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(from: http://www.instigatorblog.com/10-things-you-must-do-when-changing-wordpress-themes/2007/01/15/) thanks
critical steps you need to go through after changing your blog's design, in order to make sure it's going to work perfectly.
The Sidebar Will Be Overwritten. Most people make a lot of changes to their sidebars, adding text, advertising, links, widgets, etc. If you're using widget-enabled WordPress themes this isn't an issue (because widgets stay in place when themes are changed) but if you made changes manually you're going to have to redo them.
Before you activate the new theme, save all of the code from your sidebar (just copy and paste it somewhere.) When you switch themes, edit the sidebar file(s) and re-apply your changes.
Re-apply Stat Tracking Code. Most people use a blog stat tracking tool of some kind (i.e. Google Analytics, 103bees, etc.) This is usually done with a snippet of code found in the header or footer. When you change WordPress themes, the header and footer files will be overwritten, so you'll need to re-apply these code snippets. Otherwise your site will no longer be tracked properly, and you won't be collecting stats. After re-applying these snippets, make sure the stat tracking tools are working properly.
The same holds true if you're using Google Webmasters Tools. Google Webmasters Tools require that you verify site ownership. This can be done by uploading a file (in which case changing WordPress themes is irrelevant) or by putting meta tag code in the header file. If you use the latter, make sure to put the code back after you change the WordPress theme or the site won't be properly verified.
Check Which Plugins You Need. You may not need every plugin that you were using before. Some may no longer be suitable to the theme you're using, some might be redundant. For example I was using the Optimal Title plugin (which I highly recommend.) It puts the post title in front of the blog name for the title of any page. This is better for SEO purposes. When I switched to this theme, I noticed that the post titles were already in front; the theme was coded that way. So the plugin was no longer necessary.
There may also be some plugins you don't want to use anymore. Now is a good time to clean things up.
Verify That Plugins Work. Any plugin that didn't require you to edit the template files should be OK, but many do. These plugins won't work anymore without re-applying the changes to the new template. A good example is the Related Entries plugin which requires a small snippet of code inside the WordPress files.
Some plugins may display strangely due to new CSS code in the stylesheet file(s), and so you may have to change CSS as well.
Update The Design and Colors of Your Ads. If you're running Google AdSense, Text-Link-Ads or any other form of advertising, chances are you blended those ads into the design and color scheme of your old blog. With a theme change there's a good chance that you've also changed link colors, which means your advertisements won't be as well blended and designed as before. For Google AdSense if you're using AdSense Deluxe it's easy to change the colors in WordPress. For Text-Link-Ads you can edit the plugin through WordPress as well.
Make Sure RSS Feed Subscriptions Work. Because RSS feed subscriptions are so important, just test this to make sure it's OK. Try subscribing to your site. If you use FeedBurner, subscribe with the FeedBurner link and with the blog's URL by itself. When you subscribe with the blog's URL, your RSS Reader should auto-discover the available feeds. Make sure it's pulling the one you want.
Test All Secondary Features. When picking a WordPress theme you probably won't see all of its features in action, including pages, searching, categories and archives. As soon as you activate the new theme check all of these things out on your blog. You might be surprised what you find. The biggest issue will be that something isn't formatted the way you want. For example, I tried searching here after updating the theme and noticed that the results didn't include an excerpt of the post. So that's something I had to change.
Test Using Multiple Browsers. Most people forget to test using multiple browsers, but it's very important. If you're using a PC it's easy to test your blog in Firefox and Internet Explorer. On a Mac you can check it out in Firefox and Safari.
Make Changes Carefully. You may not have spent a lot of time experimenting with the new WordPress theme. So before you start radically changing things, take a few baby steps. Make a few small adjustments, test in multiple browsers and see how things go. It's important to really learn the innards of the theme before you make huge changes.
Post About The Change On Your Blog. Make sure you tell people that you've changed the design of your blog. Ask people for feedback. People have all kinds of different setups; resolutions, browsers, screen sizes, etc. so they'll be able to tell you how it looks. Remind RSS readers to come check it out too.

subset: commoncrawl


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1. For all the talk of frontloading around here, there have been but two states that have (actively) moved earlier on the 2016 presidential primary calendar: neighbors, Arkansas and Louisiana. The Natural state presidential primary shifted up 12 weeks from late May to the first Tuesday in March this past week. Just south in the Pelican state, the presidential primary was bumped up two weeks in 2014. There are two additional states -- New York and Texas -- that had later primary dates in 2012 than each currently does on the 2016 calendar. The New York move from February to April in 2011 expired at the end of 2012, returning the presidential primary in the Empire state to February. In Texas, the 2012 redistricting court battle forced the primary back to the end of May. But the Lone Star state primary reverted to the first Tuesday in March date called for in state law for 2016 (with redistricting settled).
2. Alabama is very likely to join that group and a handful of other southern states on March 1; the date of the proposed SEC primary.
3. Most states that have moved or are in the process of potentially moving are shifting back to later dates on the calendar. The vast majority of that movement has been cleaning up the the February remainders that were left during and after 2012. That group includes the 2012 rogue states, Arizona, Florida and Michigan, as well as a handful of non-binding caucus/primary states, Minnesota and Missouri.1 All of those states now have positions on the 2016 calendar in March.
4. The month of March has gotten it from the other end as well. The Texas reversion, the Arkansas move, and likely the North Carolina move together mean that three states will hold primaries and around 250 [Republican] delegates will be allocated in March rather than May. Similarly, those February-then-March-now states mentioned above translate to approximately 300 delegates being allocated in March 2016 rather than February 2012. If you want to quantify the calendar compression that the Republican National Committee wanted/wants for the 2016 cycle, then the shift of those 550 delegates from earlier and later points on the 2012 calendar captures it well.
5. FHQ spoke with Alex Jaffe at CNN earlier this week and she asked a question about candidate/campaign behavior; specifically their visits to states other than Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Why are candidates appearing at Georgia Republican state conventions? Why are they in Tennessee? What's the allure of Michigan? There are three reasons FHQ would highlight:
- More candidates running or likely running for the Republican presidential nomination means a larger potential total population of visits. This is a minor point, but a part of the story nonetheless.
- Uncertainty/certainty 2012. The 2012 race for the Republican nomination was marked by calendar uncertainty and relative candidate certainty. It was pretty clear throughout 2011 that the Republican race would operate by a Romney/not Romney dynamic. But while that worked itself out in the polling on the race, the calendar formation dragged on into the fall of 2011. Candidates knew the carve-out states would go first and that Florida would likely be right on the heels of those contests2, but where they would end up on the calendar and how/where other states might slot in behind them added enough uncertainty to decision-making within campaigns. That lack of calendar clarity, it could be argued, forced the candidates to focus on the earliest states on the calendar. [Breaking that Romney/not-Romney dynamic early was also a contributing factor (for those potential not-Romneys).]
- Certainty/uncertainty 2016: Fast forward to 2015-16 and the positioning of the candidates is if not less clear, then it is more jumbled relative to 2012. But the calendar? The primary calendar is as clear as an unmuddied lake compared to the 2012 calendar at this same point in 2011. That has a significant impact on campaign decision-making. If a candidate or his/her campaign is aware of the likely shape of the primary calendar, they can more efficiently if not effectively allocate their resources (campaign spending and candidate visits). A crowded field and calendar certainty leads to candidates attempting to carve out some niche -- some state -- where they can claim victory and stay alive. But again, this is activity in 2015. Once the calendar (year) switches from 2015 to 2016 and especially once votes are cast in those carve-out states, the winnowing of the field will hit or already have hit overdrive. That does not make travel to later states unnecessary or wishful thinking on the part of candidates and their campaigns. Rather it is more properly viewed as insurance should a candidate claim one of the two or three viable slots heading into March (or deeper into March).
6. FHQ will propose a hypothesis: As calendar year 2016 (or perhaps the Iowa caucus) approaches, visits to non-carve-out states will decrease. Certainty -- with both the calendar and candidate positioning -- will increase and the campaigns will focus more and more on those earliest states. That is not to suggest the focus will exclusively be on those first four states, but it will shift toward them.
7. Interestingly, there seems to be a cut-off on the calendar: March 15. That seems to be a line of demarcation. Yes, that is the point on the calendar where the proportionality window closes, but candidates and their campaigns are not spending much time if any in states with contests after March 15. That is telling. First, it means that there is a limit to just how forward thinking the campaigns are willing to be. Secondly, however, that is a bit of an indirect indication that that is a point on the calendar where the candidates and their campaign braintrusts are hedging their bets and assuming the race will be concluded (or that the presumptive winner of the nomination will have emerged).
The process is not there yet, but the 2016 presidential primary calendar is a lot further along in 2015 than it was in 2011.
1 Though Missouri held a February presidential primary in 2012, the Missouri Republican Party chose to tether its delegate selection/allocation to a rules-compliant caucus/convention system that began in mid-March.
2 The Florida primary actually preceded the Nevada Republican caucuses in 2012.


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Gildas, Penitential. (1899). pp. 272-275. Introduction.
IT may be well here to remind the reader of a few points that are treated of at greater length in the Introduction. The Church, for purposes of discipline, had developed various modes of correction in the case of lapses into sin, as well as of reconciliation by absolution. As we approach the sixth century, we find a long development of very varying procedures along independent lines, and ending in the very reverse of agreement throughout the Churches of different countries. In one point, however, there seems to have been universal agreement, viz., that acts of contrition and confession, together with the reconciliation which followed, were purely ecclesiastical. While, for the most part, such acts of penance were, in the West, not public but private, they certainly were subject to the judgment of the bishop; he, or the presbyter representing him, was always the ministrant. Yet in Britain and Ireland there had grown up a different system; the disciplinary measures were conducted from the cloister. Different sins began to be catalogued after the manner of penal enactments, with the corresponding penance to be undergone before reconciliation. In the opening words of the Penitential of Columbanus, "there must be a mensura paenitentiae" calculated according to the magnitude of the sins committed. What this missionary did not quite find in Gaul, according to the words of his biographer Jonas, viz., poenitentiae medicamenta et mortificationis amor, he brought to that country from his Irish home. People from all parts soon flocked to his monastery at Luxeuil to partake of the benefit of the "medicine of penance" (Vita Col., 2). Books containing such rules, by which sins and the appointed penances were thus arranged in order, were called PENITENTIALS (Libri Poenitentiales). They seem to have had their origin in Britain and Ireland, but, after the seventh century, they are found both in the English Church, and in Churches far and wide over the Continent. Some who read the present Penitential, assigned to Gildas, for the first time, may be surprised, if not shocked, at some of the rules contained in it; but let them reflect that what they read here might be |273 found almost anywhere in the seventh century, under the direction of men of singularly pure and saintly lives. The student of history will look upon them as phases of a life that is gone for ever; he is not called upon to censure what is embodied in Penitential Books, nor to set up a defence of them. It is simply necessary that he should take a right position to view their strange and elaborate directions. These must be looked upon as means through which men of deep moral earnestness, such as Dewi Sant and Gildas in Wales, Finnian, Comgall and Columbanus in Ireland and France, sought to take away the curse of uncleanness out of the lives of man. In their method, they mention things to which we hardly ever allude, but so does St. Augustine in his " Enquiries of Pope Gregory," and so before him did St. Jerome, in his celebrated letter to a young lady of the highest family connections at Rome. We feel that no pastor would now even think of what is detailed in Interrogatio Augustini VIII, as given by Beda (1,27); that Epistola 22 of Jerome "handles, without the slightest reserve, sins and temptations of the flesh to which we now hardly allude. It is absolutely inconceivable that any moralist or preacher of our times, however earnest or fanatical, should address a woman in such a style." The writer from whom I quote these words adds: "The difference of tone between the ancients and ourselves should never be forgotten in studying the character of a distant past. By keeping it in mind we may be saved alike from pharisaism, and from an ungenerous judgment of times which have made a self-revelation of which we should be incapable." 1
To me, these Penitentials are reminders of the fierce conflict waged against the wild immorality of olden times: a conflict which, with many failures, proved that the clumsy method of these rules turned out to be for good. Haupt, in his Kirchengeschichte Deutsch-lands, describes the results of the method in the hands of Columbanus in Gaul as "blissful" (segensreich). Yet it was doomed to die; in no way could it continue, however useful for a time.
References will be made in the Notes to several Penitentials, such as the Penitentials of Finnian, of Columbanus and others; on that account it may be of advantage to place here the following brief resume of facts.
The monasteries of which we read such fabulous accounts as to |274 the number of monks congregated in them, belong to the end of Gildas' time; belong, as may be conjectured, to the revival begun by him and his friends. Such a one was Bangor is y Coed, in Flintshire, which, according to Beda's description, had no less than 2,100 monks within its walls: such were Clonard, Clonfert, Clon-macnoise, and Bangor, in Ireland.2 The founder of Clonard was Finnian, who is also regarded as the father of the new monastic revival which led to the foundation of so vast a number of monasteries in Ireland. But he is also said to have come, as a boy of thirteen years, to Kilmuine (Cil-mynyw) in Wales, where he became a disciple of "the three holy men, David, Cathmael, and Gildas." . This is the Finnian whose Penitential is extant, which seems to form a further link in his connection with Gildas.
Bennchor, or Bangor (in county Down), was founded by Com-gall, who in his early training had come in contact with the same Welshmen and Welsh traditions as Finnian. When, therefore, we remember that Columbanus was a monk of Bangor, as he with twelve companions left his native island for France, pro Deo peregrinantes, we are led to connect him also with that band of Welshmen. For the use of his monastery at Luxeuil he drew up a Rule that was notably Irish in its strictness; but besides this Regula, there goes under his name a Penitential, which, with |275 characteristic modifications and enlargements, is based upon that of Finnian. I do not now touch upon the question of the non-genuineness of certain parts of the Penitential in the form preserved to us, but refer to the fact that we have certainly, in a large section of it, a code of rules closely connected with the Irish Penitential of Finnian, and the Welsh Penitential of Gildas.
In the same line with these we find a fourth, which bears the name of Cummean, or Commean, or Kumin. This Penitentiale Cummeani contains materials that have a British, Irish, English and Frankish origin; for instance, the first four rules of the British Penitential printed below, appear there, and in the same order (Cumm. Penit., ii, 23-26); but what impresses one still more is, that rule 14 below (which is shown to be probably a quotation from some early source, by its use of tamen), is found also in the middle of the Preface attached to the Penitential of Cummean (vide Notes).
Who this Cummean was, is not known, though the influence of his collection appears to have spread over a very large area. Of many so-called, the best known is one that was Abbot of Iona from 657 to 665, who is also the author of the oldest Life of Columba. Another of the name, styled bishop, is found at Bobbio (an Irish monastery at the foot of the Apennines, founded by Columbanus in 612), about the first half of the eighth century, during the reign of the Longobard King Luitprand. Wasserschleben is inclined to regard the latter as the author of the Penitential that was so very extensively used on the continent.3
In the English Church a collection of rules, that is a Penitential, is attributed to Archbishop Theodore, and called the Penitential of Theodore. The influence of this book seems to have been very wide, but it contains many traces of the three first named. Another Penitential is ascribed to the historian Beda, while a third bears the name of Egbert, Archbishop of York. Theodore died A.D. 690, Beda 735, Egbert 767. While the question of authorship, or of the genuineness of certain portions need not be discussed here, there can be no doubt as to the extensive use of these books in the English and other Churches. One of doubtful authenticity has not been named; it is found with the title The Book of David (Liber Davidis), and is ascribed to David of Menevia, or, as better known, Dewi Sant: others have, as well, been left unmentioned. |276
[All footnotes renumbered and placed at the end]
1. 1 S. Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire (1899), p. 127.
2. 1 It is not in any way improbable that the accounts found of these wonderfully numerous communities are echoes of the reports which circulated, through such writings as those of Jerome and Cassian, of the teeming multitudes that flocked to the monasteries of Egypt. Grutzmacher, in his book on Pachomius und das alteste Klosterleben (1896), shows how like representations are found even in the Coptic and other Lives, lately translated into French by Amilineau. Tabennisi, the original cloister of Pachomius, grew to number 2500 monks within its walls (s. 99); Cassian mentions a monastery in the Thebaid, in which there were " over 5000 brethren under one abbot" (De Coen. Instit., iv, i); Jerome, in like manner, speaks of a community numbering 5000 (Ep., 22, 33), and of single monasteries as containing from thirty to forty houses, in each of which dwelt forty monks (Prologus ad Reg. S. Pack.).
Since Egypt formed the ideal of monasticism for British and Irish monks, it is not to be wondered at that a period of prosperity should be described by them in terms borrowed from the marvellous stories of that land. Beda's statement respecting Bangor is only what report had brought to him (fertur), " when the community was divided into seven portions, no portion contained fewer than 300 men" (H. E., ii, 2). Clonard was, the same way, said to have 3000 monks. Its famous founder is described as follows:----
Trium virorum millium
Sorte fit doctor humilis,
Verbi his fudit fluvium
Ut fons emanans rivulis.
3. 1 Die Bussordnungen, ss. 64, 65. The Acta SS. of Colgan Jun., p. 244, as quoted on s. 64, speaks of him as Cumianus episcopus. Mone regards Columba himself as the author, Cummean or Kumin having written the Preface.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2003. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic font, free from here.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts |


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Rappaport acquires new CVS at Tysons Corner that broke records in net-lease industry.
It's hard to believe that a staple property like a drugstore could cause so much excitement in the commercial real estate community, but that appears to be the case with the new CVS at Tysons Corner.
HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler) said Monday that it arranged $18.5 million in financing for the McLean-based commercial real estate company Rappaport to acquire the newly constructed CVS, located at the corner of Leesburg Pike (Route 7) and Gallows Road, across from Tysons Corner Center.
It's the same store that drew headlines earlier this month when the Calkain Cos. said it sold for $24.7 million in what was a record deal for the net-lease industry.
Reston-based Calkain said the one-acre property went for $1,915 per building square foot, a new high for the Washington, D.C. market for a net-lease transaction and the highest amount paid for a CVS in the country.
Net leases primarily focus on single-tenant, commercial properties occupied by tenants with long-term leases.
HFF said in a news release that it worked exclusively on behalf of Rappaport to secure a seven-year, fixed-rate loan through EagleBank. The HFF team representing the borrower was led by managing director Mark Remington.
The Rappaport Cos. provides a wide range of retail services including leasing, tenant representation, property and construction management, development, marketing, consulting and receivership services for retail space in shopping centers and mixed-use properties throughout Washington, D.C., area.
HFF has 22 offices nationwide and is a provider of commercial real estate and capital markets services to the U.S. commercial real estate industry.


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Growing food can be so fulfilling—and delicious—but the process can also be mysterious and baffling. Here are a few smart tips to make home-grown organic foods the center of your summer meals.
Growing food can be so fulfilling—and delicious—but the process can also be mysterious and baffling. Here are a few smart tips to make home-grown organic foods the center of your summer meals.
A number of years ago, I had a small front-yard garden in Seattle, Wash., where I was attending graduate school for writing. The conditions were seemingly perfect: rich, moist soil; plenty of rain; and ample time to grow. It was—like writing—harder than anticipated. Some plants grew easily (lemon balm, rosemary) and others not at all (dahlias). The truth was, I wasn't familiar enough with the conditions to understand what to plant, where to plant, or what to use (and when) to nourish the garden.
But two years into my naive gardening project, I had an opportunity to volunteer at a small organic farm. I weeded, picked, watered, and harvested my way through that summer, learning to know which plants needed what care: how to pluck the tops off basil before they bolted; when to pick beans; why to rotate crop locations.
Over a decade later, I live in Colorado with distinctly different growing conditions—dry, sandy soil; blazing sun; and an unpredictable growing season. But I love gardening. This year, my kids have already dug out the seed box from the cupboard and are begging to start planting the early-season produce: lettuce, kale, radishes, and herbs. My husband can't get the compost in the ground fast enough!
I can't recommend edible gardening enough—the rewards are so much greater than the price. Even if you don't have the luxury of a back yard and can only manage a few containers, I encourage you to give it a try. Pick up organic seeds at your natural products store, or a few seedlings at your farmer's market, and then get growing with these simple tips.


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The Heritage Foundation
A letter from 232 multi-industry organizations, in conjunction with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is calling on President Obama and Congress to restructure the nation's entitlement programs and put them on a path toward financial sustainability.
These organizations recognize that the country's rising debt poses grave economic risks. In the letter, they cite that near the end of 2008, debt held by the public was around 40 percent of gross domestic product (GDP); this is close to the historical average of about 37 percent of GDP. According to the Congressional Budget Office, though, debt held by the public in 2012 had risen to 73 percent of GDP. The future looks worse still, as debt is projected to skyrocket to over 100 percent of GDP in less than 10 years.
This year,federal government spending outlays totaled $3.6 trillion, while total revenue fell short at about $2.5 trillion. Mandatory spending—on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other social programs—accounted for 62 percent of total spending in 2012, and it is expected to rise to 67 percent of spending over the next 10 years. The letter links the rising costs of entitlement programs tochanging demographics, noting that "unlike other aspects of the entitlement debates, demographics are facts."
With an aging baby-boomer population, the worker-to-beneficiary ratio forMedicare will continue to fall. In 1965, at the start of the program, there were 4.6 workers to every Medicare beneficiary. But, in 2011, that number had fallen to 3.3 workers per Medicare beneficiary, and it is projected to fall further, plummeting to just 2.3 workers per beneficiary by 2030. This means fewer and fewer workers will be paying for the benefits of Medicare recipients. Combining that fact with rising health care costs, it becomes clear that Medicare as it is currently structured is unsustainable.
Social Security, already the nation's largest spending program, will become only more expensive as the baby-boom generation retires. It is no secret that Americans are living longer and thus staying in retirement longer. In 1965, a 65 year-old retiree could expect to live 14.7 years longer, but in 2006, that number had risen to 18.6 years. Social Security is alreadyrunning permanent deficits, and its finances will worsen without reforms.
As the letter states, these indisputable demographics make it quite clear that Congress and the President have a job to do: fundamentally restructure the entitlement programs to ensure they are a true safety net for Americans today, as well as for future generations of Americans.
The online version of the letter is availablehere, including the full list of signatories.


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Submitted by egdaylight on
As a safety engineer at Altreonic, specializing in formal verification and hazard & risk analysis, I am currently contributing to the design and implementation of a Software-Controlled Light Electric Vehicle, called Kurt (named after Kurt Goedel). Besides having a driver sit on the Kurt and steer it, the Kurt vehicle can also be sent steering requests over a wireless channel by a remote-control device. Hospitals, factories and cities in Flanders can — and hopefully will — benefit from several Kurt vehicles.
Fortunately, I am in the business of semi-autonomous driving, not fully-autonomous technology. I personally don't believe in the software safety of self-driving cars and would rather call such vehicles "self-crashing cars." (Nor do I advocate semi-autonomous cars that are almost fully autonomous, i.e., that contain "too much" software.) Specifically, I do not want to live in a city where self-driving cars appear on the same roads that my children take to go to school, just like I don't want manually driven cars with drunken drivers in the vicinity of my family. My wish is, that, if self-driving cars are here to come and stay, then only a few cities in the world will experiment with them for, say, the rest of the present century. The main rationale is that it can take more than a decade before several software bugs in a computer have been detected and thus also in the computers that comprise a self-driving car. Moreover, no guarantee can be made at any time by anybody that all errors, broadly construed, will have been found.
Many people think that a self-driving car will be safer than a manually-controlled vehicle because the human driver is taken out of the loop. They forget, however, that the software of the self-driving car has been written by a human in the first place. So the human factor is very much present in self-driving cars too. To the best of my knowledge, computer scientists don't have, nor pretend to have, good statistics to suggest that the software in a self-driving car will be "good enough" for society at large. Contrast this with the public opinion that "statistics says" society will fare better when all drivers, drunk or not, have been replaced by software and computers.
While it is relatively easy for a professional software engineer to drastically improve the code of a drunken programmer, the professional cannot do the same with the software of a sober colleague, even though both engineers know very well that the software under scrutiny contains errors. Getting software to be absolutely 100% error-free before its deployment has always been and currently still remains computer science's grand challenge. Likewise, preventing some malicious user from hacking into somebody else's computer is, today, still much more an engineering activity than a science. Digital systems frequently receive software updates to "patch up" recently detected software vulnerabilities. The same will have to happen with software in self-driving cars unless, of course, we decide to abandon the silly idea of self-driving cars from the start.
Suppose, however, that you do want to and shall sit in a self-driving car C1 of manufacturer M in the near future. (I am okay with your dangerous lifestyle, provided you grant me and like-minded wimps the freedom to live in a city that prohibits you from visiting us in your self-driving car.) Suppose that prior to departure, your car has received a software update. Then it is very well possible that another self-driving car C2 of manufacturer M has recently experienced problems on the road. The passengers of that other car C2 could be injured or plain dead. Moreover, since your car can receive software updates, it can also receive malicious data from a hacker, e.g., a terrorist who programs your car via the Internet to autonomously crash into the terrorist's former employer. (The terrorist will survive the attack from his living room and be able to accomplish a similar assault the following week when the next software updates are scheduled by M's software vendor V.)
Now, if our future world contains sufficiently many self-driving cars and terrorists that can hack into a computer system — in fact, one hacking terrorist on the loose will suffice — then society at large will definitely not fare better in comparison to the world we live in now. A drunken driver on the road today is far less harmful than a well-chosen kind of software bug or security vulnerability in a self-driving car. The drunken driver will, in the worst case, cause local havoc only. A well-chosen kind of software problem, on the other hand, can lead to disaster on a global scale; i.e., global in time, in space, or both in time and space. A global disaster in time is, for example, the aforementioned terrorist who accomplishes one local car crash every month. An example of a global disaster in space is, for instance, one terrorist who exploits a software vulnerability in all self-driving cars of manufacturer M and software vendor V on the same day, leading to havoc on a large spatial scale. The terrorist pur sang will strive for disaster that is both global in space and time; e.g., by having multiple self-driving vans, carrying toxic chemicals over the world's bridges, fall into rivers so that each sunken van will affect multiple villages/cities and thousands of people for several months.
To some extent my criticism also holds for semi-autonomous cars because they, too, contain software that is simply impossible to get right before deployment. The question, then, which I will not delve into here, is which kinds of semi-autonomous vehicles are suitable for society at large and which are not. Furthermore, also drones, robots and other semi-to-fully autonomous digital systems that are designed to replace human control and which require the Internet (or some other kind of computer network) to get their functionality up and running can be scrutinized in ways similar to what I have presented above.
Given the hype surrounding self-driving technology, it seems that my wish to officially constrain its deployment for the entire century will not come true any time soon. I do hope, however, that every country in the world will have at least one city that prohibits self-driving cars. Unfortunately, living in such a city will not make my anxiety vanish completely. A self-driving car could easily be programmed to enter my safe haven and cause havoc to myself and fellow primitives of our digital age.
3 Comments
Hacking into a Tesla
Submitted by egdaylight on
A self-driving car can turn into a remote-controlled car by someone you don't know: http://keenlab.tencent.com/en/
flying drones in a workshop
Submitted by egdaylight on
I just attended a workshop on "how to write a good research proposal" and guess what happened. During the reception one of the organizers all of a sudden announced that some little drones would be flying through the crowd. "It's all safe," he said, "but don't stick your fingers into the drone, use your palms to push the drone away." The man "assured" us that if we take that precaution, then all would be safe. He added that he was an expert in safety engineering. So he felt he had to re-assure us even more.
Are we just supposed to accept this new way of life? I never asked for a drone to bump into my face. The workshop had nothing to do with drones.
Likewise, I don't want self-driving cars in the streets of my neighborhood, unless the public (a) votes on this and (b) is first well informed about the current state of the technology deployed in such cars.
a child
Submitted by egdaylight on
And what if all of a sudden a child enters the reception and he *does* stick his finger into the drone?


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text: The source files in this distribution are Copyright (C) 1997-1999, Kenneth Albanowski, Paolo Molaro and are licensed for use under the same terms as Perl itself. The graphics files, testgtkrc file, */*.defs (originally gtk.defs) file, and the origination for test.pl and simple.pl are from the gtk distribution, and are under this copyright: /* GTK - The GIMP Toolkit * Copyright (C) 1995-1997 Peter Mattis, Spencer Kimball and Josh MacDonald * * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or * modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either * version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. * * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU * Library General Public License for more details. * * You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free * Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. */ The GNU public license is included with Perl, and with this distribution in the file "COPYING". Starting with version 0.7000 of this package, each submodule must be compiled separately: this allows for greater flexibility and lower memory usage. Gnome requires GdkImlib support build first. To compile each package, run "perl Makefile.PL; make; make install" in each subdir, starting from the base dir (the Gtk submodule, required by all the others). At the time of this writing the submodules supported are: ./ (Gtk), GdkImlib, Gnome, GtkXmHTML, GtkGLArea, Glade. See the INSTALL file for more details on installing this package. This setup may require changes in the source code of existing programs, ie if you need gdk-imlib support, you need to "use Gtk::Gdk::ImlibImage". The same applies if you used gnome features without "use Gnome". Also, starting with version 0.7000, info about flags and enumeration values are retreived directly from gtk+ at runtime instead of relying on our .defs files. This makes for faster startup and lower memory usage, but may introduce some source incompatibilities: the only one I know of is the values of Gtk::PackerOptions (pack-expand becomes expand now). This module should compile with Gtk+ version 1.2.x, gnome version 1.0.x, libglade version 0.11, gdkimlib version 1.9.x, gtkglarea 1.2.x. Some of the information below may be out of date. Usage information: this package was designed to work Gtk+ versions 0.99.10 through 1.2.3, though there is no guarantee it will work with any other distributions, or indeed even those ones. To build, fully build and install Gtk in your system (and glib too, if necessary), then run 'perl Makefile.PL', and 'make test', and then 'make install' if all went well. You may optionally run Makefile.PL with several different switches to enable use of some Gtk widgets and Gdk functions available in those packages. These switches are listed when you run Makefile.PL. Gtk is available at . The code may very well still have leaks, and a few portions are incomplete (such as Gdk colormap manipulation) and much of it is untested. No documentation currently exists, but this code is designed to mimic the C calling sequences as much as is reasonable. A major file reorganization happened with 0.1.13, hopefully making the module easier to work with, and add widgets to, but it may turn out to break with older Perl installations. A configuration reorgnization occured after 0.3, to try and copy with supporting multiple Gtk versions. If you have been using Gtk-0.1.8, several changes have been made to the API, including the change of enumeration and flag values to lowercase (to match the constants defined in gtk.defs), and the requirement for Gtk->init() to be invoked before any other Gtk functions. Please bring information regarding bugs and other issues to (before posting, you will need to subscribe to the list by sending 'subscribe' to email@example.com) or the primary author, at . I cannot guarantee, at the moment, that any particular problem will be fixed. Good Luck, Ken


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Format: Paperback, 273 pages
Release Date: February 24, 2015
Publisher: Witness
Source: Library
Recommended By: Braine aka +Talk Supe
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Romance
Another day. Another funeral. Another ghost. Another average day in the life of young funeral home director, Emma Lee Raines. After a perilous run-in with a plastic Santa Claus, Emma Lee, co-owner of Eternal Slumber Funeral Home in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, sees the ghost of town gossip Ruthie Sue Payne, who is proving to be a real pain, more so in death than while living. Recently deceased, Ruthie reveals to Emma Lee that her demise wasn't caused by accidentally falling down the steps at the Sleepy Hollow Inn as everyone believes—she was pushed...murdered. In order for the ghost to cross over—and for Emma Lee to be rid of Ruthie for good—she must find a desperate killer...or risk being haunted forever.
A Ghostly Undertaking is the first installment in Author Tonya Kappes Ghostly Southern Mysteries series. This book was recommended to me by my friend Braine from Talk Supe Blog. I've been wanting to read this series for awhile now, and have even been sent the fifth and sixth installments in this series. This is a cozy mystery series set in the fictional town of Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky.
Protagonist Emma Lee Raines is co-owner & director of Eternal Slumber Funeral Home. She works with her rather perfect in every way sister Charlotte Rae Raines. But, to get things in order, Emma Lee was recently hit in the head by a plastic Santa. Some, like Charlotte, have been calling it Funeral Trauma. Some think Emma Lee needs a bit of help. Regardless, Emma Lee can see, speak to, and touch ghosts!
One of those ghosts, is Ruthie Sue Payne, recently deceased, adversary to Emma Lee's own grandmother Zula Fae Raines who has every reason to want Ruthie dead. Ruthie, realizing that Emma Lee can hear and see her, pushes Emma Lee into doing a bit of detective work to find out who killed her. Oh, yes, Ruthie claims she was pushed, and didn't just suddenly fall down a flight of stairs. How embarrassing for a gentile southern belle who is the biggest town gossip this side of the Mississippi.
I have to admit that I went in to this book with some reservations. However, I have been trying to read other books outside of my so called comfort zone for years now. Braine was nice enough to recommend a few, including this series, to me. Emma Lee is a quirky character who you can't help but laugh along with, and hold you breath fearing she will make things even worse for those around her. Including one Sheriff Jack Henry Ross.
The same Jack who opens up the case of Ruthie after some questions. The same Jack who knows that Emma Lee is speaking with ghosts, and doesn't seem offended by her bizarre nature. The same Jack that makes Emma's heart run like an engine in the Indianapolis 500. Jack and Emma's relationship is not so overwhelming that it takes over the guessing as to who could possibly stoop so low to kill Ruthie without any remorse.
As I have now started this series, I have requested the second novel, A Ghostly Grave, from my local library system. I do want to find out about Emma Lee's new status as a Betweener, and how she wiggles her way through the rest of this series. Thanks to B for opening my eyes and recommending this series to me. Thanks for a fun, fast pace story Tonya Kappes who this is the first book of any kind that I've had the pleasure to read.


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The Awful Truth The Media Hides:
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Wed 9 Sep, 2009 05:03 am
The Awful Truth The Media Hides: Highly Credible People Question 9/11
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
This list is reprinted from the bibliography that accompanies Charlie Sheen's "20 Minutes With The President" letter. Hit pieces labeling anyone who questions 9/11 as a kook in response to the Sheen story will not dare to mention any of these individuals " why is that?
20 Minutes With The President " Bibliography
Highly Credible People Question 9/11
The following people question the government's version of 9/11, or the government's openness in providing information about the September 11 attacks.
The co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission (Thomas Keane and Lee Hamilton) said that the CIA (and likely the White House) "obstructed our investigation".
The co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission also said that the 9/11 Commissioners knew that military officials misrepresented the facts to the Commission, and the Commission considered recommending criminal charges for such false statements, yet didn't bother to tell the American people (free subscription required).
Indeed, the co-chairs of the Commission now admit that the Commission largely operated based upon political considerations.
9/11 Commission co-chair Lee Hamilton says "I don't believe for a minute we got everything right", that the Commission was set up to fail, that people should keep asking questions about 9/11, that the 9/11 debate should continue, and that the 9/11 Commission report was only "the first draft" of history.
9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey said that "There are ample reasons to suspect that there may be some alternative to what we outlined in our version . . . We didn't have access . . . ."
9/11 Commissioner Timothy Roemer said "We were extremely frustrated with the false statements we were getting"
Former 9/11 Commissioner Max Cleland resigned from the Commission, stating: "It is a national scandal"; "This investigation is now compromised"; and "One of these days we will have to get the full story because the 9-11 issue is so important to America. But this White House wants to cover it up".
9/11 Commissioner John Lehman said that "We purposely put together a staff that had " in a way " conflicts of interest".
The Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission (John Farmer) who led the 9/11 staff's inquiry, said "I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described …. The tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public for two years…. This is not spin. This is not true."
According to the Co-Chair of the Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 and former Head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham, a U.S. government informant was the landlord to two of the hijackers for over a year (but the White House refused to let the 9/11 inquiry interview him).
Current U.S. Senator (Patrick Leahy) states "The two questions that the congress will not ask . . . is why did 9/11 happen on George Bush's watch when he had clear warnings that it was going to happen? Why did they allow it to happen?"
Current Republican Congressman (Ron Paul) calls for a new 9/11 investigation and states that "we see the [9/11] investigations that have been done so far as more or less cover-up and no real explanation of what went on"
Current Democratic Congressman (Dennis Kucinich) hints that we aren't being told the truth about 9/11
Former Democratic Senator (Mike Gravel) states that he supports a new 9/11 investigation and that we don't know the truth about 9/11
Former Republican Senator (Lincoln Chaffee) endorses a new 9/11 investigation
Former U.S. Democratic Congressman (Dan Hamburg) says that the U.S. government "assisted" in the 9/11 attacks, stating that "I think there was a lot of help from the inside"
Former U.S. Republican Congressman and senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and who served six years as the Chairman of the Military Research and Development Subcommittee (Curt Weldon) has shown that the U.S. tracked hijackers before 9/11, is open to hearing information about explosives in the Twin Towers, and is open to the possibility that 9/11 was an inside job
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan (Col. Ronald D. Ray) said that the official story of 9/11 is "the dog that doesn't hunt" (bio)
Director of the U.S. "Star Wars" space defense program in both Republican and Democratic administrations, who was a senior air force colonel who flew 101 combat missions (Col. Robert Bowman) stated that 9/11 was an inside job. He also said:
"If our government had merely [done] nothing, and I say that as an old interceptor pilot-I know the drill, I know what it takes, I know how long it takes, I know what the procedures are, I know what they were, and I know what they've changed them to-if our government had merely done nothing, and allowed normal procedures to happen on that morning of 9/11, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive. [T]hat is treason!"
U.S. Army Air Defense Officer and NORAD Tac Director, decorated with the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and the Soldiers Medal (Capt. Daniel Davis) stated:
"there is no way that an aircraft . . . would not be intercepted when they deviate from their flight plan, turn off their transponders, or stop communication with Air Traffic Control … Attempts to obscure facts by calling them a 'conspiracy Theory' does not change the truth. It seems, 'Something is rotten in the State.' "
President of the U.S. Air Force Accident Investigation Board, who also served as Pentagon Weapons Requirement Officer and as a member of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review, and who was awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses for Heroism, four Air Medals, four Meritorious Service Medals, and nine Aerial Achievement Medals (Lt. Col. Jeff Latas) is a member of a group which doubts the government's version of 9/11
U.S. General, Commanding General of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, decorated with the Bronze Star, Silver Star, and Purple Heart (General Wesley Clark) said "We've never finished the investigation of 9/11 and whether the administration actually misused the intelligence information it had. The evidence seems pretty clear to me. I've seen that for a long time."
Air Force Colonel and key Pentagon official (Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski) finds various aspects of 9/11 suspicious
Lieutenant colonel, 24-year Air Force career, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the Defense Language Institute (Lt. Colonel Steve Butler) said "Of course Bush knew about the impending attacks on America. He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism."
Two-Star general (Major General Albert Stubbelbine) questions the attack on the Pentagon
U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, former instructor at the USAF Fighter Weapons School and NATO's Tactical Leadership Program, with a 20-year Air Force career (Lt. Colonel Guy S. Razer) said the following:
"I am 100% convinced that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were planned, organized, and committed by treasonous perpetrators that have infiltrated the highest levels of our government ….
Those of us in the military took an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic". Just because we have retired does not make that oath invalid, so it is not just our responsibility, it is our duty to expose the real perpetrators of 9/11 and bring them to justice, no matter how hard it is, how long it takes, or how much we have to suffer to do it.
We owe it to those who have gone before us who executed that same oath, and who are doing the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. Those of us who joined the military and faithfully executed orders that were given us had to trust our leaders. The violation and abuse of that trust is not only heinous, but ultimately the most accurate definition of treason!"
U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, a fighter pilot with over 300 combat missions flown and a 21-year Marine Corps career (Lt. Colonel Shelton F. Lankford) believes that 9/11 was an inside job, and said:
"This isn't about party, it isn't about Bush Bashing. It's about our country, our constitution, and our future. …
Your countrymen have been murdered and the more you delve into it the more it looks as though they were murdered by our government, who used it as an excuse to murder other people thousands of miles away.
If you ridicule others who have sincere doubts and who know factual information that directly contradicts the official report and who want explanations from those who hold the keys to our government, and have motive, means, and opportunity to pull off a 9/11, but you are too lazy or fearful, or … to check into the facts yourself, what does that make you? ….
Are you afraid that you will learn the truth and you can't handle it? …"
U.S. Navy 'Top Gun' pilot (Commander Ralph Kolstad) who questions the official account of 9/11 and is calling for a new investigation, says "When one starts using his own mind, and not what one was told, there is very little to believe in the official story".
The Group Director on matters of national security in the U.S. Government Accountability Office said that President Bush did not respond to unprecedented warnings of the 9/11 disaster and conducted a massive cover-up instead of accepting responsibility
Additionally, numerous military leaders from allied governments have questioned 9/11, such as:
Canadian Minister of Defense, the top military leader of Canada (Paul Hellyer)
Assistant German Defense Minister (Andreas Von Bulow)
Commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy (Anatoli Kornukov)
Chief of staff of the Russian armed forces (General Leonid Ivashov)
Former military analyst and famed whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg recently said that the case of a certain 9/11 whistleblower is "far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers". He also said that the government is ordering the media to cover up her allegations about 9/11. And he said that some of the claims concerning government involvement in 9/11 are credible, that "very serious questions have been raised about what they [U.S. government officials] knew beforehand and how much involvement there might have been", that engineering 9/11 would not be humanly or psychologically beyond the scope of the current administration, and that there's enough evidence to justify a new, "hard-hitting" investigation into 9/11 with subpoenas and testimony taken under oath.
A 27-year CIA veteran, who chaired National Intelligence Estimates and personally delivered intelligence briefings to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, their Vice Presidents, Secretaries of State, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many other senior government officials (Raymond McGovern) said "I think at simplest terms, there's a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke", and is open to the possibility that 9/11 was an inside job.
A 29-year CIA veteran, former National Intelligence Officer (NIO) and former Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis (William Bill Christison) said "I now think there is persuasive evidence that the events of September did not unfold as the Bush administration and the 9/11 Commission would have us believe. … All three [buildings that were destroyed in the World Trade Center] were most probably destroyed by controlled demolition charges placed in the buildings before 9/11." (and see this).
20-year Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer, the second-ranking civilian in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence, and former CIA clandestine services case officer (David Steele) stated that "9/11 was at a minimum allowed to happen as a pretext for war", and it was probably an inside job (see Customer Review dated October 7, 2006).
A decorated 20-year CIA veteran, who Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh called "perhaps the best on-the-ground field officer in the Middle East", and whose astounding career formed the script for the Academy Award winning motion picture Syriana (Robert Baer) said that"the evidence points at" 9/11 having had aspects of being an inside job .
The Division Chief of the CIA's Office of Soviet Affairs, who served as Senior Analyst from 1966 " 1990. He also served as Professor of International Security at the National War College from 1986 " 2004 (Melvin Goodman) said "The final [9/11 Commission] report is ultimately a coverup."
Professor of History and International Relations, University of Maryland. Former Executive Assistant to the Director of the National Security Agency, former military attaché in China, with a 21-year career in U.S. Army Intelligence (Major John M. Newman, PhD, U.S. Army) questions the government's version of the events of 9/11.
The head of all U.S. intelligence, the Director of National Intelligence (Mike McConnel) said "9/11 should have and could have been prevented"
A number of intelligence officials, including a CIA Operations Officer who co-chaired a CIA multi-agency task force coordinating intelligence efforts among many intelligence and law enforcement agencies (Lynne Larkin) sent a joint letter to Congress expressing their concerns about "serious shortcomings," "omissions," and "major flaws" in the 9/11 Commission Report and offering their services for a new investigation (they were ignored).
A prominent physicist with 33 years of service for the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC (Dr. David L. Griscom) said that the official theory for why the Twin Towers and world trade center building 7 collapsed "does not match the available facts" and supports the theory that the buildings were brought down by controlled demolition
A world-renowned scientist, recipient of the National Medal of Science, America's highest honor for scientific achievement (Dr. Lynn Margulis) said:
"I suggest that those of us aware and concerned demand that the glaringly erroneous official account of 9/11 be dismissed as a fraud and a new, thorough, and impartial investigation be undertaken."
The former head of the Fire Science Division of the government agency which claims that the World Trade Centers collapsed due to fire (the National Institute of Standards and Technology), who is one of the world's leading fire science researchers and safety engineers, a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering (Dr. James Quintiere), called for an independent review of the World Trade Center Twin Tower collapse investigation. "I wish that there would be a peer review of this," he said, referring to the NIST investigation. "I think all the records that NIST has assembled should be archived. I would really like to see someone else take a look at what they've done; both structurally and from a fire point of view. … I think the official conclusion that NIST arrived at is questionable."
The principal electrical engineer for the entire World Trade Center complex, who was "very familiar with the structures and [the Twin Towers'] conceptual design parameters" (Richard F. Humenn), stated that "the mass and strength of the structure should have survived the localized damage caused by the planes and burning jet fuel . . . . the fuel and planes alone did not bring the Towers down."
Former Director for Research, Director for Aeronautical Projects, and Flight Research Program Manager for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, who holds masters degrees in both physics and engineering (Dwain A. Deets) says:
"The many visual images (massive structural members being hurled horizontally, huge pyroclastic clouds, etc.) leave no doubt in my mind explosives were involved [in the destruction of the World Trade Centers on 9/11]."
A prominent physicist, former U.S. professor of physics from a top university, and a former principal investigator for the U.S. Department of Energy, Division of Advanced Energy Projects (Dr. Steven E. Jones) stated that the world trade centers were brought down by controlled demolition
A U.S. physics professor who teaches at several universities (Dr. Crockett Grabbe) believes that the World Trade Centers were brought down by controlled demolition
An expert on demolition (Bent Lund) said that the trade centers were brought down with explosives (in Danish)
A Dutch demolition expert (Danny Jowenko) stated that WTC 7 was imploded
A safety engineer and accident analyst for the Finnish National Safety Technology Authority (Dr. Heikki Kurttila) stated regarding WTC 7 that "The great speed of the collapse and the low value of the resistance factor strongly suggest controlled demolition."
A 13-year professor of metallurgical engineering at a U.S. university, with a PhD in materials engineering, a former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment Senior Staff Member (Dr. Joel S. Hirschhorn), is calling for a new investigation of 9/11
A Danish professor of chemistry (Dr. Niels Harrit) said, in a mainstream Danish newspaper, "WTC7 collapsed exactly like a house of cards. If the fires or damage in one corner had played a decisive role, the building would have fallen in that direction. You don't have to be a woodcutter to grasp this" (translated)
A former guidance systems engineer for Polaris and Trident missiles and professor emeritus, mathematics and computer science at a university concluded (Dr. Bruce R. Henry) that the Twin Towers "were brought down by planted explosives."
A mechanical engineer with 20 years experience as a Fire Protection Engineer for the U.S. Departments of Energy, Defense, and Veterans Affairs, who is a contributing Subject Matter Expert to the U.S. Department of Energy Fire Protection Engineering Functional Area Qualification Standard for Nuclear Facilities, a board member of the Northern California " Nevada Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, currently serving as Fire Protection Engineer for the city of San Jose, California, the 10th largest city in the United States (Edward S. Munyak) believes that the World Trade Center was destroyed by controlled demolition.
The former Chief of the Strategic and Emergency Planning Branch, U.S. Department of Energy, and former Director of the Office of Engineering at the Public Service Commission in Washington, D.C., who is a mechanical engineer (Enver Masud) , does not believe the official story, and believes that there is a prima facie case for controlled demolition of the World Trade Center.
A professor of mathematics (Gary Welz) said "The official explanation that I've heard doesn't make sense because it doesn't explain why I heard and felt an explosion before the South Tower fell and why the concrete was pulverized"
A prominent engineer with 55 years experience, in charge of the design of hundreds of major building projects including high rise offices, former member of the California Seismic Safety Commission and former member of the National Institute of Sciences Building Safety Council (Marx Ayres) believes that the World Trade Centers were brought down by controlled demolition (see also this)
Two professors of structural engineering at a prestigious Swiss university (Dr. Joerg Schneider and Dr. Hugo Bachmann) said that, on 9/11, World Trade Center 7 was brought down by controlled demolition (translation here)
Kamal S. Obeid, structural engineer, with a masters degree in Engineering from UC Berkeley, of Fremont, California
Ronald H. Brookman, structural engineer, with a masters degree in Engineering from UC Davis, of Novato California
Graham John Inman, structural engineer, of London, England
Paul W. Mason, structural engineer, of Melbourne, Australia
Mills M. Kay Mackey, structural engineer, of Denver, Colorado
David Scott, Structural Engineer, of Scotland
Nathan Lomba, Structural Engineer, of Eureka, California
Edward E. Knesl, civil and structural engineer, of Phoenix, Arizona
David Topete, civil and structural engineer, San Francisco, California
Charles Pegelow, structural engineer, of Houston, Texas (and see this)
Dennis Kollar, structural engineer, of West Bend, Wisconsin
Doyle Winterton, structural engineer (retired)
Michael T. Donly, P.E., structural engineer
William Rice, P.E., structural engineer, former professor of Vermont Technical College
An architect, member of the American Institute of Architects, who has been a practicing architect for 20 years and has been responsible for the production of construction documents for numerous steel-framed and fire-protected buildings for uses in many different areas, including education, civic, rapid transit and industrial use (Richard Gage) disputes the claim that fire and airplane damage brought down the World Trade Centers and believes there is strong evidence of controlled demolition (many other architects who question 9/11 are listed here)
Former Federal Prosecutor, Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Department of Justice under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan; former U.S. Army Intelligence officer, and currently a widely-sought media commentator on terrorism and intelligence services (John Loftus) questions the government's version of 9/11.
Former Inspector General, U.S. Department of Transportation; former Professor of Aviation, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering and Aviation and Professor of Public Policy, Ohio State University (Mary Schiavo) questions the government's version of 9/11.
Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, Champaign; a leading practitioner and advocate of international law; responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the American implementing legislation for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention; served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International (1988-1992), and represented Bosnia- Herzegovina at the World Court, with a Doctor of Law Magna Cum Laude as well as a Ph.D. in Political Science, both from Harvard University (Dr. Francis Boyle) questions the government's version of 9/11.
Former prosecutor in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the U.S. Justice Department and a key member of Attorney General Bobby Kennedy's anti-corruption task force; former assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois (J. Terrence "Terry" Brunner) questions the government's version of 9/11.
Professor Emeritus, International Law, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University; in 2001 served on the three-person UN Commission on Human Rights for the Palestine Territories, and previously, on the Independent International Commission on Kosovo (Richard Falk) questions the government's version of 9/11., and asks whether the Neocons were behind 9/11.
Bessie Dutton Murray Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Director, Center for Human Rights, University of Iowa; Fellow, World Academy of Art and Science. Honorary Editor, Board of Editors, American Journal of International Law (Burns H. Weston) questions the government's version of 9/11.
Former president of the National Lawyers Guild (C. Peter Erlinder), who signed a petition calling for a real investigation into 9/11. And see petition.
Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Troy University; associate General Counsel, National Association of Federal Agents; Retired Agent in Charge, Internal Affairs, U.S. Customs, responsible for the internal integrity and security for areas encompassing nine states and two foreign locations; former Federal Sky Marshall; 27-year U.S. Customs career (Mark Conrad) questions the government's version of 9/11.
Professor of Law, University of Freiburg; former Minister of Justice of West Germany (Horst Ehmke) questions the government's version of 9/11.
Director of Academic Programs, Institute for Policy and Economic Development, University of Texas, El Paso, specializing in executive branch secrecy policy, governmental abuse, and law and bureaucracy; former U.S. Army Signals Intelligence officer; author of several books on law and political theory (Dr. William G. Weaver) questions the government's version of 9/11.
Famed trial attorney (Gerry Spence) questions the government's version of 9/11.
Former Instructor of Criminal Trial Practice, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley 11-year teaching career. Retired Chief Assistant Public Defender, Contra Costa County, California 31-year career (William Veale) said:
"When you grow up in the United States, there are some bedrock principles that require concerted effort to discard. One is the simplest: that our leaders are good and decent people whose efforts may occasionally warrant criticism but never because of malice or venality… But one grows up. … And with the lawyer's training comes the reliance on evidence and the facts that persuade… After a lot of reading, thought, study, and commiseration, I have come to the conclusion that the attacks of 9/11 were, in their essence, an inside job perpetrated at the highest levels of the U S government."
A common criticism of those who question 9/11 is that they are being "disrespectful to the victims and their families".
However, half of the victim's families believe that 9/11 was an inside job (according to the head of the largest 9/11 family group, Bill Doyle) (and listen to this interview). Many family and friends of victims not only support the search for 9/11 truth, but they demand it (please ignore the partisan tone). See also this interview.
Indeed, it has now become so clear that the 9/11 Commission was a whitewash that the same 9/11 widows who called for the creation of the 9/11 Commission are now demanding a NEW investigation (see also this video).
And dying heroes, soon-to-be victims themselves, the first responders who worked tirelessly to save lives on and after 9/11, say that controlled demolition brought down the Twin Towers and that a real investigation is necessary.
Finally, those who attack people who question the government's version of 9/11 as "crazy" may wish to review the list of mental health professionals who have concluded that the official version of 9/11 is false:
Psychiatrist Carol S. Wolman, MD
Psychiatrist E. Martin Schotz
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, as well as Radiology, at Duke University Medical Center D. Lawrence Burk, Jr., MD
Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Ruters University Barry R. Komisaruk
Professor of Psychology at University of New Hampshire William Woodward
Professor of Psychology at University of Essex Philip Cozzolino
Professor of Psychology at Goddard College Catherine Lowther
Professor Emeritus of Psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies Ralph Metzner
Professor of Psychology at Rhodes University Mike Earl-Taylor
Retired Professor of Psychology at Oxford University Graham Harris
Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nebraska and licensed Psychologist Ronald Feintech
Ph.D. Clinical Neuropsychologist Richard Welser
The roster above is only a sample. There are too many Ph.D. scientists and engineers, architects, military and intelligence officials, politicians, legal scholars and other highly-credible people who question 9/11 " literally thousands " to list in one place. Here are a few additional people to consider:
The former director of the FBI (Louis Freeh) says there was a cover up by the 9/11 Commission
Former air traffic controller, who knows the flight corridor which the two planes which hit the Twin Towers flew "like the back of my hand" and who handled two actual hijackings (Robin Hordon) says that 9/11 could not have occurred as the government says, and that planes can be tracked on radar even when their transponders are turned off (also, listen to this interview)
Perhaps "the premiere collapse expert in the country", who 9/11 Commissioner Timothy Roemer referred to as a "very, very respected expert on building collapse", the head of the New York Fire Department's Special Operations Command and the most highly decorated firefighter in its NYFD history, who had previously "commanded rescue operations at many difficult and complex disasters, including the Oklahoma City Bombing, the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, and many natural disasters worldwide" thought that the collapse of the South Tower was caused by bombs, because the collapse of the building was too even to have been caused by anything else (pages 5-6).
Former Deputy Secretary for Intelligence and Warning under Nixon, Ford, and Carter (Morton Goulder), former former Deputy Director to the White House Task Force on Terrorism (Edward L. Peck), and former US Department of State Foreign Service Officer (J. Michael Springmann), as well as a who's who of liberals and independents) jointly call for a new investigation into 9/11
Former FBI agent (Robert Wright) says "The FBI, rather than trying to prevent a terrorist attack, was merely gathering intelligence so they would know who to arrest when a terrorist attack occurred."
Former Minnesota Governor (Jesse Ventura) questions the government's account of 9/11 and asks whether the World Trade Center was demolished
Former FBI translator, who the Department of Justice's Inspector General and several senators have called extremely credible (free subscription required) (Sibel Edmonds), said "If they were to do real investigations we would see several significant high level criminal prosecutions in this country. And that is something that they are not going to let out. And, believe me; they will do everything to cover this up". She also is leaning towards the conclusion that 9/11 was an inside job. Some of her allegations have been confirmed in the British press.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,109 • Replies: 3
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Wed 9 Sep, 2009 11:58 am
New Zogby Poll: 51% Of Americans Want New 9/11 Investigation
67% also fault 9/11 Commission for not investigating anomalous collapse of World Trade Center 7
Zogby International
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Kansas City, MO (Zogby International) September 6, 2007 - As America nears the sixth anniversary of the world-churning events of September 11, 2001, a new Zogby International poll finds a majority of Americans still await a Congressional investigation of President Bush' and Vice President Cheney's actions before, during and after the 9/11 attacks. Over 30% also believe Bush and/or Cheney should be immediately impeached by the House of Representatives.
0 Replies
Floyd Lamore
Thu 10 Sep, 2009 05:44 pm
This blog says it all. Read about OPERATION MOCKINGBIRD in Google on how the Intelligence Community controls the entire Media. Ad Infinitum
1 Reply
Fri 11 Sep, 2009 06:32 am
@Floyd Lamore,
Operation Mockingbird: CIA Media Manipulation
0 Replies
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In Cosby criminal case, accuser's turn to face scrutiny
By Joseph Ax
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Comedian Bill Cosby faces the latest court hearing this week in his sexual assault case in Pennsylvania, but his attorneys will again try to shift attention to his accuser.
Lawyers for the 78-year-old entertainer are set to ask a judge to throw out the charges leveled by Andrea Constand, who says Cosby drugged and assaulted her at his Philadelphia-area home in 2004.
If the Cosby case proceeds to trial, U.S. media attention will focus once more on the debate over the justice system's handling of sexual assault cases. The issue was most recently spotlighted in June when there was a national outcry after a judge gave a former Stanford University swimmer a six-month sentence for sexual assault.
Cosby's defense team has made it clear their trial strategy will be to discredit Constand's account. On Thursday, his lawyers will argue Constand should have been required to testify at a preliminary hearing in May and face cross-examination.
Accusations of sexual assault from dozens of women have knocked Cosby off his longtime pedestal as one of the most beloved U.S. entertainers. Still, most of the cases are too old to be prosecuted. Constand's allegations have led to the only criminal charges against Cosby, who has denied ever assaulting anyone and portrayed their encounter as consensual.
Cosby's lawyer, Brian McMonagle, has argued that Constand should have been forced to show up at the May hearing to explain why she waited a year to make her complaint, why she could not recall certain details and why she stayed in touch with Cosby even after the alleged attack.
Experts in sexual trauma say victims often display behavior that appears on the surface to be inconsistent with assault.
"Society still has this expectation that rape victims will behave in one particular way, and we know that victims don't behave that way," said Jennifer Long, a former Pennsylvania prosecutor whose nonprofit AEquitas advises prosecutors on sexual assault cases.
Last month, a California judge sparked a national outcry when he sentenced a former Stanford student, Brock Turner, to six months in prison for sexually assaulting a woman. Prosecutors had sought a six-year sentence.
At the sentencing, the victim read a lengthy statement excoriating Turner and asserting she had been victimized again at the trial when his lawyer questioned her story, her sexual history and her behavior. BuzzFeed published the letter and it went viral, garnering millions of views.
As recently as eight months ago, prosecutors in the Cosby case would have been barred from calling sexual trauma experts to rebut the argument that Constand's behavior was inconsistent with an assault.
Pennsylvania was the last U.S. state to allow expert testimony on victim behavior in sexual assault cases to be introduced at trial. In 2012, the state legislature passed a law permitting such evidence, but a trial judge declared it unconstitutional the following year.
In November, the state Supreme Court upheld the statute as lawful.
Pennsylvania still allows juries to consider whether a victim promptly reported a sexual assault as a factor in determining credibility. Long, the former prosecutor, said that can be unfair to victims, who may have to work through feelings of shame and gather the courage to report sexual violence.
"There can be self-blame for the rape," she said. "There can be a fear of not being believed."
Similarly, Long said, studies have shown that many sexual assault victims remain in contact with their attackers for a variety of reasons including to reassert control or simply to try to understand what happened.
But defense lawyers insist that those charged with such assaults must be allowed to ask such questions, particularly in a "he said, she said" case where credibility of the accuser and the accused is key.
"Victims can only be victimized by a defense lawyer if there isn't substantive impeachment material that can be used against them," said Douglas Sughrue, a Pittsburgh lawyer who is chairman of the Allegheny County Bar Association's criminal litigation section.
Prosecutors at the May preliminary hearing introduced Constand's description of the alleged attack by calling as witnesses two police detectives who took her statement in 2005.
Constand, a former basketball coach at Cosby's alma mater Temple University, said the comedian offered her an unidentified pill that left her unable to speak or move, and then assaulted her on his couch.
Prosecutors also presented notes from an interview of Cosby himself, who told police he had given Constand a Benadryl and then engaged in consensual "petting."
Cosby's lawyers complained the evidence was improper "hearsay" testimony. Judge Elizabeth McHugh in Montgomery County rejected that objection at the hearing.
Pennsylvania case law permits such evidence at the preliminary stages of a criminal prosecution, though the issue is pending before the state Supreme Court.
Judge Steven O'Neill will consider Cosby's appeal on the issue at a hearing on Thursday in Montgomery County.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by David Gregorio)