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Fossilized Skin Reveals Ancient Predator's Sharklike Moves
More than 80 million years ago, a giant reptile called a mosasaur likely glided gracefully through the water with the help of tiny scales covering its tough skin, and a powerful tail to boot, suggests the soft-tissue remains of one such aquatic beast.
The fossilized pieces of mosasaur skin, discovered in Kansas in the 1950s but not analyzed thoroughly until now, give researchers a view of ancient lizard skin, inside and out. The marine animal's skin was pulled taut around the upper end of its body, which would have restricted its swimming motion to the lower half, they found.
"We previously had thought that they swam like snakes, that they used most of their body to make these undulating waves," study researcher Johan Lindgren, of Lund University in Sweden, told LiveScience "What we see is they are gradually pushing the part being used in swimming to the back." [T-Rex of the Seas: A Mosasaur Gallery]
Moving mosasaurs
Mosasaurs include a group of swimming reptiles thought to have evolved from an ancient relative of the monitor lizard, which left the land and returned to the sea during the early Cretaceous Period. Then more than 90 million years ago, mosasaurs quickly evolved to life in the water and soon became a top predator throughout the world's seas. They died out with the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.
In the fossilized skin samples, the researchers can see not only the animal's scales, but also imprints of the protein fibers that made up its skin. They saw that these fibers often crisscrossed, suggesting that at least this front half of the mosasaur's body was stiff.
Rather than slithering through the water like today's water snakes, by moving their vertebrae from side to side, this tough, taut skin indicates that the mosasaur used its tail to propel itself forward. As such, the animal would've moved more like modern sharks and whales than snakes.
"They [the mosasaurs] have, for 200 years, been reconstructed as these serpentine creatures," Lindgren said. "An emergence of evidence, including the stuff we found, indicates that they underwent the same kind of evolution as whales, and they became streamlined."
Fossilized skin
As a group, the mosasaurs varied from a little over 3 feet (1 meter) to almost 50 feet (15 meters) long. The fossilized skin and skeleton unearthed in Kansas in 1953 belonged to a mosasaur — Ectenosaurus clidastoindes —stretching some 16 feet (5 meters) in length, though only the front half of its body was discovered. It is a relatively primitive specimen and is estimated to be about 85 million years old.
The fossils suggest the mosasaur's scales were less than a tenth of an inch long (only a few millimeters). These scales were oval-shaped and had a ridge along the middle to help them lock together, channel water, and also to provide an area for the skin to attach underneath.
"You could see the scales from both the outside and the inside. That's a first. On the inside they have special supportive structures that … anchor to the soft tissue, and they provide a more efficient cover," Lindgren said. "The scales have a ridge on each scale that helps channel the water and provides a thin layer, you see the same thing in sharks today."
The study was published today (Nov. 16) in the journal PLoS ONE.
You can follow LiveScience staff writer Jennifer Welsh on Twitter @microbelover. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.


text:
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Our firm has consultants across the South East of England, but our clients are Worldwide.
Please tell us a little about your requirements and we will let you know what we can do to help you.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
4 Best Travel Cards for Australia
Getting an international travel card before you travel to Australia can make it cheaper and more convenient when you spend in Australian Dollar. You'll be able to easily top up your card in MYR before you leave Malaysia, to convert seamlessly to AUD for secure and flexible spending and withdrawals.
This guide walks through our picks of 6 of the best travel cards available for anyone from Malaysia heading to Australia, like Wise or BigPay. We'll walk through a head to head comparison, and a detailed look at their features, benefits and drawbacks.
4 best travel money cards for Australia:
Let's kick off our roundup of the best travel cards for Australia with a head to head comparison on important features. Here's an overview of the providers we've picked to look at, for customers looking for ways to spend conveniently overseas when travelling from Malaysia:
- Wise travel card - best currencies coverage - 40+ supported currencies
- BigPay travel card - earn AirAsia points as you spend
- EnrichMoney travel card - hold 20 currencies
- Touch 'n Go travel card - easily to use to pay road tolls or parking and spend
Card | Card scheme | Fees for spending | Trustpilot score | Go to provider |
Wise | Visa / Mastercard | No fees to spend currencies you hold | 4.2 / 5 (200,000+) | Go to Wise |
BigPay | Visa / Mastercard | Up to 1% foreign transaction fee | Not active on Trustpilot | Go to BigPay |
EnrichMoney | Visa | No fees to spend currencies you hold, 1.75% foreign transaction fee when you don't hold the balance needed | Not active on Trustpilot | Go to EnrichMoney |
Touch 'n Go | Visa | Alipay conversion rates apply when spending abroad, which may include a fee | Not active on Trustpilot | Go to Touch 'n Go |
Each of the international travel cards we've picked out have their own features and fees, which may mean they suit different customer needs. Keep reading to learn more about the features, advantages and disadvantages of each - plus a look at how to order the travel card of your choice before you head off to Australia.
Wise travel card
Open a Wise account online or in the Wise app, to order a Wise travel card you can use for convenient spending and withdrawals in Australia. Wise accounts can hold 40+ currencies, so you can top up in MYR easily from your bank or using your card. Whenever you travel, to Australia or beyond, you'll have the option to convert to the currency you need in advance if it's supported for holding a balance, or simply let the card do the conversion at the point of payment.
In either case you'll get the mid-market exchange rate with low, transparent fees whenever you spend in AUD, plus some free ATM withdrawals every month - perfect if you're looking for easy ways to arrange your travel cash.
Wise features
Card | Fees for spending | ATM fees | Withdraw limit | Annual fee | App available | Trustpilot score |
Visa or Mastercard Debit Card | No fees to spend currencies you hold | Some fee free withdrawals monthly, with low fees after that | 23,000 MYR a month | N/A | iOS & Android | 4.2 / 5 (200,000+) |
Wise travel card pros and cons
- Hold and exchange 40+ currencies with the mid-market rate
- Spend seamlessly in AUD when you travel
- Some free ATM withdrawals every month, for those times only cash will do
- Ways to receive payments to your Wise account conveniently
- Manage your account and card from your phone
- 13.7 MYR fee to order your physical card
- ATM fees apply once you've exhausted your monthly free withdrawals
- Physical cards may take 14 days to arrive (you can use your virtual card right away)
Here's how to apply for a Wise account and order a Wise travel card in Malaysia:
Open the Wise app or desktop site
Select Register and confirm you want to open a personal account
Register with your email, Facebook, Apple or Google ID
Upload your ID document to complete the verification step
Tap the Cards tab to order your card, and pay the required fee
Confirm your mailing address, and your card will be on the way, and should arrive in 14 days
BigPay travel card
BigPay is a super popular app and card in Malaysia, which you can use for spending in Australia and globally.
You'll be able to hold a balance in MYR and spend or make withdrawals in AUD, keeping track of everything in your app for convenience. There's a low foreign transaction fee of 1% or less when you spend internationally, which can mean you save compared to using a bank card. Plus as your BigPay card isn't connected to your bank account, it's secure, no matter where in the world you are.
BigPay features
Card | Fees for spending | ATM fees | Withdraw limit | Annual fee | App available | Trustpilot score |
Visa or Mastercard Debit Card | Up to 1% foreign transaction fee | 10 MYR international withdrawal fee | 10,000 MYR | N/A | iOS & Android | Not active on Trustpilot |
BigPay travel card pros and cons
- Very popular local app and card, with a large user base
- Earn AirAsia points as you spend
- Get extras like ways to pay bills and send money to others
- Ways to budget and plan your money conveniently
- Manage your account from the app wherever you are
- No foreign currency balance option
- 20 MYR card order fee
- 10 MYR ATM fee
- Up to 1% foreign transaction fee
How to apply for a BigPay card
Here's how to apply for a BigPay account and order a travel card in Malaysia:
Open the BigPay website or download the app
Click Get BigPay
Complete the account application steps and get verified
Pay the card fee, and your card will be delivered by mail
EnrichMoney travel card
The EnrichMoney card lets you spend in Australia and internationally conveniently - either by adding money in cash or by converting Enrich points you already hold for cash equivalent. You can add money with points or in MYR and spend and make withdrawals with no fee to spend a currency you hold, and a 1.75% fee for spending a balance you don't have in your account.
As the list of supported currencies for holding a balance does change from time to time, it's worth checking if AUD is available before you decide on this card, to make sure you don't run into unnecessary fees.
EnrichMoney features
Card | Fees for spending | ATM fees | Withdraw limit | Annual fee | App available | Trustpilot score |
Visa Debit Card | No fees to spend currencies you hold 1.75% foreign transaction fee when you don't hold the balance needed | 10 MYR international ATM fee | Check limit in the EnrichMoney app | 10 MYR | iOS & Android | Not active on Trustpilot |
EnrichMoney travel card pros and cons
- Hold 20 currencies
- Top up with money or with Enrich points you already hold
- Earn Enrich points as you spend
- Track your money and your spending online
- 10 MYR annual fee
- 1.75% fee if you don't have the currency you need
- 10 MYR international ATM fee
How to apply for a EnrichMoney card
Here's how to apply for a EnrichMoney account and order a travel card in Malaysia:
Download the EnrichMoney app
Complete the online order process
Pay the 10 MYR issuance fee and the 20 MYR deposit
Your card will be sent to you
Touch 'n Go travel card
If you have a Touch'n Go enhanced card you can use it for spending and withdrawals in Australia. Your MYR balance will be converted to AUD using the Alipay exchange rate at the point that you pay, so there's no need to set up your travel money in advance. There are international ATM fees of 10 MYR if you choose to make withdrawals, but the Alipay rate may be better than the rate you get from your bank so it's still worth comparing your options.
Touch 'n Go features
Card | Fees for spending | ATM fees | Withdraw limit | Annual fee | App available | Trustpilot score |
Visa Debit Card | Alipay conversion rates apply when spending abroad, which may include a fee | 10 MYR | 5,000 MYR per day | N/A | iOS & Android | Not active on Trustpilot |
Touch 'n Go travel card pros and cons
- Popular option which can be easily used to pay road tolls, parking and more, as well as for spending
- Manage your card in the app wherever you happen to be
- Secure as not linked to your normal account
- Lots of local spending is free
- Exchange rates may include a fee
- 10 MYR international ATM fee
How to apply for a Touch'n Go card
Here's how to apply for a Touch'n Go account and order a travel card in Malaysia:
Open the Touch'n Go website or download the app
Click the option to order an enhanced card
Complete the account application steps and get verified
Pay any required fee, and your card will be delivered by mail
What is a travel money card?
A travel money card is a card you can use for secure and convenient payments and withdrawals overseas.
You can use a travel money card to tap and pay in stores and restaurants, with a wallet like Apple Pay, or to make ATM withdrawals so you'll always have a bit of cash in your pocket when you travel.
Although there are lots of different travel money cards on the market, all of which are unique, one similarity you'll spot is that the features and fees have always been optimised for international use. That might mean you get a better exchange rate compared to using your normal card overseas, or that you run into fewer fees for common international transactions like ATM withdrawals.
Travel money cards also offer distinct benefits when it comes to security. Your travel money card isn't linked to your Malaysian ringgit everyday account, so even if you were unlucky and had your card stolen, your primary bank account remains secure.
Travel money vs prepaid card vs travel credit card
It's helpful to know that you'll be able to pick from several different types of travel cards, depending on your priorities and preferences. Travel cards commonly include:
- Travel debit cards
- Travel prepaid cards
- Travel credit cards
They all have distinct benefits when you head off to Australia or elsewhere in the world, but they do work a bit differently.
Travel debit and prepaid cards are usually linked to an online account, and may come from specialist digital providers - like the Wise card. These cards are usually flexible and cheap to use. You'll be able to manage your account and card through an app, although you can also often add money via the web or, if the card has physical branches, in-branch.
Travel credit cards are different and may suit different customer needs. As with any other credit card, you may need to pay an annual fee or interest and penalties depending on how you manage your account - but you could also earn extra rewards when spending in a foreign currency, or travel benefits like free insurance for example. Generally using a travel credit card can be more expensive compared to a debit or prepaid card - but it does let you spread out the costs of your travel across several months if you'd like to and don't mind paying interest to do so.
What is a prepaid travel money card best for?
Let's take a look at the advantages of using a prepaid travel money card for travellers going to Australia. While each travel card is a little different, you'll usually find some or all of the following benefits:
- Hold and exchange foreign currencies - allowing you to lock in exchange rates and set a travel budget before you leave
- Convenient for spending in person and through mobile wallets like Apple Pay, as well as for cash withdrawals
- You may find you get a better exchange rate compared to your bank - and you'll usually be able to avoid any foreign transaction fee, too
- Travel cards are secure as they're not linked to your everyday MYR account - and because you can make ATM withdrawals when you need to, you can also avoid carrying too much cash at once
Overall, travel cards offer flexible and low cost ways to avoid bank foreign transaction and international ATM fees, while accessing decent exchange rates.
How to choose the best travel card for Australia
We've picked out 4 great travel cards available in Malaysia - but there are also more options available, which can make choosing a daunting task. Some things to consider when picking a travel card for Australia include:
- What exchange rates does the card use? Choosing one with the mid-market rate or as close as possible to it is usually a smart plan
- What fees are unavoidable? For example, ATM charges or top up fees for your preferred top up methods
- Does the card support a good range of currencies? Getting a card which allows you to hold and spend in AUD can give you the most flexibility, but it's also a good idea to pick a card with lots of currency options, so you can use it again in future, too
- Are there any other charges? Check in particular for foreign transaction fees, local ATM withdrawal fees, inactivity fees and account close fees
Ultimately the right card for you will depend on your specific needs and preferences.
What makes a good travel card for Australia
The best travel debit card for Australia really depends on your personal preferences and how you like to manage your money.
Overall, it pays to look for a card which lets you minimise fees and access favourable exchange rates - ideally the mid-market rate. While currency exchange rates do change all the time, the mid-market rate is a good benchmark to use as it's the one available to banks when trading on wholesale markets. Getting this rate, with transparent conversion fees, makes it easier to compare costs and see exactly what you're paying when you spend in AUD.
Other features and benefits to look out for include low ATM withdrawal fees, complimentary travel insurance, airport lounge access or emergency cash if your card is stolen. It's also important to look into the security features of any travel card you might pick for Australia. Look for a card which uses 2 factor authentication when accessing the account app, which allows you to set instant transaction notifications, and which has easy ways to freeze, unfreeze and cancel your card with your phone.
For Australia in particular, choosing a card which offers contactless payments and which is compatible with mobile wallets like Apple Pay could be a good plan. Card payments are extremely popular in Australia - so having a card which lets you tap and pay easily can speed things up and make it more convenient during your trip.
Ways to pay in Australia
Cash and card payments - including contactless, mobile wallet, debit, credit and prepaid card payments - are the most popular ways to pay globally.
In Australia card payments are common in most situations. You'll be able to make Chip and PIN or contactless payments or use your favourite mobile wallet like Apple Pay to tap and pay on the go. It's still worth having a little cash on you just in case - and for the odd situations where cash is more convenient, such as when tipping or buying a small item in a market.
Which countries use AUD?
If you have AUD, you should be able to use it in a few countries. You may decide to keep your travel card topped up with a balance for this trip to Australia or for the next time you're headed somewhere which uses AUD.
Australian Dollar | |
Currency name | Australian Dollar |
ISO code | AUD |
Symbol | A$ |
AUD denominations | banknotes - 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 AUD and coins - 5, 10, 20, 50 cents; 1, 2 AUD |
Best travel cards to take to Australia | Wise,BigPay,EnrichMoney,Touch 'n Go |
What should you be aware of when travelling to Australia
You're sure to have a great time in Australia - but whenever you're travelling abroad it's worth putting in a little advance thought to make sure everything is organised and your trip goes smoothly. Here are a few things to think about:
1. Double check the latest entry requirements and visas - rules can change abruptly, so even if you're been to Australia before it's worth looking up the most recent entry requirements so you don't have any hassle on the border
2. Plan your currency exchange and payment methods - you can change MYR to AUD before you travel to Australia if you'd like to, but as card payments are common, and ATMs widely available, you can actually leave it until you arrive to get everything sorted as long as you have a travel money card. Top up your travel money card in MYR and either exchange to AUD in advance or at the point of payment, and make ATM withdrawals whenever you need cash. Bear in mind that currency exchange at the airport will be expensive - so hold on until you reach Australia to make an ATM withdrawal in AUD if you can.
3. Get clued up on any health or safety concerns - get travel insurance before you leave Malaysia so you have peace of mind. It's also worth reading up on any common scams or issues experienced by tourists. These tend to change over time, but may include things like rip off taxis or tour agents which don't offer fair prices or adequate services.
Conclusion - Best travel cards for Australia
Ultimately the best travel card for your trip to Australia will depend on how you like to manage your money. Use this guide to get some insights into the most popular options out there, and to decide which may suit your specific needs.
How does a Australian Dollar card work?
Getting a Australian Dollar card can make managing your money easier when you travel to Australia.
Your Australian Dollar card will be linked to a digital account you can manage from your phone, so you'll always be able to see your balance, get transaction notifications and manage your card no matter where you are. Just add money to your account in pounds, and - depending on your preferences and the specific card you pick - you can either convert your balance to Australian Dollar instantly, or just let the card do the conversion when you spend or make a withdrawal.
If your card gives you the option to hold a Australian Dollar balance, there's not normally any extra fee to spend the Australian Dollar you have in your account when you're in Australia.
Can I withdraw Australian Dollar currency with my card in Australia?
With some cards, you'll be able to add money to your card in Malaysian ringgit, and then convert to Australian Dollar instantly online or in your card's app.
Once you have a balance in Australian Dollar you can spend with your card with no extra fees - just tap and pay as you would at home. You'll also be able to make cash withdrawals whenever you need to, with no extra conversion fee to pay. Your card - or the ATM operator - may charge a withdrawal fee, but this can still be a cheap, secure and convenient option for getting cash when you need it.
With other cards, you can't hold a balance in Australian Dollar on your card - but you can leave your money in Malaysian ringgit and let the card convert your money for you when you spend and withdraw.
Some fees may apply here - including currency conversion or foreign transaction charges - so do compare a few different cards before you sign up, to make sure you're picking the one which best suits your specific spending needs.
Bear in mind though, that not all cards support all currencies - and the range of currencies available with any given card can change from time to time. If your card doesn't let you hold a balance in Australian Dollar you might find that fees apply when you spend in Australia, so it's well worth double checking your card's terms and conditions - and comparing the options available from other providers - before you travel, just in case.
Why should I get a Australian Dollar card?
Getting a Australian Dollar card means you can spend like a local when you're in Australia. You'll be able to check your Australian Dollar balance at a glance, add and convert money on the move, and use your card for secure spending and withdrawals whenever you need to. Best of all, Australian Dollar cards from popular providers often offer good exchange rates and low, transparent fees, which can mean your money goes further when you're on a trip abroad.
FAQ - best travel cards for Australia
When you use a travel money card you may find there's an ATM withdrawal fee from your card issuer, and there may also be a cost applied by the ATM operator. Some of our travel cards have some no fee ATM withdrawals every month, which can help keep down costs.
Travel money cards may be debit, prepaid or credit cards. Which is best for you will depend on your personal preferences. Debit and prepaid cards are usually pretty cheap and secure to spend with, while credit cards may have higher fees but often come with extra perks like free travel insurance and extra reward points.
There's no single best prepaid card for international use. Look out for one which supports a large range of currencies, with good exchange rates and low fees. This guide can help you compare some popular options, including Wise and BigPay.
Yes, you can use your local debit card when you're overseas. However, it's common to find extra fees apply when spending in foreign currencies with a regular debit card. These can include foreign transaction fees and international ATM charges.
Usually having a selection of ways to pay - including a travel card, your credit or debit card, and some cash - is the best bet. That means that no matter what happens, you have an alternative payment method you can use conveniently.
Yes. Most travel debit cards have options to make ATM withdrawals. Check the fees that apply as card charges do vary a lot. Some cards have local and international fees on all withdrawals, while others let you make some no fee withdrawals monthly before a fee kicks in.
Both Visa and Mastercard are globally accepted. Look out for the logo on ATMs and payment terminals in Australia.
The cards you see on this page are ordered as follows:
For card providers that publish their exchange rates on their website, we used their MYR / AUD rate to calculate how much Australian Dollar you would receive when exchanging / spending RM20,000. The card provider offering the most AUD is displayed at the top, the next highest below that, and so on.
The rates were collected at 09:36:26 GMT on 25 May 2024.
Below this we display card providers for which we could not verify their exchange rates. These are displayed in alphabetical order.


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Family Room
with Private Garage (For 2 adults and 2 children)
The family rooms with private garage (ca. 24 m2) are located at the front side of the hotel. They are equipped with shower/WC, hairdryer, air-conditioning, large LED television, phone, safe, desk, bunk bed for children (bed length only 1.80 m) and private garage connected to the room. Included in the price is the internet (Wi-Fi) connection and the entrance to the nice swimming pool in the garden, open from May until September.


text:
20 things you didn't know about XP
1) It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).
2) You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).
3) You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.
4) XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.
5) For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.
6) XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.
7) You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.
8) XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.
9) XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.
10) You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.
11) You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.
12) Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.
13) You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.
14) Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.
15) XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.
16) The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.
17) You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.
18) Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.
19) Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.
20) The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due out late next year or early 2003 and won't be much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb and will be out in 2003/2004.


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Fourth Annual JUNIOR FACULTY BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL LAW WORKSHOP
Sponsored by Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
The Center for Law, Economics & Finance (C-LEAF) at The George Washington University Law School is pleased to announce its fourth annual Junior Faculty Business and Financial Law Workshop and Junior Faculty Scholarship Prizes. The Workshop and Prizes are sponsored by Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP. The Workshop will be held on February 7-8, 2014 at GW Law School in Washington, DC.
The Workshop supports and recognizes the work of young legal scholars in accounting, banking, bankruptcy, corporations, economics, finance and securities, while promoting interaction among them and selected senior faculty and practitioners. By providing a forum for the exchange of creative ideas in these areas, C-LEAF also aims to encourage new and innovative scholarship.
Approximately ten papers will be chosen from those submitted for presentation at the Workshop pursuant to this Call for Papers. At the Workshop, one or more senior scholars and practitioners will comment on each paper, followed by a general discussion of each paper among all participants. The Workshop audience will include invited young scholars, faculty from GW's Law School and Business School, faculty from other institutions, practitioners, and invited guests.
At the conclusion of the Workshop, three papers will be selected to receive Junior Faculty Scholarship Prizes of $3,000, $2,000, and $1,000, respectively. All prize winners will be invited to become Fellows of C-LEAF.* C-LEAF makes no publication commitment, but chosen papers will be featured on its website as part of the C-LEAF Working Paper series.
Junior scholars who have not yet received tenure, but have held a full-time academic appointment for less than seven years as of the submission date, are cordially invited to submit summaries or drafts of their papers. Although published work is not eligible for submission, submissions may include work that has been accepted for publication. C-LEAF will cover hotel and meal expenses of all selected presenters.
Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, one of the leading law firms serving the financial services industry and known for its premier practice in the area of private investment funds and private equity M&A, generously sponsors the Junior Faculty Scholarship Workshop and Prizes and provides other financial assistance to C-LEAF.
Those interested in presenting a paper at the Workshop should submit an abstract, summary or draft, preferably by e-mail, on or before October 4, 2013. To facilitate blind review, your name and other identifying information should be redacted from your paper submission. Direct your submission, along with any inquiries related to the Workshop, to:
Professor Lisa M. Fairfax
Leroy Sorenson Merrifield Research Professor of Law
George Washington University Law School
2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
Papers and Junior Faculty Scholarship Prizes will be selected after a blind review by members of the C-LEAF Executive Board. Authors of accepted papers will be notified by November 15, 2013. Please feel free to pass this Call for Papers along to any colleagues who may be interested.


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A new Quinnipiac University poll shows yet another perspective on the deep racial division in our country.
According to the poll, 86 percent of blacks compared to 50 percent of whites say that President Trump does not "respect people of color as much as he respects white people."
However the partisan divide is even greater than the racial divide.
Ninety-one percent of Democrats compared to 12 percent of Republicans agree with the statement that President Trump is racially biased against people of color.
Bottom line: What we call a racial divide today is really a partisan divide.
Consider the remarks of Rep. John Lewis, who decided to not attend the opening of the new Civil Rights Museum in Mississippi because Trump announced he would attend. Lewis called Trump's attendance "an affront to the veterans of the civil rights movement."
Or the president of the NAACP who also announced he would not attend because of Trump's attendance. NAACP President Derrick Johnson called Trump's attendance at the museum's opening "a distraction from us having the opportunity to honor true Americans who sacrificed so much to ensure that democracy works."
But the "insult" to civil rights comes today from these very black leaders who claim to represent this movement.
The leaders who fought in the 1960s for civil rights fought for freedom and against stereotyping any individual because of their race. Freedom means living and thinking freely according one's judgment and conscience. That is, blacks may have conservative as well as liberal views.
In 2016, 8 percent of black voters, or 1.2 million people, voted for Donald Trump. But these 1.2 million blacks don't exist in the view of today's "civil rights" leaders.
Like the Dred Scott decision in 1857, which declared blacks inhuman and therefore not eligible to be American citizens, so-called black leaders of 2017 declare the same status for black Republicans and black conservatives.
About 15 percent of black men between ages of 18 and 54 voted for Donald Trump.
A black leadership whose primary interest is black freedom, rather than left-wing politics, would be asking why this many black Americans voted for Donald Trump.
More careful reasoning would shine light among black voters that we have a president who is an independent thinker and who has the courage to fight against an entrenched status quo. And fighting against an entrenched status quo is something African-Americans need.
As Housing and Urban Development secretary, Dr. Ben Carson is creatively finding new approaches to the largely failed government housing programs.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz introduced an amendment to the tax bill just passed in the Senate that expands 529 college savings plans, which enables tax-free savings to pay for college, to include K-12 education. This will allow all parents to save tax-free and spend up to $10,000 per year on expenses for public school, private school, religious schools and home schooling.
This has huge implications for black parents and children. America's most famous home-schooled American is Simone Biles, who won four gold medals in the 2016 Olympic games.
Soon the Trump administration and Congress will move on reforming our bloated and inefficient welfare programs. We are spending some $900 billion annually on anti-poverty programs that are helping to bankrupt the country and doing a very poor job improving the quality of life for the Americans these programs are designed to help. Black leaders should be anxious to participate in this vital and historic effort to do a much better job in how we assist low-income Americans.
It's in the interest of every African-American to start thinking about freedom. This is what the civil rights movement was about. Not left-wing politics.
Photo credit: Talk Radio News Service (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved
Star Parker is the founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Contact her at www.urbancure.org.


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A teenager who was killed after reportedly stopping a suicide bomber at a school in northwest Pakistan is being hailed as a hero.
Aitizaz Hasan, 15, was late for school on Monday and as a punishment wasn't allowed to attend assembly, the Express Tribune newspaper said.
Hasan and two schoolmates were standing outside the Government High School Ibrahimzai in Hangu, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, when they saw a man approach. One of Hasan's friends spotted a detonator on the man; the schoolmates ran inside. But, as the newspaper wrote, "Aitizaz stood his ground and got hold of the bomber, who then detonated his vest."
"I had never thought that my brother would die such a great death," Hasan's older brother, Mujtaba Hasan, told the newspaper. "He sacrificed his life to save humanity."
Hasan's father, Mujahid Ali, said: "My son made his mother cry but saved hundreds of mothers from crying for their children."
There were 2,000 students at the school at the time of the attack, responsibility for which was claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The U.S. State Department regards the group as a foreign terrorist organization.
The school is the only one in the Shiite-dominated part of Hangu. The area is known for violence against Shiites.
Principal Lal Baz told the newspaper: "The attack targeted education, and I am surprised neither the federal nor the provincial government functionary has visited the family. Their silence is condemnable."
Pakistanis and others are paying their tributes to the teenager on Twitter. Pakistan's media are also weighing in on Hasan's death.
Writing in the Dawn newspaper, columnist Zarrar Khuhro said:
"We don't need more [Aitizazes]. Not one or one million. What we need is to be worthy of the one we lost. What we need is for those who claim to lead us to show the courage that this boy did. Perhaps, that is too much to ask from those who roll out apologies and obfuscations with such unerring regularity, but stammer and shake when it comes to naming those responsible for mass murder."
Meanwhile, an explosion that targeted a police convoy in Karachi on Thursday killed three officers, including one of the city's top police officials.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Worldwide, more than eight-in-ten people identify with a religious group. A comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life estimates that there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.
The demographic study – based on analysis of more than 2,500 censuses, surveys and population registers – finds 2.2 billion Christians (32% of the world's population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23%), 1 billion Hindus (15%), nearly 500 million Buddhists (7%) and 14 million Jews (0.2%) around the world as of 2010. In addition, more than 400 million people (6%) practice various folk or traditional religions, including African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions. An estimated 58 million people – slightly less than 1% of the global population – belong to other religions, including the Baha'i faith, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca and Zoroastrianism, to mention just a few.1
At the same time, the new study by the Pew Forum also finds that roughly one-in-six people around the globe (1.1 billion, or 16%) have no religious affiliation. This makes the unaffiliated the third-largest religious group worldwide, behind Christians and Muslims, and about equal in size to the world's Catholic population. Surveys indicate that many of the unaffiliated hold some religious or spiritual beliefs (such as belief in God or a universal spirit) even though they do not identify with a particular faith. (See Religiously Unaffiliated.)
The geographic distribution of religious groups varies considerably. Several religious groups are heavily concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, including the vast majority of Hindus (99%), Buddhists (99%), adherents of folk or traditional religions (90%) and members of other world religions (89%).
Three-quarters of the religiously unaffiliated (76%) also live in the massive and populous Asia- Pacific region. Indeed, the number of religiously unaffiliated people in China alone (about 700 million) is more than twice the total population of the United States.
The Asia-Pacific region also is home to most of the world's Muslims (62%). About 20% of Muslims live in the Middle East and North Africa, and nearly 16% reside in sub-Saharan Africa.
Of the major religious groups covered in this study, Christians are the most evenly dispersed. Roughly equal numbers of Christians live in Europe (26%), Latin America and the Caribbean (24%) and sub-Saharan Africa (24%).
A plurality of Jews (44%) live in North America, while about four-in-ten (41%) live in the Middle East and North Africa – almost all of them in Israel.
Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the world's people live in countries in which their religious group makes up a majority of the population. Only about a quarter (27%) of all people live as religious minorities. (This figure does not include subgroups of the eight major groups in this study, such as Shia Muslims living in Sunni-majority countries or Catholics living in Protestant-majority countries.)
Overwhelmingly, Hindus and Christians tend to live in countries where they are in the majority. Fully 97% of all Hindus live in the world's three Hindu-majority countries (India, Mauritius and Nepal), and nearly nine-in-ten Christians (87%) are found in the world's 157 Christian-majority countries. (To see the religious composition of each country, see Religious Composition by Country table.)
Though by smaller margins, most Muslims (73%) and religiously unaffiliated people (71%) also live in countries in which they are the predominant religious group. Muslims are a majority in 49 countries, including 19 of the 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The religiously unaffiliated make up a majority of the population in six countries, of which China is by far the largest. (The others are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hong Kong, Japan and North Korea.)
Most members of the other major religious groups live in countries in which they are in the minority. Seven-in-ten Buddhists (72%), for example, live as religious minorities. Just three-in-ten (28%) live in the seven countries where Buddhists are in the majority: Bhutan, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Israel is the only country with a Jewish majority. There are no countries where members of other religions (such as Baha'is, Jains, Shintoists, Sikhs, Taoists, followers of Tenrikyo, Wiccans and Zoroastrians) make up a majority of the population. There are also no countries where people who identify with folk or traditional religions clearly form a majority.2
Some religions have much younger populations, on average, than others. In part, the age differences reflect the geographic distribution of religious groups. Those with a large share of adherents in fast-growing, developing countries tend to have younger populations. Those concentrated in China and in advanced industrial countries, where population growth is slower, tend to be older.
The median age of two major groups – Muslims (23 years) and Hindus (26) – is younger than the median age of the world's overall population (28).3 All the other groups are older than the global median. Christians have a median age of 30, followed by members of other religions (32), adherents of folk or traditional religions (33), the religiously unaffiliated (34) and Buddhists (34). Jews have the highest median age (36), more than a dozen years older than the youngest group, Muslims.
These are among the key findings of a new study of the global religious landscape conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life as part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world.
The demographic study explores the size, geographic distribution and median age of eight major religious groups – including the unaffiliated – that together represent 100% of the estimated 2010 global population. The study is based on a country-by-country analysis of data from more than 2,500 national censuses, large-scale surveys and official population registers that were collected, evaluated and standardized by the Pew Forum's demographers and other research staff.4 Many countries have recently conducted a national census or are in the midst of doing so. Therefore, new data are likely to emerge over the next few years. However, a datacollection cut-off had to be made at some point; this report is based on information available as of early 2012.5
For estimates of the religious composition of individual countries, see Religious Composition by Country table. For details on the methodology used to produce estimates of religious populations in 232 countries and territories, see Appendix A. For a list of data sources by country, see Appendix B.
To see each country's and territory's population broken down by number and percentage into the eight major religious groups in the study, see the sortable tables at http://features.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/religion/grl/population-number.php.
There are some minor differences between the estimates presented in this study and previous Pew Forum estimates of Christian and Muslim populations around the world. These differences reflect the availability of new data sources, such as recently released censuses in a few countries, and the use of population growth projections to update estimates in countries with older primary sources. (For more details, see the Methodology.)
This study is based on self-identification. It seeks to estimate the number of people around the world who view themselves as belonging to various religious groups. It does not attempt to measure the degree to which members of these groups actively practice their faiths or how religious they are.
In order to obtain statistics that are comparable across countries, the study attempts to count groups and individuals who self-identify as members of five widely recognized world religions – Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Jews – as well as people associated with three other religious categories that may be less familiar:
Folk religions are closely tied to a particular people, ethnicity or tribe. In some cases, elements of other world religions are blended with local beliefs and customs. These faiths often have no formal creeds or sacred texts. Examples of folk religions include African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions.
The religiously unaffiliated population includes atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion in surveys. However, many of the religiously unaffiliated do hold religious or spiritual beliefs. For example, various surveys have found that belief in God or a higher power is shared by 7% of unaffiliated Chinese adults, 30% of unaffiliated French adults and 68% of unaffiliated U.S. adults.6
The "other religions" category is diverse and comprises groups not classified elsewhere. This category includes followers of religions that often are not measured separately in censuses and surveys: the Baha'i faith, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca, Zoroastrianism and many other religions. Because of the lack of data on these faiths in many countries, the Pew Forum has not attempted to estimate the size of individual religions within this category, though some rough estimates are available from other sources. (See Spotlight on Other Religions.)
These and other findings are discussed in more detail in the remainder of this report, which is divided into eight sections – one for each of the major religious groupings, in order of size:
To discuss the geographic distribution of religious groups, this report divides the world into six major regions: Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, North America and sub-Saharan Africa. For a list of countries in each region, see the Methodology.
1 Although some faiths in the "other religions" category have millions of adherents around the world, censuses and surveys in many countries do not measure them specifically. Estimates of the global size of these faiths generally come from other sources, such as the religious groups themselves. By far the largest of these groups are Sikhs, who number about 25 million, according to the World Religion Database. For more information, see Spotlight on Other Religions. (return to text)
2 For a discussion of the challenges of measuring the pervasiveness of folk or traditional religions, see the section on Folk Religionists. (return to text)
3 The median in a population is the midpoint when the entire population is ordered by some characteristic, such as age or income. If everyone alive in 2010 lined up from youngest to oldest, the person in the middle (the median) would be 28 years old. (return to text)
4 A population register is a list of all permanent residents of a country. See the United Nations Statistics Division's description of population registers (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/popreg/popregmethods.htm). (return to text)
5 For instance, in December 2012, just before the release of this report, new religion data were released from the 2011 Census of England and Wales. The new data suggest a slightly different religious landscape than the estimate made by this study for the broader United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), which is based primarily on the 2010 Annual Population Survey carried out by the U.K.'s Office for National Statistics.(return to text)
6 For more information on the beliefs and practices of religiously unaffiliated adults in the United States, see the Pew Forum's October 2012 report "'Nones' on the Rise." The Pew Forum's U.S. surveys typically ask about belief in "God or a universal spirit." French results are based on a Pew Forum analysis of 2008 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) data. The ISSP survey asks about belief in God or a "higher power of some kind." Chinese results are based on a Pew Forum analysis of the 2007 Spiritual Life Study of Chinese Residents, conducted by the Chinese polling firm Horizon. In China, the belief in God statistic measures belief in God, gods, spirits, ghosts or Buddha. (return to text)


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Cookie Policy
Effective Date: September 5th, 2022
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Get your FAA / Civilian Pilot Certificate the Easy Way!
"Great software to get me ready for the Military Competence Exam! Excellent resources made readily available to explain questions and foster deeper understanding and general knowledge of regulations. I passed the exam within 15 minutes and scored 100%. The FAA Operations Inspector who handled my paperwork said "Geez, 100%? Maybe you put in too much time on this one." Nope, just the right amount, thank you! Completely worthwhile product."
"Your software is awesome! I studied the questions, took several practice tests (about 10 hours of work), and aced the military competence exam. I walked out of the testing room in 10 minutes and the proctor couldn't believe it - she was really shocked when I scored 100%. I didn't use anything but your software (and its links to FAA pubs) to prep for this exam. That was the best money I've spent in a while! I'll be downloading more of your excellent products as I work on getting my tickets. Keep up the great work."
"I just passed my MCI test. Your test questions were very good and I learned a lot. Great product!"
"I'm currently an Air Force KC135R pilot. Unfortunately I was unable to obtain my ratings out of SUPT unlike my classmates, however Dauntless provided me an excellent alternative to wasting a day and $200. The software is great and well worth the price! It prepared me for the military competence test and all I studied was once a day for 25 minutes for 3 days and scored a 96%! I took three 142 question tests each day (CATS mode) and by the third test I knew I was ready! I truly recommend this software for those military pilots who have yet to get their FAA ticket!! Thanks Dauntless!!!"
The above is just a small sample of the real, unsolicited feedback from our users (click here for more). Our study system works.
Military pilot? Converting your military flying experience into an FAA pilot certificate via the Military Competence Non-Specific (MCN) written test (Covers Airplane, Helicopter, and Powered Lift pilots).
Get the app and start studying right now. You can be ready to take your test in a just few hours.
Ready to Purchase? buy now
Connect With your Instructor or School
This app has a really cool feature. After you complete a study session, you can, choose to report your progress to our TestPrepStatus.com system where you will be able to see charts of your study progress so that you can identity your weak points.
The really cool thing, however, is that you can also invite your instructor (CFI, flight school, mechanic school, mentor, parent, study partner, etc) to log in and monitor your progress. This is neat because now you can prove to your instructor in a concrete way now your study is progressing.
Access to the TestPrepStatus.com system is completely free for you and your instructor! Only GroundSchool has this innovative system.
Members of all branches of the US military have used our software to successfully prepare for their Military Competence tests.
There are two types of FAA certificates that this software can help you get:
Our software can prepare you for both type 1 and type 2 tests. We offer the most cost effective way of preparing for these tests.
Technically, the MCN test is subset of our regular FAA commercial pilot offering and the MCI tests is a modified subset of the Flight / Ground Instructor offering.
About the Written Test and how to use our apps
We work full-time to try to make sure that we have the latest and greatest exact questions that will likely appear on your MCN/MCI written test. So, if you study from this software, you will likely do very well on this software. Of course, the FAA does occasionally change the questions and we are on top of this as much as anybody else, but we can no more guarantee that this this software will have exactly 100% of the questions than anybody else can. If somebody guarantees you "exact" questions, then they are exaggerating. If somebody "guarantees" you success on the MCA/MCH/MCI with their method, then all they are doing is subsidizing the failures with their higher fees. We'd rather leave it up to the motivated individual not to need to subsidize others in this way--that said, we believe that conscientious users of this software have a 100% pass rate at the time of this writing.
Of course, and this almost goes without saying, in order for us to be able to be continuously on top of the tests as we are and update the software for future pilots, each user needs to pay his own fee for this software. The cost is very reasonable. Please resist any temptation to "share" the purchased version of this software with others. Any license purchases is a single-user license only.
To use this software, click on "prepare for a written test", select MCN/MCI as appropriate, and then choose study areas to prepare on. The screen after that is a test mode options screen which gives you several ways to learn the questions--try a few combinations until you see what works for you.
Using the software, most people can more or less learn the entire MCN question bank in a few hours (the MCI takes slightly longer). To check whether you're ready for the real thing, try running the software in 'Simulated MCN/MCI Test mode' 3-5 times. If you can score above 90% consistently (remember, the passing grade is 70%), you're set. We recommend then you immediately go to take your actual test at a testing center.
The following text refers to the MCN test
How to use this software / how to get your FAA Certificate
This software is for US military pilots who have been on active flying status within the past 12 months and who want to get a civilian (FAA) airplane or helicopter pilot certificate. If you use this software and follow the steps below, you can get an FAA Commercial Pilot certificate + Instrument Rating based on you military flying experience without needing an additional flight test and without the waste of time and expense of one of those weekend courses that costs three or more times what this software does. That's right--just use this software on your own time and at your own pace and you will be set. Most people usually do this at their first duty station following Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). You may, however, take the written prior to leaving UPT, especially as the material will likely still be quite fresh in your head then.
If you are a US military pilot who has NOT been on active flying status within the last 12 months, this program is for you too! But, you may have to take an FAA practical test ("checkride") in addition to taking the written test. See FAR 61.73 (below) for more details.
To get your FAA Commercial Pilot Certificate with Instrument Rating, you will need to pass the MCN written test. This is a multiple-choice test and this software will prepare you for it. Then, you need to go to a computerized testing center to take the exam (there is a listing of them elsewhere in the program). If you pass (score 70% or better) you will get a score report paper.
Then, to get your FAA Commercial Pilot certificate, you need to make an appointment and meet with an FAA specialist. This will most likely happen at an FAA Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) [here's a list of them]. The actual process of getting your FAA certificate once at the FSDO should be about 10 minutes. Bring with you:
(for this in more detail, see the FAR excerpt below)
The Regulations Behind Your Soon-to-Be FAA Certificate
Here's "Straight from the horse's mouth" FAR (CFR 14) 61.73:
Federal Aviation Regulations - Section 61.73: Military pilots or former military pilots: Special rules.
The following text refers to the MCI test specifically:
Let us give you a little background on what we know about the relatively new MCI test. The following is based on a few in-depth conversations/meetings with the people at the FAA directly responsible for the test - they provided us with general guidance but, as is the FAA custom, did not actually tell us which specific questions were to be in the test.
We believe that our work on making an MCI test prep is far more than any other company has done, and as such we are in the best position to provide a credible product for you.
The FAA's basic philosophy in this matter is that as military flight instructors, you already know (and have been tested on) the mechanics of aviation. What you don't have, however, is a background in certain FAA ways of doing things - this stretches from paperwork through instruction-related theory to instruction related regulations. Therefore, the direction that we have is that the tests will focus on these things and absolutely NOT on things such as aerodynamics, chart interpretation, performance, weather, and the like.
Therefore, we have created our software having picked those questions from the FAA FLIGHT/GROUND instructor, FAA INSTRUMENT flight instructor, FAA Commercial Pilot, and FAA Private Pilot banks that meet this criterion. We've tried to be prudent and conservative in that we've included what we feel are a few marginal cases that nevertheless might be asked, but still the total number of questions in our prep is far less than the totality of the CFI/CFII banks combined, this allowing the potential candidate to focus his/her study.
So far, based on the feedback that we've gotten from our users, it appears that we're right on the mark with our approach as no user so far has reported a score of less than 90% (the pass mark is 70%) and a few have reported 100%s.
However, as this is a new test and things might change, we've also made it that anybody who buys and gets access to the MCI prep will also have access to all of the tests in our Flight/Ground Instructor software. This includes the Fundamentals of Instruction (FOI). You are welcome to study from these tests at no additional cost if you feel that you could do with a broader review of the overall material or would simply feel more comfortable studying with a larger set of questions.
We hope you can find our approach in this to be prudent. We're doing our best to provide the best MCI given the information on hand for this new test.
What do I do after I take the MCI test to actually receive the FAA certificate?
Do I need to take the MCN test also if I want to be a civilian flight instructor?
I am a complex case - do I need to take the test?
I am a military pilot but not a military flight instructor. What can I do do get an FAA civilian flight instructor certificate?
How does your product compare with others?
We offer a helpdesk that answers over 97% of user questions automatically and quickly through a series of FAQs, guides, wizards, and automated help. The automated features of this helpdesk are available 24/7 and represent the combined knowledge of dozens of aviation and technical professionals who otherwise would not be aviation and technical professionals if their job consisted of sitting waiting for the phone to ring.
For help with unlocking the software, this includes an unlock help wizard that has essentially automatically helped anybody and everybody that has had problems with the unlock process and offers far better and FASTER help than even a telephone-based system could (since the wizard shows you in illustrations what to do). In practice, because our unlocking system is so straightforward and is for most people a one-time thing (see next question), few people have any real issues with it.
If your query is such that you need a real person to respond, we're happy to hear from you. Most questions that can not be handled by the automated system are responded to within a few hours during normal business hours.
How many questions are in your MCI prep?
So - how many questions will our software teach you (either to memorize or by teaching you well through our superior explanations and associated learning material?) A few hundred - it changes as feedback comes in and the tests themselves change. A low-rent and low-credibility would be "competitor" of ours is aggressively pushing an MCI prep in certain military circles (which at the time of this writing is considerably more expensive than ours) with a number of dubious insinuations. The reality is that this number changes regularly; in fact, at the time of this writing there was just a medium sized update from the FAA though the number they have posted on their website didn't change. Since we think this is a false game to begin with, we're not going to get into number A vs number B, since this is a false game (if we had less, they've be accusing us of somehow short changing users, we gather). The reality is that people who use our prep end up generally passing with very high scores AND learning the material well. This is what matters. Put it another way, do you really think that the primary determinant of your success on the test and in your future career as a knowledgeable flight instructor is studying a few dozen fewer less questions?
Update - Feedback from our users fully validates our approach! As of this writing, all users that we've so far heard from have reported scores of over 90%. Superb! Remember that the pass mark is 70%.
In other words, our system and approach WORK.
Will you guarantee that I will pass the test?
I need a little brush up.
Will my civilian flight instructor certificate expire?
"Will Your MCI prep prepare me for the CFI and CFII tests?"
If you have military flight instructor experience that includes instrument instructor experience (let's assume we're talking airplanes here, though this applies equivalently to helicopters for the time being), the FAA will normally grant you both "CFI-Airplane [Single and/or Multi Engine Land] " and "CFI-Instrument Airplane" privileges after you have completed the MCI knowledge test that our MCI test prep software prepares you for. So, in that sense, yes, absolutely - we prepare you for getting both your "CFI" and your "CFII" if your military experience warrants it (please check with your local FSDO if you are unsure whether your military experience qualifies as they can best give you a definitive 'bankable' answer).
Here's the thing though - if you are asking about the actual FIA (flight instructor airplane) and IFI (instrument flight instructor tests) that are separate from the MCI test, then the MilComp software (above) prepares you for only one of those - the FIA. Specifically, when you purchase the MCI / Military Competence Instructor software above, the code you will get will also unlock the GroundSchool - Flight and Ground Instructor test bank available here but NOT the GroundSchool - Instrument Rating bank available at www.dauntless-soft.com/products/groundschool/ifr.asp
The IFI - Instrument Flight Instructor written test prep (what the question loosely calls CFII) is in the IFR bank.
that said,
That also said, just to be clear - there are in the MCI test prep itself a few instrument-type questions as directed by the FAA for the MCI test, though not enough to prepare you for the 'full' IFI test if you wanted to take that.
Thank you again for considering our software - if there's further questions, please let us know.
I have further questions.
Thanks for checking out our apps! Good luck on your test, and blue skies!
The FAATest.com Team


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This is a short and sweet post as I sit in an Amsterdam hotel room before heading out for dinner, oddly there is a plethora of Argentinian restaurants, they are everywhere! My second night at home and a little bit of a kitchen take over and the need to make something sweet. One of Dad's favourites is Lemon Meringue Pie and I had just read this and love the idea of a biscuit rather than pastry crust. So I took both as a signs that I should try my hand at some sort of lemon meringue pie. I also have never made meringue and thought it was about time I did, living in NZ it is only appropriate that I should be able to make our national dessert, pavlova.
I love limes, they do add a little tropicana, and I do prefer tarter when it comes to any sort of lemon in dessert so this morphed from a lemon meringue pie in to a lemon lime meringue pie. My favourite biscuits for any type of biscuit crumb are McVities Digestives, but feel free to use what you prefer. I am thinking that a mixture of the digestives with a few ginger snaps thrown in would work a treat. To add a little zing to the crust I added a good dose of both lemon and lime zest. I also cooked it a little longer than most as I like my meringue a little more cooked with a good golden crunch to it.
Lemon Lime Meringue Pie
Serves 6-8
2 cups, approx 10-12 digestive biscuits
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 lime
1 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp butter, melted
For the lemon filling
1/3 cup corn flour
1 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
Juice and zest of 2 lemons
Juice and zest of 3 limes....1 cup of juice all together
3/4 cup water
Pinch salt
25g butter, cut in to pieces
For the meringue
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup caster sugar
Pre heat the oven to 180C / 375F
For the crust
Place the digestives, zests and cinnamon in to a food processor and whiz until you have a fine crumb. Add the melted butter and whiz again. It will have the consistency of slightly damp sand.
Press the biscuit mixture in to a flan or pie dish, over the bottom and up the sides to create a crust. Place in the pre heated oven for 10 minutes until golden. Remove and allow to cool completely.
For the lemon filling
Place the corn flour, egg yolks, lemon and lime juice, lemon and lime zest, salt in a medium saucepan over a medium heat and mix them all together to combine. Add the water and whisk until all the ingredients are well combined together. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon to ensure a smooth consistency until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for just a moment and keep stirring.
Remove the lemon lime mixture from the heat and add the butter. Whisk until the butter is completely melted and you have a smooth, silky consistency. Pour the mixture in to the cooled biscuit crust and allow it to cool.
For the meringue
Whip together the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in a bowl with an electric mixer until they are frothy. Continue to whip and slowly add the sugar. Beat until you have a thick glossy mixture and stiff peaks.
Pour the meringue over the lemon lime mixture. Make sure that the meringue completely covers the lemon and lime mixture and that it goes right up to the edge of the crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden.
We prefer our lemon meringue pie hot, so there was no waiting around for anything too cool. Serve with some cream or ice cream for a light, cirtusy dessert. The biscuit base is a much lighter than a pastry crust and I like the texture, slightly crisp with the lemon and lime zest livening things up and the cinnamon adding just a hint of sweet warmth. The pie filling was tart and full of citrus zing all topped of by the sweet meringue, just a little chewy on the outside and mallowy light inside. With a good dollop of cream, very, very good.


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This shows the Cellarium in action.
Just like populations of human beings, clusters of living cells are made up of individuals possessing unique qualities. Traditional analytic techniques however evaluate cells in tissue aggregates, often overlooking single-cell nuances that can offer valuable clues concerning health and disease.
ASU Senior Scientist and Professor, Deirdre Meldrum, and her colleagues at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute are pioneering a kind of miniaturized laboratory for the investigation of single cells. Known as the Cellarium, this live cell array technology will enable researchers to investigate the detailed behavior of individual cells—providing unprecedented insights into their role in disease processes.
"Just as an aquarium is for viewing and studying live fish, the 'Cellarium' is for viewing and studying live cells," Meldrum says. "The Cellarium is an innovative, disposable microarray with sensors for dynamic, high-throughput measurements of live single cells. It is capable of multiparameter metabolic measurements of biosignatures induced by perturbation," she explains.
Currently under a $1.5 million grant from the NIH, the Cellarium project is the fruit of over a decade of scientific progress. Much of this work has been carried out with Meldrum's Center for Biosignatures Discovery Automation, a multidisciplinary team Meldrum directs and that has devoted significant resources to the study of single-cell physiology. Other key investigators in the Cellarium project include Drs. Honor Glenn, Mark Holl, Laimonas Kelbauskas, Yanqing Tian, Cody Youngbull, and Mr. Cliff Anderson.
An NIH Center of Excellence in Genomic Sciences known as the Microscale Life Sciences Center at Biodesign, also directed by Meldrum, has created and developed the Cellarium's early generation technology, with the assistance of partners at the University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Brandeis University.
The new grant is part of the NIH Common Fund project known as LINCS – Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures, which is a library of molecular signatures describing cell behavior in response to a variety of perturbing agents.
The central hypothesis of the LINCS project is that subjecting cells to perturbation can cause changes in the behavior and/or function that result in changes in the observable physical or biochemical characteristics of a cell or cell phenotype. Observing phenotypic cell changes in response to perturbation will help scientists better understand how environmental stresses on cells can cause them to transition to disease states.
While LINCS centers at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute are actively gathering molecular information, Meldrum stresses that the Cellarium's keen analytical capability to record dynamic characteristics of individual live cells in real time will provide a unique data set not attainable by any existing method. "We will be adding the dimensions of single-cell physiology and time to the LINCS database," Meldrum says.
Deirdre Meldrum, Ph.D., is ASU Senior Scientist, Director of the Biosignature Initiative and Director of the Center for Biosignatures Discovery Automation in the Biodesign Institute.The Cellarium array chip permits the study of individual cells in a high throughput format, providing measurement of critical parameters of cell metabolism including oxygen consumption, pH, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and glucose. Studying the manner in which these and other single-cell variables change with time will help researchers gain insight into life and death processes of cells, such as neoplastic progression (e.g. cancer), and pyroptosis or proinflammatory cell death—implicated in a range of inflammatory diseases as well as heart disease, stroke and cancer.
Meldrum's team received $669, 794 in funding to support the Cellarium project's inaugural year and the current award provides additional funding through August 2013. Over the next 18 months, the team will develop a disposable Cellarium microarray; employ a commercial microarray scanner to read cell parameters; and verify the technology's effectiveness by simultaneously monitoring oxygen, pH, glucose, and ATP responses.
The group will conduct studies involving various kinds of cell perturbation, observing metabolic responses to these interventions and compiling written and graphical procedures to facilitate an understanding of the data. Such stimulus-response experiments could include exposing cells to biochemical agents, an infection, a temporal cue, a drug, or any other type of perturbation.
The Cellarium system can also be applied to a wide range of cell types, including normal, metaplastic, dysplastic, and cancerous cells. While the initial version of the Cellarium will measure oxygen consumption, pH, ATP, and glucose, future work will be aimed at developing new sensors capable of measuring many additional cell parameters.
Providing the proper conditions for the study of individual cells is tricky. The Cellarium relies on environmentally controlled chambers in arrays outfitted with optical sensors capable of being scanned to reveal key parameters over time. To accomplish this, shallow microwells—each with a capacity of about 150 picoliters—will provide protection for the cells under study, which are then sealed in the microwell.
The analytes under consideration can then be studied using extracellular fluorescent sensors capable of multiparameter detection of metabolic processes. The microwells of the Cellarium are each able to hold 1 or more cells, on an array containing thousands of these wells. Once the Cellarium is fully developed by the end of 2012, it should be able to carry out multiparameter dynamic measurements on thousands of cells per run.
Figure 1 outlines the Cellarium process. First, cells are seeded into microwells and incubated under normal culture conditions. (Prior to incubation, various perturbagens may be introduced.) By compressing the aligned sensor array and cell microwell array together, an isolation seal is formed.
Next, using a high-speed scanner, the array is scanned at precise time intervals to establish rates of oxygen consumption, extracellular pH change, and glucose uptake. These values are pertinent to cancer metabolism, normal cell development and a wide array of human pathologies. Ultimately, intracellular fluorescent sensors can be used to augment the range of detectable parameters, including ATP.
Meldrum stresses the importance of heterogeneity within cell populations—the behavior of atypical, aberrant cells often being the most critical for the purposes of accurate disease detection. Such aberrant cells are precisely those that are often averaged out when bulk cell study techniques are used. "With our live single cell technologies and experiments we hope to elucidate key biological pathways that will help us understand cancer and other diseases, and lead us to successful diagnoses for early detection and ultimately improved qualify of life," states Meldrum.
The Cellarium holds the potential for significant improvements in the understanding of single-cell behavior, including the study of tumor formation and the abnormally high rate of glucose-degradation to form ATP (glycosylation) observed in cancer cells—a symptom known as the Warburg effect. The Cellarium could also be a boon to pharmaceutical companies attempting to personalize their therapeutics based on pathogen detection and microbial analysis.
After future refinements, the group plans to commercialize the platform, providing both researchers and clinical diagnosticians with a unique tool for probing single-cell dynamics.
Deirdre Meldrum, Ph.D., is ASU Senior Scientist, Director of the Biosignature Initiative and Director of the Center for Biosignatures Discovery Automation (CBDA) in the Biodesign Institute and Professor of Electrical Engineering in the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering. She is also the Director of the NIH Center of Excellence in Genomic Sciences (CEGS) Microscale Life Sciences Center (MLSC).
View original story at: eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/asu-btf072312.php


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So you are thinking of refinancing? Well you are in luck because I have 4 quick and important questions you should ask yourself before doing so.
1) Do I Have Enough Equity To Get A Mortgage?
To get a conventional loan, you will usually need to have at least 20 percent equity. This means that your house will have to be worth at least $250,000 to get a $200,000 loan.
If you have less equity, you could end up having to pay for private mortgage insurance, which can easily add $100 or more to your monthly payment.
2) How's My Credit?
Most lenders will look at your credit score as a part of determining whether or not to make you a loan. With conventional lenders, your rate will depend on your score and the higher it is, the lower your payment will be.
Other lenders, like the FHA and VA programs have an all or nothing rule. If you qualify, your rate won't be based on your credit, but if your score is too low, you won't be able to get any loan. Generally, 620 credit scores are the lowest that will qualify you for any loan.
3) What Do I Want To Accomplish?
Mortgages typically offer a choice as to their term. While the 30-year loan is the most popular, shorter term mortgages save you money since you pay less interest over their lives. They also get you out of debt sooner, at least as regards your house.
The drawback is that they carry higher payments since you pay off more principal every month. This can make them less affordable for some borrowers, generally, you'll need to keep your current house and loan for anywhere from three to six years to break even on the costs of refinancing.
4) How's My Current Loan?
If you have an adjustable rate mortgage, you may want to switch to a fixed rate mortgage simply for the additional security it offers you. On the other hand, if you are planning to move relatively soon, your current mortgage could be a better deal whehter it's fixed- or adjustable-rate.
When trying to decide what to do, compare the cost of refinancing with what it would cost you in additional interest to hold on to your existing loan. While the breakdown is different for every borrower, generally, you'll need to keep your current house and loan for anywhere from three to six years to break even on the costs of refinancing.
Deciding what to do with your mortgage can be complicated. Working with a qualified loan broker that can consider every angle with you can help you to make a better decision.


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Not Peer Reviewed
King Lear (Quarto 1, 1608)
M. William Shak-speare:
True Chronicle Historie of the life and
death of King LEAR and his three
With the vnfortunate life of Edgar, sonne
and heire to the Earle of Gloster, and his
sullen and assumed humor of
TOM of Bedlam:
As it was played before the King's Maiestie at Whitehall vpon
S.Stephans night in Christmas Hollidayes.
By his Maiesties seruants playing vsually at the Gloabe
on the Bancke-side.
Printed for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls
Church-yard at the signe of the Pide Bull neere
St. Austins Gate. 1608.


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Along with Dr. Dre's The Chronic, the Wu-Tang Clan's debut, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), was one of the most influential rap albums of the '90s. Its spare yet atmospheric production - courtesy of RZA - mapped out the sonic blueprint that countless other hardcore rappers would follow for years to come. It laid the groundwork for the rebirth of New York hip-hop in the hardcore age, paving the way for everybody from Biggie and Jay-Z to Nas and Mobb Deep. Moreover, it introduced a colorful cast of hugely talented MCs, some of whom ranked among the best and most unique individual rappers of the decade. Some were outsized, theatrical personalities, others were cerebral storytellers and lyrical technicians, but each had his own distinctive style, which made for an album of tremendous variety and consistency.
Every track on Enter the Wu-Tang is packed with fresh, inventive rhymes, which are filled with martial arts metaphors, pop culture references (everything from Voltron to Lucky Charms cereal commercials to Barbra Streisand's The Way We Were), bizarre threats of violence, and a truly twisted sense of humour. Their off-kilter menace is really brought to life, however, by the eerie, lo-fi production, which helped bring the raw sound of the underground into mainstream hip-hop. Starting with a foundation of hard, gritty beats and dialogue samples from kung fu movies, RZA kept things minimalistic, but added just enough minor-key piano, strings, or muted horns to create a background ambience that works like the soundtrack to a surreal nightmare. There was nothing like it in the hip-hop world at the time, and even after years of imitation, Enter the Wu-Tang still sounds fresh and original. Subsequent group and solo projects would refine and deepen this template, but collectively, the Wu have never been quite this tight again.
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