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Japan quake and tsunami updates + video
The latest updates on World Vision relief efforts and response following the March 11, 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan and triggered a devastating tsunami.
Two ways to donate to Japan quake and tsunami relief -- Text '4JAPAN' to '20222' to give a $10 donation. Or donate online.
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Update, Monday, 3/21, 1:17 pm PST: The massive humanitarian response involving about 120,000 emergency service personnel continues to assist 367,141 people living in 2,300 evacuation centers. At least 8,199 people have been confirmed dead with an additional 12,722 people listed as missing. Miyagi Prefecture was the worst hit, with a total death toll of 4,822 people, followed by Iwate with 2,583 confirmed deaths. Attempts to cool the damaged and overheated reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant continue.
Update, Saturday, 3/19, 9:38 am PST: From Mitsuko Sobata, Advocacy & Communications Officer, World Vision Japan:
- 7,348 people have died in total from 12 prefectures
- 10,947 people are missing in total from 6 prefectures
- 2,603 people have injured in total from 17 prefectures
*Please continue to pray for those missing and those affected.
Update, Friday, 3/18, 5:14 am PST: World Vision staff unload a truckload of relief supplies in Tome, Japan.
Update, Thursday, 3/17, 10:49 pm PST: World Vision relief distribution begins for thousands in Minami Sanriku (local time in Japan is 2:49 pm, Friday).
Update, Thursday, 3/17, 4:59 pm PST: From World Vision's relief team in Minami Sanriku preparing for tomorrow's distribution: "It's cold and the temperature is about -5 Celsius with the temperature expecting to drop tomorrow." Please pray for relief staff and others helping in Japan right now, and bless those whom will receive distributed items tomorrow.
Update, Thursday, 3/17, 11:48 am PST: From the World Vision Partnership: A team of emergency responders have been mobilized and dispatched from the U.S., Switzerland and the UK, with more on standby, to assist the efforts of World Vision's Japan-based staff.
World Vision's Global Pre-positioning Response Network, a logistics system that includes warehouses of relief supplies in Dubai and Frankfurt, is poised and mobilized to ship urgent items to Japan as needed.
Update, Thursday, 3/17, 10:50 am PST: Now in Minami Sanriku, World Vision relief team identifies additional needs: candles, flashlights, small radios, wet tissues, and toilet papers. World Vision to distribute diapers, women's napkins, blankets and water on Friday, local time.
Update, Thursday, 3/17, 8:55 am PST: Two World Vision Vision trucks arrived in Tome, three more coming. Diapers and sanitation items to be distributed to shelters within and outside of the town. From here, teams are taking more supplies to Minami Sanriku, where 9,600 displaced people are in 40 shelters. Over 30 students and teachers from Tome Jr. High volunteering with World Vision teams to help prep items for their neighbors in Minami Sanriku.
Update, Thursday, 3/17, 8:32 am PST: World Vision team distributing water and blankets in Minami Sanriku Friday. Authorities asked us to distribute there since it's truly one of the hardest hit areas.
Update, Wednesday, 3/16, 6:19 pm PST: World Vision relief team just finished loading the first of three trucks with blankets and water. Now beginning the eight hour drive to Tome for distribution to children and families.
Update, Wednesday, 3/16, 2:26 pm PST: Rescue workers are now combing the tsunami-battered region north of Tokyo for survivors and struggling to care for millions of people without power and water in what Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called his country's worst crisis since World War Two.
Update, Wednesday, 3/16, 11:09 am PST: World Vision teams heading up to Tome city later today (PST time *Thursday morning local time) with blankets, water, and other supplies for 6,000 people.
Update, Wednesday, 3/16, 6:11 am PST: Main challenges that face relief staff right now: There have been at least 79 aftershocks and 16 of them have been greater than 6.0 magnitude. These continuing aftershocks and tsunami are hampering the search and rescue efforts. The main highway from Tokyo leading to affected areas is closed, and relief teams travelling must take smaller roads which are also blocked in places with debris.
Update, Tuesday, 3/15, 8:57 pm PST: In Fukushima today, the World Vision assessment team is concerned about the humanitarian needs of displaced families there.
Distribution of water, food and blankets to an initial 6,000 people is planned for Thursday, local time.
Back in Tokyo, from World Vision U.S. staffer in Japan: "Just felt another significant aftershock here in Tokyo. 'Welcome to Japan,' a passerby says to me."
Update, Tuesday, 3/15, 1:38 pm PST: "Yesterday morning, we awoke early after reaching Sendai late the evening before. We started in Sendai city, which looked like it usually does. Then, only 20 minutes away, everything changed. We go to where the tsunami had hit and the difference was so shocking – trees were down, cars were covered in mud and thrown around from where they had originally been. We saw so many that had been washed right into town by the tsunami." -Mitsuko Sobata, World Vision Japan communications and advocacy officer
Update, Tuesday, 3/15, 8:04 am PST: World Vision team today tried to reach Arahama, one of the worst-hit areas (300+ people thought to have died) but the road was completely cut off.
Update, Tuesday, 3/15, 6:33 am, PST: Today, the assessment team will travel to Fukushima, where nuclear contamination has forced the evacuations of tens of thousands of people. The assessment will inform how best World Vision can respond to the needs there.
"Last night, I visited one of the shelters housing some 340,000 people who have been evacuated around the city," said Mitsuko Sobata, communications and advocacy officer for World Vision Japan. "Children are sleeping on cardboard with one blanket in freezing weather. It was very difficult for me to see that. They're tired and afraid, and the tragedy they've endured is overwhelming."
Update, Monday, 3/14, 9:13 pm PST: Assessment teams in Japan are gathering water, blankets and diapers to serve an initial 6,000 people in the city of Tome, some 190 miles from Sendai for distribution in the coming days.
"This situation is, understandably, very chaotic," said Kenjiro Ban, World Vision Japan's manager for humanitarian and emergency affairs. "I've served on disaster response programs in Kenya, Sudan, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Haiti and the needs I'm seeing in my own country are as bad as anything I've seen globally."
Update, Monday, 3/14, 3:26 pm PST: New video from Humanitarian and Emergency affairs manager in Japan [see above].
Update, Monday, 3/14, 2:01 pm PST: World Vision staff are getting water, diapers, blankets, and powdered milk for thousands outside of Sendai, focusing specifically on childrens' needs.
Update, Monday, 3/14, 9:54 am PST: At least 340,000 people have evacuated to nearby shelters. The Japanese government has mobilized 100,000 scale teams which are specialized in emergency response from military force (JSDF), police, fire department, Japan Coast Guard for emergency response together with local administrations.
World Vision Japan's assessment team reports from Sendai: "This morning we went the most affected area where it is reported that 200~300 people died by Tsunami. We've have been hearing about stories even in Tokyo, however, I'm quite shocked by what we witnessed and now understand the scale of devastation". The assessment team will also be distributing baby food, wet tissues, and warm jackets for babies under 6 months old.
Update, Sunday, 3/13, 10:33 pm PST: Earlier this evening, another tsunami was reported off the coast of Japan, but it turned out to be a false alarm. "Just a surge," says World Vision staff in Japan.
First relief supplies (baby food, wipes, warm jackets for 0-6 month year olds) will begin being distributed tomorrow.
Update, Sunday, 3/13, 5:18 pm PST: World Vision assessment teams on their way to Sendai from Tokyo report that the regularly four hour drive took twelve hours. Damage to Japan's coastal areas is "beyond imagination," says World Vision's response manager in the tsunami zone.
[VIDEO] World Vision's response manager Kenjiro Ban speaks to CBC News from Sendai, Japan
Update, Sunday, 3/13, 1:02 pm PST: World Vision US. staff have translated recent tweets from @WorldVisionJPN
[3/13, 1:05:36 AM] : All of us at World Vision Japan are encouraged by the support of so many who stand with us, knowing "everyone can do something." Thank you for everyone's messages of support!
[3/13, 1:06:37 AM] : As messages of support flood in, our staff are moved almost to tears. Thank you!
Update, Sunday, 3/13, 10:53 am PST: (From a tweet) Japanese assessment team sleeping in car in Sendai tonight. Will assess needs in the community in the morning.
Update, Sunday, 3/13, 9:03 am PST: World Vision aid workers in Japan, who also served in Haiti this past year, report that roads to Sendai are clear so far but the team is finding petrol hard to come by, many stations are still closed. Since the main highway is closed to traffic, teams have to take smaller roads, adding time to arrival.
Update, Saturday, 3/12, 10:48 pm PST: As World Vision assessment teams deployed from Tokyo today, one concern is how quickly they will be able to access hard-hit areas, given debris and transportation blockages that may hinder efficient travel. Reports vary in their estimations of those dead and missing as a result of the disaster, but many fear the death toll to exceed 1,000. World Vision expects that recovery will take time, and that children's needs in particular will require close attention by aid workers.
Update, Saturday, 3/12, 11:39 am PST: Aid worker from World Vision U.S. (Seattle) departs for #Japan within the hour. More updates to come.
Update, Saturday, 3/12, 9:55 am PST: Authorities in Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and other nations remain on alert, but have called off evacuations and encouraged communities to return home after initial waves proved less severe than expected. In many of these countries, where the poverty and remoteness of coastal communities makes them especially vulnerable, World Vision had pre-positioned relief supplies and trained staff ready to address immediate needs had a sizable disaster materialized.
"Our prayers are for the survivors as well as everyone impacted by the calamity," said Kenjiro Ban, Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs Manager, World Vision Japan.
Update, Saturday, 3/12, 7:07 am, PST: World Vision Japan today is preparing staff members to travel to areas affected by yesterday's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Staff will assess the needs in affected areas and prepare supplies and programs to serve those left homeless by the twin disasters. "We are now facing one of the most tragic disaster in our country's history," said Kenjiro Ban, Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs Manager, World Vision Japan.
World Vision plans to establish one or more Child-Friendly Spaces--sites for children affected by disasters to resume normal childhood activities and experience structure and security that are often lost following emergency situations.
"Children in Japan are keenly feeling the fear and insecurity that often set in following natural disasters like yesterday's earthquake and tsunami," said World Vision relief manager Kenjiro Ban. "We're planning to see how deep the needs are in the affected areas and begin to bring relief to families. We've seen in Haiti, Chile, and other recent disasters that Child-Friendly Spaces can be a key way to address the unique needs of children who survived but are deeply affected by the experience."
Meanwhile, all World Vision staff persons are accounted for and the World Vision building was not affected.
Update, Saturday, 3/12, 4:27 am PST: In Papua New Guinea, World Vision staff reports minor damage in Wewek to local shops. No other reports of damages. "All is quiet and people who had evacuated are gradually returning to their homes. The tsunami warning is still on but the general feeling is that the waves have not been as big as anticipated. World Vision will continue to monitor the situation in other parts of Papua New Guinea as well as in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu."
Update, Friday, 3/11, 11:27 pm PST: World Vision team departs from Tokyo tomorrow with hopes to do relief distributions and set up Child-Friendly Spaces. Staff will be sent to the affected areas to conduct an assessment of the situation in each area and determine the needs of survivors.
Situation facts
- March 11, 2011 - An 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit the northeastern coast of Japan followed by a tsunami affecting other countries as well
- It was the country's biggest earthquake ever and the seventh largest on record, according to US Geological Survey data
- Media reports state that over 800 people died, more than 700 missing while 200,000 have evacuated while villages were washed away. Hardest hit are coastal areas of north-eastern part of the country.
- All major transportation means (e.g. trains and highways) are stopped in major affected cities, people are unable to access any transportation mean to return back home, many are stuck in their offices or at their train stations
- Electricity is cut off for about 7,000,000 households
- The affected population faces major difficulty in telecommunication
- Aftershocks continue
or text '4JAPAN' to '20222' to give a $10 donation
Read related post: 8.9-magnitude earthquake hits coast of Japan, island nations face tsunami warning


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Making Wellness Work: A Guide to Implementing and Monitoring School Wellness Policies in MarylandWellness policies in Maryland have come a long way since the initial development prior to the 2006 – 2007 school year. Creating a school-wide culture of wellness for students and staff is crucial for the health of future generations. A Wellness Policy will benefit our children only when we are able to follow through with successful implementation, monitoring and evaluation activities. This guide was developed to support the efforts of school systems' in Maryland to monitor and evaluate their Wellness Policy. Each of the four required components of Wellness Policies–physical activity or education, nutrition standards, nutrition education, and other school-based activities that promote student wellness–is addressed in the guide. The guide provides information on:
• Wellness Policy goals;• implementation activities;• steps to support implementation;• expected outcomes aligned with activities; and • monitoring opportunities.

subset: commoncrawl


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Small, Private Businesses Strong as Sequester Cuts Loom: Sageworks
If research firm Sageworks' new monthly report is an indication, private and small businesses are heading into Friday's proposed sequester cuts with strong financials.
According to financial statements filed in the six months ended January 2013, privately held companies saw average annual sales growth of 9% and net profit margins of 8.1%, according to Sageworks in Raleigh, N.C.
The sales growth is slightly lower than the 10.2% average annual growth for statements filed in the six months ended January 2012, but net profit margin is better than the 4.6% margin among statements in that period, the data showed.
Libby Bierman, Sageworks analyst, said there has been much talk about how Friday's sequester deadline could hurt businesses in America, particularly the potential $902 million cut in SBA loan guarantees.
"While the sequester's full impact on businesses remains to be seen, the good news is that private companies are in pretty good shape now. Sales growth is strong, profit margins are exceeding pre-recession levels, and credit risk appears to be improving," Bierman said.
Indeed, private company credit risk also seems to be improving, with the average private company's likelihood of default currently lower than it was in January 2012, according to Sageworks.
Sageworks said its monthly report includes metrics on the average U.S. privately held company, as well as the performance of notable sectors and industries. For the current report, Sageworks commented on the construction industry, and reported on key metrics for manufacturing, retailing, and wholesale companies.
"The state of private companies is fairly positive," said Sageworks Chairman Brian Hamilton. "Companies are making money, and they've got some cash flow."
Because the country is in the midst of an economic recovery, Hamilton said the strong performance of private companies reflects this recovery.
"Of course, the big problem right now is still jobs. These companies are not hiring as many people as they used to, which is troubling," Hamilton noted.


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Postseason star Garcia Tigers' No. 3 prospect
Outfielder Castellanos, closer Rondon make MLB.com's Top 100 list
By Teddy Cahill / Special to MLB.com
The future success of every Major League team lies largely in its Minor League pipeline. With that in mind, MLB.com is looking at each team's farm system, from the Top 20 Prospects to under-the-radar types.
The Tigers returned to the World Series in October for the first time since 2006 largely because of the slugging of Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, as well as one of the best rotations in the American League. They were a veteran team with few young players along for the ride.
But that doesn't mean their farm system wasn't a crucial part of their success. The Tigers used well-regarded prospects Jacob Turner and Rob Brantly to acquire right-hander Anibal Sanchez and second baseman Omar Infante at the non-waiver Trade Deadline, shoring up two weak spots on their team. It was a familiar strategy for the Tigers, who have not been afraid to deal top prospects in an effort to win.
One of the few young players to be a part of the Tigers' run to the World Series was right fielder Avisail Garcia, who is now their No. 3 prospect. Garcia said he was glad the team had enough confidence to play him in critical postseason moments and hopes he can continue to reward their trust with good results.
"I'm really happy with the confidence [manager] Jim Leyland and [general manager] Dave Dombrowski showed in me by putting me on the playoff and World Series roster," Garcia said. "I just have to keep working hard so they can keep that confidence in me. I hope to do my job and help the team win."
The recent trades have stripped some of Detroit's top talent out of its farm system and leaves only two prospects who made MLB.com's Top 100 -- outfielder Nick Castellanos and closer Bruce Rondon.
Garcia and Rondon are expected to win spots on the Major League roster during Spring Training, but Garcia said if he has to go back to the Minor Leagues, he will continue to work hard so he can get back to Detroit as fast as he can.
"The main thing is to keep working hard and not stop," Garcia said. "What happens, happens -- if I make the team, or if I don't make the team. Like everyone, every day you can learn something new in this game."
Top 20 prospects
The Tigers have stockpiled several outfield prospects, led by Castellanos. The converted third baseman is one of seven outfielders ranked in the Tigers' top 11.
Seven pitchers made the Top 20. Rondon might be the most familiar to Tigers fans, but left-hander Casey Crosby, who made his Major League debut last season, and right-hander Jake Thompson, the team's first selection in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft, join him in the top 10.
Because of free-agent compensation, the Tigers haven't had a first-round pick in any of the last three Drafts. As a result, only seven players from their last three Drafts are ranked.
Under the radar
Right-hander Hudson Randall didn't wow scouts with stuff during his college career at Florida, but he simply got the job done. He anchored the Gators rotation for three years and helped them to three consecutive College World Series berths. The Tigers grabbed him in the seventh round of the 2012 Draft and hope he can continue his success in the professional ranks. Randall has excellent command of his three-pitch mix, but his upside is limited by a fastball that tops out at 90 mph.
tigers' top prospects
|Nick Castellanos
|Casey Crosby
|Bruce Rondon
|Avisail Garcia
|Andy Oliver
Second baseman Harold Castro is still raw and needs to add muscle to his 6-foot, 145-pound frame, but he still ranked fifth in the Gulf Coast League with a .311 batting average in 2012. Castro, a native of Venezuela, makes good contact and uses the whole field to hit. As he physically matures, Castro will develop more power, but how much remains to be seen.
Hitter of the Year: Castellanos
Castellanos was the Tigers' top pick in the 2010 Draft. He has progressed quickly through the Minor Leagues. He reached Double-A Erie last summer when he was just 20 years old and played in the Futures Game. He was originally drafted as a third baseman, but with Cabrera manning the hot corner in Detroit, Castellanos has moved to the outfield so he can reach the Major Leagues faster. He sprays line drives to all fields and has solid power. If he stays in the outfield, he profiles as a right fielder.
Pitcher of the Year: Thompson
The Tigers surrendered their first-round pick in the 2012 Draft when they signed Fielder. When they got to pick in the second round, they selected Thompson, a Texas high school right-hander. He made his debut in the Gulf Coast League, where he held opposing hitters to a .149 batting average in seven starts. He has the look of a middle-of-the-rotation workhorse, and will get to show off his low-90s fastball-slider combination in his first full professional season.
Teddy Cahill is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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NATO Review: Road to 21st century security
The NATO Summit in Lisbon was one of the most important for many years. It not only set out how the Alliance would reshape to face new security challenges, but gave details of how this would be done. From its evolving role in Afghanistan to fighting terrorism, from working with new partners to increasing cyber defence and from a new NATO command structure to retaining old commitments, the Summit was a milestone in international security. NATO Review's special Summit print edition looks at some of the key issues the Alliance dealt with as it set out its first Strategic Concept since 1999.


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phpMyAdmin is a tool intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web. It can create, rename, and drop databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute any SQL statement, manage keys on fields, create dumps of tables and databases, export/import CSV data, and administrate one single database and multiple MySQL servers.
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Roundcube Webmail is a browser-based, multilingual IMAP client with an application-like user interface. It provides the full functionality you expect from an email client, including MIME support, address book, and folder manipulation. High extensibility is granted by the plugin API and the user interface is fully skinnable using XHTML and CSS 2.
Apache OpenMeetings is a multi-language customizable video-conferencing and collaboration system. It supports audio/video and allows you to see the desktop of any participant. It includes a whiteboard, the ability to import a variety of image formats, invitations, a moderation system, backup and language modules, private and public conference rooms, and the ability to record meetings. The project also provides integrations for Asterisk, Jira, Confluence, Moodle, Sakai, and SugarCRM, and connectors for LDAP and ADS.
OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) is an easy-to-use integrated penetration testing tool for finding vulnerabilities in Web applications. It is designed to be used by people with a wide range of security experience and as such is ideal for developers and functional testers who are new to penetration testing as well as being a useful addition to an experienced pen tester's toolbox. ZAP provides automated scanners as well as a set of tools that allow you to find security vulnerabilities manually.
Horde Groupware Webmail Edition is an enterprise ready browser-based communication suite. Users can read, send, and organize email messages and manage and share calendars, contacts, tasks, and notes with the standards compliant components from the Horde Project. It bundles the separately available applications IMP, Ingo, Kronolith, Turba, Nag, and Mnemo. It can be extended with any of the released Horde applications or the Horde modules that are still in development, like a file manager, a bookmark manager, a forum, or a wiki.
Horde Groupware is an enterprise ready browser-based collaboration suite. Users can manage and share calendars, contacts, tasks, and notes with the standards compliant components from the Horde Project. Horde Groupware bundles the separately available applications Kronolith, Turba, Nag, and Mnemo. It can be extended with any of the released Horde applications or the Horde modules that are still in development, like a file manager, a bookmark manager, a forum, or a wiki.
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Wins Produced has its problems with overvaluing certain stats and undervaluing others, but if there's one thing you can say about it: it's a remarkably good model for predicting wins at the team level. I'm feeling better and better about this season.
(Biggest 'lol, yup' moment of the article: Jose ranks as the 6th most efficient offensive player...but he's 319th on D.)
Other highlights:
- Lowry ranks 21st overall, without being in the top 30 in any category. What? It's because he rates pretty good at everything.
- Landry Fields 27th on defense.


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Montañez, study leader and a geologist from the University of California at
Davis, and a team of researchers, plan to study the cores of rocks and dirt around
the world in an effort to understand transitions, such as those between
icehouse and greenhouse states, in climate throughout history.
who have studied rocks and ice from 2 million years ago have already composed a
record of Earth's changing climate, but according to UC Davis researchers, the
problem is that our atmosphere contains 25 to 30 percent more carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere than "at any point in that record."
worried by what the climate future may hold in regards to the amount of carbon
dioxide emitted, the UC Davis research team is looking to study transitions
between various climate-related states at different sites around the world
through the cores of rocks and dirt. By understanding the past, they hope to
predict the future.
past times of higher CO2 were much warmer, and there were processes
operating that don't operate in our current climate," said Montañez. "And
they lead to amplified change, accelerated warming, changes in ice sheets,
things like that."
The basis
for the team's research are geologic events such as the burst of volcanic
eruptions 55 million years ago, which filled the atmosphere with carbon
dioxide and increased global temperatures. From there, the UC Davis team stated
that the oceans were warmed, which led to the release of large amounts of
methane, which accelerated warming. This caused the extinction event known as
the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, and the team claims this could happen at
some point today or in the future.
we continue to emit CO2 into the atmosphere
and don't do something about abating those emissions, by the end of this
century we are looking to be where we were 35 million years ago," said
cores contain minerals, shells and plants that can be used to measure levels of
carbon dioxide as well as temperature. Through this, the UC Davis team is
looking to study transitions between icehouse and greenhouse states.
are all proxies [and] the technology that allows us to define these proxies has
been revolutionized in the last decade in terms of its ability to do that and
to actually read time in old sediments and rocks," said Montañez.
researchers also noted that scientists in the future will look at rock cores
from today in order to understand the transition to the Anthropocene, or the age
of man. Montañez said that the Anthropocene will end about "80,000 years
from now," and that it will probably look much like the intervals seen in
the past they are studying today.


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Taming the Mighty Sprout
129 comments post a comment
Barbeque season is upon us, but who amongst our number dare lay claim to the title of "Sprout Master"?
Although my father had many good points, it has to be admitted that he reserved the truth for certain occasions. From when I was a very young age, for example, every time my mother served Brussels sprouts, my father would make a variety of "yum-yum" and "mmm-mmm" sounds and give every impression that sprouts were a high treat; indeed, that they were his favorite fare -- verily, the foodstuff of the gods.
You have to give the man credit. He maintained this facade for year after year, even though I remained unconvinced and shared my opinion forcibly with anyone in hearing distance, including my confidant, Big Ted. It was only after I had grown to manhood and my father had passed that mom shared with me the fact that my dad loathed sprouts with a vengeance. It was all an act. Now I'm left wondering as to what other despicable tales he told me. Did he really enjoy brushing his teeth as much as he once claimed?
The ironic thing is that I have actually grown to love sprouts to the extent that they have become one of my favorite vegetables. Just today I had "sprout surprise"* for lunch (*I wasn't expecting it). Over time, I have developed a number of ways to present these little beauties so as to entice others to accept their cruciferous charms.
The first technique is the simplest. The sprouts are prepared by cutting their ends off, removing the outer leaves, and then making two cuts in the chopped-off ends. These cuts, which are at 90 degrees to each other, should go about a third of the way through the sprout. Simply add a few teaspoons of malt vinegar or apple cider vinegar along with a pinch of salt into the pot in which you are cooking your sprouts, and then boil the little scamps until your preferred level of tenderness is reached (say about 15 minutes). The resulting hint of a sniff of vinegar really does enhance the flavor.
My second approach is only a tad more complex. First you prepare your sprouts by cutting their tops off, removing the outer leaves, and chopping them in half. At this time I also dice up a little onion and garlic. Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of a skillet, bring to a medium-high heat, and add the sprouts and onion. After a minute or so, I also add a pinch of crushed red pepper and a healthy sprinkle of ground black pepper. Keep on turning the sprouts and onions until they start to go a little brown (three to five minutes), then throw in the garlic for 30 seconds, slosh in some chicken stock, add a pinch of salt, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer (stirring occasionally) until the sprouts reach the desired level of tenderness (say about 10 minutes).
The third procedure takes the most work but reaps the greatest reward. We prepare our sprouts in the same way as for the skillet-based approach. We also dice a little onion and garlic. We then take some little red potatoes and cut them into chunks that are about the same size as our half-sprouts. I personally prefer to parboil the potatoes for say two or three minutes, after which I immediately drain them to prevent them from keeping on cooking. Now take some fatty bacon, dice it into really small bits, and brown it in a skillet. Once the bacon is really crispy, use a slotted spoon to move it out of the skillet to a small bowl, and then add the sprouts, onions, garlic, and potatoes into the skillet.
Stir everything up so that all of the vegetables are embraced by a thin sheen of bacon grease (add a little olive oil if required). Spread the mix one-layer thick on a baking sheet, lightly drizzle everything with chicken stock, gently dust with salt and ground black pepper, and bake at 400°F (205°C) for 30 minutes, turning everything over half way through. When you remove your culinary masterpiece from the oven, mix in the crispy bacon along with a handful of freshly-chopped parsley or cilantro.
Ah, the mighty sprout truly is the king of vegetables. Why else would we have masterpieces like The Sprouts of Wrath? What are you muttering about? What's a grape got to do with anything. How could a weedy grape hope to compete against the mighty sprout? I'm not talking about the rambling driveling of an American hack -- I'm talking about a modern masterpiece, namely the fourth volume in the nine-book series forming The Brentford Trilogy (it's best not to try to do the math, otherwise you will run into conundrums such as the fact that Knees Up Mother Earth is both the seventh volume in The Brentford Trilogy and the second book in The Witches of Chiswick Trilogy).
The summer solstice occurred this weekend past and cosmic energies are in flux. My current ambition is to boldly go behind the beyond, behind which no man has boldly gone behind, beyond, before. Yes! I wish to learn the secrets of the mystic arts, to discover how to barbeque the king of vegetables, to be dubbed a Sprout Master, and -- ultimately -- to gain membership in the Ancient Order of the Golden Sprout, at which time I shall appear resplendent in my sprout-print Hawaiian shirt.
Until this glorious day comes to pass, while I return to poring over the ancient texts of sprout lore, pondering mysteries that would drive a lesser man insane, perhaps you would care to share your own experiences with the uncontested ruler of the vegetable kingdom. I'd also be interested to hear if your parents pretended to enjoy certain foodstuffs in order to persuade you to eat them against your better judgment, and whether or not you continue this tradition of deception and deceit with your own innocent offspring.
— Max Maxfield, Editor of All Things Fun & Interesting
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In May of 2012, we announced a Silicon Valley-based partnership with StartOut, a non-profit organization fostering entrepreneurship within the LGBT community.
This program proved to be very successful, and as a result, we are happy to announce a significant expansion to our partnership to promote technology entrepreneurship within the LGBT community across the United States.
Through the new StartOut Smart Program, StartOut will subsidize the course fee for up to twenty promising LGBT candidates to participate in The Founder Institute's four-month accelerator program, where they can get access to expert training and feedback to launch an enduring technology company. In addition, StartOut Smart candidates will have access to StartOut's mentors and sources of funding, and also have the opportunity to be featured in a StartOut Demo Day event.
For an initial pilot, this opportunity is available for applicants in StartOut's chapters in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and New York. Anybody who is passionate about building a technology company is welcome to apply: idea or no idea, full-time job or unemployed, young or old, experienced in business or straight out of school.
To apply to the program, visit http://startout.org/programs/startout-smart-the-founder-institute. The deadline for applications is Sunday February 17th, and the recipients will be announced on Tuesday, March 5th.
"StartOut is excited to partner with The Founder Institute, and we know that by doing so, we are helping to develop LGBT entrepreneurs by giving them the resources and support of a world-class accelerator program," says StartOut Chairman, Lorenzo Thione. "By sponsoring high-potential candidates, we intend to provide them a pathway to success, helping them to mature their ideas and build their businesses, while also providing them with a platform to showcase them."
StartOut is an organization dedicated to fostering and developing entrepreneurship within the LGBT community. They are helping to create the next generation of LGBT business leaders by helping aspiring entrepreneurs start new companies, helping current entrepreneurs to grow and expand their businesses, and engaging successful entrepreneurs as role models and mentors for less established entrepreneurs.
The Founder Institute is an early-stage startup accelerator and global launch network that helps entrepreneurs create meaningful and enduring technology companies. Through a part-time four month program, existing and prospective founders can launch their dream company with expert training, feedback, and support from experienced startup CEOs - while not being required to quit their day job. In just over three years of operation, the Founder Institute has helped launch over 750 companies across 40 cities and five continents - making us the world's largest startup accelerator.
The StartOut Smart Program is not about providing special treatment - the majority of applicants to the Founder Institute do not get accepted, and this will always be the case because we employ a quantitative Predictive Admissions Test designed to remove all subjective forms of bias. The goal of this program is simply to promote StartOut's mission by providing education in entrepreneurship for the next generation of LGBT founders, helping increase the number of LGBT founders across the globe. A similar program designed for female founders actually helped spur a 62% increase in female founders across the Founder Institute in a short period of time.
Apply to the StartOut Smart Program today.


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Report: Russian Banking Malware Code Now on Sale
Boston-based Trusteer is reporting that it has found multiple instances of sellers operating in Russian underground criminal forums offering what they claim is the source code for Carberp, the Trojan software used to target financial institution accounts.
Some sellers, said Etay Maor, a Trusteer executive, are offering what they claim is the Carberp source code for $5,000.
Another seller, believed to be credible within the Russian malware community, is offering his version of the source code for $50,000.
Carberp, which has been in circulation for about three years, has been described as "ingenious" in its approach to hiding itself on infected computers.
Experts said the situation on the Russian message boards is volatile and could track what happened a few years ago when at the end the Zeus source code was simply leaked. The same could happen with Carberp.
Trusteer has blogged about what's for sale here.
Theories abound about why the source code is for sale. Some say that because Carberp has variants that prey on Russian and Ukrainian banks – unlike many other Eastern European malware strains which typically follow a no local crime policy – its authors may suddenly be feeling very high heat from local law enforcement and/or banking interests.
At Trusteer, Maor said he was inclined to believe the sale was triggered by internal bad blood among criminals and a deal gone bad. "There is no honor among these thieves," he said.
Potential buyers need a high level of computing skills in order to monetize this purchase, stressed Maor, who added that whoever buys it "intends to make money. They are not buying Carberp to put it in a museum."
They are not buying Carberp to put it in a museum."
Perhaps more worrisome is that many experts believe that Carberp is for sale because the criminals behind it have something better in the works so, in effect, they are selling off distressed merchandise.
The other worry is that as versions of Carberp proliferate, this likely will trigger development of more kits to attack more financial institutions.


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1988: SAS Canada opens as a subsidiary of the SAS Institute in Toronto, operating with just two employees.
About SAS
Giving you The Power to Know® since 1976
Some people see data as facts and figures. But it's more than that. It's the lifeblood of your business. It tells the history of your organization. And it's trying to tell you something.
SAS helps you make sense of the message. As the leader in business analytics software and services, SAS transforms your data into insights that give you a fresh perspective on your business. You can identify what's working. Fix what isn't. And discover new opportunities.
We help organizations turn large amounts of data into knowledge they can use, and we do it better than anyone. It's no wonder an overwhelming majority of customers continue to use SAS year after year. We believe it's because we hire great people to create great software and services.
SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative analytics, business intelligence and data management software and services, SAS helps customers at more than 75,000 sites make better decisions faster. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®.
SAS delivers proven solutions that drive innovation and improve performance.
Swift and Agile
Company Facts & Financials
Number of Countries Installed
SAS has customers in 148 countries.
Total Worldwide Customer Sites
Our software is installed at more than 83,000 business, government and university sites.
Fortune Global 500® Customers
94 of the top 100 companies on the 2016 Fortune Global 500® are SAS customers.
Worldwide Employees
14,113 total employees
Breakdown by Geography
United States: 7,111
World Headquarters (Cary, NC): 5,625
Canada: 337
Latin America: 455
Europe, Middle East and Africa: 3,631
Asia Pacific: 2,579
Reinvestment in R&D
2015 R&D investment: 25% of revenue
SAS (pronounced "sass") once stood for "statistical analysis system," and began at North Carolina State University as a project to analyze agricultural research. As demand for such software grew, SAS was founded in 1976 to help all sorts of customers – from pharmaceutical companies and banks to academic and governmental entities.
SAS – both the software and company – thrived throughout the next few decades. Development of the software attained new heights in the industry by being able to run across all platforms, using the multivendor architecture for which it is known today. While the scope of the company spread across the globe, the encouraging and innovative corporate culture remained the same.
Explore each era of company history through various photos and descriptions of how SAS came to be.
About SAS Canada
In 1988, SAS opened its physical operation in Canada. SAS (Canada) has many long-standing customer relationships and recently celebrated 25th anniversaries with RBC, Bell Canada, CIBC and BMO. SAS Canada employs industry experts to ensure that our business solutions align and solve our customers' business problems. Headquartered in Toronto, SAS Canada employs more than 300 people across the country at its Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto offices.
The SAS Canada headquarters at 280 King Street East is Canada's first LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified new commercial office building. Awarded LEED Silver certification, the building meets all of LEED Canada's criteria for environmentally innovative building methods. In 2008, the SAS Canada building consumed over 65% less energy than the equivalent typical Ontario office building. It continues to serve as a model both for City of Toronto planners and other companies interested in green architecture.
SAS Canada Timeline
1991: SAS Canada expands to the Quebec market to service the French Canadian market.
1993: SAS Canada expands into Canada's capital and opens its Ottawa office.
1995: SAS Canada expands its footprint in Western Canada to service the region's industries. In addition to their operations in Calgary, SAS has offices in Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg.
1997: SAS Canada continues to enjoy success in the business intelligence market solidifying customer wins with Canada's leading banks, retailers, energy providers, telecommunication and government organizations. The organization continues to hire to support their sales, marketing, professional services and business development efforts.
2000: SAS Canada celebrates hiring 150th employee.
2004: SAS Canada acquires Risk Advisory - a Calgary based organization providing Enterprise Commodity Risk Aggregation and Analytics solutions-has been operating in Calgary since 1995. SAS' acquisition of Risk Advisory blended market leading CTRM solutions with SAS' integrated business analytics and data framework, providing customers with new insight to their risk management and commodity trading strategies.
2005: Outgrowing Toronto's original office space on Bay Street, SAS Canada's corporate headquarters opens at 280 King Street East. That same year, SAS Canada's headquarters are also awarded Real Estate Excellence Award (REX) for Office Development of the Year.
2008: The SAS Canada headquarters at 280 King Street East is recognized Canada's first LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified new commercial office building. Awarded LEED Silver certification, the building meets all of LEED Canada's criteria for environmentally innovative building methods. It continues to serve as a model both for City of Toronto planners and other companies interested in green architecture as SAS Canada continues to generate public recognition for its leadership in corporate sustainability practices.
2013: SAS celebrates 25 years of business in Canada.
SAS Institute Timeline
Magnetic tapes hold vast amounts of data.
Before there was SAS
In 1966, there was no SAS. But there was a need for a computerized statistics program to analyze vast amounts of agricultural data collected through United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grants.
Development of such software was critically important to members of the University Statisticians Southern Experiment Stations, a consortium of eight land-grant universities that received the majority of their research funding from the USDA. The schools came together under a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a general-purpose statistical software package to analyze all the agricultural data they were generating.
The resulting program, the Statistical Analysis System, gave SAS both the basis for its name and its corporate beginnings.
North Carolina State University, Cox Hall.
Academic roots
North Carolina State University, located in the capital city of Raleigh, North Carolina, became the leader in the consortium, largely because it had access to a more powerful mainframe computer than did the other universities. The project eventually found a home in the Statistics Department.
Jim Goodnight, CEO.
Early leadership
North Carolina State University faculty members Jim Goodnight and Jim Barr emerged as the project leaders - Barr creating the architecture and Goodnight implementing the features that sat on top of the architecture and expanded the system's capabilities.
When NIH discontinued funding in 1972, members of the consortium agreed to chip in $5,000 apiece each year to allow NCSU to continue developing and maintaining the system and supporting their statistical analysis needs.
John Sall, co-founder and Executive Vice President.
Expanding team and clientele
During the coming years, SAS software was licensed by pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and banks, as well as by the academic community that had given birth to the project.
Jane Helwig, another Statistics Department employee at NCSU, joined the project as documentation writer, and John Sall, a graduate student and programmer, rounded out the core team.
Early users guides authored by Jim Goodnight, Jim Barr, John Sall and Jane Helwig.
First users conference
More than 300 people attended the first SAS users conference in 1976. With a growing customer base that already numbered close to 100 academic, government and corporate entities, it was evident that success as an independent operation was possible.
The first SAS office at 2806 Hillsborough St. in Raleigh, NC.
Goodnight, Barr, Helwig and Sall left NCSU and formed SAS Institute Inc. - a private company "devoted to the maintenance and further development of SAS." They opened offices in a building at 2806 Hillsborough Street, across from the university.
Old punch cards for data storage.
Building the foundation
In 1976 computers filled rooms the size of small houses, and programs and data were stored on punch cards. Base SAS, consisting of about 300,000 lines of code, would produce about 150 boxes of cards - a stack more than 40 feet high. Laid end to end, the boxes of cards would stretch more than 180 feet.
Cover of Datamation magazine
First outstanding software recognition
Within a year of incorporation, SAS was recognized for its outstanding software when Datamation magazine named the company to the DataPro Software Honor Roll. It continued to appear on that list for the next three years.
Employees unload boxes of users manuals.
Every job is everyone's job
At the young start-up company, the business of doing business was everyone's job. To meet the company's first major challenge of viability, employees shared a variety of responsibilities, including answering technical support phone calls, teaching classes, and telemarketing and selling new service agreements.
When a shipment of users manuals arrived, everyone stopped what they were doing and formed a human chain to hoist each box, person to person, to storage space on the second floor. Anyone within reach was enlisted to pack boxes to ship the documentation to users.
Barr, Goodnight and Sall continued writing code, Helwig continued writing documentation, and the SAS staff grew as administrative assistants, sales representatives, trainers and additional programmers and documentation specialists came on board.
Early staff members.
Customers and employees continue to grow
As the staff grew, so did the list of customers, and by 1978 there were 21 employees and 600 SAS customer sites.
An employee providing customer support.
Focus on the customer
From the beginning, SAS' primary focus was to meet customer needs. The company issued its first formal invitation for suggestions from customers in 1976 with the first SASware Ballot®. At every point of contact with customers, those first employees made a conscious effort to listen to customers and respond to the unique needs of each one.
SAS office in Marlow, England.
Reaching outside the United States
The SAS software and users community grew. In 1979, the company granted its first overseas software license to Databank of New Zealand, and SAS software was adapted to run under IBM's VM/CMS system. In 1980, SAS broke new ground in the software industry with the release of SAS/GRAPH® software for information presentation graphics and SAS/ETS® software for econometric and time series analysis.
The company celebrated another milestone that year when it opened its first subsidiary, SAS Software Limited, in the United Kingdom.
M&M's - a favorite candy in Cary.
A corporate culture begins
Recognizing employees for their value to the company was part of the early SAS heritage. People who worked for the company during the days on Hillsborough Street tell stories of piling into Goodnight's station wagon and going down the street for pizza - with SAS picking up the tab - whenever the company added another 100 customer sites to the list.
A flexible work environment and some of the "trademarks" of the employee-friendly SAS culture - including M&M's and breakfast goodies - were born in the first months of the company's existence. The first company newsletter - in the form of typewritten sheets of paper tacked to a bulletin board - was written by Sall and published in 1978.
One of the first buildings at the new headquarters in Cary, 1980.
Picking up and moving
By 1980, the growing company had expanded beyond the capacity of the Hillsborough Street building, and SAS, with its staff of 20, moved to the site of its present headquarters offices just outside Raleigh in Cary, North Carolina.
After the annual users conference in 1987, employees from around the world tour SAS world headquarters by bus.
Expanding frontiers: technology, work environment and geography
The growth of SAS in the next decade was phenomenal: Inc. magazine named SAS one of the fastest-growing companies in America for five consecutive years.
The new headquarters campus - huge compared to the Hillsborough Street location - grew from one building with offices for 50 employees to 18 buildings, including a training center, publications warehouse and video studio.
SAS also expanded its geographic boundaries, opening new offices on four continents and its first US regional sales offices. By the end of the decade, SAS had nearly 1,500 employees worldwide.
First SAS advertisement appears in Datamation magazine.
New operating systems, new challenges
Not only was SAS growing, the entire computer hardware and software industry was changing, with new operating systems and platforms placing new demands on software developers. One of the first steps for SAS was to adapt the software to operate on IBM's Disk Operating System (DOS).
But that was just the beginning of what would become a major effort to make the software system compatible with a wide range of operating systems. In the early 1980s, the company completely rewrote a large part of its software code to give it more portability, and the door to mini-computers was opened.
Personal computers – a new alternative to running SAS on the mainframe.
Multivendor architecture
When personal computers (PCs) came out in the mid '80s, users wanted to run SAS on that new, highly accessible hardware system. With several million lines of code, SAS would stretch the capacity of almost any PC virtually to its limits. So SAS was rewritten once again, this time in the popular C language, abandoning the IBM-only PL/1 language.
Once again, SAS broke new ground in the software industry, creating a software system that would run across all platforms - the multivendor architecture that the company is known for today. Later on, the company would introduce a micro-to-mainframe link, allowing customers to link data stored on mainframes to the programs running on their PCs.
A user interface from the 1980s.
Enhancing the look and feel
SAS software also was enhanced from the basic data management and statistics approach that displayed results in a very text- and number-centric format. Now, SAS adopted a more user-friendly approach that mirrored the graphical user interfaces of the Macintosh and Windows environments.
SAS software included full-screen spreadsheet capabilities, enhanced graphics and powerful data modeling tools to visualize analytical results. Late in the decade, the company also released JMP®, its first packaged statistical program for the increasingly popular Macintosh computer.
SAS CEO, Jim Goodnight, on the cover of Datamation magazine.
Industry recognition and leadership
The software community recognized SAS for technological excellence as awards came in from Datamation, Software News, Software Business Review, InformationWeek and other industry publications. Meanwhile, customers found that SAS - with its growing analytic capabilities and its ability to run on any hardware platform they had in front of them - was critical to their success.
SAS was moving toward the frontier of decision support. The company was in a unique position to give customers the ability to make sense out of mountains of data and make decisions based on those discoveries, bringing them the competitive advantage they were seeking.
Work-life balance and a child-friendly office environment.
Children, fitness, health and food
For SAS, breaking new ground was not limited to technology. Faced with the prospect of losing some valuable programmers who were hesitant to return to work following maternity leave, the company opened the first on-site childcare center in the basement of one of its world headquarters buildings in 1981. This was at a time when corporate-sponsored daycare was almost unheard of.
A recreation and fitness center, health care center and a café serving gourmet meals followed the opening of the childcare facility, further enhancing a culture that had always been responsive to employees' personal as well as professional needs.
These services garnered SAS the first of many awards as a great place to work when Health and Living magazine named SAS to its list of the "Healthiest Companies to Work For" in the US.
Members of SAS Australia pose in Sydney during an employee training session, "Boot Camp," in 1997.
Mining the opportunities
During the 1990s, SAS would grow its work force to more than 7,000 people around the world, with employees on every continent, in every major US city and in the capitals of international commerce all over the planet.
Industry-specific marketing collateral.
Changing the way software is sold
Sales efforts moved away from telemarketing to a direct sales force with a focus on geographic territories. The company introduced its first vertical sales group with the release of SAS/PH-Clinical® software for the pharmaceutical industry. And the demand for packaged solutions, designed to address specific business needs across industries, led to the establishment of the Business Solutions division, responsible for solutions such as SAS Financial Management and SAS Human Capital Management (formerly named CFO Vision® and HR Vision®).
A multimedia tool designed for students of Euclidean geometry.
New focus on education
The company moved into new territory by developing high-quality online curriculum resources for the classroom. SAS® Curriculum Pathways® online interactive resources focus on materials difficult to convey through conventional teaching methods. The tools cover subjects through coursework that you can "do, see and listen to," providing information and encouraging insights in ways that textbooks cannot. The software enables teachers to keep students engaged and learning while fostering technology use in the classroom.
A graphic for the "Reinventing the Future of IT" article on the SAS internal Web site, 1997.
Real support for decision making
Most importantly, SAS set itself apart from the pack as a provider of decision-support software with expanded capabilities in areas such as guided data analysis and clinical trials analysis and reporting. The company introduced software for building customized executive information systems (EIS) and launched its Rapid Warehousing Program.
As the Internet became a more vital tool for the business world, the demand for Web-enabled software grew. As a result, SAS brought Web-enabled capabilities to its software, allowing customers to use SAS solutions to become even more competitive in a rapidly growing business environment.
This illustration visually depicts the concept of e-intelligence.
Understanding the customer
With its powerful data mining capabilities, SAS was in a position to take the lead in an area that was more in demand than virtually any other business software offering available - customer relationship management. Now Web-enabled with new e-intelligence solutions, SAS continued to stay at the cutting edge of the business software industry.
A PR employee poses with SAS awards.
The recognition keeps rolling in
Recognition for having quality software products continued to come from many sources around the world, including Datamation, Data Warehousing World, Software Magazine, ComputerWorld Brazil and PC Week, along with the prestigious French analyst association Yphise, and Australia's Corporate Research Foundation. In addition, the US Food and Drug Administration recognized the integrity of SAS software by selecting SAS technology as the standard for new drug applications.
SAS continued to be recognized as a great place to work, receiving awards from FORTUNE, Working Mother, BusinessWeek and Mother Jones magazines, along with prominent print and broadcast media coverage in the United States, Europe and Australia.
Employees celebrate with a piece of 25th anniversary cake.
Into the 21st century
SAS celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2001, right on the heels of the turn of the millennium and the Y2K frenzy that seemed to engulf the world of technology. With a new logo and tagline - THE POWER TO KNOW® - in place, SAS set off to increase its visibility and global recognition.
SAS named the best company to work for in 2010 by FORTUNE.
Decade of best places to work
SAS Australia was the first SAS office outside the United States to be recognized as a great place to work, beginning in 1999. Since then, the list has expanded to include SAS offices in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Portugal, Finland, China, The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Sweden – the latter three named the No. 1 best place to work in 2010 and in years past.
In the United States, SAS has been named one of FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" every year since 1998, being named No. 1 on the list in 2010 and 2011. This consistent performance earned the company a place as one of 22 members of the "Hall of Fame," introduced in 2005.
Information Revolution book cover.
Introduction of Information Evolution Model
SAS introduced the Information Evolution Model (IEM) in 2003, which was followed by the 2006 publication of Information Revolution, by SAS' Jim Davis, Gloria Miller and Allan Russell. The IEM describes how well a company manages and utilizes information as a strategic corporate asset. By understanding and following the IEM, companies can gain insight to better align strategies and identify critical relationships and gaps along four key company dimensions: people, process, culture and infrastructure. The book has been translated into Italian, Japanese and Spanish, with a Russian version in the works, and the company continues to use the model to open conversations with executive audiences.
A SAS and Marketmax display at a tradeshow.
Responding to demands brought by world events
World and market events drove new developments in the company's software products. The governance and regulatory compliance requirements set forth in Basel II in Europe and the USA Patriot Act led to a high demand for software products that could help financial institutions manage risk and combat money laundering and fraud. SAS answered those needs with solutions that achieved industry and analyst recognition, and further solidified SAS' position as a leading provider of solutions for the financial sector.
The company showed new strength in its outreach to executives through the acquisition of the knowledge portal BetterManagement.com in 2002. In the retail sector, SAS acquired Marketmax, and in risk management, it acquired Risk Advisory – both in 2003.
Executive roundtable at The Premier Business Leadership Series, London.
Getting into the C-suite
SAS effectively targets users and executives through The Premier Business Leadership Series, and the annual data mining and forecasting series (M2000 and F2000) conferences, along with numerous executive conferences throughout the world and industry sectors. The largest annual users conference, SAS Global Forum (formerly known as SAS Users Group International) continued to draw thousands of users; in 2007, the name of the annual conference was changed to SAS Global Forum to better reflect the diverse nature of the conference and its attendees.
Aerial view of SAS world headquarters.
Becoming a truly global company
The year 2007 ushered in a new era of globalization for SAS. With operations centralized at SAS world headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, the company looked for new ways to have consistent, global programs in areas such as sales strategy, education, publications, marketing, communications and more. Global councils and summits formed in many functional areas of the company, creating opportunities for regular communication and collaboration that established SAS as a single, global entity.
Blogs and videos give customers a new perspective and voice at SAS Global Forum.
Joining the Web 2.0 generation
SAS embraces the evolving media world by participating in continuous, online dialogue in respective communities. Employees have been blogging since 2005, and the first external company blog appeared in 2007 (from SAS UK). By early 2008 the company had more than 300 internal bloggers, including nearly 20 executives.
Event-based blogging appeared on the scene with the SAS Global Forum 2007 blog. An external blog, sascom® voices, was promoted for the first time during that conference, as was a new external online community, sasCommunity.org.
Podcasts and Webcasts are available daily, and SAS has its own channel on YouTube, the popular video-sharing Web site. The company is looking at ways to delve further into the rapidly expanding world of social media.
SAS solar farm at global headquarters.
Committed to corporate sustainability
Sustainability has remained a top priority with SAS precisely because of its potential to deliver tremendous business value. It's not just the right thing to do; it's the smart thing to do.
In addition to employee engagement practices, from health care to expanded job opportunities, SAS has made great progress in reducing its environmental footprint. For example, a 1-megawatt solar array at SAS global headquarters is providing clean, renewable energy to the public energy grid for the local utility.
Several construction projects at SAS offices around the world utilize low-environmental-impact design principles. Notably, SAS is pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for a new conference facility and a new cloud computing facility at its global headquarters.
For more information on SAS and sustainability, check out the Corporate Social Responsibility Report.


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Basic Information
Isabella Uchiha
Bella Uchiha, "Rouge", Lili, Liliana
Looks: Bella has straigh crimson hair, slightly blushed and soft skin, and lively red lips. Her eyes are filled with beauty and depth, but her eyes seem to be darker than most Uchiha. She is quite tall and agile.
Personality: Bella is a very thoughtful and polite person, and even though she is able to display a huge array of Taijutsu and Weapon skill, she usually tries to win with intellect alone. She is always seen with a tender and discrete smile, though her eyes are cold. She does not fear death, neither a peaceful one nor a torturous one, as she accepts her role as a weapon.
Village Info.
Village of Birth: Konoha
Village of Alliance: Kiri
Rank//Chakra Info.
Ninja Rank: Sannin
Specialty: Sharingan, Chakra Control, Genjutsu, Taijutsu and Weapon Play, Medical training in progress
Elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Lightning
Your ninjutsu:
Up to Forbidden
Up to Forbidden
Up to Forbidden
Up to Forbidden
Up to Forbidden
Genjutsu - Up to Forbidden
Ninjutsu - Up to Forbidden
Taijutsu - Up to Forbidden
Background Info.
History: Isabella was born in Konoha, on a very rich Uchiha family. She had an older brother, which she loved deeply. One day, in a dark night, when they were very little, both were kidnapped by an evil organization of thieves, who killed both their parents and separated them from eachother, just to steal the money and the learnings of her family, hopping to copy the Sharingan. With her brother in her mind all the time and the fear of her kidnappers, she manage to awaken her Sharingan, and used her newly found power to evade her prison. Even though she was very little, she adapted extremely well, and showed great intelligence, facing hardships that would have most perish.
She was then adopted by a small but rich family of Kiri ninjas. They treated her as if she was their own daughter. In gratitude, she tried to offer them the scrolls that she stole from the thieves, but they didn't accept it. Instead, she found out her adoptive mother was an Uchiha aswell. Her name was Akiza Uchiha, the Black Rose.
She learned how to master the Sharingan with her, and a wide array of Taijutsu and Weapon Play with her adoptive fathers (Caliburn, initially married with Akiza, separated from her to pursue his man love with Mugiwara. Both then took Bella as a student/daughter, and thus she gained two fathers and a mother: A Sword/Weapon Specialist, a Taijutsu Specialist and a Sharingan Specialist. She also acquired the nickname of Liliana, or Lili, because both Caliburn and Mugiwara secretly loved a gorgeous and amazing woman with the same name, which stroke both of their hearts, even though their preferences were... quite opposite)
Btw, her brother's called Ragnaroc Uchiha
Many things happened after after Mugi and Caliburn fulfilled their man love. Grieving with pain, Akiza became somewhat of a crazy cat lady, but she collected men instead of cats. She brought home 2 fine specimens, one named Pato, or Seven Scaled Boy and another named Gato, or Gatsnshanks. It was very weird seeing them interact with each other. Disturbing indeed.
One day Gats and Seven made quite a mess, with which I shall not say, and we had to call a handyman to clean. The handyman was called Hasashi. And he was one hell of a man. Isabella, or Lili, immediately fell for him. His crocked moustache, with remainders of pork chops and beer, his deep crack every time he bent over, his extensive beer gut, with smexy stains of who knows what. But Hasashi loved another girl. Hasashi loved Goro Kaguya. And so he severed bonds with Isabella Uchiha, and her eyes burnt, and a dark sun stood in it's place. She had awaken her MS.
Unfortunately for Hasashi, Goro loved another man, Izuna Uchiha. And so he severed bonds with Hasashi, and his eyes burnt, but unlike Isabella, it was only because he had farted, and the chemicals in his fart made his eyes sting.
The events were never spoken of again.
Genjutsu Proficiency: Given her Genjutsu and Sharingan mastery, with her Sharingan active, using even the 3 Tomoe Sharingan, she is able to cast genjutsus further than normal. It does not change the damage of the genjutsu, it stays the same, it only enhances their reach, regardless of the Genjutsu. So if a genjutsu is usually Short-ranged, Isabella is able to cast it up to Mid-Range. If it's Mid-Range, Isabella is able to cast it up to Long-Range.
Mangekyo Sharingan: Through hard training, Isabella Uchiha has unlocked the Mangekyo Sharingan. Hers has a dark sun patterned, against the crimson background.
Theme Song and Background Music:
Won: 0
Lost: 0
Old thread:
Isabella Uchiha
. Changed Looks
. Changed Personality
. Added more History
. Added MS
. Added a special Genjutsu Ability


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The Preamble
**By "rather limited," I mean by comparison to other autism-related studies, such as gene variant studies, although some of those involve immune-related genes, and that most of the studies available are correlational, thus sketching only a relationship without a cause-effect established. For a comparative, search PubMed for combinations of autism, genetics, genes, immune, immunity, inflammation, etc., with particular attention to mechanistic and functional studies available.
Update: The writer of the original op-ed has posted an annotated source list on his personal Website. I have analyzed the list and the annotations in the context of the "cause" argument here.


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Lymph nodes are found throughout the body. They are part of the body's immune system. These nodes help fight infection by producing special white blood cells. They also work by trapping bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Normally, lymph nodes cannot be felt unless they are swollen. Infection, usually by a virus, is the most common cause of lymph node swelling. Other causes include bacterial infection and cancer.
With this type of biopsy, the doctor removes and examines all or part of a lymph node.
Reasons for Procedure
This biopsy is done to find out why a node is swollen. It can also be done to see if there are cancer cells in the lymph node.
Common areas for biopsy include:
- Groin
- Armpit
- Neck
- Under the jaw and chin
- Behind the ears
Possible Complications
Complications are rare, but no procedure is completely free of risk. If you are planning to have a lymph node biopsy, your doctor will review a list of possible complications, which may include:
- Bleeding
- Infection
- Swelling
- Nerve damage, including numbness at the biopsy site
What to Expect
Prior to Procedure
Leading up to your procedure, you will need to:
Talk to your doctor about your medical history, including:
- Any allergies that you have
- Any medications you take, including over-the-counter drugs and herbs and supplements. You may be asked to stop taking some medications up to 1 week before the procedure.
- Arrange for a ride home from the care center.
- Avoid eating or drinking anything after midnight if you will have general anesthesia.
- Local anesthesia—Just the area that is being operated on is numbed.
- General anesthesia is used for open biopsies—General anesthesia blocks pain and keeps you asleep through the procedure.
Description of the Procedure
Lymph nodes samples can be obtained by:
- Needle biopsy
- Open biopsy
There are 2 types of needle biopsies:
- Fine needle biopsy—A thin, hollow needle is used to obtain tissue samples.
- Core needle biopsy—A larger needle is used to cut out a piece of tissue.
An ultrasound or CT scan may be used to help locate the biopsy site.
An open biopsy means removing the lymph nodes through an incision. A cut will be made in the skin. All or part of a lymph node will be removed. After removal, the incision will be closed with stitches and bandaged.
Immediately After Procedure
The sample will be sent to the lab for examination.
How Long Will It Take?
About 30-60 minutes—longer if an ultrasound or CT scan is used
How Much Will It Hurt?
You will have some pain and tenderness after the biopsy is taken. Your doctor may give you pain medication.
Post-procedure Care
Be sure to follow your doctor's instructions. Results will be ready in about a week. Your doctor will tell you if further treatment is needed.
Call Your Doctor
Contact your doctor if your recovery is not progressing as expected or you develop complications, such as:
- Signs of infection, including fever and chills
- Redness, swelling, increasing pain, excessive bleeding, or any discharge from the incision site
- New or worsening symptoms
If you think you have an emergency, call for emergency medical services right away.
Revision Information
- Reviewer: EBSCO Medical Review BoardMohei Abouzied, MD
- Review Date: 03/2017 -
- Update Date: 03/18/2013 -


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text:
Honestly, now that we are at the half way point of the schedule with a record of 15-26, this team could easily be above .500.
When you factor in the recent breakdowns in Milwaukee, Chicago & Philly as well as the fact the Raptors blew at least 3 games in the 4-19 start , the team would be sporting a record of 21-20.
This team has potential if it continues to play hard every game. Trade talk is cheap. I like the Bargnani I saw at the beginning of last year... not so much the one I saw at the beginning of this year.
We need the Bargnani that we saw at the beginning of last year. He would make this team so much stronger. As for Calderon, resign to a reduced contract. He deserves at least that.
We should only trade if we are going to bring in a A level player that will immediately improve our team. Please no trading for draft picks. We are too young as it is.


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In fact, SDN can be explicitly defined. There are three architectural layers to an SDN network: the physical network, the SDN applications and the SDN controller. Let's look at each.
Physical Network. The lowest layer consists of the physical devices in your network that form the foundation of all IT infrastructure. We use the term "switch" because OpenFlow changes the way Ethernet switches work. For this article, you can also consider virtual switches part of the physical infrastructure.
SDN Applications. The most visible layer in an SDN design is the applications that deliver services, such as switch/network virtualization, firewalls and flow balancers. (Note that OpenFlow-based load balancers are called flow balancers. They aren't traditional load balancers because they can't read packet contents.) These applications are similar to or the same as those in use today where the software runs on dedicated hardware. Most of the coming innovation in networking will occur in SDN applications.
SDN Controller. The SDN controller is the middleware that serves as the linchpin of the entire architecture. The controller must integrate with all the physical and virtual devices in the network. The controller abstracts the physical network devices from the SDN software that works with those devices. There is a high degree of integration between the controller and network devices. In an OpenFlow environment, the controller will use the OpenFlow protocol and the NETCONF protocol to communicate with switches. (OpenFlow is the API for sending flow data to the switch, and NETCONF is the network configuration API).
SDN: Basic Architecture
In current SDN approaches, vendors provide applications and a controller in a single product. For example, Nicira/VMware packages its applications and controller into a single proprietary application stack. Cisco will package its controller into the OnePK product by embedding the controller in IOS software on the devices. I also expect Cisco to deliver a master controller in the near future. Big Switch Networks, which recently launched the commercial version of its SDN controller, offers two applications that run on the controller: Big Virtual Switch and Big Tap.
Clearly the controller is a key element in the network architecture. It must present APIs to the applications that represents usable functions, and it's here that the battle for SDN dominance will be fiercest among the vendors.
SDN APIs: The New Battleground
An SDN architecture has two distinct networking APIs: northbound and southbound. OpenFlow is a southbound API. OpenFlow describes an industry-standard API that configures the frame-forwarding silicon in an Ethernet switch and defines the flow path through a network. In addition, the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), the standards body overseeing the OpenFlow protocol, announced an API for device configuration called OF-CONFIG. OF-CONFIG uses the NETCONF XML data format to define the language.
Cisco's OnePK is also a southbound API. There is much discussion around whether OpenFlow is enough to meet all the needs of networking, especially with regards to migrating from a packet-based network to a flow-based network. There are unresolved issues that will hinder that migration, such as the need for interoperability with existing protocols such as STP and OSPF.
Northbound and Southbound APIs
The northbound API provides a mechanism in an SDN architecture to present services or applications to the business. Each application will develop a view of the flow tables for network devices and then send requests to the controller for distribution to the network devices.
For example, a virtual switching application would build a network graph/database of all points in the network of physical and virtual switches. In a multitenant Ethernet network, the app would develop a set of flow rules that emulate Ethernet VLANs while maintaining full isolation for each tenant's flows. The flow rules would consist of values based on ingress and egress ports, plus the source and destination MAC address.
Next page: API uncertainty


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My favourite part:
Despite their advanced sabermetrics stat which I think is silly, their site is one of the only ones I know of that spends time criticizing the Raptors players and organization for everyone to read, ie. not behind a paywall.[DeRozan] was the second or third least productive guard/forward in the league last year...
Other sports analysis sites either laugh at the organization for its mistakes (understandable) or basically ignore it, but there always seems to be a Raptors-related article floating around there.
I also talked to someone who is a fan of the Celtics about the attitudes that were around in the bad old days before the Garnett/Allen trades and Rondo draft. He said that, like here, there was a tendency for fans to inflate the achievements of bad players -- like Gerald Green and Delonte West, and to suggest that, if they had enough time and the right conditions, they would develop at some unspecified future time, into legendary all-stars, mvp candidates etc.
I think fans in general engage in wishful thinking regarding their teams, and the problem with it is, not only is it plain wrong -- bad players do not turn into good players -- they are good or bad by nature, it hurts what should be the next step for fans, which is organized criticism of the regimes in charge of the rosters.
Or, to put it another way, not a lot of people here want to face the reality that, with the exception of Lowry, these players are bad, and are not helping the team win, but helping it lose, and that none of them are going to "develop" into anything of note. That's a depressing thing to believe, but it's the truth. On the other hand, the Celtics changed things very quickly in just one offseason. So that's what I'm hoping for, rather than the idea of transforming losing players into winning ones.
I don't think the current regime is going to accomplish this. I think a new regime is necessary, because obviously the success of the current regime is tied to the current players -- their players. If they are failures, then so is the regime. That's what I think is behind this disastrous DeRozan contract.


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Texas League Agrees to Join With Arkansas, Oklahoma
Member credit unions of the Texas Credit Union League have "overwhelmingly voted" in favor of merging with the Arkansas Credit Union League and the Credit Union Association of Oklahoma to form a new regional cooperative organization – the Cornerstone Credit Union League.
"Texas credit union delegates cast their favorable votes Wednesday during TCUL's special member business meeting in Austin," TCUL said in a statement. The meeting was held in conjunction with TCUL's Texas Governmental Affairs Conference and Member Meeting & Expo that will end Friday.
TCUL did not release a vote count. There are approximately 535 credit unions in Texas, and 131 altogether in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
The credit union members of the Arkansas Credit Union League and the Credit Union Association of Oklahoma will vote on the consolidation proposal on April 11 and May 13, respectively.
"A tremendous amount of work, research, and consideration has gone into this measure," TCUL President.CEI Dick Ensweiler said. "I applaud our member credit unions for recognizing and respecting the power of collaboration."
The credit unions in each state were notified at their annual league meetings in 2012 that the three leagues were discussing a consolidation proposal. On Dec. 17, the boards of the three leagues announced their intention to pursue consolidation into a single regional organization. However, the state leagues initially began discussing the possibility of a merger in 2009.
"I think it is a common feeling around the credit union field that the (credit union) base is shrinking because of mergers," Ensweiler said in a Jan. 3 Credit Union Times article. "So I don't think credit unions are surprised that their associations also have to merge. It's common knowledge in the credit union space that you have to change if you want to stay vital."
The three leagues held town hall meetings in January and February to inform credit unions about the consolidation and to allow them to ask questions about it.
"The town hall meetings were well attended and were held in every area of the state," said Reta Kahley, president/CEO of the Arkansas Credit Union League in Little Rock. "To the best of my knowledge, they were very well attended by our credit unions and the information was very well received. There didn't seem to be a lot of opposition to it, but we'll see next week."
Gary Jones, president/CEO of the Credit Union Association of Oklahoma, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Proponents of the consolidation have said it will provide the 62 credit unions in Arkansas and the 69 credit unions in Oklahoma with access to expanded products and services, and strengthen credit union advocacy, networking and educational opportunities.
Although Cornerstone's operations would be based in Dallas, an office will remain in each state capital to advocate and protect the interests of credit unions in their respective state legislatures.
"This is an exciting time for our movement, and the first step toward the realization of the Cornerstone Credit Union League," said Paul Trylko, chair of TCUL's board of directors and president/CEO of the $612 million Amplify FCU. "We have an extraordinary amount of talent and passion in all three organizations, and I'm confident in the future of the Cornerstone Credit Union League."
If Arkansas and Oklahoma credit unions vote yes, an initial board of directors will assume positions on the Cornerstone Credit Union League board of directors with three directors from Arkansas, three directors from Oklahoma, and 12 directors from Texas.
A wave of league consolidations began in 2007 when the North and South Dakota Credit Union Leagues formed the Credit Union Association of the Dakotas. Later, the Maryland and Washington, D.C., leagues combined as did the Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming credit union leagues under the Mountain West Credit Union Association, the Alabama and Florida credit union leagues merged under the League of Southeastern Credit Unions, and the Oregon and Washington credit union leagues consolidated under the Northwest Credit Union Association.
What's more, in December 2012, the North Carolina Credit Union League and the South Carolina Credit Union League boards of directors authorized a six-member task force to explore the consolidation of the two leagues.
Not all merger proposals went through. The Maryland and DC Credit Union Association and New Jersey Credit Union League backed off their plans to consolidate in June 2011.


text:
Day 14: Share a memory
Today's challenge: Share with a friend why a gift they gave you was memorable
"Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. —Matthew 2:11b (NIV)
Share #joy through rabbits
Rabbits may not be a practical gift to wrap and put under the tree for someone special, but they can be a wonderful gift for families living in poverty around the world. Visit World Vision's Gift Catalog to learn more!
At the top: Share Joy through Rabbits (Photo: World Vision)
Give the gift of 3 rabbits today! God created rabbits to be among the most prolific animals on earth, making them a terrific gift for a family in poverty. With a gestation period of just 31 days, a pair of rabbits can easily become 50 rabbits within a single year. These offspring can provide food or be sold at market, producing a steady source of extra income.


text:
Reds Sign Jonathan Broxton
Reliever Signs Three-Year Deal with a Club Option
By /
CINCINNATI - Cincinnati Reds President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Walt Jocketty today announced the signing of free agent RHP Jonathan Broxton to a three-year contract through the 2015 season with a club option for 2016.
Broxton, 28, is a 2-time All-Star (2009 & 2010). Since 2006 among Major League Baseball relievers (min 400ip) he ranks fourth in strikeouts (526), fourth in lowest homers allowed per 9 innings (0.56) and sixth in ERA (3.01).
Last season in 60 games with Kansas City and Cincinnati he went 4-5 with 27 saves and a 2.48 ERA. With the Reds he recorded all 4 saves over 4 consecutive apps from 9/11-9/19, while Aroldis Chapman rested a fatigued shoulder. Broxton allowed only 2 homers all season, on 5/16 to Baltimore's Wilson Betemit and on 9/29 at Pittsburgh to Andrew McCutchen. Between home runs he threw 42 homerless innings over 42 apps. He also allowed only one walk in his last 18 appearances.
At the 2012 trade deadline Broxton was acquired by the Reds from the Royals in exchange for RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran and LHP Donnie Joseph.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
Professional Carpenter in Butler, WI
Carpenter services in Butler, WI can be very helpful for many people who need something built, whether it is a new shed or a custom piece of furniture. If you need new stairs built for your house or anything else that is going to be made out of wood, you will definitely need to hire a professional Butler carpenter for the job. Butler carpenters will be able to build whatever you need down to the very smallest detail. If you want something custom made out of wood, a carpenter is the person to call.
You will find that Butler carpentry services will provide you with whatever you are looking for. These professionals have the necessary tools and skills to make just about anything you could possibly want out of wood, which is why it's a good idea to look into them. Although there are lots of different types of people you can hire, Butler carpenters specialize in building things out of wood. These professionals will definitely be able to build whatever you may need without any issues whatsoever. In the end you definitely won't regret paying for these services, especially if you are simply too busy to build whatever it is you need yourself.
AVC Costs For Carpenter Companies($262) ($1,052) ($2,004)
What zipcode do you need Carpenter Companies in?
Start Here, It's Free
What type of service you would like?


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Keep and open mind
So as we know kishi has used patterns to shape the world of Naruto.... there have been teams such as team 7 , team hiruzen and team minato who have been close to identical with similar characters and experiences... the description of all teams would be....a loud mouth knucklehead who boasts about power but doesn't gain bragging right until later on in life ( naruto jiraiya and obito). A female medic K sakura tsunade and rin) and a skilled genius who looks down on the rest ( sasuke kakashi and oro). Who had highly skilled and praised senseis. Now its obvious naruto and jiraiya have had similar experiences with training and skill level...sakura is a mini tsunade with small breasts and pink hair...and sasuke and oro r different with the same character development(in early life).....now...to team minato....we all know what went down...its a reverse of team seven... only difference is that this time...the loser is the one with the gifted genes.(sharingan) and the one with high skill is just naturally that...skilled... Now I bring up all this symbolism to make one assumption.....what if....just what if...kishi created this whole pattern and similarities within the teams to symbolize that Naruto will get sasukes's eyes?o_o. Yes...what if it is reversed..this time the non uchiha who is the knuckle head...gets the eyes of sasuke...the gifted one... maybe sasuke will play off the bad guy roll after meeting the one who knows everything..and act as itachi did with a double motives and die at the hands of Naruto so Naruto can receive his eyes?? I know I sound crazy but just think about it before posting and replying


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Dwill is a UFA this summer - he said he is not opting in with NJ- and with no promise that Dwight will join him in Dallas isn't anything possible?
I am not sure you could convince Deron Williams that Toronto is headed in the right direction.
But if you could do this deal with that cap space WOW
Dwill / Bayless
Derozen / JJohnson
MKG / Kileza / Forbes
Bargs / Amir / Davis
JV / Gray / Amir
...yeah too good to be true.


text:
Well, it only took a year. A
little over a year ago, Apple announced iPhone
OS 3.0 and along with it came support for 3G
internet tethering. The only problem was that while many wireless
carriers around the world offered the tethering option to iPhone
users, AT&T bowed out due to the strain that the popular
smartphone was putting on its 3G network.
Well if the latest beta release of
iPhone OS 4.0 is any indication, it looks as though the long wait is
now over. Apple this evening seeded
iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 4 to developers according to Mac Rumors
and it
includes an option to enable internet tethering.
The new option, which appears in the
Network tab under Settings, gives users the ability to enable
tethering by dialing 611 or visiting http://www.att.com/mywireless" rel="nofollow.
We don't currently have any official word on pricing for the
tethering option, but there's a close to 100 percent guarantee that
the word "free" won't be anywhere in the fine print.
IPhone users who jailbreak can
currently get free, quick, and easy tethering on AT&T's network
using a program
like MyWi, but it's not officially sanctioned by Apple or AT&T.
In other tethering news, it was
recently revealed that Google has enabled
native tethering and Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities in its updated
Android 2.2 operating system. It remains to be seen, however, it
carriers will play nice and provide the features for free.