text:
Great Photographers on the Internet
Hi Irv, I don't know what you were thinking here dude! You got a pretty model (altho kind of old), but you have caught her with her eyes cloes in a not very good pose. Biggest problem is YOU NEED CROP to a vertical!!!!! Backdrop is too small and there is not enough of a sweep so you can see the crease. If you send me a file I can fix it in Photoshop and I can give you my suggested crop. If you don't care aboout your PROFESSIONALISM you are never going to get work as a pro believe me!!! Hope I am not being too harsh. Oh well best regards anyway, M.H.
Sam, GORGEOUS scene I luv it! Too bad u couldn't get a little more color in sky area. Blues should be a little more saturated. Also the rule is u need to have either sky or land (lake?) dominate, not just split right down the middle. Try to move the camera after u focus. A great shot though please see my entries and leave your comments. Ted.
Hi Garry. You caught some nice poses here. Biggest problem is I can tell the horizon isn't straight. It doesn't look like a hill. Man at right needs to be cropped out. Sometimes I find if I shout right before I take the picture I can get people's attentions. If you had done so we would have been able to see more of their faces. George MacWilken.
Bill, your problem here is the shadow detail. Some lenses give more shadow detail & contrast than others. The Leica lenses are best for this. There are several types, the Elmarit, Summicron, and Summilux that I know of. I don't know which type has the highest shadow detail but I will ask and I'm sure you will get some answers. Need to see both eyes to get a sense of depth. What lens did you use for this pic? Also highlight detail seems lacking, esp. the arm. Adrian from NSW
Bonjour Henri, assuming you are French, or at least understand it. This is a great capture, I love the composition and the dog. We had a dog that looked kind of like that one once. Your problem here is that your AF has focused on the wrong place—the man is actually kind of soft! The camera has mistakenly focused on the people in the doorway, creating a distracting softness in the man. Usually it is best to focus on the closest object and most times the camera will choose the closest large object to focus on, but unfortunately not here. But it is still an amazing capture. Cordially, Edwin
Keith: Nice Try Focus is on Wrong End of horse obviously!! The square is hard to compose in, dont fell too bad. Sometimes we Fotographers have to take what we get. Bob
This is just a snapshot. I would not even have considered showing this. If you ware going to post pictures you need to make sure it is of something unusual or with a personal vision. Otherwise you are going to loose the interest of your audience. George Spelvin [Nikon D200, Nikon D70s backup, 17-35 f/2.8, 80-200 f/2.8, 4GB Microdrive (2), Photoshop CS, Epson 2200]
Ralph, this is a nice idea and I think you had a nice idea. But the shadow is very distractin, you should have taken one step to the left. If that had let in more distracting background then I think you could have stepped one step closer. Great try, better luck next time. —pitcherman
Much too dark exposure and not sharp. I suppose you may say that you tried to make it unsharp but what the hell's the point in that. I like things sharp. Maybe you should study some other peoples' photographs here on this forum and get an idea of what a good photograph should look like. **
Hi Alex, I don't really see a clear composition to this photograph and your shadow detail's are all lost you need to get a camera with a bigger dynamic range perhaps you could try Fuji S3 I here it has biggest dynamic range of all but uoi need to know how to use it. Fill flash would have helped also. Only two thumbs up But I like some of your other work please vote for mine too al
Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON
*satire alert.
**thanks to Andy Frazer for this one.


text:
ICP Vortex GDT8XX3RZ (PC133) Raid Controller RAM Memory Upgrades
The memory modules below are 100% compatible with your ICP Vortex GDT8XX3RZ (PC133) Raid Controller. Not your model? View the complete range of ICP Vortex Raid Controllers or view all ICP Vortex upgrades here.
256MB Module
- Dimm Speed: PC100
- Dimm Type: ECC
- Product code: FT32MLS72V6D
- Storage Capacity: 256MB Module
- Form Factor: 168 Pin Dimm
Lifetime WarrantyAll OFFTEK memory is backed by our full lifetime warranty. We obsess over our products so you do not have to. Our team constantly strive to ensure that all our memory is of the highest quality but should you ever have any issues with your purchase you have the peace of mind that you can return your product for a replacement if the need arises.
Top Brands
Guaranteed CompatibilityOver the years we have taken immense care in creating one of the most in depth memory configurators. We do this to ensure that when you purchase a memory upgrade from OFFTEK you are confident that the upgrade is 100% compatible with your system. Should you have any questions prior to ordering your upgrade we have technicians on hand via live chat, email or phone who will be able to answer any queries you may have.
We take the time to look into each machine to ensure that we offer all sizes and speeds that the machine is able to take not just the latest specification that has been released. We believe that offering all options for machines provides a 100% guarantee that the memory with function with your original memory module efficiently.
Limiting your SQL server memory usage
This is a relatively common problem with SQL, as its default setting is to use as much RAM as it is able to, which can result in much longer waiting times for processes to complete. If you've just started using SQL, then it will be something you need to do, so with that in mind, we now take a look at the steps involved.
Before we do though, we would always recommend that you seek professional IT assistance with this type of system adjustment, as doing it wrong can cause irreparable damage to the database. Secondly, whilst we do offer these steps as an attempt to help those in need, you do follow them at your own risk.
The Steps
Step 1 - Launch your SQL Management Studio and log into your SQL Server.
Step 2 - Open the server properties dialogue of the specific SQL server you wish to view.
Step 3 - Click 'Memory' in the left-hand pane and change the field value of the maximum server level to the required setting. To determine what the correct setting is, you should adhere to the following recommendations:
SQL Only
When just the SQL server is operating on a server, you should set the SQL Server settings to around 2 Gigabytes short of the maximum. This 2 Gigabytes is needed to take account of the Operating System (OS). Leaving sufficient space for this is vital to the maintain a healthy, fast network.
SQL & Other Processes
If there are other processes that your host server has to cope with, as well as providing for the needs of an SQL database, then the maximum level of the buffer pool should be no higher than around 50% of the server's total physical memory.
Step 4 - Once you have the settings where you need them, you should then click 'OK' to apply the changes you've made. After that, you can close the dialogue window.
Step 5 - Now close your server management studio.
If the changes you've made have significantly improved your system's performance, then you know that the issues were caused by a known and easily fixable SQL problem. If nothing has changed, we would seriously consider consulting an IT professional to avoid causing lasting damage.
You might also like..
Specification of ICP Vortex GDT8XX3RZ (PC133) memory upgrade
Your system memory specification is listed below, most importantly your maximum memory capacity:
|Device Specifications
|Make + Model
|ICP Vortex GDT8XX3RZ (PC133)
|Device Type
|Raid Controller
|N° of Ram Slots
|1 Slot (1 Bank of 1)
|Standard Ram
|32MB (Removable)
|Maximum Memory
|ICP Vortex Tech Support
If you are looking to place a quantity order or are buying on behalf of the public or private sector then please contact one of our designated account managers who will be able to deal with your requirements in more detail.
For any queries you may have please contact one of our experienced Memory Specialists via one of the following methods and they will ensure that any issue is resolved immediately and effectively.
Brands we Supply
Why buy from offtek
Matched Ram upgrades for your specific modelOfftek provides matched upgrades for new and legacy machines. Every one of our RAM modules are tested to ensure that not only are they compatible with the machine but also that they perform in a wide range of different environmental conditions. This allows us to back our modules with a limited lifetime warranty.
Established in 1996, OFFTEK is trusted by many of the UK's best known household names as their number ONE source for ram upgrades.
Misson critical or movie night we have your upgrade sortedOur team is made up of memory specialists with an average of 9 years experience in the RAM industry. We offer upgrades for not only the latest machines on the market but just as important those legacy machines that you need to keep running.
RAM is extremely important in ensuring your machine operates at its optimum performance. Our upgrades ensure that your computer will be performing at its best for years to come.
Fast Free UKDelivery
Over 500,000Happy Customers
Technical Staff With Over 9years of experience
60 Day Money BackGuarantee
Twice DailyPrice Checks
DedicatedAccount Managers
Technical Staff with Over 9 years of experienceWe have dedicated and highly trained experts with an average of 9 years experience. They are here to help you from purchase through to installation. We use a number of contact methods so you can speak to one of our specialists with ease.
Fast Free UK DeliveryWe offer FAST FREE UK Delivery on all orders with 96% of orders dispatched same day. For those that cannot wait we also offer faster delivery options including next day.
60 Day Money Back GuaranteeNot 100% happy with your order then return it to us under our No Quibble 60 Day Money Back Guarantee. Worried you might have made the wrong choice? With our no quibble return policy you can send it back to us and get a full refund up to 60 days after you've received your order. Whether you've picked the wrong product or just changed your mind you can send your order back to us and you'll get all your money back.
Twice Daily Price ChecksOur Price Promise commitment means that you can buy from us with confidence.
Our team works hard to ensure that you not only have peace of mind in the fact that the memory you order is 100% compatible but that our price is also the lowest for that product.
We check our prices daily against all our competitors to ensure that you are getting the best deal.
Experts On HandWe have dedicated and highly trained experts with an average of 7 years experience. They are here to help you from purchase through to installation. We use a number of contact methods so you can speak to one of our specialists with ease.
Limited Lifetime WarrantyFeel confident that your memory will last a lifetime. Our limited lifetime warranty guarantees that if your memory should ever fail we will replace or repair the product free of charge provided that it is still manufactured. Please note that the lifetime warranty refers only to memory modules and not flash memory or storage products. Please see the individual 'product details' for warranties specific to each product.
100% CompatibilityEvery memory product matched specifically to your machine is individually tested to guarantee reliability and 100% compatibility with your computer and operating system.
Online Since 1997Offtek has been supplying memory online since 1997 with over 500,000 happy customers. Well, maybe the odd one does'nt like us ;)
We have always been passionate about providing our customers with the tools and information to update their systems in the simplest manner. Early in 1996 we took on the challenge to find the type of memory compatible with every computer ever built. Hence our first memory configurator was born. Our constant daily updates allow our customers to easily select the correct memory for their machines and that objective is as important today as it was when the idea was first broached across a kitchen table in central Birmingham
Large Stock HoldingAs one the largest memory distributors in Europe, our large stock holding allows us to offer next day delivery on a wide range of products.
Environmentally FriendlyIf you have no need for your old memory after you have upgraded to one of our larger/faster modules, we will recycle this for you free of charge under the WEEE directive.
The advantages of adding more Ram Memory
Installing a memory module is one of the simplest upgrades that can be done to a computerThere is no configuration, no sitting around waiting for things to update and backup. It is simply plug and play! By adding more Ram memory into you laptop, desktop or server you will be doing the following:
- Improving the overall performance of the machine
- Allowing for increased multitasking
- Extending the life of the machine
- Producing faster boot times
- Increasing productivity
- Decreasing latency in gaming
Guaranteed CompatibilityOver the years we have taken immense care in creating one of the most in depth memory configurators. We do this to ensure that when you purchase a memory upgrade from OFFTEK you are confident that the upgrade is 100% compatible with your system. Should you have any questions prior to ordering your upgrade we have technicians on hand via live chat, email or phone who will be able to answer any queries you may have.
We take the time to look into each machine to ensure that we offer all sizes and speeds that the machine is able to take not just the latest specification that has been released. We believe that offering all options for machines provides a 100% guarantee that the memory with function with your original memory module efficiently.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I'm hoping to be able to make it to the World Humanist Congress next summer — I'm at the stage where I've convinced myself I must go, but am still moaning at the expense. Maybe if you guys all buy lots of copies of The Happy Atheist I'll be more comfortable with swinging it; or alternatively, if a lot of you tell me you plan to be there, the pull of good company will sway me further.
Although…have you looked at the speaker roster? Grayling, Pullman, Singh, Edamaruku, Igwe — whoa. I need to go to this. I am desperately seeking something to bring aspiration and inspiration back to atheism, and this looks like the place.
Also, a vacation in England and Scotland is rather attractive.


text:
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame
August 10, 2019 @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame was created in 1971 and has honored 231 sports figures (through 2018) who were born in New Orleans and achieved prominence in or away from the Greater New Orleans area; or, those non-natives who achieved sports prominence in the Greater New Orleans area in high school, college, professional or amateur sports. Plaques honoring the Hall of Famers are displayed at Gate G on the Club Level of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The 2019 class will be announced in July.
- 2018: Benson, Duhe, Fourcade and Johnson Are Latest Additions to Hall
- 2017: Hall of Fame Welcomes Courtade, Curtis, Farris and Johnson
- 2016: Livingston, Stewart, Wilcox and Zeno Join Nola Greats in Hall
- 2015: McAllister, Tuero and Whitehurst Added to NOLA Sports Hall
- 2014: Cervini, Johnson, Kittles, Koll and Washington Join Hall of Fame
- 2013: Hall of Fame Tabs Andersen, Holman and Reginelli
- 2012: James, Misuraca, Roaf and Salter Added to Hall of Fame
- 2011: Hall of Fame Adds Brooks, Faulk and McCafferty
- 2010: Football Stars Robertson and Williams Tabbed for Hall
- 2009: NOLA Hall Recognizes McDonald and Schneider
Each year's Hall of Fame class is selected by the Greater New Orleans Awards Selection Committee, a volunteer group which has met monthly to pay homage to outstanding achievements in athletics in the Greater New Orleans area for over five decades. In addition to the Hall of Fame, the committee recognizes an Amateur Athlete of the Month for the Greater New Orleans area and selects yearly winners for a variety of major awards, including the Eddie Robinson Award and the Jimmy Collins Awards. The group also selects the Corbett Awards, presented annually to the most outstanding male and female collegiate athletes in the State of Louisiana. The Corbett Award was created in 1967 and named in honor of the late James J. Corbett to commemorate his many contributions to intercollegiate athletics and specifically to the Sugar Bowl.
The Committee began in 1957 when James Collins spearheaded a group of sports journalists to form a sports awards committee to immortalize local sports history. For 13 years, the committee honored local athletes each month. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, honoring 10 legends from the Crescent City in its first induction class. To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, nominees must have excelled in the sports field in New Orleans or been born or raised in the city. Each year, the Committee evaluates nominees and selects the inductees.
Those eligible for election shall be chosen from these categories: sports participants, coaches, and managers who shall have been retired for a minimum of five (5) years of active competition in their field of sport OR who have reached 65 years of age. Athletic directors, school officials, or team executives, need not be retired or inactive in order to be eligible.


text:
Return to: Departments & Programs
Women's and Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary program that examines the diversity of women's experiences as they are informed by gender, class, race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, ability, social location, and cultural and national identity. The program is shaped by the theoretical and methodological insights of feminist thought and gender scholarship in many fields. The program curriculum explores women's involvement in and contributions to such areas as history, society, art, science, culture, and politics


text:
(Editor's Note: Any decent coverage of Anonymous is going to verge on some NSFW material at points. There will be questionable language and strange imagery.)
Part Three of a Three-Part Series Examining the History of Anonymous. Part One. Part Two.
"World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation." – Marshall Mcluhan
"They are made of money. We are made of cocks." — Antisec Anonymous, on targeting law enforcement.
Ever since we learned that people, distances, and dollars could all be counted in millions, then billions, the human struggle has been about consequence: What could anyone do that would matter in such a huge world? And in 2011, having left the self-indulgent identity of 4channers behind, Anonymous faced this existential dilemma.
A single question haunted every video, every news report, every AnonOps channel on IRC: Is what Anonymous does of consequence? It's not a universal requirement; we don't require our sports stars and celebrities to be of consequence. Hell, we don't even require it of our politicians.
[bug id="anonymous-2011″]But Anonymous had taken up the idea of making a difference in the late 2010 operations. Sure, Anonymous is bombastic, entertaining, sometimes quite clever, sometimes cruel, nearly always vicious, and eternally sophomoric, but will the actions of Anonymous change the world?
As Anonymous, its online watchers and the media evaluated its moves, it became clear through the growing protest movements and collectives of 2011 that the question of consequence wasn't just about Anonymous.
It was about whether action outside a system that few of us are, or can be, a real part of can affect the world. When we judged Anonymous, we were also judging our own willingness to act outside the confines of normal society. We were judging not only if Anonymous could leave its mark, but whether we could or should.
The question of consequence was, by the end of 2010, hanging in the wings, but it took the fire that sparked the Arab Spring to bring it to center stage.
Anonymous Foreign Policy
Mohamed Bouazizi was a produce vendor in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia. He was always meant to be a little person in the world, whose life and death could never matter. You were never meant to hear of him. But for no explicable reason, that changed on Dec. 17, 2010. His produce cart was seized by police, and he was beaten. Less than an hour later, he stood on the street doused in paint thinner, screamed "How do you expect me to make a living?" and let a lit match drop.
Bouazizi was at the end of his ability to endure, silently, the pain and abuse that had been the way life worked. But it turned out so was Tunisia, and the whole Middle East.
Within hours protests against the systemic corruption that had driven Bouazizi to self-immolation filled the streets of Sidi Bouzid, and over the next two weeks spread like fire over Tunisia.
It was Jan. 2, 2011. Ben Ali would leave power in 12 days, but no one knew that.
"There were two different posts in channel #operationpayback. First one about some law about to pass in Hungary, second one about a Tunisia problem. For some reason I paid attention to the Tunisian one, and it seems other people did too," said an anon who participated in OpTunisia. It was a claim that Tunisian dictator Ben Ali was censoring Wikileaks cables related to Tunisia. Rumors emerged about Bouazizi as well, that he was a computer science student (he wasn't), that he had immolated himself to protest police corruption (he had), and so on.
A few people formed #optunisia on IRC and started talking about what to do. The OpTunisia anon who spoke with Wired.com didn't think either the op or the revolution had a chance.
"I saw nobody cared about those people, because it wasn't a big country. It was like, 'Fuck this is impossible…. Let's fucking do it!'" the anon wrote in an online chat.
Over the next couple of weeks the small group DDoSed and defaced Tunisian government websites and passed media and news reports about the Tunisian uprising in and out of the country.
"We also distributed a care package containing stuff to workaround privacy (restrictions in Tunisia), including a Greasemonkey script to avoid proxy interception by the Tunisian government on Facebook users," said the anon. (Greasemonkey scripts are powerful browser plug-ins).
Within that digital care package was a message to the people of Tunisia from Anonymous: "This is *your* revolution. It will neither be Twittered nor televised or [sic] IRC'ed. You *must* hit the streets or you *will* loose [sic] the fight. Always stay safe, once you got [sic] arrested you cannot do anything for yourself or your people. Your government *is* watching you."
Some of those in the #optunisia channel were Tunisians, including slim404, whose real name was Slim Amamou, an outspoken Tunisian blogger. Amamou and others put themselves at risk by passing news and software back and forth between anons and the outside world and the people on the ground.
Amamou was arrested on Jan. 6, 2011. The anons in #optunisia barely slept. Police were shooting protestors, the government was censoring websites including Facebook, but the news still spread, and the protests only grew. Then, less than a month after Bouazizi's immolation, 23 years of brutal dictatorship ended with Ben Ali's flight from Tunisia.
"I remember I woke up like two days later and my house was full of empty bottles of champagne," said the anon. "But then we started OpEgypt, so no rest."
Did Anonymous make a difference in Tunisia?
"I think its better to ask Tunisians if they think we helped," said the anon. "I did whatever I thought I could have done. My little grain of sand."
Amamou was released from jail and went on to become the secretary of state for sport and youth — perhaps Anonymous' first minister — though he resigned in May to protest the transitional government's censorship of the web.
Perhaps we will never know how consequential Anonymous was for Tunisia, but Tunisia changed everything for Anonymous. OpTunisia was the first of what became known as the Freedom Ops, Anonymous operations that mostly started in Middle Eastern countries in support of the Arab Spring, but spread much further.
The next was OpEgypt, where the protests were much bigger, and the situation even more complex.
Right from the beginning of the occupation of Tahrir Square and the Jan. 25 "Day of Revolt", Anonymous started to set up lifeline internet connections and target government servers to DDoS just as they had in Tunisia.
Three days later, Mubarak turned off the internet. Anonymous was aghast, both at this display of existential threat to the net as a way of political expression, and to their impotence in the case of a nation just taken offline.
But Mubarak fell on Feb. 11, not having lasted much longer than Ben Ali. Once again anons found they liked the sense of being part of history. For a few weeks, the pranksters-turned-activists were most known around the world for fighting the good fight beside the people, and they liked it. The Freedom Ops proliferated.
The Freedom Ops are useful in explaining how Anonymous ops work. At any time on IRC there were ops for any number of countries, not just Middle Eastern ones. There were channels for Britain, Italy, Ireland, the USA, Venezuela, Brazil, and many more, as well as Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, and most of the rest of the Middle East. Most of the ops had few participants, so those who were there linked to a press release or video about problems in that country with a bold call to action, but, for long stretches, nothing would happen.
That was OK; that is how Anonymous proposes ideas to itself. This reverses the order that the media was used to. In most of the world, the bold proclamation comes after the decision to act. In Anonymous, hyperbolic manifestos and calls to apocalyptic action show you want to talk about an issue. For many people reporting on Anonymous, it often looked like Anonymous was all bluster and no action.
But that's the wrong way to look at it. For the lulzy hive mind, bluster can be the point itself. Other times, quieter, less dramatic actions would spring up and fill the channel, only for it to go quiet again when anons had moved on to another action. For the Freedom Ops, lying fallow was no shame, and dormant ops often sparked up in response to news events from the relevant region.
It's important to understand what sort of op each one is if you want to understand whether it was successful, and sometimes that's not even possible.
If the infamous #OpCartel — a call to take on murderous Mexican drug cartels — was launched to spark a real war between Los Zetas and Anonymous, it failed. If it was launched to create confusion and generate media hype, then the anons behind it can take those lulz to the bank; it was very successful as trolling. But without ever knowing who did it, we can never know why it was done, and this is the case with many, perhaps most, ops.
Anonymous' January belonged to Tunisia, Egypt, and the Arab Spring, and it was the most serious moment in the hive mind's history. But their February belonged to a previously obscure security company called HBGary Federal, and may have Anonymous's lulziest of moments.
The Harrowing Tale of HBGary and HBGary Federal
It began with a Financial Times article in which Aaron Barr, the CEO of an obscure government-focused security company formed by the better known security company HBGary, claimed to have uncovered the leadership of Anonymous. He said the group had around 30 members, and 10 "core" members who made the decisions, and that he'd linked their IRC handles to their real names using social network analysis. He was building a security conference talk around his research.
"I am doing a pretty good job identifying key people and illuminating how they work. All of this I am doing using social media analysis. There are probably a few government organizations that might be interested in this data before I go public with it…. I think it will make quite a splash," said Barr in an e-mail to a colleague.
The reaction from Anonymous was electric, but not for the reason many believed. It wasn't the threat of arrest and prosecution per se — that had been a part of life as an anon for years, going back to DDoSing the Church of Scientology. Anonymous was incredibly angry, but at something more akin to heresy than infiltration. By claiming the leaderless collective had leadership they all secretly obeyed he'd walked into Anonymous' Vatican and declared their Virgin Mary a whore. They responded with the viciousness of the defiled.
A team of several anons, allegedly five, swung into action. They hacked HBGary Federal's server, social engineered their way into founding company HBGary's servers as well, and even took down rootkit.com, HBGary founder Greg Hoglund's site that tracks rootkits in the wild. They pulled out over 71,000 e-mails and internal documents. They defaced the websites. The notice on HBGary Federal's site read "This domain seized by Anonymous under section #14 of the rules of the Internet." (Rule 14: Do not argue with trolls — it means that they win. See more of the 'rules', link is NSFW.)
Their public statement on the hack was, in part, addressed to Aaron Barr:
"You think you've gathered full names and home addresses of the 'higher-ups' of Anonymous? You haven't. You think Anonymous has a founder and various co-founders? False. You believe that you can sell the information you've found to the FBI? False…. The personal details of Anonymous 'members' you think you've acquired are, quite simply, nonsense.
So why can't you sell this information to the FBI like you intended? Because we're going to give it to them for free."
That first release contained mainly material pertaining to Aaron Barr and HBGary Federal; Greg Hoglund and HBGary's material remained, unreleased, in the hands of a few anons. But Barr and the others were not naive computer users, and Barr had already been in Anonymous IRC channels for some time. On Feb. 7, two days after the Financial Times article that had started the fracas, Aaron Barr, HBGary founder Greg Hoglund and Penny Leavy, president of HBGary and wife of Hoglund, came to IRC to talk to the hive mind.
Like something out of a surrealist cyberpunk novel, the three executives debated the people in #ophbgary, negotiating and pleading for the future of their companies with anons who went by nicks like heyguise, PewPewPew, Sabu, and n0pants. Barr himself went by CogAnon.
The chat was fast paced and erratic, sprinkled with jokes, insults, soft statements of support, and apparent candor on both sides. Leavy and Hoglund took a conciliatory note with the collective — at one point Leavy tried to engage the room in talking about the game Fallout.
But Barr seemed unable to back down in front of the anons, even for the good of his colleagues, whose mail hadn't been released. "I repeat this was only about research on social media vulnerabilities," he told the anons. "You guys crossed the line."
"No CogAnon," came the blunt reply, "you did."
The anons holding the HBGary mails offered a deal to Leavy and Hoglund. They asked that Barr be fired and a contribution be made in his name to Bradley Manning's legal defense.
Leavy started to debate with the anons over the morality of Manning's actions, but the anons warned her off the topic. She took the hint, but not before the room nearly turned on her. It was untrod territory for all involved. No one, not the anons or the security company executives, had a sense for the etiquette of negotiations between button-down corporate America and the rude boys of the net.
Still, anons didn't release Hoglund's mail immediately, until it became clear that his IRC attitude had been a negotiation tactic. Anonymous looked through the purloined e-mails and found triumphant chatter between the two companies on Barr's work, including Hoglund discussing how to frame HBGary's post about it:
I think these guys are going to get arrested, it would be interesting to leave the soft impression that Aaron is the one that got them, and that without Aaron the Feds would have never been able to get out of their own way. So, position Aaron as a hero to the public. At this point they are going to get arrested anyway.
That, and a few hostile messages about Anonymous from Hoglund to the media sealed the deal: The remaining e-mails were released.
Despite Hoglund's dire predictions for the group, no law enforcement hammer fell on Anonymous. To this day very few arrests of anons have been for sophisticated hacking, and given the nature of the group, it's hard to tell if the few arrests that have been made were of the right people.
Instead HBGary showed the hive mind that it could be bold and lulzy, and the police weren't right there to arrest them. They learned that they could be colder, and funnier, than ever. They could capture the media imagination, and they weren't hunted down like dogs. They could dump data on the internet, and all over the world people picked through the HBGary e-mails to uncover security world schemes and even plots against WikiLeaks. HBGary had taught them that they could be lulzy, and a certain kind of anti-establishment hero at the same time.
But this new way of being an anon wouldn't fully blossom until May, when the Lulzsboat set sail.
After OpTunisia and OpHBGary, most of 2011's Anonymous major actions fell into one of two camps: the activist and lulzy hacking. But the old culture went on as well, the lolcats of 4chan, the protests in front of the Church of Scientology. Anonymous only got harder to characterize, and there were no anons that agreed with all of the collective, except maybe about liking cats.
As with any culture, there were factions that hated each other. Some anons thought the hacker anons were ruining it for everyone else, others thought trying to assist with revolutions in far-flung, tiny countries was a waste of time. And some still simply liked crank-calling people and sending unpaid pizzas to random victims' homes.
By April Anonymous had someone beyond HBGary and Middle Eastern dictators to love to hate: Sony. The Sony PS3 console had been a favorite of hackers, who used a jailbreak created by George Hotz (geohot) in 2010 to install custom firmware and run Linux and OtherOS. Running Linux was originally a feature used by Sony to promote the PlayStation, but later removed the feature with a patch.
In January 2011, Sony sued Hotz and others for allegedly violating federal law against circumventing encryption. Hotz settled in April under a gag rule, but it didn't stop him from blasting Sony on his personal blog and asking people to join him in a boycott of Sony products.
Anonymous went further, relaunching Operation Payback to DDoS Sony websites. Some anons were content with that, while others wanted to punish Sony. 77 million accounts on the PlayStation Network were hacked in April, which Sony laid at Anonymous' feet, although some anons denied it. Hackers hit again in May, this time the Sony Online Entertainment network, with 24.6 million account records breached.
The Sony PlayStation Network was down from April 20 to May 14, and by the time Anonymous was done with Sony, its stock price had fallen from $31 per share to just over $25.
But while Sony's terrible security practices were highlighted by around 19 to 20 security breaches between April and June of 2011, the most flamboyant came from the Anonymous spinoff group, Lulzsec.
Setting Sail on a Sea of Lulz
In May a small group of anons broke off from the hive to form Lulzsec, short for Lulz Security. They started a 50-day flamboyant hacking spree that germinated the seeds the HBGary hack had sown. At the beginning of 2011, Anonymous, for all its bombastic video editing, was still often shy to act, careful of its targets, and worried about retaliation. HBGary had taught anons to aim bigger and d0x harder. Lulzsec would teach Anonymous to shoot the moon, or at least try to DDoS it.
Lulzsec, under the motto "The world's leaders in high-quality entertainment at your expense", veered between the political and funny, and the completely random and hilarious. Early on in their rampage they hacked PBS as a way to give a negative review of a documentary on WikiLeaks, and released PBS login information. But while they were there, they also put up fake news stories claiming that deceased rappers Tupac and Biggie Smalls were alive and living in New Zealand.
At another point, Lulzsec called magnets.com, then tweeted that the website's customer service wouldn't tell them how magnets worked. (Wired speculates that the actual question was probably "Fucking magnets, how do they work?") In retaliation for not finding out how magnets work, Lulzsec not only DDoSed magnets.com, but used a phone redirect to clog magnets.com's phone system. The same day they DDoSed cia.gov offline. While not really hacking, this did show what many considered to be an excess of chutzpah — a way of saying to the world that there was no hornet's nest Lulzsec wouldn't kick.
They hacked Sony six times, the U.S. Senate website twice, and an FBI contractor once, getting account data and releasing it onto the web. They hit Minecraft, Eve Online, and Nintendo. They released account data, logins and passwords from a porn site and Arizona law enforcement. They lit up the media in May and June as no other hacker group ever had.
Much of the computer security industry came to love the group. Lulzsec hadn't used particularly sophisticated hacks in many cases, but that was the point. After years of security staff complaining to their managers that security was abysmal and privacy dead — only to be told there wasn't money for security, the hacker group had done what they could never do: made people pay attention.
In a post called Why we secretly love LulzSec Patrick Gray admitted his pleasure at watching the mayhem.
"LulzSec is running around pummelling [sic] some of the world's most powerful organisations into the ground… for laughs! For lulz! For shits and giggles," he wrote. "Surely that tells you what you need to know about computer security: there isn't any."
But after 50 days, Lulzsec called it quits (even as law enforcement closed in). They quietly folded back into Anonymous to create Antisec, Anonymous' black hat hacking wing. While Antisec retained the witty and sarcastic voice of Lulzsec, they too succumbed to the pull of current events, and their attacks became progressively more political. Events around the world were once again about to change Anonymous, including the pursuit and arrest of people purported to be associated with Lulzsec itself.
The Dress Rehearsal Revolution
OpBART arose out of unlikely ground for Anonymous: the messy, offline world of race relations and police violence from the California Bay Area's light rail system's police force. Anti-police brutality protests had become a recurring feature in San Francisco and Oakland since the 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant in an Oakland station of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.
On Aug. 11, anti-BART activists were planning a rally at San Francisco's Civic Center transit stop to protest the July 3 shooting of a homeless man named Charles Hill. It was nationally unremarkable, and a local transit police shooting wasn't likely to ever draw in Anonymous, but the response from BART to the planned protest put them right in the Anonymous crosshairs.
By coincidence I was there that day, getting off at Civic Center. I wasn't there as a journalist or protestor — just meeting a friend for dinner nearby. I was only vaguely aware of the protest. As I pulled into San Francisco, my phone went dead. At first I assumed it was my phone, but it dawned on me as I went through the downtown stops that it might be something else. The train's doors slid open to a line of police in riot gear, and I got off, still clutching my dead phone.
To thwart protesters from coordinating via mobile devices, BART cut cell service to its downtown stations. It might not seem like much, but it's different to be there. To face a line of blank-faced paramilitary police is one thing, and something that I have done many times for my Wired coverage of the Occupy movement. During that time, I have been yelled at, pushed, struck, and tear gassed by police. But none of that was as chilling as standing in front of that peaceful and even bored line of BART police and knowing that they had cut off my way of communicating with the rest of the world.
When news got out, Anonymous turned on BART with a vengeance. Announcements of action on behalf of the anti-BART protestors began pouring onto YouTube; Anti-BART anon accounts opened on Twitter; #OpBart formed on IRC. Over the next month, Anon hackers attacked the ill-defended BART and MyBART websites and did data dumps, and in one nadir moment that caused a public fights among anons, attempted to blackmail BART spokesman Linton Johnson into resigning after finding and threatening to post explicit pictures of him, which they eventually did.
As OpBART progressed, it became a media circus. Anonymous released customer and police data, and talked about protests going on forever. They were perfecting their media hacking toolkit, sometimes addressing media professionals directly.
A few anons showed up in masks at the protests and were mobbed by press. They amplified and encouraged voices on the ground, in particular the longstanding group calling for the dismantling of the BART police force, No Justice No BART. No one in the press could tell where the Anonymous protest ended and the local news story began.
Between Anonymous' bombastic support online and the potential national ramifications of a small regional police force having power over telecom infrastructure (the FCC opened an inquiry), representatives of all levels of media showed up at several Monday protests, helicopters circling overhead, and police riot lines greeted them. A couple of times, media and police found they far outnumbered the protestors. The BART police closed stations and kettled the media at one point. The San Francisco police department arrested activists outside the stations.
No one knew it yet, but it was a dress rehearsal for what would become the largest effort Anonymous has ever undertaken — its support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. There was no downtime; OWS began just as OpBART wound down.
Anonymous <3 Occupy
Occupy Wall Street was not an Anonymous plan, but Anonymous came out in support of it in late August, and drew more media attention to it. When people descended on Lower Manhattan on Sept. 17 and wound up in Zuccotti Park, it was often the people wearing Guy Fawkes masks that were most swamped by the press. Anonymous was using the techniques it had learned over the course of OpBART to create media buzz.
As occupations spread, anons were there at each step, encouraging. "I think it was some Anonymous people who saw my tweets, said I should start Occupy Boston," said Occupy Boston founder Robin Jacks, "and I thought, I think I will."
During the early days of the Occupy movement, the ebullient spirit that was lighting up parks was contagious; the normally cynical hive mind began to sound a little more happy — even hippie-like — in their support.
"Everyone, everywhere, will be occupying their towns, their capitols, and other public spaces," intoned a popular Anonymous video. "Already we have made tremendous progress… this is now bigger than you, or me. It is about us, a collective 99 percent."
Not all anons support OWS. But many anons said to me when I would talk about Anonymous and OWS: "Same thing." — not paraphrasing a shared idea — but those exact two words — "Same thing." After September most of the activist energy of Anonymous seemed to be swallowed by Occupy.
But why was Occupy so important to Anonymous? In part it was that many anons hail from the United States and United Kingdom, and could culturally connect with the local Occupys than with the Arab Spring movement.
But it was more than that. In the Occupy movement, Anonymous seemed to find a body its peripatetic spirit could inhabit.
Occupy Wall Street was not like Tahrir Square in Egypt, or the summer demonstrations in Spain. Tahrir attracted the young heroes, the educated and cutting edge of Egypt, and its activists. The Spanish protests brought out the full strata of society.
But Occupy, smaller and more distributed than the uprisings elsewhere, welcomed the misfits of society. Many were society's forgotten and disempowered, not the widely oppressed masses that had demonstrated elsewhere. The people who found their way to the parks around America and set up tent cities in September and through October were the rejects, the fuck-ups, people that had fallen for debt scams and got in over their heads with student loans or meth.
They were the misfit army, unarmed but unwilling to remain silent and invisible. In this they were a perfect fit for Anonymous. Both collectives were bound together by being the kinds of people who never found a comfortable place in society.
When the crackdowns started, all the occupiers had to throw at the police were their own bodies.
And so they did.
Anonymous watched the evictions, arrests, and even beatings and chemical violence over the weeks, some on screens, and some onsite with their local Occupys. As the painful images pileed up, the rhetoric of the hive mind turned darker. Antisec started targeting law enforcement as retribution.
Of the recent hack of Stratfor — a private intelligence firm, one of the participants explained on IRC that "They [Stratfor] promote global market stability, whereas we want financial meltdown" — a meltdown specifically aimed at the 1 percent. "It's about creating an egalitarian society without bosses or masters, it's about forcefully redistributing the wealth and power in society."
The same anon said of the Lulzxmas campaign and the targeting of law enforcement in general, "We thought we had every right to gather in public parks, to speak our demands. And they systematically targeted us for elimination. The 18 cities who coordinated the crackdown against OWS a month ago was a breaking point for many. So we decided it was time for us to coordinate a raid of our own," the anon told Wired.com.
Last Thursday, an anon revealed on Twitter that Antisec had been able to use the Stratfor logins to compromise many of the top 100 U.S. government contractors. They hinted that they will be attacking them and releasing more material in the coming weeks.
It's hard to say how the aggressive d0xing helps Occupy, and most of the occupiers don't understand or even know of the actions of Anonymous. But the year of political strife has irrevocably changed Anonymous. "Before we attacked that first day," said the OpTunisia anon, "it was like a lost cause. [We thought] nobody will care. But then they inspired me to hope about humanity. I never had that."
But a little hope can be a dangerous thing.
The existential question that Anonymous still faces is this: Does it matter? And if so, how much does Anonymous matter? Will our way of life someday change because of some part Anonymous plays in history?
2011 posed the question, but didn't answer it. Instead it showed that Anonymous changed anons. Anonymous became bolder, stranger, more threatening, and more comforting in turns. Last year, Anonymous, like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, picked a fight with the systems of society.
Perhaps in 2012 we'll see who wins.
Photos: Quinn Norton/Wired
This post is part of a special series from Quinn Norton, who is embedding with Occupy protestors and going beyond the headlines with Anonymous for Wired.com. For an introduction to the series, read Quinn's description of the project.
A few acknowledgments for this series: I'd like to thank several people for both their direct and indirect help in the process of learning and writing about Anonymous and its origins over the past few months: Biella Coleman, Gregg Housh, Moot, Alan Moore, Anonymous, Anonymous, Eris Discordia, Anonymous, Nate Anderson, Anonymous, Google, Anonymous, Tom Cruise & the Church of Scientology, Anonymous, Anonymous, Anonymous, and most of all, the invaluable input from my favorite anon, Anonymous.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.


text:
Wood Oil
The Owatrol range of wood oil products includes solutions for protecting, nourishing and finishing decking, fences, sheds, garden furniture, cladding, paneling, flooring and more. Our range of deep penetrating and saturating wood oils will not only enhance the natural look of your wood, but it will also help maintain it.
Not sure which product to use?
Current FiltersReset


text:
Kojima Teaser Site Updated with Metal Gear Solid Character Big Boss
The site had previously featured only a countdown overtop an animated thunderstorm. The first countdown ended last week, only to reveal a new countdown to the widespread consternation of Metal Gear fans.
Speculation as to whether the lightning is a reference to Metal Gear character Raiden, and as to the meaning behind the site's mysterious letters and numbers, continues to run rampant. Leaked scans from Famitsu show that Raiden will likely be featured on the site before the current countdown ends.
The clock runs for another 112 hours, or until 6pm EST on Sunday, the eve of this year's E3 conference.
From The Chatty


text:
|IPORG-L is an electronic mailing list whose members discuss musical, technical and historical aspects of organs of all kindsclassical, theater, electronic, reed, tracker, electropneumatic, mechanical (player, band and fairground, etc.) Organ specifications, recitals (past and future), recordings, jobs (wanted and available), restoration hints, news of progress in restoration projects are all interesting. Requests for advice or information are encouraged, and stories of your experiences and knowledge are eagerly consumed. In short, if it is interesting and about organs or organ music, this group would like to hear about it.
You should read the description of the list's purpose and scope to be sure that it meets your interests, needs and expectations.
Click here for a brief summary of listserv commands. Questions about the list? Write to one of the list owners Dave Kelzenberg, or Ben Chi.


text:
Yes, we know you're excited about "The Avengers." But we're betting you want to get a little excited about what comes AFTER "The Avengers."
PopcornBiz went directly to Kevin Feige, the longstanding President of Production at Marvel Studios, and the man who charted the ambitious master plan to slowly roll out the comic book company's superheroes in solo films and ultimately unite them for "The Avengers." As Feige explains, the studio's only just begun to tap its very, very deep bench.
How will 'The Avengers' affect your future plans? Now that you've formally established the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe, what are you hoping to have come out of this?
We've always looked at it as the culmination of everything that's come before, but [also] a springboard going forward: a springboard in unexpected ways. The events in 'The Avengers' and the interrelationships between the characters in 'The Avengers,' in some movies we'll play into that more and continue that more. We've already announced the release date for the next 'Captain America' film, and that one, more than any of the other ones, sort of picks up directly from that and continues Steve's relationship within SHIELD. Iron Man can go back to Malibu, can go back to Pepper and go see what Rhodey is up to, can deal with his life as Iron Man. Thor literally goes to other worlds. Cap can't go back in time. Even in our universe there's not a time machine for him to be able to do that. So he's here and he doesn't have a support base of any kind. Fury and SHIELD seem to be that support base right now, so it's fun to see how to do it, as opposed to 'Iron Man 3' – we're making a very pure Tony Stark-centered storyline there, with very little connection to anyone else. Everything up to this point has been about proving that we can make all of these movies stand alone, and we can make them tie together into the event of 'Avengers'…The next step is proving that these characters can now go back into their own worlds and continue their evolutions. Again, we're not charting new territory here. We're doing what they've been doing in publishing for years and years, and just trying to do it on the big screen.
What about the possibility of 'The Avengers' also serving as a springboard for Black Widow and Hawkeye into their own films – or a new 'Hulk' film, for that matter?
All part of the discussion. We're very pleased with how Hulk ended up in 'Avengers.' It's everything that we hoped for, and sort of always knew and believed that The Hulk could and should be. What we're not going to do right now is get greedy and go, 'Okay, green light a "Hulk" movie now!' The way that he works in a team environment is very different from the way that he works by himself. While [Mark] Ruffalo, I think, is more than capable of carrying his own movie, we've announced the next three movies and we're going to announce the next one or two after that and 'Hulk' is not going to be among those. So we're certainly going to see where to take him in a responsible manner.
Is this the Avengers lineup you want to stick with for the foreseeable future, this group of characters, or will you bring in other characters introduced in the sequel or their own solo film – like, say, Ant-Man?
I will say – and look, it's all we could do to just finish this movie, to be honest with you – just speaking for myself, I think that what would be fun about continuing the 'Avengers' franchise is what new characters you introduce in the coming movies, whether they've been in other movies prior to that, which Ant-Man probably would've been by that point, or like Hawkeye essentially was, introduced for the first time in that. I think we'll always try to continue to build that roster.
You've told me before that you also wanted to develop both the cosmic and magical side of the Marvel universe. Where are you with the projects related to that?
Well, the cosmic side, I would say, is certainly well under way with 'Thor,' much of 'Avengers' journeys into that realm. 'Thor 2' takes it even further in the way that we're developing it now. We start filming that at the end of the summer, which is coming up fast. So I would say that the cosmic side is well under way in that and a few other properties that we're working very, very hard on that take place in that cosmic side of the universe. The magic side, again, it's going to be 'Doctor Strange.' Someday we will introduce that side of it, and when we go over that it's going to be through the eyes of Stephen Strange. When that happens, we don't know.
Let's assume that this movie does amazingly well, gets all the box office totals you want. How important is Joss Whedon to a second 'Avengers' film? How bad do you want him to do the second one?
We will have that conversation. I want him to do it very, very badly, and I think that he did a tremendous job. He needs to rest right now, but certainly those discussions have started.
How much did Marvel's relationship with its now-parent company Disney help you get this movie to where you needed to be as fast as you needed to be?
Well, certainly it was already underway when that occurred. What it has done is that when you have 100% dedication and support from a studio and a company the size of Disney, it's unprecedented. It's tremendous. Paramount did great, great work for us on 'Iron Man' and 'Thor' and 'Captain America,' but it was a distribution deal. Disney owns Marvel. They're one thing now. So they have all the motivation in the world to make it as big as possible. So really seeing the team around the world, Disney has a lot of people working for them. Seeing them unleash a Marvel movie on the world has been great, and that's been what's most exciting about that. That, and just the support that they've given us. Even to talk about Marvel Studios in the same sentence as Pixar, which they do in terms of allowing us to make our own things, is incredibly complimentary and certainly boosts our confidence.
How much do you let Joss and other directors bring in what they want to do story-wise, character-wise, and how much of a road map is there from you, saying that you want to hit certain beats to keep the universe cohesive?
There's always a little bit of a road map. There's always some pillars within – I don't know what metaphor you want to use – building a house or whatever, we've got a foundation and some pillars about where we want the structural walls to be, but we don't want to hire filmmakers that just color by numbers. We'd hired very different filmmakers if that's all we wanted. It's not. We want to bring it to life and make a better house, a better whatever metaphor you want to use than we ever could think of. That's what Joss has done. There were pillars. He'll be very honest with you about what the pillars were. He inherited most of the cast and where those characters were coming from. In some cases he knew where we wanted to take them, and in some cases didn't, but he sort of knew and has said that it was nice for him. He said the toughest part for writers is that when you encounter a fork in the road, like, 'Which way do I go?' At Marvel we would say, 'No, not that way.' He said that liberated him to find a bigger and more clear direction. But other than the roster, the roll call of characters, the notion of the Helicarrier – which we really wanted to bring into it – and to sort of utilize SHIELD as the glue of The Avengers and a big, final battle in Manhattan with Loki at the forefront of it, he did it famously.
In your partnerships with other, non-Disney studios on Marvel Comics properties – Sony with Spider-Man, Fox with X-Men and Fantastic Four – are you finding that they're more receptive to the Marvel Studios way of thinking on their new projects?
It varies. Frankly, even before we became our own studios we'd been working very closely, for five or six years, with those studios and they had come to, I think, value our opinion and understand what we had to say. I don't spend as much time on those other movies as I used to because our main responsibility is to the movies that we are completely doing on our own, but I do think that, frankly, every comic book movie informs the next ones. So I do like to think that they saw the success of our movies and used that as an inspiration to theirs, just as we do with 'Dark Knight' or choose your great other non-Marvel comic book movie that inspires us, or even J. J.'s [Abrams] 'Star Trek' which I'm obsessed with.
I felt like there was some subtle influence from that movie in this film.
Well, I don't know how much of that I would say is intentional, other than just Joss and J. J. having similar tastes and senses of humor. But any good movie informs the next one.
Can you envision a day where you did studio co-productions so that, say, Spider-Man and Captain America could be in a film together or, going nerdier, X-Men's Beast could join The Avengers?
Well, look, there's certainly no plans for it or have been any discussions about anything like that, but seven years ago nobody would believed that 'Avengers' would've been possible. So, I've stopped saying 'never' to any of those questions, but I don't know when that would be.
After 'The Avengers', What's Next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige talks about the future
Yes, we know you're excited about "The Avengers." But we're betting you want to get a little excited about what comes AFTER "The Avengers."


text:
Management of the HIV epidemic in Nicaragua: the need to improve information systems and access to affordable diagnostics
Henry EspinozaI; Magda SequeiraI; Gonzalo DomingoII; Juan José AmadorI,*; Margarita QuintanillaI; Tala de los SantosII
IPATH Nicaragua Office, Semáforos de Enitel Villa Fontana, 1 cuadra arriba, 1 cuadra al lago, Edificio OPUS II (tercer piso), Managua, Nicaragua
IIPATH Headquarters, Seattle, United States of America
Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, has one of the lowest HIV infection rates in the region. The estimated adult prevalence is 0.2%, with about 7700 people living with HIV in 2010.1 Several factors limited HIV transmission during the 1980s, including a ten-year civil war accompanied by an economic blockade by the United States of America (USA), which isolated the country for several years; a relatively controlled commercial sex industry; low infection rates for injecting drug users; and a ban on the commercial sale of blood. In the late 1990s, however, the spread of HIV rapidly increased.2 In 2009, the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health projected an 11.2% annual increase in cases by the end of 2010.3 The prevalence of HIVtuberculosis co-infection has also been rising.
Recent increases in HIV incidence may be related to low condom use. Gender norms and roles limit women's access to information and sexual and reproductive health services. Women accounted for 17% of new cases in 1996 and 29% in 2005.4 Other vulnerable groups include prisoners, youth, indigenous and Afro-descendant populations and migrant groups. While condom use reported by women of reproductive age remains very low (between 4% and 12%),5 it has increased among both men who have sex with men and sex workers (from 64% to 72% and from 70% to 94%, respectively).6 Since the end of the civil war, many Nicaraguans spend part of the year working in neighbouring countries. There are some concerns that these seasonal migrants may be a source of new HIV cases, as they are neglected in terms of HIV prevention and treatment.7 Access to health care and other services is difficult for illegal immigrants, who may also suffer from stigma and discrimination. Many migrants may not seek HIV testing or treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and may engage in casual or commercial sex.
By the end of 2008, a total of 1069 people were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Nicaragua,6 although around 2600 people should have been receiving such treatment according to World Health Organization guidelines.1 The supply of ART and drugs to treat opportunistic infections relies on financial support, mainly from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Increased use of ART has dramatically reduced AIDS mortality from 36% in 1997 to 7% in 2007.4,6
Challenges ahead
As in many lower middle-income countries, Nicaragua faces a variety of challenges in controlling the spread of HIV. Gender norms tolerate male sexual irresponsibility and inhibit women from actively speaking to their male partners about safe sex, while there is also continuing stigma and discrimination against homosexuals, sex workers and people living with HIV. Behaviours and attitudes must be addressed to promote consistent condom use among young people. Improvements are needed in the health system to increase the capacity for case detection and confirmation, disease surveillance, and therapy-related monitoring, including testing for resistance to antiretroviral drugs.
Case detection
Aiming to improve diagnostic capacity, the Ministry of Health decentralized the use of HIV rapid tests, which has led to a sixfold increase in nationwide use (from 18 000 patients in 2006 to 106 726 in 2008), primarily among pregnant women.6 HIV testing is available in all 153 municipal-level health centres. Patients can only be tested if they give consent. If the first HIV rapid test is positive, a second test is done. If both rapid tests are positive, the sample is sent to a regional facility for confirmation using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). All positive and 10% of negative samples are sent to the National Diagnostic and Reference Centre in Managua for quality-control. Any discordant results are sent for a Western blot test at the Centre's reference laboratory.
Confirmatory ELISA testing can take two to six weeks, while the processing time for the Western blot test averages two to three months. Delayed confirmation of HIV status contributes to patient dissatisfaction and delays counselling to prevent transmission and initiation of ART.
HIV surveillance
Case surveillance is done under the Epidemiological Surveillance System, a mostly paper-based system involving the transfer of data by radio or telephone.4 Each week, peripheral health facilities send their data to municipal health centres, who then send it to one of 17 of the country's health departments and finally it goes to the Ministry of Health. In the case of HIV/AIDS, the Epidemiological Surveillance System receives daily and weekly reports from Ministry of Health units, laboratories, blood banks, nongovernmental organizations and private clinics. By the end of 2008 connectivity to the internet was restricted to a few hospitals, most of them in Managua, and even less to municipal health centres. None of the 1000 health posts had connectivity.
Antiretroviral therapy monitoring
The rising number of HIV/AIDS cases in Nicaragua has increased demand for ART, which has in turn placed a greater demand on laboratories to support patient follow-up. The national HIV control programme, the National Diagnostic and Reference Centre, health facilities and civil society groups have called for higher priority to be given to improving ART monitoring, through decentralization of CD4 and viral load testing, as well as testing for tuberculosis co-infection. Currently all viral load testing is done at the National Diagnostic and Reference Centre at an average total cost of 100 United States dollars (2008/2009 prices).8
Despite this high cost, there is often a delay in delivery of results to the patient's health-care provider, which limits the test's value for ART management. The information flow for quality control tests and the return of ART follow-up results is extremely slow. The time taken from the collection of the sample to delivery of the results generally ranges from 20 to 40 days, and can be even longer. This depends on factors such as the availability of reagents, the speed with which the sample and the results are transported (often waiting to use a vehicle programmed for another activity), and the multidisciplinary team being informed of a positive confirmation. This delayed turnaround means that the result is often not used to inform a treatment decision. Patient costs also present a significant challenge to testing.
"MINSA [Ministry of Health] has started to decentralize treatment with antiretrovirals but decentralization of CD4 and viral load testing is needed, too. One of the problems is ensuring people go to the laboratory for testing. This is because many people with AIDS are very poor (95%, I believe), so much so that they don't always have the money to pay for transport to Managua." (Representative from ASONVIHSIDA [Nicaraguan Association of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS], Managua).
Efforts to contain the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nicaragua have already led to some important progress. New policies to extend HIV screening, surveillance and treatment have improved case detection, increased use of rapid tests and decentralized management of ART patients. Increased access to HIV screening has been achieved through the decentralization of rapid tests and continued promotion of the importance of knowing one's HIV status. Preventive behaviour has improved among high-risk populations, such as sex workers, but not among young people, who are becoming increasingly affected. Improved ART availability has increased the survival rate of people living with HIV/AIDS. These achievements required significant international aid, mainly from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Sustainability of these activities will depend in part on resolving inefficiencies, one source of which is the information management system, which has particularly high costs in HIV case detection, surveillance and monitoring. Epidemiological surveillance is fragmented and mainly manually-operated. Information is not systematically shared and analysed by the national programmes, let alone by primary health-care providers. Yet this system is critical for timely decision-making, particularly in implementing immediate actions to control sources of infectious diseases and guarantee health and laboratory supplies.
Other challenges include the delayed reporting of test results, particularly confirmatory tests, and the high costs for patients to travel to health facilities.8 An improved, automated system would facilitate fast return of laboratory results, statistical updates and reports. However, in Nicaragua, internet penetration is only 10%, which is far less than in neighbouring countries (Costa Rica: 45%; Mexico: 30%; USA: 77%).9 In this context, mobile phone text messaging could provide an option for collecting and sending epidemiological information,10 although its applicability needs to be carefully assessed.
Nicaragua received a second grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria of more than US$ 60 million to finance a five-year national HIV project, beginning in 2010. Strengthening the provision of health services including increasing access to HIV testing and monitoring is an essential part of this project. In this respect, funds could be used constructively to improve the national health information system by investing in basic information technology infrastructure. Such investments would have a positive impact on the control and management of HIV as well as other high-burden diseases that may receive less funding. The issue of sustainability, however, will not be easily resolved. Developing affordable, effective tools and systems for diagnosis, surveillance and patient monitoring will remain a key concern for Nicaragua and other lower middle-income countries in the years ahead.
Funding: Primary funding for this study was received from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health (Grant U54EB007949), United States of America.
Competing interests: None declared.
1. Nicaragua country statistics. Geneva: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; 2011. Available from: http://portfolio.theglobalfund.org/Country/Index/NIC?lang=en [accessed 17 June, 2011] .
2. Matute AJ, Delgado E, Amador JJ, Hoepelman AIM. The epidemiology of clinically apparent HIV infection in Nicaragua. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 2008;27: 1058. doi: 10.1007/s10096-007-0398-x PMID: 17965894
3. UNGASS Nicaragua report, 20032005: report on monitoring the declaration of commitment on HIV/AIDS. Managua: Ministry of Health, Nicaragua; 2005.
4. Informes de vigilancia epidemiológica sobre VIH/SIDA/ITS [Epidemiological surveillance reports on HIV/AIDS/STIs]. Managua: Ministry of Health, Nicaragua; 2008.
5. Instituto Nacional de Información de Desarrollo (INIDE). Encuesta Nicaragüense de Demografía y Salud 2006/2007 [Nicaraguan Demographic and Health Survey 2006/2007]. Managua: Sistema Estadístico Nacional; 2008.
6. Informe año 5. Proyecto Fondo Mundial: Nicaragua, compromiso y acción ante el SIDA, Tuberculosis y Malaria. [Year 5 report. Global Fund Project: Nicaragua, commitment and action in response to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria]. Managua: Mecanismo Coordinador de País; 2009.
7. Orozco M, Pedraza LG. Civil society perspectives on HIV/AIDS policy in Nicaragua. New York: Open Society Institute; 2007.
8. Gerlach J, Sequiera M, Alvarado V, Cerpas C, Balmaseda A, Gonzalez A et al. Cost analysis of centralized viral load testing for antiretroviral therapy monitoring in Nicaragua, a low-HIV prevalence, low-resource setting. J Int AIDS Soc 2010;13: 43. doi: 10.1186/1758-2652-13-43 PMID: 21054866
9. Internet World Stats: Usage and population statistics. Available from: http://www.internetworldstats.com/ [accessed 17 June 2011] .
10. Vital Wave Consulting. mHealth for development: the opportunity of mobile technology for healthcare in the developing world. Washington & Berkshire: United Nations Foundation & Vodafone Foundation; 2009.
(Submitted: 14 January 2011 Revised version received: 20 May 2011 Accepted: 27 May 2011)


text:
Telephone : 506 473-4681
582 West Basin St.
Grand Falls, NB, E3Z 2J5
© 2004 Galerie Da-Li
Last updated:December 12, 2019
Click here to access the symposium website
J.Allisson Robichaud
Internationally known and highly respected landscape painter J. Allison Robichaud takes simplicity to the sublime
with his masterly brushwork.
From November 15-29, 2008, at the scollard Street Gallery in Yorkville, Toronto, an exhibition of work by this master painter will be on display. Entitled A Painters Love of the Landscape, the collection of plein air paintings will capture your imagination.
$ 864.00 Huile 16 X 12
View work details
Purples lilacs
$ 693.00 Huile 14 X 11
View work details
First warm spring day
$ 864.00 Huile 16 X 12
View work details


text:
Happy morning, loves! Hope you're all doing well.
I'm in a super mood this morning. Wanna know why? Because I looked outside and what did I see? A canopy of blooms covering my usual stark and concrete view.
Each and every day I've been noticing a new tree or flower patch blooming. It's so energizing to watch the rebirth unfold, isn't it? I know it does wonders for my spirit and hope it has the same effect on yours.
I'm also in a great mood because today is my last day of work for the week. Tomorrow I'll be enjoying the start of a 3 day weekend! Happiness all around. :)
Enjoy the day, loves!
And remember, you can tweet every day for extra entries!
Images: 1, 2, 3 All images edited by The Alternative Wife


text:
Complete Tiling Solutions WA - Renovations Stirling
Renovations, Tiler, Tiling Contractor, Stone Tiling, Marble Tiling Stirling | Nedlands | South Perth | Morley | Perth
- 0451 12# ###
- 0451 12# ###
Balcatta WA 6021Click to view map
- http://completetilingsolutions.com.au/
- Send email
- Monday-Saturday By Appointment
- Renovations Stirling
- Tiling Contractor South Perth
About Us
Complete Tiling Solutions WA – Renovations Stirling
Complete Tiling Solutions WA is a renovations expert in Stirling offering cost-effective floor and wall tiling services. Call today on 0451 12# ###.
Renovations Stirling
Got a home improvement project to complete? Contact Complete Tiling Solutions WA for dependable tiling jobs.
Their team of professional tradesmen is adept in all aspects of wall and floor tiling for residential and commercial properties.
Whether you want ceramic, porcelain, marble, granite or travertine, you can count on the expertise of Complete Tiling Solutions WA.
Tiling Contractor South Perth
With Complete Tiling Solutions WA, you'll receive an expert service drawn from over a decade of experience in the industry.
Complete Tiling Solutions' skilled tiling tradesmen are holders of Certificate III in wall and floor tiling.
Registered and fully qualified, Complete Tiling Solutions WA guarantees high standard of service and workmanship.
Floor and Wall Tiling Services Subiaco
Committed to deliver work that is exceptional in finish and value, expect keen attention to detail from the renovation experts of Complete Tiling Solutions WA.
Be it for a bathroom or kitchen renovation, or for balcony tiling, Complete Tiling Solutions WA will deliver a finish that's outstanding at a price that's easy on the pocket.
Stone Tiling Morley
Complete Tiling Solutions WA takes pride in providing a personalised service that precisely meets the specific needs of their clients.
The staff of Complete Tiling Solutions WA understands the value of time, privacy and trust.
Professional in all their ways, they will leave your site clean and tidy and complete the job on the agreed timeframe.
Marble Tiling Nedlands
Their team will work closely with you to ensure that your requirements are met and you are regularly informed of the status of the job.
Regardless if you have a big or small renovation project, Complete Tiling Solutions WA can handle the job with proficiency.
Domestic Tiling Perth
Request for an obligation-free quote today and see how inexpensive it is to improve the look of your space through the tiling solutions offered by Complete Tiling Solutions WA.
Get in touch with Complete Tiling Solutions WA today by calling 0451 12# ###.
Recommended Businesses
View similar businesses near: Balcatta WA
Payment Types AcceptedCash, Bank Transfer, Bank Cheque
Renovations, Tiler, Tiling Contractor, Floor and Wall Tiling Services, Stone Tiling, Marble Tiling, Domestic Tiling, Commercial Tiling
Stirling, Perth, Nedlands, South Perth, Morley, Subiaco, Balcatta, Warwick, Hamersley, Girrawheen, Koondoola, Marangaroo, Duncraig, Karrinyup, Dianella, Osborne Park, Malaga, Sorrento, Woodlands
- Cert 3 Wall and Floor Tiler
- Fully Insured & Qualified
Facebook Profile
There are no reviews for this business
Fresh Tile Cleaning
"I was surprised by the results of Showers Tile and Grout Restoration services provided by their experts. I found them to be useful enough and hiring them was a great decision."
"We had full bathroom renovation with AA1 all tiling. John was interested cooperative and highly skilled at his work. Tidy clean worker reliable and thorough. Very happy with finished product. Highly recommend his work, manner and efficiency . Rosie "
Fresh Tile Cleaning
"Fresh Tile and Grout Cleaning Melbourne company provide me excellent bathroom tile cleaning services used chemical free products and now my bathroom tile looks like as brand new. Highly recommend Fresh Tile Grout Cleaning."
GT Tiling
"I worked for him as labourer in October 2016 worth $540 but he later refused to pay saying he can't afford to pay for my labour as it was more than he wanted to pay so why did he hire me in the first place if he didn't want to pay. He does not answer his mobile 0432108620 or home phone 08 83378406. I have even talked to his family about this matter but seems as if they encourage him to hire people and refuse to pay."
Joe Timpano
"I worked for him as labourer in October 2016 worth $540 but he later refused to pay saying he can't afford to pay for my labour as it was more than he wanted to pay so why did he hire me in the first place if he didn't want to pay. He does not answer his mobile 0432108620 or home phone 08 83378406. I have even talked to his family about this matter but seems as if they encourage him to hire people and refuse to pay."
Ricks Tiling Service
"Solid quote, great service, a real craftsperson at his job. I always understood what was happening and why and was involved early in any decisions needed for the reno. Cleaned up every day and at the end. Used a dust extractor. Highly recommend."
GT Tiling
"Worked for him as labourer in October 2016 worth $540 has openly denied to pay and not answering his mobile 0432108620 or home phone 08 83378406. Only heartless person keep some one's hard earned money.
GT Tiling
"Worked for him as labourer in October 2016 worth $540 has openly denied to pay and not answering his mobile 0432108620 or home phone 08 83378406. Only heartless person keep some one's hard earned money."
RMS Traders
"I'm a commercial contractor. These guys always come through for us. We've done numerous orders with them and have not had any issues come up. "
RMS Traders
"Very good collection, service and very low prices. I initially had a problem at Melbourne related to receiving the different shades of tile, but my friend suggested me RMS Traders. I like to recommend RMS Traders to everyone in Melbourne who is looking for the quality, honest, knowledgeable and affordable natural stone tiles suppliers."
JJ Tile
"Started work on agreed date and finished job within agreed time frame. Discussed job. Professional in approach. Would use again."
Tiling Services Joondalup
"Absolutely awesome job by Premier Tiling services.
Didnt think our little ensuite could look so good.
Would highly recommend these guys if you want a job done well and proffesionaly."
Dean Gray Tiling
"I think i could have done a better job and im no tiler
Joints not straight there is a 3 joins that are nearly a trip hazard and we get a puddle in one corner of the floor very disappointed in there work"
Anthony Melchers
"DO NOT USE. They quoted and accepted the job, and then proceeded to not show up as promised over a three day period, refused to take calls or advise why they couldn't start the job. "
Midas Tiling
"Midas tiling owned by John Muir I will be reporting to consumer affairs. He made me pay up front and then didn't turn up when he promised he would. He finally got a tiler to do half the job . He then left the country and has not returned. He refused to give me a refund for the unfinished work and he did not pay his tiler for my job or numerous other jobs this tiler had done. He is a dishonest and would not want anyone else to use him."
Plateau Tiling
"Lawrence did the tiling and project managed the renovation of my bathroom in Oct 2010. He did a fabulous job of tiling and managing the project, and gave me a good price for both."
Budget & Upmarket Tiles
Distinctive Natural Stone
"I found distinctive natural stone to be a great experience. There stone tiles are of the Highest quality at a great price,and will buy from them again. A big thankyou to kent for all your help."
Tiling Services Joondalup
"We had a fantastic experience with Premier Tiling. They did our family bathroom as well as the ensuite; their prices are competitive, they work very neatly and are very experienced. And very important to us; they do what they promise you to do: so they are always on time! If you need any tiling done, I would defenitely recommend their services."
Tiling Services Joondalup
"Could not be happier with the job done by Premier Tiling Services. I would recommended them to anyone for first class service and value!
My tiles look fantastic, thank you very much!"
Total Tiling and Bathroom Solutions
"Hello, my name is Katherine, my husband and I were looking for quality tilers and found David and his team from Total Tiling. They were so helpful with every aspect, from the outset to completion of our marble bathroom.
We are very pleased with the results.
A big thank you to David and his team.
Katherine and Bernard."
Tiling Rockingham
"Great job done. The lads were of great standard. The work was done to a high standard would recommend him.
Floor and Wall Tiling Melbourne
"This is the best tiling contractor in Melbourne. They did such a great job on our bathroom, which looks fantastic now. I really can't recommend these guys enough!"
Rock-It Tiling
"Rob from Rock-It tiling was very courteous and did an excellent job. He was affordable and extremely helpful. I would highly recommend. Love my new bathroom!"
Alsa Harry on 24th Jan 2020
Rosie Clarkson on 30th Nov 2018
Ram Maan on 30th Apr 2018
IRFAN ALI on 5th Apr 2017
IRFAN ALI on 28th Mar 2017
Denise Dagley on 24th Mar 2017
IRFAN ALI on 14th Jan 2017
Irfan Ali on 6th Jan 2017
Jason Smith on 16th Nov 2016
Veronica Martin on 21st Oct 2016
Anthony on 17th Oct 2016
Jez Evans on 15th Jul 2016
Robbo on 27th Aug 2015
Sarah on 12th Dec 2014
jennie Deykin on 13th Nov 2014
Marta on 10th Jun 2014
Mark S on 16th Jan 2014
peter jefferys on 23rd Oct 2013
Marion on 16th Sep 2013
LInda on 13th Sep 2013
Katherine Thwaites on 10th Sep 2013
Gill Dronsfield on 12th Jul 2013
Carolina S on 10th Jul 2013
Tina Hodges on 22nd Jun 2013


text:
Whittier, CAHome Menu
City Calendar
LEGO Club-Central
- Date: 02/18/2020 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
- Location: Whittier Public Library
7344 Washington Ave.
Whittier, California 90602
Come join our LEGO Club. Stop by every Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. for a fun building challenge. And don't worry, we have plenty of LEGO bricks, so no need to bring your own. Ages 5-12 welcome. Tickets available at the Children's desk 30 minutes before the event.Return to full list >>


text:
Four weeks ago tonight Luka had surgery. Today, finally, he was released to full activity.
I took him to a nearby school to take advantage of their fully fenced grounds.
I set the beast free.
I think he's happy.
It's going to take some time before we're back to walking three miles a day and hiking on the weekends, but we are on our way.
During the time off from our long daily walks Sadie has been following Milo's lead and practicing for the Sleep Olympics.
This is her favorite place to sleep: snuggled up against my leg.
As cute as Sadie is, she is still not as skilled as Milo when it comes to sleeping.
I have been knitting and I finally took pictures.
The latest socks.
And a sweater.


text:
The annual March for Life was held on Friday, in remembrance of the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision. Several hundred thousand people joined in the largest annual civil rights demonstration in America, to witness to the cause of human life and its importance to our society.
After the March, I had the honor of participating in a panel discussion about the pro-life cause at the National Review Institute's Future of Conservatism Summit. It was a very interesting conversation, covering topics such as health care, pregnancy resource centers, and the cultural and political trends in our nation. (It was broadcast live on CSPAN, and you can watch the video here).
The audience was very appreciative of the panel, and I got a good deal of positive feedback afterwards. That's encouraging, because there has been a good bit of talk since the election about ejecting pro-lifers from the conservative movement — which I believe would be a disaster for American society.
But the positive reaction of the conservative audience also reinforced in my mind a sad realization: at this point in American history, it is inconceivable that I would be invited to have the same discussion at a conference of political liberals or progressives.
It has been made abundantly clear that pro-lifers are really not welcome any more in the liberal wing of politics or, indeed, in most of the Democratic Party. The platform of the national Democratic Party stated that the party opposed any restrictions on abortion; a prominent leader of the Party in New York has announced that one cannot be a Democrat without being "pro-choice"; and the President ran an aggressively and adamantly pro-abortion political campaign last year. Although there are some notable exceptions, the pro-life Democrat is becoming an endangered species.
This makes no sense to me. Life is not a partisan issue — it is a question of equal justice under the law and fundamental human rights. It is the ultimate issue of defending the little guy — as little a guy as you can get. And traditionally, liberalism/progressivism and the Democratic Party have styled themselves as the defenders of the little guys — workers, immigrants, ethnic minorities. They were the party of Al Smith and Sargent Shriver — two great Catholic gentlemen who were unabashed progressives and Democrats. Even as late as the 1970's, prominent Democrats like Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson were openly pro-life.
I understand how and why this happened — it has a lot to do with the identification of abortion and sexual liberty as the centerpiece of modern feminism. But it has polarized our nation and politics, and it is a disaster for our society.
Last week, the President delivered his inaugural address. In that speech, he spoke about his and his party's concern for defending human rights by alluding to Seneca Falls (the birthplace of women's rights), Selma (a crucible for the civil rights movement) and Stonewall (the origin of the "gay rights" cause).
Sadly, he had no time to mention the human rights of the unborn. He could easily have done so, by a simple allusion to the Dred Scott decision, which excluded an entire class of human beings from the protection of the law.
Unfortunately, in our sad polarized politics, the liberal/progressive movement, much of the Democratic Party, and the current Administration believe, as did the misguided Supreme Court in Dred Scott, that unborn children have no rights that are bound to be respected by those lucky enough to have been born.


text:
The unique architectural character of Old Woodley Park is formed by strings of handsome, 20th-century rowhouses and townhouses constructed by a variety of notable local builders and architects. The actual building construction that eluded this area for so long was begun and largely completed in only 25 years (1905-1929), and resulted in a cohesive urban neighborhood consisting primarily of attached houses and the services which attended (and continue to attend) them.
Old Woodley Park Historic District is roughly bounded by 24th and 29th Sts., NW, to the west; Cathedral Ave., NW, to the north; Rock Creek Park to the east; and Calvert and Woodley Rds., NW, to the south. The buildings described are private and not open to the public. Metro stop: Woodley Park-Zoo
Itinerary Home | List of Sites | DC Map | Learn More | Next Site | Previous Site


text:
40% Off Site-Wide!*
*Offer valid online at www.bcbg.com through 11:59 P.M. PT on August 26, 2020. Valid on orders shipping within the U.S., Canada and select countries. Offer excludes gift cards, BCBGMAXAZRIA and BCBGMAXAZRIA Factory locations. Discount taken at checkout. Taxes, shipping and handling fees are excluded from any discount. Cannot be combined with some coupons and offers. All items marked "final sale" cannot be returned or exchanged. Merchandise purchased online is not returnable in stores. Additional exclusions may apply. Centric-BCBG Retail LLC reserves the right to modify or cancel this promotion at any time without notice.
Free U.S. Standard Shipping On Any Purchase
†Free U.S. standard shipping with any purchase on www.bcbg.com. Not valid on previous purchases. Click here for details.
We couldn't find what you were searching for. Try searching a related term, or exploring the links below.


text:
International Monetary Fund Annual Report 1959
Show Summary Details
International Monetary Fund Annual Report 1959
- I The World Economy in 1958-59
- II Activities and Policies of the Fund, 1958-59
- III Developments in International Payments and Domestic Finance: General Survey
- IV Domestic Financial Developments and External Payments in Selected Groups of Countries
- V Exchange Practices and Payments Arrangements
- VI Gold Production and Prices
- VII Fund Administration in 1958-59
- toggleAPPENDICES
- Appendix I. Membership, Quotas, Governors, and Voting Power as of April 30, 1959
- Appendix II. Changes in Membership of Board of Governors
- Appendix III. Executive Directors and Voting Poweras of April 30, 1959
- Appendix IV. Changes in Membership of Executive Board
- Appendix V. Enlargement of Fund Resources Through Increases in Quotas
- Appendix VI. Special Increases in Quotas
- Appendix VII. Summary of Fund Transactions from the beginning of operations to April 30, 19591
- Appendix VIII. Decision on Charges for Transactions and Stand-By Arrangements
- Appendix IX (i). Administrative Budget Letter of Transmittal
- Appendix X. Balance Sheet, Statement of Income and Expenditure, Statement of Reserves, and Supporting Schedules
- Appendix XI (i). Schedule of Par Values—as of June 30, 1959 Currencies of Metropolitan Areas


text:
Challenger Exterior Sheetmetal Replacement - The Continuing Saga
The Goodmark And YearOne "Big Challenge" Gets Back-Halved
In our July issue, we started work on our beyond-basket-case-rated Challenger and quickly realized we had bitten off a lot in the way of a project car. we've seen cars in better shape hit the crusher, but that's the way things are these days-the decent, rebuildable cars have either already been rebuilt or crushed years ago. In other words, acquiring a project car now usually means starting with a less-than-stellar candidate.
Last time, we tackled the floor replacement on the Challenger. That in itself was a big job, but now it was time to replace the exterior visible sheetmetal. Since we are replacing the metal, a plan was hatched to turn the car into a '70 model. Yes, we're going to change the look of the car. Many times, folks get defrauded by unscrupulous people who build a seemingly more desirable car from a less than desirable shell, and we want to assure everyone that such is not the case with this car. The car will retain its proper VIN, and forever be known as a '73 Challenger with '70 parts. Hey, don't yell at us. we asked you guys what you thought we should do, and the consensus was to change it. When considering a sheetmetal change, usually there is no problem until you consider things like trim items (e.g., side marker lights, bumpers, bumper brackets, and so on). So since we are making this car look like a '70 Challenger, we'll have to address items such as bumpers, grille, and taillights in the future.
For now, however, we need to focus on the outer sheetmetal. If you saw some of the photos in our previous installment, you know the car was really rusty, so metal removal was extensive. The best way to do this is to have the car firmly located on a frame jig. If that's not possible, several jackstands-although not as ideal-can be used. just make sure that no matter what method you use, do a lot of measuring before you weld to ensure that things are not welded improperly or the trunk and/or doors won't close properly.
Now it's time to get down to work and literally back half a car.


text:
NYC Weekend Picks: Claes Oldenburg at Moma, 'Pippin,' more
Our picks for things to do in the city this weekend.
"THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL" Cicely Tyson, Vanessa Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr. star in this all-black revival of Horton Foote's 1947 drama about an elderly woman trying to get home.
WHEN | WHERE Friday night at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m.; Sondheim Theatre, 124 W. 43rd St.
INFO $37-$142; 212-239-6200; thetriptobountifulbroadway.com
"THE TESTAMENT OF MARY" Formidable Irish actress Fiona Shaw stars in Colm Toibin's monodrama about Mary after the crucifixion.
WHEN | WHERE Friday night at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m.; Kerr Theatre, 219 W. 48th St.
INFO $50-$125; 212-239-6200; testamentonbroadway.com
"PIPPIN"' Diane Paulus ("Hair," "Porgy and Bess") directs this revival of Stephen Schwartz' musical about a young prince on a journey.
WHEN | WHERE Friday night at 8, Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m.; Music Box Theatre, 239 W. 45th St.
INFO $59-$148; 212-239-6200; pippinthemusical.com
"DECEPTIVE PRACTICE" This documentary, subtitled "The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay," follows the raconteur-magician's career from childhood apprenticeships to his one-man stage shows and work with David Mamet.
WHEN | WHERE Through April 30 at 1:00, 2:45, 4:30, 6:20, 8:10 and 10:10 daily at Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St., Manhattan.
INFO Tickets are $12.50, 212-727-8110, filmforum.org
CLAES OLDENBURG AT MOMA The earliest breakthroughs of the renowned NYC-based sculptor, now 84, are the focus at MoMA, which is showing four witty, inventive pieces from the 1960s: "The Street," "The Store," "Mouse Museum" and "Ray Gun Wing." Audiences will get to see how the master got his start.
WHEN | WHERE Now through Aug. 5, closed Tuesdays, Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St.
INFO $25, 212-708-9400, moma.org
ALLSWELL Nominally a gastropub, Allswell isn't too British or too pubby, though you can get a rich beef and Stilton pie ($5) at this friendly Williamsburg spot. Chef Nate Smith (formerly of the Spotted Pig) just cooks up dishes that are intelligently knitted together, such as a wild striped bass with olives, chick peas and fennel ($23).
WHEN | WHERE Lunch and dinner daily, 124 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn
INFO $21; 347-799-2743, allswellnyc.tumblr.com
AIMEE MANN Can't make it to her show at the Paramount tonight? You're in luck, the great singer-songwriter Aimee Mann stops in the city with Ted Leo before they head off to parts unknown.
WHEN | WHERE Saturday at 7 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 E. 11th St., Manhattan
INFO $35; 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com
NOUVEAU YORK The rotating cast of DJs will keep the party moving up in the penthouse -- but remember: You have to be at work in the morning.
WHEN | WHERE Sunday at 9 p.m., Le Bain at the Standard Hotel, 444 W. 13th St.
INFO Free, 212-645-4646
Compiled by Linda Winer, Rafer Guzmán, Ted Loos and Kevin Amorim.


text:
Click To Enlarge
Lower tempers, increase patience and tolerance. Spiritual anger management.
International customers please note:
7-Day candles are large, heavy, and glass-encased. They require a large padded box to ship safely. I can ship these internationally, but it is costly to do so. One alternative is to have me burn these here for you - that is offered under "Services" here:
If you still wish me to ship these candles to your international destination, please contact me at firstname.lastname@example.com. Just let me know how many candles you would like to purchase, and I will respond with a shipping quote. Thank you kindly!
- Item #: COOL-C
- Cannot ship to: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Korea, Republic of, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom, Venezuela
Cool Down 7-Day Candle
Reviews (0) Write a Review
No Reviews. Write a Review