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Send questions and comments to email@example.com and follow me on Twitter! Question: What do you think of the 13th season of American Idol so far, Matt?
Send questions and comments to firstname.lastname@example.com and follow me on Twitter!
Question: What do you think of the 13th season of American Idol so far, Matt? Have you watched any episodes of the new season yet? If so, what do you think of the new judge Harry Connick Jr. and the return of judges Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban? I bailed on Idol midway through last season because I couldn't stand the childish feud between judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj. I tuned back in this season to see what the Idol judges were going to be like this season, and so far I am loving the great chemistry between Harry, Keith and J-Lo! I also especially love Harry's wacky sense of humor on the show, along with the great singing talent so far! I know that Idol isn't pulling in the very high ratings like it used to back in its heyday, but I feel like this season of Idol is miles away better than the Mariah-Nicki fiasco of last season. — Chris
Matt Roush: I'm afraid American Idol's most robust ratings days are behind it, but creatively and for entertainment value, Harry Connick Jr. is the best thing to happen to Idol in quite some time. Can't remember when I've enjoyed the audition episodes this much. Not only is he the life of the party, but he's serious about the music — at the risk of being labeled "Harsh Harry" — even when he refuses to take himself or his colleagues all that seriously. (When he needled J Lo about how she never flew commercial, Keith wasn't the only one cracking up.) I love how he doesn't swoon every time someone oversings, and I'm also impressed by how clearly excited he gets by some of the performers' potential. He sees a great vocal battle looming, and we'll all be lucky if the focus stays more on the singers this year than on the judges (as last year's mess warns against). As much as I enjoy The Voice's blind auditions, there's something so much more pure and simple about the Idol audition process when it's produced properly, as it has mostly been this year. Ratings aside (and most networks would still kill for these numbers), this is shaping up to be a very good season.
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Question: It was recently announced that Glee would move full time to New York City following the 100th episode, and I was wondering who do you think will move to NYC to be with Rachel, Kurt and Santana and who will be left behind. As much as I prefer the veteran actors of the show, it's sad to see the new cast members lose their jobs due to this creative change. Also, it was announced that Jane Lynch would still be a part of Glee, but I don't know how Sue would fit into the NYC storyline. Thoughts? — Lauren
Matt Roush: I honestly don't know how this is going to work, and I wish I were more enthusiastic to find out. (This is the first season where I've drifted away to the point that I've let some episodes, post-"Quarterback," go unwatched.) I'd have to assume that Blaine and Artie, at the very least (maybe Sam, maybe Tina?), will join the Lima exiles in the Big Apple, but beyond that, it's just a guessing game, and I'm not sure the show has it all mapped out exactly, either. Despite what has been reported, I'd be surprised if there still aren't callbacks to McKinley High from time to time, but it's also clear that the New York sections were working better than the blandly repopulated and recycled high school stories. I only hope that they don't somehow find a way to put Sue on the faculty of NYADA or some such eye-rolling plot twist. Just as Fox contends that there's no Glee without Jane Lynch, so do I wish that if they're bold enough to be cutting the cord to Lima, that they'd just acknowledge this should be the final season and not try to stretch it out to another.
Question: Is Sleepy Hollow going to have a full 22-episode run next season? — Rob
Matt Roush: Doubtful. Fox chief Kevin Reilly is convinced a mythology-heavy, densely plotted show like this works better in shorter cycles, with less padding and, they promise for next season, fewer interruptions and repeats. I'm OK with that, as I write in a column that will appear in the next issue of TV Guide Magazine. It's possible Fox might increase the order by a few episodes next season, but these limited "event" series are the wave of the future — as long as the shows actually feel like events. Which Sleepy Hollow certainly does. However, I'm aware that these shorter runs can have a downside, as the next question (a long one) demonstrates.
Question: I'm not sure if I've ever read any commentary of yours on Royal Pains, so I'm not even certain you really follow it. It's a show I have watched fairly often and enjoy (a nice break from the darker dramatic fare I have found myself watching more and more). In particular, I wanted to comment on Ben Shenkman's stellar performance as Dr. Jeremiah Sacani, which has turned me into a regular viewer of the show during the past two seasons. It's a truly nuanced and compelling performance that in the hands of a lesser actor could have turned into a one-note (and short-lived) addition to the show. Their decision to add him as a regular last season was probably one of the wisest moves the producers have made. Sacani is one of the most intriguing and fascinating characters on any of the shows I'm currently watching, and during this awards season as the same actors get nominated over and over, I'm always reminded of those unsung heroes of the acting world like Shenkman who consistently turn out amazing work and never seem to get the recognition that they should. Bravo, Ben!
On a slightly related note, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the cable standard 13-episode seasons (like Royal Pains, Justified and pretty much all of the original series on the cable networks). Initially, I thought a 13-episode story arc would work (with the promise of tighter plot lines, fewer "what just happened?" episodes), but now I'm not so sure. If not handled well (especially if cliffhangers are the standard ending to each year's season), it can get really annoying. Making your audience dangle from a cliff for a couple of months after the close of a 22-episode network season is SOP and the viewers pretty much expect it; however, dangling for nine to 10 months until the next episode after only 13 weeks of story narrative on feels pretty ridiculous to me — the wait is just too long. And if you have a show that is closely tied to the calendar as is the case for Royal Pains (the show is aired between June and September each season and the action on the show takes place during the same time frame), the writers are essentially tasked with telling a story that keeps going "dark" for the bulk of the year while the action presumably continues.
As an example, at the end of last season's Royal Pains, all five major characters had significant challenges that were going to be met in the upcoming weeks and months right after the season finale signed off (including the birth of a baby), all of which the audience likely won't see due to the timeline involved. I'm sure the action will be summed up in Episode 1 of 2014 with a couple of flashbacks and catch-up references, but I find that really doesn't work from a storytelling point of view. For me, the series that actually make it work more successfully are the ones where each 13-episode season is treated like a mini-series, where the new case/plotline begins in Episode 1 and pretty much concludes in Episode 13. At any rate, I am less and less intrigued by the format and wonder if you have any insight as to what (other than money) seems to be the rationale for the shorter seasons. The format is becoming so tiresome for me personally that I find myself less likely to commit to any new shows presented by the cable networks with that set-up. I would welcome your insight. — Nancy
Matt Roush: First point: Ben Shenkman. I've always enjoyed his work, from when I first saw him in the off-Broadway (later Broadway) production of Proof to HBO's Angels in America and now this. I'm not a constant watcher of Royal Pains, but I look in on occasion, and he's certainly a good fit. It's not the sort of show that gets on the Emmy radar, though, so don't expect miracles on that front. Regarding cable scheduling and episode orders, that's a tricky subject. Cable networks are obviously constrained economically from producing as many episodes per show as their network peers, but USA did expand the Royal Pains order in its second and third seasons, including episodes that aired in the winter. Not so this year, and a nine-month wait for episodes is awfully long, so I agree with your contention that for this sort of show, why not just wrap the main story or stories within the season, if it's not going to be split the way many USA shows are. (Which adds its own level of confusion to things.)
Question: I was just wondering if you think that the reason people might not be getting into Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is because it isn't about the "heroes" of Marvel? I tried the show and fell in love. I liked how it wasn't all about a hero like Arrow (which I didn't like at all) and was more about the people behind the scenes. Yes, it has that "daily catch" but pick a cop drama or anything else and it's the same. The fact we are getting such a back story on a character like Phil Coulson is awesome! I hope it comes back for a second season. — Christina
Matt Roush: Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson is the best reason to watch S.H.I.E.L.D., for sure, but the reason the show's reception has been underwhelming isn't so much premise as execution. If the team had the sort of electrifying chemistry that would make them the next "Scooby Gang," that would be great, and I like the idea of a show set in a world of superheroes where the heroics aren't super in nature. They just need to be more interesting.
Question: I know you probably don't do the Cheers & Jeers, but I hope you can pass this on: Jeers to Fox for starting The Following a full 11 minutes early on Sunday. Not everyone watches (or cares about) football, and just because the game ended early is no excuse for starting a scheduled program early. Those who programmed their DVRs (like me) for the scheduled program start time were confused when we began to watch and it seemed like we came in in the middle... because we did. Not cool. As always, love your column and all your reviews. Thanks! — Scarlett
Matt Roush: My Cheers & Jeers colleague wasn't able to use this, but it's a valid complaint. I've heard of football overruns (fairly common, especially on CBS in the East and Central time periods), but never a football under-run. Not that I'm a fan of endless post-game hype and commentary, but would it have killed Fox Sports to vamp a little longer so the show would have started on its scheduled time? The good news is that if you missed the first act of The Following's season opener and are dying to see what happened (which did, in fact, include a lot of dying), Fox is repeating the episode this week (Monday) in front of the second episode. But yes, not cool.
Question: I'd be interested in getting your thoughts about Arrow. I am really enjoying the current season so far, especially with the relationship between Oliver and Felicity. I know that her character was added as a regular member of the team because she became so popular and also am finding that I'm not alone in enjoying the bantering, fun, teasing nature (not to mention chemistry) that the characters have. I know that eventually Oliver will end up with Laurel, but it seems that the writers have filled her character with such angst and sadness (understandable with what she has been through) that I don't enjoy Laurel and Oliver together that much. In fact, there was a recent episode in which Laurel didn't even appear and I really didn't even miss her. I'm curious to get your thoughts on how the writers could possibly appease the many fans who are rooting for a pairing of Oliver and Felicity (especially now that Barry is on the show) and how they can drum up some chemistry for the pairing of Oliver and Laurel. — Virgie
Matt Roush: Be patient. No one can doubt Arrow is in it for the long run, with seasons and seasons ahead of them to play out these stories, so while Laurel is very much on a downward spiral these days and not the best of company, I imagine there will be twists, reversals and other complications that will keep this particular triangle percolating for quite some time. At some point, I would expect Oliver and Laurel to even smile again! My favorite triangle right now, though, involves Oliver-Felicity-Barry. When Barry fully manifests into The Flash, how will this girl choose between her two superheroes? Fun!
Question: Last week's rerun of NCIS, "Seek", was directed by Michael Weatherly and it was so good! I teared up at the end. Is he going to direct again in season 11? - Sandra
Matt Roush: You're not the only one who wrote in to ask — did the Michael Weatherly fan club organize a movement or something? — and while I'm sure he appreciates the positive feedback, I'm told there are no current plans for him to direct again this season.
Question: As I was watching last week's Almost Human, which was intended to be the second episode of the season, I started thinking about other series where the episode order was changed. The reasoning I've heard is that the networks feel they can draw in larger audiences to launch a series by showing the more captivating episodes first. I've seen this practice most often with sitcoms where there is not much of a serialized plot. That seems to be true for the most part with Almost Human so far, except the amount of contention/respect in the John/Dorian relationship seems to be fluctuating with each episode. Then with this last episode, they revisited some plot elements from the pilot which were not fresh in my memory.
I can see the logic behind networks trying to build audiences by rearranging the episode order, but my question is this: Is there a history of this tactic actually working to build an audience? Otherwise, why is the practice still so common? I often see it mentioned that this was one of the biggest downfalls of Firefly where the two-hour pilot, which set up the series very nicely, was not aired until close to the end of its limited TV run. — Todd
Matt Roush: The Firefly scheduling was a debacle, pure and simple. Audiences were thrown into the wild world of that sci-fi series without the grounding the pilot episode would have given them. That was a case of a network not believing in the show — they would live to regret it — and scheduling episodes with little regard for continuity. There's really no excuse for what's happening with Almost Human, either, especially if there's a noticeable disconnect in the character dynamics (the best part of the show) because of the order the episodes are airing. I'll admit the January midseason has been so overwhelmingly busy I haven't paid much attention to this situation, but unless the show is a straight-out procedural with no serialized threads, it's rarely a good thing to juggle episodes around like this. At the same time, first seasons of shows can be notoriously uneven, especially right out of the gate after the pilot, and if the producers and network are more excited about an episode further down the line, they may choose to move up its air date in hopes of winning over viewers, who are even more notoriously fickle these days.
Question:I was reading over some of your column on the app, and you answered a question about The Assets being canceled. That part wasn't of interest, but you mentioned Killer Women was already canceled and is still airing. I've been watching and my DVR is set for the season, yet I watched all of them live. What happened? Are ratings not good? While e-mailing, it crosses my mind that this is a niche in that the killer has to be a woman, what if they opened up the suspect storyline to anyone? I like this show and think it should stick around, even as a small season for a few years. — Heather
Matt Roush: The ratings and most of the reviews were not good for Killer Women, and its episode order was cut back. That's how it works. Still, beats the insta-fade of The Assets. Not sure expanding the range of villains to the male of the species would make much of a difference. I wonder if they'd have done better if they had promoted the hero (Tricia Helfer as Texas Ranger Molly Parker) over the "killer" angle. Parker, Texas Ranger has a certain ring to it — a CBS ring, true, but at least there's precedence.
Question: As a result of Olivia Benson's recent promotion, are the creators of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit planning on having a new detective join the squad and partner with Det. Nick Amaro? If the answer is yes, will the new detective be a returning character from either the SVU or the broader L&O universe, say for example Det. Monique Jefferies, Det. Megan Wheeler or Det. Carolyn Barek? I'm also curious that since his character's partner Det. Alexandra Eames has already appeared twice on the show, will Vincent D'Onofrio as Det. Robert Goren help investigate a case in an upcoming episode of SVU? — Alex
Matt Roush: According to reports from the recent TCA press tour, no new faces are expected in the SVU squad the rest of the season. (And if they're announced, such news would qualify as a spoiler, which is not what this column is about.) I would expect this means no returning faces from other Law & Order shows — but kudos to your deep knowledge of the various offshoots' dramatis personae (especially Criminal Intent, which I wouldn't look at as a breeding ground for new SVU regulars). Also haven't heard anything about Goren making an appearance — and if he does, it's not likely they'd keep that a secret. This is clearly a very transitional year for SVU, as often happens when a show gets this long in the tooth, and much of the current drama will likely hinge on Benson adjusting to being the boss (even if it's just a temporary position). If SVU does return for a 16th season, that's when I'd expect to see some new personnel in the precinct.
That's all for now. Keep sending your comments and questions to email@example.com, and in the meantime, follow me on Twitter!


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Police break into a Parisian apartment. Its furnishings suggest inhabitants with refined tastes - books line the walls and a baby grand piano sits in the living room - but the doors are sealed with duct tape, in an attempt to mask the stench. Thanks to concerned neighbours the police know what they're looking for: the body of a old woman, Anne (Emmanuelle Riva). She lies on her bed, haloed with petals and long dead.
This is the opening scene of Michael Haneke's devastating Amour, but it's also the film's eventual conclusion. By starting with the end the Austrian director ensures we never forget Anne's steadily approaching destination. Her death is a fixed point, as inescapable as our own, and its inevitability hangs over every scene.
Since his 1989 debut The Seventh Continent depicted a middle-class family calmly destroying their possessions and then committing suicide, Haneke has been celebrated for his provocative, bleak, fitfully violent films. Like many of his other works, Amour also portrays the destruction of a family, but instead of spawning from bourgeois fatalism or a cataclysmic disaster (Time of the Wolf) or even being instigated by serial killers (Funny Games), this obliteration comes from the grim trudge of time.
Attentive and still flirtatious despite their age, retired music teachers Anne and Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) live a life of quiet contentment until Anne suffers a small stroke. In a scene as unnerving as any Haneke has done previously, Georges is first aware of a problem during breakfast, when Anne becomes momentarily catatonic. Ruin slips in unannounced. Even if neither of them are fully aware at the time, it is the end of the life they've been enjoying and sharing.
After a visit to the doctor leads to surgery, Georges attempts to fulfil his promise to care for Anne at home as her health deteriorates rapidly. Where other movies might play the situation for its maximum emotional value, Amour focuses instead on the mundane realities of caring for an ailing partner: having a new bed installed, or helping them to use the toilet. Haneke's camera watches coolly, unable or unwilling to intervene.
Haneke's earlier pictures have been notable for their lengthy shots which sometimes end with a moment of sudden, shocking violence, and in Amour he relies upon audiences' familiarity with this technique. The viewer is trained to expect something horrible to happen, so that when it doesn't they are still left feeling tense. Even a simple event like a pigeon flying in through a window portends disaster. Like Georges, the audience is unable to relax, as the situation gets worse and every new development is inevitably a bad one.
Georges and Anne have been dealt a bad hand but Haneke refuses to pity them, giving his subjects dignity as they struggle through a situation seeking to rob them of it. It's deeply respectful not just of their love but of Georges' tenacity: in one scene he tells Anne about a syrupy funeral he has just attended, and the film mirrors his distaste for mawkishness.
Haneke has previously documented extremes of violence that probably won't afflict us in our own lives, but in Amour he explores a form that almost definitely will. Having made a career from torturing characters both literally and metaphorically, his characters here are tortured by the cruel indifference of life itself, and the degrading way it sputters out. Riva and Trintignant are remarkable in their roles, and because the actors' long careers mean we've seen them at their most youthful and alluring, their obvious frailty is even more affecting.
Anne and Georges revere music in the way others do religion, but as the succession of strokes take away Anne's ability not only to play music but also to appreciate it, Haneke asks us what the characters have left after culture, society and even family have fallen away. The answer, obvious from the title but surprising considering the unemotional source, is love. Humanely, but with clear eyes, the director observes that love isn't youthful passion or even comfortable retirement. Love is cutting up someone's food, or washing their hair, or lifting them out of their wheelchair even though you find it difficult to stand yourself. By keeping his distance – as always – Haneke's film is as moving as it is brutal.

subset: commoncrawl


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Opening remarks by Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, delivered at the OECD Forum 2013
28 May, 2013, OECD Conference Center, Paris
(As prepared for delivery)
Your Royal Highness, Dear Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Welcome to the OECD Forum 2013. I am delighted to see so many people from so many backgrounds and nationalities here today. This OECD Forum and the Ministerial Council Meeting that follows, are precisely about people. This is the raison d'etre of this event: the wellbeing of our people. So be confident, you are at the right place, this Conference is about you, and your families, and your friends, and their dreams, fears and opportunities.
We are here to talk about "Jobs, Equality and Trust". We have decided to focus on these three crucial issues because they have become the three main social deal-breakers, the three corner-stones to build a strong recovery and a new era of inclusive growth. At the OECD, we have identified these three elements as the "missing factors" after the crisis and we want to help our countries bring them back.
The economic outlook: some bright spots but still disappointing.
We are approaching the sixth year of the crisis. The global economy is moving forward reflecting some positive signs, like improving perspectives in the US and Japan and progress on structural and fiscal adjustments in euro area countries. However, the economic outlook is still disappointing. With fiscal policy still geared towards consolidation, growth in OECD countries will slow down even further in 2013, to a meagre 1.2%.
The global recovery is being hindered by multiple speeds and different paths towards self-sustained growth. Current account imbalances are still large and could be rising in the near future, while new imbalances are starting to affect a large and heterogeneous group of "innocent bystanders", both in advanced and emerging economies, through inflationary pressures and rising asset prices.
But the greatest source of anxiety comes from the social arena. Unemployment numbers are still alarmingly high. Today, we have close to 49 million people unemployed in the OECD area. This means we now have nearly 14 million more unemployed than before the crisis. And there are two particularly worrying facts in this drama: first, that the number of people out of job for more than 1 year has reached 17.3 million (that's a 92% increase between 2007 and 2012); secondly, that the most affected in this wave of unemployment have been our youngsters: the average unemployment rate in OECD countries for youth stands close to 17%.
At a global level, the crisis of unemployment is also hitting hard. There are close to 200 million people unemployed around the world; nearly 73 million are young people.
Inequalities have also been increasing at a steady pace. As we document in our study "Divided We Stand", during the three decades prior to the recent economic downturn, wage gaps widened and income inequality increased in a large majority of OECD countries. And now the crisis is widening these disparities. According to new OECD analysis, inequality has increased more over the past three years (to the end of 2010) than in the previous twelve. By 2011, the average income of the richest 10% of the population in OECD countries was about nine times that of the poorest 10%, that's a ratio of 9 to 1.
This also is the source of concern in emerging and developing countries. Countries like China, India, the Russian Federation and South Africa have all become less equal over the past 20 years. And while Brazil has managed to reduce its disparities, the inequalities ratio in this country is still 50 to 1. It is now clear that the benefits of economic growth are not trickling down.
This has had a very negative impact on people's trust. A myriad of studies and opinion polls reveal a systemic loss of trust in politicians, CEOs, governments, banks, corporations and markets throughout the world. One of the most worrying signals is the record low levels of trust in the government's capacity to improve the situation: the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer, reports that only 15% of the people surveyed trust that government leaders "can solve social or societal issues", while only 14% trust that these leaders can "make ethical and moral decisions".
This disturbing outlook is sending us a clear message: it's time for a new deal! Our fundamental assumptions about the functioning of economies, our policies and structural reforms, our systems and institutions, need to be re-oriented towards one supreme objective: improving the wellbeing of people.
It's time to focus on people!
It is high time to place people at the very centre of our strategies. It's time to remind ourselves that the central purpose of economics is to improve the lives of people. It's time to take actions that rebalance the rules of the game and promote equality. It's time to lay the new foundations of trust, in governments and legislatives, in corporations and banks, in regulators and rating agencies, in public and private leaders. It's time to recover the trust of people in international organisations! This is the aim of the OECD! This is the purpose of this Forum!
For this we need to admit that we got it wrong and revise our thinking and acting. We need to see economics and economic policy with new eyes and fresh ideas, particularly with regard to self-stabilisation and efficient markets. We need to address the limitations of existing tools for structural analysis to factor in key linkages and feedbacks – for example between growth, inequality, and the environment.
We need to foster a new type of growth, one that is more inclusive, with opportunities and benefits for the people who work their lives for that growth, not just for the big owners of capital. It's time to bring "the forgotten" back to centre stage. We need to focus again on the poor families of this world, from Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to the billions of migrants that live in shanty towns surrounding our cities, doing the jobs we don't want to do, making a solid contribution to our economies and sending more than 400 billion dollars in remittances every year to the poorest regions of this world.
We also need to rethink growth as a means and not as an end. We have to give priority to the quality of growth over the quantity of growth. For this we need new models and tools to measure progress and the quality of our lives. This new concept of growth also has to respect the environment and recognise that "we have to move from a growth without limits to a growth within limits paradigm", as Professor Johan Rockstrom recently put it here at the OECD.
The OECD Forum 2013: Time to Think New!
All this will demand a big change in our mind-frames, but also courageous decisions to break with inertia and confront vested powers. At the OECD we have started this transformation through a myriad of new strategies and initiatives on New Approaches to Economics Challenges (NAEC), Green Growth, Innovation, Inclusive Growth, Development, Gender; introducing new tools to measure and foster human progress, like our Better Life Index.
All these concerns and new ventures will be at the centre of the OECD Forum 2013. We want you to help us enrich our vision and connect our policy knowledge to the realities of the people. We want to link your minds to our solutions and then link those solutions to policy-making. This is the purpose of this Forum. It's all about people!
We will be discussing a production revolution for the 21st century, a new role for banks, the come-back of SMEs in economic policy and the life challenges of the "unemployees". We will also be taking a fresh look at the austerity vs. growth dilemma, the need of a new societal contract and the transition from school to work. We will tackle the big challenges of inequalities, tax evasion by big corporations and the crucial role of women in our economies. And we will present new tools to foster inclusive progress like our new study on "Interconnected Economies: Benefiting from Global Value Chains".
We should visualise together a brighter and fairer world. We should visualise together a new social pact that institutionalises inclusiveness and people empowerment.
Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Our societies are facing some of the greatest challenges in history. They need help! Our governments are confronted with unprecedented dilemmas and very tough decisions. They need help! Our youngsters are being drained by persisting lack of opportunities. They also need help! Big time! Our planet is on the brink of a major environmental breakdown. It also needs all our help!
We can provide that help. Let's share our knowledge and stretch our imagination to its limit to come out with new strategies. Let's develop together a new understanding of the economy as a highly complex human system which is uncertain, unstable and fragile by nature; a system that should be treated as a live environment rather than a mathematical model.
I therefore convene you, in these two days of joint efforts, to think more as gardeners than as mechanics, to remember that there are many out there suffering waiting for innovative solutions, new enthusiasm and hope, the three great deliverables that should come out of these doors. We are here on a great endeavour, and I want to thank all the sponsors that have made this event possible. And I want to thank you, for being here. As I said, this is all about people. This is all about YOU!
Have a path-breaking Forum!
Related Documents


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Kidnapped teen Abigail Hernandez trained a stare on her accused captor on Tuesday as he was held on $1 million bail at an arraignment even though prosecutors provided no details of the crime.
Nathaniel Kibby, 34, did not enter a plea and did not object to the high bail, which will keep him behind bars until an Aug. 12 probable cause hearing.
Abigail, 15, sat calmly with family members during the brief hearing, feet away from Kibby, who was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and had his hands shackled.
Kibby, who has a lengthy criminal history and was arrested on assault and trespassing charges in March, is charged with one felony count of kidnapping. Affidavits outlining the case against him were sealed, to the dismay of his public defender, Jesse Friedman.
"Mr. Kibby is entitled constitutionally to this information," Friedman said.
The associate attorney general, Jane Young, said the papers should remain under seal because the investigation is in its early stages.
"There are searches being conducted at the defendant's house," she said.
Abigail vanished Oct. 9 while walking home from Kennett High School in Conway, New Hampshire, and returned a week ago under mysterious circumstances.
Little information about Abigail's kidnapping, captivity or release has emerged, but NBC-owned station NECN quoted sources as saying she was locked up in a container on Kibby's trailer-park lot in Gorham.
Outside the courthouse, officials divulged little more about the case, declining to answer questions about whether Abigail knew Kibby, where she was kept and how she ended up back home.
"Her courage, her resolve to return home and the she did, I think, speaks for itself," FBI Agent Kieran Ramsey said.
Young said there was no indication that anyone else was involved in the abduction. She said Kibby could be charged with other crimes, depending on what evidence the searches yield.
"Sometimes, our worst fears were realized," she said of the nine-month probe. "But this child is home, she is relatively safe."
She said the community should be grateful that Abigail is alive.
"I cannot tell you how a child like that can get through the nine months and endure," she said.
Court records show Kibby has an arrest record that dates back to 1998 and includes charges of assault, trespassing, stolen property, theft, marijuana possession and traffic infractions.
He pleaded guilty last year to a pot charge and paid a fine. Earlier this month, he paid a $1,000 fine to settled charges of assault and trespassing stemming from an incident in March.
Someone with the same name also wrote several letters to the Conway Daily Sun over the years, expressing his views on politics, religion and gun-control.
A neighbor of Kibby said he moved into the mobile-home park in Gorham about five years ago and kept to himself as he walked through the neighborhood with his Doberman.
"He just gave you weird vibes," said another neighbor, Kayla Delisle. "You stayed away from him as much as you could."
A former high school classmate, Tim Wiggin, said that when he knew him in high school, Kibby was an oddball who wore dark trench coats, talked about how he was a vampire and formed a small club called The Vipers.
"He was a real loner," Wiggin said.


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LandlockSynopsisLue'der is a protege of his village's wind master. Born with one blue eye, he has to learn to unlock his mystical powers when his village was ravaged by Sana'ku and his forces, and lead by Sana'ku's daughter, Aga'lee. Review*sigh* Now HERE'S a title with some potential ... that was completely screwed up in the duration of the movie. Allegedly "from the creator of Ghost in the Shell - Shirow Masamune", I later learned that he had very little to do with this project. Some minor character designs, I believe? Trying to sell something off as more than it really is, are we now? Hmmm. I'll have to admit, though, that said character design is quite pleasant. The animation, while not impressive by movie standards, were decent enough. And I really, REALLY hope that the dubbing I heard was an exclusively European one, because it was really, really doinky. (Uh... where did THAT come from? O_O ) Anyway, that leaves us with the characterization and the plot. And we had some real potential there, wasted in a most disappointing manner. Lue'der and his mysterious eye made for some good plot points, and the whole concept of the powers as pertained by the differently colored eyes would be a good tool in the hands of a good scriptwriter. It's a shame, then, that most of the movie is caught up in action scenes, with the main characters either running away from their pursuers or planning said escape. Only at the end is the subject of the eyes explored, and half-assedly at that. (Something with a goddess, I believe.) As action features go, it's not too bad of a deal. With the nice character designs and some good craft-designs at that, we DO get introduced to some rather nice action sequences. Where this movie fall flat, though, is on the character development and the focus on the main plot. It got off to a good start, with a good balance of mystery and pacing to keep you interested. Then it tried your patience by having the main character escape/run for a good half of the movie. And THEN we get a rather nice scene with Lue'der bonding with Aga'lee (of all people) and some more introduction regarding the eyes and the powers behind. But after that, the movie rushes through the rest of the plot in an effort to get done quickly. It was disappointing, to say the least, because little to nothing is really explained and part of it left me wondering whether I was watching a Monty Python animation, anime style. (Giant HANDS growing up from the ground?) So, even though the ending itself made me smile, the movie as a whole is better left alone. A rather weak effort. — Stig Høgset Recommended Audience: Well, there is a lot of violence and deaths in this one. Also, our two main female leads tend to wander around naked at least once in the duration of the movie. And lastly, there is a scene where our main evil overlord-like character seemingly stabs two crystals into his eyes, a scene I really wish I didn't see. (Quite understandably, he screamed quite a lot upon doing that. >_<) Version(s) Viewed: UK VHS, English dubbed Review Status: Full (1/1) Landlock © 1995 Orca / Sega / Sanctuary |
© 1996-2015 THEM Anime Reviews. All rights reserved. |


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Show All Answers
City hall is located at 200 S. Main St.
Directions: Exit Highway 169 at the 76th ST exit; turn West on 76th ST & follow to Main St. City Hall is located on the Southwest corner of 76th and Main. Visitor parking is available on the West side of the building.
For questions, contact City Hall at 918-376-1500.
City Hall is open Monday - Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Friday 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., except on designated holidays.
Owasso's sales tax is actually made up of three separate taxes: the state tax, the city tax, and the county tax. The state tax is 4.5%. The city tax is 4.05%. The Tulsa County sales tax is .367%, and the total Rogers County sales tax is .833. Most retail establishments for Owasso are in Tulsa County, with a total sales tax of 8.917%. Very few retail establishments are in the Rogers County area of the Owasso city limits. That area is east of N 145 E Ave, with a total sales tax of 9.383%
To find the answer to a question not on this list, feel free to contact the City at 918-376-1500.


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Global Ice Age Climate Patterns Influenced by Bering Strait
News story originally written on January 10, 2010
Sometimes, a small change in the Earth can lead to a big change in climate.
A new study shows that changes in the Bering Strait might have affected ocean currents and climate worldwide thousands of years ago.
The Bering Strait is a narrow waterway between Russia and Alaska that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It allows water to flow from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
Scientists used a computer model to study how the Bering Strait affected climate starting about 116,000 years ago when odd cycles of cooling and warming happened over and over.
In the model, as climate cooled because of changes in Earth's orbit, ice sheets grew. This caused sea level to fall, nearly closing the Bering Strait.
Without the fresher waters of the Pacific flowing in, the Atlantic Ocean water grew saltier. The dense, salty water dropped low in the ocean, which allowed a current carrying warm water from the tropics to speed up. The water warmed Greenland and parts of North America enough to, over thousands of years, melt ice sheets and raise sea level, reforming the Bering Strait.
With the Bering Strait, fresher water could once again flow from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The fresher water weakened the current bringing warm water from the topics. Without the warmer water, North America and Greenland became cooler. The ice sheets grew again and sea level dropped. The Bering Strait mostly closed and the entire cycle was repeated.
The pattern was finally broken about 34,000 years ago, when a natural orbital cycle made Earth farther from the Sun during Northern Hemisphere winter, causing more cooling so that the ice sheets continued to grow even when the Bering Strait closed.


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You can request a public copy of a police incident or accident report by visiting https://www.sosoftcc.com/sppd, or the Southern Pines Police Department located at 450 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Southern Pines, NC 28387.
If you received a North Carolina Uniform Citation for violation of a state or local parking regulation, you must follow the instructions printed on the citation for answering the charge in the Moore County District Court.
The Southern Pines Police Department reminds vehicle owners and operators of their responsibility to ensure their vehicle is parked in compliance with all State and Local Regulations.
The Southern Pines Police Department reports crime statistics monthly to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Crime statistics for municipalities state-wide, including Southern Pines, are available from the SBI website.
The Town of Southern Pines Code of Ordinances regulates fire, smoke, burglary and robbery alarm systems. Please review Chapter 102 of the ordinance for information.
The Southern Pines Police Department will assist citizens who need a documented record of their fingerprints for a professional license, foster care/child care application, employment application, rental/lease application or other required purposes. Persons interested in this service should be aware of the following: - Pursuant to the Town of Southern Pines Code of Ordinances, the fee for fingerprinting is $5.00 The fee must be paid IN ADVANCE at the Town of Southern Pines Finance Department, 180 SW Broad Street, Southern Pines You will be issued a receipt to present to the police department - Fingerprints are taken on Wednesdays between the hours of 8:00am and 10:00am (except holidays) at the police department, 450 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Southern Pines - An appointment is not necessary; You must bring government-issued, photo identification - If you need fingerprints applied to a specific type of card, you must bring the appropriate card(s). If not, the police department will provide generic fingerprint cards You must complete the top part of the fingerprint card prior to your fingerprints being taken DO NOT SIGN THE CARD. It must be signed in the presence of the officer/employee taking the fingerprints Please contact the Southern Pines Police Department Investigation Division at (910) 692-2732 with any questions.
A "bona fide" towing service is an agency or organization whose primary business includes the towing of vehicles for mechanical purposes or due to collision and that owns or has primary control over vehicles and equipment for this purpose (i.e. tow trucks). Once a request is received, the Chief of Police will determine if the basic requirements are met. If approved, the department Tow Agency Inspector will schedule an inspection to be conducted of the tow agency to ensure compliance with applicable North Carolina General Statutes, Town of Southern Pines Business regulations and police department policies. Tow agency proprietors selected for inclusion on the Master Tow List will be required to sign a Letter of Agreement consenting to abide by appropriate directives from the Southern Pines Police Department, the Town of Southern Pines or other authorized organizations.
Police officers are available to assist in a number of ways. If your event is on public property or outdoors, contact the Recreation and Parks Department to determine if you need to apply for an Outdoor Special Event Permit. The need for police services will be determined based upon your application. If your event does not fall into this category, contact the Police Department by email or by telephone at (910) 692-2732. On-duty officers may be assigned to events that are of a short term nature. For a longer term event, officers can be made available under certain circumstances. The Extra Duty Employment Application contains information and restrictions on this service. You may complete and mail the form or bring it to the Police Department. Your request will be reviewed and you will be contacted to discuss the event.
The Town of Southern Pines Code of Ordinances regulates activities that relate to charitable and religious solicitations. Complete the Application for Certificate for Charitable and Religious Organizations form, attach all pertinent documents and bring it to the police department. We will process your application and notify you of the outcome. Please review Chapter 114 of the ordinance for more information.
The Southern Pines Police Department must be notified of any application to the North Carolina Alcohol Beverage Control Commission for a business or event that is located or will take place in Southern Pines. Depending on the type of application, we must either sign the form or provide information that will be used by the Commission during their consideration of your application. Complete the ABC Permit Application – Information & Release form , attach all pertinent documents and bring it to the police department. We will complete the law enforcement portion of your application and return it to you and then you may file it with the Commission.
The Town of Southern Pines Code of Ordinances regulates this activity. A Town of Southern Pines Business License is required. Please review Section 114.01 of the ordinance for more information.
The Town of Southern Pines Code of Ordinances regulates all businesses. Chapter 66 of the North Carolina General Statutes regulates dealers in precious metals. The statutes require dealers and employees in businesses that deal in precious metals to submit the application to the police department. Complete the Application for a License as a Precious Metal Dealer/Certificate of Compliance for Employee Registration form, attach all pertinent documents and bring it to the police department. If you have more than four (4) employees engaged in precious metals processing, please also complete the Precious Metal Dealer/Employee Registration continuation form. Additionally, there are several forms required by the North Carolina Department of Crime Control & Public Safety that must be submitted with your application. You must also submit the State Bureau of Investigation Authority for Release of Information form. We will process your application and notify you of the outcome. Please refer to Chapter 66 of the North Carolina General Statutes for additional information.
The Moore County Health Department, through Moore County Animal Control, is responsible for animal control in Moore County, including Southern Pines. Moore County Animal Control is primarily responsible for enforcing all laws of the state and all ordinances of the county pertaining to animals and cooperating with local law enforcement in fulfilling this duty; enforcing all laws pertaining to rabies control; investigation of all animal bites and quarantine of any domestic animal suspected of having rabies; canvasses for the propose of ascertaining compliance with rabies statutes; investigation of cruelty cases; investigation of nuisance situations; investigation of vicious or dangerous dogs; impoundment of stray domestic animals. Animal Control is not responsible for, or licensed to deal with any situation concerning wildlife, unless a rabies issue is suspected. Animal Control operates during normal business hours of 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. An On Call Officer is available for emergency situation thru 911 after hours and on the weekends and holidays. (SOURCE: Moore County Animal Control website). The On Call Policy and more information about Animal Control is listed on their website. If you see a stray dog or cat, contact Moore County Animal Control at (910) 947-2858. Animal Control will place traps to capture stray animals in a humane way but needs the permission of the property owner to place the traps. Remember that Town of Southern Pines Code of Ordinances prohibits allowing an animal to run at large. "Running at Large" means "Off the premises of the owner, and not under the control of the owner or a member of his or her immediate family or other authorized person either by leash, cord, chain, or other tangible device." (SOURCE: Town of Southern Pines Code of Ordinances Chapter 91).


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PMI Bangalore Chapter Members
Sale Date Ended
Non Members
Sale Date Ended
The 35-hour contact course is mandatory for candidates wanting to appear for the PMP certification Exam and is designed towards exam preparation. The course is based on PMI' s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK - 6) covering Project Management Processes in 10 Knowledge areas of Scope, Schedule, Cost, Quality, Risk, Resource, Communication, Procurement, Stakeholder and Integration Management. The course starts with describing the concepts and framework of project management. The course will also cover principles of Professional Responsibility.
Participants are expected to attend all sessions of the training program in order to get the 35 PDU certificate.
Registration can be cancelled for a cancellation fee by sending an email to email@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com and firstname.lastname@example.com. (Please send email to ALL ids). Telephonic or oral requests will not be entertained.
Cancellation fee will be as follows:
- For cancellations before 7 days from the start of the program - 25% of the registration fee.
- For all cancellations up to 7 days before or after the start of the program - 50% of the registration fee.
- Cancellation requests received after 7 days from the start date of the program will not be entertained.
- Requests for partial cancellation will not be entertained.


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UPDATE, 5:51 PM: According to Adrian Wojnarowski and Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports, the impetus behind Kerr's departure was that Suns owner Robert Sarver asked Kerr to take a 10 percent pay cut.
In a surprise move, Steve Kerr is stepping down as president and general manager of the Phoenix Suns at the end of the month.
Kerr has been in the post three years, and according to Paul Coro at the Arizona Republic had planned to return as of just a few weeks ago. But then he started negotiating a new deal just as Doug Collins left being a TNT analyst to coach the Philadelphia 76ers.
Kerr had been a TNT analyst, and is expected to return to that job.
Kerr lives in San Diego but had been commuting to Phoenix for this job. His son will be a high school senior next season (and is a basketball player drawing college interest).
Kerr helped set up Robert Sarver buying the team and is part owner of the Suns. Three years ago he stepped into a role as general manager straight from the analysts booth.
His first moves were questionable -- brining in Shaquille O'Neal to try and bring size and defense to the run-and-gun Suns of Mike D'Antoni. Didn't work, it just turned out to be an anchor that dragged the team down. As did the Terry Porter era as the Suns tried the fit the round peg of their roster into the square hole of a more traditional offense.
But Kerr learned. He adapted. He gave Alvin Gentry the job and brought in players to help the Suns run again. This year they ran all the way to the Western Conference finals.
Kerr has yet to comments on the move, as has Sarver.


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What was to be the issue of this remarkable adventure? Could I bring it to any denouement whatever, either sooner or later? Did not Robur hold the results wholly in his own hands? Probably I would never have such an opportunity for escape as had occurred to Mr. Prudent and Mr. Evans amid the islands of the Pacific. I could only wait. And how long might the waiting last!
To be sure, my curiosity had been partly satisfied. But even now I knew only the answer to the problems of the Great Eyrie. Having at length penetrated its circle, I comprehended all the phenomena observed by the people of the Blueridge Mountains. I was assured that neither the country-folk throughout the region, nor the townfolk of Pleasant Garden and Morganton were in danger of volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. No subterranean forces whatever were battling within the bowels of the mountains. No crater had arisen in this corner of the Alleghanies. The Great Eyrie served merely as the retreat of Robur the Conqueror. This impenetrable hiding-place where he stored his materials and provisions, had without doubt been discovered by him during one of his aerial voyages in the "Albatross." It was a retreat probably even more secure than that as yet undiscovered Island X in the Pacific.
This much I knew of him; but of this marvelous machine of his, of the secrets of its construction and propelling force, what did I really know? Admitting that this multiple mechanism was driven by electricity, and that this electricity was, as we knew it had been in the "Albatross," extracted directly from the surrounding air by some new process, what were the details of its mechanism? I had not been permitted to see the engine; doubtless I should never see it.
On the question of my liberty I argued thus: Robur evidently intends to remain unknown. As to what he intends to do with his machine, I fear, recalling his letter, that the world must expect from it more of evil than of good. At any rate, the incognito which he has so carefully guarded in the past he must mean to preserve in the future. Now only one man can establish the identity of the Master of the World with Robur the Conqueror. This man is I his prisoner, I who have the right to arrest him, I, who ought to put my hand on his shoulder, saying, "In the Name of the Law --"
On the other hand, could I hope for a rescue from with out? Evidently not. The police authorities must know everything that had happened at Black Rock Creek. Mr. Ward, advised of all the incidents, would have reasoned on the matter as follows: when the "Terror" quitted the creek dragging me at the end of her hawser, I had either been drowned or, since my body had not been recovered, I had been taken on board the "Terror," and was in the hands of its commander.
In the first case, there was nothing more to do than to write "deceased" after the name of John Strock, chief inspector of the federal police in Washington.
In the second case, could my confreres hope ever to see me again? The two destroyers which had pursued the "Terror" into the Niagara River had stopped, perforce, when the current threatened to drag them over the falls. At that moment, night was closing in, and what could be thought on board the destroyers but that the "Terror" had been engulfed in the abyss of the cataract? It was scarce possible that our machine had been seen when, amid the shades of night, it rose above the Horseshoe Falls, or when it winged its way high above the mountains on its route to the Great Eyrie.
With regard to my own fate, should I resolve to question Robur? Would he consent even to appear to hear me? Was he not content with having hurled at me his name? Would not that name seem to him to answer everything?
That day wore away without bringing the least change to the situation. Robur and his men continued actively at work upon the machine, which apparently needed considerable repair. I concluded that they meant to start forth again very shortly, and to take me with them. It would, however, have been quite possible to leave me at the bottom of the Eyrie. There would have been no way by which I could have escaped, and there were provisions at hand sufficient to keep me alive for many days.
What I studied particularly during this period was the mental state of Robur. He seemed to me under the dominance of a continuous excitement. What was it that his ever-seething brain now meditated? What projects was he forming for the future? Toward what region would he now turn? Would he put in execution the menaces expressed in his letter--the menaces of a madman!
The night of that first day, I slept on a couch of dry grass in one of the grottoes of the Great Eyrie. Food was set for me in this grotto each succeeding day. On the second and third of August, the three men continued at their work scarcely once, however, exchanging any words, even in the midst of their labors. When the engines were all repaired to Robur's satisfaction, the men began putting stores aboard their craft, as if expecting a long absence. Perhaps the "Terror" was about to traverse immense distances; perhaps even, the captain intended to regain his Island X, in the midst of the Pacific.
Sometimes I saw him wander about the Eyrie buried in thought, or he would stop and raise his arm toward heaven as if in defiance of that God with Whom he assumed to divide the empire of the world. Was not his overweening pride leading him toward insanity? An insanity which his two companions, hardly less excited than he, could do nothing to subdue! Had he not come to regard himself as mightier than the elements which he had so audaciously defied even when he possessed only an airship, the "Albatross?" And now, how much more powerful had he become, when earth, air and water combined to offer him an infinite field where none might follow him!
Hence I had much to fear from the future, even the most dread catastrophes. It was impossible for me to escape from the Great Eyrie, before being dragged into a new voyage. After that, how could I possibly get away while the "Terror" sped through the air or the ocean? My only chance must be when she crossed the land, and did so at some moderate speed. Surely a distant and feeble hope to cling to!
It will be recalled that after our arrival at the Great Eyrie, I had attempted to obtain some response from Robur, as to his purpose with me; but I had failed. On this last day I made another attempt.
In the afternoon I walked up and down before the large grotto where my captors were at work. Robur, standing at the entrance, followed me steadily with his eyes. Did he mean to address me?
I went up to him. "Captain," said I, "I have already asked you a question, which you have not answered. I ask it again: What do you intend to do with me?"
We stood face to face scarce two steps apart. With arms folded, he glared at me, and I was terrified by his glance. Terrified, that is the word! The glance was not that of a sane man. Indeed, it seemed to reflect nothing whatever of humanity within.
I repeated my question in a more challenging tone. For an instant I thought that Robur would break his silence and burst forth.
"What do you intend to do with me? Will you set me free?"
Evidently my captor's mind was obsessed by some other thought, from which I had only distracted him for a moment. He made again that gesture which I had already observed; he raised one defiant arm toward the zenith. It seemed to me as if some irresistible force drew him toward those upper zones of the sky, that he belonged no more to the earth, that he was destined to live in space; a perpetual dweller in the clouds.
Without answering me, without seeming to have understood me, Robur reentered the grotto.
How long this sojourn or rather relaxation of the "Terror" in the Great Eyrie was to last, I did not know. I saw, however, on the afternoon of this third of August that the repairs and the embarkation of stores were completed. The hold and lockers of our craft must have been completely crowded with the provisions taken from the grottoes of the Eyrie.
Then the chief of the two assistants, a man whom I now recognized as that John Turner who had been mate of the "Albatross," began another labor. With the help of his companion, he dragged to the center of the hollow all that remained of their materials, empty cases, fragments of carpentry, peculiar pieces of wood which clearly must have belonged to the "Albatross," which had been sacrificed to this new and mightier engine of locomotion. Beneath this mass there lay a great quantity of dried grasses. The thought came to me that Robur was preparing to leave this retreat forever!
In fact, he could not be ignorant that the attention of the public was now keenly fixed upon the Great Eyrie; and that some further attempt was likely to be made to penetrate it. Must he not fear that some day or other the effort would be successful, and that men would end by invading his hiding-place? Did he not wish that they should find there no single evidence of his occupation?
The sun disappeared behind the crests of the Blueridge. His rays now lighted only the very summit of Black Dome towering in the northwest. Probably the "Terror" awaited only the night in order to begin her flight. The world did not yet know that the automobile and boat could also transform itself into a flying machine. Until now, it had never been seen in the air. And would not this fourth transformation be carefully concealed, until the day when the Master of the World chose to put into execution his insensate menaces?
Toward nine o'clock profound obscurity enwrapped the hollow. Not a star looked down on us. Heavy clouds driven by a keen eastern wind covered the entire sky. The passage of the "Terror" would be invisible, not only in our immediate neighborhood, but probably across all the American territory and even the adjoining seas.
At this moment Turner, approaching the huge stack in the middle of the eyrie, set fire to the grass beneath.
The whole mass flared up at once. From the midst of a dense smoke, the roaring flames rose to a height which towered above the walls of the Great Eyrie. Once more the good folk of Morganton and Pleasant Garden would believe that the crater had reopened. These flames would announce to them another volcanic upheaval.
I watched the conflagration. I heard the roarings and cracklings which filled the air. From the deck of the "Terror," Robur watched it also.
Turner and his companion pushed back into the fire the fragments which the violence of the flames cast forth. Little by little the huge bonfire grew less. The flames sank down into a mere mass of burnt-out ashes; and once more all was silence and blackest night.
Suddenly I felt myself seized by the arm. Turner drew me toward the "Terror." Resistance would have been useless. And moreover what could be worse than to be abandoned without resources in this prison whose walls I could not climb!
As soon as I set foot on the deck, Turner also embarked. His companion went forward to the look-out; Turner climbed down into the engine-room, lighted by electric bulbs, from which not a gleam escaped outside.
Robur himself was at the helm, the regulator within reach of his hand, so that he could control both our speed and our direction. As to me, I was forced to descend into my cabin, and the hatchway was fastened above me. During that night, as on that of our departure from Niagara, I was not allowed to watch the movements of the "Terror."
Nevertheless, if I could see nothing of what was passing on board, I could hear the noises of the machinery. I had first the feeling that our craft, its bow slightly raised, lost contact with the earth. Some swerves and balancings in the air followed. Then the turbines underneath spun with prodigious rapidity, while the great wings beat with steady regularity.
Thus the "Terror," probably forever, had left the Great Eyrie, and launched into the air as a ship launches into the waters. Our captain soared above the double chain of the Alleghanies, and without doubt he would remain in the upper zones of the air until he had left all the mountain region behind.
But in what direction would he turn? Would he pass in flight across the plains of North Carolina, seeking the Atlantic Ocean? Or would he head to the west to reach the Pacific? Perhaps he would seek, to the south, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. When day came how should I recognize which sea we were upon, if the horizon of water and sky encircled us on every side?
Several hours passed; and how long they seemed to me! I made no effort to find forgetfulness in sleep. Wild and incoherent thoughts assailed me. I felt myself swept over worlds of imagination, as I was swept through space, by an aerial monster. At the speed which the "Terror" possessed, whither might I not be carried during this interminable night? I recalled the unbelievable voyage of the "Albatross," of which the Weldon Institute had published an account, as described by Mr. Prudent and Mr. Evans. What Robur, the Conqueror, had done with his first airship, he could do even more readily with this quadruple machine.
At length the first rays of daylight brightened my cabin. Would I be permitted to go out now, to take my place upon the deck, as I had done upon Lake Erie?
I pushed upon the hatchway: it opened. I came half way out upon the deck.
All about was sky and sea. We floated in the air above an ocean, at a height which I judged to be about a thousand or twelve hundred feet. I could not see Robur, so he was probably in the engine room. Turner was at the helm, his companion on the look-out.
Now that I was upon the deck, I saw what I had not been able to see during our former nocturnal voyage, the action of those powerful wings which beat upon either side at the same time that the screws spun beneath the flanks of the machine.
By the position of the sun, as it slowly mounted from the horizon, I realized that we were advancing toward the south. Hence if this direction had not been changed during the night this was the Gulf of Mexico which lay beneath us.
A hot day was announced by the heavy livid clouds which clung to the horizon. These warnings of a coming storm did not escape the eye of Robur when toward eight o'clock he came on deck and took Turner's place at the helm. Perhaps the cloud-bank recalled to him the waterspout in which the "Albatross" had so nearly been destroyed, or the mighty cyclone from which he had escaped only as if by a miracle above the Antarctic Sea.
It is true that the forces of Nature which had been too strong for the "Albatross," might easily be evaded by this lighter and more versatile machine. It could abandon the sky where the elements were in battle and descend to the surface of the sea; and if the waves beat against it there too heavily, it could always find calm in the tranquil depths.
Doubtless, however, there were some signs by which Robur, who must be experienced in judging, decided that the storm would not burst until the next day.
He continued his flight; and in the afternoon, when we settled down upon the surface of the sea, there was not a sign of bad weather. The "Terror" is a sea bird, an albatross or frigate-bird, which can rest at will upon the waves! Only we have this advantage, that fatigue has never any hold upon this metal organism, driven by the inexhaustible electricity!
The whole vast ocean around us was empty. Not a sail nor a trail of smoke was visible even on the limits of the horizon. Hence our passage through the clouds had not been seen and signaled ahead.
The afternoon was not marked by any incident. The "Terror" advanced at easy speed. What her captain intended to do, I could not guess. If he continued in this direction, we should reach some one of the West Indies, or beyond that, at the end of the Gulf, the shore of Venezuela or Colombia. But when night came, perhaps we would again rise in the air to clear the mountainous barrier of Guatemala and Nicaragua, and take flight toward Island X, somewhere in the unknown regions of the Pacific.
Evening came. The sun sank in an horizon red as blood. The sea glistened around the "Terror," which seemed to raise a shower of sparks in its passage. There was a storm at hand. Evidently our captain thought so. Instead of being allowed to remain on deck, I was compelled to re-enter my cabin, and the hatchway was closed above me.
In a few moments from the noises that followed, I knew that the machine was about to be submerged. In fact, five minutes later, we were moving peacefully forward through the ocean's depths.
Thoroughly worn out, less by fatigue than by excitement and anxious thought, I fell into a profound sleep, natural this time and not provoked by any soporific drug. When I awoke, after a length of time which I could not reckon, the "Terror" had not yet returned to the surface of the sea.
This maneuver was executed a little later. The daylight pierced my porthole; and at the same moment I felt the pitching and tossing to which we were subjected by a heavy sea.
I was allowed to take my place once more outside the hatchway; where my first thought was for the weather. A storm was approaching from the northwest. Vivid lightning darted amid the dense, black clouds. Already we could hear the rumbling of thunder echoing continuously through space. I was surprised--more than surprised, frightened!--by the rapidity with which the storm rushed upward toward the zenith. Scarcely would a ship have had time to furl her sails to escape the shock of the blast, before it was upon her! The advance was as swift as it was terrible.
Suddenly the wind was unchained with unheard of violence, as if it had suddenly burst from this prison of cloud. In an instant a frightful sea uprose. The breaking waves, foaming along all their crests, swept with their full weight over the "Terror." If I had not been wedged solidly against the rail, I should have been swept overboard!
There was but one thing to do--to change our machine again into a submarine. It would find security and calm at a few dozen feet beneath the surface. To continue to brave the fury of this outrageous sea was impossible.
Robur himself was on deck, and I awaited the order to return to my cabin--an order which was not given. There was not even any preparation for the plunge. With an eye more burning than ever, impassive before this frightful storm, the captain looked it full in the face, as if to defy it, knowing that he had nothing to fear.
It was imperative that the terror should plunge below without losing a moment. Yet Robur seemed to have no thought of doing so. No! He preserved his haughty attitude as of a man who in his immeasurable pride, believed himself above or beyond humanity.
Seeing him thus I asked myself with almost superstitious awe, if he were not indeed a demoniac being, escaped from some supernatural world.
A cry leaped from his mouth, and was heard amid the shrieks of the tempest and the howlings of the thunder. "I, Robur! Robur!--The master of the world!"
He made a gesture which Turner and his companions understood. It was a command; and without any hesitation these unhappy men, insane as their master, obeyed it.
The great wings shot out, and the airship rose as it had risen above the falls of Niagara. But if on that day it had escaped the might of the cataract, this time it was amidst the might of the hurricane that we attempted our insensate flight.
The air-ship soared upward into the heart of the sky, amid a thousand lightning flashes, surrounded and shaken by the bursts of thunder. It steered amid the blinding, darting lights, courting destruction at every instant.
Robur's position and attitude did not change. With one hand on the helm, the other on the speed regulators while the great wings beat furiously, he headed his machine toward the very center of the storm, where the electric flashes were leaping from cloud to cloud.
I must throw myself upon this madman to prevent him from driving his machine into the very middle of this aerial furnace! I must compel him to descend, to seek beneath the waters, a safety which was no longer possible either upon the surface of the sea or in the sky! Beneath, we could wait until this frightful outburst of the elements was at an end!
Then amid this wild excitement my own passion, all my instincts of duty, arose within me! Yes, this was madness! Yet must I not arrest this criminal whom my country had outlawed, who threatened the entire world with his terrible invention? Must I not put my hand on his shoulder and summon him to surrender to justice! Was I or was I not Strock, chief inspector of the federal police? Forgetting where I was, one against three, uplifted in mid-sky above a howling ocean, I leaped toward the stern, and in a voice which rose above the tempest, I cried as I hurled myself upon Robur:
"In the name of the law, I --"
Suddenly the "Terror" trembled as if from a violent shock. All her frame quivered, as the human frame quivers under the electric fluid. Struck by the lightning in the very middle of her powerful batteries, the air-ship spread out on all sides and went to pieces.
With her wings fallen, her screws broken, with bolt after bolt of the lightning darting amid her ruins, the "Terror" fell from the height of more than a thousand feet into the ocean beneath.
Return to the Master of the World Summary Return to the Jules Verne Library


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The majority of Egyptologists agree on the outline and many details of the chronology of Ancient Egypt. This scholarly consensus is known as the Conventional Egyptian chronology, which places the beginning of the Old Kingdom in the 27th century BC, the beginning of the Middle Kingdom in the 21st century BC and the beginning of the New Kingdom in the mid-16th century BC.
Despite this consensus, disagreements remain within the scholarly community, resulting in variant chronologies diverging by about 300 years for the Early Dynastic Period, up to 30 years in the New Kingdom, and a few years in the Late Period.[1]
In addition, there are a number of "alternative chronologies" outside scholarly consensus, such as the "New Chronology" proposed in the 1990s, which lowers New Kingdom dates by as much as 350 years, or the "Glasgow Chronology" (proposed 1978–1982), which lowers New Kingdom dates by as much as 500 years.
Overview edit
Scholarly consensus on the general outline of the conventional chronology current in Egyptology has not fluctuated much over the last 100 years. For the Old Kingdom, consensus fluctuates by as much as a few centuries, but for the Middle and New Kingdoms, it has been stable to within a few decades. This is illustrated by comparing the chronology as given by two Egyptologists, the first writing in 1906, the second in 2000 (all dates in the table are BC).[2]
Periods | Dynasty | Breasted (1906) | Shaw (2000) |
Early Dynastic Period of Egypt | First | 3400–2980 | c. 3000–2686 |
Second | |||
Old Kingdom | Third | 2980–2900 | 2686–2613 |
Fourth | 2900–2750 | 2613–2494 | |
Fifth | 2750–2625 | 2494–2345 | |
Sixth | 2623–2475 | 2345–2181 | |
First Intermediate Period | Seventh | 2475–2445 | 2181–2160 |
Eighth | |||
Ninth | 2445–2160 | 2160–2125 | |
Tenth | |||
Middle Kingdom of Egypt | Eleventh | 2160–2000 | 2125–1985 |
Twelfth | 2000–1788 | 1985–1773 | |
Second Intermediate Period | Thirteenth? | 1780–1580 | 1773–1550 |
Fourteenth? | |||
Fifteenth | |||
Sixteenth | |||
Seventeenth | |||
New Kingdom of Egypt | Eighteenth | 1580–1350 | 1550–1295 |
Nineteenth | 1350–1205 | 1295–1186 | |
Twentieth | 1200–1090 | 1186–1069 | |
Third Intermediate Period | Twenty-first | 1090–945 | 1069–945 |
Twenty-second | 945–745 | 945–818 | |
Twenty-third | 745–718 | 818–727 | |
Twenty-fourth | 718–712 | 727–715 | |
Twenty-fifth | 712–663 | 715–664 | |
Late Period of ancient Egypt | Twenty-sixth | 663–525 | 664–525 |
The disparities between the two sets of dates result from additional discoveries and refined understanding of the still very incomplete source evidence. For example, Breasted adds a ruler in the Twentieth dynasty that further research showed did not exist. Following Manetho, Breasted also believed all the dynasties were sequential, whereas it is now known that several existed at the same time. These revisions have resulted in a lowering of the conventional chronology by up to 400 years at the beginning of Dynasty I.
Regnal years edit
Forming the backbone of Egyptian chronology are the regnal years as recorded in Ancient Egyptian king lists. Surviving king lists are either comprehensive but have significant gaps in their text (for example, the Turin King List), or are textually complete but fail to provide a complete list of rulers (for example, the Abydos King List and the Palermo Stone), even for a short period of Egyptian history.[3] The situation is further complicated by occasional conflicting information on the same regnal period from different versions of the same text; thus, the Egyptian historian Manetho's history of Egypt is only known by epitomes and references to it made by subsequent writers, such as Eusebius and Sextus Julius Africanus, and the dates for the same pharaoh often vary substantially depending on the intermediate source.
Regnal periods have to be pieced together from inscriptions, which will often give a date in the form of the regnal year of the ruling pharaoh. Yet this only provides a minimum length of that reign and may or may not include any coregencies with a predecessor or successor. In addition, some Egyptian dynasties probably overlapped, with different pharaohs ruling in different regions at the same time, rather than serially. Not knowing whether monarchies were simultaneous or sequential results in widely differing chronological interpretations.
Where the total number of regnal years for a given ruler is not known, Egyptologists have identified two indicators to deduce that total number: for the Old Kingdom, the number of cattle censuses; and for later periods, the celebration of a Sed festival. A number of Old Kingdom inscriptions allude to a periodic census of cattle, which experts at first believed took place every second year; thus records of as many as 24 cattle censuses indicate Sneferu had reigned 48 years. However, further research has shown that these censuses were sometimes taken in consecutive years, or after two or more years had passed.[4] The Sed festival was usually celebrated on the thirtieth anniversary of a pharaoh's ascension, and thus rulers who recorded celebrating one could be assumed to have ruled at least 30 years. However, once again, this may not have been standard practice in all cases.[5]
In the early days of Egyptology, the compilation of regnal periods was also hampered by a profound biblical bias on the part of Egyptologists. This was most pervasive before the mid 19th century, when Manetho's figures were recognized as conflicting with biblical chronology, based on Old Testament references to Egypt (see Pharaohs in the Bible). In the 20th century, such biblical bias has mostly been confined to alternative chronologies outside the scholarly mainstream.
Synchronisms edit
A useful way to work around these gaps in knowledge is to find chronological synchronisms, which can lead to a precise date. Over the past decades, a number of these have been found, although they are of varying degrees of usefulness and reliability.
- Seriation, i.e. archeological sequences. This does not fix a person or event to a specific year, but establishing a sequence of events can provide indirect evidence to provide or support a precise date. For example, some inscribed stone vessels of the rulers of the first two dynasties were collected and deposited in storage galleries beneath and sealed off when the Step Pyramid of Djoser, a Pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, was built. Another example are blocks from the Old Kingdom bearing the names of several kings, which were reused in the construction of Middle Kingdom pyramid-temples at Lisht in the structures of Amenemhat I. Likewise, the third pylon at Karnak, built by Amenhotep III contained as "fill" material from the kiosk of Sesostris I, along with various stelae of the Second Intermediate Period and the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom.[6]
- Synchronisms with other chronologies, the most important of these being with the Assyrian and Babylonian chronologies, but synchronisms with the Hittites, ancient Palestine, and in the final period with ancient Greece, are also used. The earliest such synchronism is in the 18th century BC where a stela of the governor of Byblos Yantinu indicates that pharaoh Neferhotep I was contemporary with kings Zimri-Lim of Mari and Hammurabi of Babylon.[7] Other early synchronisms date to the 15th century BC, during the Amarna Period, when we have a considerable quantity of diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian Kings Amenhotep III and Akhenaten (or possibly Smenkhkare), and various Near Eastern monarchs. (See Chronology of the Ancient Near East.) For the Third Intermediate Period, Shoshenq I has been ascribed a date relative to Rehoboam and the Eponym dating system by Kenneth Kitchen, based on biblical passages about Shishak's campaign. Shoshenq I's absolute date was calculated based on Edwin R. Thiele's theory.[8]
- Synchronisms with memorials of Apis bull interments. These begin as early as the reign of Amenhotep III and continue into Ptolemaic times, but there is a significant gap in the record between Ramesses XI and the 23rd year of Osorkon II. The poor documentation of these finds in the Serapeum of Saqqara also compounds the difficulties in using these records.
- Astronomical synchronisms. The best known of these is the Sothic cycle, and careful study of this led Richard A. Parker to argue that the dates of the Twelfth dynasty could be fixed with absolute precision.[9] More recent research has eroded this confidence, questioning many of the assumptions used with the Sothic Cycle, and as a result experts have moved away from relying on this Cycle.[10] For example, Donald B. Redford, in attempting to fix the date of the end of the Eighteenth dynasty, almost completely ignores the Sothic evidence, relying on synchronicities between Egypt and Assyria (by way of the Hittites), and help from astronomical observations.[11][12]
- Radiocarbon dating. This is useful especially for the Early Dynastic period, where Egyptological consensus has only been possible within a range of about three or four centuries. Radiocarbon dating is roughly consistent with Shaw's conventional chronology.[13] A 2013 study found a First Dynasty start in the 32nd or 31st century, compatible with scholarly opinions placing it in between the 34th and 30th centuries.[14]
- The Thera eruption. This is a famous conundrum not just in Egyptian but also in Aegean (Minoan) chronology, as the radiocarbon date for the eruption, between 1627 and 1600 BC (p=5%),[15] is off by a full century compared to the date traditionally accepted in archaeology of c. 1500 BC.[16][17][18] Since 2012, there have been suggestions that the solution lies in adjusting both dates towards a "compromise" date in the mid 16th century BC,[19] but as of 2023 the problem has not been satisfactorily resolved.
- Dendrochronology. There have been occasional opportunities to use dendrochronology to support Egyptian chronology, mostly for the New Kingdom period, e.g. the Uluburun shipwreck.[20] Combined use of dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating allowed identification of tree rings even back to the Middle Kingdom period, as in the coffin of Ipi-ha-ishutef (dated 2073±9 BC) or the funerary boat of Senusret III (dated 1887±11 BC; conventional reign date 1878 BC–1839 BC).[21]
Alternative chronologies edit
A number of suggestions for alternatives to the consensus on the conventional chronology have been presented during the 20th century:
- The Revised Chronology of Immanuel Velikovsky as postulated in his Ages in Chaos series.
- The chronology of Donovan Courville as described in The Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications.
- The Glasgow Chronology formulated by members of Velikovsky's Society for Interdisciplinary Studies in 1978.
- The Centuries of Darkness (1991) model by Peter James et al. "would move the end of the Egyptian New Kingdom from 1070 BC to around 825 BC",[22] and lower all earlier dates with it, due to miscalculations of the Third Intermediate Period.
- The New Chronology of David Rohl, as described in his Test of Time series.
See also edit
Notes and references edit
- ^ K. A. Kitchen, "The Chronology of Ancient Egypt", World Archaeology: Chronologies, 23, (1991), p. 202
- ^ Breasted's dates are taken from his Ancient Records (first published in 1906), volume 1, sections 58–75; Shaw's are from his Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (published in 2000), pp. 479–483.
- ^ Hsu, Shih-Wei. "The Palermo Stone: the Earliest Royal Inscription from Ancient Egypt" Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 37, no. 1, 2010, pp. 68-89
- ^ Miroslav Verner, "Contemporaneous Evidence for the relative chronology of DYNS. 4 and 5", Ancient Egyptian Chronology Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David A. Warburton (editors), (Leiden: Brill, 2006) pp. 124–8
- ^ Erik Hornung, "Introduction", Ancient Egyptian Chronology Hornung, et al., pp. 10f
- ^ Kitchen, "Chronology", p. 203
- ^ William Stevenson Smith: Interconnections in the Ancient Near East: A Study of the Relationships Between the Arts of Egypt, the Aegean, and Western Asia, Yale University Press, 1965
- ^ Kitchen's quotes on M. Christine Tetley (2014). "Chapter 1. Introduction to Problems with the Historical Chronology of Ancient Egypt" (PDF). The Reconstructed Chronology of the Egyptian Kings. pp. 7–9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 February 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
- ^ Set forth in "Excursus C: The Twelfth dynasty" in his The Calendars of ancient Egypt (Chicago: University Press, 1950).
- ^ One example is Patrick O'Mara, "Censorinus, the Sothic Cycle, and calendar year one in ancient Egypt: the Epistological problem", Journal of Near Eastern studies, 62 (2003), pp. 17–26.
- ^ Redford, "The Dates of the End of the 18th Dynasty", History and Chronology of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt: Seven studies (Toronto: University Press, 1967), pp. 183–215.
- ^ Kate Spence, "Ancient Egyptian chronology and the astronomical orientation of pyramids", Nature, 408 (2000), pp. 320–324. She offers, based on orientation of the Great Pyramid of Giza with circumpolar stars, for a date of that structure precise within 5 years.
- ^ Ramsey, C. B.; Dee, M. W.; Rowland, J. M.; Higham, T. F. G.; Harris, S. A.; Brock, F.; Quiles, A.; Wild, E. M.; Marcus, E. S.; Shortland, A. J. (18 June 2010). "Radiocarbon-Based Chronology for Dynastic Egypt". Science. 328 (5985): 1554–1557. Bibcode:2010Sci...328.1554R. doi:10.1126/science.1189395. PMID 20558717. S2CID 206526496. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ Michael Dee; David Wengrow; Andrew Shortland; Alice Stevenson; Fiona Brock; Linus Girdland Flink; Christopher Bronk Ramsey (2013). "An absolute chronology for early Egypt using radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistical modelling". Proceedings of the Royal Society A. 469 (2159): 20130395. Bibcode:2013RSPSA.46930395D. doi:10.1098/rspa.2013.0395. PMC 3780825. PMID 24204188.
- ^ Friedrich, Walter L; Kromer, B, Friedrich, M, Heinemeier, J, Pfeiffer, T, and Talamo, S (2006). "Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627–1600 B.C". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science. 312 (5773): 548. doi:10.1126/science.1125087. PMID 16645088. S2CID 35908442. Retrieved 10 March 2007.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Warren P.M. (2006). Czerny E, Hein I, Hunger H, Melman D, Schwab A (eds.). Timelines: Studies in Honour of Manfred Bietak (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 149). Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Peeters. pp. 2: 305–321. ISBN 978-90-429-1730-9.
- ^ Balter, M (2006). "New Carbon Dates Support Revised History of Ancient Mediterranean". Science. 312 (5773): 508–509. doi:10.1126/science.312.5773.508. PMID 16645054. S2CID 26804444.
- ^ "The date of this [volcanic] event is of critical importance to the synchronisations of the civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean. The solution of this matter is the key to most of our synchronisation problems". Bibliotheca Orientalis 61, #1–2 January – April 2004: Book review of W. Manning's "A Test of Time", 1999, Oxbow Books
- ^ In 2012 one of the proponents of an archaeological date, Felix Höflmayer, argued that archaeological evidence could be consistent with a date as early as 1570 BCE, reducing the discrepancy to around fifty years. Höflmayer, Felix (2012). "The Date of the Minoan Santorini Eruption: Quantifying the "Offset"". Radiocarbon. 54 (3–4): 444. Bibcode:2012Radcb..54..435H. doi:10.1017/S0033822200047196. Conversely, the radiocarbon dates have been argued to be inaccurate by Malcolm Wiener, Radiocarbon dating of the Theran eruption", Open Journal of Archaeometry, 2 (2014). DOI 10.4081/arc.2014.5265
- ^ Kuniholm et al. Nature 1996, 782
- ^ S. Manning et al., "High-precision dendro-14C dating of two cedar wood sequences from First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom Egypt and a small regional climate-related 14C divergence", Journal of Archaeological Science 46 (2014), 401–416.[1] [2]
- ^ James, Peter; et al. (1) (1991). "Centuries of Darkness: Context, Methodology and Implications [Review Feature]" (PDF). Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 1 (2): 227. doi:10.1017/S0959774300000378. ISSN 1474-0540. S2CID 246638930.
External links edit
Further reading edit
- Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David A. Warburton (editors), Ancient Egyptian Chronology. Leiden: Brill, 2006. ISBN 978-90-04-11385-5 Scribd copy


text:
Business Continuity Management / Disaster Recovery , Fraud Management & Cybercrime , Governance & Risk Management
Ransomware: Your Money or Your Life
9 Ransomware Defenses Thwart Cybercrime ScoundrelsCriminals have been separating people from their possessions since possessions were first invented.
See Also: User Entity & Behavior Analytics 101: Strategies to Detect Unusual Security Behaviors
So for anyone who follows ransomware, the emergence of the WannaCry outbreak - aka WCry, WannaCrypt - Friday won't come as a shock.
"We go into numerous companies that have put in security technologies, but failed to configure them properly."
True, the attack's efficacy has been enhanced by attackers marrying their crypto-locking code with a worm, allowing it to spread more easily. But these small innovations are designed with a clear purpose: to allow them to more easily steal more money from victims.
In other words, what's old is new again, now in cyber-enabled form.
The advice for blocking these attacks is simple: Spend time and money on proper prevention, or else you may be forced into considering whether it makes business sense to pay a ransom when attempting to recover from a ransomware infection. Even then, however, there's no guarantee that the criminals that have infected your systems will bother giving you a decryption key.
Brian Honan, a Dublin-based information security consultant who founded Ireland's first computer emergency response team - IRISSCERT - warns that there's no silver bullet for fixing ransomware. In an interview at last week's AppSec Europe 2017 conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he told me that too often, organizations' poor information security practices are partially to blame for their failure to prevent security incidents, including ransomware outbreaks, notwithstanding whatever tools they may have purchased.
"We go into numerous companies that have put in security technologies, but failed to configure them properly," Honan told me. "Why? 'Oh, we ran out of time,' they say."
9 Essential Ransomware Defenses
The basics of battling crypto-locking ransomware haven't changed of late. In the case of WannaCry, the ransomware can be spread via a worm that targets an SMB flaw in Windows, which all organizations should have fixed now regardless (see 5 Emergency Mitigation Strategies to Combat WannaCry Outbreak).
Following the WannaCry outbreak, the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team - part of the Department of Homeland Security - has reiterated its advice for combating ransomware, as have multiple security experts.
Here's my summary of the experts' recommendations:
- Maintain backups: Back up everything, do it frequently and ensure backups are stored on an isolated network. Also, test these backups frequently to ensure that they can be successfully restored.
- Whitelist applications: Prevent malicious software and unapproved programs from executing. Mac OS X systems, for example, can be set to only allow Apple-reviewed applications to execute.
- Update and patch: Known operating system and application flaws are often targeted by attackers to infect systems with malware. That's why patching remains the best and fastest way to help stay secure.
- Use anti-virus: Keep anti-malware software up to date, and use it to scan all downloaded software before allowing anything to run.
- Think 'least privilege': Administrators must restrict users' ability to install or run their own software applications. Likewise, individuals should ensure they don't regularly use an account with admin-level access.
- Kill email-borne macros: Attackers continue to use macros to spread malware. "Macros are a leading way to get ransomware," Jeremiah Grossman, chief of security strategy for endpoint security firm SentinelOne, said at AppSec Europe 2017. In particular, he noted, attackers code the macro to download the virus, often routing around anti-virus defenses.
- Don't click: "Do not follow unsolicited web links in emails," US-CERT says. In other words, watch what you click - not least because WannaCry victim Telefonica was apparently first infected via a phishing email.
- Virtualize: Consider creating systems that use fast system recovery, via virtualization, to better respond to any malware outbreak. For example, Grossman says he knows of a New York bank that uses thin-client desktops running virtual machines. "Anytime they think there's an infection, they just reset" the virtual image running on all clients, he said.
- Work with law enforcement: "We're going to need help from law enforcement to investigate and arrest ransomware gangs," Grossman said (see FBI to Ransomware Victims: Please Come Forward).
Scant Honor Among Thieves
Reminder: there's no guarantee that any individual or organization that does pay a ransom will ever receive the promised decryption key.
DO NOT PAY the ransom for WCRY, a manual human operator must activate decryption from the Tor C2. See screenshots, I've tried to hack it... pic.twitter.com/xzbK8eqw3Q
— Hacker Fantastic (@hackerfantastic) May 14, 2017
Security experts, including the researcher known as "Hacker Fantastic," say that's especially true for WannaCry. Many ransomware campaigns now use automated tools to receive bitcoin payments and send decryption keys to victims. But WannaCry's operators only have a manual process in place. As a result, computer science professor Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey tells me, it's likely that the attackers have no intention to trade decryption keys for ransom payments.
That's why the best, simplest and most effective advice remains: Prepare to battle ransomware outbreaks, or else prepare to pay the consequences.


text:
I am facing the following problem:
We provide multiple financial services to all sort of profiles (retail & business).
Some profiles (reached a certain age and risky profiles) are not allowed to start a particular flow. The first type won't change over time but the second type CAN change.
How do you explain it to these users in a meaningful understanding way?
- Just hide the flow?
- Show a message immediately before starting the flow or on the first screen?
- Make a separate sorry page?