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Petascale climate modeling heats up
The development of powerful supercomputers capable of analyzing decades of data in the blink of an eye mark a technological milestone capable of bringing comprehensive changes to science, medicine, engineering, and business worldwide. Researchers at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, collaborating with NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research), COLA (Center for Ocean-Land-Atmospheric Studies) and the University of California at Berkeley are utilizing a $1.4M award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to generate new "petascale" computer models depicting detailed climate dynamics, and building the foundation for the next generation of complex climate models.
The speed of supercomputing is measured in how many calculations can be performed in a given second. Petascale computers can make 1000000000000000 calculations per second, a staggeringly high rate even when compared to supercomputers. And though true "peta" processing is currently rare, the anticipated availability of petascale computing offers a golden opportunity for climate simulation and prediction scientists to dramatically advance Earth system science and help to improve quality of life on the planet.
For decades researchers assumed that, in some sense, weather and climate were independent. In other words, the large-scale climate determined the environment in which weather events formed, but weather had no impact on climate. However, investigators are finding evidence that weather has a profound impact on climate; a finding that is of paramount importance in the drive to improve weather and climate predictions, as well as climate change projections.
With this boost in computing capabilities, the research team led by Dr. Ben Kirtman, professor of meteorology and physical oceanography at the University of Miami, has developed a novel weather and climate modeling strategy, or "interactive ensembles," specifically designed to isolate interactions between weather and climate. Their interactive ensembles for weather and climate modeling are now being applied to one of the nation's premier climate change models, NCAR's Community Climate System Model (CCSM), the current operational model used by NOAA's climate forecast system (CFS). The CCSM is also a community model used by hundreds of researchers, and is one of the climate models used in the Nobel Prize-winning International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments.
The research serves as a sort of 'pilot program' to conceptualize and prepare for the implementation of such intense computational systems, which currently remain a scientific and engineering challenge. While not actually having access to petascale capability, these experiments will provide a computational environment where many of the theoretical aspects of the interactive ensembles can be tested. A computational test bed is essential for enabling the scientific development of the interactive ensembles and ensuring efficient use of limited petascale computer resources.
"This marks the first time we will have sufficient computational resources available to begin addressing these pressing scientific challenges in a comprehensive manner. The information we collect from this project will serve as a cornerstone for petascale computing in our field, and help to advance the study of the interactions between weather and climate phenomena on a global scale," said Kirtman. " The project will bring together students in computer science and climate science to address problems in an interdisciplinary manner, thus creating a next generation of informed, computational scientists."
"Through our recently developed Center for Computational Science at the University of Miami we are looking forward to creating an optimal environment where many of the theoretical aspects of the interactive ensembles can tested," Kirtman added.
While this research focuses on climate science, the byproducts of this work are applicable to coupled modeling problems in other science and engineering fields, particularly the geosciences, and can inform the long-range design plans of other coupling tools and frameworks.
Source: University of Miami

subset: commoncrawl


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ECDC to coordinate EUVAC.NET, the European surveillance network for numerous vaccine-preventable diseasesArchived
Starting 15 September 2011, ECDC will be coordinating the former EUVAC.NET network. It is a surveillance network covering measles, mumps, rubella, congenital rubella, pertussis and varicella EU Member States and three countries of the European Economic Area. Data will be hosted by the European Surveillance System (TESSy) at ECDC.


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Will Smith is set to drop beats, old school, as he signs on to The Legend of Cain, an epic story set around the biblical brothers Cain and Able. Smith will be playing Cain, the original badboy, with a vampiric bite.
Draco Malfoy a.k.a. Tom Felton is going to branch out from his bratty bad boy ways with a role in the 20th Century Fox sequel Rise of the Apes.
Are you a fan of elaborate special edition packages for your video game fix? You may want to check out the Zombrex Edition of Deadrising 2! For a fee of $79.99, you'll get the game as well as a heap of other shwag such as pens, notepads and more.
This past weekend AMC released the full list of writers and directors that will be heading up the first six episodes of "The Walking Dead".
John Lithgow will be monkeying around soon as he joins the cast of "Rise of the Apes", Fox's prequel to their "Planet of the Apes" franchise starring James Franco.
Moonstone Entertainment has finally released plot details for their planned reboot "The Howling Reborn". The real question remains; will Moonstone ever get this movie off the ground?
Yesterday was Bruce Campbell's birthday. You should celebrate by printing out these 4 custom Bruce Campbell soup labels and confusing your mom!


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ESA to launch two large observatories to look deep into space and time
ESA PR 08-2009. Two of the most sophisticated astronomical spacecraft ever built – Herschel and Planck – will be launched by ESA this month towards deep space orbits around a special observation point beyond the Moon's orbit.
From there, both spacecraft will begin a revolutionary observation campaign that will further our understanding of the history of the Universe.
Herschel is a large far-infrared space telescope designed to study some of the coldest objects in space, in a part of the electromagnetic spectrum still mostly unexplored. Planck is a telescope that will map the fossil light of the Universe - light from the Big Bang – with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy. The two missions are among the most ambitious ever carried out by Europe and mark the crossing of new frontiers in the field of space-based astronomy.
The pair will be lofted in tandem by an Ariane 5 ECA launcher. Lift-off is now scheduled for 15:12 CEST (13:12 GMT) on Thursday 14 May, from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Herschel and Planck will separate shortly after launch and head independently towards the L2 Lagrangian point of the Sun-Earth system, a gravitational stability point suspended in space some 1.5 million kilometres from Earth in the opposite direction to the Sun. While orbiting around that point, they will be able to conduct continuous observations in a thermally-stable environment, far from radiation disturbance caused by the Sun, Earth and Moon.
The 7.5-m-tall, 4-m-wide Herschel is the largest infrared telescope ever launched. The extremely smooth surface of its 3.5-m-diameter primary mirror – made of lightweight silicon carbide – is almost one and a half times bigger than that of Hubble's, and six times bigger than that of its predecessor ISO launched by ESA in 1995.
With its huge light-collection capability and set of sophisticated detectors cooled to the vicinity of absolute zero by over 2000 litres of superfluid helium, Herschel will look at the faintest and farthest infrared sources and peer into the as-yet uncharted far infrared and submillimetric parts of the spectrum.
Herschel will be able to see through the opacity of cosmic dust and gas and observe structures and events far away that date back to the early Universe – such as the birth and evolution of early stars and galaxies – ten thousand million years ago, in an effort to determine exactly how it all started. Closer by, within our galaxy, Herschel will also observe extremely cold objects, such as the clouds of dust and interstellar gases from which stars and planets are formed, and even the atmosphere around comets, planets and their moons in our own solar system.
Featuring a 1.5 m telescope and instruments sensitive to microwave radiation, Planck will measure temperature variations in the very early Universe. It will monitor the so- called Cosmic Microwave Background, the relic of the very first light ever emitted in space about 380 thousand years after the Big Bang, when the density and temperature of the young Universe had decreased enough to finally allow light to separate from matter and travel freely in space.
With its 'heart' operating at unprecedented low temperatures, Planck will deliver unrivalled sensitivity and resolution. By measuring the tiny fluctuations in the temperature of the microwave background radiation, scientists will extract at least 15 times more information about the Universe's origin, evolution and future than with its most recent predecessor.
Herschel's detectors will be cooled down to 0.3 degrees above absolute zero. Planck's detectors will reach even colder temperatures, just 0.1 degrees above 0 K. Indeed, throughout the mission, the coldest points of the Universe may well be inside its payload. The satellite is planned to take some 500 thousand million of raw samples to produce a set of multi-million-pixel sky maps that will also help scientists to understand the Universe's structure and account as never before for all of its constituents. Planck will be able to determine the total amount of atoms in the Universe, infer the total density of dark matter – an elusive component still inaccessible to direct observations but 'visible' through its effects on the surroundings – and even shed new light on the nature of the mysterious dark energy.
Herschel and Planck, two impressive missions designed to revolutionise our understanding of the cosmos, also represent a tremendous technological challenge that has been overcome by ESA thanks to the mobilising of over 100 industrial partners and institutes in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.
Attending the launch
The main launch event for Herschel/Planck will be held at ESOC, the Agency's establishment in Darmstadt, Germany. There, ESA senior management and programme specialists will be on hand to give explanations and interviews
The Press Centre at ESOC will be open from 10:00 to 18:00 hours, hosting a media workshop from 11:00 to 12:15 hours and the launch event from 14:00 to 16:15 hours.
A live TV transmission of the launch will supply images from Kourou and from mission control at ESOC/Darmstadt to broadcasters (further details will soon be available at http://television.esa.int).
The general public can also follow the launch video transmission via web-streaming at: http://www.esa.int
Media representatives wishing to follow the event at ESOC or watch the launch live from another ESA establishment are requested to fill in the attached accreditation form (linked from the right menu on this page) and fax it back to the venue of their choice.
Note for editors
Herschel and Planck under ESA's Science Programme
Herschel and Planck are the last missions to be launched under ESA's Horizon 2000 long-term plan for space science initiated in 1985, which has already brought the worldwide scientific community a series of trail-blazing successes including: the Integral gamma-ray and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories; the Huygens probe that landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan; the Ulysses, Soho and Cluster missions monitoring the Sun, its sphere of influence and Sun-Earth interaction; the Smart-1, Mars Express and Venus Express lunar and planetary explorers; and the Rosetta comet chaser currently mid-way to its final target, the nucleus of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Over the past 25 years, the Horizon 2000 plan and its successors Horizon 2000+ and Cosmic Vision, have set the standard for successful space science in Europe and laid the foundations for the future scientific exploration of space, giving Europe international stature when it comes to cooperation.
Herschel and Planck – the result of a huge international effort
Herschel and Planck were developed under a common engineering programme by an industrial team led by Thales Alenia Space France and providing the Planck payload module, with Astrium Germany providing the Herschel payload module and Thales Alenia Space Italy providing the service module of the two satellites. Astrium Toulouse manufactured the Herschel telescope while the Planck telescope, manufactured by Astrium Germany, was provided ESA and the Danish National Space Centre (Denmark), with the Danish part funded by the Danish Natural Science Research Council.
Large academic and industrial consortia from across the world have designed and manufactured Herschel and Planck's instruments under national funding.
Herschel features three instruments: the HIFI high-resolution spectrometer, led by the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, with major funding from SRON (Netherlands), DLR (Germany), NASA (US), CNES and CNRS (France); the PACS camera and imaging spectrometer, led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (Germany), with major funding from DLR and MPG (Germany), BELSPO/PRODEX (Belgium), CNES and CEA (France), ASI (Italy), Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia (Spain), and the Ministry of Science and Research (Austria); and the SPIRE camera and imaging spectrometer, led by the Cardiff University (United Kingdom), with major funding from STFC (UK), CNES, CEA and CNRS (France), NASA (USA), and other contributions such as those from ASI (Italy), CSA (Canada), Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain), Stockholm Observatory (Sweden), and the National Astronomical Observatories (China).
Planck features two science instruments: the HFI high-frequency instrument, led by the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (France), with the main funding from CNES and CNRS (France), important contribution from NASA (USA), and participation by STFC (United Kingdom), as well as CSA (Canada), DLR (Germany), ESA, Italy, Ireland and Spain; and the LFI low-frequency instrument, led by the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (Italy), with main funding from ASI (Italy), NASA (USA), plus contributions from Tekes and Millilab (Finland), STFC and Jodrell Bank (United Kingdom), the INTA Spanish Space Agency, IAC and University of Santander (Spain), and other contributions from Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Germany and ESA.


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Golf breaks and golfing holidays in and around Loch Lomond in Scotland. Take a golf break in Scotland - the home of golf.
Here are some fabulous golf breaks for you to take if you fancy a golfing holiday or short golf break, near Loch Lomond, Scotland.
The Winnock Hotel surrounds the pretty village green in the centre of Drymen, on the east side of Loch Lomond. The hotel has been recently extensively refurbished and modernised, whilst retaining the 18th century character of the original inn.
Golf Package at the Winnock Hotel
Our 2 day golfing holiday package includes dinner, bed & breakfast, plus one round of golf at Buchanan Golf Course. The cost in a shared room is £159.00 per person for the package, or £199.00 in a double at single occupancy.
Take a golf break at the Buchanan Arms, Drymen. Enjoy top quality golf – the new Carrick course at Loch Lomond welcomes visitors. There are 30 courses within easy reach, including excellent golf right on your doorstep at Buchanan Castle, and nearby at Milngavie, Vale of Leven and Helensburgh. The Buchanan Arms Hotel is situated in the heart of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, near the shores of Loch Lomond and close to Glasgow and Stirling and the motorway network. Ideal for a golf break in central Scotland.
Escape to the quieter shores of Loch Lomond and visit the Rowardennan Hotel for a relaxing golf break. Enjoy dinner, bed and breakfast at the Rowardennan Hotel and take in a round or two at the Buchanan Castle Golf Club, a truly top-class Scottish golf course. Both the hotel and prestigous golf club provides a special tranquil place providing an almost tangible tonic to the system. Escape the city and take a golf break on the tranquil eastern shores of Loch Lomond, all within easy reach of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling.
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text: Long time player new DM looking to run a bi-weekly Pathfinder game have 1 player and 1-2 more potential ones but would like to have 4 or 5 players total so looking for 1-2 more. My potential players so far have either no D&D experience or no RPG experience at all so lack of experience not an issue. I have been playing various RPGs mainly focusing on versions of D&D for 18 years so experienced players are welcome as well.


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On December 11, 2017 at approximately 2230 hours, Corporal Fowler, arrived at 615 Edge Road, American Inn & Suites room 149, in reference to an overdose. He was met by a white male in the parking lot of the business who was being evasive about drug use. He would not tell Cpl. Fowler what the female may have taken. Cpl. Fowler asked if she had a history of heroin abuse and the male said that he thought that she did.
Cpl. Fowler entered the room and observed an unconscious white female lying across the bed. Her face was purple and she did not appear to be breathing. He called out to her and she did not respond. He performed a sternum rub on he, and again she did not respond.
He did see that she had a heartbeat so he administered his department issued Narcan nasal spray (4mg) at 2231 hours into her left nostril. He continued to call out to the female before she let out a gasping breath approximately 15 seconds after the Narcan was delivered. The female began noticeably breathing and she opened her eyes.
West Georgia Ambulance #42 arrived and took over care.


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2nd French commando likely killed in Somalia raid
France's defense minister says a French commando who went missing during the bungled attempt to rescue a hostage in Somalia was most likely killed during the operation.
Jean-Yves Le Drian says "everything leads us to believe" that the missing commando was killed. Another French commando was already confirmed killed in the operation, as well as the hostage, a French intelligence agent captured in 2009.
Speaking after a meeting with French President Francois Hollande Monday, Le Drian also said France believes that the Islamist al-Shabab group is preparing a "macabre and disgraceful" display of the dead soldiers' bodies.


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| 9°C Belfast
The 200th anniversary of the opening of Britain's first seaside pier is being marked today.
Ryde pier on the Isle of Wight opened on July 26 1814, and today still stands as a reminder of the feat of Victorian engineering.
It was the original seaside pier and paved the way for dozens of others up and down Britain, from Dunoon in Scotland to Falmouth in Cornwall.
Along with fish and chips and rock, piers became a staple of British seaside life and a magnet for holidaymakers before the boom in international travel.
But as the years passed and with the rise of cheaper foreign flights and the decline in some resorts, many piers have been lost forever.
Like many piers, some locals concede that the best years for Ryde pier - owned by ferry company Wightlink - were in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
Today the pier is one of the main gateways to the Isle of Wight, with trains leaving the pier-head and ferries shuttling passengers to and from Portsmouth from it.
Derek Tomlinson, volunteer co-ordinator at the Historic Ryde Society, fondly remembers the Grade-II listed pier when it was a mainstay of the area.
He said: "In the 1950s and 1960s, the use of the pier was phenomenal. It's half a mile long and at times you would have people queuing for the boats.
"But with the introduction of cars and coaches, the number of foot passengers coming across to the island diminished.
"In the 50s and 60s, there was a ballroom known as the Seagull, a cafe, rock shops and amusements to keep everyone entertained.
"On part of the Seagull, there was a pub called the First and Last. It was called that because it was the first pub you would go to when you arrived and the last as you left.
"Nowadays, the end of the pier is just more or less a car park, and not a pleasure pier in the traditional sense of the word.
"I have fond memories of it, going on the steam trains and the trams and attending the dances on it. It really did used to be the mainstay of Ryde."
Local resident Wayne Whittle, 51, a town and county councillor who was born and bred in Ryde, said: "My fondest memories of the pier are of coming into Ryde over many years.
"It's a great attraction, which people sometimes forget is the gateway to the Isle of Wight. It's an important part of the island and long may it reign."
Carol Strong, a volunteer with the Ryde Social Heritage Group, said an all-day party will be held on the pier on July 27 to mark its 200th anniversary.
She said: "In most of the pictures of Ryde, the pier is somewhere to be seen in the background. It has made Ryde what it is today as it is the gateway to the Isle of Wight.
"For most people in Ryde, it is the way in and out of the town. I think it will continue, as long as Wightlink continue to run it."
At the turn of the 20th century, around 100 piers existed around Britain's coastline, but those numbers have halved today.
Those no longer here include piers in Sheerness in Kent, Aberavon in Wales, and Redcar, Scarborough and Withernsea in the North West.
But in Hastings, East Sussex, the locals are trying to ensure that, in 1066 Country at least, the pier lives on for generations to come.
Efforts are well under way to revive its Grade-II listed pier after almost being destroyed in a fire in 2010 following years of neglect by its Panama-registered owner.
The Hastings Pier Charity, now responsible for its long-awaited restoration, has sold more than £500,000 of shares to more than 1,900 people.
More than £13 million was secured mainly through the Heritage Lottery Fund to help pay for the renovations.
The share scheme was offered to pay for attractions needed to make it financially viable, with plans for funfairs, a circus and an open-air cinema.
Along the coast in Brighton, millions of pounds have been invested into the maintenance and redevelopment of what was formerly known as the Palace Pier.
Arguably Britain's most famous pier, it is used routinely in pictures and footage to illustrate the Great British Seaside.
It featured in early black and white films and over the years, famous actresses including Greta Garbo, Bette Davis and Grace Kelly have shot scenes there.
Yet nearby is the mesmerising remains of the Grade I-listed, 148-year-old West Pier, a mangled mass of metal slowly falling to pieces into the English Channel.
Southend-on-Sea, in Essex, boasts the longest pleasure pier in the world at 7,080 feet (2,156 metres).
The pier, which was used by the Navy in the Second World War, was badly damaged by fires in 1976 and 2005 and was closed for a time after it was struck by a barge in 2011 and a fishing boat in 2012.
Recent years have been happier. TV chef Jamie Oliver and farmer Jimmy Doherty promoted the pier when they opened a pop-up cafe there for the show Jimmy and Jamie's Food Fight Club and, i n February 2013, Ian Barnes and Emma Hunter made history by becoming the first couple to get married in the pier's new Cultural Centre.
The pier in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, has also recovered from a devastating fire in July 2008 and visitors still flock there.
Elsewhere, at Colwyn Bay, a fight has been rumbling on to try to save its pier from demolition amid reports its restoration would cost more than £15 million.
Coastal Communities Minister Penny Mordaunt said: "Strolling along seaside piers is a great British tradition and this Government is committed to supporting our coastal towns. Our £64m coastal communities fund is helping projects across the country, including Hastings Pier, regenerate their area, create jobs and boost the local economy.
"The complete turnaround in Hastings Pier's fortunes is a great example of what is happening across the country when Government gives power back to communities to decide how best to run things locally."


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Study finds rise in rate of diagnostic imaging in managed care
Use of radiology imaging tests has soared in the past decade with a significant increase in newer technologies, according to a new study that is the first to track imaging patterns in a managed care setting over a substantial time period.
Study results are reported in the November/December 2008 issue of the journal Health Affairs, which focuses on the pros and cons of the medical technology boom, the biggest driver of increasing healthcare costs.
A team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and the Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle conducted the study using data from 377,000 patients enrolled in the Group Health Cooperative in Washington state between 1997 and 2006. The study population underwent five million radiology tests during this 10-year period.
Analysis showed an increase in all type of imaging technologies, with the majority of the tests being X-ray procedures. The average total imaging cost per patient, per year doubled during the study period, from $229 to $443.
The most striking finding was the increase in the number of newer and pricier tests such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans, according to the research team. In 1997, 13.5 percent of the study group had undergone a CT, MRI, or both, and in 2006 it was 21 percent. Study results showed the per-patient number of CT scans doubled over the 10 years, and the number of MRI scans tripled.
This increase in CT and MRI imaging appeared across the board, with no single patient group or disease group dominating, according to lead author Rebecca Smith-Bindman, MD, an associate professor of radiology and biomedical imaging, epidemiology and biostatistics, and obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at UCSF.
The goal with newer imaging tests is to use them in the most efficient and effective way possible and as a replacement for older, less accurate tests, emphasized Smith-Bindman. "But we found the newer tests, such as CT and MRI, are being added on top of the old tests, such as X-rays, rather then replacing them—and this increases costs.
"Like first-time parents taking baby pictures, we may be overdoing it with newer diagnostic imaging tests. Using these tests wisely can detect treatable diseases and save lives. Excess imaging may be too much of a good thing. In addition to health care costs, we need to consider patients' exposure to potentially cancer-causing radiation. The benefit of testing needs to be balanced against the risk," she said.
Smith-Bindman's study confirms previous reports of a trend toward over-imaging, including one that found imaging has risen faster than any other medical service that Medicare patients receive.
The study findings also highlight concern about a correlation between the type of health care practice and rates of imaging, Smith-Bindman said. "Unlike managed care systems such as Group Health that receive a fixed amount to care for each patient, 'fee-for-service' practices get financial rewards for doing extra testing, including recouping investments in office-based scanning equipment. It is likely that rates of testing are higher in fee-for-service practice, and this habit of doing more imaging may be spreading into managed care."
The study did not address the appropriateness of imaging and whether the increase was associated with improvements in patient care, and this is an area that needs further study, the research team noted.
"Our results definitely highlight the need to curb unnecessary imaging. In future research we need to examine the value of imaging so that we can assess when the new technology leads to improved patient care and improved outcomes, and when the value of new technologies is limited or nonexistent. In all cases, we need to use the technology in a way that limits unnecessary exposure to radiation," Smith-Bindman said.
Source: University of California - San Francisco
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Discover for free which first names would suit you or your baby !
Meaning of name Farah
Etymology : Means "joy" in Arabic.
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Origin : Arabic
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Gender : girl
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Who is she?
Farah has quite a powerful personality and is energetic, determined and independent. She is rather pleasant company because she is capable of showing warmth, conciliance, flexibility and adaptability when these qualities are necessary. The 3 can sometimes confer her an air of superficiality, vanity or even sophistication. Nevertheless, simulntaneously the 7 pushes her to develop her inner nature, hence her discretion and reserve. She no doubt needs to express these tendencies, and in this respect she is a highly complex creature who goes through phases of externalization where she seeks the company of other people followed by periods of introversion when she feels the need for retreat and reflection. She has a considerable capacity for work although her efforts can be inconsistent; similarly, her moods are susceptible to periods of highs and lows. She is quick witted and her powers of elocution are well-developed: she often uses humour when she feels embarassed which just adds to her sparkle. As a child, Farah may fluctuate between introversion and extraversion, alternately needing to communicate, confide and receive attention from a small crowd of admirers, then withdraw from the world to ponder important questions about her life and values... Both of these tendencies are necessary to her evolution, and the first will be better developed if she was born in January or March, or if she has a life Path Number of 1 or 3, while the second will be more emphasized if she was born in April or July, or if she has a life Path Number of 4 or 7. A nervous and often worried little girl, her parents should provide as much reassurance as possible by answering all of her questions frankly and honestly. The contrary would only serve to greatly increase her anxiety. Her creative streak should also be developed which would allow her to express her originality. Finally, in general she is a good student because she doesn´t deal with failure very well but she can also be proud and touchy - watch out for temper tantrums!
What does she like?
A cerebral sort, Farah is inclined to refection, meditation, speculations of the mind and is sometimes preoccupied by matters of a metaphysical nature. A lover of words and intellectual conversation she also likes to have fun and doesn´t necessarily reject material wealth with total disdain. Her individual aspirations lead her to explore the unusual, novel and fashionable. Her active number of 46 poses a few problems where her feelings are concerned - she is probably too demanding, authoritarian, fiercely independent or egocentric; however she often feels a vague sense of loneliness in the depths of her being and feels misunderstood most of the time.
Get your free Personality test card now !!
What does she do?
Because she is somebody with considerable ambition, she is perfectly suited to a professional career, notably in the following domains: performance (theatre, cinema or teaching...), anything concerned with the spoken word and the voice, the commercial or independent professions (especially if she was born on the 1st, 10th, 19th or 28th, or if she has a life Path Number of 1), a career in connection with fashion, creativity, avant-garde or a specialization.
Discover others girls first names : Fábia Fabiana Fabienne
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It sometimes happens that two different first names have the same meaning. This has nothing surprising: both first names have the same figures of numerology. It is as in astrology: two persons belonging to the same sign present the same characteristic...
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Test the compatibility of your names to know if your love relation is lucky to succeed. Friendship, love or passion?
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The last comments about "Farah "
|Uncannily accurate.
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|Wow...this site is quite amazing, it describes me to a tee, the name Farah totally suits me!
|i love the name farah coz my name is farah and i like the meaning its really nice
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Your Name Horoscope !
Thanks to the numerology, we propose you daily a horoscope personalized for your first name. Love, money , Shape: discover what waits for you for today. In Bonus every day find your daily lucky figure .. Horoscope of the first names
Love :Couples: The complicity between the two of you will be reinforced. Singles: An admirer will make themselves known.
Money :You are trying to decide whether or not to make a property investment. Take your time.
Health:You won't see any results without some effort Farah .
Your Lucky number : 80


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Harold Melvin was one of the driving forces behind Philadelphia soul, leading his group the Blue Notes to the top of the charts during their stint on Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International label. Despite Melvin's billing out front, the Blue Notes' focal point was lead singer and onetime drummer Teddy Pendergrass, whose surging baritone graced the Blue Notes' recordings during their glory years of 1972-1975 and gave them a truly distinctive sound. Their output ranged from sweeping, extended proto-disco dance tracks to silky, smoldering ballads, all wrapped up in Gamble and Huff's lushly orchestrated production. When Pendergrass left for a solo career, Melvin & the Blue Notes' commercial fortunes largely reverted to the pre-Pendergrass days (of which there were quite a few), although they did continue to record for a time. They never really disbanded, and by the time Melvin passed away in 1997, he'd been leading the Blue Notes for over four decades.
Melvin was born June 25, 1939, in Philadelphia. A self-taught pianist, he began singing doo wop as a teenager with a group called the Charlemagnes, and put together the very first edition of the Blue Notes in 1954. The original lineup was a quintet featuring Melvin as the lead singer (for a time), songwriter, arranger, and choreographer; ironically, he would mostly relinquish those duties by the time the group achieved its greatest success. The Blue Notes cut their first single, "If You Love Me," for Josie in 1956, and scored R&B chart hits in 1960 with "My Hero" and again in 1965 with "Get Out (And Let Me Cry)." Numerous personnel shifts kept the group in flux despite steady recording activity, and Melvin kept assembling new versions of the Blue Notes. During the late '60s, the group toured often with the Cadillacs, whose young drummer Teddy Pendergrass would prove to be Melvin's greatest discovery.
Pendergrass first joined the Blue Notes' backing band, but demonstrated so much vocal talent that Melvin soon elevated him to the post of lead singer. This move helped them land a deal with Gamble and Huff's Philadelphia International label in 1972, just as the company was taking its place as soul music's new epicenter. With Gamble and Huff now supplying top-quality material and production, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes would become one of the most popular groups in R&B over the next few years. They ran off a string of hits and topped the R&B charts with the classic ballad "If You Don't Know Me By Now" (1972), the string-laden dance track "The Love I Lost" (1973), a duet with Melvin discovery Sharon Paige called "Hope That We Can Be Together Soon" (1975), and "Wake Up Everybody" (also 1975). By that time, tension was building within the group. The heavily spotlighted Pendergrass was hungry for separate billing, but Melvin, still the group's chief organizing force, turned him down. In 1976, Pendergrass left the Blue Notes for a solo career, which signaled the end of Melvin's relationship with Philadelphia International. Melvin soldiered on, helming several more albums of new material for several labels up through 1984, although his group only managed one more significant hit, 1977's "Reaching for the World." Melvin continued to tour with versions of the Blue Notes steadily into the '90s. Sadly, he suffered a stroke and never fully recovered; he passed away on March 24, 1997, in his beloved hometown of Philadelphia. ~ Steve Huey
The Best Of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes: If You Don't Know Me By Now (Featuring Teddy Pendergrass) (feat. Teddy Pendergrass)


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David the Gnome February 12, 2019 at 9:14 AMI haven't posted anything here for a while – am hoping for JPR 4.0 to liven things up, but…My girlfriend and I are engaged – tentatively planning a wedding for late September. The problem is… I do not yet know how it's going to effect my SSI benefits. I suspect that the result will greatly reduce them – but I do not know (and no one I have asked seems able to tell me) if it will eliminate them completely. I recently (about a week ago) moved in with her, about 45 miles away from my old home. I called SSI, the postal service, the DMV, filled out address change forms online and told who (I think) I had to, but though I am going to be paying my fair share of expenses and helping with everything (paying about 350 a month towards it all, total – car costs 200 – so it's a bit more than I actually get each month) SSI has not told me whether my payment will increase from 514 to the max – 771.Whether it does or not – with SSI, when you get married a portion of your spouse's income is "deemed" to you (basically, their income is counted as being your income, as well) and the formula used by social security to determine how much – and whether or not you keep your benefits, is complex. I've tried for over a month to get ahold of the lawyer who represented me in my SSI case – can't get a call back, a text, nothing. I've left messages on his voice mail, with his secretary, but…So I tried calling social security and asking them, they were unable to tell me specifically, I was told (weeks ago now) that a case worker would call me back to discuss it. Well, no call yet. My fiancé (understandably) wants to make plans… like yesterday – and we are discussing them, invitations, who to invite, how big the wedding will be, honeymoon ideas/expenses, etc. but in the back of my mind is this panic "If I lose SSI, it won't work, we won't have enough".She earns approximately 13.70 an hour, working full time.* So about 28.5K per year. I suspect that might be too high for me to keep getting disability payments – but without them… without them I'd have to move back in with my parents. So I'm not sure what to do, really. She and I have known each other for about six years now, dated for a year and a half a few years ago – and got back together a little over a year ago, finally decided we wanted to get married. I bought the engagement ring we picked out together – and am trying to plan out a romantic proposal, but…I don't know if that would cost me my benefits. If so, I am not ready to go back to work yet – I almost certainly will not be ready by the chosen marriage date in September.Does anyone here have any ideas? I've googled so much and read so much on this that my eyes hurt – but can still not determine the answer. She owns her own home, with a mortgage, I own a car, that I still owe about 1200 against (market value is probably 1500, if not less, it's a 2008 ford focus), I don't really have any assets worth mentioning. She has an account with a thousand dollars in it, a 401K, health insurance through work (she's a CSR for a local heating oil/propane company) beyond that… there's not much.Does anyone know what the income limit would be for the two of us together for me to maintain any of my SSI benefit? I'm really worried at this point that getting married just isn't something you can do on disability, unless your intended is very, very poor. Maybe there's a loophole or something… I Don't know. Any advice, or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.
David the Gnome February 12, 2019 at 1:12 PMLiving in sin is what my dad suggested too. I was hoping that my lawyer or someone could find a way that we could get married without losing my income. Well, it doesnt look like that's going to be possible. Thank you all for looking for me, and for caring.It will pass I am sure, but right now I feel extremely guilty and depressed. Bought her the ring and everything. Ironically, my lawyer called shortly after I wrote this and explained the "spousal income/deemed amount" thing better. In short, no. She makes too much.Had to explain it to her during her lunch break. Breaks my stupid bleeding heart to see her cry. She doesnt blame me, tells me it's not my fault, but I feel guilty anyway.I could rage at the injustice, write letters, make phone calls, yell at the bean counters that determine funding for SSI and the rules for it.. maybe later I will. Right now though…More sad than pissed off. Maybe it won't be forever, maybe in time I will find a way to make my own money.* Or maybe in the future we will take advantage of her dual citizenship (she needs to apply, but qualifies) in Canada.In the meantime, cant help thinking about those tax cuts for the rich. The way Trump, Romney and their ilk call us all takers. Perhaps one day, the American people will take back from them what they have taken from us.Thanks everyone. Going to lay down for a while.
Living in sin is what my dad suggested too
avid the Gnome February 12, 2019 at 1:12 PMLiving in sin is what my dad suggested too. I was hoping that my lawyer or someone could find a way that we could get married without losing my income. Well, it doesnt look like that's going to be possible. Thank you all for looking for me, and for caring.It will pass I am sure, but right now I feel extremely guilty and depressed. Bought her the ring and everything. Ironically, my lawyer called shortly after I wrote this and explained the "spousal income/deemed amount" thing better. In short, no. She makes too much.
Did you buy that on credit putting yourself in more debt or might that money have been better used to pay off the $1200 car? Scammers gotta scam.
If this isn't the ex-girlfriend by whom he had a kid--I'm not sure if it is, or isn't--in a fair and just world, she'd find out about his windfall largesse and sue him for unpaid past child support.
davidthegnome (2618 posts) April 27, 2018 at 8:36 amI finally got a real diagnosis.It occurred to me yesterday – as I was driving the 80 some miles to meet with a Psychologist – that I had never had a full psych eval. It took me nearly half a year, even with medicaid, to set it up, but, yesterday, finally, I got one. I learned some interesting things about myself – that I had suspected for quite a while but never really been quite sure of. Funny, I never knew you could have all of these separate disorders, but here it is:1. Bipolar 2 (less extreme highs and lows, more depressive than bipolar 1 – which is how most people think of bipolar disorder – mania, etc.)2. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Yep, I knew that one)3. Social Anxiety Disorder4. General Anxiety Disorder5. Agoraphobia
She earns approximately 13.70 an hour, working full time.* So about 28.5K per year.
Sounds like you need to get her to work more hours or get a part time job. Does she make good sammiches?
> David the GeeMoan - I don't know if that would cost me my benefits. If so, I am not ready to go back to work yetYou and about a few billion other lazy, useless whiners should be denied all assistance from we that keep ournose on the grindstone and out of the pills. Take your trophies for last place and grind them into something useful.You have no excuse for your self inflicted misery.
NV Wino February 12, 2019 at 9:54 AM First, it's ridiculous that you can't get the information you need. That should be readily available on your state's website or social security website.Second, unless she is willing to completely support you, live in sin.Seriously, David, you just got your life straightened out. Don't jump into another situation to cause you more stress.
The concept of working, and reaping the rewards of that work, are totally lost on them.
It's like trying to explain the homogenization of milk to a Martian, or Fermat's Theorem to a penguin, or how to unlock a door to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez; they just don't get it.
Several years ago, a Dummy posted about refusing a promotion because the increase in salary would impact his "free" medical care (Medicare or some variant). Normal people seek to grow in their professions and increase their earning potential. DUmmies target is to maintain a minimum wage job while exploiting Government services and trying to figure out how to further game the system. Then they bitch about how normal people can actually afford stuff that is beyond their reach. The concept of working, and reaping the rewards of that work, are totally lost on them.
There wasn't much said about it, but this kind of happened in Washington when they passed the $15/hour minimum wage. A lot of those folks quit their jobs because it was too much for them to get their handouts. They don't want a living wage, they want free shit. Period.KC
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Market News
|May 03, 2013
Europe's top flu expert on alert for bird flu spread
|Human cases of a deadly new strain of bird flu that has killed 27 people in China are likely to crop up in Europe and around the world but that should not cause undue alarm, Europe's leading flu expert said on Thursday.
In his first media interview since returning from an international scientific mission to China last week, Professor Angus Nicoll said the H7N9 flu outbreak in humans was one that should be taken extremely seriously and watched closely.
"We are at the start of a very long haul with H7N9," Nicoll told Reuters in a telephone interview from the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), where he is head of the influenza and respiratory viruses program.
He said there were many scientific questions to be answered about the new flu strain, which was first detected in patients in China in March having been previously unknown in humans.
The flu has so far infected at least 127 people in China and killed 27 of them, according to latest data from Chinese health authorities and the World Health Organization.
Scientific studies of the virus have established it is being transmitted from birds - probably mostly chickens - to people, making it a so-called zoonotic disease that humans catch from animals rather than from other humans.
Nicoll, who visited Beijing and Shanghai last week with a team of international scientific experts, confirmed what the WHO has repeatedly said - that there is no evidence yet of the virus efficiently passing from person to person - a factor that would make H7N9 a serious pandemic flu threat if it were to evolve.
Nicoll said the "most pressing public health question" for now was to identify the source of the circulating virus - the so-called "reservoir" - that is leading to chickens contracting it and sporadically passing it on to humans. This is likely to take time, with any results unlikely for several months.
In the meantime, Nicoll said the ECDC, which monitors disease in the European Union, and health authorities around the world should expect that "imported cases" of H7N9 flu may well begin to crop up elsewhere.
Just as Taiwan reported its first case on April 24, other countries should expect that business travelers and tourists may occasionally return from China having picked up the infection, he said.
"I'm not sure when that will happen. But the case in Taiwan shows that it can. If that person had got on a different flight and ended up in Paris, then we would have had a scenario that we would expect people to be alarmed at," he said.
"But again we should stress that this thing doesn't seem to be transmissible from human to human, so if we get some sporadic cases appearing in Europe, that doesn't change anything."
Nicoll noted that genetic analysis studies of H7N9 samples taken from patients in China showed the virus had already acquired two genetic mutations that made it more likely to be able to become transmissible between people.
Flu experts speaking at a briefing in London on Wednesday said those mutations, together with evidence that H7N9 is still mutating rapidly and probably spreading almost invisibly among birds because it does not make them obviously sick, meant this new flu was a "serious threat" to world health.
"You can never predict anything about flu, but it is concerning to see those mutations there, Nicoll said. "That's why it's important Europe should take this very seriously."
Nicoll added that he thought the Chinese were doing an "impressive job" handling, reporting, investigating and seeking to contain the outbreak.


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Plate 3. Part of Wards 3 and 5.G.W. Bromley & Co.
Part of Wards 3 and 5 included in G. W. Bromley & Co.'s 1928 Atlas of the city of Boston. Boston Proper and Back Bay from actual surveys and official plans.
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- http://hdl.handle.net/10427/5496
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A critically endangered orangutan has been rescued after wandering into an area of forest in western Indonesia where palm oil companies have been illegally destroying the environment, a conservation group said.
The Sumatran simian had been trapped for days in a diminishing spot surrounded by palm oil plantations and isolated from the rest of the surviving orangutans in Tripa swamp. It was found and evacuated over the weekend, the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme told AP.
The swamp used to be home to around 3,000 of the apes in the 1990s, but is now home to only around 200 out of just 6,000 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild. Despite the reduced population, the legally protected conservation area still has the densest population of orangutans in the world, SOCP said.
But a number of palm oil companies in the region are currently being investigated for breaking that law and the permit for one oil plantation has already been cancelled.
"We are always happy to see a successful rescue take place, but these activities are expensive, logistically challenging and also dangerous, for both staff and the orangutans themselves," Ian Singleton of the group said.
"It's not the orangutans that should be leaving this area, it is the palm oil companies who are breaking the law." ®
Palm oil is commonly used in cooking and the food industry generally. However it can also be used to make biodiesel for use in vehicles and aviation, and this is forecast to increase with some analysts suggesting that biofuel requirements are driving increased planting of oil palms.


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On our team, you'll help us stay one step ahead of malicious actors—and beat them at their own game. It's not enough to buy and deploy the latest cybersecurity tool, and as the cyber landscape gets more sophisticated our clients demand one-of-a-kind cyber solutions built by an integrated team who isn't afraid of thinking big:
- Cyber Strategy: to define realistic and achievable approaches that close gaps in cyber capabilities, threat intelligence, and talent.
- Cyber Engineering and Operations: to design, build, and maintain next-generation cyber capabilities using the latest techniques, architectures, and tools to operate at the speed of cyber.
- Secure Operational Technology: to understand and protect industrial control systems, military platforms, and every other purpose-built IoT device.
- Dark Labs: to create high-impact social good and incubate cutting-edge cyber solutions with an elite team.
Our commitment extends beyond our team to the global good: hosting hackathons to protect our infrastructure, innovating to make the Internet safer, inspiring youth to become technology leaders, and spearheading other movements that will leave the world better than we found it. We invest in our cybersecurity team, pouring funding, time, training, and mentorship into the experts who will challenge what's possible. Programs like Technical Innovators, Cyber University, and hacker spaces are designed to take you—and us—to the next level.
Can we really change the world? Together we can. And at Booz Allen, you will. Empower change with us.


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Self-Programming techniques and software allows to leverage Patterns, Affirmations, Emotional Stability, Mood Support for wellbeing. You can test these techniques using Neuro-Programmer.
Neuro-Programmer 3 is an innovative software application that combines brainwave entrainment and applied psychology in one intuitive program to help you enhance your mental abilities and change yourself.
Self-Programming: Using focused psychological techniques, combined with the methods of hypnosis and other fields, the Neuro-Programmer 3 can help you change nearly anything about yourself. Emotional reactions, bad habits, behaviors, thought patterns and more.
Emotional Stability / Mood Support: Decades of EEG and neurofeedback research have revealed specific brainwave patterns characteristic of negative moods and overly emotional mental states. Based on this, brainwave entrainment sessions have been developed and recent research is showing it to be a very promising aide in this area.
Early on in life, language becomes intimately integrated with mental concepts, thought patterns and memories. Most people think in their native language, and when people think silently, their thought patterns are still in sentence form. It is because of this that language, in the form of recorded suggestions, hypnosis or affirmations, can be successfully used to associate ideas, concepts and beliefs to create healthy new behaviors.
NP3 helps you in making these psychological techniques work for you.
Scientific references
EEG Patterns Associated with High Hypnotizability: Practical Clinical Implications Hammond, D. Corydon, Ph.D.
Brain Lateralization and Rescripting, Thomas Budzynski, Ph.D.
The Case for Alpha-Theta: A Dynamic Hemispheric Asymmetry Model, Tom Budzynski, Ph.D.
A Technique For Rapidly Inducing Hypnosis, Margolis, B., CAL., June 1966
Clinical Guide to Light and Sound, Thomas Budzynski, Ph.D.
Software For The Mind, Emmett E. Miller, M.D.
Attitude change during interrupted sleep, A. Felipe, Yale University Doctoral dissertation
Verbally induced behavioral response during sleep. Evans, R J., Gustafson, L. A., O'Connell, D. N., Orne, M. T. & Shor, R. E., Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1, 1-26.
Learning and sleep. Rubin, R (1970). Nature, 226, 447.
The PsychoBiology Of Mind-Body Healing, New Concepts In Therapeutic Hypnosis, Ernest Lawrence Rossi
Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy, Georgi Lazonov


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eDigitalReviews tracks all the latest consumer technology breakthroughs and shows you what's new, what matters, and how technology can enrich your life. We give you the information, tools, and advice that will help you decide what to buy and how to get the most out of the tech in your life.
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CHICAGO -- ComEd has started an energy efficiency program that is taught by people with developmental disabilities for those with similar issues.
ComEd announced the program on Monday. The utility says tens of thousands of individuals with developmental disabilities are responsible for managing energy usage. ComEd is partnering with eight nonprofit organizations in Chicago and the suburbs that work with the developmentally disabled.
ComEd trained representatives from each group to teach easy and simple energy-efficiency tips to a larger audience. ComEd officials say the groups will each conduct eight to 10 outreach events before the end of the year.
ComEd is part of Chicago-based Exelon Corp.


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Having played a grand total of 10 minutes since joining Stoke City in August, Maurice Edu's move to Stoke City hasn't panned out as hoped and the American is expected to be loaned elsewhere this month.
Goal.com has learned that the Premier League club will be amicable in allowing Edu to join a team on loan as the midfielder looks to lock down a starting spot on the U.S. national team prior to this year's World Cup qualifying.
"If there is an opportunity that his club feels can benefit both club and player, they will consider loaning him out," a source close to Edu told Goal.com.
Edu joined Stoke City from Rangers after the Scottish giant's financial complications forced the team to restart the organization in Scotland's fourth tier. The 25-year-old can play defensive midfield and center back and his ability as defender was expected to be a good fit in Tony Pulis' system at Stoke. Unfortunately for the former Toronto FC No. 1 draft pick, that hasn't been the case.
The source mentioned that Edu has a few interested parties, especially in teams that have lost players to the African Cup of Nations. The source confirmed that several Ligue 1 sides are interested in Edu but wouldn't comment if any teams in England were willing to make a move.
The only factor that could potentially block any move is Pulis' reluctance to let go of a player who could provide cover at two important positions should an injury happen. Still, it appears likely that Edu will be allowed to go on loan by the end of January.
Follow ALEX LABIDOU on


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Between all the stuff going on after my father's death and playing Mass Effect 2 I haven't felt much like doing any work. But instead of do another dresser for my house I thought I change things up for myself and go back to this station. I've started to add details to the new module. I decided I want it to look a little bit newer than the rest of the station since it's just an add on to make more room. I should be getting a new computer in a nfew weeks. Either next month or the following month.
"The Wolfman's got nards."


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Firewall uptime and security with iptables
Set up and maintain a Linux firewall with this effective application
Iptables is an application allowing the administration of the tables in the Linux kernel firewall. You don't need prior knowledge about the kernel, or the actual tables in it, for firewall modifications and common system administration tasks.
In some Linux distributions, iptables comes enabled by default. It is common for inexperienced users to recommend completely disabling iptables to avoid networking issues. This article will help you get started quickly and manipulate iptables to your needs.
Sometimes iptables is used to refer to the Linux kernel-level component. In this article, anything related to iptables will specifically refer to the application that controls the protocols in a Linux distribution like ipv4, ipv6, and the ARP tables.
Similar to other Linux applications, you can configure iptables in the command-line interface or in a plain text file, allowing editing with any text editor. Although it is easy to modify, it might feel awkward from the average firewall appliance where most of the interaction with settings and configurations is done in a graphical interface. There are applications using iptables to manage a firewall through graphical interfaces, but this article will cover interacting with iptables in its native environment: the Linux terminal.
Having a comfort level using a Linux terminal (also referred to as a console or terminal emulator) will help developers take advantage of the examples and configurations that follow. The command-line interface is the primary way to interact with iptables, and a Linux terminal is the application allowing access to this interface.
The rules that are applied are mostly very readable and easily ported to other servers. This feature saves significant time when dealing with unresponsive hardware.
Application requirements
Although iptables is the main subject of this article is, and it is probably already installed in your environment, we will also use nmap, which is another powerful application.
Verify that nmap is installed before continuing. You can install this effective network scanner in a Debian/Ubuntu Linux distribution.
Listing 1. Installing nmap on Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install nmap
Get started
Because we are going to make modifications at the kernel level, make sure you have root privileges.
Listing 2 shows the rules currently being applied to the server. Listing 2 will be repeated during the article to verify what rules are currently in use and to verify successful changes.
Listing 2. Currently applied rules
root@desktop:~# iptables -L Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination
In Listing 2, we instruct iptables to list all rules currently applied to the firewall. This is accomplished by the -L flag.
The output also mentions
Chain. Think of iptable
chains as sections in the firewall allowing a certain type of traffic. For
example, to block all traffic from the private network to the internet,
that rule would be set in the OUTPUT section. Similarly, any rule
affecting incoming traffic would be listed in the INPUT chain.
The three chains are each applied to one type of activity in the firewall. At this point, there is nothing set yet. This means there are no restrictions and all network traffic is allowed to come and go.
Chain INPUT
Chain FORWARD, and
Chain OUTPUT
Before continuing, it is necessary to verify what ports are open on the server for comparison after it is locked down. As mentioned before, nmap is a powerful command line tool that provides network security information. Listing 3 shows the output of nmap in a remote server on the network.
Listing 3. Network scanning with nmap
~ $ nmap 10.0.0.120 Starting Nmap 5.35DC1 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2010-11-21 20:44 EST Nmap scan report for 10.0.0.120 Host is up (0.012s latency). Not shown: 991 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh 25/tcp open smtp 53/tcp open domain 80/tcp open http 631/tcp open ipp 3306/tcp open mysql 4001/tcp open unknown 5900/tcp open vnc 8080/tcp open http-proxy Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 6.57 seconds
Those are a lot of open ports! In just a few steps, you will learn how the above changes after iptables is configured.
Firewall rules can be either applied and appended, or edited manually in a plain text file, and sourced. I prefer using a text file to apply changes. Most of the time syntax errors are easier to catch when written in a text file. Another problem arises with editing rules by appending rules directly, that is, these rules will not be saved when a server reboots. Before editing the file, let's tell iptables to export the current rules so that file becomes our initial template. See Listing 4.
Listing 4. Saving rules to a file
root@desktop:~# iptables-save > /etc/iptables.rules root@desktop:~# cat /etc/iptables.rules # Generated by iptables-save v1.4.4 on Sun Nov 21 14:48:48 2010 *filter :INPUT ACCEPT [732:83443] :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0] :OUTPUT ACCEPT [656:51642] COMMIT # Completed on Sun Nov 21 14:48:48 2010
I used the
iptables-save command and redirected
the output to a text file in the "/etc" directory. I have concatenated the
file so you can see what the file looks on my machine.
One of the first requirements is to allow established connections to receive traffic. You need this when you want anything behind the firewall (in a private network) to be able to send and receive network data without restrictions. In Listing 5 we will issue a direct rule to iptables and verify the state of the firewall afterward.
Listing 5. Established sessions rule
root@desktop:~# iptables -A INPUT -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT root@desktop:~# iptables -L Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination
To have a better idea of what was issued, let's break the command apart and explain each one:
-A INPUT: Append this rule to the
INPUT chain.
-m conntrack: Match the following connection
tracking for the current packet/connection.
-ctstate ESTABLISHED, RELATED: Connection states
that the rule should apply to. In this case, an
ESTABLISHED connection means a connection that
has seen packets in both directions and a
RELATED type means that the packet is starting
a new connection but it is associated with an existing connection.
-j ACCEPT: tells the firewall to accept the
connections described before. Another valid setting for the
-j flag would be
I'm also connecting through the SSH protocol to that server, so before locking down the firewall, a rule in Listing 6 is going to allow all incoming SSH traffic. I specify the type of network protocol (tcp) and the port that is conveniently associated with the SSH service. You can specify the port number directly if needed.
Listing 6. Accepting inbound SSH connections
root@desktop:~# iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport ssh -j ACCEPT root@desktop:~# iptables -L Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:ssh Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination
Finally, let's set the firewall to block everything else. Take special care when issuing the following command. If it is placed before all the other rules, it will block any and all traffic to the server. Iptables reads rules in a procedural fashion (from top to bottom) and after a rule is matched, nothing else gets evaluated.
Listing 7. Blocking all incoming traffic
root@desktop:~# iptables -A INPUT -j DROP root@desktop:~# iptables -L Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED ACCEPT tcp -- anywhere anywhere tcp dpt:ssh DROP all -- anywhere anywhere Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination
Listing 7 shows that the rules are in the proper order, but to be able to make specific changes, let's save the rules to a file and concatenate it to check the contents as in Listing 8.
Listing 8. Verifying firewall configuration
root@desktop:~# iptables-save > /etc/iptables.rules root@desktop:~# cat /etc/iptables.rules # Generated by iptables-save v1.4.4 on Sun Nov 21 15:10:42 2010 *filter :INPUT ACCEPT [1234:120406] :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0] :OUTPUT ACCEPT [1522:124750] -A INPUT -m conntrack --ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -j DROP COMMIT # Completed on Sun Nov 21 15:10:42 2010
iptables-=save command pushed our changes
to a plain text file. It does look a bit different from just listing the
rules in the command line, but it is exactly the same thing. Just as
before, we have three sections: INPUT, FORWARD and OUTPUT. The rules that
we initially specified concern OUTPUT connections, so this is the section
where the rules we added are placed.
At this point, the server is locked and the configuration has been saved to a file. But what will happen when we perform a network scan? Let's run nmap again against that server and check the results as shown in Listing 9.
Listing 9. Network scan with locked down server
~ $ nmap 10.0.0.120 Starting Nmap 5.35DC1 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2010-11-21 20:56 EST Note: Host seems down. If it is really up, but blocking our ping probes, try -Pn Nmap done: 1 IP address (0 hosts up) scanned in 3.04 seconds ~ $ nmap -Pn 10.0.0.120 Starting Nmap 5.35DC1 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2010-11-21 20:56 EST Nmap scan report for 10.0.0.120 Host is up (0.017s latency). Not shown: 999 filtered ports PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 12.19 seconds
Note that a scan was attempted against the IP where the server is located, but nmap failed to list the open ports. This happens because the firewall is set in such a way that it is blocking everything except for the SSH port we have open. Since nmap uses a specific network protocol to verify if the host is up, it returned empty handed. The second try was successful and is telling us that only SSH is open and nothing else. With just three rules, we managed to get an effective lock down of our server.
Saving and restoring rules
In the previous section, we saved the rules to a text file. However, that doesn't effectively tell the server that it needs to load the rules. Also, when the server reboots, it loses all the configuration done.
If you are adding rules on the command line, you should already be familiar with saving those changes to a text file. See Listing 10 for saving the firewall rules.
Listing 10. Saving the firewall rules
iptables-save > /etc/iptables.rules
Depending on the operating system in use, there are several ways to get those rules to load on start up. An easy approach is to go to the one interface that is public facing and tell it to load those rules before bringing the interface on line. See Listing 11.
Listing 11. Public network interface loading rules
<![CDATA[ auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 188.8.131.52 netmask 255.255.255.0 pre-up iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.rules ]]>
Here we have the eth0 interface and are declaring a rule to load the rules before bringing the interface up. As you may have guessed, you can use these commands to manually update the firewall rules from and to the file.
Disaster recovery
Not long ago, I was in a situation where I was responsible for a firewall appliance. Although I was making sure periodic backups of the rules and configurations were made, I failed to realize that those backups were in a proprietary format and only readable by the appliance model I had. That isn't a problem, of course, as long as you have two appliances of the same brand, model, and firmware version, but, as is common in small businesses, the budget didn't allowed for anything else.
One day, that appliance decided not to run anymore and I had to implement something fast that could be as reliable (or better). I learned the hard way that having human-readable configurations and the ability to come back up quickly are very important assets.
With some luck, I found an old server in good condition with a couple of network interfaces and was able to replace the dead appliance.
Until now, we have gone through scenarios of obtaining a copy of the rules that could be easily applied to any server in case of failure. Now let's enable the firewall to be the main gateway for a small home or business network.
Iptables as a main gateway
So far everything we've covered is great if you are running iptables on a personal computer, but it doesn't make much sense if a whole office needs to share an internet connection. With a few configuration settings, we can set that up properly.
We are going to assume that the server has two physical network interfaces: eth0 (public) and eth1 (private). I need to NAT them together so network traffic flows seamlessly from one interface to the other. The private network subnet is 192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0, so let's see how a NAT rule with forwarding would look in Listing 12.
Listing 12. NAT and forwarding rules
iptables -A FORWARD -s 192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0 -i eth0 -o eth1 -m\ conntrack --ctstate NEW -j ACCEPT iptables -A FORWARD -m conntrack --ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE
Listing 13 shows how to modify some settings in
proc to enable forwarding in the server.
Listing 13. Enabling forwarding in the server
sh -c "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward"
Note that
proc changes are volatile, so any
changes made there are lost after a reboot. There are several ways to make
sure that the modifications will stick after a reboot. In Debian/Ubuntu
distributions, add the lines to get executed in /etc/rc.local.
Finally, as shown in Listing 14, there is one more setting change that modifies kernel parameters at runtime (sysctl). These configurations are usually already in the sysctl.conf, but are commented out. Uncomment them (or add them if they are not included with your distribution).
Listing 14. Sysctl/kernel forwarding
net.ipv4.conf.default.forwarding=1 net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding=1
ARP cache threshold
Running a Linux server as a gateway will cause certain issues with DNS. The kernel is designed to keep a mapping of IP addresses, but it comes with a maximum level of entries that are not suitable for heavy traffic. When this level is reached, no DNS queries get back to the host who asks. While such a threshold is rarely reached with a few clients, more than thirty clients going through this firewall will cause a problem.
The environment may need some adjusting, but the values shown in Listing 15 should provide room before seeing such issues.
Listing 15. Increasing the ARP cache size
echo 1024 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/default/gc_thresh1 echo 2048 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/default/gc_thresh2 echo 4096 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/default/gc_thresh3
Be on the lookout for messages similar to those in Listing 16, which will provide a warning if it is necessary to increase the numbers just provided.
Listing 16. System log ARP cache overflow warnings
Nov 22 11:36:16 firewall kernel: [92374.325689] Neighbour table overflow. Nov 22 11:36:20 firewall kernel: [92379.089870] printk: 37 messages suppressed. Nov 22 11:36:20 firewall kernel: [92379.089876] Neighbour table overflow. Nov 22 11:36:26 firewall kernel: [92384.333161] printk: 51 messages suppressed. Nov 22 11:36:26 firewall kernel: [92384.333166] Neighbour table overflow. Nov 22 11:36:30 firewall kernel: [92389.084373] printk: 200 messages suppressed.
We have gone through some simple steps to get iptables to run properly and to safely lock down a Linux server. The rules applied should provide a good sense of what is going on in a server using iptables as a firewall. I encourage you to give iptables a try, especially if you depend on an appliance and want more control and easily replicated human-readable configurations.
While the rules used we've used here are simple, the full flexibility and complexity of iptables is beyond the scope of this article. There are many complex rules that you can combine to create a safe and controllable firewall environment.
An example of an interesting advanced feature in iptables is load balancing. Most of the time, when exploring high availability web services, you are seeking load balancing solutions. With iptables, this can be set and configured with the random or nth flags.
You can also do time-based rules. In a small office environment, it might be useful to restrict certain services from Monday through Friday, but let the firewall behave differently on Saturday and Sunday. The flags that might work in such a case are: --timestart, --timestop and days.
A problem I experienced was not having two firewalls at the same time with some kind of fail over. Creating such a thing is no easy feat, and can be approached in several ways. The easiest solution would be to have the router do the job and load balance two identical Firewall servers. I recommend looking into such an option if the network environment is a critical asset like an office or small business.
Iptables saved me once, and I hope it does the same for you!
Downloadable resources
Related topics
- Netfilter Project: All the resources for iptables can be found in the project page.
- iptables in Ubuntu: A great introduction to iptables in Ubuntu including some advanced configurations.
- iptables in CentOS
- Nmap: a great network scanning tool.
- developerWorks on Twitter: Follow us for the latest news.


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LAS VEGAS – While the excitement of Saturday's UFC 116 event was beyond what most MMA fans had anticipated prior to the card, another story surrounding fight week was the career of UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell.
Liddell was honored on Thursday with a launch party for his Madame Tussauds wax figure – the first such figure for an MMA fighter – but he also had dinner that same evening with UFC president Dana White to discuss his fighting future.
On Saturday, White said the dinner was a success, but his friend and former champion has yet to make a decision.
"Dinner was great," White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "It's always cool hanging out with my friend, but Chuck's having a hard time with this thing.
"He told me tonight the show open messed him up – watching the show open."
Liddell was in attendance for UFC 116, and while the "Baba O'Riley" highlight package and ensuing gladiatorial montage does wonders for fans' morale, for a fighter who's spent the past 12 years of his life becoming an MMA legend, it made walking away from the game just that much tougher.
"You've got to understand, this guy's been in it longer than me," White said. "He's been around forever, and he loves the sport. All I'm hoping for is that he's going to make the right decision."
White told MMAjunkie.com on Thursday that he would never again allow Liddell to fight in the octagon. A UFC 115 knockout loss to Rich Franklin was Liddell's third-straight defeat in such fashion, and the "Iceman" has dropped five of six bouts overall.
On Thursday, White said he blamed Liddell's handlers for giving him poor advice, and he said he would give his friend the talk that no one else was courageous enough to offer.
On Saturday, White backed off those statements and apologized to those surrounding Liddell.
"You remember when I was basically smashing everybody around him at the last press conference and calling them cling-ons?" White asked. "Well, I apologize for that. Chuck told me that that's not the case. Their feeling is the same thing. These are guys that care about him and have been around him a long time. They're willing to back him and support him any way he wants – whatever he wants. They're being friends.
"I thought people were in his ear because I was hearing rumors. I thought people were in his ear saying, 'You looked good in that last fight right up until you got knocked out, and you can do this and do that.' That's not the [expletive] I want to hear.'"
With White seemingly dead-set against allowing a Liddell comeback (unlike after UFC 97 when the UFC boss was talked out of a similar claim), the former light heavyweight champion would seem to have few options. Should he insist on fighting again, he'd have to wait for his current UFC deal to expire or ask for a release from the promotion – a move White said he would agree to begrudgingly if his hand was forced.
Nevertheless, White says Liddell is still undecided for now, though he hopes the 40-year-old will make a reasonable decision.
"I'm hoping he's going to retire," White said.
(Pictured: Chuck Liddell)


text:
William Grigg
Last July, the Small Wars Journal published an essay co-written by retired U.S. Army Colonel Kevin Benson entitled "Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A `Vision' of the Future." That article presented a speculative case study of domestic military operations to put down a domestic insurrection that would seize control of the unremarkable town of Darlington, South Carolina.
In the scenario painted by Col. Benson and his co-author, Professor Jennifer Weber of the University of Kansas, a militia inspired by the Tea Party movement seized control of Darlington's municipal government, erects checkpoints "on major transportation lines," and imposes a form of martial law in which "citizens who complain are immediately detained." The governor of South Carolina invokes the Insurrection Act, leading to a "full-spectrum" response by the U.S. military.
Shortly after that essay was published, 70-year-old private pilot Robin Fleming learned that Darlington County – or at least the airspace above it – is already subject to a form of martial law.
Fleming, who belongs to the Bermuda High Soaring aviation club in Lancaster, South Carolina, went for an afternoon glider flight last July in Darlington County. His course briefly took him over the HB Robinson Nuclear Generating Station near Lake Robinson. As he was preparing to return to Lancaster, Fleming lost radio contact with the other members of the club. Hours passed as his friends imagined the worst. Finally they filed a missing aircraft report, and a search began. To their relief, Fleming contacted them – only to leave them horrified when they learned what had happened.
After Fleming passed over the power plant, he was ordered to land his glider, which he did as soon as prevailing wind currents permitted. Once he was down on the ground, Fleming was swarmed by law enforcement.
Fleming was informed that he had violated a "secret no-fly zone." This was an entirely spurious claim: There is no such thing as a domestic "no-fly zone," secret or otherwise. That term, significantly, is used to describe aerial blockades imposed by the military — generally under the purported authority of a multilateral body, such as the UN or one of its regional affiliates — against a "rogue nation," such as Iraq or Libya. The Homeland Security Department apparently considers itself entitled to impose similar restrictions wherever it chooses, and do so without bothering to inform civilian pilots or make suitable notations on FAA-produced sectional aviation charts.
Despite the fact that he had done nothing wrong, Fleming was handcuffed, charged with "breach of peace," and held for more than 24 hours before being interrogated by FBI and Homeland Security officials. The charges were dismissed after he showed the investigators that the zone wasn't marked in aviation charts – but he was required to sign a document promising that he wouldn't file a lawsuit against the officials who had illegally detained him. He later learned that local police officials had made preparations to shoot down his glider if he hadn't landed as quickly as he did.
Fleming did nothing illegal – yet he was brutalized by people who had been prepared to kill him, and could have done so without consequences. Such is life in our Homeland Security State.


text:
Welcome to Watch List, where we identify five things on TV to watch while you stay at home and walk the ferret. LET'S GO!
HOW SHARKS HUNT – 9:00PM (Discovery) Shark Week swims along with this hourlong look at the killing techniques of sharks: how they stalk, how they circle, and how they eventually decide to blitz their prey and snatch them up in the powerful jaws, feasting upon the bloodied flesh and leaving nothing but a rotted skeleton in a matter of seconds. In other news, I'm having fish sticks for dinner this evening. ANTICIPATION: JAWSY!
TRUCK STOP, MISSOURI – 10:00PM (Travel Channel) It's a new show about the comings and goings at... you guessed it... a truck stop in Missouri. Finally. All my life, I've wanted the experience of being trapped at a roadside rest stop available to me at home, and now here it is. No word on if they put a camera in the bathroom of the truck stop during the "lonely hours." Tonight's premiere features a bikini car wash. I have clearly been stopping at the wrong rest stops. ANTICIPATION: TRUCKY!
MY RIDE RULES – 9:00PM (Speed) Think your car is all that, do you? What with its platinum rims and tiger cage in the back? Well, time to put your money where your mouth is, on this show in which four car owners show off their pride and joy. Best car wins a cash prize. My Honda CRV is apparently not cool enough to enter. ANTICIPATION: TRICKED OUT!
DEADLIEST WARRIOR – 10:00PM (Spike) It's a hypothetical battle between US Army Rangers and North Korean Special Ops. I don't know why we need to see this imagined scenario when the real thing will probably happen a year from now. ANTICIPATION: FIGHTIN'!
LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN – 11:30PM (CBS) Your guests tonight are Emma Stone and the CEO of Ford. And I hope David asks him why the Ford Focus headrest insists on being angled directly into the base of my neck. Annoying. That ride does not rule. ANTICIPATION: SHILLING!
Wednesday Watch List: Sharks Never Sleep
Welcome to Watch List, where we identify five things on TV to watch while you stay at home and walk the ferret. LET'S GO!


text: News & Events / News print News View All Faculty Alumni Students General RSS Feeds YEAR 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 « Back 04.05.13 Stacy Kanter '84 Named "Dealmaker of the Year" by The American Lawyer Stacy Kanter '84, a corporate finance partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, was included in The American Lawyer's list of "Dealmakers of the Year." This coveted list of a dozen attorneys across the country "spotlights innovation and creativity in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, project finance, and bankruptcy work." The editors selected their Dealmakers of the Year by focusing "on the handful of lawyers who played pivotal roles in some of the most notable transactions of 2012." Kanter was selected for her work as issuer's counsel on the $1.2 billion Realogy IPO. At the end of this four-year deal, which began as a debt restructuring, Kanter had led 20 Skadden lawyers through five major transactions that ultimately cleared the way to Realogy's IPO. It was the biggest private equity–backed IPO in the United States last year, according to Dealogic. The transactions, which "transform[ed] Realogy from a troubled real estate business into the biggest private equity-backed IPO of 2012 took patience, creativity, and perseverance," wrote the editors. Kanter's organization and composure helped make it all possible, said Marilyn Wasser, Realogy's general counsel. "Stacy and her team helped us deal with a complicated capital structure," she said. "It was like playing chess on several levels. It took intense, committed lawyering. Everything was a building block to something else." Kanter said Realogy represents, in some sense, a microcosm of the economic cycle in the last four years. "Realogy is so emblematic of the financial crisis," starting with its acquisition before the economic downfall, stirrings of recovery, to the IPO. "In the end, it was one of those things where the sun, moon, and stars were perfectly aligned... It was thrilling." This honor is the latest in a series of accolades Kanter has received. She was also the recipient of the "Best in Capital Markets" 2012 Euromoney Women in Business Law Award. She was named by Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business as one of the leading individual capital markets lawyers in New York for debt and equity. Additionally, Kanter repeatedly has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business. One client quoted in Chambers appraising her approach said, "She managed the people, found the compromises, and was a calming influence on all concerned," and Chambers noted that "she has the ability to make deals happen." She also was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America and The Legal 500 United States. Kanter was also included in Crain's New York Business' annual list of the 40 top business leaders under age 40. Read more in The American Lawyer. Email this article Share Read the latest issue of Brooklyn Law Notes


text:
How Cloud Computing, REST-Based SOA, and Mobile Computing Are Changing Enterprise IT
By Jason Bloomberg, President of Intellyx
How can your business get what it really wants and needs from IT?
How can your business aim to survive, even in environments of unpredictable change?
The answer is business agility.
A revolution in how we think about architecture, about software development, about IT supporting the business, and in how we think about leveraging new platforms such as cloud computing, The Agile Architecture Revolution reinvents Enterprise Architecture as you know it to support continuous business transformation.
Laying out a multidimensional vision for achieving business agility through agile architectures, author Jason Bloomberg reveals how your business can—and indeed, must—build a system that can change its behavior and data semantics on-demand, in support of your changing business.
Both visionary and realistic, The Agile Architecture Revolution looks at the convergence of concepts that have the power to change the way we think about software, and finally bring IT back to a place of productivity and value.
The Agile Architecture Revolution
How Cloud Computing, REST-Based SOA, and Mobile Computing Are Changing Enterprise IT
The pace of change in business has once again accelerated, except now the context for this change is far more complex than the simpler, one-dimensional dot-com days. The evidence of revolution is all around us—it's time to identify individual trends and tie them together into a single story of transformation. That's The Agile Architecture Revolution.
Providing practical advice for leveraging the change in your environment to achieve business success, this innovative new book:
- Focuses on architecture, connecting the dots between Service-Oriented Architecture and the revolutionary concept of enterprise as a complex system
- Places the discussion of architecture into the broader context of change impacting enterprise IT and, with it, business in general
- Looks at implementation with in-depth consideration of Cloud Computing and Representational State Transfer (REST)
- Ties the threads of the story together to make the case that we face an Agile Architecture Revolution
All about how business—that is, people—use technology to meet changing business needs, The Agile Architecture Revolution will open your eyes to a new way of thinking about technology, about business, and—about change itself.


text:
The concept of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) quality is evident everywhere: in food and drinks that we consume, in buildings and structures, cars and airplanes, general manufacturing, and in drugs, medical devices, and hospitals and laboratories. In the U.S., the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 made it illegal—for the first time—to sell adulterated food and drugs. It was the beginning of the concept of GMP quality, which refers to practices that help ensure product quality and consumer safety.
Select all the resources you're interested in downloading
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforces regulations for pharmaceutical, medical device, blood and biologics, food, and other regulated industries. Those regulations embody Good Manufacturing Practice quality principles. The FDA also provides guidances that reflect GMP quality standards and offer a framework for compliance.
Of all the GMP quality-related regulations enforced by the FDA, perhaps these two are the most important and have the most impact:
A wide range of manufacturers throughout the world voluntarily adhere to ISO 9000, a series of GMP quality standards, because most companies prefer suppliers and providers with ISO certification. ISO 9000 applies to most manufacturers but there are other ISO standards specially developed for certain industries.
For example, ISO 13485 and ISO 14971 are the most widely recognized GMP quality standards for producing medical devices. These standards are voluntary, but regulatory bodies throughout the world encourage and expect medical device manufacturers to follow them to ensure Good Manufacturing Practice quality in all aspects of their operations.
ISO 13485 focuses on the creation and maintenance of a quality management system, while ISO 14971 provides risk management guidelines that apply specifically to medical devices. Together these standards help manufacturers implement processes that comply with regulations pertaining to Good Manufacturing Practice quality.
MasterControl quality and compliance software helps companies throughout the world in complying with GMP quality regulations and standards. It is an end-to-end solution that automates and connects all quality processes for a holistic approach to regulatory compliance.
Here is how MasterControl helps companies attain and maintain compliance with GMP quality regulations.
For more information about quality and compliance, and how our software can help your company meet current good manufacturing practices, please feel free to contact a MasterControl representative.


text:
WASHINGTON - A married congressman from upstate New York resigned suddenly Wednesday after a scandal erupted over emails and a shirtless photo supposedly sent to a woman in response to a Craigslist dating ad.
Republican Christopher Lee had just begun his second term representing New York's 26th District. Just hours after the scandal broke on Gawker.com, Lee announced that he was quitting Congress, and a clerk read his letter of resignation on the House floor.
In a statement, Lee said:
U.S. & World
"It has been a tremendous honor to serve the people of Western New York. I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents. I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness.
"The challenges we face in Western New York and across the country are too serious for me to allow this distraction to continue, and so I am announcing that I have resigned my seat in Congress effective immediately."
The controversy erupted when Gawker reported that a Maryland woman had sent in emails supposedly written by Lee in response to a dating ad that she had placed on Craigslist. In the emails, the man represented himself as a divorced lobbyist younger than Lee's actual age of 46.
Gawker published a shirtless photo that he had taken of himself, flexing his muscles. One of the emails attributed to him on Gawker described him as a "fit fun classy guy."
Lee and his wife, Michele, live in Amherst, N.Y. They have one son.
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner told NBC News that it was Lee's decision to resign.
His exit triggers a special election, which Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo must call. Lee was first elected in 2008 with 55 percent of the vote, and GOP presidential candidate John McCain won the district — New York's 26th — in 2008 with 52 percent. Lee was reelected in 2010 with 74 percent of the vote.
The 26th District covers all or part of seven counties, including suburbs of Buffalo and Rochester. It has been a solidly Republican district.
NBC News' Domenico Montanaro, Shawna Thomas and Kelly O'Donnell and msnbc.com's Carrie Dann contributed to this report.