text:
It's finally starting to look like a kitchen again, with the addition of countertops yesterday.
Most of the paint is now done, though the painter will be back to do a couple of sections of the eating area ceiling and to touch up the bookcases and window seat. We have decided to keep them white, at least for the time being. We figure it is easy enough to paint them brown later if we change our minds. Right now, we are enjoying the airiness of the room and letting the red really shine!
The tan colour wraps right around the room, and into the kitchen. We do have a tile backsplash going in, right up to the bottom of the cabinets, so there won't be a lot of paint in the kitchen. But it's the continuity thing, you know? The tan really makes the fireplace pop!
Early morning photo of the sitting room- I think it is dark enough in the early (and late) times of the day. I really like the red to stand out.
First view of the installed countertop! It just looks gorgeous, I am so happy with it!
And how incredible is it that this is ALL workspace! Woo-hoo!!! This photo was taken late afternoon, and it shows a different light than the photo below- it IS all the same... lol
The piece of counter on the right side of the range. I just LOVE this granite!
This morning the plumber comes to hook up the sink, the cabinet guy comes to set the last two cabinets (they sit right on the countertop because of the appliance garages), and the tile guy comes to start on the backsplash. Another busy day.
We are having a fun backsplash section behind the range, a mosaic-type of stone with some random coloured glass tiles mixed in. We chose a red (of course), a root beer colour, and a really light brown glass tile for this and I think it will be really pretty. I love glass tiles- but in the mix, not as a whole backsplash.
Stay tuned, I will post photos of the (hopefully) working sink later today or tomorrow.
It's weird; not having a sink has really been the biggest challenge. That and blowing outlets in the garden room... lol


text:
I am reviewing red versus blue. Â This is a show about Halo through all of its history. Â Is a show about the red team which is Sergeant and a blue team with Captain Flowers aka a freelancer which you will learn in the history of it.
The cast is:
Red Team:
And a Spanish robot named Lopez.
And a puma class vehicle.
Blue Team:
Captain Flowers dies in the first episode of aspirin overdose.
Church is now the Captain or so called The Captain but he is really a private.
Tucker (earmuffs for the kids) – says he has been laid but he has not.
Michael J. Caboose – He is a little slow.
Sheila – a tank. Â yes you heard me, a tank.
Freckles – Caboose's pet aka a military class mantis assault droid. You will learn about Freckles later on.
Neutral Team:
Doc – a medic.
Agent Texas from the Freelancer corporation. sort of a bad ass.
Wyoming – a knock knock fanatic.
Agent Maine – Think of 10 Texases in one person.
Agent North Dakota – Agent South Dakota's brother. Â A marksman headhunter.
Agent South Dakota – Agent North Dakota's sister. She is a sharpshooter.
Agent Georgia – No one knows about him.
Agent Carolina – Texas's rival and leader of the Freelance Squad.
Agent York – A locksmith.
Agent Flowers – aka Captain Flowers of the Red vs Blue.
C.T. – A infiltrated character.
Inactive Agents:
Dos.0 – aka a dumber version of Lopez
Sister – Grif's sister
Junior – The product of an alien impregnation of Tucker.
Artificial Intelligence:
They are all fragments of AI called Alpha aka Church. Â A memory of the Director.
New – Santa. Â Caboose named him. He is an alien AI.
Chorus War:
John Elizabeth Andersmith
Matthews – a kiss ass.
Dr. Gray – a doctor for the FAC.
Kimball – leader of the New Republic.
Season 13 has come out on Netflix and I want to share the new characters with you.
Sharkface – He was in the war with the freelancers.
What about you? Who is your favorite character?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Floods Put Pipelines at Risk
Records Suggest Erosion of Riverbeds Jeopardizes Oil and Gas Infrastructure
A year after floodwaters eroded sections of the Missouri River basin, exposing two petroleum pipelines and triggering their rupture, federal records suggest the same thing could happen to dozens of others. The records highlight a gap in regulations that could imperil pipelines buried beneath rivers nationwide.
Federal investigators plan to announce soon that flood-caused erosion along the riverbed—known as scouring—exposed an Exxon Mobil Corp....
To Read the Full Story


text:
Search Maps
MapThe county of Saginaw, Michigan : topography, history, art folio Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Includes indexes, brief history of Saginaw County, and brief biographies and portraits of early Saginaw County residents. Note from publisher (15 x 40 cm.) pasted inside front cover; annotations in pencil on some maps. LC copy imperfect: Front board separated from binding. Vendor: John Carbonell (eBay auction) Acquisitions control no. 2006-129
- Contributor: Imperial Publishing Co. (Saginaw, Mich.)
- Date: 1896
View 79 Images


text:
The Lurker, the Slasher and the Leaper all make appearances in these new Dead Space: Extraction screens.
Previously, we've seen the Infector (gigantic manta-ray bats) Necromorph and not much else besides Slashers. Executive Producer Steve Papoutsis has promised that there will be new enemies for the Wii exclusive prequel to EA's flagship horror title — but he said players won't see the new Necromorphs 'til "later on in the game," which may be why we don't get to see them in these new screens:
For a handy list of the different types of Necromorph in Dead Space, check out this user-made list.


text:
Safety rope emergency stop switches are often used in conveyor belt systems to secure large danger areas. Pulling the tensioned rope, rope breakage or impact on the E-stop cause activation of the switching function of the safety rope emergency stop switch. After activation of the E-stop function a clip mechanism maintains the E-stop command until it is unlocked manually by pressing the blue reset button.
Reset is only possible with correct rope tension.
The rope tension is adjusted directly on the safety rope e-stop switch. The switch features a rope tension indicator to facilitate adjustment, troubleshooting and maintenance.
Using AS-i PCBs, rope switches, belt drift switches and other switches can be integrated into AS-i systems. If needed, this can also be safety-related (Safety at Work).


text:
Ok, so these "AMD flaws" are nowhere near anything like Meltdown or Spectre.
According to their "whitepaper", it lets you pwn your PSP and chipset if you already have root access on the main CPU. In the worst case, it's like the Intel ME BUP bug from december.
It's useful for researchers, coreboot porting, breaking DRM, etc. But it's no use for a remote (or even unprivileged local) attacker.
Their website makes it look way more dangerous than it is.
Then there's a lot of fishy stuff, like
- too much effort went into the website's design
- the website has lots of infographics and not-very-specific text, repeating the same things over and over again
- the whitepaper doesn't look like a whitepaper, and seems to be written with non-technical people in mind, especially the first few pages
- they have a huge legal disclaimer that says they may have financial interest in the value of AMD shares
- cts-labs.com exists for less than 1 year
@Wolf480pl also they only gave AMD 24 hours notice. 'responsible' disclosure my ass.
@samis @Wolf480pl I don't know what website you two are talking about, but picking on researchers for disclosing PSP flaws is, IMO, ridiculous.
PSP itself is a flaw. A malignant tumor that shouldn't exist.
Shame on you two for defending it.
@taoeffect @samis
I'm not defending PSP, but it's problematic only as long as we can't control it.
And I'm not picking on researchers for disclosing the flaws. I'm picking on them for making it look like a CPU flaw, like-Meltdown-except-worse. And telling people that their network is in danger because of it.
Also, the researchers didn't disclose any technical details, ust a bunch of noise.
It just looks like a hoax or an attempt to harm AMD by spreading FUD.
@Wolf480pl @samis PSP is like-Meltdown-except-worse. I see nothing wrong with that description of it.
@taoeffect @samis No it isn't. You can't exploit a flaw in PSP from an unprivileged process. Or from JS running in the browser. You have to be root to exploit PSP. At which point, why bother doing that, you got root anyway.
@Wolf480pl @samis Meltdown doesn't give you total control over a computer. PSP does (my understanding), and it does so with no defense or mitigation possible.
A purposefully-built unstoppable backdoor is worse than an accidental design-flaw.
@taoeffect @samis But you have to already have total control over a computer in order to use PSP to gain total control over the computer.
@Wolf480pl @samis Eh, I doubt that. Is there proof that there's no master key?
@Wolf480pl @samis (Cause, why else would they build it?)
@Wolf480pl @samis I'm more than OK with websites bringing up PSP and Intel ME and throwing as much fear and doubt on those abominations as possible. Not enough of that being done.
But this is false information. They're telling people that because of these vulns, their computers are in danger, while in fact they aren't.
Also, they're doing it asymmetrically. It looks like it's designed to make everyone switch from AMD to Intel. And even if it's not on purpose, that'll be the effect. And Intel has enough power as it is.
> while in fact they aren't.
Who says they aren't? There's every reason to believe they are. Again, show me proof a master key doesn't exist.
(Does PSP have a built-in server constantly listening in like Intel ME?)
> It looks like it's designed to make everyone switch from AMD to Intel.
Where do they do that? "Intel" isn't mentioned on the page.
@taoeffect @samis
>"Intel" isn't mentioned on this page
Think for a minute.
This page is clearly not made with tech gurus who know RISC-V in mind. It's for an average reader who knows just 2 CPU makes: Intel and AMD. It says AMD is bad. If you have only AMD and Intel to choose from, and AMD is bad, you buy Intel.
@samis @taoeffect
As for "they aren't in danger", I didn't make myself clear:
These flaws do not cause these computers to be in danger. They aren't any more in danger than they would be if these flaws didn't exist.
As for the master key, due to Occam's Razor, it doesn't exist until there's a proof that it does exist.
@Wolf480pl @samis That's not how Occam's Razor works.
The simplest explanation for why they would build a hardware-remote-control is to [expletive]ing remote control computers.
@Wolf480pl @samis One doesn't need _HARDWARE_ to remote control a computer. You can do it with hundreds of available software. Why would they go to the trouble of making hardware? — to make it unstoppable.
@taoeffect @samis Have you ever installed an OS remotely?
Or have you ever had to hard-reset a computer on which all software was hanging, and the computer was at the other end of the city?
@Wolf480pl @samis Yes, I have installed OS's remotely, and it never required the use of Intel ME or AMD PSP.
I have never had to hard-reset a computer on the other end of the city, but if I did I would have someone go there (or someone who is already there) and hard reset it.
These are not features consumers asked for, want, or need.
@taoeffect @samis these are features that are required in server rooms, and in places where you have a ton of workstations all alike, managed by a central IT team.
Like a computer room at a school or university. Or in a big corpo.
@Wolf480pl @samis I haven't heard of specific universities or companies using Intel ME or AMD PSP — I'm sure some exist, but I _know_ they don't need PSP/ME to do such admin.
The point is that these are insane backdoors that shouldn't exist in consumer products in the first place.
@Wolf480pl @samis These are backdoors that one is welcome to offer as a speciality product for a niche market that's interested in such backdoors.
@Wolf480pl @samis Consumer products, OTOH, should be Backdoor Free™ by default.
@taoeffect @samis Your definition of backdoor seems pretty broad. Do you also consider an ssh daemon to be a backdoor?
@Wolf480pl @samis Not if you installed it yourself (unless sshd has a built-in backdoor I'm not aware of).
@taoeffect @samis then there's no marked that's intrested in such backdoors, because when out-of-band management hardware is installed with these people's permission, it's not a backdoor anymore.
@Wolf480pl @samis Sorry, don't understand what you mean.
@taoeffect @samis you said that the manufacturers should provide backdoors only for the niche markets that request it.
But if a backdoor is requested by the buyer, it's no longer a backdoor.
So you can't provide backdoors for people who request them.
@Wolf480pl @samis lol, yes, that's the whole point. Backdoors are a bad thing.
@taoeffect @samis so there should be no backdoors on any hardware, not just consumer hardware.
@Wolf480pl @samis Well, sure, that's one fine way to look at it.
@taoeffect @samis so what you want is that any remote management hardware should be on a separate hardware module that the computer owner has to explicitely put it in place for it to work. A software way of disabling it is in your opinion unacceptable?
@Wolf480pl @samis Uh, yes, basically make good processors, and give your backdoor-prone processors to those who explicitly ask for them.
Assume most of your users don't want to be pwn'ed, and aren't an enemy you're trying to take down.
@taoeffect @samis btw. Intel ME is in the chipset, not in the CPU, but w/e.
Ok, now we have another problem:
users (think they) want netflix
netflix wants DRM
DRM will be broken, unless it has support from some hardware that doesn't obey the user
@Wolf480pl @samis Well, figure it out without selling backdoor'd CPUs. Don't make your little DRM dilemma an excuse to backdoor the world.
@taoeffect @samis ok, now tell me how PSP is a backdoor as opposed to just a DRM thingy?
@Wolf480pl @samis I don't know whether AMD PSP is as bad as Intel ME.
ME is a backdoor for obvious reasons (server that listens for remote commands).
I don't know if PSP does that by default. But PSP bypasses the CPU, and control of PSP is control over CPU etc. That sounds like a bad idea, and depending on the details, it could be a fatal idea.
@taoeffect @samis yes. But we have no proof that there's something evil going on in PSP, we have only a suspicion.
@Wolf480pl @samis Yeah, and good reason to believe there might be, given what Intel did with ME, and given the fact that this piece of hardware shouldn't exist in a consumer product in the first place.
@taoeffect @samis still, not a reason to manupulate stock prices and market share by pretending to have a proof that you can be pwned by means of PSP.
@samis @taoeffect *that people can be pwned by means of PSP
Welcome to your niu world ! We are a cute and loving international community O(≧▽≦)O !


text:
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text:
Face to Face Meeting
Date: January 31, 2012
Time: 9:00 - 17:00 (UK time)
Location: IBM Hursley
The linked PDF File:Visiting IBM Hursley.pdf contains lots of good info for anyone visiting IBM Hursley
Google Map showing location of suggested hotels and restaurants, as well as IBM
NOTE: A dinner is being planned for the evening of January 30th, see below.
NOTE: Attendence is open to individuals that are members of the M2M Industry Working Group and invited guests.
- Mike Milinkovich, Eclipse Foundation, @mmilinkov
- Ian Skerrett, Eclipse Foundation, @ianskerrett
- Benjamin Cabé, Sierra Wireless, @kartben
- Gaétan Morice, Sierra Wireless, @gmorice
- Brian Anderson, Sierra Wireless
- Andy Piper, IBM, @andypiper @mqttorg
- Dave Locke, IBM, @davejlocke
- Peter Niblett, IBM
- Ian Craggs, IBM, @icraggs
- Nick O'Leary, IBM, @knolleary
- Andy Stanford-Clark, IBM, @andysc (pm only)
- Arlen Nipper, Eurotech, @EurotechFan
- Robert Andres, Eurotech
- Marco Carrer, Eurotech
- Roger Light, mosquitto.org, @ralight
- Jens Wiegand, Wind River
- Paul Bellamy, Pachube, @pachube
- Kai Hudalla, Bosch
- Stefan Ferber, Bosch
- Nick Humfrey, MQTT community, @njh
- Gerry Reilly, IBM (Director, WebSphere Messaging and Integration)
- Mark Bunday, IBM (Briefing Consultant)
By phone
- Scott de Deugd, IBM
Agenda and Slides Used
Here's a link to the IWG Charter as context for the group
8:30 - 9:00 Arrival, Coffee and Light Breakfast
0900 - 10:15
- Introduction / Welcome to Hursley (Gerry)
- Company Introductions (15 minutes each)
10:15-10:30 Coffee Break
- Detailed discussions and review of [M2M Roadmap] (Benjamin, Scott) (slides)
- Project plan for M2M IWG for next 12-18 months
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch
- (between 12.30/1.30) tour of the Emerging Technologies lab (IBM ETS team)
13:30 - 14:15
- Review of Koneki plans (Benjamin) (slides)
14:15 - 15:00
- Review of Paho plans (Arlen, Scott) ( slides)
15:00- 15:15 Break
15:15 - 15:30
- Mosquitto Overview (Roger)
15:30 - 15:45 Developer Sandbox
15:45 - 16:30 Community Outreach and Marketing
- Community and Marketing for M2M IWG (Ian)
16:30 - 1700 Wrap-up and Next Steps
Key Action Items from Meeting
- Need to work on describing the anatomy of an M2M application - Marco, Benjamin and (maybe) Kai to lead
- Begin work on a meta-model definition of an M2M application - Benjamin to distribute a strawman proposal
- Continue to work on a presentation that describes the M2M IWG vision - Brian, Robert and Ian
- Begin work on a developer portal/web site - Andy
- Start-up a developer sandbox for Paho - Roger and Ian


text:
Al Dahra operates and manages a land bank of about 350,000 acres of owned and leased lands in diversified geographies across the globe for the farming and cultivation of various human food and animal feed crops. Investments made in farming land in the United States, Europe, and Africa have been characterized by the careful selection of areas enjoying favorable climate conditions, easy access to irrigation water and high fertility soil specifications to guarantee the best possible yields.
As an organization with a focused farming mindset, Al Dahra employs experts in the agribusiness sector and technical farming, ensuring alignment across all divisions on the key mandate to:
In addition to managing its own farming operations, Al Dahra has established strong relations with farmers around the world, signing long-term supply agreements with them to buy their crops at fixed prices.
land portfolio including leased and owned land across various geographies
with established operations spread across the Northern and Southern globe hemispheres
trading in various commodities across the Human Food and Animal Feed divisions
annual group turnover
group average CAGR over the past 5 years
group annual grains processing, trading and supply capacity
group annual forage production and supply capacity
group annual fruits and vegetables farming and supply capacity
customer of Khalifa port in the United Arab Emirates
Grain biggest trading hub in the Middle East, that can cater to 2.4 Billion people.
Al Dahra ACX number 1 forage exporter in the USA for 2015
Al Dahra Agriculture is ISO 9001:2015 certified.


text: The AD7328 1 is an 8-channel, 12-bit plus sign, successive approximation ADC designed on the iCMOS (industrial CMOS) process. iCMOS is a process combining high voltage silicon with submicron CMOS and complementary bipolar technologies. It enables the development of a wide range of high performance analog ICs capable of 33 V operation in a footprint that no previous generation of high voltage parts could achieve. Unlike analog ICs using conventional CMOS processes, iCMOS components can accept bipolar input signals while providing increased performance, dramatically reduced power consumption, and reduced package size.


text:
Of Fish Balls Noodles & Fried Ice
>> Tuesday, February 19, 2008
I went on this MAD adventure last Saturday- solo trip to Kampar to meet up with some friends. The trip was one of the most frightening ones. Here's the story:
I found out that the earliest bus to Kampar. I woke up at 6am, left the house at 6.30am, got to the Putra LRT station in PJ & went to Pasar Seni station to get to Puduraya. The only bus that leaves at 8am is the Edaran Express. In front of me, in the line, at the counter, was a man purchasing a bus ticket. At that time, it was already 7.40am. I was pretty anxious and excited as well. There was a sign that shows "8AM" at the counter.
As soon as the guy left the counter, the sign was removed! *Nooooo!!* I stayed hopeful & asked for the 8am bus ticket to Kampar. Jolly ho, it was sold out! Bummer!! The next bus to Kampar is at 10am! *pout* I got into an 'auto-panic' mode & started looking around for other bus companies to no avail. *sigh* I called my friend who's in Kampar already & I just couldn't get her! I had to call several times AND call some other people in Kampar to seek for help. Bah.
In the end, I made the decision to take a bus to Tapah, the next nearest town from Kampar; it's 30minutes drive apart. To my greatest 'delight', all bus tickets to Tapah were sold out! LOL. "Cham" already. How 'fortunate'. I kept asking around, & came to the Kesatuan Express' ticket counter, where the lady told me that there's a bus to Tapah at 8.15am, but it costs RM14! Bummer! A ticket to Kampar costs only RM11.50 :( & Tapah is before Kampar! Bleh. I went around like a mad woman to look for other buses that goes to Tapah to no avail, so I had no choice but to take that particular bus at 8.15am at RM14. Wonderful. Phase one of the madness settled. Moving on to Phase 2! *faints*
Phase 2 was at the bus lanes below the ticket counters in Puduraya. I saw my bus parked at Platform 18 already. To my greatest delight, I saw the sign on the bus which reads "Cameron Highlands – KL". Wow. So does this bus actually goes to Tapah first or directly to Cameron? I waited in faith 'til the ticket conductor arrived. I lined up in hopes to get into the bus quickly & avoid inhaling too much carbon monoxide. So much for lining up. When it was my turn, the conductor looked at the ticket and…
Conductor: "Tapah? This bus doesn't go into Tapah…"
Ruth: What?? "I bought this from the counter & now you're telling me that the bus doesn't go there???" I asked him, raising my voice a little.
Conductor: "Wait wait." (shows me to stand aside)
I was quite mad, irritated, annoyed, & tired by that time. I had to pay more for a ticket & now I can't get onto the bus. Argh. Anyways, to cut the story short, I got into the bus, which had no choice but to get into Tapah town before heading to Cameron Highlands, & myself, plus 3 more 'victims' of this madness were called to alight when the bus stopped at the roadside on the main street in Tapah. How 'exciting'. Thankfully, my friend knows where I got off when I told her, & the trip after that was very much nicer than how it began.
I didn't get to eat THAT much, but I guess this will give me the excuse to go to Kampar again! *lol*
Lunch at a coffee shop:Kampar's famous fish ball noodles
Barli drink (it's not the pure barli like we get it in PJ. I guess 'barli' in Kampar is understood as 'fu chuk yi mai' (Cantonese for 'beancurd sheets + barli')
Dinner at Kam Ling restaurant (a couple from Kampar Wesley invited a few of us for a lavish dinner!)
Snack: "Ais Goreng"(literally means fried ice) from the pasar malam. This is the best food I've tasted in Kampar! Very unique & delicious too!!
Basically, that's all the Kampar food that I had while I was there, cos I had to leave for KL after lunch on Sunday!! *sigh* Didn't get to go to Gua Tempurung nor Batu Berangkai :( It's back to work…I'm looking forward to the weekend again! *lol*
- Ruth


text:
There are a few companies out there specializing in Range Rover customization, but Overfinch is probably the most famous one. Their latest car is limited to 100 units and beats Land Rover's own über Range Rover by 2 horsepower.
The Overfinch Range Rover Sport starts at £87,995 ($150,755), but each car will be built to the buyer's specifications, so that number can climb as high as their ideas will push it.
The 5.0 supercharged V8 gets an ECU digital remap, upgraded supercharger and a new exhaust system, resulting in (an estimated) 552 horsepower, 2 more than in the SVR. That can be important at the country club.
The driver also gets a Bluetooth-controlled 'track mode' button on the key fob (crafted in aerospace-grade aluminum of course) that opens the electronic valves in the exhaust so that those quad outlet pipes can sing the Jaaaag V8 song.
The Range Rover Sport's exterior went through the carbon fiber treatment getting wider, more aggressive air intakes and a bigger diffuser.
LEDs. There's more of them as well.
The standard wheel set is a 21" lightweight forged alloy wheel that minimizes un-sprung weight, but for all those hip hop artist out there who are friends with Lewis Hamilton, 22" and 23" forged and cast alloy wheels are also available.
When it comes to the cabin, there's not much they can't do, so go nuts!


text: 02/25/2012 (08:00PM - 09:00PM) (Saturday) : "Mr. DiMaggio" - The search begins for a Joe DiMaggio to play opposite Marilyn�but everyone's first choice, Michael (guest star Will Chase), has a secret. Karen (Katharine McPhee) returns to Iowa for a baby shower and must decide what she wants for her future. Eileen (Anjelica Huston) begins rounding up investors�but ex-husband Jerry (guest star Michael Cristofer) may already have poisoned the well. Debra Messing, Jack Davenport, Christian Borle, Megan Hilty, Raza Jaffrey and Jaime Cepero also star. Will Chase and Michael Cristofer guest stars.


text:
To add a package to a specified non-global zone only, the SUNW_PKG_ALLZONES package parameter must be set to false. Do not use the pkgadd option -G in this procedure or the operation fails.
You must be the zone administrator in the non-global zone to perform this procedure.
Log in to the non-global zone as the zone administrator.
While in the non-global zone, my-zone in this procedure, run the pkgadd -d command followed by the location of the package and then the package name.
If installing the package from a CD-ROM, type:
my-zone# pkgadd -d /cdrom/cdrom0/directory package_name
If installing the package from a directory to which it has been copied, type:
my-zone# pkgadd -d disk1/image package_name
where disk1 is the location where the package was copied.


text:
Peels: Seasoned Southern Comfort Classics Short on Seasoning
325 Bowery, New York NY 10003 (At Second Street; map); 646-602-7105
Service: Friendly, efficient, and casual.
Setting: Hip/casual. Extraordinarily loud.
Must-Haves: Plancha-Seared Squid, Succotash, Shrimp and Grits
Cost: Appetizers $5-13, Entrees $20-25
Grade: B. Food is properly cooked, but lacks flavor.
William Tigertt and Taavo Somer, the duo behind the downscale American-retro Freemans recently opened Peels on the Bowery with a menu that's similar in style to its alley-hidden sibling, but an emphasis on Southern cooking. The downstairs of the two story restaurant features a utilitarian take-away counter and large communal table intended for quick midday meals. According to our contributor Kathy Chan, the lunchtime pastries and sandwiches are killer. I opted to visit at night for the slightly more upscale dinner menu that they serve upstairs.
Like Freemans, Peels tries to uphold its aura of coolness by refusing reservations for parties smaller than 6. It's a frustrating strategy, but it appears to be working—by 8pm, the bar area was packed with small groups and couples waiting for tables. It's a good thing their drinks are good enough to hold you over.
The first thing you notice when you enter the open second floor space is that it's loud. I mean really loud. A spacious bar area, banquettes of all sizes, and generous drinks invite laughing and talking. And without any soft surfaces or curtains to buffer the sound, an echo-chamber effect sets in: I could hear the conversation from a table on the opposite side of the dining room as clearly as I could hear the person sitting directly across from me. My vocal chords and ears were well-exercised by the end of the meal, though things did quiet down a bit as more bodies filled up the empty space by the bar, providing a baffle for the noise.
Southern cuisine is not the easiest to translate into a white tablecloth setting. Something—the soul, perhaps?—inevitably gets lost in the transition, but the menu at Peels starts out strong. Andouille sausage came bound in perfectly crisp, light corn batter, though the sausage itself lacked the salty bite of a normal hot dog. More smokiness came through in the excellent plancha-seared squid with sweet shishito peppers. It's got the charred, allium-centric kick of a Chinese stir fry, and is probably the best dish in the house.
Of the two shrimp appetizers, the Shrimp and Grits was the better choice. The intensely corn-y grits were creamy, buttery, and delicious, with a soft fried egg to push it over the top. Given the quality of the grits themselves, the shrimp are almost extraneous. Good thing you can order the grits as a side dish.
The Statesboro stew (one of the three soups offered that night on a rotating menu), on the other hand, fell flat. Despite a promising base of Andouille and shrimp, it lacked complexity and seasoning—a theme the dishes returned to throughout the evening.
Take the fried chicken. It started out promising with a crisp, greaseless, and well-browned crust and juicy, properly cooked meat. But like the stew, it was short on seasoning. With something like French fries, you can always add salt at the table (their fries need it). With chicken, if the bird's not brined or seasoned properly to begin with, there's not much you can do for it after it's been cooked. And at $20, you'd expect more than a chunk of past-its-prime corn to come with the dish.
The burger, on the other hand, was excellent. It's made with rough-ground grass-fed beef with the slightly gamey flavor of matured meat, a thick slice of cave-aged cheddar adding another funky punch to the sandwich. Like a poor-man's version of Minetta Tavern's Black Label burger in flavor (minus the caramelized onion), it's a rich, complex burger made for steak lovers. Its only flaw was a slight lack of juiciness, but that's par for the course with grass-fed beef.
The vegetarian succotash with charred corn and okra was another high note. Finally, some flavor! The vegetables were cooked in true Southern style, which means soft (none of that frou-frou al dente stuff, please!). Unlike the muffin-esque Northern style cornbread on offer at most restaurants in the city, Southern corn bread has no extra sugar, and is all about intense corn flavor. Peels' might be the best in the city, tender and buttery with a crisp, deep-brown crust.
I'm not sure that they offer it, but it'd be worth asking for a side of that cornbread even if you don't order the succotash.
Tender, deeply caramelized, and cooked just this-side of rare, the sweet Maine sea scallops brought a welcome light spot to the relatively heavy menu. A salad of shaved carrots, radish, and greens further lightened the deal. It's a highlight of the entrée choices.
As for the side dishes, I love the bitter, peppery bite of mustard greens, especially when they're cooked down until almost melting. Here, they were a little undercooked for my taste, but delicious nonetheless. Hush puppies were also great: light, crisp, and fresh, with a slightly custardy center and intense corn flavor.
It's tough to beat vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, brownie bites, nuts, and pretzels for dessert, and Peels' sundae was as good as it gets. Though it's not on the dessert menu, the intensely thick and creamy whiskey-spiked chocolate shake served in a milk bottle off of the cocktail list might give the sundae a run for its money.
Given that they've only had a few weeks to work out kinks, Peels gives a good first impression. Usually, it's the service that takes time to get up to speed at new restaurants. Here, it was the opposite: service was as professional, efficient, and friendly as could be (despite a couple episodes of dish auctioning: "Who had the scallops?"). The food, on the other hand, showed promising technique and fantastic ingredient sourcing, but ultimately fell flat. With a little time and a lot more salt, this will hopefully change.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


text:
Work Blue Eloy Tapered Micro Stretch Classic GOLF SHORT - Men's / SS19
FREE UK Economy delivery on orders £50 and over - Receive within 3-7 working days.
UK Standard delivery is £5 - Receive within 1-3 working days.
Next Day 'Express' UK delivery. Place your order by 1pm Monday - Friday.
UK Premium Next Day Delivery (delivered by DPD/DHL with tracking notifications). Place your order by 1pm Monday-Friday
Standard Delivery to Store (via Click and Collect) is £5. Have your order delivered to our London store within 2 working days.
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Republican chairs: Kelly hasn't started yet, and the Democrats aren't exactly running away with it
You wouldn't expect the Republican chairmen hoping to convince Ray Kelly to enter the mayor's race to be encouraged by this AP headline: "Who would beat NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly in a mayoral race? Any Democrat, poll finds."
The Quinnipiac poll in question shows Kelly (who has not actively expressed interest in running) losing to Christine Quinn 48-33, Bill de Blasio, 46-34 and to Bill Thompson 46-34 in hypothetical match-ups.
But the chairman from Manhattan, Daniel Isaacs, wasn't bothered one bit, and in fact said he found the poll results "encouraging."
"To be polling under 50 percent," Isaacs said of the Democrats, "I think that sends red flags out and I think it firmly supports our contention that this will be a competitive race."
The Republican chairman from Brooklyn, Craig Eaton, told me Kelly's poll numbers against Quinn, de Blasio and Thompson weren't indicative of the support he would garner in a real election.
"He's not a candidate right now," Eaton said in an interview. "I would assume that if and when the police commissioner throws his hat in the ring, it'll pick up a lot of traction."
Starting soon, we'll be sending the morning Briefing out as an email newsletter. If you'd like to receive it, please sign up here.
Hillary Clinton is leading in Iowa. [Howard Koplowitz]
"Hillary Clinton Towers Over 2016 Dem Field in Iowa" [PublicPolicyPolling.com]
Democrats may be rethinking the idea of having their convention in North Carolina. [George Condon Jr.]
In high school, Mitt Romney helped pin down a student who was thought to be gay and cut his hair, according to several of his former classmates. [Jason Horowitz]
Romney: "Back in high school, I did some dumb things, and if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize for that." [Washington Post]
2013 "Who would beat NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly in a mayoral race? Any Democrat, poll finds" [A.P.]
"Largest population loss in Manhattan [was] in Washington Heights, which saw large out migration of Dominicans between 2000 and 2010." [Daniel Massey]
Democratic challenger Eric Dilan called Rep. Nydia Velazquez "anti-Zionist." [Sally Goldenberg]
After Republican incumbent Jim Alesi announced he's not seeking reelection, Democrat Ted O'Brien announced his candidacy. [Nick Reisman]
Daniel Squadron: ALEC, a non-profit group, "give[s] the appearance of lobbying" and "its influence in New York State government must be addressed." [Nick Reisman]
Rep. Joe Crowley, a Democrat whose father was a police officer said he didn't think the NYPD engaged in racial profiling, but voted for the Holt amendment, "to make it clear that targeting people based exclusively on their race, religion or background is not what our country needs."
Gay Marriage
Tom Allon: "For many progressive Americans, this position has always been a no-brainer, but for some reason our cautious president has taken awhile to come around." [Huffington Post]
Steve Israel: "I don't think it's that relevant" in the congressional races. [Celeste Katz]
Bill de Blasio: "I think it's clear there has been a push, from City Hall, to keep this number high." [No Link]
De Blasio didn't criticize Ray Kelly. [Sam Levin]
In a news story, the Associated Press restores Mario Cuomo, who "hasn't been the governor of New York since 1994." [Rosie Gray]
On Television
On Piers Morgan. [CNN]
On Thursday, May 10, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. hosted the annual Centenarian Celebration as a part of Bronx Week 2012. The event celebrates the lives of senior Bronxites who have lived to see an entire century. Borough President Diaz presented citations to the borough's wisest for holding the secrets to a long life. [Facebook]


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X-FAB's Environmental, Health and Safety Policy is
... to ensure that all X-FAB Group activities are performed in a manner that considers the health and safety of employees, contractors, suppliers, customers and the general public with no adverse impact on the environment through our manufacturing operations and products.
We operate an Environmental Health and Safety Management System that meets the needs of our stakeholders with context to our organization and the requirements of ISO 14001 based on these Guiding Principles:
The Energy Policy for X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries GmbH Erfurt, X-FAB MEMS Foundry GmbH and X-FAB Dresden GmbH & Co. KG is described in PD_0948.
X-FAB has a clear commitment for Social Responsibility and has signed
the "ZVEI's Code of Conduct for Corporate Social Responsibility".
Download the Code of Conduct document: English version | German version | French version | Chinese version


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What's New
iPhone 5 screen support
App Description
Color blindness or color vision deficiency is the decreased ability to perceive differences between some of the colors that others can distinguish. It is most often of genetic nature, but may also occur because of some eye, nerve, or brain damage, or exposure to certain chemicals.
Color Blind Clock is a clock for your device (iPhone/iPad/iPod) that displays the current time like if it was an Ishihara test used to detect color blindness.
Will you be able to see the time displayed in this clock ?
This applications contains a lot of settings, that will allow to customize the clock the exact way you want. From the size of the dots to the way they are organized, quite everything can be changed.
A lot of color palettes can be selected or created, from the ones of the Ishihara test plates to some others allowing to see the time very easily.
If you are color blind, you can select a color palette that finally gives you access to those tests that you almost never pass.
In case you choose to select the real colors used to detect color blindness, an help button can be pressed to reveal the hidden pattern.
If you are not color blind (lucky you!), select a color palette that about 7% of men and 0.4% of women wouldn't be able to see :)
The displayed pattern can be animated, the small circles can visually vibrate and the colors can swap automatically. This can give a very psychedelic look to your own clock.
Touch the screen and the dots will react to your touches with a nice animation.
This application is universal. Portrait and landscape orientations handled.
Note : Although not seeing the time (using the Ishihara colors) will indicate that you might be color blind, you should seek a professional for confirmation.
App Changes
- June 04, 2014 Initial release


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'Eucalyptus' Classic Wedding Invitation PackageRegular price £4.00
Delicate eucalyptus watercolour leaves frame this botanical wedding invitation collection. The muted green colour of the leaves is elegantly paired with the printed gold texture on the couple's names, making this package both elegant and rustic.
This package includes:
- 5x7" invitation, printed double sided (with couple's names on the back);
- A6 RSVP card, printed double sided (with couple's names on the back);
- 280mmx55mm bellyband wrapped around the bundle;
- 2 envelopes (one for the RSVP and one for the package). I stock white, ivory and craft brown envelopes.
All wording can be changed.
Each package will be delivered assembled if the option is selected from the dropdown menu.
The colour of the text can be changed.
Cards are printed on 300gsm textured card, bellyband is printed on 150gsm paper.
Samples are not personalised.
Please add Day invitations and Evening invitations separately into the basket.
Please be aware that the gold details on this design are digitally printed and are not real gold foil.
Delivery is £5.50 on all stationery orders (within the UK). The delivery will be via MyHermes courier (tracked) and takes 2-3 days.
Delivery to remote areas might take longer.
FOR INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY: Please get in touch for a delivery quote.
We will only print your order once we receive a full approval via email from you. Once approved, no further changes can be made. Please check the spelling thoroughly as any mistakes found after your approval to print will result in additional costs. Unfortunately we are unable to offer a proofreading service.
Please allow 3-4 weeks for any amendments, proofs, printing and delivery. If you need a quicker turnaround, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate your schedule.
Although we take great care in checking each invite before it is sent to you, please make sure to check them too before you send them to your guests.
Colour changes are included in the price for designs that support colour changes (please refer to the item's description). Please be aware that colours on screen might differ, ordering a sample is the best way to be sure you are happy with your purchase.
All wording can be changed, but we recommend to keep the number of words to roughly the same as the samples in the images.
Please be aware that the gold details on all our 'House Collection' stationery suites are digitally printed on the card, rather than bring applied using gold foil. We would advise to order a sample if you are unsure.
Samples are not personalised and will be posted first class within one working day.
Please allow roughly 13-15 working days from approval for printing and delivery.
Please check the spelling thoroughly as any mistakes found after your approval to print will result in additional costs to you. Unfortunately we are unable to offer a proofreading service.


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Tuesday, 14 August 2012 09:04 AM
Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Retail sales in the U.S. rose more than forecast in July as consumer spending rebounded at department stores, auto dealers and electronics outlets, easing some concern the biggest part of the economy was foundering.
The 0.8 percent advance, the first gain in four months, followed a 0.7 percent decrease in June that was weaker than first reported, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists projected a 0.3 percent rise, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Sales excluding automobiles also climbed 0.8 percent.
Improved sales at merchants such as Gap Inc. and TJX Cos. indicate American households are looking beyond the global economic slowdown as hiring improves. At the same time, joblessness in excess of 8 percent is keeping consumer spending from surging, consistent with the Federal Reserve's view that economic growth will "remain moderate over coming quarters."
"The consumer is still alive but not especially strong at this point," Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James Financial Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, said before the report. "Sales are suggesting more of the same: the economy is still in recovery mode."
Retail sales were projected to rise following June's previously reported 0.5 percent drop, according to the Bloomberg survey. Estimates from the 85 economists surveyed ranged from a decrease of 0.2 percent to a gain of 0.8 percent.
Today's report showed the retail sales category used to calculate gross domestic product, which excludes sales at auto dealers, building material stores and service stations, increased 0.9 percent after a 0.2 percent decrease in June.
Second Quarter
The pickup in retail sales last month followed a quarter in which household spending grew at the slowest pace in a year. Consumer purchases, about 70 percent of the economy, expanded at a 1.5 percent annual rate from April to June, according to Commerce Department data.
All 13 major retail categories showed a gain last month, led by a 0.8 percent jump at auto dealers, a 0.6 percent rise at department stores that was the most since September, and a 0.9 percent gain at electronics and appliance outlets.
Spending increased 0.8 percent at clothing stores and 0.7 percent at general merchandise stores. Health and personal care sales jumped 1.1 percent, the most since May 2011.
Industry data showed retailers' same-store sales at the more than 20 companies tracked by Retail Metrics Inc. rose 4.4 percent in July, almost four times analysts' estimates, after a 0.3 percent gain in June.
Gap, Macy's
Sales at Gap, the biggest U.S. specialty-apparel retailer, climbed 10 percent last month from the same period in 2011. Macy's Inc., the owner of its namesake and Bloomingdale's department stores, posted a 4.1 percent increase.
"This month we saw broad-based strength across the U.S.," Sherry Lang, spokeswoman for TJX, said during an Aug. 2 sales conference call. Same-store sales at the owner of the Marshalls and T.J. Maxx chains rose 7 percent in July.
Demand at building-material stores rose 1 percent, today's report showed.
Sales excluding automobiles and service stations rose 0.9 percent, the most since January.
Underpinning consumer demand, payrolls increased by 163,000 in July, the most in five months, according to Labor Department figures. While the improvement eased fears the U.S. labor market may continue stumbling following the second-quarter slowdown, the jobless rate rose to 8.3 percent.
'Cautious Consumer'
"As we head into the much larger second half of the year, we are mindful that the macro environment remains pressured and uncertain," Harlan Kent, chief executive officer of Yankee Candle Co. Inc., which sells its products to retailers like Macy's and Target Corp., said on an Aug. 9 conference call. "We expect cautious consumer spending."
The Fed remains cautious about the recovery's resilience as well. Central bank policy makers said on Aug. 1 they will pump new stimulus if necessary to boost growth and reduce a jobless rate that's been stuck at 8 percent or higher for more than three years.
More expensive fuel could make that task more difficult by eating up some of consumers' cash for other goods and services. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose to $3.70 yesterday after sliding to $3.33 in early July, the lowest in six months, according to AAA, the nation's largest auto club.
--With assistance from Kristy Scheuble in Washington. Editor: Vince Golle
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Buy your Personalised Registration
The details of your chosen registration are listed below. Once you are happy with your choice, click Continue to continue the purchasing process.
Your chosen plate: £3,500.00
Buying A New Plate?
Please read the information below before purchasing your new registration mark!
You can expect to receive your signed V750 (Certificate of Entitlement) with the name you require added as the nominee within 5 days. If you intend to assign the registration to your existing vehicle the nominee name has to be the same as the registered keeper on your V5C. If you are buying a new vehicle in your own name again the nominee has to be the same. However, if you were registering the vehicle through a business you would need to add the business name as the nominee.
You can then either assign it to a vehicle, or, keep it on retention as many investment clients do, for a profitable future sale. If you decide to keep it on retention you will have to pay a £25 fee on a yearly basis.
If you want to assign it to your vehicle, you will have to take the V750 along with your Registration Certificate V5C, and the car tax disc to your local DVLA office. They will organise all the paperwork there and then at no cost as the assignment fee is included in the purchase price.
If you are assigning the registration mark to a new vehicle you will need to give the V750 to the dealership you are buying from, and they will organise the assignment.
When assigning a number to a vehicle the basic rule to remember is that you may not transfer a registration mark to any vehicle if the vehicle itself is older than the year indicated by the indicator numbers or letter on the plate. For example, a car that originally bore an 'F' prefix plate may not display a 'V' prefix plate as that would falsely make the vehicle appear younger than it is. You are not allowed to make an old vehicle look newer than it is, but you can put an older plate on a new car. For more information our rules page!
To find your local DVLA office, click here.


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Individual Retirement Accounts
In this article:
Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) are tax-deferred, personal retirement plans. You must have earned income to contribute, and you can put money into an IRA whether or not you participate in an employer's retirement plan.
There are two types: the traditional IRAs, to which contributions may be deductible or nondeductible, and the Roth IRA.
All traditional IRAs are tax deferred. This means you owe no tax on your earnings until you withdraw. If you qualify, you may be able to deduct your contribution on your federal income tax return, deferring tax on that amount as well.
Roth IRAs are not tax deferred, which means you owe taxes when you contribute the money to the account. Withdrawals are tax free if your account has been open at least five years and you're at least 59 and a half.
Whether you can deduct your contribution or not, you may face a potential 10% tax penalty on top of any tax that's due on deferred amounts you withdraw before you turn 59 and a half. And you must begin to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) after you turn 70 and a half (or 72 if you were born after June 30, 1949). There's no tax penalty if you take at least the minimum, but all tax-deferred amounts you withdraw are taxed at the same rate as your ordinary income. Contributions to a Roth are never deductible, but you can continue to contribute as long as you have earned income. And you're never required to take RMDs.
The only requirement for opening an IRA is having earned income—money you get for work you do. Your total annual contribution is limited to $6,000 for 2020, whether you put it all in one account or divide it between a traditional IRA and a Roth. If you're 50 or older, you can add an annual catch-up contribution of $1,000. You're eligible whether you've contributed to an IRA in the past or not.
Any amount you earn qualifies, and you can contribute as much as you want, up to the annual cap. But you can't contribute more than you earn. For example, if you earn $1,800 in a year, that's how much you can put in. And whether you earn $5,500 or $350,000, the top limit is the same.
If your husband or wife doesn't work, but you do, you can contribute up to $6,000 for 2020 to a separate spousal account in your spouse's name. The advantage for the nonworking partner is being able to build an individual retirement fund that he or she owns and controls.
If you qualify to contribute to a Roth IRA, based on your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), or to deduct your contribution to a traditional IRA, you'll probably want to choose between them.
The income limits are stricter for deducting your contribution to a traditional IRA than for contributing to a Roth IRA.
In 2020, for example, you can deduct all of your IRA contribution if you're single, and you either don't have a retirement plan where you work or your MAGI is less than $63,000. You can deduct a gradually decreasing portion of your contribution as your income gets closer to $73,000 and nothing if it's above $73,000. You can always deduct the full amount of your contribution if you're not eligible for a retirement plan at your job or your employer doesn't offer one.
You're eligible for a full Roth contribution in 2020 if you're single and your AGI is less than $120,000. With an AGI between that amount and $135,000, you can put a gradually declining portion of your contribution into a Roth and the balance into a traditional IRA if you wish.
For a married couple filing a joint return, the income limits for a deductible traditional IRA begin at $104,000, and are phased out at $124,000 for 2020. Either of you can deduct your contribution if you have no retirement plan of your own at work or aren't eligible. But if your spouse has a plan, the amount you can deduct is reduced gradually if your joint modified adjusted gross income is over $196,000 in 2020, and eliminated if it's over $206,000. Each of you qualifies to contribute the full $6,000 to a Roth IRA if your joint MAGI is $196,000 or less in 2020 and smaller amounts until it reaches $206,000 when your eligibility is phased out.
It's easy to open an IRA. All you do is fill out a relatively simple application provided by the bank, mutual fund company, brokerage firm, or other financial institution you choose to be custodian of your account.
Because IRAs are self directed, which means you decide how to invest the money, you're responsible for following the rules that govern the accounts. Basically, that means putting in only the amount you're entitled to each year and making approved investments. You must also report your annual contribution to a traditional IRA to the IRS, on Form 1040 or 1040A if it's deductible and on Form 8606 if it's not.
You can invest your IRA money almost any way you like that's available through your custodian, from putting it in sedate savings accounts to buying volatile options on futures. The things you can't choose are fine art, gems, non-US coins, and collectibles. You can buy and sell investments within your IRA and reinvest the money whenever you please without worrying about paying tax on any gains. But you may pay sales charges and other fees on those transactions.
You have until April 15—the day tax returns are due—to open an IRA and make the deposit for the previous tax year. If April 15 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, your deposit is due by Monday, April 16 or 17, or sometimes as late as April 18.
You can put money into your IRA in a lump sum, or spread your contribution out over up to 15 months. You may put in the whole amount the first day you can, January 1 of the tax year you're making the contribution for. Or, if you're like most people, you're more apt to make the deposit on the last possible day, which is April 15 for the previous tax year.
The most practical solution may be weekly or monthly contributions, perhaps as direct debits or electronic transfers from your checking account. There are no guarantees when you invest this way, any more than there are when you invest a lump sum. You could lose money, especially in the short term. But if your investments do well, adding to them regularly can give your account value a real boost. And the longer money is invested, the more it has the potential to grow.
Neither Banzai nor its sponsoring partners make any warranties or representations as to the accuracy, applicability, completeness, or suitability for any particular purpose of the information contained herein. Banzai and its sponsoring partners expressly disclaim any liability arising from the use or misuse of these materials and, by visiting this site, you agree to release Banzai and its sponsoring partners from any such liability. Do not rely upon the information provided in this content when making decisions regarding financial or legal matters without first consulting with a qualified, licensed professional.


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speaking as someone with the 304 it will do dc tig only there is a hf unit for this machine but with the price of that the foot pedal the torch and if you feel you need or want it the cooler you could buy a small tig welder capable of doing ac tig i know this because i was looking to do the same when i first learned tig 2 years ago.
as list on this site
HF unit :
cooler (cheapest):
Coolmate™ 3 115 VAC $778.00
foot pedal (14pin)
RFCS-14 Remote Foot Control (14-pin plug) $277.00
torch w/o accessories
WELDCRAFT WATERCOOLED, 250 A, 12 ft $266.51
roughly costing $2500
that is if i havent left anything out.
Diversion™ 180 $2,225.00
your choice
No announcement yet.
xmt 304 cc/cv TIG setup
new posts
Leave a comment:
It'll Do all except AC TIG
That is a great machine. I have the XMT 350 cc/cv
I use it to all the processes. DC TIG from around 20amps to over 350+ amps is great and very simple on these machines. I installed the intenal gas valve on the machine but you can use a torch with a valve on it instead.
MIG and Flux core are right on. the 12vs runs like a champ as does the 22A feeder.
SMAC weldiing is good but I like my TB302 better.
AC TIG just won't happen these are DC only machines.
But a WC-24 and a spool gun will do a real good job on aluminum.
Leave a comment:
Tig setup for Miller XMT 304
I recently bought a used Miller XMT 304 at an auction. The gun was bad and I have had it repaired. I have never tig welded and have limited time at Mig welding with a Millermatic 210 and a little Stick welding, but love welding.

I understand that my miller 304 will do it all. I have a Bernard gun and have only welded mild steel and stainless with the mig function. So far, I love the machine! Now I want to try to learn to use the tig function. I don't have a foot pedal, or finger control to regulate the amperage, and I'm not sure which terminal the torch is to be connected to. Can you advise me as how to get started? Is the hookup the same for mild steel and stainless? Use pure Argon...right? Can't tig aluminum??? but can I mig aluminum??? Any other stuff I might need to know as a beginner?

Leave a comment:
Your machine however IS capable of some very nice aluminum GMA welds with the right feeder setup.
Leave a comment:
Originally posted by devolo View PostHello, I'd like to do some simple aluminum TIG welding with this. Can anyone recommend an inexpensive setup for the 304 to get me started? I'm assuming the shielding gas connects to a fitting right at the power lead connection at the 304. I'm new at this.
As far as I can tell from the web site listed above that machine only out put in DC.
Aluminum can be welded DCEN great for penetration sucks looks.
My assumption given your limited question is you are looking for the pretty shinny stack o dimes Aluminum weld????
Not gona happen with out.
1] AC out put
2] High freq generator or adjustable freq control
Leave a comment:
It's not an AC capable machine and not to sound sarcastic or anything but judging by you'r question I honestly don't think you'd be capable of doing DC aluminum GTAW.
Leave a comment:
xmt 304 cc/cv TIG setupHello, I'd like to do some simple aluminum TIG welding with this. Can anyone recommend an inexpensive setup for the 304 to get me started? I'm assuming the shielding gas connects to a fitting right at the power lead connection at the 304. I'm new at this.Tags: None


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Safety 1st. Please share what happen so others do not follow. Without any accusations.
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted.
Order threads in...
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Parents and legal guardians are responsible for their child's exposure to and use of the Internet and are encouraged to supervise their children's Internet sessions. Parents and children are also encouraged to seek guidance from Library staff, visit netsmartz.org (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children), and visit the "Kids" page on the Library's website for site recommendations.


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Check Out their Song Choices on Next Week's Episode of "Awkward" Airing Tuesday, May 7 at 10:00 P.M. ET/PT
NEW YORK, NY (May 2, 2013) - MTV announced today that pop duo "Tegan and Sara" will serve up the soundtrack as guest music supervisors for next week's episode of "Awkward" when Matty moves in with the Hamiltons and Jenna discovers that cohabitation may be more than she bargained for. For a sneak peek of the episode, click here and to check out the inside scoop from Tegan and Sara on their role, click here.
Tegan and Sara Quin released their first independent full-length album in 1999 and over their 13-year career have built an avid global following of fans and fellow musicians alike. Having sold nearly one million career albums and toured with acts from The Killers to Neil Young, Tegan and Sara recently released their seventh studio album - Heartthrob - as internationally-celebrated songwriters, performers and artists. In addition to guest music supervising for this episode of "Awkward," songs from Tegan and Sara's new album, including the single "Closer," as well as "Goodbye, Goodbye" and "Drove Me Wild" will be featured throughout season three.
"The thing that's really interesting about having your music placed is that you have really very little say in where or how it's used, so this was a really cool opportunity to see what it's like to be on the other side of it," said Sara. "Thinking of the fans of the show who would be watching, who know that there is always really amazing music on 'Awkward' and for us to be able to bring to light some new, unknown artists for them, that ended up being the challenge I liked the most," said Tegan.
In this week's episode, Tegan and Sara chose to feature "90210" by The Courtneys, "Perpetual Surrender" by Diana, "Say Something" by Sucré, "All We Have" by Ok Sweetheart and "I Was A Fool" by Tegan and Sara. Love their song choices? Visit soundtrack.mtv.com for more information on all the artists and songs featured in the episode, plus free MP3 downloads of their picks, including Sucré's "Say Something."
"Awkward" stars Ashley Rickards as Jenna, Beau Mirchoff as Matty, Molly Tarlov as Sadie, Jillian Rose Reed as Tamara, Brett Davern as Jake, Nikki DeLoach as Lacey, Desi Lydic as Valerie, Jessica Lu as Ming, Mike Faiola as Kevin and Greer Grammer as Lissa.
"Awkward" was created by Lauren Iungerich. Iungerich and Erin Ehrlich serve as executive producers.
Rochelle Holguin is Vice President Creative Music Integration for MTV. Ben Hochstein is the Music Supervisor for "Awkward."
For more ways to connect with "Awkward" follow the show on Twitter @MTVAwkward or like it on Facebook.
About MTV:
MTV is the world's premier youth entertainment brand. With a global reach of more than a half-billion households, MTV is the cultural home of the millennial generation, music fans and artists, and a pioneer in creating innovative programming for young people. MTV reflects and creates pop culture with its Emmy(R), Grammy(R) and Peabody(R) award-winning content built around compelling storytelling, music discovery and activism across TV, online and mobile. MTV's sibling networks MTV2 and mtvU each deliver unparalleled customized content for young males, music fans and college students, and its online hub MTV.com is a leading destination for music, news and pop culture. MTV is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.


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Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak / Edition 1 available in Paperback
- 0520229177
- 9780520229174
- Pub. Date:
- 12/14/1999
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
Product Details
|University of California Press
|Publication date:
|Edition description:
|First Edition
|Product dimensions:
|6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
Tuesday, June 2, 1992. After a long transatlantic flight from New York, our research team arrives in the new post-Soviet Russia, a nation that six months before did not exist. We are in the first stage of a trip to investigate the cause of the worst anthrax epidemic recorded in a modern industrial nation. The outbreak occurred in April and May 1979 in Sverdlovsk, an industrial city in the Ural Mountains, nine hundred miles east of Moscow. According to Soviet reports, by the time it was over, at least sixty-four people had died from this rare disease.
Leading the team is Matthew Meselson, a Harvard University biologist. I am the expedition's anthropologist, from Boston College, a Jesuit university that has unblinkingly supported my research for nearly twenty years. Matthew and I are also husband and wife. Doing research with a spouse can be problematic, especially when both are strong-minded individuals. Working on a politically charged issue in a foreign country can compound the difficulties, particularly when that country is the former Soviet Union, where censorship and political repression were the norm. But we have researched and written together before, on the "Yellow Rain" controversy. That investigation, during the 1980s, involved clarifying whether or not a dangerous mycotoxin had, with Soviet assistance, been used by Laos against its Hmong minority. By 1991, when Matthew began recruiting the Sverdlovsk team, I was well immersed in the details of this new problem and had made several trips to the Soviet Union,although none with the purpose and potential of this foray.
Matthew's commitment to discovering the Sverdlovsk epidemic's cause goes back to 1980, when he was consulted by the CIA after news of the event leaked to the West. In the years that followed, the world learned little about the outbreak, though speculations and suspicions abounded. Claims by a few Soviet dissidents that an explosion in a secret biological weapons laboratory caused thousands of deaths were countered by the Soviet government's contention that a much smaller number of people died from eating anthrax-infected meat sold on the black market. For years, Matthew, who has long been an advocate for the prohibition of chemical and biological weapons, has requested permission from the USSR for impartial experts to investigate the outbreak firsthand, but these requests have been denied. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, however, the political doors have opened for our travel to Sverdlovsk, which has reclaimed its prerevolutionary name, Yekaterinburg. We have allowed ourselves only two weeks to attempt to discover conclusive evidence about the source of the 1979 anthrax deaths.
My part of the assignment is to interview the victims' families, if I can find them. We have no record of names or addresses. Yekaterinburg, an industrial city with a population of 1.2 million, as yet has no public telephone directory. Nonetheless, I optimistically carry in my suitcase a hundred copies of a brief questionnaire that I have prepared and tested in translation. Our team brings other expertise to the expedition. The congenial Dr. Alexis Shelokov, who speaks fluent Russian, is a vaccine expert from the Salk Institute with a long career in public health. The more reserved Dr. David Walker is chief of pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. We are hoping that reports in the Russian press will prove true, that autopsy samples have been preserved by two pathologists who worked during the 1979 outbreak.
The fifth member of our team is veterinarian Martin Hugh-Jones from Louisiana State University, a member of the World Health Organization's Anthrax Research and Control Working Group, and an avid world traveler. The veterinary perspective is essential. Anthrax is a zoonosis, a disease that can travel from animals to humans. It is almost always associated with grazing animals, especially sheep, cows, goats, and horses, that pick it up from contaminated soil, by either eating or inhaling the tough spores that are the dormant form of its deadly bacteria.
Anthrax is as old as pastoralism and the origins of civilization. It might be the Sixth Plague, the sooty "morain," in the Book of Exodus that kills livestock and affects people with black spots. It is probably Apollo's "burning wind of plague" that begins Homer's Iliad.
Pack animals were his target first, and dogs but soldiers, too, soon felt transfixing pain from his hard shots, and pyres burned night and day.
In ancient Roman times, Virgil's Georgics lamented the shortage of animals caused by what again was most likely anthrax.
Ghastly Tisphone rages, and ... drives before her Disease and Dread.... The rivers and thirsty banks and sloping hills echo to the bleating of flocks and incessant lowing of kine. And now in droves she deals out death, and in the very stalls piles up the bodies, rotting with putrid foulness, till men learn to cover them in earth and bury them in pits.
Virgil also noted the other hazard of anthrax, that it spreads to humans, not by human-to-human contact, but by human contact with infected animals:
For neither might the hides be used, nor could one cleanse the flesh by water or master it by fire. They could not even sheer the fleeces, eaten up with sores and filth, nor touch the rotten web. Nay, if any man donned the loathsome garb, feverish blisters and foul sweat would run along his fetid limbs, and not long had he to wait ere the accursed fire was feeding on his stricken limbs.
Veterinarians can often tell an animal has died from anthrax by its sudden death and by the blood and bloody fluid that have oozed from its orifices. Anthrax bacteria in the decaying carcass are likely to be killed off by the bacteria of putrefaction; anaerobes (bacteria that can multiply without free oxygen) from the intestines do the clean-up work. The greater danger of anthrax lies in the blood that spills from the animal and drains into the soil, where the bacteria can then assume a protective spore form. (In a real sense, then, anthrax needs its host to die so that the disease may continue.) Relative temperature, along with varying blood and soil conditions, determines whether spores actually will form. Once formed, though, they can be devilishly hard to eliminate.
Burying dead animals in pits, as Virgil suggested, never really disposed of anthrax. In spore form, its bacteria have been known to persist in soil for as long as seventy years, well after the memory of the site is lost. When an old site is disturbedas new fields are plowed, new gravel pits dug, or new roads laidor when a spring flood brings spores to the surface, animal outbreaks can flare as if from nowhere. Animal and human anthrax ravaged Europe and Asia throughout history, with major outbreaks in Germany in the fourteenth century and in central Europe and Russia in the seventeenth century, and these epidemics most likely originated from old reservoirs where diseased animals had been buried.
Attacking anthrax contamination has its problems, especially when attempted on a large scale. It takes three hours at 140 degrees centigrade to sterilize a five-ton load of bones in an industrial digester. Four decades after the World War II testing of anthrax weapons at Gruinard Island off the coast of Scotland, the British used formaldehyde to the depth of six inches to ensure the soil was rid of spores.
In humans, an anthrax infection can begin in one of three ways. Infection through the skin (cutaneous anthrax) is what Virgil described and is the most common and obvious form. It begins with a tiny pimple. In a few hours this eruption becomes a reddish-brown irritation and swelling that turns into an ulcer, the "feverish blister" that splits the skin. The black scablike crust that the lesion develops gives the disease its name, anthracis, the Latin transliteration of the Greek word for coal. In Russian, anthrax is also called "Siberian ulcer" (Siberskaya yazva), because of the prevalence of the disease in that region. Indeed, czarist Russia and the former Soviet Union, with their huge rural area, had among the world's highest levels of recorded anthrax outbreaks. Without treatment, the fatality rate for cutaneous anthrax can be 20 percent. In this century, sulfamides, penicillin, tetracycline, and other relatively accessible drugs have reduced fatality to 5 percent and less.
As noted, there are two other ways of contracting anthrax in humans: Over the years, a distinction has been drawn between gastrointestinal anthrax, acquired by eating tainted meat, and inhalation anthrax, acquired by breathing in the deadly spores. This distinction immediately raises the issue of "portal of entry," of whether the spores enter the body through the mouth and digestive system or through the respiratory system, an issue central to the Sverdlovsk outbreak.
Outbreaks of gastrointestinal anthrax, rare and dangerous, usually afflict villages in developing countries, where animal vaccination and meat inspection programs are not in place or simply fail. They can occur when undercooked infected meat from local livestock or from wild animals makes it to the table. Depending on the outbreak, 25 to 100 percent of gastrointestinal anthrax victims are likely to die. Medical research (autopsy and tissue analysis) on the process of infection in authentic gastrointestinal anthrax is almost nonexistent.
Inhalation anthrax results from inhaling microscopic anthrax spores (one to five microns in diameter) deep into the lungs. Untreated inhalation anthrax is almost always fatal, but even in textile factory settings, where it has been best documented, it has proved exceptionally rare. For example, in one report of 117 cases of "woolsorter's disease" (as anthrax has been called since early industrial times), strung out over more than two decades, from 1933 to 1955, there was only one (fatal) case of inhalation anthrax; the rest were cutaneous. Other scattered fatal cases of inhalation anthrax were reported in the United States during this same time period: a football player who may have contracted the disease from playing-field soil, a San Francisco woman who beat bongo drums made of infected skin, a construction worker who handled contaminated felt, and several gardeners whose infection was traced to contaminated bone meal fertilizer. In the best-researched incident, in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1957, inhalation anthrax killed four woolen-mill workers. In the same year, a man and woman living near a Philadelphia tannery also died of inhalation anthrax.
The terms gastrointestinal and inhalation, as noted, refer to the portal of entry, how the pathogen entered the body, not necessarily to specific clinical manifestations. According to the few published reports of cases, fatal gastrointestinal anthrax and inhalation anthrax are characterized by similar initial symptoms. At first the patient may experience the aches, chills, mild fever, and nausea characteristic of influenza. In many cases, there is a brief respite from the symptoms, a "false recovery." Then, as the infection progresses, there may be high fever, severe pain in either the abdomen or chest or both, congested breathing, dizziness, bloody vomiting, and diarrhea.
Regardless of the portal of entry, if the anthrax infection is internal, not merely cutaneous, it is termed systemic, and its treatment is highly problematic. Antibiotics are the first line of defense and can kill the anthrax bacteria or halt its growth. But because the bacteria produce a toxin that rapidly floods the blood and lymph system, sending the patient into shock, no remedy may be possible once serious symptoms begin. An unchecked anthrax infection sweeps rapidly through the body, causing massive toxic shock and internal ulceration and bleeding. During this process, a secondary pneumonia infection can develop, possibly in both patients who have eaten infected meat and patients who have inhaled anthrax spores.
Until World War II scientific interest in human anthrax cases was relatively minor compared to the focus on animal disease. Bacillus anthracis was discovered in 1850 by the French parasitologist Casimir-Joseph Davaine, who examined the blood of infected sheep under the microscope. Subsequent work, especially by Robert Koch, the famous German biologist, and the legendary Louis Pasteur in France, proved beyond doubt that this bacterium caused anthrax. It was with anthrax, in fact, that the germ theory of disease was firmly established. In 1876, Koch employed his pure culture techniques to discover the life cycle of anthrax (from the bacterium, with its bamboo-like rods, to its hardy spore form and back to bacterium again). At the time, though, he was much less concerned with the victims of "ragpicker's disease" (the colloquial German term for anthrax) than with the hundreds of thousands of grazing animals his native country was losing each year to anthrax. These repeated epizootics, common also in France and other European countries, damaged the food, textile, and leather industries dependent on animal products. In 1881 Pasteur followed up his successful development of a vaccine against chicken cholera with one for animal anthrax. In May of that year, he was pressured into an early public demonstration of the vaccine at a farm in Pouilly-le-Fort, forty kilometers outside Paris. The risk paid off. On June 2, with twenty-five vaccinated sheep alive and twenty-five unvaccinated ones dead, Pasteur was proclaimed a hero in the press and by his scientific colleagues.
Since World War II, the potential of anthrax as a biological weapon has focused national and international attention on its lethality for humans. Anthrax spores, tough enough to withstand bomb detonation and small enough to aerosolize, have been a preferred agent for every nation that has sought to develop and produce biological weapons. But the primary attribute of biological weapons, including anthrax, is that they have been experimented with but almost never deployed. Some restraints are a matter of international norms. Born of a repugnance for chemical weapons used in World War I, the Geneva Protocol of 1925, for example, prohibits the use in war of both chemical and biological weapons. Although several nations, including the United States and the USSR, formally reserved the right to use such weapons in reprisal if first used against themand thus implicitly maintained the right to develop and stockpile themonly very rarely do the norms against using biological or chemical weapons break down. In modern times, the only significant use of biological weapons, including anthrax and plague, was in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when the Japanese Imperial Army undertook covert experiments on humans (which included vivisection) and deployed biological weapons against Chinese troops and civilians in Manchuria. The details of this historical anomaly have only recently been revealed.
During World War II, American, British, and Canadian laboratories moved far along in developing and producing biological weapons, especially anthrax, which had the code name "N." By 1944, thousands of anthrax bombs were ready for use by Allied Forces, but intelligence sources could find no indication that Nazi Germany had any investment in biological weapons (BW) capability. Indeed, directives from Hitler forbade BW offensive research. Late in the war some subordinates, notably Reich Marshall Hermann Göring, supported research at a small, secret facility outside the city of Posen (Poznan) in Poland, where anthrax was the most seriously considered BW agent against both humans and animals. The war ended before the effort produced any results.
After the war, the United States and Britain continued BW research and testing, with the U. S. program (centered at Fort Detrick, Maryland) at times having more money than it could spend. In 1969, after reviewing the extensive U.S. investment in offensive BW, President Richard Nixon categorically renounced biological weapons. "Mankind already carries in its own hands too many of the seeds of its own destruction" was his public statement. Nixon limited U.S. BW activities to strictly defined defensive purposes: "techniques of immunization, safety measures, and the control and prevention of the spread of disease." All U.S. programs were then dismantled or converted to protective or other peaceful defensive uses.
At the same time, President Nixon declared U.S. support for a British proposal for an international treaty banning biological weapons. With the concurrence of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) was completed in 1972, and some 140 states are now party to it. The BWC forbids development, production, stockpiling, or otherwise retaining biological agents or toxins "of types or in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes." It also forbids "weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict." Lacking investigatory or punitive powers, the convention eventually came to rely on "confidence-building measures," such as good-faith revelations by those states party to it of past offensive and current defensive BW activities and review sessions every five years, starting in 1980. It also allows one state party to lodge a complaint against another with the United Nations Security Council, in order to begin a formal investigation that all states party to the convention would support.
The BWC has remained largely a good-faith pact among nations, but it is because of it that our research team has become involved with investigating the 1979 anthrax outbreak in Sverdlovsk. In March 1980, during the first review session of the BWC in Geneva, the U.S. State Department raised its initial concern that the Sverdlovsk outbreak signaled a Soviet violation of the convention. Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the previous December had already ruptured relations between the two superpowers and precipitated a long list of U.S. economic and political sanctions against the Soviets. U.S. suspicions about Sverdlovsk were based on satellite photographs of the city's military Compound 19, on covert intelligence reports, and on an anonymous article published in January 1980 in West Germany, in the Russian dissident broadside Posev (Sowing). This account of the outbreak was translated by the CIA and made available to American reporters just in time to rock the BWC review session. The article's author described hearing about a tremendous "explosion" of anthrax in Sverdlovsk and laid the blame on the military. "During a month or so an average of 30-40 people died each day," the author wrote. "The total number of deaths can be estimated at about 1000." The report described the removal of contaminated topsoil and the paving of streets in a nearby village to cover the contaminated earth. "One would imagine this is the only asphalted village in the Urals," the anonymous author commented. The article also added that no animal cases occurred, although within the city stray dogs were reportedly destroyed to control the spread of the disease.
Taken by surprise, the Soviet Foreign Ministry in Moscow at first denied the outbreak. Then it followed up with a statement that an anthrax epidemic in the Urals had occurred but had been caused by "improper handling of meat products." On March 21, the last day of the BWC review meetings, Viktor Israelyan, the head of the Soviet delegation, stood and delivered a final response to the U.S. suspicions of forbidden work in biological weapons and a leak of deadly anthrax:
In March-April 1979 in the area of Sverdlovsk there did in fact occur an ordinary outbreak of anthrax among animals, which arose from natural causes, and there were cases where people contracted an intestinal form of this infection as a result of eating meat from cattle which was sold against the regulations established by the veterinary inspectorate. In this connection an appropriate warning appeared in the press. However, this incident has no bearing on the question of compliance by the USSR with the Convention on the Prohibition of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons. In this connection there are no grounds whatsoever for the question which was raised by the U.S. delegation.
U.S. intelligence analysts believed otherwise. Rumors of hundreds, even thousands of people killed in the 1979 outbreak continued to come in from Moscow, from emigrés in Western Europe, and from Soviet Jews newly settled in Israel, although no firsthand witnesses ever emerged. Calculations of the anthrax dose by some U.S. intelligence experts further inflamed the issue. A single gram of anthrax contains around a trillion potentially lethal spores. In a briefing on Sverdlovsk for President Jimmy Carter by Central Intelligence Director Stansfield Turner, the amount of anthrax released in the outbreak was estimated at seventy kilograms, an amount that could seriously infect tens of thousands of square miles. Matthew Meselson and U. S. government BW experts at the army's Dugway Proving Ground, who better understood the basic aerodynamics involved in such estimates, reckoned that as little as a gram of aerosolized anthrax, with its trillion spores, could have caused the Sverdlovsk outbreak. The figure settled on in Defense Intelligence Agency reports was ten kilograms.
The Soviet response to these suspicions was to adamantly stand by its tainted-meat explanation. In the spring of 1980 the U.S. government formed a working group on the Sverdlovsk outbreak, consisting of representatives from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security Council, the State Department, the CIA, and other agencies, to consider the incident. The group called on several outside experts: Philip Brachman from the Centers for Disease Control, Nobel Laureate microbiologist Joshua Lederberg at Rockefeller University in New York, Paul Doty, professor of biochemistry at Harvard, and Matthew Meselson. After some months, the majority judgment of the group was that an accidental explosion at the Sverdlovsk military factory caused an aerosol emission of virulent anthrax spores and that this emission resulted in many deaths from inhalation anthrax. The group also surmised that the emission caused an epizootic that brought infected meat to the black market. This inclusion of infected meat in the scenario (meat that could have been stored and eaten over a period of weeks) would account for the epidemic's reported long duration into early May, with people still falling ill and dying long after the initial explosion.
During the 1980s, as Cold War tensions heightened, the U.S. investment in weapons systems (including renewed production of chemical weapons) quadrupled, and American press reports about alleged Soviet treaty violations, in Sverdlovsk and elsewhere, filled the news. Yet during this time no formal complaint about the 1979 epidemic was lodged against the Soviet Union at the United Nations Security Council by the United States or any other nation. Meanwhile, throughout these years, Matthew kept pressing for a full on-site investigation of the Sverdlovsk incident and sent numerous missives to Soviet officials and fellow scientists, asking for research cooperation. In August 1986, after Mikhail Gorbachev began to liberalize contact with the West, Matthew was invited to Moscow for a private meeting with the three principal public health physicians who had been sent from Moscow to Sverdlovsk in the 1979 epidemic and who now offered their evidence for the Soviet infected-meat explanation of the outbreak. Later, in October of that year, a delegation to Moscow from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, chaired by Joshua Lederberg, heard the physicians' case, in both a formal presentation and informal discussion. Following that, in 1988, with Matthew handling the arrangements, two of those Soviet physicians came to the United States to present and defend their government's explanation of the 1979 anthrax outbreak. They spoke to professional audiences at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge. Their detailed presentation of the infected-meat scenario was judged plausible, even persuasive, although it lacked substantive clinical and epidemiological evidence.
Following that 1988 visit, Matthew persisted in expressing the need for a scientific investigation of the outbreakin Congressional testimony, in print, and on the radio. In 1990, he wrote, "On the Soviet side there needs to be a political decision to allow qualified US officials freely to examine what remains of the relevant evidence and to meet with surviving patients and local medical, public health, and veterinary personnel in Sverdlovsk. In addition, US experts should be invited to visit, on a suitable reciprocal basis, the facility described in the allegations."
As the Cold War came to an end, the question remained whether all trust in the Soviet Union's adherence to the BWC had been misplaced. More to the point now perhaps was whether the new Russia was capable of fully revealing any violations at Soviet facilities. And if not, could the world trust this new government? In 1992, as we begin our investigation, the two explanations for the cause of the 1979 anthrax outbreaka meat-borne infection or an aerosol biological weapons leakcontinue to rest on conflicting assertions, neither as yet proven by facts. But now the doors to Russia are open so wide that even an unofficial group like ours can walk in and start asking questions. Will they be answered?