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How Green is DuPont's Alternative?
Credibility Gap: Toxic Chemicals in Food Packaging: References
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The theme of this issue of ASBMB Today is advocacy, and that's one subject about which I feel strongly. (OK, I admit I feel strongly about lots of subjects, but, trust me, this is one of them.) My feelings, however, are ambivalent, so I think I should explain them.
I always have been deeply suspicious of what are often referred to as "activists." It's not because I don't admire their passion. I do. It's also not necessarily because I don't share their views. I often do. What I'm suspicious of is what their advocacy does to their judgment on other issues. It's been my experience that people who devote most of their time and effort to one thing frequently view all things through the lens of that single issue. And I don't think that you can get a clear view of the whole world through one, possibly distorting, lens.
It's sort of like being a knee-jerk liberal or a knee-jerk conservative. If your first reaction to any problem or question is driven by a set of values or beliefs that may not apply in that particular situation, you are unlikely to come up with a good answer or make a good decision.
Now, as it happens, these considerations are of some importance to a scientific society. It's pretty easy for an organization devoted to furthering the interests of a group of professionals to focus on the topic on which the group itself is most concerned. In the case of a society whose membership is composed largely of academic biochemists, that one issue would be federal support for basic research.
Before I go on, let me make something clear: Increasing federal support for basic research is very important to me personally, and I believe it is an issue that must be important to the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as well. And, of course, it is.
But it cannot be the only issue. If that were the case, we would be in danger of seeing everything through that particular distorting lens: If it increases federal support for basic research, it must be good, and we must advocate for it; if it threatens that support in any way, it must be bad, and we must oppose it. That sort of thinking can turn us into very bad advocates for the interests of our members — or devil's advocates, if you will.
For a concrete example, consider the question of evaluating and possibly discontinuing some federally funded scientific programs. If our primary mission was to increase funding, we should be against any such quality control because it might send a message to Congress that not all research dollars are well spent, and that could hurt the chances for increases. Yet, I believe, in the name of good science and responsible scientific citizenship, there may be times when we need to support the critical evaluation and possible termination of some programs because spending scientific research funds wisely ought to be just as important to us as getting more of them. If we don't feel that way, we are just a group of lobbyists with questionable integrity.
That's a pretty severe example, but there are subtler ones that are worth pointing out. If the be-all and end-all of this organization is to increase grant dollars, where is the time and attention we should be devoting to our industrial members, whose concerns are likely to be very different? Advocating with the public on behalf of the biotech or pharmaceutical industries, when the cause is right, might be seen as threatening our "pure" academic reputation and thereby weakening our effectiveness in getting those basic research funds increased. But, if it's the right thing to do, I think we have to do it.
What I'm trying to say is that any organization that is as heterogeneous as ASBMB cannot focus all of its advocacy efforts in one direction. If we are to be engaged with the world, we need to take a broad view. We need to worry about all of the things that concern our members. We must not become knee-jerk supporters, or apologists, for any cause or position. We have to think things through.
At ASBMB, that process of deliberation and debate is the chief responsibility of the Public Affairs Advisory Committee, although other committees certainly can play significant roles. Matters may be brought before that committee by members of ASBMB staff, by members of the committee itself, by the ASBMB president and by regular members of the society. Once the committee has decided on a position or course of action, what happens next depends on the timing. If urgent action is not required, we will ask the ASBMB Council to give its views on the committee's recommendation. If something has to be done quickly, I may need to approve — or, rarely, veto — immediate action as president and seek the approval (or possibly the forgiveness) of the Council later. In cases where plenty of time is available, we may want to put the cases to the entire society by canvassing members for their views.
The purpose of these policies is, as I have said, to prevent us from making bad decisions because we are focused too narrowly. I think it has worked pretty well for the most part. But, I worry that, even with our good intentions, we may not be effective advocates for many of the things that matter to our membership if that membership is silent.
This brings me to the other side of my ambivalent attitude toward advocacy: my passionate belief that it's really important. But, it can't just be important to me, or to the Council or to our staff or to our various committees. It has to be important to you, too.
I know that disengaging from the turmoil, politics and strident bickering of the "real world" is one of the attractions that a life in science has for many of our members. I used to feel that way myself. But I came to believe that it's a mistake for that detachment to be the hallmark of a scientist. In the Declaration of Independence are words that always have resonated with me:
"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
What the Founding Fathers of the United States were saying is that, when something needs to be changed, those who have the ability to do something about it also have the responsibility to do something about it. And scientists are, as a group, among the most able citizens of any country. So, when scientists hide in their ivory towers, society becomes robbed of some of its best advocates.
So, I want to urge all of you not just to get involved in local institutions, like your school boards and your town governments (but I really hope you are or will), but also to help us be effective advocates for you by telling us what you think are the important national and international issues that ASBMB needs to worry about. It isn't so much that we need you to tell us what to do — although we certainly welcome such advice — but what we do need, desperately, is for you to tell us what things in the world of science and scientists matter to you. And if you want to be engaged at the national level, to have your advocacy playing out on a larger stage, as it were, then consider making ASBMB the vehicle for that engagement. Run for Council, or tell us of your interest in being on our committees or work with us when we visit the National Institutes of Health or the Hill. The first step in a greater involvement with science and society could be a greater evolvement with this society. We'd love that.
More from the current issue

subset: commoncrawl


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Terrence Deacon (Podcast Interview)/
In his new book, Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter, Terrence Deacon writes that his goal is to "demonstrate how a form of causality depending specifically on absent features and unrealized potential can be compatible with our best science." (page 16). But in a recent interview (Books and Ideas #47) he also contends that his book "grew out of a dissatisfaction with the systems theory approach."
He feels strongly that "to understand the origin of end-directed phenomena, representational phenomena, or mental phenomena, you need to take one further step; you need to figure out what's beyond self-organization that needs to be explained to account for these things." Thus, his ambitious goal is to find a place for meaning within science.
Incomplete Nature is a dense but compelling book, and the goal of this interview is to introduce listeners to the idea that life and meaning are compatible with a scientific world view.


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LeTourneau University President Dr. Dale A. Lunsford was recently featured as a Christian Post Opinion columnist. "Good Thoughts for Hard Times from R.G. LeTourneau" offers encouragement that, despite setback, success is still possible with persistence and ingenuity. "More often than not, failure is opportunity in work clothes." Read More.
Categories: (none)


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NYC appeals ruling striking down soda size limit
(AP)—New York City is asking appeals judges to reinstate a ban on supersized sodas and other sugary drinks.
The city had vowed an appeal and said Thursday that lawyers had filed it late Monday. A Manhattan judge struck down the first-of-its-kind measure March 11, a day before it was to take effect.
The rule would prohibit many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in more than 16-ounce portions. City officials say it will combat obesity.
Beverage makers and sellers say the rule is unfairly arbitrary because it would exempt some high-calorie drinks and some retailers, including supermarkets and convenience stores. The critics also say the city Board of Health overstepped its authority in passing the ban.
The trial court judge agreed.
Explore further
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Here was the family of Samuel SAWYER and Mary EMERY, who produced, among others, sons Benjamin and Samuel, both of whom eventually contributed DNA to this grandma. (For inquiring minds, it took a loooong time and a LOT of different families to bring those genes back together.)
Anyway, fun facts emerged during subsequent wanderings through Googleland. (Dig past the collection of genealogists whose identical listings on almost any family member appear online. The gems may instead be in descriptions of those relatives who come alive in books describing an area's history.)
Turns out that in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts, Hugh March (no relation that I know of) was first licensed in 1670 by the Ipswich courts to "keep an ordinary and to sell strong drink." This is from the book Ould Newbury, written by John J. Currier and published in Boston by Damrell and Upham in 1896.
I had known that "the necessary," was the outhouse, but "an ordinary" as a tavern was a new fact.
According to Ould Newbury, one of our Samuel Sawyers (probably senior since Samuel junior was born in 1674) is listed as a licensed innholder from 1693 to 1716, quite possibly at Hugh March's ordinary, which is by now known as the Blue Anchor Tavern, also written as the Blew Anchor Tavern. He must have rented the place, because he is only listed as buying it in 1715.
Ould Newbury continues that Samuel resold this property almost immediately to Benjamin Sawyer, a weaver. Benjamin only lasted until 1718 as the innkeeper / tavern owner. He sold the "house and 2 3/4 acres of land in Newbury aforesd, commonly known by ye name of ye Blew Anchor Tavern, together with all ye houses, outhouses, Barns, Buildings, stables, orchards, Gardens, &c.," that he had acquired from Samuel. Quite a sale!
Then history smugly lures us with contradictions. Ould Newbury relates that the tavern was taken down following a subsequent land sale a few years later. The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities may support this when they explain a structure they own, the Swett-Ilsley House, sits adjacent to land Hugh March purchased. Find photos and information at http://www.historicnewengland.org/historic-properties/homes/swett-ilsley-house . Although Swett-Ilsley was used as a variety of commercial endeavors, the Antiquities people don't link it specifically with the Blue Anchor Tavern.
On the other hand, several modern writers describe and document that the former Blue Anchor Tavern is indeed today's Swett-Ilsley House. Traea's Grandmother doesn't know enough to take sides on this contradiction, but it certainly has been a fun find!


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Adams Speedline Super LS driver hits the slot
Adams Golf is billing its new Speedline Super LS driver as "easy to hit … easy to fit."
The Super LS is the first to contain Adams Golf's newest iteration of Velocity Slot Technology (VST) – essentially, it's a slot cut into the sole of the clubhead right behind the face that runs form the heel to the toe and flexes upon impact to increase ball speed and expand the sweet spot. The slot in the Super LS is deeper than those in other Adams clubs to increase the prime hitting area across the face and help generate even higher ball speed.
"The Super LS driver's combination of adjustability and performance makes the first shot off the tee the last thing the golfer needs to worry about," said Adams Golf Director of Product Development Justin Honea. "With the newly added VST, we have created a high performance driver with an extremely large sweet spot for maximum distance."
The Super LS also features Adams' Fast Fit fitting system, which gives golfers the ability to adjust the face angle, length and swing weight.
The driver features a Center of Gravity that is low and back on the sole to produce very low spin. In fact, Adams says, the Super LS is its lowest-spinning driver. It is topped off with a matte white crown with contrasting PVD face that reduces glare and makes the club easy to align.
The Super LS comes in lofts of 8.5, 9.5 and 10.5 degrees in right-handed models, and 9.5 and 10.5 degrees in left-handed models. It features a Mitsubishi Rayon Kuro Kage shaft, and has a suggested retail price of $449.99.
The driver is the flagship of a line of LS clubs that also includes fairway woods and hybrids.
"The Super LS product lineup is packed with a lot of technology," said Adams' Vice President of Research and Development Tim Reed. "The goal of the Super LS line was to provide golfers with clubs that give them exceptional performance in every category."


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HOUSTON — Coast Guard personnel were joined by other federal agencies Christmas Eve to remove more than 85 pounds of cocaine from a ship off the Galveston coast.
The crew of the 900-foot oil tanker Godavari Spirit notified Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston that they located a suspicious package hidden aboard their ship and suspected it to contain narcotics.
A joint boarding team consisting of the Coast Guard Investigative Service, Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine, Homeland Security Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration, were taken 70 miles offshore Monday aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Manowar, to board the tanker and locate the cocaine.
Upon completing a thorough search, the team located and seized a total of 31 packages of cocaine, valued at an estimated $1,139,000. The value may vary depending on the quality of the drug.


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If you have room in your pantry and freezer, one of the best ways to make good use of your coupons is to stock up. Many people let their coupons expire, thinking, "I don't need cereal right now"—but in three months they might. Meanwhile, that $1-off coupon is sitting in an organizer, growing old and eventually out of date. You might as well save the money now and store your goods until it's time to use them.
- It's important you choose the right space to store your overstock items. You don't want to expose food to extreme temperatures, so if you have storage above or below your stove, save it for your pots and pans, because it will get too hot for most food. You want a place that is around 70 degrees, dark and moisture free.
- You may be surprised by the shelf life of certain grocery items. Cereal is the most popular coupon category and unopened, it can last 6 to 12 months.
- Household and personal care products like detergent and toothpaste have a lengthy shelf life, and you will really save by stocking these items. Plus, don't you hate it when you go to brush your teeth and the tube is practically empty? It's much better to open a new tube that you saved a buck on three months ago than to run to the grocery store late at night and pay $5.
- You can find some great coupons for frozen foods like Totino's Pizza or Newman's Own Skillet Meals. Having these on hand is helpful for those nights you just don't have the time to cook and are very tempted by the ease (albeit high cost) of takeout. The problem is frozen food takes up space you may not have. Have you considered investing in more freezer space? A chest freezer is typically more energy efficient because less cold air escapes when it's opened as opposed to an upright freezer.
- Think like a grocery store. As you buy new items, put them behind like products on your shelf or in your freezer, so the oldest is always at the front and get used before the expiration date.
Another way to make great use of your coupons is with meal planning.
- Planning meals ahead of time means you can avoid those last minute, full price trips to the store. Set aside 30 minutes at the beginning of each week to plan meals around coupons and store sales. We've given this tip before, but it's so important because you can literally save thousands of dollars a year.
- If you want to take it a step further, keep bins in your pantry for each day of the week, and use them to corral together the non-refrigerated items for each night's meal. For example, Italian night might have a jar of sauce, spaghetti, croutons and salad dressing. Taco night may have tortillas, taco seasoning, olives, a red onion and a tomato.
File weekly menus into a binder with recipes paper-clipped behind. When you're looking for cooking inspiration, you can flip through and find recipes you want to try again. This is a great place to store special holiday menus, too.


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tceconi necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 90 diseños de 22 diseñadores freelance.
Established online subscription source launching new product & NEW IMAGE.
We run an online HR & benefits library used by business owners & insurance brokers to help them accomplish their HR/benefits needs in the most efficient and effective way possible. We help eliminate the need for costly legal services, extra personnel and potential litigation. Users can search our extensive, dynamic content to get state & federal requirements, tools, documents, instruction & overall answers to all their needs pertaining to HR/benefits for companies of all sizes.
Small & mid-size business owners currently use our product. We'll be targeting them and also use our new toolkit product as a new business development tool to reach a broader audience of companies looking for a more condensed, targeted tool. The users of these online toolkits will reference them when recruiting, interviewing, hiring and firing employees. The kits will include downloadable forms & documents needed for such HR situations. The kits will also serve as a replacement for costly legal Q&A, extra HR personnel and time spent on researching such issues & needs that are answered efficiently in our online toolkit.
Series of 4 logos, each with different title:
Need TOTAL departure from HRandBenefits.com logo
All 4 logos should be complimentary, consistent in look/feel so they are obviously part of a set/unit.
The look should be relevant & current, but not too trendy; corporate without being boring
Need an authoritative look to ensure users that the content is authentic & reliable
Logos can be used together to form a visual element but need to look strong alone - not like their missing something - Developing 4 logos that can stand alone & work together to form a cohesive unit is a homerun
Logos will be used primarily on their respective sites which will contain extensive copy so they need to be vibrant/interesting to pop off page against the content
Logos will dictate look/feel of respective sites (look for a future contest)
Color: open to various color schemes
Must be easy to read onscreen
Should not be one color/tone only
Should look good on white and dark backgrounds
We will incorporate various shading effect on websites so need colors that have good shade variations for onscreen
We will use logo as basis for developing their respective websites so the colors used in logos will be used in some variation for the site pages
Current NOT Trendy
Authoritative/dominant NOT boring
Vivid/dynamic NOT stagnant
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Artist Dave Rapoza took Dark Souls and reimagined it as a 2D platformer from the 16-bit era, and man I can already see that health bar dropping like a fly.
Besides Castlevania, it kind of reminds me of the boss fights of ActRaiser on the SNES. Those were the nineties equivalent to Dark Souls' more unforgiving moments.
Dark Souls by Dave Rapoza [Blogspot, via r/darksouls]


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See also: mélt
From Middle English melten, from Old English meltan ("to consume by fire, melt, burn up; dissolve, digest") and Old English mieltan ("to melt; digest; refine, purge; exhaust"), from Proto-Germanic *meltaną ("to dissolve, melt") and Proto-Germanic *maltijaną ("to dissolve, melt"), both from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- ("to beat, crush, grind"). Cognate with Icelandic melta ("to melt, digest").
melt (countable and uncountable, plural melts)
- Molten material, the product of melting.
- The transition of matter from a solid state to a liquid state.
- The springtime snow runoff in mountain regions.
- A melt sandwich.
- 2002, Tod Dimmick, Complete idiot's guide to 20-minute meals:
- I recently asked a group of people whether they had eaten tuna melts as a kid. Everyone remembered a version of this dish.
- 2002, Tod Dimmick, Complete idiot's guide to 20-minute meals:
- A wax-based substance for use in an oil burner as an alternative to mixing oils and water.
- (Britain, slang) an idiot.
- 2017, Love Island On Paper: The Official Love Island Guide to Grafting, Cracking On and Mugging Off[4], →ISBN, page 12:
- Over the course of this chapter on 'Love Island Essentials' we'll be charting exactly who went with who, showing you around the villa, and equipping you with the vocabulary you'll need to avoid looking like a melt and get grafting like a true Islander.
- The capital of France is Berlin.
- Shut up you melt!
Derived termsEdit
molten material
transition of matter
springtime snow runoff in mountain regions
melt sandwich — see melt sandwich
wax-based substance for use in an oil burner
idiot — see idiot
melt (third-person singular simple present melts, present participle melting, simple past melted or (rare) molt, past participle melted or molten)
- (ergative) To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat.
- I melted butter to make a cake.
- When the weather is warm, the snowman will disappear; he will melt.
- (intransitive, figuratively) To dissolve, disperse, vanish.
- His troubles melted away.
- (transitive, figuratively) To soften, as by a warming or kindly influence; to relax; to render gentle or susceptible to mild influences; sometimes, in a bad sense, to take away the firmness of; to weaken.
- Shakespeare
- Thou would'st have […] melted down thy youth.
- Dryden
- For pity melts the mind to love.
- Shakespeare
- (intransitive) To be discouraged.
- (intransitive, figuratively) To be emotionally softened or touched.
- She melted when she saw the romantic message in the Valentine's Day card.
- (intransitive, colloquial) To be very hot and sweat profusely.
- Help me! I'm melting!
Derived termsEdit
intransitive: to change from a solid to a liquid
transitive: to change or be changed from a solid to a liquid
to be very hot and sweat profusely


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Microsoft Exchange Hub Transport Role
The hub transport server role handles all e-mail flow inside the organisation, applies journaling policies, and delivers messages to the recipient's mailbox. This role is similar to the bridgehead server in an Exchange 2000/2003 organisation. In fact it originally was called the Bridgehead Role until it was changed. The Hub server must be deployed in every Active Directory site that contains other Exchange server 2007 roles.
The Hub Transport server role stores all its configuration information in Active Directory. This information includes (as mentioned above) transport rules settings, journal rule settings, and connector configurations. Because this information is stored in Active Directory, you can configure settings one time, and then those settings are applied by every Hub Transport server in the organization.You can install the Hub Transport server role on the same hardware with any other non-clustered internal server role or on a server that is dedicated to the Hub Transport server role. You must deploy a Hub Transport server role in each Active Directory site that contains a Mailbox server role. Deploying more than one Hub Transport server per site provides redundancy if a server fails. When you install more than one Hub Transport server in an Active Directory site, the connections are distributed.The Hub Transport server, as well as the rest of the server roles, is installed on member server(s) in an Active Directory domain. There is no need for ADAM on this, or any other role aside from the Edge Transport. Because it is a member of an AD domain, all its configuration information is stored in AD and any other Hub Transport servers you install will get their configuration from AD.
Mailbox, Client Access, Unified Message and Hub Transport can be installed in any combination on one physical server. This combined topology is well-suited for small and medium size customers. Alternately, administrators can segment these roles across multiple servers, potentially located in different domains and sites to support a large number of users or meet geographical deployment requirements. Note that if Mailbox role is installed on different physical server from Hub Transport and Client Access role, the Mailbox server will need to have at least one Hub Transport and Client Access server available in the Mailbox server's AD site.Microsoft actually recommends that you do not backup hub transport servers in the traditional manner. This is primarily because of the transient nature of the messaging queues. Suppose for a moment that you made a backup of the hub transport server, and 15 minutes later the server failed catastrophically. It wouldn't really do you any good to restore the database used by the message queues, because all of the messages that were in the queues at the time that the backup was made would have already been delivered.Not only is it not necessary to backup the message queues, you really don't have to worry about backing up the server's configuration either. The vast majority of the configuration information is stored in Active Directory.
Microsoft Exchange Performing an Edge Synchronization
OK so lets say now we have installed Exchange 2007 in a way that will allow it to perform the edge transport server role. The problem is that right now, the server is completely isolated. It is not a member of an Active Directory domain, nor is it aware of the existence of your Exchange Server organization. We need to configure Exchange in a way that will allow communications between the edge transport server and the rest of the Exchange Server organization without actually making the edge transport server a part of the organization.
To do this, we must create an edge synchronization. An edge synchronization is essentially a one way trust relationship. The edge transport server trusts the Active Directory, but the Active Directory does not trust the edge transport server.
Creating an edge synchronization involves creating an XML file that contains pertinent information about the edge transport server. This information is then imported into the Active Directory, to make the Active Directory aware of the edge server s existence.
Before I show you how to perform the edge subscription, I need to warn you about a couple of things. First, creating an edge synchronization overwrites anything that you have manually configured on the edge transport server. Specifically, the following objects and types of information are overwritten:
- Accepted Domains
- Message Classifications
- Remote Domains
- Send Connectors
- The Server s InternalSMTPServers list of TransportConfig Objects
Once you implement the edge synchronization, Exchange will also configure itself so that you can t use the Exchange Management Shell to configure any of these types of objects on the edge transport server. This is a security precaution designed to prevent scripting attacks. You will still be able to manage the server through the Exchange Management Console though.
Ok let s create the edge subscription. To do so, we need to begin by creating an XML file that can be used for the subscription process. To do so, open the Exchange Management Shell, and enter the following command:
New-EdgeSubscription file C:\subscription.xml
When you enter this command, Exchange will display a warning….Press Y, and Exchange will create the edge subscription file (named subscription.xml) and place it in the server s root directory.
Now, copy the XML file that you just created to removable media, and delete the file from the edge server. Deleting the file is extremely important for security reasons. Finally, insert the removable media into your hub transport server, so that you can create the edge subscription.
You can complete the process by opening the Exchange Management Console and navigating through the console tree to Organization Configuration | Hub Transport. Now, click on the New Edge Subscription link, found in the Actions pane. When you do, Exchange will launch the New Edge Subscription Wizard. The wizard prompts you for the name and path of the subscription file that you created earlier. Once you supply this information, verify that the Automatically Create a Send Connector for this Edge Subscription check box is selected, and then click the New button and we are done.
Microsoft Exchange Edge Subscription Process
This post provides information about Edge Subscriptions and the EdgeSync synchronization process. Edge Subscriptions are used to populate the Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) directory service instance on the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Edge Transport server role with Active Directory directory service data.
If you have been following these posts you will see from this extract that ADAM has a role.
The computer that has the Edge Transport server role installed doesn't have access to the Active Directory directory service. All configuration and recipient information is stored in the Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) directory service
The Edge Subscription Process
Creating an Edge Subscription establishes secure, automatic replication of information from Active Directory to ADAM. The Edge Subscription process provisions the credentials that are used to establish a secure Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) connection between Hub Transport servers and a subscribed Edge Transport server. The Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service that runs on Hub Transport servers then performs periodic one-way synchronization to transfer data to ADAM and keep that data up to date. This process reduces the administration that you must perform in the perimeter network by letting you perform required configuration on the Hub Transport server role and then write that information to the Edge Transport server.
You subscribe an Edge Transport server to an Active Directory site. Subscribing the Edge Transport server to the Active Directory site enables the Edge Transport server to receive updates to ADAM from Active Directory and creates a synchronization relationship between the Edge Transport server and the Hub Transport servers deployed in that site. The Edge Subscription process also creates an Active Directory site membership affiliation for the Edge Transport server. The site affiliation enables Hub Transport servers in the Exchange organization to relay messages to the Edge Transport server for delivery to the Internet without having to configure explicit Send connectors.
One or more Edge Transport servers can be subscribed to a single Active Directory site. However, an Edge Transport server cannot be subscribed to more than one Active Directory site. If you have more than one Edge Transport server deployed, each server can be subscribed to a different Active Directory site. Each Edge Transport server requires an individual Edge Subscription. A subscribed Edge Transport server can support only one Exchange organization.
In my next post I'll talk about the process itself..
Exchange 2007 Edge Transport Agents
In my last post you would have noticed that Exchange 2007 comes with additional protection in the form of agents. Maybe someone at Microsoft is a big fan of the Matrix I dont know. But i briefly wanted to cover agent roles on the Edge Server…
Additional layers of message protection and security are provided by a series of agents that run on the Edge Transport server and act on messages as they are processed by the message transport components. These agents support the features that provide protection against viruses and spam and apply transport rules to control message flow.
Edge Transport Rules
Edge Transport rules are used to control the flow of messages that are sent to or received from the Internet. The Edge Transport rules help protect corporate network resources and data by applying an action to messages that meet specified conditions. These rules are configured for each server. Edge Transport rule conditions are based on data, such as specific words or text patterns in the message subject, body, header, or From address, the spam confidence level (SCL), or attachment type. Actions determine how the message is processed when a specified condition is true. Possible actions include quarantine of a message, dropping or rejecting a message, appending additional recipients, or logging an event. Optional exceptions exempt particular messages from having an action applied.
Address Rewriting
You use address rewriting to present a consistent appearance to external recipients of messages from your Exchange 2007 organization. You configure the Address Rewriting agent on the Edge Transport server role to enable the modification of the SMTP addresses on inbound and outbound messages. Address rewriting is especially useful when a newly merged organization that has several domains wants to present a consistent appearance of e-mail addresses to external recipients.
Edge Rules Agent
The Edge Rules agent, which runs on the Edge Transport server, helps you control the number of unwanted messages that enter your organization. If your internal network is compromised, the Edge Transport rule agent can also apply the same or different rules to outgoing messages. In this manner, the Edge Rules agent helps you prevent infected or unwanted messages that are generated by infected computers in your internal network from leaving your organization. The following list provides some examples of when the Edge Rules agent can help you protect your organization:
Virus outbreaks Thousands of new viruses are created each year. Most antivirus software providers are reactive when they update their software. To update their software, antivirus software providers have to identify the virus, create an update for their software, and then send the update to their customers. This causes a gap in protection where an infected message can enter an organization unexpectedly.
Denial of service attacks Malicious individuals who want to do harm to organizations may use denial of service (DoS) attacks to draw attention to themselves or to cause damage. These attacks are typically unannounced and can be difficult or impossible to predict.
The Edge Rules agent is designed to help you reduce the impact of each of these risks. The Edge Rules agent lets you configure conditions and exceptions to identify both unwanted and wanted messages and to act on those messages by using configured actions.
Anti-Spam and Antivirus Scanning
In Exchange 2007, the anti-spam and antivirus features provide services to block viruses and spam, or unsolicited commercial e-mail, at the network perimeter. Most viruses use spam-like tactics to gain access to your organization and to entice users to open an e-mail message. If you can filter out most of your spam, you are also more likely to capture viruses before they enter your organization.
Spammers use a variety of techniques to send spam into your organization. Servers that run the Edge Transport server role help prevent users in your organization from receiving spam by providing a collection of agents that work together to provide different layers of spam filtering and protection. Establishing tarpitting intervals on connectors makes e-mail harvesting attempts ineffective.
The Sender ID agent
The Sender ID agent relies on the RECEIVED Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) header and a query to the sending system's domain name system (DNS) service to determine what action, if any, to take on an inbound message.
When you configure anti-spam agents on an Edge Transport server, the agents act on messages cumulatively to reduce the number of unsolicited e-mail messages that enter the organization.
Sender ID is intended to combat the impersonation of a sender and a domain, a practice that is frequently called spoofing. A spoofed mail is an e-mail message that has a sending address that was modified to appear as if it originates from a sender other than the actual sender of the message.
Spoofed mails typically contain a From: address that purports to be from a certain organization. In the past, it was relatively easy to spoof the From: address, in both the SMTP session, such as the MAIL FROM: header, and in the RFC 822 message data, such as From: "Michael Smith" email@example.com, because the headers were not validated.
Microsoft Exchange Edge Transport Server Role
Note: In pre-release versions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, the Edge Transport server role was referred to as the Gateway server role.
Since the Edge Transport Server Role is a transport role for messages you can't benefit from it to provide your colleagues with Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access, Outlook Voice Access, Outlook Everywhere or one of the other nifty "road warrior" features Exchange 2007 provides to more easily work together. In this scenario you need a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 box with the Client Access Server Role applied to it. Although enhancements were made to Client Access Servers security the face-off between security and functionality remains.
Exchange 2007 introduces a new concept to Exchange organizations, the concept of server roles. Similar to how a Windows server can host one or more roles, this type of configuration has been implemented in Exchange Server 2007.
In Exchange 2007, the Edge Transport server role is deployed in your organization's perimeter network as a stand-alone server or as a member server of a perimeter-based Active Directory domain. Designed to minimize the attack surface, the Edge Transport server handles all Internet-facing mail flow, which provides Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) relay and smart host services for the Exchange organization. Additional layers of message protection and security are provided by a series of agents that run on the Edge Transport server and act on messages as they are processed by the message transport components. These agents support the features that provide protection against viruses and spam and apply transport rules to control message flow.
The computer that has the Edge Transport server role installed doesn't have access to the Active Directory directory service. All configuration and recipient information is stored in the Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) directory service. To perform recipient lookup tasks, the Edge Transport server requires data that resides in Active Directory. EdgeSync is a collection of processes that are run on a computer that has the Hub Transport server role installed to establish one-way replication of recipient and configuration information from Active Directory to the ADAM instance on an Edge Transport server. The Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service copies only the information that is required for the Edge Transport server to perform anti-spam configuration tasks and the information about the connector configuration that is required to enable end-to-end mail flow. The Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service performs scheduled updates so that the information in ADAM remains current.
You can install more than one Edge Transport server in the perimeter network. Deploying more than one Edge Transport server provides redundancy if a server fails. You can load-balance SMTP traffic to your organization between Edge Transport servers by defining more than one mail exchange (MX) resource record with the same priority in the Domain Name System (DNS) database for your mail domain. You can achieve consistency in configuration between multiple Edge Transport servers by using cloned configuration scripts. Additionally, an Edge Transport server template is provided for use with the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Security Configuration Wizard to help configure Windows Server 2003 at the appropriate role-based security level.
Microsoft Exchange Server Roles 2007
Exchange Server 2007 introduces real server roles. As you might have read Exchange Server 2007 offers the following roles: In the next posts I'll be discussing in detail the role each plays….
Edge Transport Server Role
Client Access Server Role
Hub Transport Server Role
Mailbox Server Role
Unified Messaging (UM) Server Role
Exchange Server Front and Back-ends.
I currently running a Front –end / Back-end scenario in a DMZ and have been for two years. It's worked well… but has been compromised so it's not full proof, although that was down to other circumstances. The Front-end / Back-end configuration is available in both Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and the basic principal is to divide server roles. The distinction is made between a front-end server that accepts requests from clients and then proxies them to an appropriate server for processing, making this effectively a Back-end server.
According to the Microsoft documentation a Front-end / Back-end scenario comes to play when you experience or foresee experiencing performance, scalability or security issues with Microsoft Exchange:
From a performance point of view you can deploy Front-end servers to lift the burden of SSL securing your Outlook Web Access (OWA) and Outlook Mobile Access (OMA), POP3 and IMAP from your Back-end server. Blocking Unsolicited Bulk E-mail (UBE or Spam) at the Front-End might speed up your Back-end to Outlook clients connected to the Back-end server.
From a scalability point of view you can use the configuration to make a neat Network Load Balanced (NLB) cluster of Front-end servers. Don't use Clustering Services though to scale your Front-end servers, it won't work.
Despite the performance and scalability improvements you can gain from implementing a Front-end / Back-end configuration you cannot use it by itself in any security scenario. Encrypting traffic with IPSec, Using the Security Configuration Wizard in Windows Server 2003 SP1 and even pinning down RPC ports will get you far, but in my opinion not far enough.
In my opinion the security design flaw in the current Front-end / Back-end configuration is you actually install a fully fledged Exchange Server, which you afterwards strip of its databases and configure to relay everything to the back-end Exchange Server. It stays an Exchange Server however, which needs access to the Active Directory, DNS and other Exchange Servers. If you implement your Front-end server inside a DMZ you'll be required to open up a whole lot of UDP and TCP ports, eventually rendering your DMZ pretty useless if the box gets compromised.
Yes I'm knocking it and Yes it works. In my next post I'll look at the new flavours from Exchange Server2007
Why Do It? Exchange 2007 That Is……
I have ONLY just started evaluating Exchange 2007. Ok some may say I'm a bit behind but I'm a great believer in if it isn't broke why fix it so that's my excuse, well one of them anyway. It's like vista…what am I really going to get out of a companywide rollout? With the total effort involved for you and your team it has to be worth it…right?
I've included the top 10 reasons from Microsoft and I'd be really be interested in your comments on whether you have made the move or think it's worth the effort.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 is designed to deliver increased protection for your business and give anywhere access for your employees, while being operationally efficient to deploy, manage and maintain. Should you upgrade? Here are ten reasons for you to consider. For more information, peruse the detailed features listing and compare features across versions to help you discover all that Exchange Server 2007 has to offer.
1. Keep your e-mail system running at lower cost
New data replication capabilities in Exchange Server 2007 drive increased availability at a lower cost. Local Continuous Replication delivers database redundancy with rapid recovery, minimizing the frequency of full tape backups. With Cluster Continuous Replication in combination with Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS), active/passive clusters provide both database and service redundancy without requiring expensive shared storage, even when clusters span geographic locations.
2. Access e-mail, voice mail, calendar, and contacts from virtually anywhere, anytime
In Exchange Server 2007, your employees can access their important inbox information from virtually anywhere using their desktop computer, laptop computer, a browser window from any Internet-connected computer, their mobile device, and even using a basic telephone when no Internet connectivity is available. Employees enjoy a rich and familiar experience based on Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 functionality. Best of all, it's all built in with centralized management and robust security, making rich anywhere access possible for your entire workforce instead of just a limited few.
3. Get affordable, enterprise-class mobile messaging that's better than ever
Exchange makes enterprise-class mobile messaging a reality by offering industry-leading scalability, native integration with compatible devices for lower total cost of ownership, and by providing a variety of device options to suit today's business needs. Building on the advances in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2, mobility features in Exchange Server 2007 raise the bar on user experience and deliver improved manageability. Now desktop features such as support for rich HTML, quick flags, sophisticated calendaring, and fast search are available on mobile devices. In addition, Exchange Server 2007 provides more granular security policies and enables users to perform basic tasks on their own (such as perform a remote wipe from Outlook Web Access 2007).
4. Empower employees with unified messaging while saving money
With new unified messaging in Exchange Server 2007, employees can receive their e-mail, voice mail, and faxes through a single inbox that can be accessed from anywhere. Employees can manage all of their messages in one place just as they manage e-mail today. For example, voice mail can be forwarded, or if the recipient adds text notes to the voice mail, messages can be found using built-in search. With Exchange Server 2007, you can deliver these features while lowering cost and complexity through consolidation of your voice mail infrastructure.
5. Get comprehensive protection from spam, viruses and phishing attacks
Exchange Server 2007 provides integrated antivirus, anti-spam and anti-phishing technologies to stop the latest threats before they impact your business and employees. Multi-pronged message filtering in the perimeter network is available through the Edge Transport server role. For customers who prefer to use a service, similar capabilities are provided in the "cloud" (as an Internet-based service) through Exchange Hosted Filtering*. Additionally, Forefront for Exchange Server* protects Exchange servers from viruses and worms by utilizing multiple antivirus engines simultaneously. To protect from evolving threats, filters are kept up to date with frequent and automatic updates.
*Exchange Hosted Filtering and Forefront Security for Exchange Server are included with the Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise CAL license.
6. Reduce compliance risk in a way that makes sense for your business
Exchange Server 2007 incorporates features specifically designed to help your business comply with corporate, regulatory, and legal requirements. These features enable you to apply retention rules, scan and act on messages in transport, flexibly journal, and perform rich text searches across mailboxes in your organization. Exchange Server 2007 eases the toll often placed on administrators charged with applying and enforcing compliance policies, while avoiding adverse impact on employees and their productivity.
7. Take advantage of powerful Web access
Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2007 provides a rich, Outlook 2007-like experience in a browser and is great for use at home, at an airport kiosk, at an internet café, at a friend's house, or anywhere where there is an Internet connection available. No VPN or network tunnel is required. OWA enhancements in 2007 include a new Scheduling Assistant to help employees efficiently book meetings, fast server-side search, integrated unified messaging as well as new features to access documents and attachments more easily from outside the office. With two-factor authentication support and attachment viewing in HTML format, OWA also offers enhanced security compared with previous versions.
8. Boost administrator productivity with new tools
Exchange Server 2007 helps administrators save time and reduce effort with advanced management tools. A new command line interface gives administrators complete, fine-grained control over Exchange objects as well as the power to easily automate all types of operations with scripts. In addition, the graphical management console has been completely updated, with a more intuitive user interface, improved discoverability and a toolbox work center that integrates diagnostics, monitoring, and troubleshooting tools including the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer and the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant.
9.Ease deployment and management
Deploying Exchange Server has never been easier. Exchange Server 2007 has a modern, modular architecture based on server roles. The server role concept is integrated into setup and deployment, helping to eliminate potential errors resulting from manual configuration, reducing the surface area for malicious attacks, and simplifying day-to-day management. Server roles are not tied to particular hardware configurations; they can be deployed on one server machine or many**. The new Autodiscover feature further eases deployment – by creating an automatic connection between Exchange Server and Outlook 2007 clients where no special scripts or complex user intervention is required.
**The exception is the Edge Transport role that is intentionally designed to reside by itself in the perimeter network.
10.Optimize your investment for future growth
As a native 64-bit application, Exchange Server 2007 breaks through past memory and cache limitations for higher performance and increased scalability even as mailboxes sizes grow to accommodate employees' demands for more storage. The resulting reduction in input/output (I/O) increases storage utilization so you can optimize existing storage investments or consider lower cost storage options.
How Well Do You Know Your Exchange Environment? No Really!
Ok I know you know its working as your not getting the support calls, but really how well?
Ever wanted OWA reporting?
What about measuring message usage or searching mailboxes or public folders? Ok then what about Server Utilization? Detailed or summarized reports, statistical reports on email traffic?
Promodag is a piece of software I've recently been using and trust me this is the best Exchange reporting software I've ever come across. There are more than 100 standard reports and you can personalize them too. The reports can be exported into different formats. HTML, RTF, XLS, CSV, PDF
You can send the reports by email even generate them automatically if necessary, really impressive. You won't believe what's going on until you see it. This is such a granular piece of software it's worth the license fees. I've been able to really utilize my Exchange environment because I REALLY know what's going on. I have 20 Exchange servers and NOW I know what's happening. I've just got into this software and already I 'm seeing the benefits.
Find out more here link
DO YOU KNOW WHATS REALLY HAPPENING IN YOUR EXCHANGE ENVIRONMENT? I doubt it, try it there's an evaluation period you'll be VERY impressed.
In this section we will look at exporting the damaged page file to a text file. Name the txt file in relation to the page file itself so as below this relates to page 3106. Therefore, you could use the following command to create a file called 3106.TXT.
This must be run from the \Program Files\EXCHSRVR\BIN directory
eseutil /m "d:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata\pri
1.edb" /p3106 >3106.txt
After running the command you will see the text file created.
Microsoft(R) Exchange Server(TM) Database Utilities
Version 6.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1991-2000. All Rights Reserved.
Initiating FILE DUMP mode…
Database: d:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb
Page: 3106
pgnoThis <0x02360004, 4>: 3106 (0x00000064)
objidFDP <0x02360018, 4>: 11 (0x0000000b)
ulChecksumParity <0x02360000, 4>: 466674925 (0x1bd0e4ed)
dbtimeDirtied <0x02360008, 8>: 216893 (0x0000000000034f3d)
cbFree <0x0236001c, 2>: 4026 (0x0fba)
ibMicFree <0x02360020, 2>: 3265 (0x0cc1)
itagMicFree <0x02360022, 2>: 2 (0x0002)
cbUncommittedFree <0x0236001e, 2>: 0 (0x0000)
pgnoNext <0x02360014, 4>: 0 (0x00000000)
pgnoPrev <0x02360010, 4>: 0 (0x00000000)
fFlags <0x02360024, 4>: 3141 (0x00000c45)
Parent of leaf
Internal page
Root page
FDP page
Multiple Extent Space (ParentFDP: 97, pgnoOE: 340)
Index page (non-unique keys)
TAG 0 cb: 16 ib: 0 offset: 28 – 37 flags: 0x0000
TAG 1 cb: 6 ib: 3259 offset: ce3 – ce8 flags: 0x0000
Operation completed successfully in 1.91 seconds.
Things to Note:
When I generated my report, I picked page number 3106 at random. As you can see at the bottom of the text file, page 3106 is an index page. If you ever have to repair a 1018 error, you'll usually lose all of the data on the page that you encountered the error on. Of course, that's assuming that the error occurred on a leaf page. An index page links too many other pages. Therefore, if the page that I selected had actually been damaged, I might have lost the index page and all related leaf pages. This could possibly lead to a complete breakdown of the entire database. Fortunately, Exchange is really good about rebuilding structural components, such as index pages.
When you browse the file you can see the page number and previous page number and the next database pages. Also you should pick out the checksum parity bit number and you can use all this info when attempting to repair the database.
You also need to realize that you can get false 1018 errors. Now and then a faulty disk cache or a faulty hard drive will cause data to be read from a location other than the correct location specified by Exchange. When this happens the database is initially corrupt and you have a serious problem on your hands because the disks actions will soon cause the database to become totally corrupt.
At this stage you probably really need to understand about repairing a corrupt database which Ill talk about more in another post. For now understand how to read the txt file which will help you resolve and repair.


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By Taylor Akin, KF9, Togo
I began writing this blog on a scrap piece of paper just north of the Burkinabé/Ghanaian border. I had spent my morning walking across the border carrying a 40-pound pack and subsequently spending far too much money on a taxi into the nearest town. My Kiva Fellowship had ended a week and a half earlier, and I was sitting in a hot, dirty hotel room with a concrete floor, grimy walls, and inconsistent electricity. I was desperate for entertainment. I had finished the only book I brought on this three-week post-fellowship excursion, my computer was lifeless without the electricity to charge the battery, and my broken iPod seemed to be mocking me with its inaccessible entertainment. I was entirely alone. So, I took some time to process the last four and a half months.
As a Kiva Fellow, I learned a lot about microfinance. Microfinance is, at its core, just a bank. Loans are disbursed and repaid, interest is charged, and businesses are fuelled. The MFI clients can hardly be homogenized – some are ambitious and grateful for their loans, and others openly admit to preferring hand-outs over helping hands. The MFI staff are as diverse as the entrepreneurs they serve. While some are entirely dedicated to ensuring that their clients have access to credit, others see their job simply as a task that helps keep bills paid and mouths fed. Although, at a micro level microfinance may not always feel like a social good driven by passion and benevolence, it is nevertheless a means to a necessary end: poverty alleviation and empowerment. This target no doubt makes up for the lack of warm and fuzzy feelings we may have in the process of reaching that goal.
I also learned a lot about myself. I learned that I am capable of completely immersing myself in a new culture. Besides spending some time with Kiva Fellow Nick Malouin, I did not make any expat friends until two and a half months into my fellowship. Until then, I had spent the majority of my time with my colleagues and my Togolese host family. I learned that my identity is fluid. By the end of my fellowship, I had ceased to be Taylor Akin, the biracial girl from Toronto, and had adopted my MFI-awarded identity as Adjovi Kiva, "la blanche Canadienne." I learned that I suffer from crippling homesickness and am in constant need of at least one comforting reminder of home: be it a pirated French-dubbed season of 24, a familiar song, or an overpriced pizza at the local expat hangout. I learned that I am more than willing to try new foods, yet my inner vegetarian still can't stand the thought of seeing an animal killed for my own personal consumption. I learned that I am perfectly capable of navigating West Africa on my own, and I have an excellent knack for finding a happy place when crammed with 12 other people in an 8 person vehicle. I learned that I am not completely fluent in French (despite what my high school diploma might say), but I try my best anyway. Finally, I learned that I am happiest when I am eating mangoes, playing with monkeys, or can see the stars. All of these self-discoveries are raw, unglamourous, and very very real. No, they can't be advertised on the "Apply to be a Kiva Fellow" website, but they are personal truths that we all take with us when we return home.
Finally, I learned a lot about others. In my first blog post, I wrote about prejudice and stereotypes I had experienced in Toronto towards the African continent. I cited Chimamanda Ndichie's lecture discussing the single story Westerners hold about Africa: one of poverty, suffering, corruption, ethnic genocide, bad governance, child soldiers, barbaric practices, illiteracy, and AIDS. It is this single story that fuels our erroneous beliefs about the African continent. And in between the lines of this story lies the assumption that the Western world is categorically none of these things.
Throughout my time in Togo, and my subsequent travels to Ghana and Burkina Faso, I learned that this same representation has been embodied by many West Africans. I had countless acquaintances begin a conversation with the words, "Life is hard here in Africa" or "Do you see how we suffer, here in Africa?" These discussions inevitably involved a broad categorization of North America and Western Europe as being wonderful places to live where unhappiness is unheard-of. It occurred to me that the people I encountered in West Africa had a similar single story about the developed world. Westerners are assumed to be white, wealthy, privileged, hard-working, happy, and successful. There is no unemployment, homelessness does not exist, and every house comes equipped with a backyard pool.
Prior to writing this blog, I had been reading an article from a book given to me by my mother. Notes from Canada's Young Activists: A Generation Stands Up for Change is a compilation of articles written by Canadian activists from all walks of life. My mother thought it might be comforting to have some like-minded companionship during my travels. Devi Musina is an inspiring young man discussed in the book who spent the majority of his childhood in Zimbabwe. It was not until he moved to England for a year that he learned the fallacy behind his single story of the West. He realized that, "even in Europe people suffered" and that it "wasn't a dreamy, perfect place" (177). This discovery contradicted his previous conceptualizations of Western life.
As a Canadian, and as someone who is regarded as white in West Africa, I have experience this theory translated into practice. I had incorrectly assumed that my recent graduation from university, and my subsequent volunteer employment would peg me as educated but broke. On the contrary, my light skin seemed to create a new reality. An acquaintance I met in Ghana seemed surprised that my father hadn't simply paid for my volunteer experience, that I had, in fact, worked for my money. I remember being horrified when a loan officer referred to Kiva lenders as "whites giving money" to the poor. I did my best to show that not all lenders are white and almost all lenders are willing to lend a small amount for the sake of the greater good despite their personal needs and hardships. I also know that I am not the only Kiva Fellow who has been charged double the standard amount for a cab, has had money stolen, or has instantly made "friends" on the basis of skin colour and citizenship. This is not to say that I am not privileged, it would be foolish to say that I am not. In fact, we have all had the privilege of being Kiva Fellows. Yet, regardless of the particularities and details of our personal lives, the Western single story dictates that we all have money to burn. So it seems that this single story is double sided.
Taylor Akin is now a proud Kiva Fellow alumna. She has been out of the field since May, 2010 and has yet to tire of telling the stories from her Fellowship. She is currently working temporary employment and plans on applying to various Canadian law schools over the next year. She hopes to focus on immigrant and refugee law – a specialization that was, in part, inspired by her encounters in Togo. She is thankful to Kiva, WAGES, her host-family and her friends for making her trip a complete adventure. She is also thankful to you, loyal lenders, for staying up to date on the blog and tirelessly lending to Kiva entrepreneurs all over the world.


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Qwest offers "odd-lot" share program
Denver-based Qwest has notified certain shareholders about a voluntary "odd-lot" program, which will allow owners of fewer than 100 Qwest shares to unload the all of their shares without incurring any transaction fees.
The shares will be sold on the open market. Shareholders will receive a price "equal to the weighted average price of all shares sold in the open market during the week" in which they participate in the program, according to a letter to shareholders.
To participate, shareholders have to notify their broker or financial advisor by March 17. The program ends March 19. Proceeds will be distributed to those participating in the program within 2 weeks.
In general, odd-lot programs or buybacks are used by companies to cut administrative costs (savings come from having to service fewer shareholder accounts).
As of Feb 12, the company had 260,000 shareholders of record.
Qwest's cost-cutting measures have helped the company operate profitably since 2006. Among the cuts, the company shed 2,800 jobs last year, or about 8 percent of its workforce. The company is looking to shave millions in annual office costs at its headquarters, either by moving to a less high-profile building or leasing substantially less space at its current location.


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Authorities say a 54-year-old man offered $200 to four young girls if they would let him do a striptease for them.
The Asbury Park Press reports Thomas Lovallo of Keyport faces four counts each of attempted luring and child endangerment.
Keansburg police say Lovallo was arrested Thursday, about two weeks after he allegedly approached the girls and threw an empty water bottle in their direction before running off.
After the man left, the girls noticed a rolled-up piece of paper in the bottle. It was a note offering them $200 if they would let him "do a hot strip" dance for them.
The girls quickly told one of their parents, who notified police.
Lovallo remained jailed Saturday on $100,000 bail. It's not known if he has retained an attorney.
More News:
- Man High During Crash That Killed Mom, Daughter: Police
- Dog Walker Spots Naked Man
- Man Charged With Assault of Teen Found Dead in Prison


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Adrenalin Snorkel and Dive
The Burdekin Diorama provides a shady location to stretch your legs and discover the Burdekin's rich heritage. Easy to stop into, and interesting to find, you'll enjoy the diorama's surrounds.
The Burdekin delta sits atop an amazing resource: the aquifer, a ground source of fresh water. Replenished by the Burdekin River, this managed system is explained through maps, photos, diagrams and charts at the Burdekin Diorama. Excellent resources and hard working people are what it takes to make a region prosper. The Burdekin district knows the good fortune of both. Some of the facts and figures are surprising!
The local sugar cane industry, with its original hand cane cutters, is important to understanding the area's history and prosperity. The Burdekin Diorama helps get a glimpse into the journey of the Burdekin's sugar cane industry. Five recently installed stainless steel panels shine a further light on people, events and work, which impacted the region's history.
You'll find the Burdekin Diorama near Home Hill's Inkerman Sugar Mill, on the southern side of the Burdekin River Bridge. The Burdekin Diorama is just over an hours drive south of Townsville.


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I was against labels in my younger days.
I was against labels in my younger days.
I didn�t want to be stuck in a category, compared to anyone or anything else or �labeled.� I naively thought I was unique, with original thoughts and innovative passions.
I�m wiser now and very comfortable with labels.
Lump me in with whichever stereotype you�d like. Size me up in the first 20 seconds of meeting me and assume what you wish. I�ve no interest in proving myself to you, changing for you or pretending to be something I�m not. I�m good with labels.
Reading them on food, however, not so much.
That was the focus in Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less � being mindful of what you�re eating by becoming a label reader.
Most packaged foods are required to have a nutrition facts label that gives information about the nutrients.
The label shows the servings per container. This is especially important to note on single serving containers. Sometimes items sold as single servings actually include more than one serving (check those 16-ounce beverage labels; they often contain two servings).
Labels also give the calories, fats, cholesterol, sodium and other facts that are in each serving. And eating too much of these can be unhealthy to the point of increasing the risk of heart disease, some cancers or high blood pressure.
Nutrients and carbohydrates are also noted on labels. The goal should be to find food with higher amounts of dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron, which can improve health and help reduce the risk of diseases.
The labels also include an ingredient list, which lists items with the largest amount by weight. So if you�re getting a beef soup, but beef is the last ingredient listed, be aware of that.
And be aware of any item where sugar is listed first � or not listed first.
I love sugar � I love sweets and sugary sweets and I even like calling people �sugar� � but you should also check labels and try and pick foods where sugar is listed last. I was surprised to learn that there is some creative editing on food labels when it comes to sugar. Manufacturers might decide to break apart different kinds of sugar so that it does not appear as the first ingredient. For example, the ingredients might say �molasses� then �sugar� and then �corn syrup,� but it�s all really sugar.
Packaging labels can be tricky as well. There are guidelines in place now for terms that can sound identical but are not the same. For example fat-free means that a product contains no amount of, or only trivial amounts of fat (less than 0.5 grams per serving). Synonyms include without, no, zero and skim.
Low-fat, however, is for products containing 3 grams of fat or less per serving. And light (or lite) means the nutritionally-altered product contains one-third fewer calories or half the fat of the regular product. Reduced-fat refers to a nutritionally-altered product contains at least 25 percent less fat than the regular product.
Lean and extra lean refer to fat content of meat, poultry, seafood and game meats. Lean means less than 10 grams of fat, 4.5 g or less saturated fat, and less than 95 mg cholesterol per serving, where extra lean identifies less than 5 grams fat, less than 2 grams saturated fat and less than 95 milligrams cholesterol per serving.
The label lesson was a good one. I�m going to work on spending more time reading them and getting familiar with what food manufactures are trying to tell me (or not tell me) so it becomes a habit.
Hopefully it�ll become easier to find foods that are better for me when I�m in the grocery store, where I often call people �sugar.�
Timmi Toler is city editor of The Daily News who will be attending the Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less 15-week weight management program sponsored by Onslow County Parks and Recreation, North Carolina Cooperative Extension and the Onslow County Health Department and sharing her thoughts each Friday. This is the information from week 6. Contact her at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Darcie (Age 19)
Bethel, AK
About DARCIE :
"Get ready to be entertained gentlemen!! I'm not searching, but would be happy to be found! An average day for me? Just woke up, cup of tea, off to work, sport, eating and watching a movie. In the weekends I like some action and go crazy! But these things are of course the most fun to do with a friend."
Meghann (Age 18)
Palmer, AK
About MEGHANN :
"Appealing married couple in our 40s.
Hygienic, mild and d/d free, in to creating own pornography an see her fucking enormous cocks and fisting.
She adores dressing hot and consider some puishment.
She's some acquired several pounds but stil is resistless Been married quite a while simply seeking spice things up."
Kristi (Age 28)
Kaltag, AK
About KRISTI :
"Single and alone I am very drastically looking for a guy. Apparently vibrators are not the most perfect lovers, even though I have a closet full of them hahah. I love to pamper myself and I have the hottest toys, I even use them at work, (eggs on batteries )…. turn on when no one is looking, I put the radio on so no one does hear that bitch humm hahaha, enjoying myself. But now, I like a man to make me cum. As long as you know how to get a woman off youre the man I'm looking for!"
Corine (Age 28)
Fort Yukon, AK
About CORINE :
"Im a spontaneous San Diego girl, seeking a couple to share my fantasies with. I just like to have fun without any strings attached to it. Seeking a couple between 25 and 35, you dont need to be experienced with threesomes.. I m kinda new to it myself but enjoy things like these. Im very respectfulll, not only about sex.. I dont mind to build up some sexual tension for a couple of weeks ???? Hope to reassure with that and waiting for an invitation to go for drinks or so. bfn"


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Your source for EVENTS, FAIRS & of course GACHA. This is an eclectic blog showcasing some of my favorite finds & friends throughout my Second Life adventure. Thanks so much for all of your support and interest in this fun little venture. I am a big believer that if you enjoy something it shows. This has been such a fun creative outlet and your support & love means so very much.
\o/ Love Love Love!


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Colour Box & Star
Box & Star with Colour
Use the form on the right to contact us.
You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.
1 Belgravia St Penzance
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