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Back to Basics: Assert your assumptions and diff your source code
I've done a whole series of "Back to Basics" posts that I encourage you to check out. Sometimes I'll do a post as a result of a reader emailing me for help and this is one such post.
A person emailed me with an ASP.NET app was behaving differently on his computer vs. another developer's computer.
On his machine when he hit a protected page foo.aspx?returnurl=http://mymachine.domain.com
he would get a FORM element like this:
<form action="foo.aspx?returnurl=http://mymachine.domain.com">
but on everyone else's machines their HTML was:
<form action="foo.aspx">
They debugging and were frustrated and eventually reached out. They said:
1. there's nothing going on in the aspx of login.aspx that would append the querystring.
2. there's nothing going on in the code-behind of the aspx that manipulates Form.Action or messes with the Page.Render in any way.
So, I'm stumped, because the querystring is included on my machine, but not on others. I've tried comparing IIS components, web.config differences, application pool runtime type, machine.config differences, possible differences in Modules for IIS (IISrewrite), but nothing is giving me love.
I suggested that they assert assumptions and start diffing everything. You can see in the last paragraph that they're comparing stuff but I think you really have to diff everything.
When something "works here but not there" my answer is always, what has changed? What's different? If the answer is "nothing is different" I'm just gonna say it again:
"What's different?"
What are some things we can check?
- Code
- Do you know what's on disk?
- Do you know what ended up in memory? These are different things.
- Configuration
- There's local and machine-wide config to check
- Network Traffic
- This is often overlooked. The Internet is not a black box, but you'd be surprised how few people hook up a packet sniffer or even just Fiddler to look at HTTP traffic.
- I've talked to developers who have said "well, that's under SSL so I can't see it." Oh, my friend, if you only knew.
I had them do a sniff and see if there was a difference in HTTP traffic. My assumption was that the HTTP_REFERER HTTP header was different and there was some code that was causing the page to render differently.
We went back and forth over a few days and my reader became frustrated and just added this line in their app's Page_Load:
this.Form.Action = Request.Url.ToString();
Here they are basically reasserting the Form action by pulling it from the URL. It's gross and it's a hack. It's a Band-Aid on Cancer.
They then started looking at the source for ASP.NET proper and then decided to disassemble the code that was running on the other person's machine. They then started to assert their assumptions.
Is the code running what's on disk? For a compiled language, do the binaries reflect the source?
They looked in Temporary ASP.NET files at the compiled ASPX markup pages and found this.
__ctrl.Method = "post";
__ctrl.Action = "login.aspx";
What? Why is someone setting the FORM Action manually? And there's a line number.
They had diff compared all the source code but not the markup/views/html.
Their markup:
<form id="Form1" method="post" runat="server">
Other person's markup:
<form id="Form1" method="post" runat="server" action="Login.aspx">
The other person had hard-coded the action in their source markup. They'd been diffing everything but the markup.
When you are comparing two code-bases, make sure to compare everything or you might just lose a day or two like this person.
Thanks to my reader for sharing this and letting me in on this debugging adventure.
Related Links:
- Back To Basics: You aren't smarter than the compiler. (plus fun with Microbenchmarks)
- Back to Basics: Moving beyond for, if and switch
- Back to Basics: Dynamic Image Generation, ASP.NET Controllers, Routing, IHttpHandlers, and runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests
- Back to Basics: Daylight Savings Time bugs strike again with SetLastModified
- Good Exception Management Rules of Thumb - Back to Basics Edition
Sponsor: Big thanks to Red Gate for sponsoring the blog feed this week. Check out the Free Starter Edition of their release management tool! Deploy your SQL Server databases, .NET apps and services in a single, repeatable process with Red Gate's Deployment Manager. Get started now with the free Starter Edition.
About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
About Newsletter
- All computers are in theory digital.
- The compiler is right, your team is wrong. (Actually, one time it was the other way around. MT+Pascal compiled wrong, this was in 1982.)
- It helps to read Sherlock Holmes: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
Comments are closed.


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BearingPoint takes HyperCube stake.
Frankfurt am Main: BearingPoint has made what it calls a significant investment in the world-leading business analytics solution HyperCube.
It has acquired a majority holding in HyperCube's parent software company, Paris-based effiScience, for an undisclosed sum.
BearingPoint says the deal is its reaction to an increasing challenge many of its client companies now face: how to handle and use a growing amount of available data in business processes. HyperCube offers a solution to quantify 'big data' with very high precision, to identify opportunities and hedge risks along the entire value chain. The software generates easy to understand formal rules immediately usable by end-users and thus improves the way companies make decisions. By acquiring the technology BearingPoint says it will expand its service portfolio in the fast growing asset based consulting field and offers market-specific analytics applications.
"The integration of the software is important for meeting future needs of our customers in handling and using 'big data' in their business processes", says Peter Mockler, Managing Partner at BearingPoint. "Business analytics will become one of the most challenging prospective corporate requirements. Thus, with the transaction we are taking another important step in extending our role as one of the leading business consultancies internationally."
Alys Woodward, Program Manager, European Business Analytics, IDC, comments, "HyperCube has the ability to help organizations identify causal links between different factors as represented in a dataset, and present these links as business rules in a simple format to an end user. The fact that it outpaces traditional statistics by firstly requiring no hypothesis and secondly working on a full dataset rather than a sample is very powerful. It constitutes an excellent reusable asset for BearingPoint's consulting practice."

subset: commoncrawl


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Andy Flower is, as expected, the new England Coach. Seems that Strauss didn't want a Coach role at all, more a team manager, but daren't say so to the press. Either way, good luck to him. Please.
This appointment is important, right? It's a widely held belief that the coach is responsible for form and results to a level where he (or she, or it) is held more accountable for failures in a team than the goons holding the lumps of willow themselves.
So with that established, how is it logical that that person is allowed to not be of the nationality of the team? If it's so critical then that surely means that it is significantly representative of the country in question, so how can Johnny foreigner be allowed that job?
Seems to be even more so the case with Association Football, where out national team had a Swede, then a Brit (for national pride to be restored) and then when national pride was seen to be a sack of poop, he was given the elbow and replaced with an... Italian? Or is he Spanish? Not sure. When England failed to get in that Euro tournament the other year, the manager got the boot, not the players.
Anyway, seems I'm just saying the same thing again and again so I'll stop.. but isn't it just a little weird logically??
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Andy Foreigner FTW!!!!!11
Andy Flower is, as expected, the new England Coach. Seems that Strauss didn't want a Coach role at all, more a team manager, but daren't say so to the press. Either way, good luck to him. Please.
7 comments:
- Unknown said...
The question is which English coach could turn the rabble into a winning combination? Just had Moores who was considered one of the best county coaches and he was pants. Most of the leading candidates are foreigners, just like in association football.
Will Flower be as good as Fletcher? I dont think so. They need to make some major changes to the whole setup, like Pietersen was attempting, but the board wont stand for it. So the losing will continue.
- 16 April 2009 at 15:10
- Spigot said...
Well that could be the question, but can you imagine asking similar questions...?
What do we do for our Number 3 when Sarwan retires?
Where do we go to find a keeper since Gilchrist retired?
We'll be real shafted when Murali goes...
Daft questions, no?
- 16 April 2009 at 17:18
Are you on the pop Spig?
- 16 April 2009 at 22:55
- Unknown said...
Ceci I can imagine this is the kind of earnest discussion that goes in at ECB HQ.
- 17 April 2009 at 12:36
- cricketanalysisdotcom said...
I think Flower will be a solid coach, simply because he seems to be the type that will stay under the radar and keep his mouth shut. But the best way for England to improve is to get better players.
- 17 April 2009 at 23:23
- Unknown said...
Quite right. With a captain and coach now who both know how to keep their mouth shut the future of the national team could not possibly be any brighter. The opposition will be no match for England's solid and sensible leadership.
- 18 April 2009 at 02:56
- Spigot said...
I see no reason to assume he won't be good. As long as him and the Straussinator are clear on their own roles and responsibilities outside of the job titles then here's hoping.
- 21 April 2009 at 09:15


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Winning the Battle but Losing the War? Narrative and Counter-Narratives Strategy
by Christian Leuprecht, Todd Hataley, Sophia Moskalenko and Clark McCauley
Since 9/11, intelligence and security services have become particularly concerned about radical ideologies and have looked for ways on how to counter them. One of the strategies has been to develop a counter-narrative. Some authors, including those of this article, are concerned that, in the marketplace of ideas, the West is losing market-share.[1] Communication failures with the Muslim world were cited in a report by a U.S. Department of Defence Advisory Committee as early as 2004.[2] The puzzle this article explores is why, having recognized the problem early on, the data suggest that further ground has since been lost. We posit the problem as having to shift the discourse from one focusing on a single counter-narrative to one of tailoring communications to target specific audiences. The article traces methodological and empirical shortcomings that are at the root of the problem and builds on these findings to develop a model to strategize about counter-narratives.
In the United States, the 'battle of ideas' opened on several fronts after 9/11. President Bush framed the enemy as those who "hate our freedoms – our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other".[3] Advertising executive Charlotte Beers created the "Shared Values Initiative" campaign for the U.S. State Department. Five television commercials depicted Muslims Americans living happily in the United States. Primarily aimed at women, the TV spots ran in countries with large Muslim populations. Print advertisements were produced as well. The effect was not what had been hoped for and the "Happy Muslim" ads were withdrawn under fire and Ms. Beers resigned.[4]
Perhaps the saddest aspect of this advertising failure was the failure of strategy. Crucial questions were neither posed nor answered – questions such as:
What were the values the ads were designed to change?
What are the values that currently support jihadist violence?
What audience currently accepts these values?
The link between values and behaviour has been much studied, and found to be generally weak.[5] In this article we focus not on political values, but on political narratives. We briefly identify the narrative associated with jihadist violence, examine the success of this narrative in Muslim opinion polls, estimate the importance of this narrative in radicalizing individuals and groups to acts of violence, and conclude with some suggestions about how best to counter the jihadist narrative.
What is the Jihadist Narrative?
Narratives are essentially "compelling storylines which can explain events convincingly and from which inferences can be drawn":[6] Critical theorists like Richard Jackson contend that in the case of the "war on terror", the US narrative is a deliberately constructed discourse that has had the ultimate effect of normalizing counter-terrorism policy, empower political elites, marginalize public dissent and enforce national unity. Indeed, the current American discourse on the 'war on terror' has been so successful, he claims, that it has become embedded in the institutions of law enforcement, national security, the legal system and the legislative and executive processes. [7]
In a similar vein, Michael Vlahos surmises:
"In war, narrative is much more than just a story. 'Narrative' may sound like a fancy literary word, but it is actually the foundation of all strategy, upon which all else – policy, rhetoric and action – is built. War narratives need to be identified and critically examined on their own terms, for they can illuminate the inner nature of the war itself. War narrative does three essential things. First, it is the organizing framework for policy. Policy cannot exist without an interlocking foundation of 'truths' that people easily accept because they appear to be self-evident and undeniable. Second, this 'story' works as a framework precisely because it represents just such an existential vision. The 'truths' that it asserts are culturally impossible to disassemble or even criticize. Third, having presented a war logic that is beyond dispute, the narrative then serves practically as the anointed rhetorical handbook for how the war is to be argued and described." [8]
Insightful as this statement is, Vlahos commits a pivotal error: it is culturally possible to disassemble or criticize truths. Otherwise, constructing counter-narratives would be a futile exercise. The issue is not whether they can be disassembled or criticized but, rather, how it is being done, the response which the current approach to a counter-narrative is eliciting, and what follows from the analysis for the purpose of counter-narrative strategy.
The greater the traction of the jihadist narrative, the more democracies will have to rely on government intervention in the form of security and intelligence activities that are bound to curtail the freedom of all. To safeguard the freedom of their societies and citizens, the democratic narrative of freedom, equality, and justice must succeed at the same time that the jihadist narrative fails. Anti- and counter-democratic narratives threaten the values and way of life that democracies prize.
What exactly is the narrative that we are looking to counter? The many propositions about radicalization notwithstanding, the eschatologicalnarrative remains the same: "The West is engaged in a millennial battle against Islam and Muslims must defend themselves – Islam is under attack and Muslims have an obligation to rise to its defence."[9] David Betts offers a more meticulous deconstruction of the narrative:
(1) Islam is under general unjust attack by Western crusaders led by the United States;
(2) Jihadis, whom the West refers to as "terrorists," are defending against this attack;
(3) the actions they take in defence of Islam are proportionally just and religiously sanctified; and, therefore
(4) it is the duty of good Muslims to support these actions.[10]
This narrative advocates a "global Jihad" and its potency "is rooted in the fundamental precept that superior political will, when properly employed, can defeat greater economic and military power."[11] The narrative is strategic insofar as (i) it does not arise spontaneously but is deliberately constructed or reinforced out of the ideas and thoughts that are already current, thereby expressing a sense of identity and belonging and communicating a sense of cause, purpose and mission; and (ii) it depends on selective appeal to evidence or experience, and may rely on appeals to emotion, or on suspect metaphors and dubious historical analogies.[12]
Which Parts of the Jihadist Narrative Do Most Muslims Accept?
After 9/11 there was, in the Arab and Muslim world, a considerable amount of not only understanding but even sympathy for al-Qaeda's attacks against the United States. As Michael Howard observed: "The sympathy is not so much for their objectives as for the struggle itself, the jihad, and for the resentment that it motivates."[13] In other words, Muslims may sympathize with the view that Islam is under unjust attack by Westerners (1), and sympathize with the terrorists' desire to defend against this attack (2), but still not agree with the third and fourth parts of the narrative. That is, they may not believe that terrorist actions are just and religiously sanctified (3), and may not believe that it is the duty of Muslims to support terrorist actions (4).
How do the parts of the narrative 'sell' to Muslims? There is ample survey evidence to show that many Muslims in the U.S. and the U.K. as well as in Muslim countries, see the Global War on Terror as a war on Islam.[14] When asked "In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, do you feel the U.S. is fighting a war on terrorism or a war against Islam?", the percentage of American Muslims who affirmed "Islam" has kept on rising steadily from 18% in 2001, 31% in 2002, 38% in 2004, to 55% in 2007. Comparable results come also from the United Kingdom.[15] In a 2009 START poll of Muslim countries, the proportion of respondents who thought that the US has goals that are hostile to Islam ranged from 62% in Indonesia to 87% in Egypt.[16] Such findings confirm that the West is losing the narrative in the misnamed "War on Terror". Even more critically, however, some opinion polls indicate that, the current strategy to develop a Western counter-narrative has not just failed but may actually be counter-productive.
Consistent with widespread Muslim perceptions that the war on terrorism is a war on Islam are Muslim opinions about the presence of U.S. troops in Muslim countries. A 2009 START poll asked "Overall, do you think the US having naval forces based in the Persian Gulf is a good idea or a bad idea," those who answered "bad idea" ranged from 76% in Jordan to 91% in Egypt. A similar consensus emerges when respondents are asked whether they endorse the goal of al Qaeda to "push the US to remove its bases and its military forces from all Islamic countries: 87% of Egyptians, 64% of Indonesians, and 60% Pakistanis concur with this goal.[17] If these are the popular attitudes among America's apparent "allies" in the "Global War on Terror," then the findings confirm that the current counter-narrative enjoys little legitimacy across the Muslims world.
In short, polling results show that the perception of a "war on Islam" is well entrenched among substantive sections of Muslim populations in both the West and other parts of the world. Yet, those who see Islam under attack do not necessarily endorse terrorism as a legitimate response that warrants support. Indeed there is considerable evidence from public opinion surveys that most Muslims do not agree with terrorist tactics. For instance, in the aftermath of 9/11, two-thirds of respondents in Muslims countries rejected the attack on civilians in the World Trade Center as forbidden by the Qu'ran.[18] Large proportions of the population of predominantly Muslim countries do not agree with attacking civilians. In the START survey "Bombings and assassinations that are carried out to achieve political or religious goals", large majorities ranging from 67 to 89 percent are rejecting these as 'not justified at all'. These results are consistent with earlier polls conducted by Zogby, Pew, and ICM among US and UK Muslims.[19]
Similarly, in a July 2005 ICM telephone poll of UK Muslims, only 5 percent of respondents, when asked "Do you think any further attacks by British suicide bombers in the UK are justified or unjustified?" answered with "justified." However, that proportion might be an under-estimate. Given the proportion of respondents (14 percent) who answered to this question, with "do not know/refuse to answer," we can infer that at least some of them were inclined to answer "justified" but opted not to identify themselves as such in a public poll. Assuming that there are about one million adult Muslims in the UK, 5 percent works out to 50,000 Muslims.
Of course, not all those justifiers would commit violence. In the next section we try to give some indications of how few Muslims in Europe are actually participating in jihad.
Who are the Jihadists in Europe and North America?
Security forces everywhere are looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. From a recent investigation into the Istanbul bombings,[20] we know that there was a circle of about 400 people who were aware of what was going to happen but did nothing to stop it.[21] In such a case, inaction is a form of action, a crime of omission or permissive violence. Since the Istanbul bombings involved multiple bombers, we can estimate that, for each bomber, there were perhaps 200 passive supporters of a terrorist action who do not commit the actual violence themselves.
Similarly, in the UK upwards of 200 Muslims have been implicated in terrorist action and more than one thousand are currently under observation. As already noted, approximately 50,000 adult Muslims in the U.K. are willing to justify jihadist violence in the UK. The challenge for security is to profile and find the 1 in 50 militant who is ready to act out his extreme beliefs.
The numbers matter. They are to some extent corroborated by EUROPOL's 2009 Terrorism Situation and Trend Report from which the Tables 1 and 2 (below) are drawn.[22]
Table 2 seems to suggest that authorities are doing a formidable job at finding and convicting alleged Islamist terrorists. After all, half of all verdicts concern Islamist terrorists.[23] Only 34 percent of proceedings related to Islamist terrorism ended with acquittals. That is not to say that those acquitted were necessarily innocent; the burden of proof in terrorism trials can be considerable and many suspects are tried for crimes they allegedly intended to commit rather than crimes committed, an anomaly in the criminal justice system which is generally used to trying people who have already committed crimes. Security services and courts are concentrating on Islamist threats, and with considerable success.
The overall picture that emerges is one of a small percentage yet a sizeable number of Muslims in Western countries who approve of jihadist violence, with only a tiny fraction of those who approve actually involved in violent acts. The disjunction between opinion and action implies that an effective counter-narrative must reach radical terrorist perpetrators, justifying supporters and sympathizers - as depicted in Graph 1.
Higher levels of the pyramid represent more extreme opinions, with violent radicals at the apex. In the aforementioned 2004 Guardian/ICM poll of UK Muslims, 7 out of 10 respondents equated the "Global War on Terror" with a "War on Islam" (while 3 out of 10 were neutral on that point); about 5% justified suicide terrorism, and perhaps one tenth of one percent (1.000/1.000000) know something about or are involved in jihadist activity in the U.K.
The characterization "Activists" in the pyramid model might be accompanied by a question mark on the left side of the pyramid, opposite the right-side levels that range from Neutral to Radical. The question mark and separate location would represent an important uncertainty about political activism, which we understand as legal and non-violent political protest or political action. It is beyond the scope of the present article to explore whether or how often activism leads to radicalization, that is, how often legal and non-violent political action leads on to illegal and violent political action. We expect that the answer will differ for different groups, different decades, and different cultures.
Note also that the pyramid does not imply a stage theory, which would require that every trajectory to terrorism must start at the base of the pyramid and rise through each intervening level in order to reach terrorism at the apex.[24] Note that, in the pyramid model, the volcanic "magma pipe" of radicals/terrorists reaches down even into the neutral population. This representation recognizes that even apolitical individuals at the base of the pyramid can sometimes shift more or less rapidly to political violence and terrorism.
Indeed analyses have suggested that the pathways to terrorism are varied and complex.[25] Recent work suggests that there are plural pathways with no profile trajectory.[26] The next section discusses some of the sources of these pathways.
Mechanisms of Radicalization and the Importance of the Narrative
Insofar as jihadi radicalization is concerned, four types of popular explanations can be found:
1. Socio-economic marginalization: This is the prevailing neo-Marxist explanation that assumes economic factors underlying all conflicts everywhere at all times. People are frustrated because they are poor or otherwise victimized by the economic and social system.
2. Social-identity marginalization: This explanation holds that people have trouble integrating culturally into the mainstream of society or encounter difficulties in having their own identify recognized and validated by the mainstream.
3. Religious fanaticism: This explanation is favoured by those who see Wahhabism and Salafism as the crux of the problem. In this account, extremist religion is the 'center of gravity.'
4. Political grievance: From this perspective, the major source of the problem are people who are unhappy with certain political decisions or policies which they seek to change.
It is worth noting that the four explanations are all sub-species of grievance; each specifies something wrong with the world that needs to be changed. From a comparative perspective, the important fact to note is that the vast majority of people that might fall into any of those four categories are not violent, indeed do not advocate, support, or even sympathize with violence. For this reason and for our purposes, then, all four are of limited utility.
A more differentiated system of explanation has recently been offered by McCauley and Moskalenko (2008). They distinguish among individual, group, and mass-public mechanisms of radicalization. Their focus is specifically on radicalization that leads to the extreme of political violence.
1. Personal grievance. Harm to self or loved ones produces anger toward the perpetrators.This explanation includes individual experience of socio-economic or identity frustration, but includes also any perceived personal injustice at the hands of the powers that be. Chechen Black Widows are one example.
2. Group grievance. Again, anger is predicted in response to harm, but the harm is to a group too large to be known personally.The individual identifies with a group perceived as suffering victimization or injustice. When radicalization by group grievance occurs without any personal grievance or involvement in a radical group, the result may be described as "sudden jihad syndrome" and includes such examples as Mohammed Rea Taheri-azar, and Momin Khawaja. "Lone wolf" terrorism is often said to be associated with Internet exposure to radical narratives.[27]
3. Self-persuasion in action – the slippery slope. This is based on a psychology of self-justification in which each act of increasing extremity produces desensitization and rationalization which, in turn, encourage more extreme acts. As in Stanley Milgram's experiment requiring subjects to give increasing shock levels to "another subject," the crucial element is that the trajectory toward extreme behaviour is divided into very small steps.
4. Joining a radical group – the power of love. Individuals can be radicalized through their attachment to friends and family.[28] Their request "join me" can be a good enough reason to join a radical group. The attachment may be long-term and pre-existing or it may be deliberately cultivated. Note that even previously apolitical individuals can be pulled into radical groups by the power of love.
5. Fear – escape to group security. Sometimes an individual is safer in a violent group than alone on the streets of a failed state. An example is the formation of sectarian groups in Iraq.
6. Thrill, Status, Money. These are instrumentalist explanations that play on individual preferences, usually those of young males. Examples include setting Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq or Afghanistan but the same kind of motivation is often present in members of street gangs.
In addition to these six mechanisms of individual radicalization, three mechanisms of group dynamics can be identified.
7. Group polarization. Research by social psychologists indicates that groups made up of like-minded individuals are likely to become more extreme in their shared preferences. Group dynamics lend more weight to arguments and to individuals leaning in the group-favoured direction.
8. Extreme cohesion under isolation and threat. These circumstances often affect underground groups, cults, and combat squadrons; the high cohesion multiplies every kind of group dynamics, including inter-group polarization.
9. Inter-group and intra-group competition. Three kinds of competition are relevant. A non-state group may compete against state power, against another non-state group (often in the form of "outbidding" the other group), or may experience competition among factions of their own group (such as the split within the IRA and the formation of two IRA splinter groups).
Finally, three mechanisms are identified that can move mass publics to support political violence.
10. External threat. Perception of common threat reliably leads to increased group identification, magnified ethnic entrepreneurship and the power of leaders, sanctions against in-group deviants, and the idealization of in-group values. These changes prepare a group to confront the threat, including preparation for the use of violence.
11. Hate. As political homogeneity of the in-group increases, there is a strong tendency to adopt a view of the threatening group as likewise a homogenous group. The enemy is likely to be de-individualized and essentialized in ways that make it easier to kill by category.
12. Martyrdom. A martyr is the ultimate witness because the sunk costs are all-encompassing. The classic example of mobilization by way of martyrs is the story of the 1981 hunger strike from which ten IRA prisoners perished as recounted in Ten Men Dead.[29]
The existence of multiple mechanisms at multiple levels has two important implications rfor understanding how political radicalization occurs. First, there cannot be any one profile of radicalization, no one single pathway to terrorism. Rather there are many pathways, potentially as many as the possible combinations of the twelve mechanisms identified. Similarly, in a recent article, Andrew Silke reviews the literature on radicalization and lists what he views as the most important emerging variables: age and gender, education, career and marital status, social identity, marginalization, discrimination, catalyst events/perceived injustice, status and personal reward, and opportunity and recruitment. One important caveat that Silke highlights is that radicalization is the result of the compound effect of a number of these variables. He notes that "these factors will vary depending on the culture, the social context, the terrorist group and the individual involved."[30]
The second important implication of multiple mechanisms of radicalization is that there is no single mechanism that, if controlled or eliminated, will control or eliminate radicalization. This is of key importance for thinking about narratives.
As already noted, the jihadist narrative can be broken down into several parts. We have shown that some of these parts are accepted by most Muslims (War on terror as a War on Islam) and some parts are rejected by most Muslims (attacking civilians). Yet even the accepted part, that there is supposedly a war on Islam going on, represents only a single mechanism of radicalization – group grievance. A completely effective attack on this grievance would yet leave eleven other mechanisms of radicalization in play. We conclude tentatively that even eliminating the perception of a War on Islam may not have, at least in the short term, a large effect on the rate of radicalization.
Another kind of limitation is that group grievance appears seldom to produce political violence without a group or organization to frame and focus the grievance into violent action. As noted already, a special case of group grievance is lone-wolf terrorism, in which an individual is moved to violence by perceiving harm to a group the individual identifies with. But lone-wolf terrorism is rare, at least relative to group-organized terrorism. Again tentatively, we conclude that group grievance alone is not a powerful source of radicalization. Indeed we suspect that perception of group grievance may often be the result of radicalization via other mechanisms rather than an independent cause of radicalization. That is, a radical group framing of group grievance may often be adopted or learned by members of a radical group who themselves joined for other reasons – including personal grievance, fear, or merely thrill-seeking.
With these limitations in mind, we turn to some practical questions about developing counter-narratives to the jihadist narrative.
Tailoring Counter-Narratives
Given that we must distinguish among sympathizers, supporters, and activists as well as legal, illegal, and violent forms of political action, there is no single counter-narrative that can neutralize the jihadist narrative. The core narrative has to be analyzed in its parts - which are accepted by different audiences to different extents. To attack the jihadist narrative therefore implies preparing different narratives for these different audiences. At a minimum, four counter-narratives are required.
1.One narrative must counter the perception that the West is engaged in a War on Islam. This perception is accepted by a very broad cross-section of Muslims, perhaps still more than half of Muslims worldwide even after the inauguration of President Obama. So long as Western troops are deployed in Muslim countries, particularly Iraq and Afghanistan, a counter-narrative for the War on Islam will likely remain difficult to formulate.
2.A second narrative must counter the perception that Muslim terrorists are defending Islam. While the aforementioned polls in Muslim countries suggest a reservoir of personal admiration for Osama bin Laden, most respondents do not endorse terrorism as a legitimate means.
3.A third narrative must counter the perception that the actions of Muslim terrorists, especially attacks on Western civilians and collateral damage to Muslim civilians, are legitimate acts of war. Polls indicate that only a small percentage of Muslims believe this, although amounting to large numbers of potential extremists in absolute terms. Research will be needed to identify the characteristics of this small but very important minority.
4. Finally, a fourth narrative must counter the perception that good Muslims have a duty to support the terrorists. As far as we are aware, there are no polls that have assessed how many or what kind of Muslims agree with this view. We expect that the percentage is very small but one representing a very high level of radicalization. Targeting this tiny minority with any kind of mass media intervention may be difficult indeed.
Without detracting from Olson's claim that (1) "we have not adapted our war-fighting structures to the new information-dominated operational environment"[31] and from the claim that (2) "we do not focus enough effort on winning and maintaining the hearts and minds of the most critical and accessible population: our own," and that (3) "we struggle to be persuasive in the virtual dimension because the message that we wish to convey lacks narrative coherence," it is not a matter, as David Betts has eloquently argued, of developing a coherent and strategic narrative.[32] Nor is it a matter, as posited by Frank Douglas, of making the idea of violent jihad widely unpopular.[33] It is already widely unpopular, even among its supposed target audience! Rather, it is a matter of developing multiple counter-narratives that are tailored to specific audiences. This finding echoes General Sir Rupert Smith's observation that "we are living in a world of confrontations and conflict rather than one of war and peace."[34]
This article has been motivated by a concern that the West is targeting the wrong people and for the wrong reasons. Radical ideas are not the problem per se. After all, many of democracies' greatest advances have been the result of "radicals" propagating "radical ideas." Democratic governments are not (or, at least, ought not be) in the business of policing what people think or believe. Thoughts and beliefs are (or ought to be) of concern only insofar as they are linked to behaviour that is illegal. Even then, however, it is important to distinguish between non-violent and violent illegal conduct. Only the latter is (or ought to be) of genuine concern to security and intelligence forces. Therefore, the counter-narrative task is a narrow one: to counter those narratives with the clearest link to violence.
About the Authors: Christian Leuprecht is Visiting Bicentennial Associate Professor at Yale University and Associate Professor Political Science and Public Policy at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen's University; Todd Hataley is Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen' University; Sophia Moskalenko, a social psychologist, holds a postdoctoral Fellowship from the Department of Homeland Security; Clark McCauley is Rachel C. Hale Professor of Mathematics and the Sciences at Bryn Mawr College and Editor of the journal Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict.
[1]This sentiment is shared by, inter alia, Walid Phares. Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against the West. New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, and his more recent book The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009; J. Michael Waller. Fighting the War of Ideas like a Real War. Washington, D.C., The Institute of World Politics Press, 2007; David Kilcullen. "Countering Global Insurgency," Journal of Strategic Studies Vol. 28, No. 4, 2005, pp. 597-617; Michael Vlahos. "Losing Mythic Authority," The National Interest May/June, 2007.
[2]Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition. Technology and Logistics. Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication. Washington, D.C., DOD, September 2004.
[3]George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, addressing a joint session of Congress on 20 September 2001.
[4]Lawrence Pintak. Dangerous Delusions: Advertising Nonsense about Advertising America. http://www.publicdiplomacy.org/32.htm (Aug. 29, 2004)/The Daily Star (Beirut).
[5]John Sabini. Social Psychology (2nd ed.). New York: Norton, 1995.
[6]Lawrence Freedman. The Transformation of Strategic Affairs, Adelphi Paper No. 379. London: International Institute for Strategic Studies. March 2006. p.22.
[7]Richard Jackson. Writing the War on Terror: Language, Politics and Counter-Terrorism. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005.
[8]Michael Vlahos. "The Long War: A Self-defeating Prophecy," Asia Times, 9 September 2006.
[9]For substantiation from primary Taliban sources, see, for instance, Thomas Johnson. 2007. "The Taliban Insurgency and an Analysis of Shabnamah ("Night Letters")," Small Wars and Insurgencies Vol. 18, No. 3, 2007, pp. 321-322.
[10]David Betz. 2008. "The virtual dimension of contemporary insurgency and counterinsurgency," Small Wars and Insurgencies, Vol. 19, No. 4, 2008, p. 520.
[11]Thomas X. Hammes. 2005. "War evolves into the fourth generation," Contemporary Security Studies Vol. 26, No. 2, 2005, pp.189-221.
[12]L. Freedman, op. cit., pp. 22-23.
[13]Michael Howard. "A Long War?" Survival Vol.48, No.4, 2006, p. 11.
[14]See, for instance, Zogby International polling from Nov/Dec. 2001 (American Muslim Poll in conjunction with Georgetown University's Project on Muslims in the American Public Square at: http://www.projectmaps.com/PMReport.htm , May 2002. (The Hamilton College Muslim America Poll at http://www.hamilton.edu/news/MuslimAmerica/MuslimAmerica.pdf , June 2004 (in collaboration with Project MAPS at http://www.projectmaps.com/AMP2004report.pdf , and Pew Research Center polling from 2007 (Muslims Americans: Mostly Middle Class, Mostly Mainstream).
[15]Guardian/ICM telephone poll of UK Muslims in 2004.
[16]February 2009 poll by the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland in conjunction with world public opinion.org at http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/feb09/STARTII_Feb09_rpt.pdf
[20]Edmund F. McGarrell, Joshua D. Freilich, and Steven Chermak. "Intelligence led policing as a framework for responding to terrorism," Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Vol. 23, No.2, 2007, pp. 142-158.
[21]See: ibid.
[22]EUROPOL. TE – SAT Terrorism Situation and Trend Report. The Hague, EUROPOL, 2009.
[23]The number of suspects tried does not correspond to the number of verdicts because suspects are often tried for multiple offences and in separate court proceedings, especially in Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK.
[24]See, for example, Shahid Bux.. "Muslim Youths, Islam and Violent Radialization: Addressing Some Myths" The Police Journal 80, 2007, pp.267-278; Thomas Hegghammer. "Terrorist Recruitment and Radicalization in Saudi Arabia" Middle East Policy. Vol. 13, No. 4, 2006, pp. 39-60; John Horgan. "From Profiles to Pathways and Roots to Routes: Perspectives from Psychology on Radicalization into Terrorism" The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 116, 2008, pp. 80-94; Aidan Kirby. The London Bombers as Self-Starters: A Case Study in Indigenous Radicalization and the Emergence of Autonomous Cliques. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 30, 2007, pp. 415-428; Evan F. Kohlmann . "Homegrown Terrorists: Theory and Cases in the War on Terror's Newest Front". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, No. 618, 2008, pp. 95-109; and Clark McCauley and Sophia Moskalenko. "Mechanisms of Political Radicalization: Pathways Toward Terrorism" Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 20, No. 3, 2008, pp. 415-433.
[25]For example: Magouirk, Atran and Sageman, 2008: pp. 1-16; B.L.Smith, K.R. Damphouse and P. Roberts. 2002. "American Terrorism Study: Patterns of Behavior, Investigation and Prosecution of American Terrorist, Final Report" Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2002; and Mark S. Hamm, Mark S. Terrorism as Crime: From Oklahoma City to Al-Qaeda and Beyond New York: New York University Press, 2007.
[26]Clark McCauley and Sophia Moskalenko. "Mechanisms of Political Radicalization: Pathways Toward Terrorism," Terrorism and Political Violence Vol. 20, No. 3, 2008, pp. 415-433.
[27]Evan Kohlmann. "Inside As-Sahaab: The Story of Ali al-Bahlul and the Evolution of Al-Qaida's Propaganda," Nefa Foundation, 2008, pp. 95-109; see also: Anne Stenersen. "The Internet: A Virtual Training Camp?" Terrorism and Political Violence. Vol. 20, No. 2, 2008, pp. 215-233; Brynja Lia. "Al Qaeda Online: Understanding Jihadist Internet Infrastructure," Jane's Intelligence Review Vol. 18, No. 1, 2006.
[28]Marc Sageman. Understanding Terror Networks. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
[29]David Beresford. Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. Grove/Atlantic, 1997.
[30]Andrew Silke. "Holy Warriors: Exploring the Psychological Process of Jihadi Radicalization" European Journal of Criminology, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2008, pp. 99-123.
[31]See also William J. Olson. "War Without a Centre of Gravity: Reflections on Terrorism and Post-Modern War," Small Wars and Insurgencies, Vol. 18, No. 4, 2007, pp. 559-583.
[32]Betts, op. cit.
[33]Frank "Scott" Douglas. "Waging the inchoate war: Defining, fighting, and second-guessing the 'Long War'," Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2007, pp. 391-420.
[34]Rupert Smith. The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World. London: Allen Lane, 2005, pp. 16-18, 371-372.


text: Catalyst V2 Out Now! - The Art of Progression News Posted On maandag 01 oktober 2018 16:45 View in browser OUT NOW! - The Catalyst V2 takes you to the next level - Based off the original V1 design, the V2 has been meticulously reshaped and refined to enhance performance and accessibility for entry level to intermediate riders. FUN & EASY TO FLY // "SHEET IN AND GO" The first thing you will notice is the V2 is very stable and predictable to launch, land and fly. ENJOYABLE PROGRESSION // FROM NOVICE TO INTERMEDIATE A huge smile factor comes standard from riding the Catalyst V2 - it will make your progression in the sport fast, safe and enjoyable. CONFIDENCE INSPIRING // PREDICTABLE POWER & LIFT Making your first jumps a breeze with easy loft, good hang time and smooth landings. QUICK RE-LAUNCH // SIMPLE AND INTUITIVE By turning the bar or using the re-launch balls, the kite will easily roll over into the re-launch position ready to take off. For riders looking for a fun, confidence inspiring kite with ease of use at it's heart. FIND OUT MORE tweet Vorige Volgende


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DELAUNAY - Printed Sun Girls Dress - Multicolour
A new style for us this season is this sweet A-line sun dress with a little frill cap shoulder. Printed with multicolour 'mark making' design in bright rainbow colours, this dress is perfect for little ones twirling in the sunshine. The press stud opening at the back makes dressing simple.
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Sunshine Print/ Multicolour/Somewhere
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Terminal Ethnicity
Being diagnosed with terminal
ethnicity prevents many students
from completing their assignments
on time since
they are serving
time customers their country
and everyone thinks they can see everything
they need to know from their
record clothes skin name
instead of how they are tested
in class outside of class
at work at home
with friends with family.
Everyone assesses how
threatening talented intelligent
old young
these students will be before they die. I would know
seeing as alternative medicine now embraces
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of death of quarantine
in a cell
and I've been avoiding being
assimilated assassinated
by a public who would have their country
vaccinated in this genocidal way.
Deonte Osayande is a former track and field sprinter turned writer from Detroit, Mi. He writes nonfiction essays and his poems have been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology, a Pushcart Prize and published in numerous publications. He has represented Detroit at multiple National Poetry Slam competitions. He's currently a professor of English at Wayne County Community College, and teaching youth through the Inside Out Detroit Literary Arts Program.


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Dr. Peter Klatsky graduated with honors from The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, completed his residency training at UCSF, and his Infertility fellowship at Brown University. He received an MPH from Columbia University and was selected by his peers as a Rising Star among New York Physicians while on the faculty at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Klatsky is board certified in both Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility.
Dr. Klatsky's scientific accomplishments include clinical research on infertility treatments, as well as molecular genetic analysis of oocytes (eggs) using polar body biopsy. In addition to his scientific and academic achievements, he is passionate about improving access to quality healthcare, human rights and justice. He designed and founded Mama Rescue, a cloud-based, automated mobile phone platform to improve access to care and prevent maternal and neonatal deaths in Uganda.


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Phone Services
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The hourly cost for all requests is $59.65 per hour. Below is a list of typical service requests and their estimated costs. These costs assume that all information received about the request is accurate and does not include any unforeseen issues with the request.
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Plans to Initiate First-in-Human testing in First Quarter of 2018
N8 Medical Announces Compelling Publication Supporting Its Breakthrough CeraShield™ Endotracheal Tube
CeraShield™ Coating Prevents Bacterial and Fungal Colonization, and Reduces Endotoxin
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New Research Shows CSA-131 has Potent Antifungal Activity
A recent published study by Professor Robert Bucki and colleagues has shown that CSA-131 has broad spectrum antifungal activity and retains activity in various body fluids.
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CMS Proposes New Rules to Reduce HAIs and Antibiotic Use by Hospitals
On June 16, 2016 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it is proposing to update the requirements that hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must meet to participate in Medicare and Medicaid.
CSA-131 Highly Effective against Colistin-resistant Strains
A recent published study by Professor Jordi Vila and his colleagues at the University of Barcelona, Spain has found that CSA-131 is highly effective against Colistin resistant strains of Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter.


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Another round of key primaries will be held on Tuesday and incumbents are finding their seats challenged by political newcomers as well as local and state candidates in a political season marked by an anti-Washington mood.
Eleven states are holding primary contests Tuesday.
Arkansas - Sen. Blanche Lincoln faces off against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter in a Democratic primary runoff, while in Nevada Harry Reid will finally get an opponent in the Republican race to challenge the Senate majority leader.
California - Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is potentially endangered, will learn her challenger as voters in the state also decide who will win the Democratic and Republican nominations for the seat being vacated by term-limited two-term Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger....
WASHINGTON - With the electorate's intense anger reverberating across the country, this is all but certain: It's an anti-Washington, anti-establishment year. And candidates with ties to either better beware.
Any doubt about just how toxic the political environment is for congressional incumbents and candidates hand-picked by national Republican and Democratic leaders disappeared late Tuesday, when voters fired Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania, forced Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a run-off in Arkansas and chose tea party darling Rand Paul to be the GOP nominee in Kentucky's Senate race.
"People just aren't very happy," Ira Robbins, 61, said in Allentown, Pa.
With anyone linked to power, it seems...
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing a $300 billion "fix" to the Senate health care bill, saying that her chamber could approve the Senate's package if those changes are made first.
Senior Democratic aides told Fox News that Pelosi has offered up the new package of changes to Senate Democratic leaders, with the hope that they will be able to pass it using a controversial procedural maneuver known as "reconciliation." The maneuver would allow Democrats to pass the measure with just 51 votes, without having to first overcome the normal 60-vote threshold.
Some Democrats are keen on using that process, since the election last week of Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts broke the Democrats' 60-vote supermajority. However, some Democratic moderates -- notably Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh -- have balked at using the controversial tactic to ram through health care reform measures.
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Senate Democrats are beginning to defect from the reconciliation idea Speaker Nancy Pelosi and pro-abortion party leaders are pushing to get the pro-abortion health care bill through Congress. Three Democrats have said they oppose the idea or would lean against it.
But, the question is will there be enough Democrats willing to oppose the idea, which allows railroading the health care bill through the Senate with a majority instead of 60 votes.
Senator Blanche Lincoln, a pro-abortion Arkansas Democrat, said today that she opposes the reconciliation idea.
"I am opposed to and will fight against any attempts to push through changes to the Senate health insurance reform legislation by using budget reconciliation tactics that would allow the Senate to pass a package of changes to our original bill with 51 votes," she said, according to the New York Times...
Former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Holt is looking for another chance to try to unseat Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas.
Eight Republican candidates so far have announced they are competing in the 2010 Arkansas GOP Senate primary, with the goal of knocking off unpopular two-term Senator Blanche Lincoln. Outrage among Lincoln's critics hit a fever pitch last weekend as she cast the final vote in the U.S. Senate that was needed to move forward with debate on Democrats' government-run healthcare plan...
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Christian Coalition of America offers people of faith the vehicle to be actively involved in impacting the issues they care about - from the county courthouse to the halls of Congress.... (READ MORE)
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This bright and spacious apartment boasts open-plan design and is located wonderfully in the popular region of Chelsea just minutes from Sloane Square. The apartment is furnished with wooden flooring and upon entering the property you will find a good-sized bedroom towards the left. It has a double bed and a large street-facing window flooding light into the room. The main bathroom is finished to a high standard with a large bathtub that has shower unit attached and a heated towel rail for added comfort. Towards the right of the entrance is a wonderful open-plan kitchen and living area that is the heart of this property. The kitchen is very well equipped and finished with white cupboard units and sleek grey worktop surfaces. It has a breakfast bar fitted microwave dishwasher and all the other essentials that you will need! The living area is a bright and open space with large windows and access to a balcony which offers wide street views. There are two leather sofa beds which can be put together to form a double bed (or to be used as two singles depending on your preference).This property is in an ideal location just 5 minutes walk from Sloane Square and Kings Road which is always bustling and lively with many boutiques stylish cafés and great restaurants of varied cuisine such as Steakhouse & Grill which is owned by famous chef Marco Pierre White. You are within walking distance of the three museums of South Kensington and the Royal Albert Hall as well as just 10 minutes from Harrods in Knightsbridge and bustling Brompton Road with its luxury stores. Hyde Park is 15 minutes away and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon or evening enjoying the Christmas-themed Winter Wonderland which has food and gift stalls ice-skating fair rides and much more.You are equidistant from two train stations: South Kensington and Sloane Square with connections on the Circle District and Piccadilly lines. You can reach Oxford Circus either by the Victoria line from Victoria Station which is a 15 minute walk or take the number 19 bus you can also reach Buckingham Palace and Westminster via the 211 bus. Victoria Station also has southern trains going towards Gatwick Airport.
Apartment Type
3-7 nights
8-27 nights
28 - 89 nights
90 +
|1 Bedrooms , 1 Bathrooms
14 days cancellation policy


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Morris County Trust for Historic Preservation v. Pierce
ELR Citation: 14 ELR 20076
Nos. No. 82-5656, 730 F.2d 94/(3d Cir., 12/29/1983) Attorney fees awarded
The court construes §305 of the National Historic Preservation Act to allow an award of appellate attorney fees and costs. Although §305 refers to actions brought in federal district court, the court holds that the wording of §305 does not exclude, and Congress could not have logically intended to exclude, awards of appellate fees. The court holds that a court of appeals itself may make the award, but declines to award fees in the case before it until the moving parties provide more information on the services for which they seek compensation.
Counsel for Appellants
Peter R. Steenland Jr., Martin Green
Land and Natural Resources Division
Department of Justice, Washington DC 20530
(202) 633-2748
Lorraine S. Gerson, Ass't U.S. Attorney
502 Fed. Bldg., 970 Broad St., Newark NJ 07102
(201) 645-2155
Counsel for Appellees
Mark L. First
Jamieson, McCardell, Moore, Peskin & Spicer
19 Chancery Lane, Trenton NJ 08618
(609) 396-5511


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How to File a Homeowner's Insurance Claim
Without homeowners insurance, a natural disaster or accident could result in the loss of your house and its contents, and you would not be able to recover your losses. Homeowners insurance pays the bills--up to the size of the policy--if someone injures himself on your property and sues you, or if your property suffers damage from a variety of catastrophes, including fire, hail, theft and a crashing car. Mortgage lenders require you to take out at least a minimum level of coverage to make sure that your house, which is the collateral for your loan, can be repaired if it is damaged.
Contact your insurer immediately and give it information about what you're claiming and why. If damage to your house has forced you to move out temporarily, make sure your agent knows how and where to reach you.
Document your losses: take photographs of the damage; write a list of any items that have been destroyed or damaged. If you already have a home inventory, refer to it as you go over your property and figure out exactly what's been lost.
Secure two or three estimates on repair costs that you can present to the insurance adjuster. If you have claims from reputable, licensed contractors and they're reasonably close, the adjuster may be able to approve the claim immediately.
Hire an independent adjuster, rather than leaving things to your insurer, CBS Money Watch advises. An independent adjuster won't be tempted to adjust the claims in favor of the company, and the cost of his fee may be covered by your policy.
Keep track of living expenses if you have to move out of your house. Many homeowners insurance policies cover the cost of eating out and renting an apartment if your home is unusable, but you have to have the receipts to document your costs.
Things Needed
- Photographs of your property
- Avoid making a claim unless it's at least three times the size of your deductible, advises CBS. Reducing the number of claims you make decreases the chance that your insurer will cancel your policy.
- Read your policy and make sure you understand it before you have to make a claim on it.
- Document the contents of your house well in advance of having to make a claim. You can use photographs or video, or a free online inventory (see Resources).
- Make temporary repairs to your property as soon as possible, to prevent further damage. If you keep the receipts and only make essential repairs, your insurer should reimburse you.
Photo Credits
- Dramatic lightning strike from storm clouds image by Stuart Monk from Fotolia.com


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Short stories online
The Cricket Pages
"Nothing is quite as depressing as depression." Dr Claire Weekes
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Books, travel, and other things that make life interesting
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the homepage of Michael McKean


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Toyota has been in the news of late in a manner they'd just as soon not. Unintended acceleration has joined undocumented immigrant in our lexicon as a clever obfuscation of the underlying issue. It stands to reason that the majority of people who plow into a crowded pedestrian mall under full power don't intend to do so. What remains unanswered is why it might have happened.
The AP informs us the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced unintended acceleration in Toyotas "may have been involved in 89 deaths over the past decade."
Gov't: 89 deaths tied to Toyota acceleration
By KEN THOMAS (AP) – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — Unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles may have been involved in the deaths of 89 people over the past decade, upgrading the number of deaths possibly linked to the massive recalls, the government said Tuesday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that from 2000 to mid-May, it had received more than 6,200 complaints involving sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. The reports include 89 deaths and 57 injuries over the same period. Previously, 52 deaths had been suspected of being connected to the problem.
The automaker said "many complaints in the NHTSA database, for any manufacturer, lack sufficient detail that could help identify the cause of an accident. We will continue to work in close partnership with law enforcement agencies and federal regulators with jurisdiction over accident scenes whenever requested."
In the aftermath of the recalls, Congress is considering upgrading auto safety laws to stiffen potential penalties against automakers, give the government more powers to demand a recall and push car companies to meet new safety standards.Never let a "crisis" go to waste, better step in and impose a vast new regulatory burden on automakers.
As I mentioned before, very few people are going to admit they were standing on the wrong pedal as they careened into a crowd. Heck no, they were pressing the brake as hard as they could but the car just kept accelerating! Who wouldn't willingly accept the sympathetic explanation of a factory defect rather than driver error?
Toyota has recalled ~8 million of the 20+ million cars they've sold over the past decade due to an issue with floor mats possibly interfering with the gas pedal, so the accelerator could theoretically become lodged behind a mat. They've also looked at cars with "sticky pedals." Of the 6,200 incidents of "unintended acceleration" some may have indeed been the result of a mechanical issue.
But up to now the NHTSA has assured us the vast majority of sudden acceleration cases were the result of driver error. What's changed – other than the ownership of GM and Chrylser – that has them singing a different tune now?
Try a little experiment in your own car. Find a nice stretch of open road, depress the gas pedal all the way with your right foot, then apply panic braking force to the brake pedal with your left foot. You will stop.
Perhaps the only upside to this kerfuffle will be the added expense to car buyers of an automotive "black box" installed in all new vehicles. Assuming trial lawyer lobby doesn't kill that particular regulation with a tooth and nail assault. It's a whole lot easier to villainize a multi-billion dollar auto manufacturer than poor old Widow Henderson after she misapplied what she thought was the brakes. As more and older drivers chose to buy Toyotas, these sudden acceleration claims were bound to increase.
Fatalities per vehicle mile traveled has fallen by 300% since 1971. Cars have never been safer. Perhaps federal regulations have played a part, but even the greediest CEO of a car company knows the dead make lousy repeat customers. Just how much safer can cars be made? And how many research dollars that could have gone to vehicle safety went to meeting arbitrary and ever-increasing federally mandated fuel mileage standards?
The National Academy of Sciences has linked mileage standards with about 2,000 deaths per year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that every 100-pound reduction in the weight of small cars increases annual traffic fatalities by as much as 715.
Compare that to 89 fatalities in a decade. Who's the real villain?


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I have been wanting to try this technique for quite some time now and had the chance when I wanted to make my own journaling card that really stood out on a page and this was perfect.
It's a very popular technique at the minute amongst card makers but I thought i'd try and give it a bit of an UglyBug twist.
What would you try this out with? If you have any paper craft techniques that you'd like me to go into then please do let me know in the comments and I'll try and get them recorded for this new weekly "Technique Class" which will be published every Friday. As always you can scroll down and view the full process video at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!
Product List


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As often happens in big games, story lines change in a blink.
When Dakari Monroe scored on a 74-yard run late in the third quarter Friday night, giving Archbishop Mitty a 7-0 lead, the story was looking like this:
With its starting quarterback on the bench with three screws in his broken hand, a backup quarterback who could not throw and a third-stringer wearing No. 31 with the last name Serra coming in on obvious throwing downs, Mitty somehow found a way to …
But before that sentence could even be completed, Serra (the school, not the Mitty player) finally scored.
Then intercepted a pass.
And scored again.
The Padres were on their way to their first Central Coast Section Open Division championship, spoiling a Mitty season than began with nine consecutive wins but ended with two losses to Serra in the final four games.
No doubt, this is a special Serra team. We knew that from the opening game of the season, when the Padres held a fourth-quarter lead against De La Salle before falling by a touchdown.
Matthew Fa'aita is a slippery quarterback who can gain huge chunks of yards with his legs and make big plays with his arm.
But even good ones like him need some good fortune.
Fa'aita's came moments after Mitty had taken the improbable 7-0 lead.
From about the Serra 20, Fa'aita dropped back and tried to throw toward the left sideline, the direction of the pass headed right to Monroe for what would have been a likely pick six and a 14-0 Mitty lead.
But the pass never reached Monroe.
It was deflected at the line of scrimmage.
Good play, Mitty.
But even better play for Serra.
"There was an opportunity for them to make a pick when it was 7-0," Serra coach Patrick Walsh said in a relieved tone. "Whewww! I guess tonight God is a Padre."
In the first meeting between the teams Nov. 16, Serra built a two-touchdown lead by halftime and rolled to a 31-7 win to qualify for the Open playoffs and share the West Catholic Athletic League title with Mitty.
But this game was different.
Mitty played great defense in the first half and bent in the third quarter but did not yield points until after Monroe's big scoring play.
"Mitty made some great adjustments from the first game that kind of kept us off balance in the first half," Walsh said. "Coach Steve Lo, our offensive coordinator, did an awesome job of finding the holes and making the right calls and the kids executed."
Always gracious, Walsh acknowledged Mitty's one-dimensional offense because of Trenton Scharrenberg's injury.
Scharrenberg broke his left (nonthrowing) hand in an opening-round game against Palma two weeks earlier, played last week against Valley Christian with a cast but had surgery this week because doctors told the family that he risked permanent damage if he waited any longer.
"I felt bad for that kid; he's an awesome competitor," Walsh said. "Obviously when you're playing in a championship game, there is a reason why you get there. It was a large part because of No. 8, with Scharrenberg, right?
"I feel badly for him. As opposing coaches, we never want to see that. My heart goes out to him because I could see it in his eyes, he really wanted to be out there for his team. You could see his team was rallying around him."
Brett Foley, Mitty's backup quarterback, was limited, too, after suffering an injury earlier in the season. But he received nothing but praise for his effort by his coach, Matt Haniger.
"He's limited, but he had a hell of a game, considering his capabilities right now coming off of surgery six or seven weeks ago," Haniger said.
As for Scharrenberg, Haniger said watching him miss the championship game was "one of the toughest things that I have had to deal with as a coach, just because he's such an incredible kid. His college entrance essay was about suffering through an (earlier) injury and being able to come back and participate and overcome some obstacles that he had faced his senior year.
"Then he had another setback."
Forced to travel to Salinas on a Friday night for its CCS Division I championship game against San Benito, Milpitas made the drive home a special experience.
The Trojans' Squally Canada, who is being recruited by Washington State, among others, rushed for four touchdowns and 220 yards in a 37-23 win over San Benito, the team that beat Milpitas for the D-I title last season.
The victory capped a great season for the Trojans, one that included just two losses and a share of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division championship.
Milpitas trailed by two points at halftime but stormed back in the third quarter with 16 unanswered.
"We did it," Canada said on his Twitter account.
Despite its 4-9 record, St. Ignatius is a good team. The Wildcats were competitive in the tough WCAL, holding a halftime lead against Mitty and nearly beating Serra, but the 2012 Open Division champions fell short in their quest to win a third consecutive section title.
Aptos held on in the waning seconds, thwarting a last-ditch drive by S.I with an interception by Dalton Weitzel that preserved a wild 41-35 victory at Westmont High.
"I'm just thankful that I caught it. It was a pretty close call," Weitzel said. "But I knew it was over as soon as I caught it."
"This feels amazing, better than anything in life actually," said junior Louie Demicell, who finished with 60 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.
With its win, Serra advances to a Northern California regional next weekend. Its likely opponent, Del Oro, trailed 19-0 against Elk Grove after three quarters on a rainy and windy night in Sacramento.
But Del Oro made a wild comeback in the final eight minutes to win the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II title 20-19 and a probable berth into next weekend's Division I NorCal game.
Pairings will be announced Sunday.
What did the win Friday mean for the Serra football program? A lot, our Glenn Reeves reports here.


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Natural Chemistry Chemicals
Natural Chemistry's purpose is to enhance the lives of everyone they touch. They are constantly developing thoughtful, sensible solutions that focus both on the environment and the best interests of commerce and the consumer.
Through creative innovation and an energetic response to any challenge, they will continue to forge new pathways to provide only the best in product choices for the marketplace. Natural Chemistry will always maintain their culture of family based values as the dominant guiding force in the relationships they continue to develop on their journey. Through this approach they strive to enrich the moments in life that mean the most to all and create a meaningful legacy.
Pool Perfect + Phos Free
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- Weekly dosage of Pool Perfect+PHOSfree will improve water quality and reduce maintenance
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- Comes in a 33.9oz bottle
- Specifically formulated for cold water application
- Speeds clean up, readies the pool for trouble free maintenance
- All benefits of Pool Magic and PHOSfree combined
- Can be used under pool winter covers, ideal product for mesh covered pools
- End of season application reduces off season scum line and staining of pool surface by organic contamination
Pool Magic Spring and Fall
- Comes in a 33.9oz bottle
- Reduces or eliminates off season waterline build-up
- Minimizes or eliminates scrubbing
- Preserves liner and pool finishes
- Reduces the need for acid washing of in-ground pools
Pool First Aid
- Comes in a 67.6oz bottle
- Cleans up dead algae, pollen and other forms of organic contamination
- Combines a concentrated enzyme with an organic polymer clarifier
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- When a pool requires an emergency clean up, no product works better!
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- Less expensive alternative to ascorbic acid
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- Comes in a 32oz bottle
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- Most technologically advanced pool water clarifier
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Clean and Perfect
- Comes in a 22oz bottle
- Use on all hard surfaces such as vinyl, pool covers, spas, spa covers, decks, garbage containers, skimmers, outdoor furniture, barbeques, tile flooring - the uses are endless!
- Removes grease, grime, soot, residue from mildew, waterline rings, leaf stains, pet stains, and dead insects
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- Clean & Perfect is environmentally better and biodegradable. It contains no petroleum surfactants
Hassle Free Start-Up/Closing Kit
- Comes in a box with a 33.9oz bottle of Pool Magic + Phos Free and Metal Free
- Reduces phosphates
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- Works in all pools
- Absolutely amazing water quality
- Pool water takes on a beautiful blue color
- Water becomes unbelievably clear and sparkling
- Noticeably much softer feeling water to the touch


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This week I wrote a real live article. Like, for a real live y'know, professional thingy. And I get like, paid. How weird is that?
You know what happened? I procrastinated and procrastinated and procrastinated. And then I put it off. I couldn't seem to find a hook, a phrase to get me started. I couldn't find my voice, and if there is one thing I do…it is write with voice. But this marked a new avenue for me. This was real. Not that blogging isn't. Blogging is very real and I owe it so much! I take blogging seriously,and I work hard on every guest post or assignment. But this was, dare I say it, a JOB.
My insecurities were running at a crazy warp speed. I can't write. I'll never be anything. Why didn't I learn a real skill? Why didn't I get a degree? Why can't I lose the last ten pounds of baby weight? I just worried and worried and worried myself into a hurricane of panic.
A casual conversation with a friend brought out an anecdote that just opened the flood gates for my article. The words flowed far past the allotted amount. I felt sick to my stomach as I sent it off. And held my breath till I had a response. It was good. The response was good!
I couldn't stop smiling all night. I kept reliving the words leaping off the email telling me I had done well. And I physically stood a little taller. Confidence. I felt it and it felt good. It's been so long since I was confident, really confident and oh my god it was like a welcoming back good friend. A friend that I'm hoping stays a while.


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Through Random String, our arts and technology development programme, Ludic Rooms aims to give inspirational experiences to all kinds of audiences. We think the Random String Symposium is a vital opportunity for early career practitioners to see work, meet artists and commissioners and see technology in action. The Symposium is followed by a talk and performance by Klaus Obermaier – a leading international innovator in live performance with technology.
Ludic Rooms has aimed to keep prices low and this package of talks, workshops and performance is priced at a very reasonable £45 including a light lunch.
In addition, we are also offering 10 Random String Bursaries for emerging artists in any discipline to attend the Symposium and Klaus Obermaier performance.
By 'emerging' we mean artists that are 18+ and are either in full time/part time education or in the first 3 years of their careers.
To apply for the Bursaries, please send your CV, together, plus a statement (200 words max) as to why you're interested in attending the Random String Symposium to firstname.lastname@example.com. We will only use your contact information for contacting you about your application and will not store it after this process.
The deadline for applications is 5pm 12th November.


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Erbil (IraqiNews.com) The German airlines Fly Germania has announced resuming flights to each of Erbil and Sulaimaniyah international airports in Kurdistan, starting April 5th.
According to the company's website, Fly Germania will operate its direct flights between Europe and Kurdistan starting April 5th.
A senior source from the Egyptian airlines had said EgyptAir will resume flights to and from Erbil airport by mid-April, adding that three flights will be operated weekly as a first phase.
This came after the Lebanese Middle East Airlines announced on March 20 that flights will be resumed on April 3rd with four flights weekly. Jordan, also, said flights will resume in April.
A Turkish flight arrived landed on Monday at Erbil airport announcing flight resumption after the ban was removed.
On March 13, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announcing removing ban on flights that has imposed on Kurdistan Region since the September poll in which the autonomous region voted for independence from the central government, a step which was deemed as illegal by Baghdad.
Since Baghdad ordered an international flights embargo, six months ago, it urged Kurdish authorities to hand over management of the two airports to the federal government.
Abadi previously approved to partially lift the embargo to facilitate the movement of Muslim pilgrims from and to the region.


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Gym Rings
THE ULTIMATE BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT - Bodyweight training in the form of ring training develops upper body muscles, strengthens your core, and also improves mobility and flexibility. Bodyweight training is not only more effective than gym machines that only focus on limited muscle groups, it's also more convenient. Just hang the rings on a suitably strong support and get an incredible workout from the comfort of your own home!
SET A NEW PERSONAL RECORD - Work out rings are more than an exercise accessory. Do Crossfit ring dips, pull-ups, muscle-ups, levers, iron crosses, and enjoy a bodyweight strength training that pushes you to engage multiple muscle groups at once.
COMFORTABLE NONSLIP GRIPS - The gymnastics rings have textured grips which are designed to eliminate slippage due to sweaty hands. Made with heavy-duty APS plastic, the rings can hold up to 1,000 lbs.
EASY TO INSTALL & SETUP - Wrap the straps around a secure bar, run the strap's end through the ring and insert it into the locking buckle. Extra long 17-foot straps allow you to adjust the rings to the perfect length depending on your height and the workout you're planning to do.
100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEED - At URBNFit We care about our customers reaching and surpassing their fitness goals. If you have any issues with your gymnastic rings, get in touch with us and we'll be happy to make it right.


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I couldn't be more excited if I tried. It's one of the few shows I watch religiously when it's airing. It's not DVR'ed or downloaded. Nope. Watch it every Sunday night live on HBO.
To get ready, Devon and I have re-watched all the prior seasons (yes, all four). We started in December, re-watching an episode or two a week to get ready for tonight. Tonight, we have the last two episodes of season four to watch before the premiere.
We're also going to be feasting, semi Game of Thrones style before the show. I'm making The Hound's favorite food of chicken. Except I'm not going to just throw a whole chicken on something and make it black. I'll make it slightly less medieval with some potatoes and onions and lemons and only using the thighs and legs.
I'm excited, but a little nervous though. I keep seeing things that say that they're really deviating from the book a lot this season. I'm not sure how that is going to go. I haven't fully agreed with a lot of their prior deviations, so I'm nervous. I love the books, so I'm hoping they keep the integrity of the books and not give into the need for shock value for TV.
Who else is excited for the return tonight?!?!