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Western central bankers are convinced reflation and economic growth are finally underway as a result of their $14tn stimulus programmes. But the best leading indicator for the global economy – capacity utilisation (CU%) in the global chemical industry – is saying they are wrong. The CU% has an 88% correlation with actual GDP growth, far better than any IMF or central bank forecast.
The chart shows June data from the American Chemistry Council, and confirms the CU% remains stuck at the 80% level, well below the 91% average between 1987 – 2008, and below the 82% average since then. This is particularly concerning as H1 is seasonally the strongest part of the year – July/August are typically weak due to the holiday season, and then December is slow as firms de-stock before Christmas.
The interesting issue is why these historically low CU% have effectively been ignored by companies and investors. They are still pouring money into new capacity for which there is effectively no market – one example being the 4.5 million tonnes of new N American polyethylene capacity due online this year, as I discussed in March.
The reason is likely shown in the above chart of force majeures (FMs) – incidents when plants go suddenly offline, creating temporary shortages. These are at record levels, with H1 2017 seeing 4x the number of FMs in H1 2009.
In the past, most companies prided themselves on their operating record, having absorbed the message of the Quality movement that “there is no such thing as an accident”. Companies such as DuPont and ICI led the way in the 1980s with the introduction of Total Quality Management. They consciously put safety ahead of short-term profit and at the top of management agendas. As the Chartered Quality Institute notes:
“Total quality management is a management approach centred on quality, based on the participation of an organisation’s people and aiming at long-term success.”
Today, however, the pressure for short-term financial success has become intense
The average “investor” now only holds their shares for 8 months, according to World Bank data
This time horizon is very different from that of the 1980s, when the average NYSE holding period was 33 months
And it is a very long way from the 1960s average of 100 months
As a result, even some major companies appear to have changed their policy in this critical area, prioritising concepts such as “smart maintenance”. Such cutbacks in maintenance spend mean plants are more likely to break down, as managers take the risk of using equipment beyond its scheduled working life. Similarly, essential training is delayed, or reduced in length, to keep within a budget.
ICIS Insight editor Nigel Davies highlighted the key issue 2 years ago as the problems began to become more widespread around the world:
“The situation in Europe has exposed underlying trends and issues that will need to be addressed. Companies appear not to have sustained an adequate pace of maintenance capital expenditure. That has been for economic as well as structural (cost) reasons. Spending in high feedstock and energy cost Europe has certainly not been considered de rigeur….Having maintained plants to run at between 80% and 85% of capacity, suddenly pushing them hard does little good. Sometimes, they fail.”
The end-result has been to mask the growing problem of over-capacity, as plants fail to operate at their normal rates. This has supported profits in the short-term by making actual supply/demand balances far tighter than the nominal figures would suggest. But this trend cannot continue forever.
THE END OF CHINA’S STIMULUS WILL HIGHLIGHT TODAY’S EXCESS CAPACITYThe 3rd chart suggests its end is now fast approaching. It shows developments in China’s shadow banking sector, which has been the real cause of the apparent “recovery” and reflation seen in recent months:
Premier Li began a major stimulus programme a year ago, hoping to boost his Populist faction ahead of October’s 5-yearly National People’s Congress, which decides the new Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee (PSC)
Populist Premier Wen did the same in 2011-2 – shadow lending rose six-fold to average $174bn/month
But Wen’s tactic backfired and President Xi’s Princeling faction won a majority in the 7-man PSC, although the Populist Li still had responsibility for the economy as Premier
Li’s efforts have similarly run into the sand
As the 3-month average confirms (red line), Li’s stimulus programme saw shadow lending leap to $150bn/month. Unsurprisingly, as in 2011-2, commodity and asset prices rocketed around the world,funding ever-more speculative investments. But in February, Xi effectively took control of the economy from Li and put his foot on the brakes. Lending is already down to $25bn/month and may well go negative in H2, with Xi highlighting last week that:
“China’s development is standing at a new historical starting point, and … entered a new development stage”.
“Follow the money” is always a good option if one wants to survive the business cycle. We can all hope that the IMF and other cheerleaders for the economy are finally about to be proved right. But the CU% data suggests there is no hard evidence for their optimism.
There is also little reason to doubt Xi’s determination to finally start getting China’s vast debts under control, by cutting back on the wasteful stimulus policies of the Populists. With China’s debt/GDP now over 300%, and the prospect of a US trade war looming, Xi simply has to act now – or risk financial meltdown during his second term of office.
Prudent investors are already planning for a difficult H2 and 2018. Companies who have cut back on maintenance now need to quickly reverse course, before the potential collapse in profits makes this difficult to afford.
China’s polyester industry, like many others, is already preparing to shut down ahead of September’s G20 Summit in Hangzhou, to reduce pollution levels. The phenomenon even has its own Wikipedia page, APEC Blue, to describe the moment in November 2014 when Beijing suddenly saw blue sky for the whole of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit meeting. It is defined as being “something wonderful, but fleeting”.
China’s leaders want blue sky again for the G20 leaders. But you can’t continue to run the world’s second largest economy like this. Hangzhou is China’s 4th largest city, 200km (125 miles) from Shanghai, and is home to 21m people. And yet, as Lloyds Loading List reported in March:
“Exporters and importers from China’s Pearl River Delta brace for supply-chain disruptions as factories prepare for partial and complete closures in advance of September’s G20 Summit in Hangzhou…factories could reduce or cease production starting as early as June. With the Summit not opening until September, importers sourcing from the Shanghai area could face a summer of supply chain disruption.”
You have to deal with the root cause of the problems, not the symptoms.
CHINA’S POST-2008 STIMULUS LED TO CORRUPTION, POLLUTION AND THE INVESTMENT BUBBLE
And pollution is not the only super-critical issue that needs to be tackled. A blog reader has kindly forwarded the attached chart from Woodford, the respected investment fund. Under the heading Bubble Trouble, it shows the volumes traded in China’s Dalian commodity futures markets on just one day last month, 21 April:
$93bn was traded in steel rebar, $47bn in iron ore, $23bn in copper, $23bn in cotton and $11bn in PTA
China’s total imports of iron ore were 950MT in 2015: Dalian futures volumes exceeded this on 2 days in April
Readers with long memories will remember we have been here many times before, since China’s stimulus bubble began. In April 2009, the Dalian futures exchange traded 77 million tonnes of LLDPE (Linear Low Density Polyethylene), 3x total world production at the time – highlighting how the bubble was distorting world markets. Most of the speculators probably never even knew what LLDPE was, let along its supply/demand fundamentals.
The underlying cause of both problems – pollution and the lending bubble – is, of course, corruption and graft. Easy money policies make it easy for well-connected people to make vast fortunes very quickly – one, not very senior general in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), apparently managed to build a $5bn fortune through bribery and corruption. And as Reuters reports, China’s Central Commission on Discipline and Inspection (CCDI) has discovered even the release of commodity statistics is prone to corruption:
“CCDI said last week that hundreds of staff working for the statistics bureau had been using official data for personal gain.”
Not for the first time since Xi came to power, tough decisions are being made. He has just appointed himself commander-in-chief of the PLA, an essential step to stamping out graft in the army – as Business Insider notes:
“The PLA’s officer corps has gotten deeply involved in enriching themselves. In the past, the PLA was directly involved in PLA-owned enterprises. Those have been reduced, but the PLA leadership is still intertwined with Chinese business, either directly or through relatives. The PLA’s size and influence mean that its officers’ interests are torn between the party and the wealthy now under attack.”
Xi is also moving against the Populist faction, which has been the main supporter of stimulus policies, as I noted in the Financial Times last year. Former President Hu Jintao and current Premier Li Keqiang are both Populists who came to the top via membership of the Young Communist League:
Wang Quishan, Xi’s corruption tsar, has found evidence of “embezzlement and influence-peddling”
On Thursday, state media reported the League was soon to publish a “detailed plan for its own reform”
THE COMMODITY BUYING FRENZY HAS PROBABLY PEAKED
Most long-lasting trends in financial markets normally end with a “buying climax” where suddenly everyone jumps in on the action. And it looks very likely that this is what happened in China’s financial futures markets last month. The volumes traded defy rational logic – and can only have been due to financial frenzy. As Woodford warn:
“We know from history that when bubbles burst, they do so in a damaging and unpredictable way. It is impossible to predict when and what will trigger their bursting, but it is inevitable that fundamentals will reassert themselves eventually.”
Evidence from oil markets also suggests the bubble is close to bursting. China’s so-called “teapot refineries” have been a major source of demand this year, due to their new export quotas. They have not been buying for the domestic market, but for exports – and Asian refining margins have halved since January as a result. And now the largest “teapot refinery” says even their storage is full:
“Everybody’s storage is full and it takes time to digest the inventories, maybe 2-3 months.”
Of course, many in the markets think this bubble might continue for another few months. My own view is that this underestimates Xi’s determination to sort out the problems he inherited during 2016, and “take the pain” of restructuring before he comes up for reappointment next year.
Thirdly, pollution is being tackled by literally ‘sending in the bulldozers‘ to destroy polluting factories under the eyes of TV cameras, and introducing quotas on car sales in the major cities
It is impossible to underestimate the scale of the changes now underway. Just as under Deng and Jiang, they are being led from the top by a new leadership group headed by Xi himself. Its key focus is on the “economy and ecology“, highlighting the economic and political crisis that developed during the “lost decade“.
Equally, as the blog has detailed this week, these challenges clearly mirror those faced by Jiang and Zhu in 1993, and by Deng and Zhao in the post-Mao period after 1977:
Politics
Today’s challenge is not to restore order after the chaos of the Gang of Four, or after Tiananmen Square. Instead it is to head off an existential crisis over pollution, coupled with demographic decline. The Party’s main think-tank, China’s Academy of Social Sciences, has thus headlined the “shrinking demographic dividend, overcapacity, choking pollution, risks from the property sector and local government debt“ as key threats to be tackled immediately.
Financial
Bankruptcy was the key economic challenge facing Deng in 1977. Whilst as the World Bank noted, the major risk in 1993 was that ”China could have lost economic control and landed in a Latin American-style inflationary spiral”.
This time, as a major World Bank report with China’s National Reform and Development Commission has warned:
“China’s growth is in danger of decelerating rapidly and without much warning. That is what has occurred with other highflying developing countries, such as Brazil and Mexico, once they reached a certain income level, a phenomenon that economists call the ‘middle-income trap’.”
This comprehensive Report was issued to coincide with the 5-yearly Party conference in March 2012 and highlighted 5 key risks:
“The end of export market growth; wasteful infrastructure investment; the need to boost personal consumption via higher wages (which has the downside of reducing profit margins and job creation); managing the transition to a new economic model; and the threat of hitting ‘the middle income trap’ described by Nobel Prize winner Sir Arthur Lewis”
Xi and Li follow the Deng/Jiang model
In response, it is clear that the new leadership is closely following the successful strategies developed by Deng and Jiang in response to similar crises:
The return of ‘the man who knows what to do’. Deng was brought back in 1977, having been purged 3 times, because he was the only person who could manage the situation. Similarly he returned a second time with his Southern Tour in Q4 1992 to build Jiang’s powerbase. This time it has been Jiang who returned. He ensured the removal of the corrupt Bo Xilai, and forced through the leadership changes in November 2012 that meant 6 of the 7 current Politburo members are his men
The immediate assumption of control over the military. The Bo Xilai affair highlighted the risk of military unrest – there were well-reported rumours of tanks moving in Beijing in March 2012. Xi has followed Deng and Jiang in immediately taking control of the Central Military Commission by becoming its chairman
The use of the World Bank to develop a policy framework. Again, Xi has followed Deng and Jiang in this, with no delay. In fact, the World Bank began work even before Xi formally took power – highlighting his early awareness of the depth of the crisis that China faces
Focusing on the economic challenge immediately. Deng had premier Zhao Ziyang, and Jiang had premier Zhu Rongji, both entirely focused on the economic issues. Today, Li Keqiang is taking the same role. Equally important is that Xi has followed Deng and Jiang in taking personal leadership of the issue via chairmanship of the new “Leading Group for Overall Reform”. Without his active involvement, reform will inevitably be blocked by those who would lose out as a result
Willingness to take tough measures. China’s new leadership have 10 years of power ahead of them. Thus they are already sending in the bulldozers to destroy polluting factories over the heads of local government officials. Whilst Xi’s appointee at the central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, is taking power back from the regulators who have failed to control the shadow banking sector. All this has clear parallels with Deng and Jiang’s ‘no nonsense approach’, and their appreciation that a sense of urgency is critical for success
What does this mean for the outside world?
The years after 1977 and 1993 were stormy periods in China’s history. The period to 2020 is unlikely to be different, and there are no guarantees that the new leadership’s policies will succeed. But it is already possible to identify some of the likely major impacts on the global economy:
Domino effect. US-centric observers have wrongly assumed that the Federal Reserve’s taper has somehow begun to destabilise Asian economies such as India and Indonesia. They will now have to rush to catch up, as it becomes clear that this is really early warning of China’s massive policy shift
Double-digit growth. The imperative of political survival means the leadership have to continue to bulldoze polluting factories, and also clean up the one-sixth of China’s farmland currently contaminated with toxic waste. Therefore the days of double-digit economic growth will never return
Deflation. Premier Li made clear last year that maintaining employment was his key priority. We can therefore expect China to focus on maximising export sales during the transition, effectively exporting deflation – as volume rather than profit will be the priority.
Export Demand. China’s main export focus will no longer be the cheap textiles and plastic products of the past. Instead it will create jobs via an aggressive drive to sell affordable cars, relatively high-value chemicals and other products into Asian and developing country markets, based on its vast new capacity.
Dollar strength. China’s economic crisis will come as a shock to most of the financial community, as did the US subprime crisis. We can therefore expect China’s currency to fall in value, and the US$ to rise, all other things being equal. This, of course, will also help to boost China’s exports
Domestic Demand. Similarly the focus of China’s domestic demand will change. Sales of western luxury goods will continue to decline as the corruption campaigns continue. Instead, the focus will be affordable necessities such as $50 refrigerators for the 90% of the population who earn less than $20/
Debt. China’s record $1.3tn holding of US debt was built up as a form of vendor finance, to support US purchases of China’s products. But this strategy is no longer relevant, so we may well see China slowly reduce its holdings as it will have more use for the cash at home – putting pressure on Western interest rates
Readers will no doubt have their own insights into the impact of these changes on their own businesses and personal lives. But one thing is very clear. China not only has to go down this path, as we described in chapter 6 of ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal’ in November 2011. But its leaders now clearly recognise that they have to change policy with great urgency.
The blog always feared that the recent boom would turn out to be another of the ‘boom and bust’ cycles that have characterised the post-Mao period. No sane person would ever want to go back to the days of the Great Leap forward and the Cultural Revolution. It therefore hopes that Xi and Li will not only manage to overcome the current crisis, but also succeed in establishing a more sustainable future for the country.
President Jiang Zemin inherited a difficult economic and political situation when taking power in 1993, as did Deng in 1977 and current president Xi last year. Jiang had to set in motion China’s second economic cycle of the post-Mao era, or risk seeing the country fall back into poverty and the political turmoil of another Cultural Revolution.
“Former President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao ruled China from 2002 until late 2012 …and have been accused by powerful Party figures of overseeing a “lost decade” of missed opportunities to put the country on a more sustainable path. Time is running out for the old Chinese model, based as it is on credit-fuelled property and infrastructure investment, and highly polluting low-cost manufacturing.”
If Xi does not move today, he will lose all the momentum that he has painstakingly built up over the past year. Essentially, it is ‘now or never’ for Xi and Li to act. The playbook they have followed till now is modelled on that developed earlier by Deng and Jiang, suggesting they understand what they have to do.
1993 – 2012, Jiang Zemin’s era, and its aftermath
Jiang took over as president from Yang Shangkun in 1993, having been General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party since 1989. Like Deng, he was not impressed by ideas of democracy or political liberalisation.
His first move, after appointing Deng’s protégé Zhu Rongji as central bank governor, was to follow Deng’s 1980 policy initiative and call in the World Bank for advice. The reason was simple, as Zhu said when welcoming the World Bank team, “Foreign monks know more than local monks“.
This Dalian conference of June 1993 set out the economic programme to be adopted, with the aim of bringing China back from the abyss, and formalising Deng’s earlier dictum of the ‘socialist market economy’. The aim was simple – to keep the Communist Party in power by providing the population with increasing living standards.
Jiang inherited a number of major economic problems, as the opening up of the economy had provided wonderful opportunities for corruption to flourish. The privileges of the Special Economic Zones such as Shenzhen were being increasingly abused by corrupt leaders able to buy products and services at advantageous prices for their own personal profit. Economic disaster, in turn, was leading Party hardliners to demand a return to the ‘old ways’.
Zhu’s first objective was to resolve the enormous debts that had been built up by the powerful State Owned Enterprises as a side effect of the economic liberalisation. At the same time, he implemented extremely tight policies to bring China’s chaotic financial markets back under control. Asset prices had been allowed to rise out of control whilst corruption had flourished.
His policies led to a decade where China achieved double-digit economic growth, whilst tackling major problems of bad loans in the banking system and rising unemployment. Jiang/Zhu maintained Deng’s control over the army and his focus on raising living standards and personal consumption, and aimed to tackle the power of the SOEs via large-scale privatisations.
Equally, Deng’s policy of opening to the outside world was maintained. This encouraged the emergence of a strong export sector, which helped to support the economy through the Asian financial crisis and led finally to China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation in 2001.
The ‘Lost Decade’ under Hu and Wen from 2003-2013
However, just as with Deng’s period, these early successes were not maintained once Jiang and Zhu left power in 2003. New president Hu and premier Wen instead focused on the easy option of developing China’s role, post-WTO entry, of being the ‘manufacturing capital of the world’. The SOEs were able to regain powerful positions in major industry sectors, whilst corruption again flourished.
Then in 2008, just as in 1989, crisis intervened. Once again it was both economic and political in nature. The global financial Crisis sharply exposed China’s economic dependence on export orders, as personal consumption had actually declined since 2000 as a proportion of the economy. And so when orders disappeared in Q4 2008, 26 million people lost their jobs. Hu and Wen thus felt driven to replace this lost growth with a massive lending stimulus, as shown in the above chart.
It is fair to say that no country in history has ever undertaken such a policy on such a scale:
Official lending doubled from $719bn (Rmb 4.9tn) in 2008 to $1.5tn in 2013 (blue column). In addition, as the blog will discuss tomorrow, the banks were allowed to develop an unregulated shadow banking system that has been lending as much, or maybe more, than the official system
This temporarily rescued economic growth. Electricity consumption (red line) jumped an unprecedented 50% between 2009 and 2013. But the price was a massive increase in pollution, as factories and coal mines were allowed to cut costs by emitting toxic fumes
The lending also stimulated another boom in asset prices. Jiang/Zhu had opened up the urban property market in 1998. From 2008, easy lending policies led to major speculation, with prices rising almost exponentially as buyers panicked over being left behind
Auto sales also took off, adding more risk to the financial system, as well as more pollution in the cities. They have grown so fast, and in such an unconstrained way, that traffic jams are now an endemic part of almost any journey. Whilst pedestrians and cyclists now routinely wear masks in the major cities during days of heavy pollution
Now, as in 1977 and 1993, it looks as though the new leadership will have to pick up the pieces. As the blog described in November 2012, it is clear that the return of Jiang to a more active role was the prime cause of the changes that are now underway. The attack on corruption is a carbon copy of his earlier policy, as was the decision to bring in the World Bank for policy advice. Clearly, too, the trial of such a prominent and well-connected figure such as Bo Xilai could never have taken place without Jiang’s support.
Tomorrow’s post will therefore draw out these parallels, with the aim of highlighting the key developments that we should expect the new leadership to implement with speed. It will be a very bumpy ride, but Xi and Li know that the alternative of ‘kicking the can down the road’ would risk leading to disaster. | {
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Meiji Period Japanese Bronze Zen Temple Incense Burner - For Sale
Important and rare Meiji Period c.1860 bronze zen buddhist temple incense burner. Before patrons would enter the temple they would light incense in this cauldron and clap their hands and bow thus purifying themselves. 150 years of incense ash. Beautiful swirl on the front in raised releif. Large handles attached with bronze pins. Mythical lion head tripod legs. Ask for shipping quote. (H:20" Diameter 14") | {
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10 November 2015
New Caledonian Should Control Continental Shelf: Gomes
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, Oct. 13, 2015) – A leading New Caledonian politician, Philippe Gomes, has called on France to assign to the territory the right to access the continental shelf.
Mr Gomes made the call after France last month extended the continental shelf off several of its overseas territories, including New Caledonia, by a total of half a million square kilometres.
Mr Gomes, who is a member of the French National Assembly, says the Assembly should make the change by modifying the organic law, which already gives the territory control over its Exclusive Economic Zone.
The shelf extension for New Caledonia applies to about 80,000 square kilometres towards Australia's Lord Howe island, an area believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits.
Two years ago, the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council urged the government to secure resources in the seabed off France's overseas territories.
In a report, the Council said the Law of the Sea allowed for France to lay claim to an additional two million square kilometres, half of which are in French Polynesia. | {
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The Bottom Line: 9/11/15: A VISIT from THE PERFECT GUY
Wow, Labor Day weekend was an absolute tire fire for the box office. Straight Outta Compton’s reign in the number one spot was finally defeated by second week holdover War Room. The Christian-fiction adaptation earned only $9.5 million, but that was enough as audiences widely neglected their local cinemas. New releases A Walk in the Woods and Transporter Refueled peaked at the 3rd and 4th spots, respectively, with $8.2 and $7.4 million. It’s easy to expect a similar result this weekend with school officially started, but will we get a twist worthy of the name Shyamalan and see a surprise winner? Let’s see what the chances are.
The Visit –(PG-13) 94 min. – M. Night Shyamalan has become a punchline in most movie discussions, so it only makes sense that he would shift gears and make a comedy. The Visit is a horror-comedy about a brother and sister visiting their grandparents for the first time in their rural home. Things start out pleasant enough, until the first night when the siblings are warned to not leave their bedrooms after 9:30. It becomes apparent that grandma and grandpa are not quite what they seem, and the kids are forced to play Yahtzee with possibly demon-infested elders. I’m not even kidding about that last part. Have you seen that commercial where the grandma rolls a Yahtzee and then screams at the camera while foaming at the mouth? It’s hilarious. Nothing about this movie looks good…and that might make it amazing. Shyamalan is attempting to walk the most difficult tightrope in film by blending horror and comedy, and if he fails it’s going to be in spectacular fashion. This has all the makings of a late night, watch it with your friends and make fun of it movie. I’m actually excited for it, but for the completely wrong reason. This will probably make about $16 million and be number one at the box office.
The Perfect Guy – (PG-13) 100 min. – Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A girl starts a relationship with a seemingly great guy, but over time it turns out he’s not quite what he seems. I’m going to bet that you stopped me, because jeez is this an unoriginal concept. Heck, it’s even a slight variation of The Visit, but instead of a boyfriend it’s grandparents. There’s really nothing that stands out about The Perfect Guy, and the fact that it’s Thursday evening and not a single review of the film has appeared on Rotten Tomatoes yet, I’m going to assume that the studio knows it. The only aspect of this movie that even makes me raise an eyebrow if the presence of Michael Ealy, a good actor from the unfortunately cancelled series Almost Human. I still expect The Perfect Guy to make somewhere near $12 million, but it won’t linger around for much longer. One last thing: one of the listed reasons that this film is rated PG-13 by the MPAA is due to “menace”. I don’t know why, but I find that amusing.
The Bottom Line– This weekend isn’t a happy one for America, being the anniversary of the most tragic attack on US soil in history. It’s a bummer to bring up, but it will probably have some affect on the box office. I don’t expect too many people will want these movies at this time, especially when paired with the start of school and the kickoff of the NFL season on Sunday. If you are still up for a movie during the week next week, I would say check out The Visit, as it will probably provide good fodder for your conversations about how far M. Night Shyamalan has fallen.
About the author
Nick DeNitto
Nick DeNitto graduated with Honors from Adelphi University. He began writing movie reviews in middle school and has worked tirelessly to mold his own unique critical voice. He is currently affiliated with the National Board of Review and hopes that one day he is remembered as “The People’s Film Critic.” | {
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Connecticut 4th - Cullum to lf for Davila. Rains to
3b for Chamberlain. St. Pierre to cf for Gerbracht. AMBLER reached on an error
by 3b. SADOWL singled to right field; AMBLER advanced to second. DUBOIS singled
through the left side; SADOWL advanced to second; AMBLER advanced to third.
Groholski to p for Outon,D. GIFFORD reached on a fielder's choice; DUBOIS
advanced to second; SADOWL advanced to third; AMBLER out at home 3b to c.
TOWNSEND doubled to left center, 2 RBI; GIFFORD advanced to second, out at
third cf to ss to 3b; DUBOIS scored; SADOWL scored. Fyfe struck out looking.
2 runs, 3 hits, 1 error, 1 LOB.
Houston 5th - PINTO to 1b for GRINNELL. Dunn struck
out looking. Rains singled to shortstop. Rains advanced to second on a passed
ball. St. Pierre grounded out to p. Hernandez lined out to cf. 0 runs, 1
hit, 0 errors, 1 LOB. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Snipplrhttp://snipplr.com/tags/transform
Recent snippets posted on Snipplr.comen-usMon, 03 Aug 2015 08:29:25 GMT(Java) Convert Each TIFF Frame to JPEG & Transform them to PDF Format Using Java - johansonkatherinehttp://snipplr.com/view/73485/convert-each-tiff-frame-to-jpeg--transform-them-to-pdf-format-using-java/
This technical tip shows how each TIFF frame can be converted to JPEG and then these images to PDF file using Aspose.Pdf for Java. Aspose.Pdf for Java is very well capable of dealing with TIFF images and can easily transform them into PDF format. However there are cases when a TIFF image contains frames with different resolution or page orientation and product might not work well. So in order to resolve such issues, we can first convert TIFF frames into individual JPEG images and then save these images into PDF format using Aspose.Pdf for Java. ]]>Thu, 23 Jan 2014 16:51:50 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/73485/convert-each-tiff-frame-to-jpeg--transform-them-to-pdf-format-using-java/(Python) All-Or-Nothing Transform - weilaweihttp://snipplr.com/view/64825/allornothing-transform/
Performs an all-or-nothing transform on a stream of chunks. The data can only be decrypted if every block is present to generate an HMAC for. The list of HMACs is then XOR'd against the final block from the transform, yielding the decryption key for the blocks.
Reports a hash of the encrypted chunk for storage/retrieval without needing to calculate HMAC until decryption.
Needs a lot of cleanup and some fixes. Makes a lot of assumptions, for instance, that `current_block`, `total_blocks`, and `data_size` only occupy 1 byte apiece. Currently doesn't strip padding after decoding, and doesn't convert original integers for `current_block`, `total_blocks`, and `data_size` back from `bytes`. Does a ton of extra work (conversions between `bytes` and `bytearray`).
**NOTE**: I removed code that verified the HMACs of the final block and each encrypted block to simplify the code, because you already need the correct HMACs to get the block key from the final block, and the block hashes are taken of the blocks encrypted with the block key.
**NOTE 2**: The incrementing counter typically XOR'd with the plaintext blocks is actually prepended (`chunk() `returns blocks of the format `[current_block, total_blocks, data_size, data[a_block] (and for the last data block, + (padding_size * padding))]`.
**NOTE 3**: In this scheme, if you scatter the encrypted blocks, final blocks, lists of hashes of encrypted blocks and final blocks, and HMAC secret keys amongst a minimum of 4 parties, no single party can possibly decrypt the content, short of attacks on the encryption and hashing algorithms themselves, eavesdropping on other communications, impersonating another node (to acquire the other pieces illegitimately), etc.. Additionally, each node should be able to plausibly deny knowledge of the contents of their node, if they restrict their own access to the other necessary pieces.
The encrypted block server node has neither of the necessary keys to either decrypt the blocks or to derive their decryption key by generating their HMACs--even if it did, it would have no final blocks from which to recover the decryption key.
The final block server node has no encrypted blocks to decrypt, no awareness of which encrypted blocks belong to which final blocks, no HMAC secret key to derive the decryption key for the final block--and no encrypted blocks to perform an HMAC on.
The "location" server node has the regular hashes of the encrypted blocks and their corresponding final blocks (unless the file is secret). It has no HMAC secret key, nor the encrypted blocks, nor the final block or inner key. It could recover all but the HMAC secret key, so caution should be exercised with this node, for it should never come into possession of the HMAC secret key.
Finally, the one person who can recover the plaintext content should have the HMAC secret key and the hash of the list of hashes (of all blocks). To recover the plaintext, this person asks the location node for the list of hashes matching their hash. They then ask the encrypted block nodes for the blocks matching all but the last hash in the list. They perform an HMAC, using their secret key, on each of the blocks. They request the final block by its hash from the final block node, and XOR each HMAC with the final block, producing the block decryption key. Finally, they decrypt each block.
__This module does **not** demonstrate scattering the parts of an AONT.__ In this example, everything resides within the local machine, in the currently running process.
**NOTE 4**: I seem unable to swap any blocks (excluding the last blocks) and still maintain correct decryption. However, the block key decrypts correctly, so the HMACs must be generated correctly, despite not verifying them explicitly. From my understanding of the algorithm, I should be able to swap or shuffle the blocks (as they are encrypted separately) and still decrypt them. Ideas/corrections welcome.
**NOTE 5**: Dependencies:
- [PyCrypto](https://www.dlitz.net/software/pycrypto/)
- [`hmac`](http://snipplr.com/view/64824/hmac/)
- [`stream`](http://snipplr.com/view/64823/chunk-data-for-streaming/) ]]>Wed, 09 May 2012 05:10:32 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/64825/allornothing-transform/(CSS) CSS3 Transform - Barlonhttp://snipplr.com/view/60759/css3-transform/
Supported in Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera (requiring vendor prefix) ]]>Sun, 13 Nov 2011 02:37:33 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/60759/css3-transform/(ActionScript 3) AS3 Setting Colour of DisplayObject using ColorTransform - adrianparrhttp://snipplr.com/view/47558/as3-setting-colour-of-displayobject-using-colortransform/
]]>Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:35:43 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/47558/as3-setting-colour-of-displayobject-using-colortransform/(CSS) Use CSS transform for Interesting Hover Effects - alozuldohttp://snipplr.com/view/42842/use-css-transform-for-interesting-hover-effects/
For progressive enhancement, you could use the transform property that is supported by many browsers that have CSS3 support.
Here’s a trick for enlarging a elements on hover by 110%. ]]>Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:04:10 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/42842/use-css-transform-for-interesting-hover-effects/(Other) Make text net safe - anttihttp://snipplr.com/view/41149/make-text-net-safe/
]]>Wed, 29 Sep 2010 23:10:57 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/41149/make-text-net-safe/(CSS) CSS3 Rotation - reynishhttp://snipplr.com/view/39903/css3-rotation/
On element:hover this will increase scale and rotate over .5 of a second.\r\n\r\nI borrowed it from somewhere else so thank them. ]]>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:40:42 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/39903/css3-rotation/(CSS) Cross Browser CSS Gradients with Sass - viatroposhttp://snipplr.com/view/38963/cross-browser-css-gradients-with-sass/
]]>Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:00:35 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/38963/cross-browser-css-gradients-with-sass/(CSS) Cross Browser CSS Rotation with and without Sass - viatroposhttp://snipplr.com/view/38962/cross-browser-css-rotation-with-and-without-sass/
]]>Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:58:33 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/38962/cross-browser-css-rotation-with-and-without-sass/(Objective C) Straighten and Scale UIImage - aviddv1http://snipplr.com/view/35060/straighten-and-scale-uiimage/
Usage: [self straightenAndScaleImage:imageView.image andTheMaxDimension:100]; ]]>Sat, 22 May 2010 10:21:43 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/35060/straighten-and-scale-uiimage/(ActionScript 3) AS3 Fit DisplayObject into Rectangle - adrianparrhttp://snipplr.com/view/28016/as3--fit-displayobject-into-rectangle/
DisplayUtils.as and Alignment.as
These two classes by Justin Windle (aka Soulwire) can be used to scale a DisplayObject to fit within (fill) a rectangle, without distorting the image.
Example Usage
Fit a DisplayObject into a Rectangle
var area:Rectangle = new Rectangle( 0, 0, 200, 100 );
DisplayUtils.fitIntoRect( myDisplayObject, area, true, Alignment.MIDDLE );
Create a fullscreen background image
stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
function onStageResized( event:Event = null ):void
{
var area:Rectangle = new Rectangle( 0, 0, stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight );
DisplayUtils.fitIntoRect( myDisplayObject, area, true, Alignment.MIDDLE );
}
stage.addEventListener( Event.RESIZE, onStageResized );
onStageResized();
Create a thumbnail
var thumb:Bitmap = DisplayUtils.createThumb( myBitmap.bitmapData, 100, 100, Alignment.MIDDLE, true );
addChild( thumb ); ]]>Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:39:23 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/28016/as3--fit-displayobject-into-rectangle/(ActionScript 3) From AS2 to AS3 – Where did it go – setRGB | [mck] - mhulsehttp://snipplr.com/view/27981/from-as2-to-as3--where-did-it-go--setrgb--mck/
I really like the use of constants and the dollar sign ($) in this class. I have only used $ in jQuery to designate objects. Looks like one might use $ in AS3 classes to designate/differentiate passed-in variables from internal method/global vars. ]]>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:29:40 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/27981/from-as2-to-as3--where-did-it-go--setrgb--mck/(CSS) Rotate elements - marciohttp://snipplr.com/view/27764/rotate-elements/
]]>Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:52:48 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/27764/rotate-elements/(C#) How to use XSLT and C# to transform XML - victorbobahttp://snipplr.com/view/24270/how-to-use-xslt-and-c-to-transform-xml/
]]>Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:22:47 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/24270/how-to-use-xslt-and-c-to-transform-xml/(C#) Using XSLT to Transform XML Using C# ASP.NET - Meander365http://snipplr.com/view/18204/using-xslt-to-transform-xml-using-c-aspnet/
]]>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:54:58 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/18204/using-xslt-to-transform-xml-using-c-aspnet/(C#) XSLT Helper class - mtelligenthttp://snipplr.com/view/17080/xslt-helper-class/
]]>Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:41:12 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/17080/xslt-helper-class/(PHP) PHP Paragrapher - iroybothttp://snipplr.com/view/14560/php-paragrapher/
Transform text (eg. from a WYSIWYG) into nicely formatted HTML paragraphs. (Credits: Ludo Magnocavallo's LightPress).
[this is a solid starting point - but a lot of HTML elements are missing] ]]>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:26:58 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/14560/php-paragrapher/(PHP) Easy transform date format y-m-d => d-m-y on PHP - isaachttp://snipplr.com/view/5868/easy-transform-date-format-ymd--dmy-on-php/
This changes the date format from y-m-d to d-m-y on PHP ]]>Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:42:47 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/5868/easy-transform-date-format-ymd--dmy-on-php/(PHP) Easy transform date format y-m-d => d-m-y on PHP - isaachttp://snipplr.com/view/5867/easy-transform-date-format-ymd--dmy-on-php/
This changes the date format from y-m-d to d-m-y on PHP. It's easy to change the - to / or spaces... ]]>Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:39:19 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/5867/easy-transform-date-format-ymd--dmy-on-php/(PHP) Easy transform date format d-m-y => y-m-d on PHP - isaachttp://snipplr.com/view/5866/easy-transform-date-format-dmy--ymd-on-php/
This changes the date format from d-m-y to y-m-d on PHP. It's easy to change the - to / or spaces... ]]>Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:34:11 GMThttp://snipplr.com/view/5866/easy-transform-date-format-dmy--ymd-on-php/ | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Pass the damn bill (#10) - Theda Skocpol
In a post I wrote back in December 2009, Theda Skocpol on health care reform, then and now, I noted that anything Theda Skocpol has to say about the politics of social policy in the US has to be taken very seriously, and that definitely includes her interventions in debates over the politics, political economy, and policy substance of the current health care reform effort. I also pointed out that, if one followed these interventions over the course of 2009, one could see her shift from a go-for-broke message earlier in the year to an emphasis on seizing the opportunity for a flawed and incomplete but valuable and realistically achievable reform package. I said then, and to avoid any possible misunderstanding I will say again now, that this comparison wasn't intended as a criticism. Instead, considering the evolution of Skocpol's arguments about these issues helps to illuminate some of the deepest, most difficult, and most genuinely intractable dilemmas involved in this whole political struggle.
By December 2009 (how long ago that seems now), this is was Skocpol's central conclusion:
The 2009 health reform end game -- yes, the end of the beginning is in sight -- has been excruciating for progressives. [....] Understandably, some progressives see what's left at the end of these struggles as not worth their support. But history tells us this is mistaken. We should take the many big steps forward that are on the table now -- above all the expanded entitlement, the regulations of private insurance, and the increased subsidies for the less fortunate -- and accept that true "health care reform" remains a multi-year, multi-election struggle.
=> Then the political earthquake set off by Scott Brown's election to the Senate from Massachusetts appeared to have derailed the whole health care reform effort, and for a while Democrats were either sunk in depression, running around in a panic like chickens with their heads cut off, or both. But now the final push is back on track, and with it what we can now recognize as the real moment of truth. Realistically, the only two possible outcomes--and it's important to emphasize that either one could still happen--are the passage of something close to the Senate version of the health care reform bill (with a package of fixes enacted separately via reconciliation) or a total debacle. Skocpol's message at this point is unambiguous and, in my opinion, unambiguously correct: Pass The Damn Bill. Some highlights:
The next two to three weeks will determine whether the United States gets on a better track toward including all citizens in health coverage and controlling costs in the public interest. This is NOT the moment for Democrats to posture and bargain [....]
At the risk of irritating people on the left, this is NOT the moment for "progressives" to demand a public option. Nor is it the moment for either pro-choice feminists or pro-life Democrats to derail reform. [....]
PROGRESSIVES need to cut the posturing over a currently unattainable (and in any event already hollowed out version of the) "public option." [....]"FEMINISTS" who are pushing on abortion-funding limits rather than supporting American women need to examine their consciences. [....] At issue now is a health reform that will extend critical resources to millions of ordinary women. [....]CATHOLIC PRO-LIFE DEMOCRATS also need to get a grip on core values. Do they -- or the U.S. Catholic Bishops -- really want to be responsible for scuttling access to health care for millions? Many deaths will be on their hands if they do. [....] Other Democrats should not follow Stupak. And responsible Catholic leaders should support the true "pro-life" cause here: expanded, affordable health care coverage for all Americans.
We will know soon if Democrats can pull together over what they have claimed for decades is a core party goal. If the posturing doesn't stop and the bills do not pass by Easter, comprehensive health reform will almost certainly go down the drain. The United States will descend further into gridlock and galloping inequalities, not least in access to basic health care.
The next two to three weeks will determine whether the United States gets on a better track toward including all citizens in health coverage and controlling costs in the public interest. This is NOT the moment for Democrats to posture and bargain -- remember, this is in part what lost us MA, that mess in the Senate over the Cornhusker Kickback and other unseemly deals. Scott Brown made use of these deals -- he pointed to Democratic dysfunctionality. Speed and simplicity are crucial right now, as Obama and the House and Senate leaders put together what they must to get this done. This is a time for the Indians to listen to the Chiefs.
At the risk of irritating people on the left, this is NOT the moment for "progressives" to demand a public option. Nor is it the moment for either pro-choice feminists or pro-life Democrats to derail reform.
PROGRESSIVES need to cut the posturing over a currently unattainable (and in any event already hollowed out version of the) "public option." To get legislation now that includes massive subsidies for the uninsured and a new regulatory framework for the future requires that Nancy Pelosi -- the real heroine in all this -- persuade shakey conservative Dems in the House. The legislation cannot include a public option if she is to succeed. Yet if this new framework passes through House action and a reconciliation side-car, that will open new political possibilities in the future. Before long, it will become very possible to enact Medicare extensions or a public option through majority budget votes, because they will be deficit-fighters. Especially "Medicare for More" which will be my new slogan. At this juncture, I hate to get emails from so-called progressive advocacy groups pushing for anything other than supporting Obama in the current end-game. Criticizing what is now attainable is the real defeatism, Adam Green! Conservatives are hammering wavering moderate Dems; use your resources to run moderate ads against private insurers in their districts. Praise the President's plan and help him get the votes. Same for MoveOn.
As for PRO-CHOICE versus PRO-LIFE advocates, give us all a break from your extremist posturings, please. Health care for all is probably the single most important issue for women and families and actual babies and children.
"FEMINISTS" who are pushing on abortion-funding limits rather than supporting American women need to examine their consciences. NOW's obsession over abortion is, in effect, betraying a long tradition of American women's advocacy on behalf of the wellbeing of families and the poor. Poor women cannot now get publicly funded abortions, and middle class women will always get what they need. At issue now is a health reform that will extend critical resources to millions of ordinary women.
CATHOLIC PRO-LIFE DEMOCRATS also need to get a grip on core values. Do they -- or the U.S. Catholic Bishops -- really want to be responsible for scuttling access to health care for millions? Many deaths will be on their hands if they do. Scuttling reform over abortion will give the lie to "pro life" claims. Abortion funding is not directly available through public funds -- it has not been for a long time, and it won't be under this legislation. Congressman Stupak, one suspects, really wants to defeat comprehensive health reform; he was conspiring with Republican leaders in the last episode. Other Democrats should not follow Stupak. And responsible Catholic leaders should support the true "pro-life" cause here: expanded, affordable health care coverage for all Americans.
We will know soon if Democrats can pull together over what they have claimed for decades is a core party goal. If the posturing doesn't stop and the bills do not pass by Easter, comprehensive health reform will almost certainly go down the drain. The United States will descend further into gridlock and galloping inequalities, not least in access to basic health care.
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About Me
Jeff Weintraub is a social & political theorist, political sociologist, and democratic socialist who has been teaching most recently at the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University in 2015-2016 and is currently a Research Associate at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College.
(Also an Affiliated Professor with the University of Haifa in Israel & an opponent of academic blacklists.) | {
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Featured on PrinceOfPoker
For the vast majority of players, poker is primarily a source of entertainment. We gather around a table with friends, as you would in a bar, restaurant or cinema. Yet for the most serious, learning poker leads to the development of a winning strategy, allowing the best to eventually stand out from their opponents. | {
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} |
Meet Herbert Chavez from the Philippines.
Basically, the guy loves Superman. He really really really loves
Superman. He loves Superman so much that, not only does he have an
incredible collection of Superman memorabilia, he has also gotten
implants, silicone injections, and wears makeup to make himself look like
the Man of Steel.
So, do you think he looks like Superman now or just
some weird plastic person? | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
(CNN) - The Republican Party of Iowa announced Wednesday that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will be a keynote speaker at their annual Ronald Reagan dinner next month, along with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.
The announcement from the Iowa Republicans described McDonnell as a "top" surrogate for GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Iowa is considered a battleground state in the race for the presidency.
The dinner serves as a major fundraiser for the state party. But thanks to the Iowa caucuses traditional position of kicking off the presidential primary and caucus calendar, the dinner also attracts possible White House contenders.
McDonnell, who was elected governor of Virginia in 2009 and who's limited to one term in the governor's mansion in Richmond, is thought to be someone who may entertain a bid for the GOP nomination in 2016 if Romney doesn't win this year's presidential election.
soundoff(20 Responses)
The election will be over by then. Iowa starts voting tomorrow. Good bye Mittens, Juan Percent, Mitt the Twit and Lying Ryan.
September 26, 2012 02:01 pm at 2:01 pm |
sonny chapman
Careful girls, he may insist on an "examination".
September 26, 2012 02:02 pm at 2:02 pm |
HOLY TIGHTY WHITIES WILLARD
Gov. Ultrasound wants a cabinet position. I sure can't wait until him and Attorney General Cooch are out of office.
September 26, 2012 02:10 pm at 2:10 pm |
truth hurts
Good move... firm up that conservative vote. Get everybody motivated and voting Obama OUT!
September 26, 2012 02:11 pm at 2:11 pm |
Al-NY,NY
Don't you mean top "lapdog" for Flip? If so, he's got a two ton anchor around his neck and he's "goin' over the side"
September 26, 2012 02:20 pm at 2:20 pm |
The Real Tom Paine
-truth hurts
Good move... firm up that conservative vote. Get everybody motivated and voting Obama OUT!
*********************
Motivate them with what? ITs not the base Romney needs, its the people who are undecided, and after his series of self0inflicted wounds, he's lost them. Romney is toast, time to go back to whatever state he claims as home currently.
September 26, 2012 02:22 pm at 2:22 pm |
v4865
What CAN HE possibly TELL these votes? ?
Mit's the right choice...please TELL that to the 47%
.OUR EYES AND EARS ARE OPEN WIDE,WATCHING N LISTENING ..
September 26, 2012 02:27 pm at 2:27 pm |
truth hurts
I wonder where are all the Democrats out there campaigning for Obama???? Oh yeah, most of the states tossed their Democrat governors and now have Republican governors who have turned their state around.
September 26, 2012 02:34 pm at 2:34 pm |
The Real Tom Paine
-truth hurts
I wonder where are all the Democrats out there campaigning for Obama???? Oh yeah, most of the states tossed their Democrat governors and now have Republican governors who have turned their state around.
************
You mean all the states that are now leaning or solidly in the Democratic camp? The ones where the GOP governors say that the auto bailout and the stimulous helped them to turn their economies around? Why campaign when the GOP governors do such a great job of touting Obama's success?
September 26, 2012 02:45 pm at 2:45 pm |
Al-NY,NY
The Real Tom Paine
You mean all the states that are now leaning or solidly in the Democratic camp? The ones where the GOP governors say that the auto bailout and the stimulous helped them to turn their economies around? Why campaign when the GOP governors do such a great job of touting Obama's success?
------------------------------
sshhhh. Didn't you hear Flip telling these guys to tone it down? Didn't you know that Obama caused all the problems and any good news from these R governers ONLY applies to them and NOT Obama? These hypocrits talk out of both sides of their mouth so much it's pathetic
September 26, 2012 02:56 pm at 2:56 pm |
v_mag
Mitt is so much like he-whom-no-one-shall-name, the person who occupied the presidency from 2000-2008, that I have come up with yet another name for him: Witt Womney. And of course his lovely better half Witt wife Ann-toinette Womney. (Say it fast a few times.)
I heard that George W. had fallen off the wagon, and that's why no one knows where he is. Is that correct?
Go gop bafoons party ,you don't have my vote ,rinsemy penis and McDonald's the gop stooge are two of the reasons ,vote early so your vote counts and the gop can't rig this election ,that should be enough reasons to vote againest the gop bafoons party !!!
September 26, 2012 03:05 pm at 3:05 pm |
GonzoinHouston
And so the campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination begins,,,,
September 26, 2012 03:06 pm at 3:06 pm |
vic , nashville ,tn
We are ready for 2016
September 26, 2012 03:09 pm at 3:09 pm |
LacrosseMom
McDonnell, another member of the GOP Taliban! Shoving his values down the throats of American women!
September 26, 2012 03:21 pm at 3:21 pm |
LacrosseMom
What a HAPPY day November 6th will be ........when the GOP ......Teapublican 112th Congress has been voted out..... the Democrats have a huge majority in the Senate.......and President Obama is reelected in a LANDSLIDE VICTORY!
September 26, 2012 03:23 pm at 3:23 pm |
the situation
truth hurts
Good move... firm up that conservative vote. Get everybody motivated and voting Obama OUT!
September 26, 2012 02:11 pm at 2:11 pm |
You're so delusional it's too funny now. Iowa is moving up to leaning towards Obama. Is it over, no way, but Romney hasn't had one month of error free politics. He will screw up some where in October, hence the October surprise and place the finale of his ill fated run for the WH to a utter stop!
September 26, 2012 03:26 pm at 3:26 pm |
truth hurts
The Real Tom Paine - The ones where the GOP governors say that the auto bailout and the stimulous helped them to turn their economies around?
============================================================================================
Oh brother.... you seem to be the ONLY person on the planet left that will spout this nonsense. Stimulus money that went to states was to keep their union payrolls inflated when the states couldn't pay for it. Ultimately the states HAD to pay for it as the money dried up and these people had to be let go as there was no money to pay them. The Republican Governors made the tough choices that had to be made to get their states back in the black and on solid footing.
And the auto bailout??? The only people that made out were the unions. The taxpayers are still owed roughly $50 BILLION that they will probably never see while the unions were given ownership of the company. The government involvement should have been minimal and short term. A horrendous precident has been set with the illegal takeover of a publicly held company by the government We are NOT a Banana Republic, although after another 4 years of Obama, we WILL be one. | {
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The Top Treatment For Stretch Marks
There are many ways of eliminating stretch mark. The problem is not about whether you'll find a treatment for it but rather, whether you'll find a treatment that works. They are even more available to the public now more than ever before. What one really has to do is study what the different procedures are to get rid of stretch marks. Then a person can discern what the best procedure to take is.
The Natural Way
Early Detection and Treatment - Early detection and prevention is the key to getting rid of stretch marks. Of course, preventing them from occurring in the first place is ideal. But there are times in life when one does not realize he or she is gaining weight at a quick pace and it is at these times that stretch marks can start to form.
Stretch marks are scars and these scars are the result from the dermis tearing because of the quick growth and stretching of skin. To be extra sure that you treat stretch marks correctly, you must first inspect if you have any. They will usually look like reddened or purplish lines and the skin around them is more sensitive or softer than the rest of the surrounding skin. If you do detect this, then it is still early and you can still treat the stretch marks by exercising and also by hydrating your body. 8 to 10 glasses of water a day and a healthy diet will help the skin repair itself and thus stop stretch marks forming into something that is more permanent.
Medications & Creams
Options for treatment also vary according to the degree of stretch marks. For people who already have stretch marks that are in a phase beyond prevention there is another way. Some dermatologists will prescribe specially medicated creams as a treatment for stretch marks. These creams can be used by simply massaging them into the affected area. Regular use of these creams will ultimately result in better skin conditions and less scarring caused by stretch marks.
Plastic Surgery & Laser Treatment
Abdominoplasty and Laser Treatment - For more serious cases of stretch marks, there are the choices of a tummy tuck or laser treatment. Since most people get stretch marks below the belly button or around the abdominal area, they can opt for a tummy tuck. Of course, this is probably only best for people who actually need a tummy tuck because the procedure is intended to get rid of excess loose skin that has come about after losing a significant amount of weight.
More Options - For other areas of the body, there is also laser treatment that involves the stripping away of layers of the dead skin cells left behind by stretch marks. By burning these layers away with a laser, the skin can then be left to heal properly and then normalize so that it can take on the tone and color of the surrounding skin. | {
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I,m looking to get an explore scientific 127mm apo and a 80mm triplet for ap. I'll be using a dslr, for now, and an orion auto guider to track. I already have an 11" mak-cass w/ wedge. I figure, depending on target and location, I can use one for observing while using the other for ap. I know all 3 have their own niches/ advantages and will use them as such. My main concern is not overloading the mount. Thank you for any help.
The problem with the DX is that the scopes you are looking to mount on it might not be heavy enough to balance it. The DX can't be balanced with anything lighter than a C9.25 basically. Obviously, the Mak-Cass will be fine. The other thing is that the DX tripod is simply enormous and unless you really need that, you are just as well off with the standard CGEM and, if for some reason you feel that you need greater stability, you can add an aftermarket spreader and have a much lighter tripod.
The problem with the DX is that the scopes you are looking to mount on it might not be heavy enough to balance it. The DX can't be balanced with anything lighter than a C9.25 basically. Obviously, the Mak-Cass will be fine. The other thing is that the DX tripod is simply enormous and unless you really need that, you are just as well off with the standard CGEM and, if for some reason you feel that you need greater stability, you can add an aftermarket spreader and have a much lighter tripod.
+1. Good advice, and if you do go that route, the TPI Spreader is a fantastic piece of equipment. Once it's "snapped" into place, the tripod is incredibly rigid and stable.
I have a DX mount, I planned on getting a refractor to put on it for widefield imaging. Are you saying only big boulders can be used on the mount to balance it? I was under the impression it was the same thing as the CGEM except for the tripod and higher amperage to the motors to help with heavier loads for imaging.
I believe he was referring to my use of the 80mm triplet. I would actually use that for wide field imaging, but that would be piggyback mounted on the sct. I don't know why I called it a Mak-cass, especially since I know it's not. I would also use it as a grab n go on a simple tripod, the 80mm, not the 11" sct. I plan on using the 80 for everything from visual, to imaging and guiding. My apologies for not being clear, I'm on the back end of a 48 hr shift, with only 4 hrs of sleep. My mind is running like a bugs bunny cartoon right now. The part where the rabbit, or road runner, disappears with 20 different paths for fudd or the coyote to figure out. Needless to say, those 3 scopes have many options/combinations for me to use them in. In my mind anyway.
The standard CGEM is saddle heavy so that you can mount just about any scope on it and then add counterwieghts on the counterwieght bar to balance the mount. The CGEM DX is just the opposite, it is saddle light. That is because they took the same mount and added a very heavy steel counterwieght bar nut and counterwieght bar (the standard CGEM has an aluminum counterwieght bar nut). As a result, the only way to balance a lighter scope on the DX is to add counterwieght to the scope side of the axis, something that most people are not prepared for even if it was a good idea (think about flexure and DEC balance problems). That is why Celestron only sells the DX in combination with the C9.25 and above. The C9.25 wieghs 20 pounds but the AR127 only weighs 15 pounds so that, by itself, it will probably won't balance on the CGEM DX. Once you add a guider, etc. it may be OK, but it probably won't work for visual use.
Higher amperage to the motors really has little to do with being able to use heavier loads for imaging. All it really does is allow you to use loads that are less well-balanced (which is not a good idea in the first place). A well-balanced mount does not really need more power to move the axis.
Ed, sorry if I mislead you, the 127 I was referring to is the ED127, not the AR127.
With the ED127 being 22 pounds, it should balance on the CGEM DX. This may be an issue for many people who do not have scopes weighing 20+ pounds and are thinking about a CGEM DX. The DX is less versatile than the standard CGEM because of this.
You can balance the CGEM DX with smaller scopes, just not with the Celestron supplied 22lb counterweight.
Losmandy makes 7lb and 11lb counterweights that fit the CGEM DX. At a star party this summer, I loaned out one of my Losmandy weights to someone so that they could balance and 8" SCT on a CGEM DX.
It's a better option than adding weight to the OTA side.
The problem is that Celestron does not include or sell a lighter counterwieght for the DX and the counterwieght bar and nut are so heavy that some scope will never balance on it, so if you buy one thinking that you might use your 80mm or 90mm refractor, you won't be able to (Celestron use to sell some lighter counterwieghts for the CGE but stopped doing so long ago). To use your C8, you will have to find some more expensive counterwieghts from another manufacturer that are not readily available on the used market. This is not something that is obvious from the literature anywhere. There are actually very few counterwieghts available for 1-inch diameter bars and those that are tend to be relatively expensive. I'm sure that the person who showed up at the star party expecting to use the C8 on their DX was probably surprised to find out that they needed to borrow someone else's counterwieght to do so.
As stated above, Losmandy has all kinds of weights that fit that counterweight bar, and they're not nearly the cost of something like Cassidy weights. I think the 11 pounder goes for $50 and the 7 for $40 or so.
There are actually very few counterwieghts available for 1-inch diameter bars and those that are tend to be relatively expensive. I'm sure that the person who showed up at the star party expecting to use the C8 on their DX was probably surprised to find out that they needed to borrow someone else's counterwieght to do so.
First of all, the counterweight shaft of the DX isn't 1", it's 1.25" and there's a whole world of available counterweights - both new and used. I have no problem at all balancing whatever scope I want to mount on mine. I have counterweights to handle the requirements.
There are actually very few counterwieghts available for 1-inch diameter bars and those that are tend to be relatively expensive. I'm sure that the person who showed up at the star party expecting to use the C8 on their DX was probably surprised to find out that they needed to borrow someone else's counterwieght to do so.
First of all, the counterweight shaft of the DX isn't 1", it's 1.25" and there's a whole world of available counterweights - both new and used. I have no problem at all balancing whatever scope I want to mount on mine. I have counterweights to handle the requirements.
Your reaction suggests that you think I am here to bash the CGEM DX. I happen to be the owner of the CGEM DX Yahoo group and a DX owner myself. Yes, I made a typo in my post and the CW shaft diameter is not 1 inch but is instead 1.233 inches. If you have no problem balancing any scope on the DX, then you must only have heavier scopes and/or some very light counterwieghts available.
I can tell you that my Lunt60PT, 70mm Vixen achro, 80mm triplet APO, 100mm achro, and C8 Edge HD cannot be balanced on the DX with the stock counterwieght. My TMB130 balances with the stock counterwieght moved down 2-3 inches from the top. This is with the heavier ADM dual saddle and knobs on the mount. I have one 11 pound counterwieght that fits on the shaft and even with that I cannot balance the Lunt, 70 and 100mm achros or the 80mm APO. The point is that this is not something that is apparent to someone thinking of buying this mount but these are fairly common sized scopes. The average mount is generally either saddle heavy or evenly balanced. Only mounts meant for large loads are likely to be saddle light.
While 1.25 inch counterwieghts are available, they are much less common and, on average, more expensive pound per pound than the .75 inch counterwieghts that fit many mounts including the CGEM, CG-5, LXD75 and numerous other mounts and can be purchased used for about $10. Availability from Losmandy and Casady of 5 to 15 pound counterwieghts from $50 to $150 a piece does not make them common or cheap.
Ed makes a valid point. Though not impossible the CGEM DX does not come setup with small scopes in mind.
Sure you can make a counterweight but not everyone will want to go through the hassle. I have a CGEM DX and had to wait around to find a used 7.5 pound counterweight for $40 which is what I thought was reasonable. So there are options just not as available or as cheap as with a 1" counterweight.
Another thing to keep in mind is that stock it uses a losmandy size saddle and not the vixen size. So if your scope has the smaller bar you'll need to buy a larger bar or change the mount saddle. I bought an ADM dual saddle...again more money.
Finally, Ed mentions how massive the mount is. It's a BEAST! I believe it's 110 pounds minus the scope. So you should consider this as well. Not a big deal for me since I roll mine out into the yard but it's too big to carry very far fully assembled.
I use mine with the NP127 and it's like a rock. Eventually I will do some imaging with it and I'm sure it will have no problem. The reason I bought the CGEM DX and not the CGEM is that I intend to use larger scopes on it eventually. I also have a CG5 and I could use that tripod with the CGEM DX head if I want to cut down a bit on weight.
If I was only going to use it for the NP127 the GGEM would do just fine.
Hi Everyone,
I have recently bought a CGEM DX and love it. I use a 9.25 Edge and guide scope. If I set the counterweight out of balance while imaging and forget to put it back, then slew, the mount has a hard time. My power supply has an Amp meter and it draws about .55amps when slewing on high speed balanced. When slewing both axes at the same time balanced it draws .80amps. If its way out of balance slewing both axes it might reach 1.00amp. I don't see any advantage of the 2.8amp chip they put in it. When I slew at low speeds it has a hard time. If its out of balance it doesn't move at low speeds some times. I wasn't happy at the lack of power when needed at low speeds. But I really like the heavy rock solid tripod. It makes a big difference when imaging. I like the big counterweight bar but I have to put the 22lb counterweight near the end. I'm around 30lbs. So I drilled out an 11 lb. counterweight from an LX80. It works great. But the counterweight bar is so thick It makes no difference if I put the 22lb. counterweight out near the end. I have never owned a regular CGEM but I am glad I bought the CGEM DX.
Higher amperage to the motors really has little to do with being able to use heavier loads for imaging. All it really does is allow you to use loads that are less well-balanced (which is not a good idea in the first place). A well-balanced mount does not really need more power to move the axis.
I was begining to think about upgrading to a DX. I have a 30lb OTA on my CGEM and was thinking about adding a pair of binoviewers (3-4lbs) which brings me pretty close to the published max. I'm visual only (occasional Mallincam) and pier mounted. Now it sounds like the DX is really no advantage for me.
Higher amperage to the motors really has little to do with being able to use heavier loads for imaging. All it really does is allow you to use loads that are less well-balanced (which is not a good idea in the first place). A well-balanced mount does not really need more power to move the axis.
I was begining to think about upgrading to a DX. I have a 30lb OTA on my CGEM and was thinking about adding a pair of binoviewers (3-4lbs) which brings me pretty close to the published max. I'm visual only (occasional Mallincam) and pier mounted. Now it sounds like the DX is really no advantage for me.
Al
Realistically, if you are visual only, then you would probably be just fine with the standard CGEM. If you feel you want more stability in the tripod, just add a better spreader.
So if I want to do wide field imaging with an 80mm on my DX I'm screwed? Or couldn't I just piggyback it on my 11 HD which I believe is 27lbs. Or I make sure the refractor isn't too light? And what about using the fastar, anyone have good success with that? I'm just wondering because I've mine for about two months and I've had balancing issues. When I think it's balanced and slew it the motors will struggle and kind of jump so I bring the counterweight down and that solves my problem
So if I want to do wide field imaging with an 80mm on my DX I'm screwed? Or couldn't I just piggyback it on my 11 HD which I believe is 27lbs. Or I make sure the refractor isn't too light? And what about using the fastar, anyone have good success with that? I'm just wondering because I've mine for about two months and I've had balancing issues. When I think it's balanced and slew it the motors will struggle and kind of jump so I bring the counterweight down and that solves my problem
Yes. By piggy backing or using a heavier OTA you are adding more weight to the saddle end of the axis which overcomes the issue. Again, the problem is that people don't generally expect this to be an issue in the first place. Personally, this is the only mount that I know of that has this issue (although I expect there are other mounts that are specifically designed for heavy loads only).
If the axes are stiff when the clutches are released, balancing will be difficult if possible at all. | {
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President Receives EU Special Representative for South Caucasus and Georgia Crisis
Today, President Serzh Sargsyan received EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar.
Welcoming the guest, the President of Armenia noted with satisfaction the recent progress in the relations between Armenia and the European Union, which is noticeable not only in bilateral relations, but also within the framework of the Eastern Partnership.
President Sargsyan emphasized that from the perspective of these relations, 2017 and early 2018 were marked by major achievements, if we consider that another document was signed in Brussels just two days ago on the priorities of Armenia’s partnership with the European Union, which sets out the goals Armenia has set itself in the framework of cooperation with the EU.
Serzh Sargsyan noted that Armenia is determined to continue developing relations in the same spirit and implement the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement within the shortest possible time frames. To this end, a Deputy Prime Minister-headed interagency commission has been set up to coordinate the implementation of the CEPA and the Partnership Priorities.
President Sargsyan noted that Armenia will probably ratify the agreement by the end of April in order to launch its provisional implementation, in particular, the process of approximation in individual sectors until the completion of the ratification process by EU-member States. The President noted with satisfaction that Estonia, Toivo Klaar’s home country, has already completed the ratification process and expressed the hope that the other EU-member States will do so in the foreseeable future.
The EU Special Representative agreed with the President of Armenia that the EU-Armenia relations are developing quite well. Touching upon the ratification process, he said it might take time in some European countries, which does not prevent Armenia and the European Union from pursuing an interim arrangement in a bid to expand the relations day by day. Toivo Klaar emphasized that Armenia is a good example how a country, being a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, may at the same time have good relations with the European Union.
President Sargsyan and the EU Special Representative took the opportunity to exchange views on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process. Toivo Klaar reaffirmed the European Union’s support for the efforts exerted by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs with a view to achieving a peaceful resolution.
Will Britain and Russia be able to overcome the crisis in their relations in the near future?
In other media partial or full reproductions of this website indication of the source "Armedia" Information, Analytical Agency is required.
Opinions expressed in the website do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff.
The website is not responsible for the content of the advertisement. | {
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Transforming Modular Desk Shifts to Fit Your Technology
By Delana
When space is at a premium but you still need a dedicated area for work or homework, you can either work on the couch with a laptop (as this writer is prone to do) or you can find a piece of furniture that fits both your space constraints and your work requirements.
The Tablet Desk 2.0 from Bee9 Design Studio is a transforming piece of furniture that goes from compact side table to full-on home office with just a few fluid moves. As a bonus, the desk/table is small enough to fit through any doorway easily, unlike just about every other desk.
The handcrafted desk was designed for the technology-loving small-space dweller. Every facet of the desk is meant to accommodate the many technology needs of the modern human. With pieces that deftly move into place or out of the way, the desk somehow anticipates the current and future needs of users.
The designers realize that different people use different technology, so the desk is built to be a sturdy home for whatever electronic devices you happen to use. It has places to stash cords, recesses to support iMacs, and even a sturdy backrest for a tablet. Magnetic legs support a flip-up surface that is perfect for writing, studying, or taking a quick nap before you start on that next urgent project. | {
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How close is Hurricane Florence’s track to past hurricanes with a Carolina landfall?
Hurricane Florence was a Category 4 hurricane by Monday afternoon and is on track to make landfall in the Carolinas. Here's how its path compares to past hurricanes that've been historical for the Carolinas — including Hurricane Hugo.
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Hurricane Florence was a Category 4 hurricane by Monday afternoon and is on track to make landfall in the Carolinas. Here's how its path compares to past hurricanes that've been historical for the Carolinas — including Hurricane Hugo.
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An Ohio native, she’s only been in North Carolina for three years and (thankfully) hasn’t seen or experienced the true dangers of a powerful hurricane. And she’s probably not alone.
Nearly half of North Carolina’s population was born elsewhere, The News & Observer’s Abbie Bennett reported in March. So there are likely thousands of people who don’t know what to expect from Hurricane Florence when it comes ashore later this week.
I won’t name names, but I’ve seen some social media posts from people downplaying the seriousness of the storm. Triangle transplants, just because you yawned your way through Hurricane Matthew — which did relatively little in the Triangle — doesn’t mean you’re an expert.
You’re not.
The best sources for information are local meteorologists and people who have lived in North Carolina for 20 years or so. The strength and general path of Florence (a Category 4 storm) is akin to Hurricane Fran in 1996, which was a Category 3 when it hit, causing 24 deaths in North Carolina and more than $7 billion worth of damage.
At the time, I lived in Fuquay and was 9 years old.
You may not trust my recollection of the event. But you should consider taking the advice of another transplant who had never experienced a severe hurricane: my dad.
Having waited out Hurricane Allison — a Category 1 — the year before, my father thought Hurricane Fran would be “no big deal.”
Next thing he knew, three trees had fallen on our house.
“The worst part of Fran was that it came in the middle of the night,” my dad, Tim, recalled on the phone with me.
“People who have been through tornadoes talk about how they sound like freight trains,” he said. “That’s what it sounded like all night. You could hear limbs snapping, trees falling, it was really scary.”
After Fran passed, we discovered that a tornado (yes, hurricanes can spawn tornadoes) had indeed churned up the trees in the empty lot next to us. Fallen trees were everywhere.
“It took us an hour and a half to get to your uncle’s house” in Holly Springs, Dad recalled. “We didn’t have power for three or four days.”
So, without further ado, here are some answers to some frequently asked questions about hurricanes.
What should I expect during the hurricane?
Former North Carolina resident Doug Jackson, who lived here 33 years before moving to Washington, D.C., last summer, might have said it best.
“Honestly, they can expect long periods of boredom with slowly-increasing low-level anxiety punctuated by moments of terror. Have some candles to burn in addition to flashlights, find some sort of game to keep you busy, etc. Maybe get some instant coffee,” Jackson tweeted.
Honestly, they can expect long periods of boredom with slowly-increasing low-level anxiety punctuated by moments of terror.
Have some candles to burn in addition to flashlights, find some sort of game to keep you busy, etc. Maybe get some instant coffee
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What should I watch out for?
Fran and Floyd brought flooding and softened the ground, making it easier for strong winds to topple lots of trees. So be aware of which trees could fall on your house or car. Also, stay away from windows that could come in contact with flying debris.
Wilmington resident Kim Gramlisch, who grew up in North Carolina, pointed out on Twitter that you should remove “all potential projectiles” from your yard.
Andy, get all the potential projectiles out of your yard. Get some cash. Get some batteries and flashlights. Have your food delivered last week from Costco like I did. Bottle up some water. Get some gas —and when the power goes out for a week don’t play Monopoly with my mother. pic.twitter.com/hViPql7RkX
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Can I drive in a hurricane?
You absolutely should not. There’s no telling where trees will be down, which roads will be flooded or how other people might drive. This isn’t like driving in snow or winter weather — you don’t get better at it the more you do it.
So, unless you plan on leaving the state before the storm hits, take it from this southerner and stay home. | {
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Firozabad (Uttar Pradesh), Dec 7 : Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday blamed the “dangerous policies” of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the mob violence in Bulandshahr earlier this week, and said that panicked by their shrinking base they were fanning communal passions. “The Bulandshahr incident is a result of the ‘thoko niti’ of the state government,” the former chief minister said at a public rally in Firozabad.
Speaking at the rally held during the unveiling of a statue of a Kargil martyr, Yadav also warned the people to be watchful of the activities of the BJP and its leaders as they had mastered the art of confusing people and fanning communal passions.
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav who shared the stage with his son, with whom his relations had soured in the past few years, also targeted the BJP and said only the SP had “the power to defeat the BJP”.
He claimed that the BJP was pumping in money everywhere to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, but he hoped for a victory for the SP. He said that the hard work of the SP cadres will ultimately see the party candidates win in large numbers.
(IANS) | {
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A few weeks ago, we went to Norwich for the day to find some dragons…GoGo Dragons, to be exact…there are 84 of these art sculptures across the city. Obviously, we weren’t able to see all of them, but we managed a good number…38!
This is rather long overdue blog post! Last August, the kids and I took a day trip to Norwich. Despite having had holidays in Norfolk in the past, I had never visited the county city. An added attraction was the GoGo Gorilla art trail which was taking place in Norfolk during the summer. | {
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Tag : Larry Nickell
HEMI® Crate Engines to Power Spec Class in Every Man Challenge Race Mopar joins the 2014 Griffin King of The Hammers off-road race in a new spec class to debut on Feb 6 in the California desert 8th annual King of The… | {
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Get Started with AWS Certificate Manager
AWS Certificate Manager is a service that lets you easily provision, manage, and deploy public and private Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) certificates for use with AWS services and your internal connected resources. SSL/TLS certificates are used to secure network communications and establish the identity of websites over the Internet as well as resources on private networks. AWS Certificate Manager removes the time-consuming manual process of purchasing, uploading, and renewing SSL/TLS certificates. With AWS Certificate Manager, you can quickly request a certificate, deploy it on AWS resources such as Elastic Load Balancers, Amazon CloudFront distributions, and APIs on API Gateway, and let AWS Certificate Manager handle certificate renewals. It also enables you to create private certificates for your internal resources and manage the certificate lifecycle centrally. Public and private SSL/TLS certificates provisioned through AWS Certificate Manager and used exclusively with ACM-integrated services, such as Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon CloudFront, and Amazon API Gateway, are free. You pay for the AWS resources you create to run your application. You pay a monthly fee for the operation of each private CA until you delete it, and for the private certificates you issue that are not used exclusively with ACM-integrated services.
Q: What is an SSL/TLS certificate?
SSL/TLS certificates allow web browsers to identify and establish encrypted network connections to web sites using the Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) protocol. Certificates are used within a cryptographic system known as a public key infrastructure (PKI). PKI provides a way for one party to establish the identity of another party using certificates if they both trust a third party - known as a certificate authority. The Concepts topic in the ACM User Guide provides additional background information and definitions.
Q: What are private certificates?
Private certificates identify resources within an organization, such as applications, services, devices and users. In establishing a secure encrypted communications channel, each endpoint uses a certificate and cryptographic techniques to prove its identity to the other endpoint. Internal API endpoints, web servers, VPN users, IoT devices, and many other applications use private certificates to establish encrypted communication channels that are necessary for their secure operation.
Q: What is the difference between public and private certificates?
Both public and private certificates help customers identify resources on networks and secure communication between these resources. Public certificates identify resources on the public Internet, whereas private certificates do the same for private networks. One key difference is that applications and browsers trust public certificates automatically by default, whereas an administrator must explicitly configure applications to trust private certificates. Public CAs, the entities that issue public certificates, must follow strict rules, provide operational visibility, and meet security standards imposed by the browser and operating system vendors that decide which CAs their browsers and operating systems trust automatically. Private CAs are managed by private organizations, and private CA administrators can make their own rules for issuing private certificates, including practices for issuing certificates and what information a certificate can include. Refer to ACM Private CA below to learn more about private certificates and private CAs.
Q: What are the benefits of using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) and ACM Private Certificate Authority (CA)?
ACM makes it easier to enable SSL/TLS for a website or application on the AWS platform. ACM eliminates many of the manual processes previously associated with using and managing SSL/TLS certificates. ACM can also help you avoid downtime due to misconfigured, revoked, or expired certificates by managing renewals. You get SSL/TLS protection and easy certificate management. Enabling SSL/TLS for Internet-facing sites can help improve the search rankings for your site and help you meet regulatory compliance requirements for encrypting data in transit.
When you use ACM to manage certificates, certificate private keys are securely protected and stored using strong encryption and key management best practices. ACM lets you use the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS Certificate Manager APIs to centrally manage all of the SSL/TLS ACM certificates in an AWS Region. ACM is integrated with other AWS services, so you can request an SSL/TLS certificate and provision it with your Elastic Load Balancing load balancer or Amazon CloudFront distribution from the AWS Management Console, through AWS CLI commands, or with API calls.
ACM Private CA is a managed private CA service that helps you easily and securely manage the lifecycle of your private certificates. ACM Private CA provides you a highly-available private CA service without the upfront investment and ongoing maintenance costs of operating your own private CA. ACM Private CA extends ACM’s certificate management capabilities to private certificates, enabling you to manage public and private certificates centrally. ACM Private CA allows developers to be more agile by providing them APIs to create and deploy private certificates programmatically. You also have the flexibility to create private certificates for applications that require custom certificate lifetimes or resource names. With ACM Private CA, you can create, manage, and track private certificates for your connected resources in one place with a secure, pay as you go, managed private CA service.
Q: What types of certificates can I create and manage with ACM?
ACM enables you to manage the lifecycle of your public and private certificates. ACM’s capabilities depend on whether the certificate is public or private, how you obtain the certificate, and where you deploy it. See ACM Public Certificates to learn more about public certificates and refer to the ACM Private CA section below to learn more about private certificates and private CAs.
Public certificates - ACM manages the renewal and deployment of public certificates used with ACM-integrated services, including Amazon CloudFront, Elastic Load Balancing, and Amazon API Gateway.
Private certificates – ACM Private CA provides three ways to create and manage private certificates. 1) You can choose to delegate private certificate management to ACM. When used in this way, ACM can automatically renew and deploy private certificates used with ACM-integrated services, including Amazon CloudFront, Elastic Load Balancing, and Amazon API Gateway. You can easily deploy these private certificates using the AWS Management console, APIs, and command-line interface (CLI). 2) You can export private certificates from ACM and use them with EC2 instances, containers, on-premises servers, and IoT devices. ACM Private CA automatically renews these certificates and sends an Amazon CloudWatch notification when the renewal is completed. You can write client-side code to download renewed certificates and private keys and deploy them with your application. 3) ACM Private CA gives you the flexibility to create your own private keys, generate a certificate signing request (CSR), issue private certificates from your ACM Private CA, and manage the keys and certificates yourself. You are responsible for renewing and deploying these private certificates.
Imported certificates – If you want to use a third-party certificate with Amazon CloudFront, Elastic Load Balancing, or Amazon API Gateway, you may import it into ACM using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or ACM APIs. ACM does not manage the renewal process for imported certificates. You are responsible for monitoring the expiration date of your imported certificates and for renewing them before they expire. You can use the AWS Management Console to monitor the expiration dates of an imported certificates and import a new third-party certificate to replace an expiring one.
Q: How can I get started with ACM?
To get started with AWS Certificate Manager, navigate to Certificate Manager in the AWS Management Console and use the wizard to request an SSL/TLS certificate. If you have already created an ACM Private CA, you can choose whether you want a public or private certificate, and then enter the name of your site. See ACM Private CA and ACM Public Certificates below to determine which kind of certificate you need and to learn more about ACM Private CA. You can also request a certificate using the AWS CLI or API. After the certificate is issued, you can use it with other AWS services that are integrated with ACM. For each integrated service, you simply select the SSL/TLS certificate you want from a drop-down list in the AWS Management Console. Alternatively, you can execute an AWS CLI command or call an AWS API to associate the certificate with your resource. The integrated service then deploys the certificate to the resource you selected. For more information about requesting and using certificates provided by AWS Certificate Manager, visit Getting Started in the AWS Certificate Manager User Guide. In addition to using private certificates with ACM-integrated services, you can also use private certificates on EC2 instances, on ECS containers, or anywhere. See Private Certificates for more details.
In addition, you can use private certificates issued with ACM Private CA with EC2 instances, containers, IoT devices, and on your own servers.
Q: In what Regions is ACM available?
Please visit the AWS Global Infrastructure pages to see the current Region availability for AWS services. To use an ACM certificate with Amazon CloudFront, you must request or import the certificate in the US East (N. Virginia) region. ACM certificates in this region that are associated with a CloudFront distribution are distributed to all the geographic locations configured for that distribution.
Private certificates are used for identifying and securing communication between connected resources on private networks such as servers, mobile and IoT devices, and applications. ACM Private CA is a managed private CA service that helps you easily and securely manage the lifecycle of your private certificates. ACM Private CA provides you a highly-available private CA service without the upfront investment and ongoing maintenance costs of operating your own private CA. ACM Private CA extends ACM’s certificate management capabilities to private certificates, enabling you to create and manage public and private certificates centrally. You can easily create and deploy private certificates for your AWS resources using the AWS Management Console or the ACM API. For EC2 instances, containers, IoT devices, and on-premises resources, you can easily create and track private certificates and use your own client-side automation code to deploy them. You also have the flexibility to create private certificates and manage them yourself for applications that require custom certificate lifetimes, key algorithms, or resource names. Learn more about ACM Private CA.
Q: What are private certificates?
Private certificates identify resources within an organization, such as applications, services, devices and users. In establishing a secure encrypted communications channel, each endpoint uses a certificate and cryptographic techniques to prove its identity to the other endpoint. Internal API endpoints, web servers, VPN users, IoT devices, and many other applications use private certificates to establish encrypted communication channels that are necessary for their secure operation.
Q: What is a private certificate authority (CA)?
A private CA handles the issuance, validation and revocation of private certificates within a private network (i.e. not the public internet). It is comprised of two major components: The first is the CA certificate, a cryptographic building block upon which certificates can be issued. The second is a set of run-time services for maintaining revocation information through the Certificate Revocation List (CRL). When resources attempt to connect with one another, they check the CRL for the status of the certificates that each entity presents. If the certificates are valid, a handshake is accomplished between the resources which cryptographically proves the identity of each entity to the other, and creates an encrypted communication channel (TLS/SSL) between them.
Q: How are private certificates and private CAs different from public certificates and public CAs?
The components of a private CA are the same as a public CA. However, public CAs must issue and validate certificates for resources on the public Internet, whereas private CAs do the same for private networks. One key difference is that applications and browsers trust public certificates automatically by default, whereas an administrator must explicitly configure applications to trust certificates issued by private CAs. Public CAs must follow strict rules, provide operational visibility, and meet security standards imposed by the browser and operating system vendors that decide which CAs their browsers and operating systems trust automatically. Private CA administrators can make their own rules for issuing private certificates, including practices for issuing certificates and what information a certificate can include.
Q: Why do organizations use private certificates instead of public certificates?
Private certificates provide the flexibility to identify nearly anything in an organization, without disclosing the name publicly. Wiki.internal, IP address 192.168.1.1, fire-sensor-123, and user123 are examples of names that might be used in private certificates. In contrast, public certificates are strictly limited to identifying resources with public DNS names, such as www.example.com. Private certificates can include information prohibited in public certificates. Some enterprise applications have leveraged the ability to add extra information into private certificates, and could not function with public certificates.
Q: What are self-signed certificates and why should organizations use certificates from a private CA instead?
Self-signed certificates are those which are issued without a CA. Unlike certificates issued from a secure root maintained by a CA, self-signed certificates act as their own root, and as a result they have significant limitations: they can be used to provide on the wire encryption but not to verify identity, and they cannot be revoked. They are unacceptable from a security perspective, but organizations use them nonetheless because they are easy to generate, require no expertise or infrastructure, and many applications accept them. There are no controls in place for issuing self-signed certificates. Organizations that use them incur greater risk of outages caused by certificate expirations because they have no way to track expiration dates. ACM Private CA solves these problems.
Q: How can I get started with ACM Private CA?
To get started with ACM Private CA, navigate to Certificate Manager in the AWS Management Console and select Private CAs on the left side of the screen. Choose Get started to start creating a private certificate authority. Visit Getting Started in the ACM Private CA User Guide to learn more.
ACM manages public, private, and imported certificates. Refer to [Q: How can I manage certificates with ACM?] for details on ACM’s management capabilities for each type of certificate.
Q: Can ACM provide certificates with multiple domain names?
Yes. Each certificate must include at least one domain name, and you can add additional names to the certificate if you want to. For example, you can add the name “www.example.net” to a certificate for “www.example.com” if users can reach your site by either name. You must own or control all of the names included in your certificate request.
Q: What is a wildcard domain name?
A wildcard domain name matches any first level subdomain or hostname in a domain. A first-level subdomain is a single domain name label that does not contain a period (dot). For example you can use the name *.example.com to protect www.example.com, images.example.com, and any other host name or first-level subdomain that ends with .example.com. Refer to the ACM User Guide for more details.
Q: Can ACM provide certificates with wildcard domain names?
Yes.
Q: Does ACM provide certificates for anything other than SSL/TLS?
Certificates managed in ACM are intended to be used with SSL/TLS. If you issue private certificates directly from an ACM Private CA and manage the keys and certificates without using ACM for certificate management, you can configure the subject, validity period, key algorithm and signature algorithm of these private certificates and use them with SSL/TLS and other applications.
Q: Can I use ACM certificates for code signing or email encryption?
No.
Q: Does ACM provide certificates used to sign and encrypt email (S/MIME certificates)?
Not at this time.
Q: What is the validity period for ACM certificates?
Certificates issued through ACM are valid for 13 months. If you issue private certificates directly from an ACM Private CA and manage the keys and certificates without using ACM for certificate management, you can choose any validity period, including an absolute end date or a relative time that is days, months, or years from the present time.
Q: What algorithms do ACM certificates use?
Certificates managed in ACM use RSA keys with a 2048-bit modulus and SHA-256. If you issue private certificates directly from an ACM Private CA and manage the keys and certificates without using ACM for certificate management, you can also issue and use elliptic curve (ECDSA) certificates. ACM does not currently have the ability to manage these certificates.
You cannot copy ACM-managed certificates between regions at this time. You can copy private certificates that you export from ACM and certificates you issue directly from your ACM Private CA without using ACM for certificate and private key management.
Q: Can I use the same ACM certificate in more than one AWS Region?
It depends on whether you’re using Elastic Load Balancing or Amazon CloudFront. To use a certificate with Elastic Load Balancing for the same site (the same fully qualified domain name, or FQDN, or set of FQDNs) in a different Region, you must request a new certificate for each Region in which you plan to use it. To use an ACM certificate with Amazon CloudFront, you must request the certificate in the US East (N. Virginia) region. ACM certificates in this region that are associated with a CloudFront distribution are distributed to all the geographic locations configured for that distribution.
Q: Can I provision a certificate with ACM if I already have a certificate from another provider for the same domain name?
Yes.
Q: Can I use certificates on Amazon EC2 instances or on my own servers?
You can use private certificates issued with ACM Private CA with EC2 instances, containers, and on your own servers. At this time, public ACM certificates can be used only with specific AWS services. See With which AWS services can I use ACM certificates?
Both public and private certificates help customers identify resources on networks and secure communication between these resources. Public certificates identify resources on the Internet.
Q: What type of public certificates does ACM provide?
ACM provides Domain Validated (DV) public certificates for use with websites and applications that terminate SSL/TLS. For more details about ACM certificates, see Certificate Characteristics.
Q: Are ACM public certificates trusted by browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices?
ACM public certificates are trusted by most modern browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices. ACM-provided certificates have 99% browser and operating system ubiquity, including Windows XP SP3 and Java 6 and later.
Q: How can I confirm that my browser trusts ACM public certificates?
Browsers that trust ACM certificates display a lock icon and do not issue certificate warnings when connected to sites that use ACM certificates over SSL/TLS, for example using HTTPS.
Q: Where does Amazon describe its policies and practices for issuing public certificates?
They are described in the Amazon Trust Services Certificate Policies and Amazon Trust Services Certification Practices Statement documents. Refer to the Amazon Trust Services repository for the latest versions.
Q: How can I notify AWS if the information in a public certificate changes?
You notify AWS by sending email to validation-questions[at]amazon.com.
You can use the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or ACM APIs/SDKs. To use the AWS Management Console, navigate to the Certificate Manager, choose Request a certificate, select Request a public certificate, enter the domain name for your site, and follow the instructions on the screen to complete your request. You can add additional domain names to your request if users can reach your site by other names. Before ACM can issue a certificate, it validates that you own or control the domain names in your certificate request. You can choose DNS validation or email validation when requesting a certificate. With DNS validation, you write a record to the public DNS configuration for your domain to establish that you own or control the domain. After you use DNS validation once to establish control of your domain, you can obtain additional certificates and have ACM renew existing certificates for the domain as long as the record remains in place and the certificate remains in use. You do not have to validate control of the domain again. If you choose email validation instead of DNS validation, emails are sent to the domain owner requesting approval to issue the certificate. After validating that you own or control each domain name in your request, the certificate is issued and ready to be provisioned with other AWS services, such as Elastic Load Balancing or Amazon CloudFront. Refer to the ACM Documentation for details.
Q: Why does ACM validate domain ownership for public certificates?
Certificates are used to establish the identity of your site and secure connections between browsers and applications and your site. To issue a publicly trusted certificate, Amazon must validate that the certificate requestor has control over the domain name in the certificate request.
Q: How does ACM validate domain ownership before issuing a public certificate for a domain?
Prior to issuing a certificate, ACM validates that you own or control the domain names in your certificate request. You can choose DNS validation or email validation when requesting a certificate. With DNS validation, you can validate domain ownership by adding a CNAME record to your DNS configuration. Refer to DNS validation for further details. If you do not have the ability to write records to the public DNS configuration for your domain, you can use email validation instead of DNS validation. With email validation, ACM sends emails to the registered domain owner, and the owner or an authorized representative can approve issuance for each domain name in the certificate request. Refer to Email validation for further details.
Q. Which validation method should I use for my public certificate: DNS or email?
We recommend that you use DNS validation if you have the ability to change the DNS configuration for your domain. Customers who are unable to receive validation emails from ACM and those using a domain registrar that does not publish domain owner email contact information in WHOIS should use DNS validation. If you cannot modify your DNS configuration, you should use email validation.
Q. Can I convert an existing public certificate from email validation to DNS validation?
No, but you can request a new, free certificate from ACM and choose DNS validation for the new one.
Q: How long does it take for a public certificate to be issued?
The time to issue a certificate after all of the domain names in a certificate request have been validated may be several hours or longer.
Q: What happens when I request a public certificate?
ACM attempts to validate ownership or control of each domain name in your certificate request, according to the validation method you chose, DNS or email, when making the request. The status of the certificate request is Pending validation while ACM attempts to validate that you own or control the domain. Refer to the DNS validation and Email validation sections below for more information about the validation process. After all of the domain names in the certificate request are validated, the time to issue certificates may be several hours or longer. When the certificate is issued, the status of the certificate request changes to Issued and you can start using it with other AWS services that are integrated with ACM.
Yes. DNS Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records allow domain owners to specify which certificate authorities are authorized to issue certificates for their domain. When you request an ACM Certificate, AWS Certificate Manager looks for a CAA record in the DNS zone configuration for your domain. If a CAA record is not present, then Amazon can issue a certificate for your domain. Most customers fall into this category.
If your DNS configuration contains a CAA record, that record must specify one of the following CAs before Amazon can issue a certificate for your domain: amazon.com, amazontrust.com, awstrust.com, or amazonaws.com. Refer to Configure a CAA Record or Troubleshooting CAA Problems in the AWS Certificate Manager User Guide for more information.
With DNS validation, you can validate your ownership of a domain by adding a CNAME record to your DNS configuration. DNS Validation makes it easy for you to establish that you own a domain when requesting SSL/TLS certificates from ACM.
Q. What are the benefits of DNS validation?
DNS validation makes it easy to validate that you own or control a domain so that you can obtain an SSL/TLS certificate. With DNS validation, you simply write a CNAME record to your DNS configuration to establish control of your domain name. To simplify the DNS validation process, the ACM management console can configure DNS records for you if you manage your DNS records with Amazon Route 53. This makes it easy to establish control of your domain name with a few mouse clicks. Once the CNAME record is configured, ACM automatically renews certificates that are in use (associated with other AWS resources) as long as the DNS validation record remains in place. Renewals are fully automatic and touchless.
Q. Who should use DNS validation?
Anyone who requests a certificate through ACM and has the ability to change the DNS configuration for the domain they are requesting should consider using DNS validation.
Q. Does ACM still support email validation?
Yes. ACM continues to support email validation for customers who can’t change their DNS configuration.
Q. What records do I need to add to my DNS configuration to validate a domain?
You must add a CNAME record for the domain you want to validate. For example, to validate the name www.example.com, you add a CNAME record to the zone for example.com. The record you add contains a random token that ACM generates specifically for your domain and your AWS account. You can obtain the two parts of the CNAME record (name and label) from ACM. For further instructions, refer to the ACM User Guide.
Q. How can I add or modify DNS records for my domain?
For more information about how to add or modify DNS records, check with your DNS provider. The Amazon Route 53 DNS documentation provides further information for customers who use Amazon Route 53 DNS.
Q. Can ACM simplify DNS validation for Amazon Route 53 DNS customers?
Yes. For customers who are using Amazon Route 53 DNS to manage DNS records, the ACM console can add records to your DNS configuration for you when you request a certificate. Your Route 53 DNS hosted zone for your domain must be configured in the same AWS account as the one you are making the request from, and you must have sufficient permissions to make a change to your Amazon Route 53 configuration. For further instructions, refer to the ACM User Guide.
Q. Does DNS Validation require me to use a specific DNS provider?
No. You can use DNS validation with any DNS provider as long as the provider allows you to add a CNAME record to your DNS configuration.
Q. How many DNS records do I need if I want more than one certificate for the same domain?
One. You can obtain multiple certificates for the same domain name in the same AWS account using one CNAME record. For example, if you make 2 certificate requests from the same AWS account for the same domain name, you need only 1 DNS CNAME record.
Q. Can I validate multiple domain names with the same CNAME record?
No. Each domain name must have a unique CNAME record.
Q. Can I validate a wildcard domain name using DNS validation?
Yes.
Q. How does ACM construct CNAME records?
DNS CNAME records have two components: a name and a label. The name component of an ACM-generated CNAME is constructed from an underscore character (_) followed by a token, which is a unique string that is tied to your AWS account and your domain name. ACM prepends the underscore and token to your domain name to construct the name component. ACM constructs the label from an underscore character prepended to a different token which is also tied to your AWS account and your domain name. ACM prepends the underscore and token to a DNS domain name used by AWS for validations: acm-validations.aws. The following examples show the formatting of CNAMEs for www.example.com, subdomain.example.com, and *.example.com.
Notice that ACM removes the wildcard label (*) when generating CNAME records for wildcard names. As a result, the CNAME record generated by ACM for a wildcard name (such as *.example.com) is the same record returned for the domain name without the wildcard label (example.com).
Q. Can I validate all subdomains of a domain using one CNAME record?
No. Each domain name, including host names and subdomain names, must be validated separately, each with a unique CNAME record.
Using a CNAME record allows ACM to renew certificates for as long as the CNAME record exists. The CNAME record directs to a TXT record in an AWS domain (acm-validations.aws) that ACM can update as needed to validate or re-validate a domain name, without any action from you.
Q. Does DNS validation work across AWS Regions?
Yes. You can create one DNS CNAME record and use it to obtain certificates in the same AWS account in any AWS Region where ACM is offered. Configure the CNAME record once and you can get certificates issued and renewed from ACM for that name without creating another record.
Q. Can I choose different validation methods in the same certificate?
No. Each certificate can have only one validation method.
Q. How do I renew a certificate validated with DNS validation?
ACM automatically renews certificates that are in use (associated with other AWS resources) as long as the DNS validation record remains in place.
Q. Can I revoke permission to issue certificates for my domain?
Yes. Simply remove the CNAME record. ACM does not issue or renew certificates for your domain using DNS validation after you remove the CNAME record and the change is distributed through DNS. The propagation time to remove the record depends on your DNS provider.
Q. What happens if I remove the CNAME record?
ACM cannot issue or renew certificates for your domain using DNS validation if you remove the CNAME record.
With email validation, an approval request email is sent to the registered domain owner for each domain name in the certificate request. The domain owner or an authorized representative (approver) can approve the certificate request by following the instructions in the email. The instructions direct the approver to navigate to the approval website and click the link in the email or paste the link from the email into a browser to navigate to the approval web site. The approver confirms the information associated with the certificate request, such as the domain name, certificate ID (ARN), and the AWS account ID initiating the request, and approves the request if the information is accurate.
Q: When I request a certificate and choose email validation, to which email addresses is the certificate approval request sent?
When you request a certificate using email validation, a WHOIS lookup for each domain name in the certificate request is used to retrieve contact information for the domain. Email is sent to the domain registrant, administrative contact, and technical contact listed for the domain. Email is also sent to five special email addresses, which are formed by prepending admin@, administrator@, hostmaster@, webmaster@ and postmaster@ to the domain name you’re requesting. For example, if you request a certificate for server.example.com, email is sent to the domain registrant, technical contact, and administrative contact using contact information returned by a WHOIS query for the example.com domain, plus [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].
The five special email addresses are constructed differently for domain names that begin with "www" or wildcard names beginning with an asterisk (*). ACM removes the leading "www" or asterisk and email is sent to the administrative addresses formed by pre-pending admin@, administrator@, hostmaster@, postmaster@, and webmaster@ to the remaining portion of the domain name. For example, if you request a certificate for www.example.com, email is sent to the WHOIS contacts, as described previously, plus [email protected] rather than [email protected]. The remaining four special email addresses are similarly formed.
After you request a certificate, you can display the list of email addresses to which the email was sent for each domain using the ACM console, AWS CLI, or APIs.
Q: Can I configure the email addresses to which the certificate approval request is sent?
No, but you can configure the base domain name to which you want the validation email to be sent. The base domain name must be a superdomain of the domain name in the certificate request. For example, if you want to request a certificate for server.domain.example.com but want to direct the approval email to [email protected], you can do so using the AWS CLI or API. See ACM CLI Reference and ACM API Reference for further details.
Q: Can I use domains that have proxy contact information (such as Privacy Guard or WhoisGuard)?
Yes; however, email delivery may be delayed as a result of the proxy. Email sent through a proxy may end up in your spam folder. Refer to the ACM User Guide for troubleshooting suggestions.
A key pair is created for each certificate provided by ACM. AWS Certificate Manager is designed to protect and manage the private keys used with SSL/TLS certificates. Strong encryption and key management best practices are used when protecting and storing private keys.
Q: Does ACM copy certificates across AWS Regions?
No. The private key of each ACM certificate is stored in the Region in which you request the certificate. For example, when you obtain a new certificate in the US East (N. Virginia) Region, ACM stores the private key in the N. Virginia Region. ACM certificates are only copied across Regions if the certificate is associated with a CloudFront distribution. In that case, CloudFront distributes the ACM certificate to the geographic locations configured for your distribution.
Q: Can I audit the use of certificate private keys?
Yes. Using AWS CloudTrail you can review logs that tell you when the private key for the certificate was used.
Public and private certificates provisioned through AWS Certificate Manager for use with ACM-integrated services, such as Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon CloudFront, and Amazon API Gateway services are free. You pay for the AWS resources you create to run your application. AWS Certificate Manager Private Certificate Authority has pay as you go pricing. You pay a monthly fee for the operation of each ACM Private CA until you delete it. You also pay for the private certificates you create and export from ACM, such as those used with EC2 or on-premises servers or the ones you issue directly from your Private CA by creating the private key yourself. Refer to Pricing page for more details and examples.
Q: Can I use the same certificate with multiple Elastic Load Balancing load balancers and multiple CloudFront distributions?
Yes.
Q: Can I use public certificates for internal Elastic Load Balancing load balancers with no public internet access?
Yes, but you can also consider using ACM Private CA to issue private certificates that ACM can renew without validation. See Managed Renewal and Deployment for details about how ACM handles renewals for public certificates that are not reachable from the Internet and private certificates.
Q: Will a certificate for www.example.com also work for example.com?
No. If you want your site to be referenced by both domain names (www.example.com and example.com), you must request a certificate that includes both names.
Q: Can I import a third party certificate and use it with AWS services?
Yes. If you want to use a third-party certificate with Amazon CloudFront, Elastic Load Balancing, or Amazon API Gateway, you may import it into ACM using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or ACM APIs. ACM does not manage the renewal process for imported certificates. You can use the AWS Management Console to monitor the expiration dates of an imported certificates and import a new third-party certificate to replace an expiring one.
Q: How can ACM help my organization meet my compliance requirements?
Using ACM helps you comply with regulatory requirements by making it easy to facilitate secure connections, a common requirement across many compliance programs such as PCI, FedRAMP, and HIPAA. For specific information about compliance, please refer to http://aws.amazon.com/compliance.
Q: Does ACM have a service level agreement (SLA)?
Not at this time.
Q: Does ACM provide a secure site seal or trust logo that I can display on my web site?
No. If you would like to use a site seal, you can obtain one from a third-party vendor. We recommend choosing a vendor that evaluates and asserts the security of your site, or your business practices, or both.
Q: Does Amazon allow its trademarks or logo to be used as a certificate badge, site seal, or trust logo?
No. Seals and badges of this type can be copied to sites that do not use the ACM service, and used inappropriately to establish trust under false pretenses. To protect our customers and the reputation of Amazon, we do not allow our logo to be used in this manner.
You can identify which users and accounts called AWS APIs for services that support AWS CloudTrail, the source IP address the calls were made from, and when the calls occurred. For example, you can identify which user made an API call to associate a certificate provided by ACM with an Elastic Load Balancer and when the Elastic Load Balancing service decrypted the key with a KMS API call.
ACM managed renewal and deployment manages the process of renewing SSL/TLS ACM certificates and deploying certificates after they are renewed.
Q: What are the benefits of using ACM managed renewal and deployment?
ACM can manage renewal and deployment of SSL/TLS certificates for you. ACM makes configuring and maintaining SSL/TLS for a secure web service or application more operationally sound than potentially error-prone manual processes. Managed renewal and deployment can help you avoid downtime due to expired certificates. ACM operates as a service that is integrated with other AWS services. This means you can centrally manage and deploy certificates on the AWS platform by using the AWS management console, AWS CLI, or APIs. With ACM Private CA, you can create private certificates and you can export them. ACM renews exported certificates, allowing your client side automation code to download and deploy them.
Q: Which ACM certificates can be renewed and deployed automatically?
Public Certificates
ACM can renew and deploy public ACM certificates without any additional validation from the domain owner. If a certificate cannot be renewed without additional validation, ACM manages the renewal process by validating domain ownership or control for each domain name in the certificate. After each domain name in the certificate has been validated, ACM renews the certificate and automatically deploys it with your AWS resources. If ACM cannot validate domain ownership, we will let you (the AWS account owner) know.
If you chose DNS validation in your certificate request, ACM can renew your certificate indefinitely without any further action from you, as long as the certificate is in use (associated with other AWS resources) and your CNAME record remains in place. If you selected email validation when requesting a certificate, you can improve ACM’s ability to automatically renew and deploy ACM certificates, by ensuring that the certificate is in use, that all domain names included in the certificate can be resolved to your site, and that all domain names are reachable from the Internet.
Private Certificates
ACM provides three options for managing private certificates issued with ACM Private CAs. ACM provides different renewal and deployment capabilities depending on how you are managing your private certificates. You can choose the best management option for each private certificate you issue.
1) ACM can fully automate renewal and deployment of private certificates issued with your ACM Private CAs and used with ACM-integrated services, such as Elastic Load Balancing and API Gateway. ACM can renew and deploy private certificates that are created and managed in ACM as long as the Private CA that issued the certificate remains in the Active state.
2) For private certificates you export from ACM for use with on-premises resources, EC2 instances, and IoT devices, ACM Private CA renews your certificate automatically. You are responsible for retrieving the new certificate and private key and deploying them with your application.
3) If you issue certificates directly from ACM Private CA and manage the keys and certificates yourself without using ACM for certificate management, ACM does not renew your certificate. You are responsible for renewing and deploying these private certificates.
Q: When does ACM renew certificates?
ACM begins the renewal process up to 60 days prior to the certificate’s expiration date. The validity period for ACM certificates is currently 13 months. Refer to the ACM User Guide for more information about managed renewal.
Q: Will I be notified before my certificate is renewed and the new certificate is deployed?
No. ACM may renew or rekey the certificate and replace the old one without prior notice.
Q: Can ACM renew public certificates containing bare domains, such as “example.com” (also known as zone apex or naked domains)?
If you chose DNS validation in your certificate request for a public certificate, then ACM can renew your certificate without any further action from you, as long as the certificate is in use (associated with other AWS resources) and your CNAME record remains in place.
If you selected email validation when requesting a public certificate with a bare domain, ensure that a DNS lookup of the bare domain resolves to the AWS resource that is associated with the certificate. Resolving the bare domain to an AWS resource may be challenging unless you use Route 53 or another DNS provider that supports alias resource records (or their equivalent) for mapping bare domains to AWS resources. For more information, refer to the Route 53 Developer Guide.
Q: Does my site drop existing connections when ACM deploys the renewed certificate?
No, connections established after the new certificate is deployed use the new certificate, and existing connections are not affected. | {
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Jean Nouvel
Biography
Jean NOUVEL was born in Fumel, France in 1945.
After he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, Jean Nouvel ranked first in the entrance examination of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1966 and obtained his degree in 1972. Assistant to the architect Claude Parent and inspired by urban planner and essayist Paul Virilio, he started his first architecture practice in 1970. Soon afterwards, he became a founding member of the Mars 1976 movement whose purpose was to oppose corporatism in architecture. He also co-founded the Labor Union of French Architects in marked opposition to the existing national Board of Architects. His strong stances and somewhat provocative opinions on contemporary architecture in the urban context together with his unfailing ability to inject a sense of originality into all the projects he undertakes have formed his international reputation. Jean Nouvel’s work does not result from considerations of style or ideology, but from a quest to create a unique concept for a singular combination of people, place and time. His contextual approach and ability to infuse a genuine uniqueness into all the projects he undertakes have consistently yielded buildings that transform their environments and indelibly mark the cities in which they are built, like the Arab World Institute (Paris – 1987), the Lyon Opera House (Lyon – 1993), the Cartier Foundation (Paris – 1994), the Galeries Lafayette (Berlin – 1996), the Culture and Congress Center KKL (Lucerne – 2000), the Agbar Tower (Barcelona – 2005), the extension of the Queen Sofia Arts Center (Madrid – 2005), the Quai Branly Museum (Paris – 2006), the Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis – 2006), the 40 Mercer luxury residences (New York – 2008), the Doha Tower offices (Doha – 2011), the Renaissance Fira Hotel (Barcelona – 2012), the mixed use high-rise building One Central Park (Sydney – 2014) the Police Headquarters & Charleroi Danses extension (Charleroi – 2014), the residential, office and retail tower The White Walls (Nicosia, 2015), the Philharmonie de Paris (Paris – 2015), the Louvre Abu Dhabi (2017).
His works have gained world-wide recognition through numerous prestigious French and International prizes and rewards. In 1989, The Arab World Institute in Paris was awarded the Aga-Khan Prize because of its role as “a successful bridge between French and Arab cultures”. In 2000, Jean Nouvel received the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale. In 2001, he received three of the highest international awards: the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Praemium Imperiale of Japan’s Fine Arts Association and the Borromini Prize for the Culture and Conference Center in Lucerne. He was appointed Doctor Honoris Causa of the Royal College of Art in London in 2002 and he was the recipient of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2008.
Awards
2018
Best futura project, MIPIM, France, for the National Museum of Qatar Qatar, Doha
2016
Best Tall Building Europe, CTBUH (USA), for The White Walls in Nicosia, Cyprus
2014
Best Tall Building Worldwide, CTBUH (USA), for One Central Park in Sydney, Australia
2002
Doctor Honoris Causa, Royal College of Art of London, UK
Doctor Honoris Causa, Design University of Naples, Italia
2001
Borromini International Architecture Award, City of Rome (Italia), for the KKL in Lucerne, Switzerland
Royal Gold Medal, Royal Institute of British Architects, UK
Praemium Imperiale International Art Awards in Architecture, Japan Art Association | {
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Search
Site
Web
Archives - back to 1987
Google Newspaper Archive - back to 1901
From the Times archives: More on Scientology, David Miscavige and Lisa McPherson
[Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford]
The recently renovated Fort Harrison Hotel serves as the Church of Scientology's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater. The hotel opened in 1926 as the New Fort Harrison Hotel and for many years was Clearwater's most luxurious hotel. It was a focal point of the community during the Great Depression and World War II. | {
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The white owner of a Detroit business is issuing an apology a little too late after spitting on a young black man who was coordinating parking and working security at an event over some issues with parking.
These ignorant trolls never learn.
The incident all started on Tuesday when Robert Stanzler, the owner of the Detroit Mercantile Co., confronted Ibrahim Mission, who posted video of the clash on Facebook.
In the video, Stanzler can be seen flipping off the young man before spitting on him.
Witnesses described Stanzler’s conduct as “vile” and violent” and are calling for a boycott of his shop which sells Detroit-inspired clothing, home goods and other products, the Detroit Metro Times reports.
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The confrontation started in the parking lot near another business, the Eastern. It and the Detroit Mercantile share a building. Stanzler became enraged because attendees at the Eastern event were parking in the spaces reserved for his business. Mission was working security for the venue, the Metro Times notes, and quickly became the target of Stanzler’s ire.
People began to move their cars out of Stanzler’s section of the lot, and Stanzler drove his truck into the lot blocking off his area in the most douchebaggy of ways, before getting out and continuing to get into Mission’s face.
Mission, according to the witnesses, attempted to retain his cool, but started recording with his camera, which captured Stanzler spitting at him.
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It was only when Mission called the police that Stanzler began to whine and whimper, “aggressively apologizing.”
“To have anybody spit in your face — you have the racial component of an older white man spitting in a younger black man’s face, which is very loaded. That still means a lot,” ill Weaver, who spells their name with a lower case “i” told the news site. “It took a lot of restraint for [Mission] to stay that composed.”
Weaver is the program director for the Detroit Narrative Agency, one of the local partners present at the networking event, dubbed “Good Pitch Local” at the Eastern that was organized by the Doc Society, a non-profit which focuses on connecting filmmakers to groups whose work could make good documentaries.
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“I think that a boycott is a necessity—Ibrahim and I talked about it. It doesn’t make sense that this business should be successful if this is how [Stanzler] behaves. I think he owes Ibrahim an apology, I think he owes our community an apology ... but apologies are just apologies,” Weaver added. “He needs to really commit to a much longer process for how he and his business are going to undo his racist actions, which are violent, disrespectful actions ... and he is white, toxic masculinity embodied.”
“I grew up in the city of Detroit,” the 29-year-old said. “My dad actually was a minister and that’s when I started doing security. I used to secure my dad when he’d go to different events. Over time, I began doing different security gigs, NAACP dinners, everybody from black, white, Chinese, movie stars, artists, rappers, activists, and I never encountered something like that. I’ve encountered somebody saying a racial slur, somebody not being too happy with security, but never ran into where an individual, especially a white individual, felt comfortable enough to spit on me.”
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“It was very humiliating, very disrespectful ...,” he added. “People like this should not be allowed to be in this communty of Detroit and be able to feel they could take such liberties with helpers. I’ve always been a helper and I’ve never had any issue like this.”
According to Weaver and other sources, Stanzler has a reputation of being a “bully.” And it appears that his reign of terror has come to an end after messing with the wrong person for the last time.
As already mentioned, Stanzler attempted to apologize once he realized that there would be very real repercussions for his very nasty actions, releasing a lengthy statement on the Detroit Mercantile’s Facebook page.
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“My anger over a growing conflict pertaining to parking spaces between a neighboring business got the best of me. I attempted to address the matter with Mr. Mission, but things quickly escalated and I lashed out. My behavior was unconscionable, offensive and disrespectful. Not only did I offend Mr. Mission by my actions, but I owe an apology to those who witnessed the incident, my staff, fellow business owners in Eastern Market, residents of Detroit; and friends and family who may bare [sic] this burden with me,” the statement read.
That’s all well and good, but police responding to Mission’s call still arrested Stanzler for simple assault. He was released on Wednesday but the investigation continues. | {
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ALEX Multimedia
Title: 6 Steps for Creating Awesome Vines: A 7 Habits Project
Overview:
Vine videos have taken the Internet by storm. A vine video is only six seconds and can be really fun to create and watch. Here are six tips for making your six second vine a little more awesome! This podcast also contains instructions for a 7 Habits project or contest.
Standard(s):
[TC2] CA2 (9-12) 6: Utilize advanced features of multimedia software, including image, video, and audio editing.
6 Steps for Creating Awesome Vines: A 7 Habits ProjectOverview:Vine videos have taken the Internet by storm. A vine video is only six seconds and can be really fun to create and watch. Here are six tips for making your six second vine a little more awesome! This podcast also contains instructions for a 7 Habits project or contest.
Title: Points of View Reference Center
Overview:
This tutorial is an introduction to the main components of Points of View Reference Center and how to navigate within the database. Standard(s):
[HUM] HU01 (9-12) 8: Evaluate the impact of parenting roles on the well-being of the child and family. | {
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Comments for Notes from An Alienhttps://nfaa.wordpress.com
~ Explorations In Writing { and reading and publishing } ~Wed, 23 May 2018 17:04:51 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/Comment on * The Book ~ Notes from An Alien by A Blog Conversation about Book Promotion . . . | Notes from An Alienhttps://nfaa.wordpress.com/about-our-book/comment-page-17/#comment-30790
Wed, 23 May 2018 17:04:51 +0000http://nfaa.wordpress.com/?page_id=12#comment-30790[…] * The Book ~ Notes from An Alien […]
]]>Comment on Yet More Conversation about Genre . . . by A Blog Conversation about Book Promotion . . . | Notes from An Alienhttps://nfaa.wordpress.com/2018/05/21/yet-more-conversation-about-genre/comment-page-1/#comment-30789
Wed, 23 May 2018 17:04:41 +0000http://nfaa.wordpress.com/?p=24395#comment-30789[…] Our last conversation here—about Genre—ended for lack of reader comments; but, it had a decent run, on May, 14th, May 16th, and May 21st… […]
]]>Comment on More Conversation About “Genre” . . . by A Blog Conversation about Book Promotion . . . | Notes from An Alienhttps://nfaa.wordpress.com/2018/05/16/more-conversation-about-genre/comment-page-1/#comment-30788
Wed, 23 May 2018 17:04:38 +0000http://nfaa.wordpress.com/?p=24354#comment-30788[…] Genre—ended for lack of reader comments; but, it had a decent run, on May, 14th, May 16th, and May […]
]]>Comment on Blog Conversation About “Genre” Writing . . . by A Blog Conversation about Book Promotion . . . | Notes from An Alienhttps://nfaa.wordpress.com/2018/05/14/blog-conversation-about-genre-writing/comment-page-1/#comment-30787
Wed, 23 May 2018 17:04:35 +0000http://nfaa.wordpress.com/?p=24331#comment-30787[…] here—about Genre—ended for lack of reader comments; but, it had a decent run, on May, 14th, May 16th, and May […]
]]>Comment on More Conversation About “Genre” . . . by Yet More Conversation about Genre . . . | Notes from An Alienhttps://nfaa.wordpress.com/2018/05/16/more-conversation-about-genre/comment-page-1/#comment-30764
Mon, 21 May 2018 15:16:01 +0000http://nfaa.wordpress.com/?p=24354#comment-30764[…] The previous posts in this conversation are Here and Here… […] | {
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Tuesday, June 9, 2015
The NSKN Method
The topic of Kickstarters being late comes back to me every few weeks. Talking to other gamers, reading content on BoardGameGeek, or listening to a podcast, I encounter yet another story of a game, an expansion, a box of miniatures or wargaming terrain being just late – or horribly late. In fact, more than 90 percent of Kickstarters arrives to their backers late, and it seems that everyone expects their products to be late. But it does not have to be that way.
We’ve recently been to UK Games Expo, where we had the chance to talk to our backers about both Exodus: Edge of Extinction and Mistfall. Most were pleasantly surprised that everything is on time, and that they will be receiving their games as planned. Some even jokingly asked us if we could reveal some of our secrets to other publishers, so that they could do what we did. And now, with first copies of Exodus: Edge of Extinction reaching the backers, we decided to did exactly that: reveal our method. So, if you want to be on time, just follow these three steps:
1. Do your research.
This is really crucial: be sure that you know beforehand what the costs of everything are and how much time you will need to manufacture your product. If in doubt, try to ask others who already know how some of these things are done – or at least take a good look at Kicksarters similar to yours – and never leave anything for later. Have everything you possibly can researched and planned, always taking into account the possibility of things taking exactly as longs as expected (basically, treat 3-5 weeks as 5 weeks), and giving yourself some extra time in case something is late.
2. Set your deadlines.
After researching everything and giving yourself some extra time just in case, set a hard deadline for each step of your project – including deadlines for you personally. Put each of them in a single timeline (using any software you see fit – or even a traditional paper calendar), and be sure that anyone involved with the project knows and has accepted them, and has easy access to them.
3. Stick to your deadlines.
No matter what, do not change them. Do not move them. And if you’re late, don’t throw up your hands and delay everything by a week. Instead, burn the candle on both ends if needed, work through the night, and minimize the consequences of the delay in such a way, that as many of the following deadlines as possible are met.
And that is it. That is seriously it. That is how we managed to be on time with Progress: Evolution of Technology, with Exodus: Edge of Extinction – and that is how we will be on time with Mistfall. Now you also possess this not-so-arcane knowledge, and can pass it on – free of charge! – to anyone you think might need it. And if you make a use of it, come to our booth at any convention to brag about it. We’ll be happy to shake your hand!|| | {
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Stealth percussionists of the animal world
The editors of Scientific American regularly encounter perspectives on science and technology that we believe our readers would find thought-provoking, fascinating, debatable and challenging. The guest blog is a forum for such opinions. The views expressed belong to the author and are not necessarily shared by Scientific American.
Animals may not be able to predict earthquakes, but many—from elephants to spiders—are quite adept at detecting vibrations that are imperceptible to humans.
Yes, there’s a whole world out there we are mostly unaware of. It jiggles and gyrates and shakes and vibrates as waves travel through solid substrates such as sand and tree trunks. Eventually, vibrations reach structures in animals that evolved to detect such vibrations, including oversized ear bones, crystal-filled sacs, and strain-sensing exterior membranes. Critters emitting these signals use them to convey information about such things as lurking predators, food sources, and potential mates; they do so by movements including drumming on surfaces, rubbing stuff together, and shaking their booties—or abdomens.
But while these substrate-borne vibrations form the lifeblood of many sensory systems, most are imperceptible to even the most observant person. Indeed, everything around us is vibrating, from plants and trees to houses and sidewalks. Merely stepping into a garden produces vibrations detectable by thousands of animals—and by the instruments scientists use to eavesdrop on this wiggling world.
The study of vibration communication is gaining momentum as scientists realize just how ubiquitous it is. But why is it taking so long to catch up with other sensory systems? "It’s really been ignored because we can’t detect it," said U.C. Berkeley biologist Damian Elias, who studies spiders. "This type of sense is totally foreign to the experience of being human."
How do vibrations inform the human experience? Well, earthquakes are a catastrophic form of substrate vibration, as we’ve seen all too clearly. On a smaller scale, many of us set our cell phones to "vibrate" every now and then. (But can you actually feel the vibrations from the phone when it’s on a surface, or do you mostly listen for the tell-tale clatter?) We do feel the rumbling of transiting trains and may startle at a dryer’s "spin" cycle shaking the house, and most of us have probably been unfortunate enough to stop at a red light next to some dude thumping the bass in his car – and in ours, temporarily. But we mostly go through our days without noticing these often-subtle vibrations. "So much is happening that we can’t detect," Elias says.
Because we’re vibrationally-challenged, scientists use a variety of tools to translate seismic waves into audible sounds. These instruments include modified phonographs, geophones – which convert ground movement into sound – and laser Doppler vibrometers, which use focused laser beams to measure substrate wiggles. To play animal vibrations into ground, scientists borrow gadgets from the booming home entertainment industry: sound transducers that normally make cars and houses bump around. Then they bury the hardware before playing the calls of the wild.
Now, scientists suspect that more than 200,000 insect and arachnid species use seismic communication systems, including crickets, katydids, spiders, and scorpions. Crustaceans do, too. Amphibians? Definitely. Frogs are among the most sensitive vertebrate vibration detectors on land. Reptiles, such as snakes and lizards, also join the ground-sensing group. So do our hairy mammalian relatives, from the very big to the very small.
Here is a smattering of critters using this seismic sense for the equivalent of everything from restaurant scouting to intruder detecting to internet dating:
Jumping spiders Salticidae: The Music Men
For years, scientists considered male jumping spiders to be among the flashiest of arachnids, dazzling females with colorful, dancing courtship displays. But then they noticed the males’ abdomens moving while they performed their seductive, leg-flinging moves – and thus became curious about whether vibrations accompanied their already virtuosic performances.
Rejiggering a phonograph needle to transduce sound from a vibrating surface allowed then-graduate student Damian Elias to detect the spiders’ hidden secrets. Surface vibrations produced during a male’s courtship routine were translated into audible sound, which Elias then listened to. "We were very surprised," Elias says, of hearing their early recordings. "They were not only making these vibrations, but they were incredibly elaborate, arguably as elaborate as the visual displays." Indeed, it appears these spiders are very much like flamenco dancers or a one-man band: they sing and clap and stomp and dance, using their abdomens and legs to produce a mixture of hums, drums, and snaps. (see videos on website, too!)
Now, with a well-equipped lab of his own, Elias has recorded the vibrations of around 60 jumping spider species using a laser Doppler vibrometer. "You can listen to the song and know exactly which species it is," he says. He likens routines within a species to jazz tunes, with a known structure and melody, but with room for improvisation and extended instrument solos. Females detect the vibrations using exoskeletal sensory structures called "slit sensilla," which are basically cracks covered by a strain-sensitive membrane. How does Elias know females are paying attention to the vibrations and not just the visual display? "If you experimentally manipulate the male’s ability to produce vibrations," he says, "The females are less likely to accept males as a mate, and more likely to eat them."
Kangaroo rats Dipodomys: Tiny dancers, tap-dancing in the sand
Like their namesake, these solitary rodents hop on two legs. But the back two are often working to drum out patterns of "footrolls" in the dirt – yes, kangaroo rats are accomplished tap-dancers, and they use footdrumming to communicate with their neighbors, sending vibrations through the ground and into the air.
The most complex sequence of studied footdrumming belongs to the Banner-tailed kangaroo rat (Dipodomys spectabilis), a resident of the arid U.S. Southwest. Each of these furry mound-dwellers marches to a different drummer, producing a unique footroll—a series of thumps—that it uses to guard its cache of seeds. Mounds can be up to 10 meters apart, and kangaroo rats drum both on top of and inside their burrows, suggesting that footdrumming is of both airborne and subterranean importance.
By keeping their tap-dances constant, the rats can easily tell who’s a neighbor and who’s an intruder, preventing costly skirmishes. But what if they relocate? The kangaroo rats learn new choreography. "They alter their drumming pattern to be different from their neighbors," says behavioral ecologist Jan Randall, who worked out the kangaroo rats’ communication system.
In addition to preventing fights among neighbors, kangaroo rats use their fleet footwork to signal their awareness of predators (snakes, mainly), and to compete for mates.
Randall also studied the Giant (D. ingens) and Desert (D. deserti) kangaroo rats and found that their footrolls were species-specific. As well, they didn’t share their cousin’s facility for improvisation and learning new steps – no identifiable individual variation — but they all stomped around for the same reasons.
Here are two recordings from Jan Randall, one of footrolls among banner-tailed kangaroo rat individuals, and the other of giant kangaroo rats:
This blind, nocturnal extremely adorable furball lives in the Namib desert. During the day, the golden mole keeps cool by hiding under the sand. In the evenings, it can travel more than 5 kilometers while searching for its favorite tasty treat: termites. Along with 99% of the desert’s biomass, termites live near grassy mounds called "tussocks." When desert winds blow through the grass, they set the tussocks into subterranean resonance – and a hungry golden mole uses these vibrations to guide the first part of its nightly excursion. "The mound is a seismic beacon in the Namib desert," says U.C.L.A. neuroethologist Peter Narins, who, with colleagues, demonstrated that goldens use vibrations to guide their termite tracking.
As the sandy traveler nears the tussock, it’s able to detect the more subtle vibrations of the termites themselves, and it sneaks up to claim its crunchy snack. Sometimes, if the golden mole is lucky, it might get something bigger and better – like a cricket.
How do the goldens sense these incredibly subtle vibrations? According to Narins, the moles are "mostly malleus." The malleus is a middle-ear bone—humans have it, too—that moves in response to seismic signals, and it is abnormally large in these golden cuties (with a ratio of malleus to body mass that is roughly 5600 times greater than a human’s). Using their enormous middle ear, golden moles can hear vibrations under the sand—as long as their ears are buried and in contact with the substrate. They use a behavior called "head-dipping" to accomplish this, literally burying their heads every few steps to stay on course. (see video!) Narins says there are still questions to be answered about the golden mole, though, and hopes they might provide a model for earlier earthquake detection. "If a device could mimic the golden mole’s middle ear and detect very low-level vibrations," he says, "It might be useful for detecting earthquake precursors."
Perhaps the best-known of the amphibian thumpers, the Puerto Rican white-lipped frog sprang to notice when Peter Narins and UC Berkeley neurobiologist Edwin Lewis teamed up to sort out its seismic secrets. While attempting to record audible calls from the ground-dwelling, nocturnal frog, Narins noticed that it stopped vocalizing whenever he approached – even when he tiptoed. They hypothesized that the frog detected vibrations from distant footsteps, and got to work solving the riddle of the frog’s super-sensitivity.
"But a seismometer as sensitive as that of the white-lipped frog must have some function other than detecting the presence of researchers," Narins wrote. [1]
So he and Lewis went back into the field, this time armed with geophones — instruments that record ground vibrations and turn them into perceptible sound. They found that each time the males call, they produce a seismic "thump" when their vocal pouch expands and crashes into the ground. Males in the area sense these thumps and respond, using calls both to attract females and distance themselves from other males. Lewis and Narins recorded these thumps and played them to frogs using electric typewriter parts that had been reconfigured for the noble purpose of emitting fake frog vibrations. The result? Males within three meters of the pseudo-amphibian unleashed a chorus of song in response to its call.
But despite that result, the frog’s dependence on vibration communication is still murky. "My sense is that white-lipped frogs may turn to their seismic sense for chorusing with neighbors when the ambient airborne noise is loud enough to block the auditory channel," Lewis says. "It is clear that about half of the calling white-lipped frogs are not generating seismic signals at all. It is not clear that the other half are generating seismic signals deliberately."
[1.] "Frog Communication," Scientific American, 1995
Treehoppers Membracidae: The Stems are Zinging with the Songs of Insects
Plant-loving, often communal-living, and well-armored, treehoppers manage to pack an enormous amount of variety into a small package, reaching a maximum length of just 2 centimeters. There are more than 3,000 species of these little stem-clingers, who often look like thorns or brambles due to their highly camouflaged – and sometimes extremely bright – coloration. Some species are solitary. Others live in tightly clustered family groups with prolonged periods of maternal care.
Treehoppers communicate with one another by vibrating the stem they’re parked on, using mechanisms that involve abdominal movements and a structure that might resemble the cicada’s noise-maker. None of their signals are perceptible by humans, so scientists record them using instruments that translate stem vibrations into audible sounds. They found that treehoppers produce a startling variety of vibrational songs, with some sounding—to our ears—like whistles, underwater voices, or staccato pulses. (listen here)
When do they make their music? For starters, males advertise their presence to females with their own unique mating vibration; if the female is interested, she’ll vibrate back. Describing this interaction in Costa Rican thornbugs (Umbonia crassicornis), University of Missouri biologist Rex Cocroft writes [1], "The male vibrates his abdomen to create a rich, bubbling down-sweep of tone and percussion that courses through the plant. The call could perhaps be imitated by a skilled duo of French horn and snare drum." He continues, "If a receptive female is nearby, she responds with a low vibrational growl."
But symphonic calls don’t only accompany romantic overtures: treehopper nymphs will signal when they’ve found a new stem to munch on; and, when nymphs are part of a family group, they’ll produce a joint alarm signal in response to a predator, seeking help from mom. "The most unique aspect of vibrational communication in treehoppers is their use of vibrational signals in social interactions," Cocroft says.
[1.] "Thornbug to Thornbug," Natural History Magazine, 1999
Elephants Loxodonta/Elephas: The nose knows…and the toes.
These big-eared, trumpeting mammals need no introduction. For years, scientists have known their calls contain low, sub-sonic rumbling frequencies. But elephant vocalizations also shake the ground. The enormous pachyderms detect vibrations through their nose and their toes, locating the shaking source using a combination of sensory structures and jiggling bones.
Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell began to suspect elephants sensed vibrations when she noticed them striking some of the same "listening" postures as the seismic-sensing insects she’d studied. "I could see there was a pattern," says O’Connell-Rodwell, an ecologist at Stanford University, who observed the postures in response to approaching herds or vehicles. "They’ll place the tips of their toes on the ground, or lift up a foot. Sometimes they’ll lean forward kind of dramatically, also with the trunk on the ground."
To test whether elephants sent and received seismic signals, O’Connell-Rodwell recorded their rumblings and played them back to groups of pachyderms, using what’s called a "butt-kicker." "It’s a great, great device for us," she says of the gizmo normally used in home entertainment systems – and likely in that dude’s boom-car as well. "We buried them in the ground and broadcast the elephant calls."
Then she watched while elephants responded to the underground songs. Alarm calls, contact calls, mating calls—they all carry information seismically.
Now, O’Connell-Rodwell is trying to figure out which pathways elephants use to sense the vibrations. They appear to prefer bone conduction, she says, which is enhanced by balancing one foot on tip-toe perpendicular to the sound source. Ground sound vibrates the toe bone and travels up through the leg, before eventually rattling the middle ear. Pressing their trunk on the ground may help elephants triangulate the vibrations’ source, she adds.
It’s possible that elephants can sense vibrations coming from as far as 10 miles away. But it’s hard to test, O’Connell-Rodwell says, "because there’s so much human-generated noise in the ground."
For further reading:
The Use of Vibrations in Communication: Properties, Mechanisms, and Function across Taxa. (2011) Ed: Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell; includes chapters written by scientists featured in this post.
About the Author: Nadia Drake is a student in the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She earned a PhD in genetics from Cornell University and has spent years climbing trees and performing as a professional ballet dancer. Nadia loves geeking out about science, wearing silly costumes, and writing about planets and animals—and everything in between, especially if it involves an adventure. She’s interned at the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the San Jose Mercury News, and will begin an internship with Nature next week. Nadia blogs at A Tale of Ten Slugs and tweets as @slugnads.
The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
5 Comments
I’ve made a few beats with animals and hunters in mind; Troglodyte’s Trance (Cave Rave Edit) and Apex Alpha Agressor (Animal Kingdom Edit). Please have a listen on http://www.soundcloud.com/jwh-2 on page 2 and 5 in the track listing, and you can download all my beats for free in .mp3. Thanks for listening and enjoy.
Thank you, Nadia Drake! One of the most fascinating articles I’ve read (and seen and heard) in months. Keep them coming! The spider dance is amazing, and the treehopper sounds are diverse and unexpected. Who’d have thought insects, frogs and elephants have so much in common? | {
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Tuesday, 14 May 2013
After 10 minutes' walk we reach the beach. It's beautiful. Quite wide. It reminds me of a beach in Łeba. You can see a cliffs shore.
A beach in Wisełka with cliffs shore.
"...Wow, it's nice here!" - says Mila looking around...
When after a few hours we drive back, for a short while we stop at the car park near the hill Gosań. It takes us five minutes to get to the top of the hill, from where we can contemplate Pomeranian Bay. The view takes your breath away. Just look!
Monday, 13 May 2013
In the previous post I introduced my two new dolls Mila and Ania. And now, let me tell you more about Mila.
MILA is Waldorf inspired doll, 16 inches(40 cm) tall. She is made from special cotton jersey and is stuffed with sheepswool.
Her head is embroidered with mohair yarn in the colour of her hair. I made her short fair hair from the same mohair yarn by applying strand by strand to the embroidered head. Her hairstyle can be easily changed. Mila has embroidered blue eyes, coral lips and few freckles. Her cheeks are coloured with wax crayon.
Her clothing consists of a cotton jersey shirt and a pair of velveteen trousers, cotton undies and woolen shoes. When it is cold and windy Mila puts on a white mohair hat and scarf.
Mila herself and her clothes are made from natural materials (cotton, cotton jersey, velvet,wool and mohair yarns) and a lot of love and care.
Mila likes plants. To tell the truth she loves them all, especially flowers. You could notice it in the last post.
I've myself discovered that while she's sweet and caring she can sometimes be obstinate.
And when she feels like that she doesn't want to put her hat on when I ask her to do it.
Monday, 6 May 2013
Today I will tell you about a doll I have made lately. Her name's MILA.
I know MILA likes playing very much. She is always looking for playmates. She likes pretending to be Mom, and her playmate is her baby - that's her favourite play.
For a long May weekend we drove to a place called Łeba at the seaside. Of course, we take MILA with us. Near the house where we stay there is a small wood with little white flowers growing among the trees. Will MILA find a friend to play with here?
"But these flowers are so pretty! Surely, the spring has come..." - I can hear MILA.
Anemone (Latin: Anemone sylvestris)
"What are they called? I must have a look at them from near... They're so beautiful."
After a moment's reflection MILA is sure.
- "Yes, they're anemones."
Well, MILA likes plants, and easily recognises some of them.
Good for you!... MILUNIA.
"Oops... What's this? Whose shoes are they?"
MILA is so occupied with admiring the anemones that at first she hasn't noticed someone standing near and looking around.
A girl doll like her.
"Hello, what's your name?... I'm MILA. And YOU?...." asks MILA.
"I, I... My name is ANIA..." - answers ANIA.
Do you want to play with me?... YES!
And after a while ANIA and MILA are sitting together. They look happy. | {
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Kelly Clarkson Opens Up About Love, Wedding Plans
Kelly Clarkson is famous for belting out emotion-filled songs about love, but the pop star says she’d never been in love until she met her now-fiance.
Speaking in an interview with People magazine that will appear in the Friday issue, Clarkson talked about her romance with Brandon Blackstock, her music manager.
“I never really thought I’d get married, so it’s kind of cool that I fell in love and I’m getting married,” Clarkson, 30, told People. “It’s kind of a lot to plan though. I’m going to be honest with you. Whoo!”
The two first met seven years ago, but Blackstock was married at that time. They reconnected at last year’s Super Bowl and have been together ever since.
Clarkson talked to People about the bad relationships she and her friends have been in. Part of the problem, she said, was that she was dating someone with “skinny jeans” when she needed someone with “Wranglers.”
Clarkson embarked on a meteoric rise to stardom when she won the first season of “American Idol” in 2002.
The “Miss Independent” singer said she and Blackstock plan to have a “very earthy” wedding at their Nashville home in the fall.
Clarkson won’t have a bridal party. She plans to walk barefoot down the aisle with Blackstock’s daughter and the menu for the celebration will include turkey and gravy.
Blackstock designed the canary yellow engagement ring that bears the couple’s initials, and while Clarkson wouldn’t disclose the designer of her wedding dress, she described the garment as being “is my personality in a dress. It’s sweetly damaged. A little rock and roll. A little tattered,” she said. | {
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Used Car Shopping New How to A Good Used Car Carroll Auto
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Description for Used Car Shopping New How to A Good Used Car Carroll Auto | {
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You may remember that, during E3, scans emerged that showed Game Informer magazine listing the latest Tomb Raider title for Wii U, with the publication releasing a correction shortly after to confirm that it was incorrect. Still, that hasn't stopped suspicious looking listings, not by a long way.
Welsh ex-pat Tom is responsible for the day-to-day running of the site. He's the guy to thank for the generally brilliant nature of the content which massages your eyeballs on a daily basis. Also has an unhealthy obsession with all things Bowser. | {
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(February 2, 2009) FotoFest presents NEW VISUALISM, a newly created exhibition of contemporary photographs by Štěpán Grygar (Czech Republic) and Fernando La Rosa (Peru/USA); curated by FotoFest co-founder and Artistic Director Wendy Watriss. The NEW VISUALISM exhibit is on view to the public February 5 – April 25, 2009 at FotoFest, 1113 Vine Street in Downtown Houston.
The works of both artists reflect their ability to recognize the extraordinary in the ordinary. They compose and extract magical and humorous imagery from otherwise banal scenes. Some works seem to show methodical preparation and obsessive experimentation while others seem like random strokes of luck. Whether carefully studied or fortuitously found, all of the works show sophistication and virtuosity.
Štěpán Grygar refers to his work as primarily intuitive, often unplanned, and directed at the commonplace or near at hand. In his photographs one sees familiar aspects of everyday life – falling snow behind a window pane, a half-filled glass of beer, a building’s roof and gable, or a car parked on the street. The seeming “snapshot” quality seems to convey at first an unconsidered casualness that, in fact, is later revealed as carefully planned casuality engineered by the artist.
“I am interested and have always been interested in the freedom of imagery… I don’t want to be too tied down to the object itself… I am interested in the process of visual searching” - Štěpán Grygar
Fernando La Rosa’s works are more openly rooted in philosophical concepts, many of which emanate from the intellectual ideas of the Bauhaus. La Rosa’s images wander far from home and juxtapose a grandiosity of form and scale alongside the more mundane. Under the tutelage of famed photographer/philosopher Minor White, Mr. La Rosa developed his own philosophy about image-making, directed to the physical world and the physiological process of seeing.
Mr. La Rosa is concerned with “orchestrating pieces of reality and playing with the language of vision… building structures of perception and exploring the ambiguities of seeing… harvesting the world’s data in fragments and fields of focus.”
Curator Wendy Watriss has been interested in these artists’ work for some time. “Despite the fact that the subtle interweaving of form, space, darkness and light constitutes the primary element of photographic image making, few photographic artists explore the inter-connection of these elements as the primary principal subject matter of their work.” says Ms. Watriss. “In the history of photography, these concerns were more visible in the experimental, avant-garde work of the 1920s-1940s in Europe than they are in most photography today.”
Štěpán Grygar was born and works in the Czech Republic. He is Professor and Director of the Studio of Creative Photography at FAMU, the Film and Television School of Performing Arts, in Prague. He has been exhibited and published widely in the Czech Republic. NEW VISUALISM is Mr. Grygar’s largest exhibition in the United States to date.
Born in Peru, Fernando La Rosa was the founder and director of the first gallery exclusively dedicated to photography in South America. He has taught at the Parsons School in New York and currently teaches at Weslayan College in Macon, Georgia. He is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and has exhibited widely in the U.S. and Latin America. A monograph of work from Mr. La Rosa has just been published and is available for purchase at FotoFest. A book signing is scheduled for Saturday, February 7, 2009 as part of the Saturday Matinee Artist Talks.
The NEW VISUALISM exhibition opens February 5, 2009 6-9pm and is on view through April 25, 2009, Monday – Friday: 10am-5pm; Saturday: noon-5pm at FotoFest, 1113 Vine Street in Downtown Houston. Admission to FotoFest exhibits is free.
For more information the NEW VISUALISM exhibit and all FotoFest programs, please contact FotoFest, 713.223.5522 ext 19 or [email protected]. | {
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Saturday, April 5, 2008
How to Prepare for a Hearing in State Court
As a new lawyer, you often feel like the underdog, especially when it comes to arguing motions in state court. More often than not, your opponent is more experienced, more suave, more in control. He knows everyone in the courthouse by their first name, whether they are attorneys, judicial assistants or bailiffs. Even the judges go out of their way to say hello to him. How can you compete? Preparation can go a long way toward leveling the playing field. The following are some tips to consider.
Pick your fights wisely. Is it wise to file the motion? Is the law on your side? What are the odds the judge will grant your motion? Does the motion really serve my client’s interests? Having a winning track record at arguing motions begins with knowing what battles to fight and which ones to walk away from.
Try to work it out with opposing counsel. Before you draft a motion, call opposing counsel and try to work it out. You may save yourself the time and expense of the motion. If not, you can let the Court know that you tried to work things out.
Keep the motion simple. In state court, particularly during motion calender, courts are swamped with dozens of motions. Make your motion short, simple and to the point. In my motions, I tell the judge up front the relief I am seeking and why I am entitled to it.
Learn everything you can about your judge. Ask around your office about your judge. Is she plaintiff or defense oriented? Is she slow to impose sanctions? Also, obtain a copy of the judge’s protocols for setting and arguing motions. In addition, do a search on Westlaw for all the cases where your judge has been upheld or overturned. One of these cases may address the same issue you raise in your motion.
Learn everything you can about opposing counsel. Look up your opponent on Martindale-Hubble. Also, look at the attorney’s web page to learn about his area of expertise, years of experience, whether he’s been published and anything else to get a sense of his strengths and weaknesses.
Be courteous when setting the motion. Before you set a motion for hearing, clear the date with opposing counsel. Also, be courteous to the judge by not setting motions on motion calender that will take more than five minutes to argue. Some judges have a list of the type of motions they refuse to hear on motion calender.
Send the court a courtesy copy. Send the court a courtesy copy of the motion and a copy of all the cases cited in the motion, with a cover letter informing the judge the date and time of the hearing.
Order a court reporter. Consider ordering a court reporter. Sometimes, opposing counsel or the judge will address issues you were not expecting. It is good to have a transcript of these digressions. Also, parties cannot always agree to the language of an order, claiming the judge said one thing or another. A transcript often resolves these disputes.
Make sure you made the calender. A day or two before the hearing, make sure you made the judge’s calender. Also, confirm with opposing counsel and the court reporter that they will be attending the hearing.
Prepare a hearing file. Prepare a hearing file containing the following: (1) notice of hearing; (2) two copies of the motion (the second copy for the judge if the courtesy copy you previously sent is not at arm’s length); (3) three copies of all the cases, with the relevant portions highlighted; and (4) a blank order (most judges prefer the form orders with the carbon paper).
Introduce yourself and your case. At the hearing, say your name, your client’s name and the title of your motion. Give a brief description of the facts of the case and present your argument clearly and succinctly.
Be professional. Don’t interrupt opposing counsel or the judge. Don’t raise your voice or become upset. Don’t allow yourself to be baited by opposing counsel. And don’t argue after the Court has ruled.
Make a record. Have the judge make a ruling on the record, and try to have the judge address all the issues you raised in your motion. If you filed a motion to compel and for sanctions, have the judge address both issues. If the judge rules against you, do your best to have her limit her ruling. For example, if she denies your motion, have her do so without prejudice.
Prepare the order before leaving the courthouse. If possible, prepare the order at the conclusion of the hearing. That way, if a dispute arises over the language, you can go back to the judge and ask her to resolve the dispute. | {
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Edward Morton
Edward Morton Edward A. Morton, of Naples, has served as a Principal and Managing Director of the investment firm Wasmer & Schroeder & Co. since 2007. He retired in 2006 after 34 years of service, as the CEO of the NCH Healthcare System, a diversified healthcare holding company. He is a Florida native and was raised in Islamorada. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Miami and a Master’s of Health Science from Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). He is a past Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of FGCU and past Chairman of the FGCU Foundation. He has served and currently sits on the board of a number of civic-minded boards serving the citizens of Southwest Florida. | {
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Watch out members of Unlocking the Truth, there's something nefarious afoot. The band is teaming up with Loudwire to exclusively premiere their new video for "My Chains" and there's a dark fate ahead for the lads.
The JP Brasca-directed video starts off innocent enough with the hard rocking trio enjoying some drinks and conversation with three young ladies at a diner, but things start to get a little hazy and it's not long before they find themselves in a basement left to do the bidding of their captors.
Guitarist-vocalist Malcolm Brickhouse tells us, "The meaning of 'My Chains' will be different for everyone but there's a line in the song for everyone. Think about it. We all have life's chains. It could be somebody or something we use as a crutch to help us get through life and loosen those chains."
He continues, "We wanted the 'My Chains' video to show that Unlocking the Truth has more to offer than just a good song. The video and song both push the envelope for 'the norm' in metal music. It's fresh. It's new. It's MY CHAINS!"
At present, no tour dates remain for 2017, but look for things to start ramping back up for Unlocking the Truth in 2018. Stay up to date with the band via their website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. | {
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News
FAIRFIELD — Solano County supervisors on Tuesday will consider authorizing a pilot program that will provide more flexibility on how state funds are spent.
In essence, the program would allow the county to keep more of the child care funds that the county has been required to return to the state because of narrower regulations.
“Solano County is often not able to use all of the child care funding allocated by the state because of unreasonably strict state program regulations that fail to accommodate the needs of local families and child care providers,” Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Discovery Bay, said in a statement as the bill was traveling through the legislative steps.
Over many generations, the Delta has been overtapped and bureaucratically manhandled to provide stability to California’s water delivery system. Roughly a decade ago, the state began the difficult process of trying to develop a credible plan for the future.
In 2009, the Delta Stewardship Council was created to achieve the co-equal goals of providing a more reliable water supply and restoring the Delta’s ecosystem to protect its unique cultural, recreational, natural resource and agricultural assets.
Opinion
However, the council has neglected most of its mandate. In recent years, it has behaved more like the “Tunnels Stewardship Council,” becoming little more than a shill for the proposed tunnels project that threatens to destroy the Delta as we know it.
Today, The California Transportation Commission (Commission) began two days of workshops and meetings aimed at answering questions related to the implementation of Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act.
With the passage of the Road Repair & Accountability Act of 2017 (SB 1), California’s drivers are making a strong investment in the future of state and local roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure. To expedite the needed work, the Commission is actively working on guidelines for project allocations.
“It is clear that everyone in California is looking to us to lead the way. The Commission takes very seriously its charge to make thoughtful, effective, and efficient mobility investments” said Commission Chair Bob Alvarado.
One day in the 10th grade at Armijo while I was waiting for the bus after school, I noticed a guy and girl arguing nearby. Well, she wasn’t arguing. He was doing all the talking but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
Several students watched with no one intervening. I didn’t know them. I just knew that the girl rode my bus. She was usually quiet and demure just like she was on this day with her boyfriend chastising her. I got on the bus and so did she, sitting a few seats in front of me. Outside, her boyfriend stood at the window telling her to come back outside to talk. When she refused, he leaped up and punched the bus window, shattering it. She got off the bus and he took her by the arm and led her away, while the rest of us just sat on the bus watching.
For big game hunters, another bill, Assembly Bill 521 was passed by the Appropriations Committee. This bill would lower the cost of a resident elk tag.
Sponsored by Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Oakley, it would lower the cost of a California resident elk tag from $450 to $100 and also add an allocation for youth tags to go to $20. Previously, youth hunters had to pay the full adult price for a tag. California’s elk tags are much higher than all of the western states.
California lawmakers blasted state water officials Thursday for their oversight of the half-century-old dam that anchors the state’s water system in a hearing focusing on the design problems and aging that contributed to the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream.
“This frightens me, that this was built in this manner,” state Assemblyman Jim Frazier, a Democrat and an engineer by training, told the state officials overseeing the Oroville Dam, the nation’s tallest.
Frazier cited post-crisis inspection reports of concrete as thin as the width of the palm of a hand on Oroville’s main spillway. “We have some things we need to address so this doesn’t happen again.”
On Thursday, Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D – Discovery Bay) presented ACR 49 on the Assembly Floor that designates an eastern Contra Costa County portion of State Route 4 in memorial to Sgt. Scott Lunger for his service to public safety and personal contributions to his community.
“Sgt. Lunger’s sacrifice, made in the line of duty, deserves every bit of respect and recognition that can be give,” said Frazier. “Not only a dedicated officer of the law, Scott was also an active member of the East County community as a beloved volunteer coach for the Freedom High School girls’ softball team. We will miss Scott greatly and owe a debt of gratitude to him and his loved ones for their sacrifices.” | {
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Sup people, I'm smoov28, and I've been voice acting for about a year now. I've really only done sonic the hedgehog, but I've come here to broaden my horizons. I'll take ANYTHING I can get XD, so just pm me if your intrested :P
Hey, I'm a voice actor looking for work, I can do pretty much any male voice, (though I'm particularly proud of my evil villain voice) and I'll be prompt in getting the lines to you.
I have experience recording my voice for flashes, (though none have come out yet) and the quality of my mic is fair.
If you require my services, please PM my newgrounds account.
Thanks.
OK, I need a someone to do 1 LINE of voice acting for me, they must be a teenager from 15-20 or so and the line they have to say is "eh...No..." in an american or english accent. Please help me guys. Say the "no" with a bit of anger and you think the guy you're talking to is weird
Demo This is my demo of my voice. Its pretty self explanitory, the comments i put up for it are what i shouldve put here, but im too lazy to put that shyt up twice. Sooooo, what are you still doing here? Go check out the demo!
I am a fan of your work. You voice work is incredible. I myself am working on a project that needs voice acting to help bring it to life. I was wondering if you would be interested in helping me out with it.
I have a trailer of it up at the NG site. It is titled " Clarius and Hancho." Your talents would be much appreciated.
Hi all Im looking to get some VA done cause "The Admins" seems to have dried up, any way, Im male 22 years old from Scotland and I record VAs on a Logitec USB Headset and Im available pretty much anytime, so PM me and we can go from there
The mic wasnt workin properly when I done the trailer but its sorted now and its louder and clearer now
if you wanna email instead of PM then send me one at NAVARONE9942b(at)YAHOO(dot)CO(dot)UK subject "VOICE ACTING" thanks
also if GODHAND/ETHAN daigns to upload it I may Post a link to "The Admins" Episode 1, but its been over a month since I heared anything about it.
I am a noob to all of this. I have much to learn but much to offer. This clip is like... 18 minutes long, different voices.
I am American, I live in California. I am 16, semi deep voice. Nasally at times... But I can clear that up if needed. I sound extra nasally in this clip because I've been recovering from a cold, not exactly a perfect time to whore myself, but I had a creative spark.
In this clip I switched from hick to Jewish for some odd reason.
This was all improv and I am a novice. You can hear my mic moving around as I act with my hands and body. It's an ambitious try, so give it a go. I'll love you forever.
I can do old, to a high child's voice... maybe six or seven? Southern to New England/ York accents, and of course, stoner surfer which I didn't show because I hate to do it. I can do British, old refined, to new skinhead, to even My Fair Lady status.
I've acted on stage, but never on mic. So yea, stfu Matt, and put the clip up... K. Also... if you don't like swear words you may hate me.
CLIPPY TIEM HUZZAHhttp://www.zshare.net/audio/5044324587b4 ea85/
Ok! Here is the deal. I have a script written up. All I need is your email to foward it to you. I then want you to do a recording and foward it to me. I will let you know if you fit the roll or not. How does that sound?
Sincerely,
Creator of what maybe NG's next biggest flash cartoon with your help!
Name: Jeff
Age: 18
Experience: Well experience wise haven't done any voice acting for flash films. But I have taken speech classes and have done stand up comedy. So I think I am pretty well off on my speaking capabilities. I can do a very broad range of voices from someone very young, someone smart and witty, and I can even very old men voices.
I can be available pretty much all the time and will respond usually in 8 hours of receiving a message.
If you are interested then i can send you some voice samples or you can have me do a variety of different voices for you.
hey there! i'm new to newgrounds, but only somewhat new to voice acting. i've been doing it for about 7 months. =) i'm always open to new roles and helping out in doing voices, big or small. i'm not the best, but i'm improving (i think?)! so if you want to contact me, PM me or send a message to snowfender (at) gmail (dot) com. thanks! =D
Experience: I've been acting ever since I was 9, I've done small films in the past, and there's a couple videos of me on YouTube (JonasWebley, but it doesn't have alot of me acting or doing anything special)
Range: I can go incredibly deep, but I can't do falsetto anymore, so I can go reasonably high. I can fit any role, and do any emotion, no exceptions.
CONTACTS ME HERES: [email protected]. I don't usually read emails very often, or at all, so it'd be best if you add me on MSN, or send a message to my YouTube account (JonasWebley).
I also have a rockin' mic, with no fuzzies. And I don't speak with my mic in my mouth. I keep a moderate distance.
Hello!
I'm interested in doing some voice acting work for flash projects. I can do a rather nice narrator voice, some good impressions, a wide range of emotions, and a bit of singing...
I used to do comedy shows back in high school that mostly involved improvisation, and I have been told by others that I do some great impressions...
I really can't do a good VA sample on my own, but if you have a sample script and description of how you want it read, please feel free to PM me, or send me an email at: [email protected]
Depending on how busy I am, I'll get back to you as soon as possible!
I'd love to send you an audio audition for Vidor and Steve. I think I can do a pretty good evil voice and I'm sure I can do a casual, normal voice for Steve. How would you prefer me to get the audio to you? I could just make it into a youtube video I suppose. | {
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Meet Our Students
To learn more about what it’s like to be a Knight, take a look around Arcadia’s student blog, Because Arcadia. Follow along with the contributors as they explore the community, campus life, and study abroad experiences that define the University.
Find the Program That's Right for You
A Pioneer in Study Abroad
With more than 65 years of experience sending students overseas, faculty and staff working in 15 countries, and a commitment to global education, it’s no wonder that we’re consistently named the #1 school for study abroad.
Your Home Away from Home
You will spend a lot of your time on Arcadia’s campus. With a picturesque backdrop, you can find your special place in the comfortable nooks in the Castle, the Adirondack chairs around Haber Green, Delran Pavilion at the turf field, or at Easton Café, where you can enjoy a coffee, sandwiches, salads, or a healthy snack. | {
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Forms
Our bodies have two basic rhythms: Alternating & Synchronous. These are expressed in Wing Chun by families of basic patterns. Intriguingly, only one is effective for humans in land travel, but both work in swimming. One basic Alternating pattern is the fundamental high-speed, continuous punching pattern (with different names in different groups, of course). Wang Kiu called it “Ruffle Punching” … Continue reading Time: Rhythm
All who teach are influenced by the way they learned. As described in About, I learned the MookJong (Wooden Man) first, then the rest "all in one go". This means that my intrinsic impression of all the forms and practices was integrated rather than separate. So as I developed my approach during my early years … Continue reading Twist the Drill | {
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Stunning Chappy opportunity! Lovely home on Edgartown Harbor with private dock and incredible water views. A rare opportunity to experience a Chappy summer. Great proximity to the Chappaquiddick ferry to Downtown Edgartown and the most breathtaking beaches the Vineyard has to offer. Enjoy breezy summer days on the water right on your very own deck. You'll feel all your troubles fall away right when you arrive at this oasis. Plenty of space for entertaining with a large dining room and living room opening out to the deck on the water. Comfortable living with four bedrooms, each with an en suite bath. A property not to be missed. Create your Martha's Vineyard memories at this private vacation home on Chappy. Property currently on the market for sale. Please inquire. There is no cable at the property. There is one TV with a DVD player to watch movies.
Sandpiper Rentals, Inc and all of its affiliated agents are representatives of the Landlord.
Property details on our site are subject to change based on updates from the Landlord.
Please note that the weather conditions on Martha's Vineyard can contribute to the occurrence of mold. Some people are more sensitive to the presence of mold. | {
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Reporter's Notebook: Breast cancer funding
McHenry County Public Health Administrator Patrick McNulty had the County Board over a barrel Tuesday when it came to restoring cuts to breast and cervical cancer screening.
As I wrote in today's paper, a number of board members were not happy with McNulty coming before the board to ask that $40,000 be restored to the program in the last six weeks of the 2011 fiscal year. It passed Tuesday morning, 17-5, just one vote more than the two-thirds majority needed for an emergency appropriation.
But displeasure aside, who wants to be the politician with a primary looming who votes against funding during the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month? Who wants to be stingy with $40,000 when the County Board has more than $47 million in reserve?
And who wants to vote no on the same morning that the Northwest Herald printed in pink to raise awareness, as County Board member Paula Yensen, D-Lake in the Hills, pointed out? (For the record, the pink newspaper on the morning of the vote was coincidence.)
The main opposition to restoring the funding came from the members of the Finance and Audit Committee who opposed it. Chairman Scott Breeden, R-Lakewood, made clear his support of cancer screening, noting that he lost both his parents in their fifties to the disease. But he said that McNulty was going around the established budget process that has kept the county solvent while so many others in Illinois are not.
Both Breeden and John Hammerand, R-Wonder Lake, told McNulty that he had a responsibility to try to live within the cuts.
"I believe it's incumbent on administrators, when the County Board cuts a line item, that they spend less money during that year," Hammerand said.
Neither Breeden nor Hammerand fully accepted McNulty's explanation that he was told he could return to the County Board to ask for more at the end of the year, depending on what the county had left to give. Both members alleged that McNulty did not bother to rein anything in as a result: Breeden said it looked to him like simply coming back was what the health department had in mind "all along," while Hammerand said McNulty "did not expend in a forthright manner."
It was the precedent, not the money, that had opponents just as concerned. If the County Board undid one budget cut for a good cause, other departments may try to follow the health department's lead. "All the other departments will be back at us," Ersel Schuster, R-Woodstock, said.
But other board members rallied to support the program. Public Health and Human Services Committee Chairwoman Virginia Peschke, R-Woodstock, chided board members for not seeing the difference between regular county programs and others, like this one, "where lives are involved."
Peschke said that the money has run out not because of bad planning, but because the program is popular and getting more so every year. The program saw 400 cases when it started in 2007, and saw more than 1,000 for the first half of this year. Eleven women so far this year were diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer.
Board member Mary McCann, R-Woodstock, pointed out the county's healthy cash reserve, which can fund almost seven months of operations.
"Forty thousand out of that total reserve seems insignificant," McCann said.
The lone audience member who spoke during public comment prior to the debate indirectly reminded board members that rejecting restoring funding would come with a political cost next year. Audience member Terry Kappel, who asked the board to restore the $40,000, is running as a Democrat for County Board next year.
"In my opinion, screening women in need ... that's not [budget] fat. That's a program there to provide a needed service in the community who can't afford it otherwise," Kappel said.
There were two proposed amendments to the health department's request. While County Board member Nick Provenzano in the end voted in favor of restoring funding, he proposed an amendment for the county and McNulty to first scour the health department's budget to see if $40,000 could be found. The amendment died on a 9-13 vote.
A motion by Hammerand to restore only $26,000 was resoundingly defeated by voice vote. | {
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Two Firefighters Injured By Apartment Building Odor
ELGIN, IL – Two Elgin firefighters and a police officer were taken to area hospitals Monday night after each became ill at the scene of a hazardous materials call at an apartment building.
Emergency crews were called to investigate the hazmat call at a six-flat apartment building on the 1100 block of Birch Drive at about 5:20 p.m., officials said.
The caller reported a strange smell that caused watery eyes and left a “metallic taste,” according to Elgin spokeswoman Susan Olafson. Arriving crews quickly ruled out natural gas as the cause, but remained on the scene to find the cause.
Eventually, the odor dissipated on its own and no injuries were initially reported, until two firefighters and a police officer became ill and were taken to Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Olafson said.
One firefighter and the police officer complained of chest pains, while the second firefighter developed high blood pressure symptoms. Twelve residents also were taken to area hospitals with nausea and throat irritation.
Fire officials told the building owner he must contact an air-quality remediation company to determine the cause of the odor before anyone would be allowed back in, Olafson said. | {
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OCEAN VIEW RESIDENCE
Interior and Exterior transformation of a traditionally laid out and detailed Manhattan Beach home. LMD was commissioned to modify the floor plans for a more modern living flow and rethink the exterior finishes to a lighter, contemporary appearance. LMD chose metal doors and windows and simplified the detailing. A unification of materials and textures successfully make this home a unique and refreshing presence in its neighborhood.
Structural Engineer: Niver Engineering
General Contractor: Jeff Wilson Construction
Photography: Douglas Hill
OCEAN VIEW RESIDENCE
Interior and Exterior transformation of a traditionally laid out and detailed Manhattan Beach home. LMD was commissioned to modify the floor plans for a more modern living flow and rethink the exterior finishes to a lighter, contemporary appearance. LMD chose metal doors and windows and simplified the detailing. A unification of materials and textures successfully make this home a unique and refreshing presence in its neighborhood.
Structural Engineer: Niver Engineering
General Contractor: Jeff Wilson Construction
Photography: Douglas Hill
OCEAN VIEW RESIDENCE
Interior and Exterior transformation of a traditionally laid out and detailed Manhattan Beach home. LMD was commissioned to modify the floor plans for a more modern living flow and rethink the exterior finishes to a lighter, contemporary appearance. LMD chose metal doors and windows and simplified the detailing. A unification of materials and textures successfully make this home a unique and refreshing presence in its neighborhood.
Structural Engineer: Niver Engineering
General Contractor: Jeff Wilson Construction
Photography: Douglas Hill
OCEAN VIEW RESIDENCE
Interior and Exterior transformation of a traditionally laid out and detailed Manhattan Beach home. LMD was commissioned to modify the floor plans for a more modern living flow and rethink the exterior finishes to a lighter, contemporary appearance. LMD chose metal doors and windows and simplified the detailing. A unification of materials and textures successfully make this home a unique and refreshing presence in its neighborhood.
Structural Engineer: Niver Engineering
General Contractor: Jeff Wilson Construction
Photography: Douglas Hill
OCEAN VIEW RESIDENCE
Interior and Exterior transformation of a traditionally laid out and detailed Manhattan Beach home. LMD was commissioned to modify the floor plans for a more modern living flow and rethink the exterior finishes to a lighter, contemporary appearance. LMD chose metal doors and windows and simplified the detailing. A unification of materials and textures successfully make this home a unique and refreshing presence in its neighborhood.
Structural Engineer: Niver Engineering
General Contractor: Jeff Wilson Construction
Photography: Douglas Hill
OCEAN VIEW RESIDENCE
Interior and Exterior transformation of a traditionally laid out and detailed Manhattan Beach home. LMD was commissioned to modify the floor plans for a more modern living flow and rethink the exterior finishes to a lighter, contemporary appearance. LMD chose metal doors and windows and simplified the detailing. A unification of materials and textures successfully make this home a unique and refreshing presence in its neighborhood. | {
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} |
US and China reach historic agreement on HFCs
Date
10 June 2013
NEW YORK: At a summit taking place near Palm Springs, California over the weekend, US President Barak Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached an historic agreement to phase down the production and consumption of HFCs, a potent greenhouse gas.
The agreement suggests using the Montreal Protocol – an international treaty created in 1987 to address depletion of the ozone layer – as the means for achieving the emissions reductions.
Protocol success
The Montreal Protocol has been largely successful in phasing out ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and halons.
In recent years, countries like the US, Canada and Mexico have proposed also using the mechanism to phase down HFCs, which are currently covered under the Kyoto Protocol.
According to the official agreement:
“The United States and China agreed to work together and with other countries through multilateral approaches that include using the expertise and institutions of the Montreal Protocol to phase down the production and consumption of HFCs, while continuing to include HFCs within the scope of UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol provisions for accounting and reporting of emissions.”
International collaboration
The agreement signals a very positive development in the overall US-China relationship on climate change and could have a major impact.
The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the HFC phase-down could reduce global emissions by over 84 gigatons (Gt) of carbon dioxide equivalent through 2050, which is equal to about two years worth of current global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and more than twelve years of US emissions.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Ranking Member of the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce said: “The United States and China working together to tackle climate change is a major breakthrough. A global phase-down of HFCs would eliminate more heat-trapping gases by 2050 than the United States emits in an entire decade.”
Wider impact
Evan Juska, Head of US Policy, The Climate Group said: “Of all the bi-lateral agreements reached by the US and China on climate change in recent years, this one has the potential to be the most impactful. Using the Montreal Protocol to phase down HFCs could reduce global emissions significantly by mid-century. And a successful partnership between the US and China on HFCs could lead to further cooperation on other GHGs in the future.” | {
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Bossie: The John Boehner Problem
After three election cycles and more than four and half years, grassroots conservatives have grown tired of waiting for John Boehner to pass the conservative agenda he’s repeatedly promised.
Time and time again, Boehner has failed to provide a vision or use the robust majority in the U.S. House—which conservatives provided him—to advance our policies. Instead, Speaker Boehner has allowed President Obama to set the debate, set the terms, and summarily clean our clocks. Meekly, Boehner drifts along aimlessly and legislates by cliff and crisis, instead of bringing forward an optimistic agenda of bold colors that the American people crave.
It looks as though his empty promises and inaction may be catching up to him. Citizens United recently surveyed a cross-section of our members nationwide about congressional approval and whether their member of Congress should vote to re-elect John Boehner as Speaker of the House. Of the 4,025 polled, less than 6 percent would want their Representative to re-elect Boehner as House Speaker if the election were held today. Grassroots conservatives are through being patient with John Boehner.
Available public polling of all Americans indicates that congressional approval averages a feeble 15 percent. Our survey—which polled our grassroots conservative members—has congressional approval at just over 2 percent, with 95 percent disapproving. These percentages are truly alarming, and they confirm once again the anti-Washington, anti-establishment sentiment that has become palpable in America, and with good reason. What has the Boehner-led Congress done to combat this general distrust in our government institutions? What has he done to contrast the Obama agenda? The short answer is nothing. It is his inaction, incompetence, and utter lack of a conservative agenda that has created the undercurrent visible in Donald Trump’s rise in the polls.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. Speaker Boehner could simply live up to his promises by holding votes on the bold and popular reforms that the American people want. Then the 247 members of the Republican caucus could go home, stand tall, and promote these reforms against the failed status quo agenda of the left. The U.S. House, led by conservatives, should be the driver of our nation’s public policy debate. Instead, Boehner allows others to fulfill this critical function.
Speaker Boehner could be forcing President Obama to choose a veto pen over the popular reforms that the American people are demanding. Obama would be forced to explain those vetoes as the economy limps along, families struggle, illegal immigrants flood our southern border, and aborted baby parts are sold by Planned Parenthood. The Republican Congress must restore trust in government. Boehner can start that process by voting on items such as a balanced budget amendment, congressional term limits, ending congressional pensions, and simplifying the tax code. Conservatives could put their stamp on these reforms like Speaker Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” in the mid-1990’s.
Instead, John Boehner has a problem with members of his conference, because they feel they’ve been used. Conservatives see Boehner moving Obama’s agenda on issues like funding Obamacare, funding Obama’s illegal amnesty, and passing trade promotion authority. Now, Boehner is apparently siding with Obama again by handing out corporate welfare by reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank for their cronies. As Americans who watched Sen. Ted Cruz call the Senate Majority Leader a liar can attest, there is little difference in his mind between the way Reid and McConnell and Pelosi and Boehner run Congress.
When pressed by conservatives for answers, Boehner lashes out at those who question his decisions. He’s attempted to punish conservatives in his caucus such as Mark Meadows, Ken Buck, and Alex Mooney for voting their conscience. As history tells us, strategies such as this don’t work for long.
It was grassroots conservatives who put John Boehner in power, and we haven’t seen a positive conservative agenda for America as promised in the last several elections. Because of Boehner’s failure of leadership and a track record of broken promises, conservatives are ready for new leadership in the U.S. House now. Maybe newly empowered conservatives like Congressman Meadows will lead a revolt and finally take back the people’s House. | {
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Message Boards
Topic : 08/23 My Fiancé is a Stalker
Number of Replies: 601
New Messages This Week: 0
Last Reply On:
Created on : Friday, May 12, 2006, 10:11:46 am
Author : DrPhilBoard1
(Original Air Date: 05/19/06) Amber says her fiancé, Ken, is out of control with his possessiveness, jealousy and rage. He called her 47 times in just one day. He has punched holes in the wall. He even followed her and rear-ended her car just because she wouldn't pick up the phone. Amber says Ken's behavior is getting worse, and she's beginning to fear for herself and their 1-year-old daughter. Amber's mother, Linda, says she has witnessed Ken's frightening behavior and the effect it has had on Amber, and she wants him out of her daughter's life for good. Dr. Phil intervenes. What is behind Ken's anger, and should this couple call it quits instead of walking down the aisle? Share your thoughts here.
As of January, 2009, this message board will become "Read Only" and will be closed to further posting. Please join the NEW Dr. Phil Community to continue your discussions, personalize your message board experience, start a blog and meet new friends.
The Stalker, Ken
To read about his possessiveness brought back terrible memories of such a relationship I was involved in. No one knew the extent of the mental anguish. It took a toll on me physically, and even though I escaped the relationship years ago, I still shudder when I think about it. This young woman is in serious danger; there has already been one act of violence and there will be more. She needs a restraining order and he should already be in jail for slamming into her car. The problem is his low self-esteem, and I hope she gets away before he kills her and the child. This is frightening, and sad.
Are you kidding me??!!!
She's actually questioning walking down the aisle or not? Get out! Get out now! I have not seen the show yet but just from the short "version", get out! Get out now! Take all necessary precautions. Change phone number. Get restraining order. MOVE!!!
Don't these women learn?
WOW! Have these women watched Dr. Phil before appearing on his show? What do they seriously think he is going to say? If you are in a relationship that is that "explosive" and "dangerous" now why would you still for one be with that person and 2ndly why would you still plan on marrying him? It makes you want to either slap these women in the head and as Dr. Phil always says "What were you thinking?" you want to give Amber a big hug and pray for her. Pray that God gives her guidance and the peace that he will take care of her and her daughter. Get out now before something final happens like your death.
This is NOT about You
Only yesterday I listened to the description of Narcissism and was shocked at how prevelant it is in our society. So much of that information pertains to your fiance. These are people who only see the world through their extremely narrow focus. They are NOT happy people and absolutely no one can give them that happiness. Yes, they can experience instant gratification and pleasure but beyond that they are incapable of understanding the wants and needs of anyone other than themselves. Run, don't walk away from this mentally ill man. He will destroy your spirit. As a woman who knows how debilitating lust can be, limiting your common sense, I encourage you to think about the mental anguish that will be experienced by your child. You can show the love you need to offer another to that child in lieu of a man/woman relationship for awhile. Good luck to you Sweetie. God put you in the hands of Dr. Phil. You are already blessed.
Run!!! Don't Walk Away!! Get out NOW!!!
My ex-husband displayed many of the same characteristics you are describing in your fiance.....please...RUN, DON'T WALK AWAY!!! GET AS FAR AWAY FROM HIM AS YOU CAN NOW!!! You may not believe it could be as serious as a life or death situation, but it definitely is! I could tell you things you would not believe about how I ended up being abused by my ex.....but it ended up being not only me, but my daughter as well!!! He caught me trying to leave a couple of different times and once put a knife to her throat and told me he would cut off her head...I believed him! Another time, he put a gun to my head. He even decided that he didn't want our 2nd child (who was conceived when he raped me when I came home after the c-section birth of our daughter) and poured boiling water over my stomach when I was 8 months pregnant! I was beaten if I took too long at the grocery store, talked to anyone he didn't approve of, or if he just felt like it. He started out a "wonderful guy" and moved us 1300 miles from my family....then the true evil came out. Please, don't let this continue to escalate into a very tragic situation!!!! Get out now, while you and your daughter are still alive and safe!! He needs help and your relationship WILL NOT GET BETTER!!!!!! I wish I could come and take you away from there myself!!!! Please, let Dr. Phil help you get away! Don't become another domestic violence statistic.
What is she waiting for?
I haven't even seen the show but it reminds me of my sister's husband. She had a part time job at a small local restaurant. He used to follow her to work and sit outside and watch her. He took her to dances and if she even looked at another man he would beat her up when they arrived home. He was a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde personality and was diagnosed as such later. One time he was put in the hospital because he tried to kill himself. My sister slept with a knife under her pillow just in case he escaped.. which he did at one point. Then one Saturday he went into a rage, pulled the phone out of the wall ( all this in front of their three young children )so she couldn't call for help, stormed out of the house threatening to kill himself. This time he followed through and drove his car over a cliff. My nephew todays displays very similar behaviour; luckily no one has married him. My sister went on to marry another man who verbally abused her. She eventually separated from him. Amy should leave this situation and I definitely would not recommend marriage. The kind of abuse he is inflicting on her should be a deal breaker; it would be with me. I thank God for the wonderful man in my life and every time I read or hear stories like Amy's, I thank Him again.
My Fiance was just like this..
I have only been out of this type of relationship since September of 2005. It is still very painful for me and emotionally exhausting. I have a "no contact order" that was established Feb. 2, 2006, and he still calls me or makes contact with me. To this day, I am not sure what is wrong with him, but I have researched everything possible. Here is a list of his behaviors: lies--even when he doesn't have to, lies about places he is, was, or is on business too. He claims to always be seeing someone else or have girls flirting with him, when in fact, there is no one, he would drink and lie about doing it, he would come to my home when I wasn't there and go through my diary, my phone messages, my mail, he constantly followed me to school, to work, to my sons' afterschool activities, he told me I was a no one, would never be more than trailer trash and could at any time look me in the eye and say he loved me or he didn't love me. He blamed me for everything that went wrong in his life and allowed our relationship only when he allowed it. He was very jealous and locked me in bathrooms to interrogate me if any other man looked at me or spoke to me. It wasn't out of the ordinary for him to tell another man that if I smiled at him he would punch them in the face...
How to get out? I still suffer to this day -- the only thing that has helped me is staying away from him, not answering his phone calls and not conversing in anyway possible. Even with all the court hearings, he hasn't went to jail and still threatens to kill me. I feel lost most of the time and scared other parts of the time. I wish you good luck in your relationship and pray that you wil lget away from him as soon as possible.
Run dont walk
My first marriage was to a man very similar to yours. I dated him all thru high school. He was very possessive and because I had a very controlling mother, the possiveness was not something that I was even aware of until much later. I had to use the CB radio (this was long before cell phones) to call him even when I ran to the corner to the store. I just thought he loved me so much. We had a dream wedding. Three weeks after the wedding he beat me up so bad I cleaned blood off the walls. Any thing that is bad in a relationship will be magnified 1000 fold after the wedding. Remember they are on their best behavior . When you are married you are not someones possession. You should be able to have friends of both men and women. You should be able to do or think or feel any way you want with in the limits of your commitment. I am telling you this because I am 58 married for 24 years and living with a control freak is not fun. I turned around and found another one just like my mother. If I do find myself alone again in the future, I now understand my mistakes and will not ever make them again. Unfortunately we learn many of the things we need to learn before we get married long after. Take your time. If someone loves you they will wait . Anyone can play a role for a year. RUN RUN
stalker
Wow...Been there...
HI...
What can I say, but I know what you are facing...can you say, "I made it out alive?" I can, because I did, but purely by the Grace of God...100%--only because HE has a plan for my life that I didn't know about...
Although my AKC German Shepherd paid the price, giving her life for mine and I lost all of my belongings, my stage clothes and the music in my collection that I used to support myself as a Video Disc Jockey and Entertainer--I escaped with the clothes on my back and returned to a burned out house and my life; what was left of it--devastated--
And to make it worse---this wasn't the first relationship that I had been in that I had experienced this sort of terror...I had been in a relationship before the one I just told you about that was scary and I actually quit dating completely for 2 years because of how freaked out I had become over the stalking---
You ask...why did your fiance burn your house down?
Well...he drank a lot of whiskey and thought that I was being unfaithful--I totally can't believe that he thought that---he stalked me and had people watching me constantly--wouldn't allow me to have a telephone, see family or dress myself the way I wanted to--he beat me and wouldn't allow me to keep a Bible on my nightstand--he threatened my dog and was insanely jealous of anything or anyone or any thought that didn't revolve around him---
I still have scars that bear the initial of his last name on my hand from one of the three Machetis that he was attempting to kill me with during one of our fights--
There was so much more that I could tell you, but it is too painful to mention any more at this time for me---you are still breathing---get out while you are still in one piece--Trust Dr. Phil to help you---He is probably the only one who can-- | {
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Rubio slams Obama's 'leadership failure'
Freshman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Friday blasted President Obama for failing to take any meaningful steps to reduce the government's budget deficit and said Obama's pending request to raise the debt ceiling again is just the latest sign of the president's failed leadership.
"When you served in the Senate in 2006, you called raising the debt limit 'a sign of leadership failure,' " Rubio wrote in a letter to Obama. "Using your own standard, this request will mark your sixth 'sign of leadership failure' on the debt ceiling issue alone."
Obama is expected to make his sixth request to raise the debt ceiling early this year, and Rubio — often considered a potential vice presidential candidate — said these requests have now become "routine" under Obama. He also added that the next request would take the U.S. debt limit to $16 trillion.
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"Instead of making debt ceiling increases a routine Washington exercise, we need to make it routine to actually spend no more than we take in," Rubio wrote. "Until then, I will oppose your request to continue borrowing and spending recklessly."
"It's a tragic reality but, on your watch, more and more people have come to believe that America is becoming a deadbeat nation inevitably heading toward a European-style debt crisis," wrote Rubio, who also called on Obama to "come forward with a real plan to tackle our debt in 2012." | {
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Weekly Ratings Round-up (Week 11) Posted December 8, 2013
For a round-up of how The Big Bang Theory has performed in various ratings over the last week, head over to our forums to read the weekly update from Rick K.
This week's update includes a look at the Live +7-Day DVR ratings for the eighth week of the season, an update on the weekly rankings for the tenth week of the season, a look at the show's ratings in syndication, and the ratings for the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory.
With the new season of The Big Bang Theory now in full swing, it's time again for the weekly ratings roundup from Rick K. on our Big Bang Theory Forums. Head over to our forums for the recap of how the show has performed in the ratings this week. Read the full story
Last night's episode of The Big Bang Theory was the show's most-watched and highest-rated season finale. The show posted its best numbers since April 3, bucking the recent fall in TV viewership across the board. Read the full story
For a round-up of how The Big Bang Theory has performed in various ratings over the last week, head over to our forums to read the weekly update from Rick K. The ratings guide also includes the schedule for upcoming broadcasts of The Big Bang Theory. Read the full story | {
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Onion For Hair Loss — Good Or Bad
You are here
Whether you have a receding hairline, are genetically inclined to hair loss, or just worried that your thick mane won’t last forever, munching on few rings of onion every day can reverse the hair loss cycle for good. This humble edible bulb is the best topical cure for shedding hair that won’t just check hair fall, but also leave it healthy. Onions help to reduce hair loss by providing nourishment to the hair, treating all kinds of scalp infection, and checking fungal growth. To know if onion for hair loss is good or bad , explore this blog further.
Onions For Hair Loss
Onion is endowed with many healing properties. A naturally occurring antibacterial, onions, when applied topically, can help to cleanse the scalp, boost blood circulation, and nourish hair follicles, thereby curbing hair loss and baldness.
Onions are powerhouse of important nutrients like vitamin B6, vitamin C, magnesium, calcium, potassium, germanium, and sulphur (the beauty mineral) that helps in regeneration of hair follicles, regrowth of hair, and reduction of hair loss.
What more, onions not only helps to restore hair, but also boost hair vitality and enhances its beauty. Furthermore, it helps to boost blood circulation and decrease skin inflammation, which is an added bonus if you suffer from any kinds of redness, swelling or itching on your scalp.
Onion juice helps to cure alopecia and promote the growth of new hair.
Tips to Reduce Hair Loss With Onions
Take one medium sized raw onion and squeeze out the juice. Using a brush or your fingertips, apply the juice on your hair and scalp and massage lightly so that the juice is seeped into your hair. Cover your head with a shower cap and leave it on for 30 minutes. Rinse off with a nice smelling shampoo.
Repeat this onion therapy every once in a week to prevent hair loss and boost regrowth.
Onion juice helps to rejuvenates hair follicles and boost scalp circulation thereby leaving you with a head full of healthy strands.
Onions are numero uno medicine for hairloss. Onions and hair have a healthy association. If you pine for lustrous locks, then onion is the way to go. | {
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Herodotus (c. 450 BC)
I am needing help ansering a few question I can not locate an answer to.
How is a colonizing expedition planned and organized and who goes on it? Do the variant stories recorded by herodotos disagree? What is the political organization/government of this particular colony? How does this colony deal with local populations? | {
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So I want to watch an anime with this girl I like. She's not really into it. I wanted to pick one I haven't seen but I don't want it to be a blunder either. Is Princess Jellyfish okay? And, as far as dubs go, does it have a decent one? I can probably convince her to watch either but if the dub is decent that would be a lot simpler.
>>100515574
Hmm...does the girl like you? The way you make it sound makes me think she doesn't. Watching anime with someone who already doesn't like it is a surefire way to ensure they remain uninterested in you. | {
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Mark Ellis, Elliot Johnson
Dodgers second baseman Mark Ellis, top, turns a successful double play as Atlanta's Elliot Johnson slides underneath him during Game 3 of the National League division series.
Dodgers second baseman Mark Ellis, top, turns a successful double play as Atlanta's Elliot Johnson slides underneath him during Game 3 of the National League division series. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Dodgers second baseman Mark Ellis, top, turns a successful double play as Atlanta's Elliot Johnson slides underneath him during Game 3 of the National League division series. | {
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SM Entertainment was found by a korean called Lee Soo Man(currently manager/boss in the company and manager of DBSK). it is often referred to as a money sucking company by many. why? because the management company for the korean celebs aka singers (see tags listed below), releases merchandises/singles/albums like there's no tomorrow thus tempting fangirls/fans of the celebrities to keep ordering the items. and after which causing people to almost declare bankruptcy.
BUT it groomed talented koreans to what they are now - singers who are well-known all over the world. (therefore i don't mind the money loss anymore ;D) | {
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Farmstead Villa debuts apartments for seniors who want ‘just a bit of help’
Operations manager Tim Noteboom and family relations director Kayla Abele will conduct tours of the new Farmstead Villa 55-plus residence from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday. The 33-unit, three-story building at 3200 28th St. S. is adjacent to Farmstead Care and across the street from Farmstead Living. (Photo/Russ Hanson)
Nancy Edmonds Hanson [email protected]
The newest addition to the Farmstead Living retirement complex in southeast Moorhead “completes the loop,” as developer Roger Erickson describes it. “This is the last missing piece in what we offer for people who are 55-plus,” he explains. “We started with completely independent living for older adults at Farmstead Estates. As our ads say, our independent apartments were ‘designed with my parents in mind.’ Now, years later, we’ve created the next step.” He adds with a smile, “You could say I built the Villa with myself in mind.” Farmstead Villa bridges the gap between total independence and needing – or preferring – just a little bit of help. The three-story building’s 33 spacious apartments each boast two bedrooms and two baths. The 1,000-square-foot units include a large, well-equipped kitchen opening into a roomy living room. Each has its own washer and dryer. Large balconies or ground-floor patios offer a breath of fresh air looking out to the north or south. That’s just the beginning. Facilities manager Tim Noteboom, who joined the Farmstead organization a year ago, says the Villa’s design has been shaped by the older adults who’ll live there. One high point is the garage that adjoins the building. “Knowing older drivers will be using it, it was laid out with a little more room and a lot more light,” he notes. Kayla Abele, Farmstead’s director of family and community relations, says attention has been paid to residents’ social needs, too. Monthly rental fees all include daily lunches, afternoon snacks and dinners. “It’s not just about food and nutrition,” she explains. “Mealtime is an opportunity to get out and visit with others. That’s not easy for a lot of people who live alone.” She adds, “Some of our first residents have told me that they just don’t want to cook anymore.” Residents who are also tired of housework have reason to rejoice, too. Light housekeeping services are provided as part of their fee. The Villa’s game room is equipped with a pool table and table shuffleboard, as well as plenty of games. There’s exercise equipment, too, and a large communal patio facing east to catch a breath of air. A full schedule of chauffeured outings and activities is also in the works, from Redhawks games and dining out to weekly shopping excursions. Opening the Villa marks completion of developer Erickson’s vision for a continuum of services for the Moorhead area’s aging population – a bridge between complete privacy and independence and the kind of watchful care many come to need as the years add up. “As our census became older and needed additional services, Farmstead Care came about to give them options without needing to uproot themselves and move to a different facility,” Erickson recounts. Built in two phases – the latest opened earlier this year – the assisted living now offer a full menu of services that can be added based on residents’ changing needs, including memory care and accommodations for those in hospice care. According to Noteboom, new residents moved into seven of the Villa’s 33 apartments as soon as the doors opened earlier this month; another four are expected by the first of September. When fully occupied, he expects the little community to total about 50 people. Potential residents are welcome to tour the facility and learn about the services and activities it offers at open houses from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 24, and Thursday, Aug. 26, as well as Sept. 3 and 5. Pie and coffee will be served in the main-floor dining area.
The newest addition to the Farmstead Living retirement complex in southeast Moorhead “completes the loop,” as developer Roger Erickson describes it. “This is the last missing piece in what we offer for people who are 55-plus,” he explains. “We started with completely independent living for older adults at Farmstead Estates. As our ads say, our independent apartments were ‘designed with my parents in mind.’ Now, years later, we’ve created the next step.” He adds with a smile, “You could say I built the Villa with myself in mind.” Farmstead Villa bridges the gap between total independence and needing – or preferring – just a little bit of help. The three-story building’s 33 spacious apartments each boast two bedrooms and two baths. The 1,000-square-foot units include a large, well-equipped kitchen opening into a roomy living room. Each has its own washer and dryer. Large balconies or ground-floor patios offer a breath of fresh air looking out to the north or south. That’s just the beginning. Facilities manager Tim Noteboom, who joined the Farmstead organization a year ago, says the Villa’s design has been shaped by the older adults who’ll live there. One high point is the garage that adjoins the building. “Knowing older drivers will be using it, it was laid out with a little more room and a lot more light,” he notes. Kayla Abele, Farmstead’s director of family and community relations, says attention has been paid to residents’ social needs, too. Monthly rental fees all include daily lunches, afternoon snacks and dinners. “It’s not just about food and nutrition,” she explains. “Mealtime is an opportunity to get out and visit with others. That’s not easy for a lot of people who live alone.” She adds, “Some of our first residents have told me that they just don’t want to cook anymore.” Residents who are also tired of housework have reason to rejoice, too. Light housekeeping services are provided as part of their fee. The Villa’s game room is equipped with a pool table and table shuffleboard, as well as plenty of games. There’s exercise equipment, too, and a large communal patio facing east to catch a breath of air. A full schedule of chauffeured outings and activities is also in the works, from Redhawks games and dining out to weekly shopping excursions. Opening the Villa marks completion of developer Erickson’s vision for a continuum of services for the Moorhead area’s aging population – a bridge between complete privacy and independence and the kind of watchful care many come to need as the years add up. “As our census became older and needed additional services, Farmstead Care came about to give them options without needing to uproot themselves and move to a different facility,” Erickson recounts. Built in two phases – the latest opened earlier this year – the assisted living now offer a full menu of services that can be added based on residents’ changing needs, including memory care and accommodations for those in hospice care. According to Noteboom, new residents moved into seven of the Villa’s 33 apartments as soon as the doors opened earlier this month; another four are expected by the first of September. When fully occupied, he expects the little community to total about 50 people. Potential residents are welcome to tour the facility and learn about the services and activities it offers at open houses from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 24, and Thursday, Aug. 26, as well as Sept. 3 and 5. Pie and coffee will be served in the main-floor dining area. | {
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PEACHLAND – An Okanagan trail that was used hundreds and even thousands of years ago is about to get a new life as a hiking trail.
The Fur Brigade Trail is 3.5 kilometres of broken, uneven pathway running between Summerland and Peachland. Thousands of years ago it was cut by First Nations people, and 200 years ago during the gold rush, traders used it to bring goods to and from the Coast and trappers working on behalf of the Hudson’s Bay Company to sell their pelts.
Last Thursday, directors of the Central Okanagan Regional District agreed to file a request with the province for a Licence of Occupation to get tenure over the key section between Summerland and Peachland into a park.
President of the Trails of the Okanagan Society Henry Sielmann says although their working number is significantly less, they expect it will cost $100,000 to bring that section of the trail up to standard.
“The Parks department of CORD want to have a maximum number so they don’t have to come back and ask for more,” he says “But our number was quite a bit less.”
Sielmann wouldn’t speculate on when work on the trail could begin or end, but says he believes there is a “high likelihood” it will happen eventually.
“This is the very first step required.”
The Society will have to wait until the end of March, however before finding out Regional District budget availability, but in the meantime they are looking forward to the day when the Fur Brigade Trail’s new life can begin.
“The good will is tremendous,” he says. “There is so much momentum. We’re optimistic.”
A new illustration of the planned recreational lakeside trail between Summerland Lower Town and Trout Creek.
Image Credit: Facebook/The Trail Of The Okanagans
- This story was corrected at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 19, 2017 to clarify that the RDCO are filing for tenure of the trail.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. | {
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Vivint Smart Home
An Easy to use Automation System
Vivint Smart Home is a leader in the home automation industry today. Vivint’s the most advanced technology in the market today as a result keeping you connected at home and on the road. You can Control your system at home with the Sky Control Panel or an Amazon Echo. This is especially relevant when you are away, you can use the Mobile App to keep in touch with your home and family.
Vivint’s Smart Home mobile app allows you to control any part of your home security and automation directly from your smartphone, computer, or tablet. This allows you to arm your system, view your surveillance live in HD remotely, therefore allowing you to control your thermostat, small appliances, lighting, and locks.
Vivint is the leader in Smart Home Wireless Automation
Smart Home Service Plans
Vivint Smart Home plans start at $39.99 including 24/7 security and fire monitoring. Tailor your needs, with additional equipment or totally automate your home while paying the same monthly subscription. Vivint’s video doorbell allows remote access to anyone approaching your door and allows for 1 way viewing and 2 way conversations. If desired, you can unlock door for deliveries or allow family members or friends to enter, if desired.
As a result Vivint can also be interfaced with an Amazon Echo to allow voice control of your system.
What features are available from Vivint?
Features
Free professional Installation
Free activation
Lifetime Equipment Warranty
Plans start at $39.99/mo.
Month to Month Plans available
Financing available with 0% interest, $0 down, and you choose your contract length
Free Mobile App
Free consultations and quotes
24/7 monitoring and support
Custom event notifications
The included backup battery will keep your system running even when the power goes out
Energy management
Smart Home Plans
Vivint allows you to control your door locks / garage door remotely, view and have 2 way conversations with your family members with your indoor cameras.
Vivint’s Night vision cameras, with 180 degree viewing, will allow you crystal clear viewing during day or evening hours. You will be able to monitor your home when you are away. Record and play back of surveillance available remotely.
Sky Panel Tablet for Automation
If you are already paying an alarm company $20-$30 per month just for monitoring, Vivint smart home technology and security can do so much more for little additional monthly expense. Vivint SkyControl Panel is the hub that controls communications between you and all your home automation products. The intuitive touch screen dashboard puts all your home controls in one place. The two-way talk feature connects you directly to Vivint Smart Home security monitoring.
The 7-inch touchscreen display makes controlling your home and seeing its status easy. | {
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Friday, 8 April 2016
Welcome to Womanhood: Jean Wanyana
It’s very quiet place
with not much to see but , one, two or three nurses and a couple of people
living the chapel quietly.
Painful noises are
coming out of the hospital hall. I try to take a walk around the Labor Ward , but the sight of these tall grown up women(size 16-18) in so much pain, is enough for
me to start nervously awaiting my fate.
I am four-six feet tall ,and a size eight. According
to the doctors and the few experienced mothers
that I know, all of these are red flags for a natural first birth. I am now convinced
that since am not in so much pain like the others, I will obviously NOT have a
natural birth like I had anticipated. They will cut me open…
Thirty minutes later
I start experiencing excruciating back pain.
I started vomiting I’m wondering why my body was malfunctioning, none of the
pregnancy books I read over and over again during my pregnancy ever mentioned
these malfunctions at this point. Little did I know these where signs of a
progressive labor.
It’s now only me and
my husband in the delivery room. He is too busy on the phone or behind the camcorder(but
that’s another story ...). As I experience excruciating pain a small voice
inside me is saying, “Something is not right, you should be screaming and
shouting like everyone else”, “Perhaps you will deliver 40 hours from now”,
“You could be going for C-section”
Ten minutes later
The baby’s head
appears. I’m ready to push. My husband rushes
to fetch the nurse. When she arrives, she asks me not to push because she says
I’m not ready. But I didn’t know how to not
to push!?At this point I can’t help
but push.
My baby is born. He is
now in my arms. At this particular moment, I
know I am a woman not a girl.
The next day
We head home. But home,
is not the same home. It’s now me, my
husband and our child. My mother is not there
to hold her first grandchild. She will notadvise me. She will not come to my home to nurse me. She will not come to my home to spoil me. My mother passed
away in 1996.
The emotions engulf me and I start to cry, then I remember that where
I come from, mothers are not supposed to cry.Apparently the tears will kill your baby. Mother’s must be strong. Once again realize I am a woman not a girl.
Four days later
Eventually, My husband
returns to work. It’s now just me and our baby. There is so much to do, and that the
small voice is back again doubting me, “You are never going to manage without
extra help!”
With a tear in my heart, I say
“ I am woman not a girl.” Then pull myself together nurture my child,
and to my surprise, years later, it turned out well. | {
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The Social Media Fear Factor Everyone Falls For
Don’t you just love Facebook groups? I’m a part of several of them. I join based on my interests and needs. For example, as a travel nurse, I’m part of a couple of travel nurse groups. And as a full-time RV Family, I’m part of a few RV groups. I’m even part of a group specifically for travel nurses who travel in RVs! These groups are great for answering questions, gaining information, and feeling a camaraderie among people with similar interests. I enjoy reading all the posts. No matter what kind of group you’re in, be it a Mommy group or people who love World of Warcraft, you’ll find you spend a good deal of social media time perusing these groups. Well, here’s a couple of things I’ve noticed.
Most people only speak a negative encounter or complaint.
The negative encounters or complaints are the ones that draw us in.
Maybe it’s just me, but as an anxious person when I am bombarded by negativity it affects me. In fact, the devil tries to use these instances to bring fear into my life. One day on Facebook and you’ll be convinced that your children are going to be targeted for sex trafficking in Walmart, you’ll get mugged if you go into a big city, and you’ll develop a debilitating illness from eating anything that’s non-organic. It’s like scrolling through campfire tales of urban legends, and you’re paranoid anytime someone flashes their headlights at you that a killer is in your backseat about to stab you to death. The only difference is a large part of the stories on social media are fact, not fiction, but just like watching the news, it seems like only the bad stories make the highlight reel. Negativity sells, so social media shares promote a sad story or scary encounter quicker than something lighthearted and [uplifting]. Human nature, I’m afraid.
But in this super-surge of bad, you’re left feeling disheartened. You can’t really help that. It ends up affecting how you live your life, and while there’s nothing wrong with being aware and cautious, I do have an issue with living in fear. Cause that’s not really living. The tendency of social media to mostly carry negative material can unintentionally cause you to be fearful, not just cautious.
In [the] groups I’m a part of, if I only paid attention to the negative occurrences (because that’s what we tend to do, and because they’re more plentiful) I would be scared to death of accepting travel assignments that could be canceled at the drop of a hat, or I’d never travel in an RV since they have so many things that break down and incur costly repairs. I wouldn’t let my children play in the front yard unless I was standing at their guard, and I’d never venture to explore new and exciting places. I wouldn’t welcome new friends since they might be serial killers, and I’d never eat shredded lettuce out of a bag, despite the convenience.
As a pregnant woman I would have feared every worst scenario possible in the delivery room, and as a mom, I would fear every vaccine my child was offered. For a long time I’ve noticed the trend of news networks to peddle fear like an eager ice cream man, but now I see it more and more on social media as well. The scary posts of being followed in Walmart with a thousand shares, meant with good intentions of awareness, but often received in the worst way. Unaware we lap up the scary stuff, we pull our coat up over our face, we pull our children closer, and we allow the circumstances of this world to cripple us.
Walking in faith means pushing back fear. So while there’s nothing wrong with being a smart cookie, sometimes most times all the time you have to trust your life to Jesus. You walk wisely, but you walk boldly. You recognize that fear is from the enemy, freedom is without fear, and where love exists, fear does not. We’re accosted with scary things in this world, but thankfully we aren’t ruled by fear. A scroll through social media could cause you to forget that.
Brie Gowen is a 30-something (sliding ever closer to 40-something) wife and mother. When she’s not loving on her hubby, chasing after the toddler or playing princess with her four-year-old, she enjoys cooking, reading and writing down her thoughts to share with others. Brie is also a huge lover of Jesus. She finds immense joy in the peace a relationship with her Savior provides, and she might just tell you about it sometime. She’d love for you to check out her blog at BrieGowen.com. | {
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QuickRewards Is Currently Down For Unscheduled Maintenance due to recent stability issues. We are working on fixing the stability issues. We estimate that the site should be back up by 12PM EST. Stay tuned for furthur updates!UPDATE 1: It seems the scan is taking slightly longer then usual, we are extending estimated time to 1PM-2PM. We apologize for the inconvenience.UPDATE 2 (2:20pm est): Unfortunately the scan still continues, we will keep updating every hour on the progress of the scan.UPDATE 3 (4:20pm est): The scan is still going. To give a better view of what is going on, our cache server was experiencing issues, thus required a restart and a checkdisk, while the server does not exactly hold any important information it is vital in being able to handle all the load. Right now the checkdisk has been in phase 2/3 for the past 4-5 hours. After it finishes we hope to see better stability. We are also working on an upgraded version of quickrewards which is almost complete. Once complete you should see quickrewards be much faster for on a daily basis.UPDATE 4 (7:54pm est): The scan is still going, still stage 2 out of 3. We are also working to see what it would take to launch the beta site while things are down just in case.UPDATE 5 (4:40am est): We got access to the server! we are finalizing the stuff so that we can bring the site back online.UPDATE 6 (9:20am est): Last set of tests, ETA 10 AM EST | {
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Escadaria Selaron
In 1990, Chilean-born artist Jorge Selaron decided he was fed up with his front garden and popped down to his local B&Q to spruce it up. Like most men in a hardware shop, he got carried away and what started with a few tiles, ended up in a 250 step mural that now stands as one of Rio's most well known and visited land marks.
Originally collecting tiles from nearby building sites and painting them by hand, neighbours mocked him as he spent day and night decorating the steps and selling paintings on the side to break even. Over time tiles where donated from all over the world and added to the steps as a piece of art that Jorge himself described as never to be completed, always changing.
There are now over 2000 tiles stretching over the 125m climb up to Santa Theresa. The stairs are a real marvel, though not in the nicest area of the city, they are well guarded by tourist police allowing visitors to take their time wondering the steps admiring the different tiles, trying to find one from their country or just an amusing one.
Sadly Jorge was found dead on the steps earlier this year. Burn marks were found on his body and rumours of involvements with local favela gangs and drug lords surround his death. One thing is for sure, the mural left behind serves as a vibrant symbol of Rio, can now be called complete.
Copacabana Beach
It is unknown which of the world's many Copacabana's inspired Barry Manilow's hit song, though given this beach is south of Havana, it is unlikely to be this one. Copacabana and Ipanema sit in the south zone of Rio de Janiero flanked by the iconic mountains that make the beaches so memorable. The beach is awash with beach sports, mainly volleyball and football and music and passion are always the fashion,
There are also a number of talented sand castle builders, very impressive!
Ipanema beach
Tall and tan and young and lovely The girl from Ipanema goes walking And when she passes, each one she passes Goes "A-a-a-h"
She may have been tall, tanned, young and lovely but it may be more likely that the ‘oohs’ came from the size of bikini she was wearing. Brazilian women are famed for their derrieres and as you browse the beach there is many a bottom eating up a bikini for lunch. Less is more on this beach devoted to sun, sea and the good life.
Ipanema is notably cleaner and more upmarket than Copacabana, probably due to it being slightly less accessible by public transport but it is a beauty. Both beaches are lined with stalls selling caiprainhas, cerveja (beer), coconuts with a straw in and sun loungers, just in case you weren’t already relaxed enough. What else can I say, life’s a beach!
Onde Esta Wally?
Christ the Redeemer
Ever get that feeling that someone is watching you?
On our second day we decided to go and see Rio’s most well-known landmark, Christ the Redeemer. Having been in Rio for 36 hours we were slightly confused that we hadn’t already spotted him watching over the city. For those of you who have been to New York only to realise the statue of liberty is only a dot on the horizon rather than the towering giant that TV and film make it out to be, Christo Redentor is similar in misconceived size and is a mere prick on a hill top, pun intended.
Situated 710m up on the highest of Rio’s peaks, building of the statue was commissioned in 1922 to commemorate the centenary of Brazil’s Independence from the Portuguese. When I say independence from the Portuguese, I mean it in the same ironic way of American independence, seeking a break from their former motherland.
A Very Brief History
Originally settled by the French, who were kicked out by the Portuguese wanting to prevent French domination, Brazil was named after the highly desirable Brazilwood and the dye used to colour fabrics, paints and inks.
Not much is known of its previous inhabitants whom the Portuguese considered to be stone age people of little value and worth. Importing 3.5m slaves from Africa (40% of all settlers to the new world), to farm the land for wood, sugar and precious materials.
When Napoleon marched on Lisbon in 1807, the prince regent, Dom Joāo fled to Rio de Janiero making it the only New World colony to serve as a seat of the throne to a European Monarch. The prince regent eventually returned to Portugal in 1821 (then King) leaving his son Pedro as regent. Like most unruly sons, a year later Perdro declared himself Emporer of Brazil, Portugal too weak to fight a family feud so far away let him have it. Pedro was later forced to abdicate the throne following a series of scandals leaving his 5 year old son to rule. Emporer Pedro II was to rule for 50 years forging a state that eventually rid of the monarchy itself.
Back to the statue, located in the middle of Tijuca National Park which covers 32km2 of Rio’s land mass, the original design was for Christ to hold the world in one hand and the cross in the other hand some 28m away. The design was later adapted not to include the symbols as Christ himself was the cross and Rio represented the world. Building was finalised in 1931 and the statue has been a symbol of the city and the country ever since. 30m tall Jesus looks over the city and is a constant reminder of its status as the world’s largest Catholic country.
At all these things, there is always one idiot....... I tend to find that idiot is me!
Unfortunately for us, no view of the city due to fog.
Sugarloaf Mountain
Standing at 318m tall, Pāo de Aҫúar, or Sugar Loaf Mountain, is a cable car ride away from 360 degree view of the city and across the Guanabara showcasing a myriad of high topped islands that serve as on obstacle course to incoming flights.
Unfortunately for us, we couldn’t summit the mountain on the first night due to the Brazil Confederations cup match being shown at Morro do Urca (the half way point for the cable car complete with bars, restaurants shops and even a nightclub!).On the night we did summit we were treated to this breath-taking view of the city:
Ok, so it was fogged out too! Luckily we managed to get a few shots and watch the sun go down from Morro Do Urca. A fitting scene for the end of our second day.
Rio the City
It is a real shame the riots stopped us from seeing Rio's nightlife, a vibrant colourful side that last late into the night. Other than that we really liked the city, we'd recommend staying in Copacabana or Ipanema if you were to stay and despite what we heard, we felt very safe the whole way round. There is a real buzz about the city and it is undergoing huge change in preparation for hosting the worlds sporting events. Here's hoping the government remember to prioritise their people before fame. | {
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The cold wave has hit the town and there is no better time than this to explore Karachi’s coastline. So rent a boat from Kemari and row to the Oyster Rocks. Land at the first rock. Reach to the top. See rest of the rocks turning into boulders of gold as the Sun sets in the west. The sunshine sparkling the placid sea. The Karachi skyline making dreamy backdrop. Hazy and misty. You can see a fair part of Karachi. You feel like hugging it. You feel like falling in love with the city. Again.
The evening spent there would fill you with happiness. That setting has a promise. That next Christmas would be merrier. That new year would be happier. That glitter and glamour would come back. That Karachi would shine. Just like those rocks in pallid sunshine. | {
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Ebenezer Scrooge may be Charles Dickens’ personification of everything that is wrong with unfettered greed. But to Paul Ryan, Scrooge — with his estimated net worth of $1.6 billion — is a proud example of those job creators that he calls “small businessmen.”
Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) pesky intellectual love affair with Ayn Rand blew up in his face again on Wednesday, when he casually made offensive remarks about the work ethic in America’s “inner cities.” On Thursday, he clarified his controversial comments, arguing that society as a whole has not properly cared for the poor. “We have […]
What if in 1980 Ayn Rand — the bestselling author and founder of the Objectivist philosophy that professes the virtues of selfishness — became an advice columnist? Former Daily Show contributor John Hodgman explored this theme in the pages of The New Yorker, and in the video above, he performs the columns hilariously — complete […]
January 14, 2014
Know First. Smart politics and smart living delivered to your inbox every morning. | {
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News
Alliance to Host 12th Annual Stakeholders Summit in May
US - Early registration is now available for the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s 12th annual Stakeholders Summit, to be held 1-2 May in Arlington, Virginia.
This year, the Alliance’s showcase event will explore the theme of "Activists at the Door: Protecting Animals, Farms, Food and Consumer Confidence."
The Summit is a one-of-a-kind conference that is attended by a diverse group of decision makers, including representatives from farms, ranches, food processors, restaurants, grocery stores, legislators, universities and government agencies. The Alliance welcomes Tom Brand, Executive Director of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, as the 2013 Summit moderator.
Video and audio recordings from the 2012 Summit are available online. The 2012 Summit explored the role tradition and technology play in modern agriculture. Here's what attendees had to say about Summit:
"Thought provoking, insightful speakers and discussion."
"Overall, a simply fantastic program!"
"I loved every minute of it!"
"The Stakeholders Summit is an excellent place for networking and to align efforts!"
"I was very impressed with the cross-section of speakers and attendees."
Details:
Early registration for the one-and-a-half day event is $325 for Alliance members and $375 for non-members, $275 for those in government or academia. Media and students interested in registering should contact Emily Meredith. Registration materials and a full event schedule (as of 15 February 2013) can be found on the Summit website.
The Summit will again be held at the Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel. Rooms are available at a special group rate of $249 per night on the hotel’s website or by calling (703) 717-6200. Conveniently located in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington, the hotel is within walking distance of the Ballston Metro Station and just four miles away from Reagan National Airport.
This year’s Summit will be social! Summit updates will be posted on the Alliance’s Facebook page and attendees are also encouraged to tweet about the event using the hashtag #AAA13. | {
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MDC statement on the current crisis
The current crisis in the MDC
is the culmination of sad events in the partysince the beginning of the
year.
The first incident occurred when a certain section of the party
sponsoredsome unruly youths to engage in violent activities against senior
nationaland provincial executive members of the party. An inquiry was
conducted andit revealed the close involvement of the president’s office
culminating inNational Council taking a resolution to expel these youths
from the party.The National Council also resolved to dismiss Washington Gaga
and NhamoMusekiwa, who were working as bodyguards in the president’s office,
afterthey were found to have been responsible for coordinating the
violentactivities of these youths. In clear violation of the Council’s
resolution,the president went on to reengage these two officers. The Council
had alsoresolved that some of the officers in the president’s office who had
beenimplicated in the violence should be investigated and to date this has
nottaken place and the mastermind of the violence seem to have been
protectedby the president.
Prior to the National Council meeting held
on 12 October 2005 the presidentannounced that the decision on whether the
MDC should participate in theSenate election would be made at the next
National Council meeting. At thismeeting, the Council decided by a majority
of 33 to 31, with two spoiltpapers, to participate in the election but the
president refused to acceptthe outcome of this democratic vote, even though
he, himself had immediatelyprior to the vote being taken, implored all
members of the council to acceptand defend whatever outcome would come out
of the voting process.
After the meeting, the president addressed a press
conference at which hemisrepresented the outcome of the Council meeting by
saying that there hadbeen an equal number of votes on either side and that
there was a deadlock;he had to use his casting vote in favour of a boycott
of the Senateelections. ( It should be noted that even if there had been an
equality ofvotes, the president does not have a casting vote as section
5.4.9 of theconstitution provides: “ All decisions of the National Council
….. shall beby simple majority provided that in the event of an equality of
the motionshall be lost.”)
Subsequently, the president has continued
to take action which is inconflict with the decision taken by the National
Council. This actionincludes the following:¨ Writing to all party
provincial chairpersons instructing them toignore a letter written by the
party’s deputy secretary general instructingprovinces to start selecting
candidates for the upcoming senate election.¨ Writing to the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission misrepresenting theparty by saying that it had resolved
not to participate in the Senateelections and calling upon the Commission to
register as independents anyonefrom the party purporting to stand in the
name of the party.¨ Addressing meetings around the country to tell
people that the MDCwas not participating in the Senate election.
The
president himself uttered threats and allowed other office bearers toutter
threats against a number of party office bearers who had opposed hisview
that the MDC should not participate in the Senate elections. Thepresident
also issued disparaging statements against members of the NationalCouncil
who had voted in favour of participation.
By his actions, the president
has willfully violated the Constitution of theMDC and breached its
provisions. Although the President of the MDC ismandated by clause 6.1.2 of
the MDC Constitution to act as partyspokesperson on major policy issues, and
participation in Senate election issuch a policy issue, the proviso makes it
crystal clear that, whenexercising this power, he may not do anything
“contrary to the Party’sprinciple of open, transparent and democratic
decision making.”
By acting as above, the president violated the under
listed sections of theconstitution as provided below:
4.4 Every
member shall have the duty:(a) To accept and conform to the
constitution…
6.1.1 It shall be the duty of the president(a) To
uphold and defend the Party Constitution;…(d) To promote the principles
of democratic discourse and participation andequality of all members within
the party;…6.1.2 The president;shall in general act as a
spokesperson on major policy issues and shall bethe principal public
representative of the party, provided that nothing inthis section shall be
construed as empowering the president to act or doanything contrary to the
party’s principle of open, transparent anddemocratic decision
making.
Codes of Conduct
9.1 All office bearers shall comply with
the Code of Conduct for all OfficeBearers of the party.
Code of
Conduct for all Office Bearers of the Party
2. Such members shall conduct
themselves with the highest standards ofpersonal integrity and honour and
shall not involve themselves indishonorable conduct.
The MDC was
founded on principles which include democracy, freedom,transparency and
justice. The party is determined to uphold these principlesand values and
will not allow one person or a group of persons to
destroythem.
Many still homeless in Zimbabwe
Many thousands of Zimbabweans whose houses were destroyed
earlier this year remain in rural areas without proper homes, say a group of
church leaders.
Speaking in Johannesburg about Zimbabwe's Operation
Murambatsvina, priests from various churches said evictions were still
continuing.
The government crackdown targets informal traders and
buildings the authorities deem illegal.
The Archbishop of Bulawayo warned that some
200,000 were threatened by hunger.
A United Nations envoy said 700,000 people were
affected by Operation Murambatsvina.
Archbishop Pius Ncube said that according to his
estimate, about 200,000 people would die by early next year because they no
longer had money to buy food, and because the population was affected by
HIV-Aids.
"Hunger is due to the Zimbabwe government refusing
food aid," Archbishop Ncube added.
"Even if there are good rains this year, the
government is so bankrupt that it has very little to spend on seed, and there is
no fertiliser."
"Eighty percent of those displaced people who were
sent to rural areas have not yet acquired any permanent settlement," said Pastor
Albert Chatido, the logistical co-ordinator of church aid efforts in Bulawayo.
"They are dwelling with relatives or in the headman's
homestead. NGOs are only allowed to supply food to a certain area."
Dispersed
Pastor Ray Motsi, chairman of the Combined Churches
of Bulawayo, said that "out of the 700,000 the UN was talking about, between
300,000 and 400,000 have been displaced to rural areas".
Hunger is due to the Zimbabwe government refusing food aid
Archbishop Pius
Ncube
"The tragedy is that many had no rural background and
made their way back."
However, Shari Eppel, human rights advisor to
Archbishop Ncube said that while the UN figures on displacement were credible,
there were no reliable figures on how many had ended up in the rural areas.
"Where people are now we just don't know," she told
the BBC News website.
Church leaders say it is not possible to get an
accurate number of the number of people forcibly displaced to the rural areas,
since they are widely dispersed.
A survey published in a report by the Solidarity
Peace Trust - a South African-based group working in Zimbabwe - suggests that of
the people whose homes were destroyed in Bulawayo's Killarney squatter camp, 70%
said they had nowhere else to go.
Pastor Chatido said between 500 and 1,000 people were
still living in the open in various parts of Bulawayo.
He said that a group of people of Malawian descent,
interviewed by the BBC News website in August, were still living in the bush in
the Bulawayo suburb of Cowdray Park.
"One of them died recently," Pastor Chatido said.
More demolitions
He added that demolitions were continuing in
Killarney, after people rebuilt the shelters that had earlier been demolished.
People have become dependent on aid from
churches
"Killarney Village 2 was recently squashed for the
third time," he said.
In Killarney Village 3, Pastor Chatido said informal
settlement dwellers had come up with a novel way of beating the demolitions:
"They take down their corrugated sheets in the morning, and then reconstruct
their shelters in the evening."
In Victoria Falls, Pastor Chatido said people were
living 15 in a small house, after the destruction of outbuildings forced people
to share the available accommodation.
Archbishop Predicts Zimbabwe Catastrophe
The Guardian
Wednesday
October 19, 2005 7:16 PM
AP Photo JOH101
By TERRY
LEONARD
Associated Press Writer
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -
A Zimbabwean archbishop said Wednesday he feared 200,000 of his countrymen
could die by early next year because of food shortages he blamed on his
government, and called for President Robert Mugabe's ouster.
Roman
Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, a frequent critic of Mugabe, spoke at a news
conference called to show a new film on ``Operation Murambatsvina,'' a
widely condemned government campaign that critics charge has left tens of
thousands of Zimbabweans trapped in a spiral of poverty, hunger and
displacement.
``I think Mugabe should just be banished, like what
happened to Charles Taylor. He should just be banished from Zimbabwe,'' said
Ncube, referring to the former Liberian president forced into exile in
Nigeria.
``Let the man get banished if you don't want Zimbabweans to
die,'' said Ncube, responding to questions about what the international
community could do to help Zimbabwe.
The archbishop said food
security in Zimbabwe was so precarious that unless there is a dramatic
change, malnutrition could contribute to the premature deaths of 200,000
people by February.
Ncube said it was a personal estimate and based on
his belief of the effect of severe food shortages on a population ravaged by
HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty at a time of hyperinflation and near 80 percent
unemployment. He said 700 people a day already were dying of AIDS in
Zimbabwe and the death rate would increase with malnutrition.
Bishop
Rubin Phillip, the Anglican bishop of KwaZulu Natal Province in South Africa
and the co-chairman of the Solidarity Peace Trust, a group of church leaders
committed to human rights and democracy, said Zimbabweans ``were living
lives of desperation with no glimmer of hope.''
He said the Solidarity
Peace Trust has documented that hundreds of thousands of people have been
``cruelly and deliberately deprived of houses and livelihood by the
government of Zimbabwe.''
In May, the government without warning began
burning or destroying informal settlements and the kiosks of vendors. The
United Nations said at least 700,000 people lost their homes or livelihoods
in the campaign it called a violation of international law. The clerics say
dozens of people, including newborn babies, died as a result of
exposure.
``You can see what kind of people we are dealing with here,
murderers. I will not mince my words,'' said Ncube.
The new film,
titled ``Hide and Seek,'' shows Mugabe saying the operation was a cleanup
campaign that would move people out of unpleasant informal settlements into
new and better homes built by the government.
It then interviews
Zimbabweans who lost their homes in the campaign and four months later are
still living in the open or in makeshift shacks of sticks and plastic
sheeting and cooking over open fires. The clerics estimate tens of thousands
of people have simply been dumped in rural areas where they are unknown and
unwanted. Nearly all have no jobs, no money.
``The amount of suffering is
beyond imagination,'' said Ncube.
The Rev. Ray Motsi, the president of
the National Pastors Conference in Zimbabwe, said people who initially found
refuge in churches were dislodged by armed police in the middle of the night
and forced on trucks that took them to rural areas.
``They had done
nothing but commit the crime of poverty,'' said Motsi.
Ncube said the
government of Zimbabwe was only interested in cover up, lies and in making
promises it has no intention of delivering.
``Mugabe is the kind of
character that even if 50 percent of Zimbabweans died he would not care,''
he said.
The clerics said the government has refused food aid and
restricted the work of international organizations and churches that seek to
distribute food, meaning that international relief was limited and
spotty.
Silent Spring
This is a harsh time of the year in southern Africa.
We have had 7 months ofdry weather and the hot season is upon us with
temperatures in the 30's andsometimes low 40's. It is also absolutely dry -
rivers have stopped flowingand pools are drying out, the grazing is almost
exhausted and the colors ofthe open veld are stark and vivid. The
yellow/white of the remaining grass,the early green flush of the figs and
the pod mahogany, the startling pastelcolors of the mountain acacia and
Msasa.
But it is always a time of great expectation. All of creation
knows thatsoon the storm clouds will arrive and with them the first rains
and thatunmistakable scent of the wet African earth. The birds know it and
arenesting, the migrants have arrived from their European and Central
Africanwinter sojourns and the swallows are back.
Normally the
countryside is alive with activity - tractors crawling acrossthe dry lands
with clouds of red and gray dust billowing up behind, oxenstraining their
harness in front of steel ploughs and harrows. In manyparts, man is speeding
up the whole process with his usual impatience andthe irrigation lines are
out and the sprays fly into the wind and bringfourth the first early
seedlings. The flowering shrubs throw off the burdenof winter and burst out
in their new costumes of purple and red, white andyellow, defying the
realities of the winter world they have just beenthrough.
In the days
of the civil war in Zimbabwe, I always took comfort in thesubtle shift in
human activity that took place in the spring. Somehow if wewent out and
ploughed our lands and brought in all that we would need forthe summer
rains, seed, fertilizer, herbicides, insect sprays, fuel and oil,we knew
that we had committed ourselves to another season, another year.This year it
is quite different, this year the spring is silent, almosteerily
so.
The farms are abandoned, homesteads which once rang with the games
ofchildren home from school at the weekend, are derelict and occupied in
manycases by miserable squatters. Some are occupied by families whose real
livesare in the cities nearby and they come out at the weekend to uneasily
sitwhere they do not belong and enjoy the use of things that are actually
theproperty of others. They ride guiltily through the weed-encrusted fields
andpast the broken down sheds and cattle kraals. The spirits of those who
areburied there and whose lives are bound up in the springs of the past
makefor uneasy companions.
But it is not only on the farms that this
spring has died before it began -in the peasant farming districts, the
specter of another hungry season isupon the communities that live there. The
majority of the young people -especially the men folk, have left for Egoli
or Gaborone, London and NewYork. Those that are left have nothing to live on
except from what comes infrom the outside. Perhaps strutting, threatening
Party men in trucks andMercedes cars. Perhaps World Vision or Save the
Children. Perhaps the WorldFood programme or the USAID. Sometimes help comes
in the form of a letterwith some greasy pounds inside or a mysterious
deposit in a Post Officeaccount of which they were alerted by a phone call
or a message from thelocal store.
But they are exhausted before they
even begin. Their cattle are thin, thegrazing and water sparse. Seed and
other essential inputs are either notavailable or are too expensive and
there are now so many demands on theirlimited resources that they have to
spend their money wisely, dollar bydollar. The other problem is that each
family has new burdens - the childrenof other families left behind when both
parents died or left the country.Sick relatives from the urban areas told by
the last hospital or doctor theysaw to "go home " - better to die there
where your relatives do not have torent a truck to carry your body home.
Many of the actual breadwinners are infact sick with many ailments -
tuberculosis, pneumonia, malaria and variousforms of carcinoma. All made
more deadly by HIV and Aids.
We know what this failure to prepare for the
summer means - it means thereis no commitment to this season, to next year.
Our streets are unusuallyquiet, people do not have the fuel to use their
cars and transport is justprohibitively expensive. Factories are closing
their doors and sending theirstaff home without pay, customers walk through
the stores looking at theprices and wondering just what they can afford to
buy. The sight of peopleleaving empty handed or with tiny parcels of
essential foods isheartbreaking - you want to step in and take over and
allow them to use yourdebit card to fill their baskets.
This is a
nation that is dying on its feet, exhausted after a long trekthrough a
winter of hardship and struggle. A nation that cannot smell thescent of
early rains and now thinks that even if it does rain, it is simplytoo late.
The Bible says that a nation without vision dies. We have novision of the
future, just of survival like shipwrecked passengers hangingonto flotsam in
the open sea.
Watching Mugabe rant and rave at the FAO Conference in Rome
brought into mymind an image of the passengers in the sea watching as the
Captain of thisship, who was criminally responsible for its capsize, sails
past in a lifeboat. The image extends to Mugabe making a speech to the
sailors in the boatwith him. While this is going on a pleasure cruiser sails
past us both - thepassengers in the water and Mugabe in his lifeboat and
this cruiser calledthe UN Fair and Ample Oligarchy is jammed with overweight
slugs that clapand cheer the silly old man in his Captains
uniform.
As this circus of clown and congregation sails out of sight, we
the poorpassengers are left with nothing but the sea and endless waves and
thesharks. Our only hope is to either drift ashore or be rescued by
anothervessel. This is our silent spring, but tonight there is a beautiful
fullmoon and one of my succulents has given birth to a spectacular single
flowerthat will bloom overnight and be dead in the morning.
The one
thing we cannot afford at this time is a fight for a better place inthe
water. Rather we should be caring for each other and helping each otherto
believe that there is a future and that when we finally get back tosanity,
we will be able to live again. I am reminded of a shepherd whowrote, "even
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I willfear no evil,
His rod and His staff will guide". Perhaps next spring will
bebetter.
ICTU-AFRO condemns harassment of Zim workers
Nairobi - The African branch of a leading world
trade union group on Wednesday condemned Zimbabwe's alleged use of
"government terror and repression" against its members in the crisis-wracked
nation.
The Nairobi-based International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions-African Regional Organisation (ICTU-AFRO) demanded an end to what it
said were arrests and harassment of Zimbabwean workers and union leaders by
authorities.
"We are concerned that the trade union leaders and
activists are hit by the full power of government terror and repression," it
said in a statement, referring to arrests of members of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) in Harare.
"Trade union leaders
of our affiliate in Zimbabwe, the ZCTU, have been victims of constant terror
and aggression," it said.
"The government must
cease using highhanded tactics against workers and trade union leaders," it
said. "It is despicable that in Zimbabwe trade unions trying to do their job
to represent the interests of workers are being persecuted."
ICTU-AFRO referred to arrests of union leaders at a peaceful demonstration
in Harare called to protest high fuel and food shortages, high prices and
taxation and the detention of a high school teacher who it said had been
accused of teaching "opposition politics."
Zimbabwe is currently in
the grips of economic and social crisis blamed by many on the policies of
President Robert Mugabe's government.
Food and fuel are scarce
commodities and earlier Wednesday an outspoken Zimbabwean cleric warned that
some 200 000 of his countrymen could starve to death in the coming months
due to rampant inflation, drought and bad policies.
Arrested labour leader handcuffed and moved to Harare on public
bus
By Violet Gonda 19 October 2005
The
General Secretary of the Commercial Workers Union and leader of the MDC
Women's Assembly Lucia Matibenga was arrested Wednesday on unknown grounds
by police in Gweru. Matibenga had been ordered to report to the police
station there in the morning, but was later handcuffed and put on a Harare
bound public bus with 2 police escorts.
Matibenga said she had been
told that there was an outstanding warrant of arrest but Gweru police
refused to show it to her. They then took her in handcuffs and put her on a
public bus. Te police told her they did not have fuel or a vehicle to
transport her to Harare Central Police Station.
Speaking to us on
the bus, the labour leader who holds a lot of influence in the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions and the MDC said this is part of the harassment of
ZCTU officials by agents planted by the government.
She
believes her arrest is connected to the ongoing problems with the Commercial
Workers' Union of Zimbabwe. The General Secretary said: "In May, state
sponsored people invaded our union offices trying to remove, to oust myself
and my executive which runs the union. And we challenged that in court, and
we successfully did so, and now we are back at the union working. But they
continue to use their friends and relatives in the police force to harass us
so that we don't concentrate on our work."
State agents have in the
past seized equipment from the ZCTU offices claiming that officials had
externalised foreign currency. They have also disrupted Union meetings by
physically attacking top officials including Matibenga herself. Some
officials and workers in the Transport Union, Leather Union and the Zimbabwe
Union of Journalists have been at the forefront of these attacks. These
unions were voted out of the ZCTU in a vote of no confidence as the
government campaign to disrupt the union intensified.
The ZCTU
president Lovemore Matombo and secretary general Wellington Chibhebhe have
also been under attack during a government campaign to replace them with a
pair more sympathetic to the government.
Zesa Earns Us$8,5m From Tobacco
ZESA Holdings, one of the country's largest tobacco
contractors in the past season, has earned itself US$8,5 million from the
golden leaf.
The power utility diversified into tobacco contract farming
with the aim of boosting its foreign currency coffers to meet its ballooning
electricity import bill.
Zesa Holdings has the distinction of being
the only contractor active in tobacco whose core business is not farming
oriented. Other contractors have an established track record as buyers,
processors or sellers of the golden leaf.
The power utility sold a
total of 4,548 million kilogrammes valued at US$8,504 million, which
translates to an average price of US$1,86 per kg.
This is significantly
higher than the average US$1,60 per kg obtained at the auction
floors.
A total of 28,3 million kg of tobacco went under the hammer at
the three auction floors, equating to about a third of the 74 million kg
sold during the 2005 selling season.
At 4,5 million kg, Zesa Holdings
accounted for more than a sixth of the total tobacco sold on the auction
floors and under the contract system.
As a contractor, the power utility
assumes the dual role of auction floor and merchant, buying the crop and
then exporting it.
Now in its second season, the contract growing system
is a concept borrowed from Brazil to boost production, which has taken a
slump in recent years.
Bulawayo: Zanu PF hydro-politics at work
New Zimbabwe
By Oscar
NkalaLast updated: 10/19/2005 13:55:33IT WAS good to hear President
Robert Mugabe promising Zanu PF supporters in Bulawayo that his bankrupt and
embittered government was doing everything to help the city through its
water crisis.
That Zanu PF supporters and aspiring senators clapped and
ululated was most expected of the blind followers of a long lost and
probably senile ex-revolutionary. I will not dwell on the merits of the
water for Bulawayo promise, but rather on its nonsensical value.
It
is nonsensical that a man who has been president of Zimbabwe for the last
twenty five years needs a drought in 2005 to remind him that drought in
Matabeleland is not a calamity but a perpetual condition. It is equally
nauseating of the supposed veteran president to say his government, bloated
to the seams with proven incompetents and 97% disability cases, is doing
something about the situation in Bulawayo when all it has is a long list of
things it should have done but chose not to.
It is sad to note that
the issue of Bulawayo's water security has become one of hydro-politics in
Zanu PF. Each time the country approaches a crucial election, the people of
the city are asked to vote for the promise of a pipeline that will never
come. A good look at the government and Zanu PF's track record in addressing
the issue of water security in the arid south-western provinces reveals
loads of empty promises and outright lies.
The Matabeleland Zambezi Water
Project, long envisaged as the final solution to the western region's water
crisis, has simply fizzled into the air. Zanu PF leaders like taking
Mugabe's cue of talking like the legendary water magician of an era gone by.
Like the old magician, Mugabe wants Bulawayans to believe that his
pre-election tours in the city can end its water woes.
What he is unaware
of is that Bulawayans are now wise enough to know that any Zanu PF-led
mention of water security plans for Bulawayo ends up with the introduction
of party candidates for this or that election. In simple terms, the
residents now know that the water crisis is now a campaign issue. The reason
why it cannot be done once and for all is that Zanu PF might lose a crucial
campaign issue. Apart from the political benefits of perpetuating the
crisis, government officials like Bulawayo governor and resident minister,
Cain Mathema, have lied through their teeth in a bid to blame the crisis on
the MDC-led council and not the government's lack of a sustainable water
security plan for the arid region where Bulawayo lies.
Mathema seems to
be the only stranger in the city for he does not know that the city has
never been out of the water crisis. Together with other small-minded Zanu PF
officials in the city, Mathema made wild claims that the MDC run city
council had failed to give government adequate notice of the impending water
crisis. Mathema knew he was lying. The same minister, who is believed to
have been a key player in a failed attempt to coax the government to
dissolve the Bulawayo City Council and install a Zanu PF commission like
they did for Harare, also has problems with non-governmental organizations
drilling boreholes for the city's desperate residents. Why should this
irresponsible governor speak out against aid given to a people government
cannot care for?
Mathema and the president of his party must learn that
government does not need reminding or notification about the Bulawayo water
crisis. Such behaviour serves to confirm a theory that Zanu PF is
suffocating Matabeleland just because it voted for the opposition MDC.
Because of the deliberate neglect of development across Matabeleland, many
people would also take Zanu PF jingle-master, Tafataona Mahoso's statements
on secessionist fears as a revelation and foundation of the party's
retrogressive policy towards Matabeleland.
Denying a licence to The
Weekly Times, a newspaper that was supposed to be based in Bulawayo, Mahoso
is alleged to have cited fears it would fuel secessionist thinking in the
region. I am convinced that Mahoso's thoughts form the basis of Zanu PF's
common policy towards a region that has never voted voluntarily for it since
1980. Denying people water or newspapers cannot stop or fuel secession if
the political causes are there.
Which brings me to Dumiso
Dabengwa!
At this critical time in the Bulawayo water situation, DD is
the man we all expected to hear from more often since the last time we heard
he was chairman of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust (MZWT). From his
appointment as 'life' chairman of the public trust, DD has, like Joshua
Nkomo in his last days, evolved from a public figure into a purveyor and
beneficiary of Zanu PF hegemonic interests in the region. I make no
apologies for this observation. The problem with DD is that like all failed
Zanu PF politicians, he lacks honesty. Between 1998 and 2001, we read so
many statements attributed to DD and promising a very speedy implementation
of the MZWP. DD was even joined Vice-President Joyce Mujuru, then minister
of Water Resources, in announcing the allocation of millions of dollars
worth of sponsorship for one phase or the other of the project.
In a
naked bid to help Zanu PF garner votes, the cash-strapped Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) joined the sinister charade, claiming it had the necessary
funds ready to start the project. No matter how misleading the official
statements can be, the truth is that there is no work on the pipeline. The
'something' that government or rather Zanu PF claims to be doing is to try
and get Dumiso Dabengwa elected as one of the Bulawayo senators "so that the
MZWP can be speeded up," (I can see it on the apologist The
Chronicle!!).
Whether he becomes one of the country's geriatric senators
or not, DD should be made to account for the collapse of the MZWT.
Allegations of dictatorship and corruption against DD are not unusual for a
Zanu PF officer given the chronic nature of both pandemics in the party. But
it is the alleged use of public trust funds to entertain a
secretary-cum-mistress on long foreign trips (Canada and Germany) which
don't make him a good senatorial candidate.
The closure of the MZWT
offices in August 2003 followed the exposure of financial impropriety and
general abuse of power. DD responded by sacking the entire staff and leaving
the questionable secretary who continued earning one of the most "out-of
this-world" salaries in Bulawayo at the time. The scandalous nature of
senator Dabengwa's tenure at MZWT was confirmed by his failure to submit to
an audit of the MZWT accounts even as Arnold Payne, an illustrious water
rights campaigner took him to court and won a judgment compelling DD to
avail the MZWT statement of accounts.
That remains undone and those who
noticed the anomaly should have missed a heartbeat when DD announced again
last month that the MZWT would not be releasing any public statements
relating to how it conducts its business. The absurdity of such an
announcement was as clear as the muddy water MZWT was set up bring to
Bulawayo. If the MZWT was a public trust and DD was its chairman, and not
the chairman and the members as he seems to be thinking, why would the real
public let him get away with a blanket ban on statements, the principal
method of communication for any trust that works normally? So many residents
of the city are shareholders of MZWT and they have a right to know what
happened to their monies especially now as it becomes clear that it was not
used to bring any water from the Zambezi. As a senior member of Zanu PF,
DD's business at MZWT was to make sure that the overall dream of water
security failed as it runs counter to Zanu PF thinking. It could also have
been designed to make sure that all the donations end up in Zanu PF campaign
coffers.
By continually refusing to publicise the MZWT statement of
accounts, DD confirms suspicions that the coffers are empty and the project
is dead. In simple terms, the city of Bulawayo is suffering because Zanu PF
fears self-sufficiency would encourage secessionist thinking in
Matabeleland. Yes, that may happen since the people were never happy with
Zanu PF rule at any time in history and probably will never be. Gukurahundi
did not help matters either.
But keeping people thirsty is one way of
encouraging an even more radical solution than such small talk as mere
secession. Until government abandons hydro-politics to take up the real
development challenges as opposed to the short-term politics of survival,
the thirsty and underdeveloped southwest will continue to suffer. Even as
politicians re-read 2001 speeches identifying America and Britain as
Zimbabwe's enemies, the hungry and thirsty certainly know that their real
enemies are those that won't give them water sufficiency. Like all hungry
and subdued souls, they are very angry!Oscar Nkala is a Zimbabwean
journalist and can be e-mailed at: [email protected]
Catholic archbishop wants Mugabe banished from Zimbabwe
Zim Online
Wed
19 October 2005
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwean Catholic Archbishop Pius
Ncube has called for President Robert Mugabe to be banished from the country
the same way Charles Taylor was banned from Liberia to pave way for a
resolution of the southern African country's crisis.
Ncube was
speaking at the launch today in Johannesburg of a film produced by
Solidarity Peace Trust detailing the plight of tens of thousands of
Zimbabweans whose shantytown homes and informal businesses were destroyed by
the government in a controversial campaign four months ago to clean up urban
areas.
Solidarity, co-chaired by Ncube and South African bishop
Rubin Philip, is a grouping of pro-human rights and democracy church leaders
from Zimbabwe and South Africa. Ncube, a radical critic of Mugabe who at one
time said he was praying to God to take away the Zimbabwean leader, said
more than 200 000 people could starve to death unless Mugabe was removed to
pave way for food aid into the country.
Ncube, who said the
figure of 200 000 people facing starvation was his own estimation, said:
"Unless and until Mugabe is banished in Zimbabwe like Charles Taylor of
Liberia, more than 200 000 people are going to die of
starvation.
"There is no way you can talk sense
to Mugabe because he is a professional liar. He is only interested in
insulting (Tony) Blair and (George W.) Bush instead of realising his failure
to manage the country.
"The government has not done anything to
follow up on the uprooted people. Moreover Mugabe, seeing how bad the
situation is, he is refusing food aid from non-governmental organisations to
the people."
According to the United Nations, at least 700 000
people were cast onto the streets without food or water when the government
without prior warning destroyed city backyard cottages, shantytown homes and
informal businesses in or near urban areas.
Another 2.4 million
people were also affected in the demolition campaign that the UN says may
have violated international law but which Mugabe says was necessary to smash
crime and restore the beauty of Zimbabwe's cities.
The
Zimbabwean leader also insists the campaign was meant to replace slum
accommodation with proper housing under a new house building campaign
codenamed Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle.
But Harare Reverend
Nicholas Mukaronda told the audience at the film launch that the cash
strapped government was failing to build the houses for the thousands of
displaced people.
He said: "People are living in holes, Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle is nothing but a mere cover up. Of the three hundred
thousand houses the government has promised, only 700 have been built and
only 200 of these houses are inhabitable."
In the new film
titled "Hide and Seek," Mugabe is shown saying the home demolition campaign
was meant to move people out of unpleasant informal settlements into new and
better homes built by the government.
It then shows ordinary people
whose homes were destroyed but who are still living in the open or in
makeshift shacks of sticks and plastic sheeting and cooking over open fires
four months after the government promised to build them better
homes.
According to Philip, Solidarity was calling on the
international community to do more to take care of the people of Zimbabwe
and force Mugabe's government to take care of its people. -
ZimOnline | {
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We’re two weeks out from the launch of the Xbox One, and Microsoft has published a video of Yusuf Mehdi and Marc Whitten showing off the various things you can do around the system. I’ve embedded the video below.
I must say, I really like that the new dashboard is only three main panes – pins, home and store. I don’t really have too many problems with the existing 360 dash, but I don’t think the store needed to be separated into separate panes for games, video and music – they all come under ‘store’ after all.
I also quite like the way you can have more than one person’s settings and favourites ready to go at any time and switch between them at will. This is especially handy since you can log into any Xbox One and access all your games and settings; going to a friend’s house? Sign in on their Xbox One and all your stuff is there, switchable at will!
Fast switching between games, apps and live TV also looks incredibly fast, and though I’m not yet sure how much I’ll use such features, I do find it rather impressive none-the-less. Upload Studio also looks very intuitive, and its ease-of-use should lead to plenty of videos from the community. I can’t wait to see what friends come up with, but my only worry is the relatively small amount of time the Game DVR function can capture – a maximum of five minutes.
However, I think my favourite feature shown in the video is how quick it is to minimize and resume a game. That’s a great addition, and something I do on my Vita quite a lot. The oft-derided Skype will also be a boon, I’m sure, especially in snap mode; I play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn with a friend and we each have a separate device next to us so that we can talk on Skype while we play. Imagine playing, say, The Elder Scrolls Online on Xbox One and having a Skype conversation snapped to the side, all on one screen. That’s a useful feature as far as I’m concerned.
In two weeks, my own shiny black box will be here so I’ll be able to dive into the UI myself. Expect to see some videos then. | {
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BRIDES Fine Wedding Papers
Vintage whimsy on a grand scale rule the day with hues of circus red and craft-paper khaki, topped off with playful balloons and banners. White wallet flap envelopes come standard with these invitations. | {
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Suunto Traverse Alpha Fully Reviewed
8.5
8.5 score
Runnerclick score (8.5)/10
Our overall Runnerclick score is based on 3 different factors: Editor's rating after in-depth testing. User ratings submitted on this page Overall score from the "reviewmeter" based on reviews across the web the weight of each factor is: 40% editor rating 15% user ratings 45% reviewmeter
Although there is a significant amount of people who feel this way, not everyone who runs sees it as a goal in and of itself. Some people enjoy trail running as a pastime or form of exercise they can engage in while also pursuing other common activities performed in the great outdoors, such as hiking, camping, fishing, or hunting. For these people, legendary Finnish watch manufacturer Suunto designed their Traverse Alpha sports watch to provide all of the features required for their pastimes, all wrapped up in a high-performance and damage resistant casing. It’s easy to access and read all of the different measurements this wristwatch is capable of reading, and its stealthy low-profile design ensures wearers won’t raise any eyebrows or scare off any wildlife in the process.
The Reviewmeter shows you an overall score that you can easily refer to. The highest rating is 10 (100% positive feedback)
Of the 233 reviews we found in total, 13% were negative, and 87% were positive.
8.7
1
5
10
Activities
Activities
The Suunto Traverse Alpha is a sports watch, which means that it is designed to be easily accessible while the wearer is engaging in physical activity. For the majority of readers on this site, the most pertinent form of exercise with which this watch is compatible is trail running and hiking. The GPS functionality included in this product helps hikers, campers, and runners keep track of where they are and where they’ve been, which can be extremely helpful in case they get lost along the way. These GPS features also come in handy when hunting or fishing, since they can help wearers to mark ideal spots for pursuing their prey. In fact, the GPS tracking on the Traverse Alpha is so precise that wearers can use it to track the places where they’ve fired their hunting rifle, allowing them to easily trace their path after a hunt.
Basic Features
Basic Features
This Suunto sports watch had a digital face. Since it was designed by a company that specializes in Finnish military hardware, it provides wearers with the option to display either a standard 12-hour clock or a 24-hour military clock. The most basic display of the Traverse Alpha that is shown without pressing any of the five dials on either side of its face will display the date in the topmost portion, the time in the middle, and a projection as to when the sun will rise or set on the bottom. The sunrise/sunset counter is useful for hunters, although trail runners and campers can appreciate the convenience provided by this gauge since it can give them an indication of the best times to set up their camps or return to their vehicle.
Advanced Features
Advanced Features
The basic features outlined above are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Suunto Traverse Alpha. As a combination hunting/fishing sports watch with military applications, the list of advanced features provided by this product is vast. There are some standard sports watch functions such as an altimeter, chronograph, and compass, but the Traverse Alpha also tracks lunar patterns in order to identify ideal fishing times. Powerful GPS technology is baked into the package, allowing wearers to track their trail running path and mark animals for hunting as well as locations where they’ve discharged their weapon. These GPS functions are also compatible with Suunto’s Movescount smartphone app, which can go so far as to generate heat maps in order to help chart paths for running, hiking, and hunting. The aforementioned chronograph also tracks steps and distance, and the altimeter/barometer can provide storm warnings if inclement weather is on the horizon. With so many different features, this watch is extremely versatile and powerful but will likely be intimidating and confusing for the casual user.
Accuracy
Accuracy
When it comes to keeping track of the time and date, the Suunto Traverse Alpha is accurate to a level of precision that would naturally be demanded of military hardware. The step tracking and other GPS-related functions are also very accurate according to customers who have left online reviews for this product. The sunrise/sunset tracker and weather alerts are a bit more susceptible to interference and may not be 100% precise, but no reviewers have mentioned any issues with these functions and their accuracy. The only aspect of this sports watch that has any noticeable issue with accuracy is its temperature gauge, due to the wearer’s body heat potentially throwing off its readings; however, this is a simple fix that only requires the user to briefly remove this watch from their wrist in order to recalibrate.
Connectivity
Connectivity
Although not a smartwatch in the traditional sense, the Suunto Traverse Alpha is possibly the smartest nontraditional smartwatch on the market. Connectivity is offered in the form of GPS functionality and Bluetooth compatibility. For GPS, this watch is designed to provide accurate readings by connecting to both GPS and GLONASS. However, amplifying the accuracy of these readings can come at the cost of battery life, so wearers interested in preserving power longevity will likely not want to take full advantage of this feature. The same is true to a diminished extent when it comes to Bluetooth connectivity; pairing this product with a smartphone running the Suunto Movescount app will increase its functionality when it comes to mapping trails, but can also more quickly drain the battery.
Apps
Apps
This sports watch is compatible with a smartphone app designed by Suunto in conjunction with the Traverse Alpha and some of their other sports watches. This app is called Suunto Movescount and it can connect with the user’s product via Bluetooth to greatly enhance some of its advanced features. With the aid of Movescount, users can track more intimate detail about their steps and running speeds and can even generate detailed heat maps for charting a path. It’s a surprisingly robust app that works beautifully with the Traverse Alpha, although many of these advanced functions can drastically increase the watch’s power consumption.
Comfort
Comfort
Although it wasn’t a primary design feature for Suunto, the Traverse Alpha sports watch offers a decent level of comfort on the wearer’s wrist. It weighs about 75 grams, which is well within the average weight of a traditional men’s wristwatch. This ensures that wearers won’t feel an excessive burden on their arm from having the watch on their wrist even after wearing it for days at a time. When purchasing this watch through the manufacturer’s website, customers have the choice between either a silicone or nylon textile-based wristband. Both of these are highly water-resistant, but the silicone option will offer greater comfort for the wearer.
Style
Style
The Suunto Traverse Alpha is predominantly designed with a military aesthetic. This means that its color options are limited to dark greens, grays, and blacks, although the silicone wristband can offer a bit more color. The face of the watch itself is designed so that the most important features are most prominently displayed, with all additional functions requiring the user to press one of the five different dials on either side. This gives the sports watch a utilitarian design style that won’t look as impressive as other high-end watches, especially since there is no option for a leather or steel wristband. This isn’t to say that the Traverse Alpha is ugly, just that it clearly was not designed to look like a luxury fashion accessory.
Durability
Durability
While it may not look like it at first glance, the Suunto Traverse Alpha is a surprisingly durable watch. This makes sense when considering the fact that it was designed with military applications in mind, but the small face with a thin fabric or silicone wristband doesn’t necessarily imply resilience. Still, that small face has been outfitted with sapphire glass that is designed with excellent scratch resistance, and the textile wristband was made predominantly from nylon, an extremely sturdy synthetic fabric used for parachutes. Although not as sturdy as the nylon option, the silicone band is still plenty durable and can withstand complete submergence in water. Speaking of water, the Traverse Alpha is designed to handle underwater depths up to 100 meters and heights of nearly 10,000 meters, making it fully functional in some of the most extreme environments.
Face
Face
The face of the Suunto Traverse Alpha is on the small side, but all measurements and readings are easily read thanks to its excellent use of the limited space. This does come at the cost of relegating several advanced features to alternate screens, which must then be accessed by pressing one of the many dials along its side. This may take some getting used to, and casual users may need to consult a guide in order to learn which dial provides what display, but it feels intuitive after a short adjustment period. The only major drawbacks to the design of this watch’s face are that the display can be difficult to read in some weather conditions and more detailed information can only be accessed when the Traverse Alpha is paired with the Suunto Movescount companion smartphone app.
Band
Band
As previously mentioned, the Suunto Traverse Alpha comes with either one of two different wristband styles: nylon textile or silicone. The lack of traditional luxury watch options such as leather or steel may be disappointing to avid watch collectors or individuals interested in this product as a fashion accessory, but the truth is that these materials are beneficial for the watch’s intended purpose. The nylon-based option provides customers with the benefits of improved durability as well as additional color options, but it comes at the cost of comfort. Alternatively, the silicone version only comes in one color and isn’t as resilient to damage as its textile counterpart, but it handles water much better and will feel more comfortable on the wearer’s wrist.
Sizes Available
Sizes Available
There are no options for different sizes when it comes to the Suunto Traverse Alpha. Regardless of what color or wristband the customer chooses, all versions of this sports watch are essentially one-size-fits-all. If a customer with a smaller wrist is interested in trimming the band of this watch to remove excess slack when fitting it to their arm, the nylon version will be their best bet, although the silicone model can also be adjusted in this way with a bit more effort.
Ease of Use
Ease of Use
This is not a casual sports watch by any definition. Considering that it was designed by a company that also creates products for the Finnish military, it makes sense that the Suunto Traverse Alpha stresses high-end functionality over accessibility in its design. What’s unfortunate for the casual user, however, is that this makes accessing many of its additional measurements and features more obtuse. While most ordinary watches and sports watches will usually offer a maximum of 3 dials on average, the Traverse Alpha has five dials that are placed on either side of its face. These all serve different purposes in terms of accessing and configuring different measurements. When coupled with the added functionality of the Suunto Movescount companion app, the entire process will most likely require the customer to consult their user manual and supplementary online documentation.
Power Source
Power Source
The Suunto Traverse Alpha is powered by a single lithium-ion battery that can be recharged via USB. Without using any advanced features and simply operating as a timepiece, wearers should expect an approximate battery life of around 14 days. The bad news is that this battery life drops from a few weeks to a few hours if the wearer decides to take advantage of its GPS and GLONASS functionality, but the good news is that there are many options available to further prolong this battery life by reducing the brightness and disabling some of the advanced features.
Price
Price
Suunto is a high-end brand that sells their products at premium price points. It isn’t unusual to see some of their products listed at prices greater than $1000, with products in the $600 to $800 range considered a value buy. Fortunately for customers on a budget, the Traverse Alpha has been discounted due to time on the market where it is now easily found at prices below $400. Due to the fact that it doesn’t look much like a common luxury wristwatch, it makes less sense for fashionable individuals to purchase this product solely as a status symbol. For that reason, this slightly more affordable asking price is perfect for people who would truly get the most out of this product: hikers, hunters, fishing enthusiasts, and all-around outdoorsy types.
Accessories
Accessories
Although it doesn’t come with a bevy of accessories, the Suunto Traverse Alpha offers compatibility with smartphones thanks to the Movescount companion app. This app is available on Android and iOS devices and it pairs with the user’s watch via Bluetooth, offering expanded functionality for some of its base features. Some of these expanded features include an activity tracker that will log previous exercises as well as chart the user’s speed, steps, and distance traveled. Impressively, Movescount also allows users to identify trails on which they can run through complex heatmaps that span the entire world. Although this app will cause both the user’s watch and smartphone to drain battery power at an accelerated rate, the added functionality is a welcome feature to many satisfied customers, as is its ability to help users update their watch’s firmware to fix issues and improve battery life.
Key Features
Key Features
12-hour or 24-hour digital clock
Tracks date and estimate sunrise/sunset times
Altimeter with barometer and weather predictor
GPS and GLONASS connectivity
Connects to smartphone app via Bluetooth
Lunar tracker for fishing
Shot tracker for hunting
Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Bottom Line
Bottom Line
This was mentioned previously, but it bears repeating: the Suunto Traverse Alpha is not a casual sports watch. It was designed with military applications in mind, which means that it offers functionality far above that of a typical sports watch that can be intimidating to the casual trail runner or camper. Although there is a minor learning curve when using this device, the results are exceptional and can vastly improve the user’s experience, whether they’re interested in hiking, trail running, fishing, hunting, or just exploring the great outdoors. All in all, this smartwatch is a sound investment at a terrific price. | {
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As a result of Elliott taking the league to federal court over his six-game suspension, the transcripts from his arbitration hearing have become part of public record. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, part of the transcript shows Elliot admitting to drug use in college, following a line of questioning about the party habits of his ex girlfriend, Tiffany Thompson.
[NFL Lawyer Daniel] Nash: And I think you said you liked her [ex girlfriend Tiffany Thompson] because she liked to party, drink and do drugs?
Elliott: Yes.
Nash: You liked to do that, too?
Elliott: I do like to party.
Nash: And like to get drunk?
Elliott: Yes.
Nash: You like to do drugs?
Elliott: I did in college.
Though the specific drug is not made clear in this line of questioning, we do have some insight into what Elliott may have been experimenting with in college. Following a domestic violence investigation in late 2016, text messages between Elliot and Thompson became public that alluded to Elliott's drug use, and according to the Star-Telegram, she claimed during subsequent interviews with NFL investigators that he used both marijuana and cocaine during their relationship.
This is not the best look in the world for a guy who is out to try and restore his image. Though it could ultimately be pretty harmless—a lot of pretty successful people smoked weed in college and turned out okay—it's the sort of quote that fuels the detractors who view Elliott as a knucklehead.
POST CONTINUES BELOW
Things are going to get a lot uglier in this case before they get better. The NFL Players Association has lambasted the league for their treatment of Elliott and the length of his suspension, calling it a, "league-orchestrated conspiracy by senior NFL executives" and "one of the most fundamentally unfair arbitral processes conceivable." The league has since responded by saying no such conspiracies exist. | {
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} |
Alaska White
Alaska White Polished Marble Tiles have a smooth finish with a classic elegant feel. Additionally, this marble presents some discreet long red variegated veining on the surface.
It’s recommended forResidential and commercial with heavy and light traffic indoors only. Excellent for walls, floors and counter tops. Can also be used on kitchens and bathrooms.
Penetrating sealant recommended though not required on all natural stone products if used in wet areas. A sealer may also be necessary if it will be installed on an area that exposed to heavy entertainment were tiles maybe stained.
Stone Tile US is a popular option for all your marble needs with an elegant smooth look and beautiful veining that’s hard to beat. Our quarry is located in Turkey and we provide brushed, honed, polished and chiseled finishes. We carry Volakas in various shades of white from mountains in north Greece and Crema Marfil of Valencia in south eastern Spain, our Crema Unica was featured in season 4 of Vanilla Ice Project.
Marble brings value to your home, it gives a high-class look that appeals to home buyers. It can increase a home’s resale value. Our marble will accentuate the beauty of your home for years to come as well as increase the value. Marble helps to keep a home cooler in the warmer months. It blends with both classic and modern styles.
Stone Tile US opened its virtual doors in 2013. However, our parent company, located in Turkey, has been in business since 1981. Since our inception, we have worked hard to achieve a high customer satisfaction rate and have acquired a solid and loyal clientele.
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Sunday: Close | {
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} |
RP software piracy losses up in ‘08
MANILA, Philippines–The level of software piracy in the Philippines remains at 69 percent in 2008 but revenue losses increased to $202 million, according to a recent global report by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
Revenue losses from software piracy in 2007 were at $147 million, BSA said.
The losses in 2008 were largely due to the increase in number of new computers sold in the country, as well as falling exchange rate of the dollar against the Philippine peso, it said.
In a teleconference with local media, BSA Asia Pacific Vice President and Regional Director Jeffrey Hardee said the majority of software piracy cases in the Philippines were from business organizations that have failed to comply with anti-piracy and intellectual property laws after they were found using unlicensed software.
He said the proliferation of pirated software installed in “white boxes” or non-branded computers have also contributed to the increase in revenue losses in the Philippines.
Hardee noted that downloading of pirated software from the Internet was still less than one percent of the total software piracy rate in the Philippines. But this is expected to grow faster as cheaper broadband services become available.
The BSA executive, however, pointed out that the growing usage of laptops and “netbook” computers was helping drive down piracy.
Many of these devices now come with pre-installed with operating systems, thus removing the need to install illegal versions of applications, he said.
Hardee said that netbook and laptop shipments in the Philippines were 16 percent of the total PC shipments in 2008.
BSA Philippines Consultant Bienvenido Marquez III said government raids against suspected users of pirated software and educational efforts led by both BSA and the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team (PAPT) have proven effective. But the growth of the PC business was overtaken by piracy among users, he said.
He stressed the need for the Philippine government to strengthen implementation of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internet Treaties, which the Philippines is a signatory.
“There should be more efforts to educate the public about the effects of piracy not just in the software industry but also in the economy of the country,” Marquez said.
The 2008 global piracy report, conducted by the BSA and research firm International Data Corporation, showed that piracy in the Asia Pacific region, where the Philippines is included, grew 61 percent in 2008.
In contrast, other regions such as Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, showed a decrease in software piracy rates.
Still, global piracy rate for 2008 is pegged at 41 percent from 38 percent in 2007. This is due to the increase in PC shipments in countries with software piracy rates, BSA said. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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There appear to be no consistent conventions. This is an illusion, but a really convincing illusion. Everything you learn with one, may seem completely different, with another endpoint or component. Maddening.
Version congruence: This can waste much of your time. Know why.
Look, as a developer, none of the above even matters, until it starts wasting your time. Then, it matters a lot. Above all, please respect my time. Here’s what I learned about how to reduce wasted time, with Camel.
Is Learning Instinctual?
Camel, and Cognitive Load
Scientists sometimes observe correlations between intelligence and a tolerance for ambiguity. This article will attempt to harvest your own best capabilities for learning Camel, by identifying those areas where cognitive load feels like it might blow your circuits.
Where this gets interesting is when you inject time into the learning model. Put an oversized Cognitive Load into the model, and time increases way out of scale. This becomes real when you only have a weekend to study something, and a Cognitive Load entirely prevents you from learning that one “xyz” task that you set out to master. Failure vs success, with the next available weekend coming up in 7 weeks.
Anticipate properly, and you can absorb patterns that might otherwise seem bizarre, especially to those of us who prefer a more deterministic feeling approach than Camel sometimes provides.
Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy writes beautifully about the process of learning, especially as it relates to the importance of gaining context first, and sequentially. From that perspective, the simple task of identifying landmines to the learning process can assist us the learner in getting those out of the way, before they frustrate you.
Acknowledging Claus Isben
Perhaps your best, and worst, friend is Claus Isben
Seems to have written Apache Camel, almost single-handedly (? true?)
Has written the primary go-to book “Camel in Action”
Has written most and best answers on Stackoverflow
Has been a best presenter, wherever he goes, including youtube.
Claus suffers from the same handicap that anyone who has already learned Camel suffers from. It’s hard to remember which foundational understanding is taken for granted in any teaching context. So his best efforts might sometimes assume a necessary understanding which you lack. This is not avoidable, not by Claus, nor by any human.
Definition: “Learning Camel”
“Learning Camel” in this article should means a depth beyond the ability to run working projects. It’s easy to use Camel even without learning it to this depth – and I have done so.
But when it’s time to really learn Camel deeply, here is what that could mean:
Enough Camel skills to be authoritative as an architect or designer, knowing how and when to use Camel in every situation.
Enough Camel to pass an interview well.
DOES NOT include edge cases, such as how every single obscure component might work. That can be learned as needed.
Definition: “XYZ”
“xyz” in this article is defined as whatever it is that you are attempting to learn at one given moment. A component, an endpoint, a transformation, configuration, or … whatever that is, “xyz” means something as narrow as possible, lest you get lost in the sauce.
Toolkits:
I don’t usually have to tool up so heavily to learn a new skillset. But most skillsets aren’t like Camel. These were in my toolkit:
The book: Claus Isben’s Camel In Action is one great choice.
[optional] The code from the book. Perhaps even more helpful than the book itself, at times. See below.
The entire Camel codebase ($git clone …). More below, but not optional.
Workspace usage and configuration. See below. This is can slow you down if you approach it the normal way.
Strategy: Bite Size
With Camel, you can eventually do anything. Repeating for emphasis, the trick to is learning it faster is the sequence that you learn it in.
So,
before you read the book.
before you run your first examples.
before you commit to a course of action.
Before you do anything, learn the trip-wires that can keep your brain spinning needlessly. Once you do that, you can can learn sequentially, and it may be a much faster process.
Land Mines, Trip Wires
There are at least four ways that Camel designs it’s API to be any-to-any, and they all have the side effect of obfuscation or confusion. Candidates for Cognitive Overwhelm. These include.
Type Converters
Generics and overloaded methods
Configuration
Multi-everything.
Sure, you can often do a lot of Camel without worrying about these trip-wires and land-mines. But that’s not the same thing as really learning Camel. See Definition: Learning Camel above.
Defense against Type Converters
Every time you type a dot (.) in the Camel fluent API, you may be engaging a helpful Type Converter, acting in your behalf, but without your knowledge.
WTF? “I thought that the message was a [….] at this point.” But no, it’s a [….] and Camel just did this conversion to help you. The fact that it doesn’t feel so helpful when you have no idea what is going on under the covers is the point here. You have to get used to this, and usually the only defense is to engage in some form of forensics to learn what Camel did “for you.”
Such forensics are beyond the scope of this article, but one key defense is below, in red.
Defense against Generics and Overloaded Methods
Code-completion in the IDE gives you the idea that the fluent Camel route API uses static typing to guide you along your way. Cool!
But wait! It specifies most arguments using java generics to let you pass all manner of good stuff around. It’s statically typed, sure, but then you learn that all those static typed arguments are little more helpful than unfamiliar marker interfaces! How helpful does that feel? It often feels impossible (to me anyway) to figure out exactly what and how I am expected to be passing arguments into the next part of the fluent API. This, combined with overloaded methods, and a combination of 6 ways to do anything… one unfamiliar fluent API call can take you a whole morning to research, especially if you look in the wrong places first, which I have done a lot of.
Reminder: All this functionality is only here to help, even if it doesn’t feel that way when you are scratching your head in cognitive overwhelm.
As above with Type Converters, it takes forensics to figure this stuff out. One primary defense is below, in red.
Defense Against Configuration Challenges
Routes and endpoints change often, duh. OTOH, project and component configuration remain relatively static, especially on a single team, but they are only static once you achieve them! Learning Camel means that instead of learning about routes and endpoints, instead you are learning about xyz configuration, and project configuration, and that can take a some time.
There are many primary defenses against the challenges of learning project and xyz configurations.
Learn configuration separately from the routes and endpoints, if at all possible.
Start with example projects that are as narrow and close to the configuration you need, as you can get.
See list below on what to “Avoid These As Long As Possible”
Defense against Multi-Everything
I can offer so many examples to illustrate the scope of this multi-everything problem, I just have to pick one:
In prepping for the exam, I was attempting to build an exhaustive list of splitting situations so I could knock any one that came up in 15 minutes. So of course, one of the splitting use cases involves xml. But starting the research I instantly came upon not one, but many ways to split xml. Too many to go over here. This research alone involved many different sources including grepping camel source code, and several books and reference docs.
So I built the capability on xpath, since that’s where most of the examples I found were. Then days later, while building examples of string splits, I happened upon yet another source of information deep within the camel site. There I learned about tokenizeXML and xtokenize built for special use cases where xpath doesn’t work as well. So now it’s back to the drawing board, and I am building 3 different sets of examples for splitting xml, not one. Total time invested is too embarrassing to reveal here.
I offer no definitive approach to resolving this TMI nightmare, but I do offer some heuristics.
Unprofessional? I literally have to coach myself through the unprofessional feeling I get, when I can’t investigate every single approach first, before committing to a course of action. Yes, I’d really like to know which one works the best and in which circumstances, but that would take too much time, in Camel land. 🙁 Give yourself permission to not learn everything, and hope and pray that the approaches you decide to not learn aren’t on the exam, or in an interview.
Occam’s Razor: Stick with the simplest approach first, or the first that you find first, or the one that you get working first. You will probably find a better way later 🙁
Quick Surveys and Memorization: Sometimes I can coach myself with word-tracking that goes like this. “Well, the book gives me these 6 different approaches to writing a transform, but I don’t have time to learn them all in detail right now. So maybe just memorizing the names of these 6 approaches would help me in an interview.”
If you love to code, and you contract out as an architect, and you have an obsessive personality, saying no to all these super great possibilities may be the hardest part about learning Camel. And the most important.
Runnable Code is Preferable to Documentation
A helpful strategy is to opt for running example code over documentation, or at least, sequentially. Documentation is invaluable, but usually makes much more sense after getting an example running.
Especially important is sparse running code. The exact minimum is the best, especially in Camel where it’s so easy to go off on tangential concerns such as upstream or downstream endpoints.
I believe in documentation, so if you’re having a hard time with the idea of ignoring documentation, the way I get my head around it is to imagine how insanely difficult it would be to write adequate documentation for something as flexible as a Camel endpoint or component. One component could be an entire chapter, or even book, if you were meticulously thorough about all the incoming and outgoing options, with examples. Ridiculous.
Budget Time for Project Setups and Data Feeds Separately
An old joke about Regular Expressions: “There was this guy who had a programming problem that required a Regular Expression. Now he has TWO programming problems.”
May be odd to say this, but Camel project setup requires a different kind of mental state, when in cognitive overwhelm. Get that out of the way before thinking about your routes much, or trying to learn “xyz.”
And setting up your data feeds too. Get that done before trying to learn how to do xyz with the data. One more distraction out of the way. At this point, you’ve got your data ready to process, all you have to do is xyz…
The nice thing about getting your setups done separately is you can often reuse such setup projects.
I keep a “shared” project as a dependency. It’s got enough of the basic data feeds and configuration dependencies to give me most of what I need. Then I set up a separate xyz project just for the delta – that part that corresponds only to xyz.
See jammazwan.xyz
10 Minute Reps
Cognitive Load is a fancy name for whatever you actually have to think about. So if you need to focus on learning xyz, everything before needs to already be a part of your muscle memory.
Doing reps on the setups is one approach to dumping that portion of the learning into your muscle memory.
Muscle memory in Camel is easier than you might first guess, with another reps. Jammazwan.setups is designed for gaining such muscle memory.
Avoid These, For As Long As Possible
When possible, there are super excellent aspects of Camel that you should just plain avoid, until you are out of the basic learning phase. Learn Camel first.
Deployment options.
Expression language options. (Go with default).
XML routing options, blueprint, spring xml, etc.
Arcane components such as Avro or Undertow or …
It’s not that you shouldn’t learn them, just don’t try to learn them at the same time as you are picking up xyz, or configuration basics, or …
Your strategy here might be compared with a child eating dessert. You have a delicious treat waiting for you, after you eat the vegetables.
Accommodation: Meaningful Example Projects
In direct opposition to the need for sparse, or narrow, sample projects (see above) there is a need to keep your brain interested and engaged. Sparse projects can be very dull. It can be hard to relate to “Hello World”.
To do this, you may naturally make the project more realistic. This is especially true if you are ADHD (like me) and you can only concentrate for long periods of time, on stuff that is at least mildly interesting.
The strategy here is to go ahead and make it interesting if you must, but handicap yourself, attitude wise. Explain to yourself that you’re taking some chances by adding breadth to the project that might be a bit distracting.
Many times, it turned out that I spent only half hour on learning xyz which was the point of an exercise, and a many times that on ancillary issues that were really only designed to make the project meaningful, such as realistic data inputs, or downstream distribution that felt meaningful.
An example would be “This project would feel much more real to me if it was like our other projects, which always FTP the results to the abc server.”
So instead of spending your time budget learning the syntax/semantics for xyz, you are configuring a dev instance of abc server, setting up permissions, etc etc.
How Not To Be Sidelined By Version Issues
Everywhere you look on the Camel site, you will see these odd references to what version which feature is deployed into. These are much more prominent than what you might see on other open source projects. Why such a prominent display?
Turns out that there is a very real reason, and I burned up some time trying to diagnose odd errors that were only caused by version differences. How could this be? Just use the latest, right? Not so fast …
The Camel codebase moves much faster than, for example:
Your deployment options. You may have to deploy to a much older version of Camel or Fuse or Karaf or EAP at work.
Your testing options. If you study on the latest, understand that the Red Hat Exam which costs hundreds of dollars might be written on a version of the API that doesn’t have lots of the features you are learning!
Tutorials, docs, sample code versions. Lots of docs, tutorials, and sample projects were written years ago. Helpful to have, except whoops Camel has moved on so what you are reading may not be relevant.
Your tooling options: Red Hat’s IDE comes to mind.
Main point?
Camel DOES NOT MIX WELL with other versions of itself. Don’t expect to use one camel version of one dependency, and another camel version of another dependency. You have to move them all in lockstep. You don’t want to find out the hard way what happens if you try to mix them.
Knowing what you are up against helps you plan your learning around these obstacles.
Workspace Configuration
There are important workspace segregation strategies that I find helpful when learning Camel, one is a life-saver.
Keep your the Camel and Camel In Action codebases out of your working workspace. It’s too much code, and will suck up all your IDE’s memory before it even fully opens. Especially, give the Camel code it’s own workspace. Even then you’ll probably have to give your IDE extra memory.
Maintain a separate workspace for Camel code only. Build with maven so you have fully compiled code in view. Only import Camel modules that are relevant. Only keep open those camel modules that you really need to search in (usually only camel-core or the camel-xyz component that you are learning.)
At the first moment of cognitive overwhelm on any xyz topic, reflexively grep for“.json(” in *Test.java” files first, where json is the xyz that you are attempting to learn. This one tip may save you quadzillions of hours. Search in both the book code, and in camel’s own source code. I use Eclipse file search (control H) for this grep, your approach may differ.
Be ready to use grep in the bash shell or comparable search to above in your favorite text editor such as sublime, for times when opening the IDE in the Camel workspace isn’t worth the trouble.
If you opt to maintain the Camel In Action book’s code as an additional resource – recommended – the same rules apply for it as for the camel code above. Separate workspace, fully compiled, grep as above…
Fan-Out is Actually a Different XYZ
I saved this for last, because it might be a bit of a head scratcher at first.
One thing I run into a lot has to do with fan-out.
I am learning xyz
I got it down, I think – my sparse project is working
Feeling confident, I move on a new xyz
Two days later, I discover that I didn’t have the previous one down like I thought… WTF?
The simplest use case I can think of is json. But you can apply this to many similar situations.
I found that going back and forth between json and other inputs/outputs was super easy, and fast to learn. But I only did so with single inputs, as per the rule above, of using sparse example code. Mission accomplished!
But the first time I actually tried to consume some real json, however, I try to injest a file with multiple json records, and I’m lost. For this, I had to learn to incorporate jsonpath, and splitter, and aggregation. Which in turn required a bit of research on the actual expression for jsonpath that had nothing to do with Camel. Hmmm.
So I had learned json marshalling and unmarshalling, but in another respect I really hadn’t. Because the fan-out to multiple records is a totally separate problem space. Welcome to your brave new world.
Fast Supporting Setups
Docker isn’t the only way, but however you achieve fast setups for your supporting infrastructure, this can be a good thing. | {
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Who Can Be Held Responsible For My Injuries?
Liability for car accidents will depend on the underlying cause of the crash. In California, more than one person can be held financially responsible for your injuries. When you hire the Law Offices of John Rapillo to represent you, our attorneys will thoroughly investigate your accident and pinpoint all potentially liable defendants.
Motorists — All drivers on the road, including motorcyclists, truck drivers and bus drivers, have an obligation to drive safely. This means that they must have a valid license, use caution while operating their vehicle and follow all posted traffic laws.
Pedestrians — People on foot must exercise caution when sharing the road with cars, bicycles and other vehicles. This means that they must exercise care, stick to dedicated sidewalks and crossroads at marked intersections when the signal indicates it is safe.
Car manufacturers — Any company that designs, manufactures or sells a car has an obligation to make sure that the vehicle can be used safely. When a product is defective, the company that is responsible for putting it on the market can be held strictly liable for injuries.
Employers — Sometimes employees are required to drive for their company or employer. Employers must ensure that all employees are properly trained and drive safely.
Ride-share drivers/companies — Companies like Uber and Lyft have thousands of drivers on the road. If you are injured in an accident with an Uber or Lyft driver, the driver and/or the ride-share company may be held responsible for damages.
What If I Was Partially At Fault In A Car Accident?
In California, you can recover compensation for an injury even if you are partially at fault. The state follows the rule of pure comparative negligence, which simply means that the amount of compensation you can get will be reduced by your own degree of fault. As long as someone else also contributed to your injury-causing accident, you can recover monetary damages.
Common Causes Of Car Collisions
While any negligent behavior can contribute to a car accident, some causes are reported more frequently than others. The leading causes of car accidents in Orange County include:
What Can I Do If The Other Driver Doesn’t Have Insurance?
While all drivers in California are required to carry minimally acceptable amounts of car insurance, some do not. This does not mean that you will not be able to recover compensation after an accident with an underinsured or uninsured motorist. There are two primary ways to recover compensation after an accident with an uninsured driver: collecting uninsured motorist insurance benefits and filing a personal injury lawsuit:
Uninsured motorist coverage — Insurance companies are required, by law, to offer uninsured motorist coverage to California drivers. This coverage can be purchased in addition to standard insurance coverage. When you are involved in an accident with an uninsured or underinsured motorist, you can collect benefits directly from your insurer.
Personal injury lawsuit — You also have the option of filing a personal injury lawsuit against anyone who is responsible for causing your accident or injury. If the uninsured driver is the only at-fault party, recovering damages in this way can be difficult.
What Damages Are Available To Car Accident Victims?
Car accident victims in Orange County will generally be able to recover both economic and noneconomic damages. The specific type and amount that you can receive will depend on the severity of your injuries. Economic damages, which are commonly known as compensatory damages, are paid to victims to make up for out-of-pocket financial costs related to an accident and injury. These damages help to put a victim back in the financial position they would have been in if the accident had never happened. Examples include:
Medical bills
Rehabilitation costs
Travel expenses for medical treatment
Nursing care costs
Lost wages
Reduced earning capacity
Property damage
Noneconomic damages are paid to help victims with injuries that may not have direct financial implications. These injuries tend to be very personal and are difficult to value monetarily. Examples include:
Pain and suffering
Embarrassment
Disfigurement
Anxiety
Emotional distress
Loss of sexual relations
Loss of enjoyment of life
When Can I File A Car Accident Lawsuit In Orange County, California?
The statute of limitations for bodily injury cases in California is two years. This means that you must file a personal injury claim for damages within two years of your car accident if you want to recover monetary damages. If you do not file your claim before the statute of limitations expires, you will be prevented from getting the money you deserve. There are limited situations when the statute of limitations can be extended. If any of the extenuating circumstances apply, you may be able to file a claim after the two-year period:
You do not discover your accident-related injury right away, despite reasonable efforts
The defendant is incarcerated
The defendant cannot be physically located
You were a minor at the time of the crash
If You’ve Been Injured In A Car Crash, Call Us Today
We know how to fight to recover damages if you’ve been harmed due to a careless driver. Contact Law Offices of John Rapillo by calling us at 949-652-2604 or send in this quick email contact form. | {
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Tag: pedodontic dental mcq question
Pediatrics MCQ with Answers Part 5 : Pediatric Dentistry Pediatrics MCQ Question 1. True/False: Normally, there are 20 deciduous teeth and 32 succedaneous teeth. 2. Name some developmental disorders of the dentition. 3. True/False: Amelogenesis imperfecta (AI) is a hereditary dental disease that can occur with osteogenesis imperfecta. 4. Which microorganism initiates the development of […] | {
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The news was posted on Facebook by Christensen's former BYU teammate Reno Mahe and confirmed by the BYU athletic department on Twitter.
Christensen had battled liver disease and other illnesses in recent years.
He caught 152 passes for 1,568 yards and 15 touchdowns as a running back at BYU, making the All-WAC team in 1977 and the Cougars' Hall of Fame in 1977.
After being drafted by Dallas in the second round of the 1978 draft, Christensen didn't become a star until several years into his tenure with the Raiders, making five consecutive Pro Bowls from 1983 to '87. He had 349 catches in four seasons, an NFL record.
He had career highs in yards receiving (1,247) and touchdown catches (12) in 1983 and finished his 10-year career with 461 receptions for 5,872 yards and 41 touchdowns.
Christensen went on to work in broadcasting, most recently as a college football analyst on the MountainWest Sports Network until 2012.
It's comes to no surprise to residents of the commonwealth that Virginia is growing. Like many fast-growing Southern states, Virginians appear to love sprawled-out cities and suburbs, according to recent 2014 U.S. Census estimates.
The last 11 months have been difficult for Anthony and Eldrie Scott, with every holiday or milestone bringing another reminder. They had lost their only child, something they pray no other parent has to experience. | {
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Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: the free agent on his freedom.
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Matt Leinart joined ESPN Los Angeles with Mason and Ireland (Brian Kamenetzky in for Steve Mason) to discuss what he is doing during the NFL lockout, his playing status if the lockout were to be lifted, being a "bust" at this stage of his career, his image of being a "party guy" changing and his reaction when the NCAA lifted USC's 2004 National Championship trophy.
What are you doing with this lockout? Are you working out? Are you taking advantage of this rest time?
"I think a lot of everything. Obviously with this year it's been a bizarre off-season. It's been nice to be home and see my son and hang out with him and be with my family, but at the same time I think for me it's just always being prepared. Always being ready, throwing a lot and working out every day and just staying ready, so that's what I've been doing, but I'm just ready. I'm ready to be back and just kind of get this thing going and whatever is laid in front of me I'm just ready to attack it and move on and get this season going."
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What is your status if the lockout were to be lifted? Are you still playing for Houston?
"I am a free agent. It's a little tricky based on when the new agreement gets in place and what this season is going to fall under. The old rules? The new rules? All that kind of stuff, but technically I'm a free agent. I signed a one-year deal with Houston going into last season and I enjoyed my time there very much. It was a weird year. Obviously getting released and going to Houston and just being a backup. I used it as an learning year. It just kind of built my confidence back up and obviously things in Arizona didn't work out the way I thought and probably a lot of people thought, but that happens to a lot of guys in their career where one place may not be a great place for them or a great fit, but another place is. I thought Houston was a small and good stepping stone for me to get my career back on track and get a chance to compete somewhere and get that opportunity to start. We'll see what happens. Your guess is as good as mine to see what happens, but I'm excited."
When people call you a "bust" at this stage of your career what do you say to that?
"I've heard everything. I've heard everything. I've seen everything. For me I haven't proven anything, so I haven't proven that I could play game in and game out. I understand that. I believe I can play and I'm not one to make excuses. I've never made an excuse with my time in Arizona. It just didn't work out for whatever reason. Those are reasons people outside of the organization won't understand, but it didn't work out and it wasn't a right fit, so you move on. You kind of look at the timeline of what has happened to me and with having a pretty good rookie year and the second year getting the injury and Kurt Warner played himself into the Hall of Fame in the last 3 years. There's not a lot I can do about that. I battled with a Hall of Famer two training camps in a row. I thought I competed as well as he did and obviously Kurt was a great player. He took us to a Super Bowl. I truly believe he got himself into the Hall of Fame those last couple of years. Last year with everything that happened it just didn't work out. I said what I said about the situation and I moved on, so there's people thought I never got a fair shot. People that think I can't play. There's a lot of things. For me I've worked hard this off-season and I'm always work hard. I'm always ready. I'm always prepared and like I said it's just always about being a quarterback, but being the right situation. For me hopefully that situation comes up this year and I can thrive and show I belong in the league and I can play because I know I can and that's what I plan on doing."
You were accused of being a party guy. Anytime you went out your picture was taken. For the last couple of years that has been taken away. Was that a conscious effort on your part? Did you try to tone it down? Your image hasn't been as big of an issue? Why is that you think?
"You hit it on the head. You look at where I was in college and I said it many times USC was the pro football of L.A. and we were on top. Myself, Reggie [Bush], and other guys on the team it was kind of wherever we went that's how we were treated. People would say ‘Oh there are USC guys. There is Matt. There is Reggie.' For me I was a twenty, twenty-one year old kid and I've always remained the same. I've remained humble. I've always worked hard, but at that time it was kind like wherever we went it was a story, whether it was good or bad. It didn't really matter. There are a few things I think I have I learned. I wouldn't take back much of it because I've learned from everything. Perception is perception. One person can think one thing of me and that can escalate and then 1,000 people jump on the bandwagon. It may not even be true and that's something that I think everyone realized that the media does in this day and age, but like I said I didn't go out very often, but when I did something was always said. It was kind of like it felt like bad luck. I didn't even do anything, but they are saying this. I learned and made a decision where you know what it's not even worth it because football has always been number one to me. It has always been most important whether people thought it wasn't. You can ask any of my teammates I played with me and my coaches have always thought I worked hard. Plus you grow up and you mature and you just kind of move forward. I think it's the simple, simple thing of just growing up, but like you said if I would have went to a Michigan or Alabama or anywhere else no one would have said anything, so I think being in the L.A. market and for us the kind of run we had in college that was kind of set in stone and we were perceived as one way."
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What was your reaction when the NCAA lifted your 2004 National Championship trophy so that you're not the champion anymore?
"Pretty sure we did though [win the 2004 National Championship]. Oh man it just doesn't bother me. I mean it's 6-7 years ago. Like I did in an interview when that all came down, it's like listen we did what we did on the football field. Whatever took place outside of the field had no affect on our players. It had no affect on Reggie Bush. He didn't take drugs or steroids to enhance his performance. He was a great football player as we all know. That was it. We beat every football team that we played handily and we beat Oklahoma in the National title game and it's simple. The title can be stripped from us. Whatever you want to call it. We're not in the record books, but everyone knows what happened and I don't want to sound cocky about it, but that's just what happened and people want to make a big deal about it, but so what? All the guys on that team, the coaches and the USC family knows what happened. We have our rings. We have all the newspaper clippings. We have everything we can show. I think people were just ready to move on."
This post, written by Steven Cuce, appears courtesy of Sports Radio Interviews. For the complete highlights of the interview, as well as audio, click here. | {
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First, hey, I’m back with my first review since hiatus. (Remember how I said I’d try getting one within the week? Forgot about not having much computer access over break, so…17 days later, here we are!) And instead of trying to make reviews for what I read while relieving stress during that school hiatus, like I mentioned, I WAS IMPATIENT TO READ MURMURATION.
And well. Reviews are hard for this one because so many little details could be spoilers… so this is probably gonna be a short one, folks.
And now, I should only have ONE MORE SEMESTER of my entire college career left. I am dreading one course in the spring, and that would be my capstone for Japanese. I’m dreading it for a couple of reasons:
1. …since returning from studying in Japan in February 2016, I have not been studying the language AT ALL. I slacked big time and need to translate a chapter or two from a Japanese book for the capstone…oops.
2. the head of the Individualized Major Program that the Japanese Studies degree is part of is RUDE, HARSH, AND UNORGANIZED. I’ve only heard bad things about her from the people who have already taken the capstone. Some are even getting flak BEFORE they take the capstone. She was overheard calling the Japanese IMP students lazy…rudely talked about another Japanese IMP student to ANOTHER JAPANESE IMP STUDENT, and she’s just entirely unhelpful and unorganized. I will complain. But she also has tenure. Fuck. Wish me luck!
The other classes should be enjoyable, though.
Thus, just give me a little more time to get back to reading and reviewing – hopefully I can have something within a week. At the moment, I’m trying to still find a car and figure when I can leave for winter break. Which I’ll also have to pack for.
I’m gonna see if I can retain thoughts and feelings for a couple of books I read as stress relief, maybe write reviews.
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In other news, I’m still watching Yuri!!! On Ice and let me tell you…I haven’t been this giddy to watch a new episode for an anime in a long time until now (*_*)
It’s beautiful and soon after the final episode I will probably make a post for it because it was also a game changer in the anime industry. I recommend it!
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Christmas is coming up and I think I’m going to graciously receive Final Fantasy XV as one gift *swoons*
I’m still playing FFXIII-2 and I also have Dragon Age: Origins lined up. Other games I want won’t release until next year.
I hope everyone enjoys their holidays and the season! (It’s freezing here.)
I’m not back quite yet, in case you were wondering. Just checking in. I really hate being on hiatus, but I need to get this semester finished before I can really get back to reading and blogging.
If you follow my Goodreads, you’ll see I just started reading a book last night (Kick at the Darkness by Keira Andrews), but this doesn’t mean I actually have time for dedicated reading! (I may actually finish this book soon…procrastination is hard to stop once begun…)
I may review this book, I may not. We’ll see how much I can remember by the end of the semester. I’d like to! But I really wanted a reward for getting my capstone 12-20 page paper done and turned in yesterday…so book.
My ultimate plan is to get back to reading Clockwork Angel, so I can dedicate myself and give a review! I seriously can’t wait to truly get into that series.
On other notes:
1. I still have another 10 page paper to write this week (due the 6th – yikes!)
2. I gotta finish up my Spanish homework (final week!) in preparation for the actual final
3. Still have other capstone things to worry about in the next 2 weeks…
If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been inactive. The second half of the semester is the worst time… I should’ve put my hiatus warning much later than I did because back then, I still had some time!
However, now is when I won’t be active, really, until I get this big school stuff out of the way. I’ve been sad to not even have enough free time to read a book that I can actually review.Continue reading I’m here!! – A Note→
Alright. I made it to the second book. After the open-ended ending to BOaTK, I was nervous to see where things would go, but it’s Klune, so I’m like…I’m 90% sure I’ll like it. And I did! Plus, the 3rd book deals with The Kid/Ty growing up and I reeeeeally wanted to get there… I’m not a fan of the cover because it’s really stiff, but my reviews do not encompass covers, so I thought I’d mention it.
Well then. Another double review so soon. (I read them too fast…) AND another one dealing with online gaming and stuff. I’m on a role! (This was completely unplanned. Could’ve been a mixture of liking online gaming stuff and wanting Santino Hassell’s work!)
These books are both part of the Cyberlove series written by a DUO – Megan Erickson(my first of any of her work) and Santino Hassell(love his In the Company of Shadows series).
Happy Tuesday, folks! I can’t do them every week, but I’m back with another installment of Top Ten Tuesday!
This is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. And this week’s topic? All About Books You Read Because of Recommendations.
Now, if you are a bookworm, you tend to have bookworm friends. I do. And from them, as well as any from fellow bloggers/bookish community members, I have created my list of 10. (Past and present book people.)
Oh man, with school, folks, I have so much trouble retaining thoughts on books… I read in my free time a lot, if I’m not playing FFXIII-2, but I don’t always have time to then write up a review. Bummer! So bear with me as this may be a short one. But you see the title – the second book to the Tales of the High Court series!
I forgot this month was ending until I got on here today and saw wrap-up posts… So lost in figuring school stuff out, I forgot to write a recap post!
But September has ended, folks!
My book escapades were in spurts. I had time to read and I didn’t, I made time to read and I couldn’t… Also, I think they were all M/M novels?? Wait, no, there was a young adult one. Y’all will see below. (I think it’s the convenience of my M/M ones being portable ebooks, which is not so for my YA…) | {
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Setback for Modi as Bombay High Court rejects petition
Updated: 15 September 2010 13:44 IST
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed Lalit Modi's petition to reconstitute the BCCI Disciplinary Committee.
Written by NDTVSports
Read Time: 2 mins
Mumbai:
In a major setback to suspended IPL chief Lalit Modi's efforts to gain back some lost ground, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed his petition to reconstitute the BCCI Disciplinary Committee that is looking into corruption charges against him.
With panel member Jyotiraditya Scindia unable to attend due to illness, the hearing could not be held on Tuesday morning and only started at 6pm in the evening at Scindia's residence.
The four witnesses in the case - IPL and Champions League Twenty20 CEO S Sundar Raman, who flew down from South Africa, Paul Manning, John Loffhagen and Peter Griffiths, all from England - attended Tuesday's hearing.
The hearing was also attended by Modi's counsel Shailesh Mendon, who requested the committee to defer the hearing till Wednesday until when the Bombay High Court order would come out. | {
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I would like to say a massive thank you to Pete from Astra Electrical! He come on such short notice to come fix some lights that we had! A free quote and no job was too much hassle! No mess and fanastic service delivered! Our lights look great! I could not recommend anyone else! Thanks again!! Sammi | {
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I was really pleased when I saw what the technical challenge was last week – it’s been ages since I’ve made something like that and I couldn’t wait to try it! The only downside was that it’s pretty big (it’s huge!) and I was on my own for the weekend. Luckily I had a cross-country race and my team mates were more than happy to help me eat it up!Click here to keep reading.
Last week on the Great British Bake Off was patisserie week. I rarely make any patisserie stuff as it just takes so long to do (and that’s coming from someone who makes novelty cakes and loves spending hours making sugar paste flowers!). But having got this far with all the challenges, I couldn’t resist attempting another one! Click here to see how I got on.
I was really excited about patisserie week – I was hoping that the technical challenge would be something pretty and I wasn’t disappointed! Although these involved making various types of icings, which looked complicated and quite different to what I normally make, they turned out to be easier than I expected. Click here to keep reading. | {
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I'm selling two Subtronic Maxi strobes.
One has a built-in converter for Nikon i-TTL. TTL can be adjusted on the strobe 6 steps.
Very powerful strobe, guidenumber underwater is 16. It has a pilot light of 10 watt, very good for autofocus and powerful enough to act as dive light in most situations.
Both strobes are in very good condition. Price is 800 euro for the one with TTL converter and 600 euro for the one manual.
I ship worldwide. | {
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I warned you The whole story isn't like normal Housepets.Yeah, humor is allowed, but i need some serious moments to create a tricky plot. "Like a broken mirror" is something i've create very quickly and disconnected from the normal story... you'll see when the right time comes.
_________________My webcomics! Read and subscribe if you like them (or one of them), and don't forget to vote on TopWebComics!
Fri Mar 04, 2011 1:36 pm
The Broken Fox
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:06 amPosts: 777Location: Hungary
Re: [Fancomic PG-13] Housepets! 1X
_Stu_ wrote:
I warned you The whole story isn't like normal Housepets.Yeah, humor is allowed, but i need some serious moments to create a tricky plot. "Like a broken mirror" is something i've create very quickly and disconnected from the normal story... you'll see when the right time comes.
Well a serious/sad story is just fine with me! However, try to avoid jumping from humor to drama, or make sure the transition is well planned and won't leave us just going "WTF just happened, how did we get here?". I think that in this case, TvTropes says what I want to say here perfectly:
Quote:
Fiction often has far extremes. They cover the gamut of emotion, from tragedy to comedy. Sometimes these two will be so close together that they make the viewer's head spin! Done well, the contrast in moods can make each emotion all the more poignant and effective. Done poorly, the contrast can jar the reader/viewer right out of the story.
_________________My webcomics! Read and subscribe if you like them (or one of them), and don't forget to vote on TopWebComics!
Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:04 am
_Stu_
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2010 4:44 amPosts: 1570Images: 3
Re: [Fancomic PG-13] Housepets! 1X
Ok, this time, I REALLY need your help I know this one is full of errors, so please, tell me and I'll fix them.Also, I've used sumopaint to do this quickly, so i promise i'll make it better with the right programs Here we go:
AT: Who tells him that it actually is Bacardi Breezer Lime? Fruit juice, pratically.
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Last edited by _Stu_ on Wed Mar 09, 2011 2:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Uhm, I can't find so many errors, except for "two weeks" that is supposed to be "one week" and the "one.. maybe two bottles" that doesn't mean "un paio di bottiglie".. But maybe there are more errors and I can't see
We never say "What has happened?" for something that just occurred. It's simply "What happened?""I have broke" is incorrect. It must be either "I have broken" or "I broke". Though as with the above error, we use "I broke" for recent occurrences.It's spelled "vodka" not "wodka"If you expect someone to be doing something currently you ask "Aren't you supposed to be doing XYZ", so it's "to be placing" (though Google translates "mettere a posto" as "straightening").We say "boxes of diapers", but then we say "diaper boxes". This is because we don't make our adjectives agree with our nouns."Too bad for this good stuff to be wasted" has no subject or verb. "It's too bad..." is grammatically correct, although, this sentence is still not how we would say it.If you're going to say "I got it" (his plan in this case), it is only as an exclamation "I got it!". For the non-exclamatory version we say "I get it"In the sentence "That dumb.", since dumb is not a noun it sounds like there is a "..." at the end. If this is your intention that's fine, but actually having the ellipsis is handy to let us know ("That dumb...")If "ich" is him hiccuping, we use "hic"It should be "people dying", as they are currently doing so. (If you want it to fit better, shrink the last sentence to "What a waste!" which actually sounds better. Otherwise we would say "Look at the waste here!" which still is... meh)
WALL OF TEXT But I hope it's constructive and helpful
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:11 pm
copper
Puppy Wrangler
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2010 8:18 pmPosts: 6327Location: Florida
Re: [Fancomic PG-13] Housepets! 1X
I think Obbl pretty much covered everything, but I don't know. The edited version will tell.
Great update Stu! I can't wait for the next update. But yeah, it took a while for that last balloon to register. This is a good comic.
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 2:11 pm
The Broken Fox
Joined: Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:06 amPosts: 777Location: Hungary
Re: [Fancomic PG-13] Housepets! 1X
'S good! My only comment is that Spike thinks its vodka, yet he's so eager to lap it up...
Thanks for the help, i really appreciate it I hope this one's better.Here it is, better in graphics and translation:
ps: I don't even noticed that i wrote "wodka"
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Wed Mar 09, 2011 2:58 pm
copper
Puppy Wrangler
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2010 8:18 pmPosts: 6327Location: Florida
Re: [Fancomic PG-13] Housepets! 1X
That'll do it Stu. Just one little thing, though. It is nothing big, but it sounds a lot better in english to say two weeks later, not two weeks after. It is a little thing, and it doesn't really matter at all.
But again, great update.
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That'll do it Stu. Just one little thing, though. It is nothing big, but it sounds a lot better in english to say two weeks later, not two weeks after. It is a little thing, and it doesn't really matter at all.
But again, great update.
Ugh, you don't mind if i'll pass this time, right? I really have a looooong day in front of me. And tomorrow strip, too
The Broken Fox wrote:
_Stu_ wrote:
ps: I don't even noticed that i wrote "wodka"
In Soviet Russia, word spells you!!!
mmh, you're right, after all
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Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:43 am
_Stu_
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2010 4:44 amPosts: 1570Images: 3
03-11-2011- Play nice _ITA_
AT: LUI... ehm, lui sta leggendo Pridelands?
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Last edited by _Stu_ on Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:17 am
_Stu_
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2010 4:44 amPosts: 1570Images: 3
03-11-2011- Play nice _ENG_
Hopefully, this one's better than last. Now I had more time to translate...
AT: HE.... ehm, he's reading Pridelands?
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I don't think he just wished it away. The end of money as the motivating factor was, as Picard delivered in his soliloquy, due to replicators and obtaining anything material of your desire. Pursuits moved away from material things and toward self-improvement, learning music, painting, achievement. This might sound like an impossibility, but, keep in mind something similar has already happened in our civilization with another resource that once was scarce: the calorie.
The scarcity of calories made us "greedy" toward sugars and fats. You can imagine a "wealthy" caveman from 30,000 years ago as being one who would kill his neighbor and steal their food. Food was everything, something you would toil for hours every day to get, go to war over neighboring tribes to secure your hunting areas. Today, food is a joke, we laugh at fat bastards who stuff their face and can't control their urges and desires for food. While Gordon Gecko famously said "greed is good" in the context of making millions on Wall St., when in the context of layering on the fat, no one thinks that's good. We admire people who don't overeat. We don't consider thin people as "poor". We don't consider fat people as "rich".
It's already started to happen with material goods. In the 1st world, many of us are moving to a post-scarcity world. I've already felt disgusted going to the apartments of girls I date and seeing multiple closets full of shoes, floor to ceiling. They brag about how they have 200 pairs of shoes. I just feel sorry for them. It's like seeing a fat person brag about how many tires they have on their stomach. Imagine a world of replicators. Imagine certain people hoarding thousands of shoes. Hoarding floor to ceiling of junk. Sure, they might be emeralds, rubies, diamonds, gold, but in a world where that stuff is abundant, it's junk. You just feel sorry for them. Then you see someone else who lives in a clean and barren apartment, doesn't fill it with jewels or other junk. They practice music, they sing in such a lovely voice, they have a friendly personality, always make you feel like a good friend, go into riveting conversations about multi-layered abstract ideas that have you pondering about our place and existence in the cosmos that even years later in the shower you drift back to and ruminate over once again.
You might say, well, money isn't just used to buy material goods, it's also used to gain influence, pressure and bribe other people. But, you see, that influence comes because at the bottom of the food chain are the poor who desperately would do anything for material goods. Why do people do the jobs they dislike? Ask any garbage man why he does what he does. Ask him if he would still do his job if he a had a replicator. People will do the jobs they enjoy. I don't think Star Trek advocates Marxism, but Marx definitely advocates replicators. In Marxism, he said communism would fail in any poor country. He never envisioned it for Russia, and he thought the rich countries were the closest to being able to implement it. It requires a post-scarcity society as a prerequisite. Just as we are presently at a level of civilization where we say "dying on the streets due to starvation is anathema and we are too rich collectively for that!", we are slowly but surely getting to the point where someone decades or centuries from now may say "living as a poor and destitute person without a replicator and solar energy is anathema and we are too rich collectively for that!"
I know you must be thinking, "whoa, hold on, won't that cause rampant inflation?!". Yes. On the path to money having no value will inevitably be a transition state where money has very little value. The reducing value of money is what inflation is a measure of, after all. When garbage men stop doing their jobs, you have to pay them more. As long as money has some small value, paying enough of it will still ensure people do things they don't like. But, eventually, money will have so little value, next to zero, that it will become uneconomical to use it to motivate anyone. If you and your roommate are both millionaires, you can't just waive a $20 at your roommate for them to do all the dishes and clean the place. Technology, replicators, and artificial intelligence will fill the void of what was once the underclass. Anything that a machine cannot do, you will need to persuade people through charisma, leadership, and vision. People won't follow the rich. People will follow leaders. This is how Gandhi led a nation to independence despite lacking immense wealth. He had no SuperPACs, billion-dollar trust funds, and couldn't pay a legion of staff to serve him. But people served him. This is why people can volunteer and serve in a hierarchy inside a non-profit. If their job sucks, they stop doing it. A successful non-profit motivates people by having everyone feel a sense of pride in improving the world.
You might scoff that volunteers are rare and there's no way everyone will volunteer to do work. While I agree it will be a long and painful process as we adapt, I believe we will get there. Just as morbid obesity is rampant as we adjust to becoming a civilization of abundant food where we need to have self-control over our literal appetite and change our unwillingness to exercise, we will need to decrease our metaphorical appetite for gems, jewels, shiny things, and change our unwillingness to volunteer labor. Those who don't, those who never volunteer, hoard rubbish floor to ceiling, will be seen as tomorrow's obese. It will become an epidemic. It will also be considered disgusting. We are social creatures, and we will conform the standards of tomorrow's society. Not overnight. Our urges are deep-rooted and come from hundreds of thousands of years. But we will change.
There simply isn't any incentive for to build software that will last through some cyber attack some 10 months or 3 years into the future. The current incentives reward sloppily slapping together something that barely functions and gives a demo without crashing. If your demo crashes and makes the boss look bad, you're fired. If your demo works, has slick graphics and no spelling mistakes and the english dialog is polished, you get a raise. You're building software for the boss's demo, you're not building software that's robust, handles edge-cases, and input sanitizes everything. I meant, you could, but you're not getting paid any extra for it.
It's also hilarious to see the level of security theatre on the front door where all the passengers go through: millimeter wave backscatter machines, hundreds of do-nothing taxpayer govt salaried agents, K-9 units, and para-military troops, but then if you go to the backdoor where they push all the bagel carts in for the cafeteria, it's just a badge-swipe with no one around and most people keeping the door open for the guy behind them, and then you push a giant metal bagel cart in with (hopefully) bagels inside but no one knows or cares. You could just about as easily serve bagels in the airport as any other contraband. All those metric tons of onion rings, frying oil, cream cheese, dasani water, pots, pans, and other crap travelers fatten themselves up with didn't get in there by magic, but "out of sight, out of mind".
And every day more metric tons of crap needs to be carted in to fill new tummies, not to mention all the retail merchandise, shirts, pants, watches, sunglasses, suitcases, headphones, and other crap that would be the envy of most mega-malls. But never mind all that, let's throw more millimeter backscatter machines to see what's under the bikinis! Welcome to idiocracy!
Reminds me of those scenes where they show an exclusive club with a line a mile long, paparazzi flashing their cameras, and a bouncer reject all but the most elite into the front door, with full pat-down service, and then in the back is a busser throwing trash bags out, the door propped open by a wooden stick, a few stray cats and dogs wandering in and out of the back of the restaurant, occasionally tossed some scraps, and no crowd in sight; maybe a band rolls up and slowly carries in their equipment, in those giant guitar cases the film noir mobsters used to put their oozies in. It's the same place, just the front vs back.
People assume the choices are "unencrypted" or "encrypted" and conclude encrypted is better. But then they're missing hashing. Encrypted data can be undone, it can be decrypted. Any encrypted data is just waiting for the day someone can decrypt it, and if the webserver is checking passwords this way, it means it's decrypting it constantly and anyone can hijack that ability.
Hashing cannot be undone (mathematically, it's called a one-way function). There's absolutely no way to email you your original password. That's why so many websites have a "reset password" instead, because they literally don't know your password. The webserver checks your password by hashing it and comparing that output with the old recorded value.
You'll sometimes also hear the term "salting", which basically means the webserver doesn't hash your password directly, but first appends or prepends some gibberish to your password that's unique to that webserver and then hashes it. The advantage of salting is that two webservers won't show on file the exact same hash for the same password. That means if I spend 20 years and solve the hashes for all possible passwords, I haven't unlocked every webserver on earth, I've just unlocked 1 webserver whose salt I copied, and to crack another webserver, I'd have to redo the painfully slow exercise of brute forcing.
I briefly alluded to the largest problems facing India and while I mentioned food and money aren't them, I didn't really go into the problem of what they are. These are the largest problems, which food and money on their own do not solve:
1. Corruption. There is massive amounts of corruption, mafia-mob style with politicians either in their pockets or the crime syndicates getting their own patsies elected. This leads to goliath levels of black market subterfuge. That food abundance? Yes, India has enough food to feed everyone, nearly twice over. However, almost half of all its food is stolen en route to the recipients. This food is either diverted by crime syndicates and then sold for a profit elsewhere, or they use color printers and lamenators and print fake ration cards. Throwing more food and more money at the problem just lines the pockets of their crime syndicates. The only solution is Big-Brother style surveillance, rfid tracking, and other technological solutions to make crime not worth it. One of the solutions India is trying is wifi-enabling the ration card depots so the serial id of the ration card can be scanned and the computer will authenticate the id and display the photo from the central database.
2. Tax evasion. Next to no one pays taxes in India. Most of that is legal, since the tax code in India only affects top 10% of India's population. However, less than 1.5% actually pay taxes. The federal budget of India can quintuple overnight if it can actually enforce taxes on even 8% of the population. That means five times the resources on education, food, roads, etc. The reason for the piss-poor tax collection was that their equivalent of the IRS did everything by hand with paper. Again, Big-Brother style surveillance and auditing has helped. They've started computerizing all their taxes, and banks and large employers are required to report all balance over $10k USD (which for Indians puts them in the top-10%). India even signed an agreement with the U.S. where their banks now share information to each others' tax agencies. This means Indians have fewer places to hide their wealth (and similarly, Americans who were trying to hide wealth in India). This automation, surveillance, and reporting has just begun and already tripled the tax collection abilities from 0.5% to 1.5%. So far, the Indian govt. has been giving amnesty and forgiveness if Indians come clean now about their tax malfeasance in the past, but this window will expire at the end of 2016 and penalties will begin.
3. Oil subsidies. If anyone cares about money not going to schools and food, focusing on the space program and not oil subsidies is laughable. The space program is $0.3bn. The oil subsidies is 100x bigger, at $30bn. This money is mostly going to UAE, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, countries India doesn't particularly enjoy giving money to. The reason for the oil subsidy is that people in India need to work, unemployment is a huge problem, and they can't do work if they can't get to work on their scooters, motorcycles, and compact cars. But many cannot afford the cost of gasoline, at least they couldn't when oil was $120/barrel. Similarly, higher gasoline puts stress on shipment and trains, which results in higher prices of food and all retail goods. As a result, (and not a good idea if you ask me) India put subsidies on gasoline to make it cheaper. This is the exact opposite of what the U.S. and Europe do, where they actually tax gasoline at extortionist rates (30% in some cases), rivaling the taxes on cigarettes, and use all that extra money for roads and other transportation projects. This was a huge problem, but their fiscal-conservative party is in power and took the opportunity of falling oil prices. When oil fell to $60/barrel, they removed all oil subsidies. There's no special gasoline/tax/ like in the U.S. and Europe, but at least there's no subsidy.
The reason I point all this out is the irony that on the one hand, we deplore surveillance, tracking, Big-Brother-esque tactics, but on the other hand, it has been the most effective tool to grow the federal budget and expand schools, roads, and food subsidies.
Interestingly, the largest problem facing India isn't lack of food or money (there's a surplus of food, and gives what are the equivalent of food stamps in the U.S. but called ration cards in India) and there the fiscal budget is healthy (despite India receiving aid, it is a net donor of aid, not receiver; India gives a lot to Africa, more than the world gives India. This is why statements like "stop aid to India!" get me to chuckle, because it's not punitive against India. India can easily just lower its aid to Africa and not affect its own budget. Besides, aid doesn't work the way people think it does. It's not a blank check. It's a contract earmarked for certain projects, and certainly not for space research. Does aid potentially free up money? Possibly, if it were for a project India was going to spend its own money on, then yes, it will free up that capital for something else. Often, the aid is not done this way. Aid is ear-marked for underserved areas and projects, and by definition of "underserved" it means India wasn't spending its own money in those areas to begin with.).
It might seem odd that India gives more aid than it receives, and begs the question why India receives aid at all. This is because aid, despite the name, is not free, it's not charity, it's technically a loan and like any investment requires to be paid back with interest. It's like student loans, the interest is low relative to the high risk population of high school students. This low interest relative to the high risk is subsidized, that's the part that's free, not the entire value of the loan. India is one of the safest places to give aid because the risk is relatively low. It's like giving a student loan to a kid who already is paying for his classes with part-time jobs. It's more complicated than this, of course, but this basic analogy should at least elevate the discussion above "Durr, poor country gets aid and spends it on rockets". But I doubt people want to elevate their discussion above what they're comfortable with.
I received a $30 credit from Uber when I installed the app. That's free money. However, Uber only lets me spend it on my first Uber ride. So I can't just put that $30 into my bank account. In my case, it was raining one day, and I didn't have an umbrella, so I called an uber and got a short ride home. It came to $8, which used up my $30 credit. I didn't cleverly hatch a scheme with the driver.
If I were in China, I could say, hey, dude, bill me $30, it's coming off my new user credit anyways. Then give me $10. The driver makes $20 instead of $8, and I make $10 instead of $0. The loser would be Uber. Now, if I were to make a criminal enterprise out of it, I could say, hey, why even get a $8 ride? Let's have NO rides, and just keep billing $30 to get that juicy new user credit! We'll get keyboard farms to keep creating new uber accounts and riding and get that sweet $30 snatch!
Now, in the U.S., Uber stops me from creating new accounts on my own to take that $30 repeatedly because it requires a credit card. Now, if I were savvy, I'd use a new credit card with a cousin's billing address on a wiped phone and create a new uber account. If I have 12 credit cards and 12 cousins, I could register 12 new accounts. The only overlap would be my name, but Uber has zero way of telling if two John Smiths with different credit card numbers and different billing addresses could possibly be the same person. They rely on the fact that no one cares so much about $30 to bother with wiping their phone, swapping in a new sim card, using a new card and a cousin's address. And, they're right, in the U.S. In China, people will go through a lot more hardship for less. Clickfarms in China pay something like 10 cents per hour.
I think in general it's safer to use language that is clearly non-actionable, like wishing a volcano erupting near someone, or that karma come back and bite them. But when the language is an actionable plan, then even if it's not a plan that's intended to be followed, it can carry significant legal consequences. Listing specific dates, times, and tools to be used, would paint a picture of a realistic plan.
Since the device is a thruster, the question should probably be interpreted as asking whether 2x the electricity means you get to velocity k in 1/2 the time. And, well, since no one really knows how any thrust at all is being generated off virtual particles, it's conjecture that the thrust output scales linearly with electricity, though "locally linear" makes sense, with some likely non-linear relationship at absurdly large scales of electricity.
Being able to demonstrate to a class the difference between big and little endian is easy to do with unions in C:union {
char str_value[4];
int32_t int_value;};
With python, you have to make a call to struct.pack() or struct.unpack() and trust the python gods that those blackbox functions are doing the correct things. This is an issue with any managed memory language where the endianness is hidden from the programmer.
That $70 million didn't disappear. He paid it to whoever had that mansion. If that person who received the $70 million spends it on saving lives, you get what you wanted. The only difference would be the mansion is now Notch's instead of the previous owner's. But, I wouldn't bet on the previous owner going out and giving that $70 million cash to charity. Most likely, it's going into a hedge fund with high-growth investments.
I think the post was trying to say women prefer to work on multiple topics, not that they are incapable of focusing on one. The ADHD example is people who are incapable of focusing. Think of it as the introvert vs autistic comparison. An autistic person may be incapable of socializing. An introvert prefers not to socialize, but is perfectly capable if the situation calls for it. [Note: I'm not agreeing the original post, just saying its not a flawed argument in the way you think it's flawed] | {
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Families of former Saints stars decide not to travel to Euro Championships
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IT should be the proudest moment for any parent – watching as their son steps out for England in one of the world’s major sporting events.
But the families of two former Saints players will not share that precious moment with their boys – for fear of coming under attack from racist thugs.
Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s families have taken the tough decision to stay at
home during this summer’s European Championships as the racism storm rages over the competition.
In doing so they have sacrificed their chance to cheer them on from the stands as concerns grow over possible violent attacks in the Euro 2012 host countries Poland and Ukraine.
The concerns are shared by former England international Sol Campbell, who last night warned England fans to sidestep the competition because of the threat of racism and violence that could put
their lives at risk.
The former Portsmouth defender has criticised UEFA for choosing Poland and Ukraine to host the tournament – a decision he believes has put supporters in real danger.
It is a danger being taken very seriously by the families of Arsenal’s Walcott and 18-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain, who won his first international cap on Saturday during the friendly against
Norway.
Theo’s brother Ashley confirmed he and his dad, Don, had decided to stay at home on his Twitter page.
He tweeted: “Unfortunately my dad and I have taken the decision not to travel to the Ukraine because of the fear of possible racist attacks [and] confrontations.
“Some things aren’t worth risking but begs the question why hold a competition of this magnitude in a place that cannot police itself for foreigners of any creed to feel safe. But I’ll be watching
every minute.
“Racism has no place in the modern world.”
A spokesman for Mel Slade, Theo’s girlfriend and daughter of former Southampton mayor John Slade, said she had yet
to decide whether to go and support her partner.
Oxlade-Chamberlain’s Hampshire-based family had been planning to head to the Ukraine to see the teenager – the youngest player in new manager’s Roy Hodgson’s team – gain his first competitive cap.
But his dad, former England international Mark Chamberlain, announced those plans had been shelved due to the growing concern around racist attacks in the country.
However, he wouldn’t rule out a trip if England and Alex were to make it to the latter stages of the competition.
He said: “[The decision to travel] could change at any time.
“At this moment in time there are concerns. If England do well and as the tournament goes on – and if Alex is involved more than I think he may be – then a decision will be made at that time.
“It’s just my personal choice, really. I wouldn’t go into it, it’s nothing definite but there have been reports over the last couple of weeks of racist taunts and threats so it’s just prudent for
myself to keep away from it.
“It’s very disappointing, but your safety’s more important than a game of football.”
Teammates and the England manager have expressed their sadness that the families have been forced to take such tough decisions.
Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott said: “It’s a shame for some members of the squad that their families feel they can’t go and obviously it’s a situation that needs to be addressed.
“But I think we always will be [talking about it]. You can’t get rid of it from people’s minds.”
Roy Hodgson added: “It is sad some of the families are not going. These matters are totally and utterly out of our control.
“We can only have faith and trust in UEFA that they are aware of these problems, particularly in the Ukraine, and we can only hope they can solve them.”
Eastern European countries have a track record of racist incidents. Last year the Bulgarian Football Union was fined £34,230 after fans abused England’s Ashley Young.
“Monkey” chants were shouted at former England striker Emile Heskey by Croatians in 2008 and a banana thrown at Brazilian World Cup winner Roberto Carlos in
Russia last year.
A BBC documentary, screened last night, investigated violence and racism at football matches in the Ukraine.
It contained footage of fans giving the Nazi salute, taunting black players with monkey noises, anti-Semitic chants and a group of Asian students being attacked at the Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv,
one of the venues hosting matches in the Ukraine.
However, former Chelsea striker and Ukraine international Andriy Shevchenko insists there is “no real problem” with racism in his home country and that fans have nothing to worry about. The
35-year-old said: “The country’s very quiet and people are very friendly. We never have heard problems about racism.”
However, the Foreign Office’s own travel advice warns: “Those of Asian or Afro-Caribbean descent and religious minorities should take care.”
The Football Supporters’ Federation is advising fans to show “common sense” and not to wander off the beaten track.
In a statement UEFA said: “UEFA’s zero-tolerance approach to racism is still valid both on and off the pitch and ultimately the referee has the power to stop or abandon a match should racist
incidents occur.”
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Families of former Saints stars decide not to travel to Euro Championships
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Rhesus monkeys 27-year-old Canto, on a restricted diet (left), and 29-year-old Owen, a control subject on an unrestricted diet (right), were among the subjects in a pioneering long-term study of the links between diet and aging.
The latest results from a 25-year study of diet and aging in monkeys shows a significant reduction in mortality and in age-associated diseases among those with calorie-restricted diets. The study, begun at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1989, is one of two ongoing, long-term U.S. efforts to examine the effects of a reduced-calorie diet on nonhuman primates.
The study of 76 rhesus monkeys, reported Monday in Nature Communications, was performed at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in Madison. When they were 7 to 14 years of age, the monkeys began eating a diet reduced in calories by 30 percent. The comparison monkeys, which ate as much as they wanted, had an increased risk of disease 2.9 times that of the calorie-restricted group, and a threefold increased risk of death.
“We think our study is important because it means the biology we have seen in lower organisms is germane to primates,” says Richard Weindruch, a professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and Public Health, and one of the founders of the UW study. “We continue to believe that mechanisms that combat aging in caloric restriction will offer a lead into drugs or other treatments to slow the onset of disease and death.”
Richard Weindruch
Restricting the intake of calories while continuing to supply essential nutrients extends the lifespan of flies, yeast and rodents by as much as 40 percent. Scientists have long wanted to understand the mechanisms for caloric restriction. “We study caloric restriction because it has such a robust effect on aging and the incidence and timing of age related disease,” says corresponding author Rozalyn Anderson, an assistant professor of geriatrics. “Already, people are studying drugs that affect the mechanisms that are active in caloric restriction. There is enormous private-sector interest in some of these drugs.”
Still, the effects of caloric restriction on primates have been debated. An influential 2012 report on 120 monkeys being studied at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) reported no differences in survival for caloric restriction animals and a trend toward improved health that did not reach statistical significance.
The discrepancy may be a result of how the feeding was implemented in control animals in the NIA study, say the Wisconsin researchers. Ricki Colman, a senior scientist at the Wisconsin Primate Center, who presently co-leads the project, suggests that NIA’s control monkeys were actually calorie-restricted. “In Wisconsin, we started with adults. We knew how much food they wanted to eat, and we based our experimental diet on a 30 percent reduction in calories from that point.” In contrast, the NIA monkeys were fed according to a standardized food intake chart designed by the National Academy of Science.
Rozalyn Anderson
Through their own experience in monkey research, and by reference to an online database recording the weight of thousands of research monkeys, the Wisconsin researchers concluded that the NIA controls were actually on caloric restriction as well, says Colman. “At all the time points that have been published by NIA, their control monkeys weigh less than ours, and in most cases, significantly so.”
Weindruch also points to some results from the NIA that seem to contradict the “no significant result” analysis. Twenty monkeys entered the NIA study as mature adults, 10 in the test group and 10 in the control group, and five of these (four test monkeys and one control monkey) lived at least 40 years. “Heretofore, there was never a monkey that we are aware of that was reported to live beyond 40 years,” Weindruch says. “Hence, the conclusion that caloric restriction is ineffective in their study does not make sense to me and my colleagues.”
Furthermore, he says, it could be that the small caloric restriction in the NIA control animals had its own benefits, suggesting that a reduction of as little as 10 percent could meaningfully retard aging.
Each of these studies cost millions of dollars and took decades to perform, and they are unlikely to be repeated, says Anderson — so all involved are trying to extract the maximum science from them. “We are now working with the NIA scientists to perform a comprehensive analysis of all of our data, taking into consideration the differences in study design, genetics, time of origin and composition of the diet. It’s possible that insights we could not get from the individual studies will emerge from this aggregate data.”
Ricki Colman
Caloric restriction became something of a fad two decades ago, when a few individuals set out to cut their calories by 30 percent to slow the diseases of aging, but the Wisconsin and NIA studies have a much broader focus.“We are not studying it so people can go out and do it, but to delve into the underlying causes of age-related disease susceptibility,” says Anderson. “It’s a research tool, not a lifestyle recommendation, but some people get caught up: ‘What if I did caloric restriction?’”
Many of the benefits of caloric restriction are linked to regulation of energy, Anderson says. “It affects how fuel is utilized. Caloric restriction essentially causes a reprogramming of the metabolism. In all species where it has been shown to delay aging and the diseases of aging, it affects the regulation of energy and the ability of cells and the organism to respond to changes in the environment as they age.”
Chief among the metabolic deficits is diabetes, which can be seen as “an inability to properly respond to nutrients,” Anderson says. Diabetes damages fat, muscles, blood vessels and even brain functioning, and the growing epidemic of diabetes is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States.
The Wisconsin scientists began to see diabetes among the control animals while they were still in the prime of life, within six months after beginning their study. The contrast with the restricted animals could not have been more dramatic, Colman says. “Until two years ago, we did not have evidence of diabetes in any caloric-restriction animal, but we had a significant number of diabetes, or pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, in the control animals.”
Very few people can tolerate a 30 percent reduction in calories, yet Weindruch insists the Wisconsin study carries an optimistic message. “The basic biology of caloric restriction in rodents, worms, flies and yeast seems to carry over to primates, so we have a real opportunity to dissect that mechanism, look at how we can work with that basic biology, and benefit all those human primates who are so closely related to our rhesus monkeys.” | {
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The 11-year-old caught behind the wheel hadn't just driven off in grandma's car, which you might expect given that the car in question was a 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis. He'd actually gone through an entire street's worth of parked cars, opening unlocked doors, stealing wallets, purses and cell phones before making off with the Mercury.
[The officer] was amazed; like he was watching a 20-year-old. The way the kid would look out for police, the way he was quickly checking the door handles. Like he had done it 100 times before.
Fifteen days prior, this 5-foot-four, 120-pound 11-year-old was caught stealing $240 out of a cash register after spending two weeks befriending the store owner. A few days later he was out stealing from cars.
On his Sunday joyride, the kid spotted the cops and lit up the rear tires peeling out from a stoplight. Not knowing that a child was behind the wheel, police called for backup. Suspecting the driver was reaching for a gun, they quickly pulled the car over and ended the boy's 10-mile joyride.
He went quietly and was picked up by his mother. He now waits to be tried in juvenile court. | {
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Office of the President
Welcome to the PCHRE
The President's Commission on Human Relations and Equity (PCHRE) supports acceptance and fairness at all levels of the University. Fresno State is an institution where exploring the diversity of thought and discouraging marginalization is valued as a means of enriching knowledge and critical-thinking. The Commission developed a comprehensive plan to make sure this commitment is understood across our campus. MORE
News & Announcements
The October 28 Diversity Forum videos are ready. Click HERE to see the videos. | {
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Donald Trump, of course, fueled his election through his Twitter account. Consequently, there's some discussion over whether he'll be able to keep a very out-of-date Samsung Galaxy S3 Android phone from 2012. I'll discuss that in a moment.
The Newsweek story focuses on a Republican National Committee server which, according to current whois records, appears to be operated on the same domain, and by the same hosting provider, as it was when I investigated it during the Bush administration. (Back then, I was investigating what happened to millions of email messages about the firing of US Attorneys.)
According to the Newsweek story, "The system (rnchq.org) is the same one the George W. Bush administration was accused of using to evade transparency rules after claiming to have 'lost' 22 million emails."
This is not true. The government (as well as Democratic-leaning advocacy groups) focused nearly all their attention on the fact that the Bush administration email records were lost from the Executive Office of the President's government-operated email infrastructure.
The Bush administration converted from a Notes-based email environment to an Exchange-based one, right at the lead up to the Iraq war. This was all internal to the White House. None of the emails considered "missing" or "lost" were ever conflated with the email on the RNC's servers.
Private servers don't mismanage classified information. People do.
In my book Where Have All The Emails Gone?, I extended the discussion to include the issue of private emails traversing the open internet over SMTP. The difference is, I focused on that as a security risk and a presidential record-keeping issue. At the time, I estimated that 103.6 million email messages traveled over the internet via the hosting provider, SMARTech, located in Chattanooga.
There's a law, called the Hatch Act of 1939, that has been interpreted in modern times as compelling government officials to use private servers to conduct non-government business. Essentially, the Hatch Act says you're not supposed to spend government money, or use government resources, to campaign. When the legislation was enacted, it was intended to prevent government officials from using stamps and staff paid for through taxes for political purposes. In the digital era, it's been extended to digital resources.
In any case, the issue of the rnchq.org domain, operated by SMARTech (during the Bush administration as well as now), is a non-story, despite the irony of the situation. There's no law against having your own technology and using it.
The issue with Hillary Clinton was that she used the private server for government business, did not properly comply with Federal Records Act regulations, ignored all of her own State Department rules for appropriate email use, and as the FBI director called it, practiced "extreme carelessness" in terms of managing classified information. For more details, you can read my two special reports about the FRA violations and the systemic disregard for required security practice.
Private servers don't mismanage classified information. People do.
Because of the Hatch Act, it's expected and, in fact, required that Trump administration personnel use a private server for anything other than government communications. They just need to be sure they don't do anything as careless and dangerous as sending classified information over a non-government system.
PRESIDENT TRUMP'S PHONE
There are Twitter apps for just about everything. Given that the secured phone provided to the president is most likely a Windows device of some sort (possibly CE), there are existing Twitter clients available. Even if the device is based on Windows Phone, Twitter itself offers a client. | {
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I44 Saturdays & Dynamic Campaign
What are Invasion Saturdays?
Invasion Saturdays are about playing Invasion44 mod for Arma 2 in a relaxed, organized and a fun way. Everyone is welcome to join and we accept players with any kind of experience.
When is the session?
Every Saturday at 19:30 BST, 20:30 CET.
How can I find you guys?We play on the ARPS mod server called "sMODGASBORD" (Filter by ARPS) and use the unofficial RPS community Mumble VOIP server.
What version do I need? Do I need mods?Use the latest ARMA 2: Combined Operations version,currently it is 1.62
Jeez, that looks like a lot.It may look that way, but trust me it's worth it.
Can I use Six Updater instead?Of course you can, but if you don't want to use Six Updater and still play with us go here: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=12465
(For more info on how to avoid using Six Updater, contact me)
Do you guys have a Dynamic Campaign?Yes we do Have a Dynamic Campaign where player actions matter more than ever, because every player is trying to achieve a common goal of completing the mission and ultimately win the campaign.
The Dynamic Campaign will start on 6th October 2012
What can I expect?
We have a particular approach to playing missions that ensures enough organization to have a good gaming experience, but not too too much to get bogged down by complex communication, ranks or micromanagement. Our approach isn't about emulating real-world military organizations or operations, but enjoying a game where tactics and teamwork reign supreme.
The missions cover the entire ARMA2 spectrum: all sides, all islands, all gear and all degrees of death (revive, respawn and permadeath) make an appearance. Most missions are designed for 20-30 players, and most slots are standard infantry with occasional transport pilots, special weapon teams and vehicle crews thrown in.
What is a i44 session like?
One of the players volunteers as the commander (CO), and the rest are divided into fireteams of about three to six people. Every fireteam has a fireteam leader (FTL). Special weapon teams and vehicle crews are treated similar to fireteams. Anyone can volunteer for both CO and FTL roles.
During the briefing the commander lays out a plan for the fireteam leaders to carry out, and presents it to the other players. After a round of questions the mission starts.
During the mission, players stick to their fireteams and carry out their FTL's orders. Players communicate mostly within their own fireteam using the in-game voice function (VON), or Mumble if the fireteams have been split to separate Mumble channels. FTLs relay important information to other FTLs and the commander as they see fit. Keeping the main communication channels clear makes sure important information gets through and helps the commander and fireteams coordinate their efforts.
To ensure a smooth ride and maximize the time we can spend actually playing the game, here are a few things the players should keep in mind:
Listen to the host who is running the session. He is there to make sure everyone can enjoy the game.
Connect to the ARPS Mumble server and join the ARMA2 channel in time. We prefer you to have a microphone, quality isn't essential as Mumble is very forgiving.
Once you're in the in-game slotting screen, click on your name on the left-hand side to de-slot. This will speed up the slotting process.
Keep unnecessary smalltalk for a time when nothing else is going on. This way we can get the slotting and planning phases done with no time wasted.
Don't hog the leadership and special weapon slots. This way everyone, including new players has the chance to experience all aspects of the game.
But... but I still have questions.
Feel free to ask anything in this thread or contact me personally.
Quick question - Is ACRE supported by I44? It would be awesome to try it out, as this is a mod Saturday it seems :D. The normandy paradrop mission comes to mind when we used direct only although the quality was bad and it was difficult sometimes to hear stuff.
More Wolfenswan, MORE! Then we can make it a Carraigdubh night and require all participants to bring along some Irish whisky. Bushmills, Jamesons or the like - if we could arrange that I assure a silly mission at the end won't seem nearly as silly. :)
Hey everyone. I've played arma with some of the RPS guys yesterday for the first time and I am very interested in joining Invasion Saturdays. I am a beginner, I hope that isn't a problem. So I have a question about the mods. If I donownload and install this stuff, will it screw with my vanilla arma client? How do I turn the mod on and off and stuff (how does it work, basically?). Also on the i44 invasion site it says, that I need to downlaod CBA. What's CBA?
- thanks | {
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The Racer Georgette Hibiscus Floral
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Crafted with soft and delicate lace trim, this lightweight, silk georgette cami is your ultimate staple item. Feminine, classic and timeless, this cami will be perfectly integrated into your every day style. Can easily be worn with a strapless bra. | {
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Two modules (Accounting and Auditing (including Corporate Laws)) will be compulsory whereas students will have to choose one/two modules out of the available options for the 1st/ 2nd level test respectively, as per their specialization areas during practical training. The available options are:S No First Year Second Year1. Direct Tax Direct Tax including International Taxation2. Indirect Tax Indirect Tax3. Internal Audit Internal Audit | {
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The K-8000C controller can drive a maximum of 8,192 RGB LED pixels (1024 pixels at each of the 8 ports). Up to 512 pixels can be controlled with a frame rate of 30fps. If more than 512 pixels are connected to the controller, the controller automatically shuts down the frame rate.
The programs are created with the freely available software LEDEdit (as of version 2016) on the computer and then stored on SD card.
The programs stored on the SD card can then be selected by means of buttons on the K-8000C controller and changed in speed. An SD card can store up to 32 programs. | {
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} |
To write the script, Tarantino went on a quest to recover the original Smith Corona typewriter word processor -- owned by an ex-girlfriend -- that he used on his first two films.
Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed ''Reservoir Dogs,'' ''Jackie Brown'' and ''Pulp Fiction,'' for which he won an Academy Award for best original screenplay. Brian Helgeland has written several original screenplays and adaptations. His script for ''L.A. Confidential'' (which he wrote with the director, Curtis Hanson) won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Last month, as their two new films opened to great acclaim, Tarantino and Helgeland sat down in the Regent Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles to share some wisdom about the screenwriting life.
The Consolation-Prize Theory
Tarantino: Here is a fact, or an observation, or something I've just noticed about the Oscars: when ''American Beauty'' won best picture, that was the beginning of a new day. The underdog movie, the cool movie, finally won. Before that -- and this is a generalization, but I think a true one -- you'd have the favorite, the more Hollywood movie, and you'd have the cooler movie. You know, the critical darling. But the status quo Hollywood movie always got big respect from the middlebrow critics, the Rex Reeds of the world. And invariably, when it came down to the final mano a mano, those status quo movies won best picture. And they won best director. And the cool movie would always win the screenplay award. That was its consolation prize for being cool. And what this highlights is obvious: the writing branch of the Academy is much hipper. There's no two, three, four ways about it. The progressive branch of the Academy is the writing branch.
Helgeland: I think there's truth to that.
Tarantino: My year, the year ''Pulp Fiction'' won screenplay, ''Forrest Gump'' won best picture. What won the year you won for ''L.A. Confidential''?
Helgeland: ''Titanic.''
Tarantino: ''Titanic.'' It didn't even get nominated for screenplay.
Helgeland: Which just proves, I guess, how hip the screenwriting branch is.
Tarantino: I happen to love ''Titanic.'' I think it's a wonderful movie.
Helgeland: I have to excuse myself from talking about it, because we were against it. So I can't do anything but hate it.
Tarantino: I understand. Still, the theory is good. There are tons of examples. For instance, I knew when Jane Campion went up to accept her award for screenwriting for ''The Piano,'' I knew that was the last time I was going to see her that night. And when Neil Jordan went up to accept his award for ''The Crying Game,'' that was the last I was going to see him that night.
Helgeland: You held out hope, though, right?
Tarantino: No, no, I didn't. I knew. When I won, that speech I gave, the one thing I said that was true was something like: ''This is the last you're going to see me tonight.''
Helgeland: I thought you almost said that but didn't quite say it. I had the feeling you knew it, but you didn't want to come right out and jinx yourself.
Tarantino: You may be right. I think I at least alluded to it.
Helgeland: You were like, ''This is the last -- no, I'm not going to say it.'' That's what it was.
Tarantino: That sounds like me. What did you say?
Helgeland: I went on about James Ellroy, I think. That was about it. I said I was going to call the award an Ellroy.
Tarantino: Excellent. You know, I would be very interested to listen to adaptation speeches to see how many times someone actually thanks the original author. Not very often, I bet.
Helgeland: Yeah, well, given a chance to be gracious, it's very hard to actually do so.
The Early Inspirations
Helgeland: I think ''Cool Hand Luke'' was probably the first movie in which I was aware of the writing as its own separate thing. It was that speech when the guy reads Paul Newman the riot act. The speech about going in the box.
Tarantino: Oh, yeah.
Helgeland: It's about a two-page speech. Bang, bang, bang. It's great. I think I was around 12 when I first noticed it.
Tarantino: God, I wish I could say that. I wish I was aware of that kind of writing at 12, but I wasn't. I think the first thing I was really into were novelizations.
Helgeland: I wasn't aware of it as ''writing,'' really, I was just aware of the words. There were a lot of words there. That speech is so long.
Tarantino: Were you into novelizations?
Helgeland: A couple, yeah.
Tarantino: When I saw movies I liked, I would go to the 7-11 and I would find the novelization. That's where I found ''W. W. and the Dixie Dancekings.'' To this day, I reread it every three years. And I still have the same paperback that I bought way back when. The movie was written by Thomas Rickman, who was nominated for an Oscar for ''Coal Miner's Daughter.''
Helgeland: And the novelization?
Tarantino: Also Thomas Rickman. I found out later that Thomas Rickman was so disgusted with what they did with his movie that he asked to write the novelization, so that one person out there would know what it was that he intended. I'm 40 now, and I still read ''W. W. and the Dixie Dancekings'' every three years. I'm that one person. When I saw the movie, though, a few years after I'd first read the book, I was like, What the hell is this? I mean, I was offended. I was literally offended. The novelization was pure. But this was Hollywood garbage. So that's why I started writing screenplays, because I was so outraged.
Helgeland: What was the first thing you wrote?
Tarantino: I was in the sixth grade -- the end of my first time. I was held back; I was in the sixth grade twice. But my first time in the sixth grade, toward the very end, I went and saw ''The Bad News Bears,'' and I fell hopelessly in love with Tatum O'Neal. I mean, so much in love with Tatum O'Neal. I'm embarrassed to tell you how much in love I was with her.
Helgeland: I love that line: ''Look, you crud, just get back to your beer.'' I liked that kid Lupus, too. I wanted to name my son after him, but my wife wouldn't let me name him after a Bad News Bear. That screenplay is so good. I don't think they'd make that movie today. Walter Matthau's character is just too extreme. Driving drunk, with the kids in the car without their seat belts on. One of them could have gone through a window.
Tarantino: My crush on Tatum O'Neal was so strong that actually you could almost consider it your first love. So in the sixth grade I started writing an ABC ''Afterschool Special'' about me meeting Tatum O'Neal. I called her Somerset in the script, and I did what I could never do in real life. I finagled a way, through conniving and lying, to meet Somerset O'Neal. And she was charmed by me. I never got that far in the script. I wrote the first 20 pages and then abandoned it. But after that, that's all I could do in school, just write new scripts. Eventually, the teacher complained to my mom. And at some point, when my mom was mad at me, she said: ''Oh, and by the way, this little writing career of yours? It's over!'' And I thought, This little writing career? This little writing career? You have no vision. I will never buy you the house that Elvis bought his mother. And to this day I have not bought my mother a house. And I never will!
Writing With an Actor in Mind, and Other Rituals
Tarantino: Can I ask you -- I've been thinking about ''Mystic River'' -- how did you feel when Clint cast the movie?
Helgeland: Well, I wasn't thinking of any of the parts. I was thinking of the characters, but I wasn't doing a casting thing in my head. So I thought he was pretty on the money. The only thing is that when he cast Tim Robbins, I immediately thought he was too big for the part, physically. And then when I saw the movie, Tim himself is aware of it, and he plays it kind of like the world has shrunk him. And it's even better for that reason. I don't really write with living actors in mind. I guess I write for dead actors. I'll think of like, you know, Burt Lancaster would be good in this part, and so on. With ''L.A. Confidential,'' it was like, wouldn't it be cool if Dean Martin played the Kevin Spacey part?
Tarantino: I definitely often write for Sam Jackson. I know his rhythms. I feel like he can turn my lines into poetry. In fact, the character of Bill in ''Kill Bill,'' when I first put pen to paper, was Sam Jackson. And finally I had to stop it. I knew I didn't want to cast Sam Jackson as Bill. So I had to mess with the process. It had to be something else. And when I started writing Max Cherry, the main character in ''Jackie Brown,'' I was hopping back and forth between four actors that could do the movie. Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Robert Forster, and the other one was John Saxon. But in my heart of hearts, I knew it was Robert Forster. And the crazy thing is, I walked into a restaurant, a coffee shop, during the high point of writing it, and Robert Forster was there. In the throes of writing it, at my most passionate, I walk in the room, and he's there. And I gave it to him.
Helgeland: Oh, yeah. The signs are always out there. It's like when you're location-scouting and you start to see the names of the characters on street signs and stuff like that.
Tarantino: Oh, man, I've never had that happen, but I'm going to start looking for that.
Helgeland: There are all the writing rituals, too. Write only on the legal pads, transcribe onto the computer. I'll write all of the ideas and then I'll write scenes. And then when I have a scene done, then I'll type it in just to get it in there. Because I get all kinds of crazy -- you know, it's like the house is going to burn down and all the legal pads will burn up. The idea will be gone. Stuff like that.
Tarantino: Do you type like that, two fingers?
Helgeland: Yeah. Sometimes three.
Tarantino: If it's going good?
Helgeland: Yeah.
Tarantino: Before I wrote ''Reservoir Dogs,'' I was able to get friends of mine to type my scripts. But then, there I was, writing ''Reservoir Dogs'' -- and I couldn't be more excited by anything I've ever written -- and I look around and I've got no one, there's no one who will type it for me. All friends have dried up.
Helgeland: No house for them. No house.
Tarantino: Right. They don't get a house, either. I like that. No house. All right, so I realized I was going to have to do it myself. My girlfriend had one of those old Smith Corona word processors. It was great for me because it was idiotproof. One of the more famous things in ''Reservoir Dogs,'' the argument over who's going to be named what color, was written with one finger on that word processor. So then when I wrote ''Pulp Fiction,'' she let me borrow it again. But for ''Jackie Brown,'' I didn't have it, and it made me crazy. So on ''Kill Bill,'' I was like, I've got to get Grace's old word processor back. But we'd broken up. So I went to her, and I was like, ''Let me just have it.'' She said her sister had it. But her sister gave it to somebody else, and that person gets in touch with me and says: ''I have the Smith Corona word processor that you did 'Pulp Fiction' on. Would you like it?'' Yes. Yes. Yes.
The Anxiety of Adaptation; the Melancholy of Lost Possibilities
Helgeland: The funny thing about James Ellroy is he's my favorite novelist, and had been for years before I was hired to write the script for ''L.A. Confidential.'' So when it was done, my overriding fear was that he wouldn't like it, in which case it would all have been a waste. All of it. Even if the movie came out and did well, it wouldn't matter. But it got sent to him, and he read it and liked it and signed off on it.
Tarantino: That's cool.
Helgeland: Yeah. The high point of the whole experience was that James Ellroy didn't think I had messed it up.
Tarantino: I felt that way with Elmore Leonard and ''Jackie Brown.'' Nothing, not studios, nothing, has ever made me more scared than I was when I changed his heroine in ''Rum Punch'' from a white woman to a black woman. I was actually scared to talk to him. The phone just weighed 500 pounds. And it gained 100 pounds every time I glanced at it. And then I started thinking, You know what, I can't be that way, I've got to go my way. But that didn't really make it any easier to talk to him about it.
Helgeland: It's a very complicated thing, adaptation. And it's a very different kind of satisfaction than you get from doing an original. It's easier, sort of, but also trickier. If you write an original, it's like you went in and dug a well and you hit oil. But an adaptation, it's like the oil well's on fire, and they bring you in to put the fire out and get it working again -- or something like that. It's like, here are these 18 problems that you need to solve in order for this to work as a movie. An original is always -- I just think it's closer to you. Not that they're not all close to you, but the original is more yours. It's your kid, as opposed to the adaptation, which is like having to raise your sister's kid from the time he was 10. With an original, you're not looking over your shoulder at the book.
Tarantino: Yeah, yeah, exactly. You're not thinking, How do I sell this book, how do I sell this moment? Even when it's easy, it's still hard, because the book can do all these things that you can't do. Not the obvious things, like omniscient voice or something. It's the other things. Take ''Jackie Brown.'' Elmore Leonard has this -- for lack of a better word, we'll call it a subplot, though it's not really a full-fledged subplot. Anyway, in this thing, this subplot, that you can't really translate into film, there are three crucial pieces of information, and in the book they all are presented organically. Now you have to figure out a way to get these three crucial pieces of information into the movie while preserving that organic quality. That's tough.
Helgeland: It's like someone wrote a math theorem that covered a whole chalkboard, and then you have to come in and erase a third of it and prove that theorem only with what you have left on the blackboard, if that makes sense.
Tarantino: It makes complete sense. Still, though, whenever I read a novel, I'm always adapting it into a movie as I read it. I wish I could turn that off, but I can't. Everything I read, I'm always making it into a movie as I'm reading it. Is that true in your case?
Helgeland: Yeah, definitely. If I'm in the bookstore and I see a 700-page novel, my first thought is, Ooh, how could you cut this down to size and make a movie out of it?
Tarantino: It's one of the reasons I really enjoy reading some film criticism and theory, because you can't make it into a movie. It's pure writing. Even historical novels, I get lost in how to turn them into movies. I mean, to do any research on World War II is to just create a whole life of movies you could make. But you can't do them all. When I was younger and reading plays and books, I would always think, Oh, man, I'll do this and I'll do that. Only to sadly realize that I can't do it all, and you try to go back and this stuff that I once thought was great, maybe I've outgrown that material.
Helgeland: Yes, I know that feeling.
Tarantino: And there is a little of you that's gone. You're now a new you. And it's not like the new you is so much better. You wish you could have the excitement, the first love, that you had when you read that stuff and making that movie is all you wanted to do. It's not a happy day when you realize you've outgrown material that you once loved.
Tarantino: ''The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,'' by Sergio Leone and Luciano Vincenzoni; ''His Girl Friday,'' adapted by Charles Lederer from the play ''The Front Page'' (''Not only the greatest dialogue in the history of cinema, but it's a genre that doesn't exist anymore: the newspaper comedy. And it's a blistering social satire''); ''Unfaithfully Yours,'' by Preston Sturges (''I don't love Preston Sturges the way other people love him, but his dialogue is fantastic'').
Helgeland: ''The Poseidon Adventure,'' by Stirling Silliphant and Wendell Mayes (''The characters are introduced perfectly -- you know everything about them almost instantly''); ''The Outlaw Josey Wales,'' by Philip Kaufman and Sonia Chernus; Horton Foote's adaptation of ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (''It's just a great adaptation'').
Tarantino: ''Rio Bravo,'' by Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman (''It works as a crackerjack story, and it's just fun. It's the ultimate hang-out movie)''; ''What's Up, Doc?'' by Robert Benton, David Newman and Buck Henry; ''Hero,'' by David Webb Peoples (''This stands alone as a great script that a great movie didn't make'').
Helgeland: ''Heaven Can Wait,'' by Elaine May and Warren Beatty (''A great ending and one of the all-time best remakes''); ''Slap Shot,'' by Nancy Dowd (''One of the best profane scripts of all time''); ''The Big Lebowski,'' by Joel and Ethan Coen (''Because they so convincingly make their own world''); ''Klute,'' by Andy and Dave Lewis (''Jane Fonda's character talks all the time, and you don't know anything about her. Donald Sutherland's character doesn't say a word, and you know everything about him'').
Tarantino: ''Shampoo,'' by Robert Towne and Warren Beatty (''It's just brilliant''); ''The Great Escape,'' adapted by James Clavell and W. R. Burnett (''The shortest three-hour movie ever made in the history of time''); ''Switchblade Sisters,'' by F. X. Maier and John Prizer (''The dialogue is so wonderful that half the people watching it would think that it's bad dialogue -- the script is ingenious'').
Helgeland: ''Rocky,'' by Sylvester Stallone; ''Blade Runner,'' by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples (''It wasn't all art direction -- the dialogue was terrific in that movie''); ''Unforgiven,'' by David Peoples (''The best script in my lifetime'').
Tarantino: ''Out of the Past,'' by Daniel Mainwaring (''Maybe the best dialogue in a dialogue-heavy genre, the noir movie''); ''Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!'' by Russ Meyer and Jack Moran (''The funniest, most quotable dialogue''); ''Scarface,'' by Oliver Stone (''Extremely memorable -- nearly every line of the movie is worth repeating'').
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Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.
How could anyone lower their existence and order a big mac? How could anyone knock years off their life biting that "burger" and I stress the "'s. True story, I once dated a real fat woman who ate at McDonalds. I dated her out of pity though, but I eventually made her choose between me and the Big Mac. Yep, I'm single.
good god, why? he just made me see the show american idol. i cant believe the reason we have to wait an extra 2 months for volume 2 and 6 years between films is because he is sitting around watching shit like this show. doesnt he understand his gift?!?
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Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.
I watched part of Kimmel, and before that I saw him and Daryll Hannah on Howard Stern. The Kimmel show was kind of funny, with Jimmy's uncle dressed as Pai Mei, but I didn't really like the concept of it much. What director is still referencing films he did 10 and 12 years ago? I like his films, but damn, he is a media whore.
Celebrated directors Sofia Coppola and Quentin Tarantino have sparked reports they're dating, following a series of intimate meetings in New York. The maverick movie-makers stunned diners at Manhattan's plush Downtown Cipriani restaurant on Friday, when the unlikely pair sat down together for a romantic meal. Coppola and Tarantino fueled speculation they were an item on Sunday when they were spotted strolling the streets of New York with their arms wrapped around each other, according to the Pagesix website. Lost In Translation director Coppola - who has been single since her split with husband Spike Jonze last year - later visited a video shop with Tarantino, they rented some movies and left looking "very cozy". However, a representative for the directors has downplayed reports of a romance, insisting the pair are just "good friends".
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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol
Imagine a collaboration between the two. No, not that kind of collaboration -- they'll show up on "If they mated" soon enough, though. Maybe. But...
- The Virgin Suicides + Kill Bill = Kamikaze!- Lost in Translation + From Dusk 'Til Dawn = A stunning film where insomnia and jetlag plagues two lost souls WHO HAVE TO SAVE THE TOWN FROM AN ONSLAUGHT OF VAMPIRES!!!- Reservoir Dogs + The Godfather: Part III = the harrowing story of the movie shoot that went very badly. | {
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Data from your smartphone sensors can reveal PINs and passwords to hackers and allow them to unlock your mobile devices, according to a study led by an Indian-origin scientist.
Instruments in smartphones such as the gyroscope and proximity sensors represent a potential security vulnerability, said researchers from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.
Using machine learning algorithms and a combination of information gathered from six different sensors found in smartphones, researchers succeeded in unlocking Android smartphones with a 99.5 percent accuracy within only three tries, when tackling a phone that had one of the 50 most common PIN numbers.
The previous best phone-cracking success rate was 74 percent for the 50 most common PIN numbers, but NTU's technique can be used to guess all 10,000 possible combinations of four-digit PINs. Led by Shivam Bhasin, NTU Senior Research Scientist, researchers used sensors in a smartphone to model which number had been pressed by its users, based on how the phone was tilted and how much light is blocked by the thumb or fingers. The researchers believe their work highlights a significant flaw in smartphone security, as using the sensors within the phones require no permissions to be given by the phone user and are openly available for all apps to access. The team of researchers took Android phones and installed a custom application which collected data from six sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, proximity sensor, barometer, and ambient light sensor. "When you hold your phone and key in the PIN, the way the phone moves when you press 1, 5, or 9, is very different. Likewise, pressing 1 with your right thumb will block more light than if you pressed 9," said Bhasin. The classification algorithm was trained with data collected from three people, who each entered a random set of 70 four-digit pin numbers on a phone. At the same time, it recorded the relevant sensor reactions. Known as deep learning, the classification algorithm was able to give different weightings of importance to each of the sensors, depending on how sensitive each was to different numbers being pressed. This helps eliminate factors which it judges to be less important and increases the success rate for PIN retrieval. Although each individual enters the security PIN on their phone differently, the scientists showed that as data from more people is fed to the algorithm over time, success rates improved. So while a malicious application may not be able to correctly guess a PIN immediately after installation, using machine learning, it could collect data from thousands of users over time from each of their phones to learn their PIN entry pattern and then launch an attack later when the success rate is much higher. The study shows how devices with seemingly strong security can be attacked using a side-channel, as sensor data could be diverted by malicious applications to spy on user behaviour and help to access PIN and password information, said Professor Gan Chee Lip from NTU. To keep mobile devices secure, Bhasin advises users to have PINs with more than four digits, coupled with other authentication methods like one-time passwords, two-factor authentications, and fingerprint or facial recognition. | {
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The menu has been put together by Chef Lin, and “will feature the finest quality renditions of delicious Chinese food favorites, expertly prepared and presented, as well as reasonably priced” accordingly to Solo’s recent announcement.
Starting next week, Solo Chinese Kitchen will be open on Saturday nights throughout the fall and winter months.
This change does not affect Pizza Da Solo next door. The dairy kitchen will be relocated to the Lincoln Square Synagogue catering hall, now operates by the Prime Hospitality Group.
About the author
Dani Klein
Dani Klein is the founder of YeahThatsKosher, is passionate about global travel, good kosher food / restaurants, social media & the web, technology, digital marketing, and spending time with his friends & family.
Dani has an MBA in Marketing and works in the Social Media Marketing field for a large media agency. | {
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Art for Justice
Sunday 27/08/2017
Travelling art exhibition
Late last year Sr Sheila Flynn visited San Clemente and invited us to take part in a travelling exhibition: Art for Justice.
Students were asked to create a work depicting an injustice in the world that they would like to see highlighted in our community. A range of issues appear in the exhibition from poverty, racial intolerance, domestic violence, homelessness and so on. A number of our Year 9 students submitted work and were selected to be part of this exhibition.
The exhibition has been touring through Dominican High Schools and was shown during our Centenary open day here at San Clemente, it will travel to Adelaide next. | {
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To let you know about our research, this area contains 4 types of information about CLST; “Article”, “Videos”, “Event” and “Study”.
At “Article”, you can read articles on interviews and lectures, and you can enjoy the videos about CLST at “Videos”. If you want to meet and talk directly with the researcher, “Visit” give you some information of such events. You can find more difficult contents to know about our research deeply at “Study”.
Labs & Technologies
Cellular Function Conversion Technology Team
Team LeaderHarukazu SuzukiPh.D.
1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 230-0045, JAPAN
Research Area
We will develop technologies for direct cell conversion to target cell types of potential therapeutic interest, based on the integrated knowledge of the transcriptome status, the transcriptional basins, the epigenome, and the non-coding RNA, including technologies for high efficient, loci specific epigenome modification. Linked to the direct cell conversion, differentiation and safety of stem cells will be explored. We also aim at application of the transcriptional regulatory network analysis technologies to wide variety of biological sresearch. | {
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} |
LATEST ISSUE
The latest AJ focuses on the work of Groupwork + Amin Taha including an interview with its founder, a full timeline of the practice’s work, and building studies of two mixed-use projects in Islington: the controversially stone-fronted 15 Clerkenwell Close and a residential/retail block at 168 Upper Street. PLUS Will architects cut down on concrete after a report says it is responsible for 8 per cent of global CO2 emissions; ...
Rob Wilson previews a selection of the hot tickets at the event, curated by Grafton Architects’ Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, which opens this weekend
The title of ‘Freespace’, which Farrell and McNamara have chosen for this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, appeared at first a rather open one. But accompanied by its thoughtful manifesto, emphasising the generosity of spirit and sense of humanity at the heart of making architecture and making of spaces for people and exchange, it has elicited some rich responses from across the spectrum of exhibiting architects, pavilions, and installations and events around the city.
With the biennale install being the usual race to the finish for this Saturday’s opening, we’ve selected seven must-see pavilions and installations from the biennale and beyond.
1. British Pavilion
Take some solace from the rest of the biennale at the stark British Pavilion, which has been completely emptied and scaffolded over to support a new public space atop its roof. Island, curated by Caruso St John and artist Marcus Taylor, is ‘a place of both refuge and exile’, and intends to conjure themes of abandonment, reconstruction, sanctuary and Brexit with a programmed series of performances and debates.
2. Robin Hood Gardens: A Ruin In Reverse
4. deck of robin hood gardens with alison smithson
A large three-storey chunk of Alison Smithson (pictured) and Peter Smithson’s Robin Hood Gardens council estate in London – rescued from demolition – has travelled to Venice and been installed as the centrepiece of the Pavilion of Applied Arts. Accompanied by a new documentary film of the estate by Korean artist Do Ho Suh, this third collaboration between the La Biennale di Venezia and the V&A is designed to highlight questions around the housing crisis and the future of social housing. V&A at the Pavilion of the Applied Arts
3. Scottish Pavilion
Scotland + Venice
The Scotland + Venice project The Happenstance celebrates Scotland’s Year of Young People, exploring how young people in Scotland respond to the biennale theme of ‘Freespace’. Artists and architects have worked with young people across Scotland to develop a ‘living library of ideas’, which has been brought to Venice to establish a literal ‘Freespace’ in the garden at the Palazzo Zenobio.
4. Irish Pavilion
Ireland la biennale di venezia 5781 matthew thompson
Source: Matthew Thompson
Ireland’s team of six young architects and designers will explore the importance of the rural marketplace, reasserting this declining space as one of social, political and cultural exchange. As well as evoking the character of a market space, Free Market Radio and Free Market News will give perspectives on market towns.
5. Australian Pavilion
Denton corker marshall australian pavilion credit john gollings
Source: John Gollings
Australian Pavilion by Denton Corker Marshall
Ditch the pruned greenery of the Giardini for some wilder grasslands in the Australian Pavilion, which will house some 10,000 plants, including 65 species from the Western Plains. The exhibition, Repair, will focus on architecture’s huge impact on the natural world, reassessing its relevance and role by focusing on solutions that integrate the built and natural environments.
6. Vatican City Pavilion
Copyright laurianghinitoiu chapel fp draft3 02 8446
Source: Laurian Ghinitoiu
Among the more unusual national appearances will be Vatican City, which is making its Venice debut with 10 pop-up chapels built by architects from around the world. The structures have been drawn up by the likes of Norman Foster (pictured), Eduardo Souto de Moura, Terunobu Fujimori and Smiljan Radic. The chapels will sit in a large wooded area on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.
7. David Chipperfield Architects Works 2018
This major exhibition of 20 key Chipperfield projects promises to be a rich display – ranging from the recent Amorepacific headquarters in Seoul to classic projects such as Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie refurbishment. It nicely emphasises teamwork, with the practice asking each of its respective design teams from around the world – in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai – to choose how to present their respective projects. Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza, until 2 September
Comment: Sarah Mann
When Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara’s brief for Freespace was published as a basis for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018, it felt immediately like an opportunity to commission a pavilion that broke out of its boundaries in some way.
I believe that our current social and political situation gives the British Pavilion a new imperative: how to approach national representation when a nation is in transition.
During the selection, jury members were struck by the boldness and simplicity of Island, the proposal by Caruso St John Architects and Marcus Taylor. It offered an unmediated experience of architecture rather than an exhibition. Their reimagining of the pavilion forms an ‘island’. The apex of the original building’s roof pierces through a high platform, leaving the galleries below empty. The project presents the pavilion as a meeting place for visitors, a platform for new ideas and a new piazza for the biennale.
Taking this provocation, we wanted to use their challenge to demonstrate architecture’s capacity to be open and generous to open up the pavilion, creating a structure for visitors to enjoy a new perspective of the city of Venice and a new experience of the building.
The Tempest, Géricault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa and the work of contemporary British poet Kate Tempest. All explore the idea that an island can be a place of refuge or exile.
To provide a platform for multiple voices and interpretations of Island, the British Council and the curators have invited cultural organisations to create a vibrant programme at the British Pavilion, with specially commissioned work by international and local artists, musicians and performers. Much like any other public space, occasionally things will happen; you may come across a performance, a project, a conversation you weren’t expecting.
Sarah Mann is director of architecture design fashion at the British Council
Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas has criticised Italy’s national institute of architects for failing to recognise his wife and business partner Doriana after it awarded a lifetime achievement award solely to him
In News
The AJ supports the architecture industry on a daily basiswith in-depth news analysis, insight into issues that are affecting the industry, comprehensive building studies with technical details and drawings, client profiles, competition updates as well as letting you know who’s won what and why. | {
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Call Now: (516) 449-2852
How To Get What You Want: Helping Others On Your Long Island and Stamford Management Team
First, I wanted to make sure you remembered that estimated taxes were due on June 15th. So, if you haven’t already handled those, now is an excellent time to do so!
But I wanted to focus today on something I had to be very clear about for myself during our busy filing season a few months back — “delegation”.
It’s such a catch word that we often don’t think through all of its layers.
Sure, we all know the old cliche: “Delegate, don’t dump!”
But one area that I’ve seen many Long Island and Stamford people struggle with is in helping others do this effectively, within their own organization. When you manage other managers, it’s a different skill than if you are the first-line manager, and you manage only workers.
As I’ve run my Long Island and Stamford tax and accounting firm, I’ve always encouraged my team to never think of themselves as worker drones; there are always elements of what they do that requires managerial excellence — even, for instance, when they are “managing” clients.
So, here’s a little crib sheet I go through with my managers, and I do it whenever it seems like it’s needed. I hope you find this useful for your own Long Island and Stamford business.
How To Get What You Want: Helping Others On Your Long Island and Stamford Management Team“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” -H. L. Mencken
I’ve had to not only manage employees, but I’ve also learned a thing or two about helping OTHERS do this.
Frankly, when an employee or someone that we are managing isn’t doing his or her job, your first instinct may be to blame the person for not following instructions, being lazy, or not caring about your organization. But I suggest that you take a step back, address the mirror and look at your own performance first.
Consider these possibilities:
Do your people actually know *what* you want?
Go beyond just assigning tasks. Give employees clear performance standards that will help them understand when they’re doing a good job: technical knowledge they need to master, quality and productivity measurements, and so forth.
Do they know *why* you want it?
Workers make better decisions about what they need to do if they know why a task is necessary: how it affects the company, the employee, and other people, and what happens when they don’t perform the task correctly.
Do your team members know every part of *how* to do the job?
This comes down to adequate training, for both new hires and longtime workers. Make employees part of the training process by having them train others in their new skills.
Do they think they’re *already* doing a good job?
A worker will think he or she is doing just fine if you don’t offer frequent and regular feedback. Let your people know what they’re doing well, and it makes it so much easier to coach them to get better in areas where they’re weak.
What.
Why.
How.
Already.
Easy to remember, Easy to check in on. But the answers aren’t always simple. Do the hard work to fix them, though, and you’ll see your team culture begin to thrive in ways you might have never before experienced.
I hope this helps. Remember, we’re here for you beyond mere accounting and tax work for your business. We’re in your corner.
Feel very free to forward this article to aLong Island and Stamfordbusiness associate or client you know who could benefit from our assistance — or simply send them our way? While these particular articles usually relate to business strategy, as you know, we also specialize in tax preparation and planning forLong Island and Stamford families and business owners. And we always make room for referrals from trusted sources like you.
Warmly,
Michael J. Kessler, CPA
(516) 449-2852
(203) 658-5092
PS–Join us for our show Business Profits In The Real World Saturday afternoons at 4 on 103.9FM WRCN where we bring you Long Island and The New York-Metro’s most successful business owners sharing how you too can bring your business to among the most profitable in your industry. No radio? No problem! Listen live at LINewsRadio.com – or can’t listen live? Hear our past shows at MichaelKesslerCPA.com
PPS—Check out the latest edition of our monthly newsletter, Wealthy and Wise, HERE
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2017 at 9:48 am and is filed under Blog.
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Elections in March saw the populist Five Star movement and the hard right League gain enough seats to form a government.
They tried to form one government last week. But President Sergio Mattarella said he could not accept the proposed finance minister Paolo Savona, because his criticisms of the euro “could provoke Italy’s exit” from it.
Savona is no radical. He was a former official at the Bank of Italy, a former minister, and a former chief of the bosses’ General Confederation of Italian Industry.
Five Star and the League have sent mixed messages over Italy’s eurozone membership. They hope to gain from eurosceptic sentiment, while never clearly calling for a pull out.
What they have been clear about is hostility to migrants.
Opposition to EU-backed austerity has repeatedly created crises for the establishment. But racist scapegoating is enabling the right to capitalise.
The right grew after both social democrats and unelected technocrats pushed EU austerity to cut deficits and pay banks.
It is notable that the proposed government’s demands to expel 500,000 migrants did not bother the rich in Italy or the EU.
Replace
To replace the Five Star/League coalition, President Mattarella picked Carlo Cottarelli to form a new technocrat government.
Cottarelli worked at the International Monetary Fund before he was hired in 2013 to slash Italy’s public spending. “Mr Scissors” pushed for £30 billion in cuts, but quit after complaining that people were resisting his austerity crusade.
What is now guaranteed is a rolling crisis through the summer, which can only end in fresh elections.
The vultures on the financial markets are pushing hard to asset strip the Italian economy— regardless of who is in office.
The League has gained eight points in the polls since the last election. Its bombastic leader Matteo Salvini claimed he was inundated with calls from supporters to stage mass protests. after the proposed government was blocked. Salvini has taken a leading role, pushing Five Star even further to the right. The anti-austerity rhetoric is down and the racist rhetoric is being ramped up.
Whether Salvini will maintain his alliance with Five Star or reunite with right wing crook Silvio Berlusconi is unclear.
But by pushing the pro-banker, pro-EU attacks, the Italian establishment looks set to embolden the fractious forces of Italy’s racist right. | {
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