text:
Move over, Sharron Angle, there's a new queen of the Wingnuts. And if anyone should be celebrating, it's Democrats.
In nominating Christine O'Donnell over Mike Castle in Delaware's closed partisan primary, Republicans have put forward a manifestly irresponsible candidate who will lose in November—depriving them of a realistic shot at the Senate majority and the satisfaction of winning Joe Biden's seat. In the process, the Tea Party has compromised its core message of fiscal conservative libertarianism by elevating a social conservative activist who can't balance her own checkbook and has spent most of her life arguing against the expansion of individual freedom.
O'Donnell's victory reinforces the message of a party that is intent on burning down the big tent, with ideological activists RINO hunting on the basis of social issues alone and making the Democrats' uphill battle just a little bit easier. Independents won't vote for candidates like O'Donnell—extremists are always their own side's worst enemy.
So as her 15 minutes begin (and this clock will click like a time bomb), you'd be right to ask, "who is Christine O'Donnell?"
"A crackpot of the first order," according to the libertarian standard-bearer, Reason. Here's the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard's take : "O'Donnell's finances, honesty, and stability have been called into question in light of her false and strange claims."
Mike Castle deserved better than this ugly, ignominious end. But the real loss is the Republican Party's.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
• Daily Beast contributors on the primary resultsO'Donnell is a 41-year-old serial unsuccessful campaigner, conducting three Senate campaigns in the last five years. Nonetheless, last quarter, she received only five donations from within the state of Delaware. Her support comes from national conservative activist political action committees like the Tea Party Express, which flooded the race late with campaign cash.
Her perky television personality made her a brief favorite on 1990s talk shows such as Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and MTV, playing the role of the evangelical ingénue. Her shtick in those days was not only to push for abstinence but to decry masturbation; not only to advocate for fewer abortions but their complete abolition even in cases of rape and incest. Most curiously, she was also an ardent advocate for gay conversion therapy, arguing, essentially, that homosexuality was a mental disorder that could be cured through intervention.
It is somewhat darkly ironic, then, that one of the campaign tactics that she used against Rep. Mike Castle was to suggest repeatedly through surrogates that the married congressman was gay. This totally unfounded bit of gay-baiting exposed a bitter strain of bigotry running through her campaign. It was a core culture war campaign strategy down the stretch.
Christine O'Donnell may have only received her college degree last week because of unpaid tuition (which didn't stop her from implying that she was taking graduate courses at Princeton) and on her 2009 income taxes stated that she earned only $5,800 last year (a number that she's recently acknowledged might not be true). Nonetheless, she was savvy enough to sue her one-time employer, a conservative publishing group called Intercollegiate Studies Institute, for $6.9 million—arguing gender discrimination and "mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, mental and physical pain and anguish"—before abruptly dropping the lawsuit.
She has no shortage of character witnesses who actively dislike and distrust her. A former campaign manager took the highly unusual step of recording a robo-call describing O'Donnell as "a complete fraud." "I found out she was living on campaign donations—using them for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt," said Kristin Murray. "She wasn't concerned about conservative causes. O'Donnell just wanted to make a buck."
A staffer from her 2008 campaign, David Keegan, told The New York Times: "We were constantly trying to hold her back from spending. She was financially completely irresponsible."
O'Donnell also came under fire for lying about her campaign record to conservative radio and print journalists, repeatedly saying that she'd won two out of three counties against Biden in the past. As National Review's Jim Geraghty wrote: "It's not merely that it's not true; it's that it's easily and quickly disproven. This isn't merely a lie; it's a stupid lie."
In sum, her primary political tactic is attacking opponents below the belt and then playing the victim card—deeply un-Reagan-esque on both counts.
In contrast to O'Donnell, Castle was uniquely suited to picking up Biden's Senate seat. As the longest-serving congressman in Delaware history, he had a demonstrated to ability to win Republican, independent, and Democratic votes. But that key strength was turned on its head in a closed partisan primary. It did not matter that he had cut income taxes three times as governor and balanced the budget eight years in a row. It did not matter that he voted against the stimulus bill and health care. He was pro-choice. He was one of the few GOP congressmen to stand up to the Birthers at last summer's town halls.
Castle was respected even by the conservative colleagues with whom he often disagreed on policy. And polls showed that he was an easy GOP pickup in a Democratic-leaning state precisely because of his principled centrism. Now, barring a write-in campaign, Mike Castle's four-decade-long career in public service is over. He deserved better than this ugly, ignominious end. But the real loss is the Republican Party's, which has hung out an unwelcome sign to any remaining centrist supporter. Now it will be forced to confront the costs that come with the conservative populist forces it has unleashed.
John Avlon's new book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America is available now by Beast Books both on the Web and in paperback. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics and a CNN contributor. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.


text:
Gentlemen, It's Time to Embrace Shorter Shorts
LatestThe Snowpocalypse is behind us. Temperatures are rising. It is time for bare legs. Not just for women. For men. It's time. For. Shorts.
Shorts for men are "in" right now. You know if there were shorts at the ding dang Oscars that it must be true. (Thanks, Pharrell.) To be clear: We're not talking about jorts. Jorts, aka jean shorts, are an entirely different animal, one hideous and untamed and left unworn. Please do not with the jorts. In addition, this is not about plus fours which can be fun in the right context, nor is it about capris. Just shorts.
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, David Colman reports that shorts are — finally, after years of knee-covering awkwardness — getting shorter: (Check out the image accompanying the piece for a visual guide.)
In the past few years, the low-water-mark length of a 15-inch-or-so inseam receded to knee-length (11 inches), then a knee-baring 9 inches, then to a quadriceps-exposing 7 inches and on to the newly fashionable thigh-flaunting 5 inches. If men's shorts were a glacier in Greenland, scientists would be freaking out.
Since the turn of the century — the late '90s, early aughts — we have been plagued by unsightly shorts. It's unclear who is to blame. Hip hop? Rave? Surfers? Skateboarders? It doesn't matter, really. The hideous trend slithered onto men nationwide, curling its tentacles around the legs of innocent dudes and sheathing them in the most terrible way. And it's held on for so long.
Left to right: Kevin Federline in 2005; Fred Durst in 2002; Lil Wayne in 2010.
As you may know, it wasn't always like this.
Bermuda shorts were popular around and after World War II. The '50s and '60s gave us beach blanket bingos and lots of leg.
The 1970s and 1980s were really the thighlights for quad-baring shorts. In the '80s, especially, with the rise of Preppy style and gym culture, short shorts were the norm. The leg was free and unencumbered, able to kick, jump, pose and flex. (The '80s were '50s-obsessed, after all.) Men (and women!) were encouraged to expose flesh, and dudes were not afraid to show off a nice, meaty Vastus lateralis. (The Summer 1986 International Male catalog has some excellent iterations.)
And somehow, we took a terrible turn and ended up with this:
Shudder. (That's Treach from Naughty by Nature in 2005.)
Anyway, shorts are back, and they're shorter, slimmer, and better than they have been in years. And they look nice. It should be noted that we're talking about flat-front shorts. No pleats. Well-tailored. Not cut-offs. NOT denim. At a length that flatters the leg.
Some acceptable examples:
J. Crew, Banana Republic, Ralph Lauren.
But frankly, I think dudes can go even shorter. Bring up that hemline! For instance: The Dolce & Gabbana S/S 2014 collection:
Or, if you like, use Bob Benson from Mad Men as a guide:
In conclusion: Show us your legs.
Photos via Getty, Pacific Coast News, AP, AMC, daniyerselfclean.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
MAKE contributing editor Charles Platt proposed a "Hypothetical Tremolo Wheel" in his article about online DIY guitar stomp-box communities (MAKE Volume 15, page 82, "Stomp Box Basics: Tremolo and Fuzz").
Well, it's hypothetical no more. I took Charles' cue and built this Optical Tremolo Box, which reads a patterned disk with a light sensor to create a warbling volume effect (tremolo) that you can custom-program with any pattern you like.
How does tremolo work? So there's your electric guitar, and there's the amplifier it's plugged into, and there's the cable that runs between them. Open up that cable and you'll find 2 wires — one "ground" and one held at a positive voltage relative to "ground." The changing electrical potential between these 2 wires, over time, is what carries the sound signal.
What happens if you short-circuit those wires, bridging them with a third wire? The sound goes away. The charge can find its way home now, via the short, without ever bothering to go all the way through your amplifier. And so it does.
What if you bridge the 2 wires with a resistor instead? With a strong resistor, nothing happens — it's still easier for the charge to go through the amp. With a really weak resistor, the sound cuts out. With a resistor in the middle range, the sound will be quieted, but not completely muted, as the charge divides itself between short and signal pathways. Use a variable resistor, and you have a crude volume control: turn the resistance way up, the sound will be loud; turn it way down, the sound will vanish.
And here's where Charles had a clever idea: use a resistor that responds to light. Wave your hand in front of the photoresistor, and the volume will respond to the shadow of your hand. Mount a spinning disk with alternating clear and opaque bands in front of it, and the volume will follow the pattern on the disk, repeating as it spins. That's tremolo — a repeating variation in volume over time.
Intrigued? Want to try building one? I thought you might. Let's get started.
- Download the enclosure template.
- The circuit diagram is also available for download as a printable PDF.
- Download the sweep disk art (PDF) and print it onto an 8.5″×11″ transparency.
MAKE Volume 33 features our special Software for Makers section covering apps for circuit board design, 3D design and printing, microcontrollers, and programming for kids. Also, meet our new Arduino-powered Rovera robot and get started with Raspberry Pi. As usual, you'll also find fascinating makers inside, like the maniacs on our cover, the hackers behind the popular Power Racing Series events at Maker Faire.
Try your hand at 22 great DIY projects, like the Optical Tremolo guitar effects box, "Panjolele" cake-pan ukelele, Wii Nunchuk Mouse, CNC joinery tricks, treat-dispensing cat scratching post, laser-cut flexing wooden books, sake brewing, growing incredibly hot "ghost chili" peppers, and much more.
On newsstands now, by subscription, or available in the Maker Shed


text:
The second week of the preseason is when quarterback battles are supposed to be decided. Michael Vickmade his statement Thursday night. EJ Manuelall but ended the Buffalo Bills' battle Friday.
Manuel looked composed and accurate running the Bills' hurry-up offense for a second consecutive week, completing 10 of 12 passes. More importantly, Kevin Kolb did not look ready to change any minds on the Bills' coaching staff.
Kolb has missed time in training camp and needed a big performance to make up ground on Manuel. Instead, Kolb showed off some of the traits that sunk him on the Arizona Cardinals. He didn't make quick decisions or look comfortable in the pocket.
Manuel will have a hard time living up to last year's rookie class, but his performance leaves coach Doug Marrone no other choice.
Here's what else we learned Friday:
- Both Vikings quarterbacks continue to struggle. Christian Ponder made a few nice plays buying time in the pocket, but he also felt pressure when it wasn't there. The Vikings started the game with three consecutive three-and-outs. Ponder is 6-of-14 passing for just 68 yards with one interception in the preseason. Matt Cassel has not played any better.
- Perhaps this is just what the Vikings look like without Adrian Peterson. He was a healthy scratch for the game.
- Jerry Hughes started in place of Mario Williams and immediately made an impact, beating Matt Kalil for a sack of Ponder on the first snap of the game. Hughes added another sack later. The Bills need some of their secondary pass rushers to step up. Marcell Dareus and the entire Bills' defensive line had a dominant night.
- Bills rookie wide receiver Robert Woods is niftier with the ball in his hands than I expected. He had a big punt return and a 22-yard catch. You normally don't see starting receivers return punts, but Woods is a versatile player.
- You never would have known that Tom Brady hurt his knee two days ago. He looked razor sharp for the second consecutive week. Danny Amendola had five catches with Brady in the game in just two drives. Rookie tight end Zach Sudfeld continues to be a factor. It's a little scary how well the Patriots' offense has played in the preseason.
- Running back LeGarrette Blount is going to make the Patriots. He's playing with the first team and even catching passes. He's passed every test.
- Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman barely got to play. Mike Glennon, meanwhile, showed off his big arm and impressive ability to stand in the pocket against the pass rush. (Glennon also showed off some inaccuracy.)
- Bucs running back Doug Martin left the game after taking a knee to the helmet, but after the game, he clarified that he didn't suffer a concussion.
- Tim Tebow threw for negative yardage as the Patriots' No. 3 quarterback. At this point, even mentioning him feels like piling on. We were confident Tebow would make the team before the preseason, but now we're starting to wonder.
- Forget about the final score. The Saints jumped to a 23-0 lead by the second quarter, dominating the Raiders in every facet. Matt Flynn never had a chance, getting buried for five sacks in the first half. Flynn somewhat salvaged his day with a nice touchdown drive to end the second quarter.
- It's safe to say Drew Brees is ready. The Saints quarterback was on pace for a 588-yard passing day at the end of the first quarter. He finished 14-of-18 passing with 202 yards and one touchdown in five series.
- Terrelle Pryor doesn't look like a real option for the Raiders. He completed one pass and found little success running the read option over three series. Pryor also struggled in the face of pressure, nearly throwing an ugly interception following a bad snap, then getting called for intentional grounding two plays later.
- Steve Breaston could find himself the odd man out in the Saints' wide receiver mix. Kenny Stills (four catches, 64 yards, TD) and Nick Toon (56-yard reception) both outplayed the veteran.
- Not a great NOLA homecoming for Tracy Porter. The Raiders' starting right corner and Saints' Super Bowl XLIII hero was helped off the field in the second quarter after suffering a groin injury.
- Alex Smith didn't do much damage against his former team. The Chiefs quarterback played the entire first half, managing just 62 yards on 16 passing attempts.
- Only one series for Colin Kaepernick. In fact, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh trotted out three quarterbacks in the first three series. Kaepernick has played just two series in two games, but he'll likely get a much longer look next week.
- You can call off the Jon Baldwin search party. We found him in Kansas City. Baldwin was targeted three times, but he failed to make a catch. Baldwin also had an egregious drop on a Smith pass that hit him directly between the numbers. The former first-round draft pick is looking at real estate in Bustville.
- Quintin Demps had the most electrifying play of the night, a 104-yard kickoff return for a Chiefs touchdown in the first quarter. That's a good way to lock down a roster spot.
- Speaking of potential first-round busts, A.J. Jenkins was held without a catch for the 49ers. He did have a 21-yard reception wiped out by a penalty. The powers that be in San Francisco will keep that in mind.
The Around The League Podcast is now available on iTunes! Click here to listen and subscribe.


text:
File Format
As with remote OS detection (-O
Nmap uses a flat file to store the version
detection probes and match strings. While the version of
distributed with
Nmap is sufficient for most users,
understanding the file format allows advanced
Nmap hackers to add their own services to
the detection engine. Like many Unix files,
is line-oriented. Lines
starting with a hash (#) are treated as
and ignored by the
parser. Blank lines are ignored as well. Other lines must contain
one of the directives described below. Some readers prefer to peek at
the examples in the section called "Putting It All Together"
before tackling the following dissection.
Syntax: Exclude
<port specification>
Exclude 53,T:9100,U:30000-40000
This directive excludes the specified ports from the version
scan. It can only be used once and should be near the top of the file,
above any Probe directives. The Exclude directive uses the same
format as the Nmap -p
switch, so ranges and comma
separated lists of ports are supported. In the
included with
Nmap the only ports excluded are TCP port 9100 through 9107.
These are common ports for
to listen on and they often print
any data sent to them. So a version detection scan can cause
them to print many pages full of probes that Nmap sends, such as
SunRPC requests, help statements, and X11 probes.
This behavior is often undesirable, especially when a scan is
meant to be stealthy. However, Nmap's default behavior of avoiding
scanning this port can make it easier for a sneaky user to hide a
service: simply run it on an excluded port such as 9100 and it is less
likely to be identified by name. The port scan will still show it as
open. Users can override the Exclude directive with the
option. This causes version detection to
interrogate all open ports.
Syntax: Probe
Probe TCP GetRequest q|GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n| Probe UDP DNSStatusRequest q|\0\0\x10\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0| Probe TCP NULL q|| Probe UDP Sqlping q|\x02| no-payload
The Probe directive tells Nmap what string to send to recognize various services. All of the directives discussed later operate on the most recent Probe
statement. The arguments are as follows:
This must be either
. Nmap only uses probes that match the protocol of the service it is trying to scan.<probename>
This is a plain English name for the probe. It is used in service fingerprints to describe which probes elicited responses.
Tells Nmap what to send. It must start with a
, then a delimiter character which begins and ends the string. Between the delimiter characters is the string that is actually sent. It is formatted similarly to a C or Perl string in that it allows the following standard escape characters:\\
, and\xHH
is any hexadecimal digit). OneProbe
line innmap-service-probes
has an empty probe string, as shown in the third example above. This is the TCP NULL probe which just listens for the initial banners that many services send. If your delimiter character (|
in these examples) is needed for your probe string, you need to choose a different delimiter.- [
] This keyword is used to instruct Nmap not to use the given probe as a protocol-specific payload during UDP port scanning. The
probe, for instance, sometimes triggers IDS alerts for "MS-SQL ping attempt."
Syntax: match
match ftp m/^220.*Welcome to .*Pure-?FTPd (\d\S+\s*)/ p/Pure-FTPd/ v/$1/ cpe:/a:pureftpd:pure-ftpd:$1/ match ssh m/^SSH-([\d.]+)-OpenSSH[_-]([\w.]+)\r?\n/i p/OpenSSH/ v/$2/ i/protocol $1/ cpe:/a:openbsd:openssh:$2/ match mysql m|^\x10\0\0\x01\xff\x13\x04Bad handshake$| p/MySQL/ cpe:/a:mysql:mysql/ match chargen m|@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ| match uucp m|^login: login: login: $| p/NetBSD uucpd/ o/NetBSD/ cpe:/o:netbsd:netbsd/a match printer m|^([\w-_.]+): lpd: Illegal service request\n$| p/lpd/ h/$1/ match afs m|^[\d\D]{28}\s*(OpenAFS)([\d\.]{3}[^\s\0]*)\0| p/$1/ v/$2/
The match directive tells Nmap how to recognize services based on responses to the string sent by the previous Probe
directive. A single Probe
line may be followed by dozens or hundreds of match
statements. If the given pattern matches, an optional version specifier builds the application name, version number, and additional info for Nmap to report. The arguments to this directive follow:
This is simply the service name that the pattern matches. Examples would be
, orsnmp
. As a special case, you can prefix the service name withssl/
, as inssl/vmware-auth
. In that case, the service would be stored asvmware-auth
tunneled by SSL. This is useful for services which can be fully recognized without the overhead of making an SSL connection.<pattern>
This pattern is used to determine whether the response received matches the service given in the previous parameter. The format is like Perl, with the syntax being
. The "m" tells Nmap that a match string is beginning. The forward slash (/
) is a delimiter, which can be substituted by almost any printable character as long as the second slash is also replaced to match. The regex is a Perl-style regular expression. This is made possible by the excellent Perl Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE) library (http://www.pcre.org
). The only options currently supported are 'i
', which makes a match case-insensitive and 's
' which includes newlines in the '.' specifier. As you might expect, these two options have the same semantics as in Perl. Subexpressions to be captured (such as version numbers) are surrounded by parentheses as shown in most of the examples above.<versioninfo>
section actually contains several optional fields. Each field begins with an identifying letter (such as<versioninfo>
for "hostname"). Next comes a delimiter character which the signature writer chooses. The preferred delimiter is slash ('/'
) unless that is used in the field itself. Next comes the field value, followed by the delimiter character. The following table describes the six fields:Table 7.1.versioninfo
field formats and valuesField format Value description p/vendorproductname/
Includes the vendor and often service name and is of the form "Sun Solaris rexecd", "ISC BIND named", or "Apache httpd". v/version/
The application version "number", which may include non-numeric characters and even multiple words. i/info/
Miscellaneous further information which was immediately available and might be useful. Examples include whether an X server is open to unauthenticated connections, or the protocol number of SSH servers. h/hostname/
The hostname (if any) offered up by a service. This is common for protocols such as SMTP and POP3 and is useful because these hostnames may be for internal networks or otherwise differ from the straightforward reverse DNS responses. o/operatingsystem/
The operating system the service is running on. This may legitimately be different than the OS reported by Nmap IP stack based OS detection. For example, the target IP might be a Linux box which uses network address translation to forward requests to an Microsoft IIS server in the DMZ. In this case, stack OS detection should report the OS as Linux, while service detection reports port 80 as being Windows. d/devicetype/
The type of device the service is running on, a string like "print server" or "webcam". Some services disclose this information, and it can be inferred in many more cases. For example, the HP-ChaiServer web server only runs on printers. For a full list of device types, see the section called "Device Types". cpe:/cpename/[a]
A CPE name for some aspect of the service. This may be used multiple times; it's conceivable to be able to identify not only the service ( cpe:/a
names) but also the operating system (cpe:/o
names) and hardware platform (cpe:/h
names) as well. The trailing slash is not part of CPE syntax but is included to match the format of other fields. See the section called "Common Platform Enumeration (CPE)" for more information about CPE.Any of the fields can be omitted. In fact, all of the fields can be omitted if no further information on the service is available. Any of the version fields can include numbered strings such as $1 or $2, which are replaced (in a Perl-like fashion) with the corresponding parenthesized substring in the
. Withincpe://
templates, such substitutions are transformed as follows: certain characters such as the colon are escaped; spaces are converted to underscores, and all characters are made lower case.In rare cases, a helper function can be applied to the replacement text before insertion. The following table describes the three helper functions available:
Table 7.2.versioninfo
helper functions
Syntax: softmatch
softmatch ftp m/^220 [-.\w ]+ftp.*\r\n$/i softmatch smtp m|^220 [-.\w ]+SMTP.*\r\n| softmatch pop3 m|^\+OK [-\[\]\(\)!,/+:<>@.\w ]+\r\n$|
The softmatch directive is similar in format to the match directive
discussed above. The main difference is that scanning continues after
a softmatch, but it is limited to probes that are known to match the
given service. This allows for a normal ("hard") match to be found
later, which may provide useful version information. See the section called "Technique Described" for more details on how
this works. Arguments are not defined here because they are the same
as for match
above, except that there is never a <versioninfo>
argument. Also as with match
, many softmatch
statements can exist within a single Probe
and sslports
Syntax: ports
ports 21,43,110,113,199,505,540,1248,5432,30444 ports 111,4045,32750-32810,38978
This line tells Nmap what ports the services identified by this
probe are commonly found on. It should only be used once within each Probe
section. The syntax is a slightly simplified
version of that taken by the Nmap -p
option. See the examples above.
More details on how this works are in the section called "Technique Described".
Syntax: sslports
sslports 443
This is the same as 'ports
' directive described above, except that these ports are often used to wrap a service in SSL. For example, the HTTP
probe declares "sslports 443
" and SMTP-detecting
probes have an "sslports 465
" line because those
are the standard ports for HTTPS and SMTPS respectively. The <portlist>
format is the same as with ports
. This optional directive cannot appear more than once per Probe
Syntax: totalwaitms
totalwaitms 6000
This rarely necessary directive specifies the amount of time Nmap
should wait before giving up on the most recently defined Probe
against a
particular service. The Nmap default is usually fine.
Syntax: tcpwrappedms
tcpwrappedms 3000
This directive is only used for the Null probe. If a service closes the
TCP connection before this timer runs out, then the service is labeled
. Otherwise, matching continues as usual.
Syntax: rarity
<value between 1 and 9>
rarity 6
The rarity directive roughly corresponds to how infrequently this probe can be expected to return useful results. The higher the number, the more rare the probe is considered and the less likely it is to be tried against a service. More details can be found in the section called "Probe Selection and Rarity".
Syntax: fallback
<Comma separated list of probes>
fallback GetRequest,GenericLines
This optional directive specifies which probes should be used as fallbacks for if there are no matches in the current Probe section. For more information on fallbacks see the section called "Cheats and Fallbacks". For TCP probes without a fallback directive, Nmap first tries match lines in the probe itself and then does an implicit fallback to the NULL probe. If the fallback directive is present, Nmap first tries match lines from the probe itself, then those from the probes specified in the fallback directive (from left to right). Finally, Nmap will try the NULL probe. For UDP the behavior is identical except that the NULL probe is never tried.
Putting It All Together
Here are some examples from nmap-service-probes
which put this all together (to save space many lines have been skipped). After reading this far into the section, the following should be understood.
# The Exclude directive takes a comma separated list of ports. # The format is exactly the same as the -p switch. Exclude T:9100-9107 # This is the NULL probe that just compares any banners given to us ##############################NEXT PROBE############################## Probe TCP NULL q|| # Wait for at least 5 seconds for data. Otherwise an Nmap default is used. totalwaitms 5000 # Windows 2003 match ftp m/^220[ -]Microsoft FTP Service\r\n/ p/Microsoft ftpd/ match ftp m/^220 ProFTPD (\d\S+) Server/ p/ProFTPD/ v/$1/ softmatch ftp m/^220 [-.\w ]+ftp.*\r\n$/i match ident m|^flock\(\) on closed filehandle .*midentd| p/midentd/ i/broken/ match imap m|^\* OK Welcome to Binc IMAP v(\d[-.\w]+)| p/Binc IMAPd/ v$1/ softmatch imap m/^\* OK [-.\w ]+imap[-.\w ]+\r\n$/i match lucent-fwadm m|^0001;2$| p/Lucent Secure Management Server/ match meetingmaker m/^\xc1,$/ p/Meeting Maker calendaring/ # lopster 184.108.40.206 on Linux 1.1 match napster m|^1$| p/Lopster Napster P2P client/ Probe UDP Help q|help\r\n\r\n| rarity 3 ports 7,13,37 match chargen m|@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ| match echo m|^help\r\n\r\n$|


text:
It is nothing short of a world record in DNA research that scientists at the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark (University of Copenhagen) have hit. They have sequenced the so far oldest genome from a prehistoric creature. They have done so by sequencing and analyzing short pieces of DNA molecules preserved in bone-remnants from a horse that had been kept frozen for the last 700.000 years in the permafrost of Yukon, Canada. By tracking the genomic changes that transformed prehistoric wild horses into domestic breeds, the researchers have revealed the genetic make-up of modern horses with unprecedented details. The spectacular results are now published in the international scientific journal Nature.
First, by comparing the genome in the 700,000 year old horse with the genome of a 43,000 year old horse, six present day horses and the donkey the researchers could estimate how fast mutations accumulate through time and calibrate a genome-wide mutation rate. This revealed that the last common ancestor of all modern equids was living about 4.0-4.5 million years ago. Therefore, the evolutionary radiation underlying the origin of horses, donkeys and zebras reaches back in time twice as long as previously thought. Additionally, this new clock revealed multiple episodes of severe demographic fluctuation in horse history, in phase with major climatic changes such as the Last Glacial Maximum, some 20,000 years ago.I'll add the paper abstract later.
Nature (2013) doi:10.1038/nature12323
Recalibrating Equus evolution using the genome sequence of an early Middle Pleistocene horse
Ludovic Orlando et al.
The rich fossil record of equids has made them a model for evolutionary processes1. Here we present a 1.12-times coverage draft genome from a horse bone recovered from permafrost dated to approximately 560–780 thousand years before present (kyr BP)2, 3. Our data represent the oldest full genome sequence determined so far by almost an order of magnitude. For comparison, we sequenced the genome of a Late Pleistocene horse (43?kyr BP), and modern genomes of five domestic horse breeds (Equus ferus caballus), a Przewalski's horse (E. f. przewalskii) and a donkey (E. asinus). Our analyses suggest that the Equus lineage giving rise to all contemporary horses, zebras and donkeys originated 4.0–4.5?million years before present (Myr BP), twice the conventionally accepted time to the most recent common ancestor of the genus Equus4, 5. We also find that horse population size fluctuated multiple times over the past 2?Myr, particularly during periods of severe climatic changes. We estimate that the Przewalski's and domestic horse populations diverged 38–72?kyr BP, and find no evidence of recent admixture between the domestic horse breeds and the Przewalski's horse investigated. This supports the contention that Przewalski's horses represent the last surviving wild horse population6. We find similar levels of genetic variation among Przewalski's and domestic populations, indicating that the former are genetically viable and worthy of conservation efforts. We also find evidence for continuous selection on the immune system and olfaction throughout horse evolution. Finally, we identify 29 genomic regions among horse breeds that deviate from neutrality and show low levels of genetic variation compared to the Przewalski's horse. Such regions could correspond to loci selected early during domestication.


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Buy an Axon, Axon II, or Axon Mote and build a great robot, while helping to support SoR.
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My last project is to create a HumBot, a robot hummer (model) car which can find its own way through a obstacle track.
Ok, I get it. I'm not familiar with the 50$ robot yet, I was just reading the tutorial...Yes, the HummBot will use a DC motor for propulsion and a servo for steering, both controlled by an Arduino board.I plan to control the DC motor via an H-bridge.Btw. this is the most active robotic forum I've ever visited. It's great to see all the fast responses and comments. Excellent!
Be sure to mention SoR on your blog if we happen to help you Wink
If you feel confident enough (I've seen on your blog that this is not your first robot) you should start with your humbot right away.Using H-bridges and DC motors instead of servo's isn't THAT hard. And using the Arduino board is a great experience.


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• enervate •
Pronunciation: en-êr-vayt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb, transitive
Meaning: 1. (Medicine) To remove a nerve. 2. To deprive of vitality or energy.
Notes: Today's word lies close to a trap that catches many of us: the confusion of this Good Word with its near antonym, innervate "to inject with vitality and energy". (This problem parallels the confusion of ensure "to make sure" and insure "to guarantee value by purchasing insurance".) The action noun for today's word is enervation and the actor noun, enervator "someone who drains vitality or energy from an endeavor". Enervative is the adjective.
In Play: Outside the hospital, this verb may be used metaphorically to refer to many kinds of weakening: "The new offer, which included the company yacht, enervated the last bit of resistance to the sale". Both these words find many applications in business (so long as they are not confused): "The replacement of our president innervated every level of our company while enervating our competitors."
Word History: This Good Word is built on the past participle, enervatus, of the Latin verb, enervare "to weaken by removing the sinews", from e(x)- "out of' + nervus "sinew", the source of our word nerve. The same root which produced nervus turned up in Greek as neuron "sinew", borrowed by English for its word neuron, a type of brain cell. The origin of the Latin and Greek words is PIE (s)neu- "tendon, sinew" with a Fickle S. It is also the source of Sanskrit snavan- "band, sinew", Armenian neard "sinew", English sinew, Dutch zenuw "nerve, sinew", and German Sehne "tendon, sinew".
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!


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Billie Jean King believes standing up to discrimination is the best way to combat it, so she had no hesitation joining the U.S. delegation for the Sochi Olympics.
King will help lead the delegation in the opening ceremony Feb. 7 at the Sochi Games, which has been overshadowed by a recent anti-gay law in Russia, calls for a boycott and criticism from human rights groups.
"It took about 10 seconds," King told The Associated Press on Wednesday about deciding to go to Sochi. "It sends a strong message that America is very diverse. We are here, and surrogates as athletes and gay athletes. We reflect part of America. Maybe we'll be a voice for people who don't feel they can be a voice yet."
She'll be joined on the delegation by two openly gay former Olympic athletes — figure skater Brian Boitano and hockey player Caitlin Cahow. In June, Russia passed a law banning gay "propaganda" to minors.
King said she'll walk in the opening ceremony, attend ice hockey and figure skating events and meet U.S. athletes during her three-day visit to the games. The openly gay former tennis star said she'd like sexual orientation added to the list of protections in the charter of the International Olympic Committee.
"I'm all excited about meeting different athletes and watching them do what they do," King told the AP in an exclusive phone interview from her home in New York. "The Olympics is foremost about the athletes coming together, and they have worked so hard for this moment to be representing their country and competing.
"That's the essence of what it's about."
U.S. & World
There's the possibility of consequences if an athlete wears a rainbow pin or carries a rainbow flag in Sochi.
"I don't want any athlete getting in trouble, although I think they should do anything they want," she said. "Before I knew about Rule 50, I thought it would be sweet to wave some flags or something. But they can get in big trouble and have their medal taken away and also be sent home."
Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter for states: "No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas."
President Barack Obama has been publicly critical of the Russian anti-gay law and President Vladimir Putin's "cold-war" mentality on other issues. For the first time since 2000, the U.S. delegation to the Olympics will not include a president, former president, vice president or first lady.
First lady Michelle Obama led the U.S. delegation at the 2012 London Games; Vice President Joe Biden presided at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics; and President George W. Bush attended the 2008 Beijing Games.
The presidents of Germany and France are among leaders not traveling to the Olympics.
So King, a social justice trailblazer who won 39 Grand Slam titles in her career, was tapped to enter the fray involving the delicate balance of Olympic sports and politics. Call it diplomacy through diversity.
"Maybe we'll help the LGBT community in Russia, I hope there will be a connection for them and help them not feel alone and disenfranchised," King said. "Personally, I hope it helps the movement take another step forward so people will realize we're just like everybody else. It should be a non-issue. It's just like people of color in our country and other places, it has to be a non-issue."
King is no stranger to the Obama administration. In 2009, she kissed the Medal of Freedom that Obama draped around her neck upon receiving the country's highest civilian honor. She's also a member of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, and involved with Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign to reduce childhood obesity.
As an 18-year-old, King played tennis in Russia and returned several times throughout her career.
"The Russian people have always been so wonderful to me, personally," she said.
With King serving as Olympic coach, the U.S. women's tennis teams won gold in singles and doubles at the 2000 Sydney and 1996 Atlanta Games.
King said the WTA was criticized about women's rights issues a few years ago when it moved its championship to Doha, Qatar.
"I don't believe in boycotting. That's more reason to go," King said. "The only way you break down barriers is by being there and meeting people and getting these issues out on the table — doing it in an appropriate and diplomatic way."
Although the Russian government has given the IOC assurances about the safety and well-being of gay athletes and visitors during the Olympics, competitors will enter a twilight zone of mixed messages in Sochi. The Olympic Charter calls for no discrimination by participating countries; Russia says it will essentially put on hold the anti-gay law during the 18-day international event; and last month the IOC cited Rule 50 to remind athletes to refrain from political gestures.
Last week, Putin rescinded a ban on demonstrations in and around the Sochi Olympics and Paralympics. However, any approved demonstrations are expected to be restricted to "protest zones" far from Olympic venues.
Gay rights groups say the law encourages harassment and violence toward LGBT people in Russia. In 2012, the country banned adoption of Russian children by U.S. parents, and gay activists are concerned the ban will extend to the LGBT community after the games.
"I just think it's important that we're seen and we're out and we're free," King said. "I hope that I'll meet people, maybe in Russia, who are concerned and have discussions. There's nothing like meeting people in person and just listening to them and exchanging information and building relationships."
At 70, King is ready to take center stage again.


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January 2014
"The Story of Sprawl" Is a Collection of Historic Films That Show How America Has Changed Shape
This 2-disc set is an unprecedented visual document of how sprawl happened, told through a series of historic films ranging from 1939's The City, created by famed planner Lewis Mumford, to No Time For Ugliness from 1965, produced by the American Institute of Architects. With specially-recorded commentary from notable authors, academics, and architects like James Howard Kunstler, Andrés Duany, Jacky Grimshaw, and many more. In planning circles, it is fashionable to debate the merits or drawbacks of the spread of suburban living that happened in the 20th century. What isn't up for debate is that it happened - from the early '40s until the beginning of the 21st century, the American pattern of development changed radically.
We will be viewing and discussing Disc 1, comprising:
- The Story of Sprawl (3 minutes)
Introduction by Tim Halbur of Congress for the New Urbanism - Chapter 1 - The City, 1939 (31:10 minutes)
Commentary by James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere and Duncan Crary of the Institute for Humanist Studies - Chapter 2 - Cities: How They Grow, 1952 (9:08 minutes)
Commentary by Anthony Flint, author of This Land:The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America - Chapter 3 - Homes for Veterans, 1946 (Edited, 13:53 minutes)
Commentary by Mark D.Van Ells, author of To Hear Only Thunder Again: America's World War II Veterans Come Home - Chapter 4 - For the Living, 1949 (21:09 minutes)
Commentary by Prof. Jackie Leavitt and Prof. Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris of UCLA's Dept. of Urban Planning
Date & Time
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
10:30 a.m. - Noon
4th Floor Board RoomCounty Administration Building (CAB)
14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772


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Can YouTube stop Russian corruption? Policeman's video appeal to Putin
MOSCOW – Early this month Alexei Dymovsky, a police officer in the southern city of Novorossisk, posted a series of angry "open letters" in video form addressed to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (in Russian), in which he accused his superiors of shrugging off corruption, fabricating crime statistics, and abusing their positions.
"My immediate superior promoted me to the rank of major in May in exchange for my promise to jail an innocent person," he said in one. "I am appealing to you [Putin] to carry out an independent investigation across Russia."
The Novorossisk police department subsequently fired Mr. Dymovsky, and denied all of his allegations.
But his action has spawned dozens of imitators around Russia, and persuaded the Interior Ministry to open a probe into his case. (See Dymovsky's first posting, with English subtitles, here.) The rise of such grass-roots anticorruption activities has attracted massive attention in Russia's still uncensored Internet.
Some experts argue that nothing will change until there is fundamental reform of the political system, which has grown increasingly centralized and tightly controlled over the past decade.
"The sources of corruption in Russia are bound up with the very foundations of the political system, which features an unaccountable bureaucracy and empowers individuals through informal, nontransparent arrangements," with officialdom, says Masha Lipman, an expert with the Carnegie Center in Moscow.
"You want prices to come down?" she asks. "That should happen when there's competition, but it won't work that way in Russia until there is some accountability, transparency and open democracy in the system of power."
Read more here about corruption in Russia – a problem that costs Russians as much as $318 billion per year, or more than one-third the gross domestic product (GDP).


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Here is episode seventeen of the LEGO NINJAGO story, which is the continuation of the previous episodes of LEGO NINJAGO Rise of the Snakes. This episode is called "NINJABALL RUN". This NINJAGO episode may also be referred to as NINJAGO Season 3 – Episode 4, or NINJAGO Masters of Spinjitzu Episode 17 (the official title), or NINJAGO Rise of the Snakes Episode 17, or NINJAGO Darkness Shall Rise – Episode 4. Whichever you prefer. 😉
You can see the first trailer for this season's episodes here: LEGO NINJAGO – Season 3 Trailer. And the second, extended trailer with episode-summaries here: LEGO NINJAGO Season 3 – New Trailer!
The story continues with the ninja learning that Dareth's Mojo Dojo is going to be demolished and Dareth doesn't have the money to save it, the ninja enter the annual NinjaBall Run to win the cash-prize in order to save the dojo. Will they be successful? 😉
LEGO NINJAGO Episode 17 – NinjaBall Run
➡ Watch Episode 14 here: NINJAGO Episode 14 – Darkness Shall Rise
➡ Watch Episode 15 here: NINJAGO Episode 15 – Pirates vs. Ninja
➡ Watch Episode 16 here: NINJAGO Episode 16 – Double Trouble
➡ Watch Episode 18 here: NINJAGO Episode 18 – Child's Play
➡ Watch Episode 19 here: Episode 19 – Wrong Place, Wrong Time
➡ Watch Episode 20 here: NINJAGO Episode 20 – The Stone Army
➡ Watch Episode 21 here: Episode 21 – The Day Ninjago Stood Still
➡ Watch Episode 22 here: NINJAGO Episode 22 – The Last Voyage
➡ Watch Episode 23 here: NINJAGO Episode 23 – Island of Darkness
➡ Watch Episode 24 here: NINJAGO Episode 24 – The Last Hope
➡ Watch Episode 25 here: NINJAGO Episode 25 – Return of the Overlord
➡ Watch Episode 26 here: Episode 26 – Rise of the Spinjitzu Master
You may also like to check out the LEGO NINJAGO section for more news, reviews, videos and discussions, or select from these related posts:


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Your Link to In-Home Health Care
EUP Home Health & Hospice is your link to quality health care in the comfort of your own home. We deliver highly-trained nurses, therapists, home health aides and more...directly to your door.
For more than 70 years, our parent organization, Chippewa County Health Department, has provided excellent home health care services. We are accredited by CHAP (Community Health Accreditation Program) to assure that we meet the highest standards in home health services. We are also Medicare certified.
Our location: Wherever you are, we have a team of home health & hospice specialists who can help you.
Our commitment: We care for all who need and seek our care. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for our patients, their families, and for admissions.
Our staff: Dedicated nurses, social workers, therapists and home health aides form a "cocoon of care" around our patients and families.They provide the perfect balance of compassion and expertise.
EUP Home Health & Hospice is a service of the Chippewa County Health Department. We provide home health and hospice services in Chippewa county.


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Back in 2000 I had the honor of writing a vision paper for ASTD and the National Governor's Association called "Into the Future". I included some of my thoughts and excitement at the time about the notion of augmenting our eyes by having additional layers of information overlaid on top of what we are "really" seeing. I described things like being able to walk around the ruins of an ancient city and be able to see drawings, photos and video of what it would have looked like hundreds of years before. In the years since my excitement has continued to grow and I've written more and more articles on this and all other forms of augmenting our "cognitive capacities" and there have been more and more advances on transforming this vision into reality.
Google has just released an update on their work on "Project Glass" and some new prototypes they are testing with wider audiences now. One of their new examples can be seen in these photos for a pair of frames that sit above your eyes and provide information by looking up or another pair of more traditional glasses where the information is projected onto the clear glass lenses.
Nick Bolton provides a more comprehensive overview of this type of augmented reality in his NYT "Bits" article "Google begins testing its Augmented Reality glasses". Personally I'm more excited and interested in future models Nick also notes of wearable and imbedded technology such as the contact lenses pictured here. I've posted previous articles with more of my thoughts on these such as this one on "Augmented Reality in Contact Lenses".
Personally I will also welcome and be first in line for things like embedded ear buds that would give me additional sound and control to augment what I am hearing and a similar form of embedded microphones to augment my speech and vocal output. Begin to imagine having a camera, earphones and microphone literally "on you" or "in you" at all times?!
I'm pretty confident that groups of bright people all over the world will continue to develop every better augmented reality technology at an exponential rate and in all cases I think the greater challenge befalls the rest of us to begin figuring out how to use these well and how to deal with the inevitable pitfalls and more negative consequences all great innovations and inventions bring with them.
For example how will we deal with this significant additional increase in the information at our avail? In some of the more negative initial reactions to Google's update some have already begun to worry about the likelihood that our eyes will be "augmented" with even more marketing images and this is a legitimate and inevitable concern.
However these new forms of information delivery and consumption are inevitable IMHO and so let's just get over it and get on with it! WE get to chose how to use these new tools and information influx. As Clay Shirky put it so well; "There's no such thing as information overload, just filter failure". While there is no question we have lots of progress to make in overcoming "filter failure", we ARE making progress and it seems to me that failure is the root of most learning so it is all good.
So let's continue to develop better ways of filtering information in the Snowflake Effect tradition of getting just the right information for just the right person at just the right time in just the right context, and so on. We certainly have as much more more learning and creative thinking to do in coming up with new habits, conventions and techniques that will ensure that exponential innovation also leads to exponentially better living and learning!
Let's start thinking about what an incredible way of augmenting our learning these kinds of "glasses" can be by enabling us to add additional information to what we are seeing before us. And note how Google's Project Glass also includes a wearable camera. This makes taking pictures and video more instantly available anywhere, anytime and more transparently for us in that we would always have a camera available to capture serendipitous moments and memories by simply blinking our eyes or some other simple gesture. While there is always the "scary" part of how this can and will be used, this capability will also let us continue to live more IN life's moments, enabling us to learn and live life more fully in the process.
It will take us many years to develop new conventions for all these kinds of new technology as well such as how do we best 'interface" with them for things like gesture based control with our eyes. How do we learn to use these to improve our connections with others and not interfere? Gee, if you think people's behavior with the use of cell phones and texting in the middle of a conversation are a problem just imagine what it will be like when we don't even have to look away or down to see that new call coming in!!
As usual, it all comes back to and down to each of us snowflakes. WE are the ones who are responsible for our own behaviors and need to learn how to use and control the tools and technology we are surrounded by such that they increase our connections and conversations with the other special snowflakes around us.
I for one could not be more excited by both the new technology arriving daily and the new challenges and learning that lies before us and in many ways is already here. The best way I know of to counter FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt) is to run TOWARDS it rather than away from it by increasing our curiosity and learning of things we don't know.


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Ticket Sales & Shuttle Service Announced For T-High/Arkansas Game
You need to get your tickets early for this years cross town rivalry between the Tigers and the Razorbacks.No tickets will be sold at the gate on game night. This years game kicks off at 8 p.m. Friday night at Tiger Stadium at Grim Park.
AHS fans can purchase reserved tickets until noon on Friday at the Razorback Athletic Office located at 1920 East 18th Street. Ticket prices are $7 and $8 dollars.
THS fans can purchase tickets Tuesday and Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. or until sold out. Ticket prices again are $7 and $8 dollars.
THS student (high school only) game tickets are $3 and can be purchased during lunch on Thursday and Friday at Texas High School.
Free Shuttle bus services to and from Tiger Stadium will be offered by both school districts. Riders must have a game ticket for boarding. Seats will be on a first come first serve basis and security will be provided at all parking sites during the evening. All shuttle riders will go through security screening upon boarding and will bypass stadium security screening.
Arkansas High fans will board at Razorback Stadium beginning at 6:30 p.m. and be dropped off at the Southeast side of Tiger Stadium. Return shuttles will begin at half time and run untill all fans are returned to their vehicles.
Texas side shuttles will begin at 6:00 p.m. and run continuously through the evening. Tiger fans can board the shuttle at the THS Student Parking Lot at 4001 Summerhill Road and will be dropped off at a special North side entrance at Tiger Stadium.


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Does your Environment Color your Writing? Because I've always lived in the shadow of mountains, mountains always shadow my writing. This is especially true in Light Bringer
The story begins when a baby is found on the doorstep of a remote cabin in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains and continues years later when the foundling, now an adult, returns to the high country to find out who she is. The mountains in my novel are both protective and secretive — the hills protect those who live in their shadow, yet the mountains also harbor terrible and awesome secrets that threaten those same people.
Whenever I needed a hiding place for the secrets of the ages in Light Bringer, I searched maps for isolated mountain ranges and ended up with a library beneath the Ahaggar Mountains in Algeria, ancient artifacts beneath the Beishanmai Mountains in the Gobi Desert, and experimental spacecraft beneath the McDonnell Ranges in Australia. I'd heard about the mountains in Australia where the experiments were being done, and in my research I'd come across hints of what lay beneath the Ahaggar Mountains, but the Gobi location was strictly a guess, though later I discovered that in fact, caves deep inside the Beishanmai Mountains were repositories for ancient treasures.
Maybe the mountains themselves were helping with the book.
Here are some responses from other authors about how their environment colors their writing. The comments are taken from interviews posted at Pat Bertram Introduces . . .
From an interview with: J. P. Lane, Author of "The Tangled Web"
I've traveled from an early age and I've lived in several countries, so maybe that's the reason The Tangled Web trots around the world a bit. I chose Prague as one of the locations because I'd been to Prague the year before I started writing it and the memories were still fresh. The familiarity with the Hispanic characters comes from having lived in Miami for twenty years and having had a lot of Hispanic friends and work associates. I also lived in Puerto Rico at one point. And there's the Jamaican dialect in the book. Only someone who's lived in Jamaica for some length of time could write that.
From an interview with: Dale Cozort, Author of "Exchange"
I grew up in a fair-sized city, but I spent a lot of time with relatives in the country, so I probably write rural life a little more authentically than someone without that experience. I also have a computer background, so there is always a little bit of the techie in my stories. I have to dial that back so it doesn't get in the way of the story.
From an interview with: Sherrie Hansen Decker, Author of "Love Notes"
Love Notes is my first Christian inspirational novel and certainly reflects some of my deepest beliefs about my Christian heritage. In other of my books, the main characters have been rebelling against the very faith Hope clings to in Love Notes. So yes, my Christian beliefs definitely color my writing, whether in shades of guilt or hope. In Love Notes, I love it that Hope's strong faith is intact even though she's lost everything dear to her, including her husband, who died in a tragic car accident. Tommy has everything a man could want, yet he is cynical and discontented and very short on faith. In the end, Tommy finds hope, joy, peace, and love where he least expects it — as have I on several occasions!
What about you? How Does your Environment Color your Writing?
(If you'd like me to interview you, please check out my author questionnaire)


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According to independent Android app tracker AndroLib.com, Google's Android Market is now home to over 200,000 apps. The site also reports that the Market's apps have been collectively downloaded over 2.5 billion times. The news should hardly come as a surprise, of course, as developers are becoming increasingly focused on Android, which is poised to become the most popular smartphone platform in the U.S. early next year. Android's global market share is skyrocketing as well, having gained a whopping 22% of the world's smartphone market between the third quarters of 2009 and 2010 alone.
[Via Softpedia]


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Lookin' to get together and lift with some like-minded fellas? Other Animals? Welcome to the ABCs of lifting--The Animal Barbell Club...
ABCs & 123s--what they are, how they're run, what to do, how to get one started...
Down Under ABC
03-14-16, 12:36 pm
Got some pics from your local Animal Barbell Club event? Share with the rest of us.
Chicago - 2.7.10 Jakked Hardcore
02-06-17, 1:51 pm
News, updates, announcements and everything else about the Animal Barbell Clubs.
REbuilding ABC - PHILIPPINES
06-01-15, 12:40 am
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Research at IARC relates to public health with epidemiology as its core discipline. There is well documented agreement that epidemiological studies involving patients or participants from healthy populations should receive the same rigour of ethical review as any clinical study. IARC has a duty to show leadership in ensuring that its studies are beyond ethical reproach. The IARC Ethics Committee (IEC) meets every two months to evaluate IARC project proposals and ensure that the ethics process is respected.
Link to the IARC Ethics Committee website.


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"Investigating neutron polarizabilities and NN scattering in heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory."
Background:Deepshikha Choudhury (Shukla) received a B.Sc (Hons.) from Cotton College, Guwahati, India in 1995 and a M.Sc. (Physics) from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India in 1997. Thereafter, she joined Ohio University, Athens, OH in 2001 for a doctoral degree in Physics, which she completed in 2006. At Ohio University, under the guidance of Prof. Daniel R. Phillips, she focused on using Compton scattering on light nuclei (A  3) in order to devise roadmaps that would enable the experimental extraction of neutron electromagnetic polarizabilities. As a graduate student she won the 2004 Ohio University Student Enhancement Award that provides individual research grants to graduate students.
She joined the Department of Physics at the George Washington University at Washington, DC as a post-doctoral researcher in Nov. 2006. Here, together with Prof. Harald W. Griesshammer, she is currently working on Effective Field Theory techniques in the study of various physical processes involving few-nucleon systems.


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Export 5 results:
Filters: Author is Siddharth Vikal [Clear All Filters]
Perk Station-Percutaneous surgery training and performance measurement platform.
Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics. 34, 19-32. Vikal2009a.pdf (2.98 MB)
(2009). Prostate contouring in MRI guided biopsy.
SPIE Medical Imaging. 7259, Vikal2009b.pdf (1.24 MB)
(2009). Prostate contouring in MRI guided biopsy.
Workshop on Prostate image analysis and computer-assisted intervention, International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention.
(2008). Automated Segmentation of Radiographic Fiducials for C-Arm Tracking.
Journal of Medical Physics. 33, 2208-2208. Vikal2006.pdf (4.07 MB)
(2006). Seed Segmentation in C-Arm Fluoroscopy for Brachytherapy Implant Reconstruction.
Journal of Medical Physics. 33, 2229-2229. Vikal2006a.pdf (4.07 MB)


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My introduction to Diana Sands came when my Pops took me to a theater in Times Square to see Car Wash. Sands didn't appear in that feature, but on the second half of the double bill was an R-rated 1974 movie called Willie Dynamite. Sands appeared there as the nemesis of the titular pimp, a former hooker turned advocate whose compulsive desire to ruin Willie D's hustle and flow is the biggest thorn in his side. Sands is everywhere, pulling Willie's hos aside and filling their heads with ideas. She tells them to either get out of the life, or if that's not their desire, to go into business for themselves. She's like that friend of your girlfriend—the one whom you just cannot stand—who keeps pulling your woman aside and telling her "gurl, you need ta get ridda dat triflin' man!"
Sands' description of her job is priceless: "I'm like a Ralph Nader for hookers." I didn't know who Ralph Nader was, but I knew that hookers were the people we passed on the way into the theater. I also knew I was in love with the line simply because of the way Ms. Sands delivered it. It was a matter-of-fact description that was as succinct and accurate as it was absurd. And I couldn't stop saying it, even if, years later, I'd realize that I was slightly misquoting her. (I believe she actually said "Consider me a Ralph Nader for hookers.")
I would see Sands several more times as a kid, mostly on TV in repeats of old shows or in the numerous replays of The Landlord on New York's Channel 5. Whenever I saw her, I'd say "hey, it's Ralph Nader for hookers!" Like most character actors, I'd never remember her name and, even worse, like most Black folks, I'd call her by the character she played instead of her government name. If you think I'm making a blanket statement about this particular Black characteristic, stand on the street in Harlem and take a survey. Hold up a picture of Lela Rochon and ask passersby "who is this?" Count how many people who say "Sunshine," the hooker character she played in Harlem Nights. You'll run out of numbers.
The beauty, and curse, of character actors is that you always remember their faces and never their names. I've committed myself to remembering these actors' names with the same tenacity I combat showing up places on CP time, and so during Black History Mumf at Big Media Vandalism, I want to occasionally showcase a character actor and force you to remember their names.
Diana Sands appeared in roles that were both named Beneatha and actually beneath her, yet she filled every one of them with something I don't see in many actresses, even today. She had mystery. You always got the sense that there was something she kept from you, something that she held just for herself. Maybe as protection, maybe to mess with you, I don't know. I cannot describe it; it's like an odd mixture of pride, self-preservation and balls. It drew you in, and added to her complexity. She was never just what she presented to you onscreen, and you got the sense that she was smarter than she let on. The real danger was you didn't know just how much smarter. Even when she played a character trying to find her identity, as in A Raisin in the Sun, it shone through. She also had a Swiss timing to her delivery, imbuing her line readings with the right note at the right time. No matter how dopey the line was, she could make it work in service to her character.
Sands was a more accomplished stage actress than film actress, appearing in plays like Shaw's Saint Joan. She received two Tony nominations during her tenure. She originated the role of Beneatha Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, which she would translate to the screen two years later. She also originated the Tony-nominated stage role of Doris, a hooker character who had been written for a White actress, in The Owl and the Pussycat. The playwright didn't change a line of dialogue or alter a situation despite the change in casting. The interracial relationship between her character and Alan Alda's neighbor was controversial in 1964, so controversial that I wonder if it's the sole reason she wasn't cast in the film version in 1970. The role instead went to the actress I used to call "that big nose What's Up Doc? lady." What was her name again?
In 1970, Sands was cast in the movie for which I'll always remember her now that I'm older, The Landlord. Hal Ashby's directorial debut is strange and funky, proud of its quirkiness and possesses a darkly bitter world-weariness that seeps through its bright satirical façade like bubbles rising up from a tar pit. Sands plays Francine MarieJohnson, one of the tenants in the rundown Park Slope building rich White boy Beau Bridges buys as his new side project. When we meet her, she seems to be set up as the stereotypical chocolate fantasy for Bridges, but there's something off about that characterization. First, she's bold and terrifying. She openly flirts with the landlord, sizing him up immediately and calibrating her hustle. Second, she's married to a man named Copee (her costar from Raisin, Lou Gossett, Jr.) who is clearly a little mad but controllable in her presence. She must be stronger than we think. Third, she was Miss Sepia 1957 (the way she says it is wonderful), and she could probably do better in both her situation and her choice of this dopey, inexperienced asshole of a landlord. The film goes where the chocolate fantasy would designate, but afterward, Sands pulls the rug from under the clichéd stereotype: "you know it didn't mean anything. I'm in love with Copee."
Her character handles differently, yet appropriately, the reactions of both Gossett and Bridges to the resulting pregnancy. Gossett swings an ax at the landlord, but Sands' verbal decapitation of him is far more effective. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan says she wants to have a daughter "so she'll grow up a fool, a beautiful little fool." Sands tells Bridges she wants their baby to be adopted White "so he can grow up casual." Both Daisy and Francine MarieJohnson knew the benefit of being born a certain way at a certain time; Daisy assumed that being a girl meant she could be blissfully ignorant of the world as the people of her time would expect a girl to be, and Sands knew that being White, her baby would be afforded the world he could never have if they knew he was Black. But then Sands turns the knife on Bridges the way Daisy would never have the guts to do to her husband Tom. Sands ends her statement with a sharply delivered coda. "I want him to be adopted White, so he can grow up casual. Like his daddy." Stuff like this you just can't shake.
In Willie Dynamite, Sands is clearly in an exploitation movie but she doesn't care. She turns in the same level of performance, standing up to Willie when he tries to intimidate her. She looks at him with a "been there, done that" expression, as if to say "I've been scared by a better grade of criminal than you." I thought I understood her motives completely, but once she vanquishes her foe, she feels a form of sympathy and compassion toward him. It is totally convincing, yet completely baffling. By no means should it work because, honestly, it makes no sense. Yet I couldn't stop asking myself why, going back through her performance and thinking about her intent.
Like some recent and past actors, character and otherwise, Sands was cut down in her prime. She died of cancer in 1973 after turning down the role that would probably have made her a movie star. She instead suggested her friend Diahann Carroll take the role, and the result was an Oscar nomination for Carroll. Watching Claudine, which I'll discuss on February 21st, the ghost of Sands hangs over Carroll's performance; it's almost an homage, and I can only wonder what it would have been if Sands hadn't been too sick to take it.
According to the imdb, Sands once said "I refuse to be stereotyped. Look at me. Never mind my color. Please look at me!"
Your homework assignment:
Please do.


text:
Debian Project News - April 2nd, 2012
Welcome to this year's seventh issue of DPN, the newsletter for the Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include:
- Bits from Debian Med team
- Debian joins the OSI
- Report from DSA Team sprint
: a Debian based tricorder- So long, and thanks for all the news
- Interviews
- Other news
- New Debian Contributors
- Release-Critical bugs statistics for the upcoming release
- Important Debian Security Advisories
- New and noteworthy packages
- Work-needing packages
- Want to continue reading DPN?
Bits from Debian Med team
Andreas Tille sent some
from the Debian Med team, where he talked about recent initiatives of the
team including the Debian
Med Bug Squashing Advent Calendar 2011
and the
Mentoring of the Month
(MoM) project.
Andreas also reminded us that in January the Debian Med project
reached 10: in ten years, Debian Med has grown from a one man project to a
strong team maintaining a set of over 200 highly specialised packages
with a high quality standard
, as Andreas said in a
The Debian Med project not only provides and maintains specialised packages
for biology and medicine, but is — like other Debian Blends — a nice
entry point for people to join Debian because newcomers can identify
themselves with a known topic (the scope of the Blend — in this case
medicine and bioinformatics) first and learn Debian rules in a team with
common interest
, added Andreas in the mail.
This idea was confirmed by the results of a
survey focused on
why Debian Med team members became Debian Developers.
Debian joins the OSI
The Debian project announced that it is
joining the Open
Source Initiative (OSI)
as an affiliate. The OSI was founded in
1998 with the aim of explaining, advocating, and protecting the term
open source
For many years now, the OSI has helped the Open Source
gain recognition, particularly in the corporate world.
Report from DSA Team sprint
Luca Filipozzi wrote a
from the Debian System Administrators (DSA
) team's sprint held
over the weekend of 16-18 March in Oslo, Norway.
During the meeting the team discussed a long-term plan for Debian's
infrastructure, reviewing the machines currently administrated, and
formulating procedures regarding account and group management.
One of the main points discussed at the meeting was the necessity to
renew the set of machines — which are now old and long out of warranty —
and how to do it. While in the past Debian's hardware requirements were
met by donations of new and used hardware from individuals and
organizations, this is no longer true.
The team elaborated a Five Year Plan
a hardware refresh cycle to avoid to having machines more than five years
A clear outcome of our work on the Five Year Plan is an understanding
that hardware has now become one of the biggest expense categories for
, said Luca.
Various machines are also needed in order to support the whole set of
architectures for which Debian is shipped.
For more information on how to donate equipment to the Debian Project,
please contact the hardware donations
The DSA sprint was made possible by
donations to Debian
and by Varnish Software who hosted it and provided food and
drink. Thank you!
: a Debian based tricorder
Peter Jansen, a cognitive science researcher, brought to life Spock's tricorder from the popular Star Trek television series. Peter, in fact, developed a handheld device able — thanks to its embedded sensors — to measure various environmental parameters (like temperature, humidity, magnetic fields, etc.). The device runs Debian GNU/Linux on an ARM920T-based Atmel microcontroller: the hardware specifications and schematics, and the software are licensed respectively under TAPR non-commercial and GPL 3 and are available on the project website.
So long, and thanks for all the news
The year was 2006. The place: Oaxtepec, Mexico. The event: DebConf6.
is how the Publicity team was born, during a BoF titled
Representing Debian
. And among others there were two Debian
contributors (who later became Debian Developers), Alexander Schmehl and Meike
If you are a regular reader of Debian Project News, or a contributor to
the Publicity Team, you'll surely recognize their names: they worked
every day for the last six years to bring us news about the Debian world
and to announce important changes inside the project.
Alexander and Meike have now decided to
down from the Press and Publicity team and start
different adventure. The Publicity Team would like to thank them for their tireless
effort, their creativity and their inspiring work.
So long, and thanks for all the news!
Raphaël Hertzog published a People behind Debian
interview with
Jaspert (FTPmaster, Debian Account Manager, and more), while Petter Reinholdtsen interviewed
Ingleby for his Debian Edu interviews
In addition, Chris Woolfrey interviewed Guido Günther. Zlatan Todorić interviewed Joey Hess about his participation at DebConf11, held last August in Banja Luka.
Other news
Stefan Fritsch posted some bits from the Apache Maintainers announcing some changes — a new set of packaging guidelines, a recent major Apache HTTPD upgrade, and an upcoming package transition.
Axel Beckert recently wrote about the (perhaps temporary) disappearance of aptitude-gtk. The new team is currently focusing on the internal code and the native ncurses user interface, but anyone who wants to contribute to the GUI is welcome to join the Aptitude team.
Kurt Roeckx announced that the DPL candidates' rebuttals have been published and are now available as part of their platforms, and also sent out the call for votes. Voting closes on Saturday 14 April.
Stefano Zacchiroli announced that the LDAP dnsZoneEntry attribute for *.debian.net domains will be made publicly accessible in two weeks. The intention is to provide an easier way to view the data, which is currently only available via a DNS query.
Jan Hauke Rahm wrote a
from the Front Desk and DAM sprint that was recently held in
Mönchengladbach, Germany. During the meeting, the members of both teams
worked on the New
web interface, as well as on
long-outstanding cases of NM applicants. The meeting turned out to be a great chance to discuss
face-to-face and in person delicate cases and
to work on the pending requests.
Both teams would like to thank Credativ who hosted the meeting.
New Debian Contributors
Eleven applicants have been accepted as Debian Developers, six applicants have been accepted as Debian Maintainers, and six people have started to maintain packages since the previous issue of the Debian Project News. Please welcome Arno Töll, Mathieu Malaterre, Johann Felix Soden, Roland Dreier, Dmitrijs Ledkovs, Ana Carolina Comandulli, Michael Gilbert, Carl Chenet, Mònica Ramírez Arceda, Michael Stapelberg, Alessandro Ghedini, David Steele, Khalid El Fathi, Rodolfo García Peñas, Dmitry Smirnov, Sven Joachim, Simon Josefsson, Guo Yixuan, Emile Joubert, Jonathan Steinert, Benjamin J. Scott, Melissa Draper and Lennart Weller into our project!
Release-Critical bugs statistics for the upcoming release
According to the Bugs Search interface of the Ultimate Debian Database, the upcoming release, Debian Wheezy
, is currently affected by 742 Release-Critical bugs. Ignoring bugs which are easily solved or on the way to being solved, roughly speaking, about 536 Release-Critical bugs remain to be solved for the release to happen.
There are also some hints on how to interpret these numbers.
Important Debian Security Advisories
Debian's Security Team recently released advisories for these packages (among others): libapache2-mod-fcgid, nginx, gnash, icedove, raptor, libpng, libtasn1-3, gnutls26, openarena, linux-2.6, tryton-server, typo3-src and curl (updated announce). Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.
Debian's Backports Team released advisories for these packages: gnash, puppet, nginx and freetype. Please read them carefully and take the proper measures.
Please note that these are a selection of the more important security advisories of the last weeks. If you need to be kept up to date about security advisories released by the Debian Security Team, please subscribe to the security mailing list (and the separate backports list, and stable updates list) for announcements.
New and noteworthy packages
207 packages were added to the unstable Debian archive recently. Among many others are:
- fonts-dancingscript — lively casual script with bouncing letters and size changes
- keepnote — cross-platform note-taking and organization application
- kvpm — logical volume manager and disk partitioner GUI based on KDE
- petitboot — ncurses version of petitboot, a kexec based bootloader
- python-geopy — geocoding toolbox for Python
- qtscrob — Audioscrobbler submitter for Rockbox-format .scrobbler.log files
- shelltestrunner — test command-line programs or arbitrary shell commands
- tabble — program launcher with tabs for X
- yagf — graphical interface to optical character recognition softwares
Work-needing packages
Currently 432 packages are orphaned and 152 packages are up for adoption: please visit the complete list of packages which need your help.
Want to continue reading DPN?
Please help us create this newsletter. We still need more volunteer writers to watch the Debian community and report about what is going on. Please see the contributing page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at email@example.com.
To receive this newsletter in your mailbox, subscribe to the debian-news mailing list.
Back issues of this newsletter are available.
This issue of Debian Project News was edited by Moray Allan, Cédric Boutillier, Francesca Ciceri and David Prévot.


text:
Finally, cryptsetup-luks 1.0.3 is out. It's somewhat hard to do a release when you not interested in doing it at all. But someone has to do it. I hope that this release will do it for the rest of the year.
Unless something grave happens (for instance, SISWG happens to adopt LUKS as hard disk encryption standard), I don't have plans for further development. The reason is that there is little room for substantial improvement at the layer LUKS is at. Integrating encryption at file system level gives you features that are unattainable at block level (see Plausible Denial article in this blog).
So, whenever you encounter a bug or undesired behavior, please try hard to diagnose them on your own or -- even better -- provide a patch. With the growing user base of LUKS, I simply can't devote lifetime for user support. Please use your distributions mailing lists or firstname.lastname@example.com community based support forum.


text:
A shorthanded Santa Monica Planning Commission unanimously recommended a 19-unit condominium project with a 41-space subterranean parking garage last Wednesday night, but not without weighing concerns voiced from neighbors living next to the proposed development.
Vice-Chair Ted Winterer and Commissioner Jason Parry were both not present for the vote.
The three-story, 34-foot tall, 27,470 square foot, "market rate condominium complex" would be located on the east side of Fourteenth Street between Santa Monica Boulevard and Broadway.
"This project will replace an abandoned nursing home, … provide new residences, (it is) pedestrian-friendly, and will enliven the neighborhood," Ralph Mechur of Ralph Mechur Architects told commissioners.
Mechur, who brought a scaled model of the proposed project to present to planning commissioners, represents the property owners and designed the plans for the 19-unit condominium project.
City staff said the current design proposes a separation of the three buildings in order to reduce the scale of the overall project.
"The proposed project is designed to be compatible with the surrounding neighborhood which primarily consists of multi-story, multi-family residential buildings ranging between two- to three-stories in height with an eclectic mix of architectural styles," City staff said.
The project would feature five three-bedroom units and 14 two-bedroom units surrounding a central courtyard.
"The courtyard provides pedestrian-oriented amenities including benches and planters with extensive landscaping. Each ground floor unit has a patio to provide private open space; the upper floor units have either a terrace or balcony," City staff explained. "Parking is provided in a single-level, 41-space semi-subterranean parking garage."
An anonymous letter was sent to City staff opposing the proposed project, citing issues with the overall project size, potential increase in traffic, asbestos, and the lack of on-site affordable housing.
Some residents who lived near the proposed project and spoke at the commission meeting said while they liked the design of the building, they were concerned about noise during construction as well as asbestos and dust emanating from the current building's demolition.
Many speakers also expressed concern about the property's current owner, stating they have not properly maintained the current building there. Common complaints included the discovery of feces, roaches, and rodents, among others.
"The Architectural Review Board must review and approve the project's design, building materials, colors and landscaping prior to submitting plans for building permits," City staff stated. "The current project has been revised from the previously-approved design to provide a better modulated and pedestrian-oriented design in order to minimize the perceived massing and enhance the project's compatibility with the property to the north, as well as the surrounding neighborhood."
Planning commissioners considered the project as part of the applicant's request for Development Review Permit. The project had previously been approved by the City Council in February 2008.
The project is located at 1433 Fourteenth Street and is owned by 1433-37 14th Street LLC. An existing one-story, almost 15,000 square feet, 69-bed convalescent home would be demolished to allow for the construction of the condominium development.


text:
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text:
An appeals court has sided again with an Ohio hospital that wants to force a 10-year-old Amish girl to resume chemotherapy after her parents decided to stop the treatments.
The court ruled that an attorney who's also a registered nurse should be granted limited guardianship over the girl, Sarah Hershberger, and the power to make medical decisions for her.
Doctors at Akron Children's Hospital believe Sarah's leukemia is treatable but says she will die without chemotherapy. The hospital went to court after the family decided to stop chemotherapy and treat Sarah with natural medicines, such as herbs and vitamins.
The appeals court ruling, issued last week, overturns a judge's decision that said that keeping the parents from making medical decisions for their daughter would take away their right.
"While we respect the wishes of the parents and believe them to be honest and sincere, we are unwilling to adhere to the wishes of the parents," the appeals court judges wrote.
The beliefs and convictions of the parents can't outweigh the rights of the state to protect the child, the court said. It also ordered that the guardian should be appointed right away.
The appeals court noted that a county probate court investigator found that Sarah is not in remission and will die without chemotherapy.
The ruling said that while adults can refuse medical treatment regardless of the consequences, children do not have those same rights because of their vulnerability and inability to make critical decisions in a mature manner.
While state laws give parents a great deal of freedom when it comes to choosing medical treatment for their children, that's not always true when the decision could be a matter of life or death. Courts most often will draw the line when doctors think the child's life is in danger and there's a good chance that the treatments being suggested will work, according to several medical ethicists.
Andy Hershberger, the girl's father, has said the family agreed to begin two years of treatments for Sarah last spring but stopped a second round of chemotherapy in June because it was making her extremely sick.
Sarah begged her parents to stop the chemotherapy and they agreed after a great deal of prayer, Hershberger said. The family, members of an insular Amish community, shuns many facets of modern life and is deeply religious. They live on a farm and operate a produce stand near the village of Spencer in Medina County, about 35 miles southwest of Cleveland.
Hospital officials have said that they are morally and legally obligated to make sure the girl receives proper care. They said the girl's illness, lymphoblastic lymphoma, is an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but there is a high survival rate with treatment.