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B L G A R Y @ u m i c h . e d u
I was born in Ann Arbor, MI in 1939. After receiving a B. S. degree in Astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1961 I joined the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory's Radio Astronomy Branch (Washington, D.C.) and conducted studies of Jupiter. In 1963 I joined Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and for two years conducted microwave investigations of the moon. I worked briefly at Cornell University's Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory, in Puerto Rico. After returning to JPL's Space Sciences Division, I resumed planetary radio astronomy investigations of the moon and planets. During the remaining 33 years of my employment by Caltech, and assignment to JPL, my career underwent transitions from radio astronomy to boundary layer meteorology, then aviation safety, and finally atmospheric science of the stratosphere (with contributions to understanding the "ozone hole"). I retired from JPL in 1998, continued to work part-time for two years, then transitioned to a consulting arrangement that lasted 10 years. Additional consulting included Rockwell International (2 years), Dryden Flight Research Center (2 years), Caltech (2 years), Vanderbilt University (3 years) and Planetary Science Institute (Tucson, 1 year). With my private observatory in Hereford, AZ (pictured below) I became one of the first amateurs to observe exoplanet transits, and created the Amateur Exoplanet Archive (AXA) to accept and preserve transit observations by amateurs throughout the world (with ~640 transit entries). I continue to initiate and coordinate international teams of amateur astronomers for specific observations that support professional astronomy goals.
Planetary Radio Astronomy
From 1964 to 1972 I used radio telescopes throughout the world to construct radiometric maps of the moon at a variety of wavelengths and lunar phases. This work remains unsurpassed in quality and comprehensiveness to this day. Analysis of these maps showed that the thermophysical and electrical properties of the uppermost few centimeters of the lunar regolith are very similar over the entire near-side of the moon (with the one exception of greater ilmenite content in Mare Tranquilitatis). These results still provide the strongest argument for generalizing Apollo in situ findings.
In 1968 I accepted leadership of JPL's Radio Astronomy Group. I
wrote the software for controlling the 18-foot radio telescope at
Table Mountain Radio Observatory, performed pointing and antenna
property calibrations and assisted in development of a 36 GHz
two-element radio interferometer at TMO. One fateful day a
lightning strike of the antenna destroyed the computer and other
equipment that was needed for a long-planned monitoring program of
Venus, and by coincidence this signaled a shift in my interests
toward the use of portable ground-based systems for studying the
Ground-Based Atmospheric Science (Boundary Layer)
In 1975 I joined JPL's Observational Systems Division and began applying radio astronomy remote sensing techniques to the study of atmospheric science problems. This transition away from radio astronomy led to principal investigator leadership for 41 field experiments using ground-based and airborne microwave remote sensor systems.
I supervised the development of ground-based instruments for use in the study of spatial and temporal properties of line-of-sight contents of atmospheric water vapor and cloud liquid water. Ground-based passive microwave systems were also developed for obtaining air temperature profiles. I pioneered in developing calibration techniques (including "tip curves") for water vapor radiometers as well as in the optimum use of combined mulit-frequency / multi-angle temperature profilers. These radiometer systems were used in a variety of studies, including pollution dispersion (mixing layer depth), stratus cloud formation and evolution (in collaboration with UCLA), demonstration of aviation icing hazard warnings near airports (Buffalo, NY), and numerous performance demonstrations that used radiosondes for validation.
Airborne Atmospheric Science (Microwave Temperature
I led the development and flight of the first airborne Microwave Temperature Profiler, MTP, in support of a 1978 study of clear air turbulence, CAT. Additional CAT studies were conducted using an improved temperature profiler installed in NASA's C-141 aircraft (Kuiper Airborne Observatory). An instrument with further improvements was installed in NASA's ER-2 aircraft and was used in the 1987 Stratospheric-Tropospheric Exchange Project, STEP. Six months later, the ER-2 Microwave Temperature Profiler was one of 25 instruments participating in the first NASA-coordinated international airborne investigation of stratospheric ozone depletion, the Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment, AAOE (Punta Arenas, Chile, 1987). The MTP instrument, in addition to providing mesoscale meteorology context for in situ measurements during this mission, also discovered that Antarctic mountain waves extend above the tropopause and throughout the region of ozone destruction, and provide a mechanism to enhance "polar stratospheric cloud" (PSC) formation, which is a crucial step in the process for the destruction of stratospheric ozone.
The same MTP was used during the 1989 Airborne Arctic Science Experiment, AASE I, based in Norway, during which I discovered that air parcel trajectories exhibit vertical "wrinkles" and therefore air parcels experience fluctuations in temperature. This discovery has implications for the understanding of PSC formation and evolution. During AASE II (Norway, Alaska, Maine 1991/92), MTP instruments were flown aboard both participating NASA aircraft, the DC-8 and an ER-2. The MTP flew on 49 ER-2 flights during the Airborne Southern Hemisphere Ozone Experiment/Measurements for Assessing the Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft, ASHOE/MAESA, based in New Zealand and Hawaii, throughout 1994, which led to studies of tracer filament temperature signature anomalies. The MTP also flew during the ER-2 Stratospheric Tracers of Atmospheric Transport, STRAT flights of 1995 and 1996, which were based in California and Hawaii. The DC-8 MTP flew during the 1995 and 1996 Tropical Ozone Transport Experiment/Vortex Ozone Transport Experiment, TOTE/VOTE, based in Hawaii, Alaska, Iceland and California. These flights have provided intriguing new information on meridional circulation.
An improved DC-8 MTP flew during the 1996 Subsonic Aircraft Contrail and Cloud Effects Study, SUCCESS, flights based in Kansas. These data were used to derive the first-ever 2-D isentrope topography for a mountain wave event over Colorado, allowing for quantification of cooling and heating histories of air parcels associated with lee wave clouds. During 1997 the ER-2 MTP participated in each of the 3 Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer, POLARIS, campaigns, based in Fairbanks, AK. Isentrope surfaces were found to be surprisingly smooth for this season and latitude, which inspired a comprehensive study showing that the amplitude of mesoscale vertical motions in the stratosphere can be predicted from four independent variables: latitude, season, altitude and underlying topography (two article links below).
The DC-8 MTP was used in the Fall of 1997 for the
SASS Ozone and Nitrogen Oxides Experiment, SONEX, based in
Ireland and Bangor, ME, for the study of atmospheric chemistry
impacts of subsonic aircraft. The ER-2 MTP was flown in an Air
Force WB-57F during the Spring of 1998 for the Water Aerosol
Mission, WAM, based in Texas. Dr. Mahoney was co-investigator
for the last two experiments. I discontinued full-time
employment from JPL on September 25, 1998, and
for two years was employed by Caltech's JPL as an "on-call"
employee for the purpose of providing occasional assistance to
Dr. Mahoney, who is now the MTP Principal Investigator. From
2000 - 2010 I was a consultant for JPL in continued support of
airborne MTP projects.
After I retired Dr. M. J. Mahoney took over as
PI, and with Richard Denning continued to develop improved MTP
models that were flown on various NASA atmospheric research
aircraft. Here's a video made shortly before M.J. died, in which
he and Richard explain how MTP works and its role in the NASA
ATTREX mission: link.
The case for connecting fossil fuel burning with global warming is as strong as the case for connecting smoking with lung cancer. Each belongs to a category of small present reward versus the risk of possible far-future calamity. But why are humans like this? It has to do with the genes, which assemble us for serving their purposes. We are designed to act like unthinking robots! If the genes allowed "why thinking" some of us would begin to act in ways that serve individual welfare, at the expense of serving the genes with their apparent goal of genetic immortality. It's because people are born with blinders that "reason" has no sway in averting future catastrophe. This underlies my feeling of futility as I glean more insight into the coming darkness. This graph of possible scenarios for future world population is based on the assumption that the entirety of humanity can be considered to be a finite sequence, thus allowing use of sampling theory to estimate the end of the sequence. |
2006: Shankland, P. D., E. J. Rivera, G. Laughlin, D. L. Blank, A. Price, B. Gary, R. Bissinger, F. Ringwald, G. White, G. Henry, P. McGee, A. S. Wolf, B. Carter, S. Lee, J. Biggs, B. Monard, "On the Search for Transits of the Planets Orbiting GL 876," Ap J, Part 1, ms65295, 2006: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608489
2006: Gary, B. L., "Mesoscale Temperature Fluctuations in the
Stratosphere" Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2006: http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/4577/2006/acp-6-4577-2006.html
2006: McCullough, P.R., Stys, J. E., Valenti, J. A., Johns-Krull, C. M., Janes, K. A., Heasley, J. N., Bye, B. A., Dodd, C., Fleming, S. W., Pinnick, A., Bissinger, R., Gary, B. L., Howell, P. J., Vanmunster, T., "A Transiting Planet of a Sun-like Star", Astrophys. J., 648, 2, 1228-1238, September, 2006.
2006: Gary, Bruce L. and David Healy, "Image Subtraction
Procedure for Observing Faint Asteroids," The Minor Planet
Bulletin, 33, 1, January-March 2006: link
2005: Price, A, and 16 others, "Planetary Transits of the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey Candidate TrES-1b," J. Amer. Assoc. Var. Star Obs., 34, 17, 2005.
2005: Gary, Bruce L., The Making of a Misanthrope: Book 1,
Hereford, AZ: BLG Publishing, August, 2005.
2004: Pan, L. L., W. J. Randel, B. L. Gary, M. J. Mahoney and E.
J. Hintsa, "Definitions and Sharpness of the Extratropical
Tropopause: A Trace Gas Perspective, J. Geophys. Review, 109,
2004: Price, A. and 32 others, "A New Cataclysmic Variable in
Hercules," PASP, December 2004.
2004: Price, A. T. Vanmunster, D. Starkey, D. Boyd, R. Zissell,
B. Gary, K. Graham, W. Macdonald II, B. Aquino, D. West, J.
Blackwell, G. Walker, M. Simonsen, A. Henden, M. R. Templeton, J.
A. Mattei, "Flickering and Periodic Activity in the 2004 Outburst
of BZ UMa," Information Bulletin on Variable Stars (IBVS),
# 5526, 2004: link
2004: Gary, B. L., "CCD Photometry of Asteroid 12753 Povenmire,"
Minor Planet Bulletin, 31, #3, 2004: link
2004: Gary, B. L., Genetic Enslavement: A Call to Arms for
Individual Liberation, Hereford, AZ: BLG Publishing: link
Jensen, E. J., O. B. Toon, A. Tabazadeh, G. W. Sachse, B. E. Anderson, K. R. Chan, C. W. Twohy, B. Gandrud, S. M. Aulenbach, A. Heymsfield, J. Hallett, B. Gary, "Ice Nucleation Processes in Upper Tropospheric Wave-Clouds Observed During SUCCESS," Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 1363-1366, May 1, 1998.
Dean-Day, J., K. R. Chan, S. W. Bowen, T. P. Bui, B. L. Gary, M. J. Mahoney, "Dynamics of Rocky-Mountain Lee Waves Observed During SUCCESS," Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 1351-1354, May 1, 1998.
Burris, J., W. Heaps, B. Gary, W. Hoegy, L. Lait, T. McGee, M. Gross, U. Singh, "Lidar Temperature Measurements During the TOTE/VOTE Mission," J. Geophys. Res., 103, 3505-3510, 1998.
Hintsa, E. J., K. A. Boering, E. M. Weinstock, J. G. Anderson, B. L. Gary, L. Pfister, B. C. Daube, S. C. Wofsy, M. Lowenstein, J. R. Podolske, J. J. Margitan, T. P. Bui, "Troposphere-to-Stratosphere Transport in the Lowermost Stratosphere from Measurements of H2O, CO2, N2O and O3," Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 2655-2658, July 15, 1998.
Tabazadeh, A., O. B. Toon, B. L. Gary, J. T. Bacmeister, M. R. Schoeberl, "Observational Constraints on the Formation of Type Ia Polar Stratospheric Clouds," Geophys. Res. Lett., 23, 2109-2112, Aug. 1, 1996.
Bacmeister, Julio T., Stephen D. Eckermann, Paul A. Newman, Leslie Lait, K. Roland Chan, Max Lowenstein, Michael H. Proffitt, Bruce L. Gary, "Stratospheric Horizontal Wavenumber Spectra of Winds, Potential Temperature, and Atmospheric Tracers Observed by High-Altitude Aircraft," J. Geophys. Res., 101, D5, 9441-9470, Apr. 27, 1996.
Murphy, D. M., B. L. Gary, "Mesoscale Temperature Fluctuations and Polar Stratospheric Clouds," J. Atmos. Sci., 52, 1753-1760, May 15, 1995.
Weinheimer, A. J., J. G. Walega, B. A. Ridley, B. L. Gary, D. R. Blake, N. J. Blake, F. S. Rowland, G. W. Sachse, B. E. Anderson, J. E. Collins, "Meridional Distribution of NOx, NOy, and Other Species in the Lower Stratosphere and Upper Troposphere During AASE II," Geophys. Res. Lett., 21, 2583-2586, Nov. 15, 1994.
Bacmeister, J. T., P. A. Newman, B. L. Gary, K. R. Chan, "An Algorithm for Forecasting Wave-Related Turbulence in the Stratosphere," Weather and Forecasting, 9, 2, June 1994.
Pueschel, R. F., G. V. Ferry, S. Verma, S. D. Howard, B. Gary, J. M. Livingston, P. Newman, J. E. Dye, D. Baumgardner, "Northern Polar Vortex Aerosol Variability," submitted to Geophys. Res. Letters, June 1993.
Chan, K. R., L. Pfister, T. P. Bui, S. W. Bowen, J. Dean-Day, B. L. Gary, D. W. Fahey, K. K. Kelly, C. R. Webster, and R. D. May, "A Case Study of the Mountain Lee Wave Event of January 6, 1992," Geophys. Res. Lett, 20, 2551-2554, Nov. 19, 1993.
Toon, O. B., E. V. Browell, B. Gary, R. Pueschel, P. Russell, M. Schoeberl, G. C. Toon, F. Valero, H. Selkirk, J. Jordan, "Heterogeneous Reaction Probabilities, Solubilities, and Physical State of Cold Sulfuric Acid Aerosols," Science, August 27, 1993.
Pfister, L., K. R. Chan, T. P. Bui, S. Bowen, M.
Legg, B. Gary, K. Kelly, M. Proffitt, W. Starr, "Gravity Waves
Generated by a Tropical Cyclone During the STEP Tropical Field
Program: A Case Study," J. Geophys. Res., 98, D5,
8611-8638, May 20, 1993.
Russell, P. B., O. B. Toon, E. V. Browell, G. C.
Toon, B. Gary, M. Schoeberl, F. P. J. Valero, R. Pueschel,
"Combined Use of Microwave and Optical Measurements on the NASA
DC-8 to Determine Aerosol and Gas Properties Related to Ozone
Depletion," Proceedings of IEEE Topical Symposium on Earth and
Atmosphsere Sensing, 1993 March 22-25, ISBN 0-7803-0969-3.
Dye, J. E., B. W. Gandrud, S. R. Kawa, K. K. Kelly, M. Lowenstein, G. V. Ferry, K. R. Chan, and B. L. Gary, "Particle Size Distributions in Arctic Polar Stratospheric Clouds: Growth and Nucleation of Sulfuric Acid Droplets and Implications for Cloud Formation," J. Geophys. Res., 97, 8015-8034, May 30, 1992.
Gary, B. L. and S. J. Keihm, "Microwave Sounding Units and Global Warming," Science, 251, 316, 1991 Jan 18, link.
Bacmeister, J. T., M. R. Schoeberl, L. R. Lait, P. A. Newman and B. Gary, "Small-Scale Waves Encountered During AASE," Geophys. Res. Lett., 17, 349-352, 1990.
Bacmeister, J. T. and B. Gary, "ER-2 Mountain Wave Encounter Over Antarctica: Evidence for Blocking," Geophys. Res. Lett., 17, 81-84, 1990.
Gandrud, R. W., J. E. Dye, D. Baumgardner, G. V. Ferry, M. Lowenstein, K. R. Chan, L. Sanford, B. Gary and K. Kelly, "The January 30, 1989 Arctic Polar Stratospheric Cloud (PSC) Event: Evidence for a Mechanism of Dehydration," Geophys. Res. Lett., 17, 457-460, 1990.
Lait, R. L., M. R. Schoeberl, P. A. Newman, M. H. Proffitt, M. Lowenstein, J. R. Podolske, S. E. Strahan, K. R. Chan, B. Gary, J.J. Margitan, E. Browell, M. P. McCormick and A. Torres, "Reconstruction of O3 and N2O Fields from ER-2, DC-8, and Balloon Observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 17, 521-524, 1990.
Gary, B. L, "Observational Results Using the Microwave Temperature Profiler During the Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment," J. Geophys. Res., 94, 11,223-11,231, 1989.
Denning, R. F., S. L. Guidero, G. S. Parks and B. L. Gary, "Instrument Description of the Airborne Microwave Temperature Profiler," J. Geophys. Res., 94, 16,757-16,765, 1989.
Hartmann, D. L., K. R. Chan, B. L. Gary, M. R. Schoeberl, P. A. Newman, R. L. Martin, M. Lowenstein, J. R. Podolske and S. E. Strahan, "Potential Vorticity and Mixing in the South Polar Vortex During Spring," J. Geophys. Res., 94, 11,625-11,640, 1989.
Proffitt, M. H., K. K. Kelly, J. A. Powell and B. L. Gary, "Evidence for Diabatic Cooling and Poleward Transport Within and Around the 1987 Antarctic Ozone Hole," J. Geophys. Res., 94, D14, 16,797-16,813, 1989.
Proffitt, M. H., J. A. Powell, A. F. Tuck, D. W. Fahey, K. K. Kelly, A. J. Krueger, M. R. Schoeberl, B. L. Gary, J. J. Margitan, K. R. Chan, M. Lowenstein and J. R. Podolske, "A Chemical Definition of the Boundary of the Antarctic Ozone Hole," J. Geophys. Res., 94, D9, 11,437-11,448, 1989.
Wilson, J. C., M. Lowenstein, D. W. Fahey, B. Gary, S. D. Smith, K. K. Kelly, G. V. Ferry and K. R. Chan, "Observations of Condensation Nuclei in the Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment: Implications for New Particle Formation and Polar Stratospheric Cloud Formation," J. Geophys. Res., 94, D14, 16,437-16,448, 1989.
Schoeberl, M. R., L. R. Lait, P. A. Newman, R. L. Martin, M. H. Proffitt, D. L. Hartmann, M. Lowenstein, J. Podolske, S. E. Strahan, J. Anderson, K. R. Chan and B. Gary, "Reconstruction of the Constituent Distribution and Trends in the Antarctic Polar Vortex From ER-2 Flight Observations," J. Geophys. Res., 94, D14, 16,815-16,845, 1989.
Conel, James E., Robert O. Green, Veronique Carrere, Jack S. Margolis, Ronald E. Alley, Gregg Vane, Carol L. Bruegge, and Bruce L. Gary, "Atmospheric Water Mapping with the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS)," Conference Procedings, JPL Publication 87-38, 1987.
Treuhaft, R. N., C. D. Edwards, B. L. Gary, G. E. Lanyi, S. E. Robinson, "Temporal Water Vapor Fluctuations for Phase-Delay Interferometric Geodesy," EOS, 67, 914, 1986.
Gary, B. L., S. J. Keihm and M. A. Janssen, "Optimum Strategies and Performance for the Remote Sensing of Path-Delay Using Ground-Based Microwave Radiometers," IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing, GE-23, 479-484, 1985.
Gary, B. L., "Clear Air Turbulence Avoidance Using an Airborne Microwave Radiometer," AIAA Pap., AIAA-84-0273, 1984.
Gary, B. L., "An Airborne Remote Sensor for the Avoidance of Clear Air Turbulence," AIAA Pap., AIAA-81-0297, 1981.
Janssen, M. A., B. L. Gary, S. Gulkis, E. T. Olsen, F. S. Soltis and N. I. Yamane, "The Table Mountain 8-mm Wavelength Interferometer," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagation, AP-27, 759-763, 1979.
Keihm, S. J. and B. L. Gary, "Comparison of Theoretical and Observed 3.55 cm Wavelength Brightness Temperature Maps of the Full Moon," Proc. Lunar Sci. Conf. 10th, 2311-2319, 1979.
Gary, B. L. and S. J. Keihm, "Interpretation of Ground-Based Microwave Measurements of the Moon Using a Detailed Regolith Properties Model," Proc. Lunar Planet. Sci. Conf. 9th, 2885-2900, 1978.
Gary, B. L., "Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus Disk Temperature Measurements at 2.07 and 3.56 cm," Atronom. J., 79, 318-320, 1974.
Gulkis, S., B. Gary, M. Klein and C. Stelzried, "Observations of Jupiter at 13-cm Wavelength During 1969 and 1971," Icarus, 18, 181-191, 1973.
Gary, B. L., E. T. Olsen and P. W. Rosenkranz, "Radio Observations of Cygnus X-3 and the Surrounding Region," Nature, 95, 128-130, 1972.
Gulkis, S. and B. Gary, "Circular Polarization and Total Flux Measurements of Jupiter at 13.1 cm Wavelength," Astronom. J., 76, 12-16, 1971 (link).
Gary, B. and S. Gulkis, "New Circular Polarization Measurements of Jupiter's Decimeter Radiation," Astronom. J., 158, L193-195, 1969 (link).
Gary, B., "Results of a Radiometric Moon-Mapping Investigation at 3 Millimeters Wavelength," Astrophys. J., 147, 245-254, 1967 (link).
Gary, B., "Mercury's Microwave Phase Effect," Astronom. J., 149, L141-145., 1967 (link).
Gary, B., J. Stacey and F. D. Drake, "Radiometric Mapping of the Moon at 3 Millimeters Wavelength," Astrophys. J., Supp. 108, XII, 239-262, 1965 (link).
Gary, B., "An Investigation of Jupiter's 1400 Mc/sec Radiation," Astronom. J., 68, 568-572, 1963. (using Bayesian Estimation Theory without realizing it, link)
Miller, A. C. and B. L. Gary, "Measurements of
the Decimeter Radiation from Jupiter," Astronom. J., 67,
727-731, 1962 (link).
This site opened: 1998.08.25. Last Update: 2023.08.21


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North Brother Island (Island Week 4)
Monday, 28th September 2009 by Alex Steinberger
It's Island Week 4 here at GSS, which means we'll mostly be posting about Islands. For about a week.
North Brother Island, home to many decaying and abandoned structures, sits just off shore of New York's Manhattan borough in the East River. Now home to a few crumbling Gothic buildings, it once housed the Riverside Hospital, and is undoubtedly the creepiest island in New York City.
Largely ignored until the late 19th century, North Brother Island did not see permanent settlement until the construction of the Riverside Hospital was completed in 1885. The hospital was built to house those suffering from infections diseases like cholera, typhoid, and smallpox as well as a constantly rotating staff of doctors and nurses.
In order to keep the island's patients from infecting the rest of the city's population, it was kept relatively isolated - a small ferry was the only mode of transport for hospital staff and supplies.
As the island's population grew, additional dormitories and a tuberculosis pavilion were constructed. At its height during an 1892 typhus outbreak, North Brother Island held over 1,200 patients, many housed in makeshift tents.
Perhaps the most infamous patient of the Riverside Hospital was Mary Mallon, known as Typhoid Mary. A cook at various Manhattan restaurants in the early 1900s, Mary also carried Typhoid. After infecting a total of 53 people she was committed to Riverside Hospital and lived out the rest of her life in an isolated cottage on the island.
Riverside Hospital continued to treat victims of infectious disease and later, drug addiction, until it was permanently shut down in 1963 due to a staff corruption scandal. Over the past 40 years, North Brother has been left to decay into its current horror-movie-esque state and is now off limits to the public.
For more information and some great pictures, check out this blog.
Thanks to Edvado, yusaku and Katerina Korch.

subset: commoncrawl


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According to the rules,
The process of becoming a lich is unspeakably evil and can be undertaken only by a willing character.
What if a lich, having done this, slowly over time realizes its ways were wrong? Do the rules
- support a lich rescind its evil ways?
- offer the choice to die normally
- offer a way to the lich of possibly redeeming itself?


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Big Data Security Analytics , Next-Generation Technologies & Secure Development
Achieving True Predictive Security Analytics
Fortiguard Labs' Derek Manky Talks About What the Market Is Getting WrongTrue predictive analysis is difficult – and it sometimes takes years of learning and data modeling to get it right, says Derek Manky, chief of security insights and global threat alliances at Fortiguard Labs.
See Also: Safeguarding Election Integrity in the Digital Age
In a video interview with Information Security Media Group at RSA 2020, Manky discusses:
- Data modeling and the key to true predictive analytics;
- The evolution in data analytics in the last five years;
- Predictive vs. proactive defense.
Manky brings more than 15 years of experience to a strategic and visionary cybersecurity role. He consults with CSOs and CISOs of Fortune 500 companies worldwide across multiple industries. He is actively involved with several global threat intelligence initiatives including NATO NICP, INTERPOL Expert Working Group, the Cyber Threat Alliance and the Forum for Incident Response and Security Teams.


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Alix Ohlin appeared on The Bat Segundo Show #467. She is most recently the author of Inside and Signs and Wonders.
Listen: Play in new window | Download
This episode of The Bat Segundo Show is brought to you by Audible.com. If you want to listen to Alix Ohlin's Inside, and help keep this show going, sign up for a free audiobook and a 30 day trial. Use this handy link: http://www.audiblepodcast.com/bat
Condition of Mr. Segundo: Careful to distinguish between Uganda and Rwanda.
Author: Alix Ohlin
Subjects Discussed: Forster's Aspects of the Novel, California weather, New York City as ideal place to consider the vocational experience, aspiring rock stars, working in the publishing industry before becoming a writer, slush pile people vs. literary giants, working in an atmosphere of rejection, maintaining a love of reading and writing while being employed as a publishing booster, the benefits of being familiar with canonical fiction, writing stories in secret, working in a bookstore, drinking an enormous amount of caffeine, Ohlin's four year self-imposed apprenticeship, finding a voice, "The King of Kohlrabi" as Ohlin's first breakout point, hiding in a cafe in Nex Mexico, being a reserved person, resisting a reserved voice, callousness and bad things in fiction, why Ohlin's characters don't seek revenge, when the human equation isn't direct, being treated poorly in a relationship, whether or not revenge is true to life, parents and therapy, building dimensionality out of empathy, removing cautiousness from characters to explore human feelings, fragmented marriages and divorces, being not pro-war, Don Swaim, attempts to be a well-rounded person, Ohlin's Harvard background, whether writing fiction can make you a more well-rounded person, doing scientific research, having Don DeLillo as a hero, being an information-based fiction writer in the early days, "Vigo Park" and Chekhov's gun, "A Month of Sundays" vs. Updike's A Month of Sundays, using explicit literary references in a story, being honest about the author/reader relationship, being too precious with titles and tropes, tactile elements of characters in Ohlin's sentences, giving the reader sensory guideposts, Tug's Rwandan backstory in Inside, moving empathy onto a greater canvas, playing around with time, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, structure and false starts, why Ohline's stories never transform into novels, being a heavy planner, knowing the ending of a story, the pros and cons of revisiting a short story after it had been collected, short story culture in the digital age, uncollected short stories that aren't available online, the fate of the short story, being freed of commercial restraints, instantaneous reactions to work, critics who misinterpret work, factual errors in fiction, being grateful for attention, hardcover vs. paperback, and the reduced output of short story collections.
Correspondent: Now I may be misconstrued as the "nine types of weather" guy in E.M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel, but, as a native Californian, I do feel compelled to ask you this question. There are two moments in these two books where you do remark on the California weather. One is the beginning of the story "The Only Child," where Sophie calls California weather "sunny and childlike." And in Inside, you have the situation where Anne is in Los Angeles. She's running along the beach and she's calling it this sort of fantastical dream. Now I don't know why this actually stuck inside my head. But I feel that this is a very good jumping off point to describe what it is you do in terms of selecting those right details. Because I can see it from a California point of view. Because it is too good to be true. I can also see it as someone who has lived here in New York for five years and also say, "Well, yes, it is too good to be true. And it deserves to be mocked or ridiculed in some sense." But at the same time, we're also dealing with an author who is ascribing this through a character. And this becomes something that I obsess with. And I'm sure that some other reader is going to obsess over something along those lines. I ask you this about how you choose these details, such as the weather, because your prose is very sparse, very economic, very selective in its own criteria in terms of its syntax. So how does something like the California weather or, for example, Chinese food — also featuring in both books — how do these things make their way in a story? What is the filtering mechanism that causes this? A very bad, eccentric, possibly deranged way to start this, but I thought I would do that.
Ohlin: No, it's always great to start with weather. I certainly think that everything in the books is filtered through the consciousness of the characters. And that's always where I begin. It's my entry point as a writer to start creating a narrative. And it's certainly how I choose the details. Which is not really a conscious process. It's more that I'm there in the moment with the character and imagining what might be the most conspicuous thing to them. So both of those descriptions of California, to respond to that, are absolutely moments of experience that are specific to characters who are from the East Coast and wintry climates, who come out and, of course, that's what they remark upon. Of course it feels like a fantasy and an escape and something amazing and remarkable. Because to them, it is.
Correspondent: Did you get burned in California? Did you get burned by the weather or burned metaphorically?
Ohlin: I love the weather in California. And I do think it's amazing. But, for me, I will always experience it as not home. Not the climate of home. And I will always be the person remarking upon the sunshine in January.
Correspondent: Okay. Well, aside from Anne struggling in New York in Inside, in Signs and Wonders you have a number of stories set in New York City. And "Who Do You Love?" made an impression upon me for a number of reasons. The notion of a band called Das Boot, which is actually noted around a German mode, or a mood, as opposed to the actual Teutonic experience full boar — that resonated with me because I've known people like the — well, rather interestingly, she doesn't have a name, the woman who is smit with Adam, the aging rock star who is past his prime, doesn't want to do any particular work and yet he has a draw in Williamsburg. That men like that are allowed to get away with such pathetic behavior, both in that and what we see with Inside and what we see in a number of the other stories in Signs and Wonders. I'm curious. Do you think that this particular fixation is common largely to New York? The vocational experience, is it rooted in your own personal experience? How do these fixations on, I suppose, vocational nightmares along these lines and the terrible influence on other people, how did these come about?
Ohlin: So by "vocational experiences," do you mean the fact that he wants to be a rock star?
Correspondent: Aspirations. Is this common to New York? Why does this seem to be your idea of what New York is?
Ohlin: Well, it's not my only idea of what New York is. But I do think that both New York and Los Angeles are places where a lot of young people move in their twenties to pursue artistic dreams that they thought were less available to them wherever they came from. So in that story, it's the kind of story about someone who was on the cusp of being too old to be aspiring. At a certain point, you're just sort of a person who never made it and that's an extremely difficult moment to switch over in your own head. And then I think I have written about other characters in Inside, like Anne, who is an aspiring actress, who starts off first of all in the theater world in New York and then goes out to L.A. to try — or winds up being cast in a TV show in L.A. I just think that there's something about both those cities that they are conduits to not just any kind of vocational experience, but artistic experiences. And then they don't work out for people. And that's incredibly difficult. And it's part of your growing up to try and figure out how to come to terms with that.
Correspondent: Did New York work out for you? I mean, I know you worked in the publishing industry. And this leads me to ask you also if you had to get certain elements of how you viewed fiction and how you viewed books outside of your system in order to truly inhabit these stories as an artist.
Ohlin: Well, you know, that's a really interesting question. I moved to New York straight out of college and I did work in publishing. And I loved it. I learned a lot and I was having a great time. But I also had this secretly harbored desire to write. And I would go to work all day and there were two things about it that were difficult. One was that a huge part of my job as an editorial assistant was to reject manuscripts. So I was right there at the forefront of rejection and understanding how difficult the odds were.
Correspondent: Did you reject anybody big?
Ohin: I don't really want to say who I rejected. But a big part of what I rejected were slush pile people. The people who are just writing in cold without an agent. But there were so many of them and my entire cubicle would be full of these works of love — you know, 500 page novels that people were sending in that I would write a simple two-sentence letter rejecting. That was hard, when you think about, well, what's going to become of my work. But then on the other side of the coin was that the books that were accepted, I mean, I was working at Knopf and we were publishing people like Cormac McCarthy and Tobias Wolff and Toni Morrison. And their work was so incredibly sophisticated and adept. And then I would go home and I would write these terrible, terrible, terrible stories. And the contrast between what I could do and what these published authors could do on the one hand and the rejection of the unsolicited manuscripts on the other hand really did not create an ideal context for artistic risk-taking. So I think it was really because of that, and not something about New York in particular. I love New York. But it was really about working in this atmosphere of rejection and impossible standards that I just thought, "Well, I really can't do this." I made the impetuous decision that you make when you're in your early twenties and I thought, "I'm leaving New York! I'm starting over!" You know. "And it's going to be an adventure!" I think, had I been a little older, I probably would have realized that there are ways that you can reconcile those two things. But at the time, it seemed like going away and writing in secret far away from New York publishing was the thing that I had to do.
The Bat Segundo Show #467: Alix Ohlin (Download MP3)


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Curator's Note
Editorial Note: Welcome to Hannibal theme week! Our appreciation of Hannibal highlights a variety of 'aspects of the demon' that we feel have made the program so unique and valuable to us, including its dark themes, stylistic choices, generic risks, and fandom activity and resonance. Many of our curators have prepared original videos to highlight their viewpoints (if you haven't seen the spectacular finale, you will here). To begin, Lori Morimoto contextualizes Hannibal within the larger television "Fullerverse". --Allison McCracken, Theme Week Coordinator
What binds Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller's body of work is an acceptance of death as an inextricable part of life. If this seems to lack a certain profundity, consider Fuller's take on the world of the Munsters in Mockingbird Lane (2012). Mockingbird Lane is imbued with darkly comical Sonnenfeldian irony; yet death here is no punch line, but a grim reality irrevocably caught up in love and nature in such a way that to feel the one is to necessarily succumb to the other. Herman Munster (Jerry O'Connell) is dying of a failing heart overtaxed with aching love for his family, and the only way for him to survive is by taking the healthy heart of another. But where the family is squeamish, as we see in this clip (a whimsically macabre inversion of one of Hannibal Lecter's infamous dinner parties), Grandpa Munster (Eddie Izzard) is coolly matter-of-fact: kill or die – eat or be eaten. That a scoutmaster ends up dead in the basement in short order speaks both to Fuller's inability to back down when the stakes are high, and to his unwillingness to let his viewers off the hook for their sympathy with the recently resurrected.
Death is equally intractable in Fuller's Dead Like Me (2003-4) and Pushing Daisies (2007-9), in which it comes as a sometimes perfunctory touch, as when newly deceased George (Ellen Muth) reaches out to reap a soul as part of her workaday world, or when necromantic pie-maker Ned (Lee Pace) temporarily resurrects the dead. At other times, this lethal touch can be the fullest expression of love, coaxing its recipient into 'easeful death', or a constant reminder of the deadly price we pay for allowing ourselves to love another. It's this nexus of love and desire, touch and death that sees its fullest expression in Hannibal (2013-15). Throughout Hannibal's (Mads Mikkelsen) darkly desirous courtship of Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), he touches with the same ease that he kills, the one being part and parcel of the other. Having embraced and even owned the inevitability of death, Hannibal lives and loves past the point of propriety, reveling in his senses. In contrast, Will lives a half-life of repressed want and bottled passion, apart from others and afraid of himself. Only when he embraces his own death-drenched desires does he awaken to love and the black beauty of moonlit blood.


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The season of love is nearly upon us. Sure, Valentine's Day is technically a commercial holiday created by marketing professionals (or maybe geniuses?) to get people to buy gifts for their loved ones. However, it has also become synonymous with showing your love for those who mean the most. Who says marketing can't be about love and business?!
That means you can (and should!) use the upcoming month of love to show your customers just how much they mean to you. As an added bonus, it'll be just as profitable for your business as it will be at showing your customers how much you love them! Check out these ways to show your customers the love this coming month.
Send a Gift
Who doesn't love to receive a surprise gift? That was a rhetorical question—you don't have to answer because we already know. Consider sending a little something as a token of your appreciation to your customers. A larger, meaningful gift can be reserved for your top-tier customers and a smaller gift to the remaining customers. You can even send a gift to customers you miss and wish to see again. Tailor your messaging depending on who is receiving your gift to make sure they know how much they mean to you.
Remember Your Interactions
Past buying habits or even offhanded comments can help you build relationships with your customers. Luckily, you don't have to do this by memory. A good Customer Management System (CMS) will allow you to track purchases and make special notes about things your customer may have liked the last time they made a purchase. This helps you personalize their future interactions. Make note of the things they like both personally and related to your business. That way, you can continue to build the relationship and do business for years to come.
Call Them By Name
Whether it be an email, direct mailer or their next in-person visit, use your customers' names. It's more personal. It makes them feel special. Honestly, it's just the right thing to do. Commit yourself to learning the names of as many customers as possible and use marketing automation for when you can't remember them all. You have to admit, it feels much more personal when somebody uses your name!
Offer a Deal
"Just because we love you, here's X% off!" People don't necessarily expect a deal around Valentine's Day, which is why it makes for the perfect surprise sale. Get creative with the language you use. Center your messaging all around this month of love! Give your customers butterflies by offering a deal you'll both find valuable. It doesn't have to be a lot, it can simply be something to let them know that they're on your mind.
How will your business continue to show your customers love this month and all year long? Remember that marketing is all about building relationships, and this is the perfect opportunity to show your customers how much you care.


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Asterius of Amasea: Sermons (1904) pp. 1-15. Introduction.
By Asterius, Bishop of Amasia Circa 375-405, A. D.
Put into English from the Greek
By GALUSHA ANDERSON, S. T.D., LL. D.,
Professor of Homiletics, University of Chicago,
EDGAR JOHNSON GOODSPEED, Ph. D.,
Instructor in Biblical and Patristic Greek, University of Chicago
"As ye go, preach"
The Pilgrim Press
Copyright, 1904, by J. H. TEWKSBURY
To those who have studied Homiletics under my direction and are now engaged in the peerless work of preaching Christ.
FOUR or five years ago, while lecturing in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago on the History of Preaching, I spoke of the sermons of Asterius as especially interesting, and, although preached in the fourth century, as still fresh and admirably fitted to our times. Dr. Goodspeed, at that time a member of my class, and an enthusiastic and accurate Greek scholar, impressed by my remark, began to read some of the Greek discourses which I had so warmly commended. Convinced of their excellence, he made a literal translation of five of them. He chose for translation those sermons concerning whose authenticity there can scarcely be a reasonable doubt. Each of us went over this |6 translation again and again, striving to present faithfully both the thought and spirit of the author, and at the same time to clothe his thought in clear and forceful English. All who have undertaken such a task, know how very difficult it is. How near we have come to the realization of our ideal the reader himself must judge.
Very little is known of the life of Asterius. We have no knowledge of his family. We have barely one fact concerning his early education. His principal teacher was a Scythian, who in his youth had been sold as a slave to a citizen of Antioch. His owner was a schoolmaster, and took great pains in educating him thoroughly. He made marvelous progress in learning and won for himself a great name among both Greeks and Romans. Under the immediate direction of this celebrated educator Asterius was trained for his life-work. |7
At some time, probably early in his' career, he made a careful study of Demosthenes, and became himself no mean orator. He won popular favor. He was made Bishop of Amasia, in Pontus, Asia Minor. A few of his sermons there delivered have come down to us. They show rare rhetorical skill, a vivid and disciplined imagination, great power of expression, and, above all, intense moral conviction. He acted with the orthodox party of his day, and should be carefully distinguished from a contemporary of the same name, who was an Arian and a controversialist. He also has the reputation of having been a faithful pastor, one who earnestly devoted himself to the care of his flock. Moreover, his life was without a stain; his teaching and preaching were enforced by his godly living. Nor was his fame confined to the place where he preached publicly and from |8 house to house. During the iconoclastic controversy, at the second council of Nicaea, with a play on his name, he was referred to as "a bright star illumining the minds of all."
The limits of his public career are not definitely known. He preached in the latter part of the fourth century and it may be for a short time in the fifth. In his sermon, On the Festival of the Calends, he refers to the fall of Eutropius from his consulship as an event of the preceding year; now that event was in 399; this sermon therefore was called forth by the festivities of New Year's Day, A. D. 400. Elsewhere Asterius spoke of himself as a man of advanced age, so that he probably did not continue to preach long after the beginning of the fifth century. So far as our knowledge extends that New Year's sermon closed his career. He then historically |9 passed from view. What he did thereafter, no one in our day has ascertained. When, where and how he died is as yet wrapped in impenetrable mystery; but he lives on in the very few of his many discourses that have survived the ravages of time. We have between twenty and thirty of them. Some scholars have doubted the authenticity of all that have been attributed to him, but he is in all probability the author of most of them. In addition to these discourses, with a high degree of plausibility, he has also been considered the author of a life of his predecessor, St. Basil of Amasia. These five sermons, which we send out to the public in English dress, meet the altogether reasonable demand of our day for ethical preaching. In them moral subjects are handled with discrimination and with rare tact. This early Greek preacher laid right hold of the problems that were thrust |10 upon his attention by his immediate surroundings and solved them by the application of the immutable principles of righteousness, and the acknowledged truths of the Word of God. Measuring the conduct of men by principles and truths universally admitted, his discourses are as applicable to men now as they were to those living in the fourth century. But he confined himself so strictly to topics purely ethical, that we cannot but wish that he had treated ethically some of the great fundamental doctrines of grace. Still, in whatever respect he may be justly criticized, all, we are sure, will agree that he was a "live preacher."
We wish also to call attention to the fact that since these sermons deal with men as they were in the society of that early period, they vividly present to us conditions and customs then prevailing among the common people, that historians have |11 failed to portray. Moreover, these discourses are enriched with passages quoted from the Scriptures, which for the most part are suggestively and justly interpreted; so that the words of our author contribute something of value to our knowledge both of history and exegesis.
Asterius was a contemporary of Chrysostom; but while all of Chrysostom's sermons have been more than once translated into English, so far as we are aware this is the first time that any of the discourses of Asterius have appeared in our own tongue. And it will give us great pleasure, if, by this small volume, we shall be able to give to any one a larger knowledge of the early Greek pulpit, and at the same time incidentally to call attention to a striking evidence of the unity in thought and spirit of the believers of the fourth and twentieth centuries. |12
These sermons stand in the Greek without texts; but in conformity to the custom of our day, I have placed on the page preceding each discourse the Scripture which the preacher freely discussed. There is, however, one exception. In his sermon, On the Festival of the Calends, he expounded no passage of Scripture. Like Chrysostom in his Homilies of the Statues, he seized upon a passing event, making that the foundation of his discourse, and with great force castigated a crying evil.
Last of all we wish to call special attention to the fact that these discourses are genuine sermons. They are at the farthest possible remove from essays. They were spoken directly to men. The preacher frequently said "you." He also often interrogated those to whom he spoke. He abundantly illustrated his thought. He appealed to reason; he pinched the |13 conscience; he ridiculed folly; he shamed vice; he allured to virtue. He was not, to be sure, faultless, but in many respects he is a fine homiletical model, that will richly repay thoughtful study.
The Greek text from which these sermons were translated is found in Migne's Library of the Greek and Latin fathers.
Newton Centre, March 1, 1904.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2003. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic font, free from here.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts |


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Mastering the path_helper utility of MacOSX
Aimed to simplify path management, path_helper, the new tool introduced in Leopard that help manage the PATH environment variable, has probably not been as welcome as it should have been, particularly because it is not well documented. We try to shed some light on this obscure tool.
path_helper is located in /usr/libexec. By itself, this tools is armless, since it does not change anything in your environment, it is just a bash or csh commands generator for constructing PATH and MANPATH environment variables based on some text files located in /etc.
So, try it !
More then thousand words, lets run it:
$ /usr/libexec/path_helper PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/X11/bin:/usr/local/apache-maven/apache-maven-2.0.9/bin"; export PATH MANPATH="/usr/share/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/X11/man"; export MANPATH
The commands it output are not executed unless you call the same command in an eval like what it is done in the /etc/profile, which is the default startup script for bash shell:
if [ -x /usr/libexec/path_helper ]; then eval `/usr/libexec/path_helper -s` fi
But, how does it construct these paths ?
The path_helper utility reads the contents of the files in the directories /etc/paths.d and /etc/manpaths.d and appends their contents to the PATH and MANPATH environment variables respectively.
Files in these directories should contain one path element per line.
This excerpt is so clear that I would not try to say it another way. This is perfectly exact and work pretty well. Moreover, it should have been specified that it reads these file in alphabetical order, so you may use filenames to decide what should come first in your path, since path order is significant. However, this doesn't seem to be really true, it effectively read those files in the order returned by the underlying file system, which for HFS+ happens to be the alphabetical order. Apparently, with this new APFS file system, this isn't true anymore. This is obviously an issue for managing the path properly (Thanks to Dan Kegel for having brought this precision).
However, according to its manpage, before proceeding, path_helper reads its initial values from /etc/paths and /etc/manpaths respectively.
Since initial values for /etc/paths is
/usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin /usr/local/bin
That may seems exact, however this is not fully the truth, at least starting with 10.5.3, because it does not read these files as initial values, but as additional values like in /etc/paths.d. So these files should just be seen as the first file of /etc/paths.d and /etc/manpaths.d respectively, no more.
So well, what are the initial values than. The initial values are the values of the PATH and MANPATH variables when the command gets called ! Since path_helper is a clever tool, it does not duplicate paths, and just append additional unique values to the existing path.
So if the initial PATH variable contains /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin before calling path_helper, this will remains in front of the path constructed, whatever the /etc/paths ou /etc/paths.d contains.
If you want to add additional value to your path, this is very easy, you just have to create a new file in /etc/paths.d and put, on per line, additional paths that are required.
However, if you want to change the order of path lists in /etc/paths, changing the order of lines in this file seems useless ! This because the PATH variable has an initial value of {/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin} before a call to path_helper take place. While the origin of this initial value stay obscure to me, this is a true fact.
Therefore, if you want to place /use/local/bin in front of your path, you have to clean it before calling path_helper. This should be done in 3 files:
- /etc/csh.login
- /etc/profile
- /etc/zprofile or /etc/zshenv depending on your MacOS version
Just add a line PATH="" before the call to path_helper like this in /etc/profile:
if [ -x /usr/libexec/path_helper ]; then PATH="" eval `/usr/libexec/path_helper -s` fi
That way, you clean up the path before building it, which is exactly what you had expected from the description of path_helper.
I hope that you have appreciated this information regarding path_helper, and that you now have a better opinion of this tool that is, in fact, initially aimed to simplify application deployments that require PATH changes.


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The design concept of this typeface is "to create a typeface with originality with restrained quality of the traditional Mincho type style."
Each stroke has a sharp starting point like that of a pike, and a gently curved harai terminal like a long bending ribbon.
The ethos of Visual Design Laboratory (VDL) is to balance the natural beauty of letterforms with rigorous standards for readability and legibility. VDL offers a comprehensive collection known as "VDL Designers Fonts" (VDLデザイナーズフォント), which is sure to resonate with designers seeking a typeface that's highly individual while maintaining a broad appeal.
As with everything from Adobe Fonts, you can use these fonts for:
Design Projects
Create images or vector artwork, including logos
Website Publishing
Create a Web Project to add any font from our service to your website
Embed fonts in PDFs for viewing and printing
Video and Broadcast
Use fonts to create in-house or commercial video content
How to Use
You may encounter slight variations in the name of this font, depending on where you use it. Here's what to look for.
In application font menus, this font will display:
{{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.preferred_family_name}} {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.preferred_subfamily_name}}Web
To use this font on your website, use the following CSS:
font-family: {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.family.css_font_stack.replace('"', '').replace('",', ', ')}};
font-style: italicnormal;
font-weight: {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.font.web.weight}};
Glyph Support & Stylistic Filters
Fonts in the Adobe Fonts library include support for many different languages, OpenType features, and typographic styles.


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I recently acquired a new eyepiece to replace the damaged one that came with the Meade ETX-90 telescope I bought at a swap meet last year. I decided it needed to have a web-cam mount so I designed and printed one that is a variation of a previous design for a microscope. It took about 20 minutes to recreate the CAD file in DesignSpark Mechanical, and about 90 minutes to print on Son of MegaMax.
This thing has an odd shape to accommodate the odd shape of the camera. I designed the adapter in two pieces so it could be printed without any support material. After printing the two pieces were glued together with a little super glue.
I shot a short video to test it and it works perfectly! The cars driving by are about 1/2 mile away.
If we ever get a clear night I'll try shooting Jupiter or Saturn and then run Registax to enhance the images.
Files are here: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/web-cam-adapter-for-meade-telescope-eyepiece


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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Recent satellite images show North Korea is digging a new underground tunnel in what appears to be preparation for a third nuclear test, according to South Korean intelligence officials.
The excavation at North Korea's northeast Punggye-ri site, where nuclear tests were conducted in 2006 and 2009, is in its final stages, according to a report by intelligence officials that was shared Monday with The Associated Press.
Its release comes as North Korea prepares to launch a long-range rocket that Washington and others say is a cover for testing missile technology that could be used to fire on the United States.
Observers fear a repeat of 2009, when international criticism of the North's last long-range rocket launch prompted Pyongyang to walk away from nuclear disarmament negotiations and, weeks later, conduct its second nuclear test. A year later, 50 South Korean were killed in attacks blamed on the North.
"North Korea is covertly preparing for a third nuclear test, which would be another grave provocation," said the report, which cited U.S. commercial satellite photos taken April 1. "North Korea is digging up a new underground tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, in addition to its existing two underground tunnels, and it has been confirmed that the excavation works are in the final stages."
Dirt believed to have been brought from other areas is piled at the tunnel entrance, the report said, something experts say is needed to fill up underground tunnels before a nuclear test. The dirt indicates a "high possibility" North Korea will stage a nuclear test, the report said, as plugging tunnels was the final step taken during its two previous nuclear tests.
North Korea announced plans last month to launch an observation satellite using a three-stage rocket during mid-April celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.
The U.S., Japan, Britain and other nations have urged North Korea to cancel the launch, warning that firing the long-range rocket would violate U.N. resolutions and North Korea's promise to refrain from engaging in nuclear and missile activity.


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The difference of scholarly opinion as to whether the Basmalah counts as a verse of al-Faatihah does not come under the heading of distortions of the Qur'aan
My question is: how come there was a difference of opinion among the scholars of the early generations as to whether the Basmalah (the phrase "Bismillah ir-Rahmaan ir-Raheem") is a verse of Soorat al-Faatihah or whether it is a verse at all? Does this difference of opinion matter? I am not looking for the evidence of one group or the other, and I am not looking for additional information about this issue from a fiqhi point of view. I have read a great deal of information and research. Rather my question here is: how can we justify differences of opinion concerning a verse of the Holy Qur'aan that was transmitted to us via mutawaatir reports, by large numbers (of narrators) from large numbers, and so on, as to whether it is a verse or not? Is it not the case that there should be no difference of opinion concerning this matter?.
The Muslims did not disagree that Allah, may He be exalted, has preserved His Book from additions and subtractions, in fulfilment of His words (interpretation of the meaning):
"Verily We: It is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Quran) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption)"
[al-Hijr 15:9].
The Muslims are unanimously agreed that anyone who disagrees with this and claims that there is something in the Book of Allah that is not part of it, or that something that Allah revealed has been taken away from it, is a disbeliever.
Al-Qaadi 'Iyaad (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
The Muslims are unanimously agreed that the Qur'aan which is recited in all parts of the world and is written in the Mushaf that the Muslims have, that is contained between the two covers, from the first soorah "All the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the Alameen (mankind, jinns and all that exists)" to the last soorah, "Say: "I seek refuge with (Allah) the Lord of mankind", is the Book of Allah and His Revelation that He sent down to His Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), and that everything in it is true, and that anyone who deliberately takes away a single letter from it or changes one letter for another or adds a letter to it, that is not included in the Mushaf on which there is consensus, and there is consensus that it is not part of the Qur'aan – the one who does any of these things deliberately is a disbeliever. End quote.
ash-Shifa bi Ta'reef Huqooq al-Mustafa, 2/304, 305
With regard to the difference of opinion among the scholars as to whether the Basmalah is counted as a verse of the Qur'aan or not, this does not come under this heading, because the scholars of Qur'aan recitation did not differ with regard to reciting it at the beginning of the soorahs. And the Sahaabah (may Allah be pleased with them) were unanimously agreed that it must be written at the beginning of all soorahs apart from Soorat at-Tawbah, and that is in the Mushaf that was written by 'Uthmaan ibn 'Affaan (may Allah be pleased with him) and sent to all regions.
Ash-Shawkaani (may Allah have mercy on him) said, when discussing the Basmalah:
It should be noted that the ummah is unanimously agreed that neither the one who affirms it nor the one who denies it is to be described as a disbeliever, because of the difference of scholarly opinion concerning it. This is different from the case of a person who denies a letter on which there is consensus or who affirms something that no one said; he is to be regarded as a disbeliever according to scholarly consensus.
There is no difference of opinion concerning the fact that it is a verse in Soorat an-Naml, or that it is a line to be written at the beginning of the soorahs in the Mushaf, apart from the beginning of Soorat at-Tawbah.
Nayl al-Awtar, 2/215
Some of the scholars regard the difference of opinion as to whether the Basmalah is a verse of the Qur'aan as being like the difference of opinion among the leading scholars of recitation about some words and letters that may be proven in some recitations and not in others.
Shaykh Muhammad al-Ameen ash-Shanqeeti (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
The scholars differed concerning the Basmalah: is it a verse at the beginning of each soorah, or only at the beginning of al-Faatihah, or is it not a verse at all? As for the words of Allah in Soorat an-Naml, "Verily! It is from Sulaiman (Solomon), and verily! It (reads): In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful" [an-Naml 27:30], this is a verse of the Qur'aan according to scholarly consensus.
With regard to Soorah Baraa'ah (at-Tawbah), the Basmalah is not a verse thereof, according to scholarly consensus. But there is a difference of scholarly opinion concerning other cases. Some of these scholars of Usool stated that the Basmalah is not part of the Qur'aan, and some said that it is part of it in al-Faatihah only. And it was said that it is a verse at the beginning of every soorah. This is the view of ash-Shaafa'i (may Allah have mercy on him).
One of the best things that have been said concerning this matter, to reconcile between all the opinions, is that in some recitations, such as the recitation of Ibn Katheer, the Basmalah is a verse of the Qur'aan, and in some other recitations it is not a verse, and there is nothing strange about that.
In the verse in Soorat al-Hadeed, "Fa inna Allaha huwa al-Ghaniy ul-Hameed (then Allah is Rich (Free of all wants), Worthy of all praise)" [al-Hadeed 57:24], the word "huwa" is part of the Qur'aan according to the recitations of Ibn Katheer, Abu 'Amr, 'Aasim, Hamzah, and al-Kasaa'i, and it is not part of the Qur'aan according to the recitations of Naafi' and Ibn 'Aamir, because they recited it "Fa inna Allaha al-Ghaniy al-Hameed". And in some Mushafs the word "huwa" is present and in others it is not present.
In the passage "so wherever you turn yourselves or your faces there is the Face of Allah (and He is High above, over His Throne). Surely! Allah is All-Sufficient for His creatures needs, All-Knowing. And they (Jews, Christians and pagans) say: Allah has begotten a son (children or offspring)" [al-Baqarah 2:115-116], the waw (in the phrase wa qaalu attakhadha Allahu waladan/and they say: Allah has begotten a son) is present in the recitation of the seven, except for Ibn 'Aamir; according to the recitation of Ibn 'Aamir it is not part of the Qur'aan, because he recited it as "Qaalu attakhadha Allahu waladan (They say Allah has begotten a son)", without the waw. So it is omitted in the Mushaf of the people of ash-Shaam (greater Syria), and there are other exaples.
Thus it is known that it does not matter whether the Basmalah is regarded as a verse in some recitations and not others. The scholars are agreed on this point.
End quote from al-Madhkarah fi Usool al-Fiqh, p. 66, 67.
And Allah knows best.


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We've been hearing a lot about health insurance policies that were canceled because they don't comply with the Affordable Health Care Act. That is, in some way, those policies don't meet the standards that the ACA set. And we were wondering in what way these policies typically fall short. And joining us to try to answer that question is Karen Pollitz, senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Welcome to the program.
KAREN POLLITZ: Thank you.
SIEGEL: And to the extent that we know, what would be a couple of the most common ways in which these noncompliant policies fall short of what's mandated by the ACA, Obamacare?
POLLITZ: Well, there are quite a few ways in which they wouldn't comply. One would have to do with the benefits that are covered or excluded. Particularly in the nongroup market, it is common for health insurance policies to not cover essential benefits such as maternity care, mental health services, prescription drugs, rehab after an accident.
Another way in which they might not comply is the level of cost sharing that is required for covered benefits. Usually, insurance won't pay the whole bill. You have to pay part, whether it's a copay or a deductible. And the cost sharing can be exceedingly high under many nongroup policies today. I've seen policies with annual deductibles of 7,500 or 10,000 or $15,000 for a person, and then additional cost sharing that applies after that, even after you've met the deductible.
SIEGEL: You mentioned maternity and newborn care benefits, which are mandated. We've heard from some people who say, look, my husband and I are in our late 50s. Our children are long grown and out of the house and off our policies. We're within, you know, a decade of qualifying for Medicare. Maternity care is just not something that we need. They can't buy a policy that excludes that benefit?
POLLITZ: Well, today, they will buy a policy that excludes the benefit. But in the future, no. All policies will have to cover it and...
SIEGEL: And what's the rationale for that?
POLLITZ: The rationale for that is when you're buying insurance, you and everybody else who's buying the policy are buying protection and you're sharing in that protection. So, you know, you don't have to buy a policy that covers maternity care, even though you're never going to have a baby. Maybe I don't want to buy a policy that's going to cover prostate cancer even though I'm never going to have that. So the policy takes care of people and all of the conditions that can happen to people, and we all kick in a premium so that there will be enough to take care of any one of our conditions when they arise.
SIEGEL: But - well, I know that you're reluctant to comment on this. When one looks at the set of 10 essential health benefits that any complying policy must have, not to mention the size of the deductibles and copays and treatment of pre-existing conditions, it seems, in retrospect, obvious that millions of policies that people might have had and might have thought they liked would not be there for them once the law became implemented and that the promise to everyone was a rash promise, at odds with the rules that were being written at that point.
POLLITZ: I think the promise had to do with the grandfather policies and had to do with the fact that most people today aren't in this market. They're in employer-sponsored coverage.
SIEGEL: In the group market.
POLLITZ: Right. And those people aren't going to have to do much of anything. They are going to stay in the policy they have. It's not going to have to change. The changes that are occurring are to make the nongroup market look and feel and cover more like what people are used to in the group market. So I think it will be a relatively small slice of the population that feels this change. But at the same time, I know that they are upset and confused about what's going on.
SIEGEL: Well, Karen Pollitz, thanks a lot for talking with us about noncompliant health insurance policies.
POLLITZ: Thank you.
SIEGEL: Karen Pollitz, who is a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center Celebrates Transplant Program's 50 Years of Lifesaving Success
Oct 2, 2013
There have been a multitude of firsts, celebrated successes, groundbreaking research findings, and more than 4,000 lives saved — and that was just in the first 50 years. This week NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and The Rogosin Institute celebrate the 50th anniversary of their world-renowned transplant program.
To commemorate this important milestone, an anniversary celebration, "50 Years of Transplant Excellence," was held today, attended by some 300 members of the leadership and staff of NewYork-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medical College, and The Rogosin Institute; transplant recipients, donors, and family members; and partners from the community.
"We have a very simple strategy when it comes to transplantation here at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell — we consistently strive to offer the maximum number of opportunities for patients," says Dr. Sandip Kapur, surgical director of the transplant program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and associate professor of surgery and the G. Tom Shires, M.D. Faculty Scholar in Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. "We've treated patients of all ages — we have an excellent pediatric program and have transplanted people in their late 80s. Every available tool that exists, exists in this program. It's a detail that distinguishes us from 90 percent of the programs in the country and helps position us as a national leader in what we do."
"This is a special occasion to acknowledge the remarkable accomplishments of the transplant program over the last five decades and honor the doctors, scientists, nurses, staff, and all members of the transplant team who have made them possible," says Dr. Steven J. Corwin, CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. "We congratulate and thank all those, past and present, who have made the program what it is today. At the same time, we celebrate the thousands of adults and children whose lives have been saved through transplantation and look forward to the next 50 years of advances so that we can continue to offer patients and families the most outstanding and compassionate transplant care, and a renewed gift of life."
"The transplant program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center exemplifies translational medicine at its best," says Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College. "Over five decades of transplantation, our physician-scientists have made research breakthroughs that have enabled patients to receive superior care before, during, and after their transplants. These advances have made their lives healthier and easier."
The Transplant Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell is a leader in kidney and pancreas transplantation. Set within an academic medical center environment, the program is renowned for maximizing transplant opportunities and delivering exceptional outcomes for patients through cutting-edge laboratory research, advanced surgical techniques, personalized medical management, national kidney exchanges, and a unique multidisciplinary treatment approach. The program works in close cooperation with The Rogosin Institute, a leading research and treatment center for kidney disease and a member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System.
The first transplant program in the New York metropolitan area, and one of the largest such programs in the country, the kidney transplant program has performed more than 4,200 transplants since its inception in 1963, making it one of the highest-volume kidney transplant centers in the nation.
Among its many clinical accomplishments, the program and its faculty performed the first living-donor kidney transplant in the New York metropolitan area in 1963, followed by its first pediatric transplant the next year. Just four years later, in 1968, the program became one of the first in the country to use a new tool, the Belzer kidney perfusion machine, to improve the viability of donated kidneys.
In 1970, one of the program's kidney recipients became the first woman in the New York metropolitan area and fourth woman in the world to give birth to a child after a transplant. She would go on to become only the second transplant recipient on record to have three children.
A major milestone was reached in 1984 — just two years before Dr. Kapur entered Weill Cornell Medical College as a student — as the transplant program performed its 1,000th kidney transplant. Over the next 15 years, the team would expand its capabilities, performing its first pancreas transplants while also doubling the number of kidney transplants performed. By 2007, 3,000 kidney transplants had been performed and, five years later, in 2012, the team performed the 4,000th, establishing NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital as having one of the highest kidney transplant volumes in the country.
Since 2000, the program has evolved to use laparoscopic techniques for living kidney donor surgery, minimizing scarring; established a steroid-avoidance program, enabling select kidney transplant patients to live steroid-free; and began successfully utilizing donors with different blood types from the recipient for transplant, among other advances.
"One of the reasons this program is so successful is that there's always been very strong institutional support for it," says Dr. Kapur. "From our leaders in administration to the people who work on the transplant unit, the hospital, the medical school, and Rogosin have always genuinely valued transplantation. There's always been this 'We can get it done. We can help' attitude. They've given us the tools to go well beyond where we started and, as a result, we have a wonderful, very experienced, dedicated and passionate group of people that are proud to be a part of this program."
Dr. Kapur says one of the moments in the program's history he is most proud of are the transplants that occurred on Valentine's Day 2008, when the transplant team performed the National Kidney Registry's first paired kidney donor chain, resulting in five transplants. This innovative approach vastly maximizes the potential for transplants by enlisting an altruistic donor to facilitate a domino kidney chain. Later that same year, the program initiated the first cross-country living donor chain in the United States and, in 2011 the team transplanted two donor-recipient pairs in a 60-person donor chain profiled in The New York Times.
"We were a founding member of a transplant exchange system that now has 65 centers nationally and we have performed the largest number of exchange transplants using that venue of all the participating centers," Dr. Kapur says. "We've been a major contributor to developing the processes that many other centers are now using. It's highly rewarding. When you talk to people involved in the exchanges and they reflect back on what they've accomplished — they're now part of a process that helped five, 10, 30 people. It's quite gratifying and also unifying. This is a rare example of people simply helping people. It's a process that's totally devoid of choosing. Donors enter into this without any expectation or knowledge of where their kidney will go. It requires this huge leap of faith that everyone involved is going to follow through with their promise. And we helped build it."
The transplant program's achievements are numerous and there have been a variety of firsts along the way. Among them, the program was first to perform a successful pancreas islet transplant in the New York tri-state area on patients with Type 1 diabetes, freeing them from insulin dependence. In 1985, The Rogosin Institute Immunogenetics and Transplantation Laboratory (IGT), established under the directorship of Dr. Manikkam Suthanthiran and Dr. Marilena Fotino, became one of the first laboratories to provide testing for transplant patients, helping to match near-perfect donors with patients in need of a transplant. Today, the lab is one of the largest of its kind in the nation.
"Transplantation is a medical miracle, accomplished by a dedicated team, and the patients and organ donors are the true heroes," says Dr. Manikkam Suthanthiran, Chief of Nephrology & Hypertension and Chief of Transplantation Medicine at NYP/Weill Cornell. "We are all blessed to be an integral part of this life-restoring therapy where personal excellence and public good are inextricably linked and research and clinical care are interdependent." In 2013, Dr. Suthanthiran's laboratory published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that a noninvasive test can detect whether transplanted kidneys are in the process of being rejected, as well as identify patients at risk for rejection weeks to months before the onset of symptoms. By measuring just three genetic molecules in a urine sample, the test diagnoses acute rejection of kidney transplants.
But perhaps the best of transplant science is yet to be uncovered. "With all of our history and achievements, one of the reasons I really love transplantation so much is because in reality, transplantation is still in its infancy compared to the broad scope of medicine," says Dr. Kapur. "There is still so much more to discover and so much we can work to improve. There's a wealth of knowledge yet to be revealed to help us better personalize care."
For more information on the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Transplant Program, visit www.WeillCornellTransplant.org. For more information about the 50th anniversary, visit www.WeillCornellTransplant.org/50years.
In addition to the Transplant Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, the kidney transplant program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center is also among the oldest and largest such programs in the nation. Together, the programs perform more than 450 kidney transplants a year.
NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center
NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, located in New York City, is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical College, the medical school of Cornell University. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine, and is committed to excellence in patient care, education, research and community service. Weill Cornell physician-scientists have been responsible for many medical advances — including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer; the synthesis of penicillin; the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S.; the first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson's disease; the first indication of bone marrow's critical role in tumor growth; and, most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian/Westchester Division, NewYork-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital, and NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital. NewYork-Presbyterian is the #1 hospital in the New York metropolitan area and is consistently ranked among the best academic medical institutions in the nation, according to U.S.News & World Report. Weill Cornell Medical College is the first U.S. medical college to offer a medical degree overseas and maintains a strong global presence in Austria, Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania, Turkey and Qatar. For more information, visit Weill Cornell Medical College.
The Rogosin Institute
The Rogosin Institute is an independent not-for-profit treatment and research center associated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College. It is one of the nation's leading research and treatment centers for kidney disease, providing services from early stage disease to those requiring dialysis and transplantation. It also has programs in diabetes, hypertension and lipid disorders. The Institute's cancer research program began in 1995. The Rogosin Institute is unique in its combination of the best in clinical care with research into new and better ways to prevent and treat disease. For more information, visit www.rogosin.org.
Media Contact:
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Verbal Judo is the martial art of the mind and mouth that can show you how to be better prepared in every verbal encounter. Listen and speak more effectively, engage people through empathy (the most powerful word in the English language), avoid the most common conversational disasters, and use proven strategies that allow you to successfully communicate your point of view and take the upper hand in most disputes.
Verbal Judo offers a creative look at conflict that will help you defuse confrontations and generate cooperation from your spouse, your boss, and even your teenager. As the author says, "when you react, the event controls you. When you respond, you're in control."
This new edition features a fresh new cover and a foreword demonstrating the legacy of Verbal Judo founder and author George Thompson, as well as a never-before-published final chapter presenting Thompson's "Five Universal Truths" of human interaction.


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Tulips Teeth (Drawing 6)
Farsad Labbauf2007 Color pencil on paper. 20 in. x 16 in. Courtesy of the artist.
XFarsad Labbauf
Farsad Labbauf (Persian: فرساد لباف ) is an Iranian artist living and working in the New York area. Best known for his linear figurative paintings, he immigrated to the US at thirteen. After enrolling in Rhode Island School of Design in 1982, Labbauf received his Bachelor of Fine Arts, followed by a second degree in Industrial Design. His linear figurative paintings are inspired in part by Persian calligraphy, tile works, and studies in Quantum physics, revealing his reverence for such ideas as Unity and Monism. The origins of Labbauf's work lie in Figurative Expressionism, a style he practiced for more than two decades, leading to the creation of his linear figurative painting style. His paintings have been featured in more than sixty group shows across the globe, including at the Saatchi Gallery in London and Ex Aurum Museum in Pescara, Italy. He has, in addition, been the subject of solo exhibitions in New York, NY; Boston, MA; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Tehran, Iran; and the Esfahan Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran. Labbauf's work can be found in numerous public and private collections, including the Salsali Museum, Dubai; the Saatchi Gallery, London; Carsten de Boer Art Collection, Amsterdam; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Esfahan.
Photograph by Linda Thompson.
Over the past decade, the focus of my work has been directed on expressing ideas of singularity and exploring themes regarding the subject of Unity. Original inspirations for these ideas were found in studies of Rumi's poetry, Quantum physics and Monistic belief systems.
In addition to my figurative linear paintings, a second method of application also evolved simultaneously, using lines to overlap different content. Examining unrelated themes and conjuring new relationships, a labyrinth of lines were born by overlapping different subjects. Mrs. Heinz (2003) was a hybrid image of a Japanese geisha and a Ketchup bottle, weaving contemporary flavor to an allegory for taste and traditional customs of pleasure. Rabbit-Face (2003) was a cross between a man's head and a rabbit, referencing a merge between the intellect and the beast inside. These works were followed by the Tulips-Teeth series (2007) and The Golden Rule (2012) which continued to explore a mélange of content, examining connections among iconic figures and such themes as nature, beauty, and decay.
To express and manifest ideas of singularity, different mediums and a variety of contents are continually explored. Irrespective of content, however, my work is a continual meditation on what lies beneath the form: a universe within which subject and object merge into one. A place where there is no separation between the teacher and the thought, away from duality and into the subterranean landscape of union. Even though sources for most of my content are external, my work is often an attempt for the union of the internal.
X- Born: Tehran, Iran
- Based: New York, NY, USA


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Most businessmen are constantly searching for good website designing and development companies because, as we all know, a website has grown to be extremely important for all small and large businesses today. This is so that they can give their brands a strong online presence on Through his App and expand globally. The leading social media marketing service firm in Abu Dhabi"Claw Development," claims that in this day and age, having a website is essential to reaching your business goals and that doing so will help your company expand internationally.
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Best SMM Agency in Edmonton


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The Toledo Zoo announced on Monday that it had welcomed two new animals — a pair of Amur tiger cubs.
According to a Facebook post from the zoo, the tigers were born at the facility in March. They're the first tiger cubs to live at the Toledo Zoo in nine years.
"I'm so proud of the Zoo's animal caretakers and veterinary staff for their hard work in making the birth of these two cubs possible," Toledo Zoo CEO Jeff Sailer said in a statement.
The zoo has not yet named the male and female cubs. While they look like twins, caretakers say they could not be more different. Caretakers say the male cub is more calm and relaxed, while the girl is a bundle of energy.
Guests at the Toledo Zoo can see the cubs in person beginning June 12.
"I cannot wait for all of you in our community to get the chance to see these wonderful new tiger cubs," Sailer said. "There are so few tigers left in the world that the birth of these cubs is a great benefit to the population of these endangered species."


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Research DNA to bring prehistoric reptiles to life! Read more..
1-4 Players | 1-2 Hours | Ages 10+
In Dinosaur Island, players will have to collect DNA, research the DNA sequences of extinct dinosaur species and then combine the ancient DNA in the correct sequence to bring these prehistoric creatures back to life. Dino cooking! All players will compete to build the most thrilling park each season, and then work to attract (and keep alive!) the most guests each season that the park opens.
Do you go big and create a pack of Velociraptors? They'll definitely excite potential guests... but you better make a large enough enclosure for them. And maybe hire some (read: a lot of) security. Or they WILL break out and start eating your guests—and we all know how that ends. You could play it safe and grow a bunch of herbivores... but then you aren't going to have the most exciting park in the world (sad face). So maybe buy a roller coaster or two to try and attract guests to your park the good old fashioned way?
When we first played Dinosaur Island we knew we had something extremely special on our hands. We had an accessible worker placement game that mixed some of our favorite gameplay elements rolled up in a theme that is ridiculously fun and perfectly integrated with mechanics. I love games that have simple mechanics that lead to incredibly tense decisions. Like a dice pool as a resource (DNA), set-collection, turn-efficiency, a clever auction mechanic, and extremely tense decisions about where to spend your time and energy? Yes, please! You can also focus on upgrading your laboratory to make dinosaur creation more efficient. But if you do, it means you're spending less time on opening new rides. And the constant pressure to keep your guests safe while still turning a profit every season creates interesting decision making on players. It's a nail biter, for sure. ~ Pandasaurus Games
Research DNA to bring prehistoric reptiles to life!
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18 Oct HHS Issues New Guidance On Kids' Insurance Policies
By Mary Agnes Carey
KHN Staff Writer
Health insurers can't have different rules for when individual policies are sold for children with medical problems than for healthy kids, the Department of Health and Human Services said today.
Some insurers want to allow healthy children to enroll year-round but only have a limited "open season" for ones with pre-existing conditions. Not so fast, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Such an approach is legally questionable and "inconsistent with the language and intent" of the health care law, Sebelius wrote.
But, as Sebelius acknowledged in her letter, rates can "be adjusted for health status as permitted by state law," until 2014, when the federal law prohibits such variation. Since some states do not place limits on how much can be charged for coverage, parents trying to buy an individual policy for a sick child may still face availability and cost challenges.
For policies that begin after Sept. 23, the new health law bars insurers from denying coverage to children up to 19 with pre-existing medical conditions. While HHS had previously said that insurers and states could have a limited enrollment period, today's letter offered additional guidance: insurers can't have a window of enrollment for some kids and not others.
Insurers reacted to the letter, claiming HHS "has created a powerful incentive for parents to defer purchasing coverage until after their children need it – which could significantly raise costs and cause disruptions for families whose children are currently covered by child-only policies," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group representing insurers.
Some insurers, worried about an influx of sick children who would be expensive to cover, have dropped out of the child-only individual market entirely.
In a conference call Wednesday with reporters, Jay Angoff, director of the HHS Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, said that HHS could establish a uniform open-enrollment period for child-only policies. "And if that would result in companies who stopped writing child-only business starting again to write child-only business, that's something that makes a lot of sense."
States, however, can often move faster, Angoff said. Beth Sammis, Maryland's acting insurance commissioner, told reporters that after she established a uniform open enrollment period – which the Maryland legislature must approve — two insurers said they would continue to sell child-only insurance policies in the state.
Consumer advocates praised the guidance. In a written statement, Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families said that "While only a small number of families are in need of individual insurance coverage for their children, they are a particularly vulnerable group" who often make too much to qualify for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program. Child-only policies make up about 8 to 10 percent of the individual insurance market.
For years, insurers – principally those in the individual insurance market — have denied coverage to children, as well as adults, with medical conditions. In some cases, they have accepted them but refused to cover their preexisting conditions for a set period.
HHS has estimated that 31,000 to 72,000 uninsured children with pre-existing conditions will gain coverage due to the provision between now and 2013. And 90,000 insured children will get coverage for pre-existing conditions that have been excluded from coverage, the department estimates. In 2014, no one can be denied coverage due to a medical condition and people will be required to buy insurance or pay a fine.
Some states, including Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Vermont, already prohibit insurers from excluding coverage of pre-existing medical conditions and about a dozen states allow families to purchase coverage through the Children's Health Insurance Program. Uninsured children may also be able to obtain coverage through another program in the health law created to help people with pre-existing medical conditions who have been denied coverage, Angoff said.


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When you start pulling back the covers and realize how much is going on behind the scenes…It is both amazing and scary. Its a connected world. No doubt about that. Whether you are connecting through apps or a browser..or you don't know, don't care…there is a lot happening on our behalf.
I first struggled to understand exactly what problem we were solving here. At the risk of oversimplifying, the number one benefit to this communication standard: No More Plug-Ins. Those pesky little programs we have to update and run, just to get what is increasinlgy normal things done, when online. These plugins can be useful but they vary widely and are each proprietary to the vendor who developed them.
WebRTC, as part of HTML 5 is very close to getting us past this (and many other) hurdles. In development for years now, but making its presence known in 2013. Its worth understanding.
This is a standard that, instead of coming from the video codec and resolution world, is coming from the web world. The definition is being drafted by the World Wide Web Consortium and the IETF…two big and important standards bodies that have a lot to get right here, together. Its not a standard yet – but this has not stopped it from being implemented already in several browsers.
WebRTC: Cullen Jennings talks with TechWiseTV
WebRTC: Demo from Paul O'Dwyer
WebRTC: Jimmy Ray Whiteboards the Meat and Taters
Watch this Space
This is a foundational change with big, positive disruption that will re-shape a lot of interactions we have today. WebRTC is a way of turning every browser, every app, into a HD quality video endpoint. This may first be evident in the browser, but don't limit your thinking. Most of the quick app development we have seen these days is due to web-based back ends that are simply hidden from our view.
If you want to dive deeper. Here are some of the resources I found most useful when prepping for these shows we did.
Cullen Jennings explains WebRTC in a long but fantastically good and complete manner. I wish the audio were a bit cleaner here (Happy to help re-record for you in our studio Cullen!) but the value of the content over-rides these issues.
El Reg does a nice job laying out a high level explanation of WebRTC and explaining why this will be a market disruptor.
I like how Alan Quayle has broken this down in no jitter as it gives us a view from the communications perspective. There are respectiable hurdles here and this will round out your understanding.
A couple of other sites had great detail and may be good for some ongoing coverage if interested. Check out
BONUS AUDIO MATERIAL on SIP….
From anExperts in Residence: Podcast from the early days I interviewed Cullen Jennings on the subject of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). We actually could not get the timing to work…so we had the team record him…then I went back and laid in my questions…so it sounds very stiff (on my part) as I listen back to it.
Hope you enjoyed and learned a few things. I know I have.
Twitter: @TechWiseTV, @robbboyd, @jimmyray_purser
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