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BILL MOYERS: Welcome. Circle next Tuesday in red, the 22nd of January. That's the day the United State Senate could decide whether to return from the dead by reforming the filibuster and allowing democracy to work.
Once upon a time the filibuster enabled a clique of Senators, or even just one, to stall progress by prolonged speaking, emphasis on speaking. You had to show up in person if you were a senator and hold the floor continuously by not shutting up until you dropped. That's what happened when Mr. Smith went to Washington:
H.V. KALTENBORN in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Half of official Washington is here to see democracy's finest show, the filibuster, the right to talk your head off, the American privilege of free speech in its most dramatic form.
JEFFERSON SMITH in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Well, I'm not licked and I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause. Even if this room gets filled with lies like these, and the Taylor's and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me…
BILL MOYERS: No longer. The rules were changed in 1975, and these days, that one Senator or a clique of them can bring the entire Senate to its knees without being there in person or saying a word. While our founding fathers believed in checks and balances, they feared that kind of obstructionism. Alexander Hamilton, the handsome, conservative man on our ten dollar bill, argued against anything like it. The purpose would be, he wrote, "to embarrass the administration, to destroy the energy of the government, and to substitute the pleasure, caprice, or artifices of an insignificant, turbulent, or corrupt junto, to the regular deliberations and decisions of a respectable majority."
That's just what the Republicans have been doing. Since 2007, when they lost the majority in the Senate, they've mounted or threatened to mount nearly 400 filibusters, blocking everything from equal pay for equal work and jobs bills to immigration reform and judicial appointments. As a result, there are more vacancies on the federal courts today than when President Obama first took office.
But hold on: When Democrats were in the minority in the Senate and threatening to filibuster against George W. Bush's judicial nominees, their leader Harry Reid had some kind things to say about the tactic:
HARRY REID: The filibuster serves as a check on power and preserves our limited government. Right now, the only check on President Bush is the Democrats ability to voice their concern in this body of the Senate. If Republicans rollback our rights in this Chamber, there will be no check on their power. The radical, right wing will be free to pursue any agenda they want.
BILL MOYERS: Now the shoe's on the other foot, and so I asked Larry Cohen to explain the double standard. He's president of CWA, the Communications Workers of America, 700,000 workers in many industries, including media, telephone and data services, and health care.
But that's just his day job. Larry Cohen's also a leader of the Democracy Initiative, a coalition of progressive organizations as varied as the NAACP, Common Cause, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Jobs with Justice and the AFL-CIO. Along with an affiliated campaign called Fix the Senate Now, they're campaigning hard to change the filibuster rules. Take a look at their ad:
FIX THE SENATE NOW ADVERTISEMENT: As climate change threatens the world we leave to our children, and good US jobs move overseas, time in the Senate ticks by. As women earn less than men for the same jobs, time in the Senate ticks by. It keeps ticking by with no results, because the system is broken. But we can fix it and make the Senate work for us again. If our Senators vote to end the silent filibuster and for common sense reforms.
BILL MOYERS: They have only hours to do so. Unless the Senate reforms the filibuster on Tuesday, the minority wrecking crew remains in charge for the next two years.
Larry Cohen, welcome.
LARRY COHEN: Great being with you.
BILL MOYERS: If the Democrats were back in the minority would you be making this fight to reform the filibuster that you're making now?
LARRY COHEN: Absolutely, because we believe that what a democracy means is that the Americans people are entitled to get discussion, debate and eventually a vote on the critical questions of the day. But we haven't had that in decades in the U.S. Senate. Things, everything dies there, it doesn't get discussed and debated there as people used to believe. We need to bring back the debate in the U.S. Senate.
BILL MOYERS: But if the Republicans became the majority again, they might deny you the very thing you want.
LARRY COHEN: That means Democrats who are in the minority would have to stand up, talk and fight back.
BILL MOYERS: Talk?
LARRY COHEN: Talk, really radical idea, talk, talk, talk, yes.
BILL MOYERS: And that's eliminated now in the Senate?
LARRY COHEN: There's no discussion of these issues unless you have 60 votes for the proposition. So--
BILL MOYERS: Because it takes 60 members of the Senate to vote to continue the discussion?
LARRY COHEN: It takes 60 just to put the bill on the floor right now.
BILL MOYERS: Isn't there a double standard, the party that's in the majority wants to reform the filibuster until it winds up in the minority?
LARRY COHEN: I think there's to some extent a double standard, but I think, you know, we, the people, need to stick on the path of we want the democracy no matter what, that playing defense in that way is limited. But more importantly the Senate Resolution Four which is what will be discussed in the caucus next Tuesday before it comes to the Senate floor would maintain, in fact it would strengthen the filibuster.
It would actually say, "Filibuster, good, you'll have to talk." Both sides will have to talk because the majority would have to talk as well. So what we're really talking about here is not eliminating rights to the minority. We're talking about getting the issues on the floor of the U.S. Senate starting next week.
BILL MOYERS: The 112th Congress just ground to a halt, absolutely nothing done, the worst record in recorded history. How did we get into this fix?
LARRY COHEN: Well, starting in the '70s it got worse and worse and worse. So it used to be the filibuster was rare, very, very rare. So in Lyndon Johnson's tenure as majority leader which ended when he was vice president in January of '61 there was one filibuster in his six years.
In Harry Reid's six years almost 400, that's the contrast. It's gradual. The right to filibuster has been there, you know, since the modern Senate was there. But it's the perversion of the senators that are willing to filibuster anything, any single thing. They bring this to bear.
BILL MOYERS: Describe that perversion.
LARRY COHEN: That perversion is everything from the almost 100 judicial vacancies that you talked about many examples of recess appointments in the Executive Branch. We just spent $3 billion on a presidential election and the executive, the president's appointees, most of them that he makes now are unlikely to ever get confirmed, unlikely to ever get debated, unlikely to ever get discussed and certainly unlikely to ever serve.
BILL MOYERS: Your ad talks about ending the silent filibuster.
LARRY COHEN: Right.
BILL MOYERS: What's behind that?
LARRY COHEN: Senate Resolution Four authored by Jeff Merkley from Oregon would say, would actually make it essential that people talk. It would encourage, this is what the American people want. It would encourage debate. It wouldn't push it away.
BILL MOYERS: What is your reform asking for, demanding next Tuesday?
LARRY COHEN: Yeah, four things. One, that the majority leader of the Senate can put a bill on the floor for discussion and debate. Right now he can't do that unless he has 60 votes to do it.
BILL MOYERS: Number two?
LARRY COHEN: He can't even proceed. Number two, nominations. The Executive Branch, the president, makes nominations. There needs to be a clear way for those nominations to get discussed in a short period of time, not 30 hours of Senate time which is more than a week. But in a short period of time they get discussed and they get a vote on nominations. Number three, a conference committee, the House passes one bill, the Senate passes another bill. What's supposed to happen is there's a conference committee and they sort it out and they bring the bill back and then it's adopted by both houses. And then the biggest issues is the talking filibuster, that's number four, that once the majority leader puts a bill on the floor which he would now be able to do, puts the bill on the floor, there has to be 41 senators present that object to prevent the bill from moving forward. If they do object, they then have to speak, they have to hold the floor. And yes, the minority can still stop a vote, but they will have to show up and they will have to speak out. Right now you don't even know who is filibustering. Not only do they not have to talk, they call their cloak room and they say, "I object."
BILL MOYERS: If they're bringing the Senate to its knees, you want them to do it visibly. You want to be able to look at them on C-SPAN and from the gallery and see who is holding the Senate up?
LARRY COHEN: Exactly, who's holding it up and what do they have to say and what does the debate sound like? That's what we want. We want a Senate that debates, not a Senate that hides.
BILL MOYERS: You've said in other places the Senate is broken. But is it more broken than it is held hostage?
LARRY COHEN: We would say broken because lots of energy goes into electing these senators individually and then the results are almost nothing. So that's why we would say broken. You could definitely say it's held hostage. But we would say broken because I think regardless of how the deck is, stacks up, Republicans, Independents and Democrats it should not function this way. I mean, we really do believe that. You know, we think our members and working people in this country and most Americans would say it's fair: People get elected, at some point the majority should rule. And that's the way it is in every other democracy in the world.
BILL MOYERS: But as we talk what's up with Harry Reid? He does seem to be backing away from the strong reform that you propose. I brought a story from talkingpointsmemo.com. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is voicing support for a set of changes to the current filibuster rules that would fall far short of the more sweeping proposals from people like Mr. Cohen. What's he, what's up?
LARRY COHEN: Well, I think part of what's up is he's got four or five Democrats, many of them senior, in his own party who don't want to see this. And they're in fact at this moment trying to make their own deal with people like John McCain for next to nothing from our point of view. You wouldn't see any of those four changes that we're pushing for. And I think he is reluctant unfortunately, to go ahead with the overwhelming majority of Democrats that he has. He's got 51 Democrats--
BILL MOYERS: Already?
LARRY COHEN: --who will support Senate Resolution Four. And we need the American people to call in to Senator Reid and say, "Let's take a stand. Let's bring democracy to the U.S. Senate."
BILL MOYERS: The polls suggest that the majority of Americans really want filibuster reform and want the talking filibuster back.
LARRY COHEN: Right, overwhelming majority, you know, two thirds at least and in fact on the other side, like, seven percent or eight percent or nine percent say, "oh yeah, they should be able to phone in from their fundraiser," which is what they do, and say, "I object." And then you're in unanimous consent and now to get out of unanimous consent you need 60 votes to move forward. Very few Americans believe that's what they elected a senator to do.
BILL MOYERS: So a senator could be sitting somewhere off Capitol Hill raising money on the telephone which they all spend hours every week doing and there's a vote coming up or a bill being put forth, he can just call the cloak room, she can call the cloak room and say, "I filibuster"?
LARRY COHEN: I object.
BILL MOYERS: I object.
LARRY COHEN: It's not really a filibuster because the filibuster would mean you'd be talking. So all they got in this case they just say, "I object." There's no unanimous consent, so they can quickly shift the burden to the majority party or some coalition of 60. And if there's not 60 that bill or item does not proceed. It could be a nomination, it doesn't even have to be legislation.
BILL MOYERS: Pretend I'm Harry Reid. It's Monday afternoon after the inaugural speech. You're with him in his office in the capitol. Look him in the eye and tell him what you want him to do.
LARRY COHEN: You need to do what you said on the floor of the Senate last spring. We need real change. We don't get rid of the rights of the minority, but we need to make them talk. We need to get rid of the motion to proceed, we need to have a clear path on nominations and we need to be able to name conferees. Our country, our nation is hungry for change and debate and discussion. We need that discussion. Please Senator Reid, don't back off. Stick with the 51 senators who will be with you on that.
If Senator McConnell was the majority leader, the rules would be changed far more than what we're talking about on the 22nd or even back on January 3rd when they met for a few hours. They would be in lockstep and they would change the rules so their agenda got passed. What we have to worry about is why aren't the Democratic senators as a whole, many of them are amazing people, but as a whole ready to stand up for working Americans, working families in this country, for all Americans, and to stand up and talk and move this agenda forward.
BILL MOYERS: And why aren't they?
LARRY COHEN: I would say that they're conflicted about that kind of change even though they run on it when they campaign.
BILL MOYERS: There are some more responsive to corporate contributions than they are to your workers, right?
LARRY COHEN: Yeah, far more. Far more responsive.
BILL MOYERS: Democrats? Far more.
LARRY COHEN: Far, far, far, far more responsive, yeah.
BILL MOYERS: How do you change that?
LARRY COHEN: Primaries, we have to have people, you know, ready to run, that respond to the broad, you know, the state labor's in this country they're not going to come from labor, but come from the progressive community, the same kinds of groups that are working together on the democracy front, you know, candidates like an Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts who you don't have to think twice about or Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Tammy Baldwin. I mean, now I've only named a few, but you know, Merkley and Udall who are champions of this, people who despite the fundraising problem which is gigantic.
An open Senate seat can be $20 million. Well, where's $20 million going to come from? So this is why our Democracy Initiative is also on voting rights. We have the lowest registration in the world of any democracy, let alone then the turnout. And so, you know, we're on voting rights, money in politics and Senate rules. It's not just one thing. And we're going to need to build a real movement to bring about a 21st century democracy here.
BILL MOYERS: Your coalition is called the Democracy Initiative. Who's funding your efforts?
LARRY COHEN: At this point everybody sort of funds it together. I mean, those ads, we're funding a lot of those ads, but it's--
BILL MOYERS: We being labor?
LARRY COHEN: Yeah, CWA, more than our share because we believe that if we don't restore the democracy, the rest of the things that our members want aren't going to be there.
BILL MOYERS: Let me read you from a column by the conservative Washington journalist Matthew Continetti. Quote, "Someone needs to give the members of the Democracy Initiative a tap on the shoulder, a kick in the pants, a wonk-like nudge--anything to wake them from their fantasy of being weak and isolated and besieged, anything to alert them to the fact that it is they, not, 'the Scaifes, Exxons, Coors and Kochs of the world,' who actually run the country…"
LARRY COHEN: That sounds like things turned upside down to me. I don't know what he's talking about.
BILL MOYERS: He's saying that progressive groups really are setting the agenda now and that you have all this--
LARRY COHEN: None of our members feel that way, trust me, none. They feel like their standard of living is declining, their jobs are sent out anywhere in the world, their health care is declining, retirement security, social security, their pensions are destroyed. They don't feel like they're running the world.
BILL MOYERS: You've been talking about this for some time now, talking about building a political and economic democracy movement in effect to become in one sense the Tea Party of the left, that is to hold the Democrats accountable in the primaries for the core interests of their constituents. Even for labor to become more independent of the Democrats?
LARRY COHEN: Yeah, labor itself will never change this country. In a fundamental way labor has to work with the kinds of folks we talked about here, civil rights, greens, in a much more basic way than we have at least in the last 80 years. It can't just be a nice addition. It's got to be, like, core, we're in this together. It's our common agenda. We're going to fight foreclosures as much as we're going to fight for bargaining rights. We're going to fight climate change as much as we're going to fight to raise the standard of living. And it's going to take that kind of a labor movement and I think a lot of us are ready for that kind of a labor movement.
BILL MOYERS: Last year, 2012, labor took a series of defeats right on the chin in Wisconsin and Michigan and other places. And I think you wrote recently that 88 percent of the workers in this country do not have collective bargaining rights and the 12 percent who do are constantly fighting a defensive battle. How do you change that? Is labor dying?
LARRY COHEN: I think the way we change that is that part of the agenda, the economic justice part, but the democracy part goes with it, but on the economic justice front, part of it is to get the partners which they are now, the greens, the civil rights, the students, the others, to say we're never going to restore a decent economy here if working people have no rights.
If people can't bargain with their employers, there's no place in the world where people who can't bargain raise their wages. In fact they get wage cuts on a continuing basis. And so I think that our strategy is to link core issues together so that it's not just quote, "Labor," or particularly organized labor, as you said 12 percent, and that includes the public sector. Private sector's under seven percent.
It's not just labor talking about worker's rights. It's all of us who have a vision of economic justice, let's do something about economic inequality. Let's figure out how to stimulate the demand side of the economy because you need rising wages to have rising demand to get the economy going again. I think it's that kind of an agenda. And you know, in our view, what we talk to our members about, I was at a meeting in California of young new stewards on Saturday, is this is seven to ten years.
And, you know, I've been doing this my whole life. And I may not be there at the end of that period, but I am sure, absolutely certain that without that kind of a basic movement in this country, democracy and economic justice, not just the traditional union agenda, we don't have a chance. But on the other hand with that kind of an agenda I absolutely believe we can change this country as President Obama talked about in 2008, you know, the change you can believe in, the change you'll work for.
BILL MOYERS: What's President Obama done for labor in these last four years?
LARRY COHEN: Well, I think he's tried to do quite a bit. I think in his heart he definitely supports, you know, working families. You know, part of the outcome piece, is what gets through the U.S. Congress. So he definitely supported health care bill much more like Speaker Pelosi's than what we ended up getting through the Senate Finance Committee onto the Senate floor and eventually adopted a year later.
He definitely supported workers' rights legislation, he definitely supported much more aggressive moves to stop the foreclosures, he definitely supported climate change. So part of this is really, you know, we would love to see more active White House support for these democracy initiatives so that the change that I'm sure he still believes in had some reality to it instead of just, you know, on the back bench somewhere.
BILL MOYERS: Did he fight hard enough? I don't want to put you on the spot… yeah, I want to put you on the spot.
LARRY COHEN: That's okay, you can put me on the spot.
BILL MOYERS: I wonder why labor keeps rolling over for the Democrats and for the president.
LARRY COHEN: Yeah, well, we're trying not to roll over by the way particularly on this as you well know because the Democrats are solely responsible next Tuesday on the Senate rules, has nothing to do with the Republicans. They're solely responsible.
BILL MOYERS: They're, you're saying the Democrats can win this without the Republicans?
LARRY COHEN: Yeah, they won't get any Republican support for this--
BILL MOYERS: But they've got the--
LARRY COHEN: --this is solely up to the Democrats.
BILL MOYERS: So they've got the votes. How many votes do they have?
LARRY COHEN: They have the 51 to do Senate Resolution Four. They just have to go and do it.
BILL MOYERS: Next Tuesday?
LARRY COHEN: Next Tuesday. They can absolutely do it if they choose to. On the other hand if they go with a rationale that says, "We want to have bipartisan support for this. We want to do it the old way," where technically they would have two thirds support to change the rules, then guess what? We're going see next to nothing change and two more years will go by and none of these bills will ever get discussed or debated all over again and we'll pretend to have a democracy that we don't have.
But yeah, I mean, back to your question about rolling, you know, we like to roll the union on rather than roll over. We would say that Democrats need to stand up across this country for this democracy in a way where we're willing to fight on the issues of the democracy. Senate rules is the easiest one of those, because next Tuesday 51 elected Democrats can change it. But we also have to take on these much harder fights. What happened to voting rights? Why are only 70 percent of Americans registered? Why was it a $6 billion election? We've got to take on the democracy issues.
BILL MOYERS: So if three or four of the 51 Democrats who could win for you next Tuesday desert you, betray you, abandon you, what will you do?
LARRY COHEN: Well, we only need 51, so four can go actually five can go because Vice President Biden has said he supports these things. We'll see. So you if you had 50 plus him, there you have the new rules for the next Congress.
BILL MOYERS: But if you lose next Tuesday you have as you've already said based upon the past almost no chance of anything happening in Congress.
LARRY COHEN: And we need to reset, we will know who's who even though they won't publicize that, but we will know who's who. And we need to look at primaries, we need to look at saying, "Guess what? We're not going to get involved at all, none of the progressives. So if you have a Republican takeover in that seat that's the way it goes. We will fight it out in the primaries. We can't roll over," to use your words, strong words I might add. We have to show that we can make a difference.
BILL MOYERS: Are they inaccurate words?
LARRY COHEN: No, I feel that way sometimes--
BILL MOYERS: Time and again corporate breaks get in because Democrats wanted them in. Time and again legislation favorable to labor doesn't get in because corporate Democrats won't move it along.
LARRY COHEN: That's right. And we don't call it out and we don't call it out because people say, "Well, this is always worse." Well, at a certain point we have to say, "Yeah, we know how that works." That's why we'll work inside the Democratic Party, not outside. We will work inside.
And as you said where does the Tea Party success come from? Not a new idea. It comes from working and running and fighting inside. We have to do the same thing. And we need the equivalent of a progressive caucus as we have in the house fighting to define progressive values and being willing to stand up and fight back even in public ways, especially when you see something as bad as these Senate rules.
BILL MOYERS: Larry Cohen, thank you very much for being with me.
LARRY COHEN: My pleasure, and my honor. Thank you.


text:
MACAU, Macao – Canadian singer Avril Lavigne and Ottawa-raised actor Matthew Perry were two of the winners at China's Huading Awards on Monday night.
Lavigne, who walked the red carpet hand-in-hand with husband Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, has a particularly strong fan base in Asia and received the award for Best Global Singer.
"It was an honour and it was really sweet and I feel very happy and lucky to be here. Asia, everyone in Asia, has been really good. I have a lot of fans here so I'm going to start my tour here in February. I'll tour all across Asia, and so I feel very grateful for the fan base here," she said.
Television awards went to Perry and Downton Abbey actress Michelle Dockery, who were among the attendees who left a handprint on star-shaped plaques for Macau's Avenue of Stars.
Nicolas Cage, accepting a film award in China, says he's enjoying the warmth and enthusiasm he feels while working there on a new film.
Cage was named Best Global Actor in Motion Pictures. Nicole Kidman, honoured as best global film actress, wore a black Prada dress while she walked the red carpet in Macau alongside Hong Kong legend and pal Jackie Chan.
Cage has been shooting Outcast in Hong Kong with Canadian actor Hayden Christensen.
"I believe in the genius loci of a place, the genie of the place is what I call it. I absorb that energy and it affects performance wherever I go," Cage said on the red carpet. "… Making a movie in China, I'm buzzing with good energy, I feel great here. I love the people I'm working with, I love the crew, and there's a genuine warmth and enthusiasm that I get from my conversations."
Quentin Tarantino, whose Django Unchained was released last year, was named Best Global Director in Motion Pictures.
"I've been a fan of Asian cinema my whole life growing up. I did my movie Kill Bill as a complete tribute to my love for it and so to come here amongst the Chinese film industry, get this from the Chinese fans is a dream come true," said Tarantino.
Avatar star Sam Worthington, who received an award for Best Global Action Movie Actor, shared that his plans for next year include filming sequels of Academy Award-winning science fiction epic.
"Well, we start filming next year. We do Avatar 2, Avatar 3, Avatar 4. Then they'll come out Christmas concurrently kind of thing, different Christmases. I'm not too sure where we're shooting at the moment. I know they're still writing it. I know Jim (Canadian director James Cameron) loves China, loves it," he said, referring to questions about returning to China. "Those types of films, if we get the opportunity to work here that'll be great. We'll see what happens."
The Huading Awards, established in 2007 by the Beijing-based Global Talents Media Group, also recognized music, dance and theatre.
Some Huading Awards are voted by fans and some winners are voted by experts.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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East Coast detour around Delaware bridge closure that has shut down I-495
THE PROBLEM: The Delaware Department of Transportation is telling drivers from Maine to Florida to make plans to get around a section of an interstate that's closed because of columns that are tilting on a bridge in Wilmington.
HOW TO GET AROUND IT: The affected route, Interstate 495, parallels Interstate 95. So I-95 through downtown Wilmington is the main detour.
FROM MAINE, NEW YORK AND OTHER POINTS: Southbound traffic on I-495 is closed at the Pennsylvania state line, with traffic diverted onto I-95 southbound. Drivers traveling south from New York may want to stay on the New Jersey Turnpike, rather than getting on I-95, crossing into Delaware over the Delaware Memorial Bridge south of Wilmington and then getting back on I-95. Southbound port of Wilmington traffic is being directed to Interstate 295 east and then to Delaware 9 north to the port.
HEADING NORTH ALONG THE EAST COAST: Officials say I-495 is closed northbound at Terminal Avenue, which leads to the port of Wilmington. Drivers traveling north can stay on I-95 through Wilmington or take Interstate 295 into New Jersey and bypass northern Delaware. Local northbound traffic can stay on I-495 to Terminal Avenue.


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ClassNotFoundException is one of Java nightmare every Java developer face in there day to day life. java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError and java.lang.ClassNotFoundException are two errors which occurs by and now and chew up of your precious time while finding and fixing root cause. From the name java.lang.ClassNotFoundException looks quite simple but underlying cause of it is always different and which classifies it as an environmental issue. In this java tutorial we will see what is ClassNotFoundException in java, what is real cause of it and how to fix it along with some more frequent and infamous examples of java.lang.ClassNotFoundException in Java or J2EE, Don't mistake this exception with NoClassDefFoundError in Java which is also due to incorrect classpath in Java. Though both of them are related to missing class file when Java tries to load class in Java they are completely different to each other. Correct understanding of When class is loaded in Java and How Classpath works is must to troubleshoot and fix this error quickly.
What is java.lang.classNotFoundException in Java
As per java doc java.lang.classNotFoundException comes in following cases:
1) When we try to load a class by using Class.forName() method and .class file or binary of class is not available in classpath.
2) When Classloader try to load a class by using findSystemClass () method.
3) While using loadClass() method of class ClassLoader in Java.
Though java.lang.classNotFoundException is very common and it can come for any classes, I usually see it while doing JDBC connectivity like when I was writing Java program to connect Oracle database. I am going to list some of the most common scenario where you will get classnotfoundexception in java.
This is classical and most infamous example of and also my first encounter with java.lang.ClassNotFoundException and comes when you are writing JDBC connectivity code and trying to load the JDBC driver. In this particular case of ClassNotFoundException looks like mysql driver jar file is missing from Classpath. If you pay attention you will find that we use method Class.forName ("driver") to load the driver class which resides in a particular jar in case of this its mysql-connector.jar and if that jar is not in classpath or not accessible to JVM it will throw java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
This ClassNotfoundException comes when you are trying to connect Oracle database from Java program using JDBC but you don't have corresponding Oracle driver e.g.ojdbc6.jar is not in classpath of your Java program
More Complicated ClassNotFoundException
How to fix java.lang.ClassNotFoundException in Java
As you have seen from above examples its clear problem of classpath, so here is my approach to fix or resolve java.lang.ClassNotFoundException:
1) First find out the jar file on which problematic class file is present for example in case of "com.mysql.jdbc.driver" its mysql-connector-java.jar. If you don't know how to find which jar file a particular class you can see eclipse shortcuts to do that or you can simply do "Ctrl+T" in Eclipse and type the name of class, It will list all the jar in the order they appear in eclipse classpath.
2) Check whether your classpath contains that jar, if your classpath doesn't contain the jar then just add that class in your classpath.
3) If it's present in your classpath then there is high chance that your classpath is getting overridden or application is using classpath specified in jar file or start-up script and to fix that you need to find the exact classpath used by your application.
Live example of reproducing and Fixing ClassNotFoundException in java
I think if we are able to reproduce and solve certain problem we become more comfortable dealing with that, that's why here we will reproduce java.lang.ClassNotFoundException and solve it by following the concept we have discussed so far.
1) Create a Class called StockTrading.java
public class StockTrading{
public String getDescription(){
return "StockTrading";
2) create a Class called OnlineStockTranding.java and load the class StockTrading.java as Class.forName ("stocktrading");
public class OnlineStockTrading {
public static void main(String args[]) throws ClassNotFoundException{
System.out.println("StockTrading class successfully loaded");
3) Compile both Java source file which will create two class files and run the program should run fine.
javin@trading~/java: javac *.java
javin@trading ~/java: ls –lrt
-rw-r--r-- 1 javin None 90 Aug 21 09:27 StockTrading.java
-rw-r--r-- 1 javin None 208 Aug 21 09:28 OnlineStockTrading.java
-rwxr-xr-x 1 javin None 282 Aug 21 09:28 StockTrading.class
-rwxr-xr-x 1 javin None 638 Aug 21 09:28 OnlineStockTrading.class
javin@trading ~/java:$ java OnlineStockTrading
StockTrading class successfully loaded
4) Now just remove the .class file for stocktrading.java and run the Java program and it will throw java.lang.ClassNotFoundException in java.
javin@trading ~/java: rm StockTrading.class
javin@trading ~/java: java OnlineStockTrading
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: StockTrading
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
ClassFoundException vs NoClassDefFoundError vs UnSupportedClassVersionError
There are lots of exceptions in java but these three are the one who most haunted the java developer most mainly because these three are mostly related to environment issues and they all depends upon JVM and Classpath behaviour. Though they look similar there is slight difference between ClassFoundException and NoClassDefFoundError and UnSupportedClassVersionError and we will highlight those differences here for easy understanding and differentiating these three:
1) ClassNotFoundException comes on Runtime when requested class is not available in classpath and mainly due to call to Class.forName () or Classloader.loadClass () or ClassLoader.findSystemClass ().
2) NoClassDefFoundError comes when problematic class was present when your compiled your application but they are not in classpath while you running your program.
3) UnSupportedClassVersionError is easy to differentiate because it's related to version of classpath and usually comes when you compile your code in higher Java version and try to run on lower java version. Can be resolved simply by using one java version for compiling and running your application.
So that's all on ClassNotFoundException in java for now , please let me know if you have any tip or any personal experience on solving java.lang.ClassNotFoundException in Java which you would like to share.
Further Learning
Understanding the Java Virtual Machine: Class Loading and Reflection
Complete Java Masterclass
Java In-Depth: Become a Complete Java Engineer!
How Classpath work in Java? How to set classpath in Unix Linux
How to override equals method in Java
How to implement Thread in Java ?Example of Runnable interface
Difference between ConcurrentHashMap and Collections.synchronizedMap and Hashtable in Java
How to create update or remove symbolic or soft link in Unix
What is Abstraction in java ?
What is the difference between Enumeration and Iterator?


text:
- Early Years
- Devon Years
- Final Years
Early years
Ben Hartley was born and grew up in the country, in the Peak District, in Mellor, east of Stockport. A sickly child suffering from a difficult chest condition, his early years were largely spent indoors, reading and drawing. His great delight was to be allowed go to the nearby farm of his grandparents, observing the animals, absorbing a feeling for the life of farming people: a formative factor in making him the artist he became. He was an outstanding draughtsman and colourist, combining poetry and humour in everything he produced, at times attaining a visionary level, very much in the tradition of Samuel Palmer.
Student years
An academic boy, he attended Manchester Grammar School, but his health was always a problem. His parents understood his deep attachment to drawing, so he left grammar school at 16 to go to art school, firstly in Stockport, then in Manchester and finally at the Royal College of Art in London, in the printmaking department. He was always noted both for the quality of his work and his extremely private nature.


text:
RML Turquoise
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Phifer-recommended cleaning:
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Clean fabric using sponge or soft cloth dipped in solution. Rinse thoroughly with clean water and air dry. Avoid direct contact with oil-based products like suntan lotions and sunscreens, which may cause accelerated aging of fabric. Clean promptly if direct contact occurs.
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text:
Student Wins UN Human Rights Award for Statelessness Research
By Brian McNeill
Third-year Caroline McInerney was named one of two graduate winners of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and Tilburg University's inaugural UNHCR Award for Statelessness Research.
McInerney's independent study paper, "Citizenship Laws of Madagascar: Future Challenges for a Developing Nation" was nominated by Professor David Martin, who oversaw her independent study. The award for the new global writing competition on the subject of statelessness carries a 1,000 euro prize.
McInerney said she was thrilled to hear that she had received the award.
"The issue of statelessness in Madagascar has received a relatively small amount of attention thus far and I look forward to the ways in which my research will raise awareness in the international community," she said. "Hopefully my research will encourage future work in the area and be a first step in bringing about changes for the people facing issues of statelessness and citizenship in the country."
In selecting McInerney's paper, the jury wrote that it found her conclusions to be both convincing and compelling, and expressed appreciation in particular for the practical recommendations made with regard to the need for and possible content of law reform.
The Jury found [McInerney's paper] to be a case study of significant importance and timeliness, given the relative lack of writings on statelessness in Africa and the fact that the citizenship regime of Madagascar, in particular, has not drawn much research interest to date," the jury report said. "McInerney presents an extensive review of the content of the Malagasy nationality regulations and identifies how the law is serving to create and perpetuate cases of statelessness in the country."
The paper grew out of McInerney's trip to Madagascar as a Cowan Fellow in the student-led Human Rights Study Project at UVA Law. She was one of eight students who took part in the trip, in which they spent three weeks in Madagascar to study the status of human rights in the wake of a 2009 coup d'état that toppled the democratically elected government and sparked a massive withdrawal of foreign aid and investment.
Each year, fellows in the Human Rights Study Project travel to countries with troubling records on human rights to gather information — primarily via first-person interviews — and report their findings. Past teams traveled to Sri Lanka, Egypt, China, Cuba, Cambodia, Syria, Sierra Leone, and elsewhere.
Martin called McInerney's paper a "wonderful blend of field and library research."
"It draws so effectively on her interviews in Madagascar in order to paint a picture of legal, political, and practical barriers in the way of reducing statelessness there," he said. "She evaluates the country's citizenship laws against international standards, but she also gives practical reasons why Madagascar's leaders should want to move to change the situation. And she offers detailed suggestions for reforms."
McInerney, he added, "poured long hours into her work, and I'm just delighted that UNHCR has recognized what a significant contribution her paper makes."
McInerney thanked Martin for his support and guidance, as well as PJ and Cam Cowan '81, Human Rights Program Director Deena Hurwitz, and the Human Rights Study Project for helping to make the field research possible.


text:
|More Like This
Cultural Psychiatry Comes of Age
Transcultural Psychiatry for Clinical Practice
Cultural Variables in Psychiatry
In the glossary of our book The Culture-Bound Syndromes, Charles C. Hughes, Ph.D., listed almost 200 folk illnesses that have, at one time or another, been considered culture-bound syndromes (Simons and Hughes, 1986). Many have wonderfully exotic and evocative names: Arctic hysteria, amok, brain fag, windigo. Some of the more common syndromes are described in the Table. These diagnostic entities, both individually and collectively, have been the subject of a large and contentious body of literature. Are they best explained within the conceptual framework of Western psychiatry, or are they best explained anthropologically as manifestations of structural and functional elements operating in the societies in which they are found?
In the introductory comments to the glossary, Hughes pointed out that it is impossible to produce a definitive list of this group of diagnostic entities (Simons and Hughes, 1986). It is unclear exactly what sort of things should be included. How about reports of possession and trance states, which often had local names? Should descriptively similar patterns of behavior or experience from different cultures be lumped together or split apart? What can reasonably be called an illness, and what is better considered a set of customary beliefs and practices of an entirely different order? Hughes concluded that the term culture-bound syndrome "still has currency but little discriminable [i.e., operationally definable] content" (Simons and Hughes, 1986).
In theory, culture-bound syndromes are those folk illnesses in which alterations of behavior and experience figure prominently. In actuality, however, many are not syndromes at all. Instead, they are local ways of explaining any of a wide assortment of misfortunes.
In certain parts of the Philippines, for example, when a person becomes ill in a number of very different ways (fever, stomachache, shouting during sleep, incessant crying, various skin ailments), it may be said that the individual is suffering from lanti. This is a way of saying that the presumed etiology of all of these complaints is having been shocked or startled some time before. There is no discrete lanti syndrome with either a specific experience of altered reality or any specific altered behavior. Instead, the illness label is used as an explanation for a variety of troubles. Saladera, from the Peruvian Amazon, is also a way of explaining any of a host of misfortunes such as a persistent run of bad luck. In addition to suffering misfortunes of many kinds, patients with saladera may exhibit signs of great anxiety, but this is because they believe that they have been bewitched.
People with bipolar disorder, major depression, schizophrenia or intellectual handicap may also be considered to be suffering from a locally prevalent culture-bound syndrome. This can be the case even when the majority of people classified locally as suffering from that particular diagnostic entity do not suffer from an illness meeting any DSM-IV diagnosis.
However, some culture-bound syndromes are indeed syndromes. Latah, described from Malaysia and Indonesia, is a good example (Simons, 1996, 1983). Although everyone can be startled, in all populations some people startle more readily and strongly than others. In Malaysia and Indonesia, these people are repetitively startled by others until they become extremely flustered whenever they are startled. In the highly flustered state that follows being startled, these people may say things that are normally considered obscene or irreverent, imitate the actions of others around them (Photograph), and obey commands that are forcefully directed at them. These hyperstartling people are called latahs, and this condition of being latah is a well-defined role in Malay and Indonesian society with its own set of rules and understandings.
This same physiology has been elaborated in a variety of societies that are unrelated either historically or culturally. Among the Ainu in Japan, the syndrome is called imu, and in a French-Canadian population in Maine it is called jumping. Thus, these syndromes are similar, but not identical, from society to society. This, of course, is true of the diagnostic entities described in DSM-IV as well. Like hyperstartling, sleep paralysis (a feeling of paralysis when either just falling asleep or waking up, sometimes accompanied by visual or audio hallucinations) has been elaborated into a culture-bound syndrome in a number of unrelated geographic locations. It is known as uqamairineq among the Yupik Eskimos and as old hag in parts of Newfoundland, Canada.
Elliott C (2000), A new way to be mad. The Atlantic Monthly 286(6):73-84.
Favazza AR (1985), Anthropology and psychiatry. In: Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, Vol. 1, 4th ed., Kaplan H and Sadock B, eds. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
Manschreck TC, Petri M (1978), The atypical psychoses. Cult Med Psychiatry 2(3):233-268.
Simons RC (1983), Latah: A Culture-Specific Elaboration of the Startle Reflex [film]. Indiana University Instructional Support Services: Bloomington, Ind.
Simons RC (1996), Boo! Culture, Experience, and the Startle Reflex. New York: Oxford University Press.
Simons RC, Hughes CC (1986), The Culture-Bound Syndromes: Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric and Anthropological Interest. Boston: D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Tseng W (2001), Handbook of Cultural Psychiatry. San Diego: Academic Press.


text:
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Ukulele Chords/Lyrics, Sheet Music Download. Artist: Traditional.
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Add the number of copies you want to your basket and proceed to checkout.
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text:
The Windows Incident Response Blog is dedicated to the myriad information surrounding and inherent to the topics of IR and digital analysis of Windows systems. This blog provides information in support of my books; "Windows Forensic Analysis" (1st thru 4th editions), "Windows Registry Forensics", as well as the book I co-authored with Cory Altheide, "Digital Forensics with Open Source Tools".
Friday, January 20, 2012
If you're interested purely in numbers, last night's DFIROnline meetup had, at one point, 97 attendees. It might've helped that my presentation was addressing malware, and we ended up continuing Cory Altheide's drinking game from last year's OSDFC...every time I mispronounced the word as "mall wear", everyone had to take a drink. I have to go back and review the tape, but my presentation may have ended up being more like a Ron White concert. ;-)
My previous blog post includes a link to the slides I used, as well as the malware detection checklist that I mentioned in my presentation.
There's an excellent write-up at the Digital Forensic Source blog regarding last night's meetup, if you're interested, and you can also search for the "#DFIROnline" hash tag on Twitter to see what comments folks made during the meetup. I have to say, however, that most of the comments were made online, in chat window 3...
Again, a huge thanks to Mike for setting these up and making the resources available, and thanks to everyone who takes the time out of their evening (or day, depending on where you are) to attend and engage.
Malware IOCs - Ramnit
Here's an excellent walk-through of creating an IOC for the Ramnit malware. If you're interested in the OpenIOCs at all, or just want to see how someone would go about creating an IOC, take a look at the post...and be sure to read the first two parts, as well.
If you were on last night's DFIROnline presentation on malware detection within an acquired image, what would the malware characteristics be for Ramnit, based on the IOC?
If you like case studies and discussions of practical analysis techniques, take a look at Rob's post on Digital Forensic SIFTing. Rob provides some very good walk-thrus regarding how to use log2timeline effectively on several incident types, and this is well worth a look.
A bit ago I ran across something Yogesh had written on parsing IE RecoveryStore files. As these files are based on the OLE format, and I've recently had some experience writing parsers for files that use this format (Jump Lists, StickyNotes), I thought I'd take a crack at this file, as well. This is still something I'd like to do...I'm hoping Yogesh will release the specifics of parsing the various streams soon.
Along those lines, John Moan recently commented on a blog post and mentioned that he's written two tools, ParseRS and RipRS. I haven't had a case yet that involves recovering information about a user's browser activity, but the approach he's taken is very interesting, and I'm sure that John would greatly appreciate it if folks would try the tools out and provide him with some valuable feedback. I've added the tools to my FOSS Tools page, keeping them persistent in one place.
Case Studies
Speaking of case studies, this is one of the items of interest within the community. I've known about it for a while...in fact, I've tried to write my books to include case studies, and I also tend to look for similar approaches in other books. Writing about a tool or technique is dry enough as it is, and the way to engage the reader (using the vehicle of the written word) is to include a case study that describes how the tool or technique was used.
On a number of forums, I see requests for case studies. Not long ago, a thread was started in a forum that included a request that analysts post case studies; this is nothing new, I've seen it before. What I haven't seen is those folks then posting case studies themselves. Now, there are a number of what could be considered case studies online. In fact, if you go to the FOSS Tools page off of my blog, and scroll down to the "Sample Images" section, you'll see links to several sample images that you can download...several of them have actual scenarios associated with them, as well as solutions. These can serve as some pretty good case studies.
4 comments:
- Andrew Case said...
Do you know of a list of case studies that don't include samples?
- H. Carvey said...
No, sorry...but that's kind of my point. Lots of people want to see case studies but few seem willing to provide them.
- Mike Wilkinson said...
The recordings of the DFIROnline presentations have been posted here: http://www.writeblocked.org/meetups
Thanks for a great presentation Harlan.
- cbentle2 said...
Harlan thanks for posting a link to the Ramnit blog post, hope anyone reading it enjoys it. Feedback is always welcome with regards the published IOC.


text:
How festive.
I know that Thanksgiving is this Thursday and I am definitely ready for it. Some people seem to get really ticked off that Christmas decorations are up and Christmas music is playing prior to Thanksgiving, but I am not one of those people. I have not put up decorations at my house yet, but I must admit it brings a smile to my face when I hear "White Christmas" playing at the mall and see decorations. I made these cookies because I know a lot of my readers like to plan their holiday baking menus early and I did not want to disappoint. These cookies are truly adorable. They are not overly sweet and I think a nice addition might even be dipping the bottom in chocolate. It was pretty easy to eat a handful just the way they are.
Santa's Shortbread Cookies
recipe modified slightly from Good Housekeeping
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons red and green nonpareils
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
in a food processor with knife blade attached, pulse flour and sugar until combined. Add butter and pulse until dough begins to come together. Place dough in medium bowl. With hand, gently knead in nonpareils until evenly blended and dough forms a ball.
On lightly floured wax paper, pat dough into a 8" by 5" rectangle. Cut dough into 1/2 inch squares. Place squares 1/2 inch apart on an ungreased large cookie sheet. Baked 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom. Store cookies in tightly covered container at room temperature up to a week, or in the freezer up to 3 months.


text:
Super Rugby round nine
Force withstand Crusaders again
April 13, 2013
Jayden Hayward and Ed Stubbs combined to stop Israel Dagg in his tracks
© Getty Images
A try from Sam Norton-Knight and a solid goal-kicking performance from Jayden Hayward steered Western Force to a thrilling upset 16-14 win over the Crusaders on Saturday night.
The Force endured a sustained period of intense pressure from the New Zealand side late in the game, but the hosts showed great resilience to keep their line intact and secure their second victory over the men from Christchurch - and to secure their first win at nib Stadium this season.
The Crusaders came into the contest searching for a fourth win in five games but they failed to match the physicality of the Force in the loose, where Richard Brown caught the eye with a typical all-action performance. Michael Foley's men were disciplined and aggressive in defence, a vast improvement on the side that shipped four tries against Melbourne Rebels in round eight, while their attack was revitalised with Norton-Knight providing an assured presence on his starting debut at fly-half. Alfie Mafi, meanwhile, continued his stellar season with another lively performance, and Hayward supplied the pinpoint accuracy from the kicking tee that has been lacking all too often this season.
The Force had made seven changes to their run-on side, but there was nothing disjointed about the way they started the game. They tore into the visitors from the off, and were rewarded as early as the seventh minute when Toby Lynn and Brown each made crucial metres before Norton-Knight slipped past two tacklers to touch down under the posts.
The Crusaders were rattled, and they were shaken further by two thunderous turnover tackles from Brown and Junior Rasolea, and a successful penalty attempt from Hayward; yet still they turned two rare forays into Force territory into eight points courtesy of a Tyler Bleyendaal penalty and a try from Luke Romano that owed everything to a rampaging break from hooker Corey Flynn.
The New Zealanders struggled to combat the home side's intensity at the ruck, however, and they were punished for their indiscipline in that area by Hayward who banged home another couple of three-pointers. The Force took a 16-8 lead into the break after Romano was denied a second try of the night when the TMO spotted a forward pass earlier in the move, and a bone-crushing hit from Ed Stubbs on Israel Dagg right on the buzzer epitomised his side's combative performance in the opening stanza.
Western Force produced a memorable upset win over the Crusaders (Video available in Australia only)%]
Two successful penalties from Bleyendaal early in the second half had the Crusaders within two points of the hosts, and momentum of the game appeared to shifting in their favour as the seven-times champions started to assert their authority in the scrum. But heroic last-ditch tackles from Stubbs and Alby Mathewson kept the visitors at bay as the contest moved into its final quarter, and the Force defence valiantly repelled wave after wave of attacks as the home fans roared their encouragement.
Hayward missed an opportunity to relieve some of the pressure when his long-range penalty goal fell short of the posts, but the home side maintained their focus even as a raft of streakers halted play for several minutes.
Force coach Michael Foley was keen to chalk the win down as very much a team effort.
"I thought every single member of the 22 did really well," he said. "The players were incredibly disciplined with the way they played. Not everything went our way, that's for sure and we had to do an enormous amount of defending, especially in that second-half. But we've talked for the past few weeks about the decisions we make when we have the ball and I thought a lot of the decisions we made out there tonight were good ones.
"Credit to the players, it's not easy to make those decisions in the heat of battle. It's easy to see where the space is from the coaches' box, but I thought the players identified that well for themselves tonight."
© Sportal
Communication error please reload the page.


text: Japan's Lafayette presents its Fall/Winter 2013 lookbook showcasing the brand's latest collection in an effort to highlight the line's most iconic pieces. Taking on a true New York aesthetic, the Japanese label is really setting the bar for streetwear brands with its most diverse collection yet. I'm sure you'll be keen to find Mickey Mouse printed on various pieces throughout the release as well. The Lafayette Fall/Winter 2013 collection is available now atpvlgnyc.com.


text:
This series examines original and classic traps discussing how to present the traps while maintaining the agency of the players.
General TheoryRed Herring Agency I - What agency means in play
Red Herring Agency II - How to give agency without giving away the game
Detecting Triggers I - Agency involving mechanical pressure plates, latches, and switches
Detecting Triggers II - Agency involving mechanical tripwires and lids
Detecting Triggers III - Agency involving mechanical proximity triggers
Detecting Triggers IV - Agency involving mechanical triggers of light and timed
Bodies and Traps - Is their a body in the trap or not? How to determine that.
Special Dungeon FeaturesElevators - Dungeon conveyances and the traps that love them
Underground Hazards - Accidents, rockfall, dehydration, exhaustion, and flooding
Mimics - Tricksy creatures that like to pretend to be harmless objects
Peepholes - Getting a look at somewhere nearby can be more risky than it appears
Doors & Chests - Taking a look at agency with doors and chests
Springboards - Helping players make that leap of faith
Natural Hazards - Real deadly materials and how to present them in game
White Phosphorus - More real world fun for your players
Magic Traps - What to do with a trap that isn't physical
Melee Traps - Providing agency with the old physical standby
Secret Doors - 10 basic kinds of secret doors
Vents & Sprays - Providing agency for a deadly effect
Detours - Agency for altering the passage of the players
Sliding Walls - Confounds mappers and traps players
Bear Traps - Although if these traps are actually catching bears you may have bigger problems
Trapdoor Loft - Death from above
Mirrors - Reflections in terror
Sands - Unstable grains spell doom for the unprepared adventurer
Arrow Traps - Providing agency for the classic arrow trap
Sliding Rooms and Teleporters - Providing agency for redirection traps
Rotating Chambers - For that classic mapping hell touch
Collapsing Floor - Providing agency for unstable floors
Signs - Messages left on walls to screw with players
Dividing Ladder - A ladder trap and other ladder fun
Props, Codes, and Hidden Messages Part I - Using real world props as puzzles
Trap Variations; General ideas with multiple implementations
Paranoid Party - Traps that do not harm the person taking the risk
Limb Snares - Ways to make players chew off their own leg
Ceiling Snares - A more classic type of snare
A Rolling Boulder - A classic trap
Rotating Intersections - Creating confusion and confounding your players
Falling Cage - A classic dungeon trap
Kissing Maiden - A deadly kiss
Falling Up - Mixing Reverse Gravity and pits for a recipe in fun
Pit of Infestation - Varieties of contents in a pit
Set-piece Traps
DoorsVacuum Door - A trap that really sucks
Door of Subtle Demise - A door that brings you back from the dead. Mostly
CorridorsCorridor of Illusory Death - A trap that punishes natural instinct
Swiveling Hallway of Doom - For when you really want your players to have the drop on your dungeon
A Corridor Separated - Trapping each player results in furious murder
The Hostile Enclosure - A key part of any self-respecting labyrinth
Mirror Teleporter - A unique way to guard a hallway
A Thorny Corridor - A trap that escalates as the players try to navigate it
RoomsA Deadly Ramp - Ramps, oil and drowning
Water Shock - It all seemed like such a good idea at the time.
Drum Guard and Don't Touch the Button - Like it says on the tin
Fireplace Scrutiny - An interesting trick
Acid Pool - The best kind of pool
Burning Hands Trap - A magical flame
StaircasesSlaughtering Staircase - Sharpened stakes surprise staircase stooges
Sliding Staircase - A trap sprung on the Scooby gang, not by Fred
PitsPunishing Presumption Pit - Where a mighty swing leads to a swift stop
Pit of Hate - For when you really want to murder every single last character. Unfair
Pit Down, Trap Up - For triggers that aren't in the place you look.
The Wrong Choice - A decoy tripwire leads to an entertaining fall
A Pit, Slick - The first pit escalation, the walls on this one are a little slippery.
Curtains - A unique trigger for a pit
Tricky Pit - A pair of tricksy pits, where avoidance leads to disaster
The Shallow and Sidelined Pit - A nefarious pair of classic pit traps
Poison Pit Surprise - A real shocker for those froggy party members
The Pit that Cried Wolf - A deadly lure
ItemsThe Incorporeal Light - A treasure that is more trouble then it is worth
Monster Guts - Items, inside of my monsters? It's more common than you think!
A variety of sources are used in the discussion of agency of the above traps, but a special mention must be made of Grimtooth's traps, a trademark of Flying Buffalo Inc. games. Without that document's early work of collecting traps from readers, many ideas might have been lost in the intervening decades. If you like these traps, you should do yourself a favor and pick up some .pdf's or physical copies of the books! They are well worth the investment.


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Long before Superstorm Sandy slammed Long Beach, a city in Nassau County, N.Y., just south of Long Island on Oct. 29, several Central Massachusetts firefighters already had established relationships with Long Beach Fire Department firefighters.
Sterling Firefighter Jamieson C. Shea served as a volunteer firefighter with the Long Beach Fire Department from late 2007 to 2010 before moving back to Central Massachusetts.
"It's a barrier island," Firefighter Shea said. "It's blue collar; a lot of cops and firefighters live there, and a lot of first responders who work in New York (city) live there. It's a community of about 50,000 in about four square miles."
The Long Beach Fire Department sustained significant losses along with the entire region and much of the East Coast. The hurricane did major damage to three of their four fire stations, and they lost three of their four engines, two tower ladders, their heavy rescue truck, three ambulances and all of their support vehicles. Moreover, many of the firefighters also had major property damage to their homes.
"It was pretty obvious they took a pretty big hit," Firefighter Shea said. "I kind of felt I had to do something so I reached out to my captain and ex-captain there."
The Long Beach Fire Department has about 30 career firefighters and about 150 volunteer firefighters who serve the community, Firefighter Shea, who also serves as vice president of the Worcester County Emerald Society, decided to organize relief for the firefighters. He found out that they needed generators, fire service equipment, home and building supplies, tools — and some hurricane relief themselves.
As soon as word got out via Facebook, contributions from throughout Central Massachusetts began pouring in and more than 30 firefighters from 11 communities volunteered to deliver the donated goods and help firefighters with some of their home and station rebuilding projects.
The firefighters plan to pull out of Central Massachusetts at 4 a.m. today to drive to Long Beach to provide hurricane relief to their firefighter brothers. The group will travel in a 55-passenger bus that was anonymously donated for the trip, and a Fitchburg firefighter transport bus.
"We'll be their manpower," Firefighter Shea said.
There is still no lodging in Long Beach because the only hotel there is not up and running yet, so the group will work all day and return late tomorrow night or early Monday.
"It will be eight hours of driving for 10 hours of work," Firefighter Shea said, adding that it will be worth it to deliver the donated supplies. "It's been insane; people and companies have been so generous."
Fire Lt. Shawn P. McKenna and about a dozen of the firefighters headed to Long Beach to make final preparations yesterday at the Lunenburg Fire Department.
"We've gone down to Long Beach before," Lt. McKenna said. "We went down for Billy Quick's funeral. We stayed with a bunch of Long Beach firefighters, so we've actually met the guys."
Firefighter William Quick, 55, was a 23-year veteran of the FDNY. Since that time, Long Beach firefighters have been up to attend firefighter balls and other events in Central Massachusetts. Lt. McKenna said that Long Beach Fire Capt. Darren Kaye's house was destroyed in the hurricane, a house that Lt. McKenna had stayed at when he was down for the funeral.
"It's personal for a lot of us," Lt. McKenna said.
Many of the Long Beach firefighters, who rescued and assisted so many others during the hurricane found they could use some hurricane relief themselves now. Firefighters here asked what firefighters down there needed the most — food, water or supplies?
"They told us 'We need bodies to come down,' " Lt. McKenna said. " 'We're exhausted.' "
Two others headed down with the group are Fitchburg Firefighter Sean J. Roy and his wife, Lori Roy, who works as a paramedic in Lunenburg.
"This is what firefighters do," Firefighter Roy said; they are there for each other. "Line-of-duty-death, hurricane, whatever, it doesn't matter."


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"You have til Monday to come clean"
April 20, 2013
Almost immediately following the Boston bombings, radio and former Fox News host Glenn Beck's news site The Blaze chimed in attempting to ridicule Alex Jones and Infowars for labeling the events a false flag attack, running articles like, "With Absolutely No Evidence, Alex Jones Calls Boston Marathon Explosions a 'False Flag' Operation Conducted by the Gov't."
However, Beck himself now seems to be the "conspiracy theorist," saying he knows something "those at the highest echelons of government" don't want unearthed. One can only take that to mean Obama and his administration.
Beck says he'll give "somebody in Washington" til Monday to come clean about the actual origin of the deported Saudi national who was first a person of interest in the case. He says something to the effect of, "It would sound better coming from you than me."
Of course since Monday, numerous reports have come to light suggesting the Boston bombing suspects were contacted by the FBI at least as early as 2011.
Meanwhile, Alex Jones, Infowars.com and scores of independent journalists have been on the cutting edge of the investigation, identifying government security teams and potential patsies, and bringing the FBI's involvement, massive errors and audacity under the public's scrutiny from day one.
Indeed, if Beck is not bluffing, which he says he's not, it's good to see him come around, but he might take care, lest he end up "Breitbart-ed."
RELATED: Glenn Beck Says Government Will Stage False Flag Terror to Discredit Opposition (2010) – http://www.infowars.com/glenn-beck-says-government-will-stage-false-flag-terror-to-discredit-opposition/
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There is always Steve "Pop" Klein's April Fools race here in NYC.
and another event for the CRCA Junior Development team, cycling viewing party:
more info at NYC Velo.
Seen on Cog Magazine's site, Milwaukee Messenger Invitational–
more info, check the facebook page.
in Madison, Wisconsin, Don't Kill the Messenger. […]


text:
Hello everybody,
My nickname is Fred Boot. Please forgive me for my poor English since I am a bloody French cartoonist living in Hong Kong.
The Shakers is a webcomic inspired by the tv series from the sixties and seventies like The Avengers, The Prisoner, The Persuaders, etc. This is the adventures of two European sercret agents, Philemeon Shooter and Reina Flor.
The "format" of this webcomic is a little special : it is like a slideshow of frames, there's no "pages", in France we call that : "Turbo Media" (it comes from a joke, don't take it very seriously ). I hope you will find the content and this kind of narration interesting.
Sorry for this very short presentation, I know it is not great. However, the English version of this webcomic is made by a true English-speaker, the dialogs are really better than the weak sentences you are reading.
I hope you will enjoy it ! And once more, please excuse-me for my...


text:
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