text:
China, Jonathan Fenby argues in his new book, "does everything on a scale that breeds shock and awe". It has the largest monetary reserves in the world, at more than $3.2 trillion; it consumes more than a third of the world's supplies of key metals and half the world's cement. Every two and a half minutes, Greenpeace estimates, it produces enough toxic ash to fill one Olympic-size swimming pool. It is a nation of violent contrasts: it may have as many as 600 dollar billionaires, as well as 300 million people without access to clean drinking water. Despite the government's fixation on national unity (its "tiger head"), Fenby asserts, it is a mass of snake's tails. "There is not one China but a hundred, a thousand or a million."
The extremes that characterise China mean that it is a remarkably hard country to make sense of. The place is so large and diverse that you can dig up reasonable bodies of evidence to back up wildly diverging hypotheses about its future. In 2010, Robert Fogel, a Nobel prize-winning economist, predicted in Foreign Policy magazine that China would end America's global dominance in 2040. By this point, he proclaimed, "China will account for 40% of the world's GDP, dwarfing the US (14%) as the world's largest economy". His article was paired with one by Minxin Pei, a professional China-watcher who presented a more sober perspective. Pei argued that an ageing population, environmental degradation, inequality and corruption, and an opaque business culture threaten to bring the country low long before it comes anywhere near ruling the world.
Everyone agrees that China has grown extraordinarily, and relatively easily, over the past three decades. Consensus on what will come next is practically non-existent: perhaps the same rate of growth; or perhaps a massive demographic slowdown, an over-inflated economy, environmental meltdown and the strains of one-party rule will bring the whole edifice down.
As a handbook on the confusing state of contemporary China – covering the economic, political, social and historical essentials of the story – Tiger Head, Snake Tails succeeds admirably. Fenby moves between the expansion of transport and infrastructure that has unified the country logistically as never before, the cities that are spearheading the country's economic miracle, the poor working conditions and growing militancy of its labourers, its diverse mass of enormous factories and cottage industries, the push and pull between the centre and the provinces, between Han Chinese, and Tibetans and Muslims. He takes time out to glance at Hong Kong and Taiwan, both of which present intriguing Chinese alternatives to the mainland political paradigm.
One of the big questions hanging over China's future concerns the stability of its political system. Until now, analysts have observed, the government has struck a successful tacit bargain with its people: tolerate our authoritarian rule and we'll make you rich. Despite a phenomenal expansion of economic opportunity, political freedoms lag far behind. The Communist party is unflagging in its efforts to maintain its monopoly on power: "dissidence", Fenby writes, "is equivalent to treason." Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace prize, languishes in jail after petitioning the government for democratic reform. Human rights lawyers are tortured and crippled. A television talent show, Supergirl, that required viewers to vote for their favourite contestant, was cancelled, at least partly because of fears that audiences would become hooked on the idea of popular choice.
And yet beneath this rigid power structure, a barely controlled chaos often prevails. Corruption is rife, and chancers taking advantage of market reforms have generated scandal upon scandal: food safety, thefts of the national heritage, horrifying rail and road accidents. One of Fenby's most gripping chapters is on the "trust deficit" that clogs so much of life in China. In 2008, the country was rocked by revelations that one of its biggest baby-milk companies had been adulterating its formula with ground melamine (essentially, powdered worktop). Doctors are routinely bribed by patients anxious for preferential treatment; medicines are often counterfeit. The architects of a pyramid scheme made billions of yuan persuading gullible customers to buy "medicinal ants" that needed feeding with egg yolk and cake every three days. Political corruption is endemic. A couple of years ago, a six-year-old girl – when asked by a television interviewer what she wanted to be when she grew up – answered: "a corrupt official". One wealthy smuggler flourished for almost two decades by handing out ten million yuan a month in bribes to his high-level connections. As a result, China seethes with injustices and public discontent.
There is a risk that a book summarising such a monumental story might get bogged down in dry, statistical detail. Fenby avoids this through lively, first-person reportage and vivid vignettes. Throughout the book, he takes a serious-minded delight at the country's absurdities and grotesqueries: the local government that required female civil servants to have "symmetrical breasts"; the railway minister with 18 mistresses; the Daoist priest who won a wealthy following by sitting underwater for two hours without breathing ("it later transpired that he was encased in a glass box with a supply of oxygen").
No single book could ever describe the full complexity of contemporary China, and Fenby has made tough but judicious decisions about what to leave out. Perhaps the most regrettable omission, though, is the neglect of Chinese culture. Although the pace of life in China can often seem too frenetic to permit anyone to settle down long enough to write, film or paint anything, its flourishing literary, cinema and art scenes offer fragmentary but intensely individual insights into this confounding country – a welcome counterbalance to the big headline stories about industry, GDP, diplomacy and political succession. But as a one-stop guide to political and economic realities in China today, Tiger Head, Snake Tails is fast-moving, informed and illuminating.


text:
Hunter-killer antibodies chasing down cancer
Plus, volcano energy, syrup cocaine and religion
This Week in Science promises to be yet another corker. From nuclear bomb blasts unveiling the hidden workings of our brains, to the prospect of volcanoes producing bountiful clean energy to power our world, it's all been rocking.
But, arguably the biggest news from the past month has been the amazing results shown in a number of small clinical trials by three separate anti-cancer drugs, all working using antibodies to unmask the deadly tumour cells, allowing your own immune system to get to work and kill the buggers off. Amazing stuff.
New antibody allows your own immune system to kick cancer's arse -- One of the avenues of cancer research currently being investigated is the re-targeting of your own immune system to attack and kill cancerous cells. Tumour cells normally manage to evade the immune system by camouflaging their cellular markers, essentially activating an ignore-me override switch in our T-cells, which would otherwise kill the cancer.
Results presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology show three antibody-based drugs that can block the activation of this PD-1 override switch, allowing T-cells to correctly identify cancerous cells and target them for destruction. All three drugs showed impressive efficacy against both skin cancer and other cancers in small clinical trials, with some patients being entirely rid of their deadly advanced melanoma in record time, and are now entering much larger trials combating other forms of cancer.
While we can't quite count our chickens just yet, the results so far are extremely encouraging. By using your own immune system to combat cancer, this technique promises to be efficient at eradicating tumours with minimal side effects, nuking cancer with our own natural weaponry. [New Scientist]
Nuclear bomb reveals brain secret -- Thanks to a series of nuclear bomb tests, we've finally be able to categorically answer one of the biggest questions concerning the human brain: Do we generate new brain cells throughout our lives?
Using a radioactive isotope, carbon-14, expelled into the environment by the nuclear tests, a recent study has proven that humans do in fact continue to grow new brain cells in certain neural regions. Carbon-14 levels in the atmosphere were dramatically increased between 1945 and 1963 by above ground nuclear tests. By measuring the amount of C-14 locked within DNA in cells in the human body, it's possible to decipher when they were born matching known atmospheric levels at the time.
The researchers discovered that a small population of brain cells in the hippocampus, called the denate gyrus, creates about 700 new neurons every day, showing that neurogenesis continues well after we're children. The denate gyrus is thought to be involved in the formation of episodic memory, which indicates new cells could be important in the formation of memories, something that is known to be true in mice but that hasn't yet been proven in humans. [Cell]
Science is to atheists, what faith is to the religious -- For people of faith, turning to God or their beliefs is often found to be a coping mechanism for periods of stress or anxiety. Now it seems atheists have a very similar method for dealing with abnormal situations, except they turn to science rather than God.
A study of rowers in Oxford showed that in periods of stress, such as right before a big race, the non-religious among them rated their belief in science an average of 15 per cent higher than at other times. This small study reinforces a growing body of work that suggests people move closer to specific aspects of their worldview, be it political, religious or rationality, during times of stress. It seems a belief in rational thinking and science has replaced a belief in religion for those of the non-religious persuasion, showing that everyone has to have something to believe in, even if it's not pure faith. [JESP]
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text:
More than 100 million consumers and small businesses depend upon Avira's security expertise and award-winning antivirus software, making the company the number-two market share leader globally. Avira is ranked #1 in technology innovation according to ABI Research; recommended by Consumer Reports for its free antivirus software; cited by OPSWAT as the #1 fastest-growing antivirus vendor in 2012 and the #2 largest vendor worldwide in 2011; and has received a nearly unbroken string of Virus Bulletin VB100 awards for the past decade.
Avira provides IT-security protection to computers, smartphones, servers and networks, delivered as both software and cloud-based services. Visit www.avira.com.


text:
Research firm: Amazon sells $199 tablet at a loss
(AP) -- Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire tablet, which started shipping this week, costs $201.70 to make, a research firm said Friday. That's $2.70 more than Amazon charges for it.
The analysis by IHS indicates that Amazon is, at least initially, selling the tablet at a loss that it hopes to cover through sales of books and movies for the device. The manufacturing cost of a new gadget usually comes down over time as chips become cheaper.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told The Associated Press in September that the company's goal was to make a small profit from the hardware, but as a retail company, Amazon was willing to live with a smaller margin than most electronics companies would.
"We want the hardware device to be profitable and the content to be profitable. We really don't want to subsidize one with the other," Bezos said.
IHS's estimate includes the cost of components and assembly, but not the costs of development, marketing or packaging. The most expensive part of the Kindle Fire is the 7-inch color touch screen, which costs $87.
Amazon kept the cost of the tablet low compared to Apple Inc.'s iPad and similar tablets by making it smaller - the screen is half the size of that for the iPad - keeping the amount of memory low and excluding a camera and microphone.
But the difference in manufacturing cost is much smaller than the difference in retail price: IHS puts the cost of the basic iPad 2 model at just under $300, while Apple sells it for $499.
©2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
How To Set Up MySQL Database Replication With SSL Encryption On Ubuntu 9.10
Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme
Follow me on Twitter
This tutorial describes how to set up database replication in MySQL using an SSL connection for encryption (to make it impossible for hackers to sniff out passwords and data transferred between the master and slave). MySQL replication allows you to have an exact copy of a database from a master server on another server (slave), and all updates to the database on the master server are immediately replicated to the database on the slave server so that both databases are in sync. This is not a backup policy because an accidentally issued DELETE command will also be carried out on the slave; but replication can help protect against hardware failures though.
I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!
1 Preliminary Note
In this tutorial I will show how to replicate the database exampledb from the server server1.example.com (master) with the IP address 192.168.0.100 to the server server2.example.com (slave) with the IP address 192.168.0.101. Both systems are running Ubuntu 9.10; however, the configuration should apply to almost all distributions with little or no modifications. The database exampledb with tables and data is already existing on the master, but not on the slave.
This tutorial is the same as How To Set Up Database Replication In MySQL On Ubuntu 9.10, however it adds SSL encryption for connections from the master to the slave for additional security.
I'm running all the steps in this tutorial with root privileges, so make sure you're logged in as root:
sudo su
2 Installing MySQL 5 And Enabling SSL Support
If MySQL 5 isn't already installed on server1 and server2, install it now:
aptitude install mysql-server mysql-client
You will be asked to provide a password for the MySQL root user - this password is valid for the user root@localhost as well as [email protected] / [email protected], so we don't have to specify a MySQL root password manually later on:
New password for the MySQL "root" user: <-- yourrootsqlpassword
Repeat password for the MySQL "root" user: <-- yourrootsqlpassword
Now we must check if both MySQL server support SSL connections. Log into MySQL...
mysql -u root -p
... and run the following command on the MySQL shell:
show variables like '%ssl%';
If the output is as follows (both have_openssl and have_ssl show DISABLED)...
mysql> show variables like '%ssl%';
| Variable_name | Value |
| have_openssl | DISABLED |
| have_ssl | DISABLED |
| ssl_ca | |
| ssl_capath | |
| ssl_cert | |
| ssl_cipher | |
| ssl_key | |
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)
... it means that MySQL was compiled with SSL support, but it's currently not enabled. To enable it, leave the MySQL shell first...
... and open /etc/mysql/my.cnf:
vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf
Scroll down to the * Security Features section (within the [mysqld] section) and add a line with the word ssl to it:
[...] # * Security Features # # Read the manual, too, if you want chroot! # chroot = /var/lib/mysql/ # # For generating SSL certificates I recommend the OpenSSL GUI "tinyca". ssl # ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/cacert.pem # ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/server-cert.pem # ssl-key=/etc/mysql/server-key.pem [...]
Restart MySQL...
/etc/init.d/mysql restart
... and check again if SSL is now enabled:
mysql -u root -p
show variables like '%ssl%';
Output should be as follows which means that SSL is now enabled:
mysql> show variables like '%ssl%';
| Variable_name | Value |
| have_openssl | YES |
| have_ssl | YES |
| ssl_ca | |
| ssl_capath | |
| ssl_cert | |
| ssl_cipher | |
| ssl_key | |
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)
... to leave the MySQL shell.
3 Configuring The Master
To make sure that the replication can work, we must make MySQL listen on all interfaces on the master (server1), therefore we comment out the line bind-address = 127.0.0.1 in /etc/mysql/my.cnf:
vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf
[...] # Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on # localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure. #bind-address = 127.0.0.1 [...]
Restart MySQL afterwards:
/etc/init.d/mysql restart
Then check with
netstat -tap | grep mysql
that MySQL is really listening on all interfaces on the master:
root@server1:~# netstat -tap | grep mysql
tcp 0 0 *:mysql *:* LISTEN 2166/mysqld
Now we create the CA, server, and client certificates that we need for the SSL connections. I create these certificates in the directory /etc/mysql/newcerts which I have to create first:
mkdir /etc/mysql/newcerts && cd /etc/mysql/newcerts
Create CA certificate:
openssl genrsa 2048 > ca-key.pem
openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -days 1000 -key ca-key.pem > ca-cert.pem
Create server certificate:
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -days 1000 -nodes -keyout server-key.pem > server-req.pem
openssl x509 -req -in server-req.pem -days 1000 -CA ca-cert.pem -CAkey ca-key.pem -set_serial 01 > server-cert.pem
Create client certificate:
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -days 1000 -nodes -keyout client-key.pem > client-req.pem
openssl x509 -req -in client-req.pem -days 1000 -CA ca-cert.pem -CAkey ca-key.pem -set_serial 01 > client-cert.pem
The output of...
ls -l
... should now look as follows:
root@server1:/etc/mysql/newcerts# ls -l
total 32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1346 2010-02-04 18:21 ca-cert.pem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1679 2010-02-04 18:21 ca-key.pem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1099 2010-02-04 18:22 client-cert.pem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1679 2010-02-04 18:22 client-key.pem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 956 2010-02-04 18:22 client-req.pem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1099 2010-02-04 18:22 server-cert.pem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1675 2010-02-04 18:22 server-key.pem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 956 2010-02-04 18:22 server-req.pem
We must now transfer ca-cert.pem, client-cert.pem, and client-key.pem to the slave (server2); before we do this, we create the directory /etc/mysql/newcerts on server2:
mkdir /etc/mysql/newcerts
Also, enable the root account on server2 (in case you haven't already done so) so that we can transfer the files from server1 to server2 with scp:
passwd root
Back on server1, we can transfer the three files to server2 as follows:
scp /etc/mysql/newcerts/ca-cert.pem [email protected]:/etc/mysql/newcerts
scp /etc/mysql/newcerts/client-cert.pem [email protected]:/etc/mysql/newcerts
scp /etc/mysql/newcerts/client-key.pem [email protected]:/etc/mysql/newcerts
Next, open /etc/mysql/my.cnf...
vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf
... and modify the * Security Features section; uncomment the ssl-ca, ssl-cert, and ssl-key lines and fill in the correct values:
[...] # * Security Features # # Read the manual, too, if you want chroot! # chroot = /var/lib/mysql/ # # For generating SSL certificates I recommend the OpenSSL GUI "tinyca". ssl ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/newcerts/ca-cert.pem ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/newcerts/server-cert.pem ssl-key=/etc/mysql/newcerts/server-key.pem [...]
Restart MySQL:
/etc/init.d/mysql restart
Now we set up a replication user slave_user that can be used by server2 to access the MySQL database on server1:
mysql -u root -p
On the MySQL shell, run the following commands:
GRANT REPLICATION SLAVE ON *.* TO 'slave_user'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'slave_password' REQUIRE SSL;
The REQUIRE SSL string is optional; if you leave it out, slave_user will be allowed to connect through encrypted and also unencrypted connections. If you use REQUIRE SSL, then only encrypted connections are allowed.
(If you've already set up a replication user, and now want to modify it so that it can only connect through SSL, you can modify the user as follows:
GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'slave_user'@'%' REQUIRE SSL;
Furthermore we have to tell MySQL for which database it should write logs (these logs are used by the slave to see what has changed on the master), which log file it should use, and we have to specify that this MySQL server is the master. We want to replicate the database exampledb, so we add/enable the following lines in /etc/mysql/my.cnf (in the [mysqld]section):
vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf
[...] # The following can be used as easy to replay backup logs or for replication. # note: if you are setting up a replication slave, see README.Debian about # other settings you may need to change. server-id = 1 log_bin = /var/log/mysql/mysql-bin.log expire_logs_days = 10 max_binlog_size = 100M binlog_do_db = exampledb [...]
Then restart MySQL:
/etc/init.d/mysql restart
Next we lock the exampledb database on server1, find out about the master status of server1, create an SQL dump of exampledb (that we will import into exampledb on server2 so that both databases contain the same data), and unlock the database so that it can be used again:
mysql -u root -p
On the MySQL shell, run the following commands:
USE exampledb;
The last command should show something like this (please write it down, we'll need it later on):
mysql> SHOW MASTER STATUS;
| File | Position | Binlog_Do_DB | Binlog_Ignore_DB |
| mysql-bin.000001 | 3096424 | exampledb | |
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
Now don't leave the MySQL shell, because if you leave it, the database lock will be removed, and this is not what we want right now because we must create a database dump now. While the MySQL shell is still open, we open a second command line window where we create the SQL dump snapshot.sql and transfer it to server2 (using scp; again, make sure that the root account is enabled on server2):
cd /tmp
mysqldump -u root -pyourrootsqlpassword --opt exampledb > snapshot.sql
scp snapshot.sql [email protected]:/tmp
Afterwards, you can close the second command line window. On the first command line window, we can now unlock the database and leave the MySQL shell:


text: Quick: What's a hacker? A pimply faced teenager in a dark bedroom trying to start World War Three, or a thirty-something professional with mad computer skills?Although today's hacker is more likely to be a professional software developer or security expert, that pimply faced teenager image persists. To help understand why that is, Damian Gordon has watched more hacker movies than perhaps anyone in the world. And now he's written an academic paper for the International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions looking at the way hackers are portrayed in the movies.Gordon, a lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology, studied 50 movies, produced over five decades. The results amazed him. In the movies, most hackers aren't teenaged whiz-kids. They're professionals, over 30 years old, who work in IT. "Generally they're presented as good guys, not bad guys," he said.So why the pimply teenage sociopath rap? "There were a few really seminal movies that stuck in people's minds that were slightly different," Gordon said. "'War Games' is a perfect example."In 1983's "War Games," Matthew Broderick plays a teenaged hacker who inadvertently brings the world to the brink of nuclear war after hacking into a military network."Once 'War Games' took off, that was a kind of bogeyman that the media hung onto," he said. "Even though we know that most hacking is done by people who are sacked from their jobs who have the passwords." Panned by the critics, "Superman III" actually contains a pretty accurate portrayal of a hacker, Gordon said. In the movie, a character played by Richard Pryor, uses what's known as "salami slicing" to skim thousands of dollars from his employer."Computers rule the world today, and the fellow that can fool the computer can rule the world himself," villain Robert Vaughn tells Pryor during the film. Last year, Michael Largent, a real-life criminal from Plumas Lake, California, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for pulling off a salami slicing scam.In the past, researchers have looked at how Hollywood has presented science in the movies and found it lacking. Similarly, Gordon has problems with the typical hacker movie. Filmmakers always want to jazz up the way that hacking software looks, and they often make it unrealistic. And hackers usually do what they want way too easily. "They will open every computer system or they'll hack into anything," he said.Of the 60 hackers portrayed in his 50 movies, 44 of them (73 percent) the hackers were good guys. They were bad 17 percent of the time, and in-between 10 percent of the time. Only 20 percent of the hackers were students; 32 percent were computer industry professionals; 20 percent full-time hackers; and 20 percent came from other professions.Gordon, a former computer programmer, started the research because he wanted to get a better idea of whether hacking movies would work as a teaching tool. But his love of hacking flicks dates back to childhood. "I blame my parents. When I was a child, the only movies we got to see were 'Tron' and 'War Games' and things like that," he said. They were the kinds of movies I looked at as a child, and lo and behold when I grew up I did a degree in computer science."In the course of his work, Gordon discovered that hacking movies are older than most people realize. The oldest movie cited in his study is 1968's "Hot Millions," starring Peter Ustinov. In the film Ustinov plays a criminal who uses social engineering techniques to impersonate a computer programmer and steal money, using a variety of fake identities.Gordon nearly included "Desk Set," a 1957 Spencer Tracy - Katherine Hepburn movie where Hepburn's character discusses ways that she and her staff might destroy or hack into a computer system called EMILAC. But since they don't actually do any hacking, the film didn't make the cut.Gordon's five favorite hacking films, in alphabetical order, are:*"Hot Millions" -- " A really excellent representation of how hacking goes."*"Independence Day" -- "A Mac hacking into an alien operating system and loading a virus. That's Steve Jobs' dream: The power of the Mac"*"Sneakers" -- "You have to love Robert Redford."*"Tron" -- A sentimental favorite, it was the first hacker movie he saw as a child. "Because Tron 2 is coming soon, that's a source of great excitement."*"War Games" -- "A big fun one\u2026 It will always be remembered as being very important."


text:
The Excavation of Medinet Habu, Volume IV.
The Mortuary Temple of Ramses III, Part II
By Uvo Hölscher, With contributions by Rudolf Anthes, Translated by Elizabeth B. Hauser
The excavator of Medinet Habu provides a thrilling retrospective of the architectural creation of Ramesses III.
- Oriental Institute Publications, Volume 55
- Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951


text:
Guest post by Jeff Rohrs, who heads up the Marketing Research & Education Team at ExactTarget. A driving force behind the company's SUBSCRIBERS RULE! philosophy, Jeff is also co-author of the ExactTarget/CoTweet SUBSCRIBERS, FANS & FOLLOWERS Research Series. He lives in Cleveland and has not, to his knowledge, ever been bitten by a vampire—although he his cursed to roam the earth as a Cleveland Browns fan.
I had an epiphany the other day. After seeing a commercial for "Twilight: Eclipse" while reading a cover story about CW's "The Vampire Diaries" and waiting for the latest installment of "True Blood" on HBO, it hit me.
Email is a vampire.
Now I don't mean that in the negative, "suck the life out of you" way. I mean it in a 2010, gothic cool sort-of-way in which vampires are smart, sexy, bankable characters who can't be killed and are making boatloads of cash for the people who channel them into books, TV shows & movies.
Skeptical of the analogy? Here's are the three key attributes that email shares with Dracula, Edward Cullen, Bill Compton & The Count on Sesame Street.
1. You Must Invite Email In.
As "True Blood" details in painful repetition in nearly every episode, a vampire can't come storming into your house. Vampires have class. They must be explicitly invited into your home in order to enter.
So too with email. If you come storming into someone's inbox without a relationship thanks to some shady append process, you're going to be bounced out by the "Spam" button and blocked by ISPs. However, if you honor the consumer by asking for permission to send email, you can enter as you please. But be careful—stray too far from what consumers wanted from you in terms of content or frequency, and you're likely to see your inbox invitation revoked in the form of an unsubscribe. (Shameless Plus – For more insights on what influences email deliverability, check out our Letters to the C-Suite: Getting Serious About Permission & Deliverability).
2. Email, Like Vampires, Makes Boatloads of Money
It seems that if you want a hit book/show/movie today, you just put a vampire with a heart of gold (and abs of steel) in it and you're golden.
While it's not that easy with online marketing, for the past two decades, email has been the leading retention marketing tactic, and the channel you can bank on to deliver a predictable revenue stream—provided that you've invested in building your own, permission-based list. Why is email such a steady producer? Consumer's who get it, want it. The mere act of opting-in is an expression of interest in your products and services, so it stands to reason that relevant product or service promotions to this audience would stimulate sales.
Email may not have the hype machine that other channels have these days, but ask any marketer who's measured by sales—they couldn't live without it.
3. Email Won't Die.
Vampires are immortal—provided that they don't run into someone with a wooden stake and an axe to grind.
As for email, it's been declared dead by more pundits, journalists, and entrepreneurs than I care to count. A few of my favorite reports of email's death that were greatly exaggerated:
- July 2004. Seth Godin predicted that RSS would kill email.
- October 2007. Robert Scoble argued that email faced deletion at the hands of Web 2.0 services like Twitter, Pownce & Jaiku.
- March 2009. John Dvorak declared that email was a "carcass on the side of the information highway, rotting away."
- October 2009. The Wall Street Journal said email's era had ended thanks to Facebook.
- June 2010. Facebook's COO said that email was probably going away.
So is email immortal? Well, it's certainly weathered the wooden stakes of pundits and the introduction of IM, RSS, Skype, MySpace, Facebook & Twitter quite well. In fact, it's quite telling that every single social network still requires members to sign-up with an email address. That's hardly the approach of committed email slayers. One might even argue that social media isn't email's Van Helsing, but rather it's Bella or Sookie.
But I digress…
Is it possible that some service be lurking in the shadows with a stake to drive through email's heart? Yes. However, I think it's high time that folks stop predicting email's death and, instead, start focusing on how to optimize their efforts around this steadfast & resilient medium.
After all, when the sun rises, over 58% of people begin their day with email. I guess that means email isn't just any old vampire, it's a Daywalker. Like Wesley Snipes in "Blade." And you have to admit, that's pretty cool.
(photo by Steve.ie)


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text:
If you're a glass-half-full optimist, our 2011 salary survey may make you positively giddy. True, the US economy remains far from a full-blown rebound. Yet the hopeful projections we've heard lately from industry executives is supported by a gathering swell of good news in engineers' compensation packages.
Paychecks seem positively unleashed, when you consider that our respondents toted up their first increase in average base salary in two years. Annual earnings of $93,465 marked a 4.3 percent bump from the $89,597 average reported last year. (The latter number was essentially flat versus 2009.) More good news: 65 percent of respondents saw their base annual salary jump, compared to 40 percent in last year's survey. Only 4 percent took a haircut, as opposed to 9 percent in 2010.
The bonus picture looked upbeat, too -- that perk averaged $9,440. However, keep in mind that while 20 percent of you received bonuses in the $9,000 to $50,000 range, 41 percent of working engineers received no additional compensation above base salary at all.
Some nuances to those numbers: Average salaries varied regionally, ranging from a high of $109,853 in the mountain states -- closely followed by $107,407 in California, Arizona, and Nevada -- to a low of $86,076 in the Southeast region. Pay also fluctuated according to industry, with industrial controls and defense in the top tier, followed by a tight grouping of medical test equipment, consumer electronics, and automotive.
Interestingly, while career satisfaction remains high -- 52 percent of you are very or extremely satisfied with design engineering, and 78 percent would recommend the profession to your children -- the relative economic bounty of the past year hasn't translated into more confidence about the immediate future.
Twenty-five percent of you are either extremely or very concerned about job security, with another 40 percent admitting to some apprehension. "Our company is replacing US engineers with 'best cost country' engineers," one respondent said.


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BioWare Teasing Announcement Tomorrow; Dragon Age 2?
The horrendous use of "2morrow" might be a clue and not just Internet-speak. Besides, there was plenty of room left in that 140 character-limited tweet. With Mass Effect ready to move on to number 3, that leaves Dragon Age ready for number 2.
Further backing up a major announcement, though completely speculation on my part at this time, is the fact that Game Informer is scheduled to reveal a cover tomorrow.
Shacknews will update you on both BioWare's announcement and Game Informer's cover tomorrow. Who knows, maybe we'll only have to write one story.
From The Chatty


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© 2023 TeenFuck.Su - Best Teen Porn Tube. All rights reserved. All Models are over 18 y.o.
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Protect your children from adult content and block access to this site by using these programs:
All models were 18 years of age or older at the time of depiction.
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╚чсЁрэш ёҐЁрэшІш
─Ёґуш шчфрэш - ╧Ёхуыхф эр тёшіъш
╫хёҐю ёЁхїрэш фґьш ш ЄЁрчш
able actions afflictions Almighty Apostle appear assured authority believe better blessed body carried Christ Christian comfort conduct conscience consider continue corruption dangerous dead death divine duty earth eternal evil example expect eyes faith father fear follow folly friends give glory God's Gospel grace grave guilt hand happiness hath heart heaven holy honour hope hour human immortal innocence Jews justice labour less light living look Lord manner means mind misery nature never ourselves pain parent past perfect pleasure poor present promises Providence reason receive Redeemer religion repentance reward riches Saviour SERMON short sinner sins soon sorrow soul spirit suffer sufficient surely thee things thou thoughts tion true trust truth unto virtue weakness whilst whole wisdom wise wish young youth
╧юяґы Ёэш юҐъ·ёш
╤ҐЁрэшІр 150 - Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith; insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.
╤ҐЁрэшІр 295 - Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
╤ҐЁрэшІр 63 - There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
╤ҐЁрэшІр 179 - And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer...
╤ҐЁрэшІр 53 - And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord ? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel : their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.
╤ҐЁрэшІр 150 - And the people gave a shout, saying, "It is the voice of a god and not of a man." And immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
╤ҐЁрэшІр 315 - Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? They that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek mixed wine.
╤ҐЁрэшІр 110 - An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas : for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly ; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.


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Safe mode is a software or operating system mode where most fixes are done. It is a diagnostic mode. Some malware require removal in this mode.
For Windows operating systems, you may follow these steps depending on the operating system installed on your computer:
• On Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (R2)
• On Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 (R2)
• On Windows 10


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InfraScan Receives FDA Approval of Next Generation, Noninvasive Handheld Brain Hematoma Detector
Device available now for military and civilian emergency medical services
PHILADELPHIA--()--InfraScan, a medical device company specializing in brain injury diagnostic products, announced today that it has obtained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market the Infrascanner™ Model 2000, a noninvasive handheld brain hematoma detector.
"Before the Infrascanner, first responders had to rely on imprecise methods to detect brain bleeds in patients, potentially delaying treatment"
The Infrascanner™ Model 2000 is a handheld device with a disposable patient interface that uses Near-Infrared (NIR) technology to detect intracranial bleeding, identifying those patients who would most benefit from immediate referral to a CT scan and neurosurgical intervention.
"FDA approval in the U.S. allows InfraScan to offer an industry first, powerful tool for use by civilian and military medical professionals to quickly triage head trauma patients," said Baruch Ben Dor, President and CEO of InfraScan, Inc. "Shortening the time to treatment through effective detection of intracranial bleeding can mean preserving brain function in a patient and even saving lives."
The Infrascanner™ Model 2000 was developed in partnership with U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The Model 2000 features upgrades that meet the specifications of the U.S. Marine Corps and is a ruggedized, integrated, user-friendly unit.
"Before the Infrascanner, first responders had to rely on imprecise methods to detect brain bleeds in patients, potentially delaying treatment," said Dr. Joseph Maroon, Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University Of Pittsburgh, team neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Medical Advisory Board member of civilian Infrascanner™ distributor, MedLogic, LLC.
"Whether on the field of battle with military medical personnel or on the thousands of playing fields with sports health professionals in professional, amateur or youth sports, the Infrascanner can potentially save lives by quickly detecting life-threatening brain bleeds earlier," added Dr. Maroon.
The Infrascanner™ Model 2000 is available to US civilian customers through MedLogic (www.med-logic.us), the exclusive civilian market distributor of the Infrascanner™, and to US military customers through ADS Medical (www.adsinc.com), the exclusive military market distributor of the Infrascanner™. To contact a distributor in other countries, visit http://www.infrascanner.com/contact-us/distributor-directory/.
About Traumatic Brain Injury
An estimated 1.5 million individuals seek medical treatment for head trauma in the U.S. each year, and a total of 10 million individuals seek head trauma treatment annually worldwide. Intracranial hematomas resulting from a traumatic brain injury are life-threatening and have been reported to occur as the primary injury in 40% of patients with severe head injury.
Successful treatment often relies upon timely diagnosis and intervention prior to neurological deterioration. The early identification of a brain hematoma can play a significant role in facilitating transportation of critically injured patients to facilities, which can both verify Infrascanner's early diagnosis and offer surgical intervention.
About InfraScan
InfraScan, Inc. is a medical device company that focuses on developing, commercializing, and distributing hand-held diagnostic devices for head injury and stroke assessment based on near infrared (NIR) technology. The company has received funding from the U.S. Marine Corps, the Office of Naval Research, BioAdvance, the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and from the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation.


text: Australian police have charged an unidentified juvenile, who is suspected to be a member of the hacker group Anonymous, on a number of counts related to unauthorized access to computer data.The 17-year-old appeared in Parramatta Children's Court on Friday to face charges, and is scheduled to appear again in the court on May 17, the Australian Federal Police said in a statement."The juvenile is suspected to be a member of the online issue motivated group 'Anonymous' and allegedly committed serious offences on their behalf," AFP said Friday. The police did not specify in which Anonymous attacks the youth had participated.The youth has been charged with six counts of unauthorized modification of data to cause impairment, one count of unauthorized access with intent to commit a serious offence, one count of possession of data with intent to commit a computer offence, and 12 counts of unauthorized access to restricted data, the police.The police said it had searched the "youth's premises" in Glenmore Park in New South Wales in November last year.The police statement quoted Glen McEwen, manager of cybercrime operations at the AFP, as stating that "protesting through computer intrusions and website defacements is not an appropriate method to raise public awareness about any issue."John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com


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Difference between revisions of "PTP/designs/rm framework"
(→UI Scalability)
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== Design ==
== Design ==
== Transition ==
== Transition ==
== Outstanding Issues ==
== Outstanding Issues ==
Revision as of 19:22, 19 November 2010
This page describes the new design for the PTP resource manager monitoring/control framework. The motivation for providing a new framework is primarily because the existing RM infrastructure (both model and UI) will not scale and is not flexible enough to encompass all machines that PTP wishes to target.
The purpose of this framework is to:
- Collect and display monitoring information relating to the operation of a target system in a scalable manner
- Provide job submission, termination, and other job-related operations
- Support debugger launch and attach
- Enable the collection and display of stdin and transmission of stdout information from running jobs (where supported by the target system)
Monitoring information will comprise:
- The status and position of user's jobs in queues
- Job attribute information
- Target system status and health information for arbitrary configurations
- The physical/logical location of jobs on the target system
- Predictive information about job execution
Key attributes of the framework include:
- Support for arbitrary system configurations
- Support for all existing resource managers
- The ability to scale to petascale system sizes and beyond
- Support for both user-installable and system-installable modes of operation
- Automated installation for user-installable operation
- Simple to add support for new resource managers
- Eliminate the need for compiled proxy agents
The existing RM design is documented in the PTP 2.x Design Document. The main issues with the existing RM design fall into the following areas:
- Model scalability and flexibility
- UI scalability
- Complexity of adding new RM support
Model Scalability and Flexibility
PTP employs a MVC architecture for monitoring job and system status. The model is used to represent the target system and the jobs that are running on that system. The model receives updates from the proxy agents running on the target system.
Currently, the model provides a fixed hierarchy in which machines are comprised of nodes, and (resource manager) queues contain jobs. A job has one or more processes, which are running on specific nodes.
One problem with this approach is that model hierarchy is inflexible and can't be used to easily represent more complex architectures (e.g. BG). Although it is possible to map the architecture into machines/nodes, the user may wish to see the actual physical layout of the machine. Also, machines often have physical and logical layouts which should be visible to the user.
Another issue is that the model currently represents the entire system down to the individual process level. This is clearly going to have scaling issues with node/core counts in the hundreds of thousands and process counts in the millions.
The model is really only required for visualizing the system and job status on a target system. A better approach is to have a model that is tailored for this visualization, and that only models the currently visible aspects of the system.
UI Scalability
UI scalability is also a significant concern if PTP is to support petascale (and beyond) systems. The current runtime views display the model using individual icons to represent machines, nodes, jobs, etc. This has been recognized as a potential scaling issue for some time, and although some optimizations have been made, recent scaling tests have shown that the UI will be a major issue in achieving effective scaling.
The ability to scale the UI is going to require a combination of a compact representation for displaying system status, along with a drill down approach for visualizing more detailed information. In addition, it should be possible to provide different views of the same system, such as a physical and logical view. Finally, the UI should continue to link job information with system system in a way that provides meaningful information to the user.
New RM Support
Adding support for a new RM is currently a fairly significant undertaking, requiring the development of a proxy agent that interacts with the job scheduler via commands or APIs. The agent must convert the system-specific information into a protocol using a low-level protocol API. On the client side, additional work is required to provide a launch configuration UI that will allow the user to select the parameters/attributes for the launch.
An approach that simplifies this process is highly desirable, as it would enable PTP to support a broader range of systems, and hopefully expand adoption. The recently developed PBS RM has some features that help this process (much of the RM is job scheduler neutral), but the effort required is still significant. The goal here is to be able to add a new RM without any coding (e.g. via an XML description), or at least minimize the coding to a very small component.
The RM framework is separated into control and monitoring components. Control and monitoring operations are independent and can operate without requiring interaction between the components.
RM Control
Control operations are used to control the submission and interaction with user initiated jobs.
- Job attribute discovery
- Job submission
- Job-related commands (e.g. termination)
- Debug session launch
- Stdin/stdout forwarding
RM Monitoring
The monitoring operations consist of:
- System configuration discovery
- System and job status change notification
- View change notification


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To learn more about Penny's
"A Central Location on the Web for Fashion and Costume since 1996."
Owner: Penny E. Dunlap Ladnier
Please meet our"Ladies of Fashion" below who will tour you through the 12 areas of The Costume Gallery Websites. Also you may click on one of our menu above to navigate our websites. We host over 35,000 web pages, 70,000 images, and two databases. Our websites vastly covers the history of the fashion / costume / textile industries. Our "Ladies" below to begin your tour through our websites.
Many thanks to over 42 million visitors to The Costume Gallery Websites since June 1996. Currently, our visitors are representing 140 countries per month.
1996 - 2010
We are proud to announce
Open House until Dec. 3. more info HERE. Access the Library for FREE!
Online complete period fashion publications, including articles, images, catalogs, and books.
Click below view the Table of Contents for specific years:
1910s FASHIONS
1920s FASHIONS
1880s: Handbook of German Dress
1868: Corsets & Crinoline Fashion History
Hairdressers' Manuals
Etiquette Books
Costume Kingdom offers high quality Halloween Costumes for kids. Our top sellers include Pet Costumes the best seasonal Christmas Costumes as well as Plus Size Halloween Costumes and a great selection of Halloween Costumes for Couples.
Costume Kingdom offers high quality Halloween Costumes for kids. Our top sellers include Pet Costumes the best seasonal Christmas Costumes as well as Plus Size Halloween Costumes and a great selection of Halloween Costumes for Couples.
The Costume Research Library is dedicated to our online articles and resources. Over 5,000 webpages of period fashion articles, catalogs, books, photographs, and countless images to access. To subscribe to our online Library click HERE. To see a listing of the Years in Fashion that we have on this site, look to your left.
Visit our latest photo collection, A Colonial Williamsburg Christmas.
COSTUME LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTION PRICES: 14th ANNIVERSARY SALE
Prices reflect the exact price charged for specific subscription duration. You will only be billed for the price shown.
Fashion & Costume History Slideshows
Our Latest Costume Slideshows are below:
The Costume Classroom is where you can take online classes for sewing costume and costume history.
WINTER 2010 SEMESTER CLASSES REGISTRATION IS OPEN!!! Classes are self-paced and taken completely online.
Classes are self-paced and taken completely online.
Costume Analysis of Four Films Set in 1912-1914
Elizabethan Glove Making: Make your own pair of gloves
19th Century Parasols: Their History, Construction, and Restoration
Making a Late 18th Century Wardrobe: Caraco Jacket
Making a Late 18th Century Wardrobe: Ladies Strapless Stays
Making a Late 18th Century Wardrobe: Pet-en-l'air or Robe � la Fran�aise
Service where you send us your old family photos via email and we date them according to the fashions worn in them. Great for the genealogist!!!!!
Product Palace has businesses that provide products and services related to the costume.
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A Brush with History: Vintage Hairstyles
All contents of the websites associated with The Costume Gallery Website are protected by copyright laws. Questions??? contact:HERE
The Costume Gallery | Costume Research Library | Costume Classroom | Hat Off! Hat History


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How perfect is that?
I love San Francisco! I took a mini-break last weekend to visit friends, eat, and enjoy the sights. In that order. I heart visiting SF, but I'm such a Southern Cal girl I would get SAD with SF's often raining and foggy weather. Can you imagine me in the snow? No. I just can't.
On Saturday (Day 1), Sumi, my old RA from UCLA dorms (we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary soon! Oh my!) cooked up an amazing brunch! Here are some pics of our brunch...
Here is an easy recipe you should make as your guests are walking in the door...
Soft Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Ricotta and Chives. The recipe is on epicurious and appeared in Bon Appétit, April 2008 (by Jeanne Thiel Kelley).
double chocolate brownies and blueberry mochi cake in Los Angeles and brought them on the plane!
Bi-Rite Creamery in the Mission. Salted caramel, vanilla and balsamic strawberry. I topped my ice cream and brownie with some burnt caramel sauce.
San Francisco 2009 Set for the final product.
Next up...my day eating through Berkeley and Oakland, and back to SF for the wonderful House of Prime Rib!
I have a bunch of other photos on my Flickr account - See the San Francisco 2009 Set.


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Kamera Mano Shark Tooth Clutch
Lost and Found: Chew On This
The style team members have always got their eyes peeled for hot finds and new style faves while we scour the Honolulu scene. Look out for the latest spoil of our fash-ventures in our new Lost and Found files.
Lost: Your edge.
You used to have a razor wit. When it came to going mano-a-mano, you could swim circles around the other beasts in the water. In fact, everyone always said you had a bite that was just as badass as your bark. But lately? You've dulled down. Gotten blunt. Tapered off.
Found: Something that will help you to start looking sharp again—the new Mano Shark Tooth Clutch from Kamera Jewelry Designs.
Maui designer Kammi Fuk crafted the killer quilted pouch out of luscious, Grade-A cowhide leather, and embellished it with some sleek, ahem, fin-ishes, including a braided leather trim and tassel, gold studs and a fierce shark tooth silhouette formed out of a gold zipper. Inside details include a black satin lining and dual l
iner pockets.
Wear it with a moto jacket thrown over a dress for some jaw-dropping edginess, or with distressed boyfriend jeans topped with a minimal crop top.
It's a style that makes us so ready to take a bite out of our day.
$198 at kamerajewelry.com or at Fighting Eel Kailua, 629 Kailua Road #130


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In a bid to compete more squarely with Apple's App Store, the developers of the Android mobile OS are improving the way people browse for applications on Google phones through what is known as Android Market. As part of a software upgrade (Android 1.6, aka Donut) Android handset owners will be able to browse more easily third-party apps by previewing screen shots of apps and sort apps by criteria such as most popular and newest. There is no official date set for the release of Donut.
Google announced update to Android Market in a blog post late Thursday stating upgrades to its mobile applications store will "improve the overall experience for users." Despite the update, improvements are also likely to irk some Android developers who feel the Android 1.6 doesn't go far enough.
What's New at Android Market
Navigation is key for the tweaked marketplace, which must be viewed on a mobile phone if you want to see the complete store and the new improvements. The main navigation buttons for Apps, Games, and Downloads have been moved to the top of the screen, leaving valuable screen space for featured apps. When you are shopping for programs in category view, three buttons at the top of the screen will also let you filter apps by Top Paid, Top Free, and Just In.
Other improvements to Android Market include screenshots to get an idea of what a particular application looks like, promotional icons, and longer descriptions from developers. There are also four new sub-categories to improve navigation including sports, health, themes, and comics.
Cranky Developers Not Satisfied with Update
Google's tweaks come on the heels of recent criticisms over Android Market's profitability for third-party developers. On Monday, the metrics firm Ad Mob released a report claiming Android Market typically produces $5 million in sales every month versus $200 million at the iPhone App Store.
One complaint takes issue with Android Market's payment options and Google's return policy. Currently, all Android users must purchase apps through Google's own payment system Checkout. But according to a recent IDG report, some developers would like to see other payment options that users might find more convenient. Developers are also up in arms over Google's 24-hour return policy, which they say makes it too easy for users to return an application after using it for just a few hours. Apple's App Store, by comparison, does not grant refunds for any reason except in cases where a purchased product is not delivered within "a reasonable period."


text:
Face Frame Hinges
Face frame cabinets are very popular in the US market and Woodworker's Hardware stocks face frame style hinges to meet the needs of new construction, refacing and retrofit. Concealed face frame hinges, which are not seen when cabinet are closed are a great option when you want to highlight your beautiful wood cabinets and doors without the distraction of your hinges. Concealed face frame hinges come in many door overlay configurations sure to meet any need. For the classic cabinet look of decorative hinge pins in ball tip and minaret tip designs on your face frame cabinets, we stock full inset style face frame hinges in 5 different finishes including satin nickel, oil rubbed bronze, dark antique English and more.
1 Products Available
per page


text:
The surface of Mars appears to have been shaken by quakes relatively recently, hinting at the existence of active volcanoes and perhaps reservoirs of liquid water on the Red Planet, a new study suggests.
Using photographs snapped by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers analyzed the tracks made by boulders that fell from a Martian cliff. The number and size of these boulders — which ranged from 6.5 to 65 feet (2 to 20 meters) in diameter — decreased over a radius of 62 miles (100 kilometers) from a point along Mars' Cerberus Fossae faults.
"This is consistent with the hypothesis that boulders had been mobilized by ground-shaking, and that the severity of the ground-shaking decreased away from the epicenters of marsquakes," the study's lead author Gerald Roberts, of the University of London, said in a statement.
The dirt patterns created by the toppled Martian rocks weren't consistent with how boulders would scatter if they were deposited by melting ice, researchers said. Rather, they resembled the boulder falls seen after a 2009 earthquake near L'Aquila, in central Italy.
Based on the area covered by the displaced rocks, Roberts and his team estimate the quake's magnitude at 7 — about the same as the 2010 Haitian temblor that killed perhaps 300,000 people. The marsquake may have been powered by movements of magma related to the nearby Elysium Mons volcano, the researchers added.
Because Martian winds have not yet erased the boulder tracks, the researchers further concluded that the quake occurred in the relatively recent past, within the last few percent of the Red Planet's 4.5-billion-year history.
There's even a possibility that quakes are shaking the Martian surface today, they added. If that's the case, it would be good news for scientists interested in searching for life on the Red Planet. If active volcanos still exist on Mars, their heat could melt pockets of the planet's subterranean ice, perhaps forming reservoirs of liquid water hospitable to life as we know it.
The study will be published in the March 1 edition of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets.
Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.


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Pennies From Heaven's Couch Cushions
August 18, 2009
Apologies for not posting anything yesterday. And apologies for that apology, because I bet you didn't even notice and quite possibly your life continued on just fine despite my lack of posting. Regardless, I had an excuse: Terminal Brain Fog.
For example, I spent most of the day writing and rewriting the same 9-word sentence. Over and over again. Nine words and then BLAMMO, headfirst into writer's block and some weird wrastling with the Passive Voice and then some Dangling Modifiers were all, "you wanna go at it? let's go at it. bitch."
And then I spent -- no lie -- 20 solid minutes ransacking my bathroom top to bottom because I could not find my tinted moisturizer.
Here's a hint as to how THAT went:
(Dear Microsoft: MS Paint Goggles. Could totally be your iPod. My gift to you.)
The real problem is that right now, the Biggest Thing going on -- exactly the sort of Big Thing I've come to depend on this blog community to help me ramble through and work out and get advice on -- is also one of those Very Difficult To Write About Things, because my intentions could very easily be misunderstood. Because it's tangentially about money. Stupid, tacky money.
Basically...would you, my fellow special-needs parents or anyone who has ever loved the spit out of a special-needs kid, ever knowingly get in over your head financially to pay for something, if you thought it was the best something for your child?
Noah's OT camp is officially over now. We saw HUGE improvements in these short seven weeks. Huge, noticeable improvements. We also saw just how much work there is left to be done, and the glaring gaps in his IEP. Stuff that the school district is just not concerned about, but of course, we are. So I naturally started inquiring about supplemental services provided by the agency that ran the camp. There were, thankfully, quite a few options. We were close to settling on a Saturday morning group plus maybe some one-on-one OT -- completely disregarding the agency's preschool because it was in the afternoon, which is when we were told Noah would attend the public school.
And then on Thursday we received his official classroom assignment. Surprise! It's in the morning.
By Friday, the last day of camp, we had an observation with the private preschool set up and an application in our hands and a spot tentatively reserved -- the last spot, of course, WHAT ARE THE ODDS -- because the occupational therapists who worked with him this summer told the preschool director that Noah absolutely needed that spot, that it would be the perfect, perfect place for him. Eight kids total, half of which attend district programs in the morning, over half of the graduates from last year are moving back into the mainstream this fall. Speech therapy, occupational therapy, parent support and counseling, customized treatment plans.
By Friday night, Jason and I were absolutely sick with misery, because of the numbers. The school is expensive. I mean, of course it is. It is more than twice what we budgeted for, back when we planned to send Noah to Montessori. (Oh! Funny story! We talked to them awhile back about whether they had many kids who also attended <name of the district's special needs preschool program> and kids with SPD/SID and they were all, "Hmm? We've never heard of any of that stuff!" and we were all, "Okay, thanks, bye!")
(Is that funny? Probably more like rage-inducing. I sometimes get those two mixed up.)
I mean, we're okay. We're really, probably, more than okay. Especially when you go by the "new okay." The "recession okay." We did get nailed pretty hard this year with medical bills because our insurance company is a jackhole, and taxes because we suck at math, and a ton of house-related crap because being a grown-up is just one big endless sucking jackhole. And just when we feel like we've dug our way out and can treat ourselves to nice things like Macbooks and fancy tinted moisturizers and a hotel room for our anniversary, our dog up and eats fucking fertilizer for lunch.
(Aaaaaand this is why I mentioned "intentions." Because I seriously -- oh my God -- do not want it to sound like I'm hinting around for money. I'm not. And I know it's easy to judge someone's finances from the sidelines [u could afford to stay home with ur baybee if u stopped buying bronzer selfish whoor!]. [VARIATION: how dare u complain don't u no how blessed u are i don't even have cheekbones for bronzer selfish whooooor!] And now I'm tempted to delete this entry all together. Maybe I still will. Stay tuned, alternative publishing universe!)
(But then I think...well, what if someone out there is looking at a gigantic pile of money RIGHT THIS SECOND and wishing there was a Deserving Child to give it to, like an orphan being raised by a blacksmith, who dreams of college and betterment and Estella Havisham! Or maybe the son of a blogger, who dreams of choo-choo trains and grilled cheese and Olivia the Pig. Who am I to stand in the way of their good deed? What if, in the absence of a Deserving Child, they spend it all on hookers and grape jelly?)
(But THEN I think that the orphan is probably way more Deserving, honestly, and really, if you have a pile of money that you really don't know what to do with it's better to look for reputable charities than random orphans who can end up being totally fucking ungrateful.)
ANYWAY. We just don't know what the right choice is here. We're mostly afraid of making the WRONG choice. So we go over it again and again, and the voicemails from the school are piling up, asking if we've mailed in the application yet. If we use the last bit of money we have in our savings, plus maybe some money back from refinancing our mortgage...if we cut back on all sorts of things (hello! goodbye, Sephora!)...if we put some of it on the credit card...if we apply for financial aid... But of course, we have to commit to the school and pay deposits and half the tuition BEFORE the financial aid decision would be finalized, and then I think about our roof and the sound the garbage disposal keeps making and we need to replace the basement carpet (EDITED TO ADD: These were stupid examples. Stupid! Of course I'm not going to keep him out of the school because fucking carpet. I was trying to illustrate that there would simply be no money left for unexpected emergencies but neglected to list anything resembling an actual, you know, EMERGENCY. Sorry.) I worry we'd be spending all year a mere hair's breadth away from financial disaster. I worry about paying for a whole other year of preschool NEXT year. And then Ezra's school the year after THAT. I worry that our original, cheaper plan would really be enough and I am almost annoyed by this stupid dangling carrot.
But then.
What if? What if we do? What if we don't?


text: Back ALT Does this test have other names? Alanine aminotransferase, serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, SGPT What is this test? This test measures the amount of the enzyme alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in your blood. ALT, formerly called SGPT, is mostly found in your liver cells. When liver cells are injured, they release this enzyme into your blood. High levels are a sign of liver damage. This test is part of a group of tests commonly referred to as "liver function tests." Results of these tests give doctors an overall picture of how well your liver is working. Why do I need this test? You may have this test to see if you have a liver disease, such as hepatitis. Symptoms of liver diseases include: Extreme tiredness Yellowing of the eyes and skin, a condition called jaundice Abdominal (belly) pain Nausea and vomiting Diarrhea Headache You may also have this test to look for cirrhosis, which causes damage and scarring to the liver. Causes of cirrhosis include long-term hepatitis infection, excessive alcohol use, obesity, and exposure to certain medications or toxins. Symptoms of cirrhosis include: Abdominal swelling from fluid buildup Visible blood vessels in the skin Itchy skin What other tests might I have along with this test? Your doctor may also order other tests of liver health, including: Albumin Bilirubin Alkaline phosphatase, or ALP Aspartate aminotransferase, or AST Prothrombin time, or PT Your doctor may also order other tests that measure: Your liver's ability to process substances from your blood Levels of substances your liver produces Liver inflammation What do my test results mean? Many things may affect your lab test results. These include the method each lab uses to do the test. Even if your test results are different from the normal value, you may not have a problem. To learn what the results mean for you, talk with your health care provider. ALT levels are normally less than 40 international units per liter (IU/L). Levels above 1,000 IU/L may be a sign of: Acute viral hepatitis Lack of blood flow to the liver Injuries from drugs or toxins The ratio of AST to ALT may also provide helpful information to your health care provider. AST levels are normally lower than ALT levels. AST is often higher than ALT in cases such as: Hepatitis from alcohol use Cirrhosis in people with long-term viral hepatitis A number of other medical conditions besides liver disease can also cause liver enzymes to rise. These include: Muscle diseases Celiac disease Thyroid problems Adrenal gland problems How is this test done? The test requires a blood sample, which is drawn through a needle from a vein in your arm. Does this test pose any risks? Taking a blood sample with a needle carries risks that include bleeding, infection, bruising, or feeling dizzy. When the needle pricks your arm, you may feel a slight stinging sensation or pain. Afterward, the site may be slightly sore. What might affect my test results? Many medications can affect your test results, as can drinking alcohol. How do I get ready for this test? You don't need to prepare for this test. But be sure your doctor knows about all medicines, herbs, vitamins, and supplements you are taking. This includes medicines that don't need a prescription and any illicit drugs you may use.


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BMS has quality cotrol at all stages of the production process. There are quality control for raw materials, plant and machinery selection and training manpower, finished products, packing of products etc.
The finished BMS products certainly conform to the product design specifications in all aspects, especially quality. BMS has already fixed a high quality standard for its products and sees that the product is manufactured exactly as per this quality standard. All efforts are for zero defect product.


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|ETCSLtranslation : t.18.104.22.168
1-8. When Iškur -- the lord, the storm, the …… lion, the great storm of heaven and earth, confident in his majesty, the foremost, the advocate, the son of An, whose head is clothed in power, the fearsome chief lord, the great storm that has no rival ……, who masses the clouds -- rushes within the storm, the earth trembles before him.
9-18. A majestic wind bellowing in the broad heavens, whose thunder signifies abundance -- when he utters his cries, the Land and the great mountains are fearful. Great hero, holding the shepherd's crook in his hand and clasping authority at his side -- when he roars over the sea and covers the Land with radiance, huge hailstones …… and slanting (?) rain, …… they set up …… for him.
24-32. He surveys these numerous people -- the lord of prosperity who makes celebration plentiful, who gives sustenance to the Land, the merciful prince whose solicitude is kind, the protector of Larsam, the helper of Sîn-iddinam on the battlefield, who stands in combat with the troops at his side, the great lord, the canal administrator of An and Enlil, whose destiny has no equal!
33-56. Sîn-iddinam -- the mighty man, the humble prince who respects Enlil; approved with a "let it be so!" by the E-kur; the young man given a propitious name by Nanna; the provider of Urim, the king of Larsam, the king of Sumer and Akkad, given broad wisdom and surpassing intelligence by Nudimmud, granted a good reign, a long life and unending abundance by Iškur, his god; who puts in order the divine plans of Eridug, who makes perfect offerings to the gods; the wise one who has restored the ancient divine powers, …… who has favourably identified his numerous people -- put in place a majestic throne, …… surpassing in form, for his lord, for his god.
57-67. Made grandly from …… and refined silver, …… of the beautiful heavens,
68-74. At that time he grandly seated Iškur, his god, on his throne of glory. Then he made its form surpassing for ever. He sought out its majestic divine plans and divine powers.
75-85. By the throne he …… two great wild bulls, below (?) on the right and the left, butting the king's enemies.
© Copyright 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 The ETCSL project, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford


text: Sportsman's Guide has all your Laser Sight needs for low prices. Get the Laser Bore Sights, green or red Laser Sights or Night Vision Laser Sights that you always wanted. Shop all Laser Sights for Pistol, Glock & other Handguns from top brands! Laser sights are available at great low prices.


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General Motors will end production of six sedans by the end of 2019, reports CNN.
North American customers want SUVs, crossovers, hatchbacks and trucks. Sedans have fallen out of favor.
As GM (GM) adjusts to changing customer behavior it is also planning ahead for the future. The company announced massive layoffs and is closing five North American facilities as it transitions to self-driving, electric cars of the future.
The soon-to-be closed plants mean GM will no longer make these cars:
Buick LaCrosse
January - September sales: 13,409, down 14.2%
The LaCrosse is a large car built by a brand that was a pioneer in small crossovers. Buick is still shifting heavily toward crossovers: Sales of the Encore and Enclave crossovers are both up this year. But Buick is struggling after turning itself around a few years ago.
Cadillac CT6
January - September sales: 7,270, down 10.6%
The only surprise of the bunch, the CT6 is an unusual choice for GM, because it serves as the tech halo for Cadillac. It's still the only car that has GM's Super Cruise semi-autonomous driving technology. But it's also the least popular Cadillac.
Cadillac XTS
January - September sales: 12,664, up 15.9%
Most XTS cars are sold to limousine and taxi companies. GM recently updated the XTS' design to keep customers happy, helping drive sales higher. It's the only car GM is killing that has performed better in the first nine months of 2018 than in the first nine months of 2017.
Chevrolet Cruze
January - September sales: 109,662, down 26.5%
The bestselling Chevy sedan, the Cruze is highly regarded among auto reviewers and enthusiasts. The Cruze was the "Consumer Reports" top pick for compact cars last year. It was beat out by the Toyota Corolla and a handful of other small cars this year, and sales have disappointed.
Chevrolet Impala
January - September sales: 43,952, down 13.4%
The recently redesigned Chevy Impala was the 2018 "Consumer Reports" top pick for large cars. But it's a large car in a market that seems to have forgotten that large cars exist. The Impala is among the worst-selling Chevrolets.
Chevrolet Volt
January - September sales: 13,243, down 13.7%
The Volt is a plug-in electric hybrid sedan lost in the excitement of all-electric cars. Chevy has been promoting the electric Bolt hatchback, though Bolt sales have fallen too.
The-CNN-Wire & 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.


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The recently ended Broadway season certainly saw its share of musical flops, notably Lysistrata Jones and Bonnie & Clyde. Although each of those shows had its champions, I was not among them, and wasn't all that sorry to see them close.
Now comes Leap of Faith, the biggest flop of the year, at least in financial terms. And this one kind of breaks my heart, because the show really won me over, despite its considerable flaws. Yes, Leap of Faith essentially has the same plot as both The Music Man and 110 in the Shade: charming conman comes to town. The townspeople buy into his flimflam, except for the local single lady. Predictably, the conman and the single lady fall in love. Well, how many original stories did Shakespeare tell? For me, it's always about the quality of the execution.
In the case of Leap of Faith, I found the execution to be very professional and often inspired. The show starts with an ambitious and energetic opening sequence that neatly introduces the characters, sets the scenario, and establishes a tone of joyous celebration that the rest of the show ably delivers upon.
No, Leap of Faith is no masterpiece, but it is an honest attempt at crafting a musical that's about people, as opposed to spectacle or effects. (cough, cough...Ghost...cough, cough...) As I sat watching Leap of Faith, I marveled at how much more real and appealing the characters seemed here than in those other two movie-to-musical mediocrities still limping along from last season: Sister Act or Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
The show's credits list Janus Cercone, who wrote the screenplay to the 1992 Steve Martin movie upon which the show is based, as co-author of the libretto, but I attribute the depth of characterization here to the presence of Tony-Award-winning playwright Warren Leight (Side Man), who demonstrates a knack for realistic dialog and for depicting believable and sympathetic people. Leight only has one other musical to his credit -- the 1985 Ed Koch bio-tuner Mayor -- and yet there's something skillful here in the way the book and the songs are woven together. Of course, this is also the work of composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater, whose work here is miles above their score for the aforementioned Sister Act.
Most of the flop musicals this season have had outstanding performances, and Leap of Faith is no exception. Yeah, there's Raul Esparza, who has some genuinely stunning moments throughout the show, including his showstopping 11 o'clock number, "Jonas' Soliloquy." But throughout the show, his diction came in and out, and I couldn't understand what he was saying in many of his songs. (And I was seated in the fourth row of the orchestra, directly in front of the Al Jolson "Swanee" ramp that juts out of the stage.)
The real standout in the cast was Jessica Phillips, who replaced the poorly received Brooke Shields as the town sheriff and Jonas' love interest. Phillips reminded me of Jessie Mueller, Tony nominee for another of this season's musical disasters, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, which coincidentally was the previous tenant at the St. James Theatre before Leap of Faith. Like Mueller, Phillips is a remarkably appealing performer, warm and animated, with a kick-ass belt and a glisten in her eye. Jessie Mueller was recently cast as Cinderella in the upcoming Public Theatre production of Into the Woods. (Which rumor has it has its eye on Broadway.) I'm hoping that Phillips will likewise land on her feet after Leap closes tomorrow.
According to the New York Times, the producers of Leap of Faith decided to bring the show to Broadway this season, as opposed to waiting for the fall, because the St. James suddenly became available after the early closure of On a Clear Day. Rather than risk losing one of the most desirable Broadway houses, they decided to take the chance. It's tempting to speculate what might have happened if the producers had decided to wait and take the summer to get the show into more presentable shape. Would the changes have made any difference? Would a less-crowded season have given the show more of a chance to get noticed and build an audience? Or would the show simply have met the same unfortunate fate?


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On the podcast this week, Konstantinos Stylianou, a former Fulbright Scholar now working on a PhD in law at Penn Law School, and author of the provocative new essay, "Hasta La Vista Privacy, or How Technology Terminated Privacy," discusses technological determinism and privacy. Stylianou's thesis is that the evolution of technology is eliminating privacy; therefore, lawmakers should switch emphasis from regulating the collection of information, which he claims is inevitable, to regulating the use of that information. Stylianou discusses why digital networks specifically make it difficult to keep information private, differences between hard and soft technological determinism, and when he thinks people will realize about their private information what the recording industry has finally realized about digital music.
Related Links
- "Hasta La Vista Privacy, or How Technology Terminated Privacy," by Stylianou
- "Why Your Personal Information Wants to Be Free," by Jerry Brito
- "Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook users eventually get over privacy anxiety," ZDNet
- "(your) information wants to be free," Ben Adida
To keep the conversation around this episode in one place, we'd like to ask you to comment at the web page for this episode on Surprisingly Free. Also, why not subscribe to the podcast on iTunes?


text:
4-Piece Suite With Response Card Envelopes
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Each wedding is different and the number of pieces you need in your suite will vary based on your celebration. Build your Collection to include a single insert or a full three-piece suite. We require a $600 minimum on all semi-custom collections.
All Collections come with envelopes and inks in a variety of on-trend color options. When choosing the number of inserts, also consider the total number of suites that you will be needing. Remember: not everyone on your guest list will receive their own invitation—couples and families living at the same address will only receive one.
3: Select any additional invitation suite add-ons and finishing touches
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Wedding stationery doesn't stop with your invitation suite. Carry the design through your wedding day by including day-of and reception pieces with programs, menus, place cards, and signage. Visit your design's day-of items to see what's available, or submit an inquiry to add on any other pieces that aren't featured.
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Once you have built your suite, submit your order! Once your order is submitted, it will be reviewed and details will be confirmed with you by one of our Designers. If you did not upload your details and guest addresses, a Designer will reach out to collect your information. All orders require a minimum of 4 weeks production time. Please see our customization process page for timeline details.
Ready to feel our luxurious paper in your hands? Order a custom or semi-custom stationery sample! Go there ⟶


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Posts tagged games
Toonwarz update! new control methods added
Jan 11th
We have enhanced the input and control support in ToonWarz. The game is now supporting Trackball, D-Pad and Accelerometer as possible ways of controls. Check it out and make sure you download the latest version.
/The Polarbit Team
Polarbit connects iPhone, Android, Ovi Store gamers
Dec 23rd
Stockholm, Sweden – Polarbit, pioneering developers of games for mobile and handheld platforms announced today the immediate availability of their games on Android Market.
In addition to already available award-winning street racer Raging Thunder, titles include powerboat racer WaveBlazer, arcade shoot'em-up Armageddon Squadron, FPS ToonWarz and futuristic strategy title Iron Sight. Polarbit titles are known for their visual excellence as well as their accessible gameplay and controls, ensuring that they appeal to casual as well as hard-core gamers.
The truly distinguishing feature that sets Polarbit titles apart from competitors is their cross-platform multiplayer capabilities. For the first time ever, iPhone, Android and Nokia Ovi Store device users from all corners of the globe will be able to face off in intense deathmatches, gut-churning races, brutal dogfights and epic battles!
Polarbit bring racer Raging Thunder to Android Market
Dec 18th
Stockholm, Sweden – Polarbit, a leading developer of high-end mobile games, announced today the immediate availability of award-winning game Raging Thunder on Android Market. Raging Thunder is a fast-paced, arcade street racing game that garnered much praise for its appealing visuals, excellent playability and rich internet and local multiplayer functionality on its AppStore release.
Raging Thunder is the first Polarbit title to be released on Android Market, shortly to be followed by powerboat racer WaveBlazer, arcade shoot'em-up Armageddon Squadron, FPS ToonWarz and futuristic strategy game Iron Sight. Polarbits support for the Android platform follows hot on the heals of the release of their portfolio on Ovi Store by Nokia.
As all Polarbit titles, Raging Thunder will feature cross-platform multiplayer functionality enabling Android, Nokia Ovi and iPhone gamers to face off against each other.


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This is one of my very favourite cycling routes. A steep, beautiful climb, surrounded by high mountains. After a perfect Saturday climbing Grosse Scheidegg, the weather held out for one more stunning ride in the high Swiss Alps.
The ride starts in Lauterbrunnen and turns immediately uphill. The road alternates between paved and good quality gravel. It's a steady, steep climb through light woods with occasional views of Wengen, the valley below, and snow topped mountains.
At about 1500 metres the views open up as the route approaches the car-free town of Murren. The views are just unbelievable for the rest of the ride.
It's flattish passing through Murren (1630 metres) – and then things get fun. Following a beautiful little signed mountain bike path to Shiltalp the road keeps going higher and higher.
Just past the little farm at Shiltalp it's possible to do one more kilometre and reach 2000 metres before the trail ends.
To descend, I double backed to Murren and followed the superb paved path down to the quaint perched village of Gimmelwald. From here it's
possible to continue on rougher trails down to Stechelberger (I've done this a couple of times), but I decided to take a cable car down instead.
At the bottom, I bumped into Doreen, and we rode back to Lauterbrunnen through the amazing water-fall filled valley.


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Jacob Druckman
An introduction to Druckman's music
by Mark Swed
At the heart of the works of Jacob Druckman lies the bold, sure, and often arrestingly physical dramatic gesture. Over its 40-year span, his music has progressed through several styles, from the earliest published scores such as the neo-Classical Divertimento of 1950, and the 1960s experimental pieces for electronics and live instruments, to the lavishly colored orchestral tapestries of the 1970s. It is a body of music created for a wide variety of media – instrumental, electronic, and vocal – and it is a music that has ranged from the purely abstract to the explicitly theatrical.
Druckman's unfailing sense of the striking impact and presence of sound is evident from the earliest pieces, with their rhythmic exuberance and searing melodic climaxes that seem to draw on the young composer's experience as a violinist, conductor, and jazz trumpeter. But as his instrumental and vocal writing became more sophisticated, Druckman found increasingly inventive resources to express intense and complex dramatic situations. In works like those in the Animus series, the drama becomes a visceral experience through the exploration of such elemental human concerns as madness, violence, and sexuality. In one extreme example, the highly virtuosic, ironically titled Valentine for solo contrabass, Druckman requires the soloist to assault his instrument with near sadistic ferocity.
Yet Druckman's scores have always exhibited another characteristic as well: that of careful structure, built with meticulous attention to detail. The process of integrating these two sides of his character – the passionately physical expression with the cooler intellectual organization of pitches and rhythms – has been a consistent factor throughout the composer's development.
Such Classical and Romantic aspects of his music – Druckman has described them as Apollonian and Dionysian – have come into direct opposition in some of his most recent work through the building of structures upon musical reference. Typically he has used musical quotation in highly dramatic ways. In Delizie contente che l'alme beate (1976), for wind quintet and tape, wisps of an aria from Cavalli's opera Il Giasone float eerily through the score; while in Aureole (1979), Druckman honors Leonard Bernstein through a glowing construction built upon the pitches of the 'Kaddish' tune from Bernstein's Third Symphony.
An example of the integration of all sides of Druckman's musical personality can be found in his most frequently performed orchestral piece, Prism (1980), in which the three movements are based respectively upon quotes from three Medea operas by Charpentier, Cavalli, and Cherubini. In each movement of Prism Druckman reacts differently to the earlier Medea music, whether by trying to coax it gently into the 20th century or to fracture it aggressively. Consequently the drama here is on many levels: at times musical centuries seem in direct conflict, at others the conflict appears to derive from operatic connotations. But always, Druckman exploits fully the potential of his rich orchestral palette to create a magnificently changing sonic landscape that draws the listener into a world at once exotic yet with the relevance and immediacy of our own troubled times.
Mark Swed, 1996
(Chief critic of The Los Angeles Times)


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Today is Wednesday, June 18, the 169th day of 2014. There are 196 days left in the year.
Today's highlight:
On June 18, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Japanese Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda spoke to each other by telephone as they inaugurated the first trans-Pacific cable completed by AT&T between Japan and Hawaii, and linked to existing cables between Hawaii and California.
On this date:
In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War.
In 1812, the War of 1812 began as the United States Congress approved, and President James Madison signed, a declaration of war against Britain.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.
In 1873, suffragist Susan B. Anthony was found guilty by a judge in Canandaigua, New York, of breaking the law by casting a vote in the 1872 presidential election. (The judge fined Anthony $100, but she never paid the penalty.)
In 1908, William Howard Taft was nominated for president by the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
In 1912, the Republican National Convention, which would nominate President William Howard Taft for another term of office, opened in Chicago.
In 1940, during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, "This was their finest hour."
In 1953, a U.S. Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II crashed near Tokyo, killing all 129 people on board. Egypt's 148-year-old Muhammad Ali Dynasty came to an end with the overthrow of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic.
In 1972, 118 people were killed in the crash of a Brussels-bound British European Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident 1C shortly after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.
In 1983, astronaut Sally K. Ride, 32, became America's first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger on a six-day mission.
In 1984, Alan Berg, a Denver radio talk show host, was shot to death outside his home. (Two white supremacists were later convicted of civil rights violations in the slaying.)
Ten years ago: An al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia beheaded American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., 49, posting grisly photographs of his severed head; hours later, Saudi security forces tracked down and killed the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping and murder. European Union leaders agreed on the first constitution for the bloc's 25 members.
Five years ago: Tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Tehran again, joining opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to mourn demonstrators killed in clashes over Iran's disputed presidential election. Hortensia Bussi, the widow of Chilean President Salvador Allende who helped lead opposition to the military dictatorship that ousted her husband, died at 94. Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin was named the NHL's most valuable player for the second straight year after leading the league with 56 goals.
One year ago: The Taliban and the U.S. said they would hold talks on finding a political solution to ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan, as the international coalition formally handed over control of the country's security to the Afghan army and police. Declaring "the days of Rambo are over," Maj. Gen. Bennet Sacolick, director of force management for U.S. Special Operations Command, said that cultural, social and behavioral concerns might be bigger hurdles than tough physical fitness requirements for women looking to join the military's special operations units.
Associated Press
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Opera becomes the latest browser platform to support location awareness through support for a draft of the W3C geolocation API. The group joins Google (via Gears) and Mozilla (via a future Firefox release) in letting a browser, with permission, tell a web application where you are.
Putting location in the hands of a website or web application makes sense for a variety of activities: finding your location without knowing where you are is an obvious one, as is navigation. However, location is commonly used on mobile devices to tag photos, point you out to your friends in social networks, and play real-world overlay games.
The geolocation API functions (but isn't implemented) in a similar fashion to the iPhone's Core Location service. iPhone developers can use Core Location to obtain coordinates, which are derived on the iPhone 3G from a combination of WiFi positioning, cell-tower trilateration, and onboard GPS. iPhone users are always asked before an application obtains location the first time whether or not that's acceptable.
There's currently an active debate in the W3C geolocation drafting group as to whether the API should include specific privacy provisions, or whether that should be extra-specification and bumped up to the browser's maker to determine how permission and privacy is handled.
Opera's first pass at geolocation, in a beta build, is paired with Skyhook Wireless's WiFi positioning system. Skyhook is used by Apple as a primary method on first-generation iPhones and part of the location system on iPhone 3G models. The company constantly drives cities around the globe to update WiFi scans, and also integrates snapshots sent every time a phone or laptop requests location data based on its WiFi environment.
Google's Gears Geolocation API was announced October 2008, and it relies on a Google proprietary WiFi location server that the company won't provide details about.
The Mozilla Foundation has plans to have full geolocation support in Firefox 3.5, but enabled it in a beta of 3.1 to provide early exposure to developers. The group plans on allowing multiple location information sources, although as of the last discussion in a developer blog in Octoboer 2008, no decisions had been made about what kind of location provider support would appear in 3.1.
Source: ars technica


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U. S. History Images
Welcome to U.S. History Images! Below you'll
find a list of the most recently added images. Use the links on the left to
view all the U.S. History Images in this growing collection, or visit the Site
Although I try to present
the images in chronological order, sometimes it's just not possible. So if
you're looking for something in particular, the best way to find it is to use
the search bar on the left or visit the Site
American Civil War - 1862
American Civil War - 1861
Outbreak of the American Civil War
Thank you to the contributors at Wikipedia for helping me with the descriptions on this page.
To cite this website:
U.S. History Images. Karen J. Hatzigeorgiou, 6 Apr. 2012. Web.
Read them on your Kindle or iPad!
Read what they wrote about the Battle of Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War!
Letters, speeches, reports, analysis, eye-witness accounts, news articles, poetry!