text:
What Abortion?
Back in June I preached a series of six sermons entitled Pictures of Grace. Of all the sermons series' I've preached, I probably enjoyed this one the most. I took our church through the Gospels and looked at various events in the life and ministry of Jesus where the shocking, counter-intuitive nature of amazing grace is on display. Each week we looked intently at how Jesus wrecked people afresh with his grace, turning everything that makes sense in our conditional world upside-down and setting sinners free.
Well, I went back to the first of those six sermons yesterday as I was doing some research and was struck again at how crazy God's grace really is.
I began that series by by preaching from Luke 7:36-50. This is the famous account of the sinful woman (most likely a prostitute) barging into a party of religious leaders and washing the feet of Jesus with her tears of repentance. I pointed out that two rescues are happening in this passage: the obvious rescue of the immoral person but also the rescue of the moral person.
Normally when we think of people in need of God's rescuing grace, we think of the unrighteous and the immoral. But what's fascinating to me is that throughout the Bible, it's the immoral person that gets the Gospel before the moral person; it's the prostitute who gets grace; it's the Pharisee who doesn't. What we see in this story is that God's grace wrecks and then rescues, not only the promiscuous but the pious. The Pharisee in this story can't understand what Jesus is doing by allowing this woman to touch him because he assumes that God is for the clean and competent. But Jesus here shows him that God is for the unclean and incompetent and that when measured against God's perfect holiness we're all unclean and incompetent. Jesus shows him that the gospel isn't for winners, but losers: it's for the weak and messed up person, not the strong and mighty person. It's not for the well-behaved, but the dead.
I was reminded once again that Jesus came not to effect a moral reformation but a mortal resurrection (moral reformations can, and have, taken place throughout history without Jesus. But only Jesus can raise the dead, over and over and over again). As Gerhard Forde put it, "Christianity is not the move from vice to virtue, but rather the move from virtue to grace."
Wrecking every religious category he had, Jesus tells the Pharisee that he has a lot to learn from the prostitute, not the other way around.
The prostitute on the other hand walks into a party of religious people and falls at the feet of Jesus without any care as to what others are thinking and saying. She's at the end of herself. More than wanting to avoid an uncomfortable situation, she wanted to be clean-she needed to be forgiven. She was acutely aware of her guilt and shame. She knew she needed help. She understood at a profound level that God's grace doesn't demand that you get clean before you come to Jesus. Rather, our only hope for getting clean is to come to Jesus. Only in the Gospel does love precede loveliness. Everywhere else loveliness precedes love.
I closed the sermon by recalling a story that Rod Rosenbladt told me when we were together at the Gospel Coalition conference in Chicago. It's a story about a middle-aged woman who needed help from her pastor.
She went to her pastor and said, "Pastor, you know that I had an abortion a number of years ago?" "Yes," the Pastor replied. "Well, I need to talk to you about the man I've since met." "Alright," replied the Pastor.
"Well, we met a while back, and started dating and I thought, I need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn't. Then things got more serious between us and I thought, I need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn't. A while later we got engaged and I thought, I need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn't. Then we got married and I thought, I really need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn't. So I needed to talk to someone, Pastor, and you're it."
The Pastor replied, "You know, we have a service for this. Let's go through that together." So they did – a service of confession and absolution.
When they were finished, she said to him, "Now I think I have the courage to tell my new husband about my abortion. Thanks, Pastor."
And the Pastor replied to her, "What abortion?"
What the Pharisee, the prostitute, and everyone in between, need to remember every day is that Christ offers forgiveness full and free from both our self-righteous goodness and our unrighteous badness. This is the hardest thing for us to believe as Christians. We think it's a mark of spiritual maturity to hang onto our guilt and shame. We've sickly concluded that the worse we feel, the better we actually are. The declaration of Psalm 103:12 is the most difficult for us to grasp and embrace: "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." To be convinced in our hearts, said Martin Luther, "that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is the hardest thing." Or, as Corrie ten Boom once said, "God takes our sins-the past, present, and future-and dumps them in the sea and puts up a sign that says 'No Fishing allowed.'" This seems too good to be true…it can't be that simple, that easy, that real!
It is true! No strings attached. No but's. No conditions. No need for balance. If you are a Christian, you are right now under the completely sufficient imputed righteousness of Christ. Your pardon is full and final. In Christ, you're forgiven. You're clean. It is finished.
What abortion?


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With almost two decades of experience England Logistics has established a reputation as one of America's premier third-party logistics (3PL) companies. England Logistics has a team of over 600 logistics professionals that move over 300,000 shipments nationwide. We are a full service logistics provider handling everything from parcel to supply chain management.
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text:
It's definitely cut into my writing time, like I knew it would. But I've decided that's okay. It makes me appreciate my writing time a lot more, actually. And the best thing? For 4-8 hours each day that I work, I stop stressing and worrying about my publishing career. I go to work, I am incredibly busy doing the tasks that need to be done, and my writerly brain is turned off for a while.
Off, off, off.
Oh my goodness gracious, do you know how glorious that is? That crazy brain of mine does NOT like to be turned off. Stupid, crazy brain.
When I'm at home, I'm constantly checking e-mail. Is there any news? Anything happening over there in Please-Publish-Me-Land? I'm also tossing around ideas all the time. Should I do this next? What about that? And before long, I'm panicking, OH MY GOSH, WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT, IF I DON'T DECIDE THIS MINUTE MY CAREER IS COMPLETELY AND DEFINITELY OVER!
(Which is ridiculous, but I told you, my brain, it is crazy).
When I'm working, I can't check my phone unless I'm at lunch. It's off-limits and put away. And it's pretty much impossible to think about anything beyond the moment at hand.
Writing books is fun sometimes. It's also hard sometimes. Okay, a lot of times. And it can be stressful, when you haven't sold anything in a while and wonder if this is it, if the end is here.
I still love putting words to the page. I still love writing books that touch teens' hearts. Yesterday I got not one, but two emails from young women who have emailed me over the years. They've kind of grown up reading my books. When I think about that, really think about it, I get teary because holy sweet library, I've written enough books that it was possible for them to do that - to grow up reading my books! And they wanted to tell me again how much my books have meant to them, how much I mean to them.
I want to keep writing. But sometimes, the best thing you can do to get what you want is to step away a little bit -- just enough to make you want it, and work for it, even more.


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Category: Nixie Tubes
Fallout 4 Vacuum tubes and Nixie tubes
8th February
Fallout 4 Vacuum tubes and Nixie tubes
I have been working my way through Fallout 4 and during my explorations I noticed that the labs and military installations are loaded with vintage vacuum tube equipment. I thought I recognized the front panel of at least one piece of gear:
Front Panel render from Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks):
Now compare this image with the front panel of the Racal RA-17:
The resemblance of the Fallout 4 render to the real Racal RA17 is striking. This Racal-like front panel appears in nearly every lab and/or military installation that I have explored.
Another rack of equipment very frequently seen in labs and military installations is this one:
Fallout 4 Equipment Rack (Bethesda Softworks
This image clearly shows:
A nixie tube … Read More »


text:
Welcome to our research center! We've put together a library of information on important financial topics that we believe you'll find helpful.
Simply click on one of the general financial topics below and you'll find a selection of easy-to-understand information sheets about related financial concepts and strategies. This information is updated regularly to reflect the latest facts, figures, legislation, and economic trends.
Estates & Trusts
What Key Estate Planning Tools Should I Know About?
Wills and trusts allow you to spell out how you would like your property distributed, but they also go beyond that.
What Is a SEP IRA?
A SEP IRA is a type of plan under which the employer contributes (up to a certain limit) to an employee's IRA.
What Is a SIMPLE?
The SIMPLE plan may appeal to small business owners as it is easy to set up, administer, and allows for a tax deduction.
What Is an IRA Rollover?
If you leave a job or retire, you should consider your options regarding your employer retirement plan assets.
What Is a Roth 401(k)?
A Roth 401(k) is funded with after-tax money, and allows for tax- and penalty-free withdrawal of earnings if requirements are met.
What Is a Profit-Sharing Plan?
Profit-sharing plans give employees a share in the profits of a company and can help to fund their retirements.
What Is a Money Purchase Pension Plan?
A money purchase plan is a retirement plan where employer contributions are based on a fixed percentage of compensation.
What Is a 403(b) Plan?
A 403(b) plan is a tax-deferred retirement savings plan that can only be offered by a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity.
How Much Do I Need to Save?
Many realize it's important to save for retirement, but knowing exactly how much to save is another issue altogether.
A New Chapter for Retirement
With the changing pension landscape, it is important to take charge of your own retirement security.
Unforgettable Birthdays
There are key dates after you turn 59½ that can impact your taxes, Medicare eligibility, and retirement benefits.
Should You Bank Your Retirement on Your Business?
Allocating too much of your retirement investments to one company, even your own, can be a risky proposition.
What Is a Traditional IRA?
If you do not participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, you might consider a traditional IRA.
What Is a 401(k) Plan?
401(k) employer-sponsored retirement plans have many benefits, including that the funds accumulate tax-deferred.
Save Now or Save Later?
If you start saving for retirement sooner, the more money you are likely to accumulate and possibly retire sooner.
What Is a Roth IRA?
Qualified Roth IRA distributions in retirement are free of federal income tax and aren't included in gross income.
Tax Planning
What Is the Capital Gain Tax?
Capital gains are profits realized from the sale of assets; a tax is triggered only when an asset is sold, not held.
What Is the Estate Tax?
Everything you own, whatever the form of ownership, is subject to federal, and possibly state, estate taxes.
What Is the Gift Tax?
The federal gift tax applies to gifts of property or money while the donor is living.
How Much Money Can I Put Into My IRA or Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan?
IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement plans are subject to annual contribution limits set by the federal government.
What Is a Required Minimum Distribution?
Required minimum distribution is the annual amount that must be withdrawn from a qualified retirement plan/account.
When Must Taxes Be Paid on IRA and Employer-Sponsored Retirement Funds?
With traditional IRAs and most employer-sponsored retirement plans, taxes are not payable until funds are withdrawn.
What Happens If I Withdraw Money from My Tax-Deferred Investments Before Age 59½
Tax-deferred retirement account withdrawals before age 59½ generally triggers a 10% federal income tax penalty.
What Is Tax Deferral?
There can be a substantial benefit to deferring taxes as long as possible.
What Tax Deductions Are Still Available to Me?
Changes to the tax code have left a few key deductions for itemizers, like medical, dental and some business expenses.
What Is the Most Tax-Efficient Way to Take a Distribution From a Retirement Plan
Consider a trustee-to-trustee transfer to an IRA versus a lump-sum distribution from a workplace retirement plan.
How Can I Keep More of My Mutual Fund Profits?
Want to keep more of your mutual fund profits? You may be interested in strategies to help lower your tax liability.
What Are Dividends?
It is important to understand how dividends (taxable payments to shareholders) fit with your long-term goals.
How Are Growth and Value Stocks Different?
The labels growth and value reflect different approaches that can be used when making investment decisions.
How Are Mutual Funds Taxed?
Mutual fund taxes can be cumbersome, but there are ways to help mitigate the amount of taxes you may owe.
What Is Stock?
Before investing in stocks, it is important to understand some of the basics and the risks involved in owning stocks.
What Are Zero-Coupon Bonds?
Zero-coupon bonds represent a type of bond that does not pay interest during the life of the bond.
What Is Diversification?
An important element to successful investing is to manage investment risk while maintaining the potential for growth.
What Is a Bond?
A bond is simply evidence of a debt from a government entity or a corporation and represents a long-term IOU.
What Is a Stock Index?
Stock market indexes can be useful benchmarks for gauging the performance of an investment portfolio over time.
How Do Mutual Funds and Stocks Differ?
The difference between purchasing an individual stock versus shares in a mutual fund to potentially earn dividends.
What Is a Mutual Fund?
A mutual fund is a collection of stocks, bonds, and other securities with certain benefits and risks.
What Is a Closed-End Fund?
With closed-end funds, investors pool their money together to purchase a professionally managed portfolio of stocks and/or bonds.
What Is a Mutual Fund Load?
It's important to understand mutual fund loads, or sales charges, and exactly what they entail so you can make informed investing decisions.
What Is an Annuity?
An annuity is a flexible financial vehicle that can help protect against the risk of living a long time because it provides an option for a lifetime income.
What Is Asset Allocation?
Asset allocation is a method used to help manage investment risk; it does not guarantee a profit or protect against investment loss.
What Is Dollar-Cost Averaging?
Dollar-cost averaging involves investing a set amount of money on a regular basis, regardless of market conditions.
Cash Management
What Are Some Tips for Managing My Money?
A sound cash management program uses a disciplined approach: accounting, analysis, allocation, and adjustment.
How Long Will It Take to Double My Money?
Before making investment decisions, it is helpful to determine the real rate of return on the investment.
How Do Money Market Mutual Funds Work?
Money market funds can be a highly liquid and effective cash management tool.
What Advantages Does a Biweekly Mortgage Offer?
Biweekly mortgage payments can have a dramatic effect on the amount of interest homeowners have to pay.
What Are Some Smart Ways to Refinance?
Here are some smart ways to refinance your home.
What About Financial Aid for College?
It's important to understand the options, such as financial aid grant programs, when having to pay for college.
Is a Home Equity Loan or Line of Credit Right for Me?
Shifting some debt to a home equity loan, which typically allows interest payments to be tax deductible, could have its advantages.
Risk Management
Why Purchase Life Insurance?
If you have a family who relies on your income, it is important to have life insurance protection.
Why Are Annuities Considered an Insurance Product?
An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company to pay you future income in exchange for premiums you pay.
What Is Life Insurance for Business Owners?
Company-owned life insurance is one way to help protect a business from financial problems caused by the death of a key employee.
What Is Split-Dollar Life Insurance?
Split-dollar life insurance is an arrangement to purchase and fund life insurance between two parties.
What Is Last-Survivor Life Insurance?
Couples who want to help protect their legacy from estate taxes could consider last-survivor life insurance.
How Can I Insure My Future?
To help you choose insurance wisely, determine how much coverage and what kind of policy is best for your situation.
What Does Medicare Cover?
Medicare is the federal health insurance program for those persons age 65 and over. But what does it cover?


text:
It wouldn't do to call Insane City "a typical Dave Barry novel." What kind of thing is that to say about a book? The story begins with a bachelor dinner that goes off the rails, then brings in Russian mobsters, the fourth-place finisher in the Miss Hot Amateur Bod contest, a goodhearted escort and her "sales representative," if you please, an albino Burmese python — or is that a Burmese albino python? — a half-dozen scheming businessmen, a Haitian refugee fleeing desperation with her two children, tough guys buying diapers, a car chase, a tropical moon, a boat chase and an orangutan named Trevor who winds up with the wedding ring.
But Insane City isn't all humor — it weaves in darker threads, like the story of a Haitian refugee with two children, washed in on the ocean tides and trying to make a life in the States. "I attended a wedding on Key Biscayne at the Ritz Carlton," Barry tells NPR's Scott Simon, "and you sit facing the water, the ocean, and I dunno, I was just sitting there while the ceremony was about to begin, looking out at the ocean and thinking, 'What would happen if, like, right now, a raft came up?' Because it does happen — Key Biscayne is where they land a lot. That's really what got me started." And he made his refugee Haitian, Barry says, because Haitian refugees often get sent back, whereas Cubans are allowed to stay.
Miami, where the refugees and the party people and the tourists and the wedding guests and the gangsters (and the python) all mix, is "this stew of ingredients that never really come together right," Barry says. "Then we have the fact that it's basically a swamp. ... Right now we have an infestation of Burmese pythons — gigantic snakes — and it just never ever calms down down here."
"The first day of my life as a homeowner in South Florida," he continues, "I walked down onto my lawn to get the newspaper, and on my lawn were crabs. Like, not just a few, but hundreds and hundreds of crabs. And they were not happy. Turns out it was crab mating season, and they were waving their pincers at me angrily, like I wanted to mate with their women. I didn't want their women — their women are crabs! But they didn't know that, or maybe they were bitter about that, I don't know."
But, Barry says, he loves his adopted hometown. "I moved here in 1986 from the United States, and I have come to really love it here. And it's a great place to be a humor writer. Carl Hiaasen ... his quote is, 'You really don't need an imagination to write fiction about South Florida, you just need a subscription to The Miami Herald.' " Barry, it should be noted, won a Pulitzer Prize for his Miami Herald commentary work in 1988.
Barry no longer writes a regular column for The Miami Herald, and he says traditional city columns like his, or those of Mike Royko in Chicago and Jimmy Breslin in New York, have been "tweeted out of existence. The time that people used to spend crafting one thoughtful 800-word piece, they're more likely to spend now dashing off 53 one-liners, because that's going to get them a much broader audience." Covering the political conventions last summer, he says, he noticed that a lot of journalism has become tweeting — though whether that's a bad thing or not, he won't say.
"I remember the first campaign where I went to Iowa and New Hampshire, and I remember seeing, like, David Broder and all those guys at the bar, and you would hear them talking about what was going on," he says, "and then a couple of days later, you would read their pieces. And now it all happens in seconds and minutes, and it happens while the speech is going on, it's being analyzed. ... It's just different. Very, very different."
Newspapers are under siege, too, Barry says. "The business model they operated under for decades and decades, where Sears bought a gigantic ad for a whole lot of money, because we were the only vehicle for that, and so we made tons and tons of money. And we thought, in journalism, that we got all that money because we had a bureau in London and a bureau in Rome, and we had bureaus all over the place, because we were The Miami Herald, and we had bureaus everywhere, and we were making all this money, and it must be because we were doing great journalism." And then the Internet arrived, he continues, "and all of a sudden, we aren't necessary for any advertiser the way we used to be ... and it turns out that the public wasn't demanding that we provide them with this level of journalism that we thought was so important to them."
A big local newspaper is kind of like a big local sports team, Barry says — central to a city's sense of community, even if it occasionally takes some flak. "I think the Herald spoke more for the community and reflected the community better than any other institution down here could, and now there is no institution to replace that ... and I think that's true of many, many cities now."
So, is this an opportunity for novelists to step in? "Novelists have been trying to step in for hundreds of years," Barry says, laughing. "I think the same forces that are sort of working against newspapers probably are also working to some extent against books. ... It just feels like everything happens so fast now, and everybody goes on to the next subject so quickly now. Books seem a little archaic, except as entertainment, you know, as an escape from policy and that sort of thing."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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December 16, 2008
Google Tests Navigational Suggestions and More Enhanced Snippets
For navigational queries, which usually have a single relevant answer, Google experiments with adding a link to the first search result at the top of the suggestions list. Google Chrome already implements this feature and it's likely that it will be added to Google's homepage as well. Other experiments include ads and results from specialized search engines, but they don't seem to be useful.
The other two experiments continue an already obvious trend of expanding and enhancing the snippets. This time, instead of automatically detecting information from the unstructured code, Google asked some review sites to include special tags for ratings, summaries and other metadata. Yahoo has a service called SearchMonkey that encourages web sites to surface structured data using microformats and embeddable RDF.
The third experiment solves the problem of finding a long web page in the search results that includes the answer to your query in a subsection. For example, Wikipedia articles are structured in sections and subsections, each one having a permalink that uses named anchors, but Google doesn't send you directly to the right subsection. This experiment includes a link that lets you "jump" to the part of the page that includes your answer.
You can already see some of these ideas in Google Chrome, Yahoo SearchMonkey, Google Mobile search and Live Search's results from Wikipedia.
5 comments:
- AnonymousDecember 17, 2008 at 1:46 AM
non an experiment but an extension - the google twitter onebox result, maybe you like it - AnonymousDecember 17, 2008 at 7:34 AM
It will be interesting to see them in action especially the named anchors. I'm curious on how will this affect the way we do SEO in the future.
ReplyDelete - AnonymousDecember 17, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Cool I like the name anchors thing. I hate searching through a Wikipedia for that one section I care about. Or even clicking the the Table of Contents for that matter.
Woot Google pulls through again! You have to wonder if this URL suggest function will lessen traffic to sites who rank 2, 3, 4, 5 on the 1st page for the SERP's....
Any ideas on how to get on the URL suggest?
I've done a few queries and noticed that Google does not pull the absolute #1 for a specific term.
Maybe by traffic count to the website for that specific query, which would make it 'more' relevant in Googles eyes?


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Should I Be Happy?
Dear Rabbi,
Hi. I take antidepressants, and it has helped me a lot. The only problem is that, truthfully, I do not feel the same connection to G-d now as I did when I was depressed. Sometimes I used to pray with tears. I guess you could say that medication has made it harder for me to feel spiritual.
So this may be a silly question, but should I keep taking the medication even though it makes it harder for me to feel as spiritual as I felt before?
Your question is both silly and serious. Silly, because you know the answer: Keep taking the medication as directed by a competent health care professional.
But serious, because you've touched on a basic Jewish concept: "Man was born to struggle" (Job 5:7). All of life's situations are in fact challenges and struggles to be overcome for self-growth.
Depression has been a painful challenge for you, but you've used it as an opportunity to feel close to G-d. That's a great accomplishment. So why not stop taking the medicine and go back to the challenge?
Because you've overcome the hurdle and G-d has decided that you're ready for a new challenge: Finding spiritual inspiration in a normal, healthy state.
You know, after my son was in first grade for a few weeks he asked if he could go back to kindergarten. Kindergarten is fun and affords wonderful growth, but I said no. There's no going back to kindergarten.
For you, depression was a course called "Spirituality 101 - Finding G-d during Dark Days." But you graduated. Now you're in a class called "Spirituality 102 - Finding G-d in Normal Life."
This may be harder. The Sages taught that wealth makes it harder to be spiritual, and the same is true when we're well-off in other areas as well, such as health. The challenge is, can you seek and find inspiration when things are OK? The answer is yes, because G-d only sends challenges that we are capable of overcoming.
May G-d bless you with success and happiness and continue to give you strength and courage to take responsibility for your emotional health and spiritual growth.


text: Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne with the story of a really cheesy theft of three vintage Volkswagon buses. Now they were valuable - worth $100,000 each. The vintage buses were also bright orange, custom designed to look like loaves of cheese. The Tillamook cheese vans were on a publicity tour when they were stolen from a hotel parking lot in Sacramento. Two men were arrested for stealing the vans after, of course, they were spotted in a storage locker. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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NRA's LaPierre Reveals "Obama Conspiracy" To Fool Gun Owners, Repeal Second Amendment
Written by Matt Gertz
For more Media Matters coverage of gun violence and extremism, visit our Gun Facts microsite.
According to National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, the Obama administration's lack of action on gun control issues only proves just how diabolically anti-gun they are.
In a speech Friday at Florida's version of the Conservative Political Action Conference, LaPierre explained how by not pushing for new gun laws, Obama actually revealed that he is engaged in a secret plan to "lull gun owners to sleep" so that they would not vote him out of office in 2012. LaPierre claimed that Obama's "strategy" is to "get re-elected" and then "erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights."
LaPIERRE: [I]n public, [President Obama will] remind us that he's put off calls from his party to renew the old Clinton [assault weapons] gun ban, he hasn't pushed for new gun control laws, and he'll even say he looked the other way when Congress passed a couple of minor pro-gun bills by huge majorities. The president will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he's actually been good for the Second Amendment.
But it's a big fat stinking lie, just like all the other lies that have come out of this corrupt administration. It's all part -- it's all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment in our country. [...]
Before the President was even sworn into office, they met and they hatched a conspiracy of public deception to try to guarantee his re-election in 2012. [...]
And Obama himself is no fool. So when he got elected, they concocted a scheme to stay away from the gun issue, lull gun owners to sleep, and play us for fools in 2012. Well, gun owners are not fools, and we are not fooled. We see the president's strategy crystal clear: get re-elected, and with no other re-elections to worry about, get busy dismantling and destroying our firearms freedom. Erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights and exorcise it from the U.S. Constitution. That's their agenda.
LaPierre did not explain in his speech why the leader of a group whose top priority is defeating President Obama in 2012 would be made privy to this secret plan. Nor did he explain how Obama planned to repeal the Second Amendment will a Congress that passes "pro-gun bills by huge majorities."
NRA leaders and advocates have been so hard up for evidence that President Obama is anti-gun that they have been citing an Obama-implemented rule that requires gun dealers in some states to report multiple sales of assault weapons to the ATF. That rule would not prevent a single person from getting a firearm.
The NRA's hysterical claim that President Obama plans to repeal the Second Amendment is a natural byproduct of the Supreme Court's finding in District of Columbia v. Heller that the amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. Until then, the group could offer the similarly conspiratorial claim that gun bans and confiscation were right around the corner. With those ideas taken off the table even in theory by Heller, NRA has moved on to even more ludicrous conspiracies.
The gun lobby will never stop portaying sensible gun control policies as the first step toward "destroying our firearms freedom"; now, they're portaying no expansion of gun control in the same way. After all, the NRA needs funding, and it's not the anniversary of 9/11 every day.
(h/t Crooks and Liars)


text:
An anonymous reader writes: A confidential computer project designed to break military codes was accidentally made public by New York University engineers. An anonymous digital security researcher identified files related to the project while hunting for things on the internet that shouldn't be, The Intercept reported. He used a program called Shodan, a search engine for internet-connected devices, to locate the project. It is the product of a joint initiative by NYU's Institute for Mathematics and Advanced Supercomputing, headed by the world-renowned Chudnovsky brothers, David and Gregory, the Department of Defense, and IBM. Information on an exposed backup drive described the supercomputer, called — WindsorGreen — as a system capable of cracking passwords. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read this article:
NYU Accidentally Exposed Military Code-breaking Computer Project To Entire Internet


text:
Obviously, questions are flying furiously since yesterday's out-of-the-blue announcement that Peter Laird has sold the entirety of the TMNT property to Nickelodeon/Viacom. I've managed to track down a few answers that may help provide some insight on what's about to happen.
First, a few people have released public, personal statements on this transaction:
- Peter Laird - Co-creator of the TMNT, who allowed this sale to happen.
- Jim Lawson - Long-time and beloved TMNT comic book artist.
- Jake Black - Freelance Tales of the TMNT writer and source of inspiration for several fund raising efforts this year.
Some fans have noticed that certain parts of NinjaTurtles.com have disappeared, among them the catalog through which you could buy stuff directly from Mirage. Dan Berger reports, "We'll be starting a new web site soon where we're selling all the stuff we used to have posted."
Concerning the future of TMNT comic books, as Peter alludes to in his blog, some rights to publish comic books have been maintained. Dan was able to clarify that "Peter maintains the right to publish up to 18 TMNT comics per year that can be sold via the direct market and/or web site." To further clarify this, Dan states that Tales of the TMNT Vol. 2 will continue through to and conclude with issue #70, scheduled for next year. TMNT Vol. 4 will continue at a pace that only Peter Laird will be able to decide. Beyond that, they are (likely) allowed to do reprints, so long as they are between 32-48 pages, which rules out the publication of any trade paperbacks.
The inability to publish TBPs is why the "Mirage Universe" book, which had been scheduled for a December release, has now been canceled (as reported via Jake Black on Twitter and Facebook this morning).
When asked about "The Forever War" being published, Dan wasn't optimistic about its release, but added, "That's Murph's project." When asked, Steve Murphy's answer was, "I'm not sure."
While the TMNT have been sold lock, stock, and barrel to Nickelodeon/Viacom, Peter Laird stresses that he did not sell Mirage Studios. As Jim Lawson reported, Peter will continue to allow the artists to use their studio space, should they wish to. However, they would do so independently and not as Mirage Studios employees.
Dan states, "Mirage as an employer ends on December 31 of this year," then ads, "but the regular crew will be here at least 'til May as independent contractors." Dan himself forsees sticking around through at least the end of 2010.
Moving to the future as Nickelodeon has it planned, very little is known. There have been some unspecific reports that they already plan to head in a direction along the lines of the original 1980s cartoon. However, this has not been verified (and who knows if Nickelodeon is even 100% sure about which direction they'll be taking).
As for what happens with the current licensing deals already in place, a representative at Nickelodeon has stated to GamePro, "We plan on fulfilling all current obligations." This would apply to the current toy contract with Playmates Toys, as well as the video game contract with Ubisoft, among others.
The biggest unknown at the moment remains the fate of the planned movie. While a movie has been announced to be released in 2012, it is not known if this will be the same movie that had previously been on track for 2011 or if Nickelodeon will wipe the whole slate clean and begin anew. And if they do that, what direction will they take it? That is a question that remains unanswered for now.


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Romantic delusions allow online dating scams to flourish
- Date:
- February 12, 2013
- Source:
- Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
- Summary:
- As international criminal gangs increasingly target online dating and social networking sites, as a means of extorting money from unwary victims, research suggests that new strategies are needed for tackling the crime and supporting its victims.
- Share:
As international criminal gangs increasingly target online dating and social networking sites, as a means of extorting money from unwary victims, research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) suggests that new strategies are needed for tackling the crime and supporting its victims.
The research, which was carried out by Professor Monica Whitty of University of Leicester and Professor Tom Buchanan of the University of Westminster, argues that the police, policy-makers, doctors and dating companies need to take into account the emotional state of those who have been conned, in order to prevent the crime, bring criminals to justice and support victims effectively.
"Professionals need to understand the awful details of this crime," says Professor Whitty. "In romance scams, people have to deal not just with losing thousands of pounds. They have to deal with the psychological trauma of being both robbed and jilted by a 'lover'."
Almost 230,000 people in the UK have been conned by online romance fraudsters since 2007, according to the study. The criminals pretend to be seeking a relationship, using a fake profile and traditional grooming techniques, in order eventually to extort money from their would-be lover.
The study suggests that dating companies need to issue clear warnings on their sites so that users are aware of potential dangers 'before' they fall in love. Although some people interviewed by Professor Whitty became suspicious when they were asked for money, they were so infatuated with their fictional 'sweetheart' by that time that they chose to ignore the warning signs.
"Daters need to be told, from the moment they sign up, that if a person is not willing to meet them in the first month they should move on. They also need to be told never to respond to requests for money. Dating companies could target advice at particularly vulnerable individuals especially those with high romantic ideals, previous mental health problems or a history of abuse" says Professor Whitty
The study shows that victims are often in denial when they are told that their 'lover' is a fiction invented by criminal gangs to extort money. This has important implications for police work since it means that they are vulnerable to a second wave of attack. Furthermore, victims can feel suicidal when the scam is exposed. The study recommends that the police call in health professionals as soon as the crime is reported. Doctors should also be made aware of these suicidal tendencies.
If courts don't recognise the psychological trauma of the witnesses, there is a potential for cases to be jeopardised and criminals to remain unprosecuted, Professor Whitty believes. "Imagine having to confront a criminal in court when you had believed them to be the love of your life," says Professor Whitty. Standing in the witness box could be extremely intimidating. She suggests that new policies are needed, which identify victims of romance scams as 'vulnerable witnesses' with the right to give their evidence via a video-link.
Professor Whitty has been working closely with courts in several romance scam cases. Much of her advice has already been taken on board. She is also working with the Serious Organised Crime Agency in the UK as well as with international crime prevention organisations.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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East West Acupuncture therapies of Manatee County serving Bradenton, Palmetto, Ellenton, Parish, Anna Maria Island and Lakewood Ranch areas
Feel Better Today
Why Choose East West Health Center
We give you the time, attention and skills needed to diagnose and treat your particular health concern using natural, safe, effective tools of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). This 4,000 year-old form of medicine recognizes the body's ability to heal itself. The key approach is identifying the root causes that are preventing the body from healing itself. TCM promotes circulation of healing substances within the body system. Herbal formulations, supplements and foods are chosen to meet the needs of your system. Acupuncture, Tuina massage, guasha, acupressure and cupping are tools we use to promote circulation of blood, oxygen and healing substances to areas in need.
We listen and respond to your unique health goals. We offer a complimentary consultation to determine how to provide the best service. This 30 minute appointment will answer your questions and concerns about sessions, cost, and insurance coverage. Take the first step on your path to health and wellness by calling to schedule a complimentary consultation
Treatment at East West Health Center begins with a thorough evaluation to determine your unique needs. The approach is holistic, gentle and effective. The choice of natural healing therapies takes into account your medical history, lifestyle and present state of health. We instruct you on home care options that are focused on supporting your body/mind resources and ability to heal. Traditional Chinese Medicine may be used to compliment treatments given by your other medical practitioners or may be used as an alternative treatment. We will recommend referrals to health providers when indicated.
Stress management is essential to promote health, healing and happiness. Many chronic diseases are a result of chronic stress. We want to know how stress may be impacting your health. We can then address those areas into your treatment plan. Many clients come in specifically for correction of a stress-related condition. The mind/body recognizes the calm and safe atmosphere at East West Health and begins to switch into the healing mode. The nervous system can then allow your system to re-balance and return to proper function.
Specials An affordable way to experience the release of tension and stress is to schedule a private 30 minute session. You can also organize a group of 8-10 to join you for a group treatment or "Health at Your Fingertips" class and receive a complimentary treatment.
Since 2002, East West Health Center has helped many people like you who say "I have tried everything" or "want options to surgery". Some are unable to take medications, want to avoid the side effects or do not want to take medications for the rest of their life. Others prefer to use natural tools to promote health, prevent disease and restore proper function. We will work with your doctor to help with your healing process, reduce the need for medications or surgery.


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Prologue 1: "Why can't Americans be Punished?"
Part 1: The Seoul Olympics, 25 years later
Part 2: The 1988 Olympics and Korean fears of AIDS
Part 3: Americans and bad first impressions
Part 4: Reptilian Style: The 'live-or-die general war' against Hollywood
Part 5: An attack in a boxing ring
Part 6: Media responses to the boxing ring incident
Part 7: No more lion: US swimmers' 'prank' becomes 'diplomatic incident'
Part 8: KAIST catches Big Ben
Part 9: Hankyoreh interviews Korean witness to theft by swimmers
Part 10: Stop me if you've heard this one: Four GIs head to Itaewon in a taxi...
Part 11: Taxi-kicking US runner taken to Itaewon police box
Part 12: NBC uses the power of t-shirts to insult Korea... again
Part 13: Cultivating outrage toward America
Part 14: Politicians engage in damage control
Part 15: Heaven on Earth
Part 16: Hustler magazine tramples the purity of the Korean race
Part 17: Stolen gold
Part 13: Cultivating outrage toward America
If we remember (and as was noted here when we looked at the aftermath of the boxing ring incident), in this Korea Times article by Rhee Chong-ik, he wrote that
Of course, if we can, we like to see our young Korean athletes win many medals at the Games, but the most important thing what Korean wants is to have the proud Korea correctly appreciated by the world and many visiting friends. Biased and unfriendly views on Korea and Koreans of the past, was what we wanted to correct by means of hosting the Games.Or as the New York Times would put it after the boxing incident,
Ever sensitive to their international image, South Koreans are particularly angry about any coverage they deem negative because they see the Olympics more as a potential public relations bonanza than a sports event.As AFP reporter Charles Whelan wrote in Korea Witness,
In the run up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the good news stories were outnumbered by tales of dog soup, tear gas, and North Korean terrorists. But for us it was all good copy, and the number of journalists in Seoul rose steadily as the September 17 - October 2 games approached. Wire-service reinforcements including me landed about six months ahead of the Olympics.The torch arrived in Jeju from Athens in early September, and though there was "fierce competition" among Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club (SFCC) members to take part, there were worries that some of the foreign correspondents really weren't in good enough shape. The first to take part of Paul Smurthwaite of Reuters (who wrote about his experience here). The chapter goes on to say that he went on to become
"The stories we wrote tended to be unflattering," said Bryan Matthews, who was a member of the Burson-Marstellar PR team hired by the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee.
"Most were about security and potentially negative issues," he said. "It became a bit frustrating. People were focusing on what could go wrong."[...] Bryan and partner Bill Rylance, dreamed up a scheme to generate good copy on the Olympics. They would allow 30 foreign correspondents - including 30 based in Seoul - to take part in the traditional Olympic torch relay.
an Olympic icon by default when it was used by the Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club in an advertising campaign to attract business. More than 11,000 journalists were in Seoul to cover the games, and the SFCC thought it would be an ideal opportunity to cash in by inviting them to spend their per diems at the club bar.There's not a lot of appreciation for pranks or humour out there by officials, is there? A New York Times article from the day before the Olympics began comments on some of the hopes that, for Koreans, the games could "remedy the damage to their national pride":
So the club printed up an advertising poster and pasted it up around the residence for Olympic journalists in southern Seoul. It showed the Washington Post's Tokyo correspondent John Burgess sitting on a wall outside the Chosun Hotel in the middle of a student riot, wearing a gas mask and balancing a laptop on his knees as the tear gas wafted around his head. The poster displeased the Korean Overseas Information Service.
"KOIS went mad," said SFCC president Mike Breen. "They accused us of trying to destroy the finest moment in Korean history. Our explanation that it was supposed to whimsical and funny was not appreciated. The poster was torn down and replaced with the one of Paul carrying the Olympic torch."
Yet many Koreans say the Olympics may mark a first step toward assuaging the resentment born of years when foreign occupiers disparaged Korean culture. The Olympics, many hope, can show the scoffers that South Korea is more than a nation of grocers and carmakers and no longer the land of Pork Chop Hill and M.A.S.H. - the Korean War battle and television show that imprinted images of Korean poverty and chaos on America's consciousness.Unfortunately, a few hotheads apparently lived up to negative perceptions:
"For Koreans, this is an event through which they can remedy the damage to their national pride," said Lim Hy Sop, professor of sociology at Korea University. "Korea is known to the people as a world as a country that went through the Korean War and only recently achieved economic development. But Koreans are eager to make the people of the world know that Korea is also a country of long cultural tradition. In terms of political and military strength, we may still be small and weak. But when you talk about culture, we are not inferior to any other country."
Indeed, the Olympics are being hosted by a nation that feels world applause is long overdue. South Korea's extraordinary economic growth and recent progress toward democracy are fueling a long-nurtured nationalism.
"You Americans look down on us -you think of us as low-educated and savage," said C. D. Chang, a 31-year-old travel agent. "I hope the Olympics can change that."
As the Donga Ilbo noted in this editorial after the western media - and especially NBC, in the Korean view - reported constantly on the boxing incident,
We must carefully mull the reason why our foreign friends are so readily prone to pick on our weak points and shortcomings while we are doing ever so much to welcome them. Hasn't our overindulgence in humbleness brought about a self-degradation?Well, there certainly wasn't going to be any more humbleness on the part of the Donga Ilbo, as we'll see (in fact, during the Olympics the Donga Ilbo was far more likely to take a nationalist, anti-American stance than the Hankyoreh). And when it was learned that the American swimmers had stolen a mask from a hotel (reported by AP as a 'concrete block'), people got angry:
Police and Seoul newspapers said Monday they have been flooded with calls from irate people demanding the two Americans receive prison sentences.
Newpapers, which referred to the incident under the headline ''Ugly Americans,'' said many readers were calling to complain, and the publications backed the calls for tough treatment.The newspapers continued to bristle with denunciations of U.S. press coverage of the Olympics and South Korea. Commentators charged the U.S. media was trying to blacken the nation's image.The influential Chosun Ilbo said in an editorial, ''The theft case involving the U.S. swimmers clearly shows the overbearing attitude of Americans.''
As is pointed out here, NBC also stood out for other reasons: "To cover the story, NBC will send more than 1,100 people to Seoul, including about 500 engineers, 70 cameramen, 60 directors and 60 producers." That makes up 10% of the 11,000 journalists who were there.[An AP article in the September 26 Stars and Stripes also quoted the Chosun-Ilbo as saying, "NBC has tried to show South Korea is culturally backward by showing our negative aspects."]
''How is NBC, which reported the momentary violent act in the boxing in such a manner, going to explain the theft case involving athletes from its own country?'' Joong-Ang Ilbo said.
The boxing incident was extensively covered by television around the world. But NBC is the only foreign network seen in South Korea, where it is shown on a U.S. military network.
However, as the New York Times continues,
Koreans can watch NBC coverage live on the American military station here, although many of those questioned said their reaction was based on South Korean news reports and hearsay.To quote from that NYT article again,
Some of the ill feeling clearly results from high expectations of a country South Koreans long regarded as a benevolent patron.
"I heard that NBC repeated the boxing scene for an hour," Mr. Chung said. "It was news, but it was not something to be picked over like that. A lot of Koreans consider Americans as the elder brother. An elder brother should try to cover the mistakes of the younger brother." [...]
"It was news and we covered it as news; it wasn't viewed as a condemnation of the Korean people," said Terry Ewert, coordinating producer for the Olympics for NBC Sports. "But they're very sensitive about their country. You say anything wrong about Korean society and it's like taking a swipe at their whole culture."[...]
In addition to some admiring portraits of South Korean economic and political progress, NBC has broadcast reports prepared by its news and sports divisions on Korean sweatshops, squatters forced from their homes as Seoul prepared for the Olympics, urban poor, prostitutes, and adoption of Korean children by foreigners. Bob Eaton, executive producer for the Olympics for NBC News, and Michael Weisman, executive producer for NBC Sports, said they had received complaints about several of the broadcasts.
Regarding the decision to shelve a planned program on Korean women that was scheduled Monday night, Kevin Monaghan, an NBC spokesman, said: "We know people are very sensitive now about features involving Korea, and the piece wouldn't have been a positive piece."
Koreans can watch NBC coverage live on the American military station here, although many of those questioned said their reaction was based on South Korean news reports and hearsay.Make no mistake, the media was leading the charge to make Koreans feel aggrieved, insulted, and ready to take action (and, of course, some did take physical action in Itaewon in at least three different cases).
On Monday, September 26, the Donga Ilbo had no less than five articles about the Americans or their broadcasters - none of which were positive. (One, on page 15, about the US soldiers who were arrested, is looked at here.) The first was a column on page two I'll translate as "Phoning in rage," in which Yeon Guk-hui of the foreign news department offered his views (which were more measured than in the rest of the paper):
For a few days now, newspapers have been getting quite a lot of phone calls with strong voices. Among them some have denounced the violence of the Korean athletes during an Olympic boxing match, while others have used the opportunity to vent anger about American NBC's broadcasting stance. We'll slowly mull over self-criticism, but first if we examine NBC's reports, there isn't anyone who wouldn't be angry.[...]The third sentence in the second paragraph above featured in an AP article, though the word 'homosexuals' was omitted.
We have many questions we would like to ask NBC. If we visited big cities like San Francisco and New York and went to Harlem and reported extensively on beggars, homosexuals, drunks and drug addicts and played them up, how would you feel? If the Chinese and Soviet media go from shouting the perennial "The US is a country swarming with beggars, gangsters and fraudsters" to "Now American imperialism will collapse," the NBC reporting team would convince and help the Chinese and Soviet people to understand the truth about America as well.
On page 13 of the Donga Ilbo was a round-up of Olympics stories which featured the sub-headline "American officials are 'hush hush' about reports of the swimmers' theft":
Upon hearing of the three swimmers, including gold medalists, caught and turned over to police for stealing a sculpture from a hotel, the US Olympic Committee reacted as if it was not a big deal.Also on page 13 was an article about NBC:
However, the US Olympic Committee did not let its athletes know about it and kept it quiet among its officials.
A Korean volunteer for the US Olympic Committee said, "Last time when the violent incident in the boxing area happened, the US Olympic Committee was deluged with phone calls from irate citizens calling to complain about NBC's attitude towards broadcasting." "This incident provides a chance to correct the arrogant attitude of Americans."
"NBC's unfair concealment, only reports on 'violence'"Page 14 of that edition of the Donga Ilbo featured the following column by Jeong Dong-woo:
AP wires quotes of critical statements made by Korean media and politicians
Only introduces people to Seoul's dark side
Organizers of Seoul Olympics [only] interested in medals
Korean newspapers and politicians have criticized the biased and distorted reporting by foreign media about Korea related to the violence that occurred in the boxing arena on the 22nd.
In the case of the boxing arena incident, major Korean newspapers criticized the foreign media's exaggerated reports which made no mention of the referee's fairness, in particular the American broadcaster NBC, which is intent on reporting on the negative aspects of Korea, including the boxing incident.
One newspaper pointed out that "In introducing Seoul, NBC reports exaggerated its dark side such as dog meat soup and dirty markets in slum areas."
A prominent member of Korea's ruling Democratic Justice Party expressed regret at NBC's coverage, warning that "If NBC continues with its distorted reports about Korea, it will further inflame the anti-American sentiment already spreading among the Korean people."
Meanwhile, South Korea's media criticized Japanese newspapers for exaggerated reports about the possibility of terrorist threats by the Japanese Red Army during the Olympics.
American broadcaster's distorted reportsWell, Koreans might be shocked to realize that NBC had actually first formed back in the 1920s hoping to one day slander Korea as an Olympic host - in fact, it was its driving aim. Or not.
A deluge of angry phone calls saying "NBC is slandering us"
After reporting the robbery by American swimmers, including an Olympic gold medalist, on September 24, every broadcaster and newspaper received a torrent of phone calls from citizens condemning the American athletes. In indignation and agitation, citizens with the same voice are standing up to the American network NBC, which gave more than one hour of live coverage to the disturbance caused by some Korean athletes and coaches whose dissatisfaction over an Olympic boxing preliminary match decision had boiled over, coverage which criticized the incident as if the entire Korean people had taken part.
Readers said, "Korea's media should also spotlight crimes by Americans." As well, some readers suggested as a title for such a newspaper article, "Hideous crimes are a reflection of the American national character."
When it became known that on that day the American press issued only very brief reports about the incident, the US Embassy was deluged with critical phone calls which asked, "Why isn't the American media covering this incident to the same degree they did the boxing arena protest incident?"
One citizen in his forties drove around Gwanghwamun intersection with a large piece of paper pasted to the back window of his car which read "Strip the thieves of their gold medals!" Such 'anger' among the people is due to distorted reports about Korea by the American media, including NBC, which haven't said a word about the incident.
NBC, which has exclusive rights to the Olympics in the US, came early to Korea for the opening and broadcast special reports in the US such as "The truth about the trafficking of women in Itaewon" and "Black marketing of goods from USFK PXs." As well, rather than look at the Olympic preparations, it focuses on the dark side and looks at things in a negative light, such as on the 23rd when it showed a meeting of Sechongryeon (Seoul Student Alliance) at Korea University and introduced [Americans to] Korean red-light districts.
Some Korean Americans made international calls to the Donga Ilbo and said that NBC's broadcasts in the US, with such distorted, biased reports, were significantly lowering the diginity and morale of Korea Americans.
At this point, the angry voices of the people say they can't tell whether NBC has come to broadcast the Olympics or to slander the Olympic hosts.
Not long ago, teenage children of US soldiers caused controversy when they group-assaulted a pregnant Korean housewife. As well, on the 24th four drunk US soldiers got a free ride to Itaewon and fled, and when the driver chased them, demanding the fare, they pulled out a knife and badly injured him. Such crimes as these by Americans which arouse national repulsion are increasing.
These incidents happening one after another during the Olympics are casting a dark shadow on Korean-American relations. The American press has to realize that their distorted reporting severely hurting the pride and self respect of Korean citizens who for 7 years have endured all kinds of difficulties together to prepare for the Olympics and is causing anti-American sentiment to become widespread.
A September 28 Korea Herald article titled "Ugly incidents undermine historic image of US as global benefactor" (and subtitled "Americans' presence here comes under sharp questioning") wonders if the US is the 'same Uncle Sam who came to the rescue when the Korean War broke out' or whether it is an 'imperialistic power.'
A majority of Koreans may feel that Korea owes the United states much for what it is now. It seems apparent, however, that this perception is being eroded at a fast pace.Mentioning the 'unbalanced coverage' of the boxing incident and swimmers' theft by the US media and the 'deluge of phone calls' from 'irked' Koreans and reports that a US official dealing with the swimmers told Korean reporters to "Get out of here," the article ends with these paragraphs about the US:
One incident that caused a slide in the US reputation among Koreans involves two teenagers, both children of US military officials stationed in Seoul.
Earlier this month, they allegedly beat a pregnant woman waiting for her husband to return home from his office.
The two American teens may not represent the whole United States. Nevertheless, they left an indelible image of an arrogant America in the minds of many Koreans, who asked how dare they punch and slap a defenceless woman in a land far from their home.
Is it the same nation that went into a secret pact with Japan (the Katsura –Taft agreement of 1905), permitting Japan to annex Korea five years later in exchange for its unhampered dominance over the Philippines?Looking at the laundry list of crimes by 'America' suddenly being enumerated, even going back to 1905 (when the UK was more at fault than the US), I couldn't help but remember this comment by Sperwer at the Marmot's Hole:
Or is it the nation which poured billions of dollars into Korea to help it stand on its own feet after independence from Japanese colonial rule?
The United States, now standing between these two historical facts, is not as appealing to Koreans now as it was in the past.
[Y]ou can be sure that rather than moving along "Korea" is simply adding this to its elephantine memory of slights and insults to be avenged in a manner wildly disproportionate to the actual offense. It may be pushed onto the back burner for awhile, but beware the return of the repressed.Once the media began to prescribe outrage as an antidote to the humiliation that they said people were supposed to be feeling ("many of those questioned said their reaction was based on South Korean news reports and hearsay"), even events as far back as Taft-Katsura and the Sinmi Yangyo (of 1871 - remember this article?) were fair game to reach back to to throw on the humiliation bonfire, and it was from here, that any action by an American (or by NBC) that could be construed as an insult to the Korean people would be seized upon by the media to cultivate outrage. And with events of the the second week of the Olympics, from taxi-fleeing soldiers to a taxi-kicking runner to insulting-T-shirt-ordering NBC staffers, there were lots of sparks for papers like the Donga Ilbo to take into their hands and kindle into something outrageous. In doing so, they appeared to hit upon a cathartic way for the populace to "remedy the damage to their national pride."
Not that this should be so surprising. With the easing up of restrictions on the media after democratization began, they not only suddenly had the freedom to say more than they could previously, they had a safe outlet in targeting the US.
By the end of the week, however, even the politicians who had joined in the 'Yankee bashing' had begun to realize that things were going too far.


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Friday, November 3, 2023 / by Joe Suarez
Don't Believe Everything You Read About Home Prices
According to the latest data from Fannie Mae, 23% of Americans still think home prices will go down over the next twelve months. But why do roughly 1 in 4 people feel that way?
It has a lot to do with all the negative talk about home prices over the past year. Since late 2022, the media has created a lot of fear about a price crash and those concerns are still lingering. You may be hearing people in your own life saying they're worried about home prices or see on social media that some influencers are saying prices are going to come tumbling down.
If you're someone who still thinks prices are going to fall, ask yourself this: Which is a more reliable place to get your information – clickbait headlines and social media or a trusted expert on the housing market?
The answer is simple. Listen to the professionals who specialize in residential real estate.
Here's the latest data you can actually trust. Housing market experts acknowledge that nationally, prices did dip down slightly late last year, but that was short-lived. Data shows prices have already rebounded this year after that slight decline in 2022 (see graph below):
But it's not just Fannie Mae that's reporting this bounce back. Experts from across the industry are showing it in their data too. And that's why so many forecasts now project home prices will net positive this year – not negative. The graph below helps prove this point with the latest forecasts from each organization:
What's worth noting is that, just a few short weeks ago, the Fannie Mae forecast was for 3.9% appreciation in 2023. In the forecast that just came out, that projection was updated from 3.9% to 6.7% for the year. This increase goes to show just how confident experts are that home prices will net positive this year.
So, if you believe home prices are falling, it may be time to get your insights from the experts instead – and they're saying prices aren't falling, they're climbing.
Bottom Line
There's been a lot of misleading information about home prices over the past year. And that's still having an impact on how people are feeling about the housing market today. But it's best not to believe everything you hear or read.
If you want information you can trust, turn to the real estate experts. Their data shows home prices are on the way back up and will net positive for the year. If you have questions about what's happening in our local area, let's connect.


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OPRE 202 Group Tutorial
- When:
- Location:
- Langsdale Library: Turner Learning Commons, third floor
- Room:
- Description:
In response to student demand, the Achievement and Learning Center has planned a small-group tutorial for students in OPRE 202: Statistical Data Analysis. You can attend the tutorial in person or online:
Saturday, Feb. 4 | 2 – 4 p.m. | LC 319 or click on:
The tutorial, led by the ALC's math coordinator, Yoosef Khadem, will cover an introduction to statistical data analysis definitions and descriptive statistics, followed by Excel stat function.
If you'd like to attend the review in-person, please RSVP below. If you'd like to attend online, please click the "Online" link above 10 minutes before the session begins.
- Contact Name:
- Achivement & Learning Services
- Contact Email:
- firstname.lastname@example.com
- Contact Phone:
- 410.837.5383
Appropriate accommodations for individuals with disabilities will be provided upon request 10 days prior to a campus event and 30 days prior to an event requiring travel.


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2006-09-21 »
Delirium 1: The Genius of Obsession
My friends dmg and apm recently lent me a book called The Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder. It's a work of long form, non-fictional journalism that describes the process of designing a new minicomputer at Data General around 1980. It's much more about the people and their social issues than about the computer itself.
What an interesting book to recommend to me right now. I certainly recognize the story: team of 30 or so crazy people in larger company isolate themselves, gel as a team, build impossible product on crazy timeline, live through pressure, team reorgs, smart and stupid managers, and have way too little real life experience. Product gets completed (a bit late, of course), team leader moves on, and team essentially disintegrates and carries its experience elsewhere, person by person, while parent company lives on, continuing to sell the resulting product and ones based on it. I guess we can be proud - we held together the culture longer than they did.
But the things that really struck me about the story weren't so much the similarities as the differences. They did a few things "right" in that story - for some definition of "right" - that I never quite managed. Their team lead, Tom West, managed to bring out of everyone on his team something that I've only ever managed to bring out in myself personally - total obsession with the end goal.
And obsession, as I learned for sure in the last few months of not being obsessed, is where it's at. Obsession is the only way to really get into The Zone. It gives you energy you didn't know you had. It turns you from a normal mortal into something more. I've done it for myself a few times. I used to wonder if you could even do it for other people, because I never had much luck. But after reading this book, I have a few clues. Not surprisingly, they echo the environment I create naturally for myself - but I have to change my style if I'm going to create the same conditions for others.
Mutual Motivation. You can't obsess alone for long. The key thing isn't so much having help as being needed. You have to not let people down. That fear is what makes stopping harder than going on.
"Signing up." It has to be voluntary. You have to know what you're getting into on day 1, and decide it's worth it. You have to decide it out loud, and promise it to others. You have to be visibly, publicly in the game, so any failure will be an obvious one.
No way out. There can be no escape clause. If you fail, we're all dead. Nobody will save you. If you're late, we're all late with you. There's no superhero who will do it better and bail you out. You're going to have to grow up and be the superhero. If you really have to do it, maybe then you really can do it.
Too stupid to know it's impossible. It has to be harder than you thought it would be, not easier, so the pressure builds instead of dissipates near the end, when it's easiest to lose interest. And so experience kills - you'll never be able to obsess the same way twice. That's why younger people, especially students, are better at it than oldsters. (As someone on the verge of being an oldster myself - in the book, 30 years is the magic age - I already have to find crazier and crazier projects each time, always outside my existing experience, or I simply can't obsess enough.)
Too blind to see it doesn't really matter. In real life, almost nothing you do makes a serious, long-term difference. Realizing this will kill your fun. You need blinders - and if you're lucky, a really good reality distortion field. Again, older people have trouble here, because once you've been disillusioned by dedicating a year to an ultimately pointless project, it's hard to fall for that again. Except that falling for it is fun.
Too restricted to take the easy way out. Smart, sensible ways of solving problems will knock you out of The Zone. Sensible schedules, flexible and forgiving bosses, 8-hour work days, good nutrition, the newest equipment, a social life (outside work), even using low-cost direct mail services instead of composing your own poetry and stuffing your own envelopes - all these things make it too easy. That means less pressure. Less pressure means less obsession. There's a good reason why entrepreneurial companies are responsible for most of the wildest innovation in the world: because they're so helpless, disorganized, and resource-constrained that nothing you do there isn't a challenge. And that makes your brain work harder, nonstop, without any chance to cool down and drop back from hyperspace into normal space.
When I've done the best work in my life, those are the rules I followed. I turned my load factor down to levels I knew perfectly well were too low to be safe. I set things up so I had no escape and nobody could possibly bail me out. I bet my reputation that I would be done on time. And because it's my special skill, I always, always, failed to realize how impossible and unimportant the job was - at least until afterwards.
And that, let me tell you right now, is the magic combination that makes life worth living. From now on, I'm going to be a very different kind of manager. You should be glad you don't work for me anymore!
Why would you follow me on twitter? Use RSS.


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In this hobby, people often reinvent the wheel just because they can. Someone builds a transmitter or receiver from their own design, rather than copying someone else's, because they can learn from it, and because it is interesting. However, I'm not sure this approach makes sense for web-based projects.
This morning I saw a Ham Banner Exchange ad for Sparkgap.net - a ham community. I clicked on the link, and what I saw was a fledgeling site, still with a lot of bits to be implemented, where hams can chat to each other, upload photos, exchange files and so on.
It looks nice enough. But is there a need for it? We already have QRZ.com and eHam.net. There is Yahoo Groups, which hosts hundreds of ham-radio related mailing lists. Personally I hate Yahoo Groups, because I don't want my email box filling up with that stuff, and the web interface stinks. But most hams seem to be happy with it. Then there is 73s.org, which many object to just because of its name, but which seems to be doing what Sparkgap is seeking to do, and actually appears to be gaining popularity.
The trouble with web communities is that they need a critical mass in order to be successful. A year or so ago Thom K3HRN and I set up the Zerobeat Forum. We did actually have an excuse - it was originally meant to be just a demo of what a web forum alternative to the Elecraft email reflector could be like, though the Elecraft users, being a forward looking bunch, mostly shunned it. But since we had done the work, we decided to open some more general discussion boards and make it available as a more general ham radio forum. However, although there are nearly 400 members, the last post was more than two months ago. You need a lot more participation than that to keep people coming back, and when there are already active forums in existence, there is little incentive for people to visit another one.
It's probably time to pull the plug on the Zerobeat Forums. Whether Sparkgap.net will eventually suffer the same fate only time will tell.


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Rafa's Vocabulary Ticker Is A Language Learning Tool I've Created To Help You Get Fluent Faster.* * * * *And Have You Signed Up For My Free Newsletter Yet?Subscribe above
"Having found Rafa's website by accident I can honestly say it was the best thing to happen to me on my journey to learn Portuguese. I started learning on January 2012 (using a language programme) but wanted to take some classes to aid my learning. When I looked on the internet there were so many options and I felt overwhelmed but one day whilst randomly looking on different websites I found Rafa's site and thought it was the best site I had come across but when I found out he did lessons in London I was thrilled - I emailed him and he promptly responded and we arranged to meet for a coffee the next day. Rafa was so confident that I would find his lessons successful that he offered me the first lesson for free and he was right! What makes Rafa such a fantastic teacher is that not only does he explain the concepts and structure of the language in a clear, concise manner, he inspires his students with the confidence to speak and the motivation to want to learn more - I now take lessons twice a week (2 hours each time) and I always look forward to every lesson. Learning Portuguese can be extremely frustrating at times but Rafa gives you the belief that with his help and hard work you can achieve your goal. I have been really impressed with my progress since January and to put it into context - on my first lesson my only contact with Portuguese was 8 lessons on a language programme. With Rafa, we started going through the alphabet and pronunciation rules and now, three months later we are talking in Portuguese about holidays, life in London and even the socio-economic fortunes of young people in Brazil! Rafa has not only been an inspiring teacher but has become a good friend - he's always happy to answer my emails if I have questions and we often go for a coffee or beer after lessons to discuss my progress and other things of interest. If you are serious about learning Portuguese I could not recommend Rafa highly enough - he will be the difference between you giving up when the success you want is just around the corner. Jamie." - London . U.K. |
"Hi Rafa
This site is just amazing - I really enjoy having the resource available to learn Portuguese - and have learnt so much from it already.Please keep adding more!
Nina." - South Africa
"A great Portuguese teacher! Rafa speaks excellent English, and as a result is able to explain subtleties that other teachers can't. He can speak Portuguese clearly for the beginner or with the slang and difficult pronunciation that everyday Portuguese so often use. This is a great help. The use of Skype to conduct a lesson at a distance is great. It works absolutely fine. His site has lots of goodies and is very useful. That, combined with Rafa himself as a teacher over Skype is an excellent way to learn the language." Dale - Netherlands. |
"Dear Rafa,
Just wanted to thank you that you took your time and build this page. In my opinion is the best page for learning Portuguese, I just love your way of teaching! I've already taken lessons in my country but now everything seems much, much easier!
Muito obrigada :)
Ana." - Slovenia
"I contracted the services of Mr Rafael Tavares this summer to help me in the preparation of a series of lectures I will be giving in Mozambique. Mr Tavares managed to impart to me an incredibly clear insight to the fundamentals of Portuguese grammar and construction, which has boosted my ability and confidence enormously." Dr. Boomer - London, England |
Just want to say that I have found your site on learning Portuguese absolutely great! I am planning to come over to Portugal early next year to live and try to find work. Like you say it takes time to learn a language and that is true, but I do feel much more confident learning Portuguese from your site than any book, class or tapes etc... Thanks for the great site!
Cheers from Melbourne Australia.
Richard" - Australia
"It's just great to learn with Rafa. His enthusiasm, dedication and humour are really inspiring and encouraging. A student could not ask for a better Portuguese teacher." Jessica - Canada |
"Hi Rafa
Congratulations on your site, which I have just found. I began Portuguese just a few weeks ago at weekly evening class and, despite being a pretty good Spanish speaker, am finding Portuguese pronunciation hard going. Your section on this topic, plus the free lesson at front of site, are a definite help to learn Portuguese.Muito obrigado!"
Harry" - UK
"I would have absolutely no hesitation whatsoever in recommending in the highest possible terms Mr Tavares to anyone wishing to learn or improve their Portuguese." John - L.A., USA |
"Olá! Eu queria escrever só porque gosto muito do seu site! Eu amo o português!! Eu gosto do que você escreve sobre o medo e a mente quando aprendemos línguas.
Eu gosto de ler coisas sobre como aprender Português na internet. Eu aprendi Português enquanto morei no Rio de Janeiro por 6 meses e falando só com os Brasileiros. Ajudou também ter um namorado brasileiro. Estou aprendendo ainda, todo dia, mas tenho confiança em enfrentar qualquer Brasileiro para dar uma idéa! Hoje em dia tem tantos métodos de estudar. Eu vejo vídeos no youtube - entrevistas, programas de televisão, músicas - e ler os commentarios - isso é muito bom para aprender as gírias! É bom também memorizar as letras das musicas....
Boa sorte! Gostei do seu site!
Stephanie" - USA
"I have been deeply impressed by Rafa's structured way of teaching and his ability to identify the really key aspects for his students, thus enabling me to advance very rapidly without spending time on less important or extraneous topics." Diane - NY, USA |
"Bom dia, Rafa :)
I like your page and it is very useful for me when I learn Portuguese since I get a lot of information which is easy to understand. Thank you so much for your effort.
Donata" - Lithuania
"Olá Rafa!
O meu nome é Jakub. Eu só queria dizer que eu estou feliz de encontrar o seu site. Acho que ele é muito bom e útil! Eu tento aprender a língua Portuguesa porque tenho muitos amigos Angolanos na minha cidade - Cracovia.
And something I'm not yet able to express in Portuguese... I very much like your way of sharing knowledge and your sense of humour. Muito obrigado!
Jakub" - Poland
"Hi Rafa,
Your site is a really useful resource, and I found your comparison of the personal infinitive/future subjunctive very interesting – I happened upon it precisely when I was struggling to grasp the concept, thinking I may be the only one with this problem!
Alex" - UK
"Hi Rafa
This is a great site! I'm a British ex-pat and I have been living in Portugal for 15 months now, but I am still struggling with the language. I've spent a lot of money on books, CDs and language lessons.
I like the idea of practising my pronunciation by reading out the text but I think the text you have chosen is far too difficult. In my opinion, an easier text with more commonly used words would be more useful and make beginners feel less overwhelmed!
Many thanks again, it's a great site!
Jennifer" - Portugal
"Olá Rafa
I love the website!!! I can see that a lot of long nights and a lot of thinking went into this site.
Cenk." - England


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When someone as important and as prominent as Jason Hoffman reads and follows your blog, you tend to stand up and take notice. I found out last week that Jason Hoffman, Founder and CTO of Joyent, was doing just that, I was deeply honoured and elated.
My Asian values started kicking in and I felt that I should reciprocate his gracious visits with a piece on Joyent. I have known about Joyent, thanks to Bryan Cantrill as the VP of Engineering because I am bloody impressed with his work with DTrace. And I have followed Joyent's announcements every now and then, even recommending a job that was posted on Joyent's website for a Service Delivery Manager in Asia Pacific for my buddy a couple of months ago. He's one of the best Solaris engineers I have ever worked with but the problem with techies is, they tend to wait for everything to fall into place before they do the next thing. Too methodical!
I took some time over the weekend to understand a bit more about Joyent and their solution offerings. They are doing some mighty cool stuff and if you are Unix/Linux buff/bigot like me, you would be damn impressed. For those people who has experienced Unix and especially Solaris, there is an unexplained element that describes the fire and the passion of such a techie. I was feeling all the good vibes all over again.
Unfortunately, Joyent is not well known in this part of the world but I am well aware of their partnership with a local company called XyBase in an announcement in June last year. Xybase, through its vehicle called Anise Asia, entered into the partnership to resell Joyent's SmartCenter solution. For those who has worked with XyBase in Malaysia, let's not go there. 😉
Enough chitter-chatter! What's Joyent about?
Well, for Malaysian IT followers, we are practically drowned in VMware. VMware does a seminar every 1.5 months or so, and they get invited to other vendors' events ever so frequently as well. My buddy, Mr. Ong Kok Leong, who was an early employee in VMware Malaysia, has been elevated to superstardom, thanks to his presence in everything VMware. It's a good thing and kudos to VMware to take advantage of their first-to-market, super gung-ho approach in the last 3 years or so. They have built a sizable lead in the local market and the competitors like Citrix Xen, Microsoft Hyper-V are being left in a dust. I believe only RedHat's KVM is making a bit of a dent but they are primarily confined to their own RedHat space. Furthermore, most of VMware competitors do not have a strong portfolio and a complete software stack to challenge VMware and what they have been churning out.
Here's my take … consider Joyent because I see Joyent having a very, very strong portfolio to give VMware a run for its money. Public listed VMware has deep pockets to continue their marketing blitz and because of where they are right now, they have gotten very pricey and complicated. And this blogger intends to level the playing field a bit by sharing more about Joyent and their solutions.
I see Joyent having 4 very strong technologies that differentiates them from others. These technologies (in no particular order) are:
- node.js
- DTrace
These technologies have been proven in the field because Joyent has been deploying, stress testing them and improving on them in their own cloud offering called Joyent Cloud for the last few year. This is true "eating your own dogfood" and putting your money where your mouth is. This is a very important considering when building a Cloud Computing offering, especially in the public cloud space. You need something that is proven and Joyent Cloud is testimonial to Joyent's technology.
So let's start with a diagram of the Joyent Cloud Software Stack.
Key to the performance of Joyent Cloud is node.js.
node.js as quoted in its website is "Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices." The key to this is being event-driven and asynchronous and cloud solutions developed using node.js are able to go faster, scale bigger and respond better. The event-based model follows a programming approach in which the flow of the program is determined by events that occurred.
A simple analogy is when you (in Malaysia) is at McDonald's. In the past, the McDonald's staff will service and fulfill your order before they service the next customer and so on. That was the flow of the past. Some time last year, McDonalds' decide that their front staff would take your order, sends you to a queue and then took the order of the next customer. The back-end support staff would then fulfill your order putting that burger and drink on your tray. That is why they are able to serve (take your money) faster and get more things done. This is what I understand about event-driven, when it is applied in a programming content.
node.js has been touted as the new "Ruby-on-Rails" and it is all about low-latency, and concurrency in applications, especially cloud applications. Here's a video introducing node.js, by Joyent's very own Ryan Dahl, the creator of node.js.
Besides performance, you would also need a strong and robust file system to ensure security, data integrity and protection of data as it scales. ZFS is a 128-bit, enterprise file system that was developed in Sun more than 10 years ago, and I am a big admirer of the ZFS technology. I have written about ZFS in the past, comparing it with NetApp's Data ONTAP and also written about ZFS self-healing properties in dealing with Silent Data Corruption. In fact, my buddy (him being the more technical one) and I have been developing storage solutions with ZFS.
Cloud Computing is complex and you have to know what's happening in the Cloud. For the Cloud Service Provider, they must know the real-time behaviour of the cloud properties. It could be for performance, resource consumption and contention, bottlenecks, applications characteristics, and even for finding the problems as quickly as possible. For the customers, they must have the ability to monitor, understand and report what they are consuming and using in the Cloud.
The regular used buzzword is Analytics and DTrace is the framework developed for Cloud Analytics. When it comes to analytics, nothing comes close to what DTrace can do. Most vendors (including VMware) will provide APIs for 3rd party ISVs to develop cloud analytics but nothing beats having the creator of the cloud technology given you the tools that they use internally. That is what Joyent is giving to the customer, DTrace, a tool that they use themselves internally. Here's a screenshot of DTrace in action for Joyent's SmartDataCenter.
I have always said that you got to see it to know it. Cloud visibility is crucial for the optimal operational efficiency of the cloud.
Joyent already has Solaris Zones technology in its offering. But the missing piece was bare metal hypervisor and last year, Joyent added the final piece. KVM (Kernel-based Virtualization) was ported to Joyent, and KVM is more secure, and faster than the traditional approach of VMware, which relies on binary translation. KVM would mean that the virtualization kernel has direct interaction and communication with the native x86 virtualization on processors that supports hardware virtualization extension. There is a whole religious debate about native, paravirtualization and binary translation on the web. You can read one here, and as I said, KVM is native virtualization.
There are lots more to know about Joyent but you got to spend some time to learn about it. It is not well known (yet) in this part of the world, my intention in this blog entry is to disseminate information so that you readers don't have to be droned into one thing only.
There are choices and in the virtualization space, it is just not always about VMware. VMware deserves to be where they are but when one comes into power (like VMware), he/she tends to become less friendly to work it. A customer should not be subjected to this new order of oppression because businesses are there when there are customers. And as customers, they are always choices and Joyent is one good choice.