text:
Ronald Sense, EMEA director at A10 Networks, discusses five benefits of advanced load balancers for the cloud and the important considerations that organisations need to think about when it comes to this technology.
Load balancing of application traffic has been around for a long time. But, as more organisations move to the private and public cloud, it's undergoing significant changes. Let's look at some of the important considerations of this evolving technology.
Three major requirements underline IT operations and DevOps today: agile, efficiency and multi-cloud operations.
The movement toward public cloud is arguably driven by an organisation's desire to deliver more functionality faster. Public clouds like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) allow organisations the capacity and capability necessary to drive that agility.
Doing more with less puts a great amount of pressure on IT operations. With infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), management is divided into infrastructure management and application management.
IaaS addresses availability, elasticity and efficiency of operations, and cost. Application teams then address the efficiency of application delivery.
Multi-cloud operations
Companies prefer to keep their data within their own data centres. Most adopt a multi-cloud infrastructure to balance privacy and efficiency. Less-sensitive data may be stored in public clouds while sensitive data remains in their private cloud.
The current state of load balancing in the cloud
Advanced load balancing has emerged as an important element of modern operations.
Load balancing has evolved given these three requirements of DevOps. Load balancing historically only handled distributing the traffic amongst servers and, in some cases, SSL offload.
Load balancers are in the middle of an organisation's application traffic. They're placed in a critical position to see a tremendous amount of information about the flowing traffic.
Advanced load balancing provides more value and efficiency to the operations team. This is especially true with micro-services architecture and the deployment of data centre containers or Kubernetes environments.
5 benefits of advanced load balancers for the cloud
The advantages of advanced load balancing can be condensed into five main categories. Let's take a closer look at each benefit and why advanced load balancing plays an important role in promoting team agility, improving security, streamlining workflows and using new technologies.
Increased visibility, insights and analytics
Increased visibility, insights and analytics allow organisations to accomplish several goals, spanning from basic to cutting-edge.
- Improve network traffic monitoring by including application traffic with traditional infrastructure monitoring. Organisations can learn what traffic is coming and how efficiently it is being served.
- Detailed reports and health statistics, and thus better understand how their infrastructure is performing.
- Operations teams can complete the troubleshooting process more efficiently.
- Analytics and insights become proactive rather than reactive. A company might notice a latency issue and work to fix it before users start sending in support tickets.
- Use the insights to perform actions automatically. Automatically adjust the infrastructure due to a change in application traffic, or block a user identified as an attacker.
Integrated security
Load balancers are placed directly into the flow of all network traffic. That placement presents an ideal opportunity to understand the behaviour and differentiate between good and bad traffic.
Load balancers can automatically detect anomalies and, as a result, stop malicious traffic.
Infrastructure security is the responsibility of public cloud providers like AWS and Azure. Application-level security is still the responsibility of application owners as per Shared Security Responsibility. It is essential organisations understand the importance of full stack security and look for load balancers with integrated security.
Security products have traditionally been overly complicated and difficult to configure. Modern security products make it easy for operations teams to quickly configure and use critical functions. Advanced load balancers capable of integrating with advanced security products can increase efficiency and strengthen defences.
Centralised management
Centralised management eliminates the need to log in to individual load balancers. There you can see the entire application stack within a single pane of glass.
Public clouds allow the application stack to run across multiple regions. Centralised management allows application traffic to be managed across all regions within a single console. This provides both efficiency and easy manageability.
Advanced load balancers integrate with centralised management. Central management of policies is even more valuable when load balancers are deployed across multiple clouds.
This power adds centralised visibility and analytics of the environment. The centralised analytics corelates data coming from various sites. This facilitates actionable insights across the entire environment.
Observations from one site, especially related to cybersecurity attacks, can be used for proactive actions on other sites. For example, a cyber attacker is identified at one site they can be blocked at all sites from a central console.
Automation and multi-cloud integration
More than 70% of organisations have a multi-cloud environment. Any technology they adopt today must integrate across the entire environment. This includes public clouds, private clouds, data centres, and bare-metal servers. This requirement applies to choosing a load balancer.
It's important that load balancers have APIs for integration. Many enterprises have already implemented continuous integration/continuous delivery pipelines. Load balancers need to integrate with DevOps toolchain and infrastructure platforms.
Full integration is achieved only when API calls are possible in all directions. DevOps tools can call the load balancer API. Load balancer can call the external API in case of an alert or event.
Containers and container-orchestration integration
The industry is adopting containers and container orchestration systems. According to a recent survey by 451 Research, 71% of enterprises are either using or evaluating options like Kubernetes and Docker.
Applications are moving from monolithic to a microservice architecture. Deployments are migrating from traditional hardware servers with virtual machines running on the cloud, to containers running on multiple environments.
Kubernetes and Docker have been adopted by many of the industry's top players, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, VMware, RedHat, IBM and more. Docker and Kubernetes have as a result become de-facto standards.
Data centre criteria should include integration with container technologies. It must automatically scale containerised applications as needed while simultaneously maintaining complete visibility. This eliminates the need to manually configure policies or manage scaling.
Given the significant benefits of cloud load balancing, it's easy to see why organisations are turning to new and advanced load balancing solutions.
Load balancing is evolving to combat the evolving threat in cybersecurity and businesses have taken notice.


text:
Duke went down the first day, losing to nearly unknown Mercer.
Syracuse was bounced out on Saturday by Dayton — a team that hadn't gone very far in 30 years.
Kansas — the school where the first basketball coach was the game's inventor, James Naismith — lost to Stanford on Sunday.
Wichita State, one of the four regional No. 1 seeds and the only team that was undefeated this season, is undefeated no more. The Shockers were sent home Sunday by Kentucky.
Creighton, whose star — Doug McDermott — is arguably the best player in college basketball, is out after losing to lower-ranked Baylor.
As NPR's Tom Goldman said on Morning Edition, a "wide open tournament" is proving once again that madness really does descend in March when the Division I men's college basketball championship gets going. The upsets so far mean no one's going to win $1 billion from Warren Buffett and Quicken Loans, and that there are no perfect brackets among the millions that fans filled out for Yahoo Sports.
So with the "Sweet 16" now set, it's time for everyone to regroup. Maybe the team you picked to win it all is still in the tournament. Michigan State and defending champions Louisville, for instance, were popular picks before the tournament began and they're still playing. So are three of the regional No. 1 seeds: Florida, Arizona and Virginia. What's more, Kentucky was a preseason favorite of many fans to end up with the trophy, and the Wildcats seem to be playing some of their best basketball right now.
Give us your pick from among the 16 teams that are left. If you want to see the brackets so that you know the matchups for the next round of games, click here. Play resumes on Thursday.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Aldec Launches Free Online UVM TrainingDate: Feb 4, 2013 Type: ReleaseHenderson, NV – February 4, 2013 – Aldec, Inc., today announces the launch of Fast Track™ ONLINE, a convenient, online training portal that is available at no cost to the design verification community. In today's competitive atmosphere, the ability to adopt new technology quickly and reduce design time cycles is critical. As a global industry leader, Aldec is committed to offering educational opportunities and resources to help busy engineers get up to speed quickly. "Engineers from locations around the world, now have access to world-class technical training – at no cost," said Jerry Kaczynski, Aldec Research Engineer and contributor to the Fast Track™ training curriculum. "These private, online trainings will allow the user to go through each module at their own pace, and even go back to review material. Each individual module also offers a quick self-test to ensure the module is grasped before proceeding." The premiere training course for the new program is 'Fast Track™ to UVM ONLINE', taken directly from Aldec's most popular onsite training curriculum: Fast Track™ to UVM ONLINE This course introduces hardware designers familiar with Design Subset of SystemVerilog into the brave, new world of Universal Verification Methodology (UVM). Typical hardware designers may not be responsible for maintaining the complete verification suite of large system-level designs, however they often work with verification engineers while creating these environments. For this reason, 'Fast Track™ to UVM' begins with an introduction, or refresher, of SystemVerilog constructs used in UVM (classes, objects, randomization, coverage, interfaces), provides outline of TLM, discusses general structure of UVM and progresses to more a detailed description of verification components and their usage. Accessibility This convenient, online training portal is available at no cost to all aldec.com registered users. Signing up for an Aldec account is easy and provides one-click access to event registration, support, product downloads, evaluation licenses, recorded webinars, white papers, application notes and other resources. To get started, visit www.aldec.com/en/onlinetraining. About Aldec Aldec Inc., headquartered in Henderson, Nevada, is an industry leader in Electronic Design Verification and offers a patented technology suite including: RTL Design, RTL Simulators, Hardware-Assisted Verification, ASIC Prototyping, Design Rule Checking, IP Cores, DO-254 Functional Verification and Military/Aerospace solutions. www.aldec.com Aldec is a registered trademark of Aldec, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. Media Contact: Christina Toole, Aldec, Inc. +firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Crime and cognitive biases
In 2007/08 the police recorded 1,899 incidents of rape of a child under the age of 13.
That's far higher than I would have expected, the high hundreds at most. At work, I asked around and everyone else was equally shocked. The number is particularly high when you bear in mind that it is recorded crime and, as we are talking about a sexual offence, almost certainly a severe underestimate.
Now, a common theory for why the public see crime as such a serious issue is that they overestimate its prevalence because of sensationalist news reporting. We see the reports and assume they represent a broader pattern, fall victim to the distortions of the availability heuristic.
If an entire office of people with plenty of exposure to the right-wing press could make the opposite error about a crime that is clearly, in a horrible way, sensational doesn't that raise some broader questions about that hypothesis?
7 comments:
- James Schneider said...
That figure is way above what I'd expect. I figured 500, similar to the murder figures. I asked the four nearest people to me in the office and they gave (4373, 1000, 1000, 12) as their figures. Giving an average of 1377.
That stat is giving me much to think about. - 12:56 pm
- RobW said...
You have to differentiate here though. How many of the crimes are committed by a family member? Or at least someone known to the child? I bet it's a lot.
While I bet the sensationalised 'Paedo on every corner' only makes up a small percentage of this. - 12:58 pm
- Matthew Sinclair said...
Yeah, around 500-1000 was my first instinct. 12 would have surprised me less than 1,899. I'm struggling to understand why most of us are lowballing it as well to be honest.
I think you might well be right. These are a lot of low level, horrible stories that people would rather not hear about, rather than the big cases with a clear-cut evil stranger. - 2:18 pm
- Gracchi said...
My first thought was that most of it was statutory rape- but then I saw you were talking about under 13. Just as a question how many 13 year olds having sex with 16 year olds does the figure include- it would be interesting to know.
Having said that it does seem incredibly high. I agree with tbrobb- there are probably more nasty things happening when the doors are closed and the family shut in on itself than we would guess. - 11:19 pm
- Ruthie said...
Now, a common theory for why the public see crime as such a serious issue is that they overestimate its prevalence because of sensationalist news reporting. We see the reports and assume they represent a broader pattern, fall victim to the distortions of the availability heuristic.
This is called "mean-world syndrome" and it's one of the few mass communication theories that I've done primary research on. I don't think it's limited to sensationalist news reporting-- in our study we found that consumption of violent programming of any kind (video games, CSI, the news, you name it) and the propensity of that person to overestimate the actual percentage of victims of violent crime in their city, state, or country were strongly positively correlated.
That said: holy crap on the number of incidents of child rape. I never would have guessed.
This may be one of those crimes that's not reported as often because of the sensitive nature of the crime-- the victim's youth, the family's desire for anonymity.
Interesting post... - 6:17 am
- Dave Cole said...
How many people work in your office? Are they a valid sample?
xD. - 11:51 am
- Matthew Sinclair said...
Probably not, that's why I opened things up to the blog :)
- 1:25 pm


text: Written by Rachael Denhollander, recipient of Sports Illustrated's Inspiration of the Year Award and one of Time's 100 Most Influential People (2018). "Who is going to tell these little girls that what was done to them matters? That they are seen and valued, that they are not alone and they are not unprotected?" Rachael Denhollander's voice was heard around the world when she spoke out to end the most shocking USA gymnastics scandal in history. The first victim to publicly accuse Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics team doctor who sexually abused hundreds of young athletes, Rachael now reveals her full story for the first time. How did Nassar get away with it for so long? How did Rachael and the other survivors finally stop him and bring him to justice? And how can we protect the vulnerable in our own families, churches, and communities? What Is a Girl Worth? is the inspiring true story of Rachael's journey from an idealistic young gymnast to a strong and determined woman who found the courage to raise her voice against evil, even when she thought the world might not listen. In this crucial cultural moment of #MeToo and #ChurchToo, this deeply personal and compelling narrative shines a spotlight on the physical and emotional impact of abuse, why so many survivors are reluctant to speak out, and what it means to be believed.


text:
Extracting Vectors From A Matrix
This page describes Excel worksheet formulas for extracting a vector from a matrix.
There may be circumstances in which you need to extract a vector from a matrix or to convert a matrix to a vector. For our purposes here, we will define a Matrix to be a two dimensional array with at least two rows and at least two columns. We will define a Vector to be a one dimensional array that is either 1 row or 1 column of the Matrix. As an example, we will use the following matrix in the range C10:F12: This matrix is made up of three row vectors each with four elements and four column vectors each with three elements. The entire matrix has the defined name Matrix.
Returning The Matrix To A Column Vector
The first formula we will look at converts the entire matrix to a single column. The order of elements in the resulting column is by row. The values are taken from each row, moving across then down. Enter the following formula into cell C13 and then fill down for 12 rows, or as many cells as are in Matrix. =OFFSET(Matrix,TRUNC((ROW()-ROW($C$13))/COLUMNS(Matrix)),MOD(ROW()-ROW($C$13),COLUMNS(Matrix)),1,1) This will transform the array Matrix to a single column of values. Change the reference to cell $C$13 to the first cell in which you entered the formula.
The next formula is similar to the formula above, except that the elements of Matrix are returned column by column, moving down one column and then across to the right to the next column. Enter the following formula in cell D13 and fill down for 12 rows, or as many cells as are in Matrix. =OFFSET(Matrix,MOD(ROW()-ROW($D$13),ROWS(Matrix)),TRUNC((ROW()-ROW($D$13))/ROWS(Matrix)),1,1) An abbreviated sample of the column vectors returned from Matrix is shown below:
Returning The Matrix To A Row Vector
You can also use a formula to convert the Matrix to a Row vector. The following formula will transform Matrix into a single row, moving by rows -- left to right on one row and then moving down to the next row. Enter this formula into cell G16 and fill across to the right 12 columns, or as many columns as there are cells in Matrix. =OFFSET(Matrix,TRUNC((COLUMN()-COLUMN($G$16))/COLUMNS(Matrix)),MOD((COLUMN()-COLUMN($G$16)),COLUMNS(Matrix)),1,1) Change the reference to $G$16 to the first cell in which you enter the formula.
A similar formula can be used to transform Matrix into a row, ordered by columns. The order of the elements is down one column and then moving to the right to the next column. Enter the following formula in cell G17 and fill to the right for as many columns as there are cells in Matrix. =OFFSET(Matrix,MOD((COLUMN()-COLUMN($G$17)),ROWS(Matrix)),TRUNC((COLUMN()-COLUMN($G$17))/(ROWS(Matrix))),1,1) An abbreviated image of the row vectors from Matrix is shown below:
Extracting One Row The Matrix
You can use a formula to return one row from the Matrix. Name a cell WhatRow and array-enter the following formula into as many columns as there are in Matrix. Note that since this is an array formula that returns an array of values, you must select the cells in which the results are to be returned, type the formula, and then press CTRL SHIFT ENTER rather than just ENTER. If you do this properly, Excel will display the formula in the Formula Bar enclosed in curly braces { }. See the Array Formulas Page for more information about array formulas. =OFFSET(Matrix,WhatRow-1,0,1,COLUMNS(Matrix)) Change the value of the WhatRow cell to indicate which row to return from Matrix. This value should be 1-based: 1 is the first row, 2 is the second row, and so on.
Extracting One Column Of The Matrix
A similar formula can be used to return one column of Matrix. Name a cell WhatColumn, and then array-enter the following formula into a range of cells with as many rows as there are in Matrix. =OFFSET(Matrix,0,WhatColumn-1,ROWS(Matrix),1) You can change the value of the cell WhatColumn to return a specified column of Matrix. This is a 1-based value -- 1 is the first (left-most) column, 2 is the second column, and so on.
Dynamic Charting
You can use the vector formulas to create a dynamic chart that updates its values based on a choice of a row in a matrix of raw data. For example, suppose in cells B6:B9 you have persons' names. Assign the name People to this range. Then, in cells C6:H9, enter some numbers. Assign the name AllScores to this range. Then name a cell Person and add a list-type validation to this cell using the range People as the list source. Next, name the range B16:G16 PersonScores, and in that range array-enter the formula: =OFFSET(AllScores,MATCH(Person,People,0)-1,0,COLUMNS(AllScores)) Finally, create a chart that pulls its data from the range AllScores. Now, as you change the person name in the cell Person, the chart will automatically update the values to that person's score. A complete example of dynamic charting is shown in the downloadable workbook.
Vector To Matrix
For formulas that do the reverse of the formula on this page, specifically change a single row or column to a matrix, see Vector To Matrix page.
Created By Chip Pearson at Pearson Software Consulting
This Page: www.cpearson.com/Excel/MatrixToVector.aspx Last Updated: 06-May-2018 Copyright 1997 - 2014, Charles H. Pearson Site Last Updated: 30-Jun-2024
Email: email@example.com Please read this page before emailing me. Phone: (816) 325-9822 USA Central Time (-6:00 UTC) Between 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM
Essential Tools For Developers
The world's choice for creating NET-based Commercial Quality Add-Ins for Office Add-In Express Is The Most Important Tool For Creating Commerical Level Components
Learn more about Excel and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications).


text:
In Part 1 of this series I discussed those unpublished tree sketches housed at The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. In particular, I noted that there is only one empirical phylogenetic tree in that collection. This post updates the information to include the other empirical trees that I know of. Part 3 discusses another possible tree, in one of Darwin's books.
Note: Several months after this blog post was written the following paper was published: Archibald JD (2012) Darwin's two competing phylogenetic trees: marsupials as ancestors or sister taxa? Archives of Natural History 39: 217-233. This paper reproduces both manuscript diagrams and discusses them in detail. The post has been updated accordingly.
Unpublished sketches
In a letter to Charles Lyell written on September 23 1860, Darwin argued for the origin of mammals from a single ancestor, and illustrated this with two alternative scenarios. The letter is housed in the library of the American Philosophical Society (APS 227; see An Annotated Calendar of the Letters of Charles Darwin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society 1799-1882, p. 147), but only one of the trees has been placed online.
The first Diagram posits separate monophyletic origins of Placentals and Marsupials from a non-placental non-marsupial ancestor, whereas the second one derives Placentals from with the early Marsupial group.
This letter has been published in both (i) The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol. II (1887) edited by Francis Darwin (London: John Murray), pages 341-344, and in (ii) The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Volume 8: 1860 (1993) edited by Frederick Burkhardt, Janet Browne, Duncan M. Porter & Marsha Richmond (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), as Letter #2925. Neither of these reproduces the original diagrams, but instead adopts the "practice to replace any handwritten annotations to the image with typeset text."
I have included here the typeset version from Life and Letters. Note that it incorrectly replaces Darwin's original "Carnivora" with "Canidae" (Correspondence gets it right), and resolves Darwin's polychotomy.
The relevant text from the letter is (including odd spellings and grammar):
I enclose two diaggrams showing the sort of manner I conjecture mammals have been developed: I thought a little on this when writing p. 429 [of The Origin] beginning "Mr. Waterhouse".— (Please read the paragraph.) I have not knowledge enough to choose between these two diagrams; if the Brain of Marsupials in embryo closely resembles that of placentals, I shd. strongly prefer nor. 2, & this agree with antiquity of microlestes. As a general rule I shd prefer nor. I diagram. whether or not Marsupials have gone on being developed or rising in rank from a very early period would depend on circumstances too complex for even a conjecture: Lingula has not risen since Silurian epoch, whereas other Molluscs may have risen.
The text accompanying the illustrations is:
A. Unknown form, probably intermediate between
As noted by Archibald (2012), this letter clearly shows Darwin's understanding of homology and how it relates to monophyletic groups. Given that it was written within a year of publishing the Origin, it is his earliest use of an empirical phylogeny, as well as the only time he compared two trees for the same taxa.
These days, the consensus is that Diagram I is the correct one.


text:
Our Supreme Judicial Court has recognized that the legislature could not have intended to make it a crime to drive after unknowingly being "slipped" drugs or alcohol. Where intoxication is an element of a crime, as it is in operating under the influence (OUI / DUI) cases, the government has the burden of proving voluntary intoxication, even where the degree of the intoxication isn't enough to create a basis for inferring lack of criminal responsibility. As such, Massachusetts defendants in operating under the influence cases can, but rarely do, raise "involuntary intoxication" as a defense. One example of involuntary intoxication would be a situation in which a defendant was compelled against his or her will to ingest alcohol or drugs. Another example would be a situation in which a defendant took prescription medication as instructed but, nevertheless, ended up suffering intoxicating effects.
As a Massachusetts OUI defense attorney, I find the concept of involuntary intoxication interesting in the context of those who suffer from alcoholism. In other words, should alcoholism be a defense or an affirmative defense to drunk-driving charges because the disease renders alcohol consumption involuntary?
Steven S. Nemerson's Cardozo Law Review article Alcoholism, Intoxication, and the Criminal Law raises several points worth considering. Nemerson asserts, and few would dispute, that alcoholism is a disease. The disease causes those afflicted to lose control when it comes to alcohol consumption. Because alcoholics suffer from an inability to abstain from drinking, drinking is not a voluntary action for those affected by the disease. Still, Nemerson concludes that protecting the safety of innocent persons, even from the morally blameless, is more important and desirable than protecting the rights of those who involuntarily commit crimes. He does, however, think that alcoholism should be an available affirmative defense.
Here in Massachusetts, the standard for lack of criminal responsibility due to a mental disease or defect is set forth in a case named Commonwealth v. McHoul. Our courts hold that neither alcoholism nor drug addiction count as a "disease of defect" which, alone, could trigger McHoul. However, the SJC has said that the government, in the context of OUI cases, has to prove both intoxication and that the intoxication was voluntary, regardless of whether there is a triggering basis for McHoul. This is because proof of intoxication is an express element in drunk-driving cases. Thus, even if alcoholism is not a "disease" for McHoul purposes, it could, presumably, still be something for a jury to consider in assessing whether the government has met its burden of proving that intoxication was voluntary. Such a defense strategy would, still, be very risky, since many might not consider an alcoholic's consumption of alcohol "involuntary" within the usual sense of the word.


text:
In Togo, journalists are skeptical but see opportunity in the regime's bid to By Adam Posluns with reporting by Alexis Arieff |
With 37 years in power, Togolese President Gnassingbé Eyadéma is Africa's longest-serving head of state. Even after the country introduced multiparty elections more than a decade ago, Eyadéma and his ruling party, Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT), managed to dominate politics and muzzle opposition voices in this West African nation. The RPT's ironfisted tactics and numerous human rights abuses led the European Union (EU) to suspend cooperation with Togo in 1993. |
But in Brussels in April 2004, the Eyadéma regime surprised the international community by pledging 22 democratization reforms in a bid to get EU economic sanctions lifted. The government promised this broad array of political, press, and electoral reforms in exchange for lucrative EU aid that, even in its initial phase, would be worth tens of millions of euros.
The European Commission (EC) launched a two-year evaluation period this summer while the government took steps to improve press freedom. In August, the Togolese Parliament unanimously passed amendments to its harsh Press Code, removing criminal penalties for some press offenses.
Togolese journalists say the Brussels commitments mark a tremendous opportunity, but many remain deeply skeptical given Eyadéma's record. He broke his pledge not to run again for office last year, winning the June 2003 election amid fraud allegations. Also in 2003, CPJ named Togo one of the world's 10 worst places to be a journalist.
Press advocates have urged the EC to stay in close contact with local journalists during the evaluation period, and to hold Togo's leaders accountable. "It's a question of lobbying, because the government is extremely sensitive," says Daniel Lawson-Drackey, former secretary-general of the Independent Journalists Union of Togo. "For the government, the most important thing is to restart international cooperation. Now, the changes to the Press Code must be applied to the letter."
Human rights organizations have cited Togo's 2000 Press Code as one of the worst in Africa. It imposed prison sentences of up to five years for "insulting the head of state" and as much as three years for "defaming" the courts or the armed forces. In the past, officials used the code to harass and jail journalists, and to seize thousands of copies of private publications. In the run-up to the 2003 elections, the Eyadéma regime shuttered media outlets, blocked news Web sites, and jammed the frequency of Radio France Internationale.
The reforms passed in August would impose stiff fines rather than imprisonment for publishing what is deemed false or defamatory–including defamation of public figures and institutions. The changes would also ban the Interior Ministry from seizing and closing newspapers without judicial oversight, although a judge could still order copies of a publication destroyed.
Unlike the adoption of the 2000 Press Code, cooperation between the government and the media has marked the new reforms. The amendments followed the recommendations of a commission of local journalists and media representatives established by the communications minister. Some local journalists say that coverage of political events improved after amendments were passed; Web sites that were regularly blocked inside Togo are now accessible.
Still, several press offenses would carry criminal penalties of up to one year in prison, including publishing news deemed to incite crime, theft, destruction of public or private property, or ethnic or racial hatred, and "crimes against the internal or external security of the state." And beyond the letter of the law, press advocates say, the long-term prognosis depends heavily on the government's behavior. Eyadéma's record offers reason for doubt.
The early 1990s were promising times for Togolese journalists. After more than 20 years, the Eyadéma regime finally began licensing private media and allowing multiparty democracy. Within a few years, new political parties emerged, and dozens of new publications launched. Some were pro-RPT, but many more criticized the country's leadership.
That did not sit well with a regime unaccustomed to opposition. "The government came to power without a [private] press," says Pedro Amuzun, publisher of the private weekly Crocodile. "So when the press emerged, they felt threatened, and they systematically barred the way. These were people who really did not like criticism."
Lawson-Drackey, who is also a journalist with the private radio station Nana FM, says the government did not understand the role of a free press. "They called our criticism 'insults,'" he explains. "But they don't understand that the role of the press is to criticize." Soon enough, journalists faced reprisals: The RPT fought criticism with harassment, lawsuits, and attacks on newsrooms, while the government passed the punitive 2000 Press Code.
Matters worsened for the press during the 2002 parliamentary elections. Because Eyadéma and the RPT tightly control the state media, the political opposition had to rely on the private press as its primary outlet. Unwilling to brook often strident criticism in private newspapers, the government augmented the Press Code's already harsh penalties in the run-up to the poll.
The government has long been acutely sensitive to newspaper coverage, even though Togo's literacy rate is only 60 percent. Analysts point out that the Eyadéma regime is fiercely intent on projecting to the world a positive image, much of which emerges from newspapers.
"The international community suspended cooperation, and there is no money," says Pierre Sabi, publisher of the private La Matinée and an RPT supporter. "So the government's priority is to get this cooperation back. … That is why they are so concerned with what the newspapers say."
Until recently, that meant retaliation against reporters and editors who dared to tarnish the country's international image. But the government seems to have shifted its strategy, loosening its hold on the domestic press to persuade EU leaders to loosen their purse strings. Whereas the RPT resorted to repressive tactics to curb negative press in the past, no journalist has been imprisoned and no newspapers seized in the last year.
"We don't intend to imprison journalists," Communications Minister Pitang Tchalla says. "The proof is that there are none in prison today. We wanted journalists to know that we had reached a redline, and I think that [the Press Code] had its intended effect."
Five of the 22 pledges the government made in Brussels relate to improving freedom of expression and information, including making the Press Code consistent with international standards; ensuring the political independence of the country's media regulatory agency, the HAAC; and guaranteeing all political parties equitable access to public media.
In August, the European Commission, which had sent a mission to Togo's capital, Lomé, in June to evaluate the reforms, laid out a "road map" of steps the Togolese government needs to take, says Antonio Logreco, a member of the EC delegation. Scheduling multiparty elections by the end of 2004, for example, triggers 40 million euros (US$49 million) in EU aid for further democratic reforms. As much as 100 million euros (US$123 million) could be made available over five years if Togo fully meets EC criteria, he says.
Local journalists, while welcoming the changes, see many potential pitfalls. Provisions describing criminal press offenses remain vague and could be used to crack down on antigovernment opinions. And the fines assigned to the newly decriminalized offenses, which range up to 5 million CFA francs (about US$9,300), are exorbitant and could spell bankruptcy if applied to local publications.
Press advocates also note that the government has long used a variety of "soft" tactics to control the media. Low salaries for journalists and low revenue from private advertising leave reporters and media owners vulnerable to bribes from government officials and politicians; chronic financial problems have also fostered what is known locally as the "combat press," publications that are financed to attack political enemies. "Newspapers lack funds, and authorities buy off the press by giving them money," Lawson-Drackey says. "Almost all of Lomé's newspapers are vulnerable."
Such problems, local journalists say, will be solved only when authorities reduce financial burdens on the press by lowering taxes on such items as paper and phone services; fostering a climate in which businesses are not afraid to advertise in critical newspapers; and providing support for journalist training.
Dress Code improvements will not guarantee greater liberty if authorities circumvent the code, as they have in the past. In 2003, officials imprisoned three journalists for a month for "attempting to publish false information" when the journalists were found with photos of alleged election disturbances. The Press Code does not contain that charge. One of the journalists was fined 500,000 CFA francs (US$865). Two were tortured, CPJ sources say.
And while the government has promised political parties equitable access to the state media–the only media with a nationwide reach–there is reason to be wary of this guarantee as well. Before the 2003 presidential elections, the RPT promised to open the state media to opposition parties. But the promises came with a hitch: The HAAC required all political messages to be vetted before being aired on the state broadcasters or appearing in Togo Presse, the state newspaper and Togo's only daily. Opposition candidates complained that their messages were censored.
Local journalists say the international community will be instrumental in keeping the government on the path to reform. The EU, they argue, must communicate with independent journalists throughout the reform process.
"To legislate these reforms is not yet to practice them," warns Franck Assah, a reporter for Crocodile and Togo correspondent for the Panafrican News Agency. "I'm an optimist, but I still have many doubts."
John Zodzi, a Togolese journalist and local correspondent for Reuters, says that in the past "whenever a newspaper was seized, the international community didn't intervene." Now, he says, "the European Union is a guarantor–it's up to the EU to intervene."
Adam Posluns, former Africa researcher for CPJ, conducted a mission to Togo in 2003. Alexis Arieff is CPJ's Africa program researcher.


text:
Housing continues to be a big issue for the economy, and for many voters. But so far it hasn't been a major issue in the presidential campaign. Perhaps that's because both sides agree that there's no easy fix for the problem of millions of troubled mortgages.
The Problem:
Cathy Busby and her husband co-owned a realty office in Denver when they bought their house in 2006. The next year, the market for houses dried up, leaving them with little income as their house lost value.
Now, she says, she considers herself "poverty level."
The presidential debates come to Busby's hometown Wednesday. And she says she's just one of many voters in swing states who want better housing solutions out of Washington. She says her lender offered three separate loan modifications, only to rescind each one, even though she says she signed and paid everything required.
Busby says she and her husband also spent countless hours trying to help some 50 other Denver families negotiate with banks to get their mortgages modified. Not one of those attempts was successful.
"I'll tell you what I learned," she says. "It doesn't make any difference what you do. These banks never had any intentions of really modifying loans."
Now, some banks did modify loans and can prove it, but lots of people share Busby's view that as an industry, there wasn't much of an effort.
Obama's Approach:
The Obama administration has tried — through a variety of programs — to encourage the modification of loans, offering banks both incentives and penalties.
In the past year, the administration has pushed for more loan forgiveness. It's backing a bill in Congress that would reduce fees for refinancing.
Speaking in February in Virginia — another swing state — President Obama unveiled a refinancing program for those who are underwater but still current on payments.
"Too many families haven't been able to take advantage of the low rates, because falling prices lock them out of the market," he said.
Michael Barr, a University of Michigan law professor, former Treasury official and surrogate for the Obama campaign, says that since the president took office, 16 million homeowners have refinanced, and 5 million more have modified their loans, through either a government or bank program. In a second term, Barr says, the president would both fine-tune existing programs and ensure that the new Dodd-Frank financial regulations create a strong safeguard for future homeowners.
"There is no silver bullet," he says. "There are lots of things that need to get done. Each homeowner's circumstance is somewhat different. And trying to figure out how to get them help is, I think, a more complicated and difficult task than would be reflected in a bullet point or a sound bite."
Romney's Approach:
Late last fall, in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney seemed to dismiss the government's efforts to modify loans.
"Don't try and stop the foreclosure process, let it run its course and hit the bottom, allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up," he said.
Former Republican Rep. Rick Lazio of New York, a spokesman on housing for the Romney campaign, says Romney would not abandon modification or refinancing programs. But he would focus more on rolling back new financial regulations, as well as on winding down mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — a process the Obama administration has already begun.
"In our view, President Obama's response to the mortgage crisis has been slow, confused and largely ineffective," Lazio says.
Lazio says Romney's fix for housing goes beyond specific policy prescriptions.
"Jobs and the economic picture is overwhelmingly the most important part of the solution," he says.
The Reality:
Urban Institute President Sarah Rosen Wartell says so far, the campaigns have a lot more in common than their rhetoric suggests.
"Many of the most interesting questions are places where neither candidate has laid out their direction," she says. Questions about government's role in the housing sector — from regulating access to credit, for example, to whether to eliminate the popular but expensive mortgage interest deduction.
Questions that may not affect the immediate term, but could affect how the housing sector will function for years to come.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for" the saying goes. But suppose the proverbial harbor is Los Angeles — a place not particularly known for being the origin of adventures. From the Spanish Conquistadors to the countless starry-eyed nobodies hoping to make it big, LA is usually the destination.
So it's no wonder the Allah Las became fascinated with both the carefree spirit and glitter-in-the-gutter lifestyle of their hometown. After three records mining its lore and lure (from the desert to the sea) they have become global ambassadors of not just a place but a location.
Having taken their compact California on the road across the world (making stops in North, Central, and South America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, Russia, East Asia and beyond), they couldn't help but peek through the other end of the telescope.
On their fourth LP, drummer Matt Correia, bassist Spencer Dunham, and guitarists Miles Michaud and Pedrum Siadatian turn their collective gaze outward and toward the horizon. Simply titled LAHS (a reference to a common misspelling of the band's name), their forthcoming release on Mexican Summer finds the band turning in their most cohesive and ambitious work yet.
The Allah Las seem to be transmitting from a place not found on any map. Those familiar with the band's work will recognize their skillful melding of melodies and moods, but through that lens we see them venturing into new, exciting territories. Indeed, their growth not just as songwriters, but as performers, arrangers, and producers — is clearly audible.
Correia croons in Portuguese on "Prazer Em Te Conhecer" (Nice to Meet You), which evokes George Harrison while also sounding like a rare 45 from a Brazilian flea market. The breezy sweetness of "Pleasure" could pass for a song by Spanish folk darlings Picnic, were it not for the wistful wisdom in Dunham's delivery. "Polar Onion" takes us through the inevitable lows one encounters on a long journey, as Michaud laments "drown in the sea, I fill my cup - but it's not enough"- a caricature of the lonesome cowboy seeking and occasionally glimpsing enlightenment.
One of the most notable evolutions from their previous work is a razor-sharp focus on the groove. We hear the rhythms of Krautrock influencing songs like "Houston" and "Electricity," with steady and precise drumming that create complexity from repetition. Whilst both "Roco Ono" and "Star" incorporate elements of disco and soul into Allah Las universe, highlighting an airtight rhythm section unafraid to tap their toes.
Opener "Holding Pattern" conveys what the title suggests; you've almost arrived, you can see the ground, but you're not quite there yet. Airy, ethereal harmonies chant the title, holding you in suspense- and eventually give way to an entirely different mood just before the fade- as if telling the listener "we've landed safely." The persistent shuffle of "In The Air" drives the song forward, while Siadatian's echo slapped voice bounces along on top, describing "images that can't compare to the real thing in the air." Electric guitar and mellotron trade licks, mirror each other's kinetic ascending and descending lines and calling to mind the playful jubilance of Kevin Ayers in his prime.
"We've been traveling a lot the past couple years and I think that played a role in influencing the broader variety of songs on this record" Correia explains. And this is precisely what sets LAHS apart from its predecessors -- a record inspired less by time, but by place. "LAHS to me feels like a soundtrack to the past 5 years or so. A sort of audio postcard to anyone who wants to listen." This sentiment is echoed in the album's artwork — a collection of exotic postcards, postmarked from equally exotic locals (designed by Matt Correia & Robbie Simon).
Tracking was done mostly by the band at their own studio in Los Angeles, allowing them more time and space to experiment with tunes and tones. Producer/Engineer Jarvis Taveniere (Woods) was brought in to help polish it off, resulting in a sound both crisp and clear while keeping with the warmth and atmosphere the band are known for.
The Allah Las have left the harbor. The infectious wanderlust that fuels these thirteen songs continues to propel the group forward across new frontiers, as they collect and catalog all they find and return with plenty of inspiration in tow. With LAHS we not only discover what souvenirs they've brought back for us; they're inviting us aboard and taking us along for the ride.
~Frank Maston, June 2019
Available on indies-only orange vinyl and:
Dinked Edition
- Exclusive opaque mint green vinyl
- 'LAHS' perforated 6 x postcard set
- Hand numbered LP
- Limited to 400
- Download card


text:
By Matthew Renda, Courthouse News Service
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (CN) – The chief of the Santa Cruz, California, police department on Thursday denounced what he said was the Department of Homeland Security using a criminal roundup of dangerous gang members as cover for a widespread immigration raid.
Police Chief Keith Vogel and Assistant Chief Dan Flippo said Homeland Security lied to the police department by claiming the raid conducted Feb. 13 would be strictly related to the apprehension of members of a gang suspected of assorted criminal activity in the Santa Cruz area.
"This has violated the trust of our community and we cannot tell you how disappointed we are by the betrayal of the DHS," Vogel said during a press conference.
Vogel and Flippo both said they were clear and repeatedly underscored the department's participation was contingent on the operation being oriented exclusively to gang activity and not to the immigration status of the community's citizens.
James Schawb, a spokesman for the San Francisco field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, strongly denied participating in any raids other than those agreed to beforehand. He characterized Vogel's comments as "reckless and disturbing."
The police department and ICE arrested 10 members of an MS-13, a gang that originated in Los Angeles and is mostly comprised of Central Americans predominantly from El Salvador.
The gang began operating in Santa Cruz, selling narcotics and engaging in extortion rackets, in about 2013, Flippo said. Gang members are also suspected of carrying out two unsolved homicides in the area.
Seven of the accused gang members received federal indictments on extortion charges, while the other three were arrested on drug charges.
During a Santa Cruz City Council meeting held the day after the raid, several members of the Santa Cruz community – many from the Hispanic neighborhoods of Beach Flats, Live Oak and Lower Ocean – said their neighborhoods were subjected to more widespread immigration raids.
Acting on the assertions of the community members who flooded the council chambers, Flippo began making calls to Homeland Security to "ascertain if the information we were hearing from our community was in fact accurate," he said.
Flippo corroborated the assertions of the community, and "the Department of Homeland Security, unbeknownst to us at the SCPD, had acted outside the scope of this operation and had detained and removed a number of individuals from various locations based on solely on their immigration status," Vogel said.
The chief said the severing of trust means the department will no longer work with Homeland Security or ICE, its subsidiary agency.
But Schwab said the police department was clear before the event that some individuals may be held while their individual case histories are determined. He said that while 11 people were detained, 10 of them have been released and the last is being investigated on suspicion of gang affiliation.
Santa Cruz is a sanctuary city, and communities in California continue to feel unease due to President Donald Trump's promises to round up undocumented immigrants and deport them.
Trump has also threatened to withhold federal dollars from sanctuary cities, counties and states, including Santa Cruz.
But federal officials say this raid was planned before Trump's inauguration and had nothing to do with his policies.
Ryan L. Spradlin, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in San Francisco, told the Associated Press that "it's unfortunate when politics get intertwined with a well planned and executed public safety operation."
To Learn More:
Programs to Help Undocumented Immigrants Obtain Drivers Licenses Could Aid Trump Deportation Efforts (by Patrick G. Lee, ProPublica)
Big Business Warns Trump of Damage to Economy from Mass Deportations (by Steve Peoples, Associated Press)
California Lawmakers to Enact Sweeping Laws to Resist Trump's Mass Immigrant Deportation Threats (by Jennifer Medina, New York Times)
Mass Deportations Damage U.S. Housing Market by Exacerbating Foreclosures (by Emily Badger, New York Times)
Immigration Agents Stalk Court Houses to Arrest People When They Pay Traffic Tickets or Get Married (by Noel Brinkerhoff and Danny Biederman, AllGov California)


text:
If you are purchasing for a company, you may want to consider the Enterprise Edition. The Enterprise Edition license enables Access Control and Multi-User Tagging (see Feature List).
The XYplorer Lifetime License Mini Site Professional is US$ 995 and is valid for up to 50 concurrent users. As a bonus, it includes free upgrades forever. The latter is the only difference from the Standard License Mini Site Professional (US$ 495), which includes one year of free upgrades.
XYPLORER LICENSE AGREEMENT: TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE ------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLATION OR USE OF THE ENCLOSED SOFTWARE INDICATES YOUR ASSENT TO THE FOLLOWING LICENSE AGREEMENT. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. This Software (XYplorer) is not freeware. You may evaluate the unregistered trial version for free for a maximum period of 30 days. If you wish to continue using it after 30 days, you have to register and purchase a license. Unregistered use of this Software after the 30-day evaluation period is in violation of international copyright laws. NO REFUNDS POST PURCHASE. After a cleared payment on the purchase of a license, you will receive an email with your personal license key required to unlock XYplorer. Once this information is emailed to you, no refund will be given. This policy is in place since it would be impossible for you to return your registered version of XYplorer. LICENSE GRANT. As an individual person, you need one license to use XYplorer. This license grants you a non-exclusive and non-transferable right to use XYplorer on any number and kind of devices. As an employer, you need a license for each employee using XYplorer. Floating or concurrent license usage is expressly prohibited (except with Site Licenses, see below). There are two types of licenses: (1) The "Lifetime License" entitles one person to use the full version of XYplorer on any number of devices for an unlimited time. The license includes free upgrades forever. (2) The "Standard License" entitles one person to use the full version of XYplorer on any number of devices for an unlimited time. The license includes free upgrades for one year. SITE LICENSES. XYplorer Site Licenses are in fact floating licenses. For example, a "Mini Site License" (up to 50 users) allows for a maximum of 50 concurrent users. DISTRIBUTION. You are granted a free non-exclusive and non-transferable right to distribute the enclosed Software (XYplorer), and any associated documentation, provided any copy contains all of the original proprietary notices. RESTRICTIONS. Except as otherwise expressly permitted in this Agreement, you are not allowed to: (a) modify or create any derivative works of the Software; (b) reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the Software except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation; (c) manipulate or alter the components that make up this Software in any way; (d) sell, rent, lease, sublicense, or otherwise transfer rights to the Software. OWNERSHIP. This Software is licensed and not sold. This Software and its source code are proprietary products of Donald Lessau and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You acquire only the right to use the Software and do not acquire any rights, express or implied, in the Software other than those specified in this Agreement. Donald Lessau shall at all times retain all rights, title, interest, including intellectual property rights, in the Software. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE WARRANTIES THAT IT IS FREE OF DEFECTS, MERCHANTABLE, FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGING. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR, COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY REDISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF DATA, DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, BUSINESS INTERRUPTIONS, LOSS SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES, OR A FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE) EVEN IF THE AUTHOR, COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. TERMINATION. VIOLATION OR NON-ACCEPTANCE OF ANY OF THE ABOVE LICENSE CONDITIONS IMMEDIATELY AND UNCONDITIONALLY TERMINATES YOUR LICENSE.


text:
Niagara Skylights
Rob Booth
Niagara Skylights President
Niagara Skylights Upcoming Events
We like to get out and about from time to time. Find out where we'll be demonstrating Solatube products or attending trade shows below. We hope to see you there!
Find out what it's really like to own a Solatube daylighting or attic ventilation system. Just read the customer comments below. Then, if you're ready to learn more, contact us to schedule a free in-home consultation. There's absolutely no obligation, and our professional Certified Installation Consultants arrive when it's convenient for you.
Solatube Smart LED System
We recently had a Solatube light installed. We were very pleased with the installer's professionalism, demeanor and lighting expertise. He did a great job and was concerned about leaving no traces of work behind. We love our Solatube.
Thanks for the great service,
Aynn and Dave O.
Solatube 160 DS Daylighting System
We couldn't be happier with our new lighting. The men we dealt with were kind and honest. Our installer was very capable and quick. I was surprised that he cleaned up, too!
Rebecca B.
Roof Mount 2400 Solar Attic Fan
Thank you so much for making my Solar Attic Fan experience such a nice one. I wasn't sure I should get it without talking to friends about it first, but it's doing the job just as I thought it would and just as you both explained it to me!!! I'm loving it and know "I did good" by getting it.
Today is a very hot muggy day, but it is actually nicer in my home than outside thanks in part to the Solar Attic Fan. Usually by 3:00 until midnight or so my house is warmer and stuffier than outside. It used to take so long to cool down inside my house. Now it's not only better than it used to be but better than it is outside! I'm really happy about it. I notice I'm using my ceiling fans less and closing my front door earlier!
The installer was so nice, helpful and even really fun to speak with on the phone, and then he showed me the product and re-explained everything and was so nice and easy to have at my home. It's just really nice to work with such good people and such a good product. It made my decision easy. Installation was fast and easy and now I'm happy with my decision. How great is this!
So, I just wanted to give you a big thank you...THANK YOU! I will recommend you and the Solar Attic Fan.
Marilyn T.
Roof Mount 1500 Solar Attic Fan
I was going to buy an air conditioner. I am so happy I didn't waste my money. My house is about 10 degrees cooler and it has cleared up my moisture problem in the winter time. The best part about my solar-powered attic fan is that it runs by the sun, so I pay no money to keep my house cool. Finally, they came out and were professional and did quality work.
Dorthy M.
Interior Mount 1500 Solar Attic Fan
I just want to tell you how very pleased I am with my new solar attic fan. It does seem unbelievable, but I have been sleeping so much better since it was installed. I have had a sleeping problem for quite some time and I cannot tell you how thrilled and surprised I am about the extra sleep I am getting.
My neighbor and I would go to each other's house and hers was always much cooler than mine. We have identical houses and could not understand why the difference in temperature. When she had her Solatube installed the day that I had my solar attic fan installed we found out the answer. The installer informed her that she already had an attic fan.
So I just want to thank you so much for the extra benefit that I am getting from the new attic fan.
Thank you so very much!!!!
Marcia H.


text:
Breakfast Protein Parfait
Here's a great recipe to make the night before for an easy grab-n-go breakfast straight out of the fridge. It's packed with protein, vitamins and minerals for sustained energy all morning long. And it tastes great too.
Servings: 1
Here's what you need…
- 1/4 cup Greek Yogurt, plain, fat free
- 1/4 cup low fat cottage cheese
- 1 scoop high quality strawberry or vanilla protein powder
- 1/4 cup fresh berries
- 1 Tablespoon pecan pieces, toasted
- In a small bowl use a whisk to combine the yogurt, cottage cheese and protein powder. Mix until well incorporated.
- Place half of the yogurt mixture into a clear cup, top with the berries and then the remaining yogurt mixture. Top with pecans.
Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 260 calories, 6g fat, 307mg sodium, 11g carbohydrate, 4g fiber, and 38g protein.


text:
Paolo Veronese (Caliari)
The Complete Works
(1528 - April 19, 1588)
Paolo Veronese (Caliari) (1528 - April 19, 1588) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi. He adopted the name Paolo Cagliari or Paolo Caliari, and became known as "Veronese" from his birthplace in Verona. Veronese, Titian, and Tintoretto constitute the triumvirate of pre-eminent Venetian painters of the late Renaissance (1500s).
Veronese is known as a supreme colorist, and for his illusionistic decorations in both fresco and oil. His most famous works are elaborate narrative cycles, executed in a dramatic and colorful Mannerist style, full of majestic architectural settings and glittering pageantry.
His large paintings of biblical feasts executed for the refectories of monasteries in Venice and Verona are especially notable. His brief testimony with the Inquisition is often quoted for its insight into contemporary painting technique.


text:
Presentations by world-renowned scientists and industry leaders are among the activities scheduled as part of the grand opening of the Hess Digital Rock Physics Laboratory at the University of Wyoming Friday, Sept. 20.
The state-of-the-art research facility is located on the third floor of UW's new Energy Innovation Center (EIC). It includes unique imaging instruments capable of mapping pore space and pore fluid occupancy in rock samples, and other porous materials, over a wide range of scales and resolutions, with applications including oil and gas recovery from unconventional and conventional reservoirs.
Among those scheduled to speak at the event, which begins at 7:45 a.m. in the EIC's Encana Auditorium, are UW President Bob Sternberg, UW Vice President for Research and Economic Development Bill Gern, and UW School of Energy Resources Director Mark Northam. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 8:15 a.m., followed by a tour of the lab.
The day's keynote speaker is Greg Hill, Hess Corporation's executive vice president and president of worldwide exploration and production. The UW alumnus, who serves on the UW Foundation Board of Directors and as a member of the Governor's Energy, Engineering, STEM Integration Task Force, will speak at 11:45 a.m. in the EIC's BP Collaboration Center. Hess, a leading global independent energy company primarily engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, donated $4.4 million for the lab's construction.
"We're extremely grateful for all who have contributed to the development of this lab, which is the world's most innovative for advanced reservoir characterization," says Mohammad Piri, UW School of Energy Resources associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, who heads the lab. "We believe this will be a game changer for multidisciplinary flow in porous media research on campus, with implications for the state of Wyoming, the country and the world."
Piri is among those scheduled to give technical presentations during the daylong grand opening. Other researchers who will speak are from the Imperial College of London, the University of Southern California, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in France, Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
For a complete schedule and other information about the grand opening, go online to http://www.uwyo.edu/ser/conferences/upcoming-events/hess-ceremony.html. Seating is extremely limited, and advanced registration is a must.


text: Need a nostalgic women's dress to help your embrace your nostalgic vibrations, while exuding style and grace? Well, you're in the right place! Our Land of Nostalgia Women's Long Sleeve with Gloves Mini Bodycon Zebra Print Dress is made from polyester and spandex, has a print pattern type and zipper closure. Whether you're preparing for a night on the town or just want to feel a sense of euphoria, this dress is right for you!


text:
Bike Trade-In Program
Trade In and Trade Up Today
Are you looking for a new bike but don't know what to do with your old one? Excellent news: we accept bike trade-ins. Clean up that older bike that's been hanging in your garage, bring it to us for a fast and easy evaluation, and get credit towards the bike of your dreams.
How It Works
Turning your current bike into credit towards a new model couldn't be easier. We have a straightforward process that ensures that you receive fair market value and helps you avoid the hassle of listing your bike online. Visit us today to learn more.
Dust off your old bike
and bring it to us.
Shop for a new bike while
we evaluate your trade-in.
Turn your store credit
into a new bike and go ride!
Contact us about our bike trade-in program today.
Find Your New Bike
Start exploring our bike selection online and get excited for the new possibilities that await you when you visit us with your trade-in.


text:
Media Options
The longtime Middle East correspondent of The Independent newspaper in London joins us from Cairo to talk about the popular uprising ongoing across Egypt, its regional implications, and how Obama should respond. "[The protesters] are asking for nothing less than Americans accept in their own lives," Fisk says. [includes rush transcript]
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Robert Fisk of The Independent newspaper. He, too, is in Cairo. I asked him about the U.S. role in Egypt and the Middle East.
ROBERT FISK: What they're calling out for are everything which ordinary Americans would agree with: multi-party democracy; a new constitution which gives equal rights to everyone; an end to fraudulent elections, which have allowed, of course, Mubarak to carry on year after year for three decades until the age of 83, based on elections that gave 97.8, 97.9 percent of the victory; and an end, in fact, to long presidential periods of six years in office, bringing it down to four years; and they want a maximum two terms for a president, rather than indefinite presidency or presidency for life, which is effectively what Mubarak got. These people are therefore asking for nothing less than Americans accept in their own lives.
And the great tragedy is that at this critical moment, Obama chose not to hold out his hand to the democrats and to say, "We support you, and Mubarak must go." He chose to support, effectively, Mubarak by saying orderly transition. You know, he wants another general — he's already got one, Omar Suleiman, the Vice President — to take over. The army, which receives $1.3 billions of American taxpayers' money every year, is going to be called upon to try and make this transition, even though Mubarak himself, of course, was the head of the air force. He was a general, too. Omar Suleiman, the Vice President, is a general, head of intelligence, a very ruthless man. His people carried out a lot of tortures in the past against Islamist uprisings in Egypt. And for many of the people on the street, there was deep disappointment that at this critical moment the President of the United States, who came here to Cairo just under 18 months ago to tell the Muslim world — he held up their hand, and he said, "Do not clench your fists in response." When the democrats came onto the streets of Cairo and wanted what Obama had advertised to them, it was Obama who clenched his fist and Hillary Clinton who said that it's a stable regime.
Only now, when they realize that perhaps Mubarak is going to go, mainly because the army want to get rid of him, not the protesters — and another part of the tragedy — are they beginning to say, "Well, we've got to get rid of this old man," but not, of course, to replace him with real democrats but to replace him with an army-backed regime, which is effectively Mubarak part two.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, what about the U.S. relationship with the military? I was talking to someone in a government agency in Washington, and they were deeply concerned, saying, "How do we counter the image that we've actually been supporting this despot for 30 years?" And someone else replied, "We can't, because we have been supporting him."
ROBERT FISK: Yeah, and I think, in a way, you see, what happens is it becomes a sort of osmotic relationship. First of all, the Egyptians are wooed from the Soviet side under Sadat, who basically left the Soviet Union to the American side. Then the Americans arm them, feed them, clothe them, uniform them, after which, however independent they want to be, in order to feed, they've got to go to Washington.
It was interesting that when Tantawi, the commander-in-chief of the army, was coping with this crisis here, the Pentagon snapped its fingers, and he flew straight away to Washington for the serious consultations at the Pentagon — in other words, to get his instructions. I mean, he wouldn't say that. It'll be "advise," "Where are things going, General? You know, fill this out here. Give us a briefing," etc. But at the end of the day, he'd be left in no doubt that if he wanted to get more Abrams tanks and extra missiles, he's got to do what America wants, which primarily now is get rid of Mubarak, but don't make it look as if it's our fault.
You see, American — the problem with the Americans is that when you — the moral values of the United States become disentangled from the national interest at critical moments like this. You know, we all want democracy, but not if we lose Mubarak, who is Israel's man, etc., etc. And this, of course, doesn't come as a great surprise to the Arabs, although, as I wrote in the paper, had Obama decided to say, "Look, I'm with the democrats; they're doing what I talked about in Cairo 18 months ago, 17 months ago," there would have been American flags all over Cairo, all over Egypt. And indeed, it would have solved, in many Arab minds, all the wounds that the Arab and Muslim world has sustained from the United States, and particularly Britain as well, over the last 10 years.
AMY GOODMAN: In fact, there's the current U.S. ambassador to Egypt, right? Margaret Scobey.
ROBERT FISK: Yeah. Well, I mean, there is, although she doesn't seem to move around very much. One of the interesting things is that the one group of people you do not see on the streets of Cairo are American diplomats. Presumably they get their information from Egyptians who come and tell them what's going on.
And there was, by the way, slightly to tangent, a very odd episode on the 28th of January, when a vehicle identified by the crowds as a U.S. armored limousine crashed through anti-Mubarak demonstrators, running many of them down, and went out the end of the street. They identified it as an American embassy vehicle. And the embassy then came out, unattributably, as saying, "Our diplomats don't go out in the streets in such circumstances," which is clearly true. And then they suddenly said, "Several of our vehicles were stolen that day." They didn't tell us that on the 28th of January; they waited until February to tell us. Well, how did they get those vehicles stolen? Did they lend them to the Mubarak government, perhaps? Or did they know the police had taken them and therefore chose to keep silent about it? There are many things like that.
I mean, another example is when the first M1 Abrams tanks came into the square on the Friday. I'm talking about when they were ordered to attack the crowds. I noticed that the coding on the front of the vehicle — it had Egyptian codings for the brigades and parachute units on the side, in Arabic and Arabic numerals. But on the front of the vehicle was a coding, which began MFR and then a series of numbers of each vehicle. And I actually took it down, and a parachute officer started shouting at me and told two soldiers to arrest me. And I actually ran away into the crowd to get away from them. And they chased me and then stopped, and obviously, confronted by about 10,000 demonstrators, decided better of it. And it seems that MFR stands for Mobile Force Reserve. And these are American-owned vehicles. These are American tactical deployment matériel, which is stored in Egypt, as it is also stored of course in Kuwait and now in Iraq for use in emergencies in the Gulf. Now, these vehicles, these tanks, which were threatening at that point the demonstrators, appear to have been vehicles that actually belong to the American military, not to the Egyptian military, but which were obviously used by the Egyptians in this instance. The Egyptians do make the Abrams tank and also have some of their own, but these vehicles appear to be vehicles that effectively belong to you or the Pentagon or whatever. The question is, did the Americans know they were being taken? Did they give permission for this? But none of the soldiers minded pictures being taken of their vehicles or the coding on the side in Arabic, but the moment I took down letters in the Roman letters and the Roman numeral, or rather, modern numerals, they didn't like it at all. So I have a feeling these were actually reserve vehicles belonging to your country which were being used by Mubarak's government.
So there's a whole series of unanswered questions that we don't really know the answer to, and I don't suppose we'll find out yet. But like the tortures in police stations, which are now coming to light, I think that if this regime does crumble — and I think it is steadily crumbling; I mean, the whole National Democratic Party is now just a cardboard facade, especially since the burning of its headquarters — we're going to learn a lot more of what went on behind the scenes. And it won't be nice, and it won't be something that U.S. governments will want to associate themselves with.
AMY GOODMAN: The implications of this for other countries, for a kind of pan-Arab rebellion? Of course, Tunisia, then Egypt. What do you see happening in Israel, Palestine, in Jordan?
ROBERT FISK: Clearly, we have maintained — first the British and the French, and then after the Second World War, with the Americans — we have maintained a system of patronage for ruthless, anti-democratic dictators across the region. We've called them kings, we've called them emirs, we've called them princes, we've called them generals, we've called them all kinds of presidents, and in Bahrain, for example, you've got His Supreme Majesty the King, who rules over an island about half the size of, I suppose, Detroit, if that. But because of this, you know, inevitably, when you have one country suddenly breaking through to freedom, through watching Al Jazeera, for example, the other people in the region, in Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Morocco, Mauritania, then begin — Algeria, especially — then begin to say, "Well, you know, we demand the same rights. We have a right to live. We have a right to oxygen."
But, you know, I think that in some ways the uprising here has more in common with the revolt of Iranians against the results of the Iranian elections in 2009, which, remember, the opposition was crushed after, than it does with sort of the Iranian Revolution or something on a bigger scale. And I'm not entirely certain — you know, these may be tribes with flags, as a Crusader historian or historian of the Crusades once described the Arab world, but these are not all the same people. For example, the opposition to King Abdullah in Jordan actually really comes from elements of the army who feel the Palestinians have become too strong in Jordan. The opposition in Syria would be Sunnis who object to the Alawite minority leadership of the country, where it becomes a more sectarian issue rather than an issue of democracy, which is the case in Egypt, because [inaudible] virtually everybody here is a Sunni Muslim, including of course our dear President Mubarak — or their dear President Mubarak. So I think that, you know, I'm a bit suspicious of the idea that just because the Tunisians have a revolution and it spreads to Egypt, therefore, you know — true, there are food demonstrations or high-price demonstrations and protests against the economy in Jordan and certainly protests against Saleh, the president of Yemen, but I'm not sure it's all the same.
And remember that Tunisia, the famous Jasmine Revolution — this, I gather, is going to be called the Papyrus Revolution, heaven help us, in Egypt — in Tunisia, the revolution has actually only replaced so far Ben Ali with his mates. I mean, Ghannouchi is a friend of Ben Ali. He was one of his schoolmates, I believe. And here, you've got to remember that Omar Suleiman, the new savior of Egypt, with whom all these people are supposed to negotiate, he is a very close, personal, lifelong friend of Mubarak, and he was a general. So, while at the same time on the surface you've got this democratic uprising, and suddenly we're going to have all these new countries, and they're all going to be lovely and believe in our secular values, at the end of the day, the fear is not the Muslim Brotherhood Islamicism; it's the fear that more generals will be appointed to work for the West. And that is basically what is happening. And, you know, if, say, King Abdullah were in some way persuaded to leave his country, the Jordanian army will be persuaded to find another member of the royal family to take over the job, but perhaps more constitutionally. So the idea that there's going to be this massive sort of overthrow of dictators, yes, there might be, but there will be more dictators ready to take the role, but playing a sort of softer role and then gently introducing more emergency laws and restrictions on crowds gathering, and so on and so forth, and you're back to square one.
Corruption has become so much part of the economy, the oil that makes the economy work — and corruption, of course, is the way in which dictators control their people — that the whole system, the whole functioning of society in the Middle East, has been almost irreparably damaged over the decades by the way in which we in the West have encouraged it to function and which the dictators are very happy to function, either on our behalf and of course financially on their own.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think President Obama should do?
ROBERT FISK: Well, it's always the same case when you or anyone else asks me about U.S. policy. The question is what he should have done.
You know, I never really believed quite in Obama. I was very struck by his reference in the Cairo speech, the famous reach-out-my-hand-to-the-Muslims speech, when he referred to the relocation of the Palestinians in 1948, as if the Palestinians suddenly got up and said, "Oh, let's all go skiing in Lebanon today and never quite go home again," rather than being driven from their homes or fleeing in terror from the new Israeli army at the time. And I think that, you know, because of his weakness vis-à-vis the Republicans and of course the recent midterm elections and because of his vanity — I mean, Obama should never have taken the Nobel Prize; Nobel Prize of Public Speaking, maybe, but, I mean, he should have said, "Look, I'm not worthy of it, but thank you" — he's missed so many steps he could have taken to show that the moral values which he claimed to espouse in that famous Cairo speech, which I attended at Cairo University a few — just about a mile from where I'm talking to you now, and only two miles from Tahrir Square, actually. You know, if only he had stuck to those moral values in the Arab world, the warmth of the Arab world towards America, which was there in the '50s and '60s even after the establishment of Israel and was certainly there in the '20s and '30s, might have been reestablished. But it was a critical moment. And because of Israel's wishes — you know, the Israelis have made it fairly clear they don't think, you know, these Arabs really should have these elections; I mean, keep Mubarak, you know? or keep some version of Mubarak — and because of his domestic critics — you know, "Are you going to lose Egypt now, Mr. President?" — I know that's already coming up in editorials — he did blew it. He blinked. He was weak. He was vain. He chose not to support the good guys.
People say, well, you know — someone said to me on a radio show in Ireland yesterday, "Oh, come on, Robert, you're always saying America should keep its nose out of other countries. Now you want it to interfere." But the fact is, it does interfere. It's paying $1.3 billion to the regime every year. Therefore, it is time for it to take the right side in Egypt, and it failed to do so. And that failure will cost America yet again. It's a tragedy in many ways. You know, here was an opportunity suddenly to get it right, and he flunked it. And he's seen as being a very weak man in the Arab world. You know, Bush was seen as — in a sense, people preferred Bush, because they saw him as an intemperate bully, which is pretty much what he was out here, whereas Obama came forward with — you know, as a man who seemed to have something to offer of moral value. And at the end of the day, the moral values have gone out of the window, and we're back with "Oh, the Egyptian people must decide, but it must be an orderly transition," where "orderly" can mean another six or seven months of Mubarak.
And, of course, the nightmare here is that if the demonstrators go home — whether they get arrested or not, and beaten and tortured afterwards is not the point — then there will be more stability, tourists will come back, the army will be happy, and then Mubarak will suddenly discover that, for the good of Egypt, he would like another six-year term starting in September this year. That, I think, is probably the nightmare scenario and not one that's entirely, you know, without credibility.
AMY GOODMAN: Robert Fisk, speaking to us from Cairo, the longtime Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper of London, author of a number of books, including The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East.


text:
I watched "The American" yesterday. It's a rather slow developing drama of an aging assassin, who starts to get lonely, questions his life choices, and wants to quit his trade. And as in so many other stories, that's not so easy to do. And as with so many other stories, women are usually involved.
It's a nice story. Not a bad movie. Some solid acting. And lots and lots of silence, which makes sense. It is somewhat slow, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Yet, it is that kind of movie which is difficult to recommend. Because people usually expect so many different things from an assassin drama. And I'm not sure this will satisfy many. It did satisfy me though.
Two things in particular that I liked were the use of Italian language and scenery. Multi-lingual films are a challenge. If there are two many languages or too much of two languages, subtitles are needed, and they usually annoy the audience. Shooting a movie in English, when clearly other languages are involved often seems naive and childish. So the choices are hard and making a movie with two or more languages involved is not that easy. This film succeeded though. It managed to bring the feeling of Italy, the atmosphere, and the language without using too much of it. Subtitles are helpful, but not required – most of what is said in Italian are short phrases, the smalltalk. Yet, combined with the scenery of small Italian towns that brings a very realistic feeling. The place is unmistakable.
Overall, a 4 out of 5.


text:
Product Details
- Top quality, rain repellant fabric.
- Superior durability.
- Reverse opening to contain dribbles.
- Fashionably designed for everyone.
- Luxurious packaging-wrapped with love.
- Umbrella opens to 42.1 L
Alastair Windproof Umbrella Azure Sky Is Part Of Our Alastair Collection. The Alastair Collection, named for its Scottish roots which mean "protective, cumbersome obstacles and hurdles have truly met their match. Equip yourself with the daily armor needed for success with Alastair.


text:
Jesus On Trial
In Jesus on Trial, David Limbaugh applies his lifetime of legal experience to a unique new undertaking: making a case for the gospels as hard evidence of the life and work of Jesus Christ. Limbaugh, a practicing attorney and former professor of law, approaches the canonical gospels with the same level of scrutiny he would apply to any legal document and asks all the necessary questions about the story of Jesus told through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. His analysis of the texts becomes profoundly personal as he reflects on his own spiritual and intellectual odyssey from determined skeptic to devout Christian. Ultimately, Limbaugh concludes that the words Christians have treasured for centuries stand up to his exhaustive inquiry—including his examination of historical and religious evidence beyond the gospels—and thereby affirms Christian faith, spirituality, and tradition.