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The recent freezing weather conditions and Royal Mail may have delayed this review for a week or so, but boy I can tell you it was worth the wait! Replacing '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' this week I have the pleasure of bringing you another review of my favourite homemade cakes merchant - Heavenly Cakes. Before I launch in to telling you how wonderful their latest cake was :D I should probably make mention of the special discount that all ChocolateMission readers can use on the Heavenly Cakes website. Indeed it's Christmas time and Heavenly Cakes are in the giving mood!! If you enter the code 'JCM001' at the checkout stage of the order system, you automatically qualify for a 10% discount - nifty huh!?
Luckily for me Heavenly haven't just been in the giving mood in regards to some discounts for you lot :D They have recently sent me a whole batch load of their latest cake creations, one of which was this Midnight Mint cake that they have created especially for Christmas 2010. Essentially this cake constituted of a milk chocolate brownie base, topped with a layer of mint fondant and Belgian dark chocolate. The beady eyed ChocolateMission readers will also have noticed the sprinkling of icing sugar sat on top of the cake - it's funny how this simple addition can make any cake look Christmassy isn't it :D
This beastly single serving cake came in the usual cellophane packet with all the standard blurb nicely printed on the pink coloured label. Being in the Christmas sharing mood, and being full well in the knowledge this wasn't going to be a cake I could handle alone, I acquired the services of a fellow taste tester in my office. Looking at the cake it looked spectacular, but I had immediate concerns that the overflowing amount of fondant could potentially send me in to a sugar coma within a few mouthfuls. Taking my first bite in to the cake, the textural differences between the soft brownie, smooth fondant and dense crisp chocolate layers were the first thing brought to my attention - it simply felt amazing. At the base of each bite, the crumbly brownie was delicious and generated buttery chocolate flavours that stayed throughout the experience. The mint fondant layer obviously didn't hang around in establishing itself on the taste either. Thankfully, the injection of sweet mint was more passive than I expected - this wasn't a conventional fondant where the sugar hit became fast insufferable. The peppermint flavours were finely tuned and were delivered in a manner which allowed greater expression of the chocolate constituents. Speaking of which, the dark chocolate on top was equally well balanced. For my tastes it could have been a touch stronger, however the unsweetened, roasted cocoa flavours supplied were more than sufficient at finishing off what was a devilishly rich, chocolate and mint indulgence.
Overall this Heavenly Cakes Midnight Mint has been without doubt the best Christmas themed cake I have tried this year. Despite initial fears that Heavenly's willingness to take usual amounts of fillings and applying them by the power of ten may backfire on them with the mint fondant, I was proven totally wrong. The mint fondant was frankly implemented expertly - neither too sugary or lacking in peppermint prowess. This combined with the amazing quality of the fresh chocolate brownie and tasty Belgian dark chocolate placed on top, made for what was a cake of pure luxury. It seems horrendously corny to use this phrase on a Heavenly Cakes review, but I guarantee that this would be literally 'Heaven' for any fan of minty dark chocolates. For those of you wondering, both myself and my fellow taster polished off our half slices easily with both of us left feeling a great deal of satisfaction. Unfortunately for me I'm not going to be able to look at a mint flavoured cake bar from the likes of Cadbury the same ever again. The bar has just been raised to high by another superb Heavenly Cakes offering.
9.0 out of 10


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Browse Examples of Historical Thinking
One institution, two very different perspectives. An expert contrasts records. [...] »
With the advent of industry and western expansion, U.S. businesses mass produced dreams of affluence and progress. [...] »
Jefferson, surprised by the Louisiana Purchase? Maybe not. Historian Leah Glaser looks at a letter from Jefferson requesting funding for the Corps of Discovery. [...] »
A Cherokee Nation Supreme Court document reveals the fluidity of racial identity. [...] »
Potato chip marketing—how a luxury item became an everyday U.S. food. [...] »
A student demonstrates thinking aloud reading two documents. [...] »
On the website Historical Thinking Matters, a student reads aloud a speech by former Louisiana Governor Huey Long. [...] »
This interactive tutorial models a four-step process for analyzing historical sources. [...] »
See sourcing in action, as a historian reads a document about the Scopes Trial. [...] »
Watch this flash movie for a peek at how historians read and question sources. [...] »

subset: commoncrawl


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Clicking on a link below will take you to a short (or a bit longer) biography of the poet, including links to their poems, some of which have user comments and analysis. You can list the poets according to when they were born, or alphabetically by last name. You can also enter a name into the search box below to try and find a specific poet.
Enter a name or search term into the search box to find a poet.


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Beautiful graphic packaging contains a tingly gel!
A lovely little package with modern graphic design featuring crossed feminine swirls, floral patterns and a vivid play on color. Inside you'll find a tasty gel in one of three flavors. Apply to the nipples and you'll notice a sensation heightening light tingle.
A nice smell will soon grace your nose making this delightful product a sensual addition to appeal to all senses. For the final act, get your lover to lick it off! Comes in a 1 ounce tube.
Flavor Options: Cherry, Strawberry, Passion Fruit, Watermelon
Discreet Shipping
Orders ship discreetly in 1 of 3 ways:
1. White USPS Priority mailing box
2. Padded mailing envelope
3. Brown cardboard packing box
The mailing label does not list the store name, website or its contents.
It looks like an ordinary shipping package, no one will know what's inside.
FREE ground shipping on orders over $59.
If the order subtotal is over $59, it ships free.
No products are excluded from this offer. Even sale items can have free delivery!
Ground shipping only, delivers within 3-5 business days.
Delivery Schedule:
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** Schedule includes both processing & transit times.
Weekends and holidays are excluded from processing & transit times.
Orders placed before 11:00 am Eastern Time usually depart the same business day.
We ship within the United States & overseas military.
Sorry, we do not ship internationally.
Only ground shipping is available for Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Alaska, APO/FPO.
Adverse weather conditions may delay deliveries. In such cases, above timelines do not apply.
Shipping & Handling Rates:
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The credit card statement will be billed as Legend Sales.
You will receive an email receipt and a printed receipt inside the shipping box. We do not send anything to the billing address, we require this information purely for the credit card transaction.
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Dealing in private matters is a specialty for us.
To learn how we handle your personal information, view the Privacy Policy.
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This is a snapshot version of CrediFi's proprietary risk score. To see the full breakdown and the individual components of CrediFi's risk algorithm, just sign up! You're on the way to more comprehensive Commercial Real Estate data.
CrediFi compiles commercial mortgage data and aggregates its loans database to create greater insight into specific lenders, their playbooks and market trends.
Morgan Stanley Bank of America Merrill Lynch Trust 2016-C32
Quickly assess investment opportunities with CrediFi comps data. Understand the deal better with comparable sets of properties for greater market context. Sign up now for a free demo of CrediFi's new property mapping technology for comps visualization.
CrediFi commercial property financials contain recent and historical assessor's value, revenues, expenses and accompanying documentation with graphic tools for property analysis
See this property in better context for enhanced diligence & understanding


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Barbara Ann Nelson, 76, Marceline, died Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at Boone Hospital Center, Columbia.
Barbara Ann Nelson, 76, Marceline, died Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at Boone Hospital Center, Columbia.
Visitation will be held from 6-8 p.m. Monday, May 13, 2013, at Delaney Funeral Home, Marceline. Following funeral services in Utah, May 18, 2013, burial will be in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Marceline.
Barbara was born February 3, 1937, in Murray, Utah, daughter of Charles and Edna (Bateman) Cockayne. She married Frank Bernard Nelson on August 31, 1959.
Barbara was a homemaker and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Survivors include her husband, Frank Nelson, of the home in Marceline; six sons, Randy, Richard, Russell, and Rhett Nelson, all of Utah; Robert Nelson, Marceline, and Ryan Nelson, Nevada; two daughters, Stacy Hoskins, Texas, and Heather Alires, Utah; brother, Jim Cockayne, Montana; two sisters, Judy Peterson, Utah, and Lynn Rosbach, Colorado; 27 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents; one, brother Don Cockayne; and granddaughter, Kaycee Nelson.


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This week at the Cleveland Museum of Art, enjoy art in many forms: through tours, food and wine, film, books, and more!
The Thinker: A CMA Blog
Today marks National Beer Day in the United States, a celebration of the prohibition-ending Cullen-Harrison Act, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 22, 1933. That law went into effect 16 days later on April 7, making alcohol legal to purchase again in the United States for the first time in more than 12 years. In the spirit of "spirits," here is are six beer vessels from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art!
There is something for everyone this week at the Cleveland Museum of Art! From concerts to community fairs to colloquiums, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved and get inspired.
Looking for a fun activity for Easter weekend? Take the Cleveland Museum of Art Easter hunt challenge by finding these nine works from our collection.
Follow the life of Christ with these twelve pieces form the collection.
This week at the Cleveland Museum of Art, join us for a free concert in the galleries, explore Senufo through the exhibition, films, and tours, and celebrate your individuality with MIX at CMA!
Vincent van Gogh, one of the most well-known artists in the world, was born on this day in 1853. Easily described as a tortured genius, Van Gogh was consumed with an undefined illness and possessed an unparalleled talent. Despite - or because of - his complex existence, Van Gogh produced masterpieces that, more than a century later, still evoke a breathtaking wonder. As a tribute to Van Gogh and the beauty he gave us, we're asking readers to submit a birthday wish via the comments below, on Facebook, through a RT on Twitter, or via Instagram comment. To be automatically entered to win a Van Gogh inspired gift from the Museum Store, tag a friend in your birthday wish!
Since Monday, the Cleveland Museum of Art has been celebrating #MuseumWeek on Twitter with more than 2,000 other arts and culture institutions around the world. Last year, the CMA was one of the first American museums to participate in #MuseumWeek, and we're excited to be part of the global discussion online again! In the spirit of today's theme, "favorites," we share with you 10 favorite objects from 10 staff members here at the museum. Hear their stories in the video clips, and share your favorite works of art from the museum's collection with us on Twitter: Tag @ClevelandArt and #favMW, or leave a comment on the blog!
Since Monday, the Cleveland Museum of Art has been celebrating #MuseumWeek on Twitter with more than 2,000 other arts and culture institutions around the world. Today's theme is "family," and we're sharing with you the top 15 ways to play at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2015! Check out the list, download a printable version to hang on your refrigerators at home, and share all the ways you #PlayatCMA!
This week at the Cleveland Museum of Art, join us for a lecture on Chinese ceramics, enjoy live performances by Mivos Quartet and Cleveland School of the Arts, see a Cleveland International Film Festival screening at the museum, and more!


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My day at the museum turned out to be a wild day.
My day at the museum turned out to be a wild day. We discovered the water play room. The 2 year old slipped and cut the bridge of his nose. Mom and Dad took him to the ER for stitches, leaving the 3 year old with Grandma and Grandpa at the museum. By the time I got home, I was ready for a nap. We were up and down stairs, plus I was terrified of losing the boy in the crowd, so I spent a lot of time on my feet keeping up with him. We left Grampa in the snack room with the bag of cookies, fruit snacks, and animal crackers that I got in the machine.


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Net weight: 20g
In stock
£2.95 Zero VAT
Earn 2 Loyalty Points each
Only available for delivery to Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey
Net weight: 40g
£4.75 Zero VAT
Earn 4 Loyalty Points each
Net weight: 120g
£12.95 Zero VAT
Earn 13 Loyalty Points each
Net weight: 300g
£29.64 Zero VAT
Earn 30 Loyalty Points each
Net weight: 1800g
£132.00 Zero VAT
Earn 132 Loyalty Points each
White chocolate roses (yes they are indeed edible chocolate roses) for decorating wedding and celebration cakes. These chocolate roses are handmade from high quality, Belgian chocolate to a superior finish to decorate the most exquisite of cakes.
A finely detailed, ivory white chocolate rose of unrivalled quality with a unique, soft shimmer finish. The white rose is from the same manufacturer as the white rosebud and so matches perfectly.
These white chocolate roses are ideally paired with our white chocolate rosebuds and white chocolate cigarellos for decorating cakes. Not suitable for a gift
These chocolate roses may contain traces of nuts & gluten
Nutritional information per 100g:
Energy 2216kj / 529kcal
Fat 29g of which saturates 18g
Carbohydrate 60g of which sugars 51g
Protein 5.2g
Salt 212mg
Posted Fri 24 Feb 2012 10.01am by Sharon
I have just received delivery of these white chocolate roses (I ordered at 3.30pm and the roses were delivered at 8.30am the following day!!) and I am absolutely over the moon with them. They are so impressive and look more like the very professional sugar versions i've seen than anything made in chocolate - actually much better. The roses are a delicate ivory colour with a sparkle dusted finish. This is more of a powdered shimmer btw than a sprinkle of hobby glitter! This can be brushed and muted if you need to also as I found (i was trying to retrieve one of my eyelashes) although I have to say the finish makes them look very special indeed. Perfect for decorating a wedding cake. I have made chocolate roses and with all the patience in the world could not achieve this level of quality and refinement. I have bought chocolate roses from other places too and whilst better than my handmade attempts were still not as realistic and classy as these roses. I would like to say a very big thank you as I am so excited that my daughters wedding cake is going to look so very special, decorated with these chocolate roses. I shall be back to order again online - although maybe not for another wedding I hope! PS. I also bought some sugar diamonds and again these are really lovely and will be used for wedding white chocolate cupcakes. Highly recommended product, superb service and very well packaged.
Posted Wed 13 Jan 2016 1.28pm by Samantha
Exquisite roses. A beautiful shimmer and incredibly intricate. I've used chocolate trading for a few years now. Always seems to come next day and carefully packaged. Nothing ever broken. Highly recommend!
You must be registered with us if you wish to rate & review this product.
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It is our intention that product reviews should be constructive, balanced and for the sole purpose of helping other customers to decide which chocolates best suit their taste, or intended recipients taste. For the enjoyment and helpfulness to all customers the reviews are moderated.
White chocolate RosebudsFrom £1.25
Striped decorative chocolate trianglesFrom £3.95
Striped, decorative chocolate panelsFrom £3.95
Milk chocolate cigarellosFrom £8.95
White chocolate cigarellosFrom £8.95
Dark chocolate cigarellosFrom £8.95
Dark chocolate curlsFrom £2.95
Milk chocolate curlsFrom £2.95
White chocolate curlsFrom £2.95
Dark chocolate vermicelliFrom £1.95
Milk chocolate vermicelliFrom £1.95
Duo chocolate cigarellosFrom £8.95
Caramel chocolate curlsFrom £2.95
Strawberry chocolate curlsFrom £2.95
White chocolate vermicelliFrom £1.95
Orange chocolate curlsFrom £2.95
Milk chocolate pearlsFrom £3.50
Dark chocolate pearlsFrom £3.50
White chocolate pearlsFrom £3.50
White chocolate rosesFrom £2.95
Multicoloured chocolate flower decorationsFrom £3.95
Striped mini chocolate cigarellosFrom £3.95
White chocolate flowersFrom £3.95
Dark chocolate flowersFrom £3.95
Speckled, dark chocolate panelsFrom £3.95
Speckled, white chocolate panelsFrom £3.95
Callebaut dark chocolate pearls (Crispearls)From £8.61
Callebaut white chocolate pearlsFrom £9.75
Callebaut milk chocolate pearls (Crispearls)From £8.90
Callebaut strawberry pearls (Crispearls)From £9.62
Callebaut dark chocolate vermicelliFrom £7.94
Callebaut milk chocolate vermicelliFrom £7.85
Callebaut white chocolate vermicelliFrom £7.80
Callebaut milk chocolate shavings 2.5kgFrom £16.69
Callebaut dark chocolate shavings 2.5kgFrom £16.58
Callebaut white chocolate shavings 2.5kgFrom £18.27
Chocolate letters & numbersFrom £4.95
Callebaut dark chocolate pencils (200mm)From £15.54
Callebaut white chocolate pencils (200mm)From £14.50
Callebaut Picasso chocolate pencils (200mm)From £15.54
Callebaut chocolate filigree decorationsFrom £4.25
Callebaut caramel chocolate blossoms (curls)From £12.58
Callebaut dark chocolate blossoms (curls)From £8.78
Callebaut marbled chocolate blossoms (curls)From £9.98
Callebaut milk chocolate blossoms (curls)From £9.50
Callebaut strawberry chocolate blossoms (curls)From £12.94
Callebaut white chocolate blossoms (curls)From £10.01
Red chocolate curlsFrom £2.95
Green chocolate curlsFrom £2.95
Yellow chocolate curlsFrom £2.95
Chocolate pearlsFrom £18.95
Duo chocolate panel decorationsFrom £3.95
Chocolate spoonsFrom £2.95
Dark chocolate rosesFrom £2.95
Victoria chocolate cupsFrom £5.15
Callebaut salted caramel chocolate pearls (Crispearls)From £11.38
Arabesque decorative chocolate trianglesFrom £3.95
Red chocolate rosesFrom £2.95
on every order you make
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Standard p&p from just £3.95
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Chocolate Trading Co
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Chocolate couverture
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Chocolate wedding favours
Chocolate gifts
Valentines chocolate gifts
Mothers day chocolate gifts
Easter eggs & gifts
Fathers day chocolate gifts
Christmas chocolate gifts
Birthday chocolate gifts
Anniversary chocolate gifts
Chocolate gift ideas
Chocolate for chocoholics
Chocolate recipes
Chocolate blog
© 2018 Chocolate Trading Company Ltd.
Registered in England 3872536.
The Old School, Byron Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK11 7QA England
UK Standard 2-4 day delivery from just £3.95
Next working day guaranteed delivery (UK Mainland) from £5.95
Order your chocolate gift delivery by phone: Call 01625 508224


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Main Page
This community-driven site is geared towards Buffalo Technology/Melco's amazing Network-attached storage (NAS) device called the Linkstation. There are currently several models available, so click on the links on the right to find out which variant you have.
OSUOSL Thank You
Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:38:49
A letter arrived on my doormat at the end of last week from the USA! Not very often I get post from there, after I opened it it was a nice thank you card from OSUOSL thanking us for our last donation. OSUOSL provide us with rack space and pay for our bandwidth, so this is the least we can do to thank them for helping us.
Thank you OSUOSL! Here is the card:
More Site Maintenance
Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:30:01
This weekend we will be removing the following wikis due to lack of usage:
In the future articles for manufacturers that do not have their own specific wiki will go in the main portal. When we have enough articles to justify a wiki for a manufacturer then we will create one and move the articles over.
In addition we will most likely be doing some updates to the rest of the wikis this weekend to bring them up to the latest version of MediaWiki. Also we are slowly fixing the links back to the new main portal – this work is on-going but coming together.
Site Updates
Sun, 24 Jul 2011 14:56:57
Today we updated all the forums to the latest version of phpBB and following this we upgraded the nas-central blog. Also we fixed an issue with news reporting to the wikis from the blog.
You may have noticed that we have changed the main portal back to a wiki too as this is useful for general articles that are not device specific. There is still some more content to restore to this area and a bunch of links that need fixing that link there from the other wikis – please bear with us while this happens.
Tonight also we will be looking at upgrading the bug tracker and possibly merging the foonas bug tracker into this area.
Donation Drive Update – Server Disks Needed!
Tue, 14 Sep 2010 21:43:05
We are looking to upgrade our storage on our server with a couple of 2 TB disks. To do this we need to raise approximately $550 USD. We will be using what is currently in the reserve towards this but we need your help getting the rest.
We are advert free and do our best to provide you with this resource thanks to your kind donations. Three years ago you helped us buy a new server, which is now hosted for free at OSUOSL – this is the first new server hardware we have needed since then.
We hope this will be easy to achieve if everyone can give a little!
Please visit http://www.nas-central.org/donations – thank you for your help.
In the next post we will be letting you know a bit more about the NAS-Central infrastructure at OSUOSL.
NAS Central On Facebook
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:10:42
NAS Central is now on Facebook! To view our public listing and add us click here. We will be relaying blog posts via Facebook and providing further updates on our profile page there!
LinkStation Variants
LinkStation_General at Yahoo! Groups
<feed url="http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/LinkStation_General/rss" entries=7>
NAS Central Blog
<feed url="http://blog.nas-central.org/feed/" entries=5>
Foonas Blog
<feed url="http://blog.foonas.org/feed/" entries=5>
Try out some designs in the Sandbox


text: I would like to learn what experienced geocachers think is the basic background that a new cacher needs for placeing that first cache. My question is not how to, but when to and how do you know you're ready. I have read some cachers recomend 20 finds and some recommend 100 finds before hinding one. I would appreciate any feedback.


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Did you know that white chocolate is tecnically not classed as chocolate at all as it only contains cocoa butter and not cocoa solids, chocolates main ingredient. However, as everyone knows it as white chocolate who are we to argue and so here are a few of the best white chocolate bars from the worlds most respected chocolate makers that money can buy.
From Willies chocolate
A luxurious white chocolate created from bean to bar at Willie's, containing raspberry. Sublimely creamy with a natural zingy sweetness. Read more...
From Zotter
Tasty honey crisps combined within a sweet almond cream and enrobed in fine white chocolate. The flavour and texture reminds us of the delicious crispy crumble on that classic British pudding served with vanilla custard. Very moreish.Read more...
From Solkiki
A dairy free, organic, white chocolate combined with hazelnuts to create a light and creamy gianduja recipe chocolate bar. A particularly sweet white chocolate made with cold pressed cocoa butter with a super creamy taste.Read more...
From Akesson's
A superior quality, single plantation, organic white chocolate bar. Created from fine flavour cocoa grown on the Bejofo plantation in Madagascar. Quite the pedigree and one of the most flavoursome of white chocolate bars money can buy.Read more...
From Chocolat Madagascar
Extra fine white chocolate from Madagascar with Bourbon vanilla. A wonderfully creamy white chocolate with, not surprisingly from Madagascar cocoa, delicate flavours and aromas of forest fruits. Read more...
From Original Beans
Superior quality white chocolate, without vanilla or any other additives, from the Yuna river valley in the Dominican Republic. Organic, fairly traded & sustainable. Rich notes of banana and Swiss milk and as pure as possible.Read more...
From Valrhona
This luxury white chocolate in a 250g block form is created for wide use in baking, decoration and all applications of chocolate work. A white chocolate that's not too sweet with delicate flavours of fresh milk and vanilla.Read more...
Valrhona have created a high quality white chocolate with the simplest of ingredients with this new chocolate bar. Pure white chocolate, delicately sugared revealing harmonious aromas of fresh milk and natural vanilla.Read more...
Rarely do you see a single origin, white chocolate bar. Created by Willies Cacao from fine flavour Trinitario cocoa from Venezuela. This Willies chocolate bar offers a clean, milky tasting experience without excessive sugars.Read more...
From Michel Cluizel
A sweet white chocolate bar by Michel Cluizel made with Bourbon Vanilla and pure cocoa butter for the finest flavour. A very creamy and flavoursome white chocolate bar.Read more...
on every order you make
Buy cooking chocolate ingredients & decorations
Buy white chocolate bars online today with standard delivery by post for just £3.95, fully tracked. Our Supersaver delivery at just £2.95, not tracked, may be available for smaller orders. Order white chocolate bars online before 4pm for a next working day delivery before 1pm from just £5.95. Register online to receive loyalty points on every chocolate order made.
Chocolate Trading Co
Welcome to Chocolate Trading Co. Sign in.Register with us
my basket (0 items)Total £0.00
Customer services
Chocolate Delivery
Order tracking
Contact us
Terms & conditions
Loyalty points
Security & Privacy
Affiliate programme
Buy Chocolates
Chocolate boxes
Chocolate bars
Fountain chocolate
Chocolate cigarellos
Hot chocolate
Chocolate hampers
Chocolate couverture
Chocolate truffles
Chocolate wedding favours
Chocolate gifts
Valentines chocolate gifts
Mothers day chocolate gifts
Easter eggs & gifts
Fathers day chocolate gifts
Christmas chocolate gifts
Birthday chocolate gifts
Anniversary chocolate gifts
Chocolate gift ideas
Chocolate for chocoholics
Chocolate recipes
Chocolate blog
© 2018 Chocolate Trading Company Ltd.
Registered in England 3872536.
The Old School, Byron Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK11 7QA England
UK Standard 2-4 day delivery from just £3.95
Next working day guaranteed delivery (UK Mainland) from £5.95
Order your chocolate gift delivery by phone: Call 01625 508224


text:
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Tips for Buying Earrings for Sensitive Pierced Ears 3 comments 10 Jun, 2014
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Posted on February 25, 2015, 3:52 am By Irene
About Irene
Hello, My name is Irene, I've always loved jewelry. Undoubtedly, jewery have been an indispensable accessories to accessorize our outfit. I'd like to writting about jewlery, all sorts of beautiful, charming jewelry in my blog, and share everything I've learn about them. If there's anything that you'd like to see here, let me know.
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'We're all in there'
"It speaks to issues that are ever-present. It's about a family," said Desel, who retired after teaching theater at Linfield College and Chemeketa Community College.
And it's about the secrets we keep from one another and ourselves. "That's a life issue," he said.
The Tennessee Williams play will open Friday for a three-weekend run in the community theater at Second and Ford streets, McMinnville. Curtain will be at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets are $14 for adults and $12 for students and seniors; on the first Saturday, Gallery will offer buy one, get one free tickets.
Williams, whom Desel calls "a real American Southern poet and playwright," also wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "The Glass Menagerie." Like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," they also share a Southern setting in the period in which people are trying to hold onto antebellum traditions while struggling with changes in the larger world, including the civil rights movement.
"Cat" is set in the part of Mississippi where Williams grew up. His fictional family is ruled by Big Daddy, the wealthiest, most powerful plantation owner in the area. Big Daddy and Big Mama have two sons, the conventional Gooper, who became a lawyer, married well to Mae, and got busy producing grandchildren; and Brick, the favorite, a college football star who married a pretty, but poor girl named Maggie.
The story begins on the eve of Big Daddy's 65th birthday, a double celebration for him, since he's just been told that his chronic illness is not serious. When the whole family gathers, tensions rise and long-suppressed feelings erupt.
"It's about mendacity, lies and habitual lies," Desel said.
The play explores social mores, including various aspects of sexuality, alcoholism and religion. But it's not all serious and depressing, Desel said; humor and light moments also are a part of the story, just as they are part of a family.
Desel said the playwright, Williams, is known for writing and rewriting his works and continuing to develop characters.
He created at least five different versions of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," including the 1975 rewrite Gallery is using. "Williams called that his favorite," the director said.
The ending is intentionally ambivalent, Desel said, leaving it up to the audience to decide what happens to Big Daddy and his family.
"Tennessee Williams said he was putting the group into intense situations to see how the characters deal with the storm. He doesn't want to draw conclusions for us," he said.
As for the director, "I want the audience to listen to it and find themselves. We're all in there."
Desel said Gallery's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" cast is doing a great job with the play.
Dave Lund and Antonia Osterhout are Big Daddy and Big Mama. Julia Sargent and Lance Nuttman play Maggie and Brick. Gooper and Mae are played by Webb Thomas and Charity Benham.
Other cast members are Norm Tognazzini as Rev. Tooker, Walt Haight as Doc Baugh, Shanet Abeyta as Sookey, Naomi Benham as Dixie, Mya Abeyta as Trixie and Garner Wall as Buster.
Robert Osterhout is the stage manager and lighting designer, and Vicky Ragsdale is assistant stage manager.
Ben Frum helped with construction, along with Naomi Benham and Tognazinni. Mike Pace is sound designer. Angela Janssen is running lights.
Jean Schroeder is the costumer. Rolan Cranford did hair, wigs and makeup. Debbra Millard styled Sargent's hair. Stephanie Belt-Verhoef choreographed the children's parts.
For reservations and tickets, call the box office at 503-472-2227.


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- 1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz) unbleached bread flour
- 1/2 tsp (.13 oz) salt
- 1/2 tsp (.055 oz) instant yeast
- 1 Tb (.75 oz) sugar
- 1 Tb (.5 oz) vegetable oil
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb (3 to 4 oz) water, at room temperature
- Chopped roasted salted peanuts to sprinkle
In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, sugar, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing). Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors. I've cut spoon shapes out of the dough.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180ºC) with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle with the peanuts.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.
Here they are! So what can we spoon with them?
I've been meaning to make homemade peanut butter for a long time, and I've been meaning to make homemade Nutella for a even longer time. (I even had this Zen recipe bookmarked). I thought this was a good oportunity to make one of them, but since I couldn't decide which one to make, I've combined both and came up with my own version of Peanutella, a peanut-chocolate spread, or in this case, dip! I've based my recipe on Zen's but besides substituting hazelnuts for peanuts, I've changed a few more things.
- 1 cup toasted peanuts
- 1/3 cocoa powder
- 1/4 + 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1-2 tbsp oil
I have a Magic Bullet, but if you don't have one you can do it in a food processor. First process the sugar until you have a fine powder. Remove, set aside and add the peanuts. Process until the peanuts start loosing their natural oil and start forming a paste. Add the sugar, cocoa, vanilla and salt. Keep mixing and add oil little by little until you're happy with its consistency. Keep refrigerated.
Peanutella is my new favourite thing!
Dig in!
It's ok to double dip!
Let's get to the bottom of it!
Thanks Shel and Natalie, our wonderful hosts for this month! Head here for hundreds more of lavash and dips!
You know you want it!
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Even if cybersecurity isn't a subject you think about a lot, the data breach of credit card information from Target and Neiman Marcus customers has probably increased your level of cyber-anxiety.
In Cybersecurity And Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know, P.W. Singer looks at cybersecurity issues faced by the military, government, businesses and individuals, and what happens when you try to balance security with freedom of speech and the ideals of an open Internet.
Singer is the director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution. Singer tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the best ways to protect online accounts and the differences between traditional warfare and cyberwarfare.
Interview Highlights
On the importance of big companies taking cybersecurity seriously
[The Target and Neiman Marcus] incidents ... are good illustrations of how cybersecurity issues affect us all. Even if you look at the kind of shopper who is at Target versus the kind of shopper who sends their personal buyer out to Neiman Marcus, they're both being hit here. ...
Companies may not have been taking security in the cyber-realm as seriously as they should. ... There are certain industries that have done quite well because the incentives are really well aligned. ... Think about the banking industry versus ... the power grid, where they haven't been taking it seriously enough, again, because the incentives aren't there.
On passwords
There's a series of fairly simple steps that we can take. ... One of them is, frankly, don't use the same password for all of your different accounts. ...
Often it's not the password itself, it's the secondary question ... because if you're being targeted in many ways, they're going after the ability to change your password, to tell the provider, "OK, I lost my password. Can you send me a new one?" And in that case they'll ask you some kind of question like, "What's your mother's maiden name?" which is easily look-up-able online and they get multiple chances at it. ...
Give counterintuitive answers to those: What's my mother's maiden name? Pizza, which is instead your favorite food, so it's something they'll never ever be able to look up. ...
The bottom line is that any password is breakable. ... The main thing is ... don't make the mistake that is out there. What is the most common password today? Password. What is No. 2? 123456.
On the hacking of U.S. patents
[Chinese hackers are] stealing designs for things that are of clear national security importance, like the design of a jet fighter.
There's an advance jet fighter that we've been research-and-developing. ... It's a trillion dollar program and that program has been hacked multiple times. In fact, in one situation it was actually hacked while the plane was in mid-air; they were downloading information off it that way. So how do you measure the loss there? Do you measure it in terms of the literally billions of dollars of research and development that we paid for that they got for free? Or do you measure it in terms of the 10 to 20 years that we were supposed to be ahead of them that we're not going to be? We're already seeing design elements of that popping up in their new jet fighter systems.
On how cyberwar differs than physical war
There's not the very clear and definable smoke plume coming out of the missile. ... It's not just the idea of the detection part of it, it's also how you respond, or maybe rather when you respond. ... You may want to watch an attack play out inside your system so you're understanding it. ... You may not always want to let the other side know that you know that they're attacking you. Your response may be that you want to hit them back immediately, or maybe you want to let it settle a while and design something to go, effectively, after them. ... There's this notion that it's incredibly easy, but if we look at examples like Stuxnet, which was this weapon that we used to go after the Iranian nuclear research, it takes a massive amount of research and time and collective effort to build a truly impactful cyberweapon.
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Even if cybersecurity isn't a subject you think about a lot, the data breach of credit card information from Target and Neiman Marcus customers has probably increased your level of cyber-anxiety. My guest, P.W. Singer, is the co-author of the new book "Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know."
It's about issues that face the military, government, businesses and individuals, and the decisions facing us when trying to balance security with freedom of speech and the ideals of an open Internet. Singer is the director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. He's the author of previous books about private military contractors, child soldiers, and how advances in robotics are changing war.
P.W. Singer, welcome to FRESH AIR. Let's start with the Target security breach, which was followed by the Neiman Marcus security breach. And at Target, I know they not only got credit card numbers, that included the code verification value, that three-number code on the back of the card that you're often asked for when you're paying for something by phone. And they got other personal data.
What do those breaches signify in the world of cybersecurity?
P.W. SINGER: There are certain things that jump out to me about these incidents. And look, there'll be more of them. The first is they're good illustrations of how cybersecurity issues affect us all. You know, even if you look at the kind of shopper who is at Target versus the kind of shopper who sends their personal buyer out to Neiman Marcus, they're both being hit here.
The second is in terms of the question for these companies, and at least in some of the information that's been following from - whether it's Target or other ones like Snapchat - is that companies may not have been taking security in the cyber realm as seriously as they should and in terms of how they communicate that when incidents happen.
There are certain industries that have done quite well because the incentives are really well-aligned, when we think about the banking industry, versus those others, whether it's consumer or the power grid, where they haven't been taking it seriously enough, again, because the incentives aren't there.
The third is the lessons for you and I, and in the book we explore at the end, there's a series of fairly simple steps we can take. We overcomplicate this. And one of them is, frankly, don't use the same password for all your different accounts because the fear in these incidents is someone can daisy chain across your accounts.
GROSS: So what I heard about Target and the Neiman Marcus breaches, it just made me wonder, like, what is the safest way to pay for something now? Obviously cash, but then you're carrying around a lot of cash with you. But if you're paying with a credit card, do you think it's any safer to pay in the store or by phone or through the Internet?
SINGER: You're never ever going to have 100 percent security, and that's true whether I'm talking about you and, you know, buying online for everything from, you know, socks to concert tickets to you name it, to the nation, when we think about our military role. You're never going to have 100 percent security in this space.
And so what you have to do is change your mentality to one of resilience, which is basically, you know, whether we're thinking about this in terms of the physical side of resilience, if your body gets cut, it just doesn't give up, it has all sorts of reaction mechanisms, to the psychological side of resilience.
If you go through life thinking that nothing bad is ever going to happen to you, well, that's a recipe for disaster. Instead it's how you're going to react to these bad things. And so it's the same - you know, if you're thinking about going into a store and you're saying, OK, but I'm using my credit card in the store, well, that credit card in the store, what is it linked to, all these other digital aspects.
What are the kind of questions that they ask you for marketing reasons, your zip code and the like? And so the point here is that you have to understand that if you're going to get the good of the cyberworld, accept that there is some bad that comes along with it.
GROSS: OK, so you and everybody is recommending that we vary our passwords and that we change them every so often, so that if somebody breaks into our information, they can't daisy chain and use one password to get into all of our accounts. I don't know anybody who is capable of remembering their passwords.
GROSS: And of course you're not supposed to store them on your computer for obvious reasons, because that can be hacked. Where do you store - I mean, what...
SINGER: Well, it's funny because we're focusing on passwords, as if they're the - you know, assumption that that's the only thing to keep you safe. No, there's a whole series of layers of things that we can do, and they range from, you know, as we were talking about, having strong passwords to often it's not the password itself, it's the secondary questions, having counterintuitive answers for them because, you know, if you're being targeted, in many way it's - they're going after the ability to change your password, to tell the provider, OK, I lost my password, can you send me a new one.
And in that case they'll ask you some kind of, you know, question like, well, what's your mother's maiden name, which is easily lookupable online, and they get multiple chances at it. So one of the things we talk about in the book is, you know, give counterintuitive answers to those. So, you know, what's my mother's maiden name? Pizza, which is instead your favorite food. So it's something they'll never, ever be able to look up.
But again, any password...
GROSS: But then you won't be able to remember that. OK, really.
SINGER: What I'm getting at - but the bottom line here, and there are some new software products that make this easier. But the bottom line is any password is breakable, or they'll go after it through work-arounds, like in the case of some of these - whether it's department stores that have been targeted, all the way up to aerospace companies to the U.S. military itself.
There's other things, very basic things we learned in kindergarten, like don't accept candy from strangers. Well guess what? The most important penetration of secure U.S. military networks by a foreign intelligence agency happened because a soldier found a memory stick that had been - there had been a candy drop is what they call it.
It had been left outside enticingly, actually in the parking lot, and the soldier picked up that memory stick and took it into the base and plugged it into their computer, and that's when we had the biggest external penetration of classified U.S. military networks.
The main thing, Terry, is for your password, don't make the mistake that is out there. First, what is the most common password today?
GROSS: Password.
SINGER: Password. What's number two? 123456, which, you know...
GROSS: Oh, brilliant, OK, yeah.
SINGER: Which in the movie "Spaceballs" they joked about how that was what we - you know, that's what I use for my luggage. Well, guess what? That's what people are still using for valuable online identities.
GROSS: So you refer to this in the book that you should never click on a link unless you know who sent it and never click on a link if it looks suspicious. So, you know, we all know people whose email accounts have been hacked. And so we get emails that appear to be from them because it has their name and email address on it, but it's actually some hacker who hijacked their email address and is sending something else.
So I've gotten my share of I'm stranded in England and I don't have any money because somebody also robbed me. Please wire me some money. I've gotten those. And then I've also gotten just a link with no message, just a link from somebody who I know. And I once or twice, I think, actually made the mistake of opening the link because I figured, oh, this is somebody who I really know and trust. Let me see what they wanted me to read.
And it opens to some, like, really weird ad, you know, like - just like an ad that looks just like incredibly cheap and schlocky for some like product like no one's ever heard of. And I don't even know if it's a real ad. And so I ask myself, what's the point of that link? Is it to get access to my email, or is it for me to read this ad that no one would read unless there was this link?
And if they want my email, what do they want it for?
SINGER: In some situations, it may be someone who's trying to get inside your network, either for your personal finance information, or maybe it's because you're part of a large media organization that they want to cause some kind of trouble for. Or in other cases, as you noted, it may not be that kind of crime, it may just be someone trying to steer eyes to, you know, the latest advertisement for men's erectile dysfunction ads or the like, where they're being paid, the criminals in these cases, are being paid by the number of clicks that they draw in.
So what I'm getting at here is a bigger problem, and again, it's thinking about it as you as an individual, the company that you're in, to how we think about this as citizens on a national security level. The head of the NSA, who is simultaneously the general in charge of the military Cyber Command, talked about how, and this is in testimony to Congress, that there were, quote, millions of attacks on U.S. military systems every single day.
But what he was doing is bundling together the kinds of attacks that you just talked about there, you know, that are everything from, you know, a low-level attempt at fraud, to address scams, to people trying to deface the Pentagon website, to people trying to carry out some kind of political protest, to people actually trying to get inside the network to steal secrets of some sort.
Another way of putting this is that we bundle together all sorts of unlike things, unlike actions and unlike people behind those actions, simply because they all involve the zeros and ones of software. We've bundled it all together. And the point of the book is that we have to push beyond that kind of thinking because otherwise we'll be helpless. We'll be helpless in terms of our counter-responses but helpless in how we think about it.
GROSS: Your book starts with a senior leader in the Defense Department talking about why he thought cybersecurity and cyberwar were so important, but he was referring to that as all this cyberstuff. What troubled you about that?
SINGER: It's that combination of knowing something's important but only being able to call it stuff.
SINGER: And that's - that was this moment which, you know, was great from a writer's standpoint for, you know, kicking off a book that tries to explain all this stuff, but it's equally troubling when we think about the ramifications of that. And look, we can't knock him too much. You know, all of us make some kind of cybersecurity decisions that matter, whether, you know, you're at the Pentagon or a large corporation to a small cupcake store to you're a journalist to you're a parent.
And yet we're not well-trained. We're not well-equipped for this area right now. To give an illustration from business, more than 70 percent of business executives, not CTOs or CIOs or the like, but business executives in general, 70 percent have made some kind of cybersecurity decision for their company, and yet no major MBA program teaches it as a regular course of management practice.
Same thing could describe what's going on at, you know, the schools we teach our diplomats, law schools, journalism schools, you name it. And so this stuff problem is a great illustration of where we're at right now but how far we need to go.
GROSS: Yeah, and you describe leaders in government and the military who aren't especially cyber-literate and don't even know how to use their email.
SINGER: There's that, but really the anecdotes that are both funny but scare me is the attitude part, the - we call it Ludditism. It's people who are in the positions that truly matter, that can truly move the dial, whether it's in law or agencies or whatever, who unfortunately sometimes are proud of their cyber-ignorance, proud of not using the technology that literally our entire world depends on, you know, whether it's our systems of commerce or communication or conflict.
In the book, for example, we use the illustration of the former secretary of Homeland Security, you know, the civilian agency ostensibly in charge of cybersecurity in the United States, and she proudly talked about how she didn't use email and in fact had not used social media for over a decade, not because she didn't think it was secure, because she just didn't think it was useful.
Or, you know, go to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is going to decide all sorts of legal issues in this realm, from, you know, privacy questions to what's legal or not at the NSA, a case that's probably going to come up in - certainly within the next year. And in the words of one justice there, they, quote, haven't yet gotten around to email, haven't yet gotten around to it.
I mean, this is a bad place to be.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is P.W. Singer. He's the author of the new book "Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know." And he's also the director of the 21st century security and intelligence at the Brookings Institution. Let's take a short break and then we'll talk some more. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is P.W. Singer. He's the author of the new book "Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know." He's also the director of the 21st-century security and intelligence at the Brookings Institution.
Let's look at the - you know, WikiLeaks and at Edward Snowden. Do you think that those leaks should never have happened? And I don't mean to judge the quality of the information or whether it's good that the public knows that information or not. I just mean from the perspective of government agencies. What kind of security do you think would have prevented WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden?
SINGER: What's funny about it is they're the actual types of security that these agencies were supposed to be following but just hadn't gotten around to it yet, to go back to that Supreme Court example. So it's things like not sharing passwords across, not allowing an individual in one position to have free rein over information all across the entire organization, even if it was not in their personal responsibility areas, to trying to monitor what's happening inside your networks, not just what's happening outside your networks so you're seeing anomalies like, you know, massive amounts of information being collected or going out to, in the case of Manning, not allowing certain kinds of hardware in that shouldn't happen in.
You know, he joked that he downloaded all the classified information on all sorts of operations from Iraq to Afghanistan to the like on a CD that was labeled Lady Gaga. I mean, you know - again these are huge incidents in cybersecurity, cyberwar history with a huge amount of resonance, but they're also lessons for how very basic steps can go a long way in preventing these sort of things from happening.
GROSS: You write that China is considered the most threatening actor in cyberspace. So what exactly is China doing? It's stealing patents and designs?
SINGER: It's stealing designs for things that are of, you know, clear national security importance like the design of a jet fighter. There's an advanced jet fighter that we're - we've been research and developing, and we're now in the midst of building, the Joint Strike Fighter. It's a trillion-dollar program. And that program has been hacked multiple times.
In fact in one situation it was actually hacked while the plane was in midair. They were downloading information off it that way. So how do you measure the loss there? Do you measure it in terms of the literally billions of dollars of research and development that we paid for that they got for free? Or do you measure it in terms of the 10 to 20 years that we were supposed to be ahead of them that we're not going to be?
We're already seeing design elements of that popping up in their new jet fighter systems. Do you think about that in terms of the national security impact on the battlefield, how you thought you would be ahead of them in having a military advantage that you're not going to have anymore? Do you think about it on the trade market? There's lots of different ways to weigh it.
But that's not the only thing that's being stolen. We've seen examples of companies that were engaged in some kind of negotiation, for example an oil company that was preparing a bid, and lo and behold their counterpart would come in with a bid just slightly above what they were going to do after they got inside their networks.
So they didn't steal a secret like a patent, but they stole a secret that, again, could be worth ultimately billions, or if you're talking about oil companies, it can be tens or hundreds of billions, to national security in terms of tapping into diplomatic messages to - look, in the book we talk about Operation Shady Rat.
It was this massive advanced persistent threat campaign, what they call an APT campaign, where it got into everything from international agencies that range from diplomatic ones to the International Olympics Committee to national government agencies all around the world, not just the United States but in Germany, France, Japan, you name it, to corporations, again, that ranged from, you know, oil companies to banks, you name it, to academic institutions, even my own institution.
And again, the information ranged from things that you can measure in monetary value to they scooped up the personal cell phones of White House staff that people had inside their messages, huge effort here.
GROSS: Are we talking about the government of China doing this or individuals in China doing this?
SINGER: Therein lies the challenge of this because you have this massive scale of operations. In some situations it's very clearly direct government linked. In the book, for example, we explore the attack that happened on the New York Times that again, you know, the information that they were going after was not, you know, what the New York Times was going to charge for its newspapers next year.
They were actually trying to find out who was speaking to New York Times reporters about corruption involving certain key Chinese government leaders and their families. That was what they were going after. But in that case it was tracked back to Chinese military agency. In other situations it's what you would describe as the patriotic hacker community, where they're not officially government, but they're government-linked in a certain way. And then you have the more distinct criminal aspect.
GROSS: Now but you also write China suffers the largest number of cyberattacks in the world. So if China is responsible for initiating a lot of cyberattack, how is it also suffering the largest number of cyberattacks?
SINGER: In many ways it's a problem of their own making. It's an issue of they're a greater market for hardware than they are of software. To put it more directly, they use a massive amount of pirated software. So they're not getting all the security updates for it.
One top of that, they're not the only ones emanating attacks. Whether you're thinking about the low-level criminal versions - for example right now Indonesia is at the top, not China, to the United States. If we look at ISPs, Internet service providers, of the top 50 cybercrime-spewing ones, the ones that have the most cybercrime coming out of them, 20 are American.
GROSS: P.W. Singer will be back in the second half of the show. He's the co-author of the new book "Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know." I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross back with P.W. Singer, co-author of the new book "Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know." It's about cyber threats facing individuals, businesses and nations. Singer is the director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and the author of previous books about private military contractors, child soldiers and how robotics is changing war.
There are laws of war which are often violated but, you know, we do have the Geneva Accords. Is there any equivalent for cyberwar? And if not, is there talk of having something?
SINGER: This is a huge area for the future of war, but also the future of international law. And there's some interesting historic parallels to this where, you know, in the past we receive new technologies that had been science fiction, like the fly machine, that allowed us to fight in new places, but they also showed the inadequacy of the existing laws of war and understandings of them. You know, so if you think about the airplane, our notions of what the home front was fundamentally changed by your ability to now attack behind the battle lines.
And so some people have pushed the idea that we should create an entire new set of laws for it, new cyber Geneva conventions. It's a worthy idea, but we're also trying to come out of this in a realistic manner. And rather, what we look at is the notion of grafting. For people who study international relations, grafting, building on to something that works rather than to try and write an entire new law, has been far more successful historically. And so that's what we're looking at is the idea of can you graft onto the existing laws of war, take the values from them in terms of protecting civilians, trying to have a weapon that goes after its intended target, doesn't have collateral damage, all these sorts of things to - most importantly - the idea of accountability, that it's always traceable back, that people are taking ownership of what they send out. Those are the kind of values that we want to try and have in this space.
GROSS: Yes. Well, one of the problems right now in the cyber world is it's sometimes hard to know who originated the attack. Because you can launch the attack through bots, through other computers, it's sometimes hard for a government to say this government attacked us.
SINGER: Exactly. There's not the very clear and definable, you know, smoke plume coming out of the missile. And that's why when you hear these people using Cold War parallels of cyber deterrence, they fall by the wayside - even how we do, thread assessment. But it's not just the idea of the detection part of it, it's also how you respond - or maybe rather when you respond - is changed by this. You know, back in the Cold War, the idea was that you had to, if someone was launching a missile at you, you got to get your missiles off the ground immediately before their missile hits you. Well, that's impossible in this space when you're talking about things literally moving at, you know, the speed of light across a fiber-optic. But it also may not be good strategy. You may want to watch an attack play out inside your system, so you're understanding it, so you're able to do those kind of attributions.
You may not always want to let the other side know that you know that they're attacking you. Your response, maybe you want to hit them back immediately, or maybe you want to let it settle a while and design something to go effective after them. And this is another part of it in terms of how we talk about cyber offense. There's this notion that it's incredibly easy. But if we look at examples like Stuxnet, which was this weapon that we used to go after the Iranian nuclear research, it takes a massive amount of research and time and collective effort to build a truly impactful cyber weapon. And so, again, the timelines are different from how they're described.
GROSS: Is there any national or international body now whose job is to protect the security of cyberspace from state actors and from criminals?
SINGER: It's a huge important question because how this plays out will shape the future of the Internet itself. There's been a push for the ITU - actually, it was originally the International Telegraph Union - it was originally created for the telegraph - there's been a push for this international group now to take over the governance of the Internet because of these kinds of security concerns. That's been the narrative that's been pushed. Now notably, that's been pushed by mostly authoritarian states, like the Russias and Chinas of the world. And they're using the cyber insecurity that's out there and the narrative over these kind of attacks.
But their concern is a different kind of information attack. It's not in the West how we think about it of threats to infrastructure or the like, they're worried about a different kind of Wild West - open values, the free flow of information that might be threatening to their internal stability. And so what they're pushing for is a move away from the current Internet model of multi-stakeholder to states should be able to have this kind of control and build up walls, Balkanize the Internet, the Russian model of blacklisting over 82,000 websites.
Where I come down on this is that we're all players on the Internet. And my concern in the year ahead is - and there's some major negotiations that are going to happen over this in the year ahead. And of note, because of the NSA's disclosures, the U.S. has lost a little bit of its swagger. We've also of concern, maybe lost some of our coalition partners on this, the swing states, like the Brazils, the Indias, the Germanys. And my concern is if we don't watch out, the Internet that's been so great for you and I is not going to be the ones that we give to our kids.
GROSS: Would you elaborate on that concern?
SINGER: The Internet started by two California universities connecting to each other. And it has been run, so to speak, with this underlying ethic that, you know, frankly comes out of, you know, 1970s California hippies. It's about sharing. It's about free flow of information. It's about openness. There's a huge amount of informality that's actually been incredibly effective. So, for example, some of the key decisions about certain technical standards are made by groups of people that voluntarily come together and they vote by humming. It sounds insane and yet it works. You now have pushing against this states saying we should be in charge of this. And, of course, states bring, in particular when you're talking about authoritarian states, a very different goal. And so I'm worried - and again, you can think about this in terms of the push by authoritarian states, like your Russias and Chinas of the world, and then the flip side, some of what's come out of the NSA disclosures about monitoring of a different kind of information. And so you've seen states start to - we're not there yet, but the ripple effects have been to, you know, almost poison the well.
GROSS: You know, talking about cyber security, some of the security has been handled just by freelancers, you know, individuals on the Internet. And I want you to tell the story of Brian Krebs and what he exposed.
SINGER: It's a great illustration of the power of individuals on the Internet. And Brian Krebs is this technical expert - a blogger - who also works for The Washington Post. And he got curious about not the individual cyber criminals, but the networks that they were using, the institutions, the markets and the like, and he dug a little and found that in fact, one key hub was responsible for this massive amount of cyber crime. And he contacted the organization and those that it was linking to and said hey, did you know this? And some did and now that they were, you know, notified by someone from The Washington Post, they took action; others didn't and said, wow, that's important to us. And so that hub, its activities got stopped. And low and behold, for a short period of time, 80 percent of all cyber crime on the Internet disappeared all because they went after this one hub. And it's a great illustration of how it's all a network. We're not just talking about a computer network, it's a network of people and relationships and that you can take real action if you mobilize them in a way that their underlying incentives are effective. And so in this situation it was the fact that he had the combination of technical expertise, but he also had this media side where the companies involved didn't want to be embarrassed and so they finally took action.
GROSS: You write about something called The Internet of Things. What is meant by that?
SINGER: The Internet of Things is one of the most important nutrients for the Internet itself, but also for you and I outside the Internet and, of course, cybersecurity and cyberwar impacts of it. So if you think about the way we use the Internet, our Internet-enabled devices, it's mainly been about communication between you and I, you know, me emailing you from my computer to your iPhone or the like. And that iPhone is a good illustration of one of the other trends that's out there, you know, becoming more and more mobile. But so basically, it's been about us having conversations of some sort, us sharing information online in some way shape or form.
Cisco estimates that over the next five years, we'll see the number of Internet-enabled, Internet-linked devices go to as much as 40 billion. And what that means, as you see everything from refrigerators to cars to gadgets that no one's even dreamed up yet, all being linked up, it's no longer about you and I having conversations, it's about the things having conversations among them. And so that's when in The Internet of Things it really truly starts to change the real world. So we're already seeing little micro-examples of it. Like, for example, if you've bought a new car recently, when it detects that the brake pads are about to wear out, it'll automatically notify the manufacturer, who will automatically make you an appointment at the car dealership. The next step on this will be to link outside those networks, so your car, as its driving home, it will notify your smart thermostat that you're 10 minutes out. And the smart thermostat that's linked to a smart power grid, you know, it's been on an environmentally-efficient temperature in your house and now it's going to change it to the temperature that you just like for the time that you're there. All these great powerful impacts of The Internet of Things, but, of course it also comes with cyber threat consequences of a next level.
We've already as an illustration seen car hacking. You know, not just stealing information from your car - where are you, with the GPS and the like - but now taking over certain actions of your car that is causing the car to do things contrary than what the driver of the car wants. And so it's a huge change in all our online life, but also our life in the real world.
GROSS: What kind of precautions do you take in your personal life?
SINGER: I try and practice what I preach. And in the book it goes through all of these things from, you know, password protocols to I can't tell you the number of conferences that I've gone to where you get this wonderful, really cool, you know, memory stick with the logo of you - the conference. Or recently it was a foreign government and they gave the silver memory stick; oh, isn't it beautiful? Isn't it wonderful? Sorry, going to toss that in the trash, it's not going into any of my networks.
But look, there's another part of it which is understanding that everything that you do, it still is never going to give you 100 percent security. So if you can't bear to lose it, prepare to lose it. It's true whether you're talking about access for your power grid or your jetfighter designs to those pictures of your kids that you have saved online - prepare to back them up because you might lose them.
GROSS: I want to thank you so much for talking with us.
SINGER: Thank you for having me.
GROSS: P.W. Singer is the co-author of the new book "Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know." You can read the introduction to the book on our website freshair.npr.org.
Coming up, Maureen Corrigan reviews Chang-rae Lee's new dystopian novel. This is FRESH AIR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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For most of us, hunger is short-term problem with a simple and foreseeable solution: easy access to a wide array of food and nutrition choices. But for one-eighth of all of the people in the world, hunger is a daily, inescapable reality.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that 868 million people across the world are suffering from chronic hunger, emphasizing that although it has declined for the first time in fifteen years, that number remains "unacceptably high." FAO Director-General Jaques Diouf states: "The silent hunger crisis affecting humanity poses a serious risk for world peace and security. We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world and to take the necessary actions."
The risk factors facing malnourished people are dramatic; the results are catastrophic. Estimates indicate that 53 percent of deaths among pre-school age children in the developing world are due to complications caused by malnutrition on top of diseases such as measles, pneumonia, and diarrhea.2
"We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world and to take the necessary actions."
—Food and Agriculture Director-General Jaques Diouf
"The world has the resources to address all the problems [of hunger] with the technology and the global wealth that exists. However, do we have the will and commitment to do so?"4 The many causes of hunger and malnutrition seem simple; yet ending hunger remains difficult to achieve. In order to understand the elusive solution, we need first to examine the interconnectedness of the root causes of persistent famine and malnutrition.
Poverty is at the core of the world hunger crisis. The regions across the world that are subjected to extreme poverty conditions are at more risk to have their terrible situation exacerbated by outside forces such as natural disasters and war/conflict, thereby further deepening their difficult situation.
"In short, the poor are hungry and their hunger traps them in poverty."
—World Food Programme5
As time goes on, it becomes more and more difficult for individuals, communities, and countries to come out from underneath the heavy blanket of poverty. As the World Food Programme states: "The poverty/stricken do not have enough money to buy or produce enough food for themselves and their families. In turn, they tend to be weaker and cannot produce enough to buy more food."5 They are caught in a horrible cycle.
Natural disasters cause famine, hunger, and poverty in areas of the world that are already predisposed to crisis. In regions where food production and availability is only marginally sufficient to provide a sustainable food supply for its population, this precarious predicament intensifies when drought or other natural disasters wipe out entire crops. Once a region's food production and supply has been severely degraded, it becomes increasingly necessary for that region to import food and supplies. However, many of these countries lack the funding and supportive government infrastructure that will allow for the necessary, life-saving food and supplies to be brought into the country.
As significant and devastating as natural disasters are as an impetus for famine, humans and their activities are increasingly responsible for sustained hunger emergencies. Since 1992, the proportion of short-term and long-term food crises that can be attributed to human causes has more than doubled, rising from 15 percent to more than 35 percent. All too often, these emergencies are triggered by conflict.5
"The world's poorest countries are disproportionately likely to be at war."
—The Economist6
As with natural disasters, once a region is in a state of emergency, getting needed resources into the area can be extremely daunting. And, to make matters worse, "The world's poorest countries are disproportionately likely to be at war. Studies suggest that poverty and economic stagnation cause conflicts, and conflicts, of course, aggravate poverty..."6
Regions that are already at more risk of being negatively impacted by human generated conflict are more likely to suffer. And, taken further, food "becomes a weapon. Soldiers will starve opponents into submission by seizing or destroying food and livestock and systematically wrecking local markets. Fields and water wells are often mined orcontaminated, forcing farmers to abandon their land."5
Physical suffering is only the initial impact of hunger and famine on impoverished individuals. Over time, every aspect of normal life is compromised and drastically diminished for entire families and communities. This "behavioral shift [creates] an emotional analogue in apathy (including reduced appetite) and irritability. The costs are obviously reductions in work, in socializing, and, for children, in the interaction with their environment that contributes to their learning and development."7
As communities fall prey to hunger, the effects of poverty deepen, spreading through entire regions and countries. In fact, "whole populations may be forced to migrate in search of food, in the process disrupting development potential in a locality or region and encouraging political disorder and conflict."7 Eventually, chronic, widespread hunger destroys generations of individuals who are trapped in a life which is full of sadness and almost insurmountable barriers.
"The most reliable defense against war seems to be economic growth."
—The Economist6
Like you, we want to help solve the global and yet very personal problem of hunger. Although it does seem an overwhelming task, there is hope for a solution, provided the interlocking factors that contribute to hunger are simultaneously addressed. As Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics states: "The tendency to think of growing more food as the only way of solving a food problem is strong and tempting, and often it does have some rationale. But the picture is more complex than that."8
We must continue to alleviate the immediate suffering of the hungry by sending food to families in need, but we must concurrently move toward economic solutions that will end the poverty cycle. The path to long-term life-saving economic stability and growth will come through a concentrated effort by a committed group of world citizens working together to cultivate peace.
1 World Food Programme, (2007). What is Hunger? Retrieved May 10, 2007, from World Food Programme Web site
2 United States Agency for International Development, (2005, 04, 26). Overview of Nutrition. Retrieved May 10, 2007, from US Aid from the American People Web site
3 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, (2005). The State of Food Insecurity in the World. Retrieved May 20, 2007, from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Web site "
4 Nor, Salleh Mohd (2001). Globeglance: We Can Have Enough Food. Retrieved May 21, 2007, from United Nations Web site
5 World Food Programme, (2007). What Causes Hunger. Retrieved May 10, 2007, from World Food Programme Web site
6 The poor man's curse; Civil wars. (Preventing civil war). The Economist (US) 367.8325 (May 24, 2003): p11US. (657 words)
7 DeRose, Laurie F. and Millman, Sara R., (1998). Introduction: Why Hunger Matters. Retrieved May 4, 2007, from United Nations University Press Web site
8 Sen, Amartya (1990, 08 02). PUBLIC ACTION TO REMEDY HUNGER. Retrieved May 18, 2007, from The Hunger Project Web site


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Start a pot of water to boiling, and you'll need some pasta-- spaghetti, linguini, angel hair.. whatever you have. I have a weakness for collecting pasta from Trader Joe's. This one looks good! Salt the water and cook according to package directions.
VERDICT: I need to make scallops more often. This recipe would work well with prawns, as well. My husband-- who crinkled his nose at eating scallops-- said they were delicious! He was impressed at how tender these were-- seafood fillet mignon. I had a glass of chilled white wine, and I was very happy.
The printable recipe is at the bottom of this post. The beauty of this dinner is that I can put my feet up and relax. We saved a lot of money by not going out to eat, yet I feel this dish was restaurant quality. Thanks Jaden!
By the way, I bought her debut cookbook, and I look forward to learning how to cook more Asian recipes. Her photos are great!
This is a keeper!


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I think about Limitless more often than any person should: occasionally. Topping the film's lengthy list of shortcomings is the stinging presence of wasted potential (funny, since it's a movie about the wasted potential of the human mind) capping its high stakes exploration of the expansive question, What would happen if we used 100 percent of our brains? with the softball answer, We'd be pretty good at predicting stock patterns and learning new languages. In Lucy, we have the exact same hypothetical, albeit delivered in a different kind of story altogether - Limitless was effectively an addiction thriller, Lucy is an action/sci-fi. But the answers are much bigger.
American slacker Scarlett Johansson comes about her newfound mental capacity much like Bradley Cooper is, by way of experimental drugs. Lucy (Johansson), an effectively anonymous character with whom we identify principally over just how regular she seems to be, has the substance thrust into her system by a sociopathic crime kingpin (Choi Min-sik) - neither party has a clue what CPH4 (which lacks the nominal panache of Substance D or Melange or Dropper or Chems) is capable of doing with Lucy's brain, nor even does top-of-his-game academic Morgan Freeman, whose main purpose in the movie is to be there to explain to us what the hell is going on... and inject a subtle plug for his upcoming film Dolphin Tale 2. But it's this grand mystery, this shriek of possibility, that makes Lucy a fairly riveting experiment. And from one rather unexpected source: Luc Besson, who has never veered too far from the straight-and-narrow path, entertains quite a few what ifs with his latest picture.
What if you could access 20 percent of your brain? Then 40, then 50, and eventually 100? What if you had the sensory capabilities of the average dolphin? Or you had total command of organic energy? Or a free supply of the stuff that kicks you into life as a developing fetus? What sort of powers would you find at your disposal? What sort of consequences would amount from this state of evolution? How would your worldview change, your feelings change, your humanity change, your body change?
And what if a filmmaker were to brave the task of telling this grand a story? Would he deliver the account in the ordinary aesthetic and kinetic fashion of his standard one-way actioner stricken with existential tunnel vision? Or would he vie toward imagination? Jumping from his onscreen narrative to footage of wildlife fornication and blank screens that prompt recollection of a certain Looney Tunes short? Why not? What if?
If it sounds silly... well, it is. A great deal of Lucy will inspire smirks and scoffs. In its ambition to explore the possibilities of its premise, landings are overshot and marks are missed altogether. And sure, there are probably far more intriguing ways to go about the concept than performed by Besson and Johansson in this picture. But very little of Lucy feels like wasted potential. It's creative, even when not entirely original. It's exciting, even when just a bit aimless. And it's ambitious, even when it doesn't seem like it has a complete idea of what it's doing. Ultimately, Lucy wants to be a movie about possibilities, and it at least puts an honest go toward living up to that endeavor.


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I am sure that each of you have been asked this question many times. I know that my answer to this question always shocks the questioner. I simply answer that I do not believe in religion. Well, you can imagine the look on their faces. First, what is religion? According to Readers Digest, it is: "A conscientious devotion to a particular doctrine or scrupulous devotion to a certain practice." For example, Communism, Islam, and Buddhism are all devoted to belief. There are many religions that do not believe in Jesus Christ
First, let me explain why I do not believe in religion. Religion is the greatest curse to ma kind. Religion do not unite us, but divide us against each other. The first death on earth was caused over religious differences; Cain slew his brother Able. Every ware that has been fought, has always been over religious differences. In fact, the war over terrorism that we are now in, is over religious difference.
The next question is, What denomination are you? My answer is shocking, saying that I am a Christian. Which brings another question, What denomination do you recommend? Can you imagine their look again as I say, None!How many times have I heard them reply, What! You are a minister and do not believe in any denomination?
Now allow me to clear this all up, and tell you why. Every religious denomination was started by some man, and was based upon his own religious beliefs, whether he be Buddha, Allah, Joseph Smith, or who ever.
The next question is: Then, what do you recommend? My answer is to go to our Bible and find out what those in the beginning church is not hard to establish. After his resurrection, in his last meeting with his disciple, Jesus said the church would begin in Jerusalem, (Luke 24:47-49). It was in this same chapter that he gave them the commandment, saying: "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. "He commands them to tarry there, "until ye be endued with power from on to tarry there, "until he be endued with power from on high." The disciple clearly understood and went to Jerusalem, and waited for the promise of the Holy Ghost, the Comforte3r, that Jesus had promised.
The New Testament church began in Acts chapter two. It is here that we find what the true plan of salvation experience is: "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." There was no doubt t them that they were now saved. They did not get religion, they got an experience in God!
When we read the next ten chapter of Acts, we find clear examples that this is exactly how they were all saved, every time. There is not one exception! When we read this, we find that the Apostles preached and baptized every time the exact words Jesus commanded them in their last meeting with him. They baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and all spoke with tongues. Because some wanted to offer a different way, Paul said: "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." (Gal. 1:6) The word 'pervert' means to change the gospel.
What do I recommend? I recommend that we forget about religion and denominations, and go to our Bibles and see how they all were saved, how they were baptized, and what kind of experienced they received. Then find a church that preaches the same doctrine as Jesus commanded and as the Apostles preached. Then be sure that you receive the same experience as they received.
No, you do not have to belong to church where I pastor to be saved, Jesus did say: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God is not meant and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14:17).
Let us not forget that it was religion that nailed Jesus to the cross, so let us all forget about religion and go back to the truth as taught in our Bibles, and become one family in God. We must make our calling and election sure and beyond any doubt. May God bless us that we all come into the unity of the truth.


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Skyfall is the perfect film to accompany the 50th Anniversary of the first big screen Bond movie, Dr. No. The movie is a crossroads for 007; the spy is an old soul with unconventional, archaic methods, struggling to exist in a high-tech world with enemies who swap laser beams and nukes for Internet viruses and data infiltration. This conflict is the core of Skyfall perfect for director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) and the human drama gives every moment of the espionage thriller additional weight. Sure, there are the grandiose set pieces we've come to expect from the series. But like the older films, Mendes keeps most of the action contained, the focus always on star Daniel Craig as he evades and confronts danger. He even pushes further, allowing the evildoers into MI-6's home and, through the magic of performance, the audience into the mind of Bond.
After a botched mission sends him off the grid, James Bond returns to his homebase in London to discover the MI-6 in disarray. The target of system attacks seemingly designed to screw with M (Judi Dench), MI-6 calls upon a noticeably shaken (not stirred) Bond to get back on his feet and track down the nefarious face behind the online terrorism. While politico Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) would prefer to use the magic of computers and drones to dig up the bad guy, M knows even Bond at 50% is unlike any machine in the world. A few training sessions and a weapon upgrade from Q (Ben Whishaw) later, Bond hits the road.
In pure Bond fashion, Skyfall traverses some beautiful landscapes. From China's glowing, waterside gambling epicenter Macau, to the remains of a South Pacific isle to the foggy country side of Scotland. Departing from action movie aesthetics and embracing shadows, atmosphere, and imperfection, Bond's journey feels even more tangible than the ''realistic'' approach of Casino Royale. The haunting locations reflect his deeply personal mission. It helps, too, that Bond is faced by one of his best villains yet: Javier Bardem as the charming, psychopathic Raul Silva. Silva acts another mirror for Bond, albeit a version completely off the rails. Like a mix of Hannibal Lecter and Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight, Silva is determined to burn his opponents in any fashion possible. Bardem plays is all with a sinister smirk a twist on the maniacally-laughing Bond villains of yesteryear.
Skyfall's concentration is on the dramatic, but continuously delivers in the action department. Mendes finds innovative new ways to stage classic Bond moments; a one-shot fist fight in the windows of skyscraper bubbles over with intensity, while another in the Chinese casino tips its hat to the campier side of the franchise. And the movie goes big, with an opening sequence on par with any of Bond's past outings, and a foot chase through London's Tube that tests Craig's limits as a physical performer. He never misses a beat.
Impressively, Skyfall is a movie pulled from this moment in history, while encompassing everything that made James Bond a long-lasting character. It's one of the best Bond entries of all time, a heart-pounding action flick from start to finish (with a rousing conclusion evoking everything from Terence Young to Sam Peckinpah), and one of the best movies of the year.
What do you think? Tell Matt Patches directly on Twitter @misterpatches and read more of his reviews on Rotten Tomatoes!
Hollywood.com rated this film 4 1/2 stars.