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IPCC predicted accelerating sea level rises due to human CO2 emissions - real scientists examine the tide gauge station empirical evidence and find recent sea level increases not unusual
(click on map to enlarge - map source)
Read here. The evidence continues to pour in discrediting the IPCC's fabricated disaster claims of catastrophic sea level rises. Researchers from the around the world have documented that the predicted "accelerating" and "dangerous" sea level increases are not happening.
The latest research by Albrecht et al. focuses on sea levels near the Jutland peninsula (the German Bight). These EU researchers were unable to discern the "unprecedented" sea level increases from the actual empirical evidence, which is evidence that the mainstream media and the IPCC alarmists conveniently ignore.
"Focusing on regional mean sea level (RMSL) changes in the North Sea and, more precisely, in the German Bight, Albrecht et al. developed an index time series for the RMSL employing two different approaches...basing their work on homogenized annual mean sea level data covering the period 1843-2008 that were acquired by 15 tide gauges...suggesting that "regional mean sea level increased at rates between 1.64 and 1.74 mm/year with a 90% confidence range of 0.28 mm/year in each case." As for whether or not there was an acceleration in RMSL rise within the past few decades, they note that in terms of 20-year trends, the most recent rates are "relatively high." However, they report that these rates "are not unusual and that similar rates could also be identified earlier in the record."...they go on to note that "the same conclusion concerning a possible acceleration in the recent past was drawn by Haigh et al. (2009) for the North Sea region of the English Channel."" [Frauke Albrecht, Thomas Wahl, Jürgen Jensen, Ralf Weisse 2011: Ocean Dynamics]
Conclusion: EU scientists prove, using tide gauge station data, that the long predicted catastrophic sea level rise has not happened despite the global warming that has taken place since the Little Ice Age end.
Previous failed-prediction and peer-reviewed postings. Rising sea level charts.


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Will Cuba's Real Enemy Please Stand Up?
The opinion-page essay ``Why Give Castro Another Platform?'' Sept. 1, states: ``The US should take the political offensive. It should argue that it is not an American embargo against Cuba, but Castro's own inept management of an outmoded Marxist system that has brought the Cuban people to their current despair.''
In the next paragraph the author tells us that we shouldn't lift the embargo against Cuba, arguing that this would bring ``badly needed dollars and goods into Cuba.''
Either the embargo is not hurting Cuba economically so there is no reason to maintain it, or it is hurting Cuba, so Fidel Castro Ruz's argument has merit. You can't have it both ways, and any ``political offensive'' would be so transparently flawed as to make us look even sillier than we do now.
The author also tells us that the establishment of a free-market economy in Cuba should be a precondition for normalization of relations. Since when is it the right of a foreign state to dictate the internal economic conditions of a sovereign state?
With this kind of silly logic and disregard for history on the part of successive United States administrations and most of the mainstream American press, it is no wonder that Mr. Castro has been able to ``successfully [outmaneuver] a series of American presidents yet [keep] his people in fear of the American giant.'' Conway B. Leovy, Seattle
Will Cuba's Real Enemy Please Stand Up?
The author discusses reasons for Castro's survival, but he totally ignores the possibility that Castro has been a good leader. For three decades, Cubans were much better off under Castro than they had been previously. Castro elevated health care, housing, and rights to education, and Cubans benefited greatly. Cuba and its experiences are a threat to US policymakers because Americans can see a poor nation providing what they do not have.
The author didn't want to give Castro another platform and he has good reason to worry. Given the opportunity, Castro could point out that the duplicitous US administrations of Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton failed to honor the 1984 agreement signed by Mr. Reagan.
This violation and the US embargo are among the primary causes of the immigration problem today. It's time for the US to get over its snit about Castro and to end its childish embargo against Cuba. By all means, give Castro another platform. Ronald Forthofer, Longmont, Colo.
Will Cuba's Real Enemy Please Stand Up?
I arrived in Miami in March of 1959 after having fled Cuba. It was rare to find a person that spoke Spanish then, and our contacts were with other recent arrivals.
To call the present problem an immigration problem is ludicrous, as it is a continuing refugee problem. If President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno want to call it an immigration problem, so be it. But the fact remains that the only Cuban that has to leave Cuba in order to solve the situation is Castro, and the more pressure that can be put on his regime, the sooner these problems will come to an end.
Economically Cuba will flourish, once the know-how and the capital that is sitting in Miami can come back home. We are near the end of this nightmare and all that we ask for is a little more time and understanding. Once Fidel is gone, no more rafts and no more refugees. Alberto Salas, North Hollywood, Calif.
Will Cuba's Real Enemy Please Stand Up?
Now that ``communism'' is mostly dead, why are we still so worried about Castro's tiny Cuba? Our refugee problem with Cuba seems due in large part to the economic embargoes we inflict upon it, aimed at its leaderships, but striking the poorest of the poor instead. We helped make Cubans' homeland economically uninhabitable, and they, in desperation, reluctantly choose to leave their beloved native land.
Why not lift the embargo and help them to live where they are even if Castro gets some of the credit? Their economy won't really thrive until they get with the market principles, and they can't likely do that without first freeing up their politics. But at least they will be able to survive in their homeland, not impelled to migrate elsewhere.
Let's help Cuba be for the Cubans - it's their home. Carl Baumann, Oswego, N.Y.

subset: commoncrawl


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Minutes of the 2014 IAB Retreat, 8-9 May 2014, Cancun, Mexico
- Jari Arkko (IETF Chair)
- Mary Barnes
- Marc Blanchet (via WebEx for items 1-6, then in person)
- Alissa Cooper (IESG Liaison)
- Lars Eggert (IRTF Chair)
- Mat Ford (ISOC Liaison)
- Joel Halpern
- Ted Hardie
- Joe Hildebrand
- Russ Housley (IAB Chair)
- Eliot Lear
- Xing Li
- Cindy Morgan (IAB Executive Administrative Manager)
- Erik Nordmark
- Andrew Sullivan
- Dave Thaler
- Brian Trammell
- Kathy Brown
- Sally Wentworth (via WebEx, present only for item 3)
- How can the IAB Lead the Community?
- The A of the IAB
- Internet Governance
- TISec
- Improving IAB Programs and Workshops
- Program Goals for 2014
- RFC Series
- Toronto Plenary
- I* CEO Meetings
- draft-iab-host-firewalls
- How the IAB Interacts with Other Bodies
- Guidance to ISOC
- Root Servers
- Encryption in the Open Internet
- Liaison Oversight
- Process vs. Technical
- Electric Power
- Retreat Evaluation
1. How can the IAB Lead the Community?
Russ Housley asked the question, "How can the IAB lead the community?" and opened up the floor for brainstorming.
Eliot Lear noted that his goals for the IAB in 2014 include surviving the ongoing Internet governance debates, re-invigorating the IAB Programs, and work on UDP at layer 3.5. Brian Trammell agreed that he would like to see technical recommendations out of the UDP 3.5 work.
Ted Hardie stated that he would like to see the IAB do more work on privacy and security, in conserving the value of the network. He suggested that the IAB should be more radical in the technical work it encourages the community to develop, and used UDP 3.5 as an example of that. He advised the need for the IAB to define a system architecture for the Internet as a whole to keep all of the pieces together. Overall, he said, the IAB should do work, and entice others to do work as well.
Xing Li noted that the Snowden Effect has increased the risk of a split Internet, citing China's firewall as an example of such a split Internet. He added the China has a larger percentage of Internet users than any other country, but that China's technical community is still quite small. He suggested the need for a unified Internet community modeled on the same sort of rough consensus the IETF uses. Xing also noted that the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 brings risks of splitting the Internet, and that the IAB should make efforts to ease that transition and help those who are working to build the future Internet.
Joel Halpern said that, given the IAB's responsibility for external relations, the IAB should work with the open source community to communicate their value to us, and our value to them. Mary Barnes added that we should look at the work within the IAB Programs on open source and see that what we are delivering is actually useful.
Dave Thaler noted that originally, the Internet architecture was designed to allow connectivity between anyone and anyone else, but today's users care more about preventing unsolicited inbound traffic, while preserving their own outbound access to outside content. He suggested that there is work to be done to fix the current Internet architecture and reevaluate the best ways to meet the needs of today's users.
Jari Arkko asked how much is achievable, and what are the first steps? He suggested that the IAB has authority to speak, and that articulating some of the current challenges may be the first step.
2. The A of the IAB
The IAB charter [RFC 2850] states:
The IAB provides oversight of the architecture for the protocols and procedures used by the the Internet.
Dave Thaler led a discussion of the IAB's role in architectural oversight, noting that if there are several different ways of doing something, ideally one method should be chosen in order to avoid duplication of the same protocol functionality. In reality, there are multiple competing protocols from the IETF, other SDOs and consortia, and the vendor community, and a trend towards reinventing things at a higher layer to go with each organizations existing lower stack.
During the Technical Plenary at IETF 70 (and in RFC 5218), the IAB presented a list of factors that contribute to a successful protocol:
- Positive Net Value (Meet a Real Need)
- Incremental Deployability
- Open Code Availability
- Freedom from Usage Restrictions
- Open Specification Availability
Dave Thaler noted that many of the success stories were from protocols that originated outside of the IETF, and where technical quality was not a primary factor in their success. A common pattern in the IETF is that when there are multiple proposals, the conclusion reached is that the requirements are such that one solution does not fit all. In those cases, either two or more independent solutions are standardized, or else common building blocks are established to create new solutions. This often leads to users not having sufficient information to choose intelligently between the options.
Dave Thaler added that a variation of the option where multiple competing solutions are developed is that neither solution is standardized (e.g., only Experimental RFCs), and it is left for the market to choose.
Eliot Lear suggested that an additional option would be to reject the conclusion that one size does not fit all, and further constrain the requirements in order to develop something smaller that would fit in a single protocol.
Brian Trammell noted that how the IAB provides guidance will depend on what the conflict is (e.g., competing protocols with total overlap in their design goals versus competing protocols with significant but not total overlap in their design goals).
Mary Barnes noted that the reasons for choosing one solution over another are often driven by business interests, rather than technical reasons. Ted Hardie agreed, adding that when different communities have different goals, it is difficult to resolve what the correct technical outcome should be.
The IAB agreed that its role is to help the Internet community choose intelligently when there is more than one solution available, by providing guidance for when each solution is appropriate, when the IETF does not appear to be able do so itself. Joe Hildebrand suggested asking the IESG for input on areas that could use IAB guidance.
3. Internet Governance
The IAB discussed the ongoing Internet governance activities, including ICANN 49, the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC), the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and NETmundial. Eliot Lear stated that the IAB's role is to provide the technical expertise needed to run the Internet. He noted that not all parties involved in these discussions believe in the multistakeholder model. All of the discussions thus far will feed into the discussions at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (Plenipot) later this year.
Sally Wentworth will be leading the ISOC delegation at Plenipot; she will begin an offline discussion about whether someone from the IAB should be involved in that delegation.
Russ Housley asked if ISOC would examine the contributions for Plenipot and provide a summary of issues that have technical implications. Sally Wentworth replied that ISOC would, and that the proposals seen to date have primarily been at a regional level. Russ thanked Sally and asked her to make that matrix available to the IAB once it is ready so that the IAB can provide input.
Sally Wentworth noted that some countries are looking for ways to expand the mandate of the ITU. One way the IAB can address that is to articulate clearly why the existing mandate continues to be relevant. The IAB agreed to take further discussion of Plenipot into the ITU-T Coordination Program, where they will help Sally come up with that messaging.
The IAB also discussed the Internet governance implications of the ongoing discussions about the potential transition of IANA out of NTIA. The IAB discussed whether these discussions should happen in IAB IGOVUPDATE sessions at IETF, or if there should be a General Area Working Group on the topic. Andrew Sullivan noted that the split will depend on which parts will require IETF consensus before proceeding. He suggested that the IANA Strategy Program go through the list of existing issues and separate out what should be discussed where.
Eliot Lear asked if there are other resources needed in order for this to be successful. Andrew Sullivan replied that neither the IETF nor the IAB would be the ones negotiating the agreement with NTIA. Russ Housley added that we would need an RFC to document any update to the MOU between the IAB, ICANN, and IANA.
4. TISec
The IAB briefly discussed the frustrations in China regarding TISec. Xing Li reported that the group working on wireless security in the IEEE standards space is also working on modifications to IPsec, but are looking at 3-way handshakes instead of 2-way handshakes. The TISec is not a Chinese National Standard at this moment. Russ Housley noted that the IESG declined to assign a protocol number for TISec, and asked how TISec works as a national standard without the assigned number. Xing found later that TISec currently uses number 253 (use for experimentation and testing defined by RFC3692).
5. Improving IAB Programs and Workshops
Ted Hardie noted that the IAB Program structure was instituted to help find points of leverage with which to apply force, as well as to help retain institutional knowledge as IAB membership shifts over time. He proposed that as the IAB has some level of independence, the IAB also has a responsibility to suggest more radical solutions. In order for that to work, Program members must be sufficiently independent (though not from IAB oversight) so as to make unpopular decisions.
Ted Hardie suggested that in order to increase the IAB's level of influence, Programs must include a certain amount of outreach and attract individuals who can affect the outcomes; successful Programs would pull in energy from throughout the entire Internet technical community. He added that while being radical was not a prerequisite for a Program, the Program must still be capable of being radical.
6. Program Goals for 2014
The IAB reviewed the goals and current work items for the IAB Programs.
6.1. RFC Editor Program
Joel Halpern noted that the RFC Series Oversight Committee (RSOC), aka the RFC Editor Program, was mandated by RFC 6635. The Program performs the review of the RFC Series Editor (RSE), ensures the RSE's priorities, and provides additional review of the RSE's results.
6.2. Liaison Oversight Program
Eliot Lear reported that the operational goal of the Liaison Oversight Program is to facilitate review of the IETF's liaison relationships. The Program is working on simplifying and consolidating the RFCs relating to liaison management, as well as talking about potential new activities and relationships. He noted that over the past year, the Program has not done much work to recruit new liaison managers, as the IAB has been sending public calls for volunteers. Dave Thaler said that it would be helpful if the Liaison Oversight Program would work on recruitment again, in order to help with the current efforts to find a liaison manager for ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22.
Eliot Lear reported that Robert Sparks and the IETF Tools Team have been working on improvements to the Liaison Tool.
6.3. ITU-T Coordination Program
Joel Halpern noted that the ITU-T Coordination Program's recent efforts have been focused on addressing potential overlaps between IETF and ITU-T work. With the upcoming ITU Plenipotentiary Conference scheduled for later this year, Joel expects the Program to have additional work items around responding to Plenipot proposals.
6.4. IP Evolution Program
Dave Thaler reported that current work in the IP Evolution Program has focused on architecture, with several documents in process (e.g., draft-iab-host-firewalls, draft-iab-2870bis, draft-iab-filtering-considerations). There has been difficulty getting consensus on what work should be done. Sometimes this is normal because the IAB wants to tackle difficult issues.
Dave Thaler reported that there have been discussions about splitting the IP Evolution Program into two Programs, with one focusing on TCP/IP Evolution (evolution of the transport later, UDP 3.5, NAT translation and tunneling, TAPS) and one focusing on DNS evolution and naming more generally, including resolving names via different protocols (DNS, mDNS, host files, etc.), gTLDs, split horizon, DBOUND, DNS encryption, etc. Others observed that it should be named more generally than just "DNS" evolution.
The IAB agreed to split the program into two Programs, add the UDP 3.5 work to the TCP/IP Evolution part of the Program, and to possibly rename the Programs to something more accurate in the future.
6.5. Internationalization Program
Andrew Sullivan reported that the Internationalization Program's only work item has been an update to RFC 2277 (IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages), but that the work has currently stalled. Much of the Program's energy has been devoted to advising the RFC Series Editor on internationalization as the RFC format evolves.
After discussion, the IAB agreed to move the Internationalization Program into a dormant state (no active work items), while remaining open to advise the IAB on internationalization issues as they arise. The Program will also continue to work on the update to RFC 2277 as time permits.
6.6. IANA Strategy Program
Andrew Sullivan reported that the IANA Strategy Program will spend much of the next year focusing on the proposed transition of the IANA function away from NTIA.
6.7. Emergency Services Program
Mary Barnes reported that the Emergency Services Program has seen little progress on their deliverables over the past year, and suggested that the Program be moved to a dormant or concluded state.
Russ Housley noted that the IETF has done a lot of work on ECRIT but has run into problems because the European Union cannot reference the RFCs, and so they have asked ETSI to develop a solution for emergency services. Alissa Cooper asked how the IAB could evangelize the IETF solution to the rest of the world. Andrew Sullivan suggested that the IAB could work on a document outside of the current Program structure. Brian Trammell added that there is concrete technical guidance on this topic that the IAB could provide, in conjunction with political guidance from ISOC.
Alissa Cooper took an action to see if the ECRIT Working Group Chairs and RAI ADs have bandwidth over the next six months to contribute to a document explaining why emergency services are better served over ECRIT.
6.8. Privacy and Security Program
The IAB agreed to merge the existing Privacy Program and Security Program into one Privacy and Security Program with the following purpose statement:
The IAB Privacy and Security Program is a successor to its previous Security and Privacy programs. It provides a forum to develop, synthesize and promote security and privacy guidance within the Internet technical standards community. While security and privacy have been each been explicitly and implicitly considered during the design of Internet protocols, there are three major challenges which face the community:
- Most Internet protocols are developed as building blocks which may be used in a variety of situations. This means that the security and privacy protections each protocol provides are also necessarily piecemeal and that default requirements for use are commonly either missing or ill-understood.
- Many security approaches have presumed that attackers have resources on par with those available to those who secure the system. Pervasive monitoring, distributed networks of compromised machines, and the availability of cloud compute each challenge those assumptions.
- Many systems breach the confidentiality of individuals' communication or request more than the minimally appropriate data from that communication in order to simplify the delivery of services or meet other requirements. When other design considerations contend with privacy considerations, privacy has historically lost.
This program seeks to consolidate, generalize, and expand understanding of Internet-scale system design considerations for privacy and security; to raise broad awareness of the changing threat models and their impact on the properties of Internet protocols; and to champion the value of privacy to users of the Internet and, through that value, as a contributor to the network effect for the Internet.
Ted Hardie noted that this was a significant amount of work for the Program, and suggested structuring the Program such that there a number of appointed focus area leads to drive work on particular topics.
The IAB agreed with this structure and set of work items. Ted Hardie will draft a call for volunteers for the new Program. The members of the existing Privacy Program and Security Program will be informed of the changes before anything is made public.
6.9. Tools and Processes Program
The IAB agreed to close the Tools and Processes Program, with existing work items being handled as action items on an as-needed basis.
The IAB discussed the potential transition of IANA away from NTIA. Andrew Sullivan suggested that at this point, the IAB should wait until ICANN makes their proposal before doing anything further, but agreed that the IAB should continue to monitor the situation closely.
Eliot Lear noted that the cultural differences between the various stakeholders might prove challenging when trying to participate in the discussions. Alissa Cooper added that the IAB should help ensure everyone has an opportunity to participate. Eliot asked how the IAB should engage with those communities.
Xing Li stated that he believes the IANA transition is difficult for developing countries to understand. He suggested the need for a simple English language description of the issues at hand, as well as an FAQ. Xing volunteered to start work on such a document.
8. RFC Series
Joel Halpern reported that the RFC Series Editor's current priorities include:
- format update work
- updating the RFC Editor website
- reviewing the errata system
- digital object identifier (DOI) assignment
- creating a digital preservation policy
- author assistance activities
9. Toronto Plenary
The IAB discussed the Technical Plenary for IETF 90. Andrew Sullivan circulated an updated proposal for the names and DANE topic. The IAB brainstormed potential speakers and ways to further refine the proposal.
Joe Hildebrand agreed to work with Andrew Sullivan on an updated version of the proposal, including potential speakers.
10. I* CEO Meetings
Russ Housley noted that the I* meetings were originally intended as a way for the leaders of the various organizations in the Internet ecosystem to get together and communicate informally so that they did not make announcements that surprised each other. IANA has been a topic of discussion since the first meeting.
The Montevideo meeting in October 2013 provided a timely opportunity for the group to make a statement in light of the then-newly released Snowden revelations on mass surveillance. Since then, there has been pressure to issue a statement coming out of each of the I* meetings. Jari Arkko noted that it is important for the IAB and IETF to set up their positions ahead of time so that nothing surprising comes out of those statements.
Andrew Sullivan agreed that while the I* Leaders' meetings are important in that they allow the different bodies to coordinate with each other and avoid surprises, he is skeptical of the push towards issuing statements, as it is not always clear that the various bodies agree what those statements mean. Eliot Lear agreed with that sentiment.
Overall, the IAB agreed that it was important to prepare for these meetings, so that those attending can be confident that they are expressing and supporting the agreed-upon opinions of the IAB.
The next I* CEO meeting will be held in Istanbul in September, in conjunction with IGF.
11. draft-iab-host-firewalls
The IAB approved publication of draft-iab-host-firewalls as an Informational RFC. Russ Housley will forward the document to the RFC Editor on behalf of the IAB.
12. How the IAB Interacts with other Bodies
The IAB discussed how it interacts with other bodies (e.g., SDOs, governments) in cases where there is not a liaison relationship in place. Eliot Lear noted that Thomas Narten has been working in the Liaison Oversight Program to draft text on this topic.
Andrew Sullivan suggested the need for a set of principles by which to organize these communications, so that people can talk of behalf of the IAB without the IAB needing to come to formal agreement about what to say for each and every case.
13. Guidance to ISOC
Earlier in the retreat, Kathy Brown asked what outcome of the potential transition of IANA outside of NTIA would be considered unacceptable. The IAB agreed to provide guidance to ISOC on this topic, noting, among other things:
- the desire for one global Internet
- the risk of destroying the Internet commons
- the risk of having multiple DNS roots
- the risk of splitting the mechanism by which names and IP addresses are allocated
Eliot Lear agreed to begin drafting this guidance to ISOC.
14. Root Servers
Marc Blanchet reported that the RSSAC is still in the process of reorganizing internally. The RSSAC and the IAB have been working on two documents to update to RFC 2870; the RSSAC is focusing on the protocols, and the IAB is working on the deployment considerations. draft-iab-2870bis will progress as a Best Current Practice document that is AD-sponsored in the IETF stream.
15. Encryption in the Open Internet
The IAB discussed encryption in the open Internet, and whether there should be a move away from cleartext into more encrypted data. Xing Li noted that in China, with the Great Firewall, encrypted data is likely to be blocked; cleartext is easier to verify, debug, and troubleshoot. He asked whether the move could be towards encrypting the metadata only.
Ted Hardie noted that cleartext traffic across the network was not put into place for the protection of the users. Any variety of bad actors can read that traffic, including traffic for financial transactions. For that reason, he argued, the IAB should continue to foster the ability to use encryption. Ted noted that the question of encrypted metadata was discussed during the STRINT workshop, and that in many cases encrypting the metadata only protects the bad actors.
Joel Halpern disagreed; he said that it is not the network's business to care whether data is encrypted or not, but that it is the IAB's concern because the IAB worries about end-to-end traffic. He added that having a country cut itself off entirely from the network because the traffic is encrypted is not a reasonable outcome.
Erik Nordmark noted that intrusion detection systems are easier when traffic is not encrypted. He added the governments or companies may not care if traffic is encrypted within their borders, but that they do care when that traffic crosses their borders.
Marc Blanchet added that during the STRINT workshop, the group discussed the need for a document that describes the implications of a fully encrypted network. There are operational consequences, and those are architectural considerations that must be kept in mind.
Dave Thaler attempted to summarize the conversation thus far:
- An open Internet should allow users to connect to anyone
- in some cases that requires cleartext
- in other cases that requires encryption
The open question is which mode should be primary. Xing Li suggested having the ability to fall back to cleartext in cases where encryption fails. Dave Thaler replied that the decision to fall back to cleartext should be under the end users' control, and they they should be able to opt out of any defaults.
Ted Hardie stated that the work for the Privacy and Security Program would be to write a document that makes a statement about how to handle this problem when designing new protocols for the Internet, and give examples of the implications. The IAB does not want to see an end result where users withdraw from the network due to lack of trust, or where the contributions of entire countries are lost from the whole of the Internet.
16. Liaison Oversight
Eliot Lear asked IAB members to consider joining the Liaison Oversight Program. He noted that there are new relationships in progress with ECMA TC39 and ISO TC-204; those relationships will eventually need IAB Liaison Shepherds. The role of the Liaison Shepherd is to check in with the Liaison Manager and make sure that any relevant information gets reported back to the IAB as a whole.
17. Process vs. Technical
The IAB discussed the current balance between process/political work and technical work. Several people voiced opinions that the technical work is being drowned out by the politics, however, they noted that it is important for the IAB to participate in the current IANA and Internet governance discussions.
The IAB considered splitting future retreats into one day devoted to technical issues and one day devoted to political issues, but concluded that some of the topics are too intertwined for that to be feasible.
Dave Thaler noted that while there are IAB Programs devoted to technical work and IAB Programs devoted to political work, it is the more political topics that tend to be raised back to the full IAB. Ted Hardie suggested that IAB members interested in certain topics should join the Program mailing list and be involved in the discussions earlier, rather that nit-picking at the end of the process. Eliot Lear added that the board should use Programs to resolve the issues that they can, and any issues (political or technical) that cannot be resolved should be raised to the full IAB.
18. Electric Power
The IAB discussed power consumption for mobile networks and mobile devices. Ted Hardie suggested that the IAB may want to revisit this topic for a tech chat or technical plenary sometime in 2015. Dave Thaler noted that power and cost was listed as one of the work items for the IP Evolution Program, but that the work was deferred in favor of other topics because there was interest by others in tackling the work inside the IETF. Dave explained that Suresh Krishnan has started to drive work on this topic within the IETF.
19. Retreat Evaluation
The IAB reviewed the structure of the retreat. The board agreed that the joint day with the IESG was useful, and recommended continuing that in the future.
The IAB agreed that co-locating with LACNIC was valuable, noting that several IAB and IESG members were able to participate in LACNIC sessions. Russ Housley suggested looking to co-locate with APNIC or AFRINIC for future retreats.


text:
COVID-19 has done many things but it hasn't rewired my brain. At least not yet.
I'm still prone to procrastinating. Like now – blogging when I should be writing … or at least editing. That's because I'm a moody writer – always have been, always will be. For me, words splatter onto the page with sweat, tears and occasionally a bit of blood. Deadlines and word counts are necessary evils, ones that occasionally mess with my muse. Yet despite this intuitive approach, I still manage to churn out an enormous amount of work, perhaps because something deeper, darker, is driving my output. Something I don't want to deal with. Not now.
Not until I'm strong enough.
Recently, I've toyed with the idea of writing memoir, despite my initial resistance: Why on earth would someone want to read my story? It's just a life lived, albeit a colourful one with many adventures, quite a few brushes with death, a mega dose of trauma and, despite (because of?) all of this, loads of laughter. Then I started to share snippets of my life, parcelling out random slivers in time because I haven't quite pieced the story together yet. I was surprised when people reacted in a visceral way.
Okay, maybe a small part of me wasn't surprised.
When you're growing up, you don't have a solid worldview – a reference by which to judge your life, your experiences, your family, their flaws. No matter how f@$%ed up life seems at times you assume it's normal; no one has a perfect family, a perfect life, right? You can't appreciate the good without the bad. And suffering builds character, after all – at least that's what my (part) Irish upbringing led me to believe. Problem is when you're an adult – and an older adult, at that – you've notched up a decent yardstick. Add to that the distance and, in a sense, the objectivity that an expat life brings. You casually mention a few memories to friends, assuming they had similar experiences. But their tears, their shocked silence, reveal they're struggling to process your words. Turns out your 'normal' isn't normal after all.
Trauma is a strange beast. When survival kicks in, you bury the pain, loss and damage so deep that they can't possibly be located, let alone unearthed. And if you tried, surely you'd weaken the roots. So you build up the foundation instead – finding your identity over the years, trusting no one – or maybe just one – gradually revealing pieces of yourself that sometimes even you don't recognise. Your wall is still up – it's always up – but you've lost a few bricks along the way, and you view that as progress. Until you stumble across a fossil. You run your hands over its fine impressions, trying to decipher their shape. And meaning. But it's impossible – you don't know the language.
So you write. And keep writing. Anything and everything, hoping you'll become proficient. That you'll find the words to unlock the past and make sense of everything.
One day.


text:
Ben's gone to bed now, and the Paris Motor Show press days have wrapped up. Whether you agree or disagree, here's the top ten most trafficked posts from the last two days, compiled in order of popularity from most trafficked to least. Be sure to visit the full posts where you'll find more pictures, press releases and analysis.
1.) Citroën GTbyCITROËN Concept2.) Pininfarina B0 Concept3.) Honda Insight Concept4.) Lamborghini Estoque Concept5.) Aston Martin One-776.) Mini Crossover Concept7.) Peugeot RC HYmotion48.) Mercedes ConceptFASCINATION9.) Mazda Kiyora Concept Live10.) Renault ZE Concept
This NYC Garage Takes Vanlife To The Next Level | Jalopnik Visits


text: Logic has played a leadership role in driving key community initiatives, steadfast involvement that dates back to the company's Cayman establishment in 2004. Logic's CSR initiatives reflect the corporate, social and environmental sustainability commitments that we make to our customers, employees and to the community. Through our efforts we aim to advance the quality of life where our employees and customers work, live and do business. At Logic we focus our social responsibility efforts within 2 key areas:


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Tuesday, May 06, 2014
Properly Scandalous (Mina V. Esguerra)
Properly Scandalous moves fast. It sets a brisk pace and urges you to keep up. It's fascinating to see a scam unfold before your eyes and it's definitely a credit to Ms Esguerra that she can write something as deliciously diabolical as these then turn around and write a sweet YA romance.
One detail that I enjoy about the books is Ms Esguerra's deliberate use of colorful surnames. Scandalous has a Polly Masmagiting and an Esperanza Mandawit, for example. They're not quite the familiar surnames that you'd associate with Manila's high society (or even those climbing the social ladder), but I find that they serve a two-fold purpose: 1) they bring levity to a scene; and 2) they certainly help disassociate the events of the book from real people.
Plus, it maintains a great cast of characters. Scandalous even fleshes out previously secondary characters like Alexander and Wendy (they were my favorites from the beginning, I dunno why). Jane and her group live in a world with so much artifice but I still find myself drawn to the people behind their masks. By the way, their gang deserves a monicker. I'm just out of ideas at the moment.
The Scambitious series is one of my favorite among Ms Esguerra's works. There's a sharpness here that I rarely see in Filipino chick lit, and I don't mean the bitchy kind. It glints with a different kind of polish and charm. The dialogue is snappy but it doesn't take itself seriously. It moves in different circles: parties and bars and high-end condos on one hand, trashy gossip blogs and forums on the other. These worlds are brought together with convincing realism, walking the thin line between these two highly exaggerated worlds.
NOTE: Properly Scandalous is available on Smashwords. Holler if you want a gift code to get it free. Also, that's my old friend and fashion blogger Alex Lapa on the cover. She is one of my long-time blog readers. ;)
Posted by dementedchris at 4:50 PM
Labels: mina v. esguerra, properly scandalous
2 comments:
- Alex Lapa said...
I agree! A moniker like "The Gucci Gang" a few years ago! <3 I haven't read it yet but I'm excited. Aaaaand thank you for the mention! :D
- dementedchris said...
Of course! But yes, I was thinking of the Gucci Gang as well! Following that story was one of my guilty pleasures.
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2016-S United States American Liberty 1 oz Silver Proof Medal PF70 UC Early Release
SOLD OUT AT MINT! Bearing the "S" Mint mark that indicates that it was struck at the San Francisco Mint, this Silver 1 oz. Proof 2016-S American Liberty Medal acknowledges the old era of American minting while looking forward to the future. It combines modern digital and manufacturing techniques with traditional design figures.
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"A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children..."
Proverbs 13:22
April 2023


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Driving Strategies for Winter Motorists
Motorists Education could be a very important process for individuals nowadays, as driving on the highway generally involves multiple people cooperating to prevent dangerous situations. It is because it's rare that just one vehicle is on the highway at any given time. Because of this, it is crucial that everybody comprehend the rules, and abide them as well as they are able to whatsoever occasions. However, there are several situations by which fundamental driving rules don't apply enough in order to save your existence, and winter is one. Winter driving is only a different animal, also it takes some kind of special information, experience, and concentrate to navigate securely through wet and icy roads.
For those who have nothing you've seen prior driven within the snow, it is crucial that you simply discover the important information before you decide to check it out. There's something that merely can't be learned within the moment on your own. Some and city offices is going to be great sources for the type of information you ought to get began. We'll also do what we should can to provide you with tips about how to help you stay and yourself safe during the cold months.
To begin with, never venture out driving on the low tank of gas–especially when you plan to create a long trip somewhere. Due to the nature of winter, things, including duration of travel, are somewhat fluid, and situations generally appear that thwart what can be looked at the standard routine. For instance, driving more than a gorge to get at school might be thirty minutes trip within the summer time or fall, but longer should be planned for during the cold months, in addition to a full tank of gas as frequently as you possibly can. It's highly entirely possible that, as a result of storm, road conditions, or even the difficulties of some other driver, time and quantity of gas that it requires to obtain with the gorge will be more than normal. The final factor for you to do is exhaust gas in the center of a snowy gorge. So be ready, whenever possible.
Another very important factor to consider is the health of your tires. The environment pressure and tread are crucial to effective driving in the winter months conditions. Actually, when the tread is under acceptable, or even the vehicle you drive lacks front-wheel or 4-wheel drive, you might find yourself simply spinning your wheels, stuck within the snow. To obtain anywhere, you'll need a good group of tires in great shape. Have them this way, and you'll avoid many problems later on.
Check your oil levels, and do what you could to make sure that your driving experience won't be impacted by the mechanics inside your vehicle. Then, by moving forward they are driving extra carefully, braking lengthy before you decide to arrived at a stopping point, and being very conscious of the cars surrounding you, you'll have a lot more possibility of driving securely via a winterized world.
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Located in Clifton, Cape Town South Africa, and designed by SAOTA – Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects & OKHA Interiors, this seaside home boasts views of the Atlantic Ocean. That you can see through the house from the back yard. I think if you asked me to show you my dream house, I'd just point at the photo above.
The goal with this home was to create a building that "maximized the connection with the view and the sea, create a garden on the mountain side of the site and to minimize views over neighboring buildings," according to Greg Truen (The "T" in SAOTA). The two-volume design makes use of many different materials and the interiors by OKHA Interiors perfectly complement the geometric lines of the home.
Project Name: Nettleton 199
Location: Clifton, Cape Town, South Africa
Architects: SAOTA – Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects
Project Team: Greg Truen, Stefan Antoni, Teswill Sars
Interior Design: OKHA Interiors
Project Team: Adam Court
Main Furniture Supplier: OKHA Interiors
Photographs: Adam Letch


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New Delhi is the capital of the Republic of India, and is part of the metropolis of Delhi.
The city was planned and built as a capital city, and was so named when the then British rulers moved the capital of British India to it in 1911 from Calcutta. It was built to the south of the older urban area, sometimes known as 'old Delhi'; or the 'old city'. It continued to be the capital of independent India.
The plan of the city was developed by architect Edwin Lutyens. Most of the institutions of the central government of India are still located in this area.
See Tourist Attractions in Delhi, Hotels in Delhi, Markets in Delhi.


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If the states are laboratories of democracy, then the Republican Party's research pipeline has run dry. Moderate Republican governors, a thriving species before last year's elections, are all but extinct.
I've used data from the Web site OnTheIssues.com to rate each current governor's ideology on a scale that runs from zero for liberal to 100 for conservative. OnTheIssues evaluates candidates' ideology in each of about two dozen major domestic policy areas based on their public statements and votes. My process is simply to average the ratings for each issue area together and then translate them to my zero-to-100 scale. (In some cases, OnTheIssues has not scored the candidate on a particular topic, in which case it is excluded from the average.)
For example, Christine Gregoire, the governor of Washington and a Democrat, winds up with a score of 10, meaning very liberal. Rick Scott, the newly elected governor of Florida, has a score of 91 (very conservative). Other candidates are more in the middle: Mike Beebe, the Democratic governor of Arkansas, has a score of 39 (quite moderate), while Mitch Daniels of Indiana, a Republican, scores at a 74 (about halfway between moderate and conservative).
We can compare these scores against the ideology of the voters in each state, as measured by 2008 exit polls. This is also simple: I assign zero points for every voter who describes themselves as liberal, 50 points for every moderate, and 100 points for every conservative, and then average the result.
Here, for example, is how the comparison looks for current Democratic governors. (I exclude a handful of cases where OnTheIssues has not rated the candidate on enough issues to provide for a reliable estimate.) You see a fair amount of ideological diversity among the Democrats, from moderates like Mr. Beebe and Kentucky's Steven L. Beshear to liberals like Ms. Gregoire and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. You also see that there is a correlation between the ideology of the governors and the ideology of the states: with one or two exceptions, Democratic governors in moderate or conservative states themselves tend to be moderate, while Democratic governors in liberal states are quite liberal.
But if we perform the same exercise for Republican governors, the results look quite different:
Unlike for the Democrats, there is almost no ideological diversity within the group: essentially all of the current Republican governors are quite conservative, taking moderate positions on at most one or two issues. Also unlike the Democrats, there is no correlation between the ideology of the governors and the ideology of the states. Whether you have a Republican governor in a fairly liberal state like Maine, a moderate state like Ohio, or a conservative one like Idaho, his agenda is likely to be highly conservative. (The closest thing to an exception — the outlier in the chart — is Gov. Gary R. Herbert of Utah, who shares some of the moderate tendencies of his predecessor, Jon M. Huntsman Jr.)
The contrast is especially striking when you put both Democrats and Republicans on the same chart. (The solitary green dot represents Lincoln Chafee, the independent governor of Rhode Island.)
This is unusual behavior. Politics 101 would suggest that you need to be at least somewhat responsive to voters in your state. And American political parties in particular are traditionally broad-based coalitions that tolerate a fair amount of intellectual and ideological diversity, especially at the state level. Republicans, of course, are going to try to push policy toward the right and Democrats to the left. But you can go only so far before you get a ticket out of office, so electoral and policy goals remain in some degree of balance.
The new breed of Republican governors run counter to this principle in a way that wasn't true as recently as a year ago.
In the next chart, I'm going to plot the ideological positions of the Republican governors who were in place a year ago, just before the 2010 elections (including some who continue to hold office now). This brings back into the fold at least a half-dozen moderate Republican governors who have since retired, like Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut, Charlie Crist of Florida, Jim Douglas of Vermont, Donald Carcieri of Rhode Island and Linda Lingle of Hawaii. (Republicans lost the gubernatorial contest in five of the six aforementioned states despite their strong year overall.)
So just a year ago, there were plenty of moderate Republican governors — most of them in liberal or moderate states, where they were often quite popular. Now there are almost none, save some borderline cases like Mr. Daniels and Mr. Herbert.
The unsurprising result is that Republicans now have a group of extremely unpopular governors — particularly Mr. Scott of Florida, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John R. Kasich of Ohio and Paul R. LePage of Maine, all of whom have disapproval ratings exceeding 50 percent. Other Republican governors in crucial swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania also have below-average ratings.
Republicans do have a couple of bright spots — especially Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Bob McDonnell of Virginia — who remain quite popular and should have a long political future. But other Republican governors who are linked to national politics, like Rick Perry of Texas and Chris Christie of New Jersey, are not especially popular in their home states.
I don't know that I buy the theory that these unpopular Republican governors are likely to harm the aspirations of the party's presidential nominee though a "reverse coattail" effect, the evidence for which is quite spotty. But I do think it's a significant problem for Republicans on its own terms. It suggests that the party has become uninterested in appealing to swing voters — and that the voters are starting to notice.
Retribution from the electorate is a strong possibility unless there is a change of course.


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The Easy Bracket Saddlebag Bolt-on Support Systems allows you to attach your motorcycle saddlebags safely and securely. When installed, simply unlock and lift the saddlebags off your motorcycle. The seamless design leaves no ugly hardware behind.
Replace your normal fender rail bolts with our special Easy Bracket docking posts. (All Necessary Hardware Provided)
Secure the Easy Bracket mounting plate to the back of your saddlebag.(All Necessary Hardware Provided)
Place the saddlebags/mounting plate system onto the docking posts. An easy keyed locking mechanism makes sure that the saddlebags are secure to your motorcycle yet leave only small docking posts when the bags are removed.
Versions available for Triumph Bonneville, SE, T100, Thruxton, America, Speedmaster, Rocket III and Thunderbird


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Kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) Powder Sample 5g
Regular price $4.00
Unit price
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) is a powerful herb discovered in South Africa where it grows naturally. It has been used for hundreds of years as a way to relax the body, relieve tension, and lower stress.
At Relax Remedy our Kanna Powder is imported directly from small batch farmers in South Africa. Because we import our herbs directly they are fresh, potent, and very high quality. We offer this amazing herb in many forms including powder, rought cut, and extract capsules.
Disclaimer:Sold as a bulk botanical with no directions or claims.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.


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Fated Magic
- $6.99
- $6.99
Publisher Description
One attack on the Academy by the fae king, six lovers having to work together to survive.
When Litha sneaks off campus with Rune and Kit after a very tense first day of classes, it all ends horrifically wrong when the succubus cafe they're staying at is surrounded by fae soldiers. Not only that, but as they're breaking free, they spot Litha's grandma being dragged along by the soldiers and Litha sacrifices herself to save the woman.
That's just the beginning of some very tense days as Bane and Rune don't get out of the struggle unharmed, their lives now in grave danger. The fae soldiers were using weapons coated in a venom that slowly eats away at their flesh, and the six now have to work against the clock to find an antidote for it, or risk losing their werewolf and dragon lovers.
Meanwhile, Litha's parents come out of hiding, bringing with them new information about the prophecy. Information that makes clear that the prophecy has accidentally, or willfully, been misinterpreted for over eighteen years.
Not to mention, a surprise visit from Bane's uncle, the werewolf king, and Kit's mother, the succubus queen, like life wasn't complicated enough already…
This is a collection of the second set of three novellas, Legacy, Sorcery and Bravery in the Lughnasadh Elite Academy serial, a reverse harem #WhyChoose story. These novellas may include any of the following elements: steamy scenes, 'I need tissues NOW' moments, cries of 'why, oh, why' and cliffhangers that make you bite your nails (and curse the author).
This story includes MF, MM and also FF scenes, but everyone is primarily focused on Litha and there are no sexy scenes between the guys and the other girl.
Customer Reviews
Steamy and fun
Steamy and fun


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India, Russia sign $500 million navy deal for 2 stealth frigates
Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport and India's Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) will sign the contract to build the Grigorovich-class 'Project 1135.6' frigates with technology transfer from Russia.
India and Russia have signed a $500 million contract to build two stealth frigates in Goa that are expected to be delivered by 2027, two officials familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.
Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport and India's Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) signed the contract in New Delhi to build the Grigorovich-class 'Project 1135.6' frigates with technology transfer from Russia, which is India's top arms supplier.
The deal comes just weeks after the two countries inked a nearly $1 billion deal to import two other such warships from Russia. Those ships are being built at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad and are expected to be delivered to the Indian Navy by 2022-23.
A government official said the warships being built in India will eventually cost a lot more than $500 million, which is only the upfront value of the deal. "The $500 million is for the foreign content in the vessels including material, design and specialist assistance. The frigates will cost more factoring in the indigenous content. That cost is being worked out," he said.
GSL is expected to deliver the first frigate in 2026 and the second a year later, a second official added.
The frigate deal comes a month-and-a-half after India signed a ₹39,000-crore deal with Russia for the supply of Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems to India, brushing aside Washington's concerns about the purchase. Both the S-400 and the frigate deal are likely to be affected by the US sanctions legislation if India is unable to secure a waiver.
India is in talks with the US to secure a waiver from the Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act (Caatsa), arguing that its military is heavily dependent on Russian equipment and the two countries share a unique, time-tested relationship.
India is simultaneously exploring ways to bypass the US sanctions including an alternative payment route for Russian equipment.
The Caatsa legislation passed earlier this year does provide some flexibility for countries such as India that are dependent on Russian equipment, but Washington wants India to diversify its suppliers of military equipment and reduce dependence on Russian military hardware
India inked an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with Russia for the four frigates in 2016. The Indian Navy currently operates six such stealth frigates — three Talwar class and three Teg class — bought from Russia and inducted between 2003 and 2013.
"The best thing is the navy will now have 10 warships in the same class. That's rare. These ships have proved to be reliable, have good weapons and sensors and new ones will further sharpen our capabilities," said Admiral Arun Prakash, a former navy chief.
The Grigorovich-class frigates will be powered by gas turbine engines supplied by Ukrainian firm Ukroboronprom's Gas Turbine Research & Production Complex Zorya-Mashproekt, the officials said.


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Once, after Lord Rama returned to his kingdom from exile, a group of sages started arguing about the superiority of The Lord's Name over The Lord Himself.
Many opinions were given, yet they were not able to come to any conclusion, so they approached Sage Narada.
Sage Narada requested a few days' time to give an answer to this question.
Sage Narada thought it best to seek Lord Hanuman's help in solving the problem. He approached Hanuman and requested Him to assist him in the task, to which Hanuman agreed.
Sage Narada told Hanuman, "Make some mischief that will enrage Lord Rama's Guru, Vishvamitra, so much that He will order Lord Rama to punish You. Then leave the rest to Me."
Hanuman at once started working on this task. As expected, Lord Rama's Guru became very angry at Hanuman and told Lord Rama, "Tomorrow morning You must punish Hanuman for the wrong that He has done. In front of the sages and all the townspeople, you will aim your powerful arrows at Him, so that all will witness and learn a lesson about what happens when one annoys the Guru."
Lord Rama was surprised at His devoted servitor Hanuman's behavior. But, He had complete obedience unto His Guru, so He accepted the Guru's instruction and went back to His palace with a heavy heart. In the meantime, Sage Narada told Hanuman to chant Lord Rama's Name when Lord Rama aimed the arrows at Him.
The next day dawned, and all the sages and towns people gathered next to the river to witness the punishment that would be given to Hanuman. Lord Rama with a very heavy heart aimed at Hanuman and let go His first arrow. The arrow headed straight for Hanuman, but changed direction at the very last moment, and fell to the ground without touching Him.
Hanuman was standing with his eyes closed, deeply chanting Lord Rama's Name. All the arrows that Lord Rama aimed at Hanuman missed Him and went in different directions.
When all arrows were over, Lord Rama looked at His Guru. Vishvamitra Guru asked Lord Rama to order the divine weapon (Brahmaastra) that would not miss its target.
At that point, Sage Narada interrupted and convinced the Guru, "O great sage, You are great among the Gurus. By forgiving Hanuman, You could give the best example of a loving and compassionate Guru." The Guru listened to Sage Narada's advice and forgave Hanuman.
When the incident was over, Sage Narada approached all the sages gathered at the river. They had got their answer through this incident and unanimously agreed on the power of The Lord's Name.
Moral of the story:
Dear friends, this story shows the power of God's Name. It also shows Lord Hanuman's devotion to Lord Rama and obedience. We, too, can be protected completely as Lord Hanuman was, by chanting (repeating) the all-powerful Name of God with devotion.
Srimad Bhagavatam:
āpannaḥ saḿsṛtiḿ ghorāḿ
yan-nāma vivaśo gṛṇan
tataḥ sadyo vimucyeta
yad bibheti svayaḿ bhayam
Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, which is feared by fear personified.
Sri Siksastakam – Text 2
namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva-shaktis
tatrarpita niyamitah smarane na kalah
etadrishi tava kripa bhagavan mamapi
durdaivam idrisham ihajani nanuragaha
O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of names like Krishna and Govinda. In these transcendental names You have invested all Your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names. O my Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach You by Your holy names, but I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for them.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
PS: I humbly request all the devotees to please forward and share this moral / instructive stories they hear so that everyone can be benefited by hearing about Krishna and his dear devotees.


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I came across an interesting thread on Roosh's forum recently that linked very well with some experiences I've been having over the course of the last few weeks. Eldelwiess was the OP here and he just hints upon a greater whole of the danger of the Red Pill:
It's a very tough choice to make, yet inevitable. You HAVE to.
But it's a difficult pill to swallow.
The side effects are really nasty.
Ever since I did it, my life changed to the better, but alas, to the bitter too.
The thing is I now SEE. I'm not blind anymore. But I don't LIKE what I see.
Because what I see is hypocrisy, degeneration, mediocrity, ignorance and mental slavery.
When you see the world in red pill eyes, you see the ugly reality.
It makes you stop enjoying many things in life.
It makes you find the majority of the people boring, uninteresting and frankly stupid. You pity them.
It makes the bulk of the women unworthy of your time.
It makes you can't stand your colleagues.
It makes many jokes not funny anymore.
It makes you question everything.
It makes everyone untrustworthy, even your physicians.
It makes you…a better person ! And I love it.
But I understand why the majority of the people ignore the red pill and decide to remain in blue pill slavery and mediocrity. It's easier. And you get to still enjoy life as you knew it, keep the friends who do the exact same thing, sympathize with your colleagues who complain about long working hours, date the same women who feel entitled to everything, watch the same TV programs which numb your mind and make you lose IQ points, vote for the same politicians who control the strings that make you move…
It's easier.
Eldelwiess is just coming around to acknowledging The Bitter Taste of the Red Pill, but the inherent danger he's hinting at here goes a little further beyond the perception of a Red Pill aware man being "bitter", and into the social dynamics that center on creating and interpreting him being such. The danger in this context is not just a bitter perception, but rather one of personal, professional and familial ostracization for expressing Red Pill truths.
I touched on these liabilities in The Secret of the Red Pill, but this was more from the perspective of women having their Game explained to them and what Red Pill aware men might expect for having confronted them with it. The impact of that may only be the perception of you being a presumptuous asshole by an individual woman, however, there are broader implications and consequences for "living" the Red Pill in a larger social sense.
Wutang from Roosh's forum:
I actually had a falling out with a group of casual acquaintances when my association with RP was revealed among the group so there is a "danger" with it affecting your social bonds. I put danger in quotes because you really should see it as more of an act of filtering out who you associate with rather then any sort of great harm; the exception being if these are people who you work with or who can put a wrench in you advancing in your goals. If the only real harm is losing a few acquaintances or even friends then you should ask yourself if these are really the sort of people you want to associate with. Do you want to surround yourself with people that are apparently so mentally weak that mere words and difference of opinion can drive them into bouts of wailing and sobbing?
While we promote self-sufficiency and being beholden to no other man or system in our particular subculture we need to keep remembering that no man is an island. The people you associate with are going to determine where you are heading. Surround yourself with people who possess beliefs that lead to perpetual victimhood and you'll become a victim yourself. Associate with people that can't stand up for anything except a spineless tolerance that refuses to make any sort of value judgements and make the tough choice of saying 'A is simply better then B when it comes to accomplishing C" whether A is an idea, an action, or even a type of person and you will soon lose your own spine; being afraid to fight for anything for the fear that it'll make someone somewhere unhappy.
That said this was still a lesson in knowing when is the right time to drop RP knowledge. Naturally I'm a very open and sharing person when it comes to my beliefs and opinions but after this incident I've learned to be a lot more careful. In this case I didn't really lose much since I was already growing to dislike quite a few of the people in the group but it definitely was a warning – what if this has happened with people who I actually respected and who were in positions and had connections that could either help or hinder me in my personal goals? Be careful out there guys.
I quoted this today because I find myself having to temper and measure my Red Pill evangelism with people I know personally or interact with professionally. I say evangelism because, in spite of any measured explanation, this is what it comes off as to most uninitiated Blue Pill plugins. There's a degree of diplomatic tact you have to practice the more Red Pill aware a man becomes.
Sometimes that's tough, especially when you've gone through personal changes and development that's benefitted your life as a result. Red Pill awareness may have even saved a man's life, so just shutting up about it, or having a hesitancy to help out a fellow man in need of that awareness becomes a real conflict.
In June I'll have been back in Nevada for two years and in that time I've reacquainted myself with old friends I haven't seen since I left for Florida almost ten years ago. All of them I find in similar (if not identical) states in which I left them. Some of these men are long time close personal friends I'd kept in touch with over the years, but with the exception of maybe one out of a dozen, all are still foundering in the same Beta mindset, lifestyle and behaviors they had ten years ago. All of them still complain of the same Beta-relationship issues they had with their wives (some now ex-wives) they confided in me then.
The Rule
NEO: I can't go back, can I?
MORPHEUS: No. But if you could, would you really want to? I feel that I owe you an apology. There is a rule that we do not free a mind once it reaches a certain age. It is dangerous. They have trouble letting go. Their mind turns against them. I've seen it happen. I'm sorry. I broke the rule because I had to.
You'll have to forgive my using the Matrix metaphor, but every time I'm tempted to awaken a man I think may desperately need the truth of Red Pill awareness I'm reminded of this exchange. I understand why this would be a rule. Granted, I've broken it myself many times; usually when I think a man is a danger to himself, but I do so with the knowing that I'll need to invest myself personally in his conditions and that's where that cautious hesitation comes from.
There are friends I have who I know would outright reject Red Pill truths, but more so their lives would be turned upside down by having to confront those truths. I have a very good friend who's remarried and living a new life with his second wife, who is still clinging to all of the internalized Beta illusions and behaviors that contributed to his first brutal divorce.
I could make him aware of all the factors that led up to this very painful episode in his life. I could run down the list of how the woman he married early in life followed the time line I put forth in Preventive Medicine to the letter, why his daughters are both following her footsteps and why his son will grow into being a martyred Beta White Knight like himself.
I could also explain all the factors that led to his new wife's need for him (who by his Beta measures he's thrilled with), but I ask myself, why destroy that bliss for him? He's not now, nor likely will be, ready to have any of that explained. My concern is that he's too far along in life to bear the burden of that truth. He'd have trouble letting go. His mind would turn against him.
If he were to reach that point of desperation again I'd certainly be compelled to reach out to him and offer the Red Pill to him, but as I've said in the past, unplugging men from the Matrix is a lot like triage – save the ones you can, read last rites to the dying. But this guy's not dying and giving him the medicine might be worse than his conditions.
Law 10 – Infection: avoid the unhappy and unlucky.
Though your compassionate, charitable side may compel you to associate with the sad and downtrodden, if power attainment is your goal then avoid such people. Their bad vibe and energy-draining demeanor are too often infectious. You run a very serious risk of falling into line with their misery. Instead spend your time with people who are happy and successful. You can die from someone else's misery – emotional states are as infectious as disease.
When I quote Law 10 it's usually in response to a guy dealing with troubled, toxic women dragging them down into the quicksand of their own making. The Savior Schema usually warrants this truth; it's a want in a belief that a woman will appreciate and reciprocate for a man ready to be the solution to her problems. However, the same can apply for men who attempt to free the minds of other men.
In both volumes of The Rational Male I make a specific effort to address that Rollo Tomassi doesn't want to be a savior – I want men to be their own saviors because, although I may present Red Pill truths, it's ultimately a man who needs to be the director of his own life. If the true measure of power is the degree of control a man has over his own life, relying on a savior, relying on how well one conforms to his plan, is really a limit on that power.
As I state in the books, I'm not interested in Tomassi clones, this is why I'm humbled by every man's story I'm emailed or commented on about how they changed their lives with what I put forth in my writing.
From the Roosh forum again:
The only 'danger' the red pill presents is one's own inability to let go of previous beliefs when confronted with truth. The red pill makes you look in the mirror and come to terms with your own ego and the lies it convinced you of.
"You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
Our ego is what we're ultimately protecting. Most people don't have an identity beyond their ego, that's why most of the population can't handle the red pill. Unless you were born with red pill parents, being raised blue pill and transitioning to red (altering your very reality) will always be traumatic on some level.
I'm of the opinion that trauma and crisis are necessary components to arriving at a point where a man is open to Red Pill awareness. I realize how distorted that sounds. It should be that a rational laying out of Red Pill truths should be self-evident, but it's important to contrast that hope with the lifetime of feminine-primary conditioning men receive since their infancy.
There will always be people who will never accept even to most base and evident Red Pill fundamental truths. I completely understand Wutang's premise for wanting to create our own manospherean tribes. We've had a good bit of commentary regarding Jack Donovan's (Way of Men) call for organizing in like-minded collectives of men, and while I agree and find that laudable, I also know that isolation is dangerous.
Even by Law 10 it makes sense to surround oneself with the "happy and successful"; that's a pretty deductive truth. However, I can't ignore that many of the most condition-blinded people are also the most happy. I know multi-millionaires who are among the most abject Betas with regard to their intersexual relations.
So I guess what I'm saying is that there needs to be a level of discernment and discretion in this regard. I reach over half a million viewers / readers every month on TRM without advertising, without proselytizing, and men seem to find my works more and more. When the student is ready the teacher will appear – these men are seeking out the Red Pill and I suspect more will as Open Hypergamy and the machinations of the Feminine Imperative become unignorable.
You can't teach those unwilling to learn – maybe it's less about being convincing and more about being ready to help when the opportunities arise? That's not me being magnanimous, that's me being practical.


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Out of Line: Daring to be an Artist Outside the Big City by Tanis MacDonald
Poet and scholar Tanis MacDonald has taught creative writing for twenty years all across Canada: in small community workshops, large university classes and everything in between. The question she's heard the most is "How can I be a writer?" and she realized early on that this question had nothing to do with putting words on a page. Out of Line is her answer to this question. In this wide-ranging work MacDonald looks at our societal preconceptions about the artist lifestyle and examines how real artists fit into the everyday world. Along the way she walks the reader through the steps that must be taken for an idea to make it from a concept to a finished piece and what happens once the work is out in the world. Out of Line opens up the arts to everyone who might dream of creating.


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The Asociación Escuela de la Calle (EDELAC), or "Street School", was founded in 1995 by Guadalupe Pos to help child laborers in the central park of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. The children who come to EDELAC have been living in extreme poverty, working on the streets to make ends meet, and are often the victims of abuse, trafficking and exploitation. They are often malnourished, physically and emotionally ill, and behind in school as they drop out at young ages to try to earn an income. EDELAC provides housing, food, medical and psychological attention, a formal education, and addresses family issues that led children to the street in the first place.
EDELAC partnered with the Hovde Foundation in 2012 to purchase and upgrade a new home to care for the children who have nowhere else to go. A second floor was added and extensive remodeling was completed by April 2013. The home can support up to 26 children and includes accommodations for volunteers. The "Perry Hovde Home" was named in honor of Richard J. Perry, a lifelong advocate for the vulnerable and needy who generously financed the home through a donation to the Hovde Foundation. Together, the EDELAC school and home now support almost 300 boys and girls.
To learn more about EDELAC, please visit http://www.escueladelacalle.org/.


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To my knowledge, no one I personally know has HIV/AIDs or has died of the disease I've heard so much about for so long. I'm almost ashamed to admit it. What does it say about me that I am so insulated from real world pain that the closest I get to human suffering is a headline in the morning paper or a tease on the evening news?
It's not that I don't care, or wouldn't care … if HIV/AIDS happened to someone I know. Like most people, I suppose, I reserve my emotions and my actions for when something hits close to home—as it did when my sister was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.
Long story short, I wasn't sure I was the right writer for a personal blog about the Faces of HIV/AIDS exhibit sponsored by the United Methodist Global Aids Fund.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not oblivious or ignorant on the subject of HIV/AIDS, but I am not engaged in making a difference either. Intellectually, I get it, but on an emotional level, I'm not connected to the cause.
Nevertheless, with pen and notebook in hand, I took the escalator to the first floor of the convention center in search of the photo display for inspiration. The bright red ribbons draped over the white walls of the display were clues I had found my way.
The exhibit is actually titled, 30 Years/30 Lives: Documenting a Pandemic. Photographed by Kimberly Vrudny, it introduces viewers to individuals in the United States, South Africa, Thailand, and Mexico whose lives have been touched in some way by HIV/AIDS. People in the photos either have the disease themselves, care for someone who suffers from HIV/AIDS, have died from it, or are somehow engaged in a humanitarian response.
Although Kimberly's compelling photos were reason enough to stop by the exhibit, it was the journal entries written by each of the participants that awakened my conscience. I quickly learned that HIV/AIDS is not just about the sickened body. It's about being hungry, about being alone, about being betrayed and taken advantage of. It's about losing children and parents and breadwinners. It's about loss … always loss.
I made it a point to read each and every story. Several stood out.
Take participant 06 from Guguletu, South Africa. She lives with her daughter and grandson. Both have HIV.
"I do not know which is better," she writes, "death or struggle. I am grateful that they are still alive, but not being able to know how to help makes me feel like an outsider, watching my children die day after day."
Then there's participant 21 from Capetown, South Africa, a mother who wonders if she is cursed because she has lost two daughters to HIV and has a third daughter that is also infected.
"I would like to send a message," she journals. "Accept your children and support them. They need you as a parent to give them hope."
There are others. Participant 23, whose one wish is to have healthy children; participant 25, who was ushered into prostitution at the age of 11 and thinks no one will ever love her; and participant 09, who has lost three of his children to HIV/AIDS.
Participant 03 is a public policy student from Minneapolis who advocates for those living with disabilities, and says that HIV/AIDS presented him with the "gift" of blindness.
"I'm thankful," he writes, "for without my past, I would cease to be who I am today. HIV/AIDS is not the end of the world."
Oprah calls periods of recognition, stirring, and awareness "aha moments." Did I have an "aha moment?"
In truth, the whole of General Conference has been one long "aha" moment for me—from realizations about hunger and human rights, to malaria and now HIV/AIDS, I've re-awakened to issues that have laid dormant in my conscience for a long time. Here in Tampa, I've been reminded that many people have stories that are much more complex and weighted in pain than my own.
I may not be able to "connect" with every cause, but I can pay attention. I can be well-informed and share the facts. I can wear the red ribbon on my lapel and in my heart.
And I can invite you to visit 30 Years/30 Lives: Documenting a Pandemic exhibit in the lower level of the convention center. It's the least I can do.
–Susan Passi-Klass
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The Devil Himself: A Tale of Honor, Insanity, and the Birth of Modern America
The Devil Himself: A Tale of Honor, Insanity, and the Birth of Modern America
Monday, 24 February 2014 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Pavilion Seminar Room, Gateway Building, St Antony's College
Andrew Porwancher (University of Oklahoma; Alistair Horne Fellow, St Antony's College)...
Dr Halbert Jones
North American Studies Seminar Series
Andrew Porwancher is the Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony's College and an Assistant Professor of Classics and Letters at the University of Oklahoma. He will tell the blood-soaked tale of Nicholas Dukes and Captain Adam Nutt, two politicians in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania who engaged in a lethal duel after one confessed to seducing the other's daughter. The resulting murder trial captivated the national imagination and reveals much about a society torn between the conventions of the past and the demands of the future. The Dukes-Nutt saga also suggests that the code of honor was not unique to the American South but a national phenomenon that transcended regional divides in the Gilded Age.


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Now more than ever, we need to connect with those we love to stay healthy and well. Even as we self-quarantine, we have all made changes and found creative ways to communicate and connect with each other using video chats, phone calls, texts, or even hand-written notes. COVID-19 has created many challenges for hospitals and healthcare organizations globally, one of the most difficult being the struggle to connect patients with COVID-19 with their loved ones and to provide the emotional support they need while they are in the hospital.
Because COVID-19 is passed from one person to another, hospitals have been forced to put in place strict visitor policies. Recognizing how important physical and spiritual connection to loved ones is to a patient's recovery and wellbeing, Brigham and Women's Hospital has created several projects to bridge this connection and give patients the opportunity to connect with their loved ones even while they are in the hospital.
While family members are unable to be physically present in the hospital, one project created by Palliative Care doctors and first-year medical students, called "Get to Know Me," has helped loved ones stay connected to patients and their caregivers during their hospital stay. Medical students interview family members by phone and make a small poster with photos and important facts about the patient as a person, aside from their illness, such as their pet's name and their favorite television show. The poster is then hung outside the patient's room for their care team to view and learn from.
Example "Get to Know Me" poster. Note: This poster and information is not of a real patient.
In addition to the creation of these posters, several projects have been put in place so that patients can have "virtual" family and spiritual care visits while they are in the hospital. Through two different virtual family visit programs, patients in the Intensive Care Unit, with the assistance of their nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants or doctors, are able to have virtual visits via phone or video chart with their families or, if patients do not have their own devices, the hospital has created a program that provides patients with loaners so that they can easily stay connected with their loved ones throughout their hospital stay. These loaners are available from 7:00am-11:00pm daily.
To-date, over 600 virtual family visits have been facilitated by both virtual visit programs.
In addition to ensuring patients can stay connect with their family and loved ones, Spiritual Care Services, a Brigham service that aims to assess and serve the emotional and spiritual needs of patients and their families in moments of crisis and uncertainty, has created a program that allows patients to have spiritual care visits done entirely virtually. It is our belief that these programs contribute to the patient's overall well-being, and that human and spiritual connection can positively affect a patient's healing.
Our hope is that as the need for distancing continues, we will continue to expand these programs, as well as create others that address the constantly changing and unique needs of patients.


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Senators Urge AWS Investigation After Capital One Breach
Two Democratic Party senators have demanded an investigation into whether Amazon Web Services (AWS) broke the law by failing to secure infrastructure which was compromised in the Capital One breach.
Former AWS software engineer Paige Thompson has been accused by prosecutors of the attack on the US bank and 30 other organizations. It's said to have affected around 100 million US and Canadian customers and applicants of the financial institution, including consumers and small businesses.
Reports have hitherto focused on a misconfigured web application firewall (WAF) hosted by the bank in the AWS cloud as the main factor in the attack.
Specifically, Thompson is thought to have exploited this to conduct a Server Side Request Forgery (SSRF) attack, tricking the WAF into running non-permitted commands which allowed her to talk to the AWS "metadata" service, in order to grab key credentials.
However, following the incident, security experts argued that AWS should be doing more to implement mitigations to help prevent SSRF attacks on its platform.
"The impact of SSRF is being worsened by the offering of public clouds, and the major players like AWS are not doing anything to fix it," said Cloudflare's Evan Johnson.
Now senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren have penned an open letter to the FTC, asking it to investigate if "Amazon's failure to secure the servers it rented to Capital One may have violated federal law."
It noted that while Google and Microsoft have both taken steps to protect customers from SSRF attacks, "Amazon continues to sell defective cloud computing services to businesses, government agencies and to the general public."
AWS is likely to rebuff the claim, however, as it has argued in the past that, had Capital One not misconfigured its WAF, the SSRF attack would not have been possible.
In fact, SSRF is just one of several techniques that could have been used to gain access to the bank's data, it has claimed.
This post Senators Urge AWS Investigation After Capital One Breach originally appeared on InfoSecurity Magazine.


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Grocery giant Tesco has confirmed it is seeking to cut pay and conditions for longer-serving staff in their Irish operation.
It is understood that staff with more than 20 years service have been approached to sign new contracts that would see their pay reduced.
The move would affect about 1,000 - 6% - of the company's 14,500 employees.
Tesco has been facing difficulties for some time, and last April it posted its biggest ever loss of about €9 billion.
In 1996, Tesco negotiated a contract with the Mandate trade union governing pay and conditions here. At that time, the company did not operate the extended hours on Sundays and late nights that currently apply.
In 2006, it renegotiated the "modern" contract which took account of longer working hours and changing retail patterns.
The supermarket giant is now seeking to transfer 1,000 longer serving staff from the 1996 "inflexible" contract to the modern "flexible" contract to ensure that staff can be rostered to meet peak customer traffic..
The company said that no-one in management will be affected by the cuts, as they are already on flexible contracts.
Tesco acknowledges that the staff affected will suffer a drop in pay and conditions, but said they cannot yet calculate the extent of the cut because of variable factors like overtime.
However, a spokesperson stressed that in their negotiations with unions over the coming weeks, they will address the issue of compensation.
The company said that on the modern contract, staff are paid €11.97 an hour plus a range of benefits - including pensions and an employee discount.
They also stress that they are not seeking job cuts, and that they do not operate precarious "if and when" contracts of employment.
Last May, the company cut the €250 Christmas bonus for staff.
While the company stressed that it is not targeting job cuts, Mandate voiced fears that the new contract could be so onerous as to prompt early retirements.
Assistant General Secretary Gerry Light accused the company of seeking to force older staff out.
He said that with Tesco controlling 24% of the retail grocery market, it had to be making profits, but noted that the company refuses to reveal the scale of profits in its Irish operation.
Separately, Mandate has submitted a pay claim for a 3% increase over 12 months backdated to last March.
Gerry Light said staff earning no more than €13 an hour should not be paying the price for the corporate decisions that led to the company posting its biggest ever loss last year.
After two decades of growth, Tesco lost its way in the last few years as it found itself distracted by an expensive overseas expansion strategy when it needed to respond to the rise of discount grocers Aldi and Lidl.
It reported an annual loss of £6.4 billion in April, one of the biggest in British corporate history.
The company is also dealing with the fallout of an accounting scandal, which led to the departure of several of its top executives.
A UK Serious Fraud Office investigation is ongoing into the company's £263m profit over-statement, first revealed in September 2014.


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The Author is President cum CEO of Dewan Kraft Systems in New Delhi, India.
Paper Mills are divided in 3 categories:
The last category is most polluting, as so far not more than 10% have installed Chemical Recovery Systems. Although most have installed comprehensive Effluent Treatment Facilities, but according to a study done by Government owned organisation National Environmental Engineering Research Institute - NEERI (which has stated in Hon'ble Supreme Court of India), that the Effluent Treatment Facilities are either inadequate and/or are non-functional.
However, another Government owned apex organisation to control pollution, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), on direction of Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, has collected samples from Mills and has stated that the BOD of effluent from these mills is within limits of 20 mg/L.
The facts are, however, very different. Certain of these mills are still discharging extremely polluting effluent. The modus operendi of getting the apex body to file that BOD is within limits quite simple. The apex body and the State Pollution Control Board personnell inform the mills of their impeding visit, one week in advance. The Mills bypass their effluent and fill their effluent treatment plants with fresh water. The inspectors from the apex body and State Pollution Boards do their duty of coming and filling their sampling bottles with effluent, which is in reality fresh water. And dutifully file the report that BOD is within limits.
Most of these Mills' effluent drains into the main rivers of India. Most of these water bodies are seriously affected. It is assumed that most of the Government Organisations are not ignorant of this state of affairs, and if not, they ought to be aware of such a state of affairs. The facts & figures reflect that the personnell in these organisations prefer to take no official action. The Mills often form various organisations, which basically function to
These mills copy successfull equipment quite frequently. The Law on Patents is fairly strict, but it is significant that no Damages have ever been granted by the Indian Courts, even in cases wherein infringement was proved conclusively. The Indian Courts in general ask the infringement to be stopped and feel that that is a sufficient compensation.
This state of affairs is affecting R&D efforts as well as Equipment Manufacturers & Suppliers. The Mills would copy equipment even if the savings to them would be as low as US$ 1000/-. Although new technology for fighting pollution has been evolved by several OEMs, they are seriously affected as they face a dillema, if they supply it will be copied and the demand is low as the apex body for Pollution Control has given the Mills a clean chit.
The Mills would rather invest in expansion, rather than Pollution Control. These facts are quite evident even by cursorily examining the Mills, which are adding to their existing capacity almost every year, but neither reporting expanded capacity, nor investing in pollution control. The clear cut evidence even for a passerby are the additional spherical digestors in every mill, and a growing thick stream of foul smelling, dark brown effluent eminating from the Mills, and the growing despair of ordinary citizens and deterioration of quality of life & precious water bodies.
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