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Military personnel
First awarded
February 22, 1932
Currently awarded
Military medal (Decoration)
Awarded for
"Being wounded or killed in any action against an enemy of the United States or as a result of an act of any such enemy or opposing armed forces"
Obverse profile of George Washington
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after April 5, 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, which took the form of a heart made of purple cloth, the Purple Heart is the oldest military award still given to U.S. military members – the only earlier award being the obsolete Fidelity Medallion. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York.
The original Purple Heart, designated as the Badge of Military Merit, was established by George Washington – then the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army – by order from his Newburgh, New York headquarters on August 7, 1782. The Badge of Military Merit was only awarded to three Revolutionary War soldiers by Gen. George Washington himself. General Washington authorized his subordinate officers to issue Badges of Merit as appropriate. From then on, as its legend grew, so did its appearance. Although never abolished, the award of the badge was not proposed again officially until after World War I.
On October 10, 1927, Army Chief of Staff General Charles Pelot Summerall directed that a draft bill be sent to Congress "to revive the Badge of Military Merit". The bill was withdrawn and action on the case ceased January 3, 1928, but the office of the Adjutant General was instructed to file all materials collected for possible future use. A number of private interests sought to have the medal re-instituted in the Army; this included the board of directors of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum in Ticonderoga, New York.
On January 7, 1931, Summerall's successor, General Douglas MacArthur, confidentially reopened work on a new design, involving the Washington Commission of Fine Arts. Elizabeth Will, an Army heraldic specialist in the Office of the Quartermaster General, was named to redesign the newly revived medal, which became known as the Purple Heart. Using general specifications provided to her, Will created the design sketch for the present medal of the Purple Heart. The new design, which exhibits a bust and profile of George Washington, was issued on the bicentennial of Washington's birth. Will's obituary, in the edition of February 8, 1975 of The Washington Post newspaper, reflects her many contributions to military heraldry.
The Commission of Fine Arts solicited plaster models from three leading sculptors for the medal, selecting that of John R. Sinnock of the Philadelphia Mint in May 1931. By Executive Order of the President of the United States, the Purple Heart was revived on the 200th Anniversary of George Washington's birth, out of respect to his memory and military achievements, by War Department General Order No. 3, dated February 22, 1932.
The criteria were announced in a War Department circular dated February 22, 1932, and authorized award to soldiers, upon their request, who had been awarded the Meritorious Service Citation Certificate, Army Wound Ribbon, or were authorized to wear Wound Chevrons subsequent to April 5, 1917, the day before the United States entered World War I. The first Purple Heart was awarded to MacArthur. During the early period of American involvement in World War II (December 7, 1941 – September 22, 1943), the Purple Heart was awarded both for wounds received in action against the enemy and for meritorious performance of duty. With the establishment of the Legion of Merit, by an Act of Congress, the practice of awarding the Purple Heart for meritorious service was discontinued. By Executive Order 9277, dated December 3, 1942, the decoration was applied to all services; the order required reasonable uniform application of the regulations for each of the Services. This executive order also authorized the award only for wounds received. For both military and civilian personnel during the World War II era, to meet eligibility for the Purple Heart, AR 600-45, dated September 22, 1943, and May 3, 1944, required identification of circumstances.
Subject to approval of the Secretary of Defense, Executive Order 10409, dated February 12, 1952, revised authorizations to include the Service Secretaries. Dated April 25, 1962, Executive Order 11016, included provisions for posthumous award of the Purple Heart. Dated February 23, 1984, Executive Order 12464, authorized award of the Purple Heart as a result of terrorist attacks, or while serving as part of a peacekeeping force, subsequent to March 28, 1973.
On June 13, 1985, the Senate approved an amendment to the 1985 Defense Authorization Bill, which changed the precedence of the Purple Heart award, from immediately above the Good Conduct Medal to immediately above the Meritorious Service Medals. Public Law 99-145 authorized the award for wounds received as a result of friendly fire. Public Law 104-106 expanded the eligibility date, authorizing award of the Purple Heart to a former prisoner of war who was wounded after April 25, 1962. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 (Public Law 105-85) changed the criteria to delete authorization for award of the Purple Heart to any civilian national of the United States, while serving under competent authority in any capacity with the Armed Forces. This change was effective May 18, 1998.
During World War II, nearly 500,000 Purple Heart medals were manufactured in anticipation of the estimated casualties resulting from the planned Allied invasion of Japan. To the present date, total combined American military casualties of the seventy years following the end of World War II—including the Korean and Vietnam Wars—have not exceeded that number. In 2003, there remained 120,000 Purple Heart medals in stock. The existing surplus allowed combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan to keep Purple Hearts on-hand for immediate award to soldiers wounded in the field.
The "History" section of the November 2009 edition of National Geographic estimated the number of Purple Hearts given. Above the estimates, the text reads, "Any tally of Purple Hearts is an estimate. Awards are often given during conflict; records aren't always exact" (page 33). The estimates are as follows:
The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States who, while serving under competent authority in any capacity with one of the U.S. Armed Services after April 5, 1917, has been wounded or killed. Specific examples of services which warrant the Purple Heart include any action against an enemy of the United States; any action with an opposing armed force of a foreign country in which the Armed Forces of the United States are or have been engaged; while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party; as a result of an act of any such enemy of opposing armed forces; or as the result of an act of any hostile foreign force. After March 28, 1973, it may be awarded as a result of an international terrorist attack against the United States or a foreign nation friendly to the United States, recognized as such an attack by the Secretary of the Army, or jointly by the Secretaries of the separate armed services concerned if persons from more than one service are wounded in the attack. After March 28, 1973, it may be awarded as a result of military operations while serving outside the territory of the United States as part of a peacekeeping force.
The Purple Heart differs from most other decorations in that an individual is not "recommended" for the decoration; rather he or she is entitled to it upon meeting specific criteria. A Purple Heart is awarded for the first wound suffered under conditions indicated above, but for each subsequent award an oak leaf cluster or 5/16 inch star is worn in lieu of another medal. Not more than one award will be made for more than one wound or injury received at the same instant.
A "wound" is defined as an injury to any part of the body from an outside force or agent sustained under one or more of the conditions listed above. A physical lesion is not required; however, the wound for which the award is made must have required treatment by a medical officer and records of medical treatment for wounds or injuries received in action must have been made a matter of official record. When contemplating an award of this decoration, the key issue that commanders must take into consideration is the degree to which the enemy caused the injury. The fact that the proposed recipient was participating in direct or indirect combat operations is a necessary prerequisite, but is not sole justification for award. The Purple Heart is not awarded for non-combat injuries.
Enemy-related injuries which justify the award of the Purple Heart include: injury caused by enemy bullet, shrapnel, or other projectile created by enemy action; injury caused by enemy placed land mine, naval mine, or trap; injury caused by enemy released chemical, biological, or nuclear agent; injury caused by vehicle or aircraft accident resulting from enemy fire; and, concussion injuries caused as a result of enemy generated explosions.
Injuries or wounds which do not qualify for award of the Purple Heart include frostbite or trench foot injuries; heat stroke; food poisoning not caused by enemy agents; chemical, biological, or nuclear agents not released by the enemy; battle fatigue; disease not directly caused by enemy agents; accidents, to include explosive, aircraft, vehicular, and other accidental wounding not related to or caused by enemy action; self-inflicted wounds (e.g., a soldier accidentally or intentionally fires their own gun and the bullet strikes his or her leg), except when in the heat of battle, and not involving gross negligence; post-traumatic stress disorders; and jump injuries not caused by enemy action.
It is not intended that such a strict interpretation of the requirement for the wound or injury to be caused by direct result of hostile action be taken that it would preclude the award being made to deserving personnel. Commanders must also take into consideration the circumstances surrounding an injury, even if it appears to meet the criteria. In the case of an individual injured while making a parachute landing from an aircraft that had been brought down by enemy fire; or, an individual injured as a result of a vehicle accident caused by enemy fire, the decision will be made in favor of the individual and the award will be made. As well, individuals wounded or killed as a result of "friendly fire" in the "heat of battle" will be awarded the Purple Heart as long as the "friendly" projectile or agent was released with the full intent of inflicting damage or destroying enemy troops or equipment. Individuals injured as a result of their own negligence, such as by driving or walking through an unauthorized area known to have been mined or placed off limits or searching for or picking up unexploded munitions as war souvenirs, will not be awarded the Purple Heart as they clearly were not injured as a result of enemy action, but rather by their own negligence.
From 1942 to 1997, civilians serving or closely affiliated with the armed forces—as government employees, Red Cross workers, war correspondents, and the like—were eligible to receive the Purple Heart. Among the earliest civilians to receive the award were nine firefighters of the Honolulu Fire Department killed or wounded while fighting fires at Hickam Field during the attack on Pearl Harbor. About 100 men and women received the award, the most famous being newspaperman Ernie Pyle who was awarded a Purple Heart posthumously by the Army after being killed by Japanese machine gun fire in the Pacific Theater, near the end of World War II. Before his death, Pyle had seen and experienced combat in the European Theater, while accompanying and writing about infantrymen for the folks back home.
The most recent Purple Hearts presented to civilians occurred after the terrorist attacks at Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia, in 1996—for their injuries, about 40 U.S. civil service employees received the award.
However, in 1997, at the urging of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Congress passed legislation prohibiting future awards of the Purple Heart to civilians. Today, the Purple Heart is reserved for men and women in uniform. Civilian employees of the U.S. Department of Defense who are killed or wounded as a result of hostile action may receive the new Defense of Freedom Medal. This award was created shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Animals are generally not eligible for the Purple Heart; however, there have been rare instances when animals holding military rank were honored with the award. An example includes the horse Sergeant Reckless during the Korean War.
The Purple Heart award is a heart-shaped medal within a gold border, 1 3⁄8 inches (35 mm) wide, containing a profile of General George Washington. Above the heart appears a shield of the coat of arms of George Washington (a white shield with two red bars and three red stars in chief) between sprays of green leaves. The reverse consists of a raised bronze heart with the words FOR MILITARY MERIT below the coat of arms and leaves.
The ribbon is 1 and 3⁄8 inches (35 mm) wide and consists of the following stripes: 1⁄8 inch (3 mm) white 67101; 1 1⁄8 inches (29 mm) purple 67115; and 1⁄8 inch (3 mm) white 67101.
Additional awards of the Purple Heart are denoted by oak leaf clusters in the Army and Air Force, and additional awards of the Purple Heart Medal are denoted by 5/16 inch stars in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.
Current active duty personnel are awarded the Purple Heart upon recommendation from their chain of command, stating the injury that was received and the action in which the service member was wounded. The award authority for the Purple Heart is normally at the level of an Army Brigade, Marine Corps Division, Air Force Wing, or Navy Task Force. While the award of the Purple Heart is considered automatic for all wounds received in combat, each award presentation must still be reviewed to ensure that the wounds received were as a result of enemy action. Modern day Purple Heart presentations are recorded in both hardcopy and electronic service records. The annotation of the Purple Heart is denoted both with the service member's parent command and at the headquarters of the military service department. An original citation and award certificate are presented to the service member and filed in the field service record.
During the Vietnam War, Korean War, and World War II, the Purple Heart was often awarded on the spot, with occasional entries made into service records. In addition, during mass demobilizations following each of America's major wars of the 20th century, it was common occurrence to omit mention from service records of a Purple Heart award. This occurred due to clerical errors, and became problematic once a service record was closed upon discharge. In terms of keeping accurate records, it was commonplace for some field commanders to engage in bedside presentations of the Purple Heart. This typically entailed a general entering a hospital with a box of Purple Hearts, pinning them on the pillows of wounded service members, then departing with no official records kept of the visit, or the award of the Purple Heart. Service members, themselves, complicated matters by unofficially leaving hospitals, hastily returning to their units to rejoin battle so as to not appear a malingerer. In such cases, even if a service member had received actual wounds in combat, both the award of the Purple Heart, as well as the entire visit to the hospital, was unrecorded in official records.
Service members requesting retroactive awards of the Purple Heart must normally apply through the National Personnel Records Center. Following a review of service records, qualified Army members are awarded the Purple Heart by the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Virginia. Air Force veterans are awarded the Purple Heart by the Awards Office of Randolph Air Force Base, while Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, present Purple Hearts to veterans through the Navy Liaison Officer at the National Personnel Records Center. Simple clerical errors, where a Purple Heart is denoted in military records, but was simply omitted from a (WD AGO Form 53-55 (predecessor to the) DD Form 214 (Report of Separation), are corrected on site at the National Personnel Records Center through issuance of a DD-215 document.
Retroactive requests
Because the Purple Heart did not exist prior to 1932, decoration records are not annotated in the service histories of veterans wounded, or killed, by enemy action, prior to establishment of the medal. The Purple Heart is, however, retroactive to 1917 meaning it may be presented to veterans as far back as First World War. Prior to 2006, service departments would review all available records, including older service records, and service histories, to determine if a veteran warranted a retroactive Purple Heart. As of 2008, such records are listed as "Archival", by the National Archives and Records Administration, meaning they have been transferred from the custody of the military, and can no longer be loaned and transferred for retroactive medals determination. In such cases, requestors asking for a Purple Heart (especially from records of the First World War) are provided with a complete copy of all available records (or reconstructed records in the case of the 1973 fire) and advised the Purple Heart may be privately purchased if the requestor feels it is warranted.
A clause to the archival procedures was revised in mid-2008, where if a veteran, or, if deceased, an immediate member of the family, requested the Purple Heart, on an Army or Air Force record, the medal could still be granted by the National Archives. In such cases, where a determination was required made by the military service department, photocopies of the archival record, (but not the record itself), would be forwarded to the headquarters of the military branch in question. This stipulation was granted only for the Air Force and Army; Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard archival medals requests are still typically only offered a copy of the file and told to purchase the medal privately. For requests directly received from veterans, these are routed through a Navy Liaison Office, on site at 9700 Page Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63132-5100 (the location of the Military Personnel Records Center).
Destroyed record requests
Due to the 1973 National Archives Fire, a large number of retroactive Purple Heart requests are difficult to verify because all records to substantiate the award may have been destroyed. As a solution to deal with Purple Heart requests, where service records were destroyed in the 1973 fire, the National Personnel Records Center maintains a separate office. In such cases, NPRC searches through unit records, military pay records, and records of the Department of Veterans Affairs. If a Purple Heart is warranted, all available alternate records sources are forwarded to the military service department for final determination of issuance.
The loaning of fire related records to the military has declined since 2006 because a large number of such records now fall into the "archival records" category of military service records. This means the records were transferred from the military to the National Archives, and in such cases, the Purple Heart may be privately purchased by the requestor (see above section of retroactive requests for further details) but is no longer provided by the military service department.
Most Purple Heart awards
Nine Purple Hearts:
Eight Purple Hearts:
In popular culture
In May 2003, the United States Postal Service issued a Purple Heart postage stamp to honor sacrifices of those who served.
Swedish Power Metal band, Sabaton has a track entitled Purple Heart on their 2005 album Primo Victoria, which was written about soldiers fallen in battle.
In May 2006, a soldier made national headlines after giving his Purple Heart to a girl who had written many letters to troops.
In May 2007, Vietnam veteran Jerrell Hudman announced that he planned to give one of his three Purple Hearts to George, a Jack Russell terrier. George died from injuries sustained when he saved a group of five children from being mauled by two pit bull terriers in New Zealand.
In August 2016, the then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump received a Purple Heart as a gift from supporter Lieutenant Colonel Louis Dorfman. This prompted the former Republican nominee to reply, "I've always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was... much easier."


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30 Different Types of Kisses
Different Types of Kisses
Kissing is the universal acts of showing love. Almost everyone gives or receives kiss at some point in their life. There are many types of kisses. Here you can see some of the kissing styles.
- French Kiss – The French is considered most popular romantic kiss. French kiss is an open-mouthed kiss where one person's tongue touches the other person's tongue. This is why it is also known as tongue kissing. This type of kiss is very easy to execute but but it can take years to master.
- Lingering Lip Kiss – Lingering lip kiss is a closed mouth kiss that lasts for more than 20 seconds. Lingering lip kisses involve the lips only, tongue is not involved . This kiss serves as an indication of deep love.
- Butterfly Kiss – To give someone a butterfly kiss, get close to them so that your eyelashes touch. Then blink very fast so your eyelashes flutter together like butterfly wings. This is a fun kiss. You can also give a solo butterfly kiss by fluttering your eyelids against their cheek.
- Single Lip Kiss – This type of kiss involves gently sucking another person's lip. To give your partner a single-lip kiss, you have to take any one of their lips sandwiched between yours and suck gently.It's an awfully romantic kiss, and if you do it right, you'll send a strong romantic signal to you partner.
- Spider man Kiss – Based on the kiss in the movie Spider-Man, the Spiderman kiss involves kissing someone whose face is upside-down from yours, so your top lip kisses their bottom lip and vice versa.
- Earlobe Kiss – A great kiss to to perform while you're taking a break from lip kisses, the earlobe kiss involves taking someone's earlobe lightly between your lips and tugging gently downward. This kiss can be made more intense by gently rubbing the tongue in a circular motion on the earlobe.
- Lip Gloss Kiss – This is a fun, flirty kiss for girlfriends to give their boyfriends. Put on a healthy amount of lip gloss or lip Stick, then rub your lips on your partners' lips until theirs are coated. It is recommended that you use a lip gloss that is sweet and flavored to surprise your partner.
- Eskimo Kiss – In an Eskimo kiss, two people rub their noses back and forth against each other. It is commonly used by children and parents as an indication of affection. It's based on real kisses that people in Eskimo cultures give their friends. Just like with lip kisses, Eskimo kisses are best executed with your eyes closed.
- Cheek Kiss – The cheek kiss is exactly what it sounds like – a closed mouth kiss against someone's cheek. Cheek kisses can be used as friendly greetings, flirty thank-you's or to say goodbye to someone you love.
- Hickey Kiss – A hickey kiss left a red mark left on the skin after someone sucks hard enough on it. Hickeys hurt a little to get, but some people think the sucking feels good, especially on the side of the neck. Before you start hickey kiss, get permission first.
- Secret Message Kiss – In the middle of a French kiss, spell out a secret message with the tip of your tongue against their tongue. It might feel a little funny to the other person, but at least you'll be getting your message across.
- Vampire Kiss – The vampire kiss is a deep kiss on someone's neck that can involve sucking or light biting on the skin. Since some people find it painful rather than sexy, and since the sucking might leave a hickey, it is important to find out whether your partner likes it or not. It is done for fun.
- Wet Kiss – Wet kisses are any open-mouthed kisses with or without tongue. A little bit of wetness during a kiss can be sexy, but try not to overdo it: too much saliva is sloppy.
- Lizard Kiss – The lizard kiss involves flicking your tongue in and out of your partner's mouth in tight, quick strokes. You can try this kiss just for fun.
- Air Kiss – The air kiss can use as a greeting to your friends and relatives. To give one, rest your cheek against their cheek and make a kissing sound with your lips.
- Biting Kiss – This kiss is a more aggressive form of the French kiss. Like the French kiss, it's open-mouthed and incorporates tongue, but as you pull back, your teeth lightly grab onto your sweetie's tongue for just a second.
- Angel Kiss – To give someone an angel kiss, kiss them very gently on their eyelids or on the spot right next to their eye, using just your lips. It's a very romantic way to wake someone up or say goodbye.
- Neck Kiss – As the name suggests, neck kissing involves kissing someone's neck. Most people love doing it after French kissing for a while. You have to learn to keep the saliva 'light' to execute this type of kiss perfectly. Use only your lips and do not suck hard to prevent you mouth from producing much saliva.
- Jawline Kiss – To plant a jawline kiss on someone, give them a firm kiss on the bottom of their jaw, right where their face meets their neck. If they respond well to it, make a path of jawline kisses up to their ear and give them an earlobe kiss. It is usually fun to kiss someone's jawline after having some intense French kissing.
- Breath Kiss – The breath kiss is a fun, silly kiss that's almost more of a game than a kiss. To do it, open your mouth, inhale deeply and lock lips with your sweetie. Slowly exhale into their mouth while they are inhaling, passing the breath to them. Without moving, slowly inhale while your partner exhales. Keep passing the breath back and forth until one of you runs out of breath or you both erupt in giggles.
- Love Kiss – The love kiss is any kiss that you give while thinking tender, loving thoughts about your partner. Smooching with love on your mind will make your kisses extra soft and sweet. Whether it's on your partner's mouth, neck, ear or forehead, the love kiss is the most romantic kiss you can give.
- Forehead Kiss – The forehead kiss usually means that you are just friends. Depending on how it is planted, it can also be used as a means of showing deep affection to a loved one. Most people use use it as a starter kiss when they meet someone new, to express that they like them.
- Hand Kiss – It is given by gently grasping someone's hand by the fingers and kissing the back side. The hand kiss demonstrates respect, adoration and kindness.
- Upside-Down Kiss – This type of kiss originates from the Spiderman movie. This romantic kiss is also known as the spiderman kiss. It involves kissing a person whose head is upside-down from yours.
- The Peck – The peck is a short tight lipped kiss on the lips or cheeks. It is used as an expression of friendship. A peck can also spark romance between two people.
- Secret Message Kiss – This is a French kiss with a 'secret message'. It involves spelling out a message to your partner in the in the middle of a French kiss. This kiss is useful if you want to pass a romantic message to your partner.
- Lizard Kiss – This kiss involves sticking your tongue in and out of your partner's mouth. It is done in quick strokes. The lizard kiss is usually practiced just for fun.
- Angel Kiss – This kiss involves kissing someone gently on the eyelids or on a spot near the eyes using the lips. This type of kiss indicates deep affection and is mostly used when saying goodbye to someone or when waking up a loved one.
- Biting Kiss – This is an open mouthed kiss that incorporates the tongue just like the French kiss. The only difference between this kiss and the French kiss is the fact that the teeth are also put into use. The teeth gently grab your partners tongue as you kiss.
- Teaser Kiss – This kiss begins from the forehead, to the lips and then down to the arms and hands. On reaching the hands, the sequence is reversed from the hands then up to the lips and forehead. This kiss can be quite useful if you want to turn on your partner and make them want more.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Houthis in Yemen will defeat these bastards.
"Turkish Prime Minister Davutoglu spoke of strong ties with Pakistan. "Pakistan's pain is our pain and Pakistan's propriety is our prosperity." He added the Muslim world faced several challenges and stressed on the need to hold bilateral dialogues.LOL @ that last statement. Turkey is helping ISIS take over Syria, and Pakistan is helping the Taliban take over Afghanistan, and these clowns still have to audacity to talk about protecting "regional stability."
Prime Minister Davutoglu added that the situation in the Middle East was affecting Turkey and Pakistan and both countries were supportive of seeking a peaceful solution. "We have discussed what Turkey and Pakistan can do in order to protect regional stability."
The military dictators of Pakistan and Egypt have run their own countries into the ground over the decades with Washington's assistance. But that's not enough for them, now they want to lend a hand to Saudi Arabia to destroy whatever is left of Yemen, too. And the funny thing about it is that Saudi Arabia is offering these dictators a handful of change. They are not even respected by their so-called ally.
Ganging up on Yemen and suppressing a popular revolt there will not win them any friends in that country. But they don't care about their own people, let alone the people of Yemen.
None of these stupid leaders who have publicly backed Saudi Arabia's aggression against Yemen are thinking about their countries' long-term interests. They just want to get paid now, and they'll ask questions later. Since the governments of Egypt and Pakistan are failures they'll jump on any opportunity to distract their citizens from the horrible economy in their countries.


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Since July 2016, I have walked 438 miles playing Pokémon Go, reaching level 30 in the location-based mobile game. I'm not sure how much more walking I'll be doing with the game, as I've downloaded its successor now.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a very ambitious augmented reality mobile game from Warner Bros.' Portkey Games and Niantic, launched on Thursday on iOS and Android after years of development. And you'll see a lot more gameplay in this game than Pokémon Go had when it debuted.
The stakes are high for this game. Market insight firm AppAnnie estimates that Wizards Unite will generate $100 million in revenue in its first month. In three years, Pokémon Go which generated $2 billion in revenues.
Apple, which is working away on an augmented reality secret project, clearly hopes that AR is going to take off with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite as well as Minecraft Earth.
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Niantic's aim in creating its game is to get people outside and exploring the world around them, instead of staying inside glued to screens. It wants people to exercise more and become familiar with the monuments and other things around them.
Combining Harry Potter with Niantic's exercise gaming is sure to trigger a lot more exercise for sedentary gamers. With Pokémon Go and Ingress, Niantic's fans have walked more than 23 billion kilometers (14.3 billion miles) to date, said John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, in a press briefing in March.
The signs are good. My Facebook newsfeed lit up with Harry Potter comments and people listing their friendship codes throughout yesterday. The AR is better and more integrated into the game. And you have a lot more things to do than you could with the early Pokémon Go.
The back story
The title is built on the same mapping technology behind Pokémon Go, which puts an animated overlay on the real world map. You can walk to different points on the map to discover creatures and magical items in the real world. You can find animated objects or creatures and interact with them, including walking around 3D animations of locations from the worlds of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts.
In Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, players are new recruits of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force working to solve the mystery of the Calamity. Because of this event, the secrets of the Wizarding World are at risk of being exposed to ordinary people (muggles). Players unite to fight the threat. They will be able to explore their neighborhoods and cities to discover mysterious artifacts, cast spells, and encounter fantastic beasts and iconic characters along the way.
The game takes place after the events of the Deathly Hallows, the final Harry Potter book. All wizards and witches have to unite to fight the threat. Mary Casey, executive director of product at WB Games San Francisco, said that in the game, a law was passed in 1692 that created a Statute of Secrecy, which sought to keep the Wizarding World secret from muggles. The developers didn't mention it, but that so happens to be the year of the Salem witch trials.
But a Calamity has occurred, threatening the sacred law and creating the risk of items known as "foundables" appearing all over the place. These are artifacts like wizards, beasts, and items that have been scattered throughout the mobile world. They are shrouded in a type of magic known as "confoundable magic," but it's not clear how long that shroud will last and the objects will remain hidden.
The British Ministry of Magic has called the wizards together to explore their neighborhoods, find the foundables, overcome the confoundable magic, and return the items to their rightful place. If you travel, you'll find different creatures in different places.
The game kicks off with a call to arms to join the Statute of Secrecy Task Force and scour the world for the items. The game is built around a story with a multiyear narrative arc that will have players solving various mysteries, including the truth behind the Calamity.
Like Pokémon Go, Wizards Unite is a free-to-play game with in-app purchases.
Hands-on in the Wizarding World
I got a full briefing from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Niantic in March, and I downloaded the game yesterday and went for a walk in the park with my daughter.
From the very loading screen, the experience is more cinematic. The characters move and the world has more ambient activity, like owls flying around the sky.
You create a Ministry ID, create your avatar, pick your magical house (like mine, Gryffindor) and customize it as you wish. When you find a foundable like Harry Potter, you'll see him being threatened by a Dementor. You have to cast enough spells in a synchronous battle to defeat the Dementor and liberate Harry.
While players explore the real world, they will find a variety of Wizarding locations on their map, such as inns, greenhouses, fortresses, and magical traces where players can trigger specific encounters. When you find an inn, you can go inside it and eat some food, which gives you energy so that you can cast spells. You can see more than 100 types of encounters in the game, and that will expand over time.
The basic mechanic to cast a spell is to precisely trace a pattern, or glyph, on your screen. If you do it well, you'll have a better chance of doing damage to the creature, which you can view in AR or an animated mode. You'll see magical trades on your smartphone screen map as you walk around. If you tap on them, you'll try to beat their "confounding magic." I had a little trouble getting great traces.
I've already got 13 friends. But I'm going to try to avoid being a friend slut this time. I got too many friends in Pokémon Go and I was never able to interact with them all.
While Pokémon Go focused on collecting at the outset, the Harry Potter game will start with more gameplay options for players. Eventually, over two-and-a-half years, Niantic added to Pokémon Go more features, such as friends, a greater variety of creatures, raids, trading, and player battles. Harry Potter won't start with all of those, but Niantic now has the benefit of having developed those things in its previous games, and that could make them available in Harry Potter sooner, Hanke said.
Fortress battles
The Harry Potter game also has more activities for hardcore gamers with Wizarding Challenges, which resemble the raids in Pokémon Go. With those synchronous multiplayer activities, players can team up and attack fortresses on the map. That gives players leveling-up experiences similar to role-playing games, with things like shared arenas, combat encounters, and group-wide arena effects.
I've done a couple of these battles with my kid. You have to make sure you drink enough potion to be able to stay in the fight long enough to beat all of the enemies.
Adding to the RPG gameplay, players can specialize in different professions: Auror, Magizoologist, and Professor. Players from different professions will be encouraged to work together to defeat Wizarding Challenges and unlock rare content.
And then, the game has treats for fans of the Harry Potter world in the form of Portkeys. Upon discovering and activating a Portkey Portmanteau, players will be able to reveal an immersive VR-like experience and transport themselves to explore iconic Wizarding World locations. In my preview, I saw one such place in the form of Ollivanders Wand Shop in the Diagon Alley area. This shop looked beautiful, and it is unlike anything you can do in Pokémon Go.
If you visit greenhouses scattered throughout the world, you'll be able to collect different kinds of ingredients. With those, you can craft potions. The kind of ingredients available will depend on your biomes, with ingredients available changing based on weather conditions.
I've only gone out for a single walk with my kid so far, and it was too cold to hang out. We found we had to spend a lot more time standing around a given spot, because of the AR combat. Some people who want to walk more than they want to play might turn off the AR.
But that would be a shame, as AR adds more life to the game.
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I'm writing a script to copy some files around, and trying to use
shopt -s dotglob to enable cp to copy dotfiles like
.jshint and whatnot.
I can run
shopt -s dotglob directly at a bash prompt with no error. However, running the script throws the error:
script.sh: 81: script.sh: shopt: not found
I'm running this script in bash shell, with the shebang header
#!/usr/bin/env bash. Error line:
shopt -s dotglob
cp -r $TEMP/img/* $TARGET/img/
cp -r $TEMP/js/* $TARGET/js/
cp -r $TEMP/less/* $TARGET/less/
Not finding anything helpful on google, any idea what the problem is here?


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Disquiet for some as DNS-over-HTTPS is readied for prime time; Apple hits back at Google over iPhone hack warning; and a parody music video tackles phishing head-on
Apple this week hit back at recent research by Google about a supposedly "sustained effort" to hack iPhones as part of a sophisticated surveillance operation that's said to date back at least two years.
Hacked websites were being used to serve exploits to surfers who visited them using their iPhones.
The sophisticated attack had "the capability to target and monitor the private activities of entire populations in real time", Google's Project Zero researchers warned.
Exaggeration, according to Apple, which contended Google is spreading FUD over the impact of already patched iPhone bugs.
In downplaying the extent of the admittedly sophisticated attack, Apple confirmed it had targeted China's Uighur Muslim minority.
Apple said the assault was "narrowly focused, not a broad-based exploit of iPhones 'en-masse' as described" and only affected fewer than a dozen websites.
Apple's counter-offensive – which came days before the company introduced the iPhone 11 in a major revamp of the product line – was discussed by show co-host Graham Cluley in this week's edition of the ever dynamic and fun Smashing Security podcast.
Play DoH
Your own correspondent had the honour of appearing as a guest on Smashing Security this week, where we also discussed the privacy benefits and previous controversies about DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), an emerging internet protocol.
The DoH protocol hides DNS queries inside regular HTTPS traffic, making it more difficult for third parties such as governments or ISPs to keep tabs on surfer's internet browsing.
Mozilla last week announced plans to roll out the technology as a default option, initially to US web users and starting later this month.
In promoting the technology, which has been offered as an option in Firefox since June 2018, Mozilla was at pains to address concerns over parental controls and DNS-over-HTTPS.
The browser-maker said it would disable the protocol if it detects them, a response that drew a cautious welcome from ISPA, as The Daily Swig reported earlier this week.
In the wake of Mozilla's announcement, Google released a blog post saying it planned to introduce DNS-over-HTTPS in October.
Although the security community in general remains upbeat about the security and privacy benefits of DoH, concerns remain in some quarters about how the technology would work in practice.
DoH means that Firefox will concentrate all DNS traffic on Cloudflare, and they send traffic from all their users to one entity and this could actually work in favour of, rather than contrary to, government surveillance, some argue.
A serious topic, to be sure, but during the podcast we also discussed whether DoH should be pronounced like Homer Simpson's catchphrase (D'oh) or dough (as in bread making), inspiring a putative meme in the process:
Show me the 'sploits
Discussions about bug bounties recently made their way to the mainstream press, with a Daily Mail interview with celebrated security researcher Mark Litchfield.
Litchfield, one of a handful of elite hackers who have earned $1m or more through HackerOne's bug bounty program, said that his main motivation was being rewarded for his skills, rather than making the internet safer.
"I'm in it for the money – it's my time, my skills and I should be fairly paid," he told the tabloid. "I don't care about making the internet safer."
Staying with bugs, a community-developed exploit module for the infamous BlueKeep (CVE-2019-0708) vulnerability in Windows was released by the Metasploit Project late last week.
BlueKeep is a recently patched RDP flaw in Windows that Microsoft unusually warned might be wormable in the same way as WannaCry at the time it released a fix.
Infosec search index
In other news, the most Googled people, businesses, scams and breaches in the history of cybersecurity were spotlighted in a study that came out this week.
Among the findings was that the 2017 Equifax breach has become the most searched for data breach ever. The Heartbleed security bug was searched for more than any other security threat, even WannaCry.
More surprising still was that Shark Tank investor and infosec entrepreneur Robert Herjavec emerged from the study as possibly the most famous person in security.
John McAfee appeared in second place in the list ahead of Kevin Mitnick, the self-styled "World's most famous hacker", Bruce Schneier, and Troy Hunt.
The study (PDF) – put together by managed threat detection firm Redscan – was based on analysis of Google Trends global search history dating back to 2004.
Searches for cybersecurity jobs, courses, and salaries are growing quickly, indicative of a rising interest in security careers and demand for talent, according to Redscan.
Gone phishing
Finally, a new Host Unknown music video landed this week for a song entitled 'Lost all the Money'. The music video – a parody of Nelly's 'Ride Wit Me' – serves to shine the spotlight on phishing attacks.
The release represents the eagerly awaited third song from UK-based infosec community stalwarts Thom Langford, Andrew Agnês, and Javvad Malik.
Previous releases by the trio include 2014's seminal 'I'm a C I Double S P', follow up by 2016's 'Accepted the Risk'.
In an ego-crushing snub, none of the trio's previous videos earned a Pwnie Award, the infosec world's equivalent of the Oscars.


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Yesterday's stunning sunrise was a benign beginning to the last few hours as Cyclone Wilma began racing her way over the top of New Zealand's North Island on her way to somewhere else.
In her wake, this naughty lady has left flooding and destruction, power outages, landslips, destroyed homes and disrupted lives.
The Flying Tortoise is grounded by 120kph winds and bucketloads of horizontal rain at the moment but the sun is still shining.
Life's not all that bad...
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sunrise At Bowentown...
3 comments:
Hope you get through it OK and without any damage to that beautiful home on wheels that you have.ReplyDelete
Thanks DD, the worst of Wilma is over and another clean-up will begin for many. TFT is sitting stubbornly on the shore and all is well...ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 30, 2011 at 5:09 AM
Good! I know it is crazy but I love big storms and they sure make you feel small.ReplyDelete
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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What's the oldest disc in your bag? For me, it's a 180-gram DGA 'Disc Golf Disc' #1, which was factored by Steady Ed himself into a less stable #4. I bought it from Steady Ed at his warehouse in Freedom, CA after getting a little tour of the facilities. I'd guess it came out of the mold in the late 80's or early 90's, and I bought it around 1997 or so. I paid Ed $20 for that disc, and a few others like it!
And it's not in my bag for nostalgic reasons, either. I only use it as a roller, and it's useful because I can start it off almost like an airshot thrown into the ground and it will stand up and eventually turn over. On #6 I actually put hyzer on it- it's that understable. At DeLa, I use it as my driver on #6 (remember I'm a lefty), and I regularly use it for the tricky 2nd shot on I-5 (hole 13). The second-oldest disc in my bag might be my 'beat putter,' an Aviar from an early 90's tourney at DeLa with a Jamba Juice stamp.


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Hi from Norway to all my Friends and Fotography Fans! I've enjoyed a full and exciting fall and winter in 2009/2010 with my photography business and traveling, and that's what I'm going to talk about here. I always said it is unfortunate when people allowed their work to permeate into their personal lives, yet here I am doing the same in this newsletter. I suppose that's what happens when you're doing something you love to do, that you're passionate about, which for me is photography.
From May to August 2009 I was in Iceland traveling, hiking, and photographing, and I talked about those adventures in my last newsletter. Since then, I spent the autumn season at my family's home in Long Lake in the Adirondack region of the USA, photographing and being a bit of an office nerd editing photos and working on maintaining/promoting my photography business, Wildernesscapes Photography. On some of my panoramas, I spend hours, sometimes even a whole day, stitching, correcting, and enhancing the multiple (up to 50) image files that I composite into a final panorama. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but I think it's worth it when I print out a flawless 8ft wide panorama.
(Note: this next paragraph gets introspective and you may wish to skip ahead.) I've also been in the gradual and sometimes even subconscious process of formulating a vision and a plan for my photography business, which is necessary to do if one is serious. Most photographers out there that have a desire to show/sell their work in some capacity, begin with an website, hoping to get enough internet traffic trickling in from the world's billion people on the net, because it's a numbers game after all. That's what I believed, actually, back in 2006 after getting back from photographing in New Zealand, with a newfound desire to sell my photography. And so not knowing anything else other than I needed a website to promote myself, I looked in the yellow pages of the phone book for 'website developer', and ended up spending thousands of dollars for a custom website that I don't use anymore. But we all have to begin somewhere, don't we? And so once I had a website yet no sales, and continued to photograph landscapes around the world without real direction, and I decided that photography was really wanted I wanted to do in life as a career (by 2008), I started to realize that I need to have direction and drive in my photography business if I was ever going to make it. So I decided to capitalize on my local roots in the beautiful and vacationing area of the Adirondack Park, and I focused on becoming an established Adirondack photographer. And that's now where the majority of my income comes from. I'm just contemplative right now, because I've skiing and hiking in the Norwegien mountains for the last month, alone, in the dead of winter, and that gives you a lot of time to think. And I've been thinking of where I came from, and where I'm going in my photography business.
So this is my current vision: I believe to make it in the photography business today, you have to specialize; you have to be known as the go-to person for a specific area of photography. Specialists also make more money than generalists, in any profession. Yet you also have to diversify yourself, because it's just so competitive out there. So, how to specialize and diversify simultaneously? You have to focus on a few niche areas. I've identified three niche areas for myself: panoramic Adirondack landscape (fine art) photography, panoramic adventure photography (featuring people/adventurers in epic landscapes) for stock photo agencies, and adventure photography workshops and photo tours (capitalizing on my in-depth locational knowledge of places like the Adirondacks and Iceland). So whatever I'm doing in my photography business, from now on, is going to be targeted at developing and promoting one of these three areas.
So, this past fall, I was photographing landscapes and adventure photography in the Adirondacks, my home. I also attended a premier adventure photography workshop out in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, photographing professional outdoor models alongside industry-famous pros like Corey Rich and magazine photo editors like Sabine Meyers. Of course, I stayed an extra week and backpacked an awesome route north to south through Grand Teton National Park, photographing other clueless backpackers from behind trees, and more-aware alpine marmots and mule deer from a few feet away. Gone are my days of going fast and covering 25 miles in a day – instead you'll likely find me hiking back and forth for an hour on the same 25 foot section of trail, with a remote camera trigger in hand. So I guess this is where I'm forced to merge profession with personal life, like I talked about before, but I'm okay with this.
I am currently following some leads in the adventure stock area, so I decided to build up my adventure stock portfolio even more by traveling to Iceland and Norway for 2 months in January and February 2010. (I began conscientiously doing adventure photography on my Denali mountaineering expedition back in 2007, then followed it up on Aconcagua, and finally got more serious about it half way through my Iceland travels in 2009). The original idea for this Nordic winter trip was to get some epic 360 degree panoramas with a glowing tent high up in the snowy mountains with the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) overhead. I've seen a lot of northern lights photos, but none like I just described. My car I owned in Iceland over last summer never sold, so I also had a 4x4 car waiting for me to use in Iceland, and Iceland and Norway are two of the best areas for viewing the northern lights. So this is the how the trip was born.
On a whole, my Iceland and Norway trip was successful, in terms of the photos I think I'm coming home with, and in the adventures I had. It had its difficult times, though. It's been very cold in Norway, dropping as low as -28 Celsius, and camping out in a tent night after night in these temperatures is very tiring and unpleasant; I have to scrap off a handful of frost each morning that condenses on the inside of the tent, and my sleeping bag gets wet enough after a few nights of this to become an ineffective insulator so that I'm still shivering in my sleeping bag all night, even though I'm wearing 4 layers including a down parka. Iceland was incessantly windy, making setting up a tent not so fun, but also not so cold, so at least I could sleep in car, with the gusts of wind rocking my car and putting me to sleep. I've also found it challenging always doing adventure photography solo, always having to set up a tripod and remote trigger so I can be in the frame. It lends itself ok to those epic wide panoramas with a small person in them on the edge of a cliff or something similar, but more difficult to capture motion and up-close spontaneity. I did capture in Iceland of Norway one night each of spectacular northern lights overhead my tent in the mountains like I envisioned, but overall the aurora activity was quite low and disappointing this season. It's forecasted to increase in 2012, however, so maybe I'll go back then.
My Iceland travels focused on going back to areas I had visited this past summer, which I thought would lend themselves well for adventure photos, such as my favorite area of Iceland, the West Fjords. I finally visited the East Fjords which I managed to somehow completely run out of time to visit after 4 months this past summer, and attempted a trek through the mountains around Akureyri where I put myself in needless danger by trying to cross a high glaciated mountain pass (or more like a ridgeline) when it was getting dark in a snowstorm with zero visibility and extremely high winds and freezing temperatures. That's a recipe for disaster. But I also came away with some unique photos like bouldering on a sea arch with crashing waves and wading naked in the icy ocean at dawn, which you can see on my website.
I thought Iceland was expensive, but when I arrived in Norway, I was shocked at the prices I found – the equivalent of $10 USD per gallon of gasoline, $20 for a burger meal at McDonalds, $12 for a gallon of windshield wiper fluid, $100 for a parking ticket in Oslo (which I'm not going to pay because I don't think they can find me with my Icelandic-registered car). For Norwegians, the cost of living is tolerable, as a low wage employee still earns over 100 NOK per hour, or the equivlanet of $20-25/hr, and a lot of things are provided by the state for free, like healthcare (but they also pay a large portion of around 50% of their income as taxes to fund this system). I guess Icelandic prices would have been equally atrocious before their economy fell and the currency devalued in 2008.
I brought my car over on a ferry from Iceland, and stopped at Denmark's highest point of land, where a nice park is located at the top of a hill with surrounding farms. But just in 2005 Denmark changed the location of their highest point to another hill a few hundred meters away, so I visited both spots and hoped I wouldn't have to return to a third discovered spot sometime in the future. I planned on driving around Norway for a month and living out of my car as I usually do wherever I go, but with gas prices as is, it was cheaper for me to park the car for 10 days and fly up to Tromsø in northern Norway, above the arctic circle. I did a memorable 4 day snowshoeing trip through deep snow through some mountains in the area, waiting for the northern lights in the bitter cold, and looking out across the frozen land of Finnmarksvidda with a cold evening purple haze above. I hitchhiked across the border into Finland (without my passport as I had left it stashed with my other duffel bags in some snowy woods somewhere outside the town of Kongsvinger where I had parked my car (the woods are always safer to leave your valuables than in your car by the way)) and rented a snowmobile and drove across the snowy and bleak Lappland area for a hundred kilometers to the highest point of land in Findland, Halti. I had a few (well, maybe more like one) $15 beer with an Australian girl before retiring through a blizzard to my tent set up in the city cemetery (no one ever bothers you in the cemetery; you just sleep there along with everyone else.) After these adventures, I flew back to southern Norway to resume my travels by car, but I forgot where I had parked. Ever have that happen to you too? No, I don't mean where in the parking lot; I mean I forgot the name of the town I had parked in and took the train to the airport from. So after some helpful Norwegian man went through a list of towns that "begin with the letter 'K' and is about an hour outside of Oslo", and I picked one that sounded familiar, I did get back to my car and found my hidden cache of goodies in the woods. I then did a great 5 day hut-to-hut cross-country ski trip through Rondane National Park. I had heard that hut-based ski trips are very popular with Norwegians, but it turns out several Danish and myself were the only other people crazy enough to go skiing in this cold weather so 'early' in the season. The Norwegians wait until March and April to do these ski trips, with warmer temperatures, longer daylight hours, and more settled weather. So, while melting snow to drink on my camp stove, and putting a candy bar down my underwear to unfreeze, I longingly looked at a photo in a tourism brochure of a bikini-clad girl riding a horse through the same lake I skied across earlier that day. Still, I really enjoyed my first ski trip of this type, and took some excellent skiing photos for my portfolio, which is why I was out there in the first place. After this trip, I attempted to summit by ski Galdhøpiggen, the highest mountain in Norway, but the fickle weather prevented me; at least I enjoyed some challenging telemark ski descents.
Right now I'm actually sitting in a ferry going over from Norway to Denmark, as I'm retracing my car-ferry route back to Iceland. But I'm stopping in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean for a week, to do some more hiking and adventure photography. The islands are a treeless and windswept small group, all well connected by innumerable tunnels, and are semi-independent from Denmark, with surprisingly around 50,000 inhabitants. They were voted "the world's most appealing islands" by National Geographic recently, and the peninsulas and terraced mountains dropping into the channels between the islands are something I've never seen before. It would be a lot greener and more pleasant in the summer to visit, but I never know when I'll be on another ferry passing right through the islands again.
I spent so much money traveling in expensive Norway, that I decided to travel to one of the last great cheap travel destinations of the world, Southeast Asia, for 2 months in May/June 2010. I'm really excited about this trip, which is just for personal travel and adventure, and not about photography. I tend to like colder countries with not too many people, but everyone that I meets that's traveled to SE Asia loves it and wants to go back, and its one classic thing I should do to say 'been there, done that' while I'm still young. The idea of 80 degree weather and a billion people scares me to death, so this trip I'm doing differently with a small light backpack and staying in hostels. I met a Norwegian girl named Raghnild on the Lonely Planet website's travel forums, and we're planning on traveling together for the two months. So at least when I feel lost in a huge crowded hot city like Bangkok, it'll be great to have a travel buddy with me. And have someone to share the experiences with, like scuba diving in Thailand and taking river boats in Cambodia during the rainy season and exploring the Mekong Delta of Vietnam and bartering on who-knows-what counterfeit good in the local markets, because being a typical tourist is no fun alone. We really have no specific itinerary, as we hear it's better that way because we can be more spontaneous.
Trekking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal is another classic trek of the world, that won't be around forever as they slowly build roads up the valleys of both ends of the circuit. So I'm hiking this for about 20 days in April before meeting up with my friend in SE Asia. It's a tea house trek, where you stay in lodges each night, and apparently you make quite good friends with the numerous other world travelers on your same trekking schedule as you, that you spend the evenings with. While in the Kathmandu area, I have no desire or intention to climb any serious peak, not the least being Mount Everest. The Himalaya Mountains are a high-altitude mountaineers' mecca, but not mine. Aconcagua in South America is the highest I plan to probably ever climb; peaks like Everest are too expensive, too popular, and too dangerous for me
While driving a snowy Norwegian road, I had the sudden idea to work on a coffee-table-format photography book with the working title of "Treetop Views of the Adirondacks". A sub-niche of my Adirondack landscape photography, climbing trees to get better views over the surrounding forests and taking panoramic images while hanging onto swaying treetops was a natural thing for me to do. As a boy I loved climbing trees around our log house in the woods. I also snapped lots of photos with my 35mm point and shoot film camera alongside my mom on our frequent family travels, and got frustrated when my prints I got developed never looked like the large calendar photos of America's national parks. And in high school I really wanted to have my own business for the independence it gives. Combine those three things and you can picture me today. Sometimes you have little idea where you're going in life, but when you look back, it suddenly all comes together, and you see the seeds being planted in your life that led to where you are today. I'd even call that God directing your life. My treetop photography is part fine-art, part documentary photography, and it's one of my deliberate attempts to try to find unique ways of photographing the same landscapes that have been photographed for generations, which is what all photographers should be doing. And there are many great views of the rolling mountains and the colorful forests below, that can't be seen unless you climb a tree on the top of a forested mountain. So, this coming year when in the Adirondacks, photographing treetop panoramas is going to be a big focus of mine. In case you're wondering, white pines, hemlocks and spruces are the best and easiest types of trees to climb, as they often have branches starting from down low on the trunk if they are in a bit of an open area in the forest. And I have climbing rope and ascenders so if the first branches start too high up, I can throw or shoot the rope over a branch and jug up the rope like big wall climbers do. My book will be out sometime in 2011 available on my website and in local Adirondack gift stores and bookshops.
Perhaps the biggest new news right now about my Wildernesscapes Photography business is the introduction of adventure photography workshops and tours. I've wanted to offer them for some time, but the timing wasn't right until now. You have to be established to have any credibility to offer photography instruction, and in order to be established and known you have to build up a large body of work, have a professional-looking website, and be making some sales, all of which take time. I have great hopes for this area of my photography business. I firmly believe that while more and more people buy affordable DSLR cameras for themselves, and there is hence less demand for fine-art photography from other people (professionals like myself), these same people will want to know how use their cameras and take better photos for themselves. In 2010, I am starting out by offering a 2 wk adventure photo safari in Iceland, utilizing my 4x4 car I own and all the great photographic locations I've know from living in the country for 5 months, and a 1 week active photography workshop and tour in the Adirondack Mountains. These workshops are all about in-the-field photography and situational instruction in a small-group adventure tour format. They offer incredible value for the sheer intensity and diversity of our itinerary, at a price that's much lower than other photo tours being advertised (many of which are already booked up for this coming summer). You can read more about the workshops on my website www.wildernessphotographs.com, under the 'worshops' link at the top.
Whew, that's all the news from Wildernesscapes Photography for now. Thanks for your support and friendship, and I hope you're life is enriched a bit from this letter too.
Johnathan Esper
Wildernesscapes Photography
Adventure Journal Main Menu: Esper E-letter #25, Winter 2009-2010
Hi from Norway to all my Friends and Fotography Fans! I've enjoyed a full and exciting fall and winter in 2009/2010 with my photography business and traveling, and that's what I'm going to talk about here. I always said it is unfortunate when people allowed their work to permeate into their personal lives, yet here I am doing the same in this newsletter. I suppose that's what happens when you're doing something you love to do, that you're passionate about, which for me is photography.


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Fak Thong Pad Khai – delicious stir-fried recipe with pumpkin and the meat of your choice. This amazing dish is super easy to cook at home. It is very good when eaten with jasmine rice.
Learn Cooking Thai Food with us!
Servings: 2
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 7 mins
Total time: 12 mins
200 g pumpkin (remove the seeds and spongy part and cut into bite sized pieces)
150 g chicken
1/2 cup water
1 egg
3 cloves fresh garlic
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon Fish Sauce
3 tablespoons Oyster Sauce
1. Heat the oil in the pan on the medium heat and add chopped garlic, then stir fry for a few seconds till it will become lightly brown and fragrant.
2. Add chicken and fry till it's just cooked. Season it with sugar, fish sauce and oyster sauce. You can adjust seasoning as you desire.
3. Add pumpkin slices and a bit of water and simmer it for about 3 minutes or until it starts to tender. Stir fry occasionally to avoid sticking.
4. When it will become dry, add eggs to the pan and keep stirring slowly. Turn off the heat and serve the dish with jasmine rice.
You can stir in the sweet basil leaves before turning the heat off to make this dish flavorful.


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U.S.C.G. Data Reports:
Delaware Lightship 38 27.2' N 74 35.1' W 105 ft. Feb 1961 - Dec 1962 0, 30, 50, 100 ft. Temp, Sal
Delaware Lightship 38 27.2' N 74 35.1' W 30 m. Jan 1963 - Dec 1966 0, 9, 15, 30 m. Temp, Sal
Delaware Lightship 38 27.2' N 74 35.1' W 34 m. Jan 1967 - Dec 1970 0, 9, 15, 34 m. Temp, Sal
Delaware LS Estab. When Winter Qtr. Discontinued
delaware.sub - Records of daily water temperatures and salinity observations for the period Feb. 1961 - Dec. 1970. MBT (mechanical bathythermograph) slides read at 15 meter intervals by group at Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst. This file is data digitized from U.S.C.G. Oceanographic Reports by the Orkand company at NCDC in fall of 1998. Information regarding keying format can be found here. See list of U.S.C.G. Report Data above for actual depth of measurements and changes in locality and water depth of the Lightship and look here for more background information.
delaware_sub.kle - Data from portland.sub, tab-delimited with fields labelled by K. Elder.
delaware.ls - Subsurface
mbt (mechanical bathythermograph) data for the period
June 1965 - Nov. 1972 at 5 m
intervals given to K. Elder by George Hiemerdinger who read it from an NCDC CDROM. Information regarding
formatting of data available here.
Note: Apparently there were two groups reading the mbt slides, one at Woods Hole whose work was published in the Coast Guard Reports, and the other at NCDC. The NCDC group read the slide at 5 meter intervals whereas the WH group read them at 15 meter intervals.
delaware.txt - Data from delaware.ls file - most field names added, tab-delimited and sorted by K. Elder.
Return to lightship list


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Interview with Guitar Gabby of TxLips Band
Cris Cohen interviews Guitar Gabby of the TxLips Band. (The occasional squeak sounds you hear are from her dog playing with its chew toy.) They discuss:
- Why her band role includes title of "lawyer"
- Their description as an "all women touring collective"
- The TxLips album "Prison of Life"
- Using music to both vent and connect with others
- Her solo album "Musicology"
- Being influenced by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai
- Studying philosophy
- The importance of being yourself
- Developing a brand without losing sight of yourself
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February 2023


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Our newsletter contains the latest no deposit bonus info and codes
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (CN) - Five families say a South Carolina adoption agency extorted them for more than $75,000 in a Guatemalan baby scam. They say Adoption Partners Inc. charged them each $12,000 just to begin the process, then extorted them for more, threatened them, and delivered babies that were seriously ill, or did not deliver a baby at all.
The would-be adoptive parents say they had to hire another agency to investigate Adoption Partners and discover its multitude of fraudulent representations.
They also sued the agency's owner-operators Joanne Mitchell and Todd Mitchell, in Federal Court. Adoption Partners is based in Simpsonville, S.C.
The parents say they chose Adoption Partners because it advertised itself as a nonprofit agency and used the phrase, "your Guatemalan Adoption Specialist," on its Web site.
They say Adoption Partners sent them each an initial email titled, "10 Steps to Your Adoption," which estimated the adoptions would be completed in 26 weeks or less.
But the families say they were strung along and extorted for months, in some cases for more than a year, before they finally were able to bring a child home.
One set of parents said the process has taken more than 20 months, cost more than $37,000 and their son is still living in an orphanage in Guatemala.
The parents say they each had to spend $12,000 to begin the process, then had to pay thousands more in bribes along the way. They say Adoption Partners demanded wire payments for "additional unspecified fees" with the threat that "if these fees aren't paid, the adoption will cease."
The parents say they received several emails advising of false complications in the process, which always required several thousand dollars more.
Each family says it was denied the right to visit their prospective child, as promised in the contract, and was chastised for becoming "too involved" in the adoption.
A couple that asked for a medical update on their child says Adoption Partners sent them a 2-month old medical report and a note: "As you can see your child is healthy and thriving."
This couple says Adoption Partners became resentful at their concern, that they had to get a Guatemalan facilitator to complete the adoption, and that Adoption Partners did virtually nothing, though they had been paid $14,000.
Three days after they brought their son home he turned blue and was diagnosed with a heart defect that required open heart surgery, the parents say.
Another adoptive parent says she spent thousands of dollars visiting two children. Though she says Adoption Partners assured her the children were in perfect health, she spent much of her time in Guatemala taking them to the doctor for anemia, chronic intestinal worms and spots under their skin as a result of bugs burrowing into them.
The parents say they spent thousands of dollars to hire Adoption Supervisors Group to monitor their cases. They say the investigation found that the defendants hadn't even begun many of the adoptions though months had passed and thousands of dollars had been exchanged.
Upon finding that they were being investigated, Adoption Partners threatened parents with statements such as "If you send any funds to anyone other than Adoptive Partners, we will NOT be responsible for your case being completed and your child being able to come home," and, "I will not be surprised if the birthmothers suddenly show up and change their minds, and there will not be a damn thing we can do about it. Call Adoption Supervisors and tell them they have officially ended your case," according to the complaint.
One set of parents says that 4 days after they were told that their long-anticipated adoption could not be completed because the birth mother wanted to reclaim her child, the defendants asked them to consider another child. The couple says they responded that they were grieving and would need time to think, and two weeks later told the defendants that they had lost confidence in the process and wanted a refund.
Adoption Partners responded "that there would be no refund and that refunds were not allowed according to the contract," according to the complaint. Then Adoption Partners said the couple had five days to decide or their file would be closed.
The plaintiffs demand punitive damages for conspiracy, conversion, wrongful adoption, emotional distress and fraudulent misrepresentations.
They are represented by Joni Fixel, Marlo Bruch-Barrett and Myra Loughran.
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Timing is off
Depending on your circumstances you should either book your holiday well in advance or leave it until the last minute. If you're travelling with children and have certain requirements that must be met, then forget about leaving it late. It absolutely never works.
The last-minute wonder deal is the holy grail for many travellers and it can work. But it most likely won't. And if it doesn't you could end up paying inflated fares or end up in some flea-ridden kip overlooking a partially built sewage works in North Africa – and yes, Pricewatch is speaking from bitter experience.
Airlines use discount cycles and increase prices incrementally as departure comes closer. According to Ryanair's Michael O'Leary, buying your seat between six and eight weeks before departure is the best way to get the cheap seats.
According to some self-styled experts, airlines' automated systems dump reserved, but unbooked, cheap seats on Wednesdays between midnight and 1am in the time zone of their home city so that is when you should go looking. It is worth a try.
When Saturday comes
While the best time to buy is up in the air, one thing is certain, the day you fly can make a big difference to the price you pay.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the cheapest days to fly – weekend breaks are over and most business travellers depart for their destinations on a Monday.
The well-regarded British consumer group Which? says you can save nearly €1,000 on the cost of a fortnight in the sun for a family of four just by moving the day of departure from a Saturday to a Thursday.
Don't drive
If you are trying to save money, car rental is not the route you want to go down. If you rent a fairly small family car for two weeks it will add about €1,000 to the cost of a holiday. So don't do that.
Instead, pick destinations where car hire is unnecessary and use public transport. If you need to go on day trips, hire a car for a couple of days in the middle of your holiday rather than for the duration. This has the added advantage of allowing you to circumvent the premiums which most companies charge if they rent the car at the airport.
A survery published last year by the AA found that te 40 per cent of people who hired a car abroad had a negative or "somewhat bad experience".
"Hiring a car abroad is simple enough but you need to look out for hidden charges and make sure that you know what you are paying for," says the AA's director of consumer affairs Conor Faughnan.
"When returning the car, make sure that you get a receipt from the car hire company and that they have agreed before you leave that there is no damage, fuel charges or other issues. It is far easier to take the time to do this before you leave the country than having to engage in a long-distance dispute afterwards when extra charges have appeared on your credit card."
Do more deals
Nearly two-thirds of Irish adults use online coupon services but a much smaller number think of spreading the net wider and registering for the deal services in the place they are going on holidays.
If you sign up to every deal site you can find in your destination about six weeks before you depart – now, basically – you will find cheaper eats and discounted activities.
Let's say you're going to the Costa del Sol this summer. In five minutes on Groupon we got ourselves a four-course meal including a bottle of wine in a fine-looking restaurant for just €16 for two people. Another restaurant was offering a steak-heavy menu for two with starters, desserts and drinks for €19, again for two.
With Google Translate doing the hard work for you, you won't even need so much as a word of the local lingo to secure your deals.
DIY vs Package
There is a place for tour operators – particularly if you are travelling with a young family and want the most hassle-free holiday on the market – and when it comes to the packages at the bottom of the market, they are very hard to beat.
But if your budget is more than €600 per person, DIY deals should almost always be better value. Getting brochures from travel agents and then sneakily booking direct with the hotel can save money – particularly off-peak.
There's also the likes of lastminute.com and Expedia. They do not always offer the best value for money; however, they are still worth looking at if you are searching for long-haul flights.
And remember to cast your net wider: don't just check flights leaving Ireland or the UK. Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt often have much better deals and can be very cheap to get to.
All in the planning
Don't change money at airports, either at cash desks or at ATMs. You will lose out. An Post currently offers the best value for money for major currencies.
Ddownload Free Wi-Fi Finder. It uses GPS to find wifi hotspots wherever you are. It has thousands of locations all over the world in its databaseand it will save you money.
The travel writer - Fionn Davenport
Don't go for the B&B option in hotels in Europe – breakfast in a bar is better and cheaper.
Take as much public transport as possible, especially in cities with an underground or light rail system: it's cheaper than a taxi and gives you a sense of the city's scale
Get off the tourist path: the best and most affordable restaurants aren't on the Boulevard St Germain, around Piccadilly Circus or the Roman Forum.
Consider a house or apartment stay over a hotel: sites like Vacation Rental By Owner (vrbo.com), Air B&B (airbnb.com) and Home Away (homeaway.com) are reputable and increasingly popular with short-term visitors looking for a homestay rather than a hotel.
Generally, what you get is far better value for money.
The tour operator - Falcon Travel
Make sure that you are aware of the total cost of yourholiday from the outset, especially if you're considering assembling your ownDIY package.
When booking with Falcon your check-in, baggage allowance, flight, transfer, accommodation and a resort rep are all included in the price of the holiday as well as the peace of mind that you will have care and assistance in the event of a delay.
Avail of low booking deposits to help secure your holidayand take advantage of facilities that enable you to pay your holiday off in stages. Falcon's deposit is just €75 per person with the full balance to be settled eight weeks prior to departure.
Make the most of early booking offers to secure your saving, rather than wait to see what may be available later and risk potential disappointment. Falcon's brochures offer thousands of free places for children, free grandparents' and group places, up to €300 off per couple, one-parent family savings and free room upgrades – some deals are available on a first come, first served basis, with others available for holidaymakers who book by a specified date.
The cost of a holiday isn't just the price that you pay to get there but also what you spend when you arrive.
Many resorts offer great value for money and countries such as Bulgaria and Turkey have become increasingly popular due to the value they offer in resort.
Falcon's brochure has a money guide for each country so that you can compare the cost of living before departure.
The readers
Take the kids out of school a few days early. Saves hundreds. Stephen Mulligan
If travelling with Ryanair make sure to follow all the t&c's so you're not overcharged. Eoin Dineen
Check with your bank, or health insurance to see if travel insurance inclusive; my bank did for free! Sharon Ní Icí
Stay out of Zara whilst in Spain!
Niamh Dempsey
Careful with car hire (take photos on return). Proper insurance. Oh, and don't buy ice cream withn sight of a bridge in Venice. Conor Faughnan
Try to find places locals eat in, they generally are cheaper. Aisling Browne
Book private rooms in hostels instead of hotels. Never eat in restaurants that display English menus or pictures of the food. Damian Byrne
Always ask if there are any special offers eg family deals, free wine with dinner, early bird offers, reduced entry tickets etc. Ciara H
Take only hand luggage. Angela Holohan
When renting a car, always rent a cheap one and at rental desk ask if they can upgrade you to better car for same price. works! Matthew Mulligan
Where to find value - Joan Scales
Finding the elusive great travel deal is getting harder all the time with airlines and tour operators carefully controlling capacity off this island. The days of holidays at rock bottom prices being dumped on the market are gone. Instead we have to be flexible, think fast and book rapidly when a good deal, fare or holiday appears.
Accommodation is easier to book with dozens of hotel websites and a lot of additional self-catering units in the market. In Spain, our favourite destination, flights on the principal routes of Malaga, Alicante and Murcia are more expensive than ever. Prices are returning to pre-2007 rates. Other routes to Spain are more competitive. The Barcelona area has flights to the main airport, El Prat, and to Gerona and Reus. All of these routes will give you easy access to the coast and the resorts of Costa Brava and Costa Dorada.
Accommodation this year in Spain is expected to cost less than previous years due to the domestic holiday market suffering from the recession. Flights to Santander will get you into the more reasonable provinces of Cantabria and Asturias on the Atlantic coast. The lovely historic city of Santiago de Compostela is better value in high summer when it is too hot for Camino walkers.
Look at the less obvious places for cheaper fares – in France, Carcassonne, Marseille, Nantes, Rodez and La Rochelle are well priced, under €200. For Portugal, the city of Porto is lovely and from Lisbon there is easy access to the seaside resorts of Cascais, Estorial and Sintra. In Italy there are three airports around Milan and a good train service to take you into the lakeside resorts around Lake Garda and Lake Como. Flights to the islands of Sardinia and Sicily are also quite well priced at present.
If you live within easy access of Belfast or Derry airports, some holidays are cheaper. Check late deals on thomson.co.uk, thomascook.co.uk and jet2.com. Turkey will be good value again this year with value for money exchange rates and plenty of competition between the main tour operators and newer entrant Wings Abroad.
Online travel agents are the ideal way to find a good deal if you are flexible on dates. Companies like clickandgo.com, lowcostholidays.ie, steintravel.ie, ebookers.com, flexibletrips.ie, lastminutes.ie, latedeals.ie, travelcheaper.ie, aerlinguspackages.com and travelnet.ie offer a wide range of accommodation from two star to luxury all inclusive.
Using geography, you can also find that if you take a chance on the weather, prices can be considerably cheaper. The rainy season begins in the Caribbean in June and prices drop. In the tropical zones like Thailand the rainy season is July-October, and while downpours do happen they are usually short and sharp and the weather is still warm. You can get a week in Thailand during our summer for about €1,000pps. See trailfinders.ie and gohop.ie.
In the drier regions of the Middle East the temperature climbs towards 45 degrees, but you could be staying in a luxurious five-star resort for a fraction of the usual price. See what Tropicalsky.ie has on offer in Dubai; some deals include meals.
The best value to the United States this year will be after September. Most holidays for the summer are booked and although we have a lot of additional US flights this summer, the prices have not come down. Travelling with a specialist tour operator such as touramerica.ie, flydriveusa.ie and americanholdiays.ie will provide better value.


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Hybrid Powder Mixer
Ideal for the dairy, food and beverage industries, this cost-effective dual-stage inline powder dissolution unit quickly mixes and pumps wet and dry ingredients into a homogeneous blend.
Innovative inline powder-liquid mixer
The Alfa Laval Hybrid Powder Mixer is a patented hygienic mobile and stationery unit that uses a single standard motor to disperse powders into liquids quickly and efficiently, and to pump the combined solution. By combining pump and powder dissolving technologies, this versatile, easy-to-use mixer produces homogeneous products at high productivity while delivering significant energy savings.
Designed for batch production, it is the only inline powder mixer with a single motor drive that is able to disperse solids into liquids uniformly while simultaneously pumping the process liquid at pressures of up to 5 bar. It is an excellent choice for use in a wide variety of dairy, food and beverage powder mixing applications, such as dissolving stabilizers like pectin and xanthan gum and emulsifiers in the percentages required for most applications. It is also capable of producing recombined milk with more than 50% dry matter.
In addition, when used in combination with an Alfa Laval Rotary jet mixer, the Hybrid Powder Mixer may also be used as part of an efficient cleaning-in-place (CIP) system.
Alfa Laval Hybrid Powder Mixer range
The Alfa Laval Hybrid Powder Mixer S15 and M15 is comprised of a two stage pump with one rotor-stator stage and one pump stage. The unit is fitted with a single motor and a funnel for introduction of powder through an injector system which can be isolated using a sanitary c-ball valve.
Energy-efficient powder-liquid mixing
Energy savings and reduced CO2 emissions are two key advantages of the Hybrid Powder Mixer. Comparable mixing systems require up to four separate electric motor drives. When used in combination with the Rotary jet mixer, the Hybrid Powder Mixer only requires one motor. This significantly reduces the energy consumption.
Click here to compare the system layouts.
High rate of dynamic shear mixing
Thanks to it's efficient suction, the Hybrid Powder Mixer outperforms comparable powder mixers, by dissolving solids in liquids at a much higher rate.
The Hybrid Powder Mixer effectively pre-blends the powder and liquid before the mixture enters the high-shear stage, which contributes to faster and more effective dissolution. While other inline powder mixers creates mechanical shear in a small area, the Hybrid Powder Mixer creates high dynamic shear in different steps, which requires less energy to ensure complete dissolution of the powder without destroying the product (gentle mixing).
Product Benefits
- Hygienic mobile and stationery unit
- Energy savings and reduced CO2
- High rate of dynamic shear mixing
Product catalogue
Latest 'Close at hand' online version
|Alfa Laval Hybrid Powder Mixer S15 - Stationery unit
|Alfa Laval Hybrid Powder Mixer M15 - Mobil unit
How it works
The two-stage Hybrid Powder Mixer is generally integrated into a circulation loop connected to a batch tank. After adding liquid ingredients to the tank, the Hybrid Powder Mixer circulates the liquid over the tank. If fast dispersion into liquid is required and tank volumes are larger than 1 - 2 m³, Alfa Laval recommends using an Alfa Laval Rotary Jet Mixer.
When adding the powder to the liquid, the powder is added via a funnel. When the C-ball valve under the funnel is opened, the injector positioned under the valve creates vacuum in the funnel outlet, drawing the powder into the rotor-stator mixer and pre-blends the products. The rotor/stator (single rings) creates the main shear, dynamically and efficiently blending powder and liquid into a homogeneous mixture.
The pump impeller in the second stage creates the final shear and transfers the powder-liquid mixture into the tank under high pressure. Additionally, a portion of the powder-liquid mixture is sent via the injector bypass back into the mixer unit. The liquid flows from the injector aid in the venturi effect created at the funnel outlet, which enables the suction of powder into the liquid.
When mixing is completed, the Hybrid Powder Mixer may be used as a discharge pump or as a Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) recirculation pump to clean the tank when used in combination with an Alfa Laval Rotary Jet Mixer.
Alfa Laval Hybrid Powder Mixer
Installing the Alfa Laval Hybrid Powder Mixer in combination with a Alfa Laval Rotary Jet Mixer dramatically reduces energy consumption and investment costs for the complete system.
Other powder mixers
Other powder and tank mixing solutions require up to four electric drives, due to extra boost pumps and additional mixing equipment.
CAD portal
Download the product models in Neutral or Native CAD file formats. It is also possible to download 3D PDF files.
Visit the animations site and take a look inside a product to see and understand how it works.
Tank equipment
Ten top tips: Tank equipment
Part of a broad mixing range
Alfa Laval offers a comprehensive range of mixing equipment intended for hygienic applications in the dairy, food, beverage,home care, personal care, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
- Alfa Laval Hybrid Powder Mixer
- Alfa Laval LeviMag® UltraPure Magnetic Mixer
- Alfa Laval LeviMag® Magnetic Mixer
- Alfa Laval Rotary Jet Mixer
For a broader mixing range, explorer the different product categories: Agitators and mixers.