text:
Much of the reason I was so enthralled with last week's premiere of The Vampire Diaries was how assured and calm it seemed. Even while heads rolled off of bodies and werewolves were tortured for fun, there was an undeniable sense of "yeah, we got this" attitude bursting from every scene, and it felt like a more mature show in all of the best ways. "The Hybrid" took this new maturity and used it to tell stories in a very familiar Vampire Diaries fashion, with excellent results. Season three is off to quite the start.
Picking up where we left them last week was Klaus and Stefan, who have their dead werewolf friend Ray and are in search of his pack in the mountains of Tennessee. Klaus' plan is to feed his blood to the weres, kill them, and when they wake up have them drink human blood to complete the vampire portion of their transformation. Since Klaus doesn't do anything small, instead of waiting for Ray to turn and seeing what happens he attempts to turn the whole damn pack at once. Things don't go smoothly with the transitions, though, with the half-baked hybrids taking on more of the characteristics of zombies than anything else. This is when the magic happens, my friends, because we finally get a few more pieces to the puzzle. You see, Klaus was told if he broke the curse and killed a vampire, a werewolf and the doppelganger he would be able to create more hybrids. (Stefan's face upon hearing the world doppelganger is priceless, by the way.)
Klaus' face seems to give away a mild realization that Elena might not be dead, which is the best thing that could happen right now. As fun as I personally find the Klaus and Stefan Southern Werewolf Domination Tour™, this story needed to dovetail with what's going on back in Mystic Falls, and fast. It's also welcome to know that Klaus does have a specific plan for Stefan (even if he won't reveal it) which has been bugging me a bit. Whenever I start to doubt the writers, they seem to address my exact concerns. This is how you know you're in good hands as a viewer.
Klaus and Stefan's moonlight wood stroll wouldn't be fun without a few more complications, which arise when Elena decides to find Stefan at all cost and uses a tip from Tyler to track down their location. Elena convinces Alaric to go along and Alaric does the best thing for everyone and surprises Elena with Damon as a hiking partner as well. If you're going to go into the werewolf infested woods on a full moon, it's probably best to bring another supernatural being with you. Just in case. They manage to find a very messed up Ray but only Damon runs across Stefan (while Elena and Alaric are busy running for their lives). Damon and Stefan confront each other for the second time in as many episodes, but this time Damon notices there is still fire in Stefan's eyes, and he isn't a lost cause.
Meanwhile, back in Mystic Falls Jeremy spends his time convincing Matt to help him summon Vicki's spirit so he can find out why she needs help. It's a minor story plot-wise, but does give Matt some nice emotional material to work with. When they finally do see Vicki, she tells Jeremy she can come back but she needs his help. Immediately after, however, Anna shows up and tells Jeremy not to trust Vicki. Who's lying and who's telling the truth? And what the heck does she mean by "come back"? Things are about to get interesting.
Also interesting is what's happening with Tyler, Caroline and Carol Lockwood. Carol is no dummy, and immediately tests Tyler with vervain to see if he's a vampire, too. Tyler realizes what she's doing and very calmly tells her Caroline is not a monster, then shows her you can't judge "monster" in absolutes by forcing her to watch him change into a werewolf. She vows to make sure Caroline isn't harmed, but it might be too late for that. See, she summoned a mysterious man named Bill to take care of her Caroline problem, but he seems less willing to let her go when Carol requests it. We learn why when he goes to visit Caroline (in her gross Hostel dungeon) and she greets him with a simple, "Daddy?" Oh, Caroline. You always get yourself into the finest messes.
The growing maturity of this season was probably inevitable, as these people have seen so much death and destruction if the show around them didn't mature in response it would almost feel disingenuous. Take Tyler, who had a standout episode here. The Tyler from most of season one was your typical high school bro: Brash, insensitive, and profoundly selfish. The Tyler of "The Hybrid" was respectful of his girlfriend, truthful with his mother, and apologetic towards his former close friend. Pre-werewolf Tyler wouldn't even recognize himself.
Also maturing is Damon, who has saddled himself with the monumental task of making sure Elena Gilbert doesn't get herself killed. Elena with laser focus—especially laser focus involving one Stefan Salvatore—is a force of nature, and tends rank personal preservation dead last on her daily to do list. The Damon of just last season might do something rash (blood rape, anyone?) or be so inflexible he fuels Elena's stubborn nature even more. Tonight, he used something far more powerful than force to help Elena; he used their growing bond and emotional connection. It might be considered less personally mature to then force her to admit their growing bond, but forcing her to face it created one heck of a scene. Damon wants her to remember how she felt while Stefan was gone, and I think there's no way she's going to be able to forget.
Stray observations:
- Nothing made me happier tonight than Alaric moving back in. The new daddy!
- Damon and Stefan's relationship was defined in one sentence tonight: Neither of them can let the other die. It's not necessarily healthy, but it's fiercely important to who they are as characters. It informs everything they do.
- The saddest thing about this episode was Matt saying that his sister stopped being his sister when she became a vampire. It's a very interesting character trait, but as a Caroline defender it saddens me to think he doesn't even see her as worthy of being anything significant to him anymore.
- At one point tonight, Damon's hair looked like my Aunt Peg's. Now, Peg is a lovely lady, but I doubt that's what Ian Somerhalder is going for, here.
- "Happy birthday, Elena. Stefan killed Andie. Cake?"
- "You've heard of me. Fantastic."
- "Oh, and Caroline? She's not a prostitute."
- "You want to hunt down a pack of werewolves on a full moon?"
- "You'll know why I'm keeping you around when I've decided I want you to know."
- "Are you a sucker for a lost cause or what?"
- "No, he's not okay, Elena. He's an insufferable martyr who needs his ass kicked. But he can be saved."
- "Because when I drag my brother from the edge and deliver him back to you I want you to remember the things you felt when he was gone."


text:
Getting started
Advanced tutorials
Typically in when performance testing complex applications the script development phase is by far the longest and most complex part. The reason is due to the way that performance tools capture user activity, at the HTTP layer. This means that session state and other parameters have to be handled correctly for the script to work correctly and be usable to generate accurate and correct load as part of a load scenario. This data is not seen by the user as it is handled by the browser, however performance tools work by emulating browser traffic and therefore must be able to emulate it correctly.
AgileLoad has the capability to automate the parameterisation of scripts for complex applications using 'Script Modelling'. The benefit of this is that most of the work is taken out of the scripting phase and scripting time can be reduced from days to hours or minutes, it also avoids mistakes that can be made with a manual approach. AgileLoad comes with models for some applications as part of the install, however for applications that are not already in the list and bespoke applications, models can be built or existing models can be copied and adjusted, effectively enabling the AgileLoad user to 'teach' AgileLoad how to deal with these complex transactions.
In the example we are going to discuss in this section we will look at a Microsoft SharePoint applications, mainly because they can be very complex to deal with for performance testing and because they are incredibly common in the field. In fact AgileLoad comes with a model to manage SharePoint applications and we will look at the way that the model was built in order to understand the modelling feature of AgileLoad, the point being to enable you to build a model from scratch and to enable you to customise this model should you need to (many SharePoint implementations are heavily bespoked and can be significantly different from a vanilla implementation).
Firstly let's take a look at the model working, how it is implemented and the effect it has on the script it is working on. After the script is recorded AgileLoad will attempt to detect the type of conversation that it has recorded – in this case it has detected that it has been a .Net or SharePoint conversation (see Session identifiers management screenshot). Using the drop down box you can correct AgileLoad if it has guessed wrongly. AgileLoad will attempt to use the model that it calculates will do the best job of parameterising the script. Clicking OK will start the automatic parameterisation process. Don't worry if you are not happy with the parameterisation – the script can be brought back to its original state by choosing the Regenerate Script option from the Tools menu in the AgileLoad Script Editor.
To understand what AgileLoad has done in this process we will look at a before and after screenshot, first the before screenshot shows a script with hard coded parameters, notice the <projectGUIDs> section and dates :
After the model has done its work then those hard coded parameters are parameterised, see red circled areas:
So how did AgileLoad know what needed to be parameterised? The answer is that it used a model, this model was created using the automatic modelling tool which can be configured using the Manage Session Configuration window. This section deals with that part of AgileLoad – please see the Manual Parameterisation section to understand how to parameterise a script manually.
You will need to understand this before you can teach AgileLoad how to parameterise the script.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Waterbury Republican-American to begin printing in Springfield
WATERBURY (AP) -- The Republican-American newspaper of Waterbury says it will begin printing next month in Springfield, Mass.
Assistant Publisher William B. Pape says printing at the Springfield division of Advance Publications will make color available on every page and help ensure the newspaper's commitment to publishing seven days a week.
The newspaper reports (http://bit.ly/ZhO8VT ) there will be some reduction in its workforce but exact numbers were not immediately available.
Pape said that like other Connecticut newspapers that have outsourced their printing, the Republican-American was faced with the decision of whether it wanted to be in the publishing business or the printing business.
He said the printing in Springfield will also give the paper more design flexibility than its 44-year-old press can offer.


text:
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Joined: 18 May 2008
Posts: 4878
Location: Blue Springs, MO
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 02:20
Post subject:
Barry has recently posted some stuff on his blog for flashing the BIOS using freedos and some other utils... fortunately his usage was just to fix minor hardware compatibility issues with the gecko edubook
Check out my
github repositories
. I may eventually get around to updating my
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Joined: 29 Jan 2010
Posts: 393
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 13:49
Post subject:
OK, I've gone from looking for leads to having to chose my next move, great improvement. I tried SBM but it didn't boot, Like most people working with floppy disks is a distant memory. I'm thinking I should have done more than copy the download to floppy. I had trouble accessing the manual but I have it now. It's hard when you're working with your third and fourth string computers
CMOS lists IDE primary master as Maxtor 2RO10 H1 and IDE secondary master as CD-ROM 52x/AKH. In BIOS sequence they're HDD and CD-ROM. The CD drive has a Puppy CD that has always booted in the past. Messing with BIOS is new territory for me so I'll need baby steps on that.
It's confession time. I see 3 possible ways the computers got infected. First, they all caught it in the wild.
Second, my son brought his infected tower. I connected and disconnected it in one of my systems several times and, without thinking, I connected it to our network. The second computer I discovered with the virus is the one that was out when his was in. The two could not have been connected at the same time.
The third and I think most likely, I spread the virus with floppies. His computer was running XP. I burned a start disk on our XP computer. His said it couldn't find the COMMAND.COM file. I put it back into ours, searched for the the file, didn't find it, so I burned it again. Now his does boot to A command prompt. I didn't boot our computer with the floppy. I know that's a no-no. I thought I was safe as long as I didn't boot up from the floppy.
When he brought his computer it had a Windows 98 startup disk in it. The computer that his was taking the place of is a Puppy and ME dual boot. I'm thinking ME burns the same startup disk as 98 so I swapped it back in and burned a startup disk over that disk.
In addition to those floppies I have 2 floppies that get Basiclinux 1.8 running. I'm sure more can be done with these tools than I know how to do.
I'm thinking if the virus is carried on the floppies it should be able to be found there. Is that a possibility?
No memory sticks have been swapped. I was thinking ahead. If the computers were beyond repair, what could I salvage? In my researching viruses on line, I saw the bit about RAM not being 100.00% safe and I passed that on.
Since there has been no RAM switch I'm thinking there is no possibility of a CL latency problem. Am I right?
I don't have 3 opticals connected. In my desperation to get the CD drive to boot I made it first, second and third on the boot sequence. Of course that didn't help.
Honestly, I don't know what the symptoms were on the second of our computers to get the virus.
The third, I had caught up all of the XP updates, ran an Avast scan, downloaded Kaspersky Rescue Disk for the other computers and was running it on that one. It booted fine. I set it to scan the C drive (hard drive). It saw the hard drive as D. It scanned a couple of hours getting about half way through and froze. I restarted it, It ran a couple of hours making it a little further and froze again. Then it wouldn't boot so I shut it down.
We have been watching our financial accounts and changing passwords. Nothing sinister so far. We didn't have firewalls, don't allow file sharing and were running Avast free edition. It worked up until now. Using wireless I see 2 to 4 networks with no security at all so there are worse than me.
I realize all concerned are anxious to get to the bottom of this. Unfortunately, my time has limits. This may take a while.
Thanks as always
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Joined: 29 Jan 2010
Posts: 393
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 13:50
Post subject:
Sorry Double post
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Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 2647
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 14:19
Post subject:
You need to 'burn' the floppy using 'dd', not simply copy the file to the floppy.
dd if=floppy.img of /dev/fd0 bs=512
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Joined: 23 Oct 2007
Posts: 1748
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 15:05
Post subject: creating floppy from image file
What amigo means is that, under Linux, you need to open a terminal (as root) and use the command:
dd if=floppy.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=512
to create the SMB boot floppy. On most systems the block size defaults to 512 anyway.
We're assuming you extracted the img file from the zip archive first.
You want to be careful with dd because it will do exactly what you tell it, even if you tell it to destroy a hard-drive filesystem. It writes to the raw device.
If you have a W*****s system running, you can create the boot floppy by downloading and running an exe file which does the writing for you.
Your copy operation merely placed data inside an existing file system on the floppy. It did not create the parts of the file system needed to make a bootable diskette.
Once you get a bootable floppy, you will need to learn a little bit about the program. Exactly what you do with it will depend on exactly what configuration you have, and which things are working. Learning to do this in a situation like yours is awkward. It is much easier to learn on a system without serious problems before you venture into unfamiliar territory.
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Joined: 04 Apr 2007
Posts: 6815
Location: Chatham, Kent, UK
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 16:35
Post subject:
I realise you're getting a lot of advice, but I think we all understand the principles we are trying to convey
If you aren't able to get a linux running to do a dd from console, but have a boot floppy that will get you to dos, try rawrite2
Or, if you can only get a windoze setup running, try rawwritewin, which will need unzipping before use
more info on smartbootmanager here
I found this SBM image more reliable than the one at sourceforge, but can't explain it
Writing an image to floppy, is like burning a CD ISO, you don't just copy files to the floppy, as the all-important boot info will not be installed & it won't work
SBM will enable you to boot from any device, though I'm puzzled that you confusingly say,
CMOS lists IDE primary master as Maxtor 2RO10 H1 and IDE secondary master as CD-ROM 52x/AKH.
In BIOS sequence they're HDD and CD-ROM
and later,
I don't have 3 opticals connected. In my desperation to get the CD drive to boot I made it first, second and third on the boot sequence. Of course that didn't help.
For preference, if possible, 1st, floppy, then CD, then HDD, is a simple sequence for you to use, but SBM will overcome even bios problem device booting
& I hope you're remembering to save settings in bios?
Simple to overlook the obvious, when you're a bit flummoxed
Good Luck
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Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 17
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 18:02
Post subject: One more thing....
obxjerry -
Seems obvious, yet might get overlooked.....after following the
advice on HOW to write a boot disk, be SURE to set the little
write-protect tab on the diskette B4 you put it into ANY machine.
This in fact is
write-protect, which no virus can get
around as it is 'AND-ed' with the "write" signal line within
the floppy drive. If you don't do this, the virus might instantly
infect the floppy as well. It might well make the boot sequence
crash (cause they can't "get-you") but then you will have another
clue. (If in fact your BIOS is corrupt, it may try to copy itself to any
drive it detects which is WRITEABLE, like the floppy.) Not being
able to write the floppy may be a condition the virus-writers
didn't plan for - resulting in a crash. Just my $.02.
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Joined: 29 Jan 2010
Posts: 393
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 18:56
Post subject:
Bootable disks is not something I do a lot. I do have a XP laptop with a floppy drive. Am I right in thinking I can open the exe. file I downloaded and burn that to floppy? Or do I need to burn an image? The manual makes it sound much more entailed than that.
The hard drive is the Maxtor. It has XP on it. I'm thinking my tool of choice is Puppy on the CD. I can set boot sequence any way I want and get out of BIOS, go back in to BIOS and it's still the way I set it. The CD-ROM 52x/AKH, I'm thinking is my only optical drive. I said, I want it, I want it, I want it. It doesn't make sense but I did it. Floppy will boot (if it has a bootable disk) unless it is not in the boot sequence AND check for 40 or 80 lines is disabled.
Write protecting the floppies is something I thought of. At 40 cents apiece I don't know that I would take any chances.
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Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 17
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 19:39
Post subject: Wacked...
Concern over topic-for-forum here, but with my background
I can't help it......to moderators - I apologize.....
It can get confusing swapping drives around, from one
machine to another, and STRAPPING MATTERS.
You have 2 IDE channels, each with a MASTER and a SLAVE
scheme. Pulling a CD out of machine-x who is strapped as
'master' and putting it into a machine where it is the second
drive on the same channel as the main HDD won't work -
your main HDD is (and should be) "master"
I hope I'm not being condescending here, but we all get
confused once in a while. Best bet for CD drives is
"cable select" - then it will attach itself to the proper port.
(Provided your main HDD is NOT strapped 'cable-select')
I always strap my HDD as 'master'.
Now for your XP laptop - if you can write a bootable floppy
with it (and this PC is not infected), go for it. I don't know what
.exe file you have, but XP can write you a bootable floppy
easily. It has been a while for me with XP, but I know the option
is out there...under system tools, I think.
Once you get that floppy, set the write-protect tab right away.
There is no reason any program needs to write to it.
If you can boot from it, you will wind up at a screen which
looks like:
Type "C:\"
If you can get there, then you need to know a few DOS
commands to get your data off the drive and transfer it to
somewhere else, using the DOS copy command. At this point
you may/may not be able to access the place/drive you want
to transfer data to. From here on it may get complicated - and
like I said before......I would just FDISK the thing, install
some flavor of Linux, and sleep well.
I would be very interested to find out the resolution here,
as this seems to be a very nasty virus. Having fixed computer
motherboards for several years, I am familiar with the failure
modes - but this doesn't fit any of the symptoms I can remember
Keep us posted....
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Joined: 29 Jan 2010
Posts: 393
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 21:22
Post subject:
out_fisherman, thanks for your interest and help. I am assuming the drive swapping you are talking about is when and if I get to removing hard drives and putting them in another computer.
So far, with the startup disks I have, typing from the A prompt [letter]:\ gets me "invalid drive specification". Hopefully when I have a working SBM disk I'll get somewhere.
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Joined: 04 Apr 2007
Posts: 6815
Location: Chatham, Kent, UK
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 21:59
Post subject:
See my previous post, which explains SBM writing to floppy
It should NOT be an exe, but an image
unless they've changed things on the sourceforge site
....but the link to SBM that I gave is
an image
, which
to be written as a bootable image to floppy with either of the utilities in dos/rawrite2 or windoze/rawwritewin, or the dd command in linux
I don't quite understand why mention is made of the CD drive replacement, but if you are simply exchanging one CD drive for another, to see if it will boot, then, since yours is already master, it is on a separate cable to the hard drive, so it won't matter if the replacement is set to master or slave
visual guide, should you need it
For now, getting an SBM boot disk working, is a good start
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Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 17
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 22:15
Post subject: Drives....
Drive-swapping.....No - your assumption is wrong....
CD drives, as well as Hard-Disk Drives, have a strapping
option on their backside, right by the place where the
cable plugs in. Often it will look exactly like the strapping
options of a hard drive. You might see things like
"MS SL CS" or the like, which stand for Master, Slave,
Cable Select.....I'll try to lay it out here - you have 2
channels, each of which has a Master and a Slave -
Logically, it looks like this:
Primary -
- ....Slave
Secondary -
- Master
- ....Slave
Rules - you cannot have 2 drives (either HDD OR CD-ROM)
strapped as the same level on any channel.
- you CAN have both strapped to Master
they are
channels (IE - One on Primary, one
on secondary).
How to tell ?? Each channel is on a separate CABLE.
If your cpmputer has only ONE big, fat cable from the
motherboard to the drives, then you must strap the
drives for Master/Slave combination. OR - add another
cable to the motherboard....if you have this option.
In this day of cheaper-is-better, I wouldn't be surprised to
see motherboard MFRs just omit the second IDE channel.
Oh well - what can you do? Just keep in mind the idea that
have 4 possible combinations, 2 for each of 2 channels.
I hope I have helped....somehow.
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Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 17
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 22:19
Post subject: Sorry Aitch - -
I guess I was composing while you were responding -
didn't mean to walk on you......
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Joined: 23 Oct 2007
Posts: 1748
Posted: Thu 04 Mar 2010, 23:26
Post subject: a blast from the past?
We've had some confusion about all the advice, and I may have contributed some. What I was talking about with the exe file was, if he used a W*****s machine to create the boot floppy, he could download an exe file designed to create a boot floppy on such a machine. In this case, he can avoid cli commands. Though, under Linux the command is very simple, as amigo showed.
Another approach here, since our friend is familiar with Puppy, would be to avoid the W*****s world as much as possible, and boot Puppy on CD, or USB drive, using a wakepup2 floppy. I've used this on machines where the BIOS didn't cooperate with me, but I've never tried it when the BIOS has been clobbered. Does wakepup2 need anything from the BIOS beyond the ability to boot from floppy?
I am now thinking this malware is "a blast from the past". There was a similar thing over a decade ago which was spread by transferring floppies from one machine to another -- which rarely happens with new machines. Having both the hard drive and CD boot routines clobbered in the BIOS, while still being able to boot from floppy, makes sense if the virus needs the floppy to reproduce itself. We could have the original floppy virus resurfacing, or we could be seeing old malware as the "payload" of recent malware, which normally spreads over the Internet.
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Joined: 29 Jan 2010
Posts: 393
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Posted: Fri 05 Mar 2010, 12:43
Post subject:
Just to check in. I am engaging in Einstein's definition of insanity, "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome" i.e. fiddling with the one computer. I'm looking online for reports of viruses similar to the one I have. I'm researching use of SBM. I'm trying to wrap my head around strapping and what has raised a red flag concerning that.
I do reread the posts here and things do sink in the eighth or ninth time I read them. Sorry Aitch, I blew by your SBM advice the first few times. Rawrite, RawWrite and I have met before and we ain't friends. Maybe this time will be better.
I have always used InfraReader to burn image disks. It is on one of the unusable computers. I couldn't remember the name so that took some searching on the web. I don't see that it burns floppies. No help there.
Computers I have up and running; I have a laptop with a CD drive (not CD-R), no floppy. It is running Puppy and 98se. It had been in the closet for years until Puppy brought it back to use.
I have a laptop with a CD drive (not CD-R) and a floppy drive. It is running XP Pro. I paid $50 for it less than 2 weeks ago. It's fine couch surfing but pushed too hard the processor gets hot and it freezes. I have some Arctic Silver 5 and have improved it but I doubt I can boot Puppy yet.
I can't swap the floppy drive to the other laptop. Both have USB ports and I do have an uninfected flash drive.
I did find this http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41498 It's an old post by Sylvander on how to compile a SBM bootable floppy. That's a possible path if RawWrite doesn't work for me.
On the plus side we've seen no indications any info has been mined from our computers.
I'm multitasking as I write this. Something I don't do well so I'm sure there are things I'm leaving out.
Take care
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For new releases go to
As we transition to our new site, you'll still find some Stats NZ information here on this archive site.
Note: All figures are for the census usually resident population count.
This data has been randomly rounded to protect confidentiality. Individual figures may not add up to totals, and values for the same data may vary in different text, tables and graphs. For areas with small populations, the data may not look as expected because of this rounding.


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Small Plant News: Volume 3, Number 5
|Small Plant News Archive Page. This is an archive page. No new content is being added. While these newsletters remain available for reference purposes, the documents do not reflect changes to Agency policy that may have been instituted since the newsletters were published. Also note that resources and websites mentioned in older issues may have moved or may no longer be available. Points of contact for various initiatives may have changed.
In This Issue:
- Developing Food Defense Plans: Shifting Greater Awareness Into Action
- NOIEs, Part 1: Understanding the Rules of Practice
- Food Safety Resources
- Commonly Asked Question & Answer
Developing Food Defense Plans: Shifting Greater Awareness Into Action
By Keith Payne
People are ill, injured, or even dying. Your company name and product are involved. A recall is initiated. Your production lines are halted. Jobs are lost.
Unfortunately, these things can happen. If someone or some group intentionally attacks your plant, employees, or products, it can be too late to remedy a situation that could undo all the years, possibly generations, of hard work you've put into your business.
One way to mitigate the risk of an intentional attack and its aftershock is to develop a food defense plan. This type of plan helps you identify the steps you can take to minimize the risk that food products in your plant will be intentionally contaminated or tampered with, and it helps to increase your level of preparedness.
"Food safety, which addresses predictable and unintentional risks, is best addressed through the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan," said Kim Green, director of the Food Defense Assessment Staff for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service's (FSIS) Office of Data Integration and Food Protection.
"On the other hand, food defense addresses intentional attacks on the safety or quality of food. It's not well suited to HACCP, which is why a plant's HACCP plan should not be used as a substitute for a food defense plan," added Green.
Some of the information you use to create a plan may possibly exist in your HACCP plan, Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures, and other documents, such as emergency response procedures. Make sure to consult these documents for information.
"When creating a plan,you need to realize why having a written food defense plan matters," said Green."First and foremost, having one will help you maintain a safe working environment for your employees, provide a quality product to your customers, and protect your company's bottom line."
"Also, simply writing it down will improve the process of creating a plan," said Cathy Crawford, an associate with the HACCP Consulting Group, L.L.C. "It doesn't have to be complicated. In addition to minimizing your liability, a plan is important because, more often, insurance companies and third-party auditors expect to see a written plan."
Another reason for having a written plan is simply to look at your operation from a risk perspective and identify the risk factors that apply to you. Are you making large batches of food or foods with short shelf lives? Are the products you're making uniformly mixed? Do your products reach certain higher risk populations? How easy is it for others to gain access to your premises?
Examining risks such as these can increase awareness and change attitudes. "It's basically a culture change," said Crawford. "And bringing this change among your employees about food defense is much like the culture change we as a society have accepted with tightened security at airports."
Think about attacks on the food supply that have already happened, such as these true life cases:
- Oranges injected with Mercury — Israel,1978;
- Restaurant salad bars laced with Salmonella — The Dalles, OR, 1984;
- Fast food with rat poison — China, 2002; and
- Ground beef with nicotine — Michigan, 2003.
Regardless of the motives, or whether terrorists, activists, competitors, or disgruntled employees are the attackers, these attacks can happen, and in your facility. The effects are devastating—potential loss of life, serious health injuries, financial losses, or complete ruin of your livelihood.
"The more we share these stories, the more awareness we'll bring to the issue," said Crawford.
"There is definitely greater awareness about this issue within the small plant community," said Dr. Joe Harris, president and chief executive officer of the Southwest Meat Association. "However, what matters most is translating this greater awareness into action."
Recent FSIS survey results indicate there is more action being taken by the industry. For instance, 41 percent of all plants in 2008 indicated they have a functional food defense plan, representing a 14-percent increase from 2006. The percentage of small plants with food defense plans went up from 44 percent in 2007 to 58 percent in 2008. (Figure 1, below)
"That's great progress, and it's very encouraging to see these results," said Karlease Kelly, assistant administrator of FSIS' Office of Outreach, Employee Education, and Training.
The percentage of very small plants with food defense plans also increased—from 14 percent in 2007 to 21 percent in 2008. "So, there is also good progress with the smallest plants too, but clearly we want to see more improvement," added Kelly. (Figure 2, below)
"Those who haven't adopted the food defense concept and developed his or her own plans really need to do so," commented Harris. "FSIS has developed some great tools to help plants develop his or her own food defense plans. And, if they don't do this, it may be forced upon them under different, more stressful circumstances."
To put a written food defense plan into action, there are three distinct phases that you will go through, which include:
- Conducting a self-assessment,
- Developing a food defense plan, and
- Implementing your food defense plan.
These steps provide an opportunity to identify areas where security measures could be enhanced. Once implemented, your plan can assist you with employee training and response and recovery actions. Key areas include:
- Inside and outside security;
- Slaughter and processing security;
- Storage security;
- Shipping and receiving security;
- Water and ice security; and
- Mail-handling security.
The overall plan should strengthen these areas to protect your facility and products from intentional contamination. FSIS has developed guidance on developing a food defense plan that can be found on its Web site at www.fsis.usda.gov/Food_Defense_&_Emergency_Response/Guidance_Materials/index.asp .
Whether you use FSIS' food defense plan guidance or some other source, the recommendations in this booklet will still provide you with useful information on what elements to consider and address. For questions or clarification about these guidelines, call FSIS' Policy Development Division at(800) 233-3933.
It's important to remember that there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to creating a food defense plan. It can be long or short, whichever is appropriate for your operation. What matters most is to develop a plan and make it a living document for the protection of your customers and your business.
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NOIEs, Part 1: Understanding the Rules of Practice
By Jane Johnson
Perhaps at some point in the past, you've received a Notice of Intended Enforcement (NOIE). Regardless of receiving one or not, it is helpful to understand NOIEs and your responsibilities and rights as a business owner or operator.
As the first of a series of three articles featuring NOIEs, we'll begin by reviewing the Rules of Practice as they pertain to the NOIE.
For starters, FSIS issues an NOIE to a plant for a noncompliance that does not pose an imminent threat to public health. However, this noncompliance may warrant a withholding or suspension action if not corrected. So, if this happens, what role do the Rules of Practice serve?
The Rules of Practice, which are found in Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Section 500, are FSIS' enforcement regulations that guarantee you, the plant, receive due process rights under the law. Simply stated, they provide a procedure that helps to ensure that FSIS enforces regulations in a fair and consistent manner.
There are three types of enforcement actions defined in Section 500: regulatory control action, withholding action, and suspension.
Regulatory Control Action
A regulatory control action is the type of enforcement most commonly used by in-plant FSIS inspectors. They use regulatory control actions to identify regulatory noncompliance and prevent the movement of product or the use of equipment or a facility until the noncompliance is corrected.
FSIS inspectors don't have to notify you in advance; however, they must notify you immediately once the action is taken. You may receive this notification from the inspector orally or in writing as a noncompliance record (NR).
The CFR also gives you the right to appeal regulatory control actions regardless of whether the notification was given orally or as an NR. The regulatory control action (and NR) can be appealed through the Office of Field Operations chain-of-command, beginning with either the inspector who made the finding that resulted in the action or with the immediate supervisor. No level in the chain-of-command may be skipped. You simply have to go in order.
Withholding Actions
A withholding action is when FSIS withholds the mark of inspection from an establishment. This type of action may be applied to a product produced by a particular process or to all products in the plant. This is considered a more severe type of enforcement than a regulatory control action because it can affect a larger part of your plant or process.
Because withholding actions may result in a greater disruption of your ability to produce than a regulatory control action, they're only taken after careful evaluation of the facts. The decision to take an immediate withholding action can be made by whomever is in charge for FSIS at the establishment—such as the inspector-in-charge, his or her designee, or the frontline supervisor—or the District Office.
You also have the right to appeal withholding actions. The appeal begins with the person who took the action—or with the next level of FSIS supervision—and may continue through the Office of Field Operations chain-of-command.
Suspension Actions
Suspension is holding back the assignment of inspectors to a plant, and it can have a severe impact for several reasons. First, a suspension usually lasts longer than a withholding action. Second, as you already know, federally inspected establishments cannot legally apply the marks of inspection to product without an assigned inspector, so this action may stop all production. Of course, a suspension may also only be applied to a specific production process, stopping operations only in that area.
Like withholding actions, suspensions are only taken after careful evaluation of the facts. The decision to suspend inspection is made at the District Office or at a higher level of authority.
Again, you do have the right to appeal a suspension. The appeal process begins with the person who took the action, probably a deputy district manager or district manager, or his or her immediate supervisor, and may then move through the Office of Field Operations' chain-of-command.
It's important to remember that withholding and suspension actions may be taken with, or without prior, notification. The NOIE is the prior notification given to the plant, in writing, stating that a withholding or suspension action will be taken unless the circumstances leading to the NOIE are corrected. For example, FSIS inspectors may take a withholding or suspension action without prior notification (i.e., without issuing an NOIE) because the establishment is handling or slaughtering animals inhumanely. However, prior notification (issuance of an NOIE) will be given prior to a withholding or suspension action if the Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures have not been properly implemented or maintained as in the regulations.
In the second part of this series, we'll take a look at additional situations and whether they require prior notification or not.
For more information on the Rules of Practice or NOIEs, call the Small Plant Help Desk at 1-877-FSISHelp(877-374-7435), email firstname.lastname@example.com or visit FSIS' Website at www.fsis.usda.gov.
[Back to Top]
Food Safety Resources
By Sally Fernandez
Are you looking for practical examples of compliance with the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act? Check out the Humane Interactive Knowledge Exchange Scenarios (HIKES) on the FSIS Website at www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_Employees/HIKE_Scenarios/index.asp .
You'll find different scenarios, written to keep FSIS personnel current on regulatory requirements, directives, and notices. These will be useful to plant management as well. This valuable learning and reference tool covers topics ranging from cattle in chutes and drive alleys to double stunning.
The HIKES are designed with the written scenario showing on the left side of the screen with inspection procedure and links to pertinent regulations on the right side of the screen. After the scenario is described, there's a discussion section and then a conclusion. Additionally, if you have a HIKE-related question, you can email it to email@example.com.
[Back to Top]
Commonly Asked Question & Answer
Q. When inspectors (Federal or State) collect scheduled residue samples, should they recommend that the plant hold the sampled carcasses?
A. Yes, according to FSIS Directive 10,800.1, "Procedures for Residue Sampling, Testing, and Other Responsibilities for the National Residue Program." FSIS recommends that plants hold these scheduled sample carcasses until the Agency reports the results to prevent a recall if the laboratory detects a residue at a violative level. Also, when product is held by the plant, Federal or State inspectors should document the decision by recording it in action block 22, "Product Held," on FSIS Form 10,210-3, Requested Sample Program.
Q. Are records generated as part of a plant's prerequisite program required to be reviewed when the establishment performs pre-shipment review?
A. No. A plant is not required to review prerequisite program records during pre-shipment review. However, the records generated under the prerequisite program would need to be maintained as part of the plant's decisionmaking documents (see Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 417.5(a)(1)).
[Back to Top]
Small Plant NEWS
Editor: Keith Payne
Production: Joan Lindenberger, Sally Fernandez
Design: Gordon Wilson
Contact: Small Plant News, USDA/FSIS, Aerospace Building, 3rd Floor-Room 405, 14th and Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250. 1-800-336-3747
E-mail: email@example.com


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Though Stage III renal cell cancers vary in size, they share a defining feature of spread of the cancer to a single lymph node. The cancer may also have spread to nearby blood vessels—including the renal veins or vena cava—but has not spread to distant sites in the body.
Treatment for Stage III renal cell cancer typically involves surgery to remove the affected kidney, affected lymph nodes, and any other cancer that may have spread near the kidney.
The following is a general overview of conventional and investigative treatments for Stage III renal cell cancer. Cancer treatment typically consists of surgery and may also include immunotherapy, targeted therapy, or a combination of these treatment techniques. Combining two or more of these therapies has become an important approach for increasing a patient's chance of cure and prolonging survival.
In some cases, participation in a clinical trial utilizing new, innovative therapies may provide the most promising treatment. Treatments that may be available through clinical trials are discussed in the section titled Strategies to Improve Treatment.
Circumstances unique to each patient's situation influence which treatment or treatments are utilized. The potential benefits of combination treatment, participation in a clinical trial, or standard treatment must be carefully balanced with the potential risks. The information on this Web site is intended to help educate patients about their treatment options and to facilitate a mutual or shared decision-making process with their treating cancer physician.
Surgery for Stage III Renal Cancer
Surgery for Stage III renal cell cancer involves removing the entire affected kidney plus the attached adrenal gland and fatty tissue. This surgery is known as a radical nephrectomy. Results from clinical trials have shown that 38-70% of patients with Stage III renal cell cancer are curable with surgery alone.1 However, patients with Stage III disease have cancer that has spread outside the kidney, which places them at higher risk for cancer recurrence.
Strategies to Improve Treatment of Stage III Renal Cell Cancer
The development of more effective cancer treatments requires that new and innovative therapies be evaluated with cancer patients. Clinical trials are studies that evaluate the effectiveness of new drugs or treatment strategies. Future progress in the treatment of renal cell cancer will result from the continued evaluation of new treatments in clinical trials.
Patients may gain access to better treatments by participating in a clinical trial. Participation in a clinical trial also contributes to the cancer community's understanding of optimal cancer care and may lead to better standard treatments. Patients who are interested in participating in a clinical trial should discuss the risks and benefits of clinical trials with their physician. Areas of active investigation aimed at improving the treatment of Stage III renal cell cancer include the following:
- Adjuvant
- Partial nephrectomy (nephron-sparing surgery)
- Laparoscopic surgery
- Radiofrequency ablation
- Cryoablation
Adjuvant therapy: Adjuvant therapy is additional treatment administered after surgery. The purpose of adjuvant therapy is to reduce cancer recurrences, prolong survival, and improve the chance of cure. Typically, cancer recurs because there are small amounts of cancer that were not removed during surgery. These cancer cells are called micrometastases and cannot be detected with any of the currently available tests. The presence of micrometastases causes the relapses that follow surgical treatment. Approximately one-third of patients with Stage III renal cell cancer die of their cancer within five years of diagnosis.2
An effective treatment is needed to eliminate the micrometastases that cause cancer recurrence after treatment with surgery alone in order to improve the chance for cure. Treatment after surgery is called adjuvant therapy. Historically, adjuvant therapy with radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or immunotherapy has not been proven to be effective when administered after surgery.3 However, newer targeted therapies such as Nexavar® (sorafenib), Sutent® (sunitinib), and other drugs that are being used in the treatment of metastatic renal cell cancer are now being evaluated as adjuvant therapy for patients with Stage III kidney cancer; patients should discuss the risks and benefits of participating in a clinical trial evaluating new adjuvant therapies with their physician.
Partial nephrectomy (nephron-sparing surgery): Removing only the cancer and some surrounding healthy tissue—a procedure called a partial nephrectomy—is now considered the standard of care for the treatment of small renal cancers. The benefits of this approach are shorter hospitalization and recovery time and, importantly, preservation of kidney function, which is particularly valuable for patients who already have poor function or only one kidney. Preserving the affected kidney is also valuable in the event that the cancer should recur in the opposite (contralateral) kidney. The benefits and safety of this approach have been demonstrated4567 in Stage I cancers, and some research is ongoing to determine if any patients with Stage III renal cancers may also benefit from partial nephrectomy.
Laparoscopic surgery: Laparoscopic surgery is a technique that is less extensive and invasive than traditional, open surgery. During a laparoscopic surgery for renal cancer, the surgeon makes small, one-centimeter incisions in the abdomen and side. The surgeon then inserts a very small tube that holds a video camera, which creates a live picture of the inside of the patient's body. This picture is continually displayed on a television screen, so that surgeons can perform the entire surgery by watching the screen.
Both radical nephrectomy and partial nephrectomy may be conducted using laparoscopy. In the case of a radical nephrectomy, the incision is enlarged to allow passage of the kidney. A small bulk of tissue is removed with a partial nephrectomy and the incision can remain small.
Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy has emerged as an alternative to open surgery in the management of smaller (less than 8 centimeters in diameter), localized renal cancers. Patients treated with the laparoscopic approach do not appear to be at greater risk for cancer recurrence 5-10 years after treatment compared to patients treated open radical nephrectomy. The two approaches have also been shown to result in similar survival.8 However, patients who are candidates for laparoscopic radical nephrectomy would also do well with partial nephrectomy. Thus the advantages of laparoscopic radical nephrectomy (shorter hospital stay and faster recovery) must be balanced with the advantage of partial nephrectomy, which is better long-term renal function.9
Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy appears to provide outcomes comparable to conventional open partial nephrectomy. Results of a clinical trial involving 100 patients with an average cancer size of 3.1 cm who underwent laparoscopic surgery showed that all patients survived three and one-half years or more after treatment without evidence of cancer recurrence.10 Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy is a specialized technique and should only be conducted by a surgeon who is experienced in this procedure.
Radiofrequency ablation: Radiofrequency ablation is a minimally invasive technique that uses heat to destroy cancer cells. During radiofrequency-ablation, an electrode is placed directly into the cancer under the guidance of a CT scan, ultrasound, or laparoscopy. The electrode emits high frequency radio waves, creating intense heat that destroys the cancer cells.
Radiofrequency ablation appears to be a promising technique for the treatment of patients with small kidney cancers (less than 4 centimeters in diameter) who are ineligible for surgery. Clinical trial results indicate that two years after surgery, cancer recurrence occurred in fewer than 10% of patients. Larger tumors (more than 3 centimeters) are more challenging to treat with this approach and are more prone to recurrence afterwards.11
Cryoablation: Cryoablation is a minimally invasive technique that uses extremely cold temperatures to "freeze" small cancers. In patients with cancer that is less than or equal to 5.0 cm in diameter, cryoablation appears to be a promising approach for removing the cancer. However, long-term research is necessary to confirm the benefits of cryoablation.12
1 Lam JS, Shvarts O, Pantuck AJ. Changing concepts in the surgical management of renal cell carcinoma. European Urology. 2004;45:692-705.
2 Tsui KH, Shvarts O, Smith RB, et al. Prognostic indicators for renal cell carcinoma: a multivariate analysis of 643 patients using the revised 1997 TNM staging criteria. Journal of Urology. 2000;163(4):1090-5.
3 Rodriguez A, Sexton WJ. Management of locally advanced renal cell carcinoma. Cancer Control. 2006;13(3):199-210.
4 Joniau S, Vander Eeckt K, Van Poppel H. The indications for partial nephrectomy in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma. Nature Clinical Practice Urology. 2006;3(4):198-205.
5 Becker F, Siemer S, Humke U, et al. Elective nephron sparing surgery should become standard treatment for small unilateral renal cell carcinoma: Long-term survival data of 216 patients. European Urology. 2006;49(2):308-13.
6 Leibovich BC, Blute ML, Cheville JC, et al. Nephron sparing surgery for appropriately selected renal cell carcinoma between 4 and 7 cm results in outcome similar to radical nephrectomy. Journal of Urology. 2004;171(3):1066-70.
7 Dash A, Vickers AJ, Schachter LR, et al. Comparison of outcomes in elective partial vs radical nephrectomy for clear cell renal cell carcinoma of 4-7 cm. British Journal of Urology International. 2006;97(5):939-45.
8 Permpongkosol S, Chan DY, Link RE, et al. Long-term survival analysis after laparoscopic radical nephrectomy. Journal of Urology. 2005;174:1222-1225.
9 Matin SF, Gill IS, Worley S, et al. Outcome of laparoscopic radical and open partial nephrectomy for the sporadic 4 cm. or less renal tumor with a normal contralateral kidney. Journal of Urology. 2002;168(4 Pt 1):1356-9.
10 Moinzadeh A, Gill IS, Finelli A, et al. Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy: 3-year followup. Journal of Urology. 2006;175(2):459-62.
11 Varkarakis IO, Allaf ME, Takeshi I, et al. Percutaneous radio frequency ablation of renal masses: results at a 2-year mean followup. Journal of Urology. 2005;174:456-460.
12 Schwartz BF, Rewcastle JC, Powell T, et al. Cryoablation of small peripheral renal masses: a retrospective analysis. Urology. 2006;68(1):14-8.
Copyright © 2017 Omni Health Media. All Rights Reserved.


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Affordable Fashion Surpasses Luxury in China
Inexpensive fashions are now expanding at a faster rate in Asia than luxury brands, as consumers flock to brands such as Zara and H&M. Kim Mercado from CBRE, a commercial real estate services firm, talks about brands targeting China's middle class.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... the the ... luxury affordable fashion is quickly surpassing its luxury peers in Asia ... welcome to Asia Today Ahmadi the Sanchanta with me to discuss this is can McConnell ... the director of Asia Pacific research at CBRE the real estate services firm ... can thank so much for joining us Anna and isn't a field ... um you ... about another report it's basically sat is ... Asia in a show were luxuries to dominate affordable ... brands are actually starting to surpass luncheon in terms of ... the pace of expansion ... what's going on with writing this trend ... it's ... really a couple of reasons the first is done to ... this report focuses on new market entry it's ... it's a new retailers coming into the market where is lecturing has been in Asia for really long time so they were granted the first friends to come into the market ... so there's not as many markets for them to expand into ... the second reason is is that ... they're a lot more Kinder midrange meets here and value brands out there so there's a lot of them coming into the market ... and they really coming in for a couple of reasons which is mine ... he urbanization ... and Asia China Southeast Asia ... and then this idea of kind of capitalizing on this emerging kind of middle-class which are seeing a lots especially in China ... and its trend to continue one for the next ... decade or so ... it's really fascinating shift because for so long luxury has been the main breadwinner so to speak here in Asia especially in China ... but something interesting that we spoke about yesterday you mention the fat Asian brands are becoming more dominant it's not just the European the US ... if the Korean and Japanese brands that are becoming increasingly popular what what what's happening there ... really is given by the Internet ... I think everybody can kind of Dell on the internets ... and kind of look at trends and beauty kind of ... deal Francis's idea conduct a pot ... it's really kind of exploded all over Asia ... to say we see a lot of Korean brand is expanding into Asia is a Japanese brands you see some Chinese and and friends from Hong Kong also so they're really just kind of moving outside of their home ... their domestic countries and other areas ... does this mean then that luxury is actually starting to shrink in the South or does it just me know that they are expanding into effect more creative ways than one thing I mentioned yesterday was ... their dentist or is that they Ardi have opened ... an Anzac resale this report focuses on you ... and B Taylor brand's as the market and he's luxury brands have been in there for so long ... may have multiple stores ... said they are doing a couple things one is they are focusing on customer experience ... they're investing ensue and ... the retail stores that are econ ... and sometimes in some cases they may actually even just ... pm me of into a better spot if it becomes available ... so there's still investing in their platform in Asia ... it is not ... this is not expanding ... at the same piece of the war in terms of the number of stores topic thank so much airtime as watching Asia Today politeness joins ... WSJ's dot com on my because Sanchanta


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Last night, Magic Johnson had some relatively strong (hypothetical) words for the Lakers coach and key big men.
"They're going to run Mike Brown first out of town," Johnson said as an ESPN NBA analyst Friday. "Then second will be [Andrew] Bynum. Then third will be [Pau] Gasol."
"His job will go," Johnson continued, "[t]he Lakers are about championships. That's what the Lakers are about. If they lose this game, Mike Brown, I bet you, will not be sitting there." Johnson used to be a minority owner in the team, but he sold his 4.5% stake in 2010. He remains on the Lakers payroll with the title Vice President. He is also an NBA analyst for ESPN.
It's always tough when Hall of Fame player or team icon takes on the role of "analyst" because he or she is so identifiable with his or her respective teams it's impossible to look at them as anything but a homer. This situation is even more confusing and potentially dangerous since Johnson is actually a Lakers V.P. (like the Queen of England is the Queen, but still). Also, you know, he's Magic Johnson. If Phil Jackson said he thought Mike Brown would be fired, people would poke their heads around the morning paper and take a listen. When Magic Johnson does it? They fold the paper, set it down, and turn the volume up.
The Lakers have given the vote of confidence to Mike Brown but they have also listened to the advice of the ESPN-dubbed analyst before. But for a David Stern veto, the Lakers had this team blown up.
"Mike Brown will not be coaching the Lakers if they lose this game," Johnson said. "There would be so much pressure on Jim Buss and the Laker organization to get rid of him."
Huh. Wonder where that pressure could be coming from.
Magic Johnson: Mike Brown will be fired if Lakers lose to Denver [LA Times]


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1969 From Apollo 11's Command Module, now on final approach to the Moon landing site: "We're getting first view of the landing approach. Looks like pictures but difference of watching a real football game and watching it on TV."
Remember, Apollo 11 lands later today, July 20, about three hours from now. Follow the real time transmission here. [Real time transmission]


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Hello guys, I'm back again.
This time trying to make war against Soviet Russia with Germany, Azerbayan, Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Lithuanian, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Polish Legions.
I want to declare war and crush the Western Whites, with wich I dont have an alliance, how to do so?
I have also recruited Prince Lieven, is he the key to declare war against Whites after you ally with them? Any interesting information about Lieven?
German troops are also trying to get further in Kazan, Samara and more regions, but they lack of food every 3-5 turns, and even Moskau und Petrograd aren't enough to supply them with food. Any idea?
I've noticed that the railway buy option was avalible in June and January every year in the same scenario, but in a separate game(I hope you understand what I mean here) even when it was 1928 and the scenario was already over. But in this new game, the railway buy option is barely avalible, haven't seen it for over a year and it's 1923, one year left for the game to finish. Help on how this works?


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NEW YORK — Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez was arraigned Wednesday on seven counts of criminal contempt for sending his girlfriend dozens of text messages begging for forgiveness despite a restraining order issued after he was accused of attacking her father at Citi Field.
Rodriguez posted the $7,500 bail almost immediately and left Queens court. A new order of protection was issued barring him from contacting Daian Pena.
The 28-year-old reliever was accused of grabbing Pena's father, 53-year-old Carlos Pena, hauling him into a tunnel near the family lounge beneath the team's new ballpark and hitting him in the face.
Rodriguez was told to keep away from Carlos Pena and his daughter. But a week after he appeared in court, he sent her two text messages and kept going, sending 56 in all. Assistant District Attorney Scott Kessler said Rodriguez understood he wasn't supposed to contact her, and he mentioned a previous case where he was accused of assaulting her in Venezuela.
"He's not naive or loving. He's manipulative and controlling," Kessler said.
Pena never responded to the messages, which included 17 sent in one day alone, Kessler said.
The messages got progressively angrier. "Thank you for sinking me turning your back, take good care of my children … and now I see that your were with me because of the money to see that your family …" he wrote in the final message on Aug. 23, according to Kessler.
Rodriguez could be jailed if he has any further communication with Pena. The restraining order is in place until at least February.
Rodriguez was 4-2 with 25 saves and a 2.24 ERA this season. He was restricted for two days without pay after the incident and was booed when he returned to the mound. He apologized to fans, but tore a ligament in his thumb of his pitching hand during the fight, and had to have season-ending surgery.
His financial problems got worse after the Mets wouldn't pay him while on the disqualified list. They also exercised a contractual right to convert the rest of his $37 million, three-year deal to nonguaranteed, meaning they could try to avoid paying most of what's left on it. The altercation has cost him about $3.1 million already.
By converting his contract, the Mets also gave themselves the ability to release Rodriguez in the early part of spring training next year for 30 days' termination pay.
The players' union filed a grievance protesting how the team has handled the case.
Rodriguez signed the contract with the Mets after saving 62 games with the Angels in 2008.


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Why the Fiscal Cliff Is Bullish for Stocks
Going over the fiscal cliff may cause stocks to outperform. Michael Gayed, chief investment strategist at Pension Partners, reports on Markets Hub. Photo: Bloomberg.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... is the dominating headlines you talking about here been reading about it ... he sees the stock market stock market rises and pledged every word that comes out of Washington politicians mouths ... everyone assumes that the fiscal cliff a very bad for stocks rate ... maybe not maybe the fiscal cliff is good is bullish for stocks that Bush has talked ... the talk about the right now Michael guy who's chief investment strategist ... at Pension Partners ... you'll colony right for of MarketWatch's Trading Deck Clayton ... Polish bullish the fiscal cliff on one he explained ... let's think about where we are now in the bond market we have the yields under the Fed's inflation target of two percent so that means that if you're in ... a bind hold investor in bonds ... it isn't guaranteed to lose money in terms of how much are you spend ... going forward ... that would yield this low ... stock in terms of inflation data just different lake aren't going to write how much it meant that are cheaper ... now ... on a comparative basis stocks yield more than ... that if you have the fiscal cliff in some way shape or form come to pass through which is essentially ... some tonnage of tax increases plus some spending cuts austere ... within the implication of that spending cuts makes the government the shoeless ... decks of a supply of Treasury issuance is ... shrinks from the current pace it's been a ... we know that that is the feast of the to buy from now on to condemn calmer ... do Kiwi three ... if you shrink the supply of debt ... demand is still there you'll continue to go down which means the bond only get more and more unattractive ... than fair to compare to stocks and any kind of a ... quilt will take a correction that's coming in stocks and ... becomes an instant buying opportunity this one we had this mini correction of me that's what we just had me correction which seems to have ended ... last week with is the Like formation ... effectively would happen is as bond yields go down the stock yields go all the dirt correction ... fiscal cliff makes ... volumes go down even further making stocks even more attractive ... and this is ... the TTT EP ten days of the nine national title you call that their paradox ... this is that with the Fed's trying to do is in its society said Mark Albers of publishing next Muppet weren't specific all this the primary because he had the gloom by doing the right or even well-known well-known financial surprise right is a very inching the person but you know the the the the main point that this is the Fed's let's hope the Fed wants the wealth for the Fed wants stock to rise housing to realize there for people to feel he'll return deal the driver ... still ... carry them to do that if ever one still free to take risk you have to be the correction techniques no wonder ... the magnitude ... and the resilience the SOX has to exist for people to want to take risk ... if we keep seeing that pattern ... money will we be forced to chase the P Chase more people fill the wealth effect that's the Fed's gamble to increase economic activity right so it's a meal and we just saw in November right in the November stocks went far down ... into P a critical level or riding on talking about technical levels ... then bounced back sharply Nancy as the Dow the Dow this morning ... go back over thirteen thousand the SNP is ... will that over fourteen hundred now ... these smaller correction that's when things really key cuz that's what gives investors the confidence that did not comment on the stock market is ten twenty thirty percent right ... isn't there a risk though ... that the longer those things build up along the you don't have ... that sort of claims in correction ... more on helping the market gets shortly we know the markets can be un healthy for long periods of timing it still be very treatable the only real concern and becomes ... the giver credit events ... central bank eerily like the prevents that from happening into listening repeat something of a depressing one onlooker watch ... and if you have given stiff cuts that would in Delhi summits and their parents the only problem ... is that when you've commies like Apple which have so much cash in the balance sheet ... they can we don't become slowing economic activity ... companies are very reluctant to cut back on dividends and have cash ... so wanna just keep the cash ... going out to them they'll causing the deal to stay with us ... now it's about the fiscal cliff itself I mean ... most people in the market think that there's going to be some kind of deal I think is going to some kind of deal with a permanent solution band aid whenever ... but again this is the other wrestlers firing up the risks are what is nothing to stop ... I mean we saw with that with the did the debt ceiling debate last summer when nothing gets done ... everything reverts back to spending cuts go in and that that that we'll camp on the economic growth comes to ... the SEO industry statistics you can spend even if we dig over the fiscal cliff is about ... roughly a hundred nine billion dollars the euro ... of spending cuts hundred nine billion dollars a year in the context of the SNP five hundred ... which has a market cap of fifteen trillion dollars in total ... is actually in really not that much I certainly understand the perception that it can cause Recession ... we view this low when the markets themselves the more stimulative ... and bigger than anything happens on the government side ... I question whether it actually to be as negative as people think it's going to be ... even if legal for ... them ... knowing about ... each of the wealth of the wealth effect that the Fed ... on ECB Min prime the pump this up for a long time heals on the ten year Treasury bond been below two percent for wanting ... to use this exact situation when Matt had been in place for a while ... haven't really seen a surge into the stock market Miata sleepy one that in the vines and very low ... on ... does this will affect ever really taken ... so I've been calling this next juncture in the fall was on the bill for making the seasonal calls ... will cause people to chase openly is when the headlines read down its new Will composites which ... I've been saying since late September following the corrective period ... would probably happen this year you see new all-time eyes ... peeled ... people love to chase pass prices moved within me that once you have sought to clear ... some of these you know ... all prior highs before the financial crisis hit ... people say OK now's a good time to invest on getting nothing much economic getting nothing in bonds ... and here I am entered riddles or at least the perception of rails making more money by investing ... in stocks ... write ... to Mike and I think very much appreciate the time ...


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Luc Bas, Director of International States and Regions, The Climate Group, reflects on the leading ambition shown by the world's sub-national governments at Rio+20.
Just before national governments finally agreed to a process towards the 'future we want' in RioCentro, next door sub-national governments from all over the world agreed to actually do something about sustainable development. The Climate Group's States and Regions Alliance signed up to clear commitments in its Clean Revolution Statement at the World Summit of States and Regions on June 19, 2012, which also adopted a broader declaration setting out a roadmap to the green economy.
Building a sustainable future requires a massive shift towards low carbon technologies, policies and practices. The Clean Revolution can only be achieved with strong leadership at all levels in government, business and civil society. And sub-national governments play a key role in this context: UNDP estimates that 50-80% of the necessary climate change actions must happen at the sub-national level.
These governments have the jurisdiction over key areas such as energy, buildings, waste management, transport and land use planning. They are able to implement new policies close to the citizens, and often have more scope than national governments to experiment with innovative approaches.
The Climate Group was one of the first organizations to highlight this potential. Since the States and Regions Climate Leaders Summit which resulted in the 2005 Montreal declaration, the States and Regions Alliance has grown to 22 full members and 40 further affiliates around the globe. This network brings together the leaders among sub-national governments worldwide to exchange experiences, increase their ambition with joint commitments, build a strong voice and raise awareness for the role that states and regions can play in the climate change and green economy arena.
The importance of this network is increasingly recognized as a reference for sub-national action, both by those governments and by international negotiators. At the World Summit of States and Regions on June 19, a day-long conference organized by The Climate Group in collaboration with Rio State and nrg4SD in the context of the Rio+20 conference, more than fifty governmental leaders came together to share experiences and sign a joint commitment towards building a low carbon future. Christiana Figueres, Executive Director of the UNFCCC, accepted this Rio Declaration on behalf of the UN and strongly supported this work by highlighting the role of states and regions as first movers, incubators of innovative ideas, and developing pilots that can then be replicated at a larger scale.
Ambitious policies at this level have immediate impact for the citizens: building a low carbon economy offers immense potential for local job creation and economic development. Clean and reliable transport, smart buildings technology, energy efficient lighting - and many more are examples where climate benefits and general improvement of citizen's well-being go hand in hand - turn the Clean Revolution into a very tangible and concrete positive vision for our joint future.
Different states and regions obviously have different challenges, based on their economic context, legislative power as well as local history and cultural background. But their examples all show that with the adequate vision and leadership, they can all develop new solutions for their sustainability challenges, that work equally for climate, business and society at large. Some of these are outlined in our new report Clean Revolution Leadership from the World's States and Regions, which we presented at the Summit. Many more examples will be gathered in our Clean Revolution evidence base, which we plan to continuously grow into an inspiring source of cutting-edge leadership from states and regions as well as a whole range of other sectors and levels.
The adopted Rio+20 agreement doesn't hold guarantees for real international commitment and collaboration, but through agreeing a process to action it just avoided the collapse of multilateral sustainable development negotiations. In lacking a clear top down agreement, the text recognizes more than ever the role of all actors other than national governments. For the first time the sub-national government level has been given clear recognition (separate from local) throughout the text by upping from one reference in the Zero draft, to 23 in the final text.
States and Regions of The Climate Group are an important part of this development and the Alliance is still growing. In the last few months, we have been able to welcome five new members from Europe, Africa and Latin America. Since last November, the Alliance also has its own governance structure, allowing regions to take a stronger lead in shaping its work, and developing work streams around major topics of interest. An ambitious working group has already taken off on a best practice policy exchange on electro-mobility, and at the Alliance's General Assembly in Rio we have laid the foundation for further groups to work on energy efficiency financing, marine energy technologies, green economy and the involvement of SME and energy efficient lighting.
At the World Summit we also launched a joint reporting platform with the Carbon Disclosure Project and R20 for more consistent sub-national governments disclosure. Many governments are already analyzing their carbon footprint, and working to develop structures to better monitor and assess the impact of their work. Transparent communication about their efforts will help them become even more effective in pursuing their ambitions and launch a creative 'race to the top' between the frontrunners and those that want to follow in their footstep. At the same time, the aggregated information will also help others better understand the ambition of what's already underway.
The Alliance also reported back from its Copenhagen commitment to jointly plant 1 billion trees by 2015. The momentum for Rio+20 has resulted in an accelerated progress crossing the 500 million marker.
The Climate Group's States and Regions have concretely contributed to the future they want for their citizens, in the absence of a clear international agreement. The commitments they signed up to are a good starting point for The Clean Revolution Campaign with our member states and regions. We will closely follow up within the Alliance and report back in the coming months and years on progress achieved.
Read the Clean Revolution Statement.
Download Clean Revolution Leadership from the World's States and Regions.