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Dreadful Economic Data in Germany, Italy, Spain France
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With all the focus (mine included) on the US elections it was easy to overlook some quite a lot of extremely poor economic reports in the Eurozone.
By the way, many people are attributing the stock market decline to the election of Obama. I was up at 3:00AM and the futures were still green. Futures turned red following comments by ECB president Mario Draghi regarding economic weakness in Germany.
Here are some dreadful Eurozone news stories you may have missed.
Sharpest Fall in French Service Sector in a Year
The Markit France Services PMI® shows the sharpest fall in French service sector business activity for a year.
Key Points:
- Final Markit France Services Activity Index at 44.6 (45.0 in September), 12-month low.
- Final Markit France Composite Output Index at 43.5 (43.2 in September), 2-month high.
Business activity in the French service sector decreased at a substantial rate in October. This primarily reflected a further drop in incoming new business, as weak economic conditions weighed on demand. The rate of job losses accelerated as service providers responded to excess capacity. Output prices continued to be cut at a sharp rate, despite a further (albeit weaker) rise in input costs. Future expectations deteriorated again, slipping to the lowest level since January 2009.
Across the French private sector as a whole, new business fell sharply, albeit at a slightly slower rate than in the previous month.
Employment in the French service sector continued to fall in the latest survey period. The rate of job cutting quickened to the fastest since December 2009, as a number of companies pursued restructuring strategies and chose not to replace voluntary leavers.
Jack Kennedy, Senior Economist at Markit and author of the France Services PMI®, said: "The pace of contraction in private sector output during the last two months has been the sharpest since the post-Lehmans slump in early 2009. With ebbing confidence having resulted in widespread belt-tightening among clients, the economy heads towards the end of the year on a decidedly precarious footing."
Spain Business Activity Drops 16th Successive Month
The Markit Spain Services PMI® shows Sixteenth successive reduction in business activity.
Key points:
- New orders and activity fall sharply
- Charges decrease at faster pace
- Companies forecast decline in activity over coming year
Further sharp reductions in activity and new orders were recorded in the Spanish service sector during October as the economic crisis in the country persisted. Falling demand led companies to offer discounts in an attempt to stimulate new orders, despite a solid increase in input costs. Meanwhile, the labour market continued to suffer as the rate of job cuts remained marked.
New business has fallen in each month since July 2011. October data pointed to the fastest reduction in outstanding business in 2012 to date. The rate of job cuts remained sharp, and was broadly in line with those seen in previous months.
Commenting on the Spanish Services PMI® survey data, Andrew Harker, economist at Markit and author of the report said:
"The latest Spanish services PMI data point to another dreadful month for companies in the sector as the economic crisis showed no signs of letting up. Rates of decline in activity and new business remained substantial, with clients reluctant to spend amid deteriorating economic conditions."
Margin Squeeze in Italy
The Markit/ADACI Italy Services PMI® shows Weakest fall in business activity for 14 months.
Key points:
- Output, new work and employment all fall at reduced rates
- Margins squeezed by diverging trends in input and output prices
- Future expectations remain subdued
Trends in business activity, new work and employment in Italy's service sector improved during October, each falling at rates that were weaker than those registered one month before. Future expectations were little-changed since September, however, while developments in input and output prices put further pressure on profit margins.
Phil Smith, economist at Markit and author of the Italy Services PMI® said:
"October data showed that Italy's service sector continued to struggle under the weight of austerity as well as economic and political uncertainty. The latest contraction in business activity was considerable overall and pointed to Italy's recession continuing into Q42012. That said, the headline index is clearly moving in the right direction, with the implied rate of decline a far cry from that recorded at the depths of the current downturn in services output back in April. That was in part reflective of the trend in new business, which also fell at a reduced pace over month."
New Business Declines in Germany
The Markit Germany Services PMI® shows Marginal reduction in German services activity amid ongoing new business declines.
Key points:German Construction Falls at Accelerated Rate
- Final Germany Services Business Activity Index(1) at 48.4 in October, down from 49.7 in September.
- Final Germany Composite Output Index(2) at 47.7 in October, down from 49.2 in September.
Historical Overview:
October data indicated a slight reduction in German service sector output, following a near-stabilisation during the previous month. The final seasonally adjusted Markit Germany Composite Output Index – which measures the combined output of the manufacturing and service sectors – posted 47.7 in October, down from 49.2 in September. This was the lowest reading since August and below the neutral 50.0 mark for the sixth successive month.
Service providers suggested that subdued underlying client demand continued in October, as highlighted by a seventh successive monthly decline in new business intakes.
Commenting on the final Markit Germany PMI® survey data, Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit and author of the report said:
"October's final German PMI data highlight a lack of momentum in either services or manufacturing at the start of Q4 2012, with both sectors posting slightly sharper output falls than one month previously. At its current level, the composite PMI figure raises the likelihood of an outright GDP contraction during the final quarter of the year."
The Markit Germany Construction PMI® shows German construction activity falls at accelerated rate in October.
Key points:Mike "Mish" Shedlock
- Steep decline in civil engineering activity leads downturn
- Jobs cut amid further weakness in new orders
- Construction firms pessimistic about the year ahead
The downturn in German construction gathered pace in October, with the civil engineering subsector showing particular weakness over the month. Activity fell on the back of another sharp decline in inflows of new orders, and firms responded to reduced workloads by cutting staff numbers. Meanwhile, future expectations were the lowest since the depths of the global financial crisis in late 2008.
Total construction work in Germany decreased at a faster rate in October, as signalled by the seasonally adjusted Germany Construction Purchasing Managers' Index® (PMI®) – a single-figure snapshot of overall activity in the construction economy – dipping from September's mark of 48.6 to 44.6. That was the lowest since July, and the eighth sub-50 reading in the past nine months.


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The love-in between Coldplay and Jay-Z continues, and while their friendship is certainly genuine, MusicRadar is sure this is one of music's most unlikely collaborations.
Or is it?
A quick rummage through the dustbin of modern music history shows that there are many more instances in music of highly unlikely friends.
1. Eminem / Elton John: Stan
"Hate fags? / The answer's yes" rapped Eminem on Criminal, which led many observers to suggest Eminem just might be homophobic. Indeed, gay and lesbian groups were infuriated with Elton John when the singer defended Eminem.
"Let the Boy Georges and the George Michaels of the world get up in a twist about it if they don't have the intelligence to see his intelligence," John decreed.
The gay lobby went madder still when the duo's 2001 Grammys duet went down in history, with Sir Elton later saying Eminem was on a par with Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger. A queer episode, no mistake.
2. Burt Bacharach / Dr Dre: Go Ask Shakespeare
Dr Dre and Burt Bacharach: "Yo, this one's for my homies!" "Yes Burt, mine too."
The writer of Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head and all-round easy listening king doesn't look very bling, but Bacharach rolls tight with hip-hop uber-producer Dr Dre. "He gave me some drum loops, bass patterns and said, 'Play with it, see what you come up with,'" says Bacharach of Dre's co-work on his 2005 album At This Time, including the standout track Go Ask Shakespeare.
And it ain't over, mofos. BB later added: "I told Dre if he ever wanted me to do strings for him on his album, I'd love to do it. He's a good guy".
Fast-forward to 2008, and Dre is getting piano lessons from Bacharach for his next album. Whatever they're smokin', we like it!
3. Lil' Kim / Phil Collins: In The Air Tonight
Lil' Kim: You're lucky Phil Collins doesn't 'dress' like this
2001's Urban Renewal has to be the maddest album ever, featuring a selection of hip-hop stars giving out some street love to Phil Collins. Thus the unlikely sounds of Sussudio reworked by Wu-Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard and I Don't Care Anymore crooned by Kelis. Then there's an approved sample of Collins himself, 'duetting' with the saucy Lil' Kim on In the Air Tonight.
Sadly, the album charted in Germany only, at Number 3. Which could stymie plans for Lil Wayne to cover Collins' Brother Bear soundtrack.
4. Michael Bolton / Bob Dylan: Steel Bars
Michael Bolton: bolt-on hair
Written in two days at Dylan's California home, Steel Bars appears on Bolton's 1991 album Time, Love And Tenderness. Bolton reported that the legendary pop bard had called him out of the blue and was an enthusiastic partner. "He just kept coming up with all these great lines," says Bolton, whose input was...what? The supplying of an outrageous mullet?
5. REM / KRS-One: Radio Song
So many musical crimes seem to be committed when rockers and rappers become awkward bedfellows, and none moreso than on this 1991 track. REM lamely attempt to bring the funk, KRS bellows like a man lost, and the world's worst rap lyric appears: "When I got to the show / Yo ho ho". Everyone should be ashamed.
6. Robert Plant / Alison Krauss: Raising Sand
Bluegrass singer and fiddle player Alison Krauss has been a leading light in bluegrass for years, yet collaborating with Led Zeppelin's 'Golden God' Robert Plant on 2007's Raising Sand album threw everyone a curveball. The album went Platinum in both the UK and US, and its ongoing success and duet tour even nixed any chance of a 2008 Led Zeppelin reunion.
7. Jack White / Alicia Keys: Another Way To Die
White and Keys: mission implausible?
If you believe certain reports, Jack White and Alicia Keys were only brought in to sing the 2008 Bond / Quantum Of Solace theme as Amy Winehouse was once again 'ailing' and unavailable. Yet, it seems that White and Keys genuinely wanted to work together - even if the pallid evidence of Another Way To Die suggests they're hardly a natural pairing. Next up, White duets with Adele for a Raconteurs b-side. Confiscate his mobile, say we.
8. William Shatner / Ben Folds / Henry Rollins: I Can't Get Behind That
"Captain Kirk" meets Henry Rollins: illogical!
Shatner was certainly star-trekking when he assembled the personnel for his bizarre William Shatner Has Been album from 2004. Shatner may be in good self-mocking form, but Folds' production is surprisingly supple on an album also featuring collaborations with Joe Jackson, country guitarist Brad Paisley and King Crimson's Adrian Belew. Then it got turned it into a ballet. Beyond weird.
9. Bing Crosby / David Bowie: Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy
In 1977, 30-year-old Bowie was just coming out of an 'interesting' period of drug-snorting, cross-dressing and politically-confusing debauchery. So obviously, 74-year-old Bing recruited him to duet on his Merrie Olde Christmas TV special. Crazier still, Little Drummer Boy went to No 3 in the UK charts.
Bowie's reasoning for doing it? "I just knew my mother liked him."
10. Slash / Blackstreet / ODB: Fix
Slash has seemingly appeared on other people's records as many times as he's sparked a Marlboro, but this 1996 track with Blackstreet must be one of his oddest collaborations. Yet it kinda works. It's better than him 'helping out' Black Eyed Peas' Fergie, Ray Charles, Chic, Michael Jackson or...
11. Ne-Yo / Marilyn Manson: tbc
Get this: the R&B star behind Closer likes nothing better than listening to Marilyn Manson, and plans to record with the self-styled God Of Fuck in 2009.
"I've wanted to work with him for ages and his people reached out to me when they heard," said Ne-Yo in September. "People might think it's a strange collaboration, I don't.
"You won't see me adopting his style. I don't think you'll ever see me in make-up," Ne-Yo adds, somewhat disappointingly.
MusicRadar is so looking forward to this one.
12. Pavarotti / U2 (Passengers): Miss Sarajevo
For their rather outré album as Passengers (with Brian Eno) in 1995, the Dublin quartet roped in the world's greatest tenor for this single. It might not be as odd as others in this list - Bono's father was an amateur opera singer, after all - but it certainly made for an 'interesting' tune. And it gave chances for Brian Eno to play an Omnichord, Bono to dress like an Italian market trader and the Edge to take his hat off. Truly historical.
13. Muse / The Streets: Who Knows Who
Given that Muse are massive Rage Against The Machine fans, it's perhaps unsurprising that the trio had a stab at rap-rock in 2008. But the fact that Muse turned to Mike Skinner to provide the vocals was probably slightly more unexpected; the resulting jam was a fun but unconvincing pastiche demonstrating how Rage just wouldn't work if they were English. Or if their vocalist rapped as if he was struggling to read the lyrics off the back of his hand.
14. Nick Cave / Kylie Minogue: Where The Wild Roses Grow
Minogue and Cave: "Oh no, I killed Kylie!"
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds' 1996 album Murder Ballads features cameos from PJ Harvey and Shane MacGowan, but it was Cave's duet with Kylie that stole the headlines. The song's tale of obsession and murder was a far cry from I Should Be So Lucky. The same year the first lady of Australian pop further expanded her musical horizons, collaborating with Manic Street Preachers on two songs for her Impossible Princess album.
The Welsh band had originally approached her to sing their 1992 single Little Baby Nothing, but label wrangles meant that former porn star Traci Lords got the gig instead. Surprisingly, she didn't suck.
15. Prince / Sheena Easton: U Got The Look
Scotland's Sheena Easton got her break on a reality TV show and started the '80s singing cosy hits such as 9 To 5 (called Morning Train in the US), Modern Girl and Bond theme For Your Eyes Only. Then Prince got his hands on her, and suddenly she was asking us to "come inside my sugar walls".
Prince wrote Sugar Walls for Easton's 1984 album A Private Heaven, but it was in 1987 that the pair had a hit together in the shape of U Got The Look, completing Easton's transformation from girl next door to sex vixen. Though sung by a girl from Motherwell, lines such as "Your body's heck-a-slammin/If love is good, let's get 2 rammin" didn't totally convince.
16. Metallica / Marianne Faithful: The Memory Remains
Marianne Faithful: metal!
One-time girlfriend of Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful is no stranger to close encounters with hairy rockers, but 1997 saw her feature on this cut from Metallica's ReLoad album. This song about a once-great celebrity driven mad by obscurity is pretty solid, with Faithful's vocal contribution adding something sinister to the band's characteristically muscular riffing.
17. The KLF / Tammy Wynette: Justified and Ancient
Previously concentrating on 'stadium house', arch duo The KLF recruited the 'first lady of country', grandma Tammy Wynette - and a Jimi Hendrix lick from Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - for this 1992 country-tinged house oddity. It went to Number 1 in Austria and New Zealand. "Mu Mu Land looks a lot more interesting than Tennessee.... But I wouldn't want to live there," observed Wynette sagely.
These 17 are surely only the beginning...
Do you know of any weirder?

subset: commoncrawl


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I was alerted to this scandal by "BikeLemming," and clearly they don't cotton to that sort of thing out there in Collerady because the person who raced with the ill-gotten number, Wendy Lyall, is now being charged with a felony. Of course, Lyall's biggest mistake was breaking the first rule of borrowing someone else's race number, which is: "Don't Place." Instead, she did place--2nd in the 40-49 age group--which was particularly problematic since she was only 36. Now, not only has she been forced to return her substantial second-place prize (a "belt buckle, pendant and necklace"), but she may now have to endure the punishment for a Class 6 felony--which, in Leadville, CO, involves being tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.
ITTET, it's hard to imagine that anybody would give a professional athlete money to help pay for lawyers, regardless of how innocent or guilty he might be. However, people were simpler and more prosperous back then, and give they did--to the smell of (I hate the expression "to the tune of") over half a million dollars. One shop owner in Dallas even gave Landis $25,000:
Jim Hoyt, the 59-year-old owner of Richardson Bike Mart in Dallas, matched $25,000 of his customers' contributions and says he "still feels good about it." He also thinks Landis shouldn't be blamed for his manager's actions. "I have 150 people who work for me and from time to time, they do things I don't know about," he says. "It happens."
He also may or may not have been hacking into the computers of the laboratory that produced his positive test result:
Shockingly, however, none of these shrewd tactics helped Landis, and he would up losing his appeal. This cost him a two-year suspension, from which he returned last year. He's since produced less-than-stellar results. Before "WeenieGate," Greg LeMond claimed he told Landis that he could "single handedly salvage the sport" by confessing, though he says Landis was disinclined to do so:
Now, however, bereft of results, public goodwill, and, very probably, money (he was selling his Phonak team bikes on Craigslist awhile back), he seems have changed his mind.
Also, Landis's book "Positively False" is now positively hilarious--and who wouldn't want to own an autographed copy?
But no piece of Landis paraphernalia will become more coveted than a "vintage" Free Floyd t-shirt, once sold by the proprietor of the "Floyd Landis is the Man" blog:
This piece of pop-cultural kitsch is the very pinnacle of irony, and it radiates irreverence with the power of a thousand 80s metal band t-shirts. Hopefully Landis, the Bernie Madoff of cycling, will be forced to sell his personal inventory in order to compensate the victims.
There's even video of the subsequent crash:
Police are still seeking the culprit, though witnesses say he looks a bit like Rowan Atkinson:


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Apocrypha: Gospel of the Ebionites
The Gospel of the Ebionites is known only by the quotations from Epiphanius in these passages of his Panarion: 30.13.1-8, 30.14.5, 30.16.4-5, and 30.22.4.
The following selection is excerpted from Montague Rhode James in The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1924), pp. 8-10.
All our knowledge of this is derived from Epiphanius, and he uses very confusing language about it (as about many other things). The passages are as follows:
And they (the Ebionites) receive the Gospel according to Matthew. For this they too, like the followers of Cerinthus and Merinthus, use to the exclusion of others. And they call it according to the Hebrews, as the truth is, that Matthew alone of New Testament writers made his exposition and preaching of the Gospel in Hebrew and in Hebrew letters.
Epiphanius goes on to say that he had heard of Hebrew versions of John and Acts kept privately in the treasuries (Geniza?) at Tiberias, and continues:
In the Gospel they have, called according to Matthew, but not wholly complete, but falsified and mutilated (they call it the Hebrew Gospel), it is contained that 'There was a certain man named Jesus, and he was about thirty years old, who chose us. And coming unto Capernaum he entered into the house of Simon who was surnamed Peter, and opened his mouth and said: As I passed by the lake of Tiberias, I chose John and James the sons of Zebedee, and Simon and Andrew and
John was baptizing, and there went out unto him Pharisees and were baptized, and all Jerusalem. And John had raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins: and his meat (it saith) was wild honey, whereof the taste is the taste of manna, as a cake dipped in oil. That, forsooth, they may pervert the word of truth into a lie and for locusts put a cake dipped in honey (sic).
These Ebionites were vegetarians and objected to the idea of eating locusts. A locust in Greek is akris, and the word they used for cake is enkris, so the change is slight. We shall meet with this tendency again.
And the beginning of their Gospel says that: It came to pass in the days of Herod the king of Judaea
The borrowing from St. Luke is very evident here. He goes on:
And after a good deal more it continues that:
After the people were baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John; and as he came up from the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Holy Ghost in the likeness of a dove that descended and entered into him: and a voice from heaven saying: Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased: and again: This day have I begotten thee. And straightway there shone about the place a great light. Which when John saw (it saith) he saith unto him: Who art thou, Lord? and again there was a voice from heaven saying unto him: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And then (it saith) John fell down before him and said: I beseech thee, Lord, baptize thou me. But he prevented him saying: Suffer it (or let it go): for thus it behoveth that all things should be fulfilled.
And on this account they say that Jesus was begotten of the seed of a man, and was chosen; and so by the choice of God he was called the Son of God from the Christ that came into him from above in the likeness of a dove. And they deny that he was begotten of God the Father, but say that he was created as one of the archangels, yet greater, and that he is Lord of the angels and of all things made by the Almighty, and that he came and taught, as the Gospel (so called) current among them contains, that, 'I came to destroy the sacrifices, and if ye cease not from sacrificing, the wrath of God will not cease from you'.
(With reference to the Passover and the evasion of the idea that Jesus partook of flesh:)
They have changed the saying, as is plain to all from the combination of phrases, and have made the disciples say: Where wilt thou that we make ready for thee to eat the Passover? and him, forsooth, say Have I desired with desire to eat this flesh of the Passover with you?
These fragments show clearly that the Gospel was designed to support a particular set of views. They enable us also to distinguish it from the Gospel according to the Hebrews, for, among other things, the accounts of the Baptism in the two are quite different. Epiphanius is only confusing the issue when he talks of it as the Hebrew Gospel – or rather, the Ebionites may be guilty of the confusion, for he attributes the name to them.
The Gospel according to the Twelve, or 'of the Twelve', mentioned by Origen (Ambrose and Jerome) is identified by Zahn with the Ebionite Gospel. He makes a good case for the identification. If the two are not identical, it can only be said that we know nothing of the Gospel according to the Twelve.
Revillout, indeed, claims the title for certain Coptic fragments of narratives of the Passion which are described in their propery place in this collection: but no one has been found to follow his lead.


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Never, and I mean NEVER substitute your calender for a 6 year old!!!!! As sweet as they are and as confident as they can be, really they haven't got a clue!
On Sunday night when I was tucking Jessica into bed she reminded me that it was the 'Prep' breakfast at school on Tuesday. I responded with fained enthusiasm as I knew it meant that I would need to be up a 5am that morning to have all four kids out the door by 7.45am and even worse they were to wear pyjamas to this gala event.
I don't know about you but I hate pyjama days! Being the total control freak that I am I could never just roll them out of bed and usher them down to the school to eat breakfast in their skungie old pajamas that they had been rolling around in all night with their hair matted to the sides of their head. So I left Jessie's room and promptly blocked the thought of the problem event out of my mind!
Monday lunch time deep in panic over my missed deadline for my quilt, I suddenly remembered that I needed to pull two pairs of pyjamas out of some unmentionable orifice before 5am the next morinng... so I tossed the quilt aside and set to work. By 10pm they they were finished (obviously there were many activities of daily living that were also shoved into that period of time - I am not that inefficient!).
Now with all of that time wasted how was I going to catch up with the time lost away from the quilt. Quick, I thought, I still have stacks of time before bed. I collapsed into bed at 3.30am only to be awoken by the alarm at 5am. I then ran around the house like a mad woman as always in the morning, screamed at the kids, got everyone ready ... screamed at the kids again. Ran outside took photos ...
Into the car and screamed down to the school arriving at 8.05am. "Phew! Not bad!" I thought, "Oh ... there aren't many cars here!" ... then I realised that the Prep Breakfast is NEXT Tuesday .... I have never been so early in my life!!!
I have played catch up all week since this, so although my quilt has finally been finished this morning it is not going to be sent off until Monday so that I can take a breath and make sure that it and it's pattern are as good as I can manage.
SO here's the big reveal ... it's called Meg's Garden...
OK so I know that that's the back but that's all I can show you until April next year ... sorry! Well maybe just a little more...
I have gotten some lovely things in the mail over the last few weeks...
Firstly I received a little zippered pouch from Fiona together with a super-soft face washer and a great information book about her home town complete with little tid bits from Fiona scattered throughout. Thanks so much Fiona what a great idea!
Joshua was spoiled again by our sweet Lisa! This elephant has become his closest friend since his arrival. Joshua decided to call him Joshua ... he says that he likes that name and that that was no other name better than that ... there is no arguing with our Joshua! So now we have Joshua the little bit big & little bit llittle boy and Joshua the Elephant! He is really quite imaginative!
As you can see he was quite excited about the whole event! Thank you Lisa!!!! He will be well loved!
I hope that you all have a great weekend! I am going to polish off my pattern and get stuck into a couple of new things I want to share with you before we go away.
PS. There have been a couple of people who have emailed me or left comments requesting the Smock patterns and I have not been able to send them out because the address is incorrect. If you have asked for the patterns and I have not sent them out to you email me again please and we will see if we can get it to work this time.


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Billy Cobham picks 10 essential drum recordings
Billy Cobham picks 10 essential drum recordings
Kenny Aronoff calls him "a total fucking genius." Glen Sobel says he's "a monster. His playing is so ahead of its time." And Rod Morgenstein, reflecting on the impact that Billy Cobham's drumming on the Mahavishnu Orchestra's 1971 album, Inner Mounting Flame, had on him, says that he "wore out the grooves on every part of this record trying to figure out what Billy was doing."
So it would appear that a rising chorus of top drummers' voices is building to something of a consensus – that jazz-fusion pioneer Billy Cobham is the ultimate.
Informed of the huzzahs and hosannahs thrown his way, Cobham chuckles, appearing flummoxed for a second, finally saying, "Yeah, well... OK then."
MusicRadar sat down with the fusion legend to turn the question around, asking him to assemble his own list of personal favorites and essential drum recordings. Cobham was happy to oblige, although admitting that his choices are of a certain vintage. "I'm listening to the old school," he says. "I'm sure there are geniuses out there who I'm blowing over. But when you think about people who really did something great on the drums, it's like watching a pitcher like [New York Yankees great] Mariano Rivera: Even in his twilight years, it's like, 'C'mon. Where do you go?' And the answer is, you go back."
For Cobham, a memorable drum recording has little to do with technique and everything to do with personality. He cites big-band great Mew Lewis as somebody who "always made you aware of the guy he was behind the kit. He sounded like the most musical garbage can player around. His fills reminded me of somebody taking out the trash. It was crazy, but it worked."
Cobham, who has just begun US dates as part of his Spectrum 40 Tour, pays his respects to Lewis and nine other star stickemen on the following pages.
Max Roach - Members Don't Git Weary (1968)
"It was a major statement, and when it came out in the '60s, it was a very sensitive time as far as the race question being presented. You have to remember, over the last 20 or 30 years, on islands like Guadalupe, people weren't allowed to play their own music – they might be put in prison. So the statement being made by Max and the group of musicians he played with at the time was, they wanted to draw attention to themselves and the wrongs that were being presented to them. They did it through their art.
"That tells me a lot about the power of music. Even today, not just in Guadalupe, but it's reflected in Iran and Afghanistan, they want to shut the door – and in some cases, the Taliban has shut the door on music. You play music, you die.
"To me, Members Don't Git Weary falls into the category of being a major sonic statement."
Miles Davis - Seven Steps To Heaven (1963)
"Tony Williams, my contemporary. He's maybe one or two years younger than me, but man, he was doing things that really inspired me. Just the musical side of it was great. As far as his personality goes, he might have done things another way. But that was Tony – Tony was Tony. [Laughs]
"In a way, now I love him even more for it. He took his position, and he did whatever he had to do to get over. I didn't agree with him playing so aggressively and at levels of volume that I found unnecessary, but on the other hand, that's like telling Terry Bozzio, 'Don't play so many drums.'
"Everybody has his way, and Tony taught me a lot by his actions. Through music, he does not lie. If you feel a certain way, that's what you're going to play. Tony made this record when he was 18 or 19 years old, and he was already such a talent. It blew me away. I saw him at a festival and I told him, 'You just opened it up for me a lot of other cats.' Not that we were going to play with Miles, but we could play with people like Miles."
The Trumpet Kings At Montreux (1975)
"Louis Bellson is in the rhythm section with OP [Oscar Peterson], backing up all of these trumpet players. He was one of the big-band drummers who could also play in a trio, and he did it on the same, exact set of drums his whole life. He knew how to feather things so musically.
"One of his dimensions that made a big impression on me was how he composed for everybody else. Here's a percussionist writing for other musicians as a percussionist would envision them playing. That's what I do, and I learned it from Lou, just like I learned playing with four sticks and playing with multiple bass drums and all kinds of things. It all came from Lou. He's got a very special place in my heart."
Roy Haynes, Phineas Newborn, Paul Chambers - We Three (1958)
"Roy is kind of like my uncle. We go way back. His nephew was a co-leader of band with me and some other guys. We had a band at the Music and Art High School in New York. Roy used to come by when we were practicing in this basement, and he would advise us. To be that young and be so close to somebody like that, it was wonderful. He was turning mud into diamonds.
"That's the sort of thing that stays with you, having experiences where you go, 'OK, this is how it's done.' Those are the things that you remember… as well as records like this."
Buddy Rich - The West Side Story Medley (1966)
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1965)
"Elvin Jones's groove was infectious, and then it became a virus. It became a virus on this record, right as you listened to it. For me, it was monumental. I haven't listened to A Love Supreme in almost 15 years, but I can still hear Elvin playing it. It was that strong. I can feel [bassist] Jimmy Garrison; I can hear Trane, of course; but Elvin's right in the middle of that. The treatment of [pianist] McCoy [Tyner] is unbelievable.
"When you put that whole band together, and you listen to what Elvin is doing – and it's so uniquely Detroit-Latin – and you realize that nobody, just nobody… no way… [laughs] These are personalities that I do not encounter now."
Count Basie And His Orchestra - The Atomic Mr. Basie (1958)
"Here we have Sonny Payne, the first guy I ever saw who twirled sticks. [Laughs] He was beyond my understanding. We're talking 1957, '58 on the Ed Sullivan Show – it was heavy. He was such a showman. He would come on the bandstand with the big, big band, and all he had was one bass drum, one floor tom, one snare drum, a ride cymbal, a crash cymbal and a hi-hat. That's it, man.
"Now, picture that setup, and the guy is pushing the Basie band. He pushed them out onto the street, out onto 52nd Street and Broadway. And he did it with intensity, sensitivity and touch. These are things you have to live."
Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra - Central Park North (1969)
"And then you have Mel. Sometimes with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis band, you had the orchestra up there, all of these things are happening, everybody's groovin', and then when it came time for Mel to do a fill, it really did sound as if he put together a garbage can full of stuff, and right as he was taking it outside, the bottom breaks and everything falls out of it. And then he'd come back in on time, and you go, 'How did he do that?'
"When you sit down at Mel's drum set, you realize that everything was very loose. The snare had all of these ripples in it. He didn't play anything tight. If you played his kit, it would probably feel awful. But the thing about Mel was, he chose elements that made up his personality. All of the respect in the world, man."
Duke Ellington - Duke Ellington's Greatest Hits (1968)
"Check out Sam Woodyard. The blues that was played at the Newport Jazz Festival back in the '50s, where they played 26 blues choruses – this was after Duke came out with his classical stuff – but when they did the blues, all of the people who had been walking out came right back. That was Sam. He was there.
"His groove had such a level of intensity. The band was moving him, and he was moving them – it was a mutual agreement. He was part of the whole thing, and he didn't stand out, but he played his role to the ultimate. You can't buy that in a store, man."
Papa Jo Jones - The Everest Years (2005)
"The Foot! Papa Jo could feather a bass drum. He came with his own dance shoe that he used to play on a specific bass drum pedal. So he had the dance shoe, a sock – actually, two, and they were white – and he played this one old Ludwig Speed-King pedal, which had a huge powder puff beater. Many times, Jo would play without a bass player, or if he did, he would edge on the bassist. He played as if he were dancing.
"These are very, very special things. Buddy was a dancer, Tony was a dancer, Louis was a dancer, and Papa Jo was a dancer. That's some school."


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Introduction | Phrack Staff |
Phrack Loopback | Phrack Staff |
Phrack Line Noise | various |
Phrack Prophile on the parmaster | Phrack Staff |
Linux and Random Source Bleaching | phunda mental |
Hardening OpenBSD for Multiuser Environments | route |
Scavenging Connections On Dynamic-IP Networks | Seth McGann |
NT Web Technology Vulnerabilities | rfp |
Remote OS detection via TCP/IP Stack Fingerprinting | Fyodor |
Defeating Sniffers and Intrusion Detection Systems | horizon |
Phrack World News | disorder |
extract.c | Phrack Staff |
---[ Phrack Magazine Volume 8, Issue 54 Dec 25th, 1998, article 08 of 12 -------------------------[ NT Web Technology Vulnerabilities --------[ rain.forest.puppy / [WT] <firstname.lastname@example.com> *Note: most of the vulnerabilities in this document have NOT been made public; they were discovered by rain.forest.puppy, or other members of WT. Lots of new toys out there on the Internet lately. Seems like the web is the way to go, and every software spigot is demanding they be 'web-enabled'. A lot are reinventing the wheel, bundling sub-standard web servers to serve up their HTML and Java interface. But this article isn't about them. There's too many, and they're to easy to use as vulnerable targets. It's much more fun to find the needle in the haystack, so I'm going to focus on some more common setups. On to the show. ----[ IIS 4.0 IIS is not too bad as a web server. It still doesn't compare to Apache, but it has flexible scripting and server-side abilities. But, of course, everything has its price... One interesting problem (and probably the only one that may be previously published at the time of this writing) is that appending an ".idc" extension to the end of a URL will cause IIS installations to try to run the so-called .IDC through the database connector .DLL. If the .IDC doesn't exist, than it returns a rather informative page stating that it can't open %documentroot%\<bogus name>.idc. For example: "Cannot open c:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.html.idc" Wow, absolute paths on the server. Very interesting. What good does this do? Well, it gives you some insight and hints. If you're trying to exploit CGI or other server-based programs, knowing what drive you're on when trying to access outside documents blindly helps a lot. For example, if the IDC query came back: f:\webs\1\index.html.idc then you know you'll probably have to specify 'c:\' to get to any Windows NT system files; you can't do silly stuff like: ../../../../winnt/system/repair/sam._ since you're doing relative addressing, and staying on drive F. Another common return is something like" "Cannot open d:\20x.140.3x.25\index.html.idc" Where the IP address is the full IP address of the webserver. This usually indicates that the site is on a system that's probably hosting multiple websites. Also, usually the site that's based in \inetpub\wwwroot is the 'default' site, and may have other things associated with it (like sample files, etc... We'll get to these later). This is important to remember. ----[ FrontPage Webbots A really quick recap on how webbots work: Frontpage inserts some HTML comments that specify the parameters of the webbot. Then, the form is submitted to /_vti_bin/shtml.dll, and the URL of the page is given. shtml.dll reads through the given page, and interprets the webbot/HTML comment code. So, all the parameters that are involved in (most) webbots are embedded in the HTML page themselves. Let's take an example from a corporate site that makes a very popular FTP suite (this is HTML code): <!--webbot BOT="GeneratedScript" endspan --> <form method="POST" action="../_vti_bin/shtml.dll/downloads/ftp.html" name="FrontPage_Form1" webbot-action="--WEBBOT-SELF--"> <!--webbot bot="SaveResults" u-file="d:\us\product_downloads\download_log.csv" s-format="TEXT/CSV" s-label-fields="FALSE" s-builtin-fields="Date Time" s-form-fields u-confirmation-url="../_confirmations/ftp.html" startspan --> Notice that this site is saving the results to a file (and the fact that it has "d:\.." says that it is a Windows-based server). But the more important part to notice is the 'u-confirmation-url' field. This page has a large form for you to fill in. When you submit it, what you entered is saved in the 'u-file', and then you're redirected to 'u-confirmation-url'. Don't want to give all your personal information to them? Well, just go to 'u-confirmation-url'. In this case, this was a registration page for download of the eval. Since I got tired of filling out my information all the time, I now just go to the confirmation URL and download away, bypassing the form. On a related note, if bot="SaveResults", and u-file is in the web structure (which it happens to be a lot on virtually hosted accounts), you're able to view the contents of the file. For instance, <!--webbot bot="SaveResults" u-file="/_private/download.log" s-format="TEXT/TEXT" s-form-fields startspan --> means you can go to htp://site/_private/download.log and view all the info everyone else entered. ----[ IIS 3.0 to IIS 4.0 There are several changes between IIS 3.0 and IIS 4.0. Sure, MMC is important and all, but there's something else even better: there are default associations made between certain file extensions and .DLLs. Let's look at a particular example... In IIS 3.0, you'd administer the website by going to http://site/iisadmin/, which would pop over to using /scripts/iisadmin/ism.dll, and routing the various .HTR files in that directory through itself. The .HTR files are relatively useless without ism.dll to process them, and ism.dll has hard-coded authentication built into it. Now, upgrade from IIS 3.0 to 4.0. You now administer your site through http://localhost:5416/. What about all those .HTRs in /scripts/iisadmin? They're still there, unless you actually deleted them. And the problem? IIS 4.0 associates all .HTRs with a new and improved ism.dll, which contains no hard-coded authentication. So now, whenever you request a .HTR file, IIS will happily process it for you, not caring about authentication. You can now use the .HTR files in /scripts/iisadmin to your liking. Kinda. None of them work, due to so many changes. EXCEPT FOR ONE: bdir.htr. bdir.htr seems to still be happy, and gladly shows you all the directories on any drive. You can navigate all the server's drives (and network mappings), but all you get to see is directories (no files). In case you're wondering, you can tell bdir.htr where to look by doing /scripts/iisadmin/bdir.htr??<path> ie: /scripts/iisadmin/bdir.htr??d:\webs\ I haven't played with the other file extensions, but there's a half-dozen or so that IIS will now happily process (the normal ones like .ASP, .IDC, .HTR, and other unfamiliar ones like .HTW, .IDQ, .IDA, .CER, etc). ----[ Sample pages While it's not a good idea to put included sample pages and applications on a public server, still many places do. IIS 4.0 includes a rather large and comprehensive demo site called 'Exploration Air', which employs many IIS 4.0 web technologies. An interesting feature is the 'How It Works' button on the bottom of every page, which takes you to a script that parses the pages code into colorful tags. This is a problem. It uses the Scripting.FileSystemObject to request the page. Luckily, it will only let you use virtual paths; unfortunately, it allows the use of /../ to escape to higher directories, including up into the root directory. This allows it to open any file on the same drive. Using the .IDC bug above to determine where the file rests, you can determine if you can get to WinNT system files. You can also view the code of any page application (.ASP, .CFM, .IDC, etc). For example: http://site/iissamples/exair/howitworks/codebrws.asp?source=/../../boot.ini could show the Windows NT boot.ini file. It's used in the ExAir sample site, as shown above, and also the SDK, if installed, at http://site/iissamples/sdk/asp/docs/codebrws.asp ----[ Cold Fusion app.server 3.1 Cold Fusion is a rather creative scripting language; it's a nice front end to ODBC database connections. But I wouldn't be mentioning it here if it didn't have any problems. Like IIS 4.0, there's a few alarming things with the sample pages included with CF. One is the Expression Evaluator at: http://site/cfdocs/expeval/eval.cfm They have a security check. It calls check_ip.cfm, which allows access only from 127.0.0.1 (localhost). Bummer, we can't run raw code on the server. But, let's check out: http://site/cfdocs/expeval/exprcalc.cfm It still doesn't do us any good, because it still uses eval.cfm to process the expression(s) we enter. But, there's something more interesting: the expression calculator lets us save and load files of expressions to evaluate. And it just so happens that exprcalc.cfm is the form used to LOAD files. And it let's us load any file we want. For instance: http://site/cfdocs/expeval/exprcalc.cfm?OpenFilePath=c:\boot.ini will display the contents of boot.ini in the window. Just like the IIS codebrws.asp program, we can use it to look at any file we want. However, exprcalc.cfm lets us specify other drive letters, while codebrws.asp is limited to only the current drive. ----[ Anonymous Mail Very simply and quickly, /cfdocs/expeval/sendmail.cfm?MailFrom=&MailTo=&Subject=&Message= lets you send email. Not exactly a security breach, but not pleasant either. You must fill in the variable values. ----[ Proxy Problems This is an interesting problem brought about not only by CF, but possibly proxy software in general. CF includes an 'http client' application in /cfdocs/examples/httpclient/mainframeset.cfm which lets you type in an URL, and it will show you the HTML code in the bottom window. Now, let's say, remotely I try to administer the IIS 4.0 server that CF is running on by going to http://site:5416/. I get an error stating I have to be local (127.0.0.1). Now, I go to the http-client CF application on that same server. For the URL, I type "http://localhost:5416". I get the correct page as the result. I have effectively bypassed the security check. Using GET commands in the CF http-client application, I can administrate the server. What's really interesting in theory is that applications like this, and proxys in general, can be used to abuse trust relationships and 'localhost only' security. It'd be interesting in hearing what other people find along this line. One example: I surf to a company's firewall/web proxy from the 'outside'. I get an error stating 'Denied/Unauthorized Access'. I then request from their proxy 'GET http://localhost/'; and now I get the 'inside' web page with instructions on how to use the proxy correctly to get out. Yes, there's obvious setup problems (allowing outside requests), but that's not the point... ----[ ODBC and MS SQL server 6.5 Ok, topic change again. Since we've hit on web service and database stuff, let's roll with it. Onto ODBC and MS SQL server 6.5. I worked with a fellow WT'er on this problem. He did the good thing and told Microsoft, and their answer was, well, hilarious. According to them, what you're about to read is not a problem, so don't worry about doing anything to stop it. - WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? MS SQL server allows batch commands. - WHAT'S THAT MEAN? I can do something like: SELECT * FROM table WHERE x=1 SELECT * FROM table WHERE y=5 Exactly like that, and it'll work. It will return two record sets, with each set containing the results of the individual SELECT. - WHAT'S THAT REALLY MEAN? People can possibly piggyback SQL commands into your statements. Let's say you have: SELECT * FROM table WHERE x=%%criteria from webpage user%% Now, what if %%criteria from webpage user%% was equal to: SELECT * FROM sysobjects It would translate to: SELECT * FROM table WHERE x=1 SELECT * FROM sysobjects which would be valid SQL and execute (both commands). But wait, there's more. Say you had: SELECT * FROM table WHERE x=%%criteria%% AND y=5 If we used our above example, we'd get: SELECT * FROM table WHERE x=1 SELECT * FROM sysobjects AND y=5 which isn't valid SQL, and won't work. Well, there's a comment indicator, which tells MS SQL server to just ignore the rest of the line. If criteria is "1 SELECT * FROM sysobjects --", then the '--' causes the rest of the statement ("AND y=5") to be ignored. - WHAT FILES OF MINE ARE AFFECTED? Well, ASP and IDC files are problematic. At least you can fix ASP files, but you're kinda stuck when it comes to IDCs. - EXACTLY HOW ARE IDCs AFFECTED? Say we wanted to query a database of names=phone #s, where the user gives us a name, and we supply all the matching phone numbers. A Sql call like SELECT * FROM phonetable WHERE NAME='namewewant' would work. However, we need to dynamically specify "namewewant" to be the name the user does want. So, if we write the Sql statement: SELECT * FROM phonetable WHERE NAME='%name%' And in our HTML form, we have an input box called 'name'. If this .idc was called 'phone.idc', we'd call it: http://site/phone.idc?name=rfp The server would place "rfp" in place of %name%, and query the SQL server to select * where name='rfp'. Now, stick more commands on the line. Executing our phone.idc from above like so: phone.idc?name=rfp select * from table2 would lead to an expanded Sql query in the .idc to SELECT * FROM phonetable WHERE name='rfp select * from table2' Semi-close, but the single quotes cause all of the stuff to be the selection criteria. What if we introduced OUR OWN single quote? phone.idc?name=rfp' select * from table2 -- would be SELECT * FROM phonetable WHERE name='rfp' select * from table2 --' We need to add the comment to get rid of the trailing single quote. BUT... .idc's are smart...they will escape a single quote into two single quotes, which indicate a data single quote. I.e. phone.idc?name=rfp' command will become SELECT * FROM phonetable WHERE name='rfp'' command' And since two '' make one data ', the table will be queried for a column that matches: "rfp' command" Now wait, if .idc's protect against this, then why the hell am I wasting my breath? You see, they're still vulnerable. They suck when they secretly put an extra single quote into the SQL string. But....when you query numeric values, you don't use single quotes; single quotes are only for strings. So, lets's say we want to use our phone number database, but give a phone number, and look up the associated name. We'll also say that phone numbers are stored as long ints (numeric values), rather than strings, since we need a numeric entry for this example. So, I want to know who has the phone number 5551212. A hardcoded SQL call would be SELECT * FROM phonetable WHERE phone=5551212 And the variable version (in an .idc): SELECT * FROM phonetable WHERE phone=%phonenum% Whoa! No single quotes to worry about. Now we just do a simple: phone.idc?phonenum=5551212 select * from table1 And that expands to SELECT * FROM phonetable WHERE phone=5551212 select * from table1 - ARE THERE ANY .IDCs SOMEONE COULD USE AGAINST ME? Glad you asked. There's a file included with IIS 3.0 in the /scripts/tools directory, called ctss.idc, which has a SQL statement like: CREATE TABLE %table% (...table defs...) This is simple to exploit. Since you stuck with the inital 'CREATE TABLE', you must finish that to be a valid command. Giving a table name and a simple column definition will be sufficient. And then we tack on our command, and then a '--' to ignore the rest of the table defs. So, ctss.idc?table=craptable (f int) select * from table1 -- Would give us CREATE TABLE craptable (f int) select * from table1 -- \ (...table defs...) (However, with ctss.idc, you need to know the DSN, UID, and PWD beforehand... so you're somewhat safe) - EXACTLY HOW ARE ASPs AFFECTED? Typical ADODB code looks something like: <% SQLquery="SELECT * FROM phonetable" Set Conn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") Conn.Open "DSN=websql;UID=sa;PWD=pwd;DATABASE=master" Set rec = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.RecordSet") rec.ActiveConnection=Conn rec.Open SQLquery %> Which essentially performs a SELECT * FROM phonetable on the websql DSN, using user=sa, pwd=pwd, on database=master. Then you use fancy formating of 'rec' to display the output in ASP. Well, let's take into account user supplied variables now. <% SQLquery="SELECT * FROM phonetable WHERE name='" & _ request.querystring("name") & "'" Set Conn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") Conn.Open "DSN=websql;UID=sa;PWD=pwd;DATABASE=master" Set rec = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.RecordSet") rec.ActiveConnection=Conn rec.Open SQLquery %> So, now our variable "name" is stuck into the SQLquery string, between the two ' '. Guess what?! ASP doesn't care about single quotes. It won't be smart like an .IDC and put in the extra ' to make the command ' into a data '. So, what does the SQLquery string look like when we call it like phone.idc? Let's say the above is phone.asp: phone.asp?name=rfp' select * from table1 -- Gives us SQLquery that is: SELECT * FROM phonetable WHERE name='rfp' select * from table1 --' Which works. No sweat. I'm sure some interesting questions come to mind: - BUT I DON'T KNOW THE DSN NAME, LOGIN NAME, OR PASSWORD! You don't need them. The developer of the page that contains the SQL will already take care of that. We're piggy-backing SQL commands onto a command that will work (otherwise, the page/application wouldn't work normally anyway!). If the normal page can get to the SQL server through a firewall, VPN, etc, then so can this command. It can, and will, go wherever the normal pages/SQL can go. - BUT I CAN'T VIEW THE SECOND RETURNED RECORDSET! Yes, this is a problem most of the time. Not too many applications are built assuming multiple recordset returns, so usually don't cooperate. But, let me just say there's a stored procedure in SQL that lets you email results of a command to anywhere....you don't need to see the results in your web browser. - BUT WHAT GOOD IS RUNNING MORE SQL COMMANDS? My friend, my friend. Think bigger. Think better. Think stored procedures. I'm not going to include exploit examples, because that's not what this is about. This is simply to show that the problem exists. - BUT WHAT IF THEY HAVE COMPLEX SQL COMMANDS? Yes, this can be tricky, but it's still possible. Think of it like writing a buffer overflow. ;-) If we have: SELECT * FROM table WHERE ((x=%%criteria) AND (y=5)) then we have parentheses to deal with. But still doable. The goal is to close out any open parentheses opened before the piggybacked SQL statement, and use -- (comment) to ignore anything after. - HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF? Put quotes around every string taken from the web user that's used in your SQL statement, and also change any single quotes (') into double single quotes ('')--this protects everything. In case of numeric criteria, check to see that the numeric string given back is, in fact, all numbers. And since you can't do any of the above in IDCs, switch to ASP. Don't allow access to any of the SQL servers extended procedures. Best of all, don't use raw SQL in your web applications; called custom stored procedures on the SQL server, and pass the web user's dynamic criteria as parameters. Note: we've only had the time (and resources) to conduct batch SQL vulnerabilities against MS SQL server 6.5. We'd be interested in hearing from other people if other DB platforms (Oracle, Informix, etc) are also vulnerable. ----[ Conclusion Well, that about wraps it up for now. What are the morals to the above stories? - Don't use sample files/applications on public/production servers. - Don't use 'local-host only' security, especially on proxys. - Watch what exactly is changed when you upgrade. - Don't assume user's input is ok for SQL queries. In short, use your brain. Till next time, have fun. rain.forest.puppy / [WT] email@example.com ----[ EOF


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Bun recipe:
(A) 200g bread flour / 20g plain flour / 25g sugar / 1/4 teaspoon salt / 1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp yeast / 15g milk powder / 25g eggs / 115g water / 15g butter
(B) 200g red bean paste (divide into 8 portions) / 20g white sesame
How we do it:
- Mix ingredients (A) with bread machine for 30 minutes until it become a smooth and elastic dough.
- Place the dough into a clean bowl and cover with cling wrap to proof for 60 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 8 portions and round them into small balls. Then fill the doughs with red bean and shape it into a smooth balls. Let the dough proof for 15 minutes.
- Slightly flatten each dough and use a scissor to cut the edges into 8 flower pedals. Continue to proof for 10 minutes.
- Egg wash the doughs then top with some sesame. Bake at 190'C preheated oven for 15 minutes until golden brown.


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Broadway Buzz: Leapin' Lizards! Meet Molly, Duffy, Pepper and More as Broadway.com Introduces the Orphans of Annie
Broadway is being invaded by an adorable group of youngsters as the classic family musical Annie returns to the Great White Way. Broadway.com is introducing audiences to each of the talented rising stars who play the orphans (including Annie herself, Lilla Crawford!) in Broadway.com's exclusive new video series Little Girls, Little Girls: Meeting the Orphans of Annie.
From fashionista Tyrah Skye Odoms (who plays Kate) to the Annie legacy Georgi James (Pepper), the series individually highlights each young member of the Annie cast with a personalized video and a portrait by Broadway.com photographer Jenny Anderson.
Click here to meet the adorable orphans of Annie.
Inspired by the comic strip Little Orphan Annie, the musical Annie follows a young Depression-era orphan who goes to temporarily live with the rich and famous Daddy Warbucks. The young cast of Annie sings some of the musical's most famous numbers, including "It's A Hard Knock Life" and "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile."
Directed by Tony winner James Lapine and co-starring Katie Finneran and Anthony Warlow, Annie is currently in previews at Broadway's Palace Theatre and will open on November 8.


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The iPad Air Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 29, 2013 9:00 PM ESTAn Update on Apple's A7: It's Better Than I Thought
When I reviewed the iPhone 5s I didn't have much time to go in and do the sort of in-depth investigation into Cyclone (Apple's 64-bit custom ARMv8 core) as I did with Swift (Apple's custom ARMv7 core from A6) the year before. I had heard rumors that Cyclone was substantially wider than its predecessor but I didn't really have any proof other than hearsay so I left it out of the article. Instead I surmised in the 5s review that the A7 was likely an evolved Swift core rather than a brand new design, after all - what sense would it make to design a new CPU core and then do it all over again for the next one? It turns out I was quite wrong.
Armed with a bit of custom code and a bunch of low level tests I think I have a far better idea of what Apple's A7 and Cyclone cores look like now than I did a month ago. I'm still toying with the idea of doing a much deeper investigation into A7, but I wanted to share some of my findings here.
The first task is to understand the width of the machine. With Swift I got lucky in that Apple had left a bunch of public LLVM documentation uncensored, referring to Swift's 3-wide design. It turns out that although the design might be capable of decoding, issuing and retiring up to three instructions per clock, in most cases it behaved like a 2-wide machine. Mix FP and integer code and you're looking at a machine that's more like 1.5 instructions wide. Obviously Swift did very well in the market and its competitors at the time, including Qualcomm's Krait 300, were similarly capable.
With Cyclone Apple is in a completely different league. As far as I can tell, peak issue width of Cyclone is 6 instructions. That's at least 2x the width of Swift and Krait, and at best more than 3x the width depending on instruction mix. Limitations on co-issuing FP and integer math have also been lifted as you can run up to four integer adds and two FP adds in parallel. You can also perform up to two loads or stores per clock.
I don't yet have a good understanding of the number of execution ports and how they're mapped, but Cyclone appears to be the widest ARM architecture we've ever seen at this point. I'm talking wider than Qualcomm's Krait 400 and even ARM's Cortex A15.
I did have some low level analysis in the 5s review, where I pointed out the significantly reduced memory latency and increased bandwidth to the A7. It turns out that I was missing a big part of the story back then as well…
A Large System Wide Cache
In our iPhone 5s review I pointed out that the A7 now featured more computational GPU power than the 4th generation iPad. For a device running at 1/8 the resolution of the iPad, the A7's GPU either meant that Apple had an application that needed tons of GPU performance or it planned on using the A7 in other, higher resolution devices. I speculated it would be the latter, and it turns out that's indeed the case. For the first time since the iPad 2, Apple once again shares common silicon between the iPhone 5s, iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display.
As Brian found out in his investigation after the iPad event last week all three devices use the exact same silicon with the exact same internal model number: S5L8960X. There are no extra cores, no change in GPU configuration and the biggest one: no increase in memory bandwidth.
Previously both the A5X and A6X featured a 128-bit wide memory interface, with half of it seemingly reserved for GPU use exclusively. The non-X parts by comparison only had a 64-bit wide memory interface. The assumption was that a move to such a high resolution display demanded a substantial increase in memory bandwidth. With the A7, Apple takes a step back in memory interface width - so is it enough to hamper the performance of the iPad Air with its 2048 x 1536 display?
The numbers alone tell us the answer is no. In all available graphics benchmarks the iPad Air delivers better performance at its native resolution than the outgoing 4th generation iPad (as you'll soon see). Now many of these benchmarks are bound more by GPU compute rather than memory bandwidth, a side effect of the relative lack of memory bandwidth on modern day mobile platforms. Across the board though I couldn't find a situation where anything was smoother on the iPad 4 than the iPad Air.
There's another part of this story. Something I missed in my original A7 analysis. When Chipworks posted a shot of the A7 die many of you correctly identified what appeared to be a 4MB SRAM on the die itself. It's highlighted on the right in the floorplan diagram below:
A7 Floorplan, Courtesy Chipworks
While I originally assumed that this SRAM might be reserved for use by the ISP, it turns out that it can do a lot more than that. If we look at memory latency (from the perspective of a single CPU core) vs. transfer size on A7 we notice a very interesting phenomenon between 1MB and 4MB:
That SRAM is indeed some sort of a cache before you get to main memory. It's not the fastest thing in the world, but it's appreciably quicker than going all the way out to main memory. Available bandwidth is also pretty good:
We're only looking at bandwidth seen by a single CPU core, but even then we're talking about 10GB/s. Lookups in this third level cache don't happen in parallel with main memory requests, so the impact on worst case memory latency is additive unfortunately (a tradeoff of speed vs. power).
I don't yet have the tools needed to measure the impact of this on-die memory on GPU accesses, but in the worst case scenario it'll help free up more of the memory interface for use by the GPU. It's more likely that some graphics requests are cached here as well, with intelligent allocation of bandwidth depending on what type of application you're running.
That's the other aspect of what makes A7 so very interesting. This is the first Apple SoC that's able to deliver good amounts of memory bandwidth to all consumers. A single CPU core can use up 8GB/s of bandwidth. I'm still vetting other SoCs, but so far I haven't come across anyone in the ARM camp that can compete with what Apple has built here. Only Intel is competitive.
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algalli - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
typing error meant to say that most people have missed the IBeacon feature in IOS -
grkhetan - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
dsumanik and beautyspin: you guys have no idea what you are talking about. Anand's reviews are the some of the most objective and in-depth reviews. With your mindset -- it is clear that you hate Apple and have such a strong bias that you are not fit to be a reader of this website. -
ekotan - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
You have listed a bunch of features which would be either impossible or pointless to implement on an ARM tablet. Apple is not a company who just adds features for the sake of ticking every box, they actually care about how the device will be used and this attention to detail is a major reason why Apple users love their Apple products. -
errorr - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
NFC will never be supported by Apple. They just aren't interested. Wireless charging is an interesting idea but the design would make it the hardest engineering challenge I can imagine as the aluminum makes that a non starter. Plus if or when the ipad does wireledd charging I'm sure it'll be proprietary. -
ClemyNX - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
I truly laughed at that.
Haptic feedback?
Someone still hasn't understood that NFC is dead. -
darwiniandude - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
Why does the review mention frame rate drops and lack of ram then? There is polite negativity in the review where appropriate. -
steven75 - Thursday, October 31, 2013 - link
Haptic feedback and NFC? Why would they add two technologies that are already on their way out? -
Walkop - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
I love how everyone says NFC is dead when every single credit/debit card out there has recently adopted it for pay-and-tap, and Google Wallet has been revolutionized in that it'll work regardless of carrier through NFC now. -
Djasonw - Thursday, October 31, 2013 - link
Yes, I definitely see a need for NFC. <smh> -
whatsa - Friday, November 1, 2013 - link
I played with the surface variable stand and that works great
not flapping around
but yeah I agree with the additions
(the outdoor screen brightness to be pumped up too)


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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Auto industry allies hope to secure up to $50 billion in government loans this month that would pay to modernize plants and help struggling car makers build more fuel-efficient vehicles.
With Congress returning this coming week from its summer break, the industry plans an aggressive lobbying campaign for the low-interest loans. The situation is growing dire after months of tumbling sales, high gasoline prices and consumers' abandoning profitable trucks and sport utility vehicles.
Lawmakers authorized $25 billion in loans in last year's energy bill to help the companies build fuel-efficient vehicles such as hybrids and electric vehicles. With credit tight, automakers and suppliers now want lawmakers to come up with the money for the program -- and expand the pool of money available to $50 billion over three years.
Industry leaders have argued that the loan guarantees are not a government bailout because it would hasten production of fuel-efficient vehicles and reduce dependence on imported oil.
"This is not about benefiting Wall Street," said Ford Motor Co.'s President of the Americas Mark Fields, referencing recent federal support for the investment firm Bear Stearns and troubled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "This is benefiting Main Street, the working men and women. The auto industry is part of the backbone of the U.S. economy."
The low-interest loans, at rates of about 4 percent to 5 percent, would pay for up to 30 percent of the cost of retooling plants to build hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric cars and other alternatives.
Ford and General Motors Corp.'s credit ratings have fallen below investment grade, making it difficult for the companies to borrow money at affordable rates. Chrysler LLC, which has been heavily dependent upon truck sales, has been privately held since last year and faces similar problems getting access to capital.
"This industry could fall down, literally, or be absorbed if they don't get something in place very soon. I think it's that severe," said Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich. "Something has to happen pretty quickly because they can't compete paying 15 to 20 percent (interest)."
Industry lobbyists pressed the issue at the recent presidential conventions in Denver and St. Paul, Minn., and members of Michigan's congressional delegation have talked to legislative leaders and the Bush administration about the program. Discussions surround a three-year plan that would make $25 billion in loans available in the first year, followed by $15 billion the second year and $10 billion in the third.
To provide $50 billion in loans, Congress would need to set aside about $7.5 billion to guard against a loan default.
Automakers want to secure the money for the loans before November's election because a new president and Congress could delay the companies' ability to access the loans.
The White House said last week it was talking to members of Congress and the industry about the financing. The issue, meanwhile, has gained a foothold in the presidential campaign in states with many auto workers such as Michigan and Ohio.
Democrat Barack Obama has criticized Republican rival John McCain for not supporting the full $50 billion loan program. McCain said last week he supported fully covering the $25 billion loan program in the energy law.
Congressional leaders have said they are open to an expanded program. But the industry will face a compressed schedule in an election year when many lawmakers will push to leave Washington so they can campaign for re-election this fall.
"We're hopeful that we're making an effective case to get this done between now and the end of this session," said John Bozzella, Chrysler's vice president for external affairs and public policy.
The loans would be available to foreign automakers, but those companies are not expected to seek the money because they are in a better financial situation and priority would be given to companies with plants 20 years or older.


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In AP Case, Little Evidence DOJ Broke the Law
Did the Justice Department break the law when it secretly reviewed the phone records of more than 20 Associated Press reporters and editors? Many legal experts aren't ready to go that far.
Media representatives and members of Congress contend that the department crossed a line when it seized records of personal and professional calls by AP staff. DOJ is believed to have been attempting to learn the identity of one or more government officials who leaked classified information that the wire service published in a May 2012 story about terrorist activity in Yemen.
House Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va., and panel member Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., are among the influential voices in both parties who believe the department may have crossed a legal threshold.
At a Wednesday hearing with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., Goodlatte said the DOJ's confiscation of the AP phone records "appears to be contrary to the law and standard procedure," while Lofgren said she believes it "impaired the First Amendment."
Many legal experts argue, however, that the information available about the AP investigation thus far — while incomplete — does not show any violation of legal protections for the press.
Constitutionally, the Supreme Court has never found a reporter's privilege within the First Amendment. The closest it came was a 1972 ruling in Branzburg v. Hayes, in which it held 5-4 that reporters are not exempt from testifying in a criminal grand jury, even if it means identifying their confidential sources.
In that ruling, the court declined "to grant newsmen a testimonial privilege that other citizens do not enjoy." Lawmakers who argue that the Justice Department infringed on First Amendment guarantees of a free press, in other words, are taking a view that the Supreme Court has never accepted.
Statutorily, lawmakers have all but acknowledged that the DOJ did not break existing free-press laws because they instead are suggesting new laws be passed in response to the AP scandal.
House Judiciary ranking member John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., are promoting a "media shield" law that would grant reporters new legal protections from disclosing their sources. But even proponents of such a statute agree that it may not have prevented the Justice Department from seizing the AP's records, because it would contain a national security exception that federal investigators could have invoked.
"The facts in the AP phone records case are still coming to light, so we cannot say for certain whether the bill would have changed the ultimate outcome," Schumer and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a May 16 letter to their colleagues urging support for the media shield bill.
Regulations Under Scrutiny
Most of the attention surrounding the propriety of the Justice Department's actions has focused instead on internal DOJ rules that were codified in the Code of Federal Regulations in 1973. The AP argues that the department's unusually broad probe into the news organization's phone records, spanning portions of two months and phone lines in at least four bureaus, ran afoul of the regulations.
"The sheer volume of records obtained, most of which can have no plausible connection to any ongoing investigation, indicates, at a minimum, that this effort did not comply with [the regulations] and should therefore never have been undertaken in the first place," Gary B. Pruitt, the AP's top executive, wrote in a letter to Holder on May 13. "The regulations require that, in all cases and without exception, a subpoena for a reporter's telephone toll records must be 'as narrowly drawn as possible.' This plainly did not happen."
Lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also have questioned whether DOJ acted appropriately under the rules by not first seeking to negotiate with the AP in an attempt to obtain relevant phone records.
The rules state: "Negotiations with the affected member of the news media shall be pursued in all cases in which a subpoena for the telephone toll records of any member of the news media is contemplated where the responsible assistant attorney general determines that such negotiations would not pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation in connection with which the records are sought."
The Justice Department contends it didn't violate the regulations. Holder said in a press conference May 14 that the leak at the center of the AP case was "one of the top two or three most serious leaks I've ever seen," suggesting that advance negotiations with the AP were not necessary under the guidelines because they could have threatened the investigation. On the question of the breadth of its probe, the DOJ argues that its subpoenas "were limited in both time and scope."
"For each of the phone numbers … there was a basis to believe that the numbers were associated with AP personnel involved in the reporting of classified information," Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, who is leading the investigation because Holder has recused himself, said in a letter to Pruitt on May 14. "The subpoenas were limited to a reasonable period of time and did not seek the content of any calls."
Even if the department is unequivocally found to have violated its own rules, however, some legal experts say that the AP would have limited legal options in response.
"The guidelines are purely a creature of executive discretion," said David E. Pozen, a First Amendment expert and professor at Columbia Law School and the author of a forthcoming paper about government leaks. "No congressional statute or Supreme Court decision requires that the Justice Department adhere to them."
But a House aide, who asked not to be identified, said that a violation of the Code of Federal Regulations can come with serious civil penalties.
Other Legal Points Raised
While there may be no clear evidence so far that the department broke the law, lawmakers are going over DOJ officials' public statements with a fine-toothed comb to test whether that is the case.
During his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15, Holder said for the first time that there is no written record of his recusal from the AP investigation, a disclosure that raised eyebrows of at least three members of the panel on both sides of the aisle. In response, Rep. Raúl R. Labrador, R-Idaho, suggested that Holder may have violated a statute requiring the attorney general to explain a recusal decision "in writing."
"There's already a statute, 28 USC Section 591, that requires [you] to put in writing your reasons for recusal in certain circumstances," Labrador said. "Frankly, I've read it a couple times. I don't know if it applies to your situation right now."
A DOJ spokeswoman, Nanda Chitre, told CQ Roll Call that the statute cited by Labrador does not apply because it has expired, a point confirmed by a House aide. The department regulations that are currently in effect do not require recusals to be made in writing, Chitre added, though Holder said during the House hearing that he would consider changing that policy.
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has pursued a different angle in response to the AP controversy. Nunes is concerned about the revelation that one of the AP phone lines included in the DOJ probe is located in the House press gallery, a line used by reporters who frequently conduct phone interviews with members of Congress. Nunes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, has suggested that a separation-of-powers issue may be at play because the executive branch may have effectively been spying on lawmakers.
"There's no question that Justice knows what members of Congress the AP was talking to during the two-month time period," Nunes told CQ Roll Call in a recent interview.


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Venice is a very touristy city with many restaurants, yet it often gets a bad reputation for the quality of its food. In fact, Venetian food is fresh and delicious, but the key to finding good restaurants in Venice is to get away from the main tourist sites and major thoroughfares and to heed the advice of those who know Venice and its cuisine well. In Venice, things are often not what they seem. The tiniest crowded places with basic furniture and minimal decor often turn out to be the most gastronomically delightful in this mysterious city. What follows is our hand-picked list of the hidden culinary gems, where you can eat like a local in Venice, including Murano and Burano islands.
Trattoria Corte Sconta
Well-known among locals and tourists alike for its exceptionally fresh seafood, Corte Sconta is a reliable choice for quintessential Venetian dining – relaxed, authentic, and always anchored in the seasonal fresh sea-to-table ingredients. Every early morning when the seafood market opens the cooks personally select the best catch and create the menu based on the freshest most flavorful seafood of the day. The seating and decor inside is no-frills, but the highlight of this restaurant is a vine-covered hidden courtyard (which gave it its name). The courtyard is a wonderful place to eat and enjoy when the weather is nice.Address: Calle del Pestrin, 3886, 30122 Castello, Venice, Italy
Al Mascaron
Situated in Castello district not too far from Piazza San Marco, Al Mascaron is a no-frills traditional Venetian Osteria, which for over 30 years has been a favorite place of local workers and fishermen. Al Mascaron's symbol is a scary mask hanging above its door, and the osteria is so called thanks to the scary faces that were sculpted on the doors of the neighboring church to ward off evil spirits. Venetians have been gathering here to spend time in good company, drink lovely local wines, and have hearty meals of local specialties such as sarde in saor (sweet and sour sardines), polenta, baccalà mantecato (creamed cod), linguini al nero di seppia (linguini in squid ink sauce), and many other traditional Venetian dishes. The decor is simple, rustic yet cozy, with wooden tables and chairs, and walls covered with Venetian-themed drawings of local and international artists. Al Mascaron tends to be busy, especially during the tourist season, yet oftentimes you can still get a table after a short wait, especially for early lunch or late dinner.Address: Calle Lunga Santa Maria Formosa, 5225, 30122 Venice, Italy
Ai Barbacani
Another gem in Castello district, this restaurant has a wonderfully romantic atmosphere and quiet candlelit elegance and features a canal view. The restaurant is situated in an ancient seven-hundred-year-old building and has been a favorite place for Venetians and tourists alike for over 60 years. When you arrive, you'll be served a glass of fine local Prosecco, and will be able to choose from a good selection of traditional Venetian dishes, which are always fresh, flavorful, and authentic. The best-kept secret of this restaurant is a table for two that stands in the large window, which fully opens to the canal. If you are lucky enough to get that table, you will be literally seating a foot above the water, with an unobstructed view of two bridges, and amazing people-watching with all of Venice passing or floating by you.Address: Calle del Paradiso 5746 30122 Venice, Italy
Continuing a culinary tour of Venetian sestiere Castello, CoVino is one of the top choices in Venice for fresh and flavorful Italian cuisine creatively prepared and artfully presented. The menu is a 3-course prefix. There is a choice of several dishes for each course, which are crafted from only the best ingredients sourced from small Italian farms. The wine list is exceptionally good, featuring many unique selections from small vineyards, and even some great organic wines. It's a tiny place with only a few tables, and the dishes are prepared right next to you, with the most appetizing gourmet smells filling the air. CoVino is the embodiment of the "slow food" concept, with only two seatings each evening. This is a must-try restaurant, but reservations are essential and should be made at least a week in advance.Address: Calle Pestrin Castello 3853 30122 Venice, Italy
Situated in a lively Venetian district of Cannaregio, Algiubagio exists in the same place since the 1950's, when it was just a simple small neighborhood trattoria. Today the space is larger, brighter, and more sophisticated, with the atmosphere of elegance highlighted by beautiful Murano Glass Chandeliers. The menu has choices for all tastes, from fish and seafood to meat and vegetarian dishes, and cooking is a mix of traditional and contemporary influences. The restaurant is located on Fondamente Nove, the northern side of Venice, facing the Lagoon and the islands of San Michele and Murano. The bonus is a large wooden terrace above the water, where you can dine in warm weather and enjoy gorgeous views and fresh wind from the Lagoon. Even on colder days, you can often still sit on the terrace warmed up with the special heating lamps and reflect on the eternal beauty of Venice.Address: Fondamente Nuove, Cannaregio, 5039, 30125 Venezia Italy
Al Bottegon aka Cantine del Vino già Schiavi
Al Bottegon is not a restaurant but it's a Venetian staple that cannot be missed. It's an "Enoteca", which means a wine bar. Here is Dorsorduro district across the Grand Canal from the hustle and bustle of Piazza San Marco life is more slow and authentic, and the locals often stop for a glass wine and cichetti and a chat on their way home from work or during an evening stroll. Along the walls of the long narrow room are bottles of wine stocked on floor-to-ceiling shelves. Here you can find wines from every region of Italy, very cheap and extremely expensive, very well-known and really rare, from all grape varieties and for all tastes. However, Al Bottegon is not merely a wine shop. Besides the wine, it serves a wide variety of Venetian cicchetti, or tiny open-faced sandwiches with Venetian and Italian delicacies, from fish and seafood to vegetables, cheeses, smoked and air-dried meats ("salumi"), and many other inventive and delicious options. The atmosphere is convivial and cheery. Patrons young and old from all walks of life typically stand inside with a glass of wine in hand or spill out into the street next to canal Rio San Trovaso to get fresh air and canal-view – a completely authentic Venetian experience.Address: Fondamenta Nani 992 Dorsoduro, 30123 Venice, Italy
Buso Alla Torre, Murano
A go-to place for those in the know on Murano island, Busa Alla Torre is a gem of a restaurant known as much for its wonderful cuisine, as for its owner, Gabriele or, affectinately, Lele. A big personality with a warm welcoming smile, Lele is omnipresent in his restaurant and likes to chat with the patrons while making sure that everybody is having a great time. Busa alla Torre is so called for its location on Campo Santo Stefano next to the famous Clock Tower or Torre del Orologio with the much-photographed huge blue Murano Glass comet at its foot. The restaurant is simple inside but its cuisine is sophisticated and refined, inspired by Lele's love of gourmet Venetian food based on local fresh ingredients and seafood specialties from the Venetian Lagoon. A special draw is the piazza seating next to the Torre del Orologio and with a view of the canal, which the restaurant offers on warm days. Here you can have a wonderful light or hearty meal, stay for as long as you want, and watch Murano's daily life unfold in front of you.Address: Campo S. Stefano, 3, 30141 Murano (Venice Italy)
Acqua Stanca, Murano
Unlike many other restaurant choices listed here, Acqua Stanca is a newer restaurant, opened in 2012 on Murano Island, where the old and the new mixes perfectly and where those in the know increasingly go for fine authentic dining at reasonable price. Frequented by the locals and resourceful tourists alike, this restaurant has beautiful boho-chic-meats-Venetian-tradition interior design artfully combining the warm appeal of wood and exposed brick, the sophistication of Murano Glass sculptures, and the toned down luster of old Murano Glass mirrors. The food is sheer delight, inventive and beautifully presented. The choices include the seafood delicacies from the Venetian Lagoon, such as the soft-shell crab, clams, and squid, perennial Italian favorites such as Mozzarella di Buffala, artichokes, tomatoes, and other vegetables, as well as a combination of traditional and modern touches in the pasta dishes.Address: Fondamenta Manin 48, 30141 Murano (Venice Italy)
Al Gatto Nero, Burano
If your travels take you to Burano island, be sure to visit this tried-and-true local favorite. Al Gatto Nero, or "The Black Cat" has been under the same ownership since 1965 and has earned its fame by serving the freshest Adriatic fish and seafood and a wide variety of traditional Venetian and Italian appetizers, complemented with an extensive list of hand-picked wines from Veneto, Friuli, Alto Adige and many other Italian wine-growing regions. The highlights of the menu include capesante (scallops), cannolicchi (razor clams), granseola (soft shell crab), and gamberi (small shrimps) and vongole (clams). The fritto misto (mixed fried seafood) may be the best option to try all of these seafood delicacies, but the menu is full of grilled, fried, and sauteed options for every taste. The location of this restaurant is unbeatable, not far from the ferry stop and right on the canal lined with colorful houses. You can dine inside or out, the latter being the best choice for people-watching. You'll see tourists walking by and the Buranese going about their business, or sitting on benches and chatting, just the way it has been here for hundreds of years.Address: Via Giudecca, 88, 30142 Burano (Venice Italy)


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The youth may lead Taiwan to a new political climate. Their "demonstrations have combined peaceful protests with local and international social media campaigns." "The activists have tried to embrace all Taiwanese and thus attempted to avoid a political labeled." A new climate is needed in "because the current problems facing the nation run deep among pan-blue and pan-green voters. Ultimately, one still needs to take a political stand in order to effect true change.
First published by Taipei Times on January 2 2013. The article can be found here….
By Michael Danielsen, Chairman of Taiwan Corner
In the bigger picture, Taiwan and China are moving in the right direction. The old enemies have been talking to each other for the past four years and are creating peace in Asia.
Journalists, academics and politicians around the world are recognizing this. For decades, they have been witness to tensions between the two sides and consider current policies to be the right remedy for peace.
Several groundbreaking trade agreements have been signed, Chinese tourists are visiting Taiwan and cross-strait flights are a great success. Some observers' say the situation could not be better. These observers see a need to oppose any arguments that could shake their version of the reality of cross-strait relations. If they challenge this reality, they will find that Taiwan's democracy is in reverse gear.
Taiwan has fallen in the international democracy rankings and seen a large number of legal cases brought against opposition figures and the press has suffered a defeat as pro-China businessmen attempt to monopolize it. The nation's international status has also been undermined. Its observer status in the WHO is subject to annual Chinese approval, the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement has not been submitted to the WTO and Taiwan has not obtained an international arbitration pact.
Since, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and certain observers think the state of China-Taiwan ties could not be better, they tend to consider the oppositions' policies with skepticism. They demand new and modern policies that will not undermine the China-friendly approach.
However, are the KMT's policies new and modern? It is hardly innovative to damage the nation's democracy and undermine its international status. The party's policies are not only out of date; they also counter the wishes of Taiwanese who want democracy and a strong sovereign status. So who is setting new standards for politics in the nation and can lead it toward a new "normal?"
The short answer is the youth. The long answer includes opposition parties, which continues to formulate modern policies. Yet it is the youth that are particularly interesting. A youth-led anti-media monopoly movement has organized campaigns about freedom and democracy. The Youth Alliance Against Media Monster has organized protests together with other groups such as the Association of Taiwan Journalists to fight media monopolization.
The University of Tasmania's Mark Harrison writes on thechinastory.org about how the demonstrations have combined peaceful protests with local and international social media campaigns.
The activists have tried to embrace all Taiwanese and thus attempted to avoid a political labeled. This strategy may have the potential to include other social topics without being accused of being either in the pan-blue or pan-green camp.
As I and many others have pointed out, Taiwan needs a new political environment with a culture of debate and compromise. The youth can lead the way to devising a new standard for political activism and this could lead the nation to a new "normal." A normal in which protests and debates are carried out with a clear vision in mind and in which all Taiwanese can band together without being labeled. Such a new normal is strongly needed in because the current problems facing the nation run deep among pan-blue and pan-green voters. Ultimately, one still needs to take a political stand in order to effect true change.
Those who believe that the cross-strait situation could not be better must answer why Taiwan should be measured using a different scale than what is used in Europe or in the US. Why do only EU and US citizens have the right to protect their country and liberty?