text:
RSA Conference 2017 will take on the threat posed by the internet of things, something that was demonstrated last fall by the DDoS attacks that took down Dyn data centers and many of the high-profile Web sites it supports.
Those attacks, generating peak traffic of 1TByte or more, raise the question of how best to secure these devices, and sessions at the Feb.13-17 conference in San Francisco try to answer it.
+More on Network World: Cisco: Faulty clock part could cause failure in some Nexus switches, ISR routers, ASA security appliances+
The offensive potential is great for compromised IoT devices such as home routers and surveillance cameras because they can readily be hijacked into bot armies that launch these high-volume attacks. The onslaughts are difficult to stem because they come from a wide range IP addresses broadly distributed around the globe.
Akamai, one of the service providers that helped mitigate the first of the large IoT DDoS attacks linked to Mirai malware, is sending Or Katz, one of its researchers to the conference to send a warning. "Once upon a time, the Internet of Things held unimaginable promise," is how he describes the problem. "Then came Mirai … and all the associated attacks, and suddenly the promise seems more like a threat."
Attackers can extort money from potential victims by threatening DDoS attacks and demanding payment to call them off. Or they might use the attacks to exact revenge against companies for perceived wrongdoing.
+More on Network World: RSA 2017: Anticipating network security chatter+
But DDoS attacks are just one of the uses to which adversaries can put IoT machines. They can compromise devices that are essential to manufacturing or even human health, where the well-timed attacks on a relatively few devices can damage other equipment, tie up production lines or compromise patients' well-being.
IoT gear doesn't exist in isolation, so attackers will seek ways to compromise other devices that they interact with in an effort to affect their usefulness, according to Anthony Gambacorta, the vice president of operations at Synack, who is speaking at the conference. He'll present specific examples to look out for including products such as IoT's relationships with cloud servers and mobile applications.
Using data that IoT devices gather as legal evidence poses its own set of problems, which include preserving the data and its integrity, and analyzing it for incident investigations and to present as evidence in court. The nuances of these emerging needs will be examined by attorney Erik Laykin of Duff & Phelps LLC.
Security luminary Bruce Schneier will offer up two sessions about regulating IoT devices, which are woefully insecure, some say because they are not held to any set of security standards. But Schneier says we'd better get ready for them. "Licenses, certifications, approvals and liabilities are all coming," is how he introduces one of his sessions. "We need to think about smart regulations now, before a disaster, or stupid regulations will be foisted on us."
+More on Network World: A patchwork quilt of IoT security+
Ransomware – another hot topic at the conference – can be used to lock up IoT devices to cause harm, and its use is projected to continue this year. Ransomware for hire and ransomware kits make this a low-investment, low-skill enterprise that virtually anyone can enter into.
But there is hope. A pair of researchers from Splunk, Rod Soto and Joseph Zadeh, will present a method for detecting and automatically blocking ransomware as it unfolds. Seeking ransomware indicators of compromise, the detection method uses machine learning to head off infections before they take hold and to create policies to block similar ones in the future.
The conference and exhibitors are highlighting endpoint security as well, as described here.
The conference boasts 15 keynotes by vendor executives including Eric Schmidt, CEO of Alphabet, Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, Zulfikar Ramzan, RSA's CTO, and Mark McGlaughlin, CEO of Palo Alto Networks.
The cryptographers' panel, an annual gathering of some of the world's foremost cryptographers, is scheduled again, with this year's group made up of Whitfield Diffie (of Diffie-Hellman exchange fame), Ronald Rivest and Adi Shamir (the R and S in RSA encryption), and Susan Landau (as in Landau's Algorithm). The panel is moderated by Paul Kocher, who developed attacks that can break RSA and Diffie-Hellman.
The list includes speakers from outside tech as well. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is speaking about "The War in Cyberspace." He says the U.S. is losing and needs to team up with its allies and the private sector to win.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will deliver, "An Astrophysicist Reads the Newspaper." The former head of the U.K.'s MI-5 Stella Rimington will talk about leadership and teamwork. Seth Myers, the host of Late Night with Seth Myers, holds the closing keynote spot.


text: LOS OSOS, California (AP) — Animator Art Clokey, whose bendable creation Gumby became a pop culture phenomenon through decades of toys, revivals and satires, died Friday. He was 88. Clokey, who suffered from repeated bladder infections, died in his sleep at his home in Los Osos on California's Central Coast, son Joseph told the Los Angeles Times. Gumby grew out of a student project Clokey produced at the University of Southern California in the early 1950s called "Gumbasia." That led to his making shorts featuring Gumby and his horse friend Pokey for the "Howdy Doody Show" and several series through the years. He said he based Gumby's swooping head on the cowlick hairdo of his father, who died in a car accident when Clokey was nine. And Clokey's wife suggested he give Gumby the body of a gingerbread man. Clokey said that though Gumby eventually became one of the most familiar toys of all time, he was at first resistant to roll out the bendable doll. "I didn't allow merchandising for seven years after it was on the air," Clokey told San Luis Obispo Tribune in 2002, "because I was very idealistic, and I didn't want parents to think we were trying to exploit their children." Clokey also created the moralizing and often satirized claymation duo "Davey and Goliath." The Lutheran Church hired Clokey to make the "Davey and Goliath" shorts, and Clokey used the money to help bring a Gumby series back to television in the 1960s. Eddie Murphy brought a surge in Gumby's popularity in the 1980s with his send-up of the character on "Saturday Night Live" as a cigar-smoking show business primadonna. Clokey said he enjoyed Murphy's profane Gumby. "Gumby can laugh at himself," Clokey told the Tribune. Murphy's Gumby brought new toy sales and eventually led to a new syndicated series starting in 1988. It was only then that Clokey started seeing serious financial returns on his creation. "It took 40 years," he said.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Krishnan, Hari | |
Chen, Ming Hsuan |
Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2013 Publication Date: 5/15/2013 Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/601053 Citation: Krishnan, H.B., Chen, M. 2013. Identification of an abundant 56 kDa protein implicated in food allergy as granule-bound starch synthase. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 61:5404-5409. Interpretive Summary: It has been estimated that about 5% of young children and 2% of adults in industrialized world suffer from food allergies. Majority of the global population is dependent on rice as the main source of nutrition and energy. In comparison to other cereals, rice is considered to be hypoallergenic and rice induced allergies are not common occurrence in Europe and North America. However, clinical studies have demonstrated that exposure to rice flour or inhalation of vapors from boiling rice can induce asthma. Other symptoms associated with rice allergy include rhinoconjunctivitis, eczema and atopic dermatitis. Recently, it was demonstrated that a 56 kDa rice allergen is responsible for the rice-induced hypersensitivity. However, until now the identity of the 56 kDa allergen is not known. In this study, we have demonstrated that serum from patients allergic to corn show cross-reactivity against an abundant 56 kDa rice protein. We have purified this 56 kDa protein and identified it as granule-bound starch synthase. Additionally, we have demonstrated that waxy mutant of rice does not accumulate this 56 kDa allergen implicated in rice-induced allergy. Results from this study will aid researchers in the development of non-allergenic rice cultivars. Such rice cultivars will be a valuable source of hypoallergenic rice for allergy patients and will elevate the stature of rice as a hypoallergenic food source. Technical Abstract: Rice, the staple food of South and East Asian counties, is considered to be hypoallergenic. However, several clinical studies have documented rice-induced allergy in sensitive patients. Rice proteins with molecular weights of 14-16 kDa, 26 kDa, 33 kDa and 56 kDa have been identified as allergens. Recently, it was documented that the 56 kDa rice allergen was responsible for rice-induced anaphylaxis. The 14-16 kDa allergens have been identified as a-amylase inhibitors, the 26 kDa protein as a-globulin and the 33 kDa protein as glyoxalase I. However, the identity of the 56 kDa rice allergen has not yet been determined. In this study, we demonstrate serum from patients allergic to maize shows IgE-binding to a 56 kDa protein that was present both in maize and rice, but not in the oil seeds soybean and peanut. The 56 kDa IgE-binding protein was abundant in the rice endosperm and occurred at a lower concentration in the rice bran. We have purified this protein from rice endosperm and demonstrated its reactivity to IgE antibodies from serum of maize allergic patients. The purified protein was subjected to MALDI-TOF-MS/MS analysis resulting in identification of this rice allergen as granule-bound starch synthase, a product of the waxy gene. Immunoblot analysis using protein extracts from a waxy mutant of rice revealed the absence of the 56 kDa IgE-binding protein. Our results demonstrate that the 56 kDa rice allergen is granule-bound starch synthase and raise the possibility of using waxy mutants of rice as a potential source of hypoallergenic diet for patients sensitized to the 56 kDa rice allergen. |


text:
I am trying to understand the Calvinist view of the Lord's Supper. Could you explain the Calvinist "Spiritual" concept of Communion? Are Christ's Body and Blood taken on some spiritual level? If so, how do the bread and wine facilitate this? How is this view really different from the Baptist/Pentecostal view of a simple Memorial?
A key question in controversies regarding the Lord's Supper is: Where is Christ's physical body when the Supper is served? Three major answers have been put forward in the Western Church.
First, Roman Catholicism teaches that the body and blood of Christ are present not only in heaven, but also in the bread and wine in a physical manner. At the time of their consecration at the Mass, the bread becomes the actual physical body of Christ and the wine becomes the actual physical blood of Christ. The outward appearance of the bread and wine remain unchanged, but their substance (what the elements really are) is changed into the body and blood of Christ. This view is known as "transubstantiation." (See Westminster Confession of Faith, 29.6).
Second, Lutherans reject Rome's identification of the bread and wine as the corporal body and blood of the Lord. At the Lord's Table, the bread remains bread; the wine remains wine. Luther, however, argued that there was a communication of divine attributes to the human nature of the incarnate Christ. The attribute that interests us here is omnipresence. Because the Lord's body is omnipresent, Luther argues, Christ is physically present "in, with, and under" the bread and wine. The Lutheran doctrine is commonly called "consubstantiation." (See Westminster Confession of Faith 29.7).
Third, both advocates of memorialism and Calvin reject the previous two views. The incarnate Christ is in heaven, seated at the right hand of God (Hebrews 1:3; see Calvin, Institutes, 4.17.26). Like Lutherans, memorialists and Calvin unequivocally reject the Roman Catholic Mass. However, both memorialists and Calvin are not satisfied with the Lutheran explanation of the Supper. They point out that Christ, at his Ascension, entered into heaven, where his body and soul remain. Calvin pointed out that the doctrine of the omnipresence (or, "ubiquity") of Christ's body threatens the very integrity of his human nature. After all, how can a body be present everywhere and still be human? (See Calvin, Institutes, 4.17.16 and 4.17.30)
If memorialists and Calvin take exception to the Lutheran view of the Lord's Supper, what then separates memorialists from Calvin? For memorialists, participation in the Lord's Supper involves remembering what took place on the cross for our salvation. Calvin emphasizes, however, not Christ's absence but presence in the Supper. Calvin writes, "But greatly mistaken are those who conceive no presence of the flesh in the Supper unless it lies in the bread. For thus they leave nothing to the secret working of the Spirit, which unites Christ himself to us. As though, if he should lift us to himself, we should not just as much enjoy his presence!" (Instituts, 4.17.31)
Calvin advances our understanding of the Supper, therefore, by pointing to the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is only in connection with Calvin's teaching on the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Supper that it is useful to speak of his "spiritual concept of communion." Robert Letham's summary of Calvin's position is helpful:
"Christ does not come down to us in his body and blood. Instead, we are lifted up to him by the Holy Spirit. Christ, being the eternal Son of God, is of course, everywhere. Moreover, he has permanently united himself to the human nature assumed in the incarnation. In that sense, the person of Christ is present with us as we eat and drink. Yet, on earth, the Son of God was not restricted or confined to the humanity he assumed, but was simultaneously filling all things, directing the universe even as (according to the flesh) he walked the dusty roads of Palestine. So, at the right hand of God, the Son fills and directs the universe (Col. 1:15-20), now unbreakably united to his assumed humanity, while in terms of that same humanity he is limited and in one place. Yet that humanity is never separate or apart from the divinity, the eternal Son of God with whom and in whom it is one undivided person. Thus, in the sacrament the Holy Spirit unites the faithful to the person of Christ as they eat and drink the signs, the physical elements of bread and wine. There is an inseparable conjunction of sign and reality. As truly as we eat the bread and drink the wine, so we feed on Christ by faith." (Robert Letham, The Lord's Supper, 28-29).
In the Lord's Supper, according to Calvin, believers are lifted up to heaven by the Holy Spirit, where Christ is seated, and feed on him by faith. Calvin then proceeds to confess: "Now if anyone should ask me how this takes place, I shall not be ashamed to confess that it is a secret too lofty for either my mind to comprehend or my words to declare. And, to speak more plainly, I rather experience than understand it. Therefore, I here embrace without controversy the truth of God in which I may safely rest. He declares his flesh the food of my soul, his blood its drink [John 6:53ff.]. I offer my soul to him to be fed with such food. In his Sacred Supper he bids me take, eat, and drink his body and blood under the symbols of bread and wine. I do not doubt that he himself truly presents them, and that I receive them." (Institutes, 4.17.32)
In his rich mercy, God "made us alive together with Christ . . . and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6). It is from this position that we come to the Lord's Table, and "they that worthily communicate in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, do therein feed upon the body and blood of Christ, not after a corporal and carnal, but in a spiritual manner; yet truly and really, while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death" (Westminster Larger Catechism, answer 170). (CW)
March 03, 2023
November 19, 2022
Who said, "Let there be light"?
May 26, 2022
Evidence That Jesus Was Not Crucified or Resurrected
February 15, 2022
Is salvation the result of divine election?
December 21, 2021
Why Not Display Crosses on Church Buildings?
July 24, 2021
May 15, 2021
© 2024 The Orthodox Presbyterian Church


text:
We're happy to announce we're joining the smart home revolution by adding Amazon Alexa skill to our ZIPP and ZIPP MINI speakers.
Install the new Amazon compatible speaker firmware 809 or later through Libratone App.
Connect to Amazon Echo Dot like this (Zipp/Zipp Mini):
- Open the Libratone App
- Press your Zipp or Zipp Mini speaker in SoundSpaces and press 'Settings'
- Press 'Edit Name' and change the default speaker name from "LIBRATONEZIPPXXXXXX" to "Kitchen", "Bathroom", "Living Room" or similar
- Press the 'Home' button (House) in the upper right corner
- Press the three dots in the upper right corner
- Select 'MY PROFILE'
- Tap on 'Registered Products'
- Press the '+' button down in the middle and select the speaker to use with Alexa
- Open the Alexa App
- Press 'Skills' and search for Libratone
- Select the Libratone skill and press 'ENABLE'
- Log in with your Libratone account
- Tap on 'DISCOVER DEVICES'
- All set
Feel free to check out this video as well :)


text:
The renewal inaugurated by the Second Vatican Council sprang in large part from the liberating discovery of the depth and variety of Catholic tradition. Yet paradoxically the post-conciliar reforms were sometimes implemented in a spirit of philistine dismissal of "tradition" as nothing more than the dead hand of the past. In shedding a past perceived as sterile and oppressive, much that was profound and life-giving was also lost. One of the saddest casualties of that process was the effective abolition of the Church's ancient observances of fasting and abstinence.
The ritual observance of dietary rules—fasting and abstinence from meat in Lent, and abstinence from meat and meat products every Friday, as well as the eucharistic fast from midnight before the reception of Communion—were as much defining marks of Catholicism before the council as abstention from pork is a defining characteristic of Judaism. The Friday abstinence in particular was a focus of Catholic identity which transcended class and educational barriers, uniting "good" and "bad" Catholics in a single eloquent observance. Here was a universally recognized expression of Catholicism which was nothing to do with priests or authority.
But instead of seeing this as one of its greatest strengths, it was often used as an argument against Friday abstinence. Bad or badly instructed Catholics—who it was thought drank their wages or beat their wives, yet who were nevertheless punctilious in eating fish on Fridays—were adhering to the mere externals, it was claimed, while ignoring the essence of "real" Christianity. What was needed was a more spiritual sort of religion that offered no such crutches to lame practice.
So fasting is now confined to a derisory two days of the year, and compulsory Friday abstinence has been replaced by a genteel and totally individualistic injunction to do some penitential act on a Friday—an injunction, incidentally, that most Catholics know nothing about. What had been a corporate mark of identity has been marginalized into an individualistic option.
Why did it happen? Certainly not because fasting was in some sense peripheral to Catholicism, an inessential and minor aspect of the tradition that needed tidying away. Fasting was an important element in Israelite religion, and Christ's own defense of his disciples' failure to fast during his lifetime specifically envisaged that they would fast after his death. From at least the end of the first century Christians have observed Fridays, and later the forty days of Lent, as fast days in commemoration of the passion. At the heart of Catholicism for a millennium and a half lay a dialectical dividing of time, a rhythmic movement between the poles of fast and feast, Lent and Easter, renunciation and affirmation.
Catholics shared that rhythm with most of the world's great religious traditions, a fact which ought to have suggested that there was something essential about fasting not only for our specific identities as Catholic Christians, but as religious human beings. But since 1967 what was once a truly corporate observance, reminding us of the passion of Christ, of our own spiritual poverty and, even more concretely, of the material poverty of most of the human race, reminding us what it was like to be hungry, has become another individual consumer choice, like going on a diet. Though we pay liturgical lip-service to the old dialectic, and still nominally observe Lent, in practice all our time now has become "ordinary time," and there is nothing in this respect to distinguish Catholics from anyone else.
Yet religious communities depend on the differentiation provided by such shared observances to sustain their identities. The long and noble pilgrimage of Israel through a multitude of cultures and times, without a temple, without a priesthood, has been possible, at least in part, because of the unifying and sustaining effect of their dietary laws. The Jews knew who they were because of what they did and did not eat. Christian fasting and abstinence did not, of course, spring from a ritual distinction between clean and unclean meats, but it was just as deeply embedded in theological conviction as the older dispensation. Its abandonment was not therefore a simple change in devotional habit, but the signal of a radical discontinuity in the tradition and a decisive shift in theological perception.
The theological and practical shift represented by this abandonment of an ancient part of the tradition was not merely a matter of theological emphasis, and more, too, than a question of whether ascetical exercises like fasting are good for the character. What was also at stake was the Church's prophetic integrity: its claim to solidarity with the poor. Considered from this perspective, compulsory fasting and abstinence, practiced regularly, routinely, and in common, was a recognition by the Church that identification with the poor and hungry, with those who know themselves to be needy before God because they were needy among men, is not an option for Catholics, but a necessary and definitive sign of their redemption, as essential in its way as attendance at Mass. The Church has always linked personal asceticism and the search for holiness with this demand for mercy and justice to the poor; the Lenten trilogy of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is both fundamental and structural. By making fasting and abstinence optional, the Church forfeited one of its most eloquent prophetic signs. There is a world of difference between a private devotional gesture, the action of the specially pious, and the prophetic witness of the whole community—the matter-of-fact witness, repeated week by week, that to be Christian is to stand among the needy.
What was striking about the instructions issued by the English bishops in abolishing compulsory Friday abstinence in 1967 was the total absence of any attempt to explain the power and meaning of the traditional observances. The American bishops did much better: while also making the matter optional, they offered a powerful and sympathetic discussion of the religious reasons for the old observance and urged American Catholics to continue the practice as a gesture of solidarity with, and gratitude for, the passion of Christ, as an act of fidelity to the Christian past, and to help "preserve a saving and necessary difference from the spirit of the world." In total contrast, the English bishops recited the problems and inconveniences surrounding abstinence. Many people, they pointed out, have their main meal at work, in a canteen; social events are often arranged for Fridays; abstinence therefore put Catholics in an awkward position. As the bishops wrote: "While an alternative dish is often available, it is questioned whether it is advisable in our mixed society for a Catholic to appear singular in this matter. Non-Catholics know and accept that we do not eat meat on Fridays, but often they do not understand why we do not, and in consequence regard us as odd."
This misses the point. The whole rationale of symbolic gestures requires that they disrupt and disturb the secular order. Their power to witness—not only to others but to ourselves—comes precisely from their awkwardness. The abolition of such observances strikes at the heart of tradition, the distinctive language of belief. Catholic value cannot be sustained without its proper symbolic expression. Spiritual needs are expressed in physical needs. People can know the fundamental neediness which is the foundation of faith only if they feel our involvement with those who fast because they have nothing to eat.
But none of those arguments prevailed, or were even explored. The bishops saw in the plight of the hungry not a reason for communal fasting as a gesture of solidarity and a call to justice and charity, but a demonstration of the emptiness of any such gesture. Many Catholics, they wrote, "have begun to ask themselves if going without meat on Friday is penance enough. Some find it no penance at all. Meanwhile in Asia, Africa, and South America many Catholics have to go without meat not only on Fridays but every day. Millions are starving or at least underfed. The bishops have therefore decided that the best way of carrying out our Lord's command to do penance is for each of us to choose our own way of self-denial every Friday."
The abandonment of fasting and abstinence was symptomatic of a more widespread leveling down and disappearance of much that was distinctive in the symbolic lives of Catholics. That drift continues. Holy days of obligation are celebrated on the nearest Sunday so as to avoid inconvenience or the interruption of secular patterns of living. Sunday Mass can be heard on a Saturday to make way for a day's work or cleaning the car or a morning in bed with the papers, like our pagan neighbors. From time to time there is talk of a fixed date for Easter and Pentecost Sunday—all part of the minimizing of symbolic distinctiveness, in the service of secular convenience, and a slow form of ritual suicide for any religious tradition.
For this aspect of tradition—the dimension of symbolic distinctiveness preserved in the ancient patterns of the worship and ritual life of the Church—is at least as central to Catholic identity as many of the doctrinal positions worried about by those who conceive of tradition primarily as a body of authoritative teaching. Indeed, the massive desensitization to the meaning and value of symbolic gesture and symbolic differentiation in the two generations since the council would not have been possible had Catholics not long since parked responsibility for all that with an abstraction called the Magisterium, thereby absolving themselves from understanding and teaching the value of their symbols and traditional practices. How else could the Catholic people have allowed their pastors to assail and abolish these ancient continuities in the name of convenience and the avoidance of oddity?
The authoritarian narrowing of the tradition to, in essence, a body of doctrines to be believed and orders from above to be obeyed, was a decisive factor in desensitizing ordinary Catholics, clerical as well as lay, to the beauty and independent value of their inherited observances—matters over which no authority has or ought to have absolute control. The ordinary members of the Orthodox and Byzantine Rite Catholic Churches have a far less authoritarian mentality than Catholics, a far more widespread and lively sense of the richness of their traditions of prayer and practice, and a far more secure sense of ownership by the people of the symbols which provide continuity with the Christian past and guidance to its future.
The realization that perhaps too much was carelessly abandoned in the years after the council is now widespread—it is even something of an official view in the later years of the present pontificate—and has helped fuel sometimes scary projects for a restoration of "real Catholicism," programs in which the vigorous exercise of authority from above looms very large. Such programs are at least as bad as the ills they seek to remedy. There are no quick fixes: tradition cannot be rebuilt to a neat program and by orders from Rome. Our shared past can only be excavated by shared endeavor, by a painful and constant process of reeducation and rediscovery; in that process, we start from where we are, not where we wish we had stayed. The Church cannot afford the pleasures and false securities of reaction. But that is not to say that in our march into the needs and opportunities of the twenty-first century we should not try once more to summon up some of the deeper resources of our own tradition, and try to rediscover within it once more some of the supports which helped our fathers and mothers to live the gospel. We could do worse than rededicate ourselves to the observance of fasting and abstinence.
Eamon Duffy is professor emeritus of the history of Christianity at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow and former president of Magdalene College. This essay originally appeared in the January 31, 2004, issue of the Tablet.
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text:
March 26, 1996
Official Opinion 96-7
- To
- Chancellor
University System of Georgia - Re
- Where there is governmental oversight or involvement, a student-run newspaper at a state educational institution is subject to the free speech requirements of the First Amendment and, therefore, may not exclude materials from publication based on their content absent a compelling state interest for doing so.
Your office has requested my opinion as to whether the student-run newspaper at the Georgia Institute of Technology may refuse to publish an advertisement because the contents of the advertisement may be "hurtful" to some of the paper's readers. Where, as here, there is governmental oversight or involvement, a student-run newspaper at a state educational institution is subject to the free speech requirements of the First Amendment and, therefore, may not exclude materials from publication based on their content absent a compelling state interest for doing so.
The Georgia Institute of Technology, through a March 1, 1996, letter to your staff, has requested advice regarding the publication of certain advertisements in the campus newspaper, The Technique. Essentially, Georgia Tech maintains that the advertisements contain "hurtful words" and therefore they
should be permitted not to publish the advertisements without modification. While the information provided by Tech is somewhat incomplete regarding the nature of its relationship with The Technique, it is my opinion that the advertisements should be published in this instance.
The facts in relation to this particular question, as they have been explained to me, appear to be as follows. The Technique is a student-run newspaper on the campus of Georgia Tech. The newspaper apparently receives funding through mandatory student fees assessed against all of Tech's students and is also apparently run by the students themselves with the oversight of a faculty advisor.
On October 6, 1995, a recognized student organization, The Campus Crusade for Christ, submitted for publication in The Technique two different advertisements dealing with homosexuality. The editorial board of the newspaper, after consultation with their faculty advisor and with employees at Tech, one of whom is an attorney, refused to run these proposed advertisements or any alternatives to them without the deletion of "hurtful words" contained in the ads.
While no one has identified for me the specific words which are "hurtful," the President of Georgia Tech explained in a February 26 letter to an attorney representing Campus Crusade that these words were ones which were "commonly used to derogatorily describe homosexuals." This vague description was repeated in Tech's March 1 letter to you, describing the "hurtful words" as, "expressions often used to derogatorily describe homosexuals or to cast them in a bad light."
I have reviewed the advertisements in question. One presents a photograph of a young man, identified as "John Paulk" and as a "former homosexual, male prostitute and female impersonator." Headlined above this photograph in relatively large type is the statement:
Growing up, I heard it all . . . sissy, queer, fag. Naturally, I believed I was born gay.
There is then a paragraph of text followed by the statement, "There is another way out," the logo of an organization called "Every Student's Choice" and the provision of a toll-free
telephone number. In context, I am led to believe that the "hurtful words" identified by Tech must refer to "sissy, queer, fag" as I recognize that these are words that some people might find inappropriate or offensive. I can find no other words in the text which might be perceived to "derogatorily describe homosexuals."
The second advertisement is in approximately the same format and layout. This advertisement presents a photograph of a young woman identified as "Anne Paulk" who is described as being a "former lesbian." The headline in this advertisement states:
As a lesbian, I found hurt people just wanting someone to love. As a Christian, I found loving people just wanting to heal my hurt.
A review of the text of this ad does not reveal to me any terms which have been used to "derogatorily describe homosexuals."
Other copies of alternative advertisements have been provided but it is unclear from the record what role, if any, these play in the question posed by Tech. As such, I will confine my comments to the advertisements identified above.
The issue presented here is whether a student-run newspaper at a state university, funded by mandatory student fees, may refuse to publish the advertisements in question or, conversely, may either the state or a third-party force the student newspaper to publish these ads if the editors of the newspaper choose not to do so? These questions, which are really just mirror images of the same issue, present serious questions regarding the applicability of the First Amendment in an educational and editorial setting.
It is uncontroverted that a state government, including a state-run university, may not engage in viewpoint based discrimination directed against speech in the awarding of state-funded benefits. Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of the Univ. of Va., U.S. , 115 S. Ct. 2510 (1995).
The first danger to liberty lies in granting the State the power to examine publications to determine whether or not they are based
on some ultimate idea and if so for the State to classify them. The second, and corollary, danger is to speech from the chilling of individual thought and expression. That danger is especially real in the University setting, where the State acts against a background and tradition of thought and experiment that is at the center of our intellectual and philosophic tradition.
Rosenberger, 115 S. Ct. at 2520. Additionally, I have found no legal doctrine which would permit the state in any capacity to censor publications based upon the use of "hurtful words."
Therefore, clearly if the situation were one where the Campus Crusade for Christ had applied for recognition as a student organization, including requesting funding or use of facilities as a recognized student organization, Georgia Tech could not refuse this request because it disagreed with either the religious, social, or political views of the organization. This in fact has been the law in Georgia since long before Rosenberger. See Wood v. Davison, 351 F. Supp. 543 (N.D. Ga. 1972) (The University of Georgia held to have violated students' First Amendment rights of free speech, assembly, and association in denying homosexual students facilities for a conference and dance).
However, this situation goes beyond merely providing University facilities or funding to the group in question. Instead, the First Amendment right to a free press is also implicated because a newspaper, even a student-run newspaper, has such a right. Mississippi Gay Alliance v. Goudelock, 536 F.2d 1073 (5th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 982 (1977).{1} The Mississippi Gay Alliance case (hereafter "MGA") is particularly instructive here. In MGA, an off-campus homosexual group sued Mississippi State University and others seeking to compel the student newspaper, The Reflector, to publish an advertisement for the group. Id. at 1074. The advertisement contained information regarding meeting times and a short summary of the services offered by the MGA, none of which were obscene or overtly controversial. Id.
The editor of The Reflector refused to accept the tendered paid advertisement, leading to a law suit which alleged that the paper and the school had violated MGA's First Amendment rights to free speech and requesting an order requiring publication. Id. Both the district court and the Fifth Circuit denied these requests and found against MGA. Id.
Essentially the Fifth Circuit concluded that, in the case of The Reflector, the rejection of the advertisement was not state action. Id. at 1075. In affirming this conclusion reached by the district court, the appellate court stated:
Relying on Bazaar v. Fortune, [489 F.2d 225, aff'd, 489 F.2d 225 (1973) (en banc)] and Miami Herald Publishing Company v. Tornillo, [418 U.S. 241 (1974)], it was held that in the absence of state action the student newspaper editor could "accept or reject such material as he saw fit".
While it is true that the student newspaper is supported, in part, by activity fees collected by the University, the students elect the editor. The complaint did not allege and the stipulations did not assert that University officials supervise or control what is to be published or not published in the newspaper.
As a matter of fact, in the context of the matter before us, this Court has held that the University authorities could not have ordered the newspaper not to publish the Gay Alliance advertisement, had it chosen to do so, see Bazaar v. Fortune, supra.
Id. at 1075. The court then noted that under Tornillo, supra, the choice of what material goes into a newspaper constitutes the exercise of editorial control and judgment and there had never been a demonstration as to how government could regulate
this crucial process consistent with the First Amendment guarantees of a free press. Id.
Given this precedent, the Fifth Circuit concluded:
Since there is not the slightest whisper that the University authorities had anything to do with the rejection of this material offered by this off-campus cell of homosexuals, since such officials could not lawfully have done so, and since the record really suggests nothing but discretion exercised by an editor chosen by the student body, we think the First Amendment interdicts judicial interference with the editorial decision.
Id. My research indicates that this is still the law within the Eleventh Circuit. In fact, counsel for the Campus Crusade also relies upon Bazaar v. Fortune, upon which MGA is founded, in his February 16 letter to President Clough.
Notwithstanding the above and foregoing, I feel compelled to point out the following. In MGA there is an extremely well-researched and scholarly dissent by Judge Goldberg which makes many of the arguments now presented by Campus Crusade. This includes the concept that a student newspaper at a state school is in fact a "public forum" provided by the state and therefore cannot, absent specific compelling reasons, reject an advertisement based on content. MGA at 1080-84 (Goldberg, J., dissenting).
Additionally, the dissent argues that the absence of affirmative activity by University officials in excluding the ad in question does not end the inquiry into whether there is state action. Id. at 1084-85. Instead, the dissent argues that an official newspaper of a state school which receives the majority of its funding from student fees and which is printed and distributed with state assistance does present state action. Id. The dissent would also limit the rights of student editors to merely editing and not being able to reject ads based on content. Id. at 1085-87.
I caution you that it is not uncommon in the law for yesterday's dissent to be tomorrow's majority opinion. A
number of cases decided after MGA have either made reference to Judge Goldberg's dissent or have picked up on the idea that the determination of "state action" is an issue to be decided on a case-by-case basis, so there is no generalized recognition that a student editor may at any time reject any material in the exercise of that editor's First Amendment right to a free press. See, e.g., Sinn v. Daily Nebraskan, 829 F.2d 662, 666 (8th Cir. 1987); Estiverne v. Louisiana State Bar Ass'n, 863 F.2d 371, 375 (5th Cir. 1989) ("The presence or absence of state action turns instead on the degree of control that the state agency exercises over the publication.").
I am concerned that in this matter there is more than a "whisper" of state involvement. See MGA at 1075. The mere fact that I am providing this advice emphasizes that point.
As I pointed out above, it is my understanding that the decision to exclude these advertisements was not made by the student editor in the exercise of his or her First Amendment rights to free press, but instead the decision appears to be one based solely on content of the advertisement and a judgmental determination that some words contained in the advertisements were "hurtful." Again I point out that there is no legal basis whatsoever for content-based censorship where particular words might hurt someone's feelings.{2} Indeed, if this principle were to be applied to the press, there would be very little news coverage in the political arena at all.
Additionally, it appears that the decision not to run these advertisements was made in consultation with the faculty advisor to the paper and with employees of Georgia Tech, including one who is an attorney. The President of the University has become involved, arguing the correctness of the newspaper's decision, and now both the Board of Regents and the Attorney General have also been drawn into this inquiry. Indeed, Georgia Tech now desires to adopt University regulations which would allow "reasonable, lawful regulation of commercial speech proposed for The Technique."
Given this factual situation and the law in this area, I advise you and Georgia Tech that a strong argument can be made in this case that there is "state action." Once that threshold is crossed, then the holding of MGA is inapplicable and the newspaper's actions become attributable to the state and its employees.
Given all of this, it is my official opinion that where there is governmental oversight or involvement, a student-run newspaper at a state educational institution is subject to the free speech requirements of the First Amendment and, therefore, may not exclude materials from publication based on their content absent a compelling state interest for doing so.
Prepared by:
Senior Assistant Attorney General
{1} Decisions of the former Fifth Circuit handed down before October 1, 1981, have been adopted as binding precedent for the Eleventh Circuit in the case of Bonner v. City of Pritchard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1209 (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc).
{2} There is a constitutional doctrine in interpreting the First Amendment which does permit the restriction of "fighting words" and there is, as Justice Holmes pointed out, no right to cry "fire" in a crowded theater. See Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942).


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There is no question that SharePoint has filled that critical gap in the area of affordable document management. Still, there are significant capabilities missing from the SharePoint document management feature set that growing organizations need, and that those using high-end proprietary programs don't want to give up in their quest to lower costs.
Here are some basic features that SharePoint really needs in order to shine as a document management platform:
- Easy navigation from within all of the Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, etc.) to open and save files in SharePoint document libraries. A tree-view type of browse dialog that pops up on "Open and Save" is really what is needed. That tree-view dialog should allow the user to locate the appropriate SharePoint document library - ideally in any SharePoint farm, site collection or site that the user has security rights to
- Full integration of Outlook with SharePoint sites and document libraries, in order to support easy drag-and-drop storage of emails in SharePoint – including capture of metadata
- Consistent dialogs for metadata capture when storing a document in SharePoint, regardless of the client program being used
- Preservation of metadata and version history on documents when they are moved from one library to another (using drag-and-drop or copy/paste)
- Support in Adobe Acrobat and Reader for opening from, and saving to, SharePoint libraries
Wouldn't it be great if these features could be added to native SharePoint at an affordable price? The good news is that a software company in Australia, MacroView Business Technology, has been working tirelessly since 2006 to bring these features to SharePoint in the form of a professionally developed and supported, 100% native add-in named WISDOM Document Management Framework (DMF).
WISDOM DMF lifts SharePoint 2007 to the level of the world's leading players in document management systems. It adds all the missing features I listed above plus many others. And, a WISDOM solution is usually about half the price (or less) of a comparable Documentum, Interwoven, Open Text, Oracle or IBM solution.
We've forged a partnership with MacroView, and are now a U.S. distributor and integrator of the WISDOM lineup of products. To see what WISDOM has to offer, check out the overview video below and the WISDOM DMF product page and WISDOM Message (for Outlook) product page on our website.


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A quick reference guide to get you going with Angular development. It uses Angular v4 with TypeScript.
Learn some effective error handling strategies that you can use in your .NET projects.
Learn how Behavior Driven Development (BDD) works with a real-world example of how to use it.
Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) in C# using SOLID principles, with challenges and solutions.
Learn about a few JavaScript frameworks, and which one will be a good fit in your ASP.NET MVC apps
Developers who practice the Domain-Driven Development (DDD) style create a conceptual model first. The idea is to design the application based on a model. EF 4.0 supports this concept/pattern by allowing developers to create the model first and then generate a database from the model. Let us see how.
Note: If you are new to Entity Framework 4.0, I strongly recommend to read my article Entity Framework 4.0 FAQ – Getting Started Guide
Step 1: Open VS 2010 > File > New Project > Select Visual C# or Visual Basic Windows Template and select an Empty Project as shown below. I am calling this project 'ModelFirstEF'. Make sure the target framework is '.NET Framework 4.0'
Right click the Project in Solution Explorer > Add > New Item > Data Template > ADO.NET Entity Data Model. Click Add.
The Entity Data Model Wizard appears. Select 'Empty Model' and click on Finish
Step 2: The wizard creates a new conceptual model with an empty Data Model Designer to create your Entity Data Model (EDM).
Drag and drop an Entity from the Toolbox to the Designer as shown below. You can even right click the designer > Add Entity
Rename 'Entity1' to 'Employee'. The Id property you see above is the EntityKey (Primary Key) of this entity. I will rename it to 'EmployeeId' in the properties window. Also observe that it's Type is set to 'Int32' and since this is an identity key, its 'StoreGeneratedPattern' is automatically set to 'Identity' as shown below:
You can add additional properties like FirstName (string), LastName (string), Age (Int16) etc. by right clicking the Entity in the designer > Add > Scalar Property
The result is as shown below:
Step 3: Let us add one more entity called 'Department'. This time we will do it from the designer. Right click the designer > Add > Entity
The 'Add Entity' dialog appears. Type 'Department' in the Entity name field and select the box 'Create Key Property' to create an Entitykey. Call it 'DepartmentId' and set its property type as Int32.
Click OK and a new Department entity will appear on the design surface. Add two additional properties DeptName (string) and EmployeeId (Int32) to the Department Entity.
Step 4: Our next step is to create a One-to-many relationship between Employee and Department. Each Department can have many Employees, but one Employee can belong to only one Department. Using the Association tool in the Toolbox, select the EmployeeId property in the Employee entity, hold the left mouse button down and drag it to the DepartmentId property in the Department entity.
Update: I should have added the DepartmentId in the Employee table, but for this example just assume the opposite. It is a typo.
Alternatively, you can also right click the Employee Entity > Add > Association to create a relationship.
Your model should look like the one shown below, with a One-to-many relationship between Employee and Department.
Your conceptual model is ready now! Our next step is to generate the database from the model
Generate Schema and Database from Model
Step 5: I have gone ahead and created an Empty database called 'EFDB' in my SQL Server box. To generate a Database from the model, right click the designer > Generate Database from Model..
Note: I find this amusing! Although the option says 'Generate Database from Model', an empty or an existing database 'must' exist before clicking this option. I think the Database must exist due to the Connection Settings that we will establish in the next step. We need to specify a target database there, so the database must exist beforehand. Also the DDL script that gets generated does not include the script to generate a new database.
Step 6: The Generate Database Wizard appears. Click on 'New Connection' and fill the Connection properties as shown below. Test the Connection and Click OK.
Click Next in the wizard to preview the DDL that will be generated
Click Finish to add the generated script to your project. Once you click Finish, an EntityConnection string is added to your config file and the DDL, SSDL and MSL files are created (read my previous article Exploring the Entity Data Model (EDM) to know what SSDL and MSL are).
Step 7: All you need to do now is run the database script by clicking on the Green Arrow in a query window (Ctrl+Shift+E) to create the Employee and Department tables in the database EFDB.
If everything's ok, you will see the message 'Command(s) executed successfully. How did the DDL Scripts get generated from the model?
If you are wondering what went behind the scenes to generate the database, then I would strongly recommend you to read my previous article Exploring the Entity Data Model (EDM) where I discussed the role of .EDMX and its files SSDL, CSDL and C-S mapping. These files play a role not only in generating a model from the database, but also vice-versa, i.e. generating a database from a model. Observe the properties of Model1.edmx as shown below, especially the DDL Generation Template property.
This property specifies a T4 template (.tt) file. The T4 Templates reads the .edmx with the help of the TablePerTypeStrategy.xaml (windows workflow file) and generates the T-SQL code (DDL script) that we just saw.
As given in the msdn documentation "T4 is shorthand for the Text Template Transformation Toolkit and is a Microsoft technology explicitly designed to make text file creation such as code generation straightforward using templates. It is a mixture of processing logic and text to emit with the idea that the text can be created from the template by substituting values in it programmatically. This is similar in principle to XSLT but T4 allows the blending of .NET code and text mark-up to be combined seamlessly and it is used extensively in Visual Studio 2010"
The best part is that you can modify this template and customize the DDL generated. You can download the Entity Designer Database Generation Power Pack which contains Windows Workflows and T4 Templates to manage database generation strategies. Anyways we will explore this topic again in one of the future articles.
Limitations of the Model-First development
There are two major limitations of the Model-First development that you should keep in mind (we will also see how to overcome them)
However remember that you can extend the DDL generation capabilities of the Entity Framework. The good news is that these two limitation can be overcome using the Entity Designer Database Generation Power Pack. Using this power pack, you can update an existing database and synchronize the model with it and also make changes to the model and deploy the changes back to the database without data loss. Hopefully in the next version, this will be added to the core of EF.
I hope you are excited seeing the Model-first development in EF 4.0. It was one of the most requested feature in EF 4.0 and was readily provided by the EF team.
You must be eager to check out the schema generated in your database. Open SQL Server Management Studio and expand the EFDB database to look at the two tables, the association, keys, constraints etc created.
The entire source code of this article can be downloaded over here
I hope you liked the article and I thank you for viewing it.
This article has been editorially reviewed by Suprotim Agarwal.
C# and .NET have been around for a very long time, but their constant growth means there's always more to learn.
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Suprotim has received the prestigious Microsoft MVP award for Sixteen consecutive years. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that offers Digital Marketing and Branding services to businesses, both in a start-up and enterprise environment.
Get in touch with him on Twitter @suprotimagarwal or at LinkedIn


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(Didn't think to put Cash's face on that. My bad)
- The Yanks were high on Jeff Keppinger, and reportedly offered him the most money, but Keppinger signed with White Sox, 3 years/$12 million.
- They also made "good progress" with outfielder Nate Schierholtz. Buster Olney called the Yanks the front runner to sign him, which is a good sign for a player who would be a good fit.
- A deal with Kevin Youkilis is" unlikely," according to Mark Feinsand, despite the Yankees checking his medicals yesterday. They are also reported to be far apart on money, but don't count Youkilis out just yet.
- Mark Reynolds is one of the few third base options still unsigned, and the Yankees were talking to his people today, according to Joel Sherman. Bryan Hoch has Reynolds looking for a $7.5 million deal, which I would be more than willing to pay on a 1-year.
- Sherman also said there are "strong indications" that the Yanks won't pursue A.J. Pierzynski as a catching option. Whew.
- Eric Chavez signed a 1 year/$3 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Somewhat surprising to see him go elsewhere so quickly after deciding he wanted to come back.
- Howie Kussoy of The Post reported that Mo is planning to announce his 2014 plans during Spring Training 2013. So he's coming back again, right?


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The Trump administration State Department is working to suppress new sanctions on Iran's propaganda network that were promised to be implemented by the White House in response to a wave of protests that have gripped the Islamic Republic for weeks, according to multiple sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about the matter.
The White House vowed in the opening days of Iran's countrywide protests against the ruling government that it would take steps to level sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, or IRIB, a satellite service that disseminates propaganda across Iran and routinely censors content.
While Iranian protesters and opponents of the country's hardline government welcomed the White House's decision, the State Department is believed to be working against the effort in order to uphold a little-known deal with Iran that was struck during the Obama administration.
The apparent reversal has raised questions in Congress about the nature of the agreement between the Obama administration and Iran that prevents new sanctions on the IRIB. It also has sparked criticism from regional experts who view the move as part of a bid by the State Department to continue appeasing the Iranian ruling regime at a time when dissidents are pleading for help from the United States.
The Obama administration struck a deal in 2013 with Iran that waived existing sanctions on the IRIB as part of an agreement reached under the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, or ITSO.
Since that agreement, the United States has waived sanctions every 180 days on the IRIB, despite evidence it continues to censor content and jam broadcasts the hardline ruling regime finds unacceptable, sources said.
The little-known ITSO agreement with Iran is receiving new scrutiny as lawmakers try to determine how the Obama administration reached this deal and why many in Congress were never briefed on the matter.
"At such an important inflection point in Iranian history as brave Iranians are protesting an illegitimate tyranny, it defies logic that the State Department could be waiving sanctions to assist the Iranian regime," Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees told the Free Beacon.
DeSantis is exploring avenues to obtain further information about the 2013 agreement and the context in which it was struck.
"Congress needs to get more information about this specific waiver and why waiving such sanctions is necessary at this moment given that the protesters are calling for more sanctions against the regime," DeSantis said.
The White House signaled earlier this month, as the protests in Iran erupted, that it would no longer waive sanctions on the IRIB to boost the demonstrators and cut off the Islamic Republic's chief propaganda organ.
However, the State Department favors continuing the waivers in order to uphold the Obama-era deal with Iran, according to multiple sources.
A State Department official acknowledged the existence of the deal, but would not provide the Free Beacon with details of the agreement, information on how it was struck, and whether Congress had a say in the matter.
This has raised even more questions with lawmakers and experts tracking the situation.
"The administration periodically renews the relevant sanctions waivers to allow international satellite companies to provide satellite broadcast service to IRIB in accordance with an understanding reached with the Iranian government under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO) in 2013, where Iran committed to ensure that harmful interference does not emanate from its territory," a State Department official, speaking on background, told the Free Beacon.
This waiver must be renewed every 180 days, the official said.
It also remains unclear if the deal with Iran was struck under the auspices of the landmark nuclear agreement or the negotiations that led to it.
A Treasury Department official directed questions about the IRIB sanctions to the State Department, but told the Free Beacon the entity is still subject to some sanctions by the United States
"Treasury can confirm that IRIB is still designated pursuant to Executive Order 13628 and remains on our SDN [Specially Designated Nationals] List," the official said, pointing to a 2013 announcement of actions against the broadcaster. "IRIB is subject to secondary sanctions for activity outside the scope of the State Department-issued waiver."
Saeed Ghasseminejad, an Iran expert who tracks sanctions with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, expressed concern the Trump State Department is operating as if the Obama administration was still in power.
"The Iranian protesters specifically asked the Trump administration to ban the IRIB," Ghasseminejad said. "Issuing a waiver for an entity whose job is to broadcast lies and promote violence against the protesters and pro-democracy movement in Iran and to prepare the ground for their arrest, torture, and execution is a slap in the protesters' face."
Former Secretary of State "John Kerry is gone and the United States has a new Iran policy but Foggy Bottom still follows the Obama era policy of appeasement," he said.
Sources familiar with internal discussions over the IRIB issue told the Free Beacon that State Department officials have supported waiving sanctions on the Iranian broadcasting agency in order to uphold the 2013 agreement.
Officials claim there is no evidence Iran is jamming broadcasts and censoring content, despite repeated claims of such activity by Iranian protesters in the country, sources said.
However, there is mounting evidence that Iran continues to jam certain broadcasts and commit human rights abuses, according to experts.
Mahmood Enayat, director of the Small Media Foundation, an organization that advocates for the free flow of information in Iran, said satellite broadcasts are routinely jammed by the Iranian regime.
"Iran has certainly stopped orbital jamming but it has been continuing with terrestrial jamming, making it impossible for millions of Iranians to watch satellite TV channels broadcast from outside Iran, including VOA and BBC" said Enayat, who recently published a report on the matter.
Some insiders familiar with the agreement, which has not been mentioned in federal records since 2015, view it as another secret deal with Iran that was hidden from the American public, much like a series of secret side deals reached between the Obama administration and Iran as part of the nuclear deal.
One senior congressional official tracking the situation told the Free Beacon that lawmakers would try to scrap any previously unearthed secret agreements with Iran.
"As Iranians are protesting in the streets, our State Department is really considering waiving sanctions against the regime's mouth piece?" the source asked. "We should be exerting maximum pressure on the regime and its backers, not letting them off the hook."
"If this decision to take it easy on the regime's broadcasting arm is pursuant to some secret side deal reached under the Obama administration, it's time to expose this arrangement and terminate it, not abide by it," added the source, who was not authorized to speak on record. "The State Department needs to get on the same page as the White House and start rolling out coherent Iran policy to push back against the regime."


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Without the leavening effect of its cast (mostly picked from the Douglas family tree), It Runs in the Family would be unbearably sappy. As it is, it comes damn close: the movie has the tone and canned dialogue of a "special event" TV-movie and mostly earns attention as the cinematic curio which brings together Kirk Douglas, ex-wife Diana, son Michael, and grandson Cameron in a too-autobiographical-for-comfort family dramedy.
Multitudes of real family pictures grace the film from start to finish, and the fictional apple doesn't fall far from the real tree. Kirk Douglas plays Mitchell Gromberg, a former Bronze-god actor--sorry, lawyer--brought low by the ravages of time (in particular, a recent stroke). Michael plays his son Alex, a successful lawyer, sometime politico, and committed charitable volunteer. Cameron--following up his unheralded debut as "Giancarlo's Man" in Mr. Nice Guy--plays Alex's ne'er-do-well son Asher, a ladies' man student and drug dealer. Diana plays Mitchell's loyal and inordinately patient wife. With the exception of the last point, the Douglases bravely "keep it real."
Except that they don't. Director Fred Schepisi is far too competent for this material; perhaps to best excuse the script's conservative simplicity, he encourages the relentlessly cute tone of a family film vetted by therapists. This is a man's world, so emotions must be pulled like teeth and the lessons run to "Family is Good," "Fighting is Good, Especially for Love or Country," "Religious Faith is Also Good," and "Drugs are Bad." Lugubrious pacing and cheesy dialogue ("Let me give you some good advice," "Pappy" Gromberg garbles. "Never get old") further mire the film.
As for the acting, Cameron makes an unappealing performer (lines like "Hey, Dad, can you chill out please?" hardly help) and, though miraculously hardy, the 86-year-old Kirk is undeniably hampered by his stroke. Diana and Michael are sturdy, while Bernadette Peters practically sings her role as Michael's frustrated wife. The best performance in this acting-dynasty movie shouldn't be by a Culkin (Rory, as Michael's other son), but it is.
One would have to be made of stone not to feel a tug at certain moments--say, a cathartic father-son gazebo scene for Kirk and Michael or Kirk's forlorn duet with an empty bed--but the actors are too self-conscious and the script too inept to fully exploit the obvious replays from real life, like Michael bailing out Cameron in a police station (Cameron was nabbed on cocaine possession charges in 1999).
Filled with done-to-death dramatic beats and tidy pay-offs, It Runs in the Family thuds to earth at each abortive take-off attempt. It's no more likely to fly at the box office, either: scenes of drug arrests and marital infidelity aim this otherwise sweet-natured family film squarely at tween boys who'd rather be standing in line for X2 or The Matrix Reloaded.


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iPod Hi-Fi has big-sounding ambitions
Jobs says Apple's new stereo system will replace his speakers. But where does it really fit? Photos: iPod Hi-Fi is not alone Video: iPod goes Hi-Fi
He's spent, well, a lot of money on speakers in his time, he told a small audience of reporters Tuesday. But he said he's now giving up those expensive speakers for the new iPod Hi-Fi, Apple's new speaker accessory for the iPod music player.
Whether that's literally true, or a bit of Jobsian hyperbole to underscore a point, it's undeniable that Apple's new speakers do push the company further out of the computing world and into the home electronics business--if only a little further.
Jobs and Apple are pitching the iPod Hi-Fi as a replacement for the home stereo system. And indeed, the audio quality is very respectable for a small set of speakers in a single box, even if it's not quite on the level of a full traditional home entertainment system.
Analysts say that with 42 million iPods sold, the $349 speaker system is likely to find a market with some music fans who want an easy way to listen to their digital music collections at home, or in rooms without a stereo system. Actually replacing home entertainment systems, which are increasingly connected to TVs, could be more of a challenge.
"The price point and form factor are likely to appeal to people who are younger and have less disposable income, and who are making their first home stereo purchase," said IDC analyst Susan Kevorkian. "It's less likely to appeal to people who have a home entertainment system."
If anything, the new iPod Hi-Fi system underscores the tentative nature of Apple's move into the living room, with the company offering one or two consumer-electronics features at a time instead of a broad line of products.
For the new Mac Mini, which many predict will ultimately turn into a full-fledged entertainment hub, Apple has added the TV-friendly "Front Row" navigation system and made connecting it to the TV simple. But it has not added video recording features that would let it match TiVo or Microsoft's Windows Media Center PCs.
Apple has long offered a device called the Airport Express, which allows computer users to stream music directly from a computer to their stereo, or to a pair of powered speakers. Jobs said the new device was aimed at people who make the iPod the center of their music listening life, however.
"We put a lot of work into making the iPod an indispensable part of on-the-go living," Jobs said. "We think we've done a pretty good job at that. Now it's time to add a second focus, which is in the home."
CNET Video:
The iPod goes hi-fi
Steve Jobs sounds off on "home stereo quality."
The iPod Hi-Fi enters a market where traditional speaker makers and home electronics companies already produce a wide range of devices aimed at turning the portable audio player into a home stereo system. The presence of strong competition from Apple is likely to sink spirits in an industry where iPod accessory makers must pay Apple royalties of close to 10 percent of the wholesale prices, sources have said.
For now, existing Apple partners say they're welcoming the iPod maker's competition.
"It reinforces the fact that the third place for the iPod (after portable and in-car use) is in the living room," said Digital Lifestyle Outfitters vice president of marketing Andrew Green. "Although we're taking different tacks, we both see the living room as a new home for the iPod."
The most familiar of these products is likely Bose Electronics' $299 SoundDock. But other rivals, including Altec-Lansing and Digital Lifestyle Outfitters, have recently introduced products that also connect to the television, so video iPod owners can watch videos on TV or listen to music.
All of these are cheaper than Apple's entry, with Altec-Lansing's subwoofer-packed inMotion7 retailing at $249. DLO's HomeDock, which allows the iPod to connect to existing home entertainment systems, costs $149.


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The independence and transparency of decision making is extremely important to the EIT. Indeed, high standards of professional conduct are crucial for ensuring high standards and excellence of the EIT's work.
The EIT endeavours to operate in a clear and open manner and is mindful of its duty of transparency towards EU citizens. The EIT also strives to ensure that its staff and members of the Governing Board do not have any interests that could affect their impartiality. However, the EIT is aware of the delicate balance between having high level and well-connected members of the Governing Board with extensive expertise and experience and, at the same time, strictly avoiding conflict of interest situations that may affect decisions.
Therefore, the EIT has put in place specific rules and procedures to deal with potential conflicts of interests. In particular, by having transparent declarations of interest and adopting and implementing appropriate measures, the EIT ensures that interests cannot have an impact on the decision-making processes of the Institute.
Click here to access the EIT approach to conflicts of interest.
Click here to access the code of good conduct on conflicts of interests of EIT Governing Board members.
Click here to access EIT Decision 14/2010 on adopting the code of ethical and organisational code of conduct for staff of the EIT.


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Over the break, there's been a bit of discussion by some of the big names regarding the reasons why Windows Phone 7 handsets haven't been flying off the shelves this holiday season. Charlie Kindel started the debate with "Windows Phone is Superior; Why Hasn't It Taken Off?" and largely faults the relationship between the OEMs, Microsoft and the carriers.
MG Siegler responded with a fairly weak response largely citing the mantra of "too late and not enough apps" but as can be seen from today's news of 50,000 apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace, the latter argument really isn't that valid.
As usual, Robert Scoble hits the nail on the head. People buy Android or iOS because it's a safe bet and they don't want to look stupid or uncool by buying something else. Microsoft Windows Phone 7 and RIM's Blackberries simply don't have the gold-plated appeal of a sure-thing.
And he's right. I was a big Palm fan and look how that turned out. I do feel stupid. After spending years waiting for Palm to move from PalmOS to WebOS and then HP promising to do big things. I bought in with a succession of Pre phones and pre-ordered a TouchPad. Maybe I shouldn't be so shallow and have a less of an ego, because WebOS is a great operating system and even with the smaller app selection, it does 99% of what I need a phone to do. But when everyone else is, "Have you got this app and that app" on their Galaxy S IIs and iPhone 4Ss, you do feel a bit of a chump.
So thanks, HP. I feel stupid.


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Your license is valid for the calendar year it was purchased in, expiring on December 31.
Show All Answers
A Temporary Event means a single community event or celebration that operates for no more than 14 consecutive days. A Temporary Event is not a regularly scheduled series of events such as flea markets or farmer's markets.
Most likely yes. Please contact the Environmental health team at 303-232-6301 to determine if your event will need a permit or not.
The application needs to be submitted 30 days before your event.
Usually yes, but it depends on your operation. It is recommended that you contact our office for licensing requirements.
The application for vendors needs to be submitted 14 days prior to your first event.
Yes, if you have a Colorado Retail Food License for Mobile Units. Licenses issued from the City and County of Denver are not valid in the rest of Colorado.
No, your license for your Retail Food Establishment is only good at the physical location of the restaurant.
No. Jefferson County has its own fee structure for Temporary Vendors.
You can apply for a license by submitting the Temporary Vendor License application. You can also contact [email protected] with any questions you may have about the process.
A commissary is a facility approved by the health department as a base of operations for a temporary food vendor where food, containers, and supplies are kept, handled, prepared, packaged or stored, and where fresh water is replaced, and waste water is disposed of. Most commissaries are licensed fixed restaurants used by agreement between management of the restaurant and the mobile food operator. A Commissary Agreement must be completed and submitted for licensing.


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Leaf and Pattern Kids Art Project
A fun and easy art drawing project from art teacher Kathy Barbro.
Leaves with Lines
Kathy Barbro earned her B.F.A. at Minneapolis College of Arts & Design, enjoying a 20-year career in graphic design. When her son entered kindergarten, her career path took a turn. The local elementary school had no art program and that was all the inspiration she needed. Kathy served as a volunteer art docent for several years, later becoming the school's Professional Expert in Visual Arts. She teaches twenty K-5 classes weekly and conducts an after-school Art Enrichment program. Kathy pooled her talents to share her curriculum via the blogosphere. With 500 classroom-tested art projects posted, her Art Projects For Kids www.artprojectsforkids.org is a favored source of art lesson plans among teachers, home schoolers and parents.


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Gutter Pro
Professional gutter cleaning services in Georgia.
Gutter Pro provides gutter cleaning, gutter repair, gutter protection, and pressure washing services to the Athens area and surrounding counties.
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an R1 research institution, is in Athens and contributed to its initial growth. In 1991, after a vote the preceding year, the original City of Athens abandoned its charter to form a unified government with Clarke County, referred to jointly as Athens–Clarke County.As of 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau's population of the consolidated city-county (all of Clarke County except Winterville and a portion of Bogart) was 127,315. Athens is the sixth-largest city in Georgia, and the principal city of the Athens metropolitan area, which had a 2020 population of 215,415, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Ansley Park, Ashton Place, Athens Housing Authority, Beechwood Hills, Bogart, Boulevard Heights, Bowden Park, Bridgewater, Camak House, Carr's Hill, Cedar Hills, Chase, Albon, House, Cobbham Neighborhood Park, Downtown Athens, East Atlanta


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How to Make Meatloaf Healthier
Pictured Recipe: Mini Meatloaves
Learn secrets to making meatloaf with less fat and fewer calories.
My mother makes the world's best meatloaf, but it's as high in fat and calories as it is delicious, so as much as I like it, it doesn't fit into my diet. Instead of giving it up, I've decided to tweak her recipe to fit my needs. With a few easy tricks and switches I can have my meatloaf, with less fat and calories, and eat it too.
Healthy Recipes to Try: 5 Delicious Meatloaf Recipes
-Emily McKenna Kennedy, Recipe Developer & Tester for EatingWell Magazine
Watch: See how to make meatloaf healthier
1. Go Lean
Buy meat, including beef or pork, that is 90% lean or leaner. You can cut even more saturated fat by mixing in some super-lean ground chicken or turkey.
2. Add Grains
Replace a portion of the meat with whole grains, such as cooked quinoa, bulgur or barley, all healthy whole grains that deliver protein, fiber and bone-building manganese.
Related: 6 Slimming Carbs to Add to Your Meals
3. Work in Vegetables
Add finely chopped cooked vegetables-I use whatever I have in the crisper, including beets, sweet potatoes and hearty greens like kale. A reliable go-to combo is one large carrot, one celery stalk and a small onion, plus a clove or two of garlic, pulsed a few times in the food processor and cooked very slowly in a skillet with a little oil.
4. Skip the Yolks
Substitute two whites for every whole egg to help your loaf stay together. Most of the fat and calories in an egg are found in the yolk. One egg white contains 17 calories and less than a gram of fat, versus 55 calories and 5 grams of fat in the yolk.
5. Choose Whole-Wheat
Breadcrumbs are part of what makes meatloaf a meatloaf instead of a hamburger. They help the loaf keep its shape and they make it less dense. Choose whole-wheat breadcrumbs instead of refined white. The whole wheat adds fiber, which aids in digestion and keeps you feeling fuller longer.
6. Boost Flavor
Rehydrated and finely chopped dried mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes add a rich earthy flavor without adding a ton of extra calories, saturated fat or sodium. I also like to mix a spoonful of curry paste, chili-garlic sauce or olive tapenade into the meat for a loaf with a global flavor.


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The Do Not Track standard has crossed into crazy territory
The debate over the Do Not Track standard has officially moved beyond Alice in Wonderland. These days, I'm not sure whether it's 1984 or Brazil.
In a sane world, telling a website "do not track me" would result in behavior that assumed the person making the request did not want to have unnecessary data collected about them.
But to the online advertising industry, that DNT:1 signal means, "Right, you're one of those idiots who thinks this is about privacy. Now give me all your data. You're welcome."
I cannot make this stuff up. The representative to the W3C working group from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) proposed this change the other day to the Tracking Definitions and Compliance section of the DNT standard:
Marketing should be added to the list of "Permitted Uses for Third Parties and Service Providers" in Section 6.1 of the Tracking Definitions and Compliance Document.
Via email, two other members of the working group expressed confusion. One asked, "What do you mean by marketing? What would be permitted?" Another said, "I don't follow."
(This is how polite people in standards groups say "WTF?")
That set off this astonishing outburst from the representative of the DMA, which boasts that it "represents thousands of companies and nonprofit organizations that use and support data-driven marketing practices and techniques":
Marketing fuels the world. It is as American as apple pie and delivers relevant advertising to consumers about products they will be interested at a time they are interested. DNT should permit it as one of the most important values of civil society. Its byproduct also furthers democracy, free speech, and – most importantly in these times – JOBS. It is as critical to society – and the economy – as fraud prevention and IP protection and should be treated the same way.
Marketing as a permitted use would allow the use of the data to send relevant offers to consumers through specific devices they have used. The data could not be used for other purposes, such as eligibility for employment, insurance, etc. Thus, we move to a harm consideration. Ads and offers are just offers – users/consumers can simply not respond to those offers – there is no associated harm.
Further, DNT can stop all unnecessary uses of data using choice and for those consumers who do not want relevant marketing the can use the persistent Digital Advertising Alliance choice mechanism. This mechanism has been in place for 2 years.
So there you have it. If you oppose online tracking, you're un-American and you hate democracy. Also, the fact that big corporations can collect and collate personal data about you without your permission is a cornerstone of civil society, you communist.
Also, jobs.
Did I mention that the DMA is also one of the prime movers behind the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA)? They'd prefer to regulate themselves, thank you very much.
One of the authors of the draft standard, Adobe's Roy Fielding, gently rebuked the DMA representative in this reply:
I appreciate that the DAA has done a lot of work in a somewhat related area to the WG's efforts. However, raising issues that you know quite well will not be adopted is not an effective way to contribute to this process.
(This is how polite people in standards groups say "STFU.")
Although Fielding hasn't always been so level-headed. It looks like some members of the open-source community aren't thrilled that Fielding, in his role as a founder of the Apache Group, submitted a patch to the Apache web server project that causes it to completely ignore Do Not Track settings coming from the Internet Explorer 10 agent.
That led to this spirited debate on the Apache mailing list, starting with this objection on August 11:
I've come around on this one over time. While I appreciate the message/intent, I don't think this is reasonable for the default configuration because it errs on the side of ditching a privacy header and information loss for a (sensitive) header that we're not yet interpreting.
Another member's response was posted on September 13:
What Microsoft has done is, to say the least, disappointing from a technical aspect, as it muddies the waters, and I think Jeff's thoughts about an open letter would be a very good idea, but it is hard for me to technically justify editing the DNT header from within httpd, thus also denying DNT for those who explicitly want it on. The error, as I see it, lies with Microsoft, and in the end, it should be Microsoft that fixes it, not httpd that has to make a workaround.
Remarkably, at least one member of the group believes "Microsoft is putting their users at risk" by implementing Do Not Track as the default setting in Internet Explorer 10.
Terry Gilliam and Eric Blair together would have been hard-pressed to come up with a better line of absurd dialog.
Meanwhile, Fielding himself sounds downright bitter about the state of the entire standards-setting process, judging from this snippet of his reply:
Given the pathetic way that the Tracking Protection working group members have addressed this issue, both for and against the behavior of IE 10.0, I have lost any energy I once had for defending Mozilla's original definition. It was the only issue of substance that the WG had managed to record consensus, in over a year of deliberation. I would prefer that the WG change the text, one way or the other, before we make another change, but I also want anything we do to be based on what we think is right, not what others think or fail to do.
Regardless, I am +0 to revert, for none of the above reasons.
And in a late-breaking development, the DAA has now issued a press release that outlines its formal stand on the Do Not Track effort. After three paragraphs of throat-clearing, the press release finally gets to the point:
The DAA does not require companies to honor DNT signals fixed by the browser manufacturers and set by them in browsers. Specifically, it is not a DAA Principle or in any way a requirement under the DAA Program to honor a DNT signal that is automatically set in IE10 or any other browser. The Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association will not sanction or penalize companies or otherwise enforce with respect to DNT signals set on IE10 or other browsers.
The trade associations that lead the DAA do not believe that Microsoft's IE10 browser settings are an appropriate standard for providing consumer choice. Machine-driven do not track does not represent user choice; it represents browser-manufacturer choice. Allowing browser manufacturers to determine the kinds of information users receive could negatively impact the vast consumer benefits and Internet experiences delivered by DAA participants and millions of other Web sites that consumers value. In addition, standards that are different than the consensus-based DAA Principles could confuse consumers and be difficult to implement. A "default on" do-not-track mechanism offers consumers and businesses inconsistencies and confusion instead of comfort and security.
(That's how a rich and powerful lobbying group tells a polite standard committee, "GFY.")
In an e-mailed statement, Brendon Lynch, Chief Privacy Officer, Microsoft, responds to the DAA:
Consumers want and expect strong privacy protection to be built into Microsoft products and services. A recent Microsoft survey of U.S. and European consumers shows 75 percent of PC users want Microsoft to turn "on" Do Not Track (DNT). This reaffirms our decision to enable DNT in the "Express Settings" portion of the Windows 8 set-up experience. There, consumers can easily switch DNT off if they'd like. Transparency and choice guide our approach. We will continue to innovate and compete on privacy.
That reference to Europe is not accidental. European regulators might choose to do something about this issue. But the standards-setting group, dominated by Americans, won't.
So there you have it. The advertising side wants the standard to be rendered meaningless, the tech guys throw up their hands and say they have lost any energy to go on with a "pathetic" process. And privacy advocates are completely marginalized.
Someone should just kill this standard.
Or maybe we should make a reality TV show out of it. We could put all of the W3C members together in a big house on the beach to argue and fight while live cameras record every interaction.
We could call it Big Brother.


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I have finished the long part of creating my artwork for South Australian Living Artists Week 2010.
The piece will be either titled "Industry" or "Hive", im still trying to make up my mind.
Now I just need to layout my stencils and spray them up the piece will be 60cm x 90 cm. I am hoping to put it up on Saturday but I will wait and see what the weather brings rather than trying to deal with the wind
I will update the post once the exhibition is on


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Neelesh Vasistha returns to talk about his experiences on the Guitar Higher Diploma course at The Institute, and this time he's been recording at a legendary rock studio and jetting off to Mumbai.
For the last few years TG has sponsored a scholarship at The Institute (formerly ICMP and The Guitar Institute), one of the leading contemporary music schools in the country. In his sixth blog, our 2011/2012 scholarship student Neelesh tells us what he's been up to of late.
Hello all. At the start of the month I was privileged enough to record an EP at Rockfieldstudios near Monmouth, the most prestigious UK studio after (of course) Abbey Road. I would say it's a place that needs no introduction, but considering I hadn't heard about it previously it's prudent to mention that it's hosted plenty of 'A-list' artists through its illustrious history - most notably Queen, Oasis and Coldplay.
Throughout the years I like to think I've paid my dues in some of the worst looking and more importantly, sounding 'studios' in the capital. So it was a f**king awesome experience to record in the same room where Bohemian Rhapsody was created, a large live room with original vintage equipment and peppered with shimmering microphones more valuable than my life. Sonically, even listening to the raw mix in the control room sounded infinitely better than most 'mixed n' mastered' tracks I've ever made. I'll be sure to let you guys know as soon as I have the finished product.
By the time you'll read this article I'll be in Mumbai. It will be hot, I will inevitably get the runs and I will or come very close to being scammed for everything I own. But impending hardships aside, I'm looking forward to seeing firsthand the apparently burgeoning Indian rock scene.
With rock music recently seeping into Bollywood (thus by extension, mainstream culture) with cryptic film titles such as Rockstar and Rock On, it should be very interesting to see how my ethnic brethren have chosen to embrace the rock n' roll ideology thousands of miles away from both the UK or America.
Promising still is the rumour I've heard that in Mumbai exists skanky rock dives to rival the dredges of Camden or the Sunset Strip. Just my kinda' scene - watch this space!