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Mitchell Sandham attended the DesignThinkers conference last week to discuss the insurance program in place for RGD members. We had a lot of visitors during the conference and the program is being well received. It is one of the premier events for graphic designers in Canada. Contact Ryan Mitchell at Mitchell Sandham Insurance Brokers for more information regarding Professional Liability/Errors & Omissions Liability, Commercial General Liability and Property Insurance at email@example.com or (416)862-5620.
Mitchell Sandham at RGD DesignThinkers ConferenceNovember 7, 2011
Risk Management During Occupy TorontoOctober 14, 2011
Ryan Mitchell, Vice President of Mitchell Sandham Insurance Brokers has been quoted in today's Toronto Star, providing insight into the Occupy Toronto Protest happening this weekend. He comments on risk management strategies for businesses in the downtown core to consider implementing. Please click here to access the article.
Directors' and Officers' IndemnificationOctober 26, 2010
Many D's & O's, (trustee, advisory board members, committee members, etc.) make the assumption they will be indemnified in the event of a lawsuit, and some rely entirely on the protection under statute, or their corporate bylaws.
Indemnification language can be found in the OBCA, CBCA, other legislation or specific Acts (eg. Insurance Companies Act, etc. which may trump other statute), corporate bylaws, and the D&O insurance contract. The problem is there is no consistent wording and in many lawsuits the assumed 'standard' wording has failed directors and officers, leaving them personally liable for significant costs.
Therefore, I urge directors and officers to consider arranging individual contractual indemnities, using the advice of a lawyer, and negotiate the appropriate insurance coverage.
Here are some examples of indemnification wording failure:
- Bylaws can be changed by the corporation without the knowledge/decision of the individual (as long as litigation involving the trigger of the indemnity has not started), either while holding their position (because they missed the meeting and didn't review their minutes or because they were overruled by a majority of the board) or after they have retired (with no obligation to inform a former director or officer.)
- Some Bylaws and/or Acts use 'may' indemnify wording rather than the stronger 'shall' indemnify wording,
- Bylaws and/or Acts are more vague than an individual contractual indemnity,
- Certain Acts block corporate indemnification for certain types of claims (ie. claims brought by a regulator or trustee, derivative actions, pollution or bankruptcy),
- Bylaws and Acts don't always stipulate the trigger of defence cost obligations and may result in reimbursement or advancement, but not Pay-On-Behalf, leaving the director or officer with a very big debt,
- D&O Contracts almost always use a 'presumptive indemnification' wording (not always easy to find in the policies), where the insurer presumes the corporation will provide indemnification and if the indemnification is not forthcoming the corporate deductible will be applied (which can be from the thousands of dollars to the millions of dollars, and remember the deductible only applies to the 'covered' portion of the lawsuit) which could leave the director or officer with unfunded defence cost or even settlement obligations, while at the same time having to fund lawsuits against his/her corporation and insurance company (don't forget, looser pays in Canada, and Insurers and Corporations can quickly incur very large defence costs),
- With Informal Investigations, Inquiries or Request for Interviews, increasing in popularity many D&O policies, bylaws and statues have not been written to consider these (arguably) voluntary costs, and there may be a gap in the funding for theses expenses. However, I don't recommend that any person agree to such a proceeding without legal representation.
This whole issue can be further complicated by the growing trend of 'contracting out' for officer or director/advisor positions because none of the traditional avenues of indemnification have contemplated this trend.
But 'supportive presumptive indemnification' and/or improved 'advancement of defence costs' language can be negotiated into the D&O insurance policy and individual contractual indemnities are becoming much more common.
Greg Shields, Partner, Mitchell Sandham Insurance Brokers, 416 862-5626, firstname.lastname@example.com
CAUTION: The information contained in the Mitchell Sandham website or blog does not constitute a legal opinion or insurance advice and must not be construed as such. It is important to always consult a registered insurance broker and a lawyer who is a member of the Bar or Law Society of the relevant jurisdiction with regard to this material before making any insurance or legal decisions. All material is copyrighted by Mitchell Sandham Inc. and may not be reproduced in any form for commercial purposes without the express written consent of Mitchell Sandham Inc. Anyone seeking to link this site from any external website must receive the consent of Mitchell Sandham Inc. by sending an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Bankruptcy and D&OMay 31, 2010
As usual, I have taken my cue from Kevin LaCroix's DandODiary.com, here, and then attempt to provide the Canadian perspective. Kevin's recent post, here, on bankruptcy statistics and D&O insurance is very detailed, and if you don't let the US stats deter you, the risk and insurance comments are equally applicable to Canadian companies. Kevin refers to the American Bankruptcy Institute, here, and a record number of business bankruptcies (60,000) in 2009, "nearly 200% greater than in 2006". He also refers to the ACE Insurance Report, here, "Financial Crisis: Bankruptcy Implications for D&O Insurance, by Keith Lavigne, Scott Meyer, Carol A.N. Zacharias"
Not surprisingly, the Canadian statistics are much different. According to Industry Canada, here, January, which is historically a higher month for bankruptcies than December, insolvencies (bankruptcies and proposals) were down 6.7%, the largest January decline in 20 years. This includes both business and consumer insolvencies. January 2010 over January 2009 showed a business insolvency decrease of 18.5%. The 12 month periods ending January 31, 2010 and 2009, respectively, showed a 10.3% decrease in business insolvencies (6,624 total, including 5,326 bankruptcies.) These insolvency figures do not include filings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, here, which includes 35 filings between September 18, 2009 and April 30, 2010. Another helpful website is BankruptcyCanada.com, here.
These statistics, coupled with the fact that business bankruptcies in Canada have been on a steady decline for the last ten years, half what they were ten years ago, may make Canadian company stakeholders more comfortable. However, consumer bankruptcies are up 25% year-over-year ending January 31, 2010, and consumer proposals are up 41%. And, based on CCAA, for stakeholders of Canwest, Winalta, Tagish Lake Goldcorp, etc., comfort is a luxury they don't have.
The value of a D&O policy should never be greater than when approaching creditor protection or bankruptcy. On the surface, one method for a director to reduce personal liability is to resign immediately from the board, so that even if statutory obligations are levied against the director, they will stop accumulating the date they resign. Hopefully, this is when the D&O Insurer and/or the insurance broker should be stepping-in to remind the current board that they have insurance to cover their personal liability and that staying on the board and turning their mind to the challenges presented (of restructuring and corporate turn-around) is probably the only way to avoid the overall business failure and potential personal liability.
Here is an excerpt from the ACE Report, "When a corporation files for bankruptcy, the D&O risk appreciably rises. Because indemnification from the corporation may not be available, defendant directors and officers risk their personal assets in litigation, unless quality insurance exists." The report also quotes Dan A. Bailey, partner and chair of the D&O practice group at law firm Bailey Cavalieri, here, "Bankruptcy is the big driver of non-indemnified D&O lawsuits. It is the single biggest personal asset exposure that directors and officers need to be worried about, and that Side A D&O insurance companies, which absorb risk, must carefully evaluate from an underwriting perspective."
I remember a situation from my underwriting days, when a building materials manufacturing company realized that a significant batch of product, manufactured and installed many years early, was failing well before the warranty period ended. Sales dropped immediately because of reputation risk; liquidity risk became a reality because of debt servicing and credit risk; insurance risk surfaced because product liability policies were based on occurrence forms and therefore administratively more difficult to handle and, based on the size of the loss, slower to respond. The creditors would not have been flexible if the senior management did not have a plan and did not stay to handle the significant challenges, the senior management wouldn't stay if the board resigned, and the board would likely have resigned if the D&O underwriters did not meet with them and provide the comfort that the D&O policy was there to respond to personal liability should the directors and management fail in their attempt to turn the company around. The limit of liability of the D&O policy was no-where large enough to backstop the company assets (and the policy is not designed to do that), but it was large enough to provide comfort that statutory liabilities, defence costs for potential creditor and shareholder claims, and some contribution (in addition to the entity and other third parties) to settlements would be covered. This comfort provided the necessary time to organize, strategize, and gather necessary resources. One of these resources was the product liability policy, which by itself was not large enough to cover the entire loss, but, its existence provided assurance to customers, creditors and shareholders that the overall risk was manageable. The result was that over 200 employees kept their jobs and pensions, customers came back, and shareholder value was restored. And my seemingly altruistic employer did not incur a dime in loss (but we were not the product liability insurer.)
If the necessary comfort is not volunteered by the Insurer, the policy wording can still do the job (it just needs broker support and, when appropriate, legal advice.) Here are ten comments I have extracted from my much larger list of D&O policy review points (if you would the whole list, please feel free to call me directly):
- Coverage for the entity be limited and fully transparent
- Extensions of coverage should be fully understood, as they expose the policy to loss other than personal liability of directors and officers which creates limit sharing and limit exhaustion
- Limit-of-Liability management should consider PML (probable maximum loss from stakeholders: employees for wages, severance; shareholders; creditors; government for unremitted taxes, pollution liability; etc.), as well as entity coverage and other extensions
- Priority-of-Payments provisions may be necessary but should not provide too much comfort, because there is no precedent in Canada, and the Canadian courts apply a 'first-past-the-post' doctrine which could negate the provision. And, it doesn't come without risk because some wordings might create liability for a specific officer and expose that individual to further loss (after limits have been exhausted)
- Insured vs Insured exclusion should at minimum contain specific 'carved-back' language (eg. Trustees in bankruptcy) and there is no common wording in Canada
- Affirmative coverage for regulatory proceedings should be confirmed, and the extent of this coverage should be highlighted in the 'entity coverage' transparency
- Financing of D&O premium should be avoided because it usually requires assignment of cancellation rights, which means the policy is cancelled by the finance company prior to a claim being made
- Automatic run-off should be maintained, and policy made fully-earned and non-cancellable at any change in control (not just for bankruptcy, but any time, because some Insurers will suggest that removal of automatic run-off is in your best interest – always be careful of Insurers bearing gifts)
- Repeat to yourself, "there are D&O losses in Canada", "there are D&O losses in Canada", five more times
- No matter what they say, plaintiff lawyers do exist in Canada, they have sufficient motivation to pursue claims, and lawyers on both sides of the claim are well paid
Please note this is not an exhaustive list of things to consider with your directors' and officers' liability coverage and the possibility of creditor protection or bankruptcy. Bankruptcies are commonly a slow and painful ordeal, with years worth of financial and business indicators. Many D&O underwriters are business grads, MBA's, CFA's, CA's, and their job is to identify future bankruptcies and reduce their employer's risk. D&O policies are annual and very rarely written with multi-year policies (no, an intent-to-renew letter is not a multi-year policy), and clauses in some policies state that any offer to renew the policy, with any change in terms, conditions or premium, will not constitute a refusal to renew, so extended reporting provisions (ERP) cannot be triggered.
Negotiation of these renewals should be a very demanding process, but my experience is that Insured's management has already heard such bad news from clients, bankers and suppliers, that they don't have the energy (or proper advice) to aggressively negotiate an acceptable policy wording. There are dozen's of different 'bankruptcy' exclusions, and rarely does the most onerous one have to be accepted by the Insured.
Please feel free to call me to expand on any of these issues, or provide you with other documents, like the Pitfalls of Indemnification, or Lightening of Continuity.
CAUTION: The information contained in the Mitchell Sandham website or blog does not constitute a legal opinion or insurance advice and must not be construed as such. It is important to always consult a truly 'independent' registered insurance broker and a lawyer who is a member of the Bar or Law Society of the relevant jurisdiction with regard to this material before making any insurance or legal decision. All material is copyrighted by Mitchell Sandham Inc. and may not be reproduced in any form for commercial purposes without the express written consent of Mitchell Sandham Inc. Anyone seeking to link this site from any external website must seek the consent of Mitchell Sandham Inc. by sending an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Greg Shields, Partner, Mitchell Sandham Insurance Brokers, 416 862-5626, email@example.com
Mortgage FraudMay 7, 2010
News on this topic goes in waves. A few years ago Identity Theft and Mortgage Fraud got public attention when scams we detailed of perpetrators identifying a typically older single person who owns a home with a very small existing mortgage. The criminal will fake the homeowner's identity and pay off that mortgage, and then remortgage the property to almost its full value. The homeowner does not find out about the fraud until the payments go into arrears and the lenders come calling, or until they attempt to pay-down their small mortgage and find it was already paid-off and a new credit search shows a very large amount owing to a different lender.
Now, the Oklahoman or Skip Transfer. A group, or several different groups, conspire to purchase lower priced homes in a given neighbourhood and then flip them to "straw buyers" for inflated prices. The straw buyers are paid a few thousand dollars for the use of their identity, their financial position is forged, and they get mortgages from mortgage lenders at prices typically $40,000 or more in excess of the property's market value.
One of the big Canadian banks, in their Alberta operations, has recently announced a mortgage fraud involving $120 million in property. Many news organizations have been reporting on this, here, here, here. This scam could involve many interrelated organizations in many countries, and include many institutions, and, by fraud or negligence, many Canadian lawyers, mortgage brokers, and bank employees. Some reports suggest that irregularities were identified as early at 2006.
My experience is that fraud is not contingent on new space-age technology or extraordinarily complicated strategies. One recent claim example was a loss of almost a half million dollars to a relatively small private company that, like many organizations, had a holding company and an operating company, where only the operating company was audited. A mid level employee in the finance department very simply included herself as an employee of both the holding company and the operating company. When senior finance requested a run of T4 slips she provided only photocopies, removing sequential numbering, and pulling one of the two T4 splits. This complex plan, diabolical in its brilliance, lasted ten years. When a new senior finance employee requested original sequential T4 slips, the criminal mastermind admitted guilt and offered to pay back the money.
Rarely in cases of Fraud (and for that fact, employee injury, general liability, product liability, etc.), is the Loss Control activity a new or original device. The Loss was likely dependent on lax oversight or application of long existing policies and procedures. Safety bars removed, eye protection not enforced, emails with sensitive information sent to former employee addresses, vendor lists not audited, not witnessing signatures, overlooking questionable behavior, not performing regular or periodic background checks, etc. etc. Any one of these can easily contribute to losses in the six and seven figures, but individually, they are just plain boring. Even in the case of a nine figure mortgage fraud, the sophistication of the scam is not based on 21st century listening devices, or some form of computer hacking, cross-site scripting, malware implanted virus, it is likely based on taking advantage of lax oversight of mundane operating activities, which individually are completely lackluster transactions, within multiple parties.
If you want a good history of mortgage fraud in Canada, I refer you to a May 6 article by By Jen Gerson, in the Calgary Herald, here. The article makes important distinction between Alberta real estate law, and says that "…because in a boom economy, it's often easier to hide fraud because actual boom time values can quickly match fake inflated values. Banks, in this case, can recoup their losses. But when property values stabilize or fall, fraud becomes more apparent." The article also provides an estimate by the Quebec Association of Real Estate Agents and Brokers that "fraud could cost $1.5 billion per year across the country."
Greg Shields, Partner, Mitchell Sandham Insurance Brokers, 416 862-5626
CAUTION: The information contained in the Mitchell Sandham website or blog does not constitute a legal opinion or insurance advice and must not be construed as such. It is important to always consult a truly 'independent' registered insurance broker and a lawyer who is a member of the Bar or Law Society of the relevant jurisdiction with regard to this material before making any insurance or legal decision. All material is copyrighted by Mitchell Sandham Inc. and may not be reproduced in any form for commercial purposes without the express written consent of Mitchell Sandham Inc. Anyone seeking to link this site from any external website must seek the consent of Mitchell Sandham Inc. by sending an e-mail to email@example.com.
Bribery, Whistleblowing and D&O InsuranceMay 6, 2010
Bribery continues to be a fairly quiet issue in Canada, but it is really heating up in the US and Internationally. In the US, enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) has been used to bring or resolve 36 cases in the first quarter of 2010, up from 6 and 4 in the first quarters of 2009 and 2008, respectively, according to international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. The report and significant review of FCPA cases can be found at The D&O Diary, here.
Is bribery a brand new phenomenon, or the creation of a 20th century diabolical genius? No, I would suggest it is as old as time, and practiced regularly throughout the world. However, motivation for whistleblowing could make the FCPA a front-running piece of legislation. The draft bill of the Restoring Financial Stability Act of 2010, (a very detailed review can be found on lexology.com, here), in a small section called Improving Investor Protection at the SEC, includes a proposal to offer "internal whistleblowers a financial reward of up to 30% of any funds recovered." Which in the SEC v. Siemens case, here, that could mean $480 million to a 'good Samaritan'.
The US DOJ is good enough to provide a laypersons guide to the legislation, here, and the relationship with Canada is the broad language of "Who" (is the subject of enforcement) including, "any individual, firm, officer, director, employee, or agent of a firm and any stockholder acting on behalf of a firm" and whether the "violator is an "issuer," a "domestic concern," or a foreign national or business." A fairly easy test for many Canadian companies and individuals to pass. I won't provide more details, at the fear of it suggesting that Canadian entities can avoid this legislation.
In the UK, the Bribery Act 2010, here, received Royal Assent on April 8, 2010, but I see not provision for whistleblower rewards.
The Canadian version of the legislation is called the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA), here, but I could not find any provision for rewarding whistleblowers, and even the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, here, site suggests there has been only one prosecution (2002) under the Act in its ten year history. However, there is one case of a Calgary energy company that acknowledged (Jan 2009) that it was being investigated by the RCMP for alleged improper payments to public officials in South Asia, here. McMillan LLP, suggests, here, that this legislation should not be dismissed, in part, because "a corporation will meet the mens rea requirement where a senior officer or director "intentionally or recklessly, with knowledge of the facts constituting the offence, or with willful blindness to them "permits the offence to occur." Though this legislation is not likely to keep most D's and O's up at night, there is a very real concern of the close US ties in our business activities, an in the significant loss that can occur from follow-on D&O claims. Therefore, I agree with McMillan that compliance with the legislation is important, and it should be a risk management priority because of the reputation damage and D&O defence costs that can result from an alleged violation. In the Calgary energy company case, the announcement of the alleged corruption corresponded with a relatively short term dip in the company stock price and a five year low in that stock. Luckily there were no follow-on claims.
The insurance implications: fines and penalties, from a CFPOA action, are usually excluded from D&O policies, but depending on the wording, there may be some coverage for defence costs. The real exposure comes from follow-on class action securities claims or derivative actions, which could mean significant payout from the D&O policy. The biggest concern is limits management, limits exhaustion and sharing of limits, because entity coverage for securities claims is the most likely case for the 'entity' exhausting limits that would otherwise be available to individual directors and officers. A big cheque from the insurance company may be good, if you maintain a $100 million limit, and the total loss is $25 million, but if your limit is $10 million, and the total loss is $25 million, your directors and officers might be very disappointed with 'broad' coverage. The Calgary company lost over half its value in a few short months, and if a claim had been brought and settled, even at a very low "plaintiff-style" damage factor, most Canadian public company D&O policies would have been fully exhausted.
If you would like to discuss any of these issues, please call me directly.
Greg Shields, Partner, Mitchell Sandham Insurance Brokers, 416 862-5626, firstname.lastname@example.com
CAUTION: The information contained in the Mitchell Sandham website or blog does not constitute a legal opinion or insurance advice and must not be construed as such. It is important to always consult a truly 'independent' registered insurance broker and a lawyer who is a member of the Bar or Law Society of the relevant jurisdiction with regard to this material before making any insurance or legal decision. All material is copyrighted by Mitchell Sandham Inc. and may not be reproduced in any form for commercial purposes without the express written consent of Mitchell Sandham Inc. Anyone seeking to link this site from any external website must seek the consent of Mitchell Sandham Inc. by sending an e-mail to email@example.com.
Happy Fraud Awareness MonthMarch 17, 2010
The Canadian Government has a website dedicated to the topic (see here) and the loss control advice is directed to individuals and companies. The Canadian Securities Administrators also offer information for awareness and avoiding fraud (see here) with much of this material directed at individuals. Some of it may seem like common sense, but my experience is that most successful scams are simple. So it can't hurt to take a look. One thing I did find interesting is that none of the material that I reviewed focused on fraud schemes by employees. As this is a leading cause of loss to companies large and small (one statistic I can't immediately locate said that the leading cause of small and mid-sized business failure in Canada involved some form of employee theft) the need for proper risk management in the area of crime/fidelity/employee theft should be paramount. If you would like to discuss risk management, loss control or fidelity insurance, please call.
Greg Shields, Partner, Mitchell Sandham Insurance Brokers, 416 862-5626


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We recently spent a couple of weeks on the gorgeous tropical Caribbean island of Curaçao. Although we didn't make it to all the beach clubs and beaches on the island, this is a list of where we went. Below you'll find a roundup of our thoughts and opinions on the best beach clubs and beaches that we visited while on Curaçao! If you're staying on the island, or just visiting for a day on a cruise, visiting the beach is definitely a great thing to do while in Curaçao!
AVILA BEACH HOTEL: We spent a delightful day relaxing at this gorgeous resort. They do in fact sell day passes (for a very affordable fee). The beach itself is gorgeous. Like most hotels on this side of the island, they've built a barrier to block the major ..click here to read more...Original link

subset: commoncrawl


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Milking the Emotions.
Spielberg uses all his blockbuster techniques which occasionally go too far.
American Film Institutes Ranking: #9/100
Awards: Nominated for twelve winning seven: Picture, Director, Screenplay and more.
My Rating:
Presented in a black-and-white documentary style, Schindler's List is meant to capture the true essence of the horrid holocaust. The goal was to make this as real as possible; this isn't just some story, but a an actual event that affected all of humanity. The holocaust offers plenty of real examples of humans at their worst. Just replaying the instances of complete barbarianism would have been enough to devastate.
Spielberg takes it one step further; he tugs on our heart using narrative and plot devices that could have easily come from his other blockbuster films. These Hollywood maneuvers are at odds with wanting to create that pure narration of a historical event. Some scenes, gut-wrenching enough on their own, become too staged and the realism melts.
Even with this, it is still a beautifully impactful movie and an important film for its historical significance. Continue reading "Top 100 Movie Review: #9 – Schindler's List (1993)"


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THE EDGE: Fixing The Silicon Valley Oligarch's Abuses of The Internet
Posted on Monday 01 July 2019, - - updated on 06/05/20 - THE EDGE - Permalink
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I helped invent the internet. How did it go so wrong?
- Facebook, Google-YouTube, Netflix, Linked-In and the sociopath Sandhill Road VC's turned it into a sex-trafficking, spy-ridden, election-meddling hell and the politicians that those companies bribe like to keep it that way!
When I was a young scientist working on the fledgling creation that came to be known as the internet, the ethos that defined the culture we were building was characterized by words such as ethical, open, trusted, free, shared. None of us knew where our research would lead, but these words and principles were our beacon.
We did not anticipate that the dark side of the internet would emerge with such ferocity. Or that we would feel an urgent need to fix it.
How did we get from there to here?
While studying for my doctorate at MIT in the early 1960s, I recognized the need to create a mathematical theory of networks that would allow disparate computers to communicate. Later that decade, the Advanced Research Projects Agency — a research funding arm of the Department of Defense created in response to Sputnik — determined they needed a network based on my theory so that their computer research centers could share work remotely.
My UCLA computer lab was selected to be the first node of this network. Fifty years ago — on Oct. 29, 1969 — a simple "Lo" became the first internet message, from UCLA to Stanford Research Institute. We had typed the first two letters of "login" when the network crashed.
This quiet little moment of transmission over that two-computer communication network is regarded as the founding moment of the internet.
During its first 25 years, the internet grew dramatically and organically with the user community seeming to follow the same positive principles the scientists did. We scientists sought neither patents nor private ownership of this networking technology. We were nerds in our element, busily answering the challenge to create new technology that would benefit the world.
Around 1994, the internet began to change quickly as dot-coms came online, the network channels escalated to gigabit speeds and the World Wide Web became a common household presence. That same year, Amazon was founded and Netscape, the first commercial web browser, was released.
And on April 12, 1994, a "small" moment with enormous meaning occurred: The transmission of the first widely circulated spam email message, a brazen advertisement. The collective response of our science community was "How dare they?" Our miraculous creation, a "research" network capable of boundless computing magnificence had been hijacked to sell … detergent?
By 1995, the internet had 50 million users worldwide. The commercial world had recognized something we had not foreseen: The internet could be used as a powerful shopping machine, a gossip chamber, an entertainment channel and a social club. The internet had suddenly become a money-making machine.
With the profit motive taking over the internet, the very nature of innovation changed. Averting risk dominated the direction of technical progress. We no longer pursued "moonshots." Instead advancement came via baby steps — "design me a 5% faster Bluetooth connection" as opposed to "build me an internet." An online community that had once been convivial transformed into one of competition, antagonism and extremism.
And then as the millennium ended, our revolution took a more disturbing turn that we continue to grapple with today.
By suddenly providing the power for anyone to immediately reach millions of people inexpensively and anonymously, we had inadvertently also created the perfect formula for the "dark" side to spread like a virus all over the world. Today more than 50% of email is spam, but far more troubling issues have emerged — including denial of service attacks that can immobilize critical financial institutions and malicious botnets that can cripple essential infrastructure sectors.
Other dangerous players, such as nation-states, started coming onto the scene around 2010, when Stuxnet malware appeared. Organized crime recognized the internet could be used for international money laundering, and extremists found the internet to be a convenient megaphone for their radical views. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, facial recognition, biometrics and other advanced technologies could be used by governments to weaken democratic institutions.
The balkanization of the internet is now conceivable as firewalls spring up around national networks.
We could try to push the internet back toward its ethical roots. However, it would be a complex challenge requiring a joint effort by interested parties — which means pretty much everyone.
We should pressure government officials and entities to more zealously monitor and adjudicate such internet abuses as cyberattacks, data breaches and piracy. Governments also should provide a forum to bring interested parties together to problem-solve.
Citizen-users need to hold websites more accountable. When was the last time a website asked what privacy policy you would like applied to you? My guess is never. You should be able to clearly articulate your preferred privacy policy and reject websites that don't meet your standards. This means websites should provide a privacy policy customized to you, something they should be able to do since they already customize the ads you see. Websites should also be required to take responsibility for any violations and abuses of privacy that result from their services.
Scientists need to create more advanced methods of encryption to protect individual privacy by preventing perpetrators from using stolen databases. We are working on technologies that would hide the origin and destination of data moving around the network, thereby diminishing the value of captured network traffic. Blockchain, the technology that underpins bitcoin and other digital currencies, also offers the promise of irrefutable, indisputable data ledgers.
If we work together to make these changes happen, it might be possible to return to the internet I knew.
Leonard Kleinrock is distinguished professor of computer science at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.
50 years after internet conception, dark side stirs fear...
'Anonymity is two-edged sword'...
KLEINROCK: I helped invent. How did it go so wrong?
Tim Berners-Lee warns power for good 'under threat'...
Number of kids watching online videos soars...
The Town Where WiFi Is Illegal...
APPLE resumes human listening to Siri audio...
GOOGLE Funds 29 Journalism Projects That Swing Left...
FACEBOOK Censoring Conservatives; Company Blames 'Moderation Mistakes'...
How the Internet lost its soul
This week, we celebrate what many consider the 50th birthday of the Internet. The underpinnings of the World Wide Web originated in an American communications network built for national defense and the pursuit of knowledge: ARPANET. Funded by the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, the network was designed so that scientists could share computer hardware, software and data.
It worked. In the ensuing decades, the ARPANET, and after the 1980s, the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET), did indeed allow scientists to collaboratively build knowledge around networked tools and information. But expanding access to the Internet, combined with looser government regulations, ultimately produced a situation no one foresaw or intended. On today's Internet, conspiracy theories run rampant, identities can be faked and our real-life elections are vulnerable to manipulation. A network designed for spreading truth became a profit-driven industry, a public sphere that threatens to undermine the public good.
The original ARPANET was designed for a relatively small community of people united by a technical challenge. At the time, computers from different manufacturers ran incompatible software, and long-distance data communications links were costly and unreliable. Networks connected only a few identical computers within a small region.
But ARPANET had an audacious proposal: It would span the continental United States to connect 15 research sites encompassing a diverse array of computers.
"Almost every conceivable item of computer hardware and software will be in the network," project leader Larry Roberts pointed out. "This is the greatest challenge of the system, as well as its greatest ultimate value." As a leading funder of computer science research, ARPA was able to mobilize a talented group of faculty and graduate students to design, build and debug the network, sending the first message on Oct. 29, 1969.
Like many academic environments, the ARPANET community was open and informal, and security was lax; in the early 1970s, students were rumored to have used the network to conduct transcontinental drug deals alongside their official research. But the relatively closed world of networked computing was opened up with the introduction of personal computers in the 1970s. The Defense Department soon found "unauthorized penetrations" of the ARPANET by hackers, complaining that "the availability of inexpensive computers and modems have made the network fair game for countless computer hobbyists."
By 1983, security concerns were so acute that Defense split off military users into their own network, ceding the rest of the ARPANET to academic researchers. In 1990, the ARPANET was absorbed into a new network built by the National Science Foundation that consisted of several regional networks connected by a high-speed backbone. As a nationwide civilian network, NSFNET rapidly increased the size and visibility of the Internet.
Politicians and businesses wanted to capitalize on the potential of a national network to connect citizens and consumers. In the early 1980s, the general public, though not yet allowed on the Internet, had begun using commercial dial-up services such as CompuServe and AOL to access servers offering chat rooms, games and email. In 1986, Congress, prompted by Sen. Al Gore, began debating whether the nation needed an "information superhighway" to connect K-12 schools and libraries for all citizens. Congress included funding for a National Research and Education Network (NREN) in its High-Performance Computing Act of 1991.
Had this plan come to fruition, the Internet would have remained under federal control until the late 1990s, potentially allowing time to upgrade security or create regulations to protect users. But before the NREN could get underway, the industry contractors providing the NSFNET infrastructure rushed ahead with plans to offer commercial network services, ultimately causing Congress to abandon the NREN.
The result was the de facto privatization of the Internet. The nonprofit organizations that had operated the NSFNET's backbone and regional networks reinvented themselves as the first commercial Internet service providers, serving both the NSF and private customers. The NSF now had the option to outsource its networking needs to these commercial providers, which it did as it retired the old NSFNET in 1995. While this removed an administrative burden from the NSF, the hasty transition left little time to consider the policy implications. So a commercialized network developed without public oversight of the Internet's operation.
Privatization opened the floodgates for new services: social media, gaming, e-commerce, and millions of personal websites and blogs. Industry advocates insisted that the Internet should not be regulated, lest innovation be stifled. Regulatory models that had been developed for common carriers, publishers and broadcasters did not fit a new medium that combined aspects of all these media and whose services and business models were in constant flux. Online businesses were free to experiment with ways to make money, eventually landing on the advertising-based business model that led to escalating surveillance and collection of user data to better target ads.
None of this has prevented scientists - the Internet's original users - from continuing to build reliable knowledge based on networked data and computational tools. The scientific community has time-tested processes to validate and protect the information it shares. But the general public is in a more precarious position. Anyone can be a publisher online, and the obvious clues to legitimacy that came with print and broadcast media - the investment in reporting and fact-checking, obligations to paying customers, an identifiable organization that could be held liable for false content - can be absent or faked online. The same type of user profiling that stimulates business also enables bad actors to target inflammatory social issues and widen political divides. We have inadvertently created a culture where misinformation can be spread without accountability.
Long-term trends of increasingly open access and diminishing government oversight have fueled the Internet's growth and unleashed the creativity of millions. They have also left a vacuum where the public interest should be. Can we work together to build a better Internet for the next 50 years?
- - -
Abbate is a professor of science, technology and society at Virginia Tech and the author of "Inventing the Internet."


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|Apr 12, 2004, 9:15 PM
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 2
smart media card is not working properly
I am having problems with my smart media card. I have an Olympus 3030 and the camera is not recognizing any smart media card I use. I bought a brand new smart media card and I am unable to format the card. The camera just started not to work correctly. Since the Olympus 3030 is not made any more, is it better to buy a new camera.
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|Apr 13, 2004, 12:43 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 823
Smartmedia format problems...
Smartmedia cards should only be formatted in the camera. If you have written to the card in a card reader, you may have damaged the format of the card. The camera doesn't provide a full format, but rather does a "quick" format on the card. For that reason, you can't "fix" the card using the camera's format function.
Don't worry, though, the card can be reformatted using a utility called SMPREP that comes with Dazzle and Zio! brand card readers.
Is it possible that you wrote to the card in a card reader?
There's many posts in the card reader forum that may be helpful on this topic; just search for the Topic of this post in that forum and you should find the help you need.
|Apr 19, 2004, 11:35 PM
Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 1
C-3000 card not reading also!
I started having the same problem. I have an C-3000 camera that's a few years old now and every time I start up the camera it gives a long beep and the card icon along with the (F) format icon blinks. I had to start up several times removing and re-inserting card before I could get into a state to take pictures once again. I believe the surfaces in the camera may be dirty preventing good contact to the smartmedia card. I have not heard of any methods or devices for cleaning that surface. If there's any I'm willing to hear.
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There are two more Premier League games scheduled this afternoon, with the first coming from St. James' Park, as Newcastle entertain Arsenal.
Traditionally this game is something of a banker for the Gunners. Newcastle have lost their last 10 league games against Arsenal, and their last home win was in December 2005.
That said, Arsenal have clearly started to prioritise the Europa League as that represents their best chance to get into next season's Champions League. This means it's difficult to predict what side manager Arsene Wenger will pick today.
Additionally, Newcastle are on a good run, having won three league games on the trot, while Arsenal are the only Premier League side yet to pick up an away point this calendar year.
We're going to take a punt that Arsenal put out a weakened side and find a buoyant Newcastle side difficult to contain. The midfield player who has been at the heart of their revival is Jonjo Shelvey, and we'll take the 10/1 on offer that he's named man of the match.
The late game sees West Brom travel to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United.
The visitors are desperate for points as they lie plumb last in the table, staring relegation in the face. It won't be easy though, they have only taken two points from the last 30 available and are winless in their last 15 Premier League away games.
And they face a Manchester United side buoyed by a remarkable win at the Etihad Stadium last weekend which delayed their cross-city rival's title celebrations.
One of the refreshing sights from the second half of United's game last Saturday was Paul Pogba seemingly being released from defensive duties to power into the City penalty area.
With West Brom unlikely to cause too many defensive worries, we may see more of the French midfielder in the opposing box. His physical presence will cause problems, and we take the 16/1 on offer that he scores a header.
Newcastle/Arsenal: Shelvey to win man of the match, 1 pt, at 10/1, William Hill
Manchester United/West Brom: Pogba to score a header, 1 pt, at 16/1, Paddy Power
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Richard James Raiter
Oct. 8, 1940-Sept. 7, 2019
Palo Alto, California
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A longtime resident of Palo Alto, Dick was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Oct. 8, 1940. He passed away peacefully on Sept. 7, 2019, at the age of 78. Survived by his wife Joan Raiter, daughter Holly Madariaga, son-in-law Eric Madariaga, grandchildren Ian, Leah and Owen, brother and sister-in law Bruce and Cheryle Raiter. He was a Carleton College graduate in 1962, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander in Naval Aviation from 1962-1966 and in the reserves from 1966-1973. He earned a master's degree in history and education from the University of Wisconsin in 1968 and moved to California to begin his teaching career. Joan and Dick married at St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Burlingame in 1971 and taught at the American School of Paris from 1972 – 1974 and again from 1979-1980. After teaching for 20 years at Hillsdale and Aragon High Schools, he earned his master's in Library Science and worked as the librarian at St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco for 17 years prior to his retirement. Dick has played an active roll at All Saints' Episcopal Church since 1976. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The All Saints' Episcopal Church Memorial Fund, 555 Waverley St., Palo Alto, CA 94301. Friends and family are invited to celebrate Dick's life at All Saints' Episcopal Church on Oct. 12, 2019 at 2 p.m.
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Seriously, stop what you are doing.
BECAUSE, low mortgage rates = amazing opportunities for buyers, sellers, or homeowners looking to refinance!
While rates on mortgages change daily, they are currently holding steady at near record lows. In fact, according to the Bankrate.com rates have not been this low since December 2012! The graphic below demonstrates the drop in rates from just last week.
Both 15-year and 30-year mortgage rates are down more than 0.5% since the start of the year.
What does this mean for buyers?
This drop in rates means that those looking to buy have experienced a purchase power increase of 7%…meaning that buyers who could afford an $800,000 home in December can now afford an $852,000 home! For many on the house-hunt, this increase in purchase power could put their dream home just in reach!
What does this mean for sellers?
Lower mortgage rates translate to a surplus of buyers looking to take advantage of their higher purchasing power; which means you, as a seller, have the ability to get top dollar for your home! More active buyers are out looking increases the desirability of your home.. making it a hot commodity.
What does this mean for refinancers?
Refinancing gives a homeowner access to a new mortgage loan which replaces the existing one. The details of the new loan's mortgage rate, loan length in years, and amount borrowed can customized by the homeowner. Thus, refinancing during a period of lower mortgage rates could benefit borrowers by lowering their monthly housing payments and/or shortening the term of their mortgage.
For a personalized rate, check out this helpful site: http://themortgagereports.com/ratequote/
Remember: Mortgage rates change quickly and there is no guarantee that these rates will last. Whether you are a seller or a buyer, it is time to take advantage of the current market!


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Fully Enabling Your Mobile Enterprise with Customisation, Control and Collaboration
Friday, January 23, 2015.
Leading enterprise work collaboration solution provider Clarizen, has announced the release of a new enterprise-grade mobile platform for today's workplace, mirroring the full functionality of its award-winning web application.
This platform provides enterprises with a seamless, consistent user experience between devices, as well as delivering role-based configuration to allow companies to streamline the work experience for groups of employees, keeping acute control over the access to sensitive information.
The 'Winter Release' delivers on Clarizen's goal of building the workplace of the future with technology innovations, giving employees access to the information and tools they need, regardless of their location or physical context.
This new platform combines the full extent of web and mobile user experiences, effortlessly connecting the mobile functionalities with enterprise work collaboration, to allow team members to complete work outside the conventional office environment. This includes transitioning seamlessly between work on desktop applications over to mobile devices, and using mobile camera technology or telephony for work-related tasks.
Clarizen is working to enable organisations' business processes to achieve their full potential with mobility. The mobile app experience will become identical to the web app for users, configured with the same layout, modules and forms. This means users can easily create new items, update data and collaborate using Clarizen's discussion platform all on their mobile devices. Additionally, the mobile platform supports organization-wide collaboration across all lines of business, external partners and customers.
"Clarizen is committed to providing a seamless, intuitive user journey between the desktop app and mobile devices, and our reimagined mobile platform fulfills this 'mobile and enterprise enablement' vision," said Rachel Haim Hadas, Clarizen VP of Product. "Connection and collaboration power the modern workplace, with employees in multiple locations working on multiple initiatives. Employees need anytime, anywhere access to relevant projects to connect, collaborate and get work done."
Clarizen Profiles lets companies to set up tailored user experiences for different groups or roles within the business. For instance, marketing employees can have easy access to document proofing functionality, without seeing the time reporting features they don't need to use. Meanwhile, professional services team members can access full time-and-expense reporting functions, but don't see the ticket tracking functionality that their IT team uses every day.
In addition to increased employee efficiency, the enterprise benefits by being able to apply restrictions across entire groups as needed to protect sensitive information quickly and easily. Mobile solutions of this nature empower enterprises to optimise the performance levels of their employees and benefit from maximum productivity across all aspects of the organisation.


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Extras for the Series Premiere of McMafia
Ready to go deeper into the series premiere of McMafia? Check out extras on amc.com. Don't miss….
Series Premiere Extras
- Video: Full Series Premiere
- Series Premiere Photos
- Q&A With James Norton (Alex Godman)
- Video: Inside the Series Premiere With the Cast and Creators
- Video: Series Premiere Talked About Scene
- Video: Sneak Peek of Episode 2
Season 1 Editors' Picks
- Get an inside look at the season with the cast and creators.
- Meet the characters of the global crime thriller.
- From Moscow to Mumbai, see all the locations that highlight the global scope of McMafia.
- See what critics are saying about Season 1.
McMafia airs Mondays at 10/9c.
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Today's Top Five Tuesday features my childhood favorites!
A lot of children's literature offers important life lessons. That is part of the reason I feel reading is crucial for kids, beyond literacy. Although there are SO MANY books/series that I could love on from my childhood, my top 5 remains the same:
1. THE LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
I believe The Little Prince is such an important book. It focuses on themes of friendship, overcoming narrow mindedness, and the path to finding the truth. As an adult, I can appreciate the wisdom that it shares while still being fun and whimsical.
2. ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll
"It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is so full of the nonsensical and fantastical that it's hard to NOT enjoy it. I love the colorful characters and unusual situations that Alice encounters. I think Carroll has inspired the imaginations of many through these collective works.
3. PETER PAN by J.M. Barrie
"The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it."
Another timeless tale, Peter Pan offers young readers hope at the heart of it. This story is a fascinating reminder that you're only young for a little while and childhood should be a time to treasure. I also adamantly believe that Neverland is one of the absolute most enchanting literary worlds that all should visit through reading.
4. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA by C.S. Lewis
"I discovered that the wisdom of the world, and a great deal of its folly also, is to be found in the pages of books."
The Chronicles of Narnia is profound! The amazing thing about this series is that it doesn't hold the most remarkable prose, but the fantasy and journey makes it so great! Readers experience evil right alongside of the magic and phenom. I truly think Narnia is one of the most well built worlds in children's (or all) literature.
5. THE ADVENTURES OF PIPPI LONGSTOCKING by Astrid Lindgren
"Pippi does not live by anyone's rules but her own, and she's perfectly fine with being a little different."
This series is vastly underrated! There is so much to learn from Pippi Longstocking about self-love and being your own person regardless of stigmas. She is an eccentric whirlwind, throwing things into chaos and asking questions rather than being told how it is. She has a rebellious nature, but then again, all of my favorite heroines do! Pippi is one of those characters I'll never forget.
I could go on for days about books and series from my childhood! Some honorable mentions include Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, The Boxcar Children, The Baby-Sitters Club, Sweet Valley Twins/High, and The American Girl books.
What are YOUR favorite childhood books?


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Although it's traditional for the bridal party to consist of the bride's best gal pals and the groom's best male mates, some couples opt to include close friends of the opposite sex. Or, in some cases, it could be a family member such as a brother or sister that the bride or groom might want to stand beside them. Regardless, having a Man of Honor or Best Woman as part of your special day is a choice that should be 100 percent up to you. It is totally acceptable and appropriate for your best friend of the opposite sex, whether they're male or female, to be there for you in your wedding party.
However, even though it is acceptable, it can be tricky to navigate. If you're wondering how to make it work, here are a few tips to keep things running smoothly.
The Outfits
Regardless of whether it's the groom wanting his sister or a female friend among his attendants or the bride with a friend or her brother, their outfits should be coordinated to match the other groomsmen or bridesmaids. Some women might be comfortable wearing a tuxedo or suit, but it's also okay for her to wear a dress that matches the suits worn by the men. Or, another option is to wear a tuxedo with a skirt. She can also carry a bouquet instead of a boutonniere. The same goes for any man among the bridesmaids. His tuxedo can match in color and style, and his boutonniere can compliment the bouquets. Either way, it should be made clear that a male bridesmaid is actually with the bridesmaids and not the groomsmen and vice versa.
In Pictures
A male bridesmaid or female groomsman should stand on the same side as the rest of their respective party members in the wedding pictures. They're there to support whoever asked them to take part, and to do that, they should be should be by that person's side in photos.
Help your wedding photographer out by letting them know about your situation in advance. That way they can think up poses and photo ideas that work well for everyone, so nobody gets left out. You may even discuss this arrangement with your photographer before you even hire them. Some more traditional photographers might not really understand it.
At Pre-Wedding Parties
There are a few different parties that take place leading up the wedding. Some like the Jack and Jill party are co-ed and all are welcome, but many others traditionally aren't, such as the bridal shower.
Typically it's the bridesmaids' job to plan and execute the bridal shower, and these are often very stereotypically feminine or girly. For example, lingerie bridal shower parties are quite popular, as well as tea parties. But if you have a man as a bridesmaid or Man of Honor, you want him to feel comfortable when he's in attendance.
This goes for any women on the groom's side as well. Bachelor and bachelorette parties are known to get pretty crazy. Many people even choose to go to strip clubs and casinos. However, if you have a member of the opposite sex in your wedding party, you might want to rethink your original plans depending on what everyone is comfortable with. Deciding on how to do this will depend on what everyone is comfortable with. A male bridesmaid might prefer attending the bachelor party, and a female groomsman might prefer going to the bridal shower, or you can just choose to keep all of the parties co-ed.
Pre-Wedding Activites
Before the wedding there are various activities that take place, like tuxedo fittings, wedding dress shopping, and bridesmaid dress shopping. Any opposite sex members of the bridal party shouldn't be expected attend if they don't want to or don't feel comfortable, but also might not want to be left out. In this case, talk to them! See what they would prefer to do. If your Man of Honor doesn't want to go to his tuxedo fitting with the bridesmaids or alone, he might want to go with the groomsmen instead. Also make sure that the other members of the bridal party involved are aware and accepting of the circumstances. It's the bride or groom's decision to include this party member and the rest should be prepared to respect that.
At the Ceremony
Nothing particularly needs to change about the walk down the aisle with a party member of the opposite sex, but you may want to just check with your friends and family about the details. It's common for the groomsmen to walk the bridesmaids up the aisle, arm-in-arm, but it may feel strange for your bridal party members (frankly it may even feel weird for man-woman pairs too). If this is the case, each attendant might walk up the aisle alone if they prefer.
Obviously, regardless of the bridesmaid or groomsman's sex, they should always stand on the side of their friend or family member at the ceremony, just like in photos.
If you're planning on having wedding party members of the opposite sex at a religious ceremony, it's best to double check with your officiant before the wedding to see that there's no conflict. It's important that you respect the tradition and religion of the house of worship you plan to marry in, regardless of whether you agree. If they're not okay with it, it's up to you to decide if you would rather marry someplace else or switch up the wedding party.
Talking to Your Spouse
The most important thing to do in a situation where you intend to have a friend of the opposite sex in your bridal party is to talk to your spouse-to-be. Friendships between men and women can make people feel insecure and uncomfortable, so you need to make sure the two of you are on the same page. You might even consider going to relationship counseling and discussing the issue there. Shed any doubts in your minds so you can spend the day enjoying your wedding and not worrying about your fiance's fidelity.


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Page Siplon
As the Executive Director of the Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics, Siplon heads the State's leading resource for fueling logistics industry growth and global competitiveness. The Center directly assists companies with overcoming challenges and capitalizing on opportunities related to the movement of freight by providing focused expertise, specific industry data, leveraging state resources, and connections to an extensive cross-sector industry network. Siplon was recently recognized by DC Velocity Magazine as a "2012 Logistics Rainmaker" which annually identifies the top-ten logistics professionals in the Nation; and selected by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of the "Top 100 Most Influential Georgians" for 2013. An active industry advocate, Siplon is a frequently requested keynote speaker, has been a quoted industry expert in a wide range of national trade publications, and serves various leadership and advisory roles at both the State and Federal level. Siplon honorably served a combined 12 years in the United States Marine Corps and United States Air Force, and received a bachelor's and master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology


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Hey, Advocates! Sunday September 10th, 2017 is World Suicide Prevention Day. We are asking all of you to post a fact or image on your social media to bring awareness to this global issue. Feel free to share your story and tag @onlyhuman so we can join the conversation.
Hashtags: #OHstay #onlyhuman #suicideawareness #suicideprevention #thepowerofstory #WSPD17 #NSPW17
Disclaimer: Please do not filter any of these images to remain authentic to the brand of Only Human.


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Every day, in the event we find ourselves in a place with clear skies, we are witnesses to nature's artistic prowess. With the vast blue sky as its canvas, it starts to spill dramatic hues contrasting its background at almost the same time daily. This regular phenomenon has inspired other artists to write about it in poems, paint it in physical sheets of fabric for people to touch, and even urge many to cross oceans in search of the best sunsets. Southeast Asia's surreal thousand years old temples and bountiful natural resources serve as perfect elements completing the most photogenic sunsets you will ever see in your life. Here are the top five places to watch the best sunsets in Southeast Asia (or maybe even the world):
Ha Long Bay
The only fitting natural backdrop in this list is the rugged limestone towers of Ha Long Bay. The bay in itself is already enchanting during daylight; however a veil of mystery and magic envelop this said wonder once the sun starts to retreat. Playfully tinting the heavens with tangerine and rose tones, one of the best things to do in Ha Long Bay is when it prepares to rest. Silhouettes of fishing boats and karsts outline your view which only adds to the dramatic effect of the sun slowly setting. Best viewed in one of the wooden boats' sundecks, it is one of the ultimate sun basking stories you will tell. The experience of seeing this masterpiece while cruising along its still waters would be hard to replicate. Where else can you experience an otherworldly place than what's already in front of your eyes?
Best enjoyed with your loved one, the vivid skies serve as the perfect setting for a romantic getaway whether it is your honeymoon or just a quick rendezvous away from Hanoi. Traveling here solo? Don't worry Ha Long Bay's sunset will surely capture your heart and believe in love again.
Pre Rup Temple, Angkor Wat Complex, Cambodia
Late risers need not fret if they miss out on the infamous sunrise shots of Angkor Wat. Pre Rup temple's grand and timeworn facade proves to be a great alternative for those who missed their chance for sunrise shots famous in this part of the world. Pre Rup temple is huge and would be very difficult to miss. A temple-mountain built with laterite, brick, and sandstone construction; the warm hues of these materials are best marveled in the early morning or as the sun is setting. If you fancy taking Instagram shots, then now is the best time to snap that photo. If you are not to be bothered with immortalizing moments with photos, maybe the sun's gentle kisses on your hands while writing on your diary will seem more ideal to a dreamer like you.
Standing among ancient structures while waiting for the rest of the day makes you wonder how the first sunset looked like. Find a place to sit and start scribbling through your journal and get inspired. These storied temples stood as spectators of this exhibition and may even be holding secrets from the past, and there you are sharing this incredible moment surrounded by history while you wait for a new page to be written. As the sun flickers its last light unto Pre Rup that day, the temples earthy hues slowly turning dark, you find beauty and it convinces you that tomorrow's story may be the best yet.
U Bein Bridge, Myanmar
Let the longest and oldest teak bridge in the world be the highlight of your day while the gorgeous sunset here complement your narrative. As dusk approaches, the skies around this bridge no doubt hold a magnificent show. However, you will soon understand that the sunset is not the main subject of that photo you have just taken.
Sonder is a word recently coined which briefly means "the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own". Just as the sun illuminates U Bein Bridge with unbelievable colors, you are enlightened on how sonder parallels with sunsets. While the bustle of people here is common all day, the bridge usually reaches full capacity during twilight. Monks blend with the skies in their crimson robes traversing the bridge from one end to the other, Burmese cycling from shore to shore after a full day at work, and fishermen slowly casting their nets in the placid waters around; this animated scene proves to be visually entertaining and also mentally satisfying. As lucid as the skies in Mandalay prove to be, so are its people.
Borobudur Temple, Java, Indonesia
Another UNESCO World Heritage Site is included in this list as Borobudur Temple gives you an exotic experience like no other. Considered to be the world's largest Buddhist temple, it is a striking stupa and complex of the Buddhist period in Java. Evidently contrasting the quilted green rice paddies that surround it, this vast monument has survived volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and many other incidents that may have not been recorded since it was built 1,200 years ago.
The temple is built resembling a Mandala which signifies the universe in Buddhist belief. The structure has three zones representing consciousness with the central stupa symbolizing Nirvana or unconsciousness. Zone 1 or Kamadhatu embodies the "phenomenal world, the world inhabited by common people." This level depicts the law of cause and effect. With 160 reliefs depicting these scenes and partially hidden, only a photography of the entire collection is displayed at the museum. Zone 2 (Rapudhatu) or "the transitional sphere, humans are released from worldly matters." These level features 328 Buddhas and intricate reliefs. The central dome sitting on top of these levels signifies the rising above the world. Arupadhatu or "the highest sphere, the abode of the gods" has been spared any intricacy in its design to respect the purity of form. All these you get to see and experience while you immerse in the cultural and historical context of this enduring monument as well as the vestiges of the sun before night falls.
Bagan Temples, Myanmar
Finding the best vantage point to watch the sunset in Bagan will prove to be a bit challenging with more than 2,000 temples and pagodas sprawling over this massive ancient city. The government most recently decided to ban climbing the temples after the 2016 earthquake that compromised the structure of these thousand years old monuments. However, they also made sure that you will still not miss out on the world-famous sunrise and sunset of Bagan.
One affordable way of chasing the sunset here would be heading to the man-made earthen hills that the government has established. It may not have the thrill and allure of climbing temples, but this way you help preserve history and still enjoy the blazing sun as it sinks calmly to earth. Perhaps the most popular and memorable way of viewing the sunsets here would be to ride a hot air balloon above the temples and get a panoramic view of nature's breathtaking performance and man's unbelievable architectural feat. As a mecca for travel photography, often listed on bucket lists, Bagan is a fitting place to practice and polish your camera skills. Drink in the grandiose rainbow of colors in the sky and capture as many pictures as you can to relive this beautiful memory in the future. But you know capturing it on lens will never compare to seeing it for yourself, you also know you will be back again to witness the magic that Bagan is.
Linus Ullmark Authentic Jersey Troy Apke Jersey


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Theo Kalomirakis to Unveil the Ultimate in Home Theaters
Father of Home Theater Brings Together the Most Advanced Consumer Electronic Technologies to Deliver Movies the Way They Were Meant To Be
NEW YORK – July 14, 2014 – Theo Kalomirakis, a legend in home theater design, is inviting press, residential audio video integrators, and customers to the unveiling of his private theater, ROXY 2.0, on Thursday, July 17, in Brooklyn. Brands participating in this project include Kaleidescape, Digital Projection, Stewart Filmscreen, California Audio Technologies, SH Acoustics, Crestron, and Prima Cinema. Together, these technologies will showcase how home theaters bring back the qualities that captivate movie lovers.
"With more and more people viewing movies on laptops, video tablets, and cell phones, and in rooms filled with distractions, most of the qualities that make a film great are compromised in exchange for quick access and convenience," said Kalomirakis. "Consumers today are on the verge of losing the majestic experience that happens only when they devote their full attention to a movie, in a room designed to put them right in the middle of the action."
Kalomirakis's new home theater highlights how easy today's products make it to achieve the ultimate cinematic experience in the comfort and intimacy of the home.
"Home theaters are no longer just aspirational. They have become more affordable than ever before. They allow us to perfect the sound, the picture, and provide more power and quality than you can ever get with today's streaming services," said Cheena Srinivasan, founder and CEO of Kaleidescape. "Theo's new home theater provides that perfect platform to showcase how far home theater technologies have come in delivering an immersive movie watching experience bringing together both quality and convenience. It simply doesn't get any better than this."
Attendees will experience an environment that is truly captivating, and they'll be able to talk first-hand to the experts who've made all this happen.
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The Influence of Art on History, Part 1: Versailles
For centuries, artists of every genre have been using their craft to express their opinions in an attempt to influence others to follow those opinions. Artists have used their works to demonstrate superiority, incite political unrest and bring awareness to societal issues. In this paper we will be discussing three works from history and how these works have been used in the service of politics. We will discuss the backgrounds of King Louis XIV's Palace of Versailles, Paul Revere's engraving, The Bloody Massacre, and Charles Dickens' novel, Oliver Twist, along with the influence each had before moving on to discuss how each piece relates to each other in terms of similarity, difference and influence. In the end, we will see how art can be a powerful tool to influence the masses and bring about change.
The first work we are going to explore is the Palace of Versailles. This palace is a clear and lasting monument to the power and superiority of King Louis XIV of France. What began as a small hunting lodge in the middle of the country developed into the grandest and most elaborate chateau Europe had ever seen. Whether this was an intentional representation of King Louis's reign or just a coincidence, the parallels are quite striking. King Louis gained the throne of France at the age of 4 during a time of political unrest, though he didn't start ruling by himself until he was 22. When Louis took control of France in 1661, it was a country poised on economic collapse. After a series of civil wars, years of governmental excess, and embezzlement by the Superintendent of Finance, the country was in shambles and the people wanted change. King Louis was ready to oblige and began sweeping changes across the board. To solidify his position as well as consolidate political authority, King Louis XIV immediately began instituting administrative, fiscal, legal, economic, and military reforms. As he did this, France began to grow in solidarity, economic strength, and financial security.
One of the first changes he made was to begin working on the palace that would become the symbol of his absolutism and reign. Calling upon the talents of Charles Le Brun, a painter; Louis Le Vau, an architect; and André le Nôtre, a landscape architect; he set about transforming that small country lodge into the grandest palace in Europe. Once the Palace of Versailles was completed, it stood proudly as the physical embodiment of King Louis XIV's image, power, and authority.
While the grandness of Versailles is indisputable, one may wonder what a grand building has to do with France's politics and how it affected their history. It wasn't the fact that Versailles was grand that made it so influential, but how it was used. Every aspect of the palace from the grounds to the placement of his bedroom represented his position as the heart and soul of France. His moniker of the Sun King was clearly represented in the symmetrical layout of the garden with pathways radiating from the palace as well as adorning gates, walls, and statuary. His bedchamber was relocated from a side section of the palace to the very center of the palace to symbolize his role as the center of all that was France and several daily rituals took place there.
Another way the palace was used to influence both citizens and non-citizens was through the Hall of Mirrors. This grand hall was designated as a ceremonial reception room for visiting heads of state and filled with paintings portraying King Louis XIV in the role of a Roman emperor, a wise administrator, and a military genius as a means of impressing upon those visitors the overwhelming power of the King. Those entering through this hall could not help but be in awe of the regality and splendor within and thus associating power and authority with King Louis.
The palace was also full of paintings and sculptures of King Louis in poses that conveyed his absolutism and superiority. And it wasn't just the Hall of Mirrors that was majestic and imposing. The entire palace was built on a grand scale, adorned with the latest artistic styles and using the highest quality materials available in order to convey the King's wealth and majesty. Everywhere one went, they were met with symbols and testaments to the divine power of King Louis XIV. This helped solidify in the minds of the people his right to absolute power and ushered in an era of absolute monarchy. Would this have been possible without the splendor and ostentatiousness of Versailles? Perhaps. But it cannot be denied that the constant visual assault of King Louis' power and prestige helped impress upon the minds of the French citizens that he was a powerful ruler.
Along with the physical structure and layout of the palace, the events within the palace grounds were designed to impress upon the country that King Louis XIV was the prevailing authority and absolute power of France. The 1653 dance Ballet de la Nuit (Ballet of the Night), in particular, was a powerful promotion of King Louis's power and authority. Many performances in which the king took part were meant to promote the image of his absolute monarchy and the glory of France under his rule along with being expressions of his power, but the Ballet de la Nuit did this in a very clear and succinct way which could not be misunderstood.
In this dance, the fourteen-year-old Louis took on 5 separate roles, most notable of which was the Sun God, Apollo. It was this performance which led to his being titled the Sun King. In taking on the role of Apollo, Louis was making a bold declaration of his power and reinforcing the idea that the whole of France revolved around him. This performance also signified his coming of age with the assertion that he would soon be ruling alone, without a regent. He achieved this through a pivotal scene in which he stood on a raised tableau in the middle of the stage with the rest of the actors orbiting around him just as the planets orbit around the sun. His position was clearly one of power with a bearing of confidence and authority. This scene was a singular statement of his importance and helped support in the minds of the people that he was the center of France and that he was ready to lead the country with power and authority.
What also helped reinforce these ideas were the extravagance of the set, the costumes and music for the dance. King Louis' costume was that of the sun, created with all the decadence that signified his rule. And in keeping with the theme of supporting King Louis's importance and authority, the music was composed by the lead musicians of the day. Every aspect of this ballet was meant to demonstrate the preeminence of France and the supreme importance of her King. By doing so, it was a clear support of the King as the prevailing authority.
After taking part in this ballet, King Louis embraced his role as the 'sun king of France' and ordered various depictions of the sun around Versailles. These can be seen on the gates, gildings on the walls, in sculptures, woven into tapestries, and included in paintings. Some inclusions are subtle, like the layout of the gardens, but others were more ostentatious, like the emblems on the gates.
Other depictions that showed King Louis in positions of power and authority and the link between him and the prosperity of France include sculptures of him in conquering poses, the way he designed and named his private apartments after Greek gods, the sculptures of Lady France (known as Liberty or Marianne) carrying a cornucopia overflowing with food, depictions of angels carrying crowns of leaves over paintings and sculptures of him, and sculptures of Lady France carrying a cornucopia overflowing with food while sitting on an image of starvation.
The Palace of Versailles was brimming with symbols and representations of King Louis' greatness. Every artistic avenue that could be used to express King Louis' superiority, such as dance, theater, music, interior décor, and landscape, was used to the fullest. All of this ostentatious symbolism was for the sole purpose of reinforcing the idea that all power and goodness emanated from him and that by and through him France would achieve great glory. And it worked. King Louis XIV had a largely successful 72-year rule that solidified absolute monarchy in France as well as increased French influence around the world. His reign has been heralded as the greatest age of French history and even now there are governments and private citizens who seek to emulate his achievements. His use of art to convey his position of power and the absolute authority he held went a long way in achieving his goal and allowing him the power he needed to bring France from a place of despondency to an era of enlightenment and prosperity.
Thank you for reading my analysis of how King Louis XIV's use of various mediums of art affected French history. This is Part 1 of a 4-part series examining the historic influence of art. Next week we will look at how Paul Revere used art to alter the course of American history and changed the relationship between America and Great Britain.


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Gourmet Getaways: Fantastic Food Festivals Worth Traveling to in 2018
If you're a fan of delectable food and prominent chefs, plan your next trip around one of these fantastic (and flavor-filled) culinary events!
Food festivals offer a true taste of a destination's diversity, showcasing the culinary magic of local chefs, star mixologists, and wine and beer experts. Through a variety of events, such as farm-to-table dinners, exclusive tastings, cooking demos, and other presentations, these gastronomic celebrations are fun, educational, and delicious experiences.
To get started, these are the most popular food festivals to visit in 2018:


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Douglas County
Property Location: 1100 Plum Creek Parkway, Castle Rock
Property Description: 264-unit apartment complex w/11 three-story buildings plus 4,118-sf clubhouse, total of 252,276 sf rentable area; YOC 1999, brick/frame
Land Size: 11.34 acres
Density: 23.28 d/u per acre
Sales Price: $61.1M, or $231,439 per unit, or $242.20 psf
Reception No.: 2018017419
Closing Date: 3/26
Grantor: Social Links Inc., c/o Sentenial Real Estate, Robert B. Kass, VP
Grantee: BR CWS Plum Creek LLC c/o CWS Plum Creek LLC, c/o Bluerock Real Estate LLC, Newport Beach, CA 92660
Financing: $40M payable to Berkeley Point Capital LLC, due 10/1/2025
Comments: This transaction was negotiated by the ARA Newmark Multifamily Team consisting of Jeff Hawks, Doug Andrews, Terrance Hunt, Shane Ozment, Amanda Meldrum & Courtney Crowder. The unit mix includes: 108 one-bedroom units @ 779 sf that rent for $1.55 psf; 24 two-bedroom/one-bath units @ 872 sf that rent for $1,375 per month; 60 two-bedroom/two-bath units @ 1,067 sf that rent for $1,487 per month; 36 two-bedroom/two-bath units @ 1,122 sf that rent for $1,496 per month; 36 three-bedroom/two-bath units @ 1,189 sf that rent for $1,671 per month. The average size is 956 sf with an average rental rate of $1,343 per month, or $1.41 per square foot. There are 11 garage buildings containing 30,459 sf, with 134 detached garages renting for $100 per month.
Comp of the Day is provided by John V. Winslow, president of Winslow Property Consultants. Winslow has more than 40 years' experience in commercial real estate. He can be reached at 720-612-7878 or email@example.com.


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Whether it is graphite or colored pencils, they produce wonderful effects.
Please click on the thumbnails below for full artwork.
Adventuring in Nature and Imagination
Karen-Ann Dicken
Poetry, Art & Whimsy
Self-sufficient(ish) gardening and family life on an English smallholding/homestead. We fled London to find the good life, and eat what we grow.
A Little Crafting, A lot of Yawning
How we do and feel about schooling, and about life.
Building a culture of creativity and discovery in education
An Evidence-Informed Blog for Learning Professionals
Technologically and linguistically adventurous EFL teacher, trainer, writer and manager


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Have you ever played rugby? If not, why?
No, because it wasn't offered at the school I went to. I'd probably have been useless at it even if it were. I've got zero sporting talent, which is why I particularly admire those who excel at sport.
Why is rugby the one sport you write about, as this is not your first book about rugby?
My first rugby book – Touch, Pause, Engage – came about because my publisher, Jonathan Ball, thought a woman writing about rugby might produce an interesting take on it. This was shortly after the Boks won the 2007 Rugby World Cup. My second book, Springbok Factory, was originally intended to be a diary of the 2011 Rugby World Cup but, of course, we didn't do very well so instead I began an investigation of all aspects of Springbok rugby in an attempt to understand why we aren't the consistent world beaters we should be, given the talent and passion at our disposal.
Which rugby team do you support and why?
Firstly, the Springboks and then my home team, the Stormers.
Favourite player? Favourite coach?
Can I have two of each? One of my favourite players is Jean de Villiers because I have seen what a great captain – and a great human being – he is. Second is Jannie du Plessis because he manages the amazing dual feat of playing Springbok rugby and working as a doctor. He oversees the HIV/Aids clinic at the Military Hospital in Durban so he gets double points for working with very needy patients in a public health settting.
My favourite coaches are Heyneke Meyer because I think he does a difficult job well and Allister Coetzee because he is the first and only Super Rugby coach of colour but makes no issue of it.
From your book it is evident that you have high respect for Peter de Villiers. He has often referred to rugby writers with disdain in the media. Do you feel yourself part of the team of rugby writers or do you see yourself as a different type of writer to whom De Villiers's disdain don't apply?
I am a rugby writer in that I write about rugby but my focus is different to that of most of my colleagues because what interests me most is the man behind the player/coach. I do think De Villiers had at times quite a rough ride with the media but he also courted it to a certain extent because his utterances were often far from conventional. He was, at least, entertaining!
How do you see the future of rugby in SA?
Can I change that to how I would like to see it? I would like the South African Rugby Union to reform so that it measures up to globally competitive standards. For now, the Springboks have to subsidise too many small, uncompetitive unions. This means we can't pay our best players properly – which is why we are losing them to Japan and Europe – and there is hardly any development of black talent. The bottom six unions need to be dropped and the SARU executive council stocked with super-sharp talent from the corporate world, not with the current crop of super-annuated ex provincial presidents.


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It doesn't matter in what Time we live, we will always hear St John the Baptist's voice speaking to us. You can probably hear it now, calling you through the centuries. What does St John the Baptist say to you? What is his message?
Our main image of St John is that he is a rather gruff, grizzled saint who doesn't spare the blushes of anyone who hears him. This, of course, gets him into trouble and will see him imprisoned and beheaded for calling out king Herod in marrying his brother's wife Herodias. As usual, we have a tendency to go straight to the end of St John's life for the really dramatic bit. In order to understand the Baptist, we need to look at the very beginning.
Almost as soon as the baby has drawn its first breath, Zacharias can speak once more! Remember, he has been struck dumb because he did not believe that his aged wife would bear a child. It is with the child's first breath that Zacharias speaks his first words.
We say these words every morning in our liturgy be it at Lauds in the Breviary or in the Prayer Book Mattins, so perhaps time and familiarity have robbed them of their impact. Like the Magnificat, these words speak of the greatness and overthrowing justice of God whereby the human race will be reconciled to God whose righteousness will bring down tyrannical governments and raise up those who live in obedience to the rule of God. Unlike the Magnificat, Zacharias speaks directly to his son, saying:
And thou, Child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;Zacharias knows his son's vocation for the Angel tells him:
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people for the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us;
To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
[H]e shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.Indeed, it is Zacharias' own unfaithfulness that renders him dumb until St John is born. Indeed, it is the tiny baby who turns his father to the wisdom of the just by turning his heart to this little baby's faith. We know that St John has faith because, even before he is born, he leaps in his mother's womb at the presence of Our Lord who is, Himself, as yet unborn. It is this faith that St John communicates to his father just by being born. Zacharias becomes obedient because his son is obedient and will show this obedience all through his life.
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
St John is utterly devoted to his vocation to bring back the children of Israel by telling them about their salvation through the remission of their sins. His is a baptism of repentance. We tend to view that very negatively because we hate being reminded of our sins, just like Herod and Herodias, but St John seeks to convince us, sometimes by hard truths, that we will be saved from our sins if we turn and recognise Our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God with power to save us, if we will let Him.
He stands apart from polite society in order for people to come out to meet him, and to meet him as he really is: not a reed blowing in the wind; not a rich important bishop in fine silk; not an academic with more degrees than the entirety of Oxford University. He stands as he is in his ragged simplicity seeking to bring about a Gospel that he hardly knows and will not see until his own resurrection at the hands of the lamb of God.
Is this something that can happen in this day and age?
It is the Church that is called to follow this same vocation. We might as well hear Zacharias speak to us when he says "And thou child shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way". We ourselves become the children of Zacharias and share in the vocation of St John. We are to preach the Gospel by being obedient Christians and accepting the rule of Christ. We have to accept the same yoke that is laid upon his shoulders. We are to decrease so that Christ may increase in us and pour out from us.
Like St John, we must be prepared to acknowledge that the real and simple Truth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We should prepare to stand apart from society and speak the truth in love, not necessarily by our words but by living the Gospel. Our lives need to be devoted to repentance - not a constant turning from our sins in our own little world, but rather a constant turning to Christ in His kingdom. Bu turning to Christ, we necessarily turn from our sins. It will be the day-spring from on high that needs to dawn in us that we need to show in truth.
There are churches, corrupted by dark thoughts, self-satisfaction and opulence and in cooperation with the morality of secular society. The voices of these Churches will be silenced from the Word of God precisely because they are as faithless and unbelieving as Zacharias. Only when they allow the spirit of St John the Baptist to draw them to the light through the power of his - and our - God will they regain the ability to praise God and speak of His Gospel.


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Our Outdoors Ireland Blog Is Moving Across To A Blog Housed On Our Updated Website. Click Here To See Our New Blog
We Will Still Post The First Paragraph/Photo Of Blog Posts Here, But Will Then Link Across To Our New Blog. I Hope This Won't Cause Any Inconvenience. Thanks, Nathan Kingerlee
1 June 2011
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The United Kingdom (UK) government is set to release over £100 million to Ghana from July to support projects outlined in last year's budget.
The funds are part of monies that were withheld by the country's donors in 2014 because of concerns with the management of economy.
However the disbursement will be made after the IMF finishes its first review of Ghana's program.
The UK government becomes the latest development partner to hint of plans to release frozen funds after the World Bank and the EU also disclosed similar intention.
Speaking to Joy Business at the launch of this year's GUBA Awards in Accra, High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin however says government must make sure it uses these funds prudently to ensure the expected economic recovery is achieved soon.
He said a discussion on the release of the funds has been held and he is hopeful that the funds will be released soon.
The High Commissioner said he is optimistic that the policies accompanying the International Monetary Fund's bailout programme will help the Ghanaian economy overcome it current challenges and continue its impressive growth of the past years.
The UK, according to him, will make any contributions it can to help Ghana become a fully developed country.
The move by the UK government could encourage other private firms and donors who were also sitting on the fence, to bring in their capital to help stabilize the economy and also make available some foreign currencies to help halt the cedi depreciation.
Founder of the GUBA awards, Dentaa Amoateng, told Joy Business they have been able to use the awards to drive investments into the Ghana.
Source : myjoyonline.com


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Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong?
Every time I go to church and come back home I lose all of my history. This happens only when I leave home or change the number of rows/columns. Ive changed the save history setting number, etc but it still happens. I tried searching the forums here for an answer but could not find the topic. Is it me or is this a problem within the application itself? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Ty