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Hand pulled Monotypes
My method of printmaking is what I like to call paint to print. I paint on the surface of my paper with many layers of color. Then I begin the screen-printing process with an image/story. The images are screened over and over again, creating many rich layers. I manipulate the piece by excavating with a sander or scraping with a razor blade, discovering what is waiting for me underneath the many layers. Finding a treasure that needs to come to life.
Print on paper or canvas, arranging color by moving and spreading it on my surface. Creating shapes that are familiar and foreign. Using a color that cries out "red" or a violet that is barely there.
Responding to an event, a place or a form in nature, I treat myself to a visual story. The holocaust, or a dog named Rex. My mother's garden. Taking what I know to be true and enhancing that truth.
Creating a surface that never existed before and never will again. Releasing a moment in time, catching it on the paper or canvas.
Thick, thin, sketchy or graphic, a line can speak a thousand languages. The lines outline the words in my painting/prints.
My substrate is usually paper, but I also print on canvas and wood. Screens, acrylic base, … and using brushes, chopsticks, my fingers dipped in acrylic, oil, water or graphite, I apply my response on my substrate.
—Paula Wachsstock
work available upon request.


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About archiving indexes with Hadoop Data Roll
As of Splunk Enterprise version 6.5.0, Hadoop Data Roll is included with your Splunk license. Hadoop Data Roll provides a user-friendly way for you to copy warm, cold, and frozen index data as archived data. Archive Splunk indexed data into HDFS or S3 so that you can:
- Search archived data that is no longer available in Splunk.
- Search across archived buckets and indexes.
- Perform batch processing analysis for archived data.
- Archive indexer data to meet your data retention policies without using valuable indexer space.
Hadoop Data Roll is not supported for Windows
Setting it up
To configure archiving, you tell Splunk Enterprise:
- Which indexes to archive.
- Where to put the archived data in HDFS or S3.
- At what age buckets should be copied to the archive in HDFS.
There are two ways to configure the above information:
System requirements
Make sure you have access to at least one Hadoop cluster (with data in it) and the ability to run MapReduce jobs on that data.
Make sure you have Java 1.6 and above. However, we suggest you upgrade to a version higher than 1.6 for best results.
Hadoop Data Roll is supported on the following Hadoop distributions and versions:
- Apache Hadoop
- 0.20
- 1.0.2
- 1.0.3
- 1.0.4
- 2.4
- 2.6
- 2.7
- Cloudera Distribution Including Apache Hadoop
- 4
- 4.2
- 4.3.0
- 4.4 (HA NN and HA JT)
- 5.0
- 5.3
- 5.4
- 5.5
- 5.6
- Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP)
- 1.3
- 2.0
- 2.1
- 2.2
- 2.3
- 2.4
- MapR
- 2.1
- 3.0
- 5.0
- Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR)
- IBM InfoSphere BigInsights
- 5.1
- Pivotal HD
What you need on your Hadoop nodes
On Hadoop TaskTracker nodes you need a directory on the *nix file system running your Hadoop nodes that meets the following requirements:
- One gigabyte of free disk space for a copy of Splunk.
- 5-10GB of free disk space for temporary storage. This storage is used by the search processes.
What you need on your Hadoop file system
On your Hadoop file system (HDFS or otherwise) you will need:
- A subdirectory under
jobtracker.staging.root.dir(usually /user/) with the name of the user account under which Splunk Analytics for Hadoop is running on the search head. For example, if Splunk Analytics for Hadoop is started by user "BigDataUser" and
jobtracker.staging.root.dir=/user/you need a directory
/user/HadoopAnalyticsthat is accessible by user "BigDataUser".
- A subdirectory under the above directory that can be used by this server for intermediate storage, such as
Searching archived indexes
You can search archived buckets as you normally search, simply include the archive virtual index in your searches. See Search archived index data for information about search commands that work with indexes stored in Hadoop.
You can for example, create one search that searches Splunk for:
- Data in a Splunk Enterprise index.
- Archived data copied into HDFS or S3.
Search performance
When you search archives, Splunk Enterprise performs batch searches on archived data, which is usually much slower than searches of indexed data. Since Splunk deletes cold data based on your
indexes.conf settings, archived could also still be present in Splunk Enterprise indexes. It is important to be familiar with your archive and Splunk indexer retention policies and settings so that if you are looking for specific data that is still in Splunk, you can run more efficient searches.
To improve search time when searching archives, you can use dates to limit the buckets that are searched. The storage path in Splunk Indexer data includes the earliest time and the latest time of the buckets. So when you search within a certain time, Splunk is able to use that information to narrow searches to relevant buckets, rather than searching through the entire archived index.
Configuration bundle issues
How Hadoop Data Roll works
This documentation applies to the following versions of Splunk® Enterprise: 7.0.0, 7.0.1, 7.0.2, 7.0.3, 7.0.4, 7.0.5, 7.0.6, 7.0.7, 7.0.8, 7.0.9, 7.0.10, 7.0.11, 7.0.13, 7.1.0, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.1.3, 7.1.4, 7.1.5, 7.1.6, 7.1.7, 7.1.8, 7.1.9, 7.1.10, 7.2.0, 7.2.1, 7.2.2, 7.2.3, 7.2.4, 7.2.5, 7.2.6, 7.2.7, 7.2.8, 7.2.9, 7.2.10, 7.3.0, 7.3.1, 7.3.2, 7.3.3, 8.0.0, 8.0.1

subset: commoncrawl


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Mozilla signs on partners in open mobile system push
Mozilla has teamed up with global partners in a push for open mobile standards as it ramps up its efforts to develop smartphones challenging Google and Apple operating systems.
Mozilla has teamed up with global partners in a push for open mobile standards as it ramps up its efforts to develop smartphones challenging Google and Apple operating systems.
The California-based non-profit foundation joined Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, LG, Qualcomm, ZTE and TCL/Alcatel in creating an Open Web Device Compliance Review Board.
The new entity will set technical standards for an open mobile operating system which would be an alternative to the closed systems now used in smartphones based on Apple's iOS or Google's Android.
The first smartphones using the Mozilla's Firefox mobile operating system were launched earlier this year, made by China's ZTE and the small Spanish-based manufacturer GeeksPhone.
Mozilla, which is known for its open-source Firefox web browser, is seen as having a tough order challenging the dominance of existing smartphone platforms.
But Mozilla's Andreas Gal said 'users want a wide selection of devices and great apps.'
Having uniform technical standards, Gal said, would help get new products to the market.
'This is the next step in building the ecosystem and will make it easier for partners to get a wide selection of high-quality solutions into consumers' hands quickly and efficiently,' Gal added.
Qualcomm vice president Jason Bremner, said the technical body 'will set a clear path for any organization to commercialize open web devices.'
Sales of the ZTE Firefox phone began this year in the US and Britain. The Mozilla Foundation claims to have at least 17 operators on board and plans to launch phones in Brazil, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland and Serbia.
Follow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews , also keep up with us on Whatsapp channel,Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.


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Most Americans, and Europeans, are living longer and healthier lives, or at least more cosmetic lives, than their parents and grandparents. Aging seems to have moved at least a decade down. Now 30 is the new 25, 40 is the new 30, 50 is the new 40, and 60 is the new 50. I thought 70 would be the new 65, but Nooo. For me right now, 71 is the new 70 at best.
Yes dear readers as a septuagenarian I can tell you, at least for me if not Jane Fonda (she's 77 now!), 71 is OLD. Once I moved over the line from 69 to 70, and now 71, I is OLD. OLD is no fun. Well maybe it's fun for some seniors but not me or most of my contemporaries. I have several long-time friends who tell me that now they are over 70 they feel their age.
There are all kinds of assistive devices for OLD people. My mother, who just turned 98 and wasn't OLD at 71, uses a rollator now. She's one of the oldest people in her retirement community, but looks younger than many residents ten or more years younger. I visited her last September when she was 97, and when she keeps her teeth in she hardly looks a day over 85.
I bought mother a folding cane because she carries a heavy wooden cane with her on the rollator. She uses it for getting out of a chair or onto a curb. The problem is it sticks out across the rollator and hits things or catches on doorways.
So I bought her a folding cane from the Walgreens in Scarborough, Maine. I thought this would be much easier for her to carry on her rollator and flip open when she needed a cane, but she didn't like it. Flipping it open and folding it back up again was too confusing for her. That's not because of her age. Mother was never very mechanical.
So I took it back to the Scarborough Walgreens. I couldn't find the receipt, so they gave me a credit for it. That was OK since I could use that credit at the Walgreens here in San Ramon. I thought I might get myself one of those folding canes, since my balance isn't so good anymore and I could use a cane for getting up and down from a curb. I thought about keeping the one I bought mother, but it was black and I wanted one in a brighter color.
At the beginning of January I noticed a big Walgreen's ad for Senior Day on January 7th. I thought I saw it in the Contra Costa Times, but I couldn't find it when I looked back through my e-Edition. The e-Edition, which costs $1 a week for a subscription, is a daily online facsimile of the complete hardcopy newspaper.
The ad, where ever I saw it, announced that seniors 65 and over would get a 15% discount on all items purchased on January 7, 2014. That seemed like the perfect time to claim my credit and buy myself a fancy folding cane. The Walgreens in the Lucky shopping center had one in silver with a blue pattern described as "glow in the dark." Perfect!
I bought a lot of other items that day since everything was 15% off. I like Walgreens better than CVS but I hardly ever drive down to the one here. I asked the clerk when they would have another Senior Day. She said to ask the Manager.
I asked the Manager, but he seemed a little doubtful about it. "It's the first Tuesday of the month for now, unless Headquarters changes it." He didn't say "again," but it was implied.
The first Tuesday of next month is February 4th. I'll keep my eyes open for an ad the weekend before or phone the store to see if this will become a monthly event. It is a very good deal for folks like me on a mostly fixed income.


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In recent years, the way we work has undergone a significant transformation, with remote work becoming more prevalent and even the preferred mode of operation for many businesses. The rise of cloud-...
Hello Highway vs VoiceLogix
Compare Hello Highway vs VoiceLogix. Find out whether Hello Highway or VoiceLogix is better for your VoIP business or home needs. The experts at VoipReview have analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of Hello Highway and VoiceLogix and detailed analysis of the comparison can be found below.
User Ratings & Reviews
- 4 Reviews
February 2010 Update: We were unable to find any additional information on Voxby as of February 2010. We'll let you know if anything changes, but for now it looks like Voxby is out of business. Kudos to our anonymous reviewer...
Provider Info
- Website:
- Headquarters Country:
- Founder Year: 2004
- Website:
- Headquarters Country:
- Founder Year: 2005
Plans Available*
Users Average Rating
Recent User Reviews
Up until recently I was using long distance cards purchased at the local drugstore. The problem with these cards is that you never get the minutes you think you are paying for. Calling within our state to another area code costs 3 times more than I thought it would. Plus minutes sometimes mysteriously disappeared for no apparent reason. With Hello Highway you get exactly what you pay for and you no longer have to enter multiple digit phone numbers and pass codes. I simple dial a local phone number and dial the person I'm calling. It even allows for speed-dialing. Hello Highway makes it simple and I highly recommend them to anyone.
I use Hello Highway's service regularly and it is a great value!
It appears that Voicelogix has gone out of business. No phones for two days and we are done.


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With the blond wig and red tie, the star of the Cantonese opera in Hong Kong may look familiar.
The Chinese actor and singer has the lead role in "Trump on Show," a four-day comedic opera reimagining the U.S. president's personal life and his fictional twin brother who lives in China.
The three-hour opera opens with America's first family moving into the White House, where Trump's daughter Ivanka discovers an old suitcase. Inside she finds an English version of "The Little Red Book," which details ideas on class struggle by the founding chairman of modern communist China.
In the show, Donald Trump goes to China and meets Mao and Zhou En-lai, the first premier of communist China. Trump also receives a visit from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the U.S.
Li Kui-Ming, a 64-year-old feng shui master turned Cantonese opera playwright, explains that his 34th opera piece does not aim to focus on serious international politics. Rather, the show simply uses current political characters to grab the audience's attention.
"It could definitely draw people's attention if the play is about popular political figures due to their popularity and influence. I hope this opera will get my ideas across to the audience," he said.
He hopes that one day, "Trump on Show" could even be performed at the White House or in Pyongyang for Kim Jong Un.
"This is definitely our dream," Li said.
The opera runs until Monday at the Sunbeam Theatre, one of Hong Kong's long-established traditional Cantonese opera venues, created in 1972.
"This opera has to be performed in Cantonese, but of course there will be some English in it," said Loong Koon-tin, a Cantonese actor with more than 40 years of stage experience, who plays Trump. "I will certainly portray Trump's special characteristics. I will wear a red tie and suit, with a blond hair wig and golden eyebrows. Apart from the appearance, I will also imitate the way he talks as well as his body language."
Roger Chan, a Cantonese actor who plays Kim, said they did a lot of research on the North Korean leader. "We try to get to know him through daily news reports," he said.
"I think the theme is very fresh, original and unimaginable because it must be difficult to use traditional Cantonese opera elements and performing methods to perform and interpret the role of these modern world-leading characters," said Chan Chi-kai, who came to see the show as a loyal fan of the playwright.
Another audience member, Justin Lee, came all the way from Shanghai.
"With the recent tense relationship between China and America due to the trade war, I want to watch this show and see how the playwright depicts Donald Trump, and hope the show will bring on new ideas to improve the U.S.-China relationship," he said.q


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INTERVIEW: Cardi B Opens Up About Debut Album 'Invasion Of Privacy'
By Isha Thorpe
April 6, 2018
Ladies and gentlemen, Cardi B has officially released her debut studio album, Invasion Of Privacy. Cue the alarms because it's fire!
Before Cardi became a Grammy-nominated rapper, she was just a regular, degular, shmegular chick from Bronx, New York. Her social media presence was larger than an average user's with stars like Taraji P. Henson following Cardi on IG back in the days when she didn't have as many fans. People from all over the world grew attracted to the now-artist because of her unfiltered, non sugarcoated opinions about the world around her. From discussing men, relationships, women, getting money and more; Cardi was a star well before she even hit the studio.
But, we're extremely happy that she did. Once she decided to become a rapper, Cardi busted her behind to get people to respect her music. She even starred on hit VH1 series "Love And Hip Hop" to make people see her rapping talents. But, after two seasons, Cardi moved on from the show and that's when things really started blowing up.
After much more hard work and mixtape releases, Cardi eventually dropped her first official single, "Bodak Yellow," which broke record after record when it came out, eventually peaking at the No. 1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. From there, Cardi's reign has not been letting up! After sitting at the No. 1 position for three weeks, "Bodak Yellow" became the longest-running chart-topper ever on the Hot 100 charts for an unaccompanied female rapper. It beat Lauryn Hill's 1998 single "Doo Wop (That Thing)," which was in the same spot for only two weeks.
On top of that, Cardi's first five singles; "Bodak Yellow," Bruno Mars' "Finesse (Remix)," G-Eazy's "No Limit," Migos' "MotorSport," and "Bartier Cardi," were all top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts at once. This achievement made the rapper the third act ever and the first woman in history to reach this milestone. Cardi had to beat Beyoncé's previous record of four songs on the charts at the same time, to accomplish this.
Seeing how hard the recording artist has worked to reach this point in her life, we couldn't be any more proud of her. That's why we couldn't wait to hear the star's grand debut studio album. Consisting of 13 tracks, Cardi's new album is sure to snatch wigs, as soon as the beat of each song drops. Some guests on the project include Migos, Chance The Rapper, SZA, Kehlani, YG, and more.
So, of course, iHeartRadio had to speak to Cardi about her first album! In our conversation, the star discussed the emotions she felt when she recorded the album, how the Bardi Gang motivates her to keep going, her message to haters, what makes her an "emotional gangsta" and so much more.
Check out iHeartRadio's interview with Cardi B below! OKKRRRR! Buy Invasion Of Privacy here.
What emotions are you feeling now that your debut album is finally here?
The emotions that I have now that my debut album is here [are] No. 1: relief. It's like I just handed in the project that you hand in after Easter break. And I also feel a little bit anxiety. I'm nervous... This is my biggest project and I put a lot of work in it. I just hope that people appreciate it and people appreciate all the sleepless nights that I had to record this album.
What are you most proud of from the project?
The thing that I'm most proud of [from] my project is that I could show people that I could do different types of music. I felt like people [were] boxing me [in] and think that I could do like a certain type of sound. And I just wanted to show people that, no, I could do different things. And then on top of that, I'm proud that I could be a woman in my album, you know? A lot of people think that I'm just this girl with no feelings. I hate admitting it, but I do have feelings. I am a woman, at the end of the day. I do have emotions, and I'm glad that I could pour it out in my album, in my body of work.
What were the hardest songs to record? What were the easiest?
The hardest songs to record for me [were] the ones that I had to be extremely melodic in. For example, 'Be Careful With Me,' 'Thru Your Phone,' and 'Privacy.' When it came to 'Be Careful With Me,' I really wanted to do the hook... I don't want it to sound very sing-y. So, I really was trying to make sure it didn't sound like I was trying to sing, but still with the melody, like an open letter. And then, you know, 'Thru Your Phone,' I used to sing in high school. But, I kind of lost it. I don't do it anymore, as often. So, I had to take a whole lot of takes, until I [got] the hook perfect like I [wanted] it. And the easiest records were everything else, "Get Up 10," "Money Bag," "Came Thru Drippin.'" Songs that I could rap [on], it was just a breeze for me. (laughs)
How did your fans motivate you, while making your album?
They motivate me because it's like sometimes I be thinking like, "Is it worth me doing the album? People got so many things to say about me, I feel like a lot of people don't like me. Is it gonna do good?" But then, I see my fans wanting and pressuring me for [an] album, and it's like, you know what? I have to do it for them. I gotta do it for Bardi Gang! Gang, gang, gang! And that's how they motivate me. They motivate me so much. They just motivate me to even be positive in life.
As an artist, as a person that is in the spotlight of fame, this could be really depressing. It could get you down, and it's like your fans remind you, "Listen, you're not here because everybody hates, you're here because people love you more than they hate you." So, they motivate me, not even with the album, just in life period.
What makes you an "emotional gangsta"?
I'm a hood girl... I like to think that I'm the type of person that just don't fall in love, or I'm like the type of person that feel like they don't take bull crap from men. Or I like to think like, I'm the one that don't get her feelings hurt. But, I'm a Libra. So, you know I'm very sensitive in a weird type of way. Like, I'm a gangsta. I will pop on you, but it's like, I also have a soft side, understanding side. And that's what makes me an emotional gangsta.
You proudly rep The Bronx. What's the weirdest/most annoying thing about the fame you've gained?
The weirdest and most annoying thing that I gained from fame is just people pressuring you. I feel like I don't have any privacy. I don't even know who to trust around me anymore because there's always a story around me and it's just like, who's saying these type of things?
I also don't like how there's people that never even met me, that's always commenting about me. They're saying mean things about me, or they just make an assumption of the type of person that I am, and they don't even know me. I feel like you ask a regular person on the street, "Why don't you like Cardi B?" And they wouldn't even have a right answer because they just don't know me. And that's the thing that the weirdest and the most annoying thing about fame... People always in your business. It's just annoying.
What message do you have for the haters who doubt you or say you're not going to keep winning?
The message that I have for the haters and people that doubt me, and people that think I'm not gonna win, I just want to tell you this: The more you hate, the more I want to prove things to you and the more I prove things to you, it makes me feel good. Y'all give me the power because if everybody loves me and if everybody keep telling me that you winning, I would feel like I don't have to work so hard. So, when a hater talks bad about me, I feel like I gotta keep proving things to them. So, it makes me want to work harder... and that's why I be winning. Thank you. (laughs)
**WARNING: Explicit language**


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The Adventure Cycling blog covers bicycle-travel news, touring tips and gear, bicycle routes, organizational news, membership highlights, guided tours, and more. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for daily updates. Interested in becoming a guest blogger for Adventure Cycling? Share your story with us.
Photo by Colt Fetters
So far, 16 videos have been entered in Adventure Cycling's 2014 Bicycle Travel Video Contest on Vimeo. If you're thinking about submitting an entry in the contest, remember you have to do so by June 30. As a little active inspiration, have a look at these winners from the 2013 Bicycle Travel Video Contest.
Its spring and many of us are busy planning our next getaway on board our bicycles. If you are short on time, another option is to head over to your local library or bookstore, and find bike touring memoirs and journals to start travelling vicariously through others!
Planning a bike tour always lends our focus to the bike, the seat, pedals, panniers, and the route itself. We are often so consumed with ensuring the ride is as comfortable as possible, we can sometimes forget to plan for our time off the bike.
We stuffed ourselves silly on noodle dishes, and curry, and sweets. Plenty of fuel for the next day's pedal toward Laos. Above the din of the people and a loud broadcast advertising campaign from a local business, I heard a single voice.
Meet Katie Kramon, our newest intern. She has been a bike-touring junkie since her first self-contained cross country ride in 2009 and we're excited to welcome her to the Adventure Cycling team!
The Sea Otter Classic is billed as the country's biggest bike festival and has become the site of spring product launches for the bike industry. Here are a few highlights for the touring cyclist.
Coming into an office on a beautiful spring day after a long winter can be one of the most challenging tasks. With spring in full force, I would rather seek out adventures on the trails around Missoula.
In the most recent issue of Adventure Cyclist magazine, I reviewed Garmin's Touring Edge Plus GPS unit. To supplement that article, I would like to share a few common questions I've received about the unit, as well as peek into Garmin's latest creation.
We regularly get a variation of the question, "can I use my old [insert name of route] map on tour this year?" The answer: it depends. There are many factors that go into making this decision.
A few random links to news stories and blog posts dealing with Adventure Cycling Association that you may not have seen before.
Spring is in full swing here in Missoula, and in the Tours department we are all talking about summer touring plans. Here are the top five ways I prepare for summer riding.
We appreciate the support our 46,500+ members provide us, and in return we work hard putting together affiliate discounts to help all of our members get the most bang for their buck when plotting a course for adventure. Here's the scoop on all of the benefits we currently offer.
Texas has it going on. Bicycling is hot, and I'm not talking temperature.
In this video, Adventure Cyclist contributor Patrick O'Grady shows off the Cinelli Bootleg Hobo bicycle.
Solidream's three-year circumnativation of the globe — plus a side trip to Antarctica — resulted in many more spectacular photos than we could print in the April Adventure Cyclist, so we've created a gallery to show off more of the French quartet's trip.
So you need that super lightweight pack to take along with you for the ride? Maybe there are some groceries to go get, laundry to haul, or an amazing day hike just off of your route?
So far, 13 videos have been entered in Adventure Cycling's 2014 Bicycle Travel Video Contest. They wear intriguing and evocative titles like "Majer István Emléktúra 2013," "Spices & Spandex: The Cookbook," and "Mountain Biking to Dakshinkali Temple — Kathmandu, Nepal."
I'm hooked on Adventure Cycling fully supported tours and I'm not sorry.
When seeking out event rides to fill up my summer calendar, I've found that it is almost hard to find a ride that isn't built around a cause. If you have a cause in mind that you would like to ride for, or build an event around, there are a great deal of tools available to help you promote the ride and collect donations for the cause. Here are just a few options you can take advantage of:
Two Knobby Tires is a boutique online retailer. We have been selling eco-friendly outdoor gear on Amazon for five years. In that time, we've lived in Fort Collins, CO, Blacksburg, VA, and Iowa City, IA, our current residence.
Later this month, I'll be appearing at a trio of REI stores in the great state of Oregon to celebrate the new edition of Cycling the Great Divide: From Canada to Mexico on North America's Premier Long-Distance Mountain Bike Route.
I'm looking out the window this morning here in Missoula and its snowing again. It's late March. For many out there, this winter has been frigid, unrelenting, and brutal. And the winter just keeps coming. We could all use some fun in the sun and a chance to get a little dirty! If you want to ride the high-and-dry variety of dirty, I've got some tour ideas for you.


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Help Wanted: Seeking WABA Board of Directors Candidates
WABA is looking for leaders with a passion to help ensure our ability to continue making the Washington area a safer and more welcoming environment for cyclists. WABA's Board Nominating Committee is searching for director candidates with strong leadership skills and experience in helping non-profit organizations develop and execute strategy and development plans. While WABA has loyal members and a dedicated funding base, we have a particular interest in candidates who can help us expand our partnerships with a broader pool of organizations and individuals who share and will support WABA's goal of making the Washington area the most bicycle friendly in the world. Direct experience with institutional giving and major gifts a plus. WABA board members are volunteers who serve two year terms and are expected to participate in regularly scheduled board meetings, provide counsel to WABA staff in their areas of expertise, and make WABA a significant part of their individual philanthropy. Candidates who are interested in exploring whether their skills and interests align with WABA's are invited to make an initial expression of interest by filling out the form HERE.


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Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fallujah . . .
And so it turns out that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, though not until we arrived and started using them.
Along with whatever else we did to Fallujah — exacted collective punishment on a defiant city (a war crime) in November 2004, killed thousands of civilians, shattered the infrastructure (nearly six years later, the sewage system hasn't been repaired and waste flows in the streets) — we also, apparently, nuked the city, leaving a legacy of cancer, leukemia, infant mortality, and genetic abnormality.
Freedom isn't free. Remember when that was the go-to phrase of the citizen war zealots among us, their all-purpose rebuttal when those of us appalled by this insane war cited civilian casualty stats? Discussion over. Thought stops here.
This is the power of language. Call it "war" and along come glory, duty, courage, sacrifice: the best of humanity writ large. The word is impenetrable; it sets the heart in motion; God makes an appearance, blesses the troops, blesses the weapons. Operation Iraqi Freedom: They'll greet us with open arms.
At what point do we learn our lesson, that "war" is a moral cesspool of horrific consequences, especially, and most troublingly, unintended ones?
Thus last November, a group of British and Iraqi doctors petitioned the U.N. to investigate the alarming rise in birth defects at Fallujah's hospitals. "Young women in Fallujah," they wrote, ". . . are terrified of having children because of the increasing number of babies born grotesquely deformed, with no heads, two heads, a single eye in their foreheads, scaly bodies or missing limbs. In addition, young children in Fallujah are now experiencing hideous cancers and leukemias."
The official U.S. response was that the doctors' letter was anecdotal: There have been no studies to verify that anything is truly amiss in Fallujah, beyond the devastation caused by U.S. troops and bombs. Now that has changed.
The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health has just published an epidemiological study, "Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009," which has found, among much else, that Fallujah is experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia and infant mortality than Hiroshima and Nagasaki did in 1945.
Perhaps most eerily, the study, conducted by a team of 11 researchers this past January and February, in 711 households, found a radical shift in the ratio of female-to-male births. Under normal circumstances, the human constant is approximately 1,050 boys born for every 1,000 girls. In post-invasion Fallujah, 860 boys have been born for every 1,000 girls — similar to a shift seen in Hiroshima after the atom bomb was dropped.
Dr. Chris Busby, one of the study's authors, said only "some very major mutagenic exposure" could account for such an aberration. The most likely culprit, he said, is depleted uranium, a dense metal with extraordinary penetrating ability used in the manufacture of missiles, shells, and bombs. DU explodes on impact into an extremely fine, radioactive dust that settles on the ground or is carried by the wind. While the U.S. military continues to deny that breathing it is harmful, many scientists insist that it is highly toxic and a likely contributor to Gulf War Syndrome — that it is, in short, a nuclear weapon, with fallout as dangerous as a nuclear bomb.
To read about this is to grow increasingly sickened and disturbed at who we are and what we are doing: still debating "the war," still dignifying this ongoing hemorrhage of national values with the term; still murdering civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and resolutely fleeing from any responsibility for the ecocide we have committed in Iraq; and still silently, inevitably, preparing for the next one.
Would that we could bring the suffering of Fallujah to the heart of America, or at least to the heart of Congress, which just OK'd another $59 billion to "fund the troops" (notice the delicacy of the Pentagon's phrasing) in Afghanistan.
Enormous, future-devouring numbers turn over in Congress with such ease, if the money is demanded by the war machine. Money dedicated to building the future, or repairing the damage from old, dead wars, is another matter entirely: Suddenly it's real, like a pound of flesh, and meted out only with howls of anguish.
To help clean up our legacy of Agent Orange in Vietnam, for instance, Congress has appropriated $9 million since 2007. We sprayed 19 million gallons of this highly toxic defoliant on the country between 1962 and 1971, causing harm to at least 3 million Vietnamese in the process. Our sense of responsibility amounts to $3 per person. And such money becomes available only after decades of denial that we have any responsibility at all.
I think again about Fallujah. The city's suffering will haunt our national dreams for decades to come. It is our future. In a generation or so, our children will face the consequences of what we have done there; but in the meantime, we'll keep trying to buy "victory" and ultimate justification in multi-billion-dollar increments until our financial bankruptcy equals our moral bankruptcy.
(c) 2010 Tribune Media Services, Inc.


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Worrying about running over a nail, or making sure your tires are always full may be a thing of the past thanks to the R&D team at Michelin. This is a prototype for airless tires. Instead of the regular inflated tire, this tire has the traditional outer treads wrapped around flexible, yet sturdy spokes. Apparently these tires are going by the name tweel, which is completely stupid. Jump to see a video of the tweel in action. Image via Fourtitude
The Future of Tires......Tweels [Wall Street Fighter]
Meet Microsoft's New Surface Laptops


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The Enemy Within: Detecting and Mitigating Insider Threats
With 100,000 new infections per day, ransomware has gotten the attention of executives, IT personnel and end users. Though not typically considered an insider threat, ransomware behaves like an insider - using hijacked identities to encrypt files on endpoints and file shares. Insiders have had broad access to data resources for years. Most organizations admit they have limited knowledge about how insiders use data. So why the sudden spike in breaches? What does it mean? In this session, learn how organizations are not only fighting ransomware, but also using it to identify and confront vulnerabilities that expose them to other insider threats, like rogue employees, abusive administrators, and hackers. In terms of insider threats, ransomware may be both scourge and savior.
See Also: MITRE and XDR Integration | Enhancing Threat Detection and Prioritization of Advanced Threats
Additional Summit Insight:
Hear from more industry influencers, earn CPE credits, and network with leaders of technology at our global events. Learn more at our Fraud & Breach Prevention Events site.


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Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Quick Facts
|Russian and Soviet writer
|Writer Playwright Poet Novelist Children's writer Screenwriter
|Mexico Russia
|Film, TV, Stage & Radio Literature
|29 December 1882, Pugachyov
|23 February 1945, Moscow (aged 62 years)
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Толсто́й; 10 January 1883 [O.S. 29 December 1882] – 23 February 1945), nicknamed the Comrade Count, was a Russian and Soviet writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels.
During World War II, he served on an Extraordinary State Commission which "ascertained without reasonable doubt" the mass extermination of people in gas vans by the German occupiers. His work in the investigation of atrocities committed in the Stavropol region was recognized by Soviet prosecutors during the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals.
Life and career
Aleksey was the son of Count Nikolay Alexandrovich Tolstoy (1849–1900) and Alexandra Leontievna Turgeneva (1854–1906). His mother was a grand-niece of Decembrist Nikolay Turgenev and a relative of the renowned Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. His father belonged to the Tolstoy family of Russian nobles and was a remote relative of Leo Tolstoy.
According to author and historian Nikolai Tolstoy, a distant relative,
The circumstances of Alexei Tolstoy's birth parallel in striking resemblance those of another relative, Alexei Constantinovich, the great lyric poet, after whom he was named. His father had been a rake—hell cavalry officer, whose rowdy excesses proved too much even for his fellow hussars. He was obliged to leave his regiment and the two capital cities, and retired to an estate in Samara, Russia. There he met and married Alexandra Leontievna Turgenev, a lively girl of good family, but slender means. She bore him two sons, Alexander and Mstislav, and a daughter Elizabeth. But the wild blood of the Tolstoys did not allow him to settle down to an existing domestic harmony. Within a year the retired hussar had been exiled to Kostroma for insulting the Governor of Samara. When strings were eventually pulled to arrange his return, he celebrated it by provoking a fellow-noble to a duel. This was more than his high-spirited wife could stand. She found life intolerable with the turbulent Count and inevitably fell in love with a staid, kindly young gentleman of suitably liberal and anti-aristocratic proclivities named Alexei Appollonovich Bostrom. In May 1882, already two months pregnant with her fourth child, Alexandra fled into the arms of her lover. The scandal that followed was appalling. The Count loosed off his revolver at Bostrom and was exculpated by the courts, whilst the ecclesiastical court in granting a divorce ruled that the guilty wife should never be allowed to remarry. In order to keep the expected baby, Alexandra was compelled to assert that it was Bostrom's child. Ostracized by society and even for some years by her own parents, she left with her lover for Nikolaevsk, where he held a modest post in local government.
Early life
Due in part to their rejection by both the Russian nobility and the Church, Aleksei Bostrom and Alexandra Tolstoy raised Aleksei in a staunchly atheistic and anti-monarchist environment. Aleksei would insist in later years that they were also great admirers of the writings of Karl Marx and Georgi Plekhanov.
Although he was officially registered as the son of Count Tolstoy, until the age of thirteen, Aleksey had lived under the name of Bostrom and never suspected that Aleksey Bostrom was not his biological father. Even after learning the truth, he still considered Aleksey Bostrom his true father and refused ever to see Count Nikolai Tolstoy or his older siblings.
Nikolai Tolstoy comments that
As with so many Russian children at that time, little Alexei picked up his earliest education at home. There were lessons with his not over-strict tutor, his mother taught him to read and write, and his step-father read aloud to them in the evenings from the writings of Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev (to both of whom Alexei was related through his parents). His attention was perfunctory, and in his earliest years it was his imagination and dreams which absorbed his energy. His mother was an amateur writer and poetess of modest abilities but infectious enthusiasm. When he was ten, she urged Alexei to write stories. He did so, and both were delighted to find how easily prose flowed from his pen, despite his inattentiveness at formal instruction. His mother's encouragement bore swift fruit, and with every year his talent became more apparent.
In 1896, the fourteen-year-old boy was sent to school, and in the following year he attended the high school in Samara. There he studied physics, chemistry, engineering, and other more practical subjects than he would have learned had he attended the aristocratic gymnasium. That he resented the unjust discrepancy is attested by his adoption of his true surname.
After his family sold their farm and moved to Samara, the family's meagre finances were even further reduced. There were still benefits for Aleksei, however. Samara possessed a large public library, where the young boy first encountered the adventure stories of James Fenimore Cooper, Jules Verne, Thomas Mayne Reid, and Victor Hugo. It was the latter writer who awakened the most enthusiasm in him. Aleksei later wrote,
With angry sweeps of his broom, he dispelled the dreary world of petit-bourgeois existence, and drew me into the world of the Great Man.
In 1900, Count Nikolai Tolstoy died, having left his estranged son with an inheritance of 30,000 rubles and an ancient name. According to biographers, this in itself is a testimony to Alexei's paternity, as a Russian nobleman of the time would never have left such an inheritance to another man's bastard.
St. Petersburg
Nikolai Tolstoy reports that,
Thanks to the unexpected legacy received from his real father, who had died abroad the previous year, Alexei was now able to take up further studies in St. Petersburg. Eager to join the exciting throng of student life, he enrolled in a coaching establishment outside the city. Overcoming his former lethargy, he was soon studying for thirteen hours a day. By September, he had applied himself sufficiently to obtain a place at the St. Petersburg Technological Institute. After the intensive work required to enter, he found life there delightfully free and easy. Attendance at lectures was not compulsory at any case, and increasing political unrest caused alternating student strikes and police closure to disrupt whatever work was in progress. To a boy from Alexei Tolstoy's sheltered upbringing, it was all intoxicatingly exciting. Like most of his comrades, he was hostile to the government and spent much time in heated political discussions. On 12 February 1902, he took part in a protest march on Nevsky Prospekt which was broken up by police and Cossacks, and he was enrolled in the Institute's Social Democratic Party. He was popular with the students, who elected him to their committees. But his enthusiasm for politics was perfunctory and eclectic, and when the Social Democratic Party split into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, he joined neither grouping. He was essentially a liberal humanist at this impressionable stage of his life. He intensely dislike the existing social system, but thought Socialist promises of a coming society as terrestrial heaven too absurd for contemplation.
In June 1902, the nineteen-year-old Aleksei married Julia Rozhansky – the daughter of a provincial doctor – who was also studying in St. Petersburg. After several years of marriage, Aleksei travelled to Dresden, Germany, where he met Sophia Dymshits, the sister of Leo Dymshits, his friend and fellow student. Aleksei was instantly smitten and, desiring to protect his sister's reputation, Leo Dymshits immediately fled with her back to St. Petersburg. Aleksei, however, was not put off.
He also returned to St. Petersburg and began openly pursuing Sophia at her parents' home. Although hopelessly in love, Sophia was well aware that they were both still married to other people. Therefore, she suggested that Aleksei take a trip abroad with his wife before coming to a final decision. After a trip to Italy in the summer of 1907, Aleksei left his horrified wife and infant son and began a common law marriage with Sophia.
Aleksei and Sophia took a "second honeymoon" in Karelia, where the young Count wrote obsessively in a retreat they both christened "The Cat House."
According to Nikolai Tolstoy,
After returning to St. Petersburg from their love-nest, the young couple took the well trodden path to the Russian Mecca, Paris. Whilst there, he heard from Julia that his three-year-old son had died of meningitis, the same dreadful scourge that had struck down his mother. Sophia claimed in a pious official memoir published in Moscow in 1973 that Alexei, 'took the child's death very much to heart.' One may question this. The father, after all, made no attempt to visit his ailing son before his lonely end, nor did he return for the funeral (though he did make another, business journey to Petersburg from Paris). As subsequent events were to show, he could evince extraordinary callousness toward individual members of the human race, whatever his broadly liberal viewpoint toward the species at large.
Within Paris's Russian community, Aleksei's eccentricities quickly caught the notice of other emigres. In Nikolai Tolstoy's account,
Alexei was at pains to stress his Russian origin, appearing everywhere in a fur coat and hat. When spring arrived, he took to more resplendent garb, sporting a top hat and English frock coat. He was beginning to relish the belated discovery that there were distinct advantages to being Count Alexei Tolstoy, now that he was among people who knew nothing of his humiliated upbringing. It was a happy time. Russian poets and painters crowded Paris, and long and noisy sessions continued deep into the night at the restaurant La Closerie des Lilas. There Tolstoy came to know the poet Constantine Balmont, the painter Elizabeth Kruglikova, and the writers Ilya Ehrenburg and Maximilian Voloshin. In August, he wrote to his stepfather that his continued success in writing had earned him extraordinary acclaim among the Paris Russians. The only sour note was scarcely a fair one, 'With such a name, he ought to do better.' Voloshin more shrewdly suggested that Alexei, with his real talent, could profit by it. 'You know, you are an extremely talented and interesting man,' he ventured one day. 'You certainly ought to be the one to carry on the old tradition of the literary, "nest of gentlefolk,"' Tolstoy, he added, should achieve a suitable style and write a massive epic.
Rising star
Aleksei and Sophia returned to Russia in the summer of 1910 and set up house in a flat along Nevsky Prospekt. By this time, Aleksei's writings had earned the praise of Maxim Gorky, who urged his readers to, "look to the new Tolstoy," for a powerful depiction of the collapse of the Russian provincial gentry.
Meanwhile, Aleksei wrote and published his "Trans-Volga" series. According to Sophia,
Usually … Alexei Nikolaevich read them to me, avoiding the presence of visitors. But this time, he was so thrilled with his stories, and so proud of them, that he did not wait for the departure of our guest (a waitress) but came out of his study with the manuscript in his hands and straight into the dining room and, resting his elbows on the back of a chair, stood reading the story. We both responded enthusiastically."
The success of the "Trans-Volga" stories brought further financial stability to Aleksei and Sophia. After another journey to Paris and the birth of their daughter Mariana, the Tolstoy family began renting quarters in the Moscow palace of Prince Scherbatov. As a successful writer, Aleksei and his "wife" were soon in demand at the homes of both titled nobles and newly moneyed industrialists.
Nikolai Tolstoy writes that,
Despite these triumphs, the couple's home life was entering on a troubled period. On holiday in the Crimea in the spring of 1914, Alexei became greatly drawn to a young ballerina, Margarita Kandaurov. The break with Sophia was as abrupt as it had been with Julia. Out on a stroll, Alexei said significantly, 'I feel that this winter you're going to leave me.' Sophia did not reply, but took the hint and departed for another visit to Paris. The baby Mariana was deposited with an aunt. The outbreak of war in August caused Sophia to return to Russia, but though his seventeen-year-old ballerina soon left him, he and his mistress lived separate lives thereafter. Mariana, however, came to live with her father two years later. By December, Tolstoy had established himself with another mistress, Natalia Vasilievna Volkenstein, who was separated from her husband. They did not marry until after the February Revolution, as Natalia was unable to secure a divorce.
White Army
By the time the Romanov Dynasty was replaced by Aleksandr Kerensky's Russian Provisional Government, Aleksei's liaison with Natalia had produced a son, Nikita Tolstoy. At first despising the Bolsheviks, Aleksei once vowed to put out the eyes of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky if they fell into his hands. As a result, he sided with the White Army during the civil war which followed the October Revolution. After the defeat of Wrangel's Army in 1920, the Tolstoys were evacuated from Odessa and settled in Paris as White emigres.
Historian Nikolai Tolstoy writes,
The city was crowded with Russian refugees of every type and class. Princes and generals swept streets, waited on cafes and, if they were lucky, drove taxis. The Tolstoys were no exception amid the general misery. Staying at first with friends, and later in a flat crowded with other Russians, they were totally dependent on what work Natalia could find as a seamstress. Alexei was greatly depressed at this life of privation, which was not many degrees better than that which they had left Moscow to escape. He missed acutely the old life of ease and amusement. The Revolution had come at just the wrong moment. After years of struggle, he had begun to achieve artistic recognition and material success, while here he was worse off than he had been in 1908, when he had only a hundred rubles in the world. Now, as then, he found his refuge in, 'the troubled waters of literature.'
While living in France, Aleksei began writing a lengthy historical novel titled, The Road to Calvary, which tracked the period from 1914 to 1919 including the Russian Civil War. He also wrote several plays. However, by 1921, he was bothered by the Gallicisms appearing in his son's spoken Russian language. Declaring that his son was becoming a foreigner, Aleksei moved the family to Berlin, which was then one of the main centers of the Russian diaspora. While there, he eventually began collaborating with Maxim Gorky on the Pro-Soviet journal Nakanune.
Ilya Ehrenburg later recalled,
There was a place in Berlin that reminded one of Noah's Ark, where the clean and unclean met peacefully; it was called the House of Arts and was just a common German café where Russian writers gathered on Fridays. Stories were read aloud by Tolstoy, Remizov, Lidin, Pilnyak, Sokolov-Mikitov. Mayakovsky declaimed. Yesenin, Marina Tsvetayeva, Andrei Bely, Pasternak, Khodasevich recited poetry... On one occasion, E. Chirikov came in, sat down next to Mayakovsky, and listened quietly. Today this strikes me as almost incredible. Two or three years later, the poet Khodasevich (to say nothing of Chirikov) would not have dreamt of entering a place where Mayakovsky was present. Apparently, not all the dice had been cast yet. There were people who called Gorky the 'semi emigre'. Khodasevich, who later worked on the monarchist newspaper Vozrozhdeniye (Regeneration), edited a literary journal with Gorky and talked of going back to Russia. Alexey Tolstoy, surrounded by Smena Vekh (Change of Landmark) people, alternately praised the Bolsheviks as, 'unifiers of the Russian land,' and indulged in angry abuse. The fog was still swirling.
Eventually, however, Aleksei reached an end to his impasse. According to Ehrenburg,
Alexey Tolstoy sat in silent gloom puffing at his pipe, then, suddenly appeased, he would break into a smile. He once said to me, 'You'll see, no literature will come out of the emigration. Emigration can kill any author within two or three years.' He knew that he would soon be going home.
In May 1923, Aleksei returned to Russia for a brief visit and received a hero's welcome. After addressing packed audiences about, "the contemptible nature of the White emigration," he returned to Berlin to put his affairs in order.
In his farewell editorial printed in Nakanune, Aleksei wrote,
I am leaving with my family for the homeland forever. If there are people here abroad close to me, my words are addressed to them. Do I go to happiness? Oh, no: Russia is going through hard times. Once again she is enveloped by a wave of hatred... I am going home to a hard life.
Writing in 1983, Nikolai Tolstoy commented,
In fact, he never experienced the 'hard life' of which he wrote, and it seems certain that he never expected to do so. Clearly, he would not have contemplated return without the motives already noted: a profound patriotism and nostalgie de la boue. It was probably Mayakovsky who finally persuaded him to take the crucial step in Berlin, together with overtures from members of the Soviet diplomatic mission. (Some fifteen years ago, I received a similarly flattering invitation from a high Soviet official). They would certainly have assured him as to the social status that an artist would enjoy in a society where the artist was for the first time freed from the degrading shackles of bourgeois patronage. On a more prosaic note it was clear that Mayakovsky and artists like him enjoyed a comfortable standard of life, unaffected by the appalling tribulations suffered by ordinary Russians.
In 1937, Tolstoy was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.
Tolstoy became a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1939.
Alexey Nikolaevitch Tolstoy was credited by Counsellor Smirnov, a Soviet prosecution lawyer at the Nuremberg Trials of being the first person to 'ascertain without reasonable doubt' the use of gas vans by the Nazis to commit genocide. Approximately 600,000 people were murdered by the Nazis in gas vans during World War II. 153,000 at Chelmno extermination camp, Poland, where the gas vans were the main tool of Nazi genocide. He died on 23 February 1945 in Moscow.
The following is from trial transcript of 19 February 1946: "the mass extermination of people in gas vans was ascertained without reasonable doubt for the first time in the report of the Extraordinary State Commission on atrocities of the German occupiers in the Stavropol region. This document was submitted to the Tribunal by me earlier as Exhibit Number USSR-1 (Document USSR-1). Investigation of the crimes committed by the German fascists in the Stavropol region was directed by a prominent Soviet writer and member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Academician Alexey Nikolaevitch Tolstoy, who now is deceased."
Tolstoy's relatives were sure the reason for his death of cancer was his work in the Extraordinary commission. For example, he had to witness pits full of bones of victims.
Aleksey Tolstoy is credited with having produced some of the earliest works of science fiction in the Russian language. His novels Aelita (1923) about a journey to Mars and The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (1927) have gained immense public popularity. The former spawned a pioneering sci-fi movie in 1924. His supernatural short story "Count Cagliostro" also inspired the 1984 film Formula of Love. In addition, several other movies released throughout the history of the USSR were based on Tolstoy's novels.
Tolstoy also penned several books for children, starting with Nikita's Childhood, a memorable account of his early years (the book is sometimes mistakenly believed to be about his son, Nikita; in truth, however, he only used the name because it was his favorite – and he would later give it to his eldest son). Most notably, in 1936, he created an adaptation of the famous Italian fairy tale about Pinocchio entitled the Adventures of Buratino or The Golden Key, whose main character, Buratino, quickly became hugely popular among the Soviet populace.
In 1974, a minor planet was discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova and named 3771 Alexejtolstoj after the Red Count.
According to his distant relative, the conservative author, historian and ardent monarchist Nikolai Tolstoy,
Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy's life remains in large part an enigma... It is not hard to believe that the degrading personal role he undertook in Soviet society exerted a damaging effect on his creative capacity. His personal character was without question beneath contempt, reflecting as it did the pitiful morality of many contemporary European intellectuals. His friend Ilya Ehrenburg wrote once that Tolstoy would do anything for a quiet life, and his personal philosophy rose no higher than this confessio vitae, uttered when an exile in Paris: 'I only know this: the thing that I loathe most of all is walking in town with empty pockets, looking in shop windows without the possibility of buying anything – that's real torture for me.' There was no lie, betrayal, or indignity which he would not hasten to commit in order to fill those empty pockets, and in Stalin he found a worthy master. Few families have produced a higher literary talent than Leo Tolstoy, but few have sunk to one as degraded as Alexei Nikolaevich.
Professor Gleb Struve, a former White Army soldier and committed anti-Communist, made the following assessment of the writer in 1941
Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy is, without doubt, one of the most gifted Russian writers of the 20th century…But—and this is the point—this man, endowed with so many extraordinary gifts and sharing the heritage of the great age of Russian literature, lacks one quality which distinguished all of the great Russian poets and writers : a sense of moral and social responsibility. His essence is that of a cynic and opportunist. After about five years' exile in Berlin, during which he professed to be a monarchist, he returned to Russia. His subsequent change over from monarchism to communism was too quick and effortless to be sincere. He surpassed his less able colleagues in the art of glorifying Stalin by drawing subtle analogies between the latter and Peter the Great. He made a rapid career, became one of the leaders of the officially sponsored Association of Authors, and was recently awarded the highest academic distinction in Russia, the Stalin Prize...I think this is sufficient to show that Alexei has not got a grain of that grandeur which made his namesake the undisputed moral authority in Russia, of whom even the most obscurantist Tsarist Ministers were afraid. No one in Russia, not even Alexei's most ardent admirers (and there are many), would dream of putting him into the same category as that great, sincere and fiery old heretic, Leo Tolstoy. There is, therefore, nothing remarkable in the fact that this brilliant and faithful bard of Stalin was called upon to extol Pan-Slavism, if that is what his master wanted.
Selected works
- Lirika, a poetry collection (1907)
- The Ordeal (1918)
- Nikita's Childhood (1921)
- The Road to Calvary, a trilogy (1921–40, Stalin Prize in 1943)
- Aelita (1923)
- The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (aka The Garin Death Ray) (1926)
- Peter I (1929–34, Stalin Prize in 1941)
- A Week in Turenevo (published posthumously, 1958)
- "Count Cagliostro" (supernatural short story)


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Sound corporate earnings, cheap valuations and Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization make the country's equity market stand out among its emerging-market peers, fund mangers say.
Russian stocks, for example, are the cheapest among the equity markets of the BRICcountries – Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Brazil, India and China trade at about 11 times, 15 times and 9 times forward earnings respectively, while Russian shares trade at just 4 times. U.S. fund manager BlackRock, for one, thinks that this makes Russian equities a good buy.
"Those types of valuations are indicative of markets like Pakistan. Actually it's cheaper," Russ Koesterich, Global Chief Investment Strategist for BlackRock iShares, told CNBC Asia's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday.
"While there is no lack of issues surrounding Russia, it is very hard to argue that those are not already reflected in the price," he added.
Russia's entry into the WTO, expected on Wednesday, strengthens the long-term case for Russian equities, Koesterich said.
Russian shares have put in a decent performance so far this year, with the main Micex Index gaining about 6.7 percent. This compares with Indian equities, which have climbed 15.5 percent and Brazilian shares, which have risen 3.8 percent. Chinese equities , on the other hand, have fallen 4 percent.
Companies on the main index have stayed "remarkably profitable" as well, Koesterich said, adding that the return-on-equity for the main Russian index is 21 percent.
The accession of Russia into the WTO could further boost opportunities for foreign investors, as they would start perceiving the country as less risky, said WTO Director General Pascal Lamy in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. Higher investments will follow Russia's entry to the WTO but it will take time, Lamy said.
"The experience with previous accessions, whether it's China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Ukraine in recent years, shows that it's not a Big Bang effect," Lamy said. "It takes time, but the most immediate consequence you usually see is on the investment side. Joining the WTO for a country is sort of getting a quality label which investors worldwide usually see as a reduction in risk premium."
Russia's $1.9 trillion economy is the world's ninth-largest and it has among the world's biggest natural gas and oil reserves. U.S. companies have been stepping up efforts to access that market, with key business group National Foreign Trade Council saying it will press Congress to approve so-called "permanent normal trade relations" with Russia.
Indeed, billionaire investor Jim Rogers said he is starting to look at Russia in a new light especially after President Vladimir Putin's recent vow to make Russia friendlier to foreign investors. Putin vowed when he assumed office in June that he would increase investment from its current level of 20 percent of GDP to 27 percent by 2018.
"I had been a huge skeptic of Russia since it broke up, since the Soviet Union broke up," Rogers told CNBC Asia's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday. "I'm starting, to my own astonishment, to question my own views on Russia and looking more favorably on Russia. I am not an investor there yet, but I am starting to consider it for the first time in my life."
BlackRock's Koesterich however warned that Russia is not for everyone and that uncertainty may continue for some time.
"It is by no means easy money, "he said. "I think you have to expect a rocky ride and a lot of volatility. But for investors willing to weather some risk, this is a really interesting opportunity."
- By CNBC's Jean Chua.


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Rate Limiting with Nginx
On this page
This article explains how to use the nginx HttpLimitReqModule to limit the number of requests for a given session. This is useful, for example, if your site is hammered by a bot doing multiple requests per second and thus increasing your server load. With the HttpLimitReqModule you can define a rate limit, and if a visitor exceeds this rate, he will get a 503 error.
1 Using The HttpLimitReqModule
Open your nginx.conf...
nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
... and define an area where the session states are stored - this must go inside the http {} container:
http { [...] limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=one:10m rate=1r/s; [...] }
This area is called one and is allocated 10MB of storage. Instead of the variable $remote_addr, we use the variable $binary_remote_addr which reduces the size of the state to 64 bytes. There can be about 16,000 states in a 1MB zone, so 10MB allows for about 160,000 states, so this should be enough for your visitors. The rate is limited to one request per second. Please note that you must use integer values here, so if you'd like to set the limit to half a request per second, you'd use 30r/m (30 requests per minute).
To put this limit to work, we use the limit_req directive. You can use this directive in http {}, server {}, and location {} containers, but in my opinion, it is most useful in location {} containers that pass requests to your app servers (PHP-FPM, mongrel, etc.) because otherwise, if you load a single page with lots of images, CSS, and JavaScript files, you would probably exceed the given rate limit with a single page request.
So let's put this in a location ~ \.php$ {} container:
[...] location ~ \.php$ { try_files $uri =404; fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$; fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock; fastcgi_index index.php; include fastcgi_params; limit_req zone=one burst=5; } [...]
limit_req zone=one burst=5; specifies that this rate limit belongs to the session storage area we defined before (because of zone=one) which means the rate limit is 1r/s. You can imagine the meaning of the burst option as a kind of queue. It means that if you exceed the rate limit, the following requests are delayed, and only if you have more requests waiting in the queue than specified in the burst parameter, will you get a 503 error (e.g. like this:
If you don't want to use this queue (i.e. deliver a 503 immediately if someone exceeds the rate limit), you must use the nodelay option:
[...] location ~ \.php$ { try_files $uri =404; fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$; fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock; fastcgi_index index.php; include fastcgi_params; limit_req zone=one burst=5 nodelay; } [...]
Don't forget to reload nginx to make your changes take effect:
systemctl nginx reload
2 Links
- nginx: https://nginx.org/
- HttpLimitReqModule: http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_limit_req_module.html


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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday struggled with what one of the justices called its most important criminal procedure case in decades, whether to let police take DNA from those arrested, but not convicted, in hopes of using it to solve old cases.
Justices seemed conflicted over whether police have a right to take genetic information from people who have only been arrested but not yet convicted of a crime without getting a judge's approval first, or if the government's interest in solving cold cases trumped the immediate privacy rights of those under police suspicion of other crimes.
One justice seemed to make clear what he thought, with Justice Samuel Alito, a former prosecutor calling the arguments the court's "most important criminal procedure case" in decades.
Alito compared DNA swabbing to fingerprinting, saying police can use the genetic information of suspects in the same way they do the inked impression of suspects' fingers — to identify the person and match that person to older crimes that haven't yet been solved. "Why isn't this fingerprinting of the 21st century?" he said.
Getting DNA swabs from criminals is common. All 50 states and the federal government take cheek swabs from convicted criminals to check against federal and state databanks, with the court's blessing. But now 28 states and the federal government now also take samples from people who have been arrested for various crimes, long before their guilt or innocence has been proven.
According to court documents, the FBI's Combined DNA Index System or CODIS — a coordinated system of federal, state and local databases of DNA profiles — contains more than 10 million criminal profiles and 1.1 million arrestee profiles.
In the case before the court, a 53-year-old woman was raped and robbed but no one was arrested. Almost six years later, Alonzo King was arrested and charged with felony second-degree assault. Taking advantage of a Maryland law that allowed DNA tests following some felony arrests, police took a cheek swab of King's DNA which matched a sample from the 2003 Salisbury rape. King was convicted of rape and sentenced to life in prison.
King eventually pled guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor assault, a crime for which Maryland cannot take DNA samples. The state courts said it violated King's rights for the state to take his DNA based on an arrest alone.
The state Court of Appeals said King had "a sufficiently weighty and reasonable expectation of privacy against warrantless, suspicionless searches." The Supreme Court is reviewing that decision.
King's lawyer, Kannon K. Shanmugam, said governments are using the "Just Trust Us" defense by saying that they will only use the information provided in DNA swabs for identification and cold-case matching, and that people who have not been convicted of a crime deserve the ability to keep their genetic information private. But Chief Justice John Roberts noted that people leave behind DNA behind all the time.
"You disclose all of this intimate private information when you take a drink of water" at a police station, Roberts noted.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, usually a swing vote on the court, compared the DNA swab to police patting a person down after an arrest, something they don't need a warrant to do. "Does the justice system have an interest in knowing whether the person committed other crimes," he asked Shanmugam several times.
The final decision may not fall along the usual ideological lines.
Justice Antonin Scalia cut off Maryland Chief Deputy Attorney General Katherine Winfree when she started listing the number of cases DNA testing helped the state solve. Unreasonable searches and seizures would also help solve cases, said Scalia, usually a reliable conservative vote.
"That proves absolutely nothing," he said. Scalia noted later that "the Fourth Amendment sometimes stands in the way" of crime solving.
On the other side, the usually liberal voting Justice Stephen Breyer seemed to think that DNA cheek swabs were no more intrusive than fingerprinting. "It's hard to say it's more," he said at one point.
Winfree also argued that technology will soon give the police the ability to get results back from DNA swabs within minutes, instead of the days it takes now, just like fingerprints. But "how can I base a decision today on what you say is going to happen in two years?" Roberts said.
The justices will make a decision later this year.


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BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China has sentenced 55 people for their involvement in anti-government protests that broke out in Tibet in March, state media reported Wednesday.
Following the riots in Lhasa, Chinese police detained about 1,300 people, the Xinhua news agency said. About 1,100 of them were later released.
The rest were put on trial.
Xinhua did not say what the 55 sentenced Wednesday were charged with or what sentences they received.
It also did not say whether the group included 30 people convicted in April of arson, robbery and attacking government offices in connection with the riots. Those people received sentences ranging from three years to life.
The anti-Chinese protests, initiated by Buddhist monks, began peacefully in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on March 14 -- the anniversary of a failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule that sent Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile in northern India.
The protests soon turned violent, with demonstrators burning vehicles and shops.
Some protesters advocated independence from China, while others demonstrated against the growing influence of ethnic Han Chinese in Tibet and other regions of China with ethnic Tibetan populations.
The subsequent crackdown left 18 civilians and one police officer dead, according to the Chinese government. Tibet's self-proclaimed government-in-exile put the death toll from the protests at 140.
Beijing blamed the Dalai Lama and his followers for the riots.
The Dalai Lama has said he does not advocate violence or a separate and independent Tibet. He has said he wants a genuine autonomy that preserves the cultural heritage of Tibet.
All About Tibet • China • Chinese Politics • Dalai Lama


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We've told you what you need to know about iTunes Match. But we're also happy to share with you some secrets of iTunes Match that you don't absolutely need to know, yet might enjoy knowing anyway. Trust that tucking these tidbits away will make you the star of every party—at least parties where everyone sits around and talks about the nuances of iTunes Match.
Downloaded songs are automatically removed to make extra space
When you tap to play a song on your iTunes Match-enabled iOS device, the song gets cached. That way, if you tap to play, say, "Je Suis Rick Springfield" by Jonathan Coulton on your iPhone today, the song won't need to get downloaded all over again when you tap to play it again tomorrow. Similarly, you can tap to download complete playlists or albums on your iOS device; maybe you'd do so while on Wi-Fi so that you could hear all of Coulton's latest album later during your commute home, without gobbling up your data plan.
Of course, one of the benefits of iTunes Match is that you can free up extra space on your iOS devices by not syncing your entire library. Once you start downloading lots of songs as you play them back, does that advantage vanish? In a word: No. In more words: With iTunes Match enabled, your iOS device will automatically remove some downloaded songs over time. The algorithm is smart—older and least-played tracks are removed first.
Apple hasn't clarified under precisely which circumstances songs get removed. Perhaps one day we'll see an option to control how much storage space iTunes Match can use for caching on your device, but no such option exists yet. So while you can manually remove tracks from your iOS device by swiping as if to delete them (which leaves the iCloud-stored track in place, but frees up the few megabytes the song requires), it shouldn't be necessary; your device will take care of eliminating old tracks automatically.
Some songs aren't eligible for iTunes Match, but there is a workaround
iTunes Match won't match very short songs, and it won't match songs encoded with very low bit-rates. I found about 20 tracks in my library that were encoded at laughably low rates; each was marked Not Eligible. (You can find your tracks that iTunes Match won't match by creating a Smart Playlist where iCloud Status is Ineligible and Media Kind is Music.) We haven't found any tricks to start getting iTunes Match to match songs that are shorter than five seconds—though luckily there aren't too many of those. We did, however, come across a workaround for getting the service to match poorly-encoded tunes.
Control-click (or right-click) on the offending song(s) in question, and choose Create AAC Version from the contextual menu that appears. (If you've tweaked iTunes's importing settings, that option may read differently; verify your settings in Preferences -> General -> Import Settings.) iTunes will re-encode the selected tracks with a higher bit-rate. This alone won't improve the quality of the song: It's a bit like using your DSLR camera to take a photograph of a Polaroid picture. But iTunes Match will look at the new track and see a better bit-rate, and will then make the converted track eligible for matching.
Control-click the new version of the track, choose Add to iCloud, and then delete the older version. (Then, of course, use Jason Snell's method for downloading Apple's 256-kbps version of the song.)
iTunes Match offers songs DRM-free, but they're still linked to you
Yes, you can use iTunes Match to download better-encoded versions of songs you already own. And yes, those versions that iTunes Match provides will indeed be free from DRM restrictions. But—not that you ever would consider this, dear reader—think twice before sharing your newly-acquired, high-quality, restriction-free music with the Internet at large: Your iTunes Match downloads, like your iTunes Store purchases, are linked to your good name.
Click on an iCloud-downloaded track in iTunes and choose File -> Get Info, and you'll see your name and iTunes email address as part of the song's metadata. Were you to share your new, better-quality version of "Stacy's Mom" with the Internet at large, and were your copy of that track to explode around the globe through various illegal file-sharing networks, your name and email address may well be attached—and be of considerable interest to Fountains of Wayne (or its record company, or its record company's lawyers).
It's possible and legal to strip that personal data out through various, non-destructive means. Of course, you wouldn't use such an approach—like instructing iTunes to convert the song into another 256-kbps AAC file—for nefarious or illegal purposes.
Songs that are uploaded instead of matched may not be your fault
When iTunes Match can find a copy of your song on Apple's servers, it doesn't bother uploading the song file; Apple already has a clean, well-encoded copy available. When iTunes Match can't match your song, that song gets uploaded to your iTunes Match cloud storage instead.
So, Beatles fans, if you check your Abbey Road album in iTunes, you may well note that every track is listed as Matched save for one: "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window." We're not psychic; rather, we've simply noted across various Macworld editors and friends that—for reasons unknown—that track almost never matches properly unless you bought it from the iTunes Store. (One person in our experimentation did successfully get a ripped copy of the song from a Beatles box set to match successfully.) We've found numerous examples of other songs from all sorts of artists with the same issue: For a given album, some tracks will match and others won't. Since it's frequently the same song that doesn't match for different folks, it's likely that the matching problem is on Apple's end. We've asked Apple for clarification on why the Bathroom Window issue exists, and on whether songs will automatically switch from Uploaded to Matched once Apple corrects any issues on its end, and will report back once the company responds.


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Description of the illustration cncpt288.eps
This figure shows how control flows from a main routine (MT) to an autonomous routine (AT) and back again.
The autonomous routine commits two transactions, AT1 and AT2, before control returns to the main routine. When control enters the executable section of the autonomous routine (BEGIN), the main routine suspends. When control exits the autonomous routine (END), the main routine resumes. COMMIT and ROLLBACK statements in an autonomous routine end the active transaction, but they do not end the autonomous routine.


text:
by Steve Feasey
Pub: April, 2010/Feiwel and Friends
288 pages
Teen Fiction/Urban Fantasy
Fourteen-year-old Trey Laporte is not a kid anymore. Not after the day he wakes up in agony—retina-splitting, vomit-inducing agony. His clothes are torn. His room is trashed.
Enter Lucien Charron, the mysterious, long-lost "uncle" with freakish fire-flecked eyes and skin that blisters in the sun. Suddenly, Trey finds himself living in a luxury penthouse at the heart of a strange and sinister empire built on the powers of the Netherworld—vampires, demons, sorcerers, and djinn.
And there is a girl—Alexa Charron—who is half vampire, half human, and insanely pretty, with powers all of her own. Trey is falling for her.
Trey is training night and day to control the newly discovered power lurking inside him. Now, demons are closing in on every side, and the most psychopathic bloodsucker to rock the Netherworld wants to destroy him. Above all, he must face one terrifying question:
Is he a boy . . . or is he a beast?
This is one of those good news/bad news situations. Wereling is well written with complex characters, imaginative creatures and vivid description. On the other hand, it was slow and lacked action and suspense.
The first 70 to 100 pages sets up the story and that was just too long for me. His uncle has a lot of explaining to do and he takes his time about it. Our hero doesn't even change into a werewolf until half-way through the book.
By the time we find out the big bad guy's dastardly plan I was kind of like "Okay..." There was no build-up, no suspense.
The same problem occurred when they went to his hideout. The bad guy gives them the location of the hideout, they know it's a trap, and we get the old B-Horror Movie trick of building you up....and then nothing happens. Yikes, what could be behind the door? Cue scary music...Oh, nothing's behind the door. Yikes, what's behind that other door? Cue scary music...Oh, nothing again.
Okay, eventually there was something behind the door (metaphor for potential scary moment) but by the time we got to the door that had something frightening, I shrugged a "Whatever" and moved on.
For more on the plus side, Trey and Alexa's romance is cute, although doesn't go anywhere...yet - did I mention the set-up book idea? - the vampire "uncle" (he's really an old friend of Trey's parents) mentoring his werewolf "nephew" was a clever twist, and the monsters are intriguing.
Another great bit is the Demoncylopedia: A Guide to the Netherworld and Its Creatures at the end of the book. It has fascinating history and description of the various creatures and even a blurb on Flora and Fauna of the Netherworld. Very clever and engaging
The Cover: I like it. He looks creepy. You've got the moon in the clouds thing going on and the capitalization of WERE in Wereling is a nice touch. The UK cover is good too - a bit darker and more of a comic book feel.
First Lines: Trey Laporte opened his eyes, wincing against the assault of the late-morning sunshine on his retinas. Sitting up in bed, he clutched his hands to his head as a mortar shell of pain exploded inside his brain.
Bottom Line: Wereling didn't deliver as much action and thrills that I was looking for but for those who aren't as needy in that area, the premise, writing and characters are solid.
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CfP: Performing South Asia at Home and Abroad
Given historical and current events that have shaped South Asia, its diasporas, and the complex identity formations that color its languages, identities, texts, etc., we offer the topic of "performativity" in all its complex manifestations as the conference theme for SALA 2012. Peformativity is a concept and act that has always had relevance to language studies: it is applied in the context of characters in fictional and non-fictional narratives, and has also been used to think about reading and speaking as performative acts that produce cultural objects that are open to myriad interpretations. This theme is also central to thinking about the marginalization of theatre and performance studies within South Asian and Postcolonial Studies, and gives us an opportunity to utilize the knowledge of theatre and performance studies as critical supplements to Postcolonial Studies.
The politics of the stage and its space leads us to the many issues surrounding audience, place, space, locality, state, nation, etc., that have been much debated in critical theory and cultural studies. Such interdisciplinary work on fiction, non-fiction, theatre, and autobiographical narrative not only evinces the importance of critically examining "performativity" in all its familiar and new forms, but also opens up avenues of examining how the performativity of South Asia both challenges and transforms dominant models of what performance actually is and can be. How does the geopolitical positioning of South Asia and its myriad diasporas compel us to re-think perfomativity as it has been traditionally conceived in the West? How might social practices, public figures, and religious rituals complicate the ways we think about performativity? What aspects of performances on the stage leak into the social and political discourses regarding colonialism, post-colonialism and globalization? Does theater represent a more effective intervention in the challenges faced by Dalits, Adivasis, and religious minorities? How might South Asian figures like hijras, courtesans, cross-dressers, sex workers, etc., complicate the constraints of current trends in gender and sexuality studies? How does South Asian fashion, including markers of gender like the bindi, sari, dhoti, etc., act as performative agents aside from Western dress conventions? How are oral and theatre discourses performed in South Asia in ways that would distinguish them from the more familiar models? In what ways does performativity intersect with "actors" on the political stage?
We thus interpret the theme of "performativity" in the broadest and most challenging sense – from performances on the stage to performances in film and media, to performances on the sidewalk, as well as performances of identity and sexuality in fiction, memoir, creative non-fiction, and autobiography. Indeed, the SALA 2012 conference aims to question the very meaning of performance and its multiple possibilities within the network of power relations that attend ethnic or religious identifications, gender, sexuality, and place. Paper topics may include but are not limited to the following:
· Bollywood and other popular cinema trends in South Asia and around the world
· Staged Theatre Performances and their Relationship to Nationalism, Caste, Race, Class, etc.
· Indigenous Traditions of Mourning and Celebration (rudalis, sangeet, bhangra, etc.)
· Individual Authors, Playwrights, Directors, and Actors
· Performance and Pedagogy: the South Asian Body in the Classroom
· Performativity and Politics: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Queer Studies
· Transnational Performativity in the South Asian Diaspora: The Liminal and the Exotic
· Performance in Relation to Print Cultures (Novel, Film & Mass Media), Language, & Dialect
· Courtesans, Cross-dressers, Hijras, Drag, and other forms of genderplay
· Dalit & Budhan Theatre, Street Performances, Popular Theater
· South Asian and Diasporic Music and Performance (M.I.A., Cornershop, Jay Sean, etc.)
· Comparative Analyses of Performance in Novels, Life Narratives, Plays, and/or Films
· Identity Performance and Popular and Marginal South Asian Fashions
· South Asian Poetic Traditions: Ghazals, Mushaira, Kawwali, Humor and Satire
· Ghazal as a Poetic Genre in North America: The Shadow of Agha Shahid Ali
· South Asian Comedians in North America
· Performative Aspects of Language, Speech, and Translation
· Folklore/Myth in South Asia
· Re-thinking History and its Representations
· Representations of South Asia and its Diasporas in Television, Cinema, Animation, and Online Media (Outsourced, The Simpsons, YouTube videos, etc.).
· "DesiDesigns" – tone, function, fashion, form, and graphic design in South Asian Studies.
Please e-mail 300-word paper proposals in MSWord format to the 2012 Conference Co-Chairs by Sunday, July 31, 2011. Proposals for panels, roundtables, and short performances are also welcome. The Co-Chairs are happy to answer any questions or offer suggestions over e-mail regarding your proposals-in-progress.
Dr. Nandi Bhatia, University of Western Ontario, Canada; firstname.lastname@example.com
Dr. Rahul K. Gairola, University of Washington & Cornish College of the Arts; firstname.lastname@example.com


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flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
Bosnia, with its mixed ethnic population, never developed distinctive national symbols of its own. Under communist-led Yugoslavia from 1946 to 1991–92, for example, the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina simply used a red banner with a small version of the Yugoslav national flag in the canton. At the time independence was proclaimed on March 3, 1992, no flag existed that was acceptable to the country's Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats. The Bosnian-dominated government therefore adopted what it hoped would be a neutral symbol from the far past. It chose the coat of arms used by King Stjepan Tomaš (reigned 1443–61), which it attributed to the greatest medieval Bosnian ruler, Tvrtko I (1377–91). That blue shield with a white diagonal stripe separating six golden fleurs-de-lis was placed in the centre of a white flag. The artistic rendition, officially adopted on May 4, 1992, was created by Zvonimir Bebek.
This flag was rejected by many Croats and Serbs as the nation slipped into civil war. Peace accords signed in Dayton, Ohio, U.S., in late 1995 recognized the division of the country between the Serb Republic and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, often called the Croat-Muslim federation. Each state had its own symbols, and the Croats continued to use the Croatian flag in preference to the federation flag, but the republic's flag of 1992 was still recognized internationally.
The 1995 accords called for the eventual creation of a flag to replace the 1992 design, but the national legislature was ineffectual in this regard. Thus the United Nations established a new flag (February 4, 1998) that could not be symbolically linked to a single ethnic, religious, or political group.


text: Bio After I received a university degree in business, I followed my longtime passion for making pictures and I was educated in photography at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. I not only developed a sharp eye for detail, beauty and functionality, I fine-tuned my technical skills and also discovered a talent for making photographic subjects feel comfortable in front of the lens. Since launching my career, I have shot for People Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, House Beautiful, Japan Vogue, Comcast Networks, NBC, TV Land, The Oprah Winfrey Network, The CW, Showtime, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Bravo, AMC, MTV, TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, Ekadoo and many other clients. As a portrait photographer, I shoot many celebrities in their homes and favorite restaurants and my easy-going manner and great sense of humor puts everyone at ease-setting the groundwork for capturing the best images. I like photographing these stories because it allows me to show my creative side for shooting portraits and interiors in the same shots. Balancing the interior light and light on the subject is critical to making the shot a portrait first, while I also must show enough of the home to satisfy readers 'voyeuristic tendencies." In addition to editorial assignments, I shoot for advertising and my new passion dog photography. I am also a member of the Still Photographers Union with the Local 600 International Cinematographers Guild and I have experience with photographing episodic photography.


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December 15, 2005 – Hitachi Displays Ltd. said yesterday it has developed a high-resolution liquid crystal display for cellphones, expecting strong demand for handset screens suitable for new digital television services for mobile users, reports the Jiji Press. The company, wholly owned by Hitachi Ltd. , plans to start sample shipments of the new LCD in January and mass production in June.
Hitachi Displays will produce the new LCD at a plant in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, with a monthly output capacity of several million units. The company expects that handsets equipped with the new LCD will be commercialized in summer 2006 at the earliest.
The new display boasts a brightness level 50% higher than existing displays and a contrast ratio twice as high and it realizes an unusually wide viewing angle. These features are expected to be favored by users who want to watch TV on their handsets.
The digital TV services for mobile phones are scheduled to begin in April 2006 in limited areas, with its coverage expected to be extended nationwide within the year.