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birth control(redirected from Pill, the)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Legal, Encyclopedia.
Related to Pill, the: abortion pill, Emergency contraceptive pill
a coming into being; the act or process of being born.
birth certificate a written, authenticated record of the birth of a child, required by state laws throughout the United States. After a birth is registered, a birth certificate is issued which represents legal proof of parentage, age, and citizenship, and is of great personal and legal importance. A birth certificate is required for many legal and business or personal transactions. Whether the child is born at home or at the hospital, the physician, midwife, or other attendant must report the birth to the local or state registrar. The report becomes a permanent record, and a certificate is issued to the parents. If a child dies during birth, an immediate report and certification of the birth and death are required, containing a statement of the cause of death.
birth control the concept of limiting the size of families by measures designed to prevent conception. The movement of that name began in modern times as a humanitarian reform to conserve the health of mothers and the welfare of children, especially among the poor. More recently it has been superseded by the term family planning, which means planning the arrival of children to correspond with the desire and resources of the married couple. See also contraception.
multiple birth the birth of two or more offspring produced in the same gestation period.
premature birth (preterm birth) expulsion of the fetus from the uterus before termination of the normal gestation period, but after independent existence has become possible; defined as birth occurring before 37 completed weeks (295 days), counting from the first day of the last normal menstrual period. Approximately 6 to 8 per cent of all live births in the United States are premature, and premature births are the major cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality.
1. the governing or limitation of certain objects, events, or physical responses.
2. a standard against which experimental observations may be evaluated, as a procedure identical to the experimental procedure except for the absence of the one factor being studied.
3. conscious restraint and regulation of impulses and suppression of instincts and affects.
4. a patient or group differing from the case or treated group under study by lacking the disease or by having a different or absent treatment or regimen. The controls and subjects usually otherwise have certain similarities to allow or enhance comparison between them.
automatic brightness control an automated exposure device used in radiology; it senses light and adjusts itself to produce a predetermined fluoroscopic density.
automatic exposure control a timer by which the exposure of x-ray film is determined by the radiographer but the length of exposure is determined by the equipment.
aversive control in behavior therapy, the use of unpleasant stimuli to change undesirable behavior.
birth control see birth control.
hemorrhage control in the nursing interventions classification, a nursing intervention defined as reduction or elimination of rapid and excessive blood loss.
infection control see infection control.
infection control: intraoperative in the nursing interventions classification, a nursing intervention defined as preventing nosocomial infection in the operating room.
motor control the generation and coordination of movement patterns to produce function; it may either control movements of the body in space or stabilize the body in space. See also postural control.
postural control motor control that stabilizes the body in space by integrating sensory input about body position (somatosensory, visual, and vestibular input) with motor output to coordinate the action of muscles and keep the body's center of mass within its base of support. An important aspect of postural control is the righting reactions. Called also balance.
stimulus control any influence exerted by the environment on behavior.
birth con·trol
1. restriction of the number of offspring by means of contraceptive measures;
2. projects, programs, or methods to control reproduction, by either improving or diminishing fertility.
birth control
1. Control, and especially limitation, of the number of children born, chiefly through the use of contraceptive techniques.
2. A contraceptive technique.
birth control
See contraception.
birth controlA generic term for the physical, chronological and hormonal manoeuvres used to prevent pregnancy.
birth con·trol(bĭrth kŏn-trōl')
1. Restriction of the number of offspring by means of contraceptive measures.
2. Projects, programs, or methods to control reproduction, by either improving or diminishing fertility.
birth controlA euphemism for CONTRACEPTION. Strictly speaking, the term also includes celibacy, sexual continence, sterilization, castration and abortion.
birth controlany method used to limit the size of the human population, which usually involves the prevention of fertilization of the ovum by the sperm but can also include abortion of the foetus. Behavioural methods include
- abstention from copulation,
- the so-called 'rhythm method' which takes advantage of less-fertile phases of the menstrual cycle,
- coitus interruptus. Other methods involve the use of contraceptive devices, hormonal treatment and sterilization.
Many countries have government-sponsored birth control programmes, initiated in an attempt to control the rapidly increasing human population. For example, China not only encourages one child per family but is also attempting to produce a longer period between generations (over 25 years) by favouring marriages at a late date.
birth con·trol(bĭrth kŏn-trōl')
1. Limiting offspring by means of contraceptive measures.
2. Projects, programs, or methods to control reproduction, by either controlling fertility.
a coming into being; the act or process of being born. See also parturition.
birth canal
the canal through which the fetus passes in birth; comprising the uterus, cervix, vagina and vulva.
birth cohort
see cohort.
birth control
a term rarely used in dealing with animals. Instead see population control, contraception.
birth defects
see congenital defects.
birth difficulties
birth injury
occurs to the fetus during birth. Includes rib fracture and meningeal hemorrhage.
birth interval
the interval between succeeding parturitions. See also calving interval.
multiple birth
the birth of two or more offspring produced in the same gestation period.
birth order
the chronological order of births in a multiple birth. May have significance in causing stillbirths if the intervals between births are prolonged because of inertia.
premature birth
expulsion of the fetus from the uterus before termination of the normal gestation period, but after independent existence has become a possibility. In humans prematurity is defined as a pregnancy of less than 37 weeks in a pregnancy normally lasting 40 weeks.
birth process
comprises maturation of the fetus, relaxation of the bony pelvis and associated ligaments, softening and relaxation of the cervix, vagina, vulva and perineum, correct disposition of the fetus, contractions of the uterine myometrium and finally the only component under voluntary control, contraction of the abdominal muscles.
birth rate
birth size
stature, including height at withers, crown to tail head length at birth.
birth weight
the weight at birth. A significant determinant of survival in any species and of the occurrence of dystocia. See also prolonged gestation.
Patient discussion about birth control
Q. Does it exist a Birth Control Shot for men?
A. No. Currently there are no available medications for birth control for men. However, there are several other methods, including barrier methods (condom) and more irreversible ones (e.g. vasectomy) which may require a treatment by a surgeon.
You may read more here: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001946.htm
You may read more here: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001946.htm
Q. BIRTH CONTROL how many types are there?
A. HI doctor-you forgot one--THE CELL PHONE RADIATION,next time you go out on a date dont forget your cell phone and a piece of string.HA HA ---mrfoot56
Q. how long after i have stop taking birth control pills can i get pregnant?
A. After you stop taking the pill, you may have only a two-week delay before you ovulate again. Once ovulation resumes, you can become pregnant. If this happens during your first cycle off the pill, you may not have a period at all. However, although possible, this scenario isn't likely.More discussions about birth control


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This month's congressional hearing on outlandish bonuses at the Veterans Administration is the latest proof that the nation needs to overhaul how federal workers in every department are paid and promoted.
They're on the gravy train, and taxpayers are being taken for a ride.
Back in 1883, Congress passed the Pendleton Act to replace patronage with a federal civil service in which workers would be hired and paid based on merit.
There is no MERIT anymore. Scramble the letters. What you have now is a TIMER system. Workers put in time and get hefty salaries and bonuses, regardless of work quality, with virtually no risk of being fired.
Gina Farrissee, assistant secretary for human resources at the VA, told Congress that executive bonuses "are awarded only after a rigorous and diligent review." Nonsense.
The regional director overseeing the Pittsburgh VA collected a $63,000 award in 2012 shortly after six vets treated there died needlessly from legionella, an infection traced directly to poor maintenance of the facility.
The General Accountability Office investigated VAs nationwide and reported in July 2013 that doctors get bonuses regardless of work quality. A radiologist cited for mistakes reading mammograms got an $8,216 bonus, even though a professional-standards board deemed him unqualified to continue his current duties.
A surgeon suspended for 14 days for abandoning a patient on the operating table and leaving the medical center, with only unsupervised residents to complete the procedure, still got an $11,189 annual bonus.
But it's not just the VA. Every federal department has this putrid culture.
The Internal Revenue Service doles out bonuses to employees guilty of illegal drug use, unemployment-benefits fraud, even tax evasion. A Treasury inspector general's report released April 22 states that, "with few exceptions, the IRS does not consider tax compliance or other misconduct when issuing performance awards or most other types of awards."
Yet IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress this month that a special independent prosecutor to investigate IRS targeting of conservative groups "would be a monumental waste of taxpayer funds." That's a novel concern at the IRS or any federal agency.
The Pendleton Act stipulated that federal employees would be hired and promoted based on merit.
But merit no longer matters.
Take the Environmental Protection Agency worker making $125,000 a year who spent hours a day watching porn, including four hours on a website called "Sadism is Beautiful."
Yet he received performance awards. "How much pornography would it take for an EPA employee to lose their job?" asked Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) during an Oversight Committee hearing in May.
The answer is that firing a federal worker is almost impossible, and making it stick, even less likely.
Data from the Office of Personnel Management indicate that it is five times as hard to get fired from a federal job as from a private-sector one.
Incredibly, most federal departments have even laxer standards than the VA. Jeff Neely, the General Services Administration employee pictured in a hot tub sipping wine on taxpayer money, retired with benefits after the lavish 2010 Las Vegas boondoggle he attended was uncovered in the media. Two co-workers were fired but reinstated with back pay after appealing to the "merit" system's protection board, which protects everything but merit.
It's been claimed that federal workers settle for lower pay in exchange for job security. Don't believe it.
A worker with a high-school education earns 21 percent more working for the federal government than for a private employer, and gets 72 percent more in benefits. A worker with a bachelor's degree also makes out better with Uncle Sam, getting about the same wages as in the private sector but 46 percent more in benefits.
Only professionals such as lawyers, medical doctors and Ph.Ds get paid less in federal jobs than private-sector ones, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
In addition, the federal workplace offers 10 paid holidays, plus 13 to 26 days' annual vacation (depending on longevity) and up to 13 paid sick days a year.
All in all, up to 49 paid days off.
That's easy street. Meanwhile, taxpayers are on the road to serfdom, working longer and paying more to support a government that does not serve them.

subset: commoncrawl


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The DUPLEX FSGS Study
Study of Sparsentan in FSGS (DUPLEX)
Brief Description
This clinical trial will determine the effectiveness of Sparsentan at reducing proteinuria in patients with primary FSGS.
Trial for people with
Primary focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS)
Study Goal
To determine if sparsentan is works better than irbesartan at reducing proteinuria and reducing the rate of kidney damage caused by FSGS.
What is involved for the Patient?
Eligible participants will need to visit the study location 17 times. There will also be times they need to speak by telephone to study team personnel at the study location. The study will last 2 years and 3 months.
About the drug or intervention
Sparsentan is a dual-acting angiotensin receptor blocker and endothelin receptor antagonist.
- Study CoordinatorAndrea Schwab
- Study Coordinator firstname.lastname@example.com
- Study Coordinator Phone4971181015874
- Site NameRobert-Bosch-Krankenhaus
- AddressAuerbachstraße 110, 70376 Stuttgart, Germany
- SponsorRetrophin, Inc.
- Study DrugSparsentan
- Estimated enrollment300
- Estimated end dateDecember, 2022


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Please note that this link will take you away from First Security Bank and does not represent Bank sponsorship, endorsement or guarantee of information contained on linked sites. First Security Bank (including its Directors, Employees or its Affiliates) is not responsible or liable for the content, information or security; the failure of any products or services advertised or promoted on this linked site and any issue that may arise out of the site's privacy policy.
Press OK to continue.
|Privacy Notice | USA Patriot Act


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I'm getting an error when trying to add a repeating task from Thunderbird to Zarafa, we've have this working using Outlook and via phones (so not via CalDAV). Below is the information i've managed to gather about the error but not sure what to make of it myself.
Post Data:
Response to Post:
Are repeated tasks via CalDAV not supported or is something in my request not correct?
We're using Zarafa version: 7.2.5-109
I'm using Thunderbird version: 52.0


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All kids dream of having a space entirely to themselves, whether it's a finished basement, tree house or just a fort constructed from couch cushions and old sheets. Kids need room to run around, but they also need space to be alone, hang out and feel comfortable.
Whether you're designing a walk-in closet study for your child, putting the finishing touches on a toy room or finishing a basement with all the high-tech entertainment trappings, consider some of these tips along the way - they'll be sure to satisfy everyone.
1. Keep everything feeling warm and comfy. This means big couches, plenty of throws and a good carpet. If your kids' space is going to be in the basement, you'll want to install radiant floor heating. This eco-friendly form of heating can be placed under almost any type of floor - even basement concrete - and keeps your feet and room warm by spreading heat outward and upward. Energy-saving and a lot less dusty than hot air ducts, radiant heat is a great option for your kids' play area.
2. Make sure the impressive toys are here. Whether they're 4 years old or 14, your kids want time to hang out and play. From Legos to Xbox, outfitting the space with something they can relax and kill time with is key. If you've already got the giant TV for video games, why not install a Blu-Ray player so you can all take a breather on the couch and enjoy some movies or TV. Or - if you're feeling adventurous - have them show you how to play Wii.
3. Let them pick out the décor. Chances are, they'll be too caught up in History homework and Facebook to care much about the couch upholstery, but be sure to give them full reign over prints, posters and whatever crazy lamps they happen to want. They may not put up a Monet reproduction, but walls covered with the latest fleeting boy band craze are worth it to give them a sense of ownership over the room.
4. Don't forget to keep it a little familial. Watching movies together is great, but maybe suggest putting a pool table or boardgame shelf in your kids' play area. This gives the whole family an excuse to hang out and do some regular chatting. Sure, it's their room, but your kids will be more than happy to invite you over.
We won't share your information and you can unsubscribe at any time with a single click.


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Sarah Franklin
Class of 2012
Major/Minor: Biology / Psychology
Hometown? Lothian, Maryland
High School? Annapolis Area Christian School
Favorite Chestertown Place? One of my favorite places in Chestertown is the historical downtown area. There are several cute shops such as Twigs and Teacups & Gabriel's, as well as restaurants Lemon Leaf Café & Play It Again Sam's. It is very nice to walk downtown, especially on Saturday mornings for the Farmers Market.
Mistake 1st Year? I would have liked to explore different genres of classes. I wish I had taken a couple classes outside of my major and comfort zone.
Type of Egg? Sunny Side Egg
Disney Character? If I could be a Disney Character, I would be the Little Mermaid, Ariel because she loves to explore and seek adventure.
Time of Day? My favorite time of the day is during sunset because I love all of the vibrant colors. The most awesome sunsets are during the summer.
Favorite Class at WC? CNW: Ethics in America; this class allowed me to think in multiple perspectives and challenged my preconceived notions of what I thought was morally ethical.
Recommended Professor? I would recommend Dr. Krochmal. His classes are very fascinating and lively (they will keep you awake).
Most Memorable Experience as a First-Year Student? I really enjoyed taking a sailing class and learning how to sail for the first time.
If I Could be an Animal? I would be platypus because they are such intriguing animals. What exactly is a platypus? They look like a combination of a several animals, a beaver, otter, and a duck.
One Thing You Shouldn't Forget to Pack? A fan- it serves many purposes, drowning out noises (if needed) and helping keep you cool.
Campus Involvement
- Major: Biology
- Minor: Psychology
- Concentration: Pre-Med
- President, Tri Beta National Biology Honor Society
- Co-Head of the Local Committee, Service Council
- Historian, HOSA
- Students Helping Honduras
- Habitat for Humanity
- International Relations Club
- Peer Mentor


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Follow along as a public elementary school in Chicago integrates the iPad into its first through fifth grade classrooms.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Active Literacy With the iPad: Part 1
iBooks and ePUBs
When I'm teaching reading, I'm teaching students how to be active readers. That means that they need to engage with what they are reading. They need to think, talk, and write. They need to leave tracks of their thinking. Students do this by writing post-it's and annotating the text they are reading. (Depending on they type of text.)
When I first began exploring the iPad I was thrilled to learn that iBooks allows students to write notes and highlight things. Now they could have virtual post-it's! What was even more exciting to me was that they could e-mail me these comments to me. Here's an example of what one of these comment pages might look like.
As you can see, the comments come up but not the text that the student is referring to. This can be fixed if the student highlights the sentence or phrase that inspired that thought. This is what I plan on teaching my students next. I think that it will be very powerful for them to articulate specific words or phrases that have triggered their thinking.
I find this format really revealing and easy to look at as well as assess. I have enough rag tag stacks of paper and this document is a quick assessment glance at the thinking my student did during the day's lesson. I also think that when these comments are listed out like this it makes it easy to look for patterns in thinking.
In the example above I see the student is demonstrating an emotional connection with the text, they are questioning, and they are linking to their background knowledge. The comment about Pandora reveals that the student is probably connecting to their background knowledge of the mythological person Pandora and when the article refers to Pandora as a place he is attempting to reconcile this information. This would be my opening point in a conference about the text.
So what's the catch?
Well, the catch is that this only works with iBooks that you purchase…which I have no money for, and ePUBs. The good news is that there is a way to turn any internet article into an ePUB for students to use. Thanks to Bruce "Awesomeness" Ahlborn for this tip. dotEPUB is a site that will do this dirty work for you. All you have to do is install their bookmarklet on your computer or iPad and a few simple clicks will send the article to your device.
Bam! Presto! Any internet article becomes a tool for practicing active literacy.
Management Issues
I would suggest that you, the teacher, use dotePUB on your computer and then drop it into ibooks to sync to the devices. You can install this on student iPads easily so that they can do it themselves. However, itunes will sync all of the student articles off the devices and back on to all the other devices. Which means that you now get every single article that each student Epubbed. (Is that a verb? If not you heard it here first!) It's not a huge issue but a minor headache that you can avoid.
Posted by Katie at 9:35 AM
Labels: differentiation, ibooks, language arts, literacy, questioning, reading, reading workshop, research
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U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission
Agricultural Firm Required Illegal Medical Exams & Family Medical History Inquiries, Denying a Job to an Applicant Thought to be Disabled, Federal Agency Charges
EL CENTRO, Calif. -The Abatti Group and its subsidiaries, a provider of seed and fertilizer, violated federal law by engaging in discrimination based on both disability and genetic information, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.
The EEOC contends that the Abatti Group and its subsidiaries All Star Seed, Green Touch Fertilizer and Eight Star Commodities required job applicants to undergo illegal physical exams and questions about their medical conditions. The Abatti Group also made illegal inquiries into applicants' family medical histories-also known as genetic information-as a condition of employment.
According to the EEOC, at least one applicant was denied hire as a result. In 2010, a temporary worker applied for a full-time permanent dispatcher position at the Abatti Group's El Centro, Calif., location. The applicant was allegedly informed that he would be considered for hire after taking a physical examination and drug test. The individual continued to work as a temporary worker in the dispatcher position pending those results.
Part of the medical examination solicited disability-related information as well as family medical history unrelated to the job, contends the EEOC. The applicant reluctantly disclosed that he was hospitalized one time due to an issue with his heart, a condition shared by others in his family. Ultimately, he was denied hire because the Abatti Group allegedly regarded him as being disabled even though the one-time hospitalization had no correlation to the work he was already doing.
Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA). The EEOC filed its suit against the Abatti Group and its subsidiaries in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California [EEOC v. All Star Seed dba Eight Star Commodities, Green Touch Fertilizer, and Allstar Seed Company; La Valle Sabbia, Inc. dba Eight Star Equipment and Eight Star Logistics; and Abatti dba Abatti Companies; Case No. CV13-07196 JAK (AJWx)], after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The EEOC's suit seeks back pay, compensatory and punitive damages for the applicant as well as injunctive relief intended to prevent further discrimination at the companies.
"The law on genetic information and family medical history is a new frontier in employment discrimination law," said Anna Park, regional attorney for the EEOC's Los Angeles District Office. "It extends beyond the hiring stage, prohibiting inquiries at any time with only a few minor exceptions. Employers need to be cognizant of their legal requirements and be respectful of every applicant's and employee's right to privacy."
Marla Stern-Knowlton, director of the EEOC's San Diego Local Office, added, "Under federal law, employers are prohibited from making pre-employment inquiries about an applicant's disability or genetic information. Unless there is a business necessity for such questions, companies should steer clear of asking broad questions about an applicant's health."
One of the six national priorities identified by the EEOC's Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) is for the agency to address emerging and developing issues in equal employment law, including issues involving the ADA and pregnancy-related limitations, among other possible issues.
The EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws against employment discrimination. Further information is available at www.eeoc.gov.


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François Hollandes Socialist government is facing a new tax revolt this time not from big business protesting against the presidents 75 percent income tax band but in the form of a viral online campaign by small French entrepreneurs furious about a jump in capital gains taxes.
Calling themselves the Pigeons French slang loosely translated as the fall guys a group of Internet entrepreneurs took to social networking sites to voice their opposition to the measure within hours of its announcement in last Fridays 2013 budget .
The cause of their ire is the governments plan to tax capital gains at the same rates as earned income. Jean-David Chamboredon, chief executive of ISAI, a venture capital fund, and leader of an investors lobby group called France Digitale, said the result in some cases would be a jump in the effective marginal tax rate to as high as 60 percent from 32 percent for investors and entrepreneurs selling out of a business.
This is very dangerous because investors may not invest in new companies any more, he said.
In an online statement of their objections, Les Pigeons said the measure amounted to the breaking of dreams, an almost sadistic demotivation.
Stoking the ill feeling were remarks made by Pierre Moscovici, the finance minister, on Friday when he referred to those who earn while sleeping, adding: It is not right that capital income is taxed at a lower rate than income from work.
By Tuesday the entrepreneurs new Facebook page had attracted more than 23,000 likes with the Twitter handle #defensepigeons also bombarded with messages of support. French mainstream media latched on to the protest.
Jeremy Benmoussa, who owns two small web-based social communications businesses and one of four people who set up the Facebook page, said entrepreneurs like him felt they were being mugged by the new tax proposal: We are being treated as pigeons, he told the Financial Times.
We are different from the grands patrons on their big salaries. We work 24 hours a day and we need help. We need investors. If this new tax goes ahead it will be very difficult for new businesses to find investors.
The campaign has had its online detractors, with some commentators accusing the entrepreneurs of exaggerating their plight ad saying that only in very few cases would the tax rate hit 60 percent.
The government included a number of measures in the budget to aid small businesses, which it has pledged to shelter from the tough fiscal effort required to meet Frances budget deficit target.
The 10 billion in new taxes imposed on business was mainly aimed at big companies. The government believes Les Pigeons are being stoked by the opposition center-right UMP party something the protesters deny.
Fleur Pellerin, minister for digital industry and small businesses, said the budget contained measures to neutralize the effect of the higher marginal capital gains tax rates on small businesses and start-ups and included enhanced tax exemptions for young innovative enterprises.
We are working on measures that encourage investment in productive capital, as opposed to sleeping capital, she told the FT.
Mr. Benmoussa said the situation for new businesses had improved over the past decade, creating a start-up culture in France. The budget did have lots of good things for small businesses. But this [capital gains] measure is creating a situation that is catastrophic, he said.
Mr. Chamboredon, ISAIs chief executive, said there was a risk that venture capitalists, business angels and other investors would shift their attention to countries with lower tax regimes, such as the U.K. and Belgium.
But he added that there was some good news in the online campaign: It shows that there are plenty of young people in France who want to be entrepreneurs. Thats good!
Les Pigeons said their cyberspace protest would continue: We believe in the power of social media...and are convinced that this mobilization will make the government understand that it has chosen the wrong battle in attacking entrepreneurs.


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Catherine Alaniz wasn't prepared for the sight. Three months after she buried her husband and one month after she gave birth to their daughter, the 19-year-old widow saw his blood on the cover of Parade magazine.
The Associated Press photograph became world-famous instantaneously and was published in newspapers and magazines around the world as a symbol of war's devastation.
In one of the most iconic battlefield images ever captured on film, two wounded Operation Desert Storm soldiers in an evacuation helicopter have just learned who's in the bloody body bag at their feet. It's their friend and Catherine's high school sweetheart, Andy Alaniz.
The photo eventually helped Catherine learn the truth about how her husband died and that the government had lied to her about it.
Throughout the ordeal, her parents were her support staff. She and Andy were married so briefly and he was deployed to the Middle East so quickly, they didn't have a chance to get their own place. So she lived with her parents and moved with them from Texas to Oklahoma City when her father got a promotion.
In 1995, four years after losing her husband in Iraq, Catherine's father was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. She officially identified Claude A. Medearis' body, but authorities already knew who it was. The blast was so powerful, the nameplate from his desk was embedded in his chest.
"My husband drove a Bradley in Iraq. Timothy McVeigh drove a Bradley in Iraq," Catherine Alaniz-Simonds, since remarried, said last month. "My husband gets killed in Iraq. Timothy McVeigh gets to come home and then goes to Oklahoma City four years later and kills my dad. Weird, huh?"
Twenty-one years have passed since David C. Turnley's acclaimed photograph -- through Alaniz's death -- changed the way a generation viewed war.
In an attempt to learn the lasting impact of the traumatic moment, The Buffalo News visited the two soldiers in the photograph and Alaniz's survivors, whose wounds from Operation Desert Storm hadn't healed when fresh ones were inflicted at home.
Turnley's compelling image appeared after a lopsided war that claimed few lives came to an end. Without a draft, Americans weren't as emotionally involved as in previous wars and watched images on CNN that just as easily could have been produced in Hollywood. Military censors made sure nobody read about or saw American soldiers suffering, let alone dying, in a faraway desert.
Turnley's photograph changed that. Orchard Park native Ken Kozakiewicz wails in the moments after learning Alaniz, his former roommate at Fort Stewart, Ga., has been killed. Michael Tsangarakis, of Queens, lifts his head bandage to look at the body bag next to him.
For the Alaniz women, 2012 is a milestone year of sorts, a bitter chronological reminder of how much tragedy they've experienced so early.
Andee Alaniz turned 21 last month. She now has lived longer than her father. He was 20 and wasn't sure if his wife was carrying a son or a daughter when a rocket screamed through the cabin of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle he was driving in Iraq.
Catherine Alaniz-Simonds looks too young to have two adult daughters (one of them married) and a 16-year-old. Catherine will turn 41 in August. That's how old her father was when he sat at his desk in the Murrah Federal Building the morning McVeigh blew it up.
>Vows, then goodbye
Andy and Catherine Alaniz had a flawless marriage. They never argued. He never left his dirty socks on the bathroom floor. He never failed to put the toilet seat down. He never came home late after carousing with the boys.
They weren't married long enough.
"My biggest worry when Andy died was that she lived with perfection and nobody would ever reach it," Catherine's mother, Sharon Medearis, said. "How could anybody live up to perfection?"
Alaniz already was in the Army when he proposed to his high school sweetheart. He flew from his base back to Corpus Christi, Texas, to get married June 29, 1990, but had to return to the barracks alone and with no honeymoon.
The plan was to move in together on base, but eventually came word that Alaniz would be deployed to the Middle East. Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait, and the United States was gearing up for war against Iraq.
Andy and Catherine still had two blissful weeks together in August 1990. Alaniz's uncle, also in the Army, had a tiny base house at Hunter Army Airfield. They spent much of those two weeks on a twin bed, acting like newlyweds. Catherine also cried a lot. Garth Brooks' ballad "If Tomorrow Never Comes" became their theme song.
The last time Catherine saw her husband smile and touched his dark skin was through Hunter Army Airfield's chain-link fence Aug. 23, a day before the 24th Infantry Division departed for Iraq.
Alaniz, still a teenager for three more months, was interviewed by a Newsday reporter about the anxieties of being deployed for a possible war that seemed predicated more on crude oil than global altruism.
"A soldier's job is to do what he's told," Alaniz said in the article. "I try not to think about the reasons and all that, although I do agree it's OK to be going over."
Alaniz was asked what went through his mind when he first learned he was going to Iraq.
"I was convinced I was gonna go over there and get waxed," Alaniz said, his bride still holding on to the fence.
>Boredom shattered
Andy Alaniz is forever 19 years old in Catherine's mind: square jaw, dark eyes and thick eyebrows, but a baby-faced boyishness underscored by his slight frame.
They wrote to each other every day he was gone. She saved all the letters, photographs and minicassettes, preserving a husky voice that sounded like a kid who was trying to sound grown up.
She has read his letters and listened to the tapes too many times to count and recently hauled them out for a visitor to sift through on the coffee table at her newly built and immaculate home in an Oklahoma City suburb.
In his letters and on the tapes, Alaniz says things a 20-year-old would say. He's playful. He's horny. He's weary of his parents nagging him -- even from 7,500 miles away. He's in love with his wife and excited about their baby on the way. He's eager to get back home. He wants to be a cop; no more pizza shops for him.
Alaniz also complains in his letters about being bored. On Feb. 22, 1991, he writes that "a little border skirmish would be nice" to break up the desert monotony.
Catherine's baby shower was a few nights later. Andy's cousin called and breathlessly reported that Kuwait had been liberated.
"She said 'Catherine, they're coming home!' We were all hooting and hollering and so excited," Alaniz-Simonds said. "That was the day he was killed. So he was coming home -- in a body bag."
With the cease-fire mere hours away, Alaniz and another U.S. soldier were killed by friendly fire -- the Army's official cause of death initially stated that Alaniz drove over a land mine -- while making a sweep of Jalibah Airfield, one of their company's final objectives before coming home.
A commander's battle review obtained by The News cited another battalion's "battlefield confusion" for the mayhem. Between six and 18 depleted-uranium rounds were fired on a group of Bradleys, striking three.
One of the 120 mm rounds ripped through the right side of Alaniz's vehicle, entered his lower right back and exited his left abdomen. Kozakiewicz and Tsangarakis were in the other Bradleys that were mistakenly hit.
Alaniz kept a diary his bride didn't see until after his death. The last paragraph of his final entry -- at 0300 hours on Feb. 27, 1991 -- reads:
"Saddam complaining about allies still attacking after he made an 'honorable retreat.' You ask me, we gave him more than enough time and time is up. With the liberation of Kuwait almost complete, it's time for the destruction of Iraq. * I love you Cathie Alaniz *"
>Daughter left behind
That Andee Alaniz is her father's daughter is unmistakable. She has his dark eyes, cheekbones and freckles. The resemblance makes Andy's absence easier for Catherine to handle, because it proves he left a significant part of himself behind.
Andee is a tiny young woman, 5 feet tall and determined to bulk up to 100 pounds someday. She has long black hair, wears her father's dog tags around her neck and gets a dimple on her chin when she cries.
On Andee's right shoulder is a tattoo. The dates her dad was born and died are underneath an inscription: "Seize the day," something she admittedly hasn't done in the past.
Even though the government will pay for her college, she has chosen to work various jobs instead. On June 5, however, she began course work at Oklahoma City Community College to become a respiratory therapist.
"He was so mature for being 19 to 20. He had to be," Andee Alaniz said of her father. "I look at myself and say, 'I don't have a job. I'm just starting school. I'm 10 steps behind him.' It's pretty hard to think about what he was going through over there."
The day before classes began, Andee for the first time took her father's diary, the box of letters and his minicassettes into her room and closed the door. She had been intimidated by college and wanted to immerse herself in what her father was doing at 19 and 20 years old.
What she took away from the letters was his fearlessness of what was on the horizon and an unconditional affection for his bride and a baby he hadn't met yet.
"He will always be my daddy, and he will always be fantastic," Andee Alaniz said. "I was always afraid that because he didn't get the chance to meet me, I didn't mean as much to him. But I can tell in his journals and his letters and his tapes that he loved me."
>Bomb's lasting damage
No matter how much she tried, Catherine couldn't find meaning in Andy's death. She and her baby girl were cheated of his presence in their lives.
Catherine found her purpose after the Oklahoma City bombing, with her father among the 168 killed. She was convinced she was put through her tragedy in 1991 to help her mother get through this one.
"We were each other's rock," Sharon Medearis said. "She knew what I was going through; I knew what she had been through."
Search crews needed nine days to find Claude Medearis' body in the Murrah Building rubble known as The Pit.
"Those nine days," Alaniz-Simonds said, "were longer than the six months Andy was in Desert Storm."
Catherine was among those who testified in Denver at the McVeigh and Terry Nichols trials. To cope with the stress away from the courthouse, she volunteered at a local church, making ham-and-cheese sandwiches for the homeless during the McVeigh trial and visiting AIDS patients during the Nichols trial.
She also made a dear friend. Oklahoma City police officer Keith Simonds, a Murrah Building first responder, testified at the Nichols trial.
Simonds' heroism was captured in a Daily Oklahoman photo that was printed around the world. In the photo, Simonds and another officer are exhausted and bewildered, having just pulled Sharon Littlejohn's body from the ruins and laying her on the ground.
Catherine now has had two husbands who were featured in world-famous photos of tragedy. She married Simonds under the Survivor Tree, a 90-year-old elm across the street from where the Murrah Building stood. Tires and car hoods dangled from the branches after the blast, but the tree came back as a symbol of resilience.
"They should have tied McVeigh to the Survivor Tree," Alaniz-Simonds said, "and let each family member use the glass from the blown-out windows to take a nick until there was nothing." Instead, she and Simonds watched McVeigh die by lethal injection on closed-circuit television back in Oklahoma City.
Given all that Alaniz-Simonds has endured, there would be no need to explain if she drifted into a psychological trench. Her loved ones almost certainly would pull her along without asking questions.
Alaniz-Simonds has gone the other way. She has added causes to her life. She has volunteered and given speeches at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. She was president of Concerns of Police Survivors, an advocacy group for family members of police killed in the line of duty.
She has given herself to others -- literally. Her father's twin sister suffered from kidney failure and needed a transplant. McVeigh took away the obvious donor. But Alaniz-Simonds was a match, and gave a kidney to her aunt in 2009.
To support a friend with breast cancer, Alaniz-Simonds shaved her head on Easter 2011.
Then there was the time she made Simonds help her bring a homeless guy back to the house. She wanted to get him out of the blistering heat, clean him up, give him a shave and feed him.
Simonds tried to talk her out of it but quickly realized that would be impossible. He eventually watched the homeless man walk out of their house in a pair of Simonds' new sneakers -- straight out of the shoe box.
"You think I had it rough? Not really," Simonds said. "When you hear her story about her husband and her father, and she's still going on? It's incredible. She's very strong-willed. She will always fight for herself, her family or somebody in need.
"The lesson she's teaching is 'Hey, I'm still going. That's what my husband would want. That's what my dad would want.' "
To read a complete version of Part One, go to Buffalonews.com
email: email@example.com


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vnStat is a lightweight network traffic monitor. It keeps a network traffic log on selectable interfaces. Through the command line the network traffic statistics can be shown.
Install vnStat from the official repositories.
Setting the interfaces
First introduce every interface that needs to be logged to vnStat. For example a wired interface:
# vnstat -u -i eth0
Or a wireless interface:
# vnstat -u -i wlan0
When introducing an interface for the first time there will be an error message saying 'unable to read database'. If this message is followed by an info message saying 'a new database has been created' the interface is successfully introduced. If this is not the case check that the specified interface is valid.
Updating method
After introducing the interface(s) set one of the update methods.
The first method is using Cron. A sample of Cron usage is provided with vnStat at
The second way is using systemd (and the provided service):
# systemctl start vnstat.service
Global settings
Other settings, like settings to control the daemon, can be done in
Query the network traffic:
# vnstat -q
Viewing live network traffic usage:
# vnstat -l
For all the other options, use:
# vnstat --help
Or for a complete list, use:
# vnstat --longhelp


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Factors Influencing Girls' Participation in Sports
Do You Know the Factors Influencing Girls' Participation in Sports?
By age 14, many girls are dropping out of sports at two times the rate of boys.1Through more than 25 years of research, the Women's Sports Foundation has identified key factors which contribute to this alarming statistic. Read on to learn more about how these factors influence girls' sport experiences and why they need to stay in the game.
1. Why they drop out:
Lack of access. Girls have 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sports than boys have. Lack of physical education in schools and limited opportunities to play sports in both high school and college mean girls have to look elsewhere for sports –which may not exist or may cost more money. Often there is an additional lack of access to adequate playing facilities near their homes that makes it more difficult for girls to engage in sports.
Why they need to stay in:
Through sports, girls learn important life skills such as teamwork, leadership and confidence.
2. Why they drop out:
Safety and transportation issues. Sports require a place to participate – and for many girls, especially in dense urban environments, that means traveling to facilities through unsafe neighborhoods or lacking any means to get to a good facility miles away. And if there isn't a safe option like carpooling with other families, the only option for a girl and her family may be to stay home.
Why they need to stay in:
Girls active in sports during adolescence and young adulthood are 20% less likely to get breast cancer later in life.2
3. Why they drop out:
Social stigma. Despite recent progress, discrimination based on the real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity of female athletes persists. Girls in sports may experience bullying, social isolation, negative performance evaluations, or the loss of their starting position. During socially fragile adolescence, the fear of being tagged "gay" is strong enough to push many girls out of the game.
Why they need to stay in:
Sports are an asset to American families, fostering communication and trust between parents and children.3
4. Why they drop out:
Decreased quality of experience. As girls grow up, the quality level of their sports experience may decline. The facilities are not as good as the boys' venues and the playing times may not be optimal. The availability of quality, trained coaches may be lacking in their community or these coaches may be more focused on the boys' programs that have more money for training. Equipment, and even uniforms aren't funded for many girls' programs at the same levels as boys so their ability to grow and enjoy the sport is diminished. In short, sports just aren't "fun" any more.
Why they need to stay in:
More than three-quarters of working women feel that sports participation helps enhance their self-image.4
5. Why they drop out:
Cost. School sports budgets are being slashed every day, all across the country. Fewer opportunities within schools mean families must pay to play in private programs while also footing the bill for expensive coaches, equipment and out-of-pocket travel requirements. This additional expense is just not possible for many families.
Why they need to stay in:
Girls' involvement with sports is related to higher levels of family satisfaction, in both single-parent and dual-parent families.5
6. Why they drop out:
Lack of positive role models. Today's girls are bombarded with images of external beauty, not those of confident, strong female athletic role models. To some girls, fitting within the mold that they are constantly told to stay in is more important than standing out. Peer pressure can be hard for girls at any age; when that pressure isn't offset with strong encouragement to participate in sports and healthy physical activity, the results may lead girls to drop out altogether.
Why they need to stay in:
High school female athletes have more positive body images than non-athletes.6
1. Girls drop-out at different rates depending on where they live. Sabo, D. and Veliz, P. (2008). Go Out and Play: Youth Sports in America. East Meadow, NY: Women's Sports Foundation.
2. Staurowsky, E. J., DeSousa, M. J., Gentner, N., Miller, K. E., Shakib, S., Theberge, N., & Williams, N. (2009). Her Life Depends On It II: Sport, Physical Activity, and the Health and Well-Being of American Girls and Women.
3. Sabo & Veliz (2008) Go Out and Play: Youth Sport in America.
4. Sabo & Snyder (1993) Sports and Fitness in the Lives of Working Women.
5. Sabo & Veliz (2008) Go Out and Play: Youth Sport in America.
6. Miller, Sabo, Melnick, Farrell & Barnes (2000), Health Risks and the Teen Athlete.


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Carly Chaney scored 16 points and Megan Droll chipped in 12 as the Florence Huskies blew out the Fountain Valley Danes 49-29 in a Tri-Peaks League game on Friday.
Florence is now 4-7 overall and 2-2 in the T-PL.
The team's next game will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday at home against Buena Vista.
Tigers lose battle with Colts
The Cañon City boys basketball team fell to Pueblo South on Friday, 72-68, in Pueblo.
Blake Madone, Trenton Stringari and Gunner Javernick, all of whom scored 14, led Cañon City.
Tigers coach Greg Baxter said his team played real well. Javernick had a shot rim out with 8 seconds left that would've tied the game. He said the team felt good about itself even though it lost.
Cañon City's next game will be Friday on the road against No. 5-ranked Pueblo East.
Coaches are asked to phone in results as soon as their events conclude. Reported results that don't appear in the newspaper will be published at canoncitydailyrecord.com. For updates on games, "like" our page at Facebook.com/CCDRsports.


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Shadowy "Found" Footage Makes Great Noir/
I really love this short "Dans L'Ombre" (In the Shadows) directed by Fabrice Mathieu. It won the Honorable Mention at the Disposable Film Festival 2012. I was a judge and I think it is really smartly done.
I look forward to seeing more by this director.


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Yankees Bringing Back CC Sabathia With One-Year Deal
CC Sabathia is returning to the Bronx for another season. Multiple reports say the 38-year-old left-hander has agreed to a one-year, $8,000,000 deal with the Yankees. Sabathia went 9-and-7 with a 3.65 ERA in 29 starts this season. Next year will be his 11th with New York.
Photo: Getty


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Home » Guitar » WILLIAMS, DAVEY: Antenna Road
WILLIAMS, DAVEY: Antenna Road
This is a record you won't find in your local shop. Davey, pataphysical revue alumnus, one of Fred Frith's invitees on the guitar solos project, quiet master of music and with nothing to prove, delivers a small masterpiece of a record that takes no prisoners but also grinds no axes (except the ones under his fingers). His own sleeve notes sum it up best; these are kernels, fragments, short-form miniatures that because of some strange essential quality fill time and memory. On various instruments (steel body guitars, slide guitar, electric sitar, electric guitar [between one and eleven at a time], acoustic guitar, bass, aluminium strip, electric screwdriver, e-bow - but always pared down, lucid, simple, unassuming) he lines up 30 short and very different pieces that occupy between 35 seconds and 2 minutes 59, but mostly averaging a minute, though it never seems so. And, different as they are, they follow one another and make longer seeming pieces. Some are quite abstract - though always catchy - many are fairly or very loaded with the Blues. A very welcome addition to the library.
Code: transmuseq18
Price: £14.50


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Gervinho, Yaya Toure and Didier Ya Konan scored a goal each against Tunisia on Saturday at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg to secure Cote dÔÇÖIvoireÔÇÖs ticket to the quarter-finals of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.
The faceoff began in a state of agitation, with the two sides threading sloppy passes in the midfield and unable to maintain possession of the ball. Ben Youssef and Youssef Msakni were manning the attack of the Eagles of Carthage, but were always relieved of the ball by excellent tackles from NewcastleÔÇÖs midfielder Cheick Tiote and Didier Zokora.
The Elephants, short of the services of their talismanic captain Didier Drogba, gained a foothold after the first quarter, with Salomon Kalou missing two clear cut chances after his close-range header failed to find the target and a powerful drive from 20 yards was blocked by Tunisia goalkeeper Ben Cherifia.
By the 21st minute, the Ivorians were still on top of proceedings and opened the scoring through a corner kick, when Gervinho snatched a loose ball from a Tunisian defender to the left of the box before hitting a low pass to Anzhi Makhachkala forward Lacina Traore, who generously threaded back to the Arsenal player, who side-footed his effort well into the back net to put the West Africans ahead.
The Ivorians continued to pour forth in a bid to strengthen their lead, with dangerous efforts from Emmanuel Eboue and Yaya Toure impressively repelled by Cherifia.
The north Africans showed some determination to pull level after the half hour mark. Some neat passing between Saber Khlifa, Mejdi Traoui and Msakni upfront could have created goal chances but failed to survive a well-drilled Ivorian defensive system administered by former Leicester City centre-back Souleymane Bamba, who was preferred to Kolo Toure for this game after the Manchester City defender came under fire following his low showing against Togo on Tuesday.
Tunisia defender Chammam Khalil of current Caf champions Esperance manoeuvred a ball with a hand inside their box following pressure from Toure and Traore, but protests for a penalty from the Ivorian bench were ignored by the Mauritian referee Rajindraparsad Seechurn. The Elephants continued their search for decent goal chances until the end of the first half.
Traore had the first goal opportunity after the break from a free kick executed by PSGÔÇÖs Siaka Tiene, but the tall striker headed down to the side of the post.
Tunisia coach Sami Trabelsi brought in Oussama Darragi and Hamdi Harbaoui by the hour mark as the Eagles hustled and harried for an equalizer. Khlifa was served to the right flank of the Ivorian area, but after outrunning his marker and charging into the box, he hit a powerful effort that whistled just wide.
Lacina Traore was brought off for Didier Drogba by the 68th minute, and after fluffing a few goal chances upfront, the former Chelsea star retreated to assist their increasingly feeble defence as the Tunisians multiplied threatening attempts in front of the Ivorian goal.
Msakni was tripped to the right of the median line by Tiote, who was lucky not to bag a second yellow card.
Cote dÔÇÖIvoire retook domination during the last 10 minutes of the meeting, with Yaya Toure doubling their lead after linking a cross from Tiene and unleashing a long-range effort that finished its course inside the Tunisian net, with eight minutes to full time.
Last minute substitute Didier Ya Konan of Hannover scored the third goal for the Elephants after collecting an assist from Gervinho.
The Eagles of Carthage had a couple of chances to answer their opposition during the added time but were denied by Ivorian goalkeeper Copa Barry.
The Elephants have qualified for the quarter-finals after totalling six points from their two victories.
by @prolixir.


text:
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Former Panama dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega has lost his appeal to avoid extradition to France on money laundering charges.
On Monday, the US Supreme Court refused to take up his case. The action lets stand a lower court decision approving his removal to face criminal charges in a French court, where he was tried and convicted in absentia and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Two justices – Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia – issued a dissent, saying the high court should have agreed to hear Mr. Noriega's appeal.
Although Noriega is the only official prisoner of war currently in US custody, his appeal sought an examination of the constitutionality of legal provisions passed by Congress to undercut appeals on behalf of terrorism suspects at the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp.
In answering Noriega's appeal, the US solicitor general's office cited the 2006 Military Commissions Act, which the government argued precludes a person detained as a POW from invoking the Geneva Conventions as a source of rights in a lawsuit challenging the legality of the POW's detention.
In his dissent, Justice Thomas said the high court should examine the issues raised by Noriega. He said any resulting opinion would provide much-needed guidance to the lower courts in cases involving Al Qaeda suspects.
Noriega's special POW status
Issues raised in the appeal include whether the 2006 Military Commission Act, as enforced against Noriega, resulted in an unconstitutional suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. The appeal also questioned whether the protections of the Geneva Conventions can be invoked by an individual POW and whether those protections may be enforced by US judges.
"It is incumbent upon us to provide what guidance we can on these issues now," Thomas wrote in a 15-page dissent. "Whatever conclusion we reach, our opinion will help the political branches and the courts discharge their responsibilities over detainee cases, and will spare detainees and the government years of unnecessary litigation."
The high court rejected Noriega's appeal in a one-line order without explanation. No other justices wrote about the Noriega case.
Out of prison – and resisting extradition to France
Noriega was convicted in a 1992 trial in Miami of cocaine trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering. His 40-year sentence was later reduced for good behavior. He completed his sentence in September 2007.
Since then, he's been fighting extradition. Noriega's lawyers argued that as a prisoner of war he should be sent home to Panama now that his US prison sentence has been served.
Although he was a criminal defendant, the judge at Noriega's trial in Miami also ruled that the US government must treat him as a prisoner of war because of his surrender to US military forces during the 1989 US invasion of Panama. It was this POW status that his lawyers were seeking to use to force the US government to send Noriega home to Panama rather than to France.
"The Prisoner of War Convention requires the immediate return home of prisoners of war at the end of hostilities subject to completion of any sentence imposed for crimes prosecuted by the detaining power," wrote Miami lawyer Jon May in his brief on behalf of Noriega. "Only in the case of war criminals is any exception permitted."
Not so, countered Solicitor General Elena Kagan in her brief. "The Third Geneva Convention does not prohibit the extradition of a prisoner of war to face criminal charges in another country," she wrote. "[Noriega's] challenges to that conclusion lack merit."
Ms. Kagan said the conventions permit a detaining country to transfer a POW to another country to face pending criminal charges once the detaining country is satisfied that the receiving country will abide by the Geneva Conventions. She said these requirements have been satisfied by means of diplomatic communications between the US and France.
The solicitor general also cited the Military Commissions Act (MCA) as barring prisoners from invoking the Geneva Accords as a source of rights.
Congress intended that the Geneva Conventions not be judicially enforceable in any court in the US, she said.
Noriega's lawyers argued that the rights of "hundreds" of US prisoners were at risk. The government's interpretation of the MCA renders the statute unconstitutional, Mr. May said.
Restrictions to a prisoner's ability to claim the right of habeas corpus can themselves result in an unconstitutional suspension of the writ. "By denying the courts the authority to consider violations of the Geneva Convention, Congress has done just that," May wrote.
The 11thUS Circuit Court of Appeals rejected this argument, ruling that Noriega lacked the authority to claim a private right of action under the Geneva Conventions. In addition, the court found that the US had complied with the Geneva Accords and that Noriega's extradition to France would not violate his rights under the Third Geneva Convention.
How Noriega came into US custody
Noriega's case is unique because of the circumstances surrounding his capture and arrest.
After Noriega declared war on the US in 1989, 58,000 US troops invaded Panama. A group of Navy SEALS were tasked to find and capture him in Operation Nifty Package.
Noriega eventually fled to the Vatican Embassy. US forces surrounded the building and blasted rock music at the embassy around the clock – including "I Fought the Law and the Law Won."
Two weeks after the invasion, Noriega surrendered and was ushered into a waiting C-130 transport plane where Drug Enforcement Administration agents placed him under arrest. He was charged with cocaine trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering.
Later, the judge in his case found that Noriega, in addition to being a criminal defendant, must be treated by the US government as a prisoner of war because of the special circumstances of his capture.
The designation meant Noriega was permitted to wear his uniform during the trial and was given more spacious quarters in federal prison and special furnishings in his cell. He also received visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
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text:
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Link Copied!
Pope Francis to meet former student in Madagascar
Opening Sequence
Thunberg headlines NYC event in global climate strike
Like oceans rising: green protests sweep the globe
Trump calls whistleblower story a 'political hack job'
Flooding in Houston turns deadly
Saudi Arabia unveils attack site damage
Hong Kong police accused of 'torture'
Chinese Apple fans wish for 5G
Oil prices jump on Mid-East tensions
Closing Sequence


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For years, software developers have offered applications to the world in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser through the company's powerful proprietary API (application programming interface) called ActiveX. The technology starts up external applications, or "plug-ins," within a Web page.
What's new:
Microsoft's Service Pack 2 security update includes a more complicated alert system for ActiveX, which launches applications within a Web page.
Bottom line:
The changes have alarmed some software vendors that depend on ActiveX and has aroused suspicion that Microsoft is using security worries to further its strategic ends.
But a tool that can run good software in a browser can also run bad software, and as a result ActiveX has been implicated in a wide array of security scenarios, most recently in the surreptitious installation of adware, spyware and worse.
Microsoft's long-delayed and glitchy Service Pack 2, the security-focused update for the Windows operating system released this month, clipped ActiveX's wings with a more cautious alert system that springs into action when a Web site tries to run an ActiveX control, sprout a pop-up window or run other code.
In the past, IE prompted users with a simple "yes" or "no" option on a security screen before allowing plug-in installations. With SP2, Microsoft blocks ActiveX controls from running by default and flashes an explicit warning that unknown software can cause harm to a PC, and the route to allowing installation is somewhat obscured.
The changes have alarmed some software vendors that depend on ActiveX and has aroused suspicion that Microsoft is using security imperatives to further its strategic ends.
"We are holding our breath waiting for it to fully deploy," said Alex St. John, who helped create Microsoft's DirectX graphics software during his tenure at the company from 1992 to 1997 and who now runs the WildTangent 3D games site. "Most likely what the user will do is be alarmed and confused by the SP2 warning and just cancel the whole thing. And a large percentage of people will not realize what happened in the first place...This destroys all business models associated with being able to play content in the browser."
Another vendor agreed that SP2 would disrupt the Web-based distribution of his 3D plug-in product.
Be careful what you ask for cuz you just might get it...For years people have been complaining that ActiveX and some other plug-ins are a security nightmare waiting to happen. You complain and shout that MS needs to take a harder stance with ActiveX and with security. Finally, after years of waiting, they finally do, and all you can do is complain?
--Josh Mckenna
Be careful what you ask for cuz you just might get it...For years people have been complaining that ActiveX and some other plug-ins are a security nightmare waiting to happen. You complain and shout that MS needs to take a harder stance with ActiveX and with security. Finally, after years of waiting, they finally do, and all you can do is complain?
Years of gripes
The security issues aren't small. Microsoft's reining in of ActiveX follows years of complaints that the company didn't take system protection seriously enough and years of specific complaints about ActiveX security. Two and a half years ago, Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and chief software architect, declared that security had become Microsoft's job No. 1.
IE has long required users to verify they wanted an ActiveX control loaded. But pre-SP2, those warnings proved both spoofable by malicious hackers and ineffective through repetition and the ease of clicking through them.
"What we found was that most users were becoming accustomed to saying 'OK' and not reading the (ActiveX warning) dialog," said Doug Stamper, an IE group program manager who worked on SP2. "We made these changes in the ActiveX user experience because users were getting drive-by downloads."
At the heart of the changes is Microsoft's new "information bar," a thin strip just below the Web address bar that carries warning messages. To allay concerns that users might miss the information bar, SP2 pops up a dialogue box pointing it out every time, until the user checks a box asking it to go away for good.
Depending on what a Web site has attempted to do, the information bar flashes a variety of warnings. When a site tries to run an ActiveX control, the bar reads, "This site might require the following ActiveX control...Click here to install."
For some software downloads--the free RealPlayer, for example--the bar reads: "To help protect your security, Internet Explorer blocked this site from downloading files to your computer. Click here for options."
Microsoft said its research showed that the new system wasn't perfect, but that most people were able to navigate it.
The changes to ActiveX are by no means the only sources of potential problems thrown up SP2.
Microsoft and its partners have been expecting that its launch would result in a flood of technical support calls to vendors. One study found that information systems managers feared it would turn out to be the most difficult Windows update yet.
In addition, computer makers are warning their customers to do their homework before downloading SP2 through Windows' automatic update software.
Strategy through security?
With the Net reeling from one Windows-related security crisis after another, one industry analyst defended Microsoft's restriction of ActiveX.
"This is one of those issues where Microsoft is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't," said Peter O'Kelly, an analyst at the Burton Group. "If there's a trade-off between fixing security for everyone versus inconveniencing some ISVs and some end-users, it's not going to be much of a choice."
Microsoft's critics have suggested that the company's security measures have been implemented in ways that bolster its own businesses at the expense of others.
St. John, for example, noted that by switching from common Web technologies to Microsoft's .Net framework and the C# programming language, he would be able to bypass the new ActiveX security protocol. Because many of his gamers are on dial-up connections, he says .Net's comparatively bulky download makes that a bad option.
"Maybe breaking ActiveX forces a look at .Net," St. John said. "And it's all done with the pretext of security."
Making ActiveX harder to use could have an adverse affect on several software titles that compete with Microsoft's technologies. These include Apple's QuickTime media player, RealNetworks' RealPlayer, Adobe Systems' Acrobat document reader, and Macromedia's Flash animation software and Flex application server software.
One provider of Flash-reliant software for creating Internet-based applications put the matter more plainly.
"Most of the Net's security problems are not related to ActiveX," said David Temkin, chief technology officer for Laszlo Systems in San Francisco. "Microsoft is using this as an opportunity to tighten its control over client technologies. That's not a good thing for Flex, for Real, for QuickTime, and on and on and on."
Microsoft dismissed the notion that it was using security as a strategic pretext.
"The changes we made were to the benefit of the customer, putting the maximum information in their hands so they have control and informed notice and can give informed consent," Stamper said. "We do not prevent (software vendors) from working."
Echoes of the past?
Microsoft's defense may ring a bell for those who have followed the rise of the Windows operating system.
In 1999, the company had to fend off charges by operating system competitor Caldera that Microsoft had plotted to cause threatening error messages to arise with Caldera's DR-DOS software. Microsoft settled that case in 2000.
Today, Microsoft's critics point to two high-profile competitive struggles where SP2's ActiveX warning system could make an impact: media players and Internet-based productivity applications.
Because Windows Media Player comes preinstalled with Microsoft's operating system, it enjoys an immediate advantage over competitors such as RealPlayer and QuickTime. If Microsoft's new warnings scare off users from loading ActiveX controls, that could increase that advantage.
RealNetworks currently has an antitrust case pending against Microsoft, in which it claims the Windows monopoly is limiting consumer choice in online media players.
Citing its antitrust case, RealNetworks declined to comment for this story.
Adobe, which increasingly competes with Microsoft, declined to comment on the potential vulnerability of its Acrobat document reader plug-in. Apple declined to be interviewed but said in a statement: "We've tested QuickTime running with Microsoft's SP2 update in Windows XP and have not seen any negative effects for plug-in based content."
Macromedia also sought to quell concern over its ability to distribute its Flash player through SP2, stressing that since the spring it had worked with Microsoft on the release to strike a balance between better security and ease of use.
Independent software companies that believe the present ActiveX warnings are bad should have seen the trial versions, said Kevin Lynch, Macromedia's chief software architect.
"Initially, the experience for end users installing ActiveX controls made it pretty difficult to get through that successfully," Lynch said. "The wording of the prompts was not very clear about what was being asked of the user, and it erred too much on the side of saying 'This will be dangerous to your machine.' But Microsoft was very responsive, and we got to the point where we're happy with the process."
Macromedia's relationship to Microsoft could be described as a textbook case of cooperative competition. On the cooperative side, Microsoft is largely responsible for the nearly ubiquitous distribution of Macromedia's Flash player, because it bundles version 5 of the software with Windows XP.
Macromedia Flash has the distinction of being the only third-party software packaged into SP2. That bundling means Windows folks will get an automatic upgrade to Flash 6 from Flash 5.
On the competitive side, Microsoft chose not to bundle Macromedia's latest player, Flash 7. That's what computer users need to run applications that work with Macromedia's Flex platform for Internet-based applications. The combination of the Flex server software and Flash 7 aims to provide exactly the kind of graphics-intensive, speedy Internet applications that Microsoft plans to offer with its long-delayed Longhorn update to Windows.
"Microsoft doesn't want to ship Flash 7," Burton analyst O'Kelly said. "I don't disagree with the speculation that Microsoft sees that as more competitive" than earlier versions of Flash, he added.
A Microsoft representative said the company chose Flash 6 over Flash 7 for technical and security reasons.
Macromedia said that Microsoft had originally cited concerns by the European Union over self-updating software as a strike against Flash 7. Microsoft later withdrew those concerns, Macromedia said.
Whatever Microsoft's motivations, the decision means people will have to leap ActiveX security hurdles if they use an SP2-loaded system to open a Web page that requires Flash 7.
Flash 7 adoption has made swift progress, Macromedia said. The company estimates that the software now sits on more than 66 percent of computers on the Internet in the United States and 81 percent in Europe.
Other software vendors remain anxious about life under the new security regime.
"It's exacerbated the plug-in problem," said Media Machines founder Parisi. "Just when my customers' clients are over the problem of handling plug-ins, they have a whole new hurdle they have to jump."
And while plug-in vendors brace for SP2, Laszlo Systems is preparing for worse things to come, aware that software developers who rely on Flash and ActiveX live by Microsoft's good graces.
"The real uncertainty around this isn't with SP2," said Temkin, the company's technology chief. "The real uncertainty is with Longhorn. Is Microsoft going to be bundling any version of Flash whatsoever? Will they make it difficult to access or scare people into not downloading it? Our approach is that some time before the shipment of Longhorn, our software will be made to work with the .Net client--which means that no installation of ActiveX will be necessary."


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