text:
Trayvon Martin
The Trayvon Martin truth squad: a Web phenomenon
While other people watch reality shows, a marketing specialist in Michigan who goes by the name "Bcclist" spends time in his yard, calculating Trayvon Martin's last steps with a tape measure and smartphone stop watch.
He is joined on the Internet by Dave Turner, an Illinois man who had his sons yell in the dark from a distance of 30 feet to see whether he could tell which one cried for help.
Both men are often guided by the work of "Tchoupi," an engineer with a Ph.D. in physics who has spent countless hours making maps, analyzing witness statements and fleeting headlight patterns in surveillance videos to compute George Zimmerman's moves the night he killed Trayvon.
The three are among a growing group of people on the Internet so fascinated by the mystery of the killing that captivated the nation that they are out to crack the case themselves. They listen to jailhouse calls, pore over witness statements, study evidentiary documents and measure walking speeds.
After hundreds of hours going through the records, some believe they have debunked Zimmerman's account of what happened that rainy Feb. 26 night in a gated community in Sanford, when the former neighborhood watch volunteer says he was jumped by Trayvon and was forced to kill him during a struggle. Others say the same evidence points a finger at Trayvon, the 17-year-old Miami Gardens high school junior who they believe contributed to his own death. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder.
Experts say the amateur sleuths may very well be the new-media reality for high-profile criminal cases in Florida, where extraordinary public records laws make evidence widely available before trial. In a big case such as this one, prosecutors provide information electronically, meaning anyone with Internet access can comb through the evidence. The bloggers say their intense interest in the case underscores a deep-seated distrust in both law enforcement and the mainstream media, who they blame for shoddy coverage and poor analysis of the facts.
Florida's "trials of the century" take place so publicly that the exposure of evidence raises profound questions about whether the public's right to know has trumped a defendant's constitutional right to a fair trial. With such a serious risk of jury pool contamination, Zimmerman's attorney jumped into the fray to be sure that the evidence favorable to the defense was reviewed on the blogosphere, too.
Dissing the mainstream media
"The mainstream media overlooked everything," said Turner, a member of a crime forum called Justice Quest. "Did you really do your job if you didn't look at the evidence?"
Bcclist listened to hours and hours of car commercials, so he could figure out from the beeping open-door sound recorded in Zimmerman's call to police what kind of car he drove before that detail became widely known. Criminal defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt, who blogs at TalkLeft.com, seems embarrassed when she admits to spending a recent seven-hour drive listening to the jailhouse recordings of Zimmerman chatting on the phone with his wife and sister. Two citizen journalists in Texas created a site — www.theyalwaysgetaway.com — where they have posted most of the material made available in the case.
Many of them say their research shows there is a two-minute gap in Zimmerman's account that suggests he is hiding something. Their reenactments, they say, suggest that what Zimmerman says happened that night would have been physically impossible: He couldn't have drawn a gun that fast during a vicious attack, and they believe Zimmerman's telling of the story would require Trayvon to have sprinted across the housing complex. The Web sleuths can pinpoint Zimmerman's inconsistencies from memory, and are deeply suspicious of witnesses who gave statements to police that did not match their 911 calls.
Although those witnesses were not named, the researchers studied their statements and compared them to real-estate records and Google maps to figure out their names and where they live. Zimmerman supporters showed a subsequent probe of the witnesses' Facebook accounts indicates at least two of them signed petitions in support of Trayvon, putting their objectivity in doubt.
At the same time that some try to discredit Zimmerman, there is a rising movement to shine what one blogger calls a "disinfecting light" on Trayvon, whose social media accounts were picked apart in a quest to portray him as a drug-addled thug who may have participated in videotaped fight-club events in the months before his death. They believe the AriZona watermelon soda and Skittles he purchased minutes before he died were the fixings for a drug concoction called Purple Drank, and they present unverified screen shots from his social media pages to prove it.
The surveillance video from the 7-Eleven he shopped at just before he died shows what even some Trayvon- supporters say is the teen interacting with teenagers outside the store and possibly buying a cigar from them. The cigar purchase is believed to have been for him to make a "blunt," a cigar filled with marijuana used to mask the illegal drug.
"In this case, so many people believed that Zimmerman had hunted down and murdered this innocent black teenager, and that it was Trayvon screaming for help on the 911 calls, when all the hard evidence showed it was just the opposite," Wagist.com blogger Dan Linehart said in an email to The Herald. He said the analysis being done on the Internet is far less damaging than the mainstream media's portrayal of Zimmerman as a neighborhood vigilante who benefited from a botched investigation.
Other pro-Zimmerman bloggers have set their sights on Trayvon's parents in an effort to portray them as irresponsible parents profiting from their son's death. They have poked holes in the story provided by the girl who says she was on the phone with Trayvon as he walked home from the convenience store that night. Conservative bloggers posted the social media accounts of a girl they say is her to show she carried on after the killing as though nothing had happened.
Another site posted the name, address and family photographs of the cousin who told police Zimmerman molested her when they were both kids.
Through the lens of a defense lawyer
Merritt, a criminal defense lawyer in Denver, has one of the few pro-Zimmerman sites where talk of Trayvon's drug use, Twitter posts and scurrilous accusations about him are off-limits. A veteran blogger and legal analyst, she views the case through the lens of the rights of the accused.
"I love that instead of reporting gossip, we can use actual documents," she said. "I look at what the state can prove, not what Zimmerman can prove. He doesn't have to prove anything."
She believes the tracing of Trayvon's steps that night shows he lingered too long, which could back up Zimmerman's account that the teenager circled back and attacked him.
"I went from being fascinated about this case to trying to track the state's theory and how they were going to make their case," she said. "I don't think they can make their case, if they are relying on the theory that he followed Trayvon. Following someone is not illegal and does not make him the aggressor."
The bulk of the other amateur investigators came to the opposite conclusion. They say there are too many holes in Zimmerman's story for his self-defense claim to hold up in court.
The blogger who goes by Tchoupi created an image-sharing site with a sophisticated histogram, mapping out what he believes were Zimmerman's movements. Analyzing the lights passing by the Retreat at Twin Lakes clubhouse surveillance video the night of the shooting, Tchoupi theorizes that Zimmerman drove around several times in an apparent search for Trayvon, although he acknowledges he does not have proof that the lights are from Zimmerman's vehicle.
"I have never been in a country where I could get access to not all, but most of the information of a case so early in the process," Tchoupi, who hails from France and lives on the U.S. West Coast, told The Miami Herald. "It allows people to get involved and analyze it themselves. It's quite amazing. I have to admit: It's not fair to George."
Like many of the other researchers, he asked that his real name not be published, because he doesn't want his day job associated with his hobby.
Zimmerman called police the evening of Feb. 26 to say he saw a suspicious-looking teenager who walked too slowly and looked around at houses. When the kid took off running, Zimmerman was recorded going after him.
The call ends and about two minutes later, another one picks up: the first call to 911 about the two struggling.
The timing of the calls is critical, because Zimmerman's accounts to police would suggest that it took him two minutes and 39 seconds to walk 100 feet, according to Tchoupi's analysis. At the same time, if Zimmerman's account were true, several bloggers point out that Trayvon would have had to have sprinted.
They also note that Trayvon's body was about 50 feet from where Zimmerman said he was attacked, suggesting that the entire incident occurred in a different location than Zimmerman said. (The change in location, they believe, is because he doesn't want to admit that he pursued Trayvon after the police call ended.)
"It's quite clear to me that he's not telling the whole truth, if he is telling the truth at all," Tchoupi said.
Many of the armchair investigators have taken their theories to YouTube, where they post video reenactments and maps.
"You have a CSI phenomenon, where people think you can take a blurry video, focus it and find the truth," said a blogger who goes by "whonoze."
"On the other hand there are indisputable facts: the non-emergency call, Google maps and a clock. Stick those things together. People were not doing that, and were coming up with scenarios that were physically impossible."
A user named "Super Filexican" has posted 41 such profanity-laced YouTube videos and has been banned twice for hate speech. He said he embarked on his 200 hours of research to support Zimmerman, who he believed was being convicted by the media. But he said his analysis helped him determine that it would have been impossible for Zimmerman to fire a round from a holstered gun while getting pummeled by someone who straddled him.
"His stories are almost like a child's stories," he said in an email to The Miami Herald. "You have goons jumping out of bushes calling you 'homey.' You have the same goon attacking for no reason. You have the 'hero' of the story pulling off superhuman acts. It's pure silliness."
Many of the researchers share their theories at bcclist.com, a website where the comments section sometimes soars into the thousands.
The Bcclist moderator, Christopher, says he works on the case from about 7 p.m. to midnight every night. "I'm calculating distances while other people are watching Real Housewives of New Jersey," he said. "My wife thinks I'm obsessed."
The bloggers all agree that that their Web traffic skyrocketed since they took on the case. Axiom Amnesia, where much of the information is posted, said it once got 80,000 hits on a single day. When the recordings of the 911 calls were released, the site could not sustain the volume of traffic.
Viewers are most interested, the site's administrators said, in lab results that show Trayvon did not have Zimmerman's DNA on his sleeves.
The administrators of that site, Heit & Cheri, are unusual in that they have paid for access to the Duval County server reserved for the media.
"Our goal is to highlight the inconsistencies," Cheri said. "That's what people have come to expect from us."
At the start of the case, Zimmerman's defense attorney, Mark O'Mara, sought to have the entire case file sealed, and the state attorney agreed. Media lawyers, including The Herald's, intervened, and the judge agreed to release the court record, but with witness names covered. O'Mara filed several court motions to keep the most damaging information about the molestation accusations out of the files, because they would hurt Zimmerman's chance at a fair trial, but the judge refused to flout Florida's public record law.
Now Zimmerman's defense attorney said he has two interns whose sole task is to keep track of what's on the blogs.
"Most of it is crazy, but there are a couple of nuggets in there," O'Mara said in a May interview. Of one blog, he said: "It's absurd, and it's never going away. The blog must have people who are up all night long endlessly analyzing evidence. They are doing my job for me."
O'Mara admits he gets hooked on examining the evidence, too. "It starts out OK, and then you are up all night," he said. "One day I will come home, my computer will be gone and my wife will have divorced me."
A woman, her computer and 9 cats
Natalie Jackson, a lawyer for Trayvon's parents, suspects O'Mara's dive into social media helped incite the movement.
"The act of the defense of putting on a case in social media propelled a lot of these people, and they ended up blogging and using evidence to prove his client guilty," Jackson said. "When the defense embraced social media, everyone said it was a great innovative thing. I don't know; I am not so sure."
The lawyers in the case agree that the bloggers are doing the work that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars to produce. The maps the bloggers have made normally cost about $3,000 to have made, Jackson said.
Attorney Jose Baez, who successfully represented accused killer Casey Anthony in what Time magazine called "The Social Media Trial of the Century," said the armchair experts do more harm than good.
"Florida's public-record law needs to bow to a defendant's right to a fair trial," he said. "Some woman sitting behind her computer with nine cats knows more about the case than anybody. What you end up with is a dog and pony show, and people want to march in the parade. I think it is severely perverting justice."


text:
Are you someone who could handle their alcohol until getting sick, then any sort of alcohol in any amount may make you sick?
This is a common problem with those after their immune system has gone haywire.
In this post, I will breakdown and discuss mechanisms behind the loss of tolerance towards alocholRead more

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Heart and Flower Choker - Reversible Sterling Silver Choker, Flower Power Layering Choker, Sterling Charm Necklace
Heart and Flower Choker - Reversible Sterling Silver Choker, Flower Power Layering Choker, Sterling Charm Necklace
Sterling Silver Heart / Flower Choker
ŌŖ╣ D e s c r i p t i o n
ŌÖź - Sterling Silver Double Sided Artisan Charm, 5 x 10mm.
ŌÖź - Sterling Silver Chain and Connections, Choose Length.
ŌŖ╣ D e t a i l s
ŌÖź - Adorable little teardrop reversible charm choker. One side is a flower, the other a heart. A perfect necklace to layer with others or simply on it's own.
¤ÉØ Important NOTE:
~ This item will be shipped to you in a gift box and tied with a bow.
~ Please pay attention to the measurements since jewelry may appear smaller or larger in the picture than its actual size.
~ Most necklaces are made with the clasp on the right side. If you have a preference to have it on the left, just send a note at check out.
~ I accept custom orders for wedding parties or any special occasion and offer quantity discounts.
ŌĆó Because handmade = made with love, care, and thought.
ŌĆó Crafted with care from Branson, Missouri. ŌÖĪ
HAPPINESS GUARANTEE: I stand by my jewelry and want you to love it too!
Ō¢║ Ready to purchase? Click the big orange "Add to cart" button. For more info:
Ō¢║ Have a question about the item? Click the square "Ask a question" button above ŌĆ£Add to cartŌĆØ button.
Like it and want to save for later? Click the heart on the upper right corner of the picture.
Ōśģ Additional Discount Codes Ōśģ┬Ā
-Spend $200 - $399 get 25% OFF Use Code: TWOHUN25
-Spend $400 - $599 get 30% OFF Use Code: FOURHUN30
-Spend $600 or more and get 35% OFF Use Code: SIXHUN35
Returns & exchanges
I gladly accept cancellations
Request a cancellation within: 1 hour of purchase
I don't accept returns or exchanges
But please contact me immediately if you have any problems with your order.
Returns and exchange details
Please note that the jewelry is handmade for you upon your order and all sales are final.
If you have any problems with your order please contact me on Etsy within 48 hours. I'll try my best to resolve any issues there may be.
Please find additional information on FAQ in our shop policies here:
ŌŁÉ By purchasing from our shop, you acknowledge you have read and understand our shop's policies.
Shipping from United States
Processing time
1-3 business days
Customs and import taxes
Buyers are responsible for any customs and import taxes that may apply. I'm not responsible for delays due to customs.
Payment Options
Returns & Exchanges
I gladly accept cancellations
Request a cancellation within: 1 hours of purchase
I don't accept returns or exchanges
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
Privacy policy
To let you know of future sales. You can always opt out, if you do not want these notices.
Frequently Asked Questions
Custom and personalized orders
Custom and personalized orders are...any jewelry that is made to order in the size and detail of the piece.
Examples include:
Stamped jewelry.
Specific sizing and letters on necklaces and bracelets.
Or, any custom pre order, specific to your needs.
Gift wrapping and packaging
All jewelry will come in a gift box, tied with a bow.
I do include an invoice with your purchase. If you are sending the jewelry as a gift to the recipient, just let me know, I will leave it out. Please enter any details I should know in "Note to seller" when checking out.
If you would like a little note added with the gift, I am happy to do so. Please enter your details in the "Note to seller" at checkout.
Care instructions
Ō£¦ Warm water and a soft cloth are the best thing you can do to maintain the beauty of your jewelry.
Ō£¦ Jewelry polishing cloths work great and are non-abrasive.
Ō£¦ For a deeper, occasional cleaning, a drop of dish soap on a toothbrush will return its luster.
Ō£¦ Salt water and chlorine in swimming pools take their toll on all fine jewelry.
Ō£¦ Over time skin oils can build up on the surface of your sterling silver, causing the metal to tarnish. Ō£¦ When tarnish occurs, jewelry polishing cloths work great to bring back the luster and are non-abrasive.


text:
Hey everyone. I got some time to do the latest update to the board software, but it meant that all the old modifications and styles wouldn't work anymore. So, here you have the newest iteration of LabourTalk. Please let me know by Private Message if you run into any issues with the new styling. Some new features on the board are:
We hope you like the changes!
- Latest HTML5 Responsive Styling - You can now see a new, more modern styling on the board. Along with this, you can resize the browser to see the board change with it. The board is now functional on all sizes of screens, including your cell phone, table and desktop/laptop.
- Post Sharing - Although you could previously, the new layout means the sharing icons are more visible on the lower right hand corner of each post. Click your favourite social media outlet to share the desired post with them.
- Multiple Themes - Previously there was only one theme in an attempt to lower the workload when modifications were put in place. Fortunately, the new modification system is much simpler to implement and we now have multiple colour options for you to enjoy. You can change these from your User Control Panel under the Board Settings heading.
- Announcements - Announcements can now be posted here (where you're seeing this one) and, in most cases, can be dismissed. To dismiss them, please click the "X" in the top right corner of this box.
- Collapsing Categories - Categories, such as News & Announcements or Welcome (below), can be collapsed to clear up some of the clutter. This state should be maintained as long as you're logged in.
We hope you like the changes!
Rumour Mill
Help dispel some rumours about unions or companies in the Healthcare sector.
3 topics • Page 1 of 1
- Topics
- Replies
- Views
- Last post
Collective Bargaining
Last post by NC « Sat Mar 08, 2014 9:33 pmby NC » Sat Mar 08, 2014 9:33 pm
- 0 Replies
- 10235 Views
- Last post by NC
View the latest post
Sat Mar 08, 2014 9:33 pm
To one of the guys who works at CBI...
Last post by pswhamilton « Sun Mar 02, 2014 7:02 amReplies: 3by NC » Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:54 pm
- 3 Replies
- 2900 Views
- Last post by pswhamilton
View the latest post
Sun Mar 02, 2014 7:02 am
Some history of SEIU in Ontairo
Last post by NC « Sat Dec 14, 2013 8:30 pmby NC » Sat Dec 14, 2013 8:30 pm
- 0 Replies
- 2016 Views
- Last post by NC
View the latest post
Sat Dec 14, 2013 8:30 pm
3 topics • Page 1 of 1
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
Forum permissions
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum


text:
A convicted felon decided to mug an MMA fighter on the Southwest Side, and ended up paying a steep price.
Police did not release the victim's name but said he was able to ward off Anthony Miranda, 24, who ended up with two black eyes and a gunshot wound to the ankle after a tussle.
The victim was sitting in his parked car near 55th St. and Kenneth when Anthony Miranda, 24, walked up to the car asking for a lighter, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
When the victim did not have one, Miranda pulled out a handgun and demanded money, police officials said. He then demanded the victim get out of the car.
At some point, the victim was able to grab control of the gun while Miranda's attention was diverted. The two men wrestled on the ground and during the fight, Miranda accidentally discharged his gun, shooting himself in the ankle, police said.
The victim was able to pin down Miranda until police arrived and later told officials he was a martial arts expert and ultimate fighting champion.
Miranda was taken to Holy Cross Hospital with a face full of cuts and two black eyes, police said. He has been charged with armed robbery and aggravated discharge of a firearm, a class X felony.
Records show Miranda has several convictions, including at least one for a residential burglary. He was ordered held on $350,000 bond Sunday.


text:
Back when I was a kid going to the beach every weekend with my dad, I never thought of body surfing as a workout. It was just pure exhilaration — dog-paddling out there for hours, waiting for a good swell, then swimming like crazy for a couple of seconds to catch the wave and ride it at eyeball level, a human surfboard in a rush of sound and foam. Gear wasn't necessary, other than a fin or two. But when I rediscovered body surfing recently, I was surprised to find that gear for it had evolved and that it was a fantastic all-body workout — and just as much fun as ever.
High-speed hand plane
Slyde Handboards Woody: The 19-inch, 19-ounce mini-surfboard from a Venice-based maker straps onto your hand to assist hydroplaning through the water.
Likes: The hand plane, bodysurfing's most radical innovation, definitely added a new dimension to the experience. After a couple of hours, once I got used to riding with my hands extended out from my body like Superman (you can use one or both arms), I felt faster, more maneuverable and better able to stay ahead of the breakers. Swimming with it and diving under oncoming waves is not a problem; it even helps you maintain easy flotation. I also enjoyed the looks of fascination from other beachgoers, who seemed to regard me as some sort of aqua-warrior from another planet. The Woody, one of Slyde's Classic series models, has the classy fit and finish of a surfboard. A padded zipper carry case is included. The ProCoil leash ($19.99 ) cuffs around your biceps.
Dislikes: The fingers on my right hand, which is attached to the board via a two-way Velcro strap, had a tendency to get numb from being fixed in place.
Price: $157 for wood veneer, $200 for carbon fiber. https://www.slydehandboards.com
Sunglasses that stick
Surf Shades: Polarized sunglasses for all water sports include a leash/collar system that wraps around your head and neck, preventing them from becoming lost even when you're tossed in the roughest whitewater.
Likes: They work. The most gnarly washing-machine wipeout could not tear these glasses off my body, and it was great to have the oppressive glare of sun and water radically reduced. The design starts with an elastic strap that clicks into each end of the sunglass arms, then connects that to a neoprene leash and collar around your neck. The glasses can be knocked off your face but not off your body. They include 100% UVA and UVB protection. Note: They are not goggles designed to keep water out of your eyes.
Dislikes: None
Price: $79; other models range from $69 to $39. https://www.Surfshades.net
Power kick
DaFin: V-shaped fins have patented half-length "strakes" (side rails) that stiffen the fin from heel to toe, then allow a flex that supposedly allows for greater thrust. The company says DaFin is standard issue equipment for 60 municipal U.S. lifeguard and surf rescue agencies.
Likes: Fast, effective and comfortable. Instant kick speed. Also, they float; twice I retrieved my bright red-and-orange models after losing sight of them for several minutes. They can be worn on either foot. A medium-length fin of 15.25 inches (good for sizes 7-9 feet) weighs 15 ounces, and the 15.75-inch medium-large length (for sizes 9-10) is 21 ounces.
Dislikes: I would have preferred a thicker strap on the medium-length fin, which came off of my size-9 foot twice while I was diving under big waves.
Price: $62.95. https://www.DaFin.com
Second-skin sun guard
Xcel 6 Oz Tight Fit long-sleeve shirt: The 6-ounce polyester-Spandex rash guard is designed for surfers, with flat lock seams and a sun block rating of UPF50+, which blocks more than 97% of harmful UVA/UVB sun radiation.
Likes: In addition to sun protection, the snug, comfy, second-skin fit and four-way stretch allow for unrestricted swimming and a smooth glide across the water without the disturbances inherent in looser-fitting clothing. That's important, since your body is the board in bodysurfing. Can be paired with any fitness-compression short.
Dislikes: None
Price: $34.95. https://www.xcelwetsuits.com
Wallack is the coauthor of "Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100" and "Fire Your Gym: High-Intensity Workouts You Can Do at Home."
Running shoes put an extra spring in your step
Pooling resources to keep everyone safe in the water


text:
How to Keep Your Teen Safe Behind the Wheel
Driving instructors may teach rules and regulations, but parents impart responsibility. Make sure your kid is ready to hit the road before handing over the keys.
Car crashes are the leading cause of fatal injuries for teens. But here's some good news: While the number of vehicle miles traveled on the nation's roads increased between 2000 and 2009, the death rate declined. That's mostly because states and communities implemented new safety laws to minimize danger. Still, parents play an important part in keeping their kids safe.
Parent Checklist
With a little preparation and a lot of patience, you can help your teen become a smart driver.
- Foster an open, honest learning environment at home.
- Emphasize that driving is a privilege and that distracted driving will not be tolerated.
- Initiate frequent conversations about road rules and responsibilities, and listen to kids when they have questions or concerns.
Free Online Driving Training Programs
Encourage your teen to brush up on her skills with one of these options.
StartSmart (AAA)
Provides safety guides for parents and kids and offers sample driving test questions, webisodes and newsletters.
Allstate Teen Driver
Prizes like music and gift cards are earned for making safe driving pledges, playing interactive games and creating a parent-teen driving agreement.
Teens Drive Smart (Bridgestone)
Kids can read safe-driving blogs, find out how to approach friends about dangerous driving behavior and watch videos about dealing with unexpected issues on the road.
Better Teen Driving (State Farm Insurance)
The "Tips for Teens" section includes stats on drinking and driving, risk factors and how to be a good passenger when friends are behind the wheel.
Toyota Teen Driver
Encourages kids to participate in an interactive road distraction challenge, test their driving IQ, make an automotive budget and learn to deal with peer pressure.
Driving Skills for Life (Ford)
Students can participate in safe-driving activities and learn about car care, while a coaching guide is available for parents and educators.
Launched in 2010, Ford's "30-City, 15-State Tour" invites teens to participate in real driving exercises in specially designed cars. Semi trucks roll into school parking lots all over the country and teens get to experiment with vehicle-handling during skids, wear "fatal vision" goggles to simulate being under the influence of alcohol, and text while trying to maneuver between cones. To nominate your kid's school as a stop on the 2012 tour, contact Driving Skills for Life through its website.
Apps That Keep Tabs on Your Teen Driver
Sprint Drive First: Locks your teen's cell phone when her car goes faster than 10 mph. Incoming calls go directly to voicemail and an automatic text message says she is driving. In case of emergencies, three phone numbers and three applications can be programmed to circumvent the block. Available on Sprint, $2/month.
Teenage Speedster: Alerts parents when their child is in a speeding car—as a passenger or the driver. Available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, BlackBerry and Android, $2.
Phoneguard Drive Safe: Blocks incoming texts and sends a reply while car is moving. Delivers a Google map link indicating the location and speed of the vehicle. Calls to 911 are always allowed. Available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, free.
Car Parental Control: Follow the position and speed of your teen's car; a color-coded map shows her route. Available on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, $2.
Speedbump: Keep abreast of your teen's performance behind the wheel by receiving updates on her driving skills and patterns. Available for Android, $10/month.
DriveSafe.ly: Text messages are read aloud without a driver needing to touch the phone. A customizable autoresponder option is included. Available on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, free.
We've Got an App for That!
Family Circle's new app, Teen Driving Log, helps kids keep track of behind-the-wheel time required by states before they get their licenses. Teens can log hours, driving conditions and skills practiced before the big road test. Plus, countdown to license day! Available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, 99 cents.
Learn more and download it here
Vehicle News Around the Nation
Safe driving is a hot-button issue across all 50 states. Check out a few of these laws—from crucial to just plain odd.
New Hampshire: It's the only state without mandatory seatbelt laws. Politicians say wearing a seatbelt is a personal choice.
Chicago: City Council is considering a plan requiring all cell phones sold in Chicago to come with text message-disabling technology.
Wisconsin: Drivers can't type or send text messages while their vehicle is moving—but they are allowed to read them.
Iowa: To keep students in high school, some legislators are trying to suspend the licenses of kids who drop out.
Georgia: In 1997, the state raised the passenger limit from one to three for 16-year-old drivers so they could go on double dates. According to Senator Jack Hill, "some lawmakers did not want their daughters alone in a car with their date." (The age has since been raised to 17 to comply with the state's graduated license system.)
Montana: In 2011 the State Senate rejected twice a bill prohibiting the use of handheld cell phones and text messaging while driving. They said it was impossible to enforce.
North Carolina: Although adults can talk on the phone while driving (texting, e-mail and Internet use are prohibited), drivers under 18 with provisional licenses are not allowed to use a cell phone in any capacity—unless it's to call their parents.
North Carolina: Although adults can talk on the phone while driving (texting, e-mail and Internet use are prohibited), drivers under 18 with provisional licenses are not allowed to use a cell phone in any capacity—unless it's to call their parents.
Texas: Banned: The use of handheld phones and texting in school zones (since 2009).
Driving Dilemmas
Moms from an online networking community had their questions answered by Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D., psychology professor at Temple University and author of You and Your Adolescent: The Essential Guide for Ages 10 to 25 (Simon & Schuster).
"I'm trying to teach my daughter to drive but I get nervous and sometimes say things like, 'Brake!' too loudly. She becomes defensive and we start to argue. Is there a way for our lessons to be more constructive?" —Angelique
The day I got my learner's permit, I asked my mom to take me driving. She asked if I knew what I was doing, and after rolling my eyes I accidentally floored the accelerator—with the car in reverse. That was it for her! From then on my dad was my driving instructor. A new driver is bound to make mistakes, so parents in the passenger seat need nerves of steel. If you tend to be jumpy, nervous or unable to control your reactions when frightened, let another family member or adult friend fill in. Learning to drive is hard enough for teens without a passenger gasping loudly at every red light.
"My 16-year-old just started driving. He is very responsible but I can't help thinking something bad might happen to him. How can I cope with my fear?" —NevadaGreenEyes
You're not alone. For many parents, handing over the car keys is a scary moment. After all, your number one priority for years has been to protect your son and suddenly you're asked to allow something that's inherently dangerous. It goes against your strongest parental instincts. The best thing to do is spend time as a passenger while your son drives. Let him chauffeur you on errands or plan excursions where he takes the wheel. The more chances you have to see that he knows what he's doing, the faster your fears will dissipate. Then when he goes off on his own, visualize him driving by himself just as competently as he did with you. If he truly is a good driver, he's probably safer behind the wheel than as a passenger in some other teen's car. Your anxiety won't completely disappear, but it is likely to fade over time.
"My daughter hit a car on her way to school. The damage to the other car is $3,500. Should I take away her driving privileges and/or make her contribute to the cost of the damage?" —Complexstory
It depends on the nature of the accident, since there's a big difference between a crash caused by skidding during a snowstorm versus one caused by ignoring a red light. Consider her driving record. If this is her first incident and she's normally a safe driver, don't take away her driving privileges. But if there's a pattern of reckless driving, it's OK not to let her drive for a certain period of time. Regardless of whether this is her first accident, she should contribute to the cost of repairs or the insurance deductible, assuming she has a source of income like a part-time job or an allowance. How much she contributes—and according to what schedule—depends on her resources. Aim for an amount that will make her realize the seriousness of the situation without being overly punitive.
"My daughter failed the test to get her learner's permit twice and is too nervous and embarrassed to try again. Can I boost her confidence and encourage her to give it another go?" —KerryF
Let some time pass and don't badger her. When she decides she's ready to retake it, make a plan to study together and help her practice until she has the material down cold. That should help alleviate some of the nervousness. And ask her why she feels embarrassed. After all, the people at the DMV don't know her and won't care that it's her third attempt. If it's her friends' opinions she's worried about, she should retake the test without telling them. She can share the good news after she gets her license.
More Ways to Monitor Your Teen's Driving
For teens needing a little extra supervision, consider monitoring software. Check with manufacturers if you're in the market for a new car—Ford's MyKey limits speed and radio volume and provides seatbelt reminders, while General Motors is experimenting with Family Link, which can track a vehicle's location in real time. Or install yourself a device like Car Chip (carchip.com), which monitors speed and driving tendencies and lets you learn what happened in the event of a crash. Also ask your insurance company, which may offer reduced rates for vehicles with tracking software. American Family Insurance's DriveCam (teensafedriver.com), for example, can capture a teen's risky driving behaviors (swerving, hard braking and sudden acceleration) and provide parents with a detailed report.
What's to Come
Cars with minds of their own? Sort of. In the next five years, Intelligent Vehicles will use car-to-car communication systems to alert drivers of impending accidents. Expect to hear a collision warning when you veer out of your lane, or at a blind intersection if you're about to pull out into an oncoming car. Numerous automakers are working with the U.S. government to install these safety-enhancing Wi-Fi sensor systems.
FACT: The crash rate for teens ages 16 to 19 is four times that for older drivers, mostly due to immaturity and driving inexperience. That's why it costs more to insure them.
Originally published in the November 1, 2011, issue of Family Circle magazine.


text:
Excerpts from Jonathan Ogden's Hall of Fame acceptance speech Saturday night in Canton, Ohio:
Thank you very much. Thank you very much, wow. Whew, batting leadoff, all right. First of all, I want to thank you, Ozzie for that fantastic introduction. I've often thought about that day back in 1996 when you drafted me instead of Lawrence Phillips, I think that worked out well for everybody. I'm very grateful being in Baltimore with you for all these years, particularly Baltimore selector, Scott Garceau, you guys have a difficult job. Every year it seems like the job gets tougher and tougher.
I'm just thankful to be here along with these other gentlemen, Larry, Cris, Warren, Bill, Curley and Dave, what a tremendous new class. To be up here with these luminary legends of the game, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame with these guys is just unbelievable.
You know, as I thought about what I wanted to say to you today, one of the first things that I realized was that I've never really thought that my story was that interesting. I mean, I had great parents, went to great schools and had great friends, so I thought I'd just tell you a little bit about myself and what makes me, and what I think made me a Hall of Famer.
As I examine my career, I look back and I kind of say this is where it was supposed to end for me, but not because of arrogance or cockiness, but it's because I was taught lessons. Yes, I was blessed with tremendous God given talent, yes, but talent is isn't enough. A lot of people have talent, but they don't always live up to it.
For me, it's about trying to maximize every little bit you have. It's about trying to give it your all. If you strive for perfection, maybe, just maybe, you can become great. You don't just develop these habits naturally. These habits are instilled in you by people. Please allow me to take a few minutes to salute these people. Without these individuals and the things they taught me, I would not be here today.
The first two people I'd like to acknowledge are my grandmother Margie Sneed and my father Shirrel Phillip Ogden, both of whom have passed away in recent years. My grandmother was a very, very sweet woman. She would always tell me, Jonathan, you are special. S-P-E-C-I-A-L. She would always spell it out for me. It was probably one of the first words I knew how to spell as a kid. I didn't always know what she meant, but now I do; and grandma, I want to say thank you.
My father, I'm not going to cry here, my father, Shirrel Phillip Ogden, was absolutely the most influential person in my life. He was the guy I wanted to be like. He was the guy that I wanted to make proud. He is the absolute biggest influence on my life as far as the way I try to be a man and the way I try to raise my son and the primary reason why I decided to play football. I wish he could be here today. I know he's looking down on this and he's proud of me. He really was a special person, and I miss him. Thank you, Dad.
My mother, Cassandra Ogden, is here today, and I'll start by saying, Mom, I love you tremendously and appreciate everything you've done for me. No matter what the situation, you were always there for me. There was never a football game that I didn't see and/or hear you screaming in the stands. I want to thank you so much for the emphasis that you and dad placed on education and your decision to send me to St. Alban's School. That was a great place for me. I got a great education, learned a thing for myself, and it's also where my football career really began.
To Steve Bisciotti, I especially want to thank you for continuing on with that fantastic legacy. Being a fantastic owner and leader of one of the greatest organizations in the NFL. 2013 Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens. Thank you for allowing me to continue to be a part of an organization after retiring and awarding me with a 2013 Super Bowl ring. You, Dick Cass, Ozzie, Kevin Byrne, David Modell, Ed Carroll, Bill Tessendorf, Mark Smith and the entire Ravens staff have always treated me with class and dignity, and I thank you for that. I would also like to thank my Ravens coaches, Ted Marchibroda and Brian Billick.
Brian, we won a Super Bowl in 2000. You were the man who really helped extend my career by bringing the practice schedule that everyone's using today. You had the fore thought to see that you didn't have to beat your players to death in practice in order to play physical on Sunday.
Now the most important people in my life today, my lovely wife, Kema, who puts up with me and my constant golfing and me going to yoga and going right back to the golf course. She's always been a loving and supportive wife. You've always been there for me through all the ups and downs, babe, and I really appreciate that. Thank you.
To my son, Jayden, right there. You're it, buddy. You are my best little buddy in the world. You know that. You are my life. You are my shining star. You are my best friend, and I love you to death, little buddy. And to Mya, my 18 month old, she's a little too young to understand what's going on right now, but they're both great kids and I love them truly. It's my family that could not be here, Kaylee, my brother Marques, and to my family that is here, my grandfather, John Ogden, my uncle Andre Ogden, Steve and Lee, the rest of my cousins and family, I really love and appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you all.
And finally, I just really want to thank the fans and the city of Baltimore. When I came to Baltimore in 1996, we had no team, we had no history. We didn't even have team colors. We just had a name. I can remember at the draft I had that black jacket with the white letters that say Baltimore Ravens, and the white hat with the black letters that said Baltimore Ravens.
In the back of my mind I was saying I don't really know where we're going with this right now, but Ozzie who just drafted me assured me our goal is to make a winner here, and I told him I want to be a part of that.
When we got there, those first few years at Memorial Stadium, the Ravens were new to everybody. It was a new team and we were new to the city. We were all rookies together. I watched us grow, myself as a player and the fans as an NFL city from infancy to one of, if not the best, football towns in the National Football League. With undoubtedly the best and most passionate fans that I've ever seen, and I want to thank you guys for being there. It was for you, who at the end of the day, I enjoyed performing. And you guys are the reason that we could go out there every Sunday and lay it all on the line because we knew you appreciated everything that we did, and you appreciated everything that I did.
I am so very proud to have been the Baltimore Ravens first ever draft choice, and I am so humbled to be the Baltimore Ravens first ever Hall of Fame inductee. Thank you all, thanks.
Latest Ravens
Pro Football Hall of Fame


text:
As I mentioned, it is not Thanksgiving unless there are multiple desserts. In addition to the Traditional Pumpkin and Pecan Pies, try adding this Apple Cobbler to your slew of desserts this Thanksgiving. The mixture of baking apples and fresh cranberries with cinnamon, orange zest and nutmeg will make your house smell like The Holidays.
The New England version of a "cobbler" is pieces of pie dough that are torn and layered on the top of a fruit mixture - when cooked, it looks like a cobbled street.
I decided to take a new twist on this version of a cobbler and decided to use cutouts of leaves as my top, so it will look like a pile of leaves. Besides being so very, very simple (I even used store-bought pie dough), it looks extra festive for Fall.
The filling is same filling I used on my Apple Cranberry Crisp, but I used fresh cranberries as they are in season. They add a fabulous tartness to the pie that makes it really extra special.
Leaf Topped Apple & Cranberry Cobbler
Orange Zest, Cinnamon & Nutmeg
Apple Cranberry Filling :
10 apples (4 pounds), cored and peeled
3/4 cup of dried cranberries
2 teaspoons of orange zest
4 tablespoons of orange juice
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 store-bought or homemade pie dough
1/4 cup of sugar
Cut the peeled and cored apples to large cubes, about 3/4 inch pieces. Place them in a large bowl. Add cranberries, zest, orange juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Toss together with a big spoon until all of the fruit is well coated. Pour the fruit into a casserole dish or deep baking dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, covered with foil.
After baking for 30 minutes, cut out leaves using a cookie cutter. Place them on top of the half baked apples in a scattered fashion. Beat the egg in a small bowl, then brush it on the top. Sprinkle the sugar over the dough.
Bake for 30 more minutes


text:
Why SafeStreetsUSA - ADT Authorized Provider?
We connect you to ADT, the largest security provider, with Customer Monitoring Centers located nationwide. They can meet the needs of both urban and rural customers throughout the United States.
We staff the most experienced, caring, well-trained employees for our installation, customer support and sales teams who are committed to providing you with a security solution.
We are a leader in innovative security technology including voice recognition, home automation, real-time video, and much more.
As soon as an alarm signal is received from your home or business, you can trust that an ADT Security Professional will notify you and your local police, fire department or emergency personnel.
ADT is the only security company that has been providing 24/7 alarm monitoring services to homes and businesses for over a century. When it comes to the safety and security of your family, you can count on their knowledge and expertise.


text:
How Many Ways Can You Spell V1@gra?
By Brian Hayes
Spam mutates, and the Internet community mounts an immune response
Spam mutates, and the Internet community mounts an immune response
What's most remarkable about the question posed in my title is that I probably don't need to explain it. If you have checked your e-mail anytime in the past few years, you know all about "V.i.a.g.r.a" and "V!A6RA" and "\/lagra," not to mention "C1aL|$" and "Rrol,x Rep,ica" and—let's not be bashful about this—"pen1s en1argement." As spam has been proliferating in everyone's inbox, it has also been mutating madly, presumably in an effort to evade the filters that most of us now have in place.
I wrote a column on spam four years ago, when the plague was still in its early stages. I reported then, in breathless amazement, that I was getting as many as 300 spams a month! Now, if the tally ever dropped that low, I would worry that something had gone wrong with my Internet connection. Spam has become one of modern life's little assaults on our patience and dignity, like traffic jams and cell-phone ringtones and getting wanded at the airport. We all hope it will just go away, but in the meantime we learn to live with it. One way of coping is to set your emotions aside and look upon the irritant as an object of dispassionate study.
At the deepest level, spam is a social and economic phenomenon rather than a technological one. The senders and the intended recipients are people, not computers. Nevertheless, there's the potential for some interesting computation in the making of the stuff, and even moreso in the defenses that help keep it in check. Cre@tive spe11ing is part of this story, and so is the automated production of meaningless drivel. On the defensive side, tools from statistics, pattern analysis and machine intelligence have been brought to bear. Twenty years ago, who could have guessed that the most widely deployed application of computational linguistics and computational learning theory would be fending off nuisance e-mail?
The spam we see today is shaped in many ways by our own efforts to combat it. The process is often likened to an arms race, with threats met by countermeasures, which then bring countercountermeasures, and so on. I prefer an immunological metaphor, where the contest is between a host organism and pathogens or parasites, and where both sides have to adapt and evolve in order to survive. In the case of bacteria and viruses, the vast majority never make it, but nature is profligate and can afford such high attrition; likewise spammers find it worth their while to send a million e-mails for a handful of responses.
Some organisms have "hard-wired" resistance to infection; they produce molecules—natural antibiotics—that inhibit the growth of certain bacteria. The mammalian immune system works differently; we are not born with specific defenses against Salmonella or measles. Instead, a random shuffling mechanism generates a vast array of defensive molecules, which have the potential to attack virtually anything they might encounter in the environment. Before going into action, however, the system must learn to distinguish friend from foe. This strategy has a cost: Because learning is a slow process, you may well get sick the first time you are exposed to an infectious agent. But the alternative of relying on a predetermined list of potential threats would be even more perilous, since any novel pathogen would meet no resistance at all.
The option of exploiting random variation is also available to the opposition. Indeed, the pathogens that pose the greatest danger of epidemic outbreaks are those that mutate rapidly and randomly, changing their outward appearance to evade immune-system surveillance.
It's easy to draw parallels between these biological concepts and the co-evolution of spam and antispam technologies. When the first unwanted bulk e-mails appeared, the recipients deleted them manually. As the volume increased (and along with it the level of irritation), savvy network users wrote simple programs to automate the deletion process. These early filtering programs, many of which were created with the Unix tool procmail, relied on static, hand-crafted rules to recognize spam. For example, a message might be rejected if the phrase "Free softwares!!" appeared in the subject line. The weakness of this system is that new rules are needed when the next spam advertises "Cheap softwares!!"
The procmail approach to spam filtering corresponds to the biological strategy of synthesizing a separate antibiotic for each type of bacterial infection. A more versatile filter, analogous to the mammalian immune system, can learn to recognize virtually any category of message, based on whatever characteristics of the text happen to be most salient. These distinctive markers are the counterparts of antigenic sites, or epitopes, on the protein molecules that label a virus or bacterium as foreign. The adaptive spam filter doesn't work from a predefined list of suspect phrases but rather discovers the most telling signs by exposure to spam and legitimate e-mail.
Whatever the mechanism of the filter, the spam writer can respond by varying the message. If e-mail containing the word "Viagra" is blocked, there are other ways of getting the idea across, including synonyms and circumlocutions ("sildenafil citrate," "impotence meds," "the little blue pill"). An adaptive filter will soon flag these terms as well, but by then the spammer can move on to other options. For some kinds of variation—such as obfuscatory misspelling along the lines of "V1@gra"—computational methods could automate the generation of random variants.
So how many ways can you spell Viagra? The question is addressed directly by an amusing Web page, created by Rob Cockerham of Sacramento, whose title announces: "There are 600,426,974,379,824,381,952 ways to spell Viagra." (The page pokes fun at Viagra spam, but it carries advertisements from NetDr.com, selling you-know-what.)
Cockerham gets his number from a combinatorial analysis. He starts by tabulating the various possible substitutions for each of the five letters V, I, A, G and R. For example, any the 12 characters I, i, 1, l, |, ï, ì, :, Ì, Î, Í or Ï might serve for an I. Considering just such one-for-one substitutions, Cockerham comes up with 3×12×17×2×3×17 variations, for a total of 62,424 spellings.
Where do the rest of the 6×1020 possibilities come from? Cockerham observes that the spelling can also be altered by inserting extraneous characters into the word, as in V_i_a_g_r_a. Taking the basic pattern to be *V*I*A*G*R*A*, where each asterisk could be replaced by any of 192 printable characters, he multiplies 1927 by 62,424 to get the total cited above. (An addendum mentions a few more substitution possibilities, bringing the total to 1,300,925,111,156,286,160,896.)
It's always a treat to see combinatorial methods hard at work in everyday life, but I'm afraid I don't find this result quite credible. If the aim is to fool computers while producing something still recognizable by the human reader, then the pure substitutions work reasonably well. Even something as weird as V|@6®A can probably be understood if the context offers enough clues. On the other hand, applying the unconstrained insertion algorithm produces strings of characters so obscure that neither man nor machine could readily parse them. And combining substitutions with random insertions leads to nothing but cartoon cursing: g\/Sl*aT9©rÜ@´.
Ascending to a still loftier plane of absurdity, we could allow any number of insertions at any point within the word. Then Viagra would be everywhere. (In a dictionary search the shortest example I found was "vicar general.")
If we want to count only those spelling variants that are readable without cryptographic aids, we should probably limit the insertable characters to punctuation marks and spaces. At the same time, however, other techniques that Cockerham did not consider, such as doubled letters (Viiaggra), could be included. The result of this calculation would be a number much smaller than 1020, and yet even by a conservative measure it seems safe to say there are at least a million ways to spell Viagra.
When I first noticed spam with aberrant spellings, I assumed that someone out there in the murky world of spam service providers had written a program to generate random variants. It's not hard to do so. At the core of the program is a grammar that defines all possible ways of forming an acceptable spelling. The illustration on this page gives an example of such a grammar, one that allows substitutions and a limited form of insertions. The grammar could be improved with a few context-sensitive rules; for example, the numeral "6" might be chosen as a substitute for "G" only when it is surrounded by upper-case characters; in a lower-case context, "9" would be a better choice.
With a program generating random variants and inserting them into the text of a message, every recipient of a mailing could get a customized version. (What a thrill: your very own personalized spam!) Even if many mailings used the same algorithm, so that not all the spellings were unique, it's unlikely that any one recipient (or, more to the point, any one spam filter) would see the same spelling twice.
I still suspect that such random-spelling generators exist in the spam world, but the evidence of my own inbox suggests they are not widely used. The telltale mark of their use would be a peculiar abundance of hapax legomena—the lit-crit term for words that appear only once in a corpus. As a first step in looking for such throwaway spellings, I read through a sample of about 10,000 spam messages, extracting every variant of "Viagra" I could find. (I excluded cases where the term was obfuscated not by misspelling but by other techniques, such as embedding HTML tags between the letters.) At the end of this bleary-eyed task I had 113 spellings. I then ran a search program over all the spam I had received in the course of three years, counting the number of occurrences of each of the spellings.
There were indeed a few hapax legomena, and some of them exhibited a family resemblance, suggesting that they might all be output of the same algorithm. For example, VtAGGReA, VttAGGRA and VtAGGjRA each appeared exactly once in the corpus of 88,324 messages, all within a period of a few days in June 2006. Perhaps these strangely malformed words are the product of a Perl script running on some spammer's clandestine mail server. Or maybe they're just someone strumming on the keyboard. In either case, it appears the experiment was not a great success. Nothing similar has turned up since.
Certain other spellings also seem to come in families, such as VÌagra, VÏagra, V1agra and V1AGRA, but these examples are definitely not dynamically generated variants that are meant to be unique to each message. They arrived in my mailbox in big bunches, often several copies a day. The V1agra spelling appears more than 400 times in my three-year collection.
The spelling variations (as shown in the illustration ["Spelling 'Viagra'"]) might be likened to the spectrum of genetic mutations in a population of bacteria. The Viagra variants offer some tentative hints about the working habits of spammers. Often, once a spelling has been incorporated into a message, it is mailed out repeatedly over a period of a few months, then given a rest. The conspicuous vertical correlations within the diagram suggest that mailings with the various spellings are not independent. A plausible inference is that most of the pill-pushing spam comes from a few individuals.
Among all the spellings, the most popular by far were the plain, unadorned ones: Viagra, viagra and VIAGRA. There's a bit of a conundrum here. If mangled spellings are necessary to get a message through the spam filters, then what's the point of sending thousands of undisguised ones? And if the mangling isn't really needed, then why go to the bother of producing all those variants? For what it's worth, the spam filter running on my computer seems quite indifferent to all these shenanigans: With very few exceptions, all of the Viagra messages, no matter how they spell it, go directly to the junk folder.
The techniques used to combat spam are much better known than the methods of spam senders, for the simple reason that authors of spam-fighting tools publish in the open literature. The antispam measures are quite diverse (which is surely a virtue). There are blacklists and whitelists and even graylists, and various schemes to authenticate senders. There have also been many proposals for legal or economic remedies, or changes to network protocols. But the most widespread tactic for thwarting spam is filtering—analyzing the content of individual messages in an effort to distinguish unwanted from wanted messages. Insiders call them spams and hams.
When procmail rule sets became too unwieldy, attention turned to filters based on ideas from computational learning theory. Underlying this approach is the insight that people can tell at a glance whether a message is spam or ham, but they cannot always articulate the reasons behind their judgment or give clear criteria that can be applied to future messages. Thus an efficient division of labor is to let the human reader serve as final arbiter of what is spam and what is ham, while letting the program discern which features of messages are most useful in defining the two categories. Interestingly, the features identified by the software are often ones that human readers don't notice at all.
Initially, a filter program can be trained on a corpus of pre-classified messages. Thereafter, training continues as the human user corrects any errors of classification.
The first experiments with trainable spam filters were reported in the late 1990s. Patrick Pantel and Dekang Lin of the University of Manitoba built a program called SpamCop, and another project based on similar principles was undertaken by Mehran Sahami of Stanford University and Susan Dumais, David Heckerman and Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. The idea attracted a lot more attention four years later when it was rediscovered by Paul Graham, an independent writer and programmer, who issued a manifesto titled "A Plan for Spam." Since then, dozens of commercial products and open-source programs have come into use.
The buzzword associated with these projects is Bayesian, after the 18th-century cleric and mathematician Thomas Bayes; in some cases it is further qualified as naive Bayesian. The nature of the e-mail is inferred from a statistical weighing of various features. In this context a feature might be anything from the presence of the word "Viagra" to the number of exclamation points in a message. Given a set of preclassified messages, it is straightforward to tabulate the frequency of each such feature in each class and thus to calculate the probability that a feature will appear in a spam or ham message. Bayes's theorem offers a mathematical armature for making the inverse calculation: Given the presence or absence of certain features in a message, determine the probability that the message is either spam or ham. The naive variant makes the simplifying assumption that all the features are independent.
A filtering program starts by breaking a message down into a sequence of tokens, which could be words or numbers or perhaps special entities such as components of e-mail addresses. During the training phase, each token is entered into a database and assigned a "spamminess" score. In the simplest case the spamminess could just be the token's frequency in spam messages divided by its frequency in all messages, but in practice various minor adjustments are made.
When the filter is applied to a newly arrived e-mail, each token from the message is looked up in the database. The spamminess scores of these tokens make a prediction about the status of the new message. But the predictions may be contradictory. How do you choose which ones to believe, and how do you combine them to reach a decision? Some of the early filtering programs included information from all the tokens, but later authors found that accuracy improved when the program considered only those tokens with the most extreme spamminess scores (close to 0 or close to 1). As for how to combine the values, Graham adopted the formula
where a and b are the spamminess predictions of two tokens. (The formula can readily be extended to an arbitrary number of tokens.) This is not quite the formula suggested by the Reverend Bayes; Graham neglects to adjust for differences in the overall probability of spam and ham. Nevertheless, the filter performs remarkably well.
In a way, what's most impressive about this technique is how crude and superficial is it—and yet it works. There is no attempt to divine the meaning of the message. The filter's judgment is based on weighing a multitude of tiny features, like the minutiae of fingerprints. The basic technology of Bayesian text classification was first developed for more general tasks, such as the automated filing, sorting and indexing of documents. Spam filtering is just a special case of this method, but an unusually difficult one, if only because it's an adversarial process: There's someone out there trying to fool the filter.
All the zany spellings discussed earlier are presumably part of the adversary's strategy for slipping through the anti-spam net. When a message arrives trying to sell you "VtAGGjRA," your spam filter probably doesn't have a score for that token. Some of the obfuscation techniques are even more insidious, in that they disrupt the low-level process of forming tokens. The spelling "V i a g r a" might well be taken as six separate tokens.
Some of the wiles of spammers may be intended not just to evade detection but also to sabotage the filter. The idea is called Bayesian poison. Many spams include a long addendum of random words or irrelevant text, such as paragraphs lifted from Dickens or Defoe, or recent news items. One aim of this practice is to dilute the spamminess of the message, so that the overall score might fall below the rejection threshold. But there could be a more nefarious effect as well. If the message does wind up in the spam bin, then all its "innocent" words will have their spam scores increased slightly. Eventually, legitimate messages that happen to mention those words may be falsely condemned as spam. Returning to the immunological metaphor, Bayesian poison induces something like an allergy or an autoimmune disease.
Opinions differ on whether Bayesian poisoning is a threat we need to worry about. An article by John Graham-Cumming, which reviews experiments by several groups, concludes that the attack is likely to succeed only if the spammer can get feedback on which messages succeed in fooling the filter. And frequent retraining of the filter is an effective defense.
Paul Graham argues that many attempts to disguise spam actually make it stand out more prominently. After all, few legitimate correspondents spell words with 1's and @'s in the middle, or quote long passages from Martin Chuzzlewit. These peculiarities become distinctive features that the filter can seize on. It remains to be seen whether the filters will cope as well with the latest spam fad, which puts the entire message in an image rather than text.
On the defensive side, the hottest fads of the moment are SVMs and HMMs. SVM stands for support vector machine; it is an algorithm for clustering or classifying data. In an e-mail corpus each message can be assigned to a point in a high-dimensional space, where each dimension represents one of the features that distinguish spams from hams. An SVM attempts to find the hyperplane in this space that best separates the two sets of points.
An HMM is a hidden Markov model, a device currently popular in bio-informatics and speech recognition. HMMs are useful for inferring the hidden rules that govern a sequence of signals or symbols, such as the letters in a text. One possible application of HMMs in spam filtering is undoing the deliberate misspellings of words.
What is the long-term outlook for the spam problem? The gloomy view argues that we are caught in a tragedy of the commons. Economics favor the spammer; we may as well scrap e-mail and move on to the next channel of communication. The rosy forecast sees filters improving; so little spam will leak through that sending the stuff will become unprofitable, and the whole enterprise will collapse. (Bill Gates predicted that the problem would be licked by 2006.) The middle path is coexistence. Neither e-mail nor spam is driven to extinction.
Filters surely will improve, and yet there are lots of reasons to think that accuracy has a limit—and it's not 100 percent. For one thing, even people can't achieve perfect accuracy in classifying mail. William Yerazunis of the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, an expert on text classification, tried the experiment with his own mail and scored 99.84 percent.
Something else to keep in mind is that spammers could choose to improve quality rather than increase quantity. One conclusion I took away from my sodden experience of reading 10,000 spams was that if we can't have less spam, we really need better spam. And there's no reason why it all has to be so monotonous and unpalatable. Just because someone is selling a sleazy, counterfeit and probably illegal product doesn't mean the advertising has to be verbal and visual sludge. On the contrary, it's the worst products that need the best marketing (think of cigarettes). I suppose this is a way of saying that the end of spam is not death but transfiguration.
Finally, one premise of the entire anti-spam industry seems to me highly questionable—namely the assumption that every spammer's ultimate goal is to slither through the spam filter. As a text-classification system, a filter acts not to block a certain of class of mail but rather to sort messages into two categories—the inbox and the spam bin. Most of us look upon the spam bin as nothing more than a dung heap that has to be mucked out every now and then, but someone is finding information of value and interest there, or else spam would already have withered away. Seen from this point of view, a reliable filter serves the interests of the spammer as well as those of the recipient.
Diseases tend to evolve from an epidemic to an endemic state. For the first population exposed, the infection is dire and deadly; later, everyone gets a little sick but survives. It's not really in the pathogen's interest to kill the host; and although the host might well like to exterminate the disease, that seldom happens. The future of spam may be a low-grade fever.
© Brian Hayes
Click "American Scientist" to access home page


text:
Crescent Hand Tools
Makers of quality adjustable wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers.
No 56 SureGrip Nail Puller
Used for pulling nails when head is imbedded in wood. Use on wood, concrete, metal and wall board.
CTK170CMP2 170 Piece Tool Set
The CTK170CMP2 170 Pc Mechanic's Tool Set contains all the tools needed for most industrial applications, including 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" quick-release ratcheting drives, with a wide selection of standard and deep sockets in the most common SAE and metric sizes.


text:
The Internet Hall of Fame has named two local people among the 24 new members for 2014.
The Internet Society inducted (posthumously) former Atherton resident Doug Engelbart, who died in July 2013 and who is credited with inventing the computer mouse and concepts such as point-and-click and hypertext links, and Ladera resident Mike Roberts, who got off the ground the organization that privatized the complicated government infrastructure that established and kept orderly the millions of URLs on the Internet.
Mr. Engelbart had a reputation for interceding on behalf of ordinary people to extend the power of computing far and wide. Curtis R. Carlson, president and CEO of SRI International in Menlo Park, at a ceremony honoring Mr. Englebart in December 2000 described his work as "touch(ing) the lives of nearly everyone in the world in business, education, entertainment and our daily lives."
Mr. Roberts and others on the board of directors of the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), along with volunteers from around the world, took on the massive task in the 1990s of privatizing the Internet's domain name system (DNS). Mr. Roberts served as the first president and chief executive of ICANN from 1998 to 2001, according to the Internet Society.
Before coming to ICANN, Mr. Roberts was vice president of Educom, a nonprofit consortium of 600 colleges and universities that introduced these institutions to networking and telecommunications, according to a bio at the Hall of Fame website. He was instrumental in developing public policy positions in information technology.
Mr. Roberts is married to environmental activist Lennie Roberts, the legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills.
The Internet Hall of Fame, based in Hong Kong and now in its third year, has a membership of 89. Other local inductees include Paul Baran of Atherton, awarded posthumously for his important work on digital packet switching, and Marc Andreessen of Palo Alto, the co-author of Mosaic, the first web browser.
Other luminaries familiar to Silicon Valley include World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, Internet protocol inventor Vint Cerf, Linux open-source operating system inventor Linus Torvalds, and former vice president Al Gore, described at the Hall's website as "a key proponent of sponsoring legislation that funded the expansion of and greater public access to the Internet."
==I Go to this link to see earlier story on Mr. Engelbart.==


text:
Contact: Send a message
An internationally recognised landmark following extensive overseas publicity attracted by the intensive campaign to save the Dome, its distinctive octagonal tower and roof , prominent on Worthing's seafront, clearly distinguishes the town's shoreline from that of any other seaside resort. For almost 100 years South Coast fishermen have used it as a navigational aid, and many still do. Not only fishermen but also divers and users of pleasure craft find it indispensable too.
Thankfully the Dome was eventually awarded a massive National Lottery grant and was extensively refurbished at a cost of £2.5 million.


text:
In honor of Valentine's Day and Week, I'll be releasing a new sock pattern tomorrow! Sock full of Hugs and Kisses for those special big and little people in your life!
Here's the sneak peek:
Things here are a little topsy-turvey but it is my intention to have my first blog contest at the end of the week to play along in the Stitches West fun….so stay tuned!
Happy Valentine's Wednesday!


text:
These clutches are made from a black jacquard-type fabric with white and tan velour flowers. You pick whether you'd like the oversized clutch (15 x 11) or the baguette clutch (15 x 7). I made these last week and I'm very excited to share one with you. They're both lined in black fabric and come with an inner pocket, label, and exposed gold zipper. See the purses in action below!
1. Leave 1 comment letting me know which size you prefer (oversized clutch or baguette clutch) and include your email address.
2. For a BONUS ENTRY, leave a 2nd comment letting me know if you follow via Google, Bloglovin', Twitter, or YouTube.


text:
Governors' handbook
Departmental advice outlining governors' roles and duties.
This publication was withdrawn on
This document has been replaced by the 'Governance handbook'.
This departmental advice is for governing bodies in:
- maintained schools
- academies and free schools
The 'Statutory policies for schools' page outlines the policies and other documents school governing bodies are legally required to hold.
If you are are governor looking for more advice, you can contact GovernorLine free of charge.
Contact form https://www.education....
Telephone 08000 722 181
Textphone 0845 604 1230
Telephone line is open:
Monday to Friday from 9am to 8pm
The line is closed on bank holidays.
Last updated 3 March 2014 + show all updates
- Replaced out-of-date statutory policy documents with a link to the up-to-date ones.
- Added contact details for GovernorLine.
- Replaced governors handbook Word 2010 version (.docx) with Word 1997-2003 version (.doc)
- Updated both versions of the statutory policies for governing bodies downloads.
- Added word version of the handbook.
- Updated the handbook with the January 2014 version.
- First published.


text:
A Simple, Rustic Wedding at Liquid Art Winery and Estate in Manhattan, Kansas
The couple's love of wine led Laura Allison (29 and a kindergarten teacher) and Ricky Searles (32 and a contractor) to a local winery, where a rich palette of burgundy, gray and gold complemented the scenic setting. Guests gathered around as Laura and Ricky said "I do" in front of a wine barrel that served as an altar. "We wanted to keep it classic and simple," Laura says of their affable approach to wedding planning. "The most important thing to us was committing our lives to each other."


text:
Hopefully, Tonya Harding will attract less controversy and bad publicity with her latest endeavor: marriage.
The former Olympic skater, who is best known for her involvement in the 1994 attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, has married for the second time, The Associated Press reported, citing a story in The Columbian newspaper.
According to records at the Clark County Auditor's office in Vancouver, Wa. Harding, 39, wed Joseph Jens Price, 42. They are both from Yacolt, said The Columbian.
"She kept saying she was sorry he was late," deputy auditor Karen Updike, who issued the license on June 23, told the newspaper that Harding arrived at the Public Service Center before the groom. "She was very nice, appreciative."
Updike also characterized Price as a "real nice, blue collar-type guy. They were a very nice couple."
Harding once held the national figure skating championship title in 1991. In 1994, her then-husband Jeff Gillooly was charged in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan Jan. 6 at the Olympic trials; Harding admitted she knew of the plot afterwards. After a plea bargain, she was banned for life from the U.S. Figure Skating Association. She then had a brief stint as a boxer.


text:
This is a re-post from the blog of the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition by Rebecca Black. The folks at SAFN have such unique ideas on places to eat while at #AAA2012. Don't forget to check out SAFN's sessions and Rebecca know which eateries you've enjoyed most from her picks.
While spending long hours in a conference hotel listening to colleagues, networking, catching up with friends and engaging our minds is a priority for most AAA conference attendees, we all need to make time to eat. Why not take an extra half hour and escape the artificial lights and din of the conference to see some of the city and get a tasty lunch that will cost half as much as hotel food. Hop on BART and get off at the 24th Street Mission stop. San Francisco is all about neighborhoods. The Mission was traditionally a working-class Latino neighborhood but it has undergone some major transformations over the past twenty years. You can taste them for yourself.
On Mission Street, just a stone's throw from the BART station, is La Taqueria. Although the number one taco shop is greatly contested in San Francisco, this little restaurant generally comes out in the top five. The Mission is also famous for its burritos, mainly for their ridiculous size. It is nearly unthinkable, but if you are not up for Mexican food, check out Rosamunde Sausage across the street for delicious sausages and beer.
Wander down 24th Street for more Latin American culinary delights at La Palma. You can watch the women in the kitchen making tortillas, and get some great takeaway food. Around the corner on Harrison Street you can indulge in a SF ice cream experience at Humphry Slocombe. Don't miss the "secret breakfast" flavor. Too cold for ice cream? Hipster donuts and coffee are just down the street at Dynamo donuts.
As you stroll through the neighborhood after lunch, take note of the many murals that adorn sides of buildings and wooden fences in this area. They tell the story of Latino migrants and their heritage.


text:
Diablo 3 Friends and Family Beta Test now in Progress
Players can be happy now because there is a good news from the official site that diablo iii reaper of souls friends & family beta test is now underway. This time is different from past. Blizzard planned to invite valued media contacts, key members of the Blizzard community and the most active 3000 d3 players from worldwide to join this beta. That's really a pioneering behavior.
Participants need not to sign NDA and they are allowed to share what they experienced in the beta. But all they see are part of the expansion and many contents have the chance to be changed before the final release.
If you're disappointed that you didn't get an invite to the Reaper of Souls Friends and Family beta, don't fret. Closed beta for Reaper of Souls is expected by the end of the year. Invitations to the closed beta however will be extremely limited since all content in the expansion will be available, excluding the final boss fight.
So if you're interested in beta testing Reaper of Souls, make sure you've opted-in with your Battle.net account. Around the same time that closed beta kicks off, Blizzard will be launching the Public Test Region (PTR) for Patch 2.0.1. That patch will include Paragon 2.0, Loot 2.0, the new difficulty system, additions of Clans and Communities in addition to balancing and tuning for all five classes.


text:
Patients & Visitors
For Professionals
About Us
Download the Full Physician Referral List (.pdf)
All specialists below see pediatric patients. Physicians listed with specialities that start with "Pediatrics" treat children only.
January 2, 20208:30 AM
Any fracture patients MUST be scheduled by calling the office directly.
Thank you for choosing Paul Battle for your medical needs. Please be sure to read all of the following information.Please note that Paul only treats patients under the age of 18 and cannot provide any second opinions, baby hips (age 0 – 3 years), Perth's disease, spine defects, club feet or any congenital issues under 3 years old. Any patient with alignment issues must be 3 years or older. If the patient has a new fracture, please call the office directly at (303) 861-2663.If you cannot find an appointment time that works for you, please call the office directly at (303) 861-2663 and we'll be happy to accommodate you.New patients can download and print the New Patient Paperwork by clicking here. Please be sure to bring the completed forms with you and arrive 30 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment. Please also be sure to bring any x-rays, MRIs, ultrasounds, or CT scans to the appointment as well. A parent or legal guardian must be present for the appointment. All patients, please bring the following to expedite your registration process: *A list of medications and dose *Insurance card(s) *I.D. or Driver's License
Denotes required field
Now you can access your health information anytime through our secure, online health portal.
With MyHealthOne you can find a doctor, make an appointment, view hospital lab results, pay your hospital bills and more.
Send confirmation to


text:
AN explosion at the office headquarters of Mexico's state-owned oil company killed 14 people and injured 100 on Thursday as it heavily damaged three floors of a building, sending hundreds into the streets and a large plume of smoke over Mexico City's skyline.
Another 30 people were reported trapped in the debris late Thursday, as soldiers with rescue dogs, trucks with mounted lights and a Pemex crane were brought in to extract victims.
The Interior Ministry said it was uncertain of the exact number of people trapped because many were outside having lunch when the explosion occurred about 3:45pm local time in a basement parking garage next to the iconic, 51-story tower of Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, one of the tallest buildings in Mexico City.
"It was an explosion, a shock, the lights went out and suddenly there was a lot of debris," employee Cristian Obele told Milenio television, adding that he had been injured in the leg.
"Co-workers helped us get out of the building."
President Enrique Pena Nieto said authorities have not yet found what caused the blast in the 14-story building in a busy commercial and residential area.
Pemex first said it had evacuated the building because of a problem with the electrical system.
The company later tweeted that the Attorney General's Office was investigating the explosion and any reports of a cause were speculation.
Ana Vargas Palacio was distraught as she searched for her missing husband, Daniel Garcia, 36, who works in the building where the explosion occurred. She said she last talked to him a couple hours earlier.
"I called his phone many times, but a young man answered and told me he found the phone in the debris," Vargas said. The two have an 11-year-old daughter. His mother, Gloria Garcia Castaneda, collapsed on a friend's arm, crying "My son. My son."
The tower, where several thousand people work, was evacuated following the blast but not damaged, according to Gabriela Espinoza, 50, a Pemex secretary for 29 years who was on the second floor when the explosion next door occurred.
"There was a very loud roar. It was very ugly," she said.
Hundreds of firefighters, military in camouflage and Red Cross workers hauled large chunks of concrete and looked for victims late into the night, with at least four bodies pulled out of the rubble.
The exploded building was intact on the outside but filled inside with debris.
Police landed four rescue helicopters to remove the dead and injured. About a dozen tow trucks were furiously moving cars to make more landing room for the helicopters.
"I profoundly lament the death of our fellow workers at Pemex. My condolences to their families," Pena Nieto said via Twitter. He later toured the scene.
Pemex, created as a state-owned company in 1938, has nearly 150,000 employees and in 2011 produced about 2.5 million barrels of crude oil a day, according to its website, with $US111 billion ($A106.8 billion) in sales.
Shortly before the explosion, Operations Director Carlos Murrieta reported via Twitter that the company had reduced its accident rate in recent years. Most Pemex accidents have occurred at pipeline and refinery installations.
A fire at a pipeline metering centre in northeast Mexico near the Texas border killed 30 workers in September, the largest-single toll in at least a decade for the company.
Originally published as14 dead, at least 100 hurt in Mexico fire


text:
WAG Art Eats Offers Dinner at Storm Bistro and a Curator's Exhibition Tour
Winnipeg, MB, March 8, 2012: If you are looking for a change from another ho-hum dinner out, consider the Winnipeg Art Gallery's Art Eats on Friday, March 22. The evening begins with a dinner at Storm Bistro on the WAG's penthouse level. Inspired by the exhibition Creation & Transformation: Defining Moments in Inuit Art, the chefs at Storm have created an Arctic-inspired dinner based on salmon and wild rice—even the dessert has a salty pop of salmon roe!
Dinner is followed by a tour of the exhibition led by Dr. Darlene Coward Wight, Curator of Inuit Art, and one of the world's experts on Inuit art. It takes place from 6 to 9pm on Friday, March 22. Tickets are $45 for WAG members and $50 for non-members. They are available at wag.ca, by calling 204.789.1290, or emailing email@example.com.
"The Winnipeg Art Gallery has been collecting Inuit art since 1957," says Wight, "and we are now home to the largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art in the world. This exhibition contains 115 works—sculpture, prints, drawings, and textile art—from all areas of the Arctic. It explores the growth of Inuit art since 1949, the artistic development, the influential artists and artistic advisors, the new media explored—all the things that have shaped and transformed the art over six decades."
Art Eats offers a fixed menu which is posted in advance at wag.ca. Anyone who has dietary issues or restrictions should contact Storm Bistro in advance at 204.948.0085.
Celebrating its centenary in 2012-13, the Winnipeg Art Gallery is Canada's oldest civic art gallery and Manitoba's leading visual arts institution. With a collection of over 24,000 objects spanning many centuries and cultures – including the world's largest collection of contemporary Inuit art – the WAG is constantly moving between the historical and the contemporary in an effort to engage a growing public with the power of art in our lives.
– 30 –
For information, please contact:
Debra Fehr Heather Mousseau
Manager, Communications and Marketing Communications Coordinator
204.789.1767 204.786.6641, ext 211
email@example.com email@example.com
- Recent
- 2019 (24)
- 2018 (34)
- 2017 (44)
- 2016 (49)
- 2015 (57)
- 2014 (61)
- 2013 (59)
- 2012 (72)
- 2011 (70)
- 2010 (51)
- 2009 (24)


text:
A delivery driver is asking for help locating a woman he helped rescue in the frantic aftermath of the building explosion in East Harlem Wednesday.
"I want to see if she's OK," said Sam Carrasquillo.
Carrasquillo happened to be in the neighborhood when the buildings at Park Avenue and 116th Street collapsed. He immediately began shooting video on his cellphone, not quite sure what had just happened.
"I just saw a disaster," he said.
Nearby, rescuers tried to save someone trapped in a car. Carrasquillo saw an ambulette and looked inside. He found a woman who couldn't walk trapped inside, and the driver of the ambulette was nowhere in sight.
"There was nobody with her at that moment," said Carrasquillo.
Carrasquillo is seen on the video extending his hand, but the woman doesn't move.
"Come on, come on," he says. "There's a fire."
He told NBC 4 New York he tried talking to her, "but she was in another world. She couldn't believe what was going on at that moment. She was in shock."
As more rescuers arrive to help, the video ends. Carrasquillo said he's been told the woman is OK but he would like to meet her again.
"I just want to give her a kiss and a hug because she reminds me of my grandmother," he said. "That's also why I did it."
He also wants to know where the woman's caretakers were at that time.
NBC 4 New York was unable to reach the operators of the ambulette Friday night.


text:
Putting together a great outfit is easy with our shoes and accessories. Whether you're looking for a simple scarf or going all out with a hat or tote, our collection of accessories is sure to bring an extra dose of fun to your style.
Need a way to carry all the essentials? Our bags are just what you need to get you through a busy day. These simple treasures are sure to pull your outfit together, and they look great with any of our dresses or rompers.
To really complete your look, try adding one of our scarves or shawls to your outfit. In the warmer months, we have thin scarves that you can pair with a maxi dress or wrap around your swimsuit for a quick coverup at the beach. When the weather turns in the fall, top off your tee with one of our blanket scarves. This favorite style can be wrapped around your neck for super soft and cozy warmth, or opened up and hung over your shoulders for a blanket in shawl form. Whether you're looking for a fun way to spice up your outfit or just need a simple coverup, these looks are here to give you exactly what you're looking for.
No matter the season, socks are a must-have. Pick up a pair of crew socks and wear them to the gym with a pair of yoga pants and a cute sports bra. Or wear our extra cozy knee high socks with a sweater and leggings, and top off your wintery look with a scarf to keep you warm all day long.
Our hats are extra cute additions, especially for festival season. Complete your summer look with favorites like straw hats and shade your pretty face from the sun. When when it's cold outside, make sure you cover your pretty head with a fuzzy beanie for extra warmth.


text:
Dillon Town Council votes in new member
summit daily news
The Dillon Town Council voted in a new member at its meeting Tuesday night. The vote was to fill the vacancy that will be left by councilmember and Mayor Pro-Tem Jason Smith when he leaves the council at the end of April.
After an interview during the work session, the council voted unanimously to bring on Mark Nickel, director of golf at the Raven Golf Club at Three Peaks. Nickel will complete the year remaining in Smith's term. Smith's last council meeting will take place April 16. Nickel will be sworn in at the May 7 meeting, at which time the next mayor pro-tem will be chosen.
Smith's reason for leaving the council has to do with his permanent address. At the end of April he will be moving to a location that is not within the town limits of Dillon, therefore forfeiting his right to be a council member.
"Mark, I'm really excited you're here," Smith said during the work session interview. "I really appreciate your interest in the position. Especially since it's me that's stepping down, it's important to me that someone (who) takes it seriously and has a true interest and a love for the town of Dillon comes in here."
During the interview, Nickel commented on the town's potential to draw in more new businesses and customers, focusing on tourist-based interests such as the marina. He also said he would bring a parent's perspective to the council.
"I'm excited to have the opportunity to join you," he concluded.
While they are happy to welcome a new councilmember, the rest of the council noted that they appreciated the work done by Smith and that he will be missed.
"Jason was just a great individual, not only in what he brought to the table for council, but as a private individual, and a true family man," said town manager Joe Wray. "He brought a perspective to council that helped balance out the total council group and really added to the dynamics of the group. He will be greatly missed."
"With that being said," Wray continued, "we are very excited for Mark coming in. He brings with him, likewise, a family perspective and a broad-based knowledge, not only in government from his family background, but also business perspective from his current employment."
The council also interviewed and appointed Lucinda Burns to fill a vacancy on the Parks and Recreation Committee. There is one more vacancy on the committee, to be filled by an in-town Dillon resident. Interested parties should call the Dillon Town Hall at (970) 468-2403.
At the regular council meeting, the town council members voted unanimously to approve an agreement between the town and the Lake Cliffe Condominium Association on a parking lot proposal in the cul-de-sac at the end of Lodgepole Street above the marina.
The initial plan for the cul-de-sac was to have it converted into a circular parking area to provide an additional 50 parking spaces as part of the marina and parks master plans. The Lake Cliffe Condominiums HOA objected. In order to reach a compromise, the construction of the additional parking was removed from the 2012 budget and kept out of the 2013 budget.
After nearly 6 months of discussions, the town and Lake Cliffe agreed on a parking area allowing for 36 additional spaces to be constructed on the south side of the cul-de-sac, leaving the north side to be maintained and landscaped by the condominium. The town will be responsible for the maintenance and enforcement of the new parking area
This project will be funded at a significant reduction of the initial cost projection and will be shared jointly between the town and Lake Cliffe.
"A lot of hard work went on between our community and the town," said Mike Carollo, president of the Lake Cliffe HOA, during the citizen's comments portion of the meeting. "I think it's a good compromise. It also demonstrates to you that we are sincere about our commitment that I made to you about six months ago that we want to be good neighbors."
Start a dialogue, stay on topic and be civil.
If you don't follow the rules, your comment may be deleted.