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Updated Thursday at 6:51 p.m. ET
Zoom has agreed to do more to prevent hackers from disrupting video conferencing sessions and to protect users' data, according to a dealannounced on Thursday by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The coronavirus pandemic has unleashed incredible growth for Zoom. Daily use of the remote-meeting service ballooned to 300 million from about 10 million in a matter of months. As more people logged on, Zoom's security and privacy flaws became evident.
Hackers began disrupting online school classes, government meetings, cocktail hours and other events in a trend that became known as Zoombombing.
Federal law enforcement and state investigators across the country started paying attention.
"Our lives have inexorably changed over the past two months, and while Zoom has provided an invaluable service, it unacceptably did so without critical security protections," James said in a statement released by her office. "This agreement puts protections in place so that Zoom users have control over their privacy and security, and so that workplaces, schools, religious institutions, and consumers don't have to worry while participating in a video call."
Zoom has pledged to take more steps to block hackers from gaining access to chat sessions and user accounts. It must now run a "vulnerability management program" to identify and avert breaches into livestreaming conversations on the video platform, New York regulators wrote in the deal.
Reported bad actors will now be investigated by Zoom, and the company will ban those who violate Zoom's anti-abuse policies, the state regulators said.
Zoom began as a communication tool geared toward businesses. But as scrutiny on Zoom intensified, security experts found that the company did not use end-to-end encryption, as it had claimed. Zoom officials later admitted as much. Such encryption all but ensures that the content of a conversation is confidential.
Now, according to the agreement, Zoom will encrypt "all personal information in transit except where the user fails to utilize a Zoom app or Zoom software for the transmission."
Zoom is also taking steps under the agreement to stop sharing user data with Facebook and LinkedIn.
In response to its swirling controversies, Zoom has hired outside security consultants and has announced that it has acquired Keybase, a company that specializes in encryption products. Zoom officials say the acquisition was made in order to strengthen user privacy.
Before the announcement of Thursday's deal with New York regulators, Zoom had taken steps to respond to public outcry.
The company said it in early April that it washalting work on all other projects to devote resources to beefing up security and privacy. Among other changes, Zoom began to require passwords for creating or joining a meetings by default.
In a statement, a Zoom spokesperson said Thursday that the company is pleased it has reached an accord with New York regulators, saying the out-of-court settlement "recognizes the substantial work that Zoom has completed as part of our 90-day security and privacy plan, including making a number of our pre-existing security features on by default and also introducing new security enhancements."
As Zoom's popularity and problems mounted, two tech giants spied an opportunity. Facebook has announced a new competitor to Zoom, a feature called Messenger Rooms. Google has made its existing videoconferencing tool, called Meet, free and easier to access from Gmail.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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The Suite
Catalog #: NV6324
Release Date: January 22, 2021
21st CenturyBaroqueOrchestralOrchestraThough there are thousands of languages and countless political differences across the world, people tend to come together through equally endless forms of music and dance. On THE SUITE, the Lowell Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Orlando Cela, focuses the lens on the Baroque dance suite as a method of expression that's ripe for international flavor, artistic individualism, and human storytelling.
Ignacio Jerusalem
Catalog #: NV6274
Release Date: May 22, 2020
BaroqueLiturgicalOrchestralVocal MusicOrchestraVoiceLovers of Early Music are in for a huge treat with IGNACIO JERUSALEM: MASS IN G, a tribute commemorating the 250th anniversary of the composer's death. The little-known, Italian-born, galant creator, who spent much of his colorful life in Mexico, receives long-deserved attention from the Chicago Arts Orchestra under the baton of Mexican-American conductor Javier José Mendoza.
Al Combate
Catalog #: NV5902
Release Date: February 1, 2013
BaroqueOrchestralVocal MusicOrchestraVoiceAL COMBATE, the debut release from the Chicago Arts Orchestra (Javier José Mendoza, Artistic Director), highlights New Spain as a mecca of baroque and galant music through a handpicked selection of works from two of eighteenth-century colonial Mexico's most prolific and influential composers, whose music explores the period's transatlantic cultural flow from Europe to New Spain: Ignacio Jerusalem, a master of the galant style who brought modern European styles and techniques across the Atlantic; and Santiago Billoni, whose harmonic experimentation and erudite voice helped shape late baroque repertoire.

subset: commoncrawl


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Website terms of use
We are very pleased to welcome you to our site, but before you read on about our company, we would be grateful if you would take a few minutes to read the important materials that follow.
This Site is owned by Wadworth & Company Limited. Our Company information is as follows: Registered Office: Wadworth & Company Limited | Northgate Brewery | Devizes | Wiltshire | SN10 1JW | Telephone 01380 732277 | Registered in England No. 30177 | VAT Number: 137487246
The purpose of this section is to describe the conditions (the "Terms") that apply to your access to and use of our Site. If you visit us at this Site we will assume that you understand and intend these Terms to apply to you.
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Privacy - it is important that you understand the way in which we will use the information we hold about you. Our privacy policy will provide you with further details.
Rights - all of the material you see on this site is owned by us or used by us with the consent of the owner. We are very happy for you to visit this Site and to print copies of material on it for your personal, non-commercial use, but all other copying is prohibited and all other rights are reserved.
Trade marks - the name of our company, divisions and our various brands are trade marks belonging to us and are registered in many different countries. This is also true of many of the other logos and creative materials that you will see on our product pack and on this Site. We (and the other owners of other materials used on this Site) are proud of these precious assets and make every effort to protect them. We would ask you to note that any use or reproduction of these trade marks is prohibited.
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Changes to this legal notice - we may amend this legal notice from time to time.
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Would you like to have a digital identity card that is automatically issued to you at birth? In one European nation, residents use such a card when they go to the hospital, when they do their banking, when they go shopping and even when they vote. This card has become so popular that this particular European country actually plans to start issuing them to millions of non-citizens all over the planet who request them. Never heard about this? Neither had I before this week. The Economist, a well-known mouthpiece for the global elite, is calling for the entire planet to adopt this "national identification system" that the little nation of Estonia has adopted. The Economist is touting all of the "benefits" of a "national identification card", but are there dangers as well? Could adopting such a system potentially open the door for greater government tyranny than we have ever known before?
The Economist article about this national identification scheme went largely unnoticed because it had a very boring title: "Estonia takes the plunge". But the content of the article is absolutely startling. The Economist article calls the Estonian national identification system a "cyberdream" and makes it sound like it will solve all of our problems…
There is one place where this cyberdream is already reality. Secure, authenticated identity is the birthright of every Estonian: before a newborn even arrives home, the hospital will have issued a digital birth certificate and his health insurance will have been started automatically. All residents of the small Baltic state aged 15 or over have electronic ID cards, which are used in health care, electronic banking and shopping, to sign contracts and encrypt e-mail, as tram tickets, and much more besides—even to vote.
If this was just limited to Estonia, it would be disturbing enough. But according to the Economist, the Estonian government plans to start issuing these cards to millions of "satellite Estonians" all over the world…
That has left a gap in the global market—one that Estonia hopes to fill. Starting later this year, it will issue ID cards to non-resident "satellite Estonians", thereby creating a global, government-standard digital identity. Applicants will pay a small fee, probably around €30-50 ($41-68), and provide the same biometric data and documents as Estonian residents. If all is in order, a card will be issued, or its virtual equivalent on a smartphone (held on a special secure module in the SIM card).
Some good ideas never take off because too few people embrace them. And with just 1.3m residents, Estonia is a tiddler—even with the 10m satellite Estonians the government hopes to add over the next decade. What may provide the necessary scale is a European Union rule soon to come into force that will require member states to accept each others' digital IDs. That means non-resident holders of Estonian IDs, wherever they are, will be able not only to send each other encrypted e-mail and to prove their identity to web-service providers who accept government-issued identities, but also to do business with governments anywhere in the EU.
The Economist hopes that Estonia will become a model that the rest of the world will follow.
But do we really want government to have that much control over our lives?
If we need this "digital identity card" to go shopping, do banking or get health care, it would also give the government the power to revoke those "privileges" in a heartbeat.
Already there are countless examples of how governments around the world are using information databases in abusive ways. For instance, one new lawsuit in the U.S. alleges that average citizens have been put in a 'terror database' for doing such things as buying computers and waiting for family members at train stations.
Do we really want to go even further down this road?
And of course "identity cards" can be lost, stolen and forged. The next logical step would be to permanently implant our identity cards.
To many older Americans, such a notion sounds ludicrous, but many younger Americans are so eager to adopt this kind of technology that they are actually doing it to themselves. Just check out the following excerpt from a recent NBC News article about "biohackers"…
In tattoo parlors and basements around the world, people are turning themselves into cyborgs by embedding magnets and computer chips directly into their bodies.
They call themselves biohackers, cyborgs and grinders. With each piece of technology they put beneath their skin, they are exploring the boundaries — and the implications — of fusing man and machine.
Welcome to the world of biohacking.
It's a niche community at the literal bleeding edge of body modification, and it attracts fervent fans from a variety of schools of thought. Some simply enjoy experimenting with new tech. Others use the magnets and chips for utilitarian purposes.
Does that sound creepy to you?
It should.
But it isn't just people on the fringes of society that are interested in these kinds of technologies.
For example, electronics giant LG says that it wants to put an electronic tracking device on your child…
Various tech companies have introduced wearable devices over the last few years that track your steps or heartbeat and even deliver your e-mails to your wrist.
Is electronically tracking your kid the next frontier?
LG announced a new device Wednesday morning, the KizON wristband, designed to let parents keep track of their child's whereabouts. The KizON uses GPS, WiFi and mobile Internet signals to identify the user's location in real time and sends the information to an Android app.
And billionaire Bill Gates is helping to develop an implant that "acts as a contraceptive for 16 years"…
Helped along by one of the world's most notable billionaires, a U.S. firm is developing a tiny implant that acts as a contraceptive for 16 years — and can be turned on or off using a remote control.
The birth control microchip, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, would hold nearly two decades worth of a hormone commonly used in contraceptives and dispense 30 micrograms a day, according to a report from the MIT Technology Review.
The new birth control, which is set to begin preclinical testing next year with hopes of putting it on shelves in 2018, can be implanted in the buttocks, upper arm or abdomen.
Whether you are ready or not, these technologies are coming.
For now, they are voluntary.
But eventually a day may come when you will be required to have an "identity chip" in order to buy, sell, conduct banking, have a job or go to the hospital.
When that day arrives, what will you do?
(Originally posted at The American Dream)


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Charlestonscene.com: Charleston NC Show Preview From Mike Wanchic, Miriam Sturm And Andy York
There's a curious lyric on John Mellencamp's latest album, 2010's "No Better
Than This." On the lost-love track, "Thinking About You," he opens the song by
singing, "It's not my nature to be nostalgic at all."
Mellencamp, not nostalgic? The southern Indiana native built his 35-year career
as the patron saint of small towns, America's heartland and a simpler way of
The entirety of "No Better Than This" was recorded with one microphone in rooms
chock-full of nostalgia: Savannah's First African Baptist Church (the first
black congregation in America), the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio (where Robert
Johnson laid down "Crossroad Blues") and standing on the very spot where Elvis
sang in Memphis' Sun Studio.
If you go:
What: John Mellencamp's "No Better Than This" tour
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Where: North Charleston Performing Arts Center
For tickets: In person at North Charleston Performing Arts Center advance ticket
window off Montague Avenue, at all Ticketmaster outlets (including select Publix
grocery stores); by phone at 800-745-3000; or online at www.ticketmaster.com and
For more info: Go to www.northcharlestoncoliseumpac.com or www.aeglive.com.
"In making music, John is not nostalgic," says Miriam Sturm, his violinist for
15 years and one of three band members Charleston Scene spoke with about
Mellencamp's ongoing influence on American music.
"One thing that's so marvelous about him, he keeps trying to plum the depths of
what he's able to write now and what he wrote in the past, and reconfigure it
into something that feels more gritty and visceral and genuine. Maybe even more
Mellencamp and his band arrive in Charleston on Wednesday at the tail end of a
yearlong tour in support of the album, an event that marks the songwriter's
first performance here ("Unless he snuck out and played without me," says Mike
Wanchic, his guitarist of 34 years).
Video documentary
The show opens with a screening of "It's About You," a documentary of the "No
Better Than This" recording process filmed entirely on Super 8 film, the grainy
but vivid classic format rarely used in the digital age.
Then the concert begins with a blues/country set probing Mellencamp's rockabilly
roots, followed by an acoustic segment.
"It's the most 'solo John' I've ever witnessed in my life," says Wanchic. "It's
a great chance for the audience to actually hear how he wrote these songs.
Sometimes the translation between initial writing and finished arrangements can
be quite different.
"Sometimes that means taking all that big, loud arena rock out and getting to
the sweet, sweet kernel of what that original song was."
Call it the T Bone Burnett effect. Known for taking rockers and stripping them
down to their roots (Robert Plant's "Raising Sand," Gregg Allman's "Low Country
Blues"), the famed producer's hand is evident in Mellencamp's most recent career
Hiring Burnett to produce "No Better Than This" proved to be a smart move. By
stripping his rig down and recording with one microphone in the style of the
blues pioneers, Mellencamp remains relevant as a middle-America hero in 2011.
In 1982, when he broke through as John Cougar with "American Fool" and its hits,
"Hurts So Good" and "Jack & Diane," his big rock sound fit the Bruce Springsteen
motif of the hard-working everyman rocker.
Each release thereafter went platinum, including 1985's "Scarecrow" and 1994's
"Dance Naked." Then in 1996, Mellencamp released "Mr. Happy Go Lucky." The album
featured more production and hidden twists than anything he'd recorded prior.
Sturm made her studio debut on that album, composing an album-opening overture
of the dozen tracks, including hits "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)" and
"Just Another Day."
Although subsequent albums continued to chart well, including his eponymous 1998
release and 2007's "Freedom's Road," nothing has garnered the sort of media
attention "No Better Than This" has received, largely for its unorthodox
recording method and back story.
Small-town America
"The whole point of longevity in music is evolution, being able to continue to
develop yourself musically, not underestimating the audience and being able to
offer fans something different and interesting," says Wanchic.
"This show is not about playing the hit records for John Q. Public. The whole
point of this entire tour is to settle in on what we consider the great songs
we've come up with over the years, being able to put people in a good
environment and to play music for the sake of music."
Even in this digital age, where the entertainment industry in Los Angeles and
New York shapes what people in the heartland consume, Mellencamp still seems to
resound with small-town America in the same way he did three decades ago.
It's evident in his audiences and the response he receives, including at the
annual Farm Aid concert, which he co-founded with Willie Nelson and Neil Young.
"If you fly from Charleston to Los Angeles and look down below you on the plane,
you'll see that virtually this entire country is rural, punctuated by cities,"
says Wanchic. "The press and critics might like you to think that L.A. and New
York are this country. But they're not even remotely representative. We're a
small-town nation. The human condition is universal, whether you're in L.A. or
Bloomington (Indiana) or Beaufort, South Carolina, we're all struggling with the
same stuff."
Making connections
The band's other guitarist, Andy York, recalls playing in Boston three days
after Sept. 11, 2001.
"The reaction to us being there was absolutely overwhelming. There was
indescribable emotion," he recalls. "It was such a fine moment to be a part of,
and we all felt united with this music, like we were one person with the
audience. It was a way of moving forward that I'll never forget."
Of course, the entire nation was looking to connect in the days after that
tragedy, but the honest American nature of Mellencamp's songwriting provided him
a special opportunity and perspective.
"He values friendships and people he's known all his life. That's the reason he
still lives in southern Indiana," says Sturm, who met and connected with Wanchic
and the band after graduating from Indiana University.
"He still keeps people that he knew in grade school and high school near to him.
It's not nostalgia so much as really valuing your roots."
Sturm says that the band collectively values traits like forgiveness and
compassion, and that they generally agree with the motivations of the Occupy
In October, their bus got caught in traffic because of Occupy Montreal protests
after a show in the city. Discussion ensued about their general disdain for
corporate America.
By keeping in touch with the rural America that bred him and supports him,
Mellencamp, who turned 60 last month, continues to remain viable as a
songwriter, even after spending half his life in the spotlight.
In the film "It's About You," we witness his full-immersion baptism at the First
African Baptist Church in Savannah. His visit there wasn't just a
run-in-and-record flyover, but a religious experience. (Interestingly, he did
leave the lyric "I ain't been baptized/I ain't got no church" in the song "Each
Day of Sorrow" from those recording sessions).
Concert format
For fans concerned that the roots-inspired concert format might ignore their old
favorites, there's no need to worry. The show begins with a small four-piece
band, including banjo and mandolin.
Players are added progressively, leading up to Mellencamp's solo set, explains
guitarist York.
"But then, the third set is just all out, blasting, burning rock 'n' roll."
In the final set, the guitars and bass switch from acoustic to electric, the
drums from a cocktail kit to a full set, and the sound explodes into more of
what classic Mellencamp fans are accustomed to.
"We play the hits, and people are singing along with them, but they won't sound
exactly like they did in the '80s," says Sturm. "We're not just coming out with
Marshall stacks and playing an arena rock show all night."
According to Wanchic, the adaptation of songs and constant reinvention is
exactly the opposite of nostalgia.
"John continues to develop his craft and become a better artist all the time,"
says the guitarist. "There are risks when you put yourself out there like that.
But if you're not risking failure, then you're really not pushing. Anybody who
says that age takes you down is wrong, in terms of music."


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Equality Florida To Honor Jazz Jennings, 14 Year-Old Transgender Advocate!
Equality Florida Broward Gala: Sunday, November 16
On Sunday, November 16, more than 500 community, business and political leaders are expected to attend the 12th Annual Equality Florida Broward Gala at the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six Panorama Ballroom in Fort Lauderdale. The highlight of the event will be the presentation of the Voice for Equality award to South Florida resident Jazz Jennings, who was just announced as one of the "25 Most Influential Teens of 2014" by Time magazine.
Jazz3Just 14 years old, Jazz is a nationally recognized transgender teen advocate and has been featured on 20/20, 60 Minutes and The Oprah Winfrey Show. She is also co-author of I Am Jazz, an autobiographical children's book about her experiences growing up as a transgender girl. "Jazz always knew she was different from other kids," reads the back of the 32-page book. "She had a girl's brain and a boy's body. This is her story."
"This amazing young woman inspires us all with her courage and candor, demonstrating what is possible when we share our stories," said Stratton Pollitzer, Deputy Director of Equality Florida. "We are proud to recognize her for the impact she already has made on the lives of transgender youth and their families here in Broward County and across the nation."
On October 13, 2014 Time magazine announced their Most Influential Teens of 2014, stating, "In a landmark year for transgender visibility in the media, Jennings stands out for how much she's already accomplished. She has been interviewed by Barbara Walters, met Bill Clinton and become the youngest person ever featured on the Out 100 and The Advocate's '40 Under 40' lists." Jazz recently started her own company, Purple Rainbow Tails, to raise money for transgender children.
"Few people in the transgender community have articulated their true gender feelings with more clarity and passion than Jazz Jennings," said Gina Duncan, Equality Florida's Transgender Inclusion Director. "From an early age, Jazz has been an inspiration, a mentor and a motivator for the transgender community. She is the true embodiment of authenticity."
A highlight of the Gala will be a State of the State address by Stratton Pollitzer, celebrating the landmark milestones of the past year, as well as presenting the next steps for achieving full equality in Florida. Guests will enjoy sumptuous hors d'oeuvres, delicious cocktails and the Afro-Peruvian rhythms of The Kiki Sanchez Trio.
Presented by PNC Bank, sponsors include B. Rodney White & Michael P. Williams, John D. Evans & Steve Wozencraft, Kenneth S. Hollander & John M. Kardos, Mona Pittenger, Darcy Beeman, Scott Bennett, Ken Flick & D.C. Allen, Cliff Mulcahy & John Zieba, Jim Stepp & Peter Zimmer, Neil Burmeister & Bob Romano, Hank Hury & James Cross, Gerald Kennedy & Paul Smith, Charles Loring, Jackson Padgett & Mark Negrete, and David Webb & Lynn McLaughlin.
The 12th Annual Equality Florida Gala takes place on Sunday, November 16 at 6 pm at the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six Panorama Ballroom, 2301 SE 17th Street, Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are $150 and are tax deductible to the full extent allowed under the law. For tickets or information, please go to www.eqfl.org/browardgala or call (813) 870-3735. Sponsorship opportunities begin at $500. Please contact Hannah Willard at email@example.com or 407.451.5460 for details.


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Convert Decimals to Scientific Notation
Scientific Notation: Learn
Scientific notation is used to express very large or very small numbers. A number in scientific notation is written as the product of a number (integer or decimal) and a power of 10. The number has one digit to the left of the decimal point. The power of ten indicates how many places the decimal point was moved.
The decimal number 0.00000065 written in scientific notation would be 6.5x10-7 because the decimal point was moved 7 places to the right to form the number 6.5. It is equivalent to 6.5*0.1*0.1*0.1*0.1*0.1*0.1*0.1
A decimal number smaller than 1 can be converted to scientific notation by decreasing the power of ten by one for each place the decimal point is moved to the right.
Scientific notation numbers may be written in different forms. The number 6.5x10-7 could also be written as 6.5e-7.
Scientific Notation: Practice
Write the number in scientific notation.
x10 |
Press the Start Button To Begin
You have
correct and
This is
percent correct.
Game Name | Description | Best Score |
How many correct answers can you get in 60 seconds? | 0 | |
Extra time is awarded for each correct answer.
Play longer by getting more correct. |
0 | |
How fast can you get 20 more correct answers than wrong answers? | 999 |
Math Lessons by Grade
Math Topics
- Addition
- Algebra
- Comparing
- Counting
- Decimals
- Division
- Equations
- Estimation and Mental Math
- Exponents
- Fractions
- Geometry
- Measurement
- Money
- Multiplication
- Naming Numbers
- Patterns
- Percents and Ratios
- Place Value
- Properties
- Statistics
- Subtraction


text:
Olive Tree Apartments, Revekka Rooms and Kissamia Rooms have taken all the necessary measures to ensure our guests safety during their stay in our lodgings.
Taking into account the new security measures required by the new epidemiological reality that has been formed,we have adapted the operation of our lodgings with the main goals of health and safety of the people who choose to stay with us.
Our priority in this different beginning will be to welcome you into a familiar and completely safe environment. That is why we have drawn up a complete operational plan within the framework of the guidelines required at national level (National Public Health Organization – EODY) and internationally (World Health Organization – WHO).
Our brand as "Health First" lodgings shows exactly what its words signify: our absolute commitment to the safety of all of us.
Moving forward, Greece is ready to welcome visitors again, always with the same vigilant eye, the same commitment to safety first and same dedication to our guests.
To this goal, we are also proud to inform you that our lodgings will be ready to welcome you safely and comfortably for the summer of 2021.
We have started a stable cooperation with a specialized doctor.
Our staff has been properly trained in accordance with the new health protocols and has received relevant certification from the Medical School of the University of Crete.
In all common areas we have placed a hand sanitizer.
Special floor marking informs about the observance of distances where and as required.
We have increased the frequency of cleaning and disinfection of all our spaces with emphasis on the points that come in frequent contact with both our customers and our staff.
We take care of adequate ventilation of all interiors and at the same time, we have modified our air conditioning systems to ensure the circulation of fresh air.
All staff members efficiently trained on hygiene and safety protocols
Staff is screened for symptoms prior to starting work and if temperature is detected over 37C, they will be asked to stay at home
We have changed our check out time at 11:00 and check in at 15:00 to allow ourselves guaranteed 4 hours for cleaning and disinfecting the room.
Clearly marked out zones for standing at Reception
Temperature measuring with touchless devices upon guest arrival
Frequent deep sanitization of front desk surface
Disinfection of room keys frequently
Well spread out sunbeds and umbrellas ensuring safe social distancing
Pool sunbeds sanitized after each use.
Increased water quality controls, regular monitoring of chlorine levels.
Rooms will be sanitized and sealed before every arrival
Enhanced cleaning and disinfection protocols for guest rooms with attention to high touched surfaces such as remote controls, door and furniture handles, light switches
Use of steam cleaners for the disinfection of fabric surfaces such us sofas, chairs
Room cleaning, bed linen and towel change are performed on request for minimal contact between guests and staff.
All bed linen and towels will be washed at a high temperature and sanitized as per COVID-19 protection protocol
All decorative and extraneous items (extra pillows, blankets, bedcovers) are removed from guest rooms
Guests are recommended to vacate the room during housekeeping
All cooking utensils and plates were removed from the rooms according to instructions.
Hand sanitizers at all restaurant entrances
Seating capacity reduced to provide adequate space between tables for safe distancing
One family per table at a time
Disinfection after each sitting
In case of a suspected case, we have drawn up a specific management plan and at the same time we will immediately inform the competent public authorities
We maintain a client file that will only be used for reasons of public health protection and always in accordance with the rules of the GDPR.
Thank you very much for choosing our lodgings for your stay.
For new bookings, we have added new cancellation policy so that you can plan your trip without anxiety and in case of emergency you can change your reservation up to a few days before your arrival.
For any information about your reservation, contact us either by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at 0030 6932641543 (whatsapp).
If your reservation has been made through a partner, you must contact them directly for any modification or cancellation.
In this different period, let's fill our days with moments of relaxation while making sure that we always stay safe.
Your safety and well being was always important to us, but now it has become our main driver.
We will be happy to welcome you again at Kissamia lodgings and we are confident that you will have the holiday of a lifetime!
Kissamia Hospitality & Lodging services was set up in 2013 through a visionary collaboration between Milonakis Stelios, owner of the Olive Tree Apartments as well as The Cellar tavern in Kissamos and Perrakis Constantinos, an executive in the field of tourism since 2000. Sharing their love for Crete, their expertise, their passion for genuine hospitality, quality service, authenticity and affordable lodging the co-founders have succeeded in providing their guests with affordable hotels in North West Crete that appeal to the new wave of travellers seeking to combine good value with quality accommodation.


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At the annual meeting of Hartford Seminary on May 21, the Corporators elected twonew trustees and affirmed the re-election of Dr. Scott Thumma as a faculty trustee. Here are biographies of the new trustees.
Dr. Abubaker Ahmed Al Shingieti is the Executive Director of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in Herndon, VA. He also is the Vice President for Islamic Programs at the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD) and President of American Muslims for Constructive Engagement (AMCE). Dr.Shingieti has been a Research Associate at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. In addition, he served as editor of Islamic Horizons, a monthly magazine of the Islamic Society of North America and was a founding member of the Society for Islamic Thought and Culture in Khartoum, Sudan.
Dr.Shingieti held key government positions in Sudan during the 1990?s. He was the Director of Political Affairs at the Presidency; Secretary General of Sudan?s Information Council, and diplomat with Ambassador Rank at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For over a decade, he was involved in the search for peace in Sudan, particularly in building bridges with the United States that helped facilitate a greater and more constructive role for the United States in the peace process in Sudan. During the past six years, Dr.Shingieti played a pivotal role in bringing together American Muslim community leaders with policymakers from different U.S. government circles.
Dr.Shingieti earned a B.Sc. (Honors) in Architecture from the University of Khartoum, a graduate diploma from the Institute of African and Asian Studies at the University of Khartoum, and a Ph.D. in Communications from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, MA.
The Rev. Dr. Karen Bailey-Francois, a Hartford Seminary alumna, is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She has served at Ellington Congregational Church, Storrs Congregational Church, First Church of Christ in Hartford and Union Congregational Church in Vernon, CT. Dr. Bailey-Francois has held a number of positions with the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ, including moderator of the Hartford Association, member of the Executive Committee, and founder/facilitator of the Cooperative Ecumenical Ministry with Children and Youth.
Dr. Bailey-Francois is past chair of Hands on Hartford, and served on its Board of Directors for five years. For Hands on Hartford, she was interim program director of the Center for Youth.
She earned a B.Sc. and M.B.A. from the University of Vermont, a Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School, and a Doctor of Ministry from Hartford Seminary.


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Thinkwell's AP American Government is taught by prestigious political science professors from top universities. Professors Gerald Rosenberg, Mark Rom, and Matthew Dickinson will teach you the foundations and advanced concepts of the U.S. Government and Politics AP curriculum.
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(*AP is a registered trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.)
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This optional CD-ROM set delivers the exact same video lectures delivered online, but without an internet connection. Online Subscription is required; CDs not sold separately. The CDs only contain the videos.
Thinkwell's AP American Government includes all of these features to prepare you for the big exam:


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De Ville Prestige Co-Axial Chronometer Silver Dial Watch, 36.8mm
The Omega De Ville Prestige collection has attracted a large and loyal following with its classic, elegant design.
These timepieces are characterised by pure styling with luxury finishes, and exude a timeless design. This model features an impressive two-zone silver dial with Roman numerals at the 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock positions.
The striking dial, with its date window at the 3 o'clock position, is protected by a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. The bezel is mounted on a 36.8 mm stainless steel case, and is presented on a stainless steel bracelet. At the heart of this timepiece is the Co-Axial calibre 2500.
Technical Data:
- Case: 36.8 mm, steel
- Between lugs: 19 mm
- Bracelet: steel, sliding clasp
- Dial: silver
- Crystal: domed, scratch‑resistant sapphire crystal with anti‑reflective treatment inside
- Water resistance: 3 bar (30 meters / 100 feet)


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Michael Kyne and Bianca Allaine Barnett:
Web of Deceit | Indiegogo Project!
Please donate or share! Michael Kyne and Bianca Allaine Barnett originally produced the short film Web of Deceit (formerly M is for Marriage) as an entry into the ABCs of Death 2 Search for the 26th Director competition. In that vote-based competition, Web of Deceit placed 20th out of over 250 entries from all over the world. Now, Michael and Bianca are raising funds to produce a limited run (100) of festival edition DVDs and take their short to independent film festivals. This limited festival edition will also contain bonus materials, including behind the scenes interviews and trailers.
Currently, Web of Deceit is entered into The Indie Gathering International Film Festival in Hudson, Ohio. We need funds to secure a vendors table as well as room and board at the festival.


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Really, what's not to like about a project to place an enormous banana in geostationary orbit over Texas?
Monthly Archives: December 2006
I turned my face away / and dreamed about you
In a surprise move, Shane MacGowan is still lucid and blogging, which suggests the degree to which he's said to have become a derelict may be slightly overstated. In any case, the aforelinked entry is about the other voice in Fairytale of New York, Kristy MacColl, who's been gone now six years (and was recently lionized at Gawker, which is in fact where we picked up MacGowan's blog).
In the entry, Shane mentions those who've sung Kristy's part at the inevitable live renditions of Fairytale since her death:
When we do the song live these days, there are people in and around the Pogues who nominate guest singers for the Kirsty part. I leave it to them to argue it out. I can't be bothered with the politics any more than Machiavelli could. To say I have any favourites for that role other than Kirsty is to sully her name. I'm old fashioned like that. Besides, it's hearing the original group playing it that keeps me happy.
The role – and it is a role – frequently goes to Ella Finer, daughter of Jem in the band who co-wrote the song with me. It works fine with Ella, partly as it keeps it in the family, and partly because Fairytale is meant to be a song from an older man to a younger woman. And I knew her before she was born.
In Irish pubs where they still sing together, Fairytale has become as much a standard as Danny Boy or The Fields of Athenry or whatever. So I'm now like the writers of all those other traditional standards, except I'm not anonymous. Or dead. The best surprises in life are the ones you never dream about.
We like that last sentence rather a lot.
Anyway, go back up to "inevitable live renditions" link above, which is an MP3 of just such a live performance, from Brixton (we think from 2001; it lacks Kristy). Hearing the crowd sing along is wonderful and raises the hair on our Heathen necks. Enjoy, and toast Kristy. We certainly are.
He Is Spartacus
Kirk Douglas issued the following press release on the occasion of his 90th birthday:
My name is Kirk Douglas. You may know me. If you don't … Google me. I was a movie star and I'm Michael Douglas' dad, Catherine Zeta-Jones' father-in-law, and the grandparents of their two children. Today I celebrate my 90th birthday.
I have a message to convey to America's young people. A 90th birthday is special. In my case, this birthday is not only special but miraculous. I survived World War II, a helicopter crash, a stroke, and two new knees.
It's a tradition that when a "birthday boy" stands over his cake he makes a silent wish for his life and then blows out the candles. I have followed that tradition for 89 years but on my 90th birthday, I have decided to rebel. Instead of making a silent wish for myself, I want to make a LOUD wish for THE WORLD.
Let's face it: THE WORLD IS IN A MESS and you are inheriting it. Generation Y, you are on the cusp. You are the group facing many problems: abject poverty, global warming, genocide, AIDS, and suicide bombers to name a few. These problems exist, and the world is silent. We have done very little to solve these problems. Now, we leave it to you. You have to fix it because the situation is intolerable.
You need to rebel, to speak up, write, vote, and care about people and the world you live in. We live in the best country in the world. I know. My parents were Russian immigrants. America is a country where EVERYONE, regardless of race, creed, or age has a chance. I had that chance. You are the generation that is most impacted and the generation that can make a difference.
I love this country because I came from a life of poverty. I was able to work my way through college and go into acting, the field that I love. There is no guarantee in this country that you will be successful. But you always have a chance. Nothing should interfere with it. You have to make sure that nothing stands in the way.
When I blow out my candles — 90! … it will take a long time … but I'll be thinking of you.
Fundamentalists are still in control and still stupid
Yep; the National Park Service is still prohibited from stating the actual age of the Grand Canyon, as the fundies are unhappy with anything older than 6,000 years; the park shop still sells a book that describes the Canyon in fundamentalist (i.e., unscientific and flat-out wrong) terms, a move that one park geologist described as the "equivalent of Yellowstone National Park selling a book entitled Geysers of Old Faithful: Nostrils of Satan."
This is what voting for Republicans gets you.
Because we hate you.
What it is to know your brother, and have him know you, Christmas edition
For the third time in 31 Christmases we've shared on this earth, Brother Heathen and Chief Heathen gave each other the same present at Christmastime.
(Tom Waits latest this time around; prior events were for a stuffed ET toy, ca. 1982, and an excellent Leatherman tool last year.)
Merry Christmas, buddy.
Warning: More Suckage Ahead
Or, rather, there is if you plan on upgrading to Vista. Bruce Schneier points us at an exhaustive review of all the ways Microsoft is removing functionality and making Windows less useful as part of the changeover to Vista. Here's it in a nutshell: Vista is going to be chock full of Digital Rights Management "features" that no user would ever want, let alone pay for. There's more analysis of the paper elsewhere, but only the really geeky of you will read the whole thing, so I'll include the executive executive summary as a teaser:
The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history.
One More Thing
Merry Christmas, Heathen.
Get up, get on up
James Brown died this morning in an Atlanta hospital, probably of pneumonia. Brown needs no introduction; he belongs in the musical pantheon with folks like Elvis, the Beatles, Ray Charles, and Bob Dylan. It's sad to note how few of these folks we still have walking among us — basically, just two Beatles and Bob.
The Yahoo Obit was the first one we found, and the NYTimes is still running an AP obit, though presumably they'll have one of their own soon. The Wikipedia article is worth your time, too.
What's this? People in Dallas with more money than sense? Horrors!
Heh. The DallasFood web site takes on a firm claiming — fraudulently, as it turns out — to be actual chocolate makers.
Noka had hoped to establish itself as a superpremium confectioner, with prices far, far north of folks like Godiva (hundreds of dollars a pound). They intimated they actually "made" the chocolates, but it turns out they're just buying and remolding another brand (Bonnat, which is good chocolate, at leaest). This is what chocolatiers do, and is a recognized trade, but it's not being a manufacturer, and doesn't command superpremium prices. Also, they aren't even very good at that: "Noka's truffles and molded chocolates are exactly what one might expect from a pair of accountants with limited experience and no formal training."
Nevertheless, they got on shelves at Niemans and Dean and Deluca and the like, though this 10-part series may well put the kibosh on that, even in Dallas.
Seriously, it's ten parts, but it's great. Read all 10. DallasFood.org is definitely getting a bookmark based on the strength of this and their chicken-fried steak coverage alone.
Mrs Heathen Wins
See sidebar photo in re: our Christmas present. No. 1283 of 3000.
They like 'em Goode in Virginia. Goode and Bigoted.
Rep. Virgil — Virgil! — Goode, R-VA, has a problem with all Muslims, which we're guessing plays pretty well to his base. This is the dufus who's been on the warpath about the new Muslim member of Congress taking his oath on a Koran rather than a Bible.
I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.
Our Stupid Government Employees, Again
Can anyone enlighten us on the snowglobe menace?
We note again that there is not a damn thing that makes sense about any of the TSA regs that have gone into effect since 9/11, and that they probably make us LESS safe. Binary explosives of the sort thought to be planned for the London non-attack-attack won't work; nail files aren't dangerous; the ID requirement is for the airlines, not security. It's all bullshit, and nobody in a position to change anything cares. Hell, most citizens don't care; they're fat and happy and complacent, and naively assume this theater makes us safer.
And people wonder why we're misanthropic.
Check out the cover of Scientific Republican this month.
Best News Quote Today
From the LA Times:
Today, Hacienda Napoles is in ruins, taken over by jungle foliage and bats. The sprawling Spanish-style mansion has been gutted, scavenged by treasure hunters looking for stashes of gold and cash buried under the floors. Escobar is long gone, cut down in a hail of police gunfire.
But the hippos are still here.
You've probably already seen it, but we're putting here for reference anyway
From SNL this week:
The worst part is that we've now got an earworm for a joke song.
Carve the turkey / turn the ballgame on…
Merry Christmas from the Family, a little Holiday Robert Earl Keen from Houstonist:
You're all a bunch of dirty whores
Via CNN, from the AP:
Mom and Dad have got some 'splaining to do.
Dept. of Bicameral Elitism
This woman — a/k/a "Winnie;" don't miss the second link — has an Erdos-Bacon number of 6.
This is widely seen as exceeding Portman's score of 9.
Via McSweeney's, Richard Dawkins speaks to a kindergarten class about Santa Claus.
Case in point on why judicial review of even military incarceration is important
The military locked up a whistleblower for 97 days in a maximum security facility in Iraq.
One night in mid-April, the steel door clanked shut on detainee No. 200343 at Camp Cropper, the United States military's maximum-security detention site in Baghdad.
American guards arrived at the man's cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.
The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.
Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in Iraq, and his account of his ordeal has provided one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon's detention operations since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual.
The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.
But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents.
They did this to an American citizen who could not have been more emphatically a good guy. And he had virtually no recourse. Trusting people in power is never a good idea; they need oversight, which is why we have a system of checks and balances in our government. This administration has sought from the very first to dismantle these failsafes and create an imperial presidency; stories like Vance's are the inevitable result.
Slow and steady wins the race. They're not kidding.
Over the weekend, a couple NFL records were broken. Most famously, Brett Favre broke Dan Marino's career passing completion record (4,974 and counting), which is pretty cool. However, a sexier-sounding record fell this weekend, too: Most Career Points.
You'd sort of think this would be a running back or a receiver, but no, not really: it's a kicker. Morten Andersen (perhaps the only Dane in the game) of the Atlanta Falcons took the title on Saturday night with two extra points against the Cowboys. Andersen, who is forty fucking six years old, now has 2,435 points in his 24-year career, edging past the former record-holder, Gary Anderson.
Andersen had previously broken another of the prior Anderson's records last week, when he kicked his 538th career field goal. He's 538 for 679 on field goals, and 821 of 831 on PATs. Also, he's old enough to have fathered the last few seasons' rookies, which is just cool.
Coolest. Model. EVAR.
Pierre Scerri loved Ferraris, specifically the legendary 312PB.
So he made one of his own at 1:3 scale. That works. It took him 15 years and 20,000 hours, but his model includes not just faithfully recreated body and interior work (the trademark shift grate is there!), but also a fully functional 1:3 scale 12-cylinder engine, transmission, and exhaust system — which means his tiny car even sounds like a Ferrari.
Mr Scerri has his own website now, detailing additional models he's working on, including a Ford GT40.
NYT on the TSA, our Naked Security Emperor
The Times piece is called Theater of the Absurd at the T.S.A., so you can imagine the content. We're sure some at DHS and TSA will whine about the piece, but it's hard to fault its conclusions. We're doing the wrong things for airport security, and for poor reasons, and nobody in power seems to have the balls to admit it even though everyone outside the system seems to know that it's all bullshit.
The root problem, as some experts see it, is the T.S.A.'s reliance on IDs that are so easily obtained under false pretenses. "It would be wonderful if Osama bin Laden carried a photo ID that listed his occupation of 'Evildoer,'" permitting the authorities to pluck him from a line, [Security expert] Mr. Schneier said. "The problem is, we try to pretend that identity maps to intentionality. But it doesn't."
What's worse, the TSA is actively hostile to attempts at improvement:
Ostensibly interested in what security specialists and legal authorities on privacy issues thought of its Secure Flight plans, the agency convened an advisory group in January 2005. (Mr. Schneier was a member.) Nine months later, when the advisers turned in their final report, it showed that the T.S.A.'s planners had given little or no thought to basic security issues, such as the problem of stolen identities.
Expressing frustration, the T.S.A.'s advisers said in their report that the T.S.A. had been so tight-lipped when talking to them that they never received the information they needed to make a single substantive recommendation.
Professor Blaze [CS at the University of Pennsylvania] has a great deal of experience publicly discussing the most sensitive of security vulnerabilities. He acknowledged that disclosure of a security weakness prompts "a natural and human response: 'Why should we help the bad guys?'" The answer, he said, is that the bad guys aren't helped — because they almost certainly already know a system's weak points — and that disclosing the weaknesses brings pressure on government agencies and their suppliers to improve security for the good guys.
Emph. added. This isn't news; anyone worth a damn in cryptography knows that knowledge of an encryption algorithm shouldn't give you an advantage in trying to crack it — or, at least, it won't if the algorithm is sound. Secret encryption methods are assumed to be insecure.
The article concludes:
The issues raised by the discovery of security vulnerabilities are not new. A. C. Hobbs, a locksmith who in 1853 wrote the book on locks and safes (the title: "Locks and Safes") knew that "many well-meaning persons" assume that public exposure of a lock's insecure design will end up helping criminals.
His response to this concern is no less apt today than it was then:
"Rogues are very keen in their profession, and know already much more than we can teach them."
It's not any different now, but apparently the TSA thinks it is. It's horrifying how wrong they are.
Dept. of Holiday Reruns
Remember the Ten Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time we linked back in 2004? It was a National Lampoon piece at the time, and it's still friggin' hilarious. Well, ol' Tom seems to have forgotten that, but it's surfaced again at the author's site, and the original author turns out to be SF man-of-the-moment John Scalzi.
The Bush War on Science Continues
The Bush administration wants to review and approve all USGS scientific findings prior to publication, from articles to presentations. This review may take from a couple weeks to six months.
Yeah, that seems like a GREAT idea.
Apparently, Lou needed to clear the room in a big hurry
Back in college, we used this record to empty rooms. Lou must be trying to clear Manhattan, since this week he did a semitheatrical production of Berlin live.
(The 2nd link is NYT; it may rot, so here's a local PDF.)
Dear Major Labels: Please Read This
Techdirt points out how well the number-2 online music provider, eMusic.com, is doing. A bit:
The idea that DRM-free music might just make good business sense smolders along, as eMusic is announcing they've managed to sell 100 million unprotected songs without the world coming to an end. As part of the promotion, the customer who purchased the milestone track will have a song written about him by the Barenaked Ladies, who'll include the song on as a bonus track for their upcoming album. The record labels have consistently claimed you can't be successful selling music that isn't copy-protected — but eMusic's second place showing (behind iTunes) shows that's clearly not the case. They continue to sell more music than Rhapsody, Napster and MSN Music combined, all while catering to indie music fans by avoiding major label content.
We added the emphasis, but that's a big point. eMusic has a subscription model; you pay 'em X dollars a month for the right to download Y number of unprotected MP3 tracks in any given month. Plan costs and volumes vary, but they're all quite reasonable. Content's fresh — for example, they've got the new Tom Waits. Check 'em out.
Ahmet Ertegun, 1923 – 2006
The Atlantic Records founder, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, and all-around music industry legend fell and hit his head at a private Rolling Stones show in October, and never recovered. He was 83. The Guardian has a comprehensive obit; they open with this:
The word "legend" is liberally bandied about in the sphere of popular music, but it is a term which can truthfully be used to describe Ahmet Ertegun, the co-founder of Atlantic Records. Ertegun's death, at the age of 83 following a fall, severs a vital link to some of the most significant chapters in the development of soul, rhythm & blues and rock. He helped to discover or nurture many of the most influential musicians of the last half century, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, The Drifters, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, Bobby Darin, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Crosby Stills & Nash and the Rolling Stones.
Wikipedia points out that this Ahmet is why Zappa named his kid Ahmet.
Semi-Obligatory Cute Animal Post
Michael Crichton: World Class Jackass
Crighton, uberwealthy author of crappy potboilers, is also a well-known global warming dissenter. He's none to fond of his critics, either, as he appears to have gone and put one of them in his latest book as a pedophile. The critic? Michael Crowley, a Washington-based political columnist and Yale graduate (and author of recent TNR cover story critical of Crichton's environmental pontification). The charcter? "Mick Crowley," a Washington-based political columnist and Yale graduate.
John McCain Hates Us
Or, specifically, he hates blogs, and has introduced legislation designed to neuter the blogosphere.
Despite what the media say, McCain is not a good guy. He's a party hack and a craven power-monger. Fuck him and his horse, and don't be fooled into thinking he's some kind of outsider candidate.
More Dead Guys: Al Shugart
Don't know his name? You damn sure know his work. Shugart helped develop the first hard drive 50 years ago at IBM, and later left to found Seagate. He was 76.
(Yes, that means he was doing world-changing work in his mid-20s. Feel good now, you lazy bum?)
Peter Boyle, 1935 – 2006
Worst news we've heard in weeks
Continental is apparently in talks to merge with United, according to the Wall Street Journal (registration required; AP blurb here).
Continental typically ranks very highly in terms of customer service, on time performance, perqs, etc. They're the only major not to hit serious trouble after 9/11 (Southwest, while bigger, is not usually called a "major" for some reason). United, on the other hand, is infamous for their customer-hostile behavior, baggage problems, and performance in virtually every category. But they're big, so there's that. Every single time we've flown on an airline that isn't Southwest or Continental, we've had some sort of problem — lost or delayed baggage, cancelled flight, overbook, rude employees, something.
If this goes through, we suspect we'll be on Southwest a hell of a lot more.
Perhaps our last post on the BCS nightmare
From the Onion: BCS Determines No Team Worthy Of Facing Ohio State In Championship Game:
COLUMBUS, OH — In what many BCS officials are citing as "proof that their flawless system indeed works," no Division 1-A college football team was found to possess the sheer excellence required to face Ohio State, the No. 1 ranked team since the season began, in this year's BCS Championship game.
Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer agreed with [Michigan head coach Lloyd] Carr, saying that even if his team had been offered a chance to play Ohio State, he may not have taken it.
"We don't deserve to play Ohio State. Period," Meyer said, adding that though Florida had a tough schedule, being the SEC champion was not the same thing as being Ohio State. "Every coach that I know voted for Ohio State in the coaches' poll, or at least had them second after their own team. In any case, I can certainly see why no one who votes in the BCS wants the national championship to be decided by a mere football game."
All coaches interviewed supported Meyer's claim, with the notable exception of Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis, who said that despite his team's two losses, weak schedule, and unremarkable defense, he still felt in his heart that Notre Dame deserved a chance at the title — a feeling that, according to a BCS official who wished to remain anonymous, was not completely overruled.
"First of all, I should note that although Notre Dame is an independent, and a highly regarded independent at that, it does not have its own special set of rules as far as determining its football team's rankings," the official said. "Instead, we use a special set of mathematical algorithms to determine its football team's rankings, which the BCS specifically determines only after ranking all the other teams. And though I shouldn't say this, we — er, the computer — would have dearly loved to have seen Notre Dame in the championship."
What shocks us is that people PAY for this analysis
So, in a real "sky is falling" sort of piece, the Register reported yesterday that iTunes Music Store sales were "collapsing," purportedly based on research from one of those "never in doubt, seldom right" firms (this time, it was Forrester). Predictably, the story was picked up by some big blogs. Trouble is, it's bullshit, as several have pointed out.
We're sure that the idea of something like iTMS sales tanking is a great way to drive traffic to your site, but wouldn't it be nice of researchers and tech journalists cared about whether what they ran was accurate? As the aforelinked debunking noted, iTunes is still one of the biggest music vendors in the country — online or off. They rival the Best Buys of the world, something that no other online vendor can claim, and have sold better than a billion tracks. That's not exactly "collapse," now, is it?
Update: Techdirt has more. Unlike Forrester, et. al., they seem to mostly be right.
More on the superhot pepper
Following up, if you, like us, want some of those bastards, here's a couple links:
- DorsetNaga.com, which leads us to the home company…
- PeppersByPost.biz, who say they'll sell seeds to US customers in 2007.
If we can't go, can we at least have the book?
An art gallery in LA is showing an exhibit of Hunter Thompson's photographs, many of which are pretty darn cool. Apparently, several are available in the new book published by his estate, which is a steal at, well, nearly thee bills. Ouch. Still, cheaper than going to LA, which leaves more money for booze.
(Via BoingBoing.)
The Redness of the Day's Letter Cannot Be Denied
We were just able to work the phrase "dromedary teat" into conversation as something other than a non sequitur.
Go Heathen!
Dear Bill: You Suck at Software
It's no secret that, here at Heathen, we prefer Macs and Open Source tools to the Microsoft juggernaut. We didn't care all that much until about 1998 or so, when we realized how awful Windows was on a laptop — for example, sleep never worked right, and if recent experience is any indication, it still won't, even on XP — and how much easier things seemed to be for our Powerbook-using colleagues. We were doing project management consulting at the time on Internet software, so we lived in Office, which meant we could make the jump with little or not trouble. We jumped, and were MUCH happier — even moreso when Apple went to OS X, which gave us our geekiest heart's desire: Unix with a good front end.
Anyway, this is a long way of saying it's been a coon's age since we actually had to DO something with Windows. "Get a Mac" has been our advice to friends and relatives for years, and we back it up with a growing inability to troubleshoot "modern" Windows installations (not that the tech support people are much better; "nuke it from orbit," a/k/a "wipe and reinstall" seems to be the standard bit of advice for a Windows machine with some odd problem).
Today, though, we're working with a piece of software our firm wrote to integrate our main product with client back-end systems. It's Java, so it'll run anywhere, but we're testing on an XP machine because that's the target platform for the current client.
Holy CRAP XP sucks ass. Just a few fun things we've discovered:
Can't find the Control Panel window you just opened? That's because the Control Panel is actually an instance of the "Windows Explorer" file manager. This in contrast to, say, the Services manager, which IS a program. Is interface consistency somehow antithetical to the Windows worldview?
XP Pro and XP Home have drastically different expectations user-wise; among them are the location of the home directory for the system user. Why is this? What the fuck, Bill?
WTF is the Windows equivalent of "tail -f"? Is there such a thing? How else do you watch a goddamn log?
Sometimes, people ask us why we don't take WorldNet seriously
And, oddly, sometimes they don't quite get it when we say, truthfully, "because they're like the bastard child of right-wing loonies and the Weekly World News."
I mean, how else can you explain them running a story on how soy milk makes kids gay? The headline is, we shit you not, "A Devil Food Is Turning Our Kids Into Homosexuals." Where do they FIND these nutbirds?
Things that, somewhat surprisingly, we do not want for Christmas
A USB pole dancer, though perhaps Mr Rhymes-with-Schloachim might.
"Good and evil bores the shit out of me" — David Simon
David Simon's The Wire wrapped up its fourth season last night. If you haven't seen this, you've missed the best goddamned thing to ever be on television, and we say that knowing full well how strong contenders like Deadwood and the Sopranos are. They're not even in the same league; in a real sense, they're not even playing the same game.
You can't start the Wire in the middle, though. If you haven't seen this, get ye to Netflix and put the first season in your queue. You won't be sorry.
If you're hip, though, go read Heather Havrilesky's column on the final episode and the fourth season in general over at Salon. Havrilesky's a damned fine TV writer — she's the one who did a column all in Milchian Deadwood-speak, brilliantly. Don't read it if you're not caught up; it's full of spoilers. If you're watched, though, it's a great reverie.
There is one more season of the Wire coming. We have no idea when it'll air — 2008, probably, which gives you all plenty of time to catch up on the world of the Barksdales and Stanfields; the Greek, the port, and 13 dead girls in a can; Royce and Carcetti and Davis; the collapse, rise, fall, and resurrection of Prez; McNulty and Bunk; Omar and Brother Mouzone; and the sad tale of Bubbles. Do yourself a favor. Seriously.
(The Wire ran June to September in 2002 and 2003, but slipped to September to December in '04 and '06. Since HBO is already running promos for what's happening on the network this year, and said promos have no Wire goodness in them, smart money says to look for the final installment of Simon's opus in June or September of 2008.)
Distrust of the Police is Natural and Good, Part II
New York State Troopers made a game of DUI arrests so much that they openly arrested people they knew weren't drunk. The goal was "the 100 club," meaning 100 arrests in a year.
According to the report, it took serious misconduct for the troopers to log that many DUI arrests. The report said troopers were discouraging people from taking breath tests.
The troopers told people that if they took the breath tests they would have to stay in police custody longer before they could post bond and be released, the report states.
Subsequent laboratory tests showed that many of the people arrested did not have drugs or alcohol in their systems, or had amounts well below the legal limit.
People with authority and power must be watched even more closely than normal citizens. They should get no pass at all an the abuse of this power, because if they do, they'll just become bigger bullies. We have to have police, but we don't have to tolerate this kind of bullshit.
Dept. of HOT HOT HOT
A pepper grower in Dorset has managed to create the hottest chile ever, based on a pepper plant from Bangladesh. The Dorset Naga, as it's called, weighs in at nearly a MILLION Scovilles. For comparison's sake, pepper spray is only 5M, and a "normal" habanero is about half a million. (A jalapeno is a paltry 2500 to 8000, depending.)
We sort of want some. Sort of.
DRM on the way out?
RoughType.com has an interesting bit on why Digital Rights Management — i.e., copy protection for music — is completely and utterly doomed. Hint: EMI is actually looking into selling unrestricted MP3 files. Why? Because right now, that's the only format other than the iTunes protected format that works with iPods, and selling online music that you can't put on your iPod is a nonstarter at best.
DEA vs. AMA
The drug warriors think they know better than doctors how to manage pain, and have been locking up pain management specialists for prescribing painkillers in volumes the DEA (not the AMA) thinks of as excessive.
Great. Consider for a bit whether or not it's a good idea for thugs as the DEA to have veto power over medical decisions made by highly trained physicians.
More from the Will It Blend? People
Good Things from Over The Weekend
Pinochet is dead. More here and here. Our government supported him. Aren't you proud?


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"Pinky and the Brain" are two genetically engineered lab mice living at Acme Labs. The Brain is a genius, while Pinky is somewhat insane. The two mice initiate creative and hilarious schemes for world domination, only to have them ultimately fail. However, with great persistence, they continue working each night to "try to take over the world!" Pinky and the Brain first appeared as supporting characters on Animaniacs, then becoming popular enough to get their own series. In the Fall of 1998, this series ended and a short lived spin off, Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain, was created.


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Viewing your Applications
Provided that you are authorized to use Crowd, you can see a list of the applications you are authorized to log in to.
More information about the applications listed:
- Crowd verifies all logins to these applications. Your Crowd administrator has defined them as Crowd-connected applications.
- Your username is authorized to log in to these applications. Your Crowd administrator has made you a member of a directory or a group which is mapped to the application.
Crowd allows you to have different usernames in different applications. These different usernames are called 'aliases'. Your Crowd administrator can manage your aliases for the applications you are authorized to access.
- When you log in to Crowd itself, you must use your primary username i.e. the one registered in Crowd.
- If you choose to log in to another Crowd-connected application directly, such as Confluence or Jira, instead of logging in via Crowd, then you must log in using the alias registered in that application (Confluence, Jira, or whatever.)
- If SSO is enabled you will only need to log in or log out once, to Crowd or a Crowd-connected application. When you start another Crowd-connected application, you will be logged in automatically.
To see the applications which you can log in to
- Log in to Crowd.
- If you are not a Crowd administrator, you can skip this step because you will go directly to the Crowd Self-Service Console.
- If you are a Crowd administrator, the Crowd Administration Console will open. Click the 'My Profile' link in the top navigation bar.
- The Crowd Self-Service Console will open. Click 'Applications' in the left-hand menu.
- The 'Applications' screen will appear, as shown in the screenshot below.
The 'crowd' application
One of the applications listed will be the 'crowd' application. This is the Crowd Administration and Self-Service Console. If you can log in to Crowd, that means that you do have access to the 'crowd' application and you should see it in the list.