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Sometimes watching videos and reading articles isn't enough to learn what you need - often it is far more helpful to talk to a real person. Finding a Delphi expert you can communicate with can be a tricky problem - no longer. Alister Christie is now available on Skype for consultation on Delphi problems and training.
Hiring in an external consultant can be an extremely expensive exercise - travel expenses, accommodation and probably a daily rate. So why pay them when you can get an expert like Alister Christie, not have to pay for travel or accommodation - and only pay for the time you use - it could be as little as 15 minutes.
What is it?
Alister is experienced in a large of array Delphi and related technologies. This is your chance to tap into some of this knowledge. You might be after an opinion - Is it worth it to upgrade to the latest Delphi? Or it might be more technical - How can I get an Android app to talk to the BDE? Or you might be after training - Can you teach me how to build data-aware applications? or I've inherited this huge Delphi application - and I don't know Delphi - help!
How does it work?
Initial communication is done via email, a time is organised to talk and Skype names are exchanged. At the appointed time Alister will video call you via Skype. Skype has some desktop sharing facilities so that you can demonstrate on your desktop (or vice versa). Skype does not allow me to remotely control your computer, if this is required (to demonstrate something or help solve a problem) then we can use either VNC or LogMeIn Rescue.
Cost and payment.
You can click on the button above to pay Alister, remember to describe the service to make it easier to match up payments.
Requirements for consultation.
- Skype
- Webcam / microphone
Additional requirements for Training / Support
- Ability to see or control your computer
- Being able to see your screen can be done through Skype desktop sharing
- To control your computer we will need to install VNC or use LogMeIn Rescue
- Good internet connection


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42 Comments
Brad & Angelina Vs. Tom & Katie! Who's The WORST Couple In Hollywood To Work For? Housekeepers Tell All!
You won't believe the crazy things they make their housekeepers do!
Ever wondered what goes on behind closed doors at Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' house? Or how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie really conduct themselves when the public isn't looking? We're finally getting the answers to our questions, thanks to a few loose-lipped former housekeepers. They spilled their ex-employers' biggest work secrets to Star magazine, and now we're sharing them with you! Read all the crazy rules, and then vote: Who would be the WORST couple in Hollywood to work for?
Tom & Katie's rules:
- Employees may NOT take photos inside the house.
- No one may use Tom's gym equipment — not even Katie!
- No staff member, except for a hand-picked nanny, is allowed near little Suri!
Brad & Angelina's secrets:
- Food, including pizza boxes, is always left out to spoil.
- There's hair dye stains on the walls!
- Angie lets the kids color on the walls in crayon to express themselves!'
- The staff has to pick up Brad's dirty underwear, paintbrushes, etc.
Jay-Z & Beyoncé's demands:
- Fresh flowers are to be delivered to their NYC suite every other day.
- Meals are only to be served on fine china!
- Her staff does all her dishes and gets her groceries.
Jennifer Aniston's freaky obsessions:
- She walks around in see-through clothing in front of her help.
- Employees constantly sign for packages from underwear companies.
Given this new information, tell us…

subset: commoncrawl


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Northwest Indiana, Southwest Michigan, Valparaiso Indiana, Northern Indiana Wedding-Engagement Photographer
Throwback to this incredibly sunshine and warm backyard wedding last August in Crown Point, IN! I've never seenView full post »
Sometimes I forget how lucky we are to live so close to this sunny, sandy, beautiful place. But we didn't forgetView full post »
Lisa and Jeff had the most gorgeous wedding in Merrillville, Indiana! This was my first Greek Orthodox wedding, and IView full post »
Every once in a while, when I leave a wedding for the night, I feel a real honest to goodness sadness to leave.View full post »
Whoever said rain can ruin your wedding day, hasn't met Jessica and Kevin. Sure it rained… or more soView full post »
© 2015 Abbey Grim Photography|ProPhoto Blogsite


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Recognizing that green practices start at home, the Library circulates home electric metering devices so library users can measure their energy use in home appliances. Borrowers take the devices home and plug them in to their appliances to determine wattage, associated costs and C02 emissions.
About Green Stacks
A partnership of San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco Environment and Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, in conjunction with the Wallace Stegner Environmental Center. The Library strives to inspire and inform users about greener living, with enlightening public events, reading lists, sustainability resources, and real-world examples from our eco-friendly libraries.


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Great Financial Web Sites for Raising Capital
If you're trying to raise capital for your business venture, you can turn to a considerable number of comprehensive Web sites for financial information. Strengthen your quest for capital by visiting these sites:
VC Experts has a simple mission statement: "To leverage the power of the Internet to minimize the inefficiencies in the venture capitalization process."
Beyond its matchmaking service, Garage Technology Ventures offers forums for discussion of venture capital issues, conferences, a start-up recruiting and job-finding service, and plenty of links to other Web sites of interest.
Explore ACE-Net if you're looking for financing in the range of $250,000 to $5 million — amounts too high for debt financing but too small for most venture capitalists.
Through its direct loan and loan guaranty programs, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has provided millions of dollars of financing to thousands of small businesses — many of them unable to obtain loans from any other source. If yours is a small business, be sure to give the SBA a try.
Quicken has its own small-business Web site, chock-full of all kinds of useful financial information and tools for small and growing businesses.
The Beyster Institute for Entrepreneurial Employee Ownership runs a great Web site that offers loads of information about employee ownership, including an extensive resource library, financial tools, and an online magazine.


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One of the ways to understand how light works in photographs is to do basic exercises. We did one way by creating the portrait lighting cheat sheet that shows how positioning a single light effect a portrait, others have done similar stuff with an egg.
Photographer Pat David had another idea. Using a CC-BY 3D scan by Infinite Realities and an open source 3D modeling software called Blender 3D (Blender is darn near real rendering engine, it can even mimic shaped bokeh), he started to play with positioning various light sourced around the scanned head.


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Description:HP AMD Opteron 6136 DL165 G7 (2.4GHz/8-core/12MB/80W)Full Processor Option KitPart Number(s)
Manufacturer Part# 601112-B21
HP Processor Kits:
Manufacturer Part# 601112-B21
This is the full processor option kit. It includes the
Processor(s), Heat-Sink(s), Fan(s), Thermal paste
Overview:The AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform offering the industry's only twelve-core x86 processor. Built to excel when the workload gets tough. Match tough workloads with the right fit server platform and realize superior performance in memory and compute intensive workloads.


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(CNN) -- Early in her career as a learning specialist, Mary Willingham was in her office when a basketball player at the University of North Carolina walked in looking for help with his classwork.
He couldn't read or write.
"And I kind of panicked. What do you do with that?" she said, recalling the meeting.
Willingham's job was to help athletes who weren't quite ready academically for the work required at UNC at Chapel Hill, one of the country's top public universities.
But she was shocked that one couldn't read. And then she found he was not an anomaly.
Soon, she'd meet a student-athlete who couldn't read multisyllabic words. She had to teach him to sound out Wis-con-sin, as kids do in elementary school.
And then another came with this request: "If I could teach him to read well enough so he could read about himself in the news, because that was something really important to him," Willingham said.
Student-athletes who can't read well, but play in the money-making collegiate sports of football and basketball, are not a new phenomenon, and they certainly aren't found only at UNC-Chapel Hill.
A CNN investigation found public universities across the country where many students in the basketball and football programs could read only up to an eighth-grade level. The data obtained through open records requests also showed a staggering achievement gap between college athletes and their peers at the same institution.
This is not an exhaustive survey of all universities with major sports programs; CNN chose a sampling of public universities where open records laws apply. We sought data from a total of 37 institutions, of which 21 schools responded. The others denied our request for entrance exam or aptitude test scores, some saying the information did not exist and others citing privacy rules. Some simply did not provide it in time.
As a graduate student at UNC-Greensboro, Willingham researched the reading levels of 183 UNC-Chapel Hill athletes who played football or basketball from 2004 to 2012. She found that 60% read between fourth- and eighth-grade levels. Between 8% and 10% read below a third-grade level.
"So what are the classes they are going to take to get a degree here? You cannot come here with a third-, fourth- or fifth-grade education and get a degree here," she told CNN.
The issue was highlighted at UNC two years ago with the exposure of a scandal where students, many of them athletes, were given grades for classes they didn't attend, and where they did nothing more than turn in a single paper. Last month, a North Carolina grand jury indicted a professor at the center of the scandal on fraud charges. He's accused of being paid $12,000 for a class he didn't teach.
When Willingham worked as a learning specialist for athletes from 2003 to 2010, she admits she took part in cheating, signing her name to forms that said she witnessed no NCAA rules violations when in fact she did. But the NCAA, the college sports organizing body, never interviewed her. Instead, it found no rules had been broken at Chapel Hill.
UNC now says 120 reforms put in place ensure there are no academic transgressions.
But Willingham said fake classes were just a symptom of the bigger problem of enrolling good athletes who didn't have the reading skills to succeed at college.
"Isn't it all cheating if I'm sitting at a table with a kid who can't read or write at college level and pulling a paper out of them? Is this really legitimate? No," Willingham told CNN. "I wouldn't do that today with a college student; I only did it with athletics, because it's necessary."
NCAA sports are big business, with millions of dollars at stake for winning programs.
In 2012, the University of Louisville earned a profit of $26.9 million from its men's basketball program, according to figures that schools have to file with the Department of Education and were analyzed by CNNMoney. That's about 60% more than the $16.9 million profit at the University of North Carolina, whose men's hoops team had the second-largest profit.
Willingham, now a graduation adviser with access to student files, said she believes there are still athletes at UNC who can't do the coursework.
UNC Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham told CNN the school admits only students it believes can succeed.
"I think our students have an exceptional experience in the classroom as well as on the fields of competition," he said.
Anecdotally, NCAA officials admit there are probably stories that are troubling, but they also say the vast majority of student-athletes compete at a high level in the classroom.
"Are there students coming to college underprepared? Sure. They are not just student-athletes," said Kevin Lennon, vice president of academic and membership affairs at the NCAA.
But he said the NCAA sees it as the responsibility of universities to decide what level athlete should be admitted to their schools.
"Once the school admits them, the school should do everything it can to make sure the student succeeds," he said. "(Universities) don't want a national standard that says who they can recruit and admit. They want those decisions with the president, provost and athletic directors. That is the critical piece of all of this."
Scarce information
The NCAA admits that almost 30 athletes in sports that make revenue for schools were accepted in 2012 with very low scores -- below 700 on the SAT composite, where the national average is 1000. That's a small percentage of about 5,700 revenue-sport athletes.
However, the NCAA did not share raw data. The U.S. Department of Education does not track statistics on the topic, nor do the conferences.
In fact, CNN only found one person in addition to Willingham who has ever collected data on the topic. University of Oklahoma professor Gerald Gurney found that about 10% of revenue-sport athletes there were reading below a fourth-grade level.
So, after consulting with several academic experts, CNN filed public records requests and concluded that what Willingham found at UNC and Gurney found at Oklahoma is also happening elsewhere.
The data CNN collected is based on the SAT and ACT entrance exam scores of athletes playing the revenue sports: football and basketball.
In some cases, where that information was not available, CNN then asked for aptitude test scores administered after the athlete was accepted by the university.
Based on data from those requests and dozens of interviews, a CNN investigation revealed that most schools have between 7% and 18% of revenue sport athletes who are reading at an elementary school level. Some had even higher percentages of below-threshold athletes.
According to those academic experts, the threshold for being college-literate is a score of 400 on the SAT critical reading or writing test. On the ACT, that threshold is 16.
Many student-athletes scored in the 200s and 300s on the SAT critical reading test -- a threshold that experts told us was an elementary reading level and too low for college classes. The lowest score possible on that part of the SAT is 200, and the national average is 500.
On the ACT, we found some students scoring in the single digits, when the highest possible score is 36 and the national average is 20. In most cases, the team average ACT reading score was in the high teens.
"It is in many ways immoral for the university to even admit that student," said Dr. Richard M. Southall, director of the College Sport Research Institute and a professor at the University of South Carolina.
Scores aren't the whole story
Officials at the universities from which CNN collected data all said they recognized the low scores -- and gave several possible reasons for them:
-- Some athletes don't aim for high scores when taking entrance exams, looking only to score high enough to become NCAA eligible.
-- Many times, low scores are indicators of learning disabilities.
-- Entrance exams are just one factor taken into consideration when deciding whether to accept a student-athlete.
The officials also said they believe excellent tutoring and extra attention from academic support allows these athletes to excel off the field as well as on, and many cited the high graduation rates of athletes.
Robert Stacey, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, said the conversation should be about the achievement gap -- the difference between the academic levels of the athletes and their nonathlete peers at the same university.
"We know how to close the achievement gap. It's just very expensive," he said. "A student who scored a 380 on his or her (SAT) critical reading is going to face tremendous challenges, won't be able to compete the first year with a student who has a 650 or 700. But with intensive tutoring -- and I'm not talking about cheating, I'm talking about tutoring -- by the time they get to be juniors, they're competing. But it's a very expensive process. It takes intensive work."
But some of the universities from which CNN sought data didn't even have remedial classes for student-athletes to attend. Athletes, many times, take the field before they even get to a classroom. And even if, over time, they can be brought up to speed, how are they getting through the first few semesters?
We found one plausible explanation at Iowa State -- where the achievement gap between students and student-athletes was fairly low.
There, any athlete who is specially admitted -- they would not have gotten in on academics alone -- is mandated to start school in the summer term, where they are given remediation.
Tom Hill, senior vice president for student affairs, said it's done partly because the school recognizes that it is simply too much to ask athletes to jump into a tough schedule of practice and games, plus keep up classwork, especially if they are already academically behind.
"We'll provide them with support and help to begin the process to shore up deficiencies," Hill said. "It's not just throwing them in there."
Hill also said that Iowa State -- a land-grant university that takes many students from small, rural towns across the state -- doesn't separate academic support for athletes from the rest of the student population. Anyone can get the same tutoring as an athlete does.
Hill, who has a long background as an administrator in college athletics, said he is well aware of the practices of pushing athletes through at more competitive schools. And he is blunt about what he thinks of it.
"Those people who do that should be arrested," Hill said. "We should make it against the law. I know it happens. I've spent time in athletics."
Former and current academic advisers, tutors and professors say it's nearly impossible to jump from an elementary to a college reading level while juggling a hectic schedule as an NCAA athlete. They say the NCAA graduation rates are flawed because they don't reflect when a student is being helped too much by academic support.
"They're pushing them through," said Billy Hawkins, an associate professor and athlete mentor at the University of Georgia.
"They're graduating them. UGA is graduating No. 2 in the SEC, so they're able to graduate athletes, but have they learned anything? Are they productive citizens now? That's a thing I worry about. To get a degree is one thing, to be functional with that degree is totally different."
Hawkins, who says in his 25 years at various universities he's witnessed some student-athletes fail to meet college reading standards, added: "It's too much for students reading below a college level. It's basically a farce."
Gurney, who looked into the situation at the University of Oklahoma, put it bluntly: "College presidents have put in jeopardy the academic credibility of their universities just so we can have this entertainment industry. ... The NCAA continually wants to ignore this fact, but they are admitting students who cannot read.
"College textbooks are written at the ninth-grade level, so we are putting these elite athletes into classes where they can't understand the textbooks. Imagine yourself sitting in a class where nothing makes sense."
Risks and rewards
All of the university representatives we talked to deny that their tutors do too much work for student-athletes who come in at such low reading levels.
"I lose sleep about a lot of things; I don't lose sleep about writing tutors. We are extremely strict," said Brian Davis, associate athletics director for football student services at the University of Texas, acknowledging there were, of course, challenges.
"You have to minimize the risk as much as you can. If you're signing 20 (recruits), you can't have 30 to 50% extremely at risk. It puts way too much pressure on the system. That's when you get into more nefarious issues, and I'm very proud of how we've addressed the risk factors," Davis said.
There are anecdotes of student athletes who do succeed. Christine Simatacolos, the associate athletics director for student life at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, talks of a student whose low scores fell below the college literacy threshold but who graduated from Louisiana State University and is now in medical school.
But far more anecdotes of failure were recounted to CNN during our monthlong research.
Kadence Otto, who once taught at Florida State University, recalled one situation where an academic support tutor would call every week to check up on a starting player.
"I would say, 'He's not doing well. He can't read and write.' And (the tutor) said, 'Well, we'll see what we can do,'" Otto said. That stopped with a career-ending injury. "He's worth nothing to the team, and I never once heard back from the academic support adviser. He never showed up to class again, either."
Otto, who now teaches at Western Carolina University, says that experience had a big impact.
"That's one of the reasons I got into working in corruption in college sports. Sending messages that maybe they don't really care about the athletes as people," she said. And as for claims by institutions that they can bring poor readers up to speed with tutoring, she said: "Honestly, it feels to me it's like trying to turn a Little League Baseball player into a pro."
Periodically since the 1980s, stories have surfaced of athletes who could not read.
-- Former basketball player Kevin Ross told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" about his struggles at Creighton University in the 1980s.
-- In 1989, football player Dexter Manley told Congress that he got through college and into the pros without ever learning to read.
-- Dasmine Cathey's compelling story of struggle at the University of Memphis was recounted by The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2012.
And as far back as the 1980s, faculty and staff have spoken up about illiterate athletes who are pushed through with passing grades to keep up their eligibility to play, while their reading was little addressed.
Linda Bensel-Meyers, who worked for Tennessee until 2003, said a university-hired psychologist would diagnose learning disabilities in athletes and put them in a program without the graduation requirements set for other students.
"Many of the records I looked at revealed that these athletes came to us essentially illiterate and still left the school functionally illiterate," Bensel-Meyers told CNN.
When contacted by CNN, Tennessee did not answer questions.
Then there was Brenda Monk. In 2009, the former Florida State University learning specialist told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that she was forced to resign from the university as a cheating scandal surfaced in which the NCAA said that tutors were writing papers for athletes and giving them answers to test scores.
Monk denied the allegation that she did too much work for athletes, but she said she saw some of them reading at second- and third-grade levels.
The NCAA levied sanctions against Florida State in 2009, including vacating wins and reduced scholarships.
Florida State did not provide CNN with records in response to our request.
Change ahead?
In December, the Drake Group, which pushes for academic integrity in collegiate sports, organized a lobbying trip to Washington to push for an amendment to the College Education Act of 1965. Director Allen Sack said he wants to see a College Athlete Protection Act -- legislation that would keep athletes on the bench as freshmen if they are academically more than one standard deviation lower than the average student admitted to the university.
"That's unconscionable, to bring in a young athlete who does not fit in the general profile of the student body and have them play football on national television before they've entered the classroom for the first time in the fall," Sack said.
U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania introduced legislation in the House last year that calls for a complete overhaul of the NCAA. When he talked to CNN, he cited the lack of consistency in the way recent NCAA investigations into various improprieties were handled at Auburn, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, Ohio State and Penn State.
"I think (the NCAA) needs to be looked at. I think they need to be reined in," Dent said.
Mary Willingham went on the trip to Washington and said she came back feeling that they could make some progress in bringing change.
Others aren't so confident that a beast as big as collegiate athletics can be tamed.
Source: CNN


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News Release 12-149
Antarctic Medical Evacuation
Patient is currently stable but may require corrective surgery
August 8, 2012
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
National Science Foundation (NSF) officials have set in motion the necessary steps to airlift a patient from McMurdo Station, one of three year-round stations NSF maintains in Antarctica. The patient's condition may require treatment beyond what can be provided at the station's medical facility.
The patient, whose identity NSF is not releasing, is currently stable but may require immediate corrective surgery best delivered at a more capable facility than is available at McMurdo. The facility at McMurdo is equivalent to an urgent-care center in the U.S., and is not equipped for the type of procedure being contemplated.
As no U.S. aircraft are in a position to respond quickly to the situation, NSF has reached an agreement with the Australian Antarctic Division, which manages Australia's Antarctic research program, to make available an Australian A319 Airbus to fly the patient out. The Royal New Zealand Air Force will provide search-and-rescue coverage for the flight to and from McMurdo Station.
The three nations' Antarctic research programs have existing agreements under which such assets may be shared as needed.
Preparations are underway to ready the ice runway, known as Pegasus, near McMurdo Station for a flight near the end of this week, local time, weather permitting. (U.S. stations in Antarctica keep New Zealand time.). Pegasus is one of only a very few runways in Antarctica that can accommodate wheeled aircraft.
Antarctica is currently emerging from its six-months-long night, so there is a period of twilight at mid-day that could assist pilots in landing on the ice runway.
The evacuation flight comes shortly before a regularly-scheduled series of late winter flights to prepare for the coming Antarctic research season, which gets underway in October.
NSF manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, through which it coordinates all U.S. research and the necessary logistical support on the continent and aboard ships in the Southern Ocean.
Media Contacts
Deborah Wing, NSF, (703) 292-5344, email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Program Contacts
Peter West, NSF, (703) 292-7530, email: firstname.lastname@example.com
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2019, its budget is $8.1 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 50,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.
Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page: https://www.nsf.gov
NSF News: https://www.nsf.gov/news/
For the News Media: https://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
Science and Engineering Statistics: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/


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Looking for an effortless way to secure your data while taking advantage of the fastest USB 3.0 speeds? Look no further than the diskAshur, the fast of iStorage's secure drive line. With the same easy-to-use keypad design and software free setup, the diskAshur enables you to access the drive with your own unique pin but now at data transfer speeds of up to 5 Gbps.
Software free designWith no software installation required for setup or operation and the ability to run on any platform, the iStorage diskAshur provides stress free deployment in corporate environments. Its administrator feature allows enrollment of up to five unique user IDs and one administrator, making it a useful business collaboration tool.
Super fast USB 3.0 connectionData transfer speeds up to 10x faster than USB 2.0: with a super speed USB 3.0 interface, you can now access your files faster than ever before. The diskAshur is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 ports.
Brute Force Self Destruct featureThe iStorage diskAshur uses a three pronged approach to protect against a Brute Force attack. The first step is to deny access to the drive until the drive can verify the user PIN. After six incorrect attempts the drive will lock itself, requiring the drive to be plugged in again to input a PIN. This feature blocks automated attempts to enter PIN numbers. Lastly, after a predetermined number of failed PIN entries, the diskAshur assumes it is being attacked and will destroy the encryption key and lock itself, rendering the data useless and requiring a total reset to redeploy the diskAshur.
Drive reset featureThe diskAshur also employs a useful drive reset feature, which can be implemented with a unique command. This clears all PINs and data, and creates a randomly generated encryption key, enabling the drive to be reset and redeployed as many times as needed.
Auto-lock featureThe unattended diskAshur can be configured to lock after a pre-determined amount of time of your choosing. It is ideal for protecting your data when you're away from your desk.
Compact, rugged designPerfect for taking your data on the road, the diskAshur's low powered design is perfect for using with notebooks and taking your data on the road. Perfectly pocketable, the diskAshur's compact, robust design features a 16-point omni-directional shock mounting system and rubberized paint, protecting the drive from drops and knocks. The convenient integrated USB 3.0 cable eliminates the need to carry around cords with you and allows you to be connected at the flick of a fingertip.
- Product Description
- iStorage diskAshur² - solid state drive - 256 GB - USB 3.1
- Type
- Solid state drive - external (portable) - Wear Resistant Keypad, Brute Force Hack Defence Mechanism, OS & platform independent
- Capacity
- Hardware Encryption
- Yes
- Encryption Algorithm
- FIPS 197, 256-bit AES-XTS
- Interface
- Data Transfer Rate
- 5.0 Gbps (USB 3.0)
- Features
- Wear Resistant Keypad, Brute Force Hack Defence Mechanism, OS & platform independent
- Power Source
- USB bus
- Enclosure Colour
- Phantom black
- Dimensions (WxDxH)
- 84 mm x 124 mm x 19 mm
- Weight
- 180 g
- Manufacturer Warranty
- 3-year warranty
Detailed Specification
- Device Type
- Solid state drive - external (portable)
- Capacity
- Hardware Encryption
- Yes
- Encryption Algorithm
- FIPS 197, 256-bit AES-XTS
- Interface
- Features
- Wear Resistant Keypad, Brute Force Hack Defence Mechanism, OS & platform independent
- Width
- 84 mm
- Depth
- 124 mm
- Height
- 19 mm
- Weight
- 180 g
- Interface Transfer Rate
- 5.0 Gbps (USB 3.0)
- Internal Data Rate
- 294 MBps (read) / 319 MBps (write)
Expansion & Connectivity
- Interfaces
- 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 - 9 pin USB Type B
- Power Source
- USB bus
- Included Accessories
- Carrying case
- Cables Included
- 1 x USB 3.1 cable - integrated
- Compliant Standards
- FCC, RoHS, WEEE
- Enclosure Colour
- Phantom black
- TAA Compliant
- Yes
Manufacturer Warranty
- Service & Support
- Limited warranty - 3 years


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"A license is your pet's ticket home"
California Health and Safety Code Section 121690 and Contra Costa County Animal Control Ordinance 80-97, Section 416-6.002, require that all dogs over the age of 12 weeks old be vaccinated against rabies with an approved vaccine and be licensed by the age of 5 months. Dogs over the age of 5 months must be licensed within 30 days of acquisition, or within 30 days after entering Contra Costa County.
The above regulations apply to anyone owning, harboring, or possessing any dog over the age of 4 months old in Contra Costa County.
California Health and Safety Code regulations prohibit Contra Costa County from issuing a pet license extending beyond the rabies vaccination expiration date. Please be aware that there are no refunds once a pet license has been issued, and there are no pro-rated license fees.


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Pottery & Porcelain Marks – Miscellaneous: Miscellaneous marks of an axe, hammer, palette and paintbrush, outline of states, and other objects were used from the late 19th century to the 21st century. Rough outlines, sketches, and realistic drawings of animals were also used.
Another type of mark that was often copied was the Staffordshire Knot, a rope twisted in a pretzel-shaped knot that usually included the makers' initials. It was used by various English makers, including: H. Aynsley & Co. (1873-1932), Bodley & Co. (1865), Edward F. Bodley & Son (1883-1898), George Frederick Bowers & Co. (1842-1868), E. Brain & Co. Ltd. (1903-1964+), William Brownfield & Sons (1850-1891), Burslem School of Art (1935-1941), Hanley Porcelain Co. (1892-1899), Kensington Pottery Ltd. (1922-present), William Kent Ltd. (1944-1962), Arthur J. Mountford (1897-1901), New Wharf Pottery (1878-1894), George Phillips (1834-1848), Ridgway, Sparks & Ridgway (1873-1879), Salt & Nixon Ltd. (1901-1934), Smith & Binnall (1879-1900), Wellington Pottery Co. (1899-1901), Wilkinson & Wardle (1864-1866), H. J. Wood Ltd. (188-1964+), W. Wood & Co. (1873-1932).
Enter your email below to receive Kovels Komments for the latest antiques & collectibles news, answers to readers questions, marks and tips. In your inbox every Wednesday.
Current & Past Issues
Buyer's Price Guide
Words of Wisdom (Letter to Lee)


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An Open Forum at the U.S. Department of State, January 7, 1999
Transcript of a presentation by Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
As salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. It is a greeting in the Arabic language which means peace be upon you all. I was very happy to see that my name was written double "shaykh." Because you know that shaykh might mean oil shaykh, or a fundamentalist, extremist. So two opposites make a positive -- two negatives multiplied by each other become a positive. So those who wrote that were very clever... thank you very much.
It was a delightful opportunity to hear from Dr. Fairbanks and the honorable Congressman Dana Rohrabacher because I think such kinds of events will lead to more understanding about Islam, what Islam believes and what Islam rejects. I think that many, many people in the United States and in western countries, in Europe, are afraid of a monster called Islam. And as the honorable Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said, it is an insult to consider the whole of Muslims, to take them into one side, and make them extremists. Really it is not correct. It is a little bit insulting.
I don't want to say too much, in order to make it easy on our children. Our children are living here, they are American, and they are born here. All these American Muslims, from parents who migrated here from Europe in the 18th century or the 19th century or the 20th century, are really good Muslims, and they have a friendship with all different faiths. So really they feel shy when Islam is being focused on as a religion of terrorism and extremism -- which is completely wrong.
On behalf of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, and many, many Muslims -- because I cannot speak on behalf of all Muslims, as many non-profit organizations in America do. Immediately when something happens in the Middle East or that region they send media alerts saying they are speaking on behalf of the whole Muslim community, which is completely incorrect. So on behalf of many Muslims, I will say that it is an opportunity to address you and to give you the authentic, traditional voice of Islam. It is a voice of traditional Islam, which is moderation and tolerance and love -- loving and to be loved -- and living in peace with all other faiths and religions.
As in the time of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, when he established his first state after having received the message for 13 years. He established a state in a city called Medina, located in Saudi Arabia now. First it had Jews, it had Christians, it had people of all kinds of different faiths, and never he fought with anyone. He never killed anyone, but was always educating and giving the message of God, as Moses, as Jesus. We do not go into all these details because people, I think, like to hear more about comparative Islam nowadays, and what is going on in the Muslim ideas, and in the world today.
I would like to emphasize that even a thief who steals something, cannot have his hand cut for stealing -- as is practiced in some countries nowadays -- under the name of Islam, when the rest of what that country is doing is against the name of Islam. The leaders of some of these countries try to label themselves as pioneers of Islam when they practice extremist ideology and in fact do not observe Islamic practices in their homes. In their homes you will find all kinds of un-Islamic materials or un-Islamic works. Islam never cuts anyoneís hand unless certain principles have been followed. Not only that: in the whole history of Prophetís time, only one or two people had their hands cut. Before that time they were killing people; they were killing the thief. It was a cultural matter supported by a message that reduced the penalty from killing to cutting the hand. And it was not practiced too much in the time of the Prophet unless it was a very severe case. Even throwing stones; never in the Qur'an, never in the Holy Qur'an can you find one verse that says that you have to throw stones at someone who committed adultery and stone them until death. Anyone can read the Qur'an and we will not find one verse that sentenced anyone who committed adultery to death.
These things have to be clarified before we begin, because extremists are using these kinds of ideology in order to benefit their own positions, to successfully brainwash the minds of Muslims and other people who will then support them.
What is the definition of extremism? We can see in all of history: even when the first settlers came to the United States they were from different countries; Spain, England, France, European Countries. They were fighting on this land and fighting with the Indians. Do we call this extremism? A fight for a better living, which you understand you are doing not for a religious motive, is not extremism. Extremism in Islam, or in religion, is when you use religion to label intolerance, to turn from religion and take ideas that you can extract for yourself, or deduce for yourself, and use to make a militant movement and disturb the peace in your country or around the world. That is called "extremism," and "Islamic Extremism." But a movement for better living, that is not extremism.
For example, they are fighting in Ireland and in Poland, as Dr. Fairbanks mentioned. They were fighting the Soviet Union, communism. Can you say this is extremism? It is not extremism. They are trying to escape from the oppression they have suffered for many, many years. Even in Israel, we see that there are peace treaties that have been accepted by not all of the Muslim countries, but the majority of the Muslim countries -- including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, including the PLO, including Lebanon, including Saudi Arabia, including Qatar, including Morocco. Many Muslim countries have agreed on the peace treaties. Now we see that fighting is no longer a legitimate action that people can commit since they oppose the peace treaty that has been signed by the democratic leadership that they have elected.
In Palestine, we see what happened with Yasser Arafat. He was elected. I am not saying if Yasser Arafat is good or bad, we are not going to discuss that subject, but since democracy plays a big role in the Muslim world now, we have to trust in the fact that he has been elected. He signed a treaty, it means they have to go along with it. If they don't go along, it means they have the right to complain and criticize like any opposition, but without using the name of Islam and creating confusion in the West and in other countries. [It is confusing] to say that it is under the name of Islam that we are conducting a militant movement against a certain country or against anywhere in the world. So that is one of the main problems that we are facing nowadays.
When we come back to what is threatening the security of Russia and the security of the United States, here at home, we see a threat that will grow if the leadership of this country does not quickly stop the kind of extremist ideology that is filtering in -- the same extremist ideology that it is being spread all over, in many places around the United States. I will come soon to that.
But I would like to say that Prophet (sallí allahu alayhi wa sallam) Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave us many examples in his holy traditions. For 18 months God asked Prophet, in Holy Qur'an, to direct his face when he prayed -- when we pray we direct our face to Mecca which is the Ka'aba of the Muslims, the House of God in Mecca, so God asked him to face that. After some time Prophet directed himself toward al-Aqsa, Jerusalem, which we know as the Bayt ul-Maqdis, Jerusalem of today. For 18 months he directed his faith to worship God toward the place of Jesus and the place of Moses, where they were born and where they brought their message, in order to show that there is a completion, and a connection between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This was also to earn the respect of the Jews and the Christians in order to educate them about the message of Islam and show them that it is not hostile to Judaism and Christianity. It was one of the main themes in Islamic history that Prophet tried many times to make peace treaties and to extend his hand to the Jews and to the Christians in his area, wherever he was living. Later, when he the religion was well established, he turned his face towards Mecca while Jews and Christians were living in the same town.
Islam, in general, is a religion that calls for respecting everyone and living together with everyone. Now we are seeing that something is going astray from Islam, as has happened in every religion, as Dr. Fairbanks said. Between Catholicism and Protestantism you can see there is a difference. Modernity came, and new thinkers came into Islam. In their countries, where they didn't have any relationship with the outside world, they began to think that they could bring something new into the Islamic way, in their own tribes. They made sure the way Islam had traditional evolved over 1200 years could be modified and changed to a way that suits the Bedouins and tribes in the desert, because that's where it evolved, this kind of mentality and ideology.
It began in the 17th and 18th century, when this ideology was supported by the tribes. The man who brought it to the tribes was a Muslim scholar by the name of Muhammad ibn Abd-al Wahhab. This was in the Eastern part of what we call Saudi Arabia during the 17th and 18th century. These ideas were going forth and back, forth and back. Sometimes they were put down and other times they were supported. There was a struggle with the Muslims trying to keep them down with the support of the Ottoman Empire. They were successful until the Ottoman Empire dissolved and finished in the middle of 1920 and the new regime came -- it was the secular regime of Mustafa Kemal [Ataturk]. They then found an opportunity in the tribes, which no longer had the support of the Ottoman Empire in that area. They had freedom to go and change the ideas and brainwash the minds of Muslims in this area. Slowly, slowly in the many years from 1920 until today they were very successful in establishing a new ideology in Islam that is very extremist in its point of view. It was not so militant, however; it didn't take the form of militancy, but it took the form of revival or renewal of Islamic tradition.
They were completely against Sufism because they think that you can go directly to God without the intercession of any saint, friend of God, or any person who can help you. The traditional Muslim believed, over 1300 or 1400 years of Islam -- until today -- that there can be an intermediary between you and God. This ideology prevented and prohibited that, but it was not militant until recently, when it took a militant standpoint and enforced itself in many regions around the world. Unfortunately, it has evolved in many Muslim countries like Lebanon, Syria a little bit, Egypt too much, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and many countries like Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco a little bit, now in Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia too much now, China a little bit, and now it is coming to the Caucasus. Their way of thinking is that Islam has to be reformed, and with a sword. They think they cannot reform Islam except with the mentality of a sword and the mentality of a gun. Unfortunately, extremism appeared in Islam, but not because of Islam. Islam always presented -- and I say it many times that Prophet Muhammad used to act this way with his neighbors or his friends that are not Muslims -- gifts, flowers, and love, not ever holding a sword against them, or ever starting a struggle or a fight against them. There are many events in Muslim history where the Prophet made peace treaties with non-Muslims.
These people nowadays are developing two ways of understanding the situation of Islam. From one side they think that they have to reform it; it is a duty on them, they have been brainwashed to think that they have to cleanse the world of devils and demons and of countries that suppress them, oppress them, and try to shut them down. We always see that. I am speaking openly to give advice to the government and the US officials in order to open their minds because this is a big danger that may result in a struggle within the United States.
Recently there was an article in a Saudi gazette called al-Majalla. They interviewed me and they asked me how I think Muslims should be involved in the political system. And I said Muslims have to be involved in the political system because they are part of this nation, they are part of this culture, and they are part of this country. So they quoted me and then they have on the other page another man who they asked the same question, and he said no. He said that we must tell America that before speaking with us they must govern in their country under the Islamic Shariah, under the Islamic law; before we will be part of the system, they have to be part of our Islamic law.
We know in Islam Prophet Muhammad, sallí allahu alayhi wa sallam, mentioned in many places in Holy Qur'an things like there is no compulsion in religion, that people are free to take any religion they like. These extremists are not thinking with the Holy verses of Qur'an. Instead they are trying to impose their extremist ideas upon everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim. It has become a struggle for governments to reconcile or compromise. There is no way; you might compromise with a moderate Muslim, with a Muslim that is living happily around the world, but you cannot compromise, you cannot build a bridge with an extremist. He's never going to agree with you, because he thinks -- this is their thinking, there is nothing else -- that they have a duty and they have to deliver the message that either you follow us or you are under our attack. They are declaring war against anyone who will not go with them. This is why they are against their government, for example, in Saudi Arabia, they are against their government in Egypt, they are against their government in Jordan, they are against their government Syria, they are against their government in Pakistan, they are against their government in the Caucasus, and in Chechnya, and in all these countries, because they are infiltrating inside and indoctrinating people with their new ideas and new method.
As we see it from inside, from within -- because I donít want to go into too much definition and explanation of Islam -- what we are seeing as Muslims is that extremism became more of a business than a message because it involves drugs, and drugs are not allowed in Islam. Planting Opium and Cocaine and Hashish, Hash, is not allowed in Islam. Womanizing is not allowed in Islam, drinking is not allowed in Islam. We see these extremists are planting Opium, are planting Cocaine, and are selling this, justifying their acts as Muslims to reestablish and reform Islam around the world but they are committing all kinds of un-Islamic acts and un-Islamic behavior.
Recently they found in London, between London and France and all that area in Western Europe, that there is a big network of women that one of the very famous Arabic newspapers -- either al Wasat or al Watan al Arabi -- revealed in a big report two or three months ago. They found a network run by Muslim women who, during the day, are covered from top to bottom and, during the night, have dates. They are dating high officials in many countries around the world to take the information from them and to give it to the extremists. We have to ask ourselves: is this Islamic or un-Islamic? If it is Islamic we cannot see it in any verse of Holy Qur'an or any narration of Prophet. It is un-Islamic. So on what basis are they saying they are working under the name of Islam? So we see that now it is more a business and more a struggle, a fight, openly between extremism and America.
It is completely obvious to anyone who considers the matter and the situation. You will find that it is an open fight between the West and the Extremists. In the last report that we printed in our Muslim Magazine -- which is going to come in January, after one week (it went to print) -- we show how extremism evolved and how many extremist groups have formed a coalition among themselves although they differ in ideology. They differ in belief but because a coalition benefits everyone, they formed an alliance. We mention in the Magazine, and according to our sources, that bin Laden has asked Hezbollah, Hamas, and Jihad al-Islami, and Ga'amat al Islamiyyi, to form a coalition and he was able to bring them together under one network in order to work together, although each one differs from the other in his point of view.
So that's what is going on under the name of Islam, but Islam itself is innocent of such kinds of actions. As we represent Muslims, and we have on our board 157 international scholars from around the world --they are on our advisory committee, our board of advisors -- we condemn all kinds of extremism wherever it is. We want to tell people to be careful, that something major might hit quickly because they were able to buy more than 20 atomic nuclear heads from some of the mafia in the ex-Soviet Union, in the republics of the ex-Soviet Union, and they traded it for $30 million dollars and 2 tons of Opium that has been shipped to the Caucasus and now is being distributed through all the Caucasus and the ex-Soviet republics.
They were able to get more than 20 nuclear warheads and now they are hiring thousands of scientists from the ex-Soviet Union who have no jobs. They are giving them salaries of $2000 a month, in order to try to build an atomic reactor in Khost, underground, and in order to break these atomic warheads into smaller partitions, like small chips, to be put in any suitcase, even in a handbag, and be shipped anywhere in the world. This might affect the whole stability of peace around the world. This has to be very well monitored, and very well looked upon, because it is a danger for all humanity.
Moreover, what we are interested in in the United States. Iíd like to say that there have been many non-profit organizations established in the United States whose job is only to collect money and to send it, as you know -- most of you know -- to send it to extremists outside the United States. This is a big dilemma that is facing us here, because you don't know where the money is going, and it is more than hundreds of millions of dollars that have been sent to extremist parties in the Middle East and the Far East, as well as Afghanistan and the Caucasus now. Our sources say that many, many millions of dollars have been collected and sent. They send it under humanitarian aid, but it doesn't go to humanitarian aid. They say that it is to help the people of this country or that country, and they show on television and on their flyers that they are delivering it to help homeless people or poor people. Yes, some of it will go to homeless people and poor people but the majority, 90 per cent of it, will go into the black markets in these countries and buying weapon arsenals.
I know this from my home country of Lebanon where we used to receive a lot of aid from the United States and United Nations. As soon as the aid arrived in Lebanon, you could see a little bit go to the public and the rest would be sold in the black market. For a box that costs more than $100, you can go and buy it in the black market for less than $20. All this money, that came under humanitarian aid, they resell so you cannot trace it, they go back and buy weapons with it to fight and to spread extremism under the name of Islam.
The second issue that United States has to look on within, for security, is the fact that there are many Muslim organizations that claim to speak on behalf of the Muslim community but that in reality are not moderate, but extremist. They hijacked the mike, or they were elected because they are good speakers, but they give a wrong idea about Islam. Always we see them in the media criticizing and complaining and sending action alerts and media alerts and showing people that we do not accept this or we reject that.
Like, for example, with the recent issue of Iraq. The Islamic Supreme Council sent a statement that there are victims in Iraq and there is bloodshed in Iraq, but it is a matter of national security to stop Saddam Hussein from running the country, and it is not a Muslim issue. When everyone was saying from the Muslim community that it is a Muslim issue, we stood fast and we stood alone to say that it is not a Muslim issue but that it is a political issue. Saddam Hussein is a communist in his background. He is of the socialist Ba'ath party, which does not believe in religion. It is secular and does not believe in religion. Anyone who has a beard or anyone wears a turban will be put in prison within a day. This is the mentality of this kind of regime. So it is not a Muslim issue, it's a political issue. It's a Muslim issue when you are hurting the people, and you are hurting a whole community as if we were to say that we are fighting the Iraqi people. But the policy was not to fight the Iraqi people. The policy was to fight a tyranny that was running Iraq. That's a big difference. So we stood up and we said this and we have received a lot of criticism from the Muslim community. But we want to advise the American community and we want to advise our government, our congressmen, that there is something big going on and people are not understanding it.
The third major problem that is now going on is that you have many mosques around the United States and there is not an organized government or policy to look over the mosques like in Muslim countries where you cannot open a mosque by yourself, and you cannot open a charity by yourself. It has to be done according to the structure of the Islamic religion. That's why in the Muslim countries, you cannot find extremist ideology. As soon as you find the extremist ideology they kick them out and bring in traditional Islamic scholars. The extremist ideology comes from the street so the extremists don't know what they are talking about. So they form small circles in different homes or different basements or in different areas and they begin to brainwash the people. That's why we find this kind of movement is becoming big now, especially when the idea is that we have a struggle between us and the United States. "United States is not supporting us," "United States is supporting someone else," they find that United States is not supporting Afghanistan, as Congressman Rohrabacher said. The United States supported Pakistan, the United States supported Egypt, the United States supported PLO and the peace treaty, the United States supported Saudi Arabia, the United States supported Kuwait. The United States is supporting whomever they can, but sometimes it is out of reach that they can support everyone. So they cannot be blamed. The United States cannot be blamed for something that they cannot control.
The most dangerous thing that is going on now in these mosques, that has been sent upon these mosques around the United States -- like churches they were established by different organizations and that is ok -- but the problem with our communities is the extremist ideology. Because they are very active they took over the mosques; and we can say that they took over more than 80% of the mosques that have been established in the US. And there are more than 3000 mosques in the US.
So it means that the methodology or ideology of extremist has been spread to 80% of the Muslim population, but not all of them agree with it. But mostly the youth and the new generation do because they are students and they don't think except with their emotions and they are rebellious against their own leaders and government. This is the nature and psychology of human beings. When we are students in university or college we always fight the government, whether they are right or wrong, we have to attack the government. This is how they have been raised.
In this way we see that the extremist ideology, and this is the fourth danger, is beginning to spread very quickly into the universities through the national organizations, associations and clubs that they are establishing around the universities. Most of these clubs -- they are Muslim clubs and the biggest is the national one -- are being run mostly by the extremist ideology that they do not understand other than to say that America is wrong and they are right. You can find this on the Internet; you can find it everywhere on homepages and websites that they are against the United States. This is where we don't know how far it goes, and how far it is out of hand. This might affect the whole university system in the United States. Through the universities there will be the most danger. If the nuclear atomic warheads reach these universities, you donít know what these students are going to do, because their way of thinking is brainwashed, limited and narrow-minded.
This is what I want to say to you, to present to you from within the Muslim community. We want to tell you that the Muslim community as a whole is innocent from whatever extremism and extremist ideology is being spread around the world. I don't know if there is time or not, but I know that to go in detail on how extremism evolved would take a lot of time, so Iíve tried to summarize as much as possible. I'd like to tell you that extremism , when a person has been brainwashed, demands that a person doesn't think, even if his father or his mother or his brother tells him to stop, he has to go to do what he has been asked to do. That's why there are 5000 suicide bombers being trained by bin Laden in Afghanistan who are ready to move to any part of the world and explode themselves. They are very sophisticated, they can buy anything they need locally and then put it on and explode themselves.
The problem of extremism is a big danger, and it can be solved if the West better understands Islam and builds bridges with the moderate Muslims, the traditional Muslims. This way, the Muslim community will eliminate the extremist threat from within. Otherwise, media, television, newspapers, and the leadership will not understand that there is a difference between extremists and Muslims. They have to begin a dialogue with Muslims from around the United States, and they have to have good advisors. What I am seeing, unfortunately, are those that are advising the media, or advising the government are not the moderate Muslims. Those whose opinion the government asks are the extremists themselves. Those that have been quoted in the newspapers, in the magazines, in the television, in the media are the extremists themselves. You are not hearing the authentic voice of Muslims, of moderate Muslims, but you are hearing the extremist voice of Muslims. That's why they are getting a wrong idea, because the extremists are very well supported, are very well affiliated with outside regimes that have sponsored them with billions of dollars to be active in the United States. They have been successful in doing that so the media does not listen except to them. I am even hearing that there are advisors to many congressmen, to many senators, to many organizations that are supporters of extremism and not moderate Muslims.
Thank you very much, may God bless you.
Moderator: We'll take questions from the mike, and while you're making your way, you need to come to the mike so we can pick you up.
Questioner (unidentified): Shaykh Kabbani, extremism is always found near ignorance. Dr. Fairbanks had alluded that there were sales of information on how to practice the faith in its traditional way. But what I thought you said was that this information was for sale. Is there any endeavor, since most are impoverished and cannot afford this, to give them fundamental, correct beliefs of your faith.
Shaykh Kabbani: I think that there are ways to give that literature to the people, to educate them. But it is not cheap to do that, it is very expensive. The moderate Muslims never have financial support to do that. If they can find grants, and find money, then they can have leaders of these organizations, then we can easily [sell information] and educate people about traditional Islam. The extremists have already printed out the ideology of extremism, and distributed it all over the world. You'll find it in any mosque in America.
Moderator: Maybe that would be a good way for NGOs to spend their money instead of on something that can be sold for arms.
Questioner (unidentified): I have two questions for the Shaykh. First, you were talking about specific information, a specific number of warheads and a specific amount of money paid for these warheads. Have you informed our government about this informationÖ
Shaykh Kabbani: When they ask me I will inform them.
Questioner (continued): Is our government doing something about this? This is really dangerous information that you are providing us and it is very serious. I am concerned, personally, for my safety and the safety of my family and the safety of the American people.
Shaykh Kabbani: I am also concerned, that is why I am speaking. For the reason I am concerned I am putting it to our government. But whether they will now take my advice or not, I cannot say.
Questioner (continued): My second question is: I represent one of the non-profit Muslim organizations and it strikes me that basically you are making yourself the only legitimate Muslim organization here. I am personally not an extremist but how could you deny me the right to protest my government's actions? Since we live in a democracy -- we're preaching about democracy -- so I disagree with my government's action in Iraq, how could you deny me that, and because of that call me an extremist or anything else? And you say that in your action alert that the Iraqi issue is not a Muslim issue; according to UN statistics about one million Iraqis have died from the sanctions, and about 80% of the Iraqi population is Muslim, and about 800,000 Muslims have died, is it a Muslim issue? And why can I not say that it is a Muslim issue, and what is wrong with me saying that it is a Muslim issue? As an American who is Muslim, practicing his right in a democracy, that is America.
Shaykh Kabbani: Thank you for clarifying this issue. First, I'll say I don't represent the whole Muslim issue, I represent our organization and some of the Muslim community. It is on videotape and you can go back and hear what I said. The second question when you say that you don't have the right, of course you have a right, anyone has the right, to say anything and to complain and to make your voice heard. But I am saying that there is no right for militancy, when we have the right in democracy to speak up and say what we want to say, and you are free. Donít use militancy in order to support your idea, and if they don't agree with your opinion, you are going to fight with them. That's where I am specifying about extremism in general. And about Iraq, you consider it a Muslim issue, I don't consider it a Muslim issue. When Iraq attacked Kuwait, what it a Muslim issue or not? They killed Muslims in Kuwait. Is this a Muslim issue or not? When Iraq killed 5,619 Egyptians in Iraq, is this a Muslim issue or not a Muslim issue? When Iraq attacked Iran and killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians with chemical weapons, is this a Muslim issue or is it not a Muslim issue? So, how can I consider that one is a Muslim issue, though we never heard anyone speaking about Iranians being killed by the Iraqi chemical weapons, or Kuwaitis being assassinated by the Iraqi fighting, and Egyptian being killed by the Iraqis. Why don't we say this is a Muslim issue, and be fair for both sides.
This is what I like to express and you have a free right to consider it Muslim or not. But for me, it is a Muslim issue to take out the sanctions, that is a Muslim issue, we have to take the sanctions out, we have to relieve the victims of Iraq. But the tyranny of the leadership, that is the problem, you know that he killed hundreds of thousands of Turks, he attacked many Muslims inside the country. So why do we say to America or to the West that you are killing the Muslims, but we cannot say to Saddam Hussein he is killing the Muslims? So I don't see that it is fair to be a Muslim issue, but I do see that it is fair to see it more as a political issue against Saddam Hussein, and to relieve sanctions and to relieve the people from being victims under the oppression of Saddam Hussein.
(Inaudible question from the same audience member)
Shaykh Kabbani: Some Muslim non-profit organizations are working with extremists. And if you want to name them we can name them, privately.
Questioner (unidentified): I'm just interested in knowing more about the sale of these warheads, who, what, when, why and where?
Shaykh Kabbani: Everyone is going to be worried about these nuclear heads. I am also worried about all the information we got from that region of the world. First I want to say that bin Laden is married to the leader of the Taliban movement, to Mullah Omar, he is married to his daughter. So bin Laden is the son-in-law of Mullah Muhammad Omar, who is the leader of Taliban. I am also worried; we get the information, from reasonable sources and from very respected sources, and through friends we have around the world, that this has happened recently. The opium was shipped through the Caucasus from Afghanistan reaching a state adjacent to Russia. And they have made a deal that Taliban will move [bin Laden] to that state and to leave Afghanistan, because the pressure that the United States is putting on Afghanistan is that they want Taliban is that they want them to move [bin Laden] out or to be assassinated. There is now some kind of networking being made in order to move bin Laden to one of the Caucasus republics and through this Caucasus republics' mafia, he was able to get these 20 plus atomic warheads, according to these sources. And not only that, they are worried also that there is now around 36,000 atomic warheads under the control of some political regime in the area and some of the mafia, and they believe some of these atomic warheads are in the hands of the extremist groups.
Questioner (continued): So the warheads actually belong to bin Laden?
Shaykh Kabbani: Yes, the 20 plus warheads actually belong to his organization. According to the sources we get our information from, and we have a good article in our magazine explaining this in our coming issue.
Questioner (continued): One other question that is about the mosques in this country. You say that 80% of them are run by the extremists, I wonder what you mean by that.
Shaykh Kabbani: 80% of them have been being run by the extremist ideology, but not acting as a militant movement. We don't know if this will lead in the future to be more in the hands of militant extremism or not. There are two kinds of extremism: there is the extremism ideology and there is the extremist militant movement. In the future some of them might be working or affiliating themselves with such kinds of militant extremism.
Questioner (continued): You said, on the other hand, that most American Muslims are peace loving, yet their mosques are being run by these extremists?
Shaykh Kabbani: Muslims, in general, are peace loving and tolerant. And a Muslim likes to go and find a place to go and make his service, make his worship and go and doesn't interfere. So the board of trustees of these mosques is being run by these extremists.
Questioner (unidentified): I have a request for a clarification of something you said and then a question. You mentioned earlier in your talk that because there now is a treaty between the Israelis and the Palestinians, that fighting against the Israelis is no longer justified. But if the treaty is not carried out, and of course the present government of Israel is not carrying out the treaty, at some point would you agree that fighting is justified again?
Shaykh Kabbani: As long as we can make peace we must not fight. As long as we can negotiate and come into good terms, we must not fight. And this is what we are seeing in many of the Arab countries and Muslim countries that are involved in these extremist acts.
Questioner (continued): My question is this: if the present Israeli government is succeeded by another one like it, do think it would help the United States to disarm the Islamic fundamentalists around the world? To come out very frankly, I'm saying that the U.S. will not support Israeli extremism and denounce this as not keeping treaties that were signed in the White House. Would this help disarm the Muslim Fundamentalists in their campaign against the United States?
Shaykh Kabbani: Can you repeat the question?
Questioner (continued): Ok. I'll repeat it more briefly. If the present Israeli government is succeeded by another similar extremist Israeli government in the elections that are coming up, would it help the United States to disarm the Muslim fundamentalists, that is, would it help us with the Muslim masses in the world, to come out very clearly I'm saying and denounce Israeli Extremism? Would this be a useful thing for the United States to do for our own protection?
Shaykh Kabbani: We have first to define if the assumption is correct that there will be an extremist government coming or not. Or, who can define what is extremist and what is not extremist according to the Israeli people. I cannot define what is extremist or not. It is a Israeli opinion to say if their government is extremist or not. And then we can go with our assumption if they are extremist or not. But since the Arabs and the Muslims are trying to make a peaceful relationship, as it happened with Egypt, as it happened with Jordan, as it happened now with PLO, if it will go along now or not, or it will be abided by or not, we don't know yet. Also what will happen now with Syria and with Lebanon, for what is there to fight and what need to have people with arms and weapons? Because we saw this problem happening with our people in Lebanon, we saw that when people have weapons, and not government -- because these people are not government movements, these movements are personal movement organizations, they are coming from ordinary people -- they come together and make an opposition movement. It's not a government fighting another government; itís not Egypt fighting Israel, or Jordan fighting Israel. It's a movement within the country that they are opposing. So they can oppose with word of mouth. If Hamas for example, let's say Hamas, since you are referring to Israel, if Hamas is going to fight and explode everywhere in Israel, is it going to change anything? With whom is the power, is it with Hamas, or is it with the Israelis? So they can disturb the peace, but they cannot implement anything if Israel does not want to come and make peace and make a conference with the Arabs and say that they want to live in peace and live together. That's why I think that weapons must not be in the hand of movements that are not government movements, but militant movements. We saw this in Lebanon, they were killing each other from door to door, Muslim killing Muslim, Shi'ite killing Shi'ite, Christian killing Christian, Christian killing Muslim, when they had weapons in their hands. But when weapons are not in the hands, everyone can come and make peace treaties.
Questioner (unidentified): My question is in regard to the influence of bin Laden and these new Extremist strains and other so-called fundamentalist groups. You spoke about a recent conference where bin Laden had a number of extremist groups come together under some kind of umbrella organization. As far as I understand, in the past, groups like Islamic Jihad or Islamic Organization or Muslim Brotherhood have focused on reforming their own states, whether it be from the top, attacking the government, or from below with the people. Are we seeing a change within these organizations as well as their debate within, that you know of, Muslim Brotherhood or Islamic Jihad or Ga'amat al Islami, that you know of, that's contesting this idea of attacking these external enemies like the United States? Could you comment on this?
Shaykh Kabbani: What we saw recently that this umbrella organization and this network of these different organizations coming with bin Laden under one organization, with ideologies, it doesn't mean that they are like Muslim Brotherhood, that they are any more militant, like at the time of Jamal Abdul Nasser. They are a group that is trying to promote their own ideology in the country and trying to fool the government in the way they work things and what they believe. So it is not a militant movement anymore, but it is an economic movement. But, we see the other groups like al Jihad al Islami and Jama'at al Islami and the other groups in Lebanon, they are more of a militant movement because they carry weapons. Muslim Brotherhood doesn't carry weapons, they are not as the others that carry weapons. We see the others that carry weapons are coming together to network because they found they would be more powerful and support for themselves if they work together as a network. This might make a threat not only to the United States, but to the whole world. We have heard that they have come to South America, to build up a big network there, in South America, with the mafia that is existing there in order to smuggle into the United States or to smuggle more through the Caucasus.
Questioner (unidentified): Shaykh, I was wondering if you would talk about whether you're at all concerned that with the dismal understanding that exists in the United States of Islam and Islamic groups, are you not at all concerned that as you send out these alarm bells about extremists and militants that moderate and peace-loving Muslims will be caught up in this net of reaction?
Shaykh Kabbani: Can you repeat the question?
Questioner (continued): Are you concerned that in warning Americans, who know very little about Islam, in warning them so strongly as you have, about the militancy, that they will also turn against the moderates?
Shaykh Kabbani: From my point of view it is better to say something than to keep quiet. If I kept quiet, a danger might suddenly come that you are not looking for, so in preventing that danger from coming I am trying to sacrifice and give something to the Americans in order that they understand that there is something coming up slowly, we don't know where it is going to hit, it might be here, might be outside, might be any country, and might affect the interest of the United States. So that's why I said in the presentation that the United States, the media must work with the Muslims, must work with the Muslims that are everywhere and they are very moderate, and they are very well known to be moderate and traditional and denouncing extremism. How do you know a moderate Muslim from non-moderate? One who denounces extremism. So it is better to build bridges in this way you can understand Islam and the media will eliminate extremist Muslims from Islam. As I heard in a meeting yesterday, that United States government is expressing its policy; President Clinton asked to separate extremism from Islam, to show they are completely separate entities, and that Islam as a religion has nothing to do with extremism. That's how the media has to look at it. It is the duty of the media not to jump quickly and fire accusations against the whole of Muslims, to provoke the Muslims. They have to go and work with the Muslims to separate theirs from the extremist ideology.
Moderator: Are there any other questions? Thank you very much for joining us, it was a great pleasure to have you.


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If you are like most people you don't even know what Atchara is. I had never heard of it until a few weeks ago, but it is a yummy traditional Philippine fermented dish made with unripe raw green papaya, fresh raw ginger root, and other raw ingredients in a vinegar base. Many cultures have a raw fermented vegetable dish – in Germany it is sauerkraut, in Korea it is Kimchi and in the Philippines it is Atchara.
Many people believe fermented vegetables are healthy, because they contain bacteria which are helpful and aid in digestion. The Atchara from Tropical Traditions is a true raw and "live" food that has NOT been pasteurized. Green papaya is high in anti-oxidants and papain (a plant-based digestive enzyme) so it is a very nutritious food. Of course since it comes from Tropical Traditions the Atchara is made from organic ingredients and is USDA Certified Organic.
But how does it taste? It has a very unique taste, which is hard to describe. It is sour like pickles, but sweet at the same time. It is meant to be used as a condiment along with a meal, and eaten a little at a time. I served it as a side dish with the Indian curry recipe I posted earlier today, and I thought it made an excellent accompaniment for that. I think it would go especially well with spicy foods, since it provides a nice sweet contrasting flavor.
The giveaway is over, and if you didn't win you can buy some Atchara from Tropical Traditions and try it for yourself.
Disclosure: I was sent a product to review. All opinions are my own. If you order by clicking on any of my links and have never ordered from Tropical Traditions in the past, you will receive a free book on Virgin Coconut Oil, and I will receive a discount coupon for referring you.


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Custom Made Memory Foam Mattresses For Any Size NeededWednesday, October 29th, 2008
Custom Made Memory Foam Mattresses For Any Size Needed
Memory foam mattresses come in any size or shape. You can order a custom made memory foam mattress in any size or shape. You can get a special memory foam mattress for your home, your boat, your RV, your camper, your truck…anything you want. You can even order a custom made memory foam mattress for your dog.
Here is a picture of a custom cut memory foam mattress that Rocky Mountain Mattress made for an RV:
In fact, a unique memory foam mattress was highlighted on ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The was shaped like a giant basketball. Celebrities and famous people are also ordering custom memory foam mattresses. Micheal Einziger, the lead guitarist for Incubus, recently ordered a memory foam mattress made to fit the shape of his media room loft area. The loft is a very unique shape and the memory foam mattresses allows the singer to really relax while writing music, watching a movie or sleeping.
You can choose the density, thickness, size, and shape of your mattress. Choose a really dense mattress if you want extra comfort and support. You can even get a memory foam mattress topper in any size or shape if you want to test the memory foam material. People who try memory foam mattresses are rarely disappointed. This is because memory foam has been proven to relieve pressure points, and provide a supreme amount of comfort and support.
If you have an odd size bed frame that you are just dying to fill, don't wait any longer. Get a custom made memory foam mattress. You can specify the size, shape, thickness, density, the way it is made, etc. Whether you are looking to treat yourself, someone you know or your dog, custom memory foam mattress are worth every penny. They will give you comfort, support and relieve pressure points.
To receive additional information on custom mattresses please complete our custom mattress form http://www.rockymountainmattress.com/blog/custom-mattress-tool or email us at email@example.com
or call 1-866-733-3132.


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Finish Line MultiSeal Tubeless Tyre Sealant is naturally non-toxic, hypoallergenic and safe for carbon fibre rims. The FiberLink mesh tightens and reinforces itself, creating a seal that will last ride-after-ride.
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Finish Line MultiSeal Tubeless Tyre Sealant is naturally non-toxic, hypoallergenic and safe for carbon fibre rims. FiberLink technology makes this possible. Utilizing DuPont Kevlar fibres, FiberLink seals are extremely robust once they plug a hole. When a puncture happens, fibres rush into the wound and quickly stop air loss. As the tyre flexes while it is ridden, the FiberLink mesh tightens and reinforces itself, creating a confidence-inspiring seal that will last ride-after-ride.
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Nutrition Facts
Ingredients and Preparation
- Spread out flour on a plate or shallow dish. Coat the pork with the flour, shaking off excess flour.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork to the pan (working in batches, if necessary) and cook about 2-3 minutes per side, until cooked through and golden brown. Remove pork from pan, cover, and set aside.
- Reduce heat to medium, add the garlic to the pan, and cook 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Return heat to medium-high, add the chicken broth, and cook for about five minutes, scraping brown bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.
- Stir in the capers and lemon juice, pour the sauce over the pork, and serve.


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Political scientist predicts small inroads for Democrats in house elections
(Phys.org)—James E. Campbell, a University at Buffalo political scientist nationally recognized for his highly accurate election-prediction models, says that this year the Democrats are likely to pick up between three and 14 seats in elections for the U.S. House of Representatives.
This prediction is from the "Seats in Trouble" forecasting models of partisan seat change in U.S. House elections and will be published in the October issue of PS: Political Science and Politics. It will be available online in mid-September at: www.apsanet.org/PS/.
The "Seats in Trouble" forecast is based on two forecasting equations published in 2010 by Campbell, UB Distinguished Professor of Political Science and department chair. His models have had a good deal of success in predicting presidential and congressional elections since 1992.
Campbell explains that the core variable in the "Seats in Trouble" model is calculated from competition assessments of district races published by The Cook Political Report in August of the election year.
"The number of seats in trouble for a political party are those considered by the Cook Report to be toss-ups or worse for the party currently holding the seat," he says.
"The difference between the number of each party's seats in trouble is the critical predictor variable in my equations," Campbell says, adding that the equations also take into account the number of seats each party won in the previous election and the president's approval rating in August of the election year.
He says, "The equations proved to be quite accurate in 2010, the first election in which it was used. In late August of 2010, the equations predicted that Democrats would lose about 52 seats, about the magnitude of their 1994 midterm loss and the largest seat change since the Truman-Dewey election of 1948. Though the forecast was short of the actual 64-seat Republican landslide, no other early forecast was more accurate."
This year, according to the handicapping of races in late August by The Cook Political Report, Democrats had 15 seats in trouble and Republicans had 21.
"This six-seat difference favoring the Democrats is close to the middle of the range of past values," Campbell says, "and since 1984, the best seat-in-trouble difference for Democrats was 27 seats in 2008 and the best for Republicans was 44 seats in 2010"
Based on the "Seats-in-Trouble" index, along with a 45 percent approval rating for President Obama from Gallup in late August and the 193 seats Democrats held after the 2010 midterm, Campbell says the seats-in-trouble forecast equations indicate that Democrats are likely to gain between three and 14 seats this year.
"The predicted gain of three seats is derived from the equation that employs the 'Seats-in-Trouble' index along with presidential approval. The predicted gain of 14 seats," he says, "uses the Democratic seat base along with the 'Seats-in-Trouble' index."
Campbell says, "Based on these two equations, I think we should expect Democrats to register small gains in the House this year. The presidential approval version of the equation indicates particularly small Democratic gains since the presidential election is likely to be quite close, as reflected in President Obama's borderline approval ratings.
"The version of the equation that takes the number of seats a party currently holds into account indicates somewhat larger gains," he says.
"This reflects the fact that Republicans made gains in 2010 in areas that historically have been Democratic turf. One might expect the gains of the 2010 Republican wave to recede to restore a few more Democrats to the House, though it will probably not be enough to threaten continued Republican control. Democrats would need to pick up 25 seats for that to occur."
"The country recently saw three unusual wave elections: 2006, when Democrats took 31 seats and control of the House; 2008, when they extended that control, and 2010 when the Republicans picked up 63 seats and regained control.
"I think we may see a return to less volatile House elections," Campbell says, "elections like the 10 national congressional elections held between 1986 and 2004, during which time only one, in 1994, produced a double-digit change in House seats."
"I would not be surprised if the 2012 election restored that pattern of small seat swings."
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McCormack Lists the amount of money professional golfers make for certain tournaments, including the World Series of Golf and the Holiday Golf Classic in Chicago. He suggests contacting Dan Curtis of CBS for details on the amount of money the CBS Match Play Classic pays out. See also mums700-b0001-f016-i033.


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I just fell in love with this city! It has so much more to offer rather than Red Light District and coffee shops! I used one of the quotes of a dutch philosopher (my husband is sitting right next to his monument) as my title and Tim Holtz ink just gave a vintage look to some details on my LO. I would be happy to hear what you think of my work. Thank you for stopping by.


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This online fact sheet answers questions about sexual orientation and homosexuality and discusses what causes a person to have a particular sexual orientation.
Review Date: Friday, December 21, 2012
American Psychological Association
The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association's Provider Directory can help lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people find primary care providers, specialists, therapists, dentists, and other health professionals.
GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality
Find links to a variety of financial and support resources available for families, refugees, Native Americans, individuals with developmental disabilities, youth and more.
Office of Child Care, Administration for Children and Families
Hepatitis A and B are the only STDs which are vaccine-preventable. The vaccine is safe and effective, and often covered by insurance.
Learn about important health concerns for lesbian and bisexual women and what you can do to protect your health.
Review Date: Wednesday, April 01, 2015
Office on Women's Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NCFY's articles and resources can help youth-serving organizations understand and more effectively support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning young people.
Review Date: Monday, December 01, 2014
National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth
Talk to your health care provider about these ten common health concerns for gay men.
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A podcast by fans, for fans
Aug 24, 2017
Lauren is back & we're talking about the activities Beyond
The Wall.
Part of the Gonna Geek Network
We are passionate fans of HBO's Game of Thrones discussing the world of the Lannisters, Starks, and Targaryens. We delve into current episodes and discuss news. No spoilers allowed! Our goal is simple, enjoy Game of Thrones among friends in a casual atmosphere. We don't dissect, we love.
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