text:
Downloading Files from IRC/File Server (fserve) Guide
How do I access file servers? Edit
To access a file server you need to have your IRC client set up properly to receive files and you need the CTCP trigger for the file server you are trying to access.
What is a CTCP trigger? Edit
A CTCP (Client-To-Client-Protocol) trigger is a special type of message that is sent between IRC clients usually in request for specific information. A CTCP trigger usually looks something like " /ctcp [nickname] [trigger]". Basically a trigger is a message you send to another IRC user's client for information about it. For example, if I wanted to know what IRC client Danno123 was using, I would type "/ctcp Danno123 version" and his client would send me something like "mIRC v6.21 Khaled Mardam-Bey" as an automated response.
How do CTCP triggers work in relation to file servers? Edit
A file server CTCP trigger is a request sent to someone running a file server for permission to access the list of available files they have for you to download. When you type a file server's CTCP trigger, if it is online and not being used by someone else, it will respond by trying to start a DCC chat session with you to share the list of files it is serving.
How do I get the CTCP trigger for a file server? Edit
To obtain a CTCP trigger you would type "!list" in the channel window the file server is in. After typing "!list", all active file servers in the channel responding to "!list" will send you a private message with their status and CTCP trigger(s) to access them.
Here is an example of three file server ads that might be displayed after typing "!list".
<File Server Online> Trigger:[/ctcp Danno Dannos awesome
stuff!] Next
send:[in 1hrs
36mins] Accessed:[4763 times] O:[0/5] S:[1/1] Q:[10/10] .<UPP>.
-Vega|serv- [Fserve Active] - Triggers:[/ctcp Vega|serv sound packs & /ctcp Vega|serv is the best] - Users:[2/5] - Sends:[0/1] - Queues:[0/30] - Message:[/dccserver +sc on 59 || voiced users only] - SysReset 2.53
-TracerFX- [Fserve Active] - Triggers:[/ctcp TracerFX collection 1 & /ctcp TracerFX collection 2 & /ctcp TracerFX collection 3] - Users:[0/4] - Sends:[2/2] - Queues:[3/10] - Record CPS:[44.1kB/s by Borego] - Bytes Sent:[19.6GB] - Files Sent:[122] - Accesses:[763] - Upload Speed:[53.4kB/s] - Download Speed:[67.5kB/s]
Ok, I see the ads, but which ones the CTCP trigger? Edit
The trigger is usually the text after "Trigger" or "Triggers" contained between the
"[" and "]" brackets.
For example, the file server ad below:
-TracerFX- [Fserve Active] - Triggers:[/ctcp TracerFX collection 1 & /ctcp TracerFX collection 2 & /ctcp TracerFX collection 3] - Users:[0/4] - Sends:[2/2] - Queues:[3/10] - Record CPS:[44.1kB/s by Borego] - Bytes Sent:[19.6GB] - Files Sent:[122] - Accesses:[763] - Upload Speed:[53.4kB/s] - Download Speed:[67.5kB/s]
Has three different triggers you could use:
/ctcp TracerFX
collection 1
/ctcp TracerFX collection 2
/ctcp TracerFX collection 3
How do I use the trigger? Edit
Simply type the trigger into the network server window (tab with the networks name on it) and the file server should initiate a DCC chat session.
Example, I'd type:
/ctcp TracerFX collection 1
After typing the trigger, I would receive a DCC chat offer from TracerFX, after that I would accept the offer and browse TracerFX's file server.
How do I find out what is on a file server and how do I download from it? Edit
There are two common types of files servers run on IRC, the most popular one uses a command prompt style interface. The command prompt style interface will probably look like gibberish to you at first if your are unfamiliar with the DOS\UNIX command line. The second most common file server type uses a number-letter style interface (and may also accept the command prompt syntax as well). If you have ever used an automated voice messaging service (think of a 1-800 style support line), you should not have too much trouble understanding this type.
Command Prompt Style File Servers Edit
After entering the trigger "/ctcp
TracerFX collection 1", as in the example above and accepting the DCC
chat offer, you would receive a message similar to this...
<TracerFX> -=SysReset 2.3=- FileServer
<TracerFX> NOTICE: If you leave this channel all sends, gets, and fservs will be stopped.
<TracerFX> Transfer Status: Sends:[0/1] - Queues:[0/30]
<TracerFX> Minimum CPS is: 5000
<TracerFX> Maximum CPS is: 10000
<TracerFX> This server will auto-close after 1min 30secs.
<TracerFX> SysReset v2.3 File Server
<TracerFX> Use: cd, clr_queue, clr_queues, dir, exit, get, help, queues, quit, say, sends, stats, swap, who
<TracerFX> [\]
<TracerFX> SysReset 2.53
Notice the line that says: "Use: cd, clr_queue..."? That is the list of available commands you can use with this particular file server. The only ones you really need to familiarize yourself with in order to download are "dir", "cd", "get", and "exit".
dir: displays a list of all files and sub-directories inside the current directory
cd: change directory, use this to enter (cd "sub-directory-name") and exit (cd ..) sub-directories
get: request a filename from a file server (get filename.extension)
exit: disconnect from a file server
Here is an example of these commands in use with the file server in the example above:
To display the list of files I would type "dir" and the file server would
respond with:
<TracerFX> ..
<TracerFX> LATEST STABLE BUILD
<TracerFX> BETA BUILDS
<TracerFX> NIGHTLY BUILDS
<TracerFX> readme.txt 3 kb
<TracerFX> tutorial 1.avi 25.3 mb
<TracerFX> tutorial 2.avi 42.4 mb
<TracerFX> End of list.
To enter the directory named "NIGHTLY BUILDS" I would type "cd NIGHTLY BUILDS" which would give me:
<TracerFX> SysReset 2.53
<TracerFX> [\NIGHTLY BUILDS]
To find out what's in the directory named "NIGHTLY BUILDS", I would again type
"dir" which would give me:
<TracerFX> ..
<TracerFX> Logo.jpg
<TracerFX> 20080214.zip 82.4 MB
<TracerFX> 20080218.zip 83.7 MB
<TracerFX> Install Guide.txt 4 kb
<TracerFX> End of list.
Since I do not want any of these files, so I would back to the previous
directory by typing "cd .." and
would get:
<TracerFX SysReset 2.53
<TracerFX [\]
I can list the contents of this directory again by typing "dir", which (yet again) displays:
<TracerFX> ..
<TracerFX> LATEST STABLE BUILD
<TracerFX> BETA BUILDS
<TracerFX> NIGHTLY BUILDS
<TracerFX> readme.txt 3 kb
<TracerFX> tutorial 1.avi 25.3 mb
<TracerFX> tutorial 2.avi 42.4 mb
<TracerFX> End of list.
When I know which file I want to download, "tutorial 1.avi", I would tell the file server to send it to me by typing:
get tutorial 1.avi
If the file server could send me the file immediately, I would see something
<TracerFX> DCC Send tutorial 1.avi (126.96.36.1997)
- TracerFX has offered tutorial 1.avi (25309024 bytes)
- DCC RECV connection established to TracerFX [188.8.131.527:9001]
If the file server could not send me the file immediately (if someone else
was downloading something off of it) it would place me in its queue:
<TracerFX> Adding your file to queue slot 14. The file will send when the next send slot is open.
And since the file server in this example only has one send slot (Sends:[0/1]) I would have to wait until the thirteen people in front of me finished downloading before it would send me the file.
After I finished telling the file server what file I would like to download, I would type "exit" or simply close the window.
Number-Letter Style File Servers Edit
Just like with the other file server, to gain access you enter the CTCP
trigger "/ctcp Danno Dannos awesome
stuff!", but the DCC chat message will look a little different from
<Danno> Ultra Protection Project v2.00 final - by KyD
<Danno> Welcome [12.34.567.89], you are the [75th person] to access my fserve
<Danno> Dccwatch:(off) Instasend max.size:(5.00MB) Idletime:(60 secs) Timeout:(600 secs) Min.cps:(off) Max.cps:(off)
<Danno> O:[1/6] S:[1/1] Q:[6/10] [Your Sends]: 0/1 [Your Queues]: 0/1 [Your Priority]: 0
<Danno> Commands: cd, clr_fqueues, clr_queue, clr_queues, dir, failq, find
<Danno> get, help, my_queues, pwd, queues, quit, sends, stats, time, who
And as with the command prompt file server type, I type "dir" to bring up the list of directories:
<Danno> 1d : mega-collection
<Danno> 2d : more stuff
<Danno> 3d : much more stuff
This is where the likeness ends with the other file server type. Notice the numbers-letter combinations in front of the directories? Instead of typing "cd more stuff" to see what the directory has in it, all I would need to do is type the number letter combo in front of it, 2d.
After typing the combo, I the server will list the contents of that particular directory:
[more stuff]
<Danno> 0D: ..
<Danno> 1F: cooking with fire.mpg 96MB
<Danno> 2F: fun with frisbees.txt 175MB
<Danno> 3F: some neat clip 01.avi 180MB
<Danno> 4F: release schedule.txt 17KB
Again, instead of having to type "get
some neat clip 01.avi" to let the file server know what I wanted to
download, all I would have to do is type the letter-number combination in
front of it, "3F". After typing
the files combo, the server would send me a message confirming my choice:
<Danno> queuing [some neat clip 01.avi 180MB]. it has been placed in queue slot [7], it will send when sends are available
To go back to the previous directory, I type the letter-number combination in front of the line labeled".." instead of "cd ..". In the above example it would be "0D".
And again, I exit the file-server by typing "exit" or closing the fservs DCC chat window.
Note: You do not have to to leave the chat session open for your file to download but many file servers do require that you stay in the same channel that the file server is in until the download is finished.
How does the "@find" trigger work? Edit
The syntax for this trigger is "@find search-query-here" where "search-query-here" would be the keyword(s) you are looking for. The "@find" trigger works almost the same as "!list", except only fserv's serving files names with the terms you are searching for will respond.
If I were looking for someone serving a file that contained either "potato" or "floss" I would type:
@find potato floss
And an fserv that had a file with one of these two terms would in its name would send me a PM with something like:
[@Find Results] -=SysReset 2.53=-
<Danno> Found [2] files on Trigger:[/ctcp Danno Dannos awesome stuff!] - Sends:[0/2] - Queues:[0/50]
<Danno> File: [Teeth\Proper flossing technique.mkv] - Size [840.2MB]
<Danno> File: [War\Potato Gun ATTACK.avi] - Size [30.7MB]
<Danno> End of @Find.
In the example above, I'm not only given the trigger to use to access the file server "/ctcp Danno Dannos awesome stuff!" but the file location and name as well, [Directory\Filename.some-extension].
Keep in mind that "@find" is not always reliable as many file servers are not set up to respond to the trigger and will not PM you even if they have a file with one of your search terms in its name.
What is with the "Closing Idle connection in [time interval here]" messages? Edit
Most file servers owners have a limit to how many people can browse their files via DCC chat at one time. This means that if the limit is reached, no one else will be able to access their fserv. This is also why it is a good reason to close\exit a DCC chat session when you have finished using it. Also, keep in mind that some file servers owners may even ban you from their fserv if you idle on it too long and never disconnect the DCC chat connection. To help keep their file server open, many fserve runners will set a time limit as to how long you can idle (not type any commands) on their file server before the DCC chat connection is closed (you are disconnected fro the file server).
For example, if I was connected to Danno's file server and received a message like:
<Danno> Closing Idle connection in 30 seconds
And did not use any commands for 30 seconds I would be disconnected and see something like:
DCC CHAT to Danno lost. Remote host closed socket.
XDCC Browser Edit
You can also use mIRC addons such as XDCC Browser http://www.XDCCBrowser.com
The script has a built in file server dialog that shows can shows the file list in a graphical way, just like an FTP session .
You can then just browse the file server, and double click on the files you want.


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
It's not always easy to know when you're under attack, or when your security has already been breached. If you're capable of detecting a breach, you might find it in as few as 10 days, but survey after survey finds that breaches that are detected by someone outside the business typically take over 100 days to find.
For one thing, between ecommerce, company websites, email, mobile users and overseas divisions, your company is doing business 24/7; however, your IT security team probably works business hours. That's one way 60 percent of attackers are able to compromise an organization in minutes, according to Verizon's 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report. But only a third of businesses can detect a breach within a few days.
In Cisco's 2016 Annual Security Report, less than half of the businesses interviewed were confident about detecting the scope of a network compromise and cleaning up after it. Hackers routinely use automation – from distributed denial of service attacks run over botnets to exploit kits that help them change malware – so it's harder to detect.
Can machine learning help you detect attacks more quickly and deal with them faster?
There are some ambitious projects using machine learning. Deep Instinct is trying to use deep learning to map how malware behaves, so its appliances can detect attacks in real time, reliably enough to replace a firewall. More realistically, perhaps, Splunk is adding machine learning to its log analysis system to use behavioral analytics to detect attacks and breaches.
"Most organizations lack visibility; if you can't see it, you can't protect it. We can detect outliers," explains Splunk's Matthias Maier. "We summarize similar users who have similar behavior and then we show that, and if there's an outlier who has always behaved similarly but is now behaving differently? That's an anomaly you want to look at."
Splunk can analyze users, computers, IP addresses, data files and applications for unusual behavior, and you don't need to hire machine learning experts. "We a lot of this right out of the box," says Maier. "Most organizations don't have the capability to develop this on their own." Early adopters include John Lewis and Armani's retail stores.
[Related: Can AI solve information overload?]
Just detecting anomalies can still leave you with a lot of data to look at. A large organization could see thousands of anomalies a day, so Splunk uses further analysis to keep that manageable. Maier expects the tool to surface five or 10 threats a day, in enough detail to make it clear what's happening (avoiding the problem where noisy or overly complex alerting systems are ignored when they find a real breach).
"We have the full picture on the 'kill chain' [of the attack]. We provide a security organization with the information, from the compromise point – when did the attacker come in, what was the initial attack vector, when did they expand in this environment, what other files or servers or user accounts did they connect to? – and then the exfiltration phase when they were sending data out … From all these anomalies and individual data points, we create a full picture and present it in a way that every security analyst can understand."
You can also use the machine learning features in Splunk for more intelligent operations and monitoring, like having your web site alert you that it's going to need more bandwidth because demand is increasing before the load causes problems, extending the usual analysis options Splunk is known for. But on the security side, Maier says, "We're concentrating on providing full solutions: detecting insider fraud, or detecting external attacks with valid credentials."
Analytics, but also recommendations
Microsoft's Advanced Threat Analytics tool (based on its Aorato acquisition) combines a similar machine learning approach – learning about entities like user accounts and devices from Active Directory, network traffic and your security information and event management (SIEM) systems, then profiling their normal behavior to perform behavioral analysis – but also detecting suspicious activities that it presents in an Attack Timeline, complete with recommendations for dealing with the issue.
"We analyze all the Active Directory data, all the natural traffic going in and out of your domain controllers," says Microsoft's Anders Vinberg. "You can fake a lot of things but not natural traffic. We build a graph of which devices you interact with, which resources you access. We start learning normal behavior and once we have learned that, we begin alerting you." The system also creates traps to mislead attackers.
ATA concentrates on three types of suspicious activities. The first are mistakes and misconfigurations that amount to security risks in your network. "These are security issues that make the life of an attacker much easier, like using plaintext passwords over the wire," says Vinberg. It can also detect common attacks in real time, including the Pass-the-Ticket and Pass-the-Hash attacks commonly used to move from one system in your network to another.
The third area is where the machine learning comes in. "We detect abnormal behavior. There is always new malware, there are always new attacks … but every one of them would show up as abnormal behavior, because the account would act differently in the network from the regular user behavior," he explains.
You don't have to run machine learning on your own network to get protection. In fact, cloud services like Azure AD are able to help you protect identities and user logons in ways you just can't do within your own organization. And protecting individual users is key to keeping attackers of your network; nearly every data breach turns out to start with legitimate credentials that have been stolen or phished. The insider threat isn't necessarily coming from inside your company any more.
"We're using huge machine learning systems and world class techniques to protect all the identities at Microsoft," points out Alex Weinart, from Microsoft's Identity, Security and Protection group. "That includes Azure Active Directory, the Microsoft account system and Skype. Because we have one of the largest mail systems in the world, we are heavily targeted. Every attack that happens will pass our door; they'll try it against Google but they'll try it against us as well."
And because people are bad at remembering passwords, those attacks don't just expose passwords for Microsoft systems. "If someone gets your credentials, we'll see it; we're able to see breached credentials very early. If one of your employees has reused their work credentials to set up an account on a shopping site and that's been breached, the bad guys tend to test it against us to see if it works," Weinert explains. "At that point, before those credentials are ever tried against your company, we can say that the credentials have gone bad and you should go protect that person."
A method to the madness
Microsoft also gets to see the methods attackers are using. "We see where attacks are coming from at a very nuanced level, and what attacks are shaped like, in both the consumer and enterprise space," says Weinert. "The adaptability of the bad guys means that the things that mattered yesterday may not matter today. And no-one in the enterprise space has the volume we have [to learn from]."
That volume is tens of terabytes a day and 13 billion login transactions, which are fodder for Microsoft's machine learning systems to stay up to date on the latest attacks. A deluge of data is only part of what you need to build a system like this. According to Weinert, "a relatively sophisticated and well trained machine learning system takes years, and you also need some expert level human supervision to look as see if there is anything the system isn't catching."
That matters because this is about more than spotting patterns and warning you later. As Weinert points out, "the goal is protection, not remediation. A lot of machine learning systems detect what's happened. Our primary goal is to stop attacks getting through, so we're training our protections systems. Every day we learn the nuances of the newest attack patterns … and we use the system to generate code on our front end servers that scores everything that comes through." That score uses around a hundred factors, from browser user agent strings to the time of day.
[Related: Who's in charge of AI in the enterprise?]
A low score means a login getting blocked or turning on multi-factor authentication for that account. You might see false positives, with legitimate users being challenged, but Weinert believes that's less likely than with traditional systems built on theories about behavior that might block your account because the desktop PC you've left on in the office is still connected (and might be writing files when it does a backup) because the system can learn that you're travelling and logging on from another PC in another location.
It's not just the scale of data that makes a difference, he suggests. "As humans, we want to believe our hunch is right, we get very attached to our theories, but machine learning doesn't care. Even if something is a strong signal today, if that fades out of fashion the system is completely willing to throw that away and pick out a new pattern. It adapts to the reality of what actually results in a compromise, not our suspicions or our suppositions. As a result, our precision – which is the number of times when we're targeting someone that they're is actually a bad guy – is very high."
The reports in Azure AD Premium (or Microsoft's Enterprise Mobility Suite) let you know when the machine learning system has detected that your credentials are being exposed. "Very soon we'll be offering that in a policy-based way," Weinert says, "so you can ask the system to act on your behalf rather than you having to catch the report in time. Leaked credentials, password hammering, we can detect all these patterns as they drift around because the bad guys are attacking in volume. Machine learning can out-adapt to these guys, so we're bringing to the enterprise real protection, not just detection."
At some point, you can expect the machine learning systems in Azure AD and ATA to start working together. "Active Directory on premise is this incredible nexus for data collection and analysis because essentially every use of an app on premise ends up going through the directory somehow," points out Microsoft's Alex Simons. "Part of the vision is to take all the data we're collecting in the cloud and to marry it up with data we're collecting on premise, to bring those data source together."
Whether you look at on premise or cloud systems, it might be time to take machine learning security systems seriously; because bad as it is today, it's going to get even harder to stay ahead of the hackers. Weinert warns: "We're now seeing that the criminals are starting to invest in machine learning systems themselves."
This story, "How much security can you turn over to AI?" was originally published by CIO.


text:
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Hello Bing I am Loic
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Discussion: Liliputing and SlashGear
Chris Davies / SlashGear: Snapdragon Eee PC runs Android in video demo [Updated]
Qualcomm Expands Snapdragon Platform with 45nm Chipset for Smarter …
Qualcomm Expands Snapdragon Platform with 45nm Chipset for Smarter …
Discussion: Unwired View, SlashGear and Phone Scoop
Eric M. Zeman / Phone Scoop: Qualcomm Intros New 1.3Ghz Snapdragon Chipset
Paul Bonanos / GigaOM:
Nextstop Wants To Be Yelp For Travelers — Newly launched Nextstop is aiming to be a sort of Yelp for travelers, drawing on a community of users who recommend things to do around the world and in their own hometowns. Founded by a pair of former Google product managers, the service seems useful enough …
Discussion: VentureBeat and Mashable!
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat: Nextstop enters the battle of activity guides
Brad Stone / Bits:
An Online Guide for Tourists, by Locals
An Online Guide for Tourists, by Locals
Discussion: ReadWriteStart
Camille Ricketts / VentureBeat:
Twitter search engine Topsy launches with $15M — Topsy.com, launched last week, is a brand new search engine focused exclusively on Twitter content. Like Google, it presents its results based on popularity metrics, namely the popularity or influence of the tweeter in question …
Discussion: Technosailor.com and textually.org
Aaron Brazell / Technosailor.com: Changing the Currency of Influence via Search
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Real-Time Twitter Search, Hold The "Real-Time"
Real-Time Twitter Search, Hold The "Real-Time"
Discussion: broadstuff
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Samsung's Pixon 12: a dozen megapixels of cameraphone nonsense in June — After failing to show at the Mobile World Congress event in February, Samsung's rumored 12 megapixel cameraphone has finally arrived. Meet the Pixon 12 and its 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a Sammy promise of fast shutter speeds and quick browsing.
Discussion: InformationWeek, PC World, T3.com News, Obsessable, Electronista, SlashGear and techeblog.com
Samuel Axon / Obsessable: Samsung Pixon 12
Chris Davies / SlashGear: Samsung Pixon12 12MP AMOLED cameraphone announced
Samsung to sell 12-megapixel cameraphone in June
Samsung to sell 12-megapixel cameraphone in June
Discussion: Phone Scoop
Eric M. Zeman / Phone Scoop: Samsung Announces 12 Megapixel Phone
Whurley / InfoWorld:
Computer Science Corp. does cloud computing — A new consulting group headed by R. Lemuel Lasher and a three-pronged attack on competitors led by Brian Boruff may make CSC a real player in the cloud — Today CSC (Computer Science Corporation) announced its next step in a company-wide commitment to cloud computing.
Discussion: Data Center Knowledge and Between the Lines
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge: CSC Enters Cloud, Leading With Security
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines: CSC gets into cloud services game
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM: Computer Sciences' New Cloud Strategy Focuses on Security
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
Cellphone Locator System Needs No Satellite — BOSTON — Wanderers with phones and other devices that have GPS chips can figure out where they are using signals from satellites thousands of miles up, but those are easily blocked by walls or trees. The founders of Skyhook Wireless discovered …
Discussion: Wi-Fi Networking News and Local Mobile Search
Glenn Fleishman / Wi-Fi Networking News: Skyhook Wireless Handles 250M Requests per Day
Greg Sterling / Local Mobile Search: The Mobile Location Infrastructure
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Adobe gives web designers more power with Flash Catalyst — With two new products available in beta testing today — Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder 4 — Adobe is hoping to reinvent the way that websites and applications are built in the Flash format. — Flash sites (which may be most familiar …
Discussion: eWeek, BetaNews, Beet.TV, Technology Review, InformationWeek, The Register, Softpedia News, PC World, InfoWorld and Adobe AIR Team Blog
Darryl K. Taft / eWeek: Adobe Announces New Flash Platform Tools, Tweaks Microsoft
Erica Naone / Technology Review: Adobe's New Tools for Web Apps
Thomas Claburn / InformationWeek: Adobe Releases Flash Platform Betas
Gavin Clarke / The Register: Adobe buffs and brands full Flash suite
Elizabeth Montalbano / PC World: Adobe Aligns Software Branding to Shine Light on Flash
Paul Krill / InfoWorld: Adobe aids Flash apps developers
Robert Christensen / Adobe AIR Team Blog: Download Betas of Adobe Flash Builder 4, Flex 4 & Flash Catalyst
Amy Gardner / Washington Post:
The One Fiber Optic Cable No One on the Dig for Tysons Rail Wants to Hit — This part happens all the time: A construction crew putting up an office building in the heart of Tysons Corner a few years ago hit a fiber optic cable no one knew was there. — This part doesn't: Within moments …
Discussion: DSLreports and Slashdot
Timothy / Slashdot: When Your Backhoe Cuts "Black" Fiber
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Adobe hoiks prices for software in UK - but drops them in Europe — Blaming "unprecedented turmoil" and exchange rate fluctuations, the Photoshop-maker is pushing up its UK prices. So why didn't they fall when the pound was stronger? — Adobe is pushing up the UK prices of its software …
Discussion: bjp-online.com and Technovia
Ian Betteridge / Technovia: Will someone do to Photoshop what InDesign did to Quark?


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In our Bank's 2007 Annual Report, I expressed concern about the recent expansion of the safety net for large financial firms and, particularly, its potential to dull the market forces that would otherwise constrain excessive risk-taking. Although the Annual Report essay came out just a few months ago, the financial safety net has expanded since its release. The too big to fail (TBTF) problem has worsened yet again.
At the same time, however, there has been progress in beginning to develop a policy framework to address TBTF and to enhance market discipline. Policymakers have begun to focus more explicitly on minimizing the fallout, or "spillovers," from a financial firm's impairment as they consider how to improve financial stability and to reduce the incentives that TBTF firms have to take on excessive risk.
Naturally, I view these latter developments quite positively. In our 2004 book on TBTF, Ron Feldman and I emphasized that "policymakers should give highest priority to reforms limiting the chance that one bank's failure will threaten the solvency of other banks."1 We came to that conclusion with the following logic:
Policymakers extend support to weak but systemically important financial firms in order to contain spillovers;
Limiting spillovers from failures can reduce the principal rationale for extraordinary government support;
Creditor expectations of government support will diminish (and market discipline will increase) when policymakers have less reason to provide such support.
Recent comments from Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson echo this argument (and we have seen it elsewhere as well 2):
In an optimal system, market discipline effectively constrains risk because the regulatory structure is strong enough that a financial institution can fail without threatening the overall system. For market discipline to constrain risk effectively, financial institutions must be allowed to fail. Under optimal financial regulatory and financial system infrastructures, such a failure would not threaten the overall system.
However, today two concerns underpin expectations of regulatory intervention to prevent a failure. They are that an institution may be too interconnected to fail or too big to fail. We must take steps to reduce the perception that this is so—and that requires that we reduce the likelihood that it is so.3
Having agreement on a policy framework is a necessary but not sufficient base for reform. Government agencies charged with addressing instability and related TBTF concerns, and private sector groups and firms critical to that effort, require recommendations on how to implement the tenets of the framework. We have long had a list of reforms to address TBTF,4 but heretofore we have not prioritized those proposals. So, where would we have policymakers start? We would begin the effort to manage TBTF with an approach we call systemic focused supervision (SFS).
Systemic focused supervision
In general, SFS attempts to focus supervision and regulation efforts on spillover reduction, and it consists of three pillars: early identification, enhanced prompt corrective action (PCA) and stability-related communication. In particular, SFS uses the information-gathering and analytical skills of supervisors to better understand how one firm's impairment might spread to other firms or markets; it relies on the enforcement capabilities of regulation (combined with market information) to close firms before they incur losses that could bring down their peers; and it extends central bank communication techniques to financial-stability-related efforts.
This program builds on the strength and current direction of supervision and regulation to focus across firms and the interconnections in the banking and financial system as a whole, rather than concentrating on supervisory assessment of single firms. Combined, these efforts constitute important actions in a long-term effort to limit the spillovers from the failure or impairment of a systemically important financial institution. I'll now describe what I see as the basics of the three components.
Early identification.5 This is a process to identify and to respond, where appropriate, to the material exposures among large financial institutions and between these institutions and capital markets. By "material," I mean sufficiently significant such that problems at one financial institution could substantially impair other institutions and/or normal market functions.
Early identification could take many forms. Supervisors might begin by examining the performance of a number of large financial institutions hypothetically subjected to a series of shocks. The shocks could include large losses to a given type of loan or security on the firm's balance sheet, or a significant drop in the availability of funding. The results of this simulation would provide policymakers with a sense of which stresses lead to significant problems at the firms. A second step is to determine how the material difficulties of one of these large institutions would affect the others. At a minimum, this would involve determining how much the failing institution owes the others at the end of the business day, what form the exposure takes, how much the exposure varies over time and so on.
The goals of the exercise I just described are (1) to give policymakers a sense of which events are not likely to severely impair the financial institution, thus permitting them to avoid providing support, and (2) to identify those exposures that might bring down the firm, and thus are deserving of closer policy scrutiny and, most importantly, an effective and timely response.
As part of this effort, supervisors should also consider how they will make assessments of spillover potential at the time a financial institution experiences serious difficulty. Supervisors must determine what type of information they will need in short order from financial institutions during a period of turmoil and what information they can actually get in short order, and then develop a plan to address whatever information gaps are identified. Closing these gaps means that policymakers can make informed judgments at the time of failure and, where possible, identify and resolve those issues that would otherwise lead to provision of extraordinary support.
Enhanced prompt corrective action.6 The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 implemented PCA. Like many so-called structured early intervention and resolution (SEIR) regimes, PCA works by requiring supervisors to take specified actions against a bank as its capital falls below specified levels. A bank whose capital declines below a given level, for example, could have its ability to pay dividends constrained. In the extreme, chartering authorities could shut down banks that have capital levels below a trigger and that cannot raise additional capital.
Closing banks while they still have positive capital, or at most a small loss, can reduce spillovers in a fairly direct way. If a bank's failure does not impose large losses, by definition it cannot directly threaten the viability of other depository institutions that have exposure to it. Thus, the PCA regime offers an important tool to manage systemic risk.
However, many observers, including some of the most zealous advocates of using a SEIR regime in the United States, view PCA as inadequate for at least two related reasons. First, capital measures for banks can reflect a "rearview mirror" or historical assessment of the bank's assets, particularly for valuations of bank loans. Such assessments may, at times, prove excessively generous.
Second, bank capital measures reflect judgments of firm management on the value of the bank assets and liabilities, albeit judgments heavily informed by a sophisticated body of accounting guidance. While management judgments on the valuation of assets and liabilities typically raise little concern, at times these judgments may overstate the capital of the firm. Under the capital measures reported by banks, therefore, a bank subject to supervisory oversight and which appears to have positive capital can actually have large losses upon failure.
Using PCA triggers based on more forward-looking measures of bank solvency outside the control of bank management could help address these concerns. Data generated directly from financial markets offer one source of forward-looking measures of a bank's condition;7 market participants do not always get their forecasts right, but they do appear to incorporate assessments of the future prospects of firms in their pricing decisions. Moreover, management of firms cannot readily control these measures. This suggests that an enhanced PCA regime relying on both book value capital and market measures of risk—such as subordinated debt spreads, prices of credit default swaps and/or equity values—would be an improvement over the current regime. In fact, the original proposals for SEIR in the United States used market measures of bank net worth to provoke supervisory action. In practice this means that some combination of market signals and accounting measures of insolvency could lead to the timely closure of a bank.
Just as management cannot directly control market measures of bank conditions, supervisors also must accept rather than control what the measures have to say. Use of market measures therefore could guard against supervisory forbearance that occurs when supervisors do not take appropriate remedial action against a financial institution as its condition worsens. Reported capital measures that do not reflect the true condition of the financial institution might facilitate forbearance. But market measures would not—even when political pressure, or the hope that a weak financial institution will resolve itself, supports forbearance.8
Communication. The first two pillars of SFS seek to increase market discipline by reducing the motivation policymakers have for protecting creditors. But creditors will not know about efforts to limit spillovers, and therefore will not change their expectations of support, absent explicit communication by policymakers about these efforts. What form might that communication take?
I have suggested that this communication should possess several attributes.9 First, it should be released routinely, like the semiannual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony, to facilitate the focus of interested parties. Second, it should disclose information on stability-related activity at an early stage, even if it is work-in-progress. Such a strategy would provide creditors with a richer sense of the changes under way. Finally, the communication should explicitly link the activity under way to the goal of reducing spillovers, thus raising the feasibility and prudence of putting creditors at greater risk of loss.
Professor John Taylor of Stanford University has also offered some valuable suggestions for stability-related communication, particularly communication following acts that seemingly expand the safety net.10 He recommends that regulatory agencies conduct and publish after-the-fact reviews that cover, in part, the counterfactual. (That is, in retrospect, what would have happened if safety net support had not been offered?) Among other things, such analysis would help agencies determine where they should focus their efforts to limit spillovers in the future.
Rather than discussing additional detail on what the communication might include, I would simply note that agencies in the United States have numerous examples from which to borrow. Many central banks and treasury departments around the world provide stability-related communication. Improving upon what we might take from other countries and adapting it for the United States strikes me as a low-cost initial step.
Why start with systemic focused supervision?
I see several advantages to SFS as policymakers consider longer-term efforts to respond to and learn from recent market turbulence. The supervisory role I envision begins with information collection and analysis, activities that I believe supervisors have performed well. As noted above, in my proposal supervisors would identify in advance the potential consequences of the failure of one bank for others. 11A defining feature of bank supervisors, after all, is the private information they collect on financial institutions. Moreover, supervisors have the relatively unique ability to look across multiple firms.
Supervisors have already recognized the substantial benefits they can provide by taking a cross-financial institution, spillover/stability-focused role. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's effort to improve derivative processing and overall infrastructure provides a prominent example.12 The fact that SFS builds on growing supervisory practices provides another reason to begin with this reform. Likewise, our communication recommendation builds on efforts already under way.13
The disruptions that have plagued the financial and credit markets for over a year have led the Federal Reserve and Treasury to justifiably take extraordinary actions. These actions, however, potentially impose costs by expanding the scope of the federal safety net, so we must determine a long-run plan to address these costs and the more substantial TBTF problem they create. We offered a framework to address this problem in 2004 and believe it continues to hold promise. In this essay, I have suggested that policymakers now look to systemic focused supervision as an important step in limiting spillovers and in changing the expectations of creditors in a constructive way.
1 See Gary H. Stern and Ron J. Feldman's 2004 book, Too Big To Fail:
The Hazards of Bank Bailouts (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution
Press, p. 147).
2 Most recently, see Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech, "Reducing Systemic Risk," at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Annual Economic Symposium, Jackson Hole, Wyo., Aug. 22, 2008.
3 Remarks by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. on the U.S., the World Economy and Markets before the Chatham House," July 2, 2008, .
4 To be sure, other policymakers have already given serious thought to considering how government and the private sector should respond to recent credit and financial market turbulence. Domestically, the President's Working Group (PWG) has issued a list of high priority reforms as has the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), and work has begun on implementing some of the recommendations.
5 I base this discussion on pages 112-116 of Too Big To Fail.
6 I base this discussion on pages 124-128 of Too Big To Fail.
7 The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has also been a long-time supporter of increasing the use of market data in the supervisory process. For example, see the September 2001 Region with a special discussion of "Using Market Data in the Supervisory Process."
8 Incorporating market signals into PCA certainly has its downsides. Market signals can reflect factors not directly related to the health of a financial institution, for example, although I think supervisors have tools to at least partially mitigate these imperfections (e.g., extracting the credit risk component from market signals or averaging across market signals or over time for a given market signal to filter out "noise" in the data). Moreover, like other reforms that increase market discipline, enhanced PCA may force firms into resolution, and potentially into the sale of troubled assets, precisely when the financial system seems most vulnerable. On balance, however, allowing financial firms to build up losses before they fail does not seem conducive to maintaining financial stability.
9 See Gary H. Stern's column, "Addressing the Trade-offs: Market Discipline, Stability and Communication" in the December 2007 Region.
10 See John B. Taylor's presentation, "Toward a New Framework for Exceptional Access," at the policy workshop, "The Future Role of Central Banking Policy: Urgent and Precedent-Setting Next Steps," July 22, 2008.
11 Such analytical tasks, while challenging, seem at least as tractable as other charges supervisors carry out, such as determining the optimal levels of minimum capital or liquidity.
12 For the most recent discussion of this Federal Reserve Bank of New York effort, see the July 31, 2008 press release.
13 See the Nov. 14, 2007 Monetary Policy Press Release.


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05/24/02 Informing Drugstore Clerks
The action of informing drugstore clerks about the tests on animals
Because of a great interest of the public regarding the issue of testing the cosmetic products and cleaning agents on animals, the activists of Animal Friends decided to inform the drugstore clerks and employees of other stores selling cosmetic products and cleaning agents about that.
A strong plea will be made to the Zagreb perfume shops to join this non-profit campaign so as to inform their buyers about the products that were not tested on animals, as well as to mark and point out the products of ethical companies that don't test their products on animals and that are constantly being dwarfed by companies that don't want to bear full responsibility for the quality of their products, thereby inflicting horrible pain upon the animals.
The activists of Animal Friends from Dubrovnik, Split and Rijeka will also joint the action by taking it in their own towns.
This action is a part of the campaign that started on World Laboratory Animals Protection Day by putting up jumbo posters in Zagreb and Split that are advising the Croatian consumers to buy cleaning agents and cosmetics that were not tested on animals.
Some famous persons also joined the campaign, like Andja Maric, Tanja Tusek, Marija Strajh, Sanja Plepelic, Blazenka Leib, and Jasmina Hdagha, who are supporting the campaign on the posters and through the media.
In addition to posters, the campaign was also reported about in magazines and several daily newspapers, as well as on the television. The movie entitled "Lethal Medicine" was also shown, which explains clearly and from the scientific point of view why the experiments on animals are inefficient and scientifically unacceptable, and shows the horrible suffering of the animals.
Every year, around 35.000 animals in Europe and millions of animals all over the world are exposed to intense suffering because of the disputable testing of cosmetic products and their ingredients. Rabbits, guinea-pigs, rats and other small animals are used for testing the dependability of products; they are poisoned by cosmetics and cleaning agents... The most frequent reactions are twitching, vomiting, paralysis and various types of bleeding - from the nose, eyes and oral cavity. The wounds are horrible and the pain is unbearable.
Animal Friends wants to bring Croatia closer to the countries like Denmark and Sweden, in which the sale of cosmetics containing the ingredients tested on animals is forbidden, i.e. to the European Union that plans to do the same.
All additional information can be obtained on our website www.prijatelji-zivotinja.hr and the number 060 131 131, as well as at the information stand that will be placed on Starcevic Square on Saturday, May 25, at 12 noon.


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Yasik Funeral Home
Boyd's Flowers and Flower Shops deliver Sympathy and Funeral Flowers to Yasik Funeral Home in Wilmington, Delaware 7 days a week. Sending Flowers and gifts is a nice gesture of your thoughts and feelings. Take your time and view the many items we offer or call for more personalized assistance. Flowers convey what words cannot...allow us to help you express your deepest thoughts.
Business Address801 Capitol Trail
Newark, DE 19711
(302) 737-4444


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- Neshama Staff
Robin Williams' Suicide
While this did happen a few years ago, the topic of suicide is close to home at the moment. A young man from my home town (a Jewish community north west of NYC) jumped off a bridge a few weeks ago. Due to the cold weather there, they still have not found the body. It is hard, but we cannot understand the pain one is feeling when they decide to end their life. I found this article helpful, because although we are taught that Judaism does not allow suicide, we need to understand that Judaism does not allow for anything other than compassion for those who are the victims of depression and other mental illness. Although The Neshama Foundation helps families going through these tragedies, it is our hope that anyone who is struggling with depression, or know someone who is, will reach out for help. You can call:
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1800-273-8255
Switchboard: Just dial 2-1-1
- A Neshama Foundation member
A Jewish perspective on the tragedy of suicide
People around the world are expressing shock and sadness over the death of Robin Williams who took his own life after many years of battling addiction and depression.
In Jewish tradition, suicide is a severe sin. In a sense, it is akin to murder. Life is a gift from God and only He has the right to take it away.
As the Talmud puts it: "Against your will you were fashioned, and against your will you were born, and against your will you live, and against your will you die, and against your will you will hereafter have account and reckoning before the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He" (Ethics of the Fathers 4:29).
Jewish law decrees that the body belongs to the Almighty, and no one is permitted to harm, jeopardize or destroy His property. In the words of Genesis 9:5, "I will surely require an accounting for your life-blood," and the sages make clear this includes a suicide.
Which is why the Jewish response to suicide is at first sight so harsh. Indeed, the standard Code of Jewish Law, the Shulchan Aruch, stipulates that the normal rites of mourning are not to be observed for a suicide, nor is there even allowed for a eulogy to be given.
And yet, when someone just asked me, "As an Orthodox Rabbi, would you have performed a traditional funeral and delivered a eulogy for Robin Williams if he were Jewish?" I gave an unqualified affirmative answer.
Why? Because even as Jewish law expresses its categorical contempt for suicide as a viable option it makes clear its empathy for those acting under the kinds of compulsion brought on by depression and other forms of mental illness.
The only one for whom suicide is to be regarded as a grave sin is "someone with full knowledge of his actions." That, rabbinic authorities have agreed, is a standard from which almost all suicides are to be judged as falling short. Rabbi Yechiel Epstein, in his classic work the Arukh HaShulchan (Yoreh De'ah 345:5) states, "This is the general principle in connection with suicide: we find any excuse we can and say he acted thus because he was in terror or great pain, or his mind was unbalanced, or he imagined it was right to do what he did because he feared that if he lived he would commit a crime…It is extremely unlikely that a person would commit such an act of folly unless his mind were disturbed."
Jewish law found a beautiful balance between abhorrence of an act before it is committed and compassion for the victims of self-destruction in the aftermath of its tragedy.
Not Yours to Take
The mindset of every Jew was always meant to be that no matter his difficulties, his own life was not his to take. The story of Rabbi Hananiah ben Teradyon, whose death is recorded in the Talmud, served as an extreme example. When the Romans wrapped him in a Torah scroll and set fire to it, the rabbi's pupils urged him to open his mouth, inhale the fire and hasten his death. He replied, "He who put the soul in the body is the One to remove it; no human may destroy himself!"
In The Echo of the Nazi Holocaust in Rabbinic Literature, Rabbi H.J. Zimmels writes of two opposing emotions amongst European Jews at the time of the Holocaust – pessimism and despair leading to suicide, and optimism and hope leading to a strong will to survive. One would certainly have imagined that the former would have outweighed the latter. Yet it was not so. Historians have been amazed by the strikingly small percentages of suicides by Jews in the very worst of situations.
But that never meant that there were not moments when individuals believed that death was their better choice and voluntarily ended their lives. For them we shed tears, and in most instances try to find vindication, if not justification. King Saul fell on his sword when the Philistines were about to capture and kill him. On his behalf the rabbis pleaded that a king of Israel is entitled to defend the dignity of the royal office and so his suicide could be forgiven as an attempt to prevent a greater desecration of God's name through an ignominious and tortured death perpetrated by enemies.
For those who know the severity of depression as well as the super human strength required to overcome it, we ought to show great respect to those who persist in choosing life - and find in our hearts forgiveness and understanding for those overcome by mental illness who left us too soon but whose achievements and good deeds will nonetheless never be forgotten.
That is why, Robin Williams, I treasure the laughter you gave me for so many years and I pray that your soul at long last finds the peace and serenity it did not attain here on earth.
If you are struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, please seek help.
You can call: Relief, a mental health referral agency (718) 431-9501.
Suicide Hotline (718) 389-9608
Or Ohel Family: 800-603-OHEL
Taken with permission from Aish.com. To read the article on their website, click here.


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Warning: science post, no recipe, bail out now unless you have a curious personality. You know the type. Always asking questions, perpetually wondering, head-in-the-clouds explorer. I'll post a follow-up recipe to my healthy breakfast series next week, but for now, I'm on a mission.
I've gained several pounds over the past few weeks and I did it quite easily, which surprised me. Check here to see why I gained the weight. I'm determined to lose it before it becomes my new normal, but I've also been curious as to why I gained it so easily. My eating habits didn't change that much. My exercise routine was slightly different, but I kept up with my yoga practice.
Are you still with me?
Let's start at the beginning. Literally.
I love this video from Virginia Hughes at The Last Word On Nothing because it's short, charming, and incredibly creative. If you want a better understanding of your irregularly arranged DNA and how your unique version of this dynamic, coiled jumble of genes makes you the special (or quirky) person you are, watch this short (less than 2 minutes) video.
(Please scroll down, this isn't the end of the blog post. Click the start button on the video to watch the magic of DNA coiling. The rest of my rambling continues after the video.)
See? Wasn't that awesome?
In a nutshell (or nucleus in this case): DNA forms the inherited genetic material found inside our cells. Genes are the hereditary units that form our DNA. Our genes tell our cells how to function and what traits to express.
And guess what? We have some control over that. A good example is the genetic predisposition for celiac disease. Say you have the gene that codes for celiac disease (DQ2 or DQ8), but you live on some isolated island and you're never exposed to gluten. That gene would not be expressed. It would stay turned off. On the other hand, if you eat a lot of gluten and the stars align, you'll end up hitting the switch and turning the gene on. I have DQ2 genes and celiac disease, but I've been living gluten-free for so long now, I feel like my celiac gene is on dim mode. It's not turned on, but it's also not totally turned off either. Eating a big plate of gluten-filled pasta would be the equivalent of hitting the on switch and re-expressing the gene. I don't want to do that.
On another note, I have this theory that I've tweaked a different genetic predisposition of mine in a healthy way and although that's a good thing, there have been some unintended consequences. We have about 20,000 genes so there's lots of potential for shenanigans.
Let me explain. That's if you're still here.
My mom says I was born running (much to her dismay). I grew up in the 50s and 60s and had they coined the term at that time, I probably would have been called ADD-ish. I rarely sat down long enough to eat a full meal, never took naps, was always fidgeting, ran up and down stairs, twirled, jumped off things, climbed over furniture and so on. If you ask my mom, she'll say I was a royal pain in the neck.
Jump ahead to the year 2000. I'm hitting midlife, am still very active, but I've never really learned to relax. High blood pressure is common in my family and mine had been inching up over the years. Not bad, but it was making a move. I decided I had no desire to express (turn on) that high blood pressure gene that seems so prevalent on my dad's side of the family. I decided to turn it off by practicing yoga and meditation. And guess what? A decade later, I don't have high blood pressure, I'm calmer, I don't fidget as much, and I no longer drive people crazy with my speed walking. Instead, I float around chanting in Sanskrit. No worries. Peace, love, and tie dyes.
One more time, but now jump ahead to 2011. I'm busy co-writing a book* with my friend and colleague Pete Bronski of No Gluten-No Problem, so I sit at my computer for long hours each day. I don't change my eating habits (which are good for the most part), but my intense hiking, skiing, dog walking, etc. go by the wayside. I'm still committed to yoga, but to keep from being too stressed from my work, I practice a more restorative style. Yikes, I gain 5 or 6 pounds in short order. I've never done that before.
Here's how it happened. I'm in midlife (okay, late midlife, late-late midlife) and I'm now practicing a more calming style of yoga. Both my age and my yoga have contributed to a reduction in my metabolism. That's the point of yoga—relaxation, lower heart-rate, deeper breathing, lower blood pressure, less caloric need, and hence a lower metabolic rate.
Yikes! The perfect storm. I'm mellow, I don't fidget, I'm older, I do restorative yoga, and I'm working long hours sitting at my computer. The result is weight gain, even though I'm eating well. And because of my age (which will remain untyped) and the fact that I've intentionally shifted my metabolism down a notch with all the yoga, it's been harder to lose the weight. My muscle to fat ratio has changed. I don't want these extra pounds to become my new set point, so what can I do?
First off, I can't get all worked up about it as I have that high blood pressure gene just waiting for an excuse to turn on. I'm continuing with my meditative yoga, but I'm making sure I get a couple of power yoga classes in per week. I've added mountain biking into my schedule to boost my metabolism and burn some calories and I've added some round-about weight training. I'm not into going to the gym and lifting weights, but I'm aware that I need to build muscle, which is more metabolically active than fat. I do my yoga in the morning, my biking whenever I can, and I'm periodically doing some at-home strength training.
One last thing. I don't think it's a big deal to gain a few pounds. I have motivations other than being the "right" weight. I want to do some climbing this summer and I need to be in good shape for that. Extra weight makes climbing 14,000 foot peaks more difficult. Yoga inversions and arm balances are harder on my body if I weigh more. A few pounds makes a difference in the activities that are important to me. If you want to lose weight, you have to evaluate what your genetic predispositions might be, what you eat (quality and quantity), and what you do (sit, stand, run, what type of yoga, etc.) and adjust according to your age and lifestyle factors. Life is definitely an ever-evolving journey.
I promise a breakfast recipe for next week. A nutrient-dense, low calorie one.
Peace, love, and flexible genes!
* When I wrote this blog post last March our book had not been released. The Gluten-Free Edge: A Nutrition and Training Guide for Peak Athletic Performance and an Active Gluten-Free Life is now available on Amazon.com and at various bookstores. Yeah!
Tags: genetics, metabolism, weight gain, weight loss, yoga


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Philippe Luguy saw his first pages published in French magazines like Phénix, Frimoussette, Princesse, Akim, Kiwi, Tarzan, Lancelot and Bugs Bunny. He made his actual professional debut in comic magazines such as Amis-Coop, Pieds Nickelés Magazine, Bibi Fricotin Magazine, Formule 1 and Fripounet. In the latter magazine, he started the series 'Sylvio le Grillon' with scenarist Jérina. Luguy continued the adventures of this insect in Pif Gadget from 1974 to 1982 this time mostly in cooperation with scenarists like Patrick Cothias and Lions.
In the early 1980s, Philippe Luguy was a member of Five Star studios (along with Pierre Leguen, Gaty, René Deynis and Max Lenvers), where he worked on projects like a comic adaptation of the television series 'Albator' for Le Journal de Cap'tain Fulgur. In 1981 he illustrated 32 pantomime comic strips that came with Malabar chewing gum, sometimes in cooperation with Mic Delinx (8 strips) and Yannick (16 strips). In that same year, Luguy started his most famous series, the medieval fantasy comic, 'Percevan' (scenarios Jean Léturgie and Xavier Fauche), published initially in Gomme and then in albums by Glénat and Dargaud. In addition, he created 'Karolyn' with scriptwriter Lions at Dargaud in 1989.


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The future of hydrofracking in New York in 2012
One of the biggest and most controversial issues facing New York in the New Year is hydrofracking. Governor Andrew Cuomo's environmental department is conducting a review process and is likely to begin issuing permits sometime in 2012.
Earlier in the year, it seemed that the Cuomo administration was on a fast track to allow hydrofracking in New York. In June, state environmental officials proposed allowing the gas drilling process on some private lands in the state, and began a review process.
It was to have been completed by the end of 2011, but four public hearings were added, and the public comment period was extended until January 11th.
Environmental Commissioner Joe Martens says after that, he and his staff will have to sift through at least 16,000 new comments.
"It will take months to do it properly," Martens said.
The Department of Environmental Conservation had hoped to complete a tax and fee structure for drilling in time to be included in the governor's budget proposal in mid January.
Those decisions were to have been made by an advisory panel representing the industry, environmentalists and the legislature. But the panel failed to come up with a tax and fee plan in time, and those discussions will continue into the New Year.
Without the fee structure in place, the DEC won't have the resources to hire staff to issue the permits, and to make sure that the gas drillers comply with all the new regulations that will eventually be in place. Currently, the department has just 16 employees who are involved in energy well drilling, Commissioner Martens says the current capacity to review any new applications for drilling is "very limited to non-existent".
It's estimated that 100 to 200 new regulators and permitting experts would be needed to oversee all the expected new drilling activity.
Martens for the first time in late December suggested that permitting may begin very slowly, and possibly be phased in over time.
"People have suggested looking at specific geographic areas, phasing in the process," Martens said. "We're looking at all of that."
Governor Cuomo has not weighed in with any opinions about hydrofracking, preferring to let his environmental commissioner take the lead for now. The governor in the fall said he was still keeping an open mind.
"Let's not respond emotionally," Cuomo said in October. "Let's get the facts."
Rob Moore, with Environmental Advocates, is on the fracking advisory panel. He says he's relieved that state officials seem to be taking a more considered approach recently, and he hopes that continues.
"I think the state should be very cautious about trying to drill in 2012," Moore said.
Moore says a number of uncertainties and questions remain, including the economic impact of the industrialization that comes with gas drilling on remote rural areas, and what Moore says is the uncertain profitability of the drilling companies, now that gas prices have plummeted. The environmental group would also like more data on potential health impacts of drilling and potential contamination of drinking water.
The lobby group for he gas companies, the Independent Oil and Gas Association, has spent recent months trying to build community support, holding public forums in communities where fracking may take place to answer questions. Spokeswoman Cherie Messore admits that fracking has become a negative "buzz word", and says the group's goal is to lessen fears about hydrofracking, and to help the public be more informed.
"There is a great deal of misinformation," Messore said.
She says fracking is safe, when all of the environmental rules are followed, and many of the companies interested in drilling already have good track records in New York.
Steve Greenberg, a political analyst with the Siena Polling Institute, says fracking presents a "potential landmine" for Governor Cuomo whether the state ultimately allows or bans the gas drilling.
Greenberg says the governor risks alienating either environmental groups or the powerful gas industry, and faces a "lose-lose" situation.
Polls show the public is split evenly divided about whether fracking is a good idea for the state's economic future, or not.


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SRD:Plant Domain
From D&D Wiki
|This material is published under the OGL 1.0a.
Granted Powers: Rebuke or command plant creatures as an evil cleric rebukes or commands undead. Use this ability a total number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier. This granted power is a supernatural ability.
Add Knowledge (nature) to your list of cleric class skills.
Plant Domain Spells
- Entangle: Plants entangle everyone in 40-ft.-radius.
- Barkskin: Grants +2 (or higher) enhancement to natural armor.
- Plant Growth: Grows vegetation, improves crops.
- Command Plants: Sway the actions of one or more plant creatures.
- Wall of Thorns: Thorns damage anyone who tries to pass.
- Repel Wood: Pushes away wooden objects.
- Animate Plants: One or more trees animate and fight for you.
- Control Plants: Control actions of one or more plant creatures.
- Shambler: Summons 1d4+2 shambling mounds to fight for you.
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Open Game Content → System Reference Document → Spells → Cleric Domains


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1. A poll published in Outlook India shows that Bush's approval rating in India is higher than it is here in the U.S. (So maybe one shouldn't take the 100,000 protestors from Muslim groups and the Left in Delhi as the definitive voice of India.)
2. Bernard Gwertzman of the Council on Foreign Relations, does a Q&A in the New York Times on the nuclear deal, explaining some of the details of the proposed deal, and why there's been difficulty ironing out the kinks.
3. Fred Kaplan, writing in Slate, suggests that the nuclear deal the U.S. is negotiating with India isn't legal under the NPT, which the U.S. has signed even if India hasn't. Moreover, quite a number of folks are likely to be bothered by a possible deal, and a number of UN organizations are going to step in to try and block it after signing:
First, the United States has no authority to grant such an exemption on its own. The NPT is a treaty signed by 187 nations; it is enforced by the International Atomic Energy Agency; and it is, in effect, administered by the five nations that the treaty recognizes as nuclear powers (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France). This point is not a legal nicety. If the United States can cut a separate deal with India, what is to prevent China or Russia from doing the same with Pakistan or Iran? If India demands special treatment on the grounds that it's a stable democracy, what is to keep Japan, Brazil, or Germany from picking up on the precedent?
Second, the India deal would violate not just international agreements but also several U.S. laws regulating the export of nuclear materials.
In other words, an American president who sought to make this deal would, or should, detect a myriad of political actors that might protest or block it—mainly the U.N. Security Council, the Nuclear Suppliers' Group, and the U.S. Congress. Not just as a legal principle but also as a practical consideration, these actors must be notified, cajoled, mollified, or otherwise bargained with if the deal has a chance of coming to life.
The amazing thing is, President Bush just went ahead and made the pledge, without so much as the pretense of consultation—as if all these actors, with their prerogatives over treaties and laws (to say nothing of their concerns for very real dilemmas), didn't exist.
So even if the deal is signed (which is by no means guaranteed), it may not stick. Can it really be that the administration is unaware of the complications? What could their motivations for signing this be if it's unlikely that anyone will start shipping nuclear fuel to India anytime soon?
4. Arundhati Roy singles out Bush's planned visit to Rajghat (the Gandhi memorial park) as something that will cause millions of Indians to "wince." I don't know; I think most Indians are perfectly comfortable with unlikely appropriations of Gandhi's image and legacy (just as civil rights activists in the U.S. have gotten used to Republicans wantonly quoting MLK).
Other than that, Roy's best zinger on Bush's travel plans is about his choice of venue:
Ironic isn't it, that the only safe public space for a man who has recently been so enthusiastic about India's modernity, should be a crumbling medieval fort?
5. Forget Bush-Manmohan and the Nuclear Deal! Will Smith is in Bombay, making prognostications about the merger of Bollywood and Hollywood.


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U.S. Green Building Council Named Mahesh Ramanujam President & CEO
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Board of Directors announced that Mahesh Ramanujam has completed the transition into his new role as president and CEO of USGBC, effective Nov. 4, 2016. He will also serve as president and CEO of USGBC's sister organization, Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI). Formerly USGBC's COO, Ramanujam takes the reins from Rick Fedrizzi, USGBC's founding chair, who had previously announced plans to leave the organization toward the end of 2016.
"It is an incredible honor for me to lead and serve this impressive and dynamic organization," said Ramanujam. "I am grateful for the opportunity to continually develop and enhance USGBC's capabilities and performance to ensure we deliver the future that our founders envisioned – transforming the way our buildings and communities are designed, built and operated so they enable a healthy and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life for people everywhere."
"We look forward to Mahesh's leadership of USGBC and GBCI," said Fiona Cousins, USGBC Board Chair. "Mahesh has already contributed a great deal to the organization and brings a strong mixture of vision and pragmatism to the organization, which will be crucial as the organization, and the world, continues to change."
Ramanujam brings a strong focus on serving the underserved and a drive to broaden and deepen USGBC's market transformation efforts.
"Mahesh is a remarkable leader," said Fedrizzi, who is now chairman and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute. "His strong business background, his demonstrated track record and his amazing gift for inspiring the best in those around him make him the perfect CEO for USGBC at this time in its history. His global vision and his strategic approach give all of us great confidence that he will guide the organization to much success in the coming years."
Ramanujam joined USGBC in 2009 as senior vice president of Technology, and he was named COO in September 2011. In December 2012, he was also named president of GBCI. In 2015, when Fedrizzi announced his plans to leave USGBC toward the end of 2016, the USGBC Board of Directors named Ramanujam as incoming CEO.
"Since joining the USGBC team more than seven years ago, I have felt enormously appreciative to be in a position that allows me to give back and serve the critical mission of our organization," added Ramanujam. "Our work has had a tremendous impact on millions of people as we strive to improve and enhance our world. USGBC is not just about buildings. It is about bold leadership to create business and community transformation while driving sustainability for all."
Prior to joining USGBC, Ramanujam was COO for Emergys, a business transformation consulting firm in North Carolina. Prior to that position, he was a consultant to IBM, serving as part of the team that led various business transformation initiatives, including the sale of IBM PC systems to Lenovo and its printer divisions to Ricoh. Ramanujam is a native of Chennai, India, and holds a bachelor's of engineering in computer sciences from Annamalai University, where he began his career in software and systems analysis and product development.
You may also be interested in this article about Healthier Buildings.


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• New Special Edition, motorsport-inspired V8 Vantage
• Standard equipment includes Sports Pack suspension and new sports exhaust system
• New distinctive Aston Martin 'Race Collection' paint schemes available as an option
• US debut at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
Aston Martin has unveiled a new motorsport-inspired special edition; the V8 Vantage N420 which brings a new dimension of sporting prowess and dynamic ability to the V8 Vantage range. The N420 will make its US debut at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in August 2010.
Successor to the special edition V8 Vantage N400 of 2007, the Vantage N420 is based upon the standard 4.7-litre, 420bhp, 180mph V8 Vantage and is available as a Coupe or Roadster, and with a six-speed manual or optional Sportshift automated manual transmission.
The Vantage N420 draws inspiration from the company's experiences at the Nürburgring 24-hour race. In the 2006 running of the annual Nürburgring endurance classic amongst a field of mostly motorsport homologated cars, Aston Martin entered a near-standard, road-registered V8 Vantage. Driven by a team of employees, including Aston Martin's CEO, Dr Ulrich Bez, the V8 Vantage – named 'Rose' by the team – finished 4th in class and 24th overall from a field of more than 200 specialised racing cars.
Since then Aston Martin has returned every year to compete in this gruelling endurance race, scoring a string of class victories and podiums with road-registered V8 and V12 Vantages and most recently the new four-door Rapide. Not only has this racing success spawned a burgeoning V8 Vantage GT4 customer programme run by Aston Martin Racing, but lessons learned in racing at the Nürburgring has led to aerodynamic and other performance developments being fed back into Aston Martin's road cars.
A generous standard specification and some unique options ensure the special edition Vantage N420 is both exclusive and distinctive.
On the outside, wider sills combine perfectly with a carbon fibre splitter, side strakes and diffuser, while bold 10-spoke diamond turned alloy wheels complete with gloss black finish, black mesh vents and 'Graphitic' tailpipe finishers complete the co-ordinated look.
Inside the Vantage N420 offers an Iridium interior package, with graphite instruments, leather or Alcantara® steering wheel, special N420 sill plaques and adjustable sports seats, complete with 'Race Track' stitching as in the V12 Vantage. Bluetooth connectivity, cruise control and Park Distance Control are also standard.
Cementing the Vantage N420's credentials as a special edition V8 Vantage tailored for the most discerning and enthusiastic drivers, it is fitted with the normally optional Sports Pack. This package combines revised springs, dampers and anti-roll bars for even more responsive and dynamic handling, while retaining the V8 Vantage's renowned poise, balance and long distance ability. Finally, a new sports exhaust system delivers a suitably rousing soundtrack.
A further distinctive feature is the availability of a new range of optional Aston Martin 'Race Collection' paint schemes. Pairing bold body colours with contrasting hues for the cant rails and radiator grille surround, they celebrate the marque's racing heritage. All of the company's successful N24 Vantage racers are celebrated, with 'Rose' yellow, 'Kermit' green and 'Elwood' blue all featuring in the collection along with traditional Aston Martin Racing green. The white and black car shown in the accompanying images wears the equally striking 'Asia Cup' livery.
Production of the V8 Vantage N420 begins this month, with deliveries for the Americas commencing in quarter four 2010.


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August 16, 2010
Gmail's Hidden Groups
It turns out that Gmail already has a built-in group for Google Buzz contacts. The group doesn't have a name and it's not displayed in Gmail's new contact manager, but you can find it in the old version of Gmail: it's the only one without a name.
Since the group doesn't have a name and it's hidden in the interface, you can't use it to send email messages or to post private Buzz messages, but you can select all the contacts and add them to another group.
There's also a hidden group for Google Latitude friends, which includes the people that can see your location in Google Latitude.
Another group lists all your Gmail Chat/Google Talk friends. Some of these people were automatically added by Google if you didn't disable "Automatically allow people I communicate with often to chat with me and see when I'm online" in the settings.
For those who miss the "all contacts" group in the new contact manager, here's the built-in group that includes both the people you've manually added ("my contacts") and the people automatically added by Google ("other contacts").
12 comments:
Thanks for the information! Will roll out to know more. Too many contacts in my GMail, I'm sure there are some groups like that.ReplyDelete
Hey, The Chats group doesn't work for me. Should I try the link the older version of Gmail? (Or maybe the older contact manger?)ReplyDelete
It seems that both groups below are for Latitude, and the first seems to be a sub-group of the second.ReplyDelete
I haven´t yet been able to explain why both groups exist and what´s the rationale.
How does this work with Google Apps accounts/mail/contacts?ReplyDelete
I haven't tried this in Google Apps, but there's no Google Buzz/Google Latitude integration in Google Apps. The new contact manager is not available for Google Apps yet, so the "all contacts" group is accessible from the UI.ReplyDelete
How can you remove contacts from the Chat group?ReplyDelete
You can remove contacts from the Chat group by blocking them.ReplyDelete
Note that Google recently announced that they would be retiring the "old" version of Gmail, so this trick won't work anymore.ReplyDelete
Of course they'll work since the tricks have nothing to do with the old version of Gmail.ReplyDelete
I've discovered that if you've got the "Quick Links" lab enabled, you can add a quick link to any of these hidden groups to get to it quickly, and not have to save a bookmark to them, or something like that.ReplyDelete
I hate hidden stuff in google products. It seems to be all over the place.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 16, 2011 at 5:29 AM
Have you found the URL for the Google Plus contact group?ReplyDelete


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Program note: CNN's live, comprehensive coverage of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address starts at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday. Go to CNN.com for complete coverage or take it with you on your iPhone, iPad or Android.
Story highlights
Justice Alito caused a stir when he shook his head at Obama line on campaign finance ruling
George W. Bush's term "axis of evil" suggested to American people that was was coming
Clinton almost reassured re-election when he signaled a shift to the center in 1996 address
Nixon was defiant even as some in Congress were considering impeachment
Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin notes that one of the things that's so special about the State of the Union address is the spectacle of the entire government – the heads of all three branches – gathering in one room at the same time.
"There is something about that ritual and the hunger we all have for that oneness that makes it really unique," Goodwin tells CNN. "And there is a sense in which the ceremony – the excitement of seeing the Supreme Court justices, seeing the Congress, seeing the president – reminds us of some of the pageantry that we all look for in our government."
Here are eight State of the Union address moments that Goodwin finds particularly memorable:
2010: Obama and Alito clash over campaign finance
When President Barack Obama criticized the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, the camera showed Justice Samuel Alito shaking his head and suggesting what Obama was saying was not true. It became a big thing.
Some people thought it was rude of the president to say that. Others wondered whether Alito's reaction had to do with the fact that Obama had been a leader against his nomination.
Before television, obviously you didn't have to worry if you looked bored or if you were shaking your head or whether you looked like you were disdainful. But now, especially after that moment, everybody realized, "I'd better watch my face, as well as what I'm saying, because the camera is there and the audio is there."
By the numbers: State of the Union addresses
2002: "Axis of evil"
In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush went before the Congress and defined the "axis of evil," meaning Iran, Iraq and North Korea. In a sense, "axis" was such a loaded term, because the Axis powers of Italy, Germany and Japan aligned against the U.S. and its allies in World War II.
So the idea that the world was now divided into "axis" powers and "allied" powers seemed to suggest a war coming on, which indeed was the truth.
1996: Clinton declares an end to big government
When Bill Clinton said the era of big government is over, he was referring to the Democrats' big midterm congressional losses in 1994, blamed in part on the failure of the big government health care bill that he sponsored.
What he was signaling: "I'm moving to the center, (and) the Democratic Party is moving to the center." He then went on that year to pass welfare reform, a Republican-sponsored idea. That made some liberals mad but ensuring in some ways his re-election.
To go or not to go: Supreme Court at the address
1986: A delay caused by tragedy
The 1986 State of the Union, delivered by Ronald Reagan, was the first one to be postponed as the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after lift-off on the day for which the speech was scheduled.
Reagan had such a good sense of timing that he realized it was more important was to directly address the Challenger problem than to deliver the State of the Union. He gave a masterful, emotional and classy speech from the Oval Office that allowed him to become healer-in-chief, yet another role for the president of the United States.
1982: Lenny Skutnik steals the show
When Ronald Reagan turned to the House Gallery and recognized Lenny Skutnik as a hero for jumping into the waters of the Potomac River to help rescue the survivors of an airplane crash, it began a tradition that continues to this day. The first lady's box is now regularly peopled by ordinary citizens who have done extraordinary things.
Sometimes the presidents use it as a human touch on their policies or sometimes as an emotional moment that makes the House and the Senate come together. These people are generally not partisan and are somebody that people can look up to at the same time.
CNN's John King: Little will change in D.C. after speech
1974: Defiant Nixon
Here was Nixon's approval rating at only 26%, and the House was already considering impeaching him for Watergate, and his voice was trembling. At one point, he meant to say that "we must replace the discredited welfare system," but instead says that "we must replace the discredited president." Then he declares one year of Watergate is enough.
Some people said at the time that what was so incredible about that State of the Union address was that it was less about the state of the union and more about the state of the president – here he is facing down the people who are beginning to think about his impeachment, and he has to stand before them in that assembly.
1964: LBJ declares war on poverty
In Lyndon B. Johnson's first State of the Union, only two months after the assassination of JFK, he called for an unconditional war on poverty, a whole set of interrelated programs involving health care, urban centers Appalachia and more.
What he said at the time was that he wanted something to be his own program, something that hadn't been started by any other president. Poverty was the thing that hit him emotionally, that he always wanted to do something about, so this became his signature program.
It's incredible that within such short time of JFK's assassination, he came up with a vision or a whole series of legislative programs that would eventually become fact.
Highlights from past addresses
1941: FDR's Four Freedoms
One of the best remembered moments is the declaration of the "Four Freedoms" in Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union – the freedom from want, the freedom from fear, the freedom of speech and the freedom of worship. It became memorialized in Norman Rockwell's famous paintings and offered a standard by which other countries would be judged. It still provides hope for those countries where those freedoms are not assured.
Another important note from that State of the Union is that FDR called for the Lend-Lease act for Britain, which was then at war with Germany. At a time when our country was still isolationist, eventually Lend-Lease passed, proving that we had educated the country to the need to do something even before Pearl Harbor brought us into the war.
Eleanor Roosevelt, in a very rare lapse of judgment, was upset that during the discussion of the Four Freedoms and Lend-Lease, the Republicans did not clap and sat on their hands.
She said she felt that they were just little kids, saying, "I don't want to play in your yard. I don't love you anymore." She then got roundly criticized – and rightly so – by Republicans, who said, "What does she think she is, the queen? And he is the king? And we are not allowed to criticize them?"


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The 2004 Perseid Meteor Shower
Meteor Shower
Meteoroids in space since the Civil War will spice up
this summer's Perseid meteor shower.
June 25, 2004: The annual Perseid meteor shower is coming, and forecasters say it could be unusually good.
The shower begins, gently, in mid-July when Earth enters the outskirts of a cloud of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle. Dust-sized meteoroids hitting the atmosphere will streak across the night sky, at first only a sprinkling, just a few each night, but the rate will build.
Right: Photographer Nathalie Dautel caught this Perseid streaking through the Milky Way in 2001.
This is a good year for Perseids, for two reasons, explains Bill Cooke of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. First, the Moon is new in mid-August; moonlight won't spoil the show. Second, in addition to the usual shower on August 12th, there might be an extra surge of meteors on August 11th caused by a filament of dust newly drifting across Earth's orbit.
The filament, like all the rest of the dust in the Perseid cloud, comes from Comet Swift-Tuttle. The difference is, the filament is relatively young. It boiled off the comet during the Civil War, in 1862. Other dust in the cloud is older (perhaps thousands of years old), more dispersed, and responsible for the month-long shower that peaks on August 12th. The filament will eventually disperse, too, but for now it retains some of its original ribbon-shape.
(Note: Perseids favor northern latitudes. Because of the way Comet Swift-Tuttle's orbit is tilted, its dust falls on Earth's northern hemisphere. Meteors stream out of the constellation Perseus, which is barely visible south of the equator.)
Later that night, observers in North America can see the "traditional Perseid peak" caused by the older dust from Swift-Tuttle. "Expect 40 to 60 meteors per hour, some of them bright," says Cooke.
The best time to look for these "traditional Perseids" is during the hours before dawn on Thursday, August 12th. Set your alarm for 2 o'clock in the morning; go outside; lie down on a sleeping bag with your toes pointed northeast. You'll soon see meteors racing along the Milky Way.
Above: The pre-dawn sky on Aug. 12th. The Perseid radiant is denoted by a red dot. While you're looking for meteors, check out Venus and the crescent Moon, too, near the horizon.
Can't wake up at 2 a.m.?
Try looking around 9 or 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 11th when Perseus is hanging low in the eastern sky. You won't see many meteors then, but the ones you do see could be memorable. Shooting stars that emerge from the horizon and streak horizontally through the atmosphere are called "Earthgrazers." Slow and colorful Earthgrazers are a good target for city dwellers, because they are so bright.
Dust from Comet Swift-Tuttle hits Earth. What about the comet itself?
Right: 19th century astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. [More]
The idea that comets and asteroids might threaten our planet was not widely accepted until the 1980s. Then astronomers began to worry. Comet Swift-Tuttle is big, about the same size as the asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and as recently as 1992 it seemed that Swift-Tuttle might strike Earth in the year 2126. New data and calculations show otherwise, though. There's no danger of a collision for at least a millennium and probably much longer.
So relax. Enjoy the show. Perseids are harmless  and beautiful. This is an unusually good year to see for yourself


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This was my home page when I was at Carnegie Mellon. I'm now a digital library planner and architect at the University of Pennsylvania. I don't have a proper home page at present, but you can find out a lot about what I'm up to now via my blog, Everybody's Libraries.
Here are some links for some of the things that I did while I was at CMU.