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A typical MR fluid consists of 20-40 percent by volume of relatively pure, 3-10 micron diameter iron particles, suspended in a carrier liquid such as mineral oil, synthetic oil, water or glycol. A variety of proprietary additives, similar to those found in commercial lubricants to discourage gravitational setting and promote particle suspension, are commonly added to LORD Corporation's state-of-the-art MR fluids to enhance lubricity, modify viscosity and inhibit wear. For most engineering applications, a simple Bingham plastic model is effective in describing the essential, field-dependent fluid characteristics.
MR fluids are usually applied in one of two modes. MR fluid operating in valve mode, with fixed magnetic poles, may be appropriate for hydraulic controls, servo valves, dampers, and shock absorbers. The direct-shear mode with a
moving pole, in turn, would be suitable for clutches and brakes, chucking/locking devices, dampers, breakaway devices and structural composites.
MR fluids made from iron particles exhibit maximum yield strengths of 50-100 kPa for applied magnetic fields of 150-250 kA/m. MR fluids are not highly sensitive to moisture or other contaminants that might be encountered during manufacture and usage. Further, because the magnetic polarization mechanism is unaffected by temperature, the performance of MR-based devices is relatively insensitive to temperature over a broad temperature range (including the range for automotive use).

subset: commoncrawl


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Modern Bus Parking: Bus Driving Games Ready to play Luxury Bus Parking Simulator Game 2020, become a real bus driver Apic Studio launched new theme based City Coach Bus Driving Sim : Bus Games 2020 game for parking & simulation users. Bus Parking and Simulation Games brings you the all new Smart coach bus parking: new free game, the most realistic city bus Game play includes many beautiful coach Buses. Eye-catching hilly mountainous environment will make you feel like driving a real coach. City coach bus parking 3d: drive simulator is a game full of thrill and adventure. You have pick the passengers and drop them at destinations by driving the coach on highways through the dangerous terrain and uphills to the city and from city to coach terminal. In Modern bus parking simulator: driving game 2020 you can witness the beauty of nature as you are driving the coach on uphills and mountain tops. Beautiful hill station surrounding by hills and forest and highways. City Coach Bus Driving 3D : Free Bus Games Let's come and play most entertaining public Coach bus simulator game where your learned bus driving skills! When you play offroad bus driving simulator and city bus coach simulator just Complete challenging missions, pick and drop passengers to city bus driving points and upgrade your bus for better driving and real bus driving simulator. Indian Coach Bus Transport Driving Sim : Bus games 2020 gives you a realistic city bus simulator driving experience and euro bus coach simulator skills. Super Bus Arena : Public Coach Driving Simulator Passenger bus city driving 2020: free parking is the Best Simulation game with Real Smooth and Realistic control. Around 30+ Levels which design with differed weather, Environment and Mode. where you have to prove your Driving Skills between narrow path. To complete level with high Reward Reached Parking Spot without collision of any hurdle. In this game you have two chance for collision. Public Transport Bus : Free Bus Driving Games We are bringing this Indian coach bus driving simulator 2020 games for everyone can enjoy this Euro bus racing simulator 3d: new parking 2020. The smooth controls of Impossible bus driving simulator 3d: real parking will make it attractive to play. This is realistic bus driving game so you have to park a huge number of buses in this impossible bus parking master 3d free game. Drive bus in offroad stunts, curvy tracks is not so easy you have to improve your offroad bus simulator driving skills of free bus parking simulator 2020. City Bus Coach Simulator : Free Bus Driving Games You can drive public bus, passenger bus parking, heavy buses but be careful to avoid hitting the game hurdles in this Public coach bus spooky stunt parking game. Indian city bus parking 3d game has challenging jumbo missions, so improve your bus driving skills to make sure to park bus parking safely. Public Coach Bus Drive Simulator : Bus Games 2020 Select your favorite long vehicle and get behind the wheels of steering, fasten your seat belt, start the bus engine to show the exact precision of driving and parking in realistic city environment. Your main task is drive and park your giant bus in parking area, many difficulties and hard challenges will make your task more challenging. Feel the thrill of steering on jumbo but beautiful piece of machinery. Reach at your destination without any collision with any obstacles, hurdles and other parked vehicles on your way. Drive through parking tracks and avoid cones and road barriers to reach at your bus parking spot Real Coach Bus Simulator 2020 : City Bus Driving Features of US City Bus Simulator 2020 : Bus Driving Games • Smooth controls with pressure brakes and accelerator • Customize camera positions • Very smooth steering control • Lots of tourist buses • Free bus parking simulation game 3d exclusively for you Public Bus Transport Simulator: City Bus Free Game is free to play and supported by ADS.
Keyboard Controls
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The Western Connection began in 2003 as collaboration between Western Connecticut State University and the Danbury area school districts to provide students with disabilities opportunities in a college setting. This regional program, for students ages 18-21, provides academic opportunities, work experiences, and life skills instruction to assist students in developing the vocational, study and social skills necessary for future post secondary study, competitive employment and community living. Generally a two year program, students audit one class per semester (for a total of four class experiences), and have one different work experience per semester (for a total of four different vocational experiences). Graduates of this program have opted for a variety of settings after graduating from the program. They include: 4 year colleges, community colleges, or the work force.
Current on campus worksites include:
- Accessability Office
- Office of Admissions
- Career Development Center
- Shipping and Receiving
- Food Service
- Mail Room
- Haas Library
- Locksmith
A significant emphasis is on developing social skills appropriate to college age students. Students participate in a social skills group for one hour weekly. Western Connection students are encouraged to join clubs and attend special college presentations. They take advantage of the fitness facilities and the game rooms.
There are at least two social or cultural events held per month- shared by both Western Connection and WCSC education, and social work students.
Activities at the college have included:
- Coffee Houses
- Football Games/Tailgating Parties
- Movies
- Theater Productions
- Hikes, Bowling, Miniature Golf


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Postdoc Training Programme
With the Postdoc Training Programme you have the chance to develop your organizational and personal skills. We have created different modules for postdocs, such as Basic Project Management, Giving and Receiving Feedback in an International Context and Basic Management and Leadership skills.
Leiden University strives to accommodate academic talent, which is why we want to create an inspiring environment for postdocs. Besides the postdoc modules you are very welcome to join the in-house course for researchers: Writing an excellent grant proposal.


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Pass the Posset: The Medieval Eggnog
When ye olde tavern keeper asked his patrons, "What's your poison?" their answer may very well have been, "Posset, please." The warm, creamy forerunner to eggnog was "all the rage in the late Middle Ages," according to The Glutton's Glossary, by John Ayto.
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the poison was more literal—Lady Macbeth slipped a couple of Mickeys (or their contemporary equivalents) into the possets of the guards outside Duncan's quarters so they wouldn't get in her murderous way.
I must have passed over that mention of possets during my college reading of the play—dismissing it as just another unfamiliar word among many—because I didn't recognize it when I next saw it, at the Shelburne Museum, in Vermont.
During a visit there last summer, I was intrigued by a some elaborate looking vessels in the collection. They resembled large, two-handled teapots, but the labels identified them as posset pots. Posset pots, made of ceramic or metal, were specifically designed for the job: since posset was both a drink and a dessert, with a layer of thick, sweet gruel floating above the liquid, the spout allowed the liquid part to be drunk separately from the thick layer, which was eaten with a spoon. The pot was often passed around at English weddings to toast the bride and groom. In an exhibit called "Design Rewind: The Origins of Innovation" a couple of years ago, the museum compared the posset pot's design to the modern-day toddler's sippy cup.
Posset recipes varied widely, but they usually contained wine or beer, cream, sugar and egg, and were thickened with bread, biscuits, oatmeal or almond paste, which formed the top layer. One 17th century recipe doesn't make it sound too appealing:
Take a quart of thick cream, boyle it with whole spice, then take sixteen eggs, yolks and whites beaten very well, then heat about three quarters of a pint of sack , and mingle well with your eggs, then stir them into your cream, and sweeten it, then cover it up close for half an hour or more over a seething pot of water or over very slow embers, in a bason, and it will become like a cheese.
I can't imagine that a beverage being "like a cheese" would ever be a good thing. We may have hit upon the reason why possets have all but disappeared from the winter beverage scene.
In Britain, the word posset has made a comeback, though it now refers to a light, creamy dessert, similar to a syllabub. And what's a syllabub, you ask? A creamy drink or dessert made with wine, sweetened cream and sometimes beaten egg whites. As for the silly name, The Glutton's Glossary informs, "that remains a complete mystery."


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Canada – Mississauga, Ontario
KARL STORZ Endoscopy Canada Ltd.
7171 Millcreek Drive
ON L5N 3R3 Mississauga
Information on the sales subsidiary
In response to steadily growing market demand, KARL STORZ established this sales subsidiary in December 1995 to offer Canadian customers even more direct support.
The main purpose of the subsidiary is to sell KARL STORZ quality products, provide comprehensive customer support, and offer expert product consultation. In line with the company's global strategy, KARL STORZ Endoscopy Canada particularly supports medical training and continued education through congresses, workshops, training center support, etc.
As another focus area, this subsidiary acts as the contact for all questions referring to KARL STORZ Service.
The Canadian subsidiary additionally supports and consults veterinarians at practices and animal clinics, who benefit from the advantages of the KARL STORZ endoscopy portfolio as well.


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I send greetings of solidarity for all the people gathered for the March against Monsanto. Marching against Monsanto is marching for freedom and democracy, for health and safety, for
People often ask me "Why Monsanto"?
My response is, we did not choose to target Monsanto, Monsanto chose to target our seed and food freedom, our scientific and democratic institutions, our very lives.
Monsanto has admitted it wrote the intellectual property treaty of WTO that allows seeds to be redefined as Monsanto's intellectual property. And it is through patents that Monsanto, a poison maker, has become a seed giant, with the largest share in control over the seed market. In India it controls 95% of the cotton seed market, and the extraction of superprofits through royalties has trapped our small farmers in unpayable debt. 284,000 farmers have committed suicide in India because of debt linked to seed and chemicals.
Corporations like Monsanto were behind the EC Seed law that would have made diversity and seed saving illegal in Europe. The last parliament sent back the law to the European commission. We must ensure that the new parliament does not pass the law.
In the US, Monsanto used its money to undermine the Right of US citizens to Know what they eat. It is threatening the State of Vermont because it got a labelling law in place. And it now has introduced a bill in Congress called called The Safe and Accurate Food Labelling Act which has earned itself the name the Dark (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act.
This is an assault on Democracy and people's freedom.
While Monsanto announces that it is retreating from Europe, it is pushing GMOs on the Eastern European countries. And is pushing new trade treaties like TIPP, to undermine Europe's largely GMO free status, and to get stronger IPR rights on seed.
Monsanto have claimed more than 1500 climate resilient patents, and are hoping to use the climate crisis to make even bigger profits. And recently Monsanto took over Climate Corporation, to control climate and weather data, and commodify it.
Monsanto wants superprofits through total control over nature and humanity.
We seek Seed Freedom, Food Freedom, and Earth Democracy, where all beings on the planet are free and the well being of all is protected, through sharing and caring, through love and compassion, through creating abundance for all.
The greed and violence of one corporation cannot be allowed to destroy life on Earth, the lives of our farmers, the lives of our children.
That is why we March Against Monsanto.
Dr. Vandana Shiva
Press Release
18 May 2014
Find a March near you http://tinyurl.com/kwcrqfu# marchMay24
May 24, 2014 'March Against Monsanto' planned for over 50 countries


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Home >
News & Policies >
April 2008
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 18, 2008
President Bush Attends National Catholic Prayer Breakfast
Washington Hilton Hotel
Washington, D.C.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for the gracious welcome. Austin, thanks for your kind introduction. Thanks for giving me this unusual speaking opportunity. I understand that this program builds up to another speech. (Laughter.) It's not every day you get to be the warm-up act to the Holy Father. (Laughter.) I'm honored to be here. I do thank Austin for his leadership for the Catholic Prayer Breakfast. I thank the Board of Directors for having me. I thank Archbishop Gomez, tejano, for being here. And I want to thank Bishop Finn, members of the clergy. Thank you for serving our country. Thank you for being men of faith.
I'm proud to be here with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts. (Applause.) He's always looking for a free breakfast. (Laughter.) Proud to be here with members of the United States Senate and Congress. Thank you all for being here. Solicitor General Paul Clement is with us today. (Applause.) Members of my administration, members of the Diplomatic Corps and distinguished guests.
This has been a joyous week. (Applause.) It's been a joyous time for Catholics -- and it wasn't such a bad week for Methodists, either. (Laughter.) The excitement was just palpable. The streets were lined with people that were so thrilled that the Holy Father was here. And it was such a privilege to welcome this good man to the United States.
For those of you on the South Lawn -- who saw the South Lawn ceremony live, it was -- what an unbelievable -- it was just such a special moment. (Applause.) And it was a special moment to be able to visit with the Holy Father in the Oval Office. He is a humble servant of God. He is a brilliant professor. He is a warm and generous soul.
He is courageous in the defense of fundamental truths. (Applause.) His Holiness believes that freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man, woman and child on Earth. He understands that every person has value, or to use his words, "each of us is willed, each of us is loved, [and] each of us is necessary." (Applause.)
The Holy Father strongly believes that to whom much is given much is required -- and he is a messenger of God's call to love our neighbors as we'd like to be loved ourselves.
I've seen how American Catholics are guided by these truths. One of the blessings of being the President is I get to see firsthand how people are motivated by the fundamental truths articulated by the Holy Father. I've watched you live out the Gospel through countless acts of compassion and courage. I've joined with you in striving to heed the Scriptures' noble calling: to see God's image in all mankind, and to uphold the dignity of each human being on Earth. (Applause.)
Together, over the nearly seven and a half years we've worked to uphold the dignity of human life. Over the last -- over the last years, my administration has put a stop to U.S. tax dollars funding foreign groups that perform or promote abortions. (Applause.) We've worked together to protect unborn victims of violence, and to end the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion. (Applause.) We have stood fast in our belief that promising medical advances can co-exist with ethical medical practices. (Applause.) Last November, scientists discovered a way to reprogram adult skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells. This is a significant breakthrough, because science -- scientists have found a path that can lead beyond the divisive debates of the past -- and extend the healing potential of medicine without destroying human life. (Applause.)
Together, we've worked to strengthen America's lifelines of learning -- including our nation's Catholic schools. The Catholic Church has a proud educational tradition dating back centuries, and one of the Holy Father's priorities has been maintaining this tradition in the United States. Today, America's Catholic schools serve thousands of students -- both Catholic and non-Catholic -- in some of our nation's poorest neighborhoods. They help minority students narrow the achievement gap. They prepare children for lives of character and purpose and success. And yet these schools are closing at an alarming rate: nearly 1,200 Catholic schools have shut their doors since the year 2000.
In my State of the Union address this January, I proposed a new $300 million program called Pell Grants for Kids. And the reason I did so is because I want to help low-income children in underperforming public schools be able to attend a private or parochial school of their choice. (Applause.) I am concerned about the loss of a major national asset, and that is the decline of Catholic schools, particularly in inner-city America. And to this end, next week we're having a White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools. (Applause.) And the purpose of the summit is to highlight the lack of educational options facing low-income urban students. And we're going to bring together educators and clergy and philanthropists and business leaders, all aiming to urge there to be reasonable legislation out of Congress and practical solutions to save these schools -- and more importantly, to save the children. (Applause.)
And some of the people trying to save America's Catholic schools are here at this prayer breakfast, and I can't thank you enough for your efforts. (Applause.)
Together, we've worked to foster a culture of tolerance and peace. We believe that religion should be a source of understanding and grace -- not a source of extremism and violence. On his visit and throughout his time as the Holy Father, the Pope has worked to foster inter-religious dialogue, and to heal the wounds of religious conflict. I strongly support the Pope's call for religious freedom around the world. I share his concern for Christians in the Middle East, and his desire to see a peaceful and independent Lebanon. I respect his scholarship, which demonstrates that faith and reason can co-exist. And I join him in praying for a world at peace, where Christians and Muslims and Jews, believers and non-believers, can live side by side. And I thank all of you here who work to make this hopeful vision a reality. (Applause.)
Together, we've worked to bring comfort to troubled souls. We believe that where hearts are burdened by destitution and disease and despair, we must answer with hope and love and faith. We know that [no] government program can answer the call like our armies of compassion can -- but we also know that government programs can support, and must support, their work. And so I've been a strong believer in faith-based and community based effort to bring healing and hope to people who wonder whether or not there's a bright tomorrow.
I don't know if you really realize this, but in 2006, 3,000 direct federal grants totaling more than $2 billion were made to faith-based organizations -- including many Catholic organizations. (Applause.) And the reason why is because Catholic organizations provide shelter to the homeless in very effective and loving ways. They tutor at-risk youth. They help children of prisoners, while at the same time they work tirelessly to help prisoners get back on their feet. These groups seek out our society's most vulnerable and fulfill Christ's promise that "the last shall be first."
Abroad, Catholic organizations are a vital part, an integral part of our effort to fight hunger and disease from Latin America to the continent of Africa. In these places, Catholic groups have a hand in what some call the "Lazarus Effect," where whole communities that once lay dying are brought back to life.
Oftentimes people ask me, why is it that you're so focused on helping the hungry and diseased in strange parts of the world? My answer is, we're a wealthy enough nation to take care of people at home and to help those abroad; it is in our moral interests that when we find people suffering that we do all we can do to help ease the burden; it's in our national interests -- (applause) -- and it's in our national interests that we defeat the ideologues of hate with an ideology of hope.
During these -- as President I've seen some of the great wonders of compassion as a result of our Catholic citizens. I've seen them here in Washington, with the Little Sisters of the Poor. (Applause.) Laura and I had the honor of visiting with the Little Sisters and, you know, I was struck by how hard they worked to ask [for] money to care for the old and sick, so that the old and sick don't have to beg for money.
I've seen these wonders of Catholic love on the Gulf Coast. I'm struck by the Catholic educators that in the face of unprecedented disaster worked night and day to provide good and stable schools for the children, and provide comfort for, you know, people that were just wondering whether or not there was going to be a good tomorrow.
I've seen wonders on the Sea of Galilee during my recent trip to the Middle East. On a recent visit my guides were joyful Catholic nuns who preserve the holy sites for all mankind -- even as they struggle with the dangers to the region's Christian minority.
I've seen these wonders in Africa, in an emergency -- in a hospital supported by PEPFAR. In February, I saw a 9-year-old girl who is HIV-positive, who had lost both her parents to AIDS. And for the last year, Catholic Relief Services had been paying for the girl to receive treatment at the clinic. I want to tell you what her grandmother said: "As a Muslim, I never imagined that a Catholic group would help me like that." She went on to say, "I am so grateful to the American people." And I am grateful for those who provide love and compassion in America and around the world. (Applause.)
This is a prayer breakfast. And this is a perfect place for me to say how much I appreciate the prayers of the people for me and Laura. I can't thank our fellow citizens enough for taking time out of their lives to lift us up for prayer. I have finally begun to understand the story of the calm and the rough seas -- (laughter) -- and I believe -- I believe in my heart of hearts that it's because of the prayers of my fellow citizens.
And today with the trust in the Lord's wisdom and goodness, I offer prayers of my own: for each gathered in the room, for the safety and success of the Holy Father's visit, and for God's continued blessings on our great land. Thank you. (Applause.)


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BTRC: You worked with Robert Pattinson before he was The Robert Pattinson, do you think you have an eye for talent?
MN: Erm, I don't know if I do. He was obviously good for the movie, he looks like the kind of fighter pilot, the head boy who will go out into the trenches on his second day. He just had that thing. He's a brilliant vampire! He's really good, he's a sweet guy, and he's a clever guy, he's not a dope at all!
Read the full interview at the source | Thanks to lookatthe_sky at Pattinsonlife


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UTS Mobile Cashless Ticketing App – Book & Cancel Unreserved Tickets
Cashless Ticketing through 'Utsonmobile' app developed by CRIS
Continuing towards digitalization and moving towards becoming a cashless economy, the initiative of faster and more techno-advanced transactions in Indian Railways is being taken up, the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) has developed a mobile based application 'utsonmobile'. This application has the following features:
1. The 'utsonmobile' application enables booking and cancellation of unreserved tickets, issue and renewal of season and platform tickets, check and load R-wallet balance and helps maintain user profile management and booking history.
2. The 'utsonmobile' application is very handy, free and is available for both Android and Windows smart phone. Users can download this app from Google Play Store or Windows store free of cost.
3. First the passenger will get registered by providing his/her mobile number, name, city, default booking train type, class, ticket type, number of passenger and frequently travelling routes.
4. Upon successful registration, Railway Wallet (R-Wallet) will be created automatically with zero balance to the passenger. There will be no extra cost for creating R-Wallet.
5. The R-Wallet can be recharged either at any of the UTS counter or through recharge option available in the https://www.utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in website.
6. In case internet connection of the mobile is not up, then ticket booking is not allowed.
7. No advance ticket booking is allowed. (i.e.) the journey date will always be current date.
8. Paperless Ticket: The passenger can travel without taking hardcopy of the ticket. Whenever Ticket Checking Staff asks for ticket, the passenger will use 'Show Ticket' option in the app.
- The smart phone should be GPS enabled to book paperless ticket.
- The paperless tickets are not allowed for cancellation.
- The journey should commence within one hour after booking paperless ticket.
- The Season ticket can be issued/renewed from mobile application and it will be valid from the next day of booking the ticket. No need of GPS for issue/renewal of Season Ticket.
- Platform Ticket can also be booked from mobile application.
- In case passenger is not able to show the ticket on mobile then it is considered as ticketless travel.
9. Paper Ticket: The passenger can book ticket through the mobile app. On booking of ticket, he/she will get Booking ID along with other ticket details. The booking details will also be available in booking history. The booking ID will also be conveyed through an SMS.
- After booking Paper ticket, Passenger can go to the journey originating (source) station to take ticket print out from any of the ATVM there, by entering his/her registered mobile number and booking ID. The Journey is valid only with printed ticket.
- The cancellation of Paper ticket is allowed either at the counter after printing the ticket or through the app before printing the ticket. However, in both the cases, cancellation fee is applicable.
- The journey should commence within one hour after printing paper ticket in the kiosk.
10. For detailed help, visit website "https://www.utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in".
Source: PIB


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Continuous Delivery: Business Value, Benefits, Challenges & Metrics
Continuous delivery improves velocity, productivity, and sustainability of development teams.
Juni Mukherjee
Contributing Writer
Why continuous delivery?
What emotions does the word "release" trigger in you? Relief? Elation? A fist-pumping sense of accomplishment? When new features are finally out to customers and bugs are fixed, everyone's happy, right? Well, the dark secret in many organizations is that shipping a release takes a huge amount of effort. If your team is still living with manual testing to prepare for releases and manual or semi-scripted deploys to perform them, your feelings may be closer to "dread" and "blinding rage".
That's why software development has moved towards continuity, through methodologies like agile and DevOps. In the continuous paradigm, quality products are released frequently and predictably to customers. Therefore, the ceremony and risk around releasing are reduced. If you're relying on your pipelines daily, you will notice (and resolve!) its deficiencies much quicker than if they flow once every few weeks or months. That is, reduce difficulty by increasing the frequency of your product releases. A culture of continuous improvement is a DevOps metric for high-performing teams.
The emphasis on continuous delivery, including continuous integration, continuous testing, constant monitoring, and pipeline analytics all point toward an overall trend in the software industry - helping teams to react to market changes. Make no mistake - CD is not the exclusive domain of "unicorn" companies and tech darlings. Every team – from the humblest start-up to the stodgiest enterprise – can and should practice continuous delivery.
This article takes a look at the business case for making this switch. It will discuss the work that lies ahead and the benefits it will yield to ship software using CD pipelines.
See solution
Build and operate software with Open DevOps
Related material
Measure deployment frequency
Top business benefits of continuous delivery
Continuous delivery improves velocity, productivity, and sustainability of software development teams.
1. Velocity
Automated software delivery pipelines help organizations respond to market changes better. The need for speed is of utmost importance to reduce shelf time of new features. With a low Time2Market, organizations have a better chance to outmaneuver their competition and stay in business.
Remember that speed by itself is not a success metric. Without quality, speed is useless. There is no value in having continuous delivery pipelines shoot erroneous code into production at speed.
So, in the world of continuous delivery, velocity means responsible speed, and not suicidal speed.
2. Productivity
Productivity translates to happiness, and happy teams are more engaged.
Productivity increases when tedious and repetitive tasks, like filling out a bug report for every defect discovered, can be performed by pipelines instead of humans. This lets teams focus on vision while pipelines do the execution. And who doesn't want to delegate the heavy-lifting to tools?
Teams investigate issues reported by their pipelines and once they commit the fix, pipelines run again to validate whether the problem was fixed and if new problems were inadvertently introduced.
3. Sustainability
Businesses aim to win marathons, not just sprints. We know that cutting ahead of the pack takes grit. Consistently staying ahead of the pack can be even harder. It takes discipline and rigor. Working hard 24/7 will lead to premature burnouts. Instead, work smart, and delegate the repetitive work to machines, which by the way don't need coffee breaks and don't talk back!
Every organization, whether or not a tech company, is using technology to differentiate. Automated pipelines reduce manual labor and lead to eventual savings since personnel is more expensive than tools. The steep upfront investment can cause concern to inexperienced leadership, however, well-designed pipelines position organizations to innovate better and faster to meet their customers' needs. CD provides the business with more flexibility in how it delivers features and fixes. Specific sets of features can be released to specific customers, or released to a subset of customers, to ensure they function and scale as designed. Features can be tested and developed, but left dormant in the product, baking for multiple releases. Your marketing department wants that "big splash" at the yearly industry convention? With continuous delivery, it's not only possible, it's a trivial request.
Top challenges of continuous delivery
While we firmly believe continuous delivery is the right thing to do, it can be challenging for organizations to design and build resilient continuous delivery pipelines. Because CD requires a large overhaul in technical processes, operational culture, and organizational thinking, it can often feel like there's a large hurdle to getting started. The fact that it requires a hefty amount of investment in a company's software delivery infrastructure that may have been neglected over the years, can make it an even more bitter pill to swallow.
There are many problems that organizations face and the following three are the most common pitfalls - budget, people, and priority.
Budget: Is yours too low?
Construction of continuous delivery pipelines consumes your best people. This is not a side project whose cost can be shoved under the carpet. I have always been surprised at how some organizations start out by allocating junior members and by cutting corners on purchasing modern tools. At some point, they course correct and assign their senior architects to invest in architecture decoupling and resilient continuous delivery pipelines.
Don't lowball. Based on your vision, set aside an appropriate amount of funds to make sure execution is uninterrupted. Deliver a continuous delivery pipeline MVP (minimum viable product) and then scale it throughout your organization.
Do you have forward-thinkers?
Even when you have budget, at the end of the day, execution could be a people problem.
Teams should fearlessly automate themselves out of their jobs, and move on to new projects. If you have people who are apprehensive of automated agents performing tasks they were otherwise doing manually, you are housing the wrong people.
In case you feel stalled, shift gears. Know how to give your team a car when all they have asked for is a faster horse! Jumpstart with the help of experienced champions who will see you through this initial hump. People, after all, are your greatest assets and train them to do the right thing. Make it easy to do the right thing, and hard to do the wrong thing, and you will be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.
Lack of priority
"Let's stop the line and build continuous delivery pipelines!" said no product owner ever.
In their defense, they are focused on cutting ahead of competition with new features that wow the world. At the same time, you know you have a problem if in every sprint planner, pipelines are weighed against product features and are traded off.
In some product backlogs, pipelines, if they appear at all, hang on for their dear lives near the bottom. Near sighted leadership classify work related to pipelines as expenses, rather than investments that will stand the teams in good stead. They remain in denial over the long-term damage they create, and unfortunately, sometimes get away with it.
Pipelines are hygiene. If you want to stay in business, ask yourself "Is hygiene important?". You bet it is!
Continuous delivery metrics
OLTP (online transaction processing) and OLAP (online analytical processing) are two well known techniques in the industry. Both concepts apply to continuous delivery pipelines and help generate insights that steer organizations in the right direction. Let's see how.
Pipelines see hordes of transactional data
Imagine a typical day in a software development team's life. The team commits a feature that business prioritized, commits tests for that feature, and integrates deployments with the continuous delivery pipeline, so that every change deploys automatically. The team realizes that the application got sluggish after adding this new feature, and commits a fix for the performance issue. The team also adds performance tests to make sure that bad response times would get caught before promoting the application from test to staging.
Think of each of those commits as a transaction. And that's how software development teams roll - one transaction after another - till a product is born that wows the world. And then off they go again. Multiply these transactions across all engineers and teams in your organization, and you have hordes of transactional data at your disposal.
This is a good segway into the next section on pipeline analytics and how to make the most out of that transactional data.
Let's analyze the pipeline's transactional data
Could we analyze the transactional data to extract nuggets of information? Sure, we can!
Like with all transactional data, the sheer volume prevents us from making any sense. That's why we should aggregate, and perform analytics to glean insights into our organization. Analytics help us see the forest through the trees, and here are three examples how we improved our practices from pipeline analytics and insights.
Out of the hundreds of deployments that happen every week, we learned that the number of deployment failures of application A are thrice as high as those of application B. This discovery led us to investigate application A's design choices on environment stability and configuration management. We learned that the team used flaky virtual machines in their data center to deploy, while application B was containerized. We prioritized an investment into immutable infrastructure and checked back in a month to make sure the return on that investment was good. Sure enough, it was. What can be measured, can be fixed.
Another example is when we learned that application B's static code analysis errors have steadily trended upward over the last few quarters. This could mean that the team behind application B needs to be (re)trained to write better code. We also discovered that the static code analyzers reported false positives, which means they flagged coding violations when there were none. So, we upgraded their analyzer to a well-known industry-standard tool and the false positives reduced to some extent. We organized a coding workshop where we discussed and resolved the legitimate static analysis errors. By the end of it, the team was humming along again.
Another interesting insight was that application A's unit tests had less code coverage than application B and C, and yet application A had the least number of production issues in the last year. Writing unit tests and measuring code coverage are fine. Overdoing that exercise is unproductive for the team and useless for the customers. Lesson learned.
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
We can not rely on opinions when it comes to steering the organization in the right direction. First, we need to define KPIs based on what success looks like. Second, we need to make data-driven decisions by analyzing KPIs across months, quarters, and years.
Organizational KPIs vs. departmental KPIs
Many times we have seen individual departments define their own success metrics. It's a good thing for departments to understand what success looks like for them, as long as those metrics tie in to the organization's goals.
Failures on test vs. staging vs. production
A few organizations require developers to own the test environment, QA to own staging, and Ops to own production. Instead of developers getting buried under code coverage reports for unit tests that run in the test environment, it is important for them to step back and look at the big picture on all environments - whether they own it or not.
The percentage of failures in staging due to performance tests could be high, and it could be due to incorrect performance benchmarks or sluggish code. A comparative analysis might show that pipelines fail the most on integration smoke tests in production, and that would warrant an investigation. The root cause could be real bugs in the product or could be buggy test code, inaccurate test data, incorrect test configuration, misunderstandings between product and engineering, and the like.
Further digging could reveal that incorrect test configurations are rampant, and you could prioritize fixing those issues to fix frequent integration failures. Additionally, developers owning their code all the way to production is also in accordance with the DevOps paradigm.
Stability index
Once we define KPIs, it is critical for us to understand if a single KPI has bias and skews heavily in any one particular direction. In case it does, we need to balance it with other KPIs that puts the center of gravity close to the middle. One such KPI is stability.
Developers measure stability with FeatureLeadTime, which is the time taken for one feature to go live in production. A feature comprises multiple commits, and hence a more granular measurement of FeatureLeadTime is CheckIn2GoLive, which is the time taken for a check in to go live in production.
Measure CheckIn2GoLive via pipelines, since this can be approximated by the time a pipeline takes to promote code from test to staging to production. Additionally, CheckIn2GoLive also reflects MTTR (mean time to resolve) defects, since the bug fix travels through the same pipeline from test to staging to production.
Interestingly, when I asked Operations, speed often has a negative connotation since they are incentivized to be risk-aversive. They measure the number of escaped defects to reflect failure, and they define stability by the percentage of defects that are caught by the pipeline as opposed to escaped defects.
Business defines stability by customer satisfaction or the number of repeat customers. While this sounds subjective, you can approximate this metric by the number of defects raised by customers or with customer feedback surveys.
Stability index is a classic example, where Dev, Ops, and Business are opinionated from their own perspective, however, the organization is better off creating a blend, instead of relying on any one. Hence, create an organizational index for stability that is impartial.
Code quality index
Another example where different viewpoints need to be factored in is code quality. Some say the quality of our code is reflected by code coverage measured by unit tests, while others say it is cyclomatic complexity. Standard static analyzers report code duplication, security vulnerabilities, and potential memory leaks. All these are true measures of code quality and hence create an index where all these, and possibly others, play a role.
Business KPIs vs. technical KPIs
Another popular KPI that organizations like to keep an eye on is the value delivered in a sprint. A common bad practice is to record the number of releases, which by themselves don't add value. You could move bits from point A to point B without moving the needle for your business, and that's not good enough. Some organizations measure the number of tests freshly added in that sprint or the total number of tests executed, and those do not reflect business results either, just engineering effort. The value delivered in a sprint has to be relevant to business.
A couple of examples of business KPIs could be the number of customer acquisitions in the last quarter and the number of advertisement clicks in the last month. Pipelines do not directly influence these business metrics. The only reason we try to map business KPIs to technical KPIs is to understand the relationship of technical craftsmanship to business goals.
Business KPIs when mapped to pipelines also help us calculate the RoI (return on investment) of pipelines. Leadership teams use these metrics to understand possible areas of improvement and to plan for budget.
Embark on your journey
Don't waste time debating whether continuous delivery is right for you, or whether continuous integration is enough, or if continuous deployment is your seventh heaven. If you embark on this journey it will open up avenues of opportunities for your team to continuously improve! It will help your teams experiment without fear and they won't burn out due to "midnight oil" releases.
Learn how build a continuous integration, delivery, and deployment (CI/CD) pipeline with our DevOps CI/CD tutorials. Also, Atlassian's Open DevOps provides an open toolchain platform that allows you to build a CD-based development pipeline with the tools you love.
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Chocolate Lab Bundle
Perfect Petzzz Chocolate Lab bundle is a 6 month old soft body puppy that breathes like a real puppy. Watch as your pup sleeps and breathe, offering a comforting lap companion for those living with memory-loss.
- Requires no maintenance, feeding or cleaning.
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- 100% synthetic and contain no animal products or fur.
Our Perfect Petzzz make a perfect gift and are a wonderful way for grandchildren and adults alike to engage with their loved-one who is living with dementia; something to touch, to pet and to 'care' for.
Placing one of these sleepy pets on the lap of an elderly person or a child can have an immediate calming effect, especially for pet lovers who can no longer have pets.
Recieve a real pet ownership experience without the hassle and expense. Say goodbye to feeings and vet bills and say hello to lots of love and cuddles!
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Bundle includes: Brush, Bed, Cardboard Carrier, Instructions, Adoption Certificate
Not suitable for children under 3 years old
Warning - Pressing & holding the body to restrict the chest movement will damage the internal mechanism & void the warranty
Brand | Perfect Petzzz |
Shipping Weight | 0.8150kg |


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This striking, sophisticated design in shades of sepia, black, and white is matched with a rich, complex scent. Our foaming hand soap contains shea butter and aloe vera for gentle cleansing and moisturizing, and it comes in a dispenser that's graceful in style and generous in size.
Approximate size: 17.8 fl. oz. / 530 ml liquid
Fragrance: Gardenia and plum blossom with swirls of bergamot and toffee


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In this year of our 15th birthday we're looking to significantly update The D-Word's design and functionality. We're calling it our 15 For 15 campaign. And we're depending on you, our D-Word community, to make it happen. You can donate right in this player. And share and embed it, of course! But first play the video and see what Anna Rodgers and John Burgan have got to say.
While your contribution may be deductible as a business expense, it is not a tax-deductible donation to a charity. The D-Word is a non-incorporated worldwide community and we can make no statement regarding tax regulations in your particular location. The real benefit you will get from your generous investment in this campaign is a new and improved D-Word.
In the player above, you can see a toolset called Portable Fundraiser which has been co-developed by Scottish Documentary Institute and Distrify, enabled through support by Nesta R&D Scotland.


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The Sleeping Beauty, a crowning jewel of Marius Petipa's career, is often considered the finest achievement of the Classical ballet. It is a grandiose and refined blending of the traditional mime, expressive pas d'action and spectacular divertissements in a lavish theatrical setting. Tchiakovsky was delighted with the invitation to write the music for a ballet based on Charles Perrault's well known fairy tale. A baby princess, condemned at her christening by an evil fairy to prick her finger and die on her 16th birthday, is saved by the gift of the good Lilac Fairy, who declares the princess will only sleep until awakened by the kiss of a prince. The fairy tale replete with a king and queen, fairies both good and evil, a beautiful princess and dream prince, magical stage effects, and courtly splendor, lent itself perfectly to the full evening ballet that was Petipa's pride.
Although different productions have cast the kingdom of King Florestan and his queen in varying centuries, it is really a storybook kingdom set in the realm of the imagination. In the Prologue, the hall of the palace where the christening is about to take place is resplendent with color, and imposing with its high ceilings and great stone archways. The master of ceremonies, pages, heralds, ladies in waiting, and finally the King and Queen all promenade into the royal setting, looking most distinguished in their elaborate dress. Next, the fairies of the kingdom join the scene of courtly pageantry with the Lilac Fairy, six cavaliers and maids of honor entering last. All dance in honor of the King and Queen and baby Aruora, about to be christened, Each of the fairies dances her own solo, presenting a gift to the Princess. The dances of no real dramatic significance are an example of Petipa's use of the well timed divertissement. Just as the Lilac Fairy finishes her dance a strange and frightening rumble is heard. Its meaning soon becomes clear: the master of ceremonies has forgotten to invite the evil fairy Carabosse! The grotesque woman, her face a white mask, her long dress black and tattered enters in a huge black coach drawn by four ugly rats. Stepping down, she gesticulates with her hand and threatens with her stick that they will have to pay the price for their omission. In mime, she delivers the ominous curse that the Princess will prick her finger on a spindle and die. The master of ceremonies is in disgrace, the King and Queen are in despair. But the Lilac Fairy has not given her the gift. She steps forward and assures the royal court that on her 16th Birthday the princess will indeed prick her finger, but then fall asleep for 100 years. Carabosse speeds off in a rage while the others surround the infant's cradle as if to protect her from further harm.
The Sleeping Beauty was the first of Petipa's classics to be seen in Western Europe. Under the title The Sleeping Princess, it was presented by Serge Diaghilev (1872-1929) in London in 1921. In 1939, it was remounted in Great Britain and has been considered the foundation of the Classical ballet repertory in that country ever since. It has now been adopted worldwide, and performance of the leading role remains a kind of initiation rite for aspiring ballerinas.
The Sleeping Beauty is a supreme demonstration of the challenge of Petipa's style - steel point work, sharply accented spinning turns, soaring leaps, high extensions, brilliant battery (beats in the air), daring lifts and, in addition, it gives a fairy tale plot lavish stage treatment. However, its production actually checked a growing tendency toward shapeless extravaganza in 19th century ballet, adhering closely to the principle of choreographic symphonism: meaning that, like the composition of a symphony, it had a certain formal structure. The Sleeping Beauty was choreographed in strict association with Tchaikovsky's music. There are themes developed and resumed throughout the ballet, and each act is a unity unto itself. Tchaikovsky willingly took instruction from Petipa as to the length tempo and character of each musical sequence ( as he would also do in The Nutcracker). The themes - a young girl's coming of age and the triumph of good over evil are developed dramatically and musically during the course of the ballet. Each of the three acts includes an adagio for Princess Aurora, the first celebrating her girlhood, the second her falling in love, and the third her marriage. In these pas d'actions, Petipa makes fuller use than previous choreographers of the dramatic potential of the Classical ballet, as for example, when Aurora's curved (questioning) attitudes become sharp (exclamatory) arabesques and her balances grow steadily surer.
Music For Ballets Fragment 1 Fragment 2
In the palace of King Florestan, there is a festival in honour of the christening of the newborn daughter, Princess Aurora. Accompanied by the courtiers appear happy parents and guests. Good fairies endow the hero of the occasion with the best human qualities, predicting her good fortune. The holiday atmosphere is disturbed by the invasion of the evil Fairy Carabosse. She was forgotten to be invited, and therefore she takes revenge on the offenders: she predicts that the beautiful princess will be killed by a needle. The Lilac Fairy softens this curse: Aurora will not die, but will only fall asleep. The day will come when the young prince, fascinated by the beauty of the girl, will bring her back to life with a kiss.
It's been 16 years. Guests gathered again. Here and sovereign princes - contenders for the hand and heart of the young Aurora. They are amazed by her beauty. The princess is equally friendly with everyone. In the midst of the holiday, Aurora receives a bouquet of roses from a stranger and dances with him in ecstasy. But there, it turns out, the needle is covered. Suddenly pricking the arm, the princess loses her strength and drops dead. Such was the offering of the Carabos Fairy. She triumphs - her curse has come true. The Fairy of the Lilac comforts everyone. Aurora is only sleeping and will be in a dream for a hundred years. So that nothing has changed for the princess, everyone falls asleep with her. The kingdom plunges into sleep. The park is overgrown with bushes. In their thick lock more often hides.
The Russian National Ballet Theatre (Classical Ballet) " target="_blank">
In the palace, a magnificent ball on the occasion of the wedding of Aurora and Desiree. Among the guests are fairy tale characters: the Puss in Boots and the White Cat, Princess Florina and the Blue Bird, the Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood, the Ogre and the Tom Thumb.
The newlyweds are also congratulated by the Fairies of Gold, Silver, Sapphires and Diamonds, overshadowing their future with well-being. In the apotheosis - universal rejoicing. He is crowned by the Lilac Fairy - the personification of the triumphant good.


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MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — Experiments prompted by a 2008 surprise from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suggest that soil examined by NASA's Viking Mars landers in 1976 may have contained carbon-based chemical building blocks of life.
"This doesn't say anything about the question of whether or not life has existed on Mars, but it could make a big difference in how we look for evidence to answer that question," said Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. McKay coauthored a study published online by the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets, reanalyzing results of Viking's tests for organic chemicals in Martian soil.
The only organic chemicals identified when the Viking landers heated samples of Martian soil were chloromethane and dichloromethane — chlorine compounds interpreted at the time as likely contaminants from cleaning fluids. But, those chemicals are exactly what the new study found when a little perchlorate — the surprise finding from Phoenix — was added to desert soil from Chile containing organics and analyzed in the manner of the Viking tests.
"Our results suggest that not only organics, but also perchlorate, may have been present in the soil at both Viking landing sites," said the study's lead author, Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City.
Organics can come from non-biological or biological sources. Many meteorites raining onto Mars and Earth for the past 5 billion years contain organics. Even if Mars has never had life, scientists before Viking anticipated that Martian soil would contain organics from meteorites.
"The lack of organics was a big surprise from the Vikings," McKay said. "But for 30 years we were looking at a jigsaw puzzle with a piece missing. Phoenix has provided the missing piece: perchlorate. The perchlorate discovery by Phoenix was one of the most important results from Mars since Viking."
Perchlorate, an ion of chlorine and oxygen, becomes a strong oxidant when heated. "It could sit there in the Martian soil with organics around it for billions of years and not break them down, but when you heat the soil to check for organics, the perchlorate destroys them rapidly," McKay said.
This interpretation proposed by Navarro-Gonzalez and his four co-authors challenges the interpretation of Viking scientists that Martian organic compounds were not present in their samples at the detection limit of the Viking experiment. Instead the Viking scientists interpreted the chlorine compounds as contaminants. Upcoming missions to Mars and further work on meteorites from Mars are expected to help resolve this question.
The Curiosity rover that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission will deliver to Mars in 2012 will carry the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument provided by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. In contrast to Viking and Phoenix, Curiosity has the capability to rove and can thus chemically analyze a wider variety of rocks and samples. SAM can check for organics in Martian soil and powdered rocks by baking samples to even higher temperatures than Viking did and also by using an alternative liquid-extraction method at much lower heat. Combining these methods on a range of samples may enable further testing of the new report's hypothesis that oxidation by heated perchlorates that might have been present in the Viking samples was destroying organics.
One reason the chlorinated organics found by Viking were interpreted as contaminants from Earth was that the ratio of two isotopes of chlorine in them matched the three-to-one ratio for those isotopes on Earth. The ratio for them on Mars has not been clearly determined yet. If it is found to be much different than Earth's, that would support the 1970s interpretation. If organic compounds can indeed persist in the surface soil of Mars, contrary to the predominant thinking for three decades, one way to search for evidence of life on Mars could be to check for types of large, complex organic molecules, such as DNA, that are indicators of biological activity. "If organics cannot persist at the surface, that approach would not be wise, but if they can, it's a different story," McKay said.
The Phoenix mission was led by Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Phoenix finding of perchlorate was reported by JPL's Michael Hecht and co-authors. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, also manages Mars Science Laboratory for the NASA Exploration Missions Directorate, Washington.
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico will host a news briefing in Mexico City about this research at 11 a.m. Central Time on Sept. 6. For more information, please contact Gabriela Frias at 011-52-55-5622-4684 or email@example.com .


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You Know You're In Hooterville When...
- ...you can impeach one president for lying about sexual favors, but another president, whose lies kill thousands of our own troops, gets a free pass.
- ...the worse the economy gets and the higher the deficit climbs, the louder our 'leaders' crow about how much better off we are.
- ...the people in charge of 'regulating' our industries are the same people who are supposed to be 'regulated' - i.e. the Energy Commission (see Chapter 4 - "The Foxes Are Guarding The Henhouse")
- ...when the party that prides itself on being 'morally superior' to its opposing party reverses its own rule about members of Congressional leadership (which stated that they must resign when they are indicted for criminal behavior) when there is a possibility of it applying to one of their own members (House Majority Leader Tom DeLay)
Okay, that's a start...any others?


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Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2015, $750,000)
The Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking Program is designed to support the development and enhancement of multidisciplinary human trafficking task forces that implement collaborative approaches to combat all forms of human trafficking, including sex and labor trafficking of both foreign nationals and U.S. citizens (of all genders and ages), within the United States. The task force will implement victim-centered, collaborative, and sustainable approaches to: identify victims of all types of human trafficking; investigate and prosecute sex trafficking and labor trafficking cases at the local, state, tribal, or federal levels; and, address the individualized needs of victims through the provision of a comprehensive array of quality services. Awards will be made to a lead law enforcement agency and a lead victim service provider within each task force. This award will be made to the city of Seattle who will work in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee to implement this project within Western Washington.


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– Warrantless surveillance memos remain under wraps (Guardian/AP, August 29 2011):
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is refusing to release legal memos the George W. Bush administration used to justify his warrantless surveillance program, one of the most contentious civil liberties issues during the Republican president's time in office.
In responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, the department is withholding two legal analyses by then-government lawyer John Yoo, and is revealing just eight sentences from a third Yoo memo dated Nov. 2, 2001. That memo is at least 21 pages long.
Each of the three memos was summarized in a public report more than two years ago by five inspectors general. The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel says Yoo memos from Feb. 8, 2002, and Oct. 11, 2002, were classified and protected from public disclosure by the deliberative process privilege. The Nov. 2 memo was withheld almost in its entirety for an additional reason, that it was covered by non-disclosure provisions in federal laws.
Yoo's work at the Justice Department during the Bush administration long has been intensely controversial, especially his authorship of memos defending the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation tactics against terrorist suspects.
The department's Office of Legal Counsel, where Yoo worked, is in charge of providing controlling legal opinions to the president and all executive branch agencies.
Yoo's memos on interrogation and warrantless surveillance were long ago withdrawn and replaced by his successors at the department. Amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2008 spelled out the role of the courts in the surveillance process.
Key Justice Department memos by Yoo and others at the Justice Department in support of harsh interrogation techniques have been publicly released — some by the Bush administration, others during Barack Obama's presidency.
Two years ago, Matthew Aid, a private researcher, asked the Justice Department to release three Yoo memos on warrantless surveillance. The Office of Legal Counsel responded three weeks ago.
The eight sentences released from the Nov. 2, 2001, memo closely track the 2009 inspectors general summary. In that memo, Yoo wrote that FISA "cannot restrict the president's ability to engage in warrantless searches that protect the national security." According to the IGs' report, the Feb. 8, 2002, memo said that Congress had not included a clear statement in FISA that it sought to restrict presidential authority to conduct warrantless surveillance activities. The Oct. 11, 2002, opinion reiterates the same basic analysis contained in Yoo's Nov. 2, 2001, memo in support of the legality of the president's warrantless surveillance program, according to the IGs' report.
Among the reasons Yoo's memo has been controversial is that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, enacted in 1978, set up a secret court — before which only government lawyers appear — with power to grant, or reject, government applications for warrants to electronically eavesdrop on Americans' communications in this country. It stated that the act was the exclusive means by which this could be done.
The Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists first reported on the Justice Department's decision on the FOIA request.


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This comes to you from the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau:
We want to hear about your debt collection experience—weigh in now.
Since we began taking debt collection complaints a few months ago, companies have responded to more than 5,000 debt collection complaints. We see that this is an important issue for consumers and today we're adding these complaints about debt collection to our public Consumer Complaint Database.
We're also taking the first steps to gather information to determine what rules would be appropriate to protect consumers who are subject to debt collection. We're issuing an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) today —and what that means is that we are considering issuing rules for the debt collection industry, but first we want to hear from you so we can learn more about the debt collection system. We'd like to hear about your experience with debt collectors and how they should act when they try to recover debts.
Getting input from the public – you – is an important part of the process. Debt collection is a complicated topic, with many consumer protection concerns. We are issuing an ANPR in order to ask a number of questions about different aspects of the industry and the consumer experience. The ANPR will be published in the Federal Register, where anyone can submit comments to respond to the questions. We're particularly interested in learning about the accuracy of information in the debt collection industry, whether consumers are aware of the debt and their rights, and whether consumers are being treated fairly.
Although the public can submit comments formally in response to the notice at regulations.gov, we want to make it easier for consumers and small businesses to tell us what they think about debt collection practices. To do that, we've partnered with RegulationRoom.org, operated by the Cornell University's eRulemaking Initiative, where you can provide your comments in an interactive and intuitive way.
RegulationRoom.org is not a government website. It's operated by law students and staff at Cornell Law School, with the goal of making it easy for people to submit comments to government agencies. They are working on removing barriers to public participation, and we are excited to be partnering with them again.
The staff at RegulationRoom.org realizes that most people are generally unfamiliar with the formal commenting process at Regulations.gov (the official government site). So they present information, conduct a conversation, and then collect views until the forum closes about a week before the end of the comment period, so that their team can assemble all the feedback into an official comment. Those who have participated get one more chance to react to the summary before it is submitted formally to the CFPB through regulations.gov. And, like all other formal comments, we will read and consider them as we consider consumer protection rules for the debt collection market.
Explore the data
Adding debt collection complaints will take the number of complaints in the Consumer Complaint Database to more than 155,000. When you look at the data for debt collection complaints, you can even see what type of debt is involved (auto loan, credit card, medical, student loan, mortgage, etc).
Dig in and explore this new frontier of information, and remember – if you think you've found something interesting in the consumer complaint data, we definitely want to hear about it! We encourage the public, including consumers, analysts, data scientists, civic hackers, and companies that serve consumers to analyze, augment, and build on the information in the database to develop ways for consumers to use the complaint data or mash it up with other public data sets to reveal potential trends.


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Pro GMO Activism – Twisted science, altered truth
Last year on Twitter, Monsanto Vice President Robert Fraley provided a link to an article that implied those who are suspicious of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), among other things, are confused, motivated by ideology or misinformed as a result of access to the 'university of Google', or they are simply conspiracy theorists. Fraley asked why people doubted science and seemed to be taking a swipe at critics of GMOs, who the GM sector and its mouthpieces like to depict as dealing in fear mongering and relying on 'pseudo-science'.
The industry and its assortment of pro-GM activists in science and the media have a view of the world that requires the public to bow to some kind of scientific priesthood whose knowledge and opinions should never be questioned (listen to this recent presentation from the Oxford Real Farming Conference – from 17:00). They require us to have unquestioned belief in science's ability to solve humanity's problems. Deference and faith are key to the creed.
The problem is that rich corporations and individuals have manipulated the idea of science and have been able to distort scientific research. They have translated their vast financial influence into political clout and the control of science and scientific institutions. The result is that science institutes, research programmes and practitioners now too often willingly serve the interests of powerful corporations. Far from liberating humankind, science and scientific research have become tools of deception.
The reason why so many people doubt science is because they can see how science is corrupted and manipulated by powerful corporations. It is because they regard these large corporations as unaccountable and their activities and products not properly regulated by governments.
Sociologist Robert Merton highlighted the underlying norms of science as involving research that is not warped by vested interests, adhering to the common ownership of scientific discoveries (intellectual property), promoting collective collaboration and subjecting findings to organised, rigorous critical scrutiny within the scientific community. Secrecy, dogma and vested interest thus have no place.
The reality is, however, careers, reputations, commercial interests and funding issues all serve to undermine these norms.
Twisted science, altered truth
In 2014, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called for "sound science" to underpin food trade between the US and the EU. Consumer rights groups in the US are pushing for the labelling of GMO foods, but Vilsack said that putting a label on a foodstuff containing a GM product "risks sending a wrong impression that this was a safety issue."
Despite what Vilsack would have us believe, many scientific studies show that GMOs are indeed a big safety issue and what's more are also having grave environmental, social and economic consequences (for example, see this about GM and pesticides in Argentina, this on how GM agriculture is drive ecocide and death in South America and this about the overall efficacy and impacts of GM).
By not wanting to respond to widespread consumer demands to know what they are eating and risk 'sending a wrong impression' (doublespeak to English translation: sending out the right impression about GM being a fundamentally flawed and corrupt endeavour), Vislack is trying to close down debate about issues that his corporate backers find unpalatable: labelling would allow consumers to reject the GMOs being fed to them. By attempting to side-line any genuine open discussion of GM in this way, the aim is to conveniently shut down any criticism of this technology and suppress scientific, political and public debate about it.
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And have little doubt that the term 'corporate backers' applies in this case: big agribusiness has captured, or at the very least seriously compromised, key policy and regulatory bodies in the US, Europe, India and in fact on a global level (see this regarding control of the WTO).
The concept of 'sound science' is being manipulated to deceive and disguise the underlying agenda: GM as a strategy by global agribusiness to control intellectual property and global supply chains.
At the same time that Vilsack and others refer to some high-minded notion of 'sound science', they are actively striving to debase it along with its actual practice. The industry carries out inadequate, short-term studies and conceals the data produced by its research under the guise of 'commercial confidentiality', while there is enough research that highlights the dangers and potential harmful effects of its products (see this and this). It has also engaged in fakery in India, bribery in Indonesia and smears and intimidation against those who challenge its interests, as well as the distortion and the censorship of science (see this and this).
With its aim to modify organisms to create patents that will secure ever greater control over seeds, markets and the food supply, the GM sector is only concerned with a certain type of science which supports these aims. If science is held in such high regard by these corporations, why in the US don't they label foods containing GMOs and throw open their studies open to public scrutiny, instead of veiling them with secrecy, restricting independent research on their products or resorting to unsavoury tactics?
If science is held in such high regard by the GM sector, why in the US did policy makers release GM food onto the commercial market without proper long-term tests? The argument used to justify this is GM food is 'substantially equivalent' to ordinary food. This is wrong (see this as well). Substantial equivalence is a trade strategy on behalf of the GM sector that neatly serves to remove its GMOs from the type of scrutiny usually applied to potentially toxic or harmful substances.
The reason why no labelling or testing has taken place in the US is not due to 'sound science' having been applied but comes down to the power and political influence of the GMO sector and because a sound scientific approach has not been applied.
The sector cannot win the scientific debate (although its PR likes to tell the world it has) so it resorts to co-opting key public bodies or individuals to propagate various falsehoods and deceptions. Part of the deception is based on emotional blackmail: the world needs GMOs to feed the hungry, both now and in the future. This myth has been taken apart (see this, this and this). In fact, in the second of those three links, the organisation GRAIN highlights that GM crops that have been planted thus far have actually contributed to food insecurity.
Research, peer review and vested interests
People's faith in science is being shaken on many levels, not least because big corporations have secured access to policy makers and governments and are increasingly funding research and setting research agendas.
"As Andrew Neighbour, former administrator at Washington University in St. Louis, who managed the university's multiyear and multimillion dollar relationship with Monsanto, admits, "There's no question that industry money comes with strings. It limits what you can do, when you can do it, who it has to be approved by"." Kamalakar Duvvuru
The reality is Monsanto is funding the research not for the benefit of either the farmer or the public, but for its own commercial interests.
Ultimately, it is not science itself that people have doubts about but science that is pressed into the service of immensely powerful private corporations and regulatory bodies that are effectively co-opted and adopt a 'don't look, don't find approach' to studies and products (see this and this) or are simply being pressured by the GM industry to come up with findings that it finds acceptable; or in the case of releasing GMOs onto the commercial market in the US, bypassing proper scientific procedures and engaging in doublespeak about 'substantial equivalence' then hypocritically calling for 'sound science' to inform debates.
We need look no further than the report Seedy Business to see how science is swayed, bought or biased by agribusiness. This is done by, for example, suppressing adverse findings, harming the careers of scientists who produce such findings, controlling the funding that shapes what research is conducted, the lack of independent US-based testing of health and environmental risks of GMOs and tainting scientific reviews of GMOs by conflicts of interest.
This is a point that Claire Robinson develops:
"It's no surprise that many public scientists and organizations ally themselves with the GMO industry, as they rely heavily on industry funding. GMO companies have representatives on university boards and fund research, buildings and departments. Monsanto has donated at least a million dollars to the University of Florida Foundation. Many US universities that do crop research are beholden to Monsanto. Some academic scientists own GMO patents and are involved in spin-off companies that develop GM crops… Universities have become businesses and scientists have become entrepreneurs and sales people."
The same interests are moreover undermining the peer-review process itself and the ability of certain scientists to get published in journals – traditionally, the benchmark of scientific credibility. Powerful interests increasingly hold sway over funding, career progression as a scientist, journals and peer review (see this and this, which question the reliability of peer review in the area of GMOs).
Consider what The Lancet Editor in Chief Richard Horton said in 2015:
"The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness."
Peer-review is often referred to as the 'gold standard' by with which we should measure the validity of knowledge. As a result, non-peer-reviewed articles, reports or research is too often cast aside in favour of a process that, despite what some would like us to believe, is massively distorted by commercial and career-related interests.
As already noted, powerful corporations fund research programmes and institutions and, by implication, provide a mapped-out career progression for individual scientists.
Through funding, they can shape the research agenda: which issues are to be examined and which are not, as well as how research is to be carried out. They are also able to divert funds to certain scientists and can suppress certain findings and bring pressure to bear on institutions and individual scientists. Corporations may also fund or hold sway over journals, as the Seralini affair showed, and peer reviewers themselves often have career or funding interests and have a stake in pushing a certain technology and thus side-lining certain findings or individual academics.
Scientist as priest: uninformed personal opinion masquerades as fact
Scientists do themselves or science no justice when they spout rhetoric in support of GM. Although they may be respected within their own particular discipline and are highly qualified, they seem to think it is therefore legitimate for them to offer uniformed personal opinion on virtually any other issue – and to be regarded as expert sources.
Regardless of the fact that scientists may know about genetic manipulation and the impacts on a particular organism in a laboratory, we should hold them to account when they say that Greenpeace should be held accountable for crimes against humanity because it is resisting GM technology. We should hold them to account when they attack agencies or individuals on the basis that they are acting like totalitarian political regimes that were responsible for the deaths of millions merely because they disagree with GM and offer credible arguments and science to support their claims about the negative impacts of this technology.
Since when did having a PhD in molecular biology or an associated field make someone an expert on political systems or the history of Cambodia, the USSR or some other country, which they are implicitly referring to when making such a ridiculous statement?
Since when did a molecular biologist become an expert in political economy and, more specifically, on trade and development, commodity markets, debt repayment, land speculation, export-oriented oil-dependent agriculture, sustainable agriculture, the dynamics of structural inequality and poverty or any of the other issues that impact on global and regional food security and create food deficit areas?
When they talk about feeding the world and attack critics of GM in the way they do, they want to promote the notion that a bogus and flawed techno quick-fix GMO solution is paramount and will suffice. Or perhaps it is highly convenient for them to overlook all of the above issues, which in reality, not in the fantasy world of the pro-GMO scientist, determine humanity's ability for feeding itself effectively and properly.
The reality is that this rhetoric is an attempt to shut down any criticism. It is also designed to side-line legitimate analyses of the root causes of hunger and poverty, genuine solutions for productive, sustainable agriculture that can feed humanity and those who argue for them.
Readers might want to peruse this entertaining take-down of pro-GMO activist-scientists who seem to think they are experts on everything. The author states:
"… they are in fact not scientists at all but corporate propagandists. They do nothing but knowingly tell lies, claim knowledge where they have none, and… confuse the nature of every issue. All the while they sanctimoniously insist that anyone who lacks formal scientific credentials is unqualified to speak about GMOs. (This of course… doesn't apply to corporate executives or pro-GMO politicians and media flacks.) The best proof of this… is that literally none of them… stays within the bounds of their own disciplines when pontificating about GMOs… every credentialed pro-GM activist evidently feels free to spew the most ignorant, idiotic opinions on any subject imaginable, no matter how unqualified they are according to their own credentialist standard."
Although the flamboyant style is done to maximise impact, the writer is making some key, valid points. For example, see this for a more sober account of Kevin Folta's utterances on issues beyond his expertise.
And yet, people like Richard John Roberts, Anthony Trewavas, Shanthu Shantharam and others like pro-corporate/GM media mouthpiece Jon Entine ('The Chemical Industry's Master Messenger') or pro-corporate/GM political mouthpieces like the UK's Owen 'Green Blob' Paterson seem to think some emotive talk about critics of GM engaging in crimes against humanity, stealing food from the poor, engaging in pseudo-science or some other sound bite designed for public consumption is fine.
If there is one thing these pro-GMO activists are truly expert at is passing off ill-informed rhetoric for expert opinion, while hiding behind a science PhD. This is nothing but spin that is designed to blur the lines between fact and fiction, science and propaganda.
Some people seem quite incredulous that people could doubt science.
Perhaps Robert Fraley should try to convince us why we should not. And while he's at it, he might want to contemplate why we should take anything he or his company says, does or promotes as 'science' given its decades-long history of deceptions, cover ups and criminality.
By Colin Todhunter – An independent writer, journalist and former social policy researcher.