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between RGB Technologies ("we" or "RGB") and the customer who orders RGB services ("you" or "Customer").
THE AGREEMENT.Your use of RGB services is governed by these Terms of Service, the RGB Acceptable Use Policy, and the terms of your Order. When we use the term "Agreement" in any of the Order, Terms of Service, or Acceptable Use Policy, we are referring collectively to all of them. Sections 1 – 29 of these Terms of Service state the general terms applicable to all Services, and Sections 30 – 34 state additional terms that will apply only if you elect to purchase the particular services described in those sections. If the individual who submits an Order does so on behalf of a company or other legal entity, the individual represents that he or she has authority to bind that entity to the Agreement. This Agreement is the complete and exclusive agreement between you and RGB regarding its subject matter and supersedes and replaces any prior agreement, understanding, or communication, written or oral.
Some words used in the Agreement have particular meanings:
"Acceptable Use Policy" or "AUP" means the RGB Acceptable Use Policy posted at rgbx.com as of the date you sign the Order, as it may be amended pursuant to Section 21 below.
"Business Day" means 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, Canadian pacific time, excluding federal public holidays in Canada.
"Confidential Information" means all information disclosed by one of us to the other, whether before or after the effective date of the Agreement, that the recipient should reasonably understand to be confidential, including: (i) for you, all information transmitted to or from, or stored on, the RGB system, (ii) for RGB, unpublished prices and other terms of service, audit and security reports, product development plans, data center designs (including non-graphic information you may observe on a tour of a data center), server configuration designs, and other proprietary information or technology, and (iii) for both of us, information that is marked or otherwise conspicuously designated as confidential. Information that is developed by one of us on our own, without reference to the other's Confidential Information, or that becomes available to one of us other than through violation of the Agreement or applicable law, shall not be "Confidential Information" of the other party.
"Junk Mail" means email that is captured by our mail filter and other email that is reported by you to RGB as undesirable.
"Order" means either: (i) the online order that you submit to RGB via the RGB website, or (ii) any other written order (either in electronic or paper form) provided to you by RGB for signature that describes the Services you are purchasing, and that is signed by you, either manually or electronically.
"Services" means those services described in the Order.
Contingent on RGB's acceptance of your Order, and subject to these Terms of Service, RGB agrees to provide the Services. RGB agrees to follow security procedures at least as stringent, in RGB's reasonable judgment, as those described at rgbx.com
2.1 RGB Cloud Servers with a Managed Service Level. If you purchase RGB Cloud Servers with a Managed Service Level, then RGB live support will be available to you 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, year round. You may request support by opening a support ticket, or a one-on-one chat, via your RGB Cloud Control Panel or by calling your RGB Cloud Servers with a Managed Service Level account team.
2.2 Monitoring and Response If you purchase RGB Cloud Servers with a Managed Service Level then RGB will provide the following monitoring and response services:
Availability Monitoring. RGB will monitor up to 2 TCP ports (HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, POP3, etc.) per server for service availability. General server availability is tested every one (1) minute via ping. You will be alerted via ticket if port or ping monitors fail three consecutive times. You may also configure monitoring for one URL's content. Port and URL content checks are done every five (5) minutes.
Fault Monitoring. RGB monitors status events on servers and network devices including network availability, and backup success/failure.
Notification of Monitoring Alerts. We will notify you of monitoring alerts.
You agree to do each of the following: (i) comply with applicable law and the RGB Cloud Acceptable Use Policy (ii) pay when due the fees for the Services, (iii) use reasonable security precautions in light of your use of the Services, (iv) cooperate with RGB's reasonable investigation of outages, security problems, and any suspected breach of the Agreement, (v) keep your billing contact and other account information up to date; and (vi) immediately notify RGB of any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security. In the event of a dispute between us regarding the interpretation of applicable law or the AUP, RGB's reasonable determination shall control.
You may access the Services via the online control panel, or via a RGB-provided Application Programming Interface or API. RGB may modify its control panel or APIs at any time, or may transition to new API's. Your use of any API you download from the RGB website is governed by the license terms included with the code in the file named "COPYING" or "LICENSE" or like caption.
The Service Level Agreement(s) listed below are part of this Agreement for those Services you are buying:
Cloud Products SLA: www.rgbx.com
The initial term for each Order begins on the date we make the Services available for your use and continues for the period stated in the Order. If no period is stated in the Order, then the initial term shall be one month. Upon expiration of the initial term, the Order will automatically renew for successive renewal terms of one month each, unless and until one of us gives the other a written notice of non-renewal prior to the expiration of the initial term, or then-current renewal term, as applicable. You must follow RGB's non-renewal process accessible from your control panel to give an effective notice of non-renewal.
RGB will charge you the fees stated in your Order. If you have made a minimum commitment in your Order, and your actual usage does not meet or exceed the minimum commitment, RGB will charge you the difference between your minimum commitment and your actual usage. Unless you have made other arrangements, RGB will charge your credit card without invoice as follows: (i) for recurring fees, in advance, on or around the first day of each billing cycle, and (ii) for non-recurring fees (such as fees for initial set-up, overages, compute cycle fees, and domain name registration) on or around the date incurred, or on or around the first day of the billing cycle that follows the date incurred, at RGB's option; provided that RGB may wait to charge your credit card until the total aggregate fees due are at least $50. Unless otherwise agreed in the Order, your billing cycle will be monthly, beginning on the date that RGB first makes the Services available to you. If you are using RGB's billing services, as described in Section 31 (Billing Services) below, RGB may at its option, either include the fees, charge backs, and other items described in Section 31 with your recurring or non-recurring fees, as applicable, or deduct them from your remittances. RGB may suspend all services (including services provided pursuant to any unrelated Order or other agreement we may have with you) if our charges to your credit card are rejected for any reason. RGB may charge interest on overdue amounts at 1.5% per month (or the maximum legal rate if it is less than 1.5%). If any amount is overdue by more than thirty (30) days, and RGB brings a legal action to collect, or engages a collection agency, you must also pay RGB's reasonable costs of collection, including attorney fees and court costs. All fees are stated and will be charged in US Dollars. Any "credit" that we may owe you, such as a credit for failure to meet a service level guaranty, will be applied to fees due from you for services, and will not be paid to you as a refund. Charges that are not disputed within sixty (60) days of the date charged are conclusively deemed accurate. You must provide RGB with accurate factual information to help RGB determine if any tax is due with respect to the provision of the Services, and if RGB is required by law to collect taxes on the provision of the Services, you must pay RGB the amount of the tax that is due or provide satisfactory evidence of your exemption from the tax. You authorize RGB to obtain a credit report at any time during the term of the Agreement. Any credit that we may owe you, such as a credit for a SLA remedy, will be applied to unpaid fees for services or refunded to you, at our option.
If you are under a month-to-month contract, then we may increase fees at any time on forty-five (45) days advance written notice. If the initial term of your Agreement is longer than one month, then we may increase your fees effective as of the first day of the renewal term that first begins forty-five days from the day of our written notice of a fee increase. In addition, if during the initial term or any renewal term there is an increase in the Producer Price Index over the Producer Price Index reported for the month in which you signed your Order, we may increase your fees by the same percentage as the increase in the Producer Price Index; provided that we may not increase your fees pursuant to this sentence more often than once per twelve months, and we must give you at least thirty days advance written notice of the increase. The "Producer Price Index" means the Producer Price Index for Finished Goods, WPUSOP3000, not seasonally adjusted, and first published as "preliminary" data by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics in its PPI Detailed Report or successor publication. For historical information on the Producer Price Index, you may visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics website. (Example: if the Producer Price Index for the month in which you sign the Order is 186, and then increases in a subsequent month during the term of the Order to 195, we may increase your fees by up to 4.8%).
We may suspend your Services without liability if: (i) we reasonably believe that the Services are being used (or have been or will be used) in violation of the Agreement, (ii) we discover that you are, or are affiliated in any manner with, a person who has used similar services abusively in the past; (iii) you don't cooperate with our reasonable investigation of any suspected violation of the Agreement; (iv) we reasonably believe that your Services have been accessed or manipulated by a third party without your consent, (v) we reasonably believe that suspension of the Services is necessary to protect our network or our other customers, (vi) a payment for the Services is overdue, or (vii) suspension is required by law. We will give you reasonable advance notice of a suspension under this paragraph and a chance to cure the grounds on which the suspension are based, unless we determine, in our reasonable commercial judgment, that a suspension on shorter or contemporaneous notice is necessary to protect RGB or its other customers from imminent and significant operational or security risk. If the suspension was based on your breach of your obligations under the Agreement, then we may continue to charge you the fees for the Services during the suspension, and may charge you a reasonable reinstatement fee (not to exceed $150) upon reinstatement of the Services.
You may terminate the Agreement for convenience at any time on thirty days advance written notice. If you terminate the Agreement for convenience, in addition to other amounts you may owe, you must pay an early termination fee equal to any minimum monthly financial commitment you have made for the remaining portion of the then-current term.
We may terminate the Agreement for breach on written notice if: (i) we discover that the information you provided to us about yourself or your proposed use of the Services was materially inaccurate or incomplete, (ii) if you are an individual, you were not at least 18 years old or otherwise did not have the legal capacity to enter into the Agreement at the time you submitted the Order for Services, or if you are an entity or fiduciary, the individual submitting the Order for Services did not have the legal right or authority to enter into the Agreement on behalf of the person represented to be the customer, (iii) your payment of any invoiced amount is overdue, and you do not pay the overdue amount within three (3) days of our written notice, (iv) a credit report indicates you no longer meet our reasonable credit criteria, provided that if we terminate on these grounds, we must give you a reasonable opportunity to migrate your environment out of RGB in an orderly fashion, (v) you use your Service in violation of the AUP and fail to remedy the violation within ten (10) days of our written notice, (vi) you violate the AUP more than once, even if you cure each violation, or (vii) you fail to comply with any other provision of the Agreement and do not remedy the failure within thirty (30) days of our notice to you describing the failure.
You may terminate the Agreement for breach on written notice if: (i) we materially fail to provide the Services as agreed and do not remedy that failure within five (5) days of your written notice describing the failure, or (ii) we materially fail to meet any other obligation stated in the Agreement and do not remedy that failure within thirty (30) days of your written notice describing the failure.
12.1 You will not have access to your data stored on the RGB Cloud™ system during a suspension or following termination.
12.2 We backup the RGB Cloud systems on a periodic basis so that we are able to more quickly restore the systems in the event of a failure. These backups are made on a snap-shot basis and, therefore, capture only the information that exists on the system at the time of the backup. In addition, we may destroy all but the most recent backup. These backups may not be available to you or, if available, may not be useful to you outside of the RGB Cloud systems.
12.3 Although the RGB Cloud service may be used as a backup service, you agree that you will maintain at least one additional current copy of your programs and data stored on the RGB Cloud system somewhere other than on the RGB Cloud system .
RGB is not responsible to you for unauthorized access to your data or the unauthorized use of the Services unless the unauthorized access or use results from RGB's failure to meet its security obligations stated in the Agreement. You are responsible for the use of the Services by any employee of yours, any person to whom you have given access to the Services, and any person who gains access to your data or the Services as a result of your failure to use reasonable security precautions, even if such use was not authorized by you.
We do not promise that the Services will be uninterrupted, error-free, or completely secure. You acknowledge that there are risks inherent in Internet connectivity that could result in the loss of your privacy, Confidential Information, and property. RGB has no obligation to provide security other than as stated in this Agreement. We disclaim any and all warranties not expressly stated in the Agreement, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement. You are solely responsible for the suitability of the service chosen. If you have not made the minimum financial commitment for support and SLA coverage, the Services are provided AS IS. Any voluntary services we may perform for you at your request and without any additional charge are provided AS IS.
You represent and warrant that you are not on the United States Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Asset Controls list of Specially Designated National and Blocked Persons and are not otherwise a person to whom RGB is legally prohibited to provide the Services. You may not use the Services for the development, design, manufacture, production, stockpiling, or use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, weapons of mass destruction, or missiles, in a country listed in Country Groups D: 4 and D: 3, as set forth in Supplement No. 1 to the Part 740 of the United States Export Administration Regulations, nor may you provide administrative access to the Service to any person (including any natural person or government or private entity ) that is located in or is a national of Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan, North Korea or Syria or any country that is embargoed or highly restricted under United States export regulations.
Each of us agrees not to use the other's Confidential Information except in connection with the performance or use of the Services, as applicable, the exercise of our respective legal rights under the Agreement, or as may be required by law. Each of us agrees not to disclose the other's Confidential Information to any third person except as follows:
to our respective service providers, agents, and representatives, provided that such service providers, agents, or representatives agree to confidentiality measures that are at least as stringent as those stated in these General Terms and Conditions.
to law enforcement or government agency if required by a subpoena or other compulsory legal process, or if either of us believes, in good faith, that the other's conduct may violate applicable criminal law as required by law; or
in response to a subpoena or other compulsory legal process, provided that each of us agrees to give the other written notice of at least seven days prior to disclosing Confidential Information under this subsection (or prompt notice in advance of disclosure, if seven days advance notice is not reasonably feasible), unless the law forbids such notice.
Our obligations to you are defined by this Agreement. We are not liable to you for failing to provide the Services unless the failure results from a breach of this Agreement, or results from our gross negligence or willful misconduct. The dollar credits stated in the Service Level Agreement are your sole and exclusive remedy for unavailability of the Services.
Neither of us (nor any of our employees, agents, affiliates or suppliers) is liable to the other for any lost profits or any other indirect, special, incidental or consequential loss or damages of any kind, or for any loss that could have been avoided by the damaged party's use of reasonable diligence, even if the party responsible for the damages has been advised or should be aware of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall either of us be liable to the other for any punitive damages.
Notwithstanding anything in the Agreement to the contrary, except for liability based on willful misconduct or fraudulent misrepresentation, and liability for death or personal injury resulting from RGB's negligence, the maximum aggregate monetary liability of RGB and any of its employees, agents, suppliers, or affiliates in connection with the Services, the Agreement, and any act or omission related to the Services or Agreement, under any theory of law (including breach of contract, tort, strict liability, violation of law, and infringement) shall not exceed the greater of (i) the amount of fees you paid for the Services for the six months prior to the occurrence of the event giving rise to the claim, or (ii) Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00).
If we, our affiliates, or any of our or their respective employees, agents, or suppliers (the "RGB Indemnitees") are faced with a legal claim by a third party arising out of your actual or alleged gross negligence, willful misconduct, violation of law, failure to meet the security obligations required by the Agreement, violation of the AUP, or violation of Section 15 (Export Matters) of these Terms and Conditions, then you will pay the cost of defending the claim (including reasonable attorney fees) and any damages award, fine, or other amount that is imposed on the RGB Indemnitees as a result of the claim. Your obligations under this subsection include claims arising out of the acts or omissions of your employees, any other person to whom you have given access to the Services, and any person who gains access to the Services as a result of your failure to use reasonable security precautions, even if the acts or omissions of such persons were not authorized by you. If you resell the Services, the grounds for indemnification stated above also include any claim brought by your customers or end users arising out of your resale of the Services. We will choose legal counsel to defend the claim, provided that these decisions must be reasonable and must be promptly communicated to you. You must comply with our reasonable requests for assistance and cooperation in the defense of the claim. We may not settle the claim without your consent, although such consent may not be unreasonably withheld. You must pay expenses due under this Section as we incur them.
In addition to the terms of our Agreement, your use of any Microsoft® software is governed by Microsoft's license terms that appear at www.rgbx.com
You may resell the Services, but you are responsible for use of the Services by any third party to the same extent as if you were using the Services yourself. If you resell any part of the Services that includes Microsoft software, then you must include these Microsoft terms described in Section 19 (Microsoft Software) above in a written agreement with your customers as well as the content of Section 23 (No High Risk Use). Unless otherwise agreed, RGB will provide support only to you, not to any other person you authorize to use the Services. There are no third party beneficiaries to the Agreement, meaning that third parties do not have any rights against either of us under the Agreement.
We may change our Acceptable Use Policy, provided that any changes are reasonable and consistent with applicable law and industry norms. Any such changes made during the term of your Agreement will become effective to your account upon the first to occur of: (i) renewal, (ii) your execution of a new/additional Order for your account that incorporates the revised AUP or General Terms, or (iii) thirty (30) days following our notice to you describing the change. If the change materially and adversely affects you, you may terminate the Agreement by giving us written notice of termination on such grounds no later than thirty (30) days following the date the change became effective for your account, and we will not enforce the change with respect to that account for thirty (30) days following the date of your notice. If you terminate your Service because the change adversely affects you, we may decide not to enforce that change with respect to your account and keep your Agreement in place for the remainder of the term.
Your routine communications regarding the Services should be sent to your RGB Cloud account team using your RGB Cloud control panel. If you want to give us a notice regarding termination of the Agreement for breach, indemnification, or other non-routine legal matter, you should send it by electronic mail and postal mail: [email protected]
RGB's routine communications regarding the Services and legal notices will be sent to the individual(s) you designate as your contact(s) on your account either by electronic mail, postal mail, or overnight courier, except that RGB may give notice of an amendment to the AUP by posting the notice on your RGB Cloud control panel. Notices are deemed received as of the time delivered, or if that time does not fall within a Business Day, as defined below, as of the beginning of the first Business Day following the time delivered, except that notices of AUP amendments are deemed delivered as of the first time that you log on to your RGB Cloud control panel after the time that the notice is posted. For purposes of counting days for notice periods, the Business Day on which the notice is deemed received counts as the first day. Notices must be given in the English language.
You may not use the Services in any situation where failure or fault of the Services could lead to death or serious bodily injury of any person, or to physical or environmental damage. For example, you may not use, or permit any other person to use, the Services in connection with aircraft or other modes of human mass transportation, nuclear or chemical facilities, or Class III medical devices under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Each of us retains all right, title and interest in and to our respective trade secrets, inventions, copyrights, and other intellectual property. Any intellectual property developed by RGB during the performance of the Services shall belong to RGB unless we have agreed with you in advance in writing that you shall have an interest in the intellectual property.
Upon expiration or termination of the Agreement, you must discontinue use of the Services and relinquish use of the IP addresses and server names assigned to you by RGB in connection with Services, including pointing the DNS for your domain name(s) away from RGB Services. You agree that RGB may, as it determines necessary, make modifications to DNS records and zones on RGB managed or operated DNS servers and services.
You may not assign the Agreement without RGB's prior written consent. We may assign the Agreement in whole or in part as part of a corporate reorganization or a sale of our business, and we may transfer your Confidential Information as part of any such transaction. RGB may use third party service providers to perform all or any part of the Services, but RGB remains responsible to you under this Agreement for work performed by its third party service providers to the same extent as if RGB performed the Services itself.
Neither of us will be in violation of the Agreement if the failure to perform the obligation is due to an event beyond our control, such as significant failure of a part of the power grid, significant failure of the Internet, natural disaster, war, riot, insurrection, epidemic, strikes or other organized labor action, terrorism, or other events of a magnitude or type for which precautions are not generally taken in the industry.
The Agreement is governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia, exclusive of any BC choice of law principle that would require the application of the law of a different jurisdiction, and the laws of Canada, as applicable. The Agreement shall not be governed by the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods. Exclusive venue for all disputes arising out of the Agreement shall be in the provincial or federal courts in Vancouver, BC, and we each agree not to bring an action in any other venue. You waive all objections to this venue and agree not to dispute personal jurisdiction or venue in these courts. You agree that you will not bring or participate in any class action lawsuit against RGB or any of its employees or affiliates. Each of us agrees that we will not bring a claim under the Agreement more than two years after the time that the claim accrued.
These Terms of Service may have been incorporated in your Order by reference to page on the RGB website. Although we may from time to time revise the Terms of Service posted on that page, those revisions will not be effective as to an Order that we accepted prior to the date we posted the revision, and your Order will continue to be governed by the Terms of Service posted on the effective date of the Order. However, any amended Terms of Service will become effective on the first day of the renewal period that follows the date that the new Terms of Service were posted by at least thirty days. In addition, if over time you sign multiple Orders for a single account, then the Terms of Service incorporated in the latest Order posted on the effective date of the latest Order will govern the entire account. RGB may accept or reject any Order you submit in its sole discretion. RGB's provisioning of the Services described in an Order shall be RGB's acceptance of the Order.
An Order may be amended by a formal written agreement signed by both parties, or by an exchange of correspondence, including electronic mail, that includes the express consent of an authorized individual for each of us. Any such correspondence that adds or modifies Services in connection with an account established by an Order shall be deemed to be an amendment to that Order, notwithstanding the fact that the correspondence does not expressly refer to the Order.
Other than as stated herein, the Agreement may be modified only by a formal document signed by both parties.
If there is a conflict between the terms of any of the documents that comprise the Agreement, the documents will govern in the following order: Order, Terms of Service, and the Acceptable Use Policy. If any part of the Agreement is found unenforceable by a court or other tribunal, the rest of the Agreement will nonetheless continue in effect, and we agree that the tribunal may reform the unenforceable part if it is possible to do so consistent with the material economic incentives of the parties resulting in this Agreement. Each of us may enforce each of our respective rights under the Agreement even if we have waived the right or failed to enforce the same or other rights in the past. Our relationship is that of independent contractors and not business partners. Neither of us is the agent for the other, and neither of us has the right to bind the other on any agreement with a third party. The captions in the Agreement are for convenience only and are not part of the Agreement. The use of the word "including" in the Agreement shall be read to mean "including without limitation." Sections 1, 7, 10, 16, 17, 18, 22, 24, 28, 29, 33 and all other provisions that by their nature are intended to survive expiration or termination of the Agreement shall survive expiration or termination of the Agreement.
If you have made any change to the Agreement documents that you did not bring to our attention in a way that is reasonably calculated to put us on notice of the change, the change shall not become part of the Agreement.
The Agreement may be signed in multiple counterparts, which, taken together, will be considered one original. Facsimile signatures, signatures on an electronic image (such as .pdf or .jpg format), and electronic signatures shall be deemed to be original signatures.
If you register, renew, or transfer a domain name through RGB, RGB will submit the request to its domain name services provider (the "Registrar") on your behalf. RGB's sole responsibility is to submit the request to the Registrar. RGB is not responsible for any errors, omissions, or failures of the Registrar. Your use of domain name services is subject to the applicable legal terms of the Registrar posted at www.rgbx.com. You are responsible for closing any account with any prior reseller of or registrar for the requested domain name, and you are responsible for responding to any inquiries sent to you by the Registrar.
If you use our reseller billing services, then you appoint RGB your true and lawful attorney-in-fact to bill end users, charge end user credit cards, and receive the billing proceeds in accordance with this Section. You must obtain from each end user to be billed a specific authorization for RGB, doing business as "Web Hosting Billing Systems," to charge the end user's credit card for all charges payable to you pursuant to the agreement between you and the end user. You must provide RGB with the correct rate for any applicable sales or other tax to be billed. RGB is not obligated to begin billing an end user until 3 business days following the date that you have provided RGB with complete, consistent, and verifiable credit card and related billing information, and the end user has passed RGB's credit card acceptance criteria. You represent and warrant to RGB that the end user credit card authorization is complete and valid, and that all charges, including taxes, are accurate, bona fide, and in accordance with the law and your agreement between you and your end user. RGB will attempt to charge the end users' credit cards one time according to the collections process outlined in the Cloud Sites™ Control Panel. RGB will notify you if the charges are disallowed, canceled, charged back, or are otherwise uncollectible. Any further collection efforts are your responsibility. RGB will suspend end users for non-payment on your instruction in accordance with RGB's suspension procedures. RGB will remit billing proceeds to you on a monthly basis via electronic funds transfer, check, or other method it may choose in its sole discretion. RGB may hold billing proceeds for a reasonable period of time as necessary to ensure that the proceeds are not subject to any charge back or refunds. Generally, this means that the proceeds from the initial charge of a credit card will be held for 60 days, and subsequent charges will be held for 30 days. If total collected proceeds are less than $50.00, RGB may hold the proceeds for inclusion with the following month's remittance to you. You must repay any billing proceeds that RGB remits to you that are subsequently charged back by or refunded to the end users' credit card companies or other payment processors, regardless of the reason for the charge back or refund. RGB may, at its option, deduct from your monthly remittance or charge your credit card for any charge backs or refunds. You are responsible for reporting and remitting all taxes to the appropriate taxing authorities. RGB will provide support to you and your end user on end user billing issues. Such support shall include answering billing questions, processing refunds and service credits, and updating credit card information. Your indemnification obligations stated in the Section – 18 (Indemnification) include third party claims arising from RGB's provision of the billing services described in this paragraph, except and to the extent that such claims arise from RGB's negligence, misconduct, or violation of the law.
32.1 Access. You may access you Mail Services over the web via our control panel, or via a RGB-provided API. RGB may modify its control panel or APIs at any time, or may transition to new APIs.
32.2 Management of the Service. RGB will provision your initial mail environment, but you are otherwise responsible for managing your mail service, including adding mailboxes, adding wireless or other service components, adding storage capacity, managing settings, and configuring spam filters.
32.3 Filtering. RGB will provide email filtering services designed to filter spam, phishing scams, and email infected with viruses. RGB recommends that you employ additional security measures, such as a desktop virus scanner and firewall, on computers that are connected to the Internet. Email that is quarantined by the filtering system is excluded from the Service Level Guaranty above. RGB will use commercially reasonable efforts to deliver your email messages. Third party filtering services may from time to time prevent successful delivery of your messages. You acknowledge that the technological limitations of the filtering service will likely result in the capture of some legitimate email and the failure to capture some unwanted email, including email infected with viruses. You hereby release RGB and its employees, agents, affiliates, and third party suppliers from any liability for damages arising from the failure of RGB's filtering services to capture unwanted email or from the capture of legitimate email, or from a failure of your email to reach its intended recipient as a result of a filtering service used by the recipient or the recipient's email service provider.
32.4 Memory Limitations. Mail that exceeds the storage limit when received may be permanently lost. You may adjust the storage capacity of your individual mailboxes via the control panel, and it is your obligation to monitor and adjust the storage capacity of individual mailboxes as needed. An individual email message that exceeds the per-message size limit may also be permanently lost. As of June 2011, the per-message size limit is 50MB.
32.5 Content Privacy. Your email messages and other items sent or received via the mail service will include: (i) the content of the communication ("content"), and (ii) certain information that is created by the systems and networks that are used to create and transmit the message (the "message routing data"). The content includes things like the text of email messages and attached media files, and is generally the information that could be communicated using some media other than email (like a letter, telephone call, CD, DVD, etc.) The message routing data includes information such as server hostnames, IP addresses, timestamps, mail queue file identifiers, and spam filtering information, and is generally information that would not exist but for the fact that the communication was made via email. The content of your items is your Confidential Information and is subject to the restrictions on use and disclosure described in these Terms of Service. However, you agree that we may view and use the message routing data for our general business purposes, including maintaining and improving security, improving our services, and developing products. In addition, you agree that we may disclose message routing data to third parties in aggregate statistical form, provided that we do not include any information that could be used to identify you.
32.6 Usage Data. We collect and store information related to your use of the Services, such as use of SMTP, POP3, IMAP, and filtering choices and usage. You agree that we may use this information for our general business purposes and may disclose the information to third parties in aggregate statistical form, provided that we do not include any information that could be used to identify you.
Content that you distribute using our content delivery services may not be as secure as content stored on the Cloud. You should use our content deliver services only for content that you intend to distribute to the public via your website.
If you elect to participate in any beta test of a RGB Service (a "Beta Service"), then your use of the Beta Service is subject to the following terms:
You acknowledge that the Beta Service is a pre-release version and may not work properly.
You acknowledge that your use of the Beta Service may expose you to unusual risks of operational failures.
You should not use the pre-release version of the Beta Service in a live production environment. You must not use the Beta Service in any hazardous environments, life support, or weapons systems.
We may terminate the Beta Service at any time, in our sole discretion.
The commercially released version of the Beta Service may change substantially from the pre-release version, and programs that use or run with the pre-release version may not work with the commercial release or subsequent releases.
You are not entitled to any service level credits under our service level guaranties for downtime or other problems that may result from your testing.
During the beta test we will provide support for your use of the service only during our normal business hours – 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, and not 24×7 as with our standard services.
You agree to provide prompt feedback regarding your experience with the Beta Service in a form reasonably requested by us, including information necessary to enable us to duplicate errors or problems you experience. You agree that we may use your feed back for any purpose, including product development purposes. At our request you will provide us with comments that we may use publicly for press materials and marketing collateral. Any intellectual property inherent in your feedback or arising from your testing of the service shall be owned exclusively by RGB.
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Bookings & Sales: Mon-Fri: 9am-9pm / Sat: 9am-6pm
0161 888 0984
ATOL Protected where appropriate
Prices Checked Daily
100% Secure Payments
UK Call Centres
You will receive an ATOL Certificate with every ATOL Protected holiday booked with Holiday Supermarket
Crazy but addictive
The magnificent capital of Thailand, Bangkok is fascinating, charming and electrifying. With an unbelievable wealth of temples to visit, futuristic skyscrapers towering high above, exhilarating nightlife Bangkok is bursting with things to see and do. A popular way to see this city is a boat ride along the Chao Phraya River which stops at most major attractions or opt for the more thrilling form of transport the tuk tuk. After the hustle and bustle of Bangkok take a well deserved trip to the south and relax on the Koh Pha Ngan beach or visit the Second World War site, the bridge over the River Kwai which is not too far from Bangkok.
If there's one word which can perfectly encapsulate the experience of visiting Bangkok, it's intense. This city certainly does have a lot going on; with plenty of it being unique and unusual. But during holidays to Bangkok there is one thing you will notice and that is the number of smiles all around you.
The locals here have always got a smile on their faces no matter what and it is this which adds to the unique charm of Bangkok.
Bangkok is the capital of Thailand and has a population of over 11 million. It is a modern, cosmopolitan city which is divided into several districts. The city is always busy and thriving, making it an exciting stop off point for young travellers: if it's a relaxing break you're after, then holidays to Bangkok might not be the answer.
Bangkok has a hot and tropical climate. During the day, temperatures can go up to the mid 30s and this is true no matter what time of year you go so be prepared for hot and humid conditions on your holidays in Bangkok. March, April and May are the hottest months and after this, the rainy season begins and lasts right up until October.
Eating Out
Thai food is fresh and fairly simple often mixing spicy, sour, sweet and salty flavours together to make a range of delicious dishes which can be adapted to suit any tastes. In Bangkok in particular, you will find a huge range of restaurants to choose from. Over the course of your holidays to Bangkok you can choose to eat in a riverside restaurant, on a cruise, in a trendy modern restaurant or from the food markets. In Bangkok there are also plenty of street food vendors offering delicacies or if you want to make a night of it, why not go to a Bangkok dinner show, where you can enjoy traditional food as well as traditional entertainment.
When on your holidays to Bangkok it's worth opening your mind and trying new things. But with some of the very unusual delicacies on offer here, it might be worth just double-checking what's on your plate before you decide to eat it.
The food in Thailand is world-renowned and it is in Bangkok where you will find the world famous Royal Dragon restaurant. The waiters and waitresses in this restaurant have a unique way of serving food. They fly through the air on harnesses, juggling food or skate along on rollerblades. This is the world's biggest restaurant, seating 5000 guests and can really add a bit of magic to your Bangkok holidays.
Anyone on a holiday to Bangkok will immediately notice extremely varied and fascinating architecture. From the intricate and graceful traditional temples to the unusual, modern day tower blocks, the buildings in the city really complement each other and make the place completely unique. Where else in the world can you see a building in the shape of a robot, or tower blocks designed to look like an elephant sitting comfortably with the beautiful Buddhist temples?
The Grand Palace is Bangkok's most famous landmark and with its intricate detail it really is a marvellous piece of architecture. The palace was built in 1782 and the Thai King lived there for 150 years.
Holidays to Bangkok are all about markets. And for the ultimate market experience, ensure you make time for the Chatuchak Weekend Market, which is huge in size and has anything and everything you could possibly imagine on the stalls there. Expect more Bangkok chaos here and of course, plenty of haggling.
Things not to miss
1. Holidays to Bangkok are not complete without a trip to the floating market. It's astonishing how the locals pile their boats high with local food, fruit and vegetables. It's absolute chaos and has got to be seen to be believed. You won't find a sight like this anywhere else in the world.
2. For something which completely sums up the city, take a trip to Vimanmek Royal Mansion. This is the largest building made completely of golden teak. In keeping with the graceful and intricate architecture of the city, this really is a unique building.
3. If you only have time to visit one of the many temples on your holidays in Bangkok then make sure it is the Wat Pra Kaeo temple. This is seen as the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand. See the fascinating Buddha image which has been carved out of a single block of emerald and dates back to the 15th century AD.
Room Only
for 7 Nights
From London
Bed & Breakfast
email: firstname.lastname@example.com
We accept the following payments:

subset: commoncrawl


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ATLANTA (AP) ? When Nia Lewis was looking for a car to drive to Florida to visit her in-laws, she went to the Atlanta Budget Rent a Car website as she normally does. But she stumbled upon something unusual.
There, on the site's home page, was a big discount. The catch? The car is a moving ad.
With the price of gasoline approaching $4 a gallon and the economy still in bad shape, Budget is hoping more deal-hungry vacationers want to rent cheaper vehicles ? as long as they don't mind driving a billboard.
Lewis read the fine print on the website, searched the company the ads were promoting and filled out a questionnaire that asked what types of areas she might be visiting.
But the selling point was the price: Lewis saw that she could get an SUV that would usually cost closer to $300 for a four-day trip for about $88.
She was sold.
"The price definitely outweighed everything," said Lewis, who will be traveling with her husband and 2-year-old daughter at the end of August. "I think it's a neat idea. You're paying them to advertise their vehicle, but they're helping you because it's a much cheaper rate than I would've paid."
The Boca Raton, Fla.-based rental car company is launching its sponsored rental vehicles campaign in Atlanta, one of its major hubs, with 15 full-size sedans and 10 intermediate SUVs. Those are the sizes most frequently rented by leisure travelers and families.
The cars are outfitted with ads for Sheets Brand Energy Strips, a product launched earlier this summer. The promotion was brokered by Wrap Media Group, which offers brands nontraditional advertising.
The Budget campaign is a first for all three companies, and the Atlanta promotion continues through November. But the concept is not entirely new, having already been applied to vehicles like trucks and buses. Companies emblazon their corporate fleets with logos and independent contractors often promote their wares on car doors and bumpers.
Renters who choose a sponsored vehicle will get the car at a significant discount or may be eligible for a free upgrade. The cars can be rented online or at one of Budget's Atlanta locations. The promotional rate will depend on the market rate and availability.
Heather Etzler, vice president and general manager for Budget's Atlanta branch, said the campaign is in keeping with the company's mission to provide the best value for customers. She said Budget expects renters will find the ads are exciting and in good taste.
"This will help us build a relationship with customers we don't have at this point," Etzler said. "We think the demand is going to be there. With a world that is so driven with coupons and discounts, we think it's going to be a great relationship."
Wrap Media Group President Ira Berke said the partnership is a win-win for consumers and the companies they're trying to reach.
"It's not just a blatant sell," Berke said.
It's a strategy that definitely stands out. The black-and-white Sheets logo covers three sides of the all-red vehicles, and the ads feature Sheets' slogan, website and links to the company's social media addresses. The ads also say the product has B vitamins, no calories and no sugar.
Wrap Media Vice President Matt Custage said the company is negotiating with other brands interested in similar campaigns. Part of the Sheets' promotion includes free samples of the product, which will be available in the vehicles for renters to try ? or not.
Warren Struhl, chief executive officer of Pure Brands ? which owns Sheets ? said he was excited about the prospect of his brand being exposed to people on the street and at restaurants, shopping malls, parks, beaches and other popular destinations.
"I'm always looking for opportunities to leverage every dollar in an untraditional fashion," said Struhl, who has built several consumer products companies.
When Struhl launched his specialty laser printer paper company, Paper Direct, in the 1990s, he put samples of the product in printer boxes along with a catalog to hook customers. Later, when he started Popcorn Indiana, he partnered with beer and other beverage companies to promote both products.
"Lots of my businesses have done different things to break out from the clutter," Struhl said. "We have a fun, cool, renegade brand. It's all about being exciting. I think our logo and our red color is something that'll really stand out on moving cars."


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John Boehner Confirms, "It's Boner. Boner."
House Speaker John Boner made a Boehner joke on Wednesday after a reporter confused him with Rep. Dave Camp.
"Camp? No, it's Boner. Boner," Boehner said, proving he's not oblivious to the fact that people have a tendency to phallic-ly mispronounce his name.
"Well, we know what's been on my mind," reporter Luca Gattoni-Celli replied. (The tax plan Camp had released earlier that day, obviously. What did you think he was talking about?)


text: Come for the emissions testing, come back for the duck soup. That's the brilliant business model that almost was, but isn't. It turns out 2000 Vietnam Restaurant and Saigon Express Emissions Testing, in an attached garage on Zuni and San Mateo, are separate businesses. But I'm still coming back for the duck soup.Until then I'll be haunted by the memory of that fragrant and mildly sweet broth steaming my face, and that falling-apart-soft hindquarter of duck. The soup includes a choice of rice or egg noodles and a pho -style side salad, allowing you to customize with jalapeño slices, basil, lime wedges and sprouts. The kitchen grants no such leeway in the onion department, adding three types of raw onion before serving: chopped spring onion tops, slices from a sweet onion and whole spring bulbs. This allium chorus makes the duck soup even duckier.As the name implies, 2000 Vietnam just finished its first decade. It has the hum and swing of a well-established neighborhood restaurant. On one night, the diverse patronage includes a pierced and dreaded couple, an intellectual-looking man with a scarf, a family, and a table of Vietnamese-yapping twentysomethings. The air smells faintly of steam and five-spice, and it pulses softly with upbeat Asian twang. Crowding the dining room are a set of marble tables that look like they belong in a Paris sidewalk café. The decor is eclectic but not busy; paintings of a Vietnamese landscape, wild horses and a Central American Indian with her baby all have their space, as do odd trinkets and plants. The flat-screen TV is turned to sports.Service is attentive but cool, and nobody protested the hours I spent there with my laptop, sipping a Vietnamese iced coffee prepared at my table. The strong, sweetened coffee is excellent, but I prefer the taro shake—a tall glass of thick lavender liquid with a handful of blue tapioca balls on the bottom. The shake has a pleasant nutty flavor that lives up to its visual spectacle. Flat, wide rice noodles are a weakness of mine. They are my comfort noodle, durable yet pillowy soft, nice on the teeth, with ample sauce-binding surface area and unblemished inner noodle core. I've had the 2000 Vietnam flat noodles two ways: stir-fried with vegetables and with succulent pork (and lots of veggies). Both versions do simple, satisfying justice to my noodle.On the well-worn path, the spring rolls are gorgeous; the rice paper is rolled so airtight that after your first bite, the roll sucks up the nuoc mam dipping sauce like a turkey baster. The pho, meanwhile, is greasy in a good way. Raw beef slices lose their pink before your eyes; every bite of creamy tendon brings great pleasure.On a path less traveled, the No. 122, "special broken rice with shredded pork, pork chops, meat egg pie, half-done egg and fried tofu" is a study in protein diversification, including several slices of unadvertised shrimp paste wrapped in sugar cane. The meat egg pie is like meat loaf, but the lightest meat loaf ever. The pork chop is sweet, five-spiced and crispy. The inclusion of fried tofu chunks amid all of that animal flesh is endearing. But the most impressive protein of all is the half-fried egg—a hot, molten core in a crispy, oily veneer. Someday I'd like to apprentice with the fine chef at 2000 Vietnam and learn the art of egg half-cooking. Not to mention duck-souping. That dark, soulful, sweaty broth takes me to a hidden alley in a faraway city where strange, sweet smells drift around corners and a food cart steams under a street lamp. Or maybe that's the carbon monoxide getting to my brain. I think I need to go get my emissions tested.


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Possible Duplicate:
How to influence the position of float environments like figure and table in LaTeX?
I've created a PNG image with Microsoft Visio and I want to put it in a document I'm making with LaTeX.
The problem is that the image automatically goes to the next page whenever I try to insert it, when there is a lot of space under the paragraph above it.
I already try trimming and clipping it to see if maybe the figure simply had lots of blank space above it, but it doesn't, annd it goes to the next page for no reason.
I tried the following:
\caption{insert caption}
\label{fig: figure}
The problem is that it doesn't work. Does anyone know where the problem is?


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BOSTON, MA—Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have discovered a new vaccine candidate for the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa taking advantage of a new mechanism of immunity.
The study was published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine on June 21, 2012.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections, particularly in patients on respirators, where it can cause so-called ventilator-associated pneumonia, which carries a very high mortality rate. Pseudomonas also causes lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that renders the lungs susceptible to bacterial infection.
Despite more than 40 years of vaccine research and development, there is no clinically available vaccine for this bacterium. Most prior vaccine efforts have focused on generating antibodies to Pseudomonas toxins or surface molecules, especially the sugar coating on the bug called the lipopolysaccharide O antigen. These approaches have not yielded a licensed vaccine for humans.
Gregory Priebe, MD, BWH Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, and Boston Children's Hospital Division of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, along with researchers from Harvard Medical School, constructed a vaccine based on a new mechanism of immunity to Pseudomonas mediated by T helper 17 (Th17) cells. Th17 cells are a recently described type of helper T cells that secrete the cytokine IL-17 and enhance antibacterial mucosal defenses.
In the current studies, the investigators designed a screen for Th17-stimulating protein antigens expressed by a molecular library of DNA encoding Pseudomonas proteins. The screen discovered that the Pseudomonas protein PopB is a very effective stimulator of Th17 immunity, and immunization with purified PopB protected mice from lethal pneumonia in an antibody-independent fashion.
The researchers are currently taking their work a step further by constructing conjugate vaccines using PopB as a protein carrier with the hopes of improving the effectiveness of the vaccine. They hope that the PopB-based vaccine might one day be used to prevent Pseudomonas infections in hospitalized patients and in people with cystic fibrosis.
This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (HL092515).
Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare. BWH has more than 3.5 million annual patient visits, is the largest birthing center in New England and employs nearly 15,000 people. The Brigham's medical preeminence dates back to 1832, and today that rich history in clinical care is coupled with its national leadership in patient care, quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, and its dedication to research, innovation, community engagement and educating and training the next generation of health care professionals. Through investigation and discovery conducted at its Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), BWH is an international leader in basic, clinical and translational research on human diseases, involving nearly 1,000 physician-investigators and renowned biomedical scientists and faculty supported by nearly $625 million in funding. BWH continually pushes the boundaries of medicine, including building on its legacy in organ transplantation by performing the first face transplants in the U.S. in 2011. BWH is also home to major landmark epidemiologic population studies, including the Nurses' and Physicians' Health Studies, OurGenes and the Women's Health Initiative. For more information and resources, please visit BWH's online newsroom.
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine


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Verrazano School Convocation 2012
The Verrazano School at CSI celebrated its second annual Verrazano Senior Convocation recently in the Center for the Arts. The talented and diverse group of 41 students who graduated from the honors program this year are members of the Verrazano School's third graduating class, and members of the Class of 2012 were accepted to the program as incoming freshmen or as transfer students. The Verrazano School serves all majors, and Verrazano students benefit from smaller class sizes and priority registration, additional support from faculty, scholarship opportunities for study abroad and research, and personalized advisement and career and graduate school preparation. The Verrazano School also offers its exceptional, highly motivated students added assistance and guidance in pursuit of internships, research, and community service opportunities. Read the story online: http://csitoday.com/2012/06/427425/Read More


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Wooden Stacking Tower | Grimm's Heirloom Toys
- Ages 1+
- Materials: lime wood, non-toxic water based color stain
- Measures: 8.3" tall
- Meets all US and European safety standards
- Wood is from sustainably-managed forests
- Use a damp cloth to clean. Avoid submerging in water, do not use disinfectant or hot water.
- An iconic, Spielgut recommended toy
- Safety first: Always put on safety cap while not assembling or disassembling wooden coloured discs. Small parts!
About Grimm's Wooden Toys:
We are thrilled to offer Grimm's Toys at Made You Look!
Grimm's Spiel und Holz is a family owned company based in Hochdorf, Germany that designs and manufactures heirloom quality wooden toys. Started in 1978, Grimm´s creates toys that are truly one of a kind – each toy is made of wood, a natural material that creates unique markings in each toy.
Grimm's works to design toys whose simple and reduced design together with beautiful coloring and inviting surface feel are well-suited for all ages – heirloom toys that are played with over and over again.
Everything from design to surface finish & treatment to quality control and packing of the toys is done by Grimm's in Hochdorf, Germany. Woodworking is completed by independent shops in Europe - the largest of which is owned by a former Grimm's employee. Most toys are sanded by hand, which gives them their very special look and feel.
In product development and design, Grimm's is guided by Waldorf education and other reform pedagogical approaches such as Montessori. Their minimal approach to design leaves plenty of room for the development of children's creativity - a limitless and magical world of free and open-ended play.


text: How prevalent is the use of tracking cookies that get planted on your computer after browsing a website so it can keep track of what you're doing? Turns out that not only do the major websites like to plant their own tracking cookies on you, they're also happy to stick a lot of third-party cookies on you, too.Does two-factor authentication need to be fixed?According to Keynote Systems, an analysis it did of online behavioral tracking on 269 top websites across four industries -- "news & media," "financial services," "travel & hospitality," and "retail," -- showed that 86% of the sites place one or more third-party tracking cookies on their visitors.Keynote Systems, whose long-time services include performance-monitoring of websites, also says its study shows that 60% of these third-parties had at least one tracker that didn't promise to comply with at least one common tracking standard. Keynote says that of the 211 third-party trackers it identified, "only one committed to honor a visitor's request not to be tracked via the new 'Do Not Track' feature." This gives consumers a way to opt out if being tracked. Keynote says it also checked to figure out if there was a "promise to anonymize data."Keynote found that nearly all the websites in the "travel & hospitality" and "news & media" categories have third-party tracking. The "news & media" sites are said to "expose site visitors to an average 14 unique third-party tracking companies during the course of a typical visit." Keynote also adds that it was also "surprising" that three out of four websites in the "financial services" category also "expose visitors to third-party tracking."Keynote Systems says the tracking phenomenon is all about advertising and revenues that websites can pull in."Behavioral advertising, a common use of third-party tracking data, is an increasingly common practice on the Web and one of the primary ways websites fund their operations. Third-party trackers place cookies on the browsers of site's visitors to track a user's clicks and path through the Web. They can also make note of things like what the visitor buys and where the visitor goes once they leave."Ray Everett, Keynote's director of privacy services, says it all reflects a "'wild West' mentality" and that "aggressive tracking companies" could be placing website publishers in a difficult position and even exposing them to legal risk. But he points out the "burden of policing third-party trackers falls squarely on the shoulders of website publishers" because they are clearly responsible for their content and brand reputation.Ellen Messmer is senior editor at Network World, an IDG publication and website, where she covers news and technology trends related to information security.Read more about wide area network in Network World's Wide Area Network section.


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Taylor Jessen reviews five short films: Guard Dog by Bill Plympton, Fallen Art by Tomek Baginski, The Revolution of the Crabs by Arthur De Pins, 9 by Shane Acker and Its the Cat by Mark Kausler. Includes QuickTime movie clips!
Within the world of animation, most experimentation occurs within short format productions, whether they be high-budgeted commercials, low-budgeted independent shorts or something in between. The growing number of short film festivals around the world attest to the vitality of these works, but there are few other venues for exhibition of them or even written reviews. As a result, distribution tends to be difficult and irregular. On a regular basis, Animation World Magazine will highlight some of the most interesting with short, descriptive overviews.
If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view a clip from each film by simply clicking the image.
This Month:
Guard Dog (2004), 5:00 minutes, directed by Bill Plympton, U.S.A. Contact: Bill Plympton [E] email@example.com [W] www.plymptoons.com
Fallen Art (2004), 5:50 minutes, directed by Tomek Baginski. Poland. Contact: Corey Petersen, Apollo Cinema [T] 323.939.1122 [F] 323.939.1133 [E] firstname.lastname@example.com [W] www.fallen-art.com, www.apollocinema.com
The Revolution of the Crabs (La Révolution des Crabes) (2004), 5:02 minutes, directed by Arthur De Pins, France. Contact: Jérémy Rochigneux, Metronomic, 24 rue du Pré Saint Gervais 93500 Pantin. [T] 33(0)1 41 71 37 58 [F]: 33(0)1 41 71 31 02 [E] email@example.com [W] www.metronomic.fr, www.arthurdepins.com
9 (2004), 10:50 minutes, directed by Shane Acker, U.S.A. Contact: Shane Acker, Think Art Films [E] firstname.lastname@example.com [W] www.shaneacker.com
Its the Cat (2004), 3:20 minutes, directed byMark Kausler, U.S.A. Contact: Mark Kausler [E] email@example.com; Greg Ford [T] 818.409.9368 [E] firstname.lastname@example.com
Guard Dog
Doggie will not shut up. The dog on walkies, the dog in the apartment next door, the invisible dog a block away why doggie not zip it? What can it see that I cant? The future, apparently, in every threatening little detail the vast playground of treachery hidden in, say, a caterpillar, or that razor-sharp crabgrass. Doggie has YOUR best interests in mind, according to Bill Plymptons short, Guard Dog.
With his Oscar-nominated short film, Plympton has returned to the color textures and whip-smart comic timing of the funniest short in his C.V., and maybe the funniest item ever to play a festival screening, 25 Ways to Quit Smoking. In Guard Dog, a pug-like beast with a penchant for tummy rubs takes its owner for a walk. In the park this overanxious pet tries to walk off its excess energy in a leisurely bounce down the sidewalk, but it keeps getting sidetracked by nightmare visions of the parks inhabitants attacking its owner in nefarious ways.
As the dog barks its head off, scaring off one predator after another, we take a peek in the dogs mind as it envisions a series of paranoid scenarios. Little wonder the poor thing is so excitable that gopher popping up on the lawn, for instance, might dig a 20-foot pit, hide a bull and a Ronald McDonald costume in it, camouflage the hole, and lure the dogs owner onto it, whereupon he would fall into the costume, land in front of the bull, and face the wrath of a mad cow avenging his ground-up family members. Gophers do that.
I shouldnt reveal more, but Plymptons timing has never been better, the design is refreshingly cartoony and the music is a scream. Plympton drew his frames with colored pencils, as usual, and everything was scanned to digital video, which is a first for the animator. In addition to its Oscar nod, Guard Dog will be touring with the omnibus feature, The Animation Show, beginning in late February 2005.
Fallen Art
Everyone needs a Fun Project. You have your stamps; I have my Firesign Theatre airchecks; Dick Cheney has Iraq. When choosing a Fun Project, personal interests obviously are a factor, but resources are just as important. I dont collect Fabergé eggs for the same reason you dont: not enough shelf space and not enough disposable income. Many disturbing Fun Projects came out of Birkenau and Auschwitz, where the personal interests of those in charge ran from sick to sickest and the resources were human bodies. Under such conditions the various Fun Projects yielded soap and lampshades. For the character at the center of Tomek Baginskis latest short Fallen Art, the end result of a Fun Project limited to similar human resources is something else entirely Art.
Baginski is the creator of Katedra, an Oscar nominee for best short from two years ago; an otherworldly journey inside a cathedral on a distant planet whose visitors become literal pillars of the church. Fallen Art is also CGI, set somewhat closer to home on a forgotten South Pacific isle. The war whatever war is long over, but some of our boys have dug in and built up, establishing a camp behind barbed wire and camouflage netting whose main landmark is a rickety 100-foot-tall wooden tower. On it is a three-up-three-down sergeant with a body stretched generously on the X-axis and cactus stubble. On a signal from below, the sergeant is repeatedly going through an odd protocol: He orders a G.I. one of a group waiting on the platform to come forward. He mutters some inanities, pins a smiley medal on his chest, pats him on the back and kicks him off the platform to his death.
Theyre making him proud, those boys. Hes getting real job satisfaction, and down below another man is practicing his hobby: a ghoul with a doctors apron and a stoic face is photographing the results of the Sergeants work on the pavement. Another G.I. takes the bloody snapshots into the main building, where General A puts the icing on the cake. A tortoise-shaped beast with elephantiasis of everything but the head, General A takes the photo with eager hands and feeds it into a giant metal press. The machine transfers it to glass, enlarges it and feeds it into a slot below a stack of hundreds of other frames just like it. Theres a projector attached to the machine. Guess what you can do with a projector and a series of still images put in the right order?
Its animation, its animation about animation, its a political statement, its sick sick shit, its hilarious, and when you see it in this years Animation Show youre going to want to shout, Run that again! because it is also a thing of beauty. Its surreal like every good toon should be, but its also cinematic to the point of vérité. The wide, shaky sweeps and trembling telephoto closeups that were daubed into Katedra are ladled on now; the shallow depth of field, the blowing wind, the shimmering particulate matter and onrushing clouds put you on the grass, in the room, behind the furniture, taking quick glances, too close for comfort. As Richard Lesters Four Musketeers looked to all appearances like 17th century France with a documentary camera plopped into it, so does Fallen Art present an immersive reality with a time of day and a longitude.
Every facet of this short is wicked cool. The acting is precise and restrained, and when the General dances (yes he does) his moves are natural and his weight follows. Plus the music will have you scanning the credits for the next item on your want list. (To save you squinting, the cut is Asfalt Tango from the album Baro Biao on German import, by the terrific Fanfare Ciocarlia, who could power all of Romania with their staccato.) Fallen Art is agitprop with a beat, and youre going to have endless fun turning your friends on to it afterwards, and picking their jaws up off the carpet.
The Revolution of the Crabs (La Révolution des Crabes)
Shortlisted for Oscar consideration this year was a droll black-and-white short from French illustrator Arthur De Pins, The Revolution of the Crabs. Its all about the most common crab on southern European shores, Pachygrapsus Marmoratus, their depressing lives and how they finally shrugged off the yoke of blah living and became liberated, sort of.
On beaches and below tides all over Europe, theres a modest crab commonly referred to as the Marbled Rock Crab. Its gray, unassuming, and small, the kind of thing toddlers will maim without a second thought. No one ever asked one to dinner, made one the hero of a medieval quest, put one on their countrys flag. Yes, its a sad little species, and now a spokesman has finally come forward to tell his story. It turns out that in the undersea community theyre referred to as, Depressed Crabs, the main reason being that they cant turn around. Up the sand and down, these poor schmucks can only move in a line from side to side, making them fatalistic and preventing long-term relationships of any kind. (How can you cultivate a friendship when you and your buddy never cross paths twice?)
Actually, they can turn; they just never do. Yep, theyre real dumb, these crabs, and when theyre not pacing off endless straight lines to the horizon or hiding in the rocks, the other crustaceans are appropriating them for public transportation. Once in a while their luck improves, as it does for one crab who finds himself standing on a flatfish that suddenly turns ninety degrees but it can worsen just as quickly, as the same crab scuttles away in pursuit of thrills and adventure singing Brazil only to be stepped on a second later.
Nothing really changes, actually, until the day one crab whose legs on one side have been pried off by a human and who is making endless circles in the sand becomes philosophical. He then rallies his fellow crabs to be proud that even though there are only two directions they can go, at least theyre going somewhere.
Arthur De Pins is a 2000 graduate of École Nationale Supérieure Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and makes his living as a professional illustrator and cartoonist with a fondness for blocks of bright colors and a super-clean line. His work has appeared regularly in the French mens magazine Max, for whom he does cheeky sex cartoons in a Playboy-esqe vein. (I love the economy of his simple three-panel strip about a pizza boy delivering to a woman who answers the door in ball-gag domination gear, and all the things he thinks up on the way downstairs as an excuse for a return trip, Um, you forgot the tip Me again! Do you have a map of Panama?)
Most of his portfolio is available on his website (spell out his name), including his two previous shorts: Geraldine, his graduate thesis, about the day Gerald woke up as a girl and his ultimately very successful means of coping; and LEau de Rose, a hilarious and technically accomplished crowd-pleaser about a boy dumping his girl on a Ferris wheel.
The Revolution of the Crabs was animated in Flash, and done in the extreme high-contrast chiaroscuro of monochrome comicbook design. The character animation is limited but goofy, with most of the laughs coming from the dialogue and pacing. The sound design is simple and effective, with a musical soundtrack lifted from the 1972 French comedy LOeuf reminiscent of beachside misadventures with Jacques Tati. The whole piece is very funny in the moment, and has at least one haunting comic trope to take home and pin to your minds bulletin board. When one crab finally does turn, saving his life in the process, the priceless reaction from the outraged crowd includes the cry, Has he no dignity?
9 is the latest short from Shane Acker, the gentleman responsible for the viscerally memorable Spike & Mike Sick & Twisted festival fave, The Hangnail. 9 is CGI, in contrast to the traditionally-animated Hangnail, and, in addition to his digital talents, it showcases something else you may not have seen before from this multitalented artist a painstaking, lyrical attention to set design appropriate to the animators other MFA degree, earned in the field of architecture.
In this animated riff on Beowulf, reset in a frame both post-apocalyptic and miniaturized (literally and figuratively), a mouse-sized humanoid figure made of burlap is introduced setting a trap for an unknown predator. In a reverie set in a beautifully realized urban landscape blighted by war and strewn with loose bricks and the detritus of industrialized society, the miniature man, who has the number 9 written in black ink on his back, remembers an afternoon spent foraging with his mentor, 5. 5 walks with a cane that was once a churchkey from a sardine tin, and together they remove an unbroken light bulb from an abandoned desk lamp. 5 roots around inside his burlap exterior for a wire and a watch battery, and in no time at all theyve got an improvised torch.
Suddenly 5 starts to radiate light the color of glow-in-the-dark watch hands. Its an early warning system of sorts, which means the beast is coming. 9 hides as 5 prepares to defend himself with a staff sporting X-Acto blades on either end, but the beast gets the drop on him. Its a demon cat, all armatures and springs with a feline skull in front. The cat steals 5s soul, storing it in a glowing marble-sized metal shell thats the twin to 5s early warning system, with which 9 escapes in terror.
Now, in the present, 9 looks up in alarm as the warning lights up yet again, and its time to lure the beast into his trap. He runs into an abandoned library with a gaping hole of broken bricks, concrete and torn rebar. His Grendel follows in hot pursuit. In a taut and suspenseful action sequence, 9 manages to bring the monster into the dark recesses of the rubble-filled room and, step by step, puts his desperate plan to kill the beast into action.
Ackers depiction of a people-less, post-war future has been realized to the last chilling detail. Drawing inspiration from documentary photos of Europe circa 1945, hes captured the bed-in-the-street, car-in-the-living-room chaos of a carpet-bombed metropolis to a T. His characters are equally compelling; built from cloth and held together with zippers, buttons, and safety pins, these are human souls in tiny bodies improvised sui generis from the leftover junk of a burned-out world. Their personalities, driven by fear and fraternal love in equal amounts, are communicated completely in pantomime thanks to Ackers strong acting. The short originated with UCLAs Animation Workshop, and deserves to make it to home video soon, as it more than justifies an afternoon of still-framing enjoyment.
Its the Cat
Ub Iwerks lives on in Its the Cat, a short by Mark Kausler that is finally making its festival debut after a decade and a half in a work-in-progress limbo of private screenings for lucky industry professionals. Kausler has been animating his short on the sly during production lulls on nearly a dozen traditional-animation day jobs, mainly for Disney. During downtime while on the payroll of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Oliver and Company and Beauty and the Beast, Kausler drew his way through Its the Cat one scene at a time. He was still pushing his pencil off-hours while at the drawing table for Osmosis Jones a decade later and then producer Greg Ford flew his production savvy and completion funds, into the mix so Kausler could finally deliver a finished product last year.
Its the Cat was traditionally animated in glorious 2D. To try to nail down the plot of this wisp of whimsy would be like bronzing a kite, so suffice it to say theres this cat, see, and its walking on a fence, and annoying a dog, and flying off into the stratosphere like a helicopter, and pouncing, and annoying three blind mice. There are sunny backyards and scary shadows thrown onto high buildings. There are bricks and there is a garden hose. Also a rubber duck, a wading pool and small chunks of moon rock. The short is in color, but the elementary design catalog of circles and ellipses and the tone of gentle anarchy are straight out of the early black-and-white sound era. The music is vintage, too a catchy hot-jazz toe-tapper from banjo baron Harry Reser and his Syncopators.
(Not to digress, but I should mention a trend I see forming. Youre aware, of course, that cute little bunnies are a virtual guarantor of success in animated filmmaking witness the examples set by Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me, Make Mine Shoebox, and, of course, The Shining in 30 Seconds. What you may not have known, but should now realize, is that a hot jazz soundtrack will bring the same results. You cant lose if its Trad, Dad, as proved in recent years by such offerings as the Nastuk/Persi animated version of the Squirrel Nut Zippers The Ghost of Stephen Foster, Mark Caballero and Seamus Walshs short, Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose, and David Stones nukes-on-the-family-farm adaptation of the Bonzo Dog Bands Jollity Farm from 1991.)
Between majoring in fine arts at Kansas City Art Institute and earning a degree from Chouinard Art Institute in 1970, Kausler managed to earn a credit as assistant animator on Yellow Submarine. In the decades since, his many credits as animator include the Maybelline segment in Ralph Bakshis Heavy Traffic, Brad Birds Family Dog episode of Amazing Stories, the 1990 Mickey Mouse short, The Prince and the Pauper, the Happy Happy Joy Joy song from Ren & Stimpy and Pomp and Circumstance from Fantasia/2000.
Kauslers savior Greg Ford has been cheerleading for animation for 20 years in non-fiction venues, as well as directing new animated product. His credits as director include Daffy Ducks Quackbusters, The Duxorcist and Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers. As producer he was responsible for two must-have music CDs in every animation fans collection, volumes one and two of The Carl Stalling Project: as well as the feature-length documentaries Freleng Frame-by-Frame and Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens.
Taylor Jessen is a writer living in Burbank. You have (1) new messages in mailbox (1).


text:
If you haven't read how this works, some of these terms might not
make a lot of sense.
The most important page in this section is the
membership levels page, which discusses the costs and benefits of various upgrades,
and the features available to each membership level. Referral
bonuses and earnings are also discussed there.
Currently, we are only offering 2 KINDS of things to purchase:
1 way to earn money at this site
If you refer members to this site, and they buy something (credits or an upgrade), you get a commission. The exact percentage depends on your membership level, but it ranges from 15% for free members, up to 60% for max-upgraded members.


text:
Every few years, someone reads, or remembers, or rediscovers something we often forget: computer memory isn't volatile, after all.
RAM chips don't lose their contents immediately when you turn your computer off, and that can have interesting security ramifications.
Don't get too excited: RAM contents don't persist without power in a reliable and consistent way.
If you accidentally pull the plug out of the wall before you've saved that fantastic new presentation, don't expect to get it back.
But if you can cycle the power quickly enough, and reboot under your own control from some secondary device, such as a USB key, you might be able to see the ghostly remnants of what the previously-running operating system was up to.
You can guess where this is going.
If you clean boot a computer with a hard disk that's running full disk encryption, or FDE, you can't get anything off it.
Not just the data, but also the operating system, swap and hibernation files are scrambled. Nothing can be accessed without the decryption key.
But what if the decryption key, or a large enough chunk of it, is part of the RAM that didn't fade to grey when you cycled the power?
That can happen, thanks to the phenomenon of left-behind data in RAM.
(The name you'll hear is remanence, a word originally used for residual magnetic fields, and now also used to refer to the not-yet-decayed electrical charge in memory chips.)
And if you cut the power abruptly, you prevent the operating system from taking any emergency shutdown measures, such as deliberately purging critical areas of memory to wipe any active encryption keys.
The latest researchers to rediscover remanence in a newsworthy way are from FAU, the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.
They've turned their sights on Android, building a custom distro of Android Linux called FROST, short for Forensic Recovery Of Scrambled Telephones.
So far, they've only tried it on the Samsung Nexus phone from Google.
That's because they need three planets to align before the attack will even begin to work:
- The bootloader needs to be unlocked.
- The device needs an easily-removable battery.
- Ideally, the device needs to be at or close to 0°C.
The reason for these limitations are the things that go wrong if they aren't in place.
If the RAM is at room temperature, its remanence is greatly reduced, so it "forgets" much more quickly.
If you can't get at the battery, you can't easily cycle the power abruptly.
If the bootloader is locked, the device will automatically get wiped if you try to unlock it.
The wipe-on-unlock feature is a clean and simple security process enforced by Google, at least on recent devices.
→ Android devices support a stripped-down mode called FASTBOOT, which gets its name because it boots up your device in a second or two. A magic chord of keys pressed down at power-up is typically used when you want to engage FASTBOOT's services. It has very limited functionality, but the key features are that it allows you to unlock your firmware, and to reflash it. Locked firmware can't be flashed, for security reasons, and unlocking (assuming your device allows it) it will wipe the device so that your freedom to reflash doesn't come at the previous owner's expense.
The first thing you need to do, when you rediscover remanence and want to use it against a specific device, is to find out if your proposed attack is practicable.
That means loading up memory with something you'll easily find and recognise later, and seeing how well your chosen content survives a power outage.
When a posse of Princeton programmers famously brought remanence into the limelight back in 2008, they used images of Mona Lisa.
The FROST crew picked a more modern mascot, Google's Android robot:
The results weren't terribly convincing at room temperature, given that rebooting the phone quickly by jiggling the battery takes an unpredictable time.
Lowering the temperatures offered improved results, as the authors showed graphically:
(They neglected to label the axes, a peccadillo usually restricted to marketing departments, so we'll have to assume that the X-axis shows reboot time in seconds, and the Y-axis shows the percentage of bits lost. The obvious conclusion: take less than a second, and head towards freezing point.)
The authors eventually settled on popping the target phone in a freezer at -15°C for an hour. They laconically point out that they can't promise you that your phone will survive, noting that "damaging the phone is your own risk, but we haven't experienced any problems yet."
→ A word of warning. If you live somewhere warm and humid, such as Singapore, Dar es Salaam or Brisbane, your phone will rapidly start to collect moisture when you remove it from the freezer. If you're fiddling with the battery and the buttons of your phone to try to orchestrate this attack, you won't be able to dry it off as you go along. As the FROSTers say, damaging the phone is your own risk.
To find the FDE decryption keys in memory (Android uses AES encryption), the authors used a modified version of a program called aeskeyfind, originally created for the 2008 paper referenced above.
This cleverly-written tool uses a variety of heuristics to churn through memory, looking for contiguous blocks of RAM that look like the output of the AES key schedule.
This is the algorithm that AES uses at the outset to convert a 128-bit key into 176 bytes of key material to use in the AES process itself, or a 256-bit key into 240 bytes.
And now the burning question. Did the FROSTERs succeed?
Sort-of. They've got some visual material that suggests they did, though whether the key information was actually enough to unscramble the encrypted data on the phone is not specified.
The paper is similarly ambiguous, saying somewhat noncommittally that the authors were "able to recover the disk encryption keys (given that no or only a few bits were decayed)."
That's a bit like saying that "we came out ahead financially every time we placed a winning bet." It doesn't tell us much about the practicability of the attack in real life.
Nevertheless, the FROST paper teaches, nay proves, an important lesson:
If you have an Android phone with an unlockable bootloader,
The authors are unequivocal about this.
When they needed to unlock the bootloader to try to attack an encrypted phone, they ended up with nothing to decrypt.
Oh, and if you pick up your phone to make a call and it seems unusually cold against your ear, look out!
You may have been FROSTed.
Image of frozen lake courtesy of Shutterstock.


text: Don't Get Burned - Beat The Summer Heat 5 Tips To Keep Your Parked Car CoolerSummertime is approaching fast, and with it, soaring temperatures. The last thing you want to do is climb into a scorching car and wait for it to cool down.Did you know "When temperatures outside climb range from 80 degrees to 100 degrees, the internal temperature of your car can reach a scorching 130 to 172" (actionnews)What Can You Do To Lower The Temperature In Your Car?• Tip 1: Park in the Shade If you have the option to park in the shade, take it! In many parking lots they will have trees or other natural shade options, Also try to park so that the sun is not shining on the driver's side. Even a few minutes in the shade can make a big difference.• Tip 2: Use Your Visor And A Sunshade You can find a sunshade for your windshield at most auto stores. Sunshades are especially useful if you have to park in the direct sun. They will help keep your car cooler and make it more comfortable to get in. Your windshield visor can also help keep the sun from entering your carYou could also fit a visor to your rear window as well as invest in window vent visors to keep individual passenger windows shaded.• Tip 3: Let Your Car Cool Before Getting InDoes your car have a remote starter? You turn on the air conditioning to full blast, shut all the doors and give your car a few minutes to cool down before driving. The other option is Leave the doors open for a minute to let most of the hot air out before getting in.• Tip 3: Cover Up Steering Wheel No one wants to try to dive with a hot steering wheel. Consider placing a light-colored terry cloth towel over the steering wheel before you leave the car. This may reduce how much heat it absorbs• Tip 4: Cover Your SeatsThis will protect your seats from the sun's rays and reduce how much heat they absorb. If you have leather seats, this is especially important as they can get uncomfortably hot in direct sunlight. You can buy special seat covers designed to reflect the sun's rays, or just use a light-colored towel or blanket• Tip 5: Tint Your Windows One of the best ways to keep your car cool is to tint your windows. This will reduce the amount of heat that comes into the car, making it more comfortable when you get in.While you may or may not be able to do all of these things, any combination will help make your car more comfortable in the summer heat. Enjoy your summer and stay cool! Posted 07/13/2023 in Car Care


text:
Shopping handbag from our Moira collection. Handcrafted by Barada in Nubuck fisnished Calf Leather and Pink color. It features an opened top and a middle detachable inner compartment. It has two handles and a shoulder strap and inner zipped pocket. On the detachable pouch it has a main zipped and various flat pockets.
Quality: Nubuck fisnished Calf Leather.
Handdle: Handles and shoulder strap.
Closure: Openned top with middle inner compartment with main top zipper.
Size: 36 x 23.5 x 15 cm.
All Barada Bags are handcrafted in Europe (Ubrique-Spain) by expert leather craftmen, using the best quality leather and materials. All Barada Luxury bags undergo the most strict quality controls.
No customer reviews for the moment.


text:
TRW Lucas Steel braided hoses kit MCH349V3, front
Art.Nr.: 313-349V3
Usted se ahorra 10% (13,99 EUR)
incl. 19 % impuestost
If you can't put this article into the shopping cart, we will inform you when the article is available again. Please enter your e-mail address and confirm the incoming mail. Thanks.
Descripción del producto
Advantages of steel-braided hoses over rubber hoses:
Significant improvement in pressure point
Longer brake fluid replacement intervals
No product ageing or wear Individual designs by colour and length available
Weight reduction, e.g. distributors can also be removed
In contrast to steel-braided hoses, rubber hoses have to be replaced every 5 years.
Scope of delivery:
Steel braided hoses
Kit with transparent cover ( 3 brake lines) front
Important note about this product:
Please check the vehicle data and the dimensions of the existing cables before purchasing. A return is not possible, since the cables are manufactured specially for you!
It is also possible to order the brake line in different colours (also special order - no return possible!). Please contact our sales team.


text:
# $EPIC: set_floating_point_precision.txt,v 1.2 2006/08/19 10:15:16 sthalik Exp $
set floating_point_precision [number]
This sets the number of decimal places that each floating point operation is rounded to. Setting it to 0 is not necessarily the same thing as turning floating_point_math off. The default is 6.
SET FLOATING_POINT_PRECISION first appeared in EPIC4-1.1.9.


text:
Prices, promotions, styles, and availability may vary. Our local stores do not honor online pricing. Prices and availability of products and services are subject to change without notice. Errors will be corrected where discovered, and Lowe's reserves the right to revoke any stated offer and to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions including after an order has been submitted.
© 2013 Lowe's. All rights reserved. Lowe's and the gable design are registered trademarks of LF, LLC.


text:
WASHINGTON >> Families of fallen troops will be assured of receiving death benefits under legislation President Barack Obama signed today amid a national firestorm after the Pentagon suspended the roughly $100,000 payments during the partial government shutdown.
Obama signed the bill into law after it won final passage in the Senate earlier in the day.
But his chief spokesman, Jay Carney, had said the measure was unnecessary because a military charity had stepped in to continue the payments. Carney also had declined to say whether Obama would sign the bill, which reinstates benefits for surviving family members, including funeral and burial expenses, and death gratuity payments.
The Pentagon typically pays out $100,000 within three days of a service member's death. It said 29 active-duty service members have died since Oct. 1, when parts of the government shut down in a dispute between the White House and Congress over the president's health care law.
The Pentagon had said the lapse in funding meant it had no authority to continue the payments, but that explanation that did not sit well with members of Congress in either party. The Pentagon said a law allowing members of the military to be paid during the shutdown did not cover the death benefit payments. Congress passed and Obama signed that measure into law before the shutdown began, and lawmakers insisted the benefits shouldn't have been affected.
In stepped the Fisher House Foundation, which Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday would cover the costs during the shutdown. Hagel said the Pentagon would reimburse the foundation after the shutdown ends. The government could not actively solicit funds from private organizations but could accept an offer.
The administration said Thursday night that the Pentagon's agreement with Fisher House would remain intact to make sure the benefits are delivered without further interruption until officials can get the program up and running again.
The bill is the second "piecemeal" measure Obama has signed to hold the military harmless during the shutdown. At the same time, the White House has threatened vetoes of other "piecemeal" measures passed by the Republican-controlled House to continue funding for certain government operations. The White House has said the House should reopen the entire government and not choose to fund some agencies and programs over others.
Obama also supports House-passed legislation to provide back pay for thousands of federal workers forced off the job because of the shutdown.
Across the Capitol, Republicans on a House Armed Services panel excoriated Pentagon comptroller Robert Hale, accusing him of playing politics with his interpretation of the original law. They said the law was designed to pay the death benefits as well as keep all Defense Department civilians on the job — not to select the most essential.
"You went out of your way to make this as ugly as possible, to inflict as much pain as possible on this department," said Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., who introduced the first bill days before the shutdown in an attempt to exempt the military.
Hale responded that the law was poorly written and there never should have been a shutdown in the first place.
"I resent your remarks," the budget chief said. "I acted on the advice of attorneys and our best reading of a loosely worded law."
Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.
The bill is H.J. Res 91.