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If you're interested in Mac Security, the next edition of my Enterprise Mac Security book is now shipping. You can get it here http://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Mac-Security-OS/dp/148421711X. The book is shipping from 3rd party sellers, but should ship directly from Amazon soon at the regular price. I don't usually know exactly when, but it should also appear for Kindle and on the Apple Books store as well. Hope you enjoy!
krypted January 12th, 2016
Posted In: Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, Mac Security
Tags: 10.11 security, Apple security, Book, education, el capitan, Mac Security
I was super-bummed that I missed the MacAdmins conference at Penn State University. But, all is not lost as MacAdmins will be held July 8-10 in 2015 at the Penn Stater Conference Center and I'll be able to see all those awesome people there next year!
In the meantime, something fun and new is the 2014 MacAdmins Playlist to maybe get exposed to some new stuff: http://spoti.fi/VTdxLX.
As an aside, here's a fun pic of @derflounder and I (and others) doing a round table from a few years ago on the Penn State site:
krypted July 15th, 2014
Posted In: Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, Mac Security, Mass Deployment, public speaking
Tags: Apple, Casper, education, ios, iosm, JAMF, MacAdmins, mdm, penn state, unki
Learn some stuff! For Free!
There are so many resources available for learning these days that it's hard to keep track of it all, or to find the things that are actually worth doing. So I decided to make a list of some of my favorites:
krypted May 20th, 2014
Posted In: Articles and Books
Tags: education, free learning, languages, learning, scripting
My traditional interpretation of Apple's vision on how iOS devices are used is that everyone has an AppleID. That AppleID enables them to access their apps from any iOS device they own or Mac that they own. That AppleID enables them to access mail, contacts, calendars and even files through iCloud. That AppleID also allows users to remotely wipe their device through Find iPhone and track their friends iOS devices (as in social networking via breadcrumb tracking) through Find Friends. All of this "Just Works" in a consumer sense. And it even allows for a little sharing of content across devices you own. However, larger organizations need more. They need centralized management, content distribution and most other things you find that you rely on traditional desktop computers for.
Over the years, Apple has added tools for centralized control of devices. This started with ActiveSync compatibility and early forms of Mobile Device Management and has grown into a pretty robust, albeit disconnected, set of tools. Of these, Apple Configurator is the latest. Apple Configurator was released about a week ago and since, I've been trying to figure where it fits into the solutions architecture that surrounds iOS integrations. There are a number of other tools already available that can aid in the deployment and management of iOS devices, and Configurator is a great addition.
To me, there are 3 classes of management tools for iOS. These were roughly broken up into Over the Air (OTA), cradled (USB) and content management. Apple Configurator ends up fitting into all of these scenarios in some way. Let's start by looking at the traditional uses of these three and then look at how they are impacted by Apple Configurator.
Mobile Device Management
Over the Air tools, such as Profile Manager, allow for Mobile Device Management (MDM) without cradling, or syncing a devices. These tools allow you to configure policies via profiles. There is also a bit of App pushing built into most MDM solutions. Apple's Profile Manager can push applications written in-house, but no content from the App Store. 3rd party solutions, such as JAMF's Casper Suite, Absolute Manage MDM, AirWatch and about 15 others are able to push apps from the App Store as well, leveraging the Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) to issue apps to devices. However, when an app is pushed through one of these tools, the app becomes associated with the AppleID for the user who owns the device.
Note: While we use the term push, the user has to accept all App installations on the device.
For large environments, MDM is a must as it allows for centralized command and control. Pushing apps is one aspect of such control. Policies enforceable through MDM include disabling cameras, configuring passcode policies on devices (not pushing passcodes), disabling YouTube, silencing Siri, unstreaming photos, disabling iCloud Backup, forcing encrypted backups, disabling location services, controlling certificates, blocking pop-ups, controlling cookies, disabling access to the iTunes and App Stores, and controlling what kind of media can be accessed on devices.
Additionally, MDM can be used to push SSIDs for wireless networks (and their passwords/802.1x configuration information), setup mail, setup Exchange ActiveSync, configure VPN connections, configure access shared calendars (iCal shared files, CalDAV and Exchange), configure access to shared contacts (LDAP, CardDAV, Exchange and Exchange Global Address Lists), deploy Web Clips and manage certificates (either with cert files or via SCEP). In short, whether you're using the practically free Profile Manager from Apple, Mobile Iron, Casper, AirWatch, FileWave or one of the many other tools, there are a lot of things that MDM can configure on devices.
Reporting can also play a major role in how MDM tools are used. iOS Apps are owned by AppleIDs, not devices. MDM does not manage AppleIDs, but you can trigger fields in MDM databases to report back unauthorized AppleIDs being used. Reporting can also identify when devices join non-approved wireless networks (which cannot be blocked through MDM), identify devices that have been jailbroken (a major security concern for many organizations) and report on device use.
Because devices can fall outside of our control, MDM also plays an important role in being able to wipe and lock devices. While some of these types of features are available via Exchange, not all people use ActiveSync. Users and administrators alike can wipe, lock and de-enroll devices at will, potentially crippling what any device with an Enrollment Profile can do.
There are really 3 kinds of MDM tools: those that can push apps, those that can't and Apple's Profile Manager. The reason I put Profile Manager into its own class, is that it can push some kinds of apps, it's cheap ($49.99 one time as opposed to per device per month or per device per year billing) and it's great for some things. But Profile Manager should be used in very specific environments unless the price is the only decision making factor behind a tool. In larger environments, choosing a MDM solution is one of the most important aspects of managing mobile devices and the iOS platform is no different in that manner than other mobile platforms.
MDM has some limitations, though. A good MDM solution can manage the infrastructure side of device configuration. However, content requires a completely separate tool. Additonally, MDM is a completely opt-in experience. If a user wants, they can remove their device from the MDM solution at any time. Rather than a limitation, think about the opt-in experience this way: if a user removes themselves from MDM then all content that was given to them via MDM is then taken away, except that which they have moved to the local device. Therefore, if an administrator pushes an Exchange configuration then all content from that Exchange profile is forbidden fruit, removed alongside the de-enrollment.
MDM also works with Lion. Policies, centralized management, etc can be integrated with Lion. You can't do app distribution per se, but you can push out a policy to change where the dock is on the screen, add a printer to a Mac and configure a login hook through a Profile Manager-based policy. Many of the MDM providers have begun adding functionality to their tools to allow for Mac management as well as iOS and I would expect that to become the standard in years to come. iOS is a single-user device and OS X is a multi-user device, which completes that paradigm, but Apple has made it no secret that policy-based management for Mac OS X is moving to the realm MDM (even if that is enforced through a traditional lens of directory services based policy-based management).
Content Management
One of the unique aspects of the iOS platform is that it doesn't have a file system that is exposed to users. There's no /Volumes, no C: drive and no home folders. The devices don't log into a server, because there's no way to interpret a server connection. The file system that is exposed to iOS devices is through the lens of each application. Sandbox is a technology that limits each application's access in terms of memory, hard drive, etc. Each application can only communicate with resources outside of itself if there is an API to do so, APIs mostly reserved for Apple (e.g. photos, contacts, etc). Therefore, when you discuss content management from the perspective of building a large iOS solution, you're talking about apps.
The apps used for content management come in a few flavors. There are those that allow you to edit content and then there are those that allow you to read content. One way to look at this is through Safari. Sharepoint, WebDAV and various document management portals allow users to access data through the Safari browser on an iOS device. Safari will let you view various file types. But to edit the data, you would need to send it to an app, or copy it to the clipboard and access it in an app. Pages is an example of an app that can browse a file tree via WebDAV and edit content. However, planning how each type of file is accessed and what type of editing can be done on each file type or what type of resources need to be accessible can be difficult (e.g. there are a number of transitions in Keynote presentations that do not work in iOS).
Cradling Devices
Then there's iTunes. iTunes allows you to backup and restore devices, update devices, etc. iTunes allows you to drop content into each application. If you look into the ~/Library/Mobile Documents, you can drop content, edit default documents and other tasks that can be done through a command line, then perform a cradled sync to an app. If networking is built into an app then you don't have to plug a device into a computer. If an app can leverage iCloud, SMB or AFP then you can access data over the air. If you are trying to replace computers with iOS devices (a la post-PC) then you would need to plan each business task that needs to be performed and make sure not only that there is an app for that (or an app you build for that) but also make sure that you can round trip data from a shared repository and back to the network storage that the data resides on.
You can also access many of the benefits of MDM without having an OTA element. This can be done with iPhone Configuration Utility. iPhone Configuration Utility can configure the same policies available through Profile Manager but relies on either a cradled or email/web server/manual way of getting policies onto devices and updating. MDM automates this, but iPhone Configuration Utility is free and can be used as well. Additionally, profiles can be exported from Profile Manager and installed in the email/web server/manual way that iPhone Configuration Utility profiles are installed.
This is all probably starting to seem terribly complicated. Let's simplify it:
Basically, there's a few holes here. First, AppleIDs cannot be centrally managed. Second, you need to use gift cards or the Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) to distribute apps, and Third, even when you push an app to an AppleID, the app follows the AppleID to their next organization (which causes many organizations to treat apps like consumables). Fourth, synchronizing content is done primarily through iTunes, which only syncs a device at a time, making preparation of large numbers of systems terribly complicated.
Apple Configurator
Enter Apple Configurator, a free tool on the Mac App Store. This tool basically fixes all of the problems that we reference, but does so over USB. This means that Apple Configurator is not necessarily a replacement for MDM. In fact, you can deploy Trust and Entrollment profiles for MDM and automate the MDM enrollment for a device through Configurator. Instead, Apple Configurator is a tool that can either Prepare or Supervise an iOS deployment and do so in a manner that is easy enough that you don't need a firm background in IT to manage devices on a day-to-day basis.
Here is what Apple Configurator can do:
Apple Configurator has some caveats:
I see a number of uses for Apple Configurator. Some of these use cases include:
These can enhance practically every environment I've worked with. But unless it's a small environment (e.g. the labs), Apple Configurator isn't a replacement for the tools already in use in most cases. Instead, it just makes things better. Overall, Apple Configurator is a welcome addition to the bat belt that we all have for iOS management and deployment. Now that we've looked at the when/where of using it, let's look at the how.
There are two ways to use Apple Configurator. The first is to Prepare Devices. You would use this mode when you're going to perform the initial setup and configuration of devices but not when the devices won't be checking back into the computer running Apple Configurator routinely. Preparation settings do not persist. And while applications can be pushed through Preparation, updates for those applications will be tied to the AppleID that purchased the app.
The second is Supervise. Supervising devices is an option when preparing and allows you to have persistent changes to devices, to layer new settings the next time devices are plugged in, to add applications and the most intriguing aspect of iOS management here is reallocating VPP codes to new devices when a user or device is retired. Supervising devices also allows for assigning a given user to a device and thus pushing data into an application.
Setting Up Apple Configurator
Apple Configurator is installed through the Mac App Store. When installed, you are presented with three options. The first (going from left to right) is to Prepare Devices.
Before we get started, we're going to add our AppleID. The computer running Apple Configurator needs to be able to connect to the App Store and it needs to have an AppleID associated with it if you're going to use VPP codes. So let's set that up before moving on. To do so, from Apple Configurator, click on the Apple Configurator menu and click on Preferences… From the Preferences menu, click on Set for the Apple ID and provide an AppleID (not the VPP Program Facilitator).
Then, when prompted, provide the credentials for your AppleID. If you have any problems with this, try Authorizing the computer in iTunes, if you can't do one it stands to reason you can't do the other and it's either an invalid AppleID or that the computer cannot communicate with Apple's servers (ports, DNS, Internet connectivity, etc might be the issue).
Also, let's configure the Lock Screen settings, which is what's displayed to users when you're supervising devices. If you have user pictures in Open Directory, this will show each user's photo at the lock screen (we will discuss device supervision later).
Using Apple Configurator to Prepare Devices
In this example, we're going to prepare some devices for deployment. Before we do anything, we're going to do a backup of the iOS device to use for testing. To do so, simply click Prepare Devices to bring up the main Apple Configurator screen and then click in the Restore field.
At the Restore menu, click Back Up…
Then choose the device to backup and click on Create Backup… to bring up the screen to select where to save your backup to (by default it should be your Documents but you can save them anywhere, like /iOSBackups). Click Save to make the first backup.
Notice how fast that went (assuming you didn't load it up with 10 Gigs of crap)? The reason is that we're not backing up iOS, just the data. This will become a little more obvious the first time we go to restore a device. In the meantime, if you look at your target directory, you'll see a file with the name you provided followed by .iosdevicebackup. If you aren't supervising you would need to delete these from the filesystem to remove them from the menu of available backups. If you are supervising then you'll have a menu to manage the backups. You can also use the Other option in the selection menu to browse to another location and select another backup (e.g. you're pulling them from other machines, etc.
Now that we have a backup, let's do some stuff to the device. Let's join the wireless network, change the wallpaper, create some contacts, make some notes and in general do some of those things that you might do on a base image of a computer, aside from of course configuring local admin (it's not a multi-user device), installing anti-virus (to date, AV companies for iOS are snake oil salesmen) and other things you might not do. But as with imaging, if you can do something in Profile Manager or Apple Configurator, let's reserve doing it there. In fact, I would probably try to set everything in Profile Manager or your MDM provider that you can (if you have one) and use Apple Configurator for as little as possible. That goes with imaging as well, do as much in directory services/managed preferences/profiles as you can and keep the image as simple as possible…
Anyway, once you have the device as you want it, make another backup. This is akin to baking an image with DeployStudio or System Image Utility. We can't asr them out yet, but we're in a much better place than we were.
Once you have a good backup, let's leverage Apple Configurator to tell the device erase, update to the latest version of iOS, restore our image, join the SSID of our enrollment network (let's consider this similar to a supplicant network in 802.1x). Then, let's add a profile that will throw a Web Clip to our MDM solution and even add a Trust Profile to cut down on the number of taps to enroll (and the confusion of tap here, tap there, etc). From the Prepare screen in Apple Configurator, click on Settings and type the naming convention for your devices (in this case we're going to call them krypted 1 and up) in the Name field. Then check the box for Number sequentially starting at 1 so it's going to name them from 1 to 1,000,000 (which is how many iPads my krypted company is going to end up writing off at the testing rate I'm on now). Leave Supervision set to OFF (we'll look at that later) and set the iOS field to Latest. Then, check the box for Erase all contents and settings and choose your image from the Restore menu.
Now for something that users of iPhone Configuration Utility, Profile Manager and Casper MDM will find familiar, click on the plus sign in the Profiles field and select Create New Profile. Here, we see what is the standard policy sheet (apologies to HIG if that's not what those are officially called but I've not been able to find the right term) and give it a name in the Name field. This is how it will appear in the Profiles section of Apple Configurator. Because you can deploy multiple profiles, I'm just going to configure the SSID and Web Clip and call it MDM Enrollment. Optionally, give it some notes, organization name, etc.
Click on Wi-Fi and then click on the Configure button. Here, enter the SSID of the deployment network (MDMEnroll in this example). We'll use the Hidden Network field to indicate the SSID is suppressed and we'll use the network type of WEP and throw the password into the Password field as well. Now, before we move on, notice that there's a plus and minus sign in the top right of the screen? You can deploy multiple of each, so if you have 10 wireless networks, 4 Email accounts, 9 VPN connections, 29 SSL Certs etc, you could deploy them all easily with multiple entries of each.
Scroll down in the sidebar a little and then click on Web Clips. Click on the Configure button. The Label is how the web clip's name will appear on the device. We're going to enter Enroll Here. In the URL field, provide the URL for your MDM server (e.g. When using a Profile Manager server called mdm.krypted.com the URL would be https://mdm.krypted.com/MyDevices). Not to get off topic, but did anyone else notice that Profile Manager in 10.7.3 now requires SSL certs? Anyway, you'll also choose whether the web clip should be Removable (I think it should if it's to enroll) and optionally choose an Icon. We'll skip that (if we were using a 3rd party tool, I'd throw their logo in here; otherwise I usually like to use the company logo. I also like enrollment links to be Full Screen.
Go ahead and click Save and you'll see MDM Enrollment listed in the Settings. If you notice, you can also click on the profile and then click on the export menu to export the profile or under the plus sign ("+") you can Import Profile…, which is how we'll bring in our Trust Profile from Profile Manager. From Profile Manager we already downloaded the Trust Profile. Now we're going to click on Import Profile… and browse to it on the desktop, clicking on Trust profile.mobileconfig (or whatever name yours may have). Click Open.
We could go a step further and actually enroll the device by exporting the enrollment profile as well, but again, I want each user to provide their username and password so I as an administrator don't have to go through and attach each device to a user in this scenario. I've been looking at importing devices and associating them with users via postgres, but that's going to be another 3am article, on another night…
Next, check the box for each profile and click on Apps. This is where things start getting kinda' cool. For this you're going to need some app ipas. Each app in iTunes is stored as an .ipa file. We're going to look at two different kinds of apps. The first is a free one and the second is a paid for app, both we'll pull from iTunes. To do so, open iTunes and click on an app (iBooks in our example) and click on Show in Finder.
Note: Not all app .ipas are called the same thing as the filename. If you Show in Finder from the contextual menu of an app in iTunes it will automatically highlight the correct app in the Finder when it opens a Finder screen.
From the Finder you can either copy the app to the machine running Apple Configurator or if you're using iTunes on that machine, you can go ahead and drag it to the Apple Configurator apps list. We're also going to add an App that we used a purchase code from the VPP store to buy. You'll get an error when you drag the paid app in (or browse to it if you so choose) that indicates the app is paid and in order to deploy it you'll need to use VPP codes. Once added, you'll notice it has an error indicator and the number 0 beside it.
Click on the numerical indicator beside the app name and you'll be able to import redemption codes. These are emailed to you when you buy apps through the Volume Purchasing Program. BTW, no drag and drop in this screen, use the Important Redemption Codes button to browse to the XLS files.
Using Apple Configurator to Supervise Devices
Now, supervising devices may seem more complicated, but it isn't. Back at the Prepare screen, we set Supervision to OFF. Change the iOS field to No Change. Now, let's turn it ON. When you do so, the iOS field automatically switches to Latest. This means that supervision is going to require updates (which is fine in my book as updates have yet to break a single app for me). Get all the same settings the same as they were previously.
Once you enable Supervision, click on Prepare in Apple Configurator and connect a device again. The device will then be imaged as with the same settings that you've given it from before. However, once it's done, you'll be able to click on the Supervise tab and see devices (Note: You supervise devices rather than users).
The subsequent Starts and Stops will now allow you to enable and disable profiles and apps on the fly, as well as restore backups, update devices and as you can see in this screen, reclaim those valuable VPP codes!
Do a Get Info on a device and you'll also see a bevy of information about that device.
You can also click on Assign, once you've enabled Supervision. Assigning devices requires directory services. When you click on Assign, click on the plus sign ("+") to add the first user. Type the first few letters of the users name and they should appear in the list. Click on them and they'll be added. You can then use the right panel to assign content to the apps that you assign to that user's devices.
Once added, the user will by default have no device. To assign a device to a user, use the Check Out box at the bottom of the screen and then match the users with the devices you want them to have.
The final piece of this application is to assign content to users. As I mentioned earlier in this article, the file system of an iOS device is through the lens of the applications that the device has installed. Therefore, we'll be associating files to applications. DRMd content is not distributed through Apple Configurator. So iBooks, etc, aren't applicable. The various third party applications can open and therefore host file types that they support, as with iTunes. From the Assign pane of Apple Configurator, click on a user and then click on the plus sign ("+") to add documents. At the Choose A Target Application screen, choose the application you'll be loading content into.
When you click Choose, you'll then be able to select files to use with that application.
Then just dock the iOS device, sync and viola you've got content distribution over USB all handled. You can also add groups of devices and groups of users and distribute content to groups of users rather than to one at a time.
Apple Configurator is really a great tool when used in the right scenarios. In learning how it works and interacts I actually learned a lot about both iOS and Mac OS X that I didn't know before. I hope I did the tool justice with how easy it is to use. This is a fairly long article and it's probably more complicated than it needs to be in parts, but that's more my method of trying to figure out what it's doing than the tool being complicated. It's not hard to figure out at all. I am sure I could teach any non-technical iOS admin to use it in less than an hour.
My wish list includes logs and OTA. You can't use iPhone Configuration Utility while you're using Apple Configurator and therefore, you can's see up-to-the second logs about things like key bags to figure out why this isn't working or that. This makes it kinda' difficult to figure out why a profile doesn't get installed with an image if you're not using an AppleID with the tool or other weird little things like that. I'd love to see a little more logging. Obviously, if you could run this thing Over the Air then it would be nerd nirvana. I guess the OTA isn't as much as wish list for this tool, but features that could be imported into Profile Manager and other tools.
One of the more important aspects is the impact on AppleID use and app ownership. I started this off by saying "My traditional interpretation of Apple's vision on how iOS devices are used is that everyone has an AppleID." Well, when using this tool an AppleID is no longer necessary for app deployment.
Overall, we have a new, powerful tool in our arsenal that makes up the iOS administration ecosystem. I hope that I've managed to dispel a few rumors with this article and look at some great uses for where this tool should and should not be used. I also hope that no matter what, if you manage iOS devices, that you'll take a look at it. I expect you'll find it useful in some part of your management toolkit!
krypted March 15th, 2012
Posted In: iPhone, Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, Mac Security, Mass Deployment
Tags: 802.1x, ActiveSync, AFP, API, Apple, Apple Configurator, AppleID, applications, apps, carddav, company, content management, cradle, deployment, devices, distribution, DRM, DUNS, education, encrypted backups, Exchange, iCloud, ios, iPad, iPhone, iphone configuration utility, ipod touch, itunes, LDAP, lock, management, mdm, mobile device management, mobility, ota, over the air, Prepare, reporting, restore, revoke apps, Safari, SCEP, schools, serial number, sharepoint, SMB, Supervise Devices, Trust Profile, UDID, volume purchasing program, vpn, vpp, Web Clip, webdav, wipe, Wireless


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News Release
Media Contact: TPWD News, email@example.com, 512-389-8030
Oct. 3, 2005
Hunter Education Courses Filling Up, Deferral an Option
AUSTIN, Texas — Despite offering 4,400 hunter education courses throughout the year, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department understands there are some who will still wait until the last minute before hunting season to get certified. This fall, those procrastinators need not panic.
"There are still more than 150 structured courses scheduled across the state between now and Nov. 4, the last day before the opening of deer season," said Terry Erwin, hunter education coordinator for TPWD. "And there are over 55 home-study courses available, but all of these courses are subject to change as they fill up daily. It may be tough getting into a course before deer season."
That's where TPWD's hunter education deferral option can help. The deferral option, which was introduced last year, allows people 17 years of age or older, a one-time only extension to complete the state's hunter education requirements. The individual must purchase a hunting license and then may purchase the "Deferral Option # 166, and must be accompanied by someone 17 years old or older who is also licensed to hunt in Texas. The accompanying individual must have completed hunter education or be exempt from the requirements (born before Sept. 2, 1971). The extension is good until Aug. 31 of the current license year, by which time the person with the deferred option needs to complete a hunter education course.
This option will not be available to those who have ever received a conviction or deferred adjudication for lack of hunter education certification. They still must take the course before going afield.
"We had more than 10,000 hunters take advantage of the option last year," said Erwin. "Data indicates the majority of those who get the option are new or relatively new to hunting and this gives them an opportunity to try it out with a mentoring hunter before making the commitment to take hunter education. It's not an alternative to taking the course, you still have to get certified if you want to hunt in subsequent years."
More than 250 individuals have already taken the hunter education course prior to the end of the last license year, however those not taking advantage will not receive the $5 discount. Purchases this year have already exceeded 900 during the first two weeks licenses were on sale.
The deferred option costs $10 and may be offered one-time only. The new hunter also receives a $5 discount off the price of a hunter education course, which costs $10, but only if the course is taken prior to the end of the current license year. The option is surrendered at the time the course is taken and replaced with a hunter education "temporary card" until the actual certification card arrives from Austin.
The deferred option will also be available to out-of-state hunters, as well as those in the military who are stationed in Texas or who are home on leave. However, the deferral is only good in Texas, and will not be honored outside the state.
"People who are off in college out of state are helped by this program," said Erwin. "I talked to one mom who was concerned her son would not have time to take the course when he came home from college during the holidays and wouldn't be able to go hunting with his dad. She got the deferred option as insurance."
According to TPWD game warden records, the most common citation written is for hunter education certification violations.
Texas certifies more than 33,000 hunters annually through 4,400 hunter education courses offered across the state, with at least one offered in each of the 254 counties. Hunter Education courses are a minimum of 10 hours of classroom and hands-on activities. The classroom portion can alternatively be taken through home study or online, followed by a hands-on, outdoor session taught by volunteer instructors.
"Although we offer the course throughout the year, there are times during the holidays when only a select number of courses may be available and that's typically the time of year when most people have an opportunity to go hunting," said Erwin. "This deferred option will give folks time and convenience to enroll at a later date and still take advantage of an opportunity to go hunting."
During the last four decades, hunting-related accidents have declined by more than half and the credit goes to mandatory hunter education.
For more information about hunter education and the new deferred option, call TPWD toll free (800) 792-1112 or visit the Web site (http://tpwd.texas.gov/).
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Recently I interviewed a local Singapore chocolatier for the popular food website, HungyGoWhere. Megan Lin runs the ship at Cacao7, a unique chocolate shop which specializes in low-carbohydrate/low-GI chocolates and desserts. During the interview, Megan offered to let me sample a few of her creations, including a flourless warm chocolate lava cake made with her organic Equadorian chocolate. Based on my previous experiences with diabetic friendly "sweets", I was really skeptical, but I love Equadorian chocolate (yes, I know, it's a hard life being a food writer).
After a few minutes Megan came out to the counter from behind the back with a tiny little paper cup and plunked the warm chocolate cake in front of me. Each spoonful of molten chocolate was absolute heaven. Without any flour, the chocolate flavor was completely pure and the texture like pudding. On top of that, I seriously would never have been able to tell that there was anything other than pure sugar in it. This was really diabetic? How can she do it? By using an all natural product called Whey Low to sweeten up her chocolates and desserts. I was so in love with the flavor and texture of this molten chocolate cake that I had to give it a spin at home.
Most of us (myself included) do bake with sugar (lots of it), so I decided to take that road instead. I fiddled around with the very few ingredients that make up chocolate lava cakes. I took out flour, and tried both unsweetened chocolate and rich 70% bittersweet (which had the best flavor). The method couldn't be simpler: Whip the eggs with sugar till light, then stir in the melted chocolate and butter. After a super brief bake in the oven, the cakes emerged with a gooey center that still read 160°F on a thermometer. I was in chocolate heaven. Again.
Get the Recipe
Flourless Chocolate Lava Cakes »
About the author: Yvonne Ruperti is a food writer, recipe developer, former bakery owner, and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide To Easy Artisan Bread. You can also watch her culinary stylings on the America's Test Kitchen television show. She presently lives in Singapore working on her new baking cookbook, and as a recipe developer for HungryGoWhere Singapore. Check out her blog, shophousecook.com, or follow her on Twitter @yvonneruperti.


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Former chairman of Ilkley Urban District Council, Colin Outtersides, has died aged 90.
Colin lived all his life in Menston, until December 2013 when he and Grace, his wife of 70 years, went to live in south west Scotland to be near their youngest daughter Sally and her family.
He was born on June 3, 1923, at Cadema Bakery, Menston, to Arthur and Ada Outtersides. He has an older brother, Derek, who still lives in the house where he and Colin were born.
After education at Menston Primary School and Woodhouse Grove, Colin took up employment at The National Provincial Bank in Bradford.
When war began, he performed Home Guard duties before volunteering for the RAF.
He trained as a pilot, later converting to navigator/bomb aimer and saw service in the UK and South Africa as a flying officer. He ended the war as assistant adjutant at RAF Leaconfield.
In 1940 Colin met his future wife Grace Jarvis at Menston Feast, which was held in the fields behind the Fox, now known as Brooklands Park. They married on December 30, 1943.
After the war ended, Colin returned to banking, later joining the family business Cadema Bakery, which consisted of two shops on Bradford Road and Cleasby Road and the bakery on Leathley Road, now a studio.
This was a very happy time for Colin and Grace in their family home, behind the shop on Cleasby Road, working hard and raising their children Robert, Joan and Sally. Holidays were spent on the Norfolk Broads, which was always Colin's favourite place.
During this time Colin was asked to stand as a councillor. Duly elected, he served for nine years unopposed. He was chairman in 1967 and thoroughly enjoyed being of service to the community.
Fulfilling a lifetime ambition to teach Colin decided to leave the family business and train to be a teacher at Margaret McMillan College, Bradford, where his son Robert was also studying.
Colin taught at Broadgate Lane School, Horsforth, where he was greatly respected by pupils and colleagues.
On his retirement he enjoyed long-distance walking, cycling and gardening with Grace; he in his vegetable plot and Grace in her award winning alpine garden.
Colin died on April 21, 2014 at Stranraer Hospital, south west Scotland.
He leaves his widow Grace, their three children, daughter-in-law Trish and son-in-laws John and Robert, nine grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.


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We welcome and will read all @ messages. However in general, due to resource constraints, we will not be in a position to reply to all messages.
@govdotie will not be obliged to follow any of our followers. If we do follow a Twitter account, it does not imply endorsement of any kind.
Sending a message via Twitter will not be considered as contacting the Department for official purposes and we will not be obliged to monitor or respond to requests for information through the Twitter channel. Instead, please see our contact details on http://www.gov.ie/contact-us/ for eGovernment matters or http://per.gov.ie/ for general Department matters.
@govdotie is operated by civil servants and as such we cannot participate in matters of party politics.
eGovernment Policy Unit, Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, February 2012. email@example.com


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MONTHS of organising a charity event to raise money for three worthy causes have been topped off with a real treat.
Butlin's donated eight tickets for the sold out WWE Raw wrestling tour to Minehead hairdresser Dan James, whose Gorillas in the Brist appeal enabled specialist bikes to be bought for his friends' sons who suffer from cerebral palsy.
Porlock boys Jake and Theo Shopland, five, were joined by friends and family, including brothers Ajay and Liam, at the event.
Dan said: "It was such a lovely surprise and great to be able to do something for Ajay and Liam so they don't feel left out.
"We are so grateful to Butlin's for giving free tickets to a great cause, all organised by Liz Todd who couldn't have done any more to make it an amazing experience for the boys."


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Neomycin solutionPronunciation
Generic Name: neomycin (nee-oh-MYE-sin)
Brand Name: Neo-Fradin
Neomycin solution may cause permanent hearing loss, nerve damage, and severe kidney damage. Hearing loss can occur even after the drug is stopped. If you already have kidney problems or hearing difficulty, tell your doctor. Notify your doctor immediately if any of the following occur: ringing in your ears, hearing loss, unusual tingling, muscle twitching, seizures. Neomycin solution may be stopped if you develop kidney or hearing problems. Your doctor will monitor your progress to minimize the possibility of these effects occurring and may run certain tests (eg, hearing and/or kidney tests). Do not use neomycin solution with other medicines that can cause nerve, kidney, or hearing problems. Other factors that increase the risk of these side effects occurring include advanced age or dehydration (unusual thirst).
Neomycin solution may also cause severe muscle relaxation progressing to paralysis and breathing problems. This possibility increases if you are also taking anesthetics, neuromuscular-blocking agents (eg, succinylcholine), or if you are receiving massive transfusions of citrate anticoagulated blood. Use with other aminoglycosides (eg, paromomycin) or other nephrotoxic/neurotoxic medicines (eg, bacitracin), advanced age, and dehydration all increase the risk of side effects. Potent diuretics (eg, ethacrynic acid, furosemide) should also be avoided because they can cause hearing loss.
Neomycin solution is used for:
Reducing bacteria in the intestines. It may also be used for other conditions as determined by your doctor.
Neomycin solution is an aminoglycoside antibiotic. It kills sensitive bacteria by stopping the production of essential proteins needed by the bacteria to survive.
Do NOT use neomycin solution if:
- you are allergic to any ingredient in neomycin solution or to any other aminoglycosides (eg, gentamicin)
- you are taking fludarabine, nondepolarizing muscle relaxants (eg, vecuronium), or penicillin
- you have intestinal obstruction, ulcers of the bowel, or inflammatory bowel or stomach disease
Contact your doctor or health care provider right away if any of these apply to you.
Before using neomycin solution:
Some medical conditions may interact with neomycin solution. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you have any medical conditions, especially if any of the following apply to you:
- if you are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or are breast-feeding
- if you are taking any prescription or nonprescription medicine, herbal preparation, or dietary supplement
- if you have allergies to medicines, foods, or other substances
- if you have diarrhea, a stomach infection, nerve damage, muscle weakness, Parkinson disease, kidney problems, or are dehydrated
Some MEDICINES MAY INTERACT with neomycin solution. Tell your health care provider if you are taking any other medicines, especially any of the following:
- Penicillin because it may decrease neomycin solution's effectiveness
- Cephalosporins (eg, cephalexin), cyclosporine, fludarabine, loop diuretics (eg, furosemide), methoxyflurane, or nitrosoureas (eg, carmustine) because the risk of side effects such as kidney damage and hearing loss may be increased
- Anticoagulants (eg, warfarin), digoxin, loop diuretics (eg, furosemide), methotrexate, methoxyflurane, nondepolarizing muscle relaxants (eg, vecuronium), polypeptide antibiotics (eg, actinomycin), succinylcholine, or vancomycin because their actions and the risk of their side effects may be increased by neomycin solution
- Digoxin or methotrexate because their effectiveness may be decreased by neomycin solution
This may not be a complete list of all interactions that may occur. Ask your health care provider if neomycin solution may interact with other medicines that you take. Check with your health care provider before you start, stop, or change the dose of any medicine.
How to use neomycin solution:
Use neomycin solution as directed by your doctor. Check the label on the medicine for exact dosing instructions.
- Take neomycin solution by mouth with or without food. If stomach upset occurs, take with food to reduce stomach irritation.
- Take neomycin solution with plenty of water to avoid dehydration.
- Use a measuring device marked for medicine dosing. Ask your pharmacist for help if you are unsure of how to measure your dose.
- Take neomycin solution on a regular schedule to get the most benefit from it.
- To clear up your infection completely, use neomycin solution for the full course of treatment. Keep using it even if you feel better in a few days.
- If you miss a dose of neomycin solution, take it as soon as possible. If it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and go back to your regular dosing schedule. Do not take 2 doses at once. If more than one dose is missed, contact your health care provider.
Ask your health care provider any questions you may have about how to use neomycin solution.
Important safety information:
- Contact your doctor right away if stomach pain or cramps, severe diarrhea, or bloody stools occur. Do not treat diarrhea without first checking with your doctor.
- Be sure to use neomycin solution for the full course of treatment. If you do not, the medicine may not clear up your infection completely. The bacteria could also become less sensitive to this or other medicines. This could make the infection harder to treat in the future.
- Neomycin solution only works against bacteria; it does not treat viral infections (eg, the common cold).
- Long-term or repeated use of neomycin solution may cause a second infection. Tell your doctor if signs of a second infection occur. Your medicine may need to be changed to treat this.
- Lab tests, including hearing tests, may be performed while you use neomycin solution. These tests may be used to monitor your condition or check for side effects. Be sure to keep all doctor and lab appointments.
- Neomycin solution should not be used in CHILDREN younger than 6 months old; safety and effectiveness in these children have not been confirmed.
- PREGNANCY and BREAST-FEEDING: If you become pregnant, contact your doctor. You will need to discuss the benefits and risks of using neomycin solution while you are pregnant. It is not known if this medicine is found in breast milk. Do not breast-feed while taking neomycin solution.
Possible side effects of neomycin solution:
All medicines may cause side effects, but many people have no, or minor, side effects. Check with your doctor if any of these most COMMON side effects persist or become bothersome:
Seek medical attention right away if any of these SEVERE side effects occur:
Diarrhea; nausea.
Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); bloody stools; dizziness; hearing loss; muscle twitching; ringing in ears; seizures; skin tingling or numbness; vaginal irritation or discharge; stomach pain/cramps.
This is not a complete list of all side effects that may occur. If you have questions about side effects, contact your health care provider. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. To report side effects to the appropriate agency, please read the Guide to Reporting Problems to FDA.
If OVERDOSE is suspected:
Contact 1-800-222-1222 (the American Association of Poison Control Centers), your local poison control center, or emergency room immediately. Symptoms may include change in urination frequency or amount of urine.Proper storage of neomycin solution:
Store neomycin solution at room temperature, between 68 and 77 degrees F (20 and 25 degrees C), in a tightly closed container. Store away from heat, moisture, and light. Do not store in the bathroom. Keep neomycin solution out of the reach of children and away from pets.
General information:
- If you have any questions about neomycin solution, please talk with your doctor, pharmacist, or other health care provider.
- Neomycin solution is to be used only by the patient for whom it is prescribed. Do not share it with other people.
- If your symptoms do not improve or if they become worse, check with your doctor.
- Check with your pharmacist about how to dispose of unused medicine.
This information should not be used to decide whether or not to take neomycin solution or any other medicine. Only your health care provider has the knowledge and training to decide which medicines are right for you. This information does not endorse any medicine as safe, effective, or approved for treating any patient or health condition. This is only a brief summary of general information about neomycin solution. It does NOT include all information about the possible uses, directions, warnings, precautions, interactions, adverse effects, or risks that may apply to neomycin solution. This information is not specific medical advice and does not replace information you receive from your health care provider. You must talk with your healthcare provider for complete information about the risks and benefits of using neomycin solution.
Disclaimer: This information should not be used to decide whether or not to take this medicine or any other medicine. Only your health care provider has the knowledge and training to decide which medicines are right for you. This information does not endorse any medicine as safe, effective, or approved for treating any patient or health condition. This is only a brief summary of general information about this medicine. It does NOT include all information about the possible uses, directions, warnings, precautions, interactions, adverse effects, or risks that may apply to this medicine. This information is not specific medical advice and does not replace information you receive from your health care provider. You must talk with your healthcare provider for complete information about the risks and benefits of using this medicine.
More about neomycin
- Side Effects
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- Dosage Information
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- Drug class: aminoglycosides
Consumer resources
Other brands: Neo-Tab, Neo-Fradin


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There aren't a ton of young traditional C's in the NBA these days. With that in mind, I always find myself comparing Roy to Brook Lopez. They've had some really good matchups so far in their careers and hopefully they're both in the East for a long time so we can continue to watch them play each other. To me, Lopez is the best measuring stick we have for Roy as a player. Their games are similar enough that you can basically put them side by side and compare stats and head to head matchups perfectly, with Roy even being a better defensive player and rebounder. You can't quite do that with a guy like Dwight Howard because he's always going to get the better of Roy in the areas of pure athleticism, strength and speed.
Brook is having a markedly better season than Roy this season, but I still feel that overall the 2 players are pretty comparable.
2010-11 season...
Hibbert -
27.1 minutes
12.2 points
7.9 rebounds
2.2 assists
1.7 blocks
Lopez -
34.1 minutes
19.2 points
5.8 rebounds
1.4 assists
1.5 blocks
Over the course of their young careers, they have matched up pretty evenly for the most part, although in some of the early games Hibbert wasn't getting a lot of PT. His rookie year, he played the Nets 3 times and only got 16 minutes per game, only averaging 2 points and 2 rebounds.
Hibbert vs. NJ (7 career games)
24 minutes
10.7 points
5.3 rebounds
2 assists
2.4 blocks
Lopez vs. IND (7 career games)
31.3 minutes
15.6 points
8 rebounds
1.1 assists
1.8 blocks
So Roy, if you're reading this, please use Brook Lopez as your measuring stick. When it all gets written in the history books, and you've enjoyed a long and healthy career as an Indiana Pacer, as long as your career at least matches that of Brook Lopez (like I think it can), then I would say you've done your part in helping this team achieve greatness.


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www.modernprints.co.uk: from abstract art to Pop Art, from the 1960s onwards!
Totally cool gallery for buying original vintage art! Abstract art prints, Pop Art prints, 1960s and 1970s art. Mostly by well-known artists, all signed, and all under £500. We have B.A.S.H (pink) by Eduardo Paolozzi and it totally rocks (http://www.modernprints.co.uk/prints/paolozzi/bash-pink.php).


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Winter Olympics poster girl Lizzy Yarnold has pledged her future to the skeleton discipline after returning with Team GB's sole gold from Sochi 2014.
The 25-year-old cannot believe her imperious campaign ran so smoothly, smashing the course record twice en route to glory.
Yarnold only switched from heptathlon to skeleton aged 19, and there had been suggestions she may look to try a new challenge after Sochi, but now she has dispelled any notion of starting from scratch in yet another event.
"I absolutely love skeleton. I didn't find it until I was 19," said Yarnold, on her return from Russia to Heathrow Airport.
"I just love skeleton, so that's my future."
The Sevenoaks-born athlete admitted acting as Britain's flag-bearer for the closing ceremony was more nerve-wracking than hurtling towards gold.
"Bearing the flag was the most frightening experience of the last two weeks," she said.
"I was separated from the team for the last two hours, while they were all hanging out together.
"To represent them all was a great honour.
"I only heard about it the day before, so I didn't get any flag-waving practice or anything!
"I was crying before I even went out to the stadium.
"Compared to the competition, I felt like there was more pressure.
"I've got so much respect for everyone and I've learned so much over the last two weeks."
Yarnold came into the Olympics as one of the favourites after claiming the World Cup title but admitted she was still nervous ahead of her first run.
"It was so nerve-wracking preparing for that first run because I'd done everything I could," she said.
"The track record with the first run - that was a complete surprise.
"I still haven't really seen the time-sheet.
"Looking back on the whole thing, I can't really believe it went so well. I'm so, so pleased with it all.
"It's hard to start to explain how it all began.
"It started when I was a teenager.
"I was introduced to the wonders of the Olympics through Denise Lewis, and then other British athletes too.
"About two years ago I started training as a full-time athlete.
"This year on the World Cup circuit I had some great performances, so I was learning lessons the whole way through."
Chef du mission Mike Hay hailed Britain's largest winter Olympics haul since the inaugural 1924 games, aiming for more medals and funding for the next games in PyeongChang.
Targeting increased funding for four years time, Hay said Team GB's four- medal performance deserves respect.
"This return is definitely something we can be proud of," he said.
"And we will certainly look towards increased funding for the future.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we surpass four medals at the next games.
"Across the board our performance has changed, so there's a great opportunity and a great profile that's hopefully been set across Great Britain from the medals we've won here.
"I'm pretty optimistic we can grow again, so hopefully the funding will rise again for the future."


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The Salt River Project Board today approved a price decrease that will result in lowering customer bills by an overall average of 1.1% beginning in May.
The pricing plan reduces two components of SRP's electric prices and will be in effect for the six summer billing months in 2013, saving a typical residential customer about $1.72 per month.
One of the price components covers program costs related to meeting renewable-energy and energy-efficiency standards, and complying with environmental mandates. The second component recovers fuel costs incurred to generate electricity as well as power purchases to serve customer needs.
The costs of these two components to SRP are directly passed to the customer and are not marked up. They are included in the energy charge amount on the monthly bill.
The lower-than-expected costs, totaling $20.5 million, resulted from:
· higher-than-expected, year-to-date electricity sales to customers,
· cost savings from a short-term sale of energy from a geothermal plant,
· lower-than-anticipated program costs, and
· lower-than-planned natural gas costs.
The temporary price reduction also reflects SRP's effort to achieve its Sustainable Portfolio goals at a lower-than-anticipated cost to customers. The SRP Board has set a goal to meet 20 percent of SRP's retail electricity requirements through sustainable resources by the year 2020.
Currently, SRP is ahead of schedule – providing more than 10 percent of retail energy needs with sustainable resources, which include renewable energy, hydro power, conservation, efficiency and pricing measures.
SRP budgets for environmental and fuel/purchased power costs based on current and projected market conditions. Under a mechanism approved by the Board, SRP staff regularly reviews actual costs and may adjust the associated price components if funds are significantly over-collected or under-collected for the expenses.
SRP is the third-largest public power utility in the country, serving about 970,000 electric customers.


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Rayovac 6 Volt Lantern Battery - More Power for your Money
Primarily used in flashlights and lanterns, the Rayovac lantern battery with spring terminals offers long service even at high drain discharges and in temperature extremes. The Rayovac lantern battery is long lasting and dependable even after four years of storage. For a reliable Rayovac lantern battery, turn to Medic Batteries to buy Rayovac!
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Fair Trade Fosters Eco-Friendly Practices
Fair Trade is green trade in the U.S. and worldwide
Fair Trade and environmental conservation go hand in hand. Farmers and workers on Fair Trade farms follow strict environmental standards that are good for the land, the farmers, and for people like you and me who buy the products they grow.
With Fair Trade you can rest assured that no harmful agro-chemicals or genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) were used to grow the Fair Trade products you love.
Responsible Farming around the World
Fair Trade provides farmers and farm workers with the financial resources they need to convert to organic farming methods and protect fragile ecosystems. Communities from Costa Rica to Côte d'Ivoire use Fair Trade earnings to implement reforestation projects and provide hands-on environmental education for their kids.
CoopeTarrazú, a coffee cooperative in Costa Rica, is an inspiring example of the strong connection between Fair Trade and environmental protection. The cooperative established a comprehensive plan for environmental sustainability, one that focuses on raising awareness of ecosystems through a strong educational curriculum for both adults and children.
Youth in the CoopeTarrazú community participate in environmental impact research by tracking birds and insect populations as well as learning about the important role these creatures play in coffee production and ecosystem maintenance.
Going Green in the USA
Back here in the United States, nonprofit organization Fair Trade USA works with farmer cooperatives in 70 countries worldwide and businesses all across the nation. At Fair Trade USA's headquarters in Oakland, CA we take environmental conservation seriously too- we recycle like crazy, have efficient lighting systems, and bike to work. Last year Fair Trade USA's Green Team calculated our organizational carbon footprint, including electricity and water usage, waste, and air travel.
We determined that Fair Trade USA's carbon footprint is below the average for organizations of our size!
Despite this success, we constantly work to decrease our environmental impact every day. Our Green Team is busy reducing junk mail, organizing car pools, and adding bike racks to the office so that any staff member who wants to ride their bike to work has a safe place to store it. We are proud that Fair Trade USA's green efforts are in unity with our Fair Trade farming partners around the world who excel at environmental protection.
Get Involved
As a nonprofit organization, Fair Trade USA raises charitable dollars to expand the number of communities and ecosystems that benefit from Fair Trade. Join Fair Trade's worldwide Green Team: Donate today.


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Highlights from Mr. Adnan Oktar's interview on 11 December 2012
Surat al-Ahzab, 56: "Allah and His angels call down blessings on the Prophet. You who have faith! call down blessings on him and ask for complete peace and safety for him." Complete submission to our prophet, complete love, complete trust and complete respect. "As for those who abuse Allah and His Messenger, Allah's curse is on them in the life of this world and the hereafter. He has prepared a humiliating punishment for them."
How do they do that? They deny the Prophet (saas), for example, or try to hide his miracles. It does not mean physical torture. It is impossible to oppress Allah. It means opposing His commandments, ignoring Allah's miracles and seeking to cover them up. Our Prophet (saas) refers to miracles in the End Times. All the portents of the system of the Mahdi of the End Times are coming about one by one. But some teachers strive with all their might, effectively saying, "Do not read, do not think, do not investigate. Do not speak of the system of the Mahdi. Nobody must tell you of the portents of the End Times, and you must not listen to them." They thus foolishly imagine they can try to cover up hundreds of the Prophet's (saas) miracles. Yet the more they do that, the more these miracles spread, of course. Allah regards this as abuse of Him and His Prophet. In other words, the abuse of the Prophet (saas) in that time took that form. Any kind of social embargo, for instance, refusing to speak to him, not selling to him or throwing thorns in his way. Or they insult and defame him; that is also abuse. And attacks on the mahdi of our Prophet (saas) are also attacks on the Prophet (saas) himself. And abuse of the Prophet (saas) is also abuse of Allah. "He has prepared a humiliating punishment for them."
(The American National Intelligence Council has issued its Global Trends 2030 report. This suggests that Turkey is at risk of fragmenting because of the greater Kurdistan that is intended to be established in the region and that the borders will need to be redrawn with this newly emerging state in the Middle East.)
No, there is no question of that. There will be Islamic Unity. They have failed to understand what the Turkish nation truly is. We explained it to them at Gallipoli, but they failed to understand. They seem to want to try it again and again. We explained it at Malazgirt but they failed to understand. Now they want to try again. That is out of the question. The aim and the objective is Islamic Unity. This is slowly moving forward as a policy of state. Nobody can prevent it, by Allah's leave, because that is destiny. Once we have Islamic Unity, of course our Kurdish brothers will be freer in those regions where they are. They will be better off and more at peace. Our Kurdish brothers are also on the Iranian side and on the Iraqi side. They are in Syria and in Turkey. It is Islamic Unity that will give them freedom, civilization, comfort and beauty many times greater than ever seen before. But the policy of ruination of the communists and the PKK there is another matter: We will not permit that.
Surat al-Ahzab, 53. "You who have faith! do not go into the Prophet's rooms except when you are invited to come and eat." His rooms. The Prophet (saas) has several homes, large and small, where our mothers lived. "However, when you are called, go in, and when you have eaten, disperse, not remaining there to chat with one another." That means that long meals are served there, masha'Allah. Who knows what lovely kinds of food were served? Yet some claim that our Prophet (saas) was poor at that time. Yet our Prophet (saas) fed his people as well as himself. He held banquets for them. The home of the Prophet (saas) was also somewhere that food was handed out, somewhere that people came to eat in. Plenty of food was prepared. Look, eat and leave, "...not remaining to chat…" In other words, make the best use of your time, without wasting it on empty chatter. That really is one of people's problems. They engage in empty talk and lose huge amounts of time. But that means wasting their crucially important time. That is no good. "Doing that causes annoyance to the Prophet..." Why? Because the Prophet's (saas) time is very valuable. He spends every minute and even second very carefully, for the sake of the Ummah. That is why people who talk for ages and waste time annoy the Prophet (saas). "...though he is too reticent to tell you so." He does not tell them, to go and do things and work and be active and come when it is time to eat. But once you have eaten, get back to work right away, for time is short. Muslims are in danger. "...he is too reticent to tell you" This tells us that the Prophet (saas) is reluctant to offend anyone. Allah is emphasizing his character. "But Allah is not reticent with the truth." Allah unhesitatingly says a thing if it is true. He has no need for hesitation of course, I say that for reasons of clarity. "When you ask his [the prophet's] wives for something, ask them from behind a screen." A thick, large screen, and the wives of the Prophet (saas) are behind that. People who talk to them do so from in front of that screen. "That is purer for your hearts and their hearts." So there will be no doubts or troubles entering into anyone's heart. "It is not right for you to cause annoyance to the Messenger of Allah or ever to marry his wives after him." In other words, Allah says there cannot be slightest intention of marrying his wives, may Allah forbid. "They are your mothers," He says, Almighty Allah says that nobody must even think of marrying them, even after death or divorce of any kind. "To do that would be a dreadful thing in Allah's sight." And that is a great source of comfort to the Ummah, of course. Any hint of doubt or suspicion is eliminated. This is an important matter. Almighty Allah has thus cleaned the hearts of Muslims.
"You who have faith! do not go into the Prophet's rooms..." This means there is a proper way of paying visits. People's activities and peace in the home are important. Unnecessary visits are unbecoming unless there is a really good reason. That is what this refers to. But look, food is handed out to everyone in the Prophet's (saas) house. What do people say? "The Prophet (saas) was so hungry he would tie a stone to his stomach." But Allah says that food was handed out in his house. And one-fifth of all spoils belonged to our Prophet (saas). But they ignore that. Allah says that he found them poor and made them rich. They also ignore that. This is the logic of putting the Qur'an to one side, may Allah forbid. In one sense, they disregard the Qur'an, may Allah forbid. They have this form of belief they have invented for themselves. They want to regard our Prophet (saas) as poor; "He kept away from women, he only married old and sickly women, he did not enjoy life, he was never happy, he never ate or drank and he was always shabby." May Allah forbid! They try to give that impression. And they try to reflect that across the Islamic world. And they have been really quite successful, in their own eyes. But theirs is an ugly success, of course.
(Khalid Mashal, head of the Hamas political office, said, "Palestine's national integrity is everyone's responsibility. Division is compatible with neither religion nor reason. Division will weaken us." Mashal went on to say that Hamas and al-Fatah were not alternatives to one another, but two partners on the road to the liberation of the Palestinian people. "Hamas needs al-Fatah, and al-Fatah needs Hamas," he said.)
What need is there for separate names? Darwinism and materialism need to be eradicated there. Darwinism is widespread in Palestine. Palestine was once the bastion of communism. All the communist groups would go for training there. They received guerrilla warfare training. Darwinism and materialism were rooted in the region. The same with Egypt. Intensive anti-Darwinist, anti-materialist activity is needed. Then shaytan will cease trying to weaken young people's faith. Darwinism and materialism are clinging to them like a vampire. Their minds will totally relax if they can just escape that scourge. They will begin demanding Islamic Unity. A huge love for the system of the Mahdi will grow in their hearts. Otherwise, Allah will just send them troubles. Allah will give them no peace. Neither Israel nor Palestine is happy at the moment. There is no fighting at the moment, but it may soon break out again. There is a temporary easing of tensions. A few rockets will be launched again and they will be at one anothers throats. There will be no peace or security. Peace and security will come from Islamic Unity and the system of the Mahdi. Love and peace everywhere, war and arms production coming to an end, and weapons plants being turned into factories and used to make radios, televisions, cars and fridges. Instead of building tanks, make cars for the poor. Isn't that right? Make fridges instead of artillery shells. Prepare good food instead of building landmines. Let us hand baskets of food from the branches of trees instead of making landmines and booby traps. Isn't that right?
Surat al-Ahzab, 45,
"O Prophet! We have sent you as a witness," our Prophet (saas) has the duty of acting as a witness. He witnesses events and sees all things. "...a bringer of good news" He brings good news of paradise and also of the Mahdi (pbuh), and Jesus the Messiah and Islamic Unity. "...and a warner." He tells people to be careful over what is lawful or unlawful, and not to do anything wrong. Abjad calculation gives a date of 1417, 1997. "...and a caller to Allah by His permission," he calls people to Islam and the Qur'an. "...and a lamp." A source of light. Our Prophet (saas) was most luminous. He literally shed light all around. The Mahdi (pbuh) will also be luminous. He will spread light with the miracles he describes and his elimination of Darwinism and materialism, the signs leading to faith that he describes. "Give good news to the faithful that they will receive immense favor from Allah." What are we to say? Islamic Unity is imminent, the Mahdi (pbuh) has come, Jesus the Messiah is at work, Hidhir (pbuh) is among us and, insha'Allah, believers will go to paradise." "Do not obey the disbelievers and hypocrites and disregard their abuse of you." They may slander you, or take you to court, or bring proceedings against you or play tricks on you. They may say ugly things about you on Facebook. "...disregard their abuse of you. Put your trust in Allah." Place yourself in Allah's hands. Almighty Allah says that He does all things.
Surat al-Ahzab, 43,
"It is He Who calls down blessings on you, as do His angels, to bring you out of the darkness into the light." Out of wrongdoing into the light. In other words, from the system of the dajjal into the light, from materialism and Darwinism into the light. "He is Most Merciful to the believers." Allah is especially merciful toward believers. "Those [prophets] who conveyed Allah's Message and had fear of Him, fearing no one except Allah." One feature of the prophets is that they are all very heroic. Prophets do not fear. Believers must be like that. They must fear none but Allah. "Allah is Most Strong, Almighty." This verse gives a date of 2000.
(About the arguments concerning the Turkish TV series "Muhteşem Yüzyıl")
In my opinion they can film whatever series they like. I would not take them to court or become involved in any way. Let anyone who wants produce whatever series he likes. One person can think of Sultan Suleyman as a philosopher. Someone else can think about his martial aspect. They even filmed the life of the Prophet (saas). That film Çağrı was shot with Libya as an intermediary. It was all about war. That was the take. As if our Prophet (saas) had spent all his time fighting. It is a big mistake to portray our Prophet (saas) in that way, but it can still be done. Someone else might interpret our Prophet (saas) in solely mystical terms. Art must be free. Otherwise the sky would cave in on Turkey. The fundamentalists are just waiting to show their teeth. That is why it is so good for our prime minister to show the liberal and secular section of society that side with him that establishes balance. In other words, a prime minister who favors liberties is a very good thing. The image of a democratic prime minister is most excellent because the prime minister already gives the right plenty of things to keep them happy. Just those mosques are a great thing. Turkey must be free. That will also establish a really good image abroad.
(Ahmet Muaz al-Khatip, head of the Syrian Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, attended a meeting of European Union foreign ministers. The statement at the end of the meeting announced that the EU had recognized al-Khatip as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.)
The division between Shiite and Sunni in the region must be done away with. Sunnis and Shiites must embrace one another. Islamic Unity must be established. Apart from that, the region is a heavenly one. Iraq and Syria are full of historic sites. The flora is lovely, but the region is currently hellish as love and friendship cannot enter it. Children run around terrified, bombs go off. It is a terrifying environment. Yet if love were to dominate the region, it would be really wonderful. People live longer in the presence of love. They will be happier and healthier. Yet they develop cancers and ulcers because of lack of love. Thousands of diseases and mental illnesses develop because of lovelessness. Many people, 70%-80%, use tranquilizers. But there would be no need for that if love ruled. There would be no need for those nerve drugs. Lovelessness is not something that the human body can cope with.
(In response to an e-mail from a reader saying, "How much regret, for sins great or small, should we feel in what we do? Feelings of regret should not wear us down, should they?")
Of course, if one makes a mistake, one must repent. Simple as that. Some people say they are sorry and then go off and drink until morning, hitting their heads and fists against the walls. "What are you doing?" you ask. "I am doing it out of regret," they say. That kind of regret is no good. Regret means repentance. It means to repent and then do the best, the right thing.
(In his last press conference, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Turkey and Israel faced common threats and that they wished to collaborate with Turkey against these problems. He also stated that Iran was still a serious nuclear threat to Israel and one that must absolutely be stopped.)
Iran will not stop being a threat. What Israel must do is to seek Shiloh. To seek the Mahdi (pbuh). If they do not do this, they will be acting against the Torah. And then the scourge may come, not from Iran, but from themselves. They may experience an internal collapse. Allah may send them problems, diseases and affliction the like of which they never imagined. Iran is not essential. A scourge may come from China or may other places. What they must do is pray to find Shiloh, the Mahdi (pbuh). They must obey him. Then they will experience the Golden Age, with all its abundance, beauty and glory, insha'Allah. They cannot get anywhere through other agreements.
"The Sufyani (a great and terrible tyrant of the End Times) will emerge from Syria," he says in a hadith; He will issue the command, "Whoever you find from the Beni Hashimi," in other words from the line of the Prophet (saas), "kill them." That is a characteristic of the dajjal. He martyrs Arab Muslims, Hashemite Muslims, day and night. When the Sufyani begins attacking in Syria, "Muslims will flee to the mountains until the Mahdi appears and gathers them together." In other words, they go to other countries as refugees, our Prophet (saas) says. Muslims flee the evil of the Sufyani.
"Hazrat Mahdi will be very disciplined in his work," he says. "He will be generous and very compassionate toward the poor."
The Mahdi will not appear until there is no caliph whose name appears in the world. In other words, our Prophet (saas) is saying that "The caliphate will cease to exist in the century in which he comes." The caliphate lasted for 1,300 years, and ceased to exist in the century in which Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) appeared. "Widespread terror and anarchy, which seem unlikely to ever end, will begin" he says. "This corruption will persist until a voice from the sky calls out three times, 'He is the emir, the Mahdi, he is the truth'." This means that Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will be the only solution to anarchy and terror. We can see this from the hadiths. "A herald will appear from the sky and will say, 'The truth lies with the great Muhammed'. He will impart the glad tidings of Muhammed, the Mahdi (pbuh)." Conflict and division, terror and anarchy will persist until "...a hand appears from the sky and a crier says, 'Your emir is the Mahdi'." A hand from the sky, in other words a hand seen on the television. In my opinion, that blessed hand belongs to our sayyid Sheikh Nazım al-Qubrusi. You know how he talks with his hands, insha'Allah. "When Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) and the Sufyani come face to face" The Sufyani and the system of the Mahdi are currently fighting in Syria. A herald will say, "The friends of Allah are the friends of the Mahdi." In other words, the hadiths are saying that people in Syria will support Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). "The sign of that day: a hand will reach down from the sky and people will look at it and see." A human image. This refers to a real hand in space. The image of a human hand did appear, as you know. A giant hand. We aired it. "A voice from the sky will call him by name and even people asleep in East and West will hear it and awake." This is radio and television, of course. That is perfectly clear.
Mr. Adnan Oktar interprets verses from Surat al-A'raf
Verse 42. "We impose on no self any more than it can bear," This is a great secret. Yet this world could be a place where much more is imposed on people than they can bear; that could happen very easily. Things could happen that people cannot bear. But as a miracle, Allah does no such thing in this world. For example, I am 56 years old. There is nothing more than I can bear. Nothing at all. Nothing like that happens, alhamdulillah.
Look, in verse 43 Allah says what one of the delights of paradise will be. "We will strip away any rancor in their hearts." There is no hatred. Hatred is unknown. How great. They know no hatred. Nothing affects them. Hatred is bestowed specially, to test people. But hatred is then lifted since the test has come to an end. Hatred no longer has any meaning. Look, the test has come to an end. Hatred is bestowed especially for the test, deliberately. The moment the test ends, hatred also comes to an end. "Rivers will flow beneath them…" Human beings love rivers. So long as there is water. Just a tiny sound of water. This stems from our longing for paradise. Our love for water in this world comes from our love of paradise. Allah has bestowed it as an instinct. We love water. Is there a logic to that? How is it that so many people love water? People could have been frightened of it. Allah could have frightened us. People could have run away at the sight of water. "Rivers will flow beneath them and they will say, 'Praise be to Allah who has guided us to this! We would not have been guided, had Allah not guided us'." Had he not manifested this with His name of Hadi. "Allah could have made us unbelievers," it says. But, alhamdulillah, He has made us believers.
"The Messengers of our Lord came with the Truth." There are mahdis and prophets. "They came with the truth." "It will be proclaimed to them: 'This is your Garden which you have inherited for what you did'." When they come. Look. At the gate, they will say that this is the paradise promised by Allah. They look and see the boundless greenery of paradise. Oh, alhamdulillah, they say. It is unending, masha'Allah. "The Companions of the Garden will call out to the Companions of the Fire, 'We have found that what our Lord promised us is true. Have you found that what your Lord promised you is true'?" They speak from a screen, like a television. "They will say, 'Yes, we have!' Between them a herald will proclaim: 'May the curse of Allah be on the wrongdoers..."
Believers will see all the dajjals and pharaohs in hell. Believers will never suffer any affliction. For example, they can enter hell, but they experience no pain or trouble. Allah takes them there just to see it because they would wonder about it. Why have I not seen hell? Because hell is somewhere that is described. They will be pleased to compare it with paradise when they see it. But they do not enter hell itself, just the area around it.
"...those who bar access to the Way of Allah, desiring to make it crooked, and reject the hereafter." Verse 45 describes the attributes of the disbelievers. They block the way of Allah, they do not let people pray, they do not let them fast. They seek to make the way of Allah crooked. Bigots should pay close attention to this verse. Look, they "...bar access to the way of Allah…" They do not let women pray, they look for distortions and produce a distorted conception or religion with all kinds of additions and subtractions. But no such commandment exists. Yet they say, "Allah says so in the Qur'an."
"There will be a dividing wall between them and on the ramparts there will be men who recognize everyone by their mark." There is an obstacle between paradise and hell. This could be something electromagnetic that we are not familiar with. A dimensional wall we cannot imagine. "...on the ramparts" There may be angels inside that dimension. "...there will be men who recognize everyone by their mark." Angels know them all from their faces. There are several million people there. Look at the intelligence bestowed by Allah, masha'Allah. They know them all. Ahmet, the son of Hüseyin, for example. They know what they do better than they know themselves. The know them really well. Someone may have come from China or a village in Malaysia, yet they know them really well, down to the finest detail. "They will call out to the people of the Garden: 'Peace be upon you'!" They will greet every one, individually. "They will not enter it for all their ardent desire to do so." They wait to enter, even though they are so keen to do so. "When they turn their eyes towards the Companions of the Fire, they will say, 'Our Lord, do not place us with the people of the wrongdoers'!"
They are very afraid. "Our Lord," they say, "Do not place us with the people of the wrongdoers." They look at them from afar, but their places are already determined. They may enter paradise, because there is a light in front of them and on their right. They are being carried. Maybe they will enter paradise. Look, the verse says, "...for all their ardent desire to do so." But people are still uneasy, of course, as it is not yet totally clear, insha'Allah.
"The Companions of the Ramparts will call out to men they recognize by their mark, saying, 'What you amassed was of no use to you, nor was your arrogance'."
They say, what use was all the money you made, all your millions? You did this and that and cheated people, but what did you gain from it ? They remind them. They throw it all in their faces. Then the person is sent right down to the depths. They know them really well. "Are these the people you swore that Allah's mercy would never reach'?" The bigots say that Muslims are "perverse Muslims." "They are on the wrong path," and that kind of thing. "They speak of the wrong things. Allah will give them no peace. These people are disbelievers." All that kind of thing. And they swear. "You have had it. You are in a terrible position." "Are these the people…?" The angels who know people as them. But they point to the Muslims as they ask. "Are these the people…?" They know the names of the people on both sides. They tell the people who will enter paradise, "Enter the Garden." The angels who are in charge there. "You will feel no fear and know no sorrow." Fear has been taken away from you, they say. Neither will you know any sorrow, they say. You will not be saddened. "The Companions of the Fire will call out to the Companions of the Garden, 'Throw down some water to us or some of what Allah has given you as provision'." As soon as they enter they ask for food and water. You say that things happened through evolution, so they give you the water you thought came about through evolution. And they give you the food you thought came about through evolution. Why do you not eat? This is the food of hell. They say the fruit resembles the head of shaytan and is disgusting. "They will say, 'Allah has forbidden them to the disbelievers:"
The angels tell the Muslims, "Allah has forbidden them to the disbelievers:" They are forbidden to eat them.
"...those who took their religion as a diversion and a game, and were deluded by the life of this world." They were influenced by this person or the president of that group. "They were deluded by the life of the world." Money, wealth, popular support, the support of the press, "Today We will forget them just as they forgot the encounter of this Day and denied Our Signs." They believed in nonsense, not the Qur'an. "Today We will forget them...". I will punish them, says Almighty Allah.
"Call on your Lord humbly and secretly. He does not love those who overstep the limits."
Look, humbly and secretly. Verse 56.
Abjad calculation gives a date of 1996. It also indicates 1956. "Allah's mercy is close to the good-doers." "...transmitting my Lord's Message to you..." 2029 by abjad. ---...a man among you, to warn you..." 2011 abjad, masha'Allah. "The ruling circle of those of his people who were disbelievers said," The bigots of that time. The fanatics regarded as scholars. "We consider you a fool…" They say the Prophet (saas) is crazy. We can see that the mahdis will be told the same thing. "We consider you a fool and think you are a liar." They say that what he has spoken is a lie. They will say the same thing of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). The prophet (saas) says: "He said, 'My people, I am by no means a fool'." I am not crazy. "...but rather am a Messenger from the Lord of all the worlds, transmitting my Lord's Message to you." Verse 68. Abjad calculation gives a date of 2029.


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Hi,I want to contact a lot of celebrities on Twitter and ask them to check my site and promote if they like it. My question is: Can I do that without being banned from Twitter, or being rude or even harming the image of my site?I don't mean to spam them. May be one message to each celebrity. Also, I'm want to target the ones that are average famous. I mean those that have may be few thousand followers and not the ones that have a millions, so that I have at least some chance of them reading my message.Thanks!
Jhones, Yes you can definitely do it.. There is not any restriction by Twitter so no need to worry about that. But my understanding is most of the celebrities does not respond to off-topic things.. Otherwise everybody will start using them for their site promotions.. But there is nothing to loose so you can give it a try.. Good Luck
I guess the only way is befriend them in twitter first. Follow them and then retweet what they post. Until they get familiar to you already.
@shyflower For points 1 and 3: Like I said, I do not want to spam them but just one tweet per celebrity. My one tweet to them will not clutter their news feed at all. Also, I have 5 followers until now, as I just made my account, so I'm not worried about them leaving. Moreover, I might tweet perhaps 50 celebs over a weeks time, so they are not concentrated. For point 2: Actually I do not want them to advertise my website, but rather check it out and use it if they like it and of course naturally they would be advertising it.I just want to know if people do this, and what is the best way to do it. But thanks for your remarks.@likends Thanks, I try doing that.
Thanks, I just want to know if there are perhaps 'best practices' on doing this. Like how many celebs should I approach in one day or which ones, (celebs with how many celebs are more likely to respond to your request, hundreds thousands or tens of thousands, I know definitively not millions.)
I'll suggest you to first study their tweets. Are they responding their fans? If yes then when? So do the homework first and then build a strategy and go ahead... 2-3 contacts per day along with other regular tweets won't be a problem.
You can tweet to them and target them they will be able to view it but it doesn't necessarily mean that they will pay attention to what you're saying. But it's worth a shot.
moreover i dont think so that the celebrities manage their twitter accounts of their own, but it depends on the level of celebrity you are going to follow, from my own perception the biggest celebs twitter accounts managing by some external sources and their official websites too and i also agree with the above comment that they wont care about these lines to visit a particular website to promote.
Yah..of course you can do it. You can follow them, retweet their posts and also by sending them direct messages you will be familiar with them.. Then check if they are responding to you or not. If yes, you r successful..
Thank you all for your answers. I will definitely consider all of your remarks on this. However, I'm actually going to launch a web2.0 website which is very similar to a social network but still quite different. I want tips on how I can get a lot of people to check my website ones I launch it. Can you provide me any tips or places where I can learn about all this? Somehow it's really hard to find such info on google on this. Thanks!
You won't be able to make anybody visit your website until the person is having any interest in that criterion or if he/she is your friend.
So how exactly do websites like Reddit or Twitter; or so many different forums and other sites that rely on user generated content get famous. I understand what you are saying, but this is what I need help with. How can I get people in the start to check out my site?
Most sites in the social world started with a small network of people they knew who elsewhere. They acted as influencers in their own way and they spread it out. If you don't have that network then you have to find ways to build up early awareness through more traditional marketing means in order to build up your network of advocates.
You should definately try! My guess is that celebs don`t even post on social media themselves, but worth a shot
You can follow them on twitter, and like their page on Facebook. and can add them in G+ Circle to get update.
Initially, you should know the interests of your people (celebrities), tweet regularly about their interests, then follow them and re-tweet their tweets, they may look back to you & your tweet, so they may follow you back.
Hope it helps
Yes you can do it .But make sure don't ping and post too many messages and tweets which make them to make them to report you as spam.
Yes you can contact any celebrity you want on twitter, you won't be banned. But just think is your site that wonderful that these celebrities will take out some time from there daily schedule and promote it for you?
Yes you can, follow these 5 steps: 1)Log in to your Twitter account; 2) Visit the celebrity's Twitter profile and check that the account is verified by Twitter; 3) Click the gray button with a graphic of a person's bust and a downward-pointing arrow beneath the celebrity's bio; 4) Click "Mention (username)" from the drop-down menu that appears. A pop-up dialog box appears, prompting you to tweet the celebrity; 5) Type your message to the celebrity and click the "Tweet" button.