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Conservative Media Cover Up Support For Contraception Policy
Written by Mike Burns & Andy Newbold
Conservative media have continued to cover up the fact that many Catholic and other religious institutions have come out in support of the Obama administration's policy that ensures women have access to affordable insurance coverage for birth control while making sure no religious organization has to pay for this coverage. Their concealment of this fact came in response to evangelical Wheaton College's announcement that it will join a lawsuit against the policy.
Wheaton College Joins Lawsuit Over Health Care Law
Wheaton College: "Wheaton College Sues Over HHS Mandate." In a July 18 press release, Wheaton College announced that it filed a lawsuit in the Washington, D.C. District Court opposing the Obama administration's decision requiring church-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance plans that cover contraceptives for women:
Today Wheaton College filed a lawsuit alongside The Catholic University of America in the Washington, D.C. District Court opposing the Health and Human Services Preventative Services mandate.
The mandate, which is a regulation under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, forces both institutions to violate their deeply held religious beliefs by providing access to abortion-causing drugs or paying severe fines. [Wheaton College, 7/18/12]
Right-Wing Media Only Highlight Religious Institutions Who Oppose Contraception Compromise
Fox's Bream: Religious "Leaders Say That Folks From All Different Religious Backgrounds .... Should Be Concerned About Any Administration That Would Limit Their Religious Freedom." During the July 18 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, Martha MacCallum and Shannon Bream provided statements by Wheaton College and Catholic University leaders claiming the contraception coverage is attacking "religious liberty." Fox ignored the support of Catholic and other religious institutions for the contraception requirement. From America's Newsroom:
MARTHA MacCALLUM (co-host): And it's a challenge to the president's health care law. It's coming from a major Christian university and that is now set to file a lawsuit that challenges the part of the law that mandates birth control coverage in insurance policies. So this is the first non-Catholic entity of this size to take this action and that's why it is of special note this morning. Shannon Bream joins me now. She's live in Washington. She's got the details on this for us. What can you tell us about it, Shannon?
SHANNON BREAM (Fox reporter): Well, Martha, it was filed today in federal court by Wheaton College. Administrators there say although they have different objections than Catholic leaders do to the HHS regulation requiring employers to provide coverage for contraceptives in their health care plans, it's the bigger principle of religious liberty that motivated the college to get involved. Here's Wheaton President Philip Ryken.
RYKEN [video clip]: I think it's well known that Wheaton College is a Protestant institution. Where our convictions on theological matters and our differences with Roman Catholicism are pretty well known, but here's an area where we find common cause. And I think it highlights for the whole nation that this is not a narrow sectarian issue; it's really a fundamental issue of religious liberty, which is, after all, one of the first freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution.
BREAM: Wheaton College did not join the current lawsuits already filed by a number of Catholic institutions. This is a separate legal challenge, Martha.
MacCALLUM: So do Catholic groups, Shannon, think that this new lawsuit coming from a Protestant educational institution will bolster their effort to have this law overturned, or this part of it overturned?
BREAM: They do. Many of these institutions, like Catholic University, believe the more religious groups and different denominations that get involved, the better. Here's what university President John Garvey told us.
GARVEY [video clip]: The question of religious liberty and not just for Catholics but also for people of other faiths. And number two: that the fight is not really about contraception. You notice that President Ryken said, Evangelicals and Catholics have some differences on that point. But that they too have difficulties, conscientious difficulties in complying with the law.
BREAM: These leaders say that folks from all different religious backgrounds whether it's the Jewish faith, the Muslim faith, the Christian faith, all should be concerned about any administration that would limit their religious freedom. [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 7/18/12, via Media Matters]
FoxNews.com: "Some Religious Organizations Complain The Administration Did Not Go Far Enough To Ensure The Rule Would Not Compel Them To Violate Their Religious Beliefs." FoxNews.com reported that Wheaton College has joined Catholic groups in a lawsuit challenging the requirement for contraception coverage in the health care law, but ignored support for contraception coverage by Catholic and other religious institutions:
An evangelical college is joining Catholic groups in suing the Obama administration over the so-called contraception mandate.
Illinois-based Wheaton College announced Wednesday morning that it had joined The Catholic University of America in filing suit before District of Columbia federal court.
The wave of lawsuits has so far been dominated by Catholic organizations. After the Supreme Court upheld most of the federal health care overhaul last month, those groups vowed to continue their legal challenge against the requirement that employers provide access to contraceptive care.
The announcement Wednesday marks the first time an evangelical group has joined that effort.
"In this case, we recognize we have common cause with the Catholic University of America and other Catholic institutions in defending religious liberty," Wheaton College President Philip Graham Ryken said on a conference call.
In May, dozens of Catholic groups filed a dozen separate but related federal lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the requirement. Among the organizations were the University of Notre Dame, the Archdiocese of New York and The Catholic University of America.
The Obama administration several months ago softened its position on the mandate, but some religious organizations complain the administration did not go far enough to ensure the rule would not compel them to violate their religious beliefs.
Ryken accused the administration of creating "two classes" of religious institutions by providing an exemption for churches but not religious-affiliated colleges. [FoxNews.com, 7/18/12]
NRO: "Evangelicals & Catholics Go to Court Together Over The HHS Mandate." Writing at National Review Online's The Corner, editor-at-large Kathryn Jean Lopez claimed that Roman Catholics and Evangelical Protestants are coming together to protect "religious liberty." Lopez went on to suggest that "every American who values religious liberty" should support Wheaton's lawsuit, but neglected to mention support for the contraception policy voiced by numerous Catholic and religious institutions. [National Review Online, 7/19/12]
In Fact, Catholic And Other Religious Institutions Have Voiced Support For Contraception Policy
Faith In Public Life: "Prominent National Faith Leaders Celebrate White House's Common-Ground Solution On Contraception Coverage." A February 10 post on Faith in Public Life's website highlighted a statement by Catholic and Protestant leaders describing the Obama administration's accommodation as a "major victory for religious liberty and women's health." The statement was signed by members of the Catholic and Protestant clergy, theology professors at Catholic universities, and other religious leaders. From the statement:
Today the Obama administration announced an important regulation that will protect the conscience rights of religious organizations and ensure that all women have access to contraception without a co-payment. We applaud the White House for listening carefully to the concerns raised by religious leaders on an issue that has provoked heated and often misinformed debate. This ruling is a major victory for religious liberty and women's health. President Obama has demonstrated that these core values do not have to be in conflict.
Specifically, this new regulation guarantees that no religiously affiliated institution will have to pay for services that violate its moral beliefs or even refer employees for this coverage. Instead, if a woman's employer is an objecting university, hospital or other religious institution, her insurer will be required to offer her coverage at no cost. This is a sensible, common-ground solution.
In recent days, sound bites and divisive rhetoric have too often pitted the faith community against sound science and public health. The previous regulations caused an unnecessary conflict between the administration, the Catholic Church and other religious institutions. We are encouraged that the Obama administration has developed a substantive solution that addresses the concerns of the many constituencies involved. We look forward to bringing the same level of passion displayed in this debate to other pressing moral issues that face our nation. [Faith in Public Life, 2/10/12]
Catholics United "Supports Obama Administration's New Compromise Regulation On HHS Contraception Rule." In a press release, Catholics United expressed their support for the Obama administration and called on Catholic Bishops to do the same:
Today the Obama Administration announced that the President would be issuing a new regulation fully respecting the religious liberty of Catholic organizations while maintaining access to contraceptive services for all employees.
The new regulation will ensure that Catholic hospitals, universities and social service providers that are religiously opposed to contraception and sterilization do not have to provide or even refer for those services, while also requiring insurance companies provide contraceptive services free of charge to any enrollee who wishes to have the coverage. The objecting religious organizations would have no role in providing coverage or referring employees for services they would deem objectionable. The cost of the contraceptive coverage will be born by the insurance companies and will be offset by the long term cost savings associated with reduced need for maternity care. Using the standard of Catholic moral theology, this solution is acceptable because no Catholic or Catholic institution will be directly involved in what the church deems to be an immoral act.
"Catholics United has been calling on both sides of this heated debate to work towards today's win-win solution," said James Salt, executive director of Catholics United. "President Obama has shown us that he is willing to rise above the partisan fray to deliver an actual policy solution that both meets the health care needs of all employees and respects the religious liberty of Catholic institutions."
Today's announcement will also be a test for the Catholic bishops, who have indicated that they are opposed to compromise.
"I am eager to see the response of the Catholic bishops, and I hope and pray in their wisdom they see the value of finding a solution," Salt said. "If the bishops are unwilling to recognize the value of compromise, I suspect their opposition is more about playing politics than serving the needs of the people." [Catholics United, 2/10/12]
- Catholics United: Lawsuits Over Contraception Mandate "An Insult To Those Who Actually Suffer Violence On Account Of Their Beliefs." In a press release responding to a lawsuit against the administration's contraception mandate, Catholic United stated that the lawsuit "serves a right wing political agenda on the part of the bishops rather than defending against a legitimate threat to religious liberty." In the press release, James Salt, executive director for Catholics United, called lawsuits against the mandate "an insult" to persecuted Christians worldwide. From the press release:
Today, more than 40 organizations, including the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and the University of Notre Dame, filed suit against the Department of Health and Human Services contraception coverage mandate. Catholics United reiterated its position asserting that this suit serves a right wing political agenda on the part of the bishops rather than defending against a legitimate threat to religious liberty.
Given past silence on the part of the bishops and Catholic institutions over very similar, often more comprehensive, contraceptive health care mandates in 28 states, it remains a curious coincidence the bishops would choose to stand opposed to a Democratic administration in an election year.
"These lawsuits reflect a sad reality for American Catholics," said James Salt, executive director for Catholics United. "The leadership of the Catholic Church is more interested in playing politics than it is in providing for the common good. To suggest our religious liberty is somehow compromised because employees now have access to contraception is an insult to those who actually suffer violence on account of their beliefs."
Rather than working with the Administration for an amicable compromise, right-wing elements in the Church have stymied discussion for months. Rhetoric has been heated further by the false implication the Obama Administration would require employers provide abortion-inducing medication. [Catholics United, 5/21/12]
Association Of Jesuit Colleges And Universities "Appreciates The Compromise That President Obama Has Made To Accommodate Religious Institutions In Regard To The Birth Control Mandate." In a press release, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, a coalition of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States, wrote that it "appreciates the compromise that President Obama has made to accommodate religious institutions in regard to the birth control mandate under the Affordable Care Act." From the press release:
The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) acknowledges and appreciates the compromise that President Obama has made to accommodate religious institutions in regard to the birth control mandate under the Affordable Care Act. We commend the Obama Administration for its willingness to work with us on moving toward a solution, and we look forward to working out the details of these new regulations with the White House. [Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, 2/10/12]
Leadership Conference Of Women Religious: Obama Admin's Policy "Respects And Honors The Conscience Rights Of Religious Institutions." In a press release, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, said it is "grateful that President Obama and the administration listened to the concerns raised about providing effective healthcare coverage in a way that respects and honors the conscience rights of religious institutions." From the press release:
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is grateful that President Obama and the administration listened to the concerns raised about providing effective healthcare coverage in a way that respects and honors the conscience rights of religious institutions. We believe the resolution the President made is a fair and helpful way for us to move forward.
We are grateful to the many individuals and organizations who courageously voiced their concerns on this critical matter and worked together to find a resolution. Such collaboration and mutual respect model an effective way for our country to deliberate on the many complex issues we face.
LCWR supports the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act so that the urgent needs of the uninsured can be met. [Leadership Conference of Women Religious, accessed 7/19/12]
Interfaith Coalition: "Religious Leaders Support Contraception Coverage Under Affordable Care Act." A post on Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice's website highlighted a statement "affirm[ing] the value of birth control as morally good for both individuals and society" and "rejecting the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' claim that 'religious freedom' is being compromised by the Affordable Care Act coverage of contraception." The statement says that contraception is a "matter of individual conscience. Individuals -- not employers -- should be responsible for making choices about birth control." As of July 2, the statement was endorsed by more than 200 religious leaders from major denominations. From the statement:
As religious leaders, we affirm the value of birth control as morally good for both individuals and society. As many religious traditions teach, the decision to become pregnant and have children is one of the most important commitments people make. These decisions affect our whole society and require responsible policies that involve us all, whether we experience the sacred joy of parenthood ourselves or we are partners in creating a culture of loving care.
The ability to decide when and under what circumstances to have children is critical to the health, happiness, and stability of women and families across the globe. We believe in expanding the availability of health care resources--especially to those individuals and communities whose options have been disproportionately limited by income, race, or other factors. As religious leaders, we support public policies that make birth control more economically accessible.
We believe that decisions about birth control are a matter of individual conscience. Individuals -- not employers -- should be responsible for making choices about birth control. To preserve both fairness and religious freedom, institutions that employ and serve the general public should not be allowed to discriminate for religious reasons. As religious leaders, we call for public policies that protect each person's ability to access and use birth control according to their own conscience and religious beliefs. [Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, accessed 7/19/12]
Moreover, Recent Polls Show Catholic And Other Religious Voters Support Insurance Plans That Cover Contraception
Public Religion Research Institute: "Catholics Generally Agree With The Distinction Made By The Obama Administration Between Churches And Religiously Affiliated Institutions." A poll released on June 27 by the Public Religion Research Institute found that "roughly 6-in-10 Catholics report that religiously affiliated social service agencies (59 percent), colleges (60 percent), hospitals (59 percent), and privately owned small businesses (58 percent) should be required to provide health care plans that cover contraception at no cost":
Catholics generally agree with the distinction made by the Obama administration between churches and religiously affiliated institutions: roughly 6-in-10 Catholics report that religiously affiliated social service agencies (59 percent), colleges (60 percent), hospitals (59 percent), and privately owned small businesses (58 percent) should be required to provide health care plans that cover contraception at no cost. In contrast, less than half of Catholics (47 percent) say churches and other places of worship should be required to provide this coverage. [Public Religion Research Institute, 6/27/12]
Hart Research Associates: "Voters Overwhelmingly Support Affordable Access To Prescription Birth Control Without Cost As An Obstacle." A June 20 poll by Hart Research Associates found that nearly three in four voters agree that cost should not be an obstacle to using birth control, including 66 percent of Catholic voters and 58 percent of evangelical voters. From Hart Research Associates:
Voters overwhelmingly agree that people should have affordable access to prescription birth control and cost should not be a barrier to using the most effective form of birth control.
Nearly three in four (73%) voters agree and more than half (55%) strongly agree that we should do everything we can to make sure that people who want to use prescription birth control have affordable access to it and that cost is not an obstacle. Fewer than one in four (23%) voters disagrees with this policy goal.
While specific audiences are especially supportive of this policy approach -- including women (80% agree), independents (78%), and younger voters age 18 to 34 (84% agree) -- a broad consensus emerges around this core goal. Even a majority of pro-life voters (54% agree), Catholics (66% agree), and Evangelical Protestants (58% agree) embrace this policy aim.
The report about the poll included the following graph:
[Hart Research Associates, 6/20/12]
A Federal Judge Already Dismissed A Similar Lawsuit Against Contraception Policy
Lincoln Journal Star: "Judge Tosses Out Contraception Lawsuit Filed By Nebraska, Six Other States." The Lincoln Journal Star reported that U.S. District Judge Warren Urbom dismissed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the contraception rule. The all-Republican group of attorney generals came from Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Nebraska:
A federal judge has dismissed a federal lawsuit in which Nebraska and six other states tried to block part of the federal health care law that requires contraception coverage.
U.S. District Judge Warren Urbom of Lincoln dismissed the case Tuesday, saying the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the action challenging part of the Affordable Care Act.
"Today's decision completely disregards the federal government's continued shell game when it comes to this rule," said Attorney General Jon Bruning. "Essentially, this decision asks millions of Americans to watch and wait for their religious liberties to be violated. Obviously, we're disappointed with the ruling, and we will consult with our co-plaintiffs to assess our next steps."
The attorneys general for Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas joined Bruning's challenge of the contraception rule. All are Republican. [Lincoln Journal Star, 7/17/12]
Research intern Benjamin Levine contributed to this item.


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subset: commoncrawl


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SNOW HILL – One of two brothers charged with attempted murder and assault in August after a fight during which they allegedly stabbed two other men pleaded guilty last week in Worcester County Circuit Court to second-degree assault, but will not be sentenced until February when the victim can be present to address the court.
Christopher Lee Hill, 29, of Jessup, Md., was in Circuit Court last week facing attempted murder and assault charges for his part in a fight in Ocean City in August during which two men were stabbed. Hill pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, a charge carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail, and will be sentenced in February when his brother, Joseph Hill, appears to face the same charges.
Around 2:15 a.m. on Aug. 20, an Ocean City Police officer on routine patrol was flagged down by two security officers at the Princess Bayside Hotel in reference to two stabbing victims lying on the pavement near the facility's front door. Upon arrival on the scene, the officer observed to two stabbed men and identified them as Walter Ostrowski, 21, of Baltimore, and Steven Hutchins, 26, of Dundalk. Ostrowski was sitting and Hutchins was lying on the ground. Hutchins' shorts and shirt were covered in blood and it was obvious he was suffering from a stab wound to the chest.
Ostrowski had been stabbed four times in the back with one of the stab wounds over his spinal cord. The officer put out a description of the suspects provided by witnesses and they were apprehended a short time later walking through the parking lot at 45th Street Village. The suspects were identified as the Hill brothers. Also with the suspects was their sister, Stephanie Hill.
The investigation revealed the Hills had approached a group of people at a nearby bus stop and asked for a cigarette before a fight broke out between the two brothers and Hutchins and Ostrowski, who were both stabbed in the altercation.
Indecent Exposer Sentenced
SNOW HILL – A Laurel, Del. man found guilty in October of exposing himself to a 9-year-old girl in an Ocean Pines park last summer was sentenced this week to three years in jail with all but just under three months suspended.
Charles Passero, 40, of Laurel, Del., in October entered an Alford plea to an indecent exposure charge from last summer and a pre-sentence investigation, including a psychological examination, was ordered. Back in Circuit Court this week, Passero was sentenced to three years in jail with all but two months and 29 days suspended. He was also fined $1,000 and placed on five-years of supervised probation.
On June 30, Ocean Pines Police received a call about a reported indecent exposure in the Manklin Tennis Complex playground. The caller told police a male suspect had exposed himself to her daughter in the playground. When she confronted the suspect, he fled in a white pick-up truck, but she followed in an attempt to get a tag number while she called 911.
An OCPD officer located the suspect's truck while talking to the caller and pulled it over. In the meantime, another officer responded to the mother's residence to interview her about what had happened. The mother told the police her daughter was playing when she came to her and said a man was talking to her and exposed himself to her.
The young victim told police the suspect, later identified as Passero, approached her in the playground, sat beside her, informed her he had been swimming, pulled aside his swimming suit and introduced his private part by name.
Police took the victim and her mother to the site where Passero had been pulled over and they both positively identified the suspect.
Five Years For Copper Thief
SNOW HILL – A Seaford, Del. man convicted of theft charges in August after an arrest for stealing copper wire from several construction sites in Ocean City last winter was sentenced to five years in jail this week in Worcester County Circuit Court.
In August, Troy T. Holmes, 33, of Seaford, pleaded guilty to theft over $500 for his part in a string of construction site burglaries last winter and a pre-sentence investigation was ordered. Back in Circuit Court this week, Holmes was sentenced to five years in jail for the conviction.
Holmes, along with another suspect, Aaron W. Meyers, 19, of Seaford, were arrested last January after resort police were able to connect the pair to the burglary spree. The suspects specifically targeted construction sites with spools of copper wiring, which they stole and melted down to recycle the copper. The copper was taken to a private recycling center in Delaware where it was sold for about $2 per pound. The two were charged with 11 counts including burglary, theft and malicious destruction of property.
Meyers and Holmes stole from construction sites in Ocean City including locations on 2nd Street, 42nd Street and 46th Street. Loss from theft and damage from the locations totaled just under $10,000. During the investigation, it was learned Meyers and Holmes are awaiting trial in Delaware for similar offenses.
Holmes was served with a warrant for his arrest for the burglary spree in December and was ordered held on a $30,000 bond.
Knife Was For "Crazies"
OCEAN CITY – A Crisfield man arrested last week on a concealed weapon charge and driving on a suspended license told police the knife he carried in his car was for "crazies" on the corners.
Around 7:45 p.m. last Friday, an OCPD officer in routine patrol in the 127th Street area noticed a Ford truck with its tag light not illuminated. When the officer ran the tags, he found the license plate numbers were registered to a Dodge, not a Ford. The officer then pulled over the vehicle and approached the driver, identified as Charles Lee Fraites, 38, of Crisfield.
Fraites admitted his license was suspended and the vehicle's registration was not correct. He also told police he was going to get the Ford registered and that he put the Dodge's plates on it temporarily. While he was talking with Fraites, the officer noticed a knife handle between the two front seats. He asked Fraites to put his hands on the wheel and not to touch the knife.
When Fraites exited the vehicle, the officer pulled out a roughly 10-inch knife with a black handle. In the meantime, the check on Fraites confirmed his license was suspended, and the officer arrested him for driving while suspended and carrying a concealed deadly weapon. When the officer asked Fraites why he was carrying the knife in his car, he responded, "Well you know, when you come through Richmond, you never know if there are crazies on the corner."
Stolen Handgun Recovered
OCEAN CITY – A routine traffic stop on Monday afternoon in Ocean City yielded a loaded handgun in the center console that had been reported stolen in Wicomico County.
Around 2 p.m. on Monday, OCPD Cpl. Richard Wawrzeniak stopped a vehicle on Baltimore Ave. at 20th Street for a license plate violation. Upon contacting the vehicle's driver, Vincent Rascona, 21, of Salisbury, and his passenger, Ryan Brawner, 22, also of Salisbury, the officer noticed the strong odor of marijuana.
While searching the vehicle, the officer discovered a Taurus .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol in the center console. The gun had been reported stolen in Wicomico. Officers also located a plastic bag with a significant amount of marijuana along with a box of sandwich-size baggies and a digital scale.
Brawner was charged with possession and possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession of paraphernalia, misdemeanor theft, and possession of a handgun in a drug trafficking scheme. Rascona was charged with possession of marijuana. The investigation revealed Brawner owned the vehicle but Rascona was driving because Brawner's license was suspended.
Razor Attacker Sentenced
SNOW HILL – A Norristown, Pa. man arrested last February after cutting his girlfriend's face with a razor during a domestic dispute was found guilty of second-degree assault this week in Circuit Court and will serve roughly three months in jail.
Phillip Todd Mullin, 22, of Norristown, Pa., appeared in Circuit Court this week to face several serious charges including first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and carrying a concealed deadly weapon. Mullin pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and was sentenced to two years, nine months and one day in jail with all but two months and 29 days suspended.
In February, OCPD Officer Charles Kelley was dispatched to the Dunes Manor Hotel on Baltimore Avenue in response to a domestic assault. Upon arrival, he met up with OCPD Officer Lesa Breneman and paramedics who were treating a victim for multiple lacerations to the face. According to Breneman, the victim told her that her boyfriend, later identified as Mullin, and her had gotten into an argument and he had accused her of cheating on him.
Kelley spoke with Mullin, who was shaking and covered in blood, and asked what had happened. Mullin said he "had a reflex and reacted to her." When asked what that meant, he said he had swung a razorblade at her and was doing so in defense.
The victim was transported to Atlantic General Hospital for further medical treatment and Mullin was placed under arrest for domestic assault. However, according to police records, after being placed under arrest Mullin was unwilling to cooperate when he was asked to get into the patrol car.
Not only did he thrash about when being placed in the car, but continued to do so inside the car, managing to get his seatbelt off and his hands in front of himself. After refusing to exit the car in order to be further restrained, officers had to pull him out as he continued to kick and thrash about and place him in a violent prisoner restraint.
Officers later spoke with the victim after she was treated at AGH to obtain permission to enter their room in order to find the razor that was used. She consented and also stated that during the argument, Mullin held her in front of a mirror and asked, "Do you want me to kill you?" She then said he began to choke her in front of the mirror and cut her face with the razor stating, "You want me to end your life?" Officers later searched the hotel room and found the blade as well as three small Baggies of marijuana.
Pain Meds Thief Gets Probation
SNOW HILL – An Ocean City condominium maintenance man arrested in July and charged with burglary and possession of marijuana after getting caught stealing prescription medicine from an 82-year-old man was found guilty this week on a fourth-degree burglary charge and was sentenced to one year in jail, all of which was suspended in favor of probation.
In July, Ocean City detectives investigated a burglary complaint at the Antigua condominium on 85th Street. The complainant, an 82-year-old man, told the officers he believed someone had been entering his unit and stealing his prescription medicine. On the morning of July 12, the detectives met with the victim in his unit. Around 8 a.m., the victim pretended to leave for the day while the detectives hid in a spare bedroom in the unit.
Less than 10 minutes after the victim left, the officers heard someone enter the unit. The officers than confronted the suspect, identified as David Edwards, 22, of Pittsville, who turned out to be a maintenance man for the condominium.
After interviewing the suspect, Edwards admitted breaking into the victim's unit on two prior occasions and stealing Percocet from the victim's medicine bottle. Police also discovered marijuana on Edwards' person. He was charged with burglary, possession of marijuana and misdemeanor theft.
Five Years For Cocaine
BERLIN – A Pocomoke man was sentenced to five years in federal prison last week after pleading guilty last May to distribution of cocaine in U.S. District Court.
Lester C. Dickerson, 36, of Pocomoke, entered into a plea agreement last may in federal court including a conviction on a distribution of cocaine charge. Last Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Dickerson to 70 months in jail followed by four years of supervised probation.
From January 2006 to March 2006, Dickerson engaged in a series of sales of cocaine base undercover police officers and a confidential informant. For example, on Jan. 6, 2006, Dickerson sold nearly three grams of cocaine base to an undercover officer for $100. In one of his largest sales, Dickerson, on March 30, 2006, sold roughly 23 grams of cocaine base to an informant for $860.
He was finally arrested on an indictment in March 2007 following a long pattern of narcotics sales. In May, Dickerson pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of cocaine and was sentenced last week to over five years in jail. The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case was investigated by the federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives bureau and the Worcester County Drug Task Force.
Gift Card Scam
OCEAN PINES – An Ocean Pines grocery store employee was arrested late last month on theft charges after an investigation revealed she was involved in a gift card scam.
On Dec. 22, a Maryland State Police trooper responded to the Food Lion grocery store in Ocean Pines to investigate a theft. The investigation revealed a suspect, later identified as Mary Katherine Dick, 51, of Girdletree, had been charging store customers for gift cards they did not purchase. Dick would then use the gift cards for her personal use.
The value of the phony gift cards totaled $190. Dick was charged with two counts of theft under $500 and theft scheme under $500. Food Lion has reimbursed the victims in the case. The loss prevention unit of Food Lion assisted in the investigation. Dick was served with a criminal summons and released on her own recognizance.
Route 113 Accident
BISHOPVILLE – A two-car collision on Route 113 near Bishopville last Friday night sent three people to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Around 9:30 p.m. last Friday, a 2006 Jeep Wrangler traveling eastbound crossing Route 113 collided with a 2002 Dodge pick-up traveling westbound on Bishopville Rd. The driver of the Jeep, identified as Matthew Busan, 26, of Bishopville, and his passenger, identified as Jeremy Vincent, 26, of an unknown address, were flown by helicopter to PRMC in Salisbury. The driver of the Dodge, identified as Orville Latherbury, 22, of Dagsboro, was taken to PRMC by ambulance. Charges in the accident are still pending.
Jail Time For Cocaine Bust
SNOW HILL – A Columbia, Md. man, who refused to cooperate with Ocean City Police after a downtown fight last summer, was found guilty of possession of cocaine last week in Worcester Circuit Court and sentenced to 60 days in jail with all but two days suspended.
Desean Jones, 18, of Columbia, Md., was arrested after OCPD officers were dispatched to a fight downtown last summer. Upon arrival, the officers separated the combatants and told them to sit on the curb while they sorted out what happened. Jones refused, however, and walked around behind a pick-up truck before returning to the curb.
Witnesses told police Jones dropped something when he went behind the truck and an investigation revealed a baggie containing 1.7 grams of cocaine. Last week, Jones was found guilty of possession and sentenced to 60 days in jail with all but two days suspended. He was also placed on 18 months probation and fined $470.
Armed Robbery In Pocomoke
POCOMOKE – A Salisbury man is in custody this week after robbing a Pocomoke convenience store and holding the clerk against her will at gunpoint.
Around 11 p.m. last Saturday, the clerk at the Duck In convenience store in Pocomoke was conducting routine closing procedures when an unidentified man confronted her with a gun, forced her at gunpoint to go behind the counter and open the cash register before fleeing with the paper currency. Store surveillance cameras captured good clothing and overall size descriptions of the suspect, a black male, while another employee reported a suspicious dark-colored Jaguar in the parking lot prior to the crime. The vehicle was captured by surveillance cameras leaving the store just after the armed robbery.
Police searched the area and discovered an abandoned Jaguar at the old Seahawk Sports Center. A check of the plates revealed the car had been reported stolen in Salisbury on Jan. 1. While waiting for crime technicians to process the stolen car, police decided to check nearby motels for any late-night guests arriving on foot. Their search revealed a suspect, later identified as Tyrone Dale, 45, of Salisbury, had just checked into the Pocomoke Inn.
When police encountered Dale in the room, his clothing and size matched the description of the armed robber. Under questioning, Dale appeared nervous and changed his story several times. A wanted check revealed Dale was being sought by the MSP Berlin barrack for forgery and uttering.
A search of the area revealed the stolen money and clothes matching the description provided by the surveillance tapes in a nearby trashcan. Dale was then arrested and charged with armed robbery, first-degree assault and kidnapping.


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ACII 2017 : Affective Computing and Intelligent InteractionConference Series : Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction | |||||||||||||||
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Call For Papers | |||||||||||||||
The Association for the Advancement of Affective Computing (AAAC) invites you to join us at our seventh International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), which will be held in San Antonio, Texas on October 23-26, 2017.
The Conference series is the premier international forum for interdisciplinary research on the design of systems that can recognize, interpret, and simulate human emotions and related affective phenomena. A selection of the best articles will appear in a "Best of ACII2017" special section of IEEE's Transactions on Affective Computing. Proceedings will be submitted for inclusion to IEEE Xplore. The theme of ACII 2017 is "Affective Computing in Action," highlighting the impact of affective computing technologies in the wider world. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Recognition of Human Affect: Uni- or multimodal recognition of affect from face, body, gesture, voice text, or physiology; affective face/body animation; expression and gesture recognition; sentiment analysis - Synthesis of Human Affect: Affective speech synthesis, modeling and animation, synthesis of auditory affect bursts, synthesis of multimodal affective behavior) - Affective Interfaces: Affective brain-computer interfaces, design of affective loop and affective dialog systems; mobile, tangible, haptic and virtual/augmented interfaces; affectively-smart environments; affectively proactive interfaces - Social and Behavioral Science Involving Affective Computing: Cognitive affective models; models of moral decision-making; tools for social science research; computational models of emotion; psychological factors in affective computing (personality, culture); ethical issues; dyadic and group affective processes - Affective and Social Robotics and Virtual Agents: Emotions in robot cognition and action, embodied issues in emotion; affective virtual agents; memory, reasoning, and learning of affective systems; affective architectures for virtual & robotic systems - Affective Applications: Databases and tools; biometrics; medical; assistive; virtual reality; entertainment; education; ambient intelligence; industrial |


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Girl Scouts Now Make Their Own Badges.
Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) announces the Make Your Own Badge program, in which girls select a skill they want to learn then create the badge for that skill themselves. Girls take part in everything from setting requirements for earning the badges to finalizing designs.
"My passion for leadership and service is a direct result of the strong role models I had as a young girl and as a result of my involvement in Girl Scouting," says Connie L. Lindsey, National President, GSUSA. "By letting girls take the lead, the Make Your Own Badge program will encourage them to develop self-confidence and creativity as they seek to define success for themselves."
The creation of the Make Your Own Badge program started with girls. In focus groups, girls exhibited substantial interest in the Make Your Own Badge concept. Based on that interest, GSUSA developed the program and included it in The Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting, the guide a result of the organization's recent overhaul of its badge programs. Badges now come in categories: Legacy, Financial Literacy, Cookie Business, Skill Building, and Make Your Own. There are also specialty awards such as My Promise, My Faith, which helps a girl understand and celebrate the commonalities between her faith and the Girl Scout Law.
The Girl Scout organization has transformed itself in recent years to focus on leadership development for girls in the twenty-first century, and the new badge offerings reflect that transformation.
"All of the Girl Scout national program offerings are designed with one purpose in mind—to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place," says Andrea Bastiani Archibald, PhD, a developmental psychologist at GSUSA. "Through fun leadership development and skill-building activities, Girl Scouts of all grade levels are able to become leaders in their own lives and leaders in the world."
The Make Your Own Badge program is just one way GSUSA is offering girls leadership skills they need today, skills they can carry with them throughout their lives. GSUSA is going where girls are by offering digital programming for all girls ages 5 through 17, that enhances the "live" opportunities girls are offered through the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. Online opportunities give girls another fun way to engage in a large, thriving community of girls changing the world.
Girls can still earn popular longtime badges such as Cook, Naturalist, and Athlete—topics as relevant today as they were in 1912—but now they have the Make Your Own Badge in addition, which can be whatever a girl wants it to be.
This is pretty interesting, we might see robotics, laser cutter, 3D printing badges with the girl scouts very soon.


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Hog Outlook: China to Stop Importing US Pork
US - Starting 1 March, China plans to stop importing US pork unless it is verified to be ractopamine-free by a third party. Earlier this month Russia announced they are stopping the import of US beef and pork because of ractopamine use in the US, write Ron Plain and Scott Brown.The average price of pork at retail during January was $3.402 per pound. That was down 2.5 cents from December, down 9.3 cents from January 2012, and down 15.9 cents from the September 2011 record. Meat supplies are tight, so these lower retail pork prices are disappointing.
The average price for 51-52 per cent lean slaughter hogs in January was $61.22/cwt. That was up $2.06 from December's average, but down 96 cents from a year ago and down $14.87 from the August 2011 record.
The national average negotiated carcass price for direct delivered hogs on the morning report today was $75.28/cwt, down $5.82 cents from last Friday. The eastern corn belt did not have a morning price quote. The western corn belt and Iowa-Minnesota both averaged $75.12/cwt on their morning price reports today.
Peoria had a live top of $52/cwt on Friday. Zumbrota, MN was closed because of snow. The top for interior Missouri live hogs today was $57/cwt, down $1.50 from the previous Friday.
Thursday afternoon's calculated pork cutout value was $81.78/cwt, up $1.68 from the previous Thursday, but down $3.78 from this week last year. Ham prices are lower than a week ago, but loins, bellies, and butts are higher. After two weeks of being above 100 per cent, the national average hog carcass price this morning is 92.1 per cent of the cutout value. Hopefully, this better margin will cause packers to put a halt to the hog price slide.
Hog slaughter this week totaled 2.066 million head, down 3.7 per cent from last week and down 2.7 per cent compared to the same week last year. Since the start of December, slaughter of US raised barrows and gilts has been within half of a percent of the number implied by the December market hog inventory.
Despite negative profit margins for producers, it looks like the sow herd may be expanding. Since early December, slaughter of US sows has been down and our gilt slaughter data has shown an increase in gilt retention.
The average barrow and gilt live weight in Iowa-Minnesota last week was 275.3 pounds, down 0.4 pound from a week earlier and down 0.7 pound from a year ago. Iowa-Minnesota weights have been below year earlier for 20 of the last 21 weeks.
Friday's close for the April lean hog futures contract was $81.65/cwt, down $2.60 from the previous Friday. May hog futures ended the week $1.72 lower at $89.90/cwt. June hogs lost $2.00 this week to settle at $90.95/cwt today. July hog futures ended the week at $90.97/cwt.
Corn futures were lower this week, but soybean meal futures ended the week higher than the previous Friday.


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Giants beat Cardinals to even series
Published 12:31 am Tuesday, October 16, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Marco Scutaro answered Matt Holliday's hard takeout with a big hit of his own to help the San Francisco Giants end their home slide.
Scutaro hit a two-run single in San Francisco's four-run fourth inning to help the Giants get their first home win this postseason, 7-1 over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night that tied the NL championship series at one game apiece.
The game got off to a testy start when Holliday barreled into Scutaro at second base to break up a potential double play in the first inning. The play riled up a crowd that had seen three straight losses by the Giants so far this postseason.
There was plenty to cheer all night for the Giants. Ryan Vogelsong pitched seven strong innings, Angel Pagan hit a leadoff homer to give San Francisco its first home lead this postseason, and Scutaro broke the game open with his single off Chris Carpenter.
Making Scutaro's hit even sweeter for the Giants was the fact that Holliday misplayed the ball in left field, allowing a third run to score on the error.
Scutaro left after five innings because of an injured left hip, and was going for X-rays.
The series now shifts to St. Louis for three games, starting with Game 3 on Wednesday when San Francisco ace Matt Cain takes on Kyle Lohse of the Cardinals.
The Giants also benefited from a missed call by an umpire in the eighth inning after St. Louis center fielder Jon Jay made a spectacular, diving catch to rob Brandon Crawford of a hit.
Jay threw toward first and the Cardinals should have gotten a double play, but first base umpire Bill Miller did not see Allen Craig tag Gregor Blanco's jersey as he raced back to first on the play.
St. Louis manager Mike Matheny argued the call and the umpires huddled to discuss it, but they kept the safe call even though replays showed Craig made the tag. The Giants capitalized when Ryan Theriot hit a two-run single to make it 7-1.
Back at Busch Stadium, Holliday will be cheered after being the target of boos all night following his aggressive play on the basepaths.
With runners on first and second and one out, Craig hit a bouncer to Crawford, and the shortstop quickly flipped to Scutaro for the forceout.
Holliday, a former high school football star in Oklahoma, came tumbling in and slid late into Scutaro, crushing his left leg to prevent up the double play. Scutaro lay on the ground twisting in pain while trainer Dave Groeschner and manager Bruce Bochy ran out of the dugout to attend to the second baseman.
Vogelsong got out of the jam by retiring Yadier Molina on a groundout and Scutaro stayed in the game with a limp until being replaced in the sixth by Theriot.
By then, he had done his damage with the bat in the big fourth inning.
The rally started innocently enough with a bloop, opposite field double by Brandon Belt and a chopper over third baseman David Freese by Blanco. Crawford then hit a bouncer between the mound and first base that Carpenter fielded and threw away toward first base. It appeared Crawford may have impeded Carpenter by running inside the baseline but the Cardinals did not argue the play.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Scutaro lined his single to left-center that Holliday misplayed to the delight of Giants fans, putting Carpenter and the Cardinals into a 5-1 hole.
Vogelsong made the lead hold up by becoming the first Giants starter to make it through six innings this postseason. He allowed four hits and one run for his first career postseason win.
These teams have a history of contentious meetings in the NLCS from Jeffrey Leonard's one-flap down home run trot in 1987 that riled up the Cardinals to a benches-clearing dustup 10 years ago when St. Louis reliever Mike Crudale buzzed Kenny Lofton after he showboated on a home run.
San Francisco answered with the bats this time as Pagan led off the bottom of the first with a homer — matching his feat from Game 4 of the division series against Cincinnati. The Giants had been outscored 20-6 and never led in two home losses to the Reds and the Game 1 defeat to the Cardinals.
The Cardinals tied it in the second inning when Pete Kozma drew a two-out walk and scored on Carpenter's RBI double, his third hit already this postseason.
But Carpenter, making his fifth appearance in 2012 after complicated surgery to remove a rib and two neck muscles, wasn't nearly as sharp on the mound or in the field. He allowed five runs — two earned — and six hits in four innings, failing to add to his 10 career postseason wins.
NOTES: Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins is the only other player with two leadoff homers in a single postseason, doing it in 2008. … Cardinals OF Carlos Beltran reached base three times, doubling twice and walking once. … Giants 3B coach Tim Flannery performed the national anthem with the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. … Vogelsong doubled in the sixth to become the first Giants pitcher to get a postseason extra-base hit since Jack Bentley homered in the 1924 World Series.


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5,000 high schools nationwide!
Over 350,000 readers every month!
Teen Ink is a monthly magazine dedicated to publishing works entirely by teenagers. Each issue includes literary works, opinions, book, movie, and music reviews, poetry, college information, sports, interviews, art, photography and essays on a wide range of personal issues and concerns.
The magazine is delivered in class sets of at least 30 to more than 5,000 public and private schools nationwide.
In addition, we send a copy to every senior and junior high in the country (more than 30,000 schools).
Teen Ink is published monthly September through June. Advertising reservation deadline is the 10th of the month for the following month's issue. Advertising materials must be received by the 15th of the month for the next month's issue. There is no print issue published in July or August.
The publisher reserves the right to refuse any copy or advertisement that might be inappropriate for teenagers.
Call (617) 964-6800 for more details.
King Full Page - 10" x 12.75"
Junior Page - 7.5" x 6"
Half Page - 10" x 6" or 5" x 13"
1/3 page - 7.5" x 6" or 5" x 10"
1/4 page - 5" x 6"
1/6 page - 4.25" square
1/8 page - 5" x 3" or 2.5" x 6"
1/16 page - 2" x 3"
In November and April we publish our annual College Issues to coincide with the NACAC National College Fairs. The issues include a Special College Supplement. The regular ad rates and sizes apply. Every month we provide an opportunity for colleges and universities to reach their prime market. Also, hundreds of organizations that provide summer programs for teens find our publication to be effective.
Magazine Overall Trim: 10 3/4" wide by 13 1/2" deep
King Full Page Bleed: 11 1/4" wide by 14" deep
King Full Page Trim: 10 3/4" wide by 13 1/2" deep
King Full Page Live: 10" wide by 12 3/4" deep
Two Page Spread Bleed: 22" wide by 14" deep
Two Page Spread Trim: 21 1/2" wide by 13 1/2" deep
Two Page Spread Live: 21" wide by 13" deep
Printing: Web Offset, Newsprint
Screens: 85-100 line screen preferred for newsprint.
Line Shot ads: Black and white Lino, Stat or Laser Print.
Half-tones: Film negative with position stats preferred.
Negative: Right reading, emulsion side down.
4-color process: Ads require separations and match print.
1-spot, 2-Spot, 3-Spot and 4 Color Process available.


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(CNN) -- If you're lying awake at night, feeling angry or fatigued, because of stress, you're in the majority, according to a nationwide report released Tuesday.
Anxieties about the economy are not only affecting Wall Street, but also 8 out of 10 Americans.
As many as 80 percent of Americans are stressed about their personal finances and the economy, according to the annual survey conducted by the American Psychological Association.
Top sources of stress in previous years were personal finances, work and issues related to raising children, said Dr. Katherine Nordal, the association's executive director for professional practice.
"This year, the jump was marked in that the No. 1 concern is both money and the economy," she said. "In my 30 years of experience, in the past, this was not the thing that would be high in complaint lists. Most people are driven to counseling because of relationship problems with marriage and children, depression and anxiety. But what we're seeing today is that the economy and finances are viewed as significantly more stressful, by more than 8 out of 10 Americans." See how the numbers of stressed Americans grew this year »
Nearly 7,000 Americans responded to the survey between April and September this year. Within five months, anxiety about the economy had jumped from 66 percent to 80 percent. The poll was conducted before the passage of the $700 billion bailout bill last week and Monday's stock market tumble.
Half of the respondents in the survey said they are increasingly stressed about their ability to provide for their family's basic needs. More than half, 56 percent, expressed concerns about job stability. This has translated into less productivity at work, because of anxieties about salary, heavy workload and job security.
Women are more worried than men, in terms of their personal finances, the economy, work, housing costs and job stability, according to the survey.
"The declining state of the nation's economy is taking a physical and emotional toll on people nationwide, and it is women who are bearing the brunt of financial stress,"according to the survey.
They are more stressed out because they're less economically secure than men, said Barbara Gault, vice president and director of research at the Institute for Women's Policy Research. "Many women are one divorce away from poverty. Women have more to worry about in terms of economic security and are more likely to be poor in old age than men," she said.
Older Americans also cited money as a source of stress, more so than younger generations. In the survey, 79 percent of the baby boomers and 73 percent of those who are 63 years and older identified money as a source of stress.
Mounting anxieties led 60 percent of poll respondents to report that they're feeling angry and irritable, 53 percent reported feeling fatigued and 52 percent said they lie awake at night.
As many as 47 percent reported having headaches, 35 percent had upset stomachs and 34 percent experienced muscular tension because of stress.
"We have a significant number of people reporting physical signs and symptoms of stress: muscle tension, headache, difficulty falling asleep," Nordal said. "Stress warning signs should be ringing all over the place. One of the interesting things is while the majority of Americans thought they're managing stress well, many were reporting physical symptoms."
To cope with stress, 48 percent of the respondents said they have overeaten or consumed fatty, unhealthy food. Nordal said people need to pay attention to the warning signs of stress.
"It should be a wake-up call for folks," she said. "It's like the check engine light on the dashboard. If you don't pay attention to it and take your car to the mechanic, you're going to end up with a major engine malfunction. In that same way, if you put your head in the sand and ignore the headache, the chest pains, the muscle tension, they will eventually catch up with you."
All About Stress • National Economy


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Main Page - Current Development - Developer FAQ - Tools - Related Projects - Project Ideas - Summer Projects
Installation - Troubleshooting - User FAQ - HOWTOs - Samples - Models - Education - Contributed Code - Papers
This page contains 2021 Google Summer of Code project ideas for ns-3.
- GSoC Frequently Asked Questions
- ns-3's 2021 GSoC Student guide
- GSoC student guide (not ns-3 specific)
- 2021 GSoC Student application template
- ns-3's GSoC Mentor guide
- GSoC Mentor guide (not ns-3 specific)
- GSoC Student Selection Process
- Get in contact with the ns-3 team: ns-developers mailing list | chat https://ns-3.zulipchat.com/
- 1 About the ns-3 project
- 2 Org admins
- 3 Mentors
- 4 Changes from last year
- 5 Students: how to participate
- 6 Patch requirement guidelines
- 7 Mentors: how to participate
- 8 Project Ideas
- 8.1 Linux-like Loss Detection Techniques for ns-3 TCP
- 8.2 Direct Code Execution upgrade
- 8.3 LoRaWAN
- 8.4 SEM - Examples and documentation
- 8.5 Upgrade the AQM Evaluation Suite for ns-3
- 8.6 Upgrade Python bindings framework
- 8.7 TCP maximum segment size (MSS) improvements
- 8.8 Enable IPv6 support for Ad hoc Routing Protocols in ns-3
- 8.9 IPv6 global routing
- 8.10 Integration of MIPv6 module into ns-3
About the ns-3 project
ns-3 is a discrete-event network simulator, with a particular emphasis on network research and education.
Users of ns-3 can construct simulations of computer networks using models of traffic generators, protocols such as TCP/IP, and devices and channels such as WiFi, and analyze or visualize the results. Simulation plays a vital role in the research and education process, because of the ability for simulations to obtain reproducible results (particularly for wireless protocol design), scale to large networks, and study systems that have not yet been implemented. A particular emphasis in ns-3 is the high degree of realism in the models (including frameworks for real application and kernel code) and integration of the tool with virtual machine environments and testbeds; we view that researchers need to move more effortlessly between simulation, testbeds, and live experiments, and ns-3 is designed to facilitate that.
ns-3 has participated in past GSoCs during 2008-10, 2012-15, and 2017-20. We seek students interested in the intersection of wireless and computer networking, performance analysis, and open source software.
Org admins
Google Summer of Code organizational admins for ns-3 are Tommaso Pecorella, Mohit Tahiliani and Tom Henderson; contact them with any questions. They also hang out on Zulip.
Mentors will be paired with students based on the projects that are selected. Mentors from companies are welcome, if the employer will permit the mentor sufficient time to perform the mentoring. Prospective mentors should notify Tom Henderson or Tommaso Pecorella of interest. Mentors familiar with ns-3 development practices will be preferred, to improve the chances of student code merge. In 2021, we are going to be seeking two-person or multiple-person mentoring teams for projects, to help with the mentoring workload and bring more expertise.
The current list of prospective mentors for 2021 is below:
- Tom Henderson
- Tommaso Pecorella
- Mohit P. Tahiliani
- Manoj Kumar Rana
- Sebastien Deronne
- Hany Assasa
- Davide Magrin
- Vivek Jain
- Viyom Mittal
- Mishal Shah
- Apoorva Bhargava
Changes from last year
Google has changed the program, reducing it to half the paid time from previous summers. Therefore, we will be seeking to define projects with much reduced scope than in years past. In general, we seek projects that aim to improve the existing simulator rather than add new features.
Students: how to participate
For students interested in applying to ns-3 for GSOC, please go through the following list to get started:
- Read the official GSoC student guide.
- Read ns-3's GSoC Student guide
- Look through our #Project Ideas below to see if you find a project that interests you.
- Review the ns-3 tutorial thoroughly, if you have not already done so.
- Once it is posted, look through the GSoC Student application template to start preparing your proposal. We will wait to see whether we are actually part of GSoC before posting this.
- Next, proceed to get in touch with the developers on the mailing list or chat room and refine your proposal.
- In parallel, make sure you prepare a patch as per the patch requirement guidelines. Your application to ns-3 will not be considered if you do not fulfill this requirement.
Below is a list of #Project Ideas proposed by the ns-3 team for Google Summer of Code 2021. Please note that these ideas are not limited to GSoC; anyone is welcome to work on them. Please email the ns-developers list if you have a different idea that you'd like to work on, to see if a mentor may be interested. Applicants are encouraged to look over this list, pick one that especially interests them, think about it, and discuss potential approaches on the ns-developers list. Previous experience with the Google Summer of Code programmes suggest that the more you discuss and refine your proposal on the mailing list beforehand, the stronger the proposal it will develop into, and the higher your chances of being accepted into the programme.
Each project idea within a particular priority has been tagged with the following properties:
- Required Experience: Languages, concepts, or packages with which applicants must be familiar.
- Bonus Experience: Other experience or familiarity which would be greatly helpful to applicants for this project.
- Interests: Areas of particular relevance to this project, and an indicator of where successful students might apply their experiences coming out of this project.
- Difficulty: easy, medium or difficult
- Recommended reading: pointers to documentation, papers, specific bugs, etc.
Note that all of the projects require some experience and comfort with C++. Project ideas for which C++ is noted as a required experience will require more and deeper familiarity with the language. A similar notion applies to computer networking, BSD sockets, etc: Familiarity is strongly preferred, but is not required except where explicitly noted due to the topic being more advanced in that regard. A few projects are more Python-centric.
Patch requirement guidelines
Each project idea has (or will have) a list of proposed tasks that a student must do to ensure his/her ability to carry out the idea successfully. Performing one task is necessary for a successful application, and performing more than one task is not necessary.
If a student wants to work on a proposed task he/she should immediately contact the mentor(s) to "claim" that task - in order to avoid (where needed) that multiple students are on the same task. A task might involve fixing a specific open issue, or adding some functionalities to the existing code.
Students that did already contribute to the ns-3 codebase with non-trivial bug fixing or features additions might be exempted from performing a task. If you have doubts about if your contributions made you eligible for the task exemption contact the mentors.
Mentors: how to participate
The ns-3 project is open to the proposal of new project ideas by developers interested in being a GSoC mentor. For mentors who're adding project ideas to the list below, please ensure that:
- The projects are sized such that there can be a code merge by the end of the coding period. The scope of the project should be such that it is very difficult to not have a code merge by the end of the summer.
- The proposed projects are not too open-ended. That is, if the deliverables or a clear path to the same are not well understood, it is better kept outside GSOC.
- There should be a clear merge path to one of the main project code repositories (ns-3-dev, ns-3-dce, bake) by the end of the summer, either because the patches directly apply to these repositories, or because they apply to an ns-3 module that is in the process of being merged with ns-3-dev.
Project Ideas
Note to students: These ideas are not listed in any priority order.
Linux-like Loss Detection Techniques for ns-3 TCP
Mentors: Vivek Jain, Viyom Mittal, Apoorva Bhargava
Forward Acknowledgement (FACK), Duplicate Selective Acknowledgement (DSACK), Tail Loss Probe (TLP) and Recent Acknowledgement (RACK) are the loss detection techniques implemented in the Linux kernel. These techniques have been already implemented for ns-3 TCP but their code is not yet merged into the mainline. This project has four main goals: (1) update the implementation of these techniques according to the latest ns-3-dev, (2) develop a framework to test the functionality of these techniques, (3) develop example program(s) to demonstrate the usage of these techniques in ns-3 and (4) merge these techniques in the mainline of ns-3.
- Required Experience: Familiarity with TCP and C++ programming.
- Bonus Experience: Familiarity with TCP implementation in Linux kernel.
- Interests: TCP packet loss detection techniques.
- Difficulty: Medium to Hard.
- Recommended Reading:
- Forward Acknowledgement (FACK) [Paper] [Implementation]
- Duplicate Selective Acknowledgment (DSACK) [RFC 2883] [Implementation]
- Tail Loss Probe (TLP) [Internet Draft] [Implementation]
- Recent Acknowledgment (RACK) [Internet Draft] [Implementation]
Direct Code Execution upgrade
Mentor: Tom Henderson
ns-3 has an extension known as Direct Code Execution, which allows users to build C or C++-based applications, and open source (Linux, FreeBSD) kernels, into ns-3. However, support for the latest kernels (e.g. Linux kernel 5 series) and latest glibc library versions has languished. We also could better integrate DCE with the main ns-3 tree. This project seeks a student interested in DCE, improving usability, and making it current with latest kernels and toolchains. The payoff of this type of project is very high since DCE makes available a lot of real-world models for use in ns-3. If you select this project idea, please engage with us on the developers list, and consider to take a look at solving one of the open DCE issues in our tracker, for starters.
- Required Experience: good hacking skills on Linux, C, C++, Python
- Difficulty: Hard.
- For more information: https://www.nsnam.org/about/projects/direct-code-execution/, https://github.com/direct-code-execution/ns-3-dce
- Patch requirement: Any progress you can make on one of the following topics:
- Get DCE working on Ubuntu 20.04
- Upgrade the current net-next-nuse to a later kernel version than kernel 4.4
- Get DCE to compile with clang++ (https://github.com/direct-code-execution/ns-3-dce/issues/16)
Mentor: Davide Magrin
LoRaWAN is a communication technology for the Internet of Things, that allows battery-powered devices to wirelessly transmit data over long distances. Thanks to the lorawan module for ns-3, users can simulate networks where thousands of such devices communicate with a central server through multiple gateways. Packets might collide and be lost, devices might need to re-transmit them, and the central server can tell devices to change their transmission parameters according to suitable, exotic algorithms - we model it all.
This module rapidly grew in the last period, with the addition of various features and functionalities that are not completely tested nor documented, yet. In this project, you will mostly work to (1) integrate these features into the mainline code, and (2) improve the LoRaWAN module's testing and documentation.
Additionally, according to time availability and your interest, you can also help showcasing the potentialities of the lorawan module through the SEM library. Indeed, SEM can be used together with the lorawan module to provide users with meaningful examples, with the dual objective of giving a better understanding of what is going on within a single simulation, as well as how a simulation campaign can be easily conducted.
- Required Experience: Familiarity with C++ programming and the LoRaWAN standard.
- Bonus Experience: Familiarity with Python programming.
- Interests: Internet of Things communication protocols.
- Difficulty: Medium to Hard.
- For more info: https://github.com/signetlabdei/lorawan, http://github.com/signetlabdei/sem
- Patch requirement: Create a pull request that fixes any of the following issues in the lorawan repo:
- Test, fix and make sure the us915 branch works as expected, helping merge it into develop https://github.com/signetlabdei/lorawan/issues/32
- Write a documentation entry describing how the Network Server works, or fix any other point in this issue: https://github.com/signetlabdei/lorawan/issues/58
SEM - Examples and documentation
Mentor: Davide Magrin
The SEM Python library was designed to help ns-3 users run complex simulation campaigns. Among other things, SEM strives to make it as easy as possible to parse the output of simulations and to obtain plots that show the impact of simulation parameters on the network's performance.
One of the objectives for the next big SEM release is to provide users with more examples that are both easy to modify and that showcase the full potential of the library and of the Python data analysis ecosystem. In this project, your objective will be to show how SEM can be used from within Jupyter Notebooks to gradually explore the behavior of a network. Aside from the creation of new examples, you will also have the opportunity to try your hand at the all-important task of writing documentation. If there's time and you feel like tackling the issue, in a second part of the project you will also explore how SEM can be used to visualize the behavior of single simulations that leverage ns-3's built-in logging.
- Required Experience: Familiarity with Python and C++ programming.
- Bonus Experience: Familiarity with Jupyter Notebooks.
- Difficulty: Medium.
- For more info: http://github.com/signetlabdei/sem
- Patch requirement: Create a pull request completing any of the following tasks:
- Create a new example SEM script, that runs a program different from wifi-multi-tos and plots some meaningful result
- Add a test that improves the codecov score (you can do this either on the develop branch or on the newrelease branch)
Upgrade the AQM Evaluation Suite for ns-3
Mentors: Viyom Mittal, Vivek Jain, Mishal Shah
AQM (Active Queue Management) evaluation suite for ns-3 helps to quickly study the performance of AQM algorithms based on the guidelines mentioned in RFC 7928. This suite automates simulation setup, topology creation, traffic generation, program execution, results collection and their graphical representation using ns-3 based on the scenarios mentioned in RFC 7928. It was designed and developed in 2017 and actively maintained till 2019. In the past two years, the traffic control model in ns-3 has grown significantly in terms of supporting state-of-the-art packet scheduling and AQM algorithms. This project has four main goals: (1) upgrade the AQM Evaluation Suite according to the latest ns-3-dev, (2) enable support for latest packet scheduling, AQM algorithms and ECN functionality (3) update the examples in AQM Evaluation Suite to better suit the needs of researchers working in this area, and (4) make AQM Evaluation Suite available on the ns-3 app store.
- Required Experience: Familiarity with AQM and C++ programming.
- Bonus Experience: Familiarity with traffic control model in ns-3.
- Interests: Packet Scheduling algorithms, AQM algorithms and ECN.
- Difficulty: Medium.
- Recommended Reading:
- AQM Evaluation Suite [Paper] [Implementation]
- Traffic Control Model in ns-3
- Patch requirement: Create a pull request to handle the case when an incorrect Scenario name or number is passed via command line. Examples:
- ./waf --run "aqm-eval-suite-runner --name=<unsupported scenario>"
- ./waf --run "aqm-eval-suite-runner --number=<unsupported number>"
Upgrade Python bindings framework
Mentors: Tom Henderson
The project has provided Python bindings via a toolchain combining pybindgen, CastXML, and pygccxml. This is a compile-time solution, and some drawbacks have appeared as the C++ language has evolved but the bindings framework has not kept pace (leading to errors in scanning the APIs, or incomplete API coverage). A recent summary can be found here. This project would aim to prototype and evaluate whether a different framework could be used (such as cppyy or pybind11). In any case, work can also include fixing one or more bugs/limitations found in our issue tracker with the label 'python bindings'.
- Required Experience: Familiarity with C++ and Python/C. Solid Python coding skills.
- Interests: Python bindings
- Difficulty: Medium to Hard.
- Patch requirement: Any progress you can make on one of the following topics:
- Successfully scan bindings on macOS (see https://gitlab.com/nsnam/ns-3-dev/-/issues/93)
- Add support for C++ scoped enums in pybindgen
- Any proof-of-concept implementation (even if only partially working) using cppyy or pybind11
TCP maximum segment size (MSS) improvements
Mentors: Tommaso Pecorella, others TBD
TCP performances are affected by the maximum segment size (MSS) - a wrong choice might either lead to inefficient transmission (higher overhead) or IP fragmentation.
At the moment ns-3 implementation allows to set the MSS via an Attribute (set by default to 536 bytes by TcpSocket Attribute "SegmentSize"). Although it is stated that it "may be adjusted based on MTU discovery", its value is not changed in a simulation.
The goal of the project is to update the MSS handling, allowing to: 1) Set it to a fixed size, or allowing auto-probing of "optimal" MSS, 2) Use and honor the TcpOptionMSS (RFC 793), with a proper example of use, and 3) React to intermediate links with short MTU, and/or to changes in the Path MTU (PMTU).
The last point is to be carefully handled, as in many points in the code there is an implicit assumption that the MSS is constant in a given flow.
Moreover, note that finding the optimal PMTU is not that simple, as IPv6 and IPv4 react differently to packets exceeding the link MTU, and they won't notify if a packet is shorter than the link MTU. As a consequence, it would be useful to implement the Packetization Layer Path MTU Discovery (RFC 4821) - which might exceed the GSoC timeframe.
Hence, it would be advisable to carefully select the features to be supported and tested in the project, eventually paving the ground for future enhancements.
- Required Experience: Familiarity with TCP, IPv4 and IPv6, and in particular with fragmentation.
- Difficulty: Medium / Hard
- Recommended reading:
Enable IPv6 support for Ad hoc Routing Protocols in ns-3
Mentors: Tommaso Pecorella, and others TBD
ns-3 contains models for proactive (DSDV and OLSR) and reactive (AODV and DSR) ad hoc routing protocols. However, these models are IPv4-only and do not provide support of IPv6 addressing. This project aims to enable IPv6 support for ad hoc routing protocols in ns-3, mainly for AODV. There are out-of-tree implementations of OLSR and DSDV that provide support for IPv6 addressing, and can be used as references to get started with this project.
The most important point of the implementation should be code duplicate minimization, in order to have the minimize maintenance efforts.
Note: Enabling IPv6 support for these protocols is not a matter of simply changing out an IPv4-formatted address for an IPv6-formatted address. The IPv6 addressing architecture emphasizes scoping much more than does IPv4 (RFC 4007). Please suggest in your application how IPv6 address configuration (and possibly auto-configuration?) and address scopes (e.g. link-local vs. global) should be used in these protocols. Consulting the RFCs is highly recommended.
- Required Experience: Fundamentals of IPv6 addressing, C++ programming.
- Bonus Experience: Familiarity with AODV implementations in ns-3
- Interests: Ad hoc routing
- Difficulty: Medium.
- Recommended reading:
Possible tasks to fulfill the patch requirement:
- Issue #271 - olsr header and messages are not printing either their size or their content.
- Issue #368 - aodv: aodv parameters can be set to "impossible" values
IPv6 global routing
Mentors: Tommaso Pecorella, others TBD
Creating a complex topology can be a problem, and sometimes the user do not want to be (also) concerned about setting up dynamic routing protocols (e.g., RIP, RIPng). For IPv4, ns-3 provides two alternatives: GlobalRouting, and NixRouting, which just "do the trick" - they simply fill the routing tables in intermediate nodes, GlobalRouting using an approach similar to OSPF, NixRouting by leveraging the "abstract" knowledge of the network. Neither actually use any message between the nodes, so they also reduce the network overhead - something that is useful in many cases.
The problem is that they don't work for IPv6, and that's a huge limitation. The goal of the project is to fix that limitation. Note that the project must cope with different IPv6 address kinds (link-local, global, scoped multicast, etc.). Due to the limitation with GlobalRouting w.r.t. wireless channels, it would be advisable to start working with NixRouting.
The most important point of the implementation should be code duplicate minimization, in order to have the minimize maintenance efforts.
- Required Experience: Fundamentals of IPv6 addressing, C++ programming.
- Bonus Experience: Familiarity with NixRouting and GlobalRouting implementations in ns-3
- Interests: IPv6 routing
- Difficulty: Medium.
- Recommended reading:
Possible tasks to fulfill the patch requirement:
- Add a function to print the path that a packet will use (according to Ipv4NixVectorRouting), i.e., given source and destination IP print the IP addresses of the nodes that Ipv4NixVectorRouting will use.
- Add a function to print the path that a packet will use (according to Ipv4GlobalRouting), i.e., given source and destination IP print the IP addresses of the nodes that Ipv4GlobalRouting will use.
Integration of MIPv6 module into ns-3
Mentor: Manoj Kumar Rana
The MIPv6 module had already been implemented in ns-3 (The links of their implementations are given below). But, these modules are still lacking in ns-3 main tree. One of the medium access control (MAC) layer issue was NetDevice up/down consistency which has been resolved through the GSoC 2020 project titled, "NetDevice up/down consistency and event chain". The MIPv6 integration still requires understanding the behaviour of IPv6 and ICMPv6 protocols running in LTE module (mainly between PGW/SGW and eNB). Although IPv6 packets are now transferred over LTE network, the sole purpose of MIPv6 handoff i.e. switching mobile node between LTE and WiFi can only be accomplished by modifying the existing MIPv6 module and extending the existing LTE module.
- Required Experience: C++, LTE IPv6 support.
- Bonus Experience: Familiarity with MIPv6/PMIPv6 module implementations in ns-3
- Interests: IPv6
- Difficulty: Medium.
- Recommended reading:
Patch Requirement:
- Dynamic IPv6 address configuration of UEs in LTE networks (To be updated): Currently, UEs are assigned static IPv6 address and the assignment is hard-coded within the helper class. But, MIPv6 is a dynamic procedure and so, the standard requires the address to be dynamically configured. It requires the access point i.e. the eNB/epc advertises a 64 bit prefix within the mobile network and the UE will configure an 128 bit IPv6 address from it.


text:
Villagers' shock at morning bank robbery
Just before 9am today two men robbed the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in Hathersage and made off with a significant amount of cash in a holdall.
The Main Road bank was closed and cordoned off with police tape for most of the day as officers carried out enquiries.
One shocked villager, who did not want to be named, said: "You don't expect this type of thing to happen in Hathersage – it's usually such a quiet place.
"I hope they catch those responsible."
A spokesman for Derbyshire police said: "After the robbery, the men turned left out of the bank and made off towards the village.
"They were described as scruffy, wearing hooded tops with the hoods worn up.
"Members of the public are asked to contact police if they saw the men in the area at 9.05am or saw anything suspicious on Wednesday night."
The police spokesman was unable to say how exactly how much money was taken nor if any staff members were inside the bank at the time of the crime.
A spokesman for RBS was unable to comment and said it was a matter for the police.
Anyone with information should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.


text:
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is looking beyond Friday and the beginning of the sequestration.
In an interview I conducted with him on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Ryan told me he believes a majority of Americans will come to understand how bad the debt is after the rhetoric gives way to reality.
"Mitt (Romney) and I shadowboxed against the theory of big government," he says, "while (President) Obama made all the great promises of what it delivered and used soaring rhetoric to sell it, but that will be different in a second term (when) the results start materializing."
As one example, Ryan mentions the impact of the Affordable Care Act -- Obamacare -- on seniors. He believes that when seniors begin to experience Obamacare's negative effects it will "put us in a much better position not just to say, 'I told you so,' but to show there's a far better way than 15 people on a board appointed by the president making all these decisions that will ration your health care on top of all these ... price controls to providers that will restrict your access."
By the end of next year, Ryan believes, "...you'll see a lot of anxiety in the health care provider community that will damage access to health care for seniors and I think the bloom will come off the Obamacare rose, such as it exists today (with) every additional year of implementation."
Ryan says health care providers are already telling some members of Congress about their "negative margins with Obamacare kicking in" and how the law will either force them to close, or "they're going to stop taking people, or overcharge the private payers who increasingly will dump their employees into the Obamacare program."
"The president said, 'if you like your plan you can keep it,'" Ryan said. "Not true. The president said this was going to improve Medicare. He said health care costs would go down. They've gone up."
Given all this, what will Ryan and the Republicans do when across-the-board spending cuts begin?
"Our job is to buy the country time," he tells me. "That means we need a down payment on the debt and deficits. We need to buy time for the bond markets to push off a debt crisis outside of the four-year window. We then go to the country with a real agenda of specific alternatives to this progressive experiment that's unfolding to win 2016 so we can actually fix this thing before it's too late."
He says he's not worried about polls that show a majority of the country will blame Republicans for the sequester: "Getting actual accomplishments by getting debt and deficits under control, stabilizing our debt to buy the country time so we don't have a debt crisis" will allow Republicans to "go to the country with a crystal clear choice that more clearly juxtapose(s) against the reality of big government under Obama is what we have to shoot for."
Ryan says the House next week will give the president "...some reprogramming authority to be able to direct cuts to lower priority areas from higher priority areas."
What if the Senate doesn't go along? "That's their choice," he says.
Ryan recalls how scare tactics failed in the 1996 debate over welfare reform when liberals lamented cuts to the welfare program that they believed would surely lead to poor children starving in the streets of America. Instead Clinton's welfare-to-work program made it possible for many low-income Americans to get jobs. Ryan calls the current GOP plan "Welfare Reform 2.0" and expects similar positive results by focusing on "improving prosperity, opportunity and individual responsibility."
Democrats have "won a battle, but not the war," Ryan says.
Is he optimistic he will win the war?
"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't."


text:
Ammesset Software
Omni Connect allows you to quickly and simply arm and disarm your ethernet-enabled HAI Omni controller or control your home lighting mode on your HAI Lumina controller. Omni Connect also provides a a summary of alarm conditions and system troubles. If you are looking for a quick and easy way to arm and disarm or control the lighting mode of your system Omni Connect may be for you!
- Set day, night, away, and vacations modes on Omni and Lumina controllers and disarm Omni controllers
- View status of burglary, fire, gas, and other alarms
- View system troubles
- Reconnect automatically to the controller when opening the application (optional)
- Compact, easy to use interface
FireRecordTM allows you to automatically record video from your FireWire enabled MPEG2 devices such as cable set-top boxes. Schedule individual or recurring events from one or more devices.
- Create multiple single or recurring recording events
- Specify unique storage locations for each event
- Record from multiple devices
- Power on devices that are off
- Automatically create index files for file management
- Change channels for recording (available on some hardware)
- Several user-configurable preferences


text:
As we speed away from Burn's
night and head towards St Patrick's Day, it's time to start cracking open some
Irish whiskey.
Once long forgotten, the rise of
Irish whiskey has seen a plethora of new distilleries opening up, with plenty
more in the pipeline. In our recent visits to Ireland to see either
brand-spanking new facilities or those out in the market drumming up support,
one thing has made itself very clear: Ireland will become more serious about
Pot Still than any other style of whiskey.
Scotland is a fairly simple place
when it comes to whisky-making. You've got your single malts, with only one distillery
fully triple distilling (nb: Springbank
occasionally utilising their three still to triple distil, and Mortlach using
bamboozing marketing terminology to say they distilled more than twice).
Then you've got your grain
whisky, mainly matured in bourbon casks. Add them together and you've got your
third type, blends. Simple, hey?!
Over in Ireland, it isn't quite
so simple. With a much smaller pool of distilleries, the fame of Irish whiskey
grew up around their main ideal of triple distillation. But there is so much
more to Irish whiskey than the third still, for across this tiny network of
distilleries they make single malt twice distilled (peated and unpeated),
single malt thrice distilled, grain whisky, pot still whiskey (from a malted
and unmalted barley mix), and of course blends... but blends not just of grain
and malt whiskeys, but blends of all of these. Jameson Black Barrel even takes
some whiskey from a pot still and runs it through the column still before
maturation... I mean, what kind of voodoo is that?!
Currently the fastest growing
category of dark spirit in the world, Irish whiskey is on a roll (driven by the
popularity of Jameson in markets such as the USA) and with each new release
from across the countries different distilleries, clarity is beginning to fall
on the various production styles and flavour profiles.
One of the most sought-after
releases, and a real favourite of ours here at Caskstrength HQ, is Redbreast. A
wonderfully well matured whiskey, we have always been a fan of the 12 Year Old.
When the 15 Years Old appeared, fleetingly, at the start of the last decade, we
got very excited indeed (in fact I seem to remember nearly an entire bottle
being consumed at one of the Toucan pubs in London with a group of writers and
employees of some of London's finest whisky shops) and even more so when it
came back as part of the permanent range.
With the addition of a Cask
Strength 12 Year Old and then the fantastic 21 Year Old, the range seemed to be
taking shape with a real personality and DNA of its own. And now the folk at
Irish Distillers, producers of Redbreast, have just launched a limited edition
version. A No Age Statement, although in answering questions on their social
media outlets had it pegged at carrying an age statement of 13 years old, if it
were to have one) the whiskey has been solely matured in ex-Oloroso sherry
butts. This one sounds right up my street.
When I heard that this whiskey
was available, but only 2000 bottles were being released, I headed over to the
Redbreast website to buy a bottle. And the verdict?
Redbreast – Mano a Lamh – Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey – All Sherry
Limited Edition – 2000 bottles only – 46% abv – 65 euro here
Nose: Marzipan and Battenburg Cake rise from the glass with a
surprisingly large amount of vanilla for an 'all-oloroso' offering. This has
some spirituous notes but this is one of those occasions where this is a positive as it provides a platform for the lovely, sweet flavours to play.
Light and airy but with hidden depth.
Palate: This is a smooth whiskey with a sweet back palate, some frozen
red berries and hot vanilla sauce on top. It is terribly easy to drink, as you
would expect from a Redbreast, but a block of ice really takes this up a level
to a longer, more sipping whiskey. The flavours from the nose deliver on the
palate too.
Finish: Sweetened vanilla custard, almonds and some milk chocolate praline.
Overall: Well, there we have it folk... the rise of Single Pot
Still Irish Whiskey doesn't seem fleeting, or limited to core expressions. It
seems to be strong, and rising.


text:
Mix and Match Assortment - 3 pack, 16 oz. jars
Mix and Match Assortment - 3 pack, 16 oz. jars
When you send these marmalades, jellies, and fruit butters you'll delight them with Florida's most delectable collection. Made in our factory from natural fruit and juices, straight from the groves. Quality fare for everyone to enjoy.
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