text:
Last weekend and into today, the billionaire Koch brothers and supporters converged on the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point. This columned, luxury compound, little more than an hour north of San Diego, has 400 rooms, a spa, a golf course, a private beach and six restaurants. Staff confirmed the entire hotel — including food and beverage service — had been bought out for a special event.
An event so secret it had a code name on the schedule: "T&R Sales Meeting."
Hotel guests who weren't part of the conference — including two inewsource reporters who stayed the night Friday — were escorted out of the hotel by security on Saturday afternoon.
But over 24 hours at the St. Regis, they got a glimpse of what lay ahead at the conference entitled American Courage, Our Commitment to a Free Society.
"Arriving," 3:39 p.m.
This was the first text between two reporters and an editor during what would become a 24-hour attempt to learn about the semi-annual political summit hosted by the sixth-richest men in the world: David and Charles Koch.
The retreats drum up hundreds of millions of dollars for conservative political candidates and set policy for the Kochs' network of political organizations, which all share the same goal — moving the country to the right.
Most of the cash is funneled through "dark money" groups that are not legally required to disclose their donors.
According to Forbes, the brothers are worth $41.3 billion.
These are the most elite and most conservative political events in the country, and for the past few years, reporters and political bloggers have attempted to gain access. Two inewsource reporters booked rooms at the St. Regis, a five-star resort, to find out who would attend and what was on the agenda.
"It's about freedom," a 20-something man said when asked what the conference was about.
For many of the wealthy conservatives who attend these summits, it's also about being able to influence the political process without being publicly identified, according to author and Politico's chief investigative reporter, Kenneth Vogel.
"This big money is having an increasing impact on the political process on elections, on governing, and it's become harder and harder to find who is doing the spending," said Vogel, who twice infiltrated a Koch summit and whose book, "Big Money," examines the issue.
Big money also buys big secrecy.
It can buy an entire luxury hotel for three days and a security force to ensure no one without an invitation gets in.
Hotel staff confirmed the resort was bought from Saturday to Tuesday for a private event. Some said it was a wedding, others speculated it was a celebrity, "extreme VIP" or someone political.
With tax, the least expensive room costs $609 a night.
It was the biggest show of security one longtime employee — who had met movie stars and royalty at the hotel — said they had ever seen.
"American Courage, Our Commitment to a Free Society," was the theme — as evidenced by the oversized posters lining the hall into the meeting rooms, but the chatter indicated what else was on attendee's minds: the new national education standards of Common Core, lost emails in the IRS investigation into unfair scrutiny of the tea party and other conservative groups, and political correctness.
As Friday-night guests checked out Saturday morning, a picture of who would attend the summit emerged: mostly male, mostly white middle-aged and older, some with their families or wives.
Represented at the summit were groups such as Americans for Prosperity, Mercatus Center, the Libre Initiative, and more — all part of the well-funded network able to contribute massive amounts of cash into political causes anonymously.
James Davis, the former communications director and chief spokesman for the 2012 Republican National Convention, checked in under Freedom Partners, where he now serves as Vice President of Strategic Communications. Freedom Partners is a "nonprofit, nonpartisan… chamber of commerce that promotes the benefits of free markets and a free society," according to its website. It's one of the key conservative groups the Koch brothers use to fund their political candidates and causes, according to the Washington Post.
Carl Anderson, the former chairman and CEO of Arrow International Inc. and current board member and independent Director at Carpenter Technology Corp., checked in shortly after. This was Anderson's third conference, and he was clearly a familiar face.
A huge security force of young men wearing blue sport coats and tan pants began to fan out inside the hotel's maze of corridors and seating areas.
At 5:35 p.m., David Koch, the younger of the two brothers, walked quickly into the hotel, surrounded by an entourage.
At 6-feet five-inches and with all the confidence of one of the wealthiest people in the country, David Koch made a striking entrance.
He was once a college basketball player, according to a 2010 profile in New York Magazine, "when you could be white and be good." He's a libertarian whose father, Fred Koch, helped found the John Birch Society, an anti-communist, and what some consider, radical right, political group.
Koch quickly disappeared into the luxurious ether of the hotel, not to be seen in public again until later that night, when he emerged from the private dining room of the hotel's premier restaurant, Stonehill Tavern, flanked by security.
Down the hall from the restaurant were two rows of at least eight black and white oversized prints affixed to silver-framed mirrors leaning against the walls. The prints depicted a family of three: a woman with a kerchief on her head, a man in a suit and cap, and a boy with his arm pointing to the Statue of Liberty in the distance, evoking a nostalgic coming-to-America picture of immigration.
"American Courage," was printed in bold across the top.
"Our commitment to a free society," written underneath.
At the end of the hallway, the grand staircase led to a ballroom and a series of meeting rooms. A worker swept the walls with what looked like a metal detector. He joked he was "cleaning the walls."
Audio visual equipment was everywhere. A group of men walked into the ballroom. They'd been there for days working on preparations for the conference, but gave no hint about what the conference was about.
It's the secrecy of these meetings that has fueled so much of the criticism. Secrecy combined with money.
Charles Lewis, founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity and an expert on campaign finance, said the Koch brothers would likely say their personal safety dictates secrecy, but Lewis said that's a red herring.
"I think they just don't want the notoriety of being not only in the one percent but in the tiny, tiny fraction of the one percent of the richest human beings on planet earth — who by the way are also trying to influence politics so they can get even richer," Lewis said.
Politico's Vogel said small numbers of wealthy donors are having almost as much impact on the process as the political parties themselves.
"It's incumbent upon us, as journalists, members of the media, to try and pull back the curtain as far as we can to try and give voters the ability to make informed decisions about who is influencing the debate, who is trying to get which candidate elected…," Vogel said.
The Koch brothers only recently became a household name. The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, allowing corporations and labor unions to spend unrestricted amounts of money to support or denounce candidates and causes, thrust the issue of political spending into the spotlight. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused the Koch brothers of being "one of the main causes" of climate change, referring to their energy and chemical conglomerate.
The Koch brothers and their allies plan to raise nearly $300 million to spend on the 2014 election and fund a new energy initiative "with a deregulatory, pro-consumer spin," according to a story published by the Daily Beast on Friday. The story said energy was expected to be a big part of this conference — but there was no evidence of that from anything in public view.
The emphasis was vaguely on freedom, with one attendee joking about the lack of it at the hotel.
"There's no freedom around here — you've got to follow directions," he said.
The secret summits are also attended by big name politicians. Past attendees have included New Jersey and Texas Governors Chris Christie and Rick Perry, according to Politico.
The Daily Beast reported Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida and potential GOP Presidential 2016 candidate, was expected to attend the St. Regis event.
No politicians were spotted Friday night, just groups of mostly men hanging out in the hotel bar and around the patio fire pit, talking politics.
"Academic institutions are factories for corruption," one said to another.
They talked about political prospects, and one man remarked that he liked "Herrera," possibly a reference to Jaime Herrera Beutler, who represents Washington's 3rd congressional district.
"You're into Latinos, eh?" the other replied.
The man who said he liked Herrera talked about working on Rick Santorum's campaign, and how it was the "Tylenol quote" that killed Santorum's chances in the 2012 Republican primary. Foster Friess, one of Santorum's most prominent backers, told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell "back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn't that costly," he said.
They talked about how things said in private would sound terrible in public.
"My wife is a spik, I call her a wetback sometimes," one man said, laughing.
Around midnight, details of the upcoming schedule trickled out.
Saturday was loaded with golf. The event's opening reception was Saturday afternoon. Seminar registration was to begin Sunday.
The heading on the schedule read "T&R Sales Meeting."
By 2 a.m., the open areas of the hotel were almost deserted.
A janitor polished the handrails leading down the large spiral staircase to the Pacific Ballroom, at the far end of the hallway lined with American Courage mirrors.
By 8 a.m. Saturday, staffers at the hotel's Malta room handed out black folios to new arrivals, as a security guard stood outside the closed doors. The folios never left their hands.
A man conspicuous in his dark glasses — and what appeared to be a Google glass piece of hardware over his right lens — staked out a busy corridor.
"What a shady looking guy," a man said to a woman as they walked by.
"He's our intelligence guy," the woman replied.
By mid-morning, sound checks were conducted in a ballroom, with another security guard standing in front of the entrance.
By 1 p.m., most of the hotel restaurants had shut down to the public, with just a few guests from Friday night left on the grounds.
At the Pool Bar & Grill a few conference attendees had lunch.
A gray-haired man in a blue suit greeted a husband and wife at a nearby table.
"Could things get any worse?" he asked.
"I suppose they could get a lot worse — that's why we're here, isn't it?" the other replied. Both shared a laugh.
By 2 p.m., one man who was not with the conference was surrounded by four security guards. He was told he had to leave the premises because it was being occupied by a private function.
"What does that have to do with me?" he asked.
"You have to leave," one of them responded.
Meanwhile, Charles Koch was making his way to the hotel gym for his 30-minute workout.
Koch, 78, the second oldest of the four brothers, is the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries. Just two months ago, he wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal, describing his vision of a free society:
"In a truly free society, any business that disrespects its customers will fail, and deserves to do so," he wrote. "The same should be true of any government that disrespects its citizens. The central belief and fatal conceit of the current administration is that you are incapable of running your own life, but those in power are capable of running it for you."
Koch wore grey Nike sneakers with neon green trim and socks hiked up halfway to his knees. He pulled out a mat at the far end of the gym and lay down. He stretched his legs, as one of his body guards watched through a glass wall from the adjoining atrium.
Koch paused in between sets to watch TV. The World Cup was on. He pulled a few smaller weights from the rack — five or 10 pounders — and sat at an incline bench closest to the glass wall.
Outside, two women and a man were swimming laps in the small pool. An older white man, with white hair and a hat, lay on a chaise lounge in a hotel robe. He carried with him an America³ bag. America³ was a racing yacht and syndicate operated by Bill Koch and Harry Melges in the 1992 America's Cup.
By late afternoon, once the hotel was cleared of outsiders including two inewsource reporters, the conference began in earnest.
Vogel said we're in a new political reality, in which the super wealthy are able to exert influence into the process without their names attached. And it happens on both sides of the aisle.
He cited the Democracy Alliance, which he called "a secretive group of wealthy liberals that's the closest thing the left has to the vaunted Koch brothers' political network" in a story earlier this year. The DA, as it's known, also has big, closed-door meetings for well-heeled donors.
"They're very much in competition in this new political world in which we live," Vogel said.
It's important for people to pay attention to the big money phenomenon, Lewis said.
"Most Americans don't give to political campaigns," he said. "Most people that give a check of $1,000 or more, it's basically one or two percent of the American population at most, and that's at most. It's a fraction of one percent, I believe, at that level."
"…That's why we should care," he said.
Disclaimer: Charles Lewis, found of the Center for Public Integrity and a campaign finance expert, is also a member of the inewsource board of directors.


text:
The answers will be in the first comment so don't go mad with it or anything, perhaps try an informal guess and see how you get on.
The radio buttons at the start of each option are cool but I couldn't figure how to do a 'submit' button so... keep your own score
And let me know how you do - they are not easy.
I'm going to see the new film on Friday and I'm boyishly excited because I always used to see all the big movies on their first night out but I never get to do it anymore.
Expect a review here late on Friday night- no spoilers though - as if I would!
Oh, I was inspired to put this little quiz up here by Ben Barden's newest post - Ten Reasons Why Bloggers are Like James Bond - which I'm proud to say I helped a little with.
Now, your starter for ten... (never mind)
|1) What type of gun did Bond favour before the Walther PPK 7.65mm
|Smith and Wesson
|Beretta 418
|Single-action Colt .45
|2) Who played Goldfinger
|Joseph Wiseman
|Gert Frobe
|Harold Sakata
|Kurt Jurgens
|Bernard Lee
|3) In the movie 'You only Live Twice' how does Bond have his Martini
|Shaken not stirred
|Stirred not shaken
|Straight on the rocks
|In a straight glass
|With red bull
|4) Who wrote the screenplay for "You Only Live Twice"?
|Enid Blyton
|Ian Fleming
|Kevin McClory
|Roald Dahl
|Donald Pleasence
|5) What is James Bond's middle name?
|He doesn't have one
|6) What line is obviously cut from the final 'Gondola' scene of Russia with Love?
|He was right you know... what a performance.
|He was right you know... this is hot stuff
|He was right you know... it's quite a film
|He was right you know... shaken not stirred
|He was right you know... let's throw it in the water.
|7) Who first played bond in 'Casino Royale' on screen
|David Niven
|Daniel Craig
|Barry Nelson
|Sean Connery
|George Lazenby
|8) Which actor did not star in a james bond film named after an ian fleming book
|Roger Moore
|Pierce Brosnan
|Sean Connery
|Daniel Craig
|Timothy Dalton
|9) who played bond on radio in Moonraker
|Bob holness
|Bob monkhouse
|Larry grayson
|Rupert Everett
|Sean Connery
|10) Who provided George Lazenby's voice in OHMSS?
|Peter O'Toole
|Ian Fleming
|Roger Moore
|Bob Holness
|George Baker
Score 10 and you're the next Bond.
Score 1 and you're George Lazenby
Whaaaaaaat? :)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The ANI-17015ASUR (9) outlet rack-mountable power conditioner power strip (PDU) with built-in power meter has many features, including power monitoring display; (9) AC outlets (7 in the front and 2 in the rear); Isolated Banks; Linear filtering technology (LiFT); and coaxial, telephone, and ethernet protection circuits. This device can be mounted in a rack, utilizing 1RU of space, or used as a desktop. There are (4) status LEDs indicating incoming power, grounding, and surge protection. This PDU also has a power monitoring display, showing voltage, amperage, watts, apparent power, frequency, power factor, kilowatt-hour, and run time. Each coax connection supports any type of RF signal up to 3.0GHz, including but not limited to DirecTV®, Dish Network®, Cable STB, Off-Air antenna and others. This PDU comes with a 5 year warranty.
SUPPRESSION: AC: 120V RMS Clamping / 1800 joules / 60,000 Amps
WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.


text:
At its Convergence conference for Dynamics ERP and CRM customers and partners, which kicks off on March 19, Microsoft will show off early concepts of what the company's business apps could end up looking like when optimized for Windows 8.
The Dynamics team will be demonstrating these concept apps in Houston this week for the 10,000 or so expected Convergence attendees. These concept apps are Windows 8 HTML5 "Metro-style" (a k a WinRT-based) clients that connect to Dynamics ERP and CRM back-end services.
Here are screen shots from a couple of these demos, supplied to me by Microsoft. Start screen:
This is an example of what the Microsoft Dynamics Start page in Metro style would look like. The UI would provide an immersive experience which can be personalized by each user.
Project approval:
(click on the image above to enlarge)
This is how Project approvals could look on a Windows 8 tablet device. The Metro-style app will provide the optimal experience for users across different device types, including tablet devices.
Microsoft execs are not sharing at the show any target dates as to when the company expects to field Metro-style versions of its Dynamics CRM or ERP wares. However, Dynamics AX evangelist and blogger Brandon George recently discovered that Microsoft is planning to deliver a Windows 8 version of its Dyanmics AX 7 client in 2013/2014. (He found this inside Microsoft's own "statement of direction" documentation.)
Microsoft won't be the only company demonstrating early Windows 8 app prototypes at Convergence. Microsoft CRM partner Sonoma Partners is showing off what it's calling the first Windows 8 tablet app for the enterprise at the conference.
Update: Reader @alirobe has even more screen shots of the Dynamics Windows 8 concept apps on display at Convergence.


text:
Interview with Richard Thieme
In the field of information security, there are many useful occupations: firewall engineer, policy analyst, auditor and security architect all are popular choices. But what about information technology philosopher? There's plenty of value in describing the intersections between technology and the human experience, but I know of only one person who makes a living doing so--Richard Thieme.
Richard is an institution on the hacker convention circuit, and he is much in demand as a public speaker, business consultant and writer. He and I recently had a wide-ranging conversation about hacker culture, computer security, competitive intelligence, homeland security and Richard's singular career.
If you find this chat as fascinating as I did, and I think you will, be sure to check out Thieme's new book, Islands in the Clickstream, which I review in the February 2005 issue of Linux Journal.
Linux Journal: Your theological and ministerial background has made an obvious impact on your speaking and writing, but how technology entered into it is less obvious. When and how did you start moving in geek circles?
Richard Thieme: I began writing about the impact of technology on religious organizations and institutions, images and ideas and, inevitably, human identity in the 1980s. I intuitively realized the scope and scale of the transformational engine we now call the digital world while playing interactive fiction games from Infocom with my oldest son. Because my previous work--teaching literature and writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago, as well as sixteen years of ministry--had taught me how printed text works, hermeneutics (how meaning is derived from text) and how we are framed by the experience of reading text, I could see by contrast that interacting with text on computers created a different experience, shifted how we thought about our possibilities, our work, meaning, ourselves--everything.
I literally followed my 12-year-old son into the world of bulletin boards, on-line life (an Apple 2, Ascii Express and a 300 baud modem) and continued to explore both the technological machinery as it came on-line through the 1980s and 90s. I offered to do a keynote for Def Con 4 and have been at Def Con and Black Hat every year since.
I also had started speaking about different things--change, leadership, diversity--when I left the ministry and it became clear that all of it derived from technological change. It was natural to follow that up. Literally, I followed the dots into new learning. I joke that I made sure I always was the dumbest one on the room so I always could be learning from the conferences I attended and usually spoke at, but it was true. Hacker cons led to intel people and security professionals, and I learned from every conference and conversation, integrating what I was learning on the cutting edge with ferocious amounts of reading--two-three non-fiction books a week, plus constant on-line learning and attending many seminars and workshops at conferences at which I spoke. My focus always was to translate the implications of what I was hearing about the technologies and what they enabled into human terms. My background and propensities gave me a unique opportunity to do that.
Eleven years later, what with immersion in all that, it began to sound as if I had a clue. Of course, I know better. I am still the dumbest one in the room, and all that wisdom comes to me downhill.
LJ: I was really struck, in your book, by your assertion that computer technology defines our reality in the same ways that language itself does. It led me to the realization that computer security is all about preserving a desired reality--"my system behaves the way I want it to"--against attackers wishing to impose different realities--"j00 ar3 0wn3d!". Is that the sort of train of thought that got you involved with the intelligence and security communities? Or was it the other way around?
RT: As you perceive, it was give and take. Every interaction with these smart, experienced people taught me more. I became a friend to many, and our quiet conversations (never, of course, betraying anything classified) helped me to see exactly what you're describing. I am delighted that you see the implications for security of my ways of thinking. I think I'll quote you!
LJ: You refer to some pretty amazing but credible anecdotes and revelations made by intelligence agency insiders. How do you get those guys to open up to you? Do you ever worry about being used as a conduit of misinformation?
RT: To the last question, I am aware of it but don't worry about it. The implications are the same for all sources of information these days; that is, how much of any of our consensus realities is designed? How much is intentional? How much is off the cuff, and how much simply aligned with the habitual sowing of seeds of malignant design?
I don't think I am that important or a sufficient conduit for anyone to worry about influencing me that way.
To my deep satisfaction, I can't stop being a priest. Leaving the ordained ministry did not change how I learned to relate to people. Of course, I brought that with me into the ministry, but training and practice made it much more likely that I can cultivate relationships I value with the people I love. I have been careful if I ever thought something slipped over the line into confidentiality not to share it or to distort or disguise it. I function as a friend and confidant, in other words, much as I functioned as a priest. I was told by an intelligence-community friend that the evidence was in, after some years, that I handled confidentiality with integrity and could be trusted. My proudest moment came when I was asked to moderate a panel of feds, including the Assistant Secretary of Defense, at Def Con 2000 as they literally feared for their safety when they faced thousands of hackers. I was asked, I was told, because "you're the only one in the room trusted and respected by both hackers and feds."
So my vocation, commitments and deeper intentions--although outside the lines of how conventional people color--have remained intact.
That same guy said last year that after nine years of hearing me, he realized what it was I did when I spoke: "You articulate things we all know in our bones are true but don't know how to say." That thrilled me, of course. Because that, as you know, is the essence of ministry--to see the subtext and give it voice so people can become more powerful.
LJ: Back in the mid 90s, when Linux was beginning to catch on, you already were talking about open-source software and free software fundamentally changing the software market paradigm. You asserted that [the change in the paradigm] and the Internet, which makes it so fast and easy to distribute code, would make the notion of intellectual property obsolete. But the powers-that-be still have a strong vested interest in intellectual property--do you still think IP's days are numbered?
RT: A good question. In the short term, we always overstate the effects of new technologies. But in the long run, we always understate them. In addition, new info-technologies do not so much eliminate as recontextualize what has come before. I could go on and on about that. An example is MS making available more source code than ever before as a result of the influence of open source. A case could be made that MS would never have done that, absent that influence.
But, there are problems with open source: many eyes make for many exploits as well as few bugs or more secure code, some people have a disproportionate influence on decisions, and there is no customer orientation because programmers work on what they like without regard to customer input. Yet, as Linux migrates into the commercial space, it comes to share many properties of commercial software. The marketplace shapes the forms we can and do bring into it. So maybe right now we can see the dialogue between different models and vectors of energy pointing to possible scenarios for the future. But we can't say which will win out.
LJ: The open-source software development model, in which sometimes large numbers of coders contribute their efforts with minimal centralized coordination, always has reminded me of Bakuninist anarchy. (Yes, my friends usually tell me to get a life when I say that!) Do you see the same or different precedents, or is the OSS phenomenon fundamentally new?
RT: Ken Coar and I spoke at Los Alamos, and I also keynoted Apache Con, and I paid close attention to what he said were problems, some already mentioned above. Developers work on scratching itches they have, not what the marketplace demands. As the e-mail conversation goes around the world, early contributors have a disproportionate influence on decisions, and by the time it reaches the land of the rising sun, the die is cast. Linux has what, more than 30,000,000 lines of code, and a recent study said Linux was the focus of more discrete attacks than MS server software. The same problems due to complexity, inscrutability and unforeseen interaction with applications and appliances from third parties apply as much as to Linux as they do to Windows.
Linux is not inherently more secure, nor does the process by which it is evolving inherently generate more secure coding practices. The cry for secure coding at the outset of applications and OS applies to all domains, and Microsoft does respond to what customers want. Say what you will, they have an immense efficient machine for soliciting and responding to customer feedback. Bloatware was a response to a demand for more features and indifference to security. Greater security is a response to that demand from government, corporate and individual users. The context does determine the content, as I am fond of saying.
The factors that ultimately determine success or failure of technological processes are complex and ambiguous until hindsight enables us to say what happened. Chains of causality are clear only in retrospect, and then we make the mistake of thinking that [specific] historical trajectory was the only one that could have happened instead of one of many that happened to occur as a result of choices, accidents and unknown factors. That fine study The Closed World, about the mindspace that emerged from cybernetics and AI and DARPA and generated the simulated worlds we inhabit today, does a great job of illuminating that process.
LJ: You've talked about video games being mediated realities, with the potential to become the ultimate interactive art medium. But it seems like a huge percentage of the most popular commercial games are mindless and nihilistic. Do you think the game-developing community is living up to its potential?
RT: Absolutely not. Not yet. It will take time, and I don't know the ultimate form. I used to think it was interactive fiction, then MOOs and MUSHES, and now it's vast multiplayer global game spaces. What has happened for sure is that those spaces profoundly influence how we think about and formulate responses to everything. The convergence of technologies often is invisible soon after it happens, and the interlocking of television, music, radio, hard-drive platforms for downloading (for example, Tivo) television programs and software programs--and then saying, "wait, they're all the same"--that becomes the ubiquitous context that people cease to see or understand. It takes a McLuhan to illuminate how the medium is the message and what the medium, now invisible, in fact is.
That said, hey, it's early yet. Also true is the extraordinary speed with which these things have happened as compared to prior technologies. The demographics determine the content of the marketplace, and one true thing is that more niches are enabled in the digital world than ever before. More exploration takes place, more new art and music and sound and interactive gamespace is generated, and it is seldom what current media spotlights, such as HALO 2, that ultimately are the important determinants of the future.
The fastest growing online segment is seniors. Their games are bridge and hearts and checkers. But the chat rooms that accompany their games fuel the popularity, the social interaction. Sure, young testosterone-driven males dominate the public media coverage, but get the statistics on romance novels versus shoot-em-up games, and I bet you'd be surprised which is higher.
Time, it takes time.
LJ: Are you still a gamer? What games do you confess to having on your hard drive?
RT: I usually cycle through games looking for how new tendencies might affect the kinds of things we have been discussing. I particularly am interested in narratives, poetic images and text, new ways of addressing human complexity. Games I have played with from that point of view include Republic: The Revolution, Syberia, BladeRunner, many of the MYST series, checking out how the SIMs have evolved. I observe the XBox and PlayStation games my kids play, kids of all ages. I played with Everquest but found the time demands to be too great for me to invest. I look at games such as Quake, Doom, HALO and Grand Theft Auto to see how they're evolving. I still go back frequently to the world of interactive fiction, which is a thriving small niche. I think INFOCOM games, including Trinity, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and A Mind Forever Voyaging are spectacular works of interactive literature and will last. Creative people still explore that genre and do some fascinating things with it. I continue to follow the work of Michael Joyce, who pioneered Afternoon and other hypertext fiction, a medium that has not figured out yet how to provide boundaries or bounded narrative space to contain possibilities. I also have learned a ton from my son Aaron Ximm (quietamerican.org), who has won awards for his "found sound", another medium that would not exist absent digital tools.
LJ: You are a fixture at Def Con and have been for most of the last decade. What brought you there, and what keeps you coming back?
RT: You cannot overstate the way Jeff Moss, a.k.a. Dark Tangent, has built that space. Yes, he had a lot of help from willing collaborators, but the vision and ability to execute it with flexibility and canny awareness have made Def Con unique in the world of cons. I went to Def Con 4 to do a keynote because he created that opportunity. For me as for many, he said "Yes" instead of "No". That's the most powerful word in the language, as James Joyce said. I perceived that the real hackers in that space would be the thought leaders of the next decade; my first talk was "Hacking as Practice for Trans-planetary Life in the 21st Century", which stands as validated by what is emerging now. I went there to learn from mentors who were one third my age, and it became clear that only if I provided something of real value to them as well would the reciprocity be genuine. I think the main attendees intuitively get that my respect and admiration for them is absolute. I have learned so much about how they have been socialized by interacting with networks and how that frames the way they hold themselves in the world as possibilities for meaningful action.
Over the years, I developed close friendships with hackers and evolving technocrats and people from the worlds of law enforcement and intelligence. As you know, they're hard to distinguish now, right? I spoke at the Pentagon recently, and about one third of the people in the room were Def Con friends but with different haircuts and uniforms. They still play Spot the Fed at DC, but someone suggested, only half-kidding, that they ought to play Spot the Hacker. The worlds interpenetrate so much now and hacking, not cracking, has become so mainstream that was inevitable.
Now, the crossing of those streams at Def Con was not an accident. It's a unique and still-fertile space, because Jeff straddled multiple worlds so well and realized from the beginning that the con would grow only if he continued to include everybody. That pragmatic approach reminds me of how I did ministry, really. Only if you included all the players in the process and minimized doctrines and dogmas that always excluded some and included others could you build a genuinely diverse community. But to do that, you had to have a tolerance of ambiguity and complexity that is irritating to purists on either side, whether hard-core hackers or law enforcement professionals.
I kept coming back because it really did become a kind of psychic home, where a lot of us understood one another's unconventional and creative approaches to life straight up, whereas out here we often have to explain ourselves or just shut up and walk away a lot. Properly understood, hacking is a mindset that transcends any particular technology. It's evident at Def Con to a large degree, although it has changed and evolved over the years. Every year a lot of us think, well, maybe this is the last year. And maybe it is. But so far it keeps coming back and so do we.
LJ: In 1996, if not earlier, you already were describing hacking correctly as being about truth and knowledge and not about breaking into other people's computers. This was way before the mainstream media had begun to get even a clue on that point--they still don't, really. Do you think hackers are doomed to be misunderstood? Is that an inevitable result of knowing how things really work?
RT: Yes. Unconventional thinkers who work across the boundaries of fixed disciplines do not fit in the molds or models of prior ways of thinking. First, they sound crazy. Then, they sound funny. Then, people attack them. Then, everybody believes that they always agreed with them all along. That's when you know their way of seeing things has become the core of a new consensus reality, and already new truths that contradict that are arriving on the edges. That's why I say that the truth, once everybody believes it, has become a lie, and new truths are out there on the edges. It's also a way of saying that thought leaders who see the implications of the present describe the present as they experience it, not the future. But for those living in the past, it sounds like the future, and we sound like futurists. We're not. We're simply seeing the inevitable implications of what's already there but which most people, because of habitual thinking or work that does not require them to make these connections, don't see yet. Nietzsche said originality is merely seeing a little ahead of others what's coming over the horizon and giving it a name. Same idea.
LJ: Based on your contact with the intelligence community, what do you think about the current state of homeland security in the US?
RT: Honestly, that's like a blind man describing an elephant; the subject has come to mean so many different things. Has a lot been done to prevent or disrupt attacks? Yes. Can any single attack succeed? Yes. Do I believe the gloves are off, and we have stopped some very serious events? Yes. Are we still vulnerable? Of course.
LJ: What I actually had in mind was this: I recently met a federal agent who rolled his eyes when someone mentioned the Department of Homeland Security. I get the impression that many professionals consider the DHS to be window dressing.
RT: Oh, the Department. I agree with that. It required a person who could do little and be content with that. But in all of the many areas where people take it seriously, a lot of things have been done. You can't confuse political rhetoric meant for perception management and public consumption for the real policies and actions taking place. Anyway, we all know there's a big difference between making people feel safer so society does not implode and actually generating more security.
LJ: Exactly, just because DHS is window dressing doesn't mean it can't be useful window dressing.
RT: Perception management is absolutely necessary, right? It's easy to snipe from the sidelines, but when you have responsibilities that impact society--we all read from the same script.
LJ: Your speech at Def Con 10, in which you basically chucked your speaker's notes and riffed on the importance of hackers carrying on in the face of 9/11, the Patriot Act, John Ashcroft and so on, really was moving--it was the only standing ovation I've ever seen at Def Con. Do you see any improvement in the US's prospects for civil liberties now, especially given the most recent election?
RT: The convergence of enabling technologies of intrusion, interception, and panoptic reach, combined with a sense of urgency about doing counter-terror and a clear mandate from the White House to do everything possible and seek forgiveness afterward rather than permission in advance has created a dire but often invisible set of threatening conditions. I asked an intelligence veteran recently if he thought we would ever get back the Bill of Rights. He said probably not; only if there is some explosive revelation, a la Watergate, that overwhelms the denial of the population, because they see what's at stake and the consequences of what already has been done. It has been built into the framework of our bureaucracies that will relinquish those new ground rules reluctantly and only under great duress.
LJ: What's really scary to me about that statement is the feeling that Watergate could happen again, but the American public still might not reassert its rights. We seem to have lost our ability to become outraged by much of anything that happens in Washington. Nobody's suffered any consequences, for example, for the politically motivated blowing of CIA operative Valerie Plame's cover. What does that say about us? Is that defeatism, naivete, cynicism or what?
RT: I agree. I spoke recently with a veteran journalist about a serious thing I was told. I asked him how we could get it into the public domain, and he said it would not do any good even if we did. We discussed, for example, Gary Webb and the CIA, Contras and crack. Gary lost his career and told me that could be expected, because when things are made public they are quickly managed, eclipsed, distorted and so on. As a friend who does cover and deception [work] said, "illusion, misdirection and ridicule are the methods, and they are done expertly at all levels of the game". But, and this is a big but, there is a conscience in this country still, and a hopeful or idealistic heart would respond to something sufficiently egregious, I think. Watergate took a long time to ripen, and only when Nixon was directly implicated did the government fall. Remember the Pentagon Papers: it takes a whistleblower, someone whose conscience can't stand it another minute, to document the data for us. It's cumulative, yes?
LJ: Yes, it's whether it culminates into something that matters.
RT: Yes, and what would it take, today? I don't know what that would look like. Watergate was a wholesale appropriation of the law enforcement and intelligence worlds to commit crimes--it took a lot.


text:
Experimental filmmaker Holly Fisher and photographer Peter Lindbergh made a movie together called Everywhere At Once that "exists on the dividing line between documentary and fiction" and is supposed to be the next Hiroshima Mon Amour. Oh-kay! Anyway, last night, Harper's Bazaar sponsored a screening of of the film at the Tribeca Film Festival and not only was Ashley Olsen there, but tons more models: Helena, Selita, Valentina and Isabella (Rossellini, that is). Also, Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey better get ready to face the wrath of PETA. The full Good, Bad, and Ugly, after the jump.
The Good:
Helena Christensen: Picture perfect. (Note to self: Buy hot pink lipstick. )
Selita Ebanks' dress is black and white and beautiful all over.
I love how model Valentina's dress insists on it being spring.
Sure the whole leather skirt and sweater is slightly 1988, but I can't help but love Ashley Olsen's entire vibe. Also go ahead and crucify me: Love the gladiator sandals.
The Bad:
Oh, come on Isabella. Really?
Socialite Jamee Gregory is wearing windowpanes as a skirt.
Peter Lindbergh just woke up.
The Ugly:
Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey: A couture Cruella de Vil?
[Images via Getty and Bauer-Griffin.]


text:
|Page tools: Print Page
Exploration involves the search for new ore occurrences or undiscovered oil or gas, and/or appraisal intended to delineate or greatly extend the limits of known deposits of minerals or oil or gas reservoirs by geological, geophysical, geochemical, drilling or other methods. This includes construction of shafts and adits primarily for exploration purposes, but excludes activity of a developmental or production nature.
Most of the expenditure between 1996-97 and 2000-01 is related to the exploration for gold, as shown in table 18.4. In this period, gold exploration expenditure accounted for 54-63% of total mineral exploration expenditure. Its decline from $728m to $370m (down 49%) was the main contributing factor for the fall in mineral exploration expenditure. Expenditure in exploring other minerals except for mineral sands also fell.
Petroleum exploration expenditure
Total private petroleum exploration expenditure was $1,044m in 2000-01 (table 18.5), 22% higher than in 1996-97 and 44% higher than 1999-2000. This was mainly due to an increase of 44% in offshore exploration expenditure. In comparison, onshore exploration expenditure fell each year, and by 2000-01 it was 30% ($75m) lower than in 1996-97. As a result, the percentage contribution of offshore exploration expenditure to total expenditure increased from 70% in 1996-97 to 83% in 2000-01.


text: With the built-in WordPress customizer, you can make changes to your website and theme from the features and options that this theme gives you in each of the customizer tabs. Everything from changing colours, adding content, manging widgets, menus, and even showing or hiding various page elements. You can also add your own custom CSS code to the Additional CSS tab if you want to override any of the theme's own styling.


text:
Chameleons are very interesting animals that are well known for their unique ability to blend in with the surrounding environment by changing their color, but they are unable to reproduce or regenerate their body parts. That said, there are many animals that can regenerate perfectly throughout their lives. Among invertebrates the capacity to regenerate parts like legs or entire sections of the body is fairly common. The planarians (flat worms) can be cut into 50 pieces and you will end up with 50 smaller worms. If an arm of a starfish is cut off, you will have two starfish after regeneration. Crickets can regenerate their legs. These are just a few examples of invertebrates capable of regenerating complex structures.
When we consider vertebrates, however, the situation is reversed. There is only one group of vertebrate that has the capacity to regenerate highly complex structures such as limbs, jaws, tail, spinal cord, or eyes throughout their lives: the urodele amphibians. Urodeles are salamanders like the ones found in ponds across North America and Europe. Those that are most often used for research are the newts (Notophthalmus viridescens) and the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum). Although people often say that lizards can regenerate, it is not quite the case. Lizards will often shed their tails to escape a predator. The tail will regrow, but it will not be a perfect replacement of the original, and if a lizard loses a leg it will never regrow. Frogs, meanwhile, can regenerate their tails as tadpoles, but they lose all their regenerative capacity after metamorphosis.
Urodele amphibians, however, have the outstanding ability to regenerate perfectly complex tissues over and over again, and each time the regenerated tissue is identical to the original in appearance and function. The exact mechanism of how these animals can regenerate is not currently well understood. One of the most unique aspects of regeneration in urodeles that has been well documented is that they regenerate by dedifferentiating their cells at the amputation site. Dedifferentiation is a process by which specialized cells regress to a more basic, less specific form. So far researchers have not been able to isolate or identify stem cells in these organisms. This may be one of the most important facets of studying regeneration in these animals because they provide a completely different approach to tissue regeneration than that offered by stem cells. This is not to say that stem cells are not necessary to the process, however, because the cellular dedifferentiation process in urodeles is often presented as a means to locally generate pluripotent cells (perhaps stem cells or cells very similar to them). The presence of a number of nerves is also important for the regeneration process, as well as the formation of a wound epidermis over the wounded site. If a limb is denervated at the onset of the process, it will not regenerate. Nerves may be responsible for the release of growth factors or chemotactic agents necessary for the regenerative process. These salamanders are very intriguing and offer a unique opportunity to study the mechanisms leading to the restoration of complex structures in vertebrates. Answer originally published on July 26, 2004.


text:
Educents is running a freebie right now for a FREE lesson plans/printables set for learning about Ancient Egypt. I'm definitely grabbing this one, since it aligns perfectly with our Classical Conversations Cycle 1 History studies this year!
This post contains affiliate links.
Table of Contents
Go to Educents right now and download a FREE lesson for kids about Ancient Egypt and jump into King Tut's history! The freebie has several activities included in this pack, including reading comprehension, math review, map skills, and timeline practice, so there are a multiple ways to use them.
Hieroglyphics Math
Use these fun pages to practice place value and/or addition and subtraction skills! Page 12 of the King Tut Mini-Unit Freebie asks students use the symbols to determine the number. The following page goes a step further and asks students add or subtract numbers.
Fun facts about Ancient Egypt:
- The Egyptian alphabet contained more than 700 hieroglyphs!
- Egyptians believed cats were a sacred animal and having a pet cat would bring a household good luck.
- Ancient Egyptians invented pens, toothpaste, and a game very similar to bowling.
More Ancient Egypt resources:
Mini Bio: King Tut – Here's a mini bio about King Tut to go with your mini unit!
Ancient Egypt Lapbook – Study interesting facts about the discovery of hieroglyphic writing, the Rosetta Stone, the great King Tutankhamun, the lovely Cleopatra and more.
Recipes From Egypt – Delight your little cooks with
two authentic and easy-to-make recipes from Egypt: Tameya (the original veggie burger), and Basboosa (Semolina cake with honey and lemon).
My Book About Egypt – My Book About Egypt takes elementary students to the cities of Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta, and Giza.
Want free lessons for kids about Ancient Egypt? Download the King Tut Mini-Unit Freebie on Educents!


text:
Halle Berry Terrified By 'Kitchen Window' Stalker
We now have details about the stalker who has invaded Halle Berry's home twice in two days ... and it's downright scary.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Halle was in her kitchen yesterday when she looked out the window and saw a man staring at her ... holding some sort of book.
Halle ran to the phone, called 911 and the chase began. An LAPD helicopter circled Halle's home and the area nearby for nearly half an hour, trying in vain to locate the trespasser. A number of officers in squad cars were on the hunt as well.
Sources say the suspect is the same guy who jumped Halle's security wall on Saturday, triggering the first 911 call.
Law enforcement believes the suspect is an obsessed fan, possibly hell-bent on getting Halle's autograph ... but they haven't ruled out a renegade paparazzo.


text:
Christie and Corzine trade shots
With Gov. Jon Corzine closing the gap against Republican challenger Chris Christie, the two mostly put aside the personal attacks that have dominated the airwaves and instead used their first debate to offer vastly different approaches to New Jersey's economy, mired in its worst economic funk in decades.
Corzine largely stood by his record as governor over the last four years, saying that his administration has worked to reduce "the size and scope of government" and accusing his Republican opponent, Chris Christie, of failing to come up with a specific plan to help the state regain its financial footing.
Christie, a former United States attorney vying to be the first Republican to be elected to statewide office in New Jersey in more than a decade, said repeatedly on Thursday that New Jersey voters were "suffocating" under a weighty tax burden that was driving residents and business from the state, and said that Corzine's high taxes had stalled the state's economic engine.
"People are leaving this state in droves, business are leaving this state in droves and taking their jobs with them," Christie said. "That's why we have the worst unemployment rate in 33 years."
"Making tough decisions in a tough environment is what being a governor is about," Corzine said, adding that he would not rule out imposing new taxes if that is what it takes to balance the state budget in the coming years.
Independent candidate Chris Daggett, stationed at a podium between the two major-party challengers, presented himself as a low-drama alternative to them, as Corzine and Christie had heated exchanges over the economy, health care, and social issues during the 90-minute debate, the first of three.
Corzine, whose recent spate of ads accusing Christie of supporting policies that would hurt women have been credited with tightening the race, contended that his GOP challenger backs mandate-free insurance policies, which wouldn't be required to offer coverage for procedures including mammograms – a statement that Christie called "shameful" on Thursday night.
"He should pull down" the ad making the claim "and he should apologize," said the Republican.
"I don't think it is shameful standing up for the women of the state of New Jersey," Corzine shot back.
"Isn't it appropriate that I'm in the middle of these two guys," Daggett asked at one point during Thursday's debate.
For much of the campaign, Christie has proven resilient, deflecting a series of attacks lodged by the Corzine campaign in recent months about everything from a questionable loan Christie made to a work associate to the GOP candidate's driving record.
But a poll released on Thursday indicated that Corzine — a former Goldman Sachs Chairman who's financing much of his own campaign and has considerably more cash to spend on advertising in the home stretch before the Nov. 3 election — may be closing in.
A Monmouth University/Gannett survey released just hours before the debate found 43 percent of voters supporting Christie compared to 40 percent who are backing Corzine, and another 8 percent who prefer Daggett. That 3 percentage-point gap – within the poll's margin of error – has shrunk significantly from August when polls found the governor trailing Christie by 14 points.
Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said the changing dynamic showed that Democratic voters were starting to pay more attention to the race.
Still, the poll found that Christie remained the favorite among New Jersey's independent voters, who supported him by a 49 to 28 percent margin over Corzine. Republicans, 86 percent of whom back Christie, appear to be more loyal to their party's nominee than Democrats are to Corzine. Three-quarters of Democrats support the governor.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that a Monmouth University/Gannett poll found that 86 percent of Republicans back Gov. Jon Corzine. The poll found that 86% of Republicans support Chris Christie.


text:
All form fields are required.
No endorsement is intended or made of any hypertext link, product, service, or information either by its inclusion or exclusion from this page or site. While all attempts are made to insure the correctness and suitability of information under our control and to correct any errors brought to our attention, no representation or guarantee can be made as to the correctness or suitability of that information or any linked information presented, referenced, or implied.
All critical information should be independently verified.
The inclusion of links from this site does not imply endorsement by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The Commonwealth makes no endorsement, express or implied, of any links to or from its site, nor is it responsible for the content or activities of any linked sites. Any questions should be directed to the administrator of this or any other specific sites.


text:
- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:51 06:04 12:14 15:38 18:18 19:32
Japan's finance minister Taro Aso said Monday the elderly should be allowed to "hurry up and die" instead of costing the government money for end-of-life medical care.
Aso, who also doubles as deputy prime minister, reportedly said during a meeting of the National Council on Social Security Reforms: "Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. You cannot sleep well when you think it's all paid by the government.
"This won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die," he said.
"I don't need that kind of care. I will die quickly," he said adding he had left written instructions that his life is not artificially prolonged.
During the meeting, he reportedly referred to "tube people" when talking of patients who cannot feed themselves.
The 72-year-old Aso, a former prime minister, has been in his current job less than a month, but has a long history of planting his foot firmly in his mouth.
In 2001 he triggered a furore by saying a successful country was one where "rich Jews" wanted to live.
After Monday's mis-step, he tried to backtrack, insisting he had only been talking about his personal wishes when he said the elderly should shuffle off quickly.
"I said what I personally believe, not what the end-of-life medical care system should be," he told reporters.
"It is important that you can spend the final days of your life peacefully."
Aso was born into a blue-blooded industrialist family but his often crude verbal slip-ups stand in marked contrast to his heritage.
He is the grandson of Shigeru Yoshida, one of Japan's most influential prime ministers who helped rebuild the country from the ashes of World War II, and he is married to the daughter of another former premier.
Ageing is a sensitive issue in Japan, one of the world's oldest countries, with almost a quarter of its 128 million people over 60. That figure is expected to rise to 40 percent within the next half-century.
At the same time a shrinking number of workers is placing further strain on an already groaning social security system, with not enough money going into the pot to support those who depend on it.
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.


text:
An Introduction to Counter Surfaces
Maximize the lifetime of your hydraulic systems now!
A new approach is required for the definition of counter surfaces to ensure effective sealing in dynamic applications where chrome plating is replaced by alternative coatings.
Traditionally piston rods in hydraulic systems were chrome plated to provide friction and surface finish characteristics. Under the REACH directive, Hexavalent Chromium (CR6) is a substance of high concern and must now be omitted from any hydraulic application, leading to the adoption of alternative coatings for the hydraulic system's piston rods.
To maximize the performance and system life in hydraulic systems, these should be designed to optimize a system's tribology, which is dependent on the interaction of a system's seals, hydraulic fluid and the finish of the mating surfaces.
The lubrication within the hydraulic system is fundamentally affected by the surface finish of the mating surfaces. Their characteristics will determine the lubrication within the system and therefore the tribological environment.


text:
Alex Semin Takes Media on Tour of his Hometown of Krasnoyarsk
Photo credit: Sovetsky Sport
Last week, former Washington Capital Alex Semin settled on his lockout destination, surprising everyone by choosing Sokol Krasnoyarsk, a minor league team from his hometown. "When I was leaving for the NHL, I dreamed that if there is ever a decent team and an opportunity, I would definitely play in front of my local fans," Semin explained during his introductory press conference. "And my (90-year-old) grandma hasn't seen me play in person for awhile. I'll give her a present."
It was only a matter of time before the big guns of the Russian hockey media showed up in Krasnoyarsk, far from a hockey hotbed, to get the full story on why Semin came home. For their trouble, Pavel Lysenkov of Sovetsky Sport and Alexander Rozhkov of Championat.com got personal tours of the city from Sasha on the eve of his debut in the VHL. Semin showed them the rink where he learned to skate, his school, and the apartment building where he grew up.
By Igor Kleyner 11 years ago


text:
Hauptseminar Theorie und Simulation der weichen Materie WS 2013
Jump to navigation Jump to search
- Type
- Blockseminar (Talks and Discussion)
- Date and Time
- Tuesday, 11.02.2014 and Wednesday, 12.02.2014
- Location
- Institut für Computerphysik, Seminar room 1.079
- Credit Points
- Teachers
- Prof. Dr. Christian Holm (ICP)
- Dr. Jens Smiatek (ICP)
- Dr. Matthias Krüger (MPI für Intelligente Systeme)
- Dr. Markus Bier (MPI für Intelligente Systeme)
- Course Number
- 04570
- Modules
- PO 2011: 31620 Hauptseminar in Theoretischer Physik (benoteter Leistungsnachweis)
- PO 2010: 28300 Fortgeschrittene Vielteilchentheorie (unbenoteter Leistungsnachweis als Prüfungsvorleistung)
- Language
- English
- Requirements
- We expect the participants to have fundamental knowledge in classical and statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, electrodynamics, and partial differential equations.
Preliminary program
Location: ICP Meeting room
Tuesday, 11.02.2014
- 10:00 am: Theory of Liquids (Matthias Feldmaier) Handout (746 kB)
- 11:15 am: Introduction to Molecular Dynamics and Monte-Carlo Simulations (Patrick Kreissl) Handout (273 kB)
- 13:30 pm: Equilibrium Properties of Polymers (Clarissa Wink) Handout (2.12 MB)
- 14:45 pm: Coarse-Grained Polymer Simulations (Katharina Zeuner) Handout (1.09 MB)
Wednesday, 12.02.2014
- 10:30 am: Theory of Polymer Dynamics (Daniel Krüger) Handout (687 kB)
- 11:45 am: Protein folding (Maren Jaeger) Handout (2.38 MB)
- 13:30 pm: Computing Electrostatic Interactions in Simulations (Tobias Rau) Handout (361 kB)
|Theory of Liquids [SS 2013]
|Matthias Feldmaier
|Markus Bier
|Entropic Forces
|Matthias Krüger
|Equilibrium Properties of Polymers [SS 2013]
|Clarissa Wink
|Markus Bier
|Theory of Polymer Dynamics
|Daniel Krüger
|Matthias Krüger
|Introduction to Molecular Dynamics and Monte-Carlo Simulations (ICP) [SS 2013]
|Patrick Kreissl
|Joost de Graaf
|Coarse-Grained Polymer Simulations (ICP) [SS 2013]
|Katharina Zeuner
|Owen Hickey
|Polymer Translocation
|Matthias Krüger
|Computing Electrostatic Interactions in Simulations [SS 2013]
|Tobias Rau
|Florian Weik
|The Poisson-Boltzmann Theory Cell Model for Charged Rods: Comparing Analytical Results and Simulation (ICP)
|Christian Holm
|Theory of Charged Polymers (Polyelectrolytes)
|Shervin Rafatnia
|Atomistic Simulations of Biopolymers
|Jens Smiatek
|Protein Folding
|Maren Jäger
|Jens Smiatek
|Ions at Interfaces
|Markus Bier
Getting the credit points
To get the credit points for the seminar, the following criteria should be met:
- All participants have to be present in all talks and play a part in the discussions.
- Instead of writing a report after the talk, we expect the participants to distribute a handout in the week before and send it to Jens to be put up on the web page.
- The handout is to be written in English.
- All participants are expected to read the handout as preparation to the talk.
- It should describe the contents of the talk, written out in full.
- It should have 5 to 10 pages.
- If available, up to three original articles can be attached to the handout.
- The talk is to be given at the arranged time.
- The talk is to be held in English.
- The talk should take 40 to 45 minutes.
- We recommend to prepare electronic slides for the talk.
- They can be displayed on your own laptop or on the institute's laptop. In the first case, please check whether the projection works before the actual date, in the latter case, please contact us well beforehand so that we will bring the laptop.
- After the talk, there will be a discussion on the talk, where all participants are expected to actively contribute.
- After the discussion, we will give hints on how to improve the presentation.
- For the participants that require a grade (PO 2011), the following aspects will be important:
- Quality of the talk (contents, presentation, slides)
- Quality of the handout (contents, readability)
- Contributions to the discussion


text:
Call of the Wild Wind
By Sabrina York
Though the world is convinced that Lady Britannia Halsey's fiancé perished on the fields of Waterloo, she is certain he is still alive. And she is determined to find him…before her twenty-fifth birthday.
When the Earl of Wick sees a portrait of her beloved Peter, and claims he looks just like a wounded warrior working on his highland estate, it only seems logical to hie off to Scotland and meet this man.
To Britannia's annoyance, she finds herself traveling with the Annoying Earl of Wick, a man who is far too attractive for her peace of mind. A man determined to seduce her…
Sequel to Tarnished Honor by Sabrina York
Britannia gulped. The command had utterly thrown her for a loop.
Undress him?
How strange that a curl of excitement whipped through her belly. She resolved, however, to be as aloof and blasé as he, and stepped behind him to help him shed his coat.
A frisson of restlessness, a coil of tension shot through her at the sight of this man in his shirtsleeves. This was a shockingly intimate tableau. She reminded herself she was his servant and there was nothing more to it. But when he turned around, so she could untie his cravat, she began to shake.
She drew in a deep breath and began working the knot.
All the while, he glared at her with a muscle pulsing in his cheek. Surely she was not so clumsy or slow to deserve that.
When she began on his buttons, he snarled something that sounded like, "Never mind," and turned away to finish the job himself.
It wasn't wrong for her to watch.
She was a valet, after all.
And, frankly, she was curious.
Besides, it wasn't as though she hadn't seen plenty of naked men in her day. If one counted today.
But oh. That frightening and dismal experience had done nothing to prepare her for this. As Charles pulled off his linen shirt, and his bronzed back was revealed, she nearly swallowed her tongue. Mr. Cole-Winston had not had muscles like that, muscles that bunched and rippled when he moved. Mr. Cole-Winston had not had a bottom like that, either. Charles' bum was beautifully formed and tight. His legs were long and thick and, all things considered, rather intriguing.
She tried not to stare, but could not help herself.
Had she really thought naked men were hideous?
This one was like an Elgin marble. Perfect. A Greek God.
As he shed the last of his clothing, and Charles turned to the side to step into the tub, it almost seemed as though he was shielding his most private parts from her, which was, all in all, a disappointment.
Everyone knew the most interesting part of an Elgin marble was the—
"Well?" he barked as he sloshed into the water.
"Well what?"
He glanced over his shoulder at her. "Are you going to wash my back?"
Wash his back? Touch him? She gulped. Dare she?
She tipped her head to the side. "If you wish."
"I do so." He waved to the cloth and soap Will had left on the table and she gathered them up and then slowly made her way to his side.
She didn't even try to peek over his shoulder into the water.
Unfortunately, it was murky.
Or fortunately. Depending on one's point of view.
Gingerly, Britannia dipped the cloth into the water and made a lather and then began scrubbing Charles' back.
This was, again, a new experience for her. And again, a surprising delight. His skin was warm and smooth. His muscles were finely formed. She found she enjoyed washing him very much.
He, however, did not seem to enjoy it at all. His muscles were tense and he moved restlessly as she worked away on his back.
"Would you like me to wash your hair?" she asked.
"No," he snapped, though there was no call for snapping.
"Shall I wash your front as well?"
He whipped around and frowned at her, then snatched the cloth away. "No."
"What would you like me to do?"
She did not understand the consternation on his face. Really she didn't. And…why did he look as though he was in pain?
"Just turn around."
An odd command, but she did so, and then she heard him rise from the water. Her gaze flicked to the mirror and she froze as she caught a glimpse of…
Good. Glory.
He was magnificent.
And he was aroused.
She knew enough about the way of the world to spot that right off.
But why would he be aroused by his valet?
Oh dear. She'd heard about that, too.
She peered at him over her shoulder as he dried himself with the towel and dressed in what he assumed was semi-privacy. Oh, he was a beautiful man.
Why should it matter to her if he preferred young valets over ladies of the ton? It wasn't as though the two of them had any kind of future. But somehow it did matter, and the fact that it did matter irritated her greatly. And made her sad.
Which was ridiculous.
She was in love with Peter.
She had no business wanting any other man. Most specifically, him.
He turned around without warning, catching her gaze on him, and he frowned. "This was a mistake," he said.
"I beg your pardon, milord?"
His lips twisted bitterly. He raked his fingers through his hair. "Oh leave off, Britannia. I know it's you."
Shock whipped through her. Her knees wobbled and she sat with a plop on the bed. "What?"
"I know it's you. How could I not know it's you? How could any man not know it's you?"
Well, blast. She put out a lip. "When did you realize?"
"Really?" He tipped his head to the side and gaped at her. "The first bluidy moment I saw you by the mail coach."
"You did not know then! How could you?"
He snorted a laugh. "Because I've met you? I know your face. Your expressions. Your smile."
"Why on earth did you pretend you did not?"
He snorted again; this one was not a laugh. "I thought to teach you a lesson."
She couldn't help it. She chuckled.
He was not amused.
"You thought to teach me a lesson?" How adorable. "Is that why you made me fetch and carry for you?"
"You hardly fetched or carried anything."
"I intended to. That counts for something. And you're the one who stormed downstairs all growly and rude."
"Rude? Rude? I was worried about you. You disappeared and didn't return."
"I was right there in the—"
"Oh, yes. I heard the songs they were singing. What do you think your father would say if he knew you'd been exposed to such language?"
She batted her lashes. "He would probably think you were the one who exposed me to it."
It was wrong of her to be amused by his chagrin. Or not.
"I was the one who saved you from a brigand and don't you forget it."
There was no call for finger shaking.
"I won't forget it. I am certain my father will be very appreciative." She frowned at him. "Would you mind finishing?" Not that she didn't appreciate the glorious expanse of his chest, but it was a trifle distracting.
She waved at his person. "You are undone."
Why he muttered, "You have no idea," was a mystery. But he did make an effort to do up his buttons, though he got them wrong.
"So," she huffed. "What do we do now?"
His gaze snapped to hers and his face went a little red and that muscle in his cheek began bunching again. "I…what?"
"Are you sending me back to London?" Might as well throw it out there. But she wasn't going. If she had to, she would slip out in the night like a wraith and find some other means of making her way to Wick.
He huffed a breath and collapsed into the chair. "We both know how that would end up, don't we?"
"Do we?" She widened her eyes in an attempt to look innocent. He was not fooled.
"At this point, it is better for you to travel with me, where you will be safe. Though we will need to hire a companion."
"A companion? Whatever for?"
"You are a lady, remember?"
"Within the last week, I've been a boy and a valet. That seems to have worked out fine."
"Has it?" He leaned forward and pinned her with a glare. "What do you think would have happened if I had not come along when I did this morning?"
She sniffed. "There is no need to belabor the point. I believe I did thank you."
"In point of fact, you did not—"
"Well, thank you—"
"But your gratitude, or lack thereof, is hardly at issue here. You were in dire danger of being—"
"Being what?"
"Ravaged." He scrubbed his face with his palms. "Can you imagine what could have happened?"
"I was prepared to protect myself."
For some reason, her declaration did not appease him. "Really? And how would you have done that?"
She sat up straight and tipped up her chin. "Caesar has taught me to box."
"Oh bluidy hell."
"And I know where a man is most…vulnerable."
"That you do."
Again, she did not understand his insinuation. "Regardless, it seems perfectly obvious to me. We shall travel together to Wick, but there is no need for a companion. I can continue posing as your valet."
"Wandering around strange inns and flirting with the stable boys?"
"I was not flirting!"
"It looked like that to me."
"Will and I were simply being friendly."
"And we all know where that leads, do we not?"
"Balderdash." She turned away and stared at the door. "One would think you were jealous, the way you are carrying on."
"Jealous?" A roar. One that shook the room. "To be jealous, I would have to want you for myself."
The silence that fell, following his pronouncement, was a deafening one. Slowly, she turned and looked at him.
His eyes burned. His face was a mask. His hands were closed into fists.
And she saw it there. On his face, in his expression.
An unholy thrill rose up within her. Because there, in that moment, all thoughts of Peter faded. No man existed but this one. This large, perfectly-formed, glorious specimen. And she realized that her impatience with him, her restlessness in his presence all along, had been speaking to one thing and one thing only.
She desired him, this man who was not her betrothed.
It was really something of a surprise, but not nearly as surprising as the realization that he wanted her as well.
He stood and prowled across the room. He stopped just short of her, touching her with nothing but his breath.
"Britannia, I am trying to be an honorable man."
She stood as well and faced him, toe-to-toe. "The way an honorable man pretends not to recognize a lady in distress so he can use her as his servant?"
"I think I explained, I was trying to teach you a lesson."
"Which is so very flattering really. Women love it when men show them their place."
"It was not meant like that and you know it."
"Do I?"
"Goddamn it, Britannia…"
"Such language. Whatever would my father say?"
"I believe he would say you are in need of a spanking."
Her eyes widened. Outrage swelled. If he even tried, she would saw him open with the butter knife. "You are something of a beast, you know."
"I am a Scot," he snarled. "What else would you expect?"
Well, there was no answer for that.
But then, he didn't expect one.
Rather, he took that last step toward her, yanked her into his arms, and kissed her.
It was not a gentle, demure or respectful kiss. Not in the slightest. It was like the wild wind on the moors. A crashing tumult of a storm at sea.
And it was mind-boggling.
Get it now for 99 cents (or Free on Kindle Unlimited)
Call of the Wild Wind (Waterloo Heroes Book 2)
Tarnished Honor (Waterloo Heroes Book 1)
Call of the Wild Wind (Waterloo Heroes Book 2)


text:
All images copyrighted by designer
Photographed homes may have been modified from original design. Construction plans are provided as per renderings.
© copyright by designerFloor Plan:
Stories: 1
Total Living Area: 2000 Sq. Ft.
First Floor: 2000 Sq. Ft.
Bonus: 495 Sq. Ft.
Bedrooms: 3
Full Baths: 2, Half Baths: 1
Width: 63 Ft. Depth: 62 Ft. 8 In.
Garage Size: 3
Foundation: Basement, Optional Crawlspace Foundation (Please allow 3-5 Days for Delivery), Optional Slab Foundation (Please allow 3-5 Days for Delivery)
The Cedarbrook
Get Your House Plans In Minutes!NEW PDFs NOW!™ Plan packages available. Simply place your order, electronically sign the license agreement, and receive your PDFs within minutes in your inbox!
Plan Specifications
We've integrated our customer's most requested features into a mid-sized ranch in the creation of this attractive new design. The Old World style siding and stone exterior is accented with a "Palladian" window, multi-level trim and an inviting front porch. A flexible office/living/4th bedroom, an exquisite master suite, a 3-car garage with a utility sink, and a large screened porch are sure to make this 2000 square foot home irresistible.
Featured House Plan: BHG - 8461 Description
The exceptional master suite, with direct access to the deck, a sitting area, full-featured bath, and spacious walk-in closets, create a true "Master's Retreat." A bay window brightens the casual dining room and kitchen. Vaulted or trayed ceilings adorn the living, family room, master suite and cozy coffee corner. Other rooms have 9' ceilings. The upper level bonus room features 495 sq. ft. of functional living space with 5 ft. knee walls rising up to an 8 ft. ceiling. The secondary bedrooms, each measuring approx. 13' x 11', have walk-in closets and share a "Jack and Jill" bath. A breezy screened porch, measuring 16x138, features a vaulted ceiling with a ceiling fan.


text:
The NYU Bookstore will host events in February and March that include a writing workshop, a panel on addiction, a book launch-jazz performance combination, and more at the Bookstore's 726 Broadway location (between Astor Place and Washington Place).
The New York University Bookstore will host events in February and March that include a writing workshop, a panel on addiction, a book launch-jazz performance combination, and more at the Bookstore's 726 Broadway location (between Astor Place and Washington Place). All events are free and open to the public. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call 212.998.4667 or go to www.bookstores.nyu.edu. Subways: N, R (8th Street); 6 (Astor Place).
Tues., Feb. 7, 6:30 p.m.
Poetry Reading with Martha Rhodes, James Tolan, Stephanie Brown, and Marcia Pelletiere
Martha Rhodes is a poet, editor, teacher, and the author of four collections of poetry: At the Gate, Perfect Disappearance, Mother Quiet, and The Beds. James Tolan is author of the chapbooks Red Walls and Whiskey and The Rake of Mourning. Stephanie Brown is the author of two collections of poetry, Domestic Interior and Allegory of the Supermarket. Marcia Pelletiere is a poet, musician, and multimedia artist. Miracle with Roasted Hens is her first poetry collection.
Wed., Feb. 15, 6:30 p.m.
Writing Workshop with Karen Heuler—"Genre or Literary: What Kind of Writer Are You?"
The Department of Humanities, Arts, and Writing at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies invites all new and experienced writers to another series of free creative writing classes at the new NYU Bookstore. Master teachers from the Writing Program at SCPS will be lecturing on a range of writing skills, followed by writing exercises and time for discussion. Afterwards, instructors will sign copies of their books and offer additional advice to aspiring writers. Take advantage of this opportunity to sample NYU-SCPS courses and learn about the craft of writing. The Feb. 15 session will be led by Karen Heuler, whose most recent novel, The Made-up Man, published by Livingston Press, is about a woman who sells her soul to the devil to be a man for the rest of her life.
Thurs., Feb. 16, 12 p.m. - 2 p.m.
All Things Apple @ NYU
Introducing the "lunch and learn" sessions with NYU and Apple! Come learn all about the latest and greatest apps for Apple products and how you can incorporate them into your classroom and teaching experience. Ask our Apple Reps any technical questions and get answers on the spot. Bring your lunch, relax, and learn!
Thurs., Feb. 23rd, 6 p.m.
Film Screening – "Freedom Riders" by Stanley Nelson
"Freedom Riders" is the powerful, harrowing, and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism.
Wed., Feb. 29, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Addiction Book Panel
Koren Zailckas (Smashed), New York Times writer Dave Itzkoff (Cocaine's Son), literary agent Betsy Lerner (Food and Loathing), and substance abuse specialist Dr. Frederick Woolverton (Unhooked) will discuss how they grappled with their darkest moments, getting rid of toxic habits, and re-channeling creative energy. They'll be joined by writing professor Susan Shapiro (Lighting Up) and her literary agent Ryan Harbage.
Thurs., March 1, 6:30 p.m.
Barry Wallenstein's Book Launch Party and Jazz Performance for Drastic Dislocations: New and Selected Poems
Barry Wallenstein has been collaborating since the 1970's with jazz artists in the performance and recording of his poetry, and he continues to perform with musicians internationally. He is an emeritus professor of literature and creative writing at the City University of New York and an editor of the journal American Book Review. Mike Richmond teaches in the Jazz Studies Program at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.


text:
No. 14 UCLA 78, Washington St. 52
Atonye Nyingifa scored 17 points and No. 14 UCLA pulled away to start the second half in beating Washington State 78-52 on Friday night for its fifth straight victory.
Thea Lemberger added 13 points, and Nirra Fields scored all 10 of her points in the first half for the Bruins (12-2, 3-0 Pac-12). They improved to 47-7 in the all-time series, having won all 27 games played in Los Angeles.
Tia Presley scored 16 points to lead the Cougars (5-9, 1-2), who got 11 points from Lia Galdeira in losing for the fourth time in six games.
The Bruins stretched a four-point halftime lead into a 55-35 advantage to open the second half. Markel Walker scored six points, and Nyingifa and Lemberger had four points each in the 18-4 run that gave them the lead for good.


text:
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin's attorney general asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to let stand the conviction of a man found guilty in a case profiled in the popular "Making a Murderer" series on Netflix.
A federal magistrate judge ruled in August that investigators tricked Brendan Dassey into confessing he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape, kill and mutilate photographer Teresa Halbach in 2005. Dassey, who turned 27 Wednesday, was 16 at the time. The magistrate ordered that Dassey be freed unless prosecutors appealed or decided to retry him.
In a brief filed with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Attorney General Brad Schimel urged the appeals court to reject Dassey's claim that his confession was coerced.
"Substantial police coercion" is required for any confession to be ruled involuntary, Schmel said. And he said the Wisconsin Court of Appeals was right to affirm in 2013 that Dassey's confession was voluntary.
Magistrate Judge William Duffin held that investigators made specific promises of leniency to Dassey and that no "fair-minded jurists could disagree." He cited one investigator's comment early in the interview that "you don't have to worry about things," plus repeated comments like "it's OK" and that they already knew what happened.
But the magistrate's ruling "ignores both the facts and the law," the attorney general said. Investigators didn't promise leniency, he said, and specifically told Dassey they couldn't make any promises.
The teenager willingly spoke with investigators and was properly informed of his rights, Schimel said. The interview took a few hours in the middle of the day, while Dassey sat on a couch and drank a soda, the investigators spoke in normal tones, and did not threaten him or make false promises, he said. And Dassey confessed to most of the important details within an hour, in response to open-ended questions, he added.
"The state courts' conclusion that Dassey's confession was voluntary is not only reasonable; it is entirely correct. Accordingly, Dassey is not entitled to relief," the attorney general said.
Halbach was killed on Halloween 2005, after she visited the Avery family's salvage yard in Manitowoc County. Investigators allege Avery lured her there by asking her to take photos of a minivan. Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007. Court documents describe him as a slow learner who had poor grades and has difficulty understanding language and speaking. Avery was convicted in a separate trial and was also sentenced to life in prison. He's pursuing his own appeal.
Their cases gained national attention after Netflix aired "Making a Murderer" last year. The series spawned widespread conjecture about the pair's innocence. Authorities who worked on the cases said the series was biased, but it generated a myriad of calls from the public to free both men.


text:
Project READ
April 7, 2026 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Families in Champaign-Urbana are invited to join Project READ's FREE Parent Family Learning Lab (PFLL). The PFLL will take place every Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30-7:30pm at Martens Center. For parents, the focus of the PFLL is to work with trained tutors to learn reading, math, or English language skills. For children, the focus of the PFLL is to work on literacy, wellness, and social-emotional skills (parents must be present for children to attend). The program also features parenting and family activities centered in literacy and the improvement of the parent-child relationship. Additionally, free books and library services are provided periodically through a partnership with the Champaign Public Library – Douglass Branch. A free meal is provided each night for all program participants.
No prior registration is required to attend the program; however, all interested participants must agree to complete an intake interview and pre-assessment. For questions, or to let us know you would like to attend, please contact Project READ at email@example.com.


text:
ACDSee Photo Studio Professional
Latest Version:
ACDSee Photo Studio Professional 2023 17.0.0 Build 2627 (64-bit) LATEST
Windows 7 64 / Windows 8 64 / Windows 10 64 / Windows 11
User Rating:Click to vote
Author / Product:
Old Versions:
MD5 Checksum:
Features and Highlights
Comprehensive RAW Editor
Make the most of your RAW images with Photo Studio Ultimate's built-in support for over 500 camera models. For ultimate freedom, start with the rough data captured by your camera and transform it using exposure, contrast, color, repair, sharpening, and other detail-based tools.
Effortless Digital Asset Management
Finding, sorting, moving, organizing, and sharing—everything you need for complete mastery over your photography workflow is right here, at your fingertips. Add ratings, hierarchical keywords, categories, and location data to your images. Quickly identify photos for further processing with visual tags or customizable color labels.
Erase and Replace
Take what you want from your photos, and integrate the rest. Select unwanted objects for removal and use the Smart Erase function to fill in the area with a matching background. This content-aware tool will produce a natural result even while extracting elements like telephone poles, crowds of strangers, imperfections, ominous clouds—whatever you want.
Deform and Reform
Creative image manipulation has never been so fluid. The Liquify tool allows you to distort objects in images without compromising quality. Shift, pinch, bulge, or restore. Develop free-flowing designs, or retouch portraits by moving pixels without altering them. *Available for 64-bit only.
Mobilize Your Life
With ACDSee Mobile Sync, you can wirelessly and instantly send photos and videos directly to ACD See Photo Studio Professional (64-bit) from your mobile device! Just select and send. Available on iPhone and Android, the ACDSee Mobile Sync app keeps track of which photos have been sent, so you don't have to. Zoom through your process with flexible selection options and configurable filenames and subfolders. Edit and transfer metadata while taking advantage of RAW support on the iPhone.
Intelligent & Advanced Adjustments
Become the master of light and color in your images. Control brightness, saturation, hue, and vibrance with mathematical precision. Intuitive lighting adjustment tools allow you to effortlessly adjust the exposure with our patented Light EQTM. technology. Dramatically shift lighting in specific areas without affecting the image as a whole, or subtly tweak individual tone bands.
Note: 32 days trial version.


text: Cyber attacks of all kinds are on the rise. It is a trend you ignore at your own peril. National Security Agency and U.S. cyber-command chief Keith Alexander said in July that Internet attacks of all sorts surged 44 percent in 2011 and are responsible for what he terms the "greatest transfer of wealth in history."In a world where you can rent an already-hacked botnet for about $20 to start your attack, and in a world where a criminal enterprise industry has developed to support amplifying attacks in progress, it is important to understand that these types of attacks are simply not going away. Are you ready for them? Are you considering the right points? Here are four strategies to help your organization prepare for and defend against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) events in the future.1. Consider Over-Provisioning a Service in AdvanceMost of us develop systems on strict budgets. There is a general resistance among financial types as well as information executives to not pay for unused capacity. This makes good sense in and of itself\u2014why waste your dollars on capacity, either bandwidth or compute, that you are not using? Many companies scale their systems to match a predictable but legitimate peak, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday or another annual peak load.Survey: U.S. Firms Over-Reliant on Firewalls to Defend Against DDoS AttacksIn a DDoS attack, however, your site or resource can experience loads many times greater than even your highest peak activity\u2014on the order of 10 or 20 times, if not more. Mind you, I'm not suggesting you budget capacity to pay hackers to blast your network with packets. While you are specing bandwidth and compute resources, though, it makes sense to give yourself a healthy margin of error, even on top of your peak.With the advent of cloud computing, this has become easier. In most cases, it's simple to spin up additional resources to either meet legitimate demand or ensure access to your services in the event your primary hosting site is under attack. Internet service providers and other providers are also usually quick to offer burst capabilities with their contracts. This way, you can access an assured, ready additional amount of capacity in the event you need it while not necessarily paying full price for it during those times when your load doesn't demand it.2. Don't Be Bashful About Asking for HelpMany companies and businesses specialize in assisting customers before, during and after a cyber attack&mdashand they serve all levels of clients. Akamai Technologies, Level 3 Communications and Limelight Networks, for example, all serve large customers with highly trafficked sites, but their rates begin north of $10,000 per month just for a basic level of assistance. On the other hand, startups such as CloudFlare offer to take onto themselves the load of distributing your site across multiple datacenters. They then engage in detection and mitigation services without involving your team. CEO Matthew Prince says CloudFlare datacenters see "more traffic than Amazon, Wikipedia, Zynga, Twitter, Bing and AOL combined." If true, this certainly puts the company in the first tier of network experience and engagement.With attacks increasing yearly and with no relief in sight, it's important to engage a firm that meets your needs and get its assistance before an event. DDoS attacks are an expensive problem, but now a day's defense against them is becoming simply a price of doing business on the Web. After all, consider the revenue loss if your site were to become unavailable to the Internet. Every minute your page can't be reached, dollars destined for your company's coffers spill away to other businesses. The protection should seem justified when you think about it that way.3. During a DDOS Attack, Be Quick to Dump Log FilesAs network capacity increases, attacks become cheaper to mount, so attackers can scale the severity of their activities quite easily. According to Alex Caro, CTO and vice president of services for Asia Pacific and Japan for Akamai, "the biggest attack that we've seen is around 150 Gbps, and we expect much larger attacks in the future."News: DDoS Attacks Over 20Gbps Now Common, Prolexic SaysAs you can imagine, at that level logging explodes\u2014on your servers themselves, as well as on the attendant devices that care for and feed your network. Firewalls, unified threat monitoring devices, servers and other systems usually can't keep up with logging each individual request when an actual attack is in progress. Typically these devices begin falling over under the sheer load of logging each and every request, and their failures cause chain reactions with linked devices and systems, making the attack much more severe than just a lot of traffic. (That is much of the secret to DDoS attacks in the first place: Causing enough load that other systems than the one you are initially targeting begin failing.)These chain reactions are often difficult to predict and recover from. Consider the botched recovery job Amazon suffered with its Elastic Compute Cloud service after the power outages in the Washington, D.C. area in early 2012. While not an attack, once servers in the datacenter began recovering after utility power was restored, the large number of reboot requests created its own little denial of service and prevented many virtual instances from powering back up until the load lightened. The moral of this story: Don't hesitate to dump your logs quickly once you know you're under attack and they're not giving you any more useful information.4. Have a Good Response Plan ReadyIf you experience a DDoS attack, you likely won't have a chance to develop a response plan at the time of impact. Your services will be degraded, if not disabled completely, and your highest priority will be restoring service and stopping the attack. These actions are aided by a detailed plan of mitigation developed in advance of an event.Blogger Lenny Zelster has created a good-looking template for an incident response plan. His DDoS Cheat Sheet includes steps such as preparing contact lists and procedures in advance, analyzing the incident as it happens and spinning up your response processes, perform mitigation steps you've outlined for your action team and, finally, performing a thorough post-mortem to document lessons learned and amend the response plan with that experience for future incidents.News: Pan-European Cybersecurity Exercise Simulates DDoS Attacks on BanksOne takeaway here: Everyone works better during a crisis when there is a predefined procedure, with checklists and next actions already clearly laid out. Don't deprive your incident response team of this wisdom. This is something you can do today at no cost. Get a team together, talk about your response and write the plan down. Be prepared.DDoS attacks, cyber-intrusion events and other nefarious acts are simply a fact of life in an Internet-connected world. The key responsibility you have as a CIO is to make sure you have prepared for attacks, have a plan to mitigate them when they occur and have done your best to make your company able to withstand the attacks. The prospect of facing an attack with anything less should be a scary thought that kicks you into gear.Jonathan Hassell runs 82 Ventures, a consulting firm based out of Charlotte. He's also an editor with Apress Media LLC. Reach him via email and on Twitter. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline, on Facebook, and on Google +.