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Harris Scraps Secure Public Cloud Service
Large government contractor shutters cloud computing service and $200 million data center, less than a year after opening.
February 29, 2012
Federal Data Center Consolidation Makes Progress
Federal Data Center Consolidation Makes Progress (click image for larger view and for slideshow)
Systems integrator Harris Corporation announced Monday that it plans to shutter a secure public cloud computing service it began offering just last year, citing customers' preferences to keep "mission-critical" applications on premises.
Harris launched its Cyber Integrated Solutions in spring 2011 from a $200 million refurbished, 140,000-square-foot data center in Harrisonburg, Va., claiming that its offerings would be able to host sensitive data in the cloud. Now that bet is backfiring, and Harris won't just be discontinuing its new Trusted Enterprise Cloud services, but will also be selling off the new data center, and expects to do so at a loss.
"Customers, both government and commercial, currently have a preference for on-premises versus off-premises solutions," Harris CEO William Brown said on an earnings call in January, foreshadowing the company's decision this week to stop offering its cloud services. "Customers don't place additional value on trust and are unwilling to move the most mission-critical applications to the cloud before less-sensitive applications are thoroughly tested and vetted in a cloud environment."
[ Agencies are getting some guidelines on cloud security, privacy, and SLAs. See Feds Offer Agencies Guidance On Cloud Implementation. ]
It's unclear whether that's entirely the case, or whether Harris simply has been unable to compete. Security continues to be the biggest concern for cloud services, according to InformationWeek's recent State of Cloud Computing Survey. Guidelines from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which sets federal cybersecurity requirements, meanwhile, tell agencies that "available risk mitigation techniques are unlikely to ever be sufficient enough to allow high-value or highly sensitive data or mission-critical applications to be deployed to a public cloud."
However, according to a survey by McKinsey, CIOs expect to have a relatively balanced approach to their mission-critical and custom line-of-business systems over the next few years, with about a third of these systems in public clouds, a third in private clouds, and a third in traditional environments.
While Harris may be leaving the government cloud market, other companies continue to get good news or ramp up their offerings. Amazon, Microsoft, and Terremark all offer cloud services to government and operate or plan to build data centers near Washington, D.C., and Google has been steadily adding government customers as well.
As recently as November, Harris was publicly singing a different tune. At the time, Harris VP Wyatt Starnes told Network World that the company had dozens of customers, with more in the pipeline, and was planning expansion into other data centers for geographic redundancy.
When Harris released its cloud services last year, it trumpeted the many patented security features, including ongoing guarantees that customers were running only the workload they expected to be running. As Rich Plane, Harris' director of cyber integration solutions development and delivery, explained to InformationWeek last year, the company would capture a "digital fingerprint" of customer workloads and then verify that fingerprint repeatedly.
Harris' services also offered customers a "trust score" that indicated to customers just how secure their services were, and allowed customers to increase or decrease the score with additional security features depending on their security needs.
While Harris may be getting out of the cloud for now, a Harris spokesman said that in no way meant that Harris would be leaving the hosted or managed services market entirely.
Harris does about $5.9 billion worth of business annually, with most of its business going to government. The company was the 18th largest federal contractor in fiscal 2010, with $3.9 billion in federal business, according to federal contracting data.
How 10 federal agencies are tapping the power of cloud computing--without compromising security. Also in the new, all-digital InformationWeek Government supplement: To judge the success of the OMB's IT reform efforts, we need concrete numbers on cost savings and returns. Download our Cloud In Action issue of InformationWeek Government now. (Free registration required.)
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Kingdom Plantae
Kingdom Plantae contains almost 300,000 different species of plants. It is not the largest kingdom, but it is a very important one!
In the process known as "photosynthesis", plants use the energy of the Sun to convert water and carbon dioxide into food (sugars) and oxygen. Photosynthesis by plants provides almost all the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. Because plants can make their own food, they are the first step to many food chains in the world.
The first plants lived on land about 450 million years ago. Since then, plants have taken on many forms and are found in most places on Earth. Plants can live in dry places or wet places, low places or high places, hot places or cold places. Humans can't live in a world without plants, so it is very important to protect places that have plants!

subset: commoncrawl


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1828 Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. This removed the political disabilities imposed on non-Anglican Protestants by legislation passed in 1673 and 1661 respectively. Following the repeal of these Acts, Dissenters could sit in parliament and participate in local government. The Act changed the Anglican constitution into a Protestant constitution.
1829 Catholic Emancipation Act.
This controversial legislation allowed Catholics
to sit as MPs for the first time since the Elizabethan Act of Settlement
(1558/9). The Act was passed by Wellington's
government despite huge opposition; the constitution now became Christian
but non-denominational.
Metropolitan Police Act. This was the culmination
of the work of Robert Peel to establish
a civilian, unarmed police force. It was the foundation of policing in Great
Britain and was based on his work in Ireland.
1831 (Hobhouse) Factory Act. This was the third Factory Act, its predecessor being the 1801 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act and the 1819 Factory Act. Hobhouse's Act forbade night work for persons under the age of 21.
1832 Reform Act. It took almost two years for this Act to reach the Statute Books and brought Britain to the verge of revolution. The Reform Act was the first systematic change to the constitution; it extended the franchise to include those who did not own landed property and was the first of a series of constitutional changes.
1833 Factory Act. Passed by the Whig government,
this Act was an attempt to regulate the working hours of women and children.
It left much to be desired but was a step towards government regulation
of working conditions.
Abolition of Slavery Act. This was
the culmination of a lengthy campaign that had begun during the 18th Century.
The legislation was finalised by the Jamaica Act of 1839.
first Education grant. Although not a piece of legislation, the
grant of £20,000 for the provision of schools was the first time
that the goverment had involved itself in education in any way. The first
Education Act did not reach the Statute Books until 1870.
1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. Following the 1832 Reform Act, the PLAA was intended to reduce the poor rates; it was not intended to help the poor who suffered as a result of the legislation. The PLAA replaced the existing poor laws and was responsible for the establishment of workhouses throughout the country. The poor were treated as criminals and people starved rather than apply for poor relief because that meant that they would become inmates of the dreaded "poor law bastilles".
1835 The Municipal Corporations Act was a local government version of the 1832 Reform Act. It made existing municipal corporations more answerable to the electors and allowed other towns to apply for incorporation.
1836 Civil Marriages Act: after the passing of this law, non-Anglicans
were able to marry either in their own Church or in Registry Offices. The
Church of England lost its monopoly over marriage services
Tithe Commutation Act: this provided for the payment of tithes to
the Church of England in cash, depending on the price of wheat.
reduction of Stamp Duty. The Government's decision to reduce the
stamp duty was primarily due to the success of the "war of the unstamped",
and in 1836 the duty was reduced from 4d to 1d, in order to take the unstamped
newspapers off the streets while allowing legal newspapers wider circulation.
1837 Registration Act (of Births, Marriages and Deaths). Although the 1833 Factory Act restricted working hours for young people, there was no means of telling the age of a person since no official records existed. Anglican churches had to record baptisms, marriages, and burials but there were few records for non-Anglicans. This legislation made it compulsory for all births, marriages and deaths to be registered at a Registry Office; certificates were issued for each event and a second copy was retained at Somerset House in London. The administration of this Act was within the remit of the Poor Law Commission.
1838 Irish Poor Law Amendment Act. After a Commission reported that the 'importation' of the English 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act was inappropriate for Ireland, the government brought in its own "experts" and the 1834 PLAA was passed for Ireland. It was implemented just before the outbreak of the potato blight and proved to be inadequate to meet the crisis.
1839 The Jamaica Act finalised the 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act, setting
the remaining slaves and apprentices free in the British colonies.
The Rural Constabularies Act extended the
1829 Metropolitan Police Act and required counties to establish their own
police forces. The Act was passed in the face of Chartist
1840 Penny Post. This was the idea of Sir Rowland Hill. Prior to this, recipients paid for any letters that were sent to them. Hereafter, the sender attached an adhesive, pre-paid label to any items that were posted. The most famous 'stamp' of this period is the Penny Black.
1842 Railway Act. This first piece of railway legislation was mainly a safety Act to ensure that railways ran safe services. New lines had to
be inspected by the Board of Trade, which could demand traffic returns and
inquire into accidents.
The Mines Act prohibited the employment of all females and boys under 10 years old from working underground in mines.
1844 The Railway Act ("Parliamentary Train Act") followed Gladstone's Committee of inquiry into railway policy. By this law, the government assumed the absolute right to take control of all railways in times of national emergency and to fix fares and freight charges. It also said that railway companies had to provide a minimum service of one train each day each way, travelling at not less than 12 miles per hour and stopping at every passenger station, charging no more than 1d. per mile for third class passengers.
Bank Charter Act. This Act tied the issue of bank notes to the Bank's gold reserves and required it to keep the accounts of the note issue separate from those of its banking operations. The Bank of England (image) had to produce a weekly summary of both accounts.
This Factory Act legislated only for textile factories and was the successor to the 1833 Factory Act. It said that women and young persons (13-18) were to work no more than 12 hours per day; children under 13 were to work no more than 6½ hours per day and no child under 8 was to be employed.
The Companies Act aimed to prevent 'reckless speculation' and to prevent the establishment of dubious compaines by making it compulsory for all companies to be registered officially. The companies also had to issue prospectuses and publish accounts regularly.
1846 Repeal of the Corn Laws. The Corn Laws had been passed in 1815 and had raised the price of wheat artificially, leading to an economic depression. A concerted campaign for the repeal of the Corn Laws had been going on since 1838. Consequent upon the repeal, the career of Sir Robert Peel was terminated.
Gauges Act. This was another piece of railway legislation that prohibited the extension of the 7' gauge, except on the Great Western Railway and said that a third line of 4' 8½' had to be laid where 7' track met 4' 8½" line.
1847 Factory Act. Yet another piece of compromise legislation by
the Whig government, this so-called '10-Hour Act'
said that women and children between the ages of 13 and 18 could work
a maximum of ten hours a day or 58 hours a week. The precise times of
work were not set down and the 'relay' or shift system survived. Working
hours for men were left untouched.
Poor Law Act. This Act followed on from the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and replaced the Poor Law Commission with a Poor Law Board headed by a government Minister. Poor releif became more responsible to parliamentary control.
1848 Public Health Act. This was the first piece of legislation that attempted to deal with issues of public health. However, it was permissive rather than compulsory in towns other than Municipal Corporations. The Act established a central Board of Health and allowed Local Boards of Health to be set up if more than 10% of the population petitioned for one. No central inspection was required for authorities that had Boards of Health outside the legislation. Towns where the death rate exceeded 23 per 1,000 were obliged to set up a Board of Health.
1849 Repeal of the Navigation Acts. These laws had been introduced in the Seventeeth Century and said that goods being imported into Britain and her colonies had to be carried either in British ships or the ships of the country where the goods had origin. The laws had been modified during the 1820s but finally they were repealed.
1850 Factory Act. The law dealt only with textile factories. Women and young persons (13-18 years old) were to work in factories only between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. or 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. but working hours were raised
from 10 to 10½ per day.
Coal Mines Inspection Act. The 1842 Mines Act had not dealt with
safety in the mines; this legislation attempted to rectify that omission.
More inspectors were provided to enforce the 1842 Act and were to produce
reports of conditions and safety standards in the mines. The coal mine owners
opposed all attempts to regulate conditions in the mines and many of these
men sat in the House of Lords; one of the most influential was the Marquis
of Londonderrry who owned many of the coal mines in the north east of England,
particularly around Durham.
1851 Ecclesiastical Titles Act. In 1850 Pope Pius IX restored the Catholic hierarchy in Britain, giving the Catholic Church a hierarchy like that of all Catholic countries. The Ecclesiastical Titles Act was an anti-Catholic measure intended to prevent the newly createdCatholic dioceses from taking existing Anglican diocesan names. Ironically, many of the Anglican dioceses had continued to use established Catholic names after the Reformation. The law was repealed by Gladstone in 1871.
1855 Abolition of stamp duties on newspapers. In June the final remaining penny of the British newspaper duty was removed and in September the Daily Telegraph appeared at the price of 1d. For the British working man, the newspaper became what reformers in the 1830s had predicted: 'the readiest, the commonest, the chief vehicle of knowledge'.
1856 County and Borough Police Act. The Metropolitan Police was established in 1829; in 1839 the Rural Constabularies Act was passed. This third piece of legislation obliged the counties to organise police forces, subject to government control and devised a system of inspection already in use in factories, workhouses and education. Grants to the police became dependent on the efficiency of the force: it was estimated that half of them were not efficient. The Act shifted the emphasis from the prevention of crime to its detection.
1857 Matrimonial Causes Act. By this Act, divorce courts were established. Women were given only limited access to divorce which could be obtained only on a specific cause other than adultery. Right of access to children after divorce was extended and women were able to repossess their property after a legal separation or after a protection order given consequent upon the husband's desertion.
1858 Abolition of the property qualification for MPs: this was one of the demands made by the Chartists. From this date, men did not have to own property in order to stand as candidates in parliamentary elections.
Jewish Disabilities Act implemented. In 1847, Baron Lionel de Rothschild was elected as an MP for London but objected to taking the oath which included the phrase "on the true faith of a Christian". He asked to be sworn in on the Old Testament. It took eleven attempts in the House of Lords to have the oath changed. Subsequently, Jews were able to take their seats in both Houses.
Medical Act
1859 Molestation of Workmen Act. This Act allowed peaceful picketing in the event of strike action taking place. The Act said that 'no person, by reason merely of his endeavouring peaceably and in a reasonable manner, and without threat or intimidation, direct or indirect, to persuade others to cease or abstain from work, in order to obtain the rate of wages or the altered hours of labour agreed to by him and others, should be deemed to have been guilty of "molestation" or "obstruction".'
1860 Food and Drugs Act. This was the first attempt at legislation to prevent the adulteration of food. It was common to find harmful additives in staple foods: white lead in flour, ground glass in sugar, red lead in coffee for example. The new law made the inclusion of additives a criminal offence. However, it was not very effective and had to be amended in The Mines Regulation and Inspection Act increased the number of mines inspectors and prohibited boys below the age of 12 from working underground.
1861 Repeal of paper duties. Gladstone helped the publishing industry by abolishing the excise duty on paper. This made producing newsapers cheaper still; it revived rural paper works and encouraged the growth of London newspapers and the provincial press.
1866 Sanitary Act. Finally, it was recognised that the 1848 Act had
failed to produce the desired results: this was due mainly to that Act being
permissive rather than compulsory. The 1866 Act compelled local authorities
to improve local conditions and remove nuisances (health hazards). They
became responsible also for the provision of sewers, water and street cleaning.
The Act enforced the connection of all houses to a new main sewer; it set
definite limits for the use of cellars as living rooms, and established
the definition of 'overcrowding'. Every town was to appoint Sanitary Inspectors
and the Home Secretary was empowered to take proceedings for the removal
of nuisances where local authorities failed to act.
1867 the second Reform Act. This
extended the franchise to most urban working men.
Master and Servant Act. This Act amended an existing piece of legislation;
strikers could now be prosecuted only for breach of contract. The Trade
Unions were still dissatisfied, however, because it was possible for criminal
proceedings to take place on the grounds of 'aggravated causes'.
1869 Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Irish Church. This Act came into effect on 1 January 1871. All ecclesiastical property belonging to the Church of Ireland, except churches in use, was vested in the Commissioners. Compensatoin was set at £16 million: half of the capital of the confiscated property and surplus funds were to be used for the relief of suffering. The Act also said that no Irish bishops were to sit in the House of Lords. Nonconformist ministers were to be given a grant from the Regium Donum (gift of the monarch) The Church of Ireland was to have a General Synod that was elected triennially by the dioceses.
1870 Irish Land Act. This law was passed by Gladstone's government and
was intended to protect tenants against unfair eviction. Landlords were
required to pay up to £250 to tenants who had been evicted unfairly
and tenants were assisted in the purchase of their holdings by being able
to borrow up to 2/3 of the cost from the government.
Married Women's Property Act. This piece of legislation allowed women
to keep £200 of their own earnings.
(Forster's) Education Act. This Act was intended only to 'plug the
gaps' in the educational provision that existed. The two religious organisations
that ran schools were given grants and the Act provided for the establishment
of so-called 'Board Schools'. Education was neither free nor compulsory
under this legislation.
Cardwell's army reforms begin. Cardwell
was the Secretary of State for War; his reforms continued for over ten years.
1871 University Test Act. Until the passing of this Act, all academics and students at Oxford and Cambridge Universities had to be practising members of the Anglican Church. By this legislation, the privileges of the Anglican Church were removed and the universities were open to all with suitable abilities regardless of religious faith.
Civil Service reforms. Posts in the Civil Service were dependent upon privilege and connection with the 'right' people until this legislation. Thereafter, positions were open to all who could pass the examinations. The Foreign Office was excluded from the legislation, however, and continued to be the domain of privilege and connection.
Trade Union Act recognised unions as legal bodies with the right
to own property and funds. Unions were allowed to protect these at law and
they were also allowed to conduct strikes.
Criminal Law Amendment Act. This took away the power of strike action:
although TUs could conduct strikes under the Trade Union Act, this second
piece of legislation forbade the use of picketing of any description) even
peaceful picketing). Consequently, it would be almost impossible for a strike to be conducted.
Abolition of the purchase of Commissions.
This was one of Cardwell's Army Reforms by which officers in the British
Army were to be appointed by merit and ability rather than being able to
buy rank. The legislation met great opposition.
1872 Licensing Act. Gladstone believed that drink was the curse of the working man and wanted to introduce sobriety as a character-reform. He also believed that a sober, hard-working man would be able to save money and therefore have savings for his 'retirement'. This Act
- gave magistrates the power to issue licenses to public houses; where it was thought that there were too many of these, magistrates were able to close down some of them
- public houses now had to close in towns at midnight and at 11 p.m. in the countryside - so that agricultural labourers could walk home and arrive before midnight
- the adulteration of beer was made illegal: it was common for salt to be added to it, to make the consumers thirsty and so drink more.
1872 Ballot Act: this was one of the things that the Chartists
had demanded. The Act introduced the secret ballot to all elections, making
them less corrupt and less subject to bribery and corruption. The legislation
was opposed by landlords and employers who could no longer control the
votes of their tenants and workers.
Coal Mines Regulating Act. This insisted on the introduciton of
safety methods such as fan ventilators, stronger timber supports, wire
ropes, imporved winding gear and better safety lamps.
Public Health Act. This divided England and Wales into Health Authority
districts, each of which had to have its own Medical Officer of Health
and accompanying staff. The duties of the Health Authorities were not
specified and most Health Boards were unwilling to spend the required
money on radical reforms.
1873 Judicature Act. This Act rationalised the legal system in Britain by united seven different courts into one High Court of Justice.
1874 Licensing Act. This was an amendment to Gladstone's Act and provided
for longer opening hours.
The Factory Act reduced working hours to 10 per day; it also said
that no child couild be employed until the age of 10 and no young person
could work full time until the age of 14.
1875 Artisans' Dwelling Act: local authorities were given the power
to buy and demolish slum houses and replace them with modern, healthy housing.
Because of severe opposition, the powers were permissive rather than compulsory
Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act. This again legalised peaceful
picketing and allowed unions to cary out as a group whatever individuals
could do in law. Unmions could no longer be charged with conspiracy for
taking such action.
Public Health Act: This legislation was the work of Richard A Cross.
The Act set down in detail what local authorities had to do in terms of
public health:
- ensure that there was an adequate water supply, drainage and sewage disposal
- nuisances were to be removed
- offensive trades were to be regulated
- contaminated food was to be found, confiscated and destroyed
- cases of infectious diseases were to be reported to the local Medical Officer of Health who then had to take appropriate action
- further regulations dealt with matters concerning: markets; street lighting; burials
1876 (Sandon's) Education Act. School Attendance Committees were established
to encourage as many children as possible to take advantage of educational
opportunities and parents were made responsible for ensuring that their
children received basic instruction. The Committees could help to
pay the school fees if parents were too poor to do so themselves - but this
was not compulsory.
Merchant Shipping Act: this was the work
of Samuel Plimsoll and was aimed at preventing ship owners sending unseaworthy
or overloaded ships to sea, at the expense of the sailors' lives. The Act
required a series of 'lines' to be painted on the ship to show the maximum
loading point. It was not until 1890 that Board of Trade officials applied
the regulations that Plimsoll had intended.
1878 Factory and Workshops Act. All workshops and factories employing more than 50 people were now to be inspected regularly by government inspectors rather than by local authorities (as previously).
1880 Employers' Liability Act aplied to all manual workers except seamen and domestic servants; it gave to injured employees or their dependents the same rights to recover damages from their employers that non-employees always enjoyed
1881 Irish Land Act. This was another piece of legislation passed
by Gladstone and it gave to Ireland what Irish tenants had been requesting for many years: the so-called "3 Fs" - fair rents, fixity of
tenure and free sale of the tenancy. The Act also provided for the establishment
of Land Courts which would decide on what was a 'fair rent'. Unfortunately,
the Land League did everything it could to prevent the Act from working
and the evictions and violence in Ireland continued.
(Mundella's) Education Act. This made attendance at elementary school compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 and 10. Parents had to pay 'school pence' - about 3d. per child per week. Often, poor parents could not afford this sum of money.
1882 The Married Women's Property Act allowed all married women to continue as the separate owners and administrators of their property after marriage.
1885 Redistribution Act. This Act went hand in hand with the Reform Act: all boroughs with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants lost their MP; those with fewer than 50,000 MPs lost one MP. There were now 142 seats available for redistribution and these were given to densely populated areas. Constituencies were reorganised so that there were 647 single member constituencies of the 670 in existence.
1888 County Councils Act. This legislation established County Councils. The old local government boards (about 27,000 of them) were replaced by 67 elected County Councils which had extensive and compulsory powers to deal with matters such as road maintenance, the building of bridges, the establishment of a police force and the administrative duties that had previously been within the remit of JPs. Some sixty towns with populations over 60,000 became County Boroughs with the same powers as County Councils. Under this legislation, unmarried women were allowed to vote for councillors although they were not allowed to become councillors themselves.
1891 The Fee Grant Act effectively made elementary education free of charge
1894 Local Government Act (often referred to as the Parish Councils Act) . This Act divided the counties into Urban District Councils and Rural District Councils, each with its own elected coucil. Rural District Councils were divided into civil Parish Councils which had to be elected if the population exceeded 300. Generally, the civil parishes had the same boundaries as the ecclesiastical (Church of England) parishes. Women were now allowed to stand as candidates and sit as councillors on these councils.
1897 Workmen's Compensation Act. This law said that an employer should compensate a workman who was injured, and the dependants of a workman who was killed at work, irrespective of any negligence on the part of the employer or his other employees. The Act was restricted to a limited number of employments, the so-called "dangerous trades" that included the building trade.
Last updated 28 July 2014


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SpiderCloud gets buy-in from Vodafone Netherlands
SpiderCloud, the company that provides its E-RAN radio-node-plus-controller architecture for in-building and campus coverage has been selected by Vodafone Netherlands to provide services to its large business customers.
The company's E-RAN system consists of a Services Node (SCSN) that is connected to the operator's core network, and in turn controls multi-access small cells installed through a building or site. SpiderCloud says the architecture is the cheapest and quickest way for operators to be able to provide enterprise services to their large business customers, as well as providing high capacity coverage.
SpiderCloud has been in testing and trials with the operator, so will be pleased to see it gain buy-in from group entities.
"Vodafone is taking a leadership role in solving in-building connectivity problems for business customers in the Netherlands," said Ron Pelley, SpiderCloud's Vice President and Managing Director, EMEA. "With SpiderCloud's scalable small cell system, Vodafone can meet the demands of enterprise customers of all sizes."
AirCom lands LTE planning deal from Orange France
Aircom, one of the last independent optimisation and network software companies left unattached, has announced that existing 3G customer Orange France has been using the company's ASSET network planning solution to plan its LTE network.
"Aircom has proven to be a very reliable partner to Orange France. The company's detailed and accurate LTE modelling made it the perfect choice for our LTE planning needs," Fadi Abou Karam, Radio Planning Tools Project Manager at Orange France, said. "The integration of ASSET with our existing software and systems will ensure the benefits we enjoy across our GSM and UMTS networks can be easily applied to our LTE infrastructure."
Radisys wins LTE-TDD small cell design deal
Radisys announced that Chinese developer Z-Com has selected Radisys' TOTALeNodeB small cell software solution for its small cell LTE-TDD (Time Division Duplex) network deployments in China.
"We selected Radisys' TOTALeNodeB small cell software because of its expansive features set and clear roadmap for TDD support," said Jim Gao, CEO, Nanjing Z-Com. "Radisys' TDD solution supports integration on next-generation small cell silicon, providing us with a time-to-market advantage."
Z-Com will roll out LTE-TDD trial deployments in the first half of 2014 for Chinese mobile operator, CMCC. The initial focus will be on the Enterprise small cell market, supporting 32-64 users.
The notion of NFV architecture being just a centripetal force that relocates functionality from a customer site to the network is not the complete picture
Virgin launches "business class LTE" service
Virgin Media Business has launched what it calls a "business-grade 4G service", piggy-backing on and wrapped around EE's 4G network.
Business Mobile from Virgin Media Business provides mobile voice and data connectivity and is also available in 3G on EE's network.
Duncan Higgins, director of products and marketing at Virgin Media Business, said, "We're simplifying things for our customers by being the single supplier for all their telecoms needs. EE's 4G experience over the past ten months clearly illustrates the benefits of the technology and their 4G network coverage is unrivalled in the UK."
SIM-inside: Dell, Qualcomm and Telefonica announce expanded NetReady integrated SIM
Dell, in collaboration with Telefonica and http://www.qualcomm.com/Qualcomm Technologies announced its expanded Dell NetReady solution, a pay-as-you-go bundle providing mobile connectivity with a single integrated SIM. The expanded offering means that Dell NetReady can be pre-installed in select products across the XPS, Latitude, Dell Precision and Inspiron ranges available in the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Dell's laptops and tablets are fitted with the Sierra Wireless MC8805 module, based on Qualcomm Gobi 3G 42Mbps technology, giving users internet access in 29 European countries covered by Telefonica. The free hardware assigned SIM-card offers the enhanced security, ideal for enterprise-wide deployment.
Once registered, a range of pay-as-you-go bundles are available starting from just 30 minutes and ranging up to one month. Two tariff structures offer long-term access and short-term data charges. Bundles also move with the user from country to country with bundles sold in 10 different currencies.
"Telefonica is proud to launch this service which provides users across Europe immediate access to the Internet on their devices in a fast and reliable way. Customers will benefit from our excellent network coverage and a simple and intuitive application giving access to the Internet anytime and anywhere." said Surya Mendonca, Global m2m Director at Telefonica Digital.
Distributed NFV will broaden the scope of service assured access for Ethernet
At Ethernet & SDN Expo 2013 in New York, at Ethernet World 2013 in Prague and at Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam, RAD will share with industry leaders its vision of how virtualised functions at the customer premises along with Service Assured Access based on dedicated Layer 2/3 demarcation capabilities will accelerate service deployments and network upgrades, leading to increased revenue opportunities and lower TCO.
"Distributed NFV's capabilities will broaden the scope of Service Assured Access for Ethernet and IP networks, and, therefore, is the next logical step in its evolution," Dr. Yuri Gittik, head of strategic marketing at RAD, states. "The notion of NFV architecture being just a centripetal force that relocates functionality from a customer site to the network is not the complete picture," he continues.
"Ideally, virtualised functions should be located where they will be both most effective and least expensive, which means NFV should have the option to return to the customer site," he explains. "These two virtualization trends should be complementary and not be the networking equivalent of two ships passing in the night."
Dr. Gittik will be speaking at the Ethernet & SDN Expo, New York, and at Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam.


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CLIFFSIDE PARK, N.J. — A 25-second video clip recorded inside a classroom at New Jersey's Cliffside Park High School has struck up a controversy on social media, according to WPIX.
"…men and women are fighting. They are not fighting for your right to speak Spanish. They are fighting for your right to speak American," a teacher can be heard saying to her class.
Students in Cliffside Park, a diverse community with a large number of Spanish-speaking students, immediately reacted to the comment. At least one even walked out.
"You're being racist," that student can be heard saying on the video. "I know how to speak English."
On Facebook, some former alumni are calling for the board of education to investigate the "discriminatory" behavior and the "belittling" of a bilingual student.
Meanwhile, others are defending the teacher, who has been identified on social media, as a "great person" and a "wonderful teacher."
Some commenters said that English should be spoken in a class that is taught in English out of respect for the teacher.
Outside the high school on Friday, a student who was in the classroom said the teacher asked students whispering in Spanish to stop several times before making that comment.
"This school is not a negative school," said Carmen Benitez, a senior at Cliffside Park H.S. "You know there are a lot of different cultures in our school. There's a lot of teachers who respect us."
But others called for the teacher's resignation.
"It's really disrespectful," said Alana Lopez, a freshman. "That's not right. You don't do that."
WPIX has reached out to the Cliffside Park School Superintendent for comment, but calls weren't immediately returned.
Students said the principal called an assembly Friday to discuss the incident. Some brought flags to school with them to represent their culture. Other students are planning a walk-out for Monday morning.
"You go to school to learn, you don't go to feel attacked by someone you believe is an educator," said Marvin Moreno, an alumni.
His younger sister still attends the school.
Students said those who walked out of the teacher's classroom in response to her comment were not reprimanded. The teacher in the video was substituting for a junior- and senior-level math class, but students say she teaches English at the high school.


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+ Text Only Site + Non-Flash Version + Contact Glenn
This page shows an interactive Java applet to demonstrate the doppler effect and the formation of shock waves by varying the speed of a sound source.
With this software you can investigate how sound waves travel through the air. When you become experienced with this simulator and the physical principles behind the program, you can use a sleek version which loads faster on-line and does not include these instructions. You can also download your own copy of this simulator for use off-line by clicking this button:
Due to IT security concerns, many users are currently experiencing problems running NASA Glenn educational applets. The applets are slowly being updated, but it is a lengthy process. If you are familiar with Java Runtime Environments (JRE), you may want to try downloading the applet and running it on an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) such as Netbeans or Eclipse. The following are tutorials for running Java applets on either IDE: Netbeans Eclipse
Until the applet is updated, HERE is another application that demonstrates the simulator.
As any object moves through the air, the air near the object is disturbed. Small disturbances are transmitted through the air at a distinct speed called the speed of sound. Sound is just a sensation created in the human brain in response to small pressure fluctuations in the air. The transmission of a small disturbance through a gas is an isentropic process. The conditions in the gas are the same before and after the disturbance passes through.
In our simulation, a bug is creating a sound which moves through the air as a series of waves. When the waves pass our microphone, the sound is detected. The distance between any two waves is called the wavelength and the time interval between waves passing is called the period. The inverse of the period is the frequency of the wave. which is measured in cycles/second. The brain associates a certain musical pitch with each frequency; the higher the frequency, the higher the pitch. Likewise, shorter wavelengths produce higher pitches since more waves pass through a point every second. The speed of transmission of the sound remains a constant regardless of the frequency or the wavelength since the speed only depends on the state of the air not on the characteristics of the generating source.
While the speed of sound does not change, the speed of the source of the sound is arbitrary. You can change the speed of the bug by using the slider at the bottom. You can start or stop the motion of the bug by using the appropriate buttons. If the source is stopped, you can advance or retreat by a single time increment by using the "Step Forward" and "Step Back" buttons. And you can "Resume" the animation by pushing that button. Notice how the frequency of the sound changes when the source is moving and notice how the waves collect into a Mach wave when the object moves faster than Mach 1.0, the speed of sound.
Here are some of the interesting physics problems which you will observe with this simulator. If the source moves slower than the speed of sound, conditions are said to be subsonic. As the source moves it continues to generate sound waves which move at the speed of sound. Since the source is moving slower than the speed of sound, the waves move out away from the source. Upstream (in the direction of the motion), the waves bunch up and the wavelength decreases. Downstream, the waves spread out and the wavelength increases. The sound that our microphone detects will change in pitch as the object passes. This change in pitch is called a doppler effect. If the source moves at or near the speed of sound conditions are said to be sonic or transonic. In this case, the waves again bunch up upstream and spread out downstream. But because the source speed is nearly the sound speed, the upstream wavelength becomes nearly zero and the individual waves collect into a single Mach wave. If the source moves higher than the speed of sound conditions are said to be supersonic. The Mach wave now becomes conical and the angle of the cone depends on the ratio of the speed of sound to the speed of the object; the faster the speed of the object the sharper (smaller) the cone angle. The ratio of the object speed to the speed of sound is the Mach number of the flow, which explains the name "Mach wave".
We must be very careful not to confuse the Mach waves which appear in this simulation with shock waves that occur in supersonic flows. In this simulation, we have only considered the isentropic transmission of the sound generated by the bug. We haven't looked at how the flow gets around the bug itself. The motion of the gas around the bug generates shock waves which are not isentropic. Shock waves in the flow are not inclined at the Mach angle but at a different angle which depends on the shape and speed of the bug. The Mach angle is determined by conditions in the flow.
Navigation ..
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Intel Active Management Technology (AMT)
About AMT
Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) is a feature of Intel® Core™ processors with Intel® vPro technology and workstation platforms based on select Intel® Xeon® processors. Intel® AMT uses integrated platform capabilities and popular third-party management and security applications, to allow IT or managed service providers to better discover, repair, and help protect their networked computing assets. Intel® AMT also saves time with remote maintenance and wireless manageability for your mobile workforce, and secure drive wiping to simplify PC lifecycle transitions.
See also Wikipedia articles on:
The book Active Platform Management Demystified: Unleaching the power of Intel™ vPro Technology written by Arvind Kumar, Purushottam Goel, and Ylian Saint-Hilaire in 2009.
AMT management tools
MeshCommander is an entirely web based tool for remote management of your Intel® AMT computers.
AMT firmware updates
A number of security holes in AMT firmware have been reported. If you have activated AMT, it is mandatory to install the latest AMT firmware updates from your PC vendor.
A partial list of AMT security holes includes:
CVE-2017-5712 (see INTEL-SA-00086)
CVE-2017-5689 (see INTEL-SA-00075)
CVE-2017-5705 and similar CVE-2017-5706 CVE-2017-5707 CVE-2017-5708 CVE-2017-5709 CVE-2017-5710 CVE-2017-5711
Software tools for AMT security:
Intel-SA-00086-software for vendor firmware updates and tools
Intel-SA-00086 Detection Tool for Linux and Windows
INTEL-SA-00075-Linux-Detection-And-Mitigation-Tools: https://github.com/intel/INTEL-SA-00075-Linux-Detection-And-Mitigation-Tools
AMT status checker for Linux: https://github.com/mjg59/mei-amt-check
AMT Forensics: Retrieve Intel AMT's Audit Log from a Linux machine without knowing the admin user's password: https://github.com/google/amt-forensics
Management Engine BIOS Extension (MEBX)
Intel ME configuration is included in the BIOS by the Intel® Management Engine BIOS Extension (MEBX). The Intel MEBX provides the ability to change and/or collect the system hardware configuration, passes it to the management firmware and provides the Intel ME configuration user interface.
Accessing MEBX
If the PC has AMT hardware, you can enter the MEBX setup just after the POST start-up by pressing:
This option is usually not displayed on the PC boot screen.
When entering the MEBX login screen, the factory default password is admin. You will then be asked to set a new MEBX password.
MEBX password
When creating an MEBX admin password, it is important to note that the BIOS will interpret keystrokes assuming a US keyboard layout.
The documented default password for user admin is also admin. If AMT is enabled, this password must be changed.
Since non-alphanumeric characters are required in MEBX passwords, it is important to take note the actual characters typed into the BIOS, since they may be different when you login to the AMT from a web-browser or other tool! In BIOS setup, a US keyboard layout is assumed.
AMT security links
Talk: Intel AMT: Using & Abusing the Ghost in the Machine by Parth Shukla - firstname.lastname@example.com:
Slides: https://goo.gl/HJASb8
F-Secure security alert:
Wired story: https://www.wired.com/story/intel-management-engine-vulnerabilities-pcs-servers-iot/
Slashdot story: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/01/12/201200/researcher-finds-another-security-flaw-in-intel-management-firmware
Arstechnica story: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/01/researcher-finds-another-security-flaw-in-intel-management-firmware/


text: Wilson are billing their new FG Tour ball as the softest urethane ball on the market. The four-piece ball is designed for Tour players and low handicappers that demand a soft, Tour-quality ball. Each of the layers has a distinct role in the performance of the ball. Starting from the centre, the Wilson FG Tour features a soft, rubber-rich core that gives the ball its feel as well as low driver spin. Surrounding the core are two mantle layers. The first, inner mantle is designed to promote spin whilst the outer mantle, immediately beneath the ball's cover, is engineered to provide maximum distance. The final piece is the urethane cover. Featuring 318 aerodynamic dimples, the cover provides players with spin and control around the greens. Frank Simonutti, Wilson Golf's Manager of golf ball R&D, said: Extensive research conducted by our R&D team proves that more and more serious golfers want to play with a softer Tour-feel ball like the new FG Tour. That's why we've lowered the compression from the previous FG Tour ball and introduced a new multi-layer design that delivers the best overall performance of any of our golf balls to date. The new design has already seen success on Tour. Steen Tinning, Wilson Staff's Danish professional, used a prototype version of the FG Tour to win both the Berenberg Masters and English Open on the European Senior Tour in 2013.


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The Miracle Of The Levitating Slinky
I should say right off, this is no miracle. The Slinky I'm going to show you does what all Slinkys do, even if it seems so astonishing, you figure, "Oh, come on. Somebody doctored this footage. This can't be."
It can be. It is. Nobody manipulated anything.
Here's what's going to happen. Derek Muller from the Australian science video website Veritasium is going to take a Slinky and hold it from the top with his hand. He will then release the lower part. It will slink down to its full extension, elongating, and come to a dangling rest.
Then Derek is going to let the Slinky go.
Now comes the miracle. If you keep your eye on the bottom of the Slinky, on the last curl at the very end, you will notice that as the top of the Slinky starts to fall, the bottom doesn't drop. It just hangs in the air, levitating, as if it had its own magic carpet. It will stay there, hovering quietly, until a wave, or signal, passing through the Slinky finally reaches it. Apparently, the bottom doesn't know it's supposed to fall, so it sits there, seeming to defy gravity, until the very end.
In this first video, Derek and a physics professor named Rod will drop a Slinky. It drops very fast, but then they run the footage at 300 frames a second — that's very slow. Once again, this is not a trick. It's just deeply mysterious.
Derek asked, what if we attach a tennis ball to the bottom of the Slinky, then drop them both? Will the tennis ball hover, too? Or will it drag the Slinky down? (Or up?) Here's the answer:
So why does this happen? Why — going back to the Slinky — why doesn't it fall right away?
Psst, Pass It On
As the physics professor says, the bottom didn't "know" it was supposed to fall until it got a signal from the top of the Slinky. Only when the metal directly above the last coil transmits the signal, only then do you see the bottom coil start to twist and fall.
This idea, that information has to pass through an object for the whole thing to know what to do, applies not just to Slinkys but to ballpoint pens, logs, arrows and, yes, to all of us.
This week on our Radiolab podcast, we invited Cornell mathematician Steve Strogatz and Hayden Planetarium astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to dissect the miracle of the levitating Slinky. Steve finds the physics beautiful, profound, even tragic. Neil is more the mechanic. Signals rule the world, he says. He explains that what happened to our Slinky has become the essence of tank warfare. What? If you're curious, check out the podcast (if you're reading this on your computer, you can click on the Radiolab box just to the right).
Or, if you seek a Zen moment and wish to contemplate more Slinkys not falling, here's another video; this time the Slinky is huge. Doesn't seem to matter.


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The Tastemaker by Edward White
IN 1900, as a member of the fraternity Psi Upsilon at the University of Chicago, 19-year-old Carl Van Vechten became unusually enamored of the fraternity's housekeeper, a 40ish black woman with the unforgettable name of Desdemona Sublett. Fresh off the train from Cedar Rapids, Van Vechten would listen to Desdemona Sublett pray as she dusted and scrubbed. Her prayers were not mumbled or cryptic incantations but, as Edward White describes them in The Tastemaker, his new biography of Van Vechten, "the loud, uninhibited tones of her evangelical faith." Van Vechten, a culturally ravenous lad eager to make Iowa a memory, had been taught racial parity by his mother and father, both of whom were progressives committed to civil rights. Van Vechten's rather Iowan idea of Christianity was demure, humble, shackled to restraint. Desdemona Sublett, on the other hand — she struck the wide-eyed frat boy as an inebriated dervish. As White tells it: "It was her performance that excited him: the passion she summoned to enliven the mundane events of her everyday life. No white person he knew ever did this."
Those two sentences contain the quiddity of Carl Van Vechten: life was a performance, the very act of living aspired to art, excitement and passion counted above all else, the dull and mundane were not to be endured. A votary of Oscar Wilde, Van Vechten believed, in true Wildean fashion, that dullness was the only unpardonable sin, and he couldn't help but see that most dullards were white. He began escorting Sublett to social events in the Black Belt, a constellation of African-American neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side. If you have any skepticism about how original, how downright peculiar, Van Vechten was, do a quick survey of all the bourgeois, Midwestern white boys who gladly skip college parties to escort middle-aged black women to church functions at which they're the only moon-faced ones in attendance. In Chicago's African-American community, in the many theaters and nightclubs of the Black Belt, Van Vechten witnessed a sodality and hot-bloodedness he'd not seen before — the people matched perfectly his sense of cultural subversion, his rebel's want of a social storm to jar the masses from their antiquated and yawnful notions of human behavior.
Ambitious for literature and theater, for art and dance and music, Van Vechten would soon abandon Chicago for New York — this was his destiny, he knew — where he'd become the patron, the facilitator, of black artists, writers, and musicians including Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Zora Neale Hurston, who once said of Van Vechten, "If Carl was a people instead of a person, I could then say, these are my people." The Harlem Renaissance as we know it could not have happened without him. But the question we are inevitably confronted with when considering Van Vechten's relationship to blackness is the question Emily Bernard asks at the start of her valuable 2012 study Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: Was he "a racial voyeur and sexual predator, an acolyte of primitivism" no better than those "white pleasure seekers" who infiltrated the "mecca of exotica" that was Harlem? Was he a slummer?
Put another way: was he guilty of fetishizing blacks, of aligning romance and exotica with the most squalid of impulses? Because fetishizing human beings is no different from objectifying them, and the apprehension of people as objects festers at the core of every bigot. Edward White is clearly titillated by Van Vechten — it's impossible not to be — but he rightly has no patience for that sordid quadrant of his character that saw black Americans as noble savages enslaved to their every sexed-up urge. White describes him variously as "perverse," "patronizing," "callous," "idiotic," "egocentric," "childlike," and "childish." Van Vechten's faultless taste was partially contaminated by his tasteless faults, and if there's such a thing as racial love indistinguishable from bigotry, Van Vechten embodied it.
Emily Bernard maintains that "white interest in Harlem created the central paradox of the Harlem Renaissance," and it's true that Van Vechten thrived on paradox, on antinomy and inversion, anything that might zap the rabble from their exhausted opinions. He had zero interest in the political importance of what he undertook, but rather was impelled solely by his ego's passion for the aesthetic, by the possibility of excitement. You might be tempted to blame such egocentrism and absence of political concern on his era, except that others of his era understood, for example, that the tremendous calamity of the first World War made art and high-society bacchanals look somewhat beside the point. Reading Van Vechten's essays and journals, you can get the rather queasy feeling that he considered the war a theatrical event devised for his viewing and for the advancement of artistic assertion, just as it's simple to suspect that he considered black people a canvas on which he could paint his own passions. He seems everywhere to have believed that charm was the only trait worth having.
(This might be the spot to mention Van Vechten's grotesque teeth, jagged and enormous, described by his friend Mable Dodge as the teeth of a "wild boar." His first biographer, Bruce Kellner, said Van Vechten resembled "a genial walrus." You won't see a photo of Van Vechten in which his lips aren't clamped over his fangs, as if he's trying to hold water in his mouth. If you aren't burdened by a physical deformity — in your face, no less — you could underestimate how that deformity influences everything from your handkerchief and handshake to your character and charisma. In his 1922 novel Peter Whiffle, Van Vechten declares: "Charm always kills ugliness." That "always" might be a stretch; not everyone was coerced by his charm. Kellner tells the story of how the incomparable Dorothy Parker, no shabby study of character, once ducked into the men's room at a hotel in order to avoid seeing Van Vechten.)
It's indeed difficult to define Carl Van Vechten without resorting to excess and paradox: an invigorating amalgam of Oscar Wilde and Truman Capote, of George Plimpton and Jay Gatsby; bestselling novelist, mendacious tabloid reporter, superb critic of music, dance, and literature, esteemed portrait photographer; editor, agent, manager, promoter, dandy, hanger-on; a Dionysian with Apollonian ambitions; a blitzkrieg upon the stolid virtues of the 19th century; sexually reliant on men, emotionally reliant on women; a privileged white man who considered himself an integral member of the black community; a bruising, anarchic husband but devout friend who nevertheless had a hard time grieving when anyone died. He was a pathological playboy, an eccentric in silk shirts who painted his apartments red. Obsessed with his own celebrity, he kept a scrapbook of every newspaper clipping that contained his name. If he were alive today he'd be the king mosquito with a keyboard, incessant and malarial across the swamps of social media.
His narcissism was legion, his solipsism unashamed, his hedonism uninhibited. At the top of his stationary in the early 1920s he emblazoned the mantra: "A little too much is just enough for me." He was a legendary party-thrower at whose Manhattan flat you could see George Gershwin on piano, Paul Robeson in song, and Theodore Dreiser passed out on the couch. His avenues crossed with those of Sinclair Lewis, Bessie Smith, Eugene O'Neill, Ethel Waters, Charlie Chaplin, Somerset Maugham, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and H. L. Mencken, among other luminaries too numerous to name. His published diaries are titled The Splendid Drunken Twenties, and they're perfectly unreadable, list after list of people he saw and places he went. You'd want to say that he was the life of the party if it weren't true that the party was his life.
Van Vechten was an omnivore of art, a devotee of both high and low, of Tin Pan Alley and the Metropolitan Opera, of ragtime and musical comedy and jazz, of Chester Himes and Gertrude Stein. In addition to helping launch the career of Wallace Stevens, Van Vechten was almost single-handedly responsible for making Stein known and respected in the States, and her gratitude to him never waned. He predicted the imminent importance of the Russian composers, was the first to resurrect Herman Melville from the boneyard of irrelevance, and in 1909 recognized Isadora Duncan as the incandescent talent she was. "[N]o other critic in the United States," says White, "came close to producing the same enthusiasm and depth of insight about such a breadth of music and dance, from the blues to Schoenberg."
White doesn't mention Mencken's autobiography, My Life as Author and Editor, but it contains some of the truest, chattiest sentences ever written about Van Vechten. The two met when Mencken gave a favorable review in The Smart Set to Van Vechten's 1915 debut book of criticism, Music After the Great War. He was, Mencken wrote, "one of the recognized eccentrics of New York [...] forever immersing himself in fads [...] the chief local fugleman of the more extravagant varieties of exotic music [...] the proponent of the wildest sort of Greenwich Village heliogabalisme." (Leave it to Mencken to mobilize the train-wrecked term heliogabalisme: it refers to the Roman boy-emperor Elagabalus, bisexual and possibly transgendered, infamous for carnal exorbitance.)
Van Vechten, says Mencken, "went to the length of issuing dark hints that he had taken to homosexuality." Untypically naive, Mencken doubted these dark hints because Van Vechten "had married an extremely lively and even peppery Russian Jewess, Fania Marinoff." Those peppery Russian Jewesses — always a certain antidote against homosexuality. Mencken believed that Marinoff, a well known actress with her own phalanx of eccentricities, could not possibly have left her husband any vigor for "extra-mural activities," not realizing that Van Vechten lived for extramural activities and contained vigor enough to light a city block. White reveals a union between Van Vechten and Marinoff that steadfastly defies the OED's opinion of "marriage," a union that would baffle many a commoner today but that was not necessarily an outlier among gay bohemians with money and unquenchable appetites. Marinoff provided him emotional ballast and Van Vechten provided her glamor. They were married for 50 years.
"In 1925 or thereabout," Mencken wrote, Van Vechten "announced suddenly that he was an earnest partisan of the suffering Negroes" and "for four or five years his apartment [...] swarmed with the more raffish intellectuals of the race." A year later, Mencken reviewed Van Vechten's novel Nigger Heaven (1926), the title as cringe-worthy then as it is now — for years already a Harlem movement had been underway to quash the slur. But Van Vechten was convinced he knew what he was doing with that title; he even dismissed his father's sensible pleas to change it. Van Vechten's publisher and friend, Alfred Knopf, perhaps smelling the capital that sometimes ensues from scandal, seems not to have objected to a title that flammable. Mencken dubbed Nigger Heaven "the salient work of Van Vechten's time of enchantment with the darker races," even though many among those darker races were outraged by the novel in general and the title in particular, never mind that "a notorious Negrophile" had written them. W. E. B. Du Bois, among distinguished others, berated the novel for its exploitative ribaldry, for — unintentionally, it must be said — making Harlemers look little better than shaved apes.
Here is an excremental D. H. Lawrence reviewing Nigger Heaven, unselfconscious enough to be unashamed too:
Mr. Van Vechten's book is a nigger book, and not much of one. It opens and closes with nigger cabaret scenes in feeble imitation of Cocteau or Morand, second-hand attempts to be wildly lurid, with background effects of black and vermillion velvet. [...] It is a false book by an author who lingers in nigger cabarets hoping to heaven to pick up something to write about and make a sensation — and, of course, money.
Lawrence's manner might be characteristically foul but his assessment is characteristically correct, or rather begins to be correct: the real scandal of the book should not have been its title, or its quaking along the fault lines of sexuality and race, but rather its linguistic ineptitude of the first order, which is exactly what Lawrence means by "false" — every novel is true or false in its language alone.
Nigger Heaven is such an apocalypse of schlock that its bestsellerdom debunks the myth that says Americans were once upon a time a more sophisticated people. In only the first 14 pages Van Vechten is capable of these frontal assaults upon English, assaults that wouldn't be half as damaging if you suspected that Van Vechten was half-kidding: "two rows of pearly teeth gleamed from his seal-brown countenance"; "his frankfurters were excellent; his buns were fresh; his mustard beyond reproach"; "suddenly he found that for which he had been searching"; "again she sought his eyes, his great brown eyes, like a doe's"; "their knees clicked amorously [...] the banjos planked deliriously [...] the Creeper sipped his gin meditatively." One could go on. He wrote Nigger Heaven — "ejaculated" is more like it — in only four months, which does much to help explain its epic awfulness. No successful novel can be written in four months. The Joyce Carol Oates of the Jazz Age, Van Vechten published seven novels in eight years.
Following Bernard, White devotes a thorough chapter to Nigger Heaven, its cultural importance at the time, and the headlining row that erupted after its publication, a row that surprised and fatigued the normally imperturbable or unshockable Van Vechten. His motives with the novel were not as degraded or mercenary as Lawrence assumes; White reminds us of the "crucial point about Van Vechten's intention for Nigger Heaven and its legacy: though the novel had been about black Americans, it was most definitely not written for them." In other words, his mission was to introduce white America to the black realities he loved, and never mind his thunderous naivety about the venom of racism, as if the entire nation could be transformed into a heterogeneous Harlem just by enticing it with cocktail parties. In his autobiography, Mencken reaches the crux of the issue with two terse sentences: Van Vechten "hailed from the upper Middle West and really knew very little about colored folk. All his contact with them had been with a small class of sophisticates, most of them hoping to get something out of him."
As the scholar Edward Lueders has suggested, Mencken admired Van Vechten because Mencken admired Mencken — the two iconoclasts viewed the world through similar vistas. But one could go further and point out here that Van Vechten had a pronounced strain of Menckenese coursing through his criticism. This is Van Vechten in his 1916 collection of essays Music and Bad Manners, fulminating against those tweedy denizens of academia, practically a full-time job for Mencken:
The ironclad dreadnoughts of the academic world, the reactionary artists, the dry-as-dust lecturers are constantly ignoring the most vital, the most real, the most important artists while they sing polyphonic, antiphonal, palestrinian motets in praise of men who have learned to imitate comfortably and efficiently the work of their predecessors.
Mencken would eventually conclude, however, that Ven Vechten was a "rather slender" talent because "his ideas in all departments were so extravagant that he seldom left a lasting impression." Van Vechten might have been the first American dance critic, but few pretend that his work, his fiction especially, is anything more than curiosa from a tumultuous and intoxicating era of the American past, an era F. Scott Fitzgerald famously called "the greatest, gaudiest spree in history."
Lueders suggested this as early as 1964, the year of Van Vechten's death, when he wrote of the "certain lasting qualities of attitude and perspective" to be found in Van Vechten's work. Mere attitude and perspective are not, to be sure, necessary qualities of artistic merit, never mind artistic immortality. Of Van Vechten's novels, Lueders contends that "however minor they may be finally judged as works of art, they are curious, significant contributions to America's literature from the important literary era of the 1920s." Don't be fooled by that comma between "curious" and "significant" — one requires a pole to vault across the gap.
In his seminal study of American prose literature, On Native Grounds, Alfred Kazin begins a chapter called "The Exquisites" with a paragraph from Van Vechten's novel The Blind Bow-Boy, the first sentence of which is, "You have such romantic ideas about America." Romance wasn't just Van Vechten's middle name — it was his whole name. His inclinations, his ideology, his idealism — White's biography is subtitled "The Birth of Modern America" because Van Vechten epitomized almost everything about modernity as it would soon manifest in America. He was one of the pilots of a new world, and the pilots of novelty are by definition romantic — in their quasi-religious questing, in their vision of futurity. In White's apt wording, Van Vechten was "a prophet of the United States' emancipation into a new age of speed and sensuality," and "a one-man publicity machine for American modernism." About Van Vechten's role in the literary milieu of the 1920s, Kazin writes: "For beginning as its playboy, Van Vechten ended as its historian."
It's hard to imagine Van Vechten's throbbing vanity being satisfied with the tag "historian" — historians have too little sex appeal. He wanted to be the subject of history, not the chronicler of it, but chronicler was his fate, witness was his fate, and he seems to have welcomed that fate near the end, when he bequeathed an untold number of personal artifacts and papers to the Yale Library — an astonishing record of astonishing decades, called the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters. Johnson, a writer and activist, leader of the NAACP, had been close friends with Van Vechten for many years, and had offered crucial support during the melee over Nigger Heaven. When Johnson died in a car wreck in 1938, Van Vechten was pummeled by grief, and the Yale Library donation was his way of guaranteeing that Johnson's memory continued to thrive. It was one of the few selfless acts of his life — although, let's be fair, not wholly selfless, since Van Vechten inserted himself everywhere in the documents and artifacts, binding his life to those mavericks of the Harlem Renaissance, making sure the world knew about his trailblazing cultivation of such talent.
White speaks of "the festival of self-indulgence that he wanted life to be," but as everyone knows, the party always ends. As Van Vechten aged — as first the Depression descended and then World War II blighted the globe, as Stein and Robeson and Gershwin and Hughes eclipsed his own celebrity — he felt increasingly irrelevant, his breed of promotion and decadence outmoded. His immiseration of Marinoff mostly abated when he became too tired to sustain his colossal appetites for young men and cocktail parties. He then embraced photography with the same fervor he'd embraced Harlem, and those who gladly sat for his camera is a list of immortals, from Brando to Capote to Mailer to Billie Holiday and Lena Horne.
Malcolm Cowley, in his 1951 preface to Exile's Return, said of the 1920s: "[E]verybody was trying to change the world and create the future; it was the special pride and presumption of the period. We hadn't learned then [...] that human society is necessarily imperfect." Necessarily imperfect: that's a marriage of words Van Vechten was predetermined not to understand, while he understood perfectly well that he had both hands involved in changing the world. "Far more lasting than his output of essays, books, and photographs," says White, "was the example of the life he lived; no other man or woman before him embodied the vision of modern American culture as emphatically as Carl Van Vechten." The value of White's biography is in its portrayal of an entire American culture about to morph into a monster unrecognizable from any incarnation that had come before, and of a vital but largely unknown personality who labored to forge that culture.
But it's impossible, of course, ever to have a Van Vechten revival for the simple fact that he never wrote anything revivable. What Van Vechten did for Melville cannot be done for Van Vechten himself. His two best-known books are about his love for cats, and if there's anything that tires immediately upon arrival, it's someone's love for cats. His few volumes of criticism have much worth — his articles on black art for Vanity Fair in 1925 and 1926 are, White says, "a landmark in American critical writing," and that's true enough — but the novels are well-nigh worthless beyond amusement and diversion, the portrait photographs valuable less for the talent behind the camera than for the talent in front of it.
One of the most stunning talents ever to sit for Van Vechten's camera was a young James Baldwin, born and reared in the very Harlem Van Vechten only visited, only pretended to comprehend. To read through Baldwin's volcanic nonfiction, to witness the unflagging political and moral engagement on display in his pages, is to conclude very quickly that someone such as Carl Van Vechten was both rather gossamer and extremely silly. See Baldwin's essays "Fifth Avenue, Uptown" and "East River, Downtown," both from Nobody Knows My Name, and you'll get a truer glimpse of Harlem and of the African-American bind than in the bulk of Van Vechten's sensationalist entertainments.
And so it must be asked: in all of Van Vechten's globetrotting, especially after air travel became common, why did this man with such a passion for blackness never visit Africa? Where was he during the 1935 Harlem race riot? Why not the slightest effort to improve living conditions among the poorest in Harlem? Why the invertebrate excuses for staying clear of the Civil Rights Movement, a battle that began in earnest at least as early as 1955, nine years before his death? Van Vechten's true sin was none of the crimes for which propriety would condemn him — from boozing to buggery, all that bombastic worship of Bacchus — but rather his blindness to the fact that beauty presupposes morality, that aestheticism is empty without ethics.
Which is not to say that Van Vechten should have been John Brown, or that he was immoral or unethical in his life and work, but there's something distinctly off-putting about his frivolity in the face of anguish among those he professed to love, about his levity before the colossal issues of his time. Art alone rescues nothing. Passion alone is impotent. One can't sing and dance one's way through the revolution. Without the action born of intellection, nothing gets done. Mencken said that Van Vechten's "ideas" were too "extravagant" to last, but the truth is harsher than that: Van Vechten had no ideas. What he had were impulses.
Here's a passage spoken by the title character of his novel Peter Whiffle, about a stymied writer: "You must search the heart; the mind is negligible in literature as in all other forms of art. Try to write just as you feel and you will discover that your feeling is greater than your knowledge of it." Now, it's normally an egregious fallacy to ascribe the words or notions of a fictional character to its author, but bear in mind that Van Vechten quite deliberately modeled Peter Whiffle on himself, and that those lines can function as a credo for every aspect of Van Vechten's own life. Search the heart? The mind is negligible in literature? Write just as you feel? It's no wonder then that most of Van Vechten's work has been blotted out by that ultimate and exacting judge, Time. To jettison the mind in literature, to give precedence to the preciousness of feelings, is to endorse every saccharine cliché about the therapeutic or cathartic value of writing. Intellectual, artistic assertion given way to mere emotional expression. R. P. Blackmur, cutting down D. H. Lawrence, once memorably dispatched this nonsense as "the fallacy of expressive form," the faulty logic of which is: if only I feel something intensely enough it will achieve successful literary form. That sentiment is precisely what pollutes the shelves in every library and bookstore across this land.
Van Vechten was, in White's words, "a man who lived under the shelter of his own towering fantasies," but it's hard to believe he was so deluded as not to know, or at least suspect, that his work would never stand beside the work of those he championed with such gusto. Carl Van Vechten was and is alluring for how he lived, not for what he wrote, for the violent vicissitudes of the epochs he witnessed, the epochs to which he helped give purpose and form.
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The high noon deadline for bioethicistArthur Caplan's $10,000 challenge to Rep. Michele Bachmann has come and gone without a peep from the Republican presidential hopeful. But damage from herstatement linking the HPV vaccine with mental retardation has already been done, Caplan says.
As Shots reported last week, bioethicistSteven Miles first ponied up $1,000 to call Bachmann's bluff. Caplan, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, then raised the ante with $10,000 out of his own pocket. He asked Bachmann to produce a real person who has suffered mental retardation by the HPV vaccine.
If she could do it, Caplan offered to donate the ten grand to Bachmann's charity of choice. If she failed, he suggested that Bachmann donate the same amount to a charity of his choice. No one from the Bachmann camp ever contacted Caplan accepting the challenge, according to the bioethicist.
"Time is up," he said in a press conference today.
Over the past week, Caplan, who studies vaccine ethics, chastised Bachmann for her rumor- and fear-mongering of a vaccine that's used to prevent cervical cancer. Despite medical professionals refuting Bachmann's claim, Caplan wrote in a blog that he was still "worried that the stench of fear was going to linger around vaccines yet again."
Miles concurred in an interview with NPR's Michele Norris. "What happened here was yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater," Miles said. "The claim is very important because women will make important health decisions based on the idea that mental retardation may be a side effect of this, which there's no evidence, so far, that it is."
Why have concerns about the vaccine grown so disproportionate to the small safety hazards it actually presents? Because politicians occasionally use anecdotes and stories instead of facts, Caplan says.
"Politicians shouldn't get away with hearsay," he said. "We need to hold candidates responsible for their sources."
Caplan tells Shots that he's received a lot of e-mails supporting his challenge — some people even offering money of their own — and a few trying to disprove him. But no one has succeeded yet.
And as one of millions watching the Republican Primary debate tonight, he'll be listening hard for more talk of vaccines.
So, think she's going to own up to this? I don't, but the whole thing does make me want to sit back with a big bowl of popcorn.


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SMSL/PSHK Press statement on the 10th May 2014
SMSL hereby call upon the Malaysian regulatory authority AELB and the Minister of MOSTI NOT to consider the application by Lynas for the Permanent Operating license in view of the likelihood that it is forced to close because of financial reason.
The TOL (Temporary Operating License) for two years is due to expire on the 2nd September 2014. Under the terms of the issuance, as recommended by the IAEA report, Lynas is required to submit the plan for the PDF (Permanent Deposit Facility) for its radioactive waste WLP before TOL is granted.
Lynas not only failed to submit the plan before the issuance, AELB made a provision for them to comply within 10 months after it commenced operating. On the eve of the dateline, Lynas submitted a 'conceptual' plan of the PDF while the Deputy Minister of MOSTI, Dato Abu Bakar Mohd Diah replied in the Parliament that Lynas did identify the site and the plan for the PDF but he declined to reveal the site! (http://www.thenutgraph.com/lynas-an-unsolved-conundrum/)
This showed clearly that Lynas failed to comply with the requirements stated in the TOL.
The IAEA report also recommended that Lynas deposit USD50 million with the AELB in installments of USD10 million each year for 5 years. This is grossly inadequate as LAMP is 10 times the size of ARE which is currently undergoing a clean-up operation which cost the former ARE owner USD100 million! In the event of a foreclosure, the residents and the people of Malaysia will be left holding the toxic 'unwanted baby'!
The risks of a foreclosure can be real as the following paragraphs taken from various reports in the public domain show:
In its first quarterly report 2014, (note 1) Lynas has a closing cash balance of AUD$23.4m as at 31 March 2014. Their next quarter will require AUD$48.172 m to operate as tabled in its quarterly cash flow report (note 2)
Lynas seeks to raise AUD$30 million through rights issue and another AUD$10 million through institutional placement to boost its working capital.
On this, the foreign analysts commented:
"It's almost a stay of execution," UBS AG analyst Jo Battershill said by phone. "If there's any price weakness, a slowdown in the Chinese economy, or a slowdown in demand for rare earths, than how long does it buy them? It's hard to know." (Note 3)
"The market's just looked at it and gone, 'well, this is kind of what people thought and the operational side of things continues to disappoint," UBS Metals and mining analyst Jonathan Battershill said.
"Despite the company saying they think they can have the production level up at 11,000 tonnes by June ... we are not really seeing the numbers that provide confidence. Even under the assumption that it will be 11,000, they still need to raise money." (Note 4)
We are gravely concerned about the possible foreclosure of Lynas. The toxic legacy that will be left behind will burden all future generations for centuries to come!
This is definitely not an unfounded or baseless concern as our research showed the cash flow problem and the future rare earth market ahead for Lynas will be much more challenging than before! (See report attached).
We hereby also call upon the Lynas Monitoring Committee set up under the recommendation of Parliamentary Select Committee to equally exercise care and prudence and factor in the financial hardship Lynas is currently experiencing before they make their final recommendations to the Minister concerned. If they failed to exercise them in their deliberations they are answerable to all the future generations in Malaysia!
For further information please contact:
SMSL Hotline 012 982 3302
Note: (1)
Note (2)
Note (3)
Note (4)
SJH's research report.


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2013 is going to be one helluva year for 90's basketball fans who adored the Seattle Supersonics (and later, just Sonics). Why? Because the franchise's two most iconic players in Gary 'The Glove' Payton and Shawn 'Reignman' Kemp will have their best sneakers re-issued this year. Along with Reebok's comeback with the upcoming Kamikaze II, Nike Basketball is set to retro the Nike Zoom Flight '98 (simply referred to as 'The Glove') which is now confirmed by GP to be an October 2013 release.
Recently, Gary Payton was at Beaverton's Nike HQ in a meeting with Nike Sportswear's Gentry Humphrey and Marc Dolce to discuss the future of The Glove, but that only has us wondering if Payton's line will receive any sort of Penny/Barkley treatment in terms of Retros, new colorways, and perhaps a hybrid model somewhere down the line. Outside of the Glove, nothing's been confirmed yet (although we should point out the Nike Air Zoom Payton II, Air Zoom Payton III, Air Zoom Payton IV, and another classic from that era in the Nike Air Hawk Flight and Nike Air Maestro '96 on that glorious table spread). Your thoughts on the future of the Nike Glove line? Chime in below.
Photos: garypayton_20/gailgotti


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DENVER — Never mind that there were dozens of televisions at the bar, many turned to pro wrestling, poker and bowling to provide background noise early one weekend morning. Jon Forget walked in, asked the bartender to change one set to soccer and got laughed out of the joint.
Fast forward almost two decades and there's no room to sit at the bar Forget runs these days. His concept for a soccer pub near downtown Denver is taking off, and a new generation of American-born soccer fans piled in by the hundreds Thursday to watch the U.S. advance to the World Cup knockout round despite a 1-0 loss to Germany.
Forget's success at the 3-year-old Three Lions pub is a microcosm of what's happening around America during the World Cup. Social media numbers are strong, TV ratings are setting records and, other than Brazil, no country's fans have bought more tickets to the games than those from the United States.
All this in a country that long fought against soccer's global intrigue, even though the number of American kids playing the game has been rising slowly for decades.
"Over the past 25-30 years, you've seen people come over here from around the world and they know the game and they start influencing Americans," Forget said. "This generation has the proper training, a lot more have played at a high level. They understand the game. It's not boring to them."
In fact, just the opposite.
Merritt Paulson, who owns the MLS Portland Timbers franchise that regularly sells out its 21,000-seat stadium, calls the burgeoning group of 20-something soccer fans — many having taken their high school passion into recreational adult leagues — the "on-demand generation."
"They want what they want, when they want it and how they want it," Paulson said. "It's that shorter attention span. The fact that soccer games are two hours, start to finish, win, lose or draw, with very condensed action, fits very well into the psychographics of those folks."
In the U.S., soccer is a youth-driven sport; about 70 percent of "core" soccer players — those who play 26 or more times a year — are ages 6-17, according to the most recent numbers from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.
These days, instead of leaving the game after high school, that age group is graduating into the most vocal segment of fans.
Of the 3.1 million tweets about the U.S. vs. Ghana game earlier this month, 53 percent of them came from people 18-34, according to Nielsen Social. And 69 percent of people checking in on their Facebook accounts from host cities in Brazil were in that age group.
Networks and sponsors covet younger viewers, which helps explain ESPN's decision to go all-in on World Cup telecasts; every game has been televised live since 1998. The U.S.-Portugal game last Sunday drew 24.7 million viewers overall – and the 18.22 million who watched on ESPN were the most the network has ever garnered for an event not involving American football. The Germany game averaged 10.7 million viewers, making it the third-most watched World Cup game ever on the network.
Tapping into a populous that has become more ethnically diverse, the number of U.S networks televising soccer grew from 11 to 21 and programming hours rose from 2,600 to 3,890 over the last four years – a 43 percent increase that matched the increase in TV advertising spending (from $266 million to $378 million), according to Nielsen. NBC Sports televises Premier League games, Fox has the UEFA Champions League and takes over the World Cup telecasts starting in 2018.
All in all, it's a much different landscape from the one three decades ago, when the only regular soccer programming in America was the reliable PBS stalwart, "Soccer Made In Germany."
"For decades, there was this wariness about soccer within U.S. culture and wariness that affected people at the top," said Jay Coakley, a professor who examines sports' role in society. "Now, that wariness is disappearing. People at the top are seeing soccer as a means of marketing their own interests."
Video games, fantasy leagues, highlight shows, the steady stream of Ronaldo, Messi and other stars, both on the field and in advertisements, keep the sport in touch with the American mainstream in a way it hasn't been before.
"Walking down the street now, you see kids wearing Manchester United jerseys and Chelsea Football Club jerseys and Barcelona, and I didn't even know what those were as a kid," said Mike Helfand, a 42-year-old Chicago attorney who has traveled the globe watching U.S. teams play.
Though America's major league, the MLS, has work to do to bring its level up to the European leagues, the league's steady expansion, improving talent level and fan-friendly pricing will keep the sport on the radar after the World Cup ends.
Since 2010, the number of adults attending a big-time soccer match in the United States has increased by 87 percent.
The further the U.S. goes in this year's World Cup, the higher than number could rise over the next four years.
All of which has Forget looking to expand his soccer-pub business.
"I've had people come to the pub because a friend dragged them down here," he said. "They'll spend two hours watching a game and they'll walk out the door and say, 'I'm coming back next week.' It can be a defining moment for people. It's very, very different than what we've been used to here in America."
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Death Toll Reaches 525 in Egypt, Expected to Rise Following Bloody Protests Crackdown
The death toll in Egypt following clashes on Wednesday between Pro-Mohamed Morsi Islamic protesters and government military forces has climbed to 525, officials say, but the real number is suspected to continue to rise in the coming hours and days as the situation becomes clearer.
Officials counting the bodies that have passed through the hospitals have said that the death toll currently stands at 525: with 137 killed at Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, where government forces tried to force the main protesters' camp out, another 57 dead at clashes at Nahda Square, 29 in the Cairo suburb in Helwan, 198 in other provinces around the country, and 43 security personnel. More than 3,500 people are said to have been injured.
There are strong fears, however, that the real numbers are much higher, with some sources claiming hundreds more could be added to the death toll in the coming days; the Muslim Brotherhood has claimed that as many as 2,000 deaths took place on Wednesday alone. The Brotherhood has blamed excessive government force for the casualties, and has claimed that it has been "non-violent and peaceful."
"We will push until we bring down this military coup," declared Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad. Further marches are planned on Thursday across Cairo and Alexandria, speaking out against the mounting violence and the death count.
Despite Muslim Brotherhood claims that it has remained entirely peaceful during its protests, Egypt's minority Christian population has suffered greatly at the hands of Islamists, and reports have noted that a number of monasteries and churches have been burned in greater Cairo, Upper Egypt, Sinai and Suez, and repeated attacks and killings targeting the Christian communities in the country have been reported over recent weeks.
The Christian Copts have stayed out of the military assault against Muslim Brotherhood protesters, but a number of Islamists have blamed them for taking part in the anti-Morsi protests that took down the president. According to accounts, in some cases Egypt's security forces have defended Christians from Islamist mobs, but in others they have failed to step up and have failed to follow up and bring attackers to justice.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said in a recent press briefing that the US government is "concerned" at the growing violence against Egypt's Christian minority.
"Clearly, any reports of violence we're concerned about, and when it involves a religious institution, are concerned about that as well. So we will continue speaking out against this and continue talking to all parties and all sides about renouncing this violence, about moving forward with a democratic process, and that dialogue is ongoing as we speak," Harf said.
On Wednesday, following deadly clashes in the morning where a British journalist working for Sky News was also killed, Egypt's government declared a state of emergency that is expected to last for a month.
Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a televised address that he regretted the bloodshed, but did not apologize for the security forces moving in against the protesters, noting that they had been warned beforehand.
"We want to see a civilian state in Egypt, not a military state and not a religious state," el-Beblawi said, adding that the state could not allow such a challenge to authority.
Morsi, who finds himself at the center of the conflict, is still believed to be in custody, with his period of detention extended by 30 days on Thursday.
Government bodies from around the world have reacted with alarm and condemnation towards the escalating violence in Egypt, with French President Francois Hollande summoning the Egyptian ambassador to demand that everything be done to stop the massacre.
"The head of state asserted that everything must be done to avoid civil war," the French government said. "Freeing prisoners, in respect of legal proceedings, could be a first step towards the resumption of talks."
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan added that it is up to the U.N. Security Council to come together and act on the growing crisis.
"I am calling on Western countries. You remained silent in Gaza, you remained silent in Syria ... You are still silent on Egypt. So how come you talk about democracy, freedom, global values and human rights?" Erdogan asked.
The American Bible Society meanwhile shared with The Christian Post that its partners on the ground in Egypt are seeing a "devastating loss of life" and "tremendous destruction." It added that 15 churches and three Christian schools have been attacked, with some set on fire, though Christians are by no means the only ones targeted.
"I pray that the Word of God will be their guide during these perilous times," American Bible Society president Doug Birdsall said, asking Christians to join him in prayer for peace and resolution in Egypt.


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The Los Angeles City Council approved plans for a Fresh & Easy at the old Crenshaw Motors Ford at 52nd Street and South Crenshaw.
But there is no timetable for when the store will open, said Fresh and Easy communications director Brendan Wonnacott. And a small group of residents have indicated they will sue to stop the non-union grocer.
A cool art deco Ford dealership was demolished for the store. There's been little movement since.
Fresh and Easy opened a story at Central and Adams, but that took years of planning, Wonnacott said.
A Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is coming to Crenshaw Motors Ford at 52nd Street and South Crenshaw, according to L.A. Watts Times reporter Thandisizwe Chimurenga.
The cool art deco dealership that had been there 70 years was demolished for the store. Good trade.
The company, a unit of United Kingdom-based Tesco, has purchased the land and has aimed in recent years to find profits in inner-city markets — areas that many U.S. chains have long overlooked because of high land costs and perceptions of a lack of sufficient spending power in those areas, the Watts Times reports.
Fresh & Easy has also opened in the Phoenix area and I've heard great things from a friend who lives there.


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Louise Perrin in Aloxe-Corton
We arrived in France at Charles de Gaulle airport on a red eye flight early on a Saturday morning and immediately headed for the Gare de Lyon to take the high speed train, called the TGV, to Dijon. This was almost two hours of half-asleep-trying-to-look-out-the-window-at-the-passing-countryside-but-too-tired-to-keep-your-eyes-open. After arriving in Dijon we walked a few blocks to Hertz, somewhat comically pronounced "airltz" in French. In that dazed state I drove my 6 and a half months pregnant wife and myself out of town towards Aloxe-Corton.


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The rate of new HIV infections among black men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States, particularly younger men, is high and suggests the need for prevention programs specifically tailored to this population, according to initial findings from the HPTN 061 study. The preliminary results were presented at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington, D.C., by study co-chair Kenneth Mayer, M.D., medical research director for the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston.
The HPTN 061 study, which involved 1,553 black MSM ages 18 and older in Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., found a 2.8 percent overall rate of new HIV infections (known as HIV incidence) among the study population. Moreover, the researchers found a 5.9 percent HIV incidence rate among individuals 18 to 30 years of age.
MSM of all races and ethnicities are most heavily affected by HIV/AIDS in the United States., accounting for 61 percent of all new infections in 2009, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Further, CDC data indicate that young black MSM (those aged 13 to 29 years old) had a 48 percent increase in new HIV infections from 2006 to 2009.
The two-year observational study, which began in 2009, was designed to1) assess whether community-level interventions intended to prevent HIV infection would be used by the study population, and 2) help determine whether a larger clinical trial of community-level prevention interventions among black MSM in the United States might be feasible.
In addition to incidence data, early study analyses found that HIV infection was associated with high rates of untreated sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and poverty. Ninety-seven percent of study participants agreed to HIV testing. Of the study participants who self-reported as being HIV-uninfected or did not know their status, 12 percent (165 men) proved to be infected at time of enrollment. All participants who were HIV-infected at entry into the study, or who became infected while in the study, were referred for medical care and treatment.
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