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The tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico offers a management lesson to food marketers on how not to deal with a crisis. Specifically, I refer to the obesity epidemic. Here's what I mean.
First, there's the blame game. No one is taking responsibility for the Gulf disaster. BP points its fingers at Transocean who throws a hot potato to Halliburton who points back to BP as having ultimate responsibility. A similar dynamic persists in the obesity debate. Activists blame corporations for spewing excessive fuel (i.e., calories) on the consuming public; food corporations counter that they offer healthy options and decry that regulators are unfairly trying to tax them; and all the while consumers continue to chomp away at anything put in front of them.
Then there's this sticky matter of the unintended consequences of the spill on the health and wellbeing of all those affected: wildlife, the environment, the food supply, local economies, and laborers. It appears that none of the parties planned for this eventuality. So too with obesity. Food marketers did not intend that Americans get fat. Clever marketers simply discovered the formula for providing excellent value for their customers. And in turn consumers complied. Now two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese.
Finally, neither BP nor the food companies have put the genie back in the bottle. By this I mean that the causes for concern (oil and calories) still run rampant. For BP, this not only means a public relations nightmare but also likely criminal proceedings. It will also pave the way for new, more draconian regulations and a radical shift in energy policies, to the detriment of the petroleum companies. With minor exceptions, food marketers also have not put the lid on calories and will continue to feel the heat of regulators, activists, and consumers until they do.
So what can food marketers do?
This is a defining moment that will determine whether food companies ultimately are labeled as pariahs or emerge as "heros." There are three things that they can do now to ensure the latter outcome:
1. Take responsibility. As Harry Truman proclaimed, "The buck stops here." Whether the President is personally or institutionally responsible, if something happens on his or her watch look no further when assessing culpability or kudos. It is time for our food marketers to take ownership of the obesity crisis regardless of where the blame lies. There is plenty to go around, so let's move on. Unlike BP's fumble, demonstrating leadership is not only the right thing to do but also the smart thing, since companies will reap the rewards of enhanced customer loyalty and less restrictive (and persistent) regulation.
2. Cap the well. It's time to put a moratorium on the number of calories sold to consumers. And we're already seeing ways it can be implemented. For example, soft drink marketers Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Dr. Pepper Snapple now supply 88 percent less calories in school vending machines than in 2004—and they're still making a profit.
3. Clean up the mess. Compared to 1970, each of us is now exposed to 30 percent more calories daily. In my last article, I highlighted that it would take the removal of 69 trillion calories from the food supply to return us to the level of calories we consumed "pre-obesity." And the only way to accomplish this is for all food companies to shave off at least 20 percent of the calories they are selling.
By following these three simple maxims, food companies can avoid the mistakes made by BP and put themselves in a position to reclaim leadership and public esteem.
This post was produced by The Atlantic as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.


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If you are anything like me, you have been anxiously waiting for The Best Man sequel, The Best Man Holiday. I have been stalking websites with insider information, recording First Take on ESPN because the cast was on the show, counting down the days until I can sit in a red movie theater seat with a tub of butter-soaked popcorn and a large blue raspberry/coke slushee. Yes, I'm ready. But alas, the release date isn't until November 15th.
Universal Pictures recently released the official trailer to The Best Man Holiday, and at nearly two and half minutes it is just long enough to get a glimpse how hilarious and dramatic this film will be. It certainly looks like it will live up to the legacy of the original.
Check it out below.
After nearly 15 years apart, Taye Diggs (television's Private Practice), Nia Long (Soul Food), Morris Chestnut (Kick-Ass 2), Harold Perrineau (Zero Dark Thirty), Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow), Sanaa Lathan (Contagion), Monica Calhoun (Love & Basketball), Melissa De Sousa (Miss Congeniality) and Regina Hall (Scary Movie franchise) reprise their career-launching roles in The Best Man Holiday, the long-awaited next chapter to the film that ushered in a new era of comedy. When the college friends finally reunite over the Christmas holidays, they will discover just how easy it is for long-forgotten rivalries and romances to be ignited.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Artist: Snoop Doggy Dogg Album: Doggystyle Song: Lodi Dodi Intro Typed by: OHHLA Webmaster DJ Flash Domino motherfucker what's happenin? Ahh nigga eat a dick nigga, don't break my momma's nice ass table nigga Yeah fuck that, fuck what they talkin bout nigga Rack them motherfuckin dominoes up nigga Fuck that nigga, just look, look out for the table nigga Fuck that Aiyyo where's Snoop Dogg? I don't know them niggaz went upstairs with that big booty bitch man Ahh no he ain't bustin no nuts on my momma's spread That nigga up there gettin his socks blown the fuck off Gettin his ass chewed out Better ask somebody Balls licked up and down Hell yeah Aiyyo whassup with them niggaz that was on the TV dissin you? Man fuck them niggaz, man I ain't thinkin about that old shit, man Busta ass, HIV pussy-ass motherfuckers Yo yo yo Daz, easy come, easy *blam*


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Part 4. Sunny With a Chance of Economic Development: Solar Potential, the Solar Session that wasn't, and City of Austin Solar Plant
Last spring, our minds were budding with thoughts of birds, bees, and… Texas' solar potential (didn't you know, a robust solar program would put Texans back to work and position the state as a world leader for solar production!) Ah, sweet romance.
First Public Citizen, Environment Texas and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club hosted a statewide round of press conferences to roll out our solar report, Texas Solar Roadmap (though I'd really recommend the abridged version, Wildcatting the Sun). It seemed like every other legislator had some incarnation of a solar bill, and folks were wondering if this was going to be the solar session. We were (and remain) especially excited about the City of Austin's potential to become the nation's new clean energy hub, just like it was for the semiconductor industry — and almost like an answer to our prayers, within months the Austin City Council voted in favor of a 30MW solar plant in Webberville (though not without a little nerve-racking delay).
And of course, somewhere in that busy, busy time, we found time to make an awesome solar video for Environment Texas' solar video contest:
Too bad we just couldn't compare to Mic SoL-O and his sweet, sweet rhymes:
By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.


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Choosing who should be entrusted to lead our nation's government is not a responsibility that should be taken lightly, and never has that maxim been truer than in this current election cycle. Our economy is stagnant, our culture is dangerously stratified, and our way of life is threatened by a host of dangers both foreign and domestic. In this newspaper's more than two centuries of covering the national scene, few moments in history have felt more crucial or, indeed, perilous.
And so the time has come to decide who is best equipped to lead our country through this era of great crisis and great opportunity. America needs a leader who offers a coherent vision and who appeals to the better angels of our nature. We need a leader who is well-versed in the moral and legal foundations of our freedom and will work to uphold them. In short, this country needs the best man for the job.
And so it is without ambivalence or hesitation that The Onion endorses former U.S. senator John Edwards for president.
Mr. Edwards' career has not been without its missteps. He has, like all of us at one time or another, made his share of mistakes. His opposition to a nationwide military draft, for instance. In addition, his support for the expansion of immigrants' rights has angered this newspaper's editorial board. And yet at each turn, Mr. Edwards has recovered in full, with two feet planted firmly on the ground and his dignity and political acumen intact. He is a man who has learned from adversity, knowing, as any former attorney does, that the strongest individuals are forged through trials by fire.
Furthermore, Mr. Edwards conducted a protracted extramarital affair with a younger woman while his wife was dying of cancer, and we like that he did this. Our reasons for liking that he did this are tenfold:
1. It was a brave thing to do, given the possible consequences
2. The woman in question was more attractive than Mr. Edwards' wife
3. He did what he did without compromising his ideals, at least not to any illegal extent
4. He enjoyed himself, and good for him
5. The Onion believes sex is a natural and healthy biological function
6. Women have a weakness for men in powerful positions, and Mr. Edwards expertly exploited that weakness
7. Mr. Edwards' "Two Americas" premise is very appealing
8. Again, his wife was dying of cancer, and thus was not an ideal partner for sexual intercourse
9. Mr. Edwards is attractive, and it is pleasing to imagine him having sexual intercourse with another attractive person
10. Every employee of this newspaper would have done the exact same thing, given the opportunity
Those who oppose John Edwards' rightful ascent to our nation's highest office are, in no uncertain terms, cowards and hypocrites.
They are also fools.
Those who disagree with our editorial board on this issue have neither our respect nor our tolerance. Furthermore, let it be known that the political endorsement of The Onion is not a thing to be taken lightly. On the contrary, it should be viewed as a sort of line in the proverbial sand, and those who find themselves on the wrong side of that line will henceforth be marked as enemies of this newspaper, and will be taken out with the most extreme forms of violence.
Now, consider for a moment what you, the reader, would be up against should you decide to defy The Onion. You would be pitting yourself against a multinational conglomerate whose yearly earnings exceed $200 billion. On top of that, you would also be taking on a media organization with nearly limitless control over information and public opinion. Pretend, if you must, that we live in a representative democracy, but the reality is that the planet is controlled by the makers of money and the makers of taste, and The Onion is both.
The Onion has had its fair share of political enemies in the past, but rest assured few have survived to tell the tale.
And so the editorial board of The Onion asks you to keep these points in mind as you enter the voting booth on Election Day. We urge you to elect John Edwards the next president of the United States. The consequences of doing otherwise are simply too dire.
Tu Stultus Es


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Ever dreamed of turning lights on and off with your Android smartphone? Want to push music around the house like iPhone fanboys can with AirPlay? Google is bringing that to you with Android @ Home and Google Tungsten, their latest creations.
Android @ Home will consist of a series of open source libraries which developers will be able to use to create home automation apps on the Android platform. Any device plugged into an Android @ Home receiver will work with Android's automation API's. Imagine carrying your tablet or phone around the house, and if you forgot to shut off a light or appliance, you can do it remotely by tapping a button on your screen. Or, imagine your house turning into a giant, Android-powered media streamer. It's going to use an as-of-yet undefined wireless protocol (we'd guess Bluetooth-related, since it's low-power and will be "open"), which means, yep, you'll need all-new gear for it to work.
Google Tungsten combines the Android @ Home framework with the Google Music cloud, resulting in system of audio streamers in the hope that function much like Sonos or Airplay-enabled devices. In the demo at Google IO, they showed off a little glowing box connected to speakers. Using your Android device, they pushed music to the device from Google Music, and theoretically could do the same for as many connected audio zones as you need.
Standalone devices that used to do this in the past seemed too gimmicky and pieced together to have a place in our daily lives. But because Android @ Home works these ideas into a device that we use all the time, it makes the idea of a smarthome alluring. [Google IO]
Thanks to Borrowlenses.com the lens rental place that we use for our liveblog gear.


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Happy October friends! Nature is putting on an incredible show this month, especially around my town. How about yours?
Over the weekend, I did a little gardening, plus paid a visit to my local nursery to see what's available to plant on the porch this autumn season.
More than ever, I was inspired to bring more new perennials into our garden, even plant a new tree or two.
I just love the autumn colors on display in nature and secretly, I'm wanting some new plants in my yard so that this time of year I can bring more fresh clippings indoors to capture that fresh autumn feel.
Favorite Plantings That Guarantee Autumn Color
Japanese Maple. This slow growing ornamental tree has the most delicate leaves; ours turns a deep red during the autumn months. It grows well in containers too. We've had one for almost ten years in a large pot where it receives partial sun and partial shade. I love to scatter its leaves on our Thanksgiving table.
Coleus. Shades of green, burgundy, and even black in color, this ornamental perennial prefers partial shade and milder climates outdoors, and also makes a great houseplant.
Chrysanthemums. Decorative as a daisy and cute as a button, these hardy favorites come in all autumn shades. I'll be choosing deep burgundy versions this year for my own planters.
Sunflowers. A bloom that crosses the bridge from summer to fall, these cheerful bright annuals bring the remnants of sunshine indoors, even as an autumn chill draws near.
Ginkgo Biloba. We've all heard of the pharmaceutical uses and the beneficial effects on memory derived from this tree, but how gorgeous are these intense yellow fan shaped leaves in autumn?
Viburnum. Definitely a favorite of mine, this perennial, which is sometimes called 'Chinese Snowball', grows white puffy hydrangea like blooms in spring, and provides gorgeous branches of colorful leaves in fall. It's been three weeks and only one change of water, and these stems still look fresh on my mantel.
Hydrangea. Here's another spring to fall perennial that I adore. These blooms arrive in pale green with a wisp of pink in spring, then weather to shades of raspberry and sage in autumn. In years past, I've dried their stems, then sprinkled them with metallic spray paint for a gorgeous holiday arrangement.
Grapevines. Not just for your typical wine country regions, grapevines offer fruit in summer, changing leaves in fall, and branch clippings in winter for forming wreaths.
Chinese Pistache. This deciduous and drought tolerant tree is native to China (hence the name) and is often planted along streets in suburban areas for its hardiness and also its fall foliage.
Oak. There are several species of this tree, from red to white oak, that put on a glorious show in fall. Which ones grow best where you are?
The Great Pumpkin. The quintessential fall themed squash to plant in your garden. With all the varieties available, if you have the foresight in summer to plant and the patience to let them roam across you yard, you'll reap the rewards come October.
Your local nursery or garden center will know just what perennials and trees grow well in your hardiness zone. What's the one plant or tree in your area or garden that gives you the best fall color?
Image sources: Better Homes & Gardens; Martha Stewart; Southern Living; Country Living; Alaska In Pictures; Costco; Mooseys Country Gardens;


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In 'SIM Swap,' Criminals Really Have Your Number
If you're not familiar with SIM swap fraud, prepare to be terrified.
This scam, also known as port-out or SIM splitting fraud, allows criminals to hijack your cell phone number. Once they have your number, the bad guys can clean out your financial accounts, confiscate your email, delete your data and take over your social media profiles.
Liz Weston
This kind of identify fraud has been around for years, but it's getting more attention after a wave of cryptocurrency thefts and attacks on high profile victims, including Twitter CEO Jack Dors ey, who briefly lost control of his Twitter account.
This Is the Fraud the Experts Fear Most
The potential damage is so great that security expert Avivah Litan, vice president at research firm Gartner Inc., fears losing her phone number far more than having her Social Security number compromised.
"I'd rather they took my social, to tell you the truth," Litan says, "because I care about my retirement money and I know some of it's protected through phone number access."
What's more, you can't prevent this fraud — only your carrier can. And right now, criminals are finding it's pretty easy to fool the phone companies.
Sometimes the scam artists bribe or blackmail carrier employees; sometimes, the employees are the criminals. Other times, the fraudsters use identifying data they've stolen, bought on the dark web or gleaned from social media to convince carriers that they're you. They pretend they want to change carriers or say they need a new SIM card, the module that identifies a phone's owner and allows it to connect to a network. Once they persuade the carrier to transfer your number to a phone they control, they can attack your other accounts.
Even getting your cell phone carrier to recognize what's happening, and help you stop it, can be a challenge, says security expert Bob Sullivan, host of the "So, Bob" technology podcast. Victims report being forced to educate phone company employees about the fraud and having their numbers stolen more than once, even after protections were supposedly in place.
Phone companies protest they're doing all they can, and solutions that would make this theft harder also would inconvenience people who legitimately want to switch carriers or need their numbers transferred to new SIM cards because their phones have been lost or stolen.
While you can't prevent this fraud if you have a cell phone, you may be able to reduce the chances of being victimized or at least limit the damage.
Change How You're Identified, if You Can
First, ask your phone company to put a personal identification number on your account. Hopefully the carrier will require that to be produced before your phone number is "ported out" to a new carrier or assigned to a different SIM card.
Then, investigate whether you can switch to more secure authentication on your sensitive accounts. Being texted a code is better than nothing, since this "two factor" authentication is harder to beat than just using a password. Better options would be to get the codes through a call to a landline or by using an authenticator app such as Authy, Google Authenticator or Duo Security on your smartphone.
Assume the Worst
If your phone stops working or you can't send or receive texts, don't assume it's a glitch. Call using an alternate method or visit your carrier immediately to report phone takeover fraud. Sullivan recommends knowing a few alternate ways to contact your carrier, such as Wi-Fi calling, Skype or an easily accessed backup phone.
— Alert your financial institutions.
— Change the email and password associated with all your financial and payment accounts.
— Freeze your credit reports.
— File identity theft reports with your local police department.
"You have a plan in place because minutes are going to matter," Sullivan says.
About the Author
This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Liz Weston is a columnist at NerdWallet, a certified financial planner and author of "Your Credit Score." Email: email@example.com. Twitter: @lizweston.


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When you're faced with legal trouble, the best thing you can do is to get professional help from a DWI attorney. However, finding a good one is not that easy. You need to do some careful and thorough research so that you can get the best DWI attorney. People often get confused about the specifics of their legal cases. This is why getting professional help is a really good idea. When you get an attorney, you need to look for certain qualifications.
When you're looking for a DWI attorney, you need to ask around. According to marketing surveys, word of mouth is considered as the most effective and extensive method of marketing. This means that if you get referrals from family and friends, you will most likely get good ones that will lead you to the lawyer that you need. If you don't know anyone who's familiar with DUI lawyers in your area, you can use the internet to look for one by reading reviews.
Let's move on to the things that you need to look for from a DUI lawyer. First, the lawyer that you choose should specialize in DUI cases. It's not a good idea to get someone who covers different types of cases.
A good lawyer to get would be someone who's aware of all the elements involved such as psychology, blood alcohol limits, toxicology, sobriety tests, and others. An excellent lawyer may demand higher fees from you but at least you can be assured that you're going to end up in a way better position at the end of your case. In other words, your chances of winning your cases are really high when you have an excellent DUI lawyer by your side.
When a DUI is charged against you, the state will initiate two separate actions against you specifically an administrative action and a criminal action so you need to get a lawyer who will fight both sides of your case. You have to make sure that your lawyer is skilled in all the aspects of your case. He should know how to scrutinize all of the points of your case. It might be that the police officer has committed some errors when you were arrested or he may even have used intimidation so your lawyer should question all of the loopholes.
The lawyer that you choose to hire will play a huge part in determining whether or not you're going to win in court.


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Not All Sources and Experts Are Equal–Here Are some Real Ones!
There are 'experts' views,' and then there are experts' views. There are 'government sources,' and then there are government sources. Not all experts are equal. And, not all sources are reliable. Am I talking in riddles? Of course not; give me a chance and I'll explain.
We have members of the popular media (mainstream and quasi-alternatives alike) ever anxious to market and disseminate government conspiracy and propaganda. They, members of the popular media, have their own rolodex of 'experts' and analysts, some on their payroll, to help them propagate the delivery and execution of government-given propaganda-conspiracy. The same principle applies to 'sources.' The popular media relies on their government sources who act as middle-men-government messengers who've been given a government written and approved script to be delivered; almost always anonymously. Well, this is exactly what we have been getting from our media, around the clock, since the announcement of the Bin Laden Death Operation: ever-changing government scripts, delivered mainly by anonymous government sources to the US media, and further embellished and expanded upon by government-connected experts and analysts on the payroll.
On the other hand, there are many independent real experts whose analyses and views you won't, or rarely, get to hear or read about; at least not in the mainstream media or at quasi-alternative sites. And there are current and former government sources not tasked with messenger duties; many of whom don't see the 'calculated' necessity to remain 'anonymous.' I can assure you, you do not, and will not, read or hear these experts' and sources' statements, analyses or views when it comes to government-written stories and their media buddies.
Last weekend Boiling Frogs Post contacted several independent sources and experts, and asked them for their straight-forward take on the absurdity-filled and ever-changing Bin Laden Death story. I say independent, because they are. As you'll see these veterans and sources come from all different walks of Intelligence-Law Enforcement-Military, and as far as political orientation goes, they fall into every single category-liberal, conservative, libertarian and none. I want to thank them all for honoring the request given to them on extremely short notice, and for being honest, direct, commonsensical, and in some cases realistically humorous. Here is what they had to say, and say it briefly per my request, starting with my favorite investigative reporter and bestselling author, whom I respect tremendously and consider 'truly independent,' James Bamford:
I don't know what happened, but here's what I suspect. The White House press office was horrified. The image of an unarmed Bin Laden killed in his PJs, and his unarmed wife shot as she was trying to protect him, was too bland for prime time TV. So after consulting with the "perception managers" at The Rendon Group, they quickly called together a team of experts for a conference in the Roosevelt Room to come up with a better narrative.
Among those present was Nurse Nayirah, daughter of the former Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S., accompanied by several PR representatives from Hill & Knowlton. It was her false claim that she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators in Kuwait and leave them on the floor to die, a lie propagandized around the world by H&K, that helped push the U.S. into the first Gulf War. Sitting next to her was Ahmed Chalabi, the man whose deceptions about Saddam and his WMD, heavily promoted by the New York Times, helped lead the country to war with Iraq. Then there was Jim Wilkinson, the Bush master propagandist who needed to find a way to get the country behind the war. He thus fed the story to the media of how Pvt. Jessica Lynch fearlessly mowed down Fedayeen terrorists with her M16 until she ran out of ammo, whereupon she was shot, stabbed, captured, tortured and raped. Unfortunately, through no fault of Lynch, it was later discovered to be totally made up. Finally, there was General Stanley McCrystal, largely responsible for promoting the fact that football star and Army private Pat Tillman was killed in a heroic battle in Afghanistan when in reality he was accidentally shot by his own men. The false story was then ballyhooed by the press and used by the Army as a major recruiting tool for the Afghan War.
After a few hours going around the table for ideas, the White House press people finally had their story. With one hand wrapped around his wife as a shield, Bin Laden used the other in a desperate effort to fight off capture by firing wildly at the commandos with an AK-47, but was finally taken down with a bullet right between his eyes.
James Bamford– One of the country's leading writers on intelligence and national security issues.
If you factor in growth in government and the actual costs of the military and intelligence effort that finally succeeded in killing Osama bin Laden after fifteen years of trying, the renowned terrorist becomes the $3 trillion dollar man. Considering that he has not personally directed a successful terrorist operation since 9/11 that is quite impressive, somewhat like winning a lifetime achievement Oscar at the Academy Awards ceremony. And even 9/11 is by no means a slam-dunk for Osama as the Justice Department never charged him with that particular crime because they knew they did not have enough evidence to convince a jury. So his story ends, shot down in Pakistan while resisting or possibly surrendering, with his wife and son or alone, in a lavish mansion or a shack, as a result of a great spy operation or maybe not, and with the President of the United States personally directing the operation or possibly just sitting in for a photo op. Requiescat in Pace Osama.
Philip Giraldi-Former Counterterrorism Specialist & military Intelligence Officer of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
The executive-ordered assassination of Osama bin Laden, in what is now described as a rubbish-strewn, dirt-infested and barely habitable compound, does free up a spot on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list. As a result of this grand and newsworthy success, after an interminable decade of really, really, really hard work, the flag-draped and platinum-plated military-industrial-intelligence complex is poised for even greater rewards, in both glory and gold. Constitution-minded and economically strapped Americans, and those who oppose unnecessary undeclared wars of any kind, need to get back under the Bush-Obama bus, and quick. Here's why: President Obama will not remind Americans that bin Laden was never "wanted" by the FBI for the 9/11 attacks, and as such, bin Laden's death is irrelevant to Washington's long war in Afghanistan. Likewise, former President Bush will not tell the country that the bin Laden connection to Saddam Hussein was manufactured in 2002 by neoconservatives bent on invasion, and as a result, bin Laden's death has no bearing on Washington's 9-year occupation and nation-building project in Iraq. Come to think of it, not having Osama around anymore is stagnation we can believe in.
Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski- Retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and a specialist on the Middle East
Two UN guys are sitting in a bar in Kabul — and one turns to the other and says "Did you hear the one about the president, the terrorism advisor and the pope?" The second guy turns to the other and says "Well — no — I have not" — and the first guys says "Me neither — but it cannot be any more funny than the way the White House has handled the narrative of the Bin Laden raid."
Four days after the Bin Laden raid, and in the middle of what must have been the 10th White House modification to the story, I was asked in an on-air interview "don't you (in the Special Operations Community) have plans for dealing with the media?" — well yes, yes, we do… but this plan was not used due to the White House insinuation of their "academic smart guys and gals" — so the plan was not followed — because the raid became a White House center piece that was quickly (and badly) absorbed for purposes of supporting the President's reelection.
National security — and what is best and necessary for the nation — should NOT be an issue that is used by either side for political gain… the harsh reality is that it often is. As I have said many time: "I am not anti-war, I am anti-stupidity… " we have sycophants in the White House who will do or say anything to get the President re-elected and sacrifice the truth, and the nation's best interests, in the process as they drive the clown car of freedom around the nation for a victory lap…
Lt Col Tony Shaffer-Intelligence Officer & recipient of the Bronze Star, with 25 years of field experience commanding and directing several key operational intelligence organizations
The "fog of war" excuse for the Obama Administration's horrendous series of factual errors in reporting bin Laden's killing was mostly due to rushing to make the U.S. press deadline and take credit before being upstaged by leaks from international press. One small detail that reveals the over-arching importance placed on Obama's need for a bold, decisive press image lies in his unqualified announcement about getting his man that was made even before the DNA testing was completed. The White House later clarified that they were 90 to 95% certain it was bin Laden based on photo comparisons and later they upped that to 95% certainty but there's nothing scientific about "facial analysis" photo comparisons. Quite likely another reason the Administration doesn't want the dead bin Laden photo out now is that it would invite scrutiny of the hasty announcement. I think the series of errors was mostly based on the rush to frame this quickly for the press so Obama would appear bold and strong on terrorism and get what Charley Cook projected as a 13% "bounce" in the polls.
Coleen Rowley- Retired FBI Agent and Former Chief Counsel of the FBI Minneapolis field office
So we come through the mountain passes that are being watched by tribal warlords who have our left over stinger missiles from the Soviets' little adventure there, because if we fly too high the Pakistani defense radar network will pick us up. We don't know who is in this compound, so we shoot-to-kill every unarmed male resident on the spot, before we even know if Bin Laden is there. And we insist Pakistan's ISI intelligence service knew nothing of Bin Laden being in the middle of their retirement neighborhood for military generals and intelligence officials. Oh, we wanted to do it one week earlier, but our government knew that on that day the Easter Bunny would be hiding multi-colored eggs for all the little Pakistani children!
Russell D. Tice- Former Intelligence Analyst for the U.S. Air Force, Office of Naval Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency & National Security Agency
From my own 25-years experience on the inside much of it doing international covert operations, I'm pretty certain that the competing federal bureaucracies' decades long, often bizarre war for headlines is at the root of this whole weird episode. Of course this is fueled by the ease with which mainstream media is manipulated into printing absolutely anything that comes from their "inside" usually "anonymous" sources.
With the Bin Laden hit, the media skirmish started with the scramble for "credit" by the public affairs offices of each of the parties involved a. First the Pentagon (Defense Intelligence) and White House take the lead. Then the CIA, the Criminal Inept Agency, sorely hurting from five decades of being total and abject losers and perpetually at war with DIA, grabs the whole ball and runs with it, like they invented it. This pisses off the DIA and leaks and counter-leaks begin to spring in every direction from inside sources on both sides, sniping at each other's "story."
But you can't count out the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Incompetence, who has been totally and insultingly left out of the whole mix. Rumor is they even had an FBI Files episode on "How the FBI killed Bin Laden," ready to go into production, no matter how Bin Laden died. All they needed was a body.
Leaving them totally out of the kill of the dude for whom they've spent half their PR budget hunting, … well … insulting to say the least. And you do NOT want to piss off the FBI. Remember Cointelpro?!
Finally. What really happened? My bet is that some Navy Seal captain in charge of the guys out there circling around Pakistan's night skies in helicopters like sitting ducks waiting for the Washington suits to make up their minds, said, "Screw it! I'll take responsibility. Let's do it guys!"
Mike Levine- Retired supervisory agent, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); also served the U.S. Customs Service, IRS (Criminal Investigations Division) & the FBI/DEA Task Force
Obama's Idea — Whatabad!
Killing Osama in Abbottabad
Serves only to get a whole lottabad
guys planning in sync
To pay back Murder, Inc.
From Kandahar to Jalalabad.
Ray McGovern- Retired CIA Analyst, former Army Intelligence Officer & Founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
A part of me is going to miss Bin Laden, at least I understood him. I certainly do not condone his methods or his twisted logic; but his actions were extremely predictable (I was one of the few people that actively tried to prevent 9-11). But I do not understand our own government. First we attack a country that had nothing to do with 9-11, we lower our moral standing in the eyes of the world, we violate our Constitution, we turn our military into the Peace Corps resulting in thousands of our own military casualties and tens of thousands of innocent civilian casualties overseas, we treat our own citizens as guilty of something until proven otherwise at airports, the list is endless. The final straw, however, is the PR campaign of the killing of BL. If ever there was a "black operation" in the traditional use of the term, this was it. Our government should have said nothing about this assassination. Oh, word would have leaked out over time and years from now we could have our day in the sun, but this isn't the time. We celebrate this killing like it's the winning touch-down at the Super Bowl. All this dog and pony show is a rallying cry for the same fanatics that rioted and killed over cartoons. How many more innocent lives will be lost just so our politicians can make a little splash in the news?
Bogdan Dzakovic- Special Agent, Team Leader of the Red Team (terrorist team) and Federal Air Marshals for the Federal Aviation Administration(FAA), and Former Coast Guard Officer & Federal Criminal Investigator


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How To Plan Cheap Maui Family Vacations
Source: Flickr
Great beaches, lush surroundings, charming people, rave parties. What more can you ask from a vacation trip? When you go to Maui, you will have these things and so much more. Unfortunately, going there is not as cheap as it seems.
Tickets can skyrocket depending on the season. The same goes with the hotel fees and the food costs. This is especially true if the whole family is going to the trip. But with the right resources, you can actually plan cheap Maui family vacations. Here are some of the things that you have to do.
Book early.
Booking early will save you as much as 60 percent of your total airline ticket costs. This is already an answered prayer for families who are planning a family trip but cannot afford too much expenses. A lot of airlines right now have existing promos for people who book early. You will be given large discounts.
Just make sure that you will be taking the trip though as it is much harder to cancel or reschedule tickets that have been part of a promo. Make sure also that you know what the promo entails before purchasing the tickets.
Book off season
Another secret to cheap family vacation trips to Maui is to book off season. This will not only significantly lower your airline expense, it will also lessen the prices of hotel accommodations and food costs. You see, most hotels and merchants in Maui jack up their prices during peak season.
The same goes with the airlines, who do not have promos during peak seasons. One problem with this set up is the schedule of the kids. So make sure that you have the schedule all worked out before getting those tickets.
Bring your own food
If you can take with you food for the vacation, go on and do it. This is especially true if you are staying in rental houses, where you can cook your own food. Even hotels permit guests to bring in food inside their rooms. This is a cheaper alternative to eating out or buying at the grocery store in Maui which is probably more expensive.
One downside for this is the bulk of the baggage that you will have to take with you to Maui. But if you have the extra hand to carry it, why not? You can always have it checked in as a baggage. Besides, when you go home, you'll not be carrying it anymore.
Research on the internet
The internet is a wonderful resource where you can find just absolutely anything that you want. So read on travel sites. For sure there is a feature there about Maui.
There you will find hotels, rental houses, car rentals, restaurants that are cheaper than the usual tourist spots. In fact, these places are sometimes the more authentic ones. Read their reviews. This will give you a fairly good idea on where to get cheaper deals in the island without sacrificing the experience.
Source: Flickr
So you see, when you know how to look, where to look, and what to do, it is not really that hard to plan cheap Maui family vacations. You just have to make an effort and go the extra mile. Cheap is not so impossible to achieve.


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I have recently started using mockito to improve the quality of my unit tests. It's a great tool, with a very clear syntax that makes tests very readable. Also, if you follow a BDD pattern in your tests, mockito has aliases in BDDMockito so that your actions can clearly follow the given/then/when template.
I'm using it to test the behaviour of some transactional services. The underlying persistence technology used is JPA, so checking that some entity is not modified is a bit hard. Why? Because with JPA, the usual way of updating an entity is by bringing it into your persistence context, modifying it, and then simply closing the context. The entity manager will detect that the retrieved entity has changed, and will create the appropriate update statement.
So, if I want to ensure that a method in the service layer doesn't modify an entity, a clean way of doing it is ensuring that no setter methods are called on that entity. In order to be able to test this with mockito, you need to do two things: first, make the mocked DAO return a "spy" of the entity; and second, verify that no spurious set* methods have been called on that spy during the service call.
The fist part is the easy one, simply create the entity that should be returned, and once it has all of its expected values set, wrap it in a spy.
MyEntity entity = new MyEntity(); entity.setId(1); entity.setText("hello"); entity = spy(entity); given(mockedEntityDao.findEntityById(1)).willReturn(entity);
The second part is trickier. A new verification mode needs to be created. Its verify method will have access to the list of all the called methods in the spy, and it's simply a matter of checking that no method that has the signature of a setter (its name matches the expression set[A-Z].* and has 1 parameter) has been called. The code of this verification mode is as follows:
import java.util.List; import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; import org.mockito.exceptions.Reporter; import org.mockito.internal.invocation.Invocation; import org.mockito.internal.verification.api.VerificationData; import org.mockito.internal.verification.api.VerificationMode; /** * Mockito verification mode to ensure that no setter calls have been performed * on a mock/spy. * * @author Carlos Vara */ public class NoSetterCalls implements VerificationMode { private final Reporter reporter; private final Pattern regexPattern; public NoSetterCalls() { this.reporter = new Reporter(); this.regexPattern = Pattern.compile("set[A-Z].*"); } @Override public void verify(VerificationData data) { List<Invocation> invocations = data.getAllInvocations(); for ( Invocation inv : invocations ) { Matcher m = this.regexPattern.matcher(inv.getMethodName()); if ( m.matches() && inv.getArgumentsCount() == 1 ) { // A setter has been called! this.reporter.neverWantedButInvoked(inv, inv.getLocation()); } } } }
And finally, an example test would be as follows:
@Test public void checkSimpleAlternativeParagraph() { // GIVEN // - A valid call to a service methodproposal to create a new alternative String callParam = "1"; // - And the expected DAO behaviour MyEntity entity = new MyEntity(); entity.setId(1); entity.setText("hello"); entity = spy(entity); given(mockedEntityDao.findEntityById(1)).willReturn(entity); // WHEN this.entityService.doSomethingButDontModify(callParam); // THEN // - Verify that the queried entity hasn't been modified verify(entity, new NoSetterCalls()).setId("this setId() call is ignored"); }
And it works. The only drawback, is that you have to complete the verification call with an extra method call, the setId() call in this case, but could be any other method. This call has no side-effects (it gets passed as parameter to the NoSetterCalls verifier) but disturbs a little the clarity of the test.
Note when using JPA2
In JPA2, the entity manager has a detach method. If your application uses it, the way to test that no modification is performed would be to check that no setters followed by a flush are performed in the entity prior to calling detach. Or more easily, add a DAO method that returns a detached entity, and move this check to the DAO.


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It is the policy and practice of Loyola University Maryland to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, and state and local requirements regarding students with disabilities. The office of Disability Support Services strives to respond to student requests and concerns promptly and reasonably.
If you are a Loyola student and you believe you have been discriminated against on the basis of disability, you have the right to file a complaint according to Loyola's Harassment and Discrimination Policy and Procedures. This includes situations where you believe you have been denied a reasonable accommodation.
Loyola's Harassment and Discrimination Policy and Procedures are listed in Section II of the Community Standards Handbook. See the latest copy of the Community Standards Handbook.
You will note that Loyola's policy encourages informal resolution of complaints when possible. The DSS office encourages students to meet with a member of our staff if students believe they are being discriminated against on the basis of disability or have concerns about the actions of a DSS office employee, a professor, other Loyola employee, or student.


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Israelis develop 'cannabis without the high'
Israeli scientists have cultivated a cannabis plant that doesn't get people stoned in a development that may help those smoking marijuana for medical purposes, a newspaper said on Wednesday.
According to the Maariv daily, the new cannabis looks, smells and even tastes the same, but does not induce any of the feelings normally associated with smoking marijuana that are brought on by the substance THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol.
"It has the same scent, shape and taste as the original plant -- it's all the same -- but the numbing sensation that users are accustomed to has disappeared," said Tzahi Klein, head of development at Tikkun Olam, the firm that developed the species.
"Many of our patients who tried the new plant come back to us and say: 'You tricked me,'" because they assumed they had been given a placebo, he said.
According to Maariv, Tikkun Olam sought to neutralise the effect of the THC and to increase the effect of another substance called CBD, or cannabidiol, which has been shown to help diabetics and to ease various psychiatric disorders.
Not only does it leave users stone-cold sober, it also doesn't induce the munchies, the hunger pangs that the drug's smokers generally suffer.
Despite the innovation, it is unlikely to have any impact on Israeli law, which outlaws the use of marijuana as illegal except for medical purposes.
According to figures published earlier this year by Sheba Medical Centre and the Israel Cancer Association, medical marijuana has been approved for use by about 6,000 Israelis suffering from various illnesses.
(c) 2012 AFP


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Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Vote for the National Catholic Register
The secular website About.com is running a contest of which is the Best Catholic Newspaper (among many other categories). I'd like our readers to go visit their website to vote for the National Catholic Register as their choice (if it's not your choice, move along and read the other articles here on our website).
The National Catholic Register is America's oldest Catholic newspaper as well as being the most read and well written. They hold fidelity to the teachings of the Magisterium so you know you're getting high quality articles.
To vote for the National Catholic Register please click here.
The National Catholic Register is America's oldest Catholic newspaper as well as being the most read and well written. They hold fidelity to the teachings of the Magisterium so you know you're getting high quality articles.
To vote for the National Catholic Register please click here.
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He brings forth beauty, causing us to pause and sit...
to be still and watch creation.
This is my Father's world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
his hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father's world,
the birds their carols raise,
the morning light, the lily white,
declare their maker's praise.
This is my Father's world:
he shines in all that's fair;
in the rustling grass I hear him pass;
he speaks to me everywhere.
This is my Father's world.
O let me ne'er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!


text:
(CNN) -- More than 60 years after reneging on a promise to the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who fought for the United States during World War II, the U.S. government will soon be sending out checks -- to the few who are still alive.
Veteran Franco Arcebal says, "we are loyal to the United States, except that the United States has forgotten us."
"For a poor man like me, $15,000 is a lot of money," said 91-year-old Celestino Almeda.
Still, he said, "After what we have suffered, what we have contributed for the sake of democracy, it's peanuts. It's a drop in the bucket."
During the war, the Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth. The U.S. military promised full veterans benefits to Filipinos who volunteered to fight. More than 250,000 joined.
Then, in 1946, President Truman signed the Rescission Act, taking that promise away.
Today, only about about 15,000 of those troops are still alive, according to the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans. A provision tucked inside the stimulus bill that President Obama signed calls for releasing $198 million that was appropriated last year for those veterans. Those who have become U.S. citizens get $15,000 each; non-citizens get $9,000.
"I'm very thankful," said Patrick Ganio, 88, the coalition's president. "We Filipinos are a grateful people."
Ganio was among the tens of thousands of Filipinos at the infamous battle of Bataan, a peninsula on Manila Bay opposite the Philippine capital. He was captured and beaten by Japanese troops before ultimately being freed, suffering from malaria and then resuming his service to the U.S. military.
"The record of the Philippine soldiers for bravery and loyalty is second to none," Truman wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate in 1946. "Their assignment was as bloody and difficult as any in which our American soldiers engaged. Under desperate circumstances they acquitted themselves nobly."
Though Truman said the Rescission Act resulted in "discrimination," he signed it.
"There can be no question but that the Philippine veteran is entitled to benefits bearing a reasonable relation to those received by the America veteran, with whom he fought side by side," he said. "From a practical point of view, however, it must be acknowledged that certain benefits granted by the GI bill of rights cannot be applied in the case of the Philippine veteran."
Some historians say financial concerns were paramount: The cost of funding full veterans benefits to all those Filipinos, particularly in the wake of the costly war, would have been a heavy burden.
The National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity offers a different explanation. "In 1946, discrimination against people of color was the rule of law," the group says in a document it submitted to the Obama-Biden transition team in November.
"The second-class treatment of Filipino World War II veterans is another example from this historical period."
For decades, Filipino activists and their supporters have fought for the full benefits. They've petitioned and picketed. Almeda, a widower who now lives in Virginia with his daughter, once chained himself to the fence outside the White House.
"I was fined $50 for civil disobedience and was arrested," he says now, chuckling. He says he was just looking for answers.
Despite encouraging words from U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the benefits were never restored.
"Only 70,000 Philippine veterans remain alive, and they hope to stay alive long enough to see those benefits reinstated," CNN reported in 1997. "There's a bill, stuck in committee in Congress, that would do just that."
That effort, just like so many before, fell apart.
"We were loyal to the United States. Even up to now, we are loyal to the United States, except that the United States has forgotten us in many ways," said Franco Arcebal, another leader of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans. "It's only now, because of the insistence of Sen. [Daniel] Inouye in the Senate, he was able to act on this."
Inouye, D-Hawaii, inserted the language in the stimulus bill, calling it "a matter of honor."
The honor comes too late for the many Filipino veterans who passed away waiting for this moment. Families of deceased veterans are not eligible to receive the money.
For those who are alive, the checks could make a real difference.
"Practically all of us are below the poverty line now at this age. We have no way of earning a living," Arcebal said.
But, he emphasized, "it does not correct the injustice and discrimination done to us 60 years ago. ... We were not granted school benefits. We were not granted hospital benefits. ... And in the 60 years, several billion dollars were saved by the U.S. government for not paying 250,000 of us.
"Now we are only 15,000. And the amount that they're giving us is a small amount. But we appreciate that. Because it will finally recognize our services ... as active service in the armed forces of the United States."
CNN's Lisa Sylvester contributed to this report.
All About Philippines • World War II • Daniel Inouye


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It may be the Greatest Show on Earth but you can't see all of CES
It may be the Greatest Show on Earth but you can't see all of CES
Content Insider #608 – The Biz
By Miles Weston
"Men suffer more from imagining too little than too much." – P.T. Barnum, "The Greatest Showman," Chernin Entertainment, 2017
Sometimes we think we've been attending CES since before we were born.
O.K., that's an exaggeration.
But we can't remember when the holidays – Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, whatever – weren't sidelined to make good products/services look great and great ones look stupendous for the world's biggest consumer technology unveiling event.
Many of the exhibitors spent all their Kickstarter, GoFundMe cash or maxed out their credit cards to show off their "exciting" breakthrough, innovation leaps.
This year's "forces of tomorrow" were 5G, autonomous vehicles, AI, AR/VR, robots, content everywhere, smart everything filled every square foot of the venues, including a couple of bathroom stalls.
Yes, another exaggeration; but logistics and information overload were insane:
- 4,500 plus exhibitors
- 250 conference sessions
- 1,100 speakers
- 1,200 plus startups from 50 plus countries
- 180,000 plus attendees
What CES has proven is that every company is a technology company. And it's a great place to be seen, have your message heard. Even folks from Proctor & Gamble (P&G) had a strong presence as did John Deere and Bell Helicopter.
Food Force – John Deere (l) showed off one of its massive farm systems at CES while Breadbot introduced its automated breadmaking system that will probably appear in local grocery stores, ensuring you get really fresh bread but probably not farm fresh.
CES has become such an influential/influencer magnet that organizations like TU Automotive's Consumer Telemetrics Show (auto stuff), MESA (Media & Entertainment Services Alliance) and dozens of others embedded a mini-show in the event.
Smart companies "leaked" their news before CES, so people could determine what sessions/companies they just had catch.
Not so smart folks embargoed their "news" until the first day of the show when thousands of break-through announcements also hit the wires and social media.
Early Peak – Events like ShowStoppers give members of the media the chance to quickly see new products before the show floors open and can determine which booths they need to visit during the week.
Since it is literally and physically impossible to see everything; CES Unveiled, ShowStoppers and two days of press conferences gave media folks a head start on the regular attendees with a buffet of news.
Bigger/badder TV sets, self-driving transportation, 5G, voice-activated and smart things/places, AI and a lot of stuff you didn't even know you needed — or wanted – were on display in the miles of exhibit area (2.9M sq. ft), hidden away in a hospitality suite or both.
While Detroit and Paris vie for top automotive show honors, Las Vegas in January is the time where every vehicle manufacturer – car, motorcycle, scooter, tractor, etc. — focuses on making people think about the wonders that await them over the next few years.
China's Byton showed why they hired some of the best engineers, designers, thinkers/futurists they could find in the auto/tech industry by unveiling the new K-Byte and M-Byte. They'll hit showrooms in China in mid-year. Its UI (user interface) and interior cabin are…elegant.
Infotainment – Auto and truck firms are exploring a wide range of solutions to appeal to consumers for tomorrow's transportation such as Byton's (l) door-to-door touch screen or Harmon's rich entertainment solutions.
Samsung's Harman showed that they thought about people enjoyment in the vehicle no matter where they sit with practical and great-looking information and entertainment.
But at CES, it's always about showing how technically progressive the vehicle firm is and Audi is eyebrow deep in designing for the future with technology for passenger and trucking vehicles. They're already testing autonomous vehicles around the globe and were the first to say they will assume complete legal responsibility for the technology they put on the road.
Future Rides – Mitsubishi (l) showed off their sleek concept car at CES while Hyundai showed its unique elevator, which can probably take you almost anywhere in comfort.
Sure, we expect to see a lot of sleek/sexy vehicles from Mercedes, Audi and BMW at the show, but Mitsubishi was a pleasant surprise, even though the show car will probably never be seen on the road.
Hyundai came out of left field with a real off-road vehicle called Elevator. Videos showed how you could enjoy the great outdoors in all kinds of weather, even heavy snow.
The major takeaway from CES is that the vehicle industry is putting a lot of time, money and effort into how people are going to get around tomorrow. They really want you to enjoy more time in your car or truck – lounge chairs, wrap-around movie/TV screens, AR/VR enjoyment on the go, voice control and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication.
At CES 2025, they will probably be showing third-generation shipping units.
Content Viewing
CES has its roots in home entertainment and even though folks are increasingly walking around with entertainment screens in their hands, the companies still like to show off their big, beautiful TV screens.
There were a lot of new and impressive sets out of China but again, Samsung and LG got all of the initial attention.
Your Wall – Samsung showed CES attendees that they can not only build The Wall, but it will be beautiful.
It was pretty hard for Samsung not to get noticed because they actually got The Wall built – 219-in, OTT connection, micro LED screen with 2,000 nits brightness – and it blends with its surroundings.
They had others all hyping 8K, which is really good; but since you're only getting 4K from Netflix, Hulu and a few others, it begs the question.
Flexible – To capture eyeballs as soon as people entered the main hallway at CES, LG installed an impressive display of its flexible screens and drawing attention to its booth where their new rollable TV screen was spotlighted.
LG highlighted its newest flexible screens with a hallway demo, then showed off their 65-inch TV that rolls into a box when you aren't watching something.
Since the home entertainment manufacturers now have a decent installed base of 4K sets, 98M plus units in 2018; it's time to start hyping an even more beautiful screen, so they announced the formation of an 8K standards and education alliance.
Filmmakers have been shooting in 8K for some time now but backing the content down to 4K and even HD, so it can be shown/streamed.
Not sure our kids will really appreciate the improvements on their smartphones, but it will give us something to look forward to next year.
And while there was buzz everywhere about how good life/everything is going to be with 5G, folks will have to wait until the end of the year to be first in line to own a 5G handset.
Since almost everyone who wants one has a smartphone, expanding the market is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive.
So, the question is what do you show that makes people fork over a thousand bucks for a new phone to text with and post selfies on social media?
Yes, there were some tokens shown like the 5G hotspot devices shown by Netgear and Samsung; but other than that…soon.
But there were still plenty of phones shown with multiple high-resolution cameras and curved screen improvements.
Call Me – At CES, Huawei rolled out its Mate 10 Pro (l) featuring three cameras and plenty of storage capacity, while Royole drew a lot of attention with its Pai foldable tablet/smartphone.
Huawei's Mate 20 Pro featured a large three-camera system and very nice 6.30-inch curved OLED display.
Going head-to-head with Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor, their eight-core Kirin 980 processor-based device also featured 6GB of RAM and 4200 mAh battery.
But the neatest unit shown was perhaps the Royale Flexpai that's presently available in China and may be available in other parts of the world late this year.
The foldable smartphone unfolds to become a 7.8-in tablet display, so it really can become another 2-in-1 device. It may sound a little dumb; but like yesteryear's phablets, there will be more, and they will find their place as kids get older and their eyes yearn for a bigger, better viewing screen.
Personal Attention
Just to reinforce that technology is really, really important in our lives, CTA's boss, Gary Shapiro, noted that 511 companies exhibited in the show's digital health category.
While the global birthrate keeps dropping, according to the World Bank, https://tinyurl.com/y7rxnsqx,it doesn't mean people aren't trying.
Family Time – For people who want to manage everything, Ava (l) introduced its fertility band and app at the show. Then, to watch the new little one, Butterfly iQ introduced a handheld ultrasound unit you can connect to your iPhone to follow the baby's progress.
We can only guess that because people don't want to waste their time doing things that don't produce a positive result, there were a number of AI-enabled fertility/ovulation solutions that measured everything including resting pulse rate, skin temperature, breathing rate and other important parameters.
Some promoted better sensor performance, a vibrating alarm and with the premium version a consultation with a fertility coach.
Once phase one of the project was completed, parents could move along to something like the Owlet Band that wraps around Mom's belly to monitor/track important things like the young one's heart rate, kicks.
Or the Butterfly IQ ultrasound handheld scanner lets the couple follow the little tyke's progress or maybe check Dad's heart health when he finds out they're having twins.
Wearables have come a long way from the basic workout band to smartphones, health trackers and remote patient monitoring devices.
According to Jupiter Research, the category is on course to be a $20B plus market by 2023, while a new category, assistive "hearables" or "connected" hearing aids will be $40B by 2022.
Staying Healthy – Whether you wanted a simple fitness band, a smartwatch to keep track of your exercise progress or a solution to handle it all including monitoring key functions like your ECG and BPM; there were plenty of options available to see and compare. How many will be back on the show floor in 2020 is anyone's guess.
There was a 25 percent increase in the number of health tech folks at the show–all eager to appeal to the 74M boomers as well as millennials wanting to live a better life and use self-care gadgets.
Many looked like regular analog or digital watches that could monitor the heart and other health conditions with some enabling remote patient monitoring capabilities once they have FDA and CE clearance.
And inevitably, there were the tech-enabled clothes and undergarments to protect you from the ever-encroaching world.
The open question/concern is how will the data be used and shared.
Even though sales of computers have been sliding (again, folks who want 'em, got 'em and we've extended our replacement cycles) Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus and Huawei rolled out some very sleek, light and powerful new ultralights as well as a number of gamer delights.
It Still Computes – Thinner, lighter and faster than ever; computers still got attention at CES like the Acer Predator Triton 900 (l), HP Spectre 2-in-1 laptops and Alienware Area 51M as well as a whole lot more for the working/gaming folks.
CES has become such a major gathering place for business and industry, IBM even unveiled its new quantum computer. It drew the attention of every engineer at the show and obviously, more than a few gamers could only imagine the possibilities.
Palmtop – The Planet Computers Cosmo (l) was unveiled at CES next to the ghost of Summer CES past, the Atari portfolio palmtop system.
The unit that caught my eye was the Planet Cosmo that has an Android OS. Not that it was an outstanding piece of computing gear, but it really looked a lot like the Atari Portfolio, a palmtop we helped the company introduce back in '89.
Portfolio was a PC-compatible unit that sold for $300. We dusted off one of the devices we still have, dropped in some AA batteries and yes, it still works!
Robots of every shape and size wandered the booths this year. Some friendly, some utilitarian, some just to follow you around through the store and carry your purchases for you.
The latter was "cute," but we couldn't figure out how you got him/her to the store to help you with the heavy lifting. Not real sure if Walmart is going to have a herd of them waiting for you when you enter the store to tag along just in case you found something you just had to have.
Folks love their pets, which is why they come up with every trick in the book to have them on the plane with them or while wandering the store with the LG Clio shopping cart following them.
In fact, according to the APPA (American Pet Products Association), they spent over $72B last year and will be a $202B plus business by 2025.
Pampered Pets – It seems people will do anything for their pets including privacy for certain functions (Lavviebot – l) and The Little Cat exercise machine (c) or for those who want a comfort pet without all the mess, trouble a Qoobo pet.
While we have Rocky, a 46-year-old African Grey, we didn't see a thing on the floor he would be interested in. He might have liked to watch the updated Sony Aibo robot pup chase balls around the floor and pick up things; but at $3K, we passed.
But there were a lot of new privacy bathrooms for dogs/cats, exercise equipment for the pets, menu planners and delivery services. And, if you wanted a pet but were allergic, there was the AI-enabled grey fat cat pillow, complete with wagging tail.
As big as it was on the show floor, the smart home market was peanuts compared to the pet market – a measly $53.5B according to Statista by 2022.
There was something for every corner of your home, a lot of them AI enabled and a growing number you could talk to. Sure beats talking to yourself!
Home Sweet Home – You name it, there was a smart something for your home including toilets you could talk to courtesy of Kohler (l), package delivery security boxes from Parcel Guard or help in getting your clothes folded just right after the wash from Foldimate.
New beds that "read" if you had a rough day and adjust accordingly, toilets that would respond to your commands except for the final task that was left for you, faucets and appliances that did your bidding and kept track of your eating and more.
If your home wasn't smarter than you by the time you finished your shopping at CES, you just weren't trying hard enough.
Lunchtime – Impossible Foods unveiled their second-generation Impossible Burger that looks and tastes just like real meat (we're told).
But in our opinion, the best tech that was shown at CES this year was the Impossible Foods burger.
Since we haven't eaten meat for 25-30 years, we'll take their word for it that it has the flavor, aroma and beefiness you'd get from meat. All we know is that people said it was delicious.
Finally, something we could really sink our teeth into at CES and something that proved CTA's Gary Shapiro's opening remarks for the show were right, "Consumer technology is everywhere, touches everything today."
Unfortunately, the show was overshadowed this year by the U.S. government shutdown which prevented a lot of government speakers from attending the show to see how technologies will change the landscape and exchange ideas/information with the global attendees.
The shutdown also created havoc for everyone at the show as we headed home because of the TSA blue flu.
Next year, CTA may enlist IBM's Project Debater to help smooth the path for exhibitors and attendees. Project Debater uses a combination of machine and deep learning to capture the best arguments and true facts on a subject and helps people arrive at a solution quickly, easily, painlessly.
As with all the new AI-labeled stuff though, we need to keep in mind what IBM's chief Ginni Rommety cautioned during her keynote, "Like all powerful tools, we've got to usher them in safely into society."
But Shapiro and his team agree with P.T. Barnum, "Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd."


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Flat 303/B2
- Flat 301/B1 - Sold
3+kitchenette, 83,2 m2Flat 302/B1 - Sold
2+kitchenette, 52,5 m2Flat 303/B1 - On sale
2+kitchenette 42,6 m2
257 904 €Flat 304/B1 - Sold
1+kitchenette, 26,8 m2Flat 305/B1 - Sold
2+kitchenette, 55,2 m2Flat 306/B1 - Sold
1+kitchenette, 26,5 m2Flat 307/B1 - On sale
2+kitchenette 55,2 m2
290 435 €Flat 308/B1 - Sold
2+kitchenette, 55,5 m2Flat 309/B1 - Sold
4+kitchenette, 112,3 m2Flat 301/B2 - On sale
3+kitchenette 83,2 m2
410 748 €Flat 302/B2 - Sold
2+kitchenette, 52,5 m2Flat 303/B2 - On sale
2+kitchenette 42,6 m2
259 966 €Flat 304/B2 - Sold
1+kitchenette, 26,8 m2Flat 305/B2 - Sold
2+kitchenette, 55,2 m2Flat 306/B2 - Sold
1+kitchenette, 26,5 m2Flat 307/B2 - Sold
2+kitchenette, 55,2 m2Flat 308/B2 - Sold
2+kitchenette, 55,5 m2Flat 309/B2 - Sold
4+kitchenette, 112,3 m2
- Flat planFlat
- Floor planFloor
- Architecture
Flat 303/B2
- Plan
- Download
- Project
- Flats Nad Krocínkou
- Floor
- 3rd floor
- Orientation
- Balcony
- 6,6 m2
- Ownership
- Personal
- Layout
- 2+kitchenette
- Area
- 42,6 m2
- Status
- On sale, tentative reserved
- Price inc. VAT
- 259 966 €iThe price of the apartment unit is valid subject to the employment of a 90/10 payment schedule. Should a different manner of payment be employed, the price shall be agreed with the client individually. The listed prices do not include the garage parking space, the parking space outside of the garage and, as the case may be, a utility room and a cellar.
We'll help you to finance your property
- With a mortgage with instalments starting from
- 1 167 €iMonthly at LTV 20 % and 30 years maturity, calculation is only indicative.Calculate your installments
- By selling another property of yours
- Learn more
Calculate the amount of your instalments
You can calculate an approximate value of your monthly mortgage instalment quickly and easily thanks to our calculator.
- Item price
- €
- Own capital
- 51 993 €
- Fixation period
- 5 Years
- Time of repayment
- Interest rate from
- 5.39 % p.a.
- Installment from
- 1 167 €
This calculation is only indicative and applies for own resources amounting to 20 % or 80% LTV. For an exact calculation based on individual requirements and parameters contact our financial specialists. The calculation has been drawn up based on a real estate price determined according to the schedule of payments 90/10.
About project
- The first stage Nad Krocínkou is formed by two residential houses B1, B2
- The total number of new apartments in this stage is 80 with the layouts of 1+kitchenette (from 26 m2) to more spacious 4+kitchenette (up to 113 m2)
- Parking in underground garages
- Energy efficiency class B
- Floor plan
- Example of standard equipment
- Flat purchase procedure and its financing
- Architect: DAM.architekti studio
About locality
Not only cafés and restaurants, but also larger and smaller grocery stores, schools, kindergartens, and a health centre or a post office can be found within easy reach. The new stages will provide a new central square, where you can look forward to other new restaurants and cafés, a drugstore or school, and a doctor's office. We must not forget to mention a fitness centre, hairdresser, or nail studio.
You will get on a tram and in 12 minutes you will be in the heart of Prague – Smíchov where you can take the subway at Nádraží Smíchov station and get to the very centre of Prague quickly and comfortably. Several bus lines provide connection to Zličín subway station on line B and Kačerov on line C. And for example thanks to direct connection to the Prague ring road you can reach Vaclav Havel Airport within 15 minutes.
You can enjoy long walks or ride a bike on various cycling routes leading to the nature reserve in the Prokop Valley. Your kids and not only they will appreciate water fun on the water slide, the wild river, and other attractions in the nearby water park. You can also afford relaxation in the nearby wellness studio with a massage, or yoga, or dance lessons.
Finance the purchase by selling another property
Do you need to finance purchase of a new property by selling another? We are ready to help you both with sale and all the related issues. Contact us with confidence.


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Primal Flow Acrylic Pouring Paints are a mix of vibrant, highly pigmented Acrylic Paint & Primal Flow Medium.They have just the right density, with a creamy consistency you can't get anywhere else! Let us help you take the guess work out of figuring out the right ingredients and chemistry for rich, beautiful pours.
Primal Flow Paints are water based, easy to wash off of skin, and non-toxic with Zero VOCs! They can create lovely small cells and lacing by themselves, and bigger cells when you layer them Primal Flow Metallic Acrylic Pouring Paints or use our Celltastic Oil Additive!
*Formation of cells without additional oil is reliant on good layering and pouring technique, but we offer lots of educational resources! Find us at Youtube.com/PrimalFlowStudio and IG@PrimalFlowPaint!
You can use Primal Flow Medium to further thin Primal Flow Paints for lower viscosity, but it will reduce the opacity of the colors within your pours. We do not recommend adding water to your mixes as it breaks down the bonds between your pigments, which can cause over-mixing and 'muddiness.'
We make every effort to ship orders made before 2pm Central time the same day, and all orders within 24 hours (excluding weekends.)
For International Customers: Please be aware that your purchase may incur duties. Each country has it's own rules and limits of how much can be purchased duty free. If it incurs duties, it will have to go through Customs which can delay receipt of the order...usually 1-2 weeks at most. UK customers will also be charged a courier fee of 8 pounds on orders above your limit. Limits may change based on currency exchange...so, check your Customs site regularly.
For Everyone: We use USPS, Calculated Shipping, and plenty of packing elements to ensure safe arrival of our products.


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They were two strangers on a Spanish beach.
They passed each other in the night – a night that neither would forget, and a night that changed them both… forever.
Yes, the life of the one they now call "douchebag" was changed because, as of that night, he had a nifty new iPhone, stolen from a skinnydipping tourist.
The tourist's life was changed too, plunged as she was into remorse and an unquenchable thirst for vengeance.
Not to mention her spiffy new hobby of chronicling the life and times of the thief, who, apparently, can't figure out how to turn off the auto-photo upload feature on the stolen phone.
Of course, we can't actually be sure that a phone was stolen or, if it was, that the man in the photos is actually the thief or was knowingly involved in any criminal activity but the victim/blogger claims to have identified the thief as a young man who lives in Dubai.
The chronicle of the alleged crime can be viewed on the victim's Tumblr site, which is titled Life of a Stranger Who Stole My Phone.
On 28 July, she told the tale of winding up at a beach, "hopelessly drunk and naked in the sea", 5 hours after having landed in "Ibiza/Spain".
When she and her friends emerged, dripping and starkers, everything was gone from the deck chair: money, purses, smartphones, passports, birthday presents, and clothes.
Her wrenching prose describes the group's dismay:
"well, that sucked quite hard."
The hotel receptionist apparently told the wet, drunk, semi-nude group that he couldn't help, that this happened, "like every day", and that nobody cared anymore.
According to the victim, the theft went down like this:
"apparently some guys with night-vision glasses hid in the dunes, waiting for drunk tourists to leave their belongings somewhere unobserved. then they crawled through the sand, stole the stuff and walked away like nothing happened."
But wait, drunken tourist lady who's probably sober by now, why couldn't you find your phone by switching on its GPS tracking function with Apple's Find My iPhone app (which, of course, you could alternatively do with Sophos's free Mobile Security app if the guy had instead taken your Android)?
Unfortunately, tools such as Find My iPhone don't often work.
Jesse Hollington at iLounge describes the myriad ways that thieves can get around such phone-finding tools:
- If your device has no passcode, a thief can go into your iCloud settings and turn off the Find My iPhone feature just as easily as you can.
- If your device lacks coverage, it can't communicate with Apple's iCloud servers to report its location or receive whatever instructions you might send it.
- If your device is erased and/or restored to factory settings, Find My iPhone goes away, given that it's built into the operating system and not embedded in the hardware.
Most thieves are smart enough to wipe a stolen phone and destroy the SIM card.
This one, though, either didn't care enough to turn off the feature that uploads photos to Dropbox whenever the phone connects to WiFi, or he didn't care about his victim being able to see him doing lots of fun things with her phone.
But there's more! Apparently, in December 2012, the victim's friends asked why they were getting hit on by a guy via her Skype account.
Now-sober tourist lady, you probably realize by now that the Skype trespassing gets to the nub of what's particular painful about phone thievery beyond the loss of the device itself: namely, the loss of data, and the loss of privacy that this ushers in for both you and your contacts.
Find My iPhone will remotely wipe your phone, as will Sophos Mobile Security for Android, but alas, the same problems mentioned above with finding the device might well come into play with remotely wiping it, too.
You're right, it does suck, really, really hard, that your phone was stolen, particularly by a yahoo who does stupid things like play with perspective to make it look like he's holding a tiny person in the palm of his hand. (She's far away. We know that she's not a tiny person in your hand.)
Naked Security has some great tips here on how to protect your mobile phone.
Hopefully, you've already learned some of these lessons and are applying them to whatever phone you bought to replace that iPhone, but if not, please do give them a look before you go on your next beach trip.
Image of phone in sand courtesy of Shutterstock. Hand image courtesy of Life of a stranger who stole my phone


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What fails to come across in many of these posts is that, like working parents, our daily lives vary dramatically from one another depending on the number and age of our children, our desire to leave the house, our comfort level for checking out new venues, etc. Although the hours are not so flexible, how you spend them is ultimately up to you, your spouse, and your children.
When my son was still young enough to want to be carried all day, we spent ample time with other new moms walking downtown, relaxing at vineyards, chatting at coffee shops and playing with our babies in each other's living rooms. I rarely spent the entire day at home because both my son and I were more content being active, out of the house and socializing. But I know some new mothers who would have hated this constant activity. They greatly preferred to spend the majority of these early days at home. One of the many perks of staying at home is being able to choose how you spend your day, and if for some reason it isn't working for you and your family, you can easily switch it up.
So what do you do all day? Do you sign up for music class or attend less structured park dates? Do you stick to a rigid schedule or a more flexible one? Do you socialize with other parents frequently, occasionally or rarely? Being able to make these choices is one of the many perks of the "job." What do we do all day? What my son and I want to do. We meet up with friends (both his and my own), go to museums, read endless truck books on the couch, make many messes, and continually search for new activities to try.


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An attacker hurled a statuette at Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, striking the leader in the face at the end of a rally on Sunday and leaving the stunned 73-year-old media mogul with a bloodied mouth, police said.
The 42-year-old man accused of attacking Berlusconi in Milan as he signed autographs was immediately taken into custody. The Italian leader was rushed to a hospital where he was being held overnight.
TV showed the stunned Berlusconi with blood under his nose, on his mouth and under one eye as he was lifted to his feet by aides after the attack. The leader was hustled into the back of a car, but he immediately got out, apparently to show he was not badly injured.
But Berlusconi suffered a "small fracture" of the nose, two broken teeth and an injury to the inside and outside of his lip, said Paolo Klun, chief spokesman for Milan's San Raffaele Hospital.
"He wanted to go home right away, but he is being held as a precaution" for overnight observation, Klun said. The premier suffered "a significant bruising trauma from this blunt instrument that was hurled at him."
Police first said it appeared the assailant had punched Berlusconi in the face while clutching a souvenir statue of Milan's Duomo, or gargoyled cathedral, which symbolizes the city. But state TV later showed a video, somewhat blurry, of what appeared to be the attacker's hand coming close to Berlusconi's face while holding the statue, then letting go of the object at the last minute as it hit the premier's face.
Berlusconi was "very shaken and demoralized," Klun said. "He didn't understand very well what happened to him."
Immediately after the attack, the premier, after getting out of the car and without saying a word, was pulled back into the vehicle by bodyguards.
The attack occurred after Berlusconi had just finished delivering a long, vigorous speech at the rally to thousands of applauding supporters from his Freedom People party in the square outside the cathedral at about 6:30 p.m.
Officials at Milan's police headquarters said they didn't immediately know what the miniature Duomo statue was made of.
Berlusconi's spokesman, speaking by telephone from the emergency room from San Raffaele hospital where the premier was taken, told Sky TG24 TV that doctors had decided to keep Berlusconi in the hospital overnight for observation. "We'll see what the doctors say tomorrow morning," spokesman Paolo Bonauiti told Sky. The exams of his jaw area included a CT scan, Bonaiuti said.
Police identified the man they were questioning as Massimo Tartaglia, 42. They said Tartaglia didn't have any criminal record but had suffered psychological problems in the past.
Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa told reporters he ran to help police hustle the man away from the scene of the attack "to keep him from a possible lynching from the crowd."
The assailant "was a man who had mixed in with the people who were applauding (Berlusconi), shaking his hand," La Russa said.
The attack occurred at a difficult political time for Berlusconi, who has been plagued by scandals.
On Dec. 5, tens of thousands of Italians fed up with the premier marched peacefully through Rome to demand his resignation.
The demonstrators expressed dismay over what they see as the businessman's conflict of interests, citing repeated government-backed laws they contend were tailored to help shield Berlusconi from prosecution in cases involving his media, real estate and sports empire. Berlusconi claims the laws benefit all citizens.
Other critics cite Berlusconi's sex scandals.
Berlusconi's wife is divorcing him after complaining about his infatuation with young women. A southern Italian businessman has told investigators he procured some 30 attractive young women for parties and dinners at the premier's Rome residence and Sardinian villa. Among the guests was a high-end prostitute who claimed she slept with Berlusconi. The premier has denied ever paying for sex.
Berlusconi has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing and blames his judicial woes on prosecutors he claims sympathize with the opposition left. Several of the cases either ended in acquittal or were dropped when limitation statutes expired. Others are pending.
On Sunday, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano condemned the "grave and unusual gesture of aggression" against Berlusconi. In a statement, the head of state renewed his plea that conflicting political points of view be expressed "within the limits of responsible self-control" and while "preventing and heading off every impulse and spiral of violence."


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$ 174.95
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Special Edition Podcast: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Sometimes, a review just isn't enough – even a review that hands out two perfect 10s. In honor of Naughty Dog's epic Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Game Informer editors Andy Reiner and Matt Helgeson decided they needed yet another outlet for their love of the game. In what we hope is the first of many special edition podcasts, Reiner and Matt get their fanboy on, waxing effusive on the game's amazing storytelling, gameplay, production values, and multiplayer action. The episode also features music from the game's soundtrack, written by Firefly composer Greg Edmonson.


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Monday, September 19, 2011
7 months.
7 comments:
Aren't you cute!!!ReplyDelete
I never let anyone take my pic when I was pregnant because I always felt so gross and ugly. How I wish I could go back in time and appreciate those months rather than wishing them away!
You must be getting pretty excited... ;)
It's a wonderful time for you. Very exciting. I am glad you are sneaking in some chocolate - a very important part of the dairy food group!ReplyDelete
You look fantastic. Bet you're excited the cooler weather is settling in for the final two. :-)ReplyDelete
Chocolate milk was my biggest pregnancy craving. I couldn't get enough of it.
I'm still craving the chocolate part, and the baby is almost four...........
:-) Oh well.
You look beautiful!! Hope you are enjoying every part of it. I've just learnt that one of my friends who lost a baby in july is pregnant again and I'm so excited. For me, pregnancy was the best and happiest days, I felt soooo optimistic! I really wish you the best of lucks in this final period. Your picture made me smile. ThanksReplyDelete
You look so darling. You can do it!!ReplyDelete
Love!!!! I hope you have good luck at whole foods finding the lotion and gel---feel better :)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 26, 2011
That's absolutely precious. Congratulations to you all. Before long you'll have that baby in your arms. Maybe you can bottle some of that baby smell for the rest of us. lol.ReplyDelete