text:
The Sleep Fairy has left our apartment. I'm not sure what we did to her (I hope it wasn't my cooking), or what we could leave out (teeth? might she be a distant cousin of the Tooth Fairy? cookies and milk? maybe Santa can help with these things?) to lure her to come back but we were sleeping and now we are not sleeping and we miss it terribly. Also, getting to the end of sentences while still remembering what they were about when we started them.
My in-laws took pity on us last Saturday and invited our charge to notsleep at their place instead for the night. Of course, instead of pulling the shades and waking up a day and a half later, feeling a year and a half younger, we decided to host a brunch because apparently the only thing I miss more than sleep is entertaining friends. It was mostly a pot-luck, anyway, with Ess-a-Bagels, Russ & Daughter's homemade cream cheese, various goodies from the Manhattan Fruit Exchange and a high chair that got relegated to cocktail ice bucket holding duties in the absence of its assigned toddler. I made thisbakedthing and also theseotherthings that might or might not show up in some silly old cookbook slated for 2012, and also, I made some oaty whole wheat maple syrup scones.
I've been on a cookbook buying tear lately, to the point that you only need to make the slightest suggestion that a cookbook is good and I'll go out and buy it. This has happened recently in the comments, which led to purchases of The Russian Heritage Cookbook and a used copy of The Cuisine of Hungary. This also happened recently over email, when I realized I didn't own The Breakfast Book and immediately rectified that. And when Heidi at 101 Cookbooks mentioned The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery, the book looked so charming I had it in my hands before the week was out. It had been way too long since I curled up and simple read a cookbook, end to end, and this is a sweet one to tuck into. You'll immediately want to go to the tea shop and bakery in Paris, and hang out with its creator, Rose Carrarini, who says she wanted to "dissolve the distinction between home and restaurant cooking". I was personally excited to learn that she found most baked goods too sweet and to find that she incorporated a lot of whole grains into her baking without making a big fuss about the healthfulness of it. I think both things come in handy when you're making breakfast.
What's up with all the sweets? I know! I do strive for balance, usually alternating between the sweet and the not-sweet but you see, I've been working on the main courses for my cookbook for the last month and much of my dinner-ish energy is going there. Not to mention, I'm running out of ways to make dead-of-winter vegetables interesting! Spring, get here soon, will ya?
One year ago: Bakewell Tart and Romesco Potatoes
Two years ago: Skillet Irish Soda Bread and Lighter-Than-Air Chocolate Cake
Three years ago: Caramel Walnut Upside-Down Banana Cake
Four years ago: Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Corn Bread and Cream Cheese Pound Cake + Strawberry Coulis
Maple Syrup and Oat Scones
Adapted from Breakfast Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery
These maple syrup scones have oats, whole wheat flour and maple syrup but are just barely sweet yet not at all gritty with healthfulness. I think it's the substantial amount of butter within. Of interest, most of my favorite scones have heavy cream in them; this one does not but it has nearly the same amount of butterfat due to the higher amount of butter.
About the weights: In this recipe, they're provided by the book's author, not me. They differ from what I'd measure in my own cups and spoons but you can feel safe following them just the same, as they work — I did.
Yield: The book suggests 10 to 12 but I made mine (ruler-measured! yes, I'm ocd!) their suggested size and only got 8.
1 3/4 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting surface
1/2 cup (80 grams) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (35 grams) rolled oats (I used quick-cooking)
1 very heaped tablespoon baking powder (I only slightly heaped; wish I'd heaped more!)
1 very heaped tablespoon superfine (caster) or granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Scant 3/4 cup (160 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup milk or buttermilk
1 egg, beaten (for glaze)
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C). Butter a baking tray, or, if you're me and your baking sheets are in horrendous condition, line them with un-buttered parchment paper.
Whisk the flours, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. With a pastry blender or your fingertips, work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. In a small dish, combine the milk and syrup, then add these liquid ingredients to the butter-flour mixture. By hand or with a rubber spatula, bring everything together to form a softish dough. If it feels too dry, add a little more milk but not enough that the dough is sticky. "The dough should not be stick at all," the book admonishes.
On a lightly floured surface, pat or roll the dough out until it is 1 1/4 inches (3 cm) tall. Using a 2-inch (5-cm) cutter, cut the dough into rounds and place them on the prepared tray so that they almost touch. Glaze the tops with beaten egg and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the scones are lightly golden. The scones will stick together, so pull them gently apart when they've cooled a bit — pull-apart scones!
Serve warm. Also, you may find them stale the next day but your toddler may not care, so keep them around!


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Grivel - Airtech Cramp-O-Matic Crampon
A new generation of crampons. Ten points in contact with ice while youre walking, 12 that bite into the slope during traverses. This has been made possible because the third pair of points are shorter and wider apart. On top of this the last two front points have a double angulation to maintain bite when descending or traversing sideways. The crampons points are short and designed for the new requirements of "mixed moderns" alternating ice and rock. Sharp points are ideal for anchoring on ice "cauliflowers" and when in traction or adherence. Even the soles of the most modern boots are perfectly covered. Semi-rigid model in one adjustable size. The bar can be regulated by hand, in two different lengths. These New versions have a new binding made in "bi-components" giving greater efficiency and lightness. It is really an "all seasons" crampon, very light and takes up a minimum of space as it folds up completely on itself. Includes Anti-Balling Plates.
Materials: Chromolly steel
Style: Semi-rigid
Weight: 888 grams (31.3 oz)
Fits: 35-46 Euro Binding Styles.
Anti balling plates not pictured.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
This post was originally published on July 23, 2007.
Nearly every night, there is a meeting called to order promptly at 8:45, in my front yard. It's the Council of Sweaty-Headed Neighborhood Kids Who Are Trying To Put Off Bedtime As Long As Possible, meeting for the serious task of catching as many fireflies as their old pickle jars can hold.
Every night the routine is the same: the Council comes to order with a squeal of joy when the first "twinkle" appears. It's a summer symphony: the slamming of jar lids, shouts of "I got one!", wails of anguish when one gets away. There is the thump of little bodies colliding in the dusk, the hiss of Off! spray, and the ever-present song of the cicada humming behind it all.
And there is the same conversation every time: do we keep our fireflies, or let them go? They'll live longer in the wild, but oh! the tempting joy of a pickle jar of fireflies on a bedside table in the dark.
As a testament to the charity of children, the fireflies are usually released, often with a naming ceremony (strangely, there's always a Larry--why is there always a Larry?) and a bittersweet farewell. The Council adjourns for baths and bedtimes, and porch lights flicker on.
Goodnight, Larry. Until tomorrow.


text:
The Pentagon is preparing to ask Congress soon for more authority to shift funds to cope with automatic spending cuts, confronting lawmakers with another exception to the "sequester" just days after they gave a break to the flying public and the airline industry.
The request may be sent to the House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee as early as next week, a House Republican aide said on Wednesday.
The Pentagon won increased budget flexibility in March, but officials have told members of Congress they believe it was insufficient to cover shortfalls in training and operations.
The Defense Department move would follow closely the fix last week to ease airline flight delays caused by the temporary furloughs of air-traffic controllers by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The cuts, known as "sequestration," were originally hatched by Washington in 2011 as a way to force the White House and Congress to find an alternative budget deal rather than have spending cuts kick in automatically.
But policymakers failed to reach such a deal earlier this year and the cuts - totaling $109 billion for the current fiscal year - took effect on March 1.
Defense spending has taken the single biggest hit from the automatic cuts, with a $46 billion reduction through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.
One House aide said the request would cite a shortfall in war-fighting because of higher than expected costs of withdrawing from Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials paved the way for the move in testimony to congressional committees over the past few weeks in which they expressed worries about the sequester's impact on military readiness, particularly with tensions rising in Syria and Korea.
"With the events in the world today, with Korea, Syria, Iran, the continued fight in Afghanistan ... the discussion on readiness could not come at a more critical time," General John Campbell, Army vice chief of staff, told a U.S. Senate panel on April 17.
"The reality is that if sequestration continues as it is ... we risk becoming a hollow force," he added.
Members of Congress from states with a heavy military presence have been urging a shift of funds since the sequester took effect and might be hard-pressed to vote against it.
An April 18 bipartisan letter from Virginia senators and representatives urged Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to move quickly to prevent furloughs and loss of pay for "thousands of Virginians."
The Defense Department is preparing the request to shift funds, said Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Robbins, a Pentagon spokeswoman, but has not "yet specified the timing or the amount" it wants to transfer, or "reprogram" in budget jargon.
Congress last week approved a similar request from the Justice Department to shift $313 million within its budget to avoid furloughing some 60,000 employees.
Robbins said it was not yet clear whether the Pentagon would submit several different reprogramming requests or one large omnibus-style request, but the budget shifts would be sought "soon."
The Pentagon was one of several government agencies that won some budget flexibility in a stop-gap government funding measure passed in late March.
That allowed more than $10 billion that was locked up in other accounts to be shifted to the Pentagon's operations and maintenance account, which funds training exercises and military readiness.
While that has helped, it did not make up for the deep budget cuts brought on by the sequester. The Army alone is facing about a $13 billion shortfall in training, operations and Afghanistan war costs, Army Secretary John McHugh and Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno told lawmakers last week.


text:
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"It's clear agents can likely save travelers big money and help set a realistic itinerary. Even where they weren't cheaper, the agents competed with what we could find on our own. And we were impressed where they did save us money, in particular with hotels."
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Wall Street Journal
"Having a travel agent advise you is now more important than ever," as fees, surcharges, and other travel restrictions have become more confusing for consumers. "Travel is on of the most complicated purchases."
Henry Harteveldt,
Travel Analyst Forrester Research


text:
Watch out Siri, there's a new kid in town. Google just announced at its I/O developer conference that its personal assistant is coming to iOS. You won't be able to replace Siri with Google Assistant, but you'll be able to use the feature in Google's dedicated app.
"Today, I'm excited to announce that Google Assistant is available for iPhone," VP of Engineering Assistant Scott Huffman said. The app isn't currently available in the App Store as far as I can see, but it should be there later today. Edit: You can now download Google Assistant in the App Store.
Google Assistant is considered a more powerful voice assistant when you compare it to the current version of Siri. It lets you ask more complicated queries and it has third-party integrations. It also lets you control your connected devices, as the company just announced new partnerships with third-party companies.
Also new today, you can now type your queries instead of speaking out loud. This could be useful if you have a burning question and somebody is sleeping next to you.
The company first introduced Google Assistant on the Pixel phone. It is now available on more Android devices and it could also come to your appliances. It is currently available on 100 million devices out there.
Right now, Google Assistant only works in English, making it much less compelling for international users. This is Siri's main advantage when you compare it to Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and Google Assistant.
But that's also about to change as Google Assistant is going to support French, German, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese pretty soon. Italian, Spanish and Korean should come next.
It's going to be hard to compete with the default option when you long-press on the home button, but maybe Google could bundle Google Assistant into the Gboard.


text:
Expert's Rating
- Network management is simple
- Convenient remote disk functionality
- Easy to set up a complicated network
- Internal drive not user replaceable
- 1TB model is pricey
Our Verdict
The 2009 version of Apple's Time Capsule combines the mundane tasks of networking, file sharing, and backups into one device, and it includes some cool new features to boot. Time Capsule, basically an Airport Extreme base station with a 500GB or 1TB internal hard drive, is designed to be a wireless Time Machine target for one or more Macs as well as a NAS (network attached storage) device.
Time Capsule's marquee feature is its ability to back up your Macs running Leopard using Time Machine over the network. Apple recommends that you connect your Mac directly to the Time Capsule for the first backup, which makes a copy of all files on your Mac; backing up that much data takes a long time over the network. I backed up my MacBook Pro's 120GB of data to each Time Capsule connected via Gigabit ethernet and it took a little over nine hours to complete the first backup.
After that initial backup, Time Machine will back up to the Time Capsule every hour (unless the Mac has been powered down or the previous backup took longer than an hour). These hourly backups are incremental—that is, they back up only files that have changed, or have been added since the last backup. Such backups take less time and are generally handily accomplished over a wireless connection. One thing to remember is that Time Machine backs up at the file level. So, if you use a program that frequently makes changes to a large central file (like Entourage, which stores email in one large database file), Time Machine will back up that entire file, even if only one item in the file has changed. This can impact wireless backup performance, depending on how large those files are. You can also use one or more external USB drives attached to the Time Capsule's USB port as a Time Machine target.
The backup functionality hasn't changed with this new version of Time Capsule, so the same basic problems still exist: you can't swap out the internal drive, and even with the 1TB model, you may run out of disk space if you're backing up multiple Macs as well as using the internal drive for file sharing. (Theoretically, you should not run out of space, because Time Machine culls older backups; but users have reported that they have run out of room on the disk. Apple says that before OS X 10.5.5, Time Machine sometimes reported the Time Capsule drive as full when it was not. Also, Apple says that a rare problem with Time Machine backup image corruption on Time Capsule was corrected with base station 7.4.1 firmware and Mac OS X 10.5.6.) Speaking of file sharing, when we last reviewed the Time Capsule (), file transfer speeds weren't exactly zippy. I transferred a 1GB video file to both Time Capsules, as well as to a Mac via AFP. Transferring the same file to either Time Capsule took about 33 percent longer than it did to transfer to the Mac. This is fine for occasional file sharing, but if you're doing a lot of file sharing, you might want to check into a dedicated NAS or Mac file server.
All of that functionality is old hat. These updated models do introduce a few new features: simultaneous dual-band, a guest network, and the ability to access your Time Capsule's disks via AFP over the Internet (specifically, file sharing over the Internet, not using Time Machine to back up or recover files over the Internet).
Twice as much Wi-Fi
The new Time Capsule sports what Apple calls simultaneous dual-band. This creates two 802.11n (Draft N) Wi-Fi networks for the price of one: one using the 2.4GHz band and one in the 5GHz band. Older devices using 802.11b (the original AirPort hardware released before 2003) and 802.11g (AirPort Extreme gear that shipped from 2003 to 2006, along with the iPhone [iPod touch) [ ]) can only use the 2.4GHz band; they don't have radios that can use the 5GHz band. The 802.11n standard can optionally use either 2.4GHz or 5GHz, and Apple chose to build support for both bands into the Apple TV ( ) and most Macs released after October 2006. (A discontinued iMac model and the Mac minis sold before newest March 2009 revision were the two exceptions.) Before this revision to Time Capsule, if you had a mix of older 2.4GHz-only devices and newer 5GHz-capable gadgets, you had to choose: you could either put all devices on a 2.4GHz network where older, slower Wi-Fi and other technology issues would keep your newer devices from working at their highest speeds or you could set up two base stations, one for 2.4GHz and one for 5GHz. (Apple chose to allow only 5GHz networks to use wide channels, in which twice as much spectrum is used to carry data; 802.11n puts so many restrictions on the optional use of wide channels in 2.4GHz that it's not typically worthwhile.)] and the
Simultaneous dual-band solves this problem by splitting traffic into two separate networks with one base station: older clients stay on the slower 2.4GHz band; 802.11n-enabled Macs and other hardware use the 5GHz band. This preserves the speed of the 5GHz band while allowing older devices access to your network.
By default, Time Capsule broadcasts both networks with the same SSIDs (the technical term for a network name), though you can set a different name for the 5GHz network. 802.11n-equipped Macs with the latest AirPort client software (available only for Leopard) automatically switch between networks, depending on which is optimal for the conditions of the wireless client. If your MacBook () is placed far away from the Time Capsule unit, it will use the 2.4GHz band, which is slower but has far greater range; when your Mac is closer to the base station, it switches to the 5GHz network without any user intervention, assuming that both networks share the same name. If you change the name of the 5GHz network, this feature doesn't work.
To make sure that the Time Capsule could stand up to some serious network traffic, I gathered four Macs (two on the 2.4GHz network, and two on the 5GHz network) and pumped lots of traffic between the two pairs. It is important to determine whether Time Capsule can provide consistent and high rates of data transfer over both networks at the same time. If the device isn't able to handle lots of traffic over both networks, then it is of limited use.
During my testing, I found that Time Capsule didn't bog down under load. Both networks performed well, with the 2.4GHz network consistently delivering bandwidth in the area of 30 Mbps; at the same time, the 5GHz network was pumping along at 70 Mbps on average. (Both numbers had spikes, and I was able to get the bandwidth up to 150 Mbps between a MacBook using the 5GHz network and my Mac Pro (), which was plugged into one of the Gigabit ethernet ports on the back of the unit.)
Be my guest
The other big feature in the new Time Capsule is the guest network. Who hasn't played host to a laptop-toting friend who needed to get on the wireless network to check email or surf the Web? It's likely that you have some sort of security, so that your friend would need a password to get on the network. Furthermore, let us assume that, while you're concerned about security, you're also lazy or forgetful and tend to pick one good password and use it for everything, including your wireless network. That means the password you'll give your friend is the same one you use for your bank account, your own email, your credit card logins, and so on. How well do you really know that friend of yours, anyway?
Guest network to the rescue. The guest network uses the same 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios as your main network, but this network is virtual. It connects to the Internet just like your main network, but it uses a different name and can have a completely different, though limited, group of settings applied to it. Users on the guest network have access to the Internet, but all local network traffic, including Bonjour, is hidden. This means that network resources available on your main network, such as printers and file servers, can't be seen. A optional setting (modified via a checkbox) lets you allow guests to network with each other, but that still protects your main network. If you're generous, you can also choose to omit a network password, leaving the guest network open, or you can give it a different password than the one you use for everything else via standard WPA/WPA2 personal encryption. (Older WEP encryption isn't available.) The Time Capsule's guest network is also simultaneous dual-band (although the two guest network bands must share the same name), so all your guest's devices will connect at the highest speeds they are capable of. That makes all network devices, and their owners, happy.
Back to my Time Capsule
The final—and coolest—new feature takes advantage of Leopard's Back To My Mac functionality by allowing you access to your Time Capsule's drives, either internal or attached via USB, over the Internet. You must have an active MobileMe () individual or family pack account. You enter your MobileMe credentials in a new tab in the AirPort client, and, like magic, you're able to access your Time Capsule over the Internet from another Mac that has that same MobileMe account registered in its MobileMe preference pane with Back To My Mac active. I was able to access my Time Capsule drives from an AT&T hot spot blocks from my house without a hitch, though I could not access it from my corporate network at the office (which is not too surprising, given the increased network security of corporate firewalls).
Transfer speeds using Back to My Mac to connect to your Time Capsule will depend greatly on the network connection at your current location, and the connection back at home. It was pretty speedy in my testing, but speed will vary widely from location to location. Transfer speed isn't the point with this feature, though; access is. It doesn't take much to imagine a number of scenarios in which being able to access some files stored on your Time Capsule at home will come in handy.
Not only can you access your Time Capsule's disks using Back to my Mac, you can also manage the Time Capsule remotely using the AirPort Utility. I can see this being very useful if you're trying to troubleshoot networking issues while on the road (assuming the connection isn't completely down).
Macworld's buying advice
Apple's latest Time Capsules are what any good networking and backup devices should be: easy to set up, manage, and forget about. If you're replacing an older base station and want to use Time Machine to back up multiple Macs, the new Time Capsule is well worth it (getting the 500GB version and buying a large USB drive to act as your Time Machine target will save you a couple bucks). If you only have one Mac in your household, it is far cheaper to use a directly attached disk for your Time Machine backups, but even in that situation I can see a use for Time Capsule. I'm a fairly forgetful laptop user. Chances are I won't remember to plug that external backup disk into my Mac on a regular basis. (Time Machine will alert you if you haven't backed up in 10 days, but I'm not comfortable with that big a gap in my backups.) The beauty of Time Capsule is that it just works, silently backing up your Mac over your network without your having to remember a thing.
Things get a little more complicated if you already have one of the previous Time Capsule models. All older 802.11n base stations—Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Express () —get the MobileMe update, with remote hard disk access on all but the AirPort Express. That leaves the two hardware features as deciding factors. If you have many Wi-Fi-using guests, are running two different Wi-Fi networks to get the most out of your wireless network, or are planning to upgrade from a 2.4GHz-only network, then the new Time Capsule is a great way to simplify your network and gain added functionality. If your home network is pretty basic and you already own a first-generation Time Capsule, there isn't much to warrant buying a new one.
[Scott McNulty is a senior contributor for MacUser, blogs at blankbaby, and is the author of Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read (Peachpit Press, 2008).]


text:
Introduction and Technical Specifications
We look at Oyen Digital's MiniPro hard drive enclosure supporting UASP mode USB 3.0 transfers
Courtesy of Oyen Digital
Oyen Digital, a popular manufacturer of portable storage enclosures and devices, provided us with its MiniPro™ eSATA / USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive enclosure for testing USB 3.0 enhanced mode on the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe motherboard. This enclosure offers support for USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and eSATA ports in conjunction with a 2.5" hard drive. We put this enclosure on the test bench with the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe board to test the performance limits of the device. The MiniPro™ enclosure can be found at your favorite e-tailer for $39.95.
Oyen Digital
The MiniPro™ SATA / USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive enclosure is a simple aluminum enclosure supporting any 2.5" form factor hard drive up to SATA III speeds. The enclosure itself supports USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and eSATA connections. Because of its use of the ASMedia 1053e chipset for USB 3.0 support, the enclosure supports both USB 3.0 normal mode transfer speeds and UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) mode transfer speeds. UASP mode is a method of bulk transfer for USB 3.0 connections that increases transfer speeds through the use of parallel simultaneous packet transfers. Per our sources at ASUS, UASP can be explained as follows:
The adoption of the SCSI Protocol in USB 3.0 provides its users with the advantage of having better data throughput than traditional BOT (Bulk-Only Transfer) protocol, all thanks to its streaming architecture as well as the improved queuing (NCQ support) and task management, which eliminated much of the round trip time between USB commands, so more commands can be sent simultaneously. Moreover, thanks to the multi-tasking aware architecture, the performance is further enhanced when multiple transfers occur.
The downside of UASP is that the receiving device (Flash drive/external hard drive etc) must also be UASP enabled for the protocol to work. This requires checking your peripherals before purchase. However since UASP is an industry standard, the device support for ASUS UASP implementation is not restricted to a particular controller manufacturer or device type, so the overall number of peripherals available should undoubtedly grow.
Technical Specifications (taken from the Oyen Digital website)
eSATA 6G (Up to 6.0 Gbps)
USB 3.0: (Up to 5.0 Gbps)
|SATA III (up to 15mm SATA 2.5" HDD/SSD)
ASMedia 1053e
ASMedia 1456pe
|10 oz.
|Windows XP/Vista/7/8 & above; MAC OS 10.2 & above; Linux 2.4.22 & above


text:
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text:
Tenable Podcast Episode 201 - "Internet Explorer 0Day"
- We're hiring! - Visit the Tenable website for more information about open positions.
- Want to ask questions about Nessus, SecurityCenter, LCE, and PVS and get answers from the experts at Tenable? Join Tenable's Discussion Forum for custom scripts, announcements, and more!
- You can find links to subscribe to Tenable's Podcast feed, YouTube Channel, Twitter and Facebook accounts at http://www.tenable.com/podcast!
- IE 0Day Vulnerability - Several interesting points regarding this vulnerability:
- It affects most versions of Internet Explorer, including Windows XP and Microsoft still has not released a patch at the time of this writing.
- Workarounds include using a different web browser, disabling ActiveX, Un-Installing Adobe Flash and enabling and configuring EMET
- Tenable customers can detect which versions of Internet Explorer are in use, and on which systems, using credentialed scanning, passive detection, and log correlation. Nessus will report the version of IE in use, PVS will detect it on the wire, and LCE will report User-Agent data from your web servers.
- Nessus will report on the version of EMET in use on target systems, and report if Adobe Flash is installed
- Tenable customers can use a configuration auditing file to check for the pretense and correct configuration of EMET
- We've released a new SC Dashboard to summarize the reporting of this vulnerability.
- Once a patch is released Nessus will be updated to include a check
Between IE and OpenSSL there is recent evidence of how vulnerabilities can hide within your network. You need ways to continuously discover them, evaluate risk and react.
The SecurityCenter Dashboard mentioned in this episode is below:
Nessus also has the ability to perform configuration auditing against EMET, also mentioned in the show, example results are shown below:
- IE 0Day Vulnerability - Several interesting points regarding this vulnerability:
- Fortinet OpenSSL Information Disclosure
- MaraDNS 1.2.12.06 / 1.3.05 Wildcard Resource Record Remote DoS
- HP LeftHand OS Unmanaged Host Detection
- MS14-020: Vulnerability in Microsoft Publisher Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2950145)
- OpenSSL 1.0.1 < 1.0.1g Multiple Vulnerabilities
- Ajax Pagination (twitter Style) Plugin for WordPress Local File Inclusion
- Silex USB Device Server Web Configuration Page Empty Password
- CUPS < 1.7.2 is_path_absolute Function XSS
- OpenVPN Installed
- FortiWeb 5.x < 5.0.4 XSS
- Symantec Messaging Gateway 10.x < 10.5.2 Management Console XSS (SYM14-006)
- NAS4Free Web UI Default Credentials
- Oracle OpenSSO Multiple Vulnerabilities (April 2014 CPU)
- Oracle OpenSSO Detection
- Cisco IOS IKE Module DoS
- MS KB2963983: Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution
- MS KB2961887: Update for Vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player in Internet Explorer
- Flash Player for Mac <= 11.7.700.275 / 22.214.171.124 Pixel Bender Component Buffer Overflow (APSB14-13)
- Flash Player <= 11.7.700.275 / 188.8.131.52 Pixel Bender Component Buffer Overflow (APSB14-13)
Passive Vulnerability Scanner
Vulnerability Detection
SecurityCenter Apps
Security News Stories
- Snapchat's Expired Snaps Are Not Deleted, Just Hidden
- Not to be outdone by Microsoft, Adobe announces zero-day exploit patch for Flash
- The Rise of the Insider in a Collaborative IT World
- Study finds data moving to cloud, encrypted or not
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Breanna Stewart, No. 1 UConn cruise to win against No. 4 Louisville
STORRS, Conn. -- Breanna Stewart had 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead top-ranked UConn to an 81-64 victory versus No. 4 Louisville on Sunday in a rematch of last season's national championship game.
Just as in the matchup last April, which UConn won by 33 points, Stewart and the Huskies were too much for Louisville. The win was UConn's 31st in a row dating back to last season's title run. That's the fifth-longest winning streak in school history.
The Huskies (25-0, 12-0 American Athletic Conference) led by 11 at the half and when Louisville (23-2, 11-1) got within 47-40, Stewart answered with five unanswered points to ignite a 16-5 run that put the game away. Louisville could only get within 14 the rest of the way.
Asia Taylor scored 18 points to lead Louisville, which had its 16-game winning streak end. The Cardinals' only other loss came back on Dec. 1 against Kentucky.
Stewart, who scored 22 points in the national championship game, got UConn going in the first half. UConn only led 29-24 before Stewart, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, hit consecutive 3-pointers to give UConn its first double-digit lead of the game. The Huskies led 44-33 at the half.
UConn did receive a slight scare late in the first half when Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis went down with 18 seconds left, injuring her left elbow on a jump ball play.
Loyd scores 23 as No. 2 Irish beat Syracuse 101-64
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Jewell Loyd scored 23 points, Kayla McBride added 18 and second-ranked Notre Dame opened a 33-point halftime lead Sunday en route to a 101-64 victory against Syracuse to improve to 23-0, matching the best start in school history.
Notre Dame took control from the start, beating the Syracuse zone inside and outside, jumping to a 14-2 lead, extending it to 29-10 midway through the first half and 61-28 at halftime.
The other time the Irish (10-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) started 23-0 was in 2000-01 en route to the national championship.
Brittney Sykes led the Orange (17-7, 6-5) with 14 points.
Irish coach Muffet McGraw (737-258) tied the late North Carolina State coach Kay Yow for 11th place in career wins. Yow died in 2009 after a long battle with breast cancer. The Irish and Orange wore pink as part of the Play4Kay game raising awareness of cancer research.
Washington knocks off No. 3 Stanford 87-82
SEATTLE -- Kelsey Plum scored 23 points, Mercedes Wetmore added 18 and Washington held off a late charge by No. 3 Stanford for an 87-82 upset victory Sunday.
It was the highest-ranked opponent the Huskies have beaten since winning against No. 2 Stanford in 1990.
The loss snapped a 62-game road conference winning streak for Stanford (22-2, 11-1 Pac-12), as well as a 14-game run against Washington (13-10, 6-6). The Cardinal's last loss in road or neutral conference games was Jan. 18, 2009, against California in Berkeley. Stanford's only other loss this year came at No. 1 Connecticut.
Chiney Ogwumike, the Pac-12's leading scorer, had 23 points but was held in check for most of the game, and her teammates were unable to pick up the slack. The Cardinal especially had trouble from long-range, shooting 9-for-41 on 3-pointers.
Welch's 16 lead No. 6 South Carolina to 67-49 win
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Aleighsa Welch scored 16 points and had a career-best five blocks to lead No. 6 South Carolina to its sixth consecutive victory with a 67-49 win against Arkansas on Sunday.
The Gamecocks (22-2, 10-1) maintained their hold on first place in the Southeastern Conference.
Arkansas (16-8, 3-8) did its best to pack in the middle and disrupt South Carolina's game plan of feeding the 6-foot Welch and 6-4 forwards Elem Ibiam and Alaina Coates underneath. But Ibiam and Coates both added 10 points each while the trio of low-post players combined for 21 rebounds.
South Carolina also turned up its defense against the Razorbacks, holding them to under 30 percent shooting for a second time this season. Arkansas leading scorer Jessica Jackson was held to half her 16.6 points-a-game average with eight points on 1 of 12 shooting.
Tiffany Mitchell added 15 points for South Carolina.
No. 7 Baylor beats No. 12 Oklahoma State 81-64
WACO, Texas -- Odyssey Sims scored 33 points with three 3-pointers and No. 7 Baylor clinched its 14th consecutive 20-win season with an 81-64 victory against No. 12 Oklahoma State on Sunday.
The Lady Bears (20-3, 10-1 Big 12) have won 33 consecutive conference home games. They have won six in a row overall since their first consecutive losses in four years.
Sims, the nation's leading scorer at 30 points a game, was held to a season-low 17 points against the Cowgirls just two weeks ago.
She was 7-of-27 shooting without making a 3-pointer on eight chances from beyond the arc in 42 minutes in that game, but converted a three-point play with 3.8 seconds left in overtime for a 69-66 win.
Lucas scores 23, No. 9 Penn St women roll Ohio St
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Maggie Lucas had 23 points, including 12 during a 21-3 run, to lead No. 9 Penn State past Ohio State 74-54 on Sunday.
Dara Taylor and Talia East each added 12 points for the Nittany Lions (18-5, 9-2 Big Ten), who took the top spot in the conference a day earlier when Michigan State lost at Nebraska. They had won six in a row before a 73-70 loss to Iowa on Thursday night.
Raven Ferguson and Ameryst Alston each scored 16 points for the Buckeyes (14-13, 4-7), who have lost six of eight. Alston, fourth in the Big Ten in scoring at 17.4 points a game, was held out of the starting lineup after she showed up late for the morning shootaround, held during a snow squall.
Penn State has won the past five meetings with the Buckeyes.
Tenth-ranked Maryland women beat Clemson 95-43
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Alyssa Thomas had 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists as No. 10 Maryland breezed past Clemson 95-43 Sunday to extend its winning streak against the Tigers to 14 games.
Brionna Jones scored 14 for the Terrapins (19-4, 7-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who have won three consecutive blowouts following a three-game skid. Maryland defeated Syracuse by 25 points and beat Pittsburgh by 48 before dismissing Clemson without difficulty.
The Terrapins opened with a 16-2 run, extended the margin to 21 points late in the first half and toyed with the Tigers (11-14, 3-8) the rest of the way. Maryland hasn't lost to Clemson since March 7, 2003.
Nikki Dixon led Clemson with 13 points and Chancie Dunn added 10. The Tigers have lost six of eight, all within the conference.
Thomas, a 6-foot-2 senior, left with 8 minutes left and the Terrapins up 71-37. She ranks third on the Maryland career list in points and needs only 129 to break Crystal Langhorne's school record of 2,247.
Arizona scores upset of No. 11 Arizona State 68-49
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Carissa Crutchfield scored a career-high 20 points to lead Arizona to a huge upset against No. 11 Arizona State 68-49 on Sunday.
Arizona (5-18, 1-11 Pac 12) has endured a tough season, losing two players to ACL injuries and another who withdrew for personal reasons, but won its first Pac-12 game of the season in impressive fashion, avenging Tuesday's 60-36 loss at ASU.
The Wildcats had an early 8-0 run, including a Crutchfield jumper, en route to a 30-24 halftime lead.
Arizona's lead hit 10 after Erica Barnes' jumper at 16:25 of the second, which started another 8-0 run, while ASU missed seven consecutive shots and never mustered a challenge down the stretch.
Deja Mann led Arizona State (20-4, 9-3) with 15, but Arizona limited the Sun Devils to 25 points below their season average in scoring.
ASU shot 32 percent and made just 2 of 12 from beyond the arc.
No. 14 NC State tops Virginia Tech 72-71 in OT
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Len'Nique Brown hit a game-winning floater with 4.5 seconds left in overtime to lead No. 14 NC State past Virginia Tech 72-71 on Sunday.
Brown's game-winner followed a 3-pointer by Hannah Young that gave Virginia Tech a 71-70 lead with 27 seconds remaining. Virginia Tech had a chance to win in the waning seconds but Serafina Maulupe's heave at the buzzer from nearly halfcourt hit the front of the rim and N.C. State (21-3, 8-2 ACC) prevailed.
The Wolfpack are off to their best start since the 1981-82 season, when they also began 21-3. Virginia Tech (11-12, 1-9) has still never beaten NC State, with the Wolfpack now having won all 15 meetings between the two.
The Hokies led 46-36 with 11 minutes left in regulation but N.C. State came back and forced overtime on a layup by Markeisha Gatling with 26 seconds left that tied the game at 60-60.
Florida upsets No. 15 Kentucky 86-80
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- January Miller scored 20 points, including 3 of 4 late free throws, to lead Florida in an 86-80 upset of No. 15 Kentucky on Sunday.
Florida (17-7, 7-4 SEC) led by as much as 10 in the first half, but Kentucky (17-6, 5-5) scored the last six before intermission and trailed 40-36 at halftime.
The Wildcats tied it at 40 just 1:30 into the second, but the Gators ran off 14 unanswered points before Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell called timeout. His club started to chip away, cutting the deficit to one on Azia Bishop's layup at 73-72 with 3:57 left.
But Florida countered with a Lily Svete 3-pointer and made 4 of 6 free throws down the stretch.
Kayla Lewis added 18 points and 17 rebounds for the Gators, while Svete finished with 17.
Jennifer O'Neill led Kentucky with 20 points. DeNesha Stallworth had 14 points and 13 rebounds.
No. 19 Texas A&M edges No. 16 LSU 72-67
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Courtney Walker scored 22 points, going 10 of 20 from the field and making a critical layup in the game's final minute as No. 19 Texas A&M edged No. 16 LSU 72-67 on Sunday.
With Texas A&M (18-6, 8-2 SEC) leading by a point, Walker made a layup with 54 seconds left to extend the Aggies' lead to 70-67. Jeanne Kenney then missed a jumper for LSU (18-6, 7-4) and Texas A&M made two free throws down the stretch to help seal the win.
Texas A&M held the Lady Tigers scoreless for the final 5 1/2 minutes of the first half, using its defense to go on a 12-0 run that spanned into the beginning of the second and take a 29-24 lead. LSU remained close throughout but never regained the lead.
Courtney Williams added 16 points for the Aggies while Danielle Ballard led LSU with 22.
No. 23 Cal pulls away, beats Washington State 87-70
PULLMAN, Wash. -- Reshanda Gray scored 24 points and Brittany Boyd added 23 as No. 23 California pulled away for an 87-70 win against Washington State on Sunday.
California (16-7, 8-4 Pac-12) trailed by as many as eight in the second half and was down 55-51 with 11 1/2 minutes to play. The Golden Bears then went on a 24-2 run to mount a 75-57 lead and put the game out of reach as Washington State (12-12, 6-6) went nearly nine minutes down the stretch without scoring from the field.
Afure Jemerigbe added 18 points and Gennifer Brandon scored 13 for Cal, which held a 55-27 rebounding advantage. Brandon led the Golden Bears with season-high 20 rebounds while Gray had 10.
Tia Presley led Washington State with 20 points. The Cougars have now dropped six of seven games after beginning conference play 5-0.
No. 25 Purdue puts away Michigan 65-56
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Ashley Morrissette and April Wilson each sank 3-pointers in the final 2 minutes to help No. 25 Purdue put away Michigan 65-56 on Sunday.
The Wolverines moved out to a 27-13 lead in the first half after two 3-pointers by Madison Ristovski. Purdue countered as Whitney Bays had two layups, a jumper and two free throws to fuel a 14-2 run to close the half.
Purdue pushed toward a six-point lead at the midway mark, but Michigan pulled within one, 51-50 with 5:19 remaining. Morrissette and Wilson each sank 3-pointers, and Purdue sank its next eight free throws to end the game on a 14-6 run.
The Boilermakers (17-7, 7-5 Big Ten) were led by Bays, who finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Wilson scored 14 points and Camille Redmon added 10 with eight boards.
Cyesha Goree paced Michigan (15-9, 6-5) with 12 points and 11 rebounds.


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Not all YouTube videos are made equal. Some languish in obscurity, while a tiny percentage rack up millions of hits. If you've ever wondered why that is, this explanation by Kevin Allocca, YouTube's trends manager, is well worth watching.
Vizio's Latest TVs Go All Quantum
It's a slick and amusing presentation that he delivered at a recent TEDYouth event, but he does try and get to the bottom of what spurs virality. As he sees it, viral videos have three factors to thank for their success: taste-makers, communities of participation, and unexpectedness. But enough of me: over to him to explain. [TED]


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Psychology Professor Provides Clues about Autism Causality through Birth Order Study
More children are diagnosed with autism each year than juvenile diabetes, AIDS, and cancer combined. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism now affects 1 in 88 American children, prompting researchers to scramble for answers. Hoping to provide a significant piece to this complex puzzle, Loren Martin, Ph.D., APU professor and director of research for the Department of Graduate Psychology, published the results of his groundbreaking study linking birth order to autism severity in the November 30, 2012, issue of PLOS ONE, a leading peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Martin's study, representing the largest analysis of birth order and birth interval effects on autism to date, involved more than 300 sibling pairs diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange database utilizing information collected over the past 10 years. Using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), a validated measure of autism severity, Martin discovered that overall symptoms are more severe in the second-born child with autism than in the firstborn. The study also revealed that this difference in autism severity across birth order is only observed when the birth interval is less than two years. "Autism is diagnosed 10 times more frequently today than it was in the early 1990s, now affecting greater than one percent of the population," said Martin. "While this rise partially correlates to an increase in awareness and broadened diagnostic criteria, the role of environmental factors cannot be ruled out." Based on this premise, Martin's study of families with multiple affected children may provide clues about the causes of ASD. "The findings suggest a dosage-type effect in some cases of ASD in which genetic and/or environmental factors accumulate across pregnancies, leading to a more severe manifestation of ASD symptoms." Additionally, his study reports that female siblings diagnosed with ASD experienced more severe symptoms than males. These results are consistent with a recent study demonstrating that autism is underdiagnosed in girls unless they have intellectual or behavioral problems associated with their ASD. Martin's study also confirms previous reports indicating IQ decreases between first- and second-born children with autism. Martin's findings pave the way for a range of studies that can contribute to the discovery of autism's underlying etiology. "Of course, the ultimate goal is to find treatments or a cure for autism, and only more research can get us closer to that," he said. "Each new study provides clues to the cause of autism." The search for the cause mobilized the U.S. government and research organizations to invest more than $1 billion in autism studies over the past decade as researchers seek answers to this crisis, but this investment in research pales in comparison to the $137 billion annual cost of autism to society. "As an internationally recognized researcher, deeply committed to APU's God First mission, Dr. Martin is making significant advances in the field of autism research," said Robert Welsh, Ph.D., dean of the School of Behavioral and Applied Sciences. "His exemplary research is his Christian vocation. Dr. Martin's high-quality work bolsters the academic reputation of the university and has the potential to impact the lives of millions." Martin first became interested in the biological underpinnings of autism when, as an undergraduate student at Olivet Nazarene University, he provided behavioral therapy to a child with autism. At the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he earned his Ph.D., he studied the role of cerebellar neuropathology in autism. Martin completed postdoctoral work at the MIND (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute at the University of California, Davis. He began teaching at APU in 2006. APU graduate Narges Horriat '11 coauthored the autism study. Preliminary research for the study involved several former APU students: Tori Pike '08, BSN '10; Kristin Shier '08, M.A. '11; Bethany Vaudrey '09, M.A. '12; Brittany Benson '09, and Megan Shelby '09. For more information or to support this effort, email Martin at [email protected].
Posted: May 13, 2013


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So that automotive journalists never see the light of day, automakers provide ample food at their events and in little cafes they setup above the auto show floor. Compared to certain auto shows where the food is of questionable chemistry, the grub isn't too shabby at Detroit (the only things not shabby in Detroit are within Cobo hall right now). Below is our list of the five best meals at Detroit, including a sporting meal with Bill Walton and Spud Webb.
The Top Five Favorite Press Meals At The Detroit Auto Show
1. Hot Dogs With Spud Webb & Bill Walton &mdash Kia
When Kia announced their 2009 Borrego the crowd of journalists was overwhelmed by vendors throwing at hot dogs and peanuts at the assembled press. The press was then led through a confusing presentation in which Bill Walton and Spud Webb started shooting (and missing) basketballs. What does this have to do with a Kia? We don't know either, but a hot dog is always a nice treat.
2. Pretzels & Beer &mdash VW
Though we like the Passat CC, we were a little underwhelmed by the presentation. Thankfully, VW had a well-appointed lounge above their stand complete with Heineken and freshly baked pretzels in which we were able to ponder our disappointment.
3. Bass, Crabcake Salad & Blueberry Cobbler &mdash Chrysler
As we mentioned, the food and beer flows at The Firehouse, where Dr. Z is our new Sam "Mayday" Malone. The crabcake salad was a nice change from the junk food and power bars we'd been downing all morning, and the blueberry cobbler was divine.
4. Tea & Espresso &mdash Infiniti
Though the Infiniti Infotainment System is fun to look at, it's the tea and espresso (InfiniTEA, get it?) that the company provided that made our morning just a little more enjoyable.
5. Lox Egg Croissants &mdash MB
The classiest egg McMuffin you'll ever see was at the Mercedes lounge, where in between gossip about Dr. Z and Kim Catrall's secret love nest in Pennsylvania you could chow down on mini croissants with egg, nova lox and a dash of fresh sage.


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Effect of cosmetic series' active ingredients:
Organic rosa Alba flower water has soothing, skin conditioning and skin protecting action. It has cleansing and moisturizing skin effect.
** organic rose water comes from ecologically-clean area in the heart of the bulgarian rose valley.
Provitamin B5 hydrate skin and protect it against inflammations.
Cocoa butter has softening, moisturizing and nourishing properties. It gives the soap and the soap foam a velvety texture.


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Baltimorean David Simon, whose groundbreaking television series "The Wire" examined the institutions of his hometown with a passionate and unsparing eye, today won a 2010 MacArthur "genius" award.
The 50-year-old Simon is one of only a few people ever to receive one of the prestigious fellowships for work in television. The MacArthur carries a $500,000, no-strings-attached grant parceled out over five years.
"The great value of this award is that it will make it easier for all of us to argue for stories that might not otherwise be perceived as popular television," Simon said.
"I can't wave around Nielsen ratings and I can't wave around Emmy awards when I want to get these stories told. An award like this gives us more gravitas. It gives us a little more currency. And it indicates that this medium of television is capable of much more social good than has been demonstrated to this point."
Simon hasn't decided yet what to do with his financial windfall, but hinted that he might donate all or a large chunk of it to charity.
"The entertainment industry pays quite well, so my first inclination is to pass it through and do something charitable," he said.
But Daniel Socolow, who directs the fellows program, recommended that Simon postpone his decision. In the future, Socolow told Simon, the money could come in handy to fund a project that is artistically worthy but non-commercial.
"He's been at this longer than I have, and I'm hearing what he's saying," Simon said. "But frankly, I'm still feeling some sort of impulse to pass it through in some way."
Simon is one of 23 fellows for 2010 and the only Maryland resident. Other honorees include an entomologist protecting honeybees from being decimated by disease; a linguist who studies the evolution and structure of sign languages; and a sculptor who creates seemingly lighter-than-air concoctions from marble.
"It was a little intimidating to read the list of people not engaged in something as abstract as creating a television series," Simon said, "people who are working to improve the environment, address social inequality, serve the cause of civil rights. You do feel a vague bit of shame. But I'm not about to give the award back."
Socolow described Simon as "a very powerful, searingly serious thinker and artist," and added: "David crafts richly textured narratives that engage a wide-ranging audience, and that confront some of the most daunting challenges facing America in the 21st century."
Like most of the fellows, Simon has worked in different genres. He was a full-time journalist until 1995, though he took a year's leave of absence to write a book about the people he met while covering the police beat for The Baltimore Sun. That effort, "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets," later inspired the famed NBC show.
Simon got his first experience in television by serving as one of "Homicide's" writers and producers. His second exposure came when he and David Mills co-wrote and produced "The Corner," a six-part miniseries (based on a book by Simon and Edward Burns) that won three Emmys.
"The Wire" was the first show for television that Simon created that wasn't based on an earlier book, and it was with "The Wire" that he solidified his position as a television auteur. Though "The Wire" never had a large audience, the viewers that it did have were enormously influential.
There were glowing reviews and profiles in publications such as The New York Times and The New Yorker. College courses are being taught today on the series' social importance.
"I think 'The Wire' is by critical consensus one of the best — if not the best — American television show ever made," said Jason Mittell, an associate professor of film at Middlebury College, where he's taught a course called "Watching The Wire: Urban America in Serial Television."
" 'The Wire' is a completely new mode of storytelling for television," Mittell said.
"It took the conventions of the pop show and exploded them. Viewers spent as much time with the criminals as with the cops. Major characters were not introduced until the fifth episode.
"By the end of the first season, it was clear that 'The Wire' was neither a cops show nor a crime show but one that looked at the war on drugs, the docks, City Hall, the schools and the media. It was an urban show. And, that is a new genre for television."
Simon's portrayal of the gritty side of Charm City has been criticized by such local boosters as City Council member Catherine Pugh. In 2002, the year "The Wire" debuted, she decried "the negative images of Baltimore as portrayed in 'real-crime' fiction, TV, dramas and movies" and proposed a resolution seeking ways for the city to "project a more positive image."
But Linda Williams, a film professor at the University of California- Berkeley, thinks that complaint is short-sighted. She thinks the show helps viewers to understand and even come to respect the city and its people.
"David Simon has achieved something that never before has been achieved on television, and that I don't think will ever be achieved again," Williams said. "None of the other shows, even the good ones, explore institutions and how they connect to the characters."
Simon says in a video posted on the foundation website that the series are his "ruminations of the end of empire, what it is like for a society to no longer have the will to pull itself as a whole, as a single entity, forward. It is a recipe for the disenfranchisement of significant portions of the country, for a divorce of one America from the other."
After "The Wire" went off the air in 2008, Simon and the playwright Eric Overmyer began working on a series about how the residents of New Orleans were trying to rebuild the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
"Treme" might be less epic in scope than "The Wire," but Jed Dietz, director of the Maryland Film Festival, thinks it is just as innovative, albeit in a different way.
"I've never seen anything like the way they have incorporated music into that show, either in television or in films," Dietz said.
"In even the great musicals, the numbers always has a tacked-on feel. But he blends music into the life of the characters and the city in a way that I've never seen before. You'll be watching a scene, and a parade will come through. Or a pickup band will play at the airport. Or the camera passes a pair of street musicians. It's so organic."
Though Simon's schedule is increasingly taking him out of town, he is working on two projects that are set in the Baltimore area: a film on an undisclosed topic that he is writing for Paramount Pictures and an HBO miniseries that he is crafting with Tom Fontana. The miniseries, he says, will look at parallels between Abraham Lincoln's assassination and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
At the moment, though, Simon is heavily involved in pre-production for shooting the second season of "Treme." So when, about 10 days ago, he received a message to call an attorney in Washington on a personal matter, winning a MacArthur was the farthest thing from his mind.
"Being a sensate human being, when I heard that a lawyer had called, I thought, 'Oh, great, this can't be good'," he said. "I thought I was being sued for something. I wondered if I could have run over someone's dog and not remembered it.
"So when I heard the news, my immediate reaction wasn't elation. It was, 'Oh, this isn't so bad. I can manage this.' It took me about a minute and a half to regroup and properly catalogue what was going on."
Simon is married to the novelist Laura Lippman, who also is a former Baltimore Sun reporter.
"Laura and I have celebrated with a certain amount of dry sarcasm," he said. "She is ready to thank the MacArthur Foundation for giving her five years of fresh material. The phrase, 'Hey, genius, you forgot to take out the trash last night,' has been uttered in my house."
Meet the 2010 fellows:
• Amir Abo-Shaeer, a California high school physics teacher.
• Jessie Little Doe Baird, an indigenous language preservationist from Massachusettes.
• Kelly Benoit-Bird, a marine biologist living in Oregon.
• Nicholas Benson, a Rhode Island stone carver.
• Drew Berry, a biomedical animator living in Melbourne, Australia.
• Carlos D. Bustamente, a population geneticist in California.
• Matthew Carter, a Massachusetts type designer.
• David Cromer, a New York theater director.
• John Dabiri, a biophysicist from California.
• Shannon Lee Dawdy, an anthropologist living in Illinois.
• Annette Gordon-Reed, a Massachusetts historian.
• Yiyun Li, a fiction writer from California.
• Michal Lipson, an optical physicist from New York.
• Nergis Mavalvala, a quantum astrophysicist from Massachusetts.
• Jason Moran, a New York jazz pianist and composer.
• Carol Padden, a sign language linguist in California.
• Jorge Pardo, a California installation artist.
• Sebastian Ruth, a violist, violinist and music educator from Rhode Island.
• Emmanuel Saez, an economist living in California.
• David Simon, creator of the Baltimore television series "Homicide," "The Corner" and "The Wire."
• Dawn Song, a California computer security specialist.
• Marla Spivak, an entomologist from Minnesota.
• Elizabeth Turk, a sculptor in Atlanta.
Baltimorean David Simon, whose groundbreaking television series "The Wire" examined the institutions of his hometown with a passionate and unsparing eye, today won a 2010 MacArthur "genius" award.


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As an amendment to the proposed REINS Act legislation that I mentioned the other day, House Republicans added in a very particular amendment on which they all voted this morning that would disallow the White House from ever imposing some kind of carbon tax without prior Congressional approval. Via The Hill:
The lower chamber agreed to Rep. Steve Scalise's (R-La.) amendment by a 237-176 vote, with 12 Democrats crossing the aisle to support it.
The amendment was added to an underlying bill that would require Congress to OK regulations that carry a $100 million economic impact or greater. …
Scalise's measure doesn't have much of a practical implication, as Congress — not the executive branch — is tasked with approving new taxes.
It does, however, put many Democratic lawmakers on record as supporting a carbon tax. The carbon tax concept has riled many conservatives, and many are trying to make sure it doesn't gain traction. …
"Struggling Americans who have been unable to find a job or have not seen their paychecks grow would be hit with this national energy tax every time they pay their utility bills or fill up their gas tanks or go to the grocery store. It would also be another tax on manufacturers and another increased cost of doing business imposed on middle-class families by the Obama administration," [Rep. Dave] Camp said in a statement.
While the overall REINS Act is certainly a no-go in the Senate, an anti-carbon tax measure certainly might be able to find enough support in the Senate. The White House has said they have no plans for trying to impose a carbon tax, per se, but hell — with all of the hugely economically damaging regulations both obvious and obscure they have running out of the EPA's rulemaking pipeline, why would we trust those guys?
The real point of this exercise, however, wasn't quite so much to block any immediate threat of specific White-House carbon-tax action as it was to express some preemptive opposition as well as to get Democrats on the record as for or against the idea. Smart.


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"My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, above all, to make you see." -- Joseph Conrad (1897)
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Michael Benton: On Anarchism
2) Living in the moment is essential, but we also interact and adapt based on our past experiences and future expectations. Yes, we are fundamentally time-bound beings, but we are also, much, much more than that. Unlike measurable (quantative), "clock" time, "lived" time is qualitative: the "not yet," the "already," and the "present" differ among themselves in meaning/value. We need to be aware of all of these. The impetus of living in the "moment" is that we should not let the past hang on us like a weight causing us to drown, or allow the possibility of an uncertain future to intimidate us to the point of inaction. Remember the lessons of the past, recognize the possibilities of the future, in order to fully live in the present.
3) Anarchism is a person-centered philosophy. Its focus is on autonomy amidst the social and economic pressures of mass society for superficiality and conformism. It is our responsibility, as free and conscious beings, to create meaning out of life and to develop an authentic existence. It is also, in my opinion, in this regard, our duty to help others develop their response-ability to do the same (for me as a teacher this is the core of an anarchist pedagogy). In this anarchism is radically collective in orientation. We are cultivating autonomous, ethical and responsible individuals who care about their community. Anarchism does not discount other beings in this world... it is holistic, in the sense of recognizing that humans are just one set of beings that live and share in the development and continuation of the broader ecosphere.
4) Freedom = Responsibility. Anarchism is a philosophy of freedom. It requires that we step back and reflect/reassess on what we have been doing and what effect our thoughts/actions have on the world. In this sense we are more than just individuals, we are members of larger collectives and our personal ethics always extend beyond ourselves (anarchism is not vulgar egotism). In this we can only be as "responsible" as we are "free." Response-ability, the ability for people to respond to the problems of their society and the impetus for them to care beyond themselves, is only realized by free, authentic and ethical beings. Where there is mindless conformism, shallow consumerism, or brutal oppression, you will see a breakdown in the development of response-ability (both in the ruled/rulers... or, manipulated/manipulators).
5) Ethical considerations are the primary questions. We all understand ethics and freedom differently, this is a given, and thus we must bring each of our understandings into play and sharpen our ideas through open/free public discourse. In this we, as individuals, as a community, as a society, and as a global ecosystem, should consider ethical questions as primary steps to building a better world. An autonomous individual is responsible to develop and consider the authenticity of their own personal lives in relation to their society. My authenticity should not be at the expense of your opportunity to realize yourself (for example, we are not bloated ticks that feed off the misery of others in order to realize some twisted sense of self).
2 comments:
- Tigerlily said...
What you expressed applies to what I am experiencing and will continue to experience on this journey of life. Just by living in today and working on myself as a spiritually growing and changing woman. I truly believe what I do today with my life will reflect onto other people, the Karma boomerang. I am just a free spirit trying to find my voice in this world and also trying to be strong enough to not let people crush in what I believe. I am an optimist but I am also naive. Anyways just enjoyed your philosophy.
- Michael said...
Thanks Tigerlily for your comment and I wish you the best on your journey.


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Confused About Solar Energy? Read This Expert Advice And You'll See The Light!
Say hello to the same time.It provides energy which doesn't pollute the Earth. If you are interested in saving money and helping the Earth, the following article has some great advice. The amount of energy produced depends on the efficiency of your solar panels installed combined with the efficiency of your panels. You will need to do some simple calculations to determine the number of panels you will need. You may get better results using a few high performance panels instead of efficient panels. There are a couple of panels. Poly-crystalline panels tend to be cheaper but they are generally less efficient than mono-crystalline panels. Make sure to get the most affordable and efficient product to power your choices before making a final decision. Do not think that taking advantage of solar energy must mean a full roof renovation. You can start small by installing solar energy. You need to find a reliable way to store your energy after it is produced by the solar energy system you


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Diana Lowenstein Gallery is pleased to present "archiTECTONICS" a solo exhibition of new work by Miami artist, Julie Davidow. The work will be on view from February 11 – April 8, 2012 in the front gallery. Using cues from architecture, design and construction, Davidow's paintings – with their minimal and precise qualities – create a two-dimensional world derived from the space that we inhabit.
More about this exhibit after the break.
Curator Claire Bruekel says her works "surveys the formal qualities associated with how we interact with, and consume contemporary art highlighting parts of our experience that we would ordinarily take for granted and overlook". The order that Davidow "obsessively" seeks within her paintings comment on our natural and built environments.
Her work has the qualities of organic structures arranged in very measured and architectural ways. There are vectors at work that guide these cell-like forms that appear to be fracturing and exploding across the canvas. "My work has always involved an organizational grid. This grid has evolved to become "samples" of other artists' works," says Davidow. "More recently I have been interested in the architecture of the museums themselves, and am now sampling elements of these buildings. The structure which holds the art becomes the scaffold of the painting itself." In her own way, Davidow is establishing her own architectonic interpretation of space: the systematization of knowledge ( 2009 The American Heritage Dictionary), which in this case is the museum itself.
Davidow reduces the information that she samples, referencing its "physical structure or composition" creating a "rhythm, beat, or geometry of the building or artwork". Some of the architecture that she samples include the Denver Art Museum by Daniel Liebskind, the Milwaukee Art Museum by Santiago Calatrava, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art – Bloch Building by Steven Holl, the Fort Worth Museum of Art by Tadao Ando, and the De Young Museum by Herzog & de Meuron.
Don't miss the opening reception with the artist on Saturday, February 11, 2012 from 6 – 10 pm where you will be able to pick up the catalog with an essay by curator Claire Breukel.


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5 Promising Enterprises in the Future
The analysis in the previous year's data, as well as the government agenda as well as the global and national economic conditions is an important consideration that you should know.
Entrepreneurial trends are now mushrooming in Indonesia. There are so many people who are vying to be successful entrepreneurs. Young people know even beginners do not seem to want to miss. They are encouraged to develop the business world and earn a big profit for the achievement of common prosperity.
One thing that concerns in determining a business is seeing the prospects of the business whether it can last long or seasonally. But unfortunately not a few of the business actors still ignore this.
You certainly do not want to experience the same thing well now until the future, because it is important to be able to see the prospects of the business you will choose whether to promise for the future or just a booming business season like franchises or fractions that tend to be big fast but if the consumer is bored then the business becomes withered.
For Indonesian entrepreneurs increasing the cost of electricity and fuel is currently very high. As a result, imported products from abroad are continuously flooding the domestic market.
Bad threats that occur to local entrepreneurs are very large, especially if the business opportunities developed less competitive, it would be rolled bankrupt mats as well as several textile mills that close because of cheap imported clothing from China.
But at least there are still some businesses whose potential is still very good in the future, which we can develop because of potential market competition is still quite small. What are the promising business opportunities?
5 Promising Enterprises in the Future
1. Culinary Business
Culinary business is a business field that there is no death, from month to month to year to year.
Why? because food is a basic human need that can not be released. But to be able to survive in the culinary business is also required creativity and innovation continue to take care. The more creativity about the culinary you have, the more customers are always curious about the culinary menu that you serve.
What kind of culinary opportunities? You can run like making snacks, opening catering, tent stalls, etc. Do not forget to be consistent and never give up in running this culinary business.
If the food menu served has a delicious taste, your business name will also spread by itself. The culinary business itself has several categories, ranging from snacks, drinks or staples. All of these have good prospects, depending on how you pack them.
2. Business Business Online
5 Promising Enterprises in the Future
The best other business opportunities of all time are related to the internet. The growth of internet users in Indonesia is a new business potential worthy to be reckoned with.
Even with since Facebook and Twitter make Indonesia including internet users of the world's top five. With an online business opportunity will be very good if developed on social networking. Although there is already Facebook and other sites, but sites that are local will better understand the desires of its users in Indonesia.
You can run the business. Like opening an online fashion store, selling in , or service of writing website content and others.
3. Tourism Business Sector
Indonesia's potential that has the most beautiful tourism in the world makes tourism from year to year continues to increase.
With the large number of local and foreign tourists who travel will certainly create new tenants to meet the needs of tourists during the trip. Thus, the opportunities for future business and success in tourism are still very open.
4. Business Field of Fruit Plants
Why cultivation be one of lasting business opportunities? The reason is simple, because there are so many who need but few who do.
You can see for yourself in real life, fruit crop enthusiasts are very much. Conversely, fruit cultivators are still very little because it takes patience and patience to run this business.
5. Education Sector
Education is the main capital for the development of every nation. Because of the importance of education for a nation, and it turns out that the existing facilities in Indonesia are still minimal you can take advantage of this opportunity.
There are so many categories in the education business that you can use.


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Pietrina Checcacci
Pietrina was born in Italy, moving to Brazil with her family when she was only 13 years old.
She obtained a BA – Bachelor of Arts from the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro and specialized in painting. The University awarded her with a gold medal for her painting technique.
Ms. Checcacci is very well-recognized painter and sculptor, with several prizes and more than 90 solo exhibitions and 50 collective exhibitions, some very important art collections in various countries including Brazil, Italy, USA, Uruguay, Germany, Colombia, Chile, Portugal, and Mexico.
Quartz Adjustable Ring
Silver ring with Quartz stone and Pearl


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When meeting Gruff Rhys it's hard not to break out in a face-achingly large smile – this is, of course, a man responsible for some of the warmest melodies this side of the 21st century under a multitude of guises: Super Furry Animals, Neon Neon and his own solo career.
After last year's psychotic explorations with Brazillian protest-pop artist, Tony Da Gatorra, Gruff has returned with his third solo album Hotel Shampoo. A record soaked in sun-soaked Californian harmonies and self-declared piano ballads that saw DiS' Aaron Lavery awarding it a godly 7/10.
Shielded away from a cold winter's afternoon in the surprisingly cosy basement of Shoreditch's Strongrooms, Gruff Rhys politely doesn't balk when shaking our near frost-bitten hand. Despite being the last interview of a very long day, Gruff is incredibly polite, sipping occasionally from a mug of tea and taking time to carefully word each answer in his still evident Welsh lilt.
DiS: You released Hotel Shampoo on Valentines Day and the record as a whole seems to have the theme of love running throughout it. Was that deliberate timing?
Gruff Rhys: It was a co-incidence, the timing is horrific. You know, it's horrible. That's nothing to do with the contents of the record, but the record is kind of a reflective album looking back, just fragments of memories. Yeah, there's a couple of power ballads (laughing).
DiS: Yeah, like 'Vitamin K' and 'At The Heart Of Love'. It's in stark contrast to where you were last year when you did the side-project with Tony Da Gatorra, The Terror Of Cosmic Lonelines, which was like an assault of electro, techno and a bit of glam.
GR: I wanted to make a heartbreak record, but I thought it would be interesting to make a multiple heartbreak record instead of one record related to one big break-up or something that would be a completely over the top. Not necessarily based on reality, but kind of twelve break-ups or something like that. It's definitely quite melancholy.
DiS: Tracks like 'Sophia Softly' seem reminiscent of Scott Walker and Brian Wilson where the heartbreak is reflected in the orchestration and the harmonies. Was that something you were aiming for?
GR: Yeah, when I was recording it I was 39 and I knew it'd be released when I was 40, so I thought it would be. I thought I should really make a piano album.
DiS: It was about time?
GR: Yeah, you know what should someone like my age be doing? So, you know I've got to make a piano album with a bit of saxophone. I wanted to confront aging as well.
DiS: Do you feel like you confronted it on the record?
GR: I think so, because I don't feel particularly different. I wasn't trying to engage with pop music or anything particularly contemporary, just make a sort of particularly downbeat album.
DiS: It doesn't feel too downbeat, it feels the most contemporary out of your solo albums. Did you want it to be quite pop?
GR: I wanted it to be like an MOR kind of west coast album, like when hippies started to take cocaine and make weird music about their pain of being millionaires. But, it's an experience of.
DiS: Like Arthur Lee and Love?
GR: Like, Fleetwood Mac or Dennis Wilson. But, I think I've failed to capture that, because I can't relate to that experience itself in being that rich in that I don't take loads of cocaine. I think that was in the back of my mind, but I think I failed in that sense but there's bit of it.
DiS: I think the harmonies are reflective of that era and also the first few Super Furry Animals albums, like Radiator, in their simplicity.
Yeah, the songs are kind of simple. It took about three weeks to make as I didn't want to over work the songs.
DiS: It was your longest solo album to make out of the three. Why did you take longer on this record?
GR: I wanted it to be refined, but I didn't want to make it overblown.
DiS: You worked with Andy Votel on this record. How do you know Andy?
GR: I've helped him out a little bit releasing a few compilations called Welsh Rare Beat with old Welsh language records from the seventies, and we did that about five years ago. And I've DJed quite a lot with him, he's an amazing DJ and he started putting out records by the name Anagram Jam and they're amazing.
I had this song called 'Christopher Columbus' and I wanted to sample these old records, and I love the Anagram Jam records, so I phoned him up and said 'oh, can I come to Manchester and record the song' and he was like, 'yeah, yeah, yeah'. It was amazing, because we recorded 'Shark Ridden Waters' as well, which came out of nowhere.
DiS: There seems to be a maritime theme on those songs. Did that come from those sessions?
GR: Andy started to amass samples relating to the sea, so like old shark disaster movies and creaking ships and things. We had a lengthy discussion about sharks, we went out for a Turkish meal and had some Efes beer and we kind of came up with the concept of Shark Ridden Waters; it's sung from the position of the shark about to eat someone and so it's pretty random. I didn't expect when I started the record to make that song, which makes me even more excited about it.
DiS: Yeah, the lyrics and subject matter of the 'Shark Ridden Waters' and 'Christopher Columbus' seem very different to the rest of the album.
GR: They were sort of recorded after the rest of the record, so it could have been a really different record if we'd started with them.
DiS: 'Conservation Conservation' is about eco-politics. Is that something that's important to you?
GR: It is. You know, I hate the way David Cameron and his government paint themselves with green credentials when they're just in the pocket of multi-national corporations. The whole vocabulary of ecology has been taken over by PR firms and governments, and it's become sort of meaningless and frustrating.
DiS: Tony Da Gatorra is known for being politically active and seems like a unique character. What was it like to work with him?
GR: It was incredible! [He's] one of the most resourceful people I've ever met; he arrived in Heathrow with just a tiny bag, like a satchel, and his gatorra. He's like a magician, every day he'd produce something like a giant flag from his bag things that could no way fit in the bag - he had so many surprises up his sleeve.
I think he's found an original way of conveying protest songs without using rhetoric, I mean, he's completely sincere. You know, he's built a drum machine shaped like a communist sickle to back himself up? Obviously, he rants about Brazilian corruption.
DiS: It takes a certain strength and character and self-belief to be that outspoken.
GR: Yeah, I'm hoping that he'll influence me in some way somewhere down the line. Unfortunately, direct kind of song-writing and protest songs don't come to be naturally. Hopefully, at some point he'll have a good influence on me.
DiS: He doesn't speak much English, does he?
GR: Yeah, and I don't speak Portugese - we were communicating through noise and energy. It's amazing, I loved playing the concerts with him they were probably the most extreme live experiences I've ever had and the most unpredictable. It kind of split the audience, on one-hand we were having stage invasions and people going nuts and completely into it, and a third of the audience would leave and another 20% standing just not really sure what was happening.
DiS: Did you feel that after doing the project with Tony that you wanted to get back basics and return to just making music with just an acoustic guitar?
GR: We recorded that album [Terror Of Cosmic Loneliness] in 2007 and just didn't get round to releasing it until last year….Like, I was working on the Neon Neon album at exactly the same time as the Candylion album and they were both completely different, but recorded simultaneously.
DiS: Do you feel like you need to have a multitude of creative outlets?
GR: I don't know I've never planned it. I didn't really decide. I don't know, I suppose the songs dictate what kind of life they take on. I don't plan really. I mean, Boom Pip was driving the Neon Neon album initially. He invited me to make a crazy record, so I was like 'Yeah, ok!'
DiS: When it's a record about De Lorean, you can't really say 'no'?
GR: Well, we hadn't hit on a concept but we just booked studio time and on the first day we decided that there had to be a good reason to record, otherwise there was really no point doing it. And, we hit on an amazing idea and we kind of built and recorded it in a really intense two week period. I've never worked like that before on a theme – it was amazing.
DiS: Do you have any plans to do something with Neon Neon again as it was so well received as project?
GR: It would be amazing to do something, but there would have to be a really strong idea and time. I'm putting this record out and Boom Pip's new album's almost finished.
DiS: Is there anyone else you want to work with at the moment?
GR: No, I've never had any ambitions to collaborate with anyone. When we first started out as Super Furry Animals … we were completely anti-collaborations, we wanted to be militant. I think I ended up singing on a Mogwai track as it involved a two day bender in Glasgow, and that was the beginning of my corruption [laughs].
DiS: What are the rest of the Super Furries up to? Do you have any plans to make another record?
GR: Yeah, we'll make the tenth album. Dafydd and Cian have wrote a soundtrack for a TV series, I think they've done two series. Guto's been touring with Spectrum, Sonic Boom's band – Spaceman 3 were one of his favourite bands when he was growing up so he's fulfilling a dream. Bunf's been recording incredible songs, by far amazing and unique songs, I don't know what he's going to do with them.
Mostly, we've just been sorting our lives out ….and last summer was the first time we haven't done festivals for fifteen years, so it's amazing not doing it for a little bit to recharge our batteries.
DiS: When do you think you'll head back into the studio?
GR: I suppose, when we've all stopped going mad and when we're refreshed. Because, we put so much into our albums, emotionally and they're like incredible adventures that take months to make, it means dedicating everything to it.
DiS: The video for 'Shark Ridden Waters' depicts someone who's immersed in social media. Do you think there are a lot of evils in social media?
GR: Not necessarily evils, I just find it interesting how you can live two lives simultaneously. The video I did looked like a Goddard film; I wanted it to look if social networking existed in the 1950s what would it look like? Yeah, it was bonkers.
DiS: Fun to make?
GR: Yeah, it was nuts! Really intense. We didn't have any permits to film and the cops kept chasing us. We had a replica gun and hundreds of thousands of units of fake money, and it just looked really dodgy!
DiS: You're heading out on tour this month. When you did some dates when you announced the album they were very low key? Will you have a full band this time?
GR: I'm really excited, because Yi Nwl are going to back me up; they're like an instrumental surf band from North Wales, it means the fog, they're like a post-rock band playing surf. It sets a good mood for the winter months it'll be like transporting everyone into summer initially.
They're going to help me play my solo back-catalogue, which I've never fully realised live before, but everything has a slight surf feel just because of the way they play because they're used to playing surf music. We've made a pledge that we'll sign any surf boards, if anyone brings any surf boards or if anyone's got any fake palm trees to bring along to the gigs.
DiS: Miles Kane features on the record too on Space Dust#2. How did he get involved?
GR: A couple of years ago he asked me to produce his record and I didn't end up producing his record, but I ended up producing a couple of songs for his album. I had no idea how seriously great guitarist he is, he's like a surf guitar god. He needs to be making 20 minute guitar solos and I'm sure he will. Yeah, so I asked him to play some surf guitar on that song.
DiS: Just out of interest, what's the sample at the end of 'Shark Ridden Waters'?
GR: It's a song by The Cyrkle from 1968 called, 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore', by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The whole song's really built on top of that, so they get half the royalties.
DiS: Did you use many other samples as it sounds very stripped back?
GR: Yeah. Chris Walmsley, who plays with the Seven Thunders, plays most of the drums on it. Most of the basic tracks, we recorded over a day just a really intense day. It was really quite simply recorded.
DiS: It does feel like you should be in a nice suit on a seventies TV show lounging over a piano.
GR: I suppose it needed to be a hotel bar album, a shit piano band playing in a shit hotel bar.
DiS: But, less of the 'shit'?
GR: Yeah.
DiS: You did an art installation last year with shampoo bottles that you'd collected over years of touring. What's happened to the shampoo bottles now?
GR: I built the hotel and it's still a dwelling and it's just in Cardiff. If anyone wants to borrow it, it's available for bookings.
DiS: It's very small!
GR: I can fit in it, though. It's the size of a large dog kennel. It's like a document of the boom years, but it's like looking back at the musical boom years of the nineties and early 21st century. I think the album's doing that as well – in my mind both are related. I think the name Hotel Shampoo fits the hotel better than the record, but I find the two inseparable so I ended up stealing the name from the record.
DiS: It's like a guilty secret that you've aired of obsessively hoarding all these shampoo bottles?
GR: Yeah, I've been planning this for over a decade so it's a huge relief to get it out the way so I don't have to collect all this. I was quite shocked at how much disposable stuff people give away and excited about it too.
DiS: Do you have a new passion?
GR: I always collect records but I'm not a completist, it's quite random. I don't obsess over it either. I don't look after the records I just play them, put them on the floor and then back in the wrong cover.
DiS: You also released Separado! last year - a documentary about you searching for your long lost South-American uncle. Are you going to do any follow-ups to that?
GR: In my head it's part of a trilogy of investigative concert tours, so I've got two others planned. But, Separado! took five years to make. It was filmed over a period of about a year and a half and took three and a half years to edit, so the other two might not get made but I'd like to.
DiS: Did you enjoy making it?
GR: It was a lot of fun, but the biggest undertaking I've ever taken on. Dylan Goch shot it and edited and he was literally in front of the screen for years. And, then I had to do a soundtrack which was like making an album – I had no idea how much work. We were like, 'fuck it, let's make a film! We've got a camera.' It was three hours long at one point and it took about a year to get it down to an hour and a half. It was nuts, but very rewarding.
DiS: What have you got planned for the rest of the year?
GR: Touring Hotel Shampoo. Separado! is on tour as well at film festivals and has been for a big chunk of last year, so I'm still touring with that which is weird for me. I get to play concerts around the film, so I'll be touring.