text:
As cyberspace operations continue to evolve, they raise some unique questions regarding the nature of conflict and how it should be discussed and regulated. The lack of legal rules governing cyber operations, for example, is commonly lamented by authors and journalists. It makes a good story, but it isn't necessarily true. While lawyers and policymakers wring their hands and fail to make decisions about cyber, practitioners have spent the past decade applying existing law and policy to operations and state practice. As evidenced by the actions of the U.S., Japan, Iran, China, and at least 30 other states, countries have been moving to include cyber warfare in their military planning and organization.
National practice in the cyber warfare era arguably dates back to 1982 with the explosion of a Soviet pipeline said to have been caused by a CIA-planted logic bomb. Even if that spy narrative is merely fanciful musing, Moonlight Maze and Titan Rain, unauthorized penetrations of unclassified government computer networks, started the clock a few years later. Thirty years of on-going practice couldn't have occurred in a logical vacuum; some standards of practice have emerged. While the body of law is still developing, these years of cyber activity serve to illuminate much about cyber practice.
When evaluating potential cyber activities, US policymakers have tended to view cyber operations as strictly delineated: offense or defense; espionage or military operations. Reality defies such stark categorization; determining when one type of cyber operation ends and another begins is challenging. Rather than establishing strict categories into which cyber activities are sorted, it may be best to view cyber operations along a spectrum; a proposal for a spectrum of cyber activities is set out later in the paper.
Before discussing the cyber spectrum, let's determine what the term "cyber operation" means. Although there isn't complete agreement within the U.S. government – much less internationally – on a standard meaning, cyberspace operations might be defined as "the employment of cyberspace capabilities where the primary purpose is to achieve objectives in or through cyberspace." This broad definition, similar to one the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs proposed in 2010 that was not widely embraced, encompasses the full array of military and other national cyber operations possible within cyberspace and ranges from gaining access to a computer system through conducting espionage to executing a cyber attack (Joint Terminology for Cyberspace Operations," Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff memo, undated.)
Although only a discrete portion of cyber operations are equivalent to a kinetic attack, the Department of Defense includes in its current definition of "Computer Network Attack" (CNA) nearly every imaginable cyber military activity. DoD's definition of CNA is "actions taken through the use of computer networks to disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy information resident in computers and computer networks, or the computers and networks themselves." While this definition might create the appearance that all cyberspace operations are basically the same in the level of damage and scale of effect, that is decidedly not the case.
This codification of what constitutes an attack in cyberspace was DoD's first crack at the problem and, with the exception of the additional phrase "through the use of computer networks", has remained unchanged since its debut in 1998. The U.S. military has been struggling to understand the implications to operations of this broad definition ever since. With little actual practice available to inform decisions, definitions and other important policy and doctrine choices were made based on analogy and supposition.
So, if DoD proposals regarding cyber doctrine often seem backwards, it's because they are. Typically, military doctrine develops as a result of experience gained in military operations. That is, militaries conduct operations, and those parts of strategy and tactics that work best are preserved as doctrine. DoD did not even stand up a joint cyber unit until 2005 with Joint Functional Component Command-Network Warfare. It's easy to see why its understanding of cyber operations in 1998, when DoD originally issued its definitions, was incomplete. Further, there is little recent experience in developing doctrine for new areas. Airpower rose to prominence over 60 years ago, and space has not yet begun to play a significant direct role in military operations, so cyber is the first really new method of warfare to come along in half a century. During this nascent phase, developers of cyber doctrine may wish to emulate the adaptability demonstrated by the United States Air Force during the evolution of airpower.
Throughout its relatively brief history, the Air Force has been notorious for a lack of formal doctrine. One reason the Air Force has tended to eschew doctrine is that, through the latter half of the 20th Century, airpower tactics and techniques were developing and changing so quickly that written doctrine couldn't possibly keep up. Imagine if, in mid-century, formal doctrine froze air operations where they were then – strategic bombing of population centers will win the war! The bomber will always get through! There would have been no impetus to develop stealth technology, precision guided munitions or remotely piloted vehicles.
Similarly, cyber thinking should evolve with the times and not be anchored to stale or outdated doctrine. As some of the fog surrounding cyber operations has cleared, it's now possible to develop a better framework and lexicon for thinking about and discussing cyber. A critical requirement for new policy is that it allow us to differentiate real attacks via cyberspace from lesser actions, because the nature of the action will determine the nature of the appropriate response.
It's important to distinguish between international legal analysis and domestic legal considerations. While cyber operations must satisfy both international and domestic law, the elements of analysis differ. An action may be permissible under international law, but face domestic legal or policy restrictions. Although domestic concerns may ultimately control U.S. cyber operations, this article primarily focuses on international legal principles. Understanding the parameters of international law can help shape national policy and inform the development of domestic legislation.
Perhaps the most striking difference between domestic and international law is the way they develop. Rather than resulting from a legislative process, most international law relevant to hostilities is customary, having developed from national activities that have been observed and studied. As new technologies provide new options for military actions, the law continues to distinguish them based on their scope and effect. In this analysis, forceful acts of violence that risk death and destruction are categorized differently than are acts causing mere inconvenience or economic loss. Because cyber operations have mostly been carried out in secret and not publicly acknowledged, cyber has had little effect on international law development. Only in the (so far) rare instances when the effects of a cyber operation are observed does cyber contribute to the customary law conversation. For this reason, it's the effects of cyber operations that must control the analysis under international law.
The other possible way to characterize cyber operations is by intent, but this is ultimately an unsatisfactory solution. Sorting operations by intent would require the nation on the receiving end of the action to have enough accurate information to discern the "why" behind an adversary's action in a timely fashion. In cyberspace, where many actions from multiple origins may occur within milliseconds, this is simply not a workable standard. One illustration of just how fast things happen in cyberspace is that it takes an Internet packet around one-fifth of a second to travel around the globe. If the effects of a cyber action make it look like an attack, the victim may well deem it an attack, even if the actor's intent was to engage in espionage. Once again, it's the effects of cyber operations that must drive evaluation of it under international law.
Finally, it's important to note that the spectrum detailed below doesn't distinguish between possible actors who might undertake cyber operations. A state's reaction to a hostile cyber event could depend partly on whether the event was the result of criminal behavior, nonstate actors, government sanction activity, etc. This is an interesting question, but it's beyond the scope of this paper.
The Spectrum of Cyber Operations
Potential cyber operations range from virtually undetectable to merely annoying to destructive. Operations may be designed to gain access to a system for a variety of motivations, which could be to facilitate future criminal, espionage or military activities. These access operations can go unnoticed for months or may never be noticed. Operations can go much further, as well, adversely affecting the functionality of a computer system or even destroying a system or component. These disruptive or destructive operations tend to be noticed, of course, although the source of the problem may not always be apparent.
So, cyber operations can be divided into these broad categories: access, disruption and attack. While it is possible to describe actions that fit neatly in each category, many operations fall somewhere between the labels, in the margins between these general categories. This makes the use of a spectrum, rather than a listing, particularly useful.
As noted earlier, cyber espionage is sometimes treated as a separate category distinguished by the intent of an operation. In the U.S., such separate treatment may be partly grounded in the domestic covert action statute, which creates special requirements for activities defined as covert. US law defines covert activities as "activities of the United States Government to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly." International law provides no such distinction between classes of activity based on intent. Instead, effects generally determine how actions are characterized and consequently where an action falls on the suggested spectrum.
The easiest activities to characterize are those near either end of the spectrum. The simpler green and red areas are discussed here first, with the middle – and most vexing – issues addressed last.
Access Operations
Access operations enable other cyber activities by providing entry to an adversary computer system. Whether the ultimate operation will be intelligence collection, disruption or attack, the actor must have some access into the system before undertaking a cyber activity. Cyber operators may gain access by installing software programs, defeating security measures, injecting malicious code or other exploitation of a system's vulnerabilities. To maintain an access, additional actions are typically required to account for changes in software applications, security measures or hardware updates. Access operations include actions to maintain an access previously gained as well as activities that could be characterized as reconnaissance. The act of gaining or maintaining access, by itself, does not generally affect the system's function or the flow of information.
Access operations will generally fall near the left end of the spectrum, but analysis may move them more to the right as the effects they have on the victim system become more pronounced. For example, port scanning and network mapping fall on the extreme left. Access operations that modify log files and registry entries to conceal access register farther to the right, but still fall short of being disruption operations because they have limited effects. Even in the case of more intrusive access operations, interference with the victim system is temporary and limited. For example, the operation may force a system to reboot or modify electronic log files to prevent system administrators from discovering who gained access to the system. The limited effects of access operations don't typically rise to the level of a disruption operation because they do not deprive the user access to information or prevent normal functioning of the system.
In 2008, unknown actors used a flash drive virus to penetrate a classified DoD network. In what came to be known as Operation Buckshot Yankee, adversaries loaded malicious code on portable flash drives. When inserted into a universal serial bus (USB) port on a desktop computer connected to the Internet, the malware loaded itself onto the host hard drive and beaconed back to its originator. When unsuspecting users inserted the infected flash drives to transfer data between secure and non-secure systems, the access gained enabled follow-on activities on both systems. Operations like this can be designed to facilitate espionage or the destruction of a system, or anything in between. For this reason, it's clearest to analyze the process of gaining access separately from the ultimate operation.
Another instance of an access operation disclosed publicly is Operation Aurora. Aurora gained and maintained access into Google's network for many months. Access into Google's systems opened a portal to a treasure trove of information at companies that were doing business with Google. Public reporting indicated the accesses were used only for industrial espionage, which Google said originated in China. We have little detail on that espionage, or anything else that might have been done after the access was acquired, so our analysis here is limited to the access operation itself. Regardless of the goal of any access operation, it may be analyzed distinctly from whatever other cyber operation follows. However damaging Aurora might have been in leading to a loss of confidence in Google's systems, it apparently did not interrupt the flow of information on host systems, and so it registers near the left end of the cyber spectrum.
The 2009 GhostNet investigation discovered unauthorized accesses into the government systems of more than 100 countries. A command system traced to its origin in China could turn on an infected computer's microphone and video recording systems in order to capture new information, or could be used merely to exfiltrate data from the computer system, depending on the controller's desire.
As illustrated through the above examples, various methods are available to gain and maintain access to systems. GhostNet used spear phishing to infect machines. Spear phishing is highly targeted email or other messages that appear official enough that they may deceive many people into believing they are legitimate. Spear phishing may appear to originate from someone with whom the recipient corresponds regularly; replying with sensitive information or clicking on a proffered link allows the sender access into a victim's computer to steal information, download malware, or otherwise control the victim's system (Harry Newton, Newton's Telecom Dictionary, 23d Ed. New York: Flatiron Publishing, 2007). Buckshot Yankee, on the other hand, installed malware from a flash drive.
It's not just the method of infection that differs from malware to malware. All malware takes up some hard drive space or uses system memory. Generally, it's only a small percentage of a system's capacity, but if enough malicious code targeted a system, it could use enough system resources to affect the operation of the computer. Some malware requires the host machine to restart in order to be fully installed, just as many legitimate programs do. For this reason, part of the malicious code might be a command to force the host machine to reboot. Arguably, the forced reboot of the host machine to enable access begins the transition from mere access to cyber disruption, because rebooting "disrupts" the function of the computer for a brief period. It's difficult to define exactly where the change occurs, because operations differ from each other in subtle ways. At some point, however, the negative effect on a system becomes so great that the nature of an operation changes from a mere access operation to a disruptive or aggressive one. It's the difficulty in defining this point precisely that makes a spectrum the most useful way to discuss harmful activities that can occur in cyberspace.
Cyber Attack
Cyber attack falls on the right of the spectrum and moves farther to the right depending on the severity of the attack. In contrast to the way the term "computer network attack" is used by DoD, "cyber attack" as used here means cyber activity that has effects in the real world beyond the cyber system itself. Mere degradation or denial of a system, for example, are not cyber attacks. The definition of cyber attack used here is actions in cyberspace whose foreseeable results include damage or destruction of property, or death or injury to persons.
To date, the best real-world example of a cyber attack is Stuxnet, an operation reportedly carried out by Israel and the US to slow Iran's development of nuclear weapons. Reports of Stuxnet estimate 1,000 Iranian centrifuges were damaged beyond repair when stealthy malware caused machines to spin at certain high and low ranges. The result of the Stuxnet activity – destruction of equipment – would make it a cyber attack under the cyber spectrum proposed here. Stuxnet falls in the red category, and illustrates how physical destruction may occur via cyberspace and constitute a use of force – an attack equivalent to one conducted using traditional means of warfare.
A tragic accident that occurred in Russia in 2009 provides a hypothetical example of what a cyber attack at the far right end of the spectrum could look like. A damaged turbine at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant had been shut down for maintenance. A computer operator at a control facility, located far from the dam, seeking to correct for a loss in available power, brought the damaged turbine back on line. The operator's electronically delivered command for increased activity caused the damaged turbine to spin out of control, killing 75 people and causing over $1 billion damage. While the official investigation of the dam failure blamed poor management and technical flaws, this tragedy demonstrates how wrongdoers might theoretically take control of a computer system and cause horrific damage by manipulating it.
Had the event at Sayano-Shushenskaya been caused by malicious cyber actors, it would have crossed the line to attack. Like Stuxnet, it would have served as an example of the kind of physical effects that define a genuine attack. Aligning the meaning of "attack" in the cyber context with the way the term is used in other domains allows for a more precise analysis of cyber activities under international law. Specifically, it would leave the operating space in the middle of the spectrum, the disruptive activities, to be analyzed separately.
Cyber Disruption
Most actions DoD would currently define as computer network attack fall into the category of "cyber disruption" on the spectrum. Cyber disruption includes actions that interrupt the flow of information or the function of information systems without causing physical damage or injury. The greater the effect, the farther it moves along the spectrum, from green to red. It's important to note, however, that merely because a cyber action is a disruption rather than an attack doesn't mean it is permissible or lawful. Sub-attack actions may still run afoul of other laws or standards, such as specific international agreements.
In general, however, there seems to be little in the international regime to prohibit cyber disruption activities. International law is a permissive regime; actions are not unlawful unless they violate a specific prohibition. The clearest standard for cyber actions that don't constitute a cyber attack, or "use of force" in international law is the non-intervention principle – and it isn't all that specific. The non-intervention principle prohibits coercive or dictatorial actions that deprive a nation of the ability to control governmental matters such as economic, political, military or cultural activities (Robert Jennings & Arthur Watts (ed.), Oppenheim's International Law, Vol. 1, 9th ed. 1992). Actions that don't cross this threshold may be considered generally permissible under international law.
Applying the considerations set out above, some cyber disruptions would constitute wrongful interventions, but others wouldn't. Examples of cyber disruptions that would violate the non-intervention principle include disturbing the ability of a government to communicate with its population, as occurred in Estonia (2007) and Georgia (2008) – both are discussed below – or advocating for the overthrow of a government by hacking an official electronic messaging system, for example. Other cyber disruptions that don't interfere with a nation's ability freely to decide on sovereign matters may raise policy considerations, but don't cross the threshold of illegality. If an operation is not a use of force and doesn't violate the intervention restriction, then it is generally permissible under customary international law.
The following factors may be useful to consider when determining whether a cyber disruption violates the non-intervention principle:
1. Does the activity directly affect government activities? For example, is it interfering with a government web site or government-owned computer system?
2. How subtle and discrete is the activity? Is the national government or a significant portion of the population likely to be aware of it? For example, does the activity noticeably alter the functionality of a website or computer system with a high number of users?
3. Has the nation specifically acted in the subject area being adversely affected? For example, has the government publicly indicated support for the affected group, position or information?
4. Is the activity likely to affect the nation's economy adversely in a measurable way? For example, will it prevent access to a significant number of commercial web sites?
The answers to these four question can help determine whether a cyber activity violates the non-intervention principle, or is simply an unneighborly action that disrupts cyber activities in a way that doesn't run afoul of any existing international law.
Operation Cupcake (2010) is one of the few government cyber actions that has been reported, and it serves as an example of cyber disruption that doesn't constitute an unlawful intervention. When the terrorist organization Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released Inspire magazine online, the British government replaced the bomb-making instructions in the online publication with cupcake recipes; the substitution lasted a few days. Analyzing the UK's action against this terrorist organization reveals no international law violation. The posting of cupcake recipes was not a threat or use of force, nor did the action interfere with any nation's political, military or economic governance. In fact, as no nation claimed responsibility for the content of the newsletter, the only sovereign claim at stake would be that of the nation hosting the server and other infrastructure that allowed the newsletter to exist on the Internet. A quick review of the four questions set out above makes it clear that, wherever the content was hosted, no sovereign claim was at stake.
While the action undertaken in Operation Cupcake clearly disrupted AQAP's flow of information, the UK's actions did not violate international law. On the spectrum, Operation Cupcake would fall in the transition area from green to yellow; the action rose above mere access into disruption, but fell far short of an intervention or cyber attack.
The Operation Aurora events, discussed above, didn't meet the definition of cyber attack because no physical damage or injury occurred. The disruption activities persisted over a long period of time and may have caused significant economic loss, so it was more serious than Operation Cupcake, whose effects endured only briefly. However, Aurora's impact was on private companies, and did not interfere with any government's ability to govern political, economic or military activities, so the actions didn't violate the non-intervention principle.
Another disruption event occurred on July 4, 2009, when cyber operations were conducted against the United States and South Korea. Those Independence Day actions attempted to jam traffic on over two dozen government and commercial systems, including financial networks. The effects lasted only few hours to a few days, and standard cyber security means could readily counter many of them. The scope and effects of the operation were minimal, but it's not difficult to imagine an operation targeting government networks or a nation's stock exchange that would constitute a wrongful intervention.
The well-known cyber incidents in Estonia and Georgia merit individual discussion. During 2007 in Estonia, cyber actions shut down the Government's ability to communicate and froze the financial sector for about a month. The motivation for the actions was the Estonian government's decision to move a memorial statue of a Soviet soldier in Tallinn to a less prominent location in the city. The activities were coercive in that they were imposed against Estonia's will and the Government was not able to stop the effects. Estonia heavily relied on cyberspace for communications and commerce, and experienced significant disruption of its communication and economic systems. The Estonia incident probably violated the non-intervention principle, and therefore merits a position farther to the right on the spectrum.
In 2008, cyber disruption of Georgian web and telecommunications began just as Russia commenced military operations in the Republic of Georgia. The disruptive activities prevented many government computer-based activities in the early days of the Russo-Georgian conflict. Georgia's civilian communications, financial systems and media were also degraded by the cyber operations. The unilateral, coercive actions preventing the Georgian government from communicating during a period of national crisis may provide another example of a wrongful intervention, but the significance of these cyber events was lost in the fray of the shooting war that followed.
A lesser-known example of cyber disruption is the GhostNet set of activities. GhostNet, discussed earlier, was reportedly based in China, and affected government systems around the world. Here, we focus on its effect on Canadian computer networks. It penetrated systems in Canada's Finance Department and Treasury Board so pervasively that the Government took the systems off-line for nearly a month. As the Canadian action demonstrates, certain access or espionage activities may be so damaging to the system's trustworthiness or reliability, they can effectively render the system useless. This is especially true in the case of systems vital to national security or welfare. When unauthorized people gain deep or persistent access to sensitive information, the situation effectively forces a government to choose between shutting down a system or suffering exposure to unacceptable risk. For example, if the Canadian Government had been unable to carry out essential economic tasks without the Department of Finance's systems, the disruption might have qualified as an unlawful intervention, because the actions could have formed the basis for follow-on coercive demands.
In January 2012, Israel observed two denial of service activities, one affecting the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the other El Al Airline websites. Israel chose to take the systems off-line for the few hours that the disruption continued. This case illustrates how even relatively low-level cyber activity can force a nation to choose between risking damage to the integrity of a cyber system or taking it off-line. This could be classified as coercion. Shutting down a nation's control of a stock exchange or transportation under some circumstances would potentially cross the threshold of unlawful intervention.
A final example of cyber disruption gets very close to the line of cyber attack, if Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's statement about it is accurate. According to the Secretary, the Shamoon virus, named after a word found in the malware code, had a near-destructive effect on thousands of computers used by the Saudi Arabian national oil company, Aramco. Secretary Panetta said Shamoon "replaced crucial systems files with an image of a burning U.S. flag [and] overwrote all the real data on the machine. More than 30,000 computers that it infected were rendered useless and had to be replaced. It virtually destroyed 30,000 computers." Although at the time of writing, it was unclear exactly what happened to the Aramco computers, other than the Secretary of Defense statement, reports generally indicated it wasn't operating system data that was overwritten, so the computers might still have been operable. The hard drives appear to have been replaced to ensure no malware remained to reinfect Aramco's network. The following discussion, and Figure 2, treat Shamoon as if it were the more serious case, as that makes for a more interesting discussion.
If a major energy supplier has thousands of computers rendered inoperable, it might well be considered a cyber attack. Here, it is labeled a disruption because it appeared to be a software effect, even using Secretary Panetta's assertions, rather than a destruction of hardware. In addition, there was no associated oil spill or other catastrophic physical event, which would change the analysis.
Cyber disruption is factually distinguishable from actions that cause death and destruction. Currently, most reported contentious cyber activity falls below the use of force and fits into the category of disruption. Lumping fundamentally different actions into an over-inclusive category like "computer network attack" as DoD has done created a Gordian Knot that has paralyzed policy and doctrine development. It simply isn't possible to create appropriate rules when the starting point is that all negative cyber activities are treated the same, whether it's shutting down a website or completely destroying a computer system.
This flawed framework helps explain why, 30 years after the dawn of aggressive cyber activity, Congress, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security are debating over who is responsible for defending the nation in cyber. It may also explain why DoD collocated its cyber "war-fighting" command with the nation's largest intelligence agency. There simply is a high level of confusion among US government policymakers regarding the nature of cyber aggression and how to deal with it. To the extent the cyber spectrum can help demystify cyber operations, it has served its purpose.
Beyond helping the US sort out its policy confusion, distinguishing disruption from attack offers an additional benefit: it matches a proportionate potential remedy with the offending action. When faced with a use of force or armed attack, a necessary and proportionate response in self-defense may include a use of force or attack using cyber techniques or more traditional means. However, when faced with cyber disruption that causes no physical damage or injury, the proportionate response is more properly limited to sub-use of force actions.
Now that many nations and non-state actors possess the technical capability to cause disruption, destruction, and even harm people through cyberspace, it's time to more carefully explain the place of such cyber actions in international relations and law. Clarity in defining how victims will and should view cyber actions is essential to avoid tragic miscalculation that could lead to overreaction or an unnecessary and dangerous escalation of international tensions. It is incumbent on the U.S., as the most important player on the international cyber stage, to lead the drive to a workable conceptual model. DoD can do its part by espousing definitive doctrine that treats cyber attacks the same as attacks through air, land, sea and space, while carving out cyber activities that are merely disruptive, so that a rational set of rules can be crafted to govern these actions.
The spectrum of cyber operations proposed here is meant to aid operators and policymakers as they analyze cyber operations. Not all cyber operations are created equal, and the law and policy should reflect that. A spectrum may not provide all the answers, but it does offer a more coherent framework around which US government cyber professionals can organize their thinking.
About the Author(s)
This is a very good article with many great points. However, we really need to look at cyber warfare as a continuous event and not just a series of discrete ones. While individual events can be damaging the long term effects from continuous malicious activity is bleeding us financially and setting us up for a kill shot in time of conflict. We need to be scanning our nations networks at all times for malicious activity. This would help us baseline the amount and type of malicious activity going on and possibly provide a method to ascribe motive and origin. The penalties for a country or non-state entity that drains our resources with constant network shenanigans and makes our infrastructure vulnerable with their relentless penetration attacks should be just as harsh as ones we would provide to the originator of a discrete cyber-attack.


text:
Orthodox RSS Feeds Currently Available
- Archdiocese News Releases - official news releases from the GOA
- Online Chapel RSS - the daily Bible Readings, Saints lives, and Icon for your website
- Iconograms RSS Channel - the upcoming 12 Saints and Feasts through Iconograms
- Assembly of Bishops News RSS - the latest 10 news items from the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA
(Copy any of the URLs above and paste into your RSS News Aggregator. With Mozilla Firefox, you are able to bookmark any of the RSS Feeds directly into your browser). Any links above for "PHP" will enable you to download code that you can copy into your website.
Online Chapel Raw XML Feeds
The following feeds are being offered for testing purposes. We ask that anyone who use these feeds contact our department to let us know that they are using the feed and to offer feedback (no pun intended!).
Be sure to use the "publicurl" node if you choose to make links to any detail page. Also, each feed accepts get string parameters to change the values based on date (?date=MM/DD/YYYY) or year (?year=YYYY), respectively.
- Online Chapel Daily XML Feed - the daily Bible Readings, Saints lives, and Icon for your website in Raw XML (not RSS!)
- Online Chapel Annual XML Feed - displays the movable feasts surrounding Pascha each year.
What is RSS?
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" -- it's a format for distributing and gathering content from sources across the Web, including newspapers, magazines, and blogs.
RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. But it's not just for news. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS: the "recent changes" page of a wiki, a changelog of CVS checkins, even the revision history of a book. Once information about each item is in RSS format, an RSS-aware program can check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an appropriate way.
RSS-aware programs called news aggregators are popular in the weblogging community. Many weblogs make content available in RSS. A news aggregator can help you keep up with all your favorite weblogs by checking their RSS feeds and displaying new items from each of them.
- Text courtesy of www.xml.com
What Can I Do with Orthodox RSS?
Orthodox RSS is in Beta, which means we are currently experimenting with the capabilities of RSS with Orthodox content on the Internet. Below, you will find several RSS feeds that you may incorporate into your website or add into your news aggregator.
We Would Love Your Feedback
Please let us know your comments on Orthodox RSS.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Where does Santa Claus go for his post-Christmas vacation?
You're not gonna believe this, but I interviewed Santa Claus.
It happened like this: About a month ago I was thinking about how much I dislike traveling around the holidays. Call me Scrooge (who, btw, I did not interview—because he is a fictional character), but I just don't like crowds. If I have my way, I take my family somewhere nice after the holidays. I started thinking about who might be an expert on post-Christmas travel and it hit me: Who works harder at Christmastime—or deserves more of a break afterward—than St. Nick?
Getting the interview wasn't easy. Apparently there's no 800 number, no website. Jeez, even the Wikipedia entry offers surprisingly little in the way of factual information. But there are benefits to working for an award-winning magazine and website, and it turns out that Mr. Kringle thoroughly enjoyed our "How Not to Be the Ugly American Overseas" and agreed to give me a few spare minutes. (Also, full disclosure: I reminded him that we are the house that leaves him Nutella-stuffed chocolate chip cookies on Christmas Eve.) Here's my interview.
Robert Firpo-Cappiello: Thanks so much for speaking with BT—I know this is your busiest time of year.
Santa Claus: You know, that "busiest time of year" malarky is hype. We're fairly streamlined up here at the North Pole. Yeah, years ago we sat around nine months out of the year till the "Dear Santa" letters started arriving, then it was a freakin' goat rodeo to fill the orders of the kids who made "Category: Nice." But these days we're monitoring trends via social media, which allows us to start making toys as early as April.
RFC: Jolly Old St. Nicholas is on Twitter?
SC: Well, I leave Twitter to the younger folks on staff. I do enjoy Pinterest, though. I repinned BT's "Happiness is a direction, not a place" photo badge. I can def relate.
RFC: So, Santa Claus, when does your vacation start?
SC: We deliver the last toys of the night out in the Pacific, by the International Dateline, then I turn the sleigh north and head back home. Typically my elves are feeding and watering Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon...
RFC: You're a Dylan fan?
SC: I like his good stuff, yeah.
RFC: Please go on.
SC: While the elves are taking care of the crew I'm enjoying a cold seltzer and a plate of pierogies on Christmas morning.
RFC: What about Rudolph?
SC: Rudolph is a fictional character. You knew that, right?
RFC: Yes. Of course.
SC: Then I crash for what someone once called a "long winter's nap."
RFC: Do you take off for vacation on the 26th?
SC: Omigosh, no, I won't go near an airport until after New Year's.
RFC: And you're willing to share some post-Christmas vacation ideas with BT readers?
SC: Happy to make some suggestions. First off is Walt Disney World—in early January the place is pretty quiet after all the holiday hubbub, and hotel rates are much lower than they are in December.
RFC: But I'd think you'd get recognized at Walt Disney World—don't people bother you?
SC: Wherever I go, people point and shout, "Hey, it's Santa Claus!". I reply, "Yup, it's me, and my elves tell me you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" And we have a good laugh.
RFC: Do you always go to Disney?
SC: By no means. In fact, last year Mrs. Claus and I had a wonderful getaway to Laguna Beach, down the coast from Los Angeles. It's always a bargain considering that you can stay right on the beach, take a surfing lesson, get some fresh seafood for dinner.
RFC: Surfing lesson?
SC: Son, when you've successfully wrangled a team of flying antlered ruminants, hanging ten is cake.
RFC: Ruminants?
SC: Yes, reindeer have four-chambered stomachs.
RFC: Gotcha. Any other ideas?
SC: Mexico! We've actually been pleasantly surprised at how affordable the all-inclusive resorts on the Riviera Maya can be. For me, all-inclusive is huge. J'adore not having to reach for my wallet when I'm on vacation. You might say, "I gave at the office." Know what I mean?
RFC: Ho, ho, ho. Where else?
SC: New Orleans is uncrowded and cheaper before Mardi Gras season heats up. And, of course, the Dominican Republic is a great choice for bargain hunters. Mrs. Claus snapped a shot of me riding a horse on the beach in Punta Cana that's just priceless—beard flapping in the breeze and whatnot.
RFC: Would you consider pinning that photo on a BT Pinterest board?
SC: Don't hold your breath.
RFC: Santa, on behalf of our BT audience, I'd like to thank you for your time and your great January vacation ideas!
SC: Keep up the good work, BT!


text:
I'm happy to report that the basement is (almost) finished!
Just in time for us to move. But we won't talk about that right now.
Here it is while standing in the kid's playroom, looking into the guest room. I didn't want to close off the space entirely because of all the wonderful daylight from the sliding glass doors. But I wanted to provide a sense of privacy to guests, which is why I opted for a partial wall and the drapes between the rooms.
Just to refresh your memory, here's the same space in the midst of the remodel.
Just a slight improvement, don't ya think?
Our only regret is that we didn't do this a lot sooner so that we could enjoy it more...we LOVE our basement now!
Here's a dresser I rescued from dump-dom (and yes, 2 of those knobs are a little different....I started painting them and wiping away the excess, but I'm not sure if I prefer the painted look or not).
Here she is before the makeover, all $25 of her. Someone had started refinishing the top, but since that time the top had suffered extreme trauma so I decided to just fill, sand, and paint the whole thing.
The whole dresser was completely thrashed with scratches and dents, and the light colored "stripe" you see there is actually exposed raw wood from where part of the vertical corner piece was entirely ripped off. Steve helped me a lot on this piece = he was really tired of it sitting in our garage (I lacked the energy/impetus to start the repair work on it) so he fixed the broken corner and helped me fill the millions of scratches. What a great guy, eh?
Here's another rescue project...but unfortunately I don't have any "before" pictures of this one.
I decided to just go with all the dings and dents that were in this piece and distressed the finish to accentuate the "character marks".
Here's another fun project, my darling armoire named Big Red. Yes, I'm really good at stating the obvious. Again, no "before" pictures of this one, but I'll just tell you it was blonde pine wood with a lot of knots showing and you can probably imagine what it looked like before. I actually painted this one a long time ago, but I don't think I ever showed it to you.
The guest bed is another refinishing project I started long ago and finally finished this past month. The initial layer is turquise, with white over the top and then distressed.
I made this pillow a few days ago because I just COULDN"T let that huge red bedspread sit there all alone without a single cute pillow to engage the eye. I love the ruffled red ribbon in this pillow - and I love how easy it was to attach to the pillow front with fusible hem tape!
The bed skirt is another recently finished project - I swiped 20" from the width of 2 IKEA drape panels to make the skirt, then fused grey grosgrain ribbon to the (already hemmed!) bottom edge. I put a center box pleat in the middle of each skirt for added interest. The remaining drape fabric was then used to make drapes for the sliding glass door - I sewed the red and white polka dot fabric (3 yards of home dec fabric cut in half lengthwise) to the raw edge that I had just created by swiping the 20" for the bed skirt. I love multi-tasking fabric!
I still have to paint the louvered doors which lead into the furnace room. The previous owners had slapped paint all over those poor doors...you can probably imagine all the huge drips and globs that were marring the finish. I spent quite some time sanding it down, and haven't had time to repaint them yet. I can only paint trim and doors in spurts because it's not a task I enjoy...and after cutting, installing, patching, caulking, and painting all the baseboard and doorway trim in the entire basement, I needed a rest.
Here's a closeup of some little paintings I did a few months ago.
I hadn't painted any artwork for YEARS, and after finding out we were moving I had a sudden, very impractical urge to start painting again. Not the best timing in the world, I know. I think it was a reaction to all the stress of not wanting to move and being overwhelmed with everything that needed to be done prior to leaving this home. Kinda like blogging about the basement remodel at 3:00 a.m. instead of sleeping. Not that I would ever do such a thing.
Anyway, I did these little "practice" paintings to get warmed up again, before starting on the GIANT paintings that I was craving to do (big, door-sized panels like I painted for galleries before having children). Needless to say, reality hit before I finished any big giant paintings, but at least I enjoyed a little creative outlet for awhile. I'm really looking forward to resuming painting once I get settled in North Carolina. No fair taking bets on how many years that will take. :-)


text:
Best. Carrot. Cake. Ever.
In honor of Easter this weekend, I made the yummiest carrot cake that I know of. Carrot cake is Easter-y, right? It's made with carrots. Bunnies like carrots. The Easter bunny is…well…a bunny. He must love carrot cake. It all makes sense to me.
For the holiday – I'm out of town visiting family again. And you know the pressure that I have of making the world's yummiest desserts during my visit and my family doesn't hold back any punches. If it sucks…they pretty much say it sucks plus more. Good thing this carrot cake from scratch was a huge hit. Did you catch that? Carrot cake from SCRATCH! That's right, this cake-box-loving gal made another cake from scratch. My last Strawberry Cake (from scratch!) was such a hit with the family, I knew that only a cake from scratch would keep my reputation.
Good thing this carrot cake was a homerun! It is phenomenal! You can't go wrong with this one. It is seriously deeee-licious plus has all the goodies that a true carrot cake should have – carrots, pineapple, walnuts and coconut.
Best. Carrot. Cake. Ever.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated carrot
- 1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
- 1 (3 1/2-ounce) can flaked coconut
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
1. Line 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with wax paper; lightly grease and flour wax paper. Set pans aside.
2. Stir together flour, soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
4. Beat eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Fold in carrot, coconut, pinapple and walnuts.
5. Pour batter into prepared cake pans.
6. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Drizzle Buttermilk Glaze (recipe below) evenly over layers (I only used about 2/3 of the prepared glaze which I thought was perfect!); cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.
7. Once the cake is cooled, slice each layer in half to give you a total of 4 layers. More layers = more frosting = me happy! Note: I put the 2 cake layers in the freezer for 45 minutes to make slicing them in half easier.
8. Make the cream cheese frosting according the recipe below. You can use a canned frosting but it won't hold a candle to this delicious homemade icing!
9. Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. I'm a BIG frosting person so I made 1 1/2 batches of the cream cheese frosting to make sure the cake was completely covered. I also sprinkled chopped walnuts in between each frosted layer to take it over the top.
10. Slice and enjoy!
Buttermilk Glaze
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze Preparation
- Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring often, 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 3 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Frosting Preparation
- Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth.
Recipe adapted from Southern Living October 1997


text:
While Brazil is the world's biggest fragrance market and is expected to have the strongest absolute growth from 2011–2016, it is highly mass-dominated (over 90% of sales), according to Euromonitor International. The high import tax for fragrances, at more than 40%, as well as the increase in disposable incomes for traveling, are pushing consumers into buying premium fragrances while abroad rather than in Brazil. In fact, the average price for premium fragrances in Brazil is more than double that of the U.S., at over $100 per 50 mL.
While there are undoubtedly difficult challenges for premium fragrance brands to overcome in order to get a strong foothold in Brazil's fragrance-loving market, Sephora's presence is sure to shake up the field. As the use of fragrances is deeply embedded in the country, Brazil is forecast to not only have the highest volume per capita in 2016, but also to be the third highest-spending country in per capita terms, behind only the Netherlands and Switzerland.
This creates a good opportunity for premium fragrances, which are facing a more challenging environment than other premium categories, due to a combination of cash-strapped consumers in developed markets and limited inclination for fragrances in Asia-Pacific.
In a graphic called "Brazil's high spend per capita shows premium potential," Euromonitor International notes that retail distribution will play a key role in determining where the balance will lie between premium and mass fragrances in Brazil by 2016. In addition to the presence of Sephora in country, another key driver will be the Internet, which has been expanding to new regions in Brazil that have few physical points-of-sale, providing an opportunity to increase sales in the coming years through lower operating costs. This provides a platform for premium fragrances, where lower until prices can be offered to make such products more accessible to consumers. Unit price will also be one of the most important drivers of premium fragrance for the Brazilian marketplace. With spending per capita in Brazil higher that in many of the premium-dominated countries, reducing taxes or producing locally will be essential in encouraging Brazilian consumers to buy premium fragrances at home.


text:
Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive with something called a Blog Off. A Blog Off is an event where bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic on the same day. The topic for this round of the Blog Off is "It's Thanksgiving, so let's talk about food"
There are few things in life that give me the kind of joy that feeding the people I love does. One of my great pleasures is to prepare a meal from scratch and to share the fruits of my efforts.
It kills me that my sentiments about food aren't shared by everybody and seeing the endless displays of convenience foods arrayed in grocery stores at this time of year sends me over the edge. Instant stuffing, instant mashed potatoes and the nightmare that is green bean casserole aren't fit for human consumption and I can't believe that those sorts of things end up on Thanksgiving tables all across this country. Scratch cooking isn't difficult, all it takes is time and attention to detail. The result is a meal that requires effort but the reward comes in knowing exactly what you're feeding your loved ones. Read the ingredients on a box of Stovetop Stuffing some time. Is that really the sort of thing you want to feed to people you care about?
The centerpiece of any Thanksgiving dinner is a stuffed turkey. If turkey's not your thing, a capon makes a perfect stand in. In either case, stuffing and roasting a large bird is a simple operation.
All photos from Martha Stewart |
When you're buying a turkey, allow a pound for every person you're feeding. Most frozen turkeys, and even some fresh ones, are shot full of heaven knows what so that they remain moist during roasting. This sort of idiot-proofing is completely unnecessary and introduces a bunch of things nobody needs in his or her diet. Find a fresh or frozen turkey that has one ingredient, a turkey. You get bonus points if it came from a local farm.
Defrosting a turkey in the refrigerator takes a couple of days. And if you're late to the game and don't have a few days, there's hope. You can defrost a large, frozen bird in a couple of hours using cold tap water. The USDA's website has some terrific guidelines on safe thawing.
Once thawed, it's time to prepare your bird for roasting and a large part of that preparation involves making stuffing. Two days before you need to use it, cube the slices of a whole loaf of bread and set them on a baking sheet. Let the bread dry out and get stale. Again, in the interest of knowing what I'm feeding my loved ones, I use bread I baked myself. But then again, I'm a purist.
Making stuffing is easy and Thanksgiving is no time to get cute. Holding onto traditions is what Thanksgiving is for. I make the same bread and sage stuffing my mother and my grandmother always made. I have no doubt my grandmother learned it from her grandmother and when I make it now, I feel like I'm honoring the people who came before me and upon whose shoulders I stand every day. I don't follow recipes or measure things, I tend to cook by instinct and sight. The following instructions are meant to be adapted, but if you follow them as written you'll get a good result.
Here goes. Remove the giblets and the neck from the carcass of the bird. Put them in a sauce pan with four to six cups of water and boil them for 45 minutes. Add more water as it evaporates. After 45 minutes, remove from heat and add a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of thyme and a couple good grinds of black pepper. You just made turkey stock, congratulations. Fish out the organs and neck and feed them to the closest dog. Let your stock cool.
Melt a stick of butter in a sauce pan. Once the butter's melted, add about a cup of chopped celery (with leaves), a chopped half an onion (not a sweet onion) and about an eighth of a cup of chopped parsely (stems and all). Saute for ten to 15 minutes until the celery's soft but still firm. Remove from heat.
See how loosely packed that stuffing is? That's how it should look. |
Take your stale bread cubes and put them in a large bowl. Pour the butter and sauteed vegetables over the bread cubes. Take about half the stock and pour it over the bread cubes, but add a bit at a time. Stir the mixture as you add the liquid. You want the bread cubes to be moist and sticky, but not sopping wet. Save the rest of your stock, you'll need it later. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Make a chiffonade from 12 fresh sage leaves and add it to the bowl. Then add around a teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves and salt to taste. Stir and mix everything thoroughly. Set aside for the time being.
Take your now thawed turkey and rinse it thoroughly. Salt and pepper the inside of the bird. Then stuff it with the stuffing you've already prepared. Don't pack it too tightly. The goal is to fill the cavity, not to pretend you're stuffing a sofa.
A trussed bird ready for the oven. |
Once stuffed, prepare the roasting pan. Line the bottom of the pan with whole celery stalks to form a rack of sorts. Roughly chop the remaining half onion and spread over the celery stalks. Set the bird on top of the celery and onion rack. Truss the bird's legs with cotton string. If there's a pop up timer in your turkey, remove it. They don't work very accurately and food safety is very important if you're roasting a stuffed turkey.
Tuck the wings under the bird before placing it in a roasting pan. |
Pour around two tablespoons of olive oil over the bird. I eyeball everything so that measurement is approximate. You want to coat the entire bird, so use your hands to rub the oil over all of its exposed parts. Tuck the wing tips under the body of the bird. Sprinkle a teaspoon or two of salt over everything and set the roasting pan onto the lowest rack of your preheated oven. Every half hour that the bird's in the oven, brush it down with your remaining turkey stock. Don't skimp on the basting, the liquid that rolls off the turkey is what you'll be making gravy from later.
Toothpicks are the perfect way to pin down the skin around the neck cavity. |
Use the USDA's guidelines for cooking times. Regardless of the amount of time it takes, a turkey has to be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. You have to have a meat thermometer to be able to read this temperature. No method other than a meat thermometer can tell you with any degree of accuracy when your turkey's cooked.
Take the temperature of the inner thigh and the thickest part of the breast, don't rely on a single probe and take care not to touch any bones when you're plunging in your thermometer.
About 3/4ths of the way through the roasting process, the bird will achieve the perfect color even though it's not fully cooked yet. Make a tent from aluminum foil and cover the bird, being careful not to let the foil touch anything but the roasting pan. The foil will keep the bird from browning any further and it helps to preserve some of the moisture being lost due to the hot oven.
When the bird gets to 165 degrees, remove it from the oven and set it aside. After five minutes, remove it from the roasting pan and set it on a warm serving platter. Let it sit for another 15 minutes before you carve it.
While the turkey's resting, take a fork and remove all of the celery and onion from the bottom of the roasting pan. Pour the remaining liquid into a sauce pan. Add a tablespoon of corn starch to the remaining stock that you made earlier. Mix in the starch and stock thoroughly. Keep stirring until the starch is dissolved completely. Add the stock and starch mixture to the sauce pan holding the drippings from the roasting pan. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly. As the liquid boils, the starch will make it thicken. Once at a roiling boil it ought to be done. Add salt to taste. Congratulations. You just made gravy. Turn down the heat to a slow simmer and cover.
Remove the stuffing from the now rested bird and put it in a serving dish. If you're planning to eat right away, set it out on the table. If not, cover it and put in the oven to keep it warm.
Carve the bird and you're done.
See? Easy. All you need is a willingness to put in the time and an awareness of what cooked food looks and tastes like.
It's these sorts of handmade meals that memories are made from and where traditions are born. As a personal favor to me this year; skip the prepackaged, cheater foods for Thanksgiving and make something from scratch. Thanksgiving's not a time for haute cuisine or edgy ingredients and techniques. Rather it's a time to eat the way your grandparents did. Simple foods prepared simply make for the perfect Thanksgiving dinner.
Late breaking addition: I've been told that how to carve a turkey properly is a sticking point for a lot of people. Here's a video that explains and shows everything.
As the day progresses, a list will appear below with all of today's participating bloggers as they weigh in on today's topic. It's going to be an interesting day and passions are running high. And not just mine. Check out what bloggers from all over think about food.


text:
Español Português
Federal regulators continue to warn consumers about tainted, dangerous products that are marketed as dietary supplements. These fraudulent products can cause serious injury or even death.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found nearly 300 fraudulent products—promoted mainly for weight loss, sexual enhancement, and bodybuilding—that contain hidden or deceptively labeled ingredients, such as
- the active ingredients in FDA-approved drugs or their analogs (closely-related drugs)
- other compounds, such as novel synthetic steroids, that do not qualify as dietary ingredients
"These products are masquerading as dietary supplements—they may look like dietary supplements but they are not legal dietary supplements," says Michael Levy, director of FDA's Division of New Drugs and Labeling Compliance. "Some of these products contain hidden prescription ingredients at levels much higher than those found in an approved drug product and are dangerous."
FDA has received numerous reports of harm associated with the use of these products, including stroke, liver injury, kidney failure, heart palpitations, and death.
Advice for Consumers
"We need consumers to be aware of these dangerous products and to learn how to identify and avoid them," says Levy. Consumers should look for potential warning signs of tainted products marketed as dietary supplements, such as
- products claiming to be alternatives to FDA-approved drugs or to have effects similar to prescription drugs
- products claiming to be a legal alternative to anabolic steroids
- products that are marketed primarily in a foreign language or those that are marketed through mass e-mails
- sexual enhancement products promising rapid effects, such as working in minutes to hours, or long-lasting effects, such as working for 24 to 72 hours
- product labels warning that you may test positive in performance enhancement drug tests
Generally, if you are using or considering using any product marketed as a dietary supplement, FDA suggests that you
- check with your health care professional or a registered dietician about any nutrients you may need in addition to your regular diet
- ask your health care professional for help distinguishing between reliable and questionable information
- ask yourself if it sounds too good to be true
- Be cautious if the claims for the product seem exaggerated or unrealistic.
- Watch out for extreme claims—for example, "quick and effective," "cure-all," "can treat or cure diseases," or "totally safe."
- Be skeptical about anecdotal information from personal "testimonials" about incredible benefits or results obtained from using a product.
If you suspect a dietary supplement sold online may be illegal, FDA urges you to report that information online. In addition, you or your health care professional can also report an illness or injury you believe to be related to the use of a dietary supplement by phone at 1-800-FDA-1088 or online.
Dietary Supplements and FDA
Dietary supplements, in general, are not FDA-approved. Under the law (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994), dietary supplement firms do not need FDA approval prior to marketing their products. It is the company's responsibility to make sure its products are safe and that any claims are true.
Just because you see a supplement product on a store shelf does NOT mean it is safe or effective. When safety issues are suspected, FDA must investigate and, when warranted, take steps to have the product removed from the market. However, it is much easier for a firm to get a product on the market than it is for FDA to take a product off the market.
FDA has worked with industry to recall numerous products with potentially harmful ingredients including
- more than 40 products marketed for weight loss
- more than 70 products marketed for sexual enhancement
- more than 80 products marketed for body building
FDA last alerted the public to tainted products in December 2010, and will continue to issue consumer alerts and press announcements about these products. The agency has issued warning letters, seized products, and conducted criminal prosecutions. In December 2010, a woman pleaded guilty to an 18-count indictment charging her with the illegal importation and distribution of more than four million diet pills that contained a controlled substance, unapproved drugs, and a possible cancer-causing agent.
Remember, FDA cannot test all products on the market to identify those that contain potentially harmful hidden ingredients. Consumers must also be aware of these dangerous products and learn how to identify and avoid them using the warning signs described above.
Keep Up-to-Date on Tainted Products
A widget is a portable application that displays featured content directly on a web page. Bloggers or owners of websites can embed this content into their sites. Once FDA's widget is added, there's no technical maintenance—FDA will automatically provide updates to content displayed on the widget.
The RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, like the widget, includes updated content published on FDA's website. RSS is usually used for news and blog websites and requires an RSS news reader (a special software program) to pick up the content in the feed. Organizations and bloggers can subscribe to the RSS feed to receive updates automatically and put together their own customized lists of news and information.
Source: FDA
This webpage is made available by Online Press Release


text:
Although the hosts of "Top Gear" America can somehow get away with it, in most situations, sucking it up isn't something you want to do. However, on-track beat-downs don't qualify as most situations, and in racing environments, an oiling system that sucks incessantly is exactly what an engine needs. Enter dry sump lubrication. Just about every race car on the planet — whether it's in NASCAR Sprint Cup, NHRA Pro Stock, or Formula One — relies on a dry sump oil system. Even those goofball drifters have them. Whether the performance machine at hand dishes out g-forces under braking, acceleration, cornering, or all three, the laws of physics do their best to uncover the pump pickup and leave it gurgling on aerated froth instead of drinking a steady supply of oil. As all five generations of Camaros continue to accelerate harder with ever-increasing horsepower totals, and corner more briskly thanks to cutting-edge suspension technology and modern tire compounds, ever-greater demands are placed upon the oiling system. It just so happens that many of today's most capable Camaros boast LS small-block power, and as such, it only makes sense to explore what's involved with fitting a dry sump oiling system on these motors.
Not long ago, converting a wet sump motor over to dry sump lubrication required piecing together dozens of different parts out of a catalog. This process is hardly rocket science, but it does increase the potential for messing something up, and at the very least, it can be a major pain. Fortunately, companies like Armstrong Race Engineering (ARE) make things easy. It offers a full catalog of bolt-in dry sump systems for import and domestic engines, including several different options for LS-series small-blocks. To get a first-hand look at what it takes to fit a dry sump oiling system onto a Gen III small-block, we dropped by HK Enterprises in Houston, Texas.
At any given time, HKE has more than two dozen LS small-blocks — ranging from street/strip to full race — under construction, and the shop has earned a reputation in the Gen III/IV community for building incredibly potent yet extremely reliable engine combos. HKE just so happened to be installing a dry sump setup on a 1,250hp 408ci drag motor during our visit, so we were eager to check it out. While the process of installing a dry sump setup is somewhat universal, there are several application-specific quirks that need to be addressed when the engine platform at hand is the LS-series small-block. That said, upgrading to a dry sump system is a big-time financial commitment that can easily top $3,000. As such, it's worthwhile to take a comprehensive look at how they work, and the dividends they can yield in both oil control and horsepower before delving into the installation process.
Dry Sump Basics
In a typical wet sump oiling system, an internally mounted pump pulls oil out of the pan through a pickup tube. Pressurized oil is then routed through the main galley in the block en route to the oil filter. The oil then travels up the back of the block to the main feed galley, which runs through the lifter bores. From there, oil trickles down to the mains to lubricate the crank, rods, and main and rod bearing. Just like the Gen I small-block, LS-series engines direct oil to the cylinder heads through holes drilled into the lifters and pushrods. This lubricates and cools the valvesprings and rocker arms, and the oil then drains back into the pan through passages in the cylinder heads and block. Of course, this entire chain of events assumes that the oil pump pickup remains submerged in oil all the time. Anytime oil pushes up against the sides of the pan instead of going through the pickup tube, this entire sequence is disrupted, and catastrophic engine failure looms just around the corner.
On the other hand, in a dry sump oiling system, the pan itself contains almost no oil at all. It functions more as a drip pan than a traditional oil pan. As such, a mixture of oil and air is scavenged from the oil pan through rubber or steel braided hoses by an externally mounted pump, which is belt-driven by the crankshaft. The oil is then directed into the top of an external supply tank typically mounted in the engine compartment. As oil scavenged out of the pan trickles down the supply tank, internal baffles separate the air from the oil. The oil pump then draws oil from the outlet at the bottom of the supply tank, and sends pressurized oil back into the block. Unlike in a wet sump oiling system, a dry sump pump is really two pumps in one, as it both sucks oil out of the pan and sends pressurized oil back into the block's oil galleys.
One of the great advantages of a dry sump system is that it can be set up in multiple stages depending on the requirements of a specific application. A stage refers to how many scavenge and pressure circuits a dry sump pump has, and anywhere from one to six stages is common. For instance, in a typical four-stage dry sump system, there are three scavenge pickup points in the oil pan in addition to the pressure stage on the pump. Additional pickup points allow scavenging oil more evenly off of multiple areas of the motor. In a multi-stage dry sump system, for example, oil can be scavenged from the front and back of the motor, as well as the lifter valley.
Horsepower Advantage
Storing oil in a separate auxiliary oil tank instead of the pan yields several obvious advantages. First off, it ensures that the pump will always have a steady supply of oil regardless of the g-forces at work, and the result is rock solid oil pressure. Secondly, a dry sump system's oil supply tank can hold anywhere between 4 and 20 quarts of oil. The increased capacity cools oil temperatures and further stabilizes pressure, which is usually adjustable from 40 to 60 psi using an external regulator. Furthermore, since dry sump pans do not store any oil, they are very low profile in design. This allows lowering an engine farther down into the chassis for improved handling and braking.
Although dry sump systems were originally designed for improved oil control, they can yield dividends in horsepower as well. In a wet sump system, the crankshaft counterweights and rods must whip through the oil, and the resulting increase in windage and drag reduces horsepower output. Conversely, with no oil to contend with in a dry sump pan, windage is virtually eliminated. Likewise, in addition to scavenging oil out of the pan, a dry sump pump can function as a vacuum pump as well. This ensures that there is less pressure inside the crankcase than above the pistons, which improves ring seal, reduces blow-by, and increases horsepower. Negative crankcase pressure also allows the rotating assembly to accelerate more quickly, as there is less resistance acting upon the pistons as they travel down the cylinder bores. The affect is similar to having a lightweight rotating assembly, and the benefits of increased engine vacuum are more pronounced in long-stroke, high-rpm motors that are more susceptible to parasitic horsepower loss due to windage.
In instances where engines are designed for use with a dry sump system from the ground up, they can be built with lower tension oil rings. "With a dry sump oiling system, since there isn't nearly as much oil in the bottom end, the rings don't have to scrape as much oil off the cylinder walls. This lets you get away with running half as much ring tension as in a wet sump engine without burning any oil, which dramatically reduces friction," explains Erik Koenig of HKE. "In fact, with the heads removed you can turn over a race motor by hand with as little as 5 lb-ft of torque with low-tension rings, whereas a street/strip engine with standard tension rings might require 35 lb-ft. That 30 lb-ft–reduction in drag at high rpm equates to a big increase in horsepower. In an engine with a 1/16-, 1/16-, 3/16-inch ring package, the combination of a crankcase vacuum, improved ring seal, and low-tension rings can net a 30-40hp increase. Since the pressure in a dry sump system is adjustable, they also let you pump the minimum volume of oil necessary to lubricate the motor, which further reduces drag and parasitic power loss."
In race setups that utilize a separate vacuum pump, a dry sump oiling system allows cranking up the vacuum without fear of compromising oil flow. When a vacuum pump is bolted to an engine with a wet sump oiling system, it creates a tug-of-war in which increasing vacuum reduces oil pressure. That's because there's less air pressure inside the crankcase to help push oil through the oil pump. In many instances, trying to pull more than 16 inches of vacuum will negatively impact oil pressure. On the other hand, since a dry sump system stores oil in an external tank — where 14.7 psi of ambient air pressure is always pushing down on the oil regardless of crankcase vacuum — engine builders can pull as much vacuum as desired without adversely affecting oil pressure and potentially burning up the bearings. As Erik asserts, however, on a well-sorted engine combo, it isn't always necessary to run both a dry sump oil pump and a vacuum pump. "If a motor is sealed up well with good pistons, rings and straight bores, you can make a lot of vacuum with just a dry sump pump," he says. "With big power adder motors that get a lot of blow-by, you might run a vacuum pump in addition to dry sump oil pump. That said, with most all-out race motors, just having a dry sump oil system will generate enough vacuum to control oil flow and seal up the rings."
Item | Part Number | Price |
Pan | 1005M | $814 |
Pump | 3255S | $1,484 |
Remote filter | 4010 | $163 |
Oil tank | 7030 | $475 |
Tank vent | 7100 | $93 |
Lines/fittings | N/A | $392 |
Total: | $3,421 |
MotorTrend Recommended Stories
Trending Pages
2024 Toyota Crown Limited First Test: Why This Is Toyota's Strangest Hybrid
2024 Volvo V60 Recharge First Test: A Civilized Sleeper Sledgehammer
Exactly How Safe Is Your Car? IIHS Evaluates and We Explain
Why the Lucid Air Is the Best and Worst Car We've Ever Had
The 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser's a Hybrid—So Does It Get Good MPG?


text:
This bullet is SOLD. For your consideration one McKee & Mason 169 - Thomas handbook 131 Gardner bullet...the bullet of the Confederacy. You will find this bullet to be in excellent dug condition. The patina is a near perfect, bright white color. The entire bullet has great definition & a nose cast mark can be easily seen. Measures about 0.53 x 1.06 inches. This bullet is SOLD.
Related Products
TL7474 Confederate Brass Cannon Ball Fuse-Vicksburg $50
For your consideration one Confederate short...
$50.00 -
TL7472 Long, Tall Enfield Bullet - McKee & Mason 220 - Teat In Cavity $45For your consideration on McKee & Mason 220...$45.00
TL7467 Three Civil War Bullets (2 are carved) $20
For your consideration three Civil War bulle...
$20.00 -
TL7465 Confederate Gardner Bullet - Pulled $10For your consideration one pulled Confederate G...$10.00
TL7464 Dimick Bullet-Partly Melted-Shiloh $35
For your consideration one partly melted Dim...
$35.00 -
TL7463 Trans Mississippi Bulls Eye Nose Marshall Texas Enfield-Nice $150
For your consideration one Marshall Texas En...
$150.00 -
TL7462 Thick Skirt-0.69 Caliber Bullet-Nice $18For your consideration one shorter stature 0.69...$18.00
TL7459 Confederate Merrill Carbine Bullet-EC $50
For your consideration one Thomas handbook 9...
$50.00 -
TL7458 0.58 Caliber Triangle Cavity Bullet-Carved $15
For your consideration one 0.58 caliber tria...
$15.00 -
TL7455 Unlisted 0.54 Caliber Enfield Bullet $12For your consideration one unlisted 0.54 calibe...$12.00
TL7451 Partially Melted Gardner Bullet-Very Cool-Longstreet $14For your consideration one partially melted Gar...$14.00
TL7448 Lead Nipple Protector for rifle - Civil War $15
For your consideration one lead nipple prote...
$15.00TL7445 Fired Enfield Bullet - Box Wood Plug still Intact $14For your consideration one very cool,
$14.00TL7444 Selma, Alabama Arsenal Enfield Bullet - EC $20For your consideration one Thomas RBRF4 528 ...
$20.00TL7443 Confederate Enfield Bullet - Odd Cavity $16For your consideration one Thomas RBRF4 bullet ...$16.00TL7441 Confederate Enfield Bullet - Thick Skirt - Stepped Cavity $12For your consideration one unlisted nose cas...
$12.00TL7440 Confederate Enfield with ODD Cavity - EC $14For your consideration one Confederate Enfie...
$14.00TL7438 Dug Complete Skin Cartridge - NICE $90For your consideration one whole skin cartridge...$90.00TL7434 0.69 Caliber Triangle Cavity Bullet - Fired $10For your consideration one hard fired 0.69 c...
$10.00TL7431 Two Partially Melted Civil War Bullets $8For your consideration two Civil War partially ...$8.00TL7428 0.69 Caliber Georgia Troops Bullet - With Teat $30For your consideration one Thomas handbook 1...
$30.00TL7427 Confederate Colt Revolving Rifle - EC $24For your consideration one McKee & Mason 11...$24.00TL7426 Confederate Lead Side Plug & Brass Under Plug - Artillery $32For your consideration one Confederate lead ...
$32.00TL7424 Nathan Bedford Forrest Enfield Bullet $16For your consideration one Thomas RBRF4 277$16.00TL7421 High Base Confederate Bullet - Small Teat in Base $22For your consideration one Thomas handbook 1...
$22.00Recently Viewed Products


text:
While no entrepreneur can successfully run their startup alone, research shows that most small business owners wind up handling the majority of their business functions themselves—not because they want to, but because they have to.
This doesn't mean that startups aren't hiring, however. It just means that in that busy first year, they're more inclined to contract out specialty work, such as legal and technological services, and take on the rest of the work themselves.
SCORE's latest infographic, "The Megaphone of Main Street: Startups - Finding the Right Team" highlights Part 3 of our latest data report.
Data from a SCORE survey of roughly 1,000 small business startups from across the country show that whether it's strategy and planning, sales and marketing, or product development, startup owners are more likely to wear a multitude of hats in their first year of operation.
The survey served as the foundation of SCORE's fall 2019 "Megaphone of Mainstreet: Startups" data report. Part 1 of that report, "Finding Your Way, Finding Customers," revealed that one of the top concerns that startup owners have is securing enough cash flow to maintain their business and support their personal needs. Part 2, "Finding Financing: Funding the Dream," showed that most small business owners choose to bootstrap their first year by financing their businesses themselves, rather than taking on debt.
Part 3 of the data report, "Finding the Right Team: Staffing and Labor Challenges," explores how startups mine the labor force for qualified workers—and frequently come up short.
Here are some key takeaways (all statistics are taken from the survey):
In Their First Year of Business, Startup Owners Choose Contractors Over Employees
The added expense of hiring employees, as well as the temporary or seasonal nature of some of the work, doesn't always justify hiring full-time employees, according to the survey. This was consistent across geographic demographics, and it makes sense: payroll expenses, workers' compensation requirements, health care costs, and taxes all conspire to make adding employees difficult unless the business is more well-established. Contractors, on the other hand, cost less and provide the key services necessary to move the startup forward. Entrepreneurs only pay for the work that's performed and don't have to worry about downtime, perks, and benefits.
When asked who handled the following functions of their business in their first year, entrepreneurs overwhelmingly reported that they relied on themselves (and it wasn't even close):
- Strategy/Planning: 96.6%
- Sales: 92.9%
- Marketing: 92.3%
- Logistics/Inventory/Distribution 88.9%
- Service Delivery or Product Creation/Manufacturing: 82.6%
- Technology: 79.1%
- Accounting/Finance: 76.7%
- Manufacturing: 72.7%
- Legal: 60.5%
When They Are Ready to Hire, Entrepreneurs Struggle to Find Qualified Workers
With the economy continuing to improve over the last two years, it may not come as a surprise that entrepreneurs had a tougher time filling open positions. When comparing this 2019 Megaphone of Main Street data report to our 2017 Megaphone report, we found some interesting trends:
In 2019, more startup owners reported trying to hire than they did in 2017: 54% of entrepreneurs responded that they attempted to hire someone, compared to 38.2% in 2017.
Also, 52% of startup owners reported having difficulty hiring in 2019—an increase of 11% over those entrepreneurs who were asked the same question in 2017.
Surprisingly, nearly one-third (32.9%) of all startup owners looking to hire in 2019 was unable to do so—a dramatic jump from the 14.3% who were unable to do so in 2017.
When asked why they had such a difficult time finding employees to fill their job openings, small business owners overwhelmingly cited a lack of qualified talent:
- Cannot find qualified applicants (skills/expertise): 75.7%
- Need to raise salary/wages to be competitive: 28.8%
- Do not offer health care benefits: 27%
- Too time-consuming to hire qualified workers: 24.3%
- Company location not desirable to candidates: 7.2%
- Candidates do not pass drug-testing requirements: 6.3%
What should YOU do?
When it comes to staffing their operations, the data from our Megaphone of Main Street Startups report show that entrepreneurs prefer to go it alone. Whether it's due to a difficulty in finding qualified employees or an unwillingness to put in the time and money necessary to attract them, first-year small business owners often resort to outsourcing to contractors and tackle day-to-day operations themselves.
If you're ready to launch a business but are unsure how to staff it, turn to the guidance and expertise of a SCORE mentor. Contact a SCORE mentor today, and get your startup going! Remember, SCORE mentors are available also for those already in business or looking to exit.
Copyright © 2024 SCORE Association, SCORE.org
Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.


text:
Japan to survey Pacific seabed for rare earth
Japan will launch a survey of its Pacific seabed in the hope of finding rare earth deposits large enough to supply its high-tech industries and reduce its dependence on China.
Researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology will start the probe from January 21 on the seabed near Minamitorishima island, some 2,000 kilometres southeast of Tokyo.
Finding large-scale proven reserves inside Japan's exclusive economic zone would be a boost to Japanese industry, which currently relies on imports from China.
These imports have in the past fallen victim to the delicate political relationship between the two countries, notably in 2010, when manufacturers complained supply was being squeezed during a spat over disputed islands.
The row, over a Tokyo-controlled archipelago known as the Senkakus that Beijing claims as the Diaoyus, has flared anew in recent months.
The survey will follow an earlier finding by Tokyo University professor Yasuhiro Kato, who took mud samples from an area.
He said these indicated deposits amounted to around 6.8 million tonnes of the valuable minerals, or 220 times the average annual amount used by industry in Japan.
Rare earths are used to make a wide range of high tech products, including powerful magnets, batteries, LED lights, electric cars, lasers, wind turbines and missiles.
China produces more than 90 percent of the world's supply of rare earths, but has clamped down on exports of them in a move Beijing says is aimed at protecting its environment and conserving supplies.


text:
Pack 262's
Home Page
Cub Scout Pack 262
(Huntingtown, Maryland)
Contact Our Pack
Member Login
Welcome to the Cub Scout Pack 262 Huntingtown, MD Website!
Pack meetings are held monthly at the Elks Lodge at 1015 Dares Beach Road Prince Frederick, Maryland
We welcome boys and girls from Kindergarten through the 5th grade
The pack is broken down into four dens which are organized by grade level - Tigers, Wolfs, Bears, Webelos I and Webelos II
The dens meet once or twice a month for an hour and the entire pack gets together once a month for the pack meeting which is also about an hour
Why join scouting?
Scouting gives the scout an opportunity to develop character, citizenship, fitness, and leadership.
Cub Scouting is fun for the whole family! Its fun hands-on learning and achievement that helps prepare scouts for toady and life.
For more information about scouting in general check out
BSA Cub Scouts
Pack 262 activities include: Fishing, going to the water park, participation in Flag Day ceremonies and parades, caroling, camping, and of course the Pinewood Derby!
Come join in the fun!
For more information contact Kyle Pellegrino -- email@example.com
© Copyright 2011 ScoutLander LLC, All Rights Reserved.
ScoutLander.com is not officially associated with or endorsed by the Boy Scouts of America.
Help us improve ScoutLander.
Send us feedback.
Terms of Service
Privacy Statement


text:
So now that the very long to-do list is being whittled down to a very short to-do list, what still needs to be accomplished before opening day?
Fill the Applause Fountain, of course!
Here's a time-lapse video of the process. We had our hands full, didn't we?
Holiday World opens for the season this Saturday, May 4. Hope to see you then!


text:
Chad Arnholt was once an art student at The Museum School of Boston, slinging drinks to pay the bills. Faced with the decision to choose a career—art or otherwise—he decided to break from tradition. In the spirit of brand founder Charles Tanqueray—who ditched the path his clergyman father laid out to experiment with gin—Chad chose to stay behind the bar. Approaching spirits as he would an art project, you'll now find him skillfully crafting the drink program at a red-hot bar in San Francisco.
Check out the video above to hear it from Chad himself, and raise a glass to those who decide to break from tradition.
PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY. TANQUERAY London Dry Gin. 100% Grain Neutral Spirits. 47.3% Alc/Vol. ©2012 Imported by Charles Tanqueray & Co., Norwalk, CT.


text:
Rotary International is an association of Rotary clubs worldwide. It's made up of more than 34,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. The members of these autonomous clubs are called Rotarians, and they form a global network of 1.2 million business and professional leaders, all volunteering their time and talents to serve their communities and the world. Individual Rotary clubs, in turn, belong to the global association called Rotary International.
Since 1947, Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarships have given more than 41,000 men and women the opportunity to study abroad. Although the program will come to an end in 2013, new scholarship opportunities through the Foundation's district and global grants will give Rotarians greater flexibility to sponsor scholars. Want to learn more? Contact us.
Often, a person being considered for membership is invited by a club member, or sponsor, to attend one or more club meetings to learn more about Rotary. In this case, the sponsor submits the candidate's name to the club's membership committee. If you're interested in joining Rotary, first attend a few meetings to see if Rotary is right for you. Since each club is different, visit several to see the one that fits you best. Individuals must be sponsored or proposed for membership into the club.
Sure! You can offer to assist the Rotary club with its local or international service projects. You can volunteer to work or help by making a donation to the club to support their work.
Club Service focuses on strengthening fellowship and ensuring the effective functioning of the club.
Vocational Service encourages Rotarians to serve others through their vocations and to practice high ethical standards.
Community Service covers the projects and activities the club undertakes to improve life in its community.
International Service encompasses actions taken to expand Rotary's humanitarian reach around the globe and to promote world understanding and peace. Rotarians can support International Service by sponsoring a project in another country, seeking international project partners to support projects in their own communities, or by personally volunteering at an international project site.
Youth Service recognizes the positive change implemented by youth and young adults through leadership development activities as RYLA, Rotaract and Interact, service projects, and creating international understanding with Rotary Youth Exchange.
An attendance record of 50 percent is required to remain an active Rotarian. Any missed meeting must be made up within 14 days before or after the regular meeting. To accommodate busy schedules, there are various opportunities to make up missed meetings, including making up online at various websites.
Prospective members must:
Hold (or be retired from) a professional, proprietary, executive, managerial, or community position
Have demonstrated a commitment to service through personal involvement
Be able to meet the club's weekly attendance or community project participation requirements
Live or work within the vicinity of the club or surrounding area
Members are expected to attend weekly club meetings. They must pay annual dues to their Rotary club, district, and Rotary International, and they're expected to participate in local or international Rotary club activities or projects. We encourage members to aspire to club leadership or committee roles.
The Four-Way Test
This test, which has been translated into more than 100 languages, asks the following questions:
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it bring GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
There is no minimum age to join Rotary. You may be invited to join at any age after you become established in a career and have the time and financial resources to meet all Rotary club membership requirements. If you're interested in joining Rotary, ask members about the time and financial commitments necessary to fulfill membership requirements, and consider whether you can make those commitments.


text:
Stafford Family Dentist
Every member of the family deserves the confidence of a winning smile!
At Missouri City Dentist, we create and maintain fantastic smiles for the entire family, but dentistry isn't all about aesthetics. Dental care is a big aspect of your overall health care. Poor oral hygiene and lack of regular professional cleanings can result in tooth decay, gum disease, or worse, and issues arising in the mouth can impact your overall health dramatically.
Our family dentists are dedicated to the holistic wellness of your family, from providing screening for oral health issues such as oral cancer to advising how to best handle thumbsucking or pacifiers.
The family dental practice of Missouri City Dentist is committed to providing smile makeovers that make you both look great and feel healthier. From pediatric dental care to orthodontia, cosmetic dentistry to full mouth reconstruction, our talented team of professional dental experts are dedicated and experienced.
Whether you have a specific or immediate complaint, or just want to maintain good oral health, our Stafford dental professionals can't wait to put a smile back on your face.
Call Missouri City Dentist at (281) 747-8977 to Schedule an Appointment!
Routine & Preventative Care
As your Stafford, Texas family dentist, we know just how important it is to maintain good oral health.
Routine preventative dental care visits and checkups are vital components of good lifelong dental hygiene, as recommended by the American Dental Association. For most of our patients, a routine cleaning every 6 months is all that is needed to maintain optimal dental health, and is covered by most insurance options.
Our routine dental care visits include comprehensive dental cleanings and oral examinations, performed by our experienced and gentle dental experts. We typically take x-rays once per year for routine evaluation and comparison purposes, but may require additional x-rays if a problem is identified. We also provide dental sealants to protect our pediatric clients' young smiles.
If you are looking for dedicated family dentistry professionals, Missouri City Dentist is the right partner for you.
Our Dental Exams
We provide comprehensive dental examinations and cleanings twice per year, or as allowed by your insurance plan.
If you do not have insurance, we have payment plans and financing options available, as well as offering an extremely affordable rate for your preventive exam, x-ray, and cleaning. Our family dentists are dedicated to providing outstanding care to family members as young as 5 years old, including pediatric dentistry, and are there for you from your first cleanings through to emergency dentistry, root canals, restorative dentistry, dental crowns, porcelain veneers, dental bridges, dental implants, and more.
As complete dental experts, we are excited to provide the high-quality, comprehensive care that you deserve, and provide the patient education you need to make smart decisions for your family's dental health.
During our routine dental exams, we screen for:
- Tooth decay and cavities
- Oral cancer
- Gum disease
- Periodontal disease
- Issues with wisdom teeth
- Bite problems such as underbite or overbite
- Cosmetic dentistry concerns
The earlier we can identify potential dental issues, the faster, easier, and less expensive they are to treat. For those who face severe dental anxiety, we also offer sedation dentistry to reduce fear.
Missouri City Dentist is dedicated to providing comprehensive preventative dental care for your entire family. If you are looking for a caring, attentive Stafford dentist near you to deliver quality dental care to your family, we are here for you.
Orthodontics & Braces For All Ages
Straighten your smile, improve your comfort, and build your confidence with orthodontic dentistry by Missouri City Dentist.
Gaps, crooked teeth, or uneven teeth can not only impact your confidence, they can also impact your oral health. Improperly aligned teeth can leave small gaps where food may collect, leading to cavities, infection, bad breath, or other concerns. Not all imperfections require corrective orthodontia, and our oral surgery experts can help you determine what is best for you.
We provide teeth straightening for family members of all ages. Whether you are seeking traditional braces, clear braces like Six Month Smiles, or Invisalign, we are able to match you with the right solution to match your desires, timeframe, and budget during our orthodontic evaluation.
Start feeling confident in your smile in as little as 6 months with the orthodontic experts at Missouri City Dentist.
Complete Family Dental Care Providers
We are excited to become your complete family dental care providers! As a patient of our full-service dentist office, you can be confident you are getting the dedicated, professional care that you deserve. Whether you are seeking pediatric dentistry, teeth whitening, braces, or are just seeking a reliable dentist the whole family is comfortable going to, we can't wait to see your family smile!
We look forward to putting the smile back on your face with a personalized dental treatment plan that supports your long-term health and keeps you feeling great. If you are looking for the best family dentist in Stafford, TX, then let's talk today!
Call Missouri City Dentist at (281) 747-8977 to Request an Appointment!