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High Performance Enabled SSH/SCP News
Chris Rapier PSC, Michael Stevens CMU
Update 11/7/2012
The patches for 6.0 and 6.1 have been released. These are obviously late being that I released both of them at the same time. The lack of cycles I have to focus on HPNSSH is getting to be a serious issue that I have to come up with a solution for. Essentially, I just don't have the time or the funding to continue the work that is required. All I've been doing is forward porting the patches without really trying to optimize, fix, or add anything substatial. While what I have seem to work 'good enough' there are lot more improvements that can be made to HPN SSH (pipelining the HMAC, exploring new efficiencies, dealing with the occasionally stalling problem, etc). Someday I'd really like someone to step up but I can't expect that if I'm not willing to lead on it. So that's where we are at the moment.
John Smith was kind enough to point out a bug in the readconf.c file dealing with the hpn_buffer_size variable. This has been fixed for the 5.9 release only. It hasn't had much impact as far as anyone can tell so we aren't going back to fix up the older patches at this point. We will if necessary. Some peopel have been asking about the much delayed 6.0 patch. There really isn't anything serious with porting the patch I've just not had the time to do it. This will be rectified in the next week.
update 1/16/2012
The new HPN and enhancement patch sets for OpenSSH 5.9 have just been released. All patches, with the exception of the the threaded AES CTR cipher work as expected. As always, the AES CTR cipher fails the forwarding test. Thanks to Netanel Shine and Timo Teras for contributing the kitchen sink and noneswitch-dynamic_window patches. Extra thanks to Netanel for encouraging me to actually update the patches!
update 8/27/2010
The new HPN and enhancement patch sets for OpenSSH 5.6 have just been released. All patches have gone through regressions tests and perfrom as expected. As always, the caveat to this is that the threaded AES CTR cipher fails the forwarding test because of problems when the application is forked into the background. As always, we'd love to get some outside help on this if anyone is interested.
Update 6/08/2010
Update 5/14/2009
HPN13 has been upgraded to v6 for use with OpenSSH 5.2. There is one significant caveat to keep in mind if you are using the multi-threaded AES-CTR patch available as a stand alone patch or as part of the kitchen sink version. If the client is forked to the background using the -f command line option the client process will hang. Essentialyl what is happening is that -f essentially demonizes the client process after the authentication process. Since the multi-threaded AES patch starts to generate the key stream prior to authentication this move kills our threads and the main thread simply hangs waiting to hear from threads it's already killed. As such the AES-CTR multithreading patch will not pass the regression tests included with OpenSSH. This probably isn't a show stopper for *most* people but everyone should be aware of this problem. There are a couple of different ways to resolve this problem but the developer who created this the multi-threading patch doesn't have the spare cycles to devote to it right now. We do hope to have this resolved shortly but we wanted to get this out. If this is *not* acceptable to you then you can still use the a la carte patches and simply exclude the AES-CTR patch. In that case everything works without fail.
Update 7.29.2008
Update 4.07.2008
HPN13 has been updated to v3. This is for OpenSSH 5.0. v2 had been released for OpenSSH 4.9 but was withdrawn due to a security problem in OpenSSH 4.9 We will not be making it available and we suggest everyone move to OpenSSH 5.0.
Update 2.07.2008
We've released the HPN13 set of patches to replace the HPN12 patch set. The main addition is a multi-threaded AES-CTR mode cipher. This allows the use of multiple processing cores (using posix threads) to create a cipherstream indistinguishable from the more common single thread AES-CTR mode cipher. As such its completely compatible with existing installations. We also made a change in how we distribute the patches. We'll be providing them in a 'kitchen sink' format and as 'a la carte' so users can apply the patches that are most useful to them.
Update 11.30.2007
The previous version of the HPN12 patch (revision 19) has been removed and replaced with revision 20. In some circumstances a buffer_append_space bug resulted from using the wrong size check value. There was also a typo which may have led to inappropriately large or small HPN buffers when using the HPNBufferSize option with sshd.
Update 09.28.2007
The previous version of the HPN12 patch (revision 18) has been removed and replaced with revision 19. This revision removes some nonfunctional code that had accumulated in the patch over the past couple of years. We also change the default behaviour of the TCPRcvBufPoll option to enabled. This will end up making things a bit easier for the people with autotuning kernels - which are generally in the majority now. People without autotuning should disable this option as its just wasting cycles for them. We also made a change which was allowing peopelto specify the none cipher for authentication. We included a failsafe that will not allow the use of the none cipher unless authentication has taken place. If it is attempted the conenction will close. We've also made a change where the HPN buffer will grow somewhat more aggressively than it has in the past.
Also, we have a short paper available on the work we've done on HPN-SSH. Its should be understandable to most users of the patch. High Speed Bulk Data Transfer on the Grid Using the SSH Protocol.
Update 09.05.2007
A new version of the OpenSSH was released today and so has a new version of the HPN-SSH patch. This patch doesn't provide any new functionality *but* this should be seen as an interim patch. In the next month I expect to have a new patch available for the 4.7p1 code base which will have some improvements. Also, not to jinx anything but I think we'll have an HPN13 patch set available in a few months. This will be of *real* interest to people in multicore and SMP environments.
Update 03.27.2007
I was made aware that you could have both NoneSwitch and NoneEnabled set in the ssh_config file. While this may be convenient for those people who always use the NONE cipher switch there is no way that this is acceptable default behaviour. So I changed the configuration so that you can only use the NoneSwitch option from the command line. I also changed the maximum value of HPNBufferSize to 64MB. This is only used in HPN to Non-HPN connections. Additionally, I ran some tests recently. I wanted to make sure that all of the changes hadn't introduced any bottlenecks into the code. So I took a stock version of OpenSSH and increased the default buffer size to 64MB (which was a two line change) and compared it to HPN12v16. The end result is that they provided statistically identical throughput performance over a long fast network. I still need to rerun the tests in a local area network to see if the short RTTs have an impact. More on that when it happen.
Update 02.20.2007
Very minor change. Some of the comments were in the C++ style as opposed to plain old C. This was causing it to choke on some compilers. I've changed everything to the C style comments.
Update 11.13.2006
Yet another default buffer size bug. This time I ngelected to make sure that the hpn buffer on the server side was correctly sized. In versions prior to v14 unless the HPN buffer size was explicitly set it used a default value of 2MB. As of now it will use the current TCP buffer size. I also discovered that when the hpn disabled option is set to yes the buffer is actually 128K and not 64K. I'll be working on that this week.
Update 10.31.2006
There was a documentation bug in the usage section of scp. This has been fixed in v13 release for 4.4p1. Happy halloween kids!
Update 10.23.2006
A bug was preventing some of the options in scp from working properly. This would have affected people using the -1, -2, -4, -6, and -C options. This has been fixed in the v12 release for 4.4p1.
Update 10.12.2006
Quite a few things have happened. First we found a number of minor errors in the code and one major error. None of these errors were security related though. Minor errors were conflicting messages about the state of the NONE cipher, some documentation problems, and the like. The major error was more problematic - due to a mistake in the way I was handling reading the configuration file the HPN buffer was being set to 2MB pretty much no matter what. This has been corrected in the 4.4p1 HPNv12 patch but *not* in the 4.3p2 HPNv9 patch. This won't be an issue for most people but people on very high seepd links might have been artificially throttled because of this. While fixing this mistake I also incorporated a new method for determining the maximum size of the HPN buffer. This means that the size fo the buffer will depend on, in part, configuration options the user chooses. These are explained in the HPN12-README file. The end result of this all should be that the buffer won't be any larger than it actually has to be.
I've started collecting data on HPN12 performance in terms of throughput, CPU usage, sensitivity to packet loss and the like. I hope to have a paper on this work in the next 3 or 4 months.
Update 7.26.2006
Two minor changes. First, the version string now includes major and minor version. As of this date it should report at hpn12v8. Second, there was a bug in the documentation in that it failed to explain that the 'NONE' cipher will only work on bulk data transfers and is silently disabled for all interactive sessions. Its a good compromise betweem performance and security.
Update 7.13.2006
Turns out that there was a bug in that the NoneSwitch configuration options wasn't accepting yes/no modifiers. The NoneSwitch was just acting as a flag instead of an option. So I fixed it so that -oNoneSwitch=yes/no works correctly. Otherwise no functionality was changed.
Update 5.19.2006
New version of the patch has been released. Please see the version history and the patch information for more details. Comments or questions are appreciated.
Update 4.3.2006
We just found out that there was a typo in the patch for OpenSSHv4.3 patch with the none switch. This would have caused a segmentation fault if the -R/-r option was used. This typo has been fixed in the latest version of the patch. Sorry about that.
Update 2.1.2006
We have just released a patch for OpenSSH v4.3. This is, again, in the HPN-11 cycle so there isn't any additional functionality added. However, due to command line switch namespace collision we have have to change the -w tcp receive window switch to -r in ssh and -R in scp.
Update 9.08.2005
We've just released a patch for OpenSSH v4.2. This is still in the HPN-11 cycle so there isn't any different or new functionality at this time.
Update 6.17.2005
We've just released an entirely new set of patches and removed all of the older versions of the patches from the main site. If you'd like to see the old site please go to http://www.psc.edu/networking/projects/hpn-ssh/old-site/. This set of patches brings OpenSSH 3.9, 4.0, 4.1 up to the same level of functionality and provides some significant improvements over the old patch. A new version checking system allows us to provide almost full HPN speeds even if both ends of the connection are not using HPN clients and servers. The speed improvement will only be in the direction of whichever side is HPN. So an HPN server will get a speed boost even if nonHPN clients connect to it. Additionally, we've added the '-w' switch. This allows the user to specify a TCP receive window size for that connection up to the maximum allowed on that host. This doesn't require root privileges nor will it effect other users on the system. Additionally, we've decided to make the 'None' cipher available on all versions using the '-z' switch. We no longer consider this 'experimental' code but it shoudl still be used at the users own risk. We think we've locked it up as much as possible but we may have missed something. Please keep in mind that even with the -z switch the authentication process is still fully encrypted only the bulk data transfer will happen in the clear. Additionally, MAC will still be performed which provides greater assurance of the integrity of the data.
Update 5.11.2005
I've just put out the patch set for OpenSSH 4.0p1. This is *experimental* and should be used with caution. We have found that under some circumstances one of the buffers used by scp can grow quite large rather quickly. This seems to be because the scp process run asymetrically from the ssh transport. However, there does seem to be a method to tell ssh to slow down if scp can't write the data to disk fast enough. We've also added a new feature we're callinh user adjustable windows. The -w [size of receive window in bytes] will set the local receive buffer of that specific connection to a user defined size. The size of this window cannot exceed the system defined maximum buffer size though. No special permissions are necessary to set the buffer size. It is very important to note that this will *only* set the the local receive buffer size. Its unlikley that users will ever be able to set the remote receive buffer size for obvious reasons.
Update 3.25.2005
In all likelihood this is the last OpenSSH 3.9 patch we'll be releasing. in this patch we remove all references to the 'unlimited' element we inserted in the buffer struct found in buffer.c. It turns out that this was basically unnecessary once we resolved some issues in channels.c. We've also updated channels.c to handle the largewindow bug we discovered in a more practical manner. Thanks to Darren Tucker for his help on that. Lastly, we made a few minor modifications to scp.c to bring the size of its read/write pipe buffers into closer alignment with the ssh read/write pipe/buffers. The end result of this is a 60% reduction in read/write syscalls when scp is the data source and a 20% reductions when it is the data sink.
Update 1.15.2005
We discovered a minor problem in that the experimental none cipher switching patch did not perform as expected. A failsafe which I thought was in place to prevent switching to the none cipher during interactive sessions wasn't performing as expected. The result being that it was possible to send data in the clear. However to do this the user would have to explicitly pass the -z switch to ssh. So if you didn't do that you did not send data in plaintext. However, I urge all users of the experimental patch to upgrade to the latest version as soon as possible. In the new patch I explicitly test for the tty_flag before the none cipher switch takes place. If the tty_flag is true then the cipher switch fails silently and the session continues with the original encryption cipher (this silent failure mode may change in future releases of this patch). Additionally, we now also check to make sure the -T (no_tty_flag) switch is not set before enabling the none cipher.
Update 1.12.2005
We've started putting hpn-ssh on more production systems so we've be able to get a better idea of how it might perform in the wild. Initial results look good but it did illustrate the need to have your network buffers tuned properly. hpn-ssh will not make ssh run faster if your system is mistuned. Essentially it can only work with what it has. Also, never forget that disk I/O operations will be a likely bottleneck in some systems. An interesting test is to transfer a large file to disk and then transfer the same file to /dev/null. If there is a notable difference in throughput you are disk bound. Also, we're about to start up more active development again. We hope to tighten up some code and rethink some assumptions. This will likely just be incremental improvements. However, we also have some other ssh projects we'll be persuing. More on that later in a couple of months.
Update 11.23.2004
Quick note here. The previously discovered problem with corrupted MACs on input actually stems from a hardware and/or driver bug with the intel e1000 cards. We think this fully justifies our continued use of HMAC even without data encryption - we'd not have found this bug without it. We have seen some problem with the syskonnect interface we replaced it with though. It turns out that under high loads the vm.min_free_kbytes is too low and crashes the interface. We set it to 12MB and it seems to work fine now.
Update 11.19.2004
Last night we conducted an edurance test using the cipher switching version of hpn-ssh. Using pipes we pushed data from /dev/zero on a host at NCSA to /dev/null on a host at PSC. We were able to move 4.343 terabytes of data in 17 hours 38 minutes at an average rate of 71MBps. Instantaneous tranfer rates over 100MBps were seen with some regularity. Please note that this test did not make use of the disk subsystem and therefore the results should be viewed as having occured under laboratory conditions. In more practical situations users will see their throughput being limited by the speed of their disk IO.
Update 11.12.2004
We're back from the Supercomputing Conference and I want to thank everyone who saw the poster and talked to me during the course of the past week. There has been a lot of interest and, hopefully, a lot of support will be forthcoming. In the meantime I've decided to release the combined hpn and none cipher patch. This is the first iteration of the patch and the none cipher support might be changing the near future. So long term compatablity is not assured. However, what this does is allow for midstream cipher switching. In particular the undocumented '-z' switch to scp will provide for encrypted authentication and unencrypted data transfer. We've seen speeds of over 692Mbps using this patch. This will *not* work with interactive (TTY) sessions - which you don't really want anyway. If the server doesn't support the none switch then the connection will fail silently. Regardless, use this patch at your own risk and view this as an experimental patch. Lastly, the use of the none cipher is *within* spec for the SSH v2.0 protocol. OpenSSH simply decided to not implement it for obvious reasons.
Update 10.28.2004
We'll be presenting this work at the SuperComputing 2004 Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania November 9-12. The poster presentation is officialy from 5-7pm on the 9th so if you want to stop by and say hello we'll be there. Also, you can see some of the throughput rates we've been getting by going to the Internet2 Weekly Top Flow Reports. We start showing up during the week of September 20, 2004. Look in the Non-Measurement flow section for flows between PSC-NCNE and NCSA using port 52222. We've recently hit 50MB/s and we were strictly processor limited.
Update 9.27.2004
We have uncovered some problems with using 9000 byte packets on the linux system. When we pull data from the linux system we consistently get MAC errors (ssh checksum indicating data corruption). We were able to recreate with an unpatched SSH server so it doesn't seem to be a result of our patch. Also, the previously mentioned user report of asymmetrical transfer rates was determined to be an issue with the system buffers and not the SSH code. If anyone else is seeing this behavior please let us know.
Update 9.24.2004
We resolved the problem on the linux 2.4 autotuning kernel by upgrading to 2.6. There also seems to be a minor problem with the way linux does memory accounting for the windows which might cause a problem with the rcv_ssthresh. However, users with non-autotuning kernels should not see a problem. As of this evening we were able to sustain 35MBps (280Mbps) in both directions. The OS X issue is still being explored.
Update 09/24/2004
We have recently heard of and experienced some problems with asymmetrical performance. The first is on a linux 2.4 autotuning kernel. In this case it seems that a tcp bug *might* be preventing the window from updating properly. On Mac OS X (10.3.4 1.33Ghz CPU) we were able to get through asymmetry down to a 2:1 ratio (8.0 MBps sending v. 3.5 MBps receiving)but there is indication of some CPU bounding issues. We have another report of a user also seeing highly asymmetrical throughput but we've yet to be able to determine the cause. Reports from other users would be *very* useful at this stage.
Version History
- April 7, 2008: Released OpenSSH HPN-13 Patch version 3
- Spooning up to OpenSSH5.0.
- March 28, 2008: Released OpenSSH HPN-13 Patch version 2
- Spooning up to OpenSSH4.9.
- January 19, 2008: Released OpenSSH HPN-13 Patch version 1
- Release of the MT-AES-CTR mode cipher.
- Sept 28, 2007: Released OpenSSH HPN-12 Patch version 19
- Addresses problems with none cipher in preauthentication contexts, removed some nonfunctional code, change defalt behaviour of TCPRcvBufPoll to enabled. Please see the above update for this date fr some more details. We'll also be trying to maintain the Version History a little more rigourously.
- July 13, 2006: Released OpenSSH HPN-12 Patch version 7
- Addresses minor problem with parsing command line. Please see the above update for this date.
- May 19, 2006: Released OpenSSH HPN-12 Patch
- This patch only covers version 4.3p2 at this time. Other versions will be available shortly. This patch was motivated by the desire to bring the code more in line with the OpenSSH style and nomenclature. Unfortunately these changes completely changed the command line structure but that was for the best as it helps avoid namespace collisions. Additional functionality was added by giving the user more control over buffer size, hpn functionality and hpn to non-hpn behaviour. These changes helped address a performance problem seen in some local area networks. Lastly, we no longer have a seperate NONE patch as we've integrated this into the main patch tree. NONE can be disabled on the server with a runtime anf configuration option so there was no need to have seperate patches. The HPN12-README file included in the patch explains the use and function in more detail.
- June 17, 2005: Released OpenSSH HPN-11 Patch
- This patch set covers OpenSSH 3.9p1, 4.0p1, and 4.1p1. Each patch provides the same functionality and full interoperability with other patches and standard SSH servers (OpenSSH and others). Changes have been made to buffer.c in order to increase the maximum allowable buffer size. We also rewrote a lot of the version checking system version.c in order to be smarter about how to handle interactions between HPN and STD SSH clients and servers. Its likely that no more major functionality changes will be incorporated in future patch versions.
- May 11, 2005: Released OpenSSH 4.0 HPN Patch
- This patch incorporates the previous improvements, works against the 4.0 code base, and introduces the -w option to set the local receive buffer size. No special permissions are needed to do this. Usage is -w [size of receive buffer in bytes]. This works for ssh and scp but not yet sftp. Please see the news section for an important message regarding a possible bug.
- March 28, 2005: Fixed Typo in HPN Patch for 3.9
- I had a comma in the wrong place. Sorry if you had problems with the original version. I decided not to update the version number for this very minor fix.
- March 25, 2005: Updated HPN Patch for OpenSSH version 3.9p1
- This patch removes some unnecessary changes in the buffer.c code specifically the buffer->unlimited member of the buffer struct. It also makes some minor changes to the buffer sizes used on the scp ssh pipe. The net result being a 20 to 60% decrease in the number of read/write syscalls in a typical transfer. This version of the 3.9p1 patch is also aware of OpenSSH version 4.0(p1).
- January 15, 2005: Security Fix for HPN/None Cipher Experimental Patch
- This is a security fix to the combined hpn/none cipher patch referenced in the experimental patch release of November 12, 2004. This patch explicitly checks to see if the tty_flag is set prior to switching to the none cipher. It also *disables* the none cipher switch if the -T (no_tty_flag) switch is used. Lastly, it also sends a warning to stderr when the switch to the none cipher takes place.
If you are not using the combined hpn/none patch then you do not need to apply this patch. - November 12, 2004: Combined HPN and None Cipher Experimental Patch
- This is a combined patch for high performance networking through the use of dynamically resized buffers and the none cipher. This will only work with non-interactive sessions created by scp. With this patch the authentication IS encrypted and only after the auhentication key exchange is complete will the cipher switch to none for the bulk data transfer.
USAGE: scp -z file user@destination:path - September 15, 2004: Patch for OpenSSH 3.9p1
- This patch will work cleanly with the OpenSSH 3.9p1 source code. Otherwise no changes to functionality were made.
- July 20, 2004: Compatability Testing fix
- This patch includes a test to check the version of the server. If the server does not incorporate the enhanced windowing routine it will be disabled. This will prevent the sshd buffer bug from being triggered in older versions of sshd.
- July 13, 2004: sshd input buffer fix
- Our code uncovered a bug in the manner in which the input buffer in sshd grew. It was possible to make the input buffer grow larger than a set maximum bound leading to a fatal exception for that sshd process. We've addressed this by explicitly checking the size of the buffer before allowing it to grow.
- July 12, 2004: Window Size fix
- Based on coversations on the openssh developers mailing list we've imposed a maximum size on the network buffer of 2^30-1 bytes. Because of how the ssh code uses buffers this is an effective limit of 2^29-1 bytes or 512 Megabytes. This should be sufficient for all but the longest and fattest network paths. It might be possible to increase this by 1 bit in the future but this should be sufficient for now.
- The CVS and Portable patches have been rolled into one patch. It might throw a warning against the Portable version but it shouldn't cause any problems.
- July 7, 2004: Initial release
- First release of openssh-3.8.1p1-dynwindow patch v. 0.1
This work made possible in part by grants from The National Science Foundation and Cisco Systems, Inc.


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Search Results
LC Subject Heading: Lancaster Hall (Portland, Me.)
Historical Items Showing 2 of 2 View All
Item 20260
Title: Lancaster Hall, Portland, ca. 1880
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society
Date: circa 1880
Location: Portland
Media: Photograph
Item 9240
Title: Diary of Thomas Lancaster, New Sharon
Contributed by: New Sharon Historical Society
Date: 1855 - 1867
Location: New Sharon
Media: paper


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TPM Cafe: Opinion
Debunking The Myth That Common Core Opposition Is Widespread
Two days later, four conservative mothers in Oklahoma celebrated the penultimate victory in a multi-year crusade, as the state's legislature passed bills to abandon the standards. Under intense political pressure, Republican Gov. Mary Fallin — the current NGA chair and a strong supporter of the standards — signed legislation to allow Oklahoma to abandon the Common Core standards on June 5. Fallin's signature initiative as chair of the NGA? "Education and Training for Tomorrow's Jobs," which she believes will "will require significant improvements to our education system and workforce training programs."
The distance between the Chamber's event in D.C. and Oklahoma's lobbying moms illuminates something that media coverage of the Common Core generally misses: the Common Core is only really politically relevant for its opponents.
Critics of the standards — like the mothers behind "Restore Oklahoma Public Education" — see this as a first-order, vote-determining political argument. Emmett McGroarty, education director at the conservative American Principles Project, recently said that "Common Core has become a flashpoint election issue," and that may even understate matters a bit. For many of these folks, it has approximately the same political juice as traditionally polarizing issues like abortion and gun control. They don't just oppose the Common Core — they loathe it intensely and scorn its supporters as deluded and even un-American. Politicians who press the "Common Core is an abomination" button get an sudden jolt of passionate support.
The critics are particularly powerful in conservative states with politically ambitious leaders, like South Carolina and Louisiana, since there's considerable overlap between the GOP presidential primary electorate and Common Core opposition. The parent activists in Oklahoma have analogues in Indiana (which dropped the standards in March), South Carolina (which dropped out this month), and throughout the country.
In contrast, supporters see them as a reasonably good idea that is not, ultimately, something that would decide their vote. These folks agree that, hey, the Common Core seems pretty sensible, but you know, the USA-Germany game is on in a minute, and what do you think of Michael Bradley's play so far? Talk about needing to raise standards, amirite? They'll tell a pollster that they support the standards, insofar as they know about them, but they're not about to canvass their neighborhood to keep them. At best, Common Core supporters make tepid videos like this one from Louisiana's business community. Candidates who press the "I support the Common Core button" get nods and questions about tax rates—along with fury from the standards' opposition.
This is why coverage pointing out that "hey, polls show that only a minority of Americans oppose the Common Core" is misleading. It's also why other red states are going to drop the standards. In our democracy, a motivated minority defeats a distracted, complacent majority every time—especially when gubernatorial or presidential primaries are looming.
Finally, it also points to a problem with the common "far right and far left both oppose the Common Core" narrative. As Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R-2016) was demagoguing his state out of the standards, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten was at an American Enterprise Institute event (!) reiterating her support for them. Lefty opponents usually have concerns about the assessments attached to the standards and the use of those assessments in teacher evaluations. Remove those from the equation, and they're largely indifferent about the project.
But conservative opponents oppose the Common Core on ideological — or conspiratorial — grounds that generally can't be addressed without scrapping the entire initiative. Conservative politicians who stand up for the standards only earn themselves scorn and the threat of a primary challenge. That's why the Common Core really is in more trouble than most polls suggest. And it's trouble that "new partnerships" between current and former governors can't fix.
Conor P. Williams, PhD is a Senior Researcher in New America's Early Education Initiative. Follow him on Twitter: @conorpwilliams. Follow him on Facebook.


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Samsung Galaxy S 4G Hands-on
0. phoneArena 15 Feb 2011, 09:40 posted on
The Samsung Galaxy S was one of the most successful handsets last year – it took us with its brilliant 4-inch Super AMOLED screen and smooth performance. The appearance of successors was imminent...
This is a discussion for a news. To read the whole news, click here
posted on 16 Feb 2011, 20:09
1. achilles (Posts: 54; Member since: 27 May 2010)
Does the Samsung Galaxy S 4G come with a camera flash?
posted on 17 Feb 2011, 21:35
2. Gconcepts (unregistered)
Unfortunately, No Flash. Why does T-Mobile carry the crappiest phones of all carriers? The Galaxy S2 is about to come out and T-Mobile is releasing Galaxy S 4g without flash and probably will never get upgraded to Gingerbread.


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With Instructables you can share what you make with the world, and tap into an ever-growing community of creative experts.
today i will show you how to make a mini top hat {small foam container (like from KFC or a large foam cup just cut it {cheapo pantie ...
first cut the legs to the panty hoes and cover the foam with them. repeat if needed so u wont see the foam design . tie the ends ...
now get the two CD's and hot glue pony beads between them so itll appear thick
now cover the CD's with panty hoes and tie towards middle or hot glue. now put a lot of hot glue in the middle
now hotglue together and add what ever u like to it. also, hot glue to a hair band and put a strip of fabric over it. (secure~)
and now wear and enjoy!
Short Top Hat(Hat Guy's Hat)by AwesomeSwordGuy
Make a Mad Hatter inspired hatby MerkMan99
Mad Hatter inspired Hatby Mbanger


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Hello fellow 10-RIngers.... Thought I'd initiate an OFFICIAL 10mm deer hunting story thread. Please ONLY post 10mm hunting results here, pictures preferred. I'll kick it off with my hunts from last season and a year or two before that. --------------------------------------------------------------- NOV 2008: --------------------------------------------------------------- Hey all, Just thought I'd tell everyone about my first deer kill with a handgun... and not just ANY handgun but my CZ/DW Razorback 10mm! I got this little button buck while still hunting on the low, thick side of a mountain here in SW Missouri. The hill, mostly covered in cedar, pines and thick briars with patches of light green grass in between, is a haven for deer trying to escape the cold, northern wind during the rut. Took this guy at about 15 yards away from a half crouched, half sitting postion using Doubletap 200gr Controlled Expansion (XTP) loads (1150fps actual velocity from my 5" barrel). First shot punched him through the right side of the chest, a dead center double lung shot. He bolted (as most deer do) and ran uphill right past me where I shot him again. This shot (at about 6 yards) entered right behind his right shoulder, cut through his heart and broke his left leg / shoulder joint on the way out. He kept turning toward me and actually crashed right in front of me about a yard or two away, DRT. (PS... I also took pics of the entrance / exit wounds on the deer after I skinned it but won't be posting them in this thread due to their graphic nature. PM me if interested) Ironically, it had been really cold here for the jlast few days (in the 20's at night and 40's during the days and oftentimes quite windy). I'd been getting up at 5 and out to my stand or location by 615-630 and hunting until dark. The day I got this guy was the day I slept in until 830 and took my time getting out there since I knew that the wind was supposed to change from a chilly northern wind to a warmer southern wind by noon or so. Highs were almost in the 60's this day. I had already hunted about three full days prior to this kill which put it right in the middle range of my week of hunting. Anyways, I guess I just needed to get in there and shake em up a bit near thick cover and their beds rather than sitting on stand. The big woods hunting takes a special technique to even FIND deer, let alone get em within range to kill. Worked well for me this time. I'm also including some pics of the processing of the buck. I was familiar with how to skin and process a deer but my step-mom had usually taken care of most of the deer processing for me. I decided that I might as well do this one all on my own for the experience and practice. I did the skinning, quartering, butchering on my own this go-round. Also, I decided to use both shoulders and both hams entirely for jerky since my wife doesn't really like venison. (I still kept my tenderloins, of course). I ended up with just a HAIR under 4lbs of finished, teryaki flavored deer jerky to take home. AHHHH.... just wait till the coworkers and friends have a taste. Its perfect!!
(contd) All in all, quite a successful hunt and a great time with friends and family. Hope everyone has a great season! Nick
---------------------------------------------------------- November 2010: ---------------------------------------------------------- Hey all... just thought I'd post a pic of a nice buck I snagged here on opening day here in SW Missouri. I had been in my climber about 15 feet up on a ridge in the deep woods in my hunting area since about first light, maybe 6:15am. It had been a slow morning with not much forest activity other than some gusty winds. I hadn't seen a single squirrel or any other animal all morning. Around 8:30-8:40am, all at once, I caught the fleeting glimpse of a line of five to six does running from my 2 o'clock to my 10 o'clock about 50 yards out through lots of brush. Behind them Pwas a buck with a decent sized body and a smaller rack (common here in this area due to lack of nutrients or simply total deer numbers, we believe). My heart started pumping and I cursed to myself that I hadn't seen them come up in the draw and over the ridge I was on. I quickly grabbed my grunt tube and let out a few grunts brrrrp bbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp brrrrrrrrrrrrrp brrrrp brrrrp and quickly let go of my call to ready for any potention new shot in the next few minutes or hours. Not 5 minutes after all of this, I spot a deer coming towards me through the thick brush about 45 yards over the ridge to me. Heart REALLY pounding now, I extend my arms a bit and snick off the safety to my Dan Wesson Razorback and settle in a bit just in case I get a good shot. I tell myself.... CHILL OUT, BREATHE SLOWLY... concentrate on what I've been practicing at the range for the last two months... breaathhe...... by now the buck that's coming in is walking slowly and putting his nose down to smell... but he's coming almost directly at me! At about 25-30 yards he stops and turns broadside.... once again, my heart is pounding so hard at this point that I can see it in my vision. He slowwwly takes steps moving to my right, broadside and stopping frequently. I find a hole in the brush and place my front Fiber Optic sight on his front right shoulder and concentrate on both IT as well as the hole in my brush and the buck's movement (and any pauses in that movement). At just the right time, I veryyyy easily start rearward pressure on the trigger and wait on the surprise break and following recoil. At the report of the Doubletap 200gr XTP 10mm load, my 1911 recoils hard and, when it returns to battery, the buck is down hard and has dropped like a stone with this shot to the upper chest lower neck area. Not a perfectly optimal area but apparently, quite effective in this case. I take some more breaths and try to catch my breath and steady my hand due to the rush and sit there another few minutes to calm myself before even ATTEMPTING to pull out my phone and call my hunting partner to let him know of my harvest. I ended up taking one more shot because I saw the buck try and lift his head about a minute after the first shot. The second shot, placed as carefully as the first, impacted in the center of the chest. After about 10 minutes (and seeing no movement) I took my time climbing down the tree I was in and walked up to my deer. The first shot appeared to have exited, however, the second shot did not (at least that I could tell). Honestly, I think I might switch to Doubletap's 200gr Beartooth WFN load as I want all of my shots to penetrate and exit EVERY TIME. While the XTP did a fine job putting this decently sized deer down, I'm concerned that his heavier bone structure might have stopped the XTP short (on the second shot) just a tiny bit. (Normally, I dress, skin, quarter, and butcher my own deer, however, this year I was unable to hang this guy anywhere and had no time to do the butchering so we took him in to be processed. I probably won't find out where the bullet went because of this). Still, it's important to note that the XTP did a fine job. I just want an exit every time, even through bones. Here are a few pics... hope you enjoy. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicke10mm/5174571752/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicke10mm/5174571740/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicke10mm/5174571762/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicke10mm/5174571780/
Nice Nick! The only deer I shot with a pistol was with a S&W Mod. 29 44Mag with 8 3/8" barrel iron sights, the shot was at 180 yards thru the lungs & heart. I was much younger and 10mm wasn't avalible then. I did finish off a wounder doe with the only Winchester 200 gr Black Talon I shoot, hit her at the base of the skull at the neck , that bullet spiraled down the neck and stoped in the left front shoulder. Classic Black Talon expansion which sliced and diced the neck muscels with the spiraled pattern. However the last 6 point I shot was taken with a Hornady 200grain XTP in a sabot from my 45 cal. Winchester APEX Muzzle loader, muzzel velocity was 2000 fps and found its mark at 130 yards to the rear of the right front shoulder, busted rib in and deflated both lungs, small cut along the heart, broke a rib on the farside coming to rest just under the hide on the left side. BTW, just before I started writing this I ate some Cajun seasoned and smoked sausage for lunch which came from that one!
No prob! Remember, these hunts were in 2008 and 2010 and have been here on this and other forums for a while. I just reposted them so maybe we can make this thread a sticky... We need more reports as opposed to comments!
Only deer I've killed with a pistol was with my G36. Neighbor plowed him a mile or so from the house with a Ford Excursion, I got the assist.
Wow Nick, talk about giving someone the fever! Excellent photos and thanks for starting a very cool thread. PS; after I saw the meat pics, I instantly became very hungry in a neanderthal way.
My opener will be on Nov 12th. I will be in my climber before first light with a 200gr XTP handload (1300 fps) in the chamber.
Great job Nick this will be my second season carying my G20 sf I hope I can get one close enough this year, You the Man!
I am ordering ammo tomorrow, and I plan to hunt with my G20sf. I plan to go with swamp fox. What bullet should I go with? 200 grain?
I hope to take a Missouri deer with my Fusion 10mm long slide that should be here in a couple weeks. I will be shooting the SwampFox 180 gr XTPs this year.
I think I'm gonna hunt with my 10mm this year. This monster was killed about 500 yards behind my house a few years ago. There's one around here that looks like his younger brother, maybe I'll luck up Thats not me in the pic, Hurley Combs is his name. Nice guy.
I finally got a doe with my 20sf earlier this evening! After being in the stand for over three hours without seeing a single deer, I heard what I thought was a squirrel walking in a ditch directly behind me. I had sprayed some Shinola juice on the foliage around my treestand earlier. I heard the scurrying noise until the light had all but disappeared. When the "squirrel" surfaced from the ditch and into the cornfield, it was in fact a nice whitetail doe! She clearly had no idea of my presence as I made the decision to forgo the rifle and grabbed the Glock. I took aim at her left shoulder and fired. She dropped instantly! I hit high and took out her spine. I paced the shot at approximately 33yds. The pistol was a Glock 20sf with the 6" hunting barrel. The ammunition was good ole factory Winchester Silvertips! The bullet came to rest just under the surface of the skin on the opposite shoulder. I removed it with a knife and took pics. It expanded almost perfectly. I'll try to post some pics, but most of them are crappy.


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It's not quite clear where this new Spaceghostpurrp track will end up -- his 4AD debut, perhaps? -- but that's not really what we're concerned about here. What's most intriguing about "Lustful '97" is what should be most intriguing: the music itself. The track is a nearly six-and-a-half-minute journey through the rapper-producer's pleasure center, revealing exactly what and who he wants.
It could have easily played out like every other sex-crazed rap song out there, but, of course, Purrp ain't like every other rap artist. Dude's Three 6 Mafia-inspired tendencies are heavy here in the production side of things, but his rapping leans (no pun) toward something more menacing. Stream the song below and download it here. [FACT]
Dam-Funk - "DX Heaven" (Unreleased From 2007) | Willie Nelson "Just Breathe" F. Lukas Nelson (Pearl Jam Cover) |


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Brand & Social Web professional, Start-up Mentor, Columnist, WordPress blogger, Wordplay addict, and the REST (Read, Eat, Seek, Travel) is his story.
After a degree in civil engineering and then an MBA, I boldly stepped off the beaten path, and refused to write a book. Instead, I sold Dishnet broadband internet in the dial up era, marketed WorldSpace satellite radio in the FM era, and then managed newspaper brands at MidDay and The Times Group in the internet era before taking a break in 2010. Meanwhile, in another universe, a blog was created in 2003. The force was strong with this one, and despite being critically or popularly unclaimed, it not only refused to die, but kept adding categories until it covered everything from food to fiction to facebook page management!
Back in the real world, I returned to a cubicle in 2011, as Head – Social Media at Myntra, looking to align business objectives & strategy with social platforms. A 2 year stint at Myntra, was followed by assignments at Group M and Urban Ladder. I have also mentored a few interesting startups at the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator, and continue my relationship with traditional media thanks to a restaurant review column. My other vices include Hindu Mythology, Calvin & Hobbes, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Artificial Intelligence and bragging about Bangalore's central air conditioning.
3 Comments
Just loved your blog. Subscribed!
btw, i think you should have your own domain now, what say?
thanks anand totally agree on that, i thought i'd wait for google to sponsor it, but that cheque might take some time
Thanks for Sharing!


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In the late 1940s, American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) placed his canvases on the floor so that he could "feel more a part of the painting" as he dripped and splattered with paint-dipped sticks. His example, captured in a famous series of photographs and films by Hans Namuth, has inspired generations of artists to find ways to place themselves more directly in their work. In 1960, when French conceptual artist Yves Klein (1928-1962) rolled his models in blue paint and pressed their bodies onto canvas, he initiating a more literal approach to using the body as a tool for making art. For contemporary artists, particularly those involved with video and performance, Pollock's and Klein's working methods have proven to be especially fertile ground. This influence is explored in The Body: Expression/Impression, an exhibition on view in the Video Gallery of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from September 9 through November 30, 1997.
Starting points in this exploration are provided by Namuth's famous 1951 film of Pollock and an excerpt from the 1961 film Mondo Cane showing Klein making his Anthropometry paintings. Later works, drawn from the 1970s to the present, extend the possibilities suggested by these two early examples. Some have responded to Pollock's highly theatrical dance-like engagement as he encircled his canvases throwing down paint. Others take the vision of the masculine, heroicized action painter as a point of departure for critique or emulation. Klein's similarly unusual and spectacular performances that created the Anthropometry paintings have also inspired a range of responses for contemporary artists exploring issues of the body, gender and creativity.
Included in the program are videos of Janine Antoni performing Loving Care in which she mops the gallery floor with her dye-soaked hair, Karen Finley's Nursing Tape, Ron Athey's Human Printing Press segment from his Four Scenes in a Harsh Life, Damien Hirst creating one of his "spin paintings" by pouring paint onto a rotating wheel, a performance by Philadelphian Gabriel Martinez, works by Cheryl Donegan, and early pieces by Ana Mendieta, Dennis Oppenheim, Carolee Schneemann, Skip Arnold, and Paul McCarthy.
Programming in the Video Gallery is made possible by the generous support of the Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.


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March 27, 2013
By Evan Lockridge
Mack Trucks and sister company Volvo Trucks announced a collaboration with Shell to coordinate efforts and support activities that encourage the use of liquefied natural gas as a fuel for commercial vehicles.
"Mack has had natural gas-powered vehicles in customer service since 2009, and we look forward to working with Shell and other fuel providers to further support the burgeoning natural gas truck market here in North America," said Kevin Flaherty, president of Mack Trucks North American sales & marketing.
Mack says it began offering a natural gas-powered TerraPro model refuse vehicle when it became clear that natural gas was a viable heavy-duty truck fuel for closed-loop applications. The company also recently delivered its first natural gas-powered Pinnacle model, offering LNG power for on-highway applications. It announced plans to launch a natural gas-powered Granite model for the construction segment in 2013. Both will be equipped with the Cummins Westport ISX12G spark-ignited engine, which can run on LNG as well as compressed natural gas.
"Customer interest in natural gas as a heavy-duty truck fuel will only continue to grow," said Göran Nyberg, president of Volvo Trucks North American sales and marketing. "We plan to introduce our own Volvo LNG-fueled engine in 2014, and this agreement is part of our effort to collaborate with various stakeholders to ensure that the market is supported with the necessary infrastructure."
The company currently offers a natural gas-powered option for the VNM model daycab, and will offer a natural gas-powered version of the VNL model daycab beginning in 2013. Both models use spark-ignited engines.
As a retired big rig trucker, I still love to keep up with the industry as a whole, new products, new trucks, new (bad) laws, etc. This is interesting research, and now there seems to be a glut of natural gas, this could be a good combination. Keep up the good work. R.F. Byrd
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Friday, August 24, 2007
trying to get back...
I spent two nights at the hospital, sleeping only for minutes at a time. And then tending to my father during the day. Now I'm as tired as ever. I'm a bit worried about my mother too...she's not getting much rest and she'll need to take care of my father when he comes home. This is so stressful for everyone.
I'm thankful that my sister and brother and their families live closer to my parents and can help support them. My other sister and I live further away and it can be so frustrating to want to do more but to be too far away to do very much. It helps to know that they are there to give comfort and love and support.
7 comments:
- Daisy said...
Amy Baby, go to bed and get some sleep then you will be back "bright eyed and bushey tailed". Not sure what that looks like but it could be good for a laugh!! Chin up, we love ya. xxx
- Francie of The Scented Cottage said...
Oh yes, you must take extra special care of yourself too...stress will do you in so try to rest.
- June said...
Bless your heart, Amy, this is a hard time for you and your family. You and your family all need to get some rest. That old saying is true--if you don't take care of yourself, then you can't help your father later when he'll need it. I will continue to keep your father, you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.
- Saucy said...
Everybody is checking in on you via your blog and glad to hear your dear Daddy is doing alright and you must, must, must get some rest now! Take care xoxoxox.
- Lee Ann said...
I just had a little parayer for your dad and family. God is good!!!
Lee Ann - 10:58 AM
- Lilli said...
I went through the same thing with my Dad...actually with both of my parents, and it was so worrisome and stressful. You're so lucky that you have siblings to share the responsibilities.
I'm sending healing wishes to your dad, strength and anti-worry vibes to you and your mom and sibs, all-around loving thoughts. May your sleeps be ultra-effective!
All the Best :) - 12:31 PM
- FrenchGardenHouse said...
Amy, so glad to hear that things are looking better for your Dad. Take care of yourself. There is plenty of time to do everything you think you must.
Sleep well.
Lidy - 5:01 PM


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21:45 sunset
The weather so far in August has been craptacular. Autumn is very much around the corner but rather than just cooler temperatures and some yellow leaves, we have had lots of rain. Makes me cranky.
So I thought I would cheer myself up with a little post on summer. When I was a kid I spent a lot of time in Southampton, Ontario at my grandparents' place. When my mom was growing up she spent all her summers there too.
This is my mom, age 10, on what I swear is the same swing set I played on. At the very least, I played on this same beach.
Then there's this awesome 60s photo of my mom and aunt outside their cottage. The cottage was sold by the time I was born but my grandparents bought another, year-round house, that was still close to the beach.
I can't actually see much of my current self in this 2 year old version of me. This beach looked the same throughout my childhood but I haven't been there in more than a decade.
Ah - another classic Jenn shot. The beach and an Archie comic. If I was lucky, I might get to have a can of coke too! My grandfather died in 1994 and my grandmother two years later. Eek - that's not a decade ago, that's nearly 20 years! My mom went through Southampton this summer and took my nephew to the beach. She said it made her nostalgic. Old photographs like this certainly do the same for me.
Edited to add: As I posted this, I noticed the date: August 20th. It would have been my grandma's 96th birthday today. So this post seems rather fitting. Perhaps I am thinking of the beach and her house and my summers with my grandparents all because it's her birthday today.


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Maryville Tables Changes on Drinking Age Limits
MARYVILLE (AP) - The Maryville City Council tabled two ordinances concerning drinking alcohol in public and at social gatherings on private property.
The council's agreed Monday to at least temporarily table the ordinances after a plea from Northwest Missouri State University President John Jasinski.
The ordinances would have prohibited the consumption of alcohol on streets, sidewalks and other public rights-of-way without a permit, and created 12 behaviors that would allow police to break up "nuisance parties."
Jasinski said he supports efforts to promote responsible drinking. But he said the ordinances have caused students to worry about the possibility of overly tough enforcement by police.
The Maryville Daily Forum reports the council tabled the measures to allow more discussion with university students and others with concerns.
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By DAMON LAWRENCE
South of the River Constable Butch Barding suspects officials may have been playing politics with a junkyard case.
Roane County accused James and Patricia Woods and Dean and Nola Howard of operating a junkyard at 123 Rose Circle.
The county filed its complaint against the property owners in July 2006, but the case didn't get settled until last week.
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Flatfoot 56 is streaming the first track from their new album, Toil, on AbsolutePunk.net. The song is called "Brother, Brother" and is the second song to be released from the album so far.
The first song released was "I Believe It", which you can hear on The Punk Show with Mike Davies on BBC Radio 1 HERE. Just forward to 40:40 after clicking the Listen Now button.
The street date for Toil is July 24th, but it will be available in digital outlets tomorrow, and pre-orders will become available from Paper + Plastick Records web store tomorrow as well.
Stream Now
onTheWeb: Flatfoot 56 | Flatfoot 56 FB | Paper + Plastick
Follow:[email protected]@PaperPlastick


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The past decade has experience a flurry of excitement related to the prospect of preventing HIV infection, and reaching an AIDS free generation, using a spectrum of different interventions including microbicides, PREP, voluntary circumcision, and prevention of mother to child transmission. However, vaccines are the most cost-effective mode of prevention of infections to date. Thus on the prevention landscape, vaccines can make an incredible additional mechanism by which to end this epidemic. Dr. Bart Haynes, Director of the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology- Immunogen Design (CHAVI-ID) from Duke University, gave a comprehensive overview of the path forward to an HIV vaccine. Whereas licensed vaccines allow infections to occur, and induce immune responses that are able to control and then clear infection, an HIV vaccine cannot act in this manner, due to the fact that once integrated, HIV cannot be cleared. Thus an HIV vaccine will likely have to completely prevent infection. To date the only mechanism by which this can be attained is through the induction of neutralizing antibody responses. However, these types of antibody responses only emerge in 15-20% of infected individuals and have yet to be elicited through an HIV vaccine. These types of antibodies likely only arise in a small fraction of infected individuals because these antibodies are highly mutated, potentially auto-reactive and eliminated by the immune system through tolerance mechanisms. However, 2 major events have re-invigorated the field. The first was the immune correlates analysis from the RV144 vaccine trial that showed a protective effect related to the induction of V1/V2-specific IgG antibodies in the absence of IgA responses against HIV that likely mediated protection through non-neutralizing or weakly-neutralizing mechanisms. The second signal has come from a flurry of studies that have recently identified a panel of new broadly neutralizing antibodies, that provide key clues regarding the viruses vulnerabilities. These neutralizing antibodies mark 4 regions of the viral envelope that represent the viruses "Achilles heel" that if targeted by a vaccine could provide protection from infection. To therefore design a vaccine that can elicit such antibodies, CHAVI-ID has now embarked on a "B cell lineage" targeted vaccine, that aims to define the mechanism(s) by which the 15% of HIV infected patients able to induce such protective antibodies attain this by mapping the evolution of B cell lineages over time to understand the path taken to mutate an antibody receptor to design novel vaccines that can induce this type of B cell immunity more rapidly. Coupled to mapping the evolution of the infecting virus, the 2 new CHAVI-IDs, in collaboration with many investigators world-wide, will develop novel vaccine approaches aimed at accelerating the speed of neutralizing antibody induction, that will hopefully provide sterilizing protection from HIV infection, providing an additional tool to promote many new AIDS free generations.
This session offered the promise of future control of HIV transmission through vaccines or ART-based prevention, but reminded us that these advances will only be successful if the fundamental inequalities which drive HIV risk are also addressed.
Vaccines offer the potential as a powerful tool for the prevention of new infections and control of the epidemic. Dr Barton Haynes outlined how vaccine development has been invigorated by new findings on the immune correlates of protection generated by RV144 trial which has provided new hypotheses to test in future studies. New insights into broad neutralizing antibodies, their functions and the tolerance mechanisms that control their expression have led to the development of new strategies for vaccine design.
Dr Chewe Luo argued passionately that the goal of elimination of perinatal transmission of HIV will only be achieved if reductions in perinatal infections are combined with interventions to extend women's lives and reduce maternal mortality. Programmes that address the unmet need for family planning, that offer HIV prevention interventions to women, and that offer lifelong women to women infected with HIV are likely to have greater success. She highlighted the importance of expanding services to include the needs of couples, through couples counselling and testing.
Dr Rao Gupta contended that prevention of HIV infection in adolescents remains a key priority globally. The rapid succession of social and biological changes in adolescence put young girls at increased risk for HIV infection compared to boys. The reluctance of programmes to acknowledge girls as sexual beings has hampered access to commodities and services for those most at risk. Future programmes for youth will need target those most at risk, focus on educating girls, collect routine data that on adolescents in order to better monitor the epidemic in this largely hidden population, and engage adolescents as partners in the process. She and Louise Scruggs both highlighted the importance of addressing gender inequality if we are to turn to tide on transmission.
During this morning's plenary session – on a day with a number of events and sessions addressing children and adolescents – Dr Chewe Luo (Senior Programme Adviser at UNICEF) delivered the presentation 'Turning the tide on HIV in children and youth'. She addressed three key topic areas: elimination of MTCT, and keeping mothers alive; early diagnosis of infant diagnosis and the importance of treatment for HIV infected children; preventing HIV in adolescents, and providing treatment.
Since 1994 there has been evidence that providing ARV for pregnant women reduces HIV transmission to infants. The 2011 Global Plan for eliminating HIV in infants by 2015 has two overarching goals: 90% reduction in HIV infections in children; and a 50% reduction in HIV related mortality in women living with HIV during, or following pregnancy. There is much evidence supporting this global commitment, and studies confirming the preferred regimen for PMTCT, especially in the context of combining ARVs with breastfeeding.
Responses to this evidence have been "unprecedented", resulting in a steady decline in the numbers of new infections in children globally. Between 2010-2011 for example, infections fell by an estimated10.8%. But, this falls short of the Global Plan's May 2012 target of 25%. Future investment is required to ensure all targets are reached, which include: reducing HIV infection in women of childbearing age by 50%; reducing to zero unmet needs for family planning in women of childbearing age; and increase to 90% of ARV access for pregnant women living with HIV.
To ensure opportunities for prevention are not missed, Luo highlighted ways to improve the efficacy of PMTCT programmes. First, optimising the delivery of the most effective ARV regime; here, Malawi was pinpointed as the only country currently offering 'Option B+' (the provision of ARV regardless of the mother's CD4), caused a ripple of audience applause. Second, introducing one treatment standard for HIV positive pregnant women to simplify delivery of optimal treatment. Third, integrating PMTCT and ARV services in Maternal Child Health and Community Services, by simplifying the regimen choice and approaches.
Luo also considered the issue of unmet family planning needs, which she suggests has "been stagnant" as an issue in the last decade, and highlighted the recent Gates Foundation, UNFPA, UK and US government commitments on family planning, which provide an opportunity to improve family planning access.
Turning the tide in children and youth also means scaling up care, treatment and support for infected children to reduce HIV related morbidity and mortality, and Luo reminded the audience that the Global Plan has as one target the provision of antiretroviral treatment (ART) to 100% of all children in need of treatment. She outlined a range of measures to achieve this: optimising the identification of infected children in early infancy; innovative technologies to simplify access to early infant diagnosis (EID) at the point of care, linking children into care and treatment; clinical studies to evaluate simplified dosing platforms to effect delivery of paediatric care and treatment in primary health care facilities.
Luo finished by considering adolescents. Understanding adolescent needs and vulnerabilities is critical to inform effective programming approaches for both HIV prevention and treatment. It is vital to decrease the vulnerability to HIV of adolescents – for example by enrolling and retaining girls in school; increasing the age of marriage; and ensuring social protection. Decreasing risk is also required, by measures such as: testing; offering treatment as required; harm reduction; and male circumcision.
Luo closed with a call to action. To 'turn the tide' on HIV in children and adolescents: treatment should be available for all HIV positive pregnant women using an optimal regime; innovative approaches to expand provider-initiated HIV testing to adolescents, pregnant women and their partners should be available; HIV testing and treatment early in infancy should be expanded; there must be collaboration with community groups; and adolescent programmes should focus on how to effectively deliver high impact interventions to have the best prevention and treatment benefit.
Dr Gita Rao Gupta (UNICEF), United States
This important presentation highlighted the imperative of addressing the multiple risks facing women and girls that increase their vulnerability to HIV. In particular, of the 4.8 million people aged 15-24 living with HIV, 3 million are female. Adolescence is a critical time of growth and maturation, and in regions where factors such as early marriage (younger than 18), early childbirth, and transactional sex (especially sub-Saharan Africa), adolescent girls face a range of challenges in negotiating successfully the transition into adulthood. Social, cultural and biological factors conspire to make adolescence "not a time of promise, but a time of peril."
Gupta referred to the HIV Investment Framework as a useful tool for shaping policy and interventions to reduce the women and girls' vulnerability, and proposed a number of specific recommendations for adolescent girls in particular: there should be a national plan in all countries to ensure girls are protected and empowered (and an acceptance that adolescents are likely to be sexually active); strategies must be in place to ensure girls are educated and remain in school; and adolescents must be visible in monitoring and routine data systems. It is also crucial to engage adolescents as partners in this process, for they "are experts in their own reality."
Gupta closed with a quote from Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF: "We invest so much in keeping children alive in the first decade of life. We must not lose them in the second."
The organizers reserve the right to amend the programme.


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James Whitcomb Riley
James Whitcomb Riley
(7 October 1849 - 22 July 1916 / Greenfield, Indiana)
The Old-Home Folks
Such was the Child-World of the long-ago--
The little world these children used to know:--
Johnty, the oldest, and the best, perhaps,
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At this time of year, many recount the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. But reports consistent with virgin births are also a modern day phenomenon, according to a study in the Christmas edition of The BMJ.
A team of US researchers has identified a number of pregnancies reported by virgins since the mid-1990s among a large group of young US adults.
Virgin births in non-humans generally occur by asexual reproduction, and have been documented in multiple animals including pit vipers, boa constrictors, sharks, and Komodo dragons, but among humans the incidence of virgin pregnancy has received little attention.
So researchers based at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined the incidence of pregnancy before the onset of sexual intercourse (virgin pregnancy) reported by a representative group of US adolescents and young adults.
They analysed data for 7,870 women who were interviewed confidentially and multiple times over a 14-year period between adolescence and adulthood as part of the US National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). State of the art technology (audio computer assisted self interview and computer assisted self interview) was used to enhance the candor of the respondents.
At each interview, participants reported their history of vaginal intercourse, use of assisted reproductive technology, and pregnancy history. These data were then used to classify women by their virginity status at the time of reported pregnancy.
Other information such as age, importance of religion, and presence of a chastity pledge, was recorded, and respondents also indicated their knowledge of different birth control methods. Parents of respondents reported how much they had talked with their child about sex or birth control, and school administrators reported whether sex education was offered in the respondent's school.
Of 7,870 women, 0.5% consistently affirmed their status as virgins and did not use assisted reproductive technology, yet reported a virgin birth. These women were more likely to have signed chastity pledges (31%) than the non-virgins who reported pregnancies (15%) or the other virgins (21%).
Virgins who reported pregnancy were more likely than non-virgins to have parents who indicated lower levels of communication about sex and birth control with their child.
While more virgins gave birth to boys (60%) or may have learnt they were pregnant during Advent, these trends did not reach statistical significance.
Virgins were younger on average at the time they gave birth (median age 19.3 years) than non-virgins (21.7 years). Perceived importance of religion was associated with virginity but not with virgin pregnancy.
Although the study used carefully designed questions and state of the art self interview technology, the authors point out that self reported measures of potentially sensitive topics are subject to some degree of respondent bias and misclassification. Nevertheless, they conclude that "around 0.5% of women affirmed their status as virgins and did not use assisted reproductive technology, yet reported virgin births."
They add: "Reporting dates of pregnancy and sexual initiation consistent with virgin pregnancy was associated with cultural mores highly valuing virginity, specifically signing chastity pledges, and with parental endorsement of items indicative of lower levels of communication about sex and birth control."
Editor's Note: The British Medical Journal traditionally publishes a Christmas issue containing a number of articles of a lighthearted nature. For a full list of articles in the 2013 issue, see: http://www.bmj.com/content/347/7938
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Materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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i don't get it
If a dead horse could beg for mercy from the merciless beating of it, this might be it.
Just for clarification, this Sleek Audio CT20 thread was an April Fool's Day (2011) gag. It isn't real. And my hearing doesn't span 5Hz to 30kHz.
For those who immediately figured it out--and who had their posts deleted at the beginning, to keep the gag going for more than a couple of hours--thank you for your understanding (and for some of you then even helping to push it along).
And now...


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"Save America's Treasures" has been totally eliminated—the largest Federal program supporting preservation of such treasures as the original Star Spangled Banner and George Washington's tent.
65% of Americans don't know what happened at the Constitutional Convention, according to a recent survey by Newsweek.
The "Teaching American History" grants—the largest Federal program supporting history education—have been completely eliminated.
Visits to the Top 20 Civil War battlefields have dropped in half from 1970 to 2009 according to official National Park Service statistics.
40% of Americans can't identify whom we fought in World War II, according to a recent survey by Newsweek.
A quarter of Americans believe Congress shares power over U.S. foreign policy with the United Nations, according to a recent Annenberg survey.
"There is little that is more important for an American citizen to know than the history and traditions of his country," John F. Kennedy wrote in American Heritage.
The "We the People Program," which touched some 30 million students and 90,000 teachers over 25 years, has been completely eliminated.
Two-thirds of Americans could not correctly name Yorktown as the last major military action of the American Revolution, according to a recent national Gallup survey.
The National Heritage Areas and Scenic Byways program, the only major Federal program encouraging visits to historic places, has been completely eliminated in Congressional committee.
Lincoln's melancholy is famous. Less well known is that he not only penned thoughts about suicide but published them in a newspaper. Scholars have long believed that the only copy in the newspaper's files was mutilated to hide those thoughts from posterity. But the composition has apparently always been in plain sight—and unrecognized.
How did such a thing come to be written? How was it lost? Why should we think it has been found? And what does it reveal about its author? Read more »
A newly discovered document almost certainly written by the young Abraham Lincoln shows him dismantling a shifty political rival with ruthless wit and logic
As soon as he moved to Illinois in 1830, Abraham Lincoln found himself on the opposite side of the political fence from Peter Cartwright, a well-known Methodist preacher and politician. They crossed paths in the Illinois legislature, but their best-known confrontation was as opponents in the 1846 congressional election, which Lincoln won handily. Late in that campaign Lincoln found himself having to combat a rumor that he was an "infidel," or unbeliever, a charge uncomfortably close to the truth.Read more »
Clues uncovered during the recent restoration of his house at Springfield help humanize the Lincoln portrait
One good measure of our apparently inexhaustible interest in Abraham Lincoln is that this year eight hundred thousand of us will be led through his house at the corner of Eighth and Jackson streets in Springfield, Illinois. So many people edge past the horsehair furniture and stomp up and down the narrow stairs that the National Park Service had to close the place down in 1987, take much of it apart, and put it back together again, newly decorated and sturdily reinforced with steel, to withstand the next generation of pilgrims. Read more »
Vidal's Lincoln
WHEN ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S wartime secretaries, John Hay and John G. Nicolay, serialized their life of the President in Century magazine in 1885, Lincoln's old friend and law partner William H. Herndon did not like it. The articles were too reverential, he thought, too Republican, too everlastingly long. But worse than that, he added, the authors "handle things with silken gloves & a 'cammel hair pencil': they do not write with an iron pen." Read more »
To stave off despair, the President relied on a sense of humor that was rich, self-deprecating—and surprisingly bawdy
A great "intensity of thought," Abraham Lincoln once counseled his friend Joshua Speed, "will some times wear the sweetest idea thread-bare and turn it to the bitterness of death." No aspect of Lincoln's character has become more tangibly real in the literature than his melancholy.Read more »