appropriately and expediently, and do not deserve the virtual black eye they have taken.
It is clear from Goodman's account of events that Denver and Louisville police were working in concert toward locating Street, which they accomplished in comparatively short order.
But, damage done. And tonight, Goodman personally responded to the charges that, in hindsight, now seem, at best, precipitous and uninformed, and, at worst, downright malicious:
"The freedom of movement and the right to travel are at the core of this country's liberties, and the government should not abridge people's right to be alone or to "go missing" when they are of reasonably sound mind. Even though Mr. Street sought to be and had the right to be apart from his friends and colleagues, the Louisville Police Department launched an all-out, full-court press to locate him. His friends were justly concerned and, based upon their compassion, a lot of time and resources were invested before Mr. Street was confirmed to be OK. Notwithstanding the cheap shots from far-away blogging detractors who had not a clue how much effort was being put into this case, the resources were not wasted, and we are happy that Mr. Street is where he wants to be." — Bruce Goodman, Chief of Police, Louisville Police Department
To which, in hindsight, any reasonable person can only say, "Touche." It's miraculous that Street's story, which at one time seemed so inevitably bleak, ended so happily. It is regrettable that the reputation of the fine police officers in two counties took a beating in the process. It was their quick work that served not to ensure Mr. Street's personal safety — that, in retrospect, was apparently never in question — but that brought the case to a quick resolution and, in doing so, immediately assuaged the fear and trepidation of hundreds awaiting the outcome.
(To make an odd situation even more odd, Trapp now says that he never wrote the initial email that was sent through his personal account. Instead, he deferred to Street's friend John Ayres, who was coordinating online efforts to determine Street's whereabouts from Atlanta.)


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Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Staff Reading Pick
Here is another reading pick from the Logan Library Staff.
Book: THE ART FORGER
by B. A. Shapiro
Recommended by: Lois
I can't stop thinking about THE ART FORGER by B. A. Shapiro. If you're a fan of mysteries set in the art world mixed with a bit of romance and history, this book is for you! Blacklisted artist Claire Roth makes a living copying classic paintings for a reproduction company. Then one day her dream of a one-woman show in a fabulous gallery seems within her grasp. She'll get her reward if she's able to fool museum professionals and re-create a stolen painting by Degas. Not just any painting but one from the still unsolved 1990 art heist at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. (If you're a curious person, you'll read up on quirky, rich Isabella and the famous art theft that's background for this story.) What would you be willing to do to secure the one thing you most desire? Claire's quest kept me turning those pages.
Want more reading suggestions? View previous staff picks.
Posted By Logan Library at 9:38 AM in Category:Staff Picks
The Latest News!
Oct 16, 2018
» Community Book Discussion Oct 10, 2018
» The Dead Awaken Oct 5, 2018
» Library Closed Columbus Day


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Volunteers seek pet food, donations to keep animals with struggling families
As Felicia Diamond talks on the phone in her rambling Denver home, she swears she smells the odor of pet food.
No surprise here. The animal lover always has dogs around. And she may even see pet food in her dreams these days. The Furry Friends Food Drive is at it again.
Last year, Diamond sparked the inaugural Furry Friends drive after watching a television program about financially devastated pet owners around the country having to give up their animals to shelters because they could no longer afford to feed or care for them.
She rounded up some friends and launched a drive that collected 160,000 pounds of food for all types of pets and $11,000 in cash donations.
This year's goal? To double the 2009 totals.
"During a challenging economy, pets need a little help as well as the families that love them," Diamond says.
Donating to Furry Friends is "an easy thing to do," she adds.
Sponsors this year are PETCO and locally based Petersen Pet
In addition to providing space for the food drive, PETCO has contributed funding through the PETCO Foundation and through significant regular donations of pet food from PETCO stores along the Front Range.
Petersen Nutrition has donated premium dog food valued in excess of $55,000. That contribution has already been distributed.
Food collected is donated to Food Bank of the Rockies, which then distributes it to thousands of Rocky Mountain families in need.
"We have seen an increase in people seeking help with food in the last few years," says Janie Gianotsos, marketing director of the Food Bank. "Some people, especially seniors, will see that their pets have food before they themselves eat."
The Food Bank of the Rockies will distribute donated pet food. to about 500 food pantries in the northern half of Colorado, Grand Junction, and all of Wyoming.
If the Furry Friends drive reaches it's goal, Diamond believes there will be enough on hand to supply needy pet owners until next Spring.
Mike Shaw Auto Dealerships in the Denver area will collect food (no cash) from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. Numerous veterinarians will also collect food from October 1 – 31.
There will be a kick-off event on Saturday, October 2 at the PETCO store located at I-25 and Colorado Boulevard from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and at Petersen Nutrition at 49th & Havana from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Donations of cash and unopened pet food will be accepted throughout the day.
Representatives from food drive's committee and partners will be in attendance. Furry friends are welcome, too.
For detailed information, including a list of dropoff sites, visit the Furry Friends website at www.furryfriendsfooddrive.org .
* * *
Help for fire victims – The Humane Society of Boulder Valley and Camp Bow Wow, a Boulder-based pet services company, have launched efforts to help animals and owners affected by the Fourmile Canyon wildfire, the most destructive in Colorado history.
Meanwhile, the Larimer County Humane Society has been busy helping victims of the Reservoir Road fire, which has scorched hundreds of acres between the Pinewood and Flatiron reservoirs near Loveland. The society is helping remove pets and livestock left behind when evacuations were ordered. Residents can request that Larimer Humane stop at their property to feed horses, chickens or other animals. It will also take any animal the size of a goat or smaller to the shelter. Information: www.larimerhumane.org or 970-226-3647.
The Humane Society of Boulder Valley Thrift & Gift Shop is opening its doors tomorrow and Friday (September 16-17) to offer free donated clothing, furniture, books, art and household items to anyone whose homes were lost or damaged due to the Fourmile Canyon Fire. The Humane Society will also have free pet supplies onsite for distribution to fire victims with pets. The Thrift Shop is located at 5320 Arapahoe Avenue in Boulder and will be open 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
"During this disaster we saw dozens of families come through our doors with their pets, and we were able to provide their animals the shelter and care they
needed. Now we want to do the same on some level for the people in these
families," said Lisa Pedersen, CEO of the Humane Society of Boulder Valley.
"This is a way for us to give back to our community which has been so generous
and supportive toward our organization as we dealt with this disaster."
The Humane Society and its Thrift Shop conducted a special week-long donation
drive to collect additional items for these special donation days for fire
evacuees and victims. Many people from the community provided assistance with accepting and sorting donated goods for this event.
Boulder Humane is continuing to provide temporary shelter and care for about 17 dogs, cats and one bird for people still displaced from their homes due to the wildfires in Boulder's Fourmile Canyon.
Meanwhile, Boulder-based Camp Bow Wow, the nation's largest pet services company and its non-profit component, the Bow Wow Buddies Foundation, has begun its own support program.
In association with the Longmont Humane Society, Camp Bow Wow and the Bow Wow Buddies Foundation are working to raise funds and goods in order to alleviate the damage caused by the fire.
Now through the end of September, ten local Camp Bow Wow franchises in the Denver, Boulder, and Littleton areas will aid this effort, with collection bins for towels, blankets, non-clumping litter, canned cat food and more.
In addition, boarding space is available for low-cost or free stay at various camp locations throughout the Denver/Boulder areas.
"This fire tragically impacted many lives and hit so close to home. While we are relieved that so many animals have been rescued, this is just the beginning of fixing the damage caused by the fire," said Heidi Ganahl, CEO and Founder of Camp Bow Wow " Please help us make a difference by donating supplies or monetary support to the Bow Wow Buddies Foundation. We're working to make sure aid gets to as many animals, and in as short a time, as possible."
The following Camp Bow Wow locations will act as drop off points for all products and supplies:
•Camp Bow Wow Boulder, CO – 3631 Pearl Street
•Camp Bow Wow Lodo (Downtown Denver), CO – 3645 Brighton Blvd
•Camp Bow Wow Denver SE, CO – 2125 South Jasmine
•Camp Bow Wow Parker, CO- 10325 S. Progress Way
•Camp Bow Wow Denver, CO Central – 1221 S. Cherokee
•Camp Bow Wow Broomfield, CO – 1705 W. 10th Avenue
•Camp Bow Wow Castle Rock, CO – 500 1st St
•Camp Bow Wow Northglenn, CO – 11480 No Cherokee St. Unit P
•Camp Bow Wow Golden, CO – 13101 West 43rd Dr.
•Camp Bow Wow Littleton – 8121 South Grant Way
•Camp Bow Wow Ft. Collins, CO – 4103 S. Mason Street
Monetary donations to help this cause can be made to: The Bow Wow Buddies Foundation at www.bowwowbuddies.com.
The American Veterinary Medical Association has an online list of steps to take to prepare your animals for disaster at http://www.avma.org/disaster/saving_family.asp
* * *
An evening for Fido and you -The Dumb Friends League will mark its centennial with Barks & Bow Ties on Oct. 2 at Wings Over the Rockies . During the VIP reception, owners and their canines can share in games, contests and prizes, as well as caricature drawings, paw readings from a doggy psychic and a photo booth. Then, cocktails and dinner will be served to guests, and entertainment will be provided by Chicago's Lynne Jordan & her jazz band, the Shivers. VIP ticket prices start at $250. There are also Young Professional tickets available for $125 per person. Dog walkers and sitters will be available. All proceeds benefit the Dumb Friends League. Information: ddfl.org or (303) 751-5772, Ext. 7271.
Reach John Davidson at email@example.com


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It is rarely pleasant to miss a deadline, and sometimes it can be downright career-limiting. Last week, we talked about some problems that contribute to missed project dates. Now let's explore some solutions.
Step 1 – Objectives and Specifications
We have already covered the importance of project objectives and specifications. Of course setting those objectives requires knowing your stakeholders and getting their involvement. In this and other articles I use the term stakeholders to represent the set of people who care about this project. It could be your customers, your manager, people who work in the systems being modeled, or others.
Step 2 – Creating a Project Plan
When creating a project plan, two adages come to mind.
I think it is fine to be an optimist and hope, maybe even expect, that things will go well. But I don't count on it. I don't base my plan on optimistic assumptions. I like to start with what seems to be a reasonable estimate, then double it to account for all the things that I know will go wrong. This may seem like "padding" but the objective is to determine an achievable schedule. I have seldom, if ever, found what seems up front to be a "reasonable" schedule to actually be achievable in the end due to the large number of unknowns in a typical project.
Of course you can always spend more time up front studying the problem to reduce the risk to an acceptable level and possibly improve the accuracy of your estimates. But by that time the project has often become irrelevant because the decisions have already been made. Time estimates are always a guess and always wrong, so find a method that works for you and move on.
To me this means be conservative. I try to avoid over-committing and, when possible, avoid sharing my optimistic intentions. For example, while I may have every expectation of creating a compelling 3D animation, I might only guarantee 2D animation or simple 3D animation. Or while I might intend to model some secondary applications so that I might explore some potential system improvements, I would not guarantee that in the project specifications.
In fact, my project specifications usually include three categories:
• Guaranteed Deliverables – No matter what happens, the project is not considered done without them.
• Likely Deliverables – I intend to complete these, but if things go poorly, they may be cut. Often the stakeholders do not even know this list exists, depending on their tolerance for flexibility.
• Wish List – In the rare instance when the project goes exceptionally well, I implement tasks from this list. This list never makes it to a public project plan.
This approach provides me some flexibility to:
a) Avoid disappointing the stakeholders in case the project goes poorly, and
b) Retain the opportunity to delight the stakeholders if the project goes well.
What Comes Next?
These first two steps are just the start of a project. In future articles I will discuss prioritization, agility, communication and many other topics that contribute to making the date and making a successful project.
Until next time, Happy Modeling!
Dave Sturrock
VP Products – Simio LLC


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One night in June 2001, Brian Patrick Regan drove out to Pocahontas State Park in Virginia and walked through the muggy darkness into the woods.
The former Air Force sergeant wore a backpack on his bearish 6'5″ frame; a sawed-off shovel handle stuck out of the top as he made his way along soft creek beds, avoiding hiking trails. Inside the pack was a night-vision monocle and a pile of classified material he had stolen from his longtime employer, the National Reconnaissance Office — the US agency that manages the nation's spy satellites.
After he had walked about 10 minutes, Regan stopped and surveyed the tall oaks and maples. He lowered his pack, pulled out the shovel, and laid a plastic sheet on the ground. Then he began to scoop out a series of holes, carefully piling the dirt on the sheet so as to leave behind no sign of the dig. From his backpack he grabbed a stack of packages wrapped in garbage bags and placed one in each hole. The bags were stuffed with thousands of documents containing information about Libyan missile sites, Iraqi air defenses, and US spying operations in China and Iran. The material would have revealed exactly what the US knew about those countries. It was, Regan thought, the kind of information that could start a war.
He buried each parcel and packed up the leftover dirt in the plastic sheet. After filling each hole, he walked over to a nearby tree and hammered in some roofing nails. Then, using a GPS device, he captured the coordinates of each package and jotted them down. His work done for the night, the 38-year-old father of four trudged back to his car.
Two months later, on August 23, Regan told his supervisor he was heading off for a week's vacation in Orlando with the wife and kids. Instead, at about 4 pm, he drove to Dulles Airport to catch a flight to Zurich, where he planned to meet with Iraqi and Chinese embassy officials and hoped to sell his trove to the highest bidder. After going through security, he boarded a crowded airport shuttle bus to get to his gate. As the doors were closing, an FBI agent named Steven Carr and one of his colleagues pushed their way through the crowd to the front of the bus and grabbed Regan.
When officials searched the aspiring spy, they found a paper tucked under the insole of his right shoe. On it were written the addresses of several Iraqi and Chinese embassies in Europe. In a trouser pocket they discovered a spiral pad in which Regan, who had been trained in cryptanalysis by the Air Force, had written 13 seemingly unconnected words — like tricycle, rocket, and glove. Another 26 words were written on an index card. In his wallet was a paper with a string of several dozen letters and numbers beginning "5-6-N-V-O-A- I …" And in a folder Regan had been carrying, they found four pages filled with three-digit numbers, or trinomes: 952, 832, 041, and so on. The spiral pad, the index card, the wallet note, and the sheets of trinomes: The FBI suddenly had four puzzles to solve.
Two days later, Carr's group gathered with prosecutors and NRO agents in a conference room at the FBI's Washington, DC, field office to try to decipher the cryptic jottings and notes. They began with one very good clue.
Regan had been under surveillance for months, after a foreign source passed on a letter from an unidentified US intelligence official offering to sell information. The letter was riddled with misspellings like "enprisioned" and "esponage," which led the FBI to look for a bad speller within the intelligence community. Regan, who was dyslexic, became the prime suspect. He would later be known as the spy who couldn't spell.
On the morning of his arrest, hidden cameras had photographed him at his desk as he browsed Intelink, the intelligence community's private intranet, while scribbling in a spiral pad. From those photos and a log of his online activity, the agents surmised that the string of 13 words on the pad somehow related to the image of a Chinese missile site visible on his screen minutes after he logged in. Perhaps the words represented the coordinates of the site.
The first word was tricycle; the first digit of the latitude of the Chinese site was 3. Comparing the other words to the digits, Carr thought he saw a pattern. Words like post and tree that referred to tall, single objects might signify 1; motorcycle (two wheels) and switch (binary on-off positions) would be 2; weapon — evocative of a revolver with six chambers — could be 6. In encoding the coordinates, Regan seemed to have adopted a strategy frequently employed by dyslexics: using images to remember text.
Carr tested the theory with another document found in Regan's wallet — a Post-it note with his Ameritrade account number, followed by "hand, tree, hand, car." The group in the conference room watched as Carr dialed Ameritrade's toll-free number from a speakerphone and punched in Regan's account number. When prompted for the PIN, he entered 5154. "I gained immediate access," Carr says.
They applied the same principle to the 26 words on the index card and decoded two other sets of coordinates. (Some terms were less obvious than others — Las Vegas represented 7, as in "lucky 7.") These turned out to be locations of Iraqi surface-to-air missiles in the northern no-fly zone that had been imposed after the first Gulf War. Informing the Iraqis that the US knew about those systems meant they would be moved, making American planes patrolling the zone more vulnerable to attack. This did not sit well with Carr, a former military helicopter pilot.
When Brian Regan was arrested at Dulles Airport, he was carrrying papers containing different types of encrypted messages. To figure out what secrets he was selling and where they were hidden, investigators had to crack three kinds of codes.
Mnemonic Code
FBI agents found a spiral pad and an index card on which were written seemingly random words like tree and glove. They realized that each image suggested a number — a common device used by dyslexics like Regan. Tripod, for instance, would be the number 3. The numbers turned out to be the coordinates for Iraqi and Chinese missile installations.
The Caesar Shift
A scrap in Regan's wallet contained a string of letters and numbers. FBI cryptanalyst Daniel Olson checked to see if the message was coded in an ancient method of enciphering used by Julius Caesar: He shifted all the letters forward in the alphabet one place at a time and eventually uncovered the addresses of several Swiss banks.
The Book Code
Regan had also filled several pages with three-digit numbers, or trinomes. Olson suspected they pointed to words in a book — another venerable system. But which book and in what way? After his conviction, Regan revealed that he'd used his junior high yearbook — but he couldn't recall how. Together he and Olson tried to crack the code.
As potentially valuable as these coordinates were, they were just a tease. Regan hoped to use them to impress his foreign partners and win their trust. According to letters found on his computer — addressed to Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Libya's Muammar Qaddafi, and others — the real promise was a huge stash of hidden material that he was offering for $13 million. The question now: Where had Regan hidden the stash? The agents figured that the key to finding it was in the other coded documents they'd seized at the airport — the alphanumeric string and the list of trinomes. They sent the documents to the National Security Agency, where cryptanalysts spent hundreds of hours on the two remaining puzzles. The result: nothing. Failure.
In a February 2002 report, the NSA admitted that its team of more than a dozen people had made almost no progress. And with code work mounting after the September 11 attacks, the report noted, analysts had less time to spend on the Regan papers. In a move that would begin one of the most unusual pursuits in the history of American code-breaking — one that would remain largely unreported until now — the job was assigned to a rising star in the FBI, a cryptanalyst named Daniel Olson.
Olson has a round, clean-shaven face, gray eyes, and blond hair. He talks fast and moves swiftly, as if his internal rhythm were just a little quicker than everyone else's. In his office at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, the shelves are lined with videotapes of Hollywood thrillers involving code-breaking or the FBI: films like Manhunter and The Falcon and the Snowman. A display cabinet showcases relics of his profession, like a mechanical encoding device from World War II.
The son of a military man, Olson, now 40, joined the National Guard to pay for college and was eventually trained in code-breaking at the Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas. In an intense 12-week course, he learned the intricacies of different ciphers and code systems, from those used in medieval wars to encryption schemes invented by Russian mathematicians during the 1920s and 1930s.
Cryptography is often a game of linguistic hide-and-seek, and the best players use a combination of disciplined logic and creative thinking. The first step in classic code-breaking is frequency analysis, which can help expose the rules that were used to convert the original message into gibberish. That's because in every language, some letters and words — such as e and the in English — are used more often than others, and simple coding schemes often retain those patterns.
But a good code provides no statistical clues; the letters and numbers seem completely random. An example of such a system is the so-called onetime pad formerly used by KGB agents. Each spy had a pad with a unique key that specified how to translate a given text. For instance, the first word would be transformed by one number sequence, the second by a different number sequence, and so on. No statistical pattern would remain, because the letter e might be turned into m at one point in the message and t at another.
Other codes are based on a book — a novel or volume of history, for example — known to the sender and recipient. During the American Revolution, traitor Benedict Arnold wrote coded letters to the British Army in which each word was represented by a set of numbers indicating the page, line, and specific position where the word could be found in an agreed-upon book. To make codes even more difficult to crack, code makers sometimes mix junk — irrelevant words or letters — into the enciphered text, thus adding statistical noise to the signal.
Olson left active military duty in 1992 to finish college and began working with the FBI in 1997. By 2001, he had decoded hundreds of secret messages from prison gangs, drug traffickers, pimps, and gambling rings. His record was stunning, and his colleagues considered him just the man to tackle Regan's gobbledygook.
It took Olson only a couple of weeks to decode the first puzzle, the note from Regan's wallet that began "5-6-N-V-O-A-I …" It turned out to have been enciphered using a trick made famous by Julius Caesar in which all the characters in the message are shifted by a certain number of positions in the alphabet. Lining up the message on one end of a slide board, Olson shifted the letters by one place, then two places, and so on, checking the other end of the slide board each time to see if he got anything readable.
After 25 shifts down the alphabet — it would have taken just one shift in the opposite direction — the first line of text, "N-V-O-A-I-P-G …" resolved to "M-U-N-Z-H-O-F B-A-N-H-O-F -S-T-R," which looked German. Shifting the numbers down one place as well, then doing an Internet search on the result, Olson found that it was the Zurich address for the Swiss bank UBS. The second line read out as Bundesplatz 2 in Bern, the location of another Swiss bank. Both were followed by a string of numbers that Olson eventually realized were the geographical coordinates of the two sites. When investigators later confronted Regan with the decoded addresses, he admitted that he had planned to have his clients hand him cash in the banks so he could deposit the money then and there.
But the final puzzle, the four pages of trinomes, continued to stump Olson. He could tell by certain patterns that they weren't just random numbers; there was clearly a purpose at work. The first digit of each trinome could be any number from 0 to 9, the second was limited to 1 through 5, and the third was either 1 or 2. Regan had also rewritten some numbers and corrected others.
Olson suspected that it might involve a book code, and forensic experts at the lab examined a novel and a dictionary that Regan had with him at the time of his arrest. They looked for fingerprints to determine which pages he had touched most. They shined a special light on the pages to search for invisible ink. Olson focused on words that Regan had marked with a dot. Nothing made sense.
Meanwhile, Regan and his secrets were locked in a jail cell in Alexandria, Virginia, where he awaited trial. He knew that his legal fate would be sealed if the buried packages were found. So he tried to confuse the code-breaking effort, writing random three-digit numbers on papers and allowing them to be discovered by jail staff.
Olson wasn't thrown off by the trick. He quickly saw that these scribblings were statistically different from the trinomes he was working on. But he also wasn't any closer to cracking the code. He had filled entire notebooks working on possible solutions, practically memorizing the numbers in the process. He even had dreams filled with trinomes. His record was fabulous, but now he was struggling to solve perhaps the most important case of his career. He was going to need a partner — and a rather unlikely one at that.
Born into a blue-collar family, Brian Regan struggled to read and write in school. "Brian grew up feeling stupid, comparing himself to other kids because of the grades he got," says David Charney, a psychiatrist who interviewed and counseled Regan in jail. Regan's lumbering frame, social ineptitude, and slowness made him seem a bit like Lennie in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.
He seemed to find confidence, though, when he joined the Air Force. As he climbed the ranks, he set about educating himself by listening to audiobooks borrowed from libraries. Obsessed with self-improvement, he wrote notes to himself that he scattered throughout his house and car. "Every day do a little studying towards your goal." "Open mind to learn and grow." "Repetition is the mother of skill." He took courses in sociology and economics at community colleges.
In 1999, as Regan neared the 20-year service limit for officers of his rank, he was worried about money. With a wife still working on a nursing degree and four kids to send to college, his military pension would fall far short of his needs. He owed $116,000 on his credit cards, and he fretted that he wouldn't find a civilian job.
Regan drifted into espionage almost by accident. One day, he came across a hidden locker at the office and wondered if he could make use of it. Soon he was squirreling away classified documents. "It was his self-invented retirement income," Charney says.
When his trial began in January 2003, prosecutors, led by Patricia Haynes and James Gillis, cast Regan as a conniving traitor who deserved the death penalty. His own lawyers painted him as a bumbling misfit living out a spy fantasy. The lead defense attorney, Nina Ginsberg, cited spelling errors in the letters to Hussein and Qaddafi as evidence of a mind more childish than scheming. She suggested that the baffling papers with numbers were "meaningless documents intended perhaps to look like code." That, she argued, was why no one had decoded them.
But the jury was persuaded by Olson's analysis of the number strings, which showed that they clearly weren't random. Regan was found guilty on three counts of attempted espionage and sentenced to life in prison.
The conviction meant that the mystery of the trinomes might finally be solved. In a deal with the government to protect his wife from charges and get himself out of solitary confinement, Regan agreed to help retrieve the hidden documents. It was good news for Olson: He had failed to crack the code himself, but at least he'd learn the solution.
On March 21, the day after Regan's sentencing, Carr and other officials from the FBI, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Department of Justice sat down to debrief Regan. Right away, he confessed that he had buried thousands of documents in state parks. His plan, he said, had been to offer the information to foreign governments. Once a deal had been struck, Regan would deliver the coordinates of the hiding places to his client, who would go dig them up. The scheme allowed him to avoid the riskiest part of espionage: the exchange.
There were 19 caches in all, he told the agents — 12 in Virginia's Pocahontas State Park and seven in Maryland's Patapsco Valley State Park. (The latter contained photos and CD-ROMs along with documents.) The trinomes that had frustrated Olson were the encrypted latitudes and longitudes of the 12 Virginia sites.
It turned out that the encryption had indeed been based on a book code — an NRO phone list. But there was no need to work it all out, Regan told the investigators. They only had to drive north on I-95 to exit 12A, walk up along the shoulder of the exit ramp, and dig up a plastic toothbrush container he had buried against the fence. On a piece of paper rolled up inside, they would find the 12 coordinates for the secrets buried in the Virginia park. He had written them in plain text and buried them in case he ever lost the encrypted pages. In the same container, investigators would find another paper with encoded coordinates for the Maryland sites.
Carr and his colleagues found the toothbrush container and quickly tracked down the Virginia packages. Each coordinate provided the location of a tree that Regan had marked on one side with a series of roofing nails. The package was buried on the opposite side. Within a couple of days, they had dug everything up.
The Maryland packages were another matter. Their locations were also encrypted by trinomes, and Regan revealed that the key to deciphering them was his school yearbook. But when Carr gave him the yearbook, he drew a blank. It had been three years since Regan invented the coding scheme, and he simply could not remember it. Carr believed him: After receiving a life sentence, there was no reason for Regan to play games. Olson was back on the case.
On an April morning in 2003, US marshals led Regan — handcuffed and dressed in a green prison jumpsuit — into a conference room in the basement of the Alexandria courthouse where his trial had been conducted.
The marshals unshackled Regan, and he sat down across from Carr and Olson. As always, he stared blankly ahead. On the conference table lay Regan's personal copy of his yearbook: the 1977 edition from Mill Lane Junior High in New York, its green hardbound cover darkened by grime. Inside were rows and columns of mug shots of the graduating class with a name printed below each photo. Some kids were geeky-looking, some were freckled, some looked like Robert Plant wannabes. And there was the young Regan himself, with slightly droopy eyes, neatly combed hair, and a handsome smile. Some of his classmates had scrawled messages portraying him as a dolt. "Can't believe you graduated!" one said.
Olson watched silently as Regan paged through the yearbook. The encrypted Maryland message lay on the table — a string of trinomes interspersed with two-digit numbers attached to an A like "13A" and "16A." At the top of the page he had typed, "Number One." This was a reference to his own picture in the yearbook, Regan guessed. But how that related to the trinomes, he had no idea. "He'd think and think; he'd start doing things on paper that I had already done — and get nowhere," Olson says.
Shortly before lunch the pair focused on the alpha-numeral 13A, which appeared seven times in the message. Perhaps, they surmised, it appeared once for each of the seven buried packages. Olson thought about it, then counted 13 pictures forward from Regan's. He came to a picture labeled "Mystery Man," a photo of a student sporting a monster mask, on which Regan had written the name Frank. No other first name in the book began with F, and Olson suspected the letter was important. Perhaps it, and therefore all of the 13As, stood for "feet."
That seemed right to Regan, and the discovery revealed the rule for decoding every one of the two-digit numbers attached to an A. They just had to count that number of places from Regan's picture and take the first letter of the name of the person they landed on. Since 11A led to Cindy and 40A led to Donna, the sequence 11A 40A translated to "CD" — a compact disc. Soon they decoded other such sequences, converting them, for example, to "SP" for "small package" and "LP" for "large package."
But even with part of the puzzle worked out, Regan still couldn't remember how to interpret the nearly 200 three-digit numbers that made up the bulk of the message. One curious aspect was that the A-marked numerals stopped appearing about three lines before the end, leaving a long final string of three-digit numbers that didn't seem as random as the ones above. "Think about it, Brian," Olson said at the end of the grueling day. "Why did things change?"
The following Monday, Carr got a phone call from an officer at the prison: "Mr. Regan asked me to tell you that he has the solution." It wasn't clear when or how the breakthrough occurred. But the long brainstorming session with Olson and the solitude of his cell seemed to have unlocked Regan's mind.
The numbers at the end of the message were neither junk nor code. They were coordinates — more precisely, the digits after the decimal point for each latitude and longitude, written in unencoded plain text. (The whole-number portion of the coordinates were unnecessary, since that would be the same anywhere in the park: 39 degrees north, -76 west.) Regan had thought that putting them in the message would be the equivalent of hiding them in plain sight. He remembered, too, how to decode the trinomes in the body of the document: You had to count the number of letters in names at specified positions, perform a couple of complex calculations, and then look up the final number on a conversion table consisting of a simple digit sequence that Regan had memorized. This would give you, among other things, the number of feet from the tree each package was buried. The scheme was inspired by Manhunter, a movie in which a serial killer known as the Tooth Fairy uses a book code to communicate with Hannibal Lecter.
Agents used the coordinates to locate the seven trees in Maryland that Regan had marked with roofing nails. With shovels and backhoes, they began to dig. Horseback riders wandered by, watching curiously. When a jogger asked about the work, Carr answered that it was an archaeology project. One person called the state park office to ask if they were building a Walmart.
They dug for weeks but failed to find a single package. "We could have put a Lincoln Continental into some of the holes we excavated," Carr says. And so, one morning in late May, Carr and dozens of other federal agents and SWAT team members drove with Regan to Patapsco. It was drizzling. Regan stepped out of an SUV wearing red sweat pants and a poncho, one hand shackled to his waist. As he walked through the woods, stepping over fallen logs, he scanned the trees around him, occasionally squinting and scratching his stubble.
"I was scared that he'd toss himself into the river," Carr says. But Regan calmly surveyed the scene, cocking his head now and then. Suddenly, he stopped and pointed at a spot more than 20 feet from one of the trees. "I buried it right there," he said. Carr was skeptical. "I'm like, 'Brian, I can't remember what tree I peed on five minutes ago. How can you remember a spot you were at three years ago?'"
The agents dug 2 feet and struck gold: a package of compact discs. For three years, they had sat there inside a waterproof bag, a mother lode of military secrets noticed only by worms. It turned out that, unlike in Virginia, Regan had dug holes behind the tree opposite the tree with the nails in it. Soon the FBI had recovered all seven packages.
As they drove Regan back to prison, Carr and his colleagues stopped at a McDonald's. Regan ordered a Quarter Pounder. The SWAT team guys urged him to take advantage of the opportunity, and Regan ended up eating three hamburgers.
But the law enforcement men were unable to bond with the convicted spy; Regan simply ate and stared quietly ahead. You could see why the kids at his junior high school had said he was lucky to graduate. How easy it was, Carr thought, to look at him and think that he was stupid. And how wrong.
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee (email@example.com) is a staff writer at Science.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.


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Add twelve to your birth year until you reach a year listed on the picture. That's your Chinese sign!
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Yesterday, March 8, the world celebrated International Women's Day (IWD). Across the globe, people recognized the achievements of women economically, politically, and socially throughout time. It is also on the same day to consider the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women. On this day, I am more proud to be a woman!
As I was writing this post, I realized that IWD has been born more than a century ago. How amazing that women at that time were brave enough to fight for their rights to work, vote and hold public office. It is also very inspiring to look back on how far we have gone since then and how much effort we are putting to push stability, equality, and empowerment to all women.
Even before I was born, the fight for women's rights has been ongoing worldwide and there were a lot of volunteers and participants to this cause. Now, I would like to feature some of those inspiring women throughout history which made an impact to me.
Malala Yousafzai
Margaret Thatcher
Aung San Suu Kyi
Corazon Aquino
The movement for gender equality has been active many years ago and we have seen drastic changes already. True, women can now go to school, work in the corporate world, vote in elections, hold a government post, and enter a business venture, but some are still struggling to have stability and peace especially those living in societies entrenched in patriarchal norms. We have achieved a lot in making all rights equal to both men and women, and I hope efforts to abolish gender inequality will continue on.
More and more women have proven their leadership skills both in public and private sectors. By leading others, women are grasping another fruit of decades-worth of fighting against social inequality. How many women have successfully climbed and topped the career ladder?
From CEOs, COOs, CFOs, partners, associates, and other senior managerial roles, women around the globe have conquered the corporate world once only dominated by men. Of course, a lot of political and inspiring leaders are women as well. Some of them are Margaret Thatcher, Hillary Clinton, Aung San Suu Kyi, Indira Gandhi, Angela Merkel, Benazir Bhutto, Golda Meir, Michelle Bachelet, and Julia Gillard, to name a few.
Girl power at its finest! I commend all those women who have worked and fought hard to attain the positions they are in now. They will always be the inspiration for others to stand up and claim their rights. In this time, there is no more limit to what women can do and achieve.
Inspiring Change, being the theme for this year's International Women's Day celebration, is just apt to encourage active participation of everyone for gender equality.
Now is our time to be part of the change! Don't shy away from responsibilities to create a better society for women.
Let our voices and actions be heard and seen. Uplift the role of women in our society and fight injustices affecting half of the world's population. Sign The Girl Declaration and help girls around the world have access to education, employment, health care, safety, and citizenship. Support the fight of rape and sexual assault survivors. Use your talents, skills, and expertise to help out as much as you can. Volunteer – it is time to give back!
Since it is a post for International Women's Day, I thought of featuring a fierce look to show my fight for women's rights. A fiercer me for all the advocacies and causes I am supporting. It is just appropriate, don't you think so?
For this look, I donned my Soiree sexy back black dress together with my SOTD_PH boots. I am always known as a minimalist, so there were no accessories present, save for the Tomato Time watch I was wearing on that day.
For my hair, I didn't do anything special about it aside from shampooing it that morning. Haha! Professional makeup artist and friend, Anne Olila, did wonders to my face by creating a sexy appearance, crowning it off with her signature smoky eyes. Of course, the ever talented Edryl Castro, photographer, made me look inches thinner in photos. LOL.
Are you feeling empowered as a woman?


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What is up with the way some people insist on viewing willingness to eat sushi as this shibboleth of sophistication? In my experience, admitting that you don't enjoy sushi to inhabitants of a major metropolis is tantamount to declaring that you've just arrived from East Jesus Christ, Nebraska, you're afraid to set foot outside your apartment after dusk, and you're pulling for Jeb Bush in '08. It doesn't matter that I do like the taste of soy, ginger and wasabi—just not one particular vehicle for them–not to mention any number of other ethnic cuisines that have only recently gained popularity in North America. Indian? Thai? Vietnamese? Portuguese? Dominican? Korean? Moroccan? I'm there. Even Japanese, for god's sake—just not fucking sushi.
It also doesn't matter that I'm equally opposed to eggplant, raw tomatoes, olives, avocados, and a zillion other "normal" foods for the same basic reason I don't like sushi: I've got texture issues. Serious texture issues. I can't always pin down exactly which textures, in combination with which flavors, will set me off, but believe me when I tell you I know what I don't like as soon as it hits my throat, and if you ever have to dine with me, you will be grateful that I've already spent thirty years sorting out what I can and can't eat. Ask my Japanese-food-loving ex about the time I tried sashimi as a birthday present to him. Only, don't ask if you yourself just ate. I have my reasons, is what I'm saying.
Nevertheless, I say, "I don't like sushi," and people hear, "Hi, I'm a provincial dipshit." Actual conversation from Bex's birthday party last year:
Friend of Bex 1: We went to the most amazing sushi restaurant for dinner! You have to try it!
Me: Actually, I don't really like sushi.
Friend of Bex 2: Ohhh. More of a steak girl, are you?
Yes, that's right. My failure to enjoy one kind of food automatically means I turn to The Keg for haute cuisine. Fact is, relative to sushi, hell yes, I'm a steak girl. I'm also a hundred other kinds of girl, and I've got the thighs to prove it. Furthermore, I love uncooked fish in the form of ceviche and gravlax, while at least half the sushi fans I know only go for barbecued salmon or, worse yet, friggin' cucumber rolls. Ooh, you mean you'll actually dare to eat… rice and soy sauce? How staggeringly cosmopolitan!
I. just. don't. like. sushi. Jesus.


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Here in the Social History of Learning Disability (SHLD) Research Group, based in the School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care at The Open University, we are committed to researching and disseminating learning disability history in ways which are inclusive of people with learning disabilities, their carers, relatives and advocates.
At the heart of the group's approach, from its beginnings in 1994, is a recognition that people with learning disabilities are experts on their own lives, and have historical knowledge, viewpoints and skills to contribute. Such an ethos is reflected in our inclusive conferences, publications, research projects and close collaborations with a variety of learning disability organisations, including advocacy groups. The Research Group is internationally recognised, and has fostered partnerships with universities and advocacy organisations across Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
We also offer advice, support and training in inclusive research methodologies, especially those which combine oral history, biography and archival research, and in writing funding proposals for social history of learning disability and related heritage projects.
Pioneering inclusive methodologies, we have influenced learning disability policy and practice across the whole spectrum of health and social care agencies and personnel, from front line practitioners to senior managers, board members and policy makers to people with learning disabilities themselves. Our work has helped bring about positive change in people's lives, including those with high support needs. We have supported the emerging learning disability advocacy movement and the development of person-centred services. Establishment of inclusive research networks and conferences has enabled people with learning disabilities to publicise findings and enabled identification of research topics of key importance to disabled people, their families and practitioners.
Aspects of the Social History of Learning Disability Research Group's work were recognised as Good Practice by the Department of Health in 2013.


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This has been one of the strangest Winters in quite awhile.
We've had temps in the low 50's numerous times so far and the bees have been bringing in a pale yellow pollen.
Was checking out the three colonies my friend has and saw that one of the "stronger" colonies has finally died.
There were many dead bees on the comb and looks like they either starved or froze to death in place.
Recently he and I were doing an inspection on a warm day and we saw a few hundred bees and the queen in that hive along with plenty of honey stores left. Didn't look good at that point.
What was the "weakest" colony going into Winter is now booming! Still trying to figure that one out.
It has two deeps and a medium with lots of honey and they had eaten most of the sugar we placed on the inner cover.
Btw, that sugar did a great job absorbing moisture.
Earlier this Winter we removed a medium super from it that didn't have much honey stores.
But after seeing how full the hive is, I pulled a medium super full of honey off the dead hive and placed it on the "weak" hive.
Now they'll have a little more elbow room and more stores to chew on.
The third colony is still alive but the population is down. Not sure if that one will make it till Spring.
He is planning to split the "weak" hive at least once and maybe twice if things continue looking good.


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Legendary - Snap #511
You've heard of them. They don't talk about themselves because everyone else does. They walk among us. On the next Snap Judgment, "Legendary."
06 Female
In 2006, a wolf was born in Yellowstone who would become a legend in her own time. For more about the 06 Female and the debate surrounding wolves in Yellowstone, be sure to check out Jeff Hull's article in Outside Magazine and Nate Rott's special report for NPR.
Producer: Joe Rosenberg
King Tiger
In 1967, one man in New Mexico sought justice in the most unlikely way, turning him into a fugitive. Some called him a bandit, others a hero.
Producer: Nancy Lopez
Colin From Marketing
It's hard to work in an office where nobody cares. But it's even harder to pretend you do.
A version of this story originally appeared in The Billfold. Michael Hobbes is on Twitter and has a blog.
Producer: Joe Rosenberg
Sound Design: Pat Mesiti-Miller